Hong Kong: CE to meet state leaders

Chief Executive Carrie Lam will pay a duty visit to Beijing from tonight to December 23 to brief state leaders on the latest economic, social and political situation in Hong Kong.

Director of the Chief Executive's Office Chan Kwok-ki will join the visit.

Chief Secretary John Lee will be Acting Chief Executive during Mrs Lam's absence.

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: Election results open a new chapter

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is confident that the seventh-term Legislative Council, which is formed after the electoral system has been improved, can effectively enhance the governance efficiency of the Hong Kong SAR and open a new chapter on good administration and governance.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam made the statement after the polls of the 2021 Legislative Council General Election closed today, noting that it is an important election to implement the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" and carries far-reaching meaning.

Mrs Lam said the clear requirement mandating that candidates should be patriots is legitimate, which is the core element in the implementation of "one country, two systems".

A total of 153 candidates with different backgrounds and political views contended for 90 seats, which is testimony to the broad representation, political inclusiveness, balanced participation and fair competition of the election.

This is the first time there has been no uncontested seat in the election. Candidates canvassed for voters' support in a pragmatic manner by their manifestos and participating in various election forums and electioneering activities.

I commend the hard work of each candidate during the election period.

In addition to pointing out that the election is of a large scale with intricate operations, Mrs Lam said is composed of the Election Committee constituency, the geographical constituencies and the functional constituencies, and the preparation has involved extensive manpower and various resources.

She stressed that the polls were conducted in an open, fair and honest manner and the overall process was generally smooth.

Various enhancement measures were implemented to provide convenience to voters, including arranging a special queue for seniors, pregnant women and people with disabilities, she added.

Mrs Lam noted that number of ballot paper issuing desks was also significantly increased while the Electronic Poll Register system was used to issue ballot papers and the results were satisfactory.

With the full assistance of the relevant Mainland authorities, the operation of the polling stations set up at the boundary control points for registered electors in the Mainland to cast their votes was also smooth.

I sincerely thank more than 1.3 million voters who have cast their votes today. Their votes are not only for choosing their own LegCo members, they are also a show of support for the improved electoral system and their aspirations for effective enhancement of the governance efficiency of the Hong Kong SAR as well as the resulting economic development and livelihood improvements.

The Hong Kong SAR Government also expresses its heartfelt gratitude to the organisations which have encouraged their staff members to cast their votes, or proactively assisted the Government in promoting the election.

The Chief Executive thanked the colleagues from various units for their hard work, including Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Barnabas Fung and commission members Arthur Luk and Daniel Shek.

She also expressed thanks to the Registration & Electoral Office and the Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau as well as about 40,000 government personnel who helped with the election and over 12,000 other officers on duty.

I look forward to co-operating sincerely with members of the new term of LegCo to promote together Hong Kong's economic development and its integration into the overall development of the nation as well as improvements to people's livelihoods to build a better Hong Kong and contribute to the country.

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: President Ramaphosa ends COVID-19 self-isolation

President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to duty after ending a week of self-isolation following his positive test for COVID-19 on 12 December 2021.

According to Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, the President will chair the final Cabinet meeting for 2021 on Wednesday.

The President has extended his gratitude to all South Africans, leaders and friends internationally, who conveyed their good wishes during this period.

In turn, the President wishes all persons infected with COVID-19 a safe and speedy recovery.

President Ramaphosa repeats his call for everyone in the country to stay safe by being vaccinated, wearing face masks, washing or sanitising hands frequently, maintaining social distance and avoiding gatherings, Gungubele said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday after experiencing mild symptoms.



According to Gungubele, Mantashe is in good spirits and currently in self-isolation.

Government urges all South Africans to vaccinate and remain disciplined in observing all COVID-19 safety protocols to ensure a safe and joyful festive season with family and friends, the Minister said in a statement.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Premier calls for extra COVID-19 vigilance

Northern Cape Premier Dr Zamani Saul has called on communities in the Northern Cape to take extra caution in exercising non-pharmaceutical interventions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the province.

Four of the provinces five districts are currently experiencing a fourth wave of infections with a steep positivity rate of up to 44%.

We plead with our communities to be extraordinarily careful. What this 44% positivity rate means is that almost every second person tested in the province is positive.

We are anticipating a further increase in infections as we enter the festive season due to anticipated mobility between districtsand from other provinces. We must emphasise that this can be averted through strict adherence to elementary COVID-19 measures, Saul said.

According to the Premier, the Northern Cape currently has just over 5 000 active cases and has recorded a daily average of 411 new cases per day over the past seven days.

The Premier reflected that the third wave of infections had a significant impact on the Northern Cape; with more than half of the provinces cumulative 98 000 cases coming during that period.

The Northern Cape also experienced 55% of its cumulative deaths during the third wave.

The province experienced a prolonged third wave which lasted for 24 weeks which resulted in an additional 54 000 new cases during this period. The impact of the disease was felt in all our communities where 1361 more deaths were recorded and this was significantly higher than the first and the second wave. The third wave was more deadly. The impact on transmissions by the third wave is more than the impact of the first and the second wave.

The third wave for the Northern Cape was deadly, he said.

The province has reflected on lessons learnt during the third wave and has revised and developed a fourth wave resurgence plan, which is currently in operation.

We will spare no effort in improving, customising and implementing timely interventions as per the policy imperatives on the management of COVID-19, Premier Saul said.

The provincial health department has also established a team specifically focused on oxygen availability in all hospitals.

Hospitals have not reported any alarming increase or related pressures and most importantly, there are fewer patients requiring to be ventilated or oxygenated. All hospitals have additional oxygen tanks or cylinders and high flow oxygen capacity has been increased, Saul said.

The province has vaccinated at least 575 000 people with at least one jab from a target of about 986 000 people.

He said from early next year, the province will be upping its work in getting jabs in arms.

In January 2022 as part of strengthening our vaccine rollout in the province we will be distributing 130 vaccine fridges, 444 vaccine cold boxes as well as 280 temperature monitoring devices. We will also be distributing an additional 67 laptops and 92 tablets to improve the efficiency of our [133] vaccine sites across the province, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Government grant for research and development activities increases

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, has welcomed the increase in government funding for research and development (R&D) activities.

However, he expressed concern about the general decline in R&D funding from other stakeholders, as reflected in the latest national survey.

According to the latest results contained in the 2019/20 National Research and Experimental Development (R&D) survey, the main sources of funding for R&D in South Africa are government, including science councils and university own funds, and business sectors.

Whereas government funding of R&D increased by R1.942 billion from the previous year, business funding dropped by R5.175 billion. In addition, funding from abroad, which went mostly to the private sector, increased by R664 million.

The national R&D survey is undertaken annually by the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), with support from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

The latest trends in R&D expenditure show a similar trajectory to that of the economy in general. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth decreased by 1.4 of a percentage point to 0.1% in 2019, after taking into account revisions due to Stats SA's benchmarking, and rebasing of the GDP series to the year 2015.

Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) for 2019/20 amounted to R34.485 billion at current rand values.

GERD is an aggregated measure of in-house R&D expenditure performed domestically in five institutional sectors, namely government, science councils, higher education institutions, the business sector, and the not-for-profit sector, the DSI explained.

The medical and health sciences, and social sciences are key research areas.

The 2019/20 results show the strongest focus of R&D activity to be in the medical and health sciences (21.5%), followed by the social sciences (16.9%) and engineering sciences (13.4%).

Nzimande said in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where R&D is key to saving lives, it is vital for the decline in funding to be arrested.

"We have witnessed and continue to see the value that past investment in scientific research and development has had for South Africa and the world in fighting COVID-19. Our genomic surveillance has led to the detection of two variants already, and this work has been praised and welcomed globally," the Minister said.

The Minister said the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) had in recent days approved an innovative COVID-19 antigen detection kit developed by local company Medical Diagnostech.

"In light of these huge advances, we cannot afford such significant declines in both the performance of R&D and the funding of R&D by the business sector. Failure to arrest the decline by all social partners will hamper our efforts to achieve economic recovery and reconstruction," the Minister said, adding that urgent corrective action was required.

"I have requested the DSI, the HSRC-CeSTII and the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) to convene an urgent round-table engagement in February, where key role players, including government, business, State-owned entities, universities, science councils and experts can reflect on the survey results and help formulate advice for consideration by Cabinet, he said.

The focus of the round-table will be on identifying the measures required to achieve the National Development Plan (NDP) target of raising the level of R&D investment in South Africa to 1.5% of GDP by 2030.

The Minister thanked all stakeholders and organisations that participated in the R&D survey, especially during the difficult time of COVID-19, and requested their continued support and commitment.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: 7 imported COVID-19 cases found

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating seven additional imported COVID-19 cases involving five men and two women.

The seven patients arrived from high-risk places. While four of them came from Group A specified places, three flew in from a Group A specified place with enhanced surveillance.

Furthermore, five cases involve the N501Y mutant strain, one entails the L452R mutant strain, while the remaining cases viral load is insufficient for a mutation test.

Among the seven cases, a 22-year-old male patient departed Hong Kong on December 7 for Poland after testing negative for COVID-19 on the same day.

After landing in Hong Kong on December 18 on flight QR818, his specimen collected upon arrival tested positive for the virus.

The patient was asymptomatic with a cycle threshold (Ct) value over 30 and his specimen carried the N501Y mutant strain.

He lives at Block 1, Rambler Crest in Tsing Yi. As a prudent measure, the places where he had resided and visited in Hong Kong during the incubation period have been included in a compulsory testing notice which requires specified people to undergo compulsory testing on or before tomorrow.

Separately, the whole genome sequencing analysis conducted by the Department of Healths Public Health Laboratory Services Branch confirmed that case numbers 12522, 12523, 12524, 12526 and 12527 announced on December 18 and 19 all carry the Omicron variant. So far, 19 Omicron cases have been identified in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, as Cathay Pacific flight CX845, arriving from New York on December 19, had three passengers confirmed to have COVID-19 by arrival testing, the department has invoked a law to prohibit the landing of the operators passenger flights from New York in Hong Kong from today to January 2, 2022.

A total of 65 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, all of which were imported.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Governments dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: CE welcomes white paper

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam welcomed the publication of the white paper titled Hong Kong: Democratic Progress under the framework of one country, two systems by the State Council Information Office today.

Meeting the media this morning, Mrs Lam said: I think both the content of the white paper and the timing of the release are very much to be welcomed.

We have just finished a very important election - the formation of the Legislative Council following the enhanced or improved electoral system.

I could expect that very soon there will be a lot of criticisms and allegations against this particular election. So the best way to refute those allegations is to look back at history. That is why this white paper has given a full account of the development of democracy in Hong Kong before 1997 and after 1997.

I have read so many talks and reports about Hong Kongs democracy development which are clearly not based on facts. When they use descriptions like China crackdown on democracy or the central authorities have owed the people of Hong Kong universal suffrage, all those statements were not true if one cares to read the white paper.

In a statement today, Mrs Lam also said the white paper gives a detailed and systematic historical account of Hong Kongs democratic development. It points out that there was no democracy whatsoever in Hong Kong under British colonial rule; on the contrary, the central government has been supporting democratic development in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in accordance with the relevant Basic Law provisions since Hong Kongs return to the motherland.

The paper also outlines the three attempts made by the Hong Kong SAR Government, with the full support of the central government, to promote the citys democratic development. Regrettably, two of these attempts were vetoed by some self-proclaimed democrats in LegCo and could not be taken forward.

These are hard facts that no one can deny, Mrs Lam stressed.

In addition, she pointed out people can see from the white paper that since Hong Kongs return to the motherland, anti-China forces have not only disrupted the development of democracy in the Hong Kong SAR, but have also been spreading false ideas with ulterior motives to undermine the relationship between the central government and Hong Kong. They even challenged the bottom line of national security as well as the authority of the central government and the Basic Law under the pretext of democracy, and used Hong Kong to infiltrate the Mainland, seriously threatening the prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong SAR as well as national security.

The publication of the white paper has provided strong justifications for the work done by the central government and Hong Kong SAR Government to improve the Hong Kong SARs electoral system in order to implement the principle of patriots administering Hong Kong, Mrs Lam noted.

Citing the white paper, she emphasised there is no one size fits all in the development of democracy, nor a single superior model.

The democratic development of the Hong Kong SAR must conform to the constitutional order as enshrined in the Constitution and the Basic Law and adhere to the principle of one country, two systems, while taking account of the actual situation of Hong Kong.

The Basic Law has stipulated the key elements of the Hong Kong SARs democratic system, its principles and the way forward, as well as the ultimate goal of dual universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and LegCo, she noted.

Unfortunately, being misled by anti-China forces, Hong Kongs democratic process has deviated from the Basic Law for years, causing great political disputes in society and hindering the development of the economy and livelihoods.

The publication of the white paper serves to pre-emptively address the major issue concerning Hong Kongs democratic development, leaving no room for slandering by external forces, the Chief Executive said, adding that the smooth formation of the seventh-term LegCo through elections manifests the broad representation, political inclusiveness, balanced participation and fair competition of the new electoral system, hence enhancing the Hong Kong SARs democratic system.

We are much encouraged to note that the central government emphasises in the white paper that it will continue to develop and improve democracy in Hong Kong in line with the actual situation and in accordance with the Constitution, the Basic Law, and the relevant decisions of the National Peoples Congress and its Standing Committee; and it will work with all social groups, sectors and stakeholders towards the ultimate goal of election by universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and all members of LegCo.

I encourage members of the public, especially the younger generation and students, to read the white paper in detail to strengthen their correct understanding of the development of democracy in the Hong Kong SAR.

As long as our citizens have a deeper understanding of one country, two systems, respect the constitutional order of the Hong Kong SAR and proactively safeguard national security, democracy in the Hong Kong SAR can certainly continue to move forward in a gradual and orderly manner.

Additionally, Chief Secretary John Lee welcomed and expressed support for the white paper in another statement today.

Citing the successful running of the LegCo election, he said the paper is of profound importance and clearly tells the world that the country is committed to developing democracy in the Hong Kong SAR.

Without the central governments adherence to its aspiration and mission to implement one country, two systems, the establishment of the democratic framework and the exercise of democracy in Hong Kong could not have been possible, he noted.

This story has been published on: 2021-12-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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BTO- Sang ngay 6/1, Uy ban An toan giao thong Quoc gia to chuc hoi nghi truc tuyen voi cac ia phuong tong ket cong tac am bao An toan giao thong nam 2021, trien khai nhiem vu nam 2022. ong chi Pham Binh Minh, Uy vien Bo Chinh tri, Pho Thu tuong Thuong truc Chinh phu, Chu tich Uy ban An toan giao thong Quoc gia chu tri Hoi nghi. Tai iem cau Binh Thuan co su tham du cua ong chi Nguyen Van Phong, Pho Chu tich UBND tinh va cac so nganh lien quan.
A recent Bristol graduate who has dreams of becoming a Hollywood composer has just released his first album.

Rahul Suntahs Cinematic Wonders is a varied collection of songs he wrote while studying at the University of Bristol.

He describes it as a tribute to my passion for film scoring and hopes one day to become a famous movie composer like his heroes John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Brian Tyler.

The album contains collaborations with students on his Masters in Composition of Music for Film and Television course, along with other students he met at Bristol with a passion for film-making and gaming.

Rahul said: The album draws on lots of influences  classical, electronic and world music.

I hope that its a good way to showcase my versatility as a composer, as the songs could be used in comedies, actions or any other genre really.

My writing process normally involves me sitting at the piano and getting inspired, but many of the tracks from this album came from experimenting with computer software, having ideas with friends and even writing straight onto sheet music.

Cinematic Wonders is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and other streaming sites now.

Rahul, who is from the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, graduated from Bristol in September.

During his time at the University he produced Piano Stories, a five-song EP which he described as the soundtrack to a space opera that is yet to be written.

In March, Rahul went viral with a video playing Mozart's Turkish March on a piano in the middle of a snowy street.

Rahul said: Now Im preparing for a concert in February at Manchester Cathedral. Id like to build a career in the UK before moving to Hollywood.

My dream is to be the next John Williams, I just think his melodies are so memorable, or Hans Zimmer, for his amazing ability to blend classical and electronic music.

Find out more about Rahul and his new album here.
Car imports surge by nearly 57 percent in first 11 months

The number of imported cars in Vietnam rose 56.7 percent on year to 144,971 units in the first 11 months this year, according to Vietnam Customs.















Car imports surge by nearly 57 percent in first 11 months



Cars with nine seats or fewer saw a rise of 48 percent against the same period last year to 101,193 units, trucks up 71.40 percent with 30,996 units.

In November, Vietnam imported 15,356 units with a total value of USD 340 million.



As many as 95 percent of imported cars to Vietnam in November were from three major markets of Thailand, Indonesia, and China with 14,560 units.



Cars with nine seats or fewer accounted for 73 percent of imported vehicles to Vietnam last month with 11,165 units and a total value of VND 196 million.



According to local car import companies, the rise in imports came as customs activities resumed after months of social distancing. They are also preparing for the end-of-year shopping season.
News  Headlines

State Presidents upcoming visit to deepen Vietnam-Cambodia ties
Hong Kong holds LegCo election in smooth, orderly way after electoral improvement

Xinhua) 08:19, December 20, 2021

-- The election for the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the HKSAR has been held smoothly and orderly after improvement to the HKSAR electoral system.

-- Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), believed that the composition of the new LegCo will be in line with the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" and is broadly representative, which is conducive to the better development of Hong Kong.

-- "Their votes are not only to elect the LegCo members of their choice, but also to support the improved electoral system," HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.

HONG KONG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Polls closed late Sunday in the election for the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the first since improvement to the HKSAR electoral system.

Voting ended at around 11:00 p.m. local time (1500 GMT), about half an hour later than originally scheduled due to technical glitches at some polling stations.

Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam casts vote in south China's Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

"I want to express my sincere thanks to the more than 1.3 million voters who cast their ballots today," HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a statement after the polls closed.

"Their votes are not only to elect the LegCo members of their choice, but also to support the improved electoral system. The votes also reflect their expectation for the HKSAR to enhance the effectiveness of its administration, and through this, to develop the economy and improve people's livelihood," she said.

More than 600 polling stations opened at 8:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) on Sunday across Hong Kong for 4.47 million registered electors to cast their votes. Voters followed anti-epidemic measures and practiced social distancing on a polling day that was orderly, smooth and safe.

Voters wait to cast ballot at a polling station in Wan Chai of Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu)

Hong Kong people value their votes because they want to elect qualified representatives who are good at bringing tangible benefits for the people and solving Hong Kong's deap-seated problems, said a man in his 30s, who only identified himself as Leung outside the polling station at St. Andrew's Catholic Primary School.

"Hong Kong has been mired in many old problems for a long time. In the past, the LegCo was disrupted by filibustering and unable to do anything, and people have long been tired of it. I hope this election will be a gamechanger," Leung said.

On March 30, 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the amended Annex II to the Basic Law of the HKSAR, which sets out in detail the new methods for forming the LegCo to better implement the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong." The membership of the seventh term of the HKSAR LegCo will increase from 70 to 90.

A staff member debugs devices at the media center of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

In the Election Committee constituency, 51 candidates vied for 40 seats, in the functional constituencies, 67 candidates contested for 30 seats, and in the geographical constituencies, 35 candidates competed for 20 seats.

Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), cast his ballot at the polling station at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

He said the votes would be significant not only in selecting the wise and capable, but also serving as a "no" to the previously stagnant, inefficient LegCo and some of its filibustering members.

He believed that the composition of the new LegCo will be in line with the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" and is broadly representative, which is conducive to the better development of Hong Kong.

Voters leave a polling station after casting ballot in Tsuen Wan of Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam cast her vote at 9:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) at the Raimondi College polling station.

Calling the election a vote of confidence for the improved electoral system and the future of the HKSAR, she said it will pave the way for safeguarding Hong Kong's long-term peace and stability.

John Lee, chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government, voted at the Yaumati Kaifong Association School polling station.

He said this election will elect legislators who will do real work for Hong Kong, serve the interests of Hong Kong, and will not betray Hong Kong by becoming "foreign agents."

Staff members are seen at the counting station of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Financial Secretary Paul Chan and Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng also cast their ballots. They said the very diverse background of the candidates is conducive to making more diverse voices heard, so that the HKSAR government can better promote good governance for the overall interests of Hong Kong.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of the HKSAR government Erick Tsang, Secretary for Security Chris Tang and Chairman of the HKSAR Electoral Affairs Commission Fung Wah visited polling stations on Sunday and urged the public to vote actively.

The LegCo is the legislature of the HKSAR. The Chief Executive in Council, in accordance with the Legislative Council Ordinance, has specified Jan. 1, 2022 as the commencement date of the seventh-term LegCo of the HKSAR.

The term of office of the LegCo is four years.

(Video reporters: Zhang Yichi, Lin Ning, Wan Houde, Qi Xin; Video editors: Lin Lin, Zheng Xin, Zhu Jianhui)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Fishing and fish stew culture at Jingpo Lake

09:30, December 20, 2021 By Yuan Meng, Zhang Wenjie, Su Jinggang ( People's Daily Online

Located in Mudanjiang city, northeast Chinas Heilongjiang Province, Jingpo Lake is the largest alpine lava barrier lake in China, and the second largest in the world.

"Jingpo" literally means a vast mirror. It is a natural wonder formed when magmatic rocks blocked the flow of the Mudanjiang River during volcanic eruptions 12,000 years ago. Its rich aquatic products provide nourishment to the local people.

When the lake is not frozen over, local fishermen will usually go drift-net fishing. Before dawn, the lake is shrouded in fog, but fishermen have already started their day. The most thrilling moment is when they bring the net back in.

Bountiful fish can be found thriving in Jingpo Lake, where the water quality is excellent. People in northeast China often cook fish in many different ways, including fish stew in a clear soup, braised fish, and simmered fish, among which, fish stew in an iron pot is the most distinctive method.

Nestled along Jingpo Lake, Xiaozhujia Village is widely known for its fish stew in iron pots. Cheng Liankun, a local villager, explained that people from northeast China have a simple cooking style: "Just set up an iron pot, light the firewood, and throw all the ingredients in, including the fresh fish that the fishermen just caught. Using this method, we were able to preserve the flavor of the food."

"There's nothing that can't be stewed in an iron pot," Cheng laughed. "Apart from fish, we also stew ribs or goose. During the frigid winters of northeast China, it is an incredibly warm feeling for everyone to sit around an iron pot and share the stew together."

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
Chinese mainland reports 37 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases

Xinhua) 09:40, December 20, 2021

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 37 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Monday.

Of the new local cases, 24 were reported in Shaanxi, 10 in Zhejiang, two in Guangdong, and one in Beijing, the commission said.

Also reported were 65 new imported cases in 14 provincial-level regions, according to the commission.

One new suspected case arriving from outside the mainland was reported in Shanghai.

Across the mainland, no new deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Sunday, it added.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Foreign envoys "date" with migratory birds at China's largest freshwater lake

Xinhua) 09:45, December 20, 2021

Foreign envoys have recently gathered to appreciate migratory birds at Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The lake is a paradise for migratory birds as several wild species under first-class state protection were spotted here, including the white crane, the white-naped crane and the black stork.

Poyang Lake has an intact ecosystem and is an important wintering spot for waterfowl in Asia. The peak migration period for birds heading to the lake begins in mid-December and continues into early January.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
HK residents laud first LegCo election under improved system

(China Daily) 12:07, December 20, 2021

Voters wait to cast ballot at a polling station in Whampoa, south China's Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2021.(Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Foreign forces' moves were futile anti-China plots, analysts say

Despite continuous smearing and slander from local radicals and certain backstage manipulators, polling in Hong Kong's first Legislative Council election under the revamped electoral system concluded smoothly on Sunday.

Voters and analysts hailed the poll as open and fair, and said it offered a strong guarantee for the region's future stability and prosperity.

With voters casting their ballots at more than 600 polling stations, 90 lawmakers for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's seventh LegCo were elected from the Election Committee, geographical and functional constituencies. After taking office on Jan 1, they will serve the public for the next four years and take part in their first meeting on Jan 12.

For many, the election under the improved system was a totally different experience.

According to an opinion poll conducted by the Bauhinia Institute, a think tank based in Hong Kong, 77.9 percent of 1,528 voters surveyed believed the LegCo election is of great importance to the region's future, and 75.8 percent agreed that the poll would be fair and widely representative. More than 72 percent of those surveyed were confident the election would produce LegCo members who love the motherland and their home city, thus benefiting all Hong Kong people.

This is further evidence that the election, the first major such exercise after the electoral system reform, was more about which candidate can serve the SAR better and help take measures to improve Hong Kong people's livelihoods.

Economist David Wong Yaukar, who is also chairman of the Education University of Hong Kong Council, said the election was a vast improvement on those held previously.

Candidates actively competed on their action agenda and ability. They are also serious about serving the people by bringing about more effective governance that addresses the core interests of the public in areas such as housing, livelihoods, healthcare and the economy. Gone are the candidates who want to advance their personal political agendas by undermining the government and "one country, two systems", Wong said.

Zhao Jiayin, vice-chairman of Hong Kong youth group the Hua Jing Society, said the rational, fair and orderly election is a far cry from previous polls that were often chaotic and politicized to a large degree by radical opposition.

This time, people paid more attention to livelihood and development issues, as well as the ability and quality of candidates, who no longer need to rack their brains to grab more attention by smearing rivals and launching vicious competition. They only need to fully demonstrate their expertise, agenda, contribution and sense of responsibility, Zhao said.

Voices of the majority

Xia Baolong, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and head of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said in a speech on Dec 6 that Hong Kong's new electoral system has many advantages, including broad representation, political inclusiveness, balanced participation and fair competition.

Xia said the candidates' backgrounds are "unprecedentedly diverse", and they include many grassroots people, such as bus drivers, electricians and tenants of public housing and subdivided units, which was rarely seen in previous elections.

He added that under the new system, the composition of the Legislative Council has been expanded to include representation from more sectors. Such changes could better help the city balance the interests of different sectors and regions and help it solve deep-seated problems accumulated over the years.

Stanley Sy Ming-yiu, chief executive of a local biotech company, said that after a series of social events, candidates have a relatively unified consensus on Hong Kong's development directions and have been actively seeking change and innovation in their political agenda to better serve the interests of the public.

After Hong Kong was roiled by months of unprecedented violent protests in 2019, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted two decisions to help the SAR restore orderone to promulgate the National Security Law for the Hong Kong SAR in June last year, and the other to improve the SAR's flawed electoral system, in March this year. Under the revamped system, the number of LegCo members has been increased from 70 to 90, with a newly added Election Committee constituency.

Sy said this change showed broad representation and balanced participation. Candidates for the election included elite leaders from business, academia, and professionals, as well as representatives of laborers, employees, and operators of small and medium-sized enterprises from the grassroots. There were experienced senior political participants and a new generation of young people full of motivation and innovation.

Such diversity will better reflect the voices of the majority of Hong Kong people and respond to their demands, Sy said, adding that the electoral improvement will boost Hong Kong governance to the next level.

Hong Kong business leader Henry Tang Ying-yen said he believed the election also marked the return of healthy and fair competition. In his view, the new system purges election campaigns of the vicious, aggressive and populist squabbles as characteristics of bad democracy. It also rejects social fragmentation and barbaric confrontation.

In this election, candidates could compete on the basis of their platforms, competence and interaction with voters, enabling in-depth discussions on economic and livelihood issues, which are of primary concern to society. The poll also helps channel public opinion and shape policy recommendations that are more in line with the actual situation in Hong Kong, Tang said.

Futile plots

Although polling was successfully completed, some people still attempted to smear Hong Kong's democratic development and discredit the poll by making a fuss over the turnout, which they claimed would reduce the legitimacy of the election.

Many recent overseas examples show that a turnout does not have to reach big numbers. That for the New York mayoral election on Nov 2 was about 24 percent, and for the French regional elections in June, the proportion was 33 percent.

Ho Lok-sang, a veteran economist from Lingnan University, said a high turnout would not necessarily represent the legitimacy of the election. What really matters is the elected lawmakers' ability to serve the public.

"Some people think that a government needs a high rate of endorsement by the vote in order to be legitimate. Believers of Western-style democracy subscribe to the view that only a popularly elected government is legitimate, but this is blind belief," he said.

The turnout was also affected by repeated attempts by local radicals and certain foreign forces to disrupt and slander the election. Fugitives such as Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Ted Hui Chi-fung, who have fled overseas to escape justice, blatantly urged Hong Kong people on social media to boycott the election and cast invalid ballots.

Law, who is wanted by Hong Kong police on suspicion of breaking the National Security Law, delivered a speech on the so-called Summit for Democracy organized by the United States recently, to defame the democratic systems of the Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese mainland.

In addition, some foreign media and politicians smeared the revamping of Hong Kong's electoral system as "democratic backsliding" and expressed support for local residents to spoil the election.

Solicitor and business leader Kennedy Wong Ying-ho said these moves clearly demonstrated the hypocrisy and double standards of the foreign forces.

They have no right to vilify and obstruct other jurisdictions' democratic development under the pretext of advocating democracy, Wong said.

Veteran political analyst Lau Siu-kai said the foreign forces' moves were futile anti-China plots, adding that the influence of Western-style democracy is decreasing around the world due to its deficiencies in promoting people's livelihoods.

He added that instead of blindly following Western-style democracy, Hong Kong's new electoral system has taken into consideration the city's historical background, and conforms to its actuality. Lau believes it is beneficial to Hong Kong's long-term political, economic and social development and the improvement of people's livelihoods.

Jo Lee, a veteran journalist who has specialized in covering social and political issues in Hong Kong and the mainland, said that in the LegCo election people would see "how real democracy works for those who have the people and the country's true interests in their hearts over fake Western-style democracy". "Those fugitives and failed politicians can eat their words," she said.

Mark Pinkstone, former chief information officer of the Hong Kong SAR, noted that the basis for the new candidates is loyalty to Hong Kong.

"Democracy prevails in Hong Kong... No longer will the legislature be used as a base for subversion, as in the past," he said.

Stability and prosperity

Experts also believe the just-concluded polling offers a strong guarantee for the SAR's lasting stability and prosperity.

To ensure the quality of lawmakers, all election candidates received strict scrutiny from the Eligibility Review Committee to check whether they uphold the Basic Law and swear allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR. Among the 154 nominations, 153 were ruled valid, while one candidate was disqualified for holding a government post.

Tang, the business leader, said the improved mechanism helps elect high-quality, capable, committed and loyal patriots to seats in the Legislative Council, who shoulder great responsibility in serving the public well.

By firmly upholding the "patriots administering Hong Kong "principle, the new system also excluded those who aim to undermine the interests of the Hong Kong SAR and the mainland, and thus contributed to the stability of the legislature's future operation, he said.

Instead of creating a homogenous political environment, the new election system encourages political diversity and offers a broad stage for candidates to show their talent, Tang said.

Grenville Cross, senior counsel and former director of public prosecutions in Hong Kong, believes that under the revamped system, the elected lawmakers will be trustworthy and put Hong Kong and national interests first. All of them can be relied upon to promote the "one country, two systems" policy and to make Hong Kong a better place.

After the election, the government will also be able to work with LegCo to resolve long-standing problems and avoid mindless politicking launched by destabilizing forces that led to the social unrest in 2019, he said.

A political environment that prioritizes good governance and social stability will also provide investors with the positive business climate they need, and will enable them to benefit fully from the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, Cross said.

Wong, the economist and Education University of Hong Kong Council chairman, said the latest revamping of the electoral system represents the most "important and sweeping" change since the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR, as it has redressed the core problem of the old system, which produced a LegCo that was ineffective in solving problems of great concern to the public.

He believes that in the future, LegCo will be well represented by legislators who are knowledgeable in their respective fields and will serve with the broader public interest in mind.

"We can look forward to constructive policy debates that will ultimately help bring about better governance for Hong Kong. In that, I think Hong Kong will get the kind of vibrant democratic system that will serve its people well," he added.

Essence of democracy

In his speech on Dec 6, Xia Baolong noted that the blind pursuit of Western-style democracy has done nothing to help democracy develop in Hong Kong.

It only caused crises of social polarization, vicious competition, economic imbalance and ineffective governance, which led to social turbulence such as the unrest in 2019 over an extradition bill that was later withdrawn, he added.

Gary Wong, a board member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, said people should appreciate that democracy can thrive in different countries in its many shapes and forms.

"The essence of democracy is about respecting diversity. It is not a cookie-cutter," he said.

"The Chinese mainland is well known for putting the concept of 'whole process democracy' into real practice. Our country has successfully converted the vision and values of democracy into a scientific, institutionalized system."

Henry Ho, founder and chairman of the One Country Two Systems Youth Forum, said before the poll, "With a large number of young and fresh faces participating in the LegCo election, we look forward to healthy competition among candidates and more debates on policy preference, good governance and solutions for the city's deep-seated problems."

As a Basic Law scholar, Ho was pleased to see that the new electoral system reflects the original design of Hong Kong's political structure, which is executive-led, with checks and balances between the executive and the legislature, and balanced participation by all parties.

"These important guiding principles in drafting the Basic Law are upheld in the new system," he said.

Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, Hong Kong's secretary for justice, said a new democratic electoral system suited to Hong Kong's actual situation and with Hong Kong characteristics was synthesized in order to fully implement "patriots administering Hong Kong" and safeguard the overall interests of society and the constitutional order as set out in the Constitution and the Basic Law.

"All candidates are confirmed in compliance with the legal requirements and conditions for upholding the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR and bearing allegiance to the HKSAR of the People's Republic of China. I am confident that all the elected candidates will sincerely serve Hong Kong and pursue the well-being of our citizens," she said.

"This is the purpose of election and also the true meaning of democracy."

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
China nearing completion of greenhouse gas monitoring network

People's Daily Online) 15:40, December 20, 2021

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) recently issued the countrys first list of greenhouse monitoring stations, which marked a major point after 40 years of construction efforts, with the country having neared the completion of its greenhouse monitoring network.

Photo shows the Waliguan atmospheric background station (Photo/zgqxb.com.cn)

The network will help raise Chinas capabilities in carrying out meteorological observation and evaluation, and provide data support to realize the countrys carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets.

The list that was released this time covers 60 key areas and contains meteorological observation stations that focus on precise observation methods. Seven types of greenhouse gases have been selected for observation under the framework of the network, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbon, perfluocarbon, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride as covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

China is among the few countries that had an early start in conducting greenhouse background observation activities. In 1982, the countrys first regional meteorological background station was put into operation in Beijing.

In 1994, the Waliguan atmospheric background station was established and located at an elevation of 3,816 meters in northwest China's Qinghai Province. It is also the only international atmospheric background station in the hinterland of Eurasia. Because of the high-quality data collected by the station, China became a top-notch player in the world when it came to greenhouse observation.

This year, the CMA established a national greenhouse gas and carbon neutrality monitoring and evaluation center, as well as branches for the center in multiple provinces across the country, building a countrywide system to evaluate the effectiveness of Chinas carbon neutrality efforts.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Conference deliberates on unleashing potential of young people for digital economy across SCO

16:16, December 20, 2021 By Xia Peiyao ( People's Daily Online

Photo taken on Dec. 18, 2021 shows the IV Youth Conference Agora: SCOLAR Vision in Beijing, China. (Photo provided to Peoples Daily Online)

The SCO region, with its creative youth and rapid digitalization processes that daily accelerate our economic development, will become the locomotive of the global economy in the coming decades. This is why youth entrepreneurship is a key topic, said Vladimir Norov, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), at the IV Youth Conference Agora: SCOLAR Vision held on Dec. 18, by the SCO Secretariat and the SCOLAR Network.

For Secretary-General Norov, the rise of Internet platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the service sector and created jobs with new business formats. The SCO region, which is home to more than 1 billion youth and whose combined GDP amounts to more than 22% of the global total, has a huge potential for implementing joint initiatives in promoting the digital economy.

The past few years saw a surge in social media and e-commerce activities. The number of users on livestreaming platforms in China reached 617 million in 2020, accounting for 62.4 percent of the total number of Internet users in China, while the number of live streamers exceeded 130 million, according to a report released by an institute under the China Association of Performing Arts in May.

China's livestreaming industry revealed that streamers has become a new career in 2020, and where young people play an integral role, said Norov, adding that this is a powerful trend that will have a long-term impact on the choices young people will make about their careers and leave a lasting mark on society.

Vladimir Norov, Secretary-General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, speaks during the IV Youth Conference Agora: SCOLAR Vision in Beijing, China, Dec.18, 2021. (Photo provided to Peoples Daily Online)

With the theme of Social media as a driver for digital economy: content creation and e-commerce development, the conference brought together scholars, entrepreneurs, KOLs, and industry influencers to share their practices and insightful thoughts.

According to Ji Pengfei, Vice President of the Beijing Zhongguancun Tongli Technology Service Company, new technologies currently present the world with enormous opportunities to use digital approaches to explore emerging entrepreneurial opportunities and social scenes. AR technologies, as exemplified by Bill Hu, Vice President of Nreal, will renovate the human experience and generate new business models in terms of social media and cultural tourism, among others domains.

The next generation of the Internet represented by the Metaverse also opens up a new chapter for further developing the Digital Silk Road, explained Isabel Yang, Director & Vice President of the LUSTER LightTech Company. Yang mentioned that, due to time lags and cultural differences, over 140 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative are in great need of a more immersive, interactive cultural exchange and trading platform.

Apart from the new possibilities presented by these rising technologies, participants also delved into topics like influencing marketing, content creation and livestreaming.

It is important to study, discuss and find new solutions for the development of the Generation SCO, while at the same time taking actions against the destructive influence of data platforms for the development of a young person, said Norov.

As for the way forward, the Secretary-General reiterated the founding principles of the SCO, namely for mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity, and the pursuit of common development. Our future is bright, he said, because we are uniting 1 billion young people.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Vietnam Airlines has proposed resuming regular flights to Europe and Australia from January 1, 2022.

The national flag carrier has prepared resources to serve the markets, with the initial weekly frequency of about two flights on each route, according to a representative from Vietnam Airlines.

The restoration would help the corporation bring into full play its aircraft fleet, cut operational costs and consolidate its position, while preventing the risk of domination by international airlines at gateways.

Under a plan mapped out by the Ministry of Transport, regular international flights from/to Vietnam will be resumed in two phases, with air travel with nine foreign destinations to be available again in the first phase and fifteen in the second phase.

Vietnam will restore regular international air routes with Beijing/Guangxi (China), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (the Republic of Korea), Taipei (Taiwan, China), Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore, Vientiane (Laos), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and San Francisco/Los Angeles (the US).

During the second phase, flights will be likely to reconnect Vietnam with six more other foreign destinations, including Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hong Kong (China), Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Sydney (Australia) and Moscow (Russia).

Concerned authorities will evaluate the implementation of the plan before allowing regular international flights to reach the pre-pandemic level.

According to a new guidance issued by the Ministry of Health, fully vaccinated foreign arrivals with negative COVID-19 test results will only need to self-quarantine at home or places of accommodation for three days upon entry into Vietnam by air.

The new regulations will be effective from January 1, 2022, the day Vietnam is set to resume regular international flights on a pilot basis./.

VNA
Vietnam should improve its legal framework to maintain the attractiveness of the domestic investment environment to foreign firms, Vu Tien Loc, President of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) has said.

Loc made the suggestion as the extended social distancing due to the COVID-19 has affected the FDI sector in Vietnam.

Investors should be provided with necessary information and guidelines regarding legal regulations, he said, pledging that the VIAC will support FDI firms to remove obstacles and difficulties relating to legal affairs, and address business disputes.

According to Loc, foreign investors are still confident in the long-term prospect of the Vietnamese market, as well as the Vietnamese Governments capacity to bring the pandemic under control.

Therefore, many associations, enterprises and foreign investors have promised to support the Southeast Asian nation in the pandemic combat.

It is noteworthy that the Danish toy production company LEGO Group on December 8 signed a memorandum of understanding with the VietnamSingapore Industrial Park Joint Stock Company (VSIP) on the building of a new plant in southern Binh Duong province.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Hjlund Christensen said this is the largest investment in Vietnam made by a Danish company, showing the confidence and optimism of Danish investors in the future of the important Denmark-Vietnam partnership.

The LEGO Group will invest more than 1 million USD in the construction of its first ever carbon neutral factory, including investment in solar energy on a 44-ha site in Binh Duong, with a hope to generate 4,000 jobs in the next 15 years.

The construction is scheduled for the second half of 2022 and the plant will go into operation by two years later.

According to LEGO, the factory will be its sixth manufacturing site in the world and the second in Asia.

Statistics show that as of November 2021, foreign investors poured 26.46 billion USD into new projects, existing projects and share purchase, of which newly-registered capital was up 26.7 percent year-on-year./.

VNA
Travel policies for the Spring Festival holiday, which begins on Jan 31, should be devised in accord with the COVID-19 risk appraisals in different regions and groups, health officials said on Saturday. "Whether it is necessary for people to stay put during the Spring Festival holiday should be based on risk evaluations and should not be uniform across the country," Liang Wannian, a member of the National Health Commission's expert panel, said during a news briefing. Liang said increased movement during the Spring Festival travel rush, coupled with diminished resistance against respiratory diseases during winter, will lead to a heightened risk of the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious illnesses. However, China also has several advantages, such as its prompt control of local outbreaks and high COVID-19 vaccination coverage. Nearly 1.2 billion people have been fully vaccinated in China. As of Saturday, more than 2.67 billion doses had been administered, according to the commission. "Most recent outbreaks are now linked to imported cases," Liang said. "As long as we strictly implement policies to control imported cases and the public practices personal protective measures, we are capable of stemming the virus' spread." He said key regions and populations should abide by strict virus control measures. "High-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with chronic diseases and pregnant women, should cut unnecessary trips and avoid gatherings, and the remaining population should adhere to protective measures," he said. Liang added that regions that currently see new infections, port and border areas, and cities facing special circumstancessuch as Beijing, which is preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympicsshould maintain relatively rigorous control policies. "The balance between disease control and reunion demands during the Spring Festival holiday should be maintained," he said. Beijing authorities said on Sunday that residents are encouraged to stay in the area for the holiday, but the capital will not adopt a "one-size-fits-all" approach nor impose unnecessary measures. The city will facilitate the traveling of people who have a strong desire to return to their hometowns, such as college students and migrant workers. More activities will also be held during the holiday to benefit the residents who choose to stay put. He Qinghua, of the National Health Commission's Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention, said the global COVID-19 situation remains serious and complicated, with the new Omicron variant spreading to over 70 countries and regions. "Caution regarding the virus during the New Year and Spring Festival holidays should not be relaxed even a single bit," He said on Saturday. The domestic epidemic situationwith the Delta variant as the dominant strainremains stable, He said. Local infection clusters in Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces, as well as in Shanghai, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and parts of Zhejiang province, have been gradually brought under control. The outbreaks in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and in Shaanxi and Guangdong provinces, are still developing and at risk of spreading, He said. China reported 44 confirmed local infections and 39 imported infections on Saturday, the commission said in its daily report on Sunday. Beijing said on Sunday that a student in a painting studio in Tongzhou district tested positive for the virus, and screening and an epidemiological investigation are underway. As for the Omicron variant, Changsha, capital of Hunan province, reported two imported cases on Saturday, making it the third city on the Chinese mainland to have identified the variant after Tianjin and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.


By Wang Jiafu and Sun Xingwei

BEIJING, Dec. 20 -- Recently, a training course on the appropriate technologies for health management was held via video link, in which a multi-disciplinary and cross-domain team composed of medical experts from the Chinese PLA General Hospital responded to the health management questions raised by military doctors assigned to the Chinese peacekeeping forces overseas.

During the online training, the expert team provided professional guidance on treatment and recuperation of common training injuries, psychological disturbance and sleep disorders among peacekeepers. They also conducted multi-disciplinary remote consultations on some intractable cases.

The medical staff from the Chinese peacekeeping infantry battalion to South Sudan and from the hospital of the Chinese peacekeeping force to Lebanon, as specially invited trainees, also attended the training all through.

After the prescribed training course, the experts also exchanged views with peacekeepers on common and frequently-occurring diseases and on how to conduct health management against the backdrop of normalized COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.
By Lian Degui

The US Senate confirmed on December 18 more than 30 ambassadors and national security nominees proposed by the Biden administration, including the appointment of Obamas White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as US ambassador to Japan. Several Republican senators, including ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch, voted in favor of the appointment on the ground that they expected Emanuel to oppose the proposal in the White House to announce Americas willingness to no-first-use of nuclear weapons.

The Japanese side has paid close attention to this proposal. Taro Kono, Director of the Liberal Democratic Party Public Affairs Department, expressed his concerns about the policy of no-first-use nuclear policy under discussion by the Biden administration at an online meeting of American think tanks on December 7, saying the proposal might send a wrong signal to China and the DPRK.

In fact, the US has been assessing its strategic advantages in order to decide which nuclear policy is more secure and effective. The US deployed nuclear weapons in ROK as early as 1957 with the aim of fending off attacks from the DPRK, vowing to retaliate with nuclear attacks if the DPRK dared to make a dangerous move amid the unbalanced South-North military landscape on the Korean peninsula. Its clear that the first-use of nuclear weapons is essentially a kind of nuclear deterrence and blackmailing.

During the Cold War period, the US was unable to destroy the Soviet Union because Moscow had enough nuclear warheads. Therefore, using nuclear weapons first wouldnt pose any valid threat to the Soviet Union, but would instead bring itself a lethal blow. Thats why there was discussion then in the US about whether they should give up the first-use policy to avoid a nuclear war.

Now the US is once again feeling obvious changes in the balance of power, and the first-use of nuclear weapons has lost its function as an effective deterrence. The report titled The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy released by the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences pointed out that the greatest nuclear risk facing the US after the Cold War is not an intentional nuclear war with Russia, but unintended nuclear war or proliferation. Since Americas only purpose of deploying nuclear weapons is to counter any nuclear attack against itself and its allies, it should announce the no-first-use of nuclear weapons.

But Japan worries very much about this tendency in the US. Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the no-first-use policy is meaningless unless all nuclear weapon states declare to practice it simultaneously. The Japanese side reckoned that if the US announced to adopt this policy, its function as a nuclear umbrella would be lost.

Actually, what Japan is truly worried about is Okinawa. Japanese military experts warned that America and Japans interference in the Taiwan question would first court a catastrophe to their military base in Okinawa, and Tokyo is worried that if the US commits to the no-first-use policy, they would be unable to respond to Chinas hypersonic weapons.

Evidently, when Japan adopted the no-nuclear policy as the only country subject to nuclear attacks, it actually opposed the possession of nuclear weapons by any other country than the US. A country that was hit by the USs nuclear bombs is now relying on its nuclear protection and making nuclear deterrence with its first-use policy  how ironic!

Whats worth more attention is that Japan has never given up its nuclear ambition. Masasuke Omori, former director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, once said in the Senate that Japan could have a necessary, minimal scale of nuclear weapons for the purpose of self-defense. Now Japan is technically capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons, but whether it will get down that path will depend on whether the US-Japan alliance can guarantee its security and whether Americas nuclear protection is reliable enough. If Japan doesnt think so, it would revise the constitution and arm itself with nuclear weapons on the excuse of security  the same excuse it is using now to discuss strengthening the capability of taking preemptive steps to attack enemy bases.

(The author is director and professor at the School of Japanese Studies, Shanghai International Studies University)

Editor's note: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
By Feng Qingling and Wang Lingshuo

JIUQUAN, Dec. 20 -- The Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway, which had served the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center for 63 years, welcomed the last train on the morning of December 15th. More than 400 people boarded the train to bid farewell to this heroic railway line.

The 240.4 km-long Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway starts from the Qingshui station on the Lanzhou-Wulumuqi Railway in northwest China's Gansu Province, goes north crossing the western edge of the Badain Jaran Desert and ends at the Lvyuan Station in the Ejina Banner of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In 1958, China started to build the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, its first comprehensive missile test range. As the special railway line serving the launch center, the construction of the Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway began at the same time. The Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway was the only railway in the organization of the Chinese military, and hasnt been marked in the map of China since its completion in 1959.

The construction of the Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway lasted nearly 12 months from May, 1958 to April, 1959. Its operation is of great significance to accelerating the development of the launch center and strengthening national defense of northwest China. Over the past 63 years, this railway has successfully completed hundreds of major missions including the transportation of the Shenzhou series of rockets and has served as the lifeline connecting the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center with the outside world. The Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway is guarded by PLA service members stationed at 35 stops along the railroad, they are responsible for the railroad line maintenance and security of special trains for missile tests and rocket launch tasks.

It is learnt that a new railroad between Jiuquan and the launch center, which is a section of the Jiuquan-Ejina Railway, is expected to open within this year. The railroad, with a full length of 241.675 km, is designed and constructed in line with the National Railway Class II standards and will replace the Qingshui-Lvyuan Railway to carry out the railway transportation duty in Chinas aerospace missions.
The reason is the country's record-low birth rate. Korea's working-age population from 15 to 64 already started dwindling in 2017. Last week, the Supreme Court raised the legal retirement age from 60 to 65. At this rate, there is a strong chance that Koreans will have to worry about a shortage of workers instead of a shortage of jobs.

Analysis of population estimates by Statistics Korea suggests there will be 31 million people in the working-age population between 20 and 65 in 2030, fewer than the current 31.2 million between 20 to 60 before retirement age.

Korea is expected to suffer a shortage of the working-age population even if the retirement age is raised to 65.

Most workers now retire at 60, even though the working-age population ranges from 15 to 64. The number of people between 20 and 60 fell from 31.5 million in 2016 to 31.2 million this year. And by 2030, when the retirement age has risen to 65, there will be only 31 million people of working age. By 2039, even if the retirement age is raised to 70, there will be only 31.1 million.

Statistics Korea projects Korea's total population to shrink to 36.7 million by 2065, and the portion aged between 20 and 60 to 13.5 million. If the low birthrate continues, the population decline could speed up even more.

Population experts back in 1960 forecast that machines would eventually replace humans, but in reality the development of new technologies ended up creating new jobs. That means an optimum number of workers must be maintained.

Yun Suk-myung at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said, "People can work into their 70s if health permits, so senior citizens could earn a living on top of their pensions."

The problem is the quality of jobs on offer. Korean men actually retire at 72.9 years of age, while women retire at 73.1, the oldest in the OECD. As of January, 3.99 million people over 60 were employed, the bulk in low-paying jobs after retiring from their previous work in their early 50s.

Experts said the key task is to improve the quality of jobs available for senior citizens while extending the retirement age.
Extending the retirement age beyond 60 has aggravated youth unemployment, according to a study.

The state-run Korea Development Institute on Thursday said the extended retirement age has led to an increase in jobs for workers aged 55 to 60 but slashed jobs for young workers aged 15 to 29.

Employment went up by 0.6 jobs among older Koreans, while leading to a decline in 0.2 jobs for younger ones.

The decline in jobs for young people was especially marked in larger companies and businesses where the retirement age was lower. Small businesses and temporary workers did not benefit much from the extended retirement age, but full-time workers in large businesses were the biggest beneficiaries.

After laws on hiring senior citizens were revised in 2013, major conglomerates raised the retirement age to 60 in 2016, and smaller businesses followed suit in 2017.

Korea faces a dilemma of having to raise the retirement age even further in order to cope with an aging population. President Moon Jae-in said in a briefing in February by the Ministry of Employment and Labor that Korea "has no choice" but to boost job participation among women and senior citizens to deal with a sharp decline in the working-age population.

When the comments triggered controversy, Labor Minister Lee Jae-kap explained that Moon did not mean extending the retirement age immediately.

Joseph Han at KDI said, "Extending the retirement age markedly at once becomes a tremendous burden on private businesses and is highly likely to lead to side effects. Even if there is a social consensus, we need to give it enough time and raise the age gradually and incrementally to let the labor market absorb the shock."
Pfizer Inc on Friday forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic would not be behind us until 2024 and said a lower-dose version of its vaccine for 2- to 4-year-olds generated a weaker immune response than expected, potentially delaying authorization.

Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in a presentation to investors that the company expects some regions to continue to see pandemic levels of COVID-19 cases over the next year or two. Other countries will transition to "endemic" with low, manageable caseloads during that same time period.

By 2024, the disease should be endemic around the globe, the company projected. "When and how exactly this happens will depend on evolution of the disease, how effectively society deploys vaccines and treatments, and equitable distribution to places where vaccination rates are low," Dolsten said. "The emergence of new variants could also impact how the pandemic continues to play out."

Pfizer developed its COVID-19 vaccine with Germany's BioNTech SE, and currently expects it to generate revenue of $31 billion next year. It plans to make 4 billion shots next year.

The drugmaker also has an experimental antiviral pill called Paxlovid which reduced hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk individuals by nearly 90 percent in a clinical trial. Three analysts estimate sales of $15 billion to $25 billion for it next year, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Pfizer's forecast came after the emergence of the omicron variant last month, which has more than 50 mutations compared with the original version of the virus. That has reduced the effectiveness of two doses of the vaccine against infection, and spurred fear of rapid spread around the globe.

Prior to the omicron variant, top U.S. disease doctor Anthony Fauci forecast the pandemic would end in 2022 in the United States.


The post of U.S. ambassador to South Korea has been vacant for 11 months and the delay is causing tension between Seoul and Washington, NBC reported last Thursday. A former senior U.S. government official called it "insulting."

Even if U.S. President Joe Biden appoints a new ambassador right now, the process will probably take so long that he or she will not arrive before President Moon Jae-in leaves office in May.

"There has been a drumbeat about this for the past several months, and it is now growing louder," a former senior administration official told NBC. "It's becoming an issue."

Sue Mi Terry of the Wilson Center said, "South Korean officials have brought this up multiple times with American officials. They bring it up in many conversations in every setting."

A congressional official added, "The South Koreans are insulted that no one has been nominated yet, that in fact there isn't even a name really being rumored for ambassador yet."

"Adding to the tension is the fact that the U.S. has nominated ambassadors to two of South Korea's neighbors, Japan and China," NBC added.

In August, Biden nominated Nicholas Burns, a veteran diplomat and former undersecretary of state, as ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff of former President Barack Obama, for Japan.

Burns and Emanuel are "both well-known figures in their own rights whose selections signaled that the Biden administration was taking relations with [China and Japan] seriously," NBC said. It quoted a former senior official as saying, "Having [an ambassador] in Tokyo and one in Beijing without even a nominee for Seoul is insulting."

South Korea's presidential election in March is another reason that "it's an inopportune time to have no ambassador," a former White House official pointed out, suggesting that "South Korea's future approach to diplomacy with the North [is] hanging in the balance."

The embassy in Seoul has been run by the charge d'affaires since Donald Trump-appointed Ambassador Harry Harris left as soon as Biden was inaugurated. U.S. ambassadors are often political appointments rather than diplomats and do not outlast the president who nominated them.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Yo-jong has resurfaced after disappearing from the radar 67 days ago. But instead of a rumored demotion she seems to have been promoted to the presidium of the politburo.

One intelligence source said Sunday, "This heralds her entry into the heart of power."

Brother and sister took part in a ceremony last Friday at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang marking the 10th anniversary of the death of their father Kim Jong-il. The last time Kim Yo-jong had been seen in public was on Oct. 11 when she attended an arms expo.

She ranked 14th on the roll call of the presidium in status-obsessed North Korea. Her name was listed after five members of the politburo standing committee, including Kim Jong-un, and eight ordinary members.
Six out of every 10 business in Korea are under pressure to extend the retirement age of their staff.

At present, the legal retirement age is 60, but labor groups are calling for it to be extended to 62 or 65. The Korea Enterprises Federation said Sunday that a survey of 1,021 companies found that 58.2 percent are feeling "burdened" by the prospect and 11 percent said "extremely burdened."

The bigger the business, the greater the financial burden. Some 72.1 percent of businesses with more than 1,000 staff said extending the retirement age will mean extra costs, compared to 51.5 percent of companies that employ between five to 99 workers.

Some 50.3 percent of apprehensive businesses cited wages as the biggest cost. Also, 51.3 percent said they will find it harder to new workers if the old ones stay on longer.


JOINT STATEMENT

BY THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT

OF COUNTRIES OF SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE We, the Heads of State and Government of countries of South Eastern Europe President Kiro Gligorov, President Slobodan Mlilosevic. Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea, Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, Prime Minister Fatos Nano, Prime Minister Costas Simitis and Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ismail Cem, Mr. Blagoj Handziski, Mrs. Nadezhda Mihaylova, Mr. Paskal Milo, Mr. Milan Milutinovic, Mr. Theodoros Pangalos, Mr. Adrian Sevenir and the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Mihovil Malbasic, participating as an Observer, representing the freely elected governments of the South - Eastern Europe peoples met for the first time in our history in Crete and agreed on the following: We shall work together to create in our region conditions for the prosperity of our nations in a framework of peace, security, good-neighbourliness and stability. We are determined to pursue the South Eastern Europe cooperation, on a mutual and equal basis, in the firm belief that each of us has much to learn from the other. We shall promote to State of Law, the protection, of human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, including interethnic dialogue, individual freedoms and a market economy that will allow the individual enterprises to flourish and generate employment and opportunities for all and especially for the youth. We affirm our commitment to the UN Charter, the Paris Charter for a new Europe and the Helsinki Final Act including all ten principles referred therein, namely sovereign equality, respect for rights inherent in sovereignty, refraining from the threat of use of force, inviolability of frontiers, territorial integrity of States, peaceful settlement of disputes, non - intervention in internal affairs, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of through, conscience, religion or belief, equal rights and self - determination of peoples, cooperation among States, fulfillment in good faith of obligations under international law. We consider that the European orientation of our countries is an integral part of their political, economic and social development. We aspire to transform our region in an area of cooperation and economic prosperity and, to that effect, we decided to promote good neighbourly relations and respect for International Law. We believe that Europe can not be complete without our countries and our peoples representing civilisations and historical traditions which are essential to the establishment of a contemporary European identity. European and Euro-atlantic integration are essential in promoting the aforementioned objectives. We shall encourage the cooperation of the genuine representatives of our peoples in our national Parliaments, as well as their common intention to create a forum of undesrtanding and friendly relations. We reconfirmed our support for already existing regional initiatives sharing the same ideals with us such as Royaumont, SECI, BSEC, CEI. We shall promote the scientific, educational, cultural and sport relations as a means for strengthening our mutual understanding and friendship. We shall cooperate with each other in the field of justice, the combat against organized crime, the halting of illicit druj and arms trafficking and the elimination of all forms of terrorism and take joint action against illegal and irregular migration. Our cultural and religious diversity cannot be seen as a threat to our cooperation and security. On the contrary we believe it is a powerful source of inspiration, creativity and dynamism. We shall intensify our efforts for the increase of our economic cooperation, the improvement of infrastructure for transport, telecommunications and energy as well as for the establishment of favourable conditions for investments. We invite the competent Ministers to meet at least once a year to assess progress. We shall promote the cross border cooperation and to that effect we invite officials to meet regularly and Ministers of Economy or Finance, or other Ministers responsible for it, to meet at least once a year to review the progress achieved. We took into consideration different valuable proposals for the establishment of institutes and centres for the promotion of multilateral cooperation in various fields. . We call upon Ministers of Foreign Affairs to meet at least once a year to conduct political consulations and to promote cooperation on issues of regional stability and security. Political Directors will meet every three months for consulations and report to Ministers. In order to ensure continuity between the countries undertaking the organisation of Summit or Ministerial Meetings as well as of various technical groups, the idea of establishing a joint Secretariat will be discussed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The Heads of State and Government of countries of South Eastern Europe expressed their warm thanks for the hospitality of Greece for hosting the Crete Summit Meeting. They decided to hold their next Summit Meeting in Turkey in 1998. Heracleion, Crete, 4 November 1997
International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will set up a joint venture with Dubai-headquartered Tabreed to invest $400 million in India over the next five years, Zawya reports.

Both sides, media notes, signed partnership agreement for the venture to run Tabreed India which currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Tabreed.

Under the partnership deal, Tabreed India, will be transferred to a new holding company established in Singapore, in which Tabreed will hold a 75 percent stake and IFC will have 25 percent.

Also per the agreement, the holding company will be set up with initial equity commitments from the partners of $100 million with a mandate to invest in projects of up to approximately $400 million over the next five years.

The investment will target a portfolio of approximately 100,000 refrigeration tons (RT) servicing industrial, commercial and retail developments across India, Zawya adds citing a filing by Tabreed on the Dubai Financial Market.

In addition, IFC and Tabreed have agreed investment eligibility criteria which include robust environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) requirements for projects in these geographies.

Public environment and sustainability (E&S) disclosures will be made by IFC prior to investing in each project. Tabreed provides district cooling in the UAE and across the Gulf Cooperation Council. The company in 2019, signed a 30-year concession for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 RTs with Indias Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority to build, own, operate and transfer Indias first district cooling system in Amaravati  the new capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Two Katyusha rockets hit Baghdads fortified Green Zone that houses the US embassy, reports said Sunday.

The Green Zone in Baghdad was the target of two Katyusha rockets. The first was shot down in the air by C-RAM defense batteries, the second fell in a square, damaging two vehicles, the Iraqi security forces that said in a statement according to media.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Green Zone, has been recently target of the attacks from dozens of rocket assaults or drone bomb directed to US troops and interests in the country.

American authorities have routinely blamed Iran-backed Iraqi factions for the attacks.

The latest rocket salvo comes after the country this week announced the end of the combat mission on its territory of the anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington, Arab News reports.

But roughly 2,500 American soldiers and 1,000 coalition soldiers deployed in Iraq will remain in the nation to pursue a role of training, advice and assistance.

Baghdad and Washington have reached an agreement for the US forces to leave the Middle East country.

The attack also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the departure of US troops from Iraq on December 18, 2011, after the invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Washington then deployed its troops to the country to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, which had captured large swathes of the nation.

Written by: KanelkaTagba on December 20, 2021.

Last revised by: Last revised by: Jaber Ali , our reviewer, on December 21, 2021.
According to information published by Deutsche Welle on December 16, 2021, the government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel approved the export of Meko A-200 frigates to Egypt before leaving office.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

First Algerian MEKO A-200 frigate (Picture source: Topwar)

The MEKO A-200 Frigate follows the famous MEKO 200 series general purpose frigates from the ThyssenKrupp stable. A fighting ship capable of full 4-dimensional warfare (AAW, ASW, and ASuW, BCW), the MEKO A-200 Frigate is also designed for sustained operations across the full spectrum of general missions and tasks: patrol and interdiction, support of special force operations, SAR and humanitarian operations.

The MEKO A-200 Frigate is an example of the innovative propulsion, stealth and survivability design, robust sea-keeping, and all-weather boat and helicopter operability that characterizes frigates from Marine Systems.

The MEKO A-200 has greatly reduced radar, IR, acoustic and magnetic signatures to hide and stay hidden: The X-Form shell design; extensive bulwark screening of exposed equipment; flush-closing shell doors, and RCSnet screening of all shell openings, give the vessel very low radar cross-section.

The Meko A200 frigate features the revolutionary CODAG-WARP (water jet and refined propellers) propulsion system: two CPP propeller shafts driven by cross-connectable diesel engines plus a center-line, gas turbine-driven water jet, combining the power of each drive in the water with no need for a combining gearbox.
Sen. Johnny Isakson leaves a legacy of achievement as a bridge-building legislator. His support aided key Emory priorities, including underscoring the value of research and supporting seniors and veterans.

Former Sen. Johnny Isakson passed away Dec. 19, leaving a legacy as a bridge-building lawmaker. He served as U.S. senator for Georgia from 2005 to 2019 and represented the states 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 2005. Isakson was the only Georgian ever to have been elected to the state House, state Senate, and both chambers of Congress. Until stepping down from his Senate post in 2019, citing health concerns, Isakson maintained close ties to Emory.

After decades of legislative service, Sen. Johnny Isakson established the Isakson Initiative to raise funds for research and awareness of neurocognitive diseases. I was fortunate to attend the September kickoff of the initiative and could see firsthand Sen. Isaksons commitment to helping those in need and the admiration shown by his many allies and supporters from across Georgia, says President Gregory L. Fenves.

With his passing, I want to recognize the leadership he showed our state and nation and the focus he brought to representing his constituents. For two decades, Emory was fortunate to share priorities and many achievements with Sen. Isakson  among them, the value of federal funding for research, supporting our veterans and battling disease threats, Fenves noted. The senator was known for balanced reflection, and he kept his eye on benefiting the people of Georgia and the United States. He will be dearly missed by his friends at Emory.

In his 2019 farewell speech to Congress, Isakson spoke of how difficult it was to be leaving a job I love. At the time managing multiple health challenges, including continuing progression of Parkinsons, Isakson explained, It goes against every fiber of my being to leave in the middle of my Senate term, but I know its the right thing to do on behalf of my state.

Finding his passion

Born in Fulton County, Isakson for a time followed his fathers path as a real estate executive. While in his early thirties, he was elected as a Republican to the Georgia Legislature in 1976, serving seven terms, including four as minority leader. Failed bids for governor in 1990 and senator in 1996 might have sidelined another politician, but Isakson proved that he had much more to give.

From a position heading the Georgia Board of Education, Isakson went on to win the 1999 special election for Georgias 6th District seat in the U.S. Congress, effectively starting a second act in politics, this time on the national stage.

I consider Sen. Isakson a true statesman, the epitome of a public servant, says Cameron Taylor, Emorys vice president of government and community affairs and interim vice president of communications and marketing, who worked extensively with him during his career as a legislator. He never hesitated to roll up his sleeves  to listen and learn to solve complicated policy issues. And one could always count on his characteristic grace and diplomacy in every situation.

Advocacy for Emory

For 20 years, the lines of communication between Emory and Isakson were open, and the liaison benefitted the public good. In matters big and small, Isakson always had time to hear from Emory and, when convinced of the value of a project or program, took action.

Isakson was a vocal champion for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and wrote numerous support letters on behalf of Emorys research mission, especially related to global health and infectious disease.

When Emory University Hospital (EUH) admitted four Ebola patients in 2014, successfully treating them in its Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, there was undeniably an element of risk for the university in agreeing to welcome patients whose disease was deeply feared.

Sen. Isakson was a champion for EUH when it took a stand, announcing that treating those patients was the right and humane thing to do given Emorys expertise in infectious diseases, Taylor recalls. His reassuring voice helped convince others.

Isakson also assisted with federal reimbursement for those patients complex care and with the establishment of the National Ebola Training and Education Center, now known as the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center.

Partnering with Emory, Isakson also championed funding for the initial feasibility study for the Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative (CCTI). As MARTA explores the appropriate timing to enter the CCTI into the federal funding process, Emory acutely feels the loss of the senator who has supported this vital infrastructure project from the beginning.

In one of his last significant legislative achievements, Isakson  having worked with Emory experts on this topic  joined a bipartisan group of legislators to improve care coordination for seniors on Medicare. Known as the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act (2018), it produced benefits such as adult daycare and support for family caregivers.

As he introduced the bill in April 2017, Isakson said, Medicare shouldnt just be a program that pays the bills when you get sick. It should also encourage your doctors to work with you to keep you healthy and out of the hospital by providing high-quality, patient-centered care.

Interests dovetailed around veterans as well, with Emory and Isakson acting in support of veterans education and health care. Two years after the conclusion of his time in the Senate, Isakson proved himself still a force, with the passage of the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe Veterans Health Care and Veterans Improvement Act of 2020. The law features 32 provisions that positively impact the administration and oversight of GI Bill benefits.

Taylor acknowledges thinking often in the past two years about what is different in government without Isakson. The short answer: a great deal.

He was always there to help resolve a situation, address a problem, help us come together, listen and make us better. He was never too busy to meet with our students or advocate for an Emory priority. The senators motto  one that he lived by  is that there are two types of people in this world: friends and future friends. We were privileged to see his gift for friendship up close, says Taylor.
Welcome to Old VCR

My general vintage computing projects, mostly microcomputers, 6502, 68K/Power Mac and PowerPC. Be kind, REWIND and PLAY. -- Cameron Kaiser


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Reports from North Sydney, N.S. indicate that an early morning barn fire on Monday, Dec. 20 has claimed the lives of 14 Standardbred racehorses.

According to Firefighters Of Nova Scotia, six fire departments were dispatched to a barn fire in North Sydney on Frenchvale Road at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning. The cause of the fire, which had destroyed most of the barn by the time firefighters arrived, remains under investigation.

"Barn's gone, horses are gone," an emotional Joe Nearing, who lost three horses in the blaze, was quoted as saying in a CBC News report. "It's just not a good day today. It's devastating, really... It's your best friend, that's all I can say. There's no other way to explain it."

According to reports from Cape Breton, trainer Kevin Bailey also lost horses in the fire. A GoFundMe Page has been established to provide assistance to those impacted.

Trot Insider will update this story with more information as it becomes available.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections that have been affected by the tragic fire.
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's Azerishig OJSC and Russia's Tatarstan Grid Company OJSC have signed an agreement on cooperation in the energy sector.

The agreement was signed by Azerishig's Board Chairman Vugar Akhmedov and Grid Company's General Director Ilshat Fardiyev, during the discussions of the use of digital technologies in electrical networks.

"The signing of this document opens up wide opportunities for mutual cooperation - the application of best practices and the exchange of experience between specialists of both companies," Fardiyev said.

In turn, Vugar Akhmadov thanked the Grid Company staff for the warm welcome and the rich program of the visit, expressing confidence in the further successful development of bilateral relations.

As part of a working visit to Tatarstan, the Azerbaijani delegation got acquainted with the work done in several branches of the Grid Company, and in the EnergoDevelopment engineering center and PromEnergo LLC, enterprises belonging to the national energy cluster.

An excursion was organized for the delegation members to the control room of the Centralized Dispatch System of the Kazan Electric Networks, where they were extensively informed about the two-level grid control system, new features of remote control and monitoring of the power grid.

The delegation members also got acquainted with the results of the Energia production system introduced by the company, and inspected the company's Grid Control Center, which was refurbished in accordance with the reform, and praised the effectiveness of SK-11, a modern SCADA control system in the power system.

Azerbaijan and Russia have mutual cooperation in different fields, such as economy, agriculture, customs, communications, high technology, and others. More than 230 intergovernmental and intercompany documents have been signed between the two countries and six "road maps" are being implemented.

Earlier this year Azerbaijan participated in a number of international exhibitions held in Russia. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounted to $2.6 billion in 2020, making Russia Azerbaijans third-largest partner. Additionally, Azerbaijan is a major supplier of fruits and vegetables to Russia. The country ranked first in supplies of fresh and chilled tomatoes.

Russia also played a prominent role in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict resolution. The trilateral peace deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders on November 10, 2020, ended the 30-year conflict between Baku and Yerevan over Azerbaijans Karabakh that along with seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the 1990s.
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Baku will host the first Azerbaijan-Turkey Energy Forum on December 21-22, the Energy Ministry has reported.

The forum will be co-chaired by Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez.

On December 21, as part of the Energy Forum, it is planned to hold meetings of working groups consisting of experts from both countries in the fields of hydrocarbons and petrochemicals, electricity, renewable energy and regulation. In addition, a visit of the Turkish delegation to the Sangachal Terminal is planned for this day.

On December 22, the 1st Azerbaijan-Turkey Energy Forum will be held. It is planned to sign documents between Azerbaijan and Turkey within the forum.

The 1st Azerbaijan-Turkey Energy Forum was established in order to ensure more rapid and effective strategic energy cooperation within the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Azerbaijan and Turkey cooperate in various fields of economy and have jointly completed giant energy and infrastructure projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, and TANAP.

On June 15, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations, which focuses on defence cooperation, promoting regional stability and prosperity, and establishing new transportation routes.

In the first ten months of 2021, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $3.4 billion. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $4.1 billion in 2020.

The two countries set up a goal to bring the mutual trade turnover to $15 billion in 2023. It should be noted that so far, Turkey is Azerbaijans second-largest investor followed by the UK.

Additionally, Turkey was one of the first countries that expressed its interest and readiness to participate in the restoration of Azerbaijans liberated territories.
By Trend

Azerbaijan and Russia are important partners not only in the economic, but also in the political sphere, Ambassador-at-Large of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Parvin Mirzazade said on Dec. 20, Trend reports.

Mirzazade made the remark during the international round table entitled "Russia-Azerbaijan in new system of regional security and economic cooperation. Results of the year and prospects" held in Baku.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia have very important strategic importance. Azerbaijan and Russia are not only united by historical ties. We lived in one state. In Azerbaijan, we have an excellent attitude towards Russians. There are a huge number of schools [with Russian sectors], Russian-speaking students and pupils in the country, he noted.

According to the diplomat, the "3 + 3" platform [between Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Iran] is a good regional platform for the development of the relations.

"Hopefully soon Azerbaijan and Russia will be able to restore all economic relations between the countries participating in this platform. Azerbaijan has no territorial claims. We managed to reach an agreement with all the players in our region. Thanks to Russia, we were able to stop the bloodshed [during the 2020 second Karabakh war]. Russia sent peacekeepers [to Azerbaijans Karabakh region] for further settlement, he reminded.

The Armenian side is once again trying to snatch what doesnt belong to it. If we manage to implement the provisions of the trilateral statement [signed between presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and prime minister of Armenia to end the second Karabakh war] and open transport communications, well be able to achieve absolutely new realities," added Mirzazade.
By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijan has opened a gas station on the Gorus-Gafan road in Eyvazli village of Gubadli region liberated from Armenia's occupation late last year, Trend reported on December 20.

SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) President Rovnag Abdullayev attended the opening ceremony.

This filling station is international. Along with Azerbaijani cars, transit foreign cars will also fill up here, he said.

In late November, SOCAR Petroleum CJSC commissioned a new filling station (gas station) in Gubadli region on the Gorus-Gafan road.

The SOCAR deputy head of the public relations and event management, Ibrahim Ahmadov, said that the number of gas stations operating under the SOCAR brand had been brought to 41 in Azerbaijan and up to three on the liberated territories.

"The filling station is built according to the self-service model. Three fuel tanks are installed at the gas station that was put into operation. This filling station will sell AI-95 premium gasoline, AI-92 gasoline, and diesel fuel. Thus, we have created conditions for providing fuel for all types of vehicles," he said.

SOCAR Petroleum CJSC owns a network of 41 gas stations and 11 oil bases. SOCAR has the only CNG terminal in the country - compressed natural gas (CNG), thanks to which it is a leader in the introduction of environmentally friendly fuels. Each client has the opportunity to check the amount of fuel refueled, as well as other advantages at gas stations operating under the SOCAR brand.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

The Culture Minister Anar Karimov has met with the Spain's Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue and Mediation Ramon Blecua Casas to discuss the prospects of cultural cooperation.

In his remarks, Anar Karimov praised the favorable opportunities for further expansion of cultural ties between the two countries.

Noting the importance of joint activities, Anar Karimov reiterated the successful cooperation within the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, traditionally held since 2011 within the Baku Process initiated by President Ilham Aliyev in 2008.

He also provided insight into the "Peace4Culture" global campaign aimed at preserving cultural heritage and creating peaceful and sustainable societies.

The Culture Minister invited Ramon Blecua Casas to join this global challenge.

The Spanish Ambassador expressed his deep interest in the global campaign and stressed the importance of preserving Azerbaijan's cultural heritage.

The Ambassador noted that culture is the most powerful tool that unites peoples, countries and humanity in general.

The meeting continued with a discussion of issues of mutual interest.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

The National Art Museum has showcased the photo works of Paul Nadar (1856-1939), who went down in history as an outstanding street photographer.

The exhibition "Paul Nadar: the Extraordinary Journey to Baku" is being held in Baku for the first time.

Around 70 photographs are displayed at the exhibition co-organized by the French Embassy in Baku and the French Institute in Azerbaijan in partnership with the Culture Ministry and National Art Museum.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Culture Sevda Mammadaliyeva noted that the exhibition opened within the cultural ties between Azerbaijan and France.

The Deputy Minister of Culture stressed that earlier in different years the museum had organized exhibitions dedicated to the art of France.

He emphasized that Azerbaijan's rich historical and cultural heritage has always aroused great interest of travelers and foreign art representatives, including Paul Nadar.

She stressed that Paul Nadar is one of the famous and talented photographers of his time.

His photographs taken in Azerbaijan are of great importance as documentary evidence of Baku at the end of the 19th century.

During his visit to Baku, Paul Nadar captured the unique architectural samples of the city, Gosha-Gala Gates, Shirvanshahs' Palace, local residents, etc.

French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zachary Gross informed the visitors about the activities of Paul Nadar.

Paul Nadar (1856-1939), was the son of the no less famous Felix Nadar (1820-1910), one of the pioneers of the art of photography in France in the 19th century and the founder of Nadar, the prestigious photography company.

he portraits of his contemporaries made by Felix Nadar are expressive images of famous personalities of France, among them Victor Hugo, Georges Sand and others.

In his work, Paul Nadar wanted to create modern photography that would reflect real life. In 1890, he accepted an offer to travel from Paris to Istanbul, and then to Tbilisi, Baku and Tashkent.

Paul Nadar took about a thousand photographs, these photographs were subsequently presented at international exhibitions and conferences. Now they are stored in France in the archives of the multimedia library of architecture and heritage under the French Culture Ministry.

"These photographs, taken 130 years ago, provide us with an opportunity to look at Baku of that time through the eyes of a French photographer. I believe that the exhibition will contribute to the expansion of cultural ties between France and Azerbaijan," the Ambassador added.

Next, the exhibition curator Konul Rafiyeva provided insight into the details of the exhibition. She noted that dozens of photos selected for the exhibition are the modern printouts of the original negatives stored in the photographic archives of the Architecture and Heritage Multimedia Library within the French Culture Ministry.

The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: "The Great Portraits", "Baku" and "Travel to Turkestan".

Then a short documentary film "Paul Nadar's Baku voyage" was screened as part of the event.

The film was produced by photographer and historian Rustam Huseynov, curator Konul Rafiyeva and composer Araz Ozara.

Note that Paul Nadar arrived in Istanbul on August 18, 1890. After crossing the Black Sea, he reached the port of Batumi and then Baku.

The places that Paul Nadar visited during his stay in Baku in 1890 looked different from what they are now.

Therefore, his photographs are documentary evidence of the great importance of Azerbaijan's capital at the end of the 19th century.

The photographer captured images of Baku's unique architecture, shops and crowd full bazaars, local residents, wandering merchants and much more.

Some of the locations in the photographs of Nadar taken in 1890 are recognizable even today, while others have completely changed their appearance.

The exhibition is being held at the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan from December 18, 2021 to February 15, 2022.

The exhibition is organized by the French Embassy in Azerbaijan and the French Institute in Azerbaijan in cooperation with the Culture Ministry and the National Art Museum. The curator of the exposition is Kenul Rafieva.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

A documentary "Foreword. Ten Words" has been shown in Baku within YARAT's tenth anniversary.

The film screening took place at the Stone Chronicle Museum. Before the film, the guests of the event enjoyed a spectacular light show on the building's facade.

Famous artist, founder of YARAT Contemporary Art Space Aida Makhmudova, executive director of Baku Media Center Orman Aliyev, director of the International Mugham Center, People's Artist Murad Huseynov, director of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, Honored Cultural Worker Shirin Malikova and others attended the event.

In his speech, the executive director of Baku Media Center, the general producer of the documentary, Orman Aliyev, congratulated YARAT on its tenth anniversary. He noted that the film had been produced as part of the celebration.

The documentary "Foreword. Ten Words" highlights YARAT's activities over the past years, including numerous art projects, international events and collaboration with local and foreign artists.

Orman Aliyev congratulated the YARAT team on the anniversary and wished for further success.

The film features interviews with artists, curators and other cultural figures talking about public and educational projects, festivals, exhibitions and other events implemented with YARAT during these years.

The documentary filmed by Fuad Guliyev was highly appreciated by the viewers.

The film screening completed a series of cultural events dedicated to YARAT's anniversary.

Founded in 2011 by Aida Mahmudova, YARAT Contemporary Art Space Public Union is a non-profit organization which aims at promoting contemporary art in Azerbaijan and providing a platform for local artists.

Since its official opening in 2015, YARAT has organized numerous individual and group exhibitions by both local contemporary artists such as Faig Ahmed, Rashad Alakbarov, Orkhan Huseynov, and Aida Mahmudova, and internationally renowned artists such as Shirin Neshat, Oscar Murillo, Shilpa Gupta, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Taus Makhacheva.

With its role as an experimental platform for young artists, ARTIM Project Space continues to enrich the contemporary art of Azerbaijan with new talent.

The exhibition program of the Museum of Azerbaijani Painting of the 20th-21st Centuries (managed by YARAT since 2018) studies the creative activities of prominent modernist and avant-garde artists and presents their work from unexpected angles.

So far, YARAT has participated in the 54th and 55th Venice Biennales, the Art Dubai International Art Fair, the Viennafair Contemporary Art Fair, the Cosmoscow Art Fair, and many other large-scale art events that have contributed to the worldwide recognition of contemporary art from Azerbaijan.

Through its exhibition programs, public and educational programs, and photography and theater festivals, YARAT has attracted a wide audience from day one.

YARAT Contemporary Art Space organized 194 exhibitions, over 2000 education and public programmes during its existence.

Over the ten years, YARAT has collected its own unique collection consisting of artworks.

YARAT's collection includes art pieces of Rashad Alakbarov, Rashad Babayev, Orkhan Huseynov, Aida Mahmudova, Sanan Alasgarov, Mahmud Rustamov, Zamir Suleymanov, and other leading contemporary artists. Collection also features the works by world-known foreign artists such as Oscar Murillo, Shirin Neshat, Idris Khan, Afruz Amigi, Taus Makhacheva, Koka Ramishvili, Nilbar Guresh.

Being the first and the only contemporary art collection in Azerbaijan, YARAT's Collection demonstrates the role the organization played in the development of contemporary art.
By Azernews





By Vafa Ismayilova

Baku's handover of 10 Armenian detainees back to Yerevan has been welcomed internationally as an important gesture to tackle humanitarian issues between the sides.

In his official Twitter account, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Washington welcomed Azerbaijan's step.

"We welcome Azerbaijan's release of 10 Armenian detainees on December 19 with EU support," he wrote.

Meanwhile, EU Special Representative for South Caucasus Toivo Klaar shared a similar position.

"Happy to have been able to repatriate 10 Armenian servicemen. Important gesture by Azerbaijan in the process of addressing humanitarian issues.

The European Union will continue to work with both countries to build on the successful meetings of European Council President Charles Michel with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Klaar said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also welcomed the move.

"Ten Armenian soldiers were released. I want to salute the decisive action of the European Union, with which we will continue to promote this path of dialogue towards peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We are going forward," he wrote.

As a result of the trilateral meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan, which took place on December 14 in Brussels at the initiative of Charles Michel, as well as a bilateral meeting between Aliyev and Michel, through the EU mediation Azerbaijan handed over to Armenia 10 Armenian servicemen on December 19.

The transferred persons were detained on November 16, 2021 while preventing a provocation by the Armenian armed forces near Kalbajar region on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border.
By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is one of the world's leading leaders today, Russian military expert, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko told Trend .

Korotchenko stressed that the Supreme Commander of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev played a key role in achieving the victory of Azerbaijan in the Second Karabakh War.

During the years of his presidency, the Azerbaijani economy has been developing efficiently and steadily, which ensured the necessary inflow of funds, part of which was spent to strengthen the defense capability of the Azerbaijani army including the purchase of new types of cutting edge modern weapons and military equipment, the expert added.

Korotchenko noted that the Azerbaijani political system has been strengthened during this period.

Azerbaijan has gained the necessary importance and authority in the international structures and in the international arena, the expert added.

By the time when the war turned out to be inevitable, during another Armenian provocation, Azerbaijan carried out a full-scale operation, Korotchenko said. As a result, Azerbaijan gained a victory over Armenia and Azerbaijans territorial integrity was restored.

The expert said that Operation Iron Fist is being studied today in the leading military academies of the world as a model for waging a modern high-tech, effective war.

Korotchenko stressed that two points that military experts and analysts are paying attention to are the unprecedented use of combat and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as the effective use of special forces.

Actually, the Shusha operation is being studied today as an example of the unprecedented success of the Azerbaijani special forces and the use of drones, which allowed Azerbaijan to achieve major success in the counter-offensive operation, the expert said.

Korotchenko said that the Supreme Commander of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev directly supervised the hostilities, made all main decisions, analyzed the course of hostilities daily, held meetings with the senior command personnel of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, as well as other security agencies and special services.

Thanks to his will, firmness and strategic outlook President Ilham Aliyev was able to organize the actions of the Azerbaijani army in such a way that Azerbaijan gained a victory over Armenia, the expert said.

Korotchenko said that as a commander, as a politician, President Ilham Aliyev was ahead of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and thanks to the effective victory in a difficult war, today President Ilham Aliyev has become one of the leading world leaders.

As for providing the army with necessary weapons, Korotchenko stressed that Azerbaijan has diversified its sources of acquiring weapons.

The Russian Federation has become one of the biggest sources, the expert said. Azerbaijan purchased Russian weapons worth more than $5 billion, which also created the basis of the military potential of the Azerbaijani army.

Korotchenko said that moreover, weapons were purchased from Turkey, Israel and other countries.

But it was important not only to buy weapons but to use them during the exercises, the expert said. The Azerbaijani army has worked out the methods and types of conducting modern offensive and defensive actions by using the latest types of weapons.

Korotchenko added that the combat command and control system, which allowed to control and carry out effective command and control of troops, up to battalion tactical groups during the operations, and, of course, the communications system that ensured combat command, are worth mentioning.

There were important components of the victory, the expert said. The Azerbaijani army is one of the best armies in the region today in terms of its technical equipment, fighting spirit and level of combat training.

Korotchenko said that the practice has shown that Azerbaijan fulfilled those four resolutions of the UN Security Council, which called on Armenia to withdraw its armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, by using weapons.

Azerbaijan waged a just war of liberation, it was the Second Karabakh War, the expert said. The fighting spirit of the army, people, led by the President of Azerbaijan, rendered unprecedented support for entire Azerbaijan in this war.

We remember the queues at the military recruiting offices, we remember when Armenia attacked sleeping civilians in Azerbaijani cities by using operational-tactical missiles, but could not frighten Azerbaijan, the expert said. The Azerbaijani people united around the Supreme Commander of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces to gain victory.

We saw the full unity of the army and people, Korotchenko said. In fact, this was the basis of the victory that was achieved a year ago. Azerbaijan implemented the resolutions of the UN Security Council by using weapons.

The expert said that there were Armenian occupiers in seven Azerbaijani districts, who during 30 years turned this territory into a lifeless desert.

Everything, namely, cities, villages, settlements were completely destroyed, Korotchenko said.

The expert added that nothing was left, everything was totally dismantled, destroyed by people, rather than as a result of time.

We know that trucks were coming from Iran, the expert said. Having paid to the representatives of the Armenian illegal separatist regime, everyone could loot, plunder, destroy, demolish buildings and steal property.

The expert said that therefore, duplicity is observed in Irans current position as it actively contributed to the destruction of everything that was occupied by the Armenian side and actually also dismantled and plundered the property of Azerbaijani citizens who fled, fearing the mass massacre by the Armenian invaders.

In any case, the restoration of these territories is the number one task today, Korochenko said. Nothing was left there, no cities, no infrastructure.

I was surprised that even sewer pipes were dug out and removed in Aghdam district and only trenches remained instead of the city sewer system, the expert said.

I was shocked during my visit to Aghdam and Fuzuli districts when I saw the destroyed and looted cemeteries, the destroyed graves, monuments demolished from pedestals, smashed with sledgehammers and rifle butts, the expert said.

There are huge minefields, Korochenko said. All this must be cleared of mines, it is necessary to restore the destroyed facilities.

Korotchenko stressed that Azerbaijans current activity on the restoration of the liberated lands is impressive.

An ultra-modern international airport has already been built in Fuzuli district while the Victory Road is a world-class highway, the expert said.

The pearls of architecture and art destroyed by the Armenian occupiers are being restored, Korotchenko said.

A plan for the revival of cities is being implemented, the expert said. Aghdam will be a city of the 21st century. We'll soon see "Smart villages".

Azerbaijan will demonstrate masterpieces of urban planning of the 21st century, "smart cities", "smart villages", Korotchenko added. This is a new level of the world urban planning policy and we will see it soon.

The expert said that there is no doubt that all these plans will be implemented in a short period of time, relying on Azerbaijans own resources, on the diligence of the Azerbaijani people, their desire to revive the lands which were a lifeless desert for 30 years.

Korotchenko stressed that the political system in Azerbaijan has proven its effectiveness and the economy is being successfully developed.

By its own example, Azerbaijan will demonstrate the better future that a dozen other countries, in which there are still problems, may have, the expert said.

We know that at least half of the countries have a lot of problems and Azerbaijan will show how to solve these problems through its own effective development, Korotchenko said.

The expert added that President Ilham Aliyev is a famous politician worldwide today, therefore, the initiatives that Azerbaijan is putting forward relate to the human civilization.

Therefore, Azerbaijan is among those countries that formulate the international agenda for the international community thanks to its leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement, and in general, global initiatives at the level of the UN Security Council, including the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiatives of ensuring sustainable development, Korotchenko said.

The expert said that the President of Azerbaijan, as a famous politician worldwide, will formulate and continue his work not only in the interests of Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus but also in the interests of the tasks and goals of sustainable development for human civilization.

As for the implementation of the trilateral statement, the military expert stressed that this process is being postponed, Armenia does not want to fulfill its obligations.

First of all, Armenia must begin the process of the delimitation and demarcation of borders, must withdraw illegal armed formations from Azerbaijans Karabakh region, the expert said.

Korotchenko said that Armenia must give the maps of the minefields to the Azerbaijani authorities.

It is necessary to discuss a peace treaty, but the most important thing is to recognize each other's territorial integrity, the expert said. Azerbaijan is ready to do this.

As we see, Armenia is not ready yet, Korotchenko said. It was making provocations, now it is trying to delay the process and give an absolutely wrong interpretation of its obligations within the trilateral statement.

Of course, it is very important to restore transport routes in the region, to open the Zangazur transport corridor rapidly and to implement the "3 + 3" initiative, which will allow starting economic progress and development of the entire South Caucasus region, the expert said.

Korotchenko said that if there is no goodwill in Yerevan, no initiatives will motivate Yerevan to do this.

I think that the sooner Azerbaijan will restore the occupied territories, revive Shusha, Hadrut, the more attractive it will be for the Karabakh Armenians because they will face poverty, low standards of living, degradation and complete hopelessness, the expert said.

The expert added that the faster Azerbaijan will revive the liberated territories, the faster the Karabakh Armenians will reach a better future and forget about Yerevans false messages, propaganda of the Armenian nationalists.

The expert said that the Armenian population of the Karabakh region will be able to reach this better future only as part of Azerbaijan as one of the peoples inhabiting multinational, multi-confessional, secular Azerbaijan.

Korotchenko thinks that the international community today is doing what it has been doing for 30 years - double standards.

The international community is deceitful, vile, and cunning, the expert said. Armenian diasporas are actively working in France, the US, and a number of other countries, distorting reality and imposing double standards on the European politicians.

The expert added that the international community considers the situation in the region through the Armenian views, so there must not be any illusions that the international community will help.

Azerbaijani diplomacy must work actively, Korotchenko said. Azerbaijan should create opportunities to bring an objective point of view on the ongoing processes in the region and around it.

The expert added that the most important thing is that it is necessary to intensify the expert and analytical community in comprehending and building the future of the South Caucasus region.

It is necessary to implement initiatives that politicians are not ready or do not intend to discuss yet, Korotchenko said.

Therefore, experts and analysts must actively comprehend the problems, draw up the roadmaps, think how to persuade Armenia to fulfill the trilateral statement, the expert added.
Trend's exclusive interview with the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Andris Pelss

Results of economic cooperation

I can note with satisfaction that trade contacts between Latvia and Azerbaijan are evolving successfully, and the interest of businesses is increasing. In 2020, when the total turnover of trade in goods between the two countries increased by 2.4%, regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic, also the statistics for bilateral trade in goods continue an upward trend in the first nine months of 2021, with an increase of 1.5%.

Latvias main exports are foodstuffs, pharmaceutical products and electrical appliances. Imports from Azerbaijan constitute mainly steel and plastic products. Manufacturers are actively seeking, including with support from the embassies, to expand and diversify the offer of goods in trading networks and enable customers to explore and enjoy products originating from both countries.

As I have mentioned, the scale of our cooperation with Azerbaijan in terms of trade in goods reaches beyond the pre-pandemic level. Regrettably, the situation in trade in services is not that upward looking. Figures are falling behind the pre-pandemic level. This can be explained by the fact that our trade in services is mainly related to transportation and passenger travel, namely, the tourism sector, which is going through hard times under the current circumstances.

However, as early as in April 2022, our national airline Air Baltic is planning to resume direct flights between Riga and Baku. I am certain that it will give a positive impetus to the development of mutual business contacts and also to the revival the tourist flow. It must be noted that trade of goods or cooperation in transport sector are not the only areas where we see potential for mutually beneficial cooperation with Azerbaijan.

For instance, we wish to move ahead and expand cooperation in the implementation of joint cultural, educational and research projects. In particular, I would like to highlight cooperation in education: about 170 Azerbaijani students are enrolled at Latvias universities, but wed be happy to see more young people from Azerbaijan at our higher education institutions. Every year, the Latvian Government grants a definite number of scholarships for studies in Latvia and participation in international summer schools to students and researchers from Azerbaijan.

Opportunities in transport sector

Azerbaijan is an important cooperation partner to Latvia in the transport and logistics sector in the Transcaucasian region. Our transport experts see the potential for developing transit freight transport to and from Central Asian countries through Azerbaijan, where we could become partners in multi-modal transport connections between Asia, the countries on the Black Sea and Northern Europe. There is a potential for Latvia to become a gateway to European Union markets for export from Azerbaijan. Accordingly, we offer to Azerbaijani businesses not only transportation of goods through our ports but also their storage, processing and finishing and possibilities for further distribution in Northern Europe.

Another promising area of cooperation is air freight of goods. The Riga International Airport in cooperation with local freight agents can ensure the distribution of air cargo across the Baltic States and Scandinavia, as well as offering the Azerbaijani side to develop Eurasian transportation.

Prospects for collaboration in the sphere of renewable energy sources

Latvia shares the pan-European ambition of reducing harmful emissions and reaching a carbon-neutral macroeconomic output by 2050. Establishing a functional, socially-oriented and free-market-based economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is, indeed, the main objective, the heart and soul of the European Green Deal and aligned with the EUs commitment to global climate action under the Paris Agreement. Latvia is well situated to achieve these goals in an efficient, transparent and socially inclusive manner. The pre-pandemic share of renewable energy sources in the Latvian final consumption amounted to 40.97%, whereas the EU average level equalled to 18.09%. Furthermore, the relevant equivalent ratio for final domestic electricity consumption was 53.40%, steadily remaining above the 50.00% threshold throughout the challenging times of the first and second Covid-19 pandemic waves. Latvian energy sector shows resilience, flexibility and rational market orientation, which enabled a stable, balanced and sustainable trajectory for its development in line with the broader EU de-carbonization context.

The role of natural gas in the Latvian domestic energy mix had been decreasing over the last decade due to market, technological and regional factors. The main source of renewable energy in Latvia is biomass, followed by energy generated by hydroelectric plants. Ensuring investments in sustainable energy capacities, notably wind- and solar-based generation, are perceived as a strategic priority, hence the currently conducted legislative and administrative work, related to revising the existing legal framework in a manner ensuring a transparent, open and competitive business environment in the relevant rapidly developing energy markets.

Latvia sees cooperation with Azerbaijan in the areas of research and development, knowledge transfer and technological exchange as well as solar installation development as particularly positive. We welcome international investors to expand their operations to and in Latvia as the domestic market has at least 22-24% of imported natural gas to be replaced by local renewables-based generation capacities, thus presenting a unique opportunity to undertake financial and operational business endeavours and presenting lucrative profit-generation opportunities in rapidly emerging sustainable industries.

Investment opportunities

Regrettably, the accumulated direct Azerbaijani investment in Latvia decreased by 23.5% in the second quarter of 2021 as compared to the investment amount at the end of 2020. Consequently, we would welcome investments in any segment of economy. It is noteworthy that the ICT sector has evolved into the fastest-growing field of export in Latvia. Priority vectors of cooperation offered by Latvia in the ICT sector brings to the fore the products and solutions of cross-sectoral cooperation  bioeconomy, biomedicine, smart materials and photonics, as well as smart energy.

In our bilateral relations business opportunities and its development play a significant role. Therefore, if Latvian business community will indicate its interest to expand their operations in Azerbaijan, Latvian Embassy in Baku will assist them where possible.

Future contacts

I would like to note that a regular high-level political dialogue is being maintained between Latvia and Azerbaijan, which is a vital element in bilateral relations. The high-level meetings scheduled for the very near future is the visit to Riga by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova early next year, and the visit to Baku by the Latvian Minister for Defence Artis Pabriks. In addition, next year, Riga is to host a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for economic, industrial, scientific and technical cooperation, which is also an essential government-level instrument for cooperation between the two countries.
By Azernews





By Vugar Khalilov

Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that Azerbaijan is ready to support the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, the ministry reported on December 19.

Bayramov made the remarks at the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers extraordinary session, which was held in Pakistan at the initiative of Saudi Arabia on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

The OIC, founded on the noble principle of Islamic solidarity, has a special responsibility to stand with our Afghan sisters and brothers at this challenging time. Due to the significant experience in humanitarian assistance obtained throughout past years and established mechanisms and institutions, the OIC is well placed to play a leading role in addressing the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Bayramov stressed.

He added that as a responsible member of the organization, Azerbaijan remains ready to support OICs humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.

Bayramov underlined that the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan creates severe regional and global challenges and is a subject of widespread concern. The catastrophic humanitarian ramifications of the Afghan situation necessitate immediate action by the whole international community, as it threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, he added.

The root causes of the current situation cannot be overlooked in order to find durable solutions. In this context, the establishment of a fully functional inclusive governance system in the country, addressing risks of terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking, eliminating poverty, especially among the youth, and fostering sustainable economic development continues to be vital. Otherwise, mere humanitarian assistance can hardly be a panacea to the decades-long sufferings of the Afghan people, Bayramov stressed.

The minister said that the only possible way out of the crisis is to establish functional governance through a peaceful and inclusive process in Afghanistan. In this respect, Azerbaijan welcomes the legitimacy of a series of resolutions adopted by the OIC and reiterates its commitment to Afghanistan's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of borders, he underlined.

Security and stability in Afghanistan are closely interlinked with the overall security environment in the region. We must show our solidarity and support also to the neighboring OIC member-states in tackling the serious challenges they face due to the aggravated situation in Afghanistan, Bayramov said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on amendments to his decree "On the increasing amount of social benefits" No. 973 dated August 29, 2013, Azertag has reported.

Under the document, the following amendments are made to the first part of the decree:

The figure "130" (sub-clause 1.1.1, clause 1.1) is replaced by the figure "180";

The figure "150" (second paragraph of sub-clause 1.1.2) is replaced by the number "220", the number "130" in the third paragraph - by the number "180", and the number "110" in the fourth paragraph - by the number "120".
By Azernews





By Sabina Mammadli

Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva is carrying out a mission to detect all facts of the destruction of cemeteries during the occupation of Azerbaijans Fuzuli region by the Armenian armed forces, Trend has reported referring to the ombudsmans office.

"As a result of using heavy artillery and prohibited weapons against Azerbaijan upon the Armenian military-political leaderships instructions, all civilian facilities, settlements, historical, cultural, religious monuments and even cemeteries where our compatriots have been buried were destroyed," the report said.

The cemeteries were monitored during the trip to Fuzuli city and Garakhanbayli, Dadali, Kurdlar villages. A report will be prepared and sent to the international and regional organizations.

Some 900 cemeteries with over a million graves were decimated. Azerbaijani gravestones were even used to build stairs to Armenian homes. Car plates of killed and displaced Azerbaijanis were used to decorate public restrooms. Overall, during 30 years of occupation 927 libraries with 4.6 million books, 700 historical monuments and 22 museums with 100,000 exhibits were looted and destroyed by Armenia. Armenia looted and erased more heritage than ISIS terrorists did in Iraq and Syria. It is the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century.

To erase all traces of Azerbaijani culture and history Armenia systematically destroyed cultural and historical monuments. Out of 67 mosques, 65 were desecrated and destroyed. Many mosques were turned into pigsties and cowsheds like the Juma Mosque of Agdam (1870), Zangilan Mosque (17th century) or Marmar Mosque (18th century) in Gubadli.

Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed the second war after that latter started firing at Azerbaijani civilians and military positions starting September 27, 2020. The war ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral ceasefire deal by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders.

The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.

In the war unleashed by Armenia, Azerbaijan's Ganja, Barda, Yevlakh, Beylagan, Tartar, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khizi and other cities and regions, fairly far from the war zone, came under Armenia's missile and artillery fire.

International human rights watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch verified the use of banned cluster bombs and missiles by Armenia in its attacks against Azerbaijani cities.

As a result, 100 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, including 12 children and 27 women. As many as 454 people were injured, including 35 children. Some 181 children lost one parent, five children lost both parents, one family died. In total, 12,292 residential and non-residential buildings and 288 vehicles were damaged.
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

First Deputy Prosecutor-General Elchin Mammadov has said that results of an investigation in the November 30 military helicopter crash showed that it had taken place "due to a pilot error", Trend reported on December 20.

He made the remarks at a briefing of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General's Office dedicated to the preliminary results of the investigation.

Mammadov added that an investigation group consisting of highly professional employees of the Prosecutor- General's Office, the Military Prosecutor's Office and the State Border Service conduct investigations into the criminal case.

It was noted that the group is led by the deputy head of the investigation department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Sanan Pashayev.

"During the investigation, numerous witnesses were interviewed, intensive investigative actions were carried out, various expertise was appointed, and an investigation was conducted," he said.

Noting that the helicopter was involved in the exercise in accordance with current regulations and pre-approved plan, he stated that no violations of regulatory requirements were revealed in this process.

He noted that Azerbaijan had obtained the records of the "black box" of the crashed helicopter.

"The 'black box' of the helicopter was opened by specialists of the producing company with the participation of employees of the Prosecutor-General's Office of Azerbaijan and the Czech prosecutor's office. All information, from the preparation for the flight to the crash, as well as audio recordings related to the control, were transferred to Azerbaijan," he said.

Mammadov recalled that in the helicopter crash, four people were thrown out during the crash, noting that two of them died on the spot, while two seriously injured survived. He emphasized that the criminal investigation continues, and the investigation progress will be made public.

Moreover, stating that upon departure of the military helicopter, weather information and wind speed were studied, Sanan Pashayev said that the investigation documents show that on that day the wind speed was 16-17 meters per second, which means that the wind speed allowed the flight.

"There were no violations in the movement of the helicopter along the route. The pilots simply had to make a landing against the wind. The pilots did not land according to the manufacturer's instructions. The crash happened because the helicopter landed in the wind direction. If it had landed in a different direction, the crash would not have happened," he said.

Pashayev added that there were no malfunctions in the helicopter 25 seconds before the crash. He noted that the service life of the crashed Mi-17 helicopter is 35 years.

He stated that the helicopter was sent for repair at the request of the helicopter manufacturer after eight years of operation, adding that the test flights were made after repair in 2021 and it was re-commissioned.

Pashayev added that there were no problems with the technical parameters of the helicopter. He said that before the crash on November 30, the helicopter was flying for 17 minutes and 24 seconds.

The head of the investigation group said that during preparation for the flight and during the flight, no malfunction was revealed in the helicopter.

It was revealed that the helicopter crashed while landing. No malfunction was recorded in the helicopter 25 seconds before the crash. The helicopter crashed because the wind direction was not taken into account. Moreover, the actions that did not correspond to the flight method were taken, he said.

Pashayev said that the pilots tried to improve the situation, but the helicopter rapidly lost altitude and crashed.

We will publish photographs taken during the consideration of flight recorder information, Pashayev said.

Additionally, the Prosecutor General's Office has disclosed the flight recorder parameters of the helicopter.

Proceeding from the parameters, the vertical speed of the helicopter was higher than the level envisaged in the flight instructions. As a result, the pilots lost control of the helicopter and the helicopter crashed, the message said.

A helicopter of the Azerbaijani State Border Service departed from the Sangachal airfield to participate in exercise and crashed while landing at the Garaheybat training center on November 30, as a result of which 14 were killed and two wounded.

The status of martyr will be assigned to the officers killed in the helicopter crash and they were buried in the second Alley of Martyrs in Baku.

An inspection of the scene was carried out with the participation of management of the Prosecutor-Generals Office and the State Border Service, as well as forensic, technical, fire and medical experts.
By Trend

The energy situation in Europe is deteriorating, "complete chaos" ensues in a large part of the continent, said the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic during the inspection of the Kostolac thermal power plant, Trend reports citing TASS.

"At the moment, in Serbia, everyone has electricity, except for 500 households, which is on the verge of statistical error. We managed to provide everyone with electricity, the network is stable. We can calm down a little, although complete chaos is just beginning to come in a significant part of Europe, this can be seen literally everywhere, on all exchanges, at all prices," he said.

According to him, the energy crisis in Serbia was overcome, including through the purchase of fuel oil from Azerbaijan and Iran.
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree approving the "Agreement on cooperation in the energy sphere between Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry and the Czech Republic's Industry and Trade Ministry", Azertag reported on December 20.

After the agreement's entry into force, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry was instructed to implement its provisions, and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry - to send a notice to the Czech government on the implementation of internal procedures for the entry into force of the document.

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry and the Czech Republics Industry and Trade Ministry signed an agreement on energy cooperation on September 30.

The agreement envisages the expansion of bilateral cooperation in the spheres of oil and gas, petrochemicals, renewable energy, including bioenergy in the field of energy, and the establishment of relations between the relevant sectors in line with both countries' national legislation.

The document also covers the development of energy efficiency and energy-saving cooperation in the residential sector and large energy enterprises, and the matters such as the mutual exchange of information and practices, training sessions, joint seminars, conferences, and forums.

The document also expresses support for the implementation of joint energy projects with third countries. Under the agreement, it is planned to establish a joint working group on energy cooperation.

Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic cooperate in different spheres of the economy. Around 30 companies with the Czech capital operating in Azerbaijan. The Czech Republic had invested $37.2 million in Azerbaijan, while Azerbaijans investment in the Czech Republic amounted to $48.2 million in 1995-2021.

It should be noted that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $194.8 million in the first 10 months of 2021.
By Azernews





By Sabina Mammadli

The State Border Service has opened the renovated Eyvazli border checkpoint in liberated Gubadli region on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, Trend has reported.

All conditions have been created for border guards working in the new building of the Eyvazli border checkpoint located in Gudadli liberated from Armenia's occupation in last year's war, the report added.

Col Rashad Mashadiyev, an employee of the State Border Service press center, said that the newly-renovated office building was put into operation at the checkpoint to ensure a high level of joint activities of the State Border Service and the State Customs Committee.

"Proper registration of vehicles and goods of the people that cross the state border, entering data into a centralized electronic registration system and other border control measures are carried out here. The protection of this area is held by border checkpoints," he said.

It should be noted that the checkpoint is located on the Gorus-Gafan highway in Eyvazli village.

Earlier, State Customs Committee Chairman Col-Gen Safar Mehdiyev said that the duties worth about AZN 2 million ($1.2 million) were collected from the Gorus-Gafan border checkpoint.

Mehdiyev said that the corresponding post of the State Customs Committee was created on the Gorus-Gafan road about two months ago.

The duties charged from light, heavy cars, as well as people at other border checkpoints and the duties charged from foreign cars and citizens who enter the Azerbaijani territory are the same, the chairman said.

As for the information that the opposite side will take a similar step, the chairman said that this is the Azerbaijani territory.

If our cars enter the territory of the opposite side, the opposite side will make a corresponding decision, Mehdiyev said.

Azerbaijan liberated Gubadli from Armenia's occupation on October 25, 2020. The battles for Gubadli are considered to be one of the most successful operations that resulted in the Azerbaijani army's victory in the Second Karabakh War.
By Trend

On 18 December 2021, negotiations of the Uzbek delegation taking part in an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation were held in Islamabad, with acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi, Trend reports citing Uzdaily.

During the conversation, the parties discussed the current state of bilateral relations, the prospects for their development, in particular, in the field of trade and economic interaction.

The Afghan side expressed sincere gratitude to the President of Uzbekistan for the assistance provided in the restoration of the country's socio-economic infrastructure, as well as the implementation of large infrastructure projects in the transport and energy sectors on the territory of Afghanistan.

The Afghan minister received with deep gratitude the initiative of Uzbekistan to create a transport and logistics hub in the city of Termez, aimed at providing the Afghan people with urgent humanitarian assistance.

It was noted that these actions of brotherly Uzbekistan once again symbolize the historical and spiritual closeness of our countries and peoples.

They also stressed the need for the Afghan side to fulfill its earlier international promises and obligations in respect of the observance of the rights of women and national minorities in Afghanistan.
By Azernews





By Nur Banu Aras

Turkey has successfully launched its new satellite Turksat 5B from Cape Canaveral Base in Florida, Yeni Shafak has reported.

The Turksat 5B communication satellite that is considered to be the most powerful for its useful payload capacity and power values was sent into space with the Falcon 9 rocket belonging to Space X Company.

It was added that the capacity efficiency of the Turksat 5B is at least 20 times higher than Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) class satellites. As the country's highest payload capacity satellite, Turksat 5B has a launch weight of 4.5 tons and a power capacity of 15 kilowatts.

Along with Turkey, the satellite will serve in a wide coverage area that includes the whole of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, North and East Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, and close neighbor countries.

It will provide a data transmission capacity of more than 55 Gbps (billions of bits per second) in total, with a Ka-band payload using frequency reuse and multi-beam coverage concepts.

The Turksat 5B will take its place effectively in commercial sectors such as maritime and aviation where satellite communication is used.

As part of the Domestic Industry Contribution Program, Turksat 5B is the first project that domestically designed and manufactured equipment will be sent into space on a commercial communication satellite.

The high data capacity of the satellite will enable access to the remote places in Turkey facilitating the establishment of internet infrastructure.

With the launch of Turksat 5B, the number of active communication satellites in Turkey will increase to five and the total number of satellites to eight. Turkey has seven active satellites, four of them are used for communication (Turksat 3A, Turksat 4A, Turksat 4B, Turksat 5A) and three for observation (Gokturk-1, Gokturk-2 and RASAT) purposes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a video message to the launching ceremony at the Cape Canaveral Base, praising Elon Musk, the owner of Space X, for not giving in to the blackmail and pressure of anti-Turkey lobbies.

Today, we launched Turksat 5B, the most powerful and highest-capacity communication satellite of our country, into space. In this satellite project, we also preferred Space X's Falcon 9 rocket. On behalf of myself and my nation, I congratulate Mr. (Elon) Musk and Space X for not giving in to the blackmail and pressure of the anti-Turkey lobbies.
By Azernews





By News Center

Turkeys Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MUSIAD) has published a statement supporting the government's new economic model, Yeni Shafak newspaper has reported.

In a statement on the latest economic developments published on its Twitter page, the association reiterated its support for the low interest-oriented policy that is believed to increase the countrys production, investment, export and employment-oriented gains.

"The Turkish economy cannot be evaluated only by reducing it to the exchange rate. We have full confidence that our economy, which has achieved annual growth of 5.3 percent for the past 20 years without compromising the free market conditions, will overcome this process," the statement said.

The association underlined that modern economies need social capital as much as material capital and the main source of social capital is the factor of trust.

The association expressed deep regret that an artificial insecurity environment is being created in Turkey that doesnt rely on macroeconomic foundations.

"As MUSIAD, we are against all kinds of economic climates that are guided by perceptions, not real economic indicators," the statement said.

It was stressed that the Turkish economy had grown by 11.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2021, exports had exceeded $220 billion in the past 12 months, and the country had had a current account surplus for the past 3 months.

It was added that the Turkish economy stands firm today, as in the past, against both internal and external manipulations.
Majority of the employees (87 per cent) believe a return to the workplace is vital for the successful business operations especially to conduct client, and one-on-one meetings, according to a survey by Savills, a leading global real estate advisor.

Nearly two years since the onset of the pandemic, the physical office space still remains a necessity for companies to operate successfully, said the respondents in the Office Fit Survey 2021, a study carried out by Savills to understand how perceptions around workplaces have changed since the pandemic.

However, the majority of respondents believe that there will be a long-term impact on the design and size of the workplace. High-density, open plan workspaces will need to be rethought and reconfigured to allow for agile working, they stated.

The Savills Office Fit Survey was first launched in 2020 with the goal of providing practical insights and design-led advice to owners and occupiers regarding their workplace strategy during the pandemic.

This year's survey analysed responses from 100,000 participants including landlords, tenants, and office workers across EMEA to ascertain post-pandemic trends.

It revealed a strong preference among respondents for returning to a predominantly office-based work environment but with a fair degree of flexibility.

As employees require a space to focus on tasks, engage and collaborate with co-workers, companies will need to create workplaces that can provide them with micro-environments that can facilitate these activities. Instilling a work-life balance is now more critical than ever, with a renewed focus on both physical and mental health, it added.

Savills Middle East CEO Steven Morgan said: "The findings of our survey echo the trends we are witnessing around the world, as employers welcome back employees to the workplace while they take a relook at how traditional workplaces are configured."

"The benefits and preference for the office have clearly emerged  for employers it is the place where the companys culture can be developed and protected, and for employees it is where they can benefit from collaborative opportunities to advance their careers. However, the office must now provide more of the benefits of home working, such as physical health and a better work-life balance, as respondents believe these are better achieved at home," he stated.

Prior to the release of the Office Fit survey findings, Savills Middle East hosted a panel discussion on the Future of Work at District 2020, within Expo 2020.

The panel discussion, moderated by Richard Paul, Head of Professional Services and Consultancy at Savills Middle East, examined how the hybrid working model will evolve and adapt over the next year.

Besides Morgan, the panel included contributions from Christopher Payne, Chief Economist, Peninsula Real Estate Management; Ben Corrigan, CEO and Founder, Bluehaus Group; Nadimeh Mehra, Vice President, District 2020 and Julien Romanet, Deputy Head of Global Real Estate, Gulf Islamic Investments.

Commenting on key takeaways from the discussion, Richard Paul, Head of Professional Services and Consultancy at Savills said: "The discussion's central theme was the increased emphasis on people. The pandemic demonstrated that working from home or outside of a traditional office can be successful when supported by technology."

"However, to sustain an organisation's culture over time, human interaction is critical. Our esteemed panellists unanimously agreed that the office remains critical, however, there is a growing preference for a flexible, agile, and hybrid workplace," stated Paul.

"It remains to be seen whether the world returns to working from the office full-time or if hybrid working is here to stay. In any case, businesses have begun to consider providing employees with an environment that motivates them to come to work and feel fulfilled on a personal and professional level," he added.
Abu Dhabi-based AD Ports Group, a leading facilitator of trade and logistics, has strengthened its regional footprint by signing four strategic agreements and a head of terms agreement with the Aqaba Development Corporation that will see AD Ports Group support the development of tourism, logistics, transport, and digital infrastructure within Aqaba.

The signing ceremony took place in Aqaba in Jordan in the presence of Nasser Shraideh, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, representing Dr. Bisher Al Khasawneh, Prime Minister of Jordan; H.E. Ahmed Ali Mohammed Al Baloushi, UAE Ambassador to the kingdom; H.E. Dr. Mohamad Al-Ississ, Minister of Finance; H.E. Eng. Khairy Amr, Minister of Investment; and H.E.Dr. Nawaf Tall, Minister of State for Follow-up and Government Coordination; and H.E Eng. Nayef Ahmad Bakheet, Chief Commissioner, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, Chairman of Aqaba Development Corporation, along with a number of officials from both sides.

The four strategic agreements and a Head of Terms Agreement were signed by Hussein Ali Alsafadi, CEO, Aqaba Development Corporation; and Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Group CEO, AD Ports Group.

The strategic partnerships concern the development of Marsa Zayed, a cruise terminal, and the development of an advanced digital Port Community System, in addition to Head of Terms agreements to explore the development and modernisation of a multipurpose port and King Hussein International Airport.

Marsa Zayed Land Agreement is in relation to the development of a land area of 1.2 million sqm in Phase One of the development of the 3.2 million Marsa Zayed area by AD Ports Group, which will include a cruise terminal, tourism, leisure, residential and other projects.

The development is planned to position Aqaba as a major Red Sea destination of choice.

Under this Agreement, which builds upon a Head of Terms Agreement announced earlier in the year, AD Ports Group will develop, manage and operate a new cruise terminal in Aqaba, which will serve as a gateway for passengers visiting the Red Sea.

Maqta Gateway, the digital arm of AD Ports Group, has signed a joint venture Agreement with Aqaba Development Corporation establishing Maqta Ayla to develop and operate an advanced Ports Community System (PCS).

The system will oversee the communication between the Port of Aqaba and terminal operators, as well as the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), Aqaba Development Corporation, Jordan Maritime Commission and other stakeholders within the Ports ecosystem.

The system is expected to complete around two million digital transactions per year, generate considerable cost and time savings for stakeholders and customers, reduce CO2 emissions and streamline services.

The HoT sees the Aqaba Development Corporation and AD Ports Group cooperating on exploring the development and modernisation of a multi-purpose port with world-class facilities including Ro-Ro, general cargo, grain and livestock handling.

The agreement will see AD Ports Group collaborate with Aqaba Development Corporation on the development of King Hussein International Airport - Aqaba, to enable increasing volumes of international and domestic tourism, ensuring a seamless journey for passengers moving between the airport and the Aqaba Cruise Terminal, while enhancing air logistics and expanding Aqabas air network connectivity.

Nayef Ahmad Bakheet, Chief Commissioner, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, Chairman of Aqaba Development Corporation said: We have found a key partner in AD Ports Group, which has the vision, expertise and track record necessary to develop world-class port and cruise and digital infrastructure.

The agreements and HoT on the development of Marsa Zayed and a cruise terminal, exploring the modernisation of a multipurpose port, the development of King Hussein International Airport, and the establishment of Maqta Ayla for digital systems, represent a significant addition to our efforts that aim to develop Aqaba region, and enable rising volumes of visitors to come and experience the Golden Triangle of Jordan, with our unique tourism offerings of Wadi Rum, Aqaba and the ancient city of Petra.

Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Group CEO, AD Ports Group, said: This strategic alliance will boost the wider efforts of the leadership of Abu Dhabi to drive trade and tourism with our neighbours in the region, and to develop world-class infrastructure to expand global reach.

Collectively, these mega-projects represent one of the most significant integrated transport, logistics and tourism development programmes announced in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in recent years.

Working with our partners in the Aqaba Development Corporation, these ambitious projects will significantly expand the facilities available to travellers and businesses via sea, land and air. This in turn will help grow the trade and tourism sectors, while strengthening Aqabas status as a major regional hub and support the kingdoms economic development plans.
Aveva, a global leader in industrial software, has expanded its Middle East executive leadership team with the appointment of Nayef Bou Chaaya as the companys Vice President Sales and Head of Middle East and Africa (MEA).

The new appointment strengthens Avevas partner and customer relations at a time when the company is facilitating digital transformation for an increasing number of industrial businesses in the region and around the world.

Bou Chaaya is a seasoned executive management professional with three decades of software sales experience, focused on the oil and gas, energy, infrastructure and food and beverage sectors. He joins from Schneider Electric, where he led Process Automation Business Development in the Middle East, preceded by various senior sales and operations leadership positions within Schneider Electric and Invensys.

Raised in Lebanon, Bou Chaaya holds a bachelors degree in computer science from Lebanese American University and will be based in Dubai. Aveva will leverage his deep expertise to lead the MEA organisation and to help partners around the world to strengthen their operational and environmental sustainability.

We welcome and look forward to the strategic direction and dynamic leadership Nayef Bou Chaaya will bring to the one of Avevas key markets, said Caspar Herzberg, Chief Revenue Officer, Aveva.

Bou Chaaya said: Im looking forward to joining Aveva at an exciting time when the company is driving digital transformation and sustainability in the region.

Momentum across the Middle East and Africa has been building around accelerating the use of advanced technologies to achieve climate neutrality. Aveva has been at the forefront of the trend, having pioneered innovations that optimise performance, efficiency and sustainability over several decades. I am delighted to be tasked with strengthening and driving the delivery of our game-changing software and services across the region and beyond.-- TradeArabia News Service
UAE-based Azizi Developments has announced that steady progress is being made on its AED12 billion mega-project Riviera, the developers French Mediterranean-inspired residential and commercial community at MBR City in Dubai.

Phase One of the project is already 85% complete, with the second, third and fourth phases being at 80%, 50% and 20% respectively.

Announcing its project milestone, CEO Farhad Azizi said: "It brings us great pleasure to announce our progress at Riviera  which is moving more rapidly than ever before. Our dedication to prompt project delivery and client satisfaction is made evident in the quick, yet high-quality, creation of these world-class residences."

"Our improved procurement processes, as well as our way of working with only the best, most trusted contractors with proven track records, has resulted in faster construction and substantially higher quality levels that are sure to excite our valued investors and end-users," he added.

Designed to introduce the French-Mediterranean lifestyle to Dubai, which is not merely about architectural art but also about a certain joie de vivre  a celebration of life, an exultation of spirit, Riviera represents a new landmark destination that is both residential and commercial, with an abundance of retail space.

Upon its completion, Riviera will boast 16,000 residences spread across 71 mid-rise residential buildings, a mega-integrated retail district, breath-taking waterfront views, lush greenery, and an abundance of lifestyle-enhancing amenities including a 2.7km-long lagoon.-TradeArabia News Service
Abudawood Logistics, a subsidiary of Abudawood Group, the exclusive distributor for Proctor & Gamble, Ferrero, Quaker Oats, and other global brands in Saudi Arabia, has deployed the WMS warehouse management system by Infor, a top cloud company.



The project was completed by Infors Middle East partner SNS, a leading provider of supply chain consultancy and software implementation. Supporting warehouse operations for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand partner, Infor WMS will help maximize the utilization of pick locations through expedited demand replenishment, while streamlining picking processes.



As a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, operating more than 130 facilities across six countries, Abudawoods warehousing operations are vast. With complex shelf-life requirements based on order type, account type and brand, Abudawood relies on efficient and dynamic replenishment of full pallets into pick locations based on variable shelf-life windows.



Infor WMS was selected based on its vast capability to support third-party logistics (3PL) activities as well as demand replenishment capabilities that support the dynamic assignment of pick locations, and auto move functionality that supports the defrosting cycle of Ferrero products. SNS was chosen based on its in-depth warehouse management experience and expertise, and understanding of Abudawoods business nuances and challenges.



With ambitious growth plans, Abudawood is focused on organic growth, customer acquisition and geographic expansion, testament to which is its recent expansion into logistics services in Saudi and plans to cover the remaining five Abudawood markets, said Abdullah Talal AbuSido, Abudawoods head of supply chain technology.



Supporting delivery across all of our regions is a 24-hour warehouse operation running minimal downtime. Therefore, put away by unit of measure (UOM) is a crucial process to maximize location capacity and streamline output. With this goal in mind, we needed a warehouse management solution that could really optimize our replenishment and ensure world-class levels of performance.



Through working in partnership with SNS, weve been able to hone-in on specific areas for improvement and establish robust and efficient warehouse management processes to add tangible value and support both service improvements and increased profitability, he added.



Optimizing warehouse efficiency and capacity in order to instil best practice and drive performance is crucial in any business, but in the field of FMCG logistics, its a prerequisite, said Mario Ghosn, SNS general manager.



Were delighted to be working with Abudawood, helping the team to refine their operations and put the building blocks in place from which to pursue its ambitious expansion plans in the coming years.  TradeArabia News Service
Almunajem Foods, one of the largest food companies in Saudi Arabia, has listed its shares on the Main Market of the Saudi Stock Exchange following the successful completion of its initial public offering. The company is now trading under the ticker symbol: 4162.

The shares of Almunajem were priced at SR60 per share ($16), at the top of the companys initial price range, implying a market capitalisation at listing of SR3.6 billion ($960 million).

The company floated 18,000,000 existing ordinary shares, representing 30% of its issued share capital. Final allocations were 90% to institutional investors entitled to participate in the book-building and 10% to individual investors in Saudi Arabia.

The total offering was approximately oversubscribed 176 times by the institutional investors and 11.9 times by the individual investors, with total funds exceeding SR192 billion.

Eng Thamer Bin Abdulaziz Abanumay, Chief Executive Officer at Almunajem Foods, said: "Today marks the first day of trading for Almunajem Foods and the interest shown in us by the institutional investors and the general public is incredible to see. We look forward to executing on our growth strategy and expansion plans, in our pursuit of providing ever wider variety of high-quality, nutritious food products to millions of kitchens across Saudi Arabia as well as delivering continuous value to our shareholders.

With respect to the offering, the company appointed HSBC Saudi Arabia as Financial Advisor, Bookrunner, Lead Manager and Underwriter.-- TradeArabia News Service
Fewer enterprises globally now fire employees because of data breaches, said leading cyber security company Kaspersky in a new report.



In the META region this common measure in responding to data breaches actually witnessed an increase when comparing the numbers to 2018 (22%) to the27% in 2021, according to the Kaspersky study titled IT Security Economics 2021: Managing the trend of growing IT complexity.



In 2021 across the META region, though the number slightly increased in the laid off senior IT staff (15% in 2021, compared to 13% in 2018), the figure for senior IT security roles actually decreased (5% in 2021 compared to 15% in 2018) if a data breach occurs.



The split of employees that could lose their job as a result of a cybersecurity breach has also changed. In addition to senior IT and IT security roles, C-level executives are likely to be exposed to dismissals too  3% in 2021 similar to 3% in 2018. The trend is also relevant for non-IT senior staff. As a result, the overall split across IT and non-IT, senior and non-senior roles, became flatter than a few years ago.



The demand for retaining and nurturing expertise is seen, for example, in budget planning: 30% of enterprises report the need to improve the level of specialist security expertise as the top reason to increase their IT security budget. In fact, this is the second most common reason, followed only by increased complexity of IT infrastructure (38%). Furthermore, by investing in internal specialists, employers are interested in retaining their knowledge within the company so that employees could leverage their skills in future.



The transfer to remote work and processes has put increased pressure on the information security sector. With cybersecurity jobs in such high demand and skilled professionals in low supply, companies are realizing the value of senior security executives and the need to plug the talent gap, said Evgeniya Naumova, Executive VP, Corporate Business at Kaspersky.



As digital transformation intensifies, not only does the need for well-trained professionals grow, but the management's awareness of cybersecurity. Incidents cannot be completely ruled out. The highest possible level of cybersecurity depends on an adequate strategy, represented by IT security experts. We therefore very much welcome positive trends regarding the appreciation of specialized staff, said Sebastian Artz, Head of Cyber and Information Security at Bitkome.V., Germanys digital association.



Companies that face the lack of internal expertise can use the following tips to raise the level of their cyber defence:



 Train internal talent. Provide your IT security team with opportunities for additional education, including participation in expert courses or webinars. Specialists will appreciate a company that cares about their professional development and will be able to apply new knowledge to specific organizational processes.

 Encourage employees to share practical experiences and work on varied, non-standard tasks. Cybersecurity workers can also augment their expertise by reaching out to industry leaders that could provide unique knowledge to solve advanced challenges.

 If the lack of resources or expertise has to be solved in the short term, or the existing team is struggling to deal with the increased software security levels and constantly evolving protection technologies, a business can gain help from third-party IT security providers. Managed services from trusted IT security providers combine the most advanced automated tools with professional expert support to ensure timely detection, threat hunting, and remediation.  TradeArabia News Service
Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), a global financial services firm, has announced its partnership with Elie Saab to introduce their first signature-styled residences in the UK - Elie Saab Residences. Overlooking Hyde Park, these exclusively designed premium residences are set to offer a truly unique lifestyle.

Elie Saab Residences is a masterfully restored Victorian-styled new-build development that promises an unparalleled level of quality.

In addition to breathtaking views of the London skyline and spacious open-plan living, the residences have the unrivalled aesthetic touch of Elie Saabs exceptionally crafted interior design using exclusive pieces from the Elie Saab Maison Collection.

Announcing the partnership, Mohammed Alhassan, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of GII said: "We are partnering with Elie Saab to introduce an unparalleled and sophisticated living experience in one of the world's most coveted addresses in Londons West End. The launch of Elie Saab Residences is a strategic move to develop and expand our portfolio in the upscale and ultra-luxury space while continuing GIIs tradition of setting new benchmarks with our property development ventures."

Pankaj Gupta, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of GII commented: "We have found a natural synergy with Elie Saab as we work towards delivering these extraordinary residences that will offer our customers an unmatched lifestyle. Elie Saab Residences will represent a significant milestone in our successful association and for GII as a whole.

On this occasion, Elie Saab Jr, CEO of Elie Saab Group said: After successful launches in Dubai and Cairo, we are proud to announce a new venture with GII for the unveiling of Elie Saab Residences in London. It is a natural process following the achievements of our real estate developments. We consider London a major and strategic milestone for the brands expansion, and this will reinforce our presence in a prime property market. Collaborating with GII on Elie Saab residences will offer discerning customers a new lifestyle address.

Elie Saab Residences is delivered by GRID Properties, a GII subsidiary overseeing the firms development projects in the UK. OCTA is the Exclusive Authorised Representative for UK and Global Sales for Elie Saab Residences.-- TradeArabia News Service
Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels, a hospitality destination located at the heart of the historical Souq Waqif, launched the first Georgian cuisine in Qatar at Al Terrace restaurant at Al Mirqab Boutique Hotel.

The restaurant will offer a varied menu that includes famous dishes from Georgia, allowing guests and visitors to enjoy unique flavors and a method of cooking to suit all tastes, prepared according to the high standards of the Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels.

Al Terrace Georgian restaurant is distinguished by its location in Al Mirqab Boutique Hotel, which happens to be the first sight Souq Waqif guests will see while exiting the Souq metro station. The new restaurant will take its guests on a culinary journey to savour the delicacies of one of the famous international cuisines located in the south of the Caucasus.

The Georgian cuisine is distinguished in Eastern Europe, as it is influenced by neighbouring countries such as Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Romania. Therefore, Georgian cuisine is widely accepted by all countries as the concept of antiquity is not limited to its history, monuments, and culture of its people, but also includes its cuisine with traditional dishes.

Al Terrace will provide its guests with food specialty such as 'Khachapuri', a type of baked goods made in several ways, which differs from one region to another in Georgia as it is the most popular of all and a national symbol.

The restaurant will also serve one of the favorite national dishes known as Georgian Khinkali, which is similar to the 'shish barak' known in the Middle East, and there are many types of it, some of which are stuffed with lamb, beef, vegetables, and mushrooms.

In addition, a variety of traditional dishes will be offered such as the Georgian shish kebab (Mtsvadi), the red bean dish (lobio), an assortment of salads, most of which are prepared with fresh ingredients, and many other dishes.

The management of Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels expressed excitement on the launch of the restaurant in the city and highlighted that the group is always striving to provide the best experiences for its guests to enjoy delicious food rich in distinctive flavours.-TradeArabia News Service
UAE restaurant consultancy, Restaurant Secrets Inc., will launch three new dark kitchen concepts in Dubai during the first quarter of 2022; Sumayas, a modern Emirati fusion brand in Mirdif; and urban eating brand Avorito, which will house both Bang! Bang! Burrito, and Avo/Cato in its JLT-based kitchen.

Set to open first in Mirdif is Sumayas, a kitchen that aims to blend traditional Emirati cuisine with popular international flavours. Inspired by the F&B tastes of progressive and glamourous cities in the world Sumayas combines Dubais favourite imported dishes with classic Emirati cuisine creating a distinctive, yet familiar menu.

Restaurant Secrets CEO & Founder Gabrielle F. Mather said: The demographics and target market in the burgeoning Mirdif area is a healthy mix of UAE nationals and expats, providing the right target market and segmentation for Sumayas menu. It will be the first dark kitchen to focus on the Dubai taste of things to come.

On the menu, customers can expect to see dishes like peppercorn camel fettuccini with cream sauce and spinach or a twist on a traditional Umm Ali being transformed into a milkshake for dessert.

Opening at the other end of town is Avorito, a project in JLT with two out of-the-box brands operating from the same kitchen. Theres Bang! Bang! Burrito  a fun-food and lifestyle brand that takes inspiration from cities like Cancun, Miami and LA. This kitchen brings diners creativity on a plate with its menu that features dishes like spiced beef tenderloin with red rice, charred corn with caramelised onions, black beans and a variety of sauces.

Mather said: JLT kitchens can deliver across JBR, Dubai Marina, Emirates Living and more. The lifestyle-seeking urban target market here responds well to both wholesome eating as well as late night ordering in, making it the perfect choice for Avoritos diverse menu.

Avorito will also operate Avo/Cato, a brand making nourishing choices and serving Avocado-based meals. Think beef and mushroom melts, grilled chicken or roast beef, plus kale and quinoa, all with a quirky twist.-TradeArabia News Service
The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges the airline industry has faced. As new variants threaten the recovery of the sector, CNN finds out how the Middle Easts regional carriers are pivoting their strategies and coping with the new normal.

On the Omicron variant impacting travel in the region, Emirates Airlines President Tim Clark said: I was actually very concerned about the effect that (new variants) would have particularly on the Emirates inbound loads to Dubai and the UAE in this month and in January, which are very, very strong.

"In my view, these variants are going to keep popping up. Im one of the people that believes that the variants will dissipate in their effect over time as the global population becomes more immune.

At the 2021 Dubai Airshow, which is claimed to be the biggest edition since the event began in 1989, CNN met Emirates Group CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who said: When we are talking about recovery, I think continuing with the programme to continue to ensure that people coming to this place  they will be safe. They will be healthy. We care about them. Thats the most important, and that really has given the confidence for a lot of people to come to Dubai.

Despite the pandemic setbacks, Sheikh Ahmed is hopeful for Emirates future. I can say going into the second month of the end of the year, we are into profit. So I hope the world will continue. I hope that the worst is over. And now we're looking forward, ready to start again and reach the number of passenger and revenue that we used to do, he said.

Istanbul Airport in Turkey, meanwhile, is projected to become the worlds busiest airport when expansion work is completed. CNN met the airports CEO Kadri Samsunlu who says international co-operation is key to restarting the travel sector.

We still lack a bit on the harmonisation of travel requirements. Each country is still imposing their own conditions, which makes travelling difficult. And if travellers don't know whether there are certainties around travel arrangements, they may consider staying at home or staying in their own country and travel there.

Samsunlu credits a strong domestic air travel market, Turkeys fast re-opening to foreign tourists, and close co-ordination with hub carrier Turkish Airlines, with helping the airport get through a tough year. He hopes that new variants will not delay this progress.

If we panic every time a variant emerges this road is going to be very bumpy. But what I would recommend is basically we have the remedy  the vaccine  let's promote vaccination. Anything beyond that let's not go back to 2020, Samsunlu said.

As the industry prepares to bounce back, many are looking for more sustainable ways to operate flights. From light-weight cutlery and plant-based water bottles, to engines and route planning systems which optimise take-off and landing, Etihad Airways is exploring many sustainable options.

Etihad CEO Tony Douglas sppoke about how the pandemic has accelerated the implementation of these sustainable practices. I think what we're going to see is an acceleration of adoption. I think we'll see a number of people off the back of the pandemic trading up to more modern aircraft types. I do believe we'll see the availability of sustainable aviation fuels accelerate and as a consequence, a reduction in the cost.

Etihad has partnered with Boeing to test the latest technologies, including using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). While Douglas praises the benefits of using SAF, he cautions that there are still drawbacks at this time.

He said: The availability of it is a massive challenge. It's also three times more expensive. So even if you can get it, it's not commercially sustainable. Because it's not a one or the other conversation. You can't be sustainable or profitable. You need to be sustainable and profitable.
Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) received the first Wizz Air flight from Milan on December 18.

The Hungarian low-cost carrier will connect Amman to four European cities - starting with Milan and Budapest this month and Rome and Vienna in March 2022 - at a frequency of two weekly flights per destination.

As part of the Jordan Tourism Boards (JTB) ongoing efforts to attract tourists from around the globe to the Kingdom, the addition of this latest carrier will expand QAIAs airline network and offer passengers low-cost direct travel routes.

Wizz Airs inaugural flight was greeted with the customary water arch salute - in the presence of Minister of Tourism and Antiques Nayef Al-Fayez and representatives from JTB and Airport International Group.

Airport International Group CEO Nicolas Claude said: We are pleased to have Wizz Air join QAIAs airline and destination networks - a step that underlines our strategy to increase travel options for our passengers. Moving forward, we are just as keen as our partners - namely the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Jordan Tourism Board - to witness the revival of inbound tourism in alignment with the governments economic priorities programme.

"As the Kingdoms prime gateway to the world, we not only seek to extend convenient and affordable travel alternatives, but also positively impact the local tourism sector and national economy at large.-TradeArabia News Service
Help India!



Boston Study Group (BSG), a not-for-profit organization based in Massachusetts, United States screened a movie Jayanti. The movie is based on the influence of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkars thoughts on people and how those very teachings have the power to change the aimless and ignorant youth of today.

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BOSTON, UNITED STATES  An Ambedkarite organization Boston Study Group (BSG), organized a screening of the film Jayanti on December 12 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

The movie narrates the plight of oppressed communities in India and reflects on how an Ambedkarite framework can build social harmony and fraternity. The movie advocates the philosophy and ideology of Dr B. R. Ambedkar which harbours equity and freedom in society.

Jayanti is a Marathi word largely spoken in the western part of India. The literal meaning of Jayanti is the anniversary.

BSG, which is a not-for-profit organization based in Massachusetts, United States, in a statement, said, Considering the contemporary scenario of widening inequities in India, Ambedkarite ideology looks at an appropriate elucidation to end the suffering of the oppressed communities.

We can say that it is one of the rarest movies that provide a template for any oppressed human being to transform from a victim of caste-based oppressive society to a champion of caste annihilation by imbibing the philosophy of Dr B. R. Ambedkar into practice, Hemant Chavan, President of Boston Study Group (BSG) said.

Chavan said the moviemakers need to be applauded for courageously exhibiting the ignorance and lack of awareness among all the oppressed caste groups known as Bahujan about the root cause of their oppression.

The movie provides an opportunity for igniting the process of conscientization among the oppressed and oppressor communities, he said.

Chavan further said filmmakers have sincerely dealt with the multidimensional structural oppression including social, political, economic, cultural, and mental spheres of exclusion. They have clearly shown how the oppressor caste communities take advantage of the lack of resources and create conflicting situations among the oppressed castes to navigate their path towards social and political advantages, he said.

Film shows victory of Ambedkarism over oppressive caste system

The story of the film Jayanti movie revolves around the transformation of a sinner to a champion of human rights due to the timely intervention by an Ambedkarite teacher who influences the sinner by introducing the literature on Dr Ambedkar and Chathrapathi Shivaji Maharaj, who are considered the fountainheads of the modern democratic revolution in Indian society.

Chavan said, the movie shows, upon imbibing the Ambedkarite philosophy how the actor anchors the legal battle for justice given the killing of a tribal woman in his neighbourhood. Although the makers take the audience through the pain of oppressed communities, throughout the movie but conclude with optimism. They have shown the victory of Ambedkarism over the oppressive caste system.

The moviemakers have excellently weaved the social message through a heart-touching emotional story, Chavan said, adding, As an audience what stayed with me when I came out after watching the movie Jayanti is the clarain call of Dr Ambedkar: Educate, Agitate & Organize.

Talking about why Boston Study Group screened the movie, Chavan said, The movie Jayanti is all about how we respect our social reformers and instead of praising blindly we must follow what they taught us and implicate it in our life.

When the Boston Study Group learned about this movie from our community, we were excited and planned to privately screen this movie to educate the next generation about the real Jayanti (Birth Anniversary) and help the youth to find the real value out of it, he said.

The movie Jayanti is based on the influence of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkars thoughts on people and how those very teachings have the power to change the aimless and ignorant youth of today, Chavan said.

Chavan congratulated the director and writer of the film Shailesh Narwade for directing a relevant film that puts focus on the exploitation of youngsters for political gains, by bringing in caste and religion-based narratives in his film.

Chavan said Jayanti is a must-watch for everyone. BSG scheduled this private screening in Boston to support such artists who come forward to create such a movie that supports our cause and propagates Dr B.R. Ambedkar thoughts.
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Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, Michigan is where Claire lives with her husband, Theo, and baby, Ruth. While living in Ann Arbor, Claire assumes the life of a wealthy, white woman. The scenes that take place in Ann Arbor often contain self-aware allusions to Claire's class and status. She works as a writing professor on a local college campus. When she is not teaching, Claire is attempting to take care of her new child and navigate the rocky terrain of her marriage. She leaves Reno for a book reading, and eventually decides not to return.

Reno

Claire travels to Reno, Nevada for a book reading. She meets up with her old college friends, Ty, Ivy, and Rust. She is glad to be back in their company, but finds the trip somewhat jarring. Coming to Reno feels like traveling into the past. Her friends all seem to be in vastly different...
On December 10, 2020, Russian Duma deputy Viacheslav Nikonov claimed that there had been no such country as Kazakhstan in the past, and that the northern part of modern-day Kazakhstan used to be unpopulated. He did so on his The Great Game ( ) TV program on the state-backed Channel One, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Belovezha Accords. Rubbing salt in the wound, Nikonov added that Kazakhstans territory is a big gift from Russia, causing consternation in the Kazakh government and outrage in the countrys media. In light of Russias March 2014 unilateral territorial absorption of Ukraines Crimea, questions of post-Soviet national territorial sovereignty are not an idle concern.

BACKGROUND: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has now ruled an independent Russian Federation for 22 years, has never hidden his feelings about the December 1991 implosion of the USSR. Foreshadowing the USSRs evaporation later that month, December 8, 1991, marked the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Belovezha Accords, which effectively dissolved the Soviet Union, replacing it with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 18 days later. Putin first described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century in his state-of-the-nation address on April 25, 2005. It is a theme he has repeatedly referred to, to the delight of Russian nationalists while discomfiting many citizens of the 14 post-Soviet sovereign nations, none more so than the Kazakhs.

Nikonovs remarks generated immediate political firestorm; two days later Kazakhstans Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Russian charge daffaires to a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Marat Syzdykov for an explanation. On January 5 Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev waded into the dispute. Penning an article in the state-run Kazakhstan Today newspaper entitled Freedom  most dear ( -  ) Tokayev tartly observed, Nobody from outside gave the Kazakhs this large area as a gift.

The rising contentiousness of Russian as Kazakhstans second official language was highlighted by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who on August 18, 2021, at the beginning of his visit to Kazakhstan focused on the current status of Russian in his initial discussions with his Kazakh counterpart Askar Mamin, remarking, I would also like to thank you and the entire leadership of Kazakhstan for taking care of the Russian language. The Russian language has an official status in Kazakhstan. It is a key instrument of interstate and interethnic relations. It helps to strengthen multifaceted ties between our peoples. Mishustins visit followed weeks of growing criticism of Kazakhstan in Russian media outlets, not least concerning the countrys planned transition to the Latin alphabet.

IMPLICATIONS: Political unrest over foreign intentions toward Kazakh sovereignty are not new; in 2016 wide scale demonstrations forced the governments land reform commission to suspend work on proposals allowing the long-term lease and sale of land to foreign entities. A five-year moratorium was subsequently imposed. When it expired in February 2021, the government soon imposed a permanent ban on the sale or lease of land to foreigners.

Russia and Kazakhstan have elements of shared destiny beyond their incorporation into the USSR for 74 years. Kazakhstan, the worlds largest landlocked country, shares with the Russian Federation a 4,750 mile-long border, Kazakhstans most extensive and the worlds second-longest. It is notable that it was only in 2005 that the Presidents of both countries came together to recognize the first official map of their shared boundary. The last Soviet census conducted 1989, two years before the Unions implosion, listed Kazakhstans ethnic Russian population as 37.8 percent of the republics populace. In the countrys latest census in 2009, the share of ethnic Russians in Kazakhstans 18 million population had dropped to roughly 23 percent Russian compared to 63 percent ethnic Kazakhs.

Yet the historical presence of such a substantial Russian minority has undoubtedly contributed to the governments sensitivity towards Russia on certain Soviet-era political issues, most notably the recent emergence in Kazakh media and academia of the 1932-33 famine known in Kazakh as Asharshylyk, which resulted from the deliberate agricultural collectivist policies of Joseph Stalins government. While figures are imprecise, recent historical research estimates that roughly a third of the indigenous Kazakh population died and another 15 percent fled the country. While the Ukrainian government has used its own collectivist famine tragedy, the Holodomor, as a political rallying topic, the Kazakh government is far more circumspect. On February 16, Kazakh Senate Speaker Maulen Ashimbaev told a meeting at the National Academic Library of Kazakhstan that the 1930s famine in Kazakhstan should not become politicized, stating that the Asharshylyk is a tragedy suffered not only by the Kazakh people; it was a terrible humanitarian disaster for all the former Soviet countries. For this reason, we should approach the subject first of all from an academic point of view, without attaching political complexion to the issue  probably; the famine cannot be described as a crime against specific nation. First of all, it was the gravest consequence of the policy that was conducted by the authorities of the time.

As the Kazakh government grapples with issues arising from growing nationalism, evidently they will be coping with the complexities with little foreign assistance beyond rhetoric, at least from the U.S. While significant foreign policy divergences are emerging between the previous U.S. Trump administration and its successor under President Biden, one commonality seems to be a lower-priority approach beyond the Russian Federation to post-Soviet states. An example of this continuity is the joint relative indifference over intervening in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, despite the U.S. having a significant Armenian diaspora. The approach is indicative of Washingtons inclination towards allowing post-Soviet countries to carry out de-Sovietization and decolonization themselves, with limited and relatively benign input from the U.S.

This allowed U.S. NATO partner and ally Turkey to play a significant role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The laissez-faire approach has nevertheless heightened post-Soviet anxieties about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans potential regional pan-Turkic neo-Ottoman Eurasian aspirations. A secondary regional concern is Chinas immense and growing financial presence in the post-Soviet space.

Not surprisingly, a number of Russian analysts see the hidden hand of Western special services covertly nurturing nationalist forces since 1991 in post-Soviet nations via Western NGOs to forestall and weaken Eurasian integration from the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine to Central Asia, a process intensified since Russias 2014 absorption of the Crimea.

An ongoing seemingly intractable problem in the post-Soviet space three decades after the collapse of the USSR are linguistic policies strengthening national languages even as Russian remains as a de facto lingua franca, especially among the older generation. The problem is most acute in Kazakhstan, whose Russian ethnic minority at 18.9 percent is the most significant among post-Soviet Central Asian states, followed by Kyrgyzstan (5.6 percent ethnic Russians, Turkmenistan (3.2 percent), Uzbekistan (2.1 percent) and Tajikistan, with a mere 0.4 percent. As the median age for a Kazakh is roughly 29-30, roughly half the nations population has no memory of the Soviet era, when knowledge of Russian was an essential component of everyday life.

Shorn of the ideological trappings, the current friction in Russian-Kazakh relations represents the diminution during the past three decades of Russias unique political influence in Kazakhstan acquired over two centuries, which is now being impacted by the new interlopers, China and the U.S., a situation viewed by the Russian government as an economic, political and military threat to its formerly paramount influence. While geography, culture and economic issues undergird the Russian-Kazakh relationship, the younger generation is both less wedded to these considerations and more interested in exploring possibilities through interlinking with China and the U.S. This generational friction is a significant element in the rising political static between Kazakhstan and Russia, which the senior leadership of both countries is interested in containing, as witnessed not only by Mishustins remark, but by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovs working visit to Nur-Sultan for the 6th meeting of the foreign affairs agency heads of nations participating in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, a subtle compliment to Kazakh diplomatic initiative, as CICA was established in 1992 on the initiative of Kazakhstan, then in its first year of post-Soviet independence.

CONCLUSIONS: For those with a sense of irony, Kazakhstan in December 1991 was the last of what would become the 15 constituent post-Soviet republics to declare independence from the USSR. Russias 2014 disputes with Ukraine and its subsequent unilateral political reintegration of the Crimea into the Russian Federation unsettled the political leadership of the other 14 post-Soviet republics, particularly those sharing frontiers with the Russian Federation. For two countries with such a long and intertwined history, nationalist divergences based on ethnicity are inevitable. What concerns the Kazakh government is that the recent Russian irredentist claims about Kazakh territorial sovereignty should receive such media prominence, much less the lack of an official repudiation from the Russian government. This is hardly the recipe for deepening relations, at least in the short term. While seasoned politicians of both nations have for the moment avoided nationalist sparks igniting greater unrest, the future is increasingly opaque, leaving ethnic Russian Kazakhs as unsettled as Kazakhs are heartened.

AUTHORS BIO: Dr. John C. K. Daly is a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute; current work includes monographs on the development of Eurasias railways and the dissolution of the Soviet Navy.


Bank of the West has 1.8 million customers and branches in 19 states from California to Wisconsin. Under the terms of the agreement, the cash purchase will be funded primarily through excess capital, including nearly $2.9 billion on the Bank of the West balance sheet. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022, pending regulatory approval.
Block Club Chicago has previously reported that the West Side hospital administered vaccines in February to more than 200 members of the church, where Loretto CEO George Miller was a member. At the time, shots were in short supply and were supposed to be given only to people ages 65 and older and front-line essential workers.
Wright (I Am My Own Wife) said that the project originated with Hayes himself, but he found it similarly intriguing. Oscar was the first comic to speak about his own mental health issues, Wright said. He was both Americas closest approximation to Oscar Wilde and, in a way, the first shock jock. He sent seismic waves through the Eisenhower era.
Yet six months after Bidens admonitions to Putin, its hard to tell whether hackers have eased up because of U.S. pressure. Smaller-scale attacks continue, with ransomware criminals continuing to operate from Russia with seeming impunity. Administration officials have given conflicting assessments about whether Russias behavior has changed since last summer. Further complicating matters, ransomware is no longer at the top of the U.S.-Russia agenda, with Washington focused on dissuading Putin from invading Ukraine.
But on Feb. 13, 2019, just days before Smollett was charged, Jurnee spoke to Foxx twice about the case. In the first call, which lasted about 14 minutes, Foxx and Jurnee talked about the skin color and nationality of the two suspected attackers and whether Jussie was considered a suspect. As they spoke, Jurnee was texting with her brother, On phone with (Foxx) now  she cant talk with you, according to the report.
Voyce said she and her husband had to travel to the United Center to get their first two doses and that she thought the concept behind the clinics was favorable because people didnt have to travel to the city, search for places that offer the booster and make appointments.
No gang member in this city should ever rest easy. People must also stop shielding them. We need to bring them to justice. As Father Mike (Pfleger) has said, our faith must overcome our fears, Lightfoot said. There are people in our city right now who know the identity of shooters who have killed or harmed. I beg you to come forward. We need you to break your silence.
Upon arrival, officers found Haven sitting in a reclining chair holding an unconscious man, Geneva Police Cmdr. Brian Maduzia said. Haven was the only other person in the room at the time, Maduzia said.
You are here: Arts

Japanese drama "Drive My Car" was named best film and the best screenplay of 2021 on Saturday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Adapted from Haruki Murakami's short story and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the film features deep conversations between a widowed theater actor and a skilled female driver, traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance and peace.

"Drive My Car" was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the upcoming 94th Academy Awards.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association critics voted to award the best director and the best cinematography to Jane Campion's Western drama film "The Power of the Dog."

The best actor award went to Simon Rex for his role in the comedy drama film "Red Rocket." Penelope Cruz took home the best actress award for her performance in the Spanish drama film "Parallel Mothers."

Vincent Lindon from the horror film "Titane" and Kodi Smit-McPhee from "The Power of the Dog" tied for best supporting actor while Ariana DeBose from the musical drama "West Side Story" was named best supporting actress.

Founded in 1975, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media.
China's sci-fi industry and fans were excited to hear news from the U.S. that China's Chengdu city won its bid to host the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in 2023.

The news broke as midnight approached in China on Saturday, with many who stayed up late hugging each other and shedding tears of joy. "It is a dream come true for generations of Chinese sci-fi writers," Yang Feng, founder and CEO of Chinese sci-fi brand Eight Light Minutes Culture, told China.org.cn. She believed the event will further promote the popularity of science fiction culture in China, and write a new chapter in the history of science fiction globally.

Chengdu, known for its food, ancient Shu culture and giant pandas, won the bid at DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon in Washington D.C. The other three bidders were Nice, France; Memphis, USA; and Winnipeg, Canada, but Nice and Memphis had withdrawn before the final voting.

Worldcon is the premier international sci-fi cultural event. It's also when the Hugo Award, the world's most prestigious sci-fi honor, is awarded to the best sci-fi and fantasy works of the year. Chengdu will become the first city in China and the second in Asia to host Worldcon, following Yokohama, Japan in 2007.

"After looking forward to this for so long, Chengdu finally won, which is a moment worth writing in the history of China's sci-fi industry," said Liu Cixin, one of the country's most prolific sci-fi authors. "In 2023, the name card of Chengdu as 'sci-fi metropolis' will resound all over the world. "

It's full circle for Liu, as his most acclaimed sci-fi novel "The Three-Body Problem" was first published in the Chengdu-based Chinese sci-fi magazine, Science Fiction World, in 2006. Then in 2015, he became the first Chinese and Asian author to win the Hugo Award for the English translation of the book. Aside from Liu, many other sci-fi writers have published work in the city's flagship sci-fi magazine  which also happens to be the world's best-selling sci-fi periodical  and gone on to become titans in the field. The city is also pushing for developments to its hi-tech sector, as well as sci-fi culture, industrial chain and various other mediums besides literature.

Wang Yating, co-chair of the bidding committee and deputy secretary-general of the Chengdu Science Fiction Society (CSFS), noted how big a reward it is after having promoted Chengdu at various domestic and international sci-fi events over the past three years." It is not only a victory for Chengdu but also a victory for Chinese culture."

However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic still poses concerns for how foreign participants will join the fest. Wang said they will look to the upcoming Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games, which had been postponed to 2022, for guidance. "We will make a resolution plan, and at the same time we have great confidence in the future, hopefully in 2023 we will not be disturbed by the pandemic."

Yao Haijun, deputy editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World magazine echoed the sentiment, and said there will always be other options, such as a mix of online and offline events. Moreover, he urged young writers to continue creating solid work in the two years leading up to Worldcon 2023 and to shine on the world stage. "It is a rare opportunity, as Worldcon has only traveled to non-English-speaking countries a few times."

Founded in 1939, Worldcon, which is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), has generally been regarded as a Western event with U.S. cities hosting the most editions at 57. Meanwhile, U.K. cities and those in Canada follow with seven and five respectively. The 2023 Worldcon will be held in August 2023 at Chengdu Century City New International Convention & Exhibition Center, located in the southern urban district. The venue consists of 17 halls measuring a total of 120,000 square meters.

"It is quite significant as there are anti-China sentiments in many areas in recent years. But this time many foreign voters were fair with China. Some foreigners have said they saw Chengdu's openness, tolerance and hospitality as well as its huge charm through the bidding process, and some even said if you want to understand the future of China, you must know about China's sci-fi," China's preeminent sci-fi writer Han Song said.

According to him, the world is eager to learn about China and its sci-fi culture, and that in recent years a wave of enthusiasm for the genre has swept the country. Typical examples include "The Wandering Earth," China's highest-grossing sci-fi film which earned 4.69 billion yuan ($734.71 million).

In 2020, China published 650 sci-fi novels, while 220 Chinese sci-fi works were translated for foreign territories, mostly in the West. In the past two years, the pandemic has caused a certain division in the world, however, sci-fi is well suited to healing those divisions. "Sci-fi is a good international language. It can transcend many things, and help clear up some misunderstandings and gaps in hearts. The inspiration I've gotten from sci-fi through years is that the human race can still come together," Han said.

Wu Yan, a sci-fi scholar, writer, and professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology agreed, "Science fiction is a borderless bridge to the future, allowing us to gather for a better world."
Facing the COVID-19 impact and downward pressure of the economy, China is looking to keep employment stable.



As measures keep rolling out to ensure people get jobs, more policies are needed to cope with the COVID-19 impact.

Employment bears the brunt of the downward pressure on the economy, said Lian Ping, chief economist at Zhixin Investment Research Institute, noting that it is crucial to give priority to employment in economic and social development as well as macro policies.

The country's job market continued to pick up in 2021 with the further recovery of China's economy and enterprises up on their feet.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent in November, 0.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

During the first 11 months of this year, the country created 12.07 million new urban jobs, over-fulfilling its annual target, according to the NBS.

Yet, China's economic development is facing pressure from demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations, a recent annual Central Economic Work Conference cautioned.

China should strengthen the implementation of the job-first policy in its pursuit of high-quality development and better leverage the role of economic growth in boosting employment, according to a statement released after the meeting.

"This requires fiscal, financial, investment, industrial and other policies to support employment, enhance the ability of economic development to create jobs, and benefit low- and middle-income groups," Lian said.

To ease the downward pressure on the real economy, China has recently announced a cut in the reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions, which sent a positive signal to China's labor market.

In the first nine months of this year, 67.2 billion yuan (about 10.6 billion U.S. dollars) of employment subsidies were distributed, while insurance premiums worth 15.1 billion yuan were returned to enterprises to help them sustain stable payrolls, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

As a key group of employment, college graduates in 2022 are expected to reach 10.76 million in China, 1.67 million more than this year.

"The unemployment rate among those aged between 16 and 24 is still relatively high, but the problem is mainly structural," said Lian, adding that there is a shortage of skilled talent, especially highly skilled talent.

Efforts will be made to boost the employment of young people, including college graduates, and optimize flexible employment and social security policies, said the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

Lian suggested that more jobs should be created with supply and services optimized, while efforts should be made in career guidance and vocational training, such as increasing jobs at the primary level communities.
China's self-developed games expanded their presence in the overseas market in 2021, an industrial report showed recently.

The country's actual sales revenue of self-developed games in the overseas market totaled 18.01 billion U.S. dollars, surging 16.59 percent year on year, according to a report released by CNG, a research institute on the gaming industry.

The United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea are the three major overseas markets for China-developed games, contributing to nearly two-thirds of all overseas revenue, the report noted.

Being one of the most lucrative markets in China, the gaming market reported robust growth in 2021, seeing its annual actual sales revenue stand at 296.51 billion yuan (about 46.62 billion U.S. dollars), nudging up 6.4 percent year on year.

The report also showed that the actual sales revenue of the mobile gaming market, the bulk of the country's gaming market, went up 7.57 percent year on year to 225.54 billion yuan in 2021.
You are here: Business

China's service outsourcing industry posted steady expansion during the first 11 months of this year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.



Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth about 1.56 trillion yuan (about 245 billion U.S. dollars) from January to November, up 20.2 percent year on year.

The executed contract value stood at 1.1 trillion yuan during the period, a year-on-year rise of 19.4 percent.

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services and make goods traditionally undertaken by the company's employees.

Of the total, offshore service outsourcing contract value rose 14.4 percent from a year ago to 876 billion yuan.

Service outsourcing with countries along the Belt and Road led the overall growth, with contracts valued at 169.1 billion yuan for the January-November period, up 28.2 percent from a year ago.

The industry added 870,000 jobs in the same period, up 1.6 percent year on year, according to the ministry.
Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of Macao's return to China. Two years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited this special administrative region. One highlight of his itinerary was a trip to a local school.

The school is affiliated to Hou Kong Middle School, which was founded in 1932 and has the most students among Macao's basic education institutions. The school also has a patriotic tradition.

The Chinese president described the visit as "a wish come true," as he had considered the visit after an exchange of correspondence with the school's students.

In their letter to Xi, the students spoke of their understanding of the motherland and their commitment to making the motherland and Macao better when they grow up.

"At such a young age, you already realize that the motherland is Macao's staunch supporter," Xi said in his reply letter in May 2019. "I am so glad."

When visiting the school, Xi chose to observe a history lesson on the theme "'one country, two systems' and Macao."

"Patriotic education lays a solid social and political foundation for Macao to implement the principle of 'one country, two systems' and guides its practice to always proceed in the correct direction," Xi told students and teachers.

He also emphasized the significance of history.

"One can easily feel a strong sense of national self-esteem and national pride after learning about our uninterrupted history spanning over five millennia," he said. "And only by knowing the nation's history of humiliation after the Opium War, can one understand the Chinese people's strong yearning for national rejuvenation."

Xi expressed confidence that today's young people in Macao will mature into "a capable generation of which we are proud of" and serve as the backbone of both Macao and the country.

"Since antiquity, it is from adolescents that heroes emerge," says a Chinese proverb. Students in the Macao school have reacted positively to the president's words.
The performance of the Luohu district government portal website szlh.gov.cn was evaluated as the best among all portal websites of the district and county level governments across the country.



The result was released at the conference of 2021 digital government services capability assessment and the 20th government website performance appraisal hosted by China Software Testing Center (CSTC ) under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Dec. 16.

It is the sixth time in a row that Luohu has topped the ranking in this event, thanks to its long-term dedication to making its website increasingly responsive to the people's needs.

The "reverse service model" Luohu pioneered in providing government services was also praised by the CSTC as an innovation in the field. Under the model, the government takes the initiative to offer residents services based on the latter's needs, which the government estimates through big data and artificial intelligence. This has reversed the former government-centered service model to user-oriented.

The annual evaluation has been held since 2002, and its results have won the recognition of the central ministries and relevant industries.

This year's assessment framework focuses on nine indexes: information release, policy interpretation, data disclosure, services for dealing with government-related affairs, interactive exchanges, intensive sharing, function design, maintenance support, and excellent cases.

The Luohu district government portal website won the highest score of 92 points among 460 district and county-level government websites, due to its advantages in standardization of government affairs disclosure, elaborate management, outstanding service attributes, and efficient interpretation of policies and response to people's appeals. The district government also balances standardization and individualization of government services.

The design and operation of the website are user-centered, which prompts the local government to proactively respond to people's appeals and solve practical problems for them.
You are here: China

Beijing Municipality reported one new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case on Sunday, the city's health commission said Monday.

The patient, who lives in the dormitory of a painting studio in Songzhuang Township, Tongzhou District, headed to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, for an examination on Nov. 28, according to the commission.

The case returned to Beijing on Dec. 14 carrying a negative nucleic acid test result and was tested positive on Sunday following a COVID-19 test request.

The latest COVID-19 resurgence in Shaanxi was reported from Dec. 9 and as of Sunday, 53 locally transmitted confirmed cases were reported in the province, mostly in Xi'an, the provincial health commission said.
Much of our modern lives are spent in the digital world  the internet, the Cloud, the Internet of Things  and dictated by an explosion of knowledge fueled by big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI, in particular, impacts nearly every segment of society and profession. Even in historically conservative professions like law, major firms are planning or already have introduced AI applications, such as automated contracting. These applications are designed to take over roles previously performed by lawyers and non-legal staff alike.



AI offers the promise of major leaps both forward and backward, depending upon how wisely it is used and for what purpose. What is not up for debate, however, is the disruption that is occurring and which must be managed in the context of an evolving legal framework and challenging international environment.

Countries have acted to create a legal framework that promotes the advantages of AI while putting checks on potential harms.

For example, China has invested heavily in AI development and is closing in on, and in some regards surpassing, the early lead that major countries such as the U.S. previously held. In fact, China now publishes more research papers on AI and has filed more patents in key areas such as speech and facial recognition. Other factors contributing to China's AI development include significant private and public investment, a favorable regulatory environment, steady improvements to the country's university system and the existence of a large market conducive to the adoption of AI applications and their gradual development. The result is that today, China is one of the leading countries in AI.

In April 2021, the European Commission introduced the draft Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. The AI Act, like the General Data Protection Regulation, is the first proposed AI regulation of its kind. It will apply not only to the 27 member states of the EU, but also to other country's AI applications that have an impact inside the region, and would manage AI systems according to their risks to humankind. The greater the risk the AI system poses, the more strictly it will be regulated. In cases that involve significant invasions of privacy, such as biometric recognitions or social scorecards, it could result in outright prohibition if the AI is deemed the highest-risk. Simply put, its primary focus is on high-risk AI where the regulations specify a wide range of required transparency, diligence and documentation.

In the U.S., in addition to its detailed intellectual property and commercial law regime, President Joe Biden's administration is calling for an AI Bill of Rights. Gaining consensus for such a move will likely prove to be difficult given the country's democratic values and its strong focus on privacy and the protection of individual rights. AI applications have already faced significant legal challenges for their inherent biases that can lead to unsatisfactory and unfair applications in areas such as hiring and criminal profiling. Powerful technologies should be required to respect our democratic values and abide by the central tenet of equality.

In the U.K., the government released its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy on Sept. 22. This comes within the context of related plans and strategies, including 2020's National Data Strategy, the 2021 Plan for Digital Regulation, Innovation Strategy and the AI Council's 2021 AI Roadmap.

The National AI Strategy provides a 10-year plan to make the U.K. "a global AI superpower" within the context of its significant research and development, its AI Sector Deal investment and establishment of AI bodies and structures, including its AI Council and Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI).

The AI report lists "people," "data," "computing power" and "finance" as key drivers of progress, discovery and strategic advantage in AI. U.K.'s National AI Strategy is built around three core pillars, including investing in the long-term needs of the AI ecosystem to ensure competitiveness; supporting the U.K.'s move to an AI-enabled economy that considers all sectors and regions; and ensuring the right to national and international governance of AI technologies through working with global partners to promote responsible AI development.

Australia has announced a new plan to protect and promote technologies critical to the national interest. The government lists nine critical technologies out of 63, which include AI as well as a special focus on quantum technologies that use quantum physics to access, transmit and process vast quantities of information. Also on the list are advanced 5G communications and genetic engineering. The Australian government will invest $51 million in a Quantum Commercialization Hub designed to help commercialize Australian quantum research and forge links with global markets and supply chains. The hub would be designed to attract private investment and forge international partnerships. For example, Australia, the U.K., Japan, India and the U.S. are looking at joint capabilities in quantum technologies, cyber and artificial intelligence.

While the above initiatives hold great promise for the future of AI development, significant uncertainties and obstacles remain. In a post-COVID environment, progress in international trade has declined and protectionism has increased. So too, have conflicts in intellectual property protection.

Concerns about the nature of appropriate and ethical AI systems, as well as protecting privacy and human rights amidst a general growing distrust in institutions and big tech are likely to present further impediments to rapid AI development. In overcoming these barriers, it is important for governments to incentivize innovation and foster a supportive regulatory climate that achieves the appropriate balance between public and private risks and rewards. In this process, it is important that perfection be not the enemy of the good.

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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 Flash

Chile on Sunday opened the most uncertain presidential ballot since the return to democracy in 1990, in which Chileans will choose between leftist deputy Gabriel Boric and right-wing politician Jose Antonio Kast.

Kast, leader of the far-right Republican Party and presidential candidate of the Christian Social Front, voted Sunday morning in the rural municipality of Paine, located an hour drive from downtown Santiago.

"It would be a great honor to be able to direct the destiny of the nation. There are legitimate differences, but we have to work for dialogue and unity. This is done through justice, order and security," he said.

Kast, who won the first round of the presidential election with 27.9 percent of the vote and a little more than 146,000 ballots of difference, said these elections "will be narrow," with a difference of fewer than 50,000 votes between candidates.

Boric, of the left-wing coalition Approve Dignity, received 25.8 percent of the vote in the last elections and he voted in the southern city of Punta Arenas, which he represents as a deputy of the lower house.

The legislator also predicted "a close election," and so invited people to participate and believe "that politics could be different."

"A country is built by everyone. If you decide to do so, I hope to be the president of all Chileans," said the candidate, who added he was "calm and hopeful for having run a clean campaign without inventing or spreading lies."

President Sebastian Pinera also urged citizens to vote after casting his ballot in Las Condes in the captial.

"We hope to have a democratic, transparent, clean electoral event, honoring our beautiful republican tradition," said Pinera, whose term will end on March 11, 2022.

The Ministry of Health guaranteed a calm and safe election, due to the high vaccination rate that has led to fewer cases as well as the biosafety measures in place at polling stations.

However, the ministry still called for caution due to the spread of the Omicron variant, which has already been detected in 30 patients in the country.

For this election, 14,959,956 people are eligible to vote, while 71,018 people are registered abroad, for a total of 15,030,974 voters.
 Flash

The death toll from Typhoon Rai that battered the Philippines this week has climbed to at least 144, local officials said on Sunday.

Bohol province in the central Philippines is the worst-hit with 72 deaths, while Negros Occidental reported 18, Cebu 16, Dinagat Islands 10, Southern Leyte six, among others.

The number of deaths is likely to rise as local officials gather data from the field.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has yet to update its death tally after saying on Saturday night it had received reports of 31 deaths in central and southern Philippines due to Rai.

Communications are still down in typhoon-ravaged areas, making it difficult for the NDRRMC to contact its regional and provincial agencies.

Bohol Governor Arthur Yap said his province has tallied 72 deaths as reports trickle in from the field.

"Presently, communications are still down. The signal is intermittent," Yap said, adding that the central Philippine province is still without electricity. He said it might take up to three weeks to restore power in the province.

Yap appealed to fuel suppliers to triple the deliveries of gasoline and fuel, saying the province is dependent on generator sets.

He said the residents of some hardest-hit towns are asking for food and water. More chainsaws are also needed to clear fallen trees and debris. "Many of the smaller roads are still not passable," he added.

On Sunday, the police posted a video about rescuing 26 people, including nine minors and nine elderly, trapped on a tree for hours in Negros Occidental province.

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the speedy delivery of food, water, and necessary items such as tents and tarps to the typhoon victims after visiting the affected areas by aircraft.

He also ordered the military and the Philippine Coast Guard to send boats and ships to augment the immediate delivery of needed supplies.

The military will send medical teams onboard two Navy ships to augment the health personnel in Siargao and Dinagat Islands, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.

Typhoon Rai made landfall on the Siargao Island on Thursday afternoon. It was blowing maximum winds of 195 km per hour and with gusts of up to 240 km per hour when it slammed into the island in Surigao del Norte province.

The typhoon swelled rivers and flooded low-lying areas while cutting through towns and villages in the central Philippines and the northern Mindanao in the southern part of the country.

The NDRRMC said Rai affected more than 700,000 people in nine regions, caused power outages, damaged buildings and houses in these areas. The government is still assessing the typhoon's damage to crops and infrastructure.

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, mainly due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire and Pacific typhoon belt. On average, this archipelagic country experiences 20 typhoons every year, some of which are intense and destructive.

The World Bank said natural disasters have killed 33,000 Filipinos in the past 30 years, affecting 120 million people.
 Flash

When China and the United States work together to address global issues, they can deliver greater benefits to both countries and the world, but when limitations are imposed on such collaboration, the interests of both sides will suffer, Beijing's top envoy in Washington has said.

In a wide-ranging interview with Science & Diplomacy Magazine published on Friday, Ambassador Qin Gang said he hopes China and the U.S. will ramp up their scientific and technological cooperation, to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as climate change.

Science& Diplomacy Magazine is an online publication produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Center for Science Diplomacy.

The magazine's executive editor, Kim Montgomery, said that since China and the U.S. established diplomatic relations in 1979, the U.S.-China Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology, which has been renewed annually, has led to robust collaboration in science and technology.

In the interview, Montgomery asked Qin to elaborate on China's vision of the nexus between science and diplomacy.

Qin noted that scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation have played an important role in the development of China-U.S. relations and are still an important part of the bilateral relationship.

"Even before we officially established diplomatic relations, U.S. president Carter's science adviser visited China," Qin said, referring to Frank Press, who headed a high-level delegation of government scientists and officials that had the nations' first direct talks on science and technology in July 1978.

During the 40 years following the first formal cooperation agreement being signed in 1979, more than 30 protocols and deals in a wide range of areasincluding health, climate change and environmental protectionhave been signed under the framework of the agreement, Qin said.

"When China and the U.S. work together to address global issues, such as the ones I just mentioned, and jointly manage the uncertainties of emerging technologies, we can deliver greater benefits to our two peoples and better prepare humanity for an uncertain future," he said.

Limitations on that collaboration, including restrictions on Chinese scientists and students, are in the interest of neither side, he added.

Montgomery said diplomatic initiatives can help foster international scientific collaboration and strengthen scientific capabilities worldwide and are instrumental in addressing global challenges, such as climate change.

He asked Qin about China's diplomatic priorities in working with the U.S. and the international community on finding science-based solutions to shared problems.

Qin said that China has shared information and experience and strengthened international cooperation in the joint research and development of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing.

China has provided over 1.8 billion doses of vaccine to more than 100 countries and international organizations and that the number of vaccines it has made available internationally will reach 2 billion doses this year.

"We hope that China and the U.S. will strengthen their scientific and technological cooperation to help the world overcome the pandemic as soon as possible," he said.

The ambassador also said there is much room for China-U.S. cooperation on climate change. Both countries, he said, use fossil fuels for more than 80 percent of their energy consumption, and both are transitioning to renewable energy faster than any other countries, and are looking for advances in clean energy technologies.
 Flash

As an ancient Chinese proverb goes, "Amity between the people holds the key to sound state-to-state relations." The secrets of keeping sound relations between countries lie not only in close ties between governments, but, more importantly, exchanges among the people. This can be well illustrated by the projects launched by the China-Africa People's Forum (CAPF) in the past 10 years.

On November 15, the sixth meeting of the CAPF was organized in Beijing. Government and political leaders, envoys, representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and scholars from China and more than 30 African countries participated in the forum online and offline, discussing China-Africa people-to-people cooperation and exchanges in the coming three years.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. "The world today is an era of great development and great changes. Facing new opportunities and challenges, China and Africa, more than ever, need to uphold and advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are the common values of humanity, enhance solidarity and cooperation, jointly promote prosperity and development, and jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity," said Xi in the letter.

Xi called for joint efforts from China and Africa to make the forum a medium to strengthen bilateral comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and a bridge to enhance people-to-people relations between the two sides.

Ji Bingxuan, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, described the friendship between China and Africa as "rocksolid."

"On the platform of CAPF, we let the people to think about, decide and implement China-Africa cooperation projects. This is the original intention behind the launch of the forum, as well as the impetus pushing the platform forward," he said.

"We are very pleased to see that China is laying the groundwork for a new international order by proposing new development concepts on various key issues such as climate change, COVID-19 response, as well as environmental protection," Martin Mbazumutima, ambassador of Burundi to China, said at the forum.

The forum also announced 60 China-Africa cooperation projects that are to be implemented in the coming three years. Most of them are for improvement of people's livelihood through people-to-people engagement and NGOs.

Welfare of children

Mapping out cooperation projects is an important part of every CAPF meeting. In the Program for China-Africa People-to-People Friendship and Partnership (2018-20) adopted at the Fifth CAPF in 2018 in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, a total of 30 projects were announced. Sources from the CAPF indicate that all the projects have been implemented by the end of 2020.

The Smiling Children Feeding Program launched by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation in Ethiopia and Sudan was one of the 30 cooperation projects.

Actually, the Smiling Children Feeding Program was launched in May 2015 in Ethiopia and had been running for more than three years before it was put under the umbrella of the CAPF cooperation program.

Aiming at solving the hunger problem faced by children from poor families in developing and underdeveloped countries, this project selected schools in impoverished areas in different parts of the two countries and provided school meals or distributed food to students. In addition, the foundation also hired students' mothers in selected schools to cook meals, helping them to gain employment and ensure food safety and nutrition.

In Ethiopia alone, the program provides meals in six public schools with nearly 8,000 students in Addis Ababa, Oromia and Somali regions.

This project has proven to be a success. A mid-term survey conducted in 2018 shows that in all academic years, the weight of beneficiary students exceeded students without school meals by an average of 6.12 kg (female) and 5.9 kg (male). Many drop-out students returned to school and the drop-out rate decreased.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many schools in Ethiopia closed and the Smiling Children Feeding Program could no longer go on. In this context, impoverished children could no longer get school meals. In addition, the pandemic directly impacted their family income, threatening their daily life.

To solve the problem, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation changed the project to Smiling Children Food Distributing Program to distribute free food supplies to poor students.

"With the help of this aid, we don't have to worry about our children's health. We had problems providing adequate food and academic materials to our children," said Osman Adam, whose son is a third grader at the Obaay Primary School, located in the Dukem Town in Ethiopia's Oromia Regional State.

"All our programs are supported by the Chinese people. It is people-to-people connectivity; it is from the ordinary Chinese people," said Huang Xiaocen, Deputy Director of CAPF Ethiopia.

Making mothers safe

The CAPF not only includes projects that take place in African countries, but also invites African people to China for projects. The midwifery training program called Angel of Life for Africa, launched in Wenzhou Medical University in east China's Zhejiang Province, is included into the CAPF Program for China-Africa People-to-People Friendship and Partnership and is expected to increase the project size in the coming three years. This project aims to reduce the maternal mortality during childbirth and improve the infant survival rate in Africa by training more midwives to meet the international standards. After training, these midwives return to home countries to help more families.

The first two terms of the program were held in 2018 and 2019. A total of 40 African students who studied in China and medical workers in some African countries attended a two-week training course.

According to United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, Sub-Saharan Africans suffer from the highest maternal mortality ratio - 533 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, or 200,000 maternal deaths a year. This is over two-thirds of all maternal deaths per year worldwide.

"I was so surprised to know that the maternal mortality in African countries is much higher than other places. I believe China can lend experiences to African countries in this regard. That's why I worked so hard to make this project happen," said Dong Qixin, Executive Director of Beijing Ambridge International Cultural Exchange Ltd.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the training course was suspended in 2020 and 2021. "As the project is now included in the CAPF, we will resume it in next year and the training course will be prolonged to three months," said Dong.
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Ovono Nkomo had a dream. He wanted to improve the life expectancy of Gabonese people. He turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to realize his dream.

"If I have an opportunity to improve Gabonese people's health through TCM, I will like to help them live longer and healthier lives," he said.

To achieve his goal, he pursued the study of TCM in China and became the first Gabonese to earn a doctorate in this field. He now hosts programs on TCM lifestyle and philosophy on social media, allowing all of Africa to benefit from the Chinese traditional medicine. He also owns a TCM clinic in Gabon, with a growing number of patients and trainees in the acupuncture department.

All this was unimaginable to him 20 years ago.

An 180-degree turn

His first encounter with TCM was in 2001, when he visited China for the first time on a Chinese government scholarship to study Western medicine at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. When he arrived, the first thing that surprised him was that he was served hot water when he asked for a drink. He was then informed that in China, hot water is consumed on most occasions. He was perplexed by this explanation. He later learned that, according to the theoretical foundations of TCM, hot water promotes the regulation of all organs and viscera in the body.

With several family members practicing Western medicine, becoming a doctor practicing Western medicine appeared to be the simplest path for him. However, a year before graduation, he made an unthinkable decision of specializing in TCM and promoting it among his compatriots. Indeed, while interning in the acupuncture department of Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital in 2004, he was impressed by the virtues of TCM and the clinical outcomes that resulted from them.

"I had a strong intuition that these ancient practices could be applied and used in Africa. I considered TCM and traditional African medicine to be related," Nkomo told ChinAfrica.

After graduating with a degree in Western medicine in 2005, he joined Nanjing TCM University, where he remained until receiving his doctorate in acupuncture and moxibustion in 2016. Over this long period, Nkomo accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience in TCM, from the theory of the five elements and that of yin and yang balance of the body, to the art of healthy living and the use of therapeutic tools (acupuncture needle, cupping, guasha, moxa, etc.). He also practiced qigong, Taijiquan, tuina, and massage.

None of this was easy though. He had to learn Chinese language and culture, use ancient books written in classical Chinese, and deal with adverse weather conditions (harsh winters without heating in the lecture halls). But he remained upbeat in the face of difficulties.

"I just set myself goals similar to those of soldiers going to war," he said. His only secret to overcoming all of these obstacles was to work tirelessly and to assimilate into Chinese culture, which he considers to be an inseparable part of TCM.

Unwavering dedication

Nkomo had the opportunity to attend the annual conference of the World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies in 2007 as an international student representative. He then embarked on a world tour, visiting more than 100 countries across four continents to promote TCM. Compared to Western medicine, TCM, he claims, is more affordable. "It has fewer side effects because it is entirely based on natural remedies," he said. "It can be practiced even in the most remote parts of the world."

Despite his command of seven languages (French, English, Spanish, German, Chinese, Portuguese, and Fang), he has found it difficult to explain the fundamentals of TCM, which treats the entire human body to restore its balance. "The hegu (a pressure point) on the hand is used to treat toothaches and headaches. Foreigners are perplexed by this because there is no concept of acupuncture points or meridians in their culture," Nkomo said. Finally, he finds this experience to be very instructive because it allows him to learn about other medicines that are similar to TCM.

According to UNAIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world's most AIDS-affected regions. However, Western medicine is not effective in treating related lung infections, which can easily lead to drug resistance. In 2015, Nkomo conducted groundbreaking clinical research on the use of moxibustion in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. This required him to travel regularly to Africa at his own expense and take care of the patients himself, most of whom were living in difficult financial conditions. His goal was to increase the number of CD4+T lymphocytes in the patients by using the acupuncture points dazhui (VB11) and zusanli (ST36) in combination with conventional therapy. Fortunately, his efforts paid off. There was a visible improvement in the patients' white blood cells.

Nkomo returned to Gabon in 2020 to make TCM more accessible to Africans. Given the Gabonese Government's particular emphasis on getting traditional medicine legally recognized as a complementary medicine to Western medicine, his efforts have proven to be fruitful. However, the sector's future is still clouded by a scarcity of professionals. In fact, Africa is the only continent where the number of people trained in TCM is nearly zero, with the notable exception of South Africa. Neither of Gabon's two TCM hospitals, established through Sino-Gabonese cooperation, has any locally trained TCM personnel. "Communication with the Chinese doctors sent to the hospitals is a major handicap for these facilities," said Nkomo.

In response to this challenge, he plans to set up a TCM training facility at a university in his country in the near future. "Training, conferences and seminars conducted in local languages will be a major asset throughout the continent," he hopes.
Hydrocephalus Market Research Report: Information by Type (Congenital Hydrocephalus, Acquired Hydrocephalus, Normal-Pressure Hydrocephalus, Ex-Vacuo Hydrocephalus), Diagnostic (CT scan  head, MRI, Head Ultrasound), Treatment (Surgery  Shunt Insertion, Ventriculostomy, Medication), End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Diagnostic Centres, Academic Institutions and Research Organizations) and Region - Forecast till 2027

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Hydrocephalus is a condition that characterized by buildup of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain cavities (ventricles). The ventricles expand as a result of fluid accumulation, causing an abnormal increase in brain size. In normal conditions, the cerebrospinal fluid usually flows through the cavities of the brain and spinal column, but in hydrocephalus, the excessive CSF accumulation causes damage to the brain tissues, leading to a number of brain impairments. This condition can occur in any age, but it is more prevalent in infants and older adults. The increasing prevalence of hydrocephalus is directly responsible for the market growth. The major cause for this condition in children is found to be malnourishment of the fetus. this condition is mostly genetic however, it can also manifest in adults and is known as acquired hydrocephalus.

Shunting is a primary line of treatment for hydrocephalus. Shunting creates a bypass for the accumulated fluid to flow to other parts of the body. The increasing prevalence of traumatic brain injuries due to accidents and shifting patient preference towards minimally invasive surgeries in geriatric population are considered as the key factors that are projected to encourage the growth of the global hydrocephalus market in the coming years. In addition to this, the growing disposable income among consumers and the rapid development in the healthcare infrastructure are further predicted to enhance the growth of the overall market in the next few years.

Market Dynamics

The market for hydrocephalus is not very well developed due to lack of attention paid to the treatment of the disease. Following the development of shunts for draining the accumulated cerebrospinal fluid and scans to diagnose this condition, there have been improvements in terms of treatments to provide short-term relief to patients. However, there are efforts to develop treatments to address the disease at initial stages and this has ensured a positive growth trend for the market.

Further, Posttraumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) is a recurrent and serious complication that follows a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The prevalence of this condition varies greatly based on different criteria for its diagnosis. It can be caused by the blockage of normal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow, overproduction of CSF, or insufficient absorption that result in excessive accumulation of CSF around the brain

The use of ICP devices is for measuring the fluid pressure within the brain which may be caused by trauma or other conditions. ICP monitoring has a significant importance in diagnostic and post-operative procedures with cranial injury as seen in cases of stroke, hydrocephalus, and trauma. According to the estimate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2017, more than 1.75 million traumatic brain injuries occur in North America, annually and these monitoring devices enable surgeons to save lives of patients with timely intervention and treatment. The increasing accidental cases causing traumatic brain injuries are going to act as drivers for the hydrocephalus market.

Segmentation

The global Hydrocephalus market is segmented on the basis of type, diagnostic, treatment, end user. On the basis the type, the market is segmented into congenital hydrocephalus, acquired hydrocephalus, normal-pressure hydrocephalus, ex-vacuo hydrocephalus. on the basis of the diagnostic, the market is segmented into CT scan  head, MRI, head ultrasound. on the basis of treatment, it is segmented into surgery  shunt insertion, ventriculostomy, medication. on the basis of end user, it is segmented into hospitals & clinics, diagnostic centres, academic institutions and research organizations

Regional Analysis

The global hydrocephalus market is segmented on the basis of regions into Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.

The Americas held the largest share of the global hydrocephalus market owing to the rising prevalence of hydrocephalus, the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector, and the major market players. The continuous increase in the number of Americans affected from hydrocephalus coupled with ongoing research in neuroscience aid to the market growth. On a regional basis, the Americas is divided into North America and South America. North America is estimated to lead due to the presence of developed economies such as the US and Canada within the region. South America, however, is estimated to have the faster growth.

Europe stands second in the global market due to the constant evaluation of various techniques by neurosurgeons for the improvement of hydrocephalus management, is expected to drive growth in this market. Moreover, shunt manufacturers are engaged in investment for development of novel and improved shunts in order to tackle the pitfalls associated with the existing designs. The child population, aging in between 0 and 14 years, is estimated to increase from 17.6% of the total population in 2013 to 18.4% of the total population by 2020. This provides favorable background for market growth in Europe.

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Market Overview

The 3D Bioprinting Market during the forecast period 2021to 2028, will register growth at a CAGR of 15.5%. The market for 3D bioprinting is set to reach US$ 4.3 Billion by 2028. As per Global Market analysts, the global market is anticipated to witness growth owing to the factors such as growing demand for organ transplantation as well as growing application of 3d bioprinting in cosmetic industry. However, the Global Market will face challenges and restraints due to the concerns associated with waste elimination and socio-ethical concerns related to the usage of 3Dbioprinted products during the forecast period 2021to 2028.

Market Segmentation

The 3D Bioprinting Market has been segmented into technology, application, end-user, and material. Based on the segment which is technology, the market is categorized on the basis of inkjet 3D bioprinting, laser-assisted bioprinting, magnetic 3D bioprinting, and microextrusion bioprinting. The global market for 3D bioprinting is further segmented based on application into research and clinical applications. Furthermore, the market, on the basis of end-user is segmented into pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies and research organizations & academic institutes. Based on the segment which is material, the market is categorized on the basis of extracellular matrices, hydrogels, and living cells.

The global Global Market research report covers all the aspects of the Global Market based on the segmental analysis of these technology, application, end-user, and material segments. Analysts have also studied the global Global Markets regional markets spread across many continents and countries. The technology, application, end-user, and material segments along with their sub-segments have been analyzed and companies functioning in the Global Market across these segments are profiled and analyzed based on input and feedback from Global Market based decision makers as well as primary and secondary sources. The Global Market research report presents analysis based information for companies functioning in the Global Market.

Regional Overview

The lack of expertise and awareness may hinder the 3D Bioprinting Market growth. The market research report suggests that companies in the Global Market could be supported by the rising investments in 3d bioprinting via public and private means as well as the growing R&D, partnerships, and acquisitions during the forecast period. The Global Market is set to register growth at a high CAGR owing to these key factors. The Global Market is spread across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and other parts of the world. The 3D Bioprinting Market research report reveals that APAC, North America, and Europe regional Global Markets will dominate the global market for 3D bioprinting during the forecast period 2015 to 2023. As per Global Market analysts, the market is set to witness tremendous growth across inkjet 3D bioprinting, hydrogels, and research applications segments in North America which covers Global Markets across the United States, Canada, Mexico and several other regional markets. Companies active in the Global Market are also analyzed and studied in the Global Market research report.

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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.
The slowdown of exports from China in November compared to the previous month has improved the situation. Further, the festive shipping for Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year too has almost got over. Indian imports too have been growing well in the past few months.  ANI

Chennai: Slowing Chinese exports and improving Indian imports have eased the shortage of containers for freight.

"Waiting time for containers has come down to an average one week across ports, while some are getting containers in three days. In October last year, it used to take more than two weeks to secure containers. Another major challenge was availability of containers to destinations like CIS countries. Now that too has been addressed," said Ajay Sahai, director general and CEO, Federation of Indian Export Organisations. The crisis was more pronounced in the east coast and that too has eased to a great extent, he added.

According to Sahai, the slowdown of exports from China in November compared to the previous month has improved the situation. Further, the festive shipping for Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year too has almost got over.

Indian imports too have been growing well in the past few months. During last year, exports had picked up much earlier than imports. Shipping companies were reluctant to provide containers for exports alone as most of them had to return without freight.

Further, the pandemic had hit the manufacturing of containers in different parts of the world, aggravating the shortage. However, in the recent months, new containers are being increasingly deployed.

"Shipping lines brought in 1.67 million containers in October. Addition of new containers has continued in November as well," said Sahai.

With better availability of containers, freight cost too had corrected by 5 per cent in November. In October last year, shipping lines were charging extra freight charges ranging between $400 and $1,000 per container, depending upon the size. The increased rates were around 25 to 50 per cent higher than the earlier charges.

However, the spread of omicron has once again heightened uncertainty of trade and the freight cost has again moved up to levels witnessed in October this year.
Vijayawada: Chief Minister Jagan has directed officials to ensure farmers get minimum support price (MSP) for their produce and laid stress on making Rytu Bharosa Kendras play a vital role in this context.

The CM reviewed the purchase of paddy and other crops, at a high-level meeting with minister for agriculture Kannababu and top officials at his Camp Office here on Monday. He made it clear that the state governments objective was to provide MSP to the farmers without fail and told officials there should not be any slackness on this count.

Interact with farmers regularly to know about their problems, Jagan told the officials.

Maintaining that nobody used to take discoloured and wet paddy earlier, the CM said that the YSRC government has however come to the rescue of farmers and would provide MSP for all their produce.

He said there was the need to eliminate the role of millers in the purchase of paddy. Their role should come in only after the purchase of paddy. He asked the officials to ensure no farmer was cheated as regards the quality of paddy.

The CM also asked officials to facilitate exports of farm produces directly from the state government to other countries as this would benefit the farmers.

As for RBKs, the CM asked the officials to keep five persons at each RBK for purchase of paddy and other crops. These five should go to the farmers, interact with them and make arrangements for purchase of paddy. They should arrange hamalis, gunny bags and transport of paddy so that the farmers need not face any hardships on these counts, Jagan said.

The CM asked the officials to make payments to farmers in 21 days from the date of purchase of paddy. Keep a tab whether all the paddy purchase centers are opened or not. Officials must set up a phone number to receive complaints and petitions on purchase of crops at every RBK, he said, and directed the officials to take every complaint seriously and resolve them.

The chief minister asked officials to create awareness on a regular basis among the farmers on Crop Cultivator Rights Cards.

The officials informed the CM that paddy purchase was of the order of 42,237 metric tonnes per day in the state, on an average, and promised to enhance the quantum of purchases.

The CM called for an action plan to raise alternative crops and asked the officials to enlighten farmers on such aspects. Giving special bonus to such farmers is one idea, the CM said, and asked officials to ensure the farmers earned a good income from agricultural activities.
Hyderabad: Accusing Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of having a nexus with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders Assaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi, Union tourism minister G. Kishan Reddy alleged on Sunday that the Chief Minister started mudslinging on the BJP through false statements to flare up communal tension.

The Union minister said the two AIMIM leaders have a criminal past, which the Chief Minister was ignoring.

Reddy said Rao crossed the limits of a Chief Minister by making objectionable remarks (aimed at) flaring up communal violence and disturbing the law and order situation. "After the NDA government led by the BJP and headed by Narendra Modi took charge, there was not a single curfew-like situation in the country. There was no communal flare-up so far," he said.

He said the Chief Minister started trying to needle the BJP after the BJP won some bypolls in the state like the Dubbaka and Huzurabad. In an attempt to divert the people's attention, Rao created an issue on paddy procurement and started blaming the BJP, he said.

Reddy said the Central government provides all kinds of financial assistance to farmers including agriculture loans under subsidy for paddy cultivation. As state governments have agencies to procure paddy, they procure paddy from farmers at procurement centres and reach the stocks to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown. In Telangana state, a similar system has been in place for seven years. The Chief Minister, however, diverted the attention of farmers by issuing statements that they would not sanction Rythu Bandhu if farmers cultivated paddy.

"There is an amicable pact between the state government and the FCI that the Central government must procure paddy during the Rabi season, of the order of 24.75 lakh metric tonnes. Later, this was increased by 20 lakh metric tonnes and a total of 44.75 lakh metric tonnes of paddy is to be procured from Telangana," Reddy explained.

FCI has already procured 30.50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in Telangana. The remaining 14.25 lakh metric tonnes is to be procured. Meanwhile, the TRS government intentionally refused to collect paddy from farmers after the BJP won the Huzurabad bypolls. Fact is, FCI has procured boiled rice of 30.50 lakh tonnes from Telangana, he said.

"The Central government extended the last date for paddy procurement  for the remaining 14.25 lakh metric tonnes  till December end. The TRS government must take steps to procure paddy from farmers and hand it over to FCI. Instead of collecting paddy from farmers, the TRS ministers are visiting Delhi a number of times, wasting their time and money, while the Chief Minister is calling on farmers to hold protests. Why does the TRS call for protests on paddy procurement, the Union minister asked.
HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has allegedly slashed e-toll tender value for the Outer Ring Road though there was no decrease in the volume of vehicles using the expressway.

Sources said the civic authority has reduced the annual toll collection amount from Rs 500 crore to Rs 380 crore. During the bid application in September, officials had asked private agencies to pay Rs 1.36 lakh per day to the urban body for managing the ORR toll collection.

However, it has called for fresh tenders in December with a revised payout of Rs 1.04 lakh per day  which is 23.5 per cent less than the earlier figure  without changing either the contract period or vehicular volume estimates.

Surprisingly, the HMDA authorities have neither reduced the toll amount to be collected from individuals nor has there been any decline in the vehicle volume on ORR  in either cases the toll collection could have plummeted, justifying a lower ask in tender bids. Though a couple of agencies have come forward to take up the project, the authorities did not shortlist them citing unknown reasons.

Officials, however, claim that there are no takers for the toll management system (TMS), which forced the nodal agency to revise the bids to attract private agencies. The sources said the bids were revised to favour an agency under political influence. The HMDA authorities, however, are tight-lipped on this issue, claiming that they were just following the instructions of higher authorities.

Incidentally, Justice K. Laxman of the Telangana High Court in November asked the standing counsels for the HMDA, and Chief General Manager (Tech), Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) to furnish reasons on why data pertaining to the pre-bid queries for the toll booth at Point 16 of ORR wasnt provided.

A Mumbai-based firm Sahakar Global Limited approached the Telangana High Court stating that only 15 days were provided for the submission of bids from the date of bid notice on October 29. The petitioner alleged that the Chief General Manager (Tech), HGCL, has already decided to assign the tender to Eagle Infra India Limited and Inderdeep Construction.

It appears that the authorities have already selected a beneficiary i.e. (Eagle

Infra India Limited) for the project and to rule out competitors. So they have come up with unreasonable time frames as the bids are going to open on November 1, the petitioner stated.

Meanwhile, the installation work for TMS was taken up by system integrator Efkon and the successful bidder has to operate toll collection activity using the HGCL TMS system installed in the project.

The RFID-based FASTag programme is already in operation using the HGCL TMS system and toll for around 85 per cent of trips are being collected through the FASTag.

Currently, VaaaN Infra Pvt. Ltd is maintaining the TMS system with the support of original system integrator Efkon. There are 19 interchanges on the ORR while the main traffic control centre (TCC) is at Nanakramguda inter-change and the sub-TCC is at Ghatkesar Interchange. The ORR has 180 lanes and 17 temporary lanes.

Currently, HGCL is implementing 50 per cent dedicated FASTag lanes and 50 per cent hybrid lanes.
Examining the difficult situation for conservatives in Canada By Mark Wegierski

web posted December 20, 2021 The Canadian federal election of September 20, 2021, was another failure for the Conservative Party of Canada, despite Conservative leader Erin OTooles attempted move to the centre. Now, the Conservative Party is consumed by a battle between pro- and anti- OToole factions. Looking back at history, the Conservative Party (called the Progressive Conservative party from 1942 to 2003) has largely failed to make an impact on Canadian society, politics, and culture, since the critical election loss of the staunch Tory John Diefenbaker to Liberal Lester B. Pearson, in 1963. The Canadian Right will make little headway in the teeth of a hostile social, cultural, and political climate, unless it endeavours to give encouragement to the creation of some kind of infrastructures where more intellectual explorations of right-wing ideas and philosophies can take place in Canada. What is especially needed in Canada for conservatives is a broadly right-of-centre magazine which could serve a mobilizing, galvanizing role similar to the early years of National Review in the United States. Perhaps Candice Malcolms True North Canada initiative could grow to include a monthly print magazine. There is also desperately needed an academic outreach body along the lines of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in the United States (which publishes scholarly quarterlies and books, as well as offering substantial scholarships). The ISI embodies a very reflective and serious conservatism that moves far beyond day-to-day policy issues and merely fiscal and economic conservatism (while not being explicitly tied to any one religion or denomination). Perhaps the Canadian social conservative think-tank Cardus could eventually evolve into serving a similar role in Canada. Today in Canada, there are numerous, left-wing, extra-parliamentary infrastructures, whose funding (most of which comes from the federal government) outweighs that of putatively right-wing infrastructures such as the National Citizens' Coalition and the Fraser Institute (who rely strictly on private donations -- and are almost entirely focussed on economic and fiscal issues) by astronomical factors. The effectiveness of these left-wing infrastructures has contributed to the huge intellectual influence of the New Democratic Party (Canada's social democratic party) particularly on the Liberal Party. It may be remembered that long-time Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was a former NDP member, and some have indeed suggested that he "hijacked" a somewhat more traditionalist and centrist Liberal Party and moved it in a radical direction. The extent to which large numbers of persons in Canadian society (especially in the intellectual classes) are utterly captivated by and beholden to ideas of left-wing provenance cannot be overestimated. It could be argued that it is only the building up of infrastructures of a serious intellectual Right in Canada that could make a difference in this regard. The current-day Canadian situation -- of near-total left-liberal intellectual hegemony, of very little authentic academic or journalistic debate, and of little hope that a substantively conservative party will ever unseat the Liberals at the federal level -- cannot be described as offering prospects for a truly humane future for Canada. There is certainly no intellectual balancing of Left and Right, and very little possibility of alternation at the federal level between left-leaning and substantively conservative parties, in Canada today. A Conservative electoral triumph  should it ever occur in such a difficult environment  is likely to be overwhelmed by ferocious infrastructural opposition  much in the same way that Brian Mulroneys huge majority in 1984 was sandbagged. Should they ever form the government again, the CPC must promote an ambitious legislative agenda, trying to challenge almost six decades of relentless left-liberal victories. It could be argued that the ongoing, decades-long, prior constraint against the so-called Centre-Right Opposition coming to or ever exercising any meaningful degree of power in Canada  fundamentally contradicts Canadas parliamentary and democratic ideals, as well as betraying its history. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home
Iran accelerates its space program as it prepares a ballistic missile for a satellite launch By Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall

web posted December 20, 2021

A satellite photograph taken on December 12, 2021, shows a support vehicle parked alongside a massive white gantry that typically houses a rocket on the launch pad as activity increases at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Semnan province, Iran. While the nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna are proceeding at a snails pace, satellite images from the Iranian Space Center were released on December 12, 2021, showing Iran preparing to launch a space launch vehicle (SLV) into space. The action may be intended as leverage to further pressure the West in the negotiations. It is widely suspected that Iran is seeking to connect its nuclear capabilities to launch vehicles for nuclear weapons. In response to a warning by Britain, France, and Germany (the 3E) that the nuclear deal would soon become a hollow shell, Ali Bakri-Kani, who heads the Iranian team for talks, called for real diplomacy instead of games of mutual accusations. After Irans launch of a powerful new three-stage rocket, the Zuljanah space launch vehicle (SLV), in February 2021, Iranians claimed that the rocket could loft a 500-pound payload as high as 310 miles. According to a Forbes Magazine analysis, the Zuljanah rocket is adequate to place a satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and, for Iran, a big step forward for both its space program and its effort to develop delivery vehicles for possible future nuclear warheads. The Zuljanah SLV was launched February 2021 and the Aerospace department of the Defense Ministry spokesman said that the SLV is equipped with two stages of solid propulsion and one stage of liquid propulsion and is capable of carrying satellites weighing up to 220 kilograms in a 500-kilometer orbit. A Space Launch Vehicle Is Not Just an SLV Indeed, Iran Watch warns that the systems that enable a space launch vehicle (SLV) to release a satellite at the right speed, in the right direction, and at the right time for it to enter orbit could also enable an ICBM to release its re-entry vehicle with a similar level of precision. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency found that the new Simorgh (Safir-2) SLV could be capable of ICBM ranges if configured as a ballistic missile. The new satellite images were taken over the Imam Khomeini Space Center in northeastern Irans Semnan province, a desert area 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Tehran. The photos indicate considerable activity at the space terminal, which reinforces assessments that Iran is about to launch a new space launch vehicle (SLV). The Imam Khomeini Spaceport is a permanent satellite launch site where ballistic missiles were previously launched. Despite several failed attempts, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force managed to launch for the first time a Noor-1 military satellite on April 22, 2020 on board an indigenous three-stage Qased SLV. General Jay Raymond, U.S. Space Command commander (SPACECOM) played down IRGC Commanders boast of a strategic achievement and tweeted, Iran states it has imaging capabilities  actually, its a tumbling webcam in space that is unlikely providing anything resembling valuable intelligence. According to Iranian media reports, several new satellites meet the final stages of preparation for launch, including Venus 2, Chapar 2, and Fares 1. On November 26, 2021, Irans Supreme Space Council meeting, chaired by President Ibrahim Raisi, was attended by the ministers of defense, communications and information technology, foreign affairs, and industry. Iranian media emphasized the fact, in an apparent slap at the government of outgoing President Rouhani, that the last council meeting took place 11 years ago. President Raisi stressed that space programs should be accelerated and that the space program can resolutely stand against Irans enemies. Issa Zare-Pur, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, stressed the need to accelerate the growth of the space industry and said he was surprised by the presidents pressing timetable for placing a satellite in space in a geocentric orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km within four years. He said Iran is currently conducting experiments to move a satellite from an altitude of 400 km to one of 10,000 km. Iran has placed non-military satellites in space using a Safir-2 SLV launch rocket and tested in 2016 an updated modified version of the Simorgh rocket, based on a North Korean Taepodong design. In 2017, Iran launched a low-earth orbit (LEO) observation satellite. An attempt to deploy an advanced photography Payam satellite failed in January 2019 failed. In 2020, Iran was again unsuccessful in its launch of a Zafar satellite for environmental and agriculture monitoring using the Simorgh launch rocket. The Iranian Ministry of Communications manages a satellite program for civilian needs with the assistance of the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force is conducting an independent space program. The minister also called for a return to the approach used during President Ahmadinejads government and to speed up space programs. The United States considers Irans satellite launches a violation of Security Council Resolution 2231, which was approved in July 2015. According to the resolution, Iran was called upon not to take any action involving ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Irans space programs, which were dormant under Rouhani, were accelerated as Irans response to the U.S. exit from the nuclear deal. The issue of Irans ballistic missile launches was mentioned in the 12th report of the UN Secretary-General (December 8, 2021) to the Security Council on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 2231. Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland), Security Council Facilitator for the implementation of Resolution 2231, said France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, and the United States provided information to the Secretary-General and the Security Council concerning a ballistic missile launch in May 2021 and two space launch vehicle tests in June 2021 by Iran. The Permanent Representatives of Israel and the United States noted that the two space launch vehicles incorporated technologies that were virtually identical to those used in ballistic missiles designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Geraldine Byrne Nason also said that the information circulated reflects divergent views among those Member States as to whether those launches are inconsistent with paragraph 3 of resolution 2231 (2015). Iran, as usual, refuses to discuss any issue related to its ballistic missile program and threatens to leave if the issue comes up during the Vienna talks. During the recent discussion on the implementation of SCR 2231, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Irans ambassador to the UN, reiterated Iran stance: Launches by Iran of ballistic missiles and space vehicles are completely outside of the purview of resolution, as developing a conventional missile program is an inherent right under international law. The current Vienna talks can succeed, he affirmed, not by setting artificial deadlines or introducing threats, unfounded accusations or disinformation campaigns, but only by engaging in negotiations with genuine political will and in good faith. IDF Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and at Acumen Risk Advisors. Home
Here comes the Demos' J6 anniversary party

By Mark Alexander

web posted December 20, 2021

Get ready for all the Demo drama...

We're a few weeks away from a massive celebration by the Democrat Party's rising ranks of socialist authoritarians and their Leftmedia propagandists  a day to remind the American people of the most disgraceful event associated with the Republican Party since the attempted Watergate cover-up.

I am referring, of course, to the Demo fanfare you can expect as we approach the one-year anniversary of the "insurrection," the January 6th (J6) Capitol riot.

Joe Biden and his leftist cadre of enablers, Kamala Harris , and the Demo tag-team duo of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, are hoping the J6 anniversary will be a booster shot for Biden's now-chronically abysmal approval ratings . Biden will commemorate this "darkest day in our democracy," but it's much less dark than his inauguration two weeks later.

Ironically, there was an actual and far more insidious insurrectionist coup attempt preceding J6  the Democrat deep-state conspiracy to take down Trump . But rioting Capitol idiots make much better political theater.

We have condemned the rioting J6 jackasses from the moment a split fraction of those attending Donald Trump's "stolen election" rally staged a brief but ugly occupation of the Capitol.

Given the civil and lawful tenor of all previous Trump rallies during his tenure, there was no reason to expect that some of those in attendance that day would resort to the riotous thuggery previously associated with "peaceful protests" by key Demo constituencies  their Black Lives Matter gangsters and antifa goons.

The J6 riot was far less deadly and destructive than any of the more than 550 riots by violent Democrat mobs that besieged our nation for six months prior to the "Capitol insurrection." It is estimated that there were more than 50 deaths directly associated with those violent riots, 19 in just the first two weeks of the " systemic racism " protests, including several police officers. There were billions of dollars in damages, all while Democrats remained mostly silent if not actively fomenting those riots.

If not for double standards, Democrats would have no standards.

But the J6 rioters and their protagonists certainly did inflict more damage on the Trump administration's exceptional policy legacy , and on conservatives generally, than anything Democrats could have hoped to achieve. Those self-aggrandizing thugs managed to defile the standing and reputation of every Liberty-loving and law-abiding conservative across our nation. Their obscene actions demeaned all Americans who supported the Trump administration's policies over the previous four years.

As for Trump's rally that preceded the riot, his references to Mike Pence, who stood by Trump through thick and thin, were disgraceful. So was the insinuation that Pence could simply and singlehandedly overturn a presidential election. Unfortunately, that fratricidal condemnation followed a pattern of infamous communications that have undermined Trump's policy successes.

However, we were far more concerned about what Trump did not say and do as his team was updating him in real time on the Capitol violence.

We now know, as a result of Nancy Pelosi's histrionic "insurrection" inquisition  a charade to perpetuate the J6 riot damage to the conservative brand  that the real-time information Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was receiving will be used to indict Trump's inaction.

To that end, Pelosi's patsy, Rep. Liz Cheney ("R"-WY), read a series of distressed text messages to Meadows for the record in committee hearings this week. According to Cheney: "These text messages leave no doubt. The White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol. Members of Congress, the press, and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway."

Among those messages were some from members of Congress. One read, "Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol." Another followed: "Breaking windows on doors. Rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?"

Most notably, there was this urgent message from Donald Trump Jr.: "He's got to condemn this s**t ASAP. ... We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand."

There was also a trio of messages from Fox News influencers.

"Can he make a statement?" asked Sean Hannity of Meadows "Ask people to leave the Capitol."

"Please, get him on TV," implored Brian Kilmeade. "Destroying everything you have accomplished."

Laura Ingraham also weighed in with urgency: "Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."

Ingraham is taking heat because she opened her Fox News program following the riot by saying: "This is the 'Ingraham Angle' from a chaotic Washington tonight. Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement. Now they were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd. We'll have more on that later. But the point remains, if you were a Trump supporter hoping to display your support for the president, well, today's antics at the Capitol did just the opposite. There are legitimate concerns about how these elections were conducted and in the middle of a pandemic with all the new restrictions, but that never should have lent any license to violence or other chaos."

"Antifa"? Maybe. But clearly what Ingraham said was correct and entirely consistent with her text to Meadows earlier in the day. There were agitators among the protesters who were not Trump supporters, and she concluded, as have we, that the riot undermined everything Trump and his supporters had achieved.

In rebuttal, Ingram said correctly : "The regime media is trying to twist this message to tar me as a liar ... to smear me as some Jan. 6 denier. The real big lie is the expansive narrative of Jan. 6 that these clowns have made the center of their political existence."

Indeed they have. The haters can't let it go.

Unfortunately, it was more than three hours after the violence started when Trump finally delivered a brief statement in which he again made references to the stolen election. But he did conclude by telling protesters: "We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace."

It was a week later that Trump finally denounced the violence : "Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could truly endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans. If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement. You are attacking it and you are attacking our country."

But that was much too little and too late to contain the enormous political damage done to his administration's legacy  and by extension to those who supported him. For the record, regardless of what Trump said or did not say on 06 January, it is the riotous Capitol jackasses, and other fringe elements across the nation that identify with their actions, who are directly to blame.

In the days and weeks that followed, we covered in detail the J6 lies Democrats told about the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick , and the unjustifiable shooting of protester Ashli Babbitt by an incompetent USCP officer .

Now, ramping up for the J6 anniversary, and endeavoring to propagate Biden's " white supremacist " bogeyman, last week the District of Columbia's attorney general filed suit against the outlier "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keepers" groups alleging they were co-conspirators in the Capitol attack .

Recall that Senate Republicans rejected a "bipartisan" commission investigation after Pelosi rejected Republicans Jim Jordan and Jim Banks as committee members out of fear that they would ask too many tough questions and reveal too many inconvenient truths. Had they acquiesced, the House investigation would have been required to conclude this month. Instead, there is no conclusion in sight. Mitch McConnell calculated that the damage that pretense at bipartisanship would have done would have been greater.

For his part, Meadows is now being held in contempt for claiming executive privilege regarding documents he has not turned over to Pelosi's cadre.

All said, the Biden/Pelosi J6 narrative should not stand without the full context of that event being exposed.

It is an opportunity to highlight the Demos' collusion with Leftmedia and Big Tech platforms to conceal Biden's corrupt ChiCom connection ahead of the 2020 election. It is an opportunity to expose the Demos' corrupt bulk-mail balloting fraud . It is an opportunity to expose the Demos' continuing collaboration with their suppressors of First Amendment rights .

And again, it is an opportunity to remind the American people that Pelosi and company desecrated the memory of USCP officer Brian Sicknick by lying about how he died, and they continue to prohibit any public investigation of the death of unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt.

Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post.
Can two per cent of Elon Musks wealth solve world hunger? By Trevor Stepp

web posted December 20, 2021 Recently, David Beasley, the Executive Director for the UN World Food Programme, made a very interesting claim that became an article on CNNs website. The title of this article was, two per cent of Elon Musk's wealth could help solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity organization. I came across this article and the ensuing discussion when I saw a Twitter post about it. Elon Musk actually replied to the post, saying, If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it. David Beasley replied with: Headline not accurate. $6B will not solve world hunger, but it will prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to COVID /conflict/climate crises. While I want to mostly focus on the CNN headline, there are a few things that struck me when I read Beasleys response. David Beasleys response to Musk, where he said Headline not accurate. $6B will not solve world hunger, but it will prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to Covid/conflict/climate crises stood out to me. Beasley is telling Musk that two per cent of his wealth (6 billion dollars) would be able to feed and save 42 million people. I dont know if this is a simple oversight, or if Beasley actually doesnt realize this, but Musk doesnt have $6 billion just sitting around, available to be used. I am quite sure that most of Musks wealth is in stocks. Musk could definitely sell $6 billion in stocks if he wanted (I think he sold $5.7 billion last week), but it affects the market. The CNN headline is definitely misleading and definitely not true. The headline claims that $6 billion (two per cent of Musks wealth) could help solve world hunger. There is a saying that sheds some light on this: Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime. Simply using money to provide food for millions of people will not work (which was David Beasleys plan) - money is not infinite. The 6 billion dollars may be able to provide for people and stave off hunger, but eventually that money is used up. An increasing growth rate of Per Capita GDP will permanently increase living conditions, hunger, etc. In order to bring about lasting change, it is important to improve human capital (education, for example) and technology. If resources and money were devoted towards educating the population and giving them the resources needed to succeed and grow the economy, perhaps real change could begin. One more problem with the UN donating Elon Musks money is the question of how much would actually reach the poor. While this seems like a cynical question, it seems a bit idealistic to believe that all the money would reach those it was meant for. I havent done enough research to truly form an opinion, but I have seen many claims that the UN had large sums of money to combat world hunger in the past. Many people say that the UN barely used any of the money to actually feed the poor and to fight poverty. CNNs headline is misleading and definitely not true. The only way to improve living conditions and hunger is by investing in the people - creating better education for more people - and by having technological progress, which is the main driver behind economic growth. This is Trevor Stepps first contribution to Enter Stage Right. (c) 2021 Trevor Stepp Home
SUPPORT ETAN Now!

Support ETAN and our work for justice, human rights and democracy. Please donate today!

Dear friends,



With your help and support, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has been protecting the lives and safety of the people under the heavy thumb of Indonesia's security forces for thirty years.



ETAN was founded soon after the November 1991 Santa Cruz massacre. That tragic event, broadcast around the world, made many aware of the critical situation of the countries under Indonesian rule and inspired the founding of ETAN and many other solidarity groups.



Since then, ETAN has if anything intensified its efforts in solidarity with the peoples of the Indonesian achipelago. Now in our 30th year, and with your support, we can continue our pursuit of justice for the many victims of the crimes of Indonesia's security forces, from the coup in 1965 that brought the dictator Suharto to power, through the illegal invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste, to the ongoing human rights violations against West Papuans.



But we need your help to keep up the pressure on the U.S. government to acknowledge its role in arming and training the perpetrators of those crimes. In this season, when those of us who seek peace and justice throughout the world tend to reflect on what we can do in the coming months, please consider the ongoing crises of human rights violations that still lie at Indonesia's door.



Donate here; https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=7238MMMKZV2GY



Your gift will help us maintain and strengthen ETAN's crucial information sharing via email and on social media. Our Timor news listserv recently exceeded 10,000 subscribers with more added each day. These and many others - perhaps including you - depend on ETAN to stay informed about important news and analysis about Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and West Papua via our listservs, social media and website.





This coming year, we will be focusing on protecting the rights of the people of West Papua, particularly around their struggle for self-determination, among other critical efforts.

We are also excited to be planning a virtual meeting in 2022 with Timorese studying abroad. And of course we will continue to keep you informed about all our work for human rights in that important part of the globe.



In this season of hope for peace and good will everywhere, please give what you can to contribute to these and other ETAN initiatives.



Thank you for any support you can provide.



Thank you,

John M. Miller

Coordinator, ETAN
Written by ACM



*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- The "Hot" Topical Issue of EU's Digital Act against DisInformation, and respect of ECHR's well Established case-law on Democratic Freedom of Expression, particularly when it comes to Delicate Issues, such as, f.ex., Press Liberty, and EU's Strange Insistance to still Delay any Authorisation of Not even 1 "Classic" Technology Vaccine, (of the kind invented by Louis Pasteur and Tested during 2 Centuries), against the Deadly Virus, Despite the existence of Many, including 3 already Officialy Recognized by the WHO, "is Not Easy !", acknowledged EU Parliament's vice-President, and Shadow Rapporteur, Czech MEP Dita Charanzova, in Reply to an "Eurofora" Question at an Hybrid Press-Conference Today, together with the President of mainstream "ReNew" (Liberal) Group of MEPs, Stefan Sejourne from France.

With more than 255 Amendments Tabled in Plenary, (All of them in "RCV"), just for the "Market" Part, followed by about ...3.200 Amendments in Committee, for the "Services" Part, more Crucial for EU Citizens' and/or Press Medias' Liberty, (Now Voted in Committee, and due to be Voted in Plenary on January 2022), the overall EU "Digital Act", (Drafted, respectively, by German MEP Andreas Schwab, a Christian-Democrat from nearby Baden-Wurttemberg, [Comp. Schwab's past Statements to "Eurofora", f.ex. at http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/schaublemnacehollandecontretraiteeurzone.html, http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/eucommissionermimicaondigitalnetworksandconsumerstravelapp.html, etc], and Danish SocialDemocrat MEP Christel Schaldemose), is a Huge "Submarine", whose Votes extend from Tuesday to Wednesday, 14-15 December 2021, up to 18-19 January 2022 included, i.e. Starting Negotiations with EU Council's Member States' Governments during the incoming French EU Presidency, (January - June 2022).

including a lot of possible Variants, particularly on so-called "GateKeepers", and/or "Compliance Officers", etc., around various eventual "Complains", concerning Member States, EU Commission, etc., often complicated... But its Supporters' basic Claim is that People feeling that they might have, eventualy, be Unfairly Treated, particularly by Content Suppression and/or Internet Accounts' Freezing, etc., would, at least, have "a Complain" Mecanism at their disposal, (but mostly Avoiding to go into Concrete Details now at this Delicate Issue : See also Infra).

------------------------------

- "Eurofora"'s Question, pointing at the Fact that "ReNew"'s President Sejourne had Spoken Both of the forthcoming EU Brussels' Summit of Heads of State/Government, particularly on "Vaccines", (also Discussed in EU Parliament on Wednesday), AND of that "Digital Act", raised a Couple of Topical Issues of Crucial Importance for EU Citizens :

 (A) Whether, in order to Alleviate a Current Mistrust vis a vis the only Available 4 Vaccines inside the EU, (All Based on Novel Tools, such as "mRNA", "Virus vector", etc), it might be Helpful to Facilitate Vaccinations also by Authorizing for EU Citizens at least 1 new Vaccine based on the "Classical" Technology Invented by World-Famous European Louis Pasteur (former French Professor at Strasbourg University), well Tested and widely Used in massive Practice during around 2 Centuries now :

 By a Timely Coincidence, the WHO has Just Authorized also a 3rd such "Classical" Vaccine against the COVID Virus, on November 2021, added to 2 Others, which had Already been Authorized many Months Earlier, (i.e. 2 from China, and 1 from India = 3), which had, apparently, some Positive Effects, and Started to Circulate throughout All Continents of the World, (probably Followed by Other 2 from Cuba soon, etc).

+ Moreover, it's Also a Fact that the Absolute Majority of 180 Vaccines which have Reached a crucial "Phase 3" Trial until recently, were, precisely, Based on a Similar "Classical" Technology, (wich does Not Affect the Human Genome : See http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/majorityvaccinesclassicbutnotyeteu.html)...



 However, Curiously, EU's EMA Still Persists to Abstain from Authorizing Not Even One among all those "Classical" Technology Vaccines, thereby Insisting into practicaly Submitting all EU Citizens only to a Few Controversial Novel Tech. Vaccines, (which all Affect the Human Genome, either through the "mRNA" or the "Virus Vector" New and Controversial Tools, which have Notoriously Started recently to Show their Limits and/or Open Question Marks : See Facts, inter alia, also, f.ex., at : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/fewfakevaccinesfascismcrashes.html + http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/germanpeoplevoteotherright.html + http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/pfizerfakevaccineboomsvirusinaustralia.html, etc). And this, Despite also the fact that those Few (4) Authorized Fake-"Vaccines" notoriously proved Unable to face New "Variants" of the Virus, unless they are Modified and/or Repeated, again and again, during the Forthcoming Months, f.ex. via a 3rd or Even 4rth "Dose", in Addition to a "Booster", etc., each 3 Months, (something Unheard of in the whole History of True Vaccines !), and Nonobstant "Variants", as that of "Delta", or particularly the Latest "Omicron", which apparenly risk to make those few Controversial "Vaccines" almost Inoperant, by seriously Altering the 1 Protein of the "Spike" of the Virus, notoriously Targeted by those "mRNA" Novel Tools, (while, on the Contrary, the "Classic" Vaccines aim at a much Wider OverView of the whole Virus, reportedly being Able to Spot it Also in Various Other Ways).

+ (B) On this Occasion, We Also asked which were "the Essentials" in those "Complain" Mecanisms, thanks to which, EU Citizens eventualy Feeling that they might have been Treated "UnFairly", (f.ex. by excessive Censorship, etc), could, reportedly, Ask an efficent Redress, according to the well Established Case-Law of the PanEuropean, CoE's Human Rights' Court, in Strasbourg, and/or EU's Act on Rights, monitored by EU's Court of Justice at nearby Luxembourg, particularly as Journalists' Freedom is concerned in "delicate" cases.

------------------------------------------

- Mainstream "ReNew" (Liberals) Group of MEPs' President, Stephane Sejourne, immediately Replied that he took "Eurofora"'s Question as raising an Issue about "Vaccines and Press Freedom", as he Resumed the overall move, (also excusing himself for having mainly missed its first part, particularly after a rapid switch-over from an Initialy English to a finaly French presentation of the above-mentioned points), and urged EU Parliament's vice-President Dita Charanzova to react on that entire matter, (Kindly Adding that he would be "Glad" to, eventualy, Personaly Reply Also to the Part that he had Missed, if we Noted it at the Video-Chat linked to that Hybrid Press Conference).

-------------------------------------



=> Vice-President Charanzova, (who participated, just a few Minutes Later, Also to a Specific Press Conference dedicated on EU's Draft "Digital Services Act" : Comp. Supra), agreed with "Eurofora" that : - Indeed, "the Biggest Discussion we (EU Parliament) had around that topic, was how to Find the Right Balance between the Freedom of Expression, between the Freedom that we have now at the Internet, and the spread of DisInformation and Fake News on line".

- "It's Not an Easy Task !", she acknowledged...

- "But (EU) Parliament went Further than the (EU) Council, because We (MEPs) Wanted the (Web) Platforms to take a much More Responsible stance !".

=> "So, they (Web Platforms) will have to go through the Risk Assessment : To see What is actually happening in their Websites. How it Influences the Society as such. How Far they (Internet Users/EU Citizens) have gone, and What they have actually done".

- For that purpose, "there is a Lot in our hands, and there will be Legal Pressure on them (Web Platforms) to do so", she Warned.

>>> "And I will be Happy to see - Because, I think, one of the Topics was on Vaccination politics (Comp. f.ex. also "Eurofora"'s Question's 1st Part, above) - that Fakes and DisInformation on Vaccination Stops on line : It's one Example of what will Happen, If this New Legislation (Digital Services Act) is adopted", Charanzova vowed.

-----------------------------------

Surprizingly, however, "Eurofora"'s above-mentioned Question did Not receive a real Answer, now in Strasbourg, Neither on whether the Authorisation, by the EU, of a "Classical" Technology Vaccine (among the 3 Already Authorized by the WHO, which do Not Affect the Human Genome, etc) might Facilitate Vacinations of still Hesitating EU Citizens, Nor on What are the Essentials of that "Complain" Mechanism in the Draft Digital Services Act which would Respect ECHR's case-Law on Press Freedom of expression, avoiding Eventual Abuse of Censorship by some uncontrolable, Big private Web Platforms, (Comp. Supra)...

-----------

+ Indeed, Not Even a Written Reminder of that 1st Part of Our original Question, Added also through that "Hybrid" Press-Cnference's "Chat", (as "ReNew" Group President Sejourne had Proposed : Comp. Supra,and Attached Herewith), did Not Receive any Answer Today, Despite also the Fact that this is a Topical Issue, and integral part of the Forefront in the forthcoming EU Summit's official Agenda for Heads of State/Governments in Brussels, just a couple of Days Later-on (16 Dec. 2021) !

=> How could, then, in Consequence, EU Citizens Believe such Blatant "Fake News" and "DisInformation", as some (Other) Establishment's Politicians served them, through Big Medias, by Claiming, Recently, that, on the Contrary, EU Countries would "Give a Free Choice" to the People about "What kind of Vaccines" they Prefer (i.e. Including Between "Classic" Technology, Already Tested during 2 Centuries since Louis Pasteur, which do Not Affect the Human Genome and do Not have too Many Risks to provoke UnKnown yet, seriously Negative "Side Effects" some Years Later, or, on the Contrary, some "Novel Tools", as "mRNA" and/or "Virus Vector", which notoriously May Affect the Human Genome, and/or, Perhaps Reveal some Never Seen Before "Side Effects" during the Next few Years) ?

>>> Let's leave the Answer to that Question to current and future Readers, on such a Topical and Crucial Issue for Human Health and even Life, as well as Democratic Press Freedom, particularly in Europe Nowadays (for the 2nd Time at the EpiCenter of a Deadly Pandemic), which Obviously Deserved a Serious, Urgent, Science-Based and Crystal-clear Public Debate by All involved, instead of Risking to be Swept Under the Carpet...

(../..)

("Draft-News")
Forget about Joe Biden's grandiose early analogies to FDR. While COVID-19 is on the rise and the core of Biden's domestic plan is in jeopardy, he runs the risk of being compared to Jimmy Carter.

That is a president who is seen as honorable and well-intentioned, but who even some supporters worry is not up to the task, particularly when events beyond his control occur. Biden's Democratic Party is fracturing more as the dreaded midterm elections approach.

Joe Biden faces new perils over dealing with COVID-19

The Build Back Better bill, which is filled with the president's aspirations on climate change, the social safety net, and taxation, received a body blow - potentially a deadly one - from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

The White House retaliated with terminology that is rarely used against someone who is thought to be rehabilitable by leaders. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, questioned Manchin's honesty, stating his remarks "reflect a sudden and unexplained turnaround in his viewpoint, as well as a breach of his obligations to the President and the Senator's colleagues in the House and Senate," USA Today reported.

In a Senate split 50-50 between two fiercely opposed parties, losing even one Democratic vote makes it all but impossible to imagine the bill passing. The emergence of COVID-19 is as concerning as the president's domestic agenda's apparent failure.

The crisis propelled Biden's candidacy more than any other subject, and bringing it under control has been the defining issue by which his presidency has been assessed. He promised a year ago, as president-elect, that the country would be practically back to normal by Christmas. He announced in March that July 4 will "begin to recognize our freedom from this sickness."

With a member of his own party undermining his agenda and a pandemic raging out of control once again, President Joe Biden enters his second year in office with the core premise of his presidency in jeopardy.

Read Also: Why Joe Biden Wants To Extradite Julian Assange to The US? Fiancee Accuses UK Authorities of Playing "Executioner"

Manchin kills Biden's social spending and climate plan

Biden was already having trouble on several fronts before Sunday. Images from recent days have hurt the president's primary message to voters, including rising COVID-19 case numbers, long waits at testing centers, and stubbornly high costs on the market. They've also fueled a nationwide climate of dissatisfaction, which has damaged him in the polls, as per POLITICO.

Although Biden's party controls all branches of government, stories of gridlock and intraparty rivalry have dominated the news for months, painting an ugly picture of a government that is not only failing to deliver on the president's promises but also overwhelmed by the problems it faces.

Biden finishes 2021 with poor poll numbers and mounting Democratic fears that they would lose at least one, if not both, chambers of Congress in the impending midterm elections.

Republicans praised Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Sunday after announcing his opposition to President Joe Biden's Build Back Better program. With Republicans solidly rejecting the bill, Manchin's backing is critical for Democrats to pass it. Both parties have an equal number of senators in the Senate.

Per Newsweek via MSN, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set a Christmas deadline for the bill's approval. Democrats are worried that if they don't get Manchin on board to approve the bill, it could hurt their chances in the 2022 midterm elections.

Related Article: Joe Biden Admits Sweeping Domestic Policy Bill; Build Back Better Plan Won't Likely To Pass This Year

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An online petition asking for the sentence to be lowered has been signed by more than four million people only days after a Colorado court sentenced a truck driver to 110 years in prison for his involvement in a 2019 incident that killed four people.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving a truck on Interstate 70 in Denver on April 25, 2019, when it collided with three vehicles, killing four people. He was convicted guilty of 27 charges in October, including vehicular murder and vehicular assault.

Petition to grant clemency attracts 4 million signatures

On the 13th of December, a district court judge, A. Mr. Aguilera-Mederos, now 26, was sentenced to more than a century in prison by Colorado state judge Bruce Jones, citing a Colorado state rule that required terms for each offense to be served consecutively rather than concurrently. The long sentence received quick criticism, even from the judge, who told Reuters, "If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentencing."

The Denver Post encouraged Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to commute the harsh sentence and urged state legislators to modify the statute that required it in a December 15 editorial.

According to Aguilera-Mederos, the major reason for the incident was faulty brakes. The firm he was driving for, Castellano 03 Trucking LLC in Houston, did not immediately respond to messages left at phone lines related to the company, according to local news sources.

Prosecutors have claimed that Aguilera-Mederos was to blame for the fatalities because of multiple mistakes he made behind the wheel, including not guiding the lumber-hauling truck into a runaway truck ramp on the highway.

"Sending an employee to a lifetime-and-a-half in jail as a result of a catastrophe coming from equipment failure isn't going to do anyone any favors," Jalopnik, a prominent automobile website, stated the day after The Denver Post editorial ran.

Read Also: Authorities Charge Pennsylvania Teen After Fatally Shooting 5-Year-Old Brother Using Father's Gun

Family members don't believe Aguilera-Menderos was a victim

According to a petition on Change.org, what transpired was a "tragic accident," and Polis should either offer Aguilera-Mederos mercy or a commutation. It had gathered over 4.2 million signatures by Sunday. Polis' spokesman, Conor Cahill, said that "we welcome an application from the defense and would expedite processing, but that "we have not yet received one."

Colgan stated that he intends to seek a reduction of his sentence, rather than a pardon, which absolves or forgives the offense. A commutation would not affect the jury's decision to convict Aguilera-Mederos, but it would affect how much time he would serve in prison if any.

Aguilera-Mederos' sentence should not be modified, according to Gage Evans, the wife of William Bailey, who was killed in the tragedy. Instead, she believes state lawmakers should reconsider the statute that requires him to serve each of his sentences in order.

She and other victims' family members disagree with the "public narrative" that Aguilera-Mederos was a victim. A spokesperson for the Colorado First Judicial District Attorney's Office, Michael W. Teague, said the driver's conduct that day had "severe consequences," as per The NY Times.

Teague said in a statement that the 110-year sentence, in this case, is "within the purview of the court and reflects the legislature's judgment." If an appeal is filed, "we will again pursue an appropriate outcome if that opportunity arises, after consulting with the victims and survivors and receiving their input," he said.

Following Aguilera-Mederos' sentencing, the Truck Safety Coalition, which works with relatives of truck accident victims, issued a strong statement addressed at trucking corporations.

Related Article: Daunte Wright Trial: Kim Potter Breaks Down While Testifying as She Recalls "Chaotic" Shooting, Claims Victim Never Threatened Police

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Boris Johnson is dealing with new leadership issues as he recovers from the departure of Brexit chief Lord Frost. As the PM's adversaries encircled him, he was told that he may be deposed in months.

To defeat COVID-19, senior Conservatives pushed him to reorganize his inner circle and become the "wartime leader" Britain requires. Lord Frost, a close friend, resigned from the Cabinet, criticizing No. 10's "path of travel." He encouraged the Prime Minister to develop an economy that is "lightly regulated and low-taxed."

Brexit minister Lord Frost resigns

Per The Sun, he also cautioned about "coercive" COVID-19 measures like vaccination passports and mandatory mask use. Conservative MPs on the Clean Brexit WhatsApp group lauded him as a hero after he resigned.

However, after writing that the actual hero of Brexit is the Prime Minister, Brexit hardman Steve Baker threw Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries out of the talk. If Johnson falls, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are vying for the Tory leadership. Truss will now take over Lord Frost's responsibilities, including managing post-Brexit negotiations with the EU, bolstering her credentials.

Following Lord Frost's surprise departure from the government last night over his displeasure with the Conservative government's course, the former Labor MP launched an unwarranted assault on him. MacShane said Lord Frost was unfit for his post despite expressing a love for him and his "gentle demeanor" when the former Brexit negotiator worked for him as an official, as per Express.co.

He also expressed his disappointment with the current situation of the Brexit deal and the harm it has done to the Good Friday Agreement by implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol. He also mentioned how the Northern Ireland Protocol's shortcomings have exacerbated sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost is thought to have handed in his resignation to Boris Johnson earlier this month after failing to back a number of Conservative Party initiatives. Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan-Smith is expected to take over as Brexit negotiator from Lord Frost. Political commentator Emma Webb said on Sunday that she thinks Lord Frost is "right at the top" of the list of prospective Prime Minister replacements for Boris Johnson.

Read Also: Australia's Scott Morrison Becomes Subject of COVID-19 Scare After Attending School Event; Prime Minister Says Omicron Variant Won't Lead to New Restrictions

Boris Johnson considering ban on household mixing this Christmas

Boris Johnson is contemplating on pushing the public to limit home mixing during the Christmas season although he risks a new spat with his Cabinet. According to the Telegraph, the Prime Minister has been given three alternatives for more limits to stop the spread of Omicron, which were put up by authorities.

Families would be urged to minimize indoor interaction at the most basic level of intervention with no legal consequences. Option two, on the other hand, would impose restrictions on home mingling, reintroduce social separation, and impose an 8 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants. The third option is to return to complete lockdown.

Cabinet ministers, on the other hand, cautioned on Sunday that such restrictions would not be "stomached" by them. Lord Frost, the Brexit negotiator, has already left the Prime Minister because of the Plan B COVID-19 measures. One other Cabinet member would be willing to join him and resign if lockdowns were reinstated.

The proposals also face a reaction from business as the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was told on Sunday that unless he commits to a package of help, 10,000 pubs and eateries may be forced to close permanently. The sector is already suffering as a result of a lack of funding.

Related Article: UK Raises COVID-19 Alert Level to 4 Amid Rapid Increase of Omicron Variant Cases; Boris Johnson Unveils New Jab Plan

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The Graves County Sheriff's Office claimed Saturday that five Kentuckians were detained for allegedly stealing automobiles, shoes, copper wire, and other household things from victims in a southwestern section of the state that was "especially badly struck by the storm and resulted in deaths."

The robberies occurred a week after a devastating storm ripped across the state, killing at least 78 people and demolishing over 1,000 houses.

Suspects steal from tornado-damaged homes

On Friday afternoon, sheriff's investigators got a tip of suspicious behavior barely half a mile from a candle business that was destroyed in the storms, killing eight people. When deputies arrived, they were able to stop the gang from fleeing the scene with stolen vehicles in tow. Methamphetamine was found in the possession of two of the suspects, as per Fox News.

After the substance was reportedly discovered buried in her bodily cavities, Kaitlyn Moore, 29, was charged with theft by unauthorized taking of a vehicle, tampering with physical evidence, and possession of methamphetamine.

According to law authorities, Linda Morris, 52, was apprehended with copper wiring, a new pair of "Ugg" boots that she had stolen from someone's residence, and needles carrying methamphetamine. She is charged with theft and unauthorized taking of a car, possession of methamphetamine, driving while her license is suspended, and theft of personal property.

Kevin Stowe, 55, was reportedly caught with more than $120,000 in cash and a stolen license plate while driving a car. The theft of a car and theft of a vehicle registration plate were both charges against him. Ronnie White, 57, and Lynne Bailey, 56, were both charged with removing a car without permission.

At least 11 individuals have been detained across the state for looting tornado-damaged property, including the Graves County suspects. According to Attorney General Daniel Cameron, four Michigan men were apprehended taking stuff from damaged houses and automobiles in neighboring Caldwell County.

The Michiganders were charged with burglary tools, receiving stolen items, pistol possession by a convicted felon, and marijuana possession. Cameron said in a news statement that anyone who tries to take advantage of Kentuckians would face the full power of the law, Daily Mail reported.

Gov. Andy Beshear cautioned against looting in devastated regions on Friday, calling it vile and promising that anybody found guilty will be punished to the maximum extent of the law.

According to ABC News, the tornadoes on December 10 killed at least 93 people in five states, including 78 in Kentucky. Illinois had six victims, Tennessee had five, Arkansas had two, and Missouri had two. In Kentucky, the victims range in age from 2 months to 98 years old.

More than 100 Mayfield Consumer Products candle manufacturing employees endured a tornado inside the plant, with some claiming they were buried beneath up to five feet of rubble.

Read Also: Authorities Charge Pennsylvania Teen After Fatally Shooting 5-Year-Old Brother Using Father's Gun

Police warns tornado victims of possible scams

Post 1 of the Kentucky State Police has received many reports regarding fake disaster assistance volunteers. They might be acting as FEMA personnel, American Red Cross volunteers, insurance adjusters, debris disposal firms, or general contractors.

While there have been complaints of fake personnel, actual FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams, home inspectors, and other authorities are operating in storm-affected communities. FEMA representatives that are legitimate will have official identity badges with picture IDs and will know your FEMA application number.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Representatives from the Small Business Administration never charge applicants for disaster relief, inspections, or assistance in filling up government aid applications. FEMA agents are never permitted to acquire your personal financial information or guarantee a disaster aid in exchange for payment, as per WPSD Local 6.

Related Article: Amazon Workers Speak Against Phone Ban After Several Colleagues Die of Deadly Tornadoes in Illinois

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling on United States President Joe Biden for assistance as the region continues to struggle in fighting off the rising number of infections caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The coronavirus surge caused by the new variant has forced authorities to cancel the city's Radio City Music Hall's annual "Christmas Spectacular" scheduled for the weekend. It also resulted in Saturday Night Live featuring a broadcast without a live studio audience and having only a small cast.

Help From the Federal Government

In a statement, de Blasio said that the White House needed to invoke the Defense Production Act that would help in assisting to provide a larger number of at-home tests. The official said that it would also help in giving access to monoclonal antibody treatments.

The NYC mayor said that the Democratic leader's administration should work on fast-tracking approval of an antiviral pill from Pfizer. During a briefing on Sunday, de Blasio said that his city needed help immediately. He argued that New Yorkers needed a lot of support from the federal government as the new variant continues to devastate the region, Politico reported.

De Blasio also announced that the city will be opening more testing sites to help identify the spread of the new Omicron variant. Fear of the surge of infections has caused long lines at testing sites, with the NYC mayor saying that the "world has changed." He noted that the demand for testing for the coronavirus has spiked.

Read Also: Joe Biden Faces Perils Over COVID-19 Cases Rise, Social Spending; President Vows Competence, Order

New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed that Sunday was the day where the city observed the third day in a row of record-high positive cases for COVID-19. Across the state, officials recorded 22,478 cases, with 12,404 of which coming from New York City alone.

Amid criticisms of delayed testing, de Blasio argued that there was no indication of how the Omicron variant would spread. The official said that the moment they observed the potential effects of the new variant, they ramped up testing across the region, CBS News reported.

Vaccinations and Booster Shots

During the NYC mayor's Sunday address, he and Mayor-elect Eric Adams promoted vaccinations and booster shots in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In the past week, the city has observed a spiking number of coronavirus infections, with cases doubling within days.

The two officials delivered a unified message to New York residents: get vaccinated and get boosted now. The recommendations come as the city's health department released data that showed about 71% of all residents in New York are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus infection.

"Vaccination remains vital even against Omicron because it can protect you from severe disease," said Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner on Sunday. The medical professional, who is New York's top doctor, referred to the new variant as the "fastest, fittest, and more formidable" one yet, NBC New York reported.

In his last days in office, de Blasio said that New York has become better equipped to handle the coronavirus pandemic than in previous waves. He acknowledged that while there have been significant increases in infection rates, vaccines, booster shots, and expanded testing apparatus helped in curbing the spread of the virus.



Related Article: Joe Biden Seems Out of Touch; Democrats Under Stress Due to Foreseen Loss in 2022 Midterm Elections

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The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund has set aside about $40 billion in stimulus check relief for students and institutions. Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan includes this as a key component. Most institutions have been distributing stimulus funds to their students to assist them in covering their costs.

The University of George Washington earned over $9.1 million in the first round of stimulus funding last year, and nearly $14 million in the second and third rounds. Students who were enrolled in that university on or after March 13, 2020, were deemed eligible for the payment.

Students receive stimulus payments

Nearly 10,000 candidates have gotten government help, according to the majority of university administrators. One of them, student Lexi Plaisted, was taken aback when she got a $800 stimulus check. She added that she didn't expect to receive anything because there were others who had been impacted far more than she had been- but that she believed she could have a chance, so she proceeded with it.

At the same time, Kyle Andersen, a junior studying political science at the same college, reported that he had received a $2,500 stimulus payment from the HEERF the previous month. To pay for his education, he now works two jobs; and the stimulus payment would cover the expenditures associated with his photography minor.

A $10,000 stimulus check was also given to roughly 956 students at Meharry Medical College. A total of $642,674 was distributed by Bushnell University to 206 students, as per Digital Market News.

Read Also: Is It Possible To Receive Plus-Up Payments After December 2021? Deadline To Claim Stimulus Check Is Quickly Approaching

States that provide stimulus checks even after Christmas

Although hopes for a fourth stimulus check from the federal government have been shattered, several states will still be handing out cash to people ahead of the holidays. So far, three rounds of stimulus checks have been conducted: one in April 2020, another in December 2020 and still another in March 2021. According to USA Today, states that have approved laws to issue stimulus checks include:

Maine

California

Maryland

Tennessee

Florida

Georgia

Michigan

California is giving out another batch of $1,100 stimulus checks to residents who earned less than $75,000 in the fiscal year 2020. You must have paid your taxes by October 15, not be a dependent, and have lived in California for more than half of 2020.

According to Maine Revenue Services, these relief checks are intended to "assist Maine citizens who worked throughout the pandemic." The payment will be $285, and it will be issued by Maine Revenue Services.

Families will earn $500 and individuals would receive $300 if they register for the Earned Income Tax Credit under the Maryland Relief Act of 2021. There is no need to apply for relief, just as there isn't one for government stimulus money.

In December, Florida will provide stimulus payments to first responders and educators who work with children. Payments of up to $1,000 are available to teachers and principals. Georgia has adopted a similar strategy, awarding $1,000 in stimulus money to teachers and principals for their efforts during the pandemic.

As part of the Michigan Child Care Stabilization Grant, every full-time child care professional will receive a $1,000 incentive. Licensed child care providers are eligible to apply and can do so by going to Michigan.gov/childcare. Full-time teachers will get a $1,000 hazard pay extra while part-time instructors would receive $500.

Thousands of kids throughout America have received stimulus payments worth up to $3,000 only weeks before Christmas. As part of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, about $40 billion in pandemic assistance was provided to students and institutions through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.

Students have received stimulus payments to assist them in covering their expenditures. The first series of payments to George Washington University was $9.1 million, with the second and third instalments totaling roughly $14 million.

Students who enrolled at the institution on or after March 13, 2020 were eligible to apply. According to The Hatchet, around 10,000 people have received payouts.

Related Article: Stimulus Checks Worth $575 Million Coming in January 2022; Who's Eligible for New Payments Next Year?

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According to authorities, all four persons onboard a small plane, including two children, died after the aircraft crashed into seas off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on Sunday.

Queensland police inspector Craig White said the four-seater aircraft took off from Redcliffe airstrip, north east of Brisbane, for a "joy ride" but crashed at approximately 9 a.m. local time. It went off the end of the runway near Redcliffe, some 32 kilometers northeast of Brisbane's main city.

Four dead in Australia light plane crash

Officer White said members of the 69-year-old pilot's family were there at the time of the crash at the Redcliffe airport. The identity of another guy and two additional children, who White said as "younger than teenagers" and not believed to be linked to the pilot, are still unknown, The Independent reported.

After the disaster, images showed the Rockwell International plane floating upside down in Moreton Bay. Officer White stated that when the jet did not return, the families became anxious, and they learned of the situation through social media posts.

Commissioner Angus Mitchell of the Australian Transportation Safety Board stated that investigations are underway to determine the cause of the disaster. In six to eight weeks, a report on the likely cause of the crash would be ready. Police and divers battled because the plane was in a challenging location in the marsh, according to Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll.

The jet was seen floating upside down in the wake of the catastrophe while water police and forensic divers worked on the area. He requested anybody with information or who saw the incident to contact Queensland Police or the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The ATSB was trying to recover the wreckage, but Mitchell said it was difficult to get a barge in since the tide had gone out.

Queensland police commissioner Katarina Carroll said early on Sunday that officers and divers were faced with a tough situation. The incident occurred near Redcliffe Airport, however it is unknown how long the plane was in the air or what caused it to crash. The plane's pilot was not a Redcliffe Aero Club member.

Per NDTV, it was a "tragic accident" in the run-up to Christmas, according to police inspector Craig White. "This is the very last thing any family has to deal with at this time of year," he added.

Read Also: US-Japan Hold Military Drills Amid Escalating Tensions Against China, Russia; Tokyo Voices Support for Taiwan

Debris transported to a site for further investigation

The four-seater plane was seen upside down in the water in local media photographs. According to preliminary reports, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, but officials have demanded a complete investigation to identify the cause.

Additional investigators from the national capital Canberra will be dispatched to assist in the investigation, according to the Air Transport Safety Bureau. Katarina Carroll had earlier informed local media that the first reaction had been hampered by difficult weather. The wreckage from the disaster location might take some time to recover, according to authorities.

The debris is being transported to a safe site at the Redcliffe Aerodrome, where investigators will attempt to collect particular components to transfer to Canberra for investigation.

ATSB investigators have begun questioning witnesses and individuals involved, as well as reviewing recorded data, meteorological information, and pilot and maintenance records.

Shortly after take-off, the Rockwell Commander 114 single-engine light aircraft crashed into the ocean along the beach, landing upside down. There were no people who survived.

Lincom Group, a quarry, mining, and forestry supply company, paid respect to its founder, who died in the incident. The children were ten and nine years old, according to authorities. On behalf of the state government, Queensland MP Stirling Hinchliffe, whose Sandgate district is near the accident site north of Brisbane, lend condolences on Monday.

When the single-engine, four-seater plane failed to return, Inspector Craig White said the pilot's relatives at the airfield became aware of the disaster when they began looking at social media. The ATSB plans to provide preliminary results in the next six to eight weeks, followed by a final report, as AAP via MSN.

Related Article: Woman Dies After Car Plunges in Freezing Waters of Niagara Falls in a Heroic Attempt to Rescue Trapped Driver

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Due to safety concerns, Queen Elizabeth II has advised Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, to avoid flying helicopters with his wife Kate Middleton and their children. Her Majesty is said to be "terrified" that an unanticipated disaster may occur, jeopardizing the succession.

According to a source close to the 95-year-old monarch, she communicated her worries to the future king, stating she is scared that any tragedy may occur. Senior royals are barred from flying together, according to an unwritten norm.

Queen Elizabeth might cancel Christmas walkabout

When Prince William's family grew and began to spend their time between London and Norfolk, the procedure was relaxed, as per Republic World. Since his birth, Prince William, 39, the oldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana has been the second in line to the British throne.

Meanwhile, after leaving the royal service for a life in California, a change in the line of succession might place Prince Harry and his wife Meghan on the throne. The Queen spoke with Prince William numerous times after he flew his family 115 miles from Kensington Palace to their home in Norfolk, according to the article.

It comes after a detailed inquiry of two near-misses on a single royal helicopter flight was requested. Prince William is a skilled and qualified pilot who served in the Royal Air Force as a search and rescue pilot for five years.

Meanwhile, the Queen may call off the Christmas Day walkabout due to concerns that it may turn into an Omicron super spreader event. Thousands of royal fans usually assemble to Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on December 25 to meet members of the Royal Family.

Per The Sun, some fans wait in line since the early hours of the morning to see the royal family. Meanwhile, The Queen's family Christmas party was canceled earlier this week due to COVID-19 worries.

Her Majesty expressed her "regret that the annual royal gathering would not go place as scheduled, but stated it was the proper thing to do." The Omicron variant has been spreading across the UK, putting "too many people's Christmas arrangements at risk if it went forward," according to the plan.

Read Also: Kate Middleton Is "Really Upset" About Estrangement From Prince Harry, Meghan Markle; Sussexes May Slipt in 2022, Expert Claims

Palace insists Queen Elizabeth is not lonely despite being confined

Although Queen Elizabeth II is mostly confined to Windsor Castle, palace officials claim she is not lonely. Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, died in April, just ahead of his 100th birthday. In recent months, a number of close friends have also died.

A source said in the latest issue of PEOPLE Royals, which came out on Friday, that the queen has an intimate "bubble" of people with whom she is close. During the summer, Queen Elizabeth began entertaining friends in Windsor for lunches and dinners, according to the publication. They also liked to stay up late watching television.

The queen's close circle is said to include Lady Susan Hussey, Lady Annabel Whitehead, Lady Elizabeth Leeming, Prince Charles' old nanny Mabel Anderson, and Susan Rhodes.

Queen Elizabeth is seldom seen alone, according to the source, and is frequently accompanied by personal assistant Angela Kelly and footman Paul Whybrew. Palace employees also work diligently to ensure that the queen's residence is "a cheerful place," Fox News reported.

In addition, because her son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex reside a short distance away, she gets regular visits from them. Prince Andrew, her youngest son, also lives close and is said to pay her regular visits.

Related Article: Queen Elizabeth Marks Sad Milestone Amid Royal Family Drama, Health Woes; Kate Middleton Reveals Christmas Gift To Her Majesty

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Kamala Harris recently showed her strong support for Joe Biden and Joe Manchin during her interview with TV personality Charlamagne tha God.

Harris' interview with the radio host will air on Friday, but two clips were already released this past weekend.

Kamala Harris lashes out at Charlamagne tha God

In one of the clips, the interviewer sarcastically asked Harris who she thinks is the real president between Biden and Manchin. After all, the latter has been stalling the former's Build Back Better bill due to his lack of support.

The question did not sit well with Harris, who lashed out at tha God by saying that Biden is the president. The vice president also reminded the interviewer what her position was at the White House.

"Ok, so I hear the frustration, but let's not deny the impact that we've had and agree also that there is a whole lot more work to be done and it is not easy to do. But we will not give up and I will not give up," Harris said via CNN.

Read Also: Kamala Harris Called a Bully, Lacks Confidence, Former Staffer Says

Kamala Harris says Republicans, not Joe Manchin are to blame

Harris fired back at those blaming Manchin for stalling Biden's Build Back Better bill in another clip. She said that Manchin is the only reason why the POTUS's bill hasn't moved forward.

The vice president blamed Republicans by saying that they have also been standing in the way of progress. Harris also stressed that Democrats still can't get bipartisan support because of Republicans until the present time.

However, tha God went on to say that Manchin is ruining democracy, and Americans want to find a new superhero that can give them the benefits they deserve.

The TV personality asked Harris if she's willing to be America's new superhero because if the Build Back Better bill isn't passed, there's a possibility for Donald Trump to become president again in 2024, according to Newsweek.

Manchin says he won't support Build Back Better bill

Manchin just confirmed that he wouldn't support Biden's Build Back Better bill. He said on Sunday that he tried everything humanly possible, but he just couldn't get himself to support the bill, according to The New Yorker.

The West Virginia senator's decision not to support the bill means it can't be passed as a law. Last week, some Democrats pushed to pass select provisions from the bill to continue providing benefits to Americans like the child tax credit extension.

Harris shuts down Biden feud rumors

Harris's recent comments in defense of Biden will most likely surprise her supporters. After all, the media has been pitting the leaders against each other for months.

Last month, the veep was forced to respond to allegations of a rift between her and Biden, as well as to the claims that she's not being utilized as the vice president of the United States.

While speaking with George Stephanopoulos, Harris said that she and Biden are getting things done, and they are doing it together. She also told the interviewer that she doesn't feel misused or underused by the Biden administration, according to The Independent.

Related Article: Kamala Harris Makes Sarcastic Response to Comments About Her Purchase During Paris Trip, Says Critics Should Focus on Her Successful Meeting With Macron

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Dr. Anthony Fauci urges qualified Americans to immediately get inoculated or get their booster shots before the holidays.

During his recent interview, Fauci warned Americans of another possible surge of Omicron cases in the coming days. He also said that it's only a matter of time before Omicron takes over and affects more people.

"Be prudent in everything else you do: When you travel in your indoor settings that are congregated, wear a mask. We can't walk away from that, Jake, we can't. Because with Omicron, that we're dealing with, it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter," he said via CNN.

The World Health Organization confirmed that Omicron could become the most dominant strain in the United States in the coming weeks.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says no to lockdown

In New York City, the daily test positivity rates soared about six percent last week, and over 5,000 new cases were also reported. But despite the increasing number of Omicron cases in the Big Apple, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio rejected calls for another round of lockdowns.

"Don't fight yesterday's war. This is not March of 2020. We're one of the most highly vaccinated places in the United States of America. The more we vaccinate, the more we can get through this. The great danger here is shutdowns and restrictions. That would really destroy, in so many ways, people's livelihoods and it would, I think, after everything people have been through - it would be traumatizing," he said via New York Post.

Read Also: Dr. Anthony Fauci Calls Lara Logan's Comments Preposterous, Disgusting After She Likened Him To The 'Angel of Death'

New Year's Eve celebration at Times Square could be canceled

Two days later, de Blasio said that he's still contemplating the fate of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square two weeks from now. He said that he would decide whether the gathering would push through or not on Christmas Day, according to NBC New York.

Before Omicron hit the United States and other parts of the world, de Blasio already announced that the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square would push through. The news was welcomed by locals and even by residents from nearby states.

After all, last year's event was a socially-distanced version of the usually jampacked gathering to commemorate the start of another year. But because of the rising cases of Omicron in recent weeks, it's possible for this year's event to either be canceled or allow only a limited number of guests.

Kathy Hochul wants to protect resident's health, state's economy

Like de Blasio, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn't support the idea of another lockdown in the state.

Hochul admitted that Omicron spreads quickly, but she rejected claims that the variant could be even more dangerous than Delta.

The governor added that as much as she wants to protect the health of New York residents, she also wants to protect the state's economy.

Hochul doesn't also want to stop kids from going to school, and she doesn't want to see businesses shutting down again. After all, she's confident that they have the tools to combat the deadly virus, according to Daily Mail.

Related Article: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Announces Suspension of Elective Surgeries in Westchester County Due to Rising COVID-19 Cases, Declares State of Emergency

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, said that the public would get an idea if Donald Trump broke the law once their investigation is completed.

According to reports, Trump could be charged with a crime if proven guilty of inciting or participating in the Capitol riot.

Donald Trump could face criminal charges

Kinzinger said that he still couldn't decide whether the ex-POTUS should be charged with a crime because investigations are still underway.

"We'll be able to, you know, have out on the public record anything Justice Department needs may be in pursuit of that. Nobody is above the law. And if the president knowingly allowed what happened on Jan. 6 to happen, and in fact was giddy about it, and that violates a criminal statute, he needs to be held accountable for that," he said via the Huffington Post.

Trump wanted to get rid of electoral votes

Last week, Rep. Liz Cheney said that it's possible Trump could've acted criminally. She said that more information would be released through Mark Meadows' testimony because the former chief of staff's statements would determine whether the ex-president sought to obstruct or impede the counting of the electoral votes.

Read Also: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham React to Their Jan. 6 Texts, Fox News Hosts Pretended They Didn't Know Who's Responsible for Siege

Some information from the documents that Meadows submitted revealed that Trump and his Republican allies urged former Vice President Mike Pence to cancel all electoral votes in favor of Joe Biden.

However, Pence did not follow their orders because he knew that there was no reason to cancel the electoral votes. After all, it was evident that Trump lost to Biden very early on.

Mark Meadows could be held in criminal contempt

Last week, Meadows was already held in criminal contempt for refusing to participate in the ongoing investigations. His lawyer said that Meadows had already submitted his phone records to the House select committee, but the latter insists that he should still be available for interviews.

According to USA Today, Meadows is the second former Trump aide to face charges. Weeks ago, political strategist Steve Bannon was also held in criminal contempt.

Joe Biden said that he supports the House's decision even though he has not seen the text messages from Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump supporters urging him to stop the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Other than his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, there are also ongoing investigations regarding Trump's business practices.

Donald Trump, Trump Organization could face criminal charges

Last week, US News claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. could bring forth criminal charges against Trump before he retires at the end of the month.

However, it is also possible for Vance Jr. to pass the challenging task of charging the ex-POTUS to his successor, District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

When asked to comment on the Trump investigation, Vance Jr. said he can't say anything about it because it's still ongoing.

Vance Jr. charged the Trump Organization and its executives with tax fraud in June. He recently convened a new grand jury to bring a fresh indictment to Trump and his organization.

Related Article: Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan's Text Prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Released; Republican Urges Mike Pence To Nullify Joe Biden's Win

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Boris Johnson is again under fire amid allegations that he broke COVID-19 social distancing rules in the United Kingdom during the country's first lockdown.

Last week, a photo of the British prime minister drinking wine with a group of people at his home in Downing Street surfaced online.

It was later confirmed that the photo was taken on May 15, 2020, while the United Kingdom was following strict restrictions due to the rising cases of COVID-19.

The snap shows Johnson and his former fiancee, Carrie Symonds, seated at a table together with two others. At a second table sits four of Johnson's staff members.

Nine others were gathered around a table on the grass, and two others sat on the ground nearby. The photo shows that Johnson is with a relatively large group at a time when mixing households were limited to just two people.

Boris Johnson urged to tell the truth

After the photo surfaced, Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner urged Johnson to tell the truth behind the gatherings that took place during the lockdown. After all, this isn't the first time that Johnson was photographed hanging out with his staff at home.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab insisted that Johnson didn't do anything wrong.

"This is a place of work, but it's also the residence of the Prime Minister. And sometimes, as in many work situations, particularly given the pressures the No. 10 team were under, they might have a drink after the formal business has ended. That is not anything to do with the social mixing rules, and it's consistent with the guidance at the time," he said via CNN.

A spokesperson also said that staff meetings take place at Johnson's home all the time that's why there are instances wherein everyone would be in the same place at the same time.

Read Also: United Kingdom's Omicron Cases Reach 246; Travel Restrictions, Red List Countries Updated

Boris Johnson apologizes for staff party during lockdown

Last week, Johnson was forced to apologize after a video of his staff having a party while the rest of the United Kingdom was stuck at home surfaced.

Johnson decided his involvement in the party and said that his staff also misled him because they told him there wouldn't be a Christmas gathering last year.

The prime minister also ordered an investigation into the matter. But his critics are not convinced that Johnson had no idea about what transpired at Downing Street at the time, according to the BBC.

Allegra Stratton tearfully announces her resignation

Shortly after the video surfaced, Johnson's former press chief Allegra Stratton announced her resignation after being heard making jokes about the party.

Stratton said that it wasn't her intention to offend anyone with her comments. She also said that she would regret what she said for the rest of her life.

According to ABC News, thousands of people in the United Kingdom have been fined for breaking restrictions and holding illegal gatherings. So, they couldn't help but be upset when Johnson and his staff didn't receive sanctions for breaking the rules.

Related Article: First Person Who Tested Positive For Omicron in the UK Dies; Infections Double Every 2 Days

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With the help of Tesla's autopilot feature, a pregnant woman in Pennsylvania gave birth inside a Tesla. With that, their newborn child was nicknamed Tesla baby!

Tesla Baby

After the couple arrived at the hospital, the nurses immediately assisted them and their newborn child.

The said couple, named Keating and Yiran Sherry, recalled their new baby Maeve Lily's remarkable birth, per Daily Mail.

The couple, who met while working at Shanghai's Rainbow Bridge International School, have a 3-year-old boy named Rafa and stated they were eager to have another kid.

To give further details on the delivery, the contractions started in the middle of the night on September 9, which Yiran said that it felt the same with her labor on their son three years ago.

"I knew. I said to Keating, 'Today's the day, but I don't think it's happening anytime soon," Yiran furthered on The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Moreover, Yiran recalled that on 8:30 a.m., she did laundry and got their son ready for school.

Meanwhile, when Keating put his kid in the backseat of their car, he checked on his wife and saw that her water had broken. Despite Yiran's demand that he drive their son to school first, he realized that it was time to take her to the hospital.

Keating drove 20 minutes from their house in Wayne to Paoli Hospital with their kid in the backseat. Yiran was crouching on the floor in front of the passenger seat suffering from a severe heavy contraction.

Read Also: Axie Infinity Ban: How Does Sky Mavis Detect Users Playing Multiple Accounts?

Unfortunately, the avenue leading to the hospital was jam-packed, with the rush-hour traffic just worsening the situation.

During the said situation, Keating used the Tesla autopilot feature, which allowed him to retain his left hand on the wheel while checking on Rafa and swiveling to assist his wife.

"She was gripping my hand so hard that I felt she was going to break it," Keating told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Yiran checked the GPS every time she recovered her breath between contractions to keep track of their progress on the 20-minute journey from Wayne to Paoli.

However, despite their efforts to rush into the hospital, Yiran had already given birth in the Tesla.

Fortunately, a pediatrician was outside the hospital and called staff to run to the Telsa to cut the baby's umbilical cord over the front seat.

Maeve was given the nickname "Tesla baby" by hospital nurses, and her parents considered giving her the middle name "Tess" as a reference to her birthplace. However, they finally chose Lily as a dedication to Yiran's mother.

Tesla Autopilot

According to the electric car company, the advanced safety and convenience features in Tesla Autopilot are designed to assist people with the most difficult aspects of driving.

Within its lane, the feature allows the vehicle to automatically steer, accelerate and brake.

However, the current Autopilot capabilities require active driver monitoring. It does not have a full self-driving feature.

"Navigate on Autopilot suggests lane changes to optimize your route and makes adjustments, so you don't get stuck behind slow cars or trucks. When active, Navigate on Autopilot will also automatically steer your vehicle toward highway interchanges and exits based on your destination," Tesla explained.



Related Article: Tesla Model 3, Model Y Leak: Upgrades on EV's Battery, Computer With AMD Ryzen Chipset, and More!
When asked about the capabilities of the SpaceX Starlink satellite, Elon Musk promised to bring internet coverage even in Navajo Nation despite it being in the middle of nowhere.

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Launch

Since the internet has been widely used today, several companies are doing numerous efforts to provide the best internet speed and coverage for their consumers. One of the said companies includes Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink.

With that being stated, it appears that Musk is focused on giving the best internet connection for the entire world.

On Saturday, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket delivering a new batch of Starlink satellites into space. The launch was held at the Vandenberg Space Force Station in California, bringing a stack of 52 Starlink satellites, per NBC Bay Area.

The rocket's first stage returned to Earth nine minutes after liftoff, landing on the deck of SpaceX's most productive drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," marking the company's 98th successful landing.

Read Also: Tesla Baby! Philly Woman Gives Birth in Tesla Front Seat While in Autopilot

Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) is an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) based in Long Beach, California. Between 2015 to 2021, OCISLY has been situated in Florida, per SpaceX Fleet.

The drone ship is a modified barge with a huge landing platform, station-keeping thrusters and other equipment that allows SpaceX to land rockets at sea for high-velocity missions that do not have fuel to land near the launch site.

Space.com added that the recent launch represents a milestone for SpaceX, as it is the 29th Falcon 9 mission for this year. It established a new company record for the most rocket flights in a calendar year.

Additionally, SpaceX might launch a total of 31 Falcon 9 operations this year, with two more launches planned, both of which would take off from Florida.

What Is the SpaceX Starlink Satellite Mission?

With regards to SpaceX Starlink's mission, it aims to offer internet access to practically everyone in the world, per Cnet.

In relation to this, Twitter user @staciet8 asked the richest man in the world if Starlink will also cover the Navajo Nation, located in New Mexico, since it is in the middle of nowhere.

Musk directly replied on the said tweet, confirming that the SpaceX Starlink satellite will reach the said nation.

Absolutely  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2021

In addition to this, PC Mag reported that as of August 2021, Starlink has about 140,000 subscribers. The highest number of Starlink users was discovered in the Northwest United States, California and the upper Midwest, as well as Vermont.

The business stated in an FCC filing that it will first provide "commercial service in the northern United States and southern Canada, and then will rapidly expand to near global coverage of the populated world in 2021."

Moreover, SpaceX noted that there are over 750,000 interested consumers around the world that have placed orders or deposits for the satellite broadband system, per PC Mag.

However, the business informed the FCC that a chip shortage is causing delays in the production of the Starlink dish, which is required for users to connect to the satellite internet network.

Related Article: SpaceX Starlink Satellites Launch Forms Epic View on Night Sky: Watch Rocket Launch Here
Apple users should watch out because an incredibly sophisticated iPhone malware was recently spotted online. Cybercriminals use this to create a separate computer inside the iPhone memory to spy and steal the victim's data.

The threat against cyberattacks continues to escalate as malicious actors come up with new and creative ways to hack, snoop and steal user data. The most recent discovery reported by New Scientist is definitely one threat that people should look out for because it is a malware developed by the Israeli tech firm NSO Group.

iPhone Malware: The NSO Group Cyberattack

Be warned that the malware is a part of the NSO Group's Pegasus software tool. For reference, this is a malware that could be installed remotely to steal text messages, photographs, emails, videos and contact lists. Pegasus also has the ability to discreetly activate microphones and cameras on an infected device, spying on the owner without their consent.

This malware was reportedly distributed to countries like Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, India and the United Arab Emirates. Notably, some U.S. lawmakers have called for sanctions against this firm. Unfortunately, they have yet to completely shut down their operations.

Even worse, NSO Group continues to develop new features for their malware and spyware, with its latest tool called ForcedEntry. According to experts, a cyberattack using this tool is classified "zero click" vulnerability, meaning users do not have to click or install anything to be infected.

Overall, this puts the malware as one of the most dangerous cyberattacks against iPhones. Even worse, many experts find it hard to remove the malware once it infects a device.

Read Also: Is Shiba Inu Joining Robinhood in 2022? Binance Coin Largest Crypto, SHIB 4th In The World In Terms of Twitter Following

How Does It Infect an Apple iPhone?

According to experts, the malware attack exploits a vulnerability on iPhone systems, specifically with its iMessage function. It takes advantage of the Apple software that encodes and decodes an image, which is usually used on text-heavy PDF files.

The attack starts when a malicious actor sends out a specially crafted iMessage with GIF animation. During the Apple decoding, the malware breaks out of the computing and executes a code to build its own rudimentary virtual computer, which is separate from the iPhone operating system. Afterward, this virtual computer will issue the acute commands to steal certain data, manipulate or transmit it back to the attacker.

Due to the sophisticated nature of this attack, it is difficult for usual antivirus systems to detect the malware. Victims who have their devices infected also lose all their "protection" against this attack.

Apple reportedly fixed this specific issue on a September patch with iOS 14.8. However, experts emphasized that iPhones that have already been infected might continue to be vulnerable to this dangerous malware.

Overall, users are recommended to update their systems with the latest operating system constantly. The situation of Apple against NSO Group is also still progressing, so more updates on the tech firm might be available later this week.



Related Article: New Android Joker App Tricks 500,000 Users, Steals Money! Uninstall Now
Actors Jung Hae-in, Jisoo, and director Jo Hyun-tak pose for pictures during the media conference for JTBC's new series, "Snowdrop," Friday. Courtesy of JTBC





By Lee Gyu-lee







JTBC's new series, "Snowdrop," which was embroiled in a controversy over distorting history since before it even aired, has stirred up a further backlash, with viewers accusing the series of distorting the history of Korea's pro-democracy movement.







Since it premiered on Saturday, the romance series, set in 1987 amid the period of political unrest, has faced growing calls for its cancellation, with some of the companies dropping their sponsorship of the show.







The series, starring K-pop star Jisoo of BLACKPINK and actor Jung Hae-in, follows a romance between a first-year student at a women's university, Eun Young-ro (Jisoo), and a North Korean spy, Lim Soo-ho (Jung), who is hiding his identity under the cover of being a graduate student. One day, Soo-ho jumps into her dormitory covered in blood. Mistaking him as a pro-democracy protester against the military dictatorship, Young-ro tends to his injuries, despite the dangerous situation and develops romantic feelings for him.







On Sunday, an online petition was submitted on the Cheong Wa Dae website, calling for the network to stop the series from being aired. It garnered over 267,000 signatures in one day.







The petitioner pointed out that the series has diminished the history of the pro-democracy movement in the country by portraying a North Korean spy as a protestor.







"It is a historical fact that protestors in the democracy movement were tortured and killed, being falsely accused as spies. Yet despite this history, the fact that the series has such a plot is distorting the value of the pro-democracy movement," the petitioner wrote.







"Korea is a democracy, which is something that has been earned through hard work and through the pain and sacrifice of many innocent people as the influence of Korean culture has been growing more recently, it is time to reconsider the weight of distorting history in the media."







It added that, as the series is also streaming globally on Disney+, it might convey a wrongheaded idea of Korean history to viewers overseas.







A scene from the series / Courtesy of JTBC





The series first came under fire in March after its plot and characters' descriptions were leaked. People claimed that the plot glamorizes the North Korean spy and the state intelligence agency, which is accused of having abused its power to suppress political dissidents and pro-democracy activists under infamous dictator Chun Doo-hwan's military regime in the 1980s.







Some have said that having the main character be a spy disguised as a pro-democracy activist misleadingly implies North Korea's involvement in the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, which was a claim of Chun to defend his government's brutal suppression of the movement.







Some pointed out that the female lead character's name initially, "Eun Young-cho," resembled that of the symbolic figure, pro-democracy activist Chun Young-cho, who was imprisoned and tortured and whose husband was tortured resulting in his death after having been falsely accused of being a spy.







When these criticisms of the show went viral, the network released a statement, saying that it has no intention of distorting the history of the pro-democracy movement and will change the name of the lead character to "Young-ro."







In the recent media conference for the series, held on Friday, the series' director, Jo Hyun-tak, dismissed these concerns, emphasizing that the series tells a fictional story.







"Although it is set in 1987, everything in the series, such as the characters and agency, and except for the situation of the military regime and the presidential election, is fictionally created," he said, adding that the plot that was leaked earlier doesn't represent the series' actual plot. "The writer has worked on the series with a sense of responsibility and accountability so it will not have these things that people are worried about. I hope they watch it for themselves."







However, despite his reassurance, when the first episode aired, many expressed disbelief about the fact that the series does follow a controversial storyline, criticizing the director's claim that the show is purely fictional.







As the calls for the series' to be pulled from airing grow, the series' sponsors, such as P&J Group and fashion brand Ganisong, are withdrawing sponsorship.







"We express our apologies to anyone who was hurt by the distortion of history. Our company was not informed of the script or show's synopsis when we were offered to sponsor it," Ganisong said. "We have asked for our brand's name to be taken out of the series. As the series has been filmed already, we can't completely stop them from showing our brand, but we will try our best."


Ai Weiwei's "Life Vest Snake" (2019) on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's exhibition, "Ai Weiwei: Defend the Future" / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, Lisson Gallery and neugerriemschneider, Berlin



By Park Han-sol





Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio

A 22.5-meter-long serpent floats up by the ceiling of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, ready to slither away at the slightest provocation. As viewers travel down the hall, they find it almost impossible to take their eyes off the creature hovering overhead with its peculiar blue and red scales.



Its scales, they soon realize, are made up of 140 life vests, both small and large. But whose, exactly?



When refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom are of Syrian, Afghan or Somali origins, arrive on the Greek Island of Lesbos  one of the busiest crossing points for migration into Europe  the first thing they do is to take off the very jacket that protected their lives while crossing the ocean and throw it into a massive pile.



Ai Weiwei, the Beijing-born artist and activist known for his unapologetically anti-establishment commentary, saw the hundreds of life vests left on the shore as the shed skin of a snake. Since the mid-2010s, he began following such traces left behind by the refugees, many of whose fates are unknown, through thought-provoking installations and documentaries.



In addition to "Life Vest Snake," they include "The Navigation Route of the Sea-Watch 3 Migrant Rescue Vessel, June 2019" recreated with LEGO bricks, as well as a tower of blue-and-white porcelain vases depicting sceneries of destruction, war and migration instead of traditional patterns of peaceful nature.





"Porcelain Pillar with Refugee Motif" (2017) / Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol



This "historical testimony" of unresolved human tragedies and ongoing suffering also reflects the artist's own status as a person drifting from one place to another  Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, among others  due to being persecuted by the Chinese government.



"If art doesn't change in the face of such a huge spiritual and social crisis for humankind, it's basically like a zombie, and there's no need for it to exist," Ai told the press in a recent email interview to mark the opening of his first exhibition at the Korean national museum, "Ai Weiwei: Defend the Future." The show hosts more than 120 pieces of his sculptural and LEGO installations, photos and documentaries.



Ai's political outspokenness and activism to promote greater freedom of speech in regard to universal human suffering  which earned him the title of China's most "controversial and dangerous" artist  are influenced by his father, Ai Qing, a famed modern poet.



In 1957, the frenzy of the Anti-Rightist Campaign in China, which soon launched a purge of intellectuals, branded the poet a "rightist." His whole family was soon exiled first to Heilongjiang in northeast China, then to Xinjiang. Ai grew up watching his father scrub toilets, while being forbidden to read or write freely.



Although the family was eventually able to return to Beijing at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, his childhood experience forever shaped the subversive nature of his artwork, as well as his openly critical remarks against the Chinese government.



"I think the so-called art scene in China [has been] a defective community since the day it was formed," he said. "Seeking the truth through artistic language and other means is the most important way to protect art, but the Chinese art scene has changed its stance on that in order to survive. There is in fact no future in that."



He highlighted freedom of speech as an "important attribute of life" that must be protected at all costs.



Adhering to his life philosophy, Ai has refused to shy away from documenting the uncomfortable truth of social injustice, as well as the authorities often complicit in human rights violations.



Thus, the sources of inspiration for a wide range of pieces displayed at the exhibition come from both the artist's attempts to question established authority and his inevitably troubled relationship with the Chinese government.





"Study of Perspective, 1995-2011" / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio and neugerriemschneider, Berlin



One series of such works on view is the photography series that launched the artist to global stardom, "Study of Perspective." In the images that mimic classic tourist photos, he extends his left arm to give the middle finger to historically renowned monuments and landmarks, including the fraught Tiananmen Square.



The series recently made headlines, as Hong Kong's M+ Museum, which opened its doors to the public last month as the city's premiere institution dedicated to contemporary visual culture, announced the removal of Ai's images from its website and gallery, citing the National Security Law.



Another notable piece is the bright golden wallpaper that covers the entirety of one gallery space, titled, "The Animal that Looks Like a Llama but is Really an Alpaca." An elaborate pattern is created via a combination of surveillance cameras, handcuffs and birds symbolizing Twitter.





"The Animal that Looks Like a Llama but is Really an Alpaca" (2015) / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, Lisson Gallery and neugerriemschneider, Berlin



Although it could be read as a general commentary on the rise of the surveillance state, the work also hints at numerous personal experiences of the artist.



In the aftermath of the catastrophic Sichuan earthquake in 2008 in China, where it was suspected that poorly constructed schools resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 children, he launched a "Citizen's Investigation" to interview the victim's families and public officials. He also recorded the names and number of dead children on his blog  information that the state refused to provide citing "state secrets" or "a matter of social stability."



When his blog was forcibly shut down, he soon found Twitter to be the platform to host his thoughts. "Twitter is the people's tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources," he said in "Weiwei-isms," a book presenting a selection of his quotes.



But the closure of his blog did not mean the end of governmental repression for him. A year later, when Ai was visiting Chengdu to testify at the trial of the social activist Tan Zuoren, who was involved in researching earthquake fatalities, two police officers appeared at his hotel door at 5 a.m. and subsequently assaulted him. A mirror selfie blown up as large as wallpaper, "Illumination," taken at this very moment, is also displayed at the exhibition.





"Illumination" (2009) / Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, Lisson Gallery and neugerriemschneider, Berlin
gettyimagesbank



By Anna J. Park



As more retail investors head for online platforms to trade stocks and financial products, major securities firms continue to reduce the number of their physical branches. The latest tendency is to integrate a few local branches into a larger regional branch, saving brokerage firms on rent payments by closing branches and providing more comprehensive services for customers at the larger branch offices.



Samsung Securities has decided to discontinue six wealth management branches, while incorporating them into a nearby larger branch next month. Specifically, the Gangdong branch will be consolidated into the Jamsil location, and the Gwanak branch will be incorporated into the Yeouido branch. Four other branches will also be absorbed into a larger branch nearby.



The brokerage arm of Samsung Group conducted a similar reduction of offices in early 2021, discontinuing 10 local branches.



Korea Investment & Securities is also streamlining its office operations, planning to close five local branches in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province at the start of next year. The closed branches' functions will be integrated into a larger branch nearby.



"The company continues to enlarge branches in higher-density population centers," an official from Korea Investment explained.



Shinhan Financial Investment also plans to expand some of its major offline branches, while closing down others. The brokerage company reduced a total of eight branches this year, while focusing on enlarging flagship branches.



NH Investment & Securities also plans to close down its Myeong-dong branch in central Seoul, which will be incorporated into its Gwanghwamun center.



"Employees at the Myeong-dong branch will be transferred to the Gwanghwamun center. It aims to decrease inefficiency, stemming from overlapped business operations in regions that are near to one another," an official from NH Investment said.



Brokerage companies' efforts to reduce offline channels have been continuing for years, as more than half of their customers are now using either a home trading system (HTS) or a mobile trading system (MTS) for their stock-trading transactions.



In 2020, the daily average transactions through brokerages' MTS stood at 26.6 trillion won ($21.9 billion), which is a whopping 219.6 percent jump from the previous year.



With the fast digitalization of customers' key trading platforms, the entire number of branches of 59 local securities firms was reduced to 947 as the end of the third quarter this year, which is down 34 from 981 logged at the end of last year. The numbers stood at 1,091 and 1,026 at the end of 2018 and 2019, respectively.



Market insiders see that the brokerage companies opted to raise the level and scope of services performed formerly at branch offices  covering areas such as wealth management, pension management and taxation  to larger flagship branches, while closing down smaller ones. The move is to increase the firms' efficiency and reduce unnecessary costs.


North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and U.S. President Joe Biden / Korea Times photo



By Kang Seung-woo



The North Korean nuclear issue appears to have lost priority with the U.S. government, which is focusing heavily on ending China's control of global supply chains, cross-strait relations and other issues.



As Washington shows signs of preserving the status quo with the Kim Jong-un regime, which has in recent years refrained from testing nuclear and long-range missiles, the issue, described as "unproductive," is feared by some to remain shelved.



In April, after its months-long policy review of the totalitarian state, the Joe Biden administration came up with a "calibrated practical approach" to North Korea's decades-long nuclear problem. However, combined with Pyongyang's nonresponse to U.S. overtures and U.S. refusals to offer enticements to engage the reclusive state, negotiations on denuclearizing the North have made little progress.



U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted, Friday (local time), that the U.S. "had not gotten traction in diplomacy with North Korea on that over the course of this year."



"The North Korean nuclear issue was already low on Biden's agenda as the Kim regime has remained unresponsive to U.S. calls to return to the negotiating table," said Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. "The only way to bring North Korea back to the bargaining table is by the U.S. making concessions to the North, which is not going to happen in consideration of the current U.S. stance."



The U.S. has repeated its position that it has no hostile policy toward North Korea and is willing to resume dialogue without preconditions.



"Due to these reasons, the North Korea issue has been pushed back on the priority list," Shin added.



While the North Korea issue is in a stalemate, the U.S. is bent on rallying its allies and friendly countries to move supply chains away from China, including the semiconductor industry, well-illustrated by a senior U.S. official who urged South Korea's participation in its campaign last week.



"Semiconductor shortages that were caused by COVID-19 ... put a spotlight on Korea as a leader and an essential partner in global semiconductor supply chains," Jose Fernandez, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, said during a meeting with Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon in Seoul, Friday.



"We firmly believe Korea has much more to offer to the global economy. You've got world-class technical expertise, high-quality transparent investment and foreign legislation and more."



According to a press statement by the U.S. State Department, the two sides agreed to bolster resilience, and secure supply chains for critical products such as semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, health-related supplies and critical minerals.



In addition, the Biden administration's first sanctions on North Korea for its human rights abuses, Dec. 10, also indicate the nuclear issue is not an urgent priority for the U.S.



Since President Moon Jae-in's revived his proposal to declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War in September at the United Nations, Seoul and Washington have discussed the issue, believing that the declaration would jump-start stalled nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.



However, the current situation is not anticipated to help the end-of-war declaration.



"The end-of-war issue could make progress when the U.S. and North Korea are engaged in negotiations, where they could exchange what they want, but that seems to have gone out the window with no developments in talks," Shin said.


Officials of the Guro District Office in Seoul work in the CCTV surveillance camera monitoring room of the district office, May 13, 2020. The photo above is unrelated to the article. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-suk



By Lee Hyo-jin



Controversy is arising over a city's pilot project to combine AI-based facial recognition technology with thousands of surveillance cameras installed in the city to use in the contact tracing for COVID-19 patients.



While the city government expects that the new system will help carry out swifter and more accurate epidemiological investigations, civic groups have expressed concerns over breaches of privacy and infringements of the personal information of infected people.



Bucheon City Government in Gyeonggi Province is set to launch the project next month with funding from the Ministry of Science ICT. The local government received 1.6 billion won from the ministry, and allocated its own budget of 500 million won.



As one of the most populated cities in the metropolitan area with more than 800,000 residents, Bucheon has the highest density of CCTV surveillance cameras in the country, according to city officials. With nearly 10,000 installed, there are 123 cameras per square kilometer.



"The pilot project, if launched successfully, will drastically reduce the time and resources needed for the contact tracing of COVID-19 patients," a city official in the Smart City Division, who is in charge of the project, told The Korea Times.



The AI-powered technology will help the epidemiological investigators, who currently spend hours analyzing credit card information, phone records and visitor logs at multiuse facilities.



The official added, "Not only are the investigators burdened by a heavy workload, but there have also been problems, as some patients give false testimony of their movements and whereabouts."



Currently, it takes between 30 minutes to one hour to collect contact tracing data for one patient, but with the new technology, investigators should be able to analyze the data of 10 patients in just five to 10 minutes, according to the official.





Medical workers guide people at a coronavirus testing center in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
A visitor to a movie theater in Seoul points to a sign notifying that only vaccinated people or those with negative PCR test results can be admitted, Sunday. Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



Conflicts have been taking place at cafes and restaurants, after the government introduced new quarantine guidelines last Saturday. Under the new rules, people unvaccinated against COVID-19 are banned from using the establishments unless they are alone, but some eatery owners are not accepting such people even when they are alone.



While some unvaccinated people are sharing lists of places where they are denied entry, others are even resorting to illegal means by trying to borrow others' vaccine passes.



Under the strengthened guidelines to be applied until Jan. 2, private gatherings of more than four people are prohibited and unvaccinated people can use restaurants, cafes and other multiuse facilities only when they are alone.



However, a number of unvaccinated people wrote online to share their unpleasant experiences of being rejected from eating alone at some restaurants.



"I was kicked out by an owner at a small rice soup restaurant although I was alone," one user wrote. "I told the owner that it was possible to eat alone without a vaccine pass, but the restaurant owner just told me to leave, saying I should get vaccinated to enter the store."



Another user also wrote, "An employee asked me to show a vaccine pass at a Vietnamese pho restaurant, so I said I didn't need it because I came alone, but I was asked to leave in the end."



An online community was opened on the portal Naver to share the list of eateries rejecting unvaccinated people who are alone.










South Korea has confirmed an additional case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the southeastern part of the country, the agriculture ministry said Monday.







The latest case was reported at a farm where around 12,000 ducks are being raised in Yeongam, 384 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.







Health authorities have cordoned off the site and are culling ducks there to prevent the spread of the disease outside the farm, it added.







Highly pathogenic avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can cause severe illness and even death, especially in domestic poultry. (Yonhap)






By Lee Hae-rin







The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called for the country's National Assembly to enact an anti-discrimination law.







Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson at the OHCHR, said in the press briefing notes posted Friday that the National Assembly had been lagging behind the growing social climate for the anti-discrimination law.







"A petition was submitted in June this year with 100,000 signatures, calling on the National Assembly to enact such a law  a recommendation that many U.N. human rights mechanisms and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights have made over the years," the briefing notes read.







"Various bills have been tabled since 2007, but over these past 14 years, the National Assembly has consistently failed to take decisive action to enact a law," the note read.







The spokesperson recognized that legislation of the anti-discrimination law was postponed until May 2024, the end of this parliamentary cycle despite the urgency and delay.







Shamdasani further highlighted that a "robust and inclusive Equality Bill" must be adopted to protect human rights against discrimination of all kinds, including race, color, sex, gender, religion, age, disability, migrant status or any other status.







"We have seen around the world, including in the Republic of Korea, that COVID-19 has exacerbated discrimination and hate speech against vulnerable groups, so it is more important than ever to ensure comprehensive legal protection and access to effective remedy for members of these groups," Shamdasani's note read.







"The Office stands ready to assist the Republic of Korea in these essential efforts to ensure the equality and rights of all its people," the spokesperson said in the note.


Park Jong-hoon, left, the superintendent of education of South Gyeongsang Province, encourages a student waiting for his COVID-19 vaccine at Bansong Middle School in Changwon, Monday. The public health authorities began visiting schools to vaccinate students upon their request last week amid increasing infections among minors. Korea reported 5,318 new infections for Sunday, and the numbers of critically ill patients and deaths stood at 997 and 54, respectively. Yonhap
By Sun Xi





During Dec. 9-10, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden held the virtual Summit for Democracy, together with representatives from 108 selected countries. The summit was intended to forge a common agenda to strengthen democratic institutions, but unfortunately it became paradoxical.



Democracy in the U.S. is mainly a political tool to satisfy its own political goals and interests, but not for the interests of the majority people that should be inherent in the core meaning of democracy. The U.S. has always flaunted itself to be the role model and best teacher for democracy, but ironically it may be one of the most authoritarian countries in the world.



History speaks for itself. The U.S. and its allies are responsible for military operations in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The U.S. will not hesitate to use brutal practices, including wars or invasions of other countries, under the name of democracy and human rights, but merely for the sake of the U.S.' political and economic interests. Even during this COVID-19 pandemic, some in the U.S. have been playing the political game of virus origin-tracing.



The U.S. has been constantly applying double standards on democracy and human rights issues. Brian Becker, the executive director of the "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism" coalition, said that America has often forcibly exported its democracy to other countries. The U.S. government has imposed its own political system and values on a number of others, regardless of the huge differences in terms of economic development level, history and culture. Clearly, such a compulsory sale of democracy is undemocratic.



The military interventions carried out by the U.S. government and its outsourced Private Military Companies (PMC) have created chaos, poverty and injustice in some recipient countries. In fact, the involvement of the U.S. military and its PMCs have been destructive and counterproductive to the fundamental principle of democracy.



Moreover, the U.S version of democracy only focuses on procedural aspects, but ignores the substance of democracy, namely the substantial involvement of the people. Procedural democracy is prone to become a manipulative political process because it makes the people only as "voters" who are only required to vote in the general elections every few years.



According to US democracy, people are not placed as the basis and goal of democracy. Democracy should not be interpreted narrowly as a political democracy that only relies on people's participation, which is carried out through a general election mechanism, but it should be implemented as an economic and social democracy that delivers real social welfare for the whole nation.



There is a profound contradiction in the USA-style democracy itself. Democracy should be the aspiration for the majority to achieve their hope of glory as human beings. Therefore, the substance of democracy must be in the form of economic prosperity, social justice, security and a decent life. History has proven that the representative democracy advocated by the USA only produces politicians who speak merely for their own interests.



The U.S. has been influencing the international community in the discourse of democracy. The U.S. is no longer the beacon of democracy, and it should try to prevent its own political decay before educating other countries.





Sun Xi, a 1980s China-born alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an independent commentary writer based in Singapore.


Police criticized for failing to move forward in fraud case



Police referred Kim Moo-sung, a former six-term lawmaker who used a luxury rental car he had received from a conman, to the prosecution last week on charges of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. Kim is suspected of using the car offered by the bogus fishery trader, identified by the surname Kim, for free for months from October 2019. The swindler was also referred to the prosecution along with the former legislator.



Their referral to the prosecution wrapped up the months-long police investigation into a fraud case triggered by a statement given by the conman. In April this year, he shocked the nation by stating that he had offered "gifts" to politicians, high-ranking officials and journalists while being interrogated by the police on fraud charges. The police have discovered that Kim sent gifts to at least 27 people. In particular, he provided former special prosecutor Park Young-soo, who investigated former President Park Geun-hye on corruption charges, with a Porsche as a rental car.



The fraud case could have escalated into a high-profile corruption scandal if the conman had been found to have lobbied them while swindling several people out of 11.6 billion won ($9.8 million). But the investigation failed to move forward as the police charged only the former lawmaker with violating the anti-graft law. In September, the police also applied the law when referring Park and five others to the prosecution. The application of bribery charges, which usually mete out heavier punishment, was impossible because the police wrapped up their investigation without uncovering why the bogus trader handed out the gifts.



But few would believe that Kim offered free rental cars or gifts to those prominent figures just to maintain friendships. It makes no sense for a conman to approach them and offer gifts without expecting any reward. The prosecution should ask the police to dig deeper into the case to find out why these high-profile people accepted gifts and whether there were any improper solicitations so that whoever did wrong can receive due punishment.


Choi Seok-young, fourth from left, a senior advisor from law firm Lee & Ko, speaks as ambassadors and other senior members of diplomatic corps in Korea listen during the 2022 Global Trade Outlook Forum, co-hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, at Hotel Shilla in central Seoul, Monday. From left are Chilean Charge d'Affaires Gustavo Gonzalez, German Deputy Head of Mission Peter Winkler, Indian Ambassador Sripriya Ranganathan, Choi, New Zealand Ambassador Philip Turner and Australian Ambassador Catherine Raper. The one-day forum was joined by government officials, trade experts and diplomats who shared their thoughts on three key issues in 2022: supply chains, digitalization and climate change. Courtesy of the KCCI
The candidate for the Presidency of Chile Gabriel Boric closes his campaign ahead of the presidential elections second round during a rally with supporters, in Santiago, Chile, Dec. 16. EPA-Yonhap



A leftist millennial who rose to prominence during anti-government protests was elected Chile's next president Sunday after a bruising campaign against a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump.



With 56 percent of the votes, Gabriel Boric handily defeated by more than 10 points lawmaker Jose Antonio Kast, who tried unsuccessfully to scare voters that his young, inexperienced opponent would upend Chile's vaunted record as Latin America's most stable, advanced economy.



In a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately recognized defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone with his opponent congratulating him on his ''grand triumph.'' He then later traveled personally to Boric's campaign headquarters to meet with his rival.



Meanwhile outgoing President Sebastian Pinera  a conservative billionaire  held a video conference with Boric to offer his government's full support during the three month transition.



''I am going to be the president of all Chileans,'' Boric said in the brief televised appearance with Pinera.





Supporters of Chilean presidential candidate Gabriel Boric, from the Apruebo Dignidad party, celebrate following the first official results of the runoff presidential election, in Santiago, Dec. 19. AFP-Yonhap



In Santiago's subway, where a fare hike in 2019 triggered a wave of nationwide protests that exposed the shortcomings of Chile's free market model, young supporters of Boric, some of them waving flags emblazoned with the candidate's name, jumped and shouted in unison as they headed downtown to join thousands who gathered for the president-elect's victory speech.



''This is a historic day,'' said Boris Soto, a teacher. ''We've defeated not only fascism, and the right wing, but also fear.''



Boric's victory is likely to be felt throughout Latin America, where ideological divisions have been on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic, which reversed a decade of economic gains, exposed longstanding deficiencies in health care and deepened inequality that is among the worst in the world.



At 35, Boric will become Chile's youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.



He was among several activists elected to Congress in 2014 after leading protests for higher quality education. On the stump, he vowed to ''bury'' the neoliberal economic model left by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship and raise taxes on the ''super rich'' to expand social services, fight inequality and boost protections of the environment.



Kast, who has a history of defending Chile's past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two points in the first round of voting last month but failed to secure a majority of votes. That set up a head-to-head runoff against Boric.



Boric was able to reverse the difference by a larger margin than pre-election opinion polls forecast by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas who don't side with political extremes. For example, in the northern region of Antofagasta, where he finished third in the first round of voting, he trounced Kast by almost 20 points.





Chile's presidential candidate Gabriel Boric leaves a polling station with his partner Irina Karamanos after casting his ballot during the presidential election, in Punta Arenas, Chile, Dec. 19. Reuters-Yonhap




A Sudanese protester was shot dead during a "savage" crackdown on mass pro-democracy rallies Sunday, medics said, and 125 others were injured according to the health ministry.







Security forces fired tear gas canisters, and live rounds into the air, as hundreds of thousands marched, three years since the start of mass demonstrations that led to the ouster of veteran strongman Omar al-Bashir.







On Monday, the independent Doctors' Committee said 28-year-old Majzoub Mohammad Ahmad was shot and killed with "a bullet in the chest".







Nationwide, at least 46 people have been killed and scores wounded in the past two months, according to the Committee.







The health ministry said late Sunday that "123 people were injured in Khartoum and two in Kassala", a city in the east of Sudan.







Many of the injuries were from inhalation of acrid tear gas, including during clashes between the police and protesters near the presidential palace.







Demonstrators there had chanted slogans against military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led a coup on Oct. 25.







The generals had initially detained civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok for weeks under effective house arrest, but reinstated him on Nov. 21 and promised elections for July 2023.







But the move alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters, who dismissed it as providing a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.







The army on Monday insisted it backed "the democratic choice for the people" and supported "free and fair elections", a spokesman said in a statement.







Security forces on Monday maintained a barricade of bridges across the Nile river linking Khartoum with the cities of Omdurman and North Khartoum.







The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC)  an umbrella group which spearheaded the protests against Bashir  have urged people to continue to reject military power, calling for more demonstrations on Dec. 25 and 30. (AFP)


Refugees, who fled fighting between the Myanmar army and ethnic minority rebels, return across the border to Myanmar, at a pier in Mae Sot district, Tak province, Thailand, Dec. 19. Reuters-Yonhap



Thailand has sent over 600 Myanmar refugees who fled fighting between the military and ethnic rebels back across the border, according to a senior Thai official who said on Sunday clashes were continuing.



Some of the refugees who reached northwest Thailand's Tak province told Reuters before they went back over the frontier on Sunday morning that they had volunteered to return. On Sunday afternoon, Reuters reporters on the Thai side of the frontier were hearing continuous gunfire.



Provincial Governor Somchai Kitcharoenrungroj had told Reuters in the afternoon: "More people are willing to go back as they are worried about their property there."



Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, urged Thailand not to rush refugees back to Myanmar.



"Everyone knows the Myanmar's military deliberately targets civilians with deadly force when it goes into the field, so it's no exaggeration to say these refugees are literally fleeing for their lives," Robertson said.



A spokesman for Myanmar's military junta did not answer his phone on Sunday. The army denies targeting civilians.



The Aid Alliance Committee, a Thai-based Myanmar migrants group, said about 1,000 displaced people were camping along the Myanmar border at various points waiting to cross into Thailand.





Myanmar refugees, who fled their homes amid a surge in violence, gather at a temporary shelter in Thailand's Mae Sot district, Dec. 18. AFP-Yonhap
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The question of violence is often posed as an abstract theoretical one. Pacifists cordon off the concept of violence and treat it apart from every other aspect of human relations. But as the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said: war is the continuation of politics by other means. Declaring opposition to violence in general is as meaningless and utopian as declaring opposition to politics in general. We must be concrete. What kind of violence are we opposed to? And how do we struggle against it?

The Sudanese Revolution

To offer a recent example, for the Sudanese revolution of 2019, the question of violence was not posed in the abstract. The revolutionary movement threatened the total destruction of the old regime of Omar al-Bashir. The ruling military junta could only preserve itself through violence.

After a series of powerful general strikes and revolutionary sit-ins that crippled the country, the generals unleashed a violent militia to clear out the sit-ins and massacre the masses in Khartoum. They used terror to pressure the revolutionary leadership into accepting a power share between the military and civilian leaders.

In the Sudanese revolution of 2019, the question of violence was not posed in the abstract: it became a matter of kill or be killed for the revolutionaries / Image: fair use

In 2021, a military coup against the civilian Prime Minister caused a new upsurge of the revolution, which was in turn met with brutal violence by the junta, which is back in charge and continues to use violence against the people to this day.

The only way for the masses to protect themselves, and for the aims of that revolution to be carried through, wouldve been to arm the working class: for the leaders of the revolution to give them weapons to defend themselves, set up committees of self-defence, and fight the militias.

For the revolution, it was kill or be killed.

But the leadership of the Sudanese revolution, which to its credit went very far in organising the struggle, nevertheless sacrificed the revolution on the altar of abstract pacifism.

Jacobin magazine published an interview with one of the leaders of the Sudanese movement in 2019. She said:

One of the things that kept us alive is that we were peaceful. So, no matter how they try to provoke us to use violence, people wouldnt. No matter how many times they try to kill and rape girls and put us in prison. People have a lot of anger, disappointment, sadness, but we kept ourselves peaceful. It wasnt easy but thats how it was.

These warm pacifist sentiments are of little use to all those workers who have been and are being beaten, raped, and killed fighting military dictatorship in Sudan. That pacifism stopped the revolution in its tracks, and is a reason for the ongoing suffering of the Sudanese masses today.

Events in Sudan prove, not in theory but in practice, that pacifism is debilitating poison for the revolutionary movement. Marxism and pacifism have nothing in common.

Capitalism, war, and violence

Marxists take the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. Violence and war are not external aberrations to capitalism. Theyre not the product of mistakes or accidents. Theyre built into capitalisms foundations. As long as the capitalist system exists, violence will be a fact of life.

Marxists dont shut their eyes to facts and wish they didnt exist. We try to understand why they exist, and use that to bring about change.

The Sudanese military leaders used violence against their own people because they wanted to protect the interests of the Sudanese ruling class, and their imperialist cronies.

When nations go to war with each other its because, in the last analysis, they want to protect the interests of their own national ruling classes and their imperialist aspirations.

The capitalist state wages war, sometimes against its own people, and sometimes against rival states. But at all times it is acting simply as a committee for managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie.

That bourgeoisie needs violence because capitalism is based upon antagonisms between classes, as the ruling class tries to maintain the exploitation of the workers. There are also antagonisms between different cliques of bourgeois, represented by their nation states and driven by capitalist competition.

The capitalist class has many weapons to fight the workers of its own nation and the capitalists of other nations, such as propaganda or diplomacy. But ultimately, history shows us that naked force is the only method by which capitalism can maintain itself in the long run.

The aim of any ruling class has always been to maintain economic advantage. Violence is just a means to achieve that. War is waged, not for its own sake, but to conquer new markets, raw materials and spheres of influence, and to preserve the position of the capitalist class.

If war is the continuation of politics by other means, and politics, Lenin said, is concentrated economics, then war, politics and economics are intertwined.

Trotsky pointed out that the aims of an imperialist peace are no different to those of an imperialist war. Capitalist states, even in peacetime, are organised systems of violence for the exploitation and oppression of the majority by the minority, through the police, army, courts and prisons. The violent methods of class rule to preserve bourgeois interests domestically find their twin in wars abroad.

War and violence are an inherent part of the capitalist system. The latter cannot exist without the former.

How do revolutionaries seek to end violence and war?

The only conclusion from this is that, to end violence and war, we must overthrow capitalism. We cannot persuade or convince the capitalists to be less violent when violence is built into the foundations of their system. We have to smash that system to end the violence.

In particular, we must break up the institutions of organised violence of the bourgeois class, such as the police and the army, using force if we must. This is revolutionary policy, both in times of capitalist peace and in times of capitalist war.

In times of bourgeois peace, strikes might be the weapon that workers use against the bosses, eventually with strike committees and workers councils as alternatives to bourgeois state power. We would demand nationalisation under workers control of key industries; and many other things. This is how we break the economic and political power of the ruling class that allows them to concentrate the forces of violence in their hands.

In times of imperialist war our policies have that same aim, adapted to the different circumstances. In the Second World War, for example, the Trotskyists in Britain adopted what was known as the Proletarian Military Policy.

British workers instinctively understood the threat posed by fascism, and therefore wanted to fight Hitler. This was a progressive sentiment that needed to be stimulated, but without giving any support to Churchill and the British ruling class.

The Proletarian Military Policy was a fight on two fronts. On the one hand, the Marxists called on workers to join the struggle against the Nazi armies, while at the same time agitating among the soldiers for their democratic rights, against Churchills use of the British army against Greek partisans, for example, and at all times exposing the imperialist character of the British ruling class.

On the other hand, on the Home Front, the Trotskyists agitated for strikes against the big capitalists profiting off the war effort. The approach could be summed up as: no confidence in the capitalist class to fight Hitler; the workers must rely on their own strength to defeat fascism.

In this way, the Proletarian Military Policy aimed to break the repressive power of the ruling class by breaking the commanding rule of the officers in the army. It didnt reject the use of violence on principle, because to do so would have been to cut themselves off from the healthy class instincts of many workers. The policy towards war was not pacifist, but designed to smash capitalist militarism.

At all times the revolutionary approach to ending violence and war is to smash the capitalist state and overthrow the capitalist system as a whole. This is the only realistic way to do it, because its the only way that tackles the problem at its root.

War and class struggle

This means that were not for or against war and violence in general. We base our policy on a given, concrete situation. Wars waged for the liberation of oppressed people and classes are progressive and we support them. But wars waged in the interests of imperialism, even if they are described as defensive or for the right of nations to self-determination, are reactionary and we oppose them.

The violence used by the slave owner to keep a slave in chains is not the same for us as the violence used by the slave to break those chains. Violence used in self-defence is not the same as the violence of an aggressor.

The revolutionary war, which should have been waged by the leaders of the Sudanese movement against the military junta, could have broken the repressive forces of the bourgeois Sudanese state. And so, despite the violence and bloodshed, which we condemn as an inevitable product of class society, such a war would have been historically progressive.

What is pacifism?

Pacifists, however, reject these ideas. Pacifists see non-violence as a moral norm, obligatory upon all, for all time. But society is not governed by fixed, abstract morality. Its governed by the struggle of living, historical forces expressed through classes.

Part of the role of Marxists is to expose the causes of war, to analyse a given wars historical significance, and to tell the truth to the working class about capitalism and imperialism.

Woodrow Wilson was a 'pacifist' until American bourgeois interests changed, at which point he led the US into the First World War / Image: public domain

This is necessary because the ruling class deliberately obscures the real reasons for war. A wing of the ruling class often appeals to the abstract idea of pacifism as a calculated deception to mask the class-based nature of its actions.

In 2003 George Bush and Tony Blair said they wanted to invade Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction and secure world peace. In fact, The Iraq war was about oil. It was fought in the interests of Western capitalists, and had nothing to do with preserving peace.

Similarly, Woodrow Wilson won the 1916 US Presidential election on a pacifist programme. It suited the US ruling class to avoid war at that time, so that it could profit further from the war through arms sales and other means. In that sense, Wilsons slogan of peace was a cover for bourgeois interests.

Within a year, the interests of US imperialism had changed. So that same pacifist, Woodrow Wilson, led the US into the First World War. This is the cynicism with which the ruling class treats the idea of pacifism.

Marxists expose this hypocrisy. But the petty-bourgeoisie and the reformists kowtow to it. They prop up the lies of the bourgeoisie about their desire for peace. They consider war to be the product, not of the insoluble contradictions of capitalism, but of individual madness or mistakes.

This is why the leaders of the Second International  so-called Marxists leading Social Democratic parties  voted in favour of the First World War. They supported the propaganda of their own ruling classes that they were fighting a defensive war for peace against bloodthirsty foreign enemies.

And this is why Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the UK Labour Party, advocates the bourgeois lie that the United Nations is a force for peace, capable of persuading imperialists to avoid war.

Reformists believe that the ruling class can be persuaded not to go to war, for the same reason that they believe capitalists can be persuaded to grant economic concessions to the working class.

Fundamentally, such reformists replace a materialist analysis of society with philosophical idealism. They do not understand how the capitalist system really works  that it cannot afford long-term concessions or genuine peace in a time of crisis.

Those leaders of the Second International adapted themselves to conditions of capitalist upswing prior to 1914. And that upswing softened relations between classes and between nations. There were enough profits to keep the imperialists happy, and to afford some concessions for the working class in some countries. The social democratic leaders therefore believed that capitalism had resolved its contradictions. They saw struggle, between classes and between nations, as external to and unnecessary for development.

Jeremy Corbyns ideas, likewise, are the product of the post-war boom, a period in which class antagonisms were less acute. He approaches austerity and war as purely ideological questions, untouched by the laws of capitalist development and crisis.

But capitalism cannot resolve its contradictions, it can only temporarily overcome them for a period of time, such as the years before 1914 or the years after the Second World War in Europe. When the contradictions inevitably rise to the surface again, as they did in 1914 for example, struggle becomes necessary, between classes and between nations.

Under those circumstances, those reformists who have adapted themselves to class compromise and gentle international diplomacy find the ground cut away from under them. But they still try to cling to their independence from struggle.

They therefore adopt the idea, for which there is no basis in theory or practice, that it is possible to secure peace by methods outside of the class struggle and the socialist revolution, such as pressure on the imperialists, for example. They do this and call themselves pacifists.

In reality, any real pressure for peace has only ever been a result of the revolutionary struggle of the working class for power.

It was not liberal petitions, but the October Revolution in 1917 that extracted the Russian workers and peasants from the First World War. It was not pacifist pleading, but the German revolution of 1918 that brought that war to its conclusion. It was not moral pressure, but revolutionary councils of action and a dockworkers strike that forced the British to withdraw its invading army from Soviet Russia in 1920.

Pacifism, as Trotsky said, is nothing more than the servant of imperialism. Pacifists help imperialists cover up their crimes, by painting them as ideological mistakes by individuals instead of the inevitable product of capitalism and imperialism. Pacifism provides an outlet for discontent while guaranteeing no real opposition.

The United Nations embodies this pacifist impotence. It is a circus where small nations air their grievances, while big ones veto anything that goes against their interests.

The General Assembly of the United Nations has repeatedly approved resolutions condemning Israels violence in Palestine, only to have them vetoed by the United States in the Security Council. What a mockery of the UNs so-called peacekeeping role!

Equally, the UN is powerless to prevent the big powers going to war whenever they want to. The 1999 bombing campaign by NATO against Kosovo did not have UN approval. Nor did the US & UK invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 1960 the UN sent a peacekeeping force to what is now Democratic Republic of Congo, and that resulted in the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese prime minister, and the dictatorship of Mobutu, who was a tool of imperialism. This is the powerlessness of the United Nations when it comes to securing peace.

The UN is an elaborate display of pacifism, which is hollow on the inside. Pacifists who celebrate the UN are, consciously or unconsciously, servants of the imperialist interests it conceals. They encourage the dangerous illusion that fundamental contradictions within the capitalist system are simply ideological points of view, which can be changed by persuasion.

Trotsky was merciless in his criticism of pacifists, who he saw as diverting the attention of the masses away from the real processes at work in society. He explained that you do not eliminate the danger of war by, for example, disarmament, which is a pacifist slogan. He said:

A programme of disarmament while imperialist antagonisms survive is the most pernicious of fictions. The imperialists do not make war because there are armaments; on the contrary they forge arms when they need to fight.

We could say the same thing of NATO, or other imperialist alliances. There are pacifists who advocate dismantling NATO to avoid war. But is it military alliances that cause war? Or is it the inevitable capitalistic tendency towards war that makes imperialist alliances necessary? Abolishing NATO will not resolve the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, which are the driving force behind war. The pacifists mistake cause for effect.

Against the pacifists, the Marxists say: we can only fight imperialist war with civil war against the capitalist class. Our slogan is not for peace, but for class war. Our enemies are not the workers of other nations but the international bourgeoisie, starting with the ruling class of our own countries.

The struggle for peace is the struggle for socialism

This is the finished programme of Marxism. But we must connect this with the mood of the masses at any given time, which is unfinished, confused and contradictory.

In most cases, the desire for peace among workers is healthy, its not reactionary pacifism. Its a reaction against imperialism and bourgeois hypocrisy. Our role is to point out the hypocrisy of the capitalists when they talk about peace, and explain that the capitalist class has never been a reliable guarantor of peace, because capitalist competition between national bourgeois cliques inevitably leads to war. We also want peace, but only a workers state, in our own country and all others, can guarantee it.

That requires class struggle, around demands like state expenditure on public works instead of weapons, the nationalisation under workers control of the armaments industry, or military bases to be brought under the democratic control of the working class.

Just because workers desire peace, that doesnt make them reactionary pacifists. Likewise, the workers desire to fight is not always reactionary, such as the mood among workers to fight Hitler in the Second World War, or the mood among the masses of an oppressed nation to fight for self-determination.

In such situations, the Proletarian Military Policy described earlier must be applied. This also requires class struggle around specific demands such as strike action against war profiteers, and it requires us to split the ranks of the army from the bourgeois or petty-bourgeois officers of the army.

The power of the working class at home can impede imperialist militarism abroad / Image: public domain

In all cases, whether the mood of the masses is for peace or for war, and taking into account all the historical and local peculiarities, we must aim to break capitalist militarism and highlight the need for the working class to pursue a policy independent of the interests of their own capitalist class.

Where this happens, even in a limited form, it can have a big effect. In 2019, a Saudi ship docked in the Italian port of Genoa to collect weapons for use in its imperialist war against Yemen. The dockworkers went on strike and refused to load the weapons. The Italian trade union confederation supported the strike, making other Italian ports also off-limits for the Saudi ship. The ship left empty. Class struggle struck a greater blow against imperialist war than any liberal pacifist NGO had been able to do.

The imperialists understand this power of the working class. It was bourgeois fear of mass domestic discontent that prevented a ground invasion of Kosovo in 1999, and which prevented the bombing of Syria by the UK in 2013. One of the reasons behind more peaceful relations between the USA and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s was the fear of revolutionary upsurge in the super-exploited ex-colonial countries.

The Vietnam War was lost for the United States, not only in Vietnam, but in the United States itself when the majority of people turned against it. This is the power of working-class struggle to disrupt imperialist plans.

Violence as a tactical question

Marxists consider wars to liberate oppressed nations and classes to be historically justified. We have no abstract, moral opposition to violence. But this does not mean that all methods of waging these wars are acceptable for Marxists.

For example, individual terrorism and guerrilla struggle, on their own and disconnected from a mass movement, do not strengthen the class struggle. They substitute the actions of a minority, or even just an individual, for the collective action of class struggle. It doesnt strengthen the confidence of the masses in themselves as the only force that can overthrow class society.

In fact, such methods tend to strengthen the repressive apparatus of the state, which adopts harsher methods for dealing with so-called terrorists. These methods actually only strengthen the forces of bourgeois violence.

Our approach to these methods of struggle is not a moralistic question but a tactical one. Only those tactics that make the working-class conscious of its role in changing society should be used.

For decades, the appalling violence of the Israeli state against Palestine has been met by acts of individual terror, but these have failed to destroy or even weaken the state of Israel.

A mass appeal to the workers of Israel by a revolutionary Palestinian leadership would have a far greater effect. There have been huge protests in Israel in recent years. The country is not one reactionary mass, its divided into classes. National service in Israel has the potential to be a transmission belt for the mood of the Israeli youth into the army.

But instead of basing itself on mass methods of struggle, the Palestinian leadership has too often based itself on terror. The first Intifada which began in 1987 had a mass character but took place over the heads of the PLO leaders. As well as mobilising the Palestinian masses, it even had some, limited, effect in Israel itself. It led to real results with the Oslo Accords (although they solved nothing fundamental). This is the way to fight.

But instead of these methods, the focus on terror has widened the gap between Palestinians and those Israeli workers and youth who could have been won over. Today, the idea of splitting the Israeli army is very distant, if not impossible. In the future this could change. But this is the legacy of individual terrorist violence, disconnected from an organised mass movement, which has weakened the Palestinian struggle.

Arming the working class

We are opposed to the pacifist slogan of disarmament, and to individual terror or guerrillaism. Against those we counterpose arming the masses and splitting the army, winning over the army ranks to the working-class struggle.

The Bolsheviks oraganised workers into Red Guards to defend the revolution / Image: public domain

The petty-bourgeois and the reformists say that this is unrealistic. But it has happened, repeatedly, in revolutionary situations all over the world and throughout history.

In 2002, an attempted coup against the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was thwarted when the ranks of the army broke with their officers, under pressure from the mass movement, and sided with the masses.

In Italy, there were factory occupations by workers in 1920. One newspaper reported: the workers number former military pilots in their ranks who yesterday brought aircraft into action. One state official reported at the time: it seems the occupiers have machine guns. They claim to have armed a tank, built at the Fiat car plant.

These Red Guards were not simply armed individuals. They were organised groups of workers under the democratic control of the workers organisations occupying the factories, via an elected military committee.

Another example is from 1956, when there was a revolution in Hungary, against Stalinism and for genuine workers democracy. The Soviet Union invaded Hungary to put down the revolution. This is an eye-witness account, from the chief of police in Budapest:

We saw an immense crowd arrive on the street. We saw three large Soviet tanks coming from the opposite direction, straight towards the crowd. It was like a nightmare. The tanks arrived on the street. The soldiers saw the crowd and the crowd saw the tanks. The tanks stopped and stayed in place, motors still running. The crowd couldnt stop; it kept coming, swarming around the tanks. A boy pushed his way through the crowd to the first tank and pushed something through the loophole. It wasnt a grenade but a sheet of paper. It was followed by others. These sheets were notes in Russian, which started with a citation from Marx: A people that oppresses another cannot itself be free. We counted the minutes. Nothing happened. Then the top of the lead tank opened a little and the commander emerged slowly. Then he flung the turret open and sat on the top of his tank. Immediately, hands reached out to him. Young people leapt up on the tank. The crowd erupted in frantic cheering. The crowd sang the Hungarian national anthem. And, at the tops of their voices, they cried Long live the Soviet Army! Yet these were the same people who, fifteen minutes earlier, had determinedly chanted, Russians go home. My deputy and I exchanged glances. Although we were soldiers, the theory of our movement bypassed caste, nationality, personal interest and prejudice. A word from Marx, passed through a loophole, was stronger than a tank directed against a crowd.

We should never let pacifists tell us we are unrealistic when we demand the arming of the working class, and the splitting of the army. It has been done, and can be done again. It is proven to be the only way to fight imperialist methods of war.

But we should also emphasise that the splitting of the army is not a one-act drama. It must be pursued as a conscious policy and not left purely to the spontaneity of the masses which can only have only a temporary effect, as it did in Venezuela, Italy and Hungary.

The struggle to shatter the repressive forces of the bourgeois class requires continuous organisation and strategy, in the political, industrial and military spheres, and that includes elected soldiers committees for example to solidify and widen the break between the ranks and the officers.

Such a policy was pursued by the Bolsheviks in 1917, who agitated in the trenches and the barracks. This way they drove a wedge between the army ranks and the officers, shattering the ability of the Russian ruling class either to fight the imperialist First World War, or to crush the revolution.

Nuclear weapons

Do nuclear weapons change the Marxist approach to peace and war? Why win over the soldiers and arm the workers, for example, when a nuclear third world war could be started by a handful of generals?

We must remember that war is waged for material gain. Nuclear war will not bring economic gain, only total destruction. It does not conquer new markets  it destroys them. There has not been a third world war, not because the imperialists have been convinced of pacifism, nor because the contradictions of capitalism have been overcome, but because it is not in their economic interests to wage it.

The biggest check on nuclear world war is the working-class struggle. Such a global and destructive war would provoke the mightiest backlash by the workers of the world that we have ever seen. The First World War provoked proletarian revolution in several countries against the imperialists and their wars. Today, the international working class is bigger and much more experienced than it was 100 years ago. The balance of class forces is more in our favour than at any other time in history.

That doesnt mean that small, barbaric, proxy wars, such as Ukraine in 2014 or Syria since 2011 wont take place. As long as capitalism exists, its contradictions will lead to war. The belligerents may not be imperialist powers, nor have directly competing economic interests. But imperialist powers stand behind such combatants and through them pursue their interests.

A direct clash between the major powers is currently ruled out, but this will only intensify the barbarity of proxy wars between nations, and of class wars within nations and against oppressed groups and oppressed nationalities such as the Kurds, for example.

A direct confrontation between imperialist powers is not ruled out forever. But before such a possibility could arise, titanic class struggles will take place. The working class will have the opportunity to take power many times before it can be smashed to the extent that it would not be a check on imperialist warmongering.

Is revolution necessarily violent?

Force can play a revolutionary role in history. It is through clash and contradiction that society develops, that is through war and revolution.

The capture of the Winter Palace in the October Revolution was almost bloodless, thanks to the overwhelming strength of the working class / Image: public domain

No ruling class in history has ever given up its position without a fight. Capitalist society is based, fundamentally, on force and coercion. Force will be required to remove it.

But does force necessarily mean violence? The ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote, in his book The Art of War, that those who render other armies helpless without fighting are the best of all.

In other words, it is possible, and preferable, to win the fight with an overwhelming show of force right from the start, to render the bourgeoisie incapable of fighting at all. That requires using our superiority in the class balance of forces. It requires splitting the army ranks away from the officers and arming the working class.

But this policy requires an absolute purge of pacifism from the revolutionary movement. We must be willing to fight to the end to defend our revolution. We hope that violence is not necessary, but if the capitalist class counter-attacks with violence, as happened in Sudan in 2019, we will not sacrifice our revolution to abstract pacifist ideals. Our motto is that of the 19th Century Chartist movement in Britain  Peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must.

A revolutionary morality

War and violence between classes and between nations is an inherent part of the capitalist system. Petitions, debates, the United Nations, treaties, etc. cannot stop the functioning of the capitalist system, and so they cannot stop war. Only the proletarian socialist revolution can do that.

Pacifist morality is empty and poisonous to the revolutionary movement. Ours is a higher morality based on the march of historical progress. The only just war is the class war. The only just means of waging it are those which really lead to the liberation of mankind.

This is not an abstract question, nor is it confined to Sudan or Palestine. The need for revolutionary force arose in the recent insurrectionary movement in Chile, and in the USAs Black Lives Matter movement. It will arise in every country in the coming period and we must be ideologically prepared to confront it.
Finalising the draft strategic plan which maps out future priorities of the Contact Group on piracy off the coast of Somalia (CGPCS) for adoption at the 24th CGPCS Plenary session scheduled for the end of January 2022 in Kenya, was one of the key outcomes of the CGPCS Friends of the Chair meeting, held on Thursday 16 December 2021 in Mauritius (hybrid format). The adoption of the CGPCS Strategic plan shall be brought to the next United Nations Security Council meeting by the CGPCS Chair for consideration.

This Preparatory meeting which brought together over 70 participants from over 30 States and regional and international organisations in person and online was preceded by the 7th Strategic Planning Steering Group meeting on Wednesday 15, 2021.

Organised by the Republic of Kenya (current Chair of the CGPCS) with the support of the Indian Ocean Commission as the CGPCS secretariat, the meeting also discussed on the progress and way forward of the Strategic Planning Steering Group (SPSG), the designation of the 2022-2024 CGPCS Chair and the orientation of the 24th CGPCS Plenary, including an update of the piracy and related crimes situation in the region.

Despite the activities being curbed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the key stakeholders showed unwavering engagement in sustaining the momentum to address piracy and related crimes while reviewing the CGPCS mandate.

The meeting welcomed the recent adoption of the Resolution 2608 (2021) by the UN Security Council on 3rd December 2021  authorizing States and regional organizations cooperating with Somalia to use all necessary means to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia of the East African country for an additional 3 months. This takes cognizance of the common consensus within the international arena that piracy is largely suppressed but not eradicated. The decision in the UNSC Resolution 2608 reaffirmed the need for the international platform to review their focus for further adaptation with current challenges.

Meanwhile, the Contact Group initiated since February 2021 established and adopted Terms of Reference for a Strategic Steering Group to review the raison detre of the CGPCS and map out future priorities. This technical group, which is chaired by the Republic of

Seychelles, aims at developing the new CGPCS roadmap to overcome maritime security challenges beyond piracy.

The Republic of Kenya in its closing remarks welcomed the substantive contribution of all members and further reiterated its commitment as CGPCS Chair and member of the UN Security Council to take forward the output of the 24th CGPCS plenary to the UNSC for consideration. The Chair stressed on the fact that there is now an urgent need to quickly draft an outline Strategic plan for the future role of the Contact Group. This has become more important now for two reasons, firstly due to the Security Council reassessing the Piracy Resolution and secondly the impact that maritime security issues are having in our region now explained Honorable Peter Odoyo, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Defence of the Republic of Kenya.

In light of this new decision, members emphasized that CGPCS mandate expansion towards other maritime crimes should be done through reinforced cooperation and coordination with existing regional mechanisms and alignment of Somali and regional priorities. As pointed out by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade of the Republic of Mauritius, cooperation with regional States and organizations is key. Maritime crimes and threats continue to preoccupy States in the Western Indian Ocean. It can only be addressed effectively through collective actions as has been demonstrated by the international community in addressing the issue of piracy. Concrete partnerships between EUNAVFOR and the RMIFC and RCOC as well as that of the United Kingdom and same regional centres are commended to improve maritime domain awareness and joint operations at sea said Honorable Alan Ganoo during his speech.

The Minister also announced that Mauritius will be keen to organise the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Maritime Security next year.

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Assam Cong accuses Himanta of land grabbing

Gourav Vallabh was accompained by party MP Ripun Bora and Jitendra Singh

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) | Publish Date: 12/19/2021 2:14:08 PM IST

The Congress on Sunday accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family of grabbing 18 acres of land meant for the landless, and demanded his immediate dismissal along with a Supreme Court monitored probe by a special investigative team.

Addressing a joint press conference, Congress leaders Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and Gourav Vallabh alleged that Sarma misused his official position to illegally transfer government land for landless people in favour of RBS Realtors from 2006 to 2009, when he was a powerful minister in the then Congress government.

The Congress leaders were accompanied by party MPs Ripun Bora and Abdul Khaleque, who alleged that the chief minister was aiding the land mafia in usurping the land for the landless. They said they would raise the matter in parliament as well as on the streets.

There was no comment from Sarma or his family, and neither from the BJP over the allegations.

Vallabh and Singh alleged that the Assam chief minister, on one hand is showing high-handedness by evicting poor and deprived families on the grounds that no one has the right to illegally take over government land, but has himself handed over such land worth crores to his family members.

They said as per independent investigations, real estate company RBS Realtors, co-founded by Sarmas wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, is allegedly occupying around 18 acres of government land intended for landless individuals and institutions.

We demand that Sarma, who along with his family, is involved in usurping land for the landless people, should be immediately sacked from his position, Vallabh told reporters.

A sitting chief minister, whose family is directly involved in land grabbing, has no right to remain in power. He must be immediately sacked from his position, he said, adding that he hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sack such a land mafia chief minister. The Congress leader added that the EC/I-T/CBI/FSIO are expected to investigate all such friends who have no right to constitutionally and morally hold the positions they are occupying.

Jitendra Singh, who is AICC in-charge for Assam, said the Congress hoped Modi who has said that he would not allow anyone to indulge in corrupt practices, will carry out an independent investigation into the alleged land deals and cancel the same.

We want that the prime minister should conduct a probe by an SIT under the monitoring of a sitting Supreme Court judge, he said.

Singh further alleged that one has seen that probe agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Income Tax (IT) department have acted like BJP functionaries by initiating action against political opponents of the saffron party, and should now investigate people who are corrupt in the BJP too.

Taking a dig at the ruling party, Gogoi asked what washing machine does the BJP have that when it takes leaders from other parties who are facing corruption charges, turn clean after they join the BJP?

He alleged that Sarma was facing corruption probes against him in Louis Berger and Sharda scams before joining the BJP, but turned clean after joining the saffron party.

Gogoi said the Congress has four demands for the Modi government -- an SIT be constituted immediately under the supervision of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to investigate the matter and the SIT must carry out its investigation in a time-bound manner.

He said the ED, CBI, IT, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and all other investigative agencies must be asked to file a complaint and initiate an investigation of all such similar unlawful land transfers in the state of Assam.

Giving more details, the party leaders alleged that RBS Realtors Private Limited acquired most of the 18 acres in two stages, first in 2006-2007 and then in 2009.

Individuals that are landless and needy are granted ceiling surplus land by the Assam government and are prohibited from selling that land for a 10-year period, but in 2009, a total of 11 bigha three katha and four lessa (3,01,674 square feet or 6.92 acres) of ceiling surplus land in Bongora intended for and allotted to supposedly needy individuals by the government of Assam, was bought by the company, violating the 10-year lock-in period, they said.

The Congress demanded that all unlawful land transfers to the aforementioned realtors must be immediately cancelled and provisions made to provide alternative land to the landless and needy people whose land was unscrupulously taken away.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-19 21:26:00|Editor: huaxia

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Photo released by Pakistan's Press Information Department (PID) shows Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (L) attending a joint press conference with Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on Dec. 19, 2021. The OIC has decided to establish a humanitarian trust fund, launch a food security program, and facilitate to unlock financial and banking channels for Afghanistan to help the Afghan people facing looming humanitarian crisis, Qureshi said here on Sunday. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said here on Sunday that if the world does not come to the help of Afghanistan, it will unfold a big man-made crisis.

Delivering a keynote speech at the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Islamabad to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Khan said the world should not abandon Afghanistan in the hour of need.

"Even before Aug. 15, half of the population (in Afghanistan) was below the poverty line ... 75 percent of the budget was supported by the foreign aid. After Aug. 15, if the foreign aid dries up, foreign reserves get frozen, banking system freezes, any country is going to collapse, let alone Afghanistan which has suffered conflicts for years," he added.

The Taliban took over Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Aug. 15.

"We must understand that when we talk about human rights, every society is different. The idea of human rights and women's rights is different in every society," Khan said, adding that the Afghan caretaker government has promised to comply with the preconditions of human rights, women's rights and curbing terrorism.

The Pakistani prime minister said the Afghan government could not pay salaries to public servants, doctors and nurses.

"Chaos suits no one. It certainly doesn't suit the United States. There is a potential risk of international terrorism from organizations like IS (Islamic State). The only way to deal with it is with a stable Afghan government," he added.

Speaking at the session, Secretary-General of the OIC Hissein Brahim Taha reiterated that the OIC stands for the sovereignty of Afghanistan as well as regional security.

He said the organization proactively mobilized global opinion about helping Afghanistan and also established its mission in Afghanistan to stem the spread of COVID-19.

He added the international community ought to mainstream Afghanistan in the world through unequivocal support to deny room for terrorists.

In his address to the session, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi presented a six-point proposal to avert the crisis in Afghanistan.

The minister suggested mobilization of investment to Afghanistan, and formation of a focus group for finding solutions to its financial challenges.

He also called for a substitute to the banking system in Afghanistan besides investing in capacity building of the Afghan government to fight terrorism and narcotics trade.

Qureshi said world food agencies are apprehensive of a brewing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the world should lend a hand to avert food shortage in Afghanistan.

He added that over half of the population in Afghanistan is facing a food shortage, and children are dying of malnutrition, urging the world to rise above all considerations and help the country on an urgent basis. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-19 23:06:21|Editor: huaxia

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Overseas returnees communicate with employers at a job fair during the 19th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, April 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Facing the COVID-19 impact and downward pressure of the economy, China is looking to keep employment stable.

As measures keep rolling out to ensure people get jobs, more policies are needed to cope with the COVID-19 impact.

Employment bears the brunt of the downward pressure on the economy, said Lian Ping, chief economist at Zhixin Investment Research Institute, noting that it is crucial to give priority to employment in economic and social development as well as macro policies.

The country's job market continued to pick up in 2021 with the further recovery of China's economy and enterprises up on their feet.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent in November, 0.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

During the first 11 months of this year, the country created 12.07 million new urban jobs, over-fulfilling its annual target, according to the NBS.

Yet, China's economic development is facing pressure from demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations, a recent annual Central Economic Work Conference cautioned.

China should strengthen the implementation of the job-first policy in its pursuit of high-quality development and better leverage the role of economic growth in boosting employment, according to a statement released after the meeting.

"This requires fiscal, financial, investment, industrial and other policies to support employment, enhance the ability of economic development to create jobs, and benefit low- and middle-income groups," Lian said.

To ease the downward pressure on the real economy, China has recently announced a cut in the reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions, which sent a positive signal to China's labor market.

In the first nine months of this year, 67.2 billion yuan (about 10.6 billion U.S. dollars) of employment subsidies were distributed, while insurance premiums worth 15.1 billion yuan were returned to enterprises to help them sustain stable payrolls, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

As a key group of employment, college graduates in 2022 are expected to reach 10.76 million in China, 1.67 million more than this year.

"The unemployment rate among those aged between 16 and 24 is still relatively high, but the problem is mainly structural," said Lian, adding that there is a shortage of skilled talent, especially highly skilled talent.

Efforts will be made to boost the employment of young people, including college graduates, and optimize flexible employment and social security policies, said the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

Lian suggested that more jobs should be created with supply and services optimized, while efforts should be made in career guidance and vocational training, such as increasing jobs at the primary level communities. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 03:03:15|Editor: huaxia

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EU leaders attend the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 16, 2021. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua)

Being the world's COVID-19 epicenter for a second time, Europe is bracing for a new wave of the pandemic.



BRUSSELS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The member states of the European Union (EU) will receive an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first three months of next year to hasten the pace against the fast-spreading Omicron variant, the European Commission said on Sunday.

"The Commission has today agreed with BioNTech-Pfizer to accelerate the delivery of its mRNA vaccine to Member States, starting in a few weeks," it said in an announcement. Five million doses will be delivered in January, another five million in February and an extra ten million doses in March.

These doses come on top of the already scheduled 195 million doses from BioNTech-Pfizer, bringing the total number of deliveries in Q1 to 215 million.

A woman passes a bus for vaccination in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The announcement came after the European Commission announced on Thursday that Moderna had agreed to accelerate the delivery of its mRNA vaccine to EU countries.

"In view of the deteriorating epidemiological situation in the European Union over the past months, full vaccination and the roll-out of boosters remains one of the EU's top health priorities," said the executive arm of the EU.

Being the world's COVID-19 epicenter for a second time, Europe is bracing for a new wave of the pandemic.

On Dec. 16, 529 new Omicron cases were reported in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), contributing to an overall total of 3,158 cases caused by the variant, said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Children are seen with their parents after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Cascais, Portugal, on Dec. 18, 2021. Portugal started vaccinating children between the ages of five and 11 against COVID-19 from Saturday. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 11:42:28|Editor: huaxia

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Staff members count ballots for the election for the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday released a white paper on the development of democracy in its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). A senior official overseeing Hong Kong affairs explained the white paper to the media.

The white paper, titled "Hong Kong: Democratic Progress Under the Framework of One Country, Two Systems," was released by the State Council Information Office.

Commenting on the consideration for publishing the document, the official from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council said it was released to review the historical facts and reveal the truth to help people better understand the sincerity and goodwill of the central government for the development of Hong Kong's democracy and the efforts it has made in this regard.

The document was released to refute false ideas and respond to malicious slander so that people will better understand the nature and essence of the development of Hong Kong's democracy and further forge consensus on developing Hong Kong's democracy in accordance with the principle of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law, he said.

The document was also published to strengthen the resolve to maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability and ensure the sustained development of the practice of "one country, two systems," he added.

On how to understand Hong Kong's return to China ushering in a new era for democracy, the official said under British colonial rule there was no democracy in Hong Kong.

The colonial rule did not bring any genuine democracy to Hong Kong. Instead, it laid hidden snares for the development of democracy in Hong Kong after its return to China, he said.

There is no question that the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government designed, created, advanced and safeguarded Hong Kong's system of democracy, he noted.

Since Hong Kong's return to China, its people have gained much greater access to political participation and enjoy more democratic rights than ever before. Democracy in Hong Kong is flourishing, the official noted.

The establishment of democratic institutions and the exercise of democracy in Hong Kong would not have been possible had China not resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. It would not have been possible without the deep concern of the CPC and the Chinese government for the people of Hong Kong, and without their commitment to the principle of "one country, two systems," the official added.

Explaining the reasons for the serious setbacks of the development of Hong Kong's democracy over the past years, the official said the anti-China agitators in Hong Kong and the external groups behind them must be held to account for impeding the development of democracy in the region.

The development of Hong Kong's democracy has stalled because of the local agitators and the external groups behind them -- the former are the frontline saboteurs and the latter the covert masterminds. Many young people in Hong Kong have become their pawns, and local residents are the victims who will suffer the consequences of this dangerous game, he noted.

Noting that the 2019 turmoil revealed shortcomings in the electoral system of the HKSAR, the official said improving the democratic system is a foundation for sound progress in steering Hong Kong's democracy on the right track.

On the central government's stance on developing democracy in Hong Kong, the official said the central government is committed to implementing the principle of "one country, two systems" fully and faithfully, and supporting Hong Kong in developing a democratic system that conforms to the region's constitutional status and actual conditions.

Hong Kong's improved electoral system ensures the sound long-term development of democracy in Hong Kong, he said.

To further the development of democracy in Hong Kong requires resolute commitment to the principle that Hong Kong is administered by patriots, he noted.

Having patriots administer Hong Kong does not exclude people with different political views or ideas, nor will criticism of the government be suppressed. Democracy in the HKSAR allows ample room for different opinions and political groups, and there will be a plurality of voices, he said.

The system of democracy in Hong Kong should not be a replica of some other model. Rather, a path to democracy with Hong Kong characteristics should be explored, he noted.

The central government will work with all social groups, sectors and stakeholders toward this goal, he added.

The official said that the prospects for democracy are bright under the framework of "one country, two systems," which provides the fundamental guarantee for the development of democracy in the HKSAR.

Hong Kong is entering a new stage of restored order, a thriving society, and further prosperity, said the official, adding that with the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region coming into force, and with improvements to the electoral system, governance by patriots will be further strengthened, the rule of law and the business environment will continue to improve, and Hong Kong will become a more harmonious society.

The policy of "one country, two systems" will be a resounding success story in Hong Kong, and this dynamic region will continue to prosper, said the official. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 21:39:29|Editor: huaxia

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Guests listen to a speech during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)

According to the Forum, participants of the annual meeting will instead join a headline series of "State of the World" sessions bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

GENEVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) will defer its 2022 annual meeting from January to early summer, it said on Monday.

The meeting, scheduled for Jan. 17-21 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, was postponed due to the "continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak."

"Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting," the WEF explained in a news release published on its website.

Preparations of the WEF annual meeting have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels, the WEF said, adding that the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.

Photo taken on Jan. 20, 2020 shows a view in the main venue of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)

The health and safety of everyone involved in physical meetings have always been the Forum's priority, it stressed.

"The deferral of the annual meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.

According to the Forum, participants of the annual meeting will instead join a headline series of "State of the World" sessions bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

"Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace. We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon." Schwab added.

Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), addresses the opening plenary of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2019, also known as Summer Davos, in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 2, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 22:15:25|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about grain production, the protection and use of black soil at a demonstration zone for green food production in Lishu County of Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, July 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China is deliberating a new law to protect the fertile black soil in its northeastern region. The draft law was submitted for its first reading on Monday at an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

President Xi Jinping has shown great concern for the protection of the black soil.

The soil is found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and produces about one-quarter of the country's total grain output.

When Xi visited a demonstration zone for green food production in Lishu County, Jilin Province in July 2020, he was happy to know that the black soil there was protected with agricultural technologies.

He looked far down on the corn farmland in the demonstration zone. The crops were about to flower, with golden tassels on the top. A dozen drones were hovering over to carry out the spraying operation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about grain production, the protection and use of black soil at a demonstration zone for green food production in Lishu County of Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, July 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

In spite of the scorching sun overhead, Xi walked into the corn field along with local agricultural technicians and took a closer look at the black soil cross section in front of an observation point.

Agricultural expert Li Baoguo, also a professor from China Agricultural University, told Xi that the black soil was originally at least 60 centimeters in thickness, but had been shrunk for 3 millimeters per year by wind- and water-driven erosion since it was reclaimed for growing crops in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

"The black soil would disappear in decades without effective protection measures," Xi said anxiously.

Li introduced a practice of returning corn stover to the farmland for mulching purposes in the demonstration zone. It not only increased the organic matter in soil, but also helped prevent soil erosion and preserve soil moisture.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about grain production, the protection and use of black soil at a demonstration zone for green food production in Lishu County of Siping City, northeast China's Jilin Province, July 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Xi noted that Li's work was very important. He stressed effective measures to protect the black soil for future generations, saying the soil is as treasurable as giant pandas. "The practice in Lishu County is worth promoting."

He asked experts and scholars to "write research papers on the farmland," helping farmers master advanced agricultural technologies and grow the best food with the best technology.

At an annual central rural work conference last December, Xi again underlined making good use of and well protecting the black soil. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 22:51:41|Editor: huaxia

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-- Electoral Affairs Commission official said election was conducted in an open, fair and honest manner.

-- Newly-elected lawmakers and authorities in Hong Kong have highlighted the significance of the election in getting rid of past political quagmire and fast-tracking solutions to Hong Kong's deep-seated problems.



-- Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she hopes to cooperate with members of the new LegCo to build a better Hong Kong.

-- Beijing's liaison office in the HKSAR called the election a successful practice of democracy with Hong Kong characteristics.

HONG KONG, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday unveiled its new lawmaker lineup after successfully holding its first legislative election under an improved electoral system.

Ninety elected lawmakers, standing out from a total of 153 candidates from different backgrounds and across the political spectrum, will sit on the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the HKSAR.

About 1.35 million eligible voters cast their ballots at more than 600 polling stations across the SAR on Sunday.

To facilitate participation for registered Hong Kong voters in the Chinese mainland amid COVID-19 concerns, voting stations were also set up at the checkpoints at Heung Yuen Wai, Lo Wu, and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line. The voters briefly crossed into the Hong Kong side to cast their ballots.

"Overall, the polling and counting processes went very smoothly. The election was conducted in an open, fair and honest manner," Chairman of the HKSAR Electoral Affairs Commission Barnabas Fung said after the conclusion of the election.

The election was also characterized by intense competition. For example, five candidates from the education functional constituency had to vie for a single seat.

Voters wait to cast ballots at a polling station in Whampoa, Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

A SOUND GOVERNANCE BACK ON TRACK

After a series of improvements made to the electoral system to better implement the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong," the LegCo now has 90 seats, up from 70, with 40 returned by the Election Committee constituency, 30 by functional constituencies, and 20 by geographical constituencies.

Newly-elected lawmakers and authorities in Hong Kong have highlighted the significance of the election in getting rid of past political quagmire and fast-tracking solutions to Hong Kong's deep-seated problems.

Hong Kong has been plagued by entrenched problems ranging from housing shortage to a wide wealth gap, and young people long for more opportunities. Political distractions over the past years have left such issues unsolved for too long, because in the past, elections in Hong Kong often descended into chaos and were used by external anti-China forces to endanger national security and undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability.

Wong Yuen-shan, elected by the Election Committee constituency, said as seen in the past month or so of campaigning, candidates from different backgrounds competed rationally and pragmatically on their ideas, platforms and abilities, as rational discussions regained footing in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong residents are delighted to find that issues of public concern have been featured on the election platforms of the candidates, ranging from ensuring land and housing supply to developing a new northern metropolis.

Chan Han-pan won a seat through the highly competitive geographical constituency of New Territories South West. He has 16 years of experience as a District Council member and nine years as a LegCo member.

Looking forward, he said he will live up to the expectations of the voters by implementing his political platform and bringing the opinions received during the election period to the legislature to reflect voters' voices.

Chan Han-pan talks with a citizen in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Robert Lee, elected by the financial services functional constituency, said he will make a difference in conveying the voices of the industry, increasing employment opportunities, promoting economic development and solving the problems encountered by young people.

Yiu Pak-leung, elected by the tourism functional constituency, said the outlook for Hong Kong is bright given support from the central authorities. He noted the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) supports Hong Kong in enhancing its status as an international financial, shipping and trade center, and its effort to develop itself into a center for cultural and art exchanges between China and other countries.

"The new LegCo will put sound governance back on the right track, work for the well-being of the people, and move Hong Kong forward," Yiu said. "In the future, I will work with the tourism industry to solve the difficulties and retain the talents, and work hard for the tourism industry to take off again."

A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY

HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Monday that she hopes to cooperate with members of the new LegCo to promote Hong Kong's economic development, its integration into the overall development of the country, and to improve people's livelihood, so as to build a better Hong Kong.

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR on Monday hailed the successful election in an online statement released after election results were unveiled.

Calling the election a successful practice of democracy with Hong Kong characteristics, the office said the HKSAR's seventh-term LegCo election has once again demonstrated the strengths and advantages of the improved electoral system and is a further implementation of the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong."

Staff members count ballots for the election for the seventh-term LegCo of the HKSAR in Hong Kong, south China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

The Chief Executive in Council, in accordance with the Legislative Council Ordinance, has specified Jan. 1, 2022 as the commencement date of the seventh-term LegCo of the HKSAR.

In addition, under the ordinance, the chief executive of the HKSAR has specified Jan. 12, 2022 as the date on which the 2022 legislative session is to begin, and 11:00 a.m. local time of Jan. 12, 2022 as the time for holding the first meeting of the seventh-term LegCo. The term of office of the LegCo is four years. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 15:05:32|Editor: huaxia

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Photo shows the Mosque of Abu al-Dhahab in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 17, 2021. Celebrations to mark Cairo's designation as the "Capital of Culture in the Islamic World" in 2022 will boost cultural tourism in the Egyptian capital, which is known as "the city of a thousand minarets" for its historic mosques and landmarks, an Egyptian official has said. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Celebrations to mark Cairo's designation as the "Capital of Culture in the Islamic World" in 2022 will boost cultural tourism in the Egyptian capital, which is known as "the city of a thousand minarets" for its historic mosques and landmarks, an Egyptian official has said.

Osama Talaat, head of Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish antiquities sector, said Cairo's tourism business is likely to benefit from the celebrations, which are set to begin in mid-February 2022.

Cairo was supposed to hold celebrations as the Islamic world's cultural capital in 2020. However, activities were postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Salim AlMalik, director-general of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), who spoke at a press conference on December 7.

During the conference, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture announced it will collaborate with ICESCO to host the celebrations, which include more than 50 activities.

Seminars, lectures, conferences, publications, photo galleries and competitions, artistic shows, folklore performances, handicraft exhibitions, and the presentation of a special film about Cairo are among the activities announced at the press conference by Egyptian cultural officials.

"The choice of Cairo as the capital of culture in the Islamic world was made because it is one of the oldest and most ancient Arab capitals, as well as a witness of the depth of history thanks to the tremendous heritage it possesses," Egyptian Minister of Culture Inas Abdel-Dayem said at the press conference.

Cairo's designation "embodies Egypt's international position" and confirms Egypt's cultural and historical standing among the world's states, the official said, adding Cairo's heritage expresses the fundamental characteristics of human civilization in general and ancient Islamic civilization in particular.

The celebrations coincide with the ongoing renovation projects in Historic Cairo, such as those in the areas surrounding Bab Zuweila, Bab al-Nasr, Bab al-Futuh, Al-Hakim Mosque and Al-Rifa'i Mosque, according to Osama Talaat.

Founded in the 10th century during the Fatimid caliphate, Historic Cairo is recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Cultural Heritage site, being "one of the world's oldest Islamic cities."

Among the famous landmarks of Historic Cairo are Al-Azhar Mosque, Al-Hussein Mosque, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, Al-Mu'izz Street, which was named after a Fatimid caliph and contains iconic religious and charitable buildings commissioned by Egypt's rulers and elites back then, and the three remaining gates in the walls of Old Cairo: Bab Zuweila, Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh.

Tourism in the city is not restricted to Historic Cairo but extends to Greater Cairo that includes the great pyramids of Giza, besides various museums featuring different eras of Egypt's history. Enditem

People visit the Al-Mu'izz Street in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 17, 2021. Celebrations to mark Cairo's designation as the "Capital of Culture in the Islamic World" in 2022 will boost cultural tourism in the Egyptian capital, which is known as "the city of a thousand minarets" for its historic mosques and landmarks, an Egyptian official has said. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

People visit the Al-Mu'izz Street in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 17, 2021. Celebrations to mark Cairo's designation as the "Capital of Culture in the Islamic World" in 2022 will boost cultural tourism in the Egyptian capital, which is known as "the city of a thousand minarets" for its historic mosques and landmarks, an Egyptian official has said. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

People walk by the Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 17, 2021. Celebrations to mark Cairo's designation as the "Capital of Culture in the Islamic World" in 2022 will boost cultural tourism in the Egyptian capital, which is known as "the city of a thousand minarets" for its historic mosques and landmarks, an Egyptian official has said. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 20:04:37|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and eight others sustained injuries on Sunday following a road accident involving a bus and truck on a road in Nigeria's southwest region, road police said Monday.

Ahmed Umar, commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in the southwestern state of Ogun, told reporters in Abeokuta, the state capital, that the incident occurred Sunday evening at Lufwape, a community in Ogun which has linkage with an expressway connecting the city of Lagos, the country's economic hub, and Ibadan, state capital of the Oyo state bordering Ogun.

Umar blamed the truck driver for the incident, saying a preliminary investigation by the road police revealed there was a speed violation and dangerous driving on his part.

"The truck driver drove dangerously, forcing the bus driver to lose control and (the bus)crashed on the highway," the official said, adding all casualties are those aboard the bus, and the truck driver has escaped from the scene of the accident.

He cautioned motorists against dangerous driving, advising them to drive defensively, maintain a safe speed and obey traffic rules and regulations.

Deadly road accidents are frequently reported in Nigeria, often caused by overloading, bad road conditions, and reckless driving. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 22:33:43|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and other humanitarian partners on Monday launched the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2022, seeking about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to help 5.5 million of the most vulnerable people in Somalia.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said it is releasing 17 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund to meet the immediate needs of drought-affected communities.

"To save lives in Somalia and avert another humanitarian catastrophe, we must release funding now so that people can protect themselves from further hunger and impoverishment," the UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

Somalia is facing three consecutive failed rainy seasons for the first time in 30 years. "I count on other donors to follow this lead and urge them to generously support the Somalia Humanitarian Fund," Griffiths said.

According to the UN, people in Somalia have endured decades of conflict, recurrent climate shocks, and disease outbreaks, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. And a prolonged desert locust infestation has also impacted harvests and livelihoods in Somalia.

The UN estimates that about 7.7 million people in Somalia will require humanitarian assistance and protection in 2022.

The UN said the HRP will prioritize life-saving assistance for the most vulnerable people, including one million children under five, by decreasing the prevalence of hunger, acute malnutrition, public health threats and outbreaks, abuse, violence, and exposure to explosive ordinances by the end of the year.

In addition, the UN said, partners will attempt to sustain the lives of 5.5 million people requiring humanitarian assistance by ensuring safe, equitable and dignified access to livelihoods and essential services. Finally, the humanitarian response in Somalia aims to uphold commitments to the centrality of protection.

Khadija Diriye, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster of Somalia, said the current drought has devastated livelihoods and pushed families to the brink of disaster.

"There is a high risk that without immediate humanitarian assistance, children, women and men will start dying of starvation in Somalia," Diriye said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 08:46:04|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has decided to establish a humanitarian trust fund, launch a food security program, and facilitate to unlock financial and banking channels for Afghanistan to help the Afghan people facing looming humanitarian crisis, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here on Sunday.

Addressing a joint press conference at the conclusion of the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC held in Islamabad to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Qureshi said that the Afghan economy cannot progress and people cannot be helped without a functional banking system.

He said that the OIC also decided to appoint a special envoy of the body to Afghanistan, besides forging a partnership between the OIC and the United Nations agencies to deliver resources to Afghanistan.

"Sanctions should not impede the provision of humanitarian aid, and economic resources should not be stopped for schools and hospitals."

Qureshi said "we could have the difference of opinion with the authorities (in Afghanistan), but our focus should be the 38 million people of Afghanistan," adding that neighbors of Afghanistan will be equally impacted if unrest returns to Afghanistan, and its impact will also go beyond the region.

The Pakistani official said that COVID-19 is still serious in Afghanistan, and the OIC will coordinate with the World Health Organization to secure vaccines and donations.

Speaking at the press briefing, Secretary-General of the OIC Hissein Brahim Taha said that a large number of countries have participated in the OIC extraordinary session, which gave hope for the future of Afghan people who face a tough winter season and can be helped during the hardship.

He said that the Islamic Development Bank has opened a special fund in Afghanistan, and the donations sent by countries, organizations, and individuals will be used for the people of Afghanistan.

Around 70 delegations from OIC members, non-members as well as regional and international organizations attended the extraordinary session, according to the foreign ministry of Pakistan. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 09:16:28|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian business leaders have called for an urgent significant increase in the country's migration rate.

In a submission to the Home Affairs Department, the Australian Industry (Ai) Group, which represents more than 60,000 businesses, made a case for the annual permanent migration cap to be increased from 160,000 to between 190,000 and 200,000.

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Ai Group and chair of the Migration Council of Australia, said "two thirds" of the new cap should be made up of skilled migrant visa holders to help employers fill labor market shortages brought about by Australia's strict COVID-19 border closures.

"Skilled migrants generate the greatest benefits to the Australian community since they contribute directly to our national employment and skills base," Willox told the News Corp Australia.

"As at 30 June 2021, there were 1,688,700 temporary visa holders in Australia, compared with 2,000,212 on 30 June 2020, a reduction of 311,512.

"While the target of 160,000 permanent migrants was met in 2020-21, only half were in the skilled stream, a significant reduction from the usual 70 percent."

According to a report commissioned by the Business Council of Australia (BCA), if international borders remain closed the "collapse in migration" would cause economic losses exceeding 800 billion Australian dollars (570 billion U.S. dollars) by 2028.

It found that every 1,000 migrants to Australia generate an additional 38 million AUD (27 million USD) in tax revenue and 124 million AUD (88.3 million USD) in higher economic output.

Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the BCA, said allowing the right workers into Australia would "get key projects and investments off the ground."

"You can't employ hundreds of Australians on a construction job if you don't have a surveyor and you can't deliver an infrastructure pipeline without engineers," she said.

"Well managed population growth will be critical to support labor shortages and skills gaps in our immediate recovery and to helping offset the impact of an ageing workforce in the longer term." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 13:33:24|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 125 new COVID-19 cases and two more related deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 388,304 and the national death toll to 1,972, according to the country's health ministry on Monday.

Three of the latest confirmed infections were imported from abroad, and the remaining ones were local infections, the ministry said.

Currently, 2,291 COVID-19 patients are being hospitalized across the country, while 4,201 asymptomatic or mild patients are receiving home-based care, according to the ministry.

So far, around 66 percent of Mongolia's population of 3.4 million have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while 850,958 people have had a booster. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 14:15:29|Editor: huaxia

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An Afghan man prepares Qabili at Abdul Rahim Fatah's restaurant in Shibergha city, capital of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan, Dec. 11, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- While the world looks on unsure of how the next chapter in Afghanistan's history will unfold, Abdul Rahim Fatah, 32, is otherwise occupied, trying to ensure that the future is better than the past.

Thousands of Afghans, including many of his friends, have left the country for Europe and the United States since the collapse of the U.S.-backed government and takeover by the Taliban in August.

"I borrowed about 1 million afghanis (about 10,000 U.S. dollars) to leave Afghanistan, but I changed my plans," he said. Fatah decided to open a restaurant in Shiberghan, capital of the northern Jawzjan Province. He believes that Afghans can rebuild their own country if they are prepared to work hard.

"I am giving hope to people who do not want to leave, but to stay and rebuild. I have spent my money here to help rebuild the economy even at a minimum level," he said. Fatah already employs seven people.

In addition to food, Fatah's restaurant has a small library. His restaurant also uses exclusively local products to help other local business. "In my place, the cook uses only locally produced rice, meat, vegetables," Fatah said.

This is the first new restaurant in Shiberghan after the collapse of the previous government in August. Since then, countless Afghans have left for abroad. Afghanistan is an agricultural country and using local crops encourages farmers. Besides calling upon fellow Afghans to stay at home and work, Fatah expects the new administration to stabilize the economy.

Welcoming Fatah's initiative, a restaurant customer Mahboubullah Mehran expressed his satisfaction with the security situation in Shiberghan. "Like Fatah, others can start a business and contribute to rebuilding economy," he said.

Another diner, Taghral Beg Batur, 25, feels much the same. "Running away is not the solution. Afghanistan needs young, educated people to rebuild it," he said.

As we left Fatah with his customers at his restaurant, he had some final words. "We have to invest in our society to help rebuild and stabilize our economy instead of fleeing the country." Enditem

People have lunch at Abdul Rahim Fatah's restaurant in Shibergha city, capital of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan, Dec. 11, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 15:33:49|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh would support Afghan people through humanitarian aid packages in the form of food and medicinal assistance, Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

This has been conveyed by the country's Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen during the 17th Extraordinary Session of Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan held in Pakistan on Dec. 19, said Muhammad Mohsin Reza, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

During the council meeting, the foreign secretary expressed deep concern on economic and humanitarian crisis looming on the larger part of the Afghan population due to the acute shortage of food, shelter and social services which may further be worsened as winter approaches.

He hoped that the inclusive socio-economic development of Afghanistan will continue uninterrupted so that all segments of the society can effectively contribute to the rebuilding process of their country and maintain regional harmony.

Foreign Secretary Momen also said that Bangladesh can be a partner in Afghanistan's developmental process as Bangladesh seeks to enhance regional cooperation for the attainment of a vision of shared prosperity for the region.

He also urged the leaders to intensify cooperation within and beyond OIC in support of the Afghan people. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 16:33:21|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 263 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,837,730.

The DOH also reported that 45 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 50,784. The deaths include those who died in the previous months and last year.

The number of active cases or patients still battling the disease in the country dropped to 9,592.

The Philippines has detected a third case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters in an online briefing.

On Dec. 15, the DOH reported its first two confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in two male travelers from Nigeria and Japan who flew in on Dec. 1 and Nov. 30, respectively. The Nigerian national and the Filipino have recovered.

The Philippines, with a population of around 110 million, has tested more than 23 million people since the outbreak of the pandemic. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 19:05:01|Editor: huaxia

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SYDNEY, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have contributed key analysis of Mars volcanic rock that could lead to new insights into the origins of the Red Planet.

The discovery, announced by QUT on Monday, was made using a device called PIXL, co-developed by QUT researcher and long-term planner for NASA's Perseverance mission, Dr. David Flannery.

Flannery told Xinhua that PIXL works by exposing Mars rock samples to X-ray fluorescence that creates a "map" scan that can then be sent back to Earth for further analysis.

"The data for those maps comes by measuring the energies of X-rays emitted by the rocks," Flannery said.

"They're not optical images, but images that show the distribution of chemical elements in the rock," he said.

Flannery and his team of scientists at QUT, which make up a small part of a larger team for NASA, were expecting the samples to be sedimentary rock, based on where they had charted the landing of NASA's Perseverance rover, however their scans turned their hypothesis on its head.

"We chose the landing site, because we thought it would be the sort of place where we'd find sedimentary rocks that were deposited in that lake, and maybe fossil evidence for life that existed in that lake," he said.

Flannery said, while not what they expected, the discovery bears its own significance.

"When we get the samples back to Earth, we'll be able to date them using radioisotope dating techniques, and that will give us our first date for a surface on Mars," he said.

He said that due to the fact that rocks on the surface of Mars, unlike on Earth, can lie largely undisturbed for billions of years, they could provide a window into the planet's past.

"The volcanic rocks have been altered by water. And by studying that alteration, we'll be able to learn about the chemistry of the water that was present in that environment, probably billions of years ago," he said.

"On Mars, we can see back in time even further, maybe even to the origin of life on Mars. We don't really know for sure. We just started exploring that," he said.

"It would also potentially allow us to put a lot of work that's been done on Martian meteorites into context," he said.

Flannery said he hoped the discovery would help prompt Australia to increase its involvement and investment into space exploration and research domestically.

"I hope that in the near future, there'll be more funding available for planetary science in Australia... (and) that we have an opportunity to contribute our own hardware, to missions and international partners, not just NASA, but other international partners as well," he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 19:22:18|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Monday reported the country's first locally transmitted case of Omicron variant.

The infection is a Thai female who contracted the virus from her pilot husband as he returned from Nigeria in late November. Both the husband and the wife had been fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CCSA.

This new confirmed local case came as the Thai government considered canceling the Test & Go quarantine exemption scheme due to the rising number of Omicron cases among international arrivals.

So far, there are at least 63 confirmed Omicron cases in Thailand, with more cases awaiting confirmation. The public health ministry will propose the cancellation of a quarantine waiver for fully vaccinated visitors and revert to hotel quarantine or a "sandbox" model.

Since reopening on Nov. 1 under multiple entry schemes, Thailand has seen more than 150,000 international visitors, according to the official data. Returning to strict entry requirements and quarantine measures may have an impact on the tourism sector and the overall economic recovery.

With 2,525 new COVID-19 cases reported on Monday, there have been 2,194,053 infections since the start of the pandemic, the cumulative deaths rose by 31 to 21,408.

As of Sunday, Thailand has already administered over 99 million doses of vaccines, with roughly 62 percent of its total population fully vaccinated. Thus far, around 7 percent of Thais have already received a booster dose. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 19:51:07|Editor: huaxia

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COLOMBO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The largest natural blue sapphire corundum ever found in Sri Lanka has attracted interest from potential buyers from China and the United States, the local media reported here Monday.

The corundum which is 310 kilograms in weight was unearthed recently from a piece of private land in Ratnapura, known as the "gem city" and located nearly 115 kilometers from capital Colombo.

Chamila Suranga, founder of the Gemmological Institute of Ratnapura, which owns the stone, quoted in the local media Economy Next said that buyers from China had started to express interest in the stone after it received wide international publicity.

Chamila said one of the inquiries came through a local gem exporter who had been dealing with China for over 30 years.

"I understand that a Chinese museum is interested in this stone, which we have named the Queen of Asia," Chamila said.

"We also got an inquiry from an American buyer who wanted to get it and gift it to a top U.S. natural history museum," he added.

Authorities have said the stone was blue and white in color and was named "Queen of Asia" by experts in the gem industry.

The owners of the sapphire, quoted by local media reports, said the stone was high in value. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 22:31:50|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has removed the entry ban for travelers from China's Hong Kong ahead of year-end holidays while putting Britain, Norway and Denmark into the travel ban list, citing increasing cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant in the three countries.

With the new decision, Indonesia now has a total of 13 countries on its travel ban list including South Africa, Bostwana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Angola and Zambia.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told a press conference on Monday that the government could add more countries to the list depending on the development of the situation in Indonesia.

"We keep watching the situation and we do the weekly evaluation. We still have no idea about the details of the Omicron variant, although many researchers have found that it is more transmissible," Pandjaitan said.

As of Monday, the country's health ministry has confirmed three Omicron variant cases.

"We still urge that the public avoid traveling abroad if there is no essential purpose," Pandjaitan said.

The government has decided to extend the restrictions on public activities, locally known as PPKM, outside Java and Bali from Friday to Jan. 3, 2022, a senior minister said.

The measure was taken following the mechanism on the PPKM during the Christmas and New Year holidays based on the level of the pandemic assessment, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said at a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Monday.

Hartarto also said the number of daily cases outside Java and Bali for the last seven days has decreased by 98.9 percent with a fatality rate of 3.12 percent and a recovery rate of 96.71 percent.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country has now risen to 4,260,677, as 133 new patients were recorded in the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 Task Force said.

As many as 216 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,111,835, and 11 more people died of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 144,013. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 22:48:57|Editor: huaxia

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Flood victims wade through a flooded road in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said.

Selangor police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed said floods hit various districts in Selangor and claimed eight lives so far, according to state news agency Bernama.

The number of displaced persons due to flooding in Malaysia has risen to over 64,000 in seven states plus the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur as of 10:00 p.m. local time Monday, according to data from the Malaysian social welfare department.

The worst-hit state is Pahang along the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia, with over 34,000 people being evacuated to flood relief centers, followed by Selangor state with over 24,000 evacuated.

The flood situation in the capital of Kuala Lumpur has eased in part due to its flood mitigation facility, known as the SMART Tunnel, the company managing the tunnel said in a statement.

The tunnel, which is designed to capture floodwater before pumping it out via a drainage network, had been activated at around 8:00 p.m. Sunday, with some 4.9 million square meters of floodwater being diverted from the capital, it said.

The country's meteorological department has warned of more rain in the Peninsula Malaysia, with rain and storms expected in several states on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement that more resources including personnel and equipment are being deployed to aid with evacuation and flood relief.

He also sought to calm the public, with many still being trapped in areas that are still flooded in parts of the country.

"I completely understand the public's concern about the safety of those stranded by floods and as I have stressed before, rescue efforts are being intensified and rescue operations are being carried out nonstop," he said. Enditem

Rescuers evacuate a flood victim in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Rescuers evacuate flood victims in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Flood victims wade through a flooded road in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Rescuers evacuate flood victims in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

A flood victim wades through a flooded road in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Rescuers evacuate flood victims in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Rescuers evacuate flood victims in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Dec. 20, 2021 shows a flooded residential area in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Rescuers evacuate flood victims in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Dec. 20, 2021 shows a flooded residential area in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. Eight people have been reported dead due to severe flooding in Malaysia as of Monday, authorities in Selangor state said. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 23:36:21|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan's parliament on Monday approved a record 36.0 trillion yen (about 320 billion U.S. dollars) supplementary budget for fiscal 2021, in part supporting the latest economic package to set the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic back on a recovery track.

The Japanese government will be forced to issue new bonds worth 22.1 trillion yen (196.4 billion dollars) to finance the majority of the supplementary budget.

As a result, the outstanding balance of government bonds, which need to be cleared by tax revenue, is expected to surpass 1,000 trillion yen (8.9 trillion dollars) by March.

The draft of the extra budget was approved by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet late last month and passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

In the budget, fiscal spending totaled a record 55.7 trillion yen (495.1 billion dollars), with 31.6 trillion yen (280.9 billion dollars) for the government's new stimulus plan revealed in mid-November.

As a precautionary measure for another possible wave of COVID-19 infections this winter, Kishida's policy package largely leaned towards curbing COVID-19 amid fears over the spread of the Omicron virus variant.

Of the total extra budget, 18.6 trillion yen (165.3 billion dollars) was earmarked for measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 and support medical institutions.

In particular, 2.0 trillion yen (17.8 billion dollars) was set aside as subsidies to help medical institutions secure more beds for COVID-19 patients.

To support promotion of the government's COVID-19 vaccination program and procurement of treatment drugs, 1.3 trillion yen (11.6 billion dollars) and 601.9 billion yen (5.3 billion dollars) were allocated, respectively.

As a key policy measure in the stimulus package, 1.2 trillion yen (10.7 billion dollars) will be used for the government's handout program of cash and vouchers for children aged 18 or younger in households where the primary earner's annual income is below 9.6 million yen (84,608 dollars). Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 20:16:03|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum will defer its 2022 annual meeting from January to early summer, it said on Monday.

The meeting, scheduled for Jan. 17-21 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, was postponed due to the "continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 07:30:45|Editor: huaxia

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NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Evidence increasingly showed that historic heat waves, monster rain events and ultra-intense storms are exacerbated by the warmer air and water of the overheating planet, particularly for the United States in the year of 2021, reported The Washington Post earlier this week.

"The only two truisms when it comes to extremes in climate change are that almost everywhere: The hot hots are getting hotter and more frequent, and the wet wets are getting wetter and more frequent," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was quoted as saying.

Climate change has created conditions in which -- even if the total amount of rain and snow is fairly stable from year to year -- the West's rainy season is shorter, and the moisture often falls in violent bursts rather than long, drought-squelching soaks, said Swain who specializes in the ties between climate change and weather.

"It's like the difference between sipping a cup of water vs. having it thrown at your mouth," said the report. "For five days late in late January, California had water thrown at its mouth."

Much of the West's water comes from atmospheric rivers, which are like fast-moving, airborne conveyor belts that shuttle moisture from the Pacific to the West Coast about a dozen times a year. They are notoriously unpredictable and are often described as giant fire hoses in the sky, the report further explained.

"This particular atmospheric river blasted as much as 16 inches of rain and 100-mph winds through the middle of the state. Mudslides and floodwater covered major highways. The Big Sur River overtopped its banks. Debris flowed unchecked through areas recently scarred by wildfires," it added.

Looking back in 2021, Texas froze and Seattle roasted. Parts of California flooded, burned, then flooded again. A hurricane that slammed Louisiana was so waterlogged that its remnants inundated New York City. A blizzard hit Hawaii.

"The weather was wilder than usual this year," said the report. "Vicious wind and tornadoes put a deadly exclamation point on the end of an extraordinary year for extreme weather in the United States." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-12-20 14:53:27|Editor: huaxia

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by Yosley Carrero

HAVANA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of active COVID-19 cases in Cuba continued to decline to the lowest level in nearly a year, reaching 358 as of Sunday, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) said.

Among the active cases, 16 are in intensive care units across the country, MINSAP said.

The Caribbean nation reported 62 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally to 964,097, it said, adding that no coronavirus-related deaths were registered in the past day, leaving the national death toll at 8,324.

Cuba has so far reported five cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Health officials continued to urge people to follow COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Sports facilities, leisure centers, theme parks and beaches in Cuba are open with mask mandates, whereas restaurants and cafeterias are operating under social distancing guidelines.

According to MINSAP, the eastern Cuban province of Holguin has recorded the majority of new cases in the Caribbean nation in the past week.

Health authorities have also evaluated the hospitalization of all symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the country's capital of Havana ahead of the Christmas break, when thousands of Cuban nationals from overseas are expected to return to the island.

Travelers flying into Cuba from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are now required to show vaccination certificates and negative results of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests taken within 72 hours of arrival. They are also required to take PCR tests on arrival and on the sixth day of their visits, and to stay in quarantine hotels for a week at their own expense.

Cuba has so far administered slightly more than 29.1 million doses of home-grown vaccines as part of a nationwide COVID-19 immunization drive.

Official data showed that over 10.2 million Cuban nationals have received at least one dose of the domestic vaccines, and about 84 percent of the country's 11.2 million inhabitants have been fully vaccinated.

Over 746,000 people in Cuba, including frontline workers and the immunocompromised, have received a booster. Enditem
THE Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) yesterday dismissed as absurd, unconstitutional and unlawful a High Court application by Harare lawyer Joshua Chirambwe that seeks to strip the association of its powers to regulate the legal profession.

In his application, Chirambwe seeks a declaratory relief to the effect that sections 58, 64 and 65(1) to (5) of the Legal Practitioners Act are invalid and in violation of the Constitution.

According to the Act, one has to be a LSZ member before they are registered by a High Court judge and allowed to practise as a lawyer.

In an opposing affidavit filed through lawyers Scanlen and Holderness, LSZ executive secretary Edward Mapara said Chirambwes application was unconstitutional.

I am advised that in terms of section 85 of the Constitution, the relief sought ought to be appropriate. In casu, the applicant is asking this court to grant an order which enjoins the minister to repeal an Act of Parliament, Mapara said.

In doing so, the minister would be replacing Parliaments law-making powers established in the Constitution. Suffice to say, the relief sought is unconstitutional, unlawful, contrary to acceptable values in a democracy and incapable of enforcement.

Chirambwe cited LSZ, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Attorney-General Prince Machaya as respondents.

Mapara said Chirambwes application was premised on an erroneous interpretation of sections 52 and 74 of the Legal Practitioners Act and an incorrect understanding of the scope and extent of the constitutional rights that the applicant seeks to enforce.

Section 52 does not preclude the formation of any lawyers association.

What even makes this more absurd is that the applicant is self-employed as an advocate. He is not, therefore, employed at all and has no real and substantial interest in matters concerning employment. Apart from this, section 52 does not compel legal practitioners to become members in second respondent (LSZ). It only offers the right of membership to registered legal practitioners.

Chirambwes court challenge followed threats by the government to reform the LSZ. The government accuses the LSZ of being funded by the West to push a regime change agenda.

Mapara added: This application is improperly before this court. The applicant alleges that he is acting in both his own interest as well as public interest.

I am advised that this issue has been put to rest by the Constitutional Court on multiple occasions. The applicant cannot, as he sought to do, act in his own interest as well as public interest. Under section 85(1) of the Constitution, a person should act in one capacity in approaching a court and not act in two or more capacities in one proceeding.

The matter has not yet been set down for a hearing. Newsday
DETHRRONED Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has reacted angrily to a warrant of arrest issued against him by Bulawayo magistrate Maxwell Ncube last week.

Ndiweni left the country for the United Kingdom after he was released on $500 bail pending appeal against conviction and sentence.

The outspoken former chief was sentenced to 18 months in jail in August 2019 for allegedly ordering 23 villagers to destroy property belonging to one of his subjects Fatti Mbele in a bid to banish him from the area.

The damaged property was reportedly worth less than US$20.

After he was released on bail, Ndiweni went to the UK purportedly to seek medical attention and has not returned since.

His bail conditions were that he should report to the police once a week and reside at his given address until the matter was finalised.

Police filed for a warrant of arrest and the Ncube granted the application.

But Ndiweni said he would challenge the warrant of arrest because it had no merit.

Since it has now been two years of waiting for such a simple straightforward case to be heard, it is this case that has been used to try and issue an arrest warrant, an international arrest warrant for 8,50. What is Zimbabwe coming to, Ndiweni said.

Once discharged from treatment from the hospital, here in the UK, I will return to Zimbabwe, irrespective of whether the arrest warrant is there or not.

For the chief has work to do in Zimbabwe. We live in amazing and interesting times. We observe a government in total disarray, lurching from one crisis to another crisis.

Ndiweni was dethroned on November 30, 2019 and stripped of government benefits.

Ndiweni said he had left the country to seek medical attention for an eye ailment. He said the case in which he was convicted was politically driven.

The footprints of Zanu PF were everywhere, in this matter. The footprints of political corruption were all over it.

Indeed footprints which will be addressed, when a proper government takes office, for corruption and misuse of public office, Ndiweni said.

Ndiwenis lawyer Dumisani Dube yesterday said he only read about the warrant of arrest against his client in newspapers.

I have only read about it in the papers, I will follow up and check with the courts, Dube said. Newsday
ALL learners in boarding schools who tested positive for Covid-19 have remained quarantined at their various institutions of learning despite the closing of schools last Friday as part of measures to prevent the spread of the virus in communities.

So far, more than 100 schools countrywide have been hit by new infections with some schools in Bulawayo having been affected.

Some private schools closed early to prevent the spread of Covid-19 following the outbreak of the Omicron variant which has spiked the fourth wave. Other schools ended up resorting to online learning in the run-up to the schools closing day last Friday.

The country has over the last two weeks seen a 472 percent surge in new Covid-19 cases.

The last genomic sequencing has linked all the cases to the highly transmissible new Omicron variant. As of Saturday, Zimbabwe had recorded 191 673 confirmed cases, including 135 755 recoveries and 4 782 deaths.

Recently, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education communications and advocacy director, Mr Taungana Ndoro revealed that over 100 schools had recorded Covid-19 cases countrywide.

The Education Ministry is working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to contain the situation through enforcing the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols.

Ahead of the schools closing day last Friday, the Ministry of Health and Child Care directed health authorities in all the countrys provinces to ensure that all pupils at boarding schools who caught the virus must remain quarantined at their learning institutions as others went home for the holidays.

Bulawayo Provincial Medical Director, Dr Maphios Siamuchembu confirmed the development.

He said the Ministry of Health and Child Care directed school authorities to make sure that learners in isolation must remain in school until they are cleared to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

As schools closed, those children who are in isolation because they have tested positive for Covid-19 remain in their current isolation facilities until the end of their isolation period. My office regrets any inconvenience caused, but we cannot deliberately allow infected people to go around spreading the virus, he said.

Dr Siamuchembu said the city has over 70 pupils affected by the directive.

He appealed to well-wishers to assist the affected schools with donations as their budgets were limited to keep and feed students beyond the closing day.

Dr Siamuchembu said one of the schools, Luveve High School does not have piped water and needs stakeholders support.

I might as well take the opportunity to appeal to the Bulawayo community for assistance with resources for these pupils. The schools do not have a budget to keep and feed the pupils, he said.

Besides Luveve, another affected school is Townsend which has 66 girls and two cooks in quarantine.

Dr Siamuchembu said well-wishers can approach the affected schools with donations.

Last Tuesday, President Mnangagwa extended the Covid-19 Level Two national lockdown by a further two weeks, citing the rapid rise in infections driven by the new Omicron variant.

The President also moderately tightened the lockdown by scaling down Government activities, enforcing masks for all private and public commuters and asking businesses to implement earlier festive season shutdowns than usual.

In her post Cabinet briefing last week, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Government was concerned with the recent jump in daily Covid-19 infections.

The rise in Covid-19 infections comes at a time when Zimbabwe, among other nations, has started to record Omicron cases which the World Health Organisation (WHO) described as a variant of concern given its perceived risks.

To date, over four million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, with 3 999 170 having received their first dose and 3 013 385 receiving their second dose as at Wednesday.

In November last year, more than 180 Covid-19 cases were recorded at John Tallach in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North, the highest that a single school has recorded since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. Chronicle


DETHRONED Ntabazinduna Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has been declared a fugitive from justice after a Bulawayo magistrate issued a warrant of arrest against the ex-traditional leader for violating his bail conditions.

Ndiweni (58) ceased to be Ntabazinduna chief on November 30 in 2019 and was subsequently stripped of all Government benefits accruing to him.

He was in August 2019 sentenced to an effective 18 months in jail for ordering 23 villagers to destroy property belonging to a family that he had banished from his area.

Aggrieved by the conviction and sentence, Ndiweni, through his lawyer Mr Dumisani Dube of Mathonsi Law Chambers, appealed at the High Court challenging the verdict of the lower court and the matter is still pending.

He was, however, later released by Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Thompson Mabhikwa on $500 bail pending appeal against both conviction and sentence.

As part of the bail conditions, the judge ordered Ndiweni to report once a week on Fridays at ZRP Ntabazinduna and to reside at his given address until the matter is finalised.

He, however, defaulted and reportedly fled to the United Kingdom (UK) under the pretext of seeking medical attention.

Following his failure to adhere to the bail conditions, police applied for his warrant of arrest in terms of section 33 (1) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act at the Bulawayo magistrates court.

The magistrate Maxwell Ncube signed the arrest warrant last Thursday following an application by Inspector Josiah Mamhayo, the officer in charge of Mbembesi Police Station under whose jurisdiction Ntabazinduna falls.

In his application for a warrant of arrest, Insp Mamhayo said there were reasonable grounds of suspicion that he violated his bail conditions.

From the information available to me there are reasonable grounds of suspicion against Felix Nhlanhla Ndiweni that he defaulted the bail conditions. He was ordered to report to Ntabazinduna Police Post as part of his bail conditions, but he defaulted, said Insp Mamhayo.

I therefore apply for a warrant of apprehension to be issued in terms of section 33 (1) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, Chapter 9.07.

Mr Ncube signed the warrant of arrest, which empowers police to apprehend Ndiweni upon seeing him.

To the peace officers of the law proper to the execution of all criminal warrants. Whereas there are reasonable suspicions that Felix Nhlanhla Ndiweni defaulted his bail conditions.

These are therefore in the States name to command you that immediately upon sight thereof you apprehend and bring the said accused person or him to be apprehended and brought before the magistrate to be examined by him and be dealt with according to the law, said the magistrate.

Ndiweni is a known anti-Government activist who has openly declared support for the opposition MDC-Alliance. He has on numerous occasions been caught out on some mischief.

A few weeks ago, his picture circulated on social media while standing outside the UK Prime Ministers official residence Number 10 Downing Street in London to petition British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pressure

President Mnangagwa to allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote in 2023.

Current legislation limits voting rights to Zimbabweans outside the country who are on official Government assignments.

Any other Zimbabwean living in the Diaspora is required to physically present themselves at their registered polling station to cast their vote.

In October, Ndiweni led a protest outside the British Parliament, urging the UK government to reverse an invitation to President Mnangagwa to attend the COP26 climate change conference held in Glasgow, Scotland.

To their utter dismay and embarrassment, President Mnangagwa managed to attend the global conference. The President also used his UK visit to mount a diplomatic offensive aimed at strengthening the re-engagement drive while calling for the removal of sanctions.

He met several world leaders, including the United States President Joe Biden, Mr Johnson, Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President of the European Union Council Charles Michel among other global leaders.

It was the first time for a Zimbabwean leader to visit the UK after relations between the two nations were strained after Zimbabwe embarked on the corrective Land Reform Programme in the early 2000s.

Two years ago, Ndiweni sensationally appealed to the international community to escalate sanctions on President Mnangagwas Government, claiming it has failed to pursue democracy.

In 2017, he allowed one political party to hold a rally in his area against police decision barring the party to proceed with the rally in Ntabazinduna because the police did not have enough manpower.

Ndiweni also had a stand-off with the then Umguza MP Obert Mpofu accusing him of meddling in his and other chiefs affairs.

In 2018, he took the Chiefs Council President Chief Fortune Charumbira and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to court seeking nullification of provincial assembly and national chiefs council election results held in 2017, arguing that the whole process was marred with irregularities. Chronicle
FORMER Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Peter Mutasa has alleged that he was being persecuted by suspected Zanu PF activists and that graft allegations against him were a plot by the ruling party to have him arrested.

In a statement, Mutasa said the government and Zanu PF had engineered the corruption allegations.

It is political vengeance and persecution. Unfortunately, it is led and supported by Zanu PF enablers in ZCTU who seek to hoodwink workers into believing that this is a genuine concern. Firstly, the report to Zacc (Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission) was made just before the past ZCTU conference, Mutasa said.

Zanu PF senior officials were already warning me of the impending audit and arrest. That is also why some publications were writing defamatory articles against me. In all the articles, they cited Zanu PF enablers within ZCTU despite their denials.

He said he had nothing to fear as the charges were trumped up and the whole thing was political persecution driven by vengeance.

On December 9, presidential spokesperson, George Charamba warned that Mutasa would soon be caged over alleged transgressions and misuse of funds during his tenure at the helm of the ZCTU.

Moyo said reports of his imminent arrest were given prominence last week towards the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition annual general meeting to harm his chances of getting nominated for the chairperson position.

This report was meant to be used to cause my arrest should the voting delegates numbers support my re-election. This would ensure I was removed from the conference processes and lose by default. This was put on hold when the other team realised that they could win.

Secondly, this report is meant to silence me against the regime or its backers in ZCTU.

Mutasa lost the ZCTU presidency in October to Florence Taruvinga, who became the first female president of the organisation since independence.

Taruvinga works for Zesa as a technician and was ZCTUs first vice-president.

Valentine Chikosi and Nicholas Mazarura were elected first and second vice-presidents respectively, while Douglas Chiradza was elected as treasurer-general.

Japhet Moyo remains the secretary-general. Newsday
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - Intercommunal clashes that erupted in Cameroons Far North region in the past two weeks have driven at least 100,000 people from their homes, although the real number may be much higher, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has said
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Senegal on Sunday recorded 22 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), composed of two monitored contact cases, one imported case and 19 cases resulting from community transmission
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
AMP Limited today announces it will move to a sole listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in February 2022 and accordingly delist from the New Zealand Exchange (NZX) Main Board.

The delisting will support the simplification of AMPs shareholder administration ahead of the planned demerger of its Private Markets business in the first half of 2022. The delisting reflects the smaller number, and lower level of holdings of AMP shareholders on the New Zealand Exchange, following greater accessibility of the ASX to New Zealand-based shareholders.

Shareholders registered on the New Zealand Exchange will be sent the attached communication by email or post outlining the NZX delisting process. Shareholders do not need to take any action to facilitate the transfer of their holdings to the Australian register. New Zealand shareholders will still be able to trade AMP shares through any New Zealand stockbroker who can facilitate trading through the ASX.

NZX Regulation Limited, a separate and independently governed entity delegated to undertake NZXs regulatory functions, has approved the delisting, subject to AMP meeting certain customary conditions.

Shareholders who have questions about the NZX delisting can call the AMP share registry on 0800 444 152 (within New Zealand), 1300 338 164 (within Australia) or +61 3 9415 4018 (other countries) Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.00pm Sydney, Australia time.

Please see the link below for details

AMP announces delisting from the NZX Main Board

Source: AMP Limited

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St. Maarten requests postponement of the Kingdom Council of Ministers (RMR) decision that was scheduled to be taken today, to approve the deviation for the budgetary norms of article 15 of the Rijkswet Financieel Toezicht (Rft). The Netherlands made the granting of the deviation conditional on St. Maartens political approval of the Note of Amendment to the Consensus Kingdom Law COHO, in an effort to force consensus. Additionally, the State Secretary included excerpts of said amendment as decision points for the RMR, thereby circumventing the Parliaments of the Kingdom from debating this aspect of the law. Furthermore, decision points were included which would give the government of the Netherlands carte blanche to impose further unrelated conditions for future liquidity support. It is clear that undue political pressure is being placed on the smaller countries and as such, St. Maarten could not agree with the conditions put forth.





Note should be taken that St. Maarten, according to the Committee for Financial Supervision (Cft), was not in need of liquidity support for the first quarter of 2022. The Cft had also advised positively on the necessary deviation of article 15 (Rft) which allows for a deficit budget.





St. Maarten requested for article 25 (Rft) to be applied, allowing the country in times of a disaster the right to deviate from Article 15 (Rft) which establishes the budgetary norms. This legally empowers St. Maarten to enact the law for an approved deficit budget. This proposal before the Kingdom Council of Ministers, if approved, would have hampered the government to be able to execute St. Maartens 2022 budget currently being debated in Parliament. This demonstrates the continued unconstitutional handling of St. Maarten within the Kingdom by State Secretary Knops, on the eve of the long-awaited new government being sworn in.





The inclusion of excerpts from the Note of Amendment to the decision points (which does not yet have political agreement to go to the Parliaments) is a blatant disregard for the legal trajectory of the Consensus Law and Amendments. In this way, the State Secretary is seeking to circumvent the approval of the Parliaments to increase the authorities of the Cft. Such an action would bind the governments whether or not the consensus laws are approved.





Lastly, the broadly formulated conditions for future liquidity are too open-ended, and would allow the Government of the Netherlands carte blanche to attach any new conditions to all future agreements. These would have very far-reaching consequences for the government of St. Maarten.





As three countries, we collectively decided not to approve or handle this agenda point and have asked for a postponement to afford the three countries the opportunity to have the necessary political discussions in preparation for the next Kingdom Council Meeting scheduled for January 21, 2022.





The Government of Sint Maarten has continued to work diligently on the Country Package measures and are successfully achieving our agreed upon goals. This information has been confirmed by the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) and in the Implementation Reports (uitvoeringsrapportages). We have also been committed to dialogue and participated in all discussions on the Consensus COHO law and the Note of Amendment on a technical level.





The current trend of the Government of the Netherlands to attach more and more conditions, which are almost impossible to accept, clearly demonstrates an attempt to double down and exert undue pressure on their weaker partners. The Kingdom Council of State has strongly advised against such actions in their advice to the Kingdom Council of Ministers. It is therefore disconcerting to read the threats in the press statement by the State Secretary that the liquidity support loans would become due in April 2022, if St. Maarten does not agree to their demands.





Nonetheless, St. Maarten remains positive and open to dialogue and fair negotiations. We look forward to the opportunity to sit with colleagues in the Kingdom to remove the conditions attached to the legal obligation to approve the deviation as well as other unethical conditions that have been attached to these decisions. We continue to work towards the achievement of true resilience for our countries. St. Maarten remains committed to working towards the trajectory of the consensus kingdom law in mutual collaboration whereby parties are not unduly pressured to carry out actions which could potentially hurt the people of St. Maarten. We look forward to handling this amended agenda point in the next Kingdom Council of Ministers," stated Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs
There are four main areas in which the state of any nation must properly manage and save itself from scoundrels and hypocritical conspirators who dressed like patriots who are willing to martyr for people and the motherland. Health, food, education and transport.

Editorial

A group of Sri Lankan public servants who have chosen nefarious politics over their professional responsibilities have called for an island-wide strike today. The strike is being organized by a trade union body called the Government Medical Officers' Association, a group that has been deceived the public day and night to bring the current government to power to take advantage of it. But, so far unsuccessful. The President of this union has been issued an injunction by the court for his misconduct over the years. This guy is a shameless conman. It is a question of whether he should be called a man in the true sense of the word. This person who boasts of having exceptional knowledge of all subjects except his profession, recently went on a rampage to talk about how natural soil is created. Should not these sinners now live so as not to curse the people of this island? In the name of union struggle, they only know how to take hostage the lives of helpless low-income people seeking protection from the free medical service in this country.

The profession was illuminated by great personalities like Peter Daniel Anthonisz, Rachel Christoffelsz, Siva Chinnatamby, Herbert Clifford Serasinghe, Senaka Bibile, and many others, the medical profession of this country was able to do an exceptional service for the needy people while protecting the dignity and quality of humanity. There were times when it was difficult to find a doctor who would betray his reputation for benefits, finances or other means. But the sector itself has been severely eroded by the misdeeds of corrupt and opportunistic politicians and fraudsters in Big Pharma, as well as, those who have become doctors using the public taxes. These unscrupulous gangs of swindlers have plunged the once world-renowned public health service in Sri Lanka into a playground for racketeers who play with the lives of helpless people for financial benefits. They value money over human lives, power over self-esteem, unethical demands over professional responsibilities, inhumanity over humanity. This is the reality of this cursed land.

There are four main areas in which the state of any nation must properly manage and save itself from scoundrels and hypocritical conspirators who dressed like patriots who are willing to martyr for people and the motherland. Those four areas should be kept under the control of the state administration under any circumstances and should not be subjected to compromises to achieve different agendas of anybody. Every country compromised in those fields was bankrupted, not only economically but also intellectually and morally. The four sectors are health, food, education and transport. A genuine welfare state has enduring state policies for these four areas. But in a state where political power oscillates only for the enjoyment of a select few, these areas become a haven for fraudsters. Is there a future for this land that has been cursed by crawling zombies pretending to be doctors, taking the lives of helpless people suffering from the Covid 19 pandemic and the severe economic crisis hostage? Do any of these inhumane zombies screaming for various rights and perks think about the duties they owe to the country? These white-collar fraudsters are as much a curse to this country as they are too corrupt politicians. We have no choice but to pray for nature to solve this. The only option for the people is to mourn until death. So let us thank them for manipulating this country and the souls of humans to satisfy their cravings! Who will think this is the land to reincarnation? Is it any wonder that many people think that even our late indigenous musician Pandit Amaradeva was factually wrong in singing the song, Pinketha Hela Ran derane Yali upadinnata hethu wasana wewa!
The Stick of Jan Sloot

There is a story (I can't remember who told this story first, but it was probably Martin Gardner) about an alien that lands on Earth. The alien wishes to return home with the knowledge of all books on Earth. Unfortunately, his spaceship is so small that he can only take with him a small stick. So what he does is the following. First, he digitizes each book. This translates each book in one huge, but finite, number. Then he attaches all these numbers to each other, which results in an enormous, but still finite, number. In front of this number he places "0.", turning it into a fraction between zero and one. Setting the length of the stick to one, he makes a small cut in the stick at precisely the fraction. When he returns home, he only needs to measure the place of the cut, to get back the fraction, and thus the number, and thus the codes for all the books.

While it seems genius at first glance, of course this kind of information compression is impossible. However, the only reason that it is impossible, is that the universe consists of a finite number of indivisible particles. Were that not the case, in theory the alien's system could work. Of course, it would be unlikely that it could be implemented in practice, since it needs measuring on a scale so fine that even God would not be able to tell the difference between the stored information and the rubbish next to it.

I was reminded of this story when I encountered the affair of Jan Sloot and his Sloot Digital Coding System (SDCS). Since this affair is mainly known in the Netherlands, I will discuss it here.

Translated from UT News:

In 1999, Jan Sloot, a common television repair man, discovered a revolutionary coding system that would make hard disks, CD-ROMs, and other data stores superfluous. All movies ever made would fit on one CD-ROM. Sloot attempted to sell his invention to Philips, but he found that Philips' engineers were not interested. Roel Pieper, at that time a member of the board of Philips, thought the invention was valuable, and decided to join the inventor and his companions. Pieper and Sloot looked for investors all around the world. Pieper himself invested millions in the project. All investors of The Fifth Force, Sloot's company, hoped to become billionaires. But the paranoid inventor died on September 11, 1999, one day before the invention would be specified in detail in a contract. All his notes, his prototype, and his source code were lost forever.

Translated from GIDS:

The Sloot Digital Coding System (SDCS) would shake the world: a new alphabet for digital storage that didn't use binary code, but a much more efficient method. The principle behind SDCS seems simple. As a text consists of a limited number of characters, a movie consists of a limited amount of colours and sounds. All those basic data were stored in five algorithms in five memory stores. For movies, each algorithm would have a maximum length of 74 Mb. That's 370 Mb in total: the invention's engine. To start the engine, only a proper key was needed. For every page of a book, for every image in a movie, Sloot calculated a unique code. The concatenation of these codes would again result in a unique code. The final code, the key, would be one kilobyte in length, regardless of the length of the movie or the size of the book.

Roel Pieper, professor in Computer Science, commented on people questioning the possibility of such a high compression (translated from UT News):

"It is not about compression. Everyone is mistaken about that. The principle can be compared with a concept as Adobe-postscript, where sender and receiver know what kind of data recipes can be transferred, without the data itself actually being sent."

So we're back to the alien and his stick. Basically, Roel Pieper explains Sloot's 'invention' as the movies already residing on the computers of both parties, but in a deconstructed form, and a key being transferred that specifies exactly how reconstruction must take place.

In principle, this is possible. But the crux is, how long the key needs to be, and how big the data store of deconstructed forms must be. Sloot claims that a key of one kilobyte, and a data store of less than 400 Mb, would suffice. This sounds unbelievable, and it is, in fact, mathematically impossible. There are many different arguments. I prefer the simplest one:

A key of a limited length (whether it is a kilobyte or a terabyte) can only store a limited number of codes, and therefore can only distinguish a finite number of movies. However, the actual number of possible movies is infinite. For, suppose it were finite; in that case there would be a movie that is the longest. By just adding one extra image to the movie, I would have created a longer movie, which I didn't have before. Ergo, the number of possible movies is infinite. Ergo, any key of limited length cannot distinguish every possible movie.

The SDCS is only possible if keys are allowed to become infinite, or the data store is allowed to become infinite (if the data store already contains all movies ever made, a key consisting of a number can be used to select the movie you want to see -- however, in that case it is impossible to have keys for movies that have not been made yet at the time the data store was constructed). This would, of course, make the idea useless.

The whole problem of Pieper's way of thinking (and of every other person who believes that Sloot actually could compress movies with a factor of two million) is that he believes that the key does not need to contain every detail of a movie. Unfortunately, it does.

In the SDCS, it is claimed that no movies are stored, only basic building blocks of movies, such as colours and sounds. So, when a number is presented to the SDCS, it uses the number to fetch colours and sounds, and constructs a movie out of them. Any movie. No two different movies can have the same number, otherwise they would be the same movie. Every possible movie gets its own unique number. Therefore, I should be able to generate any possible movie by loading some unique number in the SDCS.

Think of it: by placing the right number in the SDCS, I can not only get Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. I can get Citizen Kane in colour! Or Citizen Kane backwards! Or Citizen Kane where the credits misspell the name of Everett Sloane, who plays mr. Bernstein, as Everett Sloot! Or Citizen Kane in Swahili! Or Citizen Kane where 'Rosebud' is a teddy bear! Or Citizen Kane with a cameo of myself! Or the cartoon version of Citizen Kane! Or Citizen Kane where Charles Foster Kane wins the election! Or the gay version of Citizen Kane! Or Citizen Kane where Charles Foster Kane is replaced by Jar Jar Binks!

How many movies are possible that are variations on Citizen Kane? More than fit in a number of one kilobyte, I can tell you. More than there are atoms in the universe. An infinite number, actually.

In the SDCS, the details of every possible movie have to be somewhere. They are either in the number, or in the data store. Since the data store is the same for each movie, the details can't be in the data store. Therefore, everything that differs between movies, must be represented in some way in the numbers. Which, for infinite variations of movies, is impossible with finite numbers.

Would it be possible to store, say, all possible movies up to three hours in length, with a limited resolution and a limited sound quality, in a series of finite numbers? Yes, of course that is possible, since in the digital world, there is no difference between data and numbers, thus data of a limited length is equal to a finite number.

Even though Sloot claimed that one kilobyte was enough to store any movie regardless of its length, the question is warranted whether a system as defined by the SDCS is possible for movies of a limited (but realistic) length. The answer is no. One kilobyte is 1024 bytes, and a byte can take 256 different values. With a code of one kilobyte, to represent any movie up to 90 minutes in length, on average a byte must be able to distinguish between all possible sequences of about 5 seconds. Can a sequence of 5 seconds of any movie at all be identified with a number between 0 and 255? Of course not.

The concept of the SDCS, as described, is equivalent to a universal Turing machine. A universal Turing machine (which is actually quite easy to simulate in a computer), can emulate any possible computer program (including a program that shows Citizen Kane which ends with a pie fight) just by feeding it a number. The problem is that even for trivial programs the numbers quickly get enormous, so that it is impossible to filter the rare useful programs from the universe of chaos consisting of all numbers. Therefore, it isn't viable business to sell people a universal Turing machine as a solution to all their business problems.

Evidently, Jan Sloot was a crank. He showed all the signs attributed to cranks. He was paranoid. He felt himself an expert in a field he had no higher education in. He worked alone. He spent decades on one problem any mathematician could have told him was impossible to solve in the first place. He got angry at people who questioned him. He felt misunderstood. He had delusions of grandeur.

I think Jan Sloot really believed he had found a way to compress movies to one kilobyte. Probably he had imagined something as the alien's stick, something that would be theoretically possible in an alternate world, with infinitely divisible particles, but impossible in our reality. He probably lacked the mathematical insight to see that his 'invention' was a farce. In his prototype, he faked his invention, which is why he refused to let anyone near it, and answered only in mystical vagueness to questions. He probably imagined that, with enough money, he could get his invention to work for real. He probably did not feel himself a charlatan or a crook, but an honest businessman, who needed a starting capital to create the world's greatest invention, make some people incredibly rich, and win a Nobel prize.

What truly amazes me is that a man as Roel Pieper, who is a professor of Computer Science no less, could fall for his story, to the point where he invested a huge amount of capital. If his role in this story is really as reported in the media, his credibility as a computer scientist has been seriously tarnished. In my opinion, the University of Twente, with which Pieper is associated, should at least perform an internal investigation, to assess whether Pieper's position can be maintained.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, I have devised an invention where I can store any movie ever created on a small stick. I need some money to develop this concept further. If you have a couple of million to spare, give them to me. I'll be glad to build a prototype. We're gonna be rich and famous!

September 28, 2004
Speaking on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the great victory, the President of India said, As a young man, I was inspired by the moral courage of Bangabandhu.

by Jubeda Chowdhury

The President of India came to Dhaka on December 15 at the invitation of the President of Bangladesh to take part in the celebration of the golden jubilee and the centenary of the victory. After a three-day state visit, Indian President Ramnath Kobind left Dhaka at noon on December 17, 2021. The three-day visit of Indian President Ramnath Kobind to Bangladesh from December 15 to December 17 has been fruitful and has given a special dimension to the excellent relations between Bangladesh and India. He was visiting Bangladesh at the invitation of President Md. Abdul Hamid on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the victory of Bangladesh, the celebration of the closing day of Mujib's year, and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh-India relations.

During the visit, he took part in a parade at the National Parade Ground on the morning of 16 December and addressed the Great Hero of Great Victory at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. Bangladesh has a unique place in India's 'Neighbor First' policy, said the country's President.

Bangladesh is not only a close neighbour of India but also a long-time tested, genuine friend and companion. India's spontaneous support and cooperation in the great war of independence and liberation of 1971 are always remembered. Not only economic cooperation between the two countries, but also border security, technology exchange, space research, cyber security, connectivity, shipping, river dredging, and other areas of cooperation are expanding. Efforts are being made to facilitate trade by road. Bangladesh-India relations to advance the relationship that Bangabandhu laid the foundation of a strong partnership between the two countries; Both countries are interested. The bond between Bangladesh and India is directly related to blood. Because, in the glorious armed liberation war of 1971, the neighbouring country India helped and cooperated with Bangladesh in every possible way. The loss of the life of about 17,000 Indian soldiers in the liberation war of Bangladesh is a historic sacrifice that is rare in the history of the world. India recognized Bangladesh as an independent sovereign state on December 6, 1971, within hours of Bhutan's recognition.

On December 15, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid a courtesy call on the President of India. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed various issues including strengthening friendly relations and bilateral cooperation between the two countries, enhancing connectivity, especially reopening of routes closed after the 1965 Pak-India war, and working together on bilateral and international issues.

Speaking on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the great victory, the President of India said, "As a young man, I was inspired by the moral courage of Bangabandhu. Like millions of people, I too was electrified by his thunderous voice and the realization that carried the aspirations of 70 million people of Bangladesh at that time. Like millions of Indians of my generation, we rejoiced in Bangladesh's victory over an oppressive regime and were deeply inspired by the faith and courage of the people of Bangladesh. The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh described the visit of the President and Prime Minister of the neighbouring country to Bangladesh in the same year as a rare event in history. The people of Bangladesh will remember the sincere and inspiring speech of the wise President of India.

In his speech, he mentioned that India has always given top priority to friendship with Bangladesh and said, "We are committed to assisting in realizing the full potential of our friendship." "In recent times, we have seen a wide range of activities in a number of areas, including trade expansion, economic cooperation, people-to-people contacts, student exchanges, and cooperation," he said. All of this is a guarantee of a lasting and deep friendship based on our mutual respect, sovereign equality, and our long-term interests.

The President of India said that our businesses should be encouraged to implement the vision of a deeply integrated supply chain of manufacturing and transport connectivity, which would enable our sub-region to be one of the largest manufacturing hubs in the world and the world's largest market for goods and services.

The issue of regional cooperation is gaining importance in the development of the world today. Actually, there is ample opportunity for neighboring countries to work together for development in the socio-economic, political, and cultural context of South Asia. Regional and bilateral cooperation in various sectors including poverty alleviation, environmental protection, counter-terrorism, agriculture, science, health, and public service may prevail.

Today, Bangladesh looks to other countries to sell its products; However, in order to expand the market for commodities in South Asia, there is no need to be dependent on others for expanding regional trade, India itself may be a huge source of the potential market as the President of India has clearly stated in his speech. Because India has a market of a lot of consumers. Bangladesh should reap these regional benefits.

India is not just its closest neighbour; It is also a country that fully supports Bangladesh's war of independence. From this point of view, the issue of Bangladesh-India relations is very important, there is no doubt about it.

Hopefully, apart from connectivity, implementation of hydropower projects through sub-regional cooperation, and eradication of militancy and terrorism, various issues are gaining equal importance to Bangladesh and India. Moreover, Bangladesh and India share the same attitude in playing a role in maintaining regional peace, security, and stability.

On the other hand, keeping in mind India's contribution in the war of liberation, Bangladesh has always attached importance to maintaining good relations with India. Land and sea disputes between the two countries have already been settled peacefully. Bangladesh has taken appropriate steps to meet India's expectations on transit and transshipment issues. In this context, we are hopeful that the much-awaited Teesta River water sharing issue will be resolved soon.

During his visit to Bangladesh, Indian President Ramnath Kobind's speech expressed hope that the economic potential of the two countries and the hope of opening the door of friendship, harmony, and brotherhood would come true. Let the door of possibility be opened through the Visit of the President of India.
One should hold the New Fortress deal to view in that light. After all the politician in charge, although quite wealthy personally, never in his life held a position of executive responsibility before he became a minister in our governments.

by Usvatte-aratchi

The first, I recall, were containers loads of garbage from the UK imported by someone here. The containers lingered in the port for a few months until the importer could find a politician or a bureaucrat who could be suborned to release the smelly stuff. However, the deal could be so odious that nobody took the bait and the containers duly left.

More recently, there was a ship laden with dangerous gases and solid material, which were leaking and had been refused entry into a number of ports but was welcomed here by a minister who hailed it as a shipload of US dollars. The bureaucrats held ground and the ship capsised not far from our shores, poisoning marine life with its excreta that also washed ashore. I have seen no reports that adequate punitive damages were claimed or paid. Perhaps there is more poison being brewed.

Consequent upon the fertiliser fiasco, put in operation by the President, there were two shipments of which, to be polite, did not conform to local prescribed requirements. On orders placed by a local importer, a firm in Qing Dao shipped out some fertiliser, which when analysed by several scientific establishments here, were threats to the quality of soils here and perhaps to the health of the public. The ship lingered in our territorial waters until the importer could find someone to suborn. Our scientists found that that fertiliser formed a danger to the health of our soils and of the users. The ship left and sued the government (or the importer?) for $6.7 million in compensation. It has not been explained to the public why the wrongdoer, the exporter in this instance, should be paid for bringing in an unsatisfactory product into the country, or why the importer who, in the first instance, ordered that foul stuff, should not be held responsible and pay the fine. Our scientists held ground and the media did a superb job of persistent reporting daily that no politician dare plunge the dagger. This is a funny outcome. The importer ordered or the exporter sent foul stuff and the government (that is the taxpayer, nearly a dollar per every person who voted to elect the President) pays a huge fine, ill afforded at any time and now. Surely, the importer should pay compensation, if any, to the exporter porter and our government should fine the importer. The actual turn of events is bizarre and smells to hells lower than avici maha narakaya. Our often MUC-maligned bureaucracy held their ground to save the public.

The last, for the time being, is the airlifted nanourea which the farmers refused not simply because of its foul smell but also because that the fertiliser invited wild beasts to their fields. The scientists are yet to pronounce themselves, if the case had been referred to them at all. The Ministry of Agriculture has many competent scientists and they should examine the foul stuff and save the public from the follies and the avarice of foolish politicians.

Those repeated attempts to sell substandard and indeed dangerous merchandise in our country must result from information available to exporters that we are a society of kleptocrats (thieves, a la Alibaba and his band of 40) with political leaders who could be suborned cheaply and /or are too stupid to understand the villainous nature of the transactions envisaged. One should hold the New Fortress deal to view in that light. After all the politician in charge, although quite wealthy personally, never in his life held a position of executive responsibility before he became a minister in our governments. The President, himself, confessed, a few moons ago, that he was short of experience for the job (ath dakeeem madiy).

It is time to laud our scientists and bureaucrats who have withstood pressures on them and served the public well.
Our universities need to teach the chemistry involved with energy from Thorium. Thorium reactors have useful by-products which are in demand such as hydrogen, helium and bismuth. We need to design courses on this Thorium-generation topic, now.

by Priyantha Hettige

The Sri Lankans are being led down another rabbit hole of power generation  and this time it is a costly dead end. The result will be more wasted time and money. But now, in the face of a growing serious climate situation, time is running out  it is not on our side for what climate change is coming.

It is worth spelling out the truth in the hope that someone will take a grip on this hot potato of power generation.

Donald Trump does not support renewable energy, he talks about it as not being reliable when needed. And the Russian ambassador to Sri Lanka, the good Yuri Materiy, gave a similar message to this government. (Daily Mirror, November 18, 2021) The Russians are offering assistance to Sri Lanka on the matter of reliable, low cost power generation, to be used in addition to renewables such as wind and solar power. That makes two well-informed sources warning Sri Lanka against relying solely on energy generation from the environment.

Can Sri Lanka afford to ignore these warnings?

Also, no-one mentions that these sources of renewable energy are in the hands of big business. They generate publicity in their own favour  which praises renewables but never mentions the fatal flaws of intermittent power  see Michael Moores film which exposes this total fraud. In writing this, I, myself, hereby attempt to counter this multi-million dollar self-publicity machine.

Of course, these opportunists for a fast business profit do not give publicity to reliable energy from Uranium or Thorium  but, to their credit, the Russians do. Everyone knows that there are serious drawbacks to using Uranium, despite it now being a well tried and tested source of reliable power. On the other hand, publicity for the use of Thorium is scarce and one could say even suppressed by the competing energy lobbies. But that suppression of information on this reliable source of power is certainly not in the best interests of the Sri Lankan general public.

It should be pointed out that Russia, China and India, as well as Holland and other small European countries are all working to develop Thorium power generating machines. They believe in it and are investing in it. In future, because of their good safety features, machines producing power from Thorium can be small  the size of a house - and located near where energy is needed on the outskirts of towns and cities. This does away with the need for long transmission cables  which can lose up to 20% of the power generated just in transmission. Also, by having many small machines, this will provide interesting work for many science graduates.

China is planning to produce these machines on assembly lines, thus reducing the cost and enabling other countries to purchase these. They can see it is important. In 2018 this writer suggested such a manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka, as it could provide many interesting production and assembly jobs for graduates.

Our universities need to teach the chemistry involved with energy from Thorium. Thorium reactors have useful by-products which are in demand such as hydrogen, helium and bismuth. We need to design courses on this Thorium-generation topic, now.

Time is against us, our earths magnetosphere is weakening and we need to prepare for the future. But we dont know exactly what will happen. The most credible climate scientists forecast a deadly cold future.

In such an event, vast supplies of reliable energy will be needed, urgently, with no deadly failures subjecting us to seriously cold temperatures. We have only the next few years. We need to act fast for perhaps, our very survival. The Sri Lankan public should be told of the coming climate crisis and the need for a reliable source of power generation. They must insist that our leaders move in the right direction for the benefit, and even the survival of the Sri Lanka people.
MBABANE - His Majesty King Mswati III yesterday commissioned ingatja to fetch the sacred shrubs (lusekwane).

This is in readiness for the Main Incwala Ceremony, which will be held on Wednesday. Incwala Ceremony is one of the countrys national events, where emaSwati gather inside Ludzidzini Cattle Byre and celebrate the harvest of the first fruit. The nation also celebrates peace and stability since the country gained its independence from Britain on September 6, 1968.

When commissioning the excited young boys, the King made it clear that Ingatja would be expected to march with the shrubs as opposed to last year, where cars were used to transport the shrubs. Worth noting is that when the King commissioned Ingatja last year, he stated that things would be back to normal this year.

Utsi okandaba lusekwane alusilo lwetincola. Ingatja kumele ishuce nalo lusekwane lonyaka, the King said. The young boys blew whistles and shouted Bayethe! Some were heard saying akuse siyekhona. However, the Head of State further encouraged the young boys to adhere to all COVID-19 regulations such as social distancing, sanitising, vaccination as well as wearing of masks.

Vaccinate

The King also mentioned that the nation would have to vaccinate in readiness for the main event. Vaccination has been made a requirement for this years Incwala Ceremony. Attendees will be expected to produce proof of COVID-19 vaccination along with fresh COVID-19 negative test results. Health officers were deployed to ensure that all those wishing to participate were tested for COVID-19. Meanwhile, the King marched with the warriors and Ingatja all the way to Esikhaleni at Nhlambeni, where he officially opened the Incwala song. Incwala sung is only sung for three days.

The King then left the young boys to fetch the shrubs at moonrise. The young boys are expected to deliver the sacred shrubs inside Ludzidzini Cattle Byre. They would take a rest in readiness for fetching red leaves (imbondvo) which are used along with the shrubs for decorations during the course of the event. Ingatja will also be afforded an opportunity to show their bravery by killing a bull without weapons. Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs Princess Lindiwe confirmed that the Incwala holiday would be on Wednesday. As the King has commissioned ingatja to go and fetch the sacred shrubs, His Majesty has blessed that the holiday be on Wednesday December 22, 2021. Bayethe, Wena Waphakati, the princess briefly said.
NHLANGANO  Mahamba Border Gate had to close an hour early after a mob of about 50 people attacked the police post, resulting in the law enforcers and customs officials fleeing.

This chaos came about after a police officer shot at two people and the residents, together with some imbibers, went to launch an attack at the police post.

The incident happened on Friday around 9pm. According to an eyewitness, the incident happened after police officers had gone to close a bar which is close to the border but they were attacked by some of the imbibers.

In fact, it was said that what attracted the police to the bar was a fight between two people and they (law enforcers) had initially gone there to intervene.

It was said that while some of the officers were talking to the bar owner on the issue of closure as the bar was operating allegedly past its operating hours, the other police officer tried to intervene in the duos fight. It was said that while the police were talking to the bar owner who had turned off the music, some of the imbibers started complaining and charged towards the police officers who were making their way out of the bar to join the other officer who had been mediating between the fighting duo.

It was said that some attempted to get physical with the officer, which was when the law enforcer started firing warning shots. It was said that the imbibers continuously charged towards the police officer, which was when two of them were shot by the police. After shooting the two, the people of the area got angry and a mob attacked the police post, narrated the source. It was said that the angry mob vandalised the border gate entrance, a boomgate, a police vehicle and a guardhouse, among other things. It was said that the mob further charged towards the customs offices where they demanded the closure of the border gate, stating that no services would be offered until the police who shot at them was released to them.

By then, according to sources, most of the police officers had fled to the South African (sa) side of the border. In fear for their lives, it is said that the customs officers also fled to the SA side of the border, where they remained until police officers from Nhlangano Police Station arrived to calm the situation. It was established that about 15 travellers had to spend the night in between the SA and Eswatini side of the border as they could not get services at the Eswatini Immigration Department yet they had finished on the SA side.

In an interview with one of the immigration officers, he narrated that as soon as they were threatened by the mob, they went to the SA side of the border, leaving no one to attend to travellers. Some came to ask if we would assist them and some suggested that we grab the stamp so they could be assisted but no one was keen to assist them, narrated the immigration officer. He stated that they left for their respective houses after closure time and the travellers ended up not being assisted by anyone.

One Ntokozo, who was travelling with his family, narrated that they were among the people who suffered because of the attack. He said they were headed home for a funeral at Mbukwane but ended up missing the funeral. We arrived there just when the confusion had started and we were assisted the following day upon the border opening, he said. It was established that the two people who were shot are currently in hospital with one admitted to the Hlatikhulu Government Hospital and the other at Nhlangano Health Centre. When reached for comment, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the shooting. She stated that the victims both sustained gunshot injuries on their legs. She confirmed that the duo was attacking the police officers.

When probed on whether the mob behind the disturbance at the border was arrested, Vilakati said they were investigating the matter, adding that there was also property that got damaged during the attack. Since the June unrest in the country, there has been several instances where the country has been experiencing clashes between police officers and civilians. This has also led to police posts and houses belonging to law enforcers being torched. It was recently reported that gunmen held a police officer hostage while they threatened to burn down a police post at Ngonini.
MANZINI  Thousands of textile workers received their bonuses, leave pay and Christmas gifts, but they will have to spend the festive holidays praying for a miracle to happen.

This is because according to projections, about 12 000 textile and apparel sector workers are not guaranteed that they will retain their jobs when the sector reopens in the first week of January 2022. Currently, the sector provides job opportunities to about 22 000 emaSwati, who range from illiterate to literate.

According to some of the employers, the industry is facing a serious shortage of fabric, which has also increased in price by over 30 per cent overseas, mainly in China where up until recently, it was their trusted source. Another challenge that has crept in the industry is that the prices of the containers used for the transportation of the material (fabric and finished goods) have also increased by almost a similar percentage.

Crisis

The players in the industry claimed that in China, where they sourced their fabric and other raw materials, there had been an electricity crisis which is caused by the fact that the country generates more than half of its electricity from coal-fired power stations. According to sciencedirect.com, a coal-fired power station is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. In recent months, the cost of coal drastically increased globally while also coal production has also been hit by new safety checks at mines and stricter environmental rules.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently reported that mills which manufactured fabric that operated 24 hours were now functioning for about eight hours per day while they were advised to cease operations on some days. Due to this, according to some industry players, the quantity of fabric produced in China had decreased drastically. This, they said, resulted in escalated costs by about 30 per cent due to the demand. The increase in demand, it was said, had resulted in local textile factories being outbid by competitors who seek to pay more than the usual cost of the raw materials. Furthermore, the energy crisis in South Africa had a silver lining for them as they received more orders from customers who were dealing with their counterparts in South Africa.

They said this was because during the energy crisis in the neighbouring country, Eskom implemented load-shedding, which affected production in the factories yet the buyers were strict with deadlines. They bemoaned that such an opportunity was going to waste as they did not have enough fabric to meet the demand. These developments were confirmed by the Eswatini Textile and Apparel Traders Association (ETATA).

Deteriorate

The association said in as much as factories were able to operate at the moment, there was a possibility that the situation would deteriorate as the shortage of fabric from the manufacturers could result in exorbitant price hikes. They said this could result in job losses of about 12 000 if not more as they would have to trim production. However, the organisation said even though the industry had closed for the festive season, the employers were monitoring the situation closely.

On the other hand, ETATA Chairperson, Tokky Hou, said as an association, they saw an opportunity for the country to expand the textile and apparel sector.

For example, she said with the assistance of government, the industry could extend the only mill that manufactures a certain type of fabric in the country. The mill is TQM Textiles and Manufactured, a company which is under Tex Ray Swaziland.

The chairperson said the extension of the fabric producing mill, could give birth to the expansion of the sector because the critical raw material would be easy to access as it would be produced locally. Meanwhile, recently this publication reported that consumers were likely to experience a sharp increase of garments in 2022 following the hike of fabric prices, which was still anticipated to escalate at any moment due to the energy crisis in China as production could decrease and result in the scarcity of garments.

ETATA said this projection was also based on the fact that in Asia, some countries were looking to increase garments prices by 30 to 40 per cent. For example, according to www.fibre2fashion.com, prices of textiles and garments made in China were likely to rise by 30 to 40 per cent in the coming weeks on account of planned shutdowns in industrial provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. The shutdowns are due to governments effort to reduce carbon emissions and shortage of electricity production owing to short supply of coal from Australia.

lockdowns

Worth noting is that, the effects of the energy crisis comes at a time when economies of the world, including the Kingdom of Eswatini were affected by the outbreak of COVID-19, which saw governments implementing lockdowns, which prevented the movement of people. As such, many sectors of the economy, including the textile and apparel industry, were closed resulting in no bonuses for many in the sector last year.
MBABANE - Incarcerated MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube have pleaded with USA President Joe Biden to demand their release from custody, unconditionally.

The duo has since written a letter to President Biden, which was sent through the United States of American (USA) Embassy to the Kingdom of Eswatini. In the eight-page letter, the Members of Parliament (MPs) stated: Mr President, greetings from jail of His Majestys Correctional institution, Mbabane and Matsapha in Swaziland (Eswatini). We do hope that the letter finds you in great health and your entire administration (sic), reads the letter. They informed the president that they were writing to him as MPs in the country, who were languishing in custody.

The MPs went on to tell President Biden that, being a leader of the Free World, they felt obliged to bring their matter to his doorstep, given the urgency of their case and the continued violation of human rights in Eswatini. We have respected and expected protocol within our country. We therefore seek your intervention as the last resort, after which we shall accept whatever comes our way, reads part of the letter.

Mabuza and Dube went on to inform the president that they had engaged locally and exhausted all remedies possibly available and this included the registrar of the Supreme Court, chief justice (CJ), Law Society of Swaziland, attorney general, minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Speaker of the House of Assembly. They further brought it to the attention of the president that they even went further to write to His Majesty King Mswati III, different embassies and High Commissions in the country. In the letter, they then narrated to the president events leading to their arrest.

Challenge

They relayed to President Biden that on March 5, 2021, as MPs, Mabuza rose in Parliament to challenge the current government. I have observed Your Excellency that, in Swaziland (Eswatini) the Constitution is cited or used only when it comes to oppressing citizens, but when it comes to accountability of the government and the royalty in particular, it becomes an act of terror, said Mabuza. He highlighted that he was then joined by his colleagues Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane and Mthandeni Dube. MP Mabuza told the president that, they together challenged the actions of the government when it was acting to the detriment of the people. He said they believed by doing so they were executing the mandate of being MPs.

As we were executing our duties, there was a mysterious death of a young man, Thabani Nkomonye, around May 13, 2021, who allegedly died in the hands of Royal Eswatini Police Services. The youth then rose to question the death of their own, narrated the MPs. The two MPs told the president that they were thereafter invited to Nkomonyes memorial service, where they experienced the most outrageous police brutality they had ever seen as MPs, where two casspir heavy duty war vehicles drove into an open field to discharge tear gas cannisters to the grieving family and mourners inside the tent and the people who had come to give support. That event Your Excellency, acted as the last nail in the coffin, not only for the youth in the country, even for some MPs who are parents, stated the MPs.

Mandate

They went on to inform President Biden that they then rose in Parliament, to indicate to the august House that the citizens had given them a mandate, that as the Eswatini Nation, they now wanted to elect their own prime minister, not for him (PM) to be appointed by the King as it was happening. Mabuza and Dube said they alluded that the citizens believed that if one was appointed, that appointee would do everything to please the appointer. They narrated that the acting prime minister, whom they also challenged to be acting outside the prescript of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, said they must bring forth minutes to prove that the people were the ones who made that call.

The duo informed the president that when the people saw the acting prime ministers sentiments on the national newspapers the next day, they decided to petition MPs. They pointed out to President Biden that the country had 59 constituencies, which meant 59 MPs of the august House were representatives of those constituencies. Mabuza and Dube further told President Biden that the petitions were rightfully submitted, yet some MPs indicated that in their areas the people turned violent and rude.

Resolution

We therefore had a debate in Parliament on June 21, 2021, wherein a resolution was passed by the House that since 50 petitions were delivered (majority), we should let the other MPs, which include the three of us who are persecuted today; Honourable Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza, Honourable Mthandeni Dube and our colleague who had been strangely removed as a MP, Mduduzi Simelane who remains in exile, to receive them from their constituents, reads part of the letter.

They highlighted to the president that after the resolution, they encouraged people to peacefully submit their petitions to their various tinkhundla centres (constituency centres) where they (MPs) would be waiting to accept those petitions and put them before Parliament for deliberation.

The two MPs informed the president that, almost, if not all those petitions, alluded that the people wanted the right to elect their own PM and that the royalty should not be involved in the politics of the country. The people heeded the call and submitted their petitions until the then Acting Prime Minister, Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku, made a statement on June 24, 2021 that the delivery of petition was banned, which was regarded as the banning order, stated the MPs. They notified the president that as MPs, they were very disturbed as to how could an acting prime minister overturn a parliamentary resolution.

Decision

Mabuza and Dube told President Biden that the then acting prime minister never in any instance involved the august House in that decision but they only learnt in the newspapers like everyone else. When our electorates asked us the right position, we rightfully explained that a resolution was passed in Parliament that petitions must be allowed to be delivered and therefore, one man cannot overturn the decision of Parliament, thus people must proceed to deliver the petitions, reads part of the letter to the USA president. The two MPs went on to tell the president that people tried to deliver the remaining petitions but they were shot at by the police, such that the national commissioner of police declared war on those who attempted to deliver the petitions.

They stated that MP Simelane (Magawugawu) was even prohibited by the police from leaving his home and go to the constituency centre to accept the petition from his electorates. In the letter, it further was alleged by the two MPs that even MP Dube (Mthandeni) was prohibited in a police roadblock from going to the constituency centre to accept the petition from his electorate. They pointed out to the USA president that when the people were barred from entering their constituency centres, which by law were the rightful places where grievances should be delivered, violence erupted in the country.

When the violence ignited, we came out to call for peace, not only from the people we are representing, but also the police seize fire. A government official appeared on national television and local newspapers saying that the police and the army shall fight fire with fire (sic), related the duo. Mabuza and Dube stated that they once again appeared on social media to call for calm and for people to desist from any form of violence, vandalism and illegal acts. They told the president that as a result, there was looting, vandalism and the highest level of anarchy never seen before in the country.

Threatened

Your Excellency, not a day passes by where we do not feel the pain of all the souls that have been lost, the people maimed, intimidated and threatened, the public and private property that has been damaged, including our own properties, which continued to be burned even now when we are in prison, wrote the duo.

The incarcerated MPs informed the president of the USA that they believed that the solution was peaceful dialogue as they alluded to from the onset. They mentioned that they failed to understand why the Eswatini Government said it was preparing a dialogue without them. Mabuza and Dube further wrote that as they were in prison, more than 60 Eswatini citizens had been killed, others maimed and jailed for calling for political change.

They highlighted to the president that women and children were among those who had been killed and imprisoned. We have now learnt that that many are behind bars with us, but after seeing many emaSwati joining us, others being buried every weekend, our businesses being burnt to the ground, we realised that our incarceration is more detrimental to the country, said the MPs.

Release

They then implored President Biden to call for their unconditional release from prison and that of all persons who were arrested from the month of June 2021 in relation to the unrest in the country. They told the president that they had observed as politicians, how the USA had engaged with other countries not only to recognise, but to protect and promote human rights globally. In the context of Swaziland (Eswatini), however, dissenting and opposing voices are silenced, intimidated, maimed, harassed and thrown into jail, as we have. The system of government is based on one man with all political authority, which is sanctioned by the Constitution, said the duo.

They further brought it to the attention of the USA president that they sat as MPs to decide matters of the country which were of great importance not only for their electorates but the entire nation, then one man decided to overturn their decisions either way, which effectively undermined democracy and democratic governance. It was also their contention that, this management was not only contrary to the developments in Africa post- 1990, but at variance with international standards and international law.
Metro Africa Xpress, the largest vehicle subscription platform for low-to-zero emission vehicles in Africa, has raised $31 million of new capital, in the first close of a Series B funding round, with funding from private equity firm Lightrock and UAEs Global Ventures.



Subsequent closes are expected in the next few weeks, a company statement said.



The Series B close follows MAXs previous raising of over $40 million of institutional debt for driver financing.



The Series B round will be used to drive international expansion into Egypt and Ghana during the first quarter of 2022, followed by Francophone, East, and Southern Africa. The capital will also enable the deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and the provision of credit and financial products to over 100,000 drivers.



The oversubscribed round included participation from new investors such as Venture debt from Proparco, the French development finance institution, through its Digital Africa Bridge Fund. Existing investor Novastar Ventures also participated. The endorsement of Lightrock and Global Ventures validates the strength and reach of MAX and reflects the huge market opportunity.



Adetayo Bamiduro, CEO of MAX, said: We are delighted to announce this funding round. This new investment from highly respected global investors such as Lightrock and Global Ventures, plus continued support from our existing investors, further validates our business model and strategy.



It is another milestone in our journey to make mobility safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable by deploying high-performance technologies and operators. The investment will enable us to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of drivers across the continent, accelerate international expansion, and continue our pioneering initiatives in the mobility space.



MAX is building the rails for mobility in Africa by delivering integrated, affordable and collateral-free vehicle subscription packages including low to zero-emission vehicles, healthcare, insurance, maintenance, and eHailing subscriptions. This helps drivers maximise their revenues and minimise costs.



MAXs innovative technology platform leverages alternative data sets to power driver onboarding, dynamic credit assessment, fleet optimization, digital payments, and advanced risk management.



The Company has pioneered this operating model and its technology is powered in partnerships with global OEMs such as Yamaha, ride-hailing platforms such as Bolt, financial services strategic partners, payment infrastructure providers and clean energy providers.



MAXs market is over 15 million commercial drivers across Africas $250 billion mobility industry, and the company has grown rapidly. Currently, it serves over 13,000 drivers, with over 60,000 prospective drivers in the pipeline. Over 17 million trips have been completed on the platform, which has saved 22,000 tonnes of CO2.



Ravi Sharma, Partner at Lightrock, said: With rapid urbanization fuelling the African mobility market growth, MAX is effectively and sustainably matching supply and demand for affordable, safe and reliable transportation to the benefit of passengers, drivers and the environment, pioneering electric vehicles in Africa. We are enthusiastic about backing MAX and their highly capable management team in further scaling the transformation of African mobility.



Noor Sweid, a General Partner at Global Ventures, said: With Max, we were drawn to both the team and the product. The company was founded by a stellar and experienced team with a deep and thorough understanding of the market, who have successfully built a comprehensive tech-driven platform that is truly driver-centric, offering a one-stop solution with embedded fintech, insurtech and govtech services. We are thrilled to welcome them to the portfolio as our first investment in the African mobility space.  TradeArabia News Service
Gulf Capital, a leading thematic alternative investment firm in the GCC and Asia, has appointed Shantanu Mukerji as its first on-the-ground Private Equity Managing Director to head its newly opened office in Singapore.

Mukerji will lead the firms activities in Asia, looking at new private equity investments, bolt-on acquisitions and growth opportunities for existing portfolio companies as well as assisting on future exits and divestments.

He brings more than 20 years of direct Southeast Asian experience, with senior leadership roles in private equity and the consumer and luxury sectors across Asia.

Dr Karim El Solh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Capital, said: Asia has been at the heart of our cross-border expansion strategy for our portfolio companies over the last 15 years. Gulf Capital has closed to date over 14 bolt-on acquisitions, joint ventures and new markets expansions for our private equity portfolio companies. The unprecedented growth opportunities presented by the emergence of Ascending Asia have never been greater. Ascending Asia (from West to East Asia) is the engine of global growth over the next 30 years and the regions GDP is projected to grow at 2.5x the GDP growth rate of Europe and 2x the growth rate of the US. Our global investors are keen to participate in this long-term growth and to increase their exposure to Asia. We are thrilled to open a new office in Singapore and to welcome Shantanu Mukerji to our private equity team at an exciting time of growth for Gulf Capital across Asia.

Mukerji added: My work with the team will be centred on identifying the incredible growth opportunities Ascending Asia presents, both for Gulf Capital and its existing portfolio companies. Asia is the largest and most populous continent on earth and will account for 60% of global GDP in the future, according to a recently published Gulf Capital White Paper on Bridging West and East Asia: The Investment Case for Ascending Asia. There are significant investment and exit opportunities across the fast-growing Asian economies, and my work will build on Gulf Capitals 15 year track record of cross border expansion from West to East Asia.

Mukerji brings with him an extensive track record as a private equity investor and as an operating executive in the consumer and premium goods industry across Asia. He has over 10 years of private equity experience at L Catterton Asia across the entire investment cycle including origination, transaction execution, financing, syndication, post investment value creation, restructuring and divestment.

He was also involved in the preparation, structuring and launch of US and Singaporean SPACs. His operational experience includes senior management in the consumer industry at prestigious global brands, locally and regionally. Prior to joining L Catterton Asia, Mukerji held senior operating roles at LVMH, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Nike.

Mukerji holds a BTech degree in Manufacturing Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in India.-- TradeArabia News Service
Global mining engineering company Metso Outotec has signed a distribution contract with Arabian Truck & Construction Equipment Company (ATEC) covering its equipment, parts and services offering for the aggregates industry in Saudi Arabia.

ATEC is a well-known and recognised Saudi Arabian equipment and commercial vehicle distributor, supplying world leading brands for numerous industries.

The agreement includes a wide choice of Metso Outotecs stationary and mobile crushing and screening equipment, spare and wear parts and services.

"We are very pleased to add ATEC to our distributor community. We look forward to building a close co-operation and improving our sales activity in this important area for our mobile crushing and screening business," remarked Olli Pekka Oksanen, Senior Vice President, Global Distribution Management at Metso Outotec.

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Metso Outotec employs over 15,000 people in more than 50 countries and its sales for 2020 were about 3.9 billion ($4.38 billion).

"Thanks to a stronger local presence with ATEC, we are now able to considerably improve our aftermarket support and service," he added.

Mike Fritz, Senior Vice President ZMS-Group, the holding company of ATEC, said: "Cooperation with Metso Outotec gives us an opportunity to offer world class service to existing customers through our factory-trained technicians and local stock of parts and equipment."

"Our trained sales consultants will allow us to reach more customers in these fast- growing sectors," stated Fritz.

"Together, we aim to increase customer satisfaction to be the first choice of crushing and screening solutions for the existing and new customers," he added.
NorthLadder, the UAEs auction-driven, second-hand online marketplace for pre-owned electronics, has announced the appointment of Aly El-Helaly as managing director of operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



NorthLadder will launch its B2B and B2C business by partnering with multiple electronics retailers in the Kingdom, enabling customers to sell their used electronic devices online or at member stores in exchange for cash.



In the UAE, NorthLadder has already partnered with leading electronics retailers such as Jumbo Electronics, Carrefour, Lulu Hypermarkets and EMAX, to ensure customers across the UAE can benefit from their technology. The company model delivers 50-60% more value to consumers selling their used electronics through its innovative platform.



The NorthLadder team in Saudi Arabia will be headed by Aly El-Helaly, appointed as Managing Director for KSA operations. El-Helaly is a highly experienced telecoms, technology and consumer electronics executive and business leader with international and regional experience across start-ups, retail, franchising & distribution.



Mihin Shah, CRO of NorthLadder in the UAE, said: With Alys successful track-record of driving sales and profitability, with experience across leading companies in Saudi such as Al-Haddad Telecom, Quantum Telecom and Zain, we are excited to have him join our team. Saudi Arabia has one of the highest rates of smartphone penetration in the world, offering huge opportunities for our platform to grow. With Alys support, we hope to tap into the markets potential and enable consumers, corporates and electronic retailers to benefit from our operating model.



As NorthLadder plans expansion into global markets, El-Helaly will play a pivotal role in the companys growth. He will focus on building brand awareness and assembling a team in the Kingdom of Saudi that will help to elevate the trade-in market and support sustainability. The idea is to not only meet the needs of the Saudi consumer, but also support the nations vision for the future.



El-Helaly said: Expansion into Saudi Arabia is the next natural step in NorthLadders growth. I look forward to leveraging my experience and expertise of the Saudi market to support NorthLadders growth in the Kingdom and beyond.



NorthLadder is actively recruiting for various positions within the KSA team in preparation for its KSA launch of operations, approximately mid-January, the company said in a statement.  TradeArabia News Service
QatarEnergy, in a consortium with TotalEnergies and Petronas, has been awarded the Sepia Surplus Production Sharing Contract (PSC), under the Second Transfer of Rights Surplus Bidding Round, by Brazils National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).



Under the terms of the PSC and associated agreements, QatarEnergy will hold a 21% interest in the PSC, alongside operator Petrobras (30%), TotalEnergies (28%) and Petronas (21%).



Located in water depths of about 2,000 meters off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in the prolific Santos Basin, Sepia is a multi-billion barrel, pre-salt oil field. Production from the Sepia field started in August 2021 through a dedicated Floating Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) with a production capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day. A second FPSO is expected to be sanctioned in the near future to increase the overall production capacity of the field to more than 350,000 barrels of oil per day.



Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy said: We are delighted with this successful joint-bid to secure an interest in this world-class asset. This achievement marks a significant expansion of our business in Brazil, a key country for QatarEnergy, as we continue to deliver our growth strategy focused on energy efficient hydrocarbon development and supply.



We are particularly pleased to achieve this landmark deal with our esteemed partners, Petrobras, TotalEnergies and Petronas, and we look forward to working with them to achieve the full potential of this important asset. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the ANP and the Brazilian authorities for this opportunity and for their ongoing support and valuable cooperation, he added.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, further establishes QatarEnergy as one of the leading upstream players in Brazil where it already holds working interests in a producing field and numerous exploration blocks.  TradeArabia News Service
Omans Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, in cooperation with the British University of Southampton and the Western Australian Museum, has launched the book Maritime Archaeological Survey of Oman.



The book includes 349 pages, comprising 7 chapters and 8 appendices, besides a number of bibliographic references and geophysical survey maps of some underwater cultural heritage sites, reported Oman News Agency (ONA).



It also talks about the study of archives of countries with ancient trade relations with Oman such as India, Portugal, China and Britain.
Residents and citizens of Saudi Arabia top the list in using the Uber app the most when travelling abroad.

Joining other EMEA citizens in the Top 10 such as those based in France, Germany and the UK, people from Saudi Arabia are taking Ubers all over the world.

Its not just Saudi Arabia that has made the list released by Uber. Its neighbouring countries seem to have found popularity as well among Uber Riders.

Comparing trips from 2019 to 2021, Uber can reveal that the world agrees, with cities in the Middle East placing in the top 10 most popular EMEA cities for Uber Riders.

Coming in at number five, is Dubai, UAE, home to the tallest building in the world as well as some of Ubers most frequent riders.

The majority of Dubai residents are also vaccinated, so the emirate is well on its way to recovery from the pandemic. Its no surprise that Dubai makes this list in 2021, since it plays host to Expo 2020 Dubai, an event which brings the world together to address some of the biggest priorities facing the world today.

With dedicated pick-up and drop-off areas, Dubais residents and international visitors can walk straight into Expo 2020 Dubai without worrying about parking or directions.

Also making the list is Cairo, Egypt, placed at number eight. A bustling, modern metropolis meets relics of the ancient world in this dynamic and exciting city, making it the ideal city to live in or visit for a short break.

This isnt the first time Cairo has broken records at Uber. Leveraging its tech, Uber launched the global-first mass transport solution on the streets of Egypt with Uber Bus to provide a low-cost option while also reducing congestion and battles over parking spaces.

Other new cities that made the Top 10 list include Athens, Greece; Kyiv, Ukraine; and Algarve, Portugal while cities such as London, England; Madrid, Spain; and Paris, France held firm in the Top 10.

Zooming out to the international stage, Dubai retains its position as one of the most popular cities amongst Uber Riders, coming in at number 10.

One of only two new cities to join the Top 10, Dubai joins international hot spots like New York City, Miami and Toronto.

The top three cities these international visitors hail from is Saudi Arabia, followed by the UK and the US. As we welcome back the glorious Middle Eastern winter weather, Dubai becomes a prime vacation destination, welcoming tourists who are looking to escape the frosty cold in favor of sun, sand and sea.

With millions of rides requested over the app in the Middle East alone, Uber is there for you, whether for your daily commute or while youre out exploring the world.-- TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The Foreign Ministers of India and the five Central Asian nations on Sunday discussed strengthening and enhancement of the partnership, and exchanged views on promoting greater trade, investment and connectivity, and also shared their assessments on Afghanistan.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, tweeting on the talks held here during the Third India-Central Asia Dialogue at the level of Foreign Ministers, said:

A warm and productive India-Central Asia Dialogue of Foreign Ministers. Discussed strengthening and enhancement of our partnership. Exchanged views on promoting greater trade, investment and connectivity. Agreed to expand our shared activities as cultural neighbours.

Shared assessments on Afghanistan, he posted.

Earlier, in his opening remarks at the conference that was attended by the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the EAM said that

India is ready to take ties with the Central Asian countries to the next level, based on the four Cs of Commerce, Capacity Enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts.

He also said that India and Central Asia must find ways of helping the people of Afghanistan.

Jaishankar said that after being hit by the pandemic, countries are facing the test of rebuilding their economies, and India is ready to be a steadfast partner to Central Asia.

Each one of us faces the test of rebuilding our economy, our pursuit of SDGs must also be energized; but together we can do this better, and India, I assure you, will be your steadfast partner.

We are very pleased at the state of our bilateral relations, but we know that the potential is very much more, he said.

We already have a good history of cooperation; but my message to you today is the readiness to take it to the next level.

Our ties must now focus around 4 Cs-- Commerce, Capacity Enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts, he stressed.

On Afghanistan, he said: "Our concerns and objectives in that country are similar. A truly inclusive and representative government, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance, and preserving the rights of women, children and minorities. We must find ways of helping the people of Afghanistan."

In a joint statement, the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in trade, connectivity, and security even as they condemned terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, and stressed on the territorial integrity and non-interference in Afghanistans internal affairs.

The Foreign Ministers of the five Central Asian countries also reiterated support their support for permanent membership of India in an expanded and reformed UN Security Council.

The Ministers stressed on the importance of making concerted efforts to achieve the full potential for trade, especially in sectors like pharmaceuticals, information technology, agriculture, energy, textiles, gems & jewellery etc.

They also agreed to Uzbekistans proposal to host the 3rd meeting of the India-Central Asia Business Council (ICABC) in 2022.

The two sides emphasized on optimum usage of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) as well as the Ashgabat Agreement on International Transport and Transit Corridor to enhance connectivity between India and the Central Asian countries.

They welcomed the proposal to include Chabahar Port within the framework of INSTC and expressed interest in cooperation on issues related to the development and strengthening of regional connectivity in Central and South Asia.

The Ministers condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reiterated that providing safe haven, using terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism, terror financing, arms and drugs trafficking, dissemination of a radical ideology and abuse of cyber space to spread disinformation and incite violence, goes against the basic principles of humanity and international relations.

They stressed that perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with principle of "extradite or prosecute.

In this context, they called for early adoption of the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

They called on the international community to strengthen UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation and fully implement the relevant UNSC resolutions, Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and FATF standards.

On Afghanistan, the two sides discussed the current situation in that country and its impact on the region. They reiterated strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan while emphasizing the respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity and non-interference in its internal affairs.

They also discussed the current humanitarian situation and decided to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. The Ministers reaffirmed the importance of UNSC Resolution 2593 (2021), adopted under Indias presidency in August.

Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, in his remarks said the dialogue was taking place at a time when the Central Asian nations are celebrating 30 years of independence. He said that a visit by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to India was expected next year to coincide with the establishment of 30 years of diplomatic ties.

Russian Kazakbaev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, said that India and the Central Asian nations have very good relations. He mentioned Afghanistan and said that he is willing to talk about the safety and security concerns. We are willing to collaborate to make the region safe, he said.



Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, said that ties with India are historical. He said the growing trend in regional integration creates new opportunities for expanding cooperation between India and Central Asia.

Rashid Meredov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, said that dialogue with India is natural and impartial. He said that next year the two sides will celebrate 30 years since establishment of diplomatic relations between Central Asia and India, which is a good opportunity to rethink cooperation at the global modern level.

Abdulaziz Kamilov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, said the dialogue as a platform is helping in promoting interregional framework and that to preserve peace and security new prospects of productive cooperation are opening up in trade and economic ties. He cited challenges in neighbouring Afghanistan and the need to discuss a unified approach.

UNI/RN
New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The bilateral defence partnership between India and Vietnam has been growing steadily and the strong defence cooperation between the two countries will contribute to peace, security and prosperity in the region, President Ram Nath Kovind said to a visiting Parliamentary Delegation from Vietnam today.

The delegation, led by Vuong Dinh Hue, the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, called on President Kovind, at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Welcoming the delegation to India, the President said that India and Vietnam enjoy excellent relations at the leadership level in the contemporary time. Our people cherish the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and President Ho Chi Minh.

He said their bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership covers a wide range of areas  from political engagement to trade and investment ties, energy cooperation, development partnership, defence and security cooperation and people-to-people relations, said an official statement.

He noted that India and Vietnam have been working with ASEAN to contribute to a free, open, peaceful, prosperous, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region governed by international law.

Recalling his visit to Vietnam in 2018, the President said that he himself witnessed the rich cultural heritage of Vietnam and ancient civilizational exchanges between two countries, including our strong Buddhist connections.

He noted that economic engagement between India and Vietnam has maintained a positive direction, despite the disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also happy to note that defence partnership between India and Vietnam has been growing steadily. He said that strong defence cooperation between the two countries would contribute to peace, security and prosperity in the region.

Speaking about the cooperation between India and Vietnam at multilateral fora, the President said that our coordinated efforts at the UN and other fora have given voice to the majority of developing countries.

UNI/RN
New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and discussed ways to further strengthen India's close partnership with Central Asia, and also exchanged views on developments in the region.

In a tweet on his meeting with the Foreign Ministers, the Prime Ministers said: Met the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. We discussed ways to further strengthen India's close partnership with Central Asia, and also exchanged views on developments in the region.

The Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan called on PM Modi today, a day after participating in the Third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue here.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were also present during the meeting with the PM.

The Central Asian Foreign Ministers conveyed the greetings of their Presidents to Prime Minister Modi, and emphasized the readiness of their leadership to further strengthen relations with India.

They briefed the Prime Minister on the deliberations of the India-Central Asia Dialogue held under the chairmanship of External Affairs Minister of India on December 18-19, which focused on trade and connectivity, development partnership and regional developments, including the situation in Afghanistan, an official statement said.

PM Modi emphasized the importance that India attaches to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its Extended Neighbourhood. He conveyed his felicitations to the Ministers on the 30th anniversary of their independence this year. He recalled his memorable visits to all Central Asian countries in 2015 and subsequently to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz Republic.

Prime Minister underlined the importance of maintaining cultural and people-to-people contacts between India and Central Asia, given the popularity of Indian films, music, yoga etc in the region. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia, and the role of connectivity in that regard.

The India-Central Asia Dialogue has given impetus to the excellent bilateral relations between India and Central Asian countries. India and the Central Asian countries will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations next year.

The Ministers who called on PM Modi are: Russian Kazakbaev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic; Abdulaziz Kamilov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Rashid Meredov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan; Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Of Kazakhstan; and Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan.

On Sunday, EAM Jaishankar had convened the Third India-Central Asia Dialogue of Foreign Ministers, during which enhancing trade, connectivity, people-to-people links were discussed and to take the relations to the next level. The meeting also discussed Afghanistan, and the need for urgent humanitarian assistance to that country.

The meeting with the PM comes amid reports that the leaders of the five nations are set to be the Chief Guests at the Republic Day parade in January 2022.

UNI/RN


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Chief Minister to Address the Public on Thursday

The Cabinet held its last meeting before Christmas this morning. This meeting took place virtually given ongoing concern at the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cabinet agreed that there should be a meeting of COVID Platinum Command on Thursday morning and that the Chief Minister should update the people of Gibraltar live at 4pm on the same day. This will be broadcast live on GBC and streamed on the Governments Facebook page.

'The last twelve months have been traumatic for Gibraltar and for the planet as a whole.'

'The public will be aware that a number of European countries have now introduced restrictions which are designed to protect their people and the ability of their health services to cope. The Netherlands, for example, has already implemented a lockdown and other countries are considering doing the same.'

'The highly successful vaccination programme in Gibraltar has meant that we have so far been able to protect our health services from the worst consequences of the pandemic. The Government, on medical and public health advice, reiterates that the best way in which to protect our country as a whole is for people to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 and to take advantage of the booster vaccine which is now available.'

'It is important to note that new restrictions have also come into force in the region of Andalucia next door. It will no longer be possible by law to enter catering establishments or leisure areas there without the relevant COVID pass. This means the Spanish and EU COVID pass. The Gibraltar COVID pass is presently compatible with that of the United Kingdom only and the extension of that compatibility to EU Member States is currently under discussion.'

'The public should ensure that when travelling outside Gibraltar, they familiarise themselves with the latest public health guidelines during transit and at their point of destination. It is important to bear in mind that different countries and regions will often apply different public health rules and regulations.'

'It is essential at the same time that everyone should behave in a cautious and sensible manner going forward, particularly in the weeks ahead. This includes wearing a mask where required by law, washing hands regularly and maintaining adequate social distance particularly when in the presence of elderly and vulnerable persons.'

'The testing programme in Gibraltar has been another success story of the last 18 months and the public are reminded that anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 should immediately call 111 and arrange to be tested.'
The SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP), under the auspices of the WCO Mercator Programme, organized a follow-up Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) Remote Technical Assistance to examine the progress made by the Direction of Taxes and National Customs of Colombia (DIAN) since the last workshop held in November 2020. The objective was also to provide further support on strengthening the Administrations capacities on the WCO PCA concept, as well as guidance on the implementation of the WCO PCA Diagnostic tool.

With an eye on enhancing the understanding of the PCA concept to strengthen the DIANs PCA processes and capabilities in line with international best practices and standards, this allowed the WCO experts an opportunity to present the benefits of a competent PCA strategy/framework and infrastructure to the DIAN.

During this two-day assistance, the experts reviewed the DIANs current PCA practices and the Customs Officers were successfully trained on the WCO PCA concept. This activity also gave directions on how to apply the diagnostic tool in the PCA implementation. Indeed, this platform could provide opportunities for DIAN officers to understand and implement the Diagnostic tool to improve their Administrations work on PCA, with a view to re-design, identify and evaluate PCA operation effectively.

Finally, the interactions with the experts contributed to strengthening PCA capacities within the DIAN and to identify areas of opportunity on the current procedures undertaken. In parallel, ways to enhance the PCA infrastructure and next steps to develop PCA scheme in their administration for the longer term were considered throughout the mission. This assistance should be followed by more activities in 2022, including an in-country mission as soon as travel restrictions are lifted.

For more information on the GTFP please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org
On 16 and 17 December 2021, the World Customs Organization (WCO) successfully held its 7th series of webinars aimed at improving Customs administrations awareness of counterfeit COVID-19-related goods.

This latest series of webinars was designed to provide Customs with knowledge of the essential characteristics and specifications of Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) COVID-19 medicines. The knowledge gained will ensure that Customs administrations are better equipped to identify trafficking in genuine and counterfeit COVID-19 medicines.

This series of webinars, conducted in five languages, brought together some 170 Customs officials from 42 countries in the WCOs six regions: Americas and the Caribbean; Asia/Pacific; Europe; East and Southern Africa; North of Africa, Near and Middle East; and West and Central Africa.

During the opening ceremony, the WCO Secretariat highlighted the fact that Customs constituted the first line of defence at Members' borders by seizing counterfeit goods and thus protecting citizens health and safety. Customs also helped facilitate the trade in genuine medicines and, to that end, cooperation with right holders was essential.

Ms. Karen Bresard, Executive Director, Regional Security - EMEA - at MSD, said that MSD would enhance cooperation with Customs by providing Customs officers with information on distribution channels for new medicines.

Mr. Hamaguchi, Director for International Technical Cooperation of the Customs and Tariff Bureau - Ministry of Finance of Japan, indicated that Japan Customs would contribute financial and human resources in support of the WCOs COVID-19-related initiatives.

The participants asked a lot of questions during each of the webinars and actively exchanged views in order to gain an understanding of the new medicines presented by MSD.
A poster promoting the December 19, 2021 Marches of the Millions across Sudan to mark the anniversary of the 2019 revolution.

Thousands of anti-coup protesters have gathered in Khartoum, three years after demonstrations led to the ousting of autocrat Omar al-Bashir. Security forces have blocked major routes and bridges into the city.

Protests occurred in Sudan's capital of Khartoum on Sunday, marking three years since the popular revolution which led to the end of autocrat Omar al-Bashir's rule.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Khartoum and nearby Omdurman with many shouting slogans against military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

Protesters dissatisfied with Hamdok reinstatement

Protesters had planned on marching towards the presidential palace where there is a heavy security presence.

In the run-up to Sunday's marches, security forces had sealed off major roads and bridges leading to the area.

Civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok had initially been detained by the military but was then reinstated on November 21.

A number of civic organizations and neighborhood committees organized protests calling for complete civilian rule.

Many have expressed dissatisfaction with Hamdok's reinstatement because they argue it legitimizes the October coup.

There have been successive protests since the October coup and the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said that 45 people have been killed by security forces since the military takeover.

Last week DW reported on how security forces including the Rapid Support Forces had used anti-aircraft weapons and armor-piercing rounds on anti-coup protesters.

Nongovernmental organizations and rights groups have condemned the use of heavy weapons against civilians as being in breach of humanitarian agreements that call for protecting civilians.

Prime minister calls for restraint

Hamdok has stressed that he wants to avoid further bloodshed and warned in a statement on Saturday of "the country's slide toward the abyss," and called for restraint among protesters.

"We're facing today a sizeable regression in the path of our revolution that threatens the security of the nation, its unity and its stability," Hamdok said.

Protest organizers have vowed in a slogan: "No negotiation, no partnership and no legitimacy".

(AFP, Reuters)
A French court has sentenced a former hotel driver to 14 years in jail over complicity in Rwanda's 1994 genocide for involvement in transporting Hutu militiamen who massacred hundreds of Tutsis.

French-Rwandan Claude Muhayimana, 60, was found guilty on Thursday of complicity in genocide and in crimes against humanity.

The verdict in the trial came after four weeks of proceedings involving around 50 witnesses, some whom were flown in from Rwanda.

Muhayimana, who investigators say also hid Tutsis at risk of death and helped some escape, fled after the genocide and gained French nationality in 2010.

During the trial, the prosecutor had sought 15 years imprisonment, describing Muhayimana as "an opportunist" and accusing him of contributing to the genocide "by driving and transporting the killers over... three months".

Rwanda ex-hotel driver tried in Paris for complicity in genocide

Muhayimana, who was married to a Tutsi woman at the time, has denied the charges.

Some 800,000 people died between April and July 1994 as the extremist Hutu regime tried to wipe out Rwanda's Tutsi minority, causing one of the 20th century's biggest massacres.

Muhayimana was the third Rwandan genocide suspect to be tried in France, whose legal system grants universal jurisdiction to judges prosecuting crimes against humanity.

In previous cases, an army captain was sentenced to 25 years, and two mayors to life imprisonment.

Around 30 trials of other Rwanda genocide suspects remain to be heard by French courts.

Read also:

Why Macron stopped short of apologising to Rwanda for the 1994 genocide

French government bears 'significant responsibility' for Rwanda genocide: US report

(with AFP)
A Madagascar court has convicted six people, including two French citizens, to up to 20 years in prison for plotting to assassinate President Andry Rajoelina this summer.

The defendants were among 20 people accused of trying to assassinate President Andry Rajoelina in July.

A court on Friday found six of them guilty of plotting an assassination, compromising state security, and criminal association.

French-Malagasy national Paul Rafanoharana - a former advisor to the president - and his wife Voahangy Andrianandrianina, were convicted of additional charges of possessing illegal weapons.

He received the heaviest sentence of 20 years, while she got five years - both with imprisonment with hard labour.

French former army colonel Philippe Francois was sentenced to 10 years. His former business associate Aina Razafindrakoto received five years.

Former prime minister Victor Ramahatra received a five-year suspended sentence.

Rafanoharana's lawyer, Solo Radson, said he would appeal, and deemed the verdict unfair.

"I did not expect this. This is an unjust verdict, based on an empty case. It's a political trial" he said.

Lawyers have three working days to lodge their appeal.

Apollo 21 budget

Prosecutor Arsene Rabe said the five people convicted Friday belonged to "a criminal organisation" seeking to "commit an attack against President Rajoelina".

The plot was uncovered "thanks to emails, weapons and money seized" during various raids, Rabe said.

A computer file labelled "Apollo 21 budget" was discovered on Rafanoharana's computer, containing a budget for the assassination attempt. Another copy was recovered from a thumb drive belonging to Francois.

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The defence tried to cast doubt on any connections between the plot and the accused, claiming that they had been denied a presumption of innocence because of numerous leaks to the media about the case.

Trial of two French men opens in Madagascar over alleged coup plot

Madagascar foils assassination bid on president Rajoelina

Former colonel Francois, who ran an investment company in Madagascar called Tsarafirst, said this month that he never planned to attack the president.

"It's an insult to my honour, and to my intelligence, to think that I had something to do with Apollo 21," he said.

Francois, Rafanoharana and their wives were arrested on July 20 and imprisoned in early August after a period in police custody.

Francois and his wife said they were planning to move to France when they were arrested at the airport.

(with AFP)
Gambia UDP presidential candidate Ousainou Darboe, centre, makes a statement rejecting the results of Gambia's December 4, 2021 presidential election. Two other presidential candidates, Essa Faal, right, and Mama Kandeh, came together with Darboe on Sunday December 5 to dispute the results.

Gambia's main opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), has filed a petition challenging the outcome of the 4 December presidential election. It had rejected the election results even before the electoral body announced the winner.

Borry S. Touray, the party's legal representative, told reporters that they had petitioned the courts to nullify the results of the election, won by incumbent Adama Barrow.

"We have proof that the election was rigged that is why we filed a lawsuit against it," he said. "We have hopes that we will win the case."

The petition was filed quietly with journalists waiting at the courthouse in Banjul for hours for UDP to show up. One of the party members told RFI that the party was trying to avoid drawing a crowd to the court.

"I think the executive doesn't want our supporters to come to the court," the UDP member said. "That is why they are keeping information from them, because they know our supporters.

"The minute they know the party is filing a petition they will all rush to Banjul."

History of challenges

The UDP has challenged every election result during Jammeh's regime except in 2016, when the party's former treasurer Adama Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh.

Some Gambians fear the petition, which alleges corruption and malpractice during the election and registration process, could lead to post-election unrest.

However, civil society organisations, international and local election observers judged the vote to be free and fair.

Read also:

Gambians keep their marbles as they head to the polls for crucial elections

High stakes in Gambia's polls as six candidates vie for presidency
The United Nations cultural agency Unesco has added the Congolese rumba dance to its intangible cultural heritage list, much to the delight of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo-Brazzaville. Senegal's national fish and rice dish known as "thiebou dieune" was also added.

A Unesco summit this week approved the two countries' joint application to add rumba to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, where it joins Cuban rumba, the Central African Republic's polyphonic pygmy music and the drums of Burundi.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi welcomed the news "with joy and happiness" as citizens from both nations celebrated on social media.

"This cultural jewel unique to the two Congos is recognised for its universal value," Tshisekedi wrote on Twitter.

"Rumba is our identity! Its international recognition is a source of pride and a treasure," said DRC culture minister Catherine Furaha.

Philosophy of African music

"I'm extremely proud," pianist and composer Ray Lema told RFI's Claire Fages on Tuesday after learning of Unesco's announcement.

"I've seen the reaction to this music wherever I've been around the continent, and it has an effect on people," he says.

"Some say its the language, some say it's the melody ... and the rhythm called 'ostinato' which means circular phrases which represent the philosophy of African music.

"Unlike classical composition with a linear rhythm, for Africans, it's like a wheel spinning around, creating a kind of transe, and these little loops put everyone at ease, in their body and spirit."

Cuban connection

When asked about the origin of rumba in Cuba (already classified by Unesco), Lema said many of the slaves brought to the Caribbean were from the Congo basin.

"There's a direct connection between Cuba and Africa," he explains, adding "we are not Cuba's children, it's the Cubans who are Africa's children."

The name "rumba" however, was born in Cuba when the Cubans misheard the African word "Nkumba," meaning navel in Kikongo, referring to couples dancing with their navels opposite each other.

Podcast: "Papa Wemba, Viva la Musica! A tribute to the "king of Congolese rumba."

The people of both DRC and Congo-Brazzaville say the dance lives on and hope its addition to UNESCO's list will give it greater fame even among Congolese.

"It will be good for people to realise that music is a precious cultural artefact," Lema says, indicating that the teaching and preservation of traditional musical practices in the country has been somewhat neglected.

Rumba has been marked by the political history of the two Congos before and after independence and is "present in all areas of national life", Andre Yoka Lye, a director at the DRC's national arts institute in the capital Kinshasa, told AFP.

It draws on nostalgia, cultural exchange, resistance, resilience and the sharing of pleasure through its flamboyant "sape" dress code, he said.

Cuisine

Unesco also added Senegal's national dish, a rice-and-fish platter called "thiebou dieune", to its cultural heritage list.

Senegal's Culture Ministry had applied to include the dish, which is widely consumed in the West African country, on the list in October.

"Thiebou dieune" means "rice with fish" in Senegal's dominant Wolof language. It is often prepared with vegetables such as a cassava or tomato, and served at lunch.

 BREAKING

Ceebu Jen, a culinary art of Senegal, has just been inscribed on the #IntangibleHeritage list.

Congratulations #Senegal ! 

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https://t.co/Sr8C6n276o #LivingHeritage pic.twitter.com/rO1uwpZpuE

-- UNESCO  #Education #Sciences #Culture  (@UNESCO) December 15, 2021

The northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis is believed be the birthplace of the dish.

The city, whose old centre is itself a Unesco World Heritage site, borders the Atlantic Ocean and hosts a thriving fishing community.

"The recipe and techniques are traditionally passed down from mother to daughter," Unesco stated, adding that the dish is traditionally eaten with hands.

Thiebou dieune - also spelled Ceebu jen in Wolof - joins other culinary favourites such as Italian pizza and Moroccan couscous on the Unesco list.

Find out about all of the other traditional practices that were added to Unesco's list here.

(with AFP)
A traditional initiation rite in South Africa's Eastern Cape province has left 23 Xhosa teenagers dead. Provincial premier Oscar Mabuyane has called for those responsible to be charged with murder.

The dead succumbed to dehydration or sepsis from circumcision at the start of the ceremony, which lasts between two and six months.

Almost a thousand young men have died from the initiation rite since 1995, with at least twice that number forced to undergo penile amputation.

It was hoped the Customary Initiation Act of 2021 might reduce the number of dead and injured. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu was among those demanding official intervention.

The summer initiation season still has a month to run.

The winter season in June and July was cut short this year because of the Covid, with 19 initiates dying during the process.

Transition to manhood

Initiation prepares young men for the transition to manhood through cultural teaching. There is also initiation for women that begins after their first menstrual period.

The process, known as Ulwaluko, is enthusiastically embraced by the Xhosa people, although it occurs throughout South Africa.

The circumcision is performed by a traditional surgeon known as incibi. The initiate is expected to show no pain and cry out "I am a man" when the process is completed.

How space is being used to track South Africa's critically endangered ecosystem

He undergoes a month of solitary healing before being sequestered in a hut with a group of others. They are taught values, principles, hardships, respect and accountability within cultural tradition.

The late Nelson Mandela wrote in some detail about his initiation in his autobiography A Long Walk To Freedom.

Having completed initiation a man is called Umkhwetha. The hut (bhoma) that he and fellow initiates occupied is burned along with their boyhood clothing

Uninitiated shunned

An uninitiated man is called Inkwenkwe and may not attend tribal councils and other adult events.

A film entitled The Wound, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, portrays the hardships of homosexuals who did not undergo initiation.

Initiates are strongly discouraged from talking about happens during the process, applying the maxim that what happens in the bush, stays in the bush.

Parents, too, are reluctant to give evidence, which allows inexperienced or dangerous incibi surgeons to continue the practice.
Refugees from Cameroon soon after arriving in Chads Chari Baguirmi region near the capital, NDjamena.

Intercommunal clashes that erupted in Cameroon's Far North region over the past two weeks have driven at least 100,000 people from their homes, although the actual number may be much higher, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said on Friday.

In the last few days, more than 85,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad while at least 15,000 Cameroonians have been forced to flee inside their country.

"Indications are that displacement into Chad has accelerated fast, as the total is nearly triple the figure reported last week, when 30,000 people had crossed the border seeking safety", UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva.

Casualties

Casualties from the fighting have also taken 44 lives and injured another 111 - an increase compared last week's 22 dead and 30 wounded.

And 112 villages have reportedly been burned down.

The vast majority of new arrivals in Chad are children and 98 per cent of the adults are women.

Some 48,000 have found refuge in 18 urban sites in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, and 37,000 people are scattered across 10 rural sites along the bank of the Logone River.

In dire need

Along with the authorities, UNHCR, other UN agencies and humanitarian partners are rushing to deliver life-saving assistance.

UNHCR has declared a Level 2 emergency and is rapidly scaling up its operations to assist affected people in Cameroon and new refugees who have fled into Chad.

"Refugees are in dire need of shelter, blankets, mats and hygienic kits. Some are being generously hosted by local communities, but most are still sleeping in the open and under trees", said the UNHCR spokesperson.

"And teams are assisting the Government to identify new hosting sites located further from the border to better protect refugees in line with international standards".

Efforts underway

In Far North Cameroon, security forces have been deployed and disarmament operations are in progress.

Although few incidents have been reported during the past week, tensions remain high.

However, UNHCR reported that it still cannot access Logone Birni rural district where the clashes started, due to insecurity.

"Our teams in the cities of Maroua and Kousseri are assessing the protection and humanitarian needs of people displaced inside the country. Many of the displaced, report difficulties finding safe water and have no access to latrines. Concerning hygiene issues, are on the rise", the UNHCR spokesperson said.

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Month of violence

Clashes initially broke out on 5 December in the border village of Ouloumsa following a dispute between herders, fishermen and farmers over dwindling water resources.

The climate crisis is exacerbating the competition for resources, especially water. Levels in Lake Chad, in the far northern region of Cameroon, have decreased by as much as 95 per cent in the past 60 years.

UNHCR and Cameroonian authorities organized a reconciliation forum in early December, during which community representatives committed to end the violence.

"But without urgent action to address the root causes of the crisis, the situation could escalate further", Mr. Saltmarsh warned, calling for international support to assist the forcibly displaced and "end the violence so that people can return home safely".

Chad is home to nearly one million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) and Cameroon to more than 1.5 million refugees and IDPs.
Kousseri, Cameroon  A drop in the levels of rainfall around Lake Chad in Cameroon has caused waterways to dry up and worsened the conflict between farmers and herders over scarce resources.

Gadaf Mahamat is busy rebuilding his property, which was torched during a recent clash between farmers and herders in his community.

He says he lost nearly everything, including millet, rice, goats and chickens. At the time, he had money, 400,000 Central African francs that he put under the mattress; he says the money was burned, as well as his medicine.

The cause of the conflict? The scarcity of water in the Far North region of Cameroon.

Gadaf says members of the Mousgoum community dug a reservoir to water their farms and raise fish but that Arab herders wanted the reservoir closed, describing it as a death trap for their livestock.

The two sides failed to compromise, and the situation escalated.

Moussa Yeni, a member of the Arab herders' community, says the fight started at his place. He says the Mousgoums came to attack them. He says when the Mousgoums saw that the herders outnumbered them, they fled. Then the herders pursued them and burned their village.

VOA requested interviews with officials of Cameroon's Far North Region, but they said they were not available to comment.

According to the United Nations, over the last decades, the surface of Lake Chad, which feeds the far north of Cameroon, has decreased by 95%. Communities living along the lake, most of which are water dependent, are fighting for control of the dwindling resources, resulting in deaths, displacement and destruction of property.

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The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Cameroonian authorities recently organized a reconciliation ceremony in which community representatives committed to ending the violence. The U.N. organization also donated wells.

But it was not enough to resolve the conflict, and new violence broke out a few days after the ceremony.

Jean Bosco Rushatsi of UNHCR Cameroon says this is the beginning. He also says the restoration of peace is a long process, but UNHCR has just committed itself resolutely with all the parties involved in the conflict to the path of reconciliation, of social cohesion through dialogue, and not through violent clashes.

Experts believe that other solutions should be pursued.

Math Mazra of the University of Marouan in Cameroon says the ideal solution would be to find other resources, alternative fishery resources that can, for example, employ modern fish farming methods. He also suggested the creation of artificial ponds.

In the meantime, Gadaf has set to rebuilding his house, in hopes that no one will destroy it again.
Yaounde, Cameroon  The U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) says the number of Cameroonians fleeing communal violence in the north of the country to neighboring Chad has reached 82,000. Cameroon has dispatched a delegation to Chad to convince those who fled the fighting over water resources to return home.

Fighting broke out in the Cameroonian border village of Ouloumsa two weeks ago between Arab Choua cattle herders and Mousgoum fishers, sending tens of thousands fleeing to Chad.

Cameroonian officials said the clashes over water resources left villages and markets torched, plantations destroyed, and livestock killed or stolen.

The UNHCR representative in Chad, Papa Kysma Sylla, said the needs of fleeing civilians is increasing by the day.

"We are on an emergency mode openly declared from our headquarters, so we created a coordination with several NGOs and UN agencies (like) WFP, UNICEF, Red Cross," Sylla said. "So we are all providing assistance and mobilizing money and or human resources."

Mahamat Kerimo Sale, mayor of the N'djamena 9 district in Chad, spoke to VOA via messaging application.

Sale said the president of Chad's Transitional Military Council, Mahamat Deby, gave instructions to Chadians to peacefully welcome civilians fleeing the conflicts in Cameroon. He said they are providing basic needs like food and water and aid groups and UN agencies like UNICEF are also helping with soap and blankets to reduce the suffering of those displaced from Cameroon.

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Sale said members of the clashing communities who fled Cameroon are kept separately to avoid conflict in Chad.

Cameroon's government this week dispatched a delegation to Chad to assist those who fled the violence.

Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji led the delegation of ministers, military officials, and lawmakers. He thanked Chad's government and people for the care given to displaced Cameroonians. He also asked the displaced to return to their homes in Cameroon and make peace with their neighbors.

"As much as we preach peace, unity, harmony and living together, we are trying to sensitize the population that they should not take the laws into their hands and that if there is any problem, they have to go to the closest administrative authorities or the forces of law and order and complain," he said. "If because of land or grazer and farmers problems, you start killing and looting, I think it is not a very good example. We are in a state of law."

Nji said so far 6,000 Cameroonians who fled to Chad have agreed to return home.

Cameroonian authorities said they have deployed troops to the areas in conflict to ensure the safety of all citizens.
Geneva  A new cycle of intercommunal clashes over scarce resources in Cameroon have killed and injured scores of people and sent at least 100,000 fleeing from their homes.

Just last week, the U.N. refugee agency reported intercommunal clashes that erupted December 5 in Cameroon's Far North region had prompted 30,000 refugees to flee across the border into Chad in search of safety.

UNHCR spokesman, Matthew Saltmarsh, says that number has nearly tripled over the past two weeks. He says fighting between herders, fishermen and farmers over dwindling land and water resources has driven an estimated 85,000 people into neighboring Chad, while some 15,000 Cameroonians are displaced inside their country.

"Casualties from the fighting have also risen to 44 people killed and 111 people injured," said Saltmarsh. "The vast majority of new arrivals into Chad are children, and 98 percent of the adults are women."

This compares to a casualty toll of 22 dead and 30 wounded during the last cycle of Inter-communal violence.

Fighting among the pastoral, farming and fisher communities has worsened because of the climate crisis. Growing desertification over the last few decades has resulted in limited access to water and land for grazing and farming. Competition for these diminishing resources has led to more frequent and more brutal clashes.

Saltmarsh says victims of these altercations are in dire need of life-saving assistance. He says the UNHCR is rapidly scaling up its operations to help affected people in Cameroon and new refugees in Chad.

"Refugees are in dire need of shelter, blankets, mats and hygiene kits. Some are being generously hosted by local communities, but most are still sleeping out in the open or under trees," said Saltmarsh. "Many of the displaced report difficulties finding safe water and have no access to latrines; concerning hygiene issues are on the rise."

Saltmarsh says money to finance this expensive operation is in low supply. He notes just over half of the $240 million needed to support humanitarian operations in Cameroon and Chad has been received.
Blantyre, Malawi  The commander of Malawi's army has criticized what he says is interference from government officials into the affairs of the military. General Vincent Nundwe says this could incite anarchy and should stop.

Nundwe expressed the concern Saturday during a televised parade of newly commissioned military officers at the Malawi Armed Forces College in Salima district.

At the gathering, which President Lazarus Chakwera also attended as commander-In chief of the defense force, Nundwe said the military has long been receiving instructions from government authorities to promote some officers.

"Letters have been coming from the office of the president and Cabinet, addressed to the army commander, instructing him to promote some officers. We can't accept that. We issue promotions to military officers ourselves," he said.

Nundwe said such tendencies violate military etiquette and can cause conflict.

"We don't want conflicts in Malawi. If you have time, use that energy for something productive, not bringing conflict into the military, no. I have already given an example about Ethiopia, where military officers are fighting one another. I can't accept that," he said.

Nundwe also voiced concern about some military officers lobbying for higher positions through politicians.

"If you are a military officer, there is a Command Element here which recommends you to the Defense Council if you are worth [a] promotion. You do not go and lobby from a politician as if you are working with politicians. So, to you politicians, if such officers approach you, please desist from engaging them," Nundwe said.

In March of last year, Nundwe himself became a victim of political interference when then-President Peter Mutharika fired him as army commander for allegedly allowing the military to protect demonstrators protesting the results of the 2019 presidential elections.

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Incumbent President Chakwera reinstated Nundwe in September 2020, after Chakwera defeated Mutharika during the rerun of presidential elections three months earlier, saying the aim was to restore justice to the operations of the Malawi Defense Force.

But Nundwe said Saturday that the Malawi Defense Force is an institution governed by the law and is supposed to serve all people in the country without interference.

In his remarks, Chakwera said his administration will ensure that soldiers receive the necessary support to enable them to deliver on their mandate without any political influence.

"All I expect from you is to stay true to your mandate, stay true to our nation's citizens, stay true to our nation's Constitution, and stay true our nation's flag. I know that doing so involves giving up so much more than we can ever repay," he said.

Chakwera told military officers that they should know that they are the pride of Malawi.
document

The United States is gravely concerned by unconfirmed new reports alleging mass detentions, killings, and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans in western Tigray by Amhara security forces. The UN reports that 1.2 million people have been forcibly displaced from western Tigray since the beginning of the conflict in November 2020. We call on Amhara leaders to renounce violence against civilians. We also reiterate our call on Eritrea to remove its forces from Ethiopia. We urge the Ethiopian authorities to investigate these reports to determine their veracity and to commit to inclusive, transparent processes to hold responsible those accountable.

We call on all armed actors in Ethiopia to renounce and end violence against civilians. We also reiterate our call for a cessation of hostilities, an immediate end to human rights abuses and violations, negotiations without preconditions, unhindered humanitarian access, and the start to an inclusive national dialogue.
document

United States Department of State

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO):

DRL FY21 IRF: Strengthening Religious Freedom in Sudan through the Rule of Law

This is the announcement of funding opportunity number SFOP0008466

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 19.345

Type of Solicitation: Open Competition

Application Deadline: 11:59 PM EST on 14, February, 2022

Total Funding Floor: $740,740

Total Funding Ceiling: $740,740

Anticipated Number of Awards: 1-2

Type of Award: Grant or Cooperative Agreement

Period of Performance: 22-30 months

Anticipated Time to Award, Pending Availability of Funds: 6-8 months

A. Project Description

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects that support Religious Freedom in Sudan.

"Religious freedom" refers to the rights set out in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the freedom to adopt a religion or beliefs, change your beliefs, practice and teach your beliefs (which may include through publications, public and private speech, and the display of religious attire or symbols), gather in community with others to worship and observe your beliefs, and teach your beliefs to your children. It also states that no one shall be subject to coercion which would impair one's freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of one's choice. Proposed programming must be responsive to restrictions on religious freedom and must be in line with the U.S. Government's religious freedom, democracy, governance, and human rights goals.

Helpful resources for applicants include the annual country-specific International Religious Freedom Reports ( https://www.state.gov/international-religious-freedom-reports/ ) and annual country-specific Human Rights Reports (https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/).

Applicants will be responsible for ensuring program activities and products are implemented in accordance with the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.

DRL's goal is to promoteequal rights for members ofreligious minority communities in Sudan through improving the implementation and understanding of religious freedom lawsthat helpsolidifydemocratic norms through strengthened civil society engagement. While the 2019 Constitution Declaration of Sudan and subsequent religious freedom laws passed, removed Sudan from the Department of State's religious freedom designation lists, the military takeover on October 25, 2021, and the detention of Civilian-Led Transitional Government (CLTG) members have brought Sudan back to a crossroads of uncertainty. Even following the power-sharing agreement between Prime Minister Hamdok and General Burhan on November 21, it is not clear which officials have the legal authority to enforce CLTG laws - including those that address freedom of religion or belief - or if the military leadership plans to abandon, change, or maintain those laws. Furthermore, the public still lacks a strong understanding of government processes for registration and zoning permits, implementation and understanding of laws passed by the CLTG; accountability for attacks on places of worship; inclusion of civil society and religious actors to meet with government officials and provide input on government processes to improve Sudan's rule of law; and implementation to achieve equitable religious freedom reforms.

There is a critical need to ensure future democratic process include religious minorities and that the creation and implementation of laws regarding freedom of religion or belief in Sudan encourages trust-building between the judicial sector and civil society, ensuring that religious freedom is a protected right of every citizen.

DRL programming in Sudan will engage a broad range of actors to raise awareness of new religious freedom laws, document and monitor religious freedom violations, report on implementation efforts and make recommendations to improve existing legal efforts. At this time, programs should refrain from direct engagement with, or support to, the government of Sudan and instead focus on community level actors, until otherwise directed by DRL.

Program outcomes could include but are not limited to:

Community members, especially, members of minority religions, beliefs, or non-belief or non-belief, are aware of their rights and fundamental freedoms

Community actors and religious activists, including those from minority religions, belief or non-belief communities, build working relationships with government stakeholders;

Governments are responsive to civil society advocacy to protect freedom of conscience, religion or belief, including non-beliefs;

Persons from all religions, belief and non-belief have equitable access to legal services.

Illustrative activities may include:

Raising awareness for communities and legal actors of changes in religious freedom laws as put forth by the CLTG since 2019 for the community at large and legal actors;

Improving understanding and communication for members of religious minority communities on registration processes of religious groups, obtaining permits for building places of worship, working through the legal system to reclaim property taken by the Bashir regime; conducting investigations and holding perpetrators accountable for destruction of places of worship;

Convening multi-stakeholder policy dialogues with civil society, legal experts, faith-based organizations, and believers and non-believers on religious freedom to promote inclusive policymaking as it relates to religious freedom. Upon directives from DRL should Sudan establish a new civilian government, this may also include government actors such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs;

Advocating on behalf of and inclusion of minority faith groups in discussions related to religious law reform with the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowment;

Monitoring and reporting on the judicial implementation of revised religious freedom laws to ensure equitable protections under the law at a national and/or international level, such as court proceedings for religious groups to reclaim land taken during the Bashir regime or for trials on destroyed places of worship;

Undertaking legal advocacy efforts or providing training to the legal community on new religious freedom laws to reduce faith-based discrimination and promoting access to justice for all Sudanese citizens regardless of faith.

All programs should aim to have impact that leads to reforms and should have the potential for sustainability beyond DRL resources. DRL's preference is to avoid duplicating past efforts by supporting new and creative approaches. This does not exclude from consideration projects that improve upon or expand existing successful projects in a new and complementary way. DRL is committed to advancing equity and support for underserved and underrepresented communities. Programs should seek strategies for integration and inclusion of individuals/organizations/beneficiaries that can bring perspectives based on their religion, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics, national origin, age, genetic information, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, political affiliation, or veteran's status. Programs should be demand-driven and locally led to the extent possible. DRL requires all programs to be non-discriminatory and expects implementers to include strategies for nondiscrimination of individuals/organizations/beneficiaries based on race, color, religion, sex,gender identity,gender expression, sex characteristics, sexual orientation,pregnancy, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, marital status, parental status, political affiliation, or veteran's status.

Where appropriate, competitive proposals may include:

Opportunities for beneficiaries to apply their new knowledge and skills in practical efforts;

Solicitation of feedback and suggestions from beneficiaries when developing activities in order to strengthen the sustainability of programs and participant ownership of project outcomes;

Input from participants on sustainability plans and systematic review of the plans throughout the life of the project, with adjustments made as necessary;

Inclusion of vulnerable populations;

Joint identification and definition of key concepts with relevant stakeholders and stakeholder input into project activities;

Systematic follow up with beneficiaries at specific intervals after the completion of activities to track how beneficiaries are retaining new knowledge as well as applying their new skills.

Activities that are not typically allowed include, but are not limited to:

The provision of humanitarian assistance;

English language instruction;

Development of high-tech computer or communications software and/or hardware;

Purely academic exchanges or fellowships;

External exchanges or fellowships lasting longer than six months;

Off-shore activities that are not clearly linked to in-country initiatives and impact or are not necessary per security concerns;

Theoretical explorations of human rights or democracy issues, including projects aimed primarily at research and evaluation that do not incorporate training or capacity-building for local civil society;

Micro-loans or similar small business development initiatives;

Initiatives directed towards a diaspora community rather than current residents of targeted countries.

This notice is subject to availability of funding.

B. Federal Award Information

Primary organizations can submit one application in response to the NOFO.

The U.S. government may: (a) reject any or all applications, (b) accept other than the lowest cost application, (c) accept more than one application, and (d) waive irregularities in applications received.

The U.S. government may make award(s) on the basis of initial applications received, without discussions or negotiations. Therefore, each initial application should contain the applicant's best terms from a cost and technical standpoint. The U.S. government reserves the right (though it is under no obligation to do so), however, to enter into discussions with one or more applicants in order to obtain clarifications, additional detail, or to suggest refinements in the project description, budget, or other aspects of an application.

DRL anticipates awarding either a grant or cooperative agreement depending on the needs and risk factors of the program. The final determination on award mechanism will be made by the Grants Officer. The distinction between grants and cooperative agreements revolves around the existence of "substantial involvement." Cooperative agreements require greater Federal government participation in the project. If a cooperative agreement is awarded, DRL will undertake reasonable and programmatically necessary substantial involvement. Examples of substantial involvement can include, but are not limited to:

Active participation or collaboration with the recipient in the implementation of the award;

Review and approval of one stage of work before another can begin;

Review and approval of substantive provisions of proposed sub-awards or contracts beyond existing Federal policy;

Approval of the recipient's budget or plan of work prior to the award.

The authority for this funding opportunity is found in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (FAA).

To maximize the impact and sustainability of the award(s) that result from this NOFO, DRL retains the right to execute non-competitive continuation amendment(s). The total duration of any award, including potential non-competitive continuation amendments, shall not exceed 54 months, or four and a half years. Any non-competitive continuation is contingent on performance and pending availability of funds. A non-competitive continuation is not guaranteed, and the Department of State reserves the right to exercise or not to exercise this option.

C. Eligibility Information

For application information, please see the proposal submission instructions (PSI), updated December 2021 on our website.

C.1 Eligible Applicants

DRL welcomes applications from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernment organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and for-profit organizations or businesses. DRL's preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited.

Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process. Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards. Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs. The allowability of costs incurred by commercial organizations is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 48 CFR 30, Cost Accounting Standards Administration, and 48 CFR 31 Contract Cost Principles and Procedures.

Please see 2 CFR 200.307 for regulations regarding program income.

C.2 Cost Sharing or Matching

Providing cost sharing, matching, or cost participation is not an eligibility factor or requirement for this NOFO and providing cost share will not result in a more favorable competitive ranking.

C.3 Other

Applicants should have existing, or the capacity to develop, active partnerships with thematic or in-country partners, entities, and relevant stakeholders, including private sector partners and NGOs, and have demonstrable experience in administering successful and preferably similar projects. DRL encourages applications from foreign-based NGOs headquartered in the geographic regions/countries relevant to this NOFO. Applicants may form consortia in order to bring together organizations with varied expertise to propose a comprehensive program in one proposal. However, one organization should be designated in the proposal as the lead applicant, with the other members designated as sub-award partners. DRL reserves the right to request additional background information on applicants that do not have previous experience administering federal grant awards, and these applicants may be subject to limited funding on a pilot basis.

DRL is committed to an anti-discrimination policy in all of its projects and activities. DRL welcomes applications irrespective of race, ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other status. DRLseeks applications that demonstratethat the recipient does not discriminate against any beneficiaries in implementation of a potential award, such as, but not limited to, by withholding, adversely impacting, or denying equitable access to the benefits provided through this awardon the basis ofany factor not expressly stated in the award. This includes, for example, race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity,gender expression, sex characteristics,sexual orientation, and pregnancy),national origin, disability, age, genetic information, marital status, parental status, political affiliation, or veteran's status. The recipientshouldinsert this provision, including this paragraph, in all sub-grants and contracts under a potential award.

Any applicant listed on the Excluded Parties List System in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) (www.sam.gov) and/or has a current debt to the U.S. government is not eligible to apply for an assistance award in accordance with the OMB guidelines at 2 CFR 180 that implement Executive Orders 12549 (3 CFR,1986 Comp., p. 189) and 12689 (3 CFR,1989 Comp., p. 235), "Debarment and Suspension." Additionally, no entity or person listed on the Excluded Parties List System in SAM.gov can participate in any activities under an award. All applicants are strongly encouraged to review the Excluded Parties List System in SAM.gov to ensure that no ineligible entity or person is included in their application.

D. Application and Submission Information

D.1 Address to Request Application Package

Applicants can find application forms, kits, or other materials needed to apply on www.grants.gov and SAMS Domestic (https://mygrants.servicenowservices.com) under the announcement title "DRL FY21 IRF: Strengthening Religious Freedom in Sudan through the Rule of Law," funding opportunity number "SFOP0008466." Although solicitation details will be available via SAMS Domestic, please note that all applications in response to this NOFO must be submitted via www.grants.gov. Please contact the DRL point of contact listed in Section G if requesting reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or for security reasons. Please note that reasonable accommodations do not include deadline extensions.

D.2 Content and Form of Application Submission

For all application documents, please ensure:

All documents are in English and all costs are in U.S. Dollars. If an original document within the application is in another language, an English translation must be provided (please note the Department of State, as indicated in 2 CFR 200.111, requires that English is the official language of all award documents). If any document is provided in both English and a foreign language, the English language version is the controlling version;

All pages are numbered, including budgets and attachments;

All documents are formatted to 8  x 11 paper; and,

All documents are single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins. Captions and footnotes may be 10-point Times New Roman font. Font sizes in charts and tables, including the budget, can be reformatted to fit within 1 page width.

D.2.1 Application Requirements

Complete applications must include the following:

Completed and signed SF-424, SF-424A, and SF-424B forms. Please see SF-424 instructions in Section 2B of the PSI.

Organizations that engage in lobbying the U.S. government, including Congress, or pay for another entity to lobby on their behalf, are also required to complete the SF-LLL "Disclosure of Lobbying Activities" form (only if applicable). Please see SF-LLL guidance in Section 2B of the PSI.

Cover Page (not to exceed one (1) page, preferably as a Word Document) that includes a table with the organization name, project title, target country/countries, project synopsis, and name and contact information for the application's main point of contact. Please see Cover Page Section 2C of the PSI for a template and more details.

Executive Summary (not to exceed one (1) page, preferably as a Word Document) that outlines project goals, objectives, activities, etc.

The Executive Summary should include a brief section that explicitly states: (1) the problem statement addressed by the project, (2) research-based evidence justifying the unique project approach, and (3) quantifiable project outcomes and impacts.

Table of Contents (not to exceed one (1) page, preferably as a Word Document) listing all documents and attachments with page numbers.

Proposal Narrative (not to exceed ten (10) pages, preferably as a Word Document). Please note the ten-page limit does not include the Cover Page, Executive Summary, Table of Contents, Attachments, Detailed Budget, Budget Narrative, Audit, or NICRA. Applicants are encouraged to combine multiple documents into a single Word Document or PDF (i.e. Cover Page, Table of Contents, Executive Summary, and Proposal Narrative in one file). Please see Proposal Narrative Guidelines in Section 2F of the PSI for more details.

The Proposal Narrative should demonstrate the applicant's commitment to ensuring the participation of all people as a strategy for implementation. Please integrate inclusion strategies in all sections of the Proposal Narrative to enhance programmatic impact.

Budget (preferably as an Excel workbook) that includes three (3) columns containing the request to DRL, any cost sharing contribution, and the total budget. A summary budget should also be included using the OMB-approved budget categories (see SF-424A as a sample) in a separate tab. Costs must be in U.S. Dollars. Detailed line-item budgets for sub-grantees should be included as additional tabs within the Excel workbook (if available at the time of submission).

Please see Budget Guidelines Section 2G of the PSI for more information.

The programming approach should be dedicated to strengthening inclusive societies as a necessary pillar of strong democracies. Please include costs associated with this commitment in the Budget and Budget Narrative.

Budget Narrative (preferably as a Word Document) that includes substantive explanations and justifications for each line item in the detailed budget spreadsheet, as well as the source and a description of all cost-share offered. Please see Budget Guidelines Section 2G of the PSI for more information.

The organization's most recent audit, if applicable. This should be a single audit, program-specific audit, or other audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Please see Audit Section 2H of the PSI for more information.

Logic Model (preferably as a Word Document). Please see Logic Model Section 2I of the PSI for more information.

Monitoring and Evaluation Narrative (not to exceed four (4) pages, preferably as a Word Document). Please see Monitoring and Evaluation Narrative Section 2J of the PSI for more information.

As stated within the DRL Guide to Program Monitoring and Evaluation (p. 6): DRL strongly encourages applicants to consider whether their monitoring and evaluation systems are utilizing human rights-based approaches, applying a gender and equity lens, or include the participation of sub-grantees and project participants. Within the Monitoring and Evaluation Narrative, applicants should demonstrate their commitment to inclusive strategies and consider whether evaluation design, data collection, analysis, reporting and learning are conducted in an ethical and responsible way with all project participants (e.g. direct beneficiaries, sub-grantees). Applicants should still make adequate provisions to protect the privacy of human subjects when collecting data from individuals. For instance, when collecting data from project participants, consider whether your organization will have the necessary informed consent forms, confidentiality agreements, and data security protocols.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (preferably as a Word Document or Excel Sheet). Please see Monitoring and Evaluation Plan Section 2J of the PSI for more information.

Risk Analysis (preferably as a Word Document). Please see Risk Analysis Section 2K of the PSI for more information on this requirement, including Do No Harm principles and Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) policies/plans.

Key Personnel (not to exceed two (2) pages, preferably as a Word Document). Please include short bios that highlight relevant professional experience. Given the limited space, CVs are not recommended for submission.

Timeline (not to exceed one (1) page, preferably as a Word Document or Excel Sheet). The timeline of the overall proposal should include activities, evaluation efforts, and program closeout.

Gender and Inclusion Analysis (not to exceed three (3) pages, preferably as a Word Document) that provides a concise analysis of relevant gender norms, equity and equality for underserved communities and marginalized populations, power relations, and conflict dynamics in target countries. Potential domains of analysis include institutional practices and barriers, cultural norms, gender roles, access to and control over assets and resources, and patterns of decision-making. Applicants should briefly explain how they have integrated findings from their analysis into project design and/or other proposal documents, including a plan for regularly reviewing and updating the gender and inclusion analysis with local partners/beneficiaries, and making any necessary adjustments to program implementation. A set of guiding questions can be found in Section 2L of the PSI.

Security Plan addressing any issues involving in-person events and recruitment for said events, and safety for any online programs or communications, including independent IT security audits (to include a vulnerability assessment) of any proposed web application or platform. Organization's Security Plan should demonstrate consideration of the risks identified in the submitted risk assessment. Costs may also be identified within the budget and budget narrative. Applicants are also encouraged to include contingency plans for in-person or online activities.

Contingency Plan for proposed activities should the originally planned activities not be able to be implemented. The Contingency Plan should be submitted as an additional annex. Applicants should demonstrate consideration of the risks identified in the submitted risk assessment and include specific alternative activities or locations as part of the Contingency Plan. Any proposed "plan" must comply with 2CFR200.433 - Contingency provisions. Plans must not include unallocable or unallowable expenses and must not result in a larger Total Award Value than the identified as the "competition ceiling." DRL requires prior approval by the Grants Officer of the "plan" before any activities can take place, or costs can be incurred against the "plan."

Applications that do not include the elements listed above will be deemed technically ineligible.

D.2.2 Additional Application Documents

Strong applications will also contain the following:

Individual Letters of Support and/or Memorandum of Understanding. Letters of support and MOUs must be specific to the project implementation (e.g. from proposed partners or sub-award recipients) and will not count towards the page limit.

Please refer to the Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI), updated December 2021, on DRL's website for detailed guidance on the documents above: https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/programs-and-grants/. For an application checklist and sample templates please see the Resources page on DRL's website: https://www.state.gov/resources-for-programs-and-grants/. The sample templates provided on the DRL website are suggested, but not mandatory.

DRL reserves the right to request additional documents not included in this NOFO. Additionally, to ensure that all applications receive a balanced evaluation, the DRL review panel will review from the first page of each section up to the page limit and no further.

Note: If ultimately provided with a notification of non-binding intent to make a Federal award, applicants typically have two to three weeks to provide additional information and documents requested in the notification of intent. The deadlines may vary in each notification of intent and applicants must adhere to the stated deadline in the notification of intent.

D.2.3 Additional Information Requested For Those Receiving Notification of Intent

Successful applicants must submit, after notification of intent to make a Federal award, but prior to issuance of a Federal award:

Written responses and revised application documents addressing conditions and recommendations from the DRL review panel;

A copy of the applicant's latest NICRA as a PDF file, if the applicant has a NICRA and includes NICRA charges in the budget;

A completed copy of the Department's Financial Management Survey, if receiving DRL funding for the first time;

Submission of required documents to register in the Payment Management System managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, if receiving DRL funding for the first time (unless an exemption is provided);

Other requested information or documents included in the notification of intent to make a Federal award or subsequent communications prior to issuance of a Federal award;

Applicants who submit their applications through Grants.gov will be required to create a SAMS Domestic account in order to accept the final award. Accounts must be logged into to every 60 days in order to maintain an active account.

D.3 Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)

All prime organizations, whether based in the United States or in another country, must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), formerly referred to as DUNS, and an active registration with the SAM.gov before submitting an application. DRL may not review applications from or make awards to applicants that have not completed all applicable UEI and SAM.gov requirements. A UEI is one of the data elements mandated by Public Law 109-282, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), for all Federal awards.

The 2 CFR 200 requires that sub-grantees obtain a UEI number. Please note the UEI for sub-grantees is not required at the time of application but will be required before the award is processed and/or directed to a sub-grantee.

Note: The process of obtaining a SAM.gov registration may take anywhere from 4-8 weeks. Please begin your registration as early as possible.

Organizations based in the United States or that pay employees within the United States will need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code, and a UEI number prior to registering in SAM.gov.

Organizations based outside of the United States and that do not pay employees within the United States do not need an EIN from the IRS, but do need a NATO CAGE (NCAGE) code and UEI number prior to registering in SAM.gov.

All prime organizations must also continue to maintain active SAM.gov registration with current information at all times during which they have an active Federal award or application under consideration by a Federal award agency. SAM.gov requires all entities to renew their registration once a year in order to maintain an active registration status in SAM. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure it has an active registration in SAM.gov and to maintain that active registration. If an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements at the time of application, the applicant may be deemed technically ineligible to receive an award and use that determination as a basis for making an award to another applicant.

For further guidance on the registration process, please see the SAM.gov Registration Guide on DRL's website: https://www.state.gov/resources-for-programs-and-grants/. Please refer to 2 CFR 25.200 for additional information. Also, please refer to Section D.5 - Funding Restriction of the NOFO.

Note: SAM.gov is not the same as SAMS Domestic. It is free to register in both systems, but the registration processes are different.

Information is included on the SAM.gov website to help international registrations, including "Quick Start Guide for International Registrations" and "Helpful Hints." Navigate to www.SAM.gov, click "HELP" in the top navigation bar, then click "International Registrants" in the left navigation panel. Please note, guidance on SAM.gov and the guidance on GSA's website about requirement for registering in SAM.gov is subject to change. Applicants should review the website for the most up-to-date guidance.

D.3.1 Exemptions

An exemption from these requirements may be permitted on a case-by-case basis if:

An applicant's identity must be protected due to potential endangerment of their mission, their organization's status, their employees, or individuals being served by the applicant.

Organizations requesting exemption from UEI or SAM.gov requirements must email the point of contact listed in the NOFO at least two weeks prior to thedeadline in the NOFOproviding a justification of their request. Approval for a SAM.gov exemption must come from the warranted Grants Officer before the application can be deemed eligible for review.

Note: Foreign organizations will be required to register with the NATO Support Agency (NSPA) to receive a NCAGE code in order to register in SAM.gov. NSPA will forward your registration request to the applicable National Codification Bureau (NCB) if your organization is located in a NATO or Tier 2 Sponsored Non-NATO Nation. As of September 2021, NATO nations included Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. As of September 2021, Tier 2 nations included Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Serbia, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, and United Arab Emirates.

NSPA and/or the appropriate NCB forwards all NCAGE code information to all Allied Committee 135 (AC/135) nations, which as of September 2021 also included Algeria, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand. All organizations are strongly advised to take this into consideration when assessing whether registration may result in possible endangerment.

D.4 Submission Dates and Times

Applications are due no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST), on 14, February, 2022 on https://www.grants.gov/ under the announcement title "DRL FY21 IRF: Strengthening Religious Freedom in Sudan through the Rule of Law," funding opportunity number "SFOP0008466."

Grants.gov automatically logs the date and time an application submission is made, and the Department of State will use this information to determine whether an application has been submitted on time. Late applications are neither reviewed nor considered. Known system errors caused by Grants.gov that are outside of the applicant's control will be reviewed on a case by case basis. Applicants should not expect a notification upon DRL receiving their application.

D.5 Funding Restrictions

DRL will not consider applications that reflect any type of support for any member, affiliate, or representative of a designated terrorist organization. Please refer the link for Foreign Terrorist Organizations: https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/

Project activities whose direct beneficiaries are foreign militaries or paramilitary groups or individuals will not be considered for DRL funding given purpose limitations on funding.

In accordance with Department of State policy for terrorism, applicants are advised that successful passing of vetting to evaluate the risk that funds may benefit terrorists or their supporters is a condition of award. If chosen for an award, applicants will be asked to submit information required by DS Form 4184, Risk Analysis Information (attached to this solicitation) about their company and its principal personnel. Vetting information is also required for all sub-award performance on assistance awards identified by the Department of State as presenting a risk of terrorist financing. Vetting information may also be requested for project beneficiaries and participants. Failure to submit information when requested, or failure to pass vetting, may be grounds for rejecting your proposal prior to award.

The Leahy Law prohibits Department foreign assistance funds from supporting foreign security force units if the Secretary of State has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. Per 22 USC 2378d(a) (2017), "No assistance shall be furnished under this chapter [FOREIGN ASSISTANCE] or the Arms Export Control Act [22 USC 2751 et seq.] to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights." Restrictions may apply to any proposed assistance to police or other law enforcement. Among these, pursuant to section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (FAA), no assistance provided through this funding opportunity may be furnished to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country when there is credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. In accordance with the requirements of section 620M of the FAA, also known as the Leahy law, project beneficiaries or participants from a foreign government's security forces may need to be vetted by the Department before the provision of any assistance. If a proposed grant or cooperative agreement will provide assistance to foreign security forces or personnel, compliance with the Leahy Law is required.

U.S. foreign assistance for Burma or Burmese beneficiaries is subject to restrictions. This includes restrictions, pursuant to section 7043(a)(3) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2020 (Div. G, P.L. 116-94)(SFOAA), on funds appropriated under title III of the act for assistance for Burma. Section 7043(a)(3) provides that such funds "may not be made available to any organization or entity controlled by the armed forces of Burma, or to any individual or organization that advocates violence against ethnic or religious groups or individuals in Burma, as determined by the Secretary of State." In addition, funds cannot be made available to any individual or organization that has committed serious human rights abuse.

Organizations should be cognizant of these restrictions when developing project proposals as these restrictions will require appropriate due diligence of program beneficiaries and collaboration with DRL to ensure compliance with these restrictions. Program beneficiaries subject to due diligence vetting will include any individuals or entities that are beneficiaries of foreign assistance funding or support. Due diligence vetting will include a review of open-source materials.

Federal awards generally will not allow reimbursement of pre-award costs; however, the Grants Officer may approve pre-award costs on a case-by-case basis. Generally, construction costs are not allowed under DRL awards. For additional information, please see the DRL Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI) for Applications: https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/programs-and-grants/.

D.6 Application Submission

All application submissions must be made electronically via www.grants.gov. Please note that the Grants.gov registration process can take ten (10) business days or longer, even if all registration steps are completed in a timely manner.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that it has an active registration in Grants.gov. Applicants are required to document that the application has been received by Grants.gov in its entirety. DRL bears no responsibility for disqualification that result from applicants not being registered before the due date, for system errors in Grants.gov, or other errors in the application process. Additionally, applicants must save a screen shot of the checklist showing all documents submitted in case any document fails to upload successfully.

Faxed, couriered, or emailed documents will not be accepted. Reasonable accommodations may, in appropriate circumstances, be provided to applicants with disabilities or for security reasons. Applicants must follow all formatting instructions in the applicable NOFO and these instructions.

DRL encourages organizations to submit applications during normal business hours (Monday - Friday, 9:00AM-5:00PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)). If an applicant experiences technical difficulties and has contacted the appropriate helpdesk but is not receiving timely assistance (e.g. if you have not received a response within 48 hours of contacting the helpdesk), you may contact the DRL point of contact listed in the NOFO in Section G. The point of contact may assist in contacting the appropriate helpdesk.

Note: The Grants Officer will determine technical eligibility of all applications.

Grants.gov Applications:

Please be advised that completing all the necessary registration steps for obtaining a username and password from Grants.gov can take ten (10) business days or longer.

Please refer to the Grants.gov website for definitions of various "application statuses" and the difference between a submission receipt and a submission validation. Applicants will receive a validation e-mail from Grants.gov upon the successful submission of an application. Validation of an electronic submission via Grants.gov can take up to two business days. Additionally, organizations must remember to save a screenshot of the checklist showing all documents submitted in case any document fails to upload successfully.

Grants.gov Helpdesk:

For assistance with Grants.gov, please call the Contact Center at +1 (800) 518-4726 or email support@grants.gov. The Contact Center is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except federal holidays.

See https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/ for a list of federal holidays.

E. Application Review Information

E.1 Proposal Review Criteria

The DRL review panel will evaluate each application individually against the following criteria, listed below in order of importance, and not against competing applications. Please use the below criteria as a reference, but do not structure your application according to the sub-sections.

Quality of Project Idea

Applications should be responsive to the program framework and policy objectives identified in the NOFO, appropriate in the country/regional context, and should exhibit originality, substance, precision, and relevance to DRL's mission of promoting human rights and democracy. Projects should have the potential to have an immediate impact leading to long-term, sustainable reforms. DRL prefers new approaches that do not duplicate efforts by other entities. This does not exclude from consideration projects that improve upon or expand existing successful projects in a new and complementary way. In countries where similar activities are already taking place, an explanation should be provided as to how new activities will not duplicate or merely add to existing activities and how these efforts will be coordinated. Proposals that promote creative approaches to recognized ongoing challenges are highly encouraged. DRL prioritizes project proposals with inclusive approaches for advancing these rights.

Project Planning/Ability to Achieve Objectives

A strong application will include a clear articulation of how the proposed project activities contribute to the overall project objectives, and each activity will be clearly developed and detailed. A comprehensive monthly work plan should demonstrate substantive undertakings and the logistical capacity of the organization. Objectives should be ambitious yet measurable, results-focused and achievable in a reasonable timeframe. A complete application must include a Logic Model to demonstrate how the project activities will have an impact on its proposed objectives. The Logic Model should match the objectives, outcomes, key activities, and outputs described in the narrative. Applications should address how the project will engage relevant stakeholders and should identify local partners as appropriate.

If local partners have been identified, DRL strongly encourages applicants to submit letters of support from proposed in-country partners. Additionally, applicants should describe the division of labor among the direct applicant and any local partners. If applicable, applications should identify target geographic areas for activities, target participant groups or selection criteria for participants, and the specific roles of sub-awardees, among other pertinent details.

DRL recognizes that all programs have some level of risk due to internal/external variables that have the potential to adversely affect a program. Risk management should address how the program design incorporates the identification, assessment, and management of key risk factors. DRL will review the Risk Analysis based on the organization's ability to identify risks that could have an impact on the overall program as well as how the organization will manage these risks.

Institution's Record and Capacity

DRL will consider the past performance of prior recipients and the demonstrated potential of new applicants. Applications should demonstrate an institutional record of successful democracy and human rights programs, including responsible fiscal management and full compliance with all reporting requirements for past grants. Proposed personnel and institutional resources should be adequate and appropriate to achieve the project's objectives. Projects should have potential for continued funding beyond DRL resources.

Addressing Barriers to Equal Participation

DRL strives to ensure its projects advance the rights and uphold the dignity of all persons. As the U.S. government's lead bureau dedicated to promoting democratic governance, DRL requests a programming approach dedicated to strengthening inclusive societies as a necessary pillar of strong democracies. Discrimination,violence, inequity, and inequality targeting any members of society undermines collective security and threatens democracy. DRL prioritizes inclusive and integrated program models that assess and address the barriers to access for individuals and groups based on their race, ethnicity, religion, income, geography, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. The proposal should also demonstrate how the program will further engagement in underserved communities and with individuals from underserved communities. . Applicants should describe how programming will impact all of its beneficiaries, including support for underserved and underrepresented communities. This approach should be an integral part of both the concept and explicit design, and implementation of all proposed project activities, objectives, and monitoring. Strong proposals will provide specific analysis, measures, and corresponding targets as appropriate. Stakeholders shall identify the difference between opportunities and barriers to access, and design programs accordingly to not perpetuate these inequalities, but rather enhance programmatic impact by including all people in society. The goal of this approach is to bring communities and those in power together in support of more stable and secure societies.

Cost Effectiveness

DRL strongly encourages applicants to clearly demonstrate project cost-effectiveness in their application, including examples of leveraging institutional and other resources. However, cost-sharing or other examples of leveraging other resources are not required. Inclusion of cost-sharing in the budget does not result in additional points awarded during the review process. Budgets should have low and/or reasonable overhead and administration costs, and applicants should provide clear explanations and justifications for these costs in relation to the work involved. All budget items should be clearly explained and justified to demonstrate necessity, appropriateness, and connection to the project objectives.

Please note: If cost share is included in the budget, the recipient must maintain written records to support all allowable costs that are claimed as its contribution to cost share, as well as costs to be paid by the Federal government. Such records are subject to audit. In the event the recipient does not meet the minimum amount of cost-sharing as stipulated in the recipient's budget, DRL's contribution may be reduced in proportion to the recipient's contribution.

Multiplier Effect/Sustainability

Applications should clearly delineate how elements of the project will have a multiplier effect and be sustainable beyond the life of the grant. A good multiplier effect will have an impact beyond the direct beneficiaries of the grant (e.g. participants trained under a grant go on to train other people; workshop participants use skills from a workshop to enhance a national level election that affects the entire populace). A strong sustainability plan may include demonstrating continuing impact beyond the life of a project or garnering other donor support after DRL funding ceases.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation

Complete applications will include a detailed M&E Narrative and M&E Plan, which detail how the project's progress will be monitored and evaluated. Incorporating well-designed monitoring and evaluation processes into a project is an efficient method for documenting the change (intended and unintended) that a project seeks. Applications should demonstrate the capacity to provide objectives with measurable outputs and outcomes.

The quality of the M&E sections will be judged on the narrative explaining how both monitoring and evaluation will be carried out and who will be responsible for those related activities. The M&E Narrative should explain how an external evaluation will be incorporated into the project implementation plan or how the project will be systematically assessed in the absence of one. Please see the section on Monitoring and Evaluation Plan in the Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI) for more information on what is required in the narrative.

The output and outcome-based performance indicators should not only be separated by project objectives but also should match the objectives, outcomes, and outputs detailed in the Logic Model and Proposal Narrative. Performance indicators should be clearly defined (i.e., explained how the indicators will be measured and reported) either within the table or with a separate Performance Indicator Reference Sheet (PIRS). For each performance indicator, the table should also include baselines and quarterly and cumulative targets, data collection tools, data sources, types of data disaggregation, and frequency of monitoring and evaluation. There should also be metrics to capture how project activities target those who face discrimination due to their religion, gender, disabilities, ethnicity or sexual orientation and gender identity, where applicable. Please see the section on Monitoring and Evaluation Plan in the Proposal Submission Instructions (PSI) for more information on what is required in the plan.

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E.2 Review and Selection Process

DRL strives to ensure that each application receives a balanced evaluation by a DRL review panel. The Department's Office of Acquisitions Management (AQM) will determine technical eligibility for all applications. All technically eligible applications for a given NOFO are reviewed against the same seven criteria, which include quality of project idea, project planning/ability to achieve objectives, institutional record and capacity, inclusive programming, cost effectiveness, multiplier effect/sustainability, and project monitoring and evaluation.

Additionally, the DRL review panel will evaluate how the application addresses the NOFO request, U.S. foreign policy goals, and the priority needs of DRL overall. DRL may also take into consideration the balance of the current portfolio of active projects, including geographic or thematic diversity, if needed.

In most cases, the DRL review panel includes representatives from DRL, the appropriate Department of State regional bureau (to include feedback from U.S. embassies), and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (to include feedback from USAID missions). In some cases, additional panelists may participate, including from other Department of State bureaus or offices; U.S. government departments, agencies, or boards; representatives from partner governments; or representatives from entities that are in a public-private partnership with DRL. At the end of the panel's discussion about an application, the review panel votes on whether to recommend the application for approval by the DRL Assistant Secretary. If more applications are recommended for approval than DRL can ultimately fund, the review panel will rank the recommended applications in priority order for consideration by the DRL Assistant Secretary. The Grants Officer Representative (GOR) for the eventual award does not vote on the panel. All panelists must sign non-disclosure agreements and conflicts of interest agreements.

DRL review panels may provide conditions and recommendations on applications to enhance the proposed project, which must be addressed by the applicant before further consideration of the award. To ensure effective use of DRL funds, conditions or recommendations may include requests to increase, decrease, clarify, and/or justify costs and project activities.

F. Federal Award Administration Information

F.1 Federal Award Notices

DRL will provide a separate notification to applicants on the result of their applications. Successful applicants will receive a letter electronically via email requesting that the applicant respond to review panel conditions and recommendations. This notification is not an authorization to begin activities and does not constitute formal approval or a funding commitment.

Final approval is contingent on the applicant successfully responding to the review panel's conditions and recommendations; being registered in required systems, including the U.S. government's Payment Management System (PMS), unless an exemption is provided; and completing and providing any additional documentation requested by DRL or AQM. Final approval is also contingent on Congressional Notification requirements being met and final review and approval by the Department's warranted Grants Officer.

The notice of Federal award signed by the Department's warranted Grants Officers is the sole authorizing document. If awarded, the notice of Federal award will be provided to the applicant's designated Authorizing Official via SAMS Domestic to be electronically counter-signed in the system.

F.2 Administrative and National Policy and Legal Requirements

DRL requires all recipients of foreign assistance funding to comply with all applicable Department and Federal laws and regulations, including but not limited to the following:

The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards set forth in 2 CFR Chapter 200 (Sub-Chapters A through F) shall apply to all non-Federal entities, except for assistance awards to Individuals and Foreign Public Entities. Sub-Chapters A through E shall apply to all foreign organizations, and Sub-Chapters A through D shall apply to all U.S. and foreign for-profit entities.The applicant/recipient of the award and any sub-recipient under the award must comply with all applicable terms and conditions, in addition to the assurance and certifications made part of the Notice of Award. The Department's Standard Terms and Conditions can be viewed at https://www.state.gov/about-us-office-of-the-procurement-executive/.

Additionally, DRL supports implementation of the Women Peace and Security Act of 2017, which highlights the U.S. commitment to the meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution. For additional information, please refer to the following link: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1141.

Due to the determination made under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) for FY 2021, assistance that benefits the governments of the following countries may be subject to a restriction under the TVPA. The Department of State determines on a case-by-case basis what constitutes assistance to a government; the general principles listed below apply.

Assistance to the government includes:

All branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial) at all levels (national, regional, local);

Public schools, universities, hospitals, and state-owned enterprises, as well as government employees;

Cash, training, equipment, services, or other assistance provided directly to the government, assistance provided to an NGO or other implementer for the benefit of the government, and assistance to government employees.

Additional requirements may be included depending on the content of the program.

F.3 Reporting

Applicants should be aware that DRL awards will require that all reports (financial and progress) are uploaded to the grant file in SAMS Domestic on a quarterly basis. The Federal Financial Report (FFR or SF-425) is the required form for the financial reports and must be submitted in PMS, as well as a copy from PMS then uploaded to the grant file in SAMS Domestic. The progress reports uploaded to the grant file in SAMS Domestic must include a narrative as described below and Project Indicators (or other mutually agreed upon format approved by the Grants Officer) for the F Framework indicators. The F Framework indicators will be reviewed and negotiated during the final stages of issuing an award.

Narrative progress reports should reflect the focus on measuring the project's impact on the overarching objectives and should be compiled according to the objectives, outcomes, and outputs as outlined in the award's Scope of Work (SOW) and in the Monitoring & Evaluation Narrative. An assessment of the overall project's impact should be included in each progress report. Where relevant, progress reports should include the following sections:

Relevant contextual information (limited);

Explanation and evaluation of significant activities of the reporting period and how the activities reflect progress toward achieving objectives, including meeting benchmarks/targets as set in the M&E Plan. In addition, attach the M&E Plan, comparing the target and actual numbers for the indicators;

Any tangible impact or success stories from the project, when possible;

Copy of mid-term and/or final evaluation report(s) conducted by an external evaluator; if applicable;

Relevant supporting documentation or products related to the project activities (such as articles, meeting lists and agendas, participant surveys, photos, manuals, etc.) as separate attachments;

Description of how the recipient is pursuing sustainability, including looking for sources of follow-on funding;

Any problems/challenges in implementing the project and a corrective action plan with an updated timeline of activities;

Reasons why established goals were not met;

Data for the required F Framework indicator(s) for the quarter as well as aggregate data by fiscal year;

Program Indicators or other mutually agreed upon format approved by the Grants Officer;

Proposed activities for the next quarter; and,

Additional pertinent information, including analysis and explanation of cost overruns or high unit costs, if applicable.

Foreign Assistance Data Review: As required by Congress, the Department of State must make progress in its efforts to improve tracking and reporting of foreign assistance data through the Foreign Assistance Data Review (FADR). The FADR requires tracking of foreign assistance activity data from budgeting, planning, and allocation through obligation and disbursement. Successful applicants will be required to report and draw down federal funding based on the appropriate FADR Data Elements, indicated within their award documentation. In cases of more than one FADR Data Element, typically program or sector and/or regions or country, the successful applicant will be required to maintain separate accounting records.

A final narrative and financial report must also be submitted within 120 days after the expiration of the award.

Please note: Delays in reporting may result in delays of payment approvals and failure to provide required reports may jeopardize the recipient's' ability to receive future U.S. government funds. DRL reserves the right to request any additional programmatic and/or financial project information during the award period.

G. Contact Information

For technical submission questions related to this NOFO, please contact drlirfgrants@state.gov.

For assistance with Grants.gov accounts and technical issues related to using the system, please call the Contact Center at +1 (800) 518-4726 or email support@grants.gov. The Contact Center is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except federal holidays.

For a list of federal holidays visit:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/

Except for technical submission questions, during the NOFO period U.S. Department of State staff in Washington and overseas shall not discuss this competition with applicants until the entire proposal review process has been completed and rejection and approval letters have been transmitted.

H. Other Information

Applicants should be aware that DRL understands that some information contained in applications may be considered sensitive or proprietary and will make appropriate efforts to protect such information. However, applicants are advised that DRL cannot guarantee that such information will not be disclosed, including pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or other similar statutes.

The information in this NOFO and "Proposal Submission Instructions for Applications" is binding and may not be modified by any DRL representative. Explanatory information provided by DRL that contradicts this language will not be binding. Issuance of the NOFO and negotiation of applications does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. government. DRL reserves the right to reduce, revise, or increase proposal budgets.

This NOFO will appear on www.grants.gov, SAMS Domestic, and DRL's website https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/programs-and-grants/.

Background Information on DRL and General DRL Funding

DRL has the mission of promoting democracy and protecting human rights globally. DRL supports projects that uphold democratic principles, support and strengthen democratic institutions, promote human rights, prevent atrocities, combat and prevent violent extremism, and build civil society around the world. DRL typically focuses its work in countries with egregious human rights violations, where democracy and human rights advocates are under pressure and where governments are undemocratic or in transition.

Additional background information on DRL and its efforts can be found on https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-civilian-security-democracy-and-human-rights/bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/.
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The United States is designating Ali Darassa, the leader of the Central African Republic (CAR)-based militia group Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), pursuant to Executive Order 13667, in connection with serious human rights abuses.

The UPC uses killings, kidnapping, and other violence to achieve its goals. For example, on November 15, 2018, UPC members attacked an internally displaced persons camp in Alindao, resulting in the deaths of a number of individuals. In another incident, on March 15, 2020, four people were reportedly detained and tortured in Mboki under the orders of the UPC.

Darassa's decision to abandon the country's 2019 Peace Agreement further threatens the peace and stability of the country and has resulted in additional human rights abuses as well as exacerbated Central Africans' suffering. We urge UPC and all parties to the conflict to heed President Touadera's October 15 ceasefire declaration, immediately halt combat operations, and begin the dialogue for peaceful political solutions.

For more information on today's action, please see the Department of the Treasury's press release .
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Three years ago, Sudan's citizens united to demand an end to repression and the start of a democratic future. Sudanese from all walks of life - especially Sudan's women and youth - showed great courage in taking to the streets. Some paid with their lives. Their bravery and sacrifice will forever remain an inspiration to all those seeking democracy.

Since the unconstitutional military takeover on October 25, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have again taken to the streets to demand respect for their basic human rights and to voice their enduring aspiration for a democratic Sudan. The United States stands in solidarity with their calls for a civilian-led transition, which is the only pathway to a stable, just, prosperous, and peaceful Sudan. We urge Sudan's political and military leaders to respond to these calls by putting the interests of the country above their own and by recommitting to the spirit of the 2019 Constitutional Declaration through demonstrable action. Transitional institutions need to be strengthened under civilian authority, and the state of emergency should be lifted. All political detainees held since October 25 should be freed and freedom of assembly and peaceful protest must be guaranteed. Those responsible for the use of excessive force against civilians should be held accountable.

The United States will continue to stand with the Sudanese people as they strive for freedom, peace and justice.
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On behalf of the United States Government and the American people, I send my congratulations to the Government of Niger and all Nigeriens as you celebrate Republic Day.

The people of Niger rightly took great pride in this year's historic transition from one democratically elected president to another. You consolidated your own democracy and served as a powerful example for other countries in the region and around the world. The United States looks forward to continuing our work together to reinforce democratic values, promote inclusive economic growth, strengthen regional security, and successfully meet the challenges posed by climate change.

Best wishes to the people of Niger as you commemorate Republic Day.
Addis Abeba  The French Government donated 1,000, 800 doses of Johnson and Johnson covid-19 vaccines to Ethiopia, that will be delivered on December 17th in Addis-Abeba, through Covax mechanism.

This donation comes in addition to the 843 600 AstraZeneca vaccine doses already donated by France in July (391 200) and October (452 400) via Covax, in partnership with the African Union and its African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) initiative, for the second one.

Committed to vaccine solidarity, France supports the important efforts of the Ethiopian Government to accelerate its national covid-19 vaccination campaign. These donations are part of a global commitment from the French Government, which made covid-19 vaccine doses sharing a key priority of its global response, in order to help increase vaccine cover on a global scale. To fight this pandemic that affects us all, solidarity remains our best weapon.

France was the first country to share covid-19 doses through Covax last April and has since then committed to donate 120 million vaccines doses by mid-2022, among which 75,6 million doses have already been donated. These donations are made up of the same vaccines used by France in its own vaccination campaign - Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Janssen and Moderna - and will enable to vaccinate at least the equivalent of the French population (67 million people). Most of French donations are made through Covax, a multilateral framework including key partners such as Gavi and UNICEF, to ensure fair and effective access to safe vaccines. Dispatch
Addis Abeba  The remaining people who were said to have gone missing after the contradicting reports surrounding the killing of 14 members of the Karrayyu Gadaa leadership were found in a detention center in Mojo, reports said. The secretary of Abba Gadaa union and Abba Gadaa of the Tulama, Gobana Hola confirmed to Addis Standard that the remaining members of the Karrayyu Gadaa leadership are detained in Mojo and that one of them died. Residents of Fentale woreda spoke of tensions running high as the crackdown on the community escalated over the days following the killings and abduction of the Gadaa leadership.

In Addis Standard's earlier report, an eye witness said that government forces abducted a total of 14 men including Abba Gadaas, Abba Boku, prominent community members and young men from the seat of the Gadaa leadership, Karra, where a prayer ceremony, Waaq Kadhaa was taking place on Wednesday December 1, 2021. The Oromia regional government however refuted the allegations and blamed the attacks on Shanee (a term used by government officials to refer to Oromo liberation army, OLA). The OLA on its part issued a statement attributing the attacks to government forces.

Gada Hawas Boru, the brother of the late Karrayyu Abaa Gadaa Kedir Hawas Boru, expressed dismay in the attack on the leaders. He detailed that the Karrayyu community including Abba Gadaas were harassed by government bodies he did not specify by name for allegedly supporting armed rebels and failing to mobilize support for the government. Gada speculates that the onslaught was a retributive measure taken by government forces in response to an earlier incident in Haro Kersa Kebele where a standoff between police and the community resulted in the injury of members of government security forces. "Resorting to pointing fingers after the killing of this many people is a failure in politics and punishable in the face of God," he said.

Abba Gadaa Gobana who told Addis Standard that the union was closely following the killing of the Karrayyu Abba Gadaas divulged that the remaining leaders are under the custody of government forces. "We strongly condemn the killing of Karrayyu Abba Gadaas. The leaders were attacked at a sacred place of worship. Abba Gaddas convey God's message", he continued, "We reject the government's report surrounding the killings. We demand a clear investigation."

He also recalled a meeting the Abba Gadaa union held in Adama with officials from the Oromia regional government including the deputy president of Oromia regional state, Awelu Abdo and officials from Oromia tourism bureau where the union condemned the killing of Karrayyu Abba Gadaas. "There are contradicting reports coming out, preventing the union from identifying the perpetrators while different parties trading blames," he said.

Roba, who wanted to go by his first name for fear of reprisal, put the number of detainees at 23, including one of the captives who was beaten to death on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. The body of Jilo Borayu Hawas was recovered Two days later by a group of elders who went to Mojo after receiving tips that the missing leaders were held there, according to Roba. While explaining the conditions of the detained leaders he said, "They were beaten severely and sustained serious injuries while being interrogated to reveal the whereabouts of OLA members."

Moreover, Roba discussed the dire situation that the Karrayyu community is in. He stated that movement has been restricted since the killing of the Abba Gadaas on December 1, discontinuing market activities and preventing the pastoralist community from traveling in search of water and cattle feed. "The people have been subject to harassment and indiscriminate mass imprisonment. Whoever is spotted in urban areas to seek health care or buy goods is beaten and taken to jail." While putting the number as high as 200 people including women and the elderly, Roba described the conditions of their detention, "It is impossible to visit or bring food to the detainees. A lot of people don't know whether their loved ones are dead or alive."

When asked if the OLA operates in those areas, Roba said, "The government claims that the OLA operate in these areas although we have not seen the evidence." Gada shares similar views and insists that claims pf armed group operations in the harsh arid area is implausible. "The Karrayyu community is neither on the government's side nor the OLA," Gada said, adding, "The murder of the Abba Gadaas is similar to that of Hachalu Hundessa."

Roba explained that the group of elders were promised by elements in the Oromia regional government that the detained leaders were set to be released on Thursday, December 16. He put forward his guesses that higher rank of the regional government is unaware of what is happening to the community on the zonal level. Corroborating the statement of the head of Abba Gadaa union, Roba said, "Regional officials including the deputy president of Oromia, Awelu Abdo intervened and communicated with the elderly to facilitate reconciliation between the community and themselves."

Roba concluded his testimony by underlining the need for the withdrawal of government forces deployed to the woreda in search of OLA combatants. "An entire community can not be labelled 'Shanee'. Intensifying crackdown on innocent civilians will only create a bigger rift between the government and the community," he said.

The deputy president of Oromia region Awelu Abdo, denied having any conversation with Karrayyu elders and referred the question to Oromia police commission. The commissioner of Oromia Police commission, Commissioner Ararsa Merdasa declined to comment unless he is contacted in person.

Contrary to his previous statements to Addis Standard, the administrator of East Showa zone, Ababu Waqo said that he has no information of the detained leaders. In an earlier interview, Ababu indicated that government forces were helping the community find its abducted members. When asked about the detainees in Mojo, he replied by saying, "There were no missing people in the first place, I have no information on the matter."

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Addis Standard reached out to another resident of Fentale woreda to confirm the promised release of the leaders on Thursday. The resident who wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons said, "The elders are still waiting for the release of the detained leaders." The resident placed the number of detainees at 23, including the Jilo Borayu Hawas whose life passed while in prison. According to him, they are detained in an informal detention center in Oromia Special Forces training camp. He added that the group of elders witnessed severe injuries the detainees sustained as a result of physical assaults.

Imad Tune from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on his part told Addis Standard that the commission has remotely collected information about the incident including of the detention of individuals. Imad said that the commission is preparing to send a team to collect factual information on the ground. He admitted that the contradicting reports have made it difficult for the commission to put out a report.

Addis Standard's repeated attempts to speak to the head of Oromia region communication bureau, Hailu Adunga, the administrator of Fentale woreda of the East Showa zone, Kelil Geda as well as the commander of Oromia Special Forces, Commissioner Dechasa Bitima were to no avail. AS
Khartoum / Omdurman / Bahri / Port Sudan / Darfur / Dongola / Atbara  Mass demonstrations are underway in the capital Khartoum, and cities across Sudan today, to mark the third anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the 30-year Al Bashir dictatorship in 2019. Security forces have blocked several major roads leading the airport and the headquarters of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and closed the bridges that link Khartoum to Omdurman to the west, and Bahri to the north. Early reports indicate that tear gas has already been used to disperse demonstrators.

Today's marches not only mark the anniversary of the revolution, but are also a continuation of the ongoing campaign of civil disobedience, organised by the Forces for Freedom and Chance (FFC) - the main drivers of the 2019 revolution - along with Sudan's Resistance Committees, to express their rejection of the military coup d'etat of October 25, and the subsequent political agreement, signed by coup leader Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and Sudan's Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

The protests in the capital are planned to converge on the Presidential Palace and the army headquarters in central Khartoum. There has been a strong deployment of regular army as well as paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in anticipation.

Initial posts on social media show large turnouts, which began with rallies last night, while many protestors have arrived in the capital in busses from other states including North Kordofan. A women's demonstration is planned to take place in Khartoum to highlight women's issues and the role of women in the resistance, and to reaffirm the need for their participation in future local and national governing structures. Women of the local community in Khartoum have organised to provide food and water for the demonstrators.

Demonstrations are also underway in Port Sudan in Red Sea state, Ed Daein in West Darfur, Dongola in the Northern State, and Atbara in River Nile state.

Preparation

In a message to the Sudanese public via WhatsApp yesterday, the Resistance Committees say they expect five million people to join the marches in all states of Sudan. The committees say that "more than 1,300 medical doctors are ready to do what is necessary" and that "all hospitals have offered to receive all cases". They say that two million Sudanese flags and revolutionary banners have been provided, and photos of the martyrs distributed to all committees.

The committees point out that dozens of international news agencies will cover the demonstrations, and that "cameras have been put in specific places to monitor expected cases of shooting by snipers and other forces, to determine the identity of the shooters," while "international and regional organisations will monitor any violations via satellite."

The El Rabita Square in Shambat in Khartoum North, on Friday evening, turned into a state of chaos after unidentified persons threw tear gas canisters at a crowd for the first public gathering called by the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

The FFC immediately accused elements it said were affiliated with the putschists and their affiliates for breaking up the symposium.

The FFC said in a statement late on Friday evening that these elements bombed the gathering with tear gas canisters, attacked it with knives, destroyed chairs and equipment, and attacked the media and the audience.

Witnesses from the gathering said that angry youths against FFC were probably the ones who launched the attack and thwarted the gathering, in which former Sovereignty Council member Mohamed El Faki, journalist Khaled Seleik and former rebel leader Yasir Arman were scheduled to speak.

In a statement on Friday evening, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the driving force behind the December 2018 uprising that led to the ousting of President Omar Al Bashir on April 11, 2019, condemned the targeting of public platforms and attempts to silence mouths and confiscate the rights of expression, assembly and organization from any party.

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The SPA emphasised once again the failure of the November 21 agreement between El Burhan and Hamdok in all fields, and the continuation of the systematic violence from the coup security services.

The statement called on the regional and international community to realise "before it is too late" that the November 21 agreement will not lead to reforming the October 25 coup that aborted the civil democratic transition. "The violent stopping of the FFC gathering is only more evidence for this. A coup that cannot bear a public gathering will be unable to set up free and fair elections."

Radio Dabanga will continue to provide updates as this story develops..
The Nasarawa State Government has banned the use and sales of charcoal in the state to protect the environment.

Mr Aliyu Agwai, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, announced this while addressing newsmen on Saturday in Lafia.

He said that the process of producing charcoal is harmful to the environment by destroying the climate and increasing global warming.

Agwai noted that the burning of charcoal, especially, would produce harmful emissions.

"Cutting trees can result in the loss of habitat for animal species, which can harm the ecosystems.

"Almost all the land animals and plants live in forests and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes," he observed.

He warned those selling and using charcoal to desist to avoid prosecution in case of violation.

He lauded the residents of the state for the level of compliance with the sensitisation programme on environmental sanitation..

"Usually every last Saturday of the month is set aside for sanitation exercise, but we brought it back to today because of the Christmas celebration," he added.

Agwai said that all roads to the state were blocked to prevent motorists from other states from passing but they had been opened after the sanitary exercise.

"We only allowed those with permission from the relevant ministry, or on essential services to pass and move around during the exercise," he said.

Meanwhile, a mobile court, handling environmental-related cases, has prosecuted 32 persons suspected to have violated environmental sanitation laws in Lafia. (NAN)
Federal, states and local councils in Nigeria shared N675.946 billion from the federation account for November on Friday.

Mr Olajide Oshundun, Acting Director, Information, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning stated this on Saturday in Abuja.

The federal government received N261.441 billion of the money, while states and local councils got N210.046 billion and N155.456 billion, respectively.

Oil-producing states received an additional N49.003 billion as a 13 per cent derivation fund.

Total VAT revenue collected in November was N196.175 billion as against N166.284 billion in October, showing an increase of N29.891 billion.

From the VAT revenue, the federal government got N27.402 billion, while states and local councils received N91.339 billion, and N63.937 billion, respectively.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission got N7.847 billion as cost of revenue collection while the North East Development Commission project received N5.650 billion.

Oshundun stated that statutory revenue of N643.481 billion distributed in November was higher than the N407.864 billion received in October by N235.617 billion, from which the federal government got N231.863 billion.

He explained that states got N117.604 billion; local councils got N90.668 billion, derivation (13 per cent mineral revenue) got N48.540 billion, cost of collection N23.110 billion, while transfers and refunds were N131.258 billion.

He added that VAT, Petroleum Profit Tax, oil and gas royalties, and Companies Income Tax increased remarkably in November, while Import and Excise Duties increased marginally.

Aggregating the revenue collected, Oshundun stated that distributable statutory revenue of N488.674 billion, VAT of N182.678 billion, exchange gain of N4.156 billion and excess bank charges recovery of N0.438 billion, brought total distributable revenue to N675.946 billion.

Oshundun stated that the revenue allocation was effected at a virtual Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting chaired by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Aliyu Ahmed. (NAN)
United Nigeria Airline UNA, on Saturday commenced flights operations to the Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport Umueri.

The first Flight marked 5N-BWX arrived the airport at about 12:05PM with passengers on board from Lagos State.

This is coming month after the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), approved the reopening of the airport for flight operations in a letter dated December 1st, 2021.

Speaking to Journalists shortly after the official inauguration of the Aircraft at the Airport Terminal, Umueri, the Chief Operating Officer/Executive Director, United Nigeria (UN), Mazi Osita Okonkwo, said Anambra people should now heave a sigh of relief as they could now fly directly from Lagos and Abuja into the Umueri Airport.

According to him, the airline would introduce more flights as the business moved forward.

"This is great news for Ndi-Anambra, as we commences flight into the long awaited airport. Our operation is on daily basis. And by the Grace of God, we shall extent our routes to Northern part of Nigeria for effective service delivery, as the name implies, United Nigeria Airline.

"We give glory and honour to God for making it possible for us to land here today being our inaugural flight. This is the beginning of many more flights to come.

"We have started today. We'll fly tomorrow. We'll fly on Monday. We'll introduce more flights as we move on.

"It's been a long journey for Ndi Anambra and also for us to see today and we thank God for that. So, what I am telling Ndi Anambra is to get ready for us.

"Traveling out of Anambra or into Anambra will become easier and easier as the days go by. Today is our inaugural flight, touching base on the soil of Anambra. And we're glad we have done it successfully.

"There are a few things that are still being done in the airport but we want to be part of it, give them feedback so that they know what the issues are and get everything going. So, we're happy with what we have seen today.

"This airport is an excellent, well thought-out project. I think it is going to be one of the bests in Nigeria. I'm sure that those who do the flying in and out and the technical side of it will be in a better position to give their own verdict.

"Of course, airport is not just about the airport. There are many things that happen around. You look for places to stay. There should be transport in and out of the airport. These are the things that will make it viable.

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"And I'm sure with time people will begin to see the businesses that are supposed to develop around the airport. So, it has everything, all the potential for it to be a great destination.

Osita Okonkwo, who represented the Managing Director of the Company, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, at the office opening ceremony, urged passengers to start booking on United Nigeria Airline's website www.flightunitednigeriaairline.com.

He commended governor, Willie Obiano for building the Airport for the people of the state.

In his brief welcome address, Obiano said the investment benefits is not only for the people of Anambra state, but for the entire Nigerians, mostly, investors.

The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Works, Engr. Marcel Ifejiofor, while thanking the company for it quick commencement, explain that the Airport Project would have a positive impact on the economic development of the state and the country at large.
The African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease (ACEGID) has won the 2021 Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) Gold Medal Prize for Life Sciences.

The Centre is a diverse team of talented scientists who have contributed hugely to new knowledge in the field of infectious disease genomics, through high quality and translational research, publications, and capacity building.

Chairman of the NAS Science Prize Committee, Dr. Sonny Folorunso Kuku, who announced winner of the prize, explained that research output from ACEGID has significantly shifted the paradigm, especially in the use of genomics in the understanding of pathogens transmission dynamics and evolution, and applications to outbreak response.

He said, "ACEGID had been a pacesetter in the investigation of COVID-19 in Africa and before that, had done excellent work with the diagnosis and tracking of Ebola virus disease and Lassa fever. It remains at the forefront of training in genomics and development of diagnostics for infectious diseases on the continent. The Centre had established the most advanced and impactful genomic research centre in Africa and has conducted some of the most innovative translational research and capacity building programmes to guide Nigeria and Africa's response to COVID-19.

"They performed the first genomic sequence of the SARS-CoV2 in Africa at an unprecedented speed and have been using their genomic sequencing platforms to generate data that is guiding response to COVID-19 pandemic in a unique way. ACEGID has sequenced over 700 SARS-CoV-2 genomes in Nigeria alone. Genomics and viral transmission data from ACEGID have been made actionable and set to the NCDC for evidence-based decision making. They are using the same genomics epidemiology data driven approach to support 14 African countries as they have sequenced over 1,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from these countries and used the genomic sequencing information to guide their public health response."

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He, therefore, announced that the ACEGID with the lead researcher, Dr. Onikepe Abiola Folarin, winner of the 2021 NAS Gold prize, would receive the award from the President of the Academy, Professor Ekanem Braide, during the third annual NAS Scientific Conference on January 26, 2022 in Abuja.

Instituted by the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) in 2016, the NAS Gold Medal Prize is awarded to deserving Nigerian scientists who have made significant achievements in science of national relevance and global resonance. The annual award event alternate between the Life and Physical Sciences and consist of a medal, a certificate, and a purse.
Traditional leaders, politicians and other people of high standing are acting as community influencers in positive support of the rural community CoVID-19 vaccination acceleration programme which Malawi International CoVID-19 Response Group (MICRG) rolled out in October -- in partnership with the Society of Medical Doctors of Malawi (SMD) and NBS Bank

The districts so far reached include Neno, Nkhotakota and Mzimba where over 200 leaders were reached out and given the platform on community radio stations to communicate and influence rural communities in order to accelerate uptake of rural communities CoVID-19 vaccination.

We are pleased with the progress and we would like to appeal to all Malawi to continue getting vaccinated, reported Tikhala Chimpango, PR & Comms Lead.

MICRG is an initiative that was initiated by the Malawi Diaspora Network (MDN) and taking cognizance that the vaccination uptake awareness was not reaching out to the rural communities, the group decided to join the campaign.

"We are working tirelessly to save the lives in Malawi and we are urging every Malawian to play their role in the battle against this pandemic" explained Edith Chikago-Parker, Chairperson MICRG.

She also emphasized the importance of adopting a multi-stakeholder partnership and collaboration approach which has been vital for the success of the Rural Communities Covid-19 Vaccine Acceleration Programme.

The initiative has been endorsed by the Malawi Government, during its meeting with Dr. Nkhoma (Co-chairperson, Malawi Presidential TaskForce on Coronavirus), who commended the group on its strategic approach and informed the members that the Ministry of Health has asked all the districts DHSSs in Malawi to submit their plans and budget on Covid with an intention of increasing vaccination rates in the districts.

Therefore Dr. Nkhoma urged the members, to relay this message to key district representatives requesting them to incorporate the initiative in their plans.

The initiative got support of NBS Bank, which sponsored MICRG with MK9.6 million -- gesture that showed the Bank's willingness and determination to adhere to their strong Corporate Social Responsibility.

SMD President Dr. Victor Mithi, who is the leading the delivery team on the ground, reports that they have been working in close partnership with the Presidential Taskforce on CoVID-19, he explained that through the Presidential Taskforce, they have also managed to link the programme to the government mobile vaccination clinics.

He explained that the response has been encouraging, we have discovered that through the community influencers many people are positively coming out for their jabs -- which is a plus in balancing up the uptake of information between the urban vs the rural.

Dr. Mithi also took cognizance that community radios play a huge part in influencing people in matters of national importance -- thus MICRG applauds all who accepted to be community influencers in this initiative.

Staff Sargeant Chim Musicha, Programme Delivery and Quality Assurance Lead, MICRG explained that the group has limited funding covering 6 districts currently, so far we have reached circa 200+ community leaders in Neno, Nkhota-kota and Mzimba.

"We have also recently joined forces with our colleagues from Malawians Health Initiative (USA) and have agreed phase 2 of our strategy which will focus on intensifying fundraising activities in order to raise MK40,000,000 required to deliver the programme in the remaining 21 districts in the Malawi," Musicha narrated.

In order to support the Malawi Government in intensifying its response to the 4th wave, the group is organising a Virtual panel discussion which will be held via Zoom on Sunday, 19th December 2021 at 3.00pm Malawi Time and 1.00pm UK Time.

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Meeting ID: 838 7083 6801- Passcode: 661713

The Rural District Programme sees SMD deploying its doctors nationwide to sensitise the rural districts to increase vaccination uptake. MICRG was launched in January 2020 to support Malawi Government in implementing sustainable CoVID-19 management strategies.

Its aim is to coordinate the diaspora resources including knowledge, skills and abilities in supporting sustainable CoVID-19 Management strategies and to date, MICRG has contribute towards Malawi's Covid-19 management strategies through presentations during high-level national vaccination roll-out and planning meetings, delivering virtual panel discussions, publications, disseminating information and advising on Malawi's corporates social responsibility strategies.
Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Army Commander, General Vincent Nundwe asked politicians to stop meddling into affairs of the army in the country.

General Nundwe sounded the call Saturday when the army commissioned 151 Officer Cadets and 1065 Recruits at a glamorous event that took place at Malawi Armed Forces College (MAFCO) in Salima.

General Vincent Nundwe advised the new recruits to carry their duties professionally and desist from politics.

The highly charged Nundwe described all those spreading false stories on social media insinuating that MDF soldiers are planning to take over government or preparing a sit in as foolish and have nothing better to do.

Nundwe has since warned the rumour mongers to stop saying reckless talk on social media is a recipe for genocide.

"Let's not bring unnecessary conflicts in this country because of positions, Malawi is peaceful.

" Please, use your energy positively. Stop promoting genocide on social media. We don't want to divide Malawi," emphasized Nundwe.

General Nundwe added: "Soldiers do not go on a strike. If we have problems we go straight to the commander in-chief."

The MDF commander thanked government for employing 3,000 soldiers this year alone.

Speaking during the event, President Lazarus Chakwera who is also MDF Commander in Chief called on the newly commissioned men and women in uniform to go out and make a difference.

The president also advised them to discharge their duties in a professional manner.

"The uniform you wear is not only a sacred symbol of your commitment to defend this country and its people with the same discipline, courage, sacrifice, and integrity your training has instilled in you.

"It is also a symbol of your commitment to jealously guard the legacy and reputation of the Malawi Defence Force, a legacy that has taken decades to build, a legacy that others who wore the uniform before you left intact so that you could aspire to follow in their footsteps.

"A legacy of military professionalism and civic duty, a legacy of upholding and preserving constitutional order at the most critical points in our history, a legacy of patriotism and a legacy of being the people's army," said Chakwera.

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The President said as Commander-in-Chief, he will ensure that his administration's efforts to address MDF operational challenges are continuing.

He said he will ensure that his administration's drive to modernize the military is not disrupted.

"All I expect from you is to stay true to your mandate, stay true to our nation's citizens, stay true to our nation's constitution, and stay true to our nation's flag.

"I know that doing so involves giving up so much more than we can ever repay, including sacrifices made by your own families," explained Chakwera

"But for all the sacrifices you have made and all the sacrifices you are going to make as your contribution to building a new Malawi, rest assured that you are the pride of a great nation and have the thanks for a grateful President."

Speaking earlier, deputy minister of Defence Jean Sendeza said the country is proud to have graduated brave men and women in uniform ready to go out and defend its boarders.

She advised the soldiers to always put into practice what they have learnt during their intensive training.

Also in attendance was Vice President of Malawi Saulos Klaus Chilima.
press release

The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, proceeded this morning, with the unveiling of the announcement certificate and commemorative plaque of the new and extended "Black River Gorges - Bel Ombre (BRGBO) Biosphere Reserve" under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme. The event was held at Alexandra Falls Viewpoint, in the Black River Gorges National Park. The new BRGBO Biosphere Reserve covers 8,582 ha and is characterised by a high level of endemism.

The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, the Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Alan Ganoo, the Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mr Kavydass Ramano, the Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin, and other personalities were present at the unveiling ceremony. A pamphlet and poster were also launched on that occasion following which the Prime Minister placed into ground an endemic plant.

The new BRGBO Biosphere Reserve has also been identified by Birdlife International as an important bird area as well as a key biodiversity area owing to the high density of endemic species per square kilometre. The Black River Gorges National Park has been designated as the Core Zone, some 422 ha of State and 75 ha of privately-owned land as Buffer Zone together with 1511 ha for the transition which principally includes the village of Bel Ombre/ St Martin.

In a statement, the Prime Minister remarked that the UNESCO's MAB programme is one such programme which connects humans to nature and above all protects biodiversity in a country.

Speaking about the BRGBO obtaining the Biosphere Reserve recognition, Mr Jugnauth congratulated officers of the National Parks and Conservation Service for their work, alongside international consultants, in this feat. He expressed satisfaction that the UNESCO has given the recognition to the nature reserve which demonstrates Government's determination in continuing to protect the natural spaces of Mauritius and its endemic species including birds. For him, this bears testimony to the fact that despite Mauritius undergoing development phases, the authorities are firm to protect the flora and fauna of the country.

In addition, the Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the private sector and, in particular, to AGRIA Ltd for its contribution in the preparation of the dossier of Mauritius. As it is, AGRIA Ltd has agreed to designate 75.15 ha of its land as Buffer Zone. Mr Jugnauth also expressed satisfaction that St Martin thus becomes the first village to form part of the Biosphere Reserve and is hopeful that this becomes an attraction for tourists and a renowned landmark across the world.

Moreover, the Prime Minister indicated that Government has declared the Mauritian Kestrel as its national bird, the latter which was saved from extinction. On that note, he commended the extraordinary work accomplished by the Mauritius Wildlife and the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security and pointed out that now the country boasts of 350 Mauritian Kestrel species.

As regards the forthcoming New Year, the Prime Minister highlighted that the country has gone through an extremely difficult year especially with the pandemic and it is expected that Mauritius will continue to feel the effects of the pandemic in 2022.

Government, he emphasised, has introduced several measures to contain the pandemic and not only Mauritius, but the world has been greatly affected. He cited Europe which is presently recording an increase in COVID-19 positive cases mainly during this festive season.

The Prime Minister therefore appealed to Mauritians to strictly abide to all sanitary precautions, particularly during the time of Christmas and New Year celebrations, and to get inoculated as well as take the booster dose as it is scientifically proven that the booster dose gives an additional protection against the virus. He expressed the wish for a better year come 2022, not only with regards to the health situation, but also on the economic front. There remains a number of uncertainties and, if all precautions are adhered to, we will progress, he reassured.

Black River Gorges - Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve

The Black River Gorges Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve contributes significantly to the Global SDGs Targets and the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets.

The Biosphere Reserves contributes to one of the most important targets by increasing the Protected Area for Mauritius by 0.3 % (From: 4.725 % to 5.025 %) and contributes to achieving international commitments that Mauritius has adhered to such as the Convention of Biological Diversity and SDGs.

It is recalled that the UNESCO International Co-ordinating Council of the MAB Programme in its session carried out online on 27 and 28 September 2020 recommended and approved the application for the extension and renaming of the Macchabee - Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve to the new and extended Back River Gorges Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve.

The announcement was officially made online by the UNESCO MAB International Coordinating Council on Wednesday 28thOctober 2020. The involvement of the local communities in coral reef plantation, beach and lagoon clean up, environmental education activities, and long-term research projects to conserve the threatened flora and fauna, was in addition commended.

The BRGBO Biosphere Reserve forms part as a fully compliant member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserve.The World Network of Biosphere Reserves currently counts 714 sites in 129 countries all over the world. The World Biosphere Reserve now spans over 5% of the world's surface covering all ecosystems, both in urban and rural settings,

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The National Parks and Conservation Service of the Ministry Agro-Industry and Food Security spearheaded the process for the preparation and submission of the Nomination Dossier. It involved wide consultations and participations of the private sector mainly hotel and Sugar Estate, NGOs, public institutions, the Savanne District Council and the Bel Ombre St Martin village amongst the main stakeholders.

The present Biosphere Reserve is called to further expand to give way to more areas including the lagoon and reefs. The Vision of the Government is to have 25 % of Mauritius as Biosphere Reserve. These would provide more visibility of Mauritius worldwide and also responds to the need for sustainable development. The tourism industry would in turn benefit fully and also the Biosphere Reserve would attempt to increase the livelihood of local communities and contribute to poverty alleviation.

Moreover, the Biosphere Reserve supports healthy ecosystems and sustainable lifestyles and offers protection against unsuitable development, specifically in the core and buffer zones. It further creates international visibility for the area.
The UPDF Mountain Division Commander Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga has met with his DRC counterpart, the Commander of Operation Sukola Grand- Nord, Maj Gen Camille Bombele, for a review of the ongoing joint UPDF and FARDC operations against the ADF in an operation code-named Shujaa.

The meeting was held at the joint tactical headquarters near River Semliki in the North Kivu province of DRC.

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The two commanders observed that since the launch of the joint operations on November,30 when four ADF camps of Tondoli, Kambi Yayu, Abia, Belu 1 and Belu 2 were attacked by UPDF air and artillery, the ADF activities have been disrupted.

The commanders agreed on a joint operational plan to step up the operations in different sectors now that the terrorists are no longer encamped, having been dislodged from their former strongholds.

It was also noted during the review meeting that the attack on ADF has restored relative calm in the area, allowing civilians to resume socio-economic activities.

Operation Shujaa, a Kiswahili word to mean "bravery" is being implemented following a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Uganda and the DRC to conduct joint operations for the eradication of ADF and other foreign armed groups in the eastern part of DRC.

The operations are taking place in Ituri and Grand North Provinces.

It is anticipated that restoration of security will enable road construction works on the Kasindi - Beni - Butembo and Bunagana - Rutshuru - Goma highways by the two countries.

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Agreement

A few days ago, the Ugandan government and its counterparts from DRC signed the final agreement that will ensure joint operations between the armies of both countries

The bilateral general agreement on defence cooperation was signed by Defence Minister Vincent Ssempijja on behalf of Uganda whereas his Congolese counterpart, Dr Gilbert Kabanda Kurhenga signed on behalf of the DRC government.

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The agreement established an official legal framework that governs the joint military and defence operations between the two countries.

Whereas both armies have been tightlipped on the number of causalities since the launch of the operation three weeks ago, it was recently reported that 34 "terrorists" had been captured and 31 Congolese hostages freed.

As part of the joint operation soldiers from the UPDF and FADRC continue to track the rebels.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among has warned against the mismanagement of the Acomai irrigation project in Bukedea that she said has seen government inject in a lot of money.

"I am glad that the dream that started in 2016 has finally come into reality. My people here know how long this journey has been and how much we need this Project," Among said.

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"I don't want you (Ministry of Agriculture) to leave this baby to the hands of people who will mismanage it. I am going to monitor this project myself. Honourable minister, please keep a keen eye on the contractors. If unsupervised, they could easily turn our dream into a nightmare. I volunteer myself to monitor and supervise this project so that our dream will fully be realized."

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Among was speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the shs71 billion Acomai irrigation project.

The project under the Agricultural Value Chain Development Programme in the Ministry of Agriculture is intended to increase agricultural productivity, improve post-harvest handling, agro-processing and value addition, market access and competitiveness and will also contribute to the success of the Parish Development Model.

The Deputy Speaker who is also the Woman MP for Bukedea insisted that the Ministry of Agriculture must jealously monitor the implementation of the project that she said has made people wait for long, adding that if not well monitored, government might lose a lot of money.

She also noted that the project will go a long way in dealing with the problem of floods that has been affecting people.

The Minister for Agriculture, Frank Tuwmebaze noted that the Agriculture Value Chain Development strategy would be adopted in the implementation of this project for sustainably increased household incomes.

He also pledged to ensure timely implementation of the project and promised to compensate the locals for land as soon as possible.

A total of Shs1 billion has been earmarked by government to compensate the project affected persons.

The project covering 1,608hectares will come with associated infrastructure including administration block, two drying yards, warehouse, workshop, bridge and 58kms of access roads.
A total of 123 students and teachers have won the 2021 Chinese Ambassador Award in an effort meant to encourage as many students as possible to learn Chinese language.

Among the 123 winners of this year's award, eight are native Chinese-language teachers while the rest are students from universities and schools.

The award ceremony of the 2021 Chinese Ambassador Award was held on Friday at the Chinese Embassy in Dar es Salaam and was attended by Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Chen Mingjian, Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training Prof Joyce Ndalichako, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, Prof David Mfinanga, and representatives of the award winners.

Delivering her speech during the award ceremony, Ambassador Chen said that recent years have witnessed an increase in the number of Tanzanian students who learn Chinese language and the schools which offer Chinese language course.

"The Tanzanian government has announced the start of five new subject combinations for students who are set to join Form Five in 2021. KFC (Kiswahili, French and Chinese) and KEC (Kiswahili, English and Chinese) combinations will be adopted in some secondary schools, which means that the Chinese language course has been included in Tanzania's secondary education system,".

"This shows the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training in promoting Chinese language in Tanzania, and will have great significance for deepening the understanding between our two peoples," Ambassador Chen stressed.

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Prof Joyce Ndalichako, on her part, extended her sincere thanks to the Chinese Embassy for continuously promoting educational cooperation between Tanzania and China.

She also acknowledged the fact that the number of Tanzanian students granted the Chinese Government Scholarship has been increasing year by year.

The Chinese Ambassador Award was established by the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania in 2018, which aims to encourage and reward Tanzanian students who study Chinese language and perform well in examinations.

Since last year, the beneficiaries of the Award has expanded to cover native Chinese-language teachers in Tanzania.

Apart from Chinese Ambassador Award that has been benefiting students and teachers in the country, the government of China has also been offering scholarships to Tanzanian students in various fields.

In 1965, China and Tanzania signed "The Treaty of Friendship between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania". Many other agreements on bilateral co-operation in the fields of economy, trade, culture and health were also signed between the two countries.
CHAMA Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has applauded the efforts by President Samia in ensuring that the country is stable economically, politically and socially.

Addressing a news conference in Dodoma immediately after the party's National Executive Committee (NEC), the party's Ideology and Publicity Secretary, Shaka Hamdu Shaka said the party commends President Samia for the good job, especially in implementing the party's manifesto.

The meeting which was led by the chairperson, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, resolved to summon three of its cadres after receiving complaints over their conduct as leaders within the party.

Shaka cited the recent meeting where the president met all members of political parties in the country to fine-tune issues that want immediate attention to enable the country to move forward.

"We as a party commend our President for the great job because she is overseeing well the implementation of the election manifesto because we have realized some of the plans," he said.

He noted that although there are some challenges which emerged in water and electricity, President Samia has been very cautious in ensuring that they are being addressed.

Shaka further said that through her address to the nation on December 8 this year, the President highlighted achievements attained in 60 years of independence, an indication that the country is moving forward in terms of economic development.

The members to be summoned by the party's disciplinary organs are nominated Member of Parliament, Humphrey Polepole, Ukonga lawmaker, Jerry Silas and his Kawe counterpart Josephat Gwajima.

Shaka said that the trio would be summoned immediately after being informed officially.

On Friday, the party's Central Committee (CC) met at Chamwino State House in Dodoma to discuss the trend of the three lawmakers within CCM, after which the committee decided that they be summoned before taking disciplinary measures against them for contravening the party's Constitution, rules and regulations.

"Anytime from now they will be informed in writing over their conduct after receiving complaints from different circles, including the Parliamentary Committee on Justice, Ethics and Powers of Parliament.

Yesterday, under the party's Chairperson, the ruling party's NEC decided that the trio be summoned as per the Principle of Natural Justice.

In the meeting yesterday, members of the party equally discussed the preparations for the 45th anniversary of the oldest party in the country.

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On February 4 next year, according to Mr Shaka, CCM will be marking its 45th anniversary, saying that initial activities for celebrations will begin on December 23, 2021.

The party's spokesperson added that the climax for the celebrations will be celebrated in Mara region on February 5, and that President Samia was expected to grace the event.

Prior to the celebrations, Mr Shaka said there will be a series of activities, adding that the theme for the event will be 'Strong CCM, participate in election with integrity.'

The theme, according to Mr Shaka, looks at how best to get the best leaders who do not put their personal interest forward but those who are ready to dedicate their leadership skills for the nation.

"We are always going into the Arusha Declaration which always focuses on the best politics and good leadership," he said, adding that the ruling party was well committed to leading by example.
THE government has allayed fear over increased cases of flu, headaches, fever, body aches and malaise, terming it as seasonal influenza caused by weather changes.

Recently, a number of people have been reported to have suffered from severe headache, flu and body fevers, causing fear of whether there is another wave of Covid-19.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Aifello Sichalwe said in a statement yesterday that the ministry of health and its institutions are closely monitoring the situation to establish the possible symptoms of the current outbreak.

"The Ministry of Health has monitored the reports on the increase in the number of people who have experienced body fever, headache and flu, however, this is a seasonal influenza that is caused by the changes in weather condition," he said.

According to Dr Sichalwe, this is not the first time, as it had already happened a few years ago, saying those who have developed the symptoms should report to health facilities for medical attention.

In another development, Dr Sichwale reminded members of the public to continue adhering to all protective measures of Covid-19, which include regular washing of hands with clean and moving water, observing social distance and putting on a face mask.

"Also, it is very important to ensure that all people are vaccinated, and it is encouraged that people should report immediately on the indicators of communicable diseases to a free toll number, 199," he said.

Adding, "We have already instructed the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), higher education learning intuitions and other experts to continue providing statistics, education as well as report on the surveillance that has been done to establish flu cases in the country".

As part of collaborative efforts to fight Covid-19, Tanzania had in November this year received 499,590 doses of Pfizer-Biontech vaccine from the United States under Covax Facility.

This provides multiple options for Tanzanians on the types of vaccines they should go for.

Pfizer is the third Covid-19 vaccine that has been received in the country; others are Johnson &Johnson from the US and Sinopharm from China.

So far, the government has approved five vaccines to be used in the country, which have also been endorsed by WHO, which includes Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

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Under the Covax arrangement, Tanzania, like other countries, will receive vaccines which will cover 20 per cent of its total population.

Speaking shortly during an event to receive the vaccines, Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima, assured Tanzanians that the vaccines are safe and have been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Right now, Tanzanians have multiple options on the kind of vaccine they want to take, they are not limited to one vaccine," she said, commending the US for its continued support for Tanzania.

She said by November 19 this year, a total of 1,359,624 Tanzanians were fully vaccinated, among whom, 988,293 were injected with a single shot of J&J vaccine while the remaining had received double shots of Sinoparm.

According to her, some 371,331 others received a single shot of Sinopharm. Dr Gwajima also named Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Dodoma, Arusha, Mwanza, Ruvuma, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara and Kagera as the best regions that have performed well in the issuance of Covid-19 vaccine.

So far, the government has already received a total of 1,227,400 doses of J&J vaccines for 1,227,400 and 2,578,400 doses of Sinopharm vaccines for 1,289,200 people as it requires two shots per person.

"The just received 499,590 doses of Pfizer are meant for 249,795 people, the government will use available scientists to confirm efficacy of the vaccines before being introduced for use," she assured.
Kampala, Uganda  On Nov. 30, the Ugandan army alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Forces (FARDC) launched joint air and artillery strikes against camps of the Congo-based Uganda rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

But as Uganda seeks to sustain its incursion in the DRC, its neighbour to the west, one major international player could indirectly determine how the military confrontation plays out: China.

The Independent has established that globally renowned Chinese military contractors are working with Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and could make a difference in taking the battle to the ADF.

An investigation by The Independent has so far yielded two names of major Chinese contractors that have recently supplied the UPDF; China North Industries Corporation (Norinco) and Poly Technologies Inc.

Norinco is one of the top Chinese arms manufacturers. It is the primary supplier of military equipment for the Chinese army; providing tanks, long-range suppression weapons, and air defence among other battle equipment. The group also supplies weapons and technical support to the Chinese navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force, and police.

As part of its growing China-made military arsenal, Uganda recently acquired the VN-2C, an Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), from Norinco. On Nov.19, one of the VN-2Cs was displayed at a ceremony where President Yoweri Museveni passed out 543 graduates who had successfully completed the Armoured Crew Course Level 3, at the Armoured Warfare Training School (AWTS) in Karama, Mubende.

Uganda is the first operator of the VN-2C, according to people with knowledge of the latest developments in military warfare. The other African country operating this IFV is Mali.

The other contractor, Poly Technologies Inc., has been working with UPDF for close to a year now having been unveiled in March by Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Museveni's son and then head of the Special Forces Command (SFC). At the time, Muhoozi met with four officials from Poly Technologies at the SFC headquarters in Entebbe alongside other SFC officers.

The Chinese company is supplying the UPDF with CS/VP3 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) which are in the category of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, a months-long investigation by The Independent reveals. The CS/VP3 seems to be a favourite product for armies and police forces.

A source at the Ministry of Defence says a number of the CS/VP3 vehicles were stationed on an island in Kalangala for exhibit purposes as officials of Poly Technologies entered into transactions with the UPDF. It is not clear how many of these APCs the UPDF ordered for.

As Uganda awaits delivery of its batch, it will however not be the first time it is dealing with Poly Technologies. In 2016, Uganda Police received a consignment of 35 of these same APCs just days before the 2016 presidential elections. The company's operations with Uganda Police date as far back as 2013.

The source said the contract between the UPDF and Poly Technologies was initially meant to cover a seven year period but it was scaled down to three years for reasons yet to be established.

According to Made in China, a site that connects buyers with Chinese suppliers, the CS/VP3 has a road speed of 100km/hr and with a maximum cruising range of 800 km. "The CS/VP3 is based on a V-shaped hull and all-welded steel armour that provides a ballistic protection against firing of small arms," the site describes the machine's other features.

It adds that land mine protection is provided against 8kg TNT and 16kg of TNT blast all-round and under each wheel respectively. TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The vehicle can be fitted with two turrets at the back and front with 7.62mm or 12.7 mm machine guns. It can accommodate a total of 12 soldiers, including the driver and commander.

Poly Technologies unveiled the CS/VP3 at a defence exhibition in Malaysia in 2012. The trading site says one unit can range from US$100,000-250,000 (approx. Shs360-Shs900 million).

The contractor could also supply high grade arms and other military equipment to the UPDF. Among the main products of Poly Technologies that the UPDF could be shopping for are communication devices, marine equipment and parts, aerospace and aeronautical ground equipment.

Unlike most military contractors that deploy highly skilled operatives with boots on the ground, the specialty of Poly Technologies is in armoured vehicles and other arms. The use of military contractors in modern warfare sprouted during the US-Iraq war in 2003 and since then they have been a mainstay in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Gen. Muhoozi announced on his Twitter account in March that Poly Technologies was working with UPDF and specifically the SFC on a range of programs. Three months later, the President promoted the First Son Muhoozi to the position of Commander of Land Forces in the UPDF.

A spokesperson at SFC denied knowledge of Poly Technologies when The Independent made an inquiry at the time Muhoozi was commandeering SFC. However it is widely believed that the transfer of Muhoozi from SFC to one of the highest ranking positions in the UPDF cemented the relationship between the Chinese contractor and the Ugandan army.

Poly Technologies is one of the largest Chinese defence contractors and is a subsidiary of the state -owned China Poly Group Corporation; a business behemoth across various industries in the Asian nation.

The money to pay Poly Technologies will most likely be skimmed from the classified budgets that the Ugandan government consistently allocates under departments like State House and Office of the President.

In October, Shadow Finance Minister Muwanga Kivumbi tabled proposals for the amendment of the law and regulations on classified budgets. Kivumbi raised queries on the annual classified budgets allocated to certain departments including Ministry of Defence while appearing before the Parliament Budget Committee.

It is under these departments that security agencies like International Security Organisation (ISO) and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) are able to finance their clandestine operations.

As the onslaught on the ADF gets into its most critical phases, there is increased scrutiny on the UPDF Land Forces headed by Gen. Muhoozi, which is tasked with routing ADF militants in their nooks and crannies in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces of eastern DRC.

In this position, Muhoozi is in charge of the bulk of the UPDF fighting force and possibly directing how and where Poly-supplied ammunition and weaponry is used. Maj. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga, the Mountain Division commander, is in charge of the operation of hunting the ADF codenamed Shujaa.

UPDF is currently in the thick of the operation with an estimated 1000 troops along with their battle tanks and armoured personnel carriers in DRC territory. The Ugandan troops have established a Forward Operating Base at Mukakati, 18km from the Uganda-DRC border.

ADF, a rebel group cum terror organisation has lurked in the jungles of the eastern DRC for decades and prior to the UPDF strikes, a large section of Uganda's security establishment believed that venturing into this stamping ground for the UPDF was the only viable option on the table.

Uganda has accused ADF of committing a plethora of attacks on Ugandans including the recent twin bomb blasts in Kampala that killed six people. The other crimes it is suspected of are assassinations of high profile Ugandans over the years.

US-China rivalry

The highly billed deal between Uganda and the China-based Poly Technologies may rattle some alliances. The U.S., a longstanding ally of Uganda, may not take too well to the arrangement between UPDF and the arms manufacturer if the company's past transactions are anything to go by.

In 2013, the U.S. levied sanctions on Poly Technologies after it accused the Chinese firm of supplying weaponry to Iran, which the U.S. considers its enemy. The U.S. blacklisted the country under its Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

The U.S. and Uganda are military allies where the latter country has been a beneficiary of U.S. military aid for years under the Museveni government. Since 9/11, Museveni has positioned himself as a counterterrorism go-to-guy for the U.S.

This relationship has been manifest in the hunt for notorious warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the global fight against Islamic militants particularly Al Shabaab in Somalia where Uganda maintains over 6,000 troops in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

One notable military aid package stood out: in 2014 when Uganda received U$12.6 million from the U.S. for counterterrorism programs. Uganda is an annual recipient of this aid but this specifically went to the SFC. At the time, then Brig. Muhoozi was the commandant of the SFC.

Therefore, the entry of Poly Technologies, a China state owned military contractor, into Uganda means the East African country could get caught in the cross hairs of a China-US rivalry. The fact that Poly Technologies is working as a major contractor for the UPDF at a time the Ugandan army is in hot pursuit of ADF in the thick forests of DRC completes the geo-political puzzle that the four countries find themselves in.

In DR Congo, the U.S. and China are locked in a power struggle over the control of cobalt. The New York Times reported in November that a Chinese state-backed firm acquired two cobalt mines from an American company; the first one in 2016 and the second in 2020. The Times reported that a Chinese security contractor, Frontier Services Group, is providing security to the mines as well as transport and insurance services.

A US Embassy spokesperson declined to comment on the matter when The Independent made an inquiry about the implications of Uganda paying hundreds of millions of dollars to a Chinese contractor to bolster its defence capabilities while receiving U.S. military aid.

In 2017, defenceWeb reported that the U.S. through its Treasury Department forced the Namibian Defence Forces to cancel a payment of N$156million for defence equipment to Poly Technologies citing the sanctions the US had placed on the company earlier for dealing with Iran.

In the last ten years there has been a proliferation of Chinese security contractors in Africa. These include DeWe Security Service Group, Overseas Security Guardians, Hua Xin Zhong An Group and Frontier Services Group among others. The Frontier Group has operations in Uganda.

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Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies who has written extensively about Chinese security contractors in Africa says they provide a number of benefits to China. "First, they provide a more hands-on approach to protecting China's overseas interests given that local security forces are not always reliable due to capacity constraints and political complications."

Nantulya added that the contractors help the Chinese government to resist pressure to deploy the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) perhaps as routinely as America does its own forces. Thirdly, he said the contractors offer employment to the large population of Chinese veterans who number 57million whom the government has always had a problem dealing with.

Poly client states

The deal between the UPDF and Poly Technologies is top secret just as has been the case with defence spending in Uganda. Also classified are the military contractor's dealings in many countries.

The Chinese company has a client list of African countries it has done big business with. In 2017, the Kenya National Police Service acquired 35 CS/VP3 vehicles and 25 APCS from Poly Technologies.

The Chinese firm with strong connections to the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), China's defence forces is buildings a barracks for Benin's armed forces as another example of how China has widely spread its influence on the African continent.

It has also dealt with Egypt and Zimbabwe. In 2008, Poly Technologies shipped arms to Zimbabwe as the country was engulfed in protests over a disputed election result. The shipment did not reach its destination after an international backlash that the arms would be used to crush the political opposition.

Outside Africa, the Chinese arms dealer has supplied weaponry to Serbia, Kazakhstan, Iran, North Korea and Syria. As is wont with Chinese businesses, Poly Technologies operates opaquely.

"Unfortunately I have not come across much on Poly technologies. They are a very non-transparent company. I have heard of their involvement in Egypt but there really isn't much more there either," Nan Tian, a senior researcher with Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told The Independent in an email response when asked about the dealings of Poly with African countries.

SIPRI is an institute that researches conflict, arms control and armament where Tian is responsible for monitoring and managing the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database.
Luanda  The Republic of Angola reaffirmed this Saturday in Istanbul, Turkey, the bet on moralization of society and fight against corruption, aiming at the country's development.

Speaking at the III Turkey-Africa Summit, the Minister of State and Head of the Civil House Presidency, Adao de Almeida, stressed that the Angolan government's commitment extends to other challenges.

It is the diversification of the economy, the promotion of national production and the opening of the country to foreign investment.

The official, who was speaking on behalf of President Joao Lourenco, said that for these objectives to be achieved it is essential to create a good business environment.

"This is what the Republic of Angola has been doing," stressed the Minister of State, adding that Angola offers investors political, economic and social stability.

At the meeting, attended by the Turkish Head of State, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Adao de Almeida stated that Angola sees with good eyes the vision of strengthening cooperation between Turkey and the different African states.
Luanda  The Angolan Head of State, Joao Lourenco, on Friday congratulated his Swiss counterpart, Ignazio Cassis, for the election as president of that European country.

In the letter, to which ANGOP had access, Joao Lourenco expressed, on behalf of the Angolan Government and himself, wishes of success to the Swiss President in his duties as of January 2022.

"I am sure that during his mandate our two governments will continue to work to identify new areas of common interest," said President Lourenco in the message.

According to the Angolan statesman, these are areas of common interest that may contribute to the expansion and elevation of bilateral relations and contribute to the generation of greater wealth for the benefit of both countries.

Angola - Switzerland Cooperation

The political and diplomatic relations and cooperation between Angola and the Swiss Confederation date back to the first years of national independence.

The cooperation has resulted mainly in humanitarian actions, through the Humanitarian Aid Sector, particularly in demining and construction of the Technical School of Agriculture Catofe, located in the municipality of Quibala, Kwanza Sul province.
Luanda  The Angolan Head of State, Joao Lourenco, is due to arrive Monday in the United Arab Emirates for a two-day working visit, aiming at strengthening the cooperation between the countries.

According to the secretary of the President of the Republic for Institutional Communication and Press Affairs, Luis Fernando, who announced the visit on Saturday, Joao Lourenco will start his working visit on Tuesday.

According to Mr. Fernando, on Tuesday bilateral cooperation instruments will be signed, including memorandums of understanding in the transport, energy and digital sectors.

He added that on Wednesday, the second and last day of the visit, the President of the Republic will meet with the highest authorities of the United Arab Emirates, particularly the crown prince, as well as with the senior figures of the most famous emirate, Dubai.

On Wednesday, Joao Lourenco will visit Expo Dubai 2020, including the Angola pavilion, on the day the country marks its day at that world event.

Joao Lourenco leaves the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, and is expected to arrive in Luanda on Thursday morning.
Luanda  The minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta, reaffirmed this Saturday in Luanda, the bet on the open and permanent dialogue with the National Union of Medical Doctors of Angola (SINMEA), in order to solve the problems of the class.

Silvia Lutucuta, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the doctors' assembly that resulted in the suspension of the strike that started on the 6th December, said that they will continue to work on the improvement of conditions at a general level, looking at strategic issues such as the guarantee of security at work, continuous training process, promoting competence and a differentiated service provision.

The government minister pointed out that the result of the negotiations is good and that they worked in a healthy, brief and deep environment mediated by the Ministries of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security and Finance, in a deep approach to all points of the specifications of the demands.

In his turn, the president of the union, Adriano Manuel, said he believed in the Government's promises and that the situation will be solved within the established deadline (90 days).
Luanda  The Angolan ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Albino Malungo, said Sunday that several businessmen from that Middle Eastern country have shown interest in investing in agricultural production in Angola.

Speaking to the press on the eve of President Joao Lourenco's visit to the UAE, the Angolan diplomat said that local businessmen have preference in planting and producing avocado and coffee.

The Angolan President, Joao Lourenco, is due to arrive Monday in Abu Dhabi, for a two-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates.

About the Angolan Head of State visit to the Arab country, ambassador Albino Malungo considered important, because it will be one more step towards the application of the General Agreement of Cooperation between the two countries.

As for the agreements to be initialed between Angola and the UAE, the Angolan ambassador said that they will significantly enhance bilateral cooperation in the maritime, transport, ports, energy, construction and visa suppression sectors.

According to the Angolan diplomat, the agreement for the suppression of visas in Passports will facilitate the circulation of people and goods, increase the volume of business and intensify the exchange between the two peoples.

As for the commercial exchanges, Albino Malungo informed that, at this moment, they are around USD 1.6 billion.
December 19, 2021

...Condemns APC leaders' visit to Katsina for Buhari's son turbaning ... Urges President Buhari to visit troubled areas

By Dirisu Yakubu - Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of connivance in what it called its failure to stem the tide of killings in Sokoto, Niger, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and other parts of the country.

In a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the main opposition party noted that "the manifest numbness of the APC leaders to bloodletting as well as the failure of the APC, as a party, to proffer any tangible solution or forcefully take its government to task on security, validate apprehensions on APC's reported complicity in the worsened insecurity in our nation in the last six years."

The statement read: "The PDP, standing in solidarity with Nigerians, calls out the APC to come clean on its alleged connection to killings, the benefit it derives from violence and bloodletting and why it attaches no value to human lives.

"Is it not unpardonable that while the APC had failed to show empathy on the gruesome murder of scores of travelers who were burnt alive in Sokoto state, the massacre of over 15 worshippers in Niger state, other compatriots felled in Kaduna, Katsina and other parts of the country in the last few days, its leaders and officials in government had the time to attend the turbaning ceremony of President Muhammadu Buhari's son in the same troubled Katsina state?

"Is it also not provocative, vexatious and indeed the height of heartlessness that APC and its leaders party while Nigeria burns?

[ALSO READ] Defection: PDP govs' absence stalls Lagos4Lagos Movement's official declaration

"Such callous assault on the sensibility of Nigerians which amounts to dancing on the graves of the victims of the attacks further exposes the APC as a party that is completely unfeeling to killings, attaches no value to lives and has no commitment towards the fight against terrorism in our country.

"Nigerians can recall that despite demands by the PDP, the APC and its leaders have failed to account for the "political mercenaries" they reportedly imported from neighboring countries as thugs, gangsters and hoodlums to unleash violence on Nigerians during the 2019 elections. The APC has also not explained the continued presence of a self-confessed terrorism apologist in its government.

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"The least Nigerians expect of the APC is to forcefully give its government a marching order to develop wholesome strategy to proactively tackle insecurity, including targeting the source of fund to terrorists, many of which were revealed by a foreign government, yet the APC government refused to take action.

"Unfortunately, the APC as a party of selfish and blood thirsty "political bandits" does not have the commitment, readiness or capacity to do so.

"Furthermore, the PDP charges President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate leadership and empathy by personally visiting the troubled states in line with his campaign promise to lead the fight against terrorism from the front instead of always pushing his responsibilities to others.

"The PDP again commiserates with victims of the horrific attacks. We also urge Nigerians not to resign to despondency but continue to support one another and remain focused as we scale up our collective efforts to rescue and rebuild our nation from misrule."
December 19, 2021

... call on NASS to override President before Christmas

By Gabriel Ewepu - Abuja

WITH suspense in the political space, Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, Sunday, accused President Muhammadu Buhari, of being the biggest threat to Nigeria's democracy over alleged failure to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill within 30 days.

The CSOs made the allegation in a statement signed by Executive Director, Adopt A Goal Initiative, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, and endorsed by Convener, Raising New Voices Initiative, Jude Feranmi; Programme Officer, Center For Libertym, Maryam Ahmed; Convener, Speak Out Africa Initiative Kenneth Eze; Executive Director, The Nigerian Alliance, Simi Olusola; and Executive Director,Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative (YSAD), Obinna Eze Nwagbara.

According to the statement the President's delay in signing the bill has created unpalatable suspense and generated avoidable apprehension, but his inaction may not be the final call after December 19.

The statement reads in part, "It has come to the point where we must tell President Buhari in unmistaken terms that his failure to sign the bill within the 30 days window has exposed him as the biggest threat to the fourth democratic republic, having failed to perform a similar responsibility four times in his first term.

"President Buhari benefitted significantly from some of the electoral reforms initiated by Yar'Adua and signed by Jonathan; if he fails to sign the amended electoral act, History will record him as a major impediment to electoral credibility and governance.

[ALSO READ] Electoral Bill: Reps set to override Buhari, pass document into law

"This is a low hanging lifetime opportunity for the President to salvage his terrible electoral credential.

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The CSOs vowed to storm the National Assembly with protest on Monday to press for it to override the President in the interest of Nigerians to pass the Bill into law.

"There is a constitutional window opened to the National Assembly to recall the bill and give it the effect of law with a two-thirds number.

"From Monday morning, we will turn to the National Assembly to act in the national interest and pass the bill expeditiously before they embark on the Christmas recess.

"Consequently, the next step is for us as CSOs to take our advocacy to the National Assembly to step in, exhibit courage, recall the bill and ensure they override the President with an accelerated passage before Christmas", it added.

The statement further reads, "The 9th National Assembly has deferred too much to President Buhari almost to the point of ridicule, so if the President does not respect and reciprocate this gesture, history will be kind to them if they override the President and salvage their own political future.

"This will not be the first time in the last 20 years that the National Assembly will override the President; the 4th legislative session did so and got the NDDC Act passed and operational. The 9th National Assembly has the opportunity of not sharing with the executive the glory that will accompany the new act."
MORE than 200 aspiring candidates in Bulawayo submitted their CVs to Zanu PF for consideration to contest party posts in the party's provincial elections scheduled before the end of this month.

Former Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) leader Cde Jabulani Sibanda, former Mpopoma-Pelandaba MP Cde Joseph Tshuma, Bulawayo war veterans' chairman Cde Cephas Ncube, the current interim provincial party chairperson Cde Obert Msindo along with Cde Douglas Mpofu and Cde Mlungisi Moyo are eyeing the top post of provincial chairman.

Those who submitted their CVs for the top women's affairs post are the current interim secretary for women affairs Cde Rebecca Manjere, her deputy Cde Zeria Ngozo and Cde Joyce Sibanda.

Those vying for the top post under the youths' wing are interim secretary for youth affairs Cde Freedom Murechu, Cde Bhekinkosi Dube and Cde Mayibongwe Zvigadza.

A total of 205 aspiring candidates in Bulawayo submitted their CVs after provinces were instructed to complete the vetting exercise of all their aspiring candidates for the position of provincial chairpersons, chairwomen and youth chairpersons by yesterday.

The party said provinces would be tasked with supervising elections in other provinces and should select competent members who will serve as presiding and polling officers in the host provinces.

Zanu PF Politburo member Cde Munyaradzi Machacha, who was deployed to Bulawayo to monitor the process during the Provincial Coordinating Committee meeting at Davies Hall yesterday said the list of names of the successful candidates will be compiled after the National Commissariat has finished scrutinising them.

He said the ballot paper will only carry the names of the successful candidates who will contest provincial elections.

Cde Machacha urged party members to shun divisive politics of tribalism when electing leaders.

"Let us not be driven by the spirit of regionalism or tribalism when electing our new provincial leadership. The President and First Secretary of the party Cde ED Mnangagwa has said it over and over that our party doesn't need tribalism or regionalism," he said.

"Let us elect out leaders regardless of tribe and once we discover that there is now divisive politics of tribalism, the party will intervene because we want unity in our party."

Cde Machacha said the legacy of unity which was left by the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and the late former President Robert Mugabe should be jealously protected.

Politburo member Cde Judith Ncube urged party members to work as a team and shun acts of factionalism in line with the thrust of the party.

Cde Tshinga Dube, who is also a Politburo member, emphasised the need for discipline in the party and urged members to behave in a manner consistent with the values of the party.

In Matabeleland North, there were tensions during yesterday's PCC meeting, which spelt out guidelines to be followed ahead of the ruling party's provincial elections.

Zanu PF politburo member Cde Douglas Mahiya delivered the electoral guidelines and called for the party to hold free and fair elections in the exercise of internal democratic systems.

Shortly after delivering his message, the outgoing provincial chairman Cde Richard Moyo, who is also Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, declared the meeting over as its agenda had been met.

Cde Moyo, who is eyeing to retain the chairmanship, urged party members to campaign peacefully.

However, some party members including Cde Believe Gaule, who is an aspiring chairman rose and claimed that they had grievances.

But his claims were shot down, as party members said the meeting had fulfilled its mission.

As other PCC members started walking out of the meeting others charged towards Cde Mahiya to articulate their concerns.

They even suggested that the meeting be reconvened, but their calls were dismissed. They wanted the party to announce the candidates and the positions that they were vying for.

In an interview following the meeting, Cde Mahiya said differences were expected in a big party like Zanu PF as it shows that members are enthusiastic about its growth.

"When people are in a party like this you expect at some point to have some differences. In every river, in every pool you will find a frog, this means that anomalies are common you can't expect 100 percent compliance," he said.

"While differences might be there the best weapon to win is to unite and that is the message, I'm leaving for the party members."

Cde Mahiya said while the election date is yet to be announced the polls will be held before the end of the year.

"The party intends to run its election professionally in compliance to the party's constitution, party disciplinary codes and electoral rules and regulations. Every player in the electoral process must ensure that the elections are democratic, transparent, free, fair and credible," he said.

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"The environment must be supportive and peaceful. There shall be no imposition of candidates, intimidation and vote buying."

In Matabeleland South, those interested being part of the ruling party's provincial executive structures submitted their CVs on Saturday.

Zanu PF Matabeleland South provincial chairman Cde Never Khanye said four candidates have expressed interest in the chairperson's position.

"For the chairmanship, there's myself, Cdes Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, Siqhoza Ndlovu and Jabulani Dube," said Cde Khanye.

He said for the position of Women's League chairperson, Cdes Rona Moyo, Gladys Claus and Sindisiwe Nleya had submitted their CV's.

"For the Youth League chairmanship, there were two contestants; Cdes Langton Ndlovu and Moses Langa," said Cde Khanye.

He said these would be the positions which would be voted for while a basket system would be used for applications for other positions.

"The other applications will come in the form of a basket system. They will have to share the executive positions from main wing, Women's League and Youth League, sharing among the seven districts. What we're waiting for from headquarters are the guidelines for these processes. After the Politburo meeting, they'll come up with the date for when elections will be held," said Cde Khanye.
The Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) and Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP) have expressed their commitment to continue implementing projects that benefit vulnerable communities, particularly young people from the two countries.

MaSP Board Chairperson Dr. Ann Phoya and SMP Chief Executive Officer, David Hope Jones, said the partnership between the two organizations will continue being a platform for youth exchange and networking and youth led innovative solutions to challenges affecting communities.

Phoya and Jones made the remarks on Friday during the MaSP 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM), which Jones and many other SMP members in Scotland attended virtually.

Held under the theme: Intergenerational leadership, building resilience through youth led innovations--the AGM, which attracted scores of MaSP members and staff in Malawi, had the Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe as the guest of honour.

The MaSP and SMP partnership, which reportedly dates back to precolonial times, has largely benefited Malawi, with latest information showing the Scottish Government having pumped into the country MK18 billion between 2018 and 2021 alone, which financed projects in a wide range of critical areas of need.

On her part, Phoya said such a partnership need more strengthening, especially now that the times are challenging and people require innovative solutions to their problems.

"The MK18 billion, besides financing youth led climate adaptation and resilience programs, also assisted in many other sectors. College of Medicine got part of these funds to establish a dental school.

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"Nkhoma mission hospital received money for cervical cancer screening. Women showing early signs of cervical cancer are being timely assisted.

"The funds also went to Mary Meals to help feed school children in order to eliminate stanting in children and ensure that they are fed and concentrate on school. Water Aid got money to place rural sanitation measures and provide clean and safe water in early childhood learning centres. There are also projects in solar power energy and irrigation," said Phoya.

She further said MaSP and SMP want to see Malawi improve by focusing on the national development agenda, which will help the country realize her aspirations, especially the Sustainable Development Goals and the MW2063.

On his part, Jones concurred with Phoya, emphasizing that making the MaSP and SMP partnership stronger, is indeed the way to go.

"Let it be a partnership of more connection, participation, knowledge sharing and empowerment of people, especially the youths in order to make them more skilled to tackle the challenges communities face. Let us work together for the continued betterment of our people," Jones said.

In his remarks, Gwengwe noted that the AGM theme resonates well with the Malawi Government vision to empower young people through digitalization and innovation, which, he said, are "at the centerpiece of the MW2063 agenda."
A consortium of human rights organizations have expressed dismay with the silence from the authorities in light of increasing cases of physical attacks, killings, abductions, mutilations and infanticide of persons with albinism (PWAs) in Malawi.

The organizations, which included the Association for Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM), the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (CCJP), the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC), lament that persons with albinism continue to hunted like animals and do not have peace.

Leaders of the concerned human rights watchdogs addressed journalists in Lilongwe on Friday where they strongly condemned and rebuked the spate of attacks on PWAs.

Reading a joint statement, APAM president Young Muhamba observed that the situation is thriving unabated in the context of poor and weak community protection systems is even more worrisome and a huge threat to the right to security, and ultimately the right to life and other fundamental entitlements, for persons with albinism in the country.

Muhamba disclosed that Malawi is the worst case on the whole African continent as far as the attacks, abductions and killings of PWAs are concerned.

"In fact, Under the Same Sun report of 2017, 30 percent of the cases of crimes against PWAs from 28 African countries were from Malawi. This is disheartening and needs to be condemned in the strongest terms possible," he said.

Muhamba challenged the Malawi Police Service to assure PWAs of their security in 2022, stressing that the PWA community would not want to experience another attack next year and beyond.

"Any kind of attack brings fear to us and we have a feeling that certain quarters within the Malawi society would like to wipe out the population of persons with albinism. Why should persons with albinism be hunted like animals? We are dismayed with the Malawi Government's laissez-faire attitude in addressing these human rights concerns, challenges and outstanding problems encountered by persons with albinism under the context of these attacks," he said.

On the other hand, the CCJP National Coordinator Boniface Chibwana said they are worried that the country's health system continues ignoring the needs of the PWA community by not making available and accessible quality of health services.

Chibwana lamented that there are no medications such as sunscreen lotion in almost all the public health facilities to protect the PWAs from cancer attack.

"Since 2020, more than 25 innocent souls of PWAs have been lost to skin cancer while more than 50 PWAs are currently battling with skin cancer in their respective homes. It should be clearly stated that about 99 percent of deaths of persons with albinism in Malawi are due to skin cancer. The government of Malawi has provided only limited support for the medical needs of PWAs. Sunscreen lotion is not available and accessible in many government health facilities such as health centres and health posts in much of the country's rural area where 87 percent of persons with albinism live. Eye treatment is also neglected as mobile clinics for eyesight assessment and actual treatment are not available to most rural, remote and hard-to-reach areas. Sunscreen lotion and dermatological services are also centralised making it difficult for rural PWAs to access them due to their stricken poverty level," he said.

On defective and delayed justice and increasing impunity, CHRR Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa said it is bewildering to see that Malawi still cries out against the delays in justice delivery over the cases of crimes against persons with albinism.

Kaiyatsa said while they appreciate the Judiciary for completion of some cases, they are, however, concerned that the cases are too slow to be completed.

"It is puzzling that there are some cases that are still pending judgement or are still at hearing stage in the courts since 2018. Actually, less than 40 percent of the officially recorded 197 cases have been concluded by the justice system to ensure the effective dispensation of justice as a foundational and fundamental right. This does not inspire persons with albinism who are incessantly crying out for justice that is really just, fair and widely acceptable," he narrated.

He added, "One wonders why it is taking so long to conclude these cases. It is clear that these delays have caused impunity in the handling of the cases; further, this has compelled persons with albinism in Malawi to be hopeless and lose trust in the country's criminal justice system. There are many cases whose investigations are yet to be completed. We also wonder why cases dating back to 2016 are still under investigation.

"How competent are the investigators? How complicated are the cases? Missing of files at some justice institutions like police formations is indicative of a defective and deficient justice system that is also suspicious as far as the delivery of justice is concerned. Such suspicions and fears grow even stronger when the country experience suspicious deaths in police or prison custody of people connected to the crimes against persons with albinism. The Buleya Lule case, which many of you working in the media are well aware of, is a classic and illustrative one. We demand effective investigation and thorough consideration of these suspicious deaths."

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Commenting on claims political activist Bon Kalindo has been making that he has evidence on the people behind the heinous crimes against PWAs, MHRRC Executive Director, Emma Kaliya, said they are looking forward to seeing police, judiciary and the prosecution to seize the opportunity to uncover the market for the body tissues for persons with albinism.

Kaliya wondered why he had been keeping "such important information to himself when our brothers and sisters with albinism are being killed like animals."

"We are keeping our eyes open on the matter. We are not sleeping to ensure that justice is done," she said.
press release

The United States is gravely concerned by unconfirmed new reports alleging mass detentions, killings, and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans in western Tigray by Amhara security forces. The UN reports that 1.2 million people have been forcibly displaced from western Tigray since the beginning of the conflict in November 2020. We call on Amhara leaders to renounce violence against civilians. We also reiterate our call on Eritrea to remove its forces from Ethiopia. We urge the Ethiopian authorities to investigate these reports to determine their veracity and to commit to inclusive, transparent processes to hold responsible those accountable.

We call on all armed actors in Ethiopia to renounce and end violence against civilians. We also reiterate our call for a cessation of hostilities, an immediate end to human rights abuses and violations, negotiations without preconditions, unhindered humanitarian access, and the start to an inclusive national dialogue

Ned Price, Department Spokesperson
press release

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Rebecca Chalif:

This week, USAID Administrator Samantha Power held a series of high-level meetings with key United States and world health experts to discuss the recently announced whole-of-government effort, the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX). Vaccinating the world is the best way to save lives, prevent future variants that threaten the health of communities around the world, including Americans, and undermine the global economic recovery. As more vaccine supply flows to low and middle income countries, the United States is redoubling efforts to help countries efficiently and effectively receive, distribute, and administer doses. Global VAX focuses on accelerating global efforts to get shots in arms particularly in sub-Saharan Africaand to enhance international coordination to rapidly overcome barriers to vaccine delivery.

Administrator Powers meetings with leading global health experts included discussions on how to best ramp up vaccine readiness around the world and the specific challenges facing countries in sub-Saharan Africa as they work to turn vaccines in vials into shots in arms. The Administrator also met with representatives from select USAID Missions in Africa to collaborate on the most effective, and country specific, programming Global VAX can partner on at this critical juncture in the global fight against COVID-19.

Administrator Power met with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The two discussed the rapid spread of the omicron variant and implications for vaccine delivery around the world. They also discussed lessons learned from PEPFAR and other major global health initiatives; USAIDs ongoing work to support vaccine delivery; and how Global VAX will expand and accelerate these efforts.

The Administrator also met this week with Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, Chairman of Econet Global, Special Envoy to the African Union (AU) on COVID-19 and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss the next steps of the Global VAX initiative, strategies for scaling up vaccination support to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and strengthening our partnerships to accelerate these efforts.

Administrator Power participated in the eighth annual convening of senior leadership from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focused on innovations to strengthen pandemic preparedness, prevention, response, and resilience, and covered a range of topics such as COVID-19 drug discovery, pan-coronavirus vaccines, and global variant tracking. Administrator Power joined the Omicron variant and the landscape of future variants session, along with health experts including Dr. Fauci.

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Throughout the week, Administrator Power and USAID senior leadership held meetings with USAID Mission leadership in sub-Saharan Africa to hear first hand about on the ground challenges to vaccine delivery and to identify solutions to rapidly accelerate vaccine access. These conversations are part of an ongoing collaborative dialogue with USAID Missions to assess country specific needs including challenges like lack of cold chain, difficulty accessing remote communities, combatting disinformation and shortages of trained health care workers in order to determine the most effective programming to help them boost vaccination rates on the ground.

Administrator Power also continues to hold bilateral meetings with foreign development ministers as part of follow-up dialogues from the Development Ministerial on Covid-19 she convened on Dec. 6. In addition to providing more details about the Global VAX initiative, these meetings serve as an opportunity for international development leaders to share insights in vaccine delivery efforts and strengthen coordination with the U.S. Government to overcome barriers to vaccine access.
press release

In a December 15 meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the States Parties to UNCAC endorsed by consensus the United States offer to host the next Conference in 2023. Hosting the COSP represents a unique opportunity for the United States to demonstrate leadership in global anticorruption efforts following President Bidens signature Summit for Democracy initiative this year.

As highlighted in the recent Summit for Democracy, anticorruption is a key pillar for democratic renewal. The biennial COSP is one of the most significant global multilateral anticorruption events and U.S. chairmanship of this pivotal meeting provides a key opportunity to foster international cooperation and shape those efforts.
Johannesburg  "Last week marked one year since the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered. A year ago, we all hoped that by now vaccines would be helping us all emerge from the long, dark tunnel of the pandemic. Instead, as we enter the third year of the pandemic, the death toll has more than tripled, and the world remains in its grip. Although the number of reported deaths in Africa is lower than in most other regions, we know that they are under-reported. And the excess deaths caused by the virus, and by disruption to essential health services, are far higher."

These were remarks by Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the World Health Organisation Director-General, at the first-ever International Conference for Public Health in Africa.

The three-day conference attracted over 12 000 participants from across the globe heard over 100 speakers across 7 plenary sessions with discussions from how the African continent can strengthening health systems for better health outcomes to vaccine roll-out, vaccine manufacturing capacity, strengthening capacity, and preparing for the next health system, among many other topics surrounding public health in Africa.

"CPHIA 2021 is creating the foundation that will allow us to usher in a new era for science, partnership, and innovation on the continent. The hope is that this will become the preeminent annual health gathering in Africa  where policymakers, researchers, advocates, community organizations and more come together to learn, address challenges, and chart a path forward together. There are major changes ahead for health on the continent, and this is just the beginning," said Senait Fisseha, Director of Global Programs at The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.

Organised by the African Union (AU) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), this conference was the first of its kind. It was attended by representatives from the private sector, heads of states, World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health, Ministries of Health, scientists, researchers and community health organisations and health professional.

"COVID-19 has created a historic opportunity to build a new public health order that can effectively guard against future health crises. And this inaugural Conference on Public Health in Africa is a first step in making this a reality," Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson, Commission of the African Union said.

As the world continues to battle the Covid-19, the emerging of the Omicron variant that has triggered travel bans in the Southern African countries tells us that the Covid-19 fight is far from over. Less than 20 African countries met the global goal of vaccinating at least 10% of the adult population and only 7% of the African population has been fully vaccinated.

"Building manufacturing capacity is the only way to ensure that Africa does not remain at the back of the queue for life-saving medicines. The uncertainty around the new Omicron variant proves that the pandemic is far from over. We must remain vigilant, and act with a sense of urgency and purpose, both as a continent, and together with our partners around the world," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said.

Kagame put emphasis on four components of new public health order which he said has made good progress but need to do much more and do so faster.

These four components are building the capabilities and professionalism of our continental health bodies, need for a renewed commitment by governments and national parliaments to increase domestic financing for health in Africa, need to invest much more in national health systems and for African countries to work together to implement the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing.

Discussing the role of partnerships, advocacy, and solidarity in achieving global health equity for Covid-19 vaccine, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said the new Omicron variant offers a huge risk but also a chance to push the reset button.

"This pandemic can still be remembered in history as the time we chose to put the collective right to safety for all ahead of the commercial monopolies of the few. But we have to act now, together, in solidarity. Africa must raise its voice to demand for global rules to change. We have seen it with HIV/Aids, now with COVID, that for a global health emergency, to beat it, you need a global plan. We cannot achieve equity to vaccines and other life-saving health technologies in isolation. We require international co-operation and solidarity." Byanyima said.

The Covid-19 has exposed the already inadequate health systems of Africa which are potentially overwhelmed by many other diseases including, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis. Most countries have critical shortage of healthcare workers and lack resources to give adequate health care to its populations. Other shortages this conference highlighted are blood shortages.

Among those that often need blood transfusions are children with severe anaemia resulting from malaria and malnutrition and women with pregnancy-related bleeding and people injured in traffic accidents.

"We need to address the issue of our extremely low blood collection rates in Africa. Despite the fact that blood should be at the centre of any health system, Africa is not collecting enough blood. The WHO recommends that every country should have about 10 unites per 1000 of the population. Most African countries fall short of this, some don't even collect half the required amount," said Philana Mugenyi, Manager at Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies and a leader at the Coalition of Blood for Africa (CoBA), the first and only multi-stakeholder platform dedicated to driving the agenda for adequate, safe and sustainable blood in Africa.

Mugenyi said some of the challenges preventing collection of enough blood is lack of policies that put blood at the front and centre of the health polices, limited financial resources and investment dedicated toward insuring blood accessibility and availability. She says in Africa there is not yet a culture of voluntary, non-remunerated, regular blood donation.

"A lot of countries rely on students from government schools, up to 70% of the blood comes from them and many people who donate blood as adults only do it when they have a patient or a family member in hospital but after that they do not keep donating," she said.

Representing the private sector and speaking on effective platforms for public health dialogue to strengthen health systems, Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, Executive Director at Uganda Healthcare Federation said the private sector adapts, innovates and expands to build health system gaps quickly especially in emergency situation but it is often met with many challanges that hinders their involvement sometimes in issues of public health.

"There are often challenges, policy concerns are usually not addressed in a timely manner and there is no access to affordable financing for growth and development for private sector business owners. There is inadequate public funds allocation to enable the private sector to receive support supervision and training and to be included appropriately and to participate in government initiatives. This brings challenges because at the core of this, government and the private sector lack clear engagements," Kiwanuka said.

Leaders acknowledged that the Covid-19 pushed a lot of governments to find solutions for their public health systems and that there has been good progress.

In April 2021 the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) was launched by DR Congo President and AU Chairperson, Tshisekedi Felix Tshisekedi

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Tedros stressed the importance of investing in local production of vaccine saying it must take priority. He commended the progress made by the AU and the Africa CDC in establishing Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing.

"As you know, the AU and the Africa CDC have established the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing. Several African countries  including Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda and Senegal  have all signed agreements or Memorandums of Understanding for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in their countries, and Algeria has begun production," he said.

At the end of the conference, four people were awarded with the CPHIA2021 awards for their leadership in global public health:

Senait Fisseha, an Ethiopian endocrinologist at University of Michigan working with reproductive endocrinology and infertility and Director of international programs at the Susan Buffet Foundation

Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum is the general director of the National Biomedical Research Professor of Medical Virology at the University of Kinshasa

Salim Abdool Karim, a South African Public Health Medicine specialist, epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist and Vice President of the International Science Council

Agnes Binagwaho is a Rwandan pediatrician and Co-founder and the vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity and Adviser to the Director General of the World Health Organisation and a senior lecturer at Harvard University
The Gambia Police Force (GPF) on Saturday announced that its detectives have begun investigating the death of a 12-year-old girl who was accidentally shot and killed by a 10-year-old boy in Babylon village.

The Police said in a statement that their crime scene investigators (CSI) have visited the scene of crime for the desired scene documentation and analysis.

Below is the full statement from the Police Force:

"Investigation into a shooting incident at Lamin Babylon

"The Crime Department of the Gambia Police Force has opened investigations into a shooting incident that occurred at Lamin Babylon on Thursday 16th December 2021.

"Police Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) visited the scene of Crime for the desired scene documentation and analyses.

"Preliminary investigations revealed that one Abdou Njie, a 73-year-old man (hunter) visited a home in Lamin Babylon to market his carcass, and left his loaded hunting gun unattended during a brief marketing transaction in the compound with a customer.

"During his brief absence, a 10-year-old boy took the loaded gun and by fidgeting, pulled the trigger leading to the inadvertent firing of a gunshot.

"The apparent accidental gunshot led to the eventual death of a 12-year-old girl."Meanwhile, investigators are probing into the circumstances of the death to establish possible criminal responsibilities," the statement ends.
Kumasi  Five persons have been killed at Nyinawusu in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality of the Ashanti Region when they were accused of being armed robbers.

According to the police, their investigations showed that the deceased persons and one other were illegal miners and inhabitants of Akorabuokrom in the Atwima Mponua District who went to the area to engage in mining activities.

The District Police Commander for Nyinahini, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Jerry James Amekah, indicated that after they engaged in the mining activities on Thursday, evening, they were invited to the Nyinawusu Chief's palace and interrogated after some youth in the area accused them of being behind armed robbery activities that took place in the area some few days earlier.

A section of the inhabitants then besieged the Chief's Palace threatening to kill the accused persons.

The Chief was said to have called in the police to intervene, but before they arrived, the residents had pounced on them and killed four of the suspects, leaving one in a critical condition, who later died at a hospital.

One of the victims was, however, able to escape.

Inhabitants of Akorabuokrom, where all the five persons who were lynched came from, have been threatening to engage in reprisal attacks if the perpetrators were not apprehended as early as possible.

DSP Amekah said "police used minimum force, but it did not work. They even damaged two of our vehicles and injured some of our personnel."

"One of them even used a knife to cut the throat of one of the victims. That's very barbaric indeed," DSP Amekah said.

Nana Frimpong has called on the police to do everything possible in their power to bring whoever was involved in the act to book.

"There is no way around it. Lynching is a criminal offence. The suspects didn't do anything and they killed them," the Chief said.
Tunis/Tunisia  The National Authority for the Prevention of Torture (INPT), Sunday, denounced banning it from talking with the people arrested on December 18, 2021 in Avenue Habib Bourguiba, on the conditions of their detention. It considered it, "a dangerous precedent that could not be justified."

The INPT has announced its decision to prosecute anyone who has disrupted its work.

In a statement, it stressed that Article 13 of the Organic Law No. 2013-43 of October 21, 2013, on the National Authority for the Prevention of Torture, states that "the authorities concerned can only object to a periodic or unannounced visit to a particular place for urgent and compelling reasons related to national defence, public security, natural disasters or serious disturbances in the place where the visit is to be made, which temporarily prevent the visit from taking place.

This is possible only through a reasoned written decision which must be immediately forwarded to the president of the authority, with mandatory mention of the duration of the temporary ban".

According to the same law, "any person who violates these provisions is liable to disciplinary action."

The authority recalled that it has conducted visits in all places of detention since 2016, saying that two of its members went on December 18 to the headquarters of the investigation unit of the National Guard of Ben Arous, to monitor the conditions of detention of people arrested Saturday at Avenue Habib Bourguiba.

It noted that "they were initially prevented from accessing the headquarters of the unit, then were allowed to enter and present their mission. However, after an hour of waiting, they were informed that they were not allowed to talk to the detainees".

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The Ministry of the Interior had reported in a statement Saturday that the prosecutor had ordered the seizure of equipment for the installation of tents in the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis.

The seizure of this material comes as a group of individuals deliberately tried to install by force tents in the heart of the capital on Saturday to stage a sit-in, in violation of the regulations in force, added the Department of Interior.

According to the same source, the prosecutor had also ordered the evacuation of the public road and the prosecution of the "alleged" attackers of police officers.

"A specialised team of the National Guard was mobilised to arrest at least 10 suspects and an investigation was initiated," it indicated.

For his part, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, coordinator of the "Citizens against Coup" initiative, announced the suspension of the sit-in against the July 25 process, staged since last Friday at Avenue Habib Bourguiba, due to police repression.
A selection of photos we took this year

President Cyril Ramaphosa was one of the first recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in February 2020. Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams

Masixole Feni photographed a child doing backflips on a mattress in "Covid" settlement, Cape Town. In March 2021, Feni captured daily life in this informal settlement during lockdown in 2020.

The University of Cape Town's J.W. Jagger Library, housing precious records, literature and artwork, burnt down in April. Ashraf Hendricks photographed the gutted building the morning after it happened. He also shot this video.

In May the City of Cape Town demolished the shelters of about 20 homeless families who had camped at the Wynberg taxi rank. Louise Petersen slept outside in the rain with her baby. Photo: Tariro Washinyira

Baithuti Shasha struggles to get around Dunoon in his wheelchair because most of the roads are badly potholed and flooded with sewage. Photo: Peter Luhanga

Zukile Bangani washes initiates' hands with soap and water at KwaMagxaki Initiation School in Gqeberha in June. Photo: Mkhuseli Sizani

Paul Josephs and his dog after heavy rains flooded the homes of Kraaifontein shack dwellers in July. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Members of the Amadiba Crisis Committee held a meeting in August at the site where a bridge for SANRAL's N2 Toll Road on the Wild Coast is planned. Some argue it will bring economic opportunities while others worry it will destroy their way of life. Photo: Daniel Steyn

Girls as young as five and women in their 70s have to fetch water from a river in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's hometown of Mbizana. This Eastern Cape town has never had tap water. Photo: Mkhuseli Sizani

Fishers in Port Nolloth head out to sea in thick fog. Ashraf Hendricks and Liezl Human told the story of this struggling community.

Fikile Mbalula is going after us for R2 million. We must be doing something right. Support news that matters. Please donate to GroundUp.

Donate using SnapScan.
press release

Beirut  Prosecutions Fast-Tracked Despite End to State of Emergency

The Egyptian government initiated at least five Emergency State Security Court trials against high-profile human rights defenders, activists, and political opponents on alleged speech offenses ahead of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's October 25, 2021, declaration ending the country's nationwide state of emergency, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately call a halt to these unjust trials before special courts where no appeal is possible.

On December 20, a verdict is expected in the case of Alaa Abdel Fattah, an activist; Mohamed al-Baqer, a human rights lawyer; and Mohamed "Oxygen" Ibrahim, a blogger, who are charged with "spreading false news undermining national security." ." On December 15, the trial for 31 members and alleged members of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a prominent Egyptian rights group, was postponed until December 26.

"Trials of human rights defenders and peaceful critics in these special courts for peaceful dissent constitute a grave injustice because the President's broad authority over these courts undermines their independence and impartiality," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The government's rush to use emergency courts before declaring the end to the state of emergency, after holding people illegally for years in pretrial detention, confirms that fierce repression of peaceful critics remains the order of the day in Egypt."

At least 48 unjustly detained rights defenders, activists, and opposition politicians who had languished in pre-trial detention for months and years were referred to the emergency courts for trial just before the president lifted the state of emergency. The move indicated the government's determination to subject these detainees to the exceptional rules of these courts.

The courts are established under Egypt's 1958 Emergency Law, which allows these courts to continue to oversee previously referred trials even after a state of emergency has been lifted. New cases can no longer be referred to these courts once a state of emergency has ended. The Emergency Law grants the Presidentpresident, or someone he delegates, the authority to ratify or annul rulings and reduce sentences, undermining the independence and impartiality of these courts. The President president also has broad authority to appoint judges of Emergency State Security Courts and control their composition.

In October 2017, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued decree 2165 of 2017, placing many speech- related offenses within the jurisdiction of the Emergency State Security Courts, including the charge of "spreading false news."

Abdel Fattah, al-Baqer, and Ibrahim were arrested in September 2019 and held in pretrial detention for over two years, exceeding the maximum under Egyptian law. Lawyers and family members told Human Rights Watch that they found out the case had been referred to the Emergency State Security Court for trial on October 15, 10 days before President Sisi announced the end to the nationwide state of emergency.

Those recently referred to emergency courts include Ezzat Ghoneim, executive director of the ECRF, who was arrested and forcibly disappeared in March 2018. Khaled Diaa, attorney general for the Supreme State Security Prosecution, referred him along with 30 other defendants in that case to an Emergency State Security Criminal Court on August 23. Diaa also referred Abd al-Moniem Abu al-Fotouh, former presidential candidate and head of the Strong Egypt party, to the emergency courts for trial on August 25. He had been in pretrial detention since February 2018. Ziad al-Elaimy, a former member of parliament, was referred to the emergency courts on July 25. He had been in pretrial detention since June 2019.

The emergency courts' verdicts are not subject to appeal before a higher court, but require final approval by President al-Sisi or someone designated by him.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Egypt, guarantees the right of everyone convicted of a crime to appeal the decision and have their conviction and sentence reviewed by an independent judicial body. The Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Assistance in Africa state that an entitlement to a higher judicial body is one of the "essential elements of a fair hearing."

"The referral of these cases to emergency courts for trial - immediately before the end to the nationwide state of emergency - is a blatant attempt by the Egyptian government to undermine justice for these well-known activists and politicians," Stork said. "This legal manipulation reveals the travesty of Egypt's justice system when it comes to political dissent."

Alaa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed al-Baqer, and Mohamed Ibrahim

The Emergency State Security Court trial of Alaa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed al-Baqer, and Mohamed Ibrahim has been marred by numerous fair trial and due process violations. Family members of Abdel Fattah told Human Rights Watch that his lawyers were only able to view the case files in the presence of the State Security Prosecution, and that the court consistently ignored their repeated requests for a copy of the approximately 2,000-page document. Announcement of a verdict in the case has been scheduled after only three sessions for December 20.

All three have faced horrific prison conditions in Tora Prison Complex. A statement his family released on October 9, 2019, said that Abdel Fattah had been "slapped and kicked as he passed the prison door, was told to strip to his underwear, then forced to walk down a corridor of people who beat him on his back and his neck." His family told Human Rights Watch that authorities have denied him access to reading materials, radio, and the prison library as well as recreational time outside of his cell.

In November 2020, Egyptian authorities arbitrarily placed Abdel Fattah, al-Baqer, and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, former presidential candidate and head of the Strong Egypt party, on the country's terrorist list. The Court of Cassation rejected their appeals on November 18, 2021.

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Ibrahim's legal representatives, told Human Rights Watch that the authorities have deprived him of visits by his lawyers and family since February 2020. The group reported that after he attempted suicide in August, his lawyers were not able to visit him to "determine the extent of his physical, mental and psychological well-being." Even after his lawyers obtained an official permit, prison officials refused to allow them to visit Ibrahim at Tora prison.

Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms

On September 11, the day President al-Sisi issued Egypt's "National Strategy for Human Rights," a security court trial began for Ezzat Ghoneim, the group's executive director, and 30 others allegedly associated with the organization on charges of leadership, membership, funding, or support of a terrorist organization. Seventeen of them are being tried in absentia.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution also accused Ghoneim and three other defendants of using the group's Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts to document and expose "alleged involvement of the police in arbitrarily detaining people; killing, torturing and mistreating others; and deliberate medical negligence of prisoners." The order also accused the four of criticizing judicial authorities for "issuing of death sentences without evidence" and the "lack of fairness guarantees in criminal trials."

Egypt's National Security Agency arrested Ghoneim in March 2018 and refused to disclose his whereabouts to family and lawyers, forcibly disappearing him, for three days. After a judge ordered Ghoneim's release on September 4, 2018, the authorities forcibly disappeared him for nearly five months.

Human Rights Watch documented the abusive detention conditions the defendants faced. Prison authorities have routinely denied prison visits and critically needed medical care.

Ten Egyptian human rights organizations on September 9 urged the authorities to immediately release the organization's 14 defendants in custody, stressing that the exceptional courts "fall far short of minimum fair trial guarantees" and said that the charges are "at the heart of legitimate defense of human rights, both a right and a duty."

Ziad al-Elaimy, Hisham Fouad, and Hossam Mo'nis

In June 2019, the authorities arrested Ziad al-Elaimy, a former parliament member, and Hisham Fouad and Hossam Mo'nis, both journalists, after they planned to form a political coalition to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

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Lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the case was referred to an Emergency State Security Court for trial on July 25 after they had been held in pretrial detention for over two years. On November 17, an Egyptian Emergency State Security Misdemeanor Court sentenced al-Elaimy to five years in prison and Fouad and Mo'nis to four years on the charge of "spreading false news." There has been no indication that President al-Sisi has ratified the ruling.

Abd al-Moniem Abu al-Fotouh

Egyptian authorities in February 2018 arrested Abd al-Moniem Abu al-Fotouh, a 2012 presidential candidate and head of the Strong Egypt Party, on charges of "spreading false news" and "leading an outlawed group" and held him in pretrial detention for over three years. On August 25, the authorities referred his case to an Emergency State Security Criminal Court for trial, which began November 24.

Security forces arrested Abu al-Fotouh a few hours after he returned from London, where he gave interviews to several media outlets, including Al Jazeera, BBC Arabic, and Al Araby TV, criticizing President al-Sisi and what he said was an "environment of fear" surrounding the 2018 presidential elections.

The 69-year-old former presidential candidate has been kept in solitary confinement in Tora Prison. His family reported that he suffered symptoms resembling a heart attack in July. He sought help for hours from the prison guards with no response, his family said.

Prolonged solitary confinement amounts to inhuman or degrading treatment, and can amount to torture under international legal standards.

Abu al-Fotouh suffers from a number of medical conditions predating his detention, including hypertension and diabetes, and developed a herniated vertebral disc while in prison. The authorities prevented him from undergoing prostate surgery that was scheduled before his arrest.

On December 12, during a detention renewal court session, his lawyer, Ahmed Abo Elela Mady, said that Abu al-Fotouh's health was deteriorating owing to his solitary confinement.
Khartoum  The following articles have drawn the editor's attention in the week's press commentaries and editorials.

The first article is a commentary on General Burhan's angry remarks about what he called endeavors by foreign diplomatic missions to invoke sedition in Sudan. The second article is a discussion of Prime Minister Abdall Hamdok's delay in forming his new government and the third and last article is a critique of the recently announced agreement between Darfur Governor, Mr. Minnawi, and the UAE Dubai Ports Company to build a land port and railway facilities in Darfur.

Dr. Murtada Alghali has decried the recent comment by chairman of the Sovereignty Council (the head of state), General Abdelfattah Alburhan, in which he said that foreign diplomatic missions he did not specify were engaged in what he called acts of sedition in Sudan and that they try to instigate the public against the army.

Writing in the daily newspaper Aldemograti (the democrat), said Dr. Alghali:

General Burhan's speech is sick talk, infested with more than one disease. On the one hand Burhan wants to say that the people of Sudan are no more than ill-advised ignorant groups who can be instigated by foreigners!

He pretty well knows that the Revolution's youths and the Sudanese masses when they went out barehanded all over the country to call for freedom and dignity in the face of the repression of the deposed National Salvation regime, its brutal arsenal and armed militias, did not obtain permission from America, Europe or the United Nations to do so.

They did not ask for UN Security Council permission to allow them to go out in the streets to demand freedom.

The second and third matter is that the Sudanese people do not wait for anybody to turn them against the army, simply because the Sudanese are not against their army, but are against the group of officers that wants to steal the name of the army to achieve its personal objectives.

It is the people who feel "great jealousy" about their army and want it to become a national, professional, respectful and cohesive institution committed to the rules of protecting the country under one banner and away from the threats of parallel militias.

And, does Burhan feel that he is more patriotic and more sensitive towards foreign intervention in the country's affairs than the Sudanese people? Does he feel that he is more careful about maintaining the dignity of the country and its independence than the Sudanese people and the youths of the Revolution who are giving lessons in patriotism and freedom from international subordination and the policy for jumping across axes brought about in the country by the defunct regime of Omar Albashir?

Burhan talk rotates and recycles the obsolete language the deposed Bashir had used to sing in our ears. Of this was his talk that he (Bashir) had once met the British Ambassador and gave her a tough lesson not to interfere in Sudan's internal affairs!

@@@@@

About the plan by PM Hamdok to form a government of independent technocrats to be accepted by the public and supported by big parties, wrote Mr. Osman Mohammad Hassan in the electronic publication Sudanile:

The plan to form a government with these specifications seems unrealistic. Hamdok's initial attempts in this endeavor were met with rejection from the honorable technocrats he contacted. These have refused to work with Hamdok in a government they consider the daughter of a military coup which is despised by the majority of the Sudanese people. For instance, he (Hamdok) has asked agricultural expert, Dr. Maymoona Abuharaz to become his Minister of Agriculture. But she turned down the offer which she considered serves Hamdok's collusion with the military against the high interests of Sudan.

Prof. Maymoona has expressed her feeling about that offer in an angry audio message in which she spoke about the hegemony of Burhan's Sovereignty Council over the judicial work, beginning with the appointment of the chief justice... etc... and also the Council's encroachment on the jurisdictions of the Council of Ministers when it said it would "supervise" the Council of Ministers' action .

Accordingly, there is no wonder in the delay in the formation of the Hamdok Government for about a month after the "Political Agreement" was signed by Burhan and Hamdok.

Hamdok is still doing his best to recruit honorable technocrats to his government and there is no technocrat in the horizon who can give up his personal and scientific pride to serve in a government which is a cats paw of some regional countries and (at the same time) prepares and (beautifies) itself to fall in the arms of the U.S and Western countries.

Supposing that Hamdok has managed to form his required government the people of Sudan will not accept it and will continue to chant out: No Going back..and Just Down..Down with Military Rule!

For that the Revolution against the military coup will continue nonstop. The people will not accept such a government like the one Hamdok is trying to form whatever he (Hamdok), the Arab axis countries and Mr. Volker Perthes, the UN Mission Chief do, simply because all of these are just after their own interests.

And if Hamdok is counting on leaderships like the Umma (nation) Party Chairman, Retired Major General Fadlalla Burma Nasir, and the other safe- landing political parties leaderships, to persuade the public to support his new cabinet, he is wrong. These figures have lost every public sympathy, even within their own parties' youthful cadres who have vowed to defend their country until the end.

@@@@@

It was announced early in the week that Darfur Governor, Minni Arko Minnawi, has sealed a deal with the Dubai Ports Company of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) to build a land port and railway facilities in Darfur.

A lot of Sudanese writers have often been critical of the UAE Government's dubious movements in Sudan, specially around the country's ports.

The writers also blame that country for seeking to undermine the country's economy and freedom.

On this issue wrote outspoken writer, Ms. Hanadi Alsiddiq, in the daily journal Aljareeda (the newspaper):

In the absence of democracy and good governance, many officials think our country is a private property of theirs, free to do with it what they want, in complete violation of the country's laws, rules and regulations.

Darfur Governor Arko Minni Minnawi has sealed a deal with the Dubai Ports Company to build a land port and railway lines in Darfur.

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This agreement is a national catastrophe par excellence. That is because it is this same company the Sudanese people had revolted against and rejected when brother to the deposed Bashir sealed a deal with it to run the Sudan's major Red Sea ports.

Minnawi wants with this agreement to give this same company, which was driven away from many countries including the U.S.A and Somalia, access into the lands of Sudan via Darfur in which Minnawi has become ruler after the Juba Peace Agreement.

The fact of the matter is that this Company has no relation with ports, whatsoever. It is an alliance of local, regional and international intelligence agencies whose first goal is to control the Sudan's rich and diverse natural resources.

It has become imperative and necessary for the protesters to call for toppling this man (Minnawi) in order to stop his unilateral attempts to sell out and reallocate the lands and wealth of Sudan through Darfur, which he now considers a private property of his.

Further, this may also explain the causes of the daily massacres in Jebel Moon in West Darfur, the Algenaina town villages and in South and West Darfur the magnitude of which has by far exceeded those of last year (before the Juba peace agreement was signed)

This is enough reason to raise suspicions that this is a carefully planned design by foreign circles to control the area's diverse riches of gold, uranium, copper, iron and other minerals, in addition to its animal resources of horses and camels.

In conclusion, I must say that any further presence of Minnawi in Darfur will lead the country into inescapable catastrophes and may copy the separation of Southern Sudan in Darfur. For this reason, vigilance is necessary!
editorial

THE onset of the rainy season has brought with it a lot of joy especially for the farmers who have lived the last month or two in fear of poor harvest this farming season due to a possible drought.

This also takes away fears of imminent hunger due to the lack of sufficient food to go round for the close to 20 million Zambians.

But with the coming of the rains, also comes the drop in temperature from the near heat-wave to pretty low temperatures.

But unfortunately, as one relief in terms of security comes also arrives a spike in the numbers of fresh cases of the deadly coronavirus which we have lived with for a full two years now.

The daily statistics coming from the Ministry of Health are not quiet what anyone in Zambia wishes to see as the new cases are hitting a 1,000 mark without breaking a sweat.

This is an enviable situation Zambians can only blame themselves after dropping the guard when the temperatures rose with the country then going weeks without a new case.

But now as expected, the cases are on the rise and worse is the fact that there is a new variant of the virus called the omicron which is making the rounds, spreading faster than the Delta mutant which killed millions in the last wave.

Calls for citizens to go and get vaccinated has not received the desired response and it looks like most Zambians are still hung on the myths about the jab and its possible aftereffects.

We advise people to go and get vaccinated to avoid what Water Development and Sanitation Minister Mike Mposha warned by saying an uncontrollable rise in the number of new cases and a low vaccination percentage would only lead to measures like the closure of certain sectors like schools and business.

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We all don't want that and it is our plea to the citizens to always practice the five golden rules set out by the World Health Organisation and domesticated by the Ministry of Health and they include keeping social distance, masking up at all times and sanitising as regularly as possible among others.

Keeping with these golden rules would make Zambia a safer place for everyone.

It would be sad to see travel restrictions imposed. So before the country gets to these levels, it is better for each Zambian to take the necessary steps of preventing the spread of the virus.

So as we celebrate the coming of the rains, get ready for Christmas and the coming of the New Year, we have to remember that we are living in strange times which call for a change in habits to be able to see and enjoy the harvest that these rains will bring.

Let's all stay safe.
Tunis/Tunisia  The Public Prosecutor's Office has ordered the seizure of equipment intended for the installation of tents on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, the Ministry of the Interior announced in a statement Saturday evening.

The seizure of this material takes place as a group of individuals deliberately tried at around 2 pm Saturday to install by force tents in the heart of the capital to stage a sit-in, in violation of regulations in force, added the Interior Department

According to the same source, the public prosecutor has also ordered the evacuation of the public road and the prosecution of "alleged" attackers of police. "A specialised team of the National Guard has been mobilised to arrest at least 10 suspects," the ministry further noted. An investigation has been initiated.
In 2021, Africa Check has been busy working with less connected communities. Here's what we learnt.

It has been over 18 months of fact-checking misinformation related to Covid-19 in Kenya, the bulk of which has been about the virus's origin, transmission, treatment and cure. Vaccines have also not been spared.

The main platforms for false information have included Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

However, as the infodemic - an avalanche of too much information - persisted, we realised that focusing on open platforms was leaving out closed ones that were just as influential, such as messaging service WhatsApp. We dived deeper into this, and shared useful lessons from our experiences. We further came up with effective strategies to fight misinformation on social media.

But we have also explored other innovative approaches to fight false information in society:

We have tried using digital media influencers to share engaging factual content.

We deployed fact ambassadors to share accurate information in their WhatsApp groups and networks.

We have also used radio theatre in Senegal and Nigeria to educate people about the dangers of health misinformation - including debunking harmful myths.

As we deployed all these strategies, we realised there was a missing link: offline rural communities in Kenya. These are people without smartphones or internet connections who depend on community radio stations for their news.

With the support of DW Akademie and European Union funding we came together to campaign for reliable information. We conducted over 40 media literacy shows with different community radio stations in different parts of the country, and offered bespoke fact-checking and verification training to nearly 100 community radio journalists.

What did we learn? Three key things proved useful in helping interrupt the cycle of Covid-19 misinformation and to stem the tide of anti-vaccine rhetoric among less connected communities in Kenya.

1. Unverified information gets on air and is amplified as part of call-in shows

In a live show on one of the radio stations, a caller told the presenter that since receiving the Covid-19 vaccine she had been "unable to do anything".

"It has been weeks," she said, "but I just feel tired. It is like the vaccine took my energy away."

Unfortunately, the presenter used that anecdote to solicit more comments from the audience.

"We have heard that the vaccine makes you weak and that it takes away your energy. What else are you people experiencing? Talk to me," she said.

It took the intervention of one caller to explain that fatigue is a side effect of the vaccine, and that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this should subside after a few days.

This second caller further pushed for accurate information.

"People should stop saying 'I heard that the vaccine does this or that'. If they have a question, let them ask a doctor. Sometimes, what you hear are just rumours concocted out here and passed around as fact," he said.

The useful lesson in that episode was that we needed to train radio journalists and presenters to be aware of the different ways in which false information travels, and to make them disrupt its flow through their platforms.

It may be in a presenter's toolbox to sensationalise information to keep their audience engaged. Still, if they must do that, they should err on the side of facts and not help give wings to misinformation. Doing so could put lives in danger.

2. People want to hear from experts in a language they understand

While we were doing the media literacy campaign on community radios, the editors told us that they had previously hosted experts to speak about Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation, but the expertise was inaccessible to their listeners because of language.

So we specifically focused on doing the interviews in Kiswahili. In one instance, we appeared on Sky FM, which broadcasts in the Luo language, and the presenters helped translate the content live on air.

When some of the listeners called in, it was really satisfying to hear their illuminating questions, useful anecdotes and helpful feedback about just how much they had learned, and what they needed more information about.

They also asked direct questions on specific rumours regarding vaccine efficacy, safety and side-effects - questions which fact-checkers had already debunked. It was a joy amplifying that accurate information.

After the radio show, many understood why it was safer to take a vaccine, maintain social distance, wear a well-fitting mask, and wash hands frequently.

3. We are fact-checkers, not experts

"Is it safe to take the vaccine if I have arthritis and high blood pressure?" one caller asked us.

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The short answer is: "Yes, but you will need to present yourself to a health facility and explain your condition to a health worker. They are the ones to determine whether the vaccine will be safe for you".

WHO experts recommend that people with pre-existing conditions receive Covid-19 vaccines. But, where possible, they should get the jab only after a medical worker has assessed the stability of their condition.

"Those who should consult with a doctor before vaccination include people with a compromised immune system, older people with severe frailty, people with a history of severe allergic reaction to vaccines, people living with HIV, and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding," the WHO notes.

It is the job of a fact-checker to amplify what the experts say, and not to claim to be an expert. We should always make this clear to our audience and cite our sources transparently, to allow the listeners to vet the information themselves and to build trust about the quality of our content.

The job is to educate listeners on what they should do to detect health misinformation, how they can verify that information, and where they can get credible health information. It is to let them know that whenever they hear a claim, they must ask for proof, vet the evidence, and ask health experts - doctors or nurses - to fill in information gaps.
In Buea, in the South-West region of Cameroon, single-use plastic bags can easily be found at local markets despite a ban brought in seven years ago. With the ongoing security crisis in the Anglophone regions, police no longer have time to enforce the rules.

Trader Julius Nga parks his wheelbarrow filled with onions, garlic, salt and bouillon cubes to sell to customers at Soppo market. He also has the plastic-backed white butcher paper for sale, a product that was banned more than seven years ago.

Today, unlike in the past, Nga doesn't have any problems with government controllers who monitor single-use plastics.

"There are times that the police have come to the market, seizing all the plastic, but I have not seen them recently," he says.

Some seven years after the government in Cameroon banned the use of single-use plastic, the non-biodegradable product is still found in markets and on the streets of Buea.

Pharmacies, bakeries, supermarkets and distributors of plastic packaging were initially targeted, but security problems in the region mean police are busy elsewhere.

The plastic is easy to find, says packaging dealer Collins Njoh.

"We buy some bags from Douala but others, like the butcher paper wraps are being imported from Nigeria," says Njoh, adding that while the control team from the Delegation of Environment used to bother them, they no longer do.

"There are times police enter the market for control. We were being bothered but as a family man you can't sit in the house without doing anything, so I am just managing," he says.

No alternatives?

Njoh and others who spoke to Africa Calling's Batata Boris Karloff say they know that they shouldn't use this plastic because it is not biodegradable. Small traders, commonly called buyam- sellams say they can't find alternatives, however.

Market orange-seller Elizabeth Ngomo says she's aware of the dangers of using non-biodegradable plastics.

"They told us that the wrappings cannot decay. And I am not happy selling with them but I don't have a choice because there no alternatives that could use," she says.

Packaging by Ekose was founded a year after the deadline on single-use plastic imposed by the Cameroon government.

The paper bag manufacturer distributes in major towns like Douala, Maroua, Yaounde, and Buea. Founder Hamlet Tandy admits there are some challenges like a hike in prices of raw materials, as well the difficulty in finding skilled staff.

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"Everybody that choses paper bags over plastics helps to protect the environment," Tandy, the founder of the company.

"Once you do that, you know that in a little way you have contributed in protecting the environment because paper tears down faster than plastics," he says.

Anglophone crisis

The government's regional delegations recorded some success at the initial stage of the ban but with the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis and lack of alternatives, an all-out ban has proven difficult.

The conflict between the army and separatists in the North-West and South-West English-speaking regions has killed more than 3,500 people and displaced around 700,000 since it began in 2017.

"When any thin plastic is intercepted at the port we are informed so that measures are put in place to destroy the plastic," South-West region environment chief Patience Asanji Dufela says.

She says that the government decided to stick to patrolling illegal plastic on the borders, rather than going into the markets, due to the ongoing insecurity.

"Our chief of post and the custom duty people help intercept plastic at the borders, but you know, Cameroon, especially the South-West, has a large border with Nigeria, so we can't say it's been 100 percent successful," she adds.
Tunis/Tunisia  Clashes resumed on Sunday evening in Kasserine governorate's Ennour neighbourhood between security forces and young protesters for the 3rd consecutive night, burning tires and throwing stones at security units deployed on the neighbourhood's main street, witnesses said.

The protesters were dispersed by security forces with tear gas, the witnesses added.

A reinforced security deployment is in place in the Ennour neighbourhood, according to the same source, knowing that a military unit has been stationed there since Saturday to protect public properties, after the resumption of night clashes.
Ahora | El presidente @PedroCastilloTe participa en la clausura del ano electivo de la Academia Diplomatica del Peru e incorporacion al Servicio Diplomatico de la Republica de los alumnos de la promocion N 59.

??En vivo: https://t.co/Zm5OgV17yV
#PorLosTrabajadores |??El presidente @PedroCastilloTe, junto a la titular del @MTPE_Peru, lidero la ceremonia de lanzamiento de la Escuela Nacional de Estudios Sindicales, la cual brindara capacitaciones acerca de la normativa sociolaboral y de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo. pic.twitter.com/oa8pPVWVog
#RegionCajamarca | ? El presidente @PedroCastilloTe participo de la entrega de tractores a organizaciones agrarias de la comunidad campesina de Michiquillay, como parte del programa Agroideas. ???? pic.twitter.com/pPWPyBvM5x
While addressing graduates, the Commander-in-Chief called on them to feel proud of belonging to one of the nation's tutelary institutions.

Likewise, the Head of State reminded them that the journey has just begun, adding that they will surely face obstacles.

"However, difficulties are the ones which toughen us and put our convictions, our morale, our determination, our courage, and our love for Peru to the test," he emphasized.

According to the top official, the efforts to be undertaken by them will demand exclusive dedication, austere life, leadership, and attachment to patriotic values.

"We will not surrender to the threats that may emerge to the detriment of the country," he pointed out.

Similarly, the President reiterated his call to continue working in unity and lay the foundations which lead towards building a more just, equitable, and sustainable country.

?El presidente @PedroCastilloTe, junto a la premier @MirtyVas y titular del @MindefPeru, lidero la ceremonia de graduacion de los alfereces de fragata de la Escuela Naval del Peru. ???? pic.twitter.com/7GjTdV8bPo
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a decree on dissolving the Specialized Commission for Constitutional Reforms which was created on February 12 and instead creating a Constitutional Reforms Council.

The Council will be presided by the Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan.

Members of the Council will include the Representative of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on State-Legal Affairs, the Human Rights Defender, one Member of Parliament from each parliamentary faction, one representative from the Supreme Judicial Council, three representatives nominated by political parties (alliances) which didnt participate in the distribution of mandates of the 8th parliament (parties eligible for nominating representatives must have participated in at least two parliamentary elections in at least the last 5 years. Three representatives nominated by NGOs registered in Armenia will also be included in the Council.

The Minister of Justice is entitled to nominate two representatives as additional members in the capacity of consultants (human rights protection, rule of law, strengthening of democratic system, legislative improvement, development of the judiciary system) from international organizations whove been working in Armenia for at least 5 consecutive years.

The Council will form a specialized commission for constitutional reforms composed from 5 members. The members of the commission will be elected by the council.

The Minister of Justice will present the composition of the council for the PMs approval within a one-month period.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a private meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in Tbilisi on the sidelines of his working visit, the Armenian PMs Office reports.

The sides highlighted the holding of the session of the Armenian-Georgian inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation in Tbilisi, aimed at further developing and strengthening the bilateral commercial ties.

The Armenian and Georgian PMs expressed confidence that there is a great potential to expand the economic ties between the two countries, stating that efforts must be made to effectively exercise that potential.

The officials also exchanged views about the developments in the South Caucasus, as well as other issues of mutual interest.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan had a meeting today with Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin, Ter-Petrosyans spokesperson Arman Musinyan said on social media.

The meeting took place at the former Presidents house.

During the meeting they exchanged views about the regional developments and praised the stabilization trends that are being noticed, the spokesperson said.
On December 20, a new outpatient department has been opened at the Caroline Cox Rehabilitation Center in Stepanakert.

December 20, 2021, 17:34 New outpatient department opened at the Caroline Cox Rehabilitation Center in Stepanakert

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 20, ARTSAKHPRESS: As "Artsakhpress" reports, it was renovated and furnished with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"Our center receives a lot of attention after the 44-day Artsakh war. With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the center's staircase and ramp have been covered, making the treatment of the beneficiaries quite comfortable.

At the same time, a new small ward was built for outpatients. It has been equipped with the financial support of the Armenian Medical Foundation. We have also received support from the "Hayastan" faction of the RA National Assembly, as well as from various sponsors, in favor of those boys and people with disabilities who need to recover quickly. In this new department, which is equipped with quite expensive and modern equipment, people who have walking and mobility problems will receive treatment," said Vardan Tadevosyan, Director of the Rehabilitation Center.

Head of the Nagorno-Karabakh Mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross Bertrand Lamon, thanked the center's director and staff for their dedication, professionalism and compassionate work, noting that they would definitely continue to support the center during the coming year.

In his speech, the Minister of Health of the Republic of Artsakh Mikael Hayriyan expressed his satisfaction with the work done, both the building conditions and the quality of the equipment.
Elon Musk, the world's richest person, has tweeted he will pay $11bn (8.3bn) in tax for this year.

Mr Musk has been embroiled in a public debate on social media over how much tax he pays.

Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Mr Musk should stop "freeloading off everyone else".

"For those wondering, I will pay over $11bn in taxes this year," the billionaire responded.

For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021

Mr Musk, co-founder of electric car maker Tesla and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, became the world's richest person earlier this year.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts his wealth at $243bn, while Tesla is worth around $1tn and SpaceX is worth $100bn.

Last week, Mr Musk was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

That prompted Senator Warren to tweet: "Let's change the rigged tax code so 'The Person of the Year' will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else."

Lets change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else. https://t.co/jqQxL9Run6  Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 13, 2021

US President Joe Biden is keen to increase taxes on the ultra-rich, although legislative plans have so far stalled in Congress.

Some senators, including Ms Warren, have backed the idea of taxing not only the income of America's richest citizens, but also the rising value of the assets they hold, like shares.

Many of America's wealthiest citizens don't take a directly taxable salary. Instead, they hold their wealth in shares and other investments, then take out loans using those assets as collateral.

Story continues

Mr Musk responded to Senator Warren's tweet, saying he would be paying "more taxes than any American in history this year".

'Mind-boggling'

Columbia University professor and tax expert, Robert Willens, said that was likely to be a fair comment from Mr Musk, who had made himself liable for "mind-boggling amounts of taxable income" in 2020, through exercising stock options that would otherwise have expired and been worthless.

Stock options are agreements that the holder can purchase a stock at a set price in the future.

The current value of Tesla shares is significantly higher than when Mr Musk was granted the original stock options, so the value he gains by exercising those options would be considerable and would count as taxable income, added Mr Willens.

"[Mr Musk] probably felt it would be prudent to generate as much taxable income in 2021 as possible, on the theory that income in 2022 might be taxed at higher rates," he explained.

If some of Congress' more radical measures were enacted, that would have had a big impact on Mr Musk's tax liabilities, Mr Willens added.

The bulk of Mr Musk's tax payment, to be made next year, will go to federal tax authorities, but the state of California, where Tesla and Mr Musk have been based until recently, will also claim a portion.

Earlier this month, Tesla announced in a US Securities Exchange Corporation (SEC) filing that it was moving its corporate headquarters to Texas - a plan Mr Musk had hinted at in media interviews for several months, citing unhappiness with the Californian state government laws and criticising the high cost of living in Silicon Valley.

Texas has more lenient tax rules - it does not collect income tax, in contrast to California, which has the highest income tax rates among US states, according to thinktank the Tax Foundation.

Over the last few weeks, Mr Musk has sold around $14bn of Tesla shares, which Mr Willens said was likely to be in part in order to generate cash to satisfy his tax liabilities.

While the numbers involved in the case of Mr Musk were exceptional, this was a standard approach for a corporate executive to take to expiring stock options, he added.
Its that time of year for a list of the most compelling books I read this year. It was difficult to whittle the list down to only 10, because I read so many great books in 2021. These are the books I still think about, some long after I read them.

Lauren Willigs Band of Sisters tells the fictionalized story of the all-female Smith College alumni who traveled to France during World War I to aid villagers displaced by the war. Willig based her novel on letters written by the real women who risked their lives to help others, and it is a riveting tale of bravery and friendship.

Nancy Johnsons debut novel, The Kindest Lie," is set just after the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Ruth Tuttle, a Yale-educated Black engineer in Chicago, returns to her small hometown to discover what happened to the baby she secretly gave birth to the summer before she went away to college. Its a poignant tale of race, family, secrets and class.

Patry Francis novel All The Children Are Home begins in 1959, and centers on Louie and Dahlia and the foster children they take in and adopt. Dahlia is an unforgettable character, and this story of what it means to be a family is heartwarming, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful.

Julietta Hendersons The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman is a road trip tale about 12-year-old Normans quest to perform standup comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to honor his best friend Jax, who died. Norman and his mom Sadie set out on a journey and meet some kind people who help them along the way. This lovely story will restore your faith in humanity.

Amor Towles The Lincoln Highway is also a road trip story. Set in 1954, Emmett returns home to Nebraska to his 8-year-old brother after a stay in a juvenile facility. He wants to move to California but is waylaid after two young men escape from the facility and convince him to drive them to New York. Its an epic tale filled with many fascinating characters.

Damhnait Monaghans delightful debut novel, New Girl in Little Cove, takes place in a small town in Newfoundland after Rachel leaves Toronto to teach there. The characters in this town take her in and make her feel like one of their own. If you like a good small town story, this one will make you smile.

Another wonderful small town story is Katherine Heinys Early Morning Riser." When young second grade teacher Jane locks herself out of her house, she meets and falls in love with Duncan, the locksmith who comes to her rescue. Jane becomes involved with Duncans formidable ex-wife, Aggie, Aggies quirky new husband, Gary, and Jimmy, a young man who works for Duncan. The story moves from 2002 to 2018 as we see how a tragedy brings all these people together as a family. Its such a lovely story.

Louise Erdrichs new novel, The Sentence, is about Tookie, an Indigenous woman who finds a job in an independent bookstore after her release from prison. Tookie is being haunted at the bookstore by Flora, a customer who died on All Souls Day. The story is set in Minneapolis from 2019 to 2020 and also deals with the pandemic and the fallout of George Floyds murder, which took place nearby. It is a thought-provoking, elegantly written story that will appeal to book lovers.

There are two nonfiction books on my list this year. Eleanor Hendersons Everything I Have Is Yours shares the story of her marriage to a man who suffers from a severely painful chronic condition that may or may not be psychological in nature. Henderson holds down a full-time job, cares for her two young sons and her husband, and maneuvers the maze that is health care in this country. This brilliantly written book illuminates what it means to be committed to your marriage and love so deeply.

Amber and Lacey Ruffins Youll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey describes the many situations that Lacey deals with on a daily basis as a Black woman in Omaha. I shook my head in disbelief as they share with humor and dismay the things people say and do to Lacey, not realizing or perhaps not caring how hurtful or harmful it can be. Its an eye-opener of a book.

I hope you read many great books this year as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. You can follow her on Twitter @bookchickdi, and she can be emailed at laruediane2000@yahoo.com.

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It was a full year of living with a global pandemic, a story that continued to fill our print pages each week because of its local impact. But
US President Joe Biden wants to offer tax credits to union-made electric vehicles in the country but while his plans have come under heavy criticism from Canada and Mexico due to allegations of protectionism, the policy bill could also face roadblock in the US Senate. This after Reuters reported that a Senate Democrat has voiced his opposition to the bill.

Reuters reported that West Virginia's Joe Manchin is against supporting the bill which is also called Build Back Better. He is believed to have called it wrong and not American.

Manchin's opposition could delver a fatal blow to Biden's plans which have anyway come under scrutiny from neighboring countries as well as EV players within the US, Tesla being the most notable.

At present, an amount up to $7,500 is offered as EV tax credit but the bill Biden wants to push through aims to take this up to $12,500 for union-made US EVs. The eventual aim is for 50% of all new vehicles sold within the US to be either electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030.

But Canada and Mexico have warned of retaliatory measures if US pushes through with the bill. This is possibly because a number of car brands have plants in these two countries and a special incentive within the US for union-made EVs here could see demand for such EVs replacing demand for units coming in from Canada and Mexico.

Earlier this month, Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, in a letter to US senators, stated that Ottawa is 'deeply concerned' by the EV tax credit. The letter said that this move violets the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and is being seen as a major threat to the Canadian automotive industry.

Mexico isn't smiling either. "This bill is not consistent with the US obligations under the TMC and the rules of World Trade Organization. We would apply trade reprisals," said Tatiana Clouthier, Mexico's Secretary of the Economy. (Read full report here)

There have been opposition in varying degree from Japan and European Union too.

The likes of Tesla and Toyota too aren't gung ho about the tax credit proposal either. Tesla does not have unions representing assembly workers. Toyota does have a plant in West Virginia but its employees aren't union members. The opposition, therefore, is understandable.
For anyone who may have thought that the new year would bring about some miraculous solution to the semiconductor shortage plaguing the automotive industry needs to think again. The unprecedented and possibly crippling crisis is most likely to retain its dubious nature minus a solution for at least several months of 2022 with Toyota Motor Corp announcing it will have to halt production at five of its plants in January.

Toyota has set itself a goal of manufacturing nine million vehicles next year - down from previously stated 9.3 million - and while it says that the halt in production at its five facilities won't impact this overall goal, production of 20,000 vehicles is likely to take a hit in the short term.

The decision to halt production at five of its plants comes just days after Toyota had said it is eyeing a record January production of 800,000 cars, 60,000 more than the number of units rolled out in January of 2021. (Full report here)

Toyota is the world's largest automobile manufacturer but like most other major brands, the chip shortage has meant the going has been significantly tough. In North America for instance, the Japanese company expects production in January to come down to 50,000 units.

It remains to be seen if the persisting chip shortage crisis also potentially affects Toyota's massive plans of going electric. The company recently announced its plans of having as many as 16 battery-powered vehicles in its global lineup to take on the likes of Tesla, Volkswagen and others. The bZ4X is gearing up for a US launch next year and will be followed by a number of other models, including an all-electric midsize sedan and a large electric SUV. But the more immediate challenge of getting supplies and production schedules in place is likely to take the bulk of energies.

(With input from Reuters)
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.

HUAWEIs intelligent vehicle test field to start operation in 2022

HUAWEIs intelligent vehicle test field in the Yangcheng peninsula is expected to start operation in 2022. The test field takes up 600 acres of land, with a systematic test lab, an intelligent driving test zone, and a dynamic performance test zone that meet strict testing demands, ensuring delivery of high-quality products.

Photo credit: HUAWEI



Geely Holding becomes shareholder of its founders handphone company

The founder and president of Geely Holding, Li Shufus handphone company, Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co., Ltd., has recently added Geely Holding to its list of shareholders and raised its registered capital from RMB80 million to RMB650 million. After the changes, Geely Holding has become the companys largest shareholder at 35.54%, while Li Shufus stake dropped from 55% to 6.77%.

XPeng Inc. related company enforced to repay RMB5.76 million

Zhaoqing XPeng Automobile Co., Ltd. was sanctioned to repay its creditor RMB5,768,228 by the Peoples Court of Sihui City. The case was categorized as a construction work contract dispute.

P7; photo credit: XPeng



Hyundai Motor China appoints Hyuk-Joon Lee as new president

The current vice president of Hyundai Motor Group (China), Hyuk-Joon Lee, was appointed as the companys new president in China, replacing Kwang-Guk Lee, affective on January 1st, 2022.

Chairman of Leapmotor resigns from the Dahua Technology board



Chairman of Chinas EV startup, Leapmotor, Zhu Jiangming, has resigned from Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd.s board of directors to dedicate himself solely to Leapmotors business.

CATL breaks ground on 7 billion yuan battery manufacturing base in Xiamen

On Dec. 19, 2021, Chinese power battery giant CATL held the ground-breaking ceremony for its new-type lithium ion battery manufacturing base in Xiamen city, Fujian Province.

Baidu intelligent driving group said to be independent company

Baidu's intelligent driving group (IDG) is said to be independent of Baidu Group, having transferred employees and assets to several Baidus subsidiariess, sources inside IDG told local media outlet, Tencent Shenwang.

Gotion High-Tech reveals intention to build battery manufacturing JV in U.S.

Gotion High-Tech Co.,Ltd. (the Company) announced on Dec. 20 its wholly-owned sub-subsidiary, GOTION, INC. has deepened the cooperation with its client, a large-sized publicly listed U.S.-based automobile company (the Client), by signing a strategic supply and localization agreement (the Agreement).

Dongfeng Motor officially withdraws from Dongfeng Yueda Kia

Dongfeng Motor Corporations formerly reported transfer of its 25% stake in Dongfeng Yueda Kia, its joint venture with South Koreas Kia Motors and Chinas Yueda Group was completed, according to Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (SUAEE).

Telecom giant ZTE partners with Neusoft Reach for automotive OS

Chinas telecom giant ZTE has signed a strategic partnership framework agreement with Chinas major software company Neusoft Reach, to develop an automotive operation system that meets the market demands.

BYD to build 15GWh power battery manufacturing base in Fuzhou, Jiangxi



On Dec. 17, BYD signed an investment deal with the municipal government of Fuzhou, China's Jiangxi province to build a new EV power battery base.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu's intelligent driving group (IDG) is said to be independent of Baidu Group, having transferred employees and assets to several Baidus subsidiariess, sources inside IDG told local media outlet, Tencent Shenwang.

Baidu Apollo; photo credit: Baidu



According to the sources, the staff and assets of IDG have been gradually transferred to several wholly-owned subsidiaries of Baidu. However, employees' titles and treatments remained unchanged. The senior vice president of Baidu and general manager of IDG, Li Zhenyu, said that the changes were made for better operations of IDG, eventually making it an independent company with its own legal representative.

Despite the changes, IDG will still be a business group within Baidu, architecturally speaking, the sources added.

Moreover, it was discovered that after the transfer had been made, several commercial-focused departments of IDG were required to formulate and accomplish their own annual revenue targets. A member from IDG said that currently, aside from Baidu's monetary allocations, the group is mandated to make money by itself.

In September, Baidu's vice president Chu Ruisong, formerly in charge of the group's B2B SaaS cloud-related business, has become the rotating general manager of IDG's vehicle intelligence business unit, reporting to Li Zhenyu.

With Chu Ruisong's leadership, the business strategy of the vehicle intelligence unit was also shifted. An IDG employee said that the unit's main products would change from the original customization pattern into a standardized open SDK pattern, allowing large-scale deliveries. The new strategy is set to rival the TAI V2X from Tencent.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Dec. 19, 2021, Chinese power battery giant CATL held the ground-breaking ceremony for its new-type lithium ion battery manufacturing base in Xiamen city, Fujian Province.



Photo credit: CATL



Located in Xiamen Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, the first phase of the Xiamen battery manufacturing base involves a total investment of 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) and covers a floorage of 710,000 square meters.

The commencement of the construction came after CATL announced this project on Nov. 5. According to the company's statement, the building of the Xiamen battery factory will be managed by Xiamen CATL Co.,Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, and is expected to be completed within 26 months after the construction starts. Thus, the Xiamen manufacturing base is scheduled to begin operation before March 2024.

CATL said this investment is in line with its strategic develop planning, future business development and market expansion demands, and will help the company improve the production capacity.

For the first eleven months of 2021, CATL still ranked highest among power battery manufacturers in China with a battery installed capacity of 65.93GWh, which represented 51.4% market share, according to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA).

Prior to the Xiamen project, CATL also announced this year the battery capacity expansion plans in cities including Ningde, Yibin, Zhaoqing, Liyang, Yichun, and Guiyang, which involve a total investment of no more than 60 billion yuan ($9.407 billion).
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Dec. 17, BYD signed an investment deal with the municipal government of Fuzhou, China's Jiangxi province to build a new EV power battery base.

BYD Blade Battery; photo credit: BYD



Per the agreement, BYD will pour 8 billion yuan ($1.254 billion) in an EV power battery manufacturing project with an annual capacity of 15GWh at Fuzhou Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

The move came after BYD announced the investment in building NEV and auto parts industrial parks in this city.

BYD has set up a subsidiary to support the business operations in Fuzhou. According to the business information search platform Tianyancha, Fuzhou BYD Industry Co.,Ltd., was set up in Sept. 2021 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD Auto Industry Company Limited.

Fudi Industry Co.,Ltd., the battery business unit of BYD Company Limited, built six wholly-owned subsidiaries this year, situated in Chongqing, Wuwei, Yancheng, Jinan, Shaoxing, and Chuzhou, according to Tianyancha. The subsidiary in Chongqing principally focuses on the R&D of battery technologies, while the other five were mainly founded to manage battery manufacturing business.

According to a local media outlet, the Fudi subsidiaries in Wuwei, Yancheng, and Jinan target 10GWh, 30GWh, and 30GWh of annual battery capacity respectively, while the first phase of the Chuzhou Fudi battery base features a design capacity of 5GWh. The capacity of Shaoxing base still remains unknown.
HARTFORD, Conn.  The power industry is entering the winter season with dread.

With prices soaring for natural gas, oil and coal and climate change threatening weather extremes, power generators are bracing for the worst.

I was recently at a board meeting with an RTOs board of directors and they are deathly afraid of this winter, Himanshu Saxena, chief executive officer of Starwood Energy Group LLC told an industry conference in Boston this week, referring to a regional transmission organization, a grid operator.

I think for winter  its really all hands on deck, he said at the New England Energy Summit organized by the New England Power Generators Association.

Saxena said he has agreements to bring in gas, but its not 100% and unavailable gas was a key factor in the failure of the power grid in Texas last February, he said.

In addition, the price of coal is nearly 60% higher than last year because its being exported, Saxena said.

Critics may say they hate coal and other carbon-based fuels, Saxena said. But even if 20% of them went away, your winter is going to look like a disaster, he said.

These once-in-a-hundred year weather events (are) now becoming once in 10 years, once in five years, Saxena said.

Curtis Morgan, chief executive officer of Vistra Corp., a retail electricity and power generation company in Irving, Texas, said zero emission energy such as solar and wind do not generate enough power to keep a regional power system operating. ISO-New England, the regions grid operator, can have a fairly significant amount of their capacity coming in the form of offshore wind, which is going to create a significant challenge for reliability, he said.

He criticized the independent system operators, or ISOs that operate regional power grids, for failing to resist demands for a faster shift to renewable energy.

I want to see us transition but I dont know who really, ultimately is going to call the shots, Morgan said. The ISOs have knuckled under to political pressure and theyre not speaking what they believe, I believe. I think theyre saying what the politicians want to hear.

I think you know what the end of this is. I think New England is the next region of the country that can have issues with having adequate supply of electricity, Morgan said. Im not trying to scare people. Im just telling you this is where this is headed.

He called for a balance between reliability, affordability and emissions.

Because right now there is such a huge focus on the emissions component, Morgan. But if we allow our electric grid without forethought, without reliability as the No. 1 thing youre going to see this happen and itll happen up here just as like it did in California and Texas.

The gloomy outlook follows by one week a warning by ISO-New England that power outages are possible if an extended cold snap this winter grips the region and fuel supplies are pinched as demand spikes.

The president of ISO-New England, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, said the regions grid is vulnerable to extreme weather while utilities, generators, regulators and others who make up the grid are looking to move away from carbon-based fuel.

Gary Lambert, chief executive officer of Competitive Power Ventures, an electric power generation development and asset management company in Silver Spring, Maryland, said regulators in New England put up too many regulatory hurdles that slow the expansion of generating or transmission systems.

New England is a very parochial, difficult permitting environment for these kinds of resources, he said.

Voters in Maine last month passed a referendum rejecting a transmission line that would bring hydroelectric power from Canada to Massachusetts. A company behind the project sued to overturn the vote.

Massachusetts is looking for the Maine transmission corridor to get constructed and where were sitting with that, that situation is going to take a lot longer if they ever get done, Lambert said.

Im very concerned about the price of natural gas this winter, he said. So far its been a warm winter. We may skirt through, and dare I say it would be nice to see a new pipeline bringing some of the cheaper resources from other places but thats very, very difficult, if not impossible, to get done.

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Planning an event during a pandemic is not ideal or easy by any means.

Amber Mansfield, Marketing Coordinator of Little America Flagstaff, knew this to be true, but somehow she and her team still managed to pull it off. The challenges arose one after the other  from short-staffed teams and rapidly-evolving CDC guidelines to turning indoor events into outdoor affairs and so much more.

Despite all this, Little America still won Best Hotel and Best Evening Planning in the 2021 Best of Flag  with a little struggle, teamwork and putting their head together to find creative solutions, of course.

Mansfield attributes this to the training the Little America team went through where many learned to take on roles that werent even their own.

2021 has been one of the most interesting and challenging years we have experienced in almost 50 years of business, Mansfield said. Amid the COVID pandemic, many of our departments were short-staffed. Our employees jumped head-first into other departments and roles to help keep our business going and guests happy. Everyone on the property has been cross-trained in different departments, and we all have learned to wear many hats. Little America has always strived to put guests first, and 2021 was no exception to that creed.

COVID-19 brought along CDC guidelines that changed the way all businesses functioned. Safety was at the forefront of Little Americas actions, Mansfield said.

We made a lot of changes very quickly to follow CDC guidelines, Mansfield said. Our employees needed all hands on deck because we started to see a quick jump in travel heading to the Grand Canyon and travelers wanting to get out of their house to experience our hiking trails and get some fresh air. We all worked together to ensure that the whole property  from the Travel Center to Silver Pine Restaurant  was running smoothly. That meant no task was outside someones job description. If it needed to be done, we found a way.

When it comes to the connection with Flagstaff, Mansfield said she has witnessed the strong relationship her hotel staff has with the community. Each year, Little America often hosts events for the same companies or families. This might include a yearly Christmas banquet for an office, a familys annual Mothers Day brunch or planning weddings for several couples within the same family.

Mansfield said having tenured employees who have been there for decades also helps keep the relationship between the customer and the hotel strong.

We are honored to have many tenured employees that have been with us for years or, in some cases, careers that have lasted decades, Mansfield said. That special relationship enables us to cater to them in a meaningful way. We are thrilled that the Flagstaff community would recognize our staffs efforts to take great care of everyone who walks through our door.

After a year of unexpected changes, Mansfield said she and the staff are thankful that the Flagstaff community has continued to welcome them for decades.

We have enjoyed being a part of this fantastic community for almost 50 years, and we hope to continue for the next 50, Mansfield said. It is an honor to serve the Flagstaff community, and we are grateful that our efforts to provide extraordinary service to our guests havent gone unnoticed. Thank you, Flagstaff.

Head over to flagstaff.littleamerica.com to learn more about Little America Flagstaff, book a hotel stay, check out the Silver Pine Restaurants menu, or host an event.

The Best: Event Planning Event Planning 1. Little America Hotel 2. Peak Events 3. Kim Duncan Design

The Best: Hotel Hotel 1. Little America Hotel 2. Weatherford Hotel 3. Drury Inn and Suites

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For all a few tours organized, it is also a good signal that tourism starts to prosper.

Hue resumed welcoming the group of tour visitors

Positive signal

Recently, a group of foreign visitors has come to visit ai Noi (Royal Palace). It has been a long time since there was a group of international tour visitors accompanied by a guide on the street. This group of visitors appearance also amazed and excited the members on the shift in ai Noi that day.

Talking to the female tour guide of the group, I knew that this group belongs to a Hanoi-based NGO. They came to Vietnam for a period of time. When the regulations on domestic pandemic prevention and control were changed, they desired to come to Hue to learn about the culture and heritage for their work.

After almost a year, now I can resume serving tourists; it's an indescribable joy. Hopefully, everything is OK, and we  the guides  will resume being busy with the familiar guide job, said the female guide.

Also early in December, Huetourist Travel Company also welcomed and served a group of tour visitors (4 people) from Hanoi. In Hue, the group went to visit the heritage, combined with visiting Chuon Lagoon and experiencing the cuisine here. Subsequent to the visit to Hue, the group visited and experienced some tourist services in Quang Nam.

Mr. Tran Quang Hao, Director of Huetourist Travel Company, said that the group did not have many members but was counted as tour visitors. This is a milestone for the company because it has been almost a year since it organized a methodical tour with schedule, plan, quotation, and a guide to accompany visitors.... Although the tour was not as lively and comfortable as before the pandemic, the visitors were very satisfied.

Just a few days before, Mr. Tran Huu Cuu, Chairman of the Provincial Association of Guides, said that he had just led a group of visitors from Tien Giang to Hue to work in combination with ordering tours. Gia Long Mausoleum and the culinary experience were a one-day tour that this group of visitors went on.

According to Mr. Cuu, with the new adaptation, perhaps in a short time, tourism will be vibrant again. The tour guides also returns to work.

According to the Provincial Travel Association, the pandemic has brought about many changes in the way visitors travel. Last time, visitors traveled mainly individually, on their own, not through travel agencies. That tour companies resume exploiting visitors shows the tourists confidence in tour organization. That is not only a positive signal but also a motivation for travel companies to boldly stimulate tourism demand, which is assessed as more difficult than stay in the recovery stage.

For safety, all visitors to heritage will scan the QR codes

For visitors to feel safe

According to Mr. Tran Quang Hao, the group of tour visitors, whom the company has just served, decided to do a tour because through the exchange of information and processes, they realized the safety and self-containment when the tour was organized. On the contrary, this group of visitors had 2 vaccinations and came from a green zone, so the organizing company and guides felt secure to serve visitors.

Even so, the service process also complied with the current regulations, ensuring 5K requirements, so the tour took place successfully. This is also the vital experience for the company to continue serving visitors in the coming time.

Mr. Tran Thanh Tu, Vice Chairman of the Provincial Travel Association, said that in order to proactively attract tourists, the businesses also offer new product packages organized under a separate program at some sites, avoiding crowded spots. That tour visitors may be limited in time, but will use the same services from dining, sightseeing and resting during the tour, so the safety factor is greater. Concurrently, the businesses need to follow the new guidelines and regulations by the authorities to attract visitors more effectively.

The big problem is that psychology is still influencing the tourist's decision to travel. We have evaluated this and proposed some solutions. The first is to confirm the safety factor when visitors join in the tour; The second and equally important is the promotional product packages, with preferential prices to stimulate travel again," analyzed Mr. Tu.

According to Mr. Truong Thanh Minh, Director of the Provincial Tourism Promotion and Information Center, it is vital now is to create separate flows of visitors. The organization in flows ensures safety; this helps businesses connect with provincial tourism associations and clubs to ensure a more stable number of visitors. By contrast, Hue businesses should also declare commitments in terms of service provision, cost and joining hands to address problems that arise.

Mr. Tran Huu Thuy Giang, Director of the Department of Tourism, said that, in development, the destination and sources of visitors are equally important. Tourists who go on tours organized by travel agencies in particular ensures a forecast source of visitors to the destination and makes the formulation of development policy and strategy more feasible.

Organizing the group of tour visitors also creates a better supply chain in transportation, accommodation, shopping, dining, tour guides, etc. Therefore, the recovery of tour visitors is of great significance to the destination, especially in the current adaptation stage.

Story and photos: Duc Quang
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Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
China's self-developed games expanded their presence in the overseas market in 2021, with actual sales revenue totaling $18.01 billion, surging 16.59 percent year on year, according to a report released by CNG, a research institute on the gaming industry.





The US, Japan and the Republic of Korea are the three major overseas markets for China-developed games, contributing to nearly two-thirds of all overseas revenue, the report noted.

Being one of the most lucrative markets in China, the gaming market reported robust growth in 2021, seeing its annual actual sales revenue stand at 296.51 billion yuan (about $46.62 billion), nudging up 6.4 percent year on year.

The report also showed that the actual sales revenue of the mobile gaming market, the bulk of the country's gaming market, rose 7.57 percent year on year to 225.54 billion yuan in 2021.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency
NEW YORK  The banking industry appears to have overdone it on overdraft fees.

After decades of raking in billions of dollars from mostly poor Americans short of cash in their accounts, the biggest banks  under pressure from lawmakers and regulators  are slowly decreasing their reliance on the widely unpopular practice.

A number of large banks have taken steps this year to reduce the amount they take in from overdraft fees, which they charge when customers make payments or withdrawals in excess of their account balance. Capital One, the nation's sixth-largest bank, announced recently that it would end all overdraft fees next year. Other banks have made it harder for customers to trigger an overdraft fee.

Still, it's unlikely the financial services industry will entirely wean itself off such a cash cow anytime soon.

For many big banks, overdraft fees are still the steady, reliable, predictable, easy revenue that shareholders love, said Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in remarks last week where he directed the bureau to more closely examine bank overdraft practices.

Overdraft has its origins in banks providing a service  for a fee  to customers who may have not balanced their checkbook correctly and wanted a bank to honor a purchase. But the widespread use of debit cards changed this courtesy into a routine source of revenue. Some banks took advantage, for example, by reordering customers transactions, deducting big transactions first so that smaller payments would then trigger multiple overdraft fees. If a customer lacked funds in their account, a $5 purchase at a cafe could end up costing $35, because of overdraft fees.

Overdraft fees, which started in the 1990s, became lucrative for the industry but at the same time made the banks a target for consumer advocates and their allies in Congress. After the financial crisis, Democrats put the CFPB and other regulators in charge of reining in overdraft fee revenues.

Frequent overdrafters, according to the CFPB, tend to skew toward those living paycheck to paycheck, and also are disproportionately Black and Latino. One of the top reasons given by Black and Latino Americans for choosing not to have a bank account, or being unbanked, is that they are trying to avoid bank fees.

Industry revenue from overdraft fees held fairly steady until last year when banks waived fees across the board in the first months of the pandemic, when millions of Americans lost their jobs and businesses were shuttered. Revenue from overdraft fees fell to $8.82 billion last year from $11.68 billion in 2019, according to data collected by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Through the first nine months of this year, overdraft revenue totaled $6.13 billion, S&P Global's data show.

Despite an outcry from some Democrats, regulators in Washington aren't necessarily looking to do away with overdraft fees. In a recent speech, the acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, said low- to no-cost overdrafts would allow those living paycheck to paycheck to pay their bills on time, avoid high-cost alternatives and improve their credit profile.

Hsu said recent changes to overdraft policies by some banks could serve as a model for the industry.

Regional banking giant PNC launched new account features such as low-balance alerts and a grace period that will help consumers avoid overdraft fees. PNC also plans to limit overdrafts to one per day.

Pennsylvania-based PNC told investors to expect its overdraft fee revenues to be down $125 million to $150 million annually as the bank rolls out the Low Cash Mode product. PNC earned nearly $273 million in overdraft fee revenue last year, according to S&P Global.

JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank by assets, earlier this year waived overdraft fees for customers whose accounts were overdrawn by $50 or less at the end of the business day. Last week, the bank said it will give customers 24 hours to bring their accounts back to $50 or less overdrawn to avoid a fee.

From 2015 through 2020, JPMorgan annually led the industry in overdraft fees collected. Through the first nine months of 2021, Wells Fargo took in the highest amount of overdraft fees, slightly more than $1 billion, according to S&P Global.

Back in June, Ally Financial, the 18th largest bank by assets, said it would get rid of overdraft fees across all of its products. Ally specifically cited the racial inequity seen with overdrafts as a reason to stop charging the fees.

It was the right thing to do, said Diane Morais, president of consumer and commercial banking products at Ally Bank.

Ally earned relatively little from overdraft fees. The bank told investors that getting rid of overdraft fees would have no material impact on its profits.

"This is likely a revenue line item that deteriorates over the long-term and banks will need to find other areas of fee revenue to offset this downward trend, said Kyle Sanders, an analyst at Edward Jones who covers Wells Fargo, PNC and several other large retail banks.

One way that banks will likely make up a drop in overdraft fee income could be a return to monthly account fees, which would be an industry shift after decades of advertising free checking to their customers. Both Wells Fargo and Bank of America charge $5 a month to use accounts that do not allow customers to overdraft.

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WASHINGTON  Most older Americans have had to use telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and many were comfortable with it, but a new poll finds persistent concerns about issues like technology, the quality of care and patient privacy.

Comfort levels with remote care can vary depending on factors like age, income level or race, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Doctors, hospitals and other care providers had to cancel visits and surgeries and abruptly switch to remote care as the pandemic unfolded in early 2020. Many patients followed their doctors online and have continued to get care that way as coronavirus cases ebbed and flowed in subsequent waves.

Telehealth involves patients and care providers connecting remotely through computers, tablets or phones. They often use video calls but also can trade emails or secure text messages. Sometimes both parties just talk on the phone without video.

Since the pandemic started, 62% of adults age 50 and older have used some form of telehealth, the AP-NORC poll found.

Patients most frequently used telehealth for consultations on medications, non-urgent health concerns, wellness checks or to continue with ongoing care to manage a chronic condition like diabetes.

The ease of finding an appointment or meeting a specific provider and the chance to get an immediate response were the most common reasons respondents opted for telehealth. Roughly a third said each was a major factor and another third called them minor factors.

A majority also cited avoiding COVID-19 exposure as a major or minor reason for seeking care through telehealth, with about a quarter calling it a major reason.

Rosa Bivens became a remote care convert during the pandemic partly because it helped her avoid the virus.

The 59-year-old Bivens also likes how telehealth allows her to stay connected to her doctor in Maryland while she's on a temporary work assignment in Germany. Bivens is a military family life counselor, and she says her doctor back home understands the stress she faces in her job and how it affects her health.

"That personal relationship is important to me," she said.

The poll found that those who received care through telehealth were generally comfortable with it. Roughly 6 in 10 said they were at least somewhat likely to seek such remote care after the pandemic ends.

But many concerns remain. Chief among them is worry about receiving care that is not as effective as an in-person visit. Roughly two-thirds of older adults said they were at least somewhat concerned with that.

Many also have some worry about not having a personal relationship with a doctor, running into information security or technical problems and a lack of privacy.

Judy Ostrom, for instance, didn't use remote care during the pandemic and has no plans to start.

"You don't know who's walking in and out of the room where the doctor is," the 60-year-old resident of La Pine, Oregon, said. "I love my family, but sometimes you want your conversation with your doctor to be confidential."

Some concerns were more concentrated among adults age 65 and older. For example, those patients were more worried about not having a personal relationship with their doctor and not having the appropriate devices compared with people ages 50 to 64.

Debra Nanez, 69, of Tucson, Arizona, said she sticks to audio-only telephone calls with her doctors when she does telehealth. The retired nurse worries about the security of any health information she'd have to enter into a website to do other forms of telehealth.

She also doesn't have a reliable way to do a video call.

"Sometimes my phone acts funny; it will work and then suddenly the phone will turn off," she said. "That's why I'll just do it telephonically. I have no problems with it."

People making less than $50,000 are roughly three times as likely as those with higher incomes to feel that having a doctor provide the necessary devices for a telehealth visit would be "very" or "extremely" helpful. The poll also found that people with lower incomes are more likely to say it would be helpful if the doctor provided assistance in using the technology.

Nonwhite respondents are especially likely to see telehealth as a way to avoid COVID-19 exposure. But they are also more concerned than white respondents about the security of their health information, both for telehealth and in-person care.

The poll finds nonwhite older Americans are also especially concerned about meeting with a provider who does not understand their cultural preferences.

Education about telehealth and a growing familiarity with the practice can help alleviate some of the lingering concerns patients have, according to Mei Kwong, executive director for the Center for Connected Health Policy.

Kwong's California-based nonprofit researches and promotes the use of virtual technology in health care. She noted that once the pandemic started, the clinics and hospitals that were most successful in converting patients to remote care took the time to explain it and even do test runs before people made actual visits.

But Kwong, who was not connected to the AP-NORC poll, noted that this sort of education wasn't widespread.

"Prior to the pandemic, telehealth was very niche," she said. "Then when the pandemic hit, (patients) were just basically slapped in the face with it.

"Nobody really explained what it was."

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An architecture firm has been hired to design a new elementary school in Beatrice.

BCDM Architects will design the district's new school after an agreement with the firm was approved by the Southeast Nebraska Education Agency (SNEA) during a Monday meeting.

The BPS Board of Education previously recommended hiring the firm during its own meeting one week earlier.

It was decided by the Beatrice Board of Education to select BCDM as the architect and enter into negotiations with them, said BPS Superintendent Jason Alexander. The contract that we have represents that.

School Board president Jon Zimmerman added that many of the board members felt the company will design a school with the students best interests in mind.

They look at the kids and decide how to build a school, as opposed to building a school and figuring out how to put the kids in, he said. Its a different approach and being a smaller group a lot of board members felt they would be more hands on and just easier to work with as a smaller group.

As the process continues, School Board member Lisa Pieper shared a desire to make sure local contractors also have an opportunity to contribute.

I want to be sure that if we have local contractors who are capable of a project this size that they are contacted personally, as well, she said. I think its important for us to reach out to anyone in the community to make sure they have the opportunity.

BCDM and DLR Group both presented at the last School Board Committee of the Whole meeting, sharing details of what a new school could look like in the district.

SNEA is a joint venture between the BPS Board of Education and Educational Services Unit 5 that was established as a way to build a new school without needing a public-approved bond issue.

The Interlocal Agreement Act allows public entities to partner and pursue financing for a larger scale project. Information provided by the school district stated the arrangement specifically allows school districts to partner with other public entities to address building issues without raising property taxes if the school district has the capacity to do so within the confines of its budget.

The five-member board consists of Alexander, School Board members Zimmerman and Pieper, ESU5 Administrator Brenda McNiff and ESU5 business manager Jan Reimer.

The newly-formed Southeast Nebraska Education Agency will be able to secure financing to address a larger building project by pursuing Certificates of Deposit.

The entity will issue bonds and lease the building to the school district, likely for 5-7 years, with an expectation the agreement will be renewed several times.

The bonds will be payable from the revenues received from the new board and the bond holders will be paid from those lease revenues.

It has been stressed neither ESU5, the School Board or the new agency will be able to raise taxes, and BPS will not be able to exceed its $1.05 tax levy.

Headquartered in Beatrice, ESU5 is one of 17 ESUs in the state created by the Nebraska Legislature in 1965. It serves Gage, Jefferson and Thayer counties.

Over the last three years Beatrice Public Schools has been researching building options that would address the learning conditions, life safety code violations and inefficiencies with the current prekindergarten through eighth grade schools.

Five community meetings have been held in recent months, along with three smaller presentations to inform the community about these building issues, discuss options, answer questions, and address concerns.

Alexander has previously said all four current preschool through fifth grade buildings have fire code violations, health code violations, ADA compliance issues, and security and surveillance issues.

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Five Quilts of Valor were presented at the Legion Club on Sunday, Dec. 19.

Tim Fralin served in the United States Marine Corp from December 1987 to August 1998. Tim was sent to Okinawa, Japan; Camp Lejuene, North Carolina; Traverse City, Michigan; Lawrence, Massachusetts. He received the Navy Achievement Meritorious Marine Fleet Recruiting Ribbon with 1 star, Good Conduct metal with two stars, National Defense Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Merit Master Cert com

Gordon Bitting served in the Nebraska National Guard from August 1966 to April 1972. He was a Spec 5HHC, 2nd Bn (M) 134th Infantry Army National Guard. Gordon was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Dennis Morgan served in the United States Marine Corp. Dennis was sent to Okinawa for 13 months, then served 18 months in Japan. He returned to the United States and worked in the KC Distribution Center for eight months before leaving the Marines.

Keil Mick served in the United States Air Force. Keil graduated from San Antonio, Texas, then was sent Basic Training in San Antonio, Texas. He then was stationed at Ramstein, Germany. He returned to Little Rock Air Force Base in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Qater. He returned to Little Rock Air Force Base and was discharged in 2011.

Alvin McLellan served in the United States Navy from 1957 to 1961. Alvin was discharged from the Navy with a rank of E5 Petty Officer 1st Class Alvin took his Basic Training in San Diego. Then on to Norman, OK for Aircraft Training, also took more training in Memphis TN. He was stationed at North Island CA, San Diego CA, Miramar CA; and at Alameda CA with the VP92 Squadron. Al was discharged at Treasure Island CA. Al then went on to work on Bonham Richard Aircraft Carrier and Ranger Aircraft Carrier. He lived on and worked on aircraft carriers for the next two years of inactive duty.

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LONDON (AP)  Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to spend Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant.

The palace said Monday that the 95-year-old queen will spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has stayed for most of the pandemic.

Other members of the royal family are expected to visit over the Christmas period, with precautions taken against spreading the virus.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Britain  up 60% in a week  as omicron replaced delta as the dominant variant, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said more new restrictions may have to be introduced to slow its spread. His health minister has refused to rule out imposing new measures before Christmas.

For years, members of Britain's extended royal family have spent the holidays at Sandringham, where crowds gather to watch them attend the local church on Christmas Day.
The youngsters were given an example: Feeling angry and yelling at your mom because she forgot to buy your favorite breakfast cereal. That makes you more upset and your mom feel sad. Instead, remember that you also like waffles and could ask her nicely to make some, leading you both to feel happier as you begin your day.

At the adjoining elementary school for older grades, in a group session for more at-risk kids, four fifth graders practiced a mindfulness exercise, slowly breathing in and out while using a forefinger to trace up and down the fingers on the other hand. Behavior specialist Eric Clark, wearing a black face mask printed with the message, Be Nice, led the session, calmly accepting a defiant girls refusal to participate.

Clark said that since school resumed, hes seen kids with lots of anxiety, thoughts of self-harm and feeling completely overwhelmed, they just dont want to do it anymore.

I think were starting to see some of the effects of the past few years, he said. The extra stresses of not knowing whats next and not knowing if were going to have school because we have too many cases or not knowing if another variant has come in or not knowing if somebody has a job still.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)  The jurors now responsible for assessing 11 charges of fraud and conspiracy against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes are scheduled to begin their first full day of deliberations Monday. They have plenty of evidence to review after a three-month trial that captivated Silicon Valley.

That included the testimony of 32 witnesses  including Holmes herself  and more than 900 exhibits.

The eight men and four women on the jury took the weekend off after Judge Edward Davila handed them the case late Friday afternoon. They are charged with decide whether Holmes turned her blood-testing startup into a massive scam. If convicted on all counts, Holmes, 37, could face up to 20 years in prison.

The trial revolves around allegations that Holmes duped investors, business partners and patients about Theranos' technology. She repeatedly claimed that the company's new testing device could scan for hundreds of diseases and other problems with a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick instead of a needle stuck in a vein.
The 32,003-acre property comprises 12,233 deeded acres and 19,770 state and federal leased acres.

The BLM backed out of the purchase when its government-directed appraisal did not meet the sellers' price demand.

Although not all of the ranch will be open to hunters, American Prairie said, after a public access plan is developed portions of the 73 would be open to recreation, including the 9,300 acres of leased ground. The group already offers hunting on its Blue Ridge, White Rock and PN ranches, with more than 69,000 acres enrolled in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' Block Management Program, which pays landowners to allow hunter access.

The Montana Chapter of (Backcountry Hunters and Anglers) supports any private landowner who conserves quality wildlife habitat and/or opens public access to private land and/or inaccessible public land, said Jake Schwaller, Eastern Montana board member for MT BHA, in a statement. As the demand for places to hunt is at an all-time high, we applaud all efforts by private landowners to create new or improved public hunting opportunities."

The ranch sits along a five-mile stretch of the Musselshell River which is home to waterfowl and attracts wild turkeys and pheasant.
The defense isnt arguing that Batts can't be punished for a crime if she pleads guilty or is found guilty by a jury  the question, as Gross interpreted it, is whether she can be put to death for it.

Capital trials are complicated. Defendants facing the death penalty get an enhanced right to counsel  both Shannon and Jackson had to prove to the court that they were competent lawyers able to defend against the death penalty. Prosecutors have an increased need to show aggravating factors, or that the crime was particularly severe.

Its not enough to engage in a crime that results in the death of a human being to be sentenced to death, Gross said. Basically, it's homicide plus something that makes it particularly egregious and proportionate to put a person to death.

At the enhanced sentencing hearing thats part of a capital trial if a defendant is convicted, the defense gets an opportunity to show mitigating factors in a bid to avoid a death sentence. The defense can try to show, for example, that the defendant has an ability to reform, or they didnt have the mental capacity to understand they were committing a crime that would kill another person.
"It became very, very obvious that we really couldn't pull an election," Moore said, while also noting that the new system will include much more advanced features. The current system's approach to entering ballot initiative language, for example, she described as "an absolute nightmare."

The secretary of state said Montana will continue to use MontanaVotes until a launch date is determined. Local officials had said they wanted to first run a parallel test during a federal election, meaning they would still use old system to run the actual election, while simultaneously running the new system to detect any potential discrepancies or remaining bugs. A parallel test had previously been planned for the November 2020 election, but the new software wasnt ready in time.

Asked whether the 2022 primary and general elections will both be held on the MontanaVotes system, secretary of state spokesman Richie Melby said their office "will begin discussing the next steps for the project with the software vendor, and, in the meantime, the state will continue to utilize its current election management system."

He declined to say whether more funding will be needed to continue software development into the next year. Of the $3.5 million budgeted for the project  most of which came from a federal 2018 grant for election security  $1.7 million has been spent.

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Only three members of the management team at the nonprofit are homeowners in Bozeman, the rest either rent or commute, Metrick said. At the end of July this year, Reach had 17 job openings. But the housing markets dramatic and quick change had an effect, doubling that number in just a few months.

Then there is the factor that businesses like Reach cannot reduce hours, or close the doors on a given day due to lack of staff, because many of the services that these businesses provide are 24/7 care for people with disabilities in group homes.

If we have multiple locations (you) cant just close one and send all your employees to support, you know, the Starbucks down the road, Maddison said. Its kind of like your backs against the wall, and you dont have any moves to make to adapt and be able to thrive through some certainly different times.

Reach has six different residences, and the majority of the people it serves live in these homes. Staffing these group homes has proven difficult, but not impossible.
A Bismarck man will spend four years in prison for shaking a baby and causing brain injuries, leaving the child with 20% of her vision.

Delaurence Monsegue, 37, on Monday pleaded guilty to felony child abuse. He was charged in November 2020 after his daughter suffered seizures and was taken to a Bismarck emergency room. The baby was transferred to a childrens hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and officials there informed Bismarck authorities that the infant had injuries that were fresh and old and were caused by the child being forcefully and violently shaken, according to a police affidavit.

The child was in Monsegues care when she started making gurgling noises, vomited, became stiff and was unresponsive. Monsegue at the time admitted to shaking the baby but said it was only in an attempt to clear her throat, according to the affidavit. He also said he gave the child a bath and she may have fallen on her head in the bathtub or could have fallen in her crib.

Burleigh County States Attorney Julie Lawyer outlined Monsegues criminal history, which included incidents of simple assault, theft, preventing arrest and domestic violence. The baby suffered brain injuries and the permanent loss of 80% of her vision, Lawyer said.

Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or Travis.Svihovec@bismarcktribune.com

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MOORHEAD, Minn.  Authorities said Sunday that the bodies of seven people were discovered inside a twin home in a northwestern Minnesota city but did not say how they died.

Police said the victims included four adults and three children. They were found just before 8 p.m. Saturday by family members conducting a welfare check at the home in Moorhead. Those family members called police.

There were no signs of violence or forced entry into the residence, police said. Authorities are not actively seeking any suspects.

This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays, Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson wrote in a statement sent to the Star Tribune. My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend. Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time.

The bodies were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul, where autopsies will be conducted.

Neighbors said the children were last seen Friday, KFGO radio reported. The Moorhead Area School District has been provided information about the victims to help prepare for student assistance, police said.

Moorhead Police Capt. Deric Swanson said the investigation is still active and further information, including the cause of deaths and identification of the victims, will be released later.

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Several North Dakota GOP leaders walked out of a party meeting on Saturday, another sign of growing division within the state's dominant political party.

The party's State Committee, which includes the 47 district chairs, met at the Republican headquarters in Bismarck to discuss the party's bylaws and 2022 convention plans. More than 50 people attended.

Minot-area District 40 GOP Chairman Jay Lundeen initiated the walkout of seven district chairs and the party's national committeewoman, in protest of state party Chairman Perrie Schafer having appointed eight temporary district chairs under a new law for reorganizing political parties in the wake of the Legislature's redistricting. Redistricting is done every 10 years using census data.

Lundeen said voters are disenfranchised by the temporary district chairs Schafer appointed. He called it "a civil rights issue."

"This isn't a political issue. This is a freedom issue, a fundamental issue. It's not politics," Lundeen said Monday. "And what's sad is they position everything like it's politics -- win at all costs. Boy, we've got to get back to the basics in this state."

In a statement on Saturday, Schafer said: We were disappointed that a very small minority of protestors decided to leave and disenfranchise the Republicans in those districts. We will, of course, continue our efforts to reach out to them and work through differences in the spirit of unity that we are called to as Republicans here in North Dakota."

Rep. Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, who brought the reorganization bill for addressing new and reconfigured districts, said he didn't anticipate it being divisive.

"There was no bad intent here, whatsoever," he said.

Schafer told the Tribune on Monday that "the eight that left should have stayed to have civil discussion about the direction of the party, which they were elected to do by the districts."

Ex-officio status

Separately, the North Dakota Young Republicans expressed disappointment with being removed along with the North Dakota College Republicans as voting members of the board, and being placed in "ex-officio non-voting status." The Young Republicans sat on the board since 2019.

"While we are saddened to see the divisive state of the Party, NDYR will continue to stand for these principles that have made our state great," the Young Republicans said in a statement.

Schafer said the party will continue to work with both organizations, but the committee preferred they be ex-officio members.

He pointed out that U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, all R-N.D., are ex-officio nonvoting members, too.

Police respond

Security personnel were present at the meeting, which Schafer said was necessary for board members' safety after receiving threats.

Bismarck police were called to the party headquarters "for an unwanted subject," according to Lt. Luke Gardiner.

"There was no report taken indicating that the individual either left the location on arrival, and/or no violation of law was found," he said.

Schafer said he wasn't sure of who called police, but said the security firm "had the authority to do so if they felt the need."

Battle for party's soul?

Political observers have seen a growing fracture within the dominant Republican Party, pointing to the ultraconservative Bastiat Caucus in the Legislature and the censures of several Republican lawmakers in the wake of former Rep. Luke Simons' expulsion in March.

Lundeen last month helped organize a rally at the state Capitol as the Legislature began its special session. The rally was to oppose vaccination mandates and to urge lawmakers to support certain bills.

The Minot-area district chairman acknowledged the situation is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party, as well as for "the soul of our state."

"If it fractures the Republican Party, break it up, because I would rather break it up than be left with slavery completely," Lundeen said at a press conference Monday.

Minot-area District 38 GOP Chairman Jared Hendrix said, "If we are trying to correct a problem, we're not the source of disunity."

"You don't fault the people who are trying to fix the problem. You fault the people who created the problem," Hendrix told reporters.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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State revenues are looking healthy five months into the two-year budget cycle.

General fund revenues through November are 10% ahead of the 2021 Legislature's forecast, or about $106 million, according to an update to North Dakota lawmakers last week.

"A very positive story," Office of Management and Budget Director Joe Morrissette told the Legislature's interim Government Finance Committee.

But he pointed out the earliness in the budget cycle, and "a single negative month can quickly erode our nominal variance of $106 million," he told the Tribune.

The Legislature adopted a "very conservative" revenue forecast, "so the bar is set fairly low in terms of the forecast to which we are comparing," he said.

Oil prices have averaged about 30% higher than the $50 per barrel forecast, Morrissette added.

Oil taxes are 20% ahead of forecast for the budget cycle, or $132 million. November oil taxes came in 24% over projections, or more than $38 million.

Oil prices also have an impact on sales taxes from oil field activity, such as purchases of drill pipe and hydraulic fracturing sand. Rising prices also increase the value of royalty payments, which creates more disposable income for royalty owners, Morrissette said.

Sales taxes, the greatest general fund revenue, are 11.3% ahead of forecast, and came in 36% over projections for November, for a $25 million overage.

"Tracking nicely above forecast -- 11% above forecast so far this biennium with five months in," Morrissette told lawmakers.

Motor vehicle excise taxes dipped below forecast in October for the first time in over a year but still are 3% above for the budget cycle.

That tax type had stayed 8-10% over projections month to month, which Morrissette has attributed to low-stock, fast-selling auto inventories and high levels of recreational vehicle sales amid the pandemic.

The $8.6 billion Legacy Fund oil tax savings has generated more than $353 million of earnings so far in the budget cycle.

The fund eclipsed $871 million of earnings in the 2019-21 period.

The state's emergency fund is at nearly $750 million, a near record. The fund is for offsetting revenue shortfalls. It's funded from excess general fund money every two years.

The finance committee also received a preliminary update on money North Dakota could receive from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill over the next five years. President Joe Biden signed the bill last month.

Preliminary estimates total $2.5 billion of potential funding available for North Dakota, including $2 billion for transportation. Many spending deadlines are unknown.

Funds could be used for improvements to drinking water infrastructure, air quality and highway safety.

Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston, noted that the estimated $2.5 billion includes regular federal transportation funding allocations to North Dakota.

"This is not $2.5 billion above and beyond what we normally get," he said.

The state Transportation Department expects to receive an approximate $125 million increase to its funding from the bill in each of the next five years, according to spokesman David Finley.

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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This is Up and Down, where we give a brief thumbs up or thumbs down on the issues from the past week.

Up

Volunteers were expected to help the Bismarck Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol place more than 7,700 wreaths in the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery this past weekend. Every veterans grave will be covered with a wreath this Christmas thanks to the volunteers and the Wreaths Across America program. The effort, in its 15th year at the cemetery south of Mandan, is an important way the public can honor veterans and their families. A ceremony was still expected to be held this past Saturday but abbreviated due to cold weather. Volunteers can help remove the wreaths on Jan. 22.

Down

State regulators should closely examine the cause of the most recent spill from Summit Midstream Partners, the company responsible for the largest oil field spill in state history. The latest pipeline leak reported Dec. 5 occurred about 1  miles away from the site of a 2015 spill that was the subject of recent court settlements. The new incident involved 176 barrels or 7,400 gallons of produced water, a waste byproduct of oil development thats toxic to the environment. The repeat incidents raise concerns about the integrity of Summits pipelines. The company recently pleaded guilty to negligently discharging oil and failing to immediately report the 2015 spill, which occurred north of Williston over the span of five months and involved 29 million gallons of produced water.

Up

Its good to see the North Dakotas Ethics Commission responding to recent criticism about a lack of transparency and looking for ways to improve. The commission is working to make some updates to its website after the North Dakotans for Public Integrity expressed concerns about the site, including meeting minutes and absence of meeting videos. Members of the panel expressed a desire to get public input sooner when considering draft rules in the future.

Down

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem warned consumers last week that gift card scams are on the rise with losses of $45,000 reported in the last two weeks. Nine victims ranging in age from 26 to 75 reported falling victim to various versions of the same scam. The Federal Trade Commission says many gift card scams start with a phone call from someone impersonating a government agency. The scam may involve a threat of arrest or frozen accounts unless an immediate payment is made. Stenehjem cautions people to only purchase gift cards for gifts to family or friends. They are never used as payment to a government agency.

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Whether the new university dedicated to the unfettered pursuit of truth will succeed is anyones guess. The real issue is why so many are trashing it before it even starts. []

Conservatives tend to be skeptical of the uses of the word diversity, but they love variety. They believe that American higher education is better when you have a rich choice among schoolsuniformity being a feature of progressive ideologiesthat each has a particular mission and identity. Such variety serves the interests of students and parents who seek to be educated within a tradition. The current success enjoyed by schools such as Hillsdale testifies to the desire of parents and students to escape the ideological indoctrination characteristic of so many schools. No parents want to drop $200,000 to have their children turned against them.

In his recent book A Time to Build, Yuval Levin diagnoses the many pathologies of our institutions, but also suggests that this is the time to either renew them or to build new ones. Of course, any effort to build a new institution will be resisted by regnant ones. This resistance is compounded by barriers to market entry as well as prohibitive start-up costs. Its one thing to start a cocktail bar and another entirely to start a new utility. While large industries such as banks might be fiercely competitive with each other, they will collude to resist new financial management systems.

All this is at play with the recent announcement of the founding of the University of Austin in Texas (UATX). Lets begin with an obvious truth: All institutions have to begin sometime. Theres no compelling reason why you cant have new ones, and as Clayton Christensen argued some years ago, higher education is not immune from creative disruption. Whats interesting about UATX is that it is neither innovative nor novelit emphasizes a traditional educationnor is it threatening the model of higher education itself. Rather, the University of Austin predicates that the model is sound while its practitioners are the problem.

A list of the problems plaguing higher education would have to include a sticker price that makes it increasingly unaffordable to middle class families, disjointed and incoherent curricula, overweening ideological pressures, the existence of The Other University on campuses that threatens academic integrity, administrative bloat, and so on. The financial model has divided schools into haves and have-nots, and the instructional model has become drearily uniform and dull. The context thus creates opportunity for innovation, even if the innovation is a combination of a few new ideas and more very old ones.

I have no stake in UATX per se. Those involved in its creation are free to do as they like, this being America, where opportunity, risk, and creative ideas often produce interesting things. What intrigues me is the backlash to the idea, those who have been deeply and angrily critical of the venture even though they, apparently, have nothing at stake. Live and let live, otherwise a moral imperative of theirs, seems not to apply.

Why the vociferous response? It has to do primarily with three aspects of American higher education, and my guess is that the commentators often have a stake in all three. The first deals with what has become the central purpose of higher education: the conferring of status and the concomitant influence it brings. Status is one of the most psychologically powerful motivators for human beings, and it results from institutional prestige and networks. It is, as Rousseau argued, the result of our tendency to compare ourselves with one another and thus see ourselves as competitors. The status comparisons of educational institutions are pervasive and pernicious. Any new competitor is a threat to current status holders.

With status comes the ability to influence. The vast majority of Americans dont care if Bari Weiss and her friends start a new school, but the people who write blogs, run colleges, and work in mainstream media seem particularly threatened. Whether the sense of threat comes from the waning influence that accompanies increased competition (many critical articles also go after Substack) or from fear of having their own undergraduate educations exposed as fraudulent, much of the intelligentsia has been particularly hard on the initiative.

The final and related factor is the ideological homogeneity and accompanying illiberalism on campuses, which at least some of the commentators have tried to deny. Any effort to break apart this monopoly on institutional control (by which I mean control of the governing apparatus, with its endless training sessions as well as the curriculum) is actively resisted, as is any effort to draw attention to it. The very existence of UATX, therefore, poses an existential threat simply by alerting the public to issues of institutional control. One can hardly be surprised that the president of Wesleyan University appeared in the pages of The New York Times to denounce the effort as attacking fictional problems by treating faculty and students, none of whom, he claims, are woke, as scapegoats for their own failures.

The critics of UATX thus understand whats at stake and why they cant just shrug their shoulders in response. Its not simply that a new school is being attempted; its that its being done publicly and by persons with large platforms, and in some cases by people within the establishment (including and especially the noxious carpetbagging Gordon Gee, that living embodiment of perverse self-promotion). By drawing attention to the corruption of our legacy institutions, startups such as UATX and Substack demand institutional responses that range from appropriation to calumny. The New York Times, for example, responded to John McWhorters highly popular Substack newsletter by hiring him and giving him a column. The response to UATX has been character assassination.

Many of the responses are thinly disguised ad hominems, attacking the ability of our most ludicrously self-regarding and mawkishly preening intellectuals to perform otherwise anatomically impossible acts. The most vicious example of this argument was made by Katelyn Burns on the MSNBC website. Like many commentators, she accused the founders of being high-stakes grifters who were merely seeking a soft-landing place for disgraced academics. Taking the argument one step further, she suggested that the only value the school will deliver to students is an ability to indulge in the guilty pleasures of racism and transphobia. The charge that those involved with UATX form a clown car of intellectual dark web dweebs who are disguising their racism has been frequently repeated.

Not to be outdone, Sarah Jones at New York Magazine accused the founders not only of grift but of creating a Bible college for libertarians. The real threat to academic life, she argues, comes not from our mainstream institutions but from the off-stream ones, the conservative campuses that are dogmatic and suppress free expression. She identifies the effort made by UATX with Falwells creation of Liberty University, arguing that wokeness serves as the same bogeyman for the Austin people that desegregation did for Falwell. And lets tip our hat to Adam Laats over at Slate, who suggests that behind such conservative efforts one finds the shadowy and hooded members of the KKK. Nor should we be surprised that the disruptive presence of UATX reminds establishment figures of the other great threat to their rule: Donald Trump.

Critics have rightly pointed out, however, that a venture as ambitious as this cant proceed unless sufficiently capitalized. While concern has also been expressed about the main funders, the critics show a lack of imagination about how schools can be financed. Some money is necessary, but schools can operate much more inexpensively than they currently do. Eliminate programs not essential to the educational mission. Dont overpay administrators. While Im skeptical of the schools plan to outsource student and maintenance services, it is a potentially effective economic model, particularly if students do a lot of the maintenance and service jobs. Keep the amenities minimal. In the extreme this may mean not playing the accreditation game, the value of which resides mainly in mutual recognition and not in its efficacy. If UATX can dim the mystique of accreditation and bring into question agency collusion with government, it will have already served a useful purpose.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get traction within legacy institutions. Good work needs to be done outside or alongside them. Still, not much progress get made by simply being oppositional. Prudential disagreement, criticism, and alternatives are required, and UATX may or may not be an example of such. While I think there is much to be said for inter-institutional pluralism as an alternative to intra-institutional pluralism, an alternative that creates genuine choices, it also deepens the problems infecting our legacy institutions. Perhaps the time has come to abandon them, but in the meantime, drawing attention to their pathologies is required. If they dont take their medicine gratefully, they may find their own survival, which they ought not take for granted, increasingly tenuous.
ITAI

Kenyon Wilson is a professor of performing arts at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and this semester, he ran an experiment: hiding a cash prize in a locker and burying the location and lock combination deep in the syllabus. At the end of the semester, the money was still there.

He told the story in a Facebook post which soon caught the attention of media (even big names like the New York Times and CNN have run it).

A common takeaway of the story (at least on a few Facebook and forum posts) is "kids these days" followed by some derisive remark. But Professor Wilson doesn't believe skimming the syllabus makes someone lazy and he's certainly not disappointed in his students.

When he was a student, he most likely would have also missed the clues, he said. "We read the parts that we deem important," he said. "You know, what's the attendance policy? What are the things I need to do to pass this class? And then there's other stuff." New York Times

Students told CNN that the clue was in the middle of a paragraph present that is copied and pasted into many syllabi on campus. They'd likely seen the paragraph dozens of times, so it makes sense that they weren't religiously reading it start to finish like a novel.
Washington State Senator Doug Ericksen became sick with Covid-19 last month while on a trip to El Salvador. The 52-year-old Republican  who had bashed Washington Governor Jay Inslee for his vaccine mandates  then disappeared from the public eye. On Saturday his family announced that he had died.

According to CBS, after coming down with Covid in November, Ericksen took a medevac flight to a Florida hospital, and "no information about his location or condition had since been released."

From The New York Times:

Mr. Ericksen, who represented much of Whatcom County, had served in the Legislature since 1999, becoming a prominent conservative voice and an early backer of Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign. Over the pandemic, he led efforts to combat Gov. Jay Inslee's coronavirus restrictions, introducing legislation that would have prohibited vaccine mandates and calling for the governor to resign. "Washington State is No. 1 in government coercion," Mr. Ericksen said in a statement last month. It's unclear whether Mr. Ericksen had been vaccinated.

From CNN:

In an email sent to lawmakers in Washington state on November 11, Ericksen said he "took a trip to El Salvador and tested positive for COVID shortly after (he) arrived," and asked for help in getting the treatment flown to the country to help in his recovery, according to the Seattle Times, which said it obtained the email from a state Senate staffer. Ericksen had repeatedly called for the resignation of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, in numerous posts on his website. His latest news release, dated November 1, said the state was the "national leader in authoritarian government." "Throughout this COVID situation, Inslee has been out of step with the rest of the country," Ericksen said in the release. "He says his vengeful act was based on science, but it's certainly not the science understood by public health officials and elected leaders in every other state of the union." Inslee released a statement Saturday in response to news of Ericksen's death, saying he and his wife send "our deep condolences to Sen. Doug Ericksen's family, friends and colleagues. Our hearts are with them."

The list of conservative leaders dying of Covid-19  competing with the list of anti-maskers diverting flights  is astounding to say the least.
Paleoburrows are the vernacular architecture of extinct megafauna. With enough headroom for the average-height human, the giant sloth tunnels of Brazil speak to the industry of their creators.

Once Professor Frank got a taste of one tunnel, he went looking for more and was shocked to see just how many were laying in plain sight. By using Google and examining photos people post, he's been able to document over 1,500 paleoburrows. But, now that these areas have been discovered, researchers are in a race against time. Once the tunnels are exposed, they run the risk of being ruined by the elementsor by humans who deface them. Projeto Paleotocas, which was started by Frank, aims to document as many of these tunnels as possible and also raise awareness about the need to preserve them. As construction goes upwhether it's residential buildings or highwaysthere's a great risk of losing these sites. And while there is still so much mystery surrounding them, including their exact age and what animal dug them, that is part of what makes the field so exciting.

Welcome to my new blog, "Megafauna Burrow or Alarming Colonoscopy?"
A teacher at Washington DC's Watkins Elementary School allegedly had third-grade students enact terrifying scenes from the Holocaust, "directing them to dig their classmates' mass graves and simulate shooting the victims," according to the Washington Post. One Jewish student was fortunate enough to land the role of Hitler and instructed to pretend to commit suicide. The teacher is on leave pending an investigation.

From the Washington Post:

A different parent of a student who was a part of the reenactment said her son had to pretend to be on a train to a concentration camp, then act as if he were dying in a gas chamber. He also had to act as if he were shooting his peers, the parent said. The parent spoke on the condition of anonymity and declined to name the child.

The instructor allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. The parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was "because the Jews ruined Christmas."

The instructor asked students after the reenactment not to tell anyone about it, but they told their homeroom teacher, the parent said.
"That's wonderful, because we don't have another grain elevator of that type in Buffalo," Pierro said. "It was an important step in the development of grain elevators that originated here in Buffalo in 1842."

Jemal is working on or has completed several large-scale projects in Buffalo, including the redevelopment of the Statler Building, the downtown Simon properties and modernizing the recently purchased Buffalo Hyatt Regency. He is also negotiating to develop the Richardson Olmsted Campus.

Jemal said some possibilities for reusing the Great Northern could be apartments  which he noted is being done at Silo City  manufacturing or, possibly, a tech hub.

"You can do anything with it," Jemal said. "You have to restore it, respect it and bring it back to its adaptive reuse life. It will have historic significance and be so damn cool. Who wouldn't want to be there?"

Jemal said he's rebuilt numerous historic structures in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere after being told they were unsafe and needed to come down.

"Guess what? I restored them and made a fortune," he said.
As it increased taxes for most county property owners Tuesday, the Niagara County Legislature raised the salaries of numerous political appointees and other officials.

The raises, which will be funded from American Rescue Plan money and other pandemic stimulus funds, were in the same package that included three months of $5-an-hour Covid-19 hazard pay for scores of county employees.

Primarily because of the raises and hazard pay, the final 2022 budget was $2.5 million higher than the tentative version County Manager Richard E. Updegrove submitted last month.

"I'm appalled at this," said Minority Leader Dennis F. Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls. "You sponsor a resolution to raise the salaries of flat workers and political patronage workers under the cover of Covid pay for our employees."

Virtuoso, attending his last meeting after 30 years in the Legislature, cast the only vote against the raise package.

None of those who voted in favor of the raises spoke in favor of them on the Legislature floor.
Hochul said testing is a key component of the fight against Covid-19, along with ensuring people get vaccinated and boosted, wear face masks and follow proper social distancing.

She said the state wants to expand access to testing and soon plans to set up an online portal allowing the public to order Covid-19 test kits for home use. She urged people to get tested if they are showing symptoms or believe they were exposed to the virus.

"This is how we can stop the spread from getting even more out of control," Hochul said.

She said the state recently received a shipment of one million Covid-19 tests and expects a similar shipment to arrive this week, and next, with more on the way.

State officials have focused on getting those tests to hospitals, for newly discharged patients, and county health departments, including 3,200 such tests provided to the Wyoming County Health Department that, she quipped, "Might be on Santa's sleigh out there."

But she said it's important to get them to parents of students, to public libraries, workplaces and other distribution points.
. . .

CHRISTMAS PAST  Share your favorite holiday memories and photos at a program at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Tonawanda Kenmore Historical Society Museum, 100 Knoche Road, Town of Tonawanda. Its free. Refreshments served. Covid protocols will be followed. RSVP by calling 716-873-6279 or emailing info@kentonhistory.org.

. . .

MUSICAL MOMENT  The Westminster Choirs and the Buffalo Philharmonic Brass present a Christmas concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the sanctuary at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 724 Delaware Ave., and online. Its free and open to the public. For more info, visit wpcbuffalo.org.

. . .
To Niagara Falls poised to get $57.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds offered by the Biden administration: Theyre planning on using the money for new police cars. Also street improvement, for conversion to LED street lights, roads and sidewalk repair. Finally the city intends to make a large investment in long overdue repairs to municipal buildings.

All this is great, but shouldnt this have already been done with current day dollars, before the pandemic hit?

Its hard for me when my friends come from out of state; they always want to see Niagara Falls. The next question I get is, why is the American side so run down, tired? Look across the river to the Canadian side, it is beautiful with towering landscapes, Clifton Hill, casinos, beautiful buildings, Ferris wheel, train rides, I could go on and on.

They should use the money on building a tower of some sort. Use it for beginning building a much better Niagara Falls tourist train rides. Something very special that would attract people. There is one skyscraper in the Falls and thank you to the Seneca Nation for building a beautiful hotel and casino. Perhaps more hotels, it is supposed to be the Honeymoon Capital of the World (use it.)
Yet again we have raw amateurs, who seemingly have never cracked a history book, pontificating on American foreign policy. Of course I speak of the recent effort of Marc Thiessen, who has not come far since his days of being a hack speechwriter for the Bismarck of modern times, Donald Rumsfeld. That genius presided over the destruction of Iraq, with the loss of 900,000 Iraqi civilians, in a mad search for weapons of mass destruction that never existed.

Now Thiessen drags Neville Chamberlain into the mix, comparing the recent events in Ukraine to the Gathering Storm of the late 1930s, which is about as ahistorical as an amateur can get. I guess there are some, even in 2021, who never met a war they did not like.

Chamberlain, like most sane statesmen in the 1930s, was haunted by memories of 38 million dead, wounded, and missing in the Great War of 1914-1918. To imply that he was weak or pro-Nazi is absolute rubbish; I know, I wrote the book. He gave Britain and the West a year to rearm, the key to victory in 1940s Battle of Britain. Churchill took over in May 1940, and the road to victory was straight ahead.
Dibrugarh University : M.Phil and Ph.D Admission 2021 https://career.webindia123.com/career/dates_and_events/dibrugarh-university-m.phil-ph.d-admission.htm Details of Dibrugarh University : M.Phil and Ph.D Admission 2021 2021-12-4 2021-12-27 https://career.webindia123.com/career/images/exams.png India India Dibrugarh University : M.Phil and Ph.D Admission 2021 M.Phil/ Ph.D

M.Phil and Ph.D Admission Notification : Dibrugarh University

Dibrugarh University : M.Phil and Ph.D Admission 2021 Category : M.Phil/ Ph.D Admissions 2022 Published : On December 4, 2021 By Webindia123 Editor

Important Dates

Last date of issue and submission of application forms December 27th, 2021 Research Admission Test (DURAT) January 8th, 2022

Applications are invited in the prescribed form for Dibrugarh University Research Admission Test (DURAT) to be conducted by Dibrugarh University for admission to Ph.D. and M.Phil programmes for the session 2021-2023.

Courses offered:

Ph.D: Applied Geology, Chemistry, Commerce, Computer Science, Economics, Life-Sciences, Management, Mathematics, Petroleum Technology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physics, Sociology, Statistics, Philosophy.

M.Phil: Assamese, Chemistry, Commerce, Economics, Education, English, History, Mathematics, Physics, Political Science, Statistics and

Sociology.

Eligibility:

Master Degree holders of recognised Universities securing 50% marks or equivalent grade point

Application Procedure :

i) Candidates can apply online mode only through www.dibru.online and should enter Full Name, Username, Password and a Mobile Numbers to login. The

candidate will get an Activation Code in the mobile which is to be entered for Activation.

ii). After Activation, the candidates shall be required to log in with their user name and should fill up the Online Application Form with correct and appropriate information.

iii). Candidates are required to pay the DURAT Fee of Rs. 600/- only through the online payment gateway by using Debit Card/Credit Card/ Internet Banking during the submission of form. No other mode of payment is acceptable.

iv). The applicants can save and review the information entered before submission, which can be edited on subsequent login. However, after Submission, editing of information shall not be possible.

v). On submission of the Online Application Form by an applicant, an Admit Card with a Unique Number shall be generated against each successful submission of Application. The Candidates shall have to take a print out of the Admit Card and bring to the Examination Hall on the Date of the Test for verification.

vi). The Submission of Online Application Forms shall be automatically closed after the last date.

Note

Admission to Ph.D. & M. Phil courses shall be given as per the availability of seats and feasibility to conduct the progrms in the teaching departments /centre of studies concerned.

More Details can be available from the institute website.

Contact Details Address : Dibrugarh University,

Dibrugarh,

Assam -786004 Phone : 0373-2370231, 2370774 Fax : 91-11-26588663, 26588641 Mobile : 9706410757 E-mail : Contact I Website : www.dibru.ac.in

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Space was already a difficult environment for military operations.

The vacuum combined with radiation, solar flares and other natural hazards complicated every endeavor.

Add to this the accumulation of man-made debris orbiting the Earth at speeds approaching 17,000 mph.

But it was the build-up of rivals and their advances in technology that pushed the U.S. to establish the Space Force, the newest branch of the military, said Greg Hillebrand, a U.S. Army War College professor at Carlisle Barracks.

On Dec. 20, 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed into law legislation that launched the Space Force as an outgrowth from the Air Force and U.S. Space Command.

In a speech two months later, Space Force Gen. John W. Raymond recalled an incident as he described the gravity of the emerging situation, Hillebrand said.

Orbital orchestrations

Space Command was tracking a newly launched Russian satellite when that spacecraft divided in two. One part of it executed complex orbital maneuvers as it shadowed an American satellite.

Though no harm was done, the demonstration created unease.

Theres no good reason to do that except militarily, Hillebrand said. Space has gone from just being difficult to people actively trying to make it difficult. The Russians, the Chinese have maneuverable satellites. These kinds of things didnt exist in the past. Now it seems to be happening more and more.

Even concepts developed by American industry have the potential to be weaponized. Hillebrand cited as an example a mission extension vehicle developed recently by Northup Grumman.

The vehicle is a satellite that can fly up to another satellite and plug itself in. The purpose is to provide a new power source and battery for an old satellite thats about to fail.

But what else can you do with that [concept]? Hillebrand asked. In theory, such a spacecraft could hijack the satellite to interfere with its functions or move it out of position.

Until recently, space was like an electric company providing useful products and services to the military in areas such as intelligence gathering, weather tracking, navigation and communications, Hillebrand said. Beyond the hazards of a hostile environment, its potential by U.S. forces went unchallenged.

Now the world has changed and we need specialists, Hillebrand said. We have this threat. People who want to affect us. Our enemies know we rely heavily on space. Its an enormous part of the way we fight.

Growing reliance

The earliest use of space by the U.S. military took the form of Cold War satellite imagery of places high-level leaders could not see with aircraft or their own eyes. Gradually, capabilities developed at the strategic level filtered down through the command structure to the operations and tactical level.

TV news coverage of the 1991 Gulf War showcased the use of GPS satellites to direct precision guided munitions to critical targets in support of conventional warfare, said Col. Benjamin Ogden, an Army War College professor. Countries took notice at that point. Countries that have risen such as China and India that [now] consider themselves space powers. They are beginning to see the fruits of this.

The use of space evolved even farther during wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which saw the deployment of Predator drones to attack targets remotely by way of satellite link, Hillebrand said. But that link is very fragile. The bad guys can jam it. They can break the satellite. They can use cyber tools to try and affect it. Thats the reason why we need a separate Space Force.

For decades, the job of guarding space fell mostly on the Air Force and Space Command. But now, with the Space Force, that work can continue with a much greater focus.

Like any service branch, the primary mission of Space Force is to recruit, train and equip personnel who are then deployed as specialists to combat and operational commands, Hillebrand said.

He said a greater focus is necessary to counteract rivals who want to disrupt the ability of the U.S. to use space assets not only in military operations, but in maintaining the global economy.

Everything from cellphone networks to stock market transactions is dependent on space technology and the precision timing of the Global Positioning System.

The world is more complicated, Hillebrand said. The bad guys are taking action. Space is getting more congested, contested, competitive and complex.

Chances are any future conflict with a major rival will start with operations in space and cyberspace to break down satellites, interfere with communications and deny the use of GPS for navigation and precision targeting.

All the benefits we get from space they would want to degrade as much as they could before they started doing ground, sea or air operations, Hillebrand said. One of the big challenges we face is we do most of our warfighting as an away game. We defend as far forward as possible.

This is why the U.S. maintains forces in places like Germany, Japan and Korea. But these overseas locations need effective command and control and that requires reliable lines of communications.

Know thy domain

Not only are rivals trying to disrupt assets, they want the same capabilities the U.S. military can leverage, Ogden said. Space has become the leading edge of why we are a lethal force. We are decreasing our military size, but still doing amazing effects because of these enablers.

While the rivalry gears up in orbit, there are also plans by the U.S. and other powers to resume manned lunar missions with the goal of having a continuous presence on the moon.

It remains to be seen how the Space Force will evolve and develop to support those types of missions, Ogden said. The commercial sector is going to grab on this as an economic driver. Theres a lot of money to be made, but thats going to have to be protected.

A core mission of the new service branch is space domain awareness, said John Blackman, one of two Space Force guardians in the Army War College Class of 2022.

This mission, at its heart, strives to keep tabs on the activities of other nations so that the U.S. has the information it needs to make accurate tactical, operational and strategic decisions, Blackman said.

Another goal is having the ability to distinguish between the natural and manmade. For example, a satellite going off-line may have been the result of a solar flare and not a cyberattack on its operating systems.

There is another, more practical need for space domain awareness. The mass of debris in orbit presents a very real danger not only to satellites, spacecraft and the International Space Station, but to the humans trying to explore space and make use of its potential.

Somebody has to be managing this, Hillebrand said. Somebody has to be tracking this.

That type of work requires specialists who can calculate the probability of an orbital collision and then assist in making course adjustments.

Email Joseph Cress at jcress@cumberlink.com.

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The Florida native was a third-grade student when he was carried away by a book on the solar system.

I remember being impressed, mystified by how cool and interesting space was, Blackman said. Going up through school, I was able to speak the language  math and science.

Natural aptitude combined with a fascination for rocketry propelled him through 20 years of service as an Air Force officer. Then a new opportunity entered his orbit.

I joined the Space Force on July 23  a couple weeks before classes started, said Blackman, now a student at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks.

When the Space Force stood up, they were looking at different specialties to move from the Air Force, he said. There were several of us whose career fields were needed by both the Air Force and Space Force. They gave us a choice. We could apply to transition over to the Space Force or we could stay in the Air Force.

For much of his career, Blackman has been an expert in acquisitions where the military works closely with industry to develop then procure technology used by warfighters.

Over time, Blackman specialized in rockets, satellites and missile defense systems. Since much of that equipment was designed for space, it made sense for him to transfer over to the Space Force, which today celebrates its second anniversary as the newest branch of the U.S. military.

Something like this is a once-in-a-century kind of thing, Blackman said. To be part of that initial stand-up, to be on the ground floor. Thats compelling.

Space-mindedness

The last time the military launched a new service branch was in the lead-up to 1947 when the Air Force split off from the Army. Then as now, transitions have to be handled carefully.

So far, Space Force consists mostly of military and civilian personnel transferred from other service branches. Many of these people were engaged for years in operations as part of the joint Space Command, said Greg Hillebrand, an Army War College professor. Their initial transfer formed a cadre on which to build the Space Force.

Two years in, work continues as the military adjusts to having a new service and determines the best division of labor and mix of expertise. Meanwhile, Space Force personnel  known in the military as guardians  are striving to form their own culture and identity within the establishment as experts continue to be brought together in a focused approach to managing space.

In the Air Force, for a long time, theyve talked about air-mindedness, embracing the domain in which you operate, Blackman said. In the Space Force, we are seeing more of a culture of space-mindedness.

So far, the approach has been to eliminate redundancies, streamline operations and flatten the command structure so that the Space Force could function with the agility needed to address rapid developments in space.

Theres a tendency towards the technical, Blackman said. Were in the leading edge of human innovation and ingenuity.

From day one, technology developed for space has become part of everyday life.

Since the Space Force will have the pick of whomever it wants, it will likely have the most educated people of all the service branches, Hillebrand said.

Right now, the Space Force lacks its own training and recruitment command, Blackman said. Instead, the Air Force offers a Space Force augment where it can enlist recruits for basic training before sending them off to space-focused education and advanced training.

There have been guardians who have graduated from the Air Force and other service academies, Hillebrand said.

War College role

The Army War College at Carlisle Barracks has hosted three Space Force guardians as students of its resident course in strategic studies. One Class of 2021 graduate transitioned into the Space Force partway through that academic year.

Blackman is one of two guardians in the Class of 2022. His focus is on being a War College student with an eye toward becoming a future strategic leader.

Though Im not part of it right now, I do sense whats going on, Blackman said of the Space Force. Im seeing the organizational changes from afar. Its exciting to know that, in several months, Ill be in the thick of it.

Resident students of the War College program graduate in June before heading for their next assignment. War College students include not only career U.S. military officers, but International Fellows from countries friendly to the U.S. and senior civilian leaders from other branches of the federal government.

In the meantime, when called upon, Blackman offers his perspective as a former airman and current Space Force guardian to the other members of his seminar group.

I get a heavy dose of land power, Blackman said, referring to his studies. I appreciate what land power brings to the fight and how space can support those folks.

As much as possible, the War College is integrating space operations at the strategic level into its core curriculum for not only resident students, but students of its distance education program.

Each student gets about three hours of instruction on this topic, said Col. Benjamin Ogden, a War College professor. In addition, Ogden and Hillebrand teach electives in the subject area.

The first elective in the track, Foundations of Space Power for Senior Leaders, is open to all students and touches on the history, capabilities and strategic importance of space operations.

This is where space has been, where its going and why its important, Ogden said. Its [a course] for those interested in space, those going to a space organization or just sci-fi geeks.

The second elective, Warfighting in the Space Domain, is a deeper, more classified dive into the more sensitive aspects of the topic. Its only open to U.S. students.

In addition, Ogden and Hillebrand are among the faculty members who offer support and expertise to students who want to write their strategic thesis paper on space-related research.

As much as possible, the War College brings in high-level guest speakers from the Space Force and Space Command to lecture to students, Ogden said. There is also groundwork being done at the Center for Strategic Leadership, which is also on the campus of Carlisle Barracks.

We assist in some of the war-gaming efforts, Ogden said. This is a strategic land power school, but space needs to be acknowledged, recognized and visualized in national security discussions.

Email Joseph Cress at jcress@cumberlink.com.

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The Farmington City Council approved pay increases for the citys police and fire departments along with part-time employees when it met in regular session Dec. 9 at Long Memorial Hall.

The earlier-than-usual amending of the citys pay plan was in part due to the strong support Farmington voters showed the citys police and fire departments when they approved a half-cent public safety tax in the Nov. 2 municipal election with a 5-to-1 margin of 527 to 185 votes.

The new sales tax, which can only be used for public safety enhancements, increases police and fire department funding in four key areas:

$650,000 for the addition of eight full-time firefighters;

$350,000 for five additional uniformed police officers;

$300,000 for the supplementation of police department salaries; and

$900,000 for general fund replacement.

Before the sales tax was passed, Farmington's police and fire departments were solely funded through the city's general revenue fund. Farmingtons population increase in recent years had resulted in more service calls for both departments, resulting in the need for additional manpower  the cost of which was growing faster than that of current sales tax revenues. The tax is expected to generate about $2.2 million in annual revenue.

Providing an overview of the amended pay plan, City Administrator Greg Beavers said, We amended our pay plan  which we typically do every three years  so, were a little ahead. We would have normally done this next summer and reevaluated it, but theres a lot of things going on that caused us to do it earlier in the planning cycle than we typically do. One is the mandated Missouri state increase in minimum wages. Now, Farmington as a governmental unit is exempt from Missouris minimum wage law and we were lagging in those minimum wage adjustments which was making it increasingly more difficult to hire and retain our part-time employees. We made some steps to catch up to minimum wage  a $11.15 an hour for all of our part-time jobs beginning in January.

Another thing that is problematic is, with minimum wage coming up, its putting price pressure on our wages to recruit people in other positions. So, we needed to increase our minimum starting wage for a number of our jobs just to ensure that we could recruit folks. For example, we were previously hiring our public works employees at a little over $14 an hour. Weve increased that to about $15.25 an hour starting wages to ensure that we can recruit folks for those jobs. Then we have a number of employees in our pay plan that have been stuck at the top of their scale for a number of years. It just happens. You get to the top of your pay scale unless the market dictates there should be an increase in your wages for that position. But with all the scales moving, we felt like it was a good opportunity to add some additional earning potential to our long-term employees who have been at the top of the scale for a while.

And then there was one of the main reasons the city placed a public safety sales tax on the November ballot.

A big one, of course, was in the police department and fire department  especially in the police department, Beavers said. The number of possible recruits available to hire is less than its been in a number of years. More people are leaving the profession in this percentage of the workforce than in previous years  just the environment of being a police officer. After Missouri passed the statute allowing those additional taxes on the general fund tax, a number of communities chose to do what we did and pass a public safety tax so they could pay more. Thats been going on all around Missouri.

The earning expectation for police officers has changed quite a bit. Last year we were hiring police officers at $37,500 starting pay coming right out of the academy. That just doesnt get the job done anymore to recruit folks that we need. We made an adjustment back this summer to get them up to just over $40,000 a year starting. With this change, we will be recruiting police officers, and of course, adjusting the pay on our existing police officers, so the minimum earnings for them are in the $44,500 a year range. We will recruit up to about $47,500 for people with experience.

Beavers feels that with the new pay scale for police officers, the city will now be competitive in recruiting good candidates. He also noted that the pay scale increases will be similarly adjusted in the officer ranks of the department.

Part and parcel with that is that the expectation and our commitment as employers to our fire department has always been that the annual salaries  the annual earnings  for a firefighter would be roughly equivalent to a police officer. Now, they work a different schedule. The typical schedule for a police officer is a standard 2,080 a year. A regular schedule for a firefighter  depending on the year because of their schedules  ranges from 2,880 to 2,904. They work more hours because they work 24-hour shifts. They have a lower hourly rate, but we adjusted them so their annual expected earnings would be roughly equivalent to the police department across the equivalent ranks.

Beavers made it clear that he believes the pay scale increases were mandatory to keep the citys police and fire departments among the best in the state.

We think its great for us, he said. Were going to make sure we can keep the great officers that we have and not lose them to other departments that have openings that may be paying more. As we are hiring new officers, we want to make sure that were able to recruit the best of the workforce that is available for our department. This needed to be done to make this happen.

Kevin R. Jenkins is the managing editor of the Farmington Press and can be reached at 573-783-9667 or kjenkins@farmingtonpressonline.com

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Fifty Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) workers, Eagle Scouts, cavers with Meramec Valley Grotto (MVG), and community members recently joined forces with Missouri Stream Team (MST) to remove 3.5 tons of garbage from a sinkhole cave in Ste. Genevieve County.

MST is a working partnership of citizens who are concerned about Missouri Streams, and MDC recognizes and supports the groups passion for river conservation. MDC issued the news of the cleanup on Friday.

Jason Crites, MDC Fisheries Management biologist, said the area contains an extensive karst system  or multifaceted landscape  where the dissolving bedrock has formed sinking streams, sinkholes, springs, caves, and other distinctive topographies.

He said many of this systems openings allow water to enter the ground and flow towards the surface streams, which in this case has a negative impact on the environment.

Dumping trash and other refuse in sinkholes and caves will ultimately end up in our waterways, Crites added. I encourage people to refrain from dumping, especially in these locations.

With the added help of the volunteers, MST was able to remove 250 tires and other debris from the area during the one-day cleanup.

There was a large amount of trash in the walk-in entrance and throughout the cave, said Alex Litsch with MST. Vertically trained cavers worked around the top of the 60-foot pit to hoist trash out of the cave, and volunteers were on the surface and in the cave moving trash to a dumpster.

To date, including past cleanups at the site, Litsch said MST has removed nearly 500 tires and two 10-foot-by-5-foot-by-3-foot trailers filled with roughly 2 tons of additional litter.

Crites recommends notifying MST or MVG for assistance if a trash sinkhole or cave is discovered in your area.

MST has worked on a number of environmental efforts in St. Francois County, most notably the annual removal of tires from Big River in late summer.

Anyone interested in getting involved with future cleanups may visit Missouri Stream Team online at http://mostreamteam.org/about-us.html.

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ST. LOUIS (AP)  Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is banking on Republican voters forgiving his past indiscretions when they choose a U.S. Senate nominee next August. Many in the GOP establishment are hoping they don't forget.

Greitens resigned as governor in 2018 amid an investigation of an extramarital affair with his St. Louis hairdresser allegedly involving bondage and blackmail and leading to criminal and legislative investigations. The allegation of a photo taken without the woman's consent for the purposes of blackmail led to a felony criminal charge, which was eventually dropped.

Now, he is among the frontrunners in a crowded field of Republican Senate candidates that includes U.S. House members Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and the St. Louis lawyer who made headlines by pointing a gun at racial injustice protesters outside his home, Mark McCloskey.

Some Republican leaders worry that Greitens could win the GOP nomination but lose in the general election, ceding a crucial Senate seat in what should be a safely red state. Among them is Hartzler, citing one major demographic in particular.

Theres hardly any women in the state who will vote for him," she said in a phone interview.

John Hancock, a longtime Missouri Republican strategist, agreed.

Certainly suburban women would be a concern, but I think the problems extend far beyond that, said Hancock, whose firm has done research for Hartzlers campaign.

It wouldnt be the first time Missouri women played a pivotal role in deciding a Senate race. In 2012, Democrat Claire McCaskill carried women voters by 22 percentage points in easily defeating the late Republican Todd Akin. The lopsided election followed a TV interview in which Akin, a staunch abortion opponent, said pregnancy in cases of legitimate rape was uncommon because womens bodies were able to prevent it.

Senate Republican leadership concurs that a Greitens primary victory would hand the seat to Democrats. But so far theyve taken a hands-off approach, convinced Greitens campaign will implode as he struggles to raise money and continues to be dogged by the scandal, according to two Republican strategists working on Senate races, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That could change if Greitens candidacy gains steam, the strategists said.

On Thursday, Sen. Rick Scott, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told guest host Kurt Schlicter on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that there are real concerns that Greitens could lose to a Democrat, though he said he was confident Republican primary voters would choose someone else.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said at a Thursday news conference that he hasnt made a decision yet about whether to get involved in any primaries because primary season is still in its infancy. But he said that may change if Republicans were on the verge of nominating somebody who is unelectable.

Federal campaign finance filings show Greitens had about $200,000 in his campaign account at the end of September, but was also about $143,000 in debt. Separately, two pro-Greitens super PACs have emerged, which are financed by two Republican megadonors.

Missouri First Action, which has yet to disclose fundraising numbers, announced earlier this month that Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus donated $1 million. A separate pro-Greitens super PAC called Team PAC said it has raised $2.5 million from Dick Uihlein, a billionaire shipping supply magnate.

So far, no other donors to those groups have emerged.

Republican voters in Missouri have shown a willingness to forgive  former President Donald Trump carried the state by 19 percentage points in 2016 despite being caught on video making lewd remarks about women and bragging about infidelity. He carried Missouri by 15 percentage points in 2020.

All of the Missouri GOP Senate candidates are courting Trump's endorsement. Greitens has the backing of several Trump insiders, including Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani. He appears regularly on Steve Bannons podcast. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump campaign adviser and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., is the national chairwoman of Greitens campaign, and Trumps pollster, Tony Fabrizio, is working for Greitens.

Hewitt, while interviewing Trump earlier this month, implored him not to endorse Greitens.

That's a nightmare, Mr. President, Hewitt said. We'll lose that seat."

Well, that's an interesting opinion, that's true. Hes right now leading by quite a bit," Trump said, apparently referencing early polling showing Greitens at or near the top among GOP contenders.

Hartzler, acknowledging Greitens is an early frontrunner, is taking direct aim at his character.

I follow the rules, Hartzler said in her first TV ad, which launched in October. I stay out of trouble. And when I need to see a hairdresser, I make an appointment.

For now, Greitens' other opponents are mostly ignoring his past. Long called it old news.

Thats been out there, Long told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Everybodys run that thing through the mill. Ill let other people talk about those issues. I want to talk about issues that matter to taxpayers and voters.

Greitens frequently appears on conservative TV networks, radio and podcasts but has largely avoided Missouri media and made few public appearances.

Greitens' campaign declined interview requests and didn't respond directly to emailed questions. But the campaign manager, Dylan Johnson, provided a statement on Saturday.

Governor Greitens is the only America First candidate in this race who will fight for the people of Missouri, just like he has done as a Navy SEAL and as governor," Johnson said. "The political establishment and RINOs are frightened of losing their power to someone who would be a champion for the people.

Greitens, a charismatic former Navy SEAL officer and Rhodes scholar, was widely seen as a rising star in GOP politics after being elected governor in 2016. Then, in January 2018, news broke of an extramarital affair that occurred in 2015, before he was elected.

The woman said Greitens invited her to his home, where he blindfolded her, bound her and removed her clothes. He then allegedly took a photo.

Dont even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, Im going to take these pictures, and Im going to put them everywhere I can," she quoted Greitens as saying.

She said the encounter left her crying, but admitted to a relationship that went on for several more months.

It was the alleged photo that resulted in a criminal charge of invasion of privacy. Greitens accused St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, of a political vendetta.

In short order, a Missouri House committee began investigating and found the woman's allegations credible, and Greitens faced a second felony charge in St. Louis, accused of providing his political fundraiser with the donor list of his veterans charity. Greitens had denied any criminal wrongdoing.

The blackmail charge was dropped in May 2018, three days into jury selection, when a judge ruled that Gardner would have to provide a statement under oath about her investigation at the request of Greitens attorneys, who had repeatedly criticized her handling of the case.

The judge appointed Kansas City prosecutor Jean Peters Baker to review the case. A week after Greitens resigned in June 2018, Baker announced that she believed the woman's claim that Greitens took an unauthorized and compromising photo but that there wasnt enough evidence to merit a criminal charge.

The fundraising charge was dropped when Greitens resigned. Greitens and his wife, Sheena, divorced last year.

The former FBI agent Gardner hired to investigate Greitens in the invasion of privacy case, William Tisaby, was indicted in 2019 on six counts of perjury and one count of evidence tampering. The indictment accuses him of lying during a deposition in preparation for Greitens trial and concealing notes taken during an interview with the former governors accuser. His trial is scheduled for March.

Meanwhile, Missouris chief disciplinary counsel has accused Gardner of concealing evidence that might have helped Greitens case. She faces a disciplinary hearing in February. Gardner has denied any wrongdoing.

Greitens' political rebirth was seemingly fueled in February, when the Missouri Ethics Commission ruled on a campaign ethics investigation. The commission found probable cause that Greitens campaign broke the law by not reporting that it cooperated with a PAC in 2016, and required payment of a $38,000 fine. But it also found no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of Eric Greitens, individually.

Greitens said the ruling fully exonerated him.



AP Congressional Reporter Brian Slodysko contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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A complete history of St. Francois County transportation requires a book, not an article, but three major highlights from the previous 200 years provide an illustration of the evolving ways St. Francois County residents and business owners navigated the terrain to build this portion of Missouri we call home.

Plank Road

In the beginning, animal footpaths and Indian trails offered basic byways settlers later used for horses and wagons. The aquatic highways offered by the Flat, St. Francis and Big Rivers didnt connect St. Francois County enterprises with any efficient path to the biggest superhighway of all, the Mississippi River.

The Plank Road changed all that.

When St. Francois County became official in 1821, lead mining throughout the county and iron ore mining southwest of the county had been running just over 100 years. Shipping out those heavy loads from underground  and shipping in all the above-ground trappings for pioneer households, farms and businesses  meant the rutted, muddy mess of roads frequently became impassable on commercial routes to the Mississippi, where steamboats served as the days FedEx or UPS system.

Plank roads were not unheard of in other parts of the U.S. Businessman James E. Sauer issued 300 shares of stock at $50 apiece, took out $15,000 in insurance and started the plank road project, which is said to have been completed in 1853 for about $200,000. It was built on planks 8 feet wide, 2.5 inches thick, and nailed on thick logs so it was about 6-8 inches off the ground. At 42 miles, it was the longest plank road in America, stretching from Ste. Genevieve to the mines around Iron Mountain.

Essentially a single-lane boardwalk to the Big Muddy, the road offered westbound travelers the right-of-way, since their loads were likely commercial. The round trip could take as many as five days.

To keep up the wooden road, five tollgates  two of which were in Farmington and Doe Run  collected 25 cents per wagon and 10 cents per horseman. Legend has it, people would drive out of their way to avoid the tollgates, or would  while it worked, anyway  call out the name John Hunt!, the name of a wealthy farmer who preferred to pay his tolls at the end of the month, and who soon learned to pay in cash as he went.

The plank road proved to be laborious and cost-prohibitive, so the shareholders sold it to the counties, which kept it up for a while. St. Francois kept their end opened toll-free until 1903.

Probably the biggest nail in the plank road coffin was the railroad.

Railroad System

Books have been written about the various railways passing through St. Francois County land and history.

In 1851, state aid was given to two companies to facilitate building railroads, since Missouri, largely a steamboat state, had taken its time in embracing the Iron Horse. By 1860, bonds were issued on behalf of six different firms, one of which was the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad Company to transport iron.

About $3.6 million was used to build the railroad to Pilot Knob, but the cost meant changing of hands among businesses until it was run more efficiently by Thomas Allen, longtime president of the company.

The Belmont Branch was the first extension of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain south, built from both ends towards the middle and completed in August 1869. It covered a distance of 120 miles from Bismarck to Belmont.

The main line of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railway entered St. Francois County at the extreme northwest and traveled through Blackwell, into Washington County, then north of Bismarck to enter Iron County a few miles south. The Belmont Branch ran southeast from Bismarck, touching DeLassus and Knob Lick. Eventually, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad became part of the Missouri Pacific System.

According to Lead Belt News archives, Farmington had been pining for a railroad. Several attempts had been made to land one, but they failed. Finally, in 1901, the St. Francois County Electric Railway Company was formed and work began. After a few hiccups, the first electric car on the streets of Farmington ran from DeLassus to Farmington in the summer of 1904. At its zenith, the railway operated four electric cars traveling from the Farmington depot to Flat River in half an hour and connected the county seat to various points of the Lead Belt, joining with the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad at DeLassus. It also made connections with the Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Railroad at Flat River and the Illinois Southern at Esther.

As automobiles gained favor and the cost of coal dropped, the electric railway took its last run in November 1957.

Meanwhile, rail lines such as the Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Railroad, Illinois Southern Railroad, the Summit Railroad, Saline Valley Railroad and Missouri-Illinois Railroad companies changed hands, ebbed and flowed along with the interests and fortunes of the owners. Many were eventually absorbed into the larger railroad corporations that dominate the rails.

US 67

With the advent of the horseless carriage, the Missouri Legislature in 1913 created the Missouri Highway Department. Construction soon began to link adjoining county seats with paved and maintained roadways. Eight years later, honoring Missouris 100th birthday, department operations were established when the Legislature passes the Centennial Road Law, creating a four-member State Highway Commission.

The Eisenhower administration, headed by the World War II general-turned-president, revved up the nations highway system. Impressed by the productivity and effectiveness of Germanys Autobahn, President Dwight D. Eisenhower knew the well-engineered, expansive road system that aided Allied efforts in fighting fascism, could be imported to aid free enterprise and the pursuit of American dreams.

After seeing the autobahns of modern Germany and knowing the asset those highways were to the Germans, I decided, as President, to put an emphasis on this kind of road building, he later explained.

Missouri bought it becoming in 1956 the first state to take bids and start building the interstate highway system.

The stretch from Festus to St. Francois County was reputed to be notoriously stilted, according to an April 1980 Daily Journal editorial that acknowledged the highways completion and looked back on its history.

Nine years before, the final leg of the four-lane highway was completed, replacing the winding, narrow stretch of highway  some of which can be seen on Old 67 or Business 67 today  that often choked with weekend traffic.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Lt. Dorwin James claimed back then that, especially on three-day weekends, traffic on Old 67 would be stop-and-go from Festus to Bonne Terre.

I have seen traffic stopped completely still in Bonne Terre from the traffic signal in Festus," he was quoted as saying in the 1980 editorial.

The first section of US 67 was completed in 1958 and 1959, providing two new lanes, from the Jefferson-St. Francois county line to Flat River, and a four-lane segment between Bonne Terre and the intersection with Route 8.

A few years later in 1961, at a cost of about $1.1 million, the four-lane segment between Farmington and Flat River was opened. Three years and $2.9 million later, the two-line highway from Farmington south to the Madison County line was built.

The development continued in 1970 with the opening of a second traffic lane from Highway 8 to Leadington at a cost of over $1.1 million. The final segment of the existing four lane stretching from Farmington to Festus was completed in June 1971. From Bonne Terre to the northern county line cost nearly $2.5 million, Highway Commissioner Dennis McGuire said at the time.

Eventually, the second lane from Farmington to Fredericktown was completed in the 1980s.

Crossovers have been all but eliminated in the last 20 years and multiple interchanges such as the overpasses south of Desloge and south of Leadington, the Karsch/Highway 32 evolutions and the Maple Valley interchange have been added as commerce and population changes create new traffic patterns.

Honorable Mentions

Although this article only highlighted three aspects from 200 years of getting around in St. Francois County, it would be remiss not to mention in passing  pun intended  the evolution of flight, with a county dotted with runways, airports in Farmington and Bonne Terre making continual improvements, and, in a broader way, the effect McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing had on this area, with so many citizens commuting hours each day to St. Louis for more lucrative employment. The same can be said of those who commuted daily to St. Louis-area automakers, local auto dealers, mechanics, and so on.

Where the next 200 years takes us will be for future generations to determine, but one thing can be relied on in St. Francois County: If it cant readily find a way, itll make a way.

Sarah Haas is the assistant editor for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at 573-518-3617 or at shaas@dailyjournalonline.com.

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We gotta get the public involved, let us know whats going on, speak up when your family member has a problem to get them some help, he said.

Reaves said he would work with the local Department of Human Services to continue to tackle homelessness and provide more affordable housing in Culpeper. And hes not giving up on removing the Confederate name from Lake Pelham.

We are going to have to come up with something, Reaves said.

Like most people, he was unaware most of his life about the identity of Pelham, an Alabama artillery officer who died in Culpeper during the Civil War. Reaves would not answer when asked if the name offended him.

Like I said, Im for the people, not what I want. I go with the people Once you bring it up, you gotta react, he said.

Reaves ran an old-fashioned campaign going to door to door on foot. He and his supporters hit about 1,400 houses, he said.

I lost 20 pounds, Reaves said. I always like to have someone walk with me, but a few times I walked by myself. I knew it had to be done. We got so many new people (moving in)you gotta get out there and let them know who you are, talk to these people.
As of Sunday, the page had generated almost $6,000 toward the $7,500 goal.

We are asking for your support to assist with funeral expenses and beyond with consideration for things associated with care and contingency plans for the six children Nita leaves behind, friends and family wrote. This support will go directly to Nitas family and we will ensure they receive every outpouring of support during this brutal time of year for this family. We appreciate every gesture of love that has been received thus far, and hope that you will continue to support this family in any way that you can.

Robinson, who is charged with killing Tonita Smith and Redmon, is also a suspect in two other murders in and around Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C. metro area. He has been dubbed the shopping cart killer because carts were used to transport victims to other locations.

He is currently in custody at the Rockingham County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of concealing dead bodies. Other charges in connection two more bodies are expected to follow.
Environmental regulators have approved a permit for an explosive waste incinerator at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, which will eventually replace outdoor burning that has concerned nearby residents for years.

But the $145 million facility will not be operational until October 2026, according to Claire Powell, a spokeswoman for BAE Systems, a private company that operates the huge munitions plant for the Army.

In the meantime, some hazardous waste will continue to go to an open burning ground along the banks of the New River. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality renewed a 10-year permit for that operation in August.

Under the open-burning permit, the amount of propellant waste that can be incinerated per day  up to 10,000 pounds  was reduced by about half. Officials at the plant, also known as the Radford arsenal, say they were already well below the limit.

Most of the hazardous waste disposal is currently handled in enclosed incinerators.

Nonetheless, nearby residents worry that the process releases toxins into the surrounding soil, air and water. Those concerns have not been eased by plans for a new, indoor incinerator.
NEW YORK (AP)  There is no mention of holiday or Christmas in lyrics to the song, White Winter Hymnal. Or winter, for that matter. There is a reference to snow, turned red as strawberries in the summertime  presumably, by blood.

Nonetheless, the song has become a modern holiday standard, sung by children's choirs in countless school assemblies. Its plays on Spotify  more than 180 million for the two most popular versions  spike on Christmas Eve.

The story of White Winter Hymnal is a reminder of how songs can take journeys in the public consciousness that even their composers can't fathom.

The universe has a sense of humor. Sometimes there's just these little cosmic flukes, said Robin Pecknold, who wrote it when he was 20 years old, sitting on a couch at his parents' house as The Simpsons played on TV in the background. He was trying to wrap up music for the debut album of his band, Fleet Foxes.

Pecknold estimates it took about 20 minutes.

The result is a composition of simple, ethereal beauty. It consists of a single verse, sung three times in a round or perpetual canon style, with multiple voices repeating the same melody at a different starting point ("I was following the...")

The melody ascends to a peak then tumbles down, much like the song's character, Michael, falls in the snow. In less than two and a half minutes, it's done.

White Winter Hymnal received some notice in the alternative rock world when released in the summer of 2008. Pitchfork magazine named the song its No. 2 favorite track of the year, with critic Stephen Deusner writing, its meaning may remain unclear after so many listens  something about the passage of seasons  but its spell remains as strong as ever.

An aspiring actor, John Frank Lyke, was so obsessed with White Winter Hymnal that he made a homemade video featuring a couple walking in the woods through a newly-fallen snow. They come to a clearing overlooking Lake Champlain and when Pecknold sings the word summertime, the scene abruptly switches seasons. Bathed in warm sun, the couple leap into the lake.

The song has this kind of magic winter wonderland feeling, Lyke said. It reminded me of midnight mass when I would go with my family.

Pecknold didn't have the holidays in mind when writing. But other artists began covering White Winter Hymnal and one, Kim Wilde, put her version on a 2013 holiday-themed album. Pentatonix did the same a year later for their album, That's Christmas to Me.

That's when the song really took on a new life. Pentatonix's video of White Winter Hymnal has been seen more than 96 million times on YouTube; F leet Foxes' own video, a Claymation scene made by Robin's brother, Sean, has 23 million views.

In some respects, the song changed both context and ownership: Google 'White Winter Hymnal' lyrics" and it's described as a Pentatonix song.

The performance by a vocal band with a young following led to its notice by choir directors around the world.

When choir groups do it, it's so charming to me, Pecknold said. It is kind of heartwarming when someone will say to me, Im at my kid's recital and they're doing your song,' and they'll send me a video. That's really sweet, to think it's living in that world. Nothing beats that.

When Pecknold checks the Spotify metrics for his song, the plays tend to increase with the onset of autumn, building to the outsized Christmas Eve peak then falling off dramatically.

Holiday songs tend to lean into a certain kind of musical nostalgia, referencing the acoustic timbral palette of the holiday recorded canon, from Bing Crosby to Eartha Kitt, said Nathaniel Sloan, musicologist at the University of Southern California and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast. "The acoustic-folk sound of Fleet Foxes is well-suited to these nostalgic tones.

In addition, the song reaches back to deeper Christmas traditions in its carol-like vocal approach, with its layered melodies that stack upon one another, Sloan said.

Then you listen closely to the lyrics:

I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied round their throats to keep their little heads from fallin' in the snow, and I turned 'round and there you go, and Michael you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime.

One theory on the Internet is that White Winter Hymnal is about decapitation, with the red scarf a supposed reference to the French Revolution. Michael is being led to the guillotine.

Could that be true? What is the song about anyway?

Pecknold pauses at the question.

That's another funny aspect of it, he said, is that it's kind of vaguely not about anything.

One common theme of songs on Fleet Foxes' debut was keeping family and friends together as people grew and changed, and that was in his mind as he wrote. While he concedes that the most literal image may be a boy falling down a hill and dying, Pecknold said the song is definitely NOT about decapitation.

The words being vaguely dark was kind of cutting the sweetness of the melody, he said. That dissonance was interesting. At this point, I'm writing songs with the expectation that I'll have to defend them in some way. But at the time, I definitely was not.

The ambiguity and potential darkness certainly make it a stark departure, Sloan said. While heartache is a common theme for some holiday standards, most evoke a warm sense of family and good cheer.

He expects White Winter Hymnal to have staying power, though.

Not only is it a joy to listen to, it's a joy to perform  the chord structure is relatively simple and easy to learn, the unique vocal lines lend themselves to group singing and the lyrical repetition makes it easy for anyone to join in and sing along, Sloan said.

The song gets more attention each year; Spotify said it was streamed 30% more this September and October than in 2020, almost at previous December levels. The Pentatonix recording provided Pecknold a windfall as a songwriter that he largely plowed back into music. This season it's being used in commercials for the Spanish lottery. The potential for earnings only figures to increase.

He marvels at the randomness of it all.

That's the funny thing about this  spending years making music, writing songs, thinking it's all about hard work and putting the hours in, he said. To a large degree it is, but then you'll get this random scratch card one day and find the song that ends up, kind of accidentally, being your most well-known.

Fleet Foxes just released a new album, A Very Lonely Solstice, a live recording that features songs meant to evoke a seasonal feel without being explicitly about the holidays.

White Winter Hymnal, however, is not included.

That's a Christmas song at this point, Pecknold said with a laugh.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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The Czech Telecommunication Office (Cesky telekomunikacni urad, CTU) has extended the allocation of frequencies to operators in the 2100 MHz band for another 20 years.

It also has imposed a new obligation to support older phones.

In a press release explaining the new concept, CTU noted that O2 is obliged to maintain its 2G GSM network until at least 2028 unless the share of all users using this older technology falls below 5%.

The regulator is mindful that some Czechs (usually senior citizens) do not cope so well with more modern smartphones and it wants to ensure their ability to make voice calls is maintained.

CTU Council Chair, Mrs. Hana Tovarkova, has reached a consensus with operator O2 which will be a benefit for the general public. "The negotiations have been difficult, and I am not afraid to call our approach innovative. We hereby thank O2 for reaching a consensus that will particularly benefit the elderly and the socially weaker persons," said Hana Tovarkova.

"It is in our interest to maintain the most attractive possible spectrum which enables us to continue deploying fast and high-quality 5G network. However, we also understand the need for an older 2G network suitable for basic phones, which we are prepared to continue to operate as well as ever, said Vaclav Zakouril, a member of the board of directors of O2.

In the following period, new block allocations will most likely be issued to other holders of allocations in the 2100 MHz band. All block allocations have been, and continue to be, technology-neutral per European legislation, allowing their holders to innovate the technologies used to provide electronic communications services.

Under the current legislation, new block allocations shall be offered to their current holders at a price determined by an expert report which respects both the period of validity and the costs necessary to meet any new conditions imposed.
Moro Hub, a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, the digital arm of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has started work on a new solar-powered data centre.

The 100MW facility was announced in May, when the planned 100MW facility was described as the largest solar-powered Tier III-certified facility in the Middle East and Africa.

It will be located in DEWA's 3,000MW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park just southeast of Dubai. It aims to use 100 percent green energy from the solar park.

Moro Hub and Huawei, with which Moro Hub signed the agreement to build the data centre, recently broke ground on the new buiding in the presence of officials from DEWA, Moro Hub and Huawei UAE.

The data centre is aimed at global hyperscalers wanting to locate capacity in Dubai. It is also in line with the goals of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100 percent of energy from clean energy sources by 2050, as well as the Dubai Demand Side Management Strategy, which aims to reduce electricity and water demand by 30 percent by 2030.

This is the second solar-powered data centre in Dubai launched by Moro Hub. The first is a 3,402 sqm, 8.8MW Tier III-certified data centre in the Dubai Marina, launched in October 2020.
Thailand Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), the oldest and largest hospital in the country Siriraj Hospital, and Huawei Technologies have opened a 5G smart hospital project in the country.

It is the first and largest 5G smart hospital project in the country and the ASEAN region, said a press release from the Chinese multinational technology corporation.

The 5G Smart Hospital will deliver a more efficient and convenient experience to patients by introducing technologies such as 5G, cloud, and artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Siriraj Hospital and Huawei will establish a Joint Innovation Lab to incubate over 30 innovative 5G applications that will be promoted nationwide from 2022.

General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister, said: Thailand understands the importance of technology, and today is an important first step in the utilization of digital technologies and 5G in the medical field. We are thankful for the long-lasting friendship and collaboration between Thailand and China. We admire Siriraj Hospital and Mahidol University and would like to thank Huawei, NBTC, and all other partners. We hope the project will act as a blueprint for all smart hospitals in Thailand going forward.

Han Zhiqiang, Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China in Thailand, emphasized that China will leverage technology to help Thailand fight the pandemic. China and Thailands 5G cooperation has become a model in the region, helping Thailand become the first country in Southeast Asia to launch 5G commercial use. China will continue to support Huawei and other Chinese companies in advancing Smart Hospitals and bringing better lives for Thai and Chinese people.

Abel Deng, CEO of Huawei Thailand, said: Siriraj Hospital and Huawei signed a five-year MoU in December 2020 to accelerate the use of 5G and cloud technologies. In June, 5G unmanned vehicles were introduced for contactless medical supplies delivery. Last year, Siriraj was awarded by CommunicAsia for Most Innovative 5G Trial in Asia Pacific Region.
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Whigham-Marable has served as a faculty member and faculty advisor at four different universities in Alabama and Ohio. She has held leadership positions at four different Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, in New York, Ohio and Alabama, with her positions ranging from staff nurse to the executive level of associate director of primary care and tertiary care.

During her career, she received the V.A. Medical Center Directors highest award, the directors commendation, for her leadership role in improving healthcare for veterans, team building and staff development, as well as the V.A. Healthcare System of Ohio network directors commendation for reducing waiting times for veterans to get healthcare appointments.

Whigham-Marable was the first nurse elected to a national office of the American Nurses Association, being appointed to ANAs Cabinet on Human Rights in 1984, where she served as vice president and helped to write healthcare policy. She received the Alabama State Nursing Associations highest award, the Lillian B. Smith award for her leadership role in promoting human rights and cultural diversity in nursing organizations and educational institutions. She also served on the licensure advisory board of the Alabama State Board of Health from 1983 to 1989.
Functional forces have seized 50 kilos of synthetic drugs from a truck disguised as a vehicle transporting eels from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City.

As the truck entered Binh Dien wholesale market in HCMCs District 8 early Monday, it was stopped for inspection by a special force comprising the citys police, borders guards of the southern region, and officers from the anti-smuggling and drug control team under the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Under metal boxes containing living eels, the task force found many sacks that contain bags of tea inside.

Checking the tea bags, they found 50 kilos of synthetic drugs in total.

Suspects are detained along with the synthetic drugs seized from a truck entering HCMC from Cambodia, December 20, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Nhat Vy

The case is being investigated further.

HCMC is a frequent location for drug-related crimes, owing to its socio-economic development status and high population. Most narcotics arrive in the city via the Golden Triangle, an intersection of China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and the world's second largest drug producing area behind the Golden Crescent in South Asia.

Drug trafficking and consumption have persisted in Vietnam though it has some of the worlds toughest laws: Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of meth face the death penalty.
An aerial view of Luang Prabang, a popular tourist destination in Laos. Photo by Shutterstock

Laos is set to reopen its doors to tourists from 17 countries, including Vietnam, on January 1, nearly two years after it shut them following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Visitors from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Thailand, the U.K., and the U.S. will also be allowed in as the country begins a three-phase international tourism reopening plan.

Tourists are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid at least 14 days prior to arrival and furnish a negative PCR test done within the last 72 hours, the Laotian Times reported.

They can only come on package tours with designated travel agencies, and have insurance, including for Covid treatment, worth at least $50,000.

They need to download and register on the LaoKYC and the LaoStaySafe mobile apps prior to arriving in the country, and upload their vaccination certification and test results.

They will be tested on arrival and placed quarantine in their hotel for a day.

During the first phase from January to March 30, tourists will be able to enter Laos by air and land across the First Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Vientiane.

The second phase will be from April 1 to 30 June, and the third phase from July 1.

Vietnam has approved the resumption of commercial flights to nine destinations on Jan. 1 including Vientiane.
The United States welcomes Australias intention to declare in its entirety a terrorist organization under Australias criminal code.

Australias Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said that the Iran-backed Shiite group "continues to threaten terrorist attacks and provide support to terrorist organizations" and poses a "real" and "credible" threat to Australia. In the past, Australia designated only Hezbollahs External Security Organization a terrorist entity.

In a statement applauding Australias decision, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said, Erasing the erroneous distinction between Hezbollahs military wing and the rest of the terrorist organization is a critical step forward.

Hezbollah itself makes no distinction between its military and political branches. In 2012, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said, "We don't have a military wing and a political one; every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, are in the service of the resistance.

The United States has called on all countries to erase the false dichotomy between Hezbollahs so-called wings and treat the entire organization for what it is  a supporter and purveyor of terror around the world, whose financiers should be subject to sanctions, whose assets should be subject to seizure, and whose activities should be subject to preemptive investigations.

Many nations have responded to the call, including Austria, members of the Arab League, Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Honduras, Argentina, and other European and Latin American countries  now, Australia as well.

Hezbollah is a dangerous terrorist organization that threatens the safety of the international community and undermines the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, said Spokesperson Price. The organizations robust paramilitary and terrorist capabilities, as well as its propaganda machine and corrupt financial networks, are major obstacles to peace and stability in Lebanon, in the Middle East and around the world. [The action taken by Canberra] is an important step toward countering Hezbollahs ability to operate in Australia and abroad.
Western Folklife Center to offer Wild Ride

ELKO -- The first installment of this years Western Folklife Centers Wild Ride will take place the last weekend in January at the G Three Bar Theater.

There will be a little of everything people love about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering; music, poetry, talks and gear. Agee Smith will tell tales from Cottonwood Ranch. Jeremiah Watt will unveil his custom saddle. Waddie Mitchell will host evening shows featuring Pipp Gillette, Yvonne Hollenbeck and Dave Stamey. And, there will be more surprises.

Livestream passes available free to members. Limited in-person tickets are available first to members. Details and tickets will be released in January.

Snowshoe hike in Lamoille Canyon

LAMOILLE  Nevada Outdoor School will host a snowshoe hike beginning at 10 a.m. Dec. 22 in Lamoille Canyon at the Powerhouse Picnic area.

The nonprofit organization will provide snowshoes if there is snow. If there is no snow, they will have a hiking session. Hot chocolate, cider, and tea will be provided.

This event is free to the public.

Western Sights exhibit

ELKO -- The Western Sights of Jo Mora will be on display through May 14, 2022, in the Wiegand Gallery. The exhibit presents an engaging overview of the artist's work in various media, from his signature cartes (illustrated maps) and illustrations to watercolors and bronze sculptures.

Artist Joseph Jacinto 'Jo' Mora (b. 1876) came to the United States from Uruguay and became enamored with the culture and stories of the American West at an early age. Throughout his lifetime, Mora documented the changing landscape of the West through detailed etchings, illustrated maps, paintings, sculptures and stories.

In addition to this show, the Western Folklife Center is also showing a special selection of contemporary handcrafted gear from the permanent collection. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and during special events.

Admission is free the first Saturday of the month. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and $1 for children six to 12-years-old. Free admission for members.

Horizon offers bereavement support group

ELKO  If you or a loved one is grieving the loss of a loved one, please join the Horizon Hospice support group. Participants meet at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 1250 Lamoille Highway, Suite 413.

There is no cost to community members. Call 778-0612 for more information.

Al-Anon meets Wednesdays in Spring Creek

SPRING CREEK --The Al-Anon Spring Creek Step Study Group meets at 7 p.m. Wednesdays at the Spring Creek Baptist Church, 360 Spring Creek Parkway. The program is in person or virtual.

If you or someone you know is worried about a family member or friends drinking problem, Al-Anon is a mutual support group that shares their experiences, strengths and hope. Zoom meeting ID 890 588 5311 Password F8KmfZOn.

Celebrate recovery and find freedom

ELKO  Find freedom for your hurts, habits and hang-ups with The Nazarene Church Christ-centered recovery program every Friday evening.

A large group meets at 6 p.m. and a smaller group gathers at 7 p.m. The church is located at 740 Sage St.

Call 738-6714 for more information.

Medicare providers in Elko

ELKO -- The Medicare in Elko Workgroup has updated their list of Elko medical providers. Listed are those clinics that will accept a new patient using Medicare or Medicaid.

It specifically lists clinics where patients can set up appointments with specific providers. The tri-fold brochure also lists providers found outside of Elko, along with two state agencies that help people with their Medicare needs. Senior Services and other medical services are listed.

The updated list is available on the groups website, medicarinelko.org. They also have a Facebook page medicare in elko, with a link to the brochure.

FRC hosts free teen programs

ELKO -- Family Resource Center is hosting free online and in-person teen health programs each month for youth in Grades 5 to 7 and Grades 10 to 12.

These fun, evidence-based age-appropriate programs teach youth about making healthy life decisions. They incorporate medically accurate information along with crucial knowledge about identifying and handling social pressures, communicating effectively and dealing with peer pressure. Youth learn about reproductive health, puberty, hygiene, personal responsibility, avoiding risky behaviors and respect for self and others, while building knowledge, skills and confidence.

Youth receive their choice of a free backpack full of school supplies or a $25 store gift card after completing the program. There is a limit of one free incentive per participant per year. A parent or guardian must pre-register the participant by completing a permission slip before class.

The online programs are presented using Zoom in four day blocks for an hour and 45 minutes each day after school. The in-person classes vary, but are usually one day, scheduled on a Saturday or during holiday breaks. For more information call 753-7352, text 775-397-1874 or email teenhealth@elkofrc.org.

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LAS VEGAS  The number of weapons confiscated from students at Las Vegas-area schools has risen nearly 30% since the 2019-2020 academic year, corroborating what experts and educators have called a spike in troublesome behavior among schoolchildren since the return of in-person learning nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Clark County School District recovered at least 119 weapons from students at campuses from Aug. 9 through Dec. 1, according to a district firearms confiscation report.

Thats up 29.3% compared with the 92 weapons taken Aug. 12-Dec. 5, 2019  the last academic year before the pandemic forced an overwhelming majority students across the country to online learning.

That trend backs up claims by school district police, educators and parents that fights and other behavioral incidents have climbed significantly this year.

Its like if you dont do your math homework long enough, you forget the math, said Adam Gent, a physical education and health teacher at Spring Valley High School who launched Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer intervention program that aims to prevent suicides.

These kids, theyve forgotten how to be students, Gent told the Las Vegas Sun. Theyve forgotten, almost, how to act.

In 2020, when the school district transitioned to remote learning for most of the year, it reported 28 weapons confiscations from Aug. 24-Dec. 14, and 52 confiscations for the entire school year.

The report, which began in 2018, has since grown to include tallies of BB guns, handguns, long-barreled guns, knives and other weapons, said Lt. Bryan Zink of the districts police department.

High schoolers have historically been the largest offenders bringing weapons to school, according to 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions of the report. In 2021, they accounted for nearly 64%, or 76, of the 119 weapons recovered.

Middle schoolers, by comparison, accounted for about 30%, or 36 confiscations. Elementary school students were responsible for seven confiscations.

Katherine Lee, a nationally certified school psychologist and an assistant professor in school psychology at UNLV, said that even though the increase seems notable, it is likely too early to tell if its statistically significant.

Last Wednesday, one 15-year-old male student stabbed another during a fight at Cimarron Memorial High School, which was briefly placed on lockdown as a result, Zink said.

On Dec. 2, Cram Middle School in North Las Vegas went into lockdown after reports that a student brought a weapon to campus, although the claims were ultimately unfounded, Zink said.

The incident came days after a 15-year-old in Michigan was accused of opening fire at Oxford High School, north of Detroit. Four students were killed and seven people were injured.

As for why students might feel compelled to bring a weapon to school, Its really hard to pinpoint one reason, Lee said, adding that the pandemic has undoubtedly had an effect on child and adolescent behavior.

Children need structure, and school provided that, Lee said. (Are they acting out) to get attention? Is it because theres an underlying mental health issue? Is it because they feel like theyre struggling so much in school? Are they mad at the school or feel like they dont belong?

Zink said there was a notable increase in disturbances early on in the current academic year.

But even in a normal year, Zink said, its not unusual for the number of fights or weapon confiscations to tail off in the middle of the year before picking back up in the weeks to months leading to summer vacation.

To be this far into the school year and to have confiscated as many weapons as we had, it was troubling and alarming, Zink said. But then again, weve started to see the downward curve.

The Sun made several requests for comment from Clark County school administrators, but received no answer back. The Sun also filed a public records request seeking the number of fights reported on district campuses, but that request was pending.

The Clark County School District is the nations fifth-largest, with about 315,000 students and 18,000 teachers in 336 schools covering an area the size of New Jersey.

Zink said one theory he had for why kids may have been acting out was that for many students, its their first time being in a new school with more students, more freedom and less supervision.

Basically, at every single school, there are two levels of kids that had never attended that school before, Zink said. Kids had to learn how to act more mature, even though the last reference they had they were younger and they could get away with stuff at the middle school or elementary school level.

Additionally, the pandemic may have altered the way students, parents and educators approach learning, Lee said. Though it may be easy to focus on an isolated incident or one particular issue, resuming to the way school was before the pandemic may take systemic overhaul.

I dont know if there will ever be the same normal, Lee said. People definitely adapt and some things in their new life are great. And some things from traditional living are important to preserve as well. So I think were still all figuring it out.

Lee and Gent also agreed on another point: Its important for schools in Clark County, and nationwide, to be dedicating resources to students, such as counseling and open discussion over mental health.

Gent credits the school district with providing solution-oriented training for teachers as they came back to in-person learning, so they were equipped with tools to help students who may be lagging.

But honestly, I think in the last month or two it feels almost like theyre starting to get better, Gent said.

It almost is common sense, now that I think about it, he said. They forgot how to be students, they forgot how to behave. And now, were reteaching that, and a lot of the kids are responding really well. A lot of them want to get back to normal.
On December 17, the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a series of emails between outgoing National Institute of Health Director Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In the emails, Collins refers to the authors of something called The Great Barrington Declaration as fringe epidemiologists and states his desire for a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises.

Collins defended his characterization and call for action on Fox News Sunday, telling host Bret Baier that hundreds of thousands of people would have died if the Declarations recommendations (strong measures for the protection of the elderly and otherwise vulnerable, leaving the rest of us to achieve herd immunity through widespread infection) had been followed.

Im reminded of something William F. Buckley, Jr. said about the 1964 presidential election, which US Senator Barry Goldwater lost to President Lyndon Baines Johnson: They told me if I voted for Goldwater wed be at war in Vietnam in six months and I did and we were.

I supported the Great Barrington Declaration  and hundreds of thousands died. Not because US policymakers implemented the Declarations recommendations, but either because of, or in spite of, US policymakers following the recommendations of Collins, Fauci, and others.

The question isnt which set of recommendations would have produced better outcomes. Its whether science should be reduced to the status of handmaid to bureaucratic diktat, with scientists whose findings dont support that diktat marginalized through the influence of those same bureaucrats.

How fringe are the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration?

Sunetra Gupta is a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University of Oxford. She earned a bachelors degree in biology from Princeton and a PhD from Imperial College London (her doctoral thesis title: Heterogeneity and the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases).

Jayanta Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine at Stanford University, where hes earned four degrees, including an MD.

Martin Kulldorff is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, with a bachelor of science from Swedens Umea University in mathematical statistics and a PhD from Cornell in operations research. He sits on scientific advisory committees for the US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control.

Agree with their recommendations or not, neither their credentials nor their policy positions qualify as fringe by any reasonable definition. Their only real offense was disagreeing, on what they considered relevant scientific grounds, with policies advocated by Francis Collins.

Francis Collins has spoken was neither good science nor a good up-or-down test for determining the quality of public policy recommendations. Freedom of scientific inquiry and unconstrained public discussion of the alternatives are too important to sacrifice on the altar of technocracy.

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At the award ceremony (Photo: PANO)

The award was given to Vietnamese citizens under the age of 35 with outstanding achievements in science and technology who are studying and carrying out research in the country or abroad, said the SGGP newspaper.



In 2021, the award was given to those working in information technology, digital transformation and automation, medical and pharmaceutical technology, biotechnology, environmental technology, and new material technology in order to orient and promote the young generation to participate in the fourth industrial revolution according to the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress.

At the award ceremony (Photo: PANO)

Ten winners were chosen from sixty-six nominees from domestic and foreign educational, training and research institutions. Also in the awarding ceremony, the organizers awarded the outstanding Female Student Award to 20 female students in the field of Science and Technology who are third-year female students with excellent academic and research achievements in information technology, electricity, electronics, and mechanics.

Timber industrys export surplus reaches US$12.6 billion in 2021

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the timber industry is likely to rake in US$15.6 billion from exports this year, enjoying an export surplus of US$12.6 billion, the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) revealed at a recent review meeting.

The timber indsutry has performed well this year, securing an export growth rate of 18% despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported the Voice of Vietnam.

The timber indsutry has performed well this year, securing an export growth rate of 18% despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The timber industry has exceeded its US$14 billion export value target set earlier for this year by earning US$15.6 billion, a year on year increase of 18%, and attaining an export surplus of US$12.6 billion, up 18.4% compared to last year, said Bui Chinh Nghia, deputy head of VNFOREST, at the meeting.

He said the export of wood and forest products maintained high growth in a number of traditional markets, such as China at 23.7%, the United States at 21.4%, the European Union at 14.4%, Japan at 6.7% and the Republic of Korea at 5.7%.

This shows that processing enterprises have taken advantage of opportunities to develop and expand markets in the context of the US-China trade war and opportunities from the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed, stressed Nghia.

Photo for illustration (Source: VNA)

However, the VNFOREST official admitted that challenges lie ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic remains complicated that will certainly affect business production, including wood processing in the coming time.

In addition, Vietnams major wood and wood product importers are increasingly requiring strict implementation of regulations on timber origin.

Its worthy of note that we are facing a significant risk of trade fraud, counterfeiting of product origin, fierce competition, and trade protectionism from importers, that will affect our wood processing and exports, said Nghia.

At the meeting, Nghia also unveiled the timber industrys target of earning US$16.5 billion from exports in 2022, an increase of 5.7% from the 2021 figure.

To meet the target, Nghia suggested businesses, among other solutions, should continue to take advantage of bilateral and multilateral FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that have been ratified and put into practice.

Do Xuan Lap, president of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFOREST), suggested the State facilitate business production by offering a booster jab to employees as soon as possible. Moreover, he said businesses should also actively change the method of production, packaging and delivery of goods to optimize processes.

Healthcare sector requested to be well prepared for Omicron infections

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has requested the healthcare sector to closely monitor the Omicron outbreak globally and develop response scenarios if the new variant of coronavirus is reported in Vietnam.

In an urgent telegram dated December 19, the PM pointed out that although Vietnam has yet to detect any Omicron cases, the risk is rather high as first cases have been reported in neighbouring countries, according to the Voice of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the numbers of new infections, critically ill patients and deaths caused by COVID-19 in Vietnam are increasing and are expected to keep rising. The health system in some localities has already been overloaded, requiring support from the central government and other localities.

Photo for illustration (Source: MoH)

In the face of Omicron threats, the PM requested the Ministry of Health to assess the pandemic level and come up with appropriate prevention and control measures.

Its imperative to strengthen epidemiological surveillance to detect new strains early and avoid overloading the health system on a large scale, said the PM.

In case the Ministry of Health is yet to issue new guidelines on pandemic levels, the Government leader allowed localities to consult with the Ministry of Health and raise their COVID-19 alert levels based on the actual situation.

He also asked localities to speed up vaccinations, including the booster jab, especially for people of high risk groups such as the elderly and those with underlying illnesses.

In addition, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Health to provide localities with an adequate supply of antiretroviral drugs to ensure all F0 cases access medications as well as other necessary services.

Vietnams trade value to hit record high in 2021

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnams total import-export value is expected to reach a record high at US$660 billion this year, the Voice of Vietnam quoted the figure of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Statistics from the department show the countrys total import-export turnover was US$602 billion in the January-November period, surpassing the US$500 billion mark recorded two years ago. Of the total, the export value was US$299.67 billion, up 17.5%, and the import value was US$299.45 billion, up 27.5%, resulting in a trade surplus of US$225 million.

The agency forecasts that the 2021 import - export turnover is likely to surpass the US$660 billion mark, making Vietnam one of the 20 leading economies in terms of international trade.

The past 11 months saw 34 groups of commodities rake in US$1 billion each from exports, accounting for 93.5% of the total export turnover. Notably, there were seven groups of export products earning more than US$10 billion each, representing 66.4% of the total.

Processed industrial products took the lead, earning US$266.75 billion from exports, representing a year-on-year increase of 18% and accounting for 89% of the countrys total export turnover.

The United States was Vietnams largest export market in 11 months with a turnover of US$84.8 billion, up 22.2%. It was followed by China (US$50.5 billion, up 16.8%), the European Union (US$35.7 billion, up 11.9%), ASEAN (US$25.9 billion, up 23.3%), the Republic of Korea (US$20 billion, up 14.6%), and Japan (US$18 billion, up 3%).

Photo for illustration (Source: nhadautu.vn)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade says Vietnam will have a great chance to increase its exports in the last month of 2021 on the back of economic recovery in major global powers such as the United States and the European Union which are Vietnams leading trading partners.

In addition, an increasing market demand especially for a range of highly competitive products of Vietnam in the year-end shopping season will help boost exports for the whole year.

Indeed, domestic businesses have taken advantages of opportunities from free trade agreements, especially new-generation FTAs, that Vietnam has signed with its partners, to increase their exports. They have gradually adapted to the agreements commitments along with preferential tariffs to be eliminated or reduced by partners, creating more competitive advantages for their products.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnams goods-for-export structure has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, and the US$100 billion mark has been surpassed every two years.

Back in 2011, there were 21 groups of commodities that earned more than US$1 billion each from exports, of which only garment exports bagged US$14 billion. However, 10 years later the number of groups of commodities earning more than US$1 billion each from exports rose to 34, with seven of them raking in US$10 billion or more each (November 2021 statistics).

It is a good sign that the goods-for-export structure has changed significantly, from labour intensive sectors such as garment, footwear and fisheries, to high-tech commodity groups like phones, computers, and machinery, says a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade./.
Vietnamese bivalve molluscs conquers demanding markets

(Source: vov.vn)

November saw Lenger Vietnam Seafood Co., Ltd export its first container of canned clam to the EU, with production and processing procedures meeting the stringent standards set by the fastidious market.

At present, the company has received numerous orders to export clams to the EU market, while simultaneously preparing raw materials in a bid to fulfil orders made by foreign partners early next year, said Lo Thi Kim Dung of the companys Import-Export Department.

Furthermore, the firm has continued modernising its production line as it seeks potential customers from Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Russia for its canned clams.

Along with Lenger Vietnam Seafood Co., Ltd., a number of local seafood companies such as the Thanh Hoa Seafood Import-Export Joint Stock Company, Minh Dang Co., Ltd., Thai Binh Clam Co., Ltd, Viet Long Kien Giang Co., Ltd., and Ben Tre Seafood Joint Stock Company are taking advantage of available domestic raw materials. This is being done as a means of increasing exports to foreign markets, especially the EU market.

According to details given by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the EU remains the largest consumer of Vietnamese bivalve molluscs, duly accounting for 62% of the countrys total export value.

Vietnamese bivalve mollusk exports to the EU market by mid-November surged by 38.5% to reach US$73.7 million against the same period from last year, with key export products including white clams and frozen cooked brown clams.

Italy, Spain, and Portugal make up the three single largest importers in the bloc of Vietnamese bivalve molluscs during the reviewed period.

This comes as exports to Italy edged up 49% to reach over US$22 million, followed by Spain with US$21.3 million, and Portugal with US$17.5 million.

The average export price of the product in the Italian market ranges between US$2.35 and US$2.69 per kilo, while that in Spanish and Portuguese markets typically hovers between US$1.7 and US$2 per kilo.

Although France ranks sixth in terms of importing Vietnamese bivalve mollusc within the EU, exports of the product to the demanding market recorded the best growth rate of 191% during the reviewed period.

Experts attributed the rise in bivalve mollusc exports to the EU to the growing market demand, stable production of clams, and tax incentives following the implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Vietnam looks to promote export to Brazil

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Brazil, Vietnamese businesses need to cooperate closer with partners in order to boost exports to Brazil in the last month of 2021 as the American markets import and export activities have recorded a stable growth.

Producing footwear for export (Photo: VNA)

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Brazil hit 5.74 billion USD in the last 11 months, up nearly 36.8 percent year-on-year, with Vietnam's exports to Brazil valued at 2.04 billion USD, up 24.7 percent year-on-year, reported VNA.

Sharp increases were seen in the shipment to Brazil of items such as iron and steel, furniture products, computers, electronic products, bamboo and rattan products, sedge carpets, vehicles and spare parts, technical fabrics, rubber, textile fibers, aquatic products, textile raw materials, footwear, rubber products, and bags.

Vu Ba Phu, director of Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said although the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the economy, trade between Vietnam and Brazil has grown, so businesses of the two sides still have many opportunities to improve trade turnover in the coming time.

According to deputy head of the European-American Market Department of the MoIT Vo Hong Anh, the value of exports to Brazil has been improved with an increasingly diverse range of trade commodities such as mobile phones, electronic equipment, iron and steel, footwear, chemicals, agricultural products, and processed foods, and raw materials for livestock feeds and some other production industries.

Vietnamese, Indian firms cooperate in petrochemical refinery projects

Vietnam's largest refining and petrochemical firm, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC (BSR), will cooperate with Indian Oil of India to develop petrochemical refinery projects in Vietnam, India and third countries, reported VNA.

The Dung Quat oil refinery (Photo: VNA)

Under a Memorandum of Understanding just signed by the two enterprises in India, the two sides will evaluate cooperation opportunities in the fields of oil and gas processing and energy in Vietnam, India and third countries.

BSR and Indian Oil will join hands in developing a project on upgrading and expanding Dung Quat oil refinery; conducting an overall maintenance of Dung Quat oil refinery to improve efficiency as well as reduce costs and time and increase productivity.

The MoU is hoped to open up opportunities for cooperation between the two firms in developing process design packages (PDPs), basic engineering design packages (BEDPs) for non-copyrighted technology workshops and workshops using indigenous technology of Indian Oil.

The two sides will promote research and development (R&D), especially research and improvement of petroleum products, alternative fuels and fuel additives as well as optimize the production process of oil refining and energy conversion plants.

They will also cooperate in providing consulting services in the supply and processing chain of petroleum products related to overall maintenance management, and support for project management.

Indian Oil is one of the leading firms in the region in refining oil, transporting crude oil and petroleum products, petrochemical production, and trading gas, petroleum and chemical products in India and abroad.

Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC is a subsidiary of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group ( PetroVietnam). BSR is managing and operating Dung Quat oil refinery plant in Quang Ngai province. The firm has laid the foundation for the development of Vietnam's petroleum refining and petrochemical industry.

Students in areas with high pandemic risks suspend direct learning from December 20

According to a proposal of Hanoi City Department of Education and Training, students in areas with high COVID-19 pandemic risk will return to online learning from December 20.

Photo for illustration (Source: hanoimoi.com.vn)

The move aims to ensure health safety for teachers and students amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the capital city.

Under Notice 844/TB-UBND dated December 17 of the municipal People's Committee, 2 districts and 25 communes in the city are now facing third-level pandemic risk, corresponding to orange zone status. The two districts are Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da.

Previously, Ba Vi district was the first locality in Hanoi to organize direct teaching at school for 9th grade students from November 8.

Students in areas with high pandemic risks suspend direct learning

(Source: thanhnien.vn)

From the results of implementation at schools in Ba Vi district, Hanoi city has expanded the organization of direct teaching for 9th grade students of 18 districts and towns from November 22, and 12th grade students of 30 districts and towns from December 6.

According to preliminary statistics from the Hanoi City Department of Education and Training, about 64,000 grade 9 and 12 students are back in school. Teaching and learning at schools is deployed flexibly with many options to respond to the epidemic situation, ensuring the safety of students and teachers./.
By Wu Xilu

Racial tension, mishandling of the pandemic, social division.

In the US, the most successful political idea of the 20th century has gone wrong.

It's not only reflected in its system design and general structure, but also in the way it is put into practice.

With the best health and medical resources in the world as it claims, the US, with the highest numbers of infections and deaths, has been a total mess when it comes to COVID response. The root cause of the continued spread of the coronavirus in the US is not a dearth of science, but the refusal to trust and rely on science.

The pandemic, which could conceivably have brought a country together, has instead contributed to the growing political divides in the US. Some politicians prioritized partisan interests rather than safeguarding the health of the American people. The federal and state governments have failed to galvanize a concerted response to the pandemic, and are mired in infighting instead. As a result, pandemic response measures have been severely politicized and then weakened.

On 13 January alone, 4,170 Americans died of COVID-19, far exceeding the death toll of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One in every 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. Up to now, COVID-19 deaths in the US have surpassed its total death toll from the 1919 Influenza Pandemic, and its combined deaths in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan.

If the US had taken a science-based response, a lot more lives could have been saved. The pandemic, as epidemiologist and former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention William Foege put it, is a slaughter.

There's also another virus systemically and constantly haunting American society.

American society has experienced relapses of its malaise of racial discrimination from time to time.

In February 2021, an article published by Stanford News suggests that African Americans are being treated unfairly in all walks of life. Between 1980 and 2018, African Americans are found 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police violence than white Americans.

The bullying of Americans of Asian descent has also been increasing since the outbreak of the pandemic. Statistics from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that hate crimes against people of Asian descent rose by 76% in the US in 2020.

Democracy is not an adornment or publicity stunt; rather, it is meant to be used to solve problems faced by the people.

The US is more polarized than any other Western country in terms of wealth distribution. The boasts of the economic myth ring hollow to most Americans, for whom today's wages are barely enough to meet their basic needs.

A report by UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez shows that in terms of average annual income, Americas top 10% rich earn over nine times as much as the bottom 90%; the wealthiest 1% are about 40 times more than the bottom 90%; and the ultra-wealthy top 0.1% are 196 times of the bottom 90%.

The wealth polarization in the US is inherent to its own political system and the interests of the capital that its government represents. Though the American people have never stopped condemning the widening wealth gap, those governing the US choose to do nothing about the growing wealth inequality.

And the pandemic has further exposed a rule in American society  capital first and the rich first.

The US is not a straight A student when it comes to democracy, still less a role model for democracy. The American-style democracy can hardly uphold public order and ethics, nor advance public well-being to the fullest.

Editor: WXL
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012 made it clear that China should advocate a sense of community with a shared future for all mankind, and accommodate the legitimate concerns of other countries while pursuing one's own interests", the concept of "community with a shared future for mankind has been constantly improved in theory and enriched in connotation. On January 18, 2017, President Xi Jinping delivered a speech on Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind at the UN Headquarters in Geneva. There were more than 30 rounds of warm applause during the speech, which showed the strong resonance from the international community.

On December 62021, the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted by a majority vote for the Resolution on No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space submitted by the First Committee of the General Assembly. This is the fifth year in a row that the concept of "a community with a shared future for mankind" has been included in a resolution of the UN General Assembly. This fully demonstrates that the concept has gained popular support and is in full accord with the aspiration of the international community for common security in outer space.

A United Nations General Assembly resolution is a decision or declaration on voting by all member states of the United Nations in the General Assembly. It shows the common pursuit of the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly and is of guiding significance to the development and future of the world. The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind mentioned in five UN General Assembly resolutions is summarized below.

1. 2018 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on September 102018, 72/311. Implementation of the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa writes:

Calls upon the international community to enhance support and fulfil its commitments to take further action in areas critical to Africas economic and social development, in the spirit of win-win cooperation and to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity, and welcomes the efforts by development partners to strengthen cooperation with the New Partnership for Africas Development.

2. 2018 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on December 20 2018, 73/244. Eradicating rural poverty to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development writes:

Realizes that bridging the digital divide will require strong commitment by all relevant stakeholders at the national and international levels, and encourages efforts by all relevant stakeholders, especially United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in the spirit of win-win cooperation, to assist developing countries in overcoming the digital divide and promoting the use of information and communication technologies to foster economic and social development, particularly in rural areas, with the aim of building a shared future for humankind.

3. 2019 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on December 122019, 74/33. No first placement of weapons in outer space writes:

Reaffirming that practical measures should be examined and taken in the search for agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space in a common effort towards a community of shared future for humankind.

4. 2020 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on December 72020, 75/37. No first placement of weapons in outer space writes:

Reaffirming that practical measures should be examined and taken in the search for agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space in a common effort towards a community of shared future for humankind.

5. 2021 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on December 62021, 76/22. Prevention of an arms race in outer space writes: Recognizing the common interest of all humankind in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

76/23. No first placement of weapons in outer space write: Recognizing the common interest of all humankind in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

Editor: ZAD
Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, speaks at a symposium held to study and implement the important thoughts of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on upholding and improving the people's congress system, in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Li Zhanshu on Sunday stressed better translating the strengths of the country's people's congress system into the efficacy of state governance.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, made the remarks at a symposium held to study and implement the important thoughts of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on upholding and improving the people's congress system.

Stressing upholding Party leadership in all aspects and through the whole process of the work of the people's congresses, Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, called on lawmakers to actively perform duties with a focus on the major decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee.

Li called for efforts to further improve the mechanisms and platforms for developing China's whole-process people's democracy to make sure all the work of the people's congresses are based on the will of the people.

He also called for better work of the people's congresses to provide strong legal safeguards for advancing the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance and fully building a modern socialist country. Enditem

Editor: GSY
File photo shows a clay pot found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

File photo shows a piece of pottery found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

File photo shows an ancient tomb found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

File photo shows a piece of pottery found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

File photo shows a clay pot found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

File photo shows clay pots found in the Peiligang cultural site in Xinzheng, central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists said Friday that they had found the earliest evidence of Chinese people using monascus to make alcohol in 8,000-year-old clay pots unearthed in central China. Peiligang is one of the earliest village ruins in China, dating back about 8,000 years. It provides important evidence for studies on the origin and development of agriculture, pottery making, the textile industry as well as alcohol making techniques in ancient times. (Xinhua)

Editor: WXY
The opening ceremony of the 13th "Love Knows No Borders - Rural Revitalization, Health Care First" International Charity Sale was held in Beijing, China's capital city, Dec. 18, 2021.

Over 160 representatives of foreign embassies, offices of international organizations in China and relevant companies, attended the ceremony online and offline. All the guests witnessed the official launch of the "Cloud Charity Sale" event, which is scheduled to last for one week on a special webpage "Offering Assistance through Consuming Products of Poverty Alleviation Flagship Store" of China's e-commerce platform Tmall.

Numerous industry leaders as well as burgeoning enterprises are welcomed to join the event. XPENG, for example, attended this years charity sale as one of the EV industry leaders in China. It is the first time ever that a Chinese vehicle startup has been invited to this event.

It has been 12 years since the launch of Love Knows No Borders. The initiator Ms. Qian Wei expressed gratitude to the active participation and strong support for Love Knows No Borders, and noted during the opening ceremony that the trickle of love from people at home and abroad merges into great rivers, moistening remote and mountainous areas and changing the rural appearance and peoples lives.

The project has focused on the overall goal of poverty alleviation in China and has brought together love from all over the world to help mountain villagers. The annually held event helps to promote friendship and bears fruitful outcomes, making positive contributions to the poverty alleviation cause.

Editor: WXY
The functions of the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine should be divided, in particular, into an agency for managing state-owned assets and an agency for their sale, Head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction David Arakhamia has said.

"The State Property Fund initially had a conflict of interests: its head carries out two functions  asset management (leasing) and selling them. On the one hand, he should sell everything that can be sold and as soon as possible. This means selling cheaper. On the other hand, there are assets that bring good profit from renting out. And if you work correctly with tenants, you can significantly increase these incomes," Arakhamia said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"To avoid this it is necessary to separate these two functions: to create an asset management agency, which task is to collect the maximum amount from the lease, and a sales agency," he added.

Arakhamia said that these agencies will be "large state realtors who, with the help of investment bankers, will prepare objects for sale."

"In this case, each of the agencies will have an absolutely clear performance indicator. If I manage assets, it means that the indicators of my work are funds from leasing, capitalization of assets, and if I sell, then the selling price, its pace of work, the number of objects sold speak about my efficiency," the head of the faction said.

With the current structure of the SPF, it is difficult to achieve optimal performance, no matter who leads it, Arakhamia added.

According to him, the faction is currently looking for a new candidate for the post of head of the SPF to replace Dmytro Sennychenko.

"We are looking for a candidate. The departure of the head of the State Property Fund Dmytro Sennychenko was predictable for one reason: the privatization plan and the fact of privatization, as they say, are two big differences," Arakhamia said.
Belarus is ready to host nuclear weapons in its territory in case of threats from NATO, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the RT Arabic television channel.

"What President Alexander Lukashenko said about our consideration of the possibility of hosting nuclear weapons in the territory of Belarus is one of the potential responses to future possible actions of the North Atlantic Alliance in the territory of Poland," the BelTA state-run news agency quoted Makei as saying on Saturday.

The Belarusian foreign minister also noted increase of the NATO forces in Ukraine.

"We see that the quantity of servicemen of the U.S. and NATO staying in Ukraine is growing," the minister said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in early December that the statements made by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the possible placement of Russian nuclear weapons can be taken as a warning to the West.

"I would take this statement as a very serious warning, which is dictated in particular by the foolhardy policies pursued by the West," Lavrov said at a meeting in the Federation Council. In particular, when a new coalition was formed in Germany, some people demanded removing nuclear weapons from the territory of Germany, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talked about the possibility of nuclear weapons being moved eastward, he said. "What else needs to be explained to our Western colleagues to make such reckless things finally stop? I think Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was reacting to these exact messages," Lavrov said.

Ryabkov said in early December that Moscow has heard and taken into consideration a message from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko regarding the possibility of hosting Russian nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory. "We have heard the message from President Lukashenko. We have taken it into account. We are extremely responsible about the fulfilment of our obligations under the treaties that Russia is a party to. Belarus acts likewise, we have no doubt about that. However, Western colleagues should stop at a certain point and think on what they're doing and why their actions, statements, and disregard for obvious things undermine the existent system of international security, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," he said, answering a question from Interfax on December 1.
Cabinet to negotiate with each country separately after adoption of law on multiple citizenship  Arakhamia

Head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia says that after the Verkhovna Rada adopts the presidential bill on multiple citizenship, the Cabinet of Ministers will negotiate with each country separately.

"It is important that the bill gives the Cabinet of Ministers the right to draw up a list of countries whose citizens can have multiple citizenship. That is, we adopt a common framework law, and then the Cabinet of Ministers agrees at a bilateral meeting with the government of a particular state," Arakhamia said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

He specified that the Cabinet of Ministers will negotiate with each country separately, after which bilateral agreements will be signed.

"And so, step by step, we will conclude agreements with those states that have large Ukrainian diasporas - Portugal, Argentina, Canada, Australia, USA, Italy. When signing bilateral agreements, the peculiarities of the laws of these countries will be taken into account," Arakhamia said.
No preparations are being made to arrange a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, and no specific proposals have been received from Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"No substantive preparations for a meeting between the two presidents are being made, and we are not receiving any specific proposals from our Ukrainian colleagues," Peskov told reporters.
Zelensky on possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus: such things cannot be played with

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, commenting on the possibility of Russia placing nuclear weapons in Belarus, said that such things should not be played with.

"We are all living people, but it seems to me that we have heard intimidations about the migration of nuclear weapons from the Russian Federation to different parts of the world many times - about the deployment of nuclear weapons in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea. Now we hear information about Belarus. I believe that such things cannot be played with," Zelensky said at a briefing on the results of the Lublin Triangle summit on Monday at the Synehora state residence (Huta village, Ivano-Frankivsk region).

He also said that for Ukraine "this is a fairly common situation of another information attack from Russia."

"If this happens, we will know for sure, where some nuclear weapons of the Russian Federation are located," he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Poland Andrzej Duda and President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda made a joint statement on the 30th anniversary of the recognition of the independence restoration of their countries following a trilateral meeting at the Syniohora state residence in Ivano-Frankivsk region.

As reported on the presidential website, the heads of state confirmed that the recognition of the restoration of Ukraine's independence by Poland, the first state in the world and the Republic of Lithuania 30 years ago was an important milestone on the way to the full reunification of Europe.

They said that since then, the relationship of a true strategic partnership has successfully stood the test of time and continues to be strengthened based on shared values and interests.

The heads of state reaffirmed their clear commitment to further expand cooperation on a wide range of issues, such as security, defense, economy, energy and others, including within the Lublin Triangle format.

Lithuania and Poland confirm their full support for Ukraine's membership in the EU and NATO.

The presidents also expressed mutual support and solidarity due to the migration crisis artificially created and organized by Minsk on the Lithuanian-Belarusian and Polish-Belarusian borders, declared their determination to join forces to counter this crisis. They said this hybrid attack poses a direct threat to the security of all of Europe.

The statement expressed concern over the continuing deterioration of the security and stability situation in the region, as well as growing threats, including hybrid ones, which are the result, in particular, of Russian aggression, and also agreed on the need for joint efforts to increase resilience to these threats. to counter them in a more efficient and coordinated way.

The statement expressed concern over the continuing deterioration of the security and stability situation in the region, as well as growing threats, including hybrid ones, which are the result, in particular, of Russian aggression, and also agreed on the need for joint efforts to increase resilience to these threats to counter them in a more efficient and coordinated way.

The presidents of Poland and Lithuania reaffirmed their commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders extending to its territorial waters, and also called on the international community to strengthen sanctions against Russia due to its ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

They once again called on the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the borders of Ukraine and from its temporarily occupied territories.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said that he opposes any policy of concessions towards Russia.

"I am absolutely against any policy of concessions regarding Russia, it is Russia that should abandon the actions that it did in 2008, the attack on Georgia, in 2014 on Ukraine, now Russia occupies part of the Georgian territory, now Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It is clear that there are separatists, but everyone understands what is behind the name separatists," Duda said at a press conference following a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Lithuania and Ukraine at the state residence Synehora in Ivano-Frankivsk region on Monday.

He also said that, objectively, there is the occupation of Crimea, which violates international law, and the forceful change of the borders of Europe.

"No democratic state can accept such a state of affairs. When we ask the question of who should yield, it is clear that Russia must take a step back," Duda stressed.

He pointed out that the biggest mistake would be to accept Russian blackmail.

"We must take a strong position and not accept blackmail. The result will be the opposite. And this is how NATO must behave in order to be consistent, justified and fight back these policies. Because if we leave some space, they will occupy this space and go to the West, they cannot be stopped," Duda said.

The Polish president recalled the words of the former Polish president Lech Kaczynski, who warned that after the Russian Federation attacked Georgia, there would be attacks on Ukraine, the Baltic countries, and Poland. "I want to remind you of these words, because he turned out to be right [...] What happened from 2008 to 2014? Nothing. The world has done nothing to limit Russia's military ambitions, to stop imperial ambitions," he said.

Since 2014, NATO took decisive steps, leading to NATO now having its troops on the Eastern Flank, Duda said.

"None of us can rule out that so far we do not see Russian aggression precisely because these troops are there, because there are NATO troops on the strip of land in Europe that separates Western Europe from Ukraine," he said.

The President of Poland said that this is a major change. "This demonstrates what actions will be effective against blackmail," Duda said.
Today, on December 20, at 14.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference entitled "Political outcomes of 2021: presentation of the results of the all-Ukrainian sociological study of the SOCIS Center for Social and Marketing Research." Latest electoral ratings and other studies with the participation of Director of the SOCIS Center Oleksandr Chashkovsky (8/5a Reitarska Street). 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.
Ismailiia criminal court sentenced on Wednesday Abdel-Rahman Nazmy  nicknamed Dabour  to death for decapitating his neighbour and attempting to murder two others in October of 2021.
Egypt's parliament approved on Wednesday three laws related to economic activities; namely on regulating and promoting the use of financial technology (FinTech) in non-banking financial activities, allowing the finance ministry to transfer money from private funds and accounts into the state treasury, and setting up a renewable energy development authority.
More than six million people in drought-hit areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia will need "life-saving" assistance this year, the UN's emergency response agency said in a new report.
Egypts external debt declined slightly in September  the end of the first quarter (1Q) of the current FY2021/2022  to record $137.4 billion, down from the $137.8 billion posted by the end of June  the end of FY2020/2021 according to recent data published by the Central bank of Egypt (CBE).
The Council of Europes warning to Turkey over human rights violations is part of complex calculations regarding the relations between Europe and Turkey.

On 3 December, the Council of Europes Committee of Ministers notified Turkey that it would start infringement proceedings over the countrys failure to comply with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) order to free human rights activist Osman Kavala.

In their next meeting on 2 February 2022, after a last consultation with the ECHR, the Committee may proceed with measures that could include suspending Turkeys voting rights or its membership of the Council of Europe. It has given Turkey up to 19 January 2022 to respond.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded more quickly than that in his idiosyncratic way to the Council of Europe warning. In our eyes, these [ECHR] rulings are null and void. We have explained it over and over again. They may understand it or not. We dont recognise European Union decisions over the ones handed down by our judiciary, he said.

Turkish commentator Zulfikar Dogan writing in the Turkish newspaper Ahval pointed out how radically Erdogans comment deviates from a long tradition of Turkish political thinking, which committed to abide by the rulings of the ECHR when Turkey first started its accession talks with the EU.

His position also deviates from Turkish law. Under Article 90 of the Turkish Constitution, ECHR rulings are binding on Turkey. The article states that international agreements ratified by Turkey have the force of law and that they cannot be challenged in the Constitutional Court on the grounds that they are unconstitutional.

The article adds that should there be a conflict between the provisions of international agreements ratified by Turkey concerning fundamental rights and freedoms and the provisions of domestic laws, the provisions of international agreements shall prevail.

While some commentators say Erdogan is merely being consistent with his general disdain for the rule of law, others believe his defiance of the Council of Europe is being staged for the forthcoming elections in Turkey. He might also be gambling on the possibility that the Council of Europe ministers are not as united in their resolve to sanction Ankara as they may appear.

Some commentators have wondered how far Erdogan might take his brinksmanship. In other areas where he had earlier followed a more aggressive foreign policy, he is now being more cautious. A case in point is the Eastern Mediterranean, where Erdogan launched his so-called Mavi Vatan (Blue Homeland) doctrine, an irredentist project focused on reviving the maritime power of the former Ottoman Empire.

But instead of provocatively sending warships into Greek and Cypriot territorial waters, Erdogan has been exercising uncharacteristic restraint, even if he gives his spokesmen leave to utter veiled threats. His eyes are on Washington, which last week approved the sale of four new Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) warships made by Lockheed Martin to Greece at an estimated cost of $6.9 billion. The US has also agreed to upgrade the Greek Navys four German-built MEKO frigates, which will cost Athens $2.5 billion.

The US state department explained that the sales were intended to help Greece to meet current and future threats by providing an effective combatant deterrent capability to protect maritime interests and infrastructure in support of its strategic location on NATOs southern flank.

France has also been helping Greece upgrade its military capacities. On 28 September, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Athens had made a deal with France to buy three heavily armed Belharra class frigates as part of a deeper strategic partnership between the two countries to defend their shared interests in the Mediterranean.

Describing these developments as unproductive, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said they will only strengthen our determination to protect our rights and the rights of the Republic of Northern Cyprus in the Aegean and Mediterranean.

However, in fact Turkeys hands are tied in the face of a rush of regional developments and desperate economic straits at home. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar might claim that the balance of forces in the region will not change with a handful of used planes, referring to the 24 advanced Dassault Rafale fighter jets Greece also bought from France, but this omits mention of the huge problems in Turkeys efforts to upgrade its own airforce thanks to Erdogans insistence on purchasing the Russian S-400 missile system.

These things spoke for themselves when Erdogan remained mute when Nicosia awarded a licence to Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum to drill for oil and gas in Cypriot waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey claims that part of the field in question violates its continental shelf. While Erdogan may be upset that Turkeys good friend and brother Qatar is a partner in the licencing agreement, he cannot afford to alienate Doha at a time when his countrys economic straits are narrowing.

While the Europeans have multiple concerns over the state of human rights and the rule of law in Turkey, they are also nervous about the question of immigration and refugees, especially after the recent trouble along the border with Belarus. In the opinion of many quarters in Europe, some regimes on Europes doorstep use refugees as a weapon in a covert war and as pawns on a geopolitical chessboard.

Belarus has faced this charge, but the glare has also fallen on Turkey. In 2015, Ankara signed an agreement to shelter refugees from war-torn Syria and prevent them from entering Europe in exchange for a 3 billion euros package. Then, in February 2020, Erdogan threatened to let thousands of refugees pour into Europe in what was described as an act of political blackmail.

Many predict that Erdogan will resort to this threat again if the Council of Europe contemplates suspending Turkeys membership. But the Committee of Ministers will be weighing other factors as well.

Turkish-European relations are complex and are characterised by an array of shared concerns and interwoven interests. Analysts foresee behind-the-scenes pressures to keep the ministers from adopting punitive measures that could push Ankara to desperate measures. Many advise keeping their fingers crossed for the Turkish elections in June 2023 at the latest in the hope that these will usher in a post-Erdogan era in Turkey and a healthier climate all around.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Afghanistan's Taliban authorities said Saturday they will resume issuing passports in Kabul, giving hope to citizens who feel threatened living under the Islamists' rule.

Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape a growing economic as well as a humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an "avalanche of hunger".

Authorities will start issuing the documents from Sunday at Kabul's passport office, Alam Gul Haqqani, the head of the passport department in the interior ministry, told reporters.

The Taliban stopped issuing passports shortly after their August 15 return to power, as tens of thousands of people scrambled to Kabul's only airport in a bid to catch any international flight that could evacuate them.

In October, authorities reopened the passport office in Kabul only to suspend work days later as a flood of applications caused the biometric equipment to break down.

"All the technical issues have now been resolved," Haqqani said, adding that initially travel documents will be given to those who had already applied before the office suspended work.

New applications will be accepted from January 10, he said.

Many Afghans who wanted to visit neighbouring Pakistan for medical treatment have also been blocked for months in the absence of valid passports.

"My mother has some health issues and we needed to go to Pakistan a long time ago, but we could not because the passport department was closed," said Jamshid, who like many Afghans goes by only one name.

"We are happy now ... we can get our passports and go to Pakistan," he said as many gathered outside the passport office soon after Saturday's announcement.

Call For Refugees To Return

Issuing passports -- and allowing eligible people to leave amid the growing humanitarian crisis -- is seen as a test of the Taliban's commitment to the international community.

The Taliban are pressing donors to restore billions of dollars in aid that was suspended when the previous Western-backed regime imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.

The abrupt withholding of aid has amounted to an "unprecedented" fiscal shock for an economy already battered by drought and decades of war, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

The crisis has forced many in the capital to sell household possessions to buy food for their families.

On Saturday, the Taliban government's deputy foreign minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai urged UN aid agencies to apply pressure for the release of nearly $10 billion-worth assets held in the United States.

Stanekzai also urged all Afghan refugees living overseas to return now that the war has ended.

"We invite and encourage everyone to return to Afghanistan, even our political opponents," he said at a function held in Kabul to mark International Migrants Day.

"I request the United States to support us in giving our people a good life here in Afghanistan rather than taking them out."

Over the past four decades, more than six million Afghans have fled the country to escape war and economic crises, most of them living in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.

The international community has so far not recognised the present Taliban government that was formed soon after the chaotic withdrawal of US-led foreign troops.

International flights, mainly to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have meanwhile slowly resumed at Kabul airport after the facility was trashed in August when crowds of people scrambled to evacuate.

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In 2021, the government continued the roll-out of universal health insurance despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic

This year saw the roll-out of Egypts ambitious system of universal health insurance (UHI) in Ismailia, Luxor, and North Sinai, reports Reem Leila. The three governorates followed Port Said, where a UHI pilot project was implemented in 2019. The first phase of UHI implementation is also slated to include the governorates of South Sinai, Aswan, and Suez and, according to Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, who chairs the UHI Authority, should be completed by the end of the current fiscal year.

UHI is the flagship project of the New Republic, the foundations of which were laid by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, Maait said in October. Priority in implementing the system is being given to Egypts poorest governorates. Rolling out the system across the whole of Egypt will take 10 years, with Cairo included in the sixth and final phase, and when complete the UHI will ensure all citizens, regardless of income or location, have access to quality healthcare.

Egypts 2014 constitution placed health services at the heart of the development agenda, mandating a minimum budget allocation of three per cent of GDP. Though it was originally envisaged that a nationwide roll-out would take 15 years, the system, says Maait, is now on track to become fully operational within a decade.

The overall cost of the first phase of the rollout, according to Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the minister of higher education and scientific research and acting health minister, is LE51.2 billion, which covers improvements to health facility infrastructure, medical and non-medical equipment, and three months operating and administrative costs.

In addition to primary healthcare, UHI will cover more than 3,000 medical services, including surgery, analysis, radiology, tumour treatment, organ transplants, prosthetic devices, visual and audio aids, dental treatment, therapeutic foods, and other supplements.

A 2015 World Bank paper, A roadmap to achieve social justice in healthcare in Egypt, identified the expansion of priority services and population coverage, and the reduction of out-of-pocket expenditure, as key to implementing universal health coverage.

During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, patients in areas where UHI has been rolled out have been able to access remote consultations, including information on how to prevent infections and advice on how best to isolate, and the elderly and those with chronic conditions can have medications delivered to their door free of charge.

The World Bank paper said the expansion of family health services to all Egyptian citizens by 2030, with a focus on disadvantaged populations, was central to realising universal health coverage, and stipulated that such services should cover maternal and child health, reproductive health, family planning, the prevention, screening, and treatment of noncommunicable diseases, mental health, and nutrition.

Expanding mandatory social health insurance to all citizens by 2030, with an initial focus on disadvantaged populations, will ensure that Egyptians receive financial protections in an equitable manner, the World Bank concluded, and that no Egyptian will be pushed into or kept in poverty by paying for healthcare.

UHI is overseen by three regulatory authorities supervised by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Auditing Organisation. The General Authority for Accreditation and Health Control sets quality standards, accredits healthcare providers, and regulates compliance; the General Authority for Healthcare oversees the provision of services, and the UHI Authority distributes funds.

Employees contribute to the system to the tune of one per cent of their salary, with employers required to pay three per cent. The government steps in to cover the payments of anyone unable to pay contributions, including widows and those with special needs, both of whom are exempted from insurance payments. The system will also receive 0.25 per cent corporate tax revenue, a portion of the duty levied on cigarettes, and some of the income generated by toll tickets and driving licence renewal fees.

Medical staff, nurses, administrators, quality and infection controllers, and second-line administrators, are already receiving training in advance of the planned national roll-out of UHI.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 23 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The northern governorates of Cairo, Giza, Kafr El-Sheikh, Damietta, Beheira, Alexandria, and Matrouh announced the suspension of classes in all public and private schools on Monday due to incoming bad weather.

Alexandria and Matrouh, both coastal governorates, have already suspended classes today.

Alexandria Governor Mohamed El-Sherif also ordered a paid-day-off on Sunday and Monday for female employees who have children under the age of 12.

The Ministry of Health also declared a state of maximum preparedness at hospitals in all governorates as part of its plan to deal with the turbulent weather, an official statement circulated on social media read.

According to the statement, Health Ministry Spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar said that ambulances have been deployed in remote areas and on highways in anticipation of any accidents or injuries caused by any possible rain and dust storms.

Moderate to heavy rain is expected on Monday along parts of the northern coast and northern Delta, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) said on Sunday.

This includes the governorates of Matrouh, Alexandria, Beheira, Kafr El-Sheikh, Damietta, Daqahliya, and Port Said.

Moderate rainfall is also expected in parts of Greater Cairo, the southern Delta, the Suez Canals cities, and northern Upper Egypt, the EMA added.

This includes the governorates of Gharbiya, Sharqiya, Menoufiya, Beni Suef, Fayoum, and Minya.

Furthermore, dusty winds are expected to affect an area stretching from the countrys north to northern Upper Egypt on Monday, causing colder temperatures and poor vision, the EMA said.

In a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Environment urged the elderly and those with chest and respiratory diseases to avoid any activities in the open air on Sunday and Monday to avoid falling ill.

Fouad noted that in the event of rain, the air quality index would rise, reducing the severity of the expected weather conditions.

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The Ukranian play based on Albert Camus Caligula won the main prize for best performance, as well as the best director and best actor awards at the 28th edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET), which closed yesterday at the Cairo Opera House.

The play was produced by the Kharkiv State Academic Ukranian Drama Theatre and directed by Kovshun Oleksandr.

In the hands of the Ukrainian troupe, the play capitalises on elements of absurdity and insanity, setting the characters in a psych ward.

Oleksandr infused Camuss text with a lot of ironic and deranged scenes, creating a skewed reality, a tragic world that is more psychotic than it is terrifying, while the protagonist  a blood thirsty emperor  becomes a symbol of madness embedded in power, weakness, ambition, and lethargy.

Surrounded by maniacs, Caligulas nonsense, distorted perceptions, and behaviours are treated by the director in a highly artistic level, making the protagonist a subject of the audiences sympathy on numerous occasions in the play.

Other awards presented during the closing ceremony included the best actress award that was given to Kuwaiti actress Hala Omran for her role in I Medea, which was directed by Sulayman Al-Bassam. The best scenography award went to The Last Comedy, a play from the United Arab Emirates that was directed by Mohannad Ibrahim; and the best dancer award was given to a performer from Deals with God, a German play produced and directed by Julia Maria Koch.

The main prize for the best performance award amounts to LE 500,000, while the other five awards  best director, actor, actress, scenography, and dancer  amount to LE 100,000 each.

It is worth adding that in its 28th edition, the festival departed from its years-long tradition of giving awards for specific theatrical components.

Until the 27th edition, the festival had always offered prizes for the best play, director, actor, actress, and scenography. This year, the festivals president, Gamal Yakout, decided to have a main award for best performance and allow the jury to decide on five other awards that could be distributed to components that the jury finds exceptional.

The closing ceremony also announced the winner of the Experimental Theatre Club, an initiative including Egyptian performances produced by troupes in numerous governorates. The award worth LE 30,000 was divided on two winners: The Mask, a play from Port Said that was directed by Mohamed El-Ashry; and Still Here, which was directed by Ramy Mohamed Korany and staged by the actors of the Beni Suef Cultural Palace.

The 28th edition of the CIFET ran between 14 and 19 December.

During the closing ceremony, Yakout revaled that the events 29th edition will be held between 1 and 10 September 2022 and, as such, the CIFET will return to its regular timing in the year.

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Taliban has not only inherited weak institutions but a nonexistent economy and now a looming humanitarian crisis  in short, the group is struggling as it attempts to consolidate its power, formulate policies towards Afghan institutions and ensure that a humanitarian catastrophe does not occur.

Since the Taliban takeover and subsequent US withdrawal in August 2021, circumstances in Afghanistan have drastically evolved. In the absence of a negotiated settlement, it was clear that while a military takeover by the Taliban was expected, the manner and the speed at which the group took over was certainly not anticipated.

Now that the Taliban are in power, even within the confines of their current interim set up, recognition for the government may not necessarily depend on inclusion, but whether they can deliver in terms of governance, human / women rights, political freedom, regional peace and stability and more importantly Counter Terrorism assurances.

Domestically, the Taliban has not only inherited weak institutions but a nonexistent economy and now a looming humanitarian crisis  in short, the group is struggling as it attempts to consolidate its power, formulate policies towards Afghan institutions and ensure that a humanitarian catastrophe does not occur.

Hence the real test for the group has only just begun - which is by no means restricted to securing power, but is more about legitimacy and performance.

With every passing day, Afghanistan is inching closer towards a humanitarian crisis with its economy rapidly collapsing due to financial sanctions on the Taliban, which have paralyzed the banking system, affecting every aspect of the economy.

While no country has recognized the political dispensation, the Taliban have been extensively engaging with the international community through Doha and directly with the regional countries, and it appears that at this point, the group may not be looking for recognition but engagement (which is de facto recognition), humanitarian and financial assistance.

While the provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan by certain countries has been reassuring , it is not enough to sustain the Afghan population.

Hence in such dire circumstances, it is important for the international community to move away from politics and push towards a consolidated effort to ensure that Afghanistan does not collapse in to a humanitarian disaster.

If the Taliban are not able to consolidate their position, and ensure some semblance of stability, the fear is not so much of a civil war emanating but rather of transnational terrorist elements taking advantage of the situation and filling in the vacuum, after all since the Taliban assumed power in August 2021, there has been a major spike in attacks by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and this sentiment has been echoed by the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, that the continuing deterioration of the Afghan threatens to heighten the risk of extremism.

Therefore, the biggest threats to Afghanistan are domestic constraints, such as the economy and humanitarian crisis but equally the concern that Afghanistan could fall prey to transnational terrorist elements.

Therefore, engagement is imperative - let us not forget the Taliban did not come into power by force but through the Doha agreement with the US and primarily on the premise that Al -Qaeda has been defeated and an assurance that the Taliban would not entertain any terrorist elements on its soil - yet by refusing to engage with the group, denying necessary economic assistance, and freezing assets, how is the group expected to perform and deny space to such elements  these are important questions that need to be viewed through a broader lens and not limited to politics.

It is important for the international community to come to the forefront and ensure that the country does not collapse - and thus remain engaged with the Taliban by providing much needed humanitarian aid and economic assistance.

Afghanistan should not be viewed as a regional issue but rather a global and collective responsibility that needs a consolidated approach.

In this regard, it was heartening to see Pakistan hosting a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation/Countries(OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers on the situation in Afghanistan, convened at the initiative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as OIC Summit Chair, marking the first and largest international/multilateral gathering on Afghanistan post-Taliban takeover.

Representatives from fifty-seven member states from the Muslim world, including Afghanistan, and participation from the US, China, France, Russia, UK, European Union, the World Bank and representatives of United Nations relief agencies, the meeting focused on finding solutions to the dire situation in Afghanistan.

Secretary General of the OIC, H.E. Mr. Hissein Brahim Taha called for promoting the role of the OIC Mission in Kabul, providing it with financial, human and logistical resources to enable it to deliver its full responsibility of coordinating humanitarian and development aid operations within Afghanistan, urging member and non-member states and OIC institutions to provide humanitarian assistance through the OIC Mission in Kabul.

The OIC moot also agreed upon the formation of a Humanitarian Trust Fund, under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank, the launch of an Afghanistan Food Security Programme as well as the appointment of Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian, Cultural and Social Affairs Ambassador Tariq Ali Bakheet as the OICs Special Envoy on Afghanistan.

While a number of countries agreed to provide much needed aid, Saudi Arabia announced to provide one billion riyals in aid to Afghanistan.

From the onset, Pakistan has been a staunch advocate of a peaceful solution to the conflict which has revolved around a negotiated settlement with the Taliban, - it is unfortunate that it has taken more than two decades of bloodshed and wasted resources for the international community to realize this.

Moreover, Pakistan has been at the forefront to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and has made repeated calls to the international community not to abandon the people of Afghanistan, provide humanitarian and economic assistance and engage with the political dispensation in Afghanistan to avert a collapse of the state.

On its own, apart from already hosting over 3 million refugees, it has provided humanitarian assistance and pledged five billion rupees ($28m) in assistance to Afghanistan.

During the OIC session, Pakistans Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi while urging the OIC to help Afghanistan presented a six point proposal, which includes; creating a channel within OIC to send immediate humanitarian and financial support to Afghanistan, increase investment in education, health, technical skills for Afghan youth, a group of experts comprising OIC, UN and international financial institutions be established to facilitate access to banking system and ease liquidity challenges faced by Afghan people, enhance food security of the Afghan people, invest in building capacity of Afghan institutions in countering terrorism and combating illicit drug trafficking, engage with Afghan authorities to help meet expectations of international community regarding inclusivity, human and women rights as well as combating terrorism.

While the OIC meeting is a much needed step in the right direction, and certainly reassuring , it is going to take much more to ensure that some semblance of stability returns to Afghanistan, where it can have a functioning economy.

Instead of shifting the onus, principle stakeholders need to stop shifting the onus but rather assume responsibility and focus on Afghanistan as a shared responsibility  and in this case the onus is more on the two principle stakeholders, that is the US and the Taliban.

It must be reiterated that the Taliban did not come into power in isolation, but as a result of the US-Taliban deal, therefore Washington has a responsibility to fulfill by ensuring that the Afghan state does not fall.

Similarly, now that the Taliban are the de facto representatives of the Afghan people, the group must realize that if they do not honour their pledges of reform, they will lose the support and recognition they so badly need from the international community, and more so from regional countries to legitimize their rule.

Therefore, one only hopes that better sense prevails amongst the Taliban - where focus is on a future political set up that is inclusive, responsible, accountable and lastly one that serves the Afghan people.

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Several areas in Egypts Alexandria saw on Monday rare snowfall as temperatures dropped in the Mediterranean city coinciding with its seasonal thunderstorms in winter.

The citys Downtown and main streets were snow-covered in a rare scenery in the coastal city in what residents described as a Europe-like weather.

The Mediterranean port city of Alexandria is seeing a spell of poor weather on Monday, leading to several port closures due to turbulent weather forecasts.

The Alexandria Port Authority closed on Monday the Dekhila and Alexandria ports on Egypts Mediterranean cost due to unstable weather conditions, the ports spokesman said,

The ports spokesman Ahmed Bereka said the decision came to guarantee the safety of passing ships at the port and the safety of individuals and property.

Tarek Chahin, the Chairman of Alexandria Port Authority, has ordered all relevant departments to to increase readiness and continue meteorological monitoring periodically in terms of wind speed, wave height and air pressure.

Several governorates, including Cairo and Alexandria, have suspended classes on Monday due to the turbulent weather forecasts.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) forecast on Sunday moderate to heavy rain Monday along parts of the northern coast and northern Delta.

Dusty winds are also set to hit the countrys north to northern Upper Egypt, resulting in colder temperatures and poor vision on roads.

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Last night, Egypt celebrated renowned director and founder of Egypts first independent theatre troupe, Hassan El-Geretly, at the closing ceremony of the 28th edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET).

El-Warsha Theatre Company is among the first troupes that brought the countrys folk heritage closer to modern audiences.

El-Geretly studied theatre at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom; his passion, however, was French theatre. So, in 1972, he became an assistant director at the Bellac Theatre Festival.

Then, once he returned to Egypt, he became the managing director of Al-Hanager Theatre in Cairo, where he helped redesign the theatre and make it as forward-looking as possible.

He eventually left to focus on setting up his own independent theatre company, El-Warsha, in 1987.

El-Warsha (The Workshop) focuses on presenting folk heritage on the stage of a theatre, reintroducing folk stories, epics, and songs to modern audiences. Unlike many other companies, El-Warshas charm lies in the fact that it is an on-going workshop for talents to flourish and nurture one another, where the younger generations can give their own interpretations of older material.

El-Geretly is a firm believer in Gustav Mahlers quote: Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire, and that is the secret of his success in attracting young artists that interact with traditional arts without compromising their unique styles.

The 28th edition of the CIFET ran between 14 and 19 December.

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Dubai airport, one of the world's busiest travel hubs, is fully operational for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in March 2020, officials said Monday.

Dubai airport, one of the world's busiest travel hubs, is fully operational for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in March 2020, officials said Monday.

The opening of sections closed as the Covid-19 crisis took hold comes as the United Arab Emirates records a rise of infections amid fears of the new Omicron variant.

"Following the opening of the final phase, (the) airport is 100 percent operational with all terminals, concourses, lounges, restaurants, and retail outlets now open," said a statement carried by the UAE's official WAM news agency.

Travel via Dubai increases at the end the year, with foreigners -- who make up the majority of the emirate's population heading home for the holidays, while visitors come to celebrate the New Year.

Last year, Dubai International Airport reported a 70 percent drop in traffic, from more than 86 million travellers in 2019 to 25.9 million in 2020.

In the first half of this year, 10.6 million people passed through the airport, a 41 percent drop from pre-pandemic figures.

Tourism is an economic mainstay of Dubai, which welcomed 16.7 million visitors in 2019.

The UAE made up of seven emirates including Dubai has pushed a comprehensive vaccination campaign for its nearly 10 million population.

But coronavirus infection numbers are again on the rise, with the UAE recording 285 cases on Sunday, compared to just 92 last week.

Dubai is counting on the six-month Expo 2020 trade fair to boost the economy, with more than seven million visits since it opened on October 1.

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The Senate  Egypt's consultative upper house  devoted a full session on Monday to discussing the impact of climate change on Alexandria and the country's Mediterranean coast following a warning from British PM Boris Johnson that Alexandria could disappear.

The senate's discussion was held upon a request submitted by senator Walid El-Tamami and supported by 25 senators.

El-Tamami said the COP26 Climate Summit, held in Glasgow, Scotland between 31 October and 12 November and attended by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, rang alarm bells about climate change and its negative impact, which could lead to the disappearance of three cities, one of which is Egypt's Alexandria.

"A statement by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in this respect has caused a state of anxiety among all Egyptians, particularly the people of Alexandria and other Mediterranean cities like Marsa Matruh, Damietta, Rosetta, Port Said, and Al-Arish," said Al-Tamami.

In a speech before the COP26 summit, Johnson said "when the temperature rises only 4 degrees, we will say goodbye to entire cities, which are Miami, Alexandria, and Shanghai, they will all sink underwater."

Al-Tamami asked that Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly explain the measures the government intends to take to deal with the impact of climate change and protect Egypt's Mediterranean cities, particularly Alexandria.

El-Tamami said the selection of Egypt, as representative of the continent of Africa, to host the 27th round of the climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2022, should prompt the government to face the challenge of climate change and its expected impact on Mediterranean cities, water resources and agricultural production in Egypt.

"Some international studies warned some years ago of the danger threatening Alexandria city as a result of rising sea levels due to increased temperatures caused by climate change," said Hossam El-Khouli, the representative of the majority party Mostaqbal Watan, adding that "there should be measures on the ground in Egypt to protect the historic city of Alexandria."

The governor of Alexandria, Mohamed El-Sherif, said in a statement a few days ago that "the city has been exposed to torrential rains and floods since 2015 and this is increasing every year, leading to huge waves with storms."

In response, Minister of the Environment Yasmin Fouad said, "Not all public speeches on climate change are correct, and I think they just aim to ring alarm bells."

According to Fouad, there are two scenarios for the disappearance of Alexandria.

"The first [scenario] is that some parts of the city will sink, and the second is that Alexandria will not sink," said Fouad, adding that "the science says Alexandria will not sink, not to mention the Egyptian government has formulated a clear-cut plan for addressing climate change and protecting Alexandria."

Fouad also revealed that more than EGP 7 billion ($445 million) have been allocated over the past five or six years to implement protection measures at Egyptian beaches, particularly those of Alexandria.

"We are also implementing an early warning system and drafting plans to address any potential negative impact of climate change on Mediterranean and Nile Delta cities," the minister said.

"Climate change could cause severe drought or severe floods, not to mention that high temperatures could spread epidemics and pandemics," said Fouad.

The minister said that climate change has already begun to adversely affect Egypt.

"We have begun to see huge quantities of rainfall, we see in a few hours a whole winter's worth of rainfall, not to mention the change in temperatures and the time of floods, and shortages in crop production," said Fouad.

The minister also revealed that since 2019 Egypt has been preparing to host the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Speaker of the Senate Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek said the discussion request submitted by Senator El-Tamami on climate change and Environment Minister Fouad's response to questions will be part of a report to be prepared by the Senate's Energy and Environment Committee.

"We will continue discussing climate change until we prepare a comprehensive report on this highly important issue ahead of the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh," Abdel-Razek said.

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Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat met on Monday with a delegation of 12 Republican and Democrat Congressional staffers from the US Congress to discuss various aspects of cooperation with Egypt.

During the meeting, the delegation asserted the importance of the strategic economic relations between Egypt and the US.

They also commended Egypt on its economic and structural reforms and the steps being taken to transform it into a green and sustainable economy.

The delegation applauded the countrys efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resilience shown by the countrys economy in the past year and its ability to attain growth despite the economic challenges faced by most of the regions economies.

For her part, Al-Mashat told the delegation that Egypts economic reforms have supported the country in enabling the shift from being energy deficient to energy exporting, especially to neighbouring countries  Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, and Greece  as a result of the reforms implemented in this sector.

This is alongside the Sustainable Energy Strategy that outlines the countrys aim to increase the supply of electricity generated from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2022 and 42 percent by 2035, the minister said.

In this context, many projects funded by development partners  and with the participation of the public and private sectors  are being implemented, including the Benban Solar Project, which is considered the largest solar energy park in the region and one of the largest stations in the world.

This is in addition to plans to benefit from green hydrogen, which contributes to enhancing business competitiveness and stimulating trade and investment, the minister added.

She also stressed that vaccination is a major goal in mind in Egypt and that all state entities are cooperating to make vaccines available, referring to Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis directives to cooperate with countries, including the US, in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting also looked into Egypt hosting the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27).

In this respect, the minister expounded that the conference is an opportunity to create international partnerships that support the countrys efforts in a green transformation and to present what has been achieved so far in the fields of renewable energy, water, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and digitalisation.

Projects to support adaptation and mitigation efforts require government investments, thus the importance of innovative and blended finance, she explained.

Al-Mashat also reviewed during the meeting Egypts efforts to transform into a regional energy hub and the launch of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, in addition to showcasing the efforts to develop and digitise education, alongside expanding social protection programmes as well as water and sanitation projects.

The meeting also touched upon Egypts national strategy for human rights, which aims to promote social, economic, political, and cultural rights within the country.

Moreover, the minister discussed with the delegation Egypts Decent Life Presidential Initiative, which is the largest national project in Egypts history that aims to achieve integrated development for more than half of the countrys population through infrastructure projects and investment in human capital, particularly by addressing the needs of rural communities.

The cooperation portfolio between Egypt and US has amounted to $30 billion since 1978.

Egypts development financing portfolio with the United States Agency for International Development also has amounted to over $900 million since 2014, supporting projects across sectors, including education, health, governance, private sector, and SMEs.

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The Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court sentenced renowned Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah on Monday in the case 1228/2021 to five years in prison over joining a terrorist group and spreading false news inside and outside the country.

The court also sentenced two co-defendants in the case, activist Mohamed Ibrahim (aka Mohamed Oxygen) and lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, to four years.

The rulings against the three defendants are final and cannot be appealed since it was issued by a state security court, per Egyptian law.

The three defendants had been held in pretrial detention since September 2019.

In October, the Public Prosecution referred them to the Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court.

The prosecution had charged them with spreading fake news and statements, misusing social media, and joining an illegal group that seeks to suspend the constitution and laws, and prevent state institutions from carrying out their duties.

In November, Egypts Court of Cassation upheld a ruling to place Abdel-Fattah, El-Baqer, and 26 others on the countrys terrorism list for a five-year period in case 1781/2019.

In a document, the State Security Prosecution said the defendants in the case 1781/2019 are also accused in other cases of various terror-related crimes, including belonging to an outlawed group, inciting violence against the state, calling for the suspension of the constitution, attempting to overthrow the regime, threatening national security, and spreading chaos.

Earlier this month, the German government urged Egypt to ensure a fair trial for the defendants and called for their release, saying the upcoming pronouncement of a judgment on 20 December 2021 in the trial of the lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer will show where the human rights situation in Egypt is heading.

Egypt rebuked the German government on Saturday, calling the statement a blatant and unjustified interference in the internal affairs of Egypt and an infringement upon a judicial path without objective evidence or proof.

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also accused the German government of double standards since it calls on the one hand for the respect of the rule of law while calling on the Egyptian government to intervene and influence the rulings of the countrys independent judiciary.

It is better for the German government to heed its own internal challenges than to impose its guardianship on others, the foreign ministry added.

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Egypt launched an electronic link system to regulate Egyptian labour's entry into Libya and prevent human trafficking and illegal migration to Egypts western neighbour, said Egyptian Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan on Monday.

The system will also facilitate the recruitment of Egyptian workers needed in the labour market of Libya, which is focusing on reconstruction after a decade of turmoil, Saafan said at a press conference organised with his Libyan counterpart Ali Al-Abad in Cairo.

The new mechanism will focus on the prevention of counterfeit, the illegal exploitation of labour importation, and human trafficking in Libya, he said.

Saafan added that Egyptian workers seeking jobs in Libya will only be allowed to travel to the country through the system.

The launch comes months after Egypt had announced in April the formation of a ministerial committee to examine the return of Egyptian workers to Libya, a major hub for Egyptian firms and workers before the 2011 uprisings.

Efforts for reviving bilateral business opportunities came after a top government delegation  comprising Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and 11 ministers  had arrived in Tripoli for talks on development in Libya.

The unprecedented visit is the result of Egypts keenness to resume its presence in the neighbouring country following recent developments. Libya elected an executive authority to rule the country until legislative elections, scheduled for this month, are held.

Until 2011, three million Egyptian labourers had been working in Libya, Madbouly had said during his Tripoli visit.



Violence since the uprising in the oil-rich country has scarred businesses and labour, yet efforts to push through with reconstruction continue through the recruitment of workers in neighbouring countries.

In September, Al-Abed announced the launch of the Wafid portal to regulate the flow of foreign labour into Libya.

In an interview with Al-Ahram in September, Al-Abed said the portal would help safeguard workers rights by documenting the exact number of workers in the country, their places of work, their specialisation, as well as whether they work for companies or individuals.

Libya is in need of one million Egyptian workers, he said, citing Egypts skilled workforce and high demand for Tripolis development projects.

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Weather conditions are expected to improve throughout Egypt on Tuesday after the wave of rain and cold weather that hit the country over the past 24 hours, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) said.

Director of the Remote Sensing Center at the EMA Iman Shaker has said in media statements that light rainfall would continue along the northern coast and the northern Nile Delta, while no rain is expected in Cairo, Giza and the rest of Nile Delta.

Shaker added that light rain is also expected on Tuesday in Sinai.

With the winter season officially starting on 21 December, increased rain is expected along the northern coast.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with the cabinet and the governor of Alexandria, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly discussed a study by the University of Alexandria on the increasing danger of rainfall in the governorate.

According to the study, climatic changes, the lack of infrastructure to deal with heavy rainfall and the lack of a strategy to deal with the rain waters in the city have all contribute to the danger posed by heavy rains in Alexandria, the cabinet said in a statement.

PM Madbouly issued a directive to quickly prepare plans to separate the rain drainage and sewage networks, adding that implementation should begin as soon as the rainstorm season in Alexandria is finished.

Earlier on Monday, Alexandria witnessed rain and rare snowfall in some parts as temperatures dropped in the Mediterranean city.

A number of Nile Delta governorates as well as parts of Giza and Cairo saw rainfall and a drop in temperature on Monday.

A young student died in Tanta, Gharbiya governorate after being electrocuted when touching a lamppost while walking during the rain.

North Sinai witnessed moderate rain on Monday, whereas the Sinai mountains, including Mount Catherine, were covered by snow as the temperature reached -2 degrees Celsius.

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Egypt retrieved on Monday 36 artefacts that had been smuggled to Spain in 2014, according to a statement by the Egyptian general prosecution.

An Egyptian delegation travelled to Madrid earlier this week to retrieve the artefacts after a Spanish court ruled they should be returned to Egypt.

The artefacts had been smuggled from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to Spains Valencia by six suspects.

The defendants have been given jail terms by an Egyptian criminal court for smuggling artefacts abroad and forging official documents, the prosecution added.

The statement did not provide details on the nature of the artefacts, though photos posted the prosecution's official Facebook page suggest they are ancient Egyptian in origin.

Egypt has been working to repatriate thousands of its artefacts that have been smuggled out of the country after being unearthed in illegal excavations.

Artefacts theft increased after the 2011 uprising that toppled late President Hosni Mubarak, the aftermath of which saw a security vacuum nationwide.

Around 30,000 smuggled artefacts have been retrieved by authorities since 2011, including 5,300 this year, the general supervisor of the Repatriation Antiquities Department Shaaban Abdel-Gawad said earlier this week.

Egypt has pushed to toughen penalties for smuggling artefacts.

Lawmakers approved last year the addition of a new article to the law on protecting antiquities, stipulating that those illegally possessing or selling antiquities face imprisonment and a fine of EGP 1 million to EGP 10 million.

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The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia says its fighters outside of the region have been ordered to withdraw and return to the embattled federal state.

Debretsion Gebremichael, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, proposed an immediate cease-fire to be followed by negotiations.

``I have ordered those units of the Tigray Army that are outside the borders of Tigray to withdraw to the borders of Tigray within immediate effect,'' Debretsion said in the letter.

Other proposals in the letter include the establishment of a no-fly zone for over Tigray to prevent hostile flights and the imposition of an international arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The order for the forces to return to Tigray came as the Ethiopian federal army and its allies have made strong advances in recent weeks. Major towns and cities in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions have been recaptured by the Ethiopian forces, forcing the Tigray fighters to retreat further into their region.

Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray region, confirmed on Monday the withdrawal was complete. ``By doing so, we believe we have taken away whatever excuse the international community (may have used) to explain its feet-dragging when it comes to putting pressure on Aiby Ahmed,'' he wrote on Twitter, referring to the Ethiopian prime minister.

The Ethiopian government has not yet commented on the latest move by Tigrayan forces.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a war that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian forces and fighters from the country's Tigray region, who dominated the national government before Abiy became prime minister in 2018.

Some of Tigray's 6 million people have begun starving to death under a months-long government blockade. Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been detained or forcibly expelled in an atmosphere stoked by virulent speeches against Tigrayans by some senior Ethiopian officials. Alarmed human rights groups have warned some of the anti-Tigrayan rhetoric is hate speech.

Last month, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency as Tigray fighters moved closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, and carried out a number of abuses against ethnic Amhara, according to accounts by local residents. The Tigray forces say they are fighting to lift the blockade on their people.

``The Tigray forces have suffered a number of challenges and setbacks in their attempt to control the Djibouti road and then move to Addis Ababa,'' said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. ``It is very important at this point that all actors take the opportunity to stop the fighting and try to reestablish some trust.''

Davison said the Ethiopian government's military strength may have been strengthened by aerial drones newly purchased for the federal military from China and Turkey with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates. ``Tigray forces appear to be in a weakened position after giving up all the areas they controlled,'' he

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A Sudanese protester was shot dead during mass demonstrations against the recent military takeover and a subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok but sidelined the movement, a medical group said Monday.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country Sunday. The protests marked the third anniversary of the uprising that eventually forced the military removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators attempting to stage a sit-in near the presidential palace on the bank of the Blue Nile in the heart of Khartoum.

There were also protests in elsewhere in the country, such as the coastal city of Port Sudan, the eastern city of Kassala and the northern city of Atbara, the birthplace of the uprising against al-Bashir.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 28-year-old man was killed after he was shot in the chest during Sunday's demonstrations in the East Nile area in Khartoum.

More than 120 people were wounded in clashes between protesters and security forces in Khartoum, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Two other protesters were wounded in Kassala, it said.

The protests were one of the largest since the military took over on Oct. 25, removing Hamdok's transitional government. The coup has rattled the transition and led to relentless street demonstrations.

At least 45 people were killed, and hundreds wounded in protests triggered by the coup, according to a tally by the Sudanese medical group.

Hamdok was reinstated last month amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under military oversight led by him.

The prime minister has yet to announce his Cabinet, amid talks to agree on a ``new political charter'' focused on establishing a broader consensus among all political forces and movements.

The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change has meanwhile rejected the Nov. 21 deal between Hamdok and the military.

The pro-democracy alliance vowed to continue street protests to pressure the military takeover leaders to give the power to a civilian government to lead the transition.

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Egypts Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat discussed with the World Bank Groups (WBG) development policy financing team bringing forth a new round of the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Egypt, maintaining the momentum and building on the strong progress achieved over the course of the 2015-2019 CPF and the two-year extension that followed.

The WBGs team includes Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti Marina Wes, World Bank Lead Country Economist Mark Eugene, and senior private sector specialist Hisham El-Shiaty.

The two sides also discussed Egypts hosting of the 27th round of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP 27) in 2022.

Al-Mashat told the team that the world, especially emerging countries, is in increasing need of financing for climate action, especially in light of the inability to provide previous pledges to secure $100 billion annually from developed countries for climate action.

She also pointed out Egypts strong commitment to shift towards a green economy, and to take consistent and strategic steps to achieve that end, such as the governments target of ensuring that all public projects are 30 percent green by the end of 2024.

She referred to Egypts first green bonds issuance, worth $750 million, to streamline environmental sustainability in development projects as well.

The WBG representatives congratulated Egypt on its success in winning the hosting of the COP27, which reflects the leading role that Egypt plays in transitioning to a green economy, stressing that Egypt is the first country in the region that participates with the WBG in developing a strategy to fight climate change through joint cooperation in preparing the World Banks Country Climate and Development Report.

Furthermore, Al-Mashat also met with the Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Walid Labadi, to explore new tools aiming to bolster the role of the private sector in Egypts economy and climate change efforts, particularly in regard to adaptation.

The IFCs portfolio in the Egyptian market  which is worth $1.26 billion  covers several sectors, including the private sector, environment, governance, gender, finance, transportation, healthcare, wholesale and retail trade, textiles, clothing and leather, manufacturing, and agribusiness.

Additionally, the IFC provided development financing to the private sector worth $421 million in 2020, supporting the sector with $4 billion over the past decade.

Moreover, Labadi noted that the IFC aims to create a market for renewable energy in Egypt by tapping on the expertise and financing of the private sector.

He also referred to the launch of a new project to develop supply chains for the textile sector in Egypt and attract investments worth $800 million, in cooperation with the Ready-Made Garments and Textiles Chamber.

In October, the World Bank approved a $360 million development policy financing loan to support Egypts post-pandemic recovery, which focuses on three pillars: Enhancing macro-fiscal sustainability, enabling private sector development, and fostering womens economic inclusion.

The ongoing development cooperation portfolio with the World Bank amounts to around $5.8 billion distributed across 18 projects in various sectors, including education, health, transportation, social solidarity, petroleum, housing, sanitation, local development, and the environment.

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Renowned Egyptian director Essam El-Sayed was honoured during the closing ceremony of the 28th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (14-19 December).

Born in 1952, El-Sayed directed more than 50 theatrical works since 1981, working in both state theatres and the private sector.

El-Sayed has also directed works for Egyptian television and national celebrations.

El-Sayed received numerous prestigious recognitions, including the State Prize for Excellence in Arts in 2013 and prior to that the Armed Forces Medal in 2009.

He was honoured by the Ministry of Information in 2005, Mass Culture, the Theatre Department of Helwan Arts, and My Freedom newspaper. El-Sayed has also been honoured at numerous Egyptian and regional festivals.

The Sharm El-Sheikh Int'l Theatre Festival for Youth has named its prize for the annual competition for young theatre directors after El-Sayed.

His play Welcome Ya Bakwat won the Best Theatre Show award at the First National Festival of Egyptian Theatre in 2006. He was chosen in several press and media polls as the best director, and his works have been chosen as the most important theatrical shows.

Throughout his career, El-Sayed supervised numerous artistic projects and held several workshops in the Disney Dubbing Studio and the Artistic Creativity Centre, among others.

He held the posts of director of the Comedy Theatre, Television Theatre and head of the Artistic House of Folkloric and Performing Arts.

El-Sayed has been a general coordinator for the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre starting with the 23rd edition and until the 26th.

The director has been honoured at the 28th edition of the festival, among other honourees that included Egyptian director Hassan El-Geretly, Jordanian director Khaled Khaled Al-Tarlaifi, French choreographer Jan Jay Leka and Emirati actor and director Naji El-Hai.

The 28th CIFET ran between 14 and 19 December 2021.

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Egypt has successfully completed two development stages since the 30 June Revolution in 2013 and is now poised to accelerate work on stage three.

This year brought important steps in the development of the intangible aspects of the Egyptian state and society through significant reforms affecting human rights, civil society, the media and human development. Taken as whole, they mark the beginning of a new phase of national development in the post-2013 era.

Since the 30 June 2013 Revolution, Egypt has completed two stages of development and is now on the threshold of a third. While sustaining the impetus that received priority in the first two stages, the third will see a focus on matters that had previously been considered less urgent.

In the first phase from 2013 to 2016, the fight against terrorism and the struggle to restore stability and secure the state were the most pressing concerns. Although these challenges continued to exist in 2016, great strides had been taken towards the defeat of terrorism, and the government had acquired the experience, expertise and resources needed to ultimately win this battle. It therefore felt confident to proceed to the second phase: economic and material development.

By the end of 2016, the political leadership had taken the most important, and also the toughest, decisions necessary to reform the economy. It had floated the Egyptian pound, overhauled the national budget and reformed the fuel-subsidy system so as to ensure the benefits of subsidies reached their intended beneficiaries, namely the poorer and lower middle classes.

The government had also amended the tax system so as to increase the amounts contributed by the well-to-do to public revenues, thereby enabling it to better perform its duties to safeguard security, develop infrastructure, build the social-security system and push the development process forward.

Had it not been for Covid-19, progress could have proceeded more quickly, and 2020 would have presented an opportunity to reap its fruits while channelling more resources into social programmes and human development. However, because of the pandemic it suddenly became necessary to divert these resources into helping to cope with its impacts and support the economy, which was faced with dwindling resources, the loss of jobs and a decline in investments.

Due to the need to curb the economic deterioration and help people weather the crisis, the government could not move on to the third phase of its social development plans in 2020, as had originally been intended.

As the pandemic continued to exact its social and economic toll, it became evident that there would be no rapid end to the crisis and that 2021 would bring more of the same if not worse before it brought light at the end of the tunnel. However, this did not mean that the government could not begin to prepare for the post-Covid phase in the hope that it would arrive in 2022. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi thus launched a number of important initiatives in 2021 in human rights, human development, civil society and media development.

The unveiling of Egypts National Strategy for Human Rights (NSHR) was the landmark event in this regard in 2021. This was not a position statement about a commitment to respect human rights. Instead, it was a fully-fledged plan that broke down human-rights reforms into guidelines, programmes and achievable aims with sights set on the realisation of the goal to achieve full respect for human rights by the end of the strategys five-year timeframe.

The NSHRs gradual approach reflects the reformist vision espoused by the Egyptian government, which believes that the strategys goals are more securely achieved through incremental and cumulative steps. The realisation of full respect for human rights is not only contingent on the existence of the commensurate political will, as dogmatic rights activists, liberals and leftists argue, but also on the existence of the economic, social and cultural conditions that enable society to exercise those rights.

Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that the state and society are better off after the completion of the cumulative phases of rights development. What the dogmatists fail to appreciate is that a precipitous rush to apply rights could backfire if implemented in an environment where the appropriate social, cultural and economic conditions for the exercise of those rights have not sufficiently matured. It is for this reason that the government believes that respect for rights does not come by releasing pent-up freedoms, but instead must be through a process of empowering society itself so that it can exercise rights and freedoms without incurring unsustainable costs.

A glance at what has been happening around us in the region is sufficient to support this point. The present situations in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Tunisia are the result of the lack of a plan for gradual reform and progress towards the desired goals.

The Egyptian vision for human rights presents an authentic and legitimate approach to achieving the desired goals. It is based on the need to work with dedication to bridge the gap between the philosophy of rights and existing social and cultural realities. The NHRS has no intention to review or critique international human rights law or to reconsider Egypts commitments under the charters and declarations it has signed. On the contrary, the Egyptian vision takes its commitments to international human rights conventions as one of the fundamental pillars of its National Strategy.

These are the criteria that are used for gauging progress during the implementation of the strategys plans and programmes over the next five years. According to the NHRS, rights are not just a legal question, but also a developmental one. It is for this reason that the strategy takes Egypts national social-development plans and Vision 2030 for sustainable development as pillars alongside the Egyptian Constitution and the international conventions to which Egypt is a state party.

Soon after the launch of the NHRS, Egypt reconstituted the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). The new 27-member council includes many individuals known for their strong reformist outlooks, including the councils chairperson, the diplomat and politician Moushira Khattab. It also counts among its members a number of noted rights activities and political opposition figures. The NCHR is thus poised to enter a new phase in which it will be endowed with all the needed vigour and efficacy to contribute valuably to the implementation of the NSHR.

Another important development in 2021 was the release of the Egypt Human Development Report (HDR) after an 11-year hiatus since its last publication. The decision to revive it is a reflection of the governments desire to read the impartial assessments and recommendations on the state of development in Egypt by the experts in charge of preparing the report. HDR reports are prepared under the auspices and supervision of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is a guarantee of their professionalism and objectivity. This is a further token of the sincerity of the governments determination to achieve real development in Egypt.

The release of the new Egypt HDR coincided with the launch of the largest social-development programme in Egypts history. The Haya Karima (Decent Life) initiative aims to improve the quality of life in the more than 4,000 villages in Egypt that are home to about half of the countrys population. By the end of the three-year initiative, every home in rural Egypt will have fresh water and wastewater disposal, and every home that does not meet the minimum standards for human habitation will be upgraded. Every village will have at least its main roads paved and will be equipped with enough clinics and schools to meet the inhabitants healthcare and educational needs.

The Haya Karima initiative is very ambitious. It would probably even be called unrealistic were it not for the success that has been seen in marshalling the necessary funding through the reallocation of resources, additional government allocations and innovative funding mechanisms along the lines of those used to help finance the nationwide urban expansion and infrastructure development plan that the government set into motion in 2015.

The fact that the Egypt Human Development Report, the Haya Karima initiative and the NSHR were all unveiled roughly at the same time attests to the balanced and holistic Egyptian approach to human rights, which accords equal value to social and political rights.

In this regard, President Al-Sisi has declared 2022 as the year of civil society in Egypt. This comes less than a year after parliament passed a new NGO law that eliminated many of the restrictions that had existed in the previous one. The legislation has opened the door to a large increase in civil-society organisations, a trend that has also been driven by the governments keenness to give civil society a major role in conceiving and carrying out developmental, educational and social projects, ushering in a new formula for collaboration between the state, civil society and the private sector.

The media also underwent important changes in 2021, most notably the reorganisation of the largest company responsible for media and dramatic production in the country. New television channels have been granted licences after a period in which the government had stopped issuing new broadcasting licences. At the same time, more and more new and unconventional voices have begun to appear on television and other media, while dialogue and debate has been opening up to accommodate issues and voices that had previously been marginalised.

When we put all the pieces of the puzzle together, we see a picture of a state and society that are progressing with confidence towards a higher phase of reform that focuses on rights, the freedom of expression and greater and greater inclusiveness.

*The writer is an adviser to Al-Ahrams Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 23 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Optimists believed that the parliamentary elections held in Iraq in October would solve the troubled nations lingering crisis, pave the way for a more stable country and deliver badly needed reforms.

Iraqis have suffered hardship over nearly two decades, and the vote that came in the footsteps of a widespread anti-establishment popular uprising gave hope that change could happen to the beleaguered nation.

However, like the half a dozen ballots that Iraq has held since the overthrow of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the latest one has proved that in a deeply flawed political system an election is a problem rather than a solution.

An embarrassingly low voter turnout and a dispute over the elections outcome triggered further distrust in the countrys political parties, leaders, government and the electoral process itself.

Even if the struggling political groups now succeed in forming a sort of coalition government after the traditional horse-trading, any post-election euphoria is unlikely to help to fix Iraq and bring it back on its feet.

As Iraq enters a new year gripped by severe political instability, terrorism, government dysfunction, corruption and increasing foreign meddling, any hopes that the future will bring change to the country look forlorn.

Problems on this scale are usually caused by structural failures and should be addressed by policymakers and analysts beyond focusing only on superficial issues and leaving the rest to resolve themselves.

Nearly nineteen years after the US-led invasion, Iraq is still a fragile and divided country facing a Hamiltonian moment. Its most serious challenge is state and nation-building, not ballots or mere leadership changes, as many in the Iraq expert community hypothesised in regard to the October elections.

By almost any measure, Iraqs experience following the US-led invasion has been a failure. Saddam and his authoritarian Iraqi Baath Party no longer lord it over Iraq, but the Iraqis now are as miserable as they were under Saddam, and they live in greater peril than they did under the dictators rule.

Since the US-led invasion, Iraq has been defined by tensions between its multiple ethnicities, which are fighting for power and resources. The root cause behind this national dilemma is Iraqs governance, which, forged by the US occupation, is built on a sectarian quota system institutionalised as consensus democracy.

The lesson to be learned from the last two decades is a simple one: unless drastic reforms in Iraqs dysfunctional political system are introduced to bring about more efficient and effective governance, there will be dire consequences far into the future.

This call to action is even more imperative as Iraq remains in a situation of perpetual stalemate with high hopes but tepid actions. As the country enters a new era of confusion, attempts should be made to rebuild its political system, government institutions, security forces and civil society.

Alongside its miserable polity, Iraq is facing formidable economic troubles. Despite increased aspirations and hundreds of billions of dollars in oil revenues pouring into the countrys coffers, deep changes to Iraqs economic governance and outcomes have failed to materialise over the last two decades.

As if things were not bad enough under Saddam when the Iraqi economy was devastated by wars, conflict and UN-imposed economic sanctions, matters are a lot worse under the new regime, which remains mired in incompetence and corruption leaving the countrys economy in a shambles.

Iraq is one of the most oil-dependent countries in the world, and oil revenues amount to more than 95 per cent of the countrys exports, which account for 85 per cent of the governments budget and 65 per cent of GDP.

Successive governments in Iraq since Saddams fall have relied on oil revenues to pay salaries and run a broken system with no real investment in infrastructure.

Neglect and corruption have shattered Iraqs economy as thousands of factories and millions of hectares of arable land that took generations to build and cultivate are now sputtering and the country depends on imports of almost all its needs from abroad.

Today, Iraq has the highest proportion of state employees in the world, with about seven million people from its 40 million population living on government salaries and working either in the security forces or in the vast and unproductive bureaucracy.

Even so, as of January 2021, Iraqs unemployment rate was more than 10 percentage points higher than its pre-Covid-19 level of 12.7 per cent.

In comparison with other oil-exporting countries, the rate of growth in Iraq is poor. In a rentier economy, oil price fluctuations have a huge impact on growth, and in Iraqs case the fall in prices has had dire consequences, including the devaluation of the local currency and lower incomes for millions of Iraqis.

The falling prices, which have triggered additional macroeconomic volatility, have been coupled with a deepening Covid-19 crisis, worsening security conditions and potential deterioration in the education system, as well as the intensification of climate change shocks.

A key challenge for the country is the deeply entrenched corruption, which is pervasive at all levels of government. Billions of dollars of oil money have been smuggled out of Iraq in corrupt deals since the 2003 invasion. Consecutive governments since then have promised to tackle corruption through economic and political reforms. But these promises have not been followed through by sufficient action.

Addressing the impacts of these risks means overhauling the entire system in Iraq. They cannot be dealt with by short-term policies or illusionary reforms such as those envisioned in a white paper by Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimis cabinet that is trying to leave them for the next government.

The new government that has yet to be formed must begin with tangible actions to restore trust in order to tackle pandemic challenges and achieve sustainable development. The economic status of the ruling cliques in Iraq says a lot about why the country is still underdeveloped.

Of paramount importance is stopping graft, and one measure of how far this is succeeding will be the degree to which corruption by Iraqs oligarchs is fought. Iraq will not get on the right track until corruption is eliminated. The money that is today spent on corruption could have a positive impact on Iraqs development.

Perhaps Iraqs biggest challenge is to find leaders who can implement change. Since Saddams ouster, Iraq has been saddled with poor leadership, which explains why successive governments have failed to steer the country away from the quagmire and start its reconstruction.

Leadership failure is at the centre of all the countrys challenges after corruption.

It is hard, and probably inaccurate, to refer to the factional leaders who have been in charge of governments in Iraq since 2003 as the countrys political elite or political class. They are kleptocrats who compete with various rivals for power and for the foreign exchange generated by Iraqs lucrative oil reserves.

Kleptocracy in Iraq has introduced corruption, fraud, cronyism, underdeveloped infrastructure, poor leadership and failed development. These things have mostly been caused by the type of leaders empowered to take on leadership positions.

Iraqs future may now centre around waiting for a new type of leaders to emerge who will be capable of carving out a prosperous future for their country by creating long-term sustainable improvements and devise, implement and evaluate reconstruction strategies.

Iraqs current leaders have mismanaged the post-Saddam order. The countrys coming leaders need to find a model that will work for Iraq as they navigate dangerous waters in the years ahead. Iraq remains at a crossroads, and nothing can save it unless its problems are properly addressed.

Unless a new generation of visionary, skilled and trusted leaders emerges and institutions commanding respect are firmly established, there are no reasons to be optimistic about Iraqs future and the country will remain a failed state.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 23 December, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has received a collection of 23 artefacts, including large stone reliefs, transported from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and Saqqara and Ismailia archaeological sites.

The objects include a large limestone relief bearing the different titles of the Old Kingdom King Senefru, a relief depicting the monotheistic King Akhenaten and his wife Queen Nefertiti, three Old Kingdom reliefs from the tomb of Raa-Hotep, and two red granite reliefs bearing the image of King Ramses II in the osirion pose and wearing the red crown, according to Altayeb Abbas, antiquities ministry assistant for archaeological affairs.

All the objects were restored before transportation and were packed using the latest scientific methods, Eissa Zidan, executive director for the restoration and transportation of artefacts.

Among the most notable objects is also a collection of 269 pieces of a limestone wall bearing pyramid text for Queen Ankh Isen Pepi. These pieces will be reassembled to form a huge wall in the GEM's main hall.

A collection of painted false doors, offering tables, and a statue of King Amenemhat I from the Ismailia museum have been also transferred, Zidan added.





















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Egyptian home services application FilKhedma was acquired for an undisclosed sum by Naspers-backed SweepSouth, a South African online home services platform, the two companies said in a joint statement.

FilKhedma is an Egyptian company established in 2014 to provide high-quality home maintenance and improvement services.

The application operates in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria. It offers a wide range of services ranging from cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, and others to 2000 service partners.

It has already raised significant funding, including from Naspers and the Cairo Angels investment network.

SweepSouth is a South African online platform launched in 2013 to provide home cleaning services across various South African cities.

This acquisition will enable SweepSouth to expand its market share at the same time it is looking to launch new services in South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.

In a joint statement, the CEO and co-founder of SweepSouth Aisha Pandor said that they are "thrilled" to have FilKhedma as part of the company. Pandor also asserted that both companies share the same values and passion.

Co-founder of SweepSouth Alen Ribic asserted that this acquisition allows the company to expand its market to Egypt, a huge market with millions of households.

"Coming together with the FilKhedma team represents the next phase of building SweepSouth into a global platform, Ribic added.

As part of the acquisition, FilKhedma founder and CEO Omar Ramadan will take over as new the entitys chief business officer.

We are happy with this incredible milestone and excited about joining forces with the SweepSouth team to fulfill our vision of empowering providers and delivering quality services in Africa and beyond, Ramadan said.

In parallel with the expansion, SweepSouth is planning to launch a marketing campaign in the first quarter of 2022 to grow its business in Egypt.

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Two Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys play inside their enclosure in Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 19, 2021. They arrived at the safari park a month ago but met the public for the first time on Sunday. This endangered species is unique to China and falls under national first-class protection. [Photo: VCG]

Two Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys play inside their enclosure in Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 19, 2021. They arrived at the safari park a month ago but met the public for the first time on Sunday. This endangered species is unique to China and falls under national first-class protection. [Photo: VCG]

Two Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys play inside their enclosure in Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 19, 2021. They arrived at the safari park a month ago but met the public for the first time on Sunday. This endangered species is unique to China and falls under national first-class protection. [Photo: VCG]

Two Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys play inside their enclosure in Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Dec. 19, 2021. They arrived at the safari park a month ago but met the public for the first time on Sunday. This endangered species is unique to China and falls under national first-class protection. [Photo: VCG]
KYODO NEWS - Dec 20, 2021 - 20:56 | All, Japan

Japan and the United States have agreed to increase Tokyo's contribution for hosting U.S. military forces to 1.05 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) over the five-year period from fiscal 2022 starting April, government sources said Monday.

The roughly 5 percent increase in so-called host nation support, equivalent to 211 billion yen per fiscal year, came in response to calls from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for the Japanese government to foot more of the costs, given the need for the U.S. forces to deal with China.

The two sides have agreed to reduce Tokyo's financial contribution for utility costs, with the increased amount to be allocated to funding expenses such as maintenance of facilities used together by Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, and their joint exercises, the sources said.

The Japanese government is believed to have determined that a certain amount of increase was inevitable in light of the need to boost the long-standing security alliance, while the U.S. forces are mobilizing their most advanced hardware in the region to address China's rapid military expansion.

The agreement will be signed during a meeting involving the two allies' defense and foreign ministers to be held in the United States in January.

In the current fiscal year through March, the support to cover expenses, such as utilities and the wages of Japanese staff at U.S. military bases, was budgeted at 201.7 billion yen.

Cost-sharing agreements between Japan and the United States are usually signed to cover five-year terms.

But for fiscal 2021, the two countries settled for a one-year extension of a five-year pact that expired in March 2021, as their talks were affected by the transition of presidential power in Washington from Donald Trump to Biden.

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KYODO NEWS - Dec 21, 2021 - 06:20 | All, Japan, World

The United States has urged Japan not to attend as an observer the first meeting of signatories to a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons, according to U.S. government sources, reflecting Washington's opposition to the pact.

The Japanese government has suggested it will come into line with the United States and take a cautious approach to the issue, the sources said. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that Tokyo has no "concrete plans" to attend the meeting as an observer.

The sources said the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden made the request to Japan through diplomatic channels after German political parties announced Nov. 24 that the deal for the new ruling coalition included taking part as an observer at the meeting scheduled for March in Vienna.

Maybe because of the request, Kishida also suggested last week that participation in the meeting would be premature "before building a relationship of trust with President Biden."

Germany's move has put Japan -- which has stated it aspires to a world free of nuclear weapons as the only country to have suffered the devastation of atomic bombings -- in the spotlight. Both countries are key U.S. allies that rely on American nuclear forces for protection.

The U.S. government has maintained its opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January this year, even as Biden has pledged to strive for a world without nuclear weapons.

Washington believes an outright ban on nuclear weapons in the absence of any promises from nuclear-armed states would not produce substantial progress toward disarmament. Meanwhile, the United States has committed to obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that has led to incremental disarmament efforts.

"We categorically reject any claim that it (the nuclear ban treaty) would contribute to...the stated goal that's at the heart of the treaty," State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press conference on Monday.

Price refrained from commenting on whether Washington made any request to Japan on the Vienna meeting, saying he has nothing to share on "any private discussions" that may occur between the U.S. government and its allies.

According to the sources, the U.S. government is also calling on the new three-party German government, launched in December, to give up on the idea of taking part in the March 22-24 meeting in Vienna.

As a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Germany hosts U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory and maintains a fleet of fighter jets capable of delivering them. The three parties have committed to remaining in NATO's so-called nuclear-sharing arrangement.

Price emphasized that the U.S. objection to the nuclear ban treaty has "spanned administrations" and is "shared" by all other nuclear weapons states and NATO allies as well.

The new U.N. treaty completely outlaws the development, testing, possession and use of nuclear weapons. It only binds states that have formally signed and ratified it.

More than 50 countries, including Austria, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam, have ratified the pact, according to the website of the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs.

But nuclear weapon states, including the United States, Russia and China, are not signatories. Japan has also refrained from signing the pact in consideration of its long-standing security alliance with the United States.

Related coverage:

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Germany to observe nuke ban talks in policy shift under new gov't

China likely to own at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030: Pentagon
By Reito Kaneko, KYODO NEWS - Dec 20, 2021 - 16:51 | All, Japan

A joint defense panel of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party started discussing Monday a review of the National Security Strategy for the first time since it was adopted in 2013, including the possibility of introducing enemy base strike capabilities.

Along with the review of the country's long-term diplomacy and defense strategy, the panel also seeks to discuss and update two other key defense buildup papers -- National Defense Program Guidelines and Medium-Term Defense Program -- after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a policy speech earlier this month that the government will aim to renew the three policy papers in about a year.

With China's increasing assertiveness in waters near Japan and North Korea's resumption of ballistic missile tests, Kishida has said Japan is facing a worrying security situation and vows to consider "every option" to boost the nation's defense, including acquiring the capability to strike enemy bases in response to an imminent attack.

Related coverage:

Japan, France postpone 2-plus-2 security talks to next year

Japan, U.S. to hold ministerial security talks on Jan. 7

Abe hints at Japan's possible military role in Taiwan contingency

The LDP's joint Research Commission on Security and National Defense Division panel aims to draw up a proposal around May next year after a series of discussions and hearings with experts. The proposal will be the basis for revising the papers.

The National Security Strategy, overarching the other two policy documents, was made following the example of the United States.

The National Defense Program Guidelines was first formulated in 1976 as basic defense guidelines and revised five times between 1995 and 2018. The Medium-Term Defense Program is based on that guideline, specifying development plans and necessary expenses for every five years, with the current plan covering fiscal years 2019 to 2023.

"In the past, this joint panel has advocated that if Japan is attacked by missiles, we have to prevent (the launch of more) missiles from enemy territory. This idea has been consistent," said former defense minister Itsunori Onodera, who leads the joint panel.

Onodera told reporters after the closed meeting that he and several other LDP lawmakers argued that Japan might need a new national defense strategy in line with that of the United States.

The United States has a document under its National Security Strategy prepared by the Defense Secretary's office outlining how the Defense Department pursues the National Security Strategy objectives. The paper helps secure an increase in the annual defense budget and supports the planning of military contingencies.

The revision of Japan's National Security Strategy will also focus on economic security related to developing critical advanced technologies and establishing supply chains for strategic goods.

The panel will also discuss the new defense domains of outer space, cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum.

The Defense Ministry set up its own panel of senior ministry and Self-Defense Forces officials last month to conduct a series of discussions regarding revising the three documents.
KYODO NEWS - Dec 20, 2021 - 07:15 | All, Japan

Japan, the United States and other countries have blocked any advancement in U.N. talks toward legally binding measures to ban and regulate the development and use of lethal autonomous weapon systems.

The Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons ended Friday in Geneva without progress, failing to reflect eight years of work and leaving countries and nongovernmental organizations that have called for legally binding rules expressing disappointment.

Also referred to as "killer robots," autonomous weapons are artificial intelligence-powered weapons using facial recognition and algorithms.

Once activated, the weapons can select and attack targets without the assistance of a human operator. They pose ethical, legal and security risks.

Japan is opposed to any start of negotiations on a legally binding instrument, as are the United States, Australia, South Korea, India, Russia and Israel, given that autonomous weapons are thought to provide military advantages such as swifter reactions and reduction of troops' direct exposure on the battlefields.

"Japan has the position that discussions must continue, but they are against any attempt to start negotiations on a legally binding instrument," a diplomatic source said.

Autonomous weapons are known to be in development, but are not yet in use. A U.N. document published in March reported on the alleged first autonomous drone attack in Libya.

According to the NGO Stop Killer Robots, countries such as the United States, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, Australia and Britain are already developing autonomous weapons.

While diplomatic talks toward concrete measures are in a stalemate, technology required to produce these weapons is being developed very quickly.

China, which made few interventions during the five-day talks in the Swiss city, said it is not against legally binding measures "based on an agreement to be reached on definitions."

Discussions showed common definitions of the complex weapon systems relying on ever evolving technologies will be difficult to reach.

China said it has submitted a position paper on regulating the military application of AI.

A Chinese representative said it was the first time Beijing has put forward a comprehensive and systematic proposal on the security governance of AI within the framework of the U.N. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

NGOs and AI and robotics experts, as well as a large number of countries including Austria, Chile, Ireland and New Zealand, have been pushing for the start of negotiations on legally binding rules.

They expressed "deep disappointment" at the outcome of the talks, which basically only mandate the group of experts to continue discussions without concrete goals.

Mary Wareham, arms advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, an international NGO, said the outcome is "a completely inadequate multilateral response" given the urgent need for new international law on autonomous weapons.

"Military powers Russia & United States are primarily responsible for this shameful result," Wareham wrote on Twitter.
KYODO NEWS - Dec 21, 2021 - 21:55 | All, Japan

The suspect in a fatal fire at a mental health clinic in Osaka last week may have intended to copy a deadly 2019 arson attack on an animation studio in Kyoto, which also involved the purchase of gasoline ahead of time, investigative sources said Tuesday.

Discovered in the house where Morio Tanimoto, 61, was believed to be living in Osaka's Nishiyodogawa Ward was a newspaper article about the animation studio fire that claimed 36 lives, prompting police to believe he might have decided to use a similar method, the sources said.

The death toll from the Osaka clinic fire on Friday increased to 25 after a woman apparently in her 20s was confirmed dead early Tuesday morning, the police said. After the fire, 27 people were taken to hospitals including Tanimoto, who remains in serious condition due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Of the 25 victims, 21 have been identified including the clinic's director, Kotaro Nishizawa, 49, the police said.

According to the sources, a small fire broke out in Tanimoto's living quarters about 30 minutes before the clinic fire, with police suspecting he may have tried to ignite some gasoline ahead of the planned arson attack.

It was found that Tanimoto, a patient at the clinic, purchased around 10 liters of gasoline in late November, apparently claiming it was for his motorcycle. The finding led police to think he had a strong intent to kill people, the sources said.

Footage of security cameras installed at the clinic showed the suspect placing a paper bag in front of the reception area. He then crouched by the bag and moved his hand, following which fire was seen quickly rising to the ceiling.

A burned cigarette lighter was found where the fire is thought to have started. The footage also showed the suspect trying to grab people as they attempted to flee the fire, according to the sources.

Tanimoto is also believed to have attempted to seal the clinic's emergency exit with adhesive tape from the outside a day before the fire to prevent people from escaping, other investigative sources said.

Nishizawa told his wife he had discovered tape on the door leading to the fire escape the day before the incident and removed it, according to the sources.

While the motive for the attack remains unclear, testimonies of people who know Tanimoto and his employment history suggest he lived a lonely life after going through a divorce and the deaths of family members, and he had suicidal thoughts.

The suspect's older brother said he has not had contact with him for more than 30 years, adding their father died around 30 years ago, while their mother died some 10 years earlier than that.

The president of an Osaka sheet metal factory where Tanimoto used to work said the man often complained about his marriage from around 2008, when he briefly left the company and got divorced.

His former wife did not accept efforts to reconcile after the divorce, and an attempt of a second marriage to another woman also failed.

Acknowledging that Tanimoto had been a diligent worker, the former employer, 78, also said, "I never heard of him having friends or acquaintances, and he had no relationships with other employees outside of work."

Tanimoto also attempted to murder his eldest son in April 2011 and the Osaka District Court later sentenced him to four years in prison over the case.

The ruling said the accused "could not bear the loneliness after the divorce and wanted to die but was too afraid to commit suicide. He thought of killing other people so he could then bring himself to end his own life."

His lawyers had sought a suspended sentence, arguing it was possible he was affected by mental illness.

However, the Osaka court rejected the claim, saying rehabilitation was possible if he had relationships with people other than his family.

"I think he tried to die for sure this time by setting a fire," said Noboru Aitani, a professor of criminal psychology at Kansai University of Welfare Sciences. "I also think this (incident) is connected to his failure to commit murder-suicide 10 years ago."

Mafumi Usui, a professor of social psychology at Niigata Seiryo University, said, "To prevent similar crimes, it is important to find out what the suspect was thinking following the Osaka court ruling and what triggered the arson this time."
KYODO NEWS - Dec 20, 2021 - 12:53 | All, Coronavirus, Japan

The Japanese government launched on Monday a smartphone app that allows people to display proof of vaccination that can be used for multiple purposes, including immigration procedures.

The app, called the COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate Application and available for both iPhone and Android smartphones, displays information such as the number of doses a user has received, the dates of inoculation and the vaccine manufacturer, according to the Digital Agency.

Municipal governments have been issuing vaccine certificates in paper form since the summer, but the app makes it easier for people to obtain certification through the "My Number" national identification system so long as they have been issued a My Number card, an agency official said.

While all citizens and residents of Japan are issued 12-digit ID numbers, cards need to be applied for separately.

By scanning their My Number cards with a smartphone, people can pull up information on the app regarding their inoculation status from the Vaccination Record System, a cloud system created by the government and used by municipalities to manage data on residents' inoculation status.

For use in international travel, users need to additionally input passport data. Instructions on the app are provided only in Japanese language.

In addition to using the digital certificates for quarantine inspections in destination countries, the agency is also considering domestic use in a program designed to loosen COVID-related restrictions on the vaccinated.

The app is "expected to be used for lowering infection risks in daily lives as well as economic and social activities," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference Monday.

The government in November outlined a "vaccine and test package" aimed at easing restrictions for people with proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 tests even when the country is under a virus state of emergency.

Under the plan, venues of large-scale events will be able to accommodate a full crowd, while there will be no limits to the number of people at restaurants even under an emergency so long as people have either been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID.

People who live in municipalities that do not give consent to the use of data in the VRS system are not eligible for the digital certificate service. The list of municipalities whose residents are eligible for the service is available on the Digital Agency website.

However, the agency has warned that some registered vaccination data may be incorrect and called on users to seek any necessary corrections at their municipalities.

About 78 percent of the Japanese population has received at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The government began administering booster shots to health care workers earlier this month amid increasing concern about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
New Delhi :

One terrorist was arrested and search operations are underway to nab another one who entered into Indian territory following ceasefire violations by Pakistan at two locations in Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir. There was heavy ceasefire violation at two locations in Poonch yesterday. In general area of Delina Chowk, a terrorist was apprehended after a joint check-post manned by police and army drew fire from a truck. Another terrorist entered a nearby locality, operation underway, reported ANI.

One AK-47 and one pistol have been recovered by the police. The Indian Army is giving a befitting reply to Pakistan's unprovoked ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC).

Meanwhile, terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group on Monday abducted and killed two members of the nomadic Gujjar community from a forested area in Pulwama district, police said.

Abdul Qadeer Kohli of Rajauri district and Manzoor Ahmed of Khonmoh area of Srinagar were abducted by unidentified gunmen from 'Dhok', a temporary shelter, from the forested area of Tral in Pulwama district around 7:30 pm, a police spokesperson said.

This is the first terrorist attack after the BJP-led NDA government abrogated provisions of Article 370 and announced bifurcation of the state into union territories on August 5.

Following the Centre's move, restrictions were put in place in Kashmir Valley. Though restrictions have been eased in most of Kashmir, normal life continued to remain paralysed with shops and business establishments closed and transport off the roads.

On August 20, an Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist and a special police officer were killed, while a police sub-inspector was injured in a gunfight in Baramulla district of north Kashmir - the first encounter between security forces and ultras after August 5.

With PTI Inputs

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Dhaka:

The word "virgin" must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country's top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the "humiliating and discriminatory" term.

Under the South Asian country's Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate - whether she is a Kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced.

In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with "unmarried", deputy attorney general Amit Talukder told AFP. The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then.

"It is a landmark verdict," Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups which filed the case challenging the term in 2014, told AFP on Monday.

Rights groups have long criticised the term - used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 - saying it is "humiliating and discriminatory", and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married.

The judgement also ordered authorities to introduce the options "unmarried, widower or divorced" for the groom on the certificate. Bangladesh is the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation and nearly 90 per cent of its 168 million population are Muslims.

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New Delhi:

A day after Maharashtra''s ruling coalition partner Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) chief and state Minister Mahadev Jankar claimed that Sanjay Dutt would join his party on September 25, the Bollywood actor on Monday clarified he would not be joining any political party. "I will not be joining any political party. Mr Jankar is a dear friend and brother of mine and I humbly wish him good luck for his future endeavours,'' an official statement by Sanjay Dutt read.

Mahadev Jankar also clarified that the actor will not join RSP. ''I never said Dutt will join RSP. I said the actor was to share platform at our Sundays event, but he could not make it,'' he said.



The RSP has been an ally of the BJP-led Maharashtra government and Union government since 2014. Jankar, a cabinet-rank minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, had earlier claimed that ''actor Sanjay Dutt was about to join the RSP''.

Jankar has been championing the cause of reservation for the Dhangar (shepherd) community. According to Deccan Herald, in four Lok Sabha seats and 30 plus Assembly seats in Maharashtra and Marathwada regions, the Dhangars have a sizable presence and could be a deciding factor.

Rumours of Dutt joining politics had been doing the rounds before Lok Sabha elections 2019 too, but the actor had quashed them. Dutt was a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate for the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency in 2009, but withdrew after the court refused to suspend his conviction under the Arms Act. In the Lok Sabha elections, he had campaigned for Priya Dutt, who was a Congress candidate from Mumbai.



(With inputs from IANS)

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New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met family members of late former Union minister Arun Jaitley at his residence and paid his tributes.

Earlier, PM Modi spoke to family members of Jaitley who had requested him not to cut short his oversee tour due demise of the veteran BJP leader. It is well known that PM Modi shared a very strong bond with the late Union minister.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets the family of late former Union Finance Minister #ArunJaitley at his residence. pic.twitter.com/cx0hRYYcfe  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2019

Jaitley died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on Saturday afternoon after battling multiple health issues for the last several months. He was 66. He was admitted to the hospital on August 9.

"My friend Arun Jaitley loved India, loved his party and loved being among people. It is upsetting and unbelievable that a person I have known since our youth is no longer in our midst," Prime Minister Modi had tweeted.

"I cannot imagine that I am here in Bahrain while my dear friend Arun Jaitley is no more," PM Modi had said while addressing a huge gathering of 15,000 members from the Indian community at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the residence of late former Union Finance Minister #ArunJaitley to pay tributes to him and meet his family. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/DeZaxGz2Ke  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2019

Describing Jaitley as a valued friend, the prime minister said his insights and nuanced understanding of matters had very few parallels.

"At a time at a time when people are celebrating Janmashtami, I am mourning the death of my friend Arun," he said.

Earlier in his tweets, Modi said Jaitley was admired by people across all sections of society, adding that he was multi-faceted, had impeccable knowledge about Indias Constitution, history, public policy, governance and administration.

With the demise of Arun Jaitley Ji, I have lost a valued friend, whom I have had the honour of knowing for decades. His insight on issues and nuanced understanding of matters had very few parallels. He lived well, leaving us all with innumerable happy memories. We will miss him! he said.Modi also recalled Jaitleys contribution to the BJP.

BJP and Arun Jaitley Ji had an unbreakable bond. As a fiery student leader, he was at forefront of protecting our democracy during the Emergency. He became a much liked face of our Party, who could articulate the Party programmes and ideology to a wide spectrum of society, he said.

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highlights The landing of Chandrayaan-2 will be witnessed by PM Modi along-with two government school students from UP.

The ISRO Centres principal scientific adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan has written a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Anoop Pandey to conduct a quiz for the students.

Aradhana Shukla said, "Children from class 8-12 are eligible to participate. It will be a moment of a lifetime. The success of Chandrayaan-2 has been a proud moment for us and our nation. We will shortlist students after they take part in the quiz."

New Delhi:

The two students from UP may not land on the moon but will surely witness the much-awaited landing of Chandrayaan 2 on the moon along-with PM Narendra Modi at ISRO control room, Bengaluru. These two students from government schools of UP will be chosen to witness the history Chandrayaan landing on moon next month.

The ISRO Centres principal scientific adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan has written a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Anoop Pandey in respect to conduct a quiz for the students. The winners of the Chandrayaan 2 quiz will be chosen to witness Chandrayaan 2 landing on the moon in early September. The Principal Secretary, Secondary Education, Aradhana Shukla has advised officials to distribute and promote the information on various WhatsApp groups at the state schools.

Aradhana Shukla further said, "Children from class 8-12 are eligible to participate. It will be a moment of a lifetime. The success of Chandrayaan-2 has been a proud moment for us and our nation. We will shortlist students after they take part in the quiz."

Aradhana Shukla has also asked the District Inspector of Schools to organize a meeting with principals and explain them about the competition. She has also asked the DIOS to share the link of the competition with the respective schools.

School principals would act as Nodal Officers as they been told to take help from other respective departments to make sure maximum quiz participation.

In order to spread awareness about the space quiz in rural areas, block education officers, development officers and panchayat Raj Officers have been roped in.
New Delhi:

An IndiGo flight made an emergency landing on Tuesday evening at Hyderabad airport after smoke was seen in the cockpit due to malfunctioning of an exhaust fan in the plane's air conditioning system, said the airline. The A320neo aircraft, which was coming from Delhi, has been grounded temporarily due to the incident.

"In relation to our flight 6E 6679 (NEO) from Delhi-Hyderabad, the pilots perceived signs of smoke in the cockpit during descent and as a measure of caution, declared emergency to expedite landing," the low-cost carrier said in a statement.

After landing, an inspection was carried out by IndiGo's engineering team, which found that all engine functionalities and parameters were fine.

The A320neo aircraft has Pratt & Whitney engines."The root cause of this issue has been identified as the malfunctioning of an air conditioning system's exhaust fan. The component will be replaced and the aircraft will be back in operation shortly," the airline said.

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New Delhi:

The Election Commission has directed that Janata Dal (United) would not be granted a concession to use their reserved symbol arrow for contesting elections in the states of Jharkhand and Maharashtra owing to its similarity with the 'bow and arrow' symbol used by JMM and Shiv Sena in the two states.

The poll panel had earlier given concession to the Janata Dal (United) - a recognized state party in Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh with 'Arrow' as its reserved symbol - under a rule to contest polls in the two states using its symbol.

But it has now withdrawn the concession after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha moved the poll panel, saying similarity in symbols could confuse voters.

JMM enjoys the same status in Jharkhand with 'Bow and Arrow' as its election symbol while the Shiv Sena is a recognised party in Maharashtra with 'Bow and Arrow' as its symbol.

"Having considered all aspects of the matter, the Commission has directed that the JDU will not be granted concession under Paragraph 10 of the Symbols Order to use their reserved symbol 'arrow' for contesting elections in the states of Jharkhand and Maharashtra henceforth," the poll panel order issued on August 16 said.

In March, the Election Commission had banned the symbols of JMM and Shiv Sena in Bihar in view of their similarity with the symbol of JDU, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.



"The similarity is both in the design as well as in the nomenclature of the two symbols," the poll panel had said.



The JMM said it was the principal opposition party in Jharkhand with 19 out of 81 MLAs. It got the 'Bow and Arrow' symbol in 1985.

The JDU does not have any MLA or MP from Jharkhand.



"Allotment of the symbol 'Arrow' to candidates of JD(U) in Jharkhand will create confusion in the minds of electors in Jharkhand where majority of voters have a rural base with low-level of literacy. The symbol 'Arrow' has very close similarity in design to 'Bow and Arrow'," the JMM said.

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New Delhi:

In a clear-cut message to US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that issues between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir, are bilateral and New Delhi would not want to "bother" any third country in resolving them. The strong remark from Modi came during a joing press conference with Trump after their meeting on the sidelines of G7 Summit in southwestern French city of Biarritz.

When asked about their discussion on Kashmir issue, Modi said: "India and Pakistan have bilateral issues. When I called Imran Khan afterhis election, I told him clearly that both India and Pakistan should fight on poverty. All issues between India and Pakistan are bilateral in nature, that is why we don't bother any other country regarding them."

Trump, who had earlier offered mediation, backed off on Kashmir, saying India and Pakistan can resolve the issue bilaterally. "We spoke last night about Kashmir, Prime Minister really feels he has it under control. They speak with Pakistan and I'm sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good," Trump said.

Earlier last month, during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump had said that he was asked by PM Modi to become a mediator or arbitrator in Kashmir issue. While Pakistan welcomed the mediation, India strongly rejected the US President's claim and reiterated its long-standing policy of no third party involvement in Kashmir issue.

Following India's musculer move to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, Pakistan is leaving no stones unturned to internationlise the issue by raising it on global fronts multiple times. They even took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with the help of China, but failed miserably after the council refused to issue any statement and suggested bilateral route to resolve the issue.

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Biarritz, France:

US President Donald Trump skipped a discussion on climate with other world leaders at the Group of Seven summit in France - then claimed to "know more about the environment than anyone." Trump left an empty chair as global power brokers debated Monday how to help the fire-stricken Amazon and reduce carbon emissions. "I'm an environmentalist," Trump told reporters, even as he celebrated America's oil and gas wealth. Environmental activists declared the summit a failure, marching to demand tougher global emissions rules and more aid for the Amazon.

Trump was scheduled to attend Monday's session on climate, biodiversity and oceans at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, but didn't. French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, shrugged off the absence, noting that Trump's aides were there instead.

Trump is a climate change skeptic who once had claimed it's a hoax that was invented by the Chinese. His decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord has severely damaged global efforts to reduce emissions.

Trump started the morning behind schedule, and held one-on-one meetings while others were in the climate discussions. However, his interlocutors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, managed to make it to the climate meeting.

Asked about attending the climate session, Trump said it would be his next stop and that he wants clean air and water. But he never showed up.

Macron said it wasn't his goal to try to persuade Trump to rejoin the climate accord. "You can't rewrite the past," Macron told reporters.

But Macron said he and Trump had a "long, rich and totally positive" discussion on the Amazon fires and an international effort to invest in "re-foresting" the area.

G-7 countries pledged $20 million on Monday to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest, which threaten its ability to capture carbon released into the atmosphere by cars and other emitters.

It's a small sum overall but G-7 summit host France hopes it will bring more attention to the fires.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres - who attended Monday's climate talks - expressed hope that Americans themselves would help fight climate change even if their president doesn't.

"I am very optimistic about American society and its capacity to deliver in relation to climate action," he told reporters afterward. "What matters here is to have a strong engagement of the American society and of the American business community and the American local authorities."

Greenpeace France isn't so optimistic. It said Monday the summit was "a new failure of climate diplomacy. Macron above all produced anecdotal initiatives that badly hide his failure to raise ambition of the G-7 climate goals, and his own inaction in France."

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Beirut:

Regime and Russian air strikes on Monday killed 12 civilians in northwest Syria, where heightened bombardment has claimed hundreds of lives since late April, a war monitor said.

Russian air raids on several areas in the south of Idlib province left six civilians dead, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Regime air raids killed an additional six civilians in the same region, which is controlled by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Britain-based monitor added.

The bombardment wounded 27 other civilians in total, it said.

Regime forces have since last week been chipping away at the jihadist-dominated region of Idlib on the Turkish border after months of deadly bombardment.

The gains come despite a deal reached between rebel backer Turkey and regime ally Russia last year to set up a buffer zone around the region to protect its three million inhabitants.

Since Wednesday, the Syrian military has seized the key town of Khan Sheikhun from jihadists and allied rebels and overran the countryside to the south, encircling a Turkish observation post in northern Hama.

On Saturday, pro-government fighters gathered north of Khan Sheikhun in an apparent bid to press on with the offensive.After Khan Sheikhun, Maaret al-Numan is the next town on a key highway running across Idlib province that analysts say is coveted by Damascus.

Total government control of that road would allow it to connect the capital with second city Aleppo, fully retaken from opposition fighters in late 2016.

The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

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New Delhi:

Asteroid 'God of Chaos' may smash into Earth at breakneck speeds of 15,000mph. Reports suggest that the asteroid is taller than the Eiffel Tower. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has already warned that a massive asteroid will hit Earth and space agencies will not be able to do anything about it.

"Great name! Wouldnt worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense," Musk tweeted while responding to a news on the NASA is preparing for the colossal God of Chaos asteroid.

If the 27bn kg asteroid were to hit Earth, scientists calculate it would leave a crater more than a mile wide and a staggering 518 metres deep, Express reported.



It added that the 370-metre-wide asteroid is potentially on a collision course with Earth  and the NASA is unable to completely rule out a strike. The impact would be equivalent to 880 million tons of TNT being detonated  65,000 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.



Asteroid 'God of chaos': How well prepared are we?



In 2016, a NASA scientist warned that the Earth is unprepared for such an event. In April 2018, the B612 Foundation reported "It's 100 per cent certain we'll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 per cent sure when." Also, in 2018, physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet.



Asteroid impact avoidance comprises a number of methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) could be diverted, preventing destructive impact events. A sufficiently large impact by an asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis, multiple firestorms and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of placing large quantities of pulverized rock dust, and other debris, into the stratosphere.

According to expert testimony in the United States Congress in 2013, NASA would require at least five years of preparation before a mission to intercept an asteroid could be launched.

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New Delhi:

Following Bombay High Court's order, Police on Monday registered an FIR against NCP leader Ajit Pawar and over 70 others in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam case. The FIR against the NCP leader in the MSCB case has been filed by Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing.

On August 22, the Bombay High Court had said that prima facie there was "credible evidence" against the accused and observed that they (Ajit Pawar and others) seemed to have "complete knowledge" that their actions would cause a huge loss to the bank.

Pawar, PWP leader Jayant Patil and several former directors of the bank are accused of violating banking and RBI regulations while disbursing loans to sugar mills at very low rates and selling off assets of defaulter businesses at throw-away prices.

Such sale of assets, disbursement of cheap loans and a failure to ensure repayment resulted in losses of over Rs 1,000 crore to the bank between 2007 and 2011, it is alleged. The accused also forged records and fudged figures to show the bank was making profits, it is alleged. Pawar, a former deputy chief minister and finance minister, was a director of the bank during the relevant period.

Inquiries by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and a charge sheet filed by a quasi-judicial inquiry commission under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act had blamed Pawar and other accused for the bank's losses.

Surinder Arora, an activist, had filed a complaint against Pawar and others with the EOW in 2015. He approached the high court through his lawyer S B Talekar when no FIR was registered on his complaint.

In the judgment made available on Thursday evening, the high court said the NABARD report indicated that these directors "were having complete knowledge regarding the transactions and in spite of that, either they sanctioned the loans to such units (that did not have the capacity to repay) and/or sold out the properties of such units at a throwaway price which resulted in a substantial loss to the Bank".

"The Inspection Report therefore not only points out the discrepancies or irregularities committed by the Bank and its directors but also points out that the trust reposed in the Bank and its officers has been brazenly breached.

"NPA (non-performing asset) Accounts were intentionally camouflaged, in as much as, the amount sanctioned and disbursed to the units wherein the Directors had interest," the HC said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Biarritz:

Brushing off concerns about global economic instability, President Donald Trump on Monday defended the way he is trying to squeeze a trade deal out of China, saying its what worked for him in business.

Trump was challenged on a negotiating style in which he praises Chinese President Xi Jinping one day and castigates him the next. Allies are complaining that thats contributing to stability problems for them and other nations, a questioner noted at a news conference closing out Trumps participation in the Group of Seven summit.

Sorry, its the way I negotiate, the president said unapologetically.

He said layers of US tariffs have hurt China so badly that it will have no choice but to make a trade deal with the United States.

His trade war has been blamed for a global economic slowdown and has sown fears of an economic recession in the US Some of the leaders who spent the past three days meeting in the picturesque French seaside town of Biarritz urged Trump to bring the fight to a close.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host who joined Trump at the top of the news conference, said the situation has created economic uncertainty and urged both sides to reach an agreement.

Whats bad for the world economy is uncertainty, Macron said, speaking in English. The quicker an agreement is arrived at, the quicker that uncertainty will dissipate. Another ally, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, tried to sell the president on the value of free trade when they met over Saturday breakfast.

Were in favor of trade peace, Johnson said.

Under pressure over the so-far fruitless negotiation, Trump claimed earlier Monday that his trade negotiators had been on the receiving end of two very good calls from China.

He said it was a sign that China is serious about reaching a deal and that talks would begin soon.

The White House announced weeks ago that Chinas negotiating team was expected in Washington in September to continue the discussions.

Trump expressed his optimism about China hours after he sent mixed messages on the tariff war. He at first seemed to express regret Sunday over escalating the trade dispute, but the White House later said his only regret was that he didnt impose even higher tariffs on China.

I think were going to have a deal, because now were dealing on proper terms. They understand and we understand, Trump said.

He declined to say whether hes spoken to Xi or to identify those involved in the most recent conversations, saying only that they were at the highest levels. This is the first time Ive seen them where they really want to make a deal. And I think thats a very positive step, Trump added.

I have not heard of the weekend calls mentioned by the United States, said Geng Shuang, a spokesman for Chinas foreign ministry.

Whenever he is asked about the Chinese, Trump almost always says he believes they want to make a deal more than he does.

After trade talks broke down this spring, Trump and Xi agreed in June to resume negotiations. Talks in Shanghai in July ended without any indication of progress, and the White House said at the time that Chinese negotiators would come to Washington in September.

Trump last week hiked tariffs on China after China taxed some US imports in retaliation for a previous round of import tariffs levied by Trump.

Those moves sent US stock markets stumbling. They were recovering modestly on Monday.

Trump also ordered US corporations to find alternatives to doing business in China and threatened to declare a national emergency to enforce it. He softened the threat Sunday, saying he would only consider it if China again responded with higher tariffs on American goods.

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Wayanad:

Reaching out to the people of his Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, devastated by landslips triggered by the recent rains, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he would continue to put pressure on the centre and state government to ensure that those affected were justly compensated.

In Kerala for the second time this month, the Wayanad MP also said he will raise in Parliament the issue of crop loss in the floods.

Gandhi tweeted "Im in my parliamentary constituency, Wayanad for the next few days, visiting flood relief camps and reviewing rehabilitation work in the area. Much has been accomplished, but theres so much more that still needs to be done."

Addressing people at Cherupuzha in Mananthavady, Gandhi said during floods, it did not matter which religion, community or political party one belonged to, everybody worked together to fight the deluge.

"In today's atmosphere you are a huge example to the whole country... The country can learn a lesson from you. Only when the country stands together,it progresses," he said.

Gandhi said he had written and spoken to the Prime Minister and state Chief Minister and told them that Wayanad was in "serious need" of their help. The congress leader also sought the support of Kerala's ruling left in the development of Wayanad.

"We can continue to fight ideologically, but we can also have a vision for the development of Wayanad," he said.

Gandhi, who arrived here Tuesday on a second visit to the consitutency this month, said he will stand with the people of his constituency and make sure that everyone gets compensated for the loss suffered during the second spell of the South West Monsoon rains from August 8.

The Wayanad MP met people in various relief camps and distributed relief materials, listened to their woes and comforted them.

Some said their houses had been destroyed and lands washed away, while others complained that the initial relief amount of Rs 10,000 from the state government was yet to reach them.

Gandhi assured them that he would once again urge the state government to provide all necessary assistance to the affected people.

A weeping woman said she had no place to go back to from the relief camp. People also told him that their children were finding it difficult to go to school from the camp after the disaster as most of them had lost their books, bags and other things.

"We all are very poor people. We don't have money to re-construct the houses we lost. People don't have money too. We also lack jobs here", one of the flood-hit people told Gandhi at a meeting attended by flood victims and local leaders at Makhiyad.

"People have certain rights and government has to follow certain rules. One such rule is that those who lost their home must be compensated. I am not the Chief Minister of the state. We don't have the government here (in state) nor there in the centre. But it's my responsibility to stand with you and help you to claim your rights. I will put pressure on governments to make sure you all get compensated... to make sure roads are repaired on time," Gandhi, who is on a four-day visit, said.

Though he was extremely saddened that his constituency was hit by a tragedy of this magnitude, Gandhi said he was proud to represent the people of Wayanad who never lost their confidence and self-respect in this trying time where many have lost their family members, homes, land and belongings.

".. I must tell you, in my last visit, I was quite surprised by the reaction of people of Wayanad in the face to the tragedy they faced. I have been to many tragedy-hit places in the country."

"Normally when a disaster hits, people are very emotional and sometimes people lose their self-respect, confidence and dignity. But Wayanad was different. Even after the tragedy not a single person lost their self-respect or their confidence. They maintained their dignity....," he told the crowd.

He said he was very proud the way people of Wayanad reacted to the tragedy.

"I am proud that I represent you.I am not saying that I will solve every single problem you have. But I will stand by you through everything you face..., to understand the issues faced by you and work with you to resolve those problems you face," he said.

Gandhi visited various camps and distributed relief materials and visted the flood affected Chomadipoyil colony at Edavaka panchayat.

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Hyderabad:

A 32-year-old businessman has been arrested for blackmailing and collecting nearly Rs 13 lakh from a woman through the social media, police said on Monday. Mohammad Salman Nawaz Sarkar, a resident of Chennai, cheated and collected the money from the victim by introducing himself through Facebook that he was a tycoon in Mumbai presently residing in Hyderabad, a police press release said. Believing this, the woman began chatting with him and used to talk to him over video calls in private. Also, she shared some of her private pictures with him, the release said.

After a few months, the man started demanding the woman money for his business and also for his medical treatment, it said. Later, he began blackmailing her that he would make her pictures public, and it was then she stopped giving him money. Following a complaint, Sarkar was arrested and remanded in judicial custody, the release added.
New Delhi:

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan targeted the Narendra Modi government and the RSS while addressing the nation on the Kashmir issue on Monday evening. The speech was aired on different official Twitter handles of Pakistan.

Radio Pakistan, the national radio broadcast network, made a major goof-up while tagging the Pakistani prime minister on micro-blogging site. Instead of tagging the official Twitter handle of Pakistan PM Imran Khan, the radio channel tagged another Imran Khan, whose account reads he the head of public engagement of Wellcome Trust.

Interestingly, the other Imran Khan has also already mentioned in his profile that not that one. professional nerd.

Radio Pakistan deleted the tweet soon after Khan completed his speech.

The address came an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically rejected any scope for third party mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, saying the two countries can discuss and resolve all issues bilaterally and "we don't want to trouble any third country."

Modi made these remarks while interacting with the media alongside US President Donald Trump, who ahead of his meeting with the prime minister had said that he will discuss the Kashmir issue with him on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French town of Biarritz.

Trump in recent past has offered mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.

"There are many bilateral issues between India and Pakistan, and we don't want to trouble any third country. We can discuss and resolve these issues bilaterally," Modi said.

In his address, Khan said: We have succeeded in internationalising the issue of Kashmir, we talked to world leaders and embassies. The UN for the first time since 1965, convened a meeting on the Kashmir issue. Even international media has picked it up.

If the conflict moves towards war then remember both nations have nuclear weapons and no one is a winner in nuclear war and it has global ramifications. Super powers of the world have a huge responsibility..whether they support us or not Pak will go to every extent, he added.

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New Delhi:

The Wizard of Oz turns 80 today and Google has quite a surprise for Ozians. Googles surprise for us includes a little bit of time-travelling just the way the tornado rips through Kansas whirling away Dorothy and her dog, Toto, to the magical land of Oz. Open up a Google window and type, Wizard of Oz or The Wizard of Oz. At first glance the result might seem pretty ordinary until you tap the famous, sparkly red shoes at the far-end of the search result.

Were off to search the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. pic.twitter.com/JulBoTAc7A  Google (@Google) August 23, 2019

Once you tap the Dorothys red shoe, it will take you back in time to 1939 and how Google search results might look back then. To go back to the future, as in present, just hit that little twisting tornado, and that will send you back to where you came from.

Starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, the 1939 Victor Fleming movie won the Oscars for the song, Over the Rainbow'.

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New Delhi:

A massive fire broke out at Delhi Commission of Women (DCW)'s office at second floor of Vikas Bhawan in the national capital on Tuesday evening. Soon after the incident, eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot and have been put on service to douse the blaze. The fire department was informed about the incident at about 06:03 pm this evening.

"Delhi: Fire breaks out at second floor of Vikas Bhawan. Six fire tenders at the spot," the news agency ANI reported.

Delhi: Fire breaks out at second floor of Vikas Bhawan. Six fire tenders at the spot.  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2019

READ | Massive fire breaks out in Noida's Spice World Mall, no injury reported

According to a DCW official, there were 22-25 people present inside the office when the fire broke out in the conference hall of the building. No casualties or injury have been reported in the incident so far whereas some documents were destroyed. However, the reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained.

This is the second time in 2019 that a fire has erupted at Vikas Bhawan building, which houses several Delhi government departments near ITO in Central Delhi. In March, a blaze broke out on the sixth floor of the government building, which was reportedly started due to a short circuit.

READ | Massive fire breaks out at cricketer Sreesanth's home in Kerala

However, there were no reports of injuries or casualties in the incident. According to reports the fire was doused even before the fire fighters arrived at the location.
Famous actress Sridevi is no longer in the world but her memories range from her fans to her own. Her memories still haunt fans. Her family members have also been disturbed by her memories. Boney Kapoor has given evidence of this. Boney Kapoor, who has been emotional on many occasions when Sridevi is mentioned, misses her a lot. He always openly shares his feelings with fans. Now recently Boney Kapoor shared a throwback photo of himself with Sridevi on social media which you can see here. This photo is from the couple's Alaska vacations and the two look great in this photo.

You can see the couple spending quality time together in the photo shared by Boney Kapoor. The two are posing hugged each other in this photo and their sweet smile is heartwarming. Both are in winter wear in this picture. Boney is wearing a red cap and Sridevi carries sunglasses. Sharing this photo, Boney Kapoor captioned it as 'Alaska 1998'. Now many fans are asking Boney Kapoor thanks for sharing these photos. Because it was on this pretext that he got a glimpse of Sridevi. There are many fans sharing heart emojis.

After looking at this picture, one person wrote, 'She looks like a fairy with you. Another person wrote, 'The most beautiful woman in the world with a legend. Sridevi passed away in 2018 at a hotel in Dubai. The cause of her death was stated to be cardiac arrest and fans were deeply shocked by her demise.

Katrina-Vicky shift to new house, House Inauguration puja performed

Munawar Faruqui announces new show once again, know what's the name

Salman Khan, many Bollywood stars seen at NCP leader's son's wedding
KABUL: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that Islamabad must not interfere in Kabul's internal affairs, in response to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks about the country's ongoing political situation and the threat posed by the Islamic State terror group, according to media reports.

On Sunday, Khan told the Seventeenth Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad that if the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan lacks the capability to combat terrorism, the Islamic State will become a threat. He also stated that Afghanistan is on the verge of collapse unless immediate action is taken. In response, Karzai stated that these allegations were false, and that the IS has always threatened Afghanistan from Pakistan, not the other way around.

"These remarks are false and obvious propaganda against Afghanistan," the former president said in a statement. "In fact, Afghanistan has been facing Daesh's threat from Pakistan since the beginning." In response to Khan's claim that poverty was widespread in Afghanistan prior to the collapse of the former government due to years of corruption, Karzai said the Pakistan government must stop interfering in Afghan affairs and stop speaking on behalf of Kabul at international gatherings. He also stated that such remarks are an insult to the Afghan people.

Nine TTP, Islamic State terrorists arrested in Pakistan

Pakistan again raised Kashmir rage, Army Chief General Bajwa said this.

Nine TTP, Islamic State terrorists arrested in Pakistan
Indore: A big news has come from Indore (Indore Crime Branch) in Madhya Pradesh. In fact, the Crime Branch here has arrested Mumbai's Air Hosts with drugs MDMA Rs 10 lakh. As per the information received, 100 grams of drugs have been recovered from the air hosts MDMA. The girl is said to have come to deliver drugs to smugglers MDMA for the New Year party on December 31. In the preliminary investigation, in this case, it has come to the fore that she has consumed 2 kg of drugs in the last two years. This air hostess used to bring drugs by hiding them among the diapers of children and the accused woman used to work in Malaysia Airlines two years ago.

You must be aware that the Police Commissionerate has come into force in Indore in the past and since then Indore Police Commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra had issued a narco helpline number 7049108383 four days ago. The police had received information about the girl on the same number yesterday. On receiving the information, a woman was taken into custody from three Imli Chowk bus stands in the Palda area, the location mentioned by the crime branch team. On searching the woman's bag here, 100 grams of MDMA drugs worth about Rs 10 lakh were recovered among the baby's diapers. The girl gave her name as Mansi and is from Mumbai when questioned by the police in the case. The girl says that she is married and her in-laws are in Pune.

The girl said she has been taking MDMA drugs from Mumbai and supplying them to Indore for the past two years. Inquiries revealed that the girl was addicted to MDMA drugs when she was an air host and then came into contact with drug mafias in Mumbai and then started supplying MDMA drugs herself.

Police rein in cyber thugs' exploits, arrest 11 thugs

Greater Noida girl who fell from the 7th floor naked, gone into coma

Murder in Punjab for the second day in a row, mob took life of a young man in front of police
Morocco: An online petition has been launched requesting that Morocco cancel the extradition order for Idres Hasan, a Uyghur man, to China and release him immediately.

According to the petition, millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, including many family members of Uyghurs from around the world, are currently imprisoned in Chinese concentration camps, tortured, killed, and sentenced to long-term imprisonment. The harm caused by Chinese persecution is not limited to the people of East Turkistan; Uyghurs all over the world are being persecuted by countries that have close economic and diplomatic ties with China, with China labelling all Uyghur Muslims as terrorists.

Hasan, a 34-year-old computer software programmer and father of three young children, was detained on July 23 while travelling from Turkey to Morocco and was taken to a prison near the town of Tiflet. Activists learned on December 15 that Morocco had decided to deport him to China. According to the petition, this deportation amounts to the death penalty and violates every single international law. He has a valid residency permit in Turkey. Morocco's decision to deport Idris contributes to China's current genocide in East Turkistan.

Morocco extends suspension of international passenger flights

Span PM Pedro Sanchez to meet regional leaders amid Covid spike

Israel reports bird flu outbreak near the Lebanese border
According to Radio Pakistan, Pakistan's Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a joint television channel will be established to promote media links between Islamabad, Turkey, and Malaysia.

In an interview with the media in Islamabad, he stated that focal points for media sharing have been identified, and a joint media network will be established. According to the Minister, extremism must be addressed in Pakistan, Malaysia, and other Muslim countries.

He proposed establishing a unit of scholars under the Oracle Integration Cloud platform to provide religious guidance. Earlier this year, Pakistan and Turkey announced that they would collaborate on a period drama based on the life of Salahuddin Ayyubi.

Salahuddin, also known as Saladin, was a warrior and the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty. He is one of the most celebrated Muslim rules in the world.

Ansari & Shah Films in Pakistan and Emre Konuk, owner of Akli Films in Turkey, will co-produce the series. Following the official announcement, Turkish producer Emre Konuk took to Twitter and referred to the agreement as "prolific on a blessed Friday night."

Imran Khan comes under fire after Pakistani rupee fell by more than 70 pc

Hamid Karzai warns, Pak must not interfere in Afghan affairs

Bhuttos, Sharifs destroyed Pakistan: Imran Khan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, which is spreading unrest in the region through terrorism, has once again raised the Kashmir rage. PAK Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Sunday that a solution to the Kashmir issue is necessary for regional peace and stability. General Bajwa said this during a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. Saud held this meeting with Bajwa on the sidelines of the 17th session of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

Bajwa said in a statement that the two discussed issues of common interest, regional security, the current situation in Afghanistan and bilateral defense ties. According to the statement, General Bajwa also emphasized that "peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute is essential for stability in South Asia" and reiterated that Pakistan seeks cordial relations with all its neighbors in view of regional peace and prosperity.

Let us tell you that India has always told Pakistan that it desires normal relations with Islamabad in an environment free from terrorism and violence. However, whenever Pakistan keeps making any rhetoric on the Kashmir issue, India reminds it in strong words that this is an internal matter of India and Pakistan has no right to interfere in it.

Everyone is crazy about Rita Ora's killer looks

Saudi-led airstrike kills seven Houthis in Yemen's Taiz

Vj Sunny Wins Bigg Boss Telugu, Takes Home Car, House, And This Prize Money
Yemen: More or less seven members of the Houthi militia were killed in an airstrike launched by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz, a local military source declared.

According to the source, "warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition bombed a convoy of the Houthi rebel militia while it was travelling in the western parts of Taiz." The airstrike in Taiz's Maqbanah district destroyed two rebel vehicles and killed seven of its members. The Saudi-led coalition has yet to comment, despite recently increasing airstrikes on various Houthi-held sites across the war-torn Arab country.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and drove President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen to support Hadi's government.

Last week, during clashes between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels invading the central city of Marib, senior military commander Major General Nasser al-Zubiani was killed on the front line in the Balaq mountain range, south of Marib. Al-Zubiani was inspecting government soldiers and tribal fighters attempting to repel a Houthi invasion at the time.

Yemen's top defence official was killed by the Houthis

Nine TTP, Islamic State terrorists arrested in Pakistan

Guterres calls for more support for Lebanon
Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced that he will meet with the leaders of the country's 17 autonomous communities to discuss measures to combat the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.

Sanchez's announcement came after the Health Ministry confirmed last week that the 14-day incidence of Covid-19 had risen to 511 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, returning to "very high risk" status for the first time since early August, according to reports.

"We cannot accept this accumulated incidence as good," Sanchez said, emphasising the need to "intensify actions against the virus" and hoping for "shared measures that can be implemented in the next few weeks." The Prime Minister also emphasised the success of Spain's vaccination campaign, with 90% of the population over the age of 12 fully immunised against the virus.

"Vaccination is the best weapon against the virus, and we must persevere: get vaccinated, vaccinated, vaccinated," Sanchez said, adding that other measures, such as wearing masks, have "also produced good results." Spain's overall Covid caseload and death toll stood at 5,455,527 and 88,708, respectively, as of Monday.

Moon Jae-in directs hospitals to prioritise critically ill Covid patients

Hamid Karzai warns, Pak must not interfere in Afghan affairs

Saudi-led airstrike kills seven Houthis in Yemen's Taiz
Sudan: Thousands of Sudanese protesters broke through a security cordon to reach the presidential palace in Khartoum, demanding civilian rule on the third anniversary of the December revolution that toppled former President Omar al-regime. Bashir's Despite the heavy security presence, a large crowd managed to cross three bridges connecting Khartoum, Bahri, and Omdurman on Sunday.

According to the report, the protesters rejected the political agreement signed on November 21 by Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Transitional Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok. Protesters from the states of Gezira and North Kordofan arrived in Khartoum on foot on Saturday evening and joined the demonstrations. The majority of the demonstrators were forced to flee after security forces used tear gas.

Meanwhile, the civilian coalition leading the protests, the Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance, has called for the protests to continue until "power is handed to the people." According to the Sudanese Doctors' Committee, one protester was killed and approximately 80 others were injured during the demonstrations.

Floods in South Sudan affects 835,000 people

Sudan denies Ethiopian allegations of helping rebel forces

Hamid Karzai warns, Pak must not interfere in Afghan affairs
Registration is open for the 2022 Indiana Small Farm Conference  Indianas premier annual event for the states small and diversified farming community. The tenth annual conference and trade show will take place March 3-4 in Danville, Indiana. Registration cost is $75 for one day or $140 for both days and there are discounted rates for youth attendees.

One of the featured keynote speakers is Malik Kenyatta Yakini, co-founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). Since 2013, the conference has featured comprehensive programming about diversified farming and local food systems, bringing together novice and experienced small-scale farmers.

The discounted early bird registration ends Feb. 4 and regular registration ends Feb. 18.

For registration and more information, visit purdue.ag/sfc.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L introduces even more advanced technology and connectivity for driver and passengers, including an available 10.25-inch passenger screen that provides the front passenger with dynamic touchscreen control at their fingertips.

2022 Jeep  Grand Cherokee L adds new premium technologies and features, including:

New Limited Black and Summit High Altitude packages include distinct exterior accents and unique wheel designs (late availability)

Three new exterior colors: Ember, Hydro Blue and Midnight Sky

2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L models are available for purchase through Jeep brand dealerships

The Jeep  brand continues to expand high-tech offerings to its new Grand Cherokee family of vehicles, bringing Amazon Fire TV for Auto, a new 10.25-inch front passenger interactive display, new appearance packages and several new exterior colors to the 2022 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee L.



"The all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee L broke new boundaries and turned heads when it debuted, with its first-ever three rows of seating paired with legendary Jeep 4x4 capability, as well as for its stunning interior and next-generation technologies," said Jim Morrison, Vice President and Head of Jeep brand  North America. "For the 2022 model year, the Grand Cherokee L gets content that we have already announced on the new Grand Cherokee, packing the 2022 model year with new premium features that take the first ever three-row Grand Cherokee to another level, including a class-leading digital screen space to keep the entire family safe and connected on all of their adventures."



To continue reading, please access the entire press release here.



Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. A fully electric Jeep 4xe will be offered in every SUV segment by 2025.



Story continues

Follow Jeep and company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Jeep brand: www.jeep.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep

YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

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SOURCE Stellantis
Amazon is loosening its control of workers' activities as safety concerns mount. The internet retailer has confirmed to Bloomberg that it will back off a rejuvenated effort to ban personal phones in warehouses. Staff were told on December 17th they could keep their phones at hand "until further notice."

The company banned phones in warehouses for years, but eased its approach as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The ban was poised to resume in January 2022.

While Amazon didn't explain the decision, it comes just after a tornado struck a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, killing six people. It also follows a surge in COVID-19 cases. Warehouse employees have demanded access to their phones both for safety alerts and to stay in touch in the event of emergencies. A reinstituted ban would have appeared tone deaf, particularly in light of an incident where a dispatcher pressured a driver to keep delivering packages while a tornado rampaged through the Edwardsville area.

Companies are allowed to ban phone use on the clock, whether it's to improve safety or prevent staff from leaking sensitive information. That stance is changing as smartphones become an important part of daily life, though, and the combination of Amazon's poor safety reputation with recent incidents may leave the company little room to reimpose a ban  not without significant public pushback.
New collaboration elevates the innovation capabilities of ASUS, advances its leadership in AIoT and smart healthcare, and provides a channel to foster incredible talent

KEY POINTS

ASUS-NTU Joint Research Center advances brand's strategy of building robust long-term innovation capabilities and expanding its partner ecosystem

Center positions ASUS as smart tech leader by enhancing cross-disciplinary, cross-sector R&D in fields such as AIoT, smart healthcare, and next-gen PCs

Partnership enables brand to foster top talent and cultivate a new generation of incredible R&D leaders

TAIPEI, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ASUS today announced the establishment of the ASUS-National Taiwan University (NTU) Joint Research Center, inaugurating a collaboration with NTU to consolidate industry-academia development capabilities and foster smart technology for the future.

Announced today at the unveiling ceremony by ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih and NTU President Chung-Ming Kuan, the Center combines exceptional talent from the business and academic sectors and aims to cultivate future leaders in smart technology fields. Established with R&D investments totaling over US $3.5 million, the Center will focus on areas such as advanced electromagnetics, next-generation computers, IoT, and artificial intelligence, pooling resources from across sectors to attain research breakthroughs and propel smart technologies forward.

During the ceremony, several leaders from ASUS and NTU hailed the start of the partnership. "As a leading global brand in motherboards and computing, ASUS is actively expanding innovation in artificial intelligence and AIoT to harness the accelerating digitization trends in the industry," noted ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih. "Combining the innovation capabilities of ASUS with the solid academic research foundations of NTU, we are setting a new standard for industry-academia collaboration while bringing Taiwan's R&D capabilities to greater heights on the international stage."

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"ASUS encourages every BU to make use of industry-academia collaboration and strategic alliances to actively plan key technologies and develop new areas of business," ASUS co-CEO S.Y. Hsu elaborated. "Through the combined efforts of ASUS and NTU, the Center will further connect academic resources with industry applications to drive ASUS and the industry forward."

From National Taiwan University: "NTU and ASUS have built a long-term relationship, and we are taking this further with the establishment of the Center. NTU professors across diverse research fields, from electrical engineering and computer science to medicine, are committed to the future development of the Center," NTU President Chung-Ming Kuan remarked. "We look forward to seeing more interactions between our faculty members, students, and industry leaders, as well as to demonstrating the academic capabilities of NTU."

Envisioning the ASUS-NTU Joint Research Center as a world-leading smart tech incubator

ASUS endeavors to be an industry leader in artificial intelligence and applied AIoT fields, integrating robust innovation capabilities across hardware and software to roll out smart technologies with ecosystem partners. Aligning with these goals, the Center will place special focus on three major, advanced areas  terminal and edge device technology, internet and multimedia, and data science and smart healthcare  and is currently formulating plans for short, medium, and long-term research projects.

For this collaboration with NTU, ASUS will be consolidating R&D resources across departments, rallying the research and application capabilities of seven NTU departments plus the National Taiwan University Hospital. Aside from expanding cross-discipline innovation capabilities, ASUS will also be passing on its enterprise experience, giving back to academia, and cultivating a new generation of R&D talent  carrying out aspirations to advance the ASUS-NTU Joint Research Center firmly towards the No. 1 position in Asia and the top tier worldwide.

A collaboration between enterprise, academia and government with an industry-wide impact

In addition to investment from ASUS to support its development, the Center will also be subsidized by the Academia-Industry Research Center (AIR Center) from Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology. By acting as an innovation incubator, fostering R&D talent, and advancing smart technology development, ASUS aims to bring new vitality into the information and communications technology industry, thereby reinforcing international connections and increasing Taiwan's visibility worldwide.

Press Contacts

Andrew Bavelock Specialist, Global Communications Andrew_Bavelock@asus.com Nicole Lee Corporate Communications Nicole1_Lee@asus.com

Notes to Editors

ASUS Global News: https://www.asus.com/news

ASUS Global Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asus

ASUS Global Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/asus

About ASUS

ASUS is a global technology leader that provides the world's most innovative and intuitive devices, components and solutions to deliver incredible experiences that enhance the lives of people everywhere. With its team of 5,000 in-house R&D experts, ASUS is world-renowned for continuously reimagining today's technologies for tomorrow, garners more than 11 awards every day for quality, innovation and design, and is ranked among Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies.

SOURCE ASUS
Newest Digital Ledger Application to Manage International Production Planning

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV: BWLK) (OTCQB: BWLKF) Boardwalktech Software Corp ("Boardwalktech" or the "Company"), the leading Digital Ledger platform and enterprise software applications company, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its business footprint with a major European based broadcasting and media company (the "Client") to implement its second application on the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform. First year total revenue, is now projected to exceed US$160,000 for this client with more expected in 2022, comprising both recurring revenue and professional services.

This Client has thousands of content pieces being produced and formatted at any given time for international distribution to various mediums such as television and online services. Production planning for these shows and titles globally requires high levels of coordination and collaboration with multiple business units and production partners around the world. Boardwalktech's Digital Ledger Platform will be used to deliver this latest production planning application to analyze and plan all of the related production activity including production costs, formatting and scheduling for content produced by the Client, Boardwalktech's unique solution enables this client to allow multiple international groups to work and collaborate simultaneously while preserving changes and full accountability for timing and costs.

"As part of our land and expand strategy, this will be the second application deployed on the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform we will deliver for this client this year. We expect more applications as the value of our solution is being realized across this terrific organization. Digital transformation of manually run collaborative processes within large enterprises continues to be of critical importance to every company, and a problem that Boardwalktech is uniquely qualified to resolve. Getting everyone on the same page with the same data at the same time so decisions can be made, is no longer a nice to have but a must have," said Andrew T. Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of Boardwalktech. Improved collaboration and accountability using the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform fosters better, faster decision making, allowing this client to actually get content to market faster, generating increased revenues and enhancing results.

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About Boardwalktech Software Corp.

Boardwalktech has developed a patented Digital Ledger Technology Platform currently used by Fortune 500 companies running mission-critical applications worldwide. Boardwalktech's digital ledger technology and its unique method of managing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data is the only platform on the market today where multiple parties can effectively work on the same data simultaneously while preserving the fidelity and provenance of the data. Boardwalktech can deliver collaborative, purpose-built enterprise information management applications on any device or user interface with full integration with enterprise systems of record in a fraction of the time it takes other non-digital ledger technology-based platforms. Boardwalktech is headquartered in Cupertino, California with offices in India and operations in North America. For more information on Boardwalktech, visit our website at www.boardwalktech.com.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved".

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to several risks including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's filing statement dated May 30, 2018. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward- looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

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.

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SOURCE BoardwalkTech
Dublin, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Brazil Opthalmic Lenses Market Outlook 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Brazil ophthalmic lenses market is estimated to attain around USD 3570 Million by the end of 2028 from a market revenue of USD 3300 Million in the year 2019.

Ophthalmic lenses are used to correct various refractive errors such as myopia, presbyopia, hyperopia and others. These lenses come in various types and are highly beneficial for people with vision impairment. The Brazil ophthalmic lenses market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 3.2% during the forecast period, i.e., 2021-2028.

Factors such as the growing aging population in Brazil, and the concern for the prevailing vision related disorders amongst these population, is anticipated to drive the market growth. Additionally, factors such as the rise in advancements in medical technologies, and the development of advanced ophthalmology diagnostic and treatment equipment, are also anticipated to contribute to the market growth.

The Brazil ophthalmic lenses market is segmented by numerous segments, and include segmentation by type, material, lens type, usage, application, and by distribution channel. The type segment is further bifurcated into spectacle lenses and contact lenses. Out of these, the contact lenses segment is anticipated to grow with the highest CAGR of about 5% during the forecast period.

The spectacle lenses segment, on the other hand, is projected to hold the largest market share throughout the forecast period. Factors such as the low price of spectacle lenses when compared with contact lenses, along with the numerous applications of spectacle lenses for treating different types of vision disorders, are anticipated to drive the growth of the segment in the coming years.

Some of the key players in the Brazil ophthalmic lenses market that are mentioned in the report are

HOYA VISION CARE COMPANY

SynergEyes

Carl Zeiss AG

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc.

Alcon Vision LLC

Bausch & Lomb Incorporated

Sky Optical LLC (Solotica Brazil)

HTK LENTES OFTALMICAS SA

Story continues

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

1.1. Market Definition

1.2. Market Segmentation

1.3. Product Overview



2. Assumptions and Acronyms



3. Research Methodology

3.1. Research Process

3.2. Primary Research

3.3. Secondary Research

3.4. Market Size Estimation



4. Analyst Review



5. Executive Summary - Brazil Ophthalmic Lenses Market



6. Regulatory & Standards Landscape



7. Analysis of Market Dynamics

7.1. Growth Drivers



8. Market Trends



9. Major Roadblocks for The Market Growth



10. Key Market Opportunities

10.1. Type Based

10.2. Material Based

10.3. Lens Type Based

10.4. Coating Type Based

10.5. Application Based

10.6. Distribution Channel Based

10.7. Technology Based

10.8. Geography Based



11. Average Pricing Analysis



12. Impact of Covid-19 on the Ophthalmic Lenses Market

12.1. Impact on Supply Chain

12.2. Impact on The Distribution Channel

12.3. Impact on Overall Price Trend

12.4. Impact on Demand

12.5. Impact on Revenue Generation of Key Players



13. Regional Analysis of Ophthalmic Lenses Ecosystem

13.1. Brazil

13.1.1. Leading Manufacturers in Ophthalmic Lenses Market

13.1.2. Technology Advancements

13.1.3. Supply Chain Analysis

13.1.4. Regulatory Landscape



14. List of Chinese Suppliers in the Market



15. Product Portfolio Comparative Analysis



16. Competitive Structure



17. Brazil Ophthalmic Lenses Market Outlook

17.1. By Value, 2019-2028 (USD Million)



18. Brazil Ophthalmic Lenses Market Segmentation Analysis, 2019-2028

18.1. By Type

18.1.1. Spectacle Lens, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

18.1.2. Contact Lens, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

18.2. Competitive Analysis

18.3. Market Dynamics

18.3.1. Drivers

18.3.2. Restraints

18.3.3. Opportunities

18.3.4. Trends

18.4. Covid-19 Impact Analysis

18.4.1. Market Value & Growth (Quarterly Market Analysis, 2020-2023)

18.4.2. Competitive Strategy Analysis

18.4.3. Impact on Demand

18.4.4. Impact on Revenue of Existing Companies

18.4.5. Impact on New Entrants



19. Ophthalmic Lenses Market Segmentation for Spectacle Lens

19.1. By Material

19.1.1. Plastic, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.1.2. Polycarbonate, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.1.3. Trivex, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.1.4. High Index, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.1.5. Others, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.2. Competitive Analysis

19.3. Market Dynamics

19.3.1. Drivers

19.3.2. Restraints

19.3.3. Opportunities

19.3.4. Trends

19.4. Competitive Analysis

19.5. By Lens Type

19.5.1. Single Focus Lenses, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.5.2. Bifocal Lenses, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.5.3. Trifocal Lenses, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.5.4. Progressive Lenses, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.6. By Usage

19.6.1. Prescription Glass, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.6.2. OTC Reading Glass, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.7. By Distribution Channel

19.7.1. Online, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.7.2. Offline, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.7.2.1. Hospitals & Clinics, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.7.2.2. Retail Stores, 2019-2028F (USD Million)

19.7.2.3. Specialty Stores, 2019-2028F (USD Million)



20. Ophthalmic Lenses Market Segmentation for Contact Lens

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/49ezs9





CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




New program will provide college freshman from diverse backgrounds with an early introduction to financial services & exposure to opportunities across the industry via the firm's robust client base

WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgewater Associates ("Bridgewater"), a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the largest hedge fund in the world, today announced the launch of a new Rising Fellows program to expand access to the financial services industry for students in their first year of university and help build a more diverse pool of future investment talent.

Bridgewater Associates Logo (PRNewsfoto/Bridgewater Associates)

Bridgewater's Rising Fellows program will be a three-week virtual program and will focus on recruiting students from backgrounds that are underrepresented within the industry and from a wide range of universities, including HBCUs, as well as through diversity recruiting partners such as Out for Undergrad (O4U), BLK Capital Management, and Prep for Prep. The program is designed around several core principles to give students well-rounded exposure and experience, including:

Providing an early introduction to the finance industry

Building skills to help understand investing and the mechanics of the global economy

Offering practical application of lessons learned via projects guided by Bridgewater's investment professionals

"As we continue to explore ways to make our industry more diverse and accessible, the Rising Fellows Program will help launch new relationships and start encouraging future stars as early as their first year of college," said Alan Bowser, Co-Head of Americas Region and Chief Diversity Officer at Bridgewater. "By leveraging our unique network of clients in tandem with DEI-focused organizations and universities, we believe Rising Fellows will be a driving force in helping us accomplish that objective."

In addition to forming relationships with Bridgewater, Rising Fellows will earn a stipend for their time in the program and have the chance to create connections with Bridgewater's clients, many of whom share the goal of increasing diversity in the investment industry. Graduates will be considered for future opportunities at Bridgewater, while their resumes and projects will also be packaged and shared with Bridgewater clients and alumni for access to a wider range of potential roles.

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"Diversity of thought, background and identity are incredibly important to the work we do, however, as an industry we often look to solve the DEI issue in the post-grad talent pool as opposed to educating students about our industry when they are just charting their college paths," said Robyn Shepherd, Head of Corporate Engagement at Bridgewater Associates. "Through our Rising Fellows program, we are looking to change this by not only committing to giving participants robust exposure to the industry early in their college careers but also maintaining engagement with these emerging professionals after they complete the program."

The first Rising Fellows program will include approximately 30 students and run from Monday, February 14th to Friday, March 4th. Activities planned include:

Week 1: Providing students with an overview of the finance industry and the role Bridgewater plays within it, as well as focusing on skills such as presenting and public speaking

Week 2: Exploring economic theory and trends, with a focus on how they are reflected in current market cycles and how they impact investment strategiesstudents will also receive training in project management, research and writing

Week 3: Focusing on final projects, whereby students will apply their learnings from the program to an investment-related module to be reviewed by Bridgewater executives

Upon completion of the program, Fellows will continue to have a series of touchpoints with Bridgewater designed to maintain their relationship with the firm and provide support as they continue their education and embark on their careers. This will include invitations to a variety of existing Bridgewater events and speaker series. In addition, Bridgewater will host bespoke sessions led by executives to give advice on various subjects, such as building experience in the investment industry and other career-related topics. Students will also be eligible to participate in Bridgewater's Immersion program (the goal of which is to provide an even deeper window into our business) in their sophomore year and interview for the internship program in their junior year.

About Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater Associates is a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the world's largest hedge fund. Focused on understanding how the world's markets and economies work by having the deepest possible understanding of the global economy and financial markets, the firm translates that understanding into expertly constructed portfolios and meaningful relationships with institutional clients. Having built a track record of success for more than 45 years, Bridgewater's excellence is grounded in its distinct culture, which brings together great people and enables them to operate in a culture of radical truth and radical transparency. In recognition of the firm's commitment to excellence, its clients, and the magnitude of its impact on the investment industry, Bridgewater has received more than 70 industry awards in the past 10 years including recognitions for innovation, performance, quality of research, client satisfaction, and being a top place to work. Fortune named it the fifth most important private company in the US.

Based in Westport, Connecticut, Bridgewater manages approximately $150 billion in assets for the world's largest and most sophisticated institutional investors, including public and corporate pension funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, supranational agencies, foreign governments, and central banks. For more information, please visit www.bridgewater.com.

Press Contact:

Sam Reinhardt

Prosek Partners

646-818-9244

sreinhardt@prosek.com

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SOURCE Bridgewater Associates
Stock picker and hedge manager Cathie Wood made some serious waves last year, when her ARK Innovation ETF outperformed the S&P 500 by an order of magnitude. From the pandemic trough in March to the end of 2020, the S&P gained 68%, while Woods flagship fund surged ahead by 153%. It was an astounding performance.

Wood made smart choices last year, targeting tech companies, remote connections, and telehealth for investment. All of those segments saw big gains in business during the lockdown phases of the pandemic response, but have slipped back as weve shifted more toward normal.

Looking ahead, as 2021 fades into 2022, and the ongoing corona crisis continues to evolve, Wood is focusing more and more on innovation. Our primary message is that innovation solves problems and is expected to transform human lives at an accelerated rate during the next five to ten years, she says  outlining the basic case for buying into the innovators, and making a prescription for stock investing as a long-term proposition.

After correcting for nearly 11 months, innovation stocks seem to have entered deep value territory, their valuations a fraction of peak levels, Wood added.

With this in mind, we wanted to take a closer look at three innovation stocks that Wood's ARK Investment Management picked up recently. Running the tickers through TipRanks database, we learned that each one boasts a Strong Buy consensus rating from the analyst community. In fact, the analysts see these stocks gaining 60% or better in the year ahead, a return that would definitely point ARK in the right direction.

TuSimple Holdings (TSP)

The first Wood-pick well look at is TuSimple, an AI company neck-deep in the autonomous vehicle niche. TuSimple is developing technology optimized for autonomous trucking, and important segment in the future automotive industry. Autonomous trucking promises greater efficiencies and improved safety for long-haul routes, and TuSimple is working on AI tech to meet those needs. The companys chief product, under development, is a LiDAR sensor system to allow perception in all weathers up to 1000 meters from the vehicle.

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TuSimple went public earlier this year, one of many companies that took advantage of the markets general upward trend to raise capital. The IPO brought in over $1.08 billion in gross capital. While the stock has been volatile since then, TSP still boasts a market cap exceeding $6.9 billion.

Last month, the company released its 3Q21 earnings, its third such report as a public company. While it does not yet have a regular revenue stream based on a production-level platform, the company did report meeting some important milestones. It expanded a partnership with the delivery company UPS, and reported logging over 160,000 cumulative autonomous miles in test vehicles. The program with UPS also generated a 13% savings in fuel costs. In addition, TuSimple has mapped out new autonomous trucking lanes to Orlando, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Earlier this month, the company announced a similar partnership with DHL, another major delivery company. The DHL collaboration will integrate TuSimples autonomous trucking tech into DHLs operations. DHL has reserved 100 trucks for conversion to autonomous driving.

Cathie Wood first bought into TSP in 2Q21; in her funds most recent 13F filing, we see that she increased her holdings by 3,841,493 shares. This was a 60% increase, and brings her current stake in TSP to 10,314,228. At current valuations, this holding is worth $335 million.

Going forward, TSP is preparing its Driver Out safety validation tests, a key milestone in developing a fully autonomous truck system. This is the key catalyst ahead for the company, in the view of Morgan Stanleys Ravi Shanker.

"We continue to see TSP as the clear leader in the small group of autonomous trucking players and believe they can tap into the ~$1 tn trucking TAM in the US with high margins once commercial production begins in 2024. We continue to see extremely wide but positively skewed risk-reward here likely hinging around that the outcome of the Driver Out test in the next few weeks," Shanker opined.

Shanker reminds investors that there are considerable gains in store for TSP in 2022. The analyst rates the stock an Overweight (i.e. Buy), and his $75 price target implies an upside of 130% on the one-year time horizon. (To watch Shankers track record, click here)

Its clear that Wall Street is in broad agreement with the Morgan Stanley view; the reviews on this stock break down 5 to 1 in favor of Buys over Holds, for a Strong Buy consensus rating. Shares are priced at $32.48 and the $58.85 average target suggests a 12-month upside of 81%. (See TSP stock analysis on TipRanks)

PagerDuty (PD)

Next up, PagerDuty, offers a cloud-based incident response platform for IT departments. In short, PagerDutys product gives IT managers and supervisors real-time access to critical apps and services, bringing a wide range of data signals into one easy to see platform. The company uses machine learning to interpret signals, accelerate resolution, and engage the right people for the best response.

All of this adds up to big business for the San Fran-based tech company. PagerDuty boasts a $2.9 billion market cap, and has seen revenues rise in every quarter for the past two years. In the most recent quarterly report, for fiscal 3Q22, the company reported $71.76 million at the top line, up 6% sequentially and 33% year-over-year. At the bottom line, earnings have been volatile this year  but the Q3 print, a loss of 7 cents per share, was better than the 13-cent loss from Q2 and the 9-cent loss in the year-ago quarter.

Cathie Wood bought up 1,403,361 shares of PD in the last quarter, which added 17% to her existing holding and gave her a total of 9,996,968 shares in the company. This is a major stake, and makes Wood an 11% owner in the company. Her holding is worth almost $344.8 million.

Wood is not the only one impressed by this stock. Writing from Baird, analyst Rob Oliver says: Company is seeing continued expansion beyond core-IT. We continue to view PD as a compelling play on the enterprise digitization. We view current valuation of 8.5x FY23 as attractive relative to growth and market position. We believe improved execution, strengthening fundamentals, and an overall improving macro should drive a higher valuation for this leader in calendar 2022.

Olivers comments back his Outperform (i.e. Buy) rating, while his $60 price target indicates room for a 73% upside by the end of next year. (To watch Olivers track record, click here)

This stock has caught the eyes of 8 Wall Street analysts recently, and their reviews include 7 Buys against 1 Hold, for that Strong Buy consensus. PD is selling for $34.49 and its $57.64 average price target implies a one-year upside potential of 67%. (See PD stock analysis on TipRanks)

Fate Therapeutics (FATE)

Well round out our list with Fate therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma company working on programmed cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers and immune disorders. The company bases its development program on a novel approach using ex vivo cell programming, applied to modulate therapeutic function and direct the growth and fate of hematopoietic cells.

The novel approach uses human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to create a precisely engineered immunotherapy with unlimited production of cells  and not depended on the patient as a source for initial cells. The result is reliable, homogenous product forms to attack specific cancers and disease conditions.

Fates pipeline features six drug candidates undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials, mostly for a variety of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and four more programs in preclinical testing. The two leading clinical candidates have both recently showed positive interim data.

For the study on FT596, a potential treatment for R/R lymphoma, the company in Q3 released data on 14 patients in a single dose escalation. Cohorts 2 and 3 showed 71% overall response rate and 50% clinical response rate. In the study of FT516, for the same condition, ORR was 73% and CR was 55%, based on 11 patients in a multi-dose, multi-cycle escalation.

More recently, Fate has released more detailed data on both drug candidates. Looking at two cohorts from the FT596 trial, 5 of 6 patients showed an objective response, including 4 who showed a complete response. At a lower dose, 13 of 19 patients achieved objective responses. All doses were well tolerated, without toxicity.

The detailed data from the FT516 trial, two cohorts showed positive results in 6 of 10 patients and 3 of 8 patients, respectively. The treatment, an outpatient regime, was well-tolerated without adverse effects.

Its clear that Wood liked what she saw in FATE  her firm bought 3,419,156 shares in the company in Q3. This was an increase of 46%, and makes her total holding 10,902,258 shares now worth over $640 million. She first bought into this stock in 2Q19, and owns 11% of the company.

In coverage for Leerink, analyst Daina Graybosch takes a bullish position after the recent interim data releases. She writes: We are more confident in Fate's non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) programs after reviewing updated data presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting and in a parallel investor meeting. Though the data are still early in follow-up and patient numbers are small, particularly in aggressive NHL, we were encouraged by several clinical and translational updates. The lackluster stock response was surprising to us and we believe we could see upward movement as investors further consider the data and/or Fate confirms the signal in more patients in 2022.

It should be unsurprising, then, that Graybosch rates FATE an Outperform (i.e. Buy). Not to mention, her $115 price target puts the upside potential at ~96%. (To watch Grayboschs track record, click here)

Once again, were looking at a stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating. FATE has 12 reviews on record, including 9 Buys and 3 Holds. The shares are priced at $58.76 with an average price target of $98.40, for an upside potential of ~67% in 2022. (See FATE stock analysis on TipRanks)

See what top Wall Street analysts say about your stocks >>

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
ZURICH, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced its support for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation's (DFC) participation in a landmark debt restructuring and ocean conservation project in Belize. Chubb Global Markets and Sovereign Risk Insurance Limited, a Chubb company, together with other private insurers, provided $300 million of reinsurance to DFC in an innovative political risk insurance transaction designed to help Belize reduce its external government debt and fund marine protection.

The insured transaction, a $364 million loan structured and arranged by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Credit Suisse, will enable the country to reduce its debt burden by approximately $250 million and generate an estimated $180 million for marine conservation over 20 years. DFC provided approximately $610 million of political risk insurance (covering loan principal and interest) to support the transaction, thereby assuring the loan achieved an investment grade rating. Due to the significant size of DFC's exposure, private political risk reinsurance support was a critical component of the transaction.

DFC's support for this project represents one of the most innovative examples of climate finance and a model for the future, as it reduces Belize's indebtedness, generates investments in marine and biodiversity protection and promotes climate resilience in the country's "blue" economy. With this loan, Belize is able to repurchase and retire a substantial portion of its external commercial debt, create significant annual cash flow for marine conservation through 2040, and establish an endowment to fund marine conservation for future generations. This transaction represents the world's largest debt-for-nature restructuring focusing on marine conservation to date and is the second transaction for TNC's "Blue Bonds for Ocean Conservation" program.

"The private political risk insurance market is delighted that we could support the DFC in such a meaningful way on this groundbreaking transaction," said Price Lowenstein, President of Sovereign Risk Insurance. "This is an excellent example of public-private partnership that can serve as a template for future "blue" debt financing. Not only are we helping to make a remarkable conservation project possible, but we are also supporting sustainable economic development and community resilience through critical debt relief."

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About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com.

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SOURCE Chubb Limited
NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until January 18, 2022 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS), if they purchased the Company's shares between January 22, 2020 and October 6, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

What You May Do

If you purchased shares of Citrix and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-ctxs/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by January 18, 2022 .

About the Lawsuit

Citrix and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On July 29, 2021, the Company disclosed that its transition to cloud-based services had not been as successful as the Company had led investors to believe, citing to "the need to evolve our sales strategy to deliver more predictable results" as well as a major restructuring of its sales leadership in order to "enhance [its] focus on" cloud migration.

On this news, shares of Citrix fell 13.6%, from $114.55 per share to $99.00 per share.

Then, on October 6, 2021, post-market, the Company disclosed that its President and Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") had stepped down.

On this news, shares of Citrix fell 7.2% over the next two days, from $105.96 per share to $98.32 per share.

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The case is City of Hollywood Police Officers' Retirement System v. Citrix Systems, Inc., 21-cv-62380.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

LogoDescription automatically generated

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC





View source version on accesswire.com:

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Global leader in fresh fruit and vegetables extends its support for No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dole Food Company has renewed its partnership in 2022 with No Kid Hungry, a campaign to end childhood hunger in America. The company's alliance with the national campaign first began in summer 2020 in response to the impact of COVID-19 when schools closed and millions more U.S. children were left facing hunger.

Dole Food Company and No Kid Hungry

The strategic partnership between No Kid Hungry and one of the world's largest providers of fresh fruits and vegetables resulted in direct product donations in impacted cities, nutrition education and at-retail initiatives to address hunger and ensure all children have access to three healthy meals a day.

Encouraged by their collective achievements in the fight to eliminate childhood hunger, the two brands look to expand the partnership in 2022 through new initiatives designed in part to counter the pandemic's prolonged effect. Dole will serve as the presenting sponsor of Get Fit for No Kid Hungry, a series of free livestream wellness and fitness sessions throughout January to raise money to ensure that every child in America gets the healthy food they need to thrive.

"Prior to the pandemic, the number of children living with hunger dropped to the lowest level in decades," said Diana Hovey, Senior Vice President, Corporate Partnerships at Share our Strength. "Once the pandemic hit however, school buildings closed, millions of parents lost their jobs and the number of children living with hunger skyrocketed. Many of the challenges we faced were new, but thanks in part to partners like Dole, we had the resources, the relationships and the know-how to immediately respond to help feed kids and families that needed it most."

"Of course, there is still much more work to be done  and we are honored to take our partnership with Dole to the next level. Both brands envision a future where all communities have access to the food they need to grow, learn, and achieve, regardless of their circumstances or the current challenges to food access."

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"At Dole we want to keep improving situations for communities in the areas where we operate," said William Goldfield, Dole Food Company's director of corporate communications. "We care about being a positive force of change in peoples' everyday lives. Addressing hunger and food insecurity for children is at the core of our purpose as a fresh produce company. Promoting health & wellbeing and driving consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is one way we can help every day."

About Dole Food Company, Inc.

Dole Food Company, Inc., is one of the world's largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.

About No Kid Hungry

No child should go hungry in America. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, 1 in 6 kids could face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. Learn more at https://www.nokidhungry.org/.

Media Contacts:

William Goldfield, Dole Food Company

(818) 874-4647 | william.goldfield@dole.com

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SOURCE Dole Food Company
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BizVibe has made available 1,000+ company profiles for the industrial services category on its B2B platform. Companies listed in this category are primarily engaged in providing various types of industrial services (such as industrial construction services, industrial consulting services, industrial cleaning services, etc.).

Snapshot of BizVibe's industrial services company profiles and categories.

Get Free Access to These 1,000+ Profiles

Each profile is free to view and packed with high-quality insights, providing businesses with detailed company information. Users can take advantage of these insights to identify, target, and connect with the right companies who provide industrial services. This company information includes employee insights, company competitors, the impact of emerging trends and challenges, the latest news, and more.

Free Insights Included for all Industrial Services Company Profiles:

List of product and service category offerings and primary operating industries

Risk of doing business score across four different metrics

List of key executives and their roles within the company

Company financials and general organizational information

Global, national, and regional competitors

List of key clients

Top trends and challenges within operating industry and expected influence on business impact

Latest company news with the ability to sign up for timely news alerts

Get Started to View Free Company Insights

Industrial Services Companies on BizVibe

BizVibe's platform contains 30M+ company profiles, spanning across 200+ countries, categorized into 40,000+ products and services. There are 1,000+ company profiles related to industrial services on BizVibe, covering 20+ related categories. Each company profile contains detailed insights dedicated to helping procurement and sales teams find trusted suppliers and target sales prospects.

Examples of industrial services profiles that can be discovered on BizVibe include companies that specialize in:

Industrial construction services

Industrial maintenance services

Industrial consulting services

Industrial cleaning services

Industrial insurance services

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Get Free Company Profile Access for all Categories

Company Profiles for Buyers and Sellers

BizVibe's modern B2B platform is designed to help both global buyers and sellers. Powered by the latest best-in-class solutions, BizVibe provides outstanding product features for both category managers and sales professionals.

Features for Buyers:

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About BizVibe

BizVibe has been conceptualized and built by a team based out of Toronto, Bangalore, and London. We are a branch of Infiniti Research and have dedicated units in all three locations. BizVibe helps buyers find the most relevant suppliers from around the world and help sellers target prospects who need their products and/or services. For more information, please visit www.bizvibe.com and start for free today.

Contact

BizVibe

Jesse Maida

Email: jesse@bizvibe.com

+1 855-897-5880

Website: https://www.bizvibe.com/

BizVibe (PRNewsfoto/BizVibe)

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SOURCE BizVibe
CARY, N.C., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fathom Realty LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fathom Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: FTHM), a national, technology-driven, end-to-end real estate services platform integrating residential brokerage, mortgage, title, insurance, and SaaS offerings for brokerages and agents, today announced a revised commission structure for its agents.

Effective January 1, 2022, Fathom's agents will pay a $600 annual fee, up from $500, and $500 for each of their first 12 completed transactions, up from $450. The current $99 transaction fee for each transaction after the first 12 remains unchanged. For team plans, team members will pay the $500 transaction fee for the initial four transactions, up from two transactions.

"Fathom is a pioneer in our industry, with a strong culture of agent-centric service. Our agent fees have not increased overall for the last five years, and we believe the time is right to make this change," said Fathom CEO Joshua Harley. "We have done extensive market research and are confident that our compensation plans remain highly competitive and attractive to our current, as well as, future agents. In fact, over the last two years, the commissions that Fathom agents have earned on each sale increased by an average of $2,220. We will always put our agents first and will continue to provide them with all of the technology, tools, education and services they need to be highly productive and earn more money. We believe the fee increase, albeit small, will allow us to further improve our value proposition as we continue to invest in new technology and enhanced services, thereby attracting even more agents to our unique platform."

About Fathom Realty LLC

Fathom Realty, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fathom Holdings Inc., is a national, cloud-based, real estate brokerage powered by intelliAgent, a proprietary technology platform that simplifies agent transaction management. The Company currently operates in 34 states and the District of Columbia with more than 7,500 agents, who earn higher incomes through Fathom's transaction fee compensation model, plus the ability to offer their clients a host of related services, from title insurance to arranging mortgages, and in some states, homeowner's insurance. Fathom agents also earn stock grants from the Company's publicly traded parent. Fathom Realty is the ninth largest independent firm in the country as ranked by the 2020 Real Trends 500 Ranking Report. For more information, visit www.fathomcareers.com.

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About Fathom Holdings Inc.

Fathom Holdings Inc. is a national, technology-driven, real estate services platform integrating residential brokerage, mortgage, title, insurance, and SaaS offerings to brokerages and agents by leveraging its proprietary cloud-based software, intelliAgent. The Company's brands include Fathom Realty, Dagley Insurance, Encompass Lending, intelliAgent, LiveBy, Real Results, and Verus Title. For more information, visit www.FathomInc.com.

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among others, Fathom's ability to help agents become highly productive and earn more money, and its ability to attract more agents. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including agent attraction and retention and other risks set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's most recent Form 10-K as filed with the SEC and supplemented from time to time in other Company filings made with the SEC. Copies of Fathom's Form 10-K and other SEC filings 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.

Investor Relations and Media Contacts:

Roger Pondel/Laurie Berman Marco Fregenal PondelWilkinson Inc. President and CFO investorrelations@fathomrealty.com Fathom Holdings Inc. (310) 279-5980 investorrelations@fathomrealty.com

(888) 455-6040

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SOURCE Fathom Realty
By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) - A man convicted in Britain over how oil contracts were secured in post-occupation Iraq lodged an appeal on Monday, in another potential blow to one of the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) most high-profile bribery cases.

Paul Bond, 69, received a three-and-a-half year jail sentence in March after an investigation into how Monaco-based oil consultancy Unaoil won contracts for Western clients in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

The appeal by the former manager at Dutch energy services company SBM Offshore follows the Dec. 10 decision by London's Court of Appeal to overturn the conviction of his former co-defendant Ziad Akle, once a Unaoil manager for Iraq.

The court ruled that serious SFO failures rendered Akle's trial unfair and Bond's appeal will pile more pressure on SFO director Lisa Osofsky 10 days after the Attorney General ordered an independent review of the case.

Bond's legal team said the quashing of Akle's conviction, because the SFO had refused to disclose material to the defence that could have helped its case, made his conviction unsafe.

"The decision by the Court of Appeal, we believe, provides for the acquittal of the remaining convicted defendants, and we therefore are now making our own application," Joseph Kotrie-Monson of Mary Monson Solicitors, Bond's lawyer, said.

A representative for convicted co-defendant Stephen Whiteley declined to comment when asked whether he would follow suit.

Court of Appeal judges rebuked the SFO for refusing to hand over to the defence documents that showed "wholly inappropriate" contact between the SFO and a U.S.-based fixer with vested interests, who wanted to persuade Akle and co-defendant Basil Al Jarah to plead guilty.

Without the material, defence lawyers were "significantly handicapped" when challenging whether a guilty plea by Al Jarah was reliable and admissible at the subsequent trial of Akle, Bond and Whiteley, the senior judges said.

The fixer, former DEA agent David Tinsley, worked for the prominent Ahsani family, which founded Unaoil.

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British-Iranian brothers Cyrus and Saman Ahsani, Unaoil's former CEO and COO, pleaded guilty in the U.S. in 2019 to being part of a multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe government officials across nine countries but have not yet been sentenced.

Their father was not charged.

Judges said Tinsley wanted to deliver pleas from others to encourage the SFO to abandon any prosecution of the Ahsanis in Britain. Tinsley has said he acted properly throughout.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Alexander Smith)
DALLAS, December 20, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Generational Capital Markets, Member FINRA/SIPC and a leading mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce the sale of its client, Machine Specialties, Inc. to Calvert Street Capital Partners, Inc. The acquisition closed September 20, 2021.

Located in Whitsett, North Carolina, Machine Specialties, Inc. (MSI) is a leading machining and metal-finishing specialist that manufactures customized, cost-effective solutions for the most demanding customer needs. MSI manufactures an extremely diverse portfolio of mission critical parts for the aerospace and defense, space, medical and industrial end markets.

Founded in 1969, the Company has a strong 50+ year track record of manufacturing precision-made parts, delivering them to customers faster than anyone else, and backing them up with a Company-wide commitment to service. This philosophy of quality and service has helped fuel MSIs growth.

Calvert Street Capital Partners, Inc. ("Calvert Street") located in Baltimore, Maryland, is a lower middle market investment firm. Since their inception, they have partnered with owner-operators and skilled management teams to support profitable growth and organizational transformations. The firm consists of experienced professionals pursuing two distinct investment strategies: Equity investments (through Calvert Street) and mezzanine investments (through Parkway Capital).

Their investments enable their portfolio companies to pursue growth opportunities, add-on acquisitions, balance sheet recapitalizations and ownership transitions. Collectively, Calvert Street's and Parkway Capital's investment professionals have invested in over 120 companies representing cumulative transaction values in excess of $1.5 billion.

Generational Capital Markets Senior Managing Director of Mergers & Acquisitions, Tom Staszak, with support from Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions, Andre Farahmandi successfully closed the deal.

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"Finding a buyer/partner that valued the culture developed by Rob and Tammy Simmons and a buyer/partner that would create value for customers and growth opportunities for employees were critical factors in the selection of Calvert Street as a partner," said Staszak.

He added, "As a result of this partnership, both Calvert Street and the Simmons are confident that Machine Specialties will continue to grow and serve its customers and employees for years to come."

About Generational Capital, LLC

Generational Capital, LLC, is a Dallas, Texas-based merger and acquisition advisory firm. Generational Capital wholly owns Generational Capital Markets, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. More information can be found at https://www.gencm.com/.

Generational Capital and Generational Capital Markets are part of the Generational Group and are affiliated with Generational Equity, LLC, which The M&A Advisor named Investment Banking Firm of the Year in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and Valuation Firm of the Year in 2020.

GCM's most recent awards include The M&A Advisor's 2020 Information Technology Deal of the Year ($10MM-$25MM) and 2020 Private Equity Deal of the Year ($25MM-$50MM).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211220005061/en/

Contacts

Carl Doerksen

972-232-1125

cdoerksen@generational.com
Gig Harbor, Washington , Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harbor Custom Development, Inc. (Nasdaq: HCDI, HCDIP, HCDIW, HCDIZ) (Harbor, Harbor Custom Homes, or the Company), an innovative and market leading real estate company involved in all aspects of the land development cycle, today announced that it has entered into a contract with Laughlin Development, LLC, for the purchase of 66 undeveloped lots for $2,900,000 in Poulsbo, Washington.

Westry Village is a future 66 - unit townhome site located in College Market Place Northwest, a regional shopping center in Poulsbo, Washington. https://www.westryvillage.com/ Harbor has contracted to purchase the project upon completion of the permitting process and issuance of site plan approval from the city of Poulsbo.

This acquisition allows Harbor to continue expanding the companys footprint in Kitsap County, where we have had great success. Our objective is to begin vertical construction in Q4 of 2022 stated Sterling Griffin, President and CEO of Harbor Custom Development, Inc.

About Harbor Custom Development, Inc.

Harbor Custom Development, Inc. is a real estate development company involved in all aspects of the land development cycle including land acquisition, entitlements, construction of project infrastructure, home building, marketing, sales, and management of various residential projects in Western Washington's Puget Sound region; Sacramento, California; Austin, Texas and Punta Gorda, Florida. Harbor has active or recently sold-out residential communities in Gig Harbor, Bremerton, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Belfair, Allyn, Port Orchard, Lacey, Burien, Yelm and Blaine in the state of Washington. In addition, Harbor has acquired land and will begin constructing homes in three new markets. In the Sacramento metro market, Harbor will be constructing homes in completed subdivisions in both Rocklin and Auburn, California. In the Austin metro market, Harbor has acquired developed lot inventory in Dripping Springs, Driftwood, and Horseshoe Bay, Texas. The Company recently acquired property in Punta Gorda, Florida, and plans to begin construction of oceanfront condominiums there in 2022. Harbor Custom Development's business strategy is to acquire and develop land strategically, based on an understanding of population growth patterns, entitlement restrictions, infrastructure development, and geo-economic forces. Harbor focuses on real estate within target markets with convenient access to metropolitan areas that are generally characterized by diverse economic and employment bases and increasing populations. For more information on Harbor Custom Development, Inc., please visit www.harborcustomdev.com .

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Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as may, might, should, believe, expect, anticipate, estimate, continue, predict, forecast, project, plan, intend or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

CONTACT: Investor Relations Hanover International IR@harborcustomdev.com 866-744-0974




LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 /The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors ofNuvei Corporation ("Nuvei" or "the Company") (NASDAQ:NVEI) for violations of the securities laws.

The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Nuvei is the subject of a short-seller report published by Spruce Point Capital on December 8, 2021. The report alleges serious inaccuracies in the Company's claims of organic growth. The report claims: "we find evidence that between 2010 and 2018, the Company experienced practically no growth. Our research points to challenges in the North American market that engendered mid-double-digit organic revenue decline in 2020 and Nuvei's push into Europe via acquisitions such as SafeCharge (2019) and Smart2Pay (2020)." Among other allegations, Spruce Point Capital claims that the Company's executives and other associated figures come from questionable backgrounds. Based on this report, shares of Nuvei fell almost 41% in morning trading on the same day.

If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com.

The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.

The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

Story continues

CONTACT:

The Schall Law Firm

Brian Schall, Esq.

310-301-3335

info@schallfirm.com

www.schallfirm.com

SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm





View source version on accesswire.com:

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Words by Kate Zerrenner

Northampton, MA --News Direct-- TriplePundit

(Image courtesy of Water For People)

The Women in the Sanitation Economy Innovation Lab aims to help women-led and women-focused businesses in the sanitation and hygiene space achieve success. An initiative of the nonprofit Toilet Board Coalition in partnership with Kimberly-Clark, the companys foundation and its Kotex brand, the Innovation Lab recently completed its first pilot.

The pilot included five women-led startup businesses from Kenya, the U.S. and the U.K., along with 11 Kimberly-Clark employees across different functions from around the globe who acted as mentors to the group. The aim is to cultivate and catalyze businesses in the early stages of development to give the so-called sani-preneurs the training and tools they need to succeed.

During the first phase of the pilot, the team behind the Innovation Lab learned a great deal about how to build effective mentor-mentee relationships and empower entrepreneurs to accelerate solutions in their own communities. These lessons learned will inform the second iteration of the program, and theyre also a must-read for anyone looking to form effective corporate and NGO partnerships that drive social impact, build employee engagement, and help early-stage entrepreneurs bring their ideas to the next level.

Align the program with your purpose

The Toilet Board is on a mission to scale solutions for SDG 6.2, which calls for sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene access for all, with a focus on women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.

This aim clearly aligns with the Innovation Lab  and with Kimberly-Clarks ambition to improve the lives of 1 billion people in underserved communities by 2030, along with Kotexs brand purpose to ensure that a period never stands in the way of any womans progress. This synergy proved essential for success, leaders said.

The number of mentors that stepped forward, their dedication to it, and the outstanding leadership of the Kimberly-Clark team leads was above and beyond what we hoped for, Alex Knezovich, director of operations at the Toilet Board, told TriplePundit. It demonstrates the power of aligning the programs purpose so perfectly with Kotexs purpose and what that can unlock for each stakeholder  most importantly, the businesses and employees that benefit from the program.

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From the Kimberly-Clark side, the enthusiasm was genuine and organic. The Innovation Lab created great excitement at Kimberly-Clark locations around the world and across different functions, Melis Sener, senior global marketing manager for adult and feminine care at Kimberly-Clark, told TriplePundit. It was a great opportunity for our employees to personally contribute, create meaningful impact, and live our values. The Innovation Lab also sparked powerful employee engagement  since the goal of the program was very clear and focused, it drove that engagement way more than we expected.

Tailor the mentorship program for each entrepreneurs needs

Just like tailoring clothes, Knezovich noted that one of the contributors to success was ensuring that each entrepreneurs experience was aligned to their individual needs. We heard it loud and clear from these entrepreneurs: Program engagement is highest when the program is customized to the needs and priorities of the entrepreneurs, and it is most effective when it is as interactive as possible, she told TriplePundit.

The program offered a number of resources to entrepreneurs, from finance and pitching, to marketing and supply chain advice, to human resources and more. But those resources were not part of a one-size-fits-all approach. Entrepreneurs entered the program with specific requests, and Kimberly-Clark and the Toilet Board worked to source expertise from their networks to meet those specific and evolving needs.

Each business is so unique and their stage of growth so nuanced that tailored mentorship is where the real impact is found, Knezovich explained.

Mentorship is a two-way street

Entrepreneurs are naturally always learning and adapting ideas to the context of their businesses, Knezovich said. Approaching skills building as peer-to-peer learning is much more fun and fulfilling for everyone.

This aligns with what experts note comprises a successful mentorship program: listening, setting specific goals and ensuring good communication. Further, as these entrepreneurs build their businesses in an area of critical and underserved public health needs, the stakes for success are high and the time to meet goals is limited, so getting things right is important.

Learning from lessons: Whats next for the Innovation Lab

Both Kimberly-Clark and the Toilet Board felt the pilot phase of the Innovation Lab exceeded expectations. The selection of entrepreneurs and mentors was all new for us, and it worked really well, Sener told TriplePundit. Now, both are looking at what comes next.

As a first step, the Toilet Board plans to expand the mentorship from six months to a year in the next iteration of the Lab and to grow their team internally in order to offer more support. The group is also building a network of advisors from the business community to provide guidance to the entrepreneurs after they have left the program. Experts note that continued engagement between mentors and mentees has lasting effects, both for expanding networks and improving skills.

Listening to the entrepreneurs is crucial to determine not only which mentor would be the best fit, but also how to structure and plan training and conversations. The Lab team found it necessary to be flexible, adjusting the program as needed as it progressed. But the structure still had to be there to ensure everyone received what they needed to take their businesses to the next step, Knezovich said.

Hope and ambition run strong in innovators, she told us. She said it was important for them to be realistic in terms of what could actually be accomplished during the pilot, inserting checkpoints every two to three months to make sure everything stayed on track.

The proof is in the impact on entrepreneurs

The bottom line, however, was the impact the program had on the participants. The relationships that are initiated and cultivated in programs like this have immediate and tangible implications on the businesses and business leaders, Knezovich said.

For Kimberly-Clark, participation not only contributed to the companys social impact goals, but it also had a significant impact on its employees who served as mentors. At Kimberly-Clark, our purpose is to provide Better Care for a Better World, and leading programs like this with our NGO partners is a key part of how we deliver on it. The Innovation Lab is a great example of how our employees can help accelerate positive change and support female leaders who are addressing some of the biggest sanitation challenges that disproportionately impact women, Sener added.

In the end, the success of the Innovation Lab pilot means that women-owned and women-centered businesses can help fill the gaps for various critical societal needs so that all of us can live better lives. Mentorship programs that work are the ones that do not just pull a suit off the rack and assume it will fit  they take careful measurements and tailor appropriately.

This article series is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Images courtesy of Water For People, Be Girl and Syna Consultancy

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from TriplePundit on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/lessons-on-mentoring-from-a-sanitation-startup-accelerator-for-women-entrepreneurs-342166426
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2021 /CNW/ -- LP Building Solutions (LP; NYSE: LPX), a leading manufacturer of high-performance building products, today announced it will build a new LP SmartSide ExpertFinish prefinishing facility on 75 acres in the Town of Bath, New York. With a targeted opening date in the third quarter of 2023, the facility is projected to add more than 60 new jobs to the Steuben County community.

LP Building Solutions (PRNewsfoto/Louisiana-Pacific Corporation)

"LP's prefinished siding product, ExpertFinish, has seen phenomenal growth since launching in 2020," said LP Executive Vice President, Siding Neil Sherman. "To support strong customer demand, LP is aggressively pursuing prefinishing capacity expansion plans both within our existing facilities as well through this greenfield facility in Steuben County, New York."

The Southern Tier region of New York is ideally suited for ExpertFinish production due to its proximity to the new construction and repair and remodeling home siding markets in the Northeastern U.S. The new facility, which is contingent upon site acquisition and permitting, will be designed for future expansions and join LP's three existing siding prefinishing facilitiesLP Roaring River, LP Green Bay, and LP St. Louis.

"The Steuben County Industrial Development Agency is thrilled to be working with LP and our economic development partners to bring this project to Steuben County," said Steuben County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director James C. Johnson. "This investment and the jobs associated with it will be transformational for the Bath community, and we look forward to supporting the company's future growth."

"For over 20 years, LP SmartSide Trim & Siding has provided customers the beauty of traditional wood with the advanced durability of engineered wood," said Sherman. "A key element of our SmartSide siding growth strategy is to expand our prefinished strand-based solutions, particularly in the Northeast. With LP's prefinishing expertise and capabilities as well as the increased capacity the Bath facility offers, we are well positioned to grow in this market."

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To learn more about LP SmartSide ExpertFinish, click here.

About LP Building Solutions

As a leader in high-performance building solutions, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LP Building Solutions, NYSE: LPX) manufactures engineered wood building products that meet the demands of builders, remodelers, and homeowners worldwide. LP's extensive offerings include innovative and dependable building products and accessories, such as Siding Solutions (LP SmartSide Trim & Siding, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish Trim & Siding, LP BuilderSeries Lap Siding, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions), LP Structural Solutions (LP TechShield Radiant Barrier, LP WeatherLogic Air & Water Barrier, LP Legacy Premium Sub-Flooring, and LP FlameBlock Fire-Rated Sheathing and more), LP TopNotch Sub-Flooring, and oriented strand board (OSB). In addition to product solutions, LP provides industry-leading customer service and warranties. Since its founding in 1972, LP has been Building a Better World by helping customers construct beautiful, durable homes while our shareholders build lasting value. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, LP operates 25 plants across the U.S., Canada, Chile, and Brazil. For more information, visit LPCorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements concerning LP's future results and performance that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: impacts from public health issues (including global pandemics, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) on the economy, demand for our products or our operations, including the actions and recommendations of governmental authorities to contain such public health issues; changes in governmental fiscal and monetary policies, including tariffs, and levels of employment; changes in general economic conditions, including impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; changes in the cost and availability of capital; changes in the level of home construction and repair and remodel activity; changes in competitive conditions and prices for our products; changes in the relationship between supply of and demand for building products; changes in the financial or business conditions of third-party wholesale distributors and dealers; changes in the relationship between supply of and demand for raw materials, including wood fiber and resins, used in manufacturing our products; changes in the cost of and availability of energy, primarily natural gas, electricity, and diesel fuel; changes in the cost of and availability of transportation; impact of manufacturing our products internationally; difficulties in the launch or production ramp-up of newly introduced products; unplanned interruptions to our manufacturing operations, such as explosions, fires, inclement weather, natural disasters, accidents, equipment failures, labor shortages or disruptions, transportation interruptions, supply interruptions, public health issues (including pandemics and quarantines), riots, civil insurrection or social unrest, looting, protests, strikes and street demonstrations; changes in other significant operating expenses; changes in currency values and exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies, particularly the Canadian dollar, Brazilian real and Chilean peso; changes in, and compliance with, general and industry-specific laws and regulations, including environmental and health and safety laws and regulations, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-bribery laws, laws related to our international business operations, and changes in building codes and standards; changes in tax laws, and interpretations thereof; changes in circumstances giving rise to environmental liabilities or expenditures; warranty costs exceeding our warranty reserves; challenge or exploitation of our intellectual property or other proprietary information by others in the industry; changes in the funding requirements of our defined benefit pension plans; the resolution of existing and future product-related litigation and other legal proceedings; the effect of covenants and events of default contained in our debt instruments; the amount and timing of any repurchases of our common stock and the payment of dividends on our common stock, which will depend on market and business conditions and other considerations; and acts of public authorities, war, civil unrest, natural disasters, fire, floods, earthquakes, inclement weather and other matters beyond our control. For additional information about factors that could cause actual results, events, and circumstances to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to LP's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, LP undertakes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or circumstances.

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SOURCE Louisiana-Pacific Corporation

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Illegal streaming could be particularly costly in Malaysia. TorrentFreak reports the country has passed amendments to its Copyright Act that punish those who enable pirate streaming. People who offer streaming services and devices that "prejudicially" hurt copyright owners can face fines equivalent to $2,377 or more, prison sentences up to 20 years, or both.

The updated law also discourages companies from either participating in streaming piracy or tolerating its presence. Unless managers can show they were unaware of a violation and took "all due diligence" to stop such acts, they'll be considered guilty of the relevant crime.

Copyright laws worldwide frequently cover digital piracy, but some of them were designed to tackle downloads and other, older forms of bootlegging. That was a problem for Malaysia, which couldn't use the Copyright Act against people selling piracy-oriented streaming devices until a High Court decision allowed those cases.

The potential punishments are strict, and the wording suggests it may be difficult for some companies to avoid entanglements with rogue employees. How much diligence is necessary, for example? Still, this shows how some countries may specifically address streaming through legislation, and might please the US and other copyright-driven nations worried their neighbors might tolerate illegal internet services.
Cryptocurrency is fast becoming a thing around the world with countries having different rules and regulations for trading and usage. When crypto began taking roots in the United Kingdom, lots of UK investors had their bank accounts terminated with their funds frozen, merely because they used them to transfer or withdraw money to or from a cryptocurrency exchange.

Today, the relationship between banks and the budding crypto industry has taken significant strides in the right direction in the past few years. However, that doesnt mean that all is rosy, given that not all banks can be used by crypto investors and traders. Some of these banks have banned purchases of cryptocurrencies via Debit and Credit cards.

In this article, we will provide an up-to-date list of the best crypto-friendly banks in the UK. Just before we go any further, lets review the legal status of cryptocurrency in the United Kingdom and what you may do with your digital assets while in the country.

The legality of crypto in the UK

Cryptocurrency is not illegal in the United Kingdom, but it is regulated by the countrys Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) only for money laundering purposes. Except for some crypto asset providers that can receive e-licenses instead of registering with FCA, all UK crypto exchanges must be FCA registered.

Crypto is much embraced in the UK as about 1.5 million people owned some cryptocurrency in 2018, which grew to an estimated 9.8 million by February of 2021.

The UK FCA is reasonably calm towards Bitcoin, even though the asset is not considered legal tender. As of 2020, the asset was considered property in the UK, which means it is subject to capital gains tax. Nevertheless, because cryptocurrencies are different from a traditional asset class, taxes can vary based on the entity involved.

However, in 2021, the FCA banned Binance from participating in regulated activity in the UK owing to the outcome of an operational review. The country also made giant strides to ban cryptocurrency derivatives, as they cannot be reliably valued by customers.

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Since January, the FCA has required all firms offering cryptocurrency-related services to register and show they comply with anti-money laundering rules.

What can you do with crypto in the UK?

In the UK, no major high street shop accepts cryptocurrency as payment. However, there are some businesses  such as Torguars  that will let you use cryptocurrency as a form of payment for services or products.

Bitnewt, a leading Bitcoin marketing agency that offers services such as content marketing and social media, does accept crypto as well. Jewellery stores such as Diadem also accepts Bitcoins.

Today, cryptocurrencies are generally held mostly for investments purposes. Most people in the UK buy and sell cryptocurrencies the majority of the time.

Top five most friendly bank accounts for crypto in the UK

Before you keep any crypto asset in the UK, you may want to know which banks permit you to fully utilise your crypto. Crypto-friendly banks, in this context, are the banks and financial institutions that allow customers/clients to purchase cryptocurrency easily by using their debit and credit cards.

Since the FCA issued a formal warning about Binance Markets Ltd in June, banning it from operating in the UK, some banks have either banned or restricted crypto activities with Binance and Kraken. Here are the top five most friendly banks for cryptocurrency users presently in the UK.

Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS): The UK government owns the Royal Bank of Scotland. In the past few years, RBS has had a positive approach towards cryptocurrency transactions. The Bank also offers you the opportunity to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. RBS will, however, restrict payments to cryptocurrency exchanges that present the highest risk of financial harm. Solaris Bank: Solaris is a greatly organised bank that not only offers you cryptocurrency transactions but also crypto custody. In early 2021 the bank launched a regulated crypto custody service according to a brokerage and trading application programming interface. The Co-operative Bank: Debit and credit card purchases are generally allowed by the Co-Operative bank, as well as transactions to and from crypto services. Nationwide Bank: Nationwide offers debit and credit cards to make payments to crypto. The bank has no ban in place but said that its systems are designed to pick up any transactions felt to be suspicious or unusual for members, including payments to trading platforms such as crypto exchanges. Barclays: With more than 1.3 trillion in assets, Barclays is one of the oldest and largest banks in the UK. It allows you to purchase cryptocurrencies with its debit and credit cards in most cases. However, you should know that Barclays has blocked both debit and credit card payments to Binance since July only allowing customers to withdraw funds from Binance.

In conclusion, the number of people owning cryptocurrency is steadily increasing globally and in the UK. The number of businesses that accept Bitcoin payment is also on the rise.

Although cryptocurrency transactions come with high risks and different types of restrictions, some banks in the UK allow users to perform crypto transactions easily.
NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until January 11, 2022 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), if they purchased the Company's securities between March 2, 2021 and October 19, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Novavax and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-nvax/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by January 11, 2022 .

About the Lawsuit

Novavax and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On August 5, 2021, the Company disclosed another delay in filing the Emergency Use Authorization ("EUA") for its COVID-19 vaccine product candidate, NVX-CoV2373, from the third quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2021. On this news, Novavax's stock price fell $46.31 per share, or 19.61%, to close at $189.89 per share on August 6, 2021. Then, on October 19, 2021, Politico reported that anonymous sources stated that manufacturing issues could delay regulatory authorizations and approvals for NVX-CoV2373 until the end of 2022.

On this news, Novavax's shares plummeted $23.69 per share, or 14.76%, to close at $136.86 per share on October 20, 2021.

The case is Sinnathurai v. Novavax, et al., 21-cv-02910.

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About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

LogoDescription automatically generated

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC





View source version on accesswire.com:

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivot Point Consulting, 2020 Best in KLAS Overall IT Services Firm and a healthcare IT consulting leader, is proud to announce it has been honored for the 8th consecutive year as winner in The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation program, as well as the new 2021 regional program. The honor comes recently after the firm was recently ranked #6 in Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

Pivot Point Consulting, 2020 Best in KLAS: Overall IT Services Firm, enables healthcare organizations to realize the most value from their technology and data through our Advisory, Implementation, Optimization, Managed Services and Talent Solutions. We work with provider and payer organizations and have 450+ employees serving over 100 clients across the U.S. (PRNewsfoto/Pivot Point Consulting)

This year, the Best and Brightest program honored 79 winning organizations across the nation from 710 nominations. The 2021 new regional program welcomed Charlotte, Denver, Miami, Nashville, New York, and the Pacific Northwest to the Best and Brightest Program. The winning companies were assessed by an independent research firm, which reviewed a number of key measures relative to other nationally recognized winners. The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners are not ranked.

"This recognition is a testament to the amazing Pivot Point Consulting team, during an especially challenging year for our industry," said Rachel Marano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. "We have focused not only on consistently delivering excellent quality to our clients, but also on being a great employer with a culture dedicated to supporting professional success and personal well-being. We doubled down on initiatives that ensured our people felt supported during the times when they needed it most. For us, a happy team equals happy clients, and we are focused on both."

The categories applicants were scored on include: Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; and Strategic Company Performance.

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"The Best and Brightest is a powerful community of elite leaders who share ideas and practices, and have proven they are employers of choice. Best and Brightest winning companies have also been a voice for important actions in creating a sustainable culture that works, ensuring the wellbeing of their employees come first," said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO, Best and Brightest Programs.

With over 20 years of experience conducting the Best and Brightest competitions, the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) has identified numerous best Human Resource practices and provided benchmarking for companies that continue to be leaders in employment standards.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners will be honored during the virtual Illuminate Business Summit week in the spring of 2022.

About the Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in operations and employee enrichment that led to increased productivity and financial performance. This competition scores potential winners based on regional data of company performance and a set standard across the nation. This national program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. There are numerous regional celebrations throughout the country, such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Charlotte, Denver, Seattle, Nashville, and Portland. Nominations are now being accepted for all programs. Visit thebestandbrightest.com to nominate your organization.

About Pivot Point Consulting

Pivot Point Consulting enables healthcare organizations to realize the most value from their technology and resources through our EHR, ERP, Strategy, Virtual Care, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Managed Services and Revenue Cycle Management services. Our experts deliver consulting, managed services and talent solutions to providers, payers, life sciences and technology organizations.

Pivot Point Consulting has earned multiple industry and workplace quality awards, including #6 Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work (2021), Best in KLAS: Overall IT Services Firm (2020), Top Three Best in KLAS for HIT Implementation and Support (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Highest Rated Vendor in KLAS Implementation Services in the Select Category (2017) and #1 in KLAS for Epic Consulting in the Select Category (2016).

Practices: Epic, Community Connect, Cerner, Siemens, Allscripts, MEDITECH, McKesson, Centricity, eClinicalWorks, NextGen CPSI, MEDHOST, athenahealth, Greenway, Workday, Lawson/Infor, Peoplesoft, SAP, Kronos and Facets.

For more information, visit us at pivotpointconsulting.com. To view available roles and become part of an exciting work environment at Pivot Point Consulting, visit https://pivotpointconsulting.com/careers/.

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SOURCE Pivot Point Consulting
To



NASDAQ Copenhagen Executive Board

Lers Parkalle 100

DK-2100 Kbenhavn 

www.rd.dk







Telephone +45 7012 5300

Telefax +45 4514 9622













20 December 2021

Company Announcement No 104/2021



Prepayments, Realkredit Danmark A/S





Pursuant to 24 of the Capital Markets Act, Realkredit Danmark A/S hereby publishes prepayments as at Friday 17 December 2021. Please find the data in the attached file.

The information will also be available on www.rd.dk .







Yours sincerely

The Executive Board







Any additional questions should be addressed to Hella Gebhardt Rnnebk, Chief Analyst, phone +45 4513 2068.

Attachments




HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) ("Red Cat" or "Company"), a hardware-enabled software provider to the drone industry, reports its financial results for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2021 and provides a business update.

Red Cat Holdings Logo (PRNewsfoto/Red Cat Holdings, Inc.)

Second Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights:

Revenues for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2021 were approximately $1.9 million, compared to approximately $428,000 for the same period in 2020, representing an increase of more than 300%



Adjusted Net loss for the quarter ended October 31, 2021, which excludes non-cash expenses, primarily related to stock-based compensation, was approximately $3 million, as compared to an adjusted net loss of approximately $640,000 for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2020



Cash and investments were approximately $60 million as of October 31, 2021

Recent Corporate Highlights:

Closed the acquisitions of Teal Drones



Passage of Infrastructure Bill Should Benefit Drone Industry



Teal Opens new Manufacturing Facility in Salt Lake City, Utah



Skypersonic awarded contract with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

"We made significant corporate progress on several fronts in our fiscal second quarter and saw record revenue that grew 336% year-over-year and 33% quarter-over-quarter. Closing the acquisition of Teal Drones was a critical milestone for the Company and allows for expansion into the military segment," commented Red Cat CEO Jeff Thompson. "The successful integration of Teal Drones and its recent move into a larger manufacturing facility will be instrumental in our success going forward and allow us to execute on a number of larger Department of Defense contracts we are pursuing in our expanding sales funnel. Moreover, beginning in January, we expect to generate at least $1 million in monthly revenue from drone production at Teal to satisfy existing orders and envision revenue growth accelerating in the first half of calendar 2022 based on our current contracts alone. Any additionally announced contracts would be additive to our current outlook.

Story continues

"We believe the recently passed federal infrastructure bill, which has $280 billion in earmarked funds to provide inspection services on railways, roads, bridges, and electrical grid maintenance will also provide opportunities for U.S.-based drone manufacturers like Red Cat. Our Skypersonic segment is well-positioned to provide efficient and reliable inspection and surveillance services that are needed in identifying weak links in our country's infrastructure," added Mr. Thompson.

"The second quarter represents our sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth and we are confident in our ability to continue that trend going forward," stated Joseph Hernon, Chief Financial Officer. "Our increased cash burn during the second quarter primarily related to investments in inventory and manufacturing capacity at Teal Drones which we expect to drive revenue growth during calendar year 2022."

Conference Call Today

Jeff Thompson, CEO and Joseph Hernon, CFO will also host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, December 20 to review financial results and provide an update on corporate developments. Following management's formal remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

To listen to the conference call, interested parties within the U.S. should dial 1-866-777-2509 (domestic) or 1-412-317-5413 (international). All callers should dial in approximately 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and ask to be joined into the Red Cat Holdings, Inc. conference call. Participants can also pre-register for this event using the following link: https://dpregister.com/sreg/10162620/f045cd851c

The conference call will also be available through a live webcast that can be accessed at https://dpregister.com/sreg/10162620/f045cd851c .

The webcast replay will be available until March 20, 2022 and can be accessed through the above link or on the Company's website. A telephonic replay will be available until January 3, 2022, by calling 1-877-344-7529 (domestic) or 1-412-317-0088 (international) and using access code 2436462.

About Red Cat Holdings, Inc.

Red Cat provides drone-based products, services, and solutions through its five subsidiaries and services the enterprise, military, and consumer markets. Teal Drones is a leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and its Golden Eagle is one of only five drones approved by the Department of Defense for reconnaissance, public safety, and inspection applications. Skypersonic's technology enables drones to complete inspection services in locations where GPS is not available, yet still record and transmit data even while being operated from thousands of miles away. Fat Shark is a leading provider of First Person View (FPV) video goggles. Rotor Riot, LLC is a reseller of FPV drones and equipment, primarily to the consumer marketplace. Red Cat Propware is developing a Software-as-a-Solution ("SaaS") platform to provide drone flight data analytics and storage, as well as diagnostic products and services. Learn more at https://www.redcatholdings.com/ .

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "seek," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "target," "aim," "should," "will" "would," or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on Red Cat Holdings, Inc.'s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in the final prospectus related to the public offering filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Red Cat Holdings, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

For Investor Relations Inquiries:

CORE IR

Phone: (516) 222-2560

E-mail: Investors@redcat.red

Website: https://www.redcatholdings.com/

RED CAT HOLDINGS Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)



October 31,

April 30,

2021

2021 ASSETS





Cash and cash equivalents $ 11,559,758

$ 277,347 Investments 48,122,657

- Inventory, including deposits 3,817,913

841,011 Intangible assets, including goodwill 28,029,268

10,049,502 Operating lease right-of-use assets 548,641

- Other 1,295,904

525,505 TOTAL ASSETS 93,374,141

11,693,365















LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Accounts payable and accrued expenses 1,989,080

1,202,049 Debt obligations 2,769,769

269,045 Due to related party 144,628

2,143,209 Operating lease liabilities 559,528

- Warrant derivative liability 2,376,565

2,812,767 Total Liabilities 7,839,570

6,427,070







Stockholders' Equity





Stockholders' capital 105,641,281

21,076,223 Accumulated deficit (20,106,710)

(15,809,928) Total Stockholders' Equity 85,534,571

5,266,295 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY $ 93,374,141

$ 11,693,365

RED CAT HOLDINGS Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)





Three months ended October 31,

Six months ended October 31,



2021

2020

2021

2020

















Revenues

$ 1,863,239

$ 427,807

$ 3,259,990

$ 976,089

















Cost of goods sold

1,710,657

328,756

3,005,004

774,888

















Gross Margin

152,582

99,051

254,986

201,201

















Operating Expenses















Operations

283,249

120,210

460,112

206,756 Research and development

493,441

86,614

737,695

173,924 Sales and marketing

185,385

24,679

286,018

48,815 General and administrative

1,050,708

250,378

1,926,888

430,719 Stock based compensation

899,937

107,061

1,284,023

214,122 Total operating expenses

2,912,720

588,942

4,694,736

1,074,336 Operating loss

(2,760,138)

(489,891)

(4,439,750)

(873,135)

















Other Expense (Income)

(19,537)

232,390

(141,377)

232,390

















Net loss

($2,740,601)

($722,281)

($4,298,373)

($1,105,525)

















Loss per share - basic and diluted

$ (0.05)

$ (0.04)

$ (0.10)

$ (0.05)

















Weighted average shares outstanding -















basic and diluted

52,147,541

20,241,390

43,110,884

20,126,241

RED CAT HOLDINGS Condensed Consolidated Cash Flows Statements (Unaudited)



Six months ended October 31,

2021

2020 Cash Flows from Operating Activities





Net loss $ (4,298,373)

$ (1,105,525) Non-cash expenses 1,299,468

464,913 Changes in operating assets and liabilities (5,570,193)

72,160 Net cash used in operating activities (8,569,098)

(568,452)







Net cash provided by investing activities 24,866

-







Cash Flows from Financing Activities





Purchases of investments, net (48,122,657)

- Purchases of property and equipment (30,147)

- (Payments) proceeds of debt obligations (2,187,346)

231,849 Proceeds from convertible debentures -

580,000 Proceeds from issuance of common stock, net 70,165,202

- Net cash provided by financing activities 19,825,052

811,849







Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash 1,591

-







Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 11,282,411

243,397 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 277,347

236,668 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 11,559,758

480,065 Investments 48,122,657

- Total cash and investments $ 59,682,415

$ 480,065

Non-GAAP Financial Measures



We have presented a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure in this earnings release. We believe that this supplemental information is useful to investors because it allows for an evaluation of the company with a focus on the performance of its core operations, including more meaningful comparisons of financial results to historical periods. Adjusted Net Loss is a non-GAAP financial measure which excludes non-cash expenses, primarily related to derivatives and stock-based compensation. Our executive management team uses these same non-GAAP measures internally to assess the ongoing performance of the company.

Below is a reconciliation of Adjusted Net Loss to GAAP net loss for the 6 months ended October 31, 2021 and 2020:

RED CAT HOLDINGS Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Loss (Unaudited)





Six months ended October 31,



2021

2020









Net loss

$ (4,298,373)

$ (1,105,525) Adjustments for non-cash expenses:







Stock based compensation

1,284,023

214,122 Common stock issued for services

250,400

- Amortization of intangible assets

32,651

- Depreciation

5,455

- Change in fair value of derivative liability

(273,061)

83,803 Amortization of debt discount

-

18,401 Derivative expense

-

148,587









Adjusted Net loss

$ (2,998,905)

$ (640,612)

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SOURCE Red Cat Holdings, Inc.
Tyson family will help monitor sustainable home concept

CANTON, Ohio, December 20, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saint-Gobain North America (SGNA) today announced that Canton-area residents Bradley and Marjorie Tyson will purchase its Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities home through an affordable mortgage with Habitat for Humanity East Central Ohio. The house, which was built with industry-leading sustainable construction and inclusive design features, will be donated to Habitat for Humanity when construction is complete. The Tyson family will then purchase the Canton home, move in by early 2022, and will be SGNAs key partner in monitoring their experience of living in the home, including its energy performance.

"Our companys mission is to make the world a better home, and we at SGNA believe sustainable construction and home ownership should be accessible for everyone," said Mark Rayfield, CEO of Saint-Gobain North America. "We cant wait for the Tyson family to make the Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities house their own home, all while improving their comfort and quality of life with the many benefits of sustainable construction."

Parents Bradley and Marjorie Tyson have two children who developed allergies while growing up in rental properties with poor ventilation, dust and mold, and drafty unsealed windows. With a new, clean home that operates efficiently and an affordable Habitat mortgage, the whole family will have room to breathe. "Weve always rented, so owning this homeour homewill mean the world to us," said Bradley. "We have been searching for an affordable place that will improve and protect our familys wellbeing, and we know that this home will help us live full, healthy lives."

The Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities home is zero energy ready, meaning that with solar panel installation, the total amount of energy used is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on site. With this type of design delivering significant savings on energy costs and utility bills, the Tysons will benefit from more affordable homeownership, while enjoying comfort with a minimal impact on the environment.

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The home also follows the concept of universal design, meaning it will be accessible to anyonea key feature for the Tysons since Marjories mother has battled kidney disease for decades and finds it difficult to navigate steps and other features commonly found in rental properties. This accessible floor plan will allow the childrens grandmother to visit face-to-face whenever shed like.

As part of the Tyson familys partnership with Habitat for Humanity East Central Ohio, Bradley and Marjorie are completing educational courses that will help them prepare for homeownership and protect the investment theyre making in their futures.

"A good, healthy home means so much to families and children everywhere," said Beth Lechner, executive director of Habitat. "Were thrilled to partner with the Tyson family as they build a solid foundation for their future within the walls of this new home. Were truly thankful to Saint-Gobain North America for helping a dream of homeownership come to life while building a new vision for the future of affordable housing."

The Sustaining Futures, Raising Communities program displays SGNAs commitment to sustainability and the communities in which it operates. By delivering solutions tailored for growth and impact, SGNA is making the world a better home.

To learn more and see updates on the partnership between SGNA and Habitat with the Tysons, please visit SustainingFuturesRaisingCommunities.com and follow along on social media using the hashtag #SustainingFuturesRaisingCommunities.

About Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility, healthcare and other industrial application markets. Developed through a continuous innovation process, they can be found everywhere in our living places and daily life, providing wellbeing, performance and safety, while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and the fight against climate change. This strategy of responsible growth is guided by the Saint-Gobain purpose, "MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER HOME", which responds to the shared ambition of all the women and men in the Group to act every day to make the world a more beautiful and sustainable place to live in.

38.1 billion in sales in 2020

More than 170,000 employees, located in 72 countries

Committed to achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2050

For more information about Saint-Gobain, visit www.saint-gobain.com and follow us on Twitter @saintgobain.

About Habitat for Humanity East Central Ohio

Serving Stark, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, and Jefferson Counties, Habitat for Humanity East Central Ohio is driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live. People partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and purchase the homes with an affordable zero interest mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering, or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability, and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, Habitat empowers. To learn more, visit habitateco.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211220005229/en/

Contacts

Media

Katie Coulter, Account Executive

FrazierHeiby

614.702.2123

katie@fhcommunicate.com

Saint-Gobain North America

media@saint-gobain.com
NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Citrix Systems, Inc. (Citrix or the Company) (NASDAQ: CTXS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Citrix and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On April 29, 2021, Citrix announced lower than expected license conversions of the shorter duration, on-premise licenses that Citrix began offering during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the shift to remote work (the Business Continuity Licenses). Specifically, the Company explained that the Business Continuity Licenses did not transition to long-term cloud contracts as expected. Instead, many customers rolled to another short-term on-premise license, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On this news, Citrixs stock price fell $10.49 per share, or 7.6%, to close at $128.02 per share. Then, on July 29, 2021, Citrix reported that despite prior assurances, the transition to cloud was not as successful as the Company had led investors to believe. Specifically, Citrix cited the challenge associated with transitioning the business to [cloud] and the need to evolve our sales strategy to deliver more predictable results. Further, Citrix announced a major restructuring of its sales leadership in order to enhance [its] focus on cloud migration. According to the Company, these changes were significant and may cause short-term disruption before yielding tangible results.

On this news, Citrixs stock price fell 13.6%, from $114.55 per share to $99.00 per share. Finally, on October 6, 2021, after markets closed, the Company announced the resignation of its President and Chief Executive Officer. This disclosure caused the Companys stock to decline 7.2% over the next two days, from $105.96 per share to $98.32 per share.

Story continues

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 7980




RIPON, Wis., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Speed Queen, the global leader in vended commercial laundry, has redefined the customer experience with stores around the globe. The brand is now bringing this premium experience to Germany with a new store in Berlin on Alexanderplatz.

The new large Speed Queen Laundry store in Berlin, is located on Alexanderplatz.

"Speed Queen-branded Laundromats bring a laundromat experience like no other," said Marco Treggiari, director of Speed Queen-licensed stores in Europe. "We are excited to expand this exceptionally profitable business concept to Germany. Through our more than 900 licensed stores across Europe, we have proven out this highly successful model, which delivers great return on investment for owners via a superior experience for customers."

Speed Queen Laundromats are now at work in 28 European countries and more than 465 cities. In addition, the 700 investors are further testament to the incredible value this business brings. Customers across Europe have linked the Speed Queen brand with the pinnacle of laundry experience, one that leverages speed, efficiency, and technology to help them complete the laundry chore quickly.

Like all Speed Queen Laundry stores, the Alexanderplatz location will feature durable, highly efficient, large-capacity washer-extractors and tumble dryers to help customers complete their laundry task in less than an hour. The 24-pocket store is expected to open December 20th. Additional laundries are planned for other investors in Berlin (Karl Marx Strasse), Krefeld, Stuttgart, and Cologne.

With premium attributes such as large capacity machines hosted in a sleek retail space, a customer-facing mobile app, and rewards program and owner features, which include a digital marketing platform and business dashboard, Speed Queen has revolutionized the vended laundry experience for both owner and customer. "The difference is really tangible for the customer; it makes the chore of doing laundry a totally different experience" highlights Marco Treggiari.

Story continues

"In the next stage of our expansion, we'll build more off the American laundromat model, where stores can have more than 100 machines and gross more than $1 million," Treggiari said. "Like Alexanderplatz's store, we'll drive more ambitious projects that will have a larger footprint and more than 20 pockets. Actually, we already have some large laundromats now in Paris, in Barcelona, in Madrid, in Dublin, in Warsaw and in Roma."

For more information on Speed Queen and to learn more about opening a Speed Queen-branded store in your own market and to locate the Speed Queen closest to you, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

About Speed Queen

Speed Queen provides coin laundry owners with a variety of innovative and reliable commercial washers, dryers, and laundromat equipment since 1908. As an industry leader, Speed Queen is dedicated to providing its market expertise to help grow the self-serve laundry industry. The brand is an entity of Ripon, Wis.-based Alliance Laundry Systems LLC, a leading global manufacturer of commercial laundry products and provider of services for laundromats, multi-housing laundries and on-premises laundries. To learn more, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1713622/Speed_Queen_Laundry_Store.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1522329/SQLS_Logo_2019_FIX_Logo.jpg



(PRNewsfoto/Alliance Laundry Systems)

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SOURCE Alliance Laundry Systems
(Bloomberg) -- The Taliban government urged major Islamic nations to push the U.S. to call off sanctions imposed on Afghanistan, saying the actions are exacerbating the refugee crisis and hurting its people.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The freezing of Afghan assets by the U.S. is in violation of human rights, while the suspension of development assistance by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has affected health, education and social services, according to acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. He was speaking at a special session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperations Council of Foreign Ministers in Pakistan.

We urge participants of this great gathering to remind U.S. officials that persecution of Afghans and weakening of the Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone, Muttaqi said.

The U.S. in August froze nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation. On Sunday, the White House said the status of these reserves are the subject of ongoing litigation brought by the victims of Sept. 11 and other terrorist attacks.

These legal proceedings cannot be disregarded and have led to the temporary suspension of any movement of the funds through at least the end of the year and quite possibly longer, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

The U.S. still faces difficult fundamental questions on these funds would be made available to the people of Afghanistan while ensuring the Taliban wont benefit, she added.

U.S. Freezes Nearly $9.5 Billion Afghanistan Central Bank Assets

While the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan in August, has yet to substantially address international concerns over the treatment of women and minorities, its leaders have sought help to contain the effects of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Story continues

According to the United Nations, more than half the countrys nearly 40 million people are facing acute hunger and a million children could die as the harsh winter sets in. It has also said as much as 97% of Afghanistan could be living in poverty by mid-2022, up from about 72% in 2020.

The United Nations Development Programme last month warned that the nations banking sector risks collapse due to worsening liquidity problems and a rise in non-performing loans, potentially adding to its growing humanitarian crisis.

(Updates with comments from U.S. government)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
BEIJING, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China's liquor producer Jiugui Liquor Co., Ltd. supported the comeback of the Shape of Culture season two, a cultural variety show featuring Chinese world heritage project promotion through exclusive sponsorship.

A poster previews the 12 world heritages in China in the second season of the Shape of Culture sponsored by Jiugui Liquor.

The show is scheduled to broadcast at 9 p.m. Sunday introducing another 12 world heritage projects in China such as the Central Axis of Beijing and the Grand Canal compared to 12 heritage projects in the first season.

In this season, latest technologies such as drones and 3D animation are utilized to present the world heritage on the screen to help audience better understand followed the promotion on social media such as Weibo, Wechat and Tik Tok.

When it comes to culture promotion and inheritance, Jiugui Liquor, originated from central China's Hunan Province, has always aspired to lead the trend in liquor culture as a pioneer since the enterprise started from scratch. It has also beefed up efforts in spreading and inheriting liquor culture in many ways over years.

This year, Jiugui Liquor promoted a tour exhibition activity as a showcase to spread liquor culture across China with Chinese National Geography, China's most authoritative geographic magazine and conducted cooperation with each other to mull over promoting Hunan culture.

"Jiugui" literally means "drunkard" or "juice head" in mandarin Chinese, which represents a pursuit of freedom and a state of ease in west Hunan's local culture.

The original link can be visited here: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/325442.html

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SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road
ZeroFox, an enterprise threat intelligence cybersecurity startup that helps companies detect risks found on social media, has announced plans to become a publicly traded company via a merger with blank-check company L&F Acquisition.

As part of the transaction, Maryland-based ZeroFox  which has raised more than $154 million in funding since it was founded in 2013  will acquire IDX, a consumer privacy platform that claims to be America's largest provider of data breach response services.

The companys technology will be combined with the ZeroFox platform, an AI-powered service that aims to protect organizations against threats like scams, malicious links and account hijacking, to become a cybersecurity provider that addresses "the full lifecycle of external cyber threats and risks for its customers.

Since ZeroFox was founded in 2013, we have helped companies address emerging security challenges caused by the transformational shift to a digital everything world. This rapid digital transformation has made companies vulnerable to attackers, resulting in the highest breach rate the industry has ever seen, said ZeroFox chief executive James Foster. We believe that external cybersecurity must be a top-three priority and part of the critical security tech stack for chief information security officers because perimeter firewalls and internal endpoint agents alone are not enough to protect company assets and customers.

Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be renamed ZeroFox Holdings and will have more than 650 employees and almost 2,000 customers. The company is expected to be listed under the ticker symbol ZFOX, and the expected equity value of the combined entities is approximately $1.4 billion.
Commercial real estate analytics and research firm CoStar Group Inc. plans to build a 26-story office building along the James River in downtown Richmond, making it the citys tallest skyscraper.

The Washington-based company announced Friday that it plans to invest more than $460 million to expand its corporate campus to Richmond on vacant land adjacent to the nine-story building it acquired this year that is across from the entrance to Browns Island.

The new campus represents about 750,000 square feet of new office and retail space. The project is expected to add 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs to the 1,000-plus employees that CoStar has here now, said Andrew C. Florance, CoStars founder and CEO.

With the growth of the business, I imagined it could be 3,000 new jobs potentially, but thats a potential, Florance said.

In addition to the 26-story office tower, CoStar plans to construct a six-story multipurpose building to be used as a central location for employee amenities, including conference facilities, fitness and wellness, auditorium, and mixed-use retail and restaurant spaces.

Once the project is completed, CoStar will occupy about 1 million square feet of office space in downtown Richmond.

Construction on the office tower and other building should begin sometime next year and be ready in 2024, Florance said.

Gov. Ralph Northam made the announcement Friday morning. Their continued success is a direct result of our attractive business climate and dynamic workforce found across the state, he said in a statement.

CoStar moved its global research headquarters into the building at 501 S. Fifth St.  it is next to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmonds office tower  in late 2016 and early 2017. It acquired that building for $130 million in January and now occupies all but one floor, which is temporarily used by packaging giant WestRock.

The new CoStar tower will be 510 feet tall, surpassing the James Monroe state office tower at 101 N. 14th St., which is 449 feet tall or 29 floors, according to Skyscraperpages website. Dominion Energy Inc.s new 600 Canal Place building at 111 S. Sixth St. is 417 feet tall or 20 floors.

The CoStar tower and the six-story multipurpose building will be on the now-vacant 3.89 acres at 600 Tredegar St., which CoStar bought in August 2020 for $20 million.

The new space in both buildings will include offices for sales, marketing, software development, customer service and support functions.

***

Even though CoStar will keep its headquarters in the District of Columbia, the Richmond buildings will be the companys largest complex of employees.

Florance jokingly called his companys plans Little HQ2 since online retail giant Amazon dubbed its East Coast headquarters in Northern Virginia as HQ2.

Besides, Florance and Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder and now chairman, were lab partners at Princeton University, noting how odd it was that Bezos would have HQ2 in Virginia and he had Little HQ2 also in Virginia.

Florance said he picked Richmond for his companys largest office complex because of the regions deep pool of diverse, highly skilled workers, a vibrant culture of innovation and a wonderful quality of life for our existing and future employees.

The new office tower will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum certified, he said. For instance, the siding on the structure will be solar panels that should generate a significant amount of energy to be used by the building, Florance said.

The architect is William Chilton with Pickard Chilton, the same architect who designed the nearby Dominion Energy Inc.s 20-story 600 Canal Place building.

Timber will be used to construct the six-story multipurpose building rather than steel or concrete, which Florance said produces more negative carbon. It is a very responsible way to develop a building, he said.

That smaller building also will have about 1.25 acres of decks providing employees with an outdoor environment.

Plans also call for adding restaurants and retail space along Tredegar Street in that building.

We want to bring that street alive, Florance said. We feel blessed to be on this site with so much rich culture and history and so much civic events and cultural events. We want to be good stewards of that, and we want to make it a part of its success.

***

CoStar needed a larger building as it continues to grow here. The company initially expected to employ about 730 people when it moved its research operations here. But CoStar kept adding employees locally.

It now has more than 1,000 people and expects to add 2,000 to 3,000 more to its Richmond operations over the next couple of years with this new complex of buildings, Florance said.

Earlier this year, CoStar began renting 2 floors in the east building of Riverfront Plaza to accommodate more workers.

This summer, it began leasing the entire Pattern Building at Historic Tredegar next to the American Civil War Museum. The historic Pattern Building is about a block from CoStars research offices.

Even though many companies continue to have employees work remotely or some hybrid approach because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Florance said about 90% of CoStar employees are back working at the Richmond office. He remains bullish on the corporate workplace, saying the office is not doomed.

The reality is you cant replace the collaboration, innovation and connections you build and the learning you have when you actually get together and work together face to face, Florance said. People got used to that new normal [of working from home], but that new normal of working from home was not nearly as effective. What we found is were actually safely back to work here in this building. Our staff are back to work [here], and they love it. They missed those connections.

***

CoStars current building opened in 2009 as the headquarters for MeadWestvaco Corp., which merged in 2015 with Norcross, Ga.-based RockTenn Co. to create WestRock. In the years after the merger, WestRock downsized its space in the building and moved its corporate offices to Atlanta.

The WestRock and CoStar names had been on the sides of the building until the past couple of months when WestRock moved all of its operations out of three floors of the nine-story building. All that remains for WestRock is one floor for laboratory space.

WestRock is relocating its offices to a new 75,000-square-foot building at 2742 Charles City Road, which should be ready by next summer, a company spokesperson said. The new offices are adjacent to WestRocks corrugated box plant and research facility.

New labs are under construction at the location, and that part of the operation will vacate the downtown building when the new space is ready, the spokesperson said.
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A Spotsylvania County man has been charged with second-degree murder in the weekend shooting death of his roommate, who he says he mistook for a burglar, authorities said.

Terrence Oliver Smith, 37, is also charged with possessing a firearm as a felon, discharging a firearm from a dwelling causing death, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and possessing a stolen firearm. The gun believed to have been used in the shooting had been stolen in May from someone in Stafford County, according to the Spotsylvania Sheriffs Office.

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The victim was identified as 28-year-old Dequan Calvin Thomas. Spotsylvania Sheriffs Maj. Troy Skebo said Thomas relatives live in the southwestern part of the United States and were finally notified Sunday about the slaying, which occurred early Saturday.

Skebo said deputies went to the 6600 block of Wagon Drive in the Meadows Mobile Home Park after receiving a 911 call at 2:10 a.m. Saturday. Once there, they found Thomas suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper body.

Lifesaving attempts were unsuccessful, Skebo said, and Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene.
This year will be remembered for a lot of reasons, but in the local transportation world 2021 is when two major projects opened to traffic.

The Chatham Bridge rehabilitation is one project area drivers were happy to see end, although repairs on the piers are still being completed. The southbound Interstate 95 Rappahannock River crossing also opened to traffic this year.

The southbound crossings three new lanes and a new bridge over the Rappahannock River opened to vehicles in October. Work continues on portions of the project, but it was a big change.

Southbound I-95 traffic is now divided just south of Centreport Parkway in Stafford County. At that point, intestate traffic heading through Fredericksburg stays in the left three lanes. Traffic heading to the U.S. 17 interchange, the rest area and Virginia Welcome Center, or the State Route 3 interchange in Fredericksburg, stays in the right lane.

The separated interstate lanes merge south of Route 3 in Spotsylvania County.

The $132 million crossing project started on the southbound side of I95 in August 2018.
Several communities in Stafford County got some good news during the final Board of Supervisors meeting of 2020.

Supervisors last Tuesday unanimously approved a revised VDOT proposal for Leeland Road that brings to a close a summer-long debate between Leeland Station residents and local VDOT officials.

Last February, homeowners in the Leeland Station subdivision started to seek answers about a proposed $2.8 million 10-foot-wide bicycle path that VDOT planned to run through their backyards, taking mature trees and a fence with it.

Gina McVicker, who lives in one of the homes that would have been impacted by the project, said she first heard about the VDOT plans after receiving a letter in mid-February from an eminent domain attorney in Arlington. She checked further and found the plan also called for an 18-inch pipe through her backyard along with the removal of 12 mature trees from her property.

McVicker helped form a community alliance that ultimately changed the projects path.
In 1969, Holton became the first Republican elected governor of Virginia since 1881. His election began decades of robust two-party competition as Virginia threw off vestiges of the segregationist Democratic machine of Harry F. Byrd Sr.

From Holtons election to the election of Republican Youngkin on Nov. 2, Virginians have elected seven Republican governors and seven Democratic governors.

Holton was the father-in-law of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a Democrat who served as governor from 2006 to 2010. Anne Holton, another of the late governors four children, lived in the Executive Mansion as a child and then again as first lady.

Holton, born in Big Stone Gap, was renowned for his political perseverance. He lost two campaigns for the House of Delegates in the 1950s and his first bid for governor in 1965, but defeated Democrat William Battle for governor in 1969.

He and his wife, Virginia Harrison Rogers, known as Jinks, married in 1953.
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The week after Thanksgiving, Dr. Joseph Forrester stood by the bedside of a man who'd been in the intensive care unit at the Medical Center of
Children's Hospital Colorado continues to see high volumes of pediatric patients, with an influx of mental health patients to emergency rooms causing the hospital to sometimes open up overflow space in a tent outside of the building.
On Dec. 20, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Director Molly Anderegg and Dean of NIACC Continuing Education Patti Hanson updated Hancock County supervisors on RSVP programs and made their budget request for the next fiscal year.

Anderegg said the budget request amount is not changed from last year. RSVP requested $5,000 last December, which supervisors later approved. It is a program for people ages 55 and older, who want to volunteer in their community.

RSVP of North Central Iowa is the volunteer organization that has helped several area communities and schools, including West Hancock, Garner, Forest City, and Lake Mills.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization assisted via some innovative means, working online with West Hancock students as well as the Cerro Gordo Emergency Management Call Center.

But now RSVP volunteers have largely returned to the schools to work with students in person.

"We feel volunteers are such an important piece of our communities," Hanson said. "The volunteers are back serving in schools. Teachers and principals have welcomed them back with open arms. Everyone is happy to be as status quo as possible."

Anderegg noted that some volunteers continue to express some hesitancy about returning in-person due to COVID-19 concerns. She said those volunteers are being allowed flexibility to ease back into the schedule at their own pace and are able to take time off until they feel ready.

"COVID shined a light on the importance of RSVP volunteers," Anderegg said. "Student reading scores were adversely impacted. The residual effects of COVID are so big on teachers, educators, and students. Emotional support is a big factor as well. We are so glad almost everyone is back. People are back and serving a lot of students through Pen Pals and Reading Buddies (RSVP programs)."

Hanson noted that while there were less RSVP volunteers, the number of volunteer hours were not significantly down. In addition, a volunteer center was created at NIACC to help get students involved with volunteer efforts. She said RSVP volunteers are encouraged each year to refer other people as volunteers.

RSVP of North Central Iowa also has a new volunteer coordinator, Alison Mason, who began her new duties earlier this year. She has been working hard to help recruit new volunteers. The local organization held its Pen Pals kickoff at local libraries this year, including Garner. The program helps students practice writing, increase literacy skills, and build positive multi-generational relationships with RSVP volunteers.

"Your volunteers are good and it's hard to get them," supervisor Sis Greiman said. "It's a good program."

Hanson said that since volunteers are typically older, there still is a lack of online skills and social media engagement with some, but that the volunteer base, and that particular dynamic, is changing for the better. She said the organization is seeking to hire a new community education coordinator by sometime early next year to serve the area and work in Garner.

Supervisors took no action on the budget request during the meeting. The request will be considered as part of the county's upcoming budget process.

In other business, supervisors authorized the county auditor to to sign a Moodys finance rating application as part of the bond process for several upcoming county projects.

Rob Hillesland is community editor for the Summit-Tribune. He can be reached at 641-421-0534, or by email at rob.hillesland@globegazette.com.

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For only $22, people can drive through Rolling Acres and stock up on goods.

Ruby's Pantry has filled cupboards throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota for 18 years. Last September, its food distribution trailers began making their way to Rolling Acres Christian Reformed Church in Mason City.

Ruby's Pantry is a monthly drive-through food-distribution program that "anyone who eats" qualifies for, according to their website. There is no income or residency requirement.

Ruby's pantry relies on corporate food donations, which they distribute throughout their locations to provide people with food shares that value up to $200, according to site leader Geri Berding.

According to its website, Ruby's mission is: "to activate people in being alert to the needs of others and to be proactive in encouraging faith, showing friendship and meeting tangible needs of neighbors, friends and strangers regardless of race, religion or ethnicity."

"I think for me one of the highlights is seeing the smiles on their faces. It's amazing the stories we hear from people," said Berding. "We're able to be a blessing to people and that's the whole thing."

With the cost of food growing almost 7% since last November, the need for affordable food options grows too. "During the pandemic, we were trying to find ways to make our dollar stretch a little bit further," said Head of Promotions Nick Kmoch.

Kmoch's wife, Amber, reached out to see if Ruby's Pantry would be willing to start a site in Iowa, and both Rolling Acres and Ruby's Pantry were willing to give it a shot.

"(Amber) heard about Ruby's Pantry in Minnesota, but it was a big haul just to get some groceries," said Kmoch.

During the first distribution in September, Kmoch said they would have been happy with 200 cars coming through, but they ended up hitting the 400 mark instead. Four months later, Ruby's Pantry has been a great success, Kmoch said.

On Tuesday, a semi truck full of food arrived, and more than 30 volunteers got to work right away packing shares for distribution. "We've got volunteers that aren't from our church," said Berding. "One month we had Boy Scouts over here." As volunteers pack, cars start lining the streets.

"I'm sure it has plenty of benefit to a lot of people," said Jody, a first-time volunteer at Ruby's Pantry. Jody came from Faith Baptist to help bag produce after meeting a volunteer organizer at work.

Lyn Sahr, founder of Ruby's Pantry, said when the program was in its infancy, their faith was already being tested.

"Friday came, the day before the first distribution for both of these sites, but Ruby's had no food, not even a slice of bread," Sahr said. He said he came to the office early and called everyone he knew of to try to get food that day. No one had any.

Sahr said he walked from the office back into the empty warehouse and said, "God you have a big problem. I never even thought about doing anything like this and this was your idea, not mine. So tomorrow I will go to both of these distributions and tell them the truth, 'you did not provide.'"

Sahr said he walked back in the office and sat down, and within about 10 minutes, the phone started ringing from companies who had food.

He said food was hauled until 8:00 p.m., and Ruby's Panty has never looked back and has never run out of food again.

Since that day, Ruby's Pantry has grown to supply 80 monthly Pop-Up Pantry locations, with Mason City being the only location in Iowa. On Tuesday, Dec. 14, Ruby's Pantry in Mason City held their last distribution of 2021. They had 200 shares available, and sold out before 6 p.m.

"There's so much food waste that goes into the world today. And the biggest challenge isn't necessarily having the food, we have the food, we just got to figure out the logistics of bringing it to people's bellies," Kmoch said. "So Ruby's pantry is kind of that bridge that helps go from what would just go into a dumpster. You know what is perfectly good food gets thrown away and instead it can go to people in need and it's a great way to help the community."

Ruby's Pantry, at Rolling Acres Christian Reformed Church, 341 19th Street SW, will hold its next distribution on Jan. 11, from 4:30-6 p.m., or until the food is gone. Distribution is drive-through, and trunk space is needed to allow volunteers to load each share, and transactions are cash-only.

Signs and volunteers will guide people through the parking lot on South Jefferson Avenue. Available food is shared on Ruby's Pantry - Mason City Facebook page the day before distribution.

Each share requires a $22 cash donation.

Gretchen Burnette is a Weeklies Editor and Daily Reporter at the Globe Gazette. You can reach her by phone at 641.421.0523 or at Gretchen.Burnette@GlobeGazette.com

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Typically in a federal trial, a jury would be pulled from Glynn County, which includes Brunswick, and six neighboring counties.

Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the courthouse he's fine with a jury coming from a wider area of the state.

It don't matter, because the evidence is overwhelming, he said.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck after they spotted Arbery running past their home on a Sunday afternoon last year. They later told police they suspected he was a burglar, though they did not see him committing any crimes.

Bryan joined the chase in his own truck, telling police he used the vehicle to force Arbery into a ditch and cut off his escape from the subdivision. He used his cellphone to record video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery as he tried to run around the McMichaels idling truck.

Travis McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense after the running man attacked him and tried to grab his gun. Defense attorneys said the three men had reasonable grounds to suspect Arbery was a criminal and wanted only to detain him until police could arrive.
Posted 1:18 p.m.

ROCKY MOUNT  A fire ripped through a distribution center in North Carolina for the QVC home-shopping television network early Saturday, causing extensive damage to the facility, officials said.

More than 300 employees were working at the facility near Rocky Mount when the fire was reported shortly after 2 a.m., The News & Observer reported. No injuries were immediately reported.

QVC representatives reported that all employees safely evacuated the warehouse and were accounted for except for one who hadn't contacted family yet, according to Edgecombe County Manager Eric Evans. Earlier Saturday, Evans had said all of the center's employees appeared to be accounted for.

QVC said in a subsequent statement that it was working with local authorities to confirm the safety of all employees and contractors at the site. It said it had close to 2,000 "team members" working at the complex, spread over three shifts.

Evans said a "main section" of the 1.2 million-square-foot facility appears to be destroyed. Crews from nearly 45 fire departments were still fighting the blaze more than 12 hours after it began.
The delegation was received in Qamishlo city by the Deputy- co chairmanship of the Department of Foreign Relations, Fanar Al-Kait, and a member of the Administrative Board, Sana Daham, according to the official website of the Department of Foreign Relations in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

The Sudanese delegation was headed by the Charge d'Affairs of the Sudanese Embassy in Damascus, Tariq Abdullah, Imad Al-Din Ahmed, an advisor at the embassy, and Mohammad Siddiq Bashir, the administrative director at the embassy, according to the website.

During the meeting that took place today, the two sides talked about many political and economic issues, in particular the Arab role in resolving the Syrian crisis.

At the outset, the delegation was presented in a general manner in NE, Syria. The Deputy- co chairmanship, Fanar al-Kait, explained that AANES project was aimed at the unity of Syria and its people and did not threaten the security and stability of neighbouring countries. which is a model for a solution to build a new, democratic, decentralized Syria as a common homeland for all Syrians with all their components. With great sacrifices, they have been able to liberate one third of Syria's territory from terrorism. All components have contributed to eliminating terrorism and ensuring stability in the region.

In the context of the Arab role in resolving the Syrian crisis, Fanar al-Kait said: "We hope that there will be efforts by the Arab States to contribute to a genuine solution to the Syrian crisis at the expense of the role played by some regional States, such as Turkey and Iran, which play a negative role and deepen the crisis in Syria."

With regard to the Al-Hol and Roj Camps, al-Kait noted the danger of children and women remaining in those camps, where they are brought up on the ideology of terrorism, which helps ISIS to organize its ranks again, and added: "It is important that the international community assume its humanitarian duties towards its citizens and support the Autonomous Administration to improve the situation of the camps prisons, and the establishment of rehabilitation centers to curb terrorism and bring peace and stability to the region.

The two sides also discussed the humanitarian situation, the file of refugees and IDPS, and work mechanisms to return them to their areas.

T/S

ANHA
" " Too many photos and emails on your computer, phone or "in the cloud" can be stressful. Dan Brownsword/Getty Images

At last count, my wife and I have more than 12,000 photos and 1,300 videos in our two iCloud storage accounts, plus thousands of more family photos and movies scattered across a half dozen external hard drives that may or may not be functional. I have two active email accounts with a total of more than 28,000 read messages and 6,000 unread messages. I am the owner of two free Google Drive accounts, each with a 15 gigabyte capacity, plus 2 terabytes of iCloud storage that I paid for at some point and have no idea why.

I am, in other words, typical. According to a 2018 paper from Monash University in Australia, the average modern man and woman has access to 3.7 terabytes of digital storage space, either on a physical device or in the cloud. In 2017 alone, we human beings took an estimated 4.7 trillion photos on our smartphones, and Facebook uploads 300 million digital photos every day at a clip of 136,000 per second.

Advertisement

Powered by the availability of cheap, nearly infinite digital storage space, and an insatiable appetite for recording and sharing the minutiae of our daily lives, the digital detritus is piling up at an alarming rate. If all of our digital photos, music files, unread emails and ancient PDFs were physical objects, then we would all deserve our very own episode of "Hoarders."

In fact, there's growing speculation in psychological research circles that our collective digital hoarding of countless pics, video clips and emails may produce some of the same negative effects as the real-world hoarding of old newspapers, expired cans of food and cats.

Traditional hoarding disorder, first recognized as a distinct mental illness in 2013, is believed to affect 4 to 5 percent of the global population, according to the Monash University paper. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines hoarding disorder by several criteria, including:

persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of actual value

urge to save items and distress associated with discarding them

accumulation of possessions that renders living spaces unusable due to congestion and clutter

hoarding behavior that causes "significant clinical distress" and impairment of social and work life, and poses a safety hazard

The authors of the Monash University paper, define digital hoarding along similar lines, minus the physical menace of a house brimming with trash. "Digital hoarding," they write in the study, "is defined as the acquisition of and failure to discard or effectively manage digital content regardless of its use, leading to the accumulation of digital clutter."

Digital Hoarding Versus Real-world Hoarding

Digital hoarding is nowhere close to becoming a diagnosable mental illness like traditional hoarding disorder, but if further research establishes that digital clutter is just as damaging as the real thing, the co-authors write, it could affect "a large percentage of the world's population, leading to substantial psychological illnesses, social problems and economic losses."

Clearly, there are some big differences between digital and real-world hoarding. No matter how many digital files you amass, they will never pose a physical risk to your health and well-being like a precariously towering stack of newspapers or a pile of rotting garbage in the living room.

But psychology professor Liz Sillence and her colleagues at Northumbria University in the UK found that digital hoarding can be psychologically and emotionally distressing in its own right. For a 2018 paper, Sillence and her fellow researchers asked a group of 45 adults about their digital hoarding habits and identified clear signs of stress and anxiety triggered by the runaway accumulation of emails, photos, work files and more.

One participant described her growing digital hoard as "stressful. Although not actually taking up physical space, it 'feels' clutter like."

Another described the difficulty of trashing old files. "It would be really hard for me to delete any documents, music or photographs. Particularly photos, I love my pictures, they are one of the devices I use to pick myself up is to look over past photographs whilst listening to music. To delete any of the above would be really unnerving for me because there is a feeling of the data being lost forever."

This emotional connection with digital files is a source of both comfort and anxiety, explains Sillence, much in the same way that traditional hoarders place emotional value on items that others classify as trash.

"I think the relationship we can have with our 'digital stuff' can be complex," writes Sillence in an email. "Even if people felt they didn't look through their photos or songs very often, simply knowing they were there and they could look through them if they wanted to was comforting. The idea that they might have to get rid of everything or the idea that one day it might just be gone because of some sort of computer glitch caused most people to feel quite stressed."

The study participants also identified a second type of stress associated with unmanageable amounts of digital files, particularly at work. A disorganized inbox or hard drive cost them productivity, which added to their anxiety.

"They felt overwhelmed, lacked a clear strategy for searching and felt that it was easy to get lost in their digital files," writes Sillence.

Both Sillence and the handful of other scientists who have explored the impact of digital hoarding believe we need much more research on its potential psychological impact. While it's not likely to pose an acute mental health threat like traditional hoarding, the raw number of people affected by persistent levels of digital hoarding anxiety could be staggering.

Now That's an Idea Decluttering guru Marie Kondo has her own tricks for cleaning up your digital life, including a desktop folder named (what else?) "Spark Joy" and a weekly purge of her iPhone.
Jamison Gray Devine: 2012 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to five years, all suspended. Felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, dismissed by court. Misdemeanor theft, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six months in jail all suspended. Misdemeanor criminal trespass to vehicles, dismissed by the court. Misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six months and two days in jail with six months suspended. Suspended sentences revoked in 2020 and 2021. Felony theft dropped by prosecutor.

Jonathan Wade Wallace: 2011 felony criminal mischief, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to four years all suspended, previously a deferred imposition of sentence. Suspended sentence revoked in 2021.

Tamara Joline Furlong: 2015 felony DUI (fourth offense), dropped by prosecutor. Felony operating a vehicle with a 0.08% BAC, alternative charge, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six years one month with five years suspended. Revoked in 2021.

Darren Joseph Antonio: 2016 felony aggravated assault, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to 10 years in jail with five years suspended. Felony criminal endangerment, dismissed by the court. Revocation of suspended sentence dropped in 2021.

Joshua Allan Liapis: 2016 felony burglary, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in jail. Misdemeanor theft, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six months all suspended. Suspended sentence revoked in 2021.

Carlos Jjuan Chandler: 2017 felony assault with a weapon amended to felony criminal endangerment, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to two years suspended. Revoked in 2021.

Robert Raymond Fasuga: 2018 felony intimidation, felony theft, misdemeanor theft, felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, misdemeanor criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor paraphernalia possession, all dropped by prosecutor. Felony custodial interference, dropped by prosecutor. Fasuga was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison in federal court.

Michael Lee Roope: 2019 felony assault with a weapon, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to 10 years all suspended. Three counts of felony assault with a weapon, dropped by prosecutor. Suspended sentence revoked in 2021.

Tyler Mitchell Bummer: 2019 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to five years all suspended. Misdemeanor criminal possession of marijuana and misdemeanor paraphernalia possession, dropped by prosecutor.

Joshua Lee DeGeorgio: 2019 felony criminal mischief, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years all suspended. Revoked in 2021.

Thea Marie Dupre: 2019 felony assault on a minor, amended to misdemeanor negligent endangerment. Sentenced to one year all suspended.

Anthony Robert Rodriguez: 2019 felony burglary, dropped by prosecutor. Felony theft, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to seven years all suspended. Felony bail jumping, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to five years all suspended. Second count of felony bail jumping dropped by prosecutor. Revocation dropped by prosecutor in 2021.

Justin James Fifield: 2020 felony intimidation, dropped by the prosecutor.

Kaitlyn Dawn Polich: 2020 felony theft, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years all suspended. Felony criminal endangerment, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to eight years in jail with three suspended. Felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in jail. Misdemeanor marijuana possession, dropped by prosecutor.

Rodney Robert Smith: 2020 felony assault with a weapon, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor assault amended to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, pleaded guilty. Misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon, dropped by prosecutor.

Jason Leo Rose: 2021 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, deferred imposition of sentence. Misdemeanor paraphernalia possession, dropped by prosecutor.

Colby Allen Sammons: 2021 felony assault on a minor, remanded to lower court.

Zarin Jon Richerson: 2021 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, deferred imposition of sentence. Misdemeanor DUI, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six months all suspended.

Joshua Allen Breezley: 2021 felony strangulation of a partner or family member, dropped by the prosecutor. Felony assault with a weapon, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor partner or family member assault, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor violation of a no contact order, dropped by prosecutor.

Danika Marie Mongar-Kaufman: 2021 felony PFMA, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor destruction of a communication device, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession, dropped by prosecutor.

Kimberly Michelle Brannon: 2021 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years all suspended.

Shane Daniel Cope: 2021 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years, all suspended. Misdemeanor criminal possession of paraphernalia and misdemeanor resisting arrest, both dropped by prosecutor.

Zepha Laura Personette: 2021 felony theft of property, deferred imposition of sentence.

Collin Spinks: 2021 felony kidnapping amended to felony criminal endangerment, pleaded guilty. Sentenced to 10 years with five years suspended. Misdemeanor failure to have a child under six properly restrained, fined $100. Misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, dropped by prosecutor. Misdemeanor criminal trespass, misdemeanor violation of a no contact order and misdemeanor criminal mischief, all pleaded guilty. Sentenced to six months all suspended for each charge.

Twila Lyn Black: 2021 felony theft, remanded to lower court.

Christa Elfrida Chapman: 2021 felony partner or family member assault, dropped by prosecutor.

Darren Joseph Antonio: 2021 felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor paraphernalia possession, both dropped by prosecutor.

Robert Edward Moyer: 2021 felony extradition.

Dawn Kirsten Andrade: 2021 felony extradition.

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St. Peter's Health is no longer under crisis standards of care, moving to a "contingency standards of care" level of operations, the Helena hospital announced Monday.

The local health care system describes operations as a step down from crisis standards of care, but still not operations as usual.

St. Peter's Health declared it was under crisis standards of care in mid-September, as the facility faced an unprecedented surge of patients experiencing complications from COVID-19.

"Our move away from crisis standards of care is not an on/off switch, it is more like a dimmer switch as the situation on the ground changes," St. Peter's Chief Medical Officer and President of the Regional Medical Center Dr. Shelly Harkins said in a press release. "Our status can change quickly based on the current number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, staffing, availability of other resources like medications, and more."

Hospital leaders decided to change the designation based on several factors, but the significant reduction of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 drove the change.

"Recently, we've seen under 10 community members hospitalized with COVID-19 at St. Peter's each day," St. Peter's COVID-19 Response Team Public Information Officer Katie Gallagher said.

During the height of the pandemic in fall 2021, it was not uncommon for the hospital to admit 20 to 30 COVID-19 patients a day, peaking at 44 patients in a single day in mid-October, which represented over 50% of adult, inpatient medical beds, the press release states.

The 2020 Crisis Standards of Care document from the State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services helps guide health care providers in times of resource scarcity. The guidance puts health care resources into four primary buckets: space, staffing, standard of care and supplies.

"St. Peter's is currently not facing the space or supply constraints we saw just a few weeks ago," Harkins said in the press release.

However, the local health care organization is still facing significant staffing challenges in all areas.

"We are not immune to the current workforce shortages in health care and most industries," Harkins said, adding that staff are working hard to "keep all services open and provide high-quality health care around the clock."

All COVID-19 precautions remain in place at St. Peter's Health facilities, including universal masking and visitor limitations.

Though COVID-19 case numbers, the test positivity rate and local hospitalizations have declined, hospital staff said they are concerned about the emergence of the omicron variant.

The state's first case of the variant was reported Monday.

According to data from Lewis and Clark Public Health, the county's test positivity rate, or the percentage of tests administered that are positive, was 25% around mid-November, meaning 1 in 4 people tested had contracted the virus. That number fell to 16% between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6.

The average of new cases per day has declined fairly steadily since fall and sits at 8.4 over the past seven days.

"We are learning new things about the omicron variant every day," St. Peter's Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Anne Anglim said in the press release. "There are certain things that we know for certain, like the fact that it is the most contagious variant we've seen so far, significantly more contagious than the Delta variant. The sheer infectiousness of the virus and the number of people who may become seriously ill at the same time could quickly once again overwhelm hospitals in Montana."

According to Anglim, in addition to basic precautions, the most important thing people can do right now is get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Local public health data shows as of Dec. 14, 67% of Lewis and Clark County residents are at least partially vaccinated, 60% are fully vaccinated, and 26% have received a booster dose.

Get your first dose if you haven't. Make time to get your second dose if you've put it off. And importantly, if you're eligible, get the booster dose as soon as possible, Anglim said.

Around 17,000 Lewis and Clark County residents are eligible to receive their booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Eligibility was expanded recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to include anyone 16 years of age or older who received the Pfizer vaccine series at least six months ago and anyone 18 years of age or older who received the Moderna vaccine at least six months ago.

Anyone who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine two months ago can now receive a booster dose, including a dose of an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna.

Vaccination appointments are available five days a week at St. Peter's Broadway Clinic by appointment for anyone 5 years of age or older at www.sphealth.org/covidvaccine.

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The state health department on Monday confirmed the omicron variant has been detected in Montana.

The sample that was confirmed through testing at the Montana State Public Health Laboratory and at Montana State University came from two state residents in their 30s who have travel history to South Africa. Omicron was first detected in South Africa and spread rapidly there, though that does not mean the variant developed there.

The Gallatin County residents were fully vaccinated and have had mild symptoms. One of the people had received a booster shot and the other had not yet. The individuals have been self-isolating since returning to Montana.

The Associated Press reported Monday that omicron is the dominant variant in the U.S., overtaking delta and making up 73% of new infections reported in the last week. That's up from about 13% of new infections reported the week of Dec. 11, the AP said.

In Montana, the delta variant had accounted for nearly all cases in the state since July, when it triggered a major surge that had recently slowed.

This is not a surprise as nearly every other state has reported Omicron cases in recent weeks, Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Adam Meier said in a press release. We continue to urge all Montanans to use all available tools to stay healthy this winter, including getting your COVID-19 vaccine and booster and taking other measures to prevent the spread of the virus."

Montana is one of the last states to report detecting omicron.

While the state health department and Gov. Greg Gianforte's administration have encouraged people to get vaccinated through public statements and public service announcements, the state Legislature passed a bill Gianforte signed earlier this year banning employers including hospitals from requiring vaccines. Lawmakers also enacted laws that limit the ability of public health officials to institute public health measures like mask mandates.

Montana's vaccination rate has remained at about 52% of the eligible population, lagging the national rate. While data is still preliminary and will evolve as more is learned about omicron, early information shows getting a booster shot offers the best protection. The AP reported that even without boosters, those who are fully vaccinated have better protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19.

Data from the state health department shows demand for boosters or third doses have made up the majority of shots administered in Montana since early October.

Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show how rapidly omicron took over in the rest of the country. In November, delta made up 99.5% of all cases nationwide, but omicron's numbers marked a six-fold increase, the AP reported.

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Todays Highlight in History:

On Dec. 20, 1987, more than 4,300 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.

On Dec. 20:

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.

In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.

In 1864, Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Georgia, as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman nearly completed his March to the Sea.

In 1924, Adolf Hitler was released from prison after serving nine months for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

In 1946, the Frank Capra film Its A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, had a preview showing for charity in New York, a day before its official world premiere.

In 1963, the Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.

In 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

In 1995, an American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, slammed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over from the United Nations.

In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded heterosexual couples.

In 2002, Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks.

In 2005, a federal judge ruled that intelligent design could not be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, delivering a stinging attack on the Dover Area School Board.

In 2011, Lori Berenson, an American paroled after 15 years behind bars in Peru for aiding leftist guerrillas, arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport for her first visit home since her arrest in 1995. (After a 17-day visit, Berenson returned to Peru to serve out the rest of her parole; she was expelled from Peru on Dec. 2, 2015 and returned to the U.S.)

In 2016, President Barack Obama designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing. A deadly chain-reaction explosion ripped through Mexicos best-known fireworks market on the northern outskirts of the capital, killing at least 36 people. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was injured in her playing hand by a knife-wielding attacker at her Czech Republic home and underwent surgery. (The attacker was sentenced to 11 years in prison.)

In 2017, Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, died in Rome at the age of 86; his failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood had triggered a crisis in American Catholicism.

In 2020, the Trump campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the November presidential election; a petition asked the Supreme Court to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots, and also asked that the state General Assembly be allowed to pick its own slate of electors. Several European Union nations banned flights from the U.K. and others were considering such action, all in hopes of blocking a new strain of coronavirus sweeping across southern England from establishing a strong foothold on the continent.

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ROSELLE  Not many people returning home from the hospital are accompanied by more than 80 police officers, emergency vehicles and even a garbage truck.

But that is how Bensenville police Officer Steven Kotlewski arrived at his in-laws' home in Roselle in a wheelchair Saturday after 42 days in a rehabilitation center, ABC-7 in Chicago reports. Kotlewski was shot nine times while responding to a domestic dispute six weeks ago.

"I kind of got shot the best nine possible ways a person can get shot," Kotlewski said. "Most of my injuries are just orthopedic. Just bones, man. With the exception of a few nerves, I mean, they say I'll be running again, so it's not much to be sad about, right?"

The incident occurred about 1 a.m. Nov. 6 when Kotlewski was dispatched to an apartment where a woman wanted help in getting her 21-year-old son, Kiante Tyler, to leave, police said. Kotlewski was talking to the woman when Tyler allegedly fired as many as 10 rounds, wounding the officer in both legs, the upper arm and back and damaging his spine, liver and a kidney.

Tyler was being held without bond in the DuPage County Jail on Sunday on attempted murder and aggravated battery charges. He is due to appear in court again Jan. 4 and a judge ordered that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine his fitness to offer a defense at trial.

"When I walked in that room and I seen him, I thought he was gone," Kotlewski's father, Arthur, said. "I'm grateful to God that he's back. I know God had something to do with it."

Kotlewski's future as a police officer is uncertain but he remains focused on what's immediately in front of him.

"It feels great to be here," he said.

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GLADE SPRING, Va.  Marilou Preston was just 21 when she started playing the piano at church. Now shes 86 and still making a joyful noise to the Lord on Sundays.

For the past 64 years, most of the morning worship services at Rock Spring Presbyterian Church in Glade Spring have included the piano and organ music of Preston.

She will retire at the end of the month as a volunteer who has served as organist perhaps longer than anyone at the church.

Its meant a lot to me. The church has depended on me, and Ive tried to be reliable and arrive on time, said Preston, who has rarely missed a Sunday worship service all these years.

The longtime organist became a member of Rock Spring Presbyterian Church in 1957, a year after she and her husband, Bob, were married. At the time, the church only had a piano, but after the death of a well-loved member of the congregation, Charles Brown Snodgrass, the church dedicated a new organ to his memory.

That was two organs ago. Preston now plays on the third organ the church has purchased.
Last week was an astonishing week for higher education news in Southwest Virginia.

Well start with the news that was more or less expected.

Radford Universitys Board of Visitors pledged that they would announce a new president before the end of the year, and they delivered. Bret Danilowicz, who has served for the past three years as the provost and vice president of academic affairs at Florida Atlantic University, will migrate north to take the post.

Danilowicz, who says hes in it for the long haul, faces numerous challenges.

The university wants to improve its graduation rate. State Council of Higher Education for Virginia statistics show that the number of freshmen who graduate Radford in four years has hovered at about 40% for more than a decade.

Compare that to neighboring Virginia Tech, with more than twice as many students, where the rate has risen to 64%. The graduation rate at FAU increased dramatically during Danilowiczs time there. Hopefully, Radford will see the same.

Danilowicz also arrives swathed in praise for his efforts at improving academic standards at FAU and diversifying the student body.
As he spoke with a room of dairy producers and farm organization representatives at a Wisconsin dairy farm last Thursday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack emphasized that if a change is going to come to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders, it must come from consensus within the dairy industry.

The challenge, I think, for us, isnt so much a willingness to do because were willing to try; were willing to look for ways to help dairy. The challenge is to make sure were doing it in a way that gains consensus within the dairy industry, he said.

Frankly, I think its up to the dairy industry itself to work through this process. Rather than us at USDA trying to dictate what we think the solution is going to be and maybe make a mistake so that Wisconsin thinks its great but Vermont thinks its horrible, you all need to work at this and come with a plan, the Secretary advised.

Dairy looks different and has different priorities across the country, and Vilsack recognized that consensus and compromise is not a simple process. But he also noted that its not realistic to ask lawmakers to choose one perspective over another because their support often comes from both groups. A proposal that suits multiple groups would find favor in his office, he said.

Dairy needs to get in a room and say, Look, this is not a sustainable process. Were not happy with the overall results here. How do we change it? And I suspect it would be a very interesting conversation, Vilsack said. But if you all can do that and then come to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and say, This is what we think, collectively, will work, then I think youd find the department very anxious to provide the help and assistance to get it done.

The only way this works is for the industry to do the hard job of listening to one another, he continued.

In regard to the specific issue of supply management that is sometimes proposed, Vilsack noted that in Canada where it is used, consumers pay significantly more for dairy products. If the U.S. wanted to adopt a system like that, it would have to include a way that consumers did not pay for the support because they would easily be able to move to a product other than dairy with the variety available in the current marketplace.

Farm viability

Vilsacks comments came in a shop at Hinchleys Dairy Farm in Cambridge, Wis., a 220-cow operation managed by Tina and Duane Hinchley and their daughter, Anna. He first toured the farms freestall barn outfitted with four automatic milking systems and spoke with Tina and Anna about the past and future of their operation.

Other area dairy farmers as well as industry leaders later took the opportunity to address Vilsack during the open forum, with many expressing thanks for the recent updates to the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program. Questions about additional factors of dairy farm profitability, including rising input and labor costs, value-added dairy innovation, exports, and supply chain issues, were also raised to the Secretary.

In regard to supply chain restrictions pushing up input costs, Vilsack reiterated that hours have been extended at some ports, which has provided some relief. The department is also looking into using some secondary ports on the West Coast that he described as better fits for agricultural products.

He is optimistic that the recently passed infrastructure bill will not only prevent these types of issues in the future, but that it will provide good job opportunities for Americans to take advantage of. I hope we get back to a day when those who work with their hands are as well-respected and thought of as those who work with their heads, he shared.

When asked about the value of small and mid-sized farms, Vilsack emphasized the importance of having additional revenue streams for these operations to support their business. He identified opportunities such as climate smart practices, precision agriculture, conversion of waste products, and supporting local and regional food systems with value-added products.

He shared a statistic that illustrates the agricultural trend of consolidation and that he called troublesome: 89.6% of American farms today dont generate the majority of income for the people that farm them.

Over time, as we create more revenue streams and we create more information about how to be precise, our hope is that reduces that number and provides more hope and opportunity for folks who are small and mid-sized, Vilsack described.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2021

December 20, 2021
Get Comfortable in Los Alamos

As you plan your visit to Los Alamos, New Mexico, one of the Manhattan Projects secret cities, youll find an abundance of dining and lodging options. Use the link below to explore whats available.


The Tech Council of Australia and ACS will do good things together. Image: Shutterstock

The Tech Council of Australia and ACS are looking to build a relationship that benefits the Australian technology sector as the industry continues its rapid expansion.

Since its formation in August, the Tech Council has quadrupled its membership base and successfully publicised the need for more Australian technology workers, an issue ACS has been championing for years.

Tech Council CEO Kate Pounder told Information Age the industry organisation  which has members including the Australian arms of US tech giants Microsoft and Google along with local darlings Atlassian and Canva  wants to maintain a spirit of collaboration with professional bodies like ACS.

ACS has done a really great job in this space, she said.

It was the first body to recognise how tech workers scattered across our economy have been underestimated in terms of jobs impact, and theyve done some really pioneering work calculating exactly how many workers there are in Australia.

In October, the Tech Council published a report, in conjunction with global consultancy Accenture, which found there was need for another 286,000 technology workers in Australia by 2025, a target mirrored in ACS Australias Digital Pulse 2021.

This focus on using research to inform the agenda is part of why Pounder sees ACS as a natural collaborator with the Tech Council.

We like how ACS is research driven and there are many areas where our policies overlap, so I think there is a strong alignment in terms of the way we like to go about our work, she told Information Age.

We are in a unique position though in terms of the special dynamic between tech employees and companies because they are actually quite aligned.

They dont have many of the issues in other industries like exploitation or low wage growth which can mean industry groups and professional bodies can sometimes be at odds.

Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder. Image: Supplied

ACS CEO Rupert Grayston agreed that there was a strong alignment between the work of ACS and the Tech Council, saying he was looking forward to future collaboration.

Were excited to work closely with the Tech Council in ensuring that the local technology sector keeps growing to benefit both the 800,000 professional workers in Australia and the economy overall.

Together we can continue Australias progress toward being one of the most technologically-advanced countries on Earth.

Its equally important that this growth in our sector is combined with developing high levels of ethics and professional standards to minimise the potential harm of increasingly powerful technologies like artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, ACS published the Ethics and Risks of AI Decision-Making report which underscored the importance of professional standards when designing and implementing automated processes in corporate and governmental settings.

Similarly, ACS created a world-first data sharing framework designed as a way for organisations to release and use anonymised data without risking it could cause re-identification later down the line.

The efforts were led by outgoing ACS President Dr Ian Oppermann who implemented the research findings in his day-job as NSW Chief Data Scientist when the state began publishing COVID-19 case data at the start of the pandemic.

Pounder said she was a big fan of the work ACS has done around ethics and the use of data and that it was important to recognise the value of these standards and research to commercial bodies.

We have members who run a business-to-business subscription model and have really trusted relationships with their customers, Pounder said.

They have huge commercial incentive to use data governance standards and will be more cautious with data because if they use it inappropriately there are real economic consequences.

I would say the business community is very aligned on this, they take the use of data seriously and want to work out how to apply principles in practical contexts.
The vaccinations were by appointment and there were 1,000 available for each day of the clinic. Just more than 1,500 appointments had been filled by Friday and some appointment times were still available.
CHICAGO  A group of Chicago City Council members has signed a resolution to improve public access to restrooms.

The Chicago Tribune reports that 19 aldermen are supporting Alderman Daniel LaSpata's proposal after a review by the newspaper last fall found large sections of the city had few or no public access to restrooms.

"What jumps out for most people is that this is related primarily to homelessness, but really it's for all Chicagoans," LaSpata told the Tribune. "Anyone who's out for a run, any parent who's out with their child  and had an emergency need and felt like they had no options, this is a resolution promoting a solution for you."

The resolution charges the city council with developing a plan to increase the johns. More than 20 advocacy groups along with state officials back the idea.

Portable toilets installed at a Jefferson Park "L" station this year during a maintenance project were a hit, said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe.

The newspaper's review found that most barrier-free public bathrooms aren't open at night or close during cold months. The approximately 250 operated by the Chicago Transit Authority aren't open to non-riders.

Police have issued 29,000 tickets since 2016 to people caught relieving themselves outdoors.

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CHICAGO - When Illinois classrooms fully reopened for in-person learning this fall, teachers anticipated many of their students would need plenty of academic and emotional support to recover from 18 months of COVID-19 disruptions to their education.

But just three months into the new school year, pandemic-era quarantines and virus outbreaks have been upstaged by a surge in troubling student behavior that even veteran educators say is unlike anything they have witnessed during decades of teaching.

Every morning, one of our elementary school teachers has started putting on shin guards, as she knows her shins will take a beating from a student who has been kicking her, said Joe Blomquist, a teacher and union leader at St. Charles Community Unit School District 303.

Blomquist, an elementary school music teacher, said the number of incidents requiring crisis intervention in the districts elementary school classrooms this fall has already doubled from incidents reported during the entire school year pre-pandemic.

All of our staff do their best, and we really want to take care of our kids, so it breaks our hearts to see them in crisis, Blomquist said.

While virus rates have climbed in recent weeks, many educators in Illinois and across the U.S. are reporting the hardships posed by COVID-19 quarantines and school outbreaks this school year pale in comparison to dealing with the daily barrage of inappropriate student behavior erupting in their classrooms.

This fall, suburban Chicago educators have reported everything from violent assaults of teachers and frequent student fistfights, to a spate of menacing threats, which last week led to the arrest of a 12-year-old DuPage County student accused of posting a threatening message on social media, and a Woodstock High School student arrested for a school threat written on a bathroom stall.

And on Wednesday, a 15-year-old Willowbrook High School student from Villa Park was accused of posting threatening messages on social media directed at the school, and was charged with one count of disorderly conduct, a Class 4 felony.

For the second time this week, a juvenile appeared before a judge charged with making a threat to a school, DuPage County States Attorney Robert Berlin said in a Wednesday statement. These threats are not harmless jokes or an excuse to blow off steam. They have a chilling effect not just on students, teachers and staff, but also on parents, siblings and the community as a whole, said Berlin, who commended students at the high school for alerting authorities to the post.

On Thursday morning, Evanston Township High School was placed on lockdown after two guns were found at the school. No shots were fired, and there were no injuries, police said.

While school shootings are rare, there has been a significant increase in reports of school violence during the new school year nationwide, including at least 38 incidents of gunfire on school campuses that resulted in death and injury between Aug. 1 and Nov. 30, compared with 14 incidents in the same period in 2019, according to data compiled by the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety and analyzed by the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 30, at least 136 incidents involved a gun being brandished, fired or a bullet hitting school property, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database compiled by the Naval Postgraduate Schools Center for Homeland Defense and Security. In Illinois, there were 23 such incidents so far in all of 2021, up from seven in 2019.

Dwayne Bearden, a special education English teacher and union leader at south suburban Thornton Township High School District 205, said teachers are feeling traumatized by an increase in violent student behavior at the districts three high schools.

Over the past few months, outside of adjusting to in-person instruction, weve been faced with an alarming number of violent incidents . . . students physically fighting, students assaulting teachers and sharing photos picturing them brandishing weapons, and a shootout in the teachers parking lot that left cars riddled with bullets, Bearden said.

No one was injured in the incident outside Thornton High School in Harvey on Nov. 23, which involved two students who had not attended classes that day.

The students were walking on a sidewalk outside the school at about 3 p.m. when a vehicle pulled up, and a male inside the car exchanged gunfire with one of the students, according to the district.

District 205 Superintendent Nathaniel Cunningham Jr. earlier this month described the violent behavior hitting the districts high schools in Dolton, Harvey and South Holland as extreme, and said disciplinary actions against students, including expulsion, have been on the rise.

New walk-through metal detectors are on order and slated to be installed after winter break, Cunningham said.

The district is doing the best we can to keep our people safe, Cunningham said.

Nevertheless, Bearden said educators remain frustrated that all of our great students and teachers cant come to school without fearing something bad will happen to them.

Teachers are calling for enhanced safety measures beyond the metal detectors, including new fencing, effective bag checks and updated student and staff identification cards, Bearden said.

Were not here to point fingers at anybody. . . . But we need to take a collaborative approach to this problem, because a top-down approach is not working, he added.

Officials at Chicago Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment on issues of violence in the states largest school district.

But Stacy Davis Gates, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said Wednesday that the citys teachers were well aware of the devastating impact of trauma on their students and the lack of needed support at schools long before the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020.

There is violence all around us, not just the situation in Michigan, but outside of our schools in every single neighborhood in Chicago, Gates said.

Despite being awarded an estimated $2 billion in federal COVID-19 funds, CPS has failed to hire a sufficient number of counselors, social workers, school nurses and other staff needed to support students dealing with trauma, Gates said.

Im angry that the popular narrative was learning loss, when everyone who works with children knows that trauma is the real issue, she said.

Noting the pandemics devastating impact on the mental health of children, teens and young people, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Childrens Hospital Association recently declared a national mental health crisis among children and teens.

The number of teens arriving at emergency rooms and primary care clinics for behavioral and mental health problems and suicide attempts have increased significantly during the pandemic, AAP officials said.

At Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214, officials have seen an uptick in disruptive behavior and fighting since the start of the new school year, said Marni Johnson, an assistant superintendent for student services.

Its certainly the national story at schools right now, and the underlying piece is the increase in adolescent mental health concerns, which is contributing to the student behavior crisis, said Johnson, adding area hospitals have reported a shortage of beds for adolescents in need of inpatient care.

All of it seems like a perfect storm, first the pandemic, and now the uptick in mental health issues and trauma, Johnson said.

Still, Johnson said district officials were not entirely unprepared for the increase in student behavior incidents this school year, and had predicted some teens would have trouble transitioning from months of remote learning to fully reopened schools.

In anticipation of the potential fallout, Johnson said the district used federal COVID-19 dollars to hire family outreach specialists for each of the northwest suburban districts six high schools.

The district also has joined forces with adolescent mental health providers in the community, and offered additional training to teachers to help them identify and support students dealing with trauma, Johnson said.

Determined to support teachers who report feeling increasingly unsafe in their classrooms, officials with the Illinois Education Association on Wednesday called on school districts that are not adhering to Illinois school safety laws to immediately comply.

Violence is increasing in our schools across the state. Our educators should not have to constantly worry about their safety and the safety of their students, IEA President Kathi Griffin said.

This is not their problem to solve. Theyre under enough stress already. School administrators need to take immediate action to keep our students, staff and communities safe, Griffin said.

Two Illinois legislators, state Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates, and Rep. Tony McCombie, a Republican from Savanna, are partnering with the IEA to sponsor new legislation that will ensure school districts comply with requirements in the School Threat Assessment law.

The law requires schools to develop a threat assessment team and protocol and also calls for districts to review each of their school buildings emergency and crisis response plans.

In addition to the trauma many students have experienced during the pandemic, the increase in violent crimes being reported in many communities across the U.S. is another factor likely fueling disruptive student behavior in the classroom, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Schools are microcosms of our communities, so how can the violence not spill over into our school buildings? Canady asked.

While violent student behavior at high schools presents the greatest safety threats to students and teachers, many elementary school-age children are displaying defiant and disruptive behavior that even experienced educators have found daunting, said Michael Williamson, a teacher and union leader in Algonquin-based Community Unit School District 300.

In a lot of ways, the youngest children doing remote learning during the pandemic forgot what school was. . . . Some of them had a few months of kindergarten, then came back in 2nd grade, and were saying, This is weird, Williamson said.

Schools can provide extra support in the classroom to help students improve their aptitude in reading and math, but far more difficult is teaching classroom manners, like raising your hand, waiting in line in the lunchroom and treating classmates with respect and kindness, Williamson said.

Were seeing this whole big gap in social maturity that only happens when children grow together in person in the classroom, he said, adding that some teachers are reporting their students are arriving at school angry, stressed and aggressive.

One teacher told me she has a child who come comes into school every morning, and tells her how much he hates her, but she told me, I know hes really not talking to me,  Williamson said.

At the end of each school day, several hours after the morning outburst, the child seeks out his teacher to apologize, he said.

I asked her how she was dealing with this, and she told me, I dont know whats happening in his life, but I know hes taking out on me, so I always answer, OK, but I still care about you.

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SPRINGFIELD  A former state senator who pushed to legalize marijuana in Illinois is leaving a top government post to lobby for an organization that was instrumental in cannabis legalization in the state.

Toi Hutchinson, who became senior adviser for cannabis control to Gov. J.B. Pritzker in late 2019, stepped down from that job last week to become president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project. The group, known as MPP, is working to legalize cannabis in other states and at the federal level.

Hutchinson, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Olympia Fields, served in the state Senate from 2009 to 2019. She worked with MPP while in the Senate to approve legislation that legalized the sale and possession of recreational cannabis for adults. The law took effect in 2020.

Pritzker said it is "an immense honor for Illinois to have our own Toi Hutchinson leading the charge on a national scale, shaping the fight for cannabis justice not just in our state but in all 50 states," the Chicago Tribune reported.

"It's long past time for a federal law to move away from arcane cannabis criminalization and imprisonment and toward a justice-based model," Pritzker said.

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Cohen said in school districts where masks are mandated in the classroom, very few kids are needing to be excluded from school because of exposure.

Cohen said the omicron threat should lead more parents to get their children ages 5 to 17 vaccinated so they can stay in school.

As of 12:30 p.m. Monday, 46% of those ages 12 to 17 are listed as having at least one vaccine dose, as well as 18% of those ages 5 to 11.

Omicron uncertainty

Cohen said it is likely the delta and omicron variants could be equally prevalent in community surges through January before omicron become prevalent.

Cohen said that while early studies of omicron show it could be less severe in vaccinated individuals, there is evidence that monoclonal antibodies are less effective against omicron until they are adjusted in coming months.

Were going to be in January with a very contagious virus, without a treatment that really works, Cohen said.

But, we do have vaccine and boosters and other tools.

Cooper said any COVID-19 variant is deadly for the unvaccinated.
The masonry crew in Richmond, Virginia had already worked nine straight days  most of them for 12 hours a day  disassembling a pedestal when worker Cleon James saw something he had never seen before. He was jackhammering between the granite blocks when he came upon a layer of mortar that had been cleanly spread with a trowel.

James and his crew leader, Tim Albee, grabbed a hammer and chisel and tapped at the mortar. What lay beneath was a copper box measuring 14 by 14 by 8 inches. Albee ran to the edge of the scaffolding and shouted down to Michael Spence, the construction superintendent.

They had found something.

It was 7:11 a.m. Friday  the workers meticulously noted the time  when they discovered what is believed to be a time capsule placed in the Robert E. Lee statues pedestal in 1887. Its contents are believed to include Confederate memorabilia including a potentially rare photo of Abraham Lincoln in his grave.

Erected in 1890, the statue of Robert E. Lee that stood on Monument Avenue in Richmond for more than 130 years came down in September. State officials announced earlier in December they would disassemble the 40-foot granite plinth and then give the plot of land to the city of Richmond.

The crew spent six hours Friday carefully removing the 1,500-pound block containing the box and transporting it via articulated forklift to the Department of Historic Resources, where officials expect to open it in the coming days.

Having discovered what they could not find three months earlier, the mood was uplifting.

Im invigorated, Spence said. Its incredible. Its a great piece of history.

Back in September, the Connecticut-based Summit Masonry crew spent a full day looking for the time capsule. They never found it.

Ive been getting a hard time back at the office not finding it the first time, Albee said.

Theres a good reason why they came up empty handed. The capsule was nowhere near where they thought it would be.

***

Newspaper accounts from 1887 described how the capsule was placed in a cornerstone during a ceremony three years before the statue was complete. Masonic tradition indicated that the northeast corner was the most likely destination. So the crew spent 12 hours looking near the ground of the northeast corner.

It turns out the time capsule was placed 20 feet up, inside the pedestal, toward the northwest side of the structure.

The granite block containing the capsule could be considered a cornerstone, Albee said, because its on the corner of the pedestals interior structure. Putting the capsule inside the pedestal was a sensible decision, Spence added, because on the outside, it could have been stolen.

The masonry crew discovered that the Lee pedestal has two structures, an inside or backup structure and an outside facade. In between the two, the builders placed rocks, boulders and mortar to fill the space. Concrete would have been too expensive at the time, Spence said.

This is just quality craftsmanship, Spence added.

While the location seemingly did not match the 1887 newspaper accounts, the color and size of the box did.

According to the newspapers, there are 60 objects inside, mostly of Confederate origin, including a history of Monumental Church; a collection of Confederate buttons; a copy of Carlton McCarthys Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia; bullets, a piece of shell and a Minie ball lodged in a piece of wood; a battle flag; a Confederate bond; the Oct. 26, 1887 edition of The Richmond Dispatch and  most famously  a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his grave.

The photo of a deceased Lincoln placed beneath a Confederate hero was meant as an insult toward the Union, said Dale Brumfield, an author and historian who has studied the capsules history. The time capsule was one more way to celebrate the Lost Cause.

Photos of Lincoln after his death are rare, and if its a unique photo, it could be worth $250,000, Brumfield estimated. Or it could be a fake or reproduction with no real value. Or it could be destroyed from more than a century of air and water.

But given that the capsule was placed up high and not on the ground increases the likelihood that the boxs contents arent damaged, Brumfield said.

It was dry as a bone when we found it, Spence said.

***

At 2 p.m., one of the workers blasted an air horn, and the block containing the box was hoisted into the air by a crane and placed on the ground. Worried they might damage the capsule, workers moved the entire 1,500 pound block holding it.

Once the time capsule was on the ground, the workers from Summit kept disassembling. The pedestal is composed of 500 to 600 granite blocks, some weighing as much as 9,000 pounds, Albee said.

Each block has been labeled, placed on a wood pallet on a flatbed truck, and taken to a storage facility.

Albee has meticulously charted the location of each stone and marked them with a letter and number. Should someone want to rebuild the pedestal at some point in the future, there will be a blueprint waiting for its assembly.

The job is about half done, and Summit hopes to finish by Dec. 23. The crew has never done a job like this before, Albee said. Much of their work has taken place at Yale University, where they dissemble, restore and reassemble old buildings.

Were glad to be a part of it, Albee said. This is a big deal.

After the workers placed the capsule and its block on the forklift, they covered it in shrink wrap and duct taped it together. With a police escort, a worker drove the forklift  at about four miles an hour  down Monument Avenue toward the Department of Historic Resources.

Staffers there will have to chisel away some of the granite in order to pry away the box, said Julie Langan, director of the department. Then they will X-ray it in hopes of ascertaining how to open it without causing damage.

Sometime during the week of Dec. 19, DHR staffers plan to open it, possibly settling the long-wondered mystery of whats inside.
On Saturday, Evans initially said all of the centers employees appeared to be accounted for. Later, however, he said the sheriffs office was looking for a worker who was missing after the fire.

Ricks' relatives told WTVD-TV they hadn't heard from him since the fire. A relative told the TV station they were informed of the body's discovery.

Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted he was saddened by the loss of life during the fire.

Ive been in contact with local and state officials about that tragedy and taking steps to help families hurt by the loss of more than 2000 jobs, he posted.

Evans estimates the fire destroyed at least 70% of the facility. He said firefighters were using machines to clear debris in order to extinguish hot spots that were still flaring up Sunday.

Crews from nearly 45 fire departments were fighting the blaze more than 12 hours after it began.

The statement from QVC on Sunday said the company was still working to understand the impact on customer orders.
A comprehensive strategy from Congress is needed. The office created by the Gillibrand amendment accordingly will take a broad approach by investigating UAPs across jurisdictional lines, prioritizing areas of scientific study and requiring various agencies to collaborate  not only the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration but also the Energy Department, intelligence community, NASA and others. It will develop a science plan to investigate striking physical characteristics of UAPs (like their speed) and potentially replicate any advanced UAP technologies. And the new office will seek to understand the global nature of these phenomena, directing outreach to foreign allies.

In particular, the office will analyze whether UAPs represent foreign adversarial technology or otherwise pose a threat. That should be its top priority. The June report stated that UAPs, in addition to representing a flight safety hazard, may pose a challenge to U.S. national security. Given the regular sightings in military airspace  and the apparent connection between UAPs and nuclear technology  national security concerns are paramount.

In setting up this office, Congress has legitimized the long-ridiculed topic of UAPs.

Of course, the perspectives of defense and intelligence officials will be crucial. But the Pentagon has a long history of obfuscating work relating to UAPs, whereas Congress can promote transparency. Once the office has delivered its first unclassified report, Congress should hold public hearings to discuss its findings.

Dillon Guthrie is an attorney and served as a counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an advisor on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a legislative aide to then-Sen. John Kerry.
Govt-and-politics

editor's pick alert top story

County earmarks $1.5 million in federal stimulus money to help Lincoln Airport attract more air service

FRANCIS GARDLER, Journal Star file photo As Delta Air Lines prepares to leave the Lincoln Airport with only one carrier, officials are hoping stimulus funds could help to lure new air service. The Lancaster County Board committed $1.5 million in federal coronavirus funds for the Airport Authority to use as incentives.

The Lancaster County Board will give $1.5 million of its $62 million in federal American Recovery Act funds to the Lincoln Airport Authority to use as incentives to help lure air service to Lincoln.

The money will be used for minimum revenue guarantees  a risk-sharing incentive airports of Lincolns size routinely use to encourage airlines to start service, said Airport Authority member Nick Cusick.

Lincoln Airport's terminal renovation project making strides The $55 million project is still pretty much on schedule, and passengers are seeing changes such as concessions being moved to the gate area.

Air service is incredibly important to economic development, Cusick told the County Board Thursday morning, and such minimum revenue guarantees are a necessary tool for cities like Lincoln.

There are about 140 airports in cities about Lincolns size competing for air service, and Lincoln has the disadvantage of being just an hour away from Omahas larger airport, he said.

Another challenge, he said, is that not only do Federal Aviation Administration restrictions prohibit airlines from using any airport-generated revenue for minimum revenue guarantees, but the states constitution prohibits the airport authority from levying property taxes for them. Airports in other states dont face that same taxing prohibition, Cusick said.

The guarantees are a one-year agreement that typically range from $500,000 to $2 million depending on the airline and the route, he said.

The Lincoln Airport got a $750,000 grant that it used -- with private matching funds -- to offer minimum revenue guarantees for Deltas Atlanta flights, which stopped during the pandemic. The problem with such grants is that if the whole grant award isnt needed, it goes away, said Lincoln Airport Executive Director David Haring. With the stimulus money, if all the money isnt used, airport officials can use it for another incentive.

'Incredibly disappointing'  Delta to stop flying from Lincoln The airline will end its flights to Minneapolis next month. Airport Director David Haring said the news was completely unexpected.

County Commissioner Deb Schorr said she supported the allocation of money because one of the most important factors businesses look at when considering whether to locate in an area -- along with schools and affordable housing -- is air service.

Todd Wiltgen, with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supports the allocation because expanding airport service is one its highest priorities.

The airport was recently dealt an unexpected blow when Delta announced it would end service in Lincoln next month, eliminating twice-daily flights to and from Minneapolis.

Haring said they are continuing to fight to keep Delta in Lincoln, but the minimum revenue guarantees probably wouldnt make a difference in those efforts.

Nick Cusick

However, theyre a vital part of convincing airlines to start service in Lincoln, and one of the areas Lincoln could explore is leisure services -- airlines that typically feature flights to certain destinations such as Las Vegas or Orlando, Haring said.

And the best way to encourage airlines like Delta to use Lincolns airport is to increase usage as much as possible, he said.

Cusick said when the Airport Authority learned federal coronavirus stimulus funds could be used for minimum revenue guarantees, it reached out to both the city and county, and hes disappointed that city officials have so far chosen not to allocate money to the airport.

An economic impact study commissioned by the state in 2018 indicated the Lincoln Airports annual impact at more than $1 billion, and the city has more to gain with better airline service than the county, Cusick said.

I would think the city should recognize (the benefit of) putting money into minimum revenue guarantees for purposes of economic development, he said. Unfortunately at this point our conversations with the mayor's office have not been fruitful.

City, county officials show how they plan to use more than $100 million in federal relief money Small businesses hard hit by the pandemic, low-income people who lost jobs, mental health services, rural broadband, community initiatives and public health will benefit from federal stimulus dollars.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said Cusick doesnt acknowledge that the city and county worked together for months to come up with a joint plan to allocate more than $100 million in federal stimulus money to try to meet as many needs as possible, maximizing the money and avoiding overlaps.

"I'm glad the airport got stimulus funds," she said.

The county got $62 million and the city got $46 million from President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion stimulus package known as the American Rescue Plan Act. The money is part of $350 billion from the federal stimulus plan going to states and local governments to help them address the economic impact of the pandemic.

In August, county and city officials jointly announced how they planned to divide the money for various programs including workforce development, to bolster small businesses, expand mental health and rural broadband services and invest in public health initiatives.

City and county officials have announced several grant programs including those aimed at nonprofits, workforce development, small business stabilization and tourism.

County Commissioner Deb Schorr said the plan on how to use the money was tentative, and regulations regarding the stimulus money keep changing, allowing more flexibility.

One of the areas earmarked for county stimulus money was expanding broadband service in rural areas. Passage of the federal infrastructure bill could address broadband expansion in the state, which means the county could use some of the stimulus money it had intended for broadband for other purposes.

This was a decision that was made independently (from the city), knowing well have to adjust as rules and regulations change, she said.

The county and Airport Authority will create an interlocal agreement to administer the money.

Lincoln Airport sees revenues drop in fiscal 2021 because of pandemic Revenues declined more than 7.5% this year, and the airport's operating profit fell from $2.1 million in 2020 to less than $500,000 this year.
After a significant decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the weekend, it seems unlikely Nebraska residents will see any heightened restrictions due to the virus.

The number of people hospitalized for the coronavirus dropped by more than 10%, from 584 on Friday to 523 on Monday morning. That means COVID-19 patients are now occupying a little more than 12% of the state's hospital beds, down from 14.5% a week ago when hospitalizations reached 637, their highest number of the year.

"It's a huge drop," said Dr. Gary Anthone, the state's chief medical officer.

At one point last week, Anthone said officials were discussing requiring hospitals to limit elective surgeries if the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients hit 15% of the state's beds.

Anthone and Gov. Pete Ricketts held a news conference Monday to give an update on the COVID-19 situation and to encourage people to stay safe over the holidays.

Ricketts announced that he is extending some existing directed health measures aimed at helping alleviate staff shortages at hospitals until at least March 31. The extension of the orders also will keep the state's daily coronavirus dashboard live through the end of March.
Hulse, who has led the union for two years and will navigate the group through collective bargaining next spring, said talks had stalled after Ewins expressed a desire to unilaterally appoint lieutenants to different stations and shifts, rather than allowing officers to submit requests, called "bids," for the location and time they'd prefer to work.

"Well, no. No, no, no, no, no," Hulse said. "We bid where we want to go. That's by seniority. And so we didn't like  that was one of the big hang-ups.

"I didn't want to put in for a position and then have her tell me that, 'Oh, you're gonna go to ... Northwest Team.' Well, what if Northwest Team doesn't work for me?"

Hulse said by the time the union and department sat down to bargain the creation of the new position in mid-October, their current labor agreement only allowed about a month to set things in stone.

Discussions were evolving, Hulse said, "but we just ran out of time."

Ewins described the nature of the command staff's disagreement with the union differently, noting that whether lieutenants would be a part of the union at all remained in question. (As of now, sergeant is the highest rank allowed among Lincoln Police Union members.)
And the best way to encourage airlines like Delta to use Lincolns airport is to increase usage as much as possible, he said.

Cusick said when the Airport Authority learned federal coronavirus stimulus funds could be used for minimum revenue guarantees, it reached out to both the city and county, and hes disappointed that city officials have so far chosen not to allocate money to the airport.

An economic impact study commissioned by the state in 2018 indicated the Lincoln Airports annual impact at more than $1 billion, and the city has more to gain with better airline service than the county, Cusick said.

I would think the city should recognize (the benefit of) putting money into minimum revenue guarantees for purposes of economic development, he said. Unfortunately at this point our conversations with the mayor's office have not been fruitful.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said Cusick doesnt acknowledge that the city and county worked together for months to come up with a joint plan to allocate more than $100 million in federal stimulus money to try to meet as many needs as possible, maximizing the money and avoiding overlaps.

"I'm glad the airport got stimulus funds," she said.
OMAHA  An Omaha man who recorded himself just outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is cooperating with federal investigators several months after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the insurrection.

Brandon Straka, 45, was scheduled to appear in court for sentencing in the coming week, but prosecutors and Strakas attorneys, Friday requested that the proceedings be delayed for a month, according to a court filing.

The request, first reported by the news outlet Politico on Friday, states that earlier this month Straka provided the government with information that could impact prosecutors sentencing recommendation.

Because the governments sentencing recommendation may be impacted based on the newly discovered information, the government and defendant request a 30-day continuance of this case so that the information can be properly evaluated, the motion states.

Strakas cooperation signals that he is adhering to the terms of a plea agreement in which the government dropped a felony charge.
According to testimony:

As the night dragged into the early morning of June 13, 2020, Marlon was hanging out by the DJ booth, his attention fixed on Sharon.

Sharon testified Friday that she wasnt surprised that her estranged husband was there, even though she was with her boyfriend. The two had been separated for 10 months and were sharing custody of their daughter. All of them, including Juarez and Marlon, were there to celebrate their friends birthday.

We were supposed to have fun, enjoy our time together and dance and celebrate Luis, Sharon said.

Then Marlon approached his estranged wife and Juarez at the bar. He waved away a greeting from Juarez and hugged Sharon and her cousin. He later asked Sharon and the cousin to dance. They both said no.

He was very upset, Sharon said. Aggressive.

About 1:30 a.m., the silent footage of security cameras showed the unspeakable events. Juarez, in a white shirt, leaned over to smooch Sharon as they sat at a table. Soon after, Sharon went to the bathroom. Soon after, a man in a multicolored shirt  prosecutors say it was Miranda  leaned over as if to whisper in Juarezs ear.
In addition to the funding at Offutt, the bill includes $11 million for barracks construction at the Nebraska National Guards training site near Mead, about 30 miles west of Omaha.

Other notable items:

* Accelerated procurement of mission systems and engines for the 55th Wings new EC-37B Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft, which are based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

* A provision directing the Air Force to look for ways to increase the operational availability of the 55th Wings Offutt-based RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance jets.

* A provision nudging the Air Force to move forward with replacement of the E-4B Nightwatch aircraft  now more than 45 years old  with a new airframe.

* Encouragement of the Pentagon to expedite plans to build a new laboratory for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The current lab, which opened in 2013, is in the former Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant, built in 1941.

* A continuation of full funding of replacements for various parts of the nations nuclear arsenal and a prohibition on reductions in the intercontinental ballistic missile force, currently at 400.
CALEDONIA  What was supposed to be a joyous holiday night out ended in heartbreak for one area family.

Jamie Soto, who had lived in Racine before moving to St. Francis over the summer, went to see the Christmas Carnival of Lights at Jellystone Park Friday with two friends and her two sons, ages 12 and 13. They went inside the Ember Lodge before one of her boys ran back out to the car  a 2014 Land Rover LR2 that was left running without the keys inside to keep the familys adopted 10-month-old Boston terrier, Bruno, warm  to get quarters in order to play arcade games, Soto said. But then he forgot the keys in the car.

When they left the lodge, the Land Rover  which Soto said she bought just last month  and Bruno were gone.

My son is so heartbroken. He thinks its his fault, Soto said in a Monday morning phone interview. I just want to have the dog back. The car is nothing.

Some miscreant decided they needed the familys Land Rover more than they did. Bruno and the Land Rover are still missing, stated a Monday morning Facebook post from the Caledonia Police Department.

Soto said that she has not been able to see footage of the alleged theft, but that police said they have been able to review it.

They have no idea what happened to the car or Bruno since.

Is he in the cold? Did they throw him out the window? Soto wondered.

Reward offered Jamie Soto is offering a $4,000 reward for the return of Bruno. Contact her at 414-403-5442.

Bruno was last seen wearing a red and gray Spider-Man sweater, the CPD said. He is black and white in color, with brown specks.

The family is devastated by the loss of Bruno and would love to be reunited with him before Christmas, the CPDs post said. The vehicle can be replaced, but Bruno holds a special meaning for them.

In a text to a reporter Monday afternoon, Soto said I wanna believe hes coming back but dont have hope.

This report comes less than two weeks after a vehicle with two children inside, a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, was reported stolen Dec. 8 from outside a store in Racine; the two children were found safe later that day and the alleged car thief, a 15-year-old, was arrested the next day.

Information about the theft can be shared with investigators anonymously through Racine County Crime Stoppers on Facebook or through the P3 app. Dispatch can be contacted at 262-886-2300. Detective Chris Schuster can be contacted at 262-835-4423, extension 180.

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As a COVID-19 surge leads some Wisconsin hospitals to cancel procedures and turn away patients, health officials on Monday urged residents to get vaccinated, wear masks indoors and keep holiday gatherings small to prevent cases of the new omicron variant from overwhelming already strained facilities.

Dane County extended its mask mandate until February, with the countys weekly COVID-19 case rate nearly three times that from early November and coronavirus-related hospitalizations at the highest level this year.

Our health care organizations have been pushed to the breaking point, and it is quite possible that omicron will push us beyond the breaking point, said Dr. William Melms, chief medical officer of the Marshfield Clinic Health System, which has discontinued elective surgeries requiring inpatient beds and is turning away 100 referrals a week. Somethings got to give.

With 96% of intensive care beds and 98% of intermediate care beds already in use, and hospitals and nursing homes struggling to find nurses and other staff to care for patients, state Department of Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake pleaded for unvaccinated people to get shots and for everyone to do their part to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

We are at another critical moment in this pandemic, Timberlake said. What each of us chooses to do in the next few weeks really matters. ... Whatever you thought you were doing to help make COVID-19 better, we need everyone to be doing a little bit more.

The state has placed hundreds of reserve staff at dozens of hospitals and nursing homes, and has requested federal assistance for additional staffing that could come soon, Timberlake said.

Wisconsin has found 19 cases of the omicron variant  including some in Dane County  which is believed to be significantly more contagious than previous strains, including delta, and appears to require booster doses of vaccine for adequate protection. Early data indicate omicron may cause less severe disease in individuals, but its rapid spread could still increase hospitalizations overall, especially among the unvaccinated, health officials say.

Our expectation is that its going to be circulating at high levels very shortly if its not already, said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, a chief medical officer with the state health department. Were in a very dangerous place.

Mandate extended

Public Health Madison and Dane County extended its mask mandate to Feb. 1 after last month saying the requirement would continue until Jan. 3. The order requires masks for everyone age 2 and older in most enclosed spaces open to the public whenever other people are present. The order includes an exception for when all people within an enclosed space are fully vaccinated.

There continues to be evidence that masks help prevent disease transmission, said Dr. Jerry Halverson, chair of the county Board of Health. With delta and omicron circulating, and our hospitals near capacity, it is important for all of us in the community to continue to take this easy action.

In a public health advisory Monday, the state health department urged everyone who can to get vaccinated, including booster shots for those who are eligible. Everyone age 5 and older is eligible for the vaccine, while boosters are available for everyone age 16 and older.

COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and death from the delta variant, which still accounts for the vast majority of cases, the memo said. Fully boosted people are protected against serious illness and hospitalization from omicron, which is starting to circulate more widely.

Face masks should be worn indoors when with others outside a persons household, and holiday gatherings should be small, Westergaard said in the advisory. People with COVID-19 symptoms or exposure should get tested.

It is important for individuals to know whether they have an active COVID-19 infection before gathering, the advisory said. Gatherings should also occur in well-ventilated spaces and are always safer outdoors.

Melms, of Marshfield Clinic, said more than 90% of COVID-19 deaths in the Marshfield system of nine hospitals have been among unvaccinated people. Statewide in November, unvaccinated people were about five times more likely to get COVID-19, 11 times more likely to be hospitalized for it and 12 times more likely to die from the disease than those fully vaccinated, according to the state health department.

COVID-19 activity is critically high in 40 of Wisconsins 72 counties and very high in the rest. Statewide, 61.4% of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 57.8% are fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, 1,660 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 424 in intensive care, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Dane County had 130 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, for a seven-day daily average of 130, the highest average this year.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to address the country Tuesday about the pandemic, including the omicron variant.

State Journal reporter Emily Hamer contributed to this report.
Mateo Medina has never walked or talked. The 10-year-old breathes and feeds through tubes.

His brother, Javier, 5, marches around their house in Fond du Lac and talks up a storm, but he cant run or jump and his speech is garbled. He can eat soft foods.

Their sister, Amelia, 3, sprints, chats and eats like most kids her age. An occasional morning tremor is the only sign that she, too, was born with the most serious form of spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. The genetic disorder, which progressively weakens muscles, typically has been fatal by age 2.

New treatments are changing the face of SMA, and the Medinas are Exhibit A. Mateo was born five years before approval of the first treatment, which Javier received in a clinical trial. Amelia got a newer gene therapy  considered most effective if given within a few weeks after birth, before symptoms appear  when she was 11 days old.

For families without a history of the disease, the main way to catch it early is newborn screening. While Wisconsin and most states have added SMA to their infant testing programs, 12 states havent, including Alabama, after a federal committee recommended it in 2018.

A large part of me feels like the state of Alabama failed my son, said Lauren Hendrix, of Troy, Alabama, whose son Graham died in January. He was diagnosed with SMA nearly six weeks after birth after developing symptoms and received the gene therapy, called Zolgensma, two weeks later.

Had he gotten Zolgensma a month sooner, because (SMA) had been tested for in the newborn screening, I fully believe my son would still be alive today, Hendrix said.

Dr. Mary Schroth, chief medical officer of Cure SMA, based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, has been urging all states to add SMA to newborn screening. Other states that havent are Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina and Virginia. Some plan to start next year.

An infant being diagnosed with SMA used to be essentially a death sentence, and its not anymore, said Schroth, who previously was a pediatric lung specialist at UW Health. But, the sooner a patient with SMA is identified and treated, the better the outcomes.

New treatments

Like most disorders detected in newborn screening through a few drops of blood collected from a babys heel a day or two after birth, SMA is rare, occurring in about 1 in 11,000 births. If both parents are carriers, each of their children has a 25% chance of having SMA.

The condition is caused by a mutation in a gene that normally makes a protein needed by nerve cells that control muscles. Without the protein, the nerve cells die and people lose the ability to move.

A drug called Spinraza, approved in 2016 for SMA patients of all ages, helps a related gene make more of the protein. Given by spinal injection every four months for life, the drug costs $750,000 the first year and $375,000 each subsequent year.

Zolgensma, approved in 2019 for SMA patients younger than 2 years, is a one-time infusion. It uses a harmless virus to replace the mutated gene with a normal one, restoring regular protein production. The gene therapy costs $2.1 million, believed to be the most expensive one-time treatment on the market.

A third treatment, Evrysdi, was approved last year for SMA patients 2 months and older. Its a daily oral liquid that helps make and maintain more of the protein, costing up to $340,000 a year.

Spinraza has helped most patients treated early maintain the ability to swallow and eat by mouth, its maker, Biogen, reported in June. With Zolgensma, most children with severe SMA sat, stood and walked alone at age-appropriate times, according to clinical trial data by Novartis. Most infants who started Evrysdi after developing symptoms were free of ventilators at their first birthday, Genentech said in July.

With its hefty, ongoing price tag, Spinraza exceeds common thresholds for cost-effectiveness, according to the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, or ICER, which studies the cost and benefits of medical treatments.

Zolgensmas price is right at the upper bounds of what could be considered cost-effective, said David Whitrap, a spokesperson for ICER, which hasnt reviewed Evrysdi.

Among about 80 patients with SMA at UW Health, including adults with a later-onset form, 17 take Spinraza, a dozen have received Zolgensma and about 50 are on Evrysdi, said Dr. Jennifer Kwon, a UW pediatric neurologist. Insurance coverage is sometimes a challenge for Spinraza and Evrysdi, but most plans promptly cover Zolgensma, especially for infants, Kwon said.

One Wisconsin baby who had symptoms of SMA before getting Zolgensma shortly after birth has had physical delays, but the others who got the gene therapy are doing remarkably well, Kwon said.

What their lives might be like years from now is a question we cant answer, she said. While it seems like its continuing to be effective, we just dont have longer-term data.

Results vary by state

Seated in her high chair, Piper Droessler bounced up and down, kicked up her feet and ate strawberry-banana yogurt with a spoon  until she decided to scoop it up with her fist and smear it across her face.

A few weeks before her second birthday last month, the toddler chased her older brother and sister around their home near Platteville, occasionally falling on the floor before springing back up and racing again.

Piper was the first child in Wisconsin to test positive for SMA through newborn screening and the first identified through screening to get Zolgensma, 23 days after she was born. Today, she shows no signs of the disease.

You wouldnt even know, said her father, Ben Droessler.

Caiti Droessler, Pipers mother, interacts online with parents whose children with SMA have died or use feeding tubes. I dont know their struggle at all, she said.

In Alabama, after Lauren Hendrixs son died, she started a petition to get SMA added to newborn screening. The state plans to start screening for SMA by late January, said Arrol Sheehan, spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Graham Hendrix looked normal at birth in October 2020, but a few weeks later he stopped moving his arms and his head, his mother said. After being diagnosed with SMA, he got Zolgensma at Childrens of Alabama hospital in Birmingham. The treatment seemed to help, but he stopped breathing in January and died the next day.

It blows my mind that we dont test for (SMA) in our state, but we have a team for it at the childrens hospital, said Hendrix, who is expecting a daughter in April.

Haley Comer of Middleton, Idaho, said she and medics had to resuscitate her son, Ryder, a month after he was born. Tests showed he had SMA, and he got Zolgensma two weeks later.

Today, at 10 months, Ryder is moving his arms and sucking on his fingers again, but he doesnt sit or hold his head like most children his age, his mother said. Idaho plans to start screening for SMA in February, said Greg Stahl, spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Its very frustrating Idaho hasnt started the testing yet, Comer said. Getting treatment sooner gives them such a better chance.

Audrey Wileys daughter Adelynn was born in Storm Lake, Iowa, on June 25, 2020. Six days later, Iowa started screening newborns for SMA.

Adelynn, diagnosed with the disease at 3 months, got Zolgensma a month later. She started moving more but stopped breathing in January and died.

Its as bad of luck as it gets, Wiley said. Obviously, she was not treated soon enough.

Two sons with SMA

Like most parents affected by SMA, Amy and Adan Medina had never heard of the disease before their son Mateo was diagnosed with it a month after he was born in 2011.

He has used a feeding tube since he was 3 months old and a breathing tube, attached through a hole in the front of his neck, since 7 months. He wears diapers. He cant move, except for his eyes, and, very subtly, his feet and left index finger and thumb. You have to really be watching to see it, Amy Medina said.

Three times a day, his parents or a nurse use machines to clear secretions from his airway and mucus from his lungs.

Mateo spends his days in bed or on a wheelchair-stroller, extended upright to support his spine and prevent the buildup of secretions. He goes to public school, where he has been trying to use a communication device activated by eye movement to converse with fellow fourth-graders.

When the Medinas got pregnant again, they knew they had a 25% chance of having another child with SMA. But, one in four is also a 75% chance youre not going to have an affected baby, Amy said.

More than five months into the pregnancy, amniocentesis confirmed the baby would have SMA. The news was no easier to accept the second time. It was still heartbreaking, Adan said.

After Javier was born, the family drove 14 hours to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he got his first dose of Spinraza in a clinical trial at 12 days. They made 18 trips to Baltimore, most by airplane, before Javier started getting the injections last year in Chicago.

Mateo also got Spinraza, starting at age 6, before switching last year to Evrysdi.

Javier eats  mostly oatmeal, mashed potatoes, cookies and Cheetos  but gets much of his nourishment through a feeding tube at night. He also receives supplemental oxygen while sleeping, especially when hes sick.

In addition to getting treatments to remove secretions and mucus twice a day, the kindergartner receives physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

Family photos show him grinning until he was 3, when his facial muscles weakened. He lost his smile, his mother said. He says its broken.

A third child

When the Medinas got pregnant a third time, they figured the odds must be in their favor. But they learned, again through amniocentesis, that their third child would also have SMA.

I cried, loud, uncontrollably and a lot for a period of time, Amy wrote on the familys CaringBridge page.

Amelia was born in March 2018, when another clinical trial was available, for Zolgensma. After getting the gene therapy at UWs American Family Childrens Hospital, she is doing well today.

Outside the familys house, a big red van sits in the driveway, equipped to carry the five Medinas and all of their gear. On a recent morning, Amelia ran along the sidewalk. Javier swung his arms as if he was running, but his feet stayed on the ground. Mateo watched them from his horizontal perch.

Amelia pushed her scooter, adorned with a unicorn on the front. Javier rode his three-wheel, lime green adaptive bicycle, sporting a hotdog costume he likes to wear around the house.

Theyre two peas in a pod, but they fight like crazy too, Amy said.

With three children who represent the spectrum of SMA today, the Medinas see the importance of newborn screening.

Catching it early makes a world of difference, Amy said. You shouldnt have to wait until your child is showing symptoms to figure out whats happening.

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1. Crime. Too much violence, too many shootings. Police have to get a handle on it.

2. Coronavirus. The omicron variant and others to follow threaten the community.

3. Roads. Killeen-area roads are still a mess after last years storm  a serious problem.

4.Government. Elections are on the horizon, and voters will have hard choices to make.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say which single issue will stand out at this point.

Vote

View Results
As we head into another holiday season and the impact of COVID-19 continues, the Southern Region Public Health Officers are urging residents to continue to follow good public health practices. Public Health Officers stress that the best way to celebrate upcoming holidays safely is by getting vaccinated, getting your booster dose, if eligible, and wearing a mask indoors unless everyone in the space is fully vaccinated.

Now is the time to be persistent with following public health recommendations. Every act of prevention matters and will continue to be important this Holiday season, explained Debbie Siegenthaler, Chair of the Southern Regions Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB).

All public health jurisdictions, in the State of Wisconsin are in the Critically High or Very High category for Activity Level, with case burdens between 350 and 1,000 cases per 100,000 people. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) tracks disease burden and activity level to give Wisconsinites a better idea of how COVID-19 is impacting the state. To view this information please visit https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/local.htm.

Theres still a large amount of community transmission in every area of the region and state. Keep gatherings small and wear a mask anytime youre in an indoor environment with someone that you dont live with. Our health care and public health workers continue to need the help of the community in slowing spread so that hospitals can continue to meet patient needs, Siegenthaler urged.

There are safer ways to celebrate the holidays this season, including wearing a well-fitting mask over your nose and mouth if you are in public indoor settings and are not fully vaccinated. Also avoiding crowded or poorly ventilated spaces. Finally, if you are sick or have symptoms, do not host or attend a gathering. Further strategies from (DHS) for reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 during the upcoming holiday season can be found at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/community.htm .

It can be difficult suggesting changes to holiday traditions, which we understand, said Siegenthaler. Remember that safer celebrations offer protection for the most vulnerable members of your family so you can all gather for years to come.

For more information on cases in your area and COVID-19 recommendations, visit your local health departments website.

Note: The above release was issued by the following local Health Departments: Adams, Columbia, Crawford, Dodge, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Juneau, Lafayette, Madison/Dane, Richland, Rock, Sauk, Vernon and Watertown.
According to the Vernon County Sheriffs Office, at 4:05 p.m. a vehicle with a single occupant traveling eastbound on U.S. Hwy. 14 crossed the centerline and struck an oncoming vehicle with four occupants going westbound head on. The single occupant who crossed the centerline was pronounced deceased and all four occupants in the struck vehicle were transported to Gundersen Health System in La Crosse by Tri-State Ambulance. A vehicle occupied by four people following the struck vehicle westbound was also hit, but no one was injured in that vehicle.
The La Crosse Community Theatre has announced the casting for its upcoming production of "The Mountaintop," a gripping re-imagination of events the night before the assassination of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Leading the company as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is Shaundel Spivey, co-founder and director of Black Leaders Acquiring Collective Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.), community organization dedicated to elevating and empowering the La Crosse Black Community through seven pillars: community engagement, financial literacy, youth engagement, family, spirituality, health and wellness, and education. Spivey is also a community organizer who is passionate about social justice, equity and community. He is a member of the School District of La Crosse school board and also serves on the Governors Equity and Inclusion Council.

Playing the role of Camae is Katrina Sletten, a La Crosse activist and organizer who has been working to dismantle systemic racism and oppression within the community through means of peaceful demonstration and protesting, with the hope of educating the community on Campaign Zero, and what they can do to help elevate the voices of Black people.

Standing by in the role of Dr. King is Darrell Ferguson, who currently works in the Onalaska School District as a paraprofessional at the high school, where he is responsible for assisting students with all aspects of their academic needs. Ferguson last appeared on the LCT stage as Reverend Sykes in our production of To Kill a Mockingbird and last year began portraying George Edwin Taylor, a La Crosse resident who in 1907 became the first African-American to run for president for, for the Enduring Families project.

The piece is being directed by LCT veteran Emily Ware, an Administrative Coordinator with Workforce Connections who is a graduate of UW-La Crosse's Theatre Department as well as the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Ware's selected LCT credits include A Christmas Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Les Miserables. She will make her LCT directorial debut and is also standing by for the role of Camae.

Katori Hall, an award-winning American playwright, screenwriter, producer, actress, and director, penned the script for the play. Hall's best known works include the hit television series P-Valley, the Tony-nominated Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and plays such as Hurt Village, Our Lady of Kibeho, Children of Killers, and The Hot Wing King, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The performance runs January 28-February 6, 2022, at the Weber Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets may be purchased at https://lacrossetheatre.org/shows/2021-2022/mountaintop

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Those looking for one of the best ROTC programs in the country should look no further than the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

The ROTC Eagle Battalion has been named the Best ROTC Battalion in the Midwests 3rd Brigade. The region includes 42 military science programs in all sizes of colleges in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The MacArthur Award citation paves the way for the battalion to compete for the prestigious Department of Defense Excellence in Education Award, which recognizes the best ROTC program in the countrys seven brigades. That announcement is expected shortly after Jan. 1.

With no category sizing of sizes of institutions, the title of best is no small achievement, says Lt. Col. Erik Archer, chair of the UW-L Military Science Department. I think we have a good shot at reaching the MacArthur title.

Archer attributes the Eagle Battalions success to its 70-plus students who have strong grade point averages and physical training scores, along with competitive summer training and community service. He says the honor belongs to the students who create a culture and sense of family along with talented instructors in military science.

I could not be prouder of these students who, in addition to their coursework, also balance leadership rotations, morning physical training, volunteer opportunities in the community and leadership roles in other campus organizations, says Archer. This is a tremendous accomplishment.

Archer says support from faculty administrators is key. Along with UW-L, the Eagle Battalion includes students from Viterbo University and Winona State University.

This isnt the first honor for the Eagle Battalion, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2021-22. Instructor Sgt. 1st Class JoAnn Wampole-Swanson was named the Wisconsin Military Science Instructor of the Year and the Midwest Brigades Instructor of the Year earlier this year.

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An Illinois woman is facing felony charges after an officer pulled her over on Interstate 90/94 near Lisbon for allegedly driving 116 mph with a child in the vehicle, and she then sped away from the traffic stop, police said.

Cierra Pickett, 24, of Robbins, Illinois, is charged with felony attempting to flee or elude an officer and misdemeanor neglecting a child where specified harm did not occur. If convicted she faces up to three years and six months in prison or a fine of up to $10,000, or both, for the felony charge.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Sept. 11 Trooper Eric Lloyd was parked in the mile marker 64 crossover on Interstate 90/94 near Lisbon when he observed a vehicle pass his position traveling visibly over the posted speed limit. Lloyd was unable to get a speed reading but estimated the vehicle was traveling over 100 mph.

Lloyd pulled out and began catching up to the vehicle, eventually doing so west of New Lisbon. Upon catching up with the vehicle he activated his radar and received a reading that the vehicle was traveling at 116 mph. After locking in the speed on his radar he confirmed the speed by pacing the vehicle for a short time.

Lloyd activated his emergency lights and siren and initiated a traffic stop, with the vehicle pulling over at about mile marker 59. Approaching the vehicle Lloyd observed a female driver, male passenger and a young female child in a booster seat in the backseat Lloyd estimated at age four.

The driver stated she did not know how fast she was going, and when told her speed she stated she did not know she was going that fast. She stated she did not have her drivers license on her, but identified herself in writing as Cierra Pickett and provided her date of birth.

Lloyd performed a records check on the two adult occupants. The vehicle was registered to Pickett, and she had a valid license with physical descriptors matching her appearance.

As Lloyd returned to his cruiser Pickett pulled away at a high rate of speed. After advising dispatch that the vehicle left the traffic stop Lloyd activated his siren and attempted to catch up to the vehicle.

The vehicle began cutting in and around other vehicles while switching between lanes, and Lloyd was unable to gain on the vehicle over two miles. After the vehicle passed a semi on the right shoulder Lloyd informed dispatch he was not pursuing the vehicle further out of concern for the childs safety. A check of gas stations in Camp Douglas and Oakdale did not locate the vehicle.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Pickett.

Reach Christopher Jardine on Twitter @ChrisJJardine or contact him at 608-432-6591.
An Iowa semi driver faces was under the influence when he drove recklessly and fled police on Interstate 39/90/94 on Friday night, the Wisconsin State Patrol reported.

Kyle W. Futrel , 27, of Cherokee, Iowa, was arrested on tentative charges of first offense operating a motor vehicle under the influence, eluding police, possession of methamphetamine, THC, and drug paraphernalia, Sgt. Randy Gordon said in a statement.

Shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, the State Patrol received a complaint of a semi-tractor trailer passing traffic at high speeds on the median shoulder along I-39/90/94 near DeForest, Gordon said.

Troopers located the semi traveling at high speed and attempted a traffic stop near Highway 60. A pursuit ensued, resulting in the semi stopping across all northbound lanes of traffic at Highway CS, Gordon said.

Futrel was found to show signs of impairment and after field sobriety tests, Futrel was arrested. After a blood draw, Futrel was booked into the Columbia County Jail, Gordon said.

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Closing arguments were Monday before the jury began deliberating. Prosecutors sought to prove that Kim Potter, who quit the Brooklyn Center police force two days after the shooting, committed first- and second-degree manslaughter when she killed the 20-year-old man during an April 11 traffic stop. Here's a look at the charges and potential penalties:

THE CHARGES

First-degree manslaughter in this case means prosecutors allege that Potter caused Wright's death while committing a misdemeanor  the reckless handling or use of a firearm so as to endanger the safety of another with such force and violence that death or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable.

The second-degree manslaughter charge alleges that she caused his death by her culpable negligence," meaning that Potter caused an unreasonable risk and consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm to Wright, while using or possessing a firearm.

Neither charge requires prosecutors to prove Potter intended to kill Wright, and they pointed that out to the jury during opening statements.

Defense attorney Paul Engh seemed to push against that during his opening, telling the jury that Potter didn't know she was holding a gun when she fired, adding: It's not just shooting somebody, that's not the crime. It's being consciously aware of some kind of fact.

The attorney generals office added the first-degree manslaughter charge after it took over the case, though it fell short of the murder charge that Wright's family and activists wanted.

POTENTIAL PENALTIES

The maximum for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years; for second-degree, it's 10 years. But Minnesota judges follow sentencing guidelines that normally call for less  just over seven years for first-degree, and four years for second-degree.

The longest sentences that could conceivably stick on appeal are double the top of the guidelines range. But that's more than the statutory maximum of 15 years for first-degree manslaughter, so 15 years would be the cap for Potter if she's convicted. The realistic maximum on the lesser charge would be 9 1/2 years.

Presuming good behavior, Minnesota offenders typically serve two-thirds of their time in prison and one-third on supervised release.

RECENT PRECEDENTS

The judge in Chauvin's case sentenced him to 22 1/2 years for second-degree unintentional murder. The presumptive sentence was 12 1/2 years. But Judge Peter Cahill found several aggravating factors, including that Chauvin abused his position of authority and treated Floyd with particular cruelty, and that several children witnessed the crime live. He also said Chauvin knew that kneeling on Floyd's neck was dangerous.

More recently, Judge Kathryn Quaintance resentenced former Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor to four years and nine months in prison for second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Justine Damond Ruszczyk, which was at the top of the guidelines' range. She said she did so because Noor shot across the nose of his partner and endangered others. She couldn't sentence him to more because prosecutors did not request an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines.

Quaintance originally sentenced Noor to 12 1/2 years for third-degree murder, which was what the guidelines called for, but the Minnesota Supreme Court later clarified the definition of third-degree murder and sent the case back for resentencing only on the manslaughter charge.

Find the APs full coverage of the Daunte Wright case at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright made a blunder of epic proportions and did not have a license to kill, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday shortly before they began deliberating in her manslaughter trial.

Kim Potter's attorney Earl Gray countered during closing arguments that the former Brooklyn Center officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn't a crime.

In the walk of life, nobodys perfect. Everybody makes mistakes," Gray said. My gosh, a mistake is not a crime. It just isnt in our freedom-loving country."

The mostly white jury began deliberating shortly before 1 p.m. and quit for the day around 6 p.m. without reaching a verdict. They will be sequestered until they finish. Potter, who is white, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting, which came after Wright was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge said during her summation that Wright's death was entirely preventable. Totally avoidable. Claiming it was a mistake is not a defense, she said, pointing out that the words accident" and mistake don't appear in jury instructions.

Accidents can still be crimes if they occur as a result of reckless or culpable negligence, Eldridge said.

She drew a deadly weapon, Eldridge said. She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wrights chest, and she fired."

Gray argued that Wright caused the whole incident because he tried to flee from police during a traffic stop. Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her Taser because the traffic stop was chaos, he said.

Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately," he asserted.

Potter, 49, testified Friday that she didnt want to hurt anybody, that she was sorry it happened and that she doesnt remember what she said or everything that happened after the shooting, as much of her memory of those moments is missing.

Eldridge said Monday that the case wasnt about whether Potter was sorry.

Of course she feels bad about what she did.  But that has no place in your deliberations, she said.

Playing Potters body camera video frame by frame, Eldridge sought to raise doubts about Potters testimony that she fired after seeing fear on the face of another officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who was leaning into the cars passenger-side door and trying to handcuff Wright.

The defense has argued that Johnson was at risk of being dragged and that Potter would have been justified in using deadly force. But Eldridge pointed out to jurors that for much of the interaction Potter was behind a third officer, whom she was training, and that Johnson didn't come into her camera's view until after the shot was fired  and then it showed the top of his head as he backed away.

Sgt. Johnson was clearly not afraid of being dragged, Eldridge said. He never said he was scared. He didnt say it then, and he didnt testify to it in court.

Jurors sent a note to the judge Monday afternoon asking for the date that Potter spoke with Laurence Miller, a psychologist who testified for the defense. The judge told the jurors that all the evidence was in, so you should rely on your collective memories. They then returned to the jury room.

When Potter was testifying, she agreed with Eldridge that she had decided to use her Taser after she saw that Johnson looked scared. But Eldridge pointed out an inconsistency, saying that when Potter spoke to Miller, she told him she didnt know why she used her Taser. Potter told the jury she didnt recall saying that.

It wasn't clear from Potter's testimony when Miller interviewed her over Zoom.

Eldridge, in her closing argument, also noted that Potter put other people at risk when she fired her gun, highlighting that the third officer was so close to the shooting that a cartridge casing bounced off of his face.

Members of the jury, safe handling of a firearm does not include firing it into a car with four people directly in harms way, she said.

Gray started his closing argument by attacking Eldridge's summation, highlighting how she had played extremely slowed-down depictions of events that Potter saw in real time.

Playing the video not at the right speed where it showed chaos, playing it as slow as possible  thats the rabbit hole of misdirection, Gray said. He also noted that Potter's body camera was mounted on her chest and gave a slightly different perspective than her own vision.

As prosecutors have done throughout the three-week trial, Eldridge stressed that Potter, who resigned from the police force two days after the shooting, was a highly trained and highly experienced 26-year veteran, and said she acted recklessly when she killed Wright.

She made a series of bad choices that led to her shooting and killing Daunte Wright, Eldridge said. This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. ... This was a colossal screw-up. A blunder of epic proportions.

Although there is a risk every time an officer makes a traffic stop, that didn't justify Potter using her gun on Wright after he pulled away from her and other officers as they were trying to arrest him on an outstanding weapons possession warrant, Eldridge said.

This case is not about Daunte Wright, Eldridge said. Daunte Wright is not on trial. Hes not the reason were here today.

Eldridge also downplayed testimony from some other officers who described Potter as a good person or said they saw nothing wrong in her actions: The defendant has found herself in trouble and her police family has her back.

Wright's death set off angry demonstrations for several days in Brooklyn Center. It happened as another white officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the killing of George Floyd.

Judge Regina Chu told jurors that intent is not part of the charges and that the state doesnt have to prove she tried to kill Wright.

The judge said to prove first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors have to prove that Potter caused Wrights death while committing the crime of reckless handling of a firearm. This means they must prove that she committed a conscious or intentional act while handling or using a firearm that creates a substantial or unjustifiable risk that she was aware of and disregarded, and that she endangered safety.

For second-degree manslaughter, the state must prove that she acted with culpable negligence, meaning she consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm.

State sentencing guidelines call for just over seven years in prison upon conviction of first-degree manslaughter and four years for second-degree, though prosecutors have said they plan to push for longer sentences.

Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this story. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

Find the APs full coverage of the Daunte Wright case: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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American drugmaker Moderna said Monday that a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine should protect against the Omicron version of the new coronavirus.

Moderna said laboratory tests showed its half-dose booster shot increased the level of antibodies able to fight Omicron by 37 times. A full-dose booster had an even stronger effect. The company said it gave 83 times the antibody levels. Half-dose shots are being used for most Moderna boosters. But a full-dose third shot has been advised for people with weakened immune systems.

Modernas early results have not yet been carefully examined by other scientists. But testing by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found a similar increase in antibody levels.

Another American company, Pfizer, said testing found its COVID-19 vaccine led to a big increase in Omicron-fighting antibodies. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said this month that early lab tests showed its full-strength booster increased levels of antibodies by 25-fold.

The vaccines made by Pfizer and by Moderna are both made with messenger RNA technology. The shots are used by many countries around the world to fight the pandemic. Health officials are advising people to get booster injections as soon as possible.

Antibody levels predict how well a vaccine may prevent infection with the coronavirus. However, they are just one part of the immune systems defenses. Other research suggests the vaccine should offer good protection against severe disease. This should be the case even if a fully vaccinated person gets what is known as a breakthrough infection.

Both Moderna and Pfizer are developing shots to better deal with the Omicron variant in case they are needed. Pfizer also recently said its experimental pill to treat COVID-19 appears to work well against the Omicron version.

Omicron was first found in southern Africa on November 9 and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24. Two days later, the WHO designated it a variant of concern.

Im Ashley Thompson.

The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

__________________________________________________

Words in This Story

dose  n. the amount of a medicine, drug or vitamin that is taken at one time

booster n. an additional amount of something that strengthens an earlier treatment, such as a vaccination

immune system n. the system that protects the body from disease and infections

-fold suffix times the amount it is attached to

variant  n. something that is different in some way from others of the same kind
New Years Eve is Friday, which will be a holiday for some. Here is a list of schedules and closures for New Years weekend:
I accept and respect what the defendant has said about his lack of intent to hurt people, but he made a series of terrible decisions, reckless decisions, District Court Judge Bruce Jones said, according to CBS Denver. If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence.

The 110-year sentence for Aguilera-Mederos is twice as long as the sentence some murderers have received in the state, according to the Denver Post. His convictions triggered state law that requires a minimum 110-year sentence.

Many people, including the millions who signed the petition, want the sentence changed.

This is a grossly excessive sentence, Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, told the Denver Post. It cries out for the reform of sentencing laws. But I think calls for change also need to be directed at the seldom-criticized but largely unchecked power of prosecutors.

Domingo Garcia, the national president of Latino civil rights organization LULAC, told The Denver Channel that the organization is supporting the petition and the case is so egregious.
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He said he was sure she was alive on July 21 and July 22 because he called her on July 22 from the motel where he was staying with Albrecht about going to Mount Olympus in Wisconsin Dells. But he also added he last saw her on July 22, when he and Albrecht went to her home but said he only went as far as the front entry.

He said again that he and Albrecht went to McColloughs house on July 23 to pick up his clothes and found everything smashed up, and no sign of McCollough. But he later corrected himself again and said he didnt see the home all smashed up until Sept. 4, after he got out of jail and went to McColloughs house with a U-Haul.

Raether also claimed he felt fine when he went to jail in July, despite what he told Albrecht on the phone. But confronted with his jail call statements about injuries, Raether then said McCollough attacked him and he defended himself. He also said that happened on July 22, when Albrecht was there with him. He said he didnt tell police that earlier because he was protecting (McCollough) because I dont want you guys to have that image that thats what she did, he said. But she was alive. I ran out of the house because she was doing that.
Mateo Medina has never walked or talked. The 10-year-old breathes and feeds through tubes.

His brother, Javier, 5, marches around their house in Fond du Lac and talks up a storm, but he cant run or jump and his speech is garbled. He can eat soft foods.

Their sister, Amelia, 3, sprints, chats and eats like most kids her age. An occasional morning tremor is the only sign that she, too, was born with the most serious form of spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. The genetic disorder, which progressively weakens muscles, typically has been fatal by age 2.

New treatments are changing the face of SMA, and the Medinas are Exhibit A. Mateo was born five years before approval of the first treatment, which Javier received in a clinical trial. Amelia got a newer gene therapy  considered most effective if given within a few weeks after birth, before symptoms appear  when she was 11 days old.

For families without a history of the disease, the main way to catch it early is newborn screening. While Wisconsin and most states have added SMA to their infant testing programs, 12 states havent, including Alabama, after a federal committee recommended it in 2018.

A large part of me feels like the state of Alabama failed my son, said Lauren Hendrix, of Troy, Alabama, whose son Graham died in January. He was diagnosed with SMA nearly six weeks after birth after developing symptoms and received the gene therapy, called Zolgensma, two weeks later.

Had he gotten Zolgensma a month sooner, because (SMA) had been tested for in the newborn screening, I fully believe my son would still be alive today, Hendrix said.

Dr. Mary Schroth, chief medical officer of Cure SMA, based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, has been urging all states to add SMA to newborn screening. Other states that havent are Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina and Virginia. Some plan to start next year.

An infant being diagnosed with SMA used to be essentially a death sentence, and its not anymore, said Schroth, who previously was a pediatric lung specialist at UW Health. But, the sooner a patient with SMA is identified and treated, the better the outcomes.

New treatments

Like most disorders detected in newborn screening through a few drops of blood collected from a babys heel a day or two after birth, SMA is rare, occurring in about 1 in 11,000 births. If both parents are carriers, each of their children has a 25% chance of having SMA.

The condition is caused by a mutation in a gene that normally makes a protein needed by nerve cells that control muscles. Without the protein, the nerve cells die and people lose the ability to move.

A drug called Spinraza, approved in 2016 for SMA patients of all ages, helps a related gene make more of the protein. Given by spinal injection every four months for life, the drug costs $750,000 the first year and $375,000 each subsequent year.

Zolgensma, approved in 2019 for SMA patients younger than 2 years, is a one-time infusion. It uses a harmless virus to replace the mutated gene with a normal one, restoring regular protein production. The gene therapy costs $2.1 million, believed to be the most expensive one-time treatment on the market.

A third treatment, Evrysdi, was approved last year for SMA patients 2 months and older. Its a daily oral liquid that helps make and maintain more of the protein, costing up to $340,000 a year.

Spinraza has helped most patients treated early maintain the ability to swallow and eat by mouth, its maker, Biogen, reported in June. With Zolgensma, most children with severe SMA sat, stood and walked alone at age-appropriate times, according to clinical trial data by Novartis. Most infants who started Evrysdi after developing symptoms were free of ventilators at their first birthday, Genentech said in July.

With its hefty, ongoing price tag, Spinraza exceeds common thresholds for cost-effectiveness, according to the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, or ICER, which studies the cost and benefits of medical treatments.

Zolgensmas price is right at the upper bounds of what could be considered cost-effective, said David Whitrap, a spokesperson for ICER, which hasnt reviewed Evrysdi.

Among about 80 patients with SMA at UW Health, including adults with a later-onset form, 17 take Spinraza, a dozen have received Zolgensma and about 50 are on Evrysdi, said Dr. Jennifer Kwon, a UW pediatric neurologist. Insurance coverage is sometimes a challenge for Spinraza and Evrysdi, but most plans promptly cover Zolgensma, especially for infants, Kwon said.

One Wisconsin baby who had symptoms of SMA before getting Zolgensma shortly after birth has had physical delays, but the others who got the gene therapy are doing remarkably well, Kwon said.

What their lives might be like years from now is a question we cant answer, she said. While it seems like its continuing to be effective, we just dont have longer-term data.

Results vary by state

Seated in her high chair, Piper Droessler bounced up and down, kicked up her feet and ate strawberry-banana yogurt with a spoon  until she decided to scoop it up with her fist and smear it across her face.

A few weeks before her second birthday last month, the toddler chased her older brother and sister around their home near Platteville, occasionally falling on the floor before springing back up and racing again.

Piper was the first child in Wisconsin to test positive for SMA through newborn screening and the first identified through screening to get Zolgensma, 23 days after she was born. Today, she shows no signs of the disease.

You wouldnt even know, said her father, Ben Droessler.

Caiti Droessler, Pipers mother, interacts online with parents whose children with SMA have died or use feeding tubes. I dont know their struggle at all, she said.

In Alabama, after Lauren Hendrixs son died, she started a petition to get SMA added to newborn screening. The state plans to start screening for SMA by late January, said Arrol Sheehan, spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Graham Hendrix looked normal at birth in October 2020, but a few weeks later he stopped moving his arms and his head, his mother said. After being diagnosed with SMA, he got Zolgensma at Childrens of Alabama hospital in Birmingham. The treatment seemed to help, but he stopped breathing in January and died the next day.

It blows my mind that we dont test for (SMA) in our state, but we have a team for it at the childrens hospital, said Hendrix, who is expecting a daughter in April.

Wisconsin first state to screen newborns for rare immune disorder The state started testing babies for severe combined immunodeficiency disorder in 2008.

Haley Comer of Middleton, Idaho, said she and medics had to resuscitate her son, Ryder, a month after he was born. Tests showed he had SMA, and he got Zolgensma two weeks later.

Today, at 10 months, Ryder is moving his arms and sucking on his fingers again, but he doesnt sit or hold his head like most children his age, his mother said. Idaho plans to start screening for SMA in February, said Greg Stahl, spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Its very frustrating Idaho hasnt started the testing yet, Comer said. Getting treatment sooner gives them such a better chance.

Audrey Wileys daughter Adelynn was born in Storm Lake, Iowa, on June 25, 2020. Six days later, Iowa started screening newborns for SMA.

Adelynn, diagnosed with the disease at 3 months, got Zolgensma a month later. She started moving more but stopped breathing in January and died.

Its as bad of luck as it gets, Wiley said. Obviously, she was not treated soon enough.

Two sons with SMA

Like most parents affected by SMA, Amy and Adan Medina had never heard of the disease before their son Mateo was diagnosed with it a month after he was born in 2011.

He has used a feeding tube since he was 3 months old and a breathing tube, attached through a hole in the front of his neck, since 7 months. He wears diapers. He cant move, except for his eyes, and, very subtly, his feet and left index finger and thumb. You have to really be watching to see it, Amy Medina said.

Three times a day, his parents or a nurse use machines to clear secretions from his airway and mucus from his lungs.

Mateo spends his days in bed or on a wheelchair-stroller, extended upright to support his spine and prevent the buildup of secretions. He goes to public school, where he has been trying to use a communication device activated by eye movement to converse with fellow fourth-graders.

When the Medinas got pregnant again, they knew they had a 25% chance of having another child with SMA. But, one in four is also a 75% chance youre not going to have an affected baby, Amy said.

More than five months into the pregnancy, amniocentesis confirmed the baby would have SMA. The news was no easier to accept the second time. It was still heartbreaking, Adan said.

After Javier was born, the family drove 14 hours to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he got his first dose of Spinraza in a clinical trial at 12 days. They made 18 trips to Baltimore, most by airplane, before Javier started getting the injections last year in Chicago.

Mateo also got Spinraza, starting at age 6, before switching last year to Evrysdi.

Javier eats  mostly oatmeal, mashed potatoes, cookies and Cheetos  but gets much of his nourishment through a feeding tube at night. He also receives supplemental oxygen while sleeping, especially when hes sick.

In addition to getting treatments to remove secretions and mucus twice a day, the kindergartner receives physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

Family photos show him grinning until he was 3, when his facial muscles weakened. He lost his smile, his mother said. He says its broken.

A third child

When the Medinas got pregnant a third time, they figured the odds must be in their favor. But they learned, again through amniocentesis, that their third child would also have SMA.

I cried, loud, uncontrollably and a lot for a period of time, Amy wrote on the familys CaringBridge page.

Amelia was born in March 2018, when another clinical trial was available, for Zolgensma. After getting the gene therapy at UWs American Family Childrens Hospital, she is doing well today.

Outside the familys house, a big red van sits in the driveway, equipped to carry the five Medinas and all of their gear. On a recent morning, Amelia ran along the sidewalk. Javier swung his arms as if he was running, but his feet stayed on the ground. Mateo watched them from his horizontal perch.

Amelia pushed her scooter, adorned with a unicorn on the front. Javier rode his three-wheel, lime green adaptive bicycle, sporting a hotdog costume he likes to wear around the house.

Theyre two peas in a pod, but they fight like crazy too, Amy said.

With three children who represent the spectrum of SMA today, the Medinas see the importance of newborn screening.

Catching it early makes a world of difference, Amy said. You shouldnt have to wait until your child is showing symptoms to figure out whats happening.

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DES MOINES, Iowa  The first year of the Biden administration has not been perfect, but it hasnt been bad, according to American Farm Bureau Federation official Sam Kieffer.

Pleasantly surprised, is how Kieffer describes the Farm Bureaus view of the first year of Bidens administration.

The Farm Bureau and Biden officials have differences of opinion, he says, but so far they have been able to forge a decent working relationship.

There are a number of reasons for that, he says. One is that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack already had strong agricultural connections both from his time as governor of Iowa and also from his previous stint at USDA and from his time working with dairy producers the past four years.

He understands what it is that we do, Kieffer says. He understands what farmers and rural America need and want.

But Kieffer says the situation in Washington is different now than it was during the Trump administration. During those four years the Farm Bureau had access both in the administration and with rural Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. There was concern that Democrats, who at present tend to represent more urban areas, would not offer that same connection.

And with that situation there were proposals that concerned the Farm Bureau. The year-long political battle over infrastructure legislation and other tax proposals included the possibility of many things that were frightening to farmers. Early proposals included things like the possible elimination of stepped up basis or increases in the capital gains tax or changes to the federal estate tax.

Over time, members of Congress and the administration learned either that many of those proposals were not politically possible or were just bad ideas, Kieffer says.

We were able to turn the conversation in Washington, he says.

And he says the president was never the one saying those tax moves should be made. It was generally someone else talking about those proposals.

Last month Congress passed the presidents infrastructure bill, which Kieffer says passed with at least a few Republican votes and which includes many good things for agriculture. The debate now is over the Build Back Better Act, which has sometimes been called the human infrastructure bill. It includes spending for conservation and rural development and other types of infrastructure, but it also includes money for items ranging from climate to preschool to other types of social spending.

Some agricultural groups support that bill, but the Farm Bureau does not, primarily because of the amount of spending in it. Kieffer says Democrats would like to pass that bill before Christmas, but right now that looks like a long shot.

The Farm Bureau is also not happy with the administrations handling of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. That rule has gone through several gyrations. In 2015 the Obama administration proposed a rule that was opposed by the Farm Bureau and many other agricultural organizations. In 2017 the Trump administration withdrew that rule and issued its own rule. This fall, the Biden administration withdrew the Trump rule and offered a proposal that Kieffer says is not as bad as the Obama rule but is still too complicated.

We will be pushing back on that rule, he says.

Kieffer spoke to farmers at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting last week.

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PHOENIX (AP)  Nine people in Arizona have been indicted on allegations they fraudulently obtained more than $23 million in government pandemic assistance.

Federal prosecutors allege Jason Coleman, 40, and Kimberly Coleman, 38, of Mesa conspired to prepare and submit about two-dozen fraudulent applications seeking $30 million in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. They received $13 million from 10 of their applications, according to prosecutors, who say the couple submitted fake employment data and fictitious payroll.

The PPP program gave employers billions of dollars in low-interest loans that would be entirely forgiven if the money was used for specific purposes such as payroll costs. The program was created early in the COVID-19 pandemic as officials ordered many businesses to close and urged people to stay home.

Authorities alleged the Colemans used the money to purchase four properties including a $3.8 million home, luxury vehicles, furniture and investments.

Jason and Kimberly Coleman pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and transactional money laundering. A magistrate ordered both detained pending trial, ruling they are a flight risk and a danger.

A lawyer for Kimberly Coleman, Joshua Kolsrud, declined to comment. Jason Coleman's attorney could not be reached but a receptionist said the firm doesn't comment on cases.

Meanwhile, a grand jury also issued eight other indictments of seven people from the Phoenix area accused of conspiring to defraud the pandemic relief program.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
BLACKFOOT (AP)  An eastern Idaho county prosecutor as well as a city mayor and its police force are calling on the county sheriff to resign.

Bingham County Prosecutor Paul Rogers and Blackfoot Mayor Marc Carroll on Friday called on Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland to step down.

The Idaho attorney generals office last week charged Rowland with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and misdemeanor exhibition of a gun. State investigators accused him of threatening a church youth group with a gun. The group had dropped a thank-you note off at his front door.

A trusted Law Enforcement officer has admitted to physically assaulting a neighbor and threatening her with his service handgun, Carroll wrote in a statement released on Friday calling for Rowland to resign.

Rogers in his statement said that at some point the damage to the Sheriffs Office becomes irreparable regardless of the outcome of the newly-filed case.

Rowland agreed to take a leave of absence shortly after the allegations arose in November, but returned to the job several weeks ago. Rowland has said he has received threats in recent months and worried about people coming to his home. He has not yet entered a plea on the charges.

I have been doing this job for 36 years, Rowland said in a statement in which he also disparaged the people on the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Fort Hall Reservation, referencing intoxication and calling them not good people and saying their proximity was the reason for his actions.

The tribes have also called on Rowland to resign, calling his statements racist.

We ask Rowland to officially step down as Sheriff and offer a public apology to the Fort Hall community, Fort Hall Business Council Chairman Devon Boyer said in the statement last week.

In court documents, investigators with the Idaho Attorney Generals office wrote that a youth group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was participating in an activity Nov. 9 where they delivered thank-you notes to members of the congregation. The girls, aged 12 to 16, taped the notes to the church-goers doors and then rang their doorbells, running away before they could be seen.

Seven of the youth group members and an adult leader went to Rowlands neighborhood to leave a note for the sheriff and his wife, according to the court documents. In separate interviews with investigators, members of the youth group and Rowland both reportedly said that after the group left the note, Rowland stopped their car from driving away, pulled the adult driver out of the vehicle by her hair and pointed his handgun at her head, yelling profanities at her.

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Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on December 17, 2021

Idahos full-day kindergarteners are advancing their reading and writing skills faster than their peers in half-day programs, a new report shows.

The research, published Thursday by North Carolina-based education firm Public Impact and Idaho charter support group Bluum, found that the states full-day kindergarteners started last school year behind students in half-day programs, but closed the achievement gap over time  despite serving more students with educational challenges.

The results found one researcher calling for change in Idaho, where kindergarten remains optional and the state carves up enough funds for only half-day programs.

Idaho should consider requiring districts to have full-day kindergarten and fund it, said Public Impact researcher Bryan Hassel, who helped present the findings during a news briefing with Bluum Thursday.

Hassel and other researchers compared early reading scores from 185 full-day kindergartens and 162 half-day kindergartens. The scores were from the Idaho Reading Indicator, the states early reading test administered to K-3 students in the fall and again in the spring to measure growth.

One key finding: full-day kindergarteners entered school with lower literacy rates than their partial-day peers, but still caught up over time. Full-day kindergarteners started school with 2020 fall literacy rates at the 46th percentile on the test, but rose to the 52nd percentile by the spring of 2021. Half-day students dropped from the 54th to the 52nd percentile in that same timeframe.

Meanwhile, the reading and writing gap between all-day and partial-day students narrowed over multiple years, researchers found by tracking a cohort of 2018 kindergartners through their second-grade year. At the start of kindergarten, full-day students were reading 11 percentile points lower than half-day students. By spring of their kindergarten year, 66% of students from both programs were reading at grade level. A gap re-emerged in second grade, with former full-day kindergarteners ending the year reading five percentile points lower than the former half-day students. But the gap remained smaller than it started. (There was no data for spring 2020, when the students would have been in first grade, because of the pandemic.)

Full-day kindergarteners were also more likely than their half-day peers to have educational challenges. Between 2018 and 2021, about 40% were economically disadvantaged, 11% had special needs and 11% were English language learners. Those rates are all lower in the states half-day kindergartens, where 35% of students were economically disadvantaged, 10% had special needs and 5% were English language learners.

Hassel and Bluum CEO Terry Ryan explained why higher rates of students with special needs may have ended up in full-day programs. Working parents are more inclined to choose a full-day kindergarten, Hassel said. And school districts serving students with more needs get more literacy money, Ryan said. More money means a greater ability to run optional full-day kindergarten programs.

The report delivers findings about the nature of Idahos optional all-day kindergarten policy less than a month before lawmakers assemble for the 2022 legislative session  and just weeks after the state released data that showed kindergartners were the only youngsters who did not regain reading test score progress after early pandemic losses, as Idaho EdNews reported.

Top state leaders  including Gov. Brad little, state superintendent Sherri Ybarra and the State Board of Education  have advocated for full-day kindergarten ahead of the legislative session. But conservative lawmakers who prize parental choice have pushed back on a possible shift for years.

The State Board of Education helped support the research presented Thursday by sharing data for all Idaho public schools and asking researchers to analyze broader trends, according to Ryan.

Other facts about full-day kindergarteners:

Full-day programs served fewer students than half-day programs. In 2020-21, there were 19,043 Idaho kindergartners in half-day programs and 14,832 in full-day programs, according to the report.

Twenty-one states require school districts to offer full-day kindergarten, according to

.

Disclosure: Bluum and Idaho Education News are funded through grants form the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.

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Dont let anyone tell you Idaho politics is forever unchangeable. One of the biggest changes in its politics in the last generation is happening as we speak, and not very many people have even noticed.

It is a change within the states dominant Republican Party, and its implications will become unavoidably clear in the coming year.

A quarter-century ago, youd get a consistent answer about who ran Idaho politics: IACI.

That was simplistic. The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry did not run everything. But between it and its membersmost of Idahos biggest businesses then as now were memberstheir coordinated influence was unmistakable and vast. Part of it was that the states Republican Party was thoroughly aligned with that community, its leaders tight with the states business executives; jointly, they formed the core of the states establishment. The last two governors, C.L. Butch Otter and Brad Little, have been exemplars, just slightly clearer than their recent predecessors. The state GOP broadly was there too, top to bottom. This was so clear it seldom needed to be spelled out.

Today the situation is far more complex and conflicted, a transition which has been in motion for more than a decade, now coming to a head, the fissures inescapable. The energy and activism in todays Idaho Republican Party is in the insurgent wing of the party, the volatile, explosive sector for which angry Trumpism is only barely satisfying. They arent an establishment, and dont want to be an establishmentbecause they dont seek to build or manage anything (a key difference from Idaho Democrats)but would rather raze whatever they encounter, especially the establishment, corporate or otherwise. Including the Republican establishment.

Consider the just-announced group called Take Back Idaho, aiming to restore reason and responsibility to the Idaho Legislature. Members include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Jones (disclosure: his blog posts appear on my website), former House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, former Senate President pro tem Robert Geddes, and former Secretary of State Ben Ysursa. The chair of the group, Jennifer Ellis, is a former president of the Idaho Cattle Association. Theyre all state Republican organization veterans.

Their analysis of where the Idaho Republican Party is now: Three factors seem to account for the sad state of affairs of that once-admired party. First, the party adopted a closed primary election in 2011, which ensures that the most extreme and disruptive candidates end up on the general election ballot in this essentially one-party state. Second, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which draws substantial support and direction from out-of-state interests, has managed to gain a stronghold over a sizable minority of Republican legislators. Third, the national political environment in the United States has taken a drastic turn for the worse in the last five years.

The insurgents have not taken over Idaho politics yet, but theyre close. Theyre approaching parity in the Idaho House (and could gain effective control there when a new speaker is chosen), have a significant base in the Senate, and the office of lieutenant governor. In 2022, theyre mounting a strong challenger to take over offices from governor on down. Their progress has been impressive.

Years ago, statements from the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry reflected a smooth support for the GOP-led government. This last year, they have been full of warnings and criticism. IACI has released polls showing that proposed insurgent legislative efforts were unpopular. It pressed legislators not to do what many insurgent Republicans wanted to do about vaccine policy (to ban businesses from imposing mandates). In line with top state businesses, it has supported education efforts many insurgents deeply oppose.

Last month, state Representative Chad Christensen (very much an insurgent) sent a social media message to IACIs president, Alex LeBeau, that Alex, I dont want to see your face at the Capitol Building. You should stay away. At least stay in the Governors office. (This was later pulled, for whatever thats worth.)

That message would have been inconceivable at the turn of the century.

In Idaho, business interests have become disconnected from the activist wing of the Republican Party.

The world is changing before our eyes.

Randy Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor and blogs at ridenbaugh.com. He can be reached at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com. His new book What Do You Mean by That? has just been released and can be found at ridenbaugh.com/whatdoyoumeanbythat and on Amazon.com.

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Former Gov. Linwood Holton was remembered Sunday as a landmark Virginia political leader who embraced school desegregation and heralded the start of robust two-party political competition in the state.

Gov. Ralph Northam and Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin were among 10 Virginia governors who attended the tribute at Richmonds Second Presbyterian Church.

Holton, Virginias first Republican governor of the 20th century, held the office from 1970 to 1974. He died in October at age 98.

History had its eyes on you, Governor Linwood Holton, former ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton said in her eulogy.

Compton, who began her career in Roanoke and then became a Virginia statehouse reporter, said that on Monday, Aug. 31, 1970, Holton created a defining moment. The governor, accompanied by a Capitol Police officer, escorted his smiling daughter Tayloe to Richmonds majority-Black John F. Kennedy High School.

Holtons belief in civil rights and school desegregation was crystallized in a news photograph that ran in papers across the country.

Compton noted that in a South in which governors once stood in the schoolhouse door, David Brinkley opened that nights NBC Nightly News with images of Holton and his daughter charting a new path in Virginia. Compton said that the following morning, The New York Times ran the story on its front page, along with a photograph that captured a moment of national shift.

The legislature had just 31 Republicans among its 140 members when Holton took office, but he lived up to his mantra that Its Opportunity Time, Compton said.

He relished bucking the stubborn establishment, she said. He did so in big ways  such as creating a Cabinet system and steering tax money to clean Virginias waterways  and in small ways, such as ordering a dark blue limousine instead of a black one.

Nadine Marsh-Carter read a message from her father, Henry Marsh, Richmonds first African American mayor and a longtime state senator.

His genuine belief in the humanity of all people and all races is what made him special, Henry Marsh said. Governor Holtons willingness to walk the walk helped break the back of segregationists and fueled integration in our schools.

Son Dwight Holton said that his father made a point to find a balance between work and family. He drew a laugh from the governors in attendance by noting that his father left the governors office at 6 p.m. each day and bounded up the stairs at the Executive Mansion, saying: Governor no more!

He said his father believed a governor who could not finish the days duties by 6 p.m. was not delegating properly.

In 1969, Holton became the first Republican elected governor of Virginia since 1881. His election began decades of robust two-party competition as Virginia threw off vestiges of the segregationist Democratic machine of Harry F. Byrd Sr.

From Holtons election to the election of Republican Youngkin on Nov. 2, Virginians have elected seven Republican governors and seven Democratic governors.

Holton was the father-in-law of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a Democrat who served as governor from 2006 to 2010. Anne Holton, another of the late governors four children, lived in the Executive Mansion as a child and then again as first lady.

Holton, born in Big Stone Gap, was renowned for his political perseverance. He lost two campaigns for the House of Delegates in the 1950s and his first bid for governor in 1965, but defeated Democrat William Battle for governor in 1969.

He and his wife, Virginia Harrison Rogers, known as Jinks, married in 1953.

In addition to his wife, Holton is survived by four children: Tayloe Loftus, a physician in Syracuse, N.Y.; Anne Holton, of Richmond, a former judge and state secretary of education; A. Linwood III, who goes by Woody, a historian and professor at the University of South Carolina; and Dwight, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor in Portland, Ore.

Virginia is the only state that bars governors from serving consecutive terms, so Virginia has an unusually large roster of former governors. When a new Virginia governor is inaugurated  as Youngkin will be on Jan. 15  predecessors who are able to attend traditionally gather with the new member of the club for a portrait. Holton faithfully took part in the quadrennial rite into his late 90s.

On the day of Northams inauguration in January 2018, Holton sat front and center in a photo of 11 Virginia governors. (Former Gov. Gerald Baliles died in October 2019.) Virginias nine living governors are Chuck Robb, Doug Wilder, George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Sens. Mark Warner and Kaine, Bob McDonnell, Terry McAuliffe and Northam.
When the Lublin regional prosecutor applied for a court order Monday seeking Giertych's arrest, it said the lawyer had refused to appear for questioning, and seemed to be deliberately hiding from justice.

Giertych called this absurd and said the financial wrongdoing investigation was trumped-up, that a Poznan court had already dismissed it for lack of evidence. Prosecutors say he is suspected of money laundering for legal fees he received in a Warsaw property dispute case a decade ago.

Citizen Lab was still investigating how Giertychs phone was infected but said it expects a zero-click vulnerability, which wouldn't involve user interaction. They believe Wrzosek was similarly hacked. Citizen Lab found six intrusions on her phone from June 24-Aug. 19.

Last year, Wrzosek ordered an investigation into whether presidential elections should be postponed over concerns they could threaten the health of voters and election workers. Almost immediately, she was stripped of the case and transferred to the distant provincial city of Srem with two days notice.
Test: Get a COVID-19 test before joining indoor gatherings with others who are not in your household and before and after traveling, regardless of your vaccine status. Get tested if you have any symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Mask: Wear a face covering indoors in public, even if you are vaccinated. If possible, wear a medical grade mask for more protection (e.g., surgical mask, procedural mask, KN95, N95).

This is a moment to act. We can keep people from becoming really sick and make sure there is hospital care for everyone who needs it. Early evidence shows that boosters provide a significant level of protection against omicron, Cohen said. I urge everyone who has been vaccinated to get your booster soon as you are eligible. Getting a booster is particularly critical for people who are 65 and over or with underlying medical conditions.

Incoming N.C. DHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley also shared updates on how the state is handling the logistics of an expected wave of omicron COVID-19 cases.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico's Democratic governor on Monday renewed her call for state legislators in the major oil producing state to approve requirements for fuel producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that New Mexico must pass a clean fuel standard in the upcoming legislative session.

The governor has discretion over which nonbudgetary initiatives are heard during the 30-day legislative session that starts Jan. 18.

Earlier this year, a Democrat-sponsored bill to impose low-carbon fuel standards stalled in the state House of Representatives after winning Senate's endorsement on a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition. The proposal would not have applied to retailers, including gas stations.

Similar programs have been implemented in California and Oregon. Low-carbon fuel standards are aimed at reducing greenhouse emission in the transportation sector by going beyond vehicle fuel efficiency requirements and setting benchmarks for fuel producers or importers or both.
December 20, 2021 14:03

YEREVAN.  A total of 90.3% of the 5,473 people in Armenia who have tested positive are not vaccinated against the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Also, 94.9% of the 1,317 hospitalized and 95.8% of the 143 people in need of intensive care in Armenia are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, a total of 1,546,632 vaccinations against the coronavirus have been administered in Armenia as of Sunday.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter
December 20, 2021 15:19

No cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Armenia yet, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed NEWS.am Medicine.

Not a PCR test, but a "sequencing" test is conducted to determine this variant. However, not all positive cases are examined in this study, but only a few of them. And among the studied, according to the specialists, the new variant has not been detected yet.

But the Omicron variant has already penetrated our region. Two such cases were reported in Georgia, and another casein Iran.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter
The Prime Minister appointed by the military who took power in Guinea has expressed his disagreement with the juntas decision to rename Conakry airport after former president Ahmed Sekou Toure, father of independence for some, dictator for others, Mosaiqueguinee.com reported Friday.

I am surprised, displeased and overwhelmed. I learn like you and like everyone else. I was neither consulted nor associated in the decision making process, Mohamed Beavogui told a journalist from the news site Mosaiqueguinee.

Two collaborators of the civilian Prime Minister confirmed his disapproval on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject.

Guinean media reports noted that this was the first time Beavogui had publicly dissented from the junta since he was appointed on October 6 by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who with his men overthrew President Alpha Conde on September 5. But they added that Mr. Beavogui had other reasons for his frustration than the new name of the airport.

National television, the juntas almost exclusive communication channel, announced that the airport would be renamed after the man who led the country from independence in 1958 until his death in 1984.

Ahmed Sekou Toure divides Guineans who see him as a Third World hero who stood up to the former French colonial power, or remember that his presidency was marked by an authoritarian exercise of power, purges and torture at the Boiro camp of sinister memory.

During his presidency, some 50,000 people were tortured, shot, hanged or disappeared in detention, according to victims associations and human rights organizations. Hundreds of thousands of Guineans were forced into exile.
The 78-year-old Congolese head of state has been placed in isolation after several people in his immediate circle tested positive for Covid-19. He had to postpone a visit to Pointe-Noire, the economic capital.

According to a statement from the presidential office, it is in accordance with health protocols in force in the country that the head of state, being considered a contact person, is required to observe a period of isolation.

The duration of his isolation was not specified by the cabinet, which states that several people in the immediate vicinity of the President of the Republic have recently tested positive for the coronavirus Covid-19.

After screening, the President of the Republic has tested negative, according to the same statement.

Denis Sassou-Nguesso made his last public appearance on Wednesday, December 15 at the inauguration of a general hospital in the northern part of Brazzaville. But the next day he was represented by his foreign minister, Jean-Claude Gakosso, at the Turkey-Africa summit in Istanbul. He also postponed a visit scheduled for yesterday and until Tuesday to Pointe-Noire (south).

Congo has recently eased some measures to combat Covid-19, notably authorizing the organization of marriages. The country has already recorded at least 360 deaths caused by Covid-19.
The authorities in Bamako have given their agreement to the Security Council and the Chadian authorities, and this announcement comes at a time when the reorganization of the French military presence in Mali is underway.

The Chadian contingent should almost double under the UN mandate. The Malian ambassador to the UN has given the Security Council the green light. But the military government in power in Bamako is anxious to specify that this reinforcement comes within a bilateral framework and at the request of the government of the Republic of Chad, to face the threats and protect its troops [] in northern Mali, following the reconfiguration of the Barkhane force, the French force in the Sahel, which has withdrawn 450 soldiers from northern Mali.

On the Chadian side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 1,000 soldiers would soon be sent to Mali. But he stressed that neither the timetable nor the area of deployment had been specified and that these details would be defined in agreement with the United Nations.
The Congolese and Ugandan armies, engaged since November 30 in a joint operation against the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) in eastern DRC, announced the destruction of new rebel strongholds and the arrest of 35 of them in Ituri.

After rehabilitating roads to facilitate troop movements, the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC) and Uganda (UPDF) went on the offensive and bombed new enemy camps identified in the territory of Beni (North Kivu) and in the province of Ituri, according to a joint statement tweeted on Sunday by the Congolese army.

In Beni, the joint forces launched operations in the north of the Virunga Park after shelling enemy positions in Kambi Yajua, Tondoli and Kahinama, the text said.

In Ituri, the bombardments destroyed ADF and allied strongholds in Madina 3, Bantonga, Kitumba and Mulangu, while the offensive launched on 13, 14 and 15 December reported the capture of 35 ADF terrorists in several villages in the Irumu territory, the statement said.

The Ugandan army, for its part, in a text published on Saturday on the Ministry of Defense website, said that operations would intensify in different sectors, now that the terrorists have been dislodged from their former strongholds.

In an initial assessment of the operations, the two armies reported on December 11 that 34 rebels had been arrested, 4 enemy bivouacs destroyed and 31 Congolese hostages freed. No reports of deaths or injuries have been released to date.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has conducted one of the first comparisons of how effectively each of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved in the United States stimulates a protective immune response against the virus. This study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, also includes an analysis of data from several other studies on how well each vaccine guards against breakthrough cases of COVID-19, or infections that occur in people who have received the inoculations.

COVID-19 vaccines work by "teaching" the body's immune system to detect the presence of the coronavirus and respond by producing protective antibodies that neutralize it, known as immunogenicity. The three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are informally known by the names of their manufacturers: Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen. Moderna and Pfizer are administered as two-dose regimens, while Johnson & Johnson requires only one dose. Although there are differences in dose and mechanism of delivery between the three vaccines, each targets the "spike" protein on the SARS-CoV-2 strain of COVID-19 that was originally isolated in Wuhan, China.

"We wanted to know how much anti-spike antibody people make when they receive each vaccine," says the study's senior author, John Iafrate, MD, Ph.D., vice chair of Pathology at MGH. To find out, Iafrate and his colleagues studied blood samples from 215 healthy adults from Chelsea, Massachusetts, and the MGH Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, which is directed by Mark Poznansky, MD, Ph.D. Each adult had received one or two doses of vaccine at least one week earlier. The researchers also analyzed blood samples from a group of adults who were unvaccinated and not infected with COVID-19, and another group of adults who were unvaccinated and recovering from infections.

A laboratory analysis of these blood samples found that two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines produced roughly similar concentrations of antibodies, which were greater than 100-fold higher than the amount produced by the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The study also found that people who had recovered from COVID-19 infections had antibody concentrations similar to those who had received a single dose of Moderna and Pfizer, which were more than 10 times higher than antibody levels produced by a dose of Johnson & Johnson.

A separate analysis conducted with Gaurav Gaiha, MD, of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard found that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was somewhat more effective at stimulating production of a different type of immune cell, known as CD4 T cells. However, those levels were still lower than those induced by the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Next, the team collaborated with Alejandro Balazs, Ph.D., and members of his lab at the Ragon Institute to examine the vaccines' ability to neutralize three variants (or mutated versions) of COVID-19 that have evolved and spread throughout the world, known by the names Beta, Delta and Gamma. They found that Beta is the variant most likely to escape surveillance by the immune system. That suggests to Balazs that the Delta and Gamma variants must possess some other qualities, such as the ability to replicate rapidly, that have helped them spread. All three variants have rendered antibodies raised by the existing vaccines less effective. How effectively the three vaccines neutralize the Omicron variant, which was identified in late November, is currently under investigation.

To gain insight into how well each vaccine protects recipients from being infected with breakthrough cases of COVID-19, the paper's lead author, Vivek Naranbhai, Ph.D., MBChB, analyzed data from studies conducted in California, the District of Columbia, and Oklahoma, as well as Iceland and South Korea. By merging these findings (a statistical method called a meta-analysis), they found that people inoculated with the Moderna vaccine had the lowest risk for breakthrough infections. Compared to adults who received the Moderna vaccine, Pfizer vaccine recipients were 1.53 times more likely to become infected with COVID-19, while those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were 2.54 times more likely.

"Our data strongly indicate that a single dose of Johnson & Johnson results in a weaker antibody response than the other vaccine regimens," says Iafrate. "These findings certainly support making booster shots available for that population." At this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends boosters for people aged 18 and older who have received any three of the primary vaccine regimens, and for people aged 16 and 17 who received the Pfizer primary vaccine.

Explore further J&J to ask FDA to approve its COVID booster shot

More information: Vivek Naranbhai et al, Comparative immunogenicity and effectiveness of mRNA-1273, BNT162b2 and Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccines, The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2021). Journal information: Journal of Infectious Diseases Vivek Naranbhai et al, Comparative immunogenicity and effectiveness of mRNA-1273, BNT162b2 and Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccines,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiab593
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser wears a face mask, as she speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus and the District's response, July 13, 2020, in Washington. The nation's capital is reinstating its indoor mask mandate as the region and country grapple with a fresh surge in COVID-19 infections. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File

The nation's capital is reinstating its indoor mask mandate as the region and country grapple with a fresh surge in COVID-19 infections.

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that she would declare a state of emergency and urged Washingtonians to get vaccinations and booster shots, and limit their social activities over the holidays.

"Choose your activities wisely and you may even consider bowing out of some social events," she said. "I'm tired of it. We're all tired of it. But we have to pay attention to what's happening in our city and our nation."

The new indoor mask requirement kicks in Tuesday at 6 a.m. and will continue through the end of Januaryat which point it will be reconsidered.

Bowser lifted the mask mandate in late November, a move that drew some public criticism that she was moving ahead of the science and easing restrictions at a time when infection numbers still listed the region as a zone of substantial transmission. A majority of the D.C. Councilall-Democrats, like Bowserissued a rare public letter asking her to reconsider the decision.

On Monday, Bowser denied that she had acted prematurely, saying the District's virus plans were designed to be dialed up or down based on fluid circumstances.

"I don't regret evolving with the virus," she said. "As conditions warranted, we've changed our interventions and we're doing that again."

The rising infections and steady march of the omicron variant around the country have been reflected in Washington and the intertwined communities in northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Last week, D.C. reported record-breaking infection numbers on two consecutive days, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and D.C. Council member Trayon White have both reported testing positive in recent days.

Much about the omicron coronavirus variant remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. Scientists say omicron spreads even easier than other coronavirus strains, including delta, and it is expected to become dominant in the U.S. by early next year. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection but even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.

Public anxiety in the District has led to long lines outside local testing facilities in the past week. Bowser said the city would offer expanded sites for both testing and vaccinations. The city will also require all D.C. government employees to be both fully vaccinated and receive booster shots.

Four separate D.C. public schools have decided to shift back to virtual learning for the near future. DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee announced that the resumption of the school year in January after winter break would be delayed by two days to allow for distribution of thousands of testing kits.

All public schools in neighboring Prince George's County, Maryland, have already announced plans to switch to virtual learning through at least mid-January. But Ferebee said he preferred to handle the issue on a school-by-school basis and that his administration strongly favored maintaining in-person learning, backed by extensive testing.

"We will continue to be guided by ... the belief that our schools are the safest place, the most appropriate place for students to learn," Ferebee said.

This will be the third time that D.C. has imposed a mask mandate; the original 2020 mandate was lifted for fully vaccinated individuals in May, then reinstated in late July as cases began to rise again.

City officials said local hospital systems have witnessed an increase in COVID-19 patients, but weren't near critical capacity yet.

"Hospitalization rates are five times more likely for the unvaccinated than the vaccinated, so vaccines are still the tool," said Dr. Anjali Talwalkar of the D.C. Health Department. "It's time to get boosted. It's not too late. Now is the time and there's vaccine available."

Explore further DC to drop most indoor mask requirements next week

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
There have never been adequate resources for child mental health, said John Sargent, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. And with the pandemic, the system is absolutely slammed with need." Credit: Shutterstock

Last week, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a rare public advisory warning of a widespread increase in mental health issues among children and adolescents. His report pointed to an alarming rise in youth suicide attempts and emergency visits for mental health concerns, particularly since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, three leading groups of pediatric health professionals have declared a national emergency in youth mental health and called for sweeping changes in psychiatric care systems.

Child psychiatrist John Sargent spoke with Tufts Now about what's behind the emergency and what parents need to know. Sargent, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, is director and vice chair of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Tufts Children's Hospital.

Tufts Now: These public health advisories make clear that the nation is facing an acute mental health crisis, and our children are bearing the brunt of it. How did we get to this point?

John Sargent: The first thing is to acknowledge that life has been really hard. All of a sudden, social interaction and physical closeness went from being comforting to being dangerous. Day-to-day life, which for kids is mostly school and activities, became risky and inaccessible.

Add to that the expectation that families would be okay with everyone being at homethat parents would be able to work from home, monitor their kids' academic lives, and occupy their kids' social lives. I would call that unrealistic. Then, add the fact that the pandemic had a much greater effect on certain groups of peoplethose who were already stressed or experiencing hardship, people who are racially discriminated against, people who were more likely to experience disability or job disruptions, and families who didn't have the necessary technology for their kids to go to school remotely. All of that became very disruptive to our usual ways of living.

I don't think that we've really appreciated what the negative effects have been, as a society or as a community. And we're not totally out of it even now, two years later.

You point out the pandemic has not affected everyone equally. How does that play out on the mental health spectrum?

What I've seen as a child psychiatrist is that the mental health crisis is actually two different crises. People who have psychological, emotional, or developmental differences, who have high-risk jobs, or who are impoverished or homeless have been much more disadvantaged and much more endangered by the pandemic than people who have more resources. People who were barely getting by are now lower on the ladder, essentially. Then there are people who were doing okay but have seen significant disruptions and are plagued with the kinds of worries that accentuate anxiety and can lead to increased family and work difficulties.

The two crises are occurring at exactly the same time. The result is two sets of needs. For those at highest risk, the needs are for intensive services such as in-person therapy, hospitalization, and day-treatment programs. More routine mental health care such as outpatient counseling is needed for people whose lives are disrupted but perhaps are not in immediate danger. Both sets of needs are increasing dramatically.

All the experts saw this coming, this tsunami of pandemic-fueled mental health challenges. Why couldn't we avert it?

There have never been adequate resources for child mental health. Basically, the entire mental health care system was set up to respond only to the tip of the iceberg on a national basis. This is certainly true in child psychiatry and child mental health.

Before the pandemic, somewhere around a fifth to a quarter of people who needed help got it. The others didn'tjust by virtue of inadequate resources and the stigma that keeps people from seeking out mental health care. Even if they do, services are often less than they need them to be, because they may need a type of therapy the provider doesn't offer.

With the pandemic, the already under-resourced and overburdened system is absolutely slammed with need. It seems as though stigma has significantly declined, so that people are more willing to say that they're experiencing mental health challenges, anxiety, or mood problems, and are more willing to seek help. Exactly when the demand increases, the supply doesn't respond. A lot of reasons are behind that, including the length of training to become a child psychiatrist, which hampers recruitment to the field; inadequate reimbursement to providers of mental health care, and inadequate community-based resources for mental health.

What's your advice for parents who see their kids struggling?

I often hear this when I talk to a neighbor or a friend: "My kid is having trouble; what should I do?" I say be caring, be warm, be supportive, be understanding. Try to figure out what you need to do to help them change their lives in a successful and confident way. Make sure you pay attention to what your kid is doing. Make sure you help your kid understand that negative emotions are part of life, and that some negative emotions they can deal with and some they may need help dealing with. It's all of that, together with trying to stay as happy as you can as a family.

The best antidepressants are competencethe sense that one can do something effectivelyand connectionsthe sense that one is loved and cared about. The best ways to approach anxiety are through thoughtful attention to how risky something really is and helping people through periods of worrying and concern so they can realize that in fact things will be okay, and that they can make them okay. You allow people to express their negative feelings, to complain about the pandemic, to say that virtual school isn't any fun or isn't helping them. You want to help your children build a sense of resilience and a sense of well-being in the face of challenges.

How does a parent discern when a child needs professional help, and what happens then?

If you're doing all of those things and your child is not responding to your attention and your support, then seek outside help. The important thing to remember is that kids who don't feel like doing anythingsuch as kids who are depressedaren't going to feel like pursuing treatment. The kid is going to say don't bother me with that. The parent needs to say it's not acceptable for you to be spending all your time in your room, or not doing as well academically, or not being as engaged in your life as you used to be and can be. They need to say it's not okay, and we have to do something about it, together.

We cannot be laissez-faire about this.

The problem is that it can be hard to find a therapist, and there is often a wait. During the wait, the important thing is to make sure you're paying attention to your child. Make sure that your child knows you are there for them, that the school is welcoming them as they come back, that people are being as warm and supportive as they can be. You also don't want to decrease all demands. You want to make sure that kids feel like they're being challenged, and they are being helped to do what their school or activity or family needs them to do.

The pandemic shows no signs of ending anytime soon. What do you expect for the long-term?

I expect continued distress. And what I hope for is a period of healing and a period of enhanced community. America has always had trouble figuring out how charitable to be for people who have trouble looking after themselves. We have what I call a safety net with holes in it.

One of the messages of the pandemic is that we need to pay attention to each other's emotional well-being and to our own well-being. We need to take that into account in our daily lives. If we don't, illnesses can be more severe, recovery from illness can take longer, relationships are problematic, communication with the next generation breaks downit interferes with having a civil society.

All of a sudden, we're recognizing that mental health care is a necessary part of day-to-day life. With stigma going away, there's a possibility that there will be increased valuing of mental health care and increased recognition that it saves people's lives and helps people live the best life they can live.

Are you suggesting that we all be our ownand each other'stherapists for the foreseeable future?

It's not only self-care; it's mutual care. It's being in a workplace and if someone's having trouble, instead of firing them or disciplining them, you help them get help. In the school environment, it's paying attention to the kid who's withdrawn in the back, not attending class, or not participating. You say, how can I help you?

This pandemic has been a challenge to ourselves, our families, our survival, our communities, and our governments. And we're not out of it yet. We can meet this challenge, I believe, by coming together as a community of people who are interested in helping each other.

Explore further Risk factors for mental health challenges are compounded for LGBTQ youth
The newly discovered muscle layer runs from the back of the cheekbone to the anterior muscular process of the lower jaw. (S= superficial layer, D= deep layer, C= coronoid layer). Credit: Jens. C. Turp, University of Basel / UZB

Human anatomy still has a few surprises in store for us: researchers at the University of Basel have discovered a previously overlooked section of our jaw muscles and described this layer in detail for the first time.

The masseter muscle is the most prominent of the jaw muscles. If you place your fingers on the back of your cheeks and press your teeth together, you'll feel the muscle tighten. Anatomy textbooks generally describe the masseter as consisting of one superficial and one deep part.

Now, researchers led by Dr. Szilvia Mezey from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and Professor Jens Christoph Turp from the University Center for Dental Medicine Basel (UZB) have described the structure of the masseter muscle as consisting of an additional third, even deeper layer. In the scientific journal Annals of Anatomy, they propose that this layer be given the name Musculus masseter pars coronideain other words, the coronoid section of the masseterbecause the newly described layer of muscle is attached to the muscular (or "coronoid") process of the lower jaw.

The anatomical study was based on detailed examination of formalin-fixed jaw musculature, computer tomographic scans and the analysis of stained tissue sections from deceased individuals who had donated their bodies to science. This was in addition to MRI data from a living person.

As if a new animal species had been discovered

"This deep section of the masseter muscle is clearly distinguishable from the two other layers in terms of its course and function," explains Mezey. The arrangement of the muscle fibers, she says, suggests that this layer is involved in the stabilization of the lower jaw. It also appears to be the only part of the masseter that can pull the lower jaw backwardsthat is, toward the ear.

A look at historical anatomy studies and textbooks reveals that the structure of the masseter muscle has already raised questions in the past. In a previous edition of Gray's Anatomy, from the year 1995, the editors also describe the masseter muscle as having three layers, although the cited studies were based on the jaw musculature of other species and partly contradicted one another.

Other individual studies from the early 2000s also reported three layers, but they divided the superficial section of the masseter into two layers and agreed with standard works in their description of the deeper section.

"In view of these contradictory descriptions, we wanted to examine the structure of the masseter muscle again comprehensively," says Turp. "Although it's generally assumed that anatomical research in the last 100 years has left no stone unturned, our finding is a bit like zoologists discovering a new species of vertebrate."

Explore further Risk of frailty associated with changes in oral function

More information: Szilvia E. Mezey et al, The human masseter muscle revisited: First description of its coronoid part, Annals of Anatomy - Anatomischer Anzeiger (2021). Szilvia E. Mezey et al, The human masseter muscle revisited: First description of its coronoid part,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.aanat.2021.151879
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates and spreads, errors in its genetic code can lead to changes in the virus. On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization designated the variant B.1.1.529, first identified in South Africa, a variant of concern named Omicron. The variant carries a large number of mutations, leading to concern that it will leave vaccines less effective at protecting against infection and illness.

Working in secure conditions, a team led by Professor Ravi Gupta at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, created synthetic virusesknown as 'pseudoviruses'that carried key mutations found in the Delta and Omicron strains. They used these to study the virus's behavior.

The team, which included collaborators from Japan, including Dr. Kei Sato of Tokyo University, has released its data ahead of peer review because of the urgent need to share information relating to the pandemic, and particularly the new Omicron variant.

Professor Gupta and colleagues tested the pseudoviruses against blood samples donated to the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource. The blood samples were from vaccinated individuals who had received two doses of either the AstraZeneca (ChAdOx-1) or Pfizer (BNT162b2) vaccines.

On average, Omicron required around a ten-fold increase in the concentration of serum antibody in order to neutralize the virus, compared to Delta. Of particular concern, antibodies from the majority of individuals who had received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were unable to neutralize the virus. The data were confirmed in live virus experiments.

Reassuringly, however, following a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine, both groups saw a significant increase in neutralization.

Professor Gupta said, "The Omicron variant appears to be much better than Delta at evading neutralizing antibodies in individuals who have received just two doses of the vaccine. A third dose 'booster' with the Pfizer vaccine was able to overturn this in the short term, though we'd still expect a waning in immunity to occur over time."

Spike proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 bind to ACE2, a protein receptor found on the surface of cells in the lung. Both the spike protein and ACE2 are then cleaved, allowing genetic material from the virus to enter the host cell. The virus manipulates the host cell's machinery to allow the virus to replicate and spread.

To see how effective Omicron is at entering our cells, the team used their pseudoviruses to infect cells in lung organoids"mini-lungs" that model parts of the lung. Despite having three mutations that were predicted to favor the spike cleavage, the researchers found the Omicron spike protein to be less efficient than the Delta spike at cleaving the ACE2 receptor and entering the lung cells.

In addition, once Omicron had entered the cells, it was also less able than Delta to cause fusion between cells, a phenomenon associated with impaired cell-to-cell spread. Fused cells are often seen in respiratory tissues taken following severe disease. Indeed, when the team used a live Omicron virus and compared it to Delta in a spreading infection experiment using lung cells, Omicron was significantly poorer in replication, confirming the findings regarding impaired entry.

Professor Gupta added, "We speculate that the more efficient the virus is at infecting our cells, the more severe the disease might be. The fact that Omicron is not so good at entering lung cells and that it causes fewer fused cells with lower infection levels in the lab suggests this new variant may cause less severe lung-associated disease.

"While further work is needed to corroborate these findings, overall, it suggests that Omicron's mutations present the virus with a double-edged sword: It's got better at evading the immune system, but it might have lost some of its ability to cause severe disease."

However, Professor Gupta urged caution.

"Omicron still represents a major public health challenge. Individuals who have only received two doses of the vaccineor worse, none at allare still at significant risk of COVID-19, and some will develop severe disease. The sheer number of new cases we are seeing every day reinforces the need for everyone to get their boosters as quickly as possible."

More information: Bo Meng et al, SARS-CoV-2 Omicron spike mediated immune escape, infectivity and cell-cell fusion (2021) is available at Bo Meng et al, SARS-CoV-2 Omicron spike mediated immune escape, infectivity and cell-cell fusion (2021) is available at www.citiid.cam.ac.uk/wp-conten  ES-OMICRON-PAPER.pdf
Figure modified from Mayer [9] depicting diversity and abundance of gut microbes across the lifespan of a human. Early and late periods of low diversity coincide with vulnerability to neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative disorders, respectively. IBS = Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Credit: DOI: 10.3390/nu13124497

A new scoping review of nearly 200 publications covering the relationships between autism spectrum disorder and the braingutmicrobiome system was published online today in Nutrients. The review synthesizes the growing body of research suggesting that gut microbiotathe trillions of microorganisms living within the human digestive systemmay serve critical roles in modulating brain functions, social behaviors and autistic symptoms.

Two of the review's co-first authors, Michelle Chernikova and Genesis Flores, were participants in USC's Diversity, Inclusion, and Access JumpStart program, a structured summer research program for talented undergraduates considering pursuing a Ph.D. degree, at the time of literature review and manuscript preparation.

Joining as co-first author is Emily Kilroy Ph.D. '18, Postdoc '22, a postdoctoral scholar in the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Jennifer Labus and Emeran Mayer, microbiologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, are co-authors. Senior author is Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, associate professor at the USC Chan Division jointly appointed to the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' Brain and Creativity Institute.

The review synthesizes current understandings about the mechanisms by which gut microbiota, metabolic substances and the brain communicate to influence behaviors, including the different socialcommunication and restricted or repetitive patterns that characterize autism. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea have been reported in 46 to 84 percent of autistic people, giving recent rise to a hypothesis that gut dysregulation may be especially prevalent in autistic populations.

The paper was supported in part by Aziz-Zadeh's four-year, $506,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Autism Research Program Idea Development Award.

"To date, most autism studies in humans either look at the brain and behavior, or at the gut microbiome and behavior," Aziz-Zadeh said. "Our DoD study is one of the largest autism studies to look at all three factors togetherbrain, gut and behavior. The current paper in Nutrients lays down the theory behind this endeavor, reviewing everything from rodent studies on the topic, potential neurotransmitter pathways that may be involved and potential brain regions that may be modified by this interaction."

Scientists have yet to determine the exact microbial composition associated with autism, and the authors recommend several future research directions. Those include the need for more standardized sampling, collection and analyses; research studying the prenatal gut microbiome in pregnant mothers; studies comparing the microbiomes of autistic and typically-developing populations; and longitudinal tracking of metabolic states and specific biomarkers through early childhood development.

More information: Michelle A. Chernikova et al, The Brain-Gut-Microbiome System: Pathways and Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Nutrients (2021). Michelle A. Chernikova et al, The Brain-Gut-Microbiome System: Pathways and Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder,(2021). DOI: 10.3390/nu13124497
A new study has identified gut-derived metabolites that appear to be neurotoxic and play a role in the progression of multiple sclerosis. Credit: Nicoletta Barolini

A New York-based, multi-institutional research team has found high levels of three toxic metabolites produced by gut bacteria in the cerebrospinal fluid and plasma samples of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The important findings, published in the journal Brain, further scientists' understanding of how gut bacteria can impact the course of neurological diseases by producing compounds that are toxic to nerve cells.

Previously published evidence has supported the concept that an imbalance in the gut microbiotathe community of organisms that live in the human intestinesmay underly a range of neurological disorders. Researchers also found that certain gut bacteria are either enriched or depleted in MS patients compared to healthy individuals, but it is unclear how these microbes communicate with the brain and affect the neurodegenerative disease process.

"Our findings suggest that MS patients' gut bacteria produce and release large amounts [of] p-cresol-sulfate, indoxyl-sulfate and N-phenylacetylglutamine into the bloodstream, and they eventually reach the cerebrospinal fluid," said Hye-Jin Park, one of the lead authors on the study and a research associate with the Neuroscience Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC). "Once there, these toxic metabolites bathe the brain and spinal cord, and potentially play a role in the destruction of the myelin sheath that protects nerves."

For the study, the research team obtained blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from volunteer patients at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Northeastern New York. Samples were taken from patients before and after treatment with the disease modifying therapy dimethyl fumarate (DMF), which has been reported to have a profound effect on reshaping the gut microbiome of MS patients. The analyzed data allowed researchers to identify an abundance of the three toxic metabolites in MS patients not treated with DMF compared to healthy individuals. They also noted a reduction in the metabolites following treatment with DMF.

"The presence of high levels of these toxic metabolites also correlates with biomarkers of neurodegeneration in MS patients, and with the ability to impair neuronal function of cultured cells in the laboratory," said Achilles Ntranos, a lead author of the study and assistant professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where a second set of samples was collected from MS patients.

"This is an exciting and significant discovery," said Patrizia Casaccia, the study's primary investigator and the founding director of the CUNY ASRC's Neuroscience Initiative. "This work not only furthers our understanding of the role of gut-brain communication in neurodegenerative disease progression, but also provides a potential metabolic target for develop new MS Therapies."

The research team included scientists from the CUNY ASRC, MS Center of Northeastern New York, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and BERG Health.

Explore further Researchers identify how metabolites target brain-homing immune cells to treat MS

More information: Achilles Ntranos et al, Bacterial neurotoxic metabolites in multiple sclerosis cerebrospinal fluid and plasma, Brain (2021). Journal information: Brain Achilles Ntranos et al, Bacterial neurotoxic metabolites in multiple sclerosis cerebrospinal fluid and plasma,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab320
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Two researchers at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) have come up with a new theory of consciousness. They have long been exploring the nature of consciousness, the question of how and where the brain generates consciousness, and whether animals also have consciousness. The new concept describes consciousness as a state that is tied to complex cognitive operationsand not as a passive basic state that automatically prevails when we are awake.

Professor Armin Zlomuzica from the Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience research group at RUB and Professor Ekrem Dere, formerly at Universite Paris-Sorbonne, now at RUB, describe their theory in the journal Behavioural Brain Research. The printed version will be published on 15 February 2022, the online article has been available since November 2021.

"The hypotheses underlying our platform theory of consciousness can be tested in experimental studies," as the authors describe one advantage of their concept over alternative models. "Thus, the process of consciousness can be explored in humans and animals or even in the context of artificial intelligence."

The platform theory in detail

The complex cognitive operations that, according to platform theory, are associated with consciousness are applied to mental representations that are maintained and processed. They can include perceptions, emotions, sensations, memories, imaginations and associations. Conscious cognitive operations are necessary, for example, in situations where learned behavior or habits are no longer sufficient for coping. People don't necessarily need consciousness to drive a car or take a shower. But when something unexpected happens, conscious cognitive actions are required to resolve the situation. They are also necessary to predict future events or problems and to develop suitable coping strategies. Most importantly, conscious cognitive operations are at the basis for adaptive and flexible behavior that enables humans and animals to adapt to new environmental conditions.

According to the new theory, conscious cognitive actions take place on the basis of a so-called online platform, a kind of central executive that controls subordinate platforms. The subordinate platforms can act, for example, as storage media for knowledge or activities.

Electrical junctions between nerve cells crucial

Conscious cognitive operations are facilitated by the interaction of different neuronal networks. Armin Zlomuzica and Ekrem Dere consider electrical synapses, also known as gap junctions, to be crucial in this context. These structures enable extremely fast transmission of signals between nerve cells. They work much faster than chemical synapses, where communication between cells takes place through the exchange of neurotransmitters and -modulators.

A possible experiment

The authors suggest for example the following experiment to test their platform theory: a human, an experimental animal or artificial intelligence is confronted with a novel problem that can only be solved by combining two or more rules learned in a different context. This creative combination of stored information and application to a new problem can only be accomplished using conscious cognitive operations.

By administering pharmacological substances that block gap junctions, the researchers would be able to test whether gap junctions do indeed play a decisive role in the processes. Gap junction blockers should inhibit performance in the experiment. However, routine execution of the individual rules, in the contexts in which they were learned, should still be possible.

"To what extent an artificial intelligence which is capable of independently solving a new and complex problem for which it has no predefined solution algorithm can likewise be considered conscious has to be tested," point out the authors. "Several conditions would have to be fulfilled: The first one, for example, would be fulfilled, if it successfully proposes a strategy to combat a pandemic by autonomously screening, evaluating, selecting and creatively combining information from the internet."

Explore further Researcher proposes new theory of consciousness

More information: Armin Zlomuzica et al, Towards an animal model of consciousness based on the platform theory, Behavioural Brain Research (2021). Journal information: Behavioural Brain Research Armin Zlomuzica et al, Towards an animal model of consciousness based on the platform theory,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113695
Buttercup Ranunculus multifidus. Credit: Prof. Dr. Kaleab Asres

The active plant ingredient anemonin could provide a new approach in the treatment of malaria. It was identified by researchers from Ethiopia and Germany in a buttercup that is traditionally used in some African countries as a medicinal plant to treat malaria. Extracts from the plant significantly alleviated the symptoms of infected mice, as the team from Arba Minch University (AMU), Addis Ababa University (AAU) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) reported in the journal Molecules.

A tea made from the leaves of the Ranunculus multifidus, a member of the buttercup family, is used in some parts of Africa to treat malaria. "So far it was not known which ingredients the plant has and which of them might have a healing effect," says Professor Kaleab Asres from AAU, who had been aware of the use of the plant and initiated the study.

The pharmacists produced extracts from the plant leaves and tested their effectiveness on mice: "We infected the animals with the Plasmodium berghei parasite, which causes malaria in certain rodents including mice. In humans, malaria is caused by related species of plasmodia," explains Betelhem Sirak from AMU. Some of the mice received chloroquine, an established and effective drug for treating malaria. Others were given different doses of the plant extract. The experiments were carried out in accordance with internationally recognized guidelines for the keeping and care of laboratory animals.

The results were promising: "Although the extracts did not work as well as chloroquine, they nevertheless had a clearly positive effect on the course of the disease. For example, the mice lost significantly less weight and their body temperature was also more stable than without treatment," says Professor Peter Imming from MLU.

The researchers found the active ingredient anemonin in the plant extracts. "Ranunculus multifidus does not actually contain it. Anemonin is formed when the plant is injured, for example when it is crushed and the inside of its cells comes into contact with air," continues Imming. This is probably why the extracts that were prepared in this way worked best.

The team suspects that, like chloroquine, anemonin affects the parasite's metabolism, though it probably attacks it at a different location. That would be good news, because plasmodia have developed resistance to chloroquine in some areas of East and West Africa. "Anemonin could have the potential to circumvent this resistance," says Imming. However, this requires a number of further studies in order to decipher the exact mechanism of action and to increase its effectiveness. If these tests are successful, clinical studies will follow over several years to confirm its effectiveness in patients.

Using pathogens in a test tube, the researchers investigated whether Ranunculus multifidus can also help combat other diseases for which it is traditionally used. They tested anemonin on bacteria similar to tuberculosis, but found it was ineffectivea result that is not all too disappointing for the pharmacists. As Imming explains: "A substance that attacks all types of cells would also attack human cellsand is therefore a poison."

The researchers examined the effectiveness of anemonin on the widespread parasite species leishmania and schistosoma in a further study which was recently published in Molecules. Initial laboratory tests also showed promising results.

The studies were supported by the School of Graduate Studies of AAU, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and by the projects PhytoWoodSynergies and Trisustain of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Explore further Aai berry extracts fight malaria in mice

More information: Betelhem Sirak et al, In Vivo Antimalarial Activity of Leaf Extracts and a Major Compound Isolated from Ranunculus multifidus Forsk, Molecules (2021). Betelhem Sirak et al, In Vivo Antimalarial Activity of Leaf Extracts and a Major Compound Isolated from Ranunculus multifidus Forsk,(2021). DOI: 10.3390/molecules26206179 Sirak B. et al., In Vitro Antileishmanial and Antischistosomal Activities of Anemonin Isolated from the Fresh Leaves of Ranunculus multifidus Forsk. Molecules (2021). DOI: 10.3390/molecules26247473

Provided by Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg
At least 48 passengers and crew members on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seasthe world's largest cruise shiphave tested positive for COVID-19 and have been quarantined, the company said Monday.

Of the 48 people who tested positive during the sailing, 98% were fully vaccinated. That's not surprising, since the overall vaccination rate among the nearly 6,100 passengers and crew was already at 95%, according to Royal Caribbean, CBS News reported.

All travelers over the age of 12 had to be fully vaccinated and produce a negative test result before the voyage, according to the company. Cruise companies tightened their COVID-19 protocols this summerrequiring pre-cruise tests for everyone, not just unvaccinated passengerswhen the Delta variant was surging, the Washington Post reported.

Four of the 48 people who tested positive were close contacts of six passengers who disembarked earlier in the voyage, the cruise line said.

The huge ship, which boasts a nightclub, theater and more than 30 restaurants and bars, left Miami on Dec. 11 for a seven-day trip and made a handful of stops, including the Caribbean islands of St. Maarten and St. Thomas, the Post said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was aware of the Symphony of the Seas outbreak and was working with Royal Caribbean to "gather more information about the cases and possible exposures." Officials said specimens would be taken for genetic sequencing, the Post reported.

The CDC reported last month that cruise companies had reported 1,359 casesmany involving fully vaccinated crew or passengerson ships sailing from the United States between June 26 and Oct. 21. During that time, there were 49 hospitalizations and 38 medical evacuations due to COVID-19 or COVID-like illnesses, with one person dying after testing positive during a cruise.

"The resumption of passenger voyages in the U.S. has led to the introduction and sustained transmission of COVID-19 among cruise ships, despite high vaccination rates among both crew and passengers," the agency said in its report.

Royal Caribbean said that those who tested positive on the Symphony of the Seas cruise were immediately isolated to prevent the spread of infection. The cruise line said they were either asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms, the Post reported.

Earlier this month, there were at least 17 passengers and crew members with COVID-19 on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship that docked in New Orleans, and the Louisiana Department of Health said at least one of the infected crew members was suspected to have the Omicron variant, CBS News reported.

Explore further COVID outbreak on cruise ship approaching New Orleans

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 COVID variants

2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Conjoined twin boys from war-torn Yemen who were successfully separated in surgery in Jordan returned to the capital Sanaa this month, the UN children's agency said on Monday.

Ahmed and Mohammed were born on December 16 last year, joined at the chest and abdomen, in Sanaa, the country's rebel-held capital, UNICEF said.

They were transported to Jordan after urgent calls for their medical evacuation and surgery.

The twins were separated in July at Amman's Speciality Hospital in a nearly eight-hour operation involving 25 surgeons and technical advisers. The twins were seven months old at the time.

Their father, Yasser Albukhaity, was all smiles upon returning to Sanaa on a United Nations medical flight.

"I can't express my feelings," he said, according to the statement, while the agency released pictures of the flight dated December 2.

"There was a feeling of fear at the beginning, but we had great faith in Allah and in the medical team. Thank God the surgery was a big success.

"I wish for them to be educated like other children, to finish their higher studies, and to be of great benefit for their country in the future."

Yemen has been torn by war since 2014, when the Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized Sanaa from the government, which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

The conflict, which the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, has devastated health services in the country.

A UN Development Programme report last month said the war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.

More than 80 percent of the population of around 30 million require humanitarian assistance.

"This is a welcome happy ending story of one family, but millions of children in Yemen continue to suffer in silence," said Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF's Yemen representative, in a statement.

"In Yemen, today more than ever, children need our support to realise their fundamental rights to health, nutrition, education, protection, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene."

Explore further Conjoined Yemeni twins flown to Jordan for surgery: UNICEF

 2021 AFP
A fundraiser for environmental groups that boasts gorgeous images shot around the globe by some of the best photographers around is based right here in Missoula.

Ami Vitale, a local resident and National Geographic photographer, captured a historic photograph that youve likely seen. In 2018, she rushed to Kenya to get pictures of Sudan, the last male Northern white rhino. He lies on the ground while one of his keepers, Joseph Wachira, gently leans on him, forehead to forehead, as he dies.

The relationship between humans and animals glimpsed within is a potent reminder of our interconnectedness, Vitale said.

It's not just the loss of the species, it's a loss of humanity really. It's the loss of wonder, when we don't start to see how important they are to our own survival, Vitale said.

The print sale, which ends on Dec. 31, is an effort between Vitales nonprofit, Vital Impacts, and Paper and Ink Studio founder Marcy James. All of the images are on Vitalimpacts.org, where you can also learn about the photographers. Theyd raised $425,000 as of last week, and have a goal of $1 million.

The images shes gathered for the fundraiser all portray or allude to our ties to nature.

The one thing that connects all the photographers is a shared commitment to the environment. They are understanding the crisis that we are now in, and they address it in their work in some way, Vitale said.

Through her professional network, Vitale recruited world-class creators  and conservation icon Jane Goodall  to contribute shots that James prints at her shop. A photographer herself, James pictures have been exhibited at the Missoula Art Museum, and shes produced prints by other artists for display at MAM, the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, and more.

The proceeds go to organizations such as Jane Goodall Institutes Roots and Shoots program, Great Plains Conservations Project Ranger, SeaLegacy, and the Big Life Foundation.

Vitale and James started doing print drives together in 2020. Last year, Vitale formed Vital Impacts as a nonprofit to not just create awareness, but get that much-needed funding to the people who are on the ground, doing this amazing work.

Among its goals is bringing together photographers from many different worlds, career stages and backgrounds together.

Theres been this huge shift to really, actively seek out and lift up beautiful voices, Vitale said.

Its an extremely competitive industry, she said, but it can be more powerful if people come together and are lifting each other up.

Theres room enough for all of us. There really, really is, she said. And that is what saves this planet, at the end of the day. We literally have to get off this track and think of it as a shared web on our one little lift raft.

Amy tries to foster this community so that all the photographers on Instagram accounts are celebrating each other, you know, sharing each other's work, and that just gets this message out even farther, James said.

The pictures

A highlight of the drive this year is a self-portrait of Goodall, taken in the early 1960s in Gombe. Shes seen looking out over a jungle vista, as though viewers can sense the pioneering work ahead of her.

Tony Wu, who lives underwater, Vitale said, donated dynamic black-and-white images of humpback whales that appear as though youre swimming with them at close range.

Climbers will no doubt recognize Jimmy Chin, whos documented ascents by Alex Honnold and Conrad Anker. Environmental film fans may have seen James Balogs documentary, Chasing Ice, about his Extreme Ice Survey that recorded the visible effects of climate change.

Dudley Edmondson, a Black photographer based in Minnesota whos led efforts for equity in the outdoors, contributed a nearly dream-like image of a great horned owl against a fuzzy magenta treeline during a snowstorm.

She enlisted photographers who come from more of a fine art sensibility, too. Jim Naughten, who studied painting, uses digital post-production to create images of wildlife such as rhinos and primates that boast rich palettes that call to mind oil on canvas. Theyre fantastical, fantastical worlds, Vitale said, that also call into question humans impact on the species future.

Reuben Wu, whose background includes visual art and music, used drones and time-lapse techniques to create glowing white shapes on gorgeous landscapes. Xavi Bous Ornithology series employs time-lapse to turn the movements of birds into abstract sky sculptures

Theyve also ensured theres a variety of price points and that the photographers get a share of the proceeds, since fine-art sales are among the last vestige where photographers can earn a living.

Montanans are among the mix. They include Tailyr Irvine (Salish-Kootenai), who grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation and has become a regular contributor to the New York Times and a Nat Geo Explorer. Ronan Donovan, also an Explorer, donated pictures of an Arctic wolf and her pups and a gods-eye view of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park.

Vincent J. Musi, who photographs close-range portraits of animals  including an orangutan, looking remarkably peaceful  once shot pictures for the Missoulian.

Vitale said that James detail-oriented, archival quality work transformed her print sales.

Her attention to the whole, everything from the print itself to the packaging, to making it 100% carbon neutral  she plants trees for these prints  and the thought and the intention, you can feel it in the finished product.

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MONDAY, Dec. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Large, simultaneous heat waves have become much more common in northern regions worldwide due to climate change and could have disastrous consequences, researchers warn.

The investigators also found that these concurrent heat waves are becoming larger and hotter.

"More than one heat wave occurring at the same time often has worse societal impacts than a single event," said lead study author Cassandra Rogers, a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University (WSU), in Vancouver.

"If certain regions are dependent on one another, for instance for agriculture or trade, and they're both undergoing stresses at the same time, they may not be able to respond to both events," she added in a university news release.

The new analysis of climate data found simultaneous heat waves occurring about six times more frequently in mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the 2010s than in the 1980s.

On average, concurrent heat waves occurred on 143 days each year of the 2010s, or nearly every day during the months of May through September, the findings showed.

Compared to the 1980s, simultaneous heat waves were 46% larger and 17% hotter in the 2010s, according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Climate.

A large heat wave was defined as lasting three days or more and covering at least 620,000 square miles, similar in size to Mongolia or Iran.

Heat waves can cause disasters such as crop failures and wildfires. Concurrent heat waves can amplify those threats and exhaust countries' ability to provide mutual aid in such disasters, the researchers noted.

That was the case when multiple wildfires raged through the United States, Canada and Australia during heat waves in 2019 and 2020.

A previous study found that concurrent heat waves led to a 4% drop in global crop production.

Along with providing more evidence about the importance of combating climate change, the new study shows the need to prepare for more concurrent heat waves, the researchers said.

"As a society, we are not currently adapted to the types of climate events we're experiencing right now," said study co-author Deepti Singh, associate professor in WSU's School of the Environment.

"It's important to understand how we can reduce our vulnerability and adapt our systems to be more resilient to these kind of heat events that have cascading societal impacts," Singh added.

More information

The American Red Cross offers a heat wave safety checklist.

SOURCE: Washington State University, news release, Dec. 16, 2021

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MONDAY, Dec. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- French Bulldogs are incredibly cute, sporting adorable snub snouts, big round heads, bright wide eyes and large bat ears.

Unfortunately, the physical traits that make them one of the most popular breeds in the United States and United Kingdom also saddle them with a host of health problems, a new study shows.

Frenchies have significantly higher odds than other dog breeds of being diagnosed with 20 common canine disorders and illnesses, researchers reported Dec. 16 in the journal Canine Medicine and Genetics.

French Bulldogs are 42 times more likely to have narrowed nostrils, 30 times more likely to suffer from obstructed airways, 14 times more likely to have ear discharge, 11 times more likely to suffer from skinfold dermatitis and 9 times more likely to suffer a difficult birth because of the shape of their pelvis than other breeds, the researchers found.

These dogs are also three times more likely to have respiratory tract or spinal cord disorders, more than twice as likely to have brain or skin disorders, and nearly twice as likely to have ear or reproductive disorders, the results showed.

The most troubling health issues "are related to the extreme body shape of the French Bulldog," said lead researcher Dan O'Neill. He is a senior lecturer in companion animal epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom. "These include breathing difficulties, skinfold infections, difficulty giving birth, eye ulcers, dermatitis and slipping kneecap."

The French Bulldog has been around for centuries, and was recognized as a breed by the American Kennel Club in 1898.

But in recent years they've undergone an astonishing rise in popularity, with a 20-fold increase in U.K. Kennel Club registrations between 2009 and 2019, making it the second most common breed in Britain, the researchers said in background notes.

The problem is that such heavy breeding has caused the genetic problems inherent in the breed to become even more pronounced, said Helio de Morias, hospital director of Oregon State University's Lois Bates Acheson Veterinary Teaching Hospital, in Corvallis.

"We are actively selecting for an appearance that is interfering with the welfare of the animal," especially the flat face that makes breathing difficult, de Morias said. "That, to me, is a problem. I think we should reverse that trend."

Worse off for nearly half of issues studied

To get a handle on how bad off the breed has become, O'Neill and his colleagues compared health records for nearly 2,800 French Bulldogs against more than 21,800 dogs from other breeds.

The investigators compared diagnoses for 43 specific disorders and found that Frenchies were much worse off for nearly half of the health problems tracked.

The problems directly relate to the physical traits that make the breed so cute, O'Neill and de Morias said. The snub snout is harder to breathe through; the skinfolds more easily become infected; the big eyes are more prone to corneal ulcers.

"The breed has many intrinsic health issues related to aspects of its conformation such as flattened face, lack of a long tail and short body. But the paradox is that humanity loves the look of these features, and this love is propelling the breed to become one of the most popular dog breeds in the world," O'Neill said. "So the features that we as humans love are precisely the features that are leading to suffering in so many dogs."

These problems aren't limited to the French Bulldog.

A recent genetic analysis in the same journal of 227 breeds revealed an average inbreeding rate of 25%, the equivalent of sharing the same genetic material with a full sibling. That level is far above what would be safe for either wild animals or humans, the researchers noted.

But the explosion in breeding caused by popularity of the Frenchie have caused the specific health problems to which it is predisposed to become even more pronounced.

Take, for example, the short snout.

"As you start to shorten the nose, everything that was inside the nose has to be compressed," de Morias. "There are bones inside the nose, and as you keep shortening, all the bones inside start to fold. It becomes a lot more difficult to breathe," he explained.

"A lot of respiratory problems are because people are selecting for them. If you keep breeding what people want, you're basically making all these problems a lot worse," de Morias continued.

New breed standards needed

Steps are being taken to move the breed away from these health problems, O'Neill noted.

"The Kennel Club breed standard for the French Bulldog has recently been revised to emphasize the need to breed towards a longer muzzle and wider nostrils," O'Neill said. "This is a very positive step in a longer road to reduce the extreme conformation of these dogs."

Unfortunately, the gene pool for Frenchies is so small and so extreme that it will be difficult if not impossible to reverse these problems, de Morias said.

"To change some of those traits, you need to have genetic diversity within the gene pool of the breed," de Morias said. "For the English Bulldog, they don't think they have enough to reverse those genes. That might be a problem with the Frenchies as well, particularly with the explosion in the last 10 years. You didn't have a lot of dogs to start with, so they're probably all closely related."

There's some reason to hope: Researchers noted that the French Bulldog had lower odds of being diagnosed with 11 out of the 43 common disorders tracked in this study, including undesirable behavior, lameness and obesity. That means the breed has the potential to become healthier, they argue.

While vets, breeders and kennel clubs grapple with these issues, the best thing that consumers can do to help is refrain from buying breeds like Frenchies that come with a lot of gene-driven health problems.

"Until the body shape of the French Bulldog is changed to a point where the serious health issues of the breed are reduced substantially, the current advice for anyone thinking of getting the breed is sadly to stop and think before buying a flat-faced dog," O'Neill said. "The wider public can resolve this welfare crisis by just deciding to buy a healthier breed  if we choose to."

You also might buy or rescue a mixed-breed mutt, although O'Neill warns that the dog won't necessarily be healthier than a pedigreed pooch.

"All breeds have their own strengths and weaknesses. This is part of what makes each breed unique. But in many breeds, there is a good balance between these strengths and weaknesses, such that the overall health of the breed can be quite good," O'Neill said.

"There are many benefits from deciding to get a puppy of a specific breed, such as the predictable size and temperament of the adult dog that you will later share at least a decade of your life with," he continued. "The important goal now is to identify those breeds with unacceptable health issues and work to mitigate these issues."

More information

The American Kennel Club has more about French Bulldogs.

SOURCES: Dan O'Neill, PhD, senior lecturer, companion animal epidemiology, Royal Veterinary College, United Kingdom; Helio de Morias, DVM, PhD, hospital director, Oregon State University's Lois Bates Acheson Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Corvallis; Canine Medicine and Genetics, Dec. 16, 2021

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MONDAY, Dec. 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Kids with autism have low levels of a protein that quiets overactive brain cells, which may explain why so many have epilepsy, according to a new study.

Because the protein can be detected in cerebrospinal fluid, it may have promise as a marker to diagnose autism and as a potential treatment target for the epilepsy that sometimes accompanies it, according to Northwestern University researchers.

The protein pinpointed in this study  called CNTNAP2, or "catnap2"  is produced by the brain cells when they become overactive. Because the brains of kids with autism and epilepsy don't have enough of it, their brains don't calm down, which leads to seizures, the study authors explained.

"We can replace CNTNAP2," said lead study author Peter Penzes, director of the Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. "We can make it in a test tube and should be able [to] inject it into children's spinal fluid, which will go back into their brain."

For the study, the researchers analyzed cerebrospinal fluid from people with autism and epilepsy, and from mice. Levels of the protein in cerebrospinal fluid help determine levels in the brain.

The findings, published online Dec. 17 in the journal Neuron, could lead to new treatments, the study authors suggested in a university news release.

Penzes and his team are now conducting preclinical research on the injection technique.

While cerebrospinal fluid from patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's has been analyzed to help diagnose disease and assess response to treatment, the researchers said this is the first such study in people with autism.

In the United States, autism affects one in 58 children, and 30% to 50% of them also have epilepsy.

More information

The Autism Research Institute has more on autism and seizures.

SOURCE: Northwestern University, news release, Dec. 17, 2021

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BOSTON (AP)  One of five Russian nationals who authorities allege made tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits by trading shares of companies using information stolen during hacks of U.S. computer networks has been extradited to the U.S. to answer to the charges, federal prosecutors in Boston announced Monday.

Vladislav Klyushin, 41, whose last name is sometimes spelled Kliushin, was arrested in Sion, Switzerland, on March 21 and was extradited to the U.S. on Dec. 18, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell said.

In simple terms, they hacked into U.S. networks, stole inside information, and cheated honest investors out of millions of dollars, Mendell said at a news conference.

No defense attorney was listed for Klyushin in online court records.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed parallel fraud charges against the defendants Monday, they made a total of $82 million through the scheme from 2018 through 2020.

The other four suspects remain at large, U.S. authorities said.

One of them is a former officer in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, known as the GRU, who was previously charged in July 2018 for his alleged role in a Russian effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections, prosecutors said.

He was also charged in connection with an alleged role into a hacking campaign that targeted international anti-doping agencies, sporting federations, and anti-doping officials, prosecutors said.

The information in the new case was acquired through unauthorized intrusions into the computer networks of two U.S.-based vendors that publicly traded companies use to make filings through the Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors said.

The defendants accessed earnings-related files of several notable U.S. companies including Tesla, Snap Inc., Roku, Nielsen and Kohls days before earnings reports were made public, according to an FBI affidavit in the case.

On several occasions, the hackers used computer servers located in Massachusetts, according to the FBI affidavit.

By getting a company's financial information ahead of time, the defendants were able to make trades using brokerage accounts, sometimes in their own names, based on whether a company's shares would likely rise or fall following the public disclosure of the information, prosecutors said.

If a company was about to release positive financial results, they would buy shares of that company, and if a company was about to report poor results, they would sell, according to authorities.

Klyushin and two of the other defendants worked at M-13, a Moscow-based information technology company that purported to provide services to detect vulnerabilities in computer systems, and counted among its clients the Russian government, prosecutors said.

To access the vendor systems, they deployed malicious infrastructure to gather employees usernames and passwords, which they then used to misrepresent themselves as employees in order to obtain access to the computer networks, and also used various methods to conceal their activities, prosecutors said.

Klyushin is charged with conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and with obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and securities fraud, prosecutors said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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A recent report to the Legislature showed that Montanas affordable housing crisis is fundamentally driven by a shortage of available homes. From 2010-2020 Montanas population grew 10% while housing only increased 7%  contributing to sky-high home prices.

So why isnt the market keeping up with demand for affordable housing? One answer is simply that affordable homes are illegal to build in large portions of Montanas fastest-growing communities.

Homebuilders will tell you its most economical to build two- to four-family housing like duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. But many local governments impose strict zoning regulations, minimum lot sizes and parking mandates which prohibit the creation of affordable multi-family housing.

I frequently argue on these pages that its time for governments to legalize affordable housing and embrace regulatory reform as a key strategy. I often receive passionate arguments in opposition to this view. These arguments tend to rely on faulty reasoning, which Ill address directly now:

Myth 1: Governments shouldnt allow multi-family housing because it is not desirable

Montanans traditionally value having a bit of elbow room, so it makes sense that single-family homes on large lots are highly desirable. But claims that multi-family housing is of no value to anyone is a fatal conceit.

In the old days, the rule was you lived within your means and bought a home that fits your budget. Fifty years ago, my grandpa moved his young family into a tiny two-bedroom home in Missoula he bought for $15,000. Not an ideal quality housing situation, but thats what they could afford at the time. By sacrificing to purchase a home within his means, my grandpa saved money and later moved his family to a 10-acre lot in the Bitterroot Valley.

Housing regulations make it nearly impossible for young folks to follow this prudent path today. In the modern marketplace, its absurd to expect a young family with little savings to purchase a three-bedroom house on a large lot in the middle of the city. Yet, these are the only types of homes allowed in many high-demand areas.

Instead, we should reduce regulations and let developers build homes young families can afford, allowing families to save money and move on to bigger and better quality homes when it makes sense for their budget.

Myth 2: Without strict regulations, Montanans will be forced into dense housing and mass transit

This argument makes two critical errors. First, it conflates the reduction of government restrictions on multi-family housing as a mandate that everyone live in apartments. Eliminating regulations simply gives people the freedom to choose, it doesnt force people into multi-family homes.

Second, this argument assumes that in the absence of government mandates no one would choose to live in a traditional single-family home with room for their car in the driveway. This speculation has no basis in current market dynamics. For those who can afford it, there is plenty of demand for single-family rural and suburban neighborhoods that offer a great quality of life.

Myth 3: Reducing regulations is not a viable strategy for addressing our housing crisis

The research consensus is clear that strict regulations discourage affordable housing by adding thousands to costs and stifling development. As opposed to other strategies, legalizing affordable housing requires zero taxpayer dollars to implement and has little downside economic risk. In fact, it would be an economic boon. Eliminating strict regulations on housing should be the starting point for governments when tackling our housing crisis.

Kendall Cotton is president and CEO of the Frontier Institute, a think tank dedicated to breaking down government barriers so all Montanans can thrive.

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She is absolutely phenomenal, Greene said. She is one of the employees that is a pleasure to supervise because I dont have to worry about whether shes doing her work or not. She always excels, she goes above and beyond always.

Greene said Mathes always is looking for ways to make things better for nursing staff, and her overhaul of the continuing education platform is a prime example of that.

Throughout my career, you could see that there was a difference in how things were being done, or information that had been shared, Greene said. For the first time in my 28 year career with DPS, you can see that there is consistency all the way across the board.

She said she would never be able to sing Mathes praises enough.

Shes always looking for a way to improve things, Greene said.

Mathes was thankful to receive the award.

I appreciate the fact that they have the faith and the trust in me to be able to do my job on a day-to-day basis, and Im just thankful that Im able to do and provide the services that they need and serve as other things as well, Mathes said.

Visit https://bit.ly/3sgRFfZ to read about the other recipients of the NCDPS Badge of Excellence.

Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at cmurphy@morganton.com or at 828-432-8941. Follow @cmurphyMNH on Twitter.

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy on Monday announced she will not seek reelection next year.

The Florida Democrat, a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, said she is retiring from Congress to spend more time with her family.

"Public service is not without personal sacrifice, and as a mom of two young children, my time away from them has been hard. For them. For me. And for our family," she said in a video statement.

Murphy, 43, was first elected in 2016, becoming the first Vietnamese American woman and second Vietnamese American in Congress, after defeating 12-term Republican John Mica in a central Florida district that includes part of Orlando.

Murphy was widely believed to be considering a challenge to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio but said she would not seek the post when U.S. Rep. Val Demings, another Florida Democrat, launched her own bid earlier this year.

Before taking office, Murphy was a national security adviser at the Pentagon. She was born in Vietnam and came to the United States as an infant when her family fled the country.
After a Bureau of Land Management purchase fell through in August, the nonprofit conservation group American Prairie stepped in to buy the 32,000-acre 73 Ranch along the Musselshell River.

The group announced the purchase on Tuesday. A price was not disclosed. The land abuts the southern border of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

This latest acquisition brings American Prairies total deeded and leased property in Montana to more than 450,000 acres.

We are very excited to add the 73 to the habitat base already stewarded by American Prairie, for the benefit of wildlife and people in perpetuity, said Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, in a statement. This purchase will further our mission to grow a contiguous habitat area, which is essential to restoring ecosystem biodiversity on the prairie.

Hunters had been anxiously awaiting the ranch's purchase by the BLM since it would provide access to landlocked public acres containing elk, deer, pronghorns and upland birds. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation had worked to connect the owners and BLM.

However, the agency's purchase was aimed at only 11,000 acres, the deeded portion of the ranch. As part of its deal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was also looking at purchasing 756 acres of the ranch that are within the refuge's boundary.

The 32,003-acre property comprises 12,233 deeded acres and 19,770 state and federal leased acres.

The BLM backed out of the purchase when its government-directed appraisal did not meet the sellers' price demand.

Although not all of the ranch will be open to hunters, American Prairie said, after a public access plan is developed portions of the 73 would be open to recreation, including the 9,300 acres of leased ground. The group already offers hunting on its Blue Ridge, White Rock and PN ranches, with more than 69,000 acres enrolled in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' Block Management Program, which pays landowners to allow hunter access.

The Montana Chapter of (Backcountry Hunters and Anglers) supports any private landowner who conserves quality wildlife habitat and/or opens public access to private land and/or inaccessible public land, said Jake Schwaller, Eastern Montana board member for MT BHA, in a statement. As the demand for places to hunt is at an all-time high, we applaud all efforts by private landowners to create new or improved public hunting opportunities."

The ranch sits along a five-mile stretch of the Musselshell River which is home to waterfowl and attracts wild turkeys and pheasant.

We did not want to lose a rare opportunity to both conserve critical wildlife habitat and be able to share this special place with the public, said Damien Austin, superintendent for American Prairie, in a statement. We negotiated fair market value for the property and will pay property taxes that support our local communities just as we do with all our properties.

As weve done with past land acquisitions, we need to first take time to familiarize ourselves with the property prior to welcoming the public, Fox said. We are thrilled to add the 73 to American Prairie, knowing it creates a valuable opportunity to increase access to public lands, and we know recreationists will be eager to explore the property.

Members of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Montana Wildlife Federation also spoke in support of the acquisition, citing American Prairie's history of providing public access.

In the meantime, the nonprofit group is still waiting to hear from the BLM on its proposal to alter grazing leases for its bison herd on property it leases north of the Missouri River. The proposal has been strongly opposed by some locals, as well as Gov. Greg Gianforte and his Republican administration.

When the state's opposition was announced, a Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation administrator said the BLM does not have the authority to grant the nonprofit group a permit to graze bison on federal lands.

The DNRC announced it intended to conduct its own environmental analysis, and asked the BLM to withhold its decision until the state document can be completed. If not, the DNRC asked the BLM to consider its Montana Environmental Policy Act findings in a supplemental environmental assessment.

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Anaconda had a brewery almost from its founding, established in 1885 when the Anaconda Brewery was run by Robert Fenner. It stood near Walnut and Fourth Streets in the western part of town. In October 1899 Anaconda Brewing Company was acquired by Henry Mueller of Butte, the president of Centennial Brewing Company, and the two operations were effectively consolidated into one.

In 1904, William Haltenhoff, General Manager of the Anaconda Brewing Company, resigned, and with his brother George and Henry Kroger, manager of the Northwestern Bottling Works in Butte, incorporated the Washoe Brewing Company. By August 1905, Washoe Brewing had completed its new brewery at 1200 East Park Street in the east part of Anaconda, considered to be one of the finest breweries in Montana, with state-of-the-art equipment.

The Washoe Brewery, with a prominent four-story tower, was built by Anaconda contractors Johnson and Law at a cost of $80,000, including a residence for the braumeister. With the first test brews going through the brewery in September, Haltenhoff promised the first beer sales by December 1, and he delivered. The grand opening was the greatest beerfest Anaconda had ever seen, and featured a band, luncheon, and oceans of beer.

Just two months later, at the end of January 1906, the Washoe Brewery was out of business. The Anaconda Brewing Company and its owner, Henry Mueller, purchased Washoe Brewing for a reported $81,000 and closed it down. Most of the equipment was purchased in 1908 by W.J. Fitz, who took it to Dillon to use in the Beaverhead Brewery there.

The building remained mostly unused until after prohibition ended in 1933, when Anaconda Brewing again began to produce Rocky Mountain Beer under Mueller's brother-in-law, Adam Tuchscherer. Anaconda Brewing survived prohibition as the Anaconda Products Company, a soft drink manufacturer and bottler. They used the old Washoe Brewery because the original Anaconda Brewery on Walnut Street had been demolished in 1927, with the brewing equipment going to a Canadian brewery, although the bottling works there was used until 1939. Anaconda Brewing, under Tuchscherers sons Arthur and Walter after Adam died in 1944, continued in the old Washoe Brewery building until 1958 when it closed. The building has since seen a variety of uses.

William Haltenhoff left Anaconda in November 1906 to move to Sheridan, Wyoming, where he acquired and became the manager of the Sheridan Brewing Company. His partner Henry Kroger became an officer of Sheridan Brewing as well. William had served on the Anaconda School Board, and when he resigned in anticipation of his departure, Adam Tuchscherer replaced him. Williams brother George had left Anaconda earlier, in April 1906, for Santa Cruz, California.

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Local geologist and historian Dick Gibson has lived in Butte since 2003 and has worked as a tour guide for various organizations and museums. He can be reached at rigibson@earthlink.net.

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MUSCATINE  Dr. Zachary Rasmussen was not among the people from several area health departments who issued a plea to the public to take their health seriously this holiday season, but like them, he is very worried about what he has seen in the last few weeks.

Rasmussen, a frontline caregiver who works in the emergency room at UnityPoint Health-Trinity Muscatine, said COVID-19 cases are at the highest they have been since the surge in November 2020. He also said the beds in the Trinity hospitals are full, with many occupied by someone with a severe case of COVID-19.

Unfortunately we are not where we hoped we would be a year after the vaccinations started coming out, he said. During the holidays people are expected to interact with more people than other times of the year. We are starting to reach a point at the hospital where we are starting to have full beds and a significant number of those are from COVID.

A slight surge was reported in August, but the latest surge seemed to begin shortly after Thanksgiving.
DES MOINES  The state board that provides oversight of physicians has received 17 complaints about doctors in Iowa spreading false or misleading information about COVID-19, a state official said.

Of those 17 complaints, five have been dismissed without the board taking any disciplinary action; 12 complaints remain under investigation, according to Kent Nebel, executive director of the Iowa Board of Medicine.

That puts Iowa in the vast majority nationally: roughly 1 in 5 state medical boards has taken disciplinary action against a licensee for disseminating false or misleading information about COVID-19, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards.

And just 1 in 4 state medical boards has published statements about the dissemination of false or misleading COVID-19 information, according to the national federation.

The complaints also put Iowa in line with national trends: two-thirds of state medical boards have experienced an increase in complaints relating to licensees disseminating false or misleading information, according to the national federation.
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Cast member Nicole Kidman looks on as she attends the premiere for the film "Being the Ricardos" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 6, 2021.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker speaks as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren listens during the first U.S. 2020 presidential election Democratic candidates debate in Miami, Florida, June 26, 2019.
Microsoft South Africa has kept mum on the reasons why the website for its free Office programme in South Africa has remained down for more than three months.

The Mahala by Microsoft programme provides any South African between 8 and 24 with a free licence to six apps from its widely-used productivity suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

It also comes with 5GB OneDrive cloud storage, putting the total value of the package at R1,800.

Microsoft launched the programme in a partnership with Penguin Lava Lamp Lab and NBConsult to enable learners from grades R to 12 to become more productive in preparation for their future academic endeavours and professional careers.

By the time the service was taken offline in September to address a security vulnerability, more than 22,000 users had signed up for the offer.

That followed MyBroadband informing Microsoft that a security flaw allowed anybody with access to the platform to get the personal data of all the users, including their name, email address, and phone number.

The vulnerability was pointed out to us by concerned MyBroadband reader Israel Ndou, who feared it might be used by malicious actors who sell the information or use it in phishing attacks.

He revealed that using a simple command through Powershell with a module that can be connected Microsofts cloud-based identity and access management service, Azure Active Directory (AD), any Mahala user could download the user names, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and Mahala.ms email addresses of all the other users.

Ndou provided the command that could be used to download a CSV file to allow MyBroadband to report the issue to Microsoft.

We also found that instructions for these types of Powershell commands for Azure AD were readily available on the Internet.

While existing Mahala users are still able to use the included apps, the account functionality is offline, which means they would be unable to use it if they had logged out or wanted to use the service on a new device.

The image below is what visitors to the Mahala.ms portal have been greeted with since early September.

When asked for an update, Microsoft provided the same response it had already sent to MyBroadband twice regarding the data exposure.

Microsoft said it took privacy seriously, that the issue was not a security vulnerability, and that it had been addressed.

The Mahala service is operational for existing users and we are working to resume the service for new subscribers, it added.

However, there were no further explanations on why the process was taking so long, nor a timeframe on when it would be available again.

Several educators complained that the inability to sign up for the offer had been a major obstacle in their students preparations for final exams.

This unavailability of the Mahala platform, combined with the cost of the standard Microsoft 365 subscription, could push students towards an alternative avenue piracyto which Microsoft is no stranger.

The software giant recently introduced a programme in India and the US offering users of unlicensed software a big discount on its Microsoft 365 plans.

However, the programme does not appear to include South Africa, which means users have to pay R109 per month or R1,099 per year for an entry-level home-use subscription for a single user.

Now read: Microsoft offering big discounts to pirates
Napa Wildlife Rescue (NWR) announces the election of new officers to the board of directors. Carol Poole was elected to the position of president and Tom Clark as vice president.

Poole has been an active member of NWR since 2011, originally drawn by a flyer that said Help feed baby birds. She was hooked during that first season while caring for baby songbirds.

Within a few years she became a specialist working with raptors and is now the caretaker of Maddie, a red-tailed hawk who stars in NWRs education programs. Poole is also the co-trainer of Odin, a Common Raven. She primarily rescues wild raptors, assists with rehabilitative care and releases them back into the wild.

She has lived in the Napa Valley for 45 years and is retired from a career as a city planner, primarily working for the city of St. Helena. She is deeply concerned about climate change and the devastating impact humans have had on wildlife. Carol moves into the current position from her previous position as vice president.

Tom Clark is involved in managing vineyards in the Napa Valley and, being a vineyard owner, has over the years seen the importance of maintaining a healthy environment for both the vineyards and all the creatures that live there. He believes it is the communitys responsibility to restore nesting and living sites destroyed by development in the Napa Valley to every extent possible.

While being a board member and volunteer with Napa Wildlife Rescue, Clark has conducted demonstrations for the Napa Valley Vintners and helped with educational efforts at local schools. He participates in the Barn Owl Maintenance Project, which builds, places, manages, cleans, and educates property owners in the care and protection of these beneficial predators.

Clark has lived in the Napa Valley for 47 years. He majored in ag business management at Cal Poly, then went into the Peace Corps in Colombia. He has lots of chickens, two llamas, eight goats and three dogs. While not working in the vineyard he can be found in his workshop building bird boxes.

Previous president, John Comisky, who guided the organization through inestimable growth and progress, including the acquisition of the current permanent facility, will remain an active member of the board of directors.

For more information, visit Napa Wildlife Rescue at www.napawildliferescue.org or email the wildlife administrator at wildlifeadmin@napawildliferescue.org. NWR may be contacted by mail at P.O. Box 2571, Napa, CA 94558.

Donations may be made online at www.napawildliferescue.org/donate.

For animals needing rescue or medical help, please call 707.224-HAWK (4295).

The NWR Facebook page is an ideal opportunity to read the stories and see the pictures of the non-profits work and its day to day operation. Find it at www.facebook.com/Napa-Wildlife-Rescue-117530298358117.
On Sept. 11, 2021. the Native Sons of the Golden West gave Napas Old Town an early Christmas gift. They declared the Theodore Parker House on Division Street to be an historical structure and will soon place a plaque in the front of the building.

Many Native Sons state and local officers attended. Retired Napa Superior Court Judge Diane Price coordinated the event on behalf of the current owners of the building.

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Another owner, Charles Kuntz, a recently retired Coombs and Dunlap partner was also present. Former owners, retired Senator John Dunlap and retired Napa Superior Court Judge Phil Champlin were present. Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley and Judge Champlin spoke briefly. It was Senator Dunlaps 99th birthday, so his role in the buildings history, along with his birthday, were recognized.

The Native Sons of the Golden West is a fraternal service organization founded in California in 1875. It is dedicated to the preservation and documentation of historical structures, and other charitable functions in California. It has a sister organization in the Native Daughters of the Golden West.

In my column this month I would like to tell you my own personal history with this building, now known as 1211 Division Street, which started in 1973. When I met the man who was to become my husband, Philip, in 1966 he was practicing law in the old Migliavacca Building, on the corner of First and Brown Streets.

He was in his second year of law practice after coming to Napa in 1965 to join the venerable Napa law firm of Coombs and Dunlap, which had their offices on the second floor of the Migliavacca building. (The building should not be confused with the Migliavacca House, which has been preserved and moved to its current location at the corner of 4th and Even Street). Mervyns department store was on the ground floor.

Many Napa doctors, dentists and lawyers started their careers on the second floor of this old office building. Conditions were primitive by todays standards. There was no air conditioning. Legal documents were produced on electric typewriters and carbon paper instead of word processors and printers. Secretaries took shorthand dictation.

Instead of an intercom between offices, Frank Dunlap frequently answered the phone. PHILLL. . . its for you, he would shout. In fact, he would sometimes stay on the line and eavesdrop. Philip warned me to be careful what I said on the phone when we first started dating.

There was one common bathroom, used by everyone, for which access was through Philips office.

The Migliavacca Building had been built in 1904. At one time it housed the Napa branch of the Bank of Italy, the predecessor of the Bank of America. Napa founder, Nathan Coombs son, Frank Coombs started his law practice there in 1905. Later, Frank was joined by his son, also Nathan Coombs, the grandson of Napas founder, and eventually his nephews, Frank and John Dunlap.

By 1973, the old stone building had ended its useful life and was slated for demolition by Napas Downtown Redevelopment Project. By that time, Philip and I had married and started a family and Philip had been made a partner in the firm.

Two new attorneys had joined the firm, Malcolm Mackenzie and Scott Snowden. The burning question was, Where would they relocate? Frank Dunlap, the senior partner wanted to move next door to a similar old stone building known as the Gordon Building.

I expressed my opinions and suggested we buy a building somewhere downtown near the Courthouse. The idea took hold and, together with Napa architect, Bill Jeffries, we started looking for a suitable place to go.

To make a long process sound shorter, we finally agreed on the Parker House, at the corner of Coombs and Division in Old Town, and applied for and obtained the necessary historical preservation zoning and use permit from the city of Napa to convert the building from a rooming house to a law practice, and started the remodeling process.

It took a long time, but the wrecking ball was getting ready to demolish our old home in the Migliavacca Building, so we had to move things along as fast as we could.

Finally, with the plans drafted, the building permits issued, and Troy Fraser hired as our contractor, the work began. Gradually, the beautiful old Victorian era building once home to Theodore Parker, was restored to its original glory with modern features making it suitable and safe to use for law offices.

When the construction was completed, all the lawyers and their families and staff helped move almost 75 years of accumulated legal history out of the old office to the new building. It was a major project. Everyone worked days, nights and weekends packing up and moving fixtures, files and the firms library of legal books. Still, I remember many moments of fun and silliness.

Back in those days it was the tradition in Napa that when lawyers opened new offices, they hosted an open house. So, our first event was a big party. Fortunately the October weather was beautiful. Guests flowed out from the new building as they sipped their sparkling wine to the parking lot under the newly added porte cochere, where Bill Jeffries relocated his architectural offices.

Although Philip left the law firm when the Governor appointed him to be a Napa judge in 1977, we still identify with that lovely old building and were glad to have had a part in preserving and restoring one of Napas downtown architectural treasures. In fact, we did the same thing years later with our 150-year-old bungalow home, which is just a few blocks away.

As a resident of Old Town, I would like to thank the Native Sons of the Golden West for honoring the preservation of our community history. In particular, I would like to thank Grand Second Vice President George Adams of the Napa Native Sons chapter and my husband for their help in preparing this column.

L to R) Steve McLean, Jackson, CA, Grand 3d VP; George Adams, Napa, Ca., Grand 2d VP; Jeff Schmidt, Georgetown, Ca.,Grand 1st VP; Ronald Brocco, Sonoma, Ca.,Grand President; Joe Castillo, San Gabriel, CA., Junior Past Grand President; Gary Padgett, Sonoma, CA, Grand Marshal

Former Napa State Senator John Dunlap and wife Mary Lou Kennelly Dunlap, retired Judge Champlin and wife Lynne Champlin, and retired Judge Diane Price

Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley; Phil Wong, Napa; Kent Fowler, Oroville; Tim Tullis, Grand Treasurer; Charles Kuntz, Napa; Senator John Dunlap; Dave Schaefer, Santa Rosa; Judge Phil Champlin; Brice Walker, San Jose, together with the officiating officers. Grand President Ronald Brocco, Sonoma Lodge 111, presided over the dedication ceremonies.
A new heavy-lift rocket designed to be capable of sending Chinese astronauts to the moon could have its first flight in 2026, according to a senior engineer, SpaceNews reported.

Long Lehao, a senior space industry figure and Long March launch vehicle designer, told state media CCTV that the new rocket would launch for the first time around 2026. Long appeared in a television segment celebrating the 400th Long March rocket launch.

Long stated that the kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket could be used to put Chinese astronauts on the moon before 2030. Other flights such as circumlunar missions were noted as possibilities for the new rocket.

The timeline was revealed a month after NASAs inspector general warned that the U.S. return to the moon under the Artemis program could be delayed beyond 2025.

The new-generation crewed launch vehicle first emerged as a concept at a 2018 airshow. It is understood to have gained formal government backing earlier this year. However, this appears the first time a timeframe for an inaugural has been publicly announced.

Long said the rocket will use ready-made, mature technologies, adding that he believes the development progress will be relatively fast.

The in-development crew-rated rocket borrows technology and tooling from what is currently Chinas largest rocket, the Long March 5. That rocket debuted in 2016, providing China with a potentially quicker route to the moon than previous plans relying on a super heavy-lift Long March 9.

The envisioned crew-rated rocket would be capable of sending 27 metric tons into lunar transfer orbit. Standing 90 meters tall, it will combine three Long March 5 cores, each five meters in diameter. The rocket will be powered by clusters of YF-100K enginesuprated versions of the YF-100 kerosene engines used by Chinas Long March 5, 6 and 7 launchers.

China has not formally approved a crewed moon landing mission, but space industry officials are increasingly talking openly of such possibilities and timelines. The country has also committed to developing a joint China-Russia International Lunar Research Station that will first be a robotic base but aims to establish habitats for humans in the 2030s.

Other required elements for crewed missions are also already in development. China tested a prototype new-generation crew capsule for missions beyond low Earth orbit in May 2020. The country is also known to be working on a lunar lander.

An even larger rocket, the Long March 9, is also being developed. Its role will be for launching large infrastructure such as elements of the planned ILRS. That launcher is currently slated for a first launch in 2028, with previous reports stating 2030.
Lavrov supports efforts to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia

President of Artsakh attends Christmas Holy Liturgy

Yerevan-Aktau flight scheduled for today is canceled

Saakashvili welcomed protests in Kazakhstan

Gibka-S missile systems to be delivered to Russian forces in 2022

Lavrov and Cavusoglu discuss the situation in the Caucasus

First plane with Russian CSTO contingent arrives in Almaty

Georgia PM: I congratulate our Armenian compatriots, brotherly Armenian people on Christmas

Russian peacekeepers secure entry to Karabakh for 5,000 vehicles carrying pilgrims

Armenia sends about 70 servicemen to Kazakhstan

Politico: US Senate unlikely to approve sanctions against Nord Stream 2

1 more person dies of coronavirus in Artsakh

134 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

12 law enforcement officers killed in Almaty

Razm.info: At least 78 casualties in Azerbaijan armed forces become known in 2021

Armenia MFA on Kazakhstan events: We are convinced it is not way for solving political issues

CSTO sends peacekeepers to Kazakhstan

Armenia President: May your hearts and homes be filled with peace, goodness

More than 1,000 people injured in Kazakhstan unrest

Catholicos of All Armenians serving Christmas Divine Liturgy

MFA: No Armenia citizens at the moment among those affected by Kazakhstan events

Blinken, Israel FM discuss Russia, Ukraine, Iran

Christmas and Revelation: Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Nativity and Baptism of Christ

Dozens neutralized during attempts to attack administrative buildings of Kazakhstans Almaty

Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan leaders discuss situation in Kazakhstan

Kremlin website posts Armenia PM statement on CSTO decision to send peacekeepers to Kazakhstan

Armenia PM: CSTO will send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan

Airport of Kazakhstans Almaty freed during special operations

8 police and military killed in Kazakhstan: 317 more wounded

Protesters in Kazakhstan tear down Nazarbayev's monument

Special representatives of Armenia and Turkey meeting to take place on January 14 in Moscow

Azerbaijani defense ministry denies news of servicemen deaths

State of emergency introduced throughout Kazakhstan

EU calls on all sides in Kazakhstan to avoid escalation and violence

Azerbaijan starts receiving Turkmen gas through Iran

Prime Minister Pashinyan congratulates Armenians on Christmas

Protesters seize Almaty airport in Kazakhstan

Andranik Grigoryan is the CEO of Converse Bank, Chairman of Executive Management

France intends to help Azerbaijan in search of missing persons during 1st Karabakh war

Aeroflot cancels flight to Almaty: Aktau airport not working

Arnak Avetisyan appointed Armenian State Property Management Committees chair

Armenia appoints new ambassador to Russia

Christmas Eve liturgy takes place in Armenia's Etchmiadzin

Attempts to demolish a monument of Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan

Armenia deputy PM Mher Grigoryan to co-chair intergovernmental joint commission with Iran

Media: Internet cut off in Nursultan and Almaty

Armenia Prosecutor General to head for Moscow

Armenia premier to send 10-member delegation to Russia

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Kazakh president delivers new speech to nation

Kazakhstan protesters disarm police: Mir TV channel's office vandalized

Kazakhstan presidential residence set on fire

Almaty commandant: More than 500 civilians are beaten

OSCE calls for de-escalation of Kazakhstan situation

Protesters try to break into residence of Kazakhstan's president

Kazakh security forces take the side of protesters

Kazakh protesters seize Kazakh president's residence and destroy TV channels premises

Baghdad military base hit by missile attack

Armenian traces destroyed in occupied Shushi

Prosecutor's office building is on fire: State of emergency in Almaty

Azerbaijan declares 2022 year of occupied Armenian city of Shushi

Justice minister not commenting on arresting Armenian captives returned from Azerbaijan

Yerevan homeless shelter residents picketing in front of Armenia labor, social affairs ministry

Hong Kong imposes ban on flights from 8 countries due to COVID-19

Protesters in Almaty riot hospitals and clinics

PM: I have hard time imagining how Omicron variant cannot enter Armenia

New council of Armenias Parakar does not convene first session, new village mayor not elected

7 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Armenia cargo transportation via railway drops but passengers increase in 2021

Government hands over Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine certified rights with 15% Armenia-owned shares

Borrell says EU cannot be a neutral spectator in talks with Russia

Armenian PM urges to throw plastic bags out of life

Oil prices stabilize after jump

Premier recalls that anti-tobacco law has entered into force in Armenia as of January 1

129 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Kazakhstan President accepts governments resignation

Armenia State Property Management Committee dismissed

Armenia PM: We are entering 2022 with quite serious start to reforms

New council of Armenias Parakar convenes first session, village mayor election on agenda

New York prosecutor drops sex crime case against ex-governor Cuomo

England, Wales to make taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers in public illegal

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Flights delayed at Kazakhstan's Aktau airport as rallies continue

NATO foreign ministers to hold videoconference ahead of meeting with Russia

Ford to double production capacity for electric version of F-150 pickup

Oil prices rise by 1%

Borrell not to discuss Nord Stream 2 during Ukraine visit

Mercedes-Benz presents new electric car Vision EQXX

Kazakh authorities to satisfy protesters' demands for lower gas prices

Flooding in Iran: at least 8 people killed

Turkish lira drops for another 4%

Taliban army to be reinforced with suicide bombers

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NATO head plans special meeting with Russia amid Ukraine crisis

Russian peacekeepers ensure safe entry to Karabakh for about 2,000 vehicles

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Karabakh President holds new years first working consultation with law enforcement agencies heads

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Gas futures price in Europe exceed $ 1,000
Several inquiries were sent to the government, the National Security Service, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and some other state organizations of Armenia. The "Armenia" Faction wanted to find out on the basis of what documents the processes that took place in Syunik Province last year took place. Anna Grigoryan, an MP of the opposition "Armenia" Faction, on Monday told reporters about this in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia.

The lawmaker noted that both she and her colleague Gegham Manukyan had sent such inquiries.

"Let me remind [you] that when the Azerbaijani troops approached the Armenian villages of Syunik Province with their GPS devices, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia said that the Azerbaijanis had moved forward on the basis of some verbal agreements. And until now, we do not have a clear answer as to what really happened," Grigoryan said.

Also, the two aforementioned opposition MPs showedthrough videoshow the representatives of the Armenian authorities are asked various questions during the year, and how they avoid specific answers in every possible way.

"Recently, I received a completely unexpected answer from the chief of the General Staff [of the Armed Forces]. As the answer was in the secret section of the NA, I have no right to publicize the complete answer. However, one thing is clear: the letter signed by the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, General Artak Davtyan, proves that in December 2020, the units and volunteer detachments of the Armenian Armed Forces stationed in Syunik withdrew about 20 kilometers. The 21-kilometer section of the Goris-Kapan road came under the control of Azerbaijan on the basis of an earlier signed document," said Gegham Manukyan, for his part.
YEREVAN.  The Armenian authorities have not said anything about normalization of relations with Turkey. Only one person speaks about this: Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Gegham Manukyan, an MP of the opposition "Armenia" Faction, on Monday told reporters about this in the National Assembly of Armenia.

According to the MP, this only proves that Turkey is the one dictating the agenda today.

"The Armenian authorities are behaving very inertly in the process of the planned dialogue with Turkey. Back in August of this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had set a number of preconditions for Armeniaincluding issues related to both Karabakh and the Armenian Genocide," Manukyan said.

Also, he recalled that a few days later, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had received a positive signal from Turkey.

"There was no response to the proposal of the Armenian MPs to clarify this fact," added Manukyan.

Moreover, according to him, the wording noted in the Armenian government program on the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide was perceived by Turkey as an attempt to fulfill one of the abovementioned preconditions.

"Turkey declares that the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide should be excluded from the agenda. The Armenian Foreign Ministry traditional statement on December 9, in connection with the international day of remembrance of the victims of the crimes of genocide, said nothing on the process of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. It turns out that the preconditions set earlier by Ankara are being fulfilled," Gegham Manukyan concluded.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 20.12.21:

- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia has arrived in Georgia on a working visit, the Prime Minister's Office informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The PM was met at the Georgian capital Tbilisi international airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani of Georgia.

Afterwards, the Armenian premier left for the government of Georgia, where he will have a private talk with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

- The Turkish foreign minister once again touched upon the topic of normalizing relations with Armenia.

Mevlut Cavusoglu recalled that both Armenia and Turkey have already appointed envoys in this regard, and that they will meet in the nearest future, according to Hurriyet daily of Turkey.

Cavusoglu stressed that Turkey's goal is to implement the railways and motorways, especially the "Zangezur project," connecting the countries in the region.

"Turkey will do its best to implement these projects," said Cavusoglu, adding, however, that Turkey will coordinate with Azerbaijan all its steps in connection with Armenia.

- Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas on December 22-24 will visit Armenia to meet with the top political and military leadership of the country and discuss the situation in the zone of responsibility of the CSTO, Spokesperson of the CSTO Vladimir Zaynetdinov reported.

During the visit, a meeting with chairperson of the Collective Security Council of the CSTO, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is expected. The CSTO Secretary General will present to him the draft action plan for execution of the decisions of the September 2021 session of the CSTO Collective Security Council and implementation of the priority activities of the CSTO during the chairmanship of the Republic of Armenia, the press release reads.

Zas is also expected to lead negotiations with Armenias Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan.

- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian will visit Azerbaijan Tuesday, AzerTac reports.

During the visit, the Iranian FM will hold a number of meetings and discuss the prospects for the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Amirabdollahian will visit Azerbaijan at the invitation of the country's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

- As of Monday morning, 72 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 343,708 in the country, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also, four more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 7,903 cases.
Georgia and Armenia must move from words to actions. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated this ahead of Mondays meeting of the Georgian-Armenian intergovernmental economic commissionand with the participation of visiting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, News Georgia reports.

"We are interested in turning the very close, friendly cooperation between us into a real action. We must develop close trade and economic relations, talk about regional projects, infrastructure, and other projects that will be of interest to both countries. That is why we have gathered today," Garibashvili said.

Also, the Georgian PM thanked his Armenian counterpart for the fact that the aforesaid meeting of the Georgian-Armenian intergovernmental economic commission is being held in accordance with the initiative and agreement reached between the premiers of the two countries.

"This is your second visit to Georgia this year. I would like readily to note that I have been to Yerevan twice on an official visit this year. And this truly points out the close relations, the cooperation, the good will between us. And I want to thank you for these relations, for this mood," Garibashvili said, addressing Pashinyan.

In addition, the premier of Georgia stressed that thanks to his close ties with PM Pashinyan, "ideal relations" have been established between Georgia and Armenia.

"We can say with pride and pleasure that such relations have not existed [before] between our countries. Of course, we have always had very close and friendly relations. But we can say that it is thanks to our merit between our governments that there is no misunderstanding between our countries, and we have truly ideal relations," Irakli Garibashvili said.
A Special Precision Sniper (ESEA) joint training was carried recently in Cyprusand with the participation of forces from the Expedition Administration in the framework of the Tripartite Cooperation Program between Cyprus, Greece and Armenia, Greek City Times reported.

The purpose of the joint training was to increase combat capability in the organization, design and execution of ESEA missions.

In particular, the subjects of the training included the regular use of snipers, shots fired from medium and long distances, operational shots based on hypothetical scenarios, and execution of Regular Exercise After Troops (TAMS), under the name ESEA  2021.

In addition, in combination with the implementation of the Tripartite Cooperation Program between Greece, Cyprus and Armenia, they reflect the excellent cooperation between the armed forces of the three countries.
Chaired by the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili, the 11th sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between the two countries took place in Tbilisi. The event was attended by the heads of the bodies regulating foreign policy, economy, defense and other spheres of the Governments of Armenia and Georgia.

In the beginning of the sitting, the head of the Georgian Government delivered welcoming remarks, followed by the Prime Minister of Armenia.

In his speech, Irakli Garibashvili, in particular, said,

Mr. Prime Minister,

Dear members of the delegation,

Dear friends,

It is a great honor for me to host you in Georgia, I welcome my friend Prime Minister Pashinyan in Tbilisi. Mr. Prime Minister, this is your second visit to Georgia this year, and I would like to note with satisfaction that I have also been to Armenia twice. I am glad to note that we have relations based on close cooperation and friendship, and I thank you for that attitude.

I would also like to thank you for the fact that today the sitting of the Intergovernmental Economic Commission being held at our initiative and with our agreement, is taking place at the level of Prime Ministers. This commission resumed its activities on your personal initiative, no sessions had been held for years.

We are interested that our close and friendly relations could contribute to the implemntation of practical work, by developing trade and economic relations, talking about regional, infrastructural and other projects that will be in the interest for our countries.

I would like to note that the relations between our countries are at a high level, I am proud and satisfied to note that such relations have not existed between our countries. We have always had close, friendly relations, but our merit is that there are no misunderstood issues between our governments and countries, we have ideal relations.

I would like to note that we are interested in regional peace and stability. Georgia is always motivated to play a key role in this process, and for that goal I have announced about an initiative of peaceful neighborhood. Mr. Prime Minister, I affirm that we are always ready to contribute to the development of regional peace and stability.

Dear colleagues,

I once again welcome all of you in Tbilisi.

In his turn, Prime Minister Pashinyan said,

"Dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear Irakli,

Distinguished participants of the session,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I cordially welcome the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili and all the participants of the 11th sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Georgia.

First of all, I would like to thank our Georgian colleagues for the traditional warm welcome.

I must state with satisfaction that despite the difficulties, today the relations between our countries have entered a qualitatively new stage, registering successes in various spheres.

In 2019, we set an ambitious benchmark with Georgia, aiming to increase bilateral annual trade turnover to $ 1 billion in the medium term. The coronavirus slowed down this process, but now that we are learning to live in parallel with the coronavirus, I propose to reaffirm this intention. We have already discussed with Prime Minister Garibashvili and we will try to increase trade turnover between our countries to $ 1 billion by 2026.

This is an extremely important and ambitious task that requires dramatic efforts to be solved. Thats true, our trade turnover index for the first 10 months of this year has already exceeded the annual index of the previous three years, but we are still far from the 1 billion benchmark and we must work seriously in this direction.

We are deeply convinced that our economic cooperation has that potential, and our task is to contribute to its full revelation and implementation. The Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation is one of the best platforms for the implementation of the above-mentioned and the fact that the Commission is co-chaired by the leaders of the two countries, which is also unprecedented, is one of the key steps to achieve it.

This session of the Intergovernmental Commission had been scheduled for last year, but did not take place due to the pandemic, however, bilateral contacts at both the highest and sectoral levels continued to move in the planned dynamics.

Today, our bilateral agenda covers many areas, while the friendly relations between the two countries contribute to maintaining security and stability in our region, the importance of which has already been mentioned by Prime Minister Garibashvili. As for trade and economic cooperation, clear areas have been developed, which include transport, energy, high technology, tourism, agriculture and other areas.

I would like to emphasize that one of the most important preconditions for the deepening of economic cooperation between Armenia and Georgia is mutual trust, which is anchored on the historical brotherhood of our peoples.

Slightly deviating from the official protocol, I must emphasize the human-emotional dimension of our relations. By the way, this refers not only to Prime Minister Garibashvili and my relations, but also to the relations of many members of our governments. The thesis just voiced that our peoples have brotherly ties coming from centuries ago is being reflected today not only at the official level, but also at the level of human relations between our governments.

There is a serious human, personal mutual trust and respect and we must value and strengthen that trust and respect.

The meetings of the leaders of the Republic of Armenia and Georgia are regular, we have the opportunity to refer to the entire agenda of bilateral relations. We have met with the Prime Minister of Georgia in a bilateral format already four times this year. Such dynamics have never existed in the relations between our countries before and our biggest task is to create a new level of economic cooperation as a result of all this. I also want to emphasize that we need to make the traditional high level of our political relations more institutional.

Dear attendees,

Concluding my speech, I would like to once again thank for organizing the reception of the Armenian delegation at a high level and wish success and fruitful work to all the participants of the sitting.

Thank you."

A wide range of issues related to the development and expansion of cooperation between Armenia and Georgia in all spheres were discussed during the sitting, the forthcoming steps and programs of the sectoral departments of the two governments were outlined.

Based on the results of the sitting, the Prime Ministers of the two countries signed the protocol of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Georgia.
Today Yerevan hosted an event dedicated to the 9th anniversary of European Youth Parliament-Armenia.

The aim of the event was to raise awareness about the organizations activities and ensure a platform for communication.

The European Youth Parliament is an independent educational program that gathers young people from all countries across Europe in order to discuss the current issues at the parliamentary level. The organization carries out its activities under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.

The European Youth Parliament is the largest youth network in Europe. The main purpose of the organization is to ensure engagement of Armenian youth in decision-making and implementation of those decisions. Throughout its activities in Armenia, the European Youth Parliament has carried out over 120 educational programs, and they have been carried out with the participation of over 10,000 young Armenians, as well as 1,000 representatives from more than 70 countries around the world.
The U.S. Department of State has advised U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Ukraine due to increased threats from Russia and COVID-19.

The Department of State continues to advise U.S. citizens not to travel to Ukraine due to COVID-19 and to reconsider travel due to increased threats from Russia. Exercise increased caution due to crime and civil unrest. Some areas have increased risks.

U.S. citizens should be aware of reports that Russia is planning for significant military action against Ukraine. U.S. citizens are also reminded the security conditions, particularly along Ukraines borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice.

U.S. citizens choosing to travel to Ukraine should be aware that Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine would severely impact the U.S. Embassys ability to provide consular services, including assistance to U.S. citizens in departing Ukraine, the statement by the U.S. Department of State reads.
Beijing gave HK democracy after 1997: white paper

The Democratic Party celebrates victories in the Legco elections almost a year after the 1997 handover. File photo: AFP

Within hours of the conclusion of the first Legislative Council elections following Beijing's overhaul of Hong Kong's political system, the State Council published a white paper titled "Hong Kong: Democratic Progress Under the Framework of One Country, Two Systems."



The report said the Communist Party of China (CPC) "has championed whole process people's democracy in China, and this has laid the groundwork for developing democracy in Hong Kong under the framework of One Country, Two Systems."



"Over the past century, the CPC has led the Chinese people on a long and arduous journey to establish a model of democracy with Chinese characteristics," enabling them "to run their own country with extensive and substantive democratic rights," it states.



Xinhua News Agency said the white paper also noted that "anti-China agitators in Hong Kong and the external groups behind them" must be held to account for impeding the SAR's progress towards democracy.



To put an end to the recent political turmoil in Hong Kong, the news agency quoted the white paper as saying, the CPC and the central authorities took measures to restore order, returning the SAR's democratic process to a sound footing.



"With their political vision, the CPC and the Chinese government are certain of the long-term success of the socialist system on the mainland," the white paper said.



"They are equally certain of the long-term success of both the capitalist system in Hong Kong and a form of democracy suited to its realities."



With "improvements to the electoral system", the paper concludes, "governance by patriots will be further strengthened, the rule of law and the business environment will continue to improve, and Hong Kong will become a more harmonious society."
Govt announces new rules to ward off Omicron

The government says from Friday, everyone flying to the SAR will have to provide a negative test within 48 hours of departure, instead of the current 72 hours. File image: Shutterstock

The government on Monday announced a series of new measures intended to stop the Omicron coronavirus variant from spreading to the SAR, including a tighter testing requirement for incoming travellers.



Under current rules, everyone intending to fly into Hong Kong must show a negative Covid test result obtained within 72 hours of departure.



But from Christmas Eve, people will have to show a test taken within 48 hours.



Meanwhile, the government says an airline's flights into Hong Kong on a particular route will be suspended for two weeks if, within a week, four or more passengers via that route are confirmed with Covid.



But the administration has eased a requirement for people coming from countries under the most stringent surveillance to spend time in a government quarantine camp.



At present, people flying in from places such as South Africa and the United States must spend a week in the Penny's Bay camp.



But from Tuesday, that will be cut to four days. From the same day, the requirement will also apply to arrivals from Britain.



Officials said the change is possible because so far, all imported Omicron cases were detected within three days of arrival, and the government can therefore make better use of the quarantine facilities at the Penny's Bay centre.



The government also said it'll classify Peru as a high risk country from Thursday in light of Omicron cases found in the country.



Only fully-vaccinated Hong Kong residents will be allowed to enter the SAR if theyve been in Peru in the previous 21 days. They will be required to spend 21 days in quarantine hotel.
Foreign Ministry office hits out at poll criticism

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said this year's Legco election had returned to its original purpose. Photo: AP

The Foreign Ministry's office in Hong Kong has strongly condemned international criticism of Sunday's Legislative Council poll after the foreign ministers from several nations issued joint statements on the vote.



A spokesman for the Office of the Special Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong expressed strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to overseas comments about Sunday's election.



He said in a statement that the new electoral system would guarantee that the Legislative Council election would return to its original purpose of selecting talent to serve in the legislature so they could take actions that benefit the public, instead of politicising unnecessary disputes.



The spokesman said that governance by patriots was an internationally recognised ethic in politics.



He said politicians from the countries concerned had spoken of the National Security Law's so-called "chilling effect" and used other cliches to create a panic and suggest everyone is at risk.



With specific reference to Britain, he said provisions of the Sino-British Joint Declaration relating to the UK have now been fulfilled, and the former colonial power no longer has any sovereignty, governance or supervisory power over Hong Kong.



The spokesman made the comments in response to a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.



The ministers said Beijing's changes had "eliminated any meaningful political opposition" in Hong Kong's legislature.



They also condemned what they said were "the wider chilling effect of the National Security Law and the growing restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly".



In a separate statement, the foreign ministers of the G7 group of developed nations expressed "grave concern" over what they called "the erosion of democratic elements" in Hong Kong's political system.



The ministers urged Beijing "to restore confidence in Hong Kong's political institutions" and end what they called "the unwarranted oppression of those who promote democratic values and the defence of rights and freedoms".
LONDON -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Arthur D. Little (ADL) has published Who Says It Cant Be Done?  the latest edition of its innovation magazine PRISM. As well as celebrating the companys 135-year history, this special edition looks ahead to both the future of business and the consulting industry itself.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211217005298/en/

The magazine features five key articles:

Rebalancing For Tomorrow  The ability to help clients anticipate the future, embrace new opportunities, and transform their operations has always been a central part of ADLs consulting philosophy. This article looks at the challenges that business faces today, identifies important priorities for the future, and reflects on how companies can get ready to meet them. Why Consultancy Matters: A Historical Perspective  What is the exact nature of management consultancys value? Does consulting merely provide a similar service to that of the accountancy or legal professions, or does it provide a different type of value? This article explores how management consultancy has helped to shape the world we live in today as illustrated by the history of ADL. The Future Of Consultancy  In todays volatile environment, companies are looking for more than just me-too solutions to remain competitive. The consulting industry needs to reconfigure its approach and reject obsolete legacy models if it is to stay relevant to modern business. This article looks at some of the ways in which consulting must change in order to create real value for its clients. Inventors, Innovators, Pathfinders  Since the days of Arthur Dehon Little himself, ADL has been driven by hugely talented individuals, all pathfinders in their own right. This article celebrates some of the extraordinary people who have both led ADL and pioneered its unique approach to consultancy, inventing new solutions and breaking down barriers along the way. Who Says It Cant Be Done?  It was only after a management buyout (MBO) on 30 December 2011 that ADL was truly reborn as a successful partnership with a rapidly expanding business. In this interview with Ignacio Garcia-Alves, who led the MBO and has been ADLs Chief Executive Officer ever since, he shares his insights on how the company was transformed and the lessons learned over the past ten years.

Ignacio Garcia Alves, Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arthur D. Little, comments: PRISM always offers the best in thought-leading insight and commentary on the key topics of the day, and this edition is no exception  but with ADL hitting the milestone of 135 years of constant innovation, we couldnt resist also looking back on whats made it such a unique and pioneering company.

This latest edition of PRISM can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/9hyefpch

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211217005298/en/

CONTACT:

Further information from: Cate Bonthuys

Catalyst Comms

+44 7746 546773

cate@catalystcomms.co.uk

Arthur D. Little Prism Magazine (Photo: Business Wire)
In a bid to avert terror activities, the personnel of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police conducted more than 40 operations in different districts of the province late Saturday and arrested nine militants, Mansoor-ul-Haq Rana, senior superintendent of police of Punjab's CTD, told Xinhua news agency on Sunday.

The arrested militants were planning to carry out terror activities in the province, he added.

Six terrorists were arrested during the operation in Lahore, according to the CTD, adding that the accused have been shifted to an undisclosed location for investigation.

Separately, three militants were nabbed in two separate raids at their hideouts in Punjab's Multan and Toba Tek Singh districts.

Police recovered a huge cache of explosives, weapons, detonators and sensitive material from their possession.

The arrested were also involved in collecting donations to finance terror activities in Punjab and distributing banned books among people and motivating them to join the militant organisations, according to the police.

--IANS ksk/

( 197 Words)

2021-12-20-10:24:05 (IANS)
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has set up a humanitarian fund to be operated by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to help avert the humanitarian and economic crises in Afghanistan, The Express Tribune reported. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi admitted that another reason the fund was set up was because some of the member countries were not willing to channel assistance through the Taliban government, the report said. The announcement of the fund was part of the measures the 57-member Islamic bloc agreed upon after the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC hosted by Pakistan. However, it is unclear if the decisions made by the OIC will make an immediate impact on the ground in Afghanistan, which is in dire need of humanitarian assistance, the report said. The humanitarian fund would channel financial assistance to be provided by member states to Afghanistan. The reason the trust fund has been set up is to establish a channel through which assistance could be provided to the people of Afghanistan. Currently, because of the sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries, there are no formal banking channels or financial system operating in Afghanistan, the report added. In the absence of formal banking channels, the countries interested in helping the people of Afghanistan are finding it difficult to do so. Qureshi, who held a joint news conference along with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha, said the establishment of a trust fund would help address that problem. However, no pledges or donations were made yet to the newly created fund as Qureshi said the fund was just announced and hopefully member countries would start contributing to it soon. --IANS san/ksk/ ( 301 Words) 2021-12-20-11:12:02 (IANS)
New Delhi (India), December 20 (ANI/PNN): BSE, NSE and MSE listed (BSE: 540073; NSE: BLS; MSE: BLS), BLS International, a trusted global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, announced that it had signed a contract with the Embassy of India in Kuwait for consular, passport & visa services. The company is expected to process approximately 2,00,000 applications every year. BLS will be starting operations with three centres in Sharq, Fahaheel and Jleb Al Shuwaikh in Kuwait. The company will be providing consular, passport and visa services along with several value-added services like form filling, printing and photography for the convenience of applicants. Commenting on this, Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, BLS International, said, "We are a trusted partner for Indian missions for over a decade now in countries like Canada, UAE, Russia, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Oman, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Norway & Hong Kong. BLS has developed the entire system into a seamless progression, including automation of processes, application submission, appointments, helplines, collection and remittance of fees on the applicant's behalf. We are honoured and excited to extend this partnership in Kuwait and will continue to deliver seamless services." This contract is in addition to the already robust portfolio of visa, passport, consular and citizen services of BLS International with over 46 client governments. BLS centres are equipped with state-of-the-art digital facilities and have the capability to service other countries. The company is recognized as "India's Most Valuable Companies" by Business Today Magazine, ranked amongst "Fortune India's Next 500 companies" and "Best under a Billion' company" by Forbes Asia. BLS International Services Ltd. a trusted global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, having an impeccable reputation for setting benchmarks in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services since 2005. The company works with over 46 client governments, including Diplomatic Missions, Embassies & Consulates, and leverages technology and processes that ensure data security. The Company now has an extensive network of more than 12,287 centres globally with a robust strength of over 15,000 employees and associates that provides consular, biometrics and citizen services. BLS has processed over 52 million applications till date globally. BLS International adheres to ISO 9001:2015 certified for Quality Management Systems; ISO 27001:2013 certified for Information Security Management Systems; ISO 14001:2015 certified for Environmental Management Systems; ISO/ IEC 45001:2018 certified for Occupational Safety and Health; ISO / IEC 20000-1:2011 certified for IT Service Management; ISO 26000:2010 certified for Social Responsibility; ISO 23026:2015 certified for System Engineering and Management Requirements; ISO/IEC 28000:2017 certified for Supply Chain Management System; ISO/IEC 27002: 2013 certified for Management of Information Security; ISO 31000: 2018 certified for Risk Management; ISO 27001:2013 certified for Risk Management of Information. BLS International is the only listed company in this domain with operations in 66 countries. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): With an aim to boost the start-up ecosystem in the country, G7CR Technologies, one of the leading cloud service providers based out of Bangalore has invested over USD 1 Million in various start-ups via technology services in the last quarter. The 'Start-up 360' initiative by G7CR Technologies comes at a time when Start-ups, SMEs and SMBs are relying on Cloud Technology for technical and business edge. G7CR Technologies, in the last quarter has made tech investments in over 100 start-ups in India and Middle East and Africa offering technology benefits like migrating to cloud, helping them manage their setup on cloud and even modernisation of their application. Under the 'Start-up 360' initiative, G7CR plans to invest in over 200 more start-ups in the next 4-5 months and onboard over 1,000 start-ups in FY 2022. G7CR will also invest in Start-ups with B2B SaaS products and expand their sales operations in newer regions including MEA, the benefits will range from USD 5000 to USD 25000. The tech investment for start-ups will focus on offering strategic support across key business areas: Capital, Building Competency (Technical & Leadership), Revenue and Technology to support start-ups in their journey. The initiative has also helped start-ups opt for transformative innovations and utilize Cloud services for a much wider approach including offering strategic support in Sales enablement, Tech enablement and Business enablement. With a strong presence pan India and in markets like Middle East, UK and South East Asian countries, G7CR has helped start-ups in their go-to-market strategy and has also offered technology funding against Cloud Consumption. Sectors like education, health, FMCG, retail, marketing, advertising and many more have accelerated the adoption of such initiatives. Speaking on the occasion Dr Christopher Richard, MD & Chief Cloud Architect, G7CR Technologies, said, "Start-ups want to utilize the advantages that cloud technology bring to their business and at the same time they also look for a partner with advanced skills to migrate, optimize, and manage their existing workloads to the cloud and this is where G7CR comes into picture. We have always been trying to disrupt our offers to our customers & partners so that they make most of it rather than trying to fit them into one-size for all offers. The products and services of these start-ups where we have invested via technology services have impressed us. By building a cloud technology platform and working closely with these start-ups we have understood various business challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. With our expertise and market reach we intend to help these start-ups which even have the potential to become unicorns. We are extremely happy and excited for these startups to join the G7CR family." G7CR continues to invest in building niche skill sets and has earned the Modernization of Web Applications to Microsoft Azure advanced specialization, a validation of a solution partner's deep knowledge, extensive experience and proven expertise in migrating and modernizing production web application workloads, and managing app services in Azure. G7CR Technologies India is an Expert Azure Managed Services Partner driving cloud transformation across India and MEA region. The company provides cloud hosting services packaged with all related support services. The company has been recognised globally for its technical capabilities driving cloud success journeys for businesses from industry verticals such as Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Healthcare, PSUs, Education, Retail and IT. G7CR Technologies has been awarded "The Country Partner of the Year" for two consecutive years 2019 & 2020 by Microsoft. G7CR Technologies is a leading global information technology, consulting and cloud services company. Headquartered in Bengaluru (India), the main motto of G7CR Technologies is to "Create Value for Customers & Partners" and organization is built on "Trust & Collaboration", with its middle east office in Al Asayel, St - Business Bay, Dubai, the company is catering to the cloud needs in MEA region. Powered by the world's leading technology giant Microsoft, G7CR Technologies helps businesses in swift and agile digital transformation. In November 2020, the company expanded its operations to the MEA region to facilitate automation and digitalisation in start-ups and SMBs. Of late, G7CR Technologies announced its Cloud Accelerator Funding program of USD 5 million to support start-ups and SMEs impacted by the pandemic. In the last two consecutive years, Microsoft conferred G7CR Technologies with the Country Partner of The Year Award. This award recognizes G7CR Technologies as deep tech partner delivering technology solutions to a variety of businesses. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI/SRV): Poojara Telecom, one of the fastest-growing retail chains in the mobile and electronic gadget sector, has added two more stores under its wing. The new outlets are located at New CG Road and Satellite areas of Ahmedabad, strengthening the company's footprint at over 180 stores across 80 Indian cities. With a legacy of 28 years, Poojara Telecom that launched its first store in 1994 has set a great example of how providing quality customer services and sticking close to the changing market trends will benefit the business. The company has adopted the dynamic technological changes and embarked on tie-ups with established brands to address the changing and evolving requirements of its customers. Poojara Telecom, with its highly varied product offerings, stands as a one-stop solution for all of the customers' IoT needs. From basic earphones and mobile handsets to branded premium laptops and electronic gadgets, the chain of stores has simplified bringing all technologies together under one roof. The company primarily deals with mobile handsets and their related accessories like chargers, earphones, headphones, glasses and covers, etc. In addition, it retails laptops and other smart electronic gadgets like watches, bands, speakers, voice assistants, grooming & wellness, gaming etc. Poojara Telecom also deals with the sale and servicing of televisions; its team of trained sales personnel provide live demos for all the major brands available at the store. Further, customers are also provided with easy financing facilities for the mid-range and premium range mobile phones, laptops, televisions and other gadgets. Easy EMI options are also available at its stores, making it more customer-friendly and a viable option for aspirational buying of premium products. Apart from this enthralling set of facilities provided, Poojara Telecom offers its own insurance aid for all of its products sold through the stores. In addition, customers are provided with basic training on how to use the products by the sales team, which is a great advantage for the customers to keep themselves updated with the changing technology. Guided by the in-depth knowledge of the sales team across the wide range of competitively priced products, customers are equally satisfied with the robust after-sales service. Keeping a customer centric approach, Poojara Telecom provides its customers with different offers that run throughout the year. The offers may vary according to the occasions and special times, but the store has a policy of providing attractive offers on all days of the year. In fact, customers can also exchange their old products and gadgets while purchasing new ones at a hugely discounted price, and avail other offers across all Poojara Telecom stores. Moreover, Poojara Telecom follows an omni-channel approach, provides home delivery services and also delivery of the desired product in less than two hours, directly to the hands of the customer. Yogesh Poojara, Founder and Chairman, Poojara Telecom says, "The way you treat your customer today will determine the future of your organization. In this digital era, therefore, where people are making hard efforts to make a sale, we don't focus on it. We focus on building a lasting relationship and take it to the next level with our R&D backed initiatives. Sales then happen more organically". Poojara Telecom is home to a wide variety of exclusive products, which are a result of having tie-ups with major mobile brands and OEMs around the globe. At present, Poojara Telecom is a family of more than 8 million customers, served over three decades and counting. They now have six corporate offices across with a strength of over 1200 employees. Customers can also visit Poojara Telecom's official website which acts as the digital front of the brick and mortar store, where customers can get all the details regarding a product and even initiate a purchase conveniently at the comfort of their home. The company also offers a mobile application and a WhatsApp chatbot to provide further assistance to the customers. To know more, visit: https://bit.ly/3oGsxNC This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI/GIPR): GetLegal India, a newly launched website, makes the process of understanding legal terminology and laws related to personal and business needs easy and convenient. If you ever felt confused going through assorted and diverse material on multiple portals, then here is a website that will help you find and understand information on anything pertaining to Indian law, in the most accessible manner. GetLegal India is the brainchild of Phillip Galyen, Jeffrey A. Rattikin, and Akmal Faizan. Phillip Galyen is an attorney who has been practicing law for over 40 years. He is the sole shareholder of Bailey & Galyen, a consumer law firm with 19 offices in the States of Texas and Arkansas. Jeffrey A. Rattikin has over three decades of experience in residential and commercial real estate and business law. He has championed the application of online technology to legal services since the advent of the internet. Akmal is the founder of Saman Technosys Pvt Ltd, a leading web development and digital marketing company and has more than 15 years of experience in the legal niche. Talking about the idea behind GetLegal India, Faizan says, "In a developing country like India, a large number of people remain unaware of their rights as a citizen and suffer as a result of this. Even the ones who are educated find it difficult to make sense of the information available on the internet owing to their lack of familiarity with the legal system and terminology revolving around it. Through getlegalindia.com, we have tried to ensure that the process of looking for legal information is much simpler and more accessible". The information available on GetLegal India's website is well-researched and authentic. While the website has been founded by experts in this field, the team looking after its day-to-day operations has likewise been handpicked carefully. "We have hired a team of lawyers from different practice areas to curate content on a wide variety of legal topics in simple English that can be understood by most people. While we have some of the most credible names in the legal business in India on board, we have spoken to the general public extensively to understand the kind of difficulties they face while accessing legal information. Their feedback has played an important role in the way the website has shaped up", says Galyen. While phase one of the website has already been launched, phase two will be up early next year. The team has elaborate plans for the expansion and growth of the website during 2022. About the expansion plans for the website, Rattikin says, "In phase one, we have launched an article-based website that offers information pertaining to Indian law and legal issues. The initial seed capital (1 Crore) for the launch of phase one was provided by LawConnect. Phase two, which will be launched in January next year, will have India's biggest directory listing for lawyers and law firms. Once phase two is launched, a wide variety of services like website design and development, search engine optimization, chat support, social media management, and online appointment booking shall be provided to lawyers and law firms." GetLegal India has been formed in close partnership with Saman Technosys and LawConnect. In 2022, LawConnect, which has more than a decade of experience working with lawyers and law firms, will seed 100 Crores for the launch of different phases. Saman Technosys has been closely working with LawConnect on different projects for the last ten years and is expert in the legal niche. This story is provided by GIPR. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/GIPR)
New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): Learning has been relocated to a virtual classroom due to the pandemic resulting in a trend of extended learning, which has morphed into virtual learning with the help of new products swiftly entering the market. As a result of this new-age learning, lessons are more engaging and dynamic. Customisation and personalisation on a real-time basis for students and teachers will be the most significant themes in the upcoming education business. 'The Class of One' was founded on the principle of preparing children for the future through online classes. The goal is to introduce and establish new trends in the delivery of smart online education. The pandemic has ushered in a new era marked by themes such as experiential learning, tailored tools for children with specific needs, and learning that emphasises skill development and enhancement. TCO1 is unique in that it is an online-only school founded to transform traditional learning frameworks and transform into a school of the future so that we may be the perfect partner for your child's educational path. The school provides a high-quality Oxford Advantage curriculum with cutting-edge digital content and a wide range of extracurricular activities and fitness programmes. Children's learning routes can be tailored using e-learning technologies based on their abilities. Personalised learning entails using technology to allow students more control over their education. Children have control over the time, location, path, and pace of their education. Children are generally curious about technology and are more interested in acquiring tech skills through gadgets while using 'Smart device-based learning'. Advanced learning technologies enable them to study more effectively and track their progress in real-time by measuring their learning outcomes. Teachers are using video and audio files in their lectures to help students understand what they are learning. The concepts and teachings become embedded in students' minds in this manner, and they can retain all of the notions instinctively and learn more effectively. According to the results of the experiment, 88.77 per cent of participants said that having fun while studying online was important for their well-being, motivation, and performance. As a result of these statistics, it is apparent that online learning and schooling are far more engaging and intuitive for children than traditional offline education. To understand the future, one must first understand and agree with the past; otherwise, we will continue to make the same mistakes and lose sight of the ever-present wheel of education and growth. Many academics believe that having an integrated learning method centred on online learning is the solution in today's society. People today have a huge urge to study online, which the recent issue of COVID-19 has only emboldened. The world's fastest changes are driven by online learning. There was already a strong level of growth and acceptability in educational technology before the COVID-19; it is anticipated that the overall online education industry will reach $350 billion by 2025. Students profit more from online education than they do from traditional schools. The most remarkable trend identified was that pedagogical approaches were altered and made more flexible and diverse since teachers could offer classes outside their typical classroom and reach out to people from other parts of the world. A dramatic shift is envisaged in the delivery of primary education since children will now be immediately exposed to a mix of technological and verbal learning, requiring them to engage their cognitive talents at a much higher level than previously. Also, many families were devastated both emotionally and financially due to this horrific pandemic. Many people have lost their employment, and many more have been laid off. Many families could not afford a pricey education during this time, and students were asked to discontinue their studies. A generation of students faces a financial crisis, with many unable to pay to attend college. That means we must do all possible to provide a good, affordable education for our children. And, thankfully, online colleges and institutions offer this service. Low-income students have a distinct edge for online schools: they may acquire the education they need at a significantly lesser cost. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], December 20 (ANI/BusinessWire India): To highlight the impact of plastic pollution and the urgent need to make better choices, a video story capturing people's voices from the banks of the Ganga river was released on Monday, featuring local community champions and residents from across the Gangetic belt. Industry leaders from the F&B sector and startup founders too joined the conversation in a roundtable event to discuss the alternatives that are #PlasticSeBehtar In less than a week this campaign has already reached more than 4 million people with more and more joining the conversation to share alternatives that are #BetterThanPlastic Every year, about 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean from rivers and Asian rivers are responsible for 86% of the total global input. These are rivers that run through areas with millions of people. The banks of the Ganga River is one such example. To create awareness about the impact of plastic pollution and the importance of making choices that are better than plastic [plastic se behtar] in India, the United Nations Environment Programme's CounterMEASURE project in collaboration with LetMeBreathe has launched a campaign focusing on this urgent issue, and very importantly, the solutions: What's #PlasticSeBehtar? Capturing people's voices from the banks of the river Ganga, one can hear first-hand from the local community champions about this issue in the video story. "Nobody throws garbage on their mother, the same way it is our responsibility to keep our river Ganga clean," says a school student studying in Rishikesh. Vinod, a social worker in Varanasi reiterates the same sentiment, "People say we need to clean Ganga, but I am saying we don't need to clean Ganga, we need to spread the message that we should not pollute Ganga in the first place!." Watch the story now. Everyone knows that plastic pollution is a big problem, yet one's relationship with plastic is a contradictory one. It is an integrated part of everyone's lives. "It is important that environmental costs and prices are internalized so that change becomes a norm instead of a niche" explains Divya Datt, Programme Management officer at UNEP India. There is an acute need for awareness about better choices and better behaviors that could help limit the use of plastic. "You have to make slightly hard decisions once in a while. That's the only way you can start making change. We stopped take-away coffee orders at our cafe" explains Gauri Devidayal, Co-founder and CEO of Food Matters Group. Following the debut of this campaign, industry experts in the F&B sector like Gauri, along with startup founders came together for a roundtable discussion to share insights on what's #BetterThanPlastic. As author, food columnist and historian, Anoothi Vishal puts it, "there is so much scope at B2B level & B2C level where we can reduce plastic waste generated by the [F&B] industry." Chef Thomas Zacharias (aka ChefTZac) shares insight on how a shift in mindsets is needed, "let's make it trendy to go back to the roots. Let's make it cool to be minimalistic. We have to think of ways of making being conscious & responsible more fun, easy & accessible." Watch the whole discussion now. The choices people now make matter. "Today sustainability is a choice. In the next 5-7 years, it will be a mandate" as Aditya Ruia, Co-Founder of Beco aptly summarizes. Positive actions taken as an individual, as a community, as a business owner - have an impact. As part of this campaign, the United Nations Environment Programme's CounterMEASURE project and LetMeBreathe will continue to highlight such individuals, communities and businesses that are taking similar positive actions. Whenever one opts for an alternative to plastic or works towards a solution to plastic pollution, these 'small wins' gather momentum for collective action to beat plastic pollution and its adverse impact on rivers and ecosystems. Through this conversation, the goal of the campaign is to enable more and more people to do the same. If you have a solution to share, join the conversation using the hashtag #PlasticSeBehtar #BetterThanPlastic. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)
New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI/Heylin Spark): The recent decision of the Union Cabinet to raise the minimum age of marriage of girls from 18 to 21 years, may not be the solution, says ActionAid Association, a leading civil society organisation in India. The extent and magnitude of child marriage in India, and its prevalence with impunity and social concurrence, has for decades needed much stronger action from the Government, law-enforcing agencies and indeed society at large. The required measures include timely and effective action against the perpetrators of child marriage, steps to ensure that girls do not drop out from school, access to higher education, availability of decent work in safe and empowering work places, and safe public spaces. To change social attitudes, we need a vibrant national campaign, across mainstream media, social media and with community-based cultural activists to delegitimize child marriage, discourage early marriage and to make recognize and celebrate the various roles played by women beyond the family and motherhood. ActionAid Association has been working with communities and local administrations in 20 states to protect children, especially girl children from child marriage. Across 61 districts in Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal, which are prone to child marriage, we have worked closely with district administrations and communities to strengthen administrative and community-based mechanisms to eliminate child marriage. Our learning is that there is great need to invest more on the education for girls, providing services for sexual and reproductive health, facilitating child-friendly spaces, strengthening vocational and skill based education for the girl child, the ensuring that all vulnerable families can access social security and other livelihood measures, and ensuring employment opportunities for young women. Our efforts to felicitate young girls who have resisted pressures to get married early, have helped create significant change in mindsets. The involvement of the gram sabha, and the recognition and celebration of villages as "child-marriage-free villages" would go a long way in changing mindsets. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid Association says, "While an enabling legal environment has a major role to play in eliminating child marriage and discouraging early marriage, the simple act of raising the legal age of marriage of women from 18 to 21 years may not be the need of the hour. A more effective implementation of the existing law is what is needed. In addition, we look forward to advisories to local administrations and state governments work with communities to eliminate child marriage and make all provisions to ensure that adult women need only enter marriage as an exercise of free choice, while continuing to have the ability and real choice to live and work as a single woman." This story is provided by Heylin Spark. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Heylin Spark)
Patna (Bihar) [India], December 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): On Saturday, Health Minister Mangal Pandey launched ZiffyHealth's E-Clinic to improve health services in the state. As per the innovative start-up's plan, they will be initially having 100 E-clinics. Following that, its number will be gradually increased over the next 18 months. With the help of E-clinics, one crore citizen's electronic health records will be collected over the next year (Health Kiosks). ZiffyHealth introduced this cutting-edge technology and innovations to Bihar. The Health Minister said at the launch ceremony that this is an amazing initiative. Natives of Bihar are earning fame all over the world. But what makes this story unique is that after achieving fame, they want to work for the development of their motherland. Such individuals are making commendable efforts to improve Bihar's healthcare system. Bihar is abode to ZiffyHealth's CEO and Founders. This organisation has also set a goal of creating Electronic Health Records (EHR) for people. I was surprised to learn that doctors, thousands of kilometres away would be able to hear and see in real time the heartbeat, blood pressure, sugar level, and oxygen level of patients living in Bihar districts. People will no longer need to travel to major cities for medical treatment as a result of this. ZiffyHealth has my best wishes. We will help wherever we are needed. Captain Indira Jha, Chief Executive Officer of ZiffyHealth and a resident of Jhanjharpur, Madhubani, welcomed all guests to the programme. He stated that he belongs to Bihar and will leave no stone unturned to improve the Healthcare situation in the state. One of his brothers died as a result of mild diarrhoea. Since then, he has wanted to do something to improve Bihar's healthcare system. There is one doctor for every 28 thousand people in Bihar, compared to one doctor for every 11 thousand people nationally. Only 20% of the population is served by 80% of the doctors. With E-clinics and health kiosks, this ratio will improve. People will be able to access high-quality healthcare close to their homes. Kasturi Jha, Yogesh Thakur (Co-founders), Dr. Ajay Kumar (Bihar President, IMA), Anand Kishor, Chairman, Smart City Patna, Balmurgan D, CEO of Jeevika, Vijay Prakash, CEO of Atal Innovation Mission, and Prof. NK Arora, AIIMS were all present at the launching ceremony. The Start-up's aim is to leverage the technology to deliver Effective Digital Healthcare for city dwellers, as its IoT integrated solution entirely bridges the gap between online and off-line consulting. It also offers a three-way video consultation feature, which is beneficial to our younger generation who want to look after their parents who live in different cities. To aid the patient or the doctor, a third person may be introduced into the session. The stay-at-home arrangement during COVID, forced parents to be separated from their children who worked or studied in various places. With the help of ZiffyHealth, either the patient's parent or guardian can tune in to the consultation and learn about their loved one's health difficulties. The goal is to offer each person with inexpensive and reliable healthcare and deliver superior customer journey through optimizing the time and cost. Live Q-management, Voice Clinical Note, Integrated Diagnostic and Pharmacy with OPD management are few tools, which are the key differentiating features for ZiffyHealth. The E-clinic process Captain Indira Jha stated that there will be multiple E-clinics in each district at affiliated pharmacy shops. At the e-clinic, a health kiosk will be installed. The patient will take a seat in front of the medical kiosk. Specialist doctors sitting far away will be able to know a patient's heartbeat, oxygen level, blood pressure, sugar levels, and other vital signs in real time thanks to sophisticated equipment. If the doctor believes that additional diagnostics are required, the associated laboratory will collect the patient's sample and, after examination, will send the report to the doctor. The doctor will prescribe the medication based on the results of the tests, which will be made available to the pharmacy. The patient will then go to the pharmacy and purchase the medication. In this manner, the patient will receive treatment from renowned doctors close to his home. ZiffyTech is a Big Data-Hadoop-based disruptive force healthcare start-up that has been incubated and is being accelerated at Atal Innovation Mission-Pinnacle (An offshoot of NITI Ayog). It is dedicated to making healthcare more accessible and affordable by deploying cutting-edge technology and AI-powered innovative processes. ZiffyHealth has developed a customised, comprehensive, and secure EHR in accordance with international standards (HL-7; according to the Indian Health Ministry Gazette), which is technologically sophisticated enough to provide trend analysis and is automatically made available to doctors once an appointment is scheduled. The ZiffyHealth Platform converts all vitals and lab test results into an HL7 format Electronic Health Record. The main goal of EHR adoption is to improve treatment quality by reducing medical errors, providing an effective communication channel, sharing information among healthcare practitioners, and collecting health data for educational and research purposes. For Healthcare Innovation, it was featured in the NITI Aayog Coffee Table magazine. This organisation has advanced to the semi-finals of the Ayushman Bharat Grand Challenge. The company's Co-founder has been named one of the top 100 finalists for the "Women Transforming Award". This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], December 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): SpiceHealth, one of India's youngest and fastest growing healthcare startup, has won the prestigious CII Industrial Innovation Award 2021 in the "Top 25 Innovative Company" category. SpiceHealth was awarded for "revolutionizing RT-PCR testing & healthcare industry in the country". CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Industrial Innovation Awards were instituted in 2014 to identify and celebrate innovative Indian enterprises across industry segments and sectors. SpiceHealth was recognised for its "Valuable contribution in launching the first-of-its-kind, ICMR and NABL approved mobile RT-PCR testing and genome sequencing laboratories, launching RT-PCR tests at Rs. 499/- when same was being offered by others at Rs. 2400 - an 80% reduction in price, for being the only lab with API integration with ICMR and expanding into mobile diagnostic laboratories to reach the remotest parts of the country and thus providing affordable, accessible, high quality, IT driven healthcare services in the country." Avani Singh, CEO, SpiceHealth said, "I am delighted that SpiceHealth has been awarded the prestigious 2021 CII Innovation Award. Thank you, CII, for recognizing a young healthcare startup like ours. We remain firmly committed to our goal of providing affordable and quality healthcare services through innovative, scalable and cost-effective solutions." In the last seven years, CII Industrial Innovation awards have established themselves as one of the most coveted innovation awards in the country. The Awards evaluate all kinds of new processes, products, services, technologies, and other types of innovations which have the ability to fuel growth in industry. They also assess new ideas and approaches along with tangible results. Members of the Grand Jury 2021 included S Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII & Chairman of The Grand Jury for CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2021, Prof. U. B. Desai, Founding Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Dr. Pronab Sen, Country Director, IGC's India Central Programme, Prof. Devang Khakhar, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, Prof. Y.S. Rajan, Chairman, Board of Governing Council, National Institute of Technology, Manipur, Prof. Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology, Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Prof. Soumitra Dutta, Founding Dean, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, Dr. Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore, Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor, Ahmedabad University, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, Dr. Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT Trichy and Mrs. Jaya Panvalkar, Chairperson, Board of governors SVNIT, Surat. SpiceHealth, a healthcare company founded by the promoters of SpiceJet, was launched in November 2020 with the vision of introducing innovative healthcare solutions aimed at serving the masses. The Company was the first to introduce the innovative concept of mobile testing laboratories that could be placed in remote areas, in containment zones, in villages where access to hospitals and medical facilities was and remains a challenge. It has conducted 5 million RT-PCR tests in the short span since its launch. In May 2021, SpiceHealth won the Gold Award at the 2021 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards for 'Most Valuable Medical Innovation' under COVID-19 response category. In December, 2021, SpiceHealth CEO, Avani Singh was featured by Bloomberg Businessweek in the 'Bloomberg Global 50 and Ones to Watch' list of global icons and innovators. SpiceHealth is successfully operating 18 testing labs and collection centres spread across ten cities in the country. The Company operates COVID testing labs at Guwahati, Amritsar and Varanasi airports as well. SpiceHealth also operates multiple Covid vaccination centres in five States. SpiceHealth's first mobile RT-PCR testing facility in Delhi was inaugurated by Sh. Amit Shah, Hon'ble Union Home Minister and the then Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. In January 2021, SpiceHealth had launched a first-of-its-kind genome sequencing laboratory at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport to help in identifying and containing the new mutant variants of Covid-19 virus unwittingly carried by passengers travelling from other countries. SpiceHealth had set-up mobile laboratories for testing pilgrims visiting the Kumbh Mela - the largest gathering of people on this planet - in Haridwar and at various locations in Uttarakhand as part of a MoU with the State Government. The Company recently forayed into pathology laboratory services launching its first state-of-the-art pathology lab at Sama Hospital, New Delhi. SpiceHealth is a healthcare company launched by the promoters of SpiceJet. SpiceHealth was thoughtfully founded with the vision of introducing innovative healthcare solutions aimed at serving the masses. With constant innovation and affordability, SpiceHealth's mission is to revolutionise healthcare in India and the Company envisions an India where affordable and accessible healthcare is a human right. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 20 (ANI/PRNewswire): Divya Hegde from Udupi, coastal Karnataka, has won the UN Women's Award for Leadership Commitment at the 2021 Regional Asia-Pacific Women's Empowerment Principles Awards ceremony on November 18th, 2021. She has been recognised for her sustained efforts in advancing gender equality through climate action efforts. Her organisation, Baeru Environmental Services, works in the areas of waste management, creation of livelihoods for rural women, and developing a circular economy in the region. "Gender justice is inextricably linked to climate justice and the world needs to leverage women as its most powerful ally in fighting climate change. At Baeru, we are enabling rural women's socio-economic empowerment by leveraging the power of design and technology in lingual and regional contexts. We firmly believe that our mission of environmental justice and gender equality go hand in hand." -Divya Hegde Baeru empowers women in the community to take proactive climate action measures by generating employment and offering them access to training programmes in waste management, and product development. They currently work in coastal Karnataka and along the Western Ghats, which is a global biodiversity hotspot. Lingual and regional context is a central part of their climate communications work and they use the medium of local arts and culture practices to conduct relatable and effective workshops for women and children. By establishing a strong and relevant context, they aim to address the disconnect between the severity of the climate crisis and local coastal communities, while debunking myths related to climate solutions being seen as oppressive, unsustainable, and economically devastating for rural populations. Divya says, "We work closely with women to enhance their awareness of climate action issues, as they are the primary decision-makers concerning the lifestyle choices of their family unit. By helping them harness technology and encouraging micro-entrepreneurship to streamline waste management, we have been able to generate gainful and meaningful employment for women, thus enabling financial independence." The UN Leadership Commitment Award recognises leaders who have been instrumental in setting up strong commitments that aim to promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and/or community. This award is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact aimed at empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
Reliance Foundation announced on Monday that it will provide financial support in the form of scholarships to 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students pursuing degree programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Sciences, Mathematics, Computing, Electrical and/or Electronics Engineering. Through Reliance Foundation Scholarships, up to 60 undergraduate students will receive a grant of up to Rs 4 lakh each, while up to 40 postgraduate students will be awarded up to Rs 6 lakh each for the duration of their degree. "Students will, in addition, gain valuable opportunities to interact with leading global experts, apply for mentoring, internships, volunteering, a strong alumni network and more," Reliance Foundation said in a statement. In 2021, 76 first-year undergraduate and postgraduate students were awarded the first Reliance Foundation Scholarships in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Sciences. The Reliance Foundation Scholars are enrolled full-time in selected eligible degrees across 21 of the country's top science and engineering institutes, representing 14 states across India. This first cohort of scholars has already participated in several professionally enhancing sessions with industry experts. "Reliance Foundation Scholarships will identify and select the brightest students in India through a rigorous and competitive selection process, which includes an online application and interviews with a panel of leading Indian and international experts. The scholarships will be awarded on the basis of merit and applicants from across all socio-economic backgrounds are encouraged to apply," the statement said. (ANI)
Actors Tom Holland and Zendaya's instant chemistry on the sets of 'Spider-Man' left producer Amy Pascal concerned that her lead stars would start a real-life romance, so she advised them not to date each other. Tom and Zendaya are not the first 'Spider-Man' co-stars to find themselves falling for each other. The 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' actors are actually the third and latest pair to translate their on-screen chemistry into a real-life romance. However, not without receiving a little word of warning. In a recent interview, 'No Way Home' producer Pascal revealed that she advised Tom and Zendaya against any future dating shortly after they were cast, reported US Weekly. "I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture," Pascal revealed. Of course, romance rumours have long swirled around the couple until they were photographed packing on the PDA in July. Snaps of Tom and Zendaya kissing in a car in Los Angeles finally confirmed that they were in a relationship. Pascal, however, warned them back in 2016 before they filmed 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' to keep the chemistry onscreen. "Don't go there -- just don't. Try not to," Pascal recalled telling them. The producer also warned Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone about set romances when they played Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in 'The Amazing Spider-Man', which was released in 2012. The couple dated for four years, until they called it quits in 2015, a year after their final movie 'Amazing Spider-Man' hit theatres. "I gave the same advice to Andrew and Emma. It can just complicate things, you know?" the producer explained. "And they all ignored me." Pascal, who has worked on all the 'Spider-Man' flicks, might have some experience with the complicated side. While Stone and Garfield didn't split until after their franchise wrapped, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst started dating while making their first 'Spider-Man' film and broke up before filming the second. "They apparently began dating with each other, I think, in the middle of the first movie ... although I didn't know it at the time ... but definitely they eventually broke up before the second movie," director Sam Raimi told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 as the third film in the Maguire-led franchise was released. Raimi continued, "I was concerned they wouldn't get the same chemistry back, but it was just me worrying. They really like each other, I think, very much. And that relationship probably just added to their ability to trust each other." Clearly, Tom and Zendaya didn't have trouble working together. The England native is even campaigning to work with his ladylove again on another project, HBO's 'Euphoria'. "Listen, I have been petitioning for this for a long time, and it has not happened yet," Tom told IMDb in response to a fan question about when he would make a cameo on the teen drama. "I must have come to visit Euphoria at least 30 times this season," he added. The second season started filming in Los Angeles in the spring before wrapping up in November, but Tom stayed off-camera -- much to his dismay. "I want to be in Euphoria," the Marvel star whined to his costar. Zendaya, who won an Emmy for her role as teen addict Rue Bennett on the show, told him she'd work on landing him a spot. "Let me talk to some people," she said. "HBO, let's get them on the phone." For now, fans can see the celebrity sweethearts on the big screen as Peter and MJ in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home', which hit theatres in India on December 16. (ANI)
Ever since her acting debut in 2003, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has proved herself in every work that has come her way. The global star says she performs better when under pressure but does not take the stress from other people's expectations. The former Miss World, who is currently creating waves internationally with her stellar performances, says she was always told that she wouldn't be able to do it. Proving everyone wrong, Priyanka, who is one of India's highest-paid and most popular entertainers, in a candid chat with IANS said: "I do put pressure on myself. When I put pressure on myself I perform better, I take decisions and work well under pressure. But I don't take pressure from other people's expectations. "I never have because I would never be able to survive if I was listening to what everybody thought. I have always been told that 'Yeh thodi na kar payegi' and 'you won't be able to do it'. I have always heard that but I just keep walking forward and keep doing my work." The 39-year-old star garnered immense success with her power-packed performance in the 'Fashion' in 2008. Since then there was no looking back for Priyanka. The actress swept the audiences off their feet with her work in films such as 'Mary Kom', '7 Khoon Maaf', 'Barfi!', 'Kaminey', 'Dil Dhadakne Do', 'Bajirao Mastani', 'The Sky Is Pink' and 'The White Tiger' to name a few. That's not all! In Hollywood, Priyanka earned global recognition with her work in the thriller series 'Quantico' and followed that a string of hits such as 'Baywatch', 'A Kid Like Jake', 'Isn't it Romantic','We Can Be Heroes' and now she awaits the release of the much talked about film 'The Matrix Resurrections'. How does she take her own game a notch higher? "I have said this from the beginning that I think that life is a journey, ambition is a journey. Everything is a ladder, you have to take one step forward and two steps back. So I always try especially now in Hollywood I started from the beginning like about seven-eight years ago." Priyanka had her own share of struggles in Hollywood too. "I had to, as a new actor, introduce myself working towards being able to get roles like this and playing leading parts." Priyanka added: "It's taken a while because I think it is required to educate this side of the world that South Asian talents can be mainstream but I feel very proud to be able to do that now and I always as an artiste try to better myself in everything I do." The Jamshedpur-born actress, who celebrated her third marriage anniversary with her American pop star husband Nick Jonas, also talked about the challenges of shooting a film like 'The Matrix Resurrections' starring Keanu Reeves. Priyanka said: "It is a very difficult task to take on We almost shot for seven-eight months and also we shot during Covid. So, that was difficult. Also, the scale of the movie. I think there was a lot of pressure on everyone." "But we have an amazing team, such an amazing technical team behind the movie that it was bound to be in great hands." Warner Bros Pictures is all set to release 'The Matrix Resurrections' pan-India on December 22 in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu. (Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in) --IANS dc/kr ( 586 Words) 2021-12-20-12:36:01 (IANS)
Though Nagarjuna did not reveal much on the details, reports suggest that the makers are planning for 'Bigg Boss Telugu OTT' soon.

Inspired by the recent 'Bigg Boss OTT' hosted by Karan Johar, the makers of 'Bigg Boss Telugu' are also eyeing an exclusive season for 'Bigg Boss Telugu OTT', sources suggest.

The makers already had the unseen episodes streamed on OTT platform which gained much attention from the viewers.

So, the production team has decided to go with exclusive content from 'Bigg Boss Telugu' in the OTT version, which will be telecast 24x7.

The makers are to soon make an official announcement regarding the same, while they are currently busy with the pre-production works and casting for 'Bigg Boss Telugu OTT'.

--IANS py/kr

( 165 Words)

2021-12-20-15:50:04 (IANS)
Actor Chris Noth's wife- Tara Wilson is 'very upset' due to the recent string of sexual assault allegations against her husband. Page Six quoted a source close to the 'Sex and the City' actor's family telling that Noth may spend Christmas apart from his wife who is "very upset" by the recent string of sexual assault allegations against him. Noth, who shares two children with her wife, has denied the allegations by the three women who have recently come out with accusations against the actor who played 'Mr Big' in 'Sex and the City'. One of the three women also quoted him as saying monogamy was a "sham" even when married. "He may be non-monogamous, we have established that his wife didn't know. If anything, he is guilty of that. She is in LA and is very upset... she's not doing well. They planned to spend Christmas together but that is now unknown," an insider told the outlet. Noth and Wilson met in 2001 and married in a small ceremony in Maui, Hawaii in 2012. The source said there should not be a rush to judgment, even though Noth has already been dropped by his theatrical agency. A3 Artists Agency dropped Noth on Friday night, Deadline reported. "Chris Noth is no longer a client," an A3 spokesperson told the outlet. "There are two sides to every story and people need to know this before they judge. The Chris I've met is not the Chris that's being described by these women. All his friends are sticking by him. He is a flirt, but not a sleaze. He's no Weinstein. I believe him and I believe it didn't go down the way it's allegedly portrayed," Noth's friend the outlet. The source also said that Noth was "completely baffled and blindsided" by the allegations and he "only knew the story was coming out a few days ago," the source said. "He is completely baffled and blindsided. He's absolutely appalled by these allegations, and very confused as to why they are surfacing now, so close to the reboot," the insider told the outlet. (ANI)
According to Deadline, the movie, a period revenge thriller, is scheduled to hit theatres on April 22, 2022.

Far from the quieter, more intimate plots of his previous works, the trailer shows off an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince (Alexander Skarsgard) on a quest to avenge his father's murder at the hands of his uncle and reclaim the throne.

Eggers co-wrote the script with Sjon, the Icelandic author and poet who also recently co-penned 'The Lamb', which is Iceland's entry into the International Feature Oscar race.

Skarsgard, who clearly bulked up for the role, is joined in the cast by Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke and Bjork, as well as Eggers veterans Willem Dafoe and Anya Taylor-Joy, the latter who helps Skarsgard's Amleth on his quest for justice.

As per Deadline, the film was shot in Ireland, which stood in for Iceland in the story set at the turn of the 10th century. Lars Knudsen and Mark Huffman have produced the movie with New Regency. (ANI)
An Iranian national was tested positive with the disease after returning to the country, Xinhua news agency quoted Mohammad Mehdi Gooya, the head of management centre of infectious diseases of the Health Ministry, as saying on Sunday.

"Currently, only one case of this strain has been identified in Iran and two cases are suspected of this disease. The situation of these (two) people are being studied and the results will be made public as soon as the final test results are announced," he added.

On Sunday, the Ministry reported 1,968 new Covid cases, taking the country's total infections to 6,170,979.

The pandemic also claimed 50 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 131,083.

A total of 6,004,277 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,876 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

By Sunday, 59,126,764 Iranians have received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 50,340,978 were fully inoculated.

Meanwhile, 3,772,199 people in the country have received the third dose or the booster shot.

--IANS ksk/

( 205 Words)

2021-12-20-11:40:04 (IANS)
The number of people dying due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the UK rose to 12 on Monday from seven reported on Sunday. On December 13, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced the first death due to Omicron in the country. The latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency also show that 104 people have been admitted to hospitals with confirmed Omicron infection, the Independent reported. Some 12,133 confirmed cases of Omicron were also reported on Sunday. However, these figures are likely to be undercounting the true numbers, as not all Covid cases are checked in labs to ascertain if they are the Omicron variant, the report said. Meanwhile, experts on the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have warned that there are probably thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England alone. The SAGE team has advised the government to limit social contact and ban mixing of households during Christmas. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has also refused to rule out another lockdown before Christmas, the Daily Mail reported. According to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, the government "can't make hard, fast guarantees" that there will not be a Christmas lockdown, the BBC reported. "I'm not going to trail things when decisions haven't been made," he said, when asked whether England can expect more restrictions in the coming days. This comes as cases of the Omicron variant have risen by 50 per cent in just 24 hours to 37,101 as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a further 12,133 cases on Monday. Health officials also briefed the Cabinet on Sunday that more measures are required to stop hospital admissions soaring above 3,000 per day in England. Johnson had earlier warned of a "tidal wave of Omicron" in the country. As the highly transmissible variant is known to evade vaccine efficacy, the country set a new target to administer booster dose to all by the end of December, from the earlier January. A yet-to-be peer-reviewed study by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has also projected that under the assumption of low immune escape, the UK will see 24,700 deaths, while in the case of high immune escape, the country will witness 74,800 deaths. --IANS rvt/arm ( 384 Words) 2021-12-20-16:48:02 (IANS)
Renjith, an advocate by profession was also a respectable BJP candidate in the 2016 assembly elections in the Alappuzha constituency, OBC Morcha Kerala state secretary, as well as a member of the BJP state committee.

BJP OBC morcha state secretary Renjith Sreenivasan was allegedly murdered at his house by unidentified people early on Sunday morning in the Alappuzha district in Kerala.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the alleged murder and assured of strict action against those involved in the crimes.

Union Minister V Muraleedharan termed the murder as the "handy work of Islamic terrorist group". (ANI)
The DRDO scientist, who was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell in connection with the December 9 Rohini Court blast, on Sunday tried to commit suicide, sources said. According to the sources, arrested scientist, Bharat Bhushan Kataria, tried to consume some poisonous substance while he was in police custody, and has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. "His condition is said to be stable," sources said. On December 9, a low-intensity blast ripped off inside courtroom number 102 of Rohini court complex at around 10.30 a.m. injuring one person present within the blast radius. The police on Saturday said that Kataria, 47, planted the IED at a place where a lawyer was likely to sit inside the courtroom, as he was "highly frustrated due to the protracted legal battles which were causing problems in his career as well as prolonged mental harassment and monetary loss to him and his family". The probe revealed that Kataria and Advocate Vashistha were living in the same building till about 3 years ago. They were having a long-standing dispute of over 10 years and had filed over a dozen civil and criminal cases against each other. The Rohini Court has been in limelight for the past two months after two back-to-back attacks that have raised several questions on the security arrangements at the court premises. Even local courts have several times come down heavily on the security scenario at the Court. Earlier on September 24, in an incident that seemed ripped from a Bollywood potboiler, top Delhi gangster Jitender Singh Mann, alias Gogi, was shot dead in Rohini Court by two assailants dressed in lawyers' garb. In the retaliatory fire, the assailants were also shot dead. --IANS uj/skp/ ( 304 Words) 2021-12-19-21:44:02 (IANS)
As per the Bodo Peace Accord, the Assam government on Sunday decided to take control of the 26 private colleges in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), officials said. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday held a meeting with a delegation of All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) and Bodo Sahitya Sabha and decided about the implementation of the remaining provisions of the Bodo Peace Accord, signed on January 27 last year in New Delhi in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. An official said that during the meeting, it was decided to take up expeditious implementation of the accord and following the request of the delegation, it was decided that 26 venture (private) colleges would be taken up in BTR in western Assam comprising the four western districts of Chirang, Baksa, Udalguri and Kokrajhar, bordering Bhutan and West Bengal. The meeting also decided to create adequate Bodo language teacher posts in schools in Bodo areas as per National Education Policy (NEP-2020). The Chief Minister also said that a campus of Bodoland University would be set up at Udalguri along with science and law colleges in BTR. A decision was also taken for holding a special Teachers' Eligibility Test for Bodo medium. Education Minister Ranuj Pegu, Urban Development Minister Ashok Singhal, CEM BTR Pramod Boro, President ABSU Dipen Boro and President of Bodo Sahitya Sabha Taren Boro were also present in the meeting. In all 1,615 extremists had laid down their arms on January 30 last year, after the Centre signed the third Bodo Peace Accord with four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). --IANS sc/skp/ ( 285 Words) 2021-12-19-22:06:04 (IANS)
Though Trinamool Congress made some bold claims to make this election free from rigging and violence, but at the end of the day the information trickling down shows that the party's hierarchy hardly had any control on the lower rung of the party order. On Saturday even All India Trinamool Congress General Secretary and effectively the party's second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee had said, "There will be free and fair polls and the polls will not be rigged. If it is proved that any Trinamool Congress men are involved in any kind of illegal activities, then strict action will be taken within 24 hours and exemplary punishment will be meted out". Though state election commissioner Sourav Das said that the election was peaceful with only two incidents but according to information available there were nearly 500 complaints and 195 arrests on Sunday. This itself speaks of the nature of violence the city experienced all through the day. The BJP alleged that their agents were not allowed to sit in the booths and most of the BJP voters were threatened the previous night so that they don't go to vote. When asked about it, Banerjee said, "If BJP doesn't get polling agents, then how can Trinamool Congress be responsible for that. People have come to understand the difference between BJP and Trinamool Congress". "If anyone can prove that Trinamool Congress supporters were involved in any kind of violence we will take action within 24 hours," he added. The series of complaints started from the morning when Tanushree Mondal - the Left Front candidate of Ward no - 110 alleged that her agents were not allowed to sit. There were allegations of fake voters from booth Wards no 1 to 8. The Congress alleged illegal gathering in different booths of Wards no - 102, 109 and 110. In Jorabagan, BJP candidate Meena Devi Purohit accused Trinamool Congress supporters of harassment. Purohit even alleged that she was physically assaulted. The BJP alleged several cases of booth-jamming and threatening of the voters in several areas in Metiabruz. The incidents of violence peaked at 10 a.m. in the morning when some youths on motorbikes came in front of Khanna school and started hurling bombs. Three persons were injured in the incident. The opposition alleged that polling was going on peacefully at Khanna school but sensing a problem Trinamool wanted to disrupt the polling process. However, the ruling party refuted the allegations. Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari met state election commissioner Sourav Das after the election and lodged complaints regarding the widespread violence during the elections all through the day. --IANS sbg/skp/ ( 441 Words) 2021-12-19-23:00:03 (IANS)
Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said the two-fold objective of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is to correct past anomalies persistent for years and to introduce contemporary provisions which are in keeping up with the present global trends. He was addressing the Cluster University teachers at an interactive academic programme on NEP- 2020 organised as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. During the interaction, the Union Minister said that the greatest anomaly in the previous education policy was the nomenclature itself, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) was a misnomer, misrepresentative in itself having other connotations. He further said that as India has now become a part of the global world being recognized as 'Jagat Guru', the education parameters should be in keeping with the global parameters if India has to compete globally and excel globally. Singh emphasized that the demography of education has changed region-wise, gender-wise and profile-wise which can be judged from the fact that women have now a greater representation in civil services, people from other regions are now topping different exams which was earlier the prerogative of a few regions only. "The responsibility of educationists today is not to award a degree but to teach to achieve ease of living which can happen only when the youngster is able to find a sustainable Start-Up source of living for himself, instead of harping on a government job," the Union Minister said. He further said that one of the new provisions of NEP-2020 in the form of multiple entry-exit options is something to be cherished as this academic flexibility will have a positive impact on the students related to the availing of different career opportunities at different times, depending upon their intrinsic leaning and inherent aptitude. "This entry/exit option can be opted in future for the teachers as well, giving them career flexibility and upgradation opportunities as is done in some western countries like the USA," he added. Stating that one of the objectives of NEP-202 is de-linking degrees from education, Singh said that linking degrees with education has taken a heavy toll on our education system and society as well. "One of the fall-outs has been an increasing number of educated unemployed," Singh said. He further maintained that technological interventions in education are a boon for students of this generation and emphasized that teachers should also be able to keep up the pace with the students who are moving ahead too fast owing to accessibility of information, avenues, means and talent. Singh also said that when the society has become gender-neutral, language-neutral, it has to become teacher-pupil neutral now so as to make our education system a bilateral phenomenon. "Besides the education of students, equally important is the education of the teachers, parents and elders as the challenge is not only the optimum education but to prevent dis-education which is never discussed," he further added. (ANI)
CPI (M) MP in Rajya Sabha Elamaram Kareem on Sunday wrote to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, requesting him to convene a meeting of all Opposition parties instead of calling only five parties whose MPs were suspended from the House. "I am in receipt of your letter dated December 19, regarding the meeting of Floor Leaders of parties whose Members have been suspended in Rajya Sabha. It a quite unfortunate that the government has delayed such talks with the apparition earn after 3 weeks of the suspension. Even in Now, the action of the government is not sincere as the meeting is meant for only the floor leaders of the suspended MP's parties," Kareem said in his letter. "As you are well aware that the entire opposition has been taking a unified stand on this suspension issue. All the opposition parties together requested the Chairman and the government to hold such a meeting to resolve the stellate from day one onwards. It is the government who delayed it and the current decision of inviting only a section of the opposition party leaders for the meeting is completely unfair and unacceptable. If the government is sincere in resolving this issue, I would request you to convene the meeting of all the opposition parties instead of calling only five parties from it," he added. Earlier on Sunday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told ANI that the Central government has invited five Opposition parties, whose MPs are among the 12 suspended legislators, for talks on Monday. With just four days to go for the culmination of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, the move is seen as an attempt to break the deadlock between the government and the Opposition in the House. Twelve Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended from the House on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament from five Political Parties including Congress, TMC, Shivsena, CPI, CPI(M). After their suspension, all 12 MPs have been sitting in dharna on a daily basis in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister earlier said that the government was ready to consider revoking the suspension of the MPs if they apologise for their conduct in the House. The Opposition leaders have however said that they would not apologise. Rajya Sabha was adjourned several times in the ongoing Parliament session due to the ruckus in the Upper House by the Opposition parties demanding revocation of the suspension of MPs. The Parliament is scheduled to culminate on 23 December. (ANI)
Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday approved the allocation of Rs 10,180 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2021-22 to Rajasthan, a four-fold increase from Rs 2,522 Crore allocated in 2020-21. "To assist the State of Rajasthan, to achieve 'Har Ghar Jal', Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat approved Central allocation of Rs 10,180 Crore for Jal Jeevan Mission in 2021-22, a four-fold increase from Rs 2,522 Crore allocated in 2020-21," said Ministry of Jal Shakti. Of 1.01 crore rural households in the State, 11.74 lakh (11.5 per cent) households had tap water supply as of August 15, 2019, when Jal Jeevan Mission was launched. "Since the launch of the mission, 9.65 lakh households (9.5 per cent) have been provided tap water connections in the State of Rajasthan," it said adding that 21.39 (21.1 per cent) lakh rural homes in the State are getting tap water supply in their homes. In 2021-22, the State plans to provide tap water connections to about 30 lakh rural households. Rajasthan is the most water-deficient State in the country with a very short and scanty spell of monsoons. The ministry further said that the Jal Jeevan Mission is doing the herculean task of removing the drudgery of women leading to improve their lives and enhance the ease of living. Under JJM, Gram Panchayats and its sub-committees play the lead role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of their in-village water supply schemes. In 2021-22, the Central fund of Rs 10,180 Crore has been allocated to the State of Rajasthan to implement the mission in the State. With the opening balance of Rs 864 Crore and matching State share, the total outlay available with State is Rs 21,225 Crore for provision of tap water supply in this financial year. Thus, there is no shortage of fund availability. "In 2021-22, Rs 1,712 Crore has been allocated to Rajasthan as 15th Finance Commission tied grant for water and sanitation to rural local bodies/PRIs. There is assured funding of Rs 9,032 Crore for the next five years i.e. up to 2025-26," it added. It further said that this huge investment in rural areas of Rajasthan, will accelerate economic activities and boost the rural economy. It will create new employment opportunities in villages. "Despite lockdown and disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in the last 27 months, more than 5.44 crore rural households in the country have been provided tap water connections. As on date, more than 8.67 Crore (45.15 per cent) rural households have tap water supply in their homes," the ministry said. The government of India is providing all-out support to States to make provision of tap water supply to every rural household of the country by 2024. It added that for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, there is no dearth of funds. (ANI)
The embarked on its maiden sea sortie on December 19, when the nation celebrates 60 years of Goa's liberation from Portuguese rule. The Indian Navy played a pivotal role in the liberation.

"Dedicating the ship's name to the maritime state of Goa will not just enhance the bonding between the Indian Navy and the people of Goa, but also link the ship's identity permanently to the crucial role the Navy played in nation-building," the ministry said.

According to the Ministry of Defence, Mormugao is being built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDSL) as part of Project 15B destroyers.

The ship incorporates several niche indigenous technologies and is a shining example of Atmanirbhar Bharat. She has provided thrust and impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative.

The ministry said that the ship will add significantly to the Indian Navy's combat capabilities.

With the recent commissioning in November 2021 of INS Visakhapatnam and the fourth P75 submarine INS Vela, the commencement of sea trials of Mormugao is testimony to the cutting-edge capabilities of MDSL and the strong indigenous shipbuilding tradition of a modern and vibrant India, it added. (ANI)
"The police recovered the dead body of a student identified as Ganesh, from the river while two other students including Dhoni and Yugandhar are still missing," said Amarnath Reddy, Renigunta Circle Inspector of Police, while speaking with ANI over the phone on Sunday.

"One student who also went swimming is rescued by the locals," said Reddy.

"All students are aged about 14 to 15 and they hail from G. Palem Village, Renigunta Mandal of Chittoor district," he added.

Rescue operation is underway. (ANI)
BJP MP, who was addressing media in Indore said, "After the restoration of Ram Janmabhoomi and Kashi, naturally Mathura is also very important. I am invited to Kashi and I am going on Monday."

"Being the MP of Mathura, which is the birthplace of Lord Krishan who is the symbol of love and affection, I will say that there should be a grand temple. A temple is already there and can be beautified like Modi ji developed Kashi Vishwanath corridor," she said.

She further said that the renovation and redevelopment of Kashi Vishwanath was very difficult and for the last few years no one thought about bringing such changes.

"This change was very difficult. This shows his farsightedness. This will also happen in Mathura."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13 inaugurated phase 1 of the newly-constructed Kashi Vishwanath Dham at a cost of around Rs 339 crores.

A total of 23 buildings were inaugurated in phase 1 of the project. It provides a variety of facilities to the pilgrims visiting Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, including Yatri Suvidha Kendras, Tourist Facilitation Centre, Vedic Kendra, Mumukshu Bhavan, Bhogshala, City Museum, Viewing Gallery, Food Court, among others. (ANI)
The meeting is scheduled to be held at 9.45 am today.

Meanwhile, the Central government has also called a meeting of five political parties today whose MPs have been suspended from the Rajya Sabha to break the deadlock between the government and the Opposition in the House.

12 Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended from the House on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament from 5 Political Parties including Congress, TMC, Shivsena, CPI, CPI(M). After the suspension, all 12 MPs have been sitting on Dharna daily basis in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament.

Rajya Sabha was adjourned several times due to the ruckus in the Upper House by the Opposition parties demanding to revoke the suspension of MPs in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

The Winter session of Parliament is scheduled to culminate on 23 December. (ANI)
A local man said, "This is not the first incident. Many such activities have been taken place across the country. There is some anti-Sikh element is involved."

A man was beaten to death in an altercation by angry devotees after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, earlier on December 18.

The incident took place during evening prayers when the man jumped over the metal railing around the Guru Granth Sahib and allegedly attempted to desecrate the Holy Book of the Sikhs with a sword.

Meanwhile, an unidentified man was allegedly beaten to death by locals at Nizampur in Punjab's Kapurthala district on Sunday for allegedly disrespecting the 'Nishan Sahib' at the village Gurudwara.

A video of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege with the Nishan Sahib has gone viral on the Internet. He was later handed over to the police but some people reportedly insisted that the man be questioned in front of them and the man was allegedly beaten to death in an ensuing scuffle. (ANI)
"Indore Police has arrested a woman, a former air hostess, with MDMA drugs worth Rs 10 lakhs in the illegal market," Police Commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra said on Sunday while addressing a press conference here.

"It has been found that members of her network brought the drugs from Mumbai to Indore, concealing them in diapers," he added.

The accused is a resident of Maharashtra's Mumbai and was an air hostess with an International airline.

Currencies of Nepal and Bahrain have also been seized from her possession.

Investigation of the case is underway. (ANI)
Sajad Lone led Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference (JKPC) pulled out of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Sunday. In a letter to Dr Farooq Abdullah, president, PAGD, Lone said, "It is difficult for us to stay on. There has been a breach of trust between partners which we believe is beyond remedy. The majoritarian view in our party is that we should pull out of the alliance in an amicable manner rather than waiting for things to get messier. And I am confirming that we will no longer be a part of the PAGD alliance." "We are divorcing from the alliance, not its objectives. We will continue to adhere to the objectives that we set out when this alliance was made. And the PAGD leadership should be assured that we will extend support on all issues which fall within the ambit of stated objectives," Lone added. The development comes two days before PAGD's scheduled meeting on December 21. PAGD's last meeting took place in August last when the leaders adopted a resolution to restore the constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under Article 370 and 35A. Speaking to reporters, Sajad Lone said, "I want to ask the National Conference, what has happened in the last six months that participation in the Delimitation Commission meeting was an endorsement of abrogation of Article 370 then, and not now? They need to answer this." Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) will meet Delimitation Commission on Monday The Central government has constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Monday gave an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh and demanded "immediate resignation of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni". Opposition parties also demanded the resignation of Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra had been accused of running over farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri. Notably, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case last week termed the Lakhimpur violence that led to the death of eight people as "a pre-planned conspiracy". The union minister and his son Ashish have denied the charges. However, Ashish Mishra and several others have been booked for murder. (ANI)
This is the second meeting of the Delimitation Commission.

Five former members of the commission are likely to attend today's meeting which includes Union Minister Jitendra Singh and BJP leader Jugal Kishore Sharma, and National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi, and Mohammad Akbar Lone.

The Central government has constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Nityanand Rai informed that the delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed as soon as possible adding that the commission held extensive consultation with various stakeholders in the Union Territory.

He said that the Commission has held extensive consultation with various stakeholders like State Election Commissioner of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary, Registrar General of India, Surveyor General of India, District Election Officers of all 20 districts. (ANI)
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at Himachal Pradesh's McLeodganj in Dharamshala on Monday. The meeting which was held at the residence of the Dalai Lama lasted for an hour. After this meeting, the president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering, and his cabinet and speaker of Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Sonam Temphel also met the RSS chief. Speaking to reporters, Tsering said, "His holiness has started meeting with the public since 15th of this month and that I was the first to be offered that opportunity and today Mohan Bhagwat ji Sarsanghchalak of RSS was here and according to him it is very natural that when he is in Dharamshala he should visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I think on the part of His Holiness the Dalai Lama it's also natural that he meets the prominent leaders representing a large number of the Indian population." He further said, "It's an opportunity for us to thank government and people of India for the support that the consecutive governments of India and people of India have rendered to us so it's natural and then both are eminent leaders. So, I was not at the meeting but I am sure that they must have talked about the larger interest of humanity on major issues and after that me and my cabinet and speaker of the Tibetan parliament took an opportunity to give him a courtesy call and thank government and people of India for their support and also discussed the status of Independent Tibet before China's occupation and he assured us all the support from the public." During his five-day visit to Kangra and Dharamshala, the RSS chief yesterday attended a seminar in Kangra where about 60 intellectuals were invited including CTA President and Speaker of Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel. (ANI)
The agency asked Aishwarya to appear before the investigators here in Delhi today. The actress, however, requested another date from the ED to join the investigation.

The agency needs to record the statement of the 48-year-old actress in the case over allegations of stashing wealth abroad under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

Sources in the agency informed that she was summoned earlier too but she could not appear and sought next dates at least two times.

The Panama Papers pertain to leaked documents that point towards fraud and tax evasion by many individuals and corporate entities across the world. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's name featured in the list of 500 Indians who were named in the massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents exposing their secret offshore dealings.

"The Panama Papers" case is a sprawling investigation spanning millions of documents stolen and leaked to the media in 2016, which involve allegations that the world's rich and powerful set up offshore accounts or shell companies to avoid taxes.

Over 300 Indians were said to be part of the Panama Papers.

Many Indian celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai were named in this paper leak. All the people were accused of tax fraud.

After the name surfaced in this case, Amitabh had said that he has sent money abroad only under Indian rules. He also denied having any affiliation with the companies that appeared in the Panama Papers. (ANI)
The Supreme Court has granted bail to a tribal woman accused of human trafficking on the ground that despite a lapse of almost two years her trial has not commenced and said she cannot be kept in confinement indefinitely. A Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant, and Hima Kohli granted bail to Drabhamon Phawa, a 21-year old woman from Meghalaya, who was accused of human trafficking. "Having heard counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner has suffered incarceration for a period of 18 months and has also delivered child during custody, we deem it to be a fit case to grant her bail. The petitioner is, accordingly, directed to be enlargedon bail on terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court. The special leave petitions stand disposed of accordingly," the order has stated. Drabhamon Phawa was pregnant at the time of her arrest and had been in jail since February 2020. She delivered a child in jail. Senior advocate Salman Khurshid and advocate TK Nayak, representing the woman, told the apex court that she herself was harbored into Delhi on the pretext of a dignified job and thereafter ruthlessly forced into flesh trade therefore, she is also the victim of the prostitution racket. It was further submitted that Phawa was pregnant at the time of her arrest and had undergone the entire period of pregnancy within prison confinement. Since then, Phawa has delivered a child who is also in jail with her. The Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Delhi government vehemently opposed Phawa's petition on the grounds of "severity and seriousness of offenses" alleged against her. (ANI)
A Delhi Court on Monday granted exemption from personal appearance to former union minister P Chidambaram in the ongoing Aircel Maxis case of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). Meanwhile, Karti Chidambaram appeared before Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court. Chidambaram's lawyer counsel Arshdeep Singh Khurana informed Special Judge MK Nagpal the Court that they both are on anticipatory bail in this matter. The Court directed them to move the regular bail in the matter. Meantime, P Chidambaram through his application informs that he is not able to appear before the court as he had a prefixed traveling schedule. The Court allowed his exemption application. The Court directed the probe agencies to supply copies of chargesheet and documents to the accused. The accused have appeared before the Delhi Court in pursuance of summons issued against them after the Court had taken cognizance of the chargesheets filed by probe agencies in the matter. All the accused mentioned in the Chargesheet of CBI and ED were asked to appear before the court on December 20, 2021. Agency has mentioned several individuals and firms accused in the chargesheet. Additional Sanjay Jain, appearing for probe agencies had earlier informed the court that agencies have sent LRs to different countries and there are some developments in that regard. The CBI had earlier also submitted that it is working on a new lead. Both agencies have filed the status report too in court earlier. Senior Advocate Sonia Mathur also appeared for both agencies while Advocate Naveen Kumar Matta represented ED and Advocate KK Goel represented CBI in the matter Earlier, the court had directed the agencies to file a status report in the Aircel Maxis case involving P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram which was adjourned sine die. The court, while asking for reports from the agencies, said that the allegations mentioned in the chargesheet appeared to be "quite serious in nature." Predecessor Judge OP Saini, while granted anticipatory bail had observed that the entire evidence related to the commission of the crime by the two accused was documentary in nature and is not liable to be tampered with by both accused. The case, which is being probed by the CBI and ED, relates to alleged irregularities in grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. The FIPB approval was allegedly granted in 2006 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. (ANI)
Bhalla, a Communication and Electronics Warfare Specialist, was Assistant Chief of Personnel (Human Resource Development) at IHQ MoD (Navy) at New Delhi prior to assuming command of the Eastern Fleet.

An alumnus of Royal College of Defence Studies, London, Bhalla has Commanded three warships and served as the Indian Naval Adviser at, Islamabad and Naval Assistant to the Chief of the Naval Staff. (ANI)
While addressing a gathering here, Sidhu launched a verbal attack on the former CM and called him an "arrogant king".

Recalling Captain's remarks, Sidhu said, "Captain (Amarinder Singh) said that doors have been closed for Sidhu, but see today...he is sitting at home and is licking the feet of Modi."

On November 2, Amarinder Singh quit Congress after months of in-fighting with current state Punjab PCC President Navjot Singh Sidhu and formed his own party.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to keep a major share of seats in the alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh's party Punjab Lok Congress and will contest on 70-80 seats, said sources on Saturday.

Punjab assembly polls will be held in 2022.

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The SAD could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats. (ANI)
Following the government's introduction of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation. Speaking to ANI, Owaisi said, "This Bill violates the Supreme Court judgment. Also, the government has no legislative competence. Linking voter Id with AADHAAR violates the fundamental right to privacy as defined by SC's Puduswami judgment. Making AADHAAR authentication mandatory also violates Supreme Court's judgment." The AIMIM MP said that the House is not competent to enact a law that violates the fundamental rights of citizens. "AADHAAR is not proof of Indian citizenship. Whether name on voters list is a completely different thing. Voter enrollment and issuance of voter Ids are carried out in pursuance of constitutional duty by a constitutional authority. Bringing this Bill, the government is interfering in the independence of the Election Commission. This will allow the government to disfranchise profile voters and discriminate between beneficiaries of various government schemes. It will end up violating the principles of the sacred ballot adult franchise also," he added. As the Lower House of the Parliament resumed on Monday, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' was introduced by the government. Following this, the Opposition members started creating a ruckus and Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm. "Aadhaar is only meant to be proof of residence. It is not proof of citizenship. If you are in a position asking Aadhaar for voters, all you are getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You are potentially giving the vote to non-citizens," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told Lok Sabha. The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is intended to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar number of people who wish to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity". The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency". (ANI)
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday expressed disappointment over the lack of progress in resolving the stalemate on the issue of suspension of 12 members of the House that was effected on the first day of the ongoing Winter Session. He expressed disappointment over noisy scenes in the House during the Zero Hour and called for discipline and decorum. The ruckus began after the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan briefed Naidu on the meeting between the Centre and the leaders of five opposition parties for the resolution of the stalemate on the suspension issue today morning. Muraleedharan explained that the Centre waited for the opposition leaders to turn up for the meeting but they did not. Naidu then recalled that he had adjourned the House for the day last Friday, after urging both the sides to sit together and discuss the matter so as to enable the House to return to normal, "but was disappointed over the lack of progress as reported to him by the Minister". He further observed that his priority is the functioning of the House and "discipline, decorum, decency, debate, discussion and decision". With the ruckus continuing in the House, Naidu adjourned the House till 2:00 pm. After the first adjournment, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi and the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal also met Naidu. Later, Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh also met the RS Chairman and gave feedback on the meeting that could not take place. Earlier in the day, the Opposition rejected the Centre's invitation to floor leaders of five parties for a meeting to resolve the impasse over the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs and demanded the inclusion of all the parties. "The 12 suspended Rajya Sabha MPs should realise their mistake and talk to the Chair. The Opposition leaders did not come for the meeting called by the Government today," Union minister and BJP leader Piyush Goyal said. "The Opposition does not want Parliament to run. Causing disturbance and disruption is their mantra," Goyal said. (ANI)
New Delhi, December 20 (ANI) Amid Opposition uproar, the Centre on Monday introduced the 'Mediation Bill, 2021' in Rajya Sabha to promote and facilitate mediation, especially institutional mediation. The government subsequently moved the Bill for further consideration into the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice on demand of the Opposition parties. The Bill also seeks for resolution of disputes, commercial or otherwise, enforce mediated settlement agreements, provide for a body for the registration of mediators. The purpose of the Bill is to encourage community mediation and to make online mediation an acceptable and cost-effective process. On November 5 this year, the Ministry of Law and Justice released a draft of the Mediation Bill, 2021 for public comments and consultation. Following close on the heels of India signing the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (Singapore Convention), the Bill looks to cement the position of mediation as a sought-after mode of alternative dispute resolution in India. Its many objectives include the promotion, encouragement, and facilitation of mediation, especially institutional mediation, enforcement of domestic and international mediation settlement agreements, and notably, making online mediation an acceptable and cost-effective process. The Bill is divided into four parts with Part- I dealing with domestic mediations and Part- III dealing with mediations under the Singapore Convention. As per Section 2 of the Bill, a domestic mediation has been defined as one conducted in India, where all or both parties habitually reside in or are incorporated in or have their business in India; The mediation agreement provides that the Mediation Act, 2021 would apply to the mediation; or the mediation is international mediation. A salient feature of the Bill is the adoption of the international practice of using the terms 'mediation' and 'conciliation' interchangeably, as evident from the meaning of mediation set out under Section 4. The Bill defines a 'mediation service provider' as a body or organization that provides for the conduct of mediation and has in place procedures and rules to govern the conduct of the mediation in conformity with the provisions of the statute. Lok Adalats constituted under the National Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, and mediation centers annexed to courts have also been included under this head. The Bill recognizes online mediation conducted through the use of applications and computer networks, resorted to either wholly or in part, at a certain stage of the mediation process. It further states that the conduct of all such mediations shall be governed by the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000. (ANI)
Amid uproar by the opposition, Lok Sabha on Monday passed 'The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021'. The house has been adjourned till Tuesday, December 21. 'The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021'" seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing identity." The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency." Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in the Lok Sabha, "Aadhaar only meant to be proof of residence. It's not proof of citizenship. If you are in a position asking Aadhaar for voters, all you are getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You are potentially giving the vote to non-citizens." Following the government's introduction of the bill Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said that this Bill should be sent to Standing Committee. This has a lot of legal drawbacks. It is against the Supreme Court verdict and one which violates our privacy. This might strip off lakhs of people of their electoral rights." Earlier in the day, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had moved an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss "Statehood and inclusion of Ladakh in Schedule VI of Constitution of India." Reacting to the introduction of the bill, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation. (ANI)
Following a Delimitation Commission's meeting, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that National Conference (NC) leaders got satisfied with the parameters that are being followed by the Commission. Speaking to media persons, the union minister said, "All the associate members committed themselves to cooperate with the functioning of the Commission. The Commission has done a tremendous job. We must appreciate they had followed certain laid down parameters on the basis of which they have come out with the documents which are very objectively done." He said National Conference (NC) members were also satisfied with the parameters which were being followed by the Delimitation Commission. "The associated members regardless of their party and political affiliations not only appreciated the work done by the Delimitation Commission but also committed that they would in the future also extend their cooperation for the rest of the exercise," he said. Asked about elections, the union minister said, "We have no idea when the elections will be held. It will be decided by the Election Commission which is an independent body and the government does not interfere with the functioning of the constitutional body." On strike by power department employees in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that the journey of development in the union territory will not be stalled. "Those employees who are on strike have to be addressed by the government, and I am sure they will do that," Singh said. The Delimitation Commission's second meeting took place in the national capital on Monday. The first meeting of the Commission was held in February last. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah along with party leaders Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masudi and BJP leader Jugal Kishore Sharma took part in the meeting. The Central government has constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
In a statement on Sunday, Anbil Mahesh, the state's Minister for School Education, said that the committee will look into the strength of the school buildings, including libraries, labs, kitchens, bathrooms and classrooms.

The team comprises engineering personal officials from the Education Department; Revenue and Disaster Management Department, District Rural Development Authority (DRDA); and municipal departments.

The Minister in the statement said that structurally weak school buildings will be demolished and only the ones that are suitable for further use would be repaired.

Mahesh also said that students of the schools which will be demolished would be accommodated in nearby government schools and if there are space constraints in such schools, classes would be held in rent-controlled buildings.

He said that the state government has allocated an amount of Rs 250 crore for the demolition and maintenance of school buildings.

According to the Minister, the previous AIADMK government had allocated only Rs 75 crore for the same.

This move comes after three students of a government-aided school in Tirunelveli were crushed to death when the building collapsed on December 17.

--IANS aal/sks/ksk/

( 228 Words)

2021-12-20-10:36:05 (IANS)
Security across Belagavi has been tightened in the wake of Kannada organisations announcing to lay siege to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha on Monday despite prohibitory orders. As many as 3,000 police personnel have been deputed to maintain law and order situation. Thousands of Kannada activists are arriving here to stage a protest against the state government's apathy towards protecting the interests of Kannadigas, President of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Narayana Gowda said. "No matter what, we are going ahead with our plan of laying siege to Suvarna Soudha," he added. "The government has not taken any action against the Maharashtra Ekikarana Samithi (MES) members who attacked the police but now, it is initiating action against us for condemning atrocities on Kannadigas," he alleged. Praveen Kumar Shetty, President of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Shetty faction) criticised the sympathetic act of the government towards MES and miscreants who are acting against Kannadigas. "We will not fear the consequences and go ahead with our plan," he said. Belagavi Police Commissioner K. Tyagarajan said that the police will not allow activists into the city as prohibitory orders are clamped. Meanwhile, the leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah said that he would raise the issue in the state Assembly. "The vandalised statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna has been restored. Rayanna does not belong to any particular community. He fought against Britishers and sacrificed his life. He belongs to all and only sick minds can indulge in such acts," he stated. MES workers are miscreants who do not fear law. They need to be tamed, he said. The series of incidents in the last week have created tension in the city. The Karnataka and Maharashtra governments have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure safety of their people in their respective states. --IANS mka/shb/ ( 315 Words) 2021-12-20-10:44:02 (IANS)
Speaking to exclusively ANI, MoS Home Nityanand Rai said, "Political violence against BJP workers in Kerala is unfortunate for democracy. The murder of Renjith Srinivasan, State Secretary of the OBC Morcha BJP, Kerala in the Alappuzha district is highly condemnable."

"Due to the divisive and appeasement policy of CPI(M)-led Kerala government, the morale of those with criminal tendencies has increased and BJP workers are being killed. This is unfortunate for democracy," Rai said.

Further, he said, "Violence is taking place against BJP workers to stop its expansion in Kerala but such murderous politics cannot stop us in the state. The Kerala government should take strict action against culprits rising above political interests."

Along with Kerala BJP State President, K Surendran and State Office bearers paid floral tributes and expressed their condolences and met with his family members, he added.

BJP OBC morcha state secretary Renjith Sreenivasan was allegedly murdered at his house by unidentified people early on Sunday morning in Alappuzha district in Kerala.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the alleged murder and assured of strict action against those involved in the crimes. Union Minister V Muraleedharan termed the murder as the "handiwork of Islamic terrorist group". (ANI)
The Rajya Sabha on Monday was adjourned till 2 p.m. after the opposition raised slogans on the issue of suspension of 12 MPs. Earlier, a meeting of the opposition floor leaders of both Houses of Parliament to discuss further the strategies was held in Mallikarjun Kharge's office. The meeting discussed the revoking suspension of 12 members, demand for resignation of MoS Home Affairs in the Lakhimpur Kheri issue. The topic of invitation of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to the opposition party leaders was also discussed. The leaders said the government should call an all-party meet. After the meeting, the opposition boycotted the meeting called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. CPI-M Leader E. Kareem replied to the government letter and said, "I am in receipt of your letter dated December 19, regarding the meeting of Floor Leaders of parties whose members have been suspended in the Rajya Sabha. It is quite unfortunate that the government has delayed such talks ... after 3 weeks of the suspension. Even now, the action of the government is not sincere as the meeting is meant only for the floor leaders of the suspended MP's parties." Leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said: "The government is conspiring to divide the Opposition, but the parties are united on the issue. It should call an all-party meeting." He was reacting to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi calling a meeting on Monday of the opposition parties whose MPs were suspended last month for the Winter Session. Joshi had called the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, CPI-M to end the stalemate in the House which has been continuing since day one of the session. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had suggested that both the parties should resolve this issue as the House could not function properly this week. Seeking an apology from the suspended MPs, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal had alleged that even after attacking marshals and misbehaving with the female marshals, senior opposition members were unrepentant. "The government is ready to consider their request provided they apologise," he had added. --IANS miz/dpb ( 356 Words) 2021-12-20-11:50:02 (IANS)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Monday said that the Omicron variant is a matter of concern and urged tourists to come after getting fully vaccinated. Speaking to ANI, CM Jairam Thakur said, "Omicron is a matter of concern. Himachal Pradesh has done good work as far as COVID-19 vaccination is concerned. In a way we can say that it is a fully vaccinated state. I hope that the variant will not have much of an impact on the state." He added that a lot of tourists come to Himachal Pradesh on the occasions of Christmas and New Year. "We have asked the administration to regulate the crowd and do not let it get overcrowded. We have also urged tourists to come after getting vaccinated and follow COVID-19 norms." India has so far reported over 100 cases of the Omicron. A new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'. (ANI)
Fishermen of Rameshwaram and Mandapam in Tamil Nadu on Monday staged protests in their respective towns after fellow fishermen from the state were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy. M. Arogyasami, General secretary of, Fishermen welfare association of Tamil Nadu told IANS: "Indian fishermen are targeted by the Sri Lankan Navy at Katchatheevu and other areas near to the international waters. Most of these fishermen who face the brunt of attacks and stone-pelting by the Sri Lankans are fishermen from Tamil Nadu who voyages into the sea for a living. Government has to take stringent action, otherwise, things will go out of control." Notably, a fisherman from Ramanathapuram district, Rajkiran died after the Sri Lankan navy vessel rammed into the boat on which he along with the two others were fishing near Katchatheevu. While the Sri Lankan Navy claimed that the fisherman fell into water while trying to escape from the Sri Lankan side of the international waters, fishermen who were with him in and around in the sea said that he died after the Sri Lankan naval vessel rammed into his boat and he fell and drowned. After 55 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested and six of their boats seized by Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday, the fishermen in the state are protesting at the Ramanathapuram main highway as well as at Mandapam and Rameswaram against the Sri Lankan Navy excesses. K. Selvaraj, state secretary of Ramanathapuram fishermen association, while speaking to IANS said: "There is real uncertainty in the area and we are going into the sea for a living. More than nineteen such incidents have taken place in and around Katchatheevu within the past year and we cannot tolerate this anymore. We are grateful that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has written a letter to the Union External Affairs Minister and later spoken to him regarding the recent arrest of 55 fishermen from Tamil Nadu. Government has to stop this problem once and for all." Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has on Sunday wrote a letter to the Union External Affairs Minister S. Jayashankar on the same and wanted high-level intervention from the Union government against the Sri Lankan Navy personnel attacking Indian fishermen especially those from Tamil Nadu. Fishermen associations of Tamil Nadu are planning to file an appeal before Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his likely visit to the state on January 12. The fishermen association leaders are of the opinion that a high-level intervention at the level of the Prime Minister is necessary at this juncture to prevent the fishermen from being attacked regularly and their materials being seized. --IANS aal/shb/ ( 451 Words) 2021-12-20-12:04:02 (IANS)
Tata-owned Air India aircraft have started flying from 'Hindu Kush', one of the world's highest routes for US (North America) and Europe operations, cutting flight time and saving fuel. Since the closure of Afghanistan's airspace, Air India operates flights from India to the Western countries through the Hindu Kush route. "Hindu Kush is one of the world's highest air routes and Hindu Kush route starts saving time and fuel," an airline official on anonymity told ANI. Recently, Air India Toronto to Delhi flight operated on the Hindu Kush route on December 16. AI deploys a set of four pilots to the Toronto route last week. Captains Zoya Agarwal, R Someshwar, Sandeep Mukhedkar and Abhay Agarwal senior commander of AI's Boeing B777 call sign (VT-ALQ Manipur) over the Hindu Kush. "This route is challenging because since it is the highest route to fly in the world, there are many challenging procedures that you will have to complete in case of any emergency or technical issue and all the procedures are well thought out and are employed keeping safety paramount. In case anything goes wrong we are flying over the Hindukush region which is the highest area to fly in all over the world," one of the four pilots told ANI. Captain Zoya Agarwal, who is the only woman pilot in the group, created history by flying the first North Pole (San Francisco to Bengaluru) flight. "First woman commander to be a Part of 4-member cockpit crew that operated B777 call sign 'VT-ALQ Manipur' Toronto-Delhi flying over the Hindu Kush ranges on December 16 who also was the first to operate SFO-BLR inaugural taking the polar route on Jan 9, 2021, on a B777 'ER-ALQ Kerala'," airline officials informed. After closing off Afghanistan airspace, Indian carriers spent 9.5 hours from Delhi to Heathrow (London) via southern Pakistan. After using Hindu Kush Himalayan range route, Air India saved around one hour and 2.5 tonnes of fuel. The flight time was 8.5 hours. For Indian carriers, the Hindu Kush route will be a very economical operation in comparison to the traditional route via Afghanistan. "The Hindu Kush Himalayan range route will save flying time and fuel upto 5 tonnes it depends on wind speed and direction," an Air India official said. The Hindu Kush route means soaring over Tirich Mir (7,780 m or 25,525 ft) - the world's highest peak outside the Himalaya-Karakoram range. "Flying close to this Tirich mir making this route very critical," an AI pilot told ANI. As per aircraft structure, the B-777 can fly to a maximum altitude of over 30,000 ft fully loaded with passengers and fuel, and over 35,000 ft with the B-787 Dreamliner. (ANI)
Five more Omicron cases have been detected in Karnataka, which took the overall tally of infections caused by the new Covid-19 variant to 19, state Health Minister K. Sudhakar said on Monday. According to the Minister, the new cases were reported from Dharwad, Bhadravathi, Udupi and Mangaluru districts. Even though the new patients are stable, the health department is on high alert as the new variant has been found among hostel students with no travel history. So far, 49 samples have been sent for genomic sequencing tests and their reports are awaited. According to the State Surveillance Unit Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare, a 54-year-old fully vaccinated male patient from Dharwad has tested positive for Omicron. His travel history or contact with international travellers is being ascertained, health officials said. His sample was collected on December 4 from DIMHANS in Dharwad after he positive for Covid the previous day. He is currently healthy and is under home isolation. Four of his primary and 133 secondary contacts have been tracked and tested. Their results were negative. Another 20-year-old Omicron positive woman's travel history and contact with international travellers is being ascertained. Her samples were collected on December 4 from a college in Shivamogga district's Bhadravathi town where she is living in a hostel, according to the health officials. As many as 218 of her contacts have been tested and 27 of them were Covid positive. All samples have been sent for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). The authorities are also tracing travel or contact history of a 73-year-old man and an 82-year-old man who tested positive for the new variant. Their samples were collected from a private hospital in Udupi. At present they have no Covid-19 symptoms. The youngest member of their family, aged 11 years, has also tested positive. As many as 42 primary contacts and 293 secondary contacts of a 19-year-old Omicron positive college student from Mangaluru, has also been tested. His samples have also been sent for genome sequencing. --IANS mka/sks/ksk/ ( 348 Words) 2021-12-20-13:00:04 (IANS)
The Rajya Sabha was on Monday passed the 'Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021' with voice vote to rectify a drafting "anomaly" created by a 2014 amendment to the parent legislation. However, the Opposition parties did not take part in the debate and raised the issue to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs and demanded sacking of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni over his jailed son Ashish Mishra's involvement in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri incident that claimed lives of eight people as a vehicle allegedly belonging to him mowed them on October 3. Speaking on the Bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the NDPS (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The Bill rectifies a drafting "anomaly" created by a 2014 amendment to the parent legislation. The anomaly crept in when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was amended in 2014 to allow better medical access to narcotic drugs and removing state barriers in transporting and licensing of essential narcotic drugs. The 2021 amendment contains a legislative declaration about what one section refers to. It says Section 2 clause (viiia) corresponds to clause (viiib) in Section 27, since 2014, when the provision was first brought in. Section 27A of the NDPS Act, 1985, prescribes the punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders. In 2014, a substantial amendment was made to the NDPS Act to allow for better medical access to narcotic drugs. In Section 2(viii)a, the amendment defined "essential drugs"; under Section 9, it allowed the manufacture, possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, sale, purchase, consumption and use of essential narcotic drugs. But before the 2014 amendment, Section 2(viii) already existed and contained a catalogue of offences for which the punishment is prescribed in Section 27A. Section 27A reads: "Whoever indulges in financing, directly or indirectly, any, of the activities specified in sub-clauses (i) to (v) of clause (viiia) of section 2 or harbours any person engaged in any of the aforementioned activities, shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but which may extend to 20 years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees: "Provided that the court may, for reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a fine exceeding two lakh rupees." While defining "essential drugs" in 2014, the legislation re-numbered Section 2. The catalogue of offences, originally listed under Section 2(viii)a, was now under Section 2(viii)b. In the amendment, Section 2(viii)a defined essential narcotic drugs. However, the drafters missed amending the enabling provision in Section 27A to change Section 2(viii)a to Section 2(viii)b. Section 27A punished offences mentioned under Section 2(viiia) sub-clauses i-v. However, Section 2 (viiia) sub-clauses i-v, which were supposed to be the catalogue of offences, does not exist after the 2014 amendment. It is now Section 2(viiib). This error in the text meant since 2014, Section 27A was inoperable. The error was noticed by a district judge in West Agartala. In June this year, the Tripura High Court, while hearing a reference made by the district court, flagged the drafting error, urging the Centre to bring in an amendment and rectify it. In 2016, an accused had sought bail before a special judge in West Tripura in Agartala, citing this omission in drafting. The accused's plea was that since Section 27A penalized a blank list, he could not be charged under the offence. The district judge then referred the legal question to the High Court. The government had argued that the drafting error cannot be grounds to seek bail and must be overlooked. Although the HC agreed with the government and read the provision the way it was intended and not the way it was drafted, it said the reading could not be applied retrospectively. Article 20(1) of the Constitution says that no person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of the law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence. This protection means that a person cannot be prosecuted for an offence that was not a "crime" under the law when it was committed. In September, the government brought in an ordinance to rectify the drafting error, which Lok Sabha passed on Monday by a voice vote that corrects a drafting error in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act. "It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of May, 2014," the Bill reads. During the discussion in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister had said retrospective application is permitted in "clarificatory amendments." "It is not substantive, that is why, retrospective is allowed," she said. She also mentioned that the government had sought the opinion of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's opinion before introducing the amendment. (ANI)
With this, the party's strength in the 40-member House has been reduced to two.

Lourenco, who represented the Curtorim Assembly segment in the south Goa district, submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker Namrata Ulman at her office.

Notably, Congress recently declared its first list of eight candidates for the upcoming polls in the state, and Lourenco's name was on the list.

Former Goa chief minister Ravi Naik resigned as Congress MLA earlier this month. Luizinho Faleiro, who was also former chief minister of Goa, resigned from Congress and joined Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress, which will be contesting the state polls. (ANI)
Das, however, has not joined the BJP yet.

"Moved by PM Narendra Modi's vision of development, MLA of Raha of Congress, Sri Sashi Kanta Das has pledged his commitment to support Assam government politically. This is exemplary and will strengthen governance. I and BJP Assam President Bhabesh Kalita hail this decision," tweeted the Chief Minister.

Das also addressed the reporters after meeting the Chief Minister. He said, "I met Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over certain development projects related to his constituency and am still a member of the Congress.

Das added, "Meeting the Chief Minister of the state does not mean I will join the BJP. I met him because I want development in my constituency."

He added that just because he was from the opposition no rule bars him from meeting the CM. (ANI)
Addressing a rally in Malerkotla on Sunday, Sidhu alleged that a conspiracy is being hatched to disrupt peace in Punjab ahead of Assembly polls, scheduled to be held early next year.

"Conspiracy going on to disrupt Punjab's peace. Wherever sacrilege takes place, be it of Quran Sharif or Bhagavad Gita or Guru Granth Sahib, they (guilty) should be hanged in public and given biggest Constitutional punishment," Sidhu said.

A man was beaten to death in an altercation by angry devotees after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, earlier on December 18.

The incident took place during evening prayers when the man jumped over the metal railing around the Guru Granth Sahib and allegedly attempted to desecrate the Holy Book of the Sikhs with a sword.

Meanwhile, an unidentified man was allegedly beaten to death by locals at Nizampur in Punjab's Kapurthala district on Sunday for allegedly disrespecting the 'Nishan Sahib' at the village Gurudwara.

A video of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege with the Nishan Sahib has gone viral on the Internet. He was later handed over to the police but some people reportedly insisted that the man be questioned in front of them and the man was allegedly beaten to death in an ensuing scuffle. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected the plea of a woman, claiming to be the widow of the great-grandson of last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar, seeking direction to the Centre to hand over the Red Fort of Delhi to her or give adequate compensation. A bench of Justice Rekha Palli dismissed the plea saying that there is an inordinate delay while clarifying that it is not going into the merits. When the petitioner's counsel said that the client is illiterate and could not have approached the court, the judge said that this is no justification. The petitioner, Sultana Begum, stated that she is the rightful and legal heir of Mughal Badshah Bahadurshah Zafar II, the king of Delhi. "In 1857, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was dethroned by the British East India Company and all of his assets were taken under custody by the British East India Company illegally. In 1960, the Government of India confirms the claim of late Bedar Bakht as descendent and heir of Bahadurshah Zafar II. In 1960, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India started giving pension to Bedar Bakht, husband of the petitioner. On August 15, 1980, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India started giving pensions to Sultana Begum, the current petitioner. The Government of India is giving so less as pension," the plea stated. The petitioner alleged that the Government of India is having illegal possession of the Red Fort which is the ancestral property of the petitioner and the government is not willing to give any compensation or possession of such property, which is a direct violation of the petitioner's fundamental right and constitutional right in Article 300 A as well as human rights, therefore, she begs to move the court under of the Constitution of India. Sultana Begum is the widow of Late Mirza Mohammed Bedar Bakht, great-grandson and legal and rightful heir of the last Mughal Emperor late Bahadur Shah Zafar II king of Delhi. On May 22, 1980, Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht died and on August 1, 1980, pension to Sultana Begum was granted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi. The plea also sought direction to respondents to grant compensation to the petitioner from 1857 to till date for illegal possession by the Government of India. (ANI)
Lourenco is likely to meet the TMC's general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday.

Lourenco, the party's state working president, resigned from the Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was the sitting MLA from Curtorim. He submitted his resignation to Goa Assembly Speaker Namrata Ulman at her office.

Notably, Congress recently declared its first list of eight candidates for the upcoming polls in the state, and Lourenco's name was on the list.

Former Goa chief minister Ravi Naik resigned as Congress MLA earlier this month. Luizinho Faleiro, who was also former chief minister of Goa, resigned from Congress and joined Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which will be contesting the state polls. (ANI)
Opposition parties including Congress, DMK, RJD, Left, NCP, TMC, Shiv Sena, SP and BSP on Monday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha accusing the Chair of not listening to their points terming it an "unfair" way. Leader of House in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised points blaming the Chair of being "unfair" towards Opposition and "condemned" it for not allowing him to speak. Kharge made the remarks soon after the House met at 5 pm after a short adjournment followed by a verbal spat between Bachchan and treasury benches. "I am a new member in Rajya Sabha. But the rules states that the Leader of Opposition and Leader of House are always given chance to speak whenever they want to speak on any issue. In our case, we have to request and ask again and again," Kharge said. "This is very unfortunate and very unfair. I condemn it and walk out from the House." Subsequently, all the Opposition walked out of the House. BJP leader Bhuwanwswar Kalitha, who was Presiding the Chair, told the LoP that he has been given chance to speak but Kharge along with other Opposition party leaders staged a walkout from the House. Meanwhile, BJP leader GVL Narasimha raised the point of order and said that Kharge condemned the Chair and the word should be expunged from the record. "LoP is condemning the Chair. It should be expunged," he stated. From Chair, Kalitha said, "I have heard and taken cognizance". Since morning, the Opposition was raising issues to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs, and Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri incident that involved Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's jailed son Ashish Mishra. In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government. The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI. All the suspended 12 MPs used to sit near Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Parliament premises since they were suspended from the House, and the Opposition parties have been relentlessly disrupting House proceedings every day over the issue barring a few occasions. The Opposition has been demanding the sacking of MoS Ajay Mishra Teni over his jailed son, who is accused of running over farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri. Opposition's demands for Mishra's sacking from the Union Cabinet have become louder after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) report said the killing of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 was a "planned conspiracy". The farmers were crushed, allegedly by an SUV driven by Ashish Mishra, "with intent to commit murder" and it was "not death by negligence", the report said. It also recommended that the charges of rash driving against Ashish Mishra and the others be modified and an attempt to murder charge and the charge of voluntarily causing hurt be added. Ashish Mishra and others are already facing murder and conspiracy charges. The SIT on the basis of investigation also moved the court for adding charges of attempt to murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention. On October 3, eight people, including four protesting farmers, died after being mowed down by an SUV allegedly belonging to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra. (ANI)
Speaking to the media here in New Delhi, RK Singh said, "There is a minor impact at a few places but by and large, things are normal. In Jammu, only 15-20 per cent of feeders are affected. There is no situation of blackout.

Union Power Minister further said that talks are on with employees union to know their demands and grievances.

Earlier, on Sunday, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Raghav Langer had said that the power sector reforms are inevitable, as the Centre has directed the administration to ensure the same.

The Divisional Commissioner of Jammu Raghav Langer had also written to the Indian Army seeking assistance for the restoration of electricity supply following a strike by the electricity department personnel. (ANI)
Calling the preliminary proposal of Delimitation Commission "unacceptable", National conference MP Hasnain Masoodi on Monday said that the commission has asked us to give our objection on this issue in writing by December 31. Masoodi informed that the preliminary draft gave a proposal of six seats to the Jammu division and one seat in the Kashmir valley. "We were shown a preliminary draft in which it proposes an increase of six seats in Jammu and one seat in Kashmir. It is totally unacceptable for us. We have been asked by the commission to give our objection in writing by December 31," Masoodi told ANI here. "This proposal is unacceptable and is disproportionate because as per the 2011 census, more seats should be allotted to Kashmir," he added. As per the above-mentioned proposal, it will take the total seats in the Jammu region from the existing 37 to 43, while Kashmir will have one additional seat, taking its tally to 47 seats from the current 46. The Commission meeting was held in the national capital and was attended by five associate members - five Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir. They have been asked to respond to the proposal by the end of this month. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah along with party leaders Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masudi and BJP's Jugal Kishore Sharma took part in the meeting of the Delimitation Commission, which has been tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assemblies constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Nityanand Rai informed that the delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed as soon as possible adding that the commission held extensive consultation with various stakeholders in the Union Territory.He had said that the Commission has held extensive consultation with various stakeholders like State Election Commissioner of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary, Registrar General of India, Surveyor General of India, District Election Officers of all 20 districts. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored after the delimitation of constituencies and assembly elections. The three-member delimitation commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai was set up in March 2020 for a year. Later, the panel got a one-year extension from the Central government on March 3, 2021, after it failed to complete its task last year. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 notified by the government on August 9, 2019, paved the way for the creation of two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature and Ladakh, without it. The Act provides that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies will be determined by the Election Commission. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed a petition seeking to remove a religious structure in Defence Colony in South Delhi over illegal encroachment. Justice Rekha Palli directed Station House Officer (SHO) concerned that idols and structure should be placed before nearby temple so that sanctity of it remained maintained and sentiments of Hindus should be respected. The Court directed the Delhi government to remove the encroachment of idols and structure within 10 days and directed Delhi Police to provide assistance in this activity. The Court noted that report filed by SHO concerned disclosed that no religious practice, prayers or priest is worshipping at that place. Appearing for Delhi Government, advocate Anupam Srivastava urged the Court to grant more time to authorities concerned to send the proposal for demolition to the religious committee in a proper format. The Court said it did not find any merit in the submission of the respondent. The Court said that it did not see any reason why the encroachment should be allowed to continue. The Court also cited the Supreme Court order which had already directed that no unauthorized construction will be permitted in the name of religious structure. "The whole city is taken for a ride for so many years," the Court remarked. Earlier, the Delhi HC had expressed unhappiness with the Delhi government on dealing with issues relating to illegal encroachment in Defence Colony and said that one cannot just make a structure of five bricks and an idol and say that it's a temple. Delhi Government counsel had told the court that there may be a law and order concern, therefore, the religious committee is needed to look into it. The court had remarked that like this, anyone will make a structure outside High Court overnight and then they will have to ask the religious committee regarding this. The court was hearing a petition filed by Viraht Sahni who was represented by Senior Advocate P.V. Kapur, with lawyers Kaveri Kapur, and Jitender Kumar. The petitioner has sought direction from the respondent to remove the illegal encroachment in form of a temple in front of his property. Delhi Government had earlier submitted that it is conscious of its duty and has already planned to demolish the illegal encroachment at the said site and need requisite police assistance to carry out the said demolition. Police had submitted that it will render the necessary assistance to the government to carry out the proposed demolition drive. (ANI)
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Monday staged protests across the state against the anti-farmer policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre. State ministers, MPs, state legislators, other public representatives and party leaders led the protests in villages and towns, demanding the Centre to procure the entire paddy from the state. On a call given by Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the party cadres organised the protests which included rallies, dharnas, beating of drums and burning of effigies. The protesters raised slogans against the Central government and the BJP. The TRS cadres burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central ministers. Carrying flags, banners and placards amid beating of the drums, the protesters demanded that the Centre lift the entire paddy from the state during the current Kharif season and also agree to procure during the coming Rabi season. State Finance Minister Harish Rao led the protest in Gajwel while Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar led the protest in Khammam. Minister for tribal, women and child welfare Satyavati Rathore led the protest at the agriculture market in Mahabubabad district headquarter. She joined the party cadres in beating drums. The protesters set the effigy of the Prime Minister on fire. State Forest minister A. Indrakaran Reddy led a huge rally in Nirmal town. Large number of party workers participated in the rally and raised slogans against the Centre. TRS MLA Sandra Venkat Veraiah and other protesters carried bags of paddy on their heads to register their protest at Sattupalli in Khammam district. This is the third phase of the protest organised by the TRS over the issue of paddy procurement. Last month, the party leaders and cadres had staged sit-in in all Assembly constituencies. Later, the chief minister himself had led the three-hour sit-in in Hyderabad and it was attended by the state ministers, MPs and other leaders. Meanwhile, a delegation of six state ministers and MPs camping in Delhi for the last two days is still waiting for an appointment with the Central ministers. State Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy, who is leading the delegation, demanded that the Centre should lift entire paddy, which is either yet to be procured at procurement centres in the state or yet to be harvested. He said the state on Monday reached the target of 60 lakh tonnes paddy procurement allowed by the Centre for the current season. He said another 12-15 lakh tonnes of paddy was lying at the procurement centres while paddy was yet to be harvested in some districts. The minister said the state government had already requested the Centre to enhance the procurement target as the procurement is likely to continue till January 15. "The Centre should give in writing that the entire paddy produced in the state will be procured. We are demanding assurance in writing in view of the bitter experiences with the Centre," he said. --IANS ms/dpb ( 498 Words) 2021-12-20-16:00:02 (IANS)
The Delimitation Commission tasked with redrawing assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir has proposed increasing assembly seats in Jammu region by six to 43 and in Kashmir region from 46 to 47. While BJP said the proposals have been made after due diligence, National Conference termed them "unacceptable". Some other parties in Jammu and Kashmir also opposed the proposals. The Delimitation Commission also proposed reserving nine seats for Scheduled Tribes and seven seats for Scheduled Castes in the Union Territory. NC leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed the draft recommendation of the Commission as "unacceptable". "The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with 6 going to Jammu and only 1 to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census," he said in a tweet. "It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been its only consideration. Contrary to the promised 'scientific approach' it's a political approach," he added. National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi also opposed the proposals. "We were shown a preliminary report on this. It is totally unacceptable for us. We have been asked by the Commission to give our objection in writing by December 31. It is disproportionate. The 2011 census suggested that more seats should be allotted to Kashmir," Masoodi stated. The NC MP also said that the delimitation is against the "Constitution" and the matter is in Supreme Court so the judgement is awaited. "We presented our view and Delimitation is against constitution and matter is in SC and we should have waited for the judgement," he added. Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) provincial spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar, said the proposals were unacceptable in the present form. "We are not against the reservation but these draft recommendations are biased. It is not acceptable in the current form. Earlier also, we continuously said that delimit the regions on the basis of a common principle which is based on population," Dar said. Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the NC leaders got satisfied with the parameters that are being followed by the Commission. "All the associate members committed themselves to cooperate with the functioning of the Commission. The Commission has done a tremendous job. We must appreciate they had followed certain laid down parameters on the basis of which they have come out with the documents which are very objectively done," the minister told the media persons today. "The associated members regardless of their party and political affiliations not only appreciated the work done by the Delimitation Commission but also committed that they would in the future also extend their cooperation for the rest of the exercise," Singh said. Lauding the proposals, Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Ravinder Raina said the commission prepared the detailed report after analysing everything. "The Commission worked hard and met political leaders of NC regularly. It prepared a detailed report after analysing everything. I think they have done a good job," Raina said. "Some political parties including PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, former CM Omar Abdullah and Congress always stay away from facts and realities," he alleged. The PDP has also opposed the proposals. The Commission, headed by Justice (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai, held its second meeting here and it was attended by associate members from Jammu and Kashmir. The Chief Election Commissioner was also present. "For the first time in Jammu and Kashmir, a total of nine seats are proposed to be allocated for Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population and seven seats are proposed for Scheduled Castes," the Commission said in a press release. It explained the criteria used for forming the draft recommendations of allocating additional assembly seats to Jammu and Kashmir and said that it categorized all 20 districts into three broad categories on the basis of the average population. "The Commission explained that taking all these into account, it has categorized all 20 districts in three broad categories A, B and C giving a margin of 10 per cent of average population per Assembly Constituency (AC) while proposing an allocation of the constituencies to the districts," the press release said. The release said that the Commission has also, for some districts, proposed carving out of an additional constituency to balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to their inhospitable conditions on the international border. Dr Jitendra Singh, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah along with party leaders Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi and BJP's Jugal Kishore Sharma, all MPs from Jammu and Kashmir, took part in the meeting.The first meeting of the commission was held on February 18, 2021.Chief Election Commissioner, in his remarks, shared the experiences of the commission interacting with people in Jammu and Kashmir during its visit and emphasized that the work of delimitation is being carried out within the overall statutory framework and keeping the the interest of common people of the Union Territory. He highlighted Section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 read with Section 60(2)(b) of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which specifies that all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and regard shall be had to physical features. The release said that associate members also appreciated the fact that the commission visited the Union Territory and met a large number of people. "They assured that all necessary assistance would be extended in the work of delimitation," it said..Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner gave a detailed presentation on the work done. He informed that in the Union Territory, since the last delimitation, the number of districts has increased from 12 to 20 and the number of tehsils from 52 to 207. The population density in the districts here varies from 29 persons per square km in Kishtwar to 3,436 persons per square km in Srinagar. The administration has been allocating compensatory allowance to government officials working in the specific areas on grounds of the remoteness of the place, its inaccessibility, severe inclement weather conditions, its remaining cut off from the rest of the state (now Union Territory) for a period of time, lack and gross inadequacy of medical, educational, residential and other basic amenities of life, its health hazards and similar other rigorous conditions of living. The Union Territory also shares international boundary and in those locations, the inhabitants are forced to take shelter, intermittently, bunkers due to continued inhospitable and uncertain living conditions, the press note further read. The Commission shared Paper I describing the proposed seat allocation at the level of districts with all the members. They have been requested their views or suggestions by December 31, 2021. Twenty four seats in the assembly continue to remain vacant as they fall in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. (ANI)
Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Monday discharged Kuldeep Singh Senger in 2019 accident case of Unnao rape survivor saying that no charges are made out against Senger in the present case. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey discharged Kuldeep Singh Senger and five other accused observing that prima facie there is no evidence against these accused persons -- Senger, Komal Singh, Arun Singh, Gyanendra Singh, Rinku Singh and Awdesh Singh. However, the Court ordered to frame charges against four accused Ashish Kumar Pal, Vinod Mishra, Haripal Singh and Naveen Singh and list it for framing of formal charges against four accused on December 21. The court said that is prima facie sufficient evidence against these accused persons. "Accused Ashish Kumar Pal (A-11) is directed to be charged for offence punishable U/s 304-A/338/279 IPC and accused Vinod Mishra (A-3), Haripal Singh (A-4) and accused Naveen Singh (A-5) Is directed to be separately charged for offence punishable U/s 506(ii) IPC read with Section 34 IPC, " the court said. The accident had taken place in 2019 when the Unnao rape victim was on her way to Rae Bareli. A truck rammed into the vehicle in which the girl was travelling with her two aunts and lawyer. While her aunts succumbed to their injuries, she and her lawyer were grievously injured. As per chargesheet, on July 28, 2019 between 12.45 pm and 12.50 pm, accused Ashish Kumar Pal was driving the truck on the wrong side of the road coming from Raibareilly side towards Lalganj side in rash and negligent manner. The car being driven by Mahender Singh Advocate collided with the rear portion of the truck resulting in the death of two lady passengers besides grievously injuring the driver Mahender Singh Advocate who later on succumbed to the injuries as also the victim. The court noted that the chargesheet did not mention any record or evidence regarding the criminal conspiracy between the accused persons with the accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar. The Court also noted that the accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar was in judicial custody during theperiod when alleged threats were extended to the victim or her family members. The Court also noted that admittedly the case of prosecution is that he conspired with the other accused persons to extend the threat to the victim or her family members and he himself did not extend any threat. Kuldeep Singh Senger was represented by advocates SPM Tripathi and Deepak Sharma. On August 1, 2019, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh. In December 2019, Senger was convicted and jailed for life in a separate case for raping the woman in Unnao in 2017 when she was a minor. (ANI)
PMK founder leader Dr S. Ramadoss has urged the Tamil Nadu government to clarify on the status of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) exemption bill. He said that no progress has been made after the bill was passed in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. In a statement on Monday, the PMK leader said that the bill was passed in the Assembly on September 13 and that December 21 will mark 100 days of its passage. The PMK leader said that there was a time frame to get approval for the bill and that lack of clarity on the bill would not help the students. Ramadoss said that the next admission process is about to commence but the Governor is yet to give his nod to it. He said that even after the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues have met the Governor for getting the bill passed and to get the Presidential assent, no positive result has come. The PMK leader said that the DMK government cannot escape from its responsibility citing the delay from the Governor's end. He said that the DMK had made the election promise of getting NEET exempted. Dr Ramadoss said that politics was the only reason for the delay in getting consent for the bill. --IANS aal/shb/ ( 228 Words) 2021-12-20-16:28:04 (IANS)
A senior Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) scientist Atul Dinkar Rane on Monday took over as the new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the BrahMos Aerospace Limited which manufactures the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, informed the DRDO officials. Atul Rane is renowned for his decades of sustained R&D contributions in the indigenous design and development of mission-critical Onboard computers (OBC), hardware in loop simulation studies, systems analysis, development of mission software and avionics technologies for defence applications. His pioneering contributions and techno-managerial leadership has been transformative for the successful development and induction of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile into Armed Forces. He graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai and received his post-graduate degree in Guided Missiles from the University of Pune. Rane joined DRDO in the year 1987 and started his initial career at Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) as System Manager and carried out simulation studies and established modular real-time simulation test mechanisms for the indigenously developed Surface to Air Akash Missile System. Later, as part of the Onboard Computers Division, Research Centre Imarat (RCI), he led the development of Onboard Mission Software for Agni-I missile and also established a unique integrated testbed facility for seamless test and evaluation of Onboard Systems for various missile projects. He was one of the core team members of BrahMos Aerospace right from its foundation as a Joint Venture with Russia. His significant contributions as Programme Manager, Avionics and System Integration for Programme PJ-10, steered the feasibility studies, conceptual design, planning, development, testing, integration and certification of DRDO Onboard systems culminating in the successful demonstration, induction and subsequent productisation of BrahMos, world's fastest supersonic cruise missile system strengthening the arsenal of our armed forces with a formidable weapon system. As Counsellor (Defence Technology), Embassy of India, Moscow, he progressed Indo-Russian technical collaborations and later as Director, International Cooperation strengthened Defence R&D collaborations, joint developments and represented the country during much inter-governmental cooperation. His immense expertise in defence technology management and international S&T outreach efforts left a lasting imprint on bridging the technology gaps, identifying futuristic areas for joint research and giving thrust to the export of DRDO developed products. As Director of Systems Analysis and Modeling Centre, he played a key role in System Analysis and carried out extensive feasibility studies for the development of advanced weapon systems. Presently, as Director of a DRDO facility in Delhi, he is leading numerous activities of national significance for the defence of the nation. His R&D contributions, expertise in international R&D project management and versatile techno-managerial leadership capabilities had a major impact on the indigenisation of critical Missile technologies and have boosted defence manufacturing in the country. For his distinguished contributions, he has been conferred with the prestigious DRDO Path Breaking Research or Outstanding Technology Development Award and DRDO Performance Excellence Award. He is an active member of many professional societies including the Aeronautical Society of India, the Systems Society of India, the Society of Aerospace Quality and Reliability and the Computer Society of India. He has several national or international publications and technical reports to his credit. (ANI)
A senior ITBP officer said that the troops of 44 Battalion of ITBP got information regarding a memorial constructed by Naxals in the memory of their people who were killed in police action or due to some other reasons in jungles near Parvidih located at Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra border.

"A joint team of ITBP and Chhattisgarh police went to the location in jungle and demolished the structure after a long search operation," the officer added.

The officer also said that Naxals construct such memorials at a place of their camps where they train young recruits. Earlier also, we have destroyed such structures, he added.

On December 16, ITBP in a joint search operation had recovered huge ammunition cache, stores, Naxal literature, materials, and other items near Hidkotola and Rajnandgaon districts in Chhattisgarh. (ANI)
In a major boost to the country's air defence capabilities, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is deploying the first squadron of the S-400 air defence missile system in the Punjab sector. "The first squadron is being deployed in the Punjab sector. The batteries of the first squadron would be capable of taking care of aerial threats from both Pakistan and China," government sources told ANI. Parts of the Russian missile system had started reaching India earlier this month and the unit is expected to be operationalized in the next few weeks, they said. The S-400 air defence system was contracted for by India in a deal worth around Rs 35,000 crore and five squadrons would be provided to India for tacking air threats from up to 400 km. The first squadron deliveries are expected to be complete by the end of this year. Sources said the equipment is being brought to India through both sea and air routes. Sources said after the first squadron is deployed, the Air Force would start focusing on the Eastern borders along with providing resources for training of personnel within the country. Indian Air Force officers and personnel have trained in Russia on the system. The air defence system would give India an edge in South Asian skies as they would be able to take out enemy aircraft and cruise missiles from a 400 km distance. The S-400 missile defence system is equipped with four different missiles which can engage enemy aircraft, ballistic missiles, and AWACS planes at 400 km, 250 km, the medium-range 120 km and the short-range 40 km. Due to tough bargaining and negotiations, India managed to bring down the S-400 price by almost a billion dollars, sources said. (ANI)
He will review election preparations by holding a meeting with the District Magistrates, Superintendent of Police and will also a meeting with representatives of political parties.

The Chief Election Commissioner will reach Dehradun at 4 pm on December 23. On the same day, at 5 PM, there will be a meeting with the representatives of political parties.

After this, he will hold a meeting with the election officer of the state. On December 24, the Chief Election Commissioner will participate in the voter awareness exhibition program. "After this, there will be a meeting with the Election Expenditure Monitoring Officer," Chief Secretary and DGP.

State's Chief Electoral Officer, Seasonya has taken stock of the preparations in view of the Chief Election Commissioner's visit. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the country wants to see its industries be among the top five in the world in every sector and we should collectively work for it. Prime Minister Modi interacted with CEOs of companies from various industries at Lok Kalyan Marg today. This was the second such interaction of the Prime Minister with industry representatives in the run up to the next Union Budget, the Prime Minister's office said. Prime Minister talked about the inherent strength of the country displayed during the battle against COVID-19. He thanked the industry leaders for their inputs and suggestions and exhorted them to make full use of policies like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI). He said that just like the country aspires for a podium finish at the Olympics, the country also wants to see our industries among the top five of the world in every sector, and this is something for which we should collectively work towards. The Prime Minister said that the corporate sector should invest more in areas like agriculture and food processing, and talked about the shifting focus towards natural farming. He underlined the policy consistency of the government and said that the government is firmly committed to take initiatives which will give impetus to economic progress. PM Modi also spoke about the focus of the government towards reducing compliance burden, and sought suggestions on areas where undue compliances need to be removed. The industry representatives gave their feedback to the Prime Minister. They thanked the Prime Minister for putting his faith in the private sector. They said that due to his leadership, the economy of the country is moving ahead on the path of recovery after COVID-19, through his timely interventions and transformative reforms. They expressed commitment towards contributing to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision of the Prime Minister and praised several steps taken by the government like PM GatiShakti and IBC. They spoke about steps that can be taken to further boost Ease of Doing Business in the country. They also talked about India's commitments at COP26 and how industry could contribute towards achieving the goals outlined. TV Narendran said that the government's timely response has led to V-shaped recovery after COVID. Sanjeev Puri gave suggestions to further boost the food processing industry. Uday Kotak said that PM has brought path breaking changes through simple yet beautifully articulated reforms like Swachh Bharat, Start up India etc. Seshagiri Rao talked about how the scrappage policy can be made more comprehensive. Kenichi Ayukawa expressed commitment about realizing the PM's vision of making India a manufacturing giant. Vineet Mittal talked about PM's Panchamrit commitment at COP26. Sumant Sinha said that PM's leadership in Glasgow was highly appreciated by global community members. Preetha Reddy talked about steps to boost human resource in health. Ritesh Agarwal talked about the need to focus on emerging areas like AI and machine learning. (ANI)
Kerala recorded four more Omicron infections on Monday, taking the total number of persons infected with the variant to 15, Health Minister Veena George's office informed today. All four cases are detected from the Trivandrum district. Of these, two have returned from the UK and one is the primary contact of a family who returned from the UK. One person has returned from Nigeria on December 17 and was tested positive for COVID-19 at the airport after which he was immediately shifted to hospital. A new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year. On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'. Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions on the southern African nations since the mutation was discovered. India reported the first case of Omicron on December 2. As of now, the country has logged more than a hundred Omicron cases, as per the Union health ministry. (ANI)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said that the incident of alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple in Amritsar should not be politicised and demanded culprits to be caught. Speaking in the press conference here in Fazilka, Punjab, Sukhbir Badal said, "We do not want to do politics, we want culprits to be caught. Since no culprit was caught in the last 5 years, they were emboldened. It's sad they have formed inquiry committee of the Deputy Chief Minister. A judge should have been on the committee. This shows that they do not want to catch culprits." Badal further slammed the Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and said, "I would like to tell Punjab Chief Minister and Dy CMs to remember the sacrilege incident in our government's rule, you had said that CM should be jailed, that CM-Dy CM had allowed it. You did politics and didn't catch the guilty and deliberately spent 5 yrs in defaming Badal family and SAD." A man was beaten to death in an altercation by angry devotees after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, earlier on December 18. The incident took place during evening prayers when the man jumped over the metal railing around the Guru Granth Sahib and allegedly attempted to desecrate the Holy Book of the Sikhs with a sword. Meanwhile, an unidentified man was allegedly beaten to death by locals at Nizampur in Punjab's Kapurthala district on Sunday for allegedly disrespecting the 'Nishan Sahib' at the village Gurudwara. A video of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege with the Nishan Sahib has gone viral on the Internet. He was later handed over to the police but some people reportedly insisted that the man be questioned in front of them and the man was allegedly beaten to death in an ensuing scuffle. (ANI)
As many as nine accused in separate Vyapam cases have been sentenced to five to seven years of jail, the Central Bureau of Investigation said on Monday. The Special Judge, CBI, Vyapam Cases, Bhopal has sentenced eight accused, namely Kamlesh; Naveen Kumar; Jyotish Kumar; Rajesh Dhakad; Vishal Solanki; Kavendra Singh Rajawat; Nemichand and Pankaj Kumar to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment in a case related to Vyapam involving written test for Police Constable Recruitment Test-2012. CBI had registered the instant case on August 27, 2015 and taken over the investigation of the said case from State Police on the orders of Supreme Court dated July 9, 2015. It was alleged that three impersonators with the connivance of middlemen including Pankaj Kumar, Nemich and others had appeared in place of the candidates Rajesh Dhakad, Kavendra Singh Rajawat and Vishal Solanki in order to get them selected in written test of Police Constable Recruitment Test, 2012 conducted by Vyapam. It was also alleged that the accused obtained illegal gratification. After investigation, a chargesheet was filed on May 26, 2016 against the nine accused before the Designated Court at Bhopal. The trial Court convicted said eight accused and acquitted one accused. In another case, the Special Judge, CBI, Vyapam Cases, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) has convicted Pradeep Singh Raghuvanshi and sentenced him to undergo five years of rigorous Imprisonment. CBI had registered the case on August 6, 2015, against the candidate and other persons in compliance with the orders of Supreme Court of India dated July 9, 2015, and taken over the investigation of the said case earlier registered at Cantt. Guna Police Station. It was alleged that Pradeep Singh Raghuvanshi had submitted two application forms online for the Police Constable Examination, 2012, with identical particulars. However, on one form, a photograph of an impersonator was pasted, who appeared in the said examination for accused Pradeep Singh Raghuvanshi. After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against Pradeep Singh Raghuvanshi on February 28, 2017. The trial Court found the accused guilty and convicted him. (ANI)
The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to replace the Ordinance, was passed by Parliament on Monday with the Rajya Sabha approving the measure amid uproarious scenes in the upper house. The bill was already passed by the Lok Sabha last week. Moving the Bill for discussion and passage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this Bill was to amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to correct a drafting error made during the UPA's time. After the Tripura High Court's observations in June this year, the government had to bring this amendment through the Ordinance as the Parliament was not in session, she said, adding that other High Courts had asked for corrections in 2014, and 2017. Sitharaman also said that some opposition members raised the drugs seizure at Mundra Port, and the Narcotics Control Bureau was investigating the case and arrests were also made but later, the Union Home Ministry had ordered the transfer of the case to te National Investigation Agency for further probe The DRI has done exemplary work and stopped the consignment, she added. During the debate, the houses witnessed heated arguments and continuous raising of point of order by both sides. Congress member Digvijaya Singh, intervening in the debate, said that 12 members are outside the house and said that the government is not following rules as the "culprit minister is inside and our MPs are suspended violating the rules". The opposition members raised the issue of Lakhimpur Kheri violence and suspension of the MPs which prompted the treasury benches to raise a point of order on the taking of the names of two ministers - Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra Teni and Home Minister Amit Shah - and demanded that the references be expunged from the record. At this, the chair said that he will see the records. SP member Jaya Bachchan said that she will not thank the Chair as when the Chair was in the opposition, he used to run to the well himself to protest. BJP's Bhubhneshawar Kalita, who was earlier in the Congress, was in the Chair at that time and the BJP raised a point of order. Bachchan also said that the government is wasting time to rectify a clerical error, and had heated exchanges with BJP members. As Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said that the person who is directly indirectly involved in murder should be sacked, he was not allowed to speak further by the Chair. At this, he said that the attitude towards the post he holds is condemnable. --IANS miz/vd ( 446 Words) 2021-12-20-19:00:08 (IANS)
Exposing the lies being spread by the AAP leadership directly from the ground level, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi on Monday visited the school in his maternal village Makdona Kalan to show that it was not only perfect but one of the best schools in the state. The Chief Minister during a walk from Morinda to Sri Chamkaur Sahib inspected the school from where the AAP leadership has been indulging in slanderous campaign. Channi said he had already sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for this school besides astroturf worth Rs 70 lakh. Taking on the AAP leadership, he reminded them that as compared to any school of their frivolous 'Delhi model', this school has one of the best infrastructure, computer lab, library, eduset online facility and modern projector room. The Chief Minister said ironically the same school was visited some days ago by self-contradictory Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who tried to paint it in bad colour by showing a store room. He said even the store room was better but Sisodia opted to switch off the lights of the room, when they failed to get any tangible evidence against the school, to prove their wrong point. "This exposes the propaganda unleashed by outsiders to fulfil their lust for power," added Channi. The Chief Minister said the AAP leaders are clamouring for power but their nefarious designs will be thwarted by the wise people of Punjab. He warned the AAP leaders to desist from spreading false stories about education and the health system of the state, which are one of the best in the country. Channi asked AAP leaders that instead of fault finding in Punjab and Punjabis they should focus on providing basic facilities to Delhi where people are suffering due to their poor performance. --IANS vg/skp/ ( 312 Words) 2021-12-20-19:24:04 (IANS)
On December 15, CCTV visuals revealed a masked man entering the prominent jewellery shop in Vellore town and decamping with 16 kg of gold.

Police constituted a special investigation team and nabbed a person who is suspected to have committed the theft. He is from Anaicut in Vellore. However, police refused to divulge the details of the burglar.

On interrogation, it was revealed that the gold stolen from the jewellery showroom was buried in a graveyard some 40 km away from Vellore at Odukathur.

--IANS aal/skp/

( 123 Words)

2021-12-20-20:08:03 (IANS)
The act of vandalising the statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and burning Kannada flag is highly condemnable and the miscreants should be tracked and shot dead, he said.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy demanded that the miscreants who indulged in the desecration of the statue and burning of Kannada flag must be extradited.

The organisations which were involved in the acts must be banned, he said, terming the incident as a cowardly act.

Those who are attempting to bring disharmony must not be spared, he added.

Tension prevailed in Belagavi, which boredrs Maharashtra, after a statue of Rayanna was vandalised, following news that a statue of Shivaji was damaged in Bengaluru.

--IANS mka/arm

( 169 Words)

2021-12-20-20:24:04 (IANS)
"A COVID-positive couple in Dehradun is Omicron suspected, after returning from meeting their Omicron positive relatives in Delhi with a travel history to Qatar," said Kumar.

To confirm the presence of the Omicron variant the samples of the suspected patients have been sent for genome sequencing.

"The couple's apartment has been declared a micro-containment zone. Also, samples have been sent for genome sequencing, reports are awaited," he added.

Meanwhile, India has reported 161 cases of new coronavirus variant Omicron, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday.

"As of now, India has 161 Omicron cases...We are monitoring the situation daily with experts," the minister told Rajya Sabha while replying to a debate on the COVID-19 situation. (ANI)
A new study by the University of Waterloo has found that wearable sensor technology is feasible for remote monitoring of health-related behaviour in people with heart-related conditions. The research has been published in the 'Journal of Neurology'. "Information from wearables can provide insight into patterns of health-related behaviour and disease symptoms as they occur over days and weeks. This may be important for monitoring disease progression and the impact of therapeutics, supplementary to assessments conducted in the clinic," said Karen Van Ooteghem, a researcher in Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Waterloo. "Within our research program, we carry out work to validate novel outcomes derived from wearables for these purposes and develop avenues to relay this information to patients and clinicians," Ooteghem added. It was important for researchers to understand feasibility in participants' natural environments because behaviour in the lab or clinic may not reflect what occured in day-to-day living, Van Ooteghem said. The researchers recruited 39 participants with cerebrovascular or neurodegenerative diseases to wear up to five devices on their ankles, wrists and chest continuously for seven days at home and in the community following a clinic visit. For people living with complex health conditions, there were advantages to using multiple sensors to capture specific behaviours and symptoms, for example, upper versus lower limb impairment. Participants wore at least three devices for a median of 98 per cent of the study period. They also enrolled with a study partner who could help them navigate any issues that arose during the study. Beth Godkin, a Waterloo Kinesiology and Health Sciences doctoral student and first author on the paper, said that the willingness to wear the technology might have been influenced by the support offered to participants during the study. Through interviews with participants and study partners, researchers also learned that there is still room for improvement when it comes to the technology itself that could enhance the user experience. "Participants felt it was important to optimize comfort, ease of use and appearance if they needed to wear sensors for long periods and felt that continued effort should be made to ensure the technology does not interfere with activities of daily living," Godkin said. "The generally positive response from participants and willingness to engage in multi-sensor wear over an extended period is the necessary first step towards meaningful integration of our approach in larger research studies and eventually, for uptake within clinical care," Godkin added. Funding for the study was provided through the Ontario Brain Institute. (ANI)
A study has found that a molecular switch influences addiction behaviour and determines how strong the response to addictive drugs is. The research was published in the 'EMBO Reports Journal'. A research team at Heidelberg University and the Sorbonne University in Paris (France) made the discovery in mice treated with cocaine. The researchers led by Prof. Dr Hilmar Bading (Heidelberg) and Prof. Dr Peter Vanhoutte (Paris) demonstrated that the protein Npas4 regulated the structure and function of nerve cells that controlled addiction behaviour in mice. If the quantity of Npas4 was reduced in an experiment, the animals' response to cocaine was much weaker. "In the animal model, Npas4 acts as a molecular regulator for the sensitivity to drugs of abuse. We hope that the results of our research lead to a better understanding of addiction in humans and will contribute to new therapeutic approaches," stated lead author Thomas Lissek. The physician and scientist is pursuing doctoral research on molecular signalling mechanisms linking neuronal activity to gene transcription at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN) at Heidelberg University. According to the researcher, the current findings also underpinned the existence of a biological basis for addiction behaviour, much like for diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The protein Npas4 acts as a so-called transcription factor. "We can view Npas4 as a conductor who coordinates which and how many other molecules are produced in a cell," explained Thomas Lissek. The target molecules of Npas4 primarily regulated the electrical activity patterns and the structure of nerve cells and influenced the number of contact points between them. When the researchers reduced the amount of Npas4, the contacts between the nerve cells diminished. The mice subsequently exhibited a weaker response to cocaine than with a higher amount of Npas4. The current findings from the Heidelberg and Paris scientists also demonstrated that Npas4 is governed by a special regulation mechanism. The protein can be induced only by stimuli that caused the calcium concentration in the nucleus of nerve cells to increase. For instance, the activation of dopamine receptors -- a much-discussed mechanism in the development of addiction -- does not contribute to increasing the amount of Npas4. The teams of Hilmar Bading and Peter Vanhoutte were also able to confirm this characteristic in human stem cell-derived neurons. The unusual regulation mechanism of Npas4 is interesting for both basic biological research as well as the development of therapies to treat addiction. "Npas4 and its associated signalling pathway in the control of addiction behaviour are promising therapeutic approaches," explained Prof. Bading, Director of the Department of Neurobiology at the IZN. The research was conducted within the framework of a German-French cooperation project and was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), among others. (ANI)
During his address, Ambassador Kumar recalled a study published in 1951 titled "The etymological dictionary of Malagasy language" by a Malagasy scholar Dma-Ntsoha who listed about 300 words from Sanskrit in the Malagasy language, according to a statement.

He also emphasised the need for greater cultural, literary and academic exchange between India and Madagascar, the two maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean connected by Monsoon.

According to the statment, Madagascar has rich oral literature that is expressed in Hainteny (art of words), Kabary (art of speech) and Ohobolana (proverbs).

Madagascar's greatest poet Jean Joseph Rabearivelo is considered Africa's first modern poet. He was inspired by poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and had mentioned him in poem number 15 in his poetry collection titled "Translated from the Night."

Recently the Embassy of India, Madagascar organised the first-ever joint reading between Indian and Malagasy poets at its monthly programme LaLitTana and plans to organise more such interactions in the future.

Earlier hundred of Great Indian Poems from over two dozen languages covering a period of over 3000 years of Indian poetry was translated and published in Malagasy in 2020, making Indian poetry available in the Malagasy language.

On this occasion, Ambassador Kumar also presented his haiku collection La Magie de Madagascar|The Magic of Madagascar to the President of the Malagasy Academy. (ANI)
In a tweet, the minister said he was returning from his native Kohat, where he had gone in connection with Sunday's local government elections when he was "attacked" and fired upon by a crowd, Dawn reported.

"[I] miraculously remained safe, though [my] driver was injured who was administered medical aid," Faraz wrote, thanking the people for their wishes.

Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also said Faraz's car had been fired upon in Darra Adam Khel. He said while Faraz had remained safe in the incident, his driver had been taken to hospital with critical injuries.

He said Faraz's vehicle had passed from the area when some groups that oppose the merger of tribal areas with KP were staging a protest. The protesters threw stones at the minister's car but he remained safe. (ANI)
"No, because I watched Jimmy Carter do it [in 1980] and it was terrible. It was terrible. It hurts the athletes. There are much more powerful things we can do than that," Trump said in an interview with Fox News, broadcast on Sunday.

The ex-president went on to say that he would like to see the US competing and winning "every single medal," Sputnik reported.

Earlier in the month, the Joe Biden administration announced that the US would not send an official delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics due to alleged human rights violations by China.

Several countries including Australia, Britain and Canada have also announced that they will boycott diplomatically over human rights abuses of Uyghurs Muslims by the Chinese government.

France last week said that it will not boycott in a break from other Group of Seven industrialized nations.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his willingness to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics. (ANI)
"I believe that the international community did not offer enough support for Lebanon, Jordan and other countries that have opened their borders and hearts to receive refugees," Guterres said at a joint press conference with Lebanese President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace on Sunday.

Guterres encouraged all UN member countries to assume their full responsibilities by increasing their support for Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Lebanon needs increased support as it is going through very tough circumstances," he said.

Guterres added that the UN appreciates Lebanon's generous hospitality during a time when some rich countries were closing their borders to refugees.

He also called upon Lebanese politicians to deal with the current economic crisis and put an end to the collapse of institutions.

Guterres reiterated the UN's continuous support for Lebanon, pledging continued international support for the Lebanese army and other military institutions.

President Michel Aoun emphasised the need to find a solution for the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, citing the crisis's significant burden on Lebanon, which is already suffering from multiple problems.

Guterres arrived in Lebanon on Sunday afternoon where he will meet with Lebanese officials and civil society representatives, as well as pay a visit to UN forces in southern Lebanon.

He will also pay a visit to the Beirut port, which was rocked by two big explosions last year, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 6,000 others while destroying a large part of the city.

--IANS int/shs

( 280 Words)

2021-12-20-02:32:01 (IANS)
The need for liquidity and stabilization of the banking system in Afghanistan is urgent, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told a special meeting on Sunday, as he warned that if decisive and compassionate action is not taken immediately, it may "pull the entire population with it". "The value of the Afghani currency is plummeting, trade is wrecked by lack of confidence in the financial sector, and the space for borrowing and investment has constricted dramatically," said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths while speaking virtually to the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan. "The need for liquidity and stabilisation of the banking system is now urgent - not only to save the lives of the Afghan people but also to enable humanitarian organizations to respond," he added. This comes as 23 million people are already facing hunger and health facilities are overflowing with malnourished children. Some 70 per cent of teachers are not getting paid and millions of children - Afghanistan's future - are out of school. He said Afghanistan's economy is now in free fall, and "if we don't act decisively and with compassion, I fear this fall will pull the entire population with it." Griffiths also welcomed World Bank's Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund to transfer USD 280 million by the end of December to UNICEF and the World Food Programme. "This step should be followed by reprogramming of the whole fund to support the Afghan people this winter." "Families simply do not have the cash for everyday transactions, while prices for key commodities continue to rise. The cost of wheat and fuel are up by around 40 per cent and food now accounts for more than 80 per cent of the average household expenditure. Basic social services that all Afghans depend on are collapsing as international development support has frozen up," he added. (ANI)
Rejecting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks on terrorism in his country, former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said that the landlocked country has been facing ISIS's threat from Pakistan. At the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on Sunday, Imran Khan had said ISIS threatens Pakistan from Afghanistan, adding that stability in Afghanistan is necessary. "We have had attacks from (the) Afghan border, from ISIL (ISIS), into Pakistan," he said. Reacting to Khan's remarks, the former Afghan president said these allegations are not true, TOLOnews reported. ISIS from the beginning has been threatening Afghanistan from Pakistan, not the other way around, Karzai added. "These remarks are not true, and are obvious propaganda against Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "In fact, from the beginning, Afghanistan has been facing ISIS's threat from Pakistan." Earlier, Karzai had warned Pakistan not to interfere in Kabul's internal affairs. He had said that Islamabad should not encourage terrorism or extremism rather should establish relations with the country through "civil principles and principles of international relations." "My message to Pakistan, our brotherly country, is that they should not try to represent Afghanistan," he said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) in October. Pakistan organised a summit of foreign ministers from the OIC on Sunday. An OIC resolution released after the meeting said the Islamic Development Bank would lead the effort to free up assistance by the first quarter of 2022, Al Jazeera reported. The OIC meeting did not give the new Taliban government any formal international recognition and Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was excluded from the official photograph taken during the event. (ANI)
Brussels [Belgium], December 20 (ANI/Sputnik): EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claims that Moscow could try to exclude the European Union from talks on security guarantees. "Russia's ultimate intentions are not clear, except that it seeks to threaten and weaken Ukraine. Different scenarios can unfold. ...We cannot exclude Russia's desire to use this crisis as leverage for its declared purpose to reshape the security framework in Europe, also excluding the Europeans from the discussions," Borrell said on his blog on Sunday. He emphasized that any Russian action against Ukraine and its sovereignty would have serious consequences and expressed hope that the US will not allow Brussels to get excluded from talks on security. "...the EU must of course be at the table of any discussion on the European security architecture. Russia's Foreign Ministry this Friday released a draft proposal on security guarantees between Russia and the US as well as to European members of NATO. It is clear that the EU must be an integral part of such discussions," Borrell stressed. He recalled the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter, as well as mechanisms and rules of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which, according to Borrell, must be used when engaging with Russia on issues of security. On Friday, Moscow published draft agreements between Russia, the United States and NATO on security guarantees. The proposals, if agreed to, would ban NATO from expanding in eastern Europe and prohibit the US and Russia from deploying intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory, among other terms. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Sunday that NATO was going to discuss Russia's proposals on security guarantees this week. The security issue has surged in importance on the backdrop of the growing tensions around Ukraine, as Russia stands accused of allegedly deploying troops near the Ukrainian border in preparation for an invasion. Moscow has repeatedly denied these accusations, pointing to NATO's military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Russia has also said that it has the right to move forces within its own territory. (ANI/Sputnik)
The humiliating retreat of the United States from Afghanistan and the perceived disengagement of the US from the Middle East or at least the reduced emphasis Joe Biden gives to the region has led the Gulf States and other countries to reassess their positions and try to mend relations with old rivals. This resulted in some rather surprising foreign policy shifts among several Middle Eastern states and perhaps has increased prospects for stability in the Gulf. Although the US Administration says that it is still engaged in the Middle East, there is no doubt that much more attention in the US foreign policy is now given to China, Russia, and the far east. As a result, Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council states wonder how reliable the United States as a security provider is. Gonul Tol, Director of the M.E. Institute's Centre for Turkish Studies says: "Signs of a US retreat from the region, highlighted by the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan shattered faith in Washington's regional role". This made several Middle East leaders realize that in the absence of the US protective shield they must bury the hatchet with old enemies or at least reduce the number of the hostile countries they have to face. So, they decided to give diplomacy chance and see what happens. Let's see now the big changes taking place in inter-state relations in the Middle East. For the first time in history, an Israeli Prime Minister visited the United Arab Emirates. Last week Naftali Bennett paid an official visit to the UAE and had talks in Abu Dhabi with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The two leaders discussed possibilities of cooperating in the fields of agriculture, food security, advance technology, health, renewable energy etc. Bennett said he believed the two countries could "set an example of how we can make peace in the Middle East". This meeting comes just fifteen months after the two countries signed, in the context of the Abraham Accords, the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE. In the flurry of diplomatic activity taking place in the region, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS), who apparently decided that the Saudi Kingdom should try to resolve problems with countries with which it had been at loggerheads in the past, visited Doha on December 8 and had talks with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani. The two leaders declared their willingness to enhance cooperation between their countries and to support security and stability in the region. It should be noted that MBS was the man who in 2017 organized Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt to cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and impose a trade embargo and a blockade on the small emirate, allegedly for backing Islamist militants. The four Arab countries restored diplomatic relations with Qatar and ended their embargo on January 5, 2021. MBS has already visited the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait in an effort to reduce as far as possible geopolitical and strategic differences existing among GCC states and particularly in their relations with Iran. Kuwait and Qatar maintain relations with Iran, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain try to stop Iran's reach in the region. The reconciliation achieved among the Gulf states has allowed Turkey, which has been a close ally of Qatar, to make efforts to restore relations with the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a visit to the UAE last February and tried to make a fresh start in relations between the two countries. In November Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) paid a visit to Turkey, the first such visit in nine years since relations between the two countries were frozen in 2012. The UAE and Turkey hold widely different views on the question of the Muslim Brotherhood and support different sides in the Libyan conflict. Erdogan also blamed the UAE for backing the 2016 coup in Turkey. A clear sign of a new page in relations between Ankara and Abu Dhabi is the announcement that the UAE has allocated a $ 10 billion dollar fund for strategic investments in Turkey, the economy of which is crumbling under an unprecedented fall in the exchange rate of the Turkish Lira. Recently, Turkey has been trying hard to restore its frosty relations with Egypt, although in the past Erdogan repeatedly verbally attacked the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and called him "an illegitimate tyrant". The Egyptian Foreign Ministry in its turn described Erdogan's rule as "oppressive and authoritarian". Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry responded to Turkey's overtures by saying that "Egypt is eager to find a resolution and a formula for restoring relations with Turkey, but more work needs to be done". A major change in the region could happen if talks taking place intermittently between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the United Arab Emirates and Iran lead to a thaw in their relations and perhaps end the proxy wars in Yemen and elsewhere. So, it is evident that the US Afghanistan debacle has shaken its allies in the Arab world and the Middle East in general and forced their governments to reassess their positions and rivalries as well as try to find peaceful solutions to long existing problems. As author Amin Saikal, an expert on Middle East affairs, points out: "The Afghanistan debacle has shaken many of America's allies around the world, making them wonder about the US's reliability as a partner.... America's Afghanistan fiasco has set in motion a series of realignments in the region. And it illustrates that the pax Americana that dominated the Middle East for most of the post-World War II period is gradually being dismantled. The process stands to accelerate with President Joe Biden's promise to withdraw 2,500 US troops from Iraq by the end of this year." (ANI)
Last week, the Indian government announced an INR 760 billion (USD 10 billion) incentive plan to attract global semiconductor and display makers to its shores. Among those said to be interested in setting up manufacturing facilities in India, based on a Reuters report, are Israel's Tower Semiconductor, Taiwan's Foxconn and a consortium from Singapore. Diversified natural resources group, Vedanta Limited was also said to be keen to set up a display plant. The statement also added that, "The program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design." This new scheme is in support of Prime Minister Modi's "Make in India" plan which sets a target of making the manufacturing share of GDP reach 25 per cent by 2025. According to McKinsey & Co., manufacturing accounted for 17.4 per cent of GDP in fiscal year 2020. It is estimated that services, which has been the mainstay of India's economy, contributes over 50 per cent of GDP. An increase in manufacturing activity will not only help broaden the base of economy, it will create more good quality jobs, make India less reliant on imports and even out the ebbs and flows of the economic cycle. The massive loss of jobs in the services sector during the COVID lockdowns attests to the need for more varied employment options. This new initiative signals India' ongoing efforts to climb the electronics value chain. It also coincides with attempts by global manufacturers to lower their dependence on China due to the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing. Singapore has been one such beneficiary of the trade war. In June this year, the world's third-largest contract chipmaker in the world, GlobalFoundries, announced that it is investing USD4 billion to build a new production facility in Singapore. The plant which is scheduled to begin production in 2023 will primarily serve automotive, 5G mobility, and secure device industries. GlobalFoundries is already making 40 per cent of its chips here. The investment is the latest bid by a leader in the semiconductor industry to ease the chip shortage impacting automakers and electronics manufacturers worldwide. Singapore with its favourable tax and regulatory environment, pool of highly skilled workers, ease of connectivity and well-developed semiconductor ecosystem, has long been an attractive destination for investment in high value-added manufacturing. Outside of the "big 4" in Asia - Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan - Singapore has the largest semiconductor manufacturing industry in the region. Back in 2000, Singapore produced SGD 84 billion (USD 61.5 billion based on current conversion rate) worth of computer, electronic, and optical products, including semiconductors. This represented 52.7 per cent of Singapore's manufacturing output that year. However, following the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s and amidst fierce competition from its North Asian neighbours and in particular Taiwan, on both the technological and cost fronts, it's market share declined dramatically in the following years. It took until 2014 for the sector to again produced SGD 84 billion worth of goods, but as other parts of Singapore's economy have grown, this amount translated to a smaller share of overall manufacturing of about 29 per cent. By 2018, Singaporean manufacturers were producing SGD 139.6 billion worth of computer and electronic parts, and by 2020 the sector had grown to 46.3 per cent of total manufacturing output. Based on Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, today, Singapore accounts for about five per cent of global wafer fabrication capacity and 19 per cent of the global semiconductor equipment market share. The semiconductor industry in Singapore consists of both foreign-owned chip makers as well as local contract manufacturers who support the chip-making industry. Besides GlobalFoundries, well-known chip makers like Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron and Qualcomm have a presence in the city-state. Local companies include UMS Holdings which has been in the business for over 20 years. UMS specialises in precision engineering and focuses on manufacturing high-precision front-end semiconductor components and performs complex electromechanical assembly and final testing services. Another notable Singapore based semiconductor company is test solutions provider AEM Holding. Recently, government investment firm Temasek Holdings raised its stake in AEM to almost 10 per cent. ASTI Holdings is another Singapore headquartered semiconductor manufacturing service provider offering IC programming and packaging solutions to its customers. India has in recent years boosted its capabilities in the electronics manufacturing sector. It is the world's second-biggest smartphone maker behind China. Leading Apple contract manufacturers like Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron have factories in India. So has Apple's rival Samsung. Samsung has established large handset manufacturing plants in Noida and Sriperumbudur. The former which has a capacity 120 million, is said to be the world's largest mobile phone factory. Managing director of Indian contract manufacturer Optiemus Electronics, A. Gururaj, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the new initiative to attract semiconductor investments will help cut expensive tech imports. "The government's plan will help bring advanced technology, more employment and bigger investments into India," he continued. The government said it expected the just announced scheme to create about 35,000 high-quality positions, 100,000 indirect jobs and attract investment worth INR 1.67 trillion (USD 22 billion). Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a news briefing the plan would help develop "the complete semiconductor ecosystem - from the design of semiconductor chips to their fabrication, packing and testing in the country". (ANI)
A UN independent expert has commended Bangladesh for providing a safe haven to Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar. "Bangladesh saved untold numbers of lives when it opened its arms and hearts to Rohingya people who survived these most unspeakable of horrors inflicted on them by the Myanmar military", said Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar at the end of his first official visit to Bangladesh. "All who value human rights owe Bangladesh a debt of gratitude", he added, acknowledging that the responsible to resolve the emergency rests upon Myanmar. "I will do everything in my capacity to push for a stronger, more coordinated international response to this crisis, including the imposition of pressure on the Myanmar military and for concrete measures to hold the military junta fully accountable for this crisis," the UN expert said. During his mission, the Special Rapporteur met with refugees in Cox's Bazar as well as those who were relocated to Bhasan Char Island. "Nearly every Rohingya person I spoke with on this mission...want[ed] to return home as soon as they can do so voluntarily, safely, sustainably, and with dignity", he said, adding that we must ensure their safe and voluntary return to Myanmar. Andrews offered a number of recommendations from his mission, notably that the Rohingya community must be provided with security, educational opportunity, access to health care, and the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities - especially in Bashan Char, according to UN News. "Successfully addressing each of these key areas is in the interest, not only of the Rohingya community, but of everyone who shares the goal of a successful and sustained repatriation of the Rohingya community back to where they most want to go, home", he underscored. The Special Rapporteur commended Bangladesh for its partnership in accountability measures and noted how critical it was that "the rights and dignity of the Rohingya people be respected, protected and promoted". "Education will provide Rohingya youth with opportunities that could deter them from negative coping mechanisms, reducing security vulnerabilities in the camps, and reducing security vulnerabilities for all", he flagged. During his visit, Tom Andrews stated that the international community has a responsibility to support the Rohingya, arguing that Bangladesh cannot and should not shoulder the responsibility alone. He further expressed his desire to work with Bangladesh "as a friend", to continue his reporting, and to continue his conversations and engagement with "the remarkable people here". "Most of all, I look forward to returning to a Myanmar where justice, human rights and human decency finally prevail, and I can meet with the Rohingya community not as refugees but as citizens in their own country, Myanmar," the Special Rapporteur added. (ANI)
This was announced during the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan held in Pakistan on December 19, Dhaka Tribune reported.

During the council meeting, the country's Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen expressed deep concern on economic and humanitarian crisis looming on the larger part of the Afghan population due to the acute shortage of food, shelter and social services which may further be worsened as winter approaches.

He hoped that the inclusive socio-economic development of Afghanistan will continue uninterrupted so that all segments of the society can effectively contribute to the rebuilding process of their country and maintain regional harmony.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary also said that Bangladesh can be a partner in Afghanistan's developmental process as Bangladesh seeks to enhance regional cooperation for the attainment of a vision of shared prosperity for the region.

Momen also urged the leaders to intensify cooperation within and beyond OIC in support of the Afghan people.

Afghanistan's economy is in "free fall", UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told a special meeting on Sunday, warning that if decisive and compassionate action is not taken immediately, it may "pull the entire population with it".

Speaking virtually to the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths painted a grim picture of 23 million people facing hunger; malnourished children overflowing in health facilities; 70 per cent of teachers working without salaries; and millions of students - Afghanistan's future - out of school. (ANI)
"Air Chief Marshal Shaikh Abdul Hannan, Chief of Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force called on Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari #CAS at Air HQ today. Issues of mutual interest & avenues to enhance bilateral defence cooperation were discussed during the meeting," tweeted Indian Air Force.

Hannan is on a three-day official visit to India.

Recently, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind was on a three-day visit to Bangladesh to attend the 50th Vijay Diwas celebrations as the Guest of Honour.

The visit was of historical significance given the 50th anniversary of the shared sacrifices of the people of the two countries during Bangladesh's struggle for liberation in 1971. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid a landmark State Visit to Bangladesh on March 26 and 27. (ANI)
Leftist candidate Gabriel Boric won the Chilean presidential election, after his rival, right-wing politician Jose Antonio Kast, conceded, making him the youngest elected leader in the country's history. At 35-years-old, Boric will also become one of the world's youngest political leaders. He received 55.87 per cent of the votes cast on Sunday, while Kast garnered 44.13 per cent, Xinhua news agency quoted the Electoral Service of Chile as saying in a statement. "I congratulated him on his great triumph. From today, he is the elected president of Chile and deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration," Kast wrote on Twitter. Kast had won the first round of the presidential election on November 21 with 27.9 per cent of the vote and a little more than 146,000 ballots of difference. Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, in a phone conversation with the President-elect, said that he is sure Boric will deliver "the best of himself". "We all hope that you will create a very good government for Chile and for Chileans," Pinera said. The President said that more than 8 million people voted in the election, one of the highest numbers in the country's history. For this election, 14,959,956 people are eligible to vote, while 71,018 people are registered abroad, for a total of 15,030,974 voters. Boric said in the phone conversation that he will be the President "of all Chileans", adding that he will do his best to tackle any challenges. Boric is a deputy from the southern region of Magallanes. He is the candidate of Approve Dignity, a left-wing coalition that includes the Broad Front coalition and the Communist Party of Chile. A former student protest leader, he backed the mass demonstrations against inequality and alleged corruption that rocked Chile in 2019 and 2020, reports the BBC. According to the UN, Chile has one of the world's largest income gaps, with 1 per cent of the population owning 25 per cent of the country's wealth. --IANS ksk/ ( 338 Words) 2021-12-20-10:46:03 (IANS)
Gangs have escaped or been rescued from what are in effect scam sweatshops. The gangs that run them enslave people who are lured from China, and increasingly other countries, with promises of high-paying jobs. Upon arrival, they are forced, under threat of violence, to defraud people online, according to Nikkei Asia.

Cambodia has a persistent problem of criminality and the law enforcement is weak and plagued by endemic official corruption, according to reports.

Earlier, China Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi has called for action on the issue.

During a September visit this year to Phnom Penh, where China operates a joint law enforcement office, Wang called for Cambodia to help eliminate online gambling.

However, in the coastal province of Preah Sihanouk, where a massive influx of Chinese-owned casinos and online gambling companies led to rapid, uncontrolled development has been a hotbed of internet scam operations that detain workers, according to Nikkei Aisa.

Further, Cambodia consistently ranks near the bottom of Transparency International's corruption perception index. The European Union last year listed it among 12 "high-risk" countries for money laundering.

Most recently, US November this year warned investors about operating in Cambodia due to exposure to corruption, criminal activities, illicit finance, and human rights abuses.

Jason Tower, the Myanmar country director for the United States Institute of Peace, said criminals from China and crime groups from the China-Myanmar border have become "deeply embedded" in Cambodia's economy.

"These illicit Chinese capital networks now represent a significant flow of income to Cambodia elites, and the money laundered through their operations is a major source of capital for the regime," said Tower, who has studied online scam companies operating in the region.

"As a result, it is unlikely that the Cambodian government will have the political will to crack down on some of the more significant players." (ANI)
Hitting back at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over his recent remarks on Afghanistan and IS threats originating from the country, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that Islamabad must not interfere in Kabul's affairs, reported local media. During the Organisation of Islamic Council's meeting on Sunday, Khan had said that Pakistan faced attacks from Afghanistan's border in which the IS was said to be involved. "These remarks are not true and are obvious propaganda against Afghanistan. In fact, from the beginning, Afghanistan has been facing Daesh's threat from Pakistan," TOLOnews quoted Karzai as saying in a statement. Emphasising that the Pakistan government should not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, Karzai said that Islamabad should avoid speaking on behalf of Afghanistan in international forums. On Sunday, Khan also said that people in Afghanistan faced widespread poverty due to years of corruption in the Afghan government. He also referred to previous governments in Afghanistan. Such remarks insult the people of Afghanistan, said Karzai-- who has served two times as president of the country -- in a clear warning to Islamabad that it must stop talking on behalf of Kabul at gatherings held at global levels. (ANI)
When admitted to a hospital in southern Seoul on November 22, Park had planned to stay there for about a month, but doctors now say that she needs at least six more weeks for treatment of back, shoulder and other ailments, according to the Ministry.

This year, the 69-year-old Park was hospitalised three times due to her chronic shoulder and lower back pain, reports Yonhap News Agency.

In 2019, she received shoulder surgery.

Park has been serving a combined 22-year prison sentence since March 2017 after being impeached and removed from office over far-reaching corruption charges and an influence-peddling scandal.

The former leader is expected to return to the Seoul Detention Centre in February unless she is pardoned or allowed a stay of execution of sentence.

--IANS ksk/

( 170 Words)

2021-12-20-11:52:03 (IANS)
Relatives and religious clerics called on the Islamic Emirate to provide the Ulema with proper security, reported Tolo News.

There are reports of several other recent attacks on clerics, as well.

On Saturday, Bismillah Shakir, head of a Kabul religious seminary, was shot dead by a number of unknown gunmen while he was on his way to a mosque in the Khairkhana area of PD 17 in Kabul, reported Tolo News.

"The reason for his killing is not clear yet. He didn't have personal hostility with anyone," said Abdul Bassit, a nephew of Shakir.

"There is no security for us. Unfortunately, the situation is getting worse for us," said Zabiullah, a colleague of Shakir.

On Friday, Abdul Salam Abid, a prominent religious cleric, survived a blast in the Parwan-e-Si area in PD 4 of Kabul. However, Amanullah Sapai, an assistant of Abid, died from his wounds later in the hospital, reported Tolo News.

No person or group has claimed responsibility for the targeted killings of high-profile clerics.According to reports, six religious clerics have recently been killed. The perpetrators have yet to be held accountable. (ANI)
However, it has not yet informed Pakistan LNG Limited as to when this term cargo will be provided.

The non-availability of term cargo on January 10 will further worsen the ongoing gas crisis in the country.

From December 15, the government has already cut gas supply to the export sector in Punjab apart from shutting down the non- export industry and CNG sector.

So much so, the domestic consumers are also facing massive shortages across the country even at breakfast, lunch and dinner times and people are forced to purchase food, roti, naan and even tea from hotels at higher prices.

Technically it will be a second default by GUNVOR in a row in the current winter season 2021-22, as it earlier defaulted from the provision of the term cargo on November 19-20.

The Italian company ENI also defaulted on November 26-27 from the delivery of its term cargo.

ENI had earlier backed out of its term LNG cargo in August.

--IANS san/ksk/

( 213 Words)

2021-12-20-12:30:03 (IANS)
Foreign Ministers of five Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and emphasised the readiness of their leaderships to further strengthen relations with India. The Prime Minister emphasised the importance that India attaches to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its 'Extended Neighbourhood'. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia, and the role of connectivity in that regard. The Prime Minister conveyed his felicitations to the Ministers on the 30th anniversary of their independence this year. Recalling his memorable visits to all Central Asian countries in 2015 and subsequently to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz Republic, PM Modi underlined the importance of maintaining cultural and people-to-people contacts between India and Central Asia, given the popularity of Indian films, music, yoga etc in the region. The Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries are in New Delhi and participated in the third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue. "The Foreign Ministers conveyed the greetings of their Presidents to Prime Minister Modi and emphasized the readiness of their leadership to further strengthen relations with India," a PMO release said. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were also present during PM Modi's meeting with Foreign Ministers of Central Asian countries. The ministers briefed PM Modi on the deliberations of the India-Central Asia Dialogue held under the chairmanship of External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on Sunday. The Dialogue focused on trade and connectivity, development partnership and regional developments, including the situation in Afghanistan. The India-Central Asia Dialogue has given impetus to the excellent bilateral relations between India and Central Asian countries. India and the Central Asian countries will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations next year, the release added. (ANI)
The NIS said anti-vaccine protests in Europe and other countries could turn violent or become a target for a terrorist attack, and South Korea is no longer free from such threats, reports Yonhap News Agency.

A total of 489 materials instigating or propagandising terrorism have been blocked since an anti-terrorism act took effect in the country in 2016, and the number has been on the rise recently, according to the agency.

In South Korea, multiple suspects were detected after funneling money to overseas terrorist groups or instigating terrorism activities since the 2010s, an official said.

"Terrorism is increasingly becoming a clearly and actually existing threat," the official said, vowing to beef up efforts to protect citizens and public security.

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2021-12-20-13:12:05 (IANS)
The illicit drug industry thriving in Afghanistan strengthens the Taliban regime in Kabul and weakens the Western political interests. Currently, diverging scenarios, in which the Taliban does or does not receive recognition from a broader range of the international community, indicate diversified outcomes to the ever-lasting problem of the illicit economy in the country, according to the European Foundation for South Asian Studies. If the Taliban does not receive considerable recognition, the illicit drugs industry could continue to flourish and would likely provide an underlying network for the workings of the Taliban, according to the report. Further, research suggests that the profit margins are largely inflated in drug trade. Moreover, the pursuance of the illicit drug trade itself offers the Taliban the possibility of furthering objectives and ideals surpassing Afghanistan. Also, the resulting effects to the dynamics beyond Afghanistan show that the drug industry is of a much larger benefit than merely being a stream of revenue for the Taliban. Taliban engagement in the drugs business not only assists in Countering Terrorism Financing but also further allows springing motives and tactical considerations beyond the borders of Afghanistan, according to the report. Over the past decades, the world has witnessed the influential nature of the once insurgent, then ousted, and currently back in power, United Nations designated terrorist group the Taliban. How apparent this influence is has been visible time and time again, according to the European Foundation for South Asian Studies. (ANI)
Moon's order came as the country has seen a surge in serious cases, with the number hitting an all-time high of 1,025 on Sunday amid a shortage of hospital beds across the country, reports Xinhua news agency.

"I ask national university hospitals to focus their medical capacities on treating critically ill Covid-19 patients," Moon said during a meeting with his aides, according to his spokesperson Park Kyung-mee.

The President asked that public hospitals in the capital area change their specialization to infectious diseases where possible, and that private hospitals support the effort by treating other patients, Park said in a written briefing.

"I ask that public sector medical workers be assigned to treat Covid-19 patients as much as possible," Moon also said, citing doctors serving in the military.

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2021-12-20-14:06:01 (IANS)
Further, Putin warmly thanked Narendra Modi for the hospitality extended to the Russian delegation during the high-level visit to New Delhi on December 6. They discussed practical aspects of implementing the agreements reached during the talks, according to the Kremlin press office statement.

Further, they continued the exchange of views on issues of international stability and security, including the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Earlier, the Russian President during his visit to India acknowledged India as a great power, time-tested friend.

Further, India and Russia expanded the range of their strategic relationship by starting their first 2+2 dialogue.

Meanwhile, the Russian President and Prime Minister of India congratulated each other on the upcoming New Year holidays, the statement added.

It was agreed to intensify bilateral contacts in various spheres. (ANI)
The negative assessment on Moon's conduct of state affairs added 0.7 percentage points to 56.8 per cent, according to the Realmeter survey.

Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party fell 1.1 percentage points to 33.1 per cent last week, reports Xinhua news agency citing the survey.

The main conservative opposition People Power Party won 39.2 per cent of support last week, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous week.

The minor centre-right People's Party gained 7.2 per cent of approval score, followed by the minor centre-left Open Democratic Party with 5.6 per cent and the minor progressive Justice Party with 4.1 per cent.

As for the approval rating of presidential candidates, support for the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung retreated 1.7 percentage points over the week to 38.0 per cent last week.

Support for the People Power Party's Yoon Suk-yeol declined 0.8 percentage points to 44.4 per cent last week.

The country's presidential election is scheduled for March 9, 2022.

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2021-12-20-14:50:05 (IANS)
Minsk [Belarus], December 20 (ANI/Sputnik): An attack on the Belarusian embassy in London was committed on Sunday, one diplomat was seriously injured, UK charge d'affaires was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the ministry said on Monday. "On the evening of December 19, 2021, an attack was committed on the Belarusian embassy in London. First, a group of people damaged the facade of the building of the foreign establishment, and then the arriving Belarusian diplomats were physically attacked. One of them was seriously injured and required urgent medical attention. A healthcare facility diagnosed with a broken nose, mild concussion and a traumatic tooth fracture," the ministry said. After the arrival of law enforcement agencies, the radicals attempted to escape from the scene. However, a number of the attackers were detained by the London diplomatic police. "It has been established that the persons are presumably included in the radical emigre grouping Nadzeya," the statement says. "The UK charge d'affaires was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, to whom a strong protest has been lodged with the demand to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as inform the Belarusian side about the progress of the procedural actions and their results," the ministry added. (ANI/Sputnik)
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has asked the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take a strong public stand against the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s "genocide and crimes" against humanity against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims in East Turkistan. "We call on you to take a firm stand against the PRC's human rights abuses and to support efforts by Uyghur and international organizations and governments worldwide to bring these to an end," WUC said in an open letter to OIC on Saturday. Since 2016, millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps in East Turkistan, where they are exposed to systematic torture, rape, and forced labour, amongst other abuses, the letter said, adding, the internment camp system forms part of the PRC's targeted attack on every expression of a distinct Uyghur ethnic identity, which includes a severe crackdown on Islam and Uyghur religious identity. WUC also said that ordinary religious behaviour, such as possessing a Quran, praying, having a beard, or wearing a veil are all reasons for Uyghurs and others to be detained in one of the internment camps, where detainees are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. Furthermore, thousands of mosques, shrines, graveyards and other sites of religious significance in East Turkistan have been destroyed or damaged, WUC added. The PRC's systematic human rights violations against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims have already been recognized by the United States government and seven national parliaments to constitute crimes against humanity and genocide. Most recently, these crimes have been confirmed by the independent Uyghur Tribunal in London, which found "beyond reasonable doubt that the PRC ... has committed genocide" under the Genocide Convention, the WUC letter read. Stressing the OIC to follow its charter, the letter said that in Article 1 of the OIC's Charter, you vow "to safeguard the rights, dignity and religious and cultural identity of Muslim communities and minorities in non-Member States". "We simply ask you to remain true to that commitment." The evidence is clear and can no longer be ignored. As Members of the OIC, who proclaim to be the "collective voice of the Muslim world", it would be unconscionable and in clear disregard of your own moral values and principles to close your eyes to the terrible fate of millions of your Muslim brothers and sisters, the letter added. Hitting OIC over its silence on the PRC's egregious crimes against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims, the letter said that Chinese activities do great harm to the OIC's credibility and international standing. "Not only Uyghurs and Kazakhs, but Muslims worldwide are looking at you to do the right thing. We call on you to take a firm stand against the PRC's human rights abuses and to support efforts by Uyghur and international organizations and governments worldwide to bring these to an end," it added. (ANI)
Grim days are ahead for the Chinese economy as the growth rate is to slump below 5 per cent following the property crisis, industrial slump, weak consumption and the fallout from COVID-19-led lockdowns. Think tank China Finance 40 Forum, which has the deputy governor of People's Bank of China (PBOC) as a member, has expressed concerns over growth rate remaining below 5 per cent in case domestic demand fails to improve, reported The Singapore Post. Moreover, with the outbreak of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and possible blacklisting of Chinese companies by the US, GDP growth in 2022 is likely to slump. Global financial services group Nomura has cut economic growth for China in 2022 sharply- 2.9 per cent in the first quarter and 3.8 per cent in the second quarter, reported The Singapore Post. Rob Subbaraman, Nomura's chief economist, said China's GDP growth will slow down to 4.3 per cent from 7.1 per cent in 2021. China's economy had paced at 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021. However, the economic growth will be restricted to 5.3 per cent in 2022, predicted Barclays plc citing power and property crisis. Asian Development Bank too expects slower growth for China- at 5.3 per cent, reported The Singapore Post. Amid the unprecedented power crisis, China saw China's second-biggest property developer, Evergrande, stuck in debt of USD 300 billion. Evergrande's stocks plummeted by nearly 90 per cent since July 2020. The real estate bust is going to spell trouble for China's economy as the housing activity accounts for 29 per cent of GDP. Yan Yuejin, Director of E-house China Research and Development Institution, said "Cities of all classes are under pressure. The current scale of market supply is large and demand is weak." Even retail sales in China is on the decline. In November it dropped to 3.9 per cent as compared to 4.6 per cent in the corresponding month last year. Online sales of physical goods and auto sales too have gone downward, reported The Singapore Post. "Headwinds and uncertainties are clouding the recovery pace of China's economy," said Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance. Moreover, there are reports that Chinese companies listed on Wall Street will not be removed from the US exchanges in the next three years. US government is set to blacklist eight big Chinese companies for their alleged involvement in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslims, reported The Singapore Post. The investment and export sanctions on these companies have caused stocks of Chinese healthcare and technology to tumble as many more companies from China are expected to be blacklisted. (ANI)
PM Modi exchanged views with Foreign Ministers of Central Asian countries on the developments in the region.

"Met the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. We discussed ways to further strengthen India's close partnership with Central Asia, and also exchanged views on developments in the region," the Prime Minister said in a tweet on Monday.

The Central Asian Foreign Ministers conveyed the greetings of their Presidents to Prime Minister Modi and emphasised the readiness of their leadership to further strengthen relations with India.

The meeting comes after the Foreign Ministers of Central Asian countries took part in the Third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue, which was chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

PM Modi underlined the importance that New Delhi attaches to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its 'Extended Neighbourhood'. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia and the role of connectivity in that regard. (ANI)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has designated Under-Secretary Uzra Zeya as the country's Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues on Monday (local time). "I have designated Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya to serve concurrently as the United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, an important role she will take on effective immediately. She will also continue to serve as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, a position for which she was sworn in on July 14," said Blinken in a statement. Zeya will coordinate US government policies, programs, and projects concerning Tibetan issues, consistent with the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, as amended by the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020, the statement added. She will promote substantive dialogue, without preconditions, between the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Dalai Lama, his representatives, or democratically elected Tibetan leaders in support of a negotiated agreement on Tibet. Emphasising that Zeya will promote respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Tibetans, including their freedom of religion or belief, said Blinken, adding, she will support efforts to preserve their distinct historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage. Special Coordinator Zeya will further support US efforts to address the humanitarian needs of Tibetan refugees and diaspora communities, including those in the United States who have faced threats and intimidation instigated by the PRC. She also will promote activities to protect the environment and sustainably manage the water and other natural resources of the Tibetan plateau. Consistent with the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018, she also will seek to increase access to Tibet for US officials, journalists, and other citizens, read the statement. Zeya will work closely with Tibetan cultural, religious, and political leaders, the US Congress, international allies and partners, and civil society representatives on these matters. This designation demonstrates the Administration's commitment to advance the human rights of Tibetans, help preserve their distinct heritage, address their humanitarian needs, and meet environmental and water resource challenges of the Tibetan plateau, Blinken stated. (ANI)
China has set up villages inside Bhutanese territory and experts said it is an indication that the country wants to do something similar in other neighbouring countries in the future, a media report said. Bhutan and China share more than 400km long border. The two countries have signed an MoU with regard to expediting boundary negotiations. A three-step roadmap was finalised in April 2021 when the 10th Expert Group meeting was held in Kunming. The roadmap is China's way of getting Bhutan to accept the changed ground situation by the construction of its settlements within Bhutanese territory, which, in areas like Doklam, present a warning sign to New Delhi, according to the Policy Research Group. A satellite image was recently in the news which many experts claimed has shown China's establishment of at least four villages nearly three to four kilometres deep inside the disputed territory along the border with Bhutan, said POREG. Villages that are occupied by China are located at a short distance from Doklam and are in an area of about 100 sq km. Several rows of houses and new roads are visible in the satellite picture in all four villages, which all are located in mountainous terrain. Two of these villages are fairly large, said POREG. The communist regime was developing a village near Doklam in Pangda, which is located on the West Bank of the Torsa River. The village is nearly 2.5 km inside the Bhutanese border. Beijing makes claims that Pangda is located in its Tibet Autonomous Region's Yadong county. Pangda as seen in recent satellite pictures and from China's own official statements is one of the 628 moderately well-off villages, or what the Chinese term as Xiaokang. China is in plans to do the same with other neighbours in the region as it is doing with Bhutan, according to POREG. China's move to create disputes in its neighbourhood aims to ease insecurities arising out of increasing public dissent at home. Beijing in its domestic affairs is battling falling incomes, rising unemployment, and other socio-economic challenges, said POREG. (ANI)
Taliban's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday downplayed remarks made by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Islamabad that the Islamic State attacks Pakistan from Afghanistan. Muttaqi said at a press conference in Kabul that the remark made by Khan is not an insult to Afghanistan. He added that his remarks were critical of the former governments, which may have therefore caused former government officials to feel compelled to show a reaction, reported Tolo News. "It was a summit, everyone has an opinion," said Muttaqi, adding, "Imran Khan criticized the former (Afghan) governments. I think officials of the former governments felt obligated to react, I don't see (Khan's remarks) as insulting." On Sunday, at the OIC Summit, Khan said, "We have had attacks from (the) Afghan border, from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), into Pakistan." Khan's remarks sparked a response from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghans on social media. Karzai called Khan's remarks "an attempt to sow discord among Afghans, and an insult to the Afghan people." "Allegations that ISIS is active in Afghanistan, threatening Pakistan from Afghanistan, is clear propaganda and in fact the opposite is true. The threat of ISIS has been directed from Pakistan against Afghanistan from the very onset," Karzai added in a series of tweets. Muttaqi said that if the Pakistan PM meant that a weak Afghan government would not be able to control the Islamic State threat, that is another issue, and he hopes it will never happen. (ANI)
Speaking with his Malaysian counterpart in Islamabad Cavsuoglu said, a delegation that will also include a technical team of the two countries is supposed to visit Afghanistan to assess the nature of controlling these airports, reported Khaama Press.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August, Kabul International Airport was mostly destroyed by the forces that were then repaired by a Qatari technical team.

The delegation is supposed to submit suggestions of the two countries to the Taliban by next week, reported Khaama Press.

Kabul International Airport is also rumoured to be among the five airports but names of all the airports are not disclosed yet.

Cavusoglu also met Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Motaqi on the sideline of the OIC session in Islamabad and discussed the issue.

Earlier, the Taliban had asked Turkey and Qatar to take control over Kabul International Airport but Turkey had proposed to send their own security personnel with a technical team that was refused.

It is still not clear whether the Taliban will allow the security forces of Turkey to Kabul or not, reported Khaama Press. (ANI)
The US Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, through its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) office, is offering a reward for information on the terrorist attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh that left US citizen Avijit Roy dead and his wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, seriously injured. The Secretary of State has authorised a reward of up to USD 5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of anyone involved in the murder of Roy and the attack on Ahmed. On February 26, 2015, Roy and Ahmed, both Bangladesh-born US citizens, were visiting Dhaka to attend a book fair when they were attacked by assailants with machetes. Roy was killed and Ahmed survived with critical injuries. "This investigation remains open, and we are seeking information that will assist law enforcement agencies in bringing to justice the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attack," the US State Department said in a statement on Monday. A total of six individuals were charged, tried, and convicted in Bangladesh. Two of the convicted conspirators, Syed Ziaul Haque (aka Major Zia) and Akram Hussain were tried in absentia and remain at large. Two related groups have claimed responsibility. Ansarullah Bangla Team, an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist group based in Bangladesh, claimed responsibility for the attack. Shortly thereafter, Asim Umar, the now-deceased leader of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), posted a widely circulated video claiming that AQIS followers were responsible for the attack on Roy and Ahmed, the statement added. In 2016, the Department of State designated AQIS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224, which provides authority to sanction terrorists and those who support terrorists or terrorist acts. (ANI)
Khan on Sunday at the OIC's session said that not allowing women to get an education has been part of the culture of the Afghan people and the world should respect that.

Taking to various social media platforms, Afghans said that women were teaching and studying at universities before the establishment of Pakistan, reported Khaama Press.

Some said that Kabul University has been founded in 1932 while Pakistan emerged in 1947.

A large number of social media activists posted photos and video clips of ancient Afghanistan where women would go to universities and schools and they were part of the cabinets in different governments, reported Khaama Press.

Former President Hamid Karzai said that the statements of Imran Khan are inflammatory and disrespectful and asked Khan to stop interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs, reported Khaama Press.

Afghanistan's former ambassadress to Norway Shukria Barakzai also said that the comments show his lack of knowledge of Afghanistan's history.

Leader of Pashtoon Tahafuz Movement (PTM) Manzoor Pashteen in a Twitter post also condemned and said that Imran Khan's comments are false and negative.

Pashteen said that Pashtoons never denied education to girls nor denied their rights. "Stop this colonialism," he wrote, reported Khaama Press.

Furthermore, activists on social media also reacted to Imran Khan's statements and added that his comments are humiliation to the Afghan people and the Islamic system. (ANI)
The International Campaign for Tibet has welcomed the appointment of Uzra Zeya as the US new special coordinator for Tibetan issues and expressed hope that she will work proactively at promoting dialogue between the Dalai Lama's envoys and the Chinese leadership. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced on Monday that Zeya, the undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, will serve as the special coordinator for Tibetan issues, effective immediately. Zeya, who has decades of high-level experience in US foreign policy--including on the issue of Tibet--will now serve as the Biden administration's point person on efforts to help resolve the Tibetan issue, promote Tibetan identity, protect Tibetan culture and heritage and support the human rights of the Tibetan people, who have lived under China's oppressive rule for more than six decades. Zeya will be the first Indian American to serve in the role. India is home to the world's largest population of Tibetan exiles. "The International Campaign for Tibet welcomes Uzra Zeya's appointment as the new US special coordinator for Tibetan issues," ICT Interim President Bhuchung K. Tsering said. "We anticipate that as someone familiar with the Tibetan issue, Zeya will work proactively at promoting dialogue between the Dalai Lama's envoys and the Chinese leadership, as well as at advocating for US interests in Tibet, and advancing the cause of Tibetan Americans and Tibetans around the globe." "As mandated by the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of last year, we urge Special Coordinator Zeya to proactively take the lead in gathering support from like-minded countries to formulate a common approach on the Tibetan issue. We look forward to working with Special Coordinator Uzra Zeya," Tsering said. Zeya's appointment follows bipartisan letters from Congress sent to Zeya on Dec. 14 under the assumption that she would become the next special coordinator. The letters--led by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Chris Smith, R-NJ--lay out several areas where Congress and the administration can work together to advance US policy on Tibet. Namgyal Choedup, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration to North America, said: "On behalf of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, I congratulate Under Secretary Uzra Zeya on her appointment as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. We look forward to working closely with her, particularly on resolving the issue of Tibet through the Middle Way Approach. We would also like to thank both the US Congress and Administration for their unwavering support to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for the just cause of Tibet." Blinken said: "This designation demonstrates the Administration's commitment to advance the human rights of Tibetans, help preserve their distinct heritage, address their humanitarian needs, and meet environmental and water resource challenges of the Tibetan plateau." (ANI)
A single People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare plane entered the southwest corner of the ADIZ, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

In response, Taiwan sent aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to track the PLAAF planes, Taiwan News reported.

A total of 60 Chinese planes have been tracked in Taiwan's ADIZ so far this month, including 36 fighter jets, two bombers, and 22 spotter planes. Chinese military aircraft have been monitored in the identification zone every day this month except for on Dec. 5, 12, and 17.

China has been regularly sending warplanes into Taiwan's air defence zone.

Taiwan's defence ministry has been publishing information about such flights since September 17 last year, amid a growing incidence of intrusions into its ADIZ by Chinese military planes.

Air defence identification zones are early warning systems that help countries detect incursions into their airspace.

Any aircraft entering such an area is supposed to report its route and purpose to the "host" nation, though the zones are classified as international airspace and pilots are not legally bound to make such a notification.

Since mid-September of last year, Beijing has stepped up its grey-zone tactics by regularly sending planes into Taiwan's ADIZ, with most instances occurring in the southwest corner of the zone and usually consisting of one to three slow-flying turboprop planes.

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. (ANI)
File photo. Visalia police found a threat aimed at Mt. Whitney High School was unfounded.

An El Monte Middle School student, accused of sending threatening messages on social media to "shoot up" the school, was arrested on Friday.

On Friday, Tulare County deputies responded to the alleged threats made by the 13-year-old Cutler-Orosi student.

"This is an isolated incident and is not related to the recent social media threats on Tik Tok," a press release from the Tulare County Sheriffs Department reads. "[Threats] will not be tolerated and those who make them will face serious consequences. They are not a joke, and they will not be treated like one."

Tik Tok rumor prompts national and local school, police response

The student's arrest follows a social media trend that has been reported throughout Tulare County.

On Friday, schools across the country were on high alert after a rumor on Tik Tok challenging students to call in bomb threats and school shooting threats quickly spread. That social media post did not originate in Tulare County and there have been no local or credible threats, detectives said.

Visalia Unified provided increased administrative support on its campuses Friday in addition to Visalia Police Department Youth Service Officers.

Tik Tok tweeted in response to the rumors:

"We handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness, which is why we're working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok."

This year, the 'Devious Licks' Tik Tok trend challenged students to film themselves stealing items from campus.

To provide the Tulare County Sheriffs Department with information regarding the alleged threat, call Detective Todd Bruce at 802-9474. To report possible threats of violence, call the department's Tip Now Line at 725-4194, or e-mail tcso@tipnow.com.

Lauren Jennings covers education and news for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow her on Twitter @lolojennings. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 13-year-old student accused of posting threats to social media arrested
Donning orange bibs, a group of women fan across a Johannesburg township notorious for crime, knocking on doors and stopping anyone they come across on the streets, including teenagers returning from school.

They are called gender-based violence brigades and their mission is herculean: to confront South Africa's plague of femicide and violence against women and children.

The cases are gruesome, and the numbers are dizzying.

A law student was murdered, her body chopped into pieces and stuffed into a suitcase. Another university student was raped, bludgeoned to death with an industrial weighing scale inside a post office. An eight-months pregnant woman was hanged from a tree.

"We can't just ignore what we (see) until justice takes its course," said Juliet Ngonyama, 52, her orange bib hanging from her shoulders.

Orange is a symbol of revolution in South Africa. In this case it symbolises the activists' determination to curb the violence that has worsened since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

As the women speak with residents, they unearth cases that would have otherwise gone unreported.

Walking in pairs, they engage whoever they come across -- male or female.

"Gender-based violence is abusing women, children and men emotionally physically, financially and psychologically," is their opening refrain.

South Africa has the unenviable reputation having some of the world's highest levels of violence against women.

- 100 daily rapes -

More than 100 rapes are reported daily, while on average a woman is murdered every three hours, according to official data.

The latest quarterly crime statistics showed a 7.1-percent increase in rapes, with 9,556 women raped between July and September.

"These statistics are shameful," an exasperated President Cyril Ramaphosa said in November.

He has characterised violence against women as a "second pandemic" after Covid-19.

"We are in the grip of a relentless war being waged on the bodies of women and children that, despite our best efforts, shows no signs of abating.

Story continues

"If a nation's character can be judged by how it treats women and children, then we are falling desperately short," he said.

The Gauteng provincial government started the women's brigades in August last year "to ensure that victims are reached out to in their household through a door-to-door campaign," said the campaign's coordinator, Senosha Malesela.

"Overall we are seeing an increased number of... cases being opened in police stations," he said.

On that day in Rabie Ridge township, neighbours alerted the brigades to a 22-year-old woman who had been repeatedly abused by her brother.

She was too petrified to discuss the details because her brother was nearby. Instead, she gave her phone number for the brigades to follow up later that evening.

Women like her, trapped within the same space as their abusers, often end up at shelters. But South Africa only has about 100 such shelters to serve the entire country, and not all provinces fund them well.

The Nisaa centre in Johannesburg's southern Lenasia township is as old as South Africa's democracy.

Its manager Gladys Mmadintsi does not remember a single day when the centre did not house a victim since it opened its doors in April 1994.

"Instead of going down,... it's worse now," said Mmadintsi, 57.

St. Anne's Home in Cape Town has also seen an increase in abuse since the pandemic.

When AFP journalists visited, one woman had arrived the night before, and another with a baby and toddler in tow arrived that morning.

Pandemic restrictions, especially limits on movement, have caused more women to seek shelter, said St. Anne's director Joy Lange.

"Before, people in abusive relationships could escape by going to work," she said, adding that the "intensity of the violence" has grown.

- 'Violence normalised' -

Parliament in September passed three bills to tighten its laws on gender-based violence, but advocates say that will not address the causes of the problem.

South African men often grow up without fathers, and have also suffered from violence, said Craig Wilkinson, founder of non-profit organisation, Father A Nation.

With false notions of masculinity and rampant unemployment, men are in "a perfect storm", he said.

"No amount of law enforcement can fix broken and wounded men," he said. Legislation alone is "like putting a lid on a pressure cooker. There's going to be an explosion. You have got to deal with the pressure".

"We need to re-father our men, validate them, restore them, teach them how to use their strength."

Violence targeted at women is so normalised that "it's a lot more difficult for people to come out and seek help and to try to help other survivors", said Nisaa programs manager Sima Diai.

It took Nathalie, 40, who has been at Nisaa for two months, a decade before she sought help. She recounted endless bouts of abuse, being hit with a crowbar and suffering three broken ribs.

Jacqueline, 29, has been at St Anne's for nine months. She recalls "that guy beat me so badly, I hated myself for letting that happen".

She's not laying charges against her abuser, but is glad she survived "because you have a story to tell".

sn-gs/pvh
Dec. 20ASHTABULA  The American Legion Riders, Post 103, donated $1,000 to the Ashtabula County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, in memory of Sarah E. Harper.

Harper, 38, a former American Legion Post 103 employee, died Aug. 14, 2017 at home.

An Ashtabula native, she graduated from Harbor High School in 1997 and the Cleveland Institute of Dental.

The American Legion Riders' mission is to take care of veterans, children and the community. They work year-round to raise money for local organizations, such as Wounded Warriors In Action, Catholic Charities of Ashtabula County, The Ashtabula City Police Department K-9 Unit and many more.

The riders' also hold toy and food drives to support local families in need.

The MHRS Board plans to use the money to finance housing for individuals in recovery, who are in need of a safe, supportive place to live, said Kaitie Park, director of community engagement, prevention and planning at the MHRS Board.

"The Ashtabula County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board would like to thank the America Legion Riders from Post 103 for their donation in helping us expand substance use recovery supports in Ashtabula County," she said.

For more information on The American Legion Riders, visit legion.org/riders.
SPRAGUE  Passing by the former American Legion Robert O. Fletcher Post 4 building in Norwich, you would have seen the large howitzer, which has sat outside the clubhouse for decades.

Until Friday morning, that is.

With the sale of the Post 4 building to Wiese Construction earlier this year, members have slowly been moving the last of their things out from the clubhouse. Local company Collins & Jewell drove the howitzer, a large piece of deactivated artillery, by truck to its new home in the Sprague War Memorial Park, where it now sits on cement pads overlooking the Shetucket River.

State Senator Cathy Osten and Collins and Jewell Chief Financial Officer and Principal Chris Jewell talk after the howitzer from the former Norwich American Legion Post 4 building was moved to the War Memorial Park in Sprague

The idea for moving the howitzer came from Post 4 member H. Tucker Braddock. Braddock called state Sen. Cathy Osten, who is also the post commander for the American Legion Joseph St. Germaine Post 85 in Sprague, if Post 85 would accept the howitzer, to which the Post 85 members agreed. The howitzer takes the spot of a machine gun in the War Memorial Park, which Osten said disappeared years ago.

The guys always wanted something to take its place and when it was offered to us, we were like jeez, we dont want it to go back (to the military), Osten said. We want to keep it in the area.

More: One defendant was found guilty of Griswold triple murder. What's next for his sister?

Like many, Osten believes its important for the military artifact to remain on public display.

Its a recognition of what we have and for our military men and women, and were just trying to make sure we dont forget about the past, Osten said.

The howitzer from the former Norwich American Legion Post 4 building, overlooking the Shetucket River.

Later, Braddock and Collins and Jewell Chief Financial Officer and Principal Chris Jewell were talking over a beer at Epicure in downtown Norwich when Jewell offered to help move the artillery to its new home.

Theres nothing cooler than having our equipment with a howitzer on the back of it, Jewell said.

Collins and Jewell employee Nathan Morris securing the howitzer at the former American Legion Post 4 building in Norwich to be brought to Sprague.

The howitzer was connected to a truck, and carefully dragged and pushed onto a flatbed truck, driveway gravel crackling underneath. Metallic thuds and the clanking of chains could be heard while Collins & Jewell employees Nathan Morris and Jim Street secured the howitzer to the flatbed.

Story continues

Jewell said the howitzer was easier to move than he anticipated, as he didnt expect the wheels to still be usable.

We thought we needed a fork truck to lift it up, Jewell said. Even though its been sitting as long as it has, its been built right.

More: Rent prices rise nationally, nights get cold, and Danielson shelter opens for third winter

Once the howitzer arrived in the Baltic section of Sprague, people who live across the street from the small War Memorial Park watched, either from their doorstep or from the parks gazebo.

One man watching was Rich Lurette, a member of, and a past state commander for, the Sons of the American Legion, sitting near his front step.

Im all ready for the pictures, Lurrette said.

Sprague resident Rich Lurette watches the howitzer get put in place at the War Memorial Park.

Lurrette is also a fan of the howitzer coming to the park and believes these artifacts should also be seen by the public.

It means a lot to all of us, Lurrette said.

The howitzer was reattached to the smaller truck, and pulled off the flatbed. A bench was temporarily disassembled so the truck would have room to back it into place, aligning it with the concrete pads. Once the tires were in place, the howitzers arms were outstretched over smaller pads at the end. Then, the arms were lowered and then anchored into place.

The howitzer arriving in Sprague.

When the howitzer, long rendered unusable, was being secured, jokes were made about defending Sprague from the neighboring town of Scotland and that it would help the fishermen across the Shetucket get more salmon and trout.

Now that the Howitzer is in place, Osten said Post 85 will clean up some of the plants that obscure the park from people passing by on the nearby bridge.

Anyone familiar with Post 4 would also remember the torpedoes outside. Those have been given to the City of Norwich, and are in storage until they can be displayed again.

The howitzer at the former American Legion Robert O. Fletcher Post 4 site in Norwich, about to be loaded on a flatbed on Friday

Post 4 itself has been through rough times. When Post 4 moved into the Laurel Hill Building in 1961, Post Historian Richard Russ said there were 764 members. Now, the post has 87 members.

Post 4 itself has also had money issues. After problems involving the bar under a prior post commander, the Post surrendered its liquor license in 2019, and planned to generate revenue through hall rentals. However, the pandemic caused that hall rental plan to not work. Between debts and needed repairs, the Post 4 membership felt it was too much to keep using the building and decided to sell it.

More: Connecticut gift guide: Shop local for coffee, hand-carved cheeseboards, jewelry and more

Currently, Post 4 meets in the Bozrah Congregational Church. Russ said the group has been trying to keep up with whats going on and theyve invested the money left from the sale, in hopes of saving up for a new building. There isnt a plan yet for a new building, since Post 4 needs more funds.

We have to grow our membership and continue adding to the funds, Russ said.

American Legion Robert O. Fletcher Post 4 Historian Richard Russ talks with Post Member H. Tucker Braddock about the sign from Post 4's old building.

However, not all posts need their own hall. Osten said her post hasnt had their own space in around 30 years. Osten said Post 85 has been meeting at the Sprague Rod and Gun club. She said its been hard to get younger veterans to join the organization for years.

More: New guidelines aim to take the guesswork out of historic building repairs in Norwich

Osten said its a matter of the nature of supporting veterans being different now, from newer organizations popping up, to resources like the Veterans Rally Point being available.

I dont know if its a changing time, but its a changing world we have now, changing economy, Osten said.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: "Make sure we dont forget about the past" howitzer moved to Sprague
Gitcoin, a crowdfunding platform, discontinued a campaign aimed at helping Farsi-speaking students learn Ethereum coding, in another sign U.S.-based cryptocurrency companies are becoming extra cautious about obeying sanctions.

The grants suspension followed blockchain startup ConsenSys removal of 50 Iranian students from its smart-contract programming course and developer Virgil Griffiths guilty plea to a sanctions conspiracy charge for giving a talk in North Korea.

The fundraiser resumed on another platform, Barcelona, Spain-based Giveth, and ultimately raised over $7,558 for volunteers of Iranian origin who created the course and will publish it for anyone Farsi-speaking to take for free.

However, the volunteers remain bewildered: Despite blockchain technologys promise of a borderless future without discrimination, real-world politics still rule.

It was really a big shock, one of the courses creators, Sahar Rahbari, told CoinDesk.

Kyle Weiss, Gitcoins chief operating officer, said it shut down the campaign not just because it was somehow related to Iran (where Farsi is spoken), but that the grant had in its description that it was financially supporting people in a sanctioned nation, which is an OFAC violation.

A spokesperson for U.S. Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control referred CoinDesk to its webpage detailing Iran sanctions.

There are other Farsi community grants on [the] platform that we are proud to see receive funding, Weiss told CoinDesk by email. In this case, the education they are providing was immaterial in our decision (we are unsure if they filed for an exemption to provide the education to individuals in a sanctioned nation). The problem was with them transferring funds to people located in a sanctioned nation.

The grant proposal mentioned Farsi-speaking individuals from Iran, which gave Delaware-incorporated Gitcoins team pause, Weiss said.

The grants details could be perceived a number of ways, but given our teams ability to really discern the truth and the liability we assume as a U.S. entity, the decision was made to mark their grant inactive as there was too much doubt, he said.

Story continues

Even though U.S. sanctions on Iran do not forbid educational activities outright, there are some caveats, sanctions experts previously told CoinDesk.

Plus, the sanctions regulations havent been written with regard to online courses, so the interpretation of what is and is not allowed there might get tricky for U.S. companies.

Abundance of caution

Gitcoin grants work like this: First, the application receives contributions from the community to its Ethereum wallets. Then, Gitcoin matches the sum raised with the corresponding amount of DAI, the dollar-denominated stablecoin, from the projects treasury.

Ann Brody, a PhD student focusing on Ethereum, told CoinDesk she helped to write the grant proposal and put it on Gitcoin on Dec. 7.

Brodys application only lasted one day. The day after she published it she got an email from the Gitcoin team saying the grant may violate U.S. law, so the grant was rendered inactive out of an abundance of caution.

Our North Star remains facilitating the buildout of the open web, and staying true to this goal sometimes requires erring on the side of caution to protect the greater mission, read the email, shared by Brody on Twitter.

Gitcoin, in turn, explained the situation in a Twitter thread, saying that a journalist reached out to Gitcoin asking about the teams attitude toward U.S. sanctions.

The reporter (not named in the thread) cited ConsenSys ban of Iranian students from its coding bootcamp and asked if Gitcoin has less liability than ConsenSys Academy.

That brought attention to the grant from the Gitcoin team, and after talking to legal counsel they decided to shut down the campaign: If we had not taken action, then we could have jeopardized the entire network, the thread said.

The team added that, although Gitcoin is working on making the funding process more decentralized, our current cGrants platform is hosted by the U.S.-based entity which will continue to follow U.S. laws and regulations.

Read more: ConsenSys Suddenly Bars Iranian Students From Ethereum Coding Class

Paying it forward

The grant, proposed by an informal group called Women in Blockchain Farsi, is supposed to fund the work of volunteers who put together an Ethereum mentorship program, one of the contributors, Sahar Rahbari, said.

The course will consist of video content and Q&A sessions. It will be available for free; to compensate the volunteers like Rahbari, the team aimed to raise $7,500 in ether and fiat currency.

The course essentially grew out of the initiative ConsenSys Academy, the Ethereum powerhouses educational branch, started last year and shut down this autumn.

Seven Iranian women attended the online coding bootcamp in 2020, funded by grants from the local non-profit CoinIran.

This summer, the programs graduates decided to pass on their knowledge, developing an Ethereum coding course in Farsi for 35 selected students.

Then the crew decided to go further and publish the course content for free. This can help not only Iranians, the grant proposal underscores: Farsi-speaking people live also in the Asian nations of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The course is scheduled to go live this week.

Read more: ConsenSys Grants Help Iranian Women Learn Solidity

Giveth, the platform that took over the campaign from Gitcoin, did not comment by press time.

U.S. companies skittishness is unfortunate, but understandable even to those affected by the situation, said Aisha Amin, a ConsenSys Academy alumna and a course contributor.

Even if there are no strict rules on some areas, when it comes to us [Iranians] there may be legal troubles. Thats why they prefer to keep us away, she told CoinDesk.

Virgil Griffiths shadow

The outcome of Griffiths case definitely influenced Gitcoins decision, Weiss said. Lets not forget the Virgil Griffith story where, tragically, someone who gave a presentation has been charged with very severe crimes and is now in jail.

Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore echoed the sentiment, adding that Griffiths case rattled the Ethereum community. Now, people who traveled to North Korea with the developer, even without giving speeches, are worried about their safety, he said.

At the time, no one expected that his trip to North Korea, just to give a lecture, was going to result in one of the most serious cases the industry has seen. It was a massive tragedy both for him personally and for Web 3 and, to Kyles point, we have a responsibility to ensure that donors or others who have generously supported us in the past (including the Ethereum Foundation, which has similar restrictions related to OFAC rules) were not put at risk, Moore said.

We must always move carefully and live in the present to achieve the future we want to see, he said.

CORRECTION (Dec. 21, 2021, 09:50 UTC): Corrects description of the way Gitcoin grants work.

UPDATE (Dec. 21, 15:00 UTC): Changes verb in headline to hampered from canceled.
Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) declaration Sunday that he opposes President Biden's signature climate and social policy legislation makes the administration's task of meeting its climate goals far more difficult.

Why it matters: The setback to slashing emissions comes as scientists say time is running out to avoid far worse impacts from global warming.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

The big picture: The package Manchin rejected contained more than $300 billion in tax incentives for clean energy and vehicles, and other measures to cut greenhouse gases such as a new fee on methane emissions.

Analysts viewed the bill as vital to achieving the White House's goals of generating 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050, along with meeting its international climate commitments, including a 50% emissions cut below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

Without the policies in the BBBA, "We estimate the United States will fall 1.3 billion tons (CO2-equivalent) short of the nation's 2030 climate commitment, a yawning gap that is unlikely to be bridged by executive action or state policy alone," Jesse Jenkins, a co-author of a major Princeton University analysis of how to get the country to net zero emissions by 2050, told Axios via email.

The legislation is also the linchpin of America's international standing on climate. At the COP26 summit last month, U.S. officials, particularly climate envoy John Kerry, assured international counterparts that the country's commitments would be met.

What's next: Assuming the bill is dead or "just resting," here are some overlapping ways climate policy could play out from here.

A stronger executive branch push

That ranges from new urgency around steps like auto and power plant emissions rules to closing off lands to oil and gas drilling to quickly raising the social cost of carbon.

The latter step would have ripple effects throughout federal regulations.

However, the Supreme Court has signaled that it may look askance at expansive moves by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

And a future administration could undo such measures over time, as the Trump administration demonstrated.

Story continues

A Capitol Hill salvage job

Several environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, signaled an intent to push for continued negotiations, as did multiple lawmakers. So did White House press secretary Jen Psaki (in between her broadside against the senator),

It is likely any new version would be less ambitious to bring the price tag down, but it could still advance clean energy priorities.

The White House could separate out the climate portions of the bill into standalone legislation, but this risks incurring new opposition from Manchin.

"We would not yet bet against long-term green power tax credit extensions in some form, albeit for shorter durations and/or with less generous provisions," ClearView Energy Partners said in a note.

Reality check: Manchin's statement was noteworthy for throwing cold water on the need to speed up the energy transition, asserting that it is already "well underway."

He said moving faster would endanger the reliability of the grid and make the country more reliant on "foreign supply chains."

This adds new doubts to what kinds of tax incentives and other measures he would support in any new legislative text.

The apparent demise of the bill could create other ripple effects.

What we're watching, part 1: Look for pressure on the administration to put climate ideas on the executive agenda that it hasn't previously backed.

They include more direct efforts by financial regulators to discourage investments in fossil fuels. To date, the focus has been on greater risk disclosures and planning.

There could also be pressure from environmental groups on the White House to declare a "climate emergency" after a year filled with devastating extreme weather events tied to climate change.

It's a step Biden hasn't previously endorsed that could provide some flexibility for taking certain administrative actions.

What we're watching, part 2: A cornerstone of special climate envoy John Kerry's work has been putting pressure on China  the world's biggest emitter  to accelerate its climate efforts.

The results have been mixed, and the White House's failure to move sweeping measures through Congress could make his job harder still.

What we're watching, part 3: The markets. Keep an eye on the stock prices of electric vehicles and clean power companies today.

Go deeper: The climate policy effects of Manchin's "no" on Build Back Better

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Nico Bellamy stars in "Red Snow."

Local movie fans might remember Sean Lynch as the precocious 17-year-old filmmaker who rented out the Visalia Fox Theatre back in 2006 to show his locally filmed three-hour gangster epic Milla Vanillas Descent Into Darkness.

Lynch, who graduated from Redwood High School in 2007, majored in film studies at San Francisco State and worked on projects with Francis Ford Coppola. In 2011, he won a $20,000 screenwriting prize from Amazon Studios.

The now Bay Area-based Lynchs first theatrical film Prep School" won several awards at the Studio City Film Festival in 2015 and hit video-on-demand services, where it's still available.

Prep School" a stilted and visually static mashup of young-people-behaving-badly films  didn't work, though. Happily, Lynch's latest film  the darkly comic and bloody vampire genre mashup "Red Snow"  is more effective, even though it suffers from some of the same problems of his debut film.

Dennice Cisneros stars in "Red Snow."

Set in Lake Tahoe over the Christmas holidays, "Red Snow" ( ** 1/2 out of **** on all streaming services now, including Amazon Prime and AppleTV. ) sometimes awkwardly combines elements of vampire films "The Lost Boys" "Twilight" and "The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck" plus a sprinkling of "Misery" for good measure. The hat tips to those titles, though, are just a reminder that those films were better.

More problematic: Even at a brief 80 minutes, "Red Snow" feels undercooked. There are about 50 minutes of a good story here stretched way too thin. But during those 50 minutes, "Red Snow" features memorable characters and some gruesome laughs.

(Another quibble: The bloodsuckers, while quite fierce at first, are dispatched in surprisingly easy fashion as the plot bounces along.)

The movie tells the story of a struggling author (Dennice Cisneros) working on a vampire romance novel. Her Christmas holiday break takes a surprising turn when she rescues a bat that turns into a hunky vampire (Nico Bellamy).

Story continues

Laura Kennon stars in "Red Snow."

It wouldn't be fair to reveal much more details of the plot other than several complications, including a bitchy vampiress (Laura Kennon) and a Helsing-like vampire hunter (Vernon Wells). My favorite scene: the Vampires playing hacky-sack with  well  it's better seen than described.

Lynch handles all this with a straight-ahead, unfussy directorial style that allows his actors and clever screenplay to get laughs. Also clever is the way Lynch uses traditional Christmas tunes for creepy effect.

You wish Lynch had a more fleshed-out story to sustain the entire 80-minute film, though.

Other anti-Christmas movies

Lynch's dark Christmas film got us thinking about other holiday time-set titles that go against the idea of "goodwill to all men" and festive cheer. Here are Choices' favorites picks of incorrigible holiday-themed films.

"Bad Santa" (2003): A movie that should come with a big warning sticker: If you're at all offended by rampant profanity, leering sexuality, blatant alcoholism, and the unapologetic trashing of a beloved Christmas icon, you may want to see something else. For the rest of us poor, twisted souls, "Bad Santa" is an absolute howl. It would be easy to dismiss the film as simply an exercise in bad taste. But the movie has a heart  a coal-black heart, but a heart nonetheless  and it's bitingly funny. Director Terry Zwigoff  the crazed genius behind "Ghostworld" and "Crumb"  gleefully blows past the line of good taste in the first reel. It also features a legendary performance by Billy Bob Thornton, who indeed plays a very, very bad Santa.

"Gremlins" (1984): Co-star Phoebe Cates gives one of the most gruesome Christmas-related soliloquies in movie history in this delightful horror-comedy about ill-tempered green creatures laying waste to a small town in middle America during the Christmas season. Besides Cates' speech about why she hates Christmas, the movie also shows the dangers of disrupting a mother's Christmas cookie-making efforts. The mom's use of a microwave surely invalidates the appliance's warranty.

"Better Watch Out" (2016): A profoundly twisted comedy-thriller that combines "Home Alone" and "The Bad Seed" with some off-kilter Christmas cheer thrown in for good measure. A terrific Levi Miller plays a seemingly angelic young teenager who has a crush on his babysitter but doesn't handle rejection well. Director Chris Peckover keeps the plot moving at a breakneck pace, upping the ante on the mayhem as the movie reaches its clever ending. While the movie is about young teens, you'll probably want to avoid watching it with family members younger than, say, 14. You've been warned.

The Ref

"The Ref (1994): Before Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for an unhappily married man in "American Beauty," he played an unhappily married man in this Christmas movie filled with bile and ill-will. Spacey and his wife (a great Judy Davis) are kidnapped by a master burglar (Denis Leary) who becomes a reluctant marriage counselor for the two battling spouses. It's funny and dark stuff, made even better by the three terrific central performances.

"The Night Before" (2015): There's nothing that says the holidays more than a guy snorting cocaine, acrobatic sex in a filthy bathroom, and two dudes dressed up as Santa beating the hell out of a guy. Those are just some of the debauched highlights  we're not going into details about a series of explicit photos best kept private, thank you very much  of this raunchy film that you most definitely don't want to see with the extended family this holiday season. Seth Rogen, along with co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie, all terrific, play long-time college buddies who celebrate Christmas in decidedly non-traditional ways.

James Ward covers entertainment, news, sports, and lifestyles for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow him on Twitter. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Dark Christmas movie 'Red Snow' directed by Visalia native Sean Lynch
Barstow Community Hospital.

A bomb threat against multiple locations Sunday prompted a brief lockdown at Barstow Community Hospital, forcing the diversion of ambulances.

"There is currently a bomb threat at BCH that is being investigated and cleared by Barstow Police Department," hospital spokesperson John Rader said in an email at 9:08 p.m., adding that the hospital was diverting ambulances to other locations but was not turning away walk-in patients from the emergency room.

Just under half an hour later, Barstow Police Department Capt. Chris Kirby told the Daily Press that the threat was unfounded, though he didn't provide further details.

Rader said in a follow-up email shortly after that the bomb squad had given an all-clear order at the hospital at 820 East Mountain View Street.

Rader said in the initial email that the hospital wasn't the only site named in the threat earlier that Sunday.

"We were just one location mentioned by the caller to the Barstow Police Department," Rader said. It was not clear Sunday night what other locations may have been threatened or if the caller had been identified.

While police called the threat unfounded, an emergency room worker at the hospital told the Daily Press earlier Sunday evening that a police dog had detected explosives at the hospital after officers responded to the threat.

The emergency room worker, who asked not to be named because she was not authorized by superiors to speak to the media, said the area was fully locked down as a result until about 7 p.m., when nurses who were waiting outside to start their night shifts were allowed into the hospital to help other nurses assist patients and complete shift changes.

Authorities did not specify when exactly the bomb threat was made.

Charlie McGee covers the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities for the Daily Press. He is also a Report for America corps member with the GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Bomb threat prompts lockdown at Barstow Community Hospital on Sunday
The United States Department of the Treasury has approved Californias plan to provide $1 billion in mortgage relief, clearing the way for the California Mortgage Relief Plan to provide help to as many as 40,000 struggling homeowners, according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsoms office.

We are committed to supporting those hit hardest by the pandemic, and that includes homeowners who have fallen behind on their housing payments, Newsom said in a statement. No one should have to live in fear of losing the roof over their head, so were stepping up to support struggling homeowners to get them the resources they need to cover past due mortgage payments.

California already has provided renters and landlords with assistance, he noted.

Now, with our California Mortgage Relief Program, we are extending that relief to homeowners, he said.

The program will help homeowners make past due housing payments  to a maximum of $80,000 per household  by making a direct payment to the mortgage servicers.

The funding, which is allocated through the federal American Rescue Plan Acts Homeowner Assistance Fund, is provided as a one-time grant that qualified homeowners will not be required to repay.

Californians at or below 100% of their countys area median income, who own a single-family home, condo or manufactured home, and who faced pandemic-related hardships after Jan. 21, 2020, may be eligible for the program.

Applicants can visit the California Mortgage Relief Program at CaMortgageRelief.org for more information. Online applications will soon be available.
The 12 kidnapped missionaries who found safety in Haiti last week made a daring overnight escape, walking for miles to find help before being flown to the United States, Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said Monday.

Driving the news: Their escape came two months after the police say the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 U.S. and Canadian missionaries in Port-au-Prince and demanded ransom. Five hostages had been released prior to last week's escape.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

Until Monday, the details of the missionaries' ordeal were unknown.

What they're saying: "They found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path that they had chosen to follow and quickly left the place that they were held, despite the fact that numerous guards were close," Christian Aid Ministries spokesperson Weston Showalter said at a news conference.

They used a mountain in the distance, followed the guidance of the stars and prayed to find safety, Showalter said, adding that the group included a 10-month-old, a 3-year-old, a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy.

The group believes it walked up to 10 miles, "traveling through woods and thickets, working through thorns and briers," he said. As the sun came up, the missionaries found someone to make a phone call for help. "They were finally free," Showalter said through tears.

Individuals who were not named provided "funds to pay a ransom and allow the negotiation process to continue, said David Troyer, general director of Christian Aid Ministries. "We are not able to say anything further in respect to these negotiations."

The big picture: Haiti has been plagued by worsening violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July.

"The Administration remains committed to Haitis future and supporting the safety and prosperity of the Haitian people. We will continue to support the Haitian National Police to improve security for all Haitians, as well as U.S. citizens in Haiti," the State Department said last week.

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Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb in the Model T Ford, modified with skis in front and tracks in back, that she used to travel to patients in the winter, photo from the book "Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes."

WOODRUFF - She looks the quintessential grandma in pictures, round face with a wide smile, gray curls poofing from her head, a smile seemingly tailor-made for giving out hugs or a plate of warm cookies.

The images can't show the steely spirit and dogged determination that distinguished Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb and made her famous worldwide.

As one of two doctors in the 1940s and 1950s who practiced in a 300-square-mile swath of Wisconsin's Northwoods, from the Minocqua-Woodruff-Arbor Vitae area to the Upper Peninsula boundary, the Woodruff-based doctor earned people's respect by delivering more than 3,000 babies without losing a child or mother, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

She let nothing stop her from treating her patients. She made house calls in the worst of weather, through sub-zero temps and blinding blizzards. She traveled via snowshoes, canoe, snowplow and a Model T Ford modified with skis in front and tracks in back.

She once traveled more than 376 miles in a day to visit patients in Tomahawk, Rhinelander and Ironwood, Michigan. In the late 1940s, it became clear to her and Woodruff area community members that the community could use a hospital of its own, and she became a driving force behind the effort to build Lakeland Hospital, now known as Howard Young Medical center and part of the Aspirus system. But it wasn't an easy road.

Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb

Dr. Kate, as people called her, would go on to become a pioneer reality TV star after appearing March 17, 1954, on a show called "This Is Your Life." It thrust Dr. Kate into the role of a Wisconsin icon, taking on the mystique of Paul Bunyan or the hodag in Wisconsin. Except she was real.

It's against all odds that Dr. Kate pulled all this off. Becoming a doctor meant she had to buck the wishes of her father and defy the expectations of a sexist society. She was quiet and didn't seek the spotlight, not the kind of personality that brings fame.

Story continues

"She was such a mild-mannered, soft-spoken woman," said Gary Simmons, the vice president of the board of the Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum in Woodruff, which opened in 1988 and preserves the history of Dr. Kate, the Woodruff area and the effort to build the hospital.

"She didn't like the hoopla. ... She was more concerned about her patients."

Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb on snowshoes, a photo from the book "Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes."

Building a hospital

Earlier this month, the Dr. Kate Museum was filled with dozens of third-graders from the nearby Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School, along with parents, teachers and other interested people. The gathering was the capstone of a Dr. Kate curriculum that has been part of third-grade lessons at the school for more than 30 years.

The classes were about history and a prominent local person. But anyone learning about Dr. Kate is also going to soak up lessons about community, perseverance and devotion.

The first thing people need to know about Dr. Kate is that she wasn't alone, said Marsha Doud, secretary of the museum's board and curator.

The entire community supported Dr. Kate and her quest to build a hospital in Woodruff. Part of the reason Dr. Kate gained such respect was because she was willing to travel to care for her patients  but she also knew they would be better served if they had a hospital nearby.

The hospital's official groundbreaking took place in 1952, even though there weren't enough funds to cover the full cost of construction. Hospital board members hoped progress on the hospital would stimulate more donations, but the effort ran out of funds when the building was about three-fourths complete.

Around that time, math teacher Otto Burich was teaching high school students about quantities, and a discussion about what a "million" would look like took place. They decided as a group to collect 1 million pennies.

Math teacher Otto Burich (right) and his students helped launch Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb to fame by collecting a million pennies to build a hospital. His wife, Mary (left), was a nurse who worked with Dr. Kate.

Burich and his students organized a Million Penny Parade in which they encouraged people to bring in their pennies to donate, and wrote hundreds of letters to bolster support. The class reached its goal in April 1953. They donated the pennies to the hospital building effort and construction resumed.

Their effort caught the attention of Ralph Edwards, host of "This Is Your Life," and arrangements were made to profile Dr. Kate on national television. The show was popular with Americans at the time: Edwards would surprise guests and go through a retrospective of their lives, bringing in colleagues, friends and family members to comment. Those who knew Dr. Kate knew she wouldn't consent to being the focus of the show, so they contrived a different reason to get her to Los Angeles.

"She never would have gone on 'This Is Your Life' had they not told her she was going to a medical convention," Doud said.

At the end of the show, Edwards made an appeal to viewers to send pennies, and another $105,000 was collected, enough to complete the building, add additional rooms and purchase equipment.

RELATED: Hodag: The outlandish story of Wisconsin's mythical beast, on its 125th birthday

RELATED: The wild, weird and wonderful Wisconsin story of Louie Spray's world-record muskie

It took 'a lot of grit'

It's been almost 70 years since that triumph, and many people who live in the Minocqua-Arbor Vitae-Woodruff area want to make sure the story isn't forgotten. And they still adore the driven woman who inspired it all.

They are proud of the fact that Dr. Kate became a doctor against the wishes of her father.

"It wasn't ladylike," Doud said. "To become a doctor took a lot perseverance on her part."

That's why the Dr. Kate third-grade curriculum is so important. It's passing Dr. Kate's spirit on to other generations, years after she died in 1956 at age 70.

Among the students soaking in the Dr. Kate mystique this year were twin sisters Sierra and Sofia Stenz.

"She couldn't be a doctor because she was shy," Sierra said, "And her dad didn't want her to be one, and she didn't want him to get mad. Finally she said, 'Hey Dad, I'm going to be doctor,' and he said, 'Yeah.'"

Twin sisters Sierra and Sofia Stenz, third-graders at Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School, say they were inspired by learning about Dr. Kate.

It took a lot of work for Dr. Kate to become a doctor, "and a lot of grit," Sierra said.

"I thought about Dr. Kate a lot when I was writing about her," Sofia said. "She delivered over 3,000 babies!"

Their mother, Christina Bayer, laughed at how learning about Dr. Kate engaged her daughters. "Yeah, they've told me the whole story," she said. "Every night."

The Dr. Kate lessons help bridge generations, too. Mary Anderson, 93, of Arbor Vitae, connected with her neighbor, Charlotte Renkas, 8, when she learned Charlotte was studying about the doctor.

Dr. Kate delivered Anderson's first child in 1953, in Tomahawk, because the Woodruff hospital wasn't completed.

Anderson remembers Dr. Kate as a matter-of-fact physician who was straight to the point.

"Sometimes she was a little gruff," Anderson said. "But she was good."

This banner of Dr. Kate is on display at the museum built in her honor on the site of where her former medical office stood in Woodruff.

To learn more

The Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum is located at 923 Second Ave., Woodruff. It's open during the summer tourism season, but offer information on Dr. Kate on its website: http://drkatemuseum.org/

Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wisconsin northwoods' legend Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb
Around 100 people participated in the Children's Trail Candy Cane hunt last Saturday. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas had hidden candy canes all around the trail in Major City Park and members of the community worked to find them all.

CHEBOYGAN  The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was up to his old antics, but this time he visited the Cheboygan Children's Trail, hiding candy canes all along the trail for people to find.

"The kids and their families walked the trail and returned with a handful of candy canes," said event coordinator Connie Rieger. "The Grinch popped out of the woods and was on and off the trail, making the candy cane hunt loads of fun."

Rieger said there were 100 people who attended the event. The Grinch's dog, Max, also joined the families on the trails, helping to find all of the candy canes the Grinch had hidden.

The Grinch led some of the children and their families through the trails, helping to find the candy canes the Grinch had stolen and hidden.

When the children and their families returned from hunting down and finding all of the candy canes, everyone was welcomed to enjoy some hot cocoa and cookies as a reward for their hard work.

"Santa showed up and gave books for kids to take home," said Rieger. "As always, the volunteers were fantastic and made the event possible."

This event had been rescheduled to Dec. 18, after a winter storm impacted the original date of the event a week prior.

Santa Claus also made the trip to the Children's Trail last weekend, to hand out books for the children to take home and hear the children's Christmas wishes.

The Children's Trail, which Rieger and her husband Dale were instrumental in bringing to Cheboygan, is already planning on bringing this event back next year, due to its success.

"The fact that we have a tent that can block the wind, hold a wood stove, and be open in the front makes the weather more bearable," said Rieger. "There was a lovely sprinkling of snow and apparently it was just the amount needed for both the Grinch and Santa to travel to Cheboygan."

The Grinch popped out of the woods during the event on the Children's Trail, to visit with the children and their families, and to check the progress of the candy cane hunt.

This event at the Children's Trail was sponsored by the Great Start Parent Coalition and Collaborative, the City of Cheboygan's Downtown Development Authority, Cheboygan's 4-H Program, the Cheboygan Parks and Recreation Trails Committee and Great Lakes Grill.

The trail  on the south end of Major City Park  is open year round to residents and visitors to the city. It features a main trail, which is around a mile long, as well as several different, expanded loops, for those who want to explore more. There are also several different interactive pieces of art, a Little Free Library, and a painting dedicated to the United States Coast Guard on the trail.

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The Children's Trail plans on hosting this event again next winter, due to the success of this first event.

Parking for the trail can be found behind the Cheboygan Recreation Center, 400 Cleveland Ave. To find the trail, you can go to the park and walk to the river. You will see the trail on the left. Or you can cross the pedestrian bridge and be close to the beginning of the trail. The story walk starts at the north end of the trail, which is where the sidewalks end behind the ball fields.

For those who would like to enjoy the trails during the winter  when the snow gets deeper  snowshoes will be available for loan at the recreation center. These can be checked out from the center Monday through Friday, before 3:30 p.m.

After finding all of the candy canes on the Children's Trail, the families were invited inside the warming tent for some cookies and hot cocoa, and to visit with Santa Claus.

In February, 2020, snowshoes in child and adult sizes were purchased with a grant from the The Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan. Dunham's of Cheboygan made the grant money go a little farther with a discount given for the snowshoe purchase.

The snowshoes are kept at the Cheboygan Recreation Center and are loaned for use on the Children's Trail. Volunteers from Nordic Rocks ski program placed child sized cross country skis at the recreation center as well. The snowshoes and skis will be available for loan again once the snow flies.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Children's Trail hosts Grinch-themed Christmas event
BEIJING (Reuters) -Prospects for democracy in Hong Kong are "bright", China said on Monday in a white paper, a day after pro-Beijing candidates won a legislative election in the city in record low turnout after a sweeping Chinese crackdown on its freedoms.

China had "restored order" and brought "democracy back on track" in Hong Kong, the State Council said in the white paper on developments in the former British colony.

The Asian financial hub was rocked by anti-Beijing and pro-democracy protests for several years before Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on it in 2020.

The white paper attributed the turmoil to "anti-China forces" and the "foreign enemies" backing them, adding that it had "advanced the system of democracy" in Hong Kong by amending the election methods for its legislative assembly.

Candidates in Sunday's election were vetted for "patriotism" and pro-democracy candidates were largely absent, having declined to run or been jailed or forced into exile.

Pro-Beijing candidates swept to victory.

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel)
MarketWatch

Is there a job that comes with the prospect of a six-figure income, high job satisfaction and has enough job openings to make it a real possibility? Companies are always keen to use intel to improve efficiency and learn more about their customers and, so, computer scientists are in high demand. Java developers are No. 1 on Glassdoors 50 Best Jobs in America for 2021.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) heads to the House Chamber for a vote on Monday, September 20, 2021.





Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said on Sunday that he tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a trip to Ukraine, becoming the third congressional lawmaker to announce a breakthrough infection in one day.

Crow said he tested positive after returning from an official delegation visit to Ukraine. He is fully vaccinated, received a booster dose and is experiencing mild symptoms.

"I just returned from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine and tested positive for a breakthrough COVID infection," Crow wrote in a tweet Sunday night. "I'm thankful to be fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing only mild symptoms (the vaccine is safe and effective)."

The congressman encouraged individuals to get vaccinated and receive their booster shots "to help prevent major illness and protect our community." He said he will continue to advocate for affordable access to rapid and reliable testing for all Americans.

Everyone eligible should get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. I'll continue to push for affordable access to rapid, reliable testing for all Americans.https://t.co/5VqRRGmgmH - Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) December 20, 2021

Hours before Crow announced his diagnosis, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) revealed that they tested positive for COVID-19 breakthrough cases.

Warren said she tested positive on Sunday, noting that she "regularly test[s] for COVID." She said she is experiencing mild symptoms, crediting the vaccine and booster shot for protecting her against serious illness.

Booker said he tested positive on Sunday after experiencing mild symptoms the day before. At the time of his announcement he said his symptoms were "relatively mild."

Story continues

He said that without a full vaccination series and booster shot he is "certain" he "would be doing much worse."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while COVID-19 breakthrough cases are expected, fully vaccinated people who become ill with the virus tend to have less severe symptoms compared to individuals who have not yet received the shot.

The three congressional breakthrough cases come amid a spike of cases nationwide, driven largely by the highly mutated omicron variant.
Associated Press

A former hermit in New Hampshire whose cabin in the woods burned down after nearly three decades on the property that he was ordered to leave has been charged with trespassing there once again, turning a shed that survived the fire into a makeshift home outfitted with a wood stove. There had been an outpouring of support for David Lidstone, 81  better known as River Dave" since he was arrested in July and accused of squatting on property owned by a Vermont man. Lidstone was a local celebrity to boaters and kayakers on the Merrimack River before his property dispute caught the attention of the masses, bringing in over $200,000 in donations to help him start a new, law-abiding life.
BROOKLINE, MA  Booster shots, available at pharmacies/clinics in Brookline, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.



Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in all but a handful of states, including Massachusetts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in Brookline, go to:

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

This article originally appeared on the Brookline Patch
ALPHARETTA-MILTON, GA  Booster shots, available at pharmacies and clinics in Alpharetta-Milton, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in all but a handful of states, including Georgia.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in Alpharetta-Milton, go to:

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

Related: 5th Omicron Case Reported In GA; What Percent Are New Variant?

This article originally appeared on the Alpharetta-Milton Patch
LIVERMORE, CA  Booster shots, available at pharmacies/clinics in Livermore, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in California and all but a handful of states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in Livermore, go to:

Axis Community Health: 3311 Pacific Ave.

Costco: 2800 Independence Dr.

CVS Pharmacy: 1500 First St., 4405 First St., 4300 Las Positas Road

Rite Aid: 968 Murrieta Blvd., 1350 N. Vasco Road

Save Mart Supermarkets: 2000 Portola Ave., 1951 Holmes St.

Safeway: 4495 First St.

Walgreens: 1620 First St.

Walmart: 2700 Las Positas Road

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

This article originally appeared on the Livermore Patch
CALABASAS, CA  Booster shots, available at pharmacies and clinics in Calabasas, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in all but a handful of states, including California.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in Calabasas, go to:

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

This article originally appeared on the Calabasas Patch
MANHATTAN BEACH, CA  Booster shots, available at pharmacies and clinics in Manhattan Beach, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in California.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

Visit the county's website to schedule a booster shot near you.

Here are several locations to book a booster shot in and near Manhattan Beach:

CVS at Target, 1200 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach

CVS, 1570 Rosecrans Ave., Manhattan Beach

Vons 1623 - 4001 Inglewood Avenue, Redondo Beach

CVS - 1880 S Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach

CVS, 2115 Artesia Blvd., SUITE 100, Redondo Beach

Pavilions 2233 - 7 Peninsula Center, Rolling Hills Estates

CVS, 2001 Pacific Coast Highway, Lomita

CVS, 3020 Sepulveda Blvd., Torrance

CVS at Target, 3433 Sepulveda Blvd., Torrance

CVS, 4625 Torrance Blvd, Torrance

Vons 3517 Vons - 24325 Crenshaw Blvd, Torrance

700 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

Vons 2283 - 1221 Gaffey Street, San Pedro

Vons 2162 - 1440 W. 25th St, San Pedro

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The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and help prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.



You can also make an appointment in Los Angeles County to get tested ahead of the holidays. Visit the website to schedule an appointment or find a location for walk-in testing.

This article originally appeared on the Manhattan Beach Patch
NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI  Booster shots, available at pharmacies/clinics in North Kingstown, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in all but a handful of states, including Rhode Island.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in North Kingstown, go to one of the following locations. Supply will affect availability, and some locations require appointments, so make sure to check the links below:

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

This article originally appeared on the North Kingstown Patch
SILVER SPRING, MD  Booster shots, available at pharmacies and clinics in Silver Spring, are the best defense against COVID-19 illnesses as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country, according to health officials.

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant  infections among the vaccinated  are less common among people who have received their third vaccination shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The omicron variant, first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, has been detected in all but a handful of states, including Maryland.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said Friday the Pfizer and Moderna booster shots work well against the omicron variant and that theres no need for a specific vaccine to fight it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant is likely to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the coming weeks. It currently represents 3 percent of new infections.

Public health officials are concerned that vaccination rates  currently 61 percent of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 28 percent have gotten booster shots  are insufficient to fend off a fifth wave of the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, with about 120,000 new cases and 1,200 deaths reported each day, mainly from the delta variant.

To get a booster shot in Silver Spring, go to:

NOTE: These are locations offering vaccines according to Maryland's database. Please check the website or call ahead to see about availability.



Montgomery County Health & Human Services - Silver Spring Civic Center 1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Montgomery County Health & Human Services - Dennis Avenue - 2000 Dennis Ave Silver Spring, MD 20902

Montgomery County Health & Human Services - East County Community Recreation Center - 3310 Gateshead Manor Way, Silver Spring 20904

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Walgreens Silver Spring - 8701 Georgia Ave Silver Spring MD 20910

Walgreens Silver Spring - 1015 Ripley Street Silver Spring, MD 20910

Walgreens Silver Spring - 11215 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring MD 20904

Walgreens Silver Spring - 12222 Veirs Mill Rd Silver Spring MD 20906

Walgreens Silver Spring - 13307 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring MD 20904

Walgreens Silver Spring - 13870 Georgia Avenue Silver Spring MD 20906

CVS Silver Spring - 825 Wayne Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910

CVS Silver Spring - 1290 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD

CVS Silver Spring - 9520 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910

CVS Silver Spring - 1301 Lamberton Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20902

CVS Silver Spring - 11160 Veirs Mill Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20902

CVS Silver Spring - 10113 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20903

CVS Silver Spring - 12359 Georgia Avenue Silver Spring MD 20906

CVS Silver Spring - 12000 Cherry Hill Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20904

CVS Silver Spring - 2271 Bel Pre Road, Silver Spring, MD 20906

Safeway Silver Spring - 909 Thayer Ave Silver Spring MD 20910

Safeway Silver Spring - 116 University Blvd Silver Spring MD 20901

Safeway Silver Spring - 10101 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20903

Giant Food Silver Spring - 1280 East West Highway Silver Spring MD 20910

Giant Food Silver Spring - 8750 Arliss Street Silver Spring, MD 20901

Giant Food Silver Spring - 11221 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20904

Giant Food Silver Spring - 13781 Connecticut Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20906

Giant Food Silver Spring - 3860 International Drive Silver Spring, MD 20906

Lockwood Pharmacy - 10801 Lockwood Drive Suite 190, Silver Spring, MD 20901

Little Acorn Pharmacy - 11161 New Hampshire Ave. Suite 110, Silver Spring, MD 20904

Advanced Neighborhood Pediatrics - 1111 Spring St Suite 220, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Comprehensive Women's Health - 10313 Georgia Ave, Suite 309 Silver Spring, MD 20902

Affordable Healthcare Nurse Practitioner Clinic - 11120 New Hampshire Ave Suite 501, Silver Spring MD 20904

Rehoboth Medical Center LLC - 11223 Lockwood Dr Silver Spring, MD 20901

White Oak Pediatrics - 11161 New Hampshire Ave Suite 301 Silver Spring, MD 20904

Khandagle Medical Associates - 11886 Healing Way Suite 505, Silver Spring, MD 20904

The CDC says Pfizer and Moderna booster shots both provide increased protection against COVID-19 and helped prevent severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

This article originally appeared on the Silver Spring Patch
TOMS RIVER, NJ  As COVID-19 cases spike through New Jersey, infections among hospital staff are increasing as well.

The New Jersey Department of Health shares the number of staff cases at hospitals for the past 30 days. It has reported at least 100 new cases per day among hospital employees statewide since Wednesday.

In the past 30 days, 20.85 percent of cases among New Jersey hospital staff have come from workplace activity, while officials attributed the rest to community spread.

At Community Medical Center in Toms River, there have been 15 new cases in the last 30 days, according to New Jersey's COVID-19 data dashboard. The hospital has 2,411 employees, according to figures from the NJBIZ 2020 hospital directory.

The 15 new cases in the last month is 0.62 percent of the hospital's staff.

The state health department reported 1,902 active hospitalizations among COVID-19 patients as of Sunday  New Jersey's highest total since April 23.

At Community Medical Center, 92.5 percent of its inpatient beds (393 of 425) and 34 percent of its intensive care unit beds (17 of 50) were occupied as of Dec. 9, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services hospital utilization data.

The New Jersey Hospital Association is urging people not to delay medical care, including trips to the hospital.

The organization discovered a significant increase in deaths at home during 2020  95,715 overall, with COVID-19 listed as the primary cause for 16,548 people. Deaths at home never exceeded 76,000 in a single year from 2017-19, according to the New Jersey Hospital Association.

"It's impossible to know whether these excess deaths could have been prevented with timely access to hospital care," said Sean Hopkins, senior vice president of the NJHA's Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation. "But the trends are troubling, and they reinforce a critical message during a public health emergency: Please don't delay seeking the care you need."

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NOTE: This article has been updated to correct the number of inpatient beds that were occupied as of Dec. 9. Patch regrets the error.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.



This article originally appeared on the Toms River Patch
MARYLAND  With the omicron variant of the coronavirus becoming more dominant, Maryland officials are urging all eligible residents to get booster shots as soon as possible.

Gov. Larry Hogan on Sunday said the state of Maryland has surpassed 10 million COVID-19 vaccinations administered.

We have now administered our 10 millionth vaccine, which is an incredible milestone and a tribute to all the health care heroes working every day to get more people vaccinated and boosted, Hogan said on Sunday. Preliminary data shows that higher levels of immunity from booster shots provide critical protection against the omicron variant, making it vital for all eligible Marylanders to get a booster as soon as possible. It is the best way to protect yourself, your family, and your fellow Marylanders against a winter surge.

On Sunday, the Maryland Department of Health showed 1,257 patients hospitalized with COVID-19; up from 1,204 on Friday.

Fifteen COVID deaths were confirmed in the past 24 hours; the state has seen a total of 11,022 deaths from the respiratory virus during the pandemic.



Maryland recorded its first three cases of the omicron variant Dec. 3.

To date, Maryland has reported 10,020,567 vaccinations, including 1,394,360 booster shots; 90.8 percent of Marylanders 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In addition, Maryland is reporting 151,496 vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds, which is 29.1 percent of the age group population.

State health officials strongly encourage all eligible Marylanders 16 and older to get a booster shot to maintain immunity and protect against severe illness.

As Maryland has surpassed 1,200 coronavirus patients in hospitals statewide, state health officials ordered health-care facilities to free up beds for those who are sick. Much of the influx is due to people who aren't vaccinated, the governor said Friday.

"Having surpassed 1,200 COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide, we are triggering a new round of actions for Maryland hospitals, including making available all staffed bed capacity and reducing non-urgent medical surgeries," Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement.

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"The vast majority of these hospitalizations are unvaccinated patients, who remain at grave risk of serious infection, severe illness and death," Hogan said.



A week ago, there were 1,027 Marylanders hospitalized with COVID-19, at which point Hogan announced hospitals had to submit emergency plans by Dec. 15.

Now that more than 1,200 patients are hospitalized with the virus, the state ordered Maryland hospitals as of Dec. 17 to make all bed capacity available. Hospitals are urged to postpone surgeries that would result in an overnight stay and/or use of a ventilator; to convert idle spaces for clinical care; and to use regional and alternate care sites to free up bed space.

Adventist HealthCare Takoma Park Hospital and University of Maryland Laurel Medical Center are open and operating as field hospitals, the Maryland Department of Health told Patch this week.

The state established a Surge Operation Center to handle the expected sustained surge in COVID-19 at hospitals as the omicron variant spreads in the state, Hogan said last week, due to a potential influx of unvaccinated patients.

A vaccine locator is available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

See Also: Beds Scarce At MD Hospitals Amid COVID-19 Surge: Industry Leaders

This article originally appeared on the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Patch
Some neighborhood deer are doing more than just laughing and calling Rudolph names this holiday season.

A Rudolph-looking lawn decoration in Fort Nelson, British Columbia has become the target of bullying by young bucks that seem to mistake it for a real animal  and a likely rival competing for attention from female deer, CBC reported.

The Christmas decoration is actually a 3D archery target made to look like a whitetail deer, UPI reported. It also has a bright red light bulb on its nose.

Arlene Chmelyk, who lives in the home where Rudolph resides, shared a video on Facebook of a young deer interacting with the decoration. The deer seems to glare at Rudolph from a distance before slowly approaching him. He gets momentarily spooked and jumps away, but then slowly circles the Rudolph decoration. Finally, amid the red glow of Rudolphs nose, he gives the decoration an aggressive headbutt, toppling it over, before he bounds away into the snow.

The buck might be especially aggressive around this time of year because its rutting season, or a period of time when deer and other animals approach their breeding season. A common rutting behavior is sparring among bucks, which might help the deer establish a dominance hierarchy among males, according to the Noble Research Institute.

Chmelyk told CBC that her family plans to bring the decoration back year after year, even if the local deer never catch on.

Im like, he has a bright red nose, she said. Im not really sure what they see.

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After 3 weeks in ICU, Arkansas man back home after fall while hanging Christmas lights
"Drakeo was more than music," producer JoogSZN said. "He was a brother and one of my best friends." (Wyatt Winfrey/AP)

Less than three months ago on a pleasant September night, Drakeo the Ruler sauntered onto the Novo stage in downtown Los Angeles, the gleaming diamond chains around his neck accentuating his regal stage name. Stepping through the black curtain while rapping his song Too Icey," his words were nearly overpowered by the crowds roar, his eyes likely blinded from the flood of phone lights before him.

Before he rapped a single bar, it was a special night: It was his first time on a Los Angeles stage since his release from jail in November 2020.

After spending two years in jail on a murder charge for which he was eventually acquitted, he languished for another 14 months at Men's Central Jail while the former district attorney pursued charges of criminal gang conspiracy. Now, finally reunited with his fans, each syllable felt like the first day of spring after a winter of false hope and continued proceedings.

To see him in all his glory, everyone there, camera phones up, singing his lyrics  it had been so overdue because of his legal trouble and COVID  so to finally see it happen was dope to watch, said Victor Ulloa (better known as Rosecrans Vic), founder of Rosecrans Avenue, an L.A. hip-hop website and concert promoter. It was a historic moment.

On Dec. 18, the man born Darrell Caldwell was set to perform again at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival, until he was stabbed during a backstage altercation. Early the next morning, he was pronounced dead at age 28. Without him, there is now a gaping hole in the fabric of his city's music that's larger than the pile of uchies  a.k.a. Benjamin Franklins, or $100 bills  he stands over on the cover of his breakthrough mixtape "So Cold I Do Em."

Drakeo the Ruler was a one-of-a-kind penman, eschewing traditional English for a coded language of references and surrogates that could fill its own dictionary. Over rattling drums and spine-chilling synths on his 11 albums and mixtapes, he muttered his sinewy parables in a muted tone, often with a creeping tremor as if an enemy might sneak into his recording booth at any moment.

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He called it nervous music."

I live a nervous life. I gotta look around and watch my back from police and these other [people] out here, he told Jeff Weiss , veteran music journalist and longtime advocate for his freedom, in The Times in 2018. [People] want to kill me. I cant be driving around in $100,000 cars on the run, listening to soft-ass [music].

Laura Chavez, right, lights a candle at a makeshift memorial on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in honor of Drakeo the Ruler. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Drakeo grew up in South Central L.A. and attended Washington High School in Westmont. Never very interested in school  he rarely made it three months without being kicked out, he said  he turned to music.

His first big break came in 2015 when Mustard, the producer behind L.A. ratchet music, heard his 2015 song "Mr. Get Dough" and remixed it with a feature from fellow L.A. rapper RJ.

Later that year, the track appeared on Drakeo's debut mixtape, "I Am Mr. Mosely," an early glimpse of what he could accomplish while still driven by Mustard's piano-laden sound. By 2016's "So Cold I Do Em," he had come into his own, his flatlined flow shining on songs like the standout "Impatient Freestyle."

Many imitated his style and attempted to conquer Los Angeles by following in his footsteps, either consciously or unconsciously. But his greatest battle was against the American justice system and against prosecutors who hemmed him up in solitary confinement while pursuing a murder charge and defining his rap group, the Stinc Team, as a gang to be feared rather than artists to be respected.

He deserved so much better then, and he deserves so much more now, said Erin Ryan, who formerly handled publicity for Drakeo at Audible Treats. He pioneered nervous music, ushered in a whole new class of rappers trying to master that Drakeo sound.

As he watched a new wave of local artists like Blueface and BlueBucksClan rise to prominence in his absence, he released a mixtape of old loosies and unreleased cuts titled Free Drakeo in March 2020. When that wasnt enough, he picked up the phone to create what would become Thank You For Using GTL, produced by Terrence Hackett, a.k.a. JoogSZN.

The recording of the album was yet another test of patience for a man with little reason to have any left. Rather than rapping into a typical studio microphone, Drakeo recited his lyrics into the mouthpiece of a jail phone. On the other end, JoogSZN balanced a laptop on a cereal box while playing the beat for Drakeo on a Beats Pill speaker pointed toward the phone.

The 13 songs were recorded across 36 hours, each in one-hour increments, the time limit of the jail phone system operated by Global Tel Link (or GTL for short).

"Drakeo was more than music," JoogSZN said. "He was a brother and one of my best friends. He lit up the room, he did things his way and provided for so many people. He was a mastermind. ... There will never be another Drakeo."

With a Drake feature in tow on "Talk to Me" from his 2021 album "The Truth Hurts" and a primetime slot at Once Upon a Time in L.A., Drakeo's profile was seemingly higher than ever. Now, his name is added to the uncomfortably long list of rappers whose voices were silenced before their time, while his friends and family are forced to reconcile with another loss in a year filled with too much grief.

I appreciate your influence on me and the L.A. music scene in totality, L.A. rapper Remble wrote on Instagram (Drakeo featured on his song Ruths Chris Freestyle"). Your name will most definitely live on forever.

He was stubborn but he knew what he wanted, Drakeo's brother and fellow Stinc Team member Ralfy the Plug wrote on Twitter. He just wanted to see everybody winning and it seemed like everybody wanted to see him lose.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A fourth person has been charged in the May hit-and-run death of two people who were riding a motorcycle when they allegedly were struck by a truck in Gulfport and dragged.

On Saturday, Gulfport police arrested Kimberly Lauren McDaniel, 31, and charged her with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident causing death. Her bond was set at $500,000.

Gulfport police said in a tweet Monday, We would like to thank the community for helping us locate Kimberly Lauren McDaniel after she struck a motorcycle and fled the scene.

McDaniel was driving the first vehicle that hit the motorcycle, said Sgt. Jason DuCre with Gulfport police, and she has evaded arrest for almost seven months.

We got some information through the public, DuCre said, and through that information he said police were able to tie McDaniel to the wreck.

Three others arrested in May were involved in a second vehicle that ran over the victims and tried to conceal their involvement, he said.

The hit and run occurred at 1:05 a.m. May 29 in the area of Lorraine Road and Intraplex Parkway.

Gulfport Police arrived to find a man, later identified as Jason Stone, and a woman, identified as Cassie Bowman, lying on the northbound lane of Lorraine Road. Both were dead at the scene.

A motorcycle was lying in the road further northbound on Lorraine Road.

Police say evidence on scene suggested the motorcycle had been struck from behind just before the intersection of Lorraine Road and Intraplex Parkway. The motorcycle was dragged northbound on Lorraine Road, along with the two victims.

Detectives determined the suspected vehicle, a 2019-2021 Dodge Ram 1500, struck the motorcycle and fled the scene.

Previously arrested were three people who worked at a Dodge dealership in Gulfport, DuCre said. They are:

 Taylor Marie Habina, 25, arrested June 8 and charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death. She was driving the second vehicle. Bond was set at $75,000.

 Jason Christopher Smith, 46, was arrested June 9 and charged with one count of accessory after the fact and one count of tampering with physical evidence. DuCre said he stayed at the scene after the crash. Bond was set at $100,000.

 Josef Randal Murph, 39, was arrested June 9 and charged with one count of hindering prosecution. Bond was set at $10,000. He was in the process of trying to repair the Dodge involved in the incident, DuCre said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Gulfport police at 228-868-5959 or Mississippi Crime Stoppers at 601-355-8477.
Egypt on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail with two others receiving four years, said his sister and a judical source.

Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer and the blogger Mohamed "Oxygen" Ibrahim were convicted of "broadcasting false news" in their trial in Cairo.

"Alaa was sentenced to five years, Baqer four years and Mohamed Oxygen four years," his sister Mona Seif said on Twitter.

"The judge was too cowardly to even inform us," she said after the sentencing at the State Security Misdemeanours Court in the capital.

A judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the verdict and sentencing to AFP.

Rulings in the court cannot be appealed. They require final approval by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Abdel Fattah, a computer programmer, blogger and high-profile activist who mobilised youths in the 2011 uprising that unseated autocrat Hosni Mubarak, had been in pre-trial detention since September 2019.

Pre-trial detention can last up to two years under Egyptian law, but in practice detainees are often kept waiting behind bars longer.

Abdel Fattah was arrested in the wake of rare night-time protests prompted by an exiled construction contractor calling for the removal of President Sisi on claims of corruption.

Baqer and Ibrahim were also detained in a massive crackdown.

Abdel Fattah has spent most of the past decade in jail.

Ahead of the trial, Egypt's foreign ministry lambasted the German government on Saturday for a statement calling for a "fair trial" and the release of the three dissidents.

Cairo described the German foreign ministry's release as "a blatant and unjustified meddling in Egyptian internal affairs".

Rights group say there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt facing brutal, unhygienic conditions and overcrowded cells.

In a 2019 interview with the show 60 Minutes on broadcaster CBS, Sisi said there were no political prisoners in Egypt.

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The former army chief became president in 2014 after leading the military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi a year earlier.

He has since overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Those jailed for criticising the political status quo have included academics, journalists, lawyers, activists, comedians, Islamists, presidential candidates and MPs.

ff/fz
CAIRO (Reuters) -Prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday, a judicial source said, after being tried on charges of spreading fake news.

Blogger Mohamed Ibrahim and lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, who faced the same charges, were sentenced to four years.

The three have been detained since September 2019. Abdel Fattah, a leading activist in the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak after three decades in power, had previously been imprisoned for five years in 2014 and released in 2019.

Abdel Fattah's family have complained about the conditions of his detention.

"He is denied access to books, a radio, a watch, and he is banned from walking (outside his prison cell). He does not leave his prison cell at all except of when we visit him or if he is going to prosecution or court," Abdel Fattah's mother Leila Soueif said before the hearing.

Abdel Fattah's sister, Sanaa Seif, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison in March on similar charges after calling for prisoners to be freed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Egyptian government has denied accusations concerning prison conditions.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington was "disappointed" by the verdicts and that journalists and human rights defenders should be able to exercise their freedom of expression without facing criminal penalties.

The administration of President Joe Biden in September said it would withhold https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-hold-130m-egypts-military-aid-over-human-rights-sources-2021-09-14 $130 million worth of military aid to Egypt until Cairo takes specific steps related to human rights, but Price on Monday declined to say whether additional aid could be withheld.

"Weve emphasized to the Egyptian government that our bilateral relationship is strengthened by improving respect for human rights and we will continue to engage the Egyptian government to promote freedom of expression and other universal human rights," Price said.

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Egypt's foreign ministry said it was inappropriate to comment on judicial decisions.

"It is not suitable at all to comment in any way on judicial verdicts that implement laws based on solid and compelling evidence in a judicial course that is fair, impartial and independent" the Egyptian state news agency quoted Ahmed Hafez, spokesman for the foreign ministry, as saying on Tuesday.

"These judicial matters should not be put in any political frames nor tied to the path of relations between the two countries", he added.

Since 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, there has been a crackdown on political dissent in Egypt, drawing criticism from human rights groups, who say tens of thousands of people have been jailed.

Sisi, president since 2014, says security and stability are paramount and denies there are political prisoners in Egypt.

(Reporting by Cairo Bureau; additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Jon Boyle, William Maclean and Grant McCool)
An undercover child sex sting by state and local authorities in Georgia ended in the arrests of six men  including an elementary school teacher.

Floyd County police organized Operation Safe Christmas to target online predators who communicate with kids on the internet and then travel to meet them for the purpose of having sex, according to a news release.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force aided in the investigation.

The operation spanned three days, starting Dec. 15, authorities said. Those arrested range in age from 27 to 46 and believed they were traveling to meet with a minor for prearranged sexual activity.

During the multi-day operation, investigators had more than 200 exchanges with subjects on various social media or internet platforms, the release says. Many of those were exchanges in which the subject initiated contact with whom they believed to be a minor and directed the conversation towards sex.

In some cases, investigators said the subjects introduced lewd content or encouraged the person they thought was a child to send naked photos and other pornographic images.

The men arrested are:

Jeremy Bowman, 44, an elementary school teacher charged with sexual exploitation of children, obscene internet contact with a child and criminal attempt to commit a felony. Bowman is listed as a second grade teacher with the Chattooga County School District.

Jimmy Bowen, 46, a general laborer charged with electronically furnishing obscene materials to a minor, obscene internet contact with a child, sexually explicit conduct of a minor and other charges.

Jeff White, 27, a construction worker charged with electronically furnishing obscene materials to a minor, obscene internet contact with a child, sexual exploitation of children, aggravated assault on an officer and several other charges.

Norman Gentry, 31, charged with obscene internet contact with a child, criminal attempt to commit a felony and use of computer service to seduce, solicit, lure or entice to commit an illegal act.

Adam Broadrick, 40, charged with sexual exploitation of children, obscene internet contact with a child, criminal attempt to commit a felony and other charges.

Jeovani Ortega, 31, charged with obscene internet contact with a child and criminal attempt to commit a felony.

Story continues

Investigators said while some websites are promoted as adult-only, Its not uncommon for law enforcement to work cases in which children access these sites, establish profiles claiming to be older, and then find themselves vulnerable to victimization, harassment, blackmail and assault.

The investigation is ongoing, and police said additional charges and arrests are possible.

Floyd County is about 77 miles northwest of Atlanta.

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Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker said Sunday that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Warren tweeted that she tests regularly for COVID-19, and while she tested negative last week, she tested positive on Sunday.

"Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted," Warren tweeted.

Booker said in a statement that he had experienced mild symptoms on Saturday, and he learned he tested positive on Sunday.

"Fortunately, my symptoms are relatively mild," the senator from New Jersey said. "I'm beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster  I'm certain that without them I would be doing much worse. I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and boosted."

Warren and Booker were both on the Senate floor last week for several key votes, including authorizing the Pentagon's budget for 2022 and increasing the debt limit, which will prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its bills.

Warren's positive test result comes amid a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases, as fears of the fast-spreading Omicron variant cast a shadow over the holiday season. The U.S. reported more than 80,000 cases and 250 additional deaths in the past 24 hours, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to reporters as she walks to a vote in the Senate Chambers of the Capitol on December 07, 2021 in Washington, DC. / Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Omicron is "just raging around the world."

President Biden is expected to address Americans on Tuesday amid the surge in infections.

Trevor Noah: The 60 Minutes Interview

It's like a horror movie: Americans lacking access to proper sewage disposal

The historic, devastating December 10-11 tornado outbreak
(Independent)

England have fallen to defeat in the second Ashes Test to drop to 2-0 down in the series.

Australia took the six wickets they needed on day five in Adelaide to back up the victory in Brisbane a week ago in the series-opener.

Jos Buttler showed some admirable resistance, facing 207 balls on the final day for just 25 runs, but when he fell hit wicket in the third session under the lights the end was nigh.

James Anderson was last man to go, fending off Jhye Richardson to slip, as England were dismissed for 192, giving Australia a comfortable 275-run win.

The third Test begins in Melbourne on Sunday with Joe Roots tourists now facing the reality of having to win all three remaining matches to recapture the urn.

More follows...
Volunteer Jacqueline Palicio helps locate bags of gifts to distribute as part of the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program on Dec. 20.

FARMINGTON  The community has come together to turn a setback into a victory by raising about $30,000, and donating hundreds of toys and items of clothing to the Farmington Salvation Army after its van full of toys was stolen last week.

Volunteers and members of the Salvation Army Farmington Corps Community Center were busy working on the morning of Dec. 20 distributing gifts to children in need as part of the organization's Angel Tree program.

About 20 to 25 volunteers filled the former thrift store run by the organization, shifting through bags of gifts for children to hand out to vehicles idling in the alley behind the store.

It was about a week earlier when a Toyota minivan belonging to the organization with about $6,000 of gifts was stolen from the Walmart at 4600 E. Main St. in Farmington.

Volunteer Cody Farias bags up toys for children enrolled in the Salvation Army Angel Tree program on Dec. 20.

More: APB on the Grinch: Salvation Army van full of holiday toys stolen from Walmart parking lot

The Farmington Police Department issued an arrest warrant for 37-year-old Anthony Crespin in connection with the vehicle theft.

Farmington police spokesperson Nicole Brown told The Daily Times the van has been found in Sandoval County, but the toys were gone. Brown said law enforcement officials are still searching for Crespin.

The defendant was helping a Salvation Army employee shop for the toys before allegedly stealing the vehicle.

More: Farmington police search for man accused of stealing Salvation Army van full of toys

Salvation Army Farmington Corps Officer Lt. Christopher Rockwell told The Daily Times the organization was overwhelmed by the community's response to ensure children in the area have a merry Christmas.

Volunteers Brianna Benally, left, and Brent Ray, right, prepare to distribute toys on Dec. 20 as part of the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program.

He estimated the nonprofit organization received 500 to 600 toys, 400 to 500 pieces of clothing and approximately $30,000 in cash donations.

Rockwell added that the response demonstrates that people in the community have a big heart.

God has a way of taking tragedies and turning them into blessings, Rockwell said. Thats what he's done here and that people have responded amazingly.

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Rockwell said the Angel Tree program typically serves 350 area kids a year. He believes the Salvation Army could possibly help 500 to 600 children this year with the number of toys donated.

Heidi Palacio and her daughter Jacqueline Palacio were volunteering on Dec. 20, dressed as elves as they helped get bags of gifts delivered to those in need.

The former Salvation Army thrift store at 316 W. Animas St. in Farmington was used as the staging area for the nonprofit's toy distribution as part of its Angel Tree program.

Heidi told The Daily Times the van theft was a tragic event, but she was happy to see how the community responded.

It was a tragic thing that happened, but through this, we have seen how powerful, caring and loyal the community is," she said.

The Farmington Salvation Army is devising ways to distribute the remaining gifts it has received. Rockwell shared one idea of possibly reaching out to Navajo chapter houses in the area to donate the toys, but he was still finalizing plans on Dec. 20.

Joshua Kellogg covers breaking news for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627 or via email at jkellogg@daily-times.com.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Farmington Salvation Army receives $30,000, hundreds of toy donations
A double shooting Sunday afternoon near the border of East and West Price Hill left a woman dead and a male hospitalized, police said.

Cincinnati officers were called the 3700 block of Glenway Avenue just after 2:30 p.m.

Investigators said the female victim, later identified as Lacey Florence, 28, was taken to an area hospital in a private vehicle and died later Sunday.

The male victim is expected to survive, police said.

The age and name of the male victim have not been released. No suspect information has been released.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 513-352-3542.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Woman dead, male hospitalized after double shooting on Glenway Avenue
Two people have non-life threatening injuries after a fire broke out on Salisbury University's campus.

On Monday, a fire occurred in the generator room of Blackwell Hall, according to a news release from the university.

Fire departments from Salisbury, Delmar, Fruitland, Hebron, Mardela and Pittsville contained the blaze.

Blackwell Hall had been evacuated before the fire began due to a power outage, according to the release. However, two staff members who responded to the fire were injured and taken to TidalHealth Peninsula Regional.

The cause of the fire had not been announced as of Monday afternoon.

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 or on Twitter @madsaiken.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Salisbury University fire injures two staff members at Blackwell Hall
Flu has resumed its usual seasonal stride in the Cincinnati region, coming back from a nearly flat 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But even a typical flu season could mean further stresses on hospitals full with COVID-19 patients.

On Friday night, the Facebook page of Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center warned that the regions major pediatric care provider was currently incredibly full. The social medic warning came at the end of a week of alarms from Ohio hospital leaders that the overwhelmed system is facing the year-end holidays and the approach of more illness to come.

To address the medical staffing shortage, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine directed the National Guard to mobilize 1,050 troops to hospitals that need the extra hands.

A CVS Health worker gets a flu shot in 2021.

The Cincinnati Childrens posting was removed from Facebook Monday, and Dr. Patty Manning, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children's, said Fridays crisis had passed. Friday capped off a very busy week. Things improved over the weekend and generally look better now, as they always do during a holiday week, she said. We are still preparing, as all of health care is, for whatever omicron and the next several weeks will bring.

Likely in the next several weeks is a rise in flu. Last week, Hamilton County Public Health released a track of influenza cases so far this season. While not approaching the peaks of the 2019-2020 season, flu is running well ahead of a year ago, when influenza got suppressed with the public health fight against the new coronavirus: masking or full-face shielding, hand washing in soap and warm water for at least 30 seconds staying home when sick, getting a flu vaccination.

Ohios weekly flu report on Friday found that while still low compared to 2020 and 2019, hospitalizations had jumped more than 20% in a week.

At Cincinnati Childrens, Manning said, We are seeing a real mix of things: COVID, flu, RSV and other lesser-known viruses, on top of the volume of very sick children with cancer, transplants, injuries, et cetera that we are always managing. Our COVID numbers have been in the double digits for weeks now, and not getting better, unfortunately.

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Cincinnati Childrens spokesman Barrett J. Brunsman said, Based on our current data, Cincinnati Childrens expects a busy influenza season  more similar to what we saw pre-COVID-19.

Dr. Felicia Scaggs Huang, associate director of infection prevention and control at Cincinnati Childrens, said she could not predict how many children will need hospitalization for flu. But Cincinnati Childrens is finding that vaccination rates for flu are lower than in previous years, Huang said, which means that more people are susceptible to getting severe disease.

Flu in Hamilton County has surpassed last year's nearly flat season, and hospital officials say a bad flu season will further stress already overwhelmed health care providers.

Dr. Will Sawyer, a Sharonville family practitioner and national advocate of handwashing for good hygiene, said Monday he was seeing more COVID-19 in his office than flu for far. But he is concerned that last years awareness to prevent disease spread has lapsed

Nobodys applying the same safety techniques as far as masking and staying home to protect themselves, Sawyer said. So now people are coming together inconsistently masking or not, with the unconscious habit of self-inoculation, touching the eyes, nose and mouth.

Sawyer also said it was too early to tell how effective this years flu shot will be against the major strains in circulation. The power of the flu shot fluctuates even within a season, so public health officials urge vaccination to improve the odds of fending off serious illness.

As the year-end holidays' approach and people choose to gather, Sawyer warned that if one person comes into a space and people are not protecting themselves in the eyes, nose and mouth, all the surfaces are contaminated. Sawyer advocates the use of clear full-face shields rather than nose-and-mouth masks as better protection against infection.

As of Monday, the hospitals once again stood at critical levels, according to the daily report from the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training, a project of Cincinnati Childrens and UC Health. The report found 620 COVID-19 patients in the 40 hospitals of the 14-county Cincinnati region, which is 19% of hospital capacity. Public health officials have said 90% of the COVID-19 patients have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

We need everyones help, said Manning at Cincinnati Childrens. We are hoping not to change anything, but we have to be realistically prepared for what the next few weeks portend.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Flu: Early yet, but flu adding to stresses at Cincinnati Children's
Fresno police on Monday identified a man who was stabbed to death as Angel Cortez Florez, a 27-year-old man who was unhoused.

Other homeless community members found Florez bloodied and lying on the ground Saturday afternoon near Olive and Palm avenues in the Tower District, Fresno police Lt. Bill Dooley said in a statement.

Florez was taken to Community Regional Medical Center with at least two stab wounds. He later died at the hospital.

Fresno police said Florez appeared to live in a camp near the area where he was found.

Detectives are seeking the communitys help with the investigation. Anyone with information about the homicide can remain anonymous when contacting police. Tipsters can reference Case No. 21-069185.

Tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 559-498-7867. Homicide Detective Justin Baroni can be reached at 559-621-2516, and Detective Josh Alexander can be reached at 559-621-2445.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has approved several significant rule changes that will go into effect in 2022, and is working on more.

Anglers will find reduced bag limits for dolphin fish (mahi mahi). Seafood consumers will find largemouth bass on restaurant menus. And captive wildlife owners will find some changes to permit requirements.

The seven-member, governor-appointed board approved these and other changes during a two-day meeting in Destin last week:

Open season: FWC allows killing of goliath grouper for first time in over 30 years

No mouths to feed?: Manatee feeding was to begin Wednesday. The only thing missing? Manatees.

A new bird?: Mocking the state bird? Is replacing mockingbird bird-brained or idea whose time has come?

Brian Kmiotek, Matthew Kmiotek and Angie LaMorta helped land this 41-pound bull dolphin caught Sept. 18, 2021 in 120 feet of water off Stuart.

Florida springs protection zones

The FWC can create zones, when necessary, to restrict the speed or operation of vessels, prohibit anchoring, mooring, beaching or grounding of vessels to protect or prevent specified harm to first-, second- and third-magnitude springs and spring groups, and their associated spring runs.

Captive wildlife licensing

People who have had licenses revoked or nonrenewed for violations will be limited from continuing to benefit from or be involved with captive wildlife.

Largemouth bass production

The commission drafted rules for the production and sale of largemouth bass as a food fish from aquaculture production facilities.

Largemouth bass fishing

New rules for anglers at three lakes  Suwannee Lake Freshwater Management Area near Live Oak, Lake Victor FMA in Holmes County and Shop Lake at Tenoroc FWM near Lakeland  include a 16-inch maximum-length limit (i.e.: possession of fish over 16 inches prohibited); a 15 fish daily bag limit; and circle hooks requirement when live-bait fishing with baits larger than 3 inches.

At Headwaters Lake, formerly the Fellsmere Water Management Area, all bass will be catch-and-release only and circle hooks are required when using live bait larger than 3 inches.

Story continues

Diamondback terrapins

People cannot take turtles found in freshwater and brackish waters. Blue crab trappers must use bycatch reduction devices beginning in 2023.

Hunting rules

Wild turkey harvests must be reported.

Shrimp

Rule changes for recreational and commercial shrimp harvests in the Gulf of Mexico are aimed at clarifying harvest locations and timing of seasons.

Dolphin fish (mahi mahi)

Commissioners next year will vote on language drafted last week to reduce recreational dolphin harvests in the Atlantic Ocean from 10 to 5 for individual anglers and from 60 to 30 for vessels. Captains and crews would be prohibited from taking a bag limit.

Manatees and alligators

Commissioners were briefed on the status of efforts to help dying manatees and how the nuisance alligator trapping program is reducing negative alligator-human interactions.

FWC law enforcement officers honored

Three FWC law enforcement officers were honored at the meeting:

Investigator Kevin Kleis was named 2021 Wildlife Officer of the Year by the Shikar-Safari Club International. Kleis is based in Collier County, where he coordinated a fishing tournament for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. He assisted in locating and recovering a stolen sailboat, returning it to its owner and arresting a suspect for grand theft. He also assisted in identifying and arresting a suspect for illegally killing a Florida black bear.

Kelly McKnight and Paul Dontenville, FWC assistant statewide prosecutors based in Tampa, were named the agencys Prosecutor of the Year award for work on Operation Triple Play. The two-year transnational wildlife smuggling investigation involved 3,600 native flying squirrels that were unlawfully poached from Central Florida and laundered through captive wildlife licenses. To date, six U.S. residents have been arrested and two international warrants are pending extradition.

Ed Killer is TCPalm's outdoors writer. Sign up for his and other weekly newsletters at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage. Friend Ed on Facebook at Ed Killer, follow him on Twitter @tcpalmekiller or email him at ed.killer@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: FWC meeting in Destin last week addressed several rule changes
A Georgia landscaping company that sent H-2A visa workers to Florida has been debarred from participating in the program for three years after that and other violations were found by a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

An order by Labors Office of Administrative Law Judges affirmed a $39,016 civil money penalty for Resendiz Pine Straw & Tobacco, which operates out of Suwanee, Georgia. The order also ordered Resendiz to pony up $136,971 to 110 workers, $1,245.19 per worker, after the companys various violations resulted in not paying earned wages.

Two messages left for Resendiz, whose registered agent is Javier Resendiz, were not answered.

What is the H-2A temporary worker program?

The H-2A guest worker visa program allows companies to use non-immigrant foreign workers for seasonal work if the company anticipates a shortage of U.S. workers. But, the employers must follow a set of requirements, including:

 Trying to fill the jobs with United States-based workers first

 Paying special rates for H-2A workers

 Providing housing and transportation to the job site

 Providing meals if the housing doesnt have kitchens or kitchenettes

 Provide H-2A workers work thats at least 75% of the work specified in the job contract

Labor says Resendiz violated that last part when it after it found there wasnt enough work for its H-2A workers in Sugar Hill, Georgia.

Scheduled to work in Georgia, actually working in Florida

Thats when Resendiz began shipping some workers to Arcadia, a Central Florida town about 580 miles south of Sugar Hill.

By doing so, the employer engaged in cost-shifting and failed to provide workers at least three-quarters of the hours of work stated in the original job offer, Labor said. Resendiz failed to uphold the terms of the H-2A contract regarding pay, duties and housing.

Labor says Resendiz also didnt reimburse workers for transportation costs; didnt give them copies of their contracts; and deducted breaks and lunches from their work time, an illegal practice.

Story continues

A check of Floridas state corporation registry doesnt show that Resendiz is registered to do business in Florida.

Florida roofer violated federal pay laws in shorting workers $46,302, Labor announces

An Orlando A/C company shorted workers over $34,000 in earned OT pay, feds announce
A two-tonne rubber whale can take on a life of its own in the frigid shallows of a windswept New Zealand beach, particularly when a bedraggled group of would-be rescuers is trying to wrestle it into a harness.

"Keep the blowhole clear... you're too close to the tail, one swipe can do a serious injury to yourself and the whale," an instructor yells as the Wellington rain lashes his pupils.

Despite the discomfort, enthusiasm levels remain high as the group successfully manoeuvre the five-metre long pilot whale replica onto a mat between two inflatable pontoons.

The giant black dummy, and a smaller 200 kilogramme version representing a dolphin, are eventually guided to deeper waters by volunteers trained by the New Zealand whale rescue charity Project Jonah.

Filled with water the latex marine mammals help teams prepare for real emergencies -- New Zealand has one of the highest whale stranding rates in the world.

Around 300 animals beach themselves annually, according to official figures and it is not unusual for groups of between 20 and 50 pilot whales to run aground.

But numbers can run into the hundreds when a "super pod" is involved -- in 2017, there was a mass stranding of almost 700 pilot whales.

"There are always going to be strandings -- there was one on Monday, there'll probably be one next week," Project Jonah's communications manager Louisa Hawkes told about 30 trainee whale medics during a course in Wellington.

The wait turns out to be considerably shorter, with a baby pilot whale found stranded Christchurch that same morning.

As the course continues in a community hall, a Project Jonah coordinator paces outside giving advice via mobile phone to wildlife rangers at the opposite end of the country desperately trying to save the animal.

Sadly, their efforts prove futile and the infant is euthanized a few hours later when its pod cannot be located.

- 'Perfect whale trap'-

"Strandings are incredibly emotional," Hawkes tells the volunteers. "If a whale isn't refloated it can really, really hurt, particularly if you've bonded with it.

Story continues

"You need to ensure you have the resilience needed to cope with whatever's going to happen."

No one knows why whales strand but Hawkes said it sometimes occurred when old, sick or injured animals swam ashore and other pod members followed.

She said one orca, a male named Nobby, had been rescued on seven separate occasions from North Island beaches after beaching himself chasing stingrays for food.

Most mass strandings in New Zealand involve pilot whales on gently sloping beaches, which confuse their sonar making them think they are in open waters.

Other pod members then beach themselves trying to respond to the trapped whale's distress signals.

The South Island's notorious Farewell Spit, a 26-kilometre (16 mile) hook of sand that protrudes into the sea, has been the scene of at least 10 pilot whale strandings in the past 15 years.

"It's what we call a perfect whale trap," Hawkes said.

Many stranded whales are found to be malnourished because their stomachs are full of plastic pollution, while explosions from undersea mining and naval exercises have also been linked to groundings.

Project Jonah was established in 1974 and is regarded as a world leader in whale rescue, helping train New Zealand's conservation department and police in what to do when strandings occur.

- 'Absolute privilege' -

The charity has a network of 4,000 volunteers it can mobilise during mass standings, most of them ordinary people who have undergone basic training in becoming marine mammal medics.

"I'm an ocean swimmer and I've come across lots of dead whales -- I want to know what to do when there's a situation where there is a chance of rescuing them," Wellington-based school teacher Leonora Hoke explained when asked why she took the course.

Aside from the emotional toll, Project Jonah warns that whale rescue involves numerous physical risks, including possible injury from the thrashing animals.

The whale's blowhole expels bacteria and fungi, while the water around the stranded animals is soon contaminated with faeces and blood, the latter of which can attract sharks.

Even dead whales pose a hazard because their bellies fill with gas as they decompose, and can cause the carcasses to explode.

Hawkes, a former youth worker who has been involved with Project Jonah for nine years and lost count of the animals she has saved, said it was worth it to see a stranded whale swimming off into the distance.

"It's one of the most enriching, rewarding experiences of your life -- it's something that will touch you," she said.

"To be able to help out these marine mammals at the most stressful moment of their life is an absolute privilege."

ns/arb/lto
Dec. 19A physical, neutral-court win over No. 25 Texas Tech was still ruminating in Gonzaga coach Mark Few's mind Saturday when he was asked about Monday's home game against Northern Arizona.

"On the plane ride home, we'll start focusing on NAU," Few said. "Texas Tech had our full attention here."

Presumably some of that focus was forming by the time the Zags' charter flight landed in Spokane, probably before NAU and San Diego tipped off at 7 p.m. PST in the last of four Saturday games at the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Phoenix.

Both teams face a swift turnaround before Monday's 6 p.m. tip at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Fifth-ranked Gonzaga (9-2) opened the quadruple-header with a 69-55 victory over the Red Raiders that tipped off at 10 a.m. PST. NAU (4-7) lost to the Toreros 69-59 in the late-night finale at Footprint Center.

Texas Tech was the last marquee matchup on Gonzaga's nonconference schedule  barring an addition to make up for the cancellation of a Dec. 12 game due to COVID-19 issues in Washington's program.

The Zags went 3-2  all three wins by at least 14 points  in five games against ranked teams that spanned the AP Top 25. The victories included then No. 2 UCLA (83-63), No. 5 Texas (86-74) and No. 25 Texas Tech. The losses were to then No. 5 Duke (84-81) and No. 16 Alabama (91-82).

Northern Arizona will be Gonzaga's last contest before the team takes a short holiday break. With the Washington cancellation, Finals Week and the Christmas break, Gonzaga will be playing just its fourth game in 28 days prior to North Alabama's visit on Dec. 28.

The Zags have won 62 straight over unranked foes. They own the nation's longest active home winning streak at 57.

The Lumberjacks have dropped 10 straight to WCC competition, including an 88-58 setback to Gonzaga last December in a game that was pushed back 16 days due to a COVID pause in the Zags' program. NAU went on to finish 6-16 and placed 10th in the Big Sky with a 4-10 mark.

Story continues

NAU was picked ninth by the coaches and 10th by the media in the Big Sky preseason poll.

Virginia Tech transfer Jalen Cone paces the offense at 17.6 points per game. The 5-foot-11 guard has 169 field-goal attempts, 71 more than the next closest teammate.

Cone is averaging 25.7 points in the last three games while connecting on 15 of 29 3-pointers.

Of six Lumberjacks that played significant minutes Saturday against San Diego, three (Carson Towt, Nik Mains and Keith Haymon) did the same against Gonzaga last season.

Towt, a 6-7 forward, averages 9.0 points and 9.5 rebounds. Mains, a 6-8 forward, is NAU's second leading scorer at 11.1. The 6-7 Haymon is fourth in scoring (8.4).

Three others that played double-digit minutes vs. the Zags  Jay Green, Carter Mahaney and Isaiah Lewis  combined for just 10 minutes against USD.

Gonzaga has returned to the top spot in KenPom's rankings, just in front of AP No. 1 Baylor. The Zags are sixth in the NET rankings.

NAU is 288 in the NET rankings and 317 in KenPom.
Cortney Joseph is pictured with her family  children, Cooper, 5, and Aubree, 10; and husband, Clay. Joseph will receive an Associate in Applied Science degree at Gadsden States upcoming commencement ceremony.

Earning a college credential is one of the greatest milestones achieved in a persons life. A college education can result in a better quality of life thanks to greater success in todays job market and higher wages.

For Cortney Joseph, her degree from Gadsden State Community College is more than that. It also is proof that she can achieve all things with hard work, dedication and support from family and friends.

Walking across that stage to get my diploma is my moment to show that I did this; I succeeded, she said. My kids can now see that if they fight hard enough, if they work hard enough, they will achieve their goals.

Joseph will be among the graduates participating in Gadsden States fall semester commencement ceremony at 6 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Gadsden State Cherokee Arena in Centre.

She will be one of three student speakers sharing their Gadsden State story during the ceremony.

Joseph, who lives in Centre, graduated from Gaylesville High School in 2010. She got married, enrolled in Georgia Highlands College and soon found out she was pregnant. After her daughter Aubree was born, she got a divorce. She said being a single mom who also juggled work and school wasnt easy.

In 2013, Joseph married her husband, Clay, and was accepted into the nursing program at Georgia Highlands College. When she became pregnant with their son, Parker, she temporarily withdrew from the nursing program just one semester shy of completing requirements to become a registered nurse.

Parker was born in June 2015 with a chromosomal defect and died three months later. This experience left Joseph heartbroken and unwilling to resume her college education.

I had to take some time to accept what I had just been through before I put myself out there again, she recalled. I wasnt ready to go back to school.

When Joseph unexpectantly got pregnant again, she made the decision to stay home to raise her son, Cooper, now 5. She stayed home for three years until one day. she made the decision to continue her education once again.

Story continues

I wanted to do something for myself, she said. I wanted to do something that would be beneficial to me and my family, so I decided to apply to Gadsden State in 2019.

She initially wanted to be a part of the registered nursing program at Gadsden State. When that didnt work out, she decided to take general studies courses.

I didnt want to waste my acceptance to Gadsden State, so I decided to go ahead and take courses that will one day transfer to a four-year university, she said.

Joseph enrolled in English 102, history and sociology courses for the 2019 fall semester. She applied to the nursing program for a second time and was rejected again. Far from being defeated, Josephs advisor talked to her about applying to the diagnostic medical sonography program at Gadsden State.

I researched sonography, she said. I talked to my sonographer from when I was pregnant, and she told me that I would be great at it with all Ive been through myself. I decided to go for it.

In August 2020, Joseph started the highly-competitive DMS program with 19 other students. She said it wouldve been hard for her to graduate without the support from her classmates.

When you are placed in a class with 20 people, you all become more than friends. You become like family, she said. People outside of our circle dont understand what we go through as DMS students. It can be chaotic. It can be challenging, but we all pitch in to be there for each other. We wouldnt be successful if we werent looking out for one another. We arent out for ourselves in the DMS program. We all want to cross that finish line together.

Rebecca Southern, the DMS program director, said Joseph has been a model student. She is president of the Cardinal DMS Society, is an embedded tutor and is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. She also has earned the Student of Distinction Award and has remained on the Presidents List for a 4.0 GPA she has maintained throughout her time at Gadsden State.

Cortney embodies the definition of a leader, Southern said. She has a servants heart and goes above and beyond for her cohort all while setting an example of excellence. She excels in the classroom and in her hands-on skills.

Southern called Joseph a unicorn for achieving the rare accomplishment in earning certifications from the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonographers in all three modalities  vascular, abdomen and obstetrics/gynecology.

Each individual credentialing exam takes months of preparation, Southern said. Many seasoned sonographers only hold one of these credentials. To obtain three before graduation is an extremely challenging feat; however, it exponentially increases their marketability when job searching.

Joseph said earning the credentials certainly is something that makes her proud.

Im honored to be specialized and registered in all three modalities, she said. It was certainly an accomplishment I worked very hard for. I had to know everything about each modality, so I had to know all about the signs, symptoms, labs and pathology in vascular, abdomen and OB/GYN.

Joseph said she studied a lot for the credentialing exams in addition to attending class, being a wife and mother and completing clinicals in Birmingham and Rome, Georgia.

I studied day-in and day-out, she said. I was very focused on those exams, and it was all worth it.

Joseph said she earned her vascular certification on Oct. 19, her abdomen certification on Nov. 16 and the OB/GYN certification on Nov. 30. She is happy that the pressure of achieving the certifications is over and that she can, once again, focus on her family and her new career.

I think the toughest thing about all of this is the mom guilt, she said. I went from being there all of the time for my children to not getting home until 6 p.m., eating a quick dinner and then studying again. Not being there all of the time for my children was tough. It was the hardest thing for me as a mom and a student.

She gives thanks to Clay for helping her achieve her goals.

It has been hard on my husband, Joseph said. He really stepped up and took care of everything from picking them up at the end of the school day to doing homework to cooking dinner. Plus, he worked full time. It was tough but we made it through.

Joseph already has secured a job as a sonographer at the Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome. Her projected start date is Jan. 7. But, first, shes focused on graduation.

I am so excited about graduation, she said. It is a testament that I am no longer a college drop-out. I faced rejection twice and I still made it out of Gadsden State with a degree. I have achieved my dream. I did it!

Other commencement speakers are William Wiggins of Rome and Brandon Griffin of Anniston.

Wiggins is earning a degree in registered nursing. He attended classes at Gadsden State Cherokee and is graduating with a 3.27 GPA. Previously, he earned a bachelors degree from Shorter University in secondary English education and spent five years teaching English at Coosa High School before deciding to change careers. He is the married father of five children.

Griffin is a student at the Ayers Campus and will graduate with an Associate in Applied Science in marketing management. A graduate of Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Maryland, he enjoys radio broadcasting, podcasting and cybersecurity.

The grand marshal of the commencement ceremony will be Michele Conger, retiring director of the Ayers Campus. Graduates will be presented by Alan Wallace, dean of information technology services, and Alan Smith, dean of workforce development. Diplomas will be awarded by Dr. Kathy Murphy, GSCC president.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: GSCC student zeroes in on college success
EL TEJAR, Guatemala (Reuters) - Guatemalan families began funeral rites on Sunday for the victims of a deadly Dec. 9 truck accident in southern Mexico that killed at least 50 migrants, most of them from the Central American country.

On Sunday afternoon, about 100 people gathered in the town of El Tejar, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of the capital, Guatemala City, to mourn the death of Daniel Perez, 41.

"I searched for him in five hospitals, and tragically I found him in the morgue," said his wife, Mariela Olivares, 35, who traveled to Mexico after the crash to identify the father of three children who was trying to reach the United States after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic.

It was his first attempt to migrate, Olivares said.

Feliza Uxla, Perez's mother, said that before he departed to the United States he told her that he was so worried about the family's debt that he couldn't sleep.

"That's why my son had to leave," she said.

Perez was among more than 160 people riding in a truck trailer that overturned on a curve outside the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in Mexico's Chiapas state 10 days ago. At least 55 migrants were killed, one of the worst single-event death tolls for migrants in Mexico in the past decade.

The incident has put a spotlight on the dangers migrants face on their treks to the U.S. border, often at the hands of human-traffickers known as coyotes. Hundreds of migrants have died from violence or accidents in Mexico over the past decade.

Perez's was one of the first four bodies to be repatriated. They arrived by plane in Guatemala City shortly before midnight local time on Saturday, according to authorities.

In Guatemala, many families are still trying to identify the victims of the Dec. 9 accident.

Raul Berrios, secretary general of Guatemala's National Council of Migrants, said the government commission has received nearly 150 requests from families across the country seeking information about their loved ones, who migrated in the days before the disaster.

(Reporting by David Toro in Guatemala City and Sandra Sebastian in El Tejar, Guatemala; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Paul Simao)
Haas Hall Academy logo

Fort Smith could be the newest location for one of Arkansas' best public high schools by 2023.

Haas Hall Academy has proposed a Fort Smith location in the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education Research Institute Health & Wellness Center. The proposal was originally on the state's Charter Authorizing Panel for review Dec. 15, but it has been moved to January.

If approved, the new school will welcome 100 students per class grades 7-12, who are chosen through a random lottery system.

The school will be located on the fourth floor of the RI/HWC and the first classes will start in August 2023. Students will have access to the research facility as well, said Kyle Parker, Chief Executive Officer for ACHE.

"We want all of these schools to teach a STEAM curriculum, where arts gets fully integrated into all of their curriculum and learning because we know that it promotes wellness," Parker said.

Fort Smith would be the fifth Haas Hall Academy location in the state, with the others located in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Rogers.

The 2021 U.S. News & World Report list ranked Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville the number one high school in the state and 50th overall high school in the nation. The Bentonville location was ranked second in the state and 80th in the nation.

Abbi Ross is the business and features reporter at the Southwest Times Record. She can be reached at aross@swtimes.com or on Twitter at @__AbbiRoss

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Haas Hall Academy could be headed to Fort Smith
Hamilton area farmers found some of the fruits of their labors Dec. 10 when they were visited by local FFA members bearing gifts of appreciation.

The Hamilton Central School FFA chapter packed and delivered 23 Thank-a-Farmer care packages after school that day. They filled them with chicken, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, maple products, corn, rolls, eggs, butter, cookies, yogurt and muffins. The FFA members also included a candle, a handmade pine cone bird feeder, a wood cookie ornament and a handwritten thank you note.

It was the fifth year for this annual outreach of support and caring for the students.

Hamilton Central School FFA President Morgan Craven, center, leads the FFA members Dec. 10 in filling Thank-a-Farmer gift baskets at the school to show their appreciation for the local agriculture community.

Not just for farmers: Today's FFA builds tomorrow's leaders

Holiday outreach: Hamilton students make ornaments for the needy

FFA chapter President Morgan Craven, an HCS junior, said it has been especially challenging to be a farmer lately with the extra complications of the pandemic.

"We want to thank them all for keeping up even in these trying times," Craven said. "Without them we wouldn't have trustworthy food to put on our tables."

"Farmers just don't get told thank you often enough for what they do," Hamilton FFA advisor Johanna Bossard agreed.

Craven spearheaded the project and directed her fellow students in sorting and loading their gifts. She said they had prepared for the delivery day for about three months in advance, soliciting donations and gathering area farmers' names and addresses.

Those names were distributed Dec. 10 among the students - plus some community and family volunteers who joined them - to take those packages personally to the farms.

Hamilton Central School FFA members pack chicken, rolls, gravy, stuffing and a variety of other tasty treats into Thank-a-Farmer baskets Dec. 10 in their school's ag room.

There were around 20 FFA members working on the project and Morgan's mom Sabrina Craven also volunteered to help out. Sabrina said the outreach was not only a huge example of community spirit but also the opportunity for teamwork between the FFA members in making it happen.

"I think they really have fun doing it," Sabrina said. "They reach out to local vendors and meet the farmers - I think it pushes them out of their comfort zones a little and helps them get to know their community better."

Story continues

Farm fresh: Parry's Indoor Farmers Market returns to Hamilton

New eatery: Oscar's Hometown Diner has meals fit for a king

Although volunteer Sue Baker's children have graduated and grown out of the FFA, she said she still enjoys helping out with the project. She and Sabrina, along with Chobani and Donald Brown, Price Chopper Supermarkets, Kinney Drugs and Cook's Maple Products, were the chief donors for the Thank-a-Farmer basket items.

"I think this is a wonderful program," Baker complimented. "We can never really be thankful enough for all of our farmers."

Mike Jaquays is the community news reporter for the Mid-York Weekly. Email him at mjaquays@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Hamilton FFA members thank local farmers for all of their hard work
RARITAN TWP.  A "serious spike" in COVID cases among students and cafeteria workers prompted Hunterdon Central Regional High School to dismiss students at noon on Monday.

The early dismissal, announced on the school's website, came after "multiple" positive cases were reported among the school's cafeteria workers, causing concerns about the ability to serve lunch.

In addition, at least 30 student cases were reported Monday morning, many of which were linked to a social gathering, the school district said.

All after-school activities were cancelled.

"We will continue to keep everyone updated, and hope to be back to our normal schedule as soon as possible," Superintendent Jeff Moore posted.

But later Monday the district announced that Tuesday will be an all-remote day at the school.

"We are hopeful that we will be able to complete contact tracing on Tuesday and be back to an in-person schedule for the remainder of the week," the district posted.

Monday evening's school board meeting will be held as scheduled.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Hunterdon NJ high school students dismissed early for COVID spike
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has added the United Kingdom, Norway and Denmark to the list of countries banned from entering the Southeast Asian nation due to the spread of COVID-19, while Hong Kong has been removed, a senior minister said on Monday.

Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said the countries had been added to the list as a precautionary measure after Indonesia identified its first case of the omicron variant last week.

(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by John Geddie)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran said on Monday that further talks with Saudi Arabia aimed at reducing tension between the Gulf's rival Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers depend on Riyadh's "seriousness".

Saudi Arabia and Iran launched direct talks this year at a time when global powers are trying to salvage a nuclear pact with Tehran, and as U.N.-led efforts to end war in Yemen stall.

"We call on Riyadh (to take on) political and diplomatic solutions as well as avoid interference in the affairs of other countries, because we believe that comprehensive regional arrangements will be achieved through mutual respect and understanding of the facts by the countries of the region," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference.

"We invite Riyadh (to take) a diplomatic and political approach and respect the principle of non-interference in other countries, which is the only way forward for the region."

The kingdom, which cut ties with Iran in 2016, has described the talks as cordial but exploratory, while an Iranian official in October said they had gone a "good distance".

"There are no new developments in talks with Saudi Arabia and we are still waiting for Riyadh's response," said Khatibzadeh.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in regional conflicts and political disputes in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for years, and Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition waging war against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Dubai Newsroom and Michael Georgy; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday announced that his cabinet approved a travel ban to the U.S. due to rising concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant, according to reports.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the measure needs approval by the Knesset Law and Constitution and Health committees. The measure is expected to take effect at midnight Wednesday morning, the report said.

The cabinet approved the plan to put the U.S. on Israel's travel red list, which means residents can only travel there with special permission. The move is seen as a dramatic step due to the close ties between both countries and the number of dual nationals, the AFP reported.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ON THE CORONAVIRUS

The move effectively bars Israelis from visiting the U.S. Bennett has warned about new infections in Israel. Haaretz, the newspaper, reported that 873 people in the country of 9.2 million have been diagnosed with the virus on Friday alone and 81 people were hospitalized, including 41 who required ventilators.

The paper reported that 10% of passengers on a flight from Miami that arrived Sunday tested positive for COVID-19.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned the country about the fifth wave of COVID-19 infections. Amir Levy/Getty Images

Bennetts office did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News about the decision. He told reporters that the omicron variant is in the country and said it is "possible to say that the fifth wave has begun."

Yinon Weinstock, 9, receives a children's dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at the Hadasim Elementary school in the Israeli town of Tzur Hadassah , southwest of Jerusalem. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

"Citizens of Israel, if three weeks ago binoculars were necessary to see the wave coming from afar, now it is already here. In my opinion, in three or four weeks, maybe sooner, we will see a jump in morbidity that will leave no room for doubt. As the government, we are preparing in every aspect," he said.

The countrys health ministry had recommended the travel ban to the U.S., Canada and other European countries, the AFP reported. The report pointed out that Israel had already barred citizens from traveling to France, Ireland and other countries.

Reuters reported that the new guidelines take effect Tuesday. Israelis who have already traveled abroad have to quarantine for a week upon their return.

Story continues

Bennett has faced questions about consistency and drew some criticism because he spoke about travel bans while his wife and children were vacationing in the Maldives.

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"Israel: Travel ban on most countries in the world (including Maldives) Also Israel: Prime Ministers wife and children still in vacation in Maldives. Restrictions are for you the peasants, not for them," Eli David, the co-founder of Deep Learning AI Cybersecurity, tweeted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
The Jacksonville mother of 11-year-old Kaye-lea Plummer has pleaded guilty to murder in her 2017 death. Police found the girl's body after her mother, Erica T. Newsome crashed in West Virginia on Aug. 6, 2017. Police have said Newsome told them that she had killed Kaye-lea.

A Jacksonville mother has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder in the 2017 death of her 11-year-old daughter whose body was found following a West Virginia car crash.

Erica T. Newsome, 41, was accused in an arrest warrant of strangling and beating her daughter, Kayelea Plummer, resulting in the girl's death most likely on Aug. 4, 2017.

Kaye-lea's body was found under a blanket two days later when Newsome's pickup truck hit a guardrail early Aug. 6 on U.S. 250 in Thornwood, W.V.  a mile and a half west of the state line, West Virginia State Police investigators said at the time.

State police said the initial examination showed that Kaye-lea had been "deceased prior to the crash."

The investigators also said that a couple who were on the same highway reported seeing Newsome remove a body wrapped in a blanket from the truck and drag it over the hill after the 11:20 a.m. crash, reported The Pocohantas Times newspaper.

Newsome subsequently told police that she had been abusive to her daughter and had killed her. Newsome stated that she had picked Kaye-lea up from her bed and put her in the pickup on Aug. 4, 2017 for a drive to Buffalo, N. Y. to see the girl's father, according to reports Kaye-lea did not move, eat, drink, speak or use the restroom during the drive that ended with the crash, The Pocohantas Times also reported.

Erica T. Newsome

Newsome's cellphone revealed disturbing internet searches before she left on Aug. 4 for Buffalo. The internet research was on "alligator ponds," "fatal bridge accidents in Jacksonville," "people killed on Virginia cliffs" and "Virginia highways that has huge cliffs," the arrest warrant said.

Investigators determined that the girl died in Jacksonville. Newsome was transferred back to Duval County to face charges in the death.

Newsome pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Thursday in the case. Prosecutors dismissed related charges of aggravated child abuse and child neglect, Duval County court records show.

Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud imposed a life sentence on Newsome, according to the records.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Life sentence for Jacksonville mother in young daughter's death
TOKYO (AP)  Japans parliament on Monday approved a record extra budget of nearly 36 trillion yen ($317 billion) for the fiscal year through March to help out pandemic-hit households and businesses.

The budget largely is to fund COVID-19 measures, including booster shot vaccines and oral medicines. It also includes cash payouts for families with children and a promotion campaign for the hard-hit tourism industry, which critics said are pork barrel giveaways.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the supplementary budget is meant to revive an economy not yet fully recovered from the pandemic and to achieve stronger growth and a more equitable distribution of wealth under his new capitalism policy.

Under Kishida, the government has tightened border restrictions to help keep at bay cases of the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus, after managing to bring infection levels down sharply in the past few months.

The budget includes 100,000 yen ($880) payouts to households with children 18 or younger and a 2.5 million yen ($22,000) subsidy for businesses that suffered substantial losses of sales due to the pandemic. It also will pay to increase salaries of nurses and other caregivers.

It allocates 617 billion yen ($5.4 billion) for promoting semiconductor manufacturing inside Japan as the country moves to improve its economic security and counter shortages of the computer chips that are vital for a wide range of products. The budget will also fund promotion of tourism, sustainability and digitalization.

In response to growing concern about rising Chinese power and other strategic challenges, it includes about 773 billion ($6.8) dedicated to speeding up deployment of missile defense systems and other military preparedness.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters Monday that the government plans to deliver planned measures promptly to the people to support reconstruction of the pandemic-hit economy and the resumption of social and economic activity after widespread public health precautions imposed to battle coronavirus outbreaks.

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Japans government has insisted that it is managing to catch people infected with the omicron variant at the border, but experts have cautioned that it may be spreading locally.

The health ministry reported 14 omicron cases among arrivals at Japanese airports, bringing the known omicron cases to more than 80.

In Okinawa, a major cluster has been spreading at the U.S. Marine Corps base of Camp Hansen, where at least 180 Marines who recently transferred from the United States have been infected. It was not known if they included omicron cases.

Japan, a country of about 126 million, has reported about 1.73 million COVID-19 cases and 18,400 deaths since the pandemic began two years ago.
A Japanese billionaire returned to Earth Monday, after 12 days on the International Space Station where he made videos about performing mundane tasks including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom.

Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted onto Kazakhstan's steppe at around the expected landing time of 0313 GMT Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Footage from the landing site, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the central Kazakhstan town of Zhezkazgan, showed the trio smiling after being helped out of the Soyuz descent module and into evacuation vehicles in freezing, foggy conditions.

"The crew is feeling good," Russia's space agency Roscosmos said.

In his first tweet since returning to Earth, Maezawa posted a picture of himself eating instant noodles, saying he was on "Earth now".

The returned crew will spend two to three weeks reconditioning under the guidance of doctors as they reacclimate to Earth. They are due to hold a post-mission press conference Wednesday.

Their journey marked Russia's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw competition emerge from the United States.

They spent 12 days on the orbiting laboratory where the tourists documented their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's popular YouTube channel.

Addressing his one million followers on YouTube, the 46-year-old billionaire explained how to brush teeth and go to the bathroom in space.

In one of the videos, he explained in detail the business of relieving oneself on the ISS.

"Peeing is very easy," he said as he demonstrated a handheld funnel astronauts use to suck their urine away.

In other videos, he showed his followers how to properly drink tea and sleep in zero gravity.

When the three space travellers arrived on the ISS on December 8, they joined a seven-team crew who were engaged in space biology and physics research.

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Maezawa plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the moon, operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

He and his assistant are the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama travelled to the Mir station in 1990.

- Turning point -

Their return from space caps a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel.

Billionaires Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, bursting into a market Russia is hoping to dominate.

Russia has a history of sending self-funded tourists to space.

In partnership with US-based company Space Adventures, Roscosmos has previously taken seven tourists to the ISS since 2001 -- one of them twice.

The last was Canada's Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009, who was dubbed the first clown in space.

In October, Russia launched its first untrained cosmonauts into space since Laliberte's trip, delivering a Russian actress and a director to the ISS, where they filmed scenes for the first movie in orbit.

Moscow had stopped sending tourists to space after NASA retired its Space Shuttle in 2011, which left Russia with a monopoly on supplying the ISS.

NASA bought up all Soyuz launch seats for a reported $90 million (80 million euros) per spot -- effectively ending tourist flights.

That changed last year when a SpaceX spacecraft successfully delivered its first astronauts to the ISS.

NASA began purchasing flights from SpaceX, stripping Russia of its monopoly and costing its cash-strapped space agency millions of dollars in revenue.

While the cost of tickets to space for tourists has not been disclosed, Space Adventures has indicated they are in the range of $50-60 million.

Roscosmos plans to continue growing its space tourism business, already commissioning two Soyuz rockets for such trips.

cr-acl/jbr/ach
Javier Bardem. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty

Javier Bardem called the sexual abuse allegations against Woody Allen "gossip."

"Pointing fingers at someone is very dangerous if it hasn't been legally proven," he added.

Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has accused the filmmaker of sexual abuse, which he's denied.

Javier Bardem has dismissed the allegations against Woody Allen in which the filmmaker's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, claimed he sexually abused her when she was a young girl. Allen has continuously denied the allegations.

"Pointing fingers at someone is very dangerous if it hasn't been legally proven," Bardem told The Guardian in a recent interview. "Beyond that, it's just gossip."

The Oscar-winning actor, who starred in Allen's 2008 movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," is one of the few in Hollywood to defend the director.

The abuse against Allen was first reported in 1992 by a then 7-year-old Farrow during the custody battle between Allen and his longtime girlfriend, actress Mia Farrow.

In home video footage, shown during HBO's "Allen v. Farrow" docuseries, which aired back in February, a young Farrow described how she was brought up to the attic of Farrow's Connecticut home and abused, saying on the video that Allen "touched my privates."

Dylan Farrow. HBO

An investigation into the abuse allegations was completed in the 1990s following Allen's split with Mia Farrow, who adopted Dylan with Allen. Allen was cleared of any wrongdoing and since then has maintained his innocence.

Woody also denied the abuse allegations in a rare July 2020 interview that was shot for "CBS Sunday Morning" and was made available on Paramount Plus back in March.

"It's so preposterous and yet the smear has remained," Allen told CBS News National Correspondent Lee Cowan. "And they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested her. Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that."

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Javier Bardem and Woody Allen during a press conference promoting ''Vicky Cristina Barcelona' in 2008. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

Still, several actors who have worked on Allen's movies in the past have denounced him and given their salaries to charity. Most recently, Drew Barrymore said on her show that she was "gaslit" into working with Allen on his 1996 movie "Everyone Says I Love You."

However, the "Being the Ricardos" star admitted to the Guardian that he hasn't kept track of any of that.

"To tell you the truth, I don't follow any of that, what people said," Bardem said. "I try to go where logic dictates, which is: let's follow the rules that exist to establish whether someone is guilty or innocent."

"If the case re-opens and he is proven to be guilty, I will be the first to say: 'What a horrible thing.' But so far, I haven't seen that," he added.

This is not the first time Bardem has supported Allen.

In 2018 while attending the Lumiere Festival in France, he told the audience: "I don't agree with the public lynching that he's been receiving. And if Woody Allen called me to work with him again I'd be there tomorrow morning. He's a genius."

Other actors who have starred in Allen's movies and have since spoken out in support of the director include Alec Baldwin and Diane Keaton.

Read the original article on Insider
Jefferson County Public Schools expects to hit the ground sprinting in 2022.

School board chairwoman Diane Porter outlined last week a schedule of district proposals she's anticipating in the coming months  and it is a lot.

JCPS has been eyeing a few big changes for years, but each time it seems like a proposal is imminent, the board vote gets delayed. So, take this list with a grain of salt.

Up first: new public comment rules. Porter said they hope to have new guidelines around public speakers in place in January. JCPS hasn't had in-person public comment since an October meeting abruptly ended after a shouting match broke out.

Second: school security. Superintendent Marty Pollio said last week he wants to get community feedback in January on "conceptual" ideas to increase security in schools. A board vote, he hopes, will happen by the end of February.

Then we have new start times. Pollio has wanted to flip middle and high school start times with elementary start times for a while, and the research generally backs him on this. But behind a seemingly simple change is a maze of logistics.

Pollio said changing and also staggering start times would help the district operate with fewer drivers. Any kind of change is expected to go to the board by March so families can plan.

And, at long last, we have student assignment. A vote on how the district assigns kids to schools could come in May under Porter's timeline. Please refer to The Courier Journal's investigations into student assignment  The Last Stop and Magnetic Pull  for more information.

A group of security officers tried to calm the audience after some began shouting and disrupted a JCPS school board meeting at Central High School in Louisville, Ky. on Oct. 5, 2021. The issue of placing resource officers in schools has become a hotly debated topic.

Leaning into legal loopholes?

Let's circle back to that school security proposal.

JCPS has been known for its, um, appreciation for a loophole in state law that allows districts to avoid hiring armed school police as long as the state isn't paying for them. (The district stopped using officers in 2019, partially because of police budget cuts and partially because of concerns of racially disproportionate policing.)

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Now, it seems as if it found a new loophole to avoid having police, well, "in" schools.

State law requires an officer to be "assigned" to each school. Most interpreted that to mean each campus gets an officer who will be stationed on-campus.

But JCPS is leaning into the "assigned" language, saying a potential plan with armed officers assigned to clusters of schools and stationed outside of the buildings would technically meet the law's requirements.

If so, this would offer somewhat of a compromise: There would be armed officers who could quickly respond to issues, but they would not be a constant presence inside schools.

But it may not be so. Sen. Max Wise, a Republican who shepherded the security bill, told me the bill is meant to have one officer assigned to each campus. JCPS' take would not meet the letter nor the spirit of the law, he said.

"The goal is not for a drive-by officer to come after an incident, but for a resident certified officer to prevent incidents by helping create a trusting and safe school climate, especially for kids who live with trauma every night of their lives," he wrote in an email.

Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Louisville Republican co-sponsoring a bill to require SROs by August, agreed with Wise's interpretation of the law.

When I initially questioned Pollio's stance that this concept would meet state law, he pushed back before pointing out there is already a shortage of police officers. Where would JCPS find more than 150 officers, he asked.

An Atherton High School 'graduation ceremony' kicked off the show for hip-hop artist Jack Harlow performs at a sold-out Palace on the first night of his "No Place Like Home" tour, a five consecutive night of Louisville shows throughout his hometown. The Grammy-nominated artist graduated from Atherton High School. Dec. 14, 2021

The prodigal son returns

Tell me you grew up in the Highlands without telling me you grew up in the Highlands.

Jack Harlow will go first.

His first in a series of hometown concerts began with a mock graduation ceremony featuring none other than Tom Aberli, his former principal at Atherton.

Thankfully, state education department spokeswoman and Harlow fan Toni Konz Tatman was in the crowd to share the moment, complete with audio of her son trying to convince her that was in fact Aberli on stage.

In an interview with JCPS, Aberli said being on stage wasn't any more nerve-wracking than a typical graduation ceremony.

A photo of Oaklynn Koon hangs on the fence outside of the Mayfield Courthouse on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, on in Mayfield, Kentucky. A large fence surrounds the courthouse with flowers and images of the 74 people who died from a tornado that devastated Mayfield last week.

A tornado update

Recovery continues in Western Kentucky after devastating tornadoes came through earlier this month.

As of Monday, 76 people have been confirmed dead (although three may be double-counted). Thirteen were kids.

I spent much of last week working with a team of reporters to profile the victims. You can read our work here.

Most area school districts, which have become hubs for donations, have temporarily cut off material donations because they've run out of space to store things. You can continue to donate to relief efforts through the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, and track individual districts on social media for updates on specific donations they need.

Your homework

No homework this week.

Class dismissed. OK, bye.

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: New year, new Jefferson County Public Schools?
Jordans Royal Film Commission was set up in 2013 with Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, brother of the countrys King Abdullah II, heading its board. It has since been working to build the local film industry and stepping up efforts to attract international shoots such as Ridley Scotts The Martian, and more recently Aladdin, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Dune, to name a few.

Netflix also chose Jordan recently as the setting for its groundbreaking Arabic original series Al Rawabi School for Girls, which follows a group of high school girls plotting revenge on a trio of bullies at their school, portraying violence, including sexual violence, against women, and patriarchy in Arab society.

More from Variety

In terms of locations, besides the desert of Wadi Rum, with its immense rock formations and rolling sand dunes, Jordan also offers castles, palaces, ruins and green valleys. Its a wide range of landscapes that easily double for many West Asian countries. Support includes a 25% cash rebate, recently raised from 20%, and a tax exemption for foreign productions.

Thanks to the film commissions training program, Jordan also has a highly skilled crew base, many of whom are English-speaking, that can usually cover almost 70% of whats needed, especially in Wadi Rum, and offer a wide range of production services, including from the army.

There is an agreement between the film commission and the Jordanian armed forces to supply whatever is needed, obviously at a cost, says RFC managing director Mohannad Bakri.

Recent examples of when this came in handy include using air force choppers for aerial night shoots for Dune and also 700 extras, all from the military, who danced in the Aki-Aki Festival in the ninth chapter in the Star Wars saga. It was the easiest way to control such a large group under the command of one person, Bakri notes.

Story continues

Best of Variety

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
A judges ruling has allowed a lawsuit against Polk State College over student fees paid during the COVID-19 pandemic to move forward.

Judge William Sites of the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in October dismissed part of the lawsuit filed in March on behalf of a Polk State student seeking to a refund for student fees paid while campuses were largely shut down. But Sites allowed another part of the suit to proceed with the potential to become a class-action claim joined by other former Polk State students.

The judge granted a motion by Polk State to dismiss a claim of unjust enrichment, or the idea that the college unfairly appropriated student fees. But Sites rejected the colleges motion to dismiss a claim on the grounds of breach of contract. Polk State has appealed that ruling.

John Yanchunis, the lawyer representing Polk State student Shantrell Fisher of Lakeland, described the judges ruling as a positive step.

This is a victory, Yanchunis said. In all wars, there are battles, and we won this battle. This was not a loss by any means. This was successful.

Yanchunis, who leads the class-action department of Morgan & Morgan, said that the lawsuit included the separate claims of unjust enrichment and breach of contract even though they were somewhat contradictory. He said Sites couldn't have allowed the suit to proceed on both claims and also could have rejected the entire suit.

More: Polk State College cancels $1.2 million in student debt using federal COVID relief money

More: Southeastern University accreditation renewed for 10 years

More: Webber International University to offer bachelor's in nursing degree

Sites dismissed the unjust enrichment claim with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be refiled.

The lawsuit does not seek to recover money paid for tuition. It instead focuses on student fees collected to cover services that Yanchunis said Polk State didnt provide while access to its campuses in Winter Haven and Lakeland was limited because of COVID-19 protocols.

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Though Fisher is the only student named in the suit, the challenge seeks to recover fees paid by all Polk State students in the academic semesters of 2020.

The suit mentions fees collected for student activities, technology and student services. The amounts for each student are relatively small, totaling $13.42 in Fishers case. (Students in bachelors programs pay slightly higher rates.)

The suit says the eligible class of former students is presumed to be at least 20,000. That would equate to more than $268,000 in collective fees paid.

In an initial Motion to Dismiss, the court dismissed with prejudice one-half of the plaintiff's law suit, which means that part of the suit cannot be refiled, Polk State spokesperson Madison Fantozzi said in an emailed statement. The remaining issue will be subject to further legal challenges. During the shutdown caused by the pandemic, the College undertook an outstanding effort to provide our students with extraordinary materials and services needed to continue their education. The College is proud of what our staff, faculty, and students have achieved during a very difficult period.

The suit could be seen as a test of a law passed in this year's legislative session intended to protect public colleges and universities from class-action lawsuits based on closures during the pandemic. But Yanchunis said he thinks the law is unconstitutional because state statute gives the Florida Supreme Court, not the Legislature, the authority to set rules for civil procedures.

Yanchunis also pointed to a prohibition in the U.S. Constitution against the adoption of laws that apply retroactively, either criminalizing or protecting actions after the fact.

Morgan & Morgan has filed similar suits against at least eight colleges and universities, including Florida A&M, Florida State University and the University of South Florida, and other firms have also filed suits.

Polk States lead lawyer, Robert Sniffen of Tallahassee, filed a motion in May to have the suit dismissed. Sniffen asserted a defense of sovereign immunity and said that no contract existed between Fisher and the college.

His filing said that student fees are mandated by state law and are not paid on a fee for service basis.

Yanchunis questioned whether Floridas Second District Court of Appeals has jurisdiction at this point. He said that appellate courts typically only examine rulings in cases that have been concluded.

Sites hasnt yet ruled on the request for class certification, which would allow other former Polk State students to join the suit.

Millers lawyers have filed a supplement in support of the motion for class certification that cites a settlement reached in a similar suit against Columbia University in New York.

If the judge grants class-action status, Polk State would have to provide Miller's lawyers with contact information for all Polk State students from the 2020 academic year. The students would be included in the lawsuit unless they opted out, Yanchunis said.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lawsuit against Polk State over fees, will proceed
A man who came to Kentucky as a refugee has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organization.

Mirsad Hariz Adem Ramic, 31, has dual U.S. and Bosnian citizenship and lived in Bowling Green, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ramic and two co-conspirators allegedly left the U.S. in June 2014 to fly to Istanbul, Turkey, in order to support the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also called ISIS.

Ramic and the others crossed the border into Syria to join ISIS in the war there, federal authorities charged.

Ramic allegedly attended an ISIS training camp. The FBI has photos of Ramic in ISIS territory wearing camouflage clothing, standing in front of a pickup truck that had an anti-aircraft gun, and holding a rifle, according to the release.

Ramic and his co-conspirators discussed him being in Syria and using a weapon to shoot at airplanes, and also martydom and fighting for ISIS, according to the release.

One of the other men sent emails to Western Kentucky University saying he had traveled to Syria to join ISIS and wanted the group to conquer the U.S., according to the news release.

In addition to providing support to ISIS, Ramic is charged with conspiracy and receiving military-type training from the group.

William Kurtz, an special agent with the FBI, swore out a criminal complaint against Ramic in July 2016, but the case was sealed until this week.

Ramic came to the U.S. as a refugee with his mother and sister when he was about 10, according to the complaint.

Kurtz said the two unnamed co-conspirators in the case were Saudi nationals who had attended Western Kentucky University.

One of them was reportedly killed during fighting in early 2015, according to the complaint.

The charges against Ramic were only recently unsealed because he had been in prison in Turkey. He was deported to the U.S., arrived Dec. 16 and had his initial court appearance Monday.

He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted, according to the news release.

In a separate case, two Iraqi refugees living in Bowling Green were charged in 2015 with conspiring to ship sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, explosives and money to Iraq for use against U.S. troops.

The two were convicted. Waad Ramadan Alwan sentenced to 40 years in prison and Mohaned Shareef Hammadi was sentenced to life, according to court records.
If you want to know who really controls Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX:MGX), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Mount Gibson Iron is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of AU$460m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Mount Gibson Iron.

View our latest analysis for Mount Gibson Iron

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mount Gibson Iron?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Mount Gibson Iron. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Mount Gibson Iron's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Mount Gibson Iron is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that APAC Resources Limited is the largest shareholder with 37% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 13% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 8.2% by the third-largest shareholder.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

Story continues

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Mount Gibson Iron

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Mount Gibson Iron Limited in their own names. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It has a market capitalization of just AU$460m, and the board has only AU$3.7m worth of shares in their own names. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 29% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Mount Gibson Iron. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 3.4%, of the Mount Gibson Iron stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 51% of Mount Gibson Iron. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Mount Gibson Iron (1 is potentially serious!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Watch: Ralph Fiennes talks sword fighting in The King's Man

Ralph Fiennes relished the chance to wield an umbrella and walking stick as a weapon in The King's Man, banishing the memory of his previous umbrella-toting work in The Avengers.

Fiennes played dashing British hero John Steed in the 1998 movie adaptation of the 1960s TV series, only for the film to flounder at the box office and become one of the most critically disliked films of all time.

In director Matthew Vaughn's historical actioner The King's Man, though, he wields a sword stick and umbrella as Orlando Oxford in the First World War-set origin tale for the secret organisation at the centre of the Kingsman franchise.

Read more: Matthew Vaughn has seven more Kingsman movies planned

"Well of course my first outing was a rather unhappy outcome. That Avengers film didn't really do very well," Fiennes told Yahoo.

He added: "I went into it with the same kind of enthusiasm that I went into this. I guess I thought I was being given a second chance to have suits and a sword stick and whatever.

Ralph Fiennes hopes his role in 'The King's Man' will be better received than his work in the critically panned 'The Avengers'. (Warner Bros/20th Century Studios)

"I'm a little boy inside and I like the idea of leaping around with a sword. I love watching old sword fights in films.

"I love watching Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn. Those actors had extraordinary and real sword skills, as good as any stuntman if not better.

Read more: Most extreme Fox movies now owned by Disney

"I was supported by my wonderful stunt double in this, but we had to learn all the fights and all the sequences.

"I was in the theatre at the time, but had to get up early  which is not what you do in the theatre normally  and go out and learn these fights. But I had a pleasure. I love a good sword fight and I love getting to know the choreography of a good sword fight."

Ralph Fiennes said his love for on-screen swordplay was inspired by the likes of Basil Rathbone in films including 'The Mark of Zorro'. (20th Century Fox/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

In The King's Man, Oxford opts to set up a secret organisation in an attempt to tackle the shadowy manipulations underpinning the First World War.

Story continues

It's made even more personal for Oxford  an avowed pacifist  when his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) becomes determined to enlist in the military and fight in the trenches.

Read more: Matthew Vaughn says cinema prices are too high

"The Duke of Oxford has actually initiated his own intelligence agency in the belief that you can defeat the bad guys without having to go to outright war," said Fiennes.

The 58-year-old added: "I guess he comes to the conclusion that you might have to take action unilaterally.

Ralph Fiennes readies himself for action as Orlando Oxford in 'The King's Man'. (20th Century Studios)

"At the end of the film, there is the idea of a secret service agency that is not government run and operates on its own for the principles of peace and the preservation of prosperity and peace between nations.

"I think the principles of pacifism, or the idea that war is to be avoided at all costs, is still present. But occasionally you need your knights of the round table to go out and tackle the devil."

Read more: Kingsman set prank war got a little out of hand

The cast of The King's Man also includes Rhys Ifans, Tom Hollander, Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance and Djimon Hounsou.

The King's Man is in UK cinemas from Boxing Day.

Watch: Trailer for The King's Man
Larry David has penned a humorous essay detailing why he abhors Christmas.

The piece, titled A Very Larry David Christmas, was published in a recent issue of Air Mail, a digital newsletter launched in 2019 by former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and former New York Times journalist Alessandra Stanley.

David described himself as being filled with dread at the prospect of close social encounters with what seemed like hundreds of relatives ahead of Christmastime.

Im a creature of habit and cant tolerate anything that throws me off my normal routine. Thats why I detest all holidays, but none as much as Christmas, he wrote.

The comedian called Christmas music loathsome and took Christmas films to task for their ridiculous, treacly sentiments.

He also criticised the presents  thinking about them, shopping for them (never without resentment), and the attendant pile of garbage that accumulates from opening them, an environmental disaster simultaneously taking place in living rooms across the country.

David recounted spending a blissful Christmas by himself, enjoying Chinese food at a local restaurant.

Since then, eating Chinese food by myself on Christmas Day has become a cherished yearly ritual, which I look forward to like the ending of construction on the house next door, he added.

Seinfeld, the sitcom co-created by David and Jerry Seinfeld, famously has an episode dedicated to the secular holiday Festivus, designed for those who want an alternative to Christmas.
The following real estate transfers were recorded recently in Lebanon County:

Lebanon

Premier Home Solutions LLC to Roberto Perez, 421 N. Partridge St., $71,000.

Richard and Ann Swope to Sugeily Matos-Cruz, 4 Canal St., $140,000.

FLR Properties LLC to Starrwar Properties LLC, 543 Spruce St., $425,000.

Josh Snader to Adelfi Nunez-Rodriguez, 104 Lehman St., $180,000.

Clair H. and Betsy J. Weaver to Reuben and Loretta Peck, 1127 Chestnut St., $240,000.

Marilyn Weaver to Garman Properties LLC, 930 Cumberland St., $210,000,

Maly and Sophalem to Shannon Eichenseer, 1505 Elm St., $239,000.

Bonnie L. Bowman to Ronald and Nancy Furman, 611 Raspberry Lane, $225,000.

D. Elaine Martin to Marisel Gonzalez and Hector Mejia, 807 S. Twelfth St., $239,900.

Aspens Inc. to Kevin A. Fox, 2 lots on the north side of Lehman Street, $395,000.

Maria Pagan to Luis Maifa, 1353 Monument St., $47,000.

West Lebanon Township

Aspens Inc. to Tylerhunt LLC and Linter Group LLC, 2 tracts on the north side of Lehman Street, $1. (Pennsylvania real estate transfer tax paid on adjusted assessed value of $276,800.92.

North Lebanon Township

Landmark Homes at Sweetbriar Inc. to Gregory L. and Tonya L. Moskoff, 107 Ginger Court, $386,290.

South Lebanon Township

Michael Clemens to Clara Salvador and Rene Nieves-Moyo, 16 Folmer St., $185,000.

Faye Bishop to Stephen Bleyer, property on Horseshoe Circle, $333,000.

Ned and Diane Krissinger to Darryl and Marcine Lawrence, 1512 King St.,. $135,000.

West Cornwall Township

Cody and Katlyn Keller to Justin and Aleesha Derr-Carney, 16 N. Zinns Mill Road, $182,000.

Inn at Mount Gretna LLC to Donald Dale III, Cynthia Dale, Ryan Dale, and Catherine Dale, 16 Kauffman Ave., $620,000.

James P. Gibbons, Diane Mastellis, John Gibbons, Andrew Gibbons, to Michael Smith Sr. and Nancy Smith, 42 Locust Lane, $230,000.

Gerald E and Beverly Wells to Jon and Kelly Melendez, 324 Tree View Lane, $375,000.

North Cornwall Township

Nicole R. Garman to Andrew Ebersole, property in North Cornwall Township, $205,000.

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Joseph J. Smith III to Virginia M. and Steven M. Dyke, 318 Bricker Lane, $177,500.

Thomas R. Brandt to Mohamed Elwahed and Amany Kamal Elsayed, 2158 Walnut St., $180,000.

Premier Home Solutions LLC to Kristin Tomecek, property along Wilhelm Avenue, $154,900.

North Annville Township

Donald and Kristie Fernsler to Michael Rathman, 2965 Pine Ave., $235,000.

Palmyra

Scott and Wendy Sentgeorge to Cody and Kaitlyn Keller, 812 E. Maple St., $254,000.

Robert J. Martin to Alicia M. Chappel, 988 E. Maple St., $169,900.

Shawn Koppenhaver to Panda Real Estate, 219 N. Railroad St., $193,000.

North Londonderry Township

Jennifer Musko to George and Susan Mootz, 16 Hickory St., $275,500.

Millpond Properties to Charles and Jennifer Huff, property along Walker Avenue, $375,000.

East Hanover Township

Stephen and Yvonne King to Wyatt Beakler and Cortney Hostetter, 10797 Jonestown Road, $245,000.

Michael L. Steiner Estate to Lindsey K. Shimp, 709 Ono Road, $130,000.

Janet Blatt to Mark Sallada and Joan Sallada, property along Allentown Boulevard, $240,000.

Jonestown

Allen J. Brierson to Robert D. Boyer, 451 Hillcrest Drive, $235,000.

Swatara Township

Lillian M. Rutter Estate to Joseph and Crystall Kimmel, 5 N. McKinley Ave., $57,000.

Elmer and Esther King to Joshna Sadler, 404 Mountville Drive, $176,000.

Bruce Gross to Justin and Tiffany Zipp, 46 Frog Hollow Drive, $123,500.

Bethel Township

Patricia J. Derr to Jonas and Emma Peachey, property in Bethel Township, $172,000.

James A. Heisey Estate to Alexandr Khairov and Svetlana Khairova, 2848 S. Pine Grove St., $270,000.

Jackson Township

Susan K. Lee to Robert and Melynda Cochran, 7 Bradford Circle, $160,000.

Daniel and Regina Hurst to Kendall Frey, property on Royers Road, $200,000.

Lehman Street Mennonite Fellowship to Ramona Ral Estate, 332 King St., $1, (Pennsylvania realty transfer tax paid on actual cash consideration of $180,000).

Jared Breckbill to Dylan Babcock, 536 Kutztown Road, $127,500.

Myerstown

David C. and Brenda L. Neuman to Martin Real Estate Holdings LLC, 619-621 S. Railroad St., 701 S. Railroad St., $1,150,000.

Ryan K. Eisenhour to Rebecca G. and David Morris, 20 W. Maple Avenue, $259,000.

Richland

Jody Wolfe to Cleason and Lisa Nolt, 602 Elm St., $160,000.

Eugene F. Trimble to Carlie R. Keashon to Jordan C. Bond, 121 S. Race St., $199,900.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon County real estate transfers for week of Dec. 20
WASHINGTON  The White House says President Joe Biden had close contact with a staff member who later tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Monday night that the staff member tested positive earlier in the day. Psaki says the staff member spent about 30 minutes around the president on Air Force One on Friday during a trip from Orange, South Carolina, to Philadelphia.

Psaki says the staff member is fully vaccinated and boosted and tested negative before boarding Air Force One. She says the staffer began experiencing symptoms Sunday night.

Psaki says the 79-year-old Biden is tested regularly for the virus and has had two negative tests since Sunday. She says he will be tested again Wednesday.

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HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:

 British nurses warn the health care system at a breaking point as omicron cases soar

 German military gives hospital an edge in treating COVID-19 patients

 Omicron prompts World Economic Forum to delay Davos meeting until summer 2022

 Austria ends 20-day lockdown, considers move a success as virus cases plummet

Go to https://APNews.com/coronavirus-pandemic for updates throughout the day.

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING TODAY:

HOUSTON  An unvaccinated man with health issues has become the first person in the Houston area whose death has been linked to COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the death of the man in his 50s during a news conference Monday.

One Houston hospital system has reported the omicron variant is accounting for 82% of new COVID-19 cases it is treating.

The medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital said in a tweet Sunday that the omicron variant became the cause of the supermajority of new Houston Methodist cases in less than three weeks. In comparison, the delta variant took three months during the summer before it was the cause of more than 80% of cases.

Story continues

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ATLANTA -- The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has risen almost 50% in Georgia in the last month, and the number of infections detected continues to accelerate.

More than 1,200 patients were hospitalized statewide Monday with the respiratory illness. Thats well below the record of roughly 6,000 that was reached in early September at the peak of Georgias fourth surge of virus cases. But it is well above the recent low of 824 patients recorded on Nov. 22.

Among those who have tested positive for the virus is Atlanta-mayor elect Andre Dickens, who has put himself in self-isolation though he reports feeling well with mild symptoms. Dickens, says he is fully vaccinated.

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EUGENE, Ore.  As the highly transmissible omicron variant spreads across the country, University of Oregon students, faculty and staff will be required to get a coronavirus booster shot as soon as they are eligible.

Currently the university and the states six other public universities require vaccinations for those on campus.

As of Monday afternoon, the University of Oregon is the only public university in the state to publicly announce a booster requirement.

University President Michael Schill says in a letter posted online that boosters are the next step in the evolving public health strategy in which we have adapted and responded as a community during the pandemic,

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RALEIGH, N.C.  North Carolinas governor has issued his strongest public health warning yet heading into the Christmas holidays.

Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday that officials expect the omicron variant of the coronavirus to soon severely strain hospitals and lead to the highest daily case counts since the pandemic hit the state in March 2020.

Cooper also says he will not reimpose any statewide mandates or roll out any financial inducements for residents to get a booster shot of coronavirus vaccine. In place of mandates, North Carolina will rely on additional resources for at-home test and an informational campaign to encourage the roughly 62% of vaccinated residents to get a booster shot.

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BATON ROUGE, La.  Louisiana is starting to see growing numbers of COVID-19 cases months after emerging from a fourth surge of the coronavirus outbreak, with the state at risk of another spike as the omicron variant spreads.

Data released Monday by the Louisiana Department of Health shows the number of new coronavirus cases reached more than 2,300 since Friday  and more than 4,800 over the last week. Thats more than double the amount of new cases from the prior week.

And the health department warned those numbers are expected to balloon as dozens of cases of the fast-spreading omicron variant have been confirmed in Louisiana.

Still, the number of people hospitalized in Louisiana with COVID-19 remains low so far, reported at 241 patients Monday. That continues to be among the lowest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 2020 and well below the states peak of more than 3,000 in August.

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BOISE, Idaho  State health officials have deactivated crisis guidelines for rationing care at northern Idaho hospitals as COVID-19 cases have dropped.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said Monday that the number of COVID-19 patients remains high but no longer exceeds available health care resources.

The crisis standards for the states five most northern counties had been in place since Sept. 7.

Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen says the situation remains precarious because of the omicron variant that appeared in Idaho last week. Jeppesen says getting vaccinated, getting booster doses and wearing masks in crowded areas could help prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed again.

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NEW YORK  Hamilton and Aladdin, two of Broadways biggest musicals, are shuttering their doors during the busy Christmas week after finding breakthrough COVID-19 cases in their companies.

All matinee and evening performances of Aladdin from Tuesday through Friday were canceled. Performances are scheduled to resume Sunday. Aladdin had previously canceled its Dec. 19 performance.

Hamilton canceled shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday and performances are scheduled to resume Dec. 27. The production had previously canceled its Dec. 17 through Dec. 19 performances, as well as its Dec. 15 show due to the detection of positive results.

The two hit shows join Mrs. Doubtfire, MJ and Aint Too Proud, among others, in announcing multi-day cancellations due to the virus. Shows often add performances around Christmas week and the holidays are usually the most lucrative shows of the year.

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MISSION, Kan.  Rural Kansas hospitals are struggling to transfer patients as COVID-19 numbers surge, with some patients left stranded in emergency rooms for a week while they wait for a bed.

Space also was in short supply last winter and again over the summer when the delta variant first hit the state. The situation improved slightly this fall, but according to Motient, a company contracting with Kansas to help manage transfers, the situation now is worsening again.

And it isnt just rural hospitals looking for beds. Overwhelmed hospitals as far away as Minnesota and Michigan have been calling looking for beds in larger Kansas hospitals. Often there simply isnt room.

Dr. Richard Watson, founder of Motient, said Friday that the long-distance transfers and long waits for beds are sadly becoming commonplace as the pandemic ends its second year.

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CONCORD, New Hampshire  Health officials say a child who was too young to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 is the first person under 18 from New Hampshire to have died from complications related to the virus.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release that the death happened in September in another state and was identified after COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death on the death certificate, which was recently finalized.

We are all saddened by this loss and give our condolences to the family, said Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist. It continues to be important for us all to take steps to protect those who are not yet able to be vaccinated, and those who are vulnerable and at risk for severe COVID-19.

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QUEBEC CITY  Quebec is closing bars, cinemas, gyms and spas because of a record number of coronavirus cases in the Canadian province.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said restaurants must close by 10 p.m.

The province last week went to 50% capacity at restaurants and bars but is now announcing more restrictions. Quebec reported 4,571 COVID-19 cases Monday, a new single-day record since the beginning of the pandemic.

Elementary schools and high schools will close after Monday and in-person learning will resume Jan. 10, but schools will remain accessible until the holiday break for vaccinations or distributing rapid tests to students.

Spectators will not be permitted to attend professional or amateur sporting events.

Remote work, which before was recommended by authorities, will now be mandatory.

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LONDON  Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to gather the royal family for Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England, amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant.

The royal palace said Monday that the 95-year-old queen will spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has spent most of her time during the pandemic.

Other members of the royal family are expected to visit over the Christmas period, with precautions taken against spreading the virus.

For years members of the extended family have spent the holidays at Sandringham, attending the local church as a group on Christmas Day.

The queen has cut down on travel and work in recent months since spending a night in hospital in October and being told to rest by her doctors.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio  Additional Ohio hospitals are announcing the postponement of elective surgeries as COVID-19 cases continue to fill up hospital beds in the state.

The decisions are in line with the crisis highlighted by Gov. Mike DeWine last week when he ordered more than 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard into hospitals to help overwhelmed staff.

The Ohio State University medical center and the Columbus-based OhioHealth system both say theyre postponing new elective surgeries as the number of coronavirus cases spike. Ohio States policy, covering procedures that require an overnight stay, takes place Jan. 3 but doesnt affect currently scheduled procedures.

Hospital systems in northeastern Ohio including the Cleveland Clinic announced similar postponements earlier this month. The word Help dominated a full-page ad in The Plain Dealer Monday in which six Cleveland-area health systems urged people to receive the vaccine.

State Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said last week the vast majority of people being hospitalized in Ohio arent vaccinated.

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MISSION, Kansas  A Missouri health official says the delta variant still accounts for 98% to 99% of the roughly 600 samples that are sequenced each week.

Over the past seven days, the state confirmed 14,156 new COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise in Missouri. The states Department of Health and Senior Services data shows the seven-day average hitting 1,972 on Thursday, up from 1,058 on Nov. 9, but still well below the peak of the summer surge.

Dr. James Stewart, the chief medical officer for North Kansas City Hospital, says the hospital has more than four times as many COVID-19 patients with active infections now as it did on Nov. 1.

Stewart says that if this continues, the hospital will surpass its previous peak.

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LOS ANGELES  The New Years Eve party planned for downtown Los Angeles Grand Park will not have an in-person audience due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in LA County, organizers said.

The NYELA Countdown to 2022 event will instead be streamed, as it was last year.

Organizers originally planned to have an invite-only audience of LA County frontline workers and first responders.

The program will feature the band Kinky and other musical performances starting at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported more than 3,500 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as the number of daily new cases tripled over the week.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Kuwait has mandated that everyone who has been vaccinated against the coronavirus at least nine months ago receive a booster shot.

The Gulf Arab state says that booster shots will become compulsory starting Jan. 2 as the omicron variant courses across the region. Kuwait detected its first omicron case earlier this month.

The tiny sheikhdom has seen cases gradually trend upward this week after hitting record lows of under 50 infections a day. The government also urged all citizens and residents to avoid travel.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY  With the dramatic increase in COVID-19 in New York, and specifically on Long Island, health officials and politicians encourage everyone to make sure they are fully vaccinated.

To combat the highly contagious omicron variant, getting boosted is a critical next step for protection, they say.

Mount Sinai South Nassau is scheduling a special "Vaxmobile" event, doing its part, at Bonbino's Pizza in Rockville Centre.

Owner Nick Milano said he arranged for the additional shots to keep his employees and customers safe.

Workers at the pizzeria were expected to get their booster shots on Monday afternoon.

There is also a Bonbino's Pizza in Oceanside.





This article originally appeared on the Rockville Centre Patch
FILE  An abandoned and unregistered Chris Craft is seen anchored and left off the shore of the Brownsville Marina in 2021. Kitsap County says there were 18 derelict vessels observed along the shoreline in November.

At least 18 derelict boats are sitting on the Kitsap shoreline of Puget Sound, according to a recent count by the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.

Some have occupants, and others are close to sinking to the bottom of the sea, potentially bringing with them environmentally damaging waste.

The county has fielded numerous calls and complaints about the vessels  which dot the shoreline as far south as Yukon Harbor in South Kitsap to as far north as Apple Tree Cove in Kington.

The county's list of derelict vessels observed on the shoreline of Puget Sound as of Nov. 26 include:

A 28-foot sailboat tied to a mooring bay in Sinclair Inlet in front of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard;

A similar-sized vessel that's run aground along Tracyton Boulevard;

A pleasure craft floating south of Jackson Park in Ostrich Bay;

A blue and white sailboat beached at Silverdale Waterfront Park

A 27-foot sailboat moored in Dyes Inlet in Silverdale

A 36-foot motor vessel with a liveaboard that's run aground in Dyes Inlet in Silverdale

A blue and white sailboat anchored in Dyes Inlet in Silverdale

A 34-foot motor vessel run aground at Dyes Inlet in Silverdale that's accessible from land on Bayshore Drive

A 20-foot motor vessel sunk in the 1800 block of Jacobson Boulevard in Bremerton

A 26-foot Chris Craft sunk near the Navy's Keyport installation.

A 65-foot tugboat moored in Apple Tree Cove.

A 32-foot motor vessel aground in Apple Tree Cove.

A 36-foot sailboat moored off Manchester that endured a recent fire on board.

A 28-foot vessel that's run aground in Yukon Harbor.

A 34-foot motor vessel that's run aground in Colvoe Passage south of Command Point Road.

Those who call Kitsap 1, a phone number for county services and questions, to report a vessel rotting or run aground are sent to the state's Department of Natural Resources.

More: Puget Sound is piling up with 'ghost boats' as some seek cheap maritime housing

Troy Wood, DNR derelict vessel program manager, met with Kitsap County commissioners earlier this month, presenting information about DNR's Derelict Vessel Removal Program, which has removed over 900 vessels from waterways since it was created in 2002.

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But the program is only able to respond to those vessels that present the most urgent environmental or safety concerns, Wood said.

Boats needing removal are prioritized into categories: emergency, non-emergency threats, vessels impacting habitat, minor navigation or economic impact or other  such as sunken or floating boats or those trespassing  and abandoned in a boatyard.

That leaves Kitsap County responsible for addressing the boats, unless theyve run aground in the jurisdiction of a local port or city.

Because the Kitsap County Sheriffs Office is the only county department with a boat, it's been involved with many of the vessels and complaints, the county says.

Though public entities that remove vessels may qualify for removal cost reimbursement through DNR, Kitsap County doesnt have a revenue stream to do much about the boats, Gelder said.

When DNR does get involved, Wood said there are occasionally people living on the boats who refuse to listen when asked to move the boat or get off the boat and turn it into DNR. Abandonment or dereliction are considered misdemeanors, with the first infraction being a $500 ticket, Wood said.

But criminal penalty is only used as a last resort, he said, and it hasnt been enforced much. He said theres a duty to inform owners before taking their property, and theres a 30-day process before DNR has the right to touch or move it, and another 30 days for the owner to appeal the custody process.

During the meeting, Gelder asked how much is being accomplished through enforcement versus moving the problem around.

We play whack-a-mole a lot with these vessels, Wood said. We have no ability to enforce some things, the Coast Guard does.

Washington state law defines an abandoned vessel as a vessel that has been left, moored, or anchored in the same area without the express consent of the owner of the aquatic lands below or on which the vessel is located for either a period of more than 30 consecutive days or for more than a total of 90 days in any 365 period. The vessels owner is not known, cannot be located or is known but not willing to take control of the vessel.

According to Wood, vessels that sink cost three times more to remove. As of Oct 25, 2021, DNRs list of vessels of concern contained 281 vessels.

Theres an awful lot of those vessels out there and not a lot of money to deal with them, he said.

Prevention is always cheaper than dealing with a derelict vessel after the fact, Wood said, adding that he encourages vessel owners to use the vessel turn-in program where they can turn boats in for free disposal.

DNR has a tool on its website that can report vessels and upload geotagged photos through www.dnr.wa.gov/vessel-reporting.

Boat owner fined for 2019 spill

A boat owner is being fined $13,800 for a spill in December 2019 at the Brownsville Marina that dumped an estimated 38 gallons of diesel and motor oil mix into the Puget Sound, according to an announcement on Dec. 14 by the state Department of Ecology.

The boat was sinking, pulling down docks at the marina, according to a press release. The owner was identified and does not live in-state, and lack of care contributed to the boats sinking.

The vessel remained sunk until April 11, 2020, when a company was hired to remove the boat.

His vessel continued to release fuel oil for weeks while no effort was made to raise the vessel and stop the pollution to state waters, said Rob Walls, Northwest Region Response Unit Supervisor in Ecologys Spills Program.

Diesel oil can coat wildlife, impair fish, birds and other creatures and contains carcinogenic compounds that are acutely toxic and can persist in the environment, according to Ecology.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Lots of derelict vessels in Kitsap, few funds to deal with them
Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been banned from driving and fined (Francesco Scaccianoce/PA) (PA Wire)

Manchester Uniteds Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been banned from driving for six months and fined more than 30,000.

The 24-year-old right-back admitted earlier this year to driving while disqualified and without insurance after being stopped by police in Manchester on June 23 returning from a break abroad.

On Monday, ahead of a scheduled trial he also pleaded guilty to failing to provide driver details for two speeding offences in Bradford, West Yorkshire in September 2020.

Lawyers for Wan-Bissaka said he was in a state of complete ignorance of the Yorkshire driving matters as notification letters were sent to his former home in Croydon, London

Manchester United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka leaving Manchester Magistrates Court in September (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Wire)

The failure to reply led to a six-month ban imposed at Leeds Magistrates Court in his absence on June 18  just five days before his Lamborghini Urus was seized by police on the A34 after officers stopped him.

Wan-Bissaka already had six points on his licence from a conviction in London in April 2020, the court heard.

Shaun Draycott, defending, told Manchester Magistrates Court: When he was stopped on the A34 he was courteous and respectful to the officers, and he indicated to them he had no idea he was disqualified.

He said Wan-Bissaka had been with his first club, Crystal Palace, from the age of 11 and that seven years later he enjoyed the services of an agent for the first time.

The solicitor said football agents did not merely deal with finances and were responsible for all manners of personal services for their client, including one case he knew  not Wan-Bissaka  where an agent arranged for a players rubbish bins to be put out.

Mr Draycott said arrangements were made for Wan-Bissakas agent to visit his former home in London in order to ensure that his affairs were properly handled following his transfer to Manchester United in 2019.

He explained the property was undergoing refurbishment at about the time the Yorkshire letters were sent and the address was subsequently let out.

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Mr Draycott said: I think the refurbishment issue may have caused some difficulty. He felt matters had been put in hand and plainly they had not, and he must now pay the price for that.

Whether it was wise for you in the circumstances to delegate the tasks in relation to moving from the London address to Manchester is a matter you will have to reflect upon

District Judge Bernard Begley

He accepted that Win-Bissaka had also failed to notify the DVLA of his change of address in 2019.

Sentencing, District Judge Bernard Begley pointed out that at least six or seven letters regarding the speeding offences would have been sent to the Croydon address but he accepted Wan-Bissaka was unaware he was disqualified in June this year.

Banning him from the road for six months from todays date, Judge Begley told the footballer: Whether it was wise for you in the circumstances to delegate the tasks in relation to moving from the London address to Manchester is a matter you will have to reflect upon.

Wan-Bissaka, who lives with his partner and 12-month-old child in Hale, Greater Manchester, received a fine of 30,000 for driving while disqualified, together with fines totalling 1,500 for failing to give information on the speeding matters.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge fee of 190 and court costs of 160.

No separate penalty was issued for the insurance offence.
Editor's note: The following letter, addressed to parents, was submitted by Manitowoc County Health Officer Stephanie Lambert on Dec. 17.

Many of you have reached out to me over the last several weeks with questions about the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. While more than 90,000 children ages 5-11 have now been vaccinated in Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands more remain unprotected. Thank you for reaching out  l think its time we talk.

I want to start by addressing something that I hear over and over from parents, and that is the language used around decision-making. Many of you have expressed concern about making the decision to vaccinate your children, but I think its important to realize that making this decision is inescapable. You are either choosing to vaccinate your child or choosing to leave your child unvaccinated. This is a significant choice to make.

If it seems daunting to make that choice  look to the experts. All professional agencies who specialize in public health, medicine and childrens health (including American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, independent universities and more) whose job it is to look at the data and understand risk/benefit assessments for medications and vaccines have come out strongly in favor of the vaccine.

Of course, its still great to be able to review and understand yourself why these recommendations have been made! Here is why I (and other experts) believe it is safer to vaccinate your child than to not vaccinate your child.

COVID-19 can make children very sick

Stephanie Lambert

While COVID-19 is typically less severe in children than it is in adults, it is not a harmless infection. More than 8,300 children have been hospitalized for COVID-19 as of mid-October, with one-third of these children requiring intensive care unit admission. COVID-19 can impact even healthy children  1 in 3 children hospitalized for the infection had no underlying health conditions. From October 2020 to October 2021, 66 children died of COVID-19.

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Sixty-six childhood deaths may not sound like a lot, but it does make it the eighth-leading cause of death among that age group. In contrast, many times fewer children died from rotavirus (20), rubella (17), varicella/chicken pox (16), Meningococcal (eight) and Hepatitis A (three) each year before those vaccines were authorized  but we vaccinate our children for these diseases because A) we should prevent preventable deaths, and B) disease has more negative outcomes than just death.

While many children have mild to moderate symptoms that can be treated at home, approximately 1 in every 3,200 COVID-19 infections among children leads to Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. MISC-C is a serious condition that causes inflammation throughout a persons organ system  with 60%-70% of patients admitted to intensive care and 1%-2% of children who develop MIS-C dying. Children with no or mild symptoms from their COVID-19 infection can develop MIS-C.

One of the most concerning things about COVID-19 (in my opinion) is its known propensity for causing long-term health problems, known as Covid Long Haul Syndrome, or Post COVID Syndrome. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a study from the U.K. that found 7%-8% of children with COVID-19 reported continued symptoms more than 12 weeks after diagnosis. The most common symptoms include fatigue, difficulty thinking, cough, trouble breathing, joint or muscle pain, chest or stomach pain, mood changes, headache, fever, heart palpitations, loss/change of smell or taste, and lightheadedness when standing up. These symptoms can sometimes be debilitating. Just like MIS-C, Post COVID Syndrome may appear after mild or severe infections.

COVID-19 infections in children lead to others getting sick

Tommy Landa,10, receives the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Jillian Close at the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, N.J.

Infected children spread COVID-19 to those around them, affecting their classmates, teachers, family and community members.

Children cannot typically isolate themselves in a household, as they need care. This can put even vaccinated parents at risk of breakthrough infections, leading to illness, time off work and more.

Vaccinating children ages 5-11 years old is expected to prevent approximately 600,000 cases from November 2021 to March 2022.

COVID-19 vaccines are effective

The COVID-19 vaccine authorized for use in children is a smaller dosage of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that has been administered to hundreds of millions of adults around the world.

We know that the adult vaccine has worked spectacularly well, with an initial protection of 95% against disease and more than 90% protection against hospitalization and death after six months.

Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the pediatric dose has also performed well, preventing more than 90% of infections in clinical trials.

No severe cases of COVID-19 were reported, nor were there any MIS-C cases in the clinical trials.

COVID-19 vaccines are safe

Pfizer pediatric COVID-19 vaccine.

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been given to hundreds of millions of adults, and more than a million youth ages 12-15.

The only side effect of significance that has been noted is a very small risk of myocarditis in some populations, mainly young males.

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle, often caused by an immune response from an infection or vaccine.

Most people with myocarditis fully recover with rest and/or medication.

The risk of developing myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination is most elevated in males 16-17 years of age, with a rate of 69 cases per 1 million doses administered.

It is important to note that the risk of myocarditis among children infected with COVID-19 is many times higher.

Children who develop a COVID-19 infection (without MIS-C) have a rate of myocarditis of 200-800 cases per 1 million persons, and in children that develop MIS-C, that increases to 80,000-90,000 cases of myocarditis per 1 million persons.

No cases of myocarditis were detected in clinical trials for children ages 5-11.

Overall, side effects of the vaccine in children ages 5-11 are markedly less than in adults, with about 10% of children reporting any adverse events after vaccination, predominantly redness or swelling at the injection site.

One thing that I think is incredibly important to note is that no vaccine has ever been found to have any complications that are first discovered years down the road. Historically, any adverse events have been detected within six weeks of vaccination. There has never been a known vaccine-related problem that first arises six months later, or six years later. This is because of the way vaccines work. Vaccines present the body with an illusion of the pathogen and are then cleared from the body, leaving the immune system to develop a response so its prepared to fight should that pathogen ever make itself visible again.

RELATED: Manitowoc County surpasses 10,000 COVID-19 cases, 100 deaths since beginning of pandemic

RELATED: Wisconsin schools are desperate for substitute teachers, in a 'dire situation' where many absences go unfilled

COVID-19 vaccines help us return to normal

Luke Quinlan, 8, receives a dose of the Pfizer pediatric COVID-19 vaccine from medical assistant Consuelo Valladolid on the first day of a clinic with the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.

Vaccinated individuals are less likely to become infected and spread COVID-19 to others. This is good on its own accord, and also makes vaccinated individuals less likely to contribute to a mutation.

Finally, vaccinated individuals do not have to quarantine, and thus vaccination can reduce disruptions in our work and home lives because of infections in the community.

COVID-19 vaccinations are our strongest tool for preventing COVID-19 infection and illness, including in children. To find an appointment, visit vaccines.gov.

If you have additional questions or concerns regarding COVID-19 or vaccination, call the Health Department at 920-683-4155. We will be happy to speak with you.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season.

Stephanie Lambert, MPH, is health officer at Manitowoc County Health Department.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc County health officer says kids should get COVID-19 vaccine
Dec. 20Mason school officials are happy about local state lawmakers recently advocating for the district to get more coronavirus relief money.

In recent months school officials here contended their school system was coming up more than $7.3 million short.

"There is no perfect science to (coronavirus) relief fund allocation," said Mason Schools Treasurer Shaun Bevan. "However, after closer examination, there were clear flaws and discrepancies with the methodology that was used."

This summer, Mason school leaders noticed something strange about Ohio's pandemic relief funding calculations, said officials in a released statement.

"Despite the district remaining open and educating students in-person and online throughout the 2020-2021 school year, there were clear flaws and discrepancies that resulted in Ohio's pandemic relief funding formula shortchanging the students and taxpayers in school districts like Mason."

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Grant Program, which is part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, was coming up more than $7.3 million short for Mason and dozens of other, similarly impacted Ohio school systems.

Mason Superintendent Jonathan Cooper and Bevan said they reached out to State Senator Steve Wilson and Ohio Representative Paul Zeltwanger requesting their help in fixing an error that negatively impacted about 100 school districts across the state.

"The elected officials were eager to learn more, and on board to help come up with a solution," they said in an email statement.

A state bill approved by the Ohio House earlier this month will rectify the shortfall and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has backed the proposed law.

Once signed into law, Mason Schools would then receive a projected $7,370,767 in additional funding. The district will use the money to continue advancing innovative solutions toward safety, student wellness and academic excellence, according to officials.

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Mason, which is Warren County's largest school district with 10,500-students, has an annual operating budget of $120 million.

"I am so appreciative of the relationships we have with our elected officials. Sen. Wilson and Rep. Zeltwanger were immediately on board with supporting a strategic financial solution with discretionary funds that were available," Cooper said.

"This simple solution didn't adversely impact any school district, but simply 'right sizes' what seems like an oversight during the original ESSER allocation planning process," Cooper said.

"The COVID-19 global pandemic dramatically impacted each and every community in our nation. There is no question that the pandemic had  and will continue to have  a lasting impact on our children, schools, and communities," Cooper said.
This is the third time in two months the state regulatory board has issued emergency suspensions after sexual abuse allegations.

The Arizona State Board of Massage Therapy took emergency action Monday to suspend the licenses of two massage therapists after allegations they sexually abused women during massages.

The unanimous action means both therapists are prohibited from working as massage therapists while they await formal hearings before the state regulatory board on potential violations of state laws governing massage therapy.

The licensing board, whose five members were all replaced in September with new ones by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey after an investigation by The Arizona Republic, took the action after reviewing complaints from two women at a meeting Monday.

One woman alleged therapist Adrian Hernandez digitally penetrated her and touched her breasts. Another woman alleged therapist Charles Peck fondled her vagina toward the end of the massage.

This is the third time in two months that the massage board has summarily suspended licenses following accusations of sexual abuse. In October, the board suspended the license of Flagstaff therapist Timothy A. Williams after allegations he failed to report a recent sexual abuse charge and falsified his application for a massage therapy license.

The previous board rarely, if ever, used emergency suspension measures when dealing with complaints of sexual abuse. The measures are used when the board believes there is an imminent threat to health and safety.

A Republic investigation published in September found that the massage board routinely gave many therapists second chances when they were accused of fondling or sexually abusing their clients. This puts customers in danger, and there is very little they can do to protect themselves. The governor replaced the board less than two weeks after the stories published, saying "its critical the State Board of Massage Therapy protects massage clients, especially those who are in a vulnerable position."

Current board member Myriah Mhoon, who was appointed following The Republic's stories, called the allegations an emergency and something that cannot be tolerated.

Story continues

"We should be taking emergency action," she said.

Florida attorney Adam Horowitz, who is not involved in the Arizona cases but represents victims of sexual abuse and sexual assault, called the emergency actions a positive development for public safety.

"In the past, it took so long to get to a final hearing that massage therapists and other health care providers would continue to have access to patients for months or years even if the therapists had multiple complaints against them," he said.

Emergency suspensions strike a fair balance between public safety and due process, he said.

This is the second time Hernandez has faced a sexual complaint before the massage board, according to a discipline database maintained by The Republic. Hernandez is accused of sexual misconduct and improper draping while working at a Massage Envy location in 2018.

A female client accused Hernandez of placing his hand on her breast without explanation during a 2018 massage, which made her uncomfortable. The way he draped her leg made her feel exposed as well. The woman asked that he not work on her chest. But he did so anyway, stating during a hearing with the board that he had forgotten about her request.

After the complaint, Hernandez was terminated from the Massage Envy. But he stated during the 2018 hearing he had started work at an Elements Massage. He also said hed taken classes to improve his draping skills. The board issued him a nondisciplinary order, which included eight hours of communication education.

On Monday, board members were told that Hernandez on Oct. 29 was accused of digitally penetrating the vagina of a woman, touching her breasts and making an inappropriate comment. He was working at an Elements Massage at the time, although the location was not disclosed in the public meeting. Board members were told that Hernandez admitted to digitally penetrating her.

The client, identified at B.H., reported the incident to the Mesa Police Department, who investigated and has submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review.

The woman told board members on Monday that she has been getting trauma therapy and is taking daily medications.

"I am currently no longer working because I let my job know what was going on and I wasnt given really any time off," she said, her voice choked with emotion. "I did want the board to understand how much this has affected me, and I hope the appropriate actions are taken."

Hernandez, who was at the board meeting, said the information board members had before them on Monday was "up to date" and "true." Later in the meeting, he said he was open to questions to clarify what happened, adding that he wanted to show how "I can be a great value to public safety and how I can continue to help people."

But board members had no further questions and moved forward with summarily suspending his massage license. A formal hearing on the allegations likely will take place in February.

After Hernandez, the board dealt with allegations against therapist Charles Peck. A detective at the Southwest Family Advocacy Center made the board aware of a client, identified as B.H., who said she fell asleep on the massage table and awoke to find Peck's hands between her legs "in a sexual way."

Peck told the board Monday the touch was accidental. He had been working the inside of the woman's upper leg when he shifted too far to the left, and his hand contacted her vagina. He said the area was draped  which means covered with a sheet  at the time.

"I feel very bad about this and immediately told her I was sorry," he said.

He said he had been seeing the client for massages for about five years.

Board Chair Angela Reiter, a licensed massage therapist for nearly three decades, said she has never accidentally come into contact with someone's genitals while massaging.

"I personally don't see how that's possible as a massage therapist," she said. "I'm not saying it's impossible. But in my almost 30 years I've not had that."

She said massage therapists have to be aware of proper draping, especially when working in vulnerable areas.

The board voted unanimously to summarily suspend Peck's license. A formal hearing date has not been set.

Williams, the Flagstaff therapist accused of failing to report a recent sexual abuse charge and falsifying his application for a massage therapy license, was scheduled to have a formal hearing before the board Monday.

But the board postponed the hearing until Jan. 24 because Williams has been recovering from an illness.

Reach the reporter at anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Massage Board suspends 2 massage therapists after sexual abuse claims
BUCHANAN, Ga.  A Mississippi man was in critical condition after he was shot while allegedly trying to run over a state trooper after a chase, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

News reports say the bureau identified him as 30-year-old Willie Lee Austin. The man's hometown was not given.

The chase began in Polk County, where an officer tried to flag down a truck that was running other vehicles off the road, Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd told WXIA-TV.

It continued into Haralson County, where a state trooper performed a PIT maneuver, bumping the truck to make it spin out and stop, on U.S. 27, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The bureau said a trooper and a deputy approached the truck, which drove toward the trooper, and both officers fired into the truck, WSB-TV reported.

Neither a female passenger in the truck nor either officer was injured, the station said.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi man shot; tried to run down Georgia trooper, authorities say
Oxygen

A Texas man has been indicted for the 2010 murder of his former live-in girlfriends daughter as prosecutors reveal for the first time how she was killed. A grand jury in Mitchell County indicted Shawn C. Adkins, 35, last week on one count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence in the death of Colorado City girl Hailey Dunn, 13, local outlet KTAB-TV reports. In court documents obtained by KTAB, prosecutors allege that Adkins killed the eighth-grader by striking her in the head with a
A vial of the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19





Moderna announced on Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine significantly increases antibody levels against omicron.

The company said in a statement that preliminary data from a study showed that an authorized booster shot of 50 micrograms - which is half the amount used in the initial two Moderna doses - increases antibody levels against omicron 37-fold compared to pre-booster levels. However, when the initial dosage amount of 100 micrograms is used as a booster, neutralizing antibodies levels go up 83-fold, it added.

"The dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant is concerning to all. However, these data showing that the currently authorized Moderna COVID-19 booster can boost neutralizing antibody levels 37-fold higher than pre-boost levels are reassuring," said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Monday.

"To respond to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future. We will also continue to generate and share data across our booster strategies with public health authorities to help them make evidence-based decisions on the best vaccination strategies against SARS-CoV-2."

Moderna also said that the booster dose was safe and generally well-tolerated and side effects were comparable to those from the first two doses of its vaccine.

Moderna also said that it is working to create an omicron-specific vaccine, with clinical trials continuing into early 2022.

The company said that it will "continue to assess the breadth and durability of neutralizing antibodies from the multivalent booster candidates in the months ahead."

Moderna previously found that two doses of its vaccine were less effective at preventing infection from the omicron variant.

Monday's announcement comes one day after White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the omicron variant is "raging through the world."

Story continues

"Well, the one thing that's very clear, and there's no doubt about this, is its extraordinary capability of spreading, its transmissibility capability. It is just, you know, raging through the world, really," Fauci told host Chuck Todd Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The omicron variant, which was first identified in South Africa last month, has since spread to a number of countries across the globe including the U.S., causing caseloads to skyrocket in many areas.

Pfizer announced earlier this month that a booster dose of its vaccine was also successful at significantly increasing neutralizing antibody levels against the omicron variant.

--Updated at 7:50 a.m.
The portrait of U.S. Sen. Hamilton Lewis still hangs in the corridor outside the Democratic Leaders office on the second floor of the Senate wing of the Capitol. It was painted by Louis Betts and donated by his widow Rose Douglas Lewis, of Georgia.

Welcome to the case of the missing senator.

His name is James Hamilton Lewis. He grew up in Augusta after the Civil War, became a lawyer, a soldier, a diplomat, a congressman and member of the U.S. Senate.

He was an adviser to Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. He was a skillful debater and a fashionable dresser.

He made the cover of Life magazine.

When he died in 1939, he was honored in the U.S. Capitol, then buried in a fashionable mausoleum near Arlington National Cemetery.

Then, this man, who achieved so much attention in life, vanished.

This is a surprise because Lewis' life story was so dramatic.

His mother died giving him birth in Virginia, where she had gone to tend to his father, a wounded Confederate major. The father never recovered fully and little "Ham" would be raised by others in Augusta.

He would leave for the University of Virginia, then went into law. He married Rose Douglas, of Sylvania, Ga., served in the Spanish American War, moved to Seattle, ran for Congress and won.

Then he moved to Chicago, ran for U.S. Senate, and won again  one of the few to be sent to Washington from two different states.

Reporters loved his Capitol Hill debates, while fashion editors focused on his style-setting wardrobe.

He is often quoted for his advice to freshman senator Harry Truman, who showed up awestruck in 1935.

Harry, dont start out with an inferiority complex, Lewis said. For the first six months youll wonder how in hell you got here. After that youll wonder how in hell the rest of us got here.

Not bad for an Augusta orphan.

When he died in 1939 his death was front-page news. He was buried in Arlington, Va., at a newly constructed mausoleum next to the famed national cemetery.

What happened next is the mystery.

Political historians, the U.S. Senate history office, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Army and even the Illinois Historical Society aren't sure what happened to his body.

His burial place, the Abbey Mausoleum, ran into financial troubles despite the prominence of its residents  not only Lewis, but a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Story continues

Then there were the vandals.

According numerous newspaper accounts including the Washington Post, intruders in the 1970s pried off grates and gained entrance.

Caskets were forced open, the ashes from an urn were spilled on the floor with a "smiley face" drawn in them,

Later The Post would report, "police discovered dead cats, pentagrams, bloody handprints and other signs of Satanic worship. In the most notorious incident, 45 corpses were decapitated, their skulls mounted on broomsticks."

Marines from a neighboring base began taking care of the grounds and the federal government eventually took over the property. The mausoleum structure was demolished and those interred there were removed to other cemeteries.

None, however, report receiving U.S. Sen. Hamilton Lewis.

Maybe that's because he was already gone.

Federal archives indicate the Lewis crypt was empty when the move took place, and might have been empty for some time.

It would make sense that he be moved in 1972 upon the death of his widow, former Georgia socialite Rose Douglas Lewis.

Her final resting place, however, is another mystery. Half a century ago, newspapers reported her burial as private.

Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgia for 45 years.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Former Augustan and U.S. senator buried with honors, then disappeared
CAIRO (Reuters) - Morocco has cancelled official New Year's Eve celebrations and decided to reimpose a night curfew on Dec. 31 due to worries about the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the state news agency MAP reported on Monday.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Moataz Mohamed; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Several organizations, including the Maryland chapter of the NAACP, are calling for male staff members at Howard County High School in the Baltimore suburb of Ellicott City to be criminally charged after disturbing video footage showing school officials restraining and striking the student in the head.

In a statement to WUSA9 earlier this month, Howard County Public Schools said that the student, whose name has not been released, reportedly assaulted multiple other students on Thursday, Dec. 2, in the cafeteria and that the Howard County Public School security guard and a school administrator intervened and helped the school student resource officer subdue the student  the three staff members featured in the disturbing clip.

The student, who is Black, was later disciplined. The security assistant, a former police officer, was placed on paid leave. However, the NAACP says the school employees should be charged.

Advocates are calling for charges to be filed against employees seen restraining a student and hitting him at a Maryland high school. (Photo: screenshot / WJZ CBS 13)

It has been brought to our attention that criminal charges have been filed against the child who was attacked by an adult HCPSS employee, but no charges have been filed against the adult, president of the NAACP Maryland State Conference Willie Flowers said in a statement to the news station.

We have demanded an investigation into the incident, but we never thought that a student would be charged for a crime when the student was the one on the ground being assaulted by three male adults and punched in the head by one of them.

It sends a terrible message to the community that children will be abused, and the traumatizing acts of an adult employee will be overlooked, Flowers added.

The security assistant assaulted the student with the amount of force that is intended to cause serious bodily harm while the SRO and assistant principals stood by and watched, NAACP representative Candace Jaimes said. Therefore, it is the position of the NAACP that the staff that was involved in that incident should be fired and charged criminally.

Story continues

Howard County Black Community Aging Council and African American Community Roundtable have also called for the employees to be terminated. Barbara Peart of the Council on Aging said incidents like these are not foreign and says theres no room to question the students behavior in a statement to US Time Today.

We demand that appropriate measures be taken against others who have perpetrated violence against this child and the school system, instead of hiding behind the policies, look at the policies and realize what isnt working, what needs to be done, and what needs to be changed, Peart added.

In addition, the organization is also asking that Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano review their training procedure and the hiring practices for staff so that they are safe to be in contact with students.

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MADRID (AP)  Rafael Nadal tested positive for the coronavirus after playing in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard said Monday.

Nadal wrote on Twitter that the positive result came from a PCR test he took after arriving in Spain.

Nadal said he is enduring unpleasant moments but hopes to improve little by little." He is in isolation at home and everyone who has been in contact with him was informed of his positive result.

Among those possibly in contact with Nadal was Spains former monarch, Juan Carlos I, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since allegations of financial scandals swirled and embarrassed the Spanish royal household last year.

According to Spains El Mundo newspaper, Nadal and Juan Carlos, who is 83, shared a meal on Saturday. The paper also published photos of both of them posing together without masks.

Nadal said he had been tested every two days while away and all results had come back negative, with the last one on Saturday.

Nadal said that as a consequence of the positive result he will have to be flexible with his playing schedule. He said he will analyze his upcoming options depending on his condition.

Nadal played his first match in more than four months on Friday, losing in straight sets to Andy Murray at the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi. The 20-time Grand Slam champions chronic foot injury had forced him to sit out the final months of this season.

Nadal had not competed since early August when he lost to Lloyd Harris in Washington. He missed Wimbledon, the Tokyo Olympics and the U.S. Open.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Nadal and the king had a meal on Saturday, not Friday.

___

More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
On the 10th anniversary of former supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il's death last week and the beginning of the country's 11-day bereavement mandate, a noticeably slimmer Kim Jong-un made an appearance to commemorate his father's death.



Death anniversary: Donning his trademark black leather coat, North Korean's supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 37, stood in front of thousands of North Koreans who attended the memorial service at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the mausoleum of the late leader, on Friday, according to Reuters. North Korea's flag was also flown at half-mast as part of the commemoration.





Kim Jong Un has appeared on state TV at events to mark the 10th anniversary of his fathers death. This is a screen grab from KCTV. It was around -7C in Pyongyang today. pic.twitter.com/MkTgQBJqjh

 Laura Bicker (@BBCLBicker) December 17, 2021







State television footage of the memorial showed Kim looking slimmer than he has in recent years. International media first noticed the change in his physical appearance after he celebrated the 73rd anniversary of North Korea in September, Sky News reported.

Rumors and speculation involving his health began circulating after his images were posted online. In late October, South Korea's National Intelligence Service confirmed that Kim lost 44 pounds and that the North Korean government has not been using a body double, ABC News reported.

For the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Ils death, North Koreans were required to enter an 11-day mourning period and adhere to several bans the government imposed, such as laughing, drinking alcohol and participating in leisure activities, a resident of Sinuiju told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

In the past many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals. They were taken away and never seen again, the source said, adding that celebrating birthdays and mourning lost loved ones are also not allowed during this period.

Local police were also informed to stay vigilant for anyone who fail[s] to appear appropriately bereaved, another source said.

In addition to the mourning period, elderly military veterans will hold events to raise awareness about Kim Jong-ils accomplishments. Some of the events include a photography and art exhibition in South Hamgyong and a remembrance concert.

Story continues







Other details: Kim Jong-il succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, after his death on July 8, 1994. He ruled North Korea until his death on Dec. 17, 2011. The country experienced several challenges under his leadership, including several food shortages, which led to the "arduous march" (also known as the meal-skipping campaign).



On the day of Kim Jong-ils death, Kim Jong-un, the late rulers son who had remained unheard of before the transfer of power, took over the supreme leader position at the age of 27. During his first year in office, Kim Jong-un reportedly purged high-ranking officials from the government who could challenge his authority.

North Korea has allegedly carried out 27 death sentences ever since Kim Jong-un became leader in 2011, human rights group Transitional Justice Working Group claimed, Daily Star reported.

"In 2012 or 2013 in Pyongyang an executed body was burned with a flame-thrower in front of a crowd following execution. The family of the accused was forced to attend the execution and sit in the front row to observe. The father fainted after watching his son burn in front of his eyes," a defector told the human rights group.

Last month, a man was reportedly executed via a firing squad for allegedly smuggling copies of Netflixs hit South Korean series Squid Game into North Korea through USBs.



Featured Image KCTV via @BBCLBicker

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An Oakridge man was arrested Friday and could face manslaughter charges in connection with a triple fatal car crash on Highway 58 near Oakridge that left three Washington state residents dead on May 30.

The suspect, a 31-year-old Oakridge man, was arrested on suspicion of three counts of manslaughter, DUII, third-degree assault, two counts of fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief, Oregon State Police said in a news release. He has remained lodged in Lane County jail.

Related: Three dead, two critically injured after three-car crash on Highway 58 near Oakridge

The suspect was one of the drivers in the crash that happened near milepost 27 west of Oakridge at around 10:15 a.m. May 30. Police said the suspect was driving westbound in a Ford Taurus and passing in a no passing zone when he collided with a westbound Chrysler Town and Country minivan.

The Taurus driver then crashed head-on into an eastbound Mazda 3, killing three passengers and injuring another, police said. The three killed were driver Jagadish Chandrasekaren, 31, Adharsh Murali, 25, and Jignesh Modi, 27, all Washington residents.

The suspect was transported to a hospital following the crash, and the Town and Country driver was not immediately transported but later went to the hospital for treatment, according to police.

Police said a fourth vehicle, possibly a blue pickup, was also involved in the crash but left the scene without providing information, and asked for anyone who witnessed the crash or had information to contact OSP's northern command center at 1-800-442-0776 or *OSP and leave information for Trooper Phillips regarding case SP21-144382.

Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oakridge man arrested for car crash in May that killed three people




Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday, arguing that his reasoning for opposing President Biden's Build Back Better Act falls flat.

Manchin, in announcing his opposition on Sunday, argued he could not explain supporting the bill to his constituents in West Virginia, a GOP-tilting state that voted overwhelmingly for former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Ocasio-Cortez, who represents one of the nation's most densely populated areas in New York City, called that rationale "a farce" during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"It's a farce in terms of plain democracy," she said. "Because, you know, I represent just as many or more people than Joe Manchin does."

Rep. @AOC (D-NY) on Sen. Manchin's no on BBB Act: "The idea that Joe Manchin says he can't explain this back home to his people is a farce ... I represent just as many or more people than Joe Manchin does." pic.twitter.com/F9W1Ex8epU - The Recount (@therecount) December 20, 2021

West Virginia, which like every state has two senators, has a population of less than 1.8 million. Manchin and fellow West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R) represent all of them. Ocasio-Cortez's district in New York has around 700,000 people.

Ocasio-Cortez and progressives in the House have battled with Manchin throughout 2021, and had already seen the Build Back Better social spending and climate bill cut back based on demands from the West Virginia senator.

They also saw the bipartisan infrastructure bill, sometimes called the BIF, pass through the House on the promise that the Build Back Better bill would follow.

"The Senate must reconvene immediately and bring BBB to a vote regardless of Manchin's statement," Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet after Manchin's announcement on Sunday. "If they forced folks to go on record with BIF, they can force the Senate to go on record with BBB. We can take it up again next year too."

In announcing his decision on Sunday, Manchin cited his commitment to his constituents in West Virginia as his guiding principal when deciding which pieces of the president's agenda to support and vote for.

"Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation," he said in a statement released Sunday.
Oklahoma wants to be able to hire 18- and 19-year olds to help solve a labor shortage, KOCO-TV reported. Getty Images

Oklahoma wants to change the law so it can hire 18- and 19-year olds for prison work, per KOCO-TV.

Oklahoma DOC is struggling with a shortfall of almost 500 workers.

An Oklahoma state representative told KOCO-TV he is open to looking at a proposal.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is looking to employ 18- and 19-year-olds to work in state prisons to help overcome a shortage of almost 500 workers, KOCO-TV reported on Saturday.

Justin Wolf, an Oklahoma DOC spokesperson, told KOCO-TV that the agency is working with lawmakers to try to change the law so that it can hire employees from 18 years of age.

Oklahoma DOC is set back because it can't hire 18-year-olds, Wolf told KOCO-TV. The current minimum age limit to work in prison is 20 years old, according to The Associated Press.

Wolf told KOCO-TV that the agency is offering career development opportunities and lifelong careers by hiring teenagers.

The 18- and 19-year-olds wouldn't be hired for jobs involving weapons, any posts that involve security threat groups, or specialized management jobs, Wolf told KOCO-TV.

State Rep. Justin Humphrey, chair of Criminal Justice and Corrections, told KOCO-TV that the agency is possibly at a point where it has to "declare a state of emergency" because of the very low number of correctional officers.

"I feel like 18 is too young but I will tell you, where we're at right now, I have backed up and said I'm willing to look at a proposal," he told KOCO-TV.

The Oklahoma DOC didn't immediately reply to Insider's request for comment.

The labor shortage has hit small and large businesses across the US as employers scramble to hire and retain workers.

In August, a McDonald's in Oregon hung a banner outside the restaurant, advertising that it's hiring 14- and 15-year-old workers. A sign at a Burger King restaurant in Ohio also said it would hire 14- and 15-year-olds.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Armed security personnel stand guard on the rooftop of a hotel, next to letters reading "Davos"

The elite annual gathering of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos has been postponed due to the spread of Omicron.

The meeting was due to take place in Switzerland from 17-21 January, but is now planned for "early summer".

WEF said the current pandemic conditions "make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting".

Instead, it said participants would take part in a series of "state of the world" sessions online.

"The deferral of the annual meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society," said Prof Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

"Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace."

Last year, the annual WEF meeting was shifted from Davos because of Covid and had been due to be held in Singapore during August before the event was cancelled.

Switzerland has become the latest country to introduce new Covid restrictions, including a mandatory order to work from home, as the Omicron variant of Covid spreads through Europe.

"Despite the meeting's stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary," the WEF said.

Launched in 1971, WEF aims to "improve the state of the world" by bringing leaders from business, politics, charity and academia together.

The conference - which is criticised by some as being elitist - had until last year been held annually in the Alpine ski resort of Davos.
By Deena Beasley

(Reuters) - A growing number of countries are reducing the wait time for COVID-19 vaccine boosters from six months to as few as three in a bid to ward off a new surge in infections from the Omicron variant.

They are reacting to early evidence suggesting that Omicron is spreading faster than its predecessor, Delta, and is more likely to infect people who were vaccinated or had COVID in the past. Some scientists, however, say that giving boosters too soon could compromise the level of longer-term vaccine protection.

While data remains limited, half a dozen laboratory studies have shown that an initial course of COVID-19 vaccines - typically given in two doses - is not enough to halt infection from the Omicron variant, but a booster shot may help.

Research from southern Africa and the UK shows that the variant is spreading very quickly, prompting forecasts that it will soon outpace Delta in several countries. Scientists are also trying to determine how severe cases of Omicron are.

Many countries, including the United States, earlier this year authorized booster doses at six months after a person completes vaccination. This month, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Thailand cut that interval to three months. Belgium has lowered it to four months.

France, Singapore, Taiwan, Italy and Australia have decreased their booster wait time to five months.

Some countries, including the United States, South Africa and Germany, have stuck to the six-month booster schedule.

Finland has recommended a three-month booster timeline for at-risk groups, saying it does not believe shortening the time for the general population will slow rising hospitalizations.

Spain and Lithuania are also so far offering boosters only to people with weak immune systems, the elderly or vulnerable, while India has not decided on a booster campaign. The World Health Organization, which had told rich countries to prioritize sending first COVID vaccine doses to the developing world, has become more open to boosters in light of rising cases.

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More data is needed, but there is a risk that shorter timeframes could compromise the effectiveness of vaccines given in multiple doses, experts said.

"In general for multiple-dose vaccines ... the immune system works better if it has time to mature," said Dr. William Schaffner, infectious disease expert from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

IMMUNE SYSTEM DEFENSES

While studies show that boosters temporarily increase antibody levels, scientists say the goal of a vaccine regimen is to elicit not only antibodies but second-line immune system defenses such as T-cells.

"All that is going to be helpful for keeping you out of the hospital," said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

Multi-dose vaccines prime the immune system, giving it time to marshal those back-up defenses.

Dr. Luciano Borio, a former Food and Drug Administration acting chief scientist, said, "I do worry that we don't know what impact it may have on the immune system maturation of the doses. Three months seems like a very short interval."

The United States has no plans to change its current booster timing recommendations, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in an email.

"From an immunologic point of view, it does not make sense to shorten the intervals to less than six months," said a spokesperson for Arkansas' public health department.

Still, some experts argue that the six-month interval was arbitrary, and data gathered prior to the rise of the Omicron variant in November has shown that immunity as measured by antibody levels begins to drop off as early as four months after initial COVID-19 vaccinations.

"Four months is when the waning really started to get substantial," said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. "Omicron just forces the issue."

(Additional reporting by Carl O'Donnel and Michael Erman in New York; Olivia Kumwenda in Johannesburg; Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Krishna Das in New Delhi; Ari Rabinovitch in Israel; Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Clara-Laeila Laudette in Madrid; Essi Lehto in Helsinki; Josephine Mason in London; editing by Caroline Humer, Michele Gershberg and Cynthia Osterman)
Bruce Van Saun is chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group. Tom Gilbane is chairman and CEO of Gilbane Inc.

As leading employers in Rhode Island, we have a first-hand understanding of the many benefits a high-quality, sustainable health-care system brings to the local economy and individual businesses alike. The proposed merger between Lifespan and Care New England to form a world-class, integrated academic health system here in Rhode Island should be welcome news to our states business community.

Access to health care is a fundamental right, and we believe that our companies have a moral responsibility to provide our employees with the very best, most accessible health-care plans we can afford. We know that many of our peers in Rhode Islands tight-knit business community share that belief. But with the cost of health care rapidly rising in New England and across the country, having a plan in place to keep costs under control in Rhode Island is incredibly important to businesses, many of which  including our own  count employee benefits among the most expensive line items on our balance sheets.

The proposed plan to bring Lifespan and Care New Englands health systems together, under one umbrella with Brown Universitys medical school, is an opportunity to create efficiencies and over time, potentially reduce the cost of health care across the state. All with the intent of making Rhode Island a more attractive place for both employees looking for a high quality-of-life, and for businesses looking for a place to set up shop.

Looking beyond the invaluable benefit of cost savings, the creation of an integrated academic health system will also add much-needed long-term financial stability to Rhode Islands health-care ecosystem and will provide the health-care system with the scale it needs to fully realize its untapped potential.

The health-care industry is already one of Rhode Islands most important sectors, representing nearly 30 percent of Rhode Islands statewide economy. But there is room to grow, particularly in the medical research space. By allowing the world-class researchers from Lifespan, Care New England, and Brown University to more easily collaborate across systems and share ideas and findings, we will have an opportunity to make great strides in our states biomedical research and disease prevention and treatment efforts. This is an opportunity to transform downtown Providence into a nationally leading research hub, and recreate the economy-driving success that cities such as Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore have enjoyed in recent years.

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Most importantly, this proposed merger will improve the quality of health care for all Rhode Islanders. Its important to remember there is no brand loyalty when it comes to health care. We know that when our employees are sick or need medical care, they arent worried about the logo on the side of the building in which they are treated. They simply want to receive the highest-quality care, from the most qualified providers, that their health plans can afford.

Because Lifespan and Care New England offer very different, complementary services that, combined, cover the entire spectrum of an individuals needs, Rhode Islanders have always needed to use both systems in order to receive that high-quality care. However, our current fragmented system does not allow for the seamless sharing of patient information, so shifting between Lifespan and Care New England is a logistical headache for both patients and the providers who treat them. This is an inefficient way to do business, and its well past time to change it.

Bringing Lifespan and Care New England together to form an integrated academic health system with Brown University should help position Rhode Islands economy for growth moving forward while at the same time ensuring that the health care needs of Rhode Islanders are met.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Opinion/Van Saun and Gilbane: Citizens, Gilbane endorse plan to bring Lifespan and Care New England systems together
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  Nijel Pack scored 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished five assists, sparking Kansas State to a 67-58 win over Nebraska Sunday.

Pack saw his first full action after missing two games, including the Wildcats' one-point loss to Marquette, after suffering a concussion in practice.

Pack hit a 3-pointer with 9:44 left to put Kansas State in front for good and Davion Bradford scored five unanswered points to put the Wildcats up, 53-47. Nebraska scored its final field goal with 3:22 left on a layup by Derrick Walker that got the Cornhuskers with in seven, 59-52.

Mark Smith hit a deep 3-pointer with 1:34 left to give Kansas State a 63-55 lead and Ismael Massoud and Pack each hit two free throws in the final minute to preserve the lead.

Massoud finished with 10 points for the Wildcats (7-3), who were just 23 of 59 from the field (39%), including 6 of 26 from behind the arc.

Nebraska, which has lost five straight games, struggled from the field, hitting 33% from the floor (19 of 58) and hit just 5 of 28 from long range.

Alonzo Verge Jr. finished with 21 points, five rebounds and five assists to lead Nebraska (5-7), which had just six players score. Bryce McGowens scored 14 points.

___

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401371139 AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. Investors in United Overseas Australia Limited (ASX:UOS) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 12%. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned 15%. On the other hand, the stock is actually up 4.7% over three years.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

View our latest analysis for United Overseas Australia

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Even though the United Overseas Australia share price is down over the year, its EPS actually improved. It could be that the share price was previously over-hyped.

It's fair to say that the share price does not seem to be reflecting the EPS growth. But we might find some different metrics explain the share price movements better.

On the other hand, we're certainly perturbed by the 40% decline in United Overseas Australia's revenue. If the market sees the weak revenue as jeopardising EPS, that could explain the lower share price.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on United Overseas Australia's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. We note that for United Overseas Australia the TSR over the last 1 year was -10%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

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A Different Perspective

Investors in United Overseas Australia had a tough year, with a total loss of 10% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 15%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 6%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with United Overseas Australia (including 1 which is potentially serious) .

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
The PGA Tour has decided to grant releases to some two dozen players who have signed up for the Saudi International, provided they agree to play the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at least once over the next two years.

The decision was sent to players in a memo late Monday afternoon that was obtained by The Associated Press. It ends speculation that the tour would deny conflicting event releases as it digs in against Greg Norman and his Saudi-backed venture presumably aimed at creating a new golf league with guaranteed money.

The memo signals that the tour is looking at the Saudi International separately, saving whatever fight looms for another day.

Dustin Johnson, who won the Saudi International last year when it was part of the European Tour, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are among 25 players who already have been announced for the Feb. 3-6 event in Saudi Arabia.

But it's the same week as Pebble Beach  Johnson and Mickelson have won Pebble multiple times  and the release to play in Saudi Arabia comes with conditions.

For players who have competed at Pebble Beach at least once in the last five years, getting a release requires them to play it once over the following two years. If a player has never competed at Pebble, he would be required to play it twice over the next three years.

We do not consider the decision to grant these conditioned releases to be precedent setting, the memo said, adding that other requests would be determined separately.

According to PGA Tour regulations, players ordinarily are allowed three releases a season provided they play 15 times in PGA Tour events. For each additional release, they are required to play five more tour events.

The tour has been known to be flexible depending on the player and the circumstances, such as giving more releases to Ernie Els, the most elite global player of his generation.

And the commissioner has always had the right to deny any request if he felt it would cause harm to the tour or its partners.

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A year ago, 23 players took part in the Saudi International, which was the same week as the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The field in Phoenix, however, turned out to be slightly stronger than the Saudi International, which pays appearance money.

Plus, it was part of the European Tour at the time. Europe cut ties to the Saudi event, and the PGA Tour this summer threatened to deny any release because the Saudi tournament was not part of any sanctioned tour. Since then, it has become part of the Asian Tour.

Norman and his LIV Golf Investments already have pledged to pump $200 million into the Asian Tour with 10 new events. He has said the Saudi International would not be one of those new tournaments.

Giving the PGA Tour pause was Norman building toward a league based on team competition. Commissioner Jay Monahan has said anyone joining a new league would have to give up his membership in the PGA Tour, which offers close to $500 million in prize money and other compensation.

No one has publicly signed up for a new league, and Norman has announced only staff additions in the two months since he revealed his new venture, funded primarily by Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund.

Rory McIlroy has made it clear hes not interested, though he said in the Bahamas two weeks ago that he felt Monahan should grant the releases.

I think were independent contractors and we should be able to play where we want to play, McIlroy said.

The tours agreement on releases is similar to the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final in 2012, where McIlroy and Woods headlined an eight-man field for an event that was not sanctioned by any tour. It was the precursor to a European Tour event in Turkey.

It was held the same week as the Frys.com Open in California, and as a condition to play in Turkey, the seven PGA Tour members agreed to play the Frys.com Open once over the next three years. Woods never played. He had to withdraw in 2015 as he was recovering from back surgery.

Other players who the Saudi International announced last month would be playing include Paul Casey, Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele and Bubba Watson.

Johnson won it in 2019 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Graeme McDowell in 2020.

___

More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Poland and Lithuania joined Ukraine on Monday to call for stronger Western sanctions against Moscow amid a Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border that has fueled fears of an invasion.

U.S. intelligence officials say Russia has amassed 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and is preparing for a possible invasion early next year. Moscow has denied an intention to attack, but demanded that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliances military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Huta in western Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains in a show of support in the face of a Russian troop buildup.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the three leaders called upon the international community to step up sanctions on the Russian Federation over its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again urged the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories.

Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and shortly after cast its support behind a separatist rebellion in the countrys east. More than seven years of fighting has killed over 14,000 people and devastated Ukraines industrial heartland, known as the Donbas.

Our common task is to deter the threat posed by Russia and defend Europe from Russia's aggressive policies, Zelenskyy said at a news conference after the talks. Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania are the vanguard of that deterrence today.

The Ukrainian leader called for powerful preventative actions, powerful serious sanctions to exclude any thought about escalation.

Nauseda emphasized that any attempts by Russia to draw red lines are unacceptable in Europe in the 21st century.

Duda also warned strongly against any appeasement of Moscow.

I'm categorically against making any concessions to Russia, Duda said. It's clear that it's Russia which must step back.
PORT ST. LUCIE  After a car crashed as it rushed to a hospital Friday night, a teenager walked away from the vehicle and tossed a gun across a street near St. Lucie Medical Center.

Police arrived to find a 15-year-old boy who had been shot laying on the ground near the vehicle. He later died.

Monday afternoon, police described during a news conference the events that led up to the fatal shooting.

Assistant Chief Richard Del Toro said police arrested a 17-year-old boy from Fort Pierce, Saturday morning, who confessed to negligently shooting the 15-year-old in the back seat of the car.

Friday shooting: Teenage boy shot, killed in moving car by fellow passenger in Port St. Lucie

The teen accused of the shooting faces felony charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, carrying a concealed firearm, tampering with physical evidence and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, according to an arrest affidavit.

Del Toro said the State Attorney's office will decide if the teen will be charged as a juvenile or as an adult. Attorneys couldn't be reached Monday.

Port St. Lucie Police Assistant Chief Richard Del Toro walks away from a podium after unveiling new details in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy.

Investigators said the two boys hopped in a car together in Fort Pierce with two other people in front and headed to Jensen Beach Friday night.

The boys knew each other from Port St. Lucie High School, police said, and had spent the day together.

In their possession were two 9 mm handguns in a bag, Del Toro said.

While riding in the car, the 15-year-old handed the 17-year-old a magazine to load into the handgun he was holding.

As the car was near the intersection of Southeast Crosstown Parkway and Southeast Airoso Boulevard, the 17-year-old pulled the handgun out of the bag,

He then negligently pulled the trigger and shot the 15-year-old in the chest, Del Toro said.

"I don't like to say it's accidental. I like to say negligent because anytime you handle a firearm it should be with care," Del Toro said. "First of all, no juvenile should be in possession of a firearm."

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The two other people in the front seats said they heard a loud bang and the 15-year-old say "he shot me."

The witnesses said the 17-year-old then said "it wasn't me" or "It was an accident," according to the arrest affidavit.

The driver, a male, demanded the 17-year-old hand him the gun, investigators said, and immediately sped toward St. Lucie Medical Center.

As the group drove away from the intersection, Del Toro said the 17-year-old threw the magazine out the window.

On the way to the hospital, the car crashed at the intersection of Southeast Tiffany Avenue and U.S. 1, disabling the vehicle as it got closer to the hospital.

The driver stopped near Southeast Hillmoor Drive and Southeast Tiffany Avenue near St. Lucie Medical Center.

Someone in the vehicle then called 911 as the driver ran to the hospital looking for help.

The 17-year-old stepped out of the vehicle and threw the gun across Southeast Tiffany Avenue, according to a female passenger, Del Toro said.

Del Toro said the 17-year-old also threw another firearm that was in the car across the street.

Investigators and a K9 unit eventually found the weapons and magazine thrown from the vehicle.

Lydia Martin, a spokeswoman for St. Lucie County School District confirmed the two boys were Port St. Lucie High School student, but did not disclose their grade levels.

"Students wanting grief support can contact the school's front office and grief support will be available on site," Martin said.

Del Toro lamented the shooting and death of the teen.

"It is a tragedy," Del Toro said. "(When) kids do things that they shouldn't do, anytime it results in a loss of life, it's a tragedy for any parent."

Mauricio La Plante is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm focusing on Martin County. Follow him on Twitter @mslaplantenews or email him at Mauricio.LaPlante@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: 15-year-old Port St. Lucie High student dead after shooting
A screenshot of a news report has been shared multiple times on Facebook alongside a claim that proof of Covid-19 vaccination will be required for South Koreans voting in the country's upcoming presidential election in March 2022. The claim, however, is misleading; a spokesperson for South Korea's national election commission told AFP the claim is "baseless", while confirming unvaccinated people will be allowed to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The screenshot shared in the misleading posts was taken from a Korean news report that fact-checked a similar claim circulating online.

The claim was shared here on Facebook on December 12, 2021.

Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook. Captured December 13, 2021.

The Korean-language claim translates in part as: "[Voting] impossible in a presidential election without a vaccine pass.

"[Surprising] that there is such a strategy. Looking at trends, people who reject vaccines do not trust the government and are likely to support the opposition. In truth, most people who reject vaccines are opposition supporters.

"This not a light matter. The Democratic Party has calculated this. Scary leftist bastards."

The screenshot shared alongside the claim shows a YTN news broadcast with the caption: "Without vaccine passes, [you] cannot vote in the presidential election?"

South Korea is due to hold a presidential election on March 9, 2022. All South Korean citizens above the age of 19 are eligible to cast a vote.

With a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in December 2021, the country widened vaccine passport requirements for a wide range of public facilities, including restaurants and cinemas.

A similar claim has been shared on Facebook here, here, here and here.

The claim, however, is misleading.

A spokesperson from South Koreas National Election Commission (NEC) told AFP on December 13, 2021 that people who do not have vaccine passports would not be barred from participating in the 2022 presidential election.

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"The claim [that unvaccinated people will be barred from voting] is completely baseless," the spokesperson added. "There is no relation between the right to vote and ones vaccination status."

The YTN news report shown in the screenshot was taken from a broadcast on October 10, 2021 that debunked a similar claim.

The report concluded the claim as "unlikely," noting that there were no vaccination requirements for the by-election on April 7, 2021.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared on Facebook (left) and the original YTN report (right):
Prosecutors entered this undated photo of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein into evidence in Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial. US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

Prosecutors delivered closing arguments in Ghislaine Maxwell's child-sex-trafficking trial.

Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said Maxwell was a key figure in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of minors.

Moe said Maxwell helped groom the girls by being present during sex acts and nude around Epstein.

Prosecutors described Ghislaine Maxwell as the "key" to Jeffrey Epstein's child-sex-abuse operation during closing arguments in the case on Monday.

Maxwell is standing trial in Manhattan federal court after being accused of sex-trafficking girls with the convicted sex offender and participating in sexual abuse herself. Prosecutors said Maxwell's alleged crimes took place between 1997 and 2004.

The British socialite has pleaded not guilty to the charges. F0llowing the prosecution's closing arguments, Maxwell's defense team argued that her accusers' memories had corrupted over time and that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict her.

Four women who testified at the trial said Maxwell was instrumental in bringing them into Epstein's orbit, where they became the target of unwanted sexual contact from Epstein, Maxwell, or both. Two of the women testified under the pseudonyms "Jane" and "Kate." A third used her first name, Carolyn. And a fourth, Annie Farmer, testified under her full name.

Moe said that Maxwell and Epstein purposefully preyed on girls in vulnerable situations. One of the accusers who testified said the two entered her life after her father died. Another said her mother was an alcoholic.

"It is not an accident that Jane and Kate and Carolyn and Annie all came from single-mother households," Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said on Monday. "Maxwell and Epstein selected these girls carefully."

Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe delivered closing arguments in Ghislaine Maxwell's trial. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Throughout the trial, Maxwell's attorneys have sought to distance her from Epstein, who died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on similar charges in 2019.

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But in closing arguments on Monday, Moe said Epstein and Maxwell "were partners in crime who exploited young girls together."

Maxwell wasn't just a personal assistant to the disgraced financier, Moe said, referencing a 2002 document found in a 2019 raid of Epstein's Manhattan home that said Maxwell and Epstein had been in a relationship for 11 years. During the trial, prosecutors submitted numerous photos into evidence that show Epstein and Maxwell kissing, hugging, and taking vacations together.

"When you're partners with someone for 11 years, you know what you like," Moe said. "Epstein liked underage girls. Epstein liked to touch underage girls."

Ian Maxwell, Christine Maxwell and Isabel Maxwell lean over a rail to chat with Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell during her trial for sex trafficking in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S., December 20, 2021. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

Moe also referenced one photo, which has not been made public, showing Epstein and Maxwell topless by the pool of Epstein's Palm Beach home. She pointed out that a third person took the photo, indicating Maxwell had treated nudity around others as routine. Moe said Maxwell was instrumental in grooming the girls brought to Epstein by "confusing their boundaries" and convincing them that sexual acts and being partially nude around Epstein was normal.

"Maxwell was the key to the whole operation," Moe said. She added that Maxwell silenced the alarm bells that the victims may have had.

Maxwell sat in her usual seat at the far end of the defense table on Monday. Though she typically showed little reaction to testimony during the trial, she was active as Moe addressed jurors, scribbling down notes and flipping through papers she pulled from a neon green folder.

More family members joined in support of her in the courtroom as well, with her siblings Christine and Ian in the front row of the public gallery, joining her brother Kevin and sister Isabel, who had attended the trial every day along with their friends and attorney Leah Saffian.

In her presentation to jurors, Moe drew attention to similarities in the four accusers' stories and to a detail found in Epstein and Maxwell's little black book, where the financier kept the names of so-called masseuses, as well as the phone numbers of those masseuses' parents.

"Use your common sense ladies and gentlemen," Moe said. "When you call a masseuse, you don't need to call their mom and dad."

Read the original article on Insider
Dame Prue Leith at the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards 2019 (Getty Images)

Great British Bake Off presenter Dame Prue Leith has said she is considering abandoning the use of her catchphrase after it was criticised by viewers and eating disorder charities.

The 81-year-old regularly asks contestants whether their baked treats are worth the calories before taking a bite.

In the latest episode of BBCs Desert Island Discs, Leith said eating disorder charity BEAT had urged her not to use the phrase.

I dont know why I say it. Its just an expression of how much I love something, Oh, this is worth every calorie, Ill say, she explained.

Beat, they are a charity that tries to tackle eating disorders. They say that I mustnt say it because people then, who have an eating disorder feel guilty, they feel unhappy, and so theyll eat more.

So perhaps Ill stop saying it, she added.

Leiths use of the catchphrase has been criticised on social media, with some users describing it as harmful.

who told Prue Leith it was fun and quirky to constantly comment on whether or not something is "worth the calories"   juicebox (@juiceboxdotca) October 25, 2021

PLEASE could someone tell Prue that worth every calorie is a harmful sentiment that she should really not be making into a catchphrase? one Twitter user said.

PLEASE could someone tell Prue that worth every calorie is a harmful sentiment that she should really not be making into a catchphrase? #GBBO @PrueLeith  Sarah Batten (@sarahabatten) October 19, 2021

Another wrote: The way Prue Leith jokes about how fatty [or] calorific the bakers food is totally destroys GBBO.

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Every time she says some beautiful, rich, chocolatey dessert is worth the calories I come closer to turning it off forever.

In October, BEAT warned Channel 4, which airs the baking competition, that mentions of calories can be triggering to those who are vulnerable to eating disorders or suffering from one.

The charity estimates that around 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder.

Talk of food being worth the calories is very unhelpful, Tom Quinn, BEATs external affairs director told Mail Online at the time.

We would strongly encourage Channel 4 to be conscious about the way food and exercise is discussed, for instance not mentioning calories or specific weights, in order to protect their audience.
On Dec. 8, 2020, a few weeks after Joe Biden was elected president, Q  the anonymous online account that set off the QAnon conspiracy movement  posted a link to a video with scenes of cars burning on the streets, fighter jets over a stadium and Donald Trump with his hand on a Bible, being sworn in as president. The images played over a song by Twisted Sister, Were Not Gonna Take It.

The Q account has not posted since, and its major predictions have not come to pass.

But the QAnon movement  initially based on a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, that a group of global liberal elites run a child sex ring that Trump would stop  has continued to flourish. In some ways, it is now woven even deeper into the countrys political and social fabric than it was 12 months ago.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

More than 40 candidates who have publicly stated some support of QAnon are running for national office in 2022, according to a tally by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. They include Luis Miguel, a Republican from Florida who has tweeted the QAnon slogan, and Omar Navarro, a Republican from California who has publicly stated his belief in some of the movements conspiracy theories, including the lie that Hollywood is running a child trafficking scheme.

Followers of QAnon also regularly show up to events and successfully spread new fallacious claims. Last month, hundreds of people turned up in Dallas expecting to see John F. Kennedy Jr.  the son of the former U.S. president who died in a plane crash in 1999  announce his intentions to be Trumps running mate in 2024. Many QAnon followers pushed the theory that the recent Astroworld Festival in Houston, in which 10 people died and hundreds more were injured, was a front for a satanic ritual sacrifice.

Conspiracy theories often evolve far beyond their initial notions, whether it be about the moon landing or what really happened on Sept. 11, once they reach a large audience. But QAnon  a conspiracy theory born online, and spread online  stands out because its longevity has depended on that same large community to crowdsource the movements new direction.

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QAnons survival means that the falsehoods embraced by its supporters are likely to influence American elections in 2022, just as they did in 2020, when they helped drive enthusiasm for conservative Republicans. And it will happen even though many of the major social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, have banned explicit promotion of the bogus claims.

The evolution of Q is that it is leaving behind the iconography of the Trump era and becoming a conspiracy of everything, said Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theory researcher and author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything.

With the absence of Q leading the way, some of QAnons followers have turned the movement into more of a choose your own adventure conspiracy theory, Rothschild said.

Miguel did not respond to a request for comment. Navarro said he stopped posting about QAnon to avoid being banned from the platforms.

Im not dumb, Navarro said in an interview. You have to be politically correct in todays world to survive on social media, he said.

He added: Im running a campaign for Congress. So I need to focus on issues that matter more, like the economy or business other than focusing on QAnon.

The QAnon movement dates to October 2017, when the first post attributed to Q appeared on 4chan, the notoriously toxic message board. An anonymous account calling itself Q Clearance Patriot claimed to be a high-ranking government insider with access to classified information about Trumps war to break up the global cabal. By August 2018, adherents of the movement began to appear at reelection rallies for Trump with Q signs and T-shirts.

In 2020, the number of followers skyrocketed and the movement branched out into a number of other conspiracy theories, including casting doubt on medical advice for dealing with COVID-19, like wearing masks. Other parts of the movement sought to co-opt health and wellness groups as well as discussions about child safety.

By July of last year, the public backlash to the falsehoods spread by QAnon movement was so pronounced that Twitter banned thousands of accounts promoting the conspiracy from its platform, and Facebook and YouTube soon followed suit.

But at that point, the ideas of the big tent conspiracy  all pointing to the prophecy that Trump would return as president  were well-established. QAnon followers could post about the conspiracy theory without using catchphrases that set off the tech companies moderation software. They also turned to platforms that had not banned discussion of the movement, such as chat app Telegram.

New leaders and ideas began popping up. One prominent leader is a demolition contractor from Washington state named Michael Protzman, or Negative48, as he is known online.

On Protzmans Telegram channel, which grew from 1,700 members in March to nearly 100,000 in December, he held livestreams and chats that heavily promoted the falsehood that Kennedy would be resurrected, and urged his followers to witness the event in Dealey Plaza, the site of his fathers assassination in 1963.

Kennedy figures in QAnon lore because Q once pushed a falsehood that Hillary Rodham Clinton had him killed so that she could run for a Senate seat in New York.

On the morning of Nov. 2, hundreds of QAnon followers from California, New York, Florida and other states converged at the location. They stayed for weeks.

Protzman did not respond to a request for comment.

Another Telegram channel pushed the unfounded narrative about the Astroworld tragedy, in which people died at rapper Travis Scotts show. The channel claimed that Scott (born Jacques B. Webster) sought to deliberately kill young teens in a satanic ritual. LIVING HELL. A HUMAN SACRIFICE, one post said. DEMONIC. The post collected 83,100 views. Subsequent posts with the same message generated tens of thousands more views.

By Nov. 8, these posts reached mainstream social media. Anyone else notice that the stage is an inverted cross leading to a portal to Hell? a TikTok user asked in a video that racked up more than 1 million views. Others shared a YouTube video with more than 44,100 views, titled Satanic Ritual at Travis Scott Concert Exposed.

And on Facebook, an Indianapolis pastor published a viral post that generated more than 160,000 likes, comments and shares. What a blatant invitation for Satanic ritual! the pastor, Jeffrey Pitts, said. This is right in our face and people still follow trends and have no clue this generation is setup for the slaughter.

The false rumor generated more than 303,000 interactions before the first fact-checks of the claims were published, according to an analysis of data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned social media analytics tool.

I dont know anything about QAnon, I dont understand anything that they do, Pitts said when asked about his viral post. I am a pastor exposing the demonic realm. The stuff that went on at Astroworld, and that spirit, was demonic.

Whatever QAnon followers are using my post to do, is their business, Pitts added.

Some politicians have claimed that Satan worshippers hide among the Democratic Party, pulling in elements of the conspiracy in their posts without making an explicit mention of QAnon.

America is a Christian nation. I will never stop fighting against the satanic-globo-communists. #AmericaFirst, Miguel, the Republican from Florida, said in a Twitter post on Nov. 19.

Some of the political candidates who have shown support for QAnon have focused more on the pandemic, arguing that the omicron coronavirus variant was not real, and was being used as a way to guarantee mail-in ballots in the November 2022 election would hand Democrats another win.

Bobby Jeffries, a Senate candidate from Pennsylvania who repeatedly posted about QAnon in 2018, shared one such post on Nov. 27. The Midterm Variant came earlier than expected, the tweet said.

Logan Strain, a conspiracy researcher and co-host of the podcast QAnon Anonymous, said that if Republicans gain control of one or both chambers of Congress in 2022, that may further energize followers of the movement.

QAnon can be refreshed every time theres an election, said Strain, who goes by Travis View on his podcast. Likely, every two years, youll see QAnon followers interpreting news events in the light of Q and the movements beliefs.

This represents the true malleability of such a big-tent conspiracy, Strain added.

The way Ive seen Q grow in spite of all the social media bans and in spite of all the failed predictions, he said, I am pretty confident that this is something that were just going to have to live with in the general political world in the United States, for at least a generation.

 2021 The New York Times Company
queen elizabeth

Victoria Jones - WPA Pool/Getty Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth, like so many around the world, is facing a difficult holiday decision.

With COVID-19 cases rocketing in the U.K., the 95-year-old monarch may change her plans to head to Sandringham for her traditional Christmas and New Year break.

The Queen usually stays at her estate in Norfolk from late December to just after February 6, the date she became queen at the death of her father George VI nearly 70 years ago.

But with the coronavirus variant, Omicron, causing a surge in cases, she is deciding whether to make the trip north from Windsor Castle. Even if she does head to Sandringham, the practice of allowing public in to watch the family walk to church on Christmas morning will be curtailed.

queen-elizabeth-christmas

Chris Jackson/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth and the royal family on Christmas Day in 2017

RELATED: 12 Royal-Inspired Festive Gifts for Every Budget!

It is an especially poignant festive period for the Queen, who will mark her first holiday without her beloved husband Prince Philip, who died in April, for the first time in more than seven decades.

For more on Queen Elizabeth, listen below to our daily podcast on PEOPLE Every Day.

If she stays in Windsor, where she has been largely based throughout the pandemic, it is understood that the royals will make sure they see the Queen on the day so she won't be without close family members.

The decision to travel will ultimately be hers, but she is taking advice from her private secretaries, who are in touch with the U.K. government about the ongoing rise in cases and any restrictions that might be announced. Throughout the pandemic, she has been mindful of setting the right example within the existing guidelines.

RELATED: Why Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Were 'One of the Most Remarkable Couples the World Has Ever Seen'

Queen Elizabeth II, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, Sayyida Ahad Bint Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Busaidiyah,

JONATHAN BRADY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth with the Sultan of Oman

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, but an announcement is expected in the next couple of days.

Story continues

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

In recent months since she canceled a visit to Northern Ireland and spent a night in the hospital in October, the Queen has been carrying out light duties including audiences and video meetings.

Normally, members of the royal family join her at Sandringham, with guests typically arriving in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve.

The family opens their presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day, and on Christmas, the family famously walks to church services at St. Mary's Magdalene Church on the estate. After their church outing, the royal family heads back to Sandringham House for a lunch of Norfolk turkey and other festivities.

Last week, the Queen canceled her pre-Christmas lunch for the extended family that had been planned to take place this Tuesday at Windsor Castle.
Record warmth has been a common occurrence around the country this December and, with Christmas approaching, it will be a recurring theme right through the holiday across the Southeast and south-central United States. Some parts of Texas, including big cities like Dallas and Houston, could see temperatures reach all-time highs for Christmas Day.

The week began with seasonable temperatures for much of the south-central U.S., but the real heat will roll in just in time for Christmas Eve and into Christmas as a high-pressure system becomes centered over the Southeast and a storm moves in and spins over the northern Rockies.

"Due to the position of these two systems, very warm air originating from Mexico will be pulled northward into the south-central U.S., leading to the record-breaking weather," AccuWeather Meteorologist Isaac Longley said.

The warm weather will stick around for a couple of days, lasting into Christmas Day across the South Central states with high pressure anchored over the Gulf of Mexico.

Several cities in the south-central U.S. experienced their warmest Christmas on record just several years ago. For much of the region, Dec. 25 was warm in both 2015 and 2016 with many records for the date still standing from one of those years, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

On Dec. 25, 2016, Dallas reached 80 degrees, which broke the record for warmest Christmas Day on record in the city.

"Meanwhile, temperatures soared to 76 in Nashville, Tennessee, and to 73 in Oklahoma City and set records that same day in 2016," Sosnowski said. Just a year earlier, in 2015, New Orleans climbed to a record high mark of 82 degrees on Dec. 25, while Houston set a record of 83 and Atlanta established a new Christmas daily record high of 75.

It could once again be time to rewrite the record books in at least some of these locations.

This year, AccuWeather is predicting Dallas to reach 83 degrees on Christmas Day, which would break the record high. On Christmas Eve, the city is forecast to reach the low 80s. Many other cities may find their Dec. 25 record high in jeopardy this year. Temperatures in Houston are also forecast to top Saturday's record high. New Orleans may come close to its record with a high of 79 forecast.

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Records are not expected to be broken in Nashville and Atlanta, but highs are forecast to be within a few degrees of 70, which is about 15-20 degrees above average.

"While officially the warmth late this week will stop short of summerlike levels, it may feel that way with temperature departures of 15-25 degrees and even 30 degrees above average, which is more typical of early October in some cases," Sosnowski said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

Since there are no signs of major intrusions of cold air to reach the South-Central states through the end of the month, this December could be the warmest on record for a number of locations. "Dallas has been experiencing temperatures of nearly 11 degrees above average for the first 20 days of the month and is highly likely to top its all-time warmest December by several degrees," AccuWeather Meteorologist Randy Adkins said.

The warmest December on record at Dallas was in 2015 with an average temperature of 53.6 degrees. Thus far, December 2021 has been averaging 59.3 degrees, which is higher than last month's average of 57.7 degrees.

Holiday travel could still be impacted despite the forecast of warm and dry weather. The setup will also bring gusty winds along with the dry weather, especially during Christmas Eve. Longley said this combination will bring great concern for fires in addition to dangerous travel conditions.

"The strong winds may also lead to areas of blowing dust, leading to difficult travel at times," said Longley.

Dangerous fires already caused damage to structures in Kansas earlier this month after a dust storm impacted the area. Last week, a fire in the panhandle of Oklahoma caused officials to encourage evacuation of some residents in the city of Guymon.

Several regions of the U.S., in addition to the South Central states, have had their fair share of record warmth already this month. The Northeast experienced record warmth earlier in December, with April-like temperatures being reported throughout the area. On Dec. 11, New York City, Philadelphia and Buffalo, New York, climbed into the mid- to upper 60s, while Washington, D.C., reached 70 the same day. Just last week, temperatures again soared into the 60s in parts of the Northeast on Dec. 16. Buffalo set a daily record high of 64 degrees. One day later, Washington, D.C., set a daily record high of 65 degrees on Dec. 17.

To start the month, some parts of the Rocky Mountain region experienced warmer weather on Dec. 1 than June 1. Denver hit 73 degrees on Dec. 1 and set a record high in the process. The high on June 1 was only 70. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, the high of 69 on Dec. 1 matched the June 1 high.

For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
EXCLUSIVE: Several prominent Republicans sounded off on the Sunday declaration from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who said there is no way he can support the massive social spending bill known as the Build Back Better Act.

Manchin told "Fox News Sunday" that despite having spoken with President Biden , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., he could not reach an agreement on the legislation because of ongoing inflation, the national debt, "geopolitical unrest" and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"What he is doing is he is being a statesman," said Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., who spoke to Fox News Digital at the Turning Point USA's AmericaFest Conference 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona.

"It's something that is completely lost in Washington right now," Cawthorn added. "People believe they need to serve their state party; they need to serve the party leadership rather than serve the constituents that elected them and sent them to Washington, D.C."

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., on Friday, July 9, 2021. (Photo by Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Donald Trump Jr. echoed Cawthorn's sentiments. "Joe Biden campaigned for president as a moderate, but on virtually every issue he has governed like a woke, left-wing zealot," Trump told Fox News. "By opposing Bidens multitrillion-dollar socialist boondoggle, Manchin is governing like the sane moderate Democrat that Biden pretended to be on the campaign trail."

MANCHIN SAYS HE CANNOT VOTE FOR BUILD BACK BETTER: IVE DONE EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE'

"It will be interesting to see if he holds the line against the coming onslaught from the radical Left," the former president's son added. "But for today, Manchin deserves credit for opposing this radicalism."

Donald Trump, Jr. speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on July 09, 2021, in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Kyle LaBrue, a Republican candidate for Missouris 4th Congressional District, said he's not surprised by Manchin's stance.

"Ill tell you why Im not surprised," said LaBrue. "I think Americas waking up and that includes people that are on the left who are saying these policies are destructive. Theyre destructive for our country, theyre destructive for individuals, and most importantly theyre destructive for American families."

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Bo Hines, a Republican running for North Carolinas 7th Congressional District, likewise said he was glad to hear of Manchin's decision.

"Joe Manchin understands that President Trumps approval rating in West Virginia is above 70%," said Hines. "He knows hes going to get sent home if he votes for this bill, because it doesnt resonate with the American people and theyre going to punish him for it."

"I think this is a clear message to not only Democrats, but Republicans around the country that are considering siding with these leftist radicals in the Democratic Party," Hines continued. "If you do that, youre going to get booted out of Congress and were going to replace you with America First patriots."

Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, said Manchin "represents America at its best."

"It should always be about the policy, about our country, not politician or party," said Owens. "What he's showing is that his loyalty is to our country. At the end of the day, no one has looked at that bill and can with an honest conscience say it's best for our country. It's not going to be best for the American people, for business owners, for moms and dads. It's going to be more divisive than ever before."

MANCHIN SAYS HE CANNOT VOTE FOR BUILD BACK BETTER: IVE DONE EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE'

Despite support from across the aisle, Manchin has taken flak from progressive members of Congress for not supporting the Build Back Better agenda.

"Lets be clear: Manchins excuse is bull----," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted . "The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans. This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, said Manchin has "a lot of explaining to do," and that he still wants the legislation to be brought forward for a floor vote so that Manchin can "vote no in front of the whole world."

Fox News' Ron Blitzer and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
GLEN ELLYN, IL  In 2020, many Glen Ellyn residents opted for small, low-key holiday celebrations as coronavirus cases soared nationwide and public health experts urged social distancing.

We werent used to Christmas without the trimmings; however, while the situation was not ideal, many of us realized large, stressful holiday gatherings arent all theyre cracked up to be. This year, many may again opt to keep Christmas simple and unhurried.

Doing so could mean letting someone else take care of the holiday festivities entirely. This includes the cooking.

If thats the route youre going this Christmas, we certainly wont blame you. Luckily, several local and chain restaurants in Glen Ellyn plan to be open on Christmas Day.

In case you need a recommendation of where to eat out on Christmas, Patch compiled a roundup of local and national restaurants slated to be open that day. Be sure to make reservations early, as available times are likely to fill up fast.

An important note: Business hours can vary by location. Patch encourages you to call any restaurant on this list in advance to double-check hours on Christmas Day.

Also, here are the chain restaurants expected to be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, unless otherwise noted, according to lists compiled by The Pioneer Woman, Womans Day and Food Network.



Arbys: 499 Roosevelt Rd., Glen Ellyn



Boston Market: 625 S. County Farm Rd., Wheaton



Chilis: Open Christmas Eve; closed Christmas Day. 240 Danada Square W., Wheaton



Dominos: 619 W. Roosevelt Rd., Wheaton



Dunkin: 530 Crescent Blvd., Glen Ellyn; 651 Roosevelt Rd., Glen Ellyn; 1090 Roosevelt Rd., Glen Ellyn; 22W251 North Ave., Glen Ellyn

McDonalds: 445 W. Roosevelt Rd., Glen Ellyn; 3S010 IL-53, Glen Ellyn



Panda Express: 264 Danada Square W., Wheaton



Starbucks: 691 Roosevelt Rd., Glen Ellyn; 536 Crescent Blvd., Glen Ellyn; 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn; 22W151 Butterfield Rd., Glen Ellyn



Again, hours can vary by location. Always call ahead to make sure your local restaurant of choice is open on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.



This article originally appeared on the Glen Ellyn Patch
A Russell County judge has refused to alter a gag order issued last week in the capital murder case against Jeremy Tremaine Williams, accused of kidnapping and killing 5-year-old Kamarie Holland.

Circuit Judge David Johnsons order prohibits Russell County authorities divulging any further information related to the investigation. Besides the Alabama attorneys and the law enforcement agencies involved, the order applies to all witnesses, expert and lay.

They are ordered to make no extrajudicial statements related to:

The character or criminal record or anyone involved.

The possibility of any plea, confession or admission.

The results of any testing or nature of any physical evidence.

The guilt or innocence of any suspects.

Any information the attorneys knew is likely to be inadmissible in court.

The order does not apply to officials in Georgia, and Russell County Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Chancey said it did not cover information on court procedure.

Chancey argued Monday to have the order tailored to more narrowly define what information cant be released to the press. He noted that reports continue to spread on social media, and authorities cannot correct any unfounded rumors or factual errors, under the gag order.

Theres going to be media on this case, he said. Allowing those charged with investigating the case to comment would correct misinformation and reassure the public that the agencies are doing all they can, he added.

Current media coverage likely will have little impact by the time the case comes to trial, he said, asking Johnson to factor the parties First Amendment rights in his calculations.

Chancey noted also that relatives of the victim already have agreed to interviews with reporters, regardless of the stipulations in the judges order.

Its a delicate wire to walk in this case, he said.

Williams defense attorney Chuck Floyd said weakening the order would make it unlikely that Williams could get a fair trial, in an area saturated with such publicity. Should the trial have to be moved because of that, it would be a costly, difficult process, he said.

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Reports on the case have made national news, he added: Its everywhere. Its on national news, Fox News.

Johnson told Chancey that law enforcement officials are not prohibited from telling the public they are doing everything possible to clear the case, as long as they reveal no details covered by the gag order.

Should they feel a compelling need to convey more information, they can ask for a court hearing on that particular matter, he added.

Otherwise, his order remains in full force and effect as currently written, he said.

The homicide

Kamarie was reported missing around 6 a.m. Dec. 13 from her mothers home on Bowman Street in Columbus. Her body was found that night in a vacant house Williams once occupied on 15th Avenue in Phenix City, said Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor.

Taylor said the girl had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

Kamarie Hollands body was found at a vacant house suspect Jeremy Williams once occupied on 15th Avenue in Phenix City, Alabama, said Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor at a Tuesday morning press conference. 12/15/2021

Last week a balloon memorial to Kamarie was outside the house, which is at the corner of 14th Court and 15th Avenue, next to Phenix Citys West End Cemetery.

Investigators captured the suspect that same night at Phenix Citys Bamboo Motel, 3104 Opelika Road, the sheriff said.

During an initial court hearing the next day, Williams, 37, told Judge Johnson he did not want an attorney. Johnson appointed Floyd to give the suspect advice, and thats when Floyd asked for a gag order to quell pretrial publicity.

Jeremy Tremaine Williams

Floyd since has been assigned to serve as Williams full-time attorney.

Kamaries funeral will be 11 a.m. EST Wednesday in the C.T. Chapel of Taylor Funeral Home, 1514 Fifth Ave., Phenix City, with Pastor T. Brian Hill officiating, according to the funeral home. Visitation will be there Dec. 21, from 3-5 p.m.

A GoFundMe account with a goal of $15,000 has been set up to help pay funeral expenses.
Bravo

On the January 4 episode of Vanderpump Rules, Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval were excited to show their friends the progress they had made on their new bar and restaurant, Schwartz & Sandy's. "We want to have a little 'progress get-together' because we want people to be able to see the 'before' so they can appreciate the 'after,'" Sandoval said in an interview, before admitting, "I just wish we had a little bit more progress done." Although they still had plenty to accomplish on the renovation, S
(Reuters) - A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen destroyed a drone sent over southern Saudi Arabia early on Monday, and coalition air strikes hit parts of the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Saudi state media said.

The drone was launched from Sanaa international airport and was aimed at civilians at Saudi's King Abdullah airport in Jizan, Saudi media said.

Al Masirah TV, run by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement which has controlled northern Yemen since ousting the internationally recognised Yemeni government in Sanaa in late 2014, said the coalition air strikes hit a car maintenance workshop in the Bani al-Harith area north of Sanaa, and also damaged homes.

The coalition had said earlier it would conduct a military operation in the capital to destroy workshops and warehouses of drones and other weapons, urging civilians to avoid the area.

Houthi forces have during the seven-year conflict sent drones and fired missiles into Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi-led coalition has retaliated with air strikes inside Yemen.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Mahmoud Mourad, Lisa Barrington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Both men who are being accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a "Fiji" fraternity party in September 2020 in Iowa City are denying the allegations, per court documents filed Monday.

Jacob Meloan is the second of the two men to file his response to an Oct. 26 lawsuit in the Johnson County District Court. He and Carson Steffen admit to engaging in sexual activity with the alleged victim on the night of the party at the University of Iowa chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, but say it was consensual, court documents show.

Both men were members of the fraternity, but were asked to leave shortly after the events of that night.

Plaintiff Makena Solberg argues differently. Her lawsuit alleges Meloan and Steffen "planned and conspired to lure (Solberg) into one of their bedrooms" and sexually assaulted her while she was intoxicated, physically impaired and could not consent. The alleged assault was filmed or photographed, shared with members of the fraternity and "became widely circulated," according to the lawsuit.

People hold signs and cellphone flash lights during a protest against the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity chapter at the University of Iowa, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Iowa City, Iowa.

Meloan is representing himself in court. Both he and Steffen are seeking a jury trial.

The case attracted widespread notice on campus this fall, after no criminal charges were filed for nearly a year, with protests that included vandalism of the fraternity house.

Steffen was arrested Dec. 8 on charges of first-degree harassment for allegedly sharing images of a sexual act without consent. The criminal complaint filed by the Iowa City Police Department said around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2020, Steffen shared a photo of "the victim engaged in a sex act with another male" with multiple people on Snapchat. The charge is an aggravated misdemeanor.

Steffen's answer to the lawsuit also claims that he's being defamed after being falsely accused of sexual abuse. He is asking for compensatory and punitive damages for "injury to his reputation, loss of future earning capacity ... and mental suffering."

Story continues

More: Iowa Fiji fraternity, former members sued over alleged 2020 sexual assault

Fraternity chapter, parent organization also deny allegations

Lawyers for Solberg are also naming the local chapter of the fraternity, plus its parent organization, as defendants in the lawsuit under allegations they failed to protect guests at the party where the assault allegedly took place.

According to the lawsuit, the alleged assault took place at an "official" function of the fraternity, and photos and videos of the incident were shared through "official" fraternity channels. After, members of the fraternity instructed photos of the assault be deleted, the lawsuit claims.

Allegations against both fraternity entities also say there was a lack of security, supervision and a "failure to maintain a safe premises" at the party. The fraternity chapter and its parent organization "knew or should have known of prior bad acts" of Steffen and Meloan and "failed to take appropriate preventive actions," the lawsuit alleges.

The fraternity organizations deny those allegations, court documents show.

More: University of Iowa student speaks publicly about sexual assault claim against former Fiji fraternity members

Lawyers for the local chapter of the fraternity, known as the "Mu Deuteron Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta," filed their response in court Dec. 10.

The local chapter admits that "digital images may have been shared in a social media group," but denies allegations that members "provided instruction as to any alleged videos or pictures," or otherwise "engaged in any attempt to 'maintain silence and solidarity'" related to alleged images of sexual activity.

Lawyers for the parent organization, known as the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta Inc., said in a Dec. 6 response to the lawsuit that either or both of the two men "sent digital images that included (Solberg) through a group SnapChat, which included a limited number of chapter members."

Lawyers for the parent organization wrote that the organization did not control, or have the right to control, the day-to-day activities of the local fraternity chapter, which is a "separate and distinct self-governing entity." They also argued that the alleged assault and corresponding allegations were beyond its "control or foreseeability."

"(The parent organization) did not owe any duty, nor did it assume a duty to supervise or control the conduct of the Mu Deuteron Chapter or its members for the purpose of protecting third parties, such as (Solberg), from harm," the answer reads.

More: Here are 13 findings about sexual misconduct in a new survey of University of Iowa students

A trial scheduling conference in the case is scheduled for Dec. 29.

Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com or on Twitter via @_CleoKrejci.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Both men accused of sexual assault in Iowa Fiji case deny allegations
By Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime Group relaunched its $767 million Hong Kong IPO on Monday, a week after pulling the listing in the wake of the company's inclusion on a U.S. investment blacklist.

SenseTime retained its target of selling 1.5 billion shares for between HK$3.85 and $HK3.99 each, according to regulatory filings, with the final price to be set on Thursday.

However, it will now rely on cornerstone investors to buy about $511 million, or around 67%, of shares, up from $450 million, or 58%, of shares previously.

SenseTime said its inclusion on the U.S. blacklist did not impose any restrictions on its business operations, but added the resulting lack of U.S. investors could impede its ability to raise capital in the future and reduce trading liquidity.

The U.S. Treasury added SenseTime to a list of "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" on Dec. 10, accusing it of having developed a facial recognition programme to determine a target's ethnicity, with a focus on identifying ethnic Uyghurs.

U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China's far-west region of Xinjiang.

Some foreign lawmakers and parliaments have labelled the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide, citing evidence of forced sterilisations and deaths inside the camps. China denies these claims and says Uyghur population growth rates are above the national average.

"Our group's products and services are intended for civilian and commercial uses and not for any military application," SenseTime said in the revised filings on Monday.

The company previously said it "strongly opposed" the designation of the blacklist and that accusations against it were unfounded.

SenseTime's shares are due to start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Dec 30.

($1 = 7.8021 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; editing by Jane Wardell)
The owner of Smugglers Inn in Whatcom County was sentenced to time served and probation in a Canadian court for his role in helping seven people illegally cross the border, according to Canadian news reports.

Robert Boule, owner of the Blaine bed and breakfast situated along the U.S. Canadian border, pleaded guilty in August in British Superior Court in Vancouver to offenses under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for aiding Afghan and Syrian nationals cross from his inn into Canada between May 2018 and March 2019, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun.

Prosecutors were asking that Boule receive a 12- to 15-month jail sentence, according to the Sun.

But on Friday, Dec. 17, Boule was sentenced to time served and probation, according to a Global News story. Boules defense argued that Boule had a heart condition and suffers from dementia.

Boules sentence included a 12-month suspended sentence plus 15 months probation for providing assistance to the foreign nationals and a 30-day jail term followed by 30 months probation for breaking a bail condition that prohibited him from engaging in the activity, according to a Peace Arch News Story.

Madam Justice Nitya Iyer said she could not excuse Mr. Boules breach of the bail condition and that she did not accept Boules explanation of his conduct, according to the Peach Arch News story, but Iyer said she did consider Boules age and poor health in her sentencing decision.

For all my life, Ive tried to do the right thing. For me, that is trying to lead by example, Boule said in a statement before the sentencing, according to the Peace Arch News Story. When I make a mistake, I try to take responsibility for it. In this case, I made a bad mistake. Im sorry to the court, the citizens and the government of Canada, and I am truly sorry for my actions.

Boule was arrested in April of 2019 for reportedly attempting to help seven people illegally cross the border into Canada between May 2018 and March 2019 from the Smugglers Inn, which is located adjacent to the U.S. border with Canada, according to the Surrey Now-Leader at the time. He was originally set to face 30 charges, but nine were stayed in June 2019.

Story continues

On this side of the border, where Boule has claimed he was working as an informant for U.S. immigration officials and that they knew of his activities for years, the U.S. District Court in Seattle ruled that Boule had the right to sue a CBP agent he claims violated his rights.

Boule alleges the agent violated his rights in March 2014 when he allegedly shoved Boule against a car and pushed him to the ground while the agent was attempting to question a Turkish guest at the Inn about his immigration status, according to the techdirt.com story. Boule claims he had to seek medical treatment for injuries to his back resulting from the incident.

Boule claimed the agent had violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights, according to a blog post on scotusblog.com, which also reported the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Nov. 5 to hear questions about whether the case can proceed. The case is scheduled to be argued March 2, 2022, according to Ballotpedia.org.




Starbucks said Monday it will negotiate in good faith with workers at a Buffalo, N.Y., store who voted to unionize earlier this month.

In a letter to its U.S. employees, Starbucks reiterated that the company does not back unionization but will "respect the legal process" after the Buffalo store became the first Starbucks location in the country to unionize.

"This means we will bargain in good faith with the union that represents partners in the one Buffalo store that voted in favor of union representation," Rossann Williams, the company's president of retail for North America, wrote in the letter. "Our hope is that union representatives also come to the table with mutual good faith, respect and positive intent."

Workers at the Buffalo store voted 19-8 to unionize earlier month, bucking efforts from Starbucks executives to call off the vote. The National Labor Relations Board certified the results Friday after Starbucks did not object to the results.

Another Buffalo location narrowly voted against unionizing, while the results of the third election are unclear. Workers United, the union affiliate organizing the push, has formally challenged those results. Starbucks employees in Mesa, Ariz., and Boston have since called for their own union votes despite pushback from the company.

The unionization efforts come as businesses struggle to fully staff their operations, a development that has boosted workers' bargaining power. Nearly 1,400 Kellogg's workers have been on strike for nearly three months in a push to secure better wages, benefits and hours.
Tom Williams/Getty

Right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon is going full-steam ahead with a plan to turn his criminal case into a one-man reconnaissance mission involving the White House, the Justice Department, and the Jan. 6 Committee, where he hopes to find anything thatll smear Democrats whove come after him.

Earlier this month, The Daily Beast laid out Bannons strategy to find any evidence that this is merely a political prosecution, oras some have commentedgenerate enough suspicion to besmirch the whole thing.

The DOJ cast the strategy as an underhanded ploy to harm the Jan. 6 Committees ongoing investigation into the causes of the insurrection by exposing its inner workings and witnesses whove secretly cooperated, and the gambit seemed to be stymied when the federal judge overseeing the case issued a protective order on Dec. 10 limiting what kinds of documents Bannon could make public.

Not so fast.

Bannons team is interpreting the judges order as a green light to dig into the Biden administration and expose what they find, according to a person familiar with Bannons case.

Was this a politically motivated prosecution? The communications will show that were going to ask for specific documents, said the source, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. The judge will allow us behind the curtain.

The legal team plans to publicly file damning documents they get, the source said. What would be a cut-and-dry misdemeanor case could become an unwelcome peek into the Biden administration.

Were not completely restricted, the source said.

Steve Bannon after an appearance at U.S. District Court in Washington last month. Win McNamee/Getty

Jared Carter, a professor at Vermont Law School who reviewed the judges order on The Daily Beasts behalf, said it does create a place for Bannon to start filing acquired documents in court and turn his prosecution into an all-out assault on those coming after him.

Clearly their strategy is: The best defense is a good offense. And what we're seeing is the defense team trying to employ that strategy, trying to put the government and Biden administration on its heels, Carter said. That can be a very effective strategy.

Story continues

Bannons game plan falls right in line with the comments he made on Nov. 15, the day he turned himself into the FBI and appeared in court.

We're taking down the Biden regime, he said on his way into the FBIs Washington field office.

And on his way out of court a few hours later: Were gonna go on the offense. Were tired of playing defense.

Roger Stone Stirs Up Old Feud, Suggests Steve Bannon 'Gave The Order' To Breach Capitol On Jan 6

Bannons claim that this is a political prosecution relies, in part, on remarks President Joe Biden made shortly after Marine One landed on the White House south lawn.

When asked about Bannon and other witnesses who defied congressional subpoenas to testify, he said, I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable criminally. When asked if the Justice Department should prosecute them, the president agreed.

Heres how Bannon tried to frame it back on that day in November: Joe Biden ordered Merrick Garland to prosecute me from the White House lawn when he got off Marine One.

Thats a hefty accusation with no real evidence to back it up. But Trumps former White House adviser plans to demand memos and internal communications at the White House, Justice Department, and Jan. 6 Committee to prove it.

The point is to show that this entire prosecution was poisoned from the start.

Bannons team is now mounting a defense to show that the Justice Department is engaging in selective prosecution, which legal scholars call a longshot strategy of proving that law enforcement discriminated against Bannon by singling him out.

But this isnt like the time the Drug Enforcement Administration was caught making 179 arrests over a decade in New York without a single white defendant. Legal scholars said Bannon isnt being singled out because of his race or gender, so he doesnt fit into whats considered a protected class.

Only three Jan. 6 Committee witnesses have refused to testify. And while only Bannon has been criminally charged, Congress has already referred former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for prosecutionand ex-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark might not be too far behind.

Congress has already referred former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for prosecution. Mandel Ngan/Getty

They have to prove that in insurrection cases held by this DOJ they've chosen not to go forward. But Bannon and Meadows are the only ones saying theyre not going to do it. The selective prosecution model fails, said Joshua E. Kastenberg, a professor at University of New Mexicos law school.

Legal scholars also said Bannons mission for embarrassing memos borders on what they call discovery abuse, when one side uses a court battle to make unreasonable requests for evidence.

"You cant just say we want this memo or that memo. You have to present some evidence these memos exist. You cant base your discovery demand on conjecture, Kastenberg said.

David Schultz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said the judge should severely limit this case to its core premise: Bannon got a subpoena to testify, and he didnt show up.

A court shouldnt grant these discovery requests whatsoever. And even if they did, they shouldnt affect the outcome. All of this is really the sideshow, Schultz said.

The battle over how far Bannons team can reach into the filing cabinets at the White House and DOJ is expected to play out in the coming weeks, as Bannons case is on a fast-track to a trial set in July 2022. And while U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols set limits on what they could do with sensitive government documentsthey have to be redacted and relevant to the caseBannons legal team plans to show how the government singled out Trumps one-time campaign chief.

Anything they find could be made public soon. In recent court filings, Bannon lawyer M. Evan Corcoran indicated plans to use what they find to try to dismiss the case before it ever goes to trial. In one filing, he wrote that his team plans to raise historically important constitutional issues.

Its set to be a bitter fight all the way. While Bannon uses his War Room Pandemic daily podcast to cast the Biden presidency as illegitimate and call for 4,000 shock troops to take back command of the U.S. government, his attorneys are throwing wrenches into the DOJs gears every chance they get.

Both sides cant even agree to deadlines in the months ahead, filings show. In one snippy email Thursday morning, Corcoran lectured a federal prosecutor about how this is not a high school homework assignment.

What Bannon is trying to do is make this into a bigger political issue, Schultz said. Maybe his attorneys know hes got a losing case, therefore, distract the media and public and make him into a political persecution. Maybe its part of a martyr strategy.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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CAIRO (AP)  A Sudanese protester was shot dead during mass demonstrations against the recent military takeover and a subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok but sidelined the movement, a medical group said Monday.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country Sunday. The protests marked the third anniversary of the uprising that eventually forced the military removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators attempting to stage a sit-in near the presidential palace on the bank of the Blue Nile in the heart of Khartoum.

There were also protests in elsewhere in the country, such as the coastal city of Port Sudan, the eastern city of Kassala and the northern city of Atbara, the birthplace of the uprising against al-Bashir.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 28-year-old man was killed after he was shot in the chest during Sundays demonstrations in the East Nile area in Khartoum.

More than 120 people were wounded in clashes between protesters and security forces in Khartoum, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Two other protesters were wounded in Kassala, it said.

The protests were one of the largest since the military took over on Oct. 25, removing Hamdoks transitional government. The coup has rattled the transition and led to relentless street demonstrations.

At least 45 people were killed, and hundreds wounded in protests triggered by the coup, according to a tally by the Sudanese medical group.

Hamdok was reinstated last month amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under military oversight led by him.

The prime minister has yet to announce his Cabinet, amid talks to agree on a new political charter focused on establishing a broader consensus among all political forces and movements.

He defended the Nov. 21 deal with the military, saying Saturday that it was meant to preserve achievements his government made in the past two years, and to protect our nation from sliding to a new international isolation.

Story continues

The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change has meanwhile rejected the deal between Hamdok and Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council and coup architect. The pro-democracy alliance vowed to continue street protests to pressure coup leaders to hand over power to a civilian government to lead the transition.

Brig. Gen. Al-Tahir Abu Hagga, a media advisor of Burhan, meanwhile urged political parties and movements to unify their programs and strategies to succeed the transitional democracy.

The flagrant, controversial and hostile tone (of the protesters) could impede the smooth democratic transition, he said. The Nov. 21 deal...is the basis on which transitional political visions should be built.
The nation is experiencing a mental health crisis, health experts say.

Think of it as a new kind of 911 emergency line, but for suicide prevention.

That's the point of 988, which will become the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, expected to launch in July 2022.

Ohio is among the states already gearing up for it. The 988 line will improve the states ability to quickly connect Ohioans in crisis with community behavioral health treatment and social service resources, officials said.

The three-digit help line is being paid for with $280 million in federal funding, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon announced Monday

The new number will also handle text and chat, officials said.

Until the service is up, the officials stressed, the national suicide prevention line remains: 800-273-8255.

And for those who want to be linked with mental health services, Find Treatment at SAMHSA.gov, is a free, confidential, 24-7 referral and information service.

Mental health crisis felt nationally

Both adults and children are suffering from a nationwide mental health crisis. In 2019, Becerra said, suicide was the second-leading cause of death in teens and young adults and 10th leading cause of death in the nation, Becerra said.

The crisis has been a topic of conversation among school and government officials as well as private health care providers in Ohio.

In November 2020, the crisis among children was raised to the forefront in the Mason City School district, where 15 students were taken to hospitals for suicidal thoughts in a three-week period, according to Superintendent Jonathan Cooper.

The issue has resurfaced this month after Forest Hills Schools had two students die in a week, although the cause of death is not yet clear in one of these students' deaths.

The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has been involved in planning for almost a year. The department received a $360,000 National Suicide Prevention Lifelines 988 State Planning Grant through Vibrant Emotional Health, which administers the lifeline. Through the grant, the department is leading the development of plans for Ohio in preparation for the projected infrastructure needs, volume growth, and access to the lifelines new 988 number, state records show. Vibrant awarded grants to 49 states and territories.

Story continues

A multitude of Ohio stakeholders have been involved in the planning stage. Among them are representatives from the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, Gov. Mike DeWine's office, RecoveryOhio, the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health & Family Services Providers, Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Telecom Industry, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Cincinnati's Talbert House and numerous other departments and agencies.

The federal funding announced Monday will be a new opportunity for additional dollars to support implementation, officials said.

Kids' mental health: Ohio legislators may finally create a plan to address the crisis

In the Cincinnati area, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has announced a new inpatient, behavioral health center to be up and running in 2023.

"Every 11 minutes, an American dies from suicide," Becerra said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the crisis.

Serving as 911 for mental health crises

The new network will be "just like 911" but for mental health crises, Becerra said. It will be a partnership with states and territories, bolstered by the $280 million in 2022 to transition access from the national 10-digit number to the 988 line, Becerra said. The funding will cover infrastructure and staffing for the line, the officials said.

Of the $282 million announced Monday, $177 million will be used to strengthen and expand the existing crisis networks operations and telephone infrastructure, including centralized chat and text response, backup capacity and a sub-network for Spanish speakers. The rest, $105 million, will go to build up staffing at local call centers.

Three-digit dialing to reach suicide hotline counselors has long been a goal for mental health advocates, lawmakers in Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the telecommunications industry.

HHS leaders called 988 an easy-to-remember help line that will ensure a streamlined system across the country because, currently, some states are better equipped than others to provide immediate services, Becerra said.

"This network depends on everyone doing their part," Becerra said. "What we're trying to do is be the glue."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Suicide prevention: New 988 mental health crisis line launches in July




White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan encouraged Russia to de-escalate its troop buildup on the border with Ukraine in a phone call with his Russian counterpart on Monday.

Sullivan spoke with Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser, and "indicated U.S. readiness to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the NATO-Russia Council, and the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe]," according to a White House statement on the phone call.

"[Sullivan] made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions, and take place in full coordination with our European Allies and partners," the White House continued. "He also noted that substantive progress can only occur in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation."

Sullivan has spoken with Ushakov twice in less than a week as the U.S. looks to ward off a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine, sparking concerns it could further invade after the 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

President Biden has threatened economic sanctions should Russia move to invade its neighbor. He also told Putin in a lengthy video call earlier this month that the U.S. would send additional security assistance to Ukraine and reinforcements to NATO's eastern flank were Russia to invade.

At the same time, Biden has ruled out sending U.S. forces into Ukraine.

Russia has demanded commitments from NATO that it not expand eastward to include Ukraine, but NATO officials have refused to rule out Ukraine and other countries in eastern Europe joining the alliance in the future. Russia has also characterized Ukraine and NATO as the aggressor, which U.S. officials say is the opposite of the truth.

Sullivan said last week that U.S. intelligence had assessed that Putin has not yet made up his mind on whether to invade Ukraine, but has laid the groundwork to do so if he chooses.
Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Inogen Alliance

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, was recently held in Glasgow, Scotland. The conference was a significant global event bringing together stakeholders from the private sector, the public sector, and nonprofits, and the gathering led both to encouragement and disappointment in various groups. After the conclusion of the event our global teams took some time to analyze and came up with some key points to summarize the event and how it might impact our clients.

Private Sector Response

COP26 showed that the private sector is leading change, driven by the financial sector. The financial sector created what was probably the most significant output of COP26, with the creation of the new International Sustainability Standards Board (or ISSB). The purpose of the ISSB is to provide a consistent global standard for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting that will allow companies to report on relevant ESG factors.

Investors are starting to drive change as they can consider the long term view, but we see the challenges faced by governments working on approximately 5 year election cycles. Ultimately, those who are investing our pensions for decades ahead are reading the issues and driving the change," Alex Ferguson, Managing Director at Delta-Simons UK.

The current ESG reporting space is very complicated, with a variety of different frameworks that were developed by different organizations for different reasons. The ISSB should help create a set of standards that is uniform, consistent, and easy to understand, thus improving trust in global ESG disclosures, simplifying the reporting process, and improving adoption of ESG reporting in corporations. The Board will focus on the same pillars laid out in the TCFD: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. The key focus at this point is climate, but there is discussion around moving into other areas of ESG.

Story continues

Some standards organizations are already integrating into the Board; the Climate Disclosure Standards Board and the Value Reporting Foundation should be integrated into the Board by June 2022. Further work is ongoing and Inogen expects this process to continue over the next few years.

Other industries have pushed out many new innovations, including new commitments for investment in the areas of sustainable agriculture and transportation. Various corporations made public pledges to invest in sustainable technology, supported by funding from the different governments in attendance. Automotive companies committed to pushing zero-emission vehicles towards the market by 2035, while a group of UK supermarkets committed to halving the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket by 2030. These are further examples of how change is being led by the private sector.

Public Sector Response

The response from the governments involved was an agreement called the Glasgow Climate Pact. The Pact has three key elements:

A request that countries revisit their climate pledges by the end of 2022; A phase-down of coal A set of processes for climate finance, plus finance for loss and damage

Reception among the public was mixed; some were happy to see the countries adopt something at all, while others felt that the public sector didnt go far enough. The carbon trading deal lacked regulations, the funding mechanisms for poor countries were insufficient, and there was no framework for financial compensation of environmental damage, but a deal was formed between the US and China related to the 1.5C goal, a new carbon trading concept was created, and there was a general agreement to reduce subsidies on fossil fuels.

Impact on Inogen Alliance Clients

These developments should, over time, greatly simplify the process of ESG reporting. Instead of performing a complex exercise to select a reporting framework. Inogen Alliances clients should be able to apply a set of unified standards that allow more effective benchmarking, reporting, and analysis. The Alliance globally is monitoring these new developments and is prepared to assist clients with implementation of these new standards. The Sustainability Steering Committee, the Sustainability Stewards, and the ESG Subcommittee are collaborating to ensure that our clients learn about these new standards as part of our world-class ESG reporting and strategic advisory services.

Conclusion

In summary, COP26 was a significant global event that unified stakeholders from different backgrounds, geographies, and dispositions. Several commitments were made by the public sector and the private sector, and the financial world made significant progress towards a set of unified global ESG standards. Inogen clients should pay attention to these developments as they should greatly simplify ESG reporting and disclosure.

About Inogen Alliance

Inogen Alliance is a global network made up of dozens of independent local businesses and over 5,000 consultants around the world who can help make your project a success. Our Associates collaborate closely to serve multinational corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and we share knowledge and industry experience to provide the highest quality service to our clients. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Inogen Alliance, you can explore our Associates on this webpage or Contact Us. Watch for more News & Blog updates here and follow us on LinkedIn.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Inogen Alliance on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/summary-and-takeaways-from-cop26-166031632
MELROSE, MA  Patch caught up with MelroseWakefield Hospital's chief medical officer Dr. Steven Sbardella as coronavirus cases surges across the region and country. Sbardella talked about the spike in COVID-19 patients needing hospitalization, the Omicron variant, booster shots, masking and more.

The following has been edited for length and clarity:

On the influx of COVID-19 patients:

The number of patients that are in the hospital has increased dramatically in the past few weeks, where the hospital is running almost full every day. That is really made up of a lot of patients who have a covid illness and a lot of patients who do not. We're seeing a surge in COVID patients over the past 7-10 days that is mimicking the same direction the previous surges.

On the vaccination status of those COVID-19 patients:

There are many more who are unvaccinated, there are other patients who have been vaccinated but they have other medical reasons that might get them in the hospital. But the greatest percentage of patients hospitalized are patients who have not yet been vaccinated.

On what a full hospital means:

We normally have a census in the high 90s for medical patients. We're running close to 120. One hundred twenty-two is 100 percent full. We were for a long time just hovering around 7 or 8 COVID positive patients in the hospital and over the last week we've seen that shoot up to 28 at last count. The trajectory of the number of patients who are requiring hospitalization is increasing dramatically and that's what we respond to, we respond to the direction things are going as opposed to the exact number. ... We're probably looking at the spike that originated around Thanksgiving.

On the Omicron variant:

I think the best to put it and the best for the community's sake is that: It's happening, take it seriously. I think with the information that you hear publicly about Omicron is that it transmits from one person to another very easily but may not cause a severe illness. I think when we say that people get complacent. It may not cause serious illness in someone who's very healthy, but it may cause serious illness to someone who has other reasons they may be sick. It's coronavirus, it's covid, and it's still creating havoc.

Story continues

The best thing we can do is everything we know about the best thing to stop the spread: Masking, social distancing, avoiding large clouds. Everything that we've already talked about. You hear about infections in people who have been vaccinated  some of them end up in the hospital depending on what's going on. So it's not that you get it and it might be mild because that's what you hear on television. If you have reason that could exacerbate something or line you up to be ill, it could create havoc in your body. I would rather see it designated as COVID, don't attach a variant to it. The variant is really more for trying to follow the track of the spread. Bottom line, if you have COVID you have COVID.

On what people need to know heading into the holidays:

We absolutely understand that people are tired of this. But when we're tired of it is not the time to give into it. What i would say is sadly, although different than last year, still try to stay away from large groups, try to spend the holiday with people who you know who have been vaccinated or feel very comfortable wearing a mask, and just be aware. When you're in a public setting, inside, I would wear a mask. Those are the things we've been teaching forever but I'm not sure what the compliance rate is because I think people are tired of the whole thing. But it's not going away.

On whether local communities should implement mask mandates:

I would like to see people use their judgement. With the new variant, there's always a chance of getting an infection, it might just be a bad cold, but you never know who you're standing next to you and what their status is. I am not a proponent of shutting the world down, as long as people follow the recommendations and are cognizant of their community responsibility to do the best they possibly can to stop the spread of the virus.

On booster shots:

Booster shots are very important because all the science shows the original level of immunity that you get from the first two shots or even a natural infection starts to wane a bit over time which is how a lot of antibody responses occur in your body. And what the booster does is bring you back up to a much higher level of protection and so the booster shots are really really important and we really encourage people to follow through, if the timing is right to get the booster, it will only help to protect you.

What we're doing at the hospital is we're going to be doing another clinic. We feel that we have a community obligation to at least offer one more access point, because what we're seeing is some of the what were becoming the more common access points like pharmacies and so forth are backing off a little bit because they're getting overwhelmed. So we figured another way to stop the flow of people needing hospitalization was to offer the boosters which might help keep them out of the hospital.

On changing guidance:

The base information hasn't changed: Getting the vaccine whatever vaccine you get around the world is still looked upon as one of the major ways to avoid getting a severe infection. That hasn't changed. If you remember when this all started a lot of the information that came out said, "By what we know as of right now." We've basically been in this for almost two years, we're gaining information that we wanted two years ago but wasn't there because it was a novel virus. So the more information we get the better research is done and the better determination about what those research results mean.

Look at the example of J&J and now the recommendation is to take Moderna or Pfizer, that's really based on the research and following of cases from people who got blood clots getting J&J. It doesn't say don't get vaccinated. The base is still the same. The vaccine will help protect you to potentially decrease the severity of the illness. The changes that you hear is the system working the way it should be working. As new information comes out it can be validated and confirmed. That's how all these safety mechanisms and medications work, it's a constant re-evaluation of a situation.

On whether there's optimism moving forward:

To some degree, we have to learn how to live with it, because viruses change. My optimism is rooted in the fact that I think more and more people will participate in the vaccination and see the light that can create the light at the end of the tunnel by following the recommendations. I think if people can follow the recommendations, the light will come more and more, and the more and more we can interrupt the flow of this virus.

On whether vaccinations have hit a plateau in Massachusetts:

My hope is that we haven't hit the plateau. I don't have a direct answer to the question. Every day I come to work and hope there are more people vaccinated today than yesterday because I see the people in the hospital.

On the hospital reinstating a temporary no-visitor policy:

We have this week initiated temporarily restricting visitors coming into the hospital. We know that's disruptive to the community and disruptive to the families but we think with the sudden change and the dramatic change in the volume of cases that we have to choose to create the safest environment for the community as well as for the staff even if it disrupts community access to the hospital to visit patients. We will make every attempt to communicate clearly with family members as we clear for their family members in the hospital but I just want to outwardly apologize for being disruptive to the community but we think it's necessary on a temporary basis. (Read more about the current policy here.)

On hospital staffing issues:

Like every other healthcare system across the country we have staffing issues right now, a lot of people have left healthcare because two years of doing this has been very difficult for a lot of people. We are staffed OK right now, it's difficult. People are still coming to work, they're motivated to do the best job they can, they're tired. They're doing the best they can but they're tired. Some of our staff members have contracted COVID from being out in the community just like every other organization and we work around that. I've got to say I'm really proud of the staff members who are still here every day taking care of whatever patients come through the door. But we are feeling the staffing crunch.

Related

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook



This article originally appeared on the Melrose Patch
The Biden administration and U.S. military leaders are increasingly concerned about rising tensions with Iran, and they are looking at the new year as a potential flashpoint, according to two defense officials and two administration officials familiar with the matter.

The growing confrontation with Iran has prompted a debate inside the administration about how to respond to attacks and provocative acts by Iran and its proxies in the region, current and former U.S. officials said.

Tensions ratcheted up after the attack on the U.S. military base known as At Tanf Garrison in southern Syria on Oct. 20, when five so-called suicide drones packed with explosives and shrapnel were launched at the base. No U.S. troops were killed in the assault, but several structures were badly damaged.

Three U.S. defense officials and two administration officials said that Iran was behind the attack and that it launched it through proxy forces with the intention of killing U.S. troops. In an interview with Time magazine, the commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, did not blame Iran for the attack. He said whoever conducted it was clearly trying to kill Americans.

Iran launched the attack in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed and wounded several Iranian citizens, the U.S. officials said. The Israeli strike targeted a shipment of advanced missile parts intended for Iranian-backed groups operating in Syria.

The U.S. military had warning that the drones were inbound, and it was able to move most of the 200 U.S. soldiers away from the base to avoid any casualties, according to the five officials.

The Biden administration called for options to respond.

Within hours of the attack, McKenzie briefed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on options to retaliate against Iran. The options were largely kinetic, the five officials said, including airstrikes against targets in Iran that could lead to the deaths of Iranians. But senior Biden administration officials worried that killing Iranians would escalate the situation and asked for more options.

Story continues

CENTCOM came back with a second round of options that included airstrikes and cyber possibilities, which Austin and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, briefed to the White House. Ultimately, the interagency team decided to respond with diplomacy, sending a message to Iran rather than delivering airstrikes or a cyberattack, according to one of the defense officials and one of the administration officials familiar with the response.

The interagency reviewed more options available to send Iran to make clear to Iranians how seriously we would take any future lethal strikes, the administration official said.

Despite the U.S. message, the At Tanf base was threatened again this week, when two drones breached the immediate area around the garrison. A British fighter jet fired an air-to-air missile to shoot down one drone, while the other flew away. Defense officials are not certain whether it was an attempted attack that was thwarted or whether the drones were probing U.S. defenses. Either way, the incident only intensified concerns that threats to Americans will escalate in the coming weeks, two U.S. military officials said.

The attack on At Tanf and other incidents  including a drone assault on a commercial oil tanker, the MT Mercer Street, in August off Oman, which the U.S. and Britain blamed on Iran  have sparked a debate inside and outside the administration about how to deter Iran without igniting an all-out war, with some senior military officers favoring a tougher line, according to two current and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions.

Asked for comment, the White House referred NBC News to a conference call it conducted last week, when a senior administration official said that after months of attacks by Iran against Americans in Iraq under the Trump, the Biden administration used a combination of deterrence, including two rounds of airstrikes, and also a lot of diplomacy to both deter and also de-escalate some of these tensions.

So, since July, weve had about five months of calm  so the longest period of calm weve had in Iraq, I think, really in three years. And were looking for that to continue, the official said. But we very much anticipate, heading into the first part of next year, theres the anniversary of the Soleimani strike, theres Iraqs government formation process and a few other milestones, that some of these attacks might start up again. But well be very ready for that and prepared.

One of the main reasons U.S. officials believe Iran and Iranian-backed groups will increase attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria around the new year is that the U.S. military is scheduled to officially end its combat mission in Iraq on Dec. 31, according to an agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.

On Dec. 9, the Iraqi government announced that U.S. troops had ended their combat mission. In reality, U.S. troops in Iraq made the transition to a training mission in July 2020, and thousands of U.S. troops will remain in both Iraq and Syria in this advisory role into 2022. The announcement was meant to ease pressure on the Iraqi government by Iranian-backed groups, according to two defense officials and two U.S. military officials.

The commander of Irans Quds Force, Sardar Qaani, warned Americans this month that it will take action against U.S. troops still in the region after the deadline.

After January 1st, all bets are off, a U.S. defense official said.

U.S. officials are also watching the second anniversary on Jan. 3 of the U.S. assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, then the leader of the Quds Force, as another possible flashpoint.

We are aware of potential threats that could increase in the coming weeks, and we are making sure we are going to be ready for them, an administration official said.

Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who tracks Iranian-backed militia activity, said he expects the militias to mark the anniversary of Soleimanis death and the new year, when they believe U.S. troops should be completely withdrawn from the country. But he said it is unclear how far they will go.

The drone flight last week over At Tanf and drone flights this month in Erbil in northern Iraq, where U.S. forces are located, suggest that the militias are probing U.S. defenses at military outposts, Knights said.

The militias track record over the past year shows theyre quite cautious and have tried to avoid killing U.S. troops or personnel, as that would be likely to trigger a U.S. military response, Knights said.

My gut feeling is they are going to try to do non-lethal things  to do the minimum to placate the support base, he said.

Militants escaped from Al-Tanf handed over to Syrian government (Sergei Levanenkov / Getty Images file)

For the U.S. and its allies, the question of how best to respond to Iran and its proxies is closely tied to efforts to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons through diplomacy and economic pressure.

Some U.S. officials worry that retaliating to every provocative Iranian action could prove counterproductive and derail talks between Iran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement. But others, including former Democratic lawmakers and some prominent former Obama administration officials, argue that only the threat of military force will ensure that diplomacy succeeds.

Without convincing Iran it will suffer severe consequences if it stays on its current path, there is little reason to hope for the success of diplomacy, said a statement released Friday by former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta, former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, former Democratic lawmakers Jane Harman and Howard Berman, retired Gen. David Petraeus, former senior diplomat Dennis Ross and commentator Robert Satloff.

The group called for high-profile military exercises and for responding to attacks by Iran or its proxies, citing the attack on the At Tanf base in October.

Theres a need for them to see that we will respond to some of these attacks, said Dennis Ross, who crafted Middle East policy under several presidents. Irans readiness to do these things shows a loss of fear, he said.

The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, eased sanctions on Iran in return for strict limits on its nuclear activities. But President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Iran has since breached the restrictions on its nuclear program, enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, using advanced centrifuges and hampering the work of U.N. inspectors.

Participants of Iran nuclear deal meet under EU chairmanship (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Talks in Vienna on the nuclear accord have stalled since the election of a hard-line cleric, Ebrahim Raisi, as Irans president in June. Iran and the other parties finally agreed to an agenda for the discussions on Friday, but U.S. and European officials struck a pessimistic tone.

So we made some progress, not enough, certainly, at a pace that will not be sufficient to get to where we need to go before Irans nuclear advances render the JCPOA a corpse that cannot be revived, a senior State Department official told reporters Friday.

There is a diplomatic path. It is a preferred path, the State Department official said. If its not chosen, then unfortunately, we will have to look at other tools to ensure that the presidents goal, his commitment, which is that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapon, is realized.

Another administration official said that the Biden administration is not going to allow a nuclear Iran on it watch and that it will have to act soon.

The options are closing down, and people are starting to see that, the administration official said.

The U.S. still has about 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria. While some equipment and capabilities have shifted in recent weeks, there are no plans to change the footprint in either country, U.S. military officials said. The U.S. still has defensive capabilities in place, the officials stressed.

Experts and former U.S. officials say it could be only a matter of months before Iran reaches the stage where it becomes a nuclear threshold state, with the technical ability to quickly build nuclear weapons if it chose to.

The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Irans mission to the United Nations did not comment directly on the At Tanf incident, but it said U.S. troops stationed in Syria were violating that countrys sovereignty.

The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its presence in Syria has always been abundantly clear. Iran is in Syria at the invitation of the legitimate, UN-recognized government of the Syrian Arab Republic and plays an advisory role there. It is, in fact, the United States  as the violator of Syrian sovereignty  that should be aware that itself has direct responsibility for any such trespass, Irans U.N. mission said in an email.

The Israeli government worries that Iran could soon conceal aspects of its nuclear work in a way that would make it impossible for the outside world to verify whether it had nuclear weapons or was on the verge of a nuclear capability, said Jacob Nagel, who was acting national security adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

We are getting down to the decision point, Nagel said.

Israels embassy in Washington declined to comment.

David Barnea, the chief of Mossad, Israels national intelligence agency, said this month that Israel will do whatever it takes to ensure that Iran never builds a nuclear weapon.

During a visit to the U.S. last week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he had informed U.S. officials that he had ordered the Israeli military to prepare for a potential strike against Iran.
The Daily Beast

Google MapsWhen police arrested Gioacchino Gamminoone of Italys most wanted mafia fugitivesin a Madrid suburb last week, he asked how on earth they found him. Did someone rat him out or did he accidentally leave a clue?Gammino insisted he had not called his family for more than a decade and had been living under a false name. We saw you on Google Maps, the police told him, showing him a fuzzy photo of himself standing outside a greengrocer store in 2018.Gammino, 61, had escaped from Romes
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is considering reinstating mandatory quarantine for foreign visitors due to concerns over the spread of Omicron, as the health ministry reported on Monday the country's first case of local transmission of the coronavirus variant.

The public health ministry will propose scrapping a quarantine waiver for vaccinated visitors and revert to hotel quarantine and a "sandbox" programme, which allows free movement in specific locations, minister Anutin Charnvirakul said.

The proposal was driven by worries over the spread of Omicron, Anutin told the Inside Thailand television show, adding it will be made to the government's COVID-19 taskforce "soon".

The minister's remarks come after Thailand reopened to foreign visitors in November, ending nearly 18 months of strict entry policies that contributed to a collapse in tourism, a key industry and economic driver that drew 40 million visitors in 2019.

Thailand had detected 63 people infected with the Omicron variant so far, Anutin said, with one case of local transmission and the rest imported cases.

The first locally transmitted case was found in a Thai woman who tested positive to Omicron after contracting the virus from her husband, a Colombian who returned to Thailand from Nigeria in late November, a health ministry official told a daily briefing.

"She is potentially the first in Thailand to get Omicron from an overseas traveller, her husband, and the first locally transmitted case," said Chakrarat Pittayawonganon, an official from the Disease Control Department.

Both the husband and the wife had been fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, he said.

The couple had one high-risk contact, a taxi driver, who was being quarantined and pending a second coronavius test due on Wednesday, Chakrarat added.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Ed Davies)
Dec. 20TIPTON  The Tipton County Chamber of Commerce says it has "grave misgivings" about the city and county taking control of a section of Indiana 28 without holding any public hearings on the decision.

Tipton County commissioners voted 2-1 last month to accept the deal proposed by the Indiana Department of Transportation. The vote came two days after making the proposal known to the public.

Commissioner Nancy Cline was the only "no" vote. She said her decision was mostly based on the fact that the public didn't know about the proposal, despite private talks starting in August between the state, county and city.

Kegan Schmicker, executive director of the Tipton County Chamber of Commerce, said that although he supports removing semi-truck traffic from the downtown, he did not support how the decision was made.

"Both the City and County leadership unilaterally accepted the most significant maintenance infrastructure liability in the history of our community, all without seeking the input of their constituents," Schmicker said in a released statement.

He said he also had serious concerns that neither the city nor county has said whether the proposal from INDOT was reviewed or vetted by an engineering firm or a government finance firm to ensure residents and businesses would not be negatively impacted.

Tipton Mayor Tom Dolezal said Friday the city engineer, Board of Public Works and the street superintendent reviewed INDOT's offer in great detail. He said numerous other planning and financial professionals for both the city and county also reviewed the plan.

Commissioner Tracey Powell also said the county engineer thoroughly reviewed the plan and the board "relied on his expertise heavily when weighing our options."

INDOT is giving nearly $9 million to the city and county to compensate for taking over the state highway. The money will be evenly split between the two government units.

Story continues

But, Schmicker said, even with the money, the extra financial burden that will come from maintaining the roadway will drain local coffers of funding that might be better used on improving Tipton in other ways.

"If the new financial burdens that come with the adoption of these roadways reduces our ability to build a better and more desirable community, then we may have lost the control needed to create the community and future we want and need," he said.

Dolezal said the extra investment is worth it for the immediate quality-of-life impact the new plan will have for the city.

"While we recognize there are significant financial responsibilities associated with the greater control of the proposed sections of 28 and 19, we believe that the opportunities for a more inviting and pedestrian friendly downtown, an increased opportunity for residential growth and overall benefit to our local businesses and residents make this an opportunity we need to invest in at this time for the future of Tipton," he said in an email.

Commissioners voted on the proposal after INDOT set a deadline for a formal answer on Nov. 26, forcing the issue to become public. Commissioners tabled the issue Nov. 22 and scheduled a special meeting on Nov. 24 to vote on the proposal.

The issue did not come before the Tipton City Council, as the proposal only needs signatures from commissioners and the mayor.

Carson Gerber can be reached at 765-854-6739, carson.gerber@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter @carsongerber1.
Tracey Emin (Richard Young/Shutterstock)

Tracey Emin has heavily criticised the UKs Covid testing system after returning from her first holiday post cancer treatment.

The 58-year-old artist was diagnosed with aggressive bladder cancer last year. In April, she announced that her cancer had gone following several major surgeries.

In a new post on Instagram on returning from her trip, Emin wrote: I havent left my house since I came back. My PCR test was negative before I got on the plane and my test when I came back to the UK. Ive had both Covid jabs and my booster. But it didnt stop Guv.U.K. [sic] saying they were coming to get .. because Id gone AWOL.

She added: There were absolutely no checks at Heathrow. It was like coming back to a third world country.

Then the government spends money on chasing after the wrong people with the wrong information. I said to the woman on the phone.. I know you are only doing your job .. but you are doing it so wrong ..

Now like many people who have low immunity, Im scared to leave my house. But Im not scared to speak my mind.. What a f***ing mess this country is in..

The words were posted alongside a photo of herself with healthcare workers wearing PPE.

The Independent has contacted the UK Health Security Agency for comment.

Testing requirements when travelling to the UK depend on whether arrivals are fully vaccinated or not.

People who are must do a negative lateral flow test before departure and book a PCR test to be taken within two days of entering the country, while those who are not must also have booked a day eight PCR test and quarantine for 10 days.
Donald Trump. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump on Monday sued New York State Attorney General Letitia James in an attempt "to halt her long-running civil investigation into his business practices," The New York Times reports.

The suit argues that James' over-two-year probe has violated Trump's constitutional rights, is politically motivated, and should be stopped by the court, per the Times.

"Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent," reads the lawsuit, which arrives "less than two weeks after [James] signaled that she would seek to question [Trump] under oath early next month," writes the Times.

Meanwhile, a criminal investigation into the ex-president led by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance is still ongoing. That probe revolves around whether Trump "defrauded lenders by inflating the value of his assets."

"Letitia James targets President Trump with a callous disregard for the ethical and moral obligations she swore to abide by when she became attorney general," wrote Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, in a statement, according to CNBC. "By filing this lawsuit, we intend to not only hold her accountable for her blatant constitutional violations, but to stop her bitter crusade to punish her political opponent in its tracks."

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. authorities have charged a Chicago doctor with insider trading, accusing him of using nonpublic information about drug trial results to reap illicit profits from buying shares of a California-based biotechnology company.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and federal prosecutors in Illinois said in statements on Monday they have charged a gastrointestinal medical oncologist Daniel V.T. Catenacci related to trading in securities of Five Prime Therapeutics Inc.

The doctor bought shares of the biotechnology company in advance of a Nov. 10, 2020 announcement it had gotten positive drug trial results for a cancer drug.

Authorities accused Catenacci of learning material nonpublic information about the positive results through his role as a lead clinical investigator for the drug trial. He has been cooperating with the government since the start of the investigation, Catenacci's attorney Jacob Kahn told Reuters.

"This is a complex area of law, and Dr. Catenacci did not intentionally breach any duty of confidence," Kahn said.

The doctor made more than $134,000 in illegal profits from the purchase and sale of the securities, authorities said. Catenacci was charged in a criminal information, a type of charging document usually used by prosecutors in connection with plea deals. It was not clear if Catenacci had a plea agreement.

To settle the SEC's civil charges, Catenacci has agreed to pay a penalty in an amount to be determined by the court at a later date, the SEC said. The settlement is subject to court approval.

Catenacci is an associate professor of medicine, according to his LinkedIn profile and biography on the University of Chicago's website. A spokesperson for the school said he is on a leave of absence.

The spokesperson said in a statement that the university "remains fundamentally committed to research integrity, protecting the rights of patients who participate in clinical trials, and honoring its obligations to government and industry research sponsors."

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Grant McCool and David Gregorio)
The UK Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a dispute over control of 31 tonnes of Venezuelan gold deposited with the Bank of England should be heard again by a lower court.

The latest twist in the long-running case, which hinges on whether President Nicolas Maduro's administration or Juan Guaido's opposition one is considered Venezuela's legitimate government, was welcomed by Guaido's camp as a recognition of his claim to power.

Guaido, who is also president of the country's National Assembly, claims the election was flawed and that he is Venezuela's lawful leader.

Both parties have created separate management committees of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), which has some $1 billion worth of gold held in reserve at the Bank of England in London.

Maduro wants to recover the gold, but access has so far been denied as Britain, in line with some 50 other countries around the world including the United States, acknowledges Guaido as interim president.

In legal battles over what to do with the gold, the High Court in London had initially found in favour of Guaido. Maduro then successfully overturned the ruling at the Court of Appeal.

Guaido took that decision to the Supreme Court, asking the judges to decide whether the British government has recognised him as head of state, and whether an English court can rule on the validity of his appointments to the BCV board.

He celebrated the ruling on Twitter on Monday, saying it recognised him as the country's interim leader, and that the gold would "continue to be protected in the Bank of England".

"The dictatorship will not be able to loot it as it has done with public funds," he added.

The Maduro administration hit back at the verdict, saying it "violated the norms of public international law".

It also "represents a serious risk for investments that the international community has entrusted to the British financial system, given that the United Kingdom has resorted to fraud to illegally seize resources entrusted to it", the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

Story continues

- Appeal allowed 'in part' -

Five Supreme Court judges unanimously allowed Guaido's appeal "in part", saying that in Britain, recognition of a head of state was only a matter for the executive.

"It follows that courts in this jurisdiction are bound to accept HMG's (Her Majesty's Government's) statements which establish that Mr Guaido is recognised by HMG as the constitutional interim President of Venezuela and that Mr Maduro is not recognised by HMG as President of Venezuela for any purpose," they added.

The judges said UK courts would not question "the lawfulness or validity" of Guaido's appointments to the Venezuelan central bank board.

"However, it remains necessary to consider whether the (Venezuelan Supreme Court) judgments should be recognised or given effect in this jurisdiction," they added.

"The proceedings are remitted to the Commercial Court for it to do so."

- Ambiguous situation -

Maduro wants the transfer of the gold to help finance Venezuela's fight against Covid-19.

The country of 30 million has recorded 440,000 cases and over 5,000 deaths, according to official figures.

NGOs and the opposition, though, claim the figure is higher.

Guaido, however, says the money would instead be used to repress the people or would end up in the pockets of a "kleptocratic" regime.

The BCV proposed in April to transfer the gold directly to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which had said it was willing to consider it with conditions.

But the overall situation is ambiguous.

London does not recognise the legitimacy of the new parliament, and has reiterated its support for Guaido, who holds no power in Venezuela.

But in order to keep channels open with Caracas, London also maintains its embassy there, albeit with a reduced diplomatic presence.

Maduro's lawyers argue that this in effect recognises their client as president.

The Supreme Court judges said the Court of Appeal was wrong to have given more weight to this argument than to the UK government's stated recognition of Guaido as head of state.

The case is being watched closely as Guaido, who was defeated in regional elections in November, could use any successful ruling to try to recover Venezuelan assets in other European banks.

The United States has already entrusted management of the oil-rich country's assets to Guaido.

js/ved/phz/tgb/reb
Bristol Borough officials are poised to take the next step in a decades-long effort to revitalize a struggling residential neighborhood along Elm and Chestnut streets.

Borough Manager James Dillon said officials will turn over Chestnut Street properties it has spent years purchasing to the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority "in the next few weeks."

"The RDA will pursue the redevelopment of that area," Dillon said. "RDA will determine working with Borough Council" how to use the land.

The Redevelopment Authority has been praised for successfully rehabilitating blighted residential properties in nearby Bristol Township, but exact plans for the Bristol Borough properties are unknown.

"We recently became involved with the project and with working with the Borough, primarily to address those houses on Elm Street, which have since been demolished," said Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Jeff Darwak. "And we will facilitate whatever the Borough wants to do in addressing the remaining properties and (future) use of them."

Bristol Borough is prepared to take the next step on a decades-long process to redevelop vacant homes on Chestnut and Elm streets.

What will become of boarded up homes?

Several years ago, Bristol Borough officials embarked on a 20-year plan to buy up the majority of properties on Chestnut and Elm Streets, across Jefferson Avenue from the former St. Ann convent and school. The borough has spent nearly $2 million to purchase the properties from residents who agreed to sell them.

Currently, there are dozens of boarded-up row homes on either side of Chestnut Street, the dull-red boards bearing white "no trespassing" markers, the monotony broken up by a smattering of residents who remain in their homes.

On Elm Street, homes purchased by the borough have since been razed, leaving an unkempt lot that also provides a view into the rear of houses on Chestnut Street. From there, one can also see the dilapidated state of a few of the vacant homes. The open-air nature of the lot has led to some dumping.

Story continues

Neither Bristol Borough Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe nor Vice President Betty Rodriguez could be reached for comment on the future of Chestnut Street and any preliminary ideas for Elm Street.

Previously, DiGuiseppe said he hoped a developer would build a combination of homes and commercial space, although he added he was open to alternate suggestions.

Past proposals have included senior housing or transit-oriented mixed-used development consisting of residential and commercial properties.

More on Bristol's plan: Expensive Bristol Borough effort to acquire, develop properties marches forward

Darwak said it was difficult to say right now what would become of the properties.

"Any decisions on that is still very far off. It's hard to say what exactly will happen, because we are far from that end of it," Darwak said. "We will be working with the Borough and community to facilitate whatever goals and objectives they have."

Residents weren't eager to discuss the ongoing development on and near the cul-de-sac, but voiced a sense of resignation over the dragged-out nature of the process.

The overarching concern is what will become of the properties, such as mixed-use, multi dwelling and/or fixed-income housing. Concerns also exist regarding the amount of time it has taken officials to make that decision.

Darwak said he, too, has heard from residents who approached him with those same concerns, and encouraged residents to contact the authority.

"I would say to them the same thing as I said to those I spoke with already," Darwak said. "Feel free to contact me and our door is always open; we are right down the street."

Bristol Township's success story

Before the Redevelopment Authority becomes involved in a blight abatement program, a municipality must invite the authority to assist, followed by a cooperation agreement between the municipality and the authority, the organization states on its website.

The authority encourages cooperation agreements that are clear and contain a brief description of the project, guidelines, sources of the funding and how project income will be handled.

Darwak said the Bristol Borough properties will be part of the Authority's ongoing blight remediation and abatement program.

The program, according to the authority's website, has "significant powers unavailable to municipality-operated entities" when addressing blighted properties, such as the ability to negotiate for the selection of a developer based on the merits of a proposal rather than the highest bid for a property.

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In nearby Bristol Township, the Redevelopment Authority is taking a similar track with the multi-year Bristol Township Blight Abatement Program.

In 2015, Bristol Township identified over 200 vacant homes within the township limits and contacted the Redevelopment Authority to develop a plan of action to address the high number of vacancies.

In 2016, the township and the authority entered into a partnership, initiating the abatement program.

That same year, the authority condemned five blighted properties in the township, all of which were rehabilitated and put back on the property tax rolls. In 2017, four more blighted properties were condemned by the authority, rehabilitated and put back on the property tax rolls.

In 2019, Darwak announced the successful rehabilitation of a vacant blighted property located at 1202 Karen Avenue in Croydon.

Blight fight 2012: Bristol Township Council declares blight, changes U&O rules in 2012

This is another success story for Bristol Township, then-Bristol Township Manager Bill McCauley said at the time. We have blighted 61 properties since 2016 and have worked cooperatively with the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority on 17 rehabilitations to make positive changes in many neighborhoods.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bristol Borough eyes next step in Chestnut, Elm Street revitalization
Sunday night at Target Center, the Timberwolves were playing a injury-riddled Dallas team that played a chippy, physical game that at times bordered on confrontational.

Their offense not running at peak efficiency, the Wolves saw a nine-point lead late in the third quarter melt away into a two-point deficit entering the fourth. In short, it was the kind of game that, so often in the past, would not have ended like this:

Timberwolves 111, Mavericks 105.

Call it maturity. Consider the team is learning to hold itself accountable. Keep in mind the Wolves were short-handed Sunday, too, with Anthony Edwards, Josh Okogie and Taurean Prince all in the NBA's health and safety protocols.

But they found a way to win.

"I think this team is building a foundation," Karl-Anthony Towns said after scoring 24 points, including a huge three-pointer down the stretch, to go with seven rebounds and six assists. "No matter who is on the floor, we're going to go out and play Timberwolves basketball. We showed that tonight. Things weren't as pretty as the Lakers game. We struggled a little bit."

This was the sort of game the Wolves have been losing for years. Down two entering the fourth, the Wolves reclaimed the lead early in the final quarter and grimly held on to win a fourth consecutive game and reach .500 (15-15) again.

Jaylen Nowell (16) and Jaden McDaniels (12) scored 28 of the Wolves' 36 bench points. D'Angelo Russell scored 22 points. Patrick Beverley had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Conference standings: Wolves move into 8th place

There was contribution up and down the rotation. More importantly, the Wolves, down the stretch, played like a team that expected to win.

"We're trusting the offense," Towns said. "Trusting our sets, trusting the people who are not the three-headed monster. Understanding that, if we keep the offense going, and if we're playing defense "

That things will turn out OK.

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All of that happened Sunday. The Wolves held the Mavericks (14-15) to 38% shooting in the fourth quarter while getting points from seven players in the final 12 minutes. That included Nowell early, as the Wolves were taking the lead back.

And late?

With 1:57 left, Dorian Finney-Smith drove for a dunk that brought the Mavericks within two points. At the other end, against a Mavs zone, Towns found himself at the top of the key against guard Jalen Brunson, and hit his only three-pointer of the night. After Brunson scored, Russell was fouled and made both free throws with 51.1 seconds left. Then the Wolves forced a turnover.

Both teams were playing short. The Mavs were without their injured leading scorer, Luka Doncic, and Kristaps Porzingis hurt his foot in the first half and didn't play in the second. But with Tim Hardaway scoring a game-high 28 points, Finney-Smith getting 23 and Brunson 18, the Mavericks wouldn't go away. That is, until the Wolves put them away.

"We had to grind it out, but it was a good game," Wolves coach Chris Finch said. "They made a lot of shots, and every time we got up on 'em, they came right back. But it's good for us to win a game like this."

BOXSCORE: Wolves 111, Dallas 105

Towns has been around long enough to know how easy it has been to lose games like this.

"We had those games as a young team and sometimes we let go of the rope and we found a way to lose," he said.

Maybe the team tightened up. Maybe the players started thinking they had to do it themselves. Maybe the ball stopped moving. None of that happened Sunday. "Trusting the offense," Towns said. "Trusting each other. I think that's really what it comes down to."
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

The Zappos founder Tony Hsieh didn't leave a will when he died after a house fire in 2020.

Friends and family are reportedly going head to head over how to divvy up his $500 million estate.

Some are filing claims in court with sticky notes written with Hsieh promising financial deals.

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, who died in 2020, didn't leave a will detailing what he wanted to do with his estate and fortune, valued at $500 million.

And so friends and family are now grappling with how to divvy up his empire, with some insisting they're owed millions of dollars, real-estate development contracts, and other assets.

As The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, Hsieh jotted down specifics of some business deals on sticky notes, thousands of which were also strewn across the walls of his Park City, Utah, home.

Some survivors are filing claims in court based on those sticky notes, including Mark Evensvold, who filed a claim for $30 million based on one that was written three months before Hsieh died. The note, according to The Journal, said Hsieh would pay Evensvold $450,000 a year to move to Park City and take up a project-manager position. Evensvold also said Hsieh agreed to give him a 20% share in a restaurant business.

Hsieh's family looks poised to inherit his assets, though relatives and friends are at war over who cared for Hsieh and who aimed to be close to him for his wealth and status, The Journal reported.

Some told the court that relatives, including Hsieh's brother, Andy, enabled the former CEO's abuse of drugs and alcohol. On the other hand, his family said in court filings that Hsieh's friends pushed him to make "impulsive" and "incoherent investments."

The actors Joseph Gordon Levitt and David Arquette, who were both friends with Hsieh, according to The Journal, were also subpoenaed for evidence that the two men were concerned about his mental health.

Representatives for the Hsieh family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Story continues

Hsieh left his role as Zappos CEO in August 2020 after 20 years with the company. He was known for his out-of-the-box workplace policies, including the practice of "Holacracy," a system with a flat work hierarchy that allows employees to work without assigned roles and with more flexibility.

He also pioneered the concept of paying new, unhappy employees $2,000 to quit to weed out those who wouldn't be as committed to and passionate about their work at Zappos.

But in 2020, Hsieh's struggles with drugs and alcohol increased, a battle exacerbated by the isolation and social distancing of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He died after suffering injuries in a Connecticut house fire in November 2020. Forbes later found that he had locked himself in a storage area in the home, and while investigators ruled out criminal intent, they concluded the fire could have been "caused by carelessness or an intentional act by Mr. Hsieh."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Lynchburg man was charged with murder and other offenses after police discovered a dead woman who had been missing for more than two weeks.

Leonard Eugene Blackwell, 41, is charged with murder, prohibition against concealment of dead bodies, concealing or compounding offenses, and three counts of failing to register as a sex offender, the Lynchburg Police Department said in a news release.

Clarissa Devon Jones, 37, was found dead Sunday in the 200 block of Trents Ferry Road.

The police news release contained few additional details but noted an intensive investigation, and police thanked the Virginia Department of Emergency Management for assistance.

Police ask anyone with information regarding this incident to contact Detective Davis (434) 455-6166 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900.

In June 2020, Blackwell was sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty in Amherst Circuit Court to two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery.

According to a plea agreement, prosecutors reduced an aggravated sexual battery of a minor charge and a sexual battery charge each to assault and battery. One count each of rape, sexual battery with intent to infect and a wounding charge against Blackwell in Amherst County also were dropped.

In June 2019, Blackwell was sentenced in Amherst Circuit Court to two years and six months in jail for failing to register as a sex offender, second offense, a Class 6 felony. Prosecutors said at the time Blackwell was convicted of a sex offense involving a minor in 2001, which placed him on the registry.

 From staff reports
Before taking her first EMT class at Campbell County Rescue Squad in 2006, Capt. Candace Brown of the Lynchburg Fire Department was a single mother to a two-year-old and a newborn, working three jobs to make ends meet.

She drove a school bus, served as a licensed CNA at Virginia Baptist Hospital, and worked as an employee at Bath & Body Works. Even so, Brown said, she did not make more than $18,000 per year altogether.

Brown knew she wanted a career in health care  and one she could get into relatively quickly. She sought something where she could have opportunity for advancement, retirement and, most of all, provide a stable life and healthy socioeconomic situation for herself and her children.

Now, 15 years after starting her first EMT classes, she has received this years prestigious, competitive Governors Award for Outstanding Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Prehospital Provider in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

I feel like Ive come from very humble beginnings, and I just wanted to give back to my community. So to be nominated for this award and to win this award has been tremendously overwhelming, she said. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity.

Although nursing was a consideration when she was looking to change careers, Brown said between caring for her children and working three jobs, she did not believe she would have the time necessary to devote to the pursuit.

Thanks to a long-time friend, Browns former sixth-grade teacher who was married to a firefighter/paramedic, Brown said she was introduced to the idea of EMT certification.

They kind of piqued my interest into going and taking an EMT class, Brown said. My days would start, typically, at 5:30 in the morning, and I usually didnt finish my third job until 11 at night. And then in between, I was doing the classes as well.

With the help of a support system consisting of her mother, grandparents, her childrens paternal grandparents, and friends who constantly encouraged and motivated her, Brown was able to obtain her EMT certification and launch into a new career.

After obtaining her EMT certification, Brown was hired at the Lynchburg Fire Department in 2008, where she went through the recruit school to get her required fire certifications. In 2010, Brown became a certified paramedic, then an Advance Practice Paramedic in 2019, which allows her to administer specialized, advanced lifesaving skills in the field. After reaching this level, Brown worked as the EMS supervisor for the citys C-shift before stepping into her current role of EMS training officer.

Brown is the first known woman in the history of the Lynchburg Fire Department to win this governors award, to the best of her knowledge and that of Deputy Chief Robert Lipscomb, a colleague whose career with the fire department spans almost 32 years.

Brown joined three previous Lynchburg Fire Department employees as a recipient of the prestigious award.

The award is granted through a nomination process. Peers and stakeholders with various fire departments in Virginia may submit names to a panel committee for consideration. Through the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Service and regional EMS councils  in Browns case at Lynchburg, the Blue Ridge EMS Council  nominees first win recognition in their region, and their name is then submitted to the governor for the state award, according to Lipscomb.

Brown said taking home the governors award reflects well on both the City of Lynchburg and the BREMS region as a whole.

The governors award does not represent Browns first milestone in the city fire departments history: In 2018, she became the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of captain.

Although Brown said she hates being in the spotlight, she shared her experience and successes with The News & Advance in hopes of inspiring others.

I try to think of a little girl or a little boy that is maybe growing up in the inner city, that dont think that they have a lot of options out there for them. They can create their own destiny. It takes a lot of hard work, but nothings impossible, Brown said.

Growing up in an area Brown described as a rough part of town just below one of Lynchburgs fire stations, a disadvantaged socioeconomic situation was something she worked hard to overcome.

Its not always about race, or gender, or whatever. I think especially socioeconomic status, Brown said. Regardless of your race, or your gender, or your background, I think a lot of times those of us that come from less than fortunate means ... we feel like we have the world against us. When things are tough, you dont really sometimes want to put in the effort, because youre like, Oh my gosh, its so hard. But when you see someone who came from an area that youre from, that grew up on the same street that you grew up on, youre like, Well, he or she did it. Maybe I can do it, too.

Lipscomb has known Brown since she was hired at the department. For the last almost 14 years, he has had the chance to watch Brown grow from her beginning as a firefighter/EMT to her current position as captain and EMS supervisor.

Brown has never shied away from a challenge, he said.

Any of the assignments shes been in  because Ive seen her on an array of different assignments  shes always been very conscientious about her job, and doing it to the best of her ability, Lipscomb said. Shes always doing whats in the best interest of the citizens, the patient, the department, and everybody.

In addition to her various duties within the fire department, Brown is working on a masters in public health from the University of Lynchburg. Until last September, she served as an adjunct professor at Randolph College.

Brown said she did not know how it was possible to select just one nominee as a winner when all of those in the running were surely deserving of the distinction.

We are all doing great work. None of us are in this for the accolades. Were not in this for an award. Were not doing this for any type of spotlight. Were doing this because we enjoy giving back. We have a servants heart. We want to serve the community. We want to save lives, and if we cant save a life, we want to be a support system for that family that may have lost a loved one, she said.

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Toyota Motor will suspend operations on seven production lines at five factories in Japan next month due to a chip shortage, the automaker said today.

The suspension will reduce Toyotas output by about 20,000 vehicles amid procurement delays for semiconductors and other parts. The Japanese automaker said it will maintain its global production plan of 9 million vehicles for the fiscal year ending March 2022.

Toyotas January production plan, announced in mid-December, which called for 800,000 cars to be made globally, will also be carried out.

The production line for sport utility vehicles such as the RAV4 and Harrier at Toyotas Takaoka plant will be shut down for a total of seven days, including suspension of two days of holiday production.

Two lines at Toyota Auto Bodys Yoshiwara Factory, one line each at the Inabe and Fujimatsu plants, and two lines at Toyota Industries Nagakusa plant are also scheduled to suspend two days of holiday production.
A Council Bluffs businessman found guilty of sex trafficking and drug charges has been sentenced in federal court.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Iowa announced Hershal James Ratliff, 71, a longtime area businessman and owner of the now-closed Jimmys All American Malt Shop and Grill in Council Bluffs, was sentenced to 30 years in jail after being found guilty of six counts of human trafficking and one count of distribution of a controlled substance to a minor.

The office said Ratliff groomed teenagers and after cultivating a trusting relationship with them, convinced them to engage in various sex acts with him and his friends for money, alcohol, or drugs. Ratliff also used his business, Jimmys All-American Diner and his rental properties to groom and recruit victims. This illegal activity spanned from 2012-2019.

An investigation by the Council Bluffs Police Department with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation started in August of 2019 after a mandatory reporter made a report to the Iowa Department of Human Services about information reported by a 14-year-old child that involved inappropriate sexual conversations and advances by Ratliff, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. As the investigation continued, numerous other young adults were identified as being victimized by Ratliff while they were in high school.

The prison term will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.
The state board that provides oversight of physicians has received 17 complaints about doctors in Iowa spreading false or misleading information about COVID-19, a state official said.

Of those 17 complaints, five have been dismissed without the board taking any disciplinary action; 12 complaints remain under investigation, according to Kent Nebel, executive director of the Iowa Board of Medicine.

That puts Iowa in the vast majority nationally: roughly 1 in 5 state medical boards has taken disciplinary action against a licensee for disseminating false or misleading information about COVID-19, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards.

And just 1 in 4 state medical boards has published statements about the dissemination of false or misleading COVID information, according to the national federation.

The complaints also put Iowa in line with national trends: two-thirds of state medical boards have experienced an increase in complaints relating to licensees disseminating false or misleading information, according to the national federation.

The staggering number of state medical boards that have seen an increase in COVID-19 disinformation complaints is a sign of how widespread the issue has become, Humayun J. Chaudhry, president and CEO of the Federation of State Medical Boards, said in a news release. We are encouraged by the number of boards that have already taken action to combat COVID-19 disinformation by disciplining physicians who engage in that behavior and by reminding all physicians that their words and actions matter, and they should think twice before spreading disinformation that may harm patients.

Under Iowa law, all complaint and investigation information is confidential, Nebel said. If any disciplinary action is taken, that would become a public record.

The Board evaluates each complaint on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a physician has engaged in conduct that may be harmful to patients or the public, Nebel said.

In Iowa, 7,680 people have died from COVID-19 or COVID-related causes, according to state public health data. The state, like many other areas in the country, is currently experiencing another wave of infections, once again putting significant stress on hospitals. The 843 Iowans hospitalized for COVID is the most since late November of 2020, in the heart of the worst of the pandemic.

In Iowa, 58.4% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to federal data. Thats the 25th-highest rate in the nation.

This summer, the Federation of State Medical Boards board of directors issued a statement responding to what it called a dramatic increase in the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation by physicians and other health care professionals on social media platforms, online and in the media. The statement warned that such actions could result in disciplinary action, including the suspension or revocation of medical licenses.

Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not. They also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interests of their patients and must share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health, the statement said. Spreading inaccurate COVID-19 vaccine information contradicts that responsibility, threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.
OMAHA  It was a June 2020 weekend in the new Capitol District in downtown Omaha. Early in the pandemic. Early in the morning.

Both factors led to a light crowd at the Epoca Cantina, a Mexican restaurant that alternates as a dance club after dinner. Maybe a couple dozen people were there, some at tables, some on the dance floor.

A group of 20-somethings had gathered to celebrate the birthday of the DJ performing that night, Luis Sandoval. People were dining, drinking, dancing. Lincoln resident Jose Juarez was sitting next to his girlfriend of a couple months, Sharon Miranda, the couple occasionally canoodling.

The calm was soon pierced by chaos: Prosecutors say Mirandas estranged husband, Marlon Miranda Jr., 27, was near the music stand, talking with the DJ. Then he grabbed Juarez, 26, from behind as he sat at the table. A struggle ensued. Employees broke it up and thought that they sent Juarez and Miranda separate ways, one out the front door and one out the back.

It would be the least of the violence that night. Within minutes, prosecutors say, Juarez was shot multiple times near 12th and Davenport streets, Sharon Miranda was screaming hysterically as her estranged husband slammed her head against the brick wall of a parking garage, and off-duty Bellevue Police Sgt. John Stuck fired off nine shots at Marlon Miranda.

Hit twice, Miranda survived. So did Sharon Miranda. Juarez  full name Jose Santos Parra Juarez  did not.

The chaos  some on camera, most of it not  was replayed last week as Miranda is tried in Douglas County District Court on a charge of first-degree murder and weapon use.

Authorities have called Stucks actions heroic, saying he stopped Mirandas rampage and most likely saved Sharon Mirandas life. But defense attorney Bill Pfeffer took aim at Stucks actions, questioning why he shot at Miranda and noting repeatedly that he missed seven of his nine shots.

Youre an expert marksman.  You fired nine shots from that close, and you missed seven times, Pfeffer said.

Stuck said he didnt believe that he missed seven, then later relented that he might have. At first, he was point shooting  in which an officer fires without looking through a guide. Two shots hit Miranda  one went through his leg near the knee, the other grazed his ankle.

The shots worked. Prosecutors John Alagaban and Desiree Stormont say Miranda let go of Sharon Miranda and threw his gun to the side. Tests later determined that the gun was the same one used to shoot and kill Juarez.

Pfeffer didnt just go after Stuck. As testimony from bar patrons, the off-duty officer and Sharon Miranda suggested that Marlon Miranda fired out of rage, Pfeffer tried to set up a self-defense argument, suggesting that Juarez was the instigator and wanted to fight Miranda.

According to testimony:

As the night dragged into the early morning of June 13, 2020, Marlon was hanging out by the DJ booth, his attention fixed on Sharon.

Sharon testified Friday that she wasnt surprised that her estranged husband was there, even though she was with her boyfriend. The two had been separated for 10 months and were sharing custody of their daughter. All of them, including Juarez and Marlon, were there to celebrate their friends birthday.

We were supposed to have fun, enjoy our time together and dance and celebrate Luis, Sharon said.

Then Marlon approached his estranged wife and Juarez at the bar. He waved away a greeting from Juarez and hugged Sharon and her cousin. He later asked Sharon and the cousin to dance. They both said no.

He was very upset, Sharon said. Aggressive.

About 1:30 a.m., the silent footage of security cameras showed the unspeakable events. Juarez, in a white shirt, leaned over to smooch Sharon as they sat at a table. Soon after, Sharon went to the bathroom. Soon after, a man in a multicolored shirt  prosecutors say it was Miranda  leaned over as if to whisper in Juarezs ear.

He instead grabbed Juarez by the neck, twisting his head like a wrestler. Juarez got to his feet, and the two tussled and fell to the ground. A bar manager and security guard separated them. Juarez emerged with a cut to his eye. Bar owner Juan Magana took Juarez to a bathroom and gave him a towel to wipe off the blood. A security guard escorted Miranda out the front door.

Miranda soon returned and grabbed his jacket from near the DJ stand.

Sharon said she emerged from the bathroom to hear that Marlon Miranda had attacked Juarez. She and Juarez were led out through the back door.

I was pretty distraught, Sharon said. I stopped Jose because I kept apologizing for Marlon attacking him in the bar.

Just then, a cousin walking ahead screamed at Sharon that Miranda was rushing up behind them.

Miranda was screaming, shouting something  I cant recall what, Sharon said. In seconds, he was on top of the couple.

Between long, tear-filled pauses, Sharon testified that she tried to yell at Marlon to get away when he reached over her and shot Juarez. In the process, Miranda knocked Sharon down. She looked up, she said, to see Marlon.

He stood right over (Juarez) and shot him some more, Sharon said, weeping.

Sharon testified that Miranda then grabbed her off the ground and dragged her to a brick wall.

At that point, Stuck was in his fourth hour working security in the district, a courtyard where bar patrons can mix among several establishments.

Wearing a polo with POLICE on the back and khaki tactical pants and his gun, he had watched as security dismissed the man later identified as Miranda.

Then Stuck heard gunshots. He scaled the steps on the north side of the Capitol District onto Davenport Street, which looks like an alley.

He headed west toward 12th Street and saw a man down, with people tending to him. From about 15 yards away, he saw a gunman slamming a womans head against the brick wall of the downtown Marriott parking garage. A gun was in his right hand, angled toward the woman.

Police! Stop! Stuck yelled.

The woman, later identified as Sharon Miranda, was screaming. Stuck pointed his handgun and pulled the trigger.

Pfeffer, Mirandas attorney, suggested that Stuck was endangering bystanders by firing into the night. Stuck resisted that line of questioning, saying a concrete pillar from Interstate 480 was his backstop in case he missed.

Pfeffer persisted, challenging Stuck on whether he was shooting first and asking questions second. He suggested that Stuck defied police protocol by never ordering Miranda to drop the gun.

Thats not how it works, Stuck said matter-of-factly.

A woman was in danger, with a gunman holding her, he said. Stuck further pushed back at Pfeffers suggestion that his bullets could have hit the woman. The gunman was facing east; the woman west. Stuck said he angled himself so that he was shooting at the gunman, toward the north.

You fired nine times and missed seven? Pfeffer asked.

I dont think I missed seven, Stuck said.

Pfeffer: Well, he got shot once in the knee and once in the ankle. Where did the other seven go?

Stuck: To the backstop.

Rather than rip Stuck, authorities have praised his instincts and quick reaction. No one knows whether Sharon Miranda would have survived had Stuck not intervened. The actions of a hero, one law enforcement official said.

The trial is expected to conclude this week.
Iowa may have to wait to see a share of a $4.3 billion settlement with Purdue Pharmas owners over the opioid crisis  millions the state intended to provide pain killer abuse prevention, treatment and recovery efforts  after a federal judge rejected the deal.

A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday rejected OxyContin maker Purdue Pharmas bankruptcy settlement of thousands of lawsuits, including from Iowa, over the opioid epidemic because of a provision in the deal that would protect members of the Sackler family from facing litigation of their own.

Judge Colleen McMahon in New York found that federal bankruptcy law does not give the bankruptcy judge who had accepted the plan the authority to grant that kind of release for people who are not declaring bankruptcy themselves.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who was among state attorneys general to join the legal action against Purdue, estimated the state would have received about $25 million to address opioid abuse.

Although Miller said no settlement could make up for the misconduct of Purdue and the Sackler family, who own the company, the settlement was in the best interests of Iowans, however, and will go a long way toward abating the opioid crisis the defendants helped create.

However, those efforts now appear to be on hold until the lawsuit is resolved. In a statement issued after the judges ruling Thursday, Purdue said it will appeal the ruling and, at the same time, try to forge another plan with its creditors.

We are hopeful this matter will be resolved quickly in order to make funds available to help abate the opioid crisis in Iowa, the Attorney Generals Office said in a statement Friday.

In May 2019, Iowa sued Purdue Pharma and its former president and board chairman, Richard Sackler, alleging that the drug company engaged in unfair, deceptive and unlawful practices in the marketing of OxyContin. The lawsuit alleged that Purdue officials repeatedly made false and deceptive claims that OxyContin was safe and suitable for a wide range of pain patients.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Purdue claimed that OxyContin posed a low risk of addiction; that symptoms of addiction were only pseudoaddiction indicating the need for more opioids; that long-term opioid use improved patients quality of life and function; and that opioids were suitable for vulnerable groups, such as elderly patients and veterans.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy after Iowa and other states sued.

The company said in its statement that the ruling will not hurt its operations, but will make it harder its and Sackler money to be used to fight the opioid crisis while the legal fight continues.

It will delay, and perhaps end, the ability of creditors, communities, and individuals to receive billions in value to abate the opioid crisis, said Steve Miller, chairman of the Purdue board. These funds are needed now more than ever as overdose rates hit record-highs, and we are confident that we can successfully appeal this decision and deliver desperately needed funds to the communities and individuals suffering in the midst of this crisis.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who was among a handful of state officials seeking to have the deal undone, called the ruling a seismic victory for justice and accountability. Tong said the ruling will reopen the deeply flawed Purdue bankruptcy and force the Sackler family to confront the pain and devastation they have caused.

The opioid crisis has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the United States over the last two decades. In Iowa, the state Public Health Department earlier this year reported that opioid-related deaths rose in 2020 from 157 to 213.

Most state and local governments, Native American tribes, individual opioid victims and others who voted said the plan worked out in the bankruptcy court should be accepted.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, like several others, sued Sackler family members and opposed the settlement before eventually agreeing to it this year. She said in a statement that if the deal doesnt hold up, shes ready to resume the lawsuit.

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family remain named defendants in our ongoing litigation and we will hold them accountable for their unlawful behavior, one way or another, she said.

The main issue on the appeal was the lawfulness of the measures that would extend legal protections to Sackler family members.

Such third-party releases are not used in most bankruptcy cases, but they are common in cases such as Purdues, in which the companies involved are burdened with lawsuits and have relatively little value  but their wealthy owners could contribute.

The Purdue deal would not protect family members from criminal charges. But so far none have been filed, and there are no signs any are forthcoming, though some activists are calling for them.

In her ruling Thursday, McMahon focused on whether bankruptcy law even allows for the kind of deal the company and its creditors struck if there are objections to it.

The great unsettled question in this case is whether the Bankruptcy Court  or any court  is statutorily authorized to grant such releases. This issue has split the federal Circuits for decades, she wrote.

She also noted that other courts will weigh in on the case. The next step is likely before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

This opinion will not be the last word on the subject, nor should it be, she wrote. This issue has hovered over bankruptcy law for thirty-five years.

 James Q. Lynch of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Egypt is in contact with Chinese companies with three potential companies for the production of electric cars in 2023 for an investment of $127 million, Bloomberg reported.

The companies, no identified, will collaborate with state-run El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Co., Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik told Bloomberg in an interview.

Tawfik also the media production will begin 2023 with 20,000 units annual and over three years.

The car models, the minister added, will be named either E70 or A70; will sell for around $20,000, with half of buyers probably taxi or Uber drivers.

Last week, Huawei will launch during the second half (H2) of 2022 an electric car model in Egypt, supplied with Huaweis operating system.

Ahmed Abdel-Aal, Vice President of Huawei Egypt also indicated that the company is negotiating with its commercial partners to make the electric car available in Egypt before the end of 2022.

Tawfik also told Bloomberg the private sector be offered a 40% role in a new company established to operate pay-to-use charging stations, with 10% being taken by El Nasr and the remaining half by a state entity.

Egypt according Tawfik, will set up a 3,000 charging stations around Cairo and Alexandria over the next two years before theyre introduced elsewhere.

Egypt now produces all kinds of clean energy, he said, citing the countrys sizeable wind and solar power projects.

Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers.
Moroccan police intercepted over the weekend near the region of Taroudant a utility vehicle carrying 90 bundles of cannabis weighing in total 3 tons.

The driver, aged 37, was arrested. He has criminal records and was on police drug watch-list for his ties with international drug trafficking networks.

Investigation led to the seizure of a speedboat and two engines, said the National Police Monday in a press release.

The detectives are looking into the links between this major drugs busting operation and international cartels. They are also actively searching for the dealers accomplices and all those responsible for this smuggling attempt to bring them to justice.
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Heng regularly reviews pro bono and reduced-fee cases from the Nebraska Bar Association, taking on cases in his areas of law.

Heng is being appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge David W. Urbom.

Roberts-Connick, 47, has worked in the Lincoln County Attorneys Office since 2000. She served as deputy county attorney from 2000 to 2012, with experience in both the child support enforcement division and the criminal division. She has been Lincoln Countys chief deputy county attorney since April 1, 2012. In this capacity, she has represented the state of Nebraska in criminal, juvenile and Mental Health Board proceedings as well as having responsibility to supervise and train staff. Prior to her time with the Lincoln County Attorneys Office, Roberts-Connick worked for the Nebraska State Patrol as a law clerk from 1998 to 2000.

Roberts-Connick holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Nebraska Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law. She is a member of the Nebraska Bar Association and the Nebraska County Attorneys Association.
Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Donald Trump told Bill OReilly and a Houston crowd that he had received a booster coronavirus vaccine and that those who cast doubt on the shots are doing his opponents work for them.

'Youre playing right into their hands' when you doubt the vaccine, President Trump says. pic.twitter.com/xJc7JTL0cR  No Spin News (@NoSpinNews) December 20, 2021

Hearing a few boos after confirming his boosted status, Trump said his administration  and its supporters  did something that was historic by helping to speed up vaccine development last year. He said the vaccines averted an even worse outcome from COVID like that of the Spanish Flu of 1917 (wrong year again, but whatever). And he urged his fans to take credit for the vaccines, warning them that expressing skepticism is playing right into their hands. (Their presumably refers to evil Democrats in this context.)

The comments came during the last stop of the brief History Tour Trump undertook with OReilly, the disgraced but still popular (in some circles) former Fox News anchor, which played to non-sellout crowds in Florida and Texas.

Trump talked up Operation Warp Speed  his administrations successful vaccine-development drive  a fair amount during the 2020 campaign. But since he decamped to Florida, he has been more focused on putting forward conspiracy theories about the election he lost than on trying to take credit for Americas inoculation campaign. Given the mistrust many Trump voters feel regarding the vaccines, his unabashed endorsement Sunday is notable. It also stands in contrast to the way many Republican officials now talk about vaccines, including Florida governor Ron Desantis, a possible rival for Trump in 2024. On Fox News Sunday morning, DeSantis, who once vigorously promoted the jabs but has since gone hard in the other direction, said he had only gotten the normal shot, not a booster.
Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have sued New York attorney general Letitia James in order to halt her offices ongoing investigations into his business. The New York Times reported that the former president filed the suit Monday in federal court and is suing James in her official capacity, claiming her office is violating his constitutional rights.

Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent, the lawsuit says, according to the Times.

James responded to the suit in a statement: The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings, and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation. To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.

The attorney generals office has been conducting a civil investigation into whether Trumps company lied about its assets in order to obtain loans and later undervalued them to avoid taxes. Recently, it was reported that James is seeking to subpoena Trump for his testimony in the inquiry.

The state investigation has been working in tandem with the Manhattan district attorneys office, which is also investigating the former president and his business. That inquiry was started by Cyrus Vance Jr., who is set to leave office at the end of the year. Alvin Bragg, the incoming district attorney, told CNN he intends to focus on the Trump case personally in his new role.
Photo: Dan Winters. Groomer: Green Dale Figueroa.

This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

On the day I heard that my penis would be huge, I sobbed. In the car outside the doctors office afterward, I bent my torso in half and bawled, my face against the dashboard, my boyfriend petting my back to console me but confused. Isnt it good news that they can do it?  like: At all? And obviously, yes. It was. Growing up without one, Id thought or maybe convinced myself that mine would grow in later  to the extent that when I see a woman in tight pants, I still often instinctively think, Where is her penis?  but my period at 12 aptly, agonizingly bled to death that increasingly implausible dream of reconciling with life, with God, that he wouldnt make me like this and leave me like this forever. So the news, 28 years later, that the agony was going to be over  abundantly over  was a bit much to take in. I fixated instead on the information that a pert little average-flaccid package was not an option for me. (If I even wanted that.) (And did I?) When Id asked the surgeon how big my impending penis was going to be, he could only guess, pointing to the reusable water bottle in my hand, a metal cylinder nine inches in circumference: Smaller than that. I was so different from everybody else already. I was already always so different.

Phalloplasty in general, it was clear, was hard for people to accept. Well, I will love you no matter what, sweetie, a cis female best friend of mine said when I told her I was transitioning, years before  as long as you dont get a dick. One flatly demanded, Dont get a dick. It was, another transmasculine person I used to know said, disgusting, insane to want and to have a surgeon make a sensate phallus out of your arm or leg or somewhere and Frankenstitch it to your body, to go so far out of your way to opt in to a tool, perhaps the tool, of so much suffering. Most transmasculine people didnt get one. The seminal print transmasc magazine was named after not getting one: Original Plumbing. I saw transmasculine support groups shut down and go silent more than once when someone brought up the procedure, and later, when I was that someone, I was twice invited to leave with other people who might want to talk about that. Whatever magical spectrum of unicorn gender expression was otherwise being embraced, it ended firmly before needing a socially, culturally, politically, historically, personally, emotionally, medically complicated dick.

But I did. And I couldnt outrun it any longer. Literally: The day I gave in and admitted that for me it was penis or death came after a last-ditch bout of denial in which I drove 1,400 miles in three days only to have to acknowledge, devastated, at my destination that I couldnt avoid it anymore.

So there I was then, finally, showing up to online specialized transmasculine support groups for people seeking or recovering from phallo, between hours spent hustling to call (six) surgeons offices about consults and my PCPs office (19 times) for referrals and my insurance company (17 times  that I wrote down, anyway) for the necessary authorizations. And here they were, these trans and nonbinary people of many races and locations, coming together to try to hold one anothers questions and fears about which donor site on their body to use, and how the site had (or hadnt) recovered, and how much sensation they had (My whole dick feels like a giant clit! one elated guy described his rare, very best-case outcome once to widened eyes all around), and what size testicle implants they got if they got testicles (which are optional) at all, and which surgeon they went to and when could you go back to work and who in the world took care of you, and did anybody else have this or that or a whole series of fistulas or strictures around their new urethral hookup that rerouted their pee and is also optional, and did anyone else just leave their urethra where it is? Once, a pre-op 52-year-old Black man who was struggling with money and his disability and insurance asked if having a penis was really going to make a difference, relieve any of this pain he was barely surviving, and I watched as the post-op group members calmly assured him that, yes, it would. If he could just hang on, hang on, hang in there.

It gave me a little more hope, he told me later, to keep going.

I would rather have died on the table than not had the surgery, one Korean American guy with great sweaters responded (and, like everybody here, gave me permission to repeat), to a chorus of nodding Zoom heads.

It has happened at least once that someone did die. I was fully ready to, by which I mean Id just spent nearly the last of my savings, which Id burned navigating the emotional-mental-social-medical-legal-extreme-marginalization mindfuck shitshow of transitioning, on a burial plot just in case. One of the nodding heads in the group belonged to a nonbinary white person who was still horizontal in recovery from having had, a week prior, the worst happen, which was that after their procedure, in which all the fat and skin had been stripped from their left forearm from wrist to nearly elbow, along with major nerves, an artery, and veins, and then shaped into a tube and connected, in careful layers, to skin and blood vessels and nerves in their pelvis, their new penis had failed.

It died. On them.

But here they were, already getting ready for their surgeons to harvest a whole other part of their body within the month with zero hesitation. Because those three days theyd had their penis, they said, before being rushed into an eight-hour surgery that couldnt save it  the feeling of it, even just for one moment, even still bloody and painful and packed with stitches: worth it. And I understood that immediately when, after a yearlong surgery waiting list and a deep quarantine and an anguished prerequisite COVID test I would either pass or lose my date over, I woke up last December in a hospital bed and before even glancing toward my lap, the room spinning from anesthesia and my lungs partially collapsed from four and a half hours on surgical ventilation and hundreds  plural  of stitches and a 40-square-inch hole in my thigh where Id been skinned down to the muscle, I could suddenly feel, in a way I could never have fathomed, that this was what being alive was.

Photo: Dan Winters

Theres a scene in Disneys original Dumbo when the child elephants mom cradles him in her trunk and sings to him, exuding love. Quietly, but wholly. As a kid feeling utterly unheld by this world, I hated it.

As a grown man in a hospital bed, chest loosely draped with a gown in a low-lit December room, I looked down in the direction of a penis Id assumed would be covered in bandages  but then there it just was. Laid out at an angle toward my left thigh, propped on a green cloth. And I, awed and heartful and weeping, sang that song to it.

Ba-by mine, la na na naaaaaaaaa.

I dont know the words.

Baaaa-byyyy mine, na na na naaaaaaaa.

La, laaaaaa, la  na na na naaa,

La na na naa, baby of miiine.

While Id been sleeping, two microsurgeons, a reconstructive urologist, a surgical fellow, and a surgical resident had, among other things, cut a seven-by-six-inch rectangle out of my right anterior lateral thigh. Theyd taken all the skin and fat, plus one big nerve and some veins attached to the muscle, and connected the skin to itself in the shape of a phallus. Then they slipped the whole thing under two of my thigh muscles, pulled up out of the way with a steel retractor, dragged the phallus across my groin under the skin, and pulled it back out into the world through a hole cut in the skin over my pubic bone. They connected the new peniss nerve to one of the nerve bundles in my native penis, which some people call a clitoris (embryologically, the cells are the same), which theyd cut free of its ligaments, then skinned, then tunneled up under the skin and out to the landing site of the new penis, the base of which they joined to the base of my pelvis, putting me all together with sutures, some finer than a human hair.

That penis, Dr. Bauback Safa, one of the microsurgeons, said when he came by after to see me  to see us  looks perfect.

He was talking mostly about blood flow. He did not mean that, with its fresh stitches and a round, bloody hole at the top where the skin would eventually close together, it would look like any other penis at the spa. But also, it was a lovely shape. Dr. Safa had correctly estimated that the width  which can be debulked with further surgery but is initially determined by skin and fat thickness  would land on the very but not spectacularly girth-y side. The length I had been able to pick. Each surgeon Id consulted with had asked what I wanted, then nodded mildly and written it down, breezy as a waiter. My instinctive answer was long, even though I knew it would be that long all the time: While neophalluses can be implanted with erectile devices that change their stiffness, they do not change their size.

That penis, the microsurgeon said when he came by after to see me  to see us  looks perfect.

Thats a lot of all-day D, Id said to the reconstructive urologist, Dr. Mang Chen, during our pre-op visit the week before. (He gave sort of a friendly, unfazed shrug.) Id been saying it to myself, too, for months as I waited for my surgery date, wondering why I wanted so much, questioning if I should have less by some, by half, indeed like your average, unremarkable soft penis at the spa (listen: Im Hungarian; Im essentially made of hot springs). While the more common option of using flesh from forearms, which are generally slimmer, was barely viable in the case of my apparently bizarrely fatless ones, it was technically still possible, and though that site hadnt felt right to me even before I was told it would make an appendage without any substance, I considered it anyway.

I second-guessed myself constantly. Im asexual (yes, you can be asexual and have a boyfriend), and what that means for me is my penis was just for me. So what was even the point of having a lot of it? Was I greedy? Crazy? Weeks before my procedure, I got a block of clay and sat meditating and molding by feel, letting my body answer. The resulting phallus was the exact size Id been requesting. For days, I lay on the floor on and off in the sunlight coming into my living room, asking my ancestors and transcestors for guidance. Some people might kill for this kind of access and choice. Certainly many, many, many, many people have died in the fight for it. One night, I woke up from a dead sleep, and all I heard was: Take the big dick.

So I did.

And it was perfect. Not in the way Id been trying to be perfect most of my life  catalogue-ready, ideal to everyone else. It may not have looked perfect by the assessment of every San Franciscan in the gray-white city outside my hospital window, and it was clear to me that it was  that I was  distasteful to some of the hospital staff, even though, with the preponderance of phallo surgeons in the Bay Area, they see multiple new penises every single week. One of my surgeons asked me at some point if Id want to follow up later with surgical girth reduction in case this here wondrous member we had conjured from fucking nothing into warm, space-displacing reality wasnt yet the fit that would stop the deafening five-alarm bereavement scream that had ricocheted around my insides incessantly since birth.

But the screaming had stopped. In its absence, I couldnt read or watch TV, which felt overstimulating and loud. I listened, still, to the quiet. Breathing.

For five days, I lay in a hospital bed without moving. No visitors: COVID. Every day, twice a day, someone came and injected anti-coagulating pig-intestine derivatives into my abdomen so I wouldnt die from a blood clot, my belly becoming a graveyard of needle-punched bruises. Three times a day, I ate, increasingly impressed and concerned that none of it was exiting my colon. People intermittently emptied my giant catheter bag. Occasionally, a team came and jostled me onto my side for a bit to prevent bedsores, each time the pain like being stabbed everywhere at once despite the on-demand Dilaudid and consistent Oxy. And once an hour, to ensure the vessels were thriving, a nurse came and put a pencil-size Doppler rod to my penis to check its pulse, and we listened together to my blood coursing through it, an ultrasound-heartbeat swoosh.

It was alive.

Some people want it all

But I dont! Want nothing at allll

I do know the words to this song.

If it aint you, ba-by

If I aint got you, ba-by

After my discharge, which included a grueling car ride wearing mesh hospital underwear packed full of gauze to keep my penis propped as close to perpendicular to my body as possible, I spent the first hour in bed singing top-volume falsetto Alicia Keys to my penis.

So you can imagine my heart-stopping horror when I woke up that very first night to find that my penis  propped and carefully angled so as not to kink or damage the blood vessels that had been relocated through my leg and groin to sustain it  was cold.

I pressed a finger to the skin and let go, watching the color return. Its supposed to happen quickly  but, a brief document from the urologists office said, not too quickly. What was the right speed? I texted the microsurgeons director of transgender services, a nurse named Logan Berrian, but it was 1 a.m. I Googled frantically, though I was already well aware of the dearth of available useful information about phalloplasty. Was the room just cold? How cold was too cold for my penis at this stage in its life? Did I need to go to the emergency room back over the Bay Bridge in San Francisco? Have a surgeon awakened and brought in? My right leg was in a full brace from hip to shin because my blood vessels, unlike most peoples, had turned out to require deep dissection of my rectus femoris muscle to excavate, and moving around was slow, difficult, also scary, often bleeding-causing agony. I pressed a finger to the skin again. And again, watching. Blood was returning. Blood was flowing. I spent the next seven hours watching over it, as if it were a troubled newborn, making sure.

Its okay! Berrian texted me back at 8 a.m. Its only an emergency if its cold and the color is changing to a white/blue/gray/purple.

On discharge day five, I woke up with a six-square-inch pool of blood seeping through three layers of bandages from the donor site (Fine, nothing unusual, came the text back), which during surgery had been covered with thin skin shaved from my other thigh with an instrument like a motorized cheese slicer, then laid over and stitched into the edges around the exposed muscle of the donor hole. On day seven, blood soaked through two additional layers of bandages and another of gauze. (Looks good, the doctor said when I had my friend emergency-drive me back to the city.) Every morning, I got up, after trying to sleep perfectly still on my back with my penis propped and my hips and my legs aching fire, and hobbled with the help of a cane to the toilet, where I used one hand to keep my penis level and the other to reach over to the sink and fill a bowl with warm water, then slowly, gently wash my genitals. Still, my whole lap smelled unrecognizable, not-human seeming, like a cross between hospital air and a livestock barn. (Everyone freaks out about that, a different nurse said over the phone, laughing a little, when I asked if I was okay.) For more than 30 days, my donor thigh oozed fibrinous fluid from wet holes, which became big, open red gashes where the skin graft hadnt taken. (Itll close. Its just like any other wound, said Dr. Andrew Watt, the other microsurgeon, at my fourth weekly post-op appointment  to which Id responded, Is it?) My other leg, the one the graft had been taken from, had dried blood always flaking from the sometimes burning, four-by-seven-inch skinned site trying to regrow itself, and at some point my penis started to separate a bit from my body.

It was a tiny gap, the littlest hole, between the base and my pelvis at the underside where the stitches hadnt closed, small compared with many peoples wound separation, as its called, which happens 90 percent of the time and is self-resolving. But it was so distressing that I mostly just refused to look at or touch it for two weeks, the panic spreading harsh electricity through my whole torso, even worse and for much longer than the time I stood alone in my kitchen, hyperventilating, holding my penis level in one hand and my phone in the other as I Googled, What does gangrene smell like?

The whole process is constant body horror, Berrian said at one point  after hed told me that the penis-tip discoloration I was worried about might just be sloughing tissue thats dying off, which is also fine. And this was a recovery with no complications that required surgery. The overall proportion of phalloplasties that need surgical revision, while lower for some surgeons (including mine), is about one in two. The highest number of corrective follow-up surgeries needed by anyone I know personally is 12.

This is what some people do for their penises. And though phalloplasties that survive a couple of weeks tend to survive, period, through all manner of regular penis life and then some, I was hysterical over the possibility that mine wouldnt. If it died, I felt certain, I would die. I had pushed myself up against the absolute limits of enduring life without it, and I wouldnt go back to before.

I couldnt go back to before.

One day, in that first week out of the hospital, I stood with my leg in a brace and my weight on a cane, thudding the tip of it rhythmically into the floor while listening to upbeat Billie Eilish. It was the closest thing to dancing I could do, but I understood then, for the first time, that what dancing is about is that Our. Bodies. Are. Spec. Tacular.

Another day, I lay on a couch staring into a shaft of sunlight coming through a window, listening to Cant Find My Way Home on repeat, tears quietly streaming. The sensation was foreign so a little bit scary, but I think the feeling I was feeling was what people mean when they say calm.

At other moments, I was so overwhelmed by floods of repressed rage and grief that all I could do was open my mouth and start screaming.

When you release an animal youve been keeping too long in a cage, a therapist of mine used to say, it tends to emerge snarling. It all comes swirling out after surgery, oliver flowers, a caregiver with T4T Caregiving, an all-trans caregiving service, texted after I reached out one night in despair. Barely able to move, I tried breathwork and meditation and a soothing bedtime-story app before, out of desperation, I started making up lyrics to The Sound of Silence (Hello, penis, my new frieeennd), cry-singing out my struggle through an epic that ended up probably 17 verses long. So many of us have had to put up walls of protection to get us to this point, then the intensity of the experience breaks it all down, flowers said. I dont use the words trauma or torture flippantly; I know from both. And you dont escape four decades in a body that feels simultaneously dead and like an eternal wellspring of agony without either. Its just that weve had to hold in so much for so long  and this process frees us from that  but not before feeling it all.

Around day 50, I realized I couldnt remember the last time Id thought about killing myself. The first story I ever wrote  in my head, building chains of memorized sentences, same as I compose to this day  was about committing suicide by walking into the Atlantic Ocean. I hadnt yet started kindergarten.

Able to move around a little better, I washed my bathroom sink. Not the whole bathroom  just the sink. And though I have always run a tight bathroom, I stood back and beamed at it, at myself, as though Id just discovered penicillin. Almost every time I made myself a plate of food, though Id been feeding myself (and sometimes additional adults/husbands) for decades, I said, often out loud, I did that! Everything was a miracle. Everything was different now that I lived this existence Id been violently and thoroughly socialized to believe was an impossibility. At day 60, my open wounds finally, unimaginably, closed.

In the beginning, the nerve connection growing in slowly, I could feel my penis in my hand, as I incessantly had to hold it while limping around my apartment, or against my wrist as I hunched over to rest it there like some kind of penis sommelier, freeing my fingers. But it couldnt feel me.

Im always bashing it into things, I told someone early on. After it was healed enough that I could finally stop propping or holding it, Id walk up to the kitchen sink to do dishes and bash my penis into the cupboard knob. Raising my hands to gesture while I talked, Id drop them back into my lap and punch myself in the dick  which, before long, I definitely felt. For a while, I was most comfortable relatively nonconstricted (I see you, Jon Hamm), and I sent a barrage of texts to a guy I knew with similar endowments asking where he put his, spiraling about how I was never going to fit into any pants or underpants or, ultimately, society. One day, I rounded a tight corner into the tea aisle at the grocery store and, misjudging my proximity to a display table, knocked a wine bottle over with my dick, feeling a hot flush of embarrassment that I didnt know the dimensions of my own body.

One night in the shower, though, my right thigh, finally in one piece but still unfamiliar, caught my attention. I had a (trans) friend who said once that his reaction to seeing thigh phalloplasty scars was Thats a nice penis. But look at your leg. I looked down at it: a raw, raging pink rectangle, scaly from the hole-punching machine theyd fed the skin graft through, flesh made mesh to cover the exposed muscle, and another long line of scar like railroad track angling toward my groin. And it struck me, immediately and only, as another incredibly specific thing I got to love about myself, and I collapsed into the wall, sobbing.

Photo: Dan Winters

Its interesting to see how youre different, a friend of mine said ten months after the surgery, when I went to visit him.

It was possible, of course, that I was going to wake up differentin a bad way. Some of the best men I know dont have penises, and plenty who do are hardly role models. Ive been on the abuse/harassment/condescension/denigration/objectification/crimes end of enough penis-havers to have worried about it, however far back in my consciousness. I had a partner once who terrorized me about his sexual needs, and some time before starting to transition, I spent an afternoon on mushrooms crying against his dick, silently telling it I knew it wasnt its fault. It was probable I was going to wake up more me. And I feared, from my most scared place, that would mean more harmful.

Theres a gentleness, my friend said about me now. It was always there, he added, having known me for many years. It just wasnt  first.

No. It wasnt. But when penis is self, as penis is a gift to self, its a gift, too, to others.

A few months prior, Id sat on the couch with my boyfriend having a contentious and difficult conversation. At any other point in my adulthood, I would have shut down hard with defensiveness. That day, though, even still healing, wounded and broken and terrified that my leg would never really work again, I stayed soft and open and kind.

You, he said, eyes wide, are being so generous.

I was surprised too. As a child growing up in the Midwest in the 1980s, I never could have known, but somehow must have believed, that there was a way a man could, even frightened and unsure, stay grounded in love for himself. No matter how unexpected or unaccepted that self was.

A few years ago, a year after I started transitioning, I sat at a red light in my car, which I was getting ready to sell, and thought suddenly, What kind of a man doesnt have a car? A belief I didnt even know Id absorbed from somewhere (an early episode of The Love Connection, I am almost positive) was floating around my consciousness, wreaking insufficiency. A year after that, I joined a gym, wondering if now that I was teeming with testosterone, I might enjoy gym workouts (answer: no. Every few minutes, the personal trainer I signed up with directed me to do an exercise, and every time, I thought, Why? Why would I do that?). One day, after my trainer had me pick up some dumbbells, I expressed doubts that Id be able to press them. You picked em up, you gotta put em up, he said so automatically that I asked, Is that what masculinity is? (He laughed, surprised, before responding, I guess so!) Allegedly, masculinity isnt the sound of my voice, because though its pitch (130 hertz, whatever that means) is within the normal male range (whatever that means), the overall effect, an actual medical doctor told me once, is female because I talk like such a girl.

Its not a penis that makes someone a man, either. And a vagina does not make a woman. Most people who are having phalloplasty, though, do get their vaginas removed during the procedure. Broadly, I get it: I could not have gotten my boobs cut off fast enough, and I spent weeks before my 2019 hysterectomy up late in bed, hot and sleepless, fantasizing about the moment the medical-waste-disposal team at UC San Francisco would batch-incinerate my uterus, which swirled with dysphoria like nausea from the depths of my soul. But just as you might feel an automatic no if a doctor offered to cut one of your healthy arms off for you, when I thought about cauterizing, excising, and sewing closed my vagina, my whole body cringed: wrong.

Do you have to get rid of your vagina? Id asked the first phalloplasty recipient Id ever met when he came over to my house for macaroni and cheese one night before my first consult. Hed generously offered to share his surgery experience, and Id maybe surprised myself by asking but definitely surprised myself with my response when he said no: I involuntarily fist-pumped.

Using plastic-surgery methods that were developed because so many peoples faces were blown off during the First World War, the first phalloplasty was performed in the 1930s. A couple of decades later, trans-surgery centers started opening at several American universities. But in the 80s, most of the university surgery centers closed or went private, and by 2000, the going rate for a phalloplasty was $80,000, cash only. Those surgeons often held a very rigid view of what our transition should be, says trans elder, activist, and policy consultant Jamison Green; they aimed to make good, regular straights out of us, and it was known in the community that if you werent one, youd better lie about it. They excluded people who had given birth because real men, Green says, wouldnt let themselves have kids. One transmasculine pioneer, Lou Sullivan, wrote long letters to Stanfords clinic for rejecting him because he was gay.

Ive been trying to just live without a penis for a very, very long time, I wrote in a journal after my first consult in early 2020. No ones holding me back but me. But that cliche isnt true, is it? Thats a survival adaptation of the oppressed: to take on responsibility for their own suffering so they dont give up against impossible odds or lash out in ways that further endanger them. The midwestern state I grew up in still explicitly excludes trans health care from state insurance coverage. This year, more than 100 bills in 35 states targeted trans peoples access to civil and medical rights. In 2020, to get phalloplasty covered in the great(est) state of California, which has legally mandated state trans health coverage since just 2013, in addition to the usual bullshit of spending a part-time jobs worth of hours and energy getting and then wrangling insurance and doctors offices and prerequisites, I needed letters from three separate medical professionals, not counting my three world-class surgeons, declaring that I wasnt insane. Currently, there are only about a dozen phalloplasty teams in the whole country  mine started putting their world-class skills to phalloplasty use partly because they could get paid for it by insurance  and up until recently there was still at least one surgeon who wouldnt allow patients to keep their vaginas, not because it was medically impossible but because he didnt think it was right to have both.

The pain is not just that Ive been ignoring myself but that I still am, my journal entry continues. But it isnt true, either, that the attempt to erase my existence originated with me. One day, lying on my couch in quarantine before surgery, I watched a Ben StillerEddie Murphy movie recommended by HBO Max  until the point when, apropos of absolutely nothing, a character makes a joke about a real-life trans guy who, in real life, was brutally raped and shot to death. Shortly after that, Hulu recommended a Keanu ReevesWinona Ryder movie from 2018, in which Reevess character says trans people are deluded untouchables. While I was recovering, I watched a Jennifer Lopez rom-com from the same year, happily zoned out like a normal person until 29 minutes in, when she does a bit where she tells a guy someone is trans(masculine); the joke is that the guy used to have sex with that trans person, and now that he knows he fucked one, he is disgusted.

Months later, this latter scene popped into my head while I was making hummus and made me cry. I get messages like this in some form every day. In a break from working on this story, I turned on a hotel TV, and within minutes Chandler on Friends was saying he finds his transfeminine parent revolting. This is a recurring feature of this show, which I watched all through my teens. Seven months into recovery then, I felt, like all the other times, the knife of it through the center of my chest: You are not welcome here.

As I had with my penis length, I second-guessed my unique surgical goals (Okay but what if I did just let them sew up my vagina?) from the moment I knew they were possible, but the morning I walked into the hospital, I trusted my instincts. If there was anything I had learned in transitioning, it was that what was right for me was rarely what, according to my patriarchal, heterosexist, racist, capitalist acculturation, made sense  which, obviously, could only be to live as a sexually available cute-lady vessel capable of carrying white babies. Its impossible to articulate and maybe even to know exactly why my vagina is integral to my power and my personhood. I cannot wait to be more masculine so I can be more feminine, I used to write in journals as I started transitioning and realized, though I didnt quite understand why, that was what I needed.

An intuitive once told me that in a past life I was a priestess. Whatever it is that made me this, given, finally, the remarkable chance to embody it, which technically has been available since decades before I was born, I stopped withholding myself from myself, even if much of the world is aligned against who that is.

Ive never seen or heard of a book or show character or even another person who is an asexual gay man with a penis and a vagina. But after I got out of the hospital, standing in the bathroom washing my hands, with most of my body, much less my genitalia, well outside the mirrors frame, I looked up and suddenly, for the first time in my life, recognized my own face.

Not everyone does. Sometimes I get misgendered  sometimes even by people who are trying their best. Just last week, someone at the photo shoot for this article misgendered me repeatedly, not noticing at first, then, after Id corrected him, cursing himself, apologizing sincerely. I took a moment outside, letting the loneliness sink in. Only days prior, I had been misgendered and responded, in a hard-dying habit, by blaming myself  if only my voice were deeper; if only I were less femme  instead of the systems that had worked to erase me and people like me for centuries.

This time, I refused to internalize it. There isnt, I breathed deep, anything wrong with me. I got myself ready and walked on set and stood, nearly nude, compassionate and angry and proud. Whatever was happening around me, I was centered, in my body and in the shots I could see on the monitor, beautiful, accurate  perfect. Days before my peniss first birthday, the warmth and weight of it lay against my vulva, each supporting the other, holding me.
General Hospital

Days of Our Lives

The Young and the Restless

The Bold and the Beautiful

This Week in Soaps history...

December 21-25, 2009

This week on the US Daytime Soaps...Aidan was arrested. Aidan claimed that the loss of Greenlee had profoundly changed him and that he wanted Kendall to suffer as deeply as he had.Kat agreed to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for immunity from prosecution.Kendall and Zach were temporarily waylaid on their way home. As Opal had feared, Kendall and Zach wrecked their rental car. Father Clarence appeared at the scene of Kendall and Zach's accident. Father Clarence helped Kendall and Zach realize what was important in their lives. Kendall was overjoyed to be reunited with her sons on Christmas.James vowed to destroy Jesse. Madison warned her father that if he didn't plead guilty then she would reveal all of his dirty secrets.Marissa surprised JR with plane tickets for a trip to Rio de Janeiro in January. JR decided to tell Marissa that his cancer had returned and that he would be undergoing another round of chemotherapy after Christmas.Liza was tempted to use compromising pictures of District Attorney Willis and Judge Martha Sams to further her career. Liza confronted Willis with the pictures. Willis invited Liza to do her worst. Liza decided to destroy the pictures. Liza was stunned when she learned that Willis had been killed in a single-car accident. Liza feared that Willis might have committed suicide. Amanda overheard David making plans to go to Gloucester. Jake recalled that Nurse Gayle had been working in Gloucester. David was astounded when tests confirmed that the treatment for his mystery patient had saved her life. David's mystery patient was Greenlee.Upon communicating with Brad through Henry, Katie told Simon that she wanted a life with Brad, even if Brad were a ghost. A special Saint Nicholas gave Brad the power to say goodbye to Janet, Jack, and Liberty in person. After touching meetings with them, Brad materialized to Katie. The couple spent Christmas Eve with their son, and they summoned the strength to let each other go.Damian set out to make Meg look even crazier by bribing hospital security to erase the camera footage of his last upsetting visit with her. Emily cautioned Paul against getting involved in Meg's case. When Meg's hearing turned into a circus, the hospital ruled to keep her for observation. Paul helped her escape and stowed her in his wine cellar.As Alison tried to make sense of her dreams about Mick, Barbara confronted Mick with her suspicions that he worked for the somehow living James Stenbeck. She was horrified when she saw that Mick bore scars similar to James's. Mick claimed that Barbara had been the love of his first life, and she'd be the love of her second life, as well.Inspired by Bob's words, Casey asked Alison to marry him. Alison ran off to think about it and wound up at the church from her dreams.After an odd exchange with Mick, she agreed to marry Casey. Emma and Lucinda pulled the Snyders together for Christmas. Noah joined them, though he was still uncertain about the direction of his life.Eric and Ridge hatched a scheme to develop a gaudy 80s retro line that they hoped would fail miserably in the marketplace and ire the Spencer Publications' board members. They figured that would prompt Bill to sell the company back to the Forresters. Brooke and Donna promised to support their husbands while deceiving their sister, Katie. Bill and Katie became suspicious of the designs, but Bill decided to keep a close eye on Eric and Ridge and proceed with the designs. Eric and Ridge told Bill that the retro theme was hot in Europe and they wanted to be trendsetters, not followers. Bill told Katie that Eric and Ridge had a reputation to uphold.At Jackie M, the entire team gathered for a Christmas party on Christmas Eve, and Stephanie said that she felt she was right where she belonged with people who appreciated her. Thorne checked on his mother, and realized that she was happy. Sandy shared in the festivities and bonded with her cousin, Whip.Viewers learned that Anna DiMera kidnapped Sydney to keep her safe from Stefano and his criminal activities. Sami, Rafe, and E.J. held a public vigil and television broadcast on Christmas Day to plead for Sydney's safe return.Nicole could not place a familiar voice that she remembered hearing at the time of the kidnapping. E.J. received Anna's anonymous note that she held Sydney captive.Arianna was upset that Brady hired an attorney to represent Nicole, but they later agreed to disagree and put their relationship back on track.Julie tried unsuccessfully to reconcile Bo and Hope for a Christmas miracle.Mia seemed jealous when she spotted Chad and Gabi slow dancing at the school's holiday dance.Maggie asked Nathan to read the Christmas story to the children at the hospital. Nathan and Stephanie kissed, and Melanie accepted Philip's surprise proposal. Kate and Victor were distressed at Philip's Christmas Day announcement of his upcoming marriage to Melanie.Vivian stuck her foot in her mouth when introduced to Chloe.Franco proved to be an intimidating adversary. Jason was shaken when Franco left Josslyn's hat as a warning to Jason. Ronnie tried to caution Jason that Franco intended to make Jason choose between his loved ones. Jason told Sam that he loved her; Sam returned Jason's feelings.Sonny invited Olivia and Dominic to join him for dinner. It was not lost on Olivia that it was their first family dinner.Rebecca decided to move to Paris. On the plane, Rebecca met a man named Aaron who bore an uncanny resemblance to Zander Smith.Nikolas realized that he and Elizabeth were never meant to be. Nikolas was filled with regret for causing chaos to Elizabeth's life.Lisa discovered that Robin was HIV positive. Lisa was upset because Patrick had not told her about Robin's condition. Patrick reminded Lisa that his wife's illness was none of Lisa's business.Mac celebrated Christmas with Alexis and her family.Lucky reached out to Luke. Luke decided to join his children for Christmas. Laura was with her family in spirit.Spinelli and Maxie tried to put Maxie's betrayal with Franco behind them. Mac reminded Spinelli that Christmas was a difficult time for Maxie because it marked the anniversary of Georgie's murder.Carly's efforts to find her Christmas gift led to minor injuries when Carly fell off of the roof of the house.Clint was furious about Nora's betrayal. In his anger, Clint pulled out a shotgun, but he opted to disown Bo rather than shoot him. Nora decided to move to the Palace Hotel with Matthew and Danielle. Clint vowed to make Nora and Bo pay for cuckolding him. Kim offered Clint a shoulder to cry on. Kim was surprised to learn that Clint had ordered a background investigation on her. Nigel and Renee were determined to save Clint from Kim's gold-digging clutches.Stacy paid Mitch a visit. Mitch revealed that he wanted Stacy's child to raise as his own, since Rex and Jessica were beyond his reach. Mitch promised to make certain that Stacy ended up with Rex if she agreed to Mitch's terms. Mitch threatened to kill one of Dorian's girls if Dorian didn't fire Bo.Gigi and Schuyler explored their new relationship.Roxy offered Nick a room to stay in, but Nick wasn't interested. Nick was determined to break up Kyle and Oliver.Greg invited Rachel to his mother's house for Christmas. Rachel declined because she had to look for a new place to live. Greg asked Rachel to move in with him.Elijah decided to remain in Llanview until Tea and Danielle were reunited. Matthew was able to stand on his own for the first time since the car accident. Danielle encouraged Matthew to take his first step. Destiny was thrilled to see Matthew out of his wheelchair. Todd was furious when Tea told him that Danielle had her own room at the Palace Hotel. Tea suggested that Danielle needed space, in order to deal with Ross's death. Todd reluctantly agreed to follow Tea's advice. Todd invited Tea to spend Christmas with him.Paul and Nina were successful in their pursuit to find information on Katherine's biological daughter. Jill revealed to Katherine that Paul and Nina had found Katherine's daughter.Billy showed up drunk on Christmas and announced to his family that Mac was pregnant.Lily and Cane told Neil that he was going to be a grandfather. Lily felt ill and asked Cane to take her to the hospital.Nick admitted to Phyllis that he did not want Sharon to get over him, so Phyllis slapped him.Adam spontaneously proposed to Sharon. Initially, Sharon refused the proposal, but she eventually accepted.Amber desperately wanted to find Deacon's son, Little D.Eden's suspicions of Daisy were confirmed when she witnessed Daisy and Ryder embrace.Gloria and Jeffrey made a lot of money in the stock market and flaunted their wealth to Genoa City.Emily told Jack that she loved him. Patty secretly obsessed over Jack in the mental hospital.Traci returned to Genoa City to spend Christmas with her family and friends.And Passions from December 20-24, 2004Beth was able to retrieve the one word she desired from Alistair: "mother." She attempted to discover whether "Mrs. Wheeler" was in fact Katherine Crane.Sheridan noticed a great similarity between Marty and herself. A surprise bridal shower for Sheridan went horribly wrong when many of the attendees couldn't put aside their differences.Valerie warned a skeptical Chad that his half-brother was trying to outmaneuver him at Crane Industries. Chad became increasingly suspicious of Fox's motives when he tried to steal a high-profile case from under him.Rebecca evicted Theresa and Pilar from the Crane mansion, and Gwen prevented Little Ethan from seeing his mother.The divorce of Eve and TC was finalized. Julian took Eve on a vacation away from her worries, to luxurious Rodeo Drive. In the spirit of the holidays, Julian also had Luis reinstated on the force with a promotion and returned the Lopez-Fitzgerald family home to Pilar.Crazed Norma was on the loose with only one nightmarish goal -- to kill Tabitha! Source 3 and
I feel like I read somewhere that he was a NASA Engineer.

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Same, feels like it was mentioned in a documentary about the original exorcism.

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I really, unexpectedly, enjoyed the book.

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same tbh. more than the movie

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Me too! But i never finished it, i wonder why...



I liked how atmospheric it was describing 1970s Washington DC. I liked all the details related to the time period ("hostess dress,") and the lifestyle of the famous actress. I liked its discussion of Catholicism from a point of view of such a likable character (i read "priestdaddy" just before, so it was a nice juxtaposition in my head)



I was surprised that in spite of being written by a man (who is not, like, a super good writer), the main character (the mom) felt pretty real.

And even though the possessed child was doing some sexual stuff, it never came off as gratuitous, only adding to how truly disturbing and scary the situation must have been for the mom.



But at the same time I remember thinking  the writer got a chance to heavily edit/rewrite the book after the film came out, and still this is the best he could do?...



I should pick it up again, though...



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the movie scarred me because my dad let me watch it when i was far too young, so i'm terrified to read the book.

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They just swapped two letters and called it a day huh

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ikr



but hey, it worked



Edited at 2021-12-20 08:58 pm (UTC)

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I'd be worried people would discover my identity too if that was the effort put into disguising it.

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ptter_lver456



No one will ever know.

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Roonil Wazlib was more creative.

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I have no idea how the Father knew to come but he got Ron to heaven. Rons in heaven and hes with God now, she told the New York Post.



Hopefully having a few words over his friggin laziness. You just sit there God, while Im being possessed and spitting out pea soup 

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A NASA engineer? Damn, I wonder what I could do if my demons were exorcized.

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Same 

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Right?! I'm proud of him for having such a high-level career despite his stressors, but I'm sorry he suffered so much

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Seriously. I'd probably already have a few Nobel Prizes in my pocket.

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He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry, she added



This makes me sad. :(

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I love the genre so much, but The Exorcist + Texas Chain Saw Massacre + The Thing are my top 3 horror movies oat.

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I wish I liked the Exorcist. I just think its dull and not scary, but I can see why it wouldve been a huge deal when it came out.

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the exorcist terrified me when i was younger, i think i was just at that age. i saw the long version with those quick subliminal cuts of the demon's face lmao i fucking haaaaated it



if i watched it as an adult i prob would of found it boring/funny

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carpenter's the thing, right? either way... taste!!

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Yep 

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre >>>>>>

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29-year-old "companion"



sus

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"One if his companions"



Very sus





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lol same

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A 29-year-old "companion" who ran to the press right after he died.

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I thought the same thing but then I clicked through to another article and it said he was his 29 year companion. As in with him for 29 years.

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But it also says. One of his companions, A 29 year old woman.

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A bit rude identifying him after he died considering he didn't want anyone knowing when he was alive.



Glad that he was able to go on and have a successful career but sorry that the film caused all that stress for him.

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Its crazy how respect the dead only works to hide their wrongdoings

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It ties into the "don't speak ill of the dead" thing. I read it's because they can't defend themselves against what someone is saying.

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Idk why my first thought was he didnt want it to be out when he was alive, but okay with his death. Maybe he told the person/people to let the word out after he passed

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I want to know more about the possession details (I read the source already). I'm a big fan of possession movies but I don't believe in possession, so I want to know what was actually happening with him. A lot of "possessions" are really mental illness, but things moving on their own and such aren't possible so I want to know if it was faked or what.

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Arent a lot of the details usually completely made up or exaggerated?



Exorcisms in the US were on the rise, yet no evidence of these alleged possessions.

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Very likely. I just wish there was confirmation bc in the source, all the details are reported as fact.

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If you're interested, this is the book that supposedly tells his story: Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism by Thomas B. Allen

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yeah or like that girl that spoke different languages fluently? she was mentally ill, but is it actually proven that your brain could unlock like that and just speak different languages even if you haven't been exposed to them? i'm inclined to believe maybe she said like a couple of words and they exaggerated it

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This article (which i have not read) was linked in the NY Post article. It seems like it does deeper into the case. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-roland-doe-the-boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist/

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It's gross that there are people that still believe in demonic possession, it harms people who are most likely ill.



The story this man went through sounds like abuse so I really hope a lot of it was made up.

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Yeah  my favorite exorcism film is The Exorcism of Emily Rose because it actually touches upon the religion vs. science debate  she was obviously going through something medical but her familys belief in religion sort of prohibits her from being treated for medical conditions that could be causing her symptoms. If I recall correctly cause I havent seen it in many years so my memory may be fuzzy.

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I think Emily in the movie made the decision to go the religious help route.

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ya but the movie was ruined by saying yeah she actually was possessed and was like a jesus figure or something lol

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I still gotta finish the book that tells his story. Used to read it on the bus omw to work but then I changed jobs and forgot abt it lol

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I was surprised he worked at Goddard, bc I'm not sure I'd come back to the area, and when I looked him up, apparently people figured his identity out years ago? I'd leave every halloween, too.

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The Boy Who Lived?

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ONTD Original: Final Girls

Kevin Williamson said, "I was happy to hear that because I always saw it as sort of the Janet Leigh [from Psycho] opening. You wanted the biggest star to be in the first moment of the





"It was a hard search, because you had to have an actress who was vulnerable as well as being very strong and that was a tough dichotomy to find in an actress," says Casting Director Lisa Beach.



"A lot of agents didn't want to put their actresses in, quote, that kind of movie. So we looked at a lot of new, fresh faces, and we came in contact with Neve. She's soulful; there's a lot going on below the surface," recalls Producer Cathy Konrad.



Neve Campbell decided to audition for Sidney while she was on hiatus after her third season of Party of Five. "I had actually done The Craft the year before," Neve recalls. "I wasn't necessarily sure whether I wanted to do another scary-type of movie. I wasn't very certain about the choice, but I really wanted to work for Wes."



I did two auditions and then I did a screen test, Neve recalls. It was down to two people. I always have a hard time just being cast in something without auditioning, only because I love the concept of auditioning  of going in and having the challenge of being able to impress and win the role.











"By the time we got to the screen test process, we all wanted Neve. So I remember we front-loaded the reel. We put her first so that everyone had to top her. No one did. She was Sidney. It was so obvious," says Kevin Williamson.



"We had great choices, it just really came down to the subtle nuances of who really was Sidney Prescott," says Lisa Beach.



"I liked the fact that my character goes from being somewhat of a victim in the beginning of the film, to becoming much stronger and empowered by the end of the film," Neve Campbell says.





In the film's audio commentary, Craven says while editing he noticed how Campbell had a habit of touching her hair or her face, he mentioned this to Campbell who replied, "oh my god, now I'm going to be self-conscious for the rest of my life." This could be a result of Campbell's own anxiety as an actress, but it translated as Prescott's own discomfort.



"Neve Campbell just embodied the innocence, the freshness - she was just perfect," says Lisa Beach.



During the making of the film, Campbell felt uncomfortable about a certain line which joked about Tori Spelling. At the time, Spelling was known for the Lifetime movies she played in.

movie. Thats why the scene is so long because I wanted to keep Casey Becker alive just long enough where you think shes the lead of the movie and that shes going to survive this moment. It ended up just working out beautifully that Drew liked that part and then we could cast whoever we wanted for Sidney.""It was a hard search, because you had to have an actress who was vulnerable as well as being very strong and that was a tough dichotomy to find in an actress," says Casting Director Lisa Beach."A lot of agents didn't want to put their actresses in, quote, that kind of movie. So we looked at a lot of new, fresh faces, and we came in contact with Neve. She's soulful; there's a lot going on below the surface," recalls Producer Cathy Konrad.Neve Campbell decided to audition for Sidney while she was on hiatus after her third season of. "I had actually done The Craft the year before," Neve recalls. "I wasn't necessarily sure whether I wanted to do another scary-type of movie. I wasn't very certain about the choice, but I really wanted to work for Wes."I did two auditions and then I did a screen test, Neve recalls. It was down to two people. I always have a hard time just being cast in something without auditioning, only because I love the concept of auditioning  of going in and having the challenge of being able to impress and win the role."By the time we got to the screen test process, we all wanted Neve. So I remember we front-loaded the reel. We put her first so that everyone had to top her. No one did. She was Sidney. It was so obvious," says Kevin Williamson."We had great choices, it just really came down to the subtle nuances of who really was Sidney Prescott," says Lisa Beach."I liked the fact that my character goes from being somewhat of a victim in the beginning of the film, to becoming much stronger and empowered by the end of the film," Neve Campbell says.In the film's audio commentary, Craven says while editing he noticed how Campbell had a habit of touching her hair or her face, he mentioned this to Campbell who replied, "oh my god, now I'm going to be self-conscious for the rest of my life." This could be a result of Campbell's own anxiety as an actress, but it translated as Prescott's own discomfort."Neve Campbell just embodied the innocence, the freshness - she was just perfect," says Lisa Beach.During the making of the film, Campbell felt uncomfortable about a certain line which joked about Tori Spelling. At the time, Spelling was known for the Lifetime movies she played in.



"I begged Wes to change the line," Campbell says. Craven had Sidney do the lines using several names, including Babe, the pig, "to show the studio we're shooting the script," Campbell says. The original line stayed intact.



"I auditioned for Neve's part, so I knew it was in there," Spelling says. "The only thing that bothered me was when I was in the theater and I heard people laugh at the line."



Campbell felt so bad that she wrote Spelling a letter, but had ran into her at another audition before she could send it. "I said that I felt really bad about it and that she really didn't deserve the kind of treatment she got from the press. It was hard, because we'd been acquaintances before the film and she's always been a sweetheart to me. But she was great when I apologized. She was like, "No, it's OK. It's just the business."



"Wes Craven had heard I had a sense of humor about it. So for Scream 2, in which they actually are making a movie about Neve Campbell's character's life, he asked me to do a cameo playing myself, playing her. Finally-a chance to be in on the joke. I loved it," Spelling says in her memoir Stori Telling.





"I remember being in a dressing room being made up for the screen test," Neve Campbell says. "I could hear the other actress who was up for the role in the room next to me. It felt so surreal to know that she would be feeling the same way I felt and that only one of us would get the role." According to producer Marianne Maddalena, actresses Alicia Witt and the late Brittany Murphy auditioned and had screen tests for the role."I remember being in a dressing room being made up for the screen test," Neve Campbell says. "I could hear the other actress who was up for the role in the room next to me. It felt so surreal to know that she would be feeling the same way I felt and that only one of us would get the role."



Much like Ringwald, Witt and Murphy would also be able to substitute the loss of their role as Final Girl Sidney in other films. Alicia Witt would go on to portray Natalie in



Other actresses in the running were AJ Langer, Vinessa Shaw and Melissa Joan Hart.



In the course of 25 years there have been 3 sequels, and Neve Campbell went on to portray Sidney Prescott in every one of them. Campbell will again reprise the role in 2022's Scream, opening on January 14th. Much like Ringwald, Witt and Murphy would also be able to substitute the loss of their role as Final Girl Sidney in other films. Alicia Witt would go on to portray Natalie in Urban Legend , a Scream-like take on Urban Legends. Brittany Murphy would portray Jody in Cherry Falls , a slasher using virginity as a plot.Other actresses in the running were AJ Langer, Vinessa Shaw and Melissa Joan Hart.In the course of 25 years there have been 3 sequels, and Neve Campbell went on to portray Sidney Prescott in every one of them. Campbell will again reprise the role in 2022's, opening on January 14th.











Non-spoilery teaser for Scream (2022) #Scream #ScreamMovie pic.twitter.com/P9c69XB8HU   (@GuadaL00py) October 12, 2021









In the course of 25 years there have been 3 sequels, and Neve Campbell went on to portray Sidney Prescott in every one of them. Campbell will again reprise the role in 2022's Scream, opening on January 14th. In the course of 25 years there have been 3 sequels, and Neve Campbell went on to portray Sidney Prescott in every one of them. Campbell will again reprise the role in 2022's Scream, opening on January 14th.

In this second installment of an, we will take a look at how Neve Campbell landed the iconic role as well as the other actresses who were in the running. After selling his screenplay for a project called, screenwriter Kevin Williamson discovered a new plan for a film after the Tingle project never came to fruition. After watching a special on the Gainesville Ripper while housesitting, Williamson came up with the idea for(Formerly known as,). Williamson introduced audiences with a fresh take on Final Girl in, which satirized previous slasher films and their tropes."I wanted to present the tropes but I also wanted to turn them on their heads a bit," says Williamson. "[but] I did want to follow the conventions of a horror film and I wanted a Final Girl."Sidney Prescott is a vulnerable, nervous girl at 17 years old. Only a year before, her mother was sexually assaulted and murdered by an unknown assailant. Prescott was the star witness, but ultimately falsely identified the killer. It's presumed that during the trial, Prescott learned of her mother's salacious secrets. This would haunt her for a majority of her young life.Over the course of the film, Sidney develops the ability to fight back against her attackers. By the end of the film, the killers realize they miscalculated Sidney's vulnerability. Because of this, Sidney comes out as the heroine of the film."The biggest mistake you can make is underestimating kids, Williamson says. I try to write smart, sophisticated characters.While writing the initial screenplay for, Williamson had a Molly Ringwald-type in mind for Sidney. This derives from a childhoodfriend whom he said resembled Ringwald. This same friend was with him the night he watched John Carpenter'sduring its initial release. Long before Barrymore's initial casting, it's rumored that Williamson actually offered the role of Sidney to Ringwald, but she turned it down citing she didn't want to play a teenager at the age of 27 (Neve Campbell was 23 when she played the role). Ringwald would later go on to have a cameo in Williamson's(changed to). Funny enough, Ringwald would also star in Cut , a post-Australian slasher that satirized other slasher films."I was sort of producing [] silently. That's basically trying to get the project off-the-ground without a credit, which was fine. I just really believed in the project," Drew Barrymore tells her audience during her talk show. She continues, "I thought the writing was something that felt very different. I feel like the horror genre is very cyclical and it had been ten years since, which is actually why we decided to go to Wes Craven. And before that it was John Carpenter's. I just thought that every decade somebody really knocks it out of the park in this genre and I was convinced that this script was that. So, I was really passionate about it."Initially Barrymore was signed on to portray the inviolable Sidney Prescott, which is one of the reasons why Craven first signed onto the project - he had previously passed. To Craven's surprise, Barrymore had a different idea."One night I was in my apartment in New York and I just had this weird revelation," Barrymore says, "I called the other filmmakers and asked, 'is there any chance that you would let me play the girl [Casey Becker] who gets killed in the beginning?' What if I die, and then it'll be like all bets are off and anybody can get killed in this movie. We could take away that sort-of cliche safety net of the girl always gets away."Barrymore's decision momentarily caused Craven to rethink his role as director, but ultimately he understood the reasoning behind it.
Cybersecurity risks to critical infrastructure came to the forefront this year when hackers took over the Colonial Pipeline.

A few years ago, researchers proved that wind turbines could be hacked and manipulated. Solar farms can also be taken hostage by hackers: one Dutch scientist found a way to hack the inverters of solar installations. With more wind parks and solar farms getting built amid the energy transition, these are turning into critical infrastructure that needs to be defended. But can it?

For starters, it needs noting that the cybersecurity management of wind and solar installations is a pretty complex task. Benny Czarny, founder and CEO of OPSWAT, a cybersecurity company with a special focus on critical infrastructure, explains that wind and solar installations are run by industrial control systems and operational technology which are isolated from IT domains via air-gapped networks. In theory, he says, this is supposed to make the infrastructure more secure. In practice, it adds a layer of complexity to the management of the infrastructure and this, in turn, makes it more vulnerable to attacks..

Cyber risks to renewable energy assets are extremely acute, Fieldsfisher partner and cybersecurity specialist James Walsh told Oilprice. Many of these generation facilities will be directly connected to a regional or national grid and most now rely on smart systems, allowing their owners and operators to manage them digitally  all of which creates cyber risk interfaces.

The cybersecurity risk to critical energy infrastructure came to the fore earlier this year when hackers took over the Colonial Pipeline and forced it shut down, causing fuel shortages along the East Coast. This certainly drew attention to the protection of energy systems but not enough.

Wind and solar have historically accounted for a small portion of U.S. power generation capacity, so they have not been placed in the same priority for protection as conventional power plants, says David White, founder and president of Axio, a cyber risk management software development firm. Yet there are now states that generate almost a third of their power from renewable installations, he adds, so the time to act on better protecting them has come.

Somewhat unfortunately, part of the reason for the increased cyber vulnerability of wind and solar installations is good intentions. As the CTO of Awen Collective, Jules Farrow, explains, connectivity is not always a good thing.

The efforts to gather and analyse operational data to improve the efficiency and resilience of OT systems is a worthy cause, but one which often results in undermining the only protection traditional OT [operational technology] systems had - a lack of connectivity to other systems and networks, he told Oilprice.

Awareness of the problem is the beginning of this protection. Then comes the security of devices used in proximity to critical infrastructure systems and continual risk assessment in order to be able to detect vulnerabilities early on.

The greater connectivity associated with renewable energy assets, versus oil and gas, which are disconnected energy commodities, increases system risks and could potentially pose threats to entire grid networks, says Fieldfishers Walsh.

Possible specific measures include adequate access controls, strong segmentation from the business network and the internet, strong protection of any third-party connectivity (like some modern fossil-fuel generation, many of these assets have persistent connectivity to third parties for control and monitoring), and monitoring, according to Axios White.

Training a companys employees to protect themselves against cyberattacks is also crucial in the risk mitigation of energy systems, according to Keatron Evans, principal security researcher at Infosec Institute. Yet risk mitigation is not always possible and companies need to focus on post-attack recovery, too.

Phil Bezanson, energy and cybersecurity expert and partner at law firm Bracewell, agrees. According to him, minimum standards in cybersecurity management should include comprehensive data mapping, updating software security patches, training employees about user-error contribution to cyber incidents, and having a tested incident response plan.

The thing to remember is that as wind and solar installations become more complex and more advanced, so do the techniques hackers use to infiltrate any system. This means that operators of wind and solar systemsas of any other critical energy infrastructureneed to advance their management practices as well.

Newer wind and solar operations must be designed and built with cybersecurity in mind, says Matt Donahue, compliance and risk analyst at Sentient Digital. Updating and reinforcing security measures on older systems should be made a priority, since these will be most vulnerable to attack. This includes not only updating their systems, but the physical security of the grids and retraining of personnel.

All cybersecurity experts agree on the need to focus on connectivity. Per Axios White, Owners and operators of wind and solar farms need to understand the cyber risk exposure of those assets and implement appropriate measures to respond to those risks. In particular, we should take measures to protect any persistent connectivity to third parties to minimize the systemic exposures that could arise from the compromise of one of those third parties.

The threat of cyberattacks is increasing and will continue to increase in the future. At the same time, wind and solar generation capacity will also increase. We are at constant risk of a significant cyber attack on the U.S. energy sector, says Lisa Sotto, head of global privacy and cybersecurity practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth.

The thing to keep in mind is that no energy system is immune to cyberattacksin fact, energy systems being critical infrastructure are a magnet for hackersand prepare accordingly before it is too late.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Other robotic mechanisms have been used across the oil and gas industry for years, including robotic dogs that support the monitoring of oil platforms, as well as onshore drones that check for pipeline leaks.

After years in the making, a new fully automated drilling rig recently made its debut in Permian Basin. While this has long been a pipedream, restrictions faced by many oil and gas companies during the pandemic forced several to stop operations and call rig workers home. This spurred a plethora of tech companies to establish partnerships with oil giants to help automate systems and digitalize operations so that projects could run with or without human workers, through innovations like robot rigs.

In October, Houston company Nabors Industries achieved drilling to a depth of almost 20,000 feet with its automated rig, with no help from a crew on the floor to run operations manually. The company is expected two dig three wells in the area as part of its test phase. The Nabors Pace-R801 is the worlds first fully automated land rig, taking five years of engineering to achieve. It supports ExxonMobil operations in the region, providing unmanned vessels to drill wells that would previously have required whole teams on board.

The rig uses digital technologies and Canrig robotics to man the platform, providing vital components such as a robotic arm that runs the drill. The company also says that its SmartDRILL and SmartSLIDE automation software helps to reduce drilling times by up to four days, thereby reducing carbon emissions in projects.

Travis Purvis, Senior Vice President of global drilling for Nabors, stated This is the direction that the industry is heading and should head, Further, This robotic technology really is game-changing. Over the next five to 10 years, its going to be really exciting to see the innovation that happens around that. The transition to human-free rigs emerged last year in the ghost rig concept when systems were run remotely by rig workers that were prohibited from physically accessing the platforms during Covid. Although discussions around automated rigs have been going on for years. Norways Equinor switched to a ghost rig approach in 2020, with crews operating the platform remotely, followed shortly after by BP and other oil majors.

Related: The Worlds Top Automakers Are Doubling Down On Electric Vehicles Other robotic mechanisms have been used across the oil and gas industry for years, including robotic dogs that support the monitoring of oil platforms, as well as onshore drones that check for pipeline leaks.

However, this latest innovation worries workers in the oil and gas industry that were already hit hard during the pandemic. Around 400,000 jobs were cut from the sector during Covid, half of which were in the U.S. The main worry for oil and gas workers at present is the impending transition away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives. But the digitalization of systems and the addition of robotics could spell earlier job losses than previously anticipated.

Yet, others praise the innovation, noting that oil rigs are traditionally extremely dangerous places for workers to operate, no matter the level of safety standards implemented. Accidents take place regularly due to the complex nature of the work, digging holes deep into the earths surface to extract crude. This could be an important move towards improving the social aspect of ESG, as Big Oil faces increasing pressure to better operations. Although, a reduction in drilling time also spells a decrease in the emissions being released, which will also support the environmental part.

Many highlight the long history of oil rig disasters such as the Piper Alpha pipeline ruptures, which caused the rig to set alight at the cost of 167 human lives. Just this year, we saw a fire outbreak at a Mexican oil rig cause the death of five workers. And while the world focuses on putting an end to oil extraction for environmental reasons, it is important to note the social implications, as oil operations are set to continue so long as the availability of renewable alternatives is limited.

Related: Tight U.S. Oil Inventories Prop Up Oil Prices

Jason Gahr, ExxonMobil operations manager on the project explained, ExxonMobils collaboration with Nabors in deploying this automated rig in Midland demonstrates the ability to optimize drilling using the combined power of robotics, automation, computing, and data. In addition, This is a great example of enhancing the safety, efficiency, and environmental performance of our operations through innovative technologies.

And Nabors is insistent that automation doesnt necessarily mean job losses, as workers will be kept on to supervise operations and carry out essential tasks. It will simply prevent workers from having to be present in the most dangerous red zone of the rig. However, as the new technology is adopted by other firms around the globe, we will see what it means in practice for oil workers, many of whom are still working remotely due to new restrictions.

The innovation of robot rigs is clearly ground-breaking, taking years of careful planning, investment, and engineering. However, only time will tell what this means for the oil industry and its workers, as digitalization and the automation of operations picks up pace across the board.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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Crude oil prices took a dive on Monday morning with WTI crashing 6% on the day as fresh Omicron fears spooked the market.

At 11:32 a.m. EDT, WTI crude was trading at $66.44, down $4.42 (-6.24%) on the day, with Brent crude trading at $69.69, down $3.83 (5.21%) per barrel as traders fear the demand destruction that could result from fresh lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The United Kingdom said it would not rule out coronavirus restrictions before Christmas after the government previously recommended working from home if possible. Boris Johnson and his cabinet are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss these tougher measures.

While the U.S. is unlikely to institute new lockdowns, New York City is considering nixing its New Years party in Times Square. Omicron, already present in 89 separate countries, is prompting other countries to employ further restrictions. The Netherlands implemented new strict lockdowns on Sunday, with bars, restaurants, and nonessential shops ordered shut until mid-January. And only four guests will be allowed per household over the holidays. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the strict measures unavoidable.

Germany will ban travelers from the U.K. starting on Monday, and Ireland has instituted an 8 p.m. curfew for bars, restaurants, and live events.

These lockdowns are spooking the crude oil markets, which was banking on oil demand perking up in the first half of next year. The IEA, however, said last week that while the surge in Covid cases was set to temporarily slow the recovery in global oil demand, the impact of the Omicron variant would likely be more muted than previous waves and wouldnt upend the current demand recovery.

The market, however, isnt buying those reassurancesat least not today.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Novavax President and CEO Stanley C. Erck said the company would deliver the first protein-based vaccine to the EU during a critical time when we believe having choice among vaccines will lead to increased immunization.

Last summer, Novavax reported that a study of 30,000 people in the U.S. and Mexico found the vaccine was safe and 90% effective against symptomatic infection from earlier variants, similar to findings from a trial of 15,000 people in Britain. A follow-up study found a booster dose six months after the last shot could rev up virus-fighting antibodies enough to tackle the extra-contagious delta variant, which at the time was the biggest threat.

The Novavax vaccine was long anticipated to help increase global vaccine supplies, as the shots require only refrigerated storage. But Novavax was delayed for months because of problems lining up large-scale manufacturing.

In a statement, Novavax said the Serum Institute of India manufacturer will supply the initial doses for the EU and later doses will come from other manufacturing sites in its global supply chain.
BOSTON (AP)  One of five Russian nationals who authorities allege made tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits by trading shares of companies using information stolen during hacks of U.S. computer networks has been extradited to the U.S. to answer to the charges, federal prosecutors in Boston announced Monday.

Vladislav Klyushin, 41, whose last name is sometimes spelled Kliushin, was arrested in Sion, Switzerland, on March 21 and was extradited to the U.S. on Dec. 18, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell said.

In simple terms, they hacked into U.S. networks, stole inside information, and cheated honest investors out of millions of dollars, Mendell said at a news conference.

No defense attorney was listed for Klyushin in online court records.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed parallel fraud charges against the defendants Monday, they made a total of $82 million through the scheme from 2018 through 2020.

The other four suspects remain at large, U.S. authorities said.
A series of underage drinking compliance checks resulted in 28 businesses being cited on suspicion of selling alcohol to minors. Seven of those businesses are ones that officials describe as repeat offenders.

Compliance checks at 176 businesses were conducted Friday and Saturday. Project Extra Mile helped pay for and coordinate the effort, said executive director Chris Wagner.

The percentage of businesses cited nearly doubled from the last checks in August and was the highest failure rate since 2015.

Officers from police departments in Bellevue, Omaha and Papillion as well as the Douglas County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol conducted the checks. Nineteen minors, with an average age of 18, participated in the enforcement effort.

Of the 28 noncompliant businesses, 57% didnt ask for identification.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP)  Authorities said Sunday that the bodies of seven people were discovered inside a twin home in a northwestern Minnesota city but did not say how they died.

Police said the victims included four adults and three children. They were found just before 8 p.m. Saturday by family members conducting a welfare check at the home in Moorhead. Those family members called police.

There were no signs of violence or forced entry into the residence, police said. Authorities are not actively seeking any suspects.

This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays, Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson wrote in a statement sent to the Star Tribune. My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend. Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time.

The bodies were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul, where autopsies will be conducted.

Neighbors said the children were last seen Friday, KFGO radio reported. The Moorhead Area School District has been provided information about the victims to help prepare for student assistance, police said.
Other provisions would limit prescription drug price increases, create hearing benefits for Medicare recipients and bolster aid for the elderly, housing and job training. Nearly all of it would be paid for with higher taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.

Omicron may sideline two leading drugs against COVID-19

WASHINGTON (AP)  As strained U.S. hospitals brace for a new surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the fast-spreading omicron variant, doctors are warning of yet another challenge: the two standard drugs theyve used to fight infections are unlikely to work against the new strain.

For more than a year antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly have been the go-to treatments for early COVID-19, thanks to their ability to head off severe disease and keep patients out of the hospital.

But both drugmakers recently warned that laboratory testing suggests their therapies will be much less potent against omicron, which contains dozens of mutations that make it harder for antibodies to attack the virus. And while the companies say they can quickly develop new omicron-targeting antibodies, those arent expected to launch for at least several months.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greece says it will renew a request for European Union funds in 2022 to extend a border wall along its frontier with Turkey and promised to expand a powerful surveillance network aimed at stopping migrants entering the country illegally.

A public order minister, Takis Theodorikakos, told a parliamentary committee that Greece expects some countries bordering the EU to continue to exploit migration to exert political pressure on member states, citing the recent crisis in Belarus on its border with Poland and other EU members.

We have every reason to expect that these kinds of threats will continue, he said during the parliamentary briefing held Friday and made public Monday.

Greeces center-right government has toughened the countrys migration policy and recently completed a 26-kilometer (16-mile) extension of a steel border wall to make the barrier span 38 kilometers (24 miles).

We believe the security on our own borders is linked to the security of the EU, Theodorikakos said, adding that border walls and fences are normally funded by national governments.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Poland and Lithuania joined Ukraine on Monday to call for stronger Western sanctions against Moscow amid a Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border that has fueled fears of an invasion.

U.S. intelligence officials say Russia has amassed 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and is preparing for a possible invasion early next year. Moscow has denied an intention to attack, but demanded that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliances military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Huta in western Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains in a show of support in the face of a Russian troop buildup.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the three leaders called upon the international community to step up sanctions on the Russian Federation over its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again urged the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories.
Cases are surging in parts of the U.S., particularly the Northeast and Midwest, though its not always clear which variant is driving the upswing.

In New York City, where the mayor has said the new variant is already in full force, a spike is scuttling Broadway shows and spurring long lines at testing centers, but so far new hospitalizations and deaths are averaging well below their spring 2020 peak.

After reprieve, NYC is rattled by a stunning virus spike NEW YORK (AP)  Just a couple of weeks ago, New York City seemed like a relative bright spot in the U.S. coronavirus struggle. Now it's a hot spot, confronting a dizzying spike in cases, scramble for testing, quandary over a major event and exhausting sense of deja vu.

The city is also weighing what to do with its famous New Year's Eve bash in Times Square. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said a decision will be made this week about whether the event will come back full strength  with attendees providing proof of vaccination  as he promised in November. Last years bash was limited to small groups of essential workers.

Much about the omicron coronavirus variant remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection but even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.
The record-busting $768.2 billion defense authorization bill that cleared Congress last week contains a little sugar for Nebraska, courtesy of the states congressional delegation.

The bill, which passed the Senate 88-11, includes a 2.7% pay increase for military personnel while making landmark changes to the way the military handles sexual assaults, keeping women out of the draft and laying the groundwork for a new war on terror memorial on the National Mall.

The bill passed the House 363-70 in September and is now awaiting President Joe Bidens signature.

Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Don Bacon, who serve on the Armed Services Committees in their respective houses, claimed credit for steering some of that money to benefit military personnel and commands in Nebraska.

The (bill) includes critical provisions to support a pay raise for our troops, bolster Nebraska military assets and modernize our nuclear deterrent, Fischer said in a statement. The legislation reflects broad agreement that the country must be prepared to address the many growing national security challenges we face.
NORMAL  Rivian Automotive on Monday said the company made the first deliveries of its all-electric R1S sport-utility vehicle from the Normal factory to Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough and CEO R.J. Scaringe.

"Were working towards ramping production over the next few months on our way to full volume production. Thanks to our team for all the hard work to make it happen!" the company said on social media.

The California-based EV maker launched the R1T pickup truck in September and has delivered 11 of those vehicles, according to a quarterly filing made last week. A total of 71,000 trucks are ordered, the filing said.

Rivian reported it lost $2.23 billion for the first nine months of the year as production started on the truck.

An electric delivery vehicle line is also being developed.

The company last week also announced plans to build a factory in Georgia. Production at the new plant is projected to start in 2024, with capacity of 400,000 vehicles per year.

Additional expansions are planned at the plant in west Normal as well, the filing said.

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A Cook County judge on Monday authorized the release of a report exploring the way Cook County prosecutors and Chicago police handled the Jussie Smollett matter.

The need for disclosure, I think it can safely be said, is greater than the need for continued secrecy at this time, Judge Michael Toomin said.

The full report should be available later Monday, after Toomin signs the order formally releasing the document.

The move came after the special prosecutor who handled the actors recently completed trial, Dan Webb, sought to release the document to the public not long after a jury found Smollett guilty earlier this month.

Toomin has already twice denied Webb permission to release the full details of his investigation since the report contains information gathered as part of grand jury proceedings, which by law are kept secret. Not even Smolletts attorneys were allowed to see the complete report.

But now that Smollett has been convicted of falsely reporting to police that he was the victim of a hate crime attack, Webb tried again, arguing that Toomin appointed a special prosecutor in part to restore public confidence in the court system after Cook County prosecutors handling of the matter.

The trial of Mr. Smollett being complete, it is now appropriate for the seal on the OSPs Summary Report to be lifted and for it to be publicly available, Webb wrote in a motion filed Wednesday.

But Smollett has not yet been sentenced, and his attorneys have promised to appeal, meaning the case could be tied up in courts for years to come.

And when Toomin ruled last year that the report should be kept under wraps, he said nothing about doing so to protect Smolletts trial rights. Instead, he said, much of the information in the report was already available publicly through other sources, and so there was no need to disturb the confidentiality of the grand jury process.

Smolletts initial charges were dropped at an unannounced hearing in March 2019, not long after the actors indictment, and in the days afterward prosecutors gave contradictory answers about why.

Webb was ultimately named special prosecutor and given a two-pronged mandate: determine whether Smollett should be charged again, and investigate whether police or Cook County prosecutors engaged in wrongdoing.

Smollett was charged again in February 2020 and was convicted on five out of six counts of disorderly conduct.

Meanwhile, in August 2020, the Webb team issued a news release summarizing their investigation into police and prosecutors. They did not find evidence of criminal conduct, but prosecutors including States Attorney Kim Foxx acted unethically by repeatedly making false or misleading public statements about the Smollett matter, according to the news release. Overall, their investigation found substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures throughout the states attorneys office.

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SPRINGFIELD  Gregory K. Harris, who has spent a quarter-century as an assistant U.S. attorney, has been sworn in as the chief federal prosecutor for the Central District of Illinois.

Harris, who was nominated for the post by President Joe Biden in October and confirmed by the Senate this month, took the oath this past week before Chief U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow.

Harris' history with the office dates back 40 years. He was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1980 to 1988 and took a 13-year diversion to private practice before returning to the assistant U.S. attorney's post in 2001.

Harris described the promotion as an honor and promised to continue working with law enforcement agencies and to "pursue equal justice under the law."

"This office has a long history of excellence and integrity and has demonstrated its strong commitment to community safety," Harris said in a statement. "I am eager to get to work."

During his time in the U.S. Attorney's office, Harris has held a number of leadership positions, including chief of the criminal division. His private practice experience came as a partner in the Springfield-based Giffin, Winning, Cohen & Bodewes law firm. Before that, he served as legal counsel in state government agencies and a stint as an assistant appellate defender in the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender.

Harris received a law degree from what is now the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. He earned a bachelor's from from Howard University in 1971.

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Matt Chapman, a self-described data nerd who runs a not-for-profit group called Free Our Data, recently filed Freedom of Information Act requests with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoots office. He wanted everything received by the Chicago Tribune this year via their FOIA requests.

Chapmans trove included text messages sent back and forth between Lightfoot and state leaders, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Most of the conversations were innocuous or polite. The governor thanked the mayor for sending him a bottle of tequila, for example.

But some of the conversations are revealing. On July 14 of last year, Lightfoot informed the governor that the city was toying with a mandatory mask order for Chicago.

The governor responded: Just want you to know we already have a statewide mandatory mask order. It is the law right now during the emergency.

Pritzker had, indeed, issued a mask order more than two months before Lightfoot was kicking the idea around.

I thought that was weird, but then last week Lightfoot introduced a city ordinance that was basically a copy and paste of a bill Pritzker had recently signed into law. Oops.

In August of 2020, during violence and looting, Pritzker sent Lightfoot a text message saying the two should talk about the situation. An hour later, Pritzker sent her another text saying, Im hearing reports of activity downtown and want to reiterate my offer of assistance of state police tonight.

There was no reply. Billionaire Ken Griffin has heaped scorn on Pritzker for not intervening in the citys violence, but that message shows he was at least trying to convince the mayor to accept state help on one occasion.

In late September, Pritzker told Lightfoot that the state police and the National Guard were coordinating closely with the Chicago Police Department through the weekend. Hopefully we are all over prepared, he wrote. Thanks so much for your leadership, she told the governor. I hear from lots of folks that they like to see us working together. Gives them confidence.

Agree and also I like working on the same page with you. So theres that. Pritzker wrote.

In January of this year, before vaccinations became widespread, Chicago resident Pritzker sent the mayor a Block Club Chicago story about a massive indoor party in the Old Town neighborhood. How brazen? he wrote. This looks ripe for a visit by CPD. !!!

On it, Lightfoot replied.

But there were clearly moments of tension. Just hearing from one of my city council chairmen that your team is trying to move something on [the sale of the] Thompson Center without presenting a plan to me and my team, Lightfoot told Pritzker. We should discuss because that will not happen.

Instead of replying to Lightfoots text, Pritzker sent a link to an online opinion piece written by a political enemy that trashed both him and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike. The piece was believed at the time to have been generated by Lightfoot or her allies because it also heaped praise on Lightfoots public health director.

Thank you was all Pritzker wrote. There was no reply.

Organized labor worked last spring to kill a proposal by Pritzker and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association for a statewide mandated paid sick leave law. Lightfoot was also opposed, and she made that known in a text to the governor in late May. I would like to talk about the paid sick leave bill. We strongly oppose. Let me know when you can talk. There was no recorded reply.

Senate President Don Harmon often didnt reply to the mayors texts, although that doesnt mean he didnt pick up the phone or talk to others.

Lightfoot sent several terse but one-way text messages to Harmon this year, including these in January of 2021: Don, my folks are bringing me comments that are concerning. If there is no personal issue, you want to address, then lets have the discussion.  Correction: if there is a personal issue that is of concern, lets put it on the table.

A few days later: A courtesy call regarding the fire pension bill would have been helpful, particularly since there is no funding for it. When that pension fund collapses, I will be talking a lot about this vote.

And then in May: It is important that we talk early. The direction things are going is totally inconsistent with what you committed to.

All of Lightfoots texts with House Speaker Chris Welch were cordial. Former House Speaker Michael Madigan didnt do texts.

Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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A left-wing legislator who rose to prominence during anti-government protests in Chile has been elected the countrys next president.



With almost 99 percent of polling stations reporting, Gabriel Boric won 56 percent of the votes, compared with 44 percent for his conservative opponent, Jose Antonio Kast.



In a model of civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately recognised defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone with his opponent congratulating him on his grand triumph.



At 35, Boric is set to become Chiles youngest-ever president.



Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera  a conservative billionaire  held a video conference with Boric to offer his governments full support during the three-month transition.



I am going to be the president of all Chileans, Boric said in the brief televised appearance with Pinera. I am going to do my best to get on top of this tremendous challenge.









Source: Aljazeera









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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Afigya Kwabre North Member of Parliament (MP), Collins Adomako-Mensah, has rendered an apology to Ghanaians over the misconduct of the Members of Parliament while deliberating on the 2022 budget.



Some members of the Minority turned on the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, popularly called Joe Wise, who was sitting in for the Speaker, Alban Sumana Bagbin as the Majority and Minority gathered in their chambers to argue out on whether or not the budget had been approved.



This was after the Majority voted for the budget to negate its earlier rejection by the Minority following a walkout by the Majority.



A Minority member pulled the Speaker's seat as a sign of protest against the Deputy Speaker presiding over proceedings in the House.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Hon. Adomako-Mensah bemoaned the attitude of his colleagues MPs who engaged in the commotion in the House.



He described the conduct as unacceptable and pleaded with the citizenry saying, "allow me to apologize on behalf of myself and colleague Members of Parliament that the scene that occurred, the international organizations and everyone was watching, it was quite embarrassing. So, forgive us. We believe, going forward, such things won't happen again''.



He, however, clarified that there is no acrimony between the Majority and Minority in Parliament and that what happened in Parliament was just out of control.



"In fact, when you come to Parliament, that's not how we conduct ourselves. When you come to the Committee, we have very cordial relationship. I mean 90 percent of the things we do at Committee level is consensus," he said.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr, has described as unacceptable, delay in inaugurating the board for the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).



"Im unable to admit that a five-month delay relative to inaugurating a board for that office is acceptable. Im not going to accept it, he said.



Ultimate Responsibility



The renowned Journalist further criticized the ruling government for not resourcing the OSP even after the "Martin Amidu saga".



Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng addressing a gathering at an event to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day in Accra, disclosed that though he has taken steps to operationalize his office, there is a need for the government to provide the needed resources.



According to him, upon my assumption of office on 5 August 2021 as the second Special Prosecutor of the Republic, I noticed that the OSP had not been operationalized and it was without its own staff and necessary resources. The fight against corruption had, in effect, been thrown in reverse for three (3) years...I look forward to the provision of adequate funding and the necessary material resources as stipulated in Articles 6 and 36 of the Convention to carry out this most challenging and solemn mandate. I cannot help but state that without adequate funding and the provision of the necessary material resources, the good intentions of my staff and I would remain just good intentions with nothing concrete to show for it.



Kweku Baako, taken aback by the current development, asked President and his administration to "wake up" and prove their commitment to fight corruption.



" . . the ruling government shouldn't have allowed the current SP to even ask for resources for his office. The president and government must wake up and resource the Special Prosecutor. After the Martin Amidu saga which was an anti-climax, we ought not to repeat the same scenario and Im not here to allocate blame but as for the president, he has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that, that creature of law, the office of the Special Prosecutor works and works effectively. At this stage, only a few of the personnel are being effective. Even salaries structure, there is a challenge there, he bemoaned while speaking on Joy Newsfile programme.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Leader of the majority group in Parliament, Mr Kyei Mensah Bonsu has advised the leadership of the New Patriotic Party to learn lessons from the outcome of the 2020 elections which made some incumbent Members of Parliament(MP) lose seats to the National Democratic Congress.



Speaking at the Annual National delegates conference in Kumasi, Mr Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said the party was not built on polarization but on democratic credentials which they hold in high esteem and therefore one direction leadership must not be encouraged.



Making reference to the 2020 elections he admonished the party to be guided by the just-ended elections which saw some of our key MPs losing their seats not only in the Ashanti region but some other regions too.



Sighting polarization as one of the cankers holding down the party he said:



As a party, we should confront the reality and not pretend that everything is right with us. The conduct of elections at all levels of the party is increasingly polarizing the party. It appears those who should lead are looking elsewhere. We should do serious introspection into the things that are holding us down.



If we are able to unleash the full potentials of our party, the other parties will find it extremely difficult to create space for themselves in contemporary Ghanaian politics.



Mr Kyei Mensah-Bonsu called on the party to stick to the democratic principles on which the NPP was birth to make way for others to lead.



As I have been insisting in our previous conferences, further interrogation into article 55 (9) of the 1992 constitution should lead to a conclusion that the selection of party officers doesn't need to be solely by-election.



We must explore other means which the parties in the more established democracies resort to including consensus, acclamation, persuasion and even rotation.



He warned against inducement of delegates and said the partys constitution frowns it.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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NPP Member of Parliament(MP) for Oda constituency, Alex Kwesi Acquah, has urged Ghanaians to embrace the e-levy approved by the Akufo-Addo government.



The e-levy, announced by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta while presenting the 2022 budget, is to ensure all Ghanaians pay tax on all electronic transactions.



It's expected to commence in February next year and to compensate for the removal of road tolls by generating revenues for infrastructure development.



Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, Kwesi Acquah touted the benefits of the e-levy, assuring the citizenry it will be used for its intended purpose.

Likening the e-levy to HIPC, the MP noted that, just as the HIPC initiative benefited the nation, the e-levy will serve as the support system to Ghana's development.



"The Ghanaian is enterprising . . . If Ghana will move forward, e-levy is the answer," he stated.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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South African born comedian, Trevor Noah has filed a lawsuit against a New York City hospital and doctor over an alleged botched surgery he underwent in 2020.



The 37-year-old The Daily Show host who sued Dr. Riley J. Williams III and the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, disclosed in court documents that he was a patient between Aug. 25, 2020, and Dec. 17, 2020, and underwent surgery with the hospital and doctor on Nov. 23, 2020.





Noah alleged that the defendants "were negligent and careless in failing to treat and care for [him] in a careful and skillful manner." He also accused the defendants of "failing to use approved methods in general use in the care and treatment."



The comedian also noted that the defendants failed "to prescribe proper medications," failed to "discontinue certain prescription medications," and failed "to use proper tests and examinations in order to diagnose the conditions" that he "was suffering" from.



He further revealed that he suffered "serious personal injury" after his surgery, adding that his injuries are "permanent, severe, and grievous." Noah further disclosed that the injuries allegedly left him "sick, sore, lame, and disabled."



The Emmy Award winning comedian also said he "sustained severe and painful personal injuries; sustained severe nervous shock, mental anguish, severe emotional distress and great physical pain; was confined to bed and home for a long period of time; was compelled to undergo hospital and medical aid, treatment and attention; has suffered loss of enjoyment of life; was prevented from engaging in his usual occupation for a long period of time; and since some of his injuries are of a permanent nature, he will continue to suffer similar damages in the future."



A representative for the Hospital for Special Surgery has however described Noah's claims as "meritless."



The Rep told People, that the organization is "committed to excellence in the care we provide to each of the more than 150,000 patients we treat each year."



The statement read;



"HSS received a complaint filed on behalf of Mr. Trevor Noah. We have shared with Mr. Noah's attorney a detailed rebuttal to the claims, which are meritless.



"Due to HIPAA we are restricted by law from addressing publicly specific aspects of the treatment of any patient.



"This commitment has made HSS the world's leading academic medical center specialized in musculoskeletal health, consistently ranked #1 in orthopedics globally and nationally."









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" " In this picture, Jesus Christ is shown in conversation with Pharisees about whether it is lawful to pay taxes to the Roman emperor. In the Bible, the Pharisees are often shown as having legalistic arguments with Jesus. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Jesus only loses his cool a handful of times in the New Testament (just ask the moneychangers in the Temple), but he unleashes one of his fiercest tirades in Matthew 23 against the Pharisees and other "teachers of the law." In verses 13-39, known as "the seven woes," Jesus calls the Pharisees "hypocrites" six times. He also calls them "blind" (five times), "children of hell," "a brood of vipers" and compares the false piety and posturing of the Pharisees to "whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."

The Pharisees of the New Testament are clearly cast as the bad guys, the perfect ideological and spiritual foils to Jesus and his followers. The Pharisees are portrayed as nitpicky enforcers of Jewish law who are focused so intently on the letter of the law that they miss the spirit entirely. As Jesus says:

"You give a tenth of your spices  mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law  justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."

But does this picture of the Pharisees  as legalistic hypocrites  jibe with what historians and religious scholars know about the actual Pharisaic movement, which gained prominence during the Second Temple period of Judaism? We spoke with Bruce Chilton, a religion professor at Bard College and co-editor of "In Quest of the Historical Pharisees," to better understand what the Pharisees really believed and why they clashed with the early Christians.

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Who Were the Pharisees  and the Sadducees?

During the first century C.E., when Jesus lived, the Pharisees emerged as a religious movement within Judaism, not a separate sect. The Temple still stood in Jerusalem and it was the center of Jewish life. One of the greatest concerns of Temple rites was purity  that both the people who entered the Temple and the animals sacrificed there, were "pure" enough to satisfy God. The Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible starting with Genesis) contains written commandments that explain the proper way to conduct Temple sacrifices, but the Pharisees claimed they had additional divine instructions that had been passed down through centuries of oral tradition.

"The Pharisees believed that they had a special reserve of knowledge for determining purity," says Chilton. "They taught that their oral tradition went all the way back to Moses at Sinai, so not only was there a written Torah, which anyone could have access to, but there was also an oral Torah which was inside the Pharisaic movement."

What was distinctive about the oral tradition of the Pharisees was that it expanded the question of purity to life outside of the Temple. Even if a Jewish person lived far away from Jerusalem (in Galilee, for example) and wasn't planning to make a pilgrimage to the Temple, they could conduct their lives in such a way as to be pure enough to enter the Temple.

"In that sense, the Pharisees became a movement for the purity of the Jewish people," says Chilton.

The Pharisees were not, however, the powerful elite of first-century Judaism. Those were the Sadducees, the priestly class that controlled Temple worship and held the most political influence with the Roman Empire, which ruled over Palestine. The Sadducees rejected the oral tradition in favor of the written law (Torah).

The Pharisees were a working-class movement concerned with establishing a clear and consistent Jewish identity in everyday life. Interestingly, it was the Pharisees who believed in an afterlife and resurrection of the dead, both of which were rejected by the Sadducees as they were not mentioned in the Torah. Pharisees also believed a messiah would come who would bring peace to the world, though most of them did not think that messiah was Jesus.

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Jesus Had Friends (and Followers) Who Were Pharisees

The Pharisees are portrayed as a monolithic block in the New Testament, but Chilton says that while all Pharisees were concerned with purity, there was fierce debate among the Pharisees about how best to achieve it. There were certainly Pharisees who believed that purity was obtained from the outside in, and who taught that ritual baths (mikvahs) and the ritual purification of cups and cooking implements was the only way to achieve purity.

In Matthew 23, Jesus lambastes the pharisaic practice of purifying the outside of cups and dishes while "inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."

"Because Jesus himself was engaged in the issue of purity  but wasn't a Pharisee  his conflict with some Pharisees of his time was inevitable," says Chilton. "If you accuse somebody as impure, you're not saying purity doesn't matter; you're saying the opposite  there's a better way to achieve it."

But Chilton says there were other Pharisees who would have agreed with Jesus, that the true work of purification starts with a pure heart and faith in God. If you read the New Testament closely, in fact, you'll see that Jesus won sympathetic supporters and even followers from the ranks of the supposedly hated Pharisees. Nicodemus, who visited Jesus at night to ask him questions, and then provided money and spices to give Jesus a proper Jewish burial after the crucifixion, was a Pharisee (see John 3). And in Luke 13:31, a Pharisee comes to warn Jesus that Herod wanted him killed.

" " In this 1889 painting, Jesus confronts Nicodemus, a Pharisee who later became one of his followers. Found in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

But perhaps the most interesting and consequential mention of "friendly" Pharisees comes in the book of Acts, when a group of Pharisees is listed among the early followers of Jesus who remained faithful after his death. As Chilton explains, though, those Pharisees took an ideological stance in opposition to influential apostles like Paul and Peter, which may explain why the Pharisees got such a bad rap in the New Testament.

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The Meeting That Doomed the Pharisees

In Acts 15, there is a meeting or "council" in Jerusalem attended by Paul, Peter, James, Barnabas and other apostles and followers of Jesus. The agenda of the meeting was to settle an important question among the early church: did non-Jewish men need to be circumcised in order to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit? The Pharisees in attendance were the first to chime in. In Acts 15:5, it says: "Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, 'The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.'"

Notice that it says the Pharisees were among the "believers," further proof some Pharisees, too, were early followers of Jesus. But here's where things go south. The apostles are in stark disagreement with the Pharisees and say that everyone, circumcised or uncircumcised, can have their hearts purified through faith in Christ. Peter, acknowledging the physical pain and danger of circumcising an adult, rebukes the Pharisees in verses 10 and 11:

"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

"By the time you get to this meeting in 46 C.E., now the Pharisees are on the other side of this extraordinarily consequential decision," says Chilton. "Paul attacks anyone who supports the widespread use of circumcision as being a hypocrite, a legalist, and being cut off from Christ.

And that's pretty much the take of the New Testament on the Pharisees. It seems that it was this internal dispute among Jesus's followers that produced this stark line of demarcation between Christians and Pharisees."

What's important to understand is that the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written starting in the year 70 C.E., decades after the meeting in Jerusalem. So it's very possible that Jesus himself wouldn't have harbored such distaste for the Pharisees during his lifetime, but that the authors of the New Testament wrote the gospels with a chip on their shoulder following their ugly divorce with the Pharisees over circumcision.

"The gospels are written from the point of view of a breach that hadn't occurred at the time of Jesus," says Chilton.

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What Happened to the Pharisees?

After the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., Chilton says that the power structure of Judaism was toppled with it. The Sadducees, who had been the most influential force during the Second Temple period, were scattered, while the underdog Pharisees, "who had been very much on the outs," says Chilton, "really emerged as the last authority standing in Judaism."

Over the ensuing centuries, the oral traditions of the Pharisees were committed to writing in the Mishnah and then commented upon in the Talmud. The Pharisaic "sages" who had transmitted the oral tradition from the time of Moses were replaced by learned rabbis who studied the Torah and the complex commentaries found in the Talmud. Modern Judaism is, in a sense, a continuation of the traditions first championed by the Pharisees.

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Now That's Cool Archeologists in Israel have discovered ancient stone workshops from the Second Temple period where Jews fashioned drinking vessels out of stone instead of ceramic. Stone jars  like the six mentioned at the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine  were approved by the Pharisees as ritually pure.
Nanoscale magnetic double helices (top) are found to host highly coupled textures, observed both experimentally and with simulations (bottom). Credit: Claire Donnelly

Scientists have used state-of-the-art 3D printing and microscopy to provide a new glimpse of what happens when taking magnets to three-dimensions on the nanoscale1000 times smaller than a human hair.

The international team led by Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory used an advanced 3D printing technique they developed to create magnetic double heliceslike the double helix of DNAwhich twist around one another, combining curvature, chirality, and strong magnetic field interactions between the helices. Doing so, the scientists discovered that these magnetic double helices produce nanoscale topological textures in the magnetic field, something that had never been seen before, opening the door to the next generation of magnetic devices. The results are published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Magnetic devices impact many different parts of our societies, magnets are used for the generation of energy, for data storage and computing. But magnetic computing devices are fast approaching their shrinking limit in two-dimensional systems. For the next generation of computing, there is growing interest in moving to three dimensions, where not only can higher densities be achieved with 3D nanowire architectures, but three-dimensional geometries can change the magnetic properties and offer new functionalities.

"There has been a lot of work around a yet-to-be-established technology called racetrack memory, first proposed by Stuart Parkin. The idea is to store digital data in the magnetic domain walls of nanowires to produce information storage devices with high reliability, performance and capacity," said Claire Donnelly, the study's first author from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, who has recently moved to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.

"But until now, this idea has always been very difficult to realize, because we need to be able to make three-dimensional magnetic systems and we also need to understand the effect of going to three dimensions on both the magnetisation and the magnetic field."

"So, over the last few years our research has focused on developing new methods to visualize three dimensional magnetic structuresthink about a CT scan in a hospital, but for magnets. We also developed a 3D printing technique for magnetic materials."

The 3D measurements were performed at the PolLux beamline of the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institute, currently the only beamline able to offer soft X-ray laminography. Using these advanced X-ray imaging techniques, the researchers observed that the 3D DNA structure leads to a different texture in the magnetisation compared to what is seen in 2D. Pairs of walls between magnetic domains (regions where the magnetisation all points in the same direction) in neighboring helices are highly coupledand as a result, deform. These walls attract one another and, because of the 3D structure, rotate, "locking" into place and forming strong, regular bonds, similar to the base pairs in DNA.

"Not only did we find that the 3D structure leads to interesting topological nanotextures in the magnetisation, where we are relatively used to seeing such textures, but also in the magnetic stray field, which revealed exciting new nanoscale field configurations!" said Donnelly.

"This new ability to pattern the magnetic field at this length scale allows us to define what forces will be applied to magnetic materials and to understand how far we can go with patterning these magnetic fields. If we can control those magnetic forces on the nanoscale, we get closer to reaching the same degree of control as we have in two dimensions."

"The result is fascinatingthe textures in the DNA-like double helix form strong bonds between the helices, deforming their shape as a result," explained lead author Amalio Fernandez-Pacheco, former Cavendish Researcher, now working at the Institute of Nanoscience & Materials of Aragon. "But what is more exciting is that around these bonds form swirls in the magnetic fieldtopological textures!"

Having gone from two to three dimensions in terms of the magnetisation, now Donnelly and her collaborators from the Paul Scherrer Institute and the Universities of Glasgow, Zaragoza, Oviedo, and Vienna will explore the full potential of going from two to three dimensions in terms of the magnetic field.

"The prospects of this work are manyfold: these strongly bonded textures in the magnetic helices promise highly robust motion and could be a potential carrier of information," said Fernandez-Pacheco. "Even more exciting is this new potential to pattern the magnetic field at the nanoscale, this could offer new possibilities for particle trapping, imaging techniques as well as smart materials."

More information: Claire Donnelly, Complex free-space magnetic field textures induced by three-dimensional magnetic nanostructures, Nature Nanotechnology (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41565-021-01027-7 Journal information: Nature Nanotechnology Claire Donnelly, Complex free-space magnetic field textures induced by three-dimensional magnetic nanostructures,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-021-01027-7
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It's hard to imagine a more inhospitable world than our closest planetary neighbor. With an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, and a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus is a scorched and suffocating wasteland where life as we know it could not survive. The planet's clouds are similarly hostile, blanketing the planet in droplets of sulfuric acid caustic enough to burn a hole through human skin.

And yet, a new study supports the longstanding idea that if life exists, it might make a home in Venus' clouds. The study's authors, from MIT, Cardiff University, and Cambridge University, have identified a chemical pathway by which life could neutralize Venus' acidic environment, creating a self-sustaining, habitable pocket in the clouds.

Within Venus' atmosphere, scientists have long observed puzzling anomalieschemical signatures that are hard to explain, such as small concentrations of oxygen and nonspherical particles unlike sulfuric acid's round droplets. Perhaps most puzzling is the presence of ammonia, a gas that was tentatively detected in the 1970s, and that by all accounts should not be produced through any chemical process known on Venus.

In their new study, the researchers modeled a set of chemical processes to show that if ammonia is indeed present, the gas would set off a cascade of chemical reactions that would neutralize surrounding droplets of sulfuric acid and could also explain most of the anomalies observed in Venus' clouds. As for the source of ammonia itself, the authors propose that the most plausible explanation is of biological origin, rather than a nonbiological source such as lightning or volcanic eruptions.

As they write in their study, the chemistry suggests that "life could be making its own environment on Venus."

This tantalizing new hypothesis is testable, and the researchers provide a list of chemical signatures for future missions to measure in Venus' clouds, to either confirm or contradict their idea.

"No life that we know of could survive in the Venus droplets," says study co-author Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). "But the point is, maybe some life is there, and is modifying its environment so that it is livable."

The study's co-authors include Janusz Petkowski, William Bains, and Paul Rimmer, who are affiliated with MIT, Cardiff University, and Cambridge University.

Life suspect

"Life on Venus" was a trending phrase last year, when scientists including Seager and her co-authors reported the detection of phosphine in the planet's clouds. On Earth, phosphine is a gas that is produced mainly through biological interactions. The discovery of phosphine on Venus leaves room for the possibility of life. Since then, however, the discovery has been widely contested.

"The phosphine detection ended up becoming incredibly controversial," Seager says. "But phosphine was like a gateway, and there's been this resurgence in people studying Venus."

Inspired to look more closely, Rimmer began combing through data from past missions to Venus. In these data, he identified anomalies, or chemical signatures, in the clouds that had gone unexplained for decades. In addition to the presence of oxygen and nonspherical particles, anomalies included unexpected levels of water vapor and sulfur dioxide.

Rimmer proposed the anomalies might be explained by dust. He argued that minerals, swept up from Venus' surface and into the clouds, could interact with sulfuric acid to produce some, though not all, of the observed anomalies. He showed the chemistry checked out, but the physical requirements were unfeasible: A massive amount of dust would have to loft into the clouds to produce the observed anomalies.

Seager and her colleagues wondered if the anomalies could be explained by ammonia. In the 1970s, the gas was tentatively detected in the planet's clouds by the Venera 8 and Pioneer Venus probes. The presence of ammonia, or NH 3, was an unsolved mystery.

"Ammonia shouldn't be on Venus," Seager says. "It has hydrogen attached to it, and there's very little hydrogen around. Any gas that doesn't belong in the context of its environment is automatically suspicious for being made by life."

Livable clouds

If the team were to assume that life was the source of ammonia, could this explain the other anomalies in Venus' clouds? The researchers modeled a series of chemical processes in search of an answer.

They found that if life were producing ammonia in the most efficient way possible, the associated chemical reactions would naturally yield oxygen. Once present in the clouds, ammonia would dissolve in droplets of sulfuric acid, effectively neutralizing the acid to make the droplets relatively habitable. The introduction of ammonia into the droplets would transform their formerly round, liquid shape into more of a nonspherical, salt-like slurry. Once ammonia dissolved in sulfuric acid, the reaction would trigger any surrounding sulfur dioxide to dissolve as well.

The presence of ammonia then could indeed explain most of the major anomalies seen in Venus' clouds. The researchers also show that sources such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, and even a meteorite strike could not chemically produce the amount of ammonia required to explain the anomalies. Life, however, might.

In fact, the team notes that there are life-forms on Earthparticuarly in our own stomachsthat produce ammonia to neutralize and make livable an otherwise highly acidic environment.

"There are very acidic environments on Earth where life does live, but it's nothing like the environment on Venusunless life is neutralizing some of those droplets," Seager says.

Scientists may have a chance to check for the presence of ammonia, and signs of life, in the next several years with the Venus Life Finder Missions, a set of proposed privately funded missions, of which Seager is principal investigator, that plan to send spacecraft to Venus to measure its clouds for ammonia and other signatures of life.

"Venus has lingering, unexplained atmospheric anomalies that are incredible," Seager says. "It leaves room for the possibility of life."

More information: Production of ammonia makes Venusian clouds habitable and explains observed cloud-level chemical anomalies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Production of ammonia makes Venusian clouds habitable and explains observed cloud-level chemical anomalies,(2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2110889118
Patricio Escarate, a cryogenics and vacuum technician at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) works on a front end, or chilled cooler that hold the cutting edge receivers for each ALMA antenna. Credit: M. Alexander, ESO

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the board of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have approved a multi-million dollar upgrade project for the Observatory's 1.3mm (Band 6) receivers through the North American ALMA Development Program. The receiversoriginally built, and to be upgraded, by the Central Development Laboratory (CDL) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)are the most scientifically productive in ALMA's lineup. Launching in 2021, Phase 1 of the projectfunded for $7.68 millionaims to produce a prototype receiver by 2026 that will allow NRAO to plan for the build-out of an entirely upgraded set of Band 6 receivers for ALMA. These new Band 6v2 receivers will increase the quantity and quality of science measured in wavelengths between 1.4mm and 1.1mm.

Crystal Brogan, ALMA-North America Program Scientist and the ALMA Development Program Coordinator at NRAO, said that for scientists, the upgradewhich will take place over a decade from design to completionprovides three significant improvements. The wavelength coverage of any one observation will more than double, which will allow many more spectral lines to be observed at once. In addition, the upgrade will increase the overall wavelength range accessible by the receiver and improve its sensitivity, which reduces the observing time required. Brogan said, "What this means for scientists is that a wider selection of diagnostic line transitions can be observed simultaneously with better sensitivity than ever before, leading to more accurate and efficient scientific results."

The Band 6 upgrade is part of the ambitious "ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade," which seeks to at least double and eventually quadruple the correlated bandwidth of the Observatory's antennas. Band 6v2 will be the first receiver upgraded as a part of the ALMA2030 Development Roadmap. Brogan noted that the receiver was chosen for the first upgrade because "Band 6 is currently ALMA's most popular band in terms of the number of hours proposed each cycle. We see more ALMA publications reporting results from this band than any other in every observing year."

Extremely weak signals from space are collected by the ALMA antennas and focussed onto receivers, like these two shown here, which transform the faint radiation into an electrical signal. The upgraded Band 6v2 receivers will increase both the quality and quantity of science that ALMA can achieve in the band, allowing for more accurate and efficient science. Credit: ESO

Technologically, the extensive project includes upgrading or replacing virtually every critical subsystem on the receivers, including the feed horn antennas, the polarization separators (also referred to as orthomode transducers, or OMTs), mixers and amplifiers, and local oscillators.

The upgrade includes several new or improved technologies resulting from NRAO's collaboration with the University of Virginia's Innovations in Fabrication (IFAB) Laboratory. Bert Hawkins, Director of CDL, said, "Our work with UVA includes the development of a new superconducting SIS mixer at the heart of the new receiver that extends the wavelength range the receiver will be sensitive to, thus increasing the scientific capabilities of Band 6. We're also working together to develop a new class of superconducting hybrid couplers used inside the receiver to separate sidebands in the signal. In addition to our work with UVA, our internal teams are improving upon myriad technologies. Our low-noise amplifier team, for example, is developing a new generation of cryogenically-cooled amplifiers based on a commercially-available transistor."

Hawkins added, "The original Band 6 receiver was designed over 20 years ago. Since then, the National Science Foundation has invested in improving millimeter-wave receiver technology through NRAO. This effort has paid off, and now, by leveraging technology developed at CDL and with our partners at the University of Virginia, this upgrade answers the call of the ALMA2030 Development Roadmap to increase the bandwidth and wavelength coverage of ALMA receivers while improving sensitivity." In addition to continuing a longstanding partnership with UVA, the upgrade will allow ALMA-North America to leverage its existing relationship with the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC), providing students with hands-on experiences like micro-assembly and wire bonding, the use of small software-defined radios to measure and characterize the electromagnetic spectrum, high-frequency measurements, and cryogenic measurements of electronics.

Behind the dish of each ALMA antenna sits one of these Front Ends, the chilled coolers that hold the suite of cutting-edge receivers. Each receiver was hand-crafted in one of three different laboratories around the world. They were brought together to be assembled into this cryogenic unit and shipped to Chile for installation inside each of ALMAs 66 antennas. Credit: P. Carrillo, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

"The international ALMA collaboration has a clear view for the future of radio astronomy, and the Band 6v2 upgrade is the first in a long line of upgrades to come that will bring unparalleled sensitivity to this already immensely powerful observatory," said Tony Beasley, Director of NRAO. "The original Band 6 quickly became the most scientifically productive receiver at ALMA because of its capabilities. With this upgrade from CDL, Band 6v2 will hold that position at ALMA for years to come."

ALMA Director Sean Dougherty added, "This is a very exciting upgrade to the most productive receiver system at ALMA. Aside from the phenomenal new science capabilities, ALMA will be able to make observations much faster as the new receivers will be much more sensitive. This will substantially increase the amount of high-quality observations we can deliver to the community."

The North American ALMA Development Program is funded by the NSF and the National Research Council of Canada. "These Band 6v2 upgrades point to the fantastic ability to make improvements as technology advances," said Dr. Joe Pesce, ALMA Program Officer at the National Science Foundation. "The new science capabilities made possible by the upgrades will allow ALMA to remain at the cutting edge of millimeter science."
A 443-acre tidal wetland habitat restoration project in Oregon's Tillamook Bay brought a host of socioeconomic benefits to the region. Credit: Tillamook Estuaries Partnership

A 443-acre tidal wetland habitat restoration project in Oregon's Tillamook Bay designed to reduce flooding and improve salmon habitat has also brought a host of other socioeconomic benefits to the community, a new report from Oregon State University researchers shows.

Since the $11.2 million project was completed in 2017, the restoration has led to water quality improvements; flood mitigation; salmon habitat improvements; increased carbon storage; added recreation opportunities; and increased home values, the researchers found.

"This study provides strong evidence that ecosystem restoration is beneficial to communities as well as the environment," said Steven Dundas, the report's co-author and an environmental and resource economist in Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences and the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport. "The positive impact on housing values near the restored site alone likely justifies the investment in this project."

The report's lead author is Graham Shaw, who recently completed his master's degree in marine resource management at OSU. The Tillamook Estuaries Partnership and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Restoration Center, two of the partners in the restoration project, commissioned the economic impact report.

The primary aim of the wetlands restoration was to reduce severe and disruptive flooding in the city of Tillamook and on U.S. Highway 101 as well as improve habitat for salmon, some species of which are considered threatened or endangered. NOAA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were the primary funders of the project.

The goal of the new report was to better understand the breadth of economic benefits a tidal restoration project might produce, said Lauren Senkyr, a biologist with the NOAA Restoration Center.

"This kind of information helps us to be able to talk about the community benefits of restoration projects," Senkyr said. "Projects like this have ripple effects. Not only do they help the fish, they also help people."

A concurrent NOAA economic impact analysis showed that during the four years the restoration work was underway, the project supported 108 jobs and $14.6 million in total economic output for the state of Oregon.

Shaw worked with Dundas to identify and quantify additional socioeconomic benefits of the project. They reviewed data from before and after the restoration, made comparisons to spot changes and conducted an analysis of the housing market to identify changes to home values near the restoration area.

Among their findings:

Homes within three-quarters of a mile of the restoration site increased in value by 10%, or an average of $19,000, compared to homes further away. Modeling estimates the total benefit of the project on housing values to be approximately $19.1 million.

Reductions in flooding on Highway 101 in Tillamook's business corridor may lead to reductions in costs associated with travel delays of up to $7,200 per flood event.

The number of juvenile chinook salmon and staghorn sculpin using the affected wetlands has increased since the restoration was completed.

Sediment from the Wilson and Trask Rivers is likely to be trapped in the restoration area, improving water quality in Tillamook Bay and potentially reducing the frequency or need for dredging. That latter impact could save anywhere from $1,500 to $8,000 per year.

The restored wetlands may store as much as 27,000 tons of carbon, at a value of up to $736,000 based on current social costs of carbon.

The publicly accessible restoration site offers increased opportunities for recreation, including walking, fishing, kayaking, birdwatching and educational activities. Activities such as kayaking and wildlife viewing have an estimated value of $60 to as much $471 per person per day.

"The restoration project created a large area for increased recreation that wasn't there before," Shaw said. "It wasn't accessible for people in the community the way it is now."

Anecdotally, the project so far is meeting its intended goals of improving salmon habit and reducing flooding risk. Since the restoration project was completed, Tillamook has only experienced two minor, five-year flooding events, and in both cases, the flooding was less severe than previous similar floods.

"In both cases, the amount of flooding was 9 inches less than previous floods. It took two to three hours longer for the city to flood and the floodwaters receded two to three hours sooner than it would have previously," said Kristi Foster, executive director of the Tillamook Estuary Partnership.

More study is needed to better understand the impacts of the restoration project over time, the researchers said. They also suggest engaging in socioeconomic analysis work early in a project, rather than waiting until the project is complete.

"There were some challenges associated with trying to study the socioeconomic changes after the fact," Dundas said. "Starting earlier in the process would allow researchers to collect more before-and-after data and better understand people's perceptions about the value of a project in advance."

Explore further Proposed floodplain restoration reduces flood risk and restores salmon habitat
Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

"What are you studying at Columbia?" my friend asks as she helps me pack for my move from North Dakota to New York City. "Climate and Society," I promptly respond.

"What does that mean? What even is climate change and why is it political?" My friend, who is a sixth-grade middle school teacher in Bismarck, waits for my answer. She was born and raised in my home state of North Dakota and has finished four years of college at North Dakota State University. Yet, she sincerely did not understand what climate change was or why I would dedicate a year of my life studying it. She only associates the words climate change as a point of contention in contemporary politics.

I found this shocking since she is entrusted with educating the youth who will inherit an increasingly inhospitable planet.

As Pope Francis asserted, "Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity." He also posited, "We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental."

The words of a prominent moral leader make it clear; climate change is a reality and immediate action is called for.

And yet, my friend's ignorance of the situation we are facing and that her students are subject to is echoed throughout the country, evident in the limited climate change education taught by the more than 400,000 middle-and high-school science teachers throughout the United States.

In 2016, the journal Science published the first peer-reviewed national survey of science teachers which investigated how the debate around anthropogenic climate change affects curricula. It discovered most middle- and high-school teachers incorporate only an hour or two of instruction about climate change over the course of an entire academic year. Thirty percent of teachers devoted less than an hour.

Even more alarming, most teachers do not accurately understand climate science to teach it properly. The Yale Program on Climate Change reported 70 percent of middle school and 55 percent of high school science teachers do not recognize the scientific consensus on climate change. And according to the National Center for Science Education, 40 percent of teachers who integrate climate change into their science curriculum teach it inaccurately.

With fewer than a third of middle school teachers and less than half of high school teachers educating their students on the human causes of climate change, it is clear the current educational curriculum covering climate change is failing our youth.

Considering America's youth are most at risk of suffering from the mounting repercussions of climate change, they deserve to learn the science free from the politicking that has halted climate action for decades.

Through national climate education, there is hope for collaboration across political parties and a resurgence of trust in science. Recent studies by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reveal younger generations of Republicans are more likely than their older counterparts to support climate activists, and are also more willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.

Climate science must be mandated nationally as a standardized and testable curriculum for schools to implement, with clear guidelines and resources for instructors to teach it adequately. Teachers also need continued education on climate change through workshops and conferences, as well as up-to-date resources and easily accessible studies on the subject.

Some initiatives are already starting to roll out in certain areas. The Next Generation Science Standardsdeveloped by state governments in conjunction with the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Scienceincorporate climate science into the K-12 curriculum and has been adopted by 20 states within the US. The Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment & Teaching Excellence at UC San Diego has developed a pilot program, Creating Climate Champions, a collaborative effort among campus and community partners to develop lesson plans, in-class activities, and projects to aid San Diego county K-12 teachers. The curriculum is grounded in evidence-based climate science and Indigenous knowledge to empower students to act.

But, promising though these efforts are, they are manifestly inadequate given the scale of the task. These efforts must be ramped up on the national stage. We can look to Italy as a prime example. Since September 2020, teachers for every grade are mandated to teach a minimum of 33 hours on climate change and environmental sustainability, an initiative led by Italian Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti.

The ministry left no stones unturned. Teachers were trained to teach the curriculum reviewed by Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of Columbia University's Center for Sustainable Development, and Kate Raworth of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute.

In the United States, political actors must follow suit and mandate climate science curriculum for schoolchildren across the nation, just as other countries like Finland and Mexico have done or are working to do.

In 2021, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reported that 78 percent of registered voters support schools teaching children about the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to global warming. With public support mounting for climate education, it is time we demand action from the national government. Students and teachers alike need to be properly educated on climate science.

Instead of determining the future state of the planet for our youth, let's educate them with the accurate information they need to understand climate change and, when it's their turn, to take the steps required to ensure a livable future for all.

Explore further How to teach climate science

Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
More than 300,000 people fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Rai slammed into the country on Thursday as a super typhoon.

The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year surpassed 200 on Monday, as desperate survivors pleaded for urgent supplies of drinking water and food.

The Philippine Red Cross reported "complete carnage" in coastal areas after Typhoon Rai left homes, hospitals and schools "ripped to shreds".

The storm tore off roofs, uprooted trees, toppled concrete power poles, smashed wooden houses to pieces, wiped out crops and flooded villagessparking comparisons to the damage caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

"Our situation is so desperate," said Ferry Asuncion, a street vendor in the hard-hit seaside city of Surigao, which was devastated by the storm.

Residents urgently needed "drinking water and food", he said.

At least 208 people were killed and 52 were missing in the latest disaster to hit the archipelago, with hundreds more injured after the storm ravaged southern and central regions, the national police said.

More than 380,000 people fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Rai slammed into the country on Thursday as a super typhoon.

One of the hardest-hit islands was Boholknown for its beaches, rolling "Chocolate Hills", and tiny tarsier primateswhere at least 94 people have died, provincial Governor Arthur Yap said on his official Facebook page.

A destroyed house on the coast in Ubay town, Bohol province.

Many wooden houses in the coastal town of Ubay were flattened and small fishing boats destroyed on the island, where a state of calamity has been declared.

A senior official at the national disaster agency said he had not expected so many fatalities.

"I was proven wrong as it appears now coming from the reports," said Casiano Monilla, deputy administrator for operations.

Victims plea S.O.S

Rai hit the Philippines late in the typhoon seasonmost cyclones develop between July and October.

Scientists have long warned that typhoons are becoming more powerful and strengthening more rapidly as the world becomes warmer because of human-driven climate change.

The Philippinesranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate changeis hit by an average of 20 storms every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.

The path of Typhoon Rai across the Philippines which struck Thursday December 17.

Typhoon Haiyan, called Yolanda in the Philippines, was at the time the strongest storm ever to have made landfall and left over 7,300 people dead or missing. The death toll from Rai is not expected to get anywhere close to that number.

The Philippines has an established disaster management system that provides early warnings to residents of an approaching storm and moves vulnerable communities into evacuation centres before it hits.

But the storm has dealt a savage blow to the country's tourism sector, which was already struggling to recover after Covid-19 restrictions decimated visitor numbers.

SOS was painted on a road in the popular tourist town of General Luna on Siargao island, where surfers and holidaymakers had flocked ahead of Christmas, as people struggled to find water and food.

"There's no water anymore, there's a water shortage, on day one there was already looting in our neighbourhood," Siargao resort owner Marja O'Donnell told CNN Philippines.

There has also been widespread destruction on Dinagat and Mindanao islands, which along with Siargao bore the brunt of the storm when it slammed into the country packing wind speeds of 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour.

At least 14 people died on the Dinagat Islands, provincial information officer Jeffrey Crisostomo told broadcaster ABS-CBN.

Residents take stock next to their destroyed house in Carcar, Cebu province.

"Dinagat Islands has been levelled to the ground," he said.

Swathes of the affected areas have no communications, hampering efforts by disaster agencies to assess the full extent of the storm's damage.

Electricity has also been knocked out, affecting water-refilling stations and ATMs.

Thousands of military, police, coast guard and fire personnel have been deployed to hard-hit areas along with food, water and medical supplies, while heavy machinerylike backhoes and front-end loadershave been sent to clear roads blocked by fallen power poles and trees.

But some victims have expressed frustration at the government's response.

"No one showed upI don't know where the politicians and (election) candidates are," said a visibly angry Levi Lisondra, an elderly resident in Surigao City, on the northern tip of Mindanao.

"We paid big taxes when we were working and now they can't help us."

Explore further 12 dead as powerful typhoon batters the Philippines

 2021 AFP
Fig. 1 Scanning tunneling microscopy topographic images of various moire patterns with different twist angles. Credit: NJU

When stacking two layers of van der Waals (vdW) materials, a moire pattern is produced by the modulation of the long wavelength periodic potential. The moire pattern is a promising means in engineering both the atomic geometry and electronic structure. A variety of emergent phenomena have been discovered in twisted vdW bilayers of graphene or semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenide (2H-TMD), however, little is known about the twisted bilayer of metallic 1T-TMD (transition metal dichalcogenide) materials.

In a study published in Nature Materials, researchers led by Prof. Li Shaochun at Nanjing University and Prof. Meng Sheng at the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered for the first time that the many-body effects, particularly the electronic quantum correlation, can be tuned in metallic vdW monolayers through moire engineering.

The researchers synthesized the epitaxial heterostructure of 1T-TiTe 2 /1T-TiSe2 with various twist angles using molecular beam epitaxy and investigated the moire pattern induced/enhanced charge density wave (CDW) states with scanning tunneling microscopy.

They found that in 1T-TiTe 2 /1T-TiSe 2 heterostructures, when the twist angle is near ~0.5, the profound 22 CDW domains are formed in 1T-TiTe 2 . The CDW domains are trapped in the moire pattern and separated by the 11 normal-state regions.

Fig. 2 Moire enhanced CDWs near 0. Credit: NJU and IoP

This CDW state is significantly enhanced to persist even at room temperature. However, in larger twist angles, such moire-trapped CDW patterns have not been observed. Using first-principles calculations within the framework density functional theory, they demonstrated that the formation of moire-trapped CDW state can be ascribed to the local strain variations due to atomic reconstructions modulated by moire patterns.

Fig. 3 Symmetric strain map. Credit: NJU

This study paves a new way to constructing metallic twisted vdW bilayers and tuning the many-body effects via moire engineering and it was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Fig. 4 Relative height and strain field of the heterostructures. Credit: IoP

Explore further Researchers observe moire trions in H-stacked transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers

More information: Wei-Min Zhao et al, Moire enhanced charge density wave state in twisted 1T-TiTe2/1T-TiSe2 heterostructures, Nature Materials (2021). Journal information: Nature Materials Wei-Min Zhao et al, Moire enhanced charge density wave state in twisted 1T-TiTe2/1T-TiSe2 heterostructures,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01167-0
SpaceXs upgraded version of its Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX

The next SpaceX resupply vehicle is packed with European science, ready for delivery to the International Space Station just in time for Christmas.

The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S., at 11:06 CET (10:06 GMT) Tuesday 21 December. But before it does, we take a quick peek at some of the European cargo it carries.

Safe air

Astronauts living on the International Space Station never get a breath of fresh outdoor air.

In their closed atmosphere, irritating, poisonous and carcinogenic gas compounds emanate from materials, equipment and the crew itself. However, there is no window to open to freshen the room, so the astronauts must rely on the air revitalisation system.

Air quality is monitored continuously to assure the crew's health and well-being. A rapid response by the astronauts to any accidental release of harmful gaseous contaminants, or malfunction of the air system is essential, and air monitoring is even more important as missions last longer and samples cannot be taken to Earth for analysis.

ANITA-2 (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) is an instrument that will constantly monitor air quality. Considerably smaller than its predecessor that flew in Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station in 2007, and with improved software, the spectroscopy-based facility will run automatically in the background while astronauts get on with their work. The system is useful for all confined spaces such as in submarines.

First step to printable skin

Another item among the Dragon's cargo is a handheld bioprinter. Researchers behind the technology demonstration from German Space Agency DLR say it could see astronauts use their own skin cells to print plasters and heal wounds during future missions to the Moon and Mars. But first it must be tested under space conditions.

The Bioprint First Aid bioprinter is hand-operated, consisting only of a handle, dispensing device, print head, guide wheels and two bio-ink cartridges. The technology demonstration will not use real human cells but fluorescent microparticles. When combined with two fast-curing gels, these microparticles create a plaster-like wound covering, which will be printed onto an astronaut's foil-covered arm or leg and sent back to Earth for further testing.

The Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air-2 (ANITA-2). Credit: OHB System AG

The hard stuff

Next on the list is another ESA-sponsored DLR experiment: Concrete Hardening, an investigation into how gravity affects the hardening process and properties of concrete.

Previous research showed differences in porosity and microstructure of concrete samples in microgravity. However, this was limited to the solidification of pure cement. In this study, the crew will mix cement, sand, or Moon dust simulant, plus additives with water and leave these to harden in weightlessness. Back on Earth scientists will examine the microstructure and mechanical strength of the samples mixed and hardened in orbit.

The results of this research will facilitate the development of new, improved concrete mixes that could be used as building material for astronaut habitats during Moon and Mars missions, as well as for sustainable construction on Earth.

Spotlight on cellular function

The Cytoskeleton experiment investigates the internal machinery of human cells in microgravity to expand our knowledge of cellular function. It does so with a focus on Rho family GTPases.

These molecules control many important cellular pathways including cell proliferation, apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death), gene expression and intercellular organization. It is believed that weightlessness can disturb the way Rho family GTPases function and the signaling they control.

Cytokeleton tests two cell types: the fibroblast cell line WI-26, and the osteoblast cell line MG63. These two cell types are important for the body's structure, with fibroblasts producing proteins, such as collagenthe main component of connective tissueand osteoblasts responsible for bone formation.

Results of this study could help maintain optimal crew health and performance during spaceflight, and feed into clinical medical research on the ground by enabling scientists to examine cells in a way that is not possible on Earth.

Bioprint First Aid handheld bioprinter. Credit: DLR

Astro Pi

The Astro Pi mark II payload is a like for like upgrade and replacement for the original Astro Pi hardware that flew to the ISS in 2015 for ESA astronaut Tim Peake's Principia mission.

They are two COTS Raspberry Pi 4B computers enclosed in aerospace grade aluminum cases with a range of integrated environmental sensors and a 12-megapixel camera for Earth Observation. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti explores the upgraded Astro Pis in this hardware reveal video.

One Astro Pi will be deployed in the Columbus module while the other will be looking through a hatch window towards the Earth. Students in European schools who are participating in the European Astro Pi Challenge can control these computers using the python programming language. By submitting their python programs their experiments are run on board the Station with the generated results and science data returned to ground for them to analyze.

Compose components

Wireless Compose-2 is a technology demonstrator that aims to provide a flexible and adaptable wireless network infrastructure to conduct and execute low-power, low-weight, and wireless experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). Building on technology used for DLR's first Wireless Compose technology demonstrator in 2018, it shows the capabilities of Wireless Networks for scientific, localisation, and medical experiments in the Columbus module.

Hardware for Wireless Compose-2 consists of five modules that together weigh just one kilogram. Each individual module is roughly the size of a small smartphone. The network will be a platform for other experiments including the Ballistocardiography for Extraterrestrial Applications and long-Term missions (BEAT) experiment that uses a t-shirt equipped with sensors to measure an astronaut's ballistocardiographic data, including pulse and blood pressure.

Funded by the UK Space Agency, Microage will see synthetic muscle cells the size of a grain of rice sent for examination in orbit. A proportion of these cells will be electrically stimulated to induce contractions under microgravity conditions, while others are exposed to artificial gravity via centrifugation. Samples will be frozen and returned to Earth to help identify the mechanisms by which muscle mass is lost and possible modes of prevention.

This is just a sliver of the science winging its way to the Station inside the belly of a Dragon. Other European cargo includes components for Materials Science Lab (MSL) batch 3a, the European Drawer Rack (EDR-2) and Biolab, CalliopEO and ESA's Ice Cubes facility for commercial research in Columbus.

Explore further Image: ISS captured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour
First spotted in Japan in 2012, this invasive beetle species causes serious harm to peach and cherry trees. Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a simulation predicting the spread of an invasive beetle species harming local flora. They tried models based on road lengths, river lengths and recorded cherry tree numbers in square "cells" over Saitama Prefecture. They found that a simple model based on river lengths gave results which compared favorably with real world data. Good predictions could help authorities channel limited resources to where they are most needed.

Invasive insect species are a direct threat to local wildlife. The damage they inflict not only affect local ecosystems, but economies, as well. Some estimates put the total annual cost of biological invasions around the world at well over U.S. $100 billion. The plum longhorn beetle or Aromia bungii is no exception. Though common in eastern Asia, it was only first found in Japan in 2012. In the decade since, it has had a devastating impact on peach orchards and cherry trees, particularly the Somei Yoshino variety which adorns the beautiful Japanese spring landscape. Not only has the invasion hit agriculture, it threatens the spring tourism industry for areas known for their abundant cherry trees.

One of the key aspects of managing such pests is knowing where they will spread each year. Despite a range of technological innovations over the years, like special traps, there are always limited resources that can be deployed: Local authorities need to know where to focus. A team led by Associate Professor Takeshi Osawa has been working on computer simulations to predict where beetles will go. They looked at Saitama Prefecture, where these beetles have become a major problem in recent years.

The cellular automata model is based on rules showing how likely it is for beetles to spread in different directions from each cell. The simulated occurrences broadly agree with actual occurrences in the north of Saitama Prefecture. Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University

Their cellular automata simulation splits the landscape up into squares, with rules dictating how likely it is that beetles spread from cell to cell in different directions. The team knew how much the beetles tended to crop up in areas with cherry trees. Thus, they decided to set the rules based on three different variables: the number of cherry trees on record in each square, the total length of rivers, and the total length of roads, since both rivers and roads tend to have cherry trees along them. They then ran the simulations, looking for areas with high levels of virtual invasions, and compared them with real-life observations of the beetles over the same area. The latter was compiled with the help of local citizens. Interestingly, models based on the number of cherry trees turned out to be the worst predictor for real invasions, since records only extended to trees in public facilities. On the other hand, a combined model using both rivers and roads turned out to be the best, though only marginally better than one made simply from river lengths.

After starting with a detailed simulation of a smaller area, they spread their model over the whole of Saitama Prefecture. They found, for example, that virtual invasions were more prevalent in the east than the west. Not only does this match the growing number of cherry trees in the more urban parts of eastern Saitama, it also broadly agrees with the troubling incidence of beetles in neighboring Gunma Prefecture. The team hopes that the accuracy of the simulations helps inspire focused surveillance and management strategies which selectively target areas with high levels of virtual invasions, to prevent real invasions taking hold.

Explore further Invasive beetle threatens Japan's famed cherry blossoms

More information: Takeshi Osawa, Establishment of an expansion-predicting model for invasive alien cerambycid beetle Aromia bungii based on a virtual ecology approach, Management of Biological Invasions (2021). Takeshi Osawa, Establishment of an expansion-predicting model for invasive alien cerambycid beetle Aromia bungii based on a virtual ecology approach,(2021). DOI: 10.3391/mbi.2022.13.1.02

Provided by Tokyo Metropolitan University
Confined water on the nanometer-size graphene pores. Credit: F. Leoni et at.

Living organisms, viruses, and technological devices, have water layers between their cells or parts and can die or stop working when dehydrated. But why water and not any other fluid? What makes water unique under such conditions when it is in these tiny structures?

In an article published in the journal ACS Nano, researchers from the University of Barcelona and the University La Sapienza of Rome explain why the water moves faster in a pore tinier than a one-millionth of hair than free water, while other fluids do not.

"It all depends on the peculiar hydrogen bond interaction of water and this might be a key factor contributing to the solution of one of the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, the one about clean water and sanitation", explains Giancarlo Franzese, from the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of University of Barcelona (IN2UB).

Actually, in water treatment and sanitation, there is a lot of research on the nanometer-size graphene pores. Furthermore, the result of this joint project between the UB and La Sapienza relates to the switching behavior observed in a hydrated graphene nano-memristor, that is a nanotechnology device where the electric charge rules the magnetic flux, when the confined water changes from one to more layers.

"Nanoconfinement can drastically change the behavior of liquids, puzzling us with counterintuitive properties. It is relevant in applications, including decontamination and crystallization control", says Carles Calero from the IN2UB. In the study, researchers compare, using molecular dynamics simulations, three different liquids in a graphene slit pore: a simple fluid, such as argon; a molecular fluid, such as CO2 or a liquid metal, and water. The three fluids, under similar subnanometric confinement, behave differently from each other, opening the way for possible applications with nanopores, for example, for the elimination of pollutants.

More information: Fabio Leoni et al, Nanoconfined Fluids: Uniqueness of Water Compared to Other Liquids, ACS Nano (2021). Journal information: ACS Nano Fabio Leoni et al, Nanoconfined Fluids: Uniqueness of Water Compared to Other Liquids,(2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c07381
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

NASA plans to replace an engine controller aboard its massive SLS rocket after finding a communications glitch with the system's avionics during preflight testing, the latest setback in a program for which Boeing Co. is the main contractor and that has been plagued by years of delays and billions of dollars in costs beyond its initial budget.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also said Friday it will explore launch dates for a test flight in March and April.

The rocket, which Congress authorized and began funding in 2010, was supposed to fly in late 2016. In October, NASA solicited ideas from the aerospace industry about ways to lower the costs associated with the Space Launch System.

Replacing the unit on one of the SLS's four RS-25 engines is "the best course of action," the agency said. The update comes after engineers preparing the rocket for flight detected a communications problem last month between the rocket's avionics system and the No. 4 engine, and began troubleshooting the issue.

NASA plans to use the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule to return astronauts to the moon later this decade. It had set a tentative launch date of Feb. 12 for the SLS-Orion system's initial uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight around the moon.

Boeing is the rocket's prime contractor and the RS-25 engines, which date to the Space Shuttle program, are supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. The main contractor for the Orion crew capsule, which is designed to take astronauts to deep space, is Lockheed Martin Corp.

For its initial four Artemis flights, NASA will likely spend $4.1 billion per launch for SLS and the Orion capsule, totaling $16.4 billion, according to a Nov. 15 NASA Inspector General report. The agency has spent more than $11 billion to date on the rocket. That document also predicted the first Artemis flight won't be ready to launch before the summer of 2022.

Explore further NASA's uncrewed Artemis moon mission set to launch in February

2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Digital microscope images of archeological ostrich eggshell beads. Credit: Jennifer Miller

Humans are social creatures, but little is known about when, how and why different populations connected in the past. Answering these questions is crucial for interpreting the biological and cultural diversity that we see in human populations today. DNA is a powerful tool for studying genetic interactions between populations, but it can't address any cultural exchanges within these ancient meetings. Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have turned to an unexpected source of informationostrich eggshell beadsto shed light on ancient social networks. In a new study published in Nature, researchers Drs. Jennifer Miller and Yiming Wang report 50,000-years of population connection and isolation, driven by changing rainfall patterns, in southern and eastern Africa.

Ostrich eggshell beads: A window into the past

Ostrich eggshell (OES) beads are ideal artifacts for understanding ancient social relationships. They are the world's oldest fully manufactured ornaments, meaning that instead of relying on an item's natural size or shape, humans completely transformed the shells to produce beads. This extensive shaping creates ample opportunities for variations in style. Because different cultures produced beads of different styles, the prehistoric accessories provide researchers a way to trace cultural connections.

"It's like following a trail of breadcrumbs," says Miller, lead-author of the study. "The beads are clues, scattered across time and space, just waiting to be noticed."

To search for signs of population connectivity, Miller and Wang assembled the largest ever database of ostrich eggshell beads. It includes data from more than 1500 individual beads unearthed from 31 sites across southern and eastern Africa, encompassing the last 50,000 years. Gathering this data was a painstakingly slow process that took more than a decade.

A string of modern ostrich eggshell beads from eastern Africa. Credit: Hans Sell

Climate change and social networks in the Stone Age

By comparing OES bead characteristics, such as total diameter, aperture diameter and shell thickness, Miller and Wang found that between 50,000 and 33,000 years ago, people in eastern and southern Africa were using nearly identical OES beads. The finding suggests a long-distance social network spanning more than 3,000 km once connected people in the two regions.

"The result is surprising, but the pattern is clear," says Wang, co-corresponding author of the study. "Throughout the 50,000 years we examined, this is the only time period that the bead characteristics are the same."

This eastern-southern connection at 5033,000 years ago is the oldest social network ever identified, and it coincides with a particularly wet period in eastern Africa. However, signs of the regional network disappear by 33,000 years ago, likely triggered by a major shift in global climates. Around the same time that the social network breaks down, eastern Africa experienced a dramatic reduction in precipitation as the tropical rain belt shifted southward. This increased rain in the large area connecting eastern and southern Africa (the Zambezi River catchment), periodically flooding riverbanks, and perhaps creating a geographic barrier that disrupted regional social networks.

"Through this combination of paleoenvironmental proxies, climate models, and archaeological data, we can see the connection between climate change and cultural behavior," says Wang.

Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania, an important site in studies of human evolution, is experiencing drying and shorter, more irregular rainy reasons. Credit: Yiming Wang

Weaving a story with beads

Together, the results of this work document a 50,000-year-long story about human connections, and the dramatic climate changes that drove people apart. The data even provides new insight into variable social strategies between eastern and southern Africa by documenting different bead-use trajectories through time. These regional responses highlight the flexibility of human behavior and show there's more than one path to our species' success.

"These tiny beads have the power to reveal big stories about our past," says Miller. "We encourage other researchers to build upon this database, and continue exploring evidence for cultural connection in new regions."

Explore further Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 10,000 years of cultural interaction across Africa

More information: Jennifer Miller, Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 50,000-year-old social network in Africa, Nature (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04227-2 Journal information: Nature Jennifer Miller, Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 50,000-year-old social network in Africa,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04227-2
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis described for the first time the structure of a bifunctional protein, called CcsBA, that transports heme and attaches it to cytochromes. Credit: Kranz laboratory, Washington University

Heme is an essential part of the protein hemoglobin, which colors human blood red. Heme also is crucial for cytochrome proteins, which power the cell. Humans, animals, plants and bacteria all use heme.

Hemoglobin shuttles oxygen to tissues where it is needed, while cytochromes carry electrons for energy conversion in the cell. But understanding how heme moves across membraneslike it needs to, in order to insert into hemoglobin and cytochromeshas been challenging. Heme transport is transient, which means heme moves through membranes quickly and leaves behind no traces. And heme-binding membrane proteins are difficult to purify in large quantities.

In research published Dec. 20 in Nature Chemical Biology, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis described for the first time the structure of a bifunctional protein, called CcsBA, that transports heme and attaches it to cytochromes. The study led by Robert Kranz, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, captured two conformational states of CcsBA, a bacterial and chloroplast protein, allowing scientists to characterize the enzyme mechanism.

"This new paper addresses the structural basis for how the CcsBA machine functions, revealing major dynamic switches that occur during the cycle of heme transport," Kranz said.

The study was made possible by a collaboration with James Fitzpatrick, director of the Washington University Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI) at the School of Medicine and a professor of neuroscience, of cell biology and physiology, and of biomedical engineering, and Michael Rau, a staff scientist and structural biologist on his team. They leveraged a cutting-edge structural biology technique called single particle averaging, which utilized a state-of-the-art cryo-Electron Microscope (cryo-EM) to image different views of the protein in its natively vitrified (frozen) state. After sorting all of the different views, they were able to construct cryo-EM density mapswhich are three-dimensional representations of the protein built from a series of two-dimensional projections of various viewsfrom which Kranz's team could build an atomic model of the structure of CcsBA.

"Cryo-EM is a transformative technology that allows us to visualize at the near-atomic level the structural arrangement of a given protein, including the ability to tease out different conformations from an ensemble of states," Fitzpatrick said. "It was this latter ability that was key in enabling us to capture the mechanism of heme transport."

The cyro-EM data identified two states in which either one or two heme molecules were bound.

"The structural models we were able to construct illustrate that CcsBA is trapped with heme in two different conformations, which we term the closed and open states," Kranz said. "This new body of work addresses the structural basis by which the CcsBA machine functions, revealing a major dynamic switch that occurs during the transport cycle.

"One of the coolest findings is that a large chamber opens upon heme transport," he said. The chamber is for cytochrome c synthesis.

Co-first author Deanna L. Mendez, a postdoctoral staff scientist in biology, previously co-authored a study with Kranz in eLIFE about the reconstitution of the purified bacterial and human synthases of heme. CcsBA is different from the human form of heme-transporter/cytochrome c synthase. The insights gained through identifying its structures give researchers a leg up on developing antimicrobial agents that will selectively target bacteria.

"In CcsBA, we observe a clear path between transmembrane alpha helices that could allow heme to travel from the transmembrane-heme site to the external heme site," Mendez said. "Since heme goes down its concentration gradient during export, we do not envision an energy source requirement for this process."

Co-first author Ethan Lowder is a senior at Washington University and worked on this project for two years.

"Solving a novel structure of a protein is very difficult," Lowder said. "In this case, there were no similar structures that we could rely on as a template or starting point. It was definitely a challenge, but we worked all the way through it to get to the final structures."

The second author, Dustin Tillman, who was an undergraduate at Washington University when he completed this work, was instrumental in purifying CcsBA. He partnered with the WUCCI team to optimize the sample preparation for the single particle cryo-EM studies. "Dustin also performed reconstitution assays on his purified preps to show they were active synthases," Kranz said.

"I am grateful for the contributions and involvement of our talented undergraduate researchers in this NIH-supported research," Kranz said. "This study is a culmination of over three decades that our lab has studied heme transport and cytochrome assembly, so it is satisfying to know the structural basis for both. It will lead to more experiments on mechanisms of chamber opening, transport and the synthase reaction in the chamber."

Explore further Variation in how animals and bacteria use heme reveals potential target for new antibiotics

More information: Robert Kranz, Cryo-EM of CcsBA reveals the basis for cytochrome c biogenesis and heme transport, Nature Chemical Biology (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41589-021-00935-y Journal information: Nature Chemical Biology Robert Kranz, Cryo-EM of CcsBA reveals the basis for cytochrome c biogenesis and heme transport,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-021-00935-y
Rajib Saha. Credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Given that less than 10 percent of synthetic plastics are recycled, the petroleum-derived, non-biodegradable materials continue to accumulate across the planet, covering stretches of land and the ocean floor. Microplastics have been found 29,000 feet above sea level, on the peak of Mount Everest, and 36,000 feet below it, in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

Some bacteria produce biodegradable plastics when deprived of nutrients or otherwise stressed, positioning them as part of a solution to the plastic pollution crisis. Unfortunately, the cost of feeding and maintaining those microbes has impeded efforts to scale up their production of biodegradable plastics. So researchers have set out to engineer microbes that yield bioplasticsespecially poly-3-hydroxybutyrate, or PHBfaster, more efficiently and from renewable feedstocks.

Nebraska's Rajib Saha and colleagues have been studying the species Rhodopseudomonas palustris for secrets to engineering a better bacterium. Their recent experiments generated a bevy of important findings. Among them? A component of decomposed lignina polymer found in the cell walls of nearly all land-based plantscan substantially boost R. palustris production of PHB plastic.

To better understand why, the team turned to a model that maps the metabolic processes responsible for turning feedstocks into various products, including bioplastics. That model helped reveal multiple strategies for optimizing PHB production, from bypassing a biochemical reaction that normally acts as a bottleneck to growing the microbes on surfaces abundant in electrons and carbon atoms.

As a starting point for those surfaces, lignin might eventually key the sustainable production of PHB on a commercially viable, economically feasible scale, the researchers said. The strategies derived from the team's hybrid approach of experimental observation and metabolism-focused modeling could also be directed toward other, similar bacteria, potentially forwarding more candidates for the green production of greener plastics.

Explore further How a bacterium may help solve the plastic pollution crisis

More information: Adil Alsiyabi et al, Synergistic experimental and computational approach identifies novel strategies for polyhydroxybutyrate overproduction, Metabolic Engineering (2021). Adil Alsiyabi et al, Synergistic experimental and computational approach identifies novel strategies for polyhydroxybutyrate overproduction,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2021.08.008
The first virtual G20 summit took place on March 26th, 2020. Credit: Lund University

During the pandemic, physical summits were replaced by Zoom meetings, and global political leaders had to quickly adjust. How did they visually convey their status in this new world of digital diplomacy? A new study from Lund University in Sweden analyzed over 50 photos from the first virtual G20 meeting in 2020.

When political leaders meet, there is usually a strict protocol, and national attributes should preferably be avoided. However, when the pandemic struck and diplomacy moved online, something happened.

"Usually when diplomats meet at summits, props are avoided. Neutral locations are preferred, and when official photos are taken, their aim is to project that a meeting of equals has taken place," says Elsa Hedling, a political scientist at Lund University.

A historical example of how important visual protocol can be is the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Additional doors had to be installed so that Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill could enter the fateful meeting room, where decisions about Germany's future would be made, at the same time.

A more contemporary example is the so-called "sofa-gate," when Charles Michel of the European Council sat in the chair meant for Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission at a meeting with the Turkish President Erdogan.

However, when a lot of meetings moved online to virtual conference tools such as Zoom in 2020, there wasn't much protocol or any precedent to refer to.

"It was interesting to see how different states signaled status through how virtual meetings were set up. It reinforced how important visual diplomacy is; the need to visually highlight one's own nation emerged immediately," says Elsa Hedling.

Together with her colleague at Uppsala University, August Danielson, Hedling collected all the images that the countries themselves distributed from the first virtual G20 meeting on March 26, 2020, that is, a few weeks after the world shut down. They then looked for signs of key factors in international politics: reliability, trustworthiness, material capabilities and continuity.

The photos were analyzed to interpret how the four status resources are signaled in a staged diplomatic situation such as the virtual summit by attention to the dominant elements of a diplomatic theatrical staging: backdrop, actors, venue and props.

The backdrop: The backgrounds were very different. At least one flag appeared behind all the participants, but the number of flags varied greatly, as well as how these were placed in relation to the leader. Both India and Indonesia (with a low GDP) had ten flags, while the United States, China and Japan (with the highest GDP) only had one flag. Under normal circumstances, only one flag per country is allowed at diplomatic summits.

Actors: The diplomatic delegation seen in the images also varied. Some countries, such as Russia, France, Canada, Japan and South Korea, showed their leaders completely alone, while others, for example Turkey and Vietnam, had many (male) advisors around their leaders. Sometimes it was difficult to understand the position of advisors. In some cases, they were clear status symbols, for example, the United States placed its Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff next to President Trump, as a clear signal of the economic and military strength of the United States.

Venue: Some leaders sat in seemingly ordinary conference rooms, but for other states, the location had a symbolic value. China's leader Xi Jinping sat in the well-known eastern hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, which is used for legislative and ceremonial purposes by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. The French president Emmanuel Macron also attended the meeting from an ornate hall in the Elysee Palace. This choice symbolizes wealth and prestige, and signals material resources and historical continuity. Trump participated from the "Situation Room" in the White House, another symbol of US military power.

Props: What other things were visible in the images? The French president had a bottle of hand sanitizer placed in front of him during the meeting, which was in line with France's rhetoric about a "war on the virus." In this category, tie colors were also studied, where blue signals credibility and red aggressiveness (the majority chose red or blue ties).

During the almost two years of the ongoing pandemic, the variation in how diplomats present themselves at virtual meetings has gradually diminished.

"To some extent, you learn from one another, and gradually there has been a streamlining. In some cases there are also stricter instructions from organizers. Initially, however, the lack of a visual protocol led to new opportunities for states to signal status. It may be taking place in a digital landscape now, but diplomacy still rests on the same cultural and symbolic practices," concludes Elsa Hedling.

Thew research was published in Review of International Studies.

More information: August Danielson et al, Visual diplomacy in virtual summitry: Status signalling during the coronavirus crisis, Review of International Studies doi.org/10.1017/S0260210521000607 August Danielson et al, Visual diplomacy in virtual summitry: Status signalling during the coronavirus crisis,
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global production and distribution, it shone a spotlight on the fault lines running through some of the world's supply chains, whichaccording to a group of Stanford human rights researchershave long been fraught with problems.

Modern slavery, forced labor and human trafficking continue to be endemic issues in global production and manufacturing, especially in low-wage, labor-intensive industries. Despite governments and private corporations pledging to put an end to exploitative employment practices, the problem persists across the world's supply chains.

Now, a new project, involving researchers from Stanford, Simon Fraser University and Yale, shows how human rights abuses can be rooted out from labor, once and for all.

"For years, public and private sector interventions on human trafficking did little more than tinker around the edges," said Jessie Brunner, director of human trafficking research at Stanford's Center for Human Rights and International Justice. Just a few months before COVID-19 upended the global economy, business leaders from some of the largest U.S. companies gathered to revise the purpose of the corporation to be more equitable and inclusive and to deal fairly and ethically with their suppliers. As the pandemic exposed and exacerbated inequality across the world, Brunner and the lab saw this as a moment when their work could have significant impact in showing lead firms and governments what they need to do to accomplish what they sought out to achieve.

"The academic community needed to come together to offer evidence-based, actionable solutions to help global business leaders and governments disentangle global supply chains from histories of exploitation."

In November 2020, Brunner co-founded the Re:Structure Lab with Genevieve LeBaron, then at the University of Sheffield, to examine the ways in which global supply chains can be restructured.

Over the past year, Re:Structure Lab has released five issue briefs that identify key trends and patterns that lead to labor exploitation and offer concrete recommendations backed by rigorous academic research.

Most recently, the team published "Blueprint," a guidance document showing how businesses and governments can promote fair, equitable labor standards and protect workers from the kinds of forced labor, exploitation and abuse that have been intertwined with global supply chain for centuries.

"Though more than a century has passed since the abolitionist movement, various forms of modern slavery persist across the globe in the 21st century," said David Cohen, director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice and a member of the Re:Structure Lab. "History teaches us to look beyond our limited context and not to be satisfied with apparent partial successes."

Understanding forced labor

From chocolate to coffee, cellphones, clothing and cotton, human rights abuses in the supply chain occur at alarming rates: The International Labor Organization estimates that nearly 40.3 million people are in modern slavery5.4 victims for every 1,000 people.

While companies have taken a public stand against exploitative labor practices and have voiced a commitment to being socially and ethically responsibleissuing "zero tolerance" statements, writing ethical sourcing standards and producing compliance reporting and audits of the suppliers they work with, for exampleit has done little to move the needle on forced labor, the researchers said.

Time and time again, media news outlets and non-governmental organizations have uncovered nefarious employment practices. For example, one news investigation of a coffee bean plantation that allegedly supplied two international consumer coffee companies uncovered children as young as possibly 8 years old working under "grueling conditions" in hazardous environments. Another investigation found that a popular U.S. chocolate company that had just branded itself as sustainable also relied on child labor and paid their cocoa farmers poverty wages.

Problems of exploitative labor like this persist due to a variety of issues, the researchers said.

For example, in the evidence brief Commercial Contracts and Sourcing, the scholars outline some of the problematic patterns that contribute to exploitative practices: High pressure for ship dates; late payments to suppliers (but stiff fines for any delay on their end); corporate demands for goods at rates less than the production cost; and unpredictable ordering patterns.

The brunt of the cost falls on people who already live in extreme poverty. Faced with limited access to educational and professional opportunities and other critical elements of human development, the marginalized populations are often left with no choice but to comply with dangerous working conditions, low wages and underpayment. Some even take on job-related debt, like burdensome recruitment feesa practice that is far too common, as described in the group's Worker Debt and Inequality brief.

Contributing further to the problem are legal loopholes that enable corporations to skirt accountability for human rights violations. While transparency legislation exists that requires corporations to disclose the risk of forced labor in their supply chain and describe their efforts to address it, the laws do not get at the root problem or spur any meaningful change, the researchers note in the brief Due Diligence and Transparency Legislation. Rather, transparency legislation is largely cosmetic, they said: Companies can look like they are committed to a good cause but are not held accountable to do so.

For example, the U.K.'s Modern Slavery Act of 2015 lacks robust, state-led enforcement or means for remedy, according to the researchers. Furthermore, many companies do not comply with the requirement to publish an annual report on what they are doing to remedy the issue. "There seem to be no real consequences," Brunner said. Similarly, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act does not go far beyond a requirement of disclosure.

While global corporations have been reporting record profits, the share of income going to labor has gradually shrunk. In their brief Labour Share and Value Distribution, the scholars cite data from the International Labour Office (ILO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that show wages falling for the lowest income brackets while increasing for those in the highest.

Between an economy increasingly centered on the financial industry, market concentration and repression of labor organizing, the share of value amassed in supply chains that goes to workers has overwhelmingly been driven down, ultimately leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation, the scholars concluded.

Focusing on solutions

Fortunately, the researchers emphasize, there are solutions to these problems.

A key member of the Re:Structure Lab is Luis C.deBaca, who as ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons during the Obama administration, led U.S. government efforts in the global fight against current forms of slavery. He is now a professor of the practice at the University of Michigan Law School and an affiliated scholar at Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.

"The persistence of forced labor in the modern economy is often dismissed as an anomaly," said C.deBaca. "The lab's work is showing that rather than being an artifact of isolated 'bad apples,' worker exploitation is an integral feature of global supply chains and that there are ways to change that."

In the lab's briefs and "Blueprint," the group makes recommendations to business leaders and governments, including moving away from shareholder profit as the primary corporate objective by rebalancing profit allocation toward productive activities, and forming more long-term contractual relationships with supplier firms, as well as investing in both capacity building and technical training to lessen an operation's susceptibility to exploitation.

The Re:Structure Lab members hope their research and recommendations will help provide business and policymakers concrete guidance for building corporations that respect the human rights and dignity of workers and the communities where they operate.

"This is a systemic issue that runs across a model of capitalism that is inextricably linked to legacies of slavery, colonization and extraction," said Brunner. "As such, we all have a role to play in rooting it outwhether in how we vote at the polls, with our wallets as consumers or as a shareholderby pushing policymakers and business leaders to do better."

Explore further Modern slavery still not a priority for one in five Australian businesses

More information: More information is available at More information is available at www.restructurelab.org/blueprint
Bison image. Credit: Duane Froese

A new study has shed new light on why large mammals died out at the end of the ice age, suggesting their extinction was caused by a warming climate and expansion of vegetation that created unsuitable habitat for the animals. The findings, published in the journal PNAS, have major implications for proposals to prevent the soils in the Arctic today from thawing by re-introducing animals such as bison and horses.

About 14,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, open, grassy landscapes that had extended eastwards from France across the now submerged Bering Sea all the way to the Yukon in Canada were transformed by the rapid spread of shrubs. At the same time, several iconic mammal species that inhabited what is now Alaska and the Yukon, such as the woolly mammoth, became extinct, and archaeology records human presence in the region.

These ancient coincidences have led to the suggestion that human hunting caused the demise of the mammals, and their loss led to the shrub expansion, as they were not there to trample down the vegetation and put nutrients back into the soil.

Today, with strong arctic warming, shrubs are spreading even further north into tundra regions. It is now popular to advocate that a form of rewildingwhere animals are returned to their original ecosystems to restore more "natural" conditionsmight reverse the trend of increasing shrub cover, with possible benefit of keeping carbon stored in the ground. This is because low-growing vegetation exposes the ground to colder conditions than shrub cover does, and thus the ground and the carbon it contains remain well frozen.

Others advocate that climate change drove the vegetation and landscape changes, and these led to the loss of the animals as their habitat disappeared.

To test these alternative hypotheses, an international research team examined records of fossil pollen preserved in lake sediments across Alaska and Yukon for thousands of years. By focussing on records that met strict dating criteria the team could accurately pinpoint the timing of shrub expansion across this region. They then compared this with how the numbers of radiocarbon-dated bones from horse, bison, mammoth and moose changed through timewhich provided them with an estimate of their changing population sizes.

Their results showed that willow and birch shrubs began to expand across Alaska and Yukon around 14,000 years ago, when records of dated bones indicate that large grazing mammals were still abundant on the landscape.

"Our study uses a clear predictive test to assess two opposing hypotheses about large animals in ancient and modern tundra ecosystems: that the animals disappeared before the shrubs increased, or that the shrubs increased before the animals disappeared," said Professor Mary Edwards of the University of Southampton who was part of the study team.

Dr. Ali Monteath, the lead author from the Universities of Alberta and Southampton, adds "The results support the idea that at the end of the last ice age a major shift to warmer and wetter conditions transformed the landscape in a way that was highly unfavorable to the animals, including mammoths".

The findings suggest that climate change was the primary controller of northern ecosystems and that the large herbivores were not able to maintain their environment as the shrubs spread. "While humans may have compounded population declines, our results suggest climate-driven vegetation change was the primary reason the mammals disappeared," added Professor Edwards.

Returning to the concept of rewilding the North with large mammals that are currently absent from the region, the research team concludes that this would probably not transform the vegetation over large areas and so do little to curtail release of carbon from the Arctic permafrost.

Study co-author Professor Duane Froese of the University of Alberta said: "Rewilding experiments at the scale of local paddocks, as has been done for example at Pleistocene Park (NE Siberia), show that megaherbivores can alter their environment, drive changes in vegetation and even cool soil temperature, but these animal densities are much higher than we would expect for Pleistocene ecosystems. Our study shows that the effect of megafauna grazing is small at sub-continental scales even with the presence of mammoths, and climate, once again, is the main driver of these systems."

Benjamin Gaglioti of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks added: "The hypothesis that reintroducing megafauna will prevent or slow warming-driven permafrost thaw and vegetation change in the Arctic has been bolstered by the idea that Pleistocene megafauna were instrumental in maintaining ice age ecosystems. In contrast to this prediction, our results show that high-latitude ecosystems responded sensitively to past warming events, even though megafauna were abundant on the landscape. These results lend support to the hypothesis that reintroducing megafauna today will do little to desensitize high latitude ecosystems to human driven warming."

Explore further Tundra study uncovers impact of climate warming in the Arctic

More information: Late Pleistocene shrub expansion preceded megafauna turnover and extinctions in eastern Beringia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Late Pleistocene shrub expansion preceded megafauna turnover and extinctions in eastern Beringia,(2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107977118
Schematic molecular-level illustration of SIS and i-SIS. Credit: Atsushi Noro

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEssometimes called thermoplastic rubbers) are a chemically-bonded combination of multiple polymers ("copolymer")typically a plastic and a rubberthat have both thermoplastic and elastomeric properties. The thermoplastic property is useful in injection molding, while the elastomeric property gives the object the ability to stretch and return to nearly its original shape. These materials are ubiquitous, for example, in the interiors and exteriors of vehicles. The best-known TPEs include "styrenic block polymers", which contain molecular blocks of polystyrene, which is hard, and polydiene, which is rubbery. Two important examples are polystyrene-b-polyisoprene-b-polystyrene (SIS) and polystyrene-b-polybutadiene-b- polystyrene (SBS). Styrenic block polymers were developed by the Shell Chemical Company in the 1960s and have since been further developed by many researchers in both academia and industry. While the annual global market for styrenic block polymer-based TPEs is worth several billion dollars, elastomers with enhanced mechanical properties, especially toughness, also remain in great demand.

To improve the mechanical properties of styrenic block polymers, Nagoya University and the Zeon Corporation recently reported industry-friendly synthesis of chemically modified SIS such as hydrogen-bonded SIS (h-SIS) and "ionically functionalized SIS" (i-SIS)which is SIS with positive ions such as sodium bonded in it. The "cation" has one (monovalent) electron removed from the outer shell. Preliminary measurements showed that i-SIS has an extremely high tensile toughness of 480 MJ/m3, which is the highest value of any known thermoplastic rubber material as far as we know.

Although a preliminary tensile test is useful for investigating the common mechanical properties of materials, it does not reveal all of the mechanical features of the materials, particularly impact resistance that is crucially important in practical applications. Moreover, measuring the impact resistance is also important for understanding the mechanism by which desirable mechanical properties arise in the material, and therefore how they can be achieved.

Setup for impact tests. Credit: Atsushi Noro

This study by Nagoya University and the Zeon Corporation is the first to evaluate the impact resistance of the new elastomeric materials based on i-SIS, and compare them to the impact resistance of a typical high-strength material based on glass-fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP), which has a tensile strength of 330 MPa. Drop weight impact tests demonstrated that i-SIS with monovalent or divalent cations is 3 or 4 times more impact resistant than chemically-unmodified SIS; moreover, i-SIS with divalent cations is found to be 1.2 times more impact resistant than typical high-strength GFRP. In total, i-SIS, especially with divalent ions, was found to be highly impact resistant, even though inorganic fillersa typical additive for hardening polymersare not incorporated into the polymer and the molecular structure of the polymer is not chemically cross-linked.

Photographs of SIS, i-SIS and GFRP, and impact resistance of each sample compared to that of SIS. Credit: Atsushi Noro

Automobile and other vehicle manufacturers are continually searching for lighter materials that are also resistant to damage. Since i-SIS can be synthesized on an industrial scale, it has a great potential to become a next-generation elastomeric material for use not only in interior and exterior automobile parts, but also for automobile bodies, and even the outer panels of automobiles, trains, and other vehicles that require structural materials with high impact resistance as well as ease of manufacture. These research achievements will also contribute to the development of lightweight vehicles and the establishment of a carbon-free society.

The paper was published in ACS Omega.

More information: Takato Kajita et al, Highly Impact-Resistant Block Polymer-Based Thermoplastic Elastomers with an Ionically Functionalized Rubber Phase, ACS Omega (2021). Journal information: ACS Omega Takato Kajita et al, Highly Impact-Resistant Block Polymer-Based Thermoplastic Elastomers with an Ionically Functionalized Rubber Phase,(2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c05609
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Despite the belief of many parents and teachers, school uniforms don't seem to have any effect on young students' behavior or attendance overall, a new national study found.

But students who attended schools requiring school uniforms did report lower levels of "school belonging" in fifth grade than did students in schools without uniforms.

The findings came from data on more than 6,000 school-age children.

"A lot of the core arguments about why school uniforms are good for student behavior don't hold up in our sample," said Arya Ansari, lead author of the study and assistant professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.

"We didn't see much difference in our behavior measures, regardless of whether the schools had a uniform policy or not."

Ansari conducted the study with Michael Shepard, a graduate student in human sciences at Ohio State, and Michael Gottfried, associate professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Their results were published online recently in the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

The issue is important because school uniforms are becoming more popular, Ansari said, and not just in private schools.

About 20% of public schools required uniforms in 2011-12, up from just 3% in 1995-96. About 6 out of every 10 private schools required uniforms in 2011-2012.

"There hasn't been much research done on the value of school uniforms in the past 20 years or so, especially given how much their use has increased," said Ansari, who is also a faculty associate at Ohio State's Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.

Proponents of school uniforms have argued that, among other things, they promote better attendance and a stronger sense of community, which results in less bullying and fighting.

To test that, the researchers used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which followed a nationally representative sample of 6,320 students from kindergarten through the end of fifth grade.

Every academic year, teachers rated each student on three dimensions: internalizing behavior problems (such as anxiety and social withdrawal), externalizing behavior problems (such as aggression or destruction of property) and social skills.

Teachers also reported how often each student was absent.

Overall, school uniforms had no effect on any of the three dimensions of behavior in any grade, even after taking into account a wide range of other factors that could potentially affect students' behavior.

The study did find that low-income students in schools that required uniforms did have slightly better attendance, but that difference amounted to less than one day per year, Ansari said.

The researchers also evaluated self-report measures from the same students when they were in fifth grade. Students reported on their sense of school belonging, such as how close they felt to teachers and classmates. They also reported their experiences of bullying and social anxiety.

School uniforms were not linked to any differences in bullying or social anxiety in the children. But those who had to wear uniforms reported lower levels of school belonging than did those who attended schools with no uniform requirements.

The data in this study can't explain this finding, Ansari said, but there are some plausible reasons why this might be so.

"While uniforms are supposed to build a sense of community, they may have the opposite effect," he said.

"Fashion is one way that students express themselves, and that may be an important part of the school experience. When students can't show their individuality, they may not feel like they belong as much."

The results of this study should caution parents, teachers and administrators from assuming that school uniforms have positive effects that they may not have, Ansari said.

"School uniforms may not be the most effective way to improve student behavior and engagement."

Explore further High schoolers who change schools during academic year are 40% more likely to drop out

More information: Arya Ansari et al, School uniforms and student behavior: is there a link?, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2021). Arya Ansari et al, School uniforms and student behavior: is there a link?,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.09.012
Credit: Valerie Chiang for USC Dornsife Magazine

With many countries, companies and individuals intensifying their space exploration programs, questions about rights, ownership and the feasibility of manned space missions are coming to the fore of public debate.

In early 1610, Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei wrote a letter to Cosimo de' Medicithen Grand Duke of Tuscanystating that he had observed for moons of Jupiter (which Galileo initially believed to be stars) using his improved telescope lens. Hoping to secure the grand duke's patronage, Galileo proposed naming the bodies after Cosimo's family, eventually calling them the "Medicea Sidera," or the Medicean stars. (In the end, the moons were named for four lovers of the god Zeus: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.)

Galileo was not the first to claim stars in the name of people on Earth, and he was to be far from the last. Although the names of celestial bodies are now determined by the International Astronomical Union using a systematic naming system, the idea that outer space is terra incognita, a place yet unexplored or claimed, where everything is up for grabs, is more powerful today than ever before.

Countries, companies and even individuals are all sizing up the expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere as a place of nebulous possibility: a potential source of minerals, a new space to further national interests or even a place for future habitation. But how we end up exploring space will be defined not just by ambition and competition, but by scientific realities that argue in favor of advanced telescopes, and robotic astronauts over ones made of flesh and blood.

National projections

The modern space era took flight in October 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite. The event had immediate repercussions back on Earth. Alarmed by the Soviets' technological prowess and its ramifications for their military strength, the United States accelerated not only its space program but also its weapons capability, shifting the Cold War into high gear.

Ever since, outer space has been the backdrop for a human melodrama that has exposed our best and worst traits. For decades, astronauts and scientists from around the world have worked together to unlock the mysteries of space. Nowhere is that cooperation more evident than with the International Space Station (ISS). Launched 23 years ago, the ISS has been as much a political as a technological marvel. The U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada jointly operate the space station, while astronauts from 19 countries have visited the orbital laboratory.

More recently, the long-awaited advent of space tourism has started to unfold. Actor William Shatner, who, as Captain James T. Kirk on the iconic television series Star Trek, piloted the U.S.S. Enterprise as it boldly went where no man (or woman) had gone before, recently became the oldest man to fall to Earth thanks to a private rocket ride aboard the Blue Origin suborbital capsulethe space tourism project developed and financed by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

But the final frontier has also played host to national ambitions that reflect an ongoing jockeying for power among some of the world's most powerful nations.

Whereas the space race was once a two-country event between the U.S. and the Soviets, it is now multipolar, with China, India and other nations investing heavily in space exploration in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Currently, 72 nations have government space programs, with capabilities ranging from satellite operation to full launch of spacecraft.

"We are all ramping up our ambition," says Robert English, associate professor of international relations, Slavic languages and literatures and environmental studies at USC Dornsife. "In the U.S., we have rovers on Mars, we'll be launching the [James] Webb space telescope soon and the Lunar Gateway will eventually serve as a spaceport for manned exploration of the moon, Mars and maybe beyond. China has moon and Mars rovers, too, plus the Heavenly Palace Space Station, while Russia continues a smaller though active space program of its own."

And while collaborative projects, such as the ISS, have aimed to foster a sense of scientific cooperation rather than competition, terrestrial political alliances and divisions certainly carry over into space, English notes. In June, Russia threatened to pull out of the ISS and build its own space station if the U.S. didn't drop sanctions on its space program and the microchips it needed to launch its rockets. (Officials reportedly later said such a withdrawal would not happen.) More worrisome to the U.S. are Chinese or Russian anti-satellite capabilities, English says. Meanwhile, those two countries are worried about America's Space Force and secretive space plane project.

Does such maneuvering signal that space is poised to become a new arena for national turf wars, or does it represent little more than empty political point-scoring? The reality is probably somewhere between the two, English says. Looking at China's space program as an extension of its Belt and Road initiative to foster international relationships through joint infrastructure programs on Earth, rather than as a sign of some looming interplanetary imperial ambition, for example, helps avoid alarmist interpretations of the situation.

"We swing from complacency to hysteria, and maybe the proper reaction is somewhere in the middle," English says. "There's no doubt that what other countries are doing and how we perceive what they're doing are two different things, and both are strongly colored by our relationship on Earth."

English is concerned these exaggerated reactions to other nations' space projects could create a hostile international environment similar to the nuclear arms race of the 1950s and '60s, with countries loading up their budgets with space-based weapons and defense systems. Meanwhile, the Outer Space Treaty, to which 111 nations are parties and another 23 are signatories, places some limits on military activities in space but is much vaguer on issues such as space mining and ownership of resources. In addition, five countriesChina, Russia, the U.S., India and North Koreaare actively working on hypersonic missiles that may further stretch the treaty by placing warheads in a partial or "fractional" orbit of the Earth, English notes.

"If nations have a confrontational attitude, we will quickly be bumping into each other and saying, "No, I claimed that first. Who says you can claim this? No, we don't agree to that part of the treaty, we didn't sign that annex,'" English says. "We need a conference of at least the leading space powers to figure out the likeliest points of friction and work out the rules of the road."

For all or for none?

While a handful of countries and wealthy individuals are flexing their cosmic muscles, the fact is that space really belongs to everyoneor perhaps to no one, says Andrea Ballestero, associate professor of anthropology. The idea of space being an open field, full of unowned things that can belong to the first to claim them, is a dangerous echo of the tenets behind the so-called Age of Exploration, when European powers laid claim to lands in, among other places, the Americas and Australia.

Being a billionaire or a powerful nation are not traits that confer entitlement to outer space, Ballestero argues. Rather than focus on the concept of astronomical bodies and objects as potential property, she suggests, individuals, companies and nations should view space similarly to entities like oceansplaces that don't have an owner but are regulated through many international treaties.

"The blueprint is to put aside the idea that this is about who claims private property, and instead adopt the framework that this is a collective problem or a collective possibility, one which cannot be reduced to the interests of one player," Ballestero says. "We can deal with that as a global community."

The outer limits

While one can speculate about the chances of Russiaor billionaire and space entrepreneur Richard Bransonestablishing a colony on Mars or setting up a mining base on the moon, the health implications for the human body of long-duration exposure to the hazards of space make such speculative projects highly unlikely to come to fruition, at least for the foreseeable future, says Kenneth Phillips, adjunct professor of the practice of physics and astronomy at USC Dornsife and curator for aerospace science at the California Science Center.

Beyond low Earth orbit, astronauts are exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation, placing them at higher risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, in a microgravity environment, the body's fluids tend to redistribute themselves uniformly, which can cause problems with rapid fluid loss and even result in deformation of the eyes. Microgravity itself is correlated with loss of muscle mass, which can affect heart health and bone density, among other things. Finally, there's the issue of time: Even if humans were capable of traveling to Jupiter in spacecraft far more advanced than what we have now, such a trip might take at least five years, meaning an astronaut would need to devote a decade of their life just to getting to and from the mission site.

Experts in the field agree on the importance of space explorationan endeavor that requires a relatively small portion of our country's budget and has been the impetus for many revolutionary inventions. However, as astrophysicist and USC Dornsife Dean Amber D. Miller notes, the astrophysics and planetary science communities agree that manned space travel is impractical due to the vast timescales, the radiation environment in our solar system and the astronomical expense. Space exploration should be done primarily using robotics and advanced telescopesthe only way to study space outside our solar system. Robotic probes, such as NASA's Juno probe and the Mars exploration rovers, are a safer and more efficient way to study the environment within our own solar system.

Although the argument for manned space flight anywhere beyond the orbit of Earth is very weak from a scientific standpoint, it remains popular among the general publicsomething governments have eagerly encouraged. More than a few Russian-language posters from the 1960s mention the "glory" that Soviet cosmonauts brought to the USSR, with at least one featuring a moon or planet bearing the Soviet Union's Russian abbreviation "CCCP" stamped on it. Meanwhile, the image of astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon during the 1969 landing is one of the most iconic of the era.

As Phillips notes, maintaining broad public support for space programs is important to preserve NASA funding.

"Try to imagine other areas of scientific research in which the public is as emotionally invested as space exploration," Phillips says. "You need to make sure that you have a base of the population that says, "Yes, NASA's work is worth doing.'" For that reason, some manned space flights are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Understanding the cosmos

Humanity's desire to solve the mysteries of space is unlikely ever to fade, nor will our attempts to explore, catalog, photograph and understand the cosmos. Ballestero says that while people on Earth may try to claim this rock or that star in the name of their country, company or selves, we need to resist the urge to divide up space materials like so many spoils.

"What if we didn't think about space in terms of ownership at all?" she suggests. "It doesn't belong to anybody, but that doesn't mean a group of humans should try to appropriate it."

Because after all, who says we're even alone out there?

Explore further China launches 3 astronauts on 6-month space station mission
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) gauges underground changes by measuring electrical conductivity in the rock. ERT then produces 4Dthat is, 3D plus time-lapseimages of the subsurface. Credit: Tim C. Johnson and Mike Perkins | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Scorchingly hot granite deep underground can be tapped for energy by opening up cracks in the rock. This potential resource, known as enhanced geothermal energy, requires a clear sense of changes happening in the rock over timea complex picture that can be difficult to capture.

A team led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has demonstrated a new way to monitor deep subsurface fractures. The technique, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), gauges underground changes by measuring electrical conductivity in the rock. ERT produces 4Dthat is, 3D plus time-lapseimages of the subsurface.

What is an enhanced geothermal system?

Conventional geothermal systems rely on water and flow pathways that are already present within hot rock. An enhanced geothermal system harvests heat trapped within dry rock by introducing water and cracks. Operators drill two underground wells thousands of feet below the surface and then inject fluid at high pressure to fracture the rock between the wells. The fracturing process for heat is similar to what's known as "fracking" shale rock to release oil and gas.

Temperatures at this level can reach beyond 200 C (392 F). Water pumped from one well to the other and back up to the surface collects heat from the rock, generating steam that can drive a turbine for electricity.

Enhanced geothermal systems could provide an estimated 100 gigawatts of electricityenough to power 100 million homes. But such systems involve expensive drilling, and they need better monitoring and prediction of underground changes to reduce the uncertainty and risk associated with a given project.

Like any underground environment, enhanced geothermal systems change over time. Fractures in the rock open and close in response to stresses caused by high-pressure fluid injections, changing the system's heat output. Seismic activity is one indicator of subsurface stress, but information from microseismic monitoring is limited.

"In these deep, hot rocks, it's too expensive to drill enough monitoring wells to understand what's going on using direct sampling," said Tim Johnson, a computational scientist at PNNL who co-authored the study. "The primary focus of this project is to better understand, and ultimately to predict, how fractures are going to behave in a high-stress environment when you try to connect them between two wells."

Getting a clearer underground picture

ERT involves placing metal electrodes within monitoring boreholes, then imaging the conductivity of the rock when electric current is sent between them. Increases in conductivity over time show where fractures are opening; when fractures are narrower or closed, conductivity goes down. Johnson developed software called E4D that operates on supercomputing systems and converts all of this electrical information to an image that looks a bit like a heat map, showing variations in conductivity over time. E4D won an R&D 100 Award in 2016.

Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography. Credit: Time-lapse by Tim Johnson, et al. | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

"It's similar to medical imaging, except that you're doing a time lapse," Johnson said. "So you're watching how things change, and usually the change relates to how the fluid is flowing in the subsurface."

Johnson and other researchers at PNNL have pioneered the use of ERT as a 3D monitoring tool, and E4D at shallower depths of up to 350 feet, where it has been used to detect and trace contaminants, for example. To test it in the deep subsurface, the team deployed it at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The work, which is supported by the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through its Geothermal Technologies Office, is part of a larger collaborative effort across DOE to enhance access to natural resources and storage in the subsurface. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory leads the effort, known as the Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Collab. Partner labs include PNNL, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Pioneering a new subsurface imaging technique

The intent of the ERT monitoring at Sanford was to monitor fluid flow, as had been done at shallower levels. But the results initially didn't seem to align with those earlier uses.

"What we were seeing with the changes in conductivity didn't make sense in terms of fluid flow," Johnson said. But if the conductivity wasn't reflecting the movement of fluids, what was it showing?

After years of hunting for an answer, Johnson found it in scientific papers from the 1960s and 1970s. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory had observed changes in the conductivity of crystalline rocks in response to stresssqueezing the rock in lab experiments made it less conductive. This meant the ERT wasn't simply following fluid underground. It was charting the opening and closing of fractures in response to stress.

"Once we made that link, everything made sense in terms of what the time-lapse images were doing," Johnson said.

ERT offers several advantages. With no moving parts and electrodes installed outside the well casing, the equipment is low maintenance and can operate while injections are happening. And the imaging happens in real time, giving facility operators feedback they can use almost immediately, if needed. However, ERT cannot be used with metal wellbore casings, which are ubiquitous in deep subsurface projects.

There are ways around this hurdle, such as using fiberglass casing, coating the casing with a non-metallic epoxy, or using a different, nonmetallic material altogether. But for now, Johnson and team are continuing to improve and test the use of ERT at the Sanford facility.

The paper, "4D Proxy Imaging of Fracture Dilation and Stress Shadowing Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography During High Pressure Injections into a Crystalline Rock Formation," was published in October in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

Explore further Underground noise reveals fracture pathways needed for energy production

More information: T. C. Johnson et al, 4D Proxy Imaging of Fracture Dilation and Stress Shadowing Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography During High Pressure Injections Into a Dense Rock Formation, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (2021). Journal information: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth T. C. Johnson et al, 4D Proxy Imaging of Fracture Dilation and Stress Shadowing Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography During High Pressure Injections Into a Dense Rock Formation,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021JB022298
The system features a link to satellite data such as Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8, which are stored in time series and can be retrieved at any time. Several commonly used vegetation indices are available, and the users can also calculate a vegetation index or agronomic parameters using the available raw data. Credit: Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Agriculture in Northeast China, where most of the country's fertile black soil is located, has been recognized as crucial for Chinese food security. However, the soil is in a critical condition due to years of intensive production and overuse of fertilizer.

In the international collaborative project Sinograin II, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, Norwegian scientists from NIBIO is working together with Chinese agricultural scientists to improve food security. As part of the project, scientists have developed a service providing system to equip farmers and local government in North-East China with a decision support tool. It offers important timely recommendation on selected agricultural practices such as site-specific fertilization.

WeChat is popular

"The system includes a more detailed web version for agricultural technicians and extension service providers and a WeChat version for farmers. We know that WeChat is very popular in China, and farmers will use it," says Krzysztof Kusnierek, scientist at NIBIO.

China is now the world's largest producer, consumer, and importer of chemical fertilizers, accounting for over 30 percent of the world's nitrogen (N) fertilizer consumption. However, mismanagement of N fertilizer is common. The Chinese government is aware of the challenges and promoting better practices to be implemented to preserve the black soil and improve food security.

"My Chinese colleagues tell me that this is crucial. The government is putting pressure on local authorities to improve practices, which means that they are forced to act and that there is financial resource available," comments Kusnierek.

It has also been important in relation to the development of the decision support tool in the project: "The barebones of our service providing system was created by Hainie Zha, a Ph.D. student at China Agricultural University, who is working with us in Sinograin II, in cooperation with many programmers in an external company. This work has been possible due to financing being available from several sources in addition to the project, including local government. It has developed into something bigger than what would be possible only with funding from our research project. Now, we have been able to implement science. It is a tool to take research to the people," he says.

Nitrogen management

NIBIO's contribution has been focused on the scientific research, cooperation in building agronomic models, as well as involvement in the implementation of the system, Kusnierek explains.

For each field, the system generates a precise management plan based on soil and meteorological data. At a given times, the system will notify the farmers about the suggested agricultural work to be performed, such as fertilization, plant protection, and irrigation. Credit: Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

"In the system, precision N management is facilitated by remote sensing technology allowing for site-specific application of fertilizer. We contribute to reducing the amount of nitrogen used, protecting the environment and in some cases increasing the yield," he says.

According to Kusnierek, there is a considerable variation in soil resources in the region: "Some areas require more fertilizer than others. Until a few years ago, there was only a regional recommendation for the amount of fertilizer to be deployed, and many farmers maxed this. A single recommended value over a large region did not consider variations in the soil properties. When you have technology that can show you the variability, then you can recommend the amount of fertilizer in the individual places, tailored to the soil conditions on each farm. The problems with over-fertilization at the expense of the environment and soil degradation are a common problem all over the world. It is rewarding to learn from each other in this project, and push the knowledge and technology forward," he says.

Quick and easy

The development of the system concentrated on the important agriculture region in Heilongjiang province in Northeast China. In the current trial period, some farmers have started using the app, the NIBIO-scientists inform.

"The satellite image is used as the base map, and the farmers may draw the boundaries of their fields. They can provide the information on their production system and these data is used to query the database with soil, weather and remote sensing data. By clicking on the plot, the users receive timely information on growth status of their crops in form of a pop-up window. In addition, we can generate the N-P-K fertilization plan according to the target yield, converted into the amount of fertilizer product needed," Kusnierek explains.

The NIBIO-scientist says there are also plans to deploy large numbers of sensors within fields to collect microclimatic data, such as temperature, soil moisture etc. These data will be gathered into a common system, which will be available for the users to view.

"This large dataset abstracted to a single user is available to him as a small piece of software that within WeChat. The user simply taps on it to use it," he says.

Going forward, the scientists are looking to improve the system further: "We are discussing how we can now optimize the technology even more. Farmers should have minimum and maximum reference areas that can be used to fine-tune the recommendations. We also want to use more drones in the region to collect data more often. Further down the line, it is an aim to develop the system in other regions, and perhaps for other cultures.

"It has been great to see that complicated agronomic models can be converted into an easily accessible product," he says and underlines again the importance of support from the local authorities in the project. This has meant that we can see that it is gradually starting to be used. What we do has an impact," he concludes.

Per Stalnacke, head of research at NIBIO says this kind of international research collaboration is vital for global food security, says, "In order to solve global food production and security it is of outmost importance that we cooperate across borders, in order to identify best-practices and tools. The cooperation between scientists at NIBIO and Chinese partner in Sinograin II has obviously provided impact. The developed tool will support better decision making on farms by helping farmers to choose the most efficient practices and inputs and respond to changes in weather and markets with greater effectiveness."

Explore further Low-cost AI soil sensors could help farmers curb fertilizer use

Provided by Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
A restored stretch of River Odense near Nrre Broby. Credit: Marta Baumane

Danes have been diligent about wetland restoration. Indeed, more than 200 wetlands have been restored over the past 25 years. In particular, restoration in Denmark has been used as a means to curb nutrient runoff from crop fields into watercourses. But Danish authorities also point to wetlands restoration as a means to increase biodiversity across the country, which has been in decline for decades.

It is widely assumed that restored wetlands are a boon for botanical diversity. And that, eventually, these areas will come to resemble natural wetlands. In the best of cases, plant species that have become rarer in Denmark in recent decades, such as marsh orchids, globeflower, tussock-sedge and ragged-robin, would once again become abundant.

However, a study led by a University of Copenhagen doctoral student demonstrates that even after up to 17 years of recovery, the wetlands studied stay botanically poor. There is no difference between the wetlands with restoration age of 7 and 17 years.

"There has been incredibly little development, in terms of biodiversity, since the wetlands were restored. This applies regardless of whether the areas were restored seven or seventeen years agothey all have very low plant diversity, and the few plants found are so common that they are of little interest in terms of biodiversity," explains Marta Baumane, a biologist and Ph.D. fellow at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Biology. Baumane is the lead author of the study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Fewer species

The researchers studied ten wetlands in the Kratholm catchment of the River Odense, all restored between 2001 and 2011. The primary purpose of their restoration was to mitigate the leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from surrounding farmland. The restoration consisted of removing or disconnecting tile drains (and ditches) and re-meandering streams that had been straightened decades prior.

The investigated wetlands had in average 9.5 species per four square meters, whereas natural wetlands in Denmark contain approximately four times more plant species.

Credit: University of Copenhagen

The researchers suspect that the main reason for this low biodiversity is that high nutrient input from agriculture continues to spill into wetlands. Annually, these areas receive up to 400 kilos of nitrogen per hectare.

The study also points to another significant barrier to increased biodiversitythe very limited availability and dispersal of native wetland species. As a consequence of the areas being used byor their proximity toagriculture for many years, most of the wetland species have vanished from the entire stream catchment and are unlikely to immigrate from seed sources far away.

At least 100 years, unless we do something

"The study demonstrates that it may take many years for restored wetlands to achieve significant plant diversity if we rely solely on spontaneous biological processes. If nutrients continue to leach into the wetlands from fields nearby, the nature restoration efforts may turn out to be futile. Even if nutrient influx to wetlands is cut off, our estimate is that it will take at least a hundred years for wetlands to resemble natural wetlands with regards to species diversity, due to the slow immigration of species," says Marta Baumane.

Baumane points out that additional efforts are required if native-like wetlands are hoped for.

"Now that we are equipped with this knowledge, I hope that the authorities will use it to try to improve already-restored wetlands so that we can get more out of them. Besides reducing the amount of nutrients being discharged into wetlands, one could try to seed these areas to see if new plants survive, as well as test methods of different management methods such as mowing and grazing," concludes Marta Baumane.

Explore further Satellite images show positive impact of conservation efforts for China's coastal wetlands

More information: Marta Baumane et al, Danish wetlands remained poor with plant species 17-years after restoration, Science of The Total Environment (2021). Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Marta Baumane et al, Danish wetlands remained poor with plant species 17-years after restoration,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149146
Local

COVID-19

South Jersey hospitals and local health departments expanding COVID-19 testing to meet demand

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Health care workers use a nasal swab to test a person for COVID-19 at a pop up testing site at the Koinonia Worship Center and Village on July 22, 2020 in Pembroke Park, Florida.

South Jersey hospitals and local health departments are expanding testing options for patients as coronavirus cases are increasing around the area and residents are getting ready for their Christmas and New Years gatherings.

AtlantiCare, for example, has opened a new COVID-19 rapid testing center in Egg Harbor Township. The center is intended for people who do not have symptoms of COVID-19, but who nevertheless either need or want to be tested.

AtlantiCare Infection Prevention Manager Gemma Downham said last week the company had created the option due to a surge in demand. While AtlantiCare also has tests available at its urgent care facilities, Downham said the company wanted to preserve that space for people who are symptomatic and require testing.

We really want to meet the need of the community for those individuals that are sick and need to have a medical evaluation to go to urgent care, but also meet the demands of individuals that just need a test, say, to travel, Downham said. There just is this blossoming need for asymptomatic individuals to be tested to be able to go to some of these congregate events or to make sure that they didnt convert to positive after an exposure.

Downham attributed the increase in demand to recently imposed testing requirements, with more people needing to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before they can enter a business or workplace. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy introduced a set of testing requirements in October, which mandates that all teachers, health care workers and workers in high-risk congregate settings be vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive weekly coronavirus testing.

The need for testing is also amplified by the recent spike in coronavirus cases. With more people exposed to the coronavirus, more people are seeking testing to make sure they have not gotten infected and do not pose a risk to others.

In addition to higher rates of the disease transmission going on in our community at this time, we have more exposed individuals, Downham said. And those exposed individuals often, if they want to come out of quarantine sooner, will need a test, even if they have no symptoms, to test out of quarantine.

Atlantic County spokesperson Linda Gilmore said the county Division of Public Health is mostly directing its resources to hosting COVID-19 vaccination drives, rather than testing clinics.

The county DPH did provide free, drive-up testing for over a year with the aid of AtlantiCare, and currently allows a private company to host a testing center at the Atlantic County Library in Mays Landing. According to the county website the tests at the library are available Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are no fees and no appointment is required.

Other health systems in the area such as Cape Regional Medical Center, are also providing locations for testing. Kris Gereaghty, the director of Cape Regional Urgent Care, said rapid antigen testing and PCR testing are available at all three of the systems urgent care locations. She said Cape Regional had helped meet the demand of residents from across Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties, saying the system would stay firm in its commitment to providing testing.

Shore Medical Center is also offering PCR and antigen rapid testing at its urgent-care center in Northfield.

Testing is available at local pharmacies, but not necessarily on demand. Of 10 Walgreens near Pleasantville that were listed as offering COVID-19 tests on the Walgreens website Sunday night, none offered rapid antigen tests with results in less than an hour. Open PCR and ID Now test appointments given at the pharmacys drive-thru are few for the upcoming week.

President Joe Biden announced on Dec. 2 that Americans with health insurance would be eligible to be reimbursed for at-home test kits purchased. He said those without health insurance would be able to find take-home tests at their local community centers.

The New Jersey Department of Health is now offering to send free take home tests to interested residents over UPS shipment. Residents will have to send back the tests in a prepaid package after completing them.

When checked Sunday afternoon, the CVS website indicated that take-home tests were available in the area, although not at every store. Of the 19 CVS stores listed as being within 20 miles of the zip code 08232 in Pleasantville, 15 had at least one brand of rapid take-home test in stock. The price online was listed at $23.99 for two brands that came in a pack of two tests and $9.99 for one brand that had one test.

The Egg Harbor Township AtlantiCare testing center will be open Mondays through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., although Downham said those hours may be expanded due to high demand. People who go to the site to be tested for COVID-19 will be able to receive either a PCR test or an antigen test.

The former has a higher sensitivity, which is the chance that people test positive given that they have COVID-19. It is the only accepted form of test for some businesses that require a COVID-19 test for entry. The latter can detect COVID-19 in earlier stages of infection, but is less sensitive.

Although PCR tests typically take longer, results from either test will be available within hours at AtlantiCare, Downham said, because the facility has a PCR-test reader on site.

The tests are not free at the site. For people without health insurance on site, an antigen test costs $59 and a PCR test costs $100.

People interested in getting tested at the Egg Harbor Township AtlantiCare site can call (888) 285-2684.

A list of different testing clinics in Atlantic County can be found on the county website at atlantic-county.org/covid/index.asp.
The delay in filling the seat has provoked a dispute between the current borough government and members of the public over when the Palmieri officially resigned and how the seat should be filled.

Buena Borough Solicitor Angela Costigan said at the Nov. 8 Borough Council meeting that Palmieri had not technically resigned in May, but had only announced his intention to resign  meaning the council could still vote to temporarily fill his seat. Costigan later asked at the Nov. 22 council meeting that a motion to fill Palmieris seat be tabled. She said that New Jersey election law was complex and there had been a number of inconsistencies and irregularities regarding how the vacancy on the council had been handled. She also requested more time to analyze relevant statutory and case law before the council takes further action.
CAPE MAY  The Victorian-themed seaside city has one of the best public holiday light displays in America, according to USA Todays 10 Best Readers Choice Awards.

James Ridgeway, president of the Greater Cape May Chamber of Commerce, attributed the recognition from USA Today to the citys unique charm.

Cape May is a wonderful sight during the holiday season, Ridgway said in a news release. Our visitors tell us that we resemble a Dickens village with the lights on our Victorian homes and businesses complemented with the gas lamps on our streets.

The chamber also ties the citys recognition by USA Today to its Light Up Cape May contest. The chamber created the contest for homes and businesses in 2015, believing the city needed more lights for the holiday season. The contest receives support from community partners and sponsors such as Atlantic City Electric and Cape May MAC.

1:00 +4 Friends in Action and Atlantic City firefighters host toy giveaway ATLANTIC CITY  There was no snow or reindeer in sight at Vagabond Kitchen and Tap House in 

Elaines Cape May was the overall business winner of Light Up Cape May in 2021, with various other businesses on the Washington Street Mall, including the Cape May Fish Market, Bath Time and Victorious, winning awards for their holiday window displays. Visit lightupcapemaynj.com for a full list of winners.
Last week, state officials announced a partnership with Vault Health, a medical supply provider, to make at-home testing available through UPS, with results available in 24 to 48 hours after submitting the samples.

Locally, AtlantiCare said Monday it is expanding hours at its rapid test site on Ocean Heights Avenue, in Egg Harbor Township. Appointments are required. The site is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It will be closed on Dec. 24-25 and Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, 2022.

As far as the rising numbers in New Jersey, the governor said last week everything is on the table to flatten the curve in the states continuing battle with the coronavirus, but he didnt specify what restrictions or rules, if any, would be imposed. He said he could see a scenario where indoor events will be more austere in requirements for spectators, specifically requiring them to provide proof of receiving a booster.

Murphy, a Democrat, said if the CDC changes its definition of fully vaccinated to include a booster shot, then the state would most likely follow suit. Under Murphys orders, teachers, state workers and other public employees must either be fully vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

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The need for testing is also amplified by the recent spike in coronavirus cases. With more people exposed to the coronavirus, more people are seeking testing to make sure they have not gotten infected and do not pose a risk to others.

In addition to higher rates of the disease transmission going on in our community at this time, we have more exposed individuals, Downham said. And those exposed individuals often, if they want to come out of quarantine sooner, will need a test, even if they have no symptoms, to test out of quarantine.

Atlantic County spokesperson Linda Gilmore said the county Division of Public Health is mostly directing its resources to hosting COVID-19 vaccination drives, rather than testing clinics.

The county DPH did provide free, drive-up testing for over a year with the aid of AtlantiCare, and currently allows a private company to host a testing center at the Atlantic County Library in Mays Landing. According to the county website the tests at the library are available Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are no fees and no appointment is required.
The winery is a very large expansion of an already nonconforming use, Mooney said. The board should refuse any action that would give a stamp of legitimacy to the proposed winery.

The board decided not to hear the application, or take any action. The board also decided against opening the meeting to public comment on the application.

In previous interviews, an attorney for the property owner said the tasting room and winery have a right to proceed under New Jerseys Right to Farm Act. Attorney Colin Bell said a tasting room is considered an allowable ancillary use for a winery, much like a farm stand for a vegetable farm.

Plans call for 28 parking spaces, according to the discussions at the Planning Board meeting. Some neighbors have said the proposal will increase traffic on their quiet, residential streets, but the plans as presented show the entrance and exit off Route 9.

There is still a gate on Route 9 and a track leading back to the already-built barn, apparently a remnant of the sites history as a Christmas tree farm.
The actors and band members were all parishioners or family of parishioners at Petersburg Wesley UMC. Barn Yard Friends in Estelle Manor volunteered the animals for the show.

Petersburg Wesley UMC has staged its live Nativity annually for at least the last 23 years. It has only been in the last two, however, that the entire show had been performed outside. Betts said the church made the move outdoors to lower the chance of coronavirus spread.

With COVID we had to change it up, Betts said. But then we sort of liked it, we really thought it felt more real.

Bill Eisele, a parishioner from Petersburg who played one of the wise men, said the show was an exciting event that builds community.

Its a great function to be able to, again, let everybody know that the reason for season, Eisele said. Its a great community effort.

Eisele said the live Nativity scene complements the churchs other charitable works. He said the church recently sent 61 packages of Christmas presents overseas, as well as 17 Thanksgiving dinners for families in need.
Last weeks union victory at a single Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, may seem small, but it has huge symbolic importance. It is the only one of Starbucks more than 8,900 company-owned cafes in the United States to unionize, but it probably wont be the last.

Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, predicts that emboldened baristas at many more Starbucks across the U.S.  including perhaps in union-friendly cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco  could be inspired to rush to petition for union elections. The tiny acorn of a union victory in Buffalo could soon become a fast-growing oak in which workers across Americas service sector move toward union membership. And this, some labor experts say, could help reverse organized labors decline to just 1 in 10 U.S. workers.
The federal government gave New Jersey more than $6 billion in COVID-19 aid and some has been used to assist renters and bolster health care.

But as NJ Spotlight pointed out this month, Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders are treating the windfall as a big pot of money not subject to the budgeting process, one they can spend almost privately  without advance notice, public hearings or stated reasons for their spending decisions.

A recent article by Spotlights John Reitmeyer looked at nearly $700 million in spending the first week of this month. It was done with little information or explanation about the spending choices, and no opportunity for public comment.

A dozen items worth $262 million included money for a hospital in Hackensack and grants to community centers in Montclair and Pennsauken  with no discussion why they had greater or more urgent need than hospitals and centers elsewhere in the state.

Among projects getting capital spending of $435 million was the wind port in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, which will serve the development of offshore wind energy. That happens to be a project we support, but it was wrong to rush through funding for it without information, discussion or public comment.
RFE/RL Condemns Sentencing of Belarus Service Journalist Ihar Losik

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) condemned the December 14 guilty verdict and 15-year prison sentence by a Belarus court against prominent blogger and RFE/RL Belarus Service journalist Ihar Losik. Said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly, The Lukashenka regimes treatment of Ihar Losik has been reprehensible. The closed-door trial he and his co-defendants have endured for the past five months has been an outrageous travesty of justice. We again call on the Lukashenka regime to stop their assault on news organizations and journalists and bloggers like Ihar and let him return to his wife and daughter.

INCIDENTS AND THREATS

RFE/RL Concerned For Safety Of Detained Belarus Journalist Andrey Kuznechyk

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly expressed deep concern for the health and safety of Belarusian Service journalist Andrey Kuznechyk , who was detained on November 26 by agents of the Belarusian government and remains in Belarusian custody despite the completion of two consecutive 10-day jail sentences. Said Fly, Andrey Kuznechyk has completed his sentences. As far as we know, Belarusian authorities continue to hold him, essentially as a kidnapped hostage. Andrey should be allowed to return to his family immediately. Journalism is not a crime. Also read: Crackdown In Belarus Among Reasons Behind Record Number Of Journalists Behind Bars.

Nobel Peace Prize Winners Muratov, Ressa Call For Commitment To Independent Journalism

Nobel Peace Prize winners Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa have warned that a rise in authoritarian governments requires a continued commitment to independent reporting. The two journalists received the award for 2021 at Oslo City Hall on December 10. "Yes, we growl and bite. Yes, we have sharp teeth and strong grip," Muratov said of journalists in his acceptance speech. "But we are the prerequisite for progress. We are the antidote against tyranny," he added.

Repression, Exile, And A Nobel Prize: 2021 Was A Tough Year For Russian Media

Russian journalism experienced extreme highs and lows in 2021. On the plus side, a Nobel Peace Prize for newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov. But the downside saw an escalating government crackdown on independent media. News organizations and individual reporters were declared "foreign agents" and "undesirable elements," while some journalists went into exile.

Belarusian Blogger Gets 13 Years In Prison

A court in Minsk has sentenced noted blogger Eduard Palchys to 13 years in prison amid an ongoing crackdown on those who have challenged the official results of last year's presidential election that handed victory to strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Judge Pyatro Arlou of the Minsk City Court sentenced Palchys on December 17, convicting him of inciting social hatred, organizing mass disorder and activities disrupting social order, and calls for activities that could damage the national security of Belarus. The trial, which was held behind closed doors, started on December 6.

Belarus Court Sentences Blogger To 18 Months For Blocking Traffic During Protest

A court in Minsk has sentenced blogger Volha Takarchuk to 18 months in a maximum security penal colony for her participation in protests against the government of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Among the charges for disrupting public order in August 2020, Takarchuk, a 36-year-old blogger and mother of two young children, allegedly "blocked traffic" and "shouted slogans." She was sentenced on December 20 as the court followed the sentencing request of prosecutors in the case.

Prague-Based Media Group Fined By Russia For Violation Of 'Foreign Agent' Law

The Prague-based MEDIUM-ORIENT news agency has been fined in Russia for failing to follow the requirements of Russia's controversial "foreign agent" law. Islam Tekushev, the editor in chief of the online Caucasus Times journal founded by MEDIUM-ORIENT, told RFE/RL that he was informed on December 20 of a ruling a week earlier by the Taganka district court to fine the journal 500,000 rubles ($6,730) for violating the law on "foreign agents." Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor added the media group, which is registered in the Czech Republic, to the list of "foreign agents" a year ago.

Russian Investigative Website Fined For Breaking 'Foreign Agent' Law

A court in Moscow has fined investigative website The Insider for failing to mark its materials as being produced by a "foreign agent," a mandatory requirement for those added to the state's controversial registry. The Taganka district court on December 14 ordered The Insider to pay 1 million rubles ($13,600) for the lack of labels on its materials. The group was added to the "foreign agent" registry in July. The Insider's chief editor, Roman Dobrokhotov, has said the website will not mark its materials with the "foreign agent" disclaimer because The Insider is registered in Latvia and is not obliged to follow Russian law.

Moscow Court Orders Twitter, Meta, TikTok To Pay More Fines For Failing To Delete Content

A court in Moscow has ordered Twitter, Facebook's owner Meta, and TikTok to pay more fines for violating the countrys rules on banned content. A magistrate court in the Russian capital ruled in separate hearings on December 16 that Twitter must pay 10 million rubles ($135,300), Meta 13 million rubles ($176,000), and TikTok 4 million rubles ($54,130) for failing or refusing to delete banned content as instructed in an earlier ruling. The fines are the latest in a series of rulings in recent months against Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and TikTok on similar charges that the social media platforms are not heeding Russia's Internet laws.

Russia's RT Says German YouTube Channel Blocked Right After Launch

Russia's state-owned media company RT says YouTube has blocked its newly launched RT DE channel, less than three months after the U.S. video-sharing platform deleted two German-language RT channels it accused of breaching its COVID-19 misinformation policy. YouTube deleted the RT auf Sendung (RT On the Air) channel "after only five hours of broadcasting," without sending advance notice or warning, RT said on December 16. Russian news agencies quoted the press service of Google in Russia as confirming the move, saying the channel was removed for evading the restrictions that were placed on RT DE in late September.

The Biden-Putin Talks: What Russian Media Are Saying

Russia's pro-government TV is depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin as the undisputed winner of the December 7, 2021 video call with U.S. President Joe Biden over the Russian military buildup along Ukraine's borders. Putin attending the call solo--at least, to the public eye--made him appear to voters as a "powerful" leader capable of contending with a U.S. president on his own, a Russian analyst notes. Russian TV is using footage from conservative, anti-Biden U.S. media to help further that message along.

New Persian-Language Website Exposes 'All-Out Assault' On Rights In Iran

Amnesty International has launched a Persian-language website, saying it aims to increase access to information on abuse in Iran amid "an all-out assault on human rights" by the authorities, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial executions. The new website, launched on Human Rights Day on December 10, includes, among other things, research and legal analysis of "shocking" human rights violations, as well as recommendations to the international community to tackle "this crisis of impunity," the London-based human rights watchdog said in a statement. The launch came as the BBC urged the international community to take "robust" action to force the Iranian authorities to put an end to their "escalating campaign" of harassment and intimidation against its journalists and their families at home and abroad.
"I'm very, very thankful and very happy that I have people who think of me like that," Ndabazaniye said in Kirundi, translated by Ndikumwenimana Isabella, his granddaughter. "It's just the Holy Spirit that is working through everybody."

Ndabazaniye grew up in Burundi, a land-locked country in East Africa. He was forced to leave the country with his family in the early 1970s to escape genocide, and moved to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then neighboring Rwanda. His family had to flee again during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and found refuge at a camp in Tanzania. Isabella was later born in the camp.

The family emigrated to the U.S. in 2007 and moved to Rock Island around three years later. He hopes to figure out a way to go back to Burundi someday and see if he can get medication to help with his back and leg. A family friend who also moved to the area found St. Mary's, and they have been attending ever since.

Coleman said Ndabazaniye is well-loved and respected by everyone at St. Mary's, and the congregation wanted to help him out if they could. In addition to attending services, Ndabazaniye also teaches Catholic choir music in Kirundi, a reminder from when he used to teach and work at the church where he grew up.
Voyce said she and her husband had to travel to the United Center to get their first two doses and that she thought the concept behind the clinics was favorable because people didnt have to travel to the city, search for places that offer the booster and make appointments.

All three sites  in Blue Island, North Riverside and Arlington Heights  offer the boosters for Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Anyone age 12 and older who needs a first or second dose also can get the vaccine at the clinics with no appointment, no identification or health insurance required.

As of Friday, 16 cases of the omicron variant had been reported in Illinois, and it was likely to spread quickly, the Illinois Department of Public Health said in a statement. Still, the highly contagious delta variant is the most common strain, according to the department.

Its increasingly clear that the booster shot is the best protection against the COVID-19 Omicron variant, and in the truest spirit of the holiday season, getting one is a gift for our families and communities, too, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement.

Aldo Aburruda, 52, hadnt been able to get his booster shot because he hadnt been able to take time off work, he said.
Ray Hillenbrand has been posthumously named the 2021 Philanthropist of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals South Dakota National Philanthropy Day Awards.

Black Hills Area Community Foundation announced the award Dec. 17. The 2021 award winners were announced on Nov. 15 during a virtual National Philanthropy Day conference. Awards will be presented at an in-person ceremony in 2022.

On behalf of the entire AFP Board of Directors, we are thrilled to award the Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year to honor the late Ray Hillenbrand. His vision and passion for the people of his city and state will live on in his legacy for all he has created. Ray planted seeds that many will sow today and for many generations to come, said Tracy F. Pardy, president of AFP South Dakota.

National Philanthropy Day recognizes the great contributions of philanthropy and those people active in the philanthropic community who enrich their communities. The day provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of giving and all that it has made possible.

Liz Hamburg, CEO of Black Hills Area Community Foundation, nominated Hillenbrand for the award. Hillenbrand died in May 2019.

Ray Hillenbrands philanthropy was remarkable. In addition to granting millions to large-scale projects like Main Street Square and OneHeart, he would be inspired by an individuals story of hardship or promise and would very quietly change their life through his gift. It was such a joy and inspiration to work with Ray. We miss him dearly, Hamburg said.

As 2021 comes to a close, Black Hills Area Community Foundation is honored to celebrate Hillenbrand and his many philanthropic gifts to the community. He believed Rapid City could become the most caring community of its size in the nation.

Hillenbrand founded Prairie Edge and Sioux Trading Post, which is now owned by his daughter, Mimi Hillenbrand.

Rays legacy and Prairie Edges legacy is you cant just come in and set up and do business and thats it, the stores general manager, Dan Tribby, said in 2020 when Prairie Edge was named South Dakota Retailer of the Year. You have to help other people out, be a good community member, and encourage your employees to be good community members.

Shortly before Hillenbrand died, he wrote a letter that offered a road map for the community to follow based on three integral principles: All lives have equal value; we take care of our own; and we help our people in need to create a sense of self-worth and build healthy, productive lives.

The soul of a community is its people, who they are, what they stand for, and how they care for one another. It is my desire to lay the foundation to cultivate a soul for Rapid City that engages both business and civic sectors, working together, to solve some of our toughest challenges, producing results we can all get behind and cherish, Hillenbrand wrote.

"We have so many things right now going in the right direction, Hillenbrand said in a 2019 interview. I think the future of Rapid City is on the edge of being great.

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The cause of a fire at the Sylvan Lake Lodge at Custer State Park remains a mystery.

Tony Mangan, public information officer for the Department of Public Safety, said there were agencies on scene Monday continuing the investigation but released few details.

Crews from western South Dakota and Wyoming responded to the fire with the alarm sounding at 6:43 p.m. Saturday.

Firefighters discovered a free burning fire Saturday night with heavy smoke and the blaze extending to the exterior and roof of the structure.

Two firefighters received minor injuries, and no other injuries have been reported.

Kobee Stalder, visitor services program manager for Custer State Park, said the Custer State Park Resort Company is working with individuals that may be impacted by the fire.

The Custer Volunteer Fire Department, Rapid Valley Volunteer Fire Department, North Haines Volunteer Fire Department, Hill City Volunteer Fire Department, Black Hawk Volunteer Fire Department, Johnson Siding Volunteer Fire Department and Newcastle, Wyoming Volunteer Fire Department are among the agencies that responded to the fire.

The Sylvan Lake Lodge has a long history of being a popular destination in the Black Hills.

The lodge was built in 1937 and designed by Sioux Falls architect Harold Spitznagel to replace the original Sylvan Lake Hotel that burned to the ground in 1935. The three-and-a-half-story hotel was originally completed in 1893.

 Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com 

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WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poles flocked to city centers across the country Sunday to defend a U.S.-owned television network that is being targeted by the country's right-wing government and to protect media freedom in a European Union nation where democratic norms are eroding.

Among the protesters were older Poles who decades ago resisted the country's communist regime and who fear that the democracy that they helped usher in is now being lost. Many Poles believe Poland's populist right-wing government is turning the country away from the West and adopting an authoritarian model closer to that of Turkey or Russia with attempts to exert political control over the courts and silence critical media.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition party, called on Poles to show solidarity and change their leadership.

"Lets sweep this power away!" Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and a former EU president, told the crowd in Warsaw.

The protests were called after the parliament on Friday unexpectedly passed a bill that would force Discovery Inc. to sell its controlling share of TVN, Polands largest television network.

The lower house of parliament had voted for it in the summer but it was vetoed by the Senate. Without any notice, the parliament suddenly brought the bill back and the lower house overrode the Senate's veto.

The fate of the bill now lies with President Andrzej Duda. The main protest on Sunday took place in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw, with demonstrators demanding that Duda veto the bill.

Government leaders have defended the legislation by arguing that it is important for national security to ensure that no company outside of Europe can control companies that help form public opinion.

TVN operates an all-news channel TVN24 and its main channel, TVN, has a nightly evening news program viewed by millions that offers critical reporting of the government. Critics believe Poland's right-wing government is merely moving to silence an outlet that seeks to hold power to account.

A string of speakers on Sunday accused authorities of attacking Poland's democratic foundations, and the crowds chanted Free media!

Jarosaw Kurski, deputy editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal newspaper that has uncovered a string of government scandals and been sued many times by government allies, accused the ruling party of seeking to silence the media in order to steal Poland's next elections, which are scheduled in 2023.

The mafia has taken over the country. They want to master all elements of public life, Kurski said.

The United States, a close ally of Warsaw, had urged lawmakers not to pass the law. The U.S. charge d'affaires, Bix Aliu, said the U.S. was extremely disappointed by the passage of the bill and urged Duda to use his leadership to protect free speech and business.

Duda, who is allied with the ruling party, in the summer indicated that he would not support it, but on Friday he said he still needed to analyze it.

A protester in Warsaw, Joanna Glowczyk Zobek, said the authorities probably wouldnt care about the protests, but let the world see that in Poland there are not only supporters of Law and Justice, supporters of dull propaganda, there are also normal people who want to be citizens of Europe and who want to have good relations with the whole world.

TVN launched an online petition Sunday calling on Duda to veto the bill, which by the evening was signed by 2 million people in the country of 38 million.

The attack on media freedom has far-reaching consequences for the future of Poland, the appeal reads. Mutual relations with the USA, the greatest ally and guarantor of our countrys security, are being destroyed. We cannot allow it!

Discovery also vowed in a statement to relentlessly fight for our business.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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NEW YORK (AP)  The case for and against Ghislaine Maxwell has been made, and as soon as Monday, her fate will rest squarely in the jury's hands.

Maxwell, a socialite, has denied allegations from four women who say they were teens when she helped the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse them. Her lawyers say she has been wrongly targeted by prosecutors intent on holding someone  anyone  accountable after Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on related sex-abuse charges.

The evidence phase of the trial concluded within three weeks. With just days left before a verdict is expected, its time to take stock of developments.

WHO ARE GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S ACCUSERS?

The prosecution, mounted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, hinges on the accusations of four women who say they were teenagers when Maxwell and Epstein sexually exploited them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Three testified under the pseudonyms Jane, Kate and Carolyn. One, Annie Farmer, decided to tell her story publicly.

WHAT WAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL UP TO BEFORE HER ARREST?

Maxwell was arrested in July 2020  almost a year after Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. After Epstein's death, she withdrew from public activities like running an oceans charity. Her whereabouts became a subject of public speculation. Was that her eating a burger and reading a book on CIA operatives in Southern California? Was she living in Britain or Paris or maybe even Massachusetts? Prosecutors say she went into hiding in New Hampshire  where she was eventually arrested  in a million-dollar home where she kept her cellphone wrapped in foil.

SO HAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL BEEN IN JAIL THIS WHOLE TIME?

Yes, despite multiple requests for bail, Maxwell has spent well over a year lodged in federal lockup in Brooklyn. Maxwell has triple citizenship with the U.S., U.K. and France, the last of which does not extradite its citizens. Her attorneys and family have lambasted jail conditions, which they say are punitive and inhospitable to Maxwells ability to mount a proper defense.

HOW EXACTLY DO YOU PRONOUNCE GHISLAINE?

Think French. Hard "g," silent s. First syllable: ghee, like the clarified butter, and quick. Second syllable, like a country lane and slightly emphasized.

IS THE GHISLAINE MAXWELL TRIAL AIRING ON TELEVISION OR STREAMING?

No. It's in federal court, which doesn't allow cameras. That's why all the images from the courtroom are sketched.

WHEN DID TESTIMONY BEGIN?

Nov. 29.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE PROSECUTORS TO MAKE THEIR CASE?

The prosecution's case lasted two weeks, across 10 days of testimony.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE THE DEFENSE TO MAKE THEIR CASE?

Two days.

THAT'S IT?

Yes, the witness lists for both sides were greatly truncated. The whole trial was originally projected to last six weeks!

WHEN WILL GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL BE OVER NOW?

It's hard to give a precise estimate, but closing arguments are set for Monday and the jury could get the case as soon as the end of that day. We might see a verdict as early as Christmas, which also happens to be Maxwell's 60th birthday.

WHY DIDN'T GHISLAINE MAXWELL TESTIFY?

When offered the chance, she told the judge  not without some defiance  that she had no need to testify, as the prosecution had failed to adequately prove their case. But regardless, it's rare for a high-profile defendant to put themselves on the stand, as it opens them up to a lot more scrutiny.

WHAT EXACTLY WAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S RELATIONSHIP WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

They were romantically involved, but at some point  the timeline is unclear  she says she transitioned to being more of an employee, running his households. Prosecutors have accused of her as functioning as Epstein's madam, procuring underage girls to satisfy him sexually.

WHERE DID JEFFREY EPSTEIN HAVE HOMES?

All over the place: Palm Beach, Florida; New Mexico; Manhattan; the U.S. Virgin Islands; Paris.

WHAT DID JEFFREY EPSTEIN DO FOR A LIVING?

He left his teaching career at a tony Manhattan prep school to work at Bear Stearns, an investment bank, and then started his own money-management business. He would not disclose his assets and income even after his July 2019 arrest, but he seems to have built a fortune managing investments for others.

HOW IS PRINCE ANDREW INVOLVED IN ALL OF THIS?

WHO IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S HUSBAND?

Also unclear! She was living with him when she was arrested in New Hampshire, but court documents have not made his name public. He did support her bail attempts, but has not been spotted at the trial.

DOES GHISLAINE MAXWELL HAVE ANY NOTABLE SUPPORTERS?

Her family  the scions of the late publishing magnate, Robert Maxwell  is sticking by her. Two of her siblings, Kevin and Isabel, have attended each day of proceedings. The Maxwells strongly assert the U.S. justice system is making a patsy of their youngest sister. Ghislaine is notably the baby of the family and said to have been the favorite of her father, who died falling off a yacht named for her.

WHO IS THE JUDGE FOR GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL?

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. That promotion is not expected to interfere with proceedings in the Maxwell case, but the trial was in recess for the first three days of its third week so she could answer questions from the U.S. Senate panel charged with considering her elevation.

HOW HAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL BEEN SPENDING HER TIME IN JAIL?

IF CONVICTED, HOW MUCH TIME IN PRISON WOULD SHE BE LOOKING AT?

Potentially many years.

LET'S REWIND: WHAT EXACTLY IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL CHARGED WITH?

This ongoing trial revolves around six charges:

1. conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

2. enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

3. conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

4. transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

5. sex trafficking conspiracy

6. sex trafficking of a minor

A superseding indictment in March also charged Maxwell with two counts of perjury, but the judge granted the defense's request to spin those off into a separate trial.

SO THERE'S MORE TO COME?

Yes. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, there's more to come.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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James Alex Hurley went to live with his grandparents, the Sasser family, after his fathers death in 2018. Two years later, five people  four of them members of the family  were accused of crimes related to the 12-year-old boy's death.

In February 2020, law enforcement and emergency medical services responded to a report of a child not breathing in a home on Buffalo Drive near Hebgen Lake.

Patricia Batts, Hurleys paternal grandmother, called 911. Less than two weeks after making that 911 call, Batts was charged with four felonies, including deliberate homicide, in the death of the child.

My grandsons not breathing at all. I woke up and hes not breathing  he is dead, Batts said in the recording of the 911 call from that morning, which was played in court at a November motions hearing.

The dispatcher asked if Batts knew how to and had been performing CPR on Hurley  she said yes to both. The dispatcher then called Air Idaho, a helicopter ambulance, to respond to the scene and told Batts they were doing so.

Air Idaho wont do nothing, Batts told the dispatcher. He is dead. Im telling you.

Emergency medical responders attempted to revive Hurley, but failed. He was pronounced dead in the home.

Law enforcement, which had also responded to the scene, saw something suspicious about the way the boy had died. He had bruises and wounds all over his body, court documents say, and a gash on the back of his head when he was found unresponsive on the floor of the living room. A doctor performed an autopsy on Hurley  who usually went by Alex, not James  and determined in a preliminary report that he died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head.

Prosecutors filed charges against five people  four family members and one other person  for being involved in the 12-year-old's death.

Since then, four of those five people have pleaded guilty to beating or abusing Hurley or being directly involved in his murder.

Batts has not. She is the only person accused in Hurleys death who appears headed for trial. In addition to deliberate homicide, the charges against Batts are aggravated kidnapping, criminal child endangerment and strangulation of a partner or family member.

Craig Kevin Shannon and Gregory Jackson, defense attorneys for Batts, are arguing against the death penalty. They say she did not intend for Hurley to die and that she didn't personally commit the strike that killed him. Because of that, they say, shes ineligible for the death penalty  shes a non-triggerman.

It will be up to Brown to decide if the death penalty can be considered in next summers 20-day trial of Batts, scheduled to begin May 31.

The death penalty

Since 1976, only three people have been executed in Montana, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Two people are on death row.

The most recent person put to death in Montana was David Dawson in 2006. Dawson was convicted on several counts of murder, aggravated kidnapping and robbery for kidnapping a four-person family at a Billings hotel and killing three of them. He was sentenced to death in 1987 and executed by lethal injection in 2006.

Shannon and Jackson have filed a slew of motions related to warrants and searches that Brown will need to rule on, and both sides have filed a handful of procedural motions.

But on Oct. 28, 2021, Shannon and Jackson filed several more complicated motions about the death penalty. Those motions are asking the court to find that Batts is not eligible for the death penalty, hoping to avoid seeing her face the same fate Dawson did in 2006. They argue that prosecutors didnt get the correct permission from the court to ask for capital punishment and that its not clear if Batts is eligible to be sentenced to death under state and federal law.

The defense team has also filed several motions calling into question the constitutionality of sections of Montanas death sentence statute and a 453-page motion called Death is Different. The Gallatin County District Court Clerks office was unable to send the Death is Different motion to the Chronicle because of its size, and couldnt print it at the office.

In one brief in support of a motion, Jackson and Shannon argue that the way Montana hands down capital punishment  having a judge decide, instead of a jury, if someone will be sentenced to death  is illegal under both the state and federal constitutions.

In Montana, a death sentence is decided by a judge, but for that to be on the table at all, a jury still needs to find the facts of a crime and aggravating circumstances.

In another, the defense team argues that the Montana death penalty statute allows someone who did not commit a crime proportionate to death to be sentenced to death. In other words, they say that death would be a disproportionate punishment for Batts.

Yet another motion says that Montanas capital sentencing scheme doesnt provide a rational and meaningful basis to determine which defendants can be put to death.

Responses to the motions from prosecutors are due on Jan. 28. Boyer and Lambert said that they believe the motions lack merit and will file responses by the above deadline, but declined to comment further on the motions or their potential responses.

Shannon said he and Jackson believe the motions have precedent in the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to comment further on the motions.

The merit

The defense teams motions bring some complicated arguments, said Jordan Gross, who teaches criminal law and sentencing at the University of Montanas Alexander Blewett III School of Law.

The state doesnt use its capital punishment statute regularly, so it doesnt have the need to review it often.

We make such infrequent use of the death penalty in Montana. We don't litigate these often, unlike states that have a lot of death penalty cases  Im thinking Florida, Georgia, Texas, said Gross.

Gross said there are three ways a person can be held legally responsible for the death of another. The first is to kill someone  be the triggerman. The second is to facilitate a murder, to pay or incentivize someone to kill. The third, and the most pertinent to the defenses motions as Gross understood them, is the felony murder rule.

The felony murder rule says that if in the course of participating or engaging in a particularly dangerous felony, a death results, then you are responsible for the death, Gross said. Some consider the felony murder rule controversial, she said, though it still exists.

The defense isnt arguing that Batts can't be punished for a crime if she pleads guilty or is found guilty by a jury  the question, as Gross interpreted it, is whether she can be put to death for it.

Capital trials are complicated. Defendants facing the death penalty get an enhanced right to counsel  both Shannon and Jackson had to prove to the court that they were competent lawyers able to defend against the death penalty. Prosecutors have an increased need to show aggravating factors, or that the crime was particularly severe.

Its not enough to engage in a crime that results in the death of a human being to be sentenced to death, Gross said. Basically, it's homicide plus something that makes it particularly egregious and proportionate to put a person to death.

At the enhanced sentencing hearing thats part of a capital trial if a defendant is convicted, the defense gets an opportunity to show mitigating factors in a bid to avoid a death sentence. The defense can try to show, for example, that the defendant has an ability to reform, or they didnt have the mental capacity to understand they were committing a crime that would kill another person.

Shannon and Jackson filed a notice of affirmative defense on Oct. 28 that indicates they may argue that Batts, at the time of the crime, had a mental disease or disorder that makes her unable to be put to death for the crimes if convicted.

Another key point the defense brought up in a motion, Gross said, is that the death penalty is well known to attorneys to be a strong negotiating tool in plea negotiations. The difference between a death sentence and life in prison can make all the difference in some cases.

Its not unknown among defense attorneys and prosecutors that (the death penalty) can be a powerful motivator to plead guilty because if you can take that off the table, its just whole different stakes, she said. It changes all the dynamics around the case, whether the death penalty is on the table or not.

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Montana wont switch over to a new statewide voter management system until a later date, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen announced Monday. The move follows concerns by local elections officials that bugs in the new software could cause problems during the 2022 elections.

In a press release announcing the decision, Jacobsens office didnt specify when the new system, known as ElectMT, would be rolled out. The offices elections manager, Stuart Fuller, told the Montana State News Bureau last week that a later launch date would be determined through conversations with the software developers, but that ideally it would be January 2023.

County elections administrators working with Jacobsens office publicly raised alarms in November that the new system still had too many glitches and was not sufficiently tested to move ahead with a January 2022 launch date as planned. The effort to set up a successor to the states current voter management system, MontanaVotes, began in 2019 under then-Secretary of State Corey Stapleton.

Stapleton had initially planned to begin using the new system in 2020, but that launch date was also postponed at the urging of local officials. Jacobsen was Stapleton's chief of staff before successfully running for his open seat last year.

Jacobsens announcement reiterated her testimony last week to the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Interim Committee. At the time she said her office would not move forward if lingering glitches in the system had not been resolved.

Montana will not launch an election management system that isnt ready, and its not ready, Jacobsen stated in Mondays press release. ... The strengths for election integrity in Montana include our election officials, paper ballots, post-election audits and tabulating equipment that does not connect to the internet. The election system Montana uses is a key component of election integrity.

The voter management system includes the states database of registered voters and interacts with nearly all levels of running elections, from updating precincts to printing and accepting ballots. MontanaVotes was adopted statewide in 2006.

County election officials have been effusive with their praise of the new system's potential, but largely united in their opposition to rolling it out as previously scheduled.

"It's going to be a great program, it really, really is," Teton County Clerk and Recorder Paula Jaconetty said in an interview Monday. She noted the geographic information system used by ElectMT takes a more streamlined approach to automatically determining registered voters' precincts and other political boundaries, like sewer and water districts and fire districts. But she stressed it just wasn't ready for prime time yet.

"I'm just really relieved, and I tell you it will take 75% of the stress out of the election without having to implement a new system right now." Jaconetty said.

Jacobsens office was scheduled to meet Monday with a team of local elections officials helping to develop and test the new system, along with software developers from BPro, the South Dakota-based company that won the contract to develop ElectMT in 2019. The new system underwent a two-week test earlier this month, and Fuller acknowledged last week that critical problems remained in the software.

Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore told the interim committee in November that deploying the new system before it's ready could undermine voters' confidence in the next election, noting the damage already done by unsubstantiated theories about widespread voter fraud in 2020. She had specifically offered hypotheticals like one voter being issued two ballots, or the system failing to accept a cast ballot.

Moore also expressed relief at Jacobsen's decision Monday. A "end-to-end" election test run on the new system earlier this month unearthed significant errors.

"It became very, very obvious that we really couldn't pull an election," Moore said, while also noting that the new system will include much more advanced features. The current system's approach to entering ballot initiative language, for example, she described as "an absolute nightmare."

The secretary of state said Montana will continue to use MontanaVotes until a launch date is determined. Local officials had said they wanted to first run a parallel test during a federal election, meaning they would still use old system to run the actual election, while simultaneously running the new system to detect any potential discrepancies or remaining bugs. A parallel test had previously been planned for the November 2020 election, but the new software wasnt ready in time.

Asked whether the 2022 primary and general elections will both be held on the MontanaVotes system, secretary of state spokesman Richie Melby said their office "will begin discussing the next steps for the project with the software vendor, and, in the meantime, the state will continue to utilize its current election management system."

He declined to say whether more funding will be needed to continue software development into the next year. Of the $3.5 million budgeted for the project  most of which came from a federal 2018 grant for election security  $1.7 million has been spent.

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" " Black cake is served at Christmas in households all over the Caribbean. Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post via Getty Images

All across the English-speaking Caribbean, the Christmas treat known as black cake is such a cherished and anticipated tradition that preparations for next year's cake often start on New Year's Day. That's because one of the distinctive ingredients of this dense, spiced cake is an assortment of dried fruits  raisins, currants, prunes and citrus peel  steeped for months in a boozy bath of rum, wine and/or cherry brandy.

Black cake goes by many names: Jamaican Christmas cake, Caribbean fruitcake, rum cake, etc., but whatever you call it, know that it has little in common with American-style fruitcake.

Black cake is a revolution of its own, a distinctly Afro-Caribbean twist on an old-school British baking tradition that includes English plum puddings and dense European fruitcakes. Black cake is also the traditional wedding cake in the Caribbean.

We spoke with Candice Goucher, professor emerita of history at Washington State University and author of "Congotay! Congotay! A Global History of Caribbean Food," to learn more about the origins of black cake and why you can't celebrate a legit Caribbean Christmas without it.

Advertisement

Colonial History in a Cake

Tucking into a slice of black cake is like eating a piece of Caribbean colonial history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, more than a dozen Caribbean islands were part of the British West Indies, a colonial outpost built on a lucrative sugar industry powered by enslaved African labor.

Life on a sugar plantation was brutal and cruel. To quell rebellion and release social pressures, plantation owners would hand out rations of rum, a potent alcoholic beverage made from fermenting the sweet juice pressed from sugar cane.

On Christmas, New Year's and Easter, the rum flowed freely and role-reversal rituals took place, including the temporary swapping of "master" and "slave." During at least two of these holiday bacchanals, the enslaved laborers decided not to return to their original oppressed roles. The Barbados slave revolt of 1816 happened during Easter and the monumental Jamaican slave revolt of 1831-1832 (also known as the Baptist War) started during Christmas.

The British introduced the tradition of English plum puddings which were often soaked in brandy to preserve them on the long sea voyages. But in the Caribbean, brandy was replaced with the more-available rum.

"Black cake itself has been described as something between an English plum pudding and a pound cake, but it's much more than that," says Goucher.

The signature ingredient in black cake (beside the rum) is a jet-black syrup called "browning" made from burnt sugar that is similar to molasses. It's a staple of Caribbean cuisine that lends sweetness and depth to both savory dishes like chicken, and desserts. In black cake, browning is the star.

"It gives the cake an almost bittersweet caramel flavor and that darker, more nuanced flavor is what makes black cake so unique," says Goucher. "It tastes much more like a really moist chocolate cake as opposed to a fruitcake."

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A Dessert You Can Drink

In the days before refrigeration, alcohol and sugar were two proven ways to preserve a dessert. The traditional English plum pudding was meant to be eaten a full year after it was prepared, the dried fruits and other ingredients preserved by generous amounts of cognac, brandy, sherry and port. If a plum pudding or other fruit-filled Christmas cake is at risk of drying out during its long incubation period, it is "fed" with a few more douses of booze to keep it moist.

The same is true of black cake. The dried fruits are soaked for months or up to a year in rum and cherry brandy until they are fully infused with alcohol. Then the rum-saturated fruits are either lightly ground or fully blended (depending on whether you prefer a cake-like or pudding-like texture) to add to the cake's dark color and incredibly rich flavor. Hard sauce or whiskey sauce makes a nice accompaniment to the cake.

" " A jar of soaked fruits sits next to the batter for a Jamaican Christmas cake or black cake. Kathryn Whitbourne

Christmastime in the Caribbean means visiting family and friends in their homes and having a thin slice of rich and boozy black cake along with a glass of sorrel (a red drink made with the leaves of the sorrel or red hibiscus plant). Any leftover cake is generously fed with rum and kept moist for the next guests. In fact, a home baker may make several cakes to give some as gifts or just to make sure there is enough to last for the Christmas season.

"In Caribbean culture, rum is intimately connected to the rituals of remembrance," says Goucher, "and that's what the Christmas season is all about. It wouldn't be Christmas in the Caribbean without that dense, fruity, complex, dark, spicy, full-of-rum cake."

Advertisement

Make Your Own Black Cake

Making your own black cake from scratch takes some serious dedication and advanced planning. While many Caribbean bakers soak their dried fruit in rum for a whole year, you'll at least want to soak the fruits for a few weeks. (If you're out of time, a cheat is boil the fruit in some rum and/or sherry for five minutes, cool it and refrigerate it overnight. You'll get an approximation of the right taste.)

And then there's browning, the signature syrup made from burnt sugar. You can buy bottles of premade browning, like the popular brand Grace, or you can make it yourself. The recipe is simple, just two cups of granulated sugar and a cup of water, but it takes a practiced hand.

To make browning, the sugar is cooked in a heavy-bottom pot over medium heat until it begins to liquefy and caramelize and take on a dark brown hue (it can get smoky, so turn on the oven fan and open some windows). Right before the sugar turns from brown to black, take the pot off the heat and carefully mix in hot water (cold water will make the sugar harden back up).

There are countless recipes for black cake (and every Caribbean-born person will tell you that their mother's is the absolute best), but this one from The New York Times uses both dark rum and Passover wine for added sweetness.

The key, says Goucher, is in the final step, when you mix in the ground fruits and browning into the cake batter.

"You don't want it to be brown," she warns. "You want it to be black."

HowStuffWorks earns a small affiliate commission when you purchase through links on our site.

Now That's Cool Making a black cake is a labor of love, but if you don't have the time or the patience, you can order excellent black cakes online from bakeries like the Black Cake Company and Jamaican Black Cakes by Sweet T.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is searching to find the best places to work in the region for its ninth annual Top Workplaces program.

The newspaper again has partnered with Energage to determine the regions best places to work based on employee survey feedback.

The firm has conducted these types of surveys in 59 U.S. markets, surveying more than 2 million employees at over 8,000 organizations in the past year.

The deadline to nominate a company for the program has been extended to Jan. 14.

Anyone can nominate an employer  private, public, government and nonprofit  as long as the business has at least 35 employees. There is no fee to participate.

Nominations may be made at www.Richmond.com/Top-Workplaces or (804) 977-9367.

Eighty-one companies in the Richmond region were recognized this year as Top Workplaces businesses. In May, the coveted top rankings of first-, second- and third-place in each of four size categories  mega, large, midsize and small  went to 12 businesses.

For 2021, automotive retailer CarMax ranked first in the mega-size category for the eighth consecutive year.
On Monday, however, Tom Short, president of the IBEW union at the Spruance plant, said he believes only a few of the employees who were locked out will not return.

For the people that did not work elsewhere or were working elsewhere, it is going to take a few months to recoup what they have lost, Short said.

Now, DuPont needs to start the hard work of fence mending, Gray said. A lockout is a little bit different than a strike, With a strike maybe sometimes the onus is on the union to get the relationship back in order, but here there were a lot of people that were upset about being locked out especially over the holidays. DuPont needs to engage in the hard work of fence mending.

The labor disagreement had prompted concern from some members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, because the products made at the plant are considered vital to national interests.

DuPont has operated its Spruance plant since 1929. The Kevlar it produces is a high-strength but lightweight material used in such products as bullet-resistant vests and automotive components.

Nomex is a heat-resistant material used in clothing worn by firefighters.

Tyvek is a water and microbial-resistant material used in a variety of applications, including protective personal garments worn by first responders and medical professionals, packaging for medical products, and protective insulation for housing.
Things to know today: Moderna's half-dose booster "reassuring" against omicron; gutsy calls in NFL's Week 15; see how Tiger, son fared in return. Get caught up.
Sen. Tim Kaine has re-introduced a bill to increase representation of rural, underserved and students of color in medical school. Locally, the Expanding Medical Education Act would help grow health-related programs at Virginia Union University and help the university develop new ones, a spokesperson for the university said.

The bill would also provide funds to establish or expand medical schools in medically underserved areas or at minority-serving institutions.

The Health Resources and Services Administration designates most of Virginias rural counties as medically underserved, including Charles City County, Goochland County and King William County, as well as the city of Petersburg.

Kaine first sponsored the bill in July 2020, but it was not approved by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The 2021 version is cosponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

A cost has not been determined. The Department of Health and Human Services would determine how many schools receive funding and how much each would receive, a spokesperson for Kaine said.
Trump had told the Wall Street Journal in a September interview that he "probably" wouldn't get a booster shot.

"I feel like I'm in good shape from that standpoint," he told the paper. "I'll look at stuff later on. I'm not against it, but it's probably not for me."

The U.S. has been urging all eligible Americans to get booster shots as quickly as possible as the country faces a surge in the new, highly contagious omicron variant. Both Moderna and Pfizer have said that booster shots of their COVID-19 vaccines appear to offer protection against the new strain, which preliminary evidence suggests can better evade vaccines than previous versions.

Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, and received experimental monoclonal antibodies treatment. His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, revealed in a book released this month that Trump was far sicker than the White House disclosed at the time.

Before the booing, Trump on Sunday told the audience that they should "take credit" for the success of the vaccines developed while he was in office.
A mechanical failure in the Salem plants air exhaust system has been blamed for a fire that damaged Yokohama Tire on Sunday evening and forced its workers to evacuate.

According to a city of Salem news release, the incident was reported around 7 p.m. First responders from Salem and Roanoke city came to the scene, initially to find smoke billowing from the plant on Indiana Street.

The fire was contained to the buildings duct system and contained within two hours, according to the Salem news release. No injuries were reported.

Damage is estimated at $160,000. The fire was isolated to that ductwork area and no other areas of the building sustained any related fire or smoke damage, the news release said.

The fire was ruled accidental by the Salem Fire Marshals Office, caused by a seized bearing in the exhaust system, the news release added.
The actions of a sitting judge, whos since resigned from office, in a conflict with a former law client were troubling, said a state bar disciplinary panel.

But, the panel concluded, there wasnt convincing evidence of the type of willful misconduct that would spur professional sanctions.

The unanimous ruling came late Friday at the end of a 14-hour hearing that scrutinized former judge John Webers relationship with a woman who he represented while in private practice in 2013 and 2014.

Weber, whos been a local attorney since 1993, served as a Roanoke Valley juvenile and domestic court judge from 2015 until last January, when he submitted his resignation without public explanation.

In state bar proceedings that unfolded, it emerged that Weber had come under investigation after a woman reported that he slept with her while she was a client, and then, years later, while he was on the bench, paid her more than $22,000 to continue keeping their past relationship a secret.

That Weber paid that money was undisputed. But his motive differed sharply in each sides account.

Testifying on his own behalf Friday, Weber said there had been no inappropriate or intimate relationship with the client. Absolutely not, he said. Never.

The flow of money began as an act of charity, he said, after the woman reached out to him for help four years after he last represented her.

The woman was in the throes of addiction when Weber served as her attorney. She told him later she was a new mother and working to turn her life around, but in danger of homelessness unless someone helped her.

Weber said he believed her at the time, and only later learned she had no child and was seeking money for the addiction that still gripped her.

He told the five-member disciplinary panel that he had recently come into an inheritance that he was intent on using to help others. That included giving one family $9,000 to send their son to college, and granting another man $25,000 for a business venture that was ultimately unsuccessful.

I was happy to do it, Weber said.  I want to be a person who believes in people.

In this case, sent his former female client about $11,000 over a three-month period for rent, car needs, utility bills and other requests.

Webers attorneys said hed been naive, but argued his only true error occurred when he tried to end the aid, and the ex-client began threatening to go public with allegations of sexual misconduct unless he continued payments.

Weber never reported the threats and paid her another $11,000 over a span of about five months. He said he wasnt guilty of the accusations, but became paralyzed by fear for his job, his family and his reputation.

His attorneys said he worried that no one would believe that the money he had already given her was altruistic.

This was just an incredible shock, Weber testified, adding he had hoped the threats would end on their own.

I hoped it would go away, he said.  It was a bad choice.

He stepped down from the bench earlier this year, he said, in recognition that he had mishandled the situation.

In July 2019, the payments to the woman ended. In 2020, she reported Weber, initiating the investigation that culminated in Fridays state bar hearing held in a Colonial Heights courtroom.

In her own testimony to the disciplinary panel, the woman said she was scared and struggling when Weber worked as her attorney, and he exploited her to begin a physical relationship. The Roanoke Times does not name alleged victims of sexual misconduct without their consent.

She said she reported him after entering recovery and getting clean. She knew Weber was a judge, and said she didnt think he should be allowed to continue in that role.

She said she was honest with authorities, including her part in threatening Weber, an act of which she wasnt proud.

I told you the truth today no matter how it makes me look, she testified.

The state bar hearing included extensive arguments about the conclusions that could be drawn from 4,826 text messages exchanged by Weber and the woman.

The text record was pulled from Webers cellphone. His attorneys said it supported his account that the financial help had begun innocently, with no threats or references to impropriety, and that he had encouraged the woman as she sent him updates about personal progress for her future.

Disciplinary office counsel presenting the arguments against Weber said the threads also showed him demanding that she bring him an old cell phone that she told him had incriminating messages from 2013-2014. They argued that represented a true look into his thinking.

Weber testified that he knew no improper messages existed, but was worried that evidence might be fabricated, as that was among the threats leveled. The woman testified that she didnt believe any incriminating messages from that period actually existed.

Over the course of a day of lengthy arguments, disciplinary office staff said the woman had been steadfast in her statements.

Webers attorneys countered that she had been inconsistent and inaccurate in her description of key personal details that someone in a physical relationship with another would know.

In their closing arguments, they said that discrepancy was crucial.

The disciplinary panel that considered the matter was composed of four attorneys and one layperson from other parts of the state who did not know Weber.

In announcing their verdict, Chairman Steven Novey said the panel had a lot of trouble with this case and found it of great concern that Weber, while a sitting judge, did not report that he was being threatened.

But ultimately, he said, the group agreed that the evidence against him in the disciplinary case didnt meet the clear and convincing standard required in such matters.

Weber faced two allegations of violating the professional standards that govern attorneys. One was of engaging in a sexual relationship with a client, the other of committing deliberate misconduct.

Weber, whos since returned to private practice, could have faced sanctions from a reprimand to the loss of his law license had the panel ruled against him.

In a joint statement after the hearing, his attorneys, John Lichtenstein and Tony Anderson, said Weber was a good-hearted person and they were grateful for the ruling.
Thanks be for friends in the holiday season or any season.

Especially grateful are we to accept from those same compatriots gifts of information arriving unsolicited to enrich this space.

The first of these dispatches is from scholar Nelson Harris, who referenced his own volume The Roanoke Valley in the 1940s for additional details about the changing route from the Roanoke Valley to Catawba, a topic covered here previously in brief.

Harris begins with a 1942 Norfolk & Western Railway report in which plans were announced to abandon the line from Hanging Rock to Catawba Station.

Apparently, the abandoned line became an item of interest to the state for the purpose of realigning and improving Route 311 using the rail bed, Harris wrote in an email citing p. 164 of his book.

A follow-up report in this very newspaper informed that passenger service on the line had been discontinued in 1936 because paying customers for the trip had dwindled to a paltry average of two a day (175).

The many commuters and other travelers who today blithely motor 311 to and from Salem may thank the politicians and other officials both public and private they dont have to buy a ticket and wait on a cold and windy loading platform for the train.

On the other hand, with the price of gasoline as it is these days, some may yearn for the day when they could hop aboard a train.

Fellow Roanoke Times columnist and former Salem Museum director John Long emailed additional detail about the circa-1864 location of Salems Virginia & Tennessee Railroad depot. The Civil War-era whistle stop was a recent topic here.

Long, staff educator now at the D-Day memorial in Bedford, provided two graphic examples of the depot at the end of present Union Street just north of the Roanoke River.

One of those examples was labeled Map N. 10 and penned by Confederate military engineer and cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-99) to accompany a report about the June 21, 1864 engagement with Federal troops at Hanging Rock.

A second Hotchkiss map of Roanoke County, part of a 1948 collection of his maps and other documents donated to the Library of Congress, is of uncertain date in the 1860s and also shows the depot at the end of Union Street.

Hotchkiss was a native New Yorker who relocated to Staunton, Va., as a young man to find his fortune. When the war broke out, he sided with his adopted state, enlisted and was eventually promoted to major. He served under both Stonewall Jackson and Jubal Early.

James I. Robertson Jr. wrote of Hotchkiss that he was a self-made man with a love of learning and he was accustomed to success.

Robertson:

Schoolmaster and scientist, almost six feet in height, he had sleepy eyes and a scraggly beard. Hotchkiss was not an exciting figure but serious in disposition, spurning both alcohol and tobacco. His only vice was an occasional tendency toward long discourses.

One other addition to the discussion of the Salem depots whereabouts that Long offered was a circa 1852 sketch of the town by folk artist Lewis Miller that is included in a 2002 book Long co-wrote called A Town by the Name of Salem: A Past in Pictures.

The sketch appears to show the depot in the foreground with the towns skyline, such as it was, in the background.

Staying with the depot and its war misadventures (it was destroyed twice by Federal raiders), military history student Tom Turner noted in an email that the raids and destruction were not just an exercise in meanness towards the citizens of Salem instead it was part of the strategic plan to cut off supplies to Lees army and bring the war to an end.

The Virginia & Tennessee, which coursed from Lynchburg to present-day Bristol, Va., was one of the last CSA supply lines from the southwest available to Gen. Robert E. Lees armys fading war-making abilities in 1864 and 1865.

The Jed Hotchkiss collection at the Library of Congress may be accessed at: https://www.loc.gov/collections/jedediah-hotchkiss-papers/.

If youve been wondering about something, call Whats on Your Mind? at 777-6476 or send an email to whatsonyourmind@roanoke.com. Dont forget to provide your full name (and its proper spelling if by phone) and hometown.
Donald W. Lemons will step down as chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court effective Dec. 31, and his colleagues have elected Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn to succeed him on Jan. 1, the court announced Monday.

Lemons, 72, a former Richmond lawyer and judge, has served as chief justice for six years. He was first elected to the position by his fellow justices on Aug. 18, 2014, to a four-year term that began Jan. 1, 2015.

Lemons was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2000 for a 12-year term. His current term expires on March 15, 2024. The courts announcement did not say why Lemons was stepping down as its 26th chief justice, but the mandatory retirement age for judges and justices in Virginia is 73.

He has served at every level of the court system in Virginia.

From 1971 to 1973  after college and before law school  he was a probation officer for the Fairfax County Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court. From 1976 to 1978, he was an assistant dean and assistant professor at the University of Virginia School of Law from which he had just graduated.

Lemons was in private practice in Richmond from 1978 to 1995; a circuit court judge in Richmond, from 1995 to 1998; and a judge on the Virginia Court of Appeals, from 1998 to 2000.

As a Richmond Circuit Court judge, Lemons helped pioneer drug courts in Virginia. In 2013, at a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of Richmonds drug court, he brought home the point that drug addiction can strike anywhere by revealing he had a cousin who had died from a heroin overdose not long before, according to news accounts at the time.

At Lemons investiture ceremony in January 2015, he was lauded by more than one speaker for his civility and integrity.

Then Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in remarks at Lemons 2015 investiture as chief judge, thanked Lemons for his groundbreaking work on drug courts and said Lemons faced a great deal of resistance, to the point he was warned that becoming Richmonds drug court judge could be a career-ending move.

There are now more than 50 drugs courts across the state.

Lemons also served as the former president of the American Inns of Court from 2010-2014, and as an honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in London. In 2019, he was awarded the American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics.

Goodwyn, 60, will assume the office of chief justice at the beginning of the new year. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Timothy Kaine in 2007 and was unanimously elected by the General Assembly to the court in 2008 and re-elected in 2020.

Goodwyn is the second African-American to serve as chief justice. Leroy Hassell Sr. was the first, serving two, four-year terms from 2003 to 2011.

Goodwyn previously served as a circuit court judge in Chesapeake for 10 years, and as a general district court judge for two years.

Prior to going on the bench, Goodwyn served as a research associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and a litigation partner at a Norfolk law firm. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1983 and his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1986.

The Virginia Supreme Court is made up of seven justices, each elected by a majority vote of both houses of the General Assembly for a term of 12 years.

The chief justice presently is chosen by a vote of the seven justices for a term of four years. There is no statutory limit to the number of four-year terms to which a chief justice may be elected, but the court has stated that the justices internally adopted a two-term limit.
Let this be your notice, Wallace said. We know who you are and we know where you are. We will not allow this type of criminal enterprise to thrive in Marion County. When you hear a knock on your door in the next few days, it may not be Santa.
Your typical smokehouse was a small building with a sturdy door, no windows and a roof designed to vent smoke just so. Lots of places existed to hang meat: nails, hooks, beams of course, and wooden pegs. Most smokehouses had dirt floors. Some had bricked floors. Many times you placed the smokehouse a convenient distance from the kitchen. Boy, go fetch me that ham hanging from the beam.

Things change but remain the same unfortunately. I came across this: In earlier times people slept in unlocked houses. Their smokehouses, however, featured stout doors with locks and bolts for good reason. In the deep of night, in the hour of the wolf, that time between night and dawn when most people die, the hour when deepest fears haunt the sleepless, when ghosts and demons rage, devils would steal the meat you had worked so hard to preserve. The quoted line comes from an Ingmar Bergman film and it seems fitting. Wolves stealing another mans food. And what about today? Who dares sleep with their door unlocked in this most ungracious age. And you had better keep an eye on your mailbox and packages too. Wolves prowl the streets.
 Lamenting that the "law descends into a ghoulish inferno" as it contemplates the execution of a condemned Alabama murderer | Main | "Even Imperfect Algorithms Can Improve the Criminal Justice System" 

December 20, 2017

"President Trump Commutes Sentence of Sholom Rubashkin"!?!?!

The title of this post is the headline of this press release from the White House this evening. Here are the details:

Today, President Donald J. Trump commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, an action encouraged by bipartisan leaders from across the political spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi to Orrin Hatch. Mr. Rubashkin is a 57-year-old father of 10 children. He previously ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the countrys largest kosher meat-processing company. In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced thereafter to 27 years in prison. Mr. Rubashkin has now served more than 8 years of that sentence, which many have called excessive in light of its disparity with sentences imposed for similar crimes. This action is not a Presidential pardon. It does not vacate Mr. Rubashkins conviction, and it leaves in place a term of supervised release and a substantial restitution obligation, which were also part of Mr. Rubashkins sentence. The Presidents review of Mr. Rubashkins case and commutation decision were based on expressions of support from Members of Congress and a broad cross-section of the legal community. A bipartisan group of more than 100 former high-ranking and distinguished Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, prosecutors, judges, and legal scholars have expressed concerns about the evidentiary proceedings in Mr. Rubashkins case and the severity of his sentence. Additionally, more than 30 current Members of Congress have written letters expressing support for review of Mr. Rubashkins case.

Because I have some personal history working on this case, I am not inclined to comment at great length beyond wanting to here praise President Trump for bringing some (non-political?) attention to his historic clemency powers through this grant. I also will link to some prior posts about this long-controversial case.

Some of many prior posts on the Rubashkin case:

December 20, 2017 at 07:35 PM | Permalink

Comments

Hooray! Judge Linda Reade wont be lifting her flask for this one.

Posted by: FluffyRoss | Dec 20, 2017 8:14:34 PM

Judges who emulate

prosecutors involving criminal trials belong in a different profession

OR

in a  ; their choice 

Nemo  Me  Impune  Lacessit 

Posted by: Docile the Kind Soul in Oregon | Dec 21, 2017 10:01:17 AM

You claim that this is not a political act?

Posted by: whatever | Dec 21, 2017 10:41:02 AM

Poor defendants of color who are involved in far less egregious frauds and are convicted at trial are sentenced to more excessive sentences than this person has served. Completely appropriate however that the commutation is given on the same day the GOP completed the "most massive" heist in US history.

Posted by: whatever | Dec 21, 2017 10:45:23 AM

Selective use of his clemency powers for favored defendants [why is this solitary guy guilty of bank fraud with 10 children -- notable for some reason -- chosen?] doesn't really help encourage a process where the power is used consistently in a broader fashion. So I don't see how much "praise" is really warranted here.

Posted by: Joe | Dec 21, 2017 11:10:45 AM

Unlike Obama against whom the Professor offered unrelenting criticism he now praises Trump who is clearly using his power to benefit the rich and powerful.

Posted by: whatever | Dec 21, 2017 11:21:11 AM

whatever: I see every act by every Prez to be political in some way, but some uses of the clemency power are obviously more political than others. This one strikes me as less political than the Arpaio pardon, but I would not contend that any Prez action in this arena was "not a political act." My comment above was a contention/hope that this Rubashkin clemency would bring some attention to his historic clemency powers that were not merely based in (critical) political terms. But it would seem, whatever, that you still see/criticize this decision largely in political terms (as is your right, of course).

Meanwhile, I criticized Prez Obama because he talked a big game about criminal justice reform on the campaign train in 2007, but then failed to use his clemency power in any way for his first two years in office, and only granted one commutation during his entire first term. If Prez Trump grants simply one more commutation over the next three years, he will have a better first term record than Prez Obama. As one who has long advocated for all modern Prez to use their clemency powers more, I praise those who do and criticize those who do not. Prez Trump has a lot more work to do on this front, but he has now done more on this front in his first year than did any of the last three presidents over their first two years in office.

Posted by: Doug B. | Dec 21, 2017 2:16:45 PM

"simply one more commutation over the next three years, he will have a better first term record than Prez Obama"

President Obama did various things, be them not enough for a strong supporter of reform in this area, to advance the issue of criminal justice reform. One aspect, but one, would be those parts of PPACA that have assisted those in the criminal justice system. This was touched upon on this blog as I recall in a few entries. But, if Trump grants "simply one more commutation," perhaps like this one rather clearly a special interest grant,* he would have a "better first term record" than Obama. As one who supports reform, this sort reaching to find anything possible good in one hand but being a stricter grader on the other, does not come off as very fair. Whatever's response might be a tad blunt, but you know, it isn't simply from left field.

----

* I think it is actually BETTER in a major way to not have a stand alone politically motivated usage of one's commutation/pardon power as compared to Obama's more slow and steady consistent usage.

Posted by: Joe | Dec 21, 2017 3:42:47 PM

@Doug

I see the commutation in political terms too. Sure, it isn't political in the blue state red state sense but that is not the only kind of politics that exist. How can anyone ignore the fact that he was/is wealthy and Jewish? I don't think he owes Trump anything: if I have any measure of the WH it is the son-in-law to whom Rubashkin owes the thanks. In other words, even if one thinks that Rubashkin's sentence was unfair (a dubious proposition but let's grant it for the sake of argument) why among all the injustices that exist in the world today is it THIS injustice that attracts Trump's attention? He had powerful friends, that is all. Rubashkin belonged to the right "in-group". There is no crime in that..it is not a crime to be Jewish or financially successful...but Rubashkin is yet more evidence that justice in this country is bought and sold to the highest bidder.

Posted by: Daniel | Dec 21, 2017 3:45:35 PM

Joe, I am a much stricter grader of Prez Obama because he campaigned on bringing "a new dawn of justice in America," and yet he largely ignored that pledge in the clemency arena until the second half of his second term. At the end, he did a whole lot (though still not nearly enough), but I think he was rightly criticized by many for not doing more earlier ESPECIALLY BECAUSE HE CAMPAIGNED PROMISING TO DO A LOT MORE.

Meanwhile, Prez Trump campaigned on being tougher on crime, and yet he granted a significant commutation sooner than any Prez in a long time. Like you, I would like to see this kick off a slow and steady consistent use of clemency powers. But every journey starts with a single step, and Prez Trump made that step sooner than others.

Meanwhile, Daniel, I am certain Jared Kushner helped bring this case to Trump's attention, but hundreds of prominent folks on both sides of the aisle brought this case to Prez Obama's attention. Do you think Prez Obama was inclined to reject the prospect of clemency because Rubashkin did NOT belong to the right "in-group" from Obama's perspective?

I think the best response to the concern that this one person got a break while other similar folks did not is to urge decision-makers to give other folks more consideration. It will always be "political" what types of offenders a Prez wants to focus on, but it ought to be constructive how the criminal justice community responds when relief is given in whatever form. In this particular setting, I always think "here are more who merit consideration" is a more constructive response than "you should not have given that person special consideration."

Posted by: Doug B. | Dec 21, 2017 5:43:58 PM

@Doug

@Doug writes, "In this particular setting, I always think "here are more who merit consideration" is a more constructive response than "you should not have given that person special consideration."

Well....that might be a more constructive response if one thought that building on this action was possible. Given, however, that I am deeply skeptical and even cynical about Republican efforts on justice (any kind of justice, not just criminal justice) count me among those who think that "here are more" is a waste of breath. Let me put it this way: actions speak louder than words and when Trump actually does something to address the chronic injustices in America I will allow myself hope. Until then, nope.





Posted by: Daniel | Dec 21, 2017 6:37:18 PM

Fluffy Ross has it right, beat me to the punch. So I will smile and be content in knowing that a bunch if people have been hammered to the cross by this former judge.

Especially drug cases, guideline sentences and every engancement applied, rarely any reductions. When a judge goes too far, big writeup for those that havent read her part in this case. Fluffy great job and so few words gettingbthe job done. I tip my flask to you.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Dec 22, 2017 12:17:48 AM

This has the appearance of a special interest commutation, just like the Arpaio, so there is nothing particularly "significant" about it coming from Trump. We had every right to expect such things from him. The fact they don't match his general rhetoric isn't exactly praiseworthy overall. Actually, his rhetoric at times was that he would break the normal rules to get things done, so you know, fair warning.

Obama used some enthusiastic language like politicians tend to do and once they are in office they repeatedly find out things are harder, especially when the other party more than usual don't want to play. Obama did get some stuff done. One more commutation won't make Trump more impressive here unless you use two standards.

Posted by: Joe | Dec 22, 2017 11:09:03 AM

Joe, it is 100% true when it comes to legislation, presidents "repeatedly find out things are harder, especially when the other party more than usual don't want to play." But clemency is different, which is why Obama could get so much done on his own on this front in 2015-2016, and why I criticized so much for doing so little on his own on this front from 2009 to 2014. And, "special interest" or not, Prez Trump softened the severity of federal sentencing for one imprisoned soul in his first year, while Prez Obama did not do that for any imprisoned soul his first two years. After 8 years in the Oval Office, I would bet Obama's commutation record will be better (because he closed on an historic pace). But, stunningly, if Trump is not re-elected, he would not have to grant any more commutations in order to tie Obama's first Term record.

That all said, I would be greatly surprised if Trump's CJ reform record ends up in the ballpark of Obama's, but Trump did not campaign promising CJ reform like Obama did. My standard is based on part on what a politician had promised to deliver and what seems feasible. Obama promise to bring in "a new dawn of justice," and really did not deliver in the CJ arena despite some good (and some not-so-good) efforts.

Posted by: Doug B | Dec 22, 2017 2:07:06 PM

Daniel: I certainly see a reasonable basis for being "deeply skeptical and even cynical about Republican efforts on justice," so I can respect the suggestion that one not "waste time" urging Prez Trump to do more clemency or more in the CJ reform arena. But I actually think Trump may be subject to doing something through effective cajoling in part because he seemingly has few core commitments in this context AND he may have unique contempt for certain kinds of prosecutorial/judicial decisions. Clearly Rubashkin supporters figured out a way to effectively cajole here, so maybe others can be effective in other settings.

Posted by: Doug B | Dec 22, 2017 2:21:07 PM

Let's hope the defendant makes his restitution payments.

Is Pollard in Israel yet?

Posted by: federalist | Dec 22, 2017 7:12:07 PM

Joe, either Trump's action was justified or it was not. You don't opine on that.

here's a blast from the past:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/world/middleeast/beirut-bank-seen-as-a-hub-of-hezbollahs-financing.html?ref=middleeast

Posted by: federalist | Dec 23, 2017 11:56:01 AM

"Joe, either Trump's action was justified or it was not. You don't opine on that."

I actually did "opine on that" (critique of the selective nature and like) but commenting on something Doug or whomever said is allowed too.

---

Doug, you can keep on going on, but one more commutation by Trump isn't going to impress me much vis-a-vis Obama, including taking into his complete record. You can critique Obama vs his rhetoric etc. all you wish [though him having high flowery rhetoric while running is imho not exactly too noteworthy -- that is what people do, partially out of naivete of what they can do with the system in place].

Posted by: Joe | Dec 24, 2017 3:03:46 PM

Post a comment
 Despite lacking a quorum, US Sentencing Commission still has an interesting and productive year | Main | Eighth Circuit panel affirms time-served sentence for enticement of a (fake) minor when guidelines recommended 46-57 months 

December 20, 2021

ACLU releases new poll showing broad support for clemency for home confinement cohort

This new press release reports that "the American Civil Liberties Union released a poll today showing broad bipartisan support for President Joe Biden to issue clemency to those who were selected to be transferred home under the CARES Act." Here are more details from the press release:

During the pandemic, thousands of people have been released from prison to finish their sentences on home confinement, many of whom are elderly or especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Now, thousands are at risk of being sent back to prison when the pandemic recedes if President Biden does not take action. Sending all of these people back to federal prison would be the single largest act of incarceration in U.S. history.... Among the polls findings: 63 percent of voters nationally support clemency for those who are serving their sentences at home due to COVID-19;

for those who are serving their sentences at home due to COVID-19; Among voters in swing House districts, 70 percent of voters support allowing those who were transferred home to serve the reminder of their sentences at home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19;

allowing those who were transferred home to serve the reminder of their sentences at home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19; 68 percent of voters nationwide and 58 percent of voters in swing House districts agree that its not fair to return people to prison after they have been successfully released to their families and communities and re-entered society;

after they have been successfully released to their families and communities and re-entered society; 53 percent of Republican voters agree that its unfair to release people back to their families and communities and then return them to prison;

to release people back to their families and communities and then return them to prison; 64 percent of voters nationwide  including 84 percent of Democrats  support using the presidents power of clemency to end or shorten prison sentences of people deemed safe for release; and

 including 84 percent of Democrats  support using the presidents power of clemency to end or shorten prison sentences of people deemed safe for release; and While only 38 percent of independents approve of Bidens job as president, a majority of them (57 percent) say they would support the president using clemency.

I am a bit surprised that these numbers are not stronger, though it is unclear from the ACLU "fact sheet" just how the poll questions were presented and how much the average poll participant fully knows or understands about all those in the "CARES home confinement cohort." In fact, I still have not seen a lot of detailed data on just how many persons are still serving time on home confinement whose sentences goes beyond 2022 and would be at risk of a return to prison if the pandemic (miraculously) ends in the next few months. I have also not seen much information about the sentences still to serve, the offenses of conviction and other details regarding exactly who would benefit from mass clemency om behalf of the home confinement cohort. Though these details likely would not undermine my general support for bringing relief to this low-risk group, they might shape my view of whether everyone ought to have their sentences commuted to time served or if some perhaps ought to be receive some other form of relief in some cases.

Given that we are now into the final holiday weeks of the year, I am now getting close to giving up any hope that that Prez Biden will grant even a single clemency in 2021. (Of course, holiday season clemencies late into December are not uncommon. Four years ago today, for example, Prez Trump granted a commutation to Sholom Rubashkin.) And, of course, the omicron surge of the COVID pandemic now suggests that we are clearly many months away, and perhaps even years away, from a return to normal BOP operations when the CARES home confinement cohort would be at risk of a return to prison. All these realities lead me to think we will be discussing these issues (and doing more polling?) well into 2022.

Some of many prior related posts:

December 20, 2021 at 12:03 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment
 ACLU releases new poll showing broad support for clemency for home confinement cohort | Main | BJS releases "Employment of Persons Released from Federal Prison in 2010" 

A helpful reader made sure I did not miss this interesting Eighth Circuit panel ruling today in US v. Davis, No. 21-1283 (8th Cir. Dec. 20, 2021) (available here). Here are portions from the opinion's start and heart:

Fredrick M. Davis pled guilty to attempted coercion or enticement of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C.  2422(a). The district court sentenced him to time served and 120 months supervised release, including one year of home confinement. The United States appeals the below-guidelines sentence....

In 2019 Davis contacted Addyson and Sara online. They identified themselves as 14-year-old girls, but were actually personas of undercover law enforcement. Davis asked them to meet with him in a hotel in Dickinson, North Dakota. He sent them sexually explicit messages and a graphic picture, and asked them to send him explicit pictures.

Davis was arrested at the North Dakota hotel where he intended to meet the girls. Under a pretrial agreement, Davis pled guilty to one chargeattempted coercion or enticement of a minor. His advisory guideline range was 46-57 months. As required by the pretrial agreement, the parties jointly recommended a 60-month sentence and five years of supervised release. The district court sentenced Davis to time served (two months) and 120 months of supervised release, including one year of home confinement, participation in sex offender treatment, and registration as a sex offender....

The government objected to the sentence for failing to afford adequate deterrent effect (the district court noted the objection). But a district court has wide latitude to weigh factors, and it may give some factors less weight than a [party] prefers or more weight to other factors, but that alone does not justify reversal. United States v. Brown, 992 F.3d 665, 67374 (8th Cir. 2021). In its written statement of reasons, the district court did acknowledge the need to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct. It chose to give other factors more weight than the deterrence factor, which is not a clear error of judgment.

The government also argues that the district court erred in weighing the Post Conviction Risk Assessment. The record shows the district court considered the PCRA in conjunction with other factors. In fact, at sentencing, the court asked the prosecutor: do you agree with the assessment in the PSR that the risk level is very low for this offender to reoffend? He replied, I do agree, yes, Your Honor. It is within the district courts discretion to weigh such factors.

The government contends Daviss commendable 20-year military career and his exemplary behavior on pretrial release are not sufficiently compelling to justify his below-guidelines sentence. See Gall, 552 U.S. at 50. But, this court may not require extraordinary circumstances to justify a sentence outside the Guidelines. Feemster, 572 F.3d at 462, quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 47. The district courts rationale for granting the variance does not need to be extraordinary, only substantively reasonable.

18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(1) instructs the sentencer to consider a defendants history and characteristics. In his meritorious military career  half his adult life  he earned numerous awards and commendations, including the Combat Action Ribbon and recognitions for service in Iraq and Somalia. Cf. U.S.S.G.  5H1.11 (Military service may be relevant in determining whether a departure is warranted, if the military service, individually or in combination with other offender characteristics, is present to an unusual degree and distinguishes the case from the typical cases covered by the guidelines.). He also did more than simply staying out of trouble while on pretrial release: he acknowledged his conduct, expressed remorse, sought ongoing treatment for his service-related PTSD, and got and maintained a job....

The ten years of supervised release, one year of home confinement, and other restrictions here are a substantial punishment. [T]he Guidelines are only one of the factors to consider when imposing a sentence, and  3553(a)(3) directs the judge to consider sentences other than imprisonment. Gall, 552 U.S. at 59. [C]ustodial sentences are qualitatively more severe than probationary sentences of equivalent terms, but [o]ffenders on probation are nonetheless subject to several standard conditions that substantially restrict their liberty. Id. at 48. In Gall itself, the Court reversed for not giving due deference to the district courts reasoned and reasonable decision that the  3553(a) factors, on the whole, justified the sentence of probation. Id. at 59-60.
Shoppers are finding out this week its surprisingly hard to pick up candy canes to adorn trees or stuff into stockings on Christmas Eve. The sweet peppermint classics are the latest seasonal favorite to get hit by the 2021 holiday supply crunch. Thats right: Theres a candy candy shortage.

Money did some digging and found that traditional peppermint candy canes are difficult to buy online right now. Many of the classic candy cane options at online specialty retailers like Candy Warehouse, Just Candy and Spangler Candy are listed as out of stock. The candy cane selections at big-box retailers like Amazon, Target, Walgreens and Walmart are much more limited than usual too.

Its not just regular consumers who are facing availability issues. We only received half of our candy cane order for the holiday season and sold out almost immediately. We currently have zero in stock, Mitchell Cohen, owner of Economy Candy in New York City, recently told the New York Post.

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Why are there so many holiday shortages?

Candy canes are not the only treat that is more difficult to find than usual this holiday season. There have also been inventory issues with turkeys, cranberry sauce, Christmas trees, beer and wine, cream cheese and even Santa himself. (Santa Claus performers are simultaneously in short supply and in extra high demand this year.)

Snags in the global supply chain and severe labor shortages combined with a huge surge in consumer demand  all exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic  have caused disruptions in stocks of holiday favorites at supermarkets and malls across the country. Manufacturers are struggling to produce enough goods to satisfy their customers, and cargo ships are stuck at crowded ports waiting to unload. Once the goods do leave the ships, there often arent enough truck drivers to transport them to warehouses and retail floors.

Of course, not every supply chain disruption should be considered a shortage. Christmas trees  while more expensive this year  were still readily available in many places. Anybody that wants a real tree should be able to get one, the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Associations Cheryl Nicholson told the Wisconsin State Farmer last month. Prices may be higher than some shoppers would like, but that doesnt mean Christmas trees are sold out.

In the case of candy canes, a weak peppermint harvest may be partly to blame for inventory issues leading up to Christmas 2021. U.S. peppermint production was down some 8.6% in 2020, according to data from the Department of Agriculture. Production has declined roughly 25% since 2011.

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Where to buy candy canes before Christmas

If you need to get your hands on a few peppermint candy canes this week, its worth hitting your local drugstore or supermarket to see if there are any left. If youre shopping online, here are some options we found availability (though theres no telling how long theyll be in stock):

On Amazon, a pack of three 12-count boxes of Brachs Red and White Peppermint Candy Canes is selling for $13.49 and will arrive by December 24 with expedited shipping.

At Walmart, a 6-count box of Brachs Giant Peppermint Holiday Candy Canes, is listed for $5 and is eligible for two-day shipping in some areas.

At Target, boxes of peppermint candy canes are tougher to find available for shipping online, though they are in limited stock in some stores.

At many big retailers, boxes of novelty-flavored candy canes (from Oreo to Hot Tamales candy to Starburst to Funfetti) are more readily available.

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Its an exciting time to dip into sparkling wine, a libation steeped in time-tested production practices but evolving through edgy innovation.

Sparkling wine is typically white or rose, although there are red varieties made from Lambrusco or Shiraz grapes. What do they all have in common? Bubbles! The next time youre sipping your favorite sparkling wine, consider how the bubbles  which result from carbon dioxide gas  ended up in your glass. A variety of methods are used to put the sparkle in sparkling wines, from labor-intensive rounds of fermentation right in the bottle, to straight-up injection (which is the shortcut of less expensive wines and the reason you can find a bottle for less than $10).

Once youve twisted out the cork, there are decisions to be made. Since sweetness and dryness can run the gamut in sparkling wine, there are many options to enhance and enjoy the flavors  from elegant glassware to offbeat food pairings.

Whats in the bottle?

Lets take a look at five styles of sparkling wines that deserve a place at your holiday celebrations.

Champagne (France)

Probably the first word that comes to mind when you think of sparkling wines, Champagne is well known and for good reason. Its delicate, soft bubbles are produced using a time-consuming traditional method called methode champenoise that requires that the wine undergo two rounds of fermentation in the bottle. Whats more, to be labeled as Champagne, a sparkling wine must meet strict criteria. It must be produced in the Champagne region of France and use three main grapes: Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Flavors include almond, citrus, peach and, in finer bottles, toasty yeast notes.

Cremant (France)

Cremant is the name of a style of sparkling wine made in France, outside the Champagne region, and has a creamy mouthfeel due to lower carbon dioxide levels. Aged for at least a year, it is most commonly made from Chardonnay, Chenin blanc and Cabernet Franc grapes.

Often a fraction of the price of Champagne, cremants flavor is similar and can offer an equally exquisite experience, including those one-of-a-kind biscuit-like taste notes often associated with Champagne.

Prosecco (Italy)

Named after the village Prosecco located in the province of Trieste, Italy, this wine uses a grape of the same name, grown in nine provinces in the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Prosecco is available in two styles: spumante (sparkling) and frizzante (semi-sparkling). Spumante is the most popular style of Prosecco, as it has the longest-lasting bubbles. Because Prosecco is produced in tanks, which is a much less time-consuming method than the methode champenoise, it is more affordable. Its tasting notes can include green apple, cream and pear.

Cava (Spain)

This sparkling wine from the Penedes area of Catalonia in northeastern Spain uses in-bottle fermentation similar to that of methode champenoise. Cava most often produced from Macabeo, Parellada and Xarello grapes, but may also contain Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Subirat. This Spanish sparkler is said to be comparable to Champagne, though less yeasty in flavor.

Sparkling wines (U.S.)

As a newcomer to the scene, the U.S. offers a fascinating cast of characters. Eric Asimov, chief wine critic at the New York Times, explains that many of the most-distinguished sparkling wine producers in the States use Champagne as their model. But that doesnt mean that U.S. sparkling wine producers have limited themselves to using only the methode champenoise. Petillant naturel (or pet-nat) wine has begun to pick up production in the U.S. as well. This approach uses what is considered the oldest known method to make sparkling wine by interrupting the natural fermentation process, leaving it to finish fermenting in the bottle.

Whats in a name?

Sparkling wine is labeled according to the amount of sugar in the wine, although the terms might seem counterintuitive. Extra dry is the middle of the sweetness spectrum, with brut on the dry end and demi-sec on the sweet end. Knowing what to look for on the label will help in choosing a sparkling wine that suits your palette.

Extra brut: Bone dry and contains 0-6 grams of sugar per liter

Bone dry and contains 0-6 grams of sugar per liter Brut: Dry with no sweetness and contains less than 12 grams of sugar per liter

Dry with no sweetness and contains less than 12 grams of sugar per liter Extra dry: Just a touch of sweetness and contains 12-17 grams of sugar per liter

Just a touch of sweetness and contains 12-17 grams of sugar per liter Sec: Noticeably sweet and contains 17-32 grams of sugar per liter

Noticeably sweet and contains 17-32 grams of sugar per liter Demi-sec: Sweet and contains 32-50 grams of sugar per liter

Sweet and contains 32-50 grams of sugar per liter Doux: Sweetest and contains more than 50 grams of sugar per liter

Which glass do you use?

When it comes time to deciding on glassware for your bubbly, it might seem like a superficial choice. But the shape of your glass truly influences how your wine will taste, so start experimenting. This guide can help you decide whats right for your next party.

Flute: The shape of this slim, popular glass not only showcases the carbonation but also helps the wine to retain its bubbles longer. Ideal for dry options such as extra brut and brut.

Tulip: Looking to enjoy the aromas of a fruitier wine? The tulips wider shape helps you experience the wines nose.

Stemless: Some argue that the wide base of a stemless glass gives the perfect opportunity to swirl a complex wine. Versatile and easy to hold, these glasses can also be used with still wines.

Coupe: If youre taking in a sweet wine, this stylish wide glass allows the bubbles to dissipate quicker so that fruity notes can come forward.

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Feast and Field raises a glass to the holidays and rings in the new year with some stellar U.S.-produced sparkling wine. In this issue, we get into everything bubbly, from exploring the differences between Champagne and cremant, to understanding how cava fits into the picture. Should you be grabbing a brut or an extra brut based on your preference for sweeter or drier wines? And which glass is best for enjoying your bubbles  tulip, flute or coupe?

We visit a hub for some of the best sparkling wines made in the Pacific Northwest: Soter Vineyards. Located in Oregons Willamette Valley, Soter is known for not only delicious wines but also for their sustainable production methods, which demand recognition. Soters head chef Clayton Allen offers a full holiday dinner menu that pairs perfectly with sparkling wine  from an impressive roasted duck to a dynamic salad thats more than just your average side.

If youre ready to travel, we recommend some of the best ways to experience the Portland areas rich agritourism scene, including where to sip, eat and stay. And finally, Feast and Field shares a festive signature cocktail recipe that you can make with your favorite sparkling wine and serve at your holiday parties.

A trailblazing Oregon winery preps to debut a new sparkling wine Soter Vineyards blends old-world techniques with forward-thinking, sustainable production methods to establish themselves as a mainstay in U.S. sparkling wine.

An instant celebration: Your guide to all types of bubbly Sure, you know about Champagne  but what about cava and cremant? Just in time for the holidays, we have your guide to champers, proper glassware and more.

6 unique recipes that pair perfectly with sparkling wine Have your duck and bubbly, too. From the head chef of Oregons Soter Vineyards, a complete and decadent meal to pair with your celebratory sparkling wine.

Experience the city and the vine: 8 ways to soak up the Portland areas agritourism Whether youre looking for a relaxing stay, sipping Oregons top wines in the famed Willamette Valley or would rather experience the best of local food right in the city, here are the places you shouldnt miss.

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Court Reporter

Hytrek has been at the Journal since 1998, covering courts for much of that time. He is a Nebraska native and University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)  The international community has sent billions of dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip in recent years to provide relief to the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the isolated, Hamas-ruled territory.

The aid is intended to ease the burden on civilians of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed on Gaza when the Islamic militant group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Israel says the heavy restrictions on trade and movement are needed to keep Hamas from enhancing its military capability, while critics view it as a form of collective punishment. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since 2008, the most recent in May.

Israel closely supervises aid to try to ensure it bypasses Hamas. But the Hamas-run government benefits from foreign countries footing the bill for schools, hospitals and infrastructure, allowing it to conserve its own resources, including the taxes and customs it collects.

Here's a look at the main forms of international aid to Gaza:

 From 2014-2020, U.N. agencies spent nearly $4.5 billion in Gaza, including $600 million in 2020 alone. More than 80% of that funding is channeled through the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, who make up three-fourths of Gazas population. Some 280,000 children in Gaza attend schools run by UNRWA, which also provides health services and food aid.

 Qatar has provided $1.3 billion in aid to Gaza since 2012 for construction, health services and agriculture. That includes $360 million pledged in January for 2021 and another $500 million pledged for reconstruction after the war in May. Qatars aid also goes to needy families and to help pay Hamas government salaries.

 The Palestinian Authority says it will spend $1.7 billion on Gaza this year, mainly on salaries for tens of thousands of civil servants who stopped working when Hamas took over in 2007.

 Egypt pledged $500 million in aid after the May war, but its unclear how much has materialized. It sent construction crews to clear rubble over the summer.

 Germany and other European countries will spend nearly 70 million euros ($80 million) on water projects in Gaza this year, in addition to their contributions to UNRWA.

 The U.S. has spent at least $5.5 million in Gaza this year on cash assistance and health care, in addition to contributing $90 million to UNRWA operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

 Israel is granting work permits to 10,000 Gazans who undergo security vetting, providing a crucial source of income for families with no known connection to Hamas.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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KENAI, Alaska (AP)  Ocean farming and aquaculture in Alaskas coastal regions could get a boost from a federal grant program.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration is taking grant applications as part of the American Rescue Plan that provides pandemic relief funding.

A proposal from Alaska envisions the creation of a shellfish and aquatic plants industry, the Peninsula Clarion reported.

The application is among 60 finalists from a nationwide pool of more than 500. Up to 30 proposals will get funding of between $25 and $100 million.

Tim Dillon, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, said the proposal has regional support and could increase jobs.

The proposal aims to turn Alaska's marine farming and aquaculture into a $100 million per year industry.

I honestly believe that is possible, especially if were able to land this other $50 million to be able to do the different things that we need to do to help and support the industry, Dillon said.

Interest in mariculture, the cultivation of marine organisms in their natural environments, in Alaska has historically been contingent on funding.

For years, people have talked about mariculture and theres been different kinds of task forces and things, and everything has come back to Well, we need money to do things, Dillon said.

He added: No matter what, were going to wind up with information thats going to help us."

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, (Kenai, Alaska) Peninsula Clarion.

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ATLANTA (AP)  A senator from Georgia has welcomed his first child.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, 34, said on social media Monday that his wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, gave birth Friday to a daughter.

Alisha and I are overjoyed and totally in love with Eva Beth Ossoff, Jon Ossoff said.

Ossoff said his wife and child are both doing well.

Kramer is a medical resident at Emory University. She and Ossoff were married in 2018 after dating in high school and while they attended Georgetown University together.

The first-term Democratic senator won election in a January runoff, unseating Republican David Perdue. Ossoff earlier lost a special U.S. House election against Republican Karen Handel in 2017. During that race, Ossoff lived outside Georgia's 6th Congressional District, saying his wife needed to be close to Emory for her studies.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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A man who joined a mob in one of the most violent attacks on police during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Monday to nearly four years in prison.

Devlyn Thompson, 28, wrote an apology letter to the officer whom he assaulted during a melee in a tunnel where police battled with dozens of rioters for more than two hours. He also expressed remorse for his actions in a letter to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced him to three years and 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The attack on the Capitol that day was an attack on the very rule of law in our country, Lamberth said.

Justice Department prosecutors recommended a four-year prison sentence for Thompson, a longtime resident of Washington state who moved to Georgia approximately six months before the riot.

Defense attorney Elizabeth Kelley requested a one-year prison sentence for Thompson. He has autism spectrum disorder and functions in many ways as a young child, Kelley wrote in a court filing. She said Thompson's condition influenced his behavior on Jan. 6 and distorted his understanding of what happened that day.

Autism is not and should not be an excuse for bad behavior, but rather, it should be considered when a person's individual culpability and degree of social understanding is called into question, she wrote.

The judge also said autism isn't an excuse for assaulting a police officer. He noted that Thompson had a job that paid him $90,000 a year before the riot.

Thompson has been jailed since he pleaded guilty in August to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a metal baton. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, but sentencing guidelines for Thompson's case recommended a prison sentence ranging from 46 to 57 months.

Prosecutors say one of the most violent confrontations on Jan. 6 was in the tunnel, where a mob and police fought for control of a Capitol entrance in an area known as the Lower West Terrace. Surveillance video captured Thompson with more than 190 other rioters in the tunnel. He struck a police officers hand with a baton that he found in the tunnel. Others assaulted police with poles, sticks and other makeshift weapons.

Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone told a congressional committee in July that the fight in the tunnel was nothing short of brutal." He was pulled into the mob, beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun.

I observed approximately 30 police officers standing shoulder to shoulder, maybe four or five abreast, using the weight of their bodies to hold back the onslaught of violent attackers. Many of these officers were injured, bleeding and fatigued, but they continued to hold the line, Fanone testified.

Before he assaulted the officer, Thompson helped the mob take riot shields from officers and brought them forward for other rioters to use against police, according to prosecutors. He also joined the mob in pushing together against the front line of officers and threw a large audio speaker that struck another rioter in the head, drawing blood, prosecutors said.

Thompsons actions on Jan. 6 "show an absolute disregard for the rule of law coupled with a willingness to incite and engage in violence," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Thompson, who worked for a rental property management company, drove to Washington, D.C., from Atlanta. He didn't enter the Capitol before he left.

In his apology letter to the officer, Thompson said he is still trying to understand his inexcusable behavior on Jan. 6.

You deserve to be treated with respect and I didnt show you any with my actions that day, Thompson wrote.

Thompson is the third rioter to be sentenced for assaulting police at the Capitol. The other two, Robert Palmer and Scott Fairlamb, were sentenced to prison terms of 63 months and 41 months, respectively.

More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 150 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment. Nearly 70 defendants have been sentenced.

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DANVILLE, Ala. (AP)  Neighbors say new Alabama rules governing the spreading of poultry sludge on farmland aren't doing enough to reduce the smell of decaying chicken or the animals it attracts.

The Decatur Daily finds that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has received 51 complaints about one site alone in Morgan County in the last year, almost all saying putrid odor makes it impossible for neighbors to use and enjoy their own property.

Another great week of chicken death up here, wrote Ken Thompson. Thanks ADEM for the smell of death up here at our homes.  Looking forward to a weekend and running to the car so you dont puke when the smell overtakes you.

That July 23 complaint and others target Hidden Valley Farm, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Danville. It's owned by Georgia-based Recyc Systems Southeast, which in turn is owned by Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions.

The poultry sludge is not chicken excrement. Rather, it is a slurry containing bits of dead chickens, along with other waste from rendering and processing plants.

Until April 2020, applying poultry sludge on farmland was unregulated in Alabama. Since then, regulations prohibit application or storage of the sludge within 500 feet (150 meters) of inhabited buildings or within 100 feet (30 meters) of waterways or the property line. No testing of materials is required. The applicator is supposed to develop a plan to minimize animals like rodents, bugs, coyotes and birds, and to minimize odors and fugitive air-borne dust.

Complaints have also been filed against Denali operations in Jefferson, Clay, Jackson, Barbour, Cullman, Russell, Etowah and Marshall counties. Alabama's other major poultry waste distributor, Synagro, has been targeted by 20 complaints this year. Most involved farms in Marshall and Blount counties.

The complaints have prompted dozens of ADEM inspections, but few citations. ADEM has notified Denali of violations six times this year on farms in Morgan, Russell, Etowah, Blount, Clay and Marshall counties, usually involving violations of setback requirements. Synagro has received two notices of violation this year and three warning letters.

Opponents have formed Waste Sludge Awareness, which had its inaugural meeting Dec. 2 in Guntersville.

Environmental group Black Warrior Riverkeeper began receiving complaints of foul odors coming from an old coal mine in north Jefferson County. ADEM issued a cease-and-desist order to Denali in March, and in August fined the company $34,500.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper's Nelson Brooke said waste companies save time and money by spraying lots of sludge in a small area.

They just dont follow the minimal regulations that we have, and the guidelines, which require this stuff to be tilled into the ground and sprayed at a smaller volume so it can adequately percolate into the ground, Brooke said.

That way they can get rid of way more of it quicker, get back to the tanker truck and completely spray that whole 18-wheeler and get on to the next one. Thats cheaper for them, cheaper for the company thats getting rid of it," Brooke said.

Southern Environmental Law Center is representing Black Warrior Riverkeeper and Alabama Rivers Alliance in a challenge to ADEM's regulations. Lawyer Barry Brock said Alabama's rules are weaker than any surrounding state, requiring no testing or treatment for pathogens.

In other states where they do allow that kind of industrial waste to be land-applied, they at least have requirements that it be tested," Brock said.

Rickey Turner, senior project manager at Denali, said his company provides an important service that saves money for poultry processors, disposes of waste that would otherwise fill landfills, and benefits farmers by fertilizing land.

Every single time we try to rebuttal, it always gets misrepresented. Were always made out to be the bad guy, Turner said.

He said extensive testing requirements are unnecessary because the chicken sludge is merely food waste. He said Denali does some testing, both for nutrient value and for the presence of some metals.

Theyre not showing the full picture of what ADEM is requiring us to do before we can even land-apply," Turner said. We have to have a nutrient management plan that shows soil samples, and metals in the sludge and nutrients in the sludge.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Decatur Daily.

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BLACKFOOT, Idaho (AP)  An eastern Idaho county prosecutor as well as a city mayor and its police force are calling on the county sheriff to resign.

Bingham County Prosecutor Paul Rogers and Blackfoot Mayor Marc Carroll on Friday called on Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland to step down.

The Idaho attorney generals office last week charged Rowland with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and misdemeanor exhibition of a gun. State investigators accused him of threatening a church youth group with a gun. The group had dropped a thank-you note off at his front door.

A trusted Law Enforcement officer has admitted to physically assaulting a neighbor and threatening her with his service handgun, Carroll wrote in a statement released on Friday calling for Rowland to resign.

Rogers in his statement said that at some point the damage to the Sheriffs Office becomes irreparable regardless of the outcome of the newly-filed case.

Rowland agreed to take a leave of absence shortly after the allegations arose in November, but returned to the job several weeks ago. Rowland has said he has received threats in recent months and worried about people coming to his home. He has not yet entered a plea on the charges.

I have been doing this job for 36 years, Rowland said in a statement in which he also disparaged the people on the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' Fort Hall Reservation, referencing intoxication and calling them not good people and saying their proximity was the reason for his actions.

The tribes have also called on Rowland to resign, calling his statements racist.

We ask Rowland to officially step down as Sheriff and offer a public apology to the Fort Hall community, Fort Hall Business Council Chairman Devon Boyer said in the statement last week.

In court documents, investigators with the Idaho Attorney Generals office wrote that a youth group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was participating in an activity Nov. 9 where they delivered thank-you notes to members of the congregation. The girls, aged 12 to 16, taped the notes to the church-goers doors and then rang their doorbells, running away before they could be seen.

Seven of the youth group members and an adult leader went to Rowlands neighborhood to leave a note for the sheriff and his wife, according to the court documents. In separate interviews with investigators, members of the youth group and Rowland both reportedly said that after the group left the note, Rowland stopped their car from driving away, pulled the adult driver out of the vehicle by her hair and pointed his handgun at her head, yelling profanities at her.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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SHREVEPORT, La. (AP)  Officials in northwest Louisiana's largest city are now proposing 13% raises for all city employees.

Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins announced the proposal Friday after City Council members on Tuesday rejected a plan to give 13% raises to only police and fire workers on a 3-3 split.

Local news outlets report Perkins and council member Tabatha Taylor said they would present the plan at a Dec. 28 council meeting, aiming for a vote in January.

Employees of other departments had protested that it is unfair for only police officers and firefighters to get a big raise under the earlier plan, proposed by three council members, while other city workers would get only a 2.75% raise.

Council members who proposed the raise cited departures of police officers and firefighters. Those who opposed it complained they were not consulted about the plan.

Perkins said federal officials told him that federal coronavirus relief money, which has swelled city coffers, can be used for raises. After that money runs out, Perkins said the city would use its general fund surplus and increasing sales tax revenue to support the spending on its more than 2,000 employees.

The mayor told reporters that city employees havent received a significant raise in 10 years. He said they deserve a pay bump, citing work during the COVID-19 pandemic and a winter storm earlier this year.

Each and every one of them are essential to the operations of our city, Perkins said. They are the backbone of Shreveport, and that couldnt be more apparent than during our most tumultuous times.

Taylor stood with Michael Blow, an employee who told council members Tuesday that he only made $13.71 an hour after decades.

Ive been here 30 years and I havent seen much of a difference," Blow told the City Council last week. "I moved from the Street and Drainage Department to the Water Department and thats how I got a raise, but its been hard. We need money too.

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Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers showed nearly a six-fold increase in omicron's share of infections in only one week.

In much of the country, omicron's prevalence is even higher. It's responsible for an estimated 90% of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

The nations second-largest city called off its New Years Eve celebration Monday, and its smallest state re-imposed an indoor mask mandate as fears of a potentially devastating winter COVID-19 surge triggered more cancellations and restrictions ahead of the holidays.

Organizers of the New Years Eve party planned for downtown Los Angeles Grand Park say there will not be an in-person audience. The event will be livestreamed instead, as it was last year. In Rhode Island, a mask mandate took effect Monday for indoor spaces that can hold 250 people or more, such as larger retail stores and churches.

And in Boston, the citys new Democratic mayor announced to howls of protests and jeers that anyone entering a restaurant, bar or other indoor business will need to show proof of vaccination starting next month.

There is nothing more American than coming together to ensure that were taking care of each other, Mayor Michelle Wu said at City Hall as protesters loudly blew whistles and shouted Shame on Wu.

Across the Atlantic, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said officials have decided against imposing further restrictions, at least for now.

We will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, Johnson said. The arguments either way are very, very finely balanced.

The conservative government re-imposed face masks in shops and ordered people to show proof of vaccination at nightclubs and other crowded venues earlier this month. It is also weighing curfews and stricter social distancing requirements.

Johnsons warning threw into stark relief the unpalatable choice government leaders face: wreck holiday plans for millions for a second consecutive year, or face a potential tidal wave of cases and disruption.

In the U.S., President Joe Biden is set to address the nation on the latest variant on Tuesday, less than a year after he suggested that the country would essentially be back to normal by Christmas.

His top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, made the rounds on television over the weekend, promising that the Democrat will issue a stark warning of what the winter will look like for unvaccinated Americans.

Cases are surging in parts of the U.S., particularly the Northeast and Midwest, though its not always clear which variant is driving the upswing.

In New York City, where the mayor has said the new variant is already in full force, a spike is scuttling Broadway shows and spurring long lines at testing centers, but so far new hospitalizations and deaths are averaging well below their spring 2020 peak.

After reprieve, NYC is rattled by a stunning virus spike NEW YORK (AP)  Just a couple of weeks ago, New York City seemed like a relative bright spot in the U.S. coronavirus struggle. Now it's a hot spot, confronting a dizzying spike in cases, scramble for testing, quandary over a major event and exhausting sense of deja vu.

The city is also weighing what to do with its famous New Year's Eve bash in Times Square. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said a decision will be made this week about whether the event will come back full strength  with attendees providing proof of vaccination  as he promised in November. Last years bash was limited to small groups of essential workers.

Much about the omicron coronavirus variant remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection but even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.

Even if it is milder, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.K. have surged by 60% in a week as omicron overtook delta as the dominant variant.

Meanwhile, Former President Donald Trump revealed he received a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd in Dallas.

Trump made the disclosure Sunday night during the final stop of The History Tour, a live interview show he has been doing with former Fox News host Bill OReilly.

While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates, he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed on his watch. At the same time, he has refused to urge his supporters to take them, even though Republicans remain far less likely than Democrats to be protected.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it has started distributing free COVID-19 home test kits to international travelers arriving at airports in America.

According to Reuters.com, CDC officials said they began handing out the coronavirus tests last week (on Dec. 15) at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Miami International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

The government agency said it plans to add the free tests to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and four additional unidentified international airports in the coming weeks.
OMAHA -- An Omaha man who recorded himself just outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is cooperating with federal investigators several months after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the insurrection.

Brandon Straka, 45, was scheduled to appear in court for sentencing in the coming week, but prosecutors and Strakas attorneys on Friday requested that the proceedings be delayed for a month, according to a court filing.

The request, first reported by the news outlet Politico on Friday, states that earlier this month Straka provided the government with information that could impact prosecutors sentencing recommendation.

Because the governments sentencing recommendation may be impacted based on the newly discovered information, the government and defendant request a 30-day continuance of this case so that the information can be properly evaluated, the motion states.

Strakas cooperation signals that he is adhering to the terms of a plea agreement in which the government dropped a felony charge.

Straka admitted, via a court filing, that he recorded a video outside the Capitol. In the video, he is heard yelling Go! Go! Go! to encourage others to illegally enter the Capitol. Straka is also heard on the video chiming in with a crowd chanting Take it! Take it! as others tried to take a Capitol Police officers shield.

Straka pleaded guilty in October to one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Under the plea deal, Straka agreed to cooperate with law enforcement by providing copies of his social media accounts, postings, videos and photos. He also agreed to submit to an interview with law enforcement.

Your client can accomplish this through an in-person meeting with a law enforcement agent to allow the law enforcement agent to look through social media accounts on your clients phone or other device or by providing these items through counsel, the plea agreement said.

A local attorney representing Straka did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Strakas prominence on the right rose in recent years. He vocally supported former President Donald Trump and is credited with starting the #WalkAway campaign, which encouraged Democrats to leave their party. Straka spoke at a #WalkAway rally in Omaha in October 2020, along with 2nd District Congressman Don Bacon and others.

One day before the insurrection, Straka spoke at a rally in Washington, where Trump supporters protested the results of the 2020 election. Without evidence, Trump continues to claim that he, not President Joe Biden, won the election.

Those claims ultimately fueled demonstrations on Jan. 6 and led Trumps supporters to storm the Capitol as Congress gathered to certify the election results.

Straka was arrested in Omaha on Jan. 25. In an arrest affidavit, an FBI special agent said that in the video, Straka was wearing the same hat, sunglasses and coat that he wore during his speech on Jan. 5.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  After experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths after the Thanksgiving holiday, Iowa goes into Christmas week with continued high widespread virus activity and no significant gains in vaccination.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said 788 people were hospitalized on Monday, a slight decline from Fridays 810. The agency said 171 people remained in intensive care, one person less than on Friday.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows more than 10,700 cases and 112 additional deaths have been reported in the past seven days in Iowa, where 7,680 people have died.

The CDC says 64.1% of Iowans have received at least one dose of vaccine, leaving more than 35% of the population still unvaccinated.

Eastern Iowa hospitals Mercy Cedar Rapids and UnityPoint Health - St. Lukes announced last week they would postpone elective surgeries that werent urgent until after Christmas because of the increased patient load has placed increasing strain on both hospitals capacity and staffing.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Gov. Pete Ricketts on Monday urged Nebraska residents to get vaccinated and tested for the coronavirus and seek early treatment for severe symptoms amid concerns about the omicron variant and the prospect of a jump in new cases over the holidays.

Ricketts issued the holiday warning as leading Nebraska virus experts warned that the new variant appears to be more transmissible, making it a threat even if it isn't as lethal as other variants.

Ricketts said he was concerned because roughly 90% of the people hospitalized with the virus in Nebraska are unvaccinated, and the upcoming holidays will mean more large family gatherings. Ricketts said he has been vaccinated and received a booster shot, but like many Republicans, he opposes vaccine and mask mandates.

Everybody who has not been vaccinated yet can help out by getting vaccinated, Ricketts said at a news conference. The best defense we have against the virus is making sure we get the vaccine.

Dr. Gary Anthone, the states chief medical officer, said its too early to know whether the variant will lead to a surge in cases in Nebraska.

The state's hospitals were treating 523 coronavirus patients as of Monday, well short of this year's peak of 637, but health officials have expressed worries about the omicron variant. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations peaked at 987 in 2020.

At a separate news briefing in Omaha, Nebraska public health experts warned that the omicron variant could overwhelm hospitals even if it isn't as deadly as other variants because it spreads much more easily.

This is the most dangerous scenario we have faced, really, since spring of 2020, said Dr. James Lawler, co-director of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Even if the virus is only half as severe in most people, we'll produce so many cases that it will overrun our health system, said Lawler, an associate professor of medicine.

Lawler said the greatest risk over the holidays is not traveling but gathering in large groups in close spaces. He said people can mitigate the risk with masks, social-distancing and by getting vaccinated.

Ricketts also announced that he will extend several current public health orders through March 31, 2022. The orders, in place since October, relaxed licensing requirements for health care officials to try to address chronic worker shortages that worsened during the pandemic. They were initially set to expire at the year's end.

Ricketts said the state will also request additional funding from the federal government to boost reimbursement rates for long-term care facilities, allowing nursing homes to collect more money so they can offer better pay to try to attract more workers.

Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  A minimum-security state prison inmate has been placed on escape status, South Dakota corrections officials said Monday.

Authorities say Paul Standing Crow Beck left his work release job site in Rapid City on Sunday without authorization. He faces a charge of second-degree escape, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Standing Crow Beck, 25, is serving a sentence for third-degree burglary out of Brown County.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Do you guys even realize how many people watch Yellowstone? has become, for some people who prefer critic-favored shows like Succession, the new way to marvel at the siloed nature of American culture. A lot of people do, indeed, watch Yellowstone: The Paramount Network shows Season 4 premiere, which aired in November, had more than 12 million viewers. And for a big, beautiful drama starring Kevin Costner as the patriarch of the Dutton ranching family and co-created by Taylor Sheridan, whose movies Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River have won varying degrees of critical acclaim, it is a little surprising how absent Yellowstone feels from the Online Discourse. Is that because every single character youre supposed to like on Yellowstone would absolutely hate the very idea of Online Discourse? Well, thats never stopped the self-hating internet before!

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Even though the average reader of cultural criticism (like that on Slate) may still be unsure where they can even watch Yellowstoneif you dont have cable, its streaming on Peacockthe show is so popular that it now has a prequel. 1883, the story of how the Dutton family went west, started this past Sunday; the first episode aired after the new Yellowstone. The cast of 1883 offers almost comical levels of western/country vibes: Theres Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the central couple, James and Margaret Dutton; Sam Elliott as a cowboy who allies with them in their trip across the continent; and Isabel May as their fiery, wayward daughter Elsa who chafes at her role and just wants to be a cowboy. (Rebellious and beautiful teenage girl is a total cliche in historical fiction, but Elsa is also a bit of a hat tip to fans who love Beth Dutton, the fan-favorite daughter played by Kelly Reilly on Yellowstone; shes not a tomboy like Elsa, but she is fiery with a capital F.)

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It makes a lot of sense to take Yellowstone back in time. Everyone in the shows universe is obsessed with historymainly with the idea that the Dutton familys way of life, as owners of a giant ranch adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, employers of many cowboys, and wielders of various kinds of local power, is deeply correct. The driving tension in the plot comes from the fact (undeniable in the shows universe) that this lifestyle is under threat because of the passage of time and the worlds changing ways. This is not a subtle theme; its something that characters say out loud, a lot. These threats come from every side: Capitalists with even more money and power than the Duttons are looking to buy their land for development. Militias with a grudge try to murder them. More than once, a character calls the Dutton ranch the Alamo, and they definitely mean it in the hopeless last stand sense, not the Texans who wanted to enslave people were mad at Mexicans who wanted to stop them sense.

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The Duttons of the past, whose backstory we will learn as 1883 unfolds, are omnipresent in Yellowstone, maybe especially in the mind of John. Twice this season, weve gotten glimpses into the 19th century Duttons world on Yellowstone. In Season 4s opening episode, John lies in a coma in a hospital bed, shot multiple times by gunmen hired by his adopted sons biological father to murder the entire family, so that the adopted son can have the ranch. (Threats from all sides, like I said.) John seems to have sort of a vision, and were transported to a wintertime scene. Tim McGraws James Dutton, along with two sons (one of whom is Johns father, John Sr.), are on horseback; they encounter a group of starving Native people and give them a cow to eat. Outside the hospital, Beth Dutton talks with a boy she meets whose father is also inside, dying. Whats killing your father? the boy asks Beth. The 21st century, she replies. Meanwhile, we find out in the beginning of the second episode of 1883 that James Dutton was a Confederate officer who spent most of the Civil War in a Yankee prison camp. Duttons across time, it seems, have clung to lost causes.

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If its not clear whether youre supposed to like the family members in Succession, its extremely, extremely clear in Yellowstone and 1883 that you are supposed to like (most of) the Duttons. Some of them seem borderline psychotic, and most of them have very high body counts to their names, but they are always earthier and saltier than everyone else. Key to the viewers allegiance is the unshakable faith you are supposed to have in each shows central father figure. I gaspedthen criedat the end of a first-season Yellowstone episode where the camera follows Costner, pondering all his troubles, across the ranch, and the soundtrack plays Mary Gauthiers song Mercy Now: My father could use a little mercy now/ The fruits of his labor fall and rot slowly on the ground/ His work is almost over, it wont be long, he wont be around/ I love my father, he could use some mercy now. We, the viewers, are supposed to have mercy on Johndeep in his heart, he means well.

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This patriarchal allegiance has a politics to it, especially in the West, where land is everything. Yellowstone depicts the Duttons, in their giant house, with all their connections, with their literal helicopter that they own, as being just as besieged as the Native people of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock, living on the reservation nearby. Early on in the show, theres an opposition set up between John Dutton and the tribal council chairman Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), who tells John that he plans to take over the Dutton ranch and return it to the state it was in before white settlers arrived: Im the opposite of progress. Im the past catching up to you.

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But as time moves on, it becomes clear that the show wants to establish that the Duttons are much more Native (authentic and under threat) than they are like the other white people who have more recently come to Montana to become Montanans. A Native character even says to John, at one point, Youre the Indian nowand the show uses that phrase for the episode title. I think the show is trying, clumsily enough, to evoke some sense of solidarity, but men on the frontier have often, in the United States, been painted as borderline Native, even as they retain the right to take Native land. (Heres where Ill warn you that in the next paragraph, Ill be talking about plot points that involve suicide and children in distress.)

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I almost stopped watching Yellowstone in the first season because of a series of events in which Kayce, the youngest Dutton and a former Navy SEAL (natch), who is married to Monica, a Native woman played by Kelsey Asbille, shoots his own wifes brother in the course of a conflict between the Dutton family and the reservation. The consequences of this action compound quickly, and theyre grim. Kayces wifes sister-in-law, whos lost her husband and has no job, no money, and three kids, dies by suicide; she thinks that her children will be better off with their grandparents, who will be forced to take them when she is gone.

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Yellowstone is totally obsessed with drawing lines between city slickers who watch Succession and the kinds of real people who are meant to be in Montana.

Kayce and Monica take care of the children as their grandparents make the drive to pick them up. In one scene in this sequence, the newly orphaned children are in a bath, along with Kayce and Monicas son. The youngest one, who is probably about 4 or 5, is sobbing his heart out, utterly bereft. This Native childs pain and trauma is in the story so that we can see Kayces reaction and think about his guilt, so that Kayce and Monicas decision to move their son away from the reservation makes sense, and so that an alienation between Kayce and Monica can arise and eventually be solved. This show is often too much for me, but in this sequence, it was very much too much.

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Yet I cant stop watching this show, four seasons in, for the ways it portrays drama traditionally untapped by the kinds of media that critics are wont to cover. Yellowstone is totally obsessed with drawing lines between city slickers who watch Succession and the kinds of real people who are meant to be in Montana. In the first season, a California billionaire who has been trying to take over the Duttons ranch dies, gasping out, I have every right to be here. This is America. But he and his ilk obviously do not, since they died, and its the strong who survive. The land, Yellowstone tells us, has some kind of knowledge of who is meant to be there, and if youre still alive in Montana, it must be because the land refused to cast you off. Urbanites could never stand a chance in this shows vision of the Wild West.

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I have seen three episodes of 1883, and so far, it seems like the show has the same mystical sense that there are white people who earn the right to the land and white people who dontplus Native people, who will be pushed aside, in the sad course of Progress. The wagon train the Duttons are accompanying across the country steadily sheds German immigrants, lost to wagon wheel accidents, banditry, and snakebite. The opening sequence, which is a flash forward, depicts Elsa, the daughter, doing battle with Native warriors who attack the wagon train. We havent yet gotten back to that part of the story, and so its not clear how Elsa will survive. But I suspect, given Yellowstones feelings about Duttons and Montana, that she will make it.

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Ill watch the rest of 1883 with interest, wondering how this show will continue to turn the rhetorical trick of Yellowstone, which critiques and celebrates the settler-colonial success of the Duttons, sometimes in the very same scene. Because yes, the fact that Yellowstonean extremely compelling, deeply romantic vision of American history, a story of a bunch of victors who are passionately convinced they are victimsis so popular, so widely watched on cable in the era of cable-cutters, merits a lot more critical analysis than it currently gets.

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Heres an example as to why: In a press release about the shows still-in-the-works second spinoff, 6666another contemporary Western about a giant ranch in Texas that is a county to itself and still operates as it did two centuries beforeParamount+ described the 6666 ranchs name as synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world. (Last year, Taylor Sheridan bought the 6666 ranch, IRL.) Its that lack of mercy for most everyone whos not a Duttonor at least Dutton-esquethat underpins life on Yellowstone. What unsettles me most is that these shows really do take this as a moral truth, because the person who is rightest about what the Duttons are is the reporter who dies in Season 2 of Yellowstone, in the course of trying to write a piece on them. No man should have this much land, she says. This isnt a kingdom, and your father isnt a king. And then, one of the Duttons kills her.
On a recent episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Walt Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, about recent developments from the Jan. 6 commission and Washingtons accountability gap. A portion of their conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, has been transcribed below.

Dahlia Lithwick: Lets just jump in on this split screen of Jan. 6. You have been incredibly critical of the slaps on the wrists that have been meted out to the lowest-level coup participants, while leadership, really from the top down, has been almost completely immune, not just from prosecution, but even from scrutiny. It seems as though the reporting last week maybe changed that. The New York Times reported that members of the Freedom Caucus were deeply involved in efforts to pressure the Justice Department to pressure state of officials to pressure Mike Pence himself to overturn the election results. Were actually seeing texts that were sent to Mark Meadows on the day of Jan. 6 that seem to implicate kind of everybody. It now really feels like the calls were quite literally coming from inside the house. Is this different, has this changed, or are we just too far gone along the path of normalizing Jan. 6 to care?

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Walt Shaub: What may have changed this past week was a sense on the part of the public that somethings happening, and maybe if were lucky, a wake-up call for the press that puts this back into perspective. We talk about the Jan. 6 insurrectionor the coup, or whatever we want to call itas though it was a tussle. That seems to be the dominant narrative in terms of its tone, that this was just a thing that happened.

And if we step back and look at it, you had the outgoing leader who had just lost an election convene an event on the major parade ground of the nation in its capital after weeks of calling the election a lie and saying things like, Jan. 6 is going to be huge, and people bused in from all over. And then at his rally, a congressman, Mo Brooks, urges people to go and, as he put it, Kick some ass, and President Trump is screaming and Mo Brooks is telling people, On your way home, go pay a visit to the Capitol. And so then they did. Meanwhile, there was a noose hanging from a scaffolding outside. People scaled the walls of Congress. In most countries, you would have expected them to open fire on the crowd, and maybe after a few dozen fell down dead, the others would run away, and Im not urging that people be killed, but Im just trying to put it in perspective here that thats the magnitude of this assault.

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You had members of Congress hiding, one hiding in a closet hoping she wasnt going to be murdered by people who talk about killing her, and a fellow member of Congress posted a cartoon video of him killing her. And you had them screaming that they should hang the vice president, and they beat a couple police officers almost to death, and one died on the way to the hospital. When the police were cornered and made one final stand and warned people not to come in, a terrorist burst through the glass, and the officer had no choice but to shoot her, and then she died. And youve got an entire segment of the population supportive of this coup attempt, cheering her on as though shes some kind of a martyr for a cause. Well, the only cause shes a martyr for is terrorism and fascism.

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And you had the military withholding aid and leaving these Capitol Police officers grossly outnumbered, fighting for their lives for hours. And in this context, in this moment, we also now know that we had members of Congress putting enormous pressure on the Department of Justice and the vice president to reject the outcome of the election. We came so close to the republic ending that day, and we talk about it as a minor thing.

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None of this came as a surprise. We knew it came from the top, both in the executive and the legislative branch. We knew theres a deep conspiracy. We had the spectacle of members of Congress who participated in the plot and who were texting one of the chief protagonists objecting to these proceedings going forward. We are at an absolute crisis moment, and weve all been numbed by these light sentences, and this targeting of the lowest-level officials, and Merrick Garlands timidity in pursuing any kind of higher-level actors in this conspiracy. And now were getting a vivid reminder just how high it went.

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I saw somebody I respect on TV complaining that maybe the members of Congress should have withheld this information until their final report. That is a traditional line of thinking that so many people have and I think the world has lost perspective that this isnt some traditional moment where were having a sober investigation where both sides are cooperating like in the 9/11 Commission. We are basically facing an ongoing attempt to overthrow the republic. And this was probably the most encouraging thing that Ive seen to signal that the committee is serious. And I, frankly, had been losing a bit of hope in them, but this was encouraging. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of just how serious this was.

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This is the meat of what were trying to probe. And you, as somebody who has really been a crusader for government accountability, have been watching with dismay that the guys in the funny hats and the people who say silly things on Twitter and the guys who are taking selfiesit turns into this kind of Peter Sellers movie where its just these silly kids running amuck. Were they antifa? We dont know. Were they really bad guys? We dont know. Were they answering the call of their leader? Definitely not. Theres been this line between the folks who were, as were increasingly learning, deliberately engineering this in order to create leverage and pressure Congress and pressure Mike Pence, and everyone above the line has been immune from prosecution, has been immune even from scrutiny.

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And what Im hearing you say is that seems to be filtering up now, and I really feel it too, and its partly these texts to Mark Meadows, its partly the revelations about Jim Jordan by name, other members by name.

I do want to talk for one minute about congressional oversight because it does feelhaving said that this week felt like an inflection point in terms of public understanding that it was not going to be sufficient to just hold the guys in the funny costumes and the furry vests accountableit also felt as though the Jan. 6 committee is also taking very, very seriously the idea that were going to have to go up the chain here. Steve Bannon, John Eastman, Mark Meadows. This week, the House voted to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress. Meadows has just been doing comedy, suing the Jan. 6 committee, suing Nancy Pelosi, arguing privileges that he doesnt have and that hes already waived. Does it feel to you as though, as this escalates, Congress is taking very, very seriously that oversight means going after the big fish and following where that leads?

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Yeah. And its been surprisingly successful. And I say surprisingly because whats not surprising is the opposition Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon had put up, because why would they think any differently? Don McGahn, the former counsel of the president, resisted a congressional subpoena and the case went up and down the courts for two years, and even got one terrifying appellate court decision that made it sound like congressional oversight is now done forever.

Then the White House changed hands and the Biden administration continued defending Don McGahn and actually struck a devastating blow against Congress. The Biden administration forced the House to do a closed-door deposition of McGahn when what they had wanted was an open hearing appearance. And that was crucial to them because the public, at large, did not read the nearly 400-page Mueller report. And the public, afterward, did not read the Don McGahn deposition transcript, but the public would have watched evening news clips of Don McGahn in front of the camera being grilled by members of Congress. And the White House prevented that.

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People may ask, Why would they do that? And the answer is simple: The executive branch likes executive branch power and dislikes legislative branch power. And while Trump had us on a highway to authoritarianism at 120 miles an hour, Biden has slowed the car to 6 or 15 miles an hour, but he has not turned the car around in the other direction. He is continuing the long march of presidents toward expanding presidential power at the expense of checks and balances.

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So Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon have this example that they could drag it out for two years. Congress is almost surely going to change hands in a year, and so anything they can do to delay it will be a win for them. And they have nothing to lose because also they have tons of off-ramps. They could find themselves prosecuted and deep into the trial, agree to show up and testify, and then the court will probably moot out the case, or if it even pursues it, justice may agree to compromise with them.

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So whats amazing is, with that incentive and that ability, you have to ask yourself, Well, why did hundreds of witnesses cooperate with the committee? And the answer is because the system was never really built for all-out obstruction. And the fact that were on uncharted territory is a testament to how rare that has been, that level of noncooperation. And the level of belligerence of Trump appointees when they used to come and testify was astonishing to me.

Its very hard to impose the most serious consequences, criminal prosecution, but it is less hard to destroy a reputation and career. And with Trump having lost the election, theres enough uncertainty that there are people who are potential witnesses who have in the back of their mind, Gee, the republic may continue, society may continue to exist, and I may be shunned, I may be untouchable by the big, lucrative lobbying firm, or big-time law firm, or whatever other place I want to work because Im too controversial a figure. For some of them, there still are the old-fashioned, soft reputational consequences that make them cooperate. For others, its remotely possible some of them are patriotic, and for others, some of them may be fearful that this has gone further than they ever thought it would, and some may have only joined the Trump team out of opportunism. Even when you have somebody terrible in charge, you have lots of people who see an avenue to have some power to do something they care about and theyre willing to be tainted by being affiliated with that individual.

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So there are a lot of reasons people have cooperated, and the committee has been aggressive and has gotten an astonishing amount of stuff. That report, when theyre done, is going to be a real earth-shattering thing.

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In some ways, I think it was a mistake to have Mueller, a prosecutor, conduct an investigation because a prosecutor is looking for provable crimes that you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt when maybe an inspector general type or an oversight commission of some sort thats just trying to get at the truth wouldve been more effective. And so I wasnt surprised that the Mueller report didnt result in much.

This committee is going to come out with a report that will be far more willing to get into things that arent necessarily provable beyond a reasonable doubt but more likely than not happen. And thats the standard normal people use in normal life. We have a higher standard for criminal law because were taking away peoples liberty, so we want to be sure. But in life, you make most of your decisions based on, This is probably true. So theres a real chance itll be a better report in many ways than even the Mueller report.

And the one other thing Ill say about that is Garland could have gotten a lot of this information a lot easier and a lot faster. Theres no indication that Garland is doing anything to go after the higher-level officials, and I have a very hard time believing theres even any chance that he is. And so its again frustrating that this administration doesnt seem to be up to the challenge of this very dangerous moment were in. Maybe thats why this week has felt like such a gift after so much slogging through bad news to at least have some sign that somebody is taking this seriously at the higher levels.

To hear the entire discussion, listen below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Now more than ever there are two distinct worlds of capital punishment in the United States. It has long been the case that the death penalty has flourished in some regions of the country and in some states more than in others. And the release of the Death Penalty Information Centers (DPIC) annual report for 2021 makes clear that the distance between those two divergent paths rapidly increased last year.

The death penalty in 2021 was defined by two competing forces: the continuing long-term erosion of capital punishment across most of the country, and extreme conduct by a dwindling number of outlier jurisdictions to continue to pursue death sentences and executions, The DPIC report noted. Capital punishment increasingly is used in just a few idiosyncratic locales and offers another fault line in this countrys fragmented political, legal, and cultural life.

As in many other areas of American life, supporters and opponents of the death penalty regard each other as enemies, not just as opponents. They see the world in fundamentally different ways and think of the political struggle over the death penalty as a struggle over fundamental values and different ways of life.

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As Emory University historian Daniel LaChance explains, These days, support for capital punishment is concentrated among whites, Protestants, and Republicanskey demographic constituencies of the conservative side of the late twentieth century culture wars. Support for the death penalty is not only a tool for controlling crime, but also an expression of allegiance to valuespersonal responsibility, the sacredness of innocent life, and the firmness of a nations convictionsthat they feel have degraded in the United States since the 1960s.

Progressives, in contrast, see Americas continuing use of capital punishment as unjust, barbaric, and a sign of moral backwardness.

As a result, we can expect death penalty politics to grow more, not less, bitter and more intense, as the two worlds of capital punishment come to terms with new realities.

What are these new realities?

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In one of the worlds of capital punishment, abolitionists have made great progress and the death penalty is in retreat.

This year, Virginia became the eleventh state to have abolished capital punishment since 2007 and the 23rd state overall not to have the death penalty. It became the first southern state to abolish that punishment in recent memory. In Oregon, to cite another example of progress against the death penalty noted by the DPIC, the supreme court effectively ended that states use of capital punishment last October.

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At the federal level, the Biden Justice Department announced a moratorium on federal executions.

During 2021, the United States imposed the fewest death sentences and carried out the lowest number of executions in decades. Eighteen people were sentenced to death, tying 2020s number for the fewest in the modern era of the death penalty, dating back to the Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia that struck down all existing U.S. death-penalty statutes in 1972. The eleven executions carried out during the year were the fewest since 1988.

But in the other world of capital punishment, things look quite different.

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Donald Trumps gruesome execution spree exemplified the desire to take the lives of those convicted of horrible crimes that still exists on the other side of the death penalty divide. Trump himself captured the flavor of the cultural chasm when he said during his 2016 campaign, Death penalty all the way. Ive always supported the death penalty. I dont even understand people that dont.

While many political conservatives now oppose capital punishment, then Attorney General William Barr observed after the first of the federal executions last year that Americans have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today.

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Looking at only the states which carried executions last year, the names are quite familiar to any student of the death penalty, with Texas and Oklahoma leading the way, followed by Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri.

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All but one prisoner executed this year had serious impairments, including brain injury or damage, mental illness and intellectual disabilities, or had histories of gruesome childhood neglect and abuse,according to a report in The Guardian,

That report quotes Ngozi Ndulue, DPICs deputy director, as saying that the states which continue to use the death penalty do not use it for the worst of the worst, but the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.

In this other world of capital punishment desperate measures have been required to keep the machinery of death running.

States have ratcheted up the regime of secrecy surrounding the death penalty. They refuse to disclose the precise drugs used when they put someone to death by lethal injection or to identify the suppliers of those drugs. Such refusal makes it very hard for journalists to inform the public about the killings that are carried out in its name or for condemned inmates to vindicate their rights under the Eighth Amendment.

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Because death penalty states have had trouble obtaining the drugs that were long part of the standard lethal injection protocol, they have turned to new, often untested drugs and drug protocols. Or they have revived previously discredited methods of execution, as South Carolina did in May of this year when it brought back the electric chair and the firing squad to its inventory of execution methods.

In the world where the death penalty still lives, states have compiled a troubling record of problems and mishaps in their execution chambers, like the horror that unfolded last October when Oklahoma severely botched the execution of John Marion Grant.

As the DPICs Robert Dunham notes, The handful of states that continue to push for capital punishment are outliers that often disregard due process, botch executions, and dwell in the shadows of long histories of racism and a biased criminal legal system.

And, as a strange case from Alabama reveals, death penalty states go deep into their bag of tricks to keep governmental officials in line. In that case, Jefferson County Judge Tracie Todd was suspended without pay for 90 days for, among other things, deciding that states death penalty system, which still allows judges to override jury decisions and impose death sentences was unconstitutional.

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Such punishments are almost unheard of except when judges are guilty of the most serious derelictions of duty. But in Alabama it seems that a judge who points out the irrationality, cruelty, and injustice that is pervasive in its death penalty system has committed just such a dereliction.

This year ends with the two worlds of capital punishment intact, but with the sense that the United States is on the way toward abolition. Yet the road forward will not be easy nor is the result assured.

What the political philosopher Michael Walzer once said about all journeys toward justice seems apt as a way to think about capital punishment as this year comes to a close. This journey will be, as he says, very slow, a matter of two steps forward, one step back.

But that is still progress. We should not miss the fact that in 2021 there was more forward movement than setbacks on the way to ending Americas death penalty.
Throughout the pandemic, American jails and prisons have been some of the most contagious hotspots in the country. The UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project has found that people in prison have experienced COVID-19 at rates more than triple that of their non-incarcerated peers and died of the virus at a rate more than twice as high.

Last winter was especially dangerous behind bars. From the middle of December through February alone, more than 100,000 incarcerated people tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 727 people were reported to have died of the virus. During the same window of time, more than 31,000 prison employees tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 73 died.

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As the Omicron variant threatens to reignite the pandemic this winter and the Biden administration takes concrete measures to prepare for a likely surge, history does not need to repeat itself.

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What went wrong last year? Jails and prisons have long been overcrowded and unhygienic environments. During the pandemic, people in these facilities have often lacked access to personal protective equipment. Testing has been sparse. And while public health experts have called for depopulation of jails and prisons to prevent outbreaks, governors and correctional officials mostly declined to implement the kind of widespread releases needed, and population levels have remained high. In fact, in many states, prison releases have actually slowed during the pandemic.

People in jails and prisons have paid the price, but so have those of us on the outside, especially in surrounding communities. One report found that rural counties that held more incarcerated people have seen significantly higher COVID-19 numbers, and that in the summer of 2020, mass incarceration was responsible for more than half a million new cases of COVID-19. Another found that as many as 15 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Illinois could ultimately be traced back to the Cook County Jail.

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This time around, we know what must be done to save lives and prevent outbreaks. Officials at all levels of the criminal legal system should be preparing for a new wave of case surges now by taking a number of measures that are evidence-based and backed by experience and science.

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First, officials at all levels of the criminal justice system must take steps now to decarcerate. Since the start of the pandemic, public health experts have been urging depopulation to achieve lower density insideboth in prisons, where aging populations are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, and in jails, which experience high turnover and pose a particular risk of spread to nearby communities.

Decarceration requires action from officials at all levels of the criminal justice system. Prosecutors should decline to charge, at least for low-level offenses, and decline to seek bail so as to avoid exposing people to COVID-19 merely because they cannot afford bail. Judges should grant population reduction requests and petitions for individual release. Governors, state legislatures, corrections commissioners, and sheriffs should all use their executive and legislative authorities to reduce jail and prison populations quickly.

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Second, prison officers must be subject to vaccine mandates.

Prison employees are key vectors for viral transmission, inadvertently bringing the virus into prison facilities from surrounding communitiesand back into their communities. In May, June, and July of this year, half of the COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred in California prisons could be traced back to infected staff members. Correctional employees are also public servants tasked with a professional and moral obligation to keep the people in their custody safe and free from harm.

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But despite the high stakes and the high risks of infection, vaccination rates among prison staff  where they are reported  are strikingly low. In Pennsylvania, just 48 percent of staff report being vaccinated. In Washington, just over 50 percent report being vaccinated. Most states, however, dont report this number; in those jurisdictions, rates may be even lower.

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So far, we are aware of just seven states in which prison staff are required to be vaccinated. President Bidens broader mandate, which will require companies with more than 100 workers to implement a vaccine mandate, would affect some prison systems. But because it is being issued through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the mandate would leave nearly two dozen state systems untouched.

Correctional employee unions recognized the importance of vaccines for their rank-and-file when they requested  and in most states received  prioritized access to vaccinations. Since then, those same unions have changed their tone and too few employees have made the choice to accept it.

Third, incarcerated people must be continually offered vaccinations and boosters. Although many incarcerated people have been vaccinated, some still have not.

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Some incarcerated people have been reluctant to accept COVID-19 vaccines, likely in response to an ugly history of medical experimentation on and abuse of people behind bars. Now that we have all seen firsthand just how safe and effective the vaccines are  and now that the Omicron variant is approaching  it is imperative that incarcerated people receive continued and constant access to vaccinations. Those who declined vaccines initially, opting instead to wait and see, must be allowed to change their minds and receive a vaccine. And all incarcerated people must be given meaningful access to booster shots  following the CDC recommendation that all adults receive one.

By our count, nearly 3,000 people have died and nearly half a million have been infected by COVID-19 behind bars. Countless more have been unable to see loved ones or participate in programming because the failed responses by those in power have prolonged the crisis.

We already know the cost of inaction. When Omicron comes, we dont need to repeat the horrors of previous waves of the pandemic. But staving off further tragedy and misery requires acting boldly and quickly, and it requires following science over politics. Decarceration and vaccination will save lives.
A couple of months ago, my father and I stayed at an Airbnb in Moab, Utah. On my way home, I wrote a five-star review of the experience, in which I described the breakfasts (hearty and home-cooked), the rooms (clean and comfortable), the location (quiet yet proximate to downtown), and our hosts (friendly and full of good advice). After much deliberation, I closed out my review with the following line: At the time of our stay in October 2021, the hosts told us that they were not vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Four hours later, I received a message from Airbnb: My review had been removed because it didnt have enough relevant information to help the Airbnb community make informed booking decisions. When I requested clarification, the customer support representative added: We do not publish any medical or psychological information about our users.

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I live in fear of being accused of breaking any rule, so my initial response was one of guilt. Our hosts were hardworking people who had been nothing other than kind and helpful to us. They had left us an entirely positive review, even though Im confident there are plenty of things about me and my dad that are annoying at best. I didnt want them to believe I was trying to undermine their business or that I was ungrateful for their hospitality.

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I felt guilty in part because I was unsure of my own motives for calling out their vaccination status. Id like to believe that I did so for purely altruistic reasons: to prevent future travelers from being blindsided, as my dad and I were when the topic of vaccines came up midway through our homestay. But was there a judgmental part of me that, on some level, wanted to shame these kind people? To show that they couldnt just get away with shirking their responsibilities to public health, or simply not leading their lives the way I thought they ought to? Probably. And I dont like to see that part of myself.

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When I told my father that Airbnb had removed my review, his response was far more straightforward than mine. He was confident that Id been in the right. We were sharing a kitchen and living room with this family, he reminded me. We were unmasked around them. Theyre young, Im sure they think theyd be fine if they got COVID, but what about me? Im 77. I wish some other reviewer had mentioned that they werent vaccinated before we booked this place.

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And that made me wonder: Maybe other travelers had mentioned that their hosts werent vaccinated. If my review was removed for this reason, maybe others have been, as well.

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Company spokesperson Ben Breit said by email he is not aware of reviews being removed for revealing COVID vaccination information but that it would be appropriate to do so because revealing another persons private health status in a public Airbnb review without their knowledge or consent is prohibited per our content policy. (While Airbnb does have a specific COVID addendum to its content policy in place, it says nothing about revealing another users vaccination status.)

Breit added: We only remove reviews in very limited circumstances, including if they are in clear conflict with our community policies (primarily our content policy or review policy), and this happens rarely. Authentic reviews are critical to the integrity of our platform which means negative reviews stay up unless they clearly violate our policies.

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Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that Airbnb removing negative reviews is common enough. Now, arguably, my review wasnt negativeit was a statement of fact, not opinion or judgment. But Ill grant you that the judgment is easily implied: You dont bother mentioning that someone is unvaccinated if you think thats a totally OK thing to be. And if we consider any information that might dissuade someone from making a booking to be negative, then sure, my review fits the bill.

Asher Fergusson, who has been studying Airbnb since 2017, said by email: Based on my research I dont find it surprising that Airbnb would remove a review for talking about COVID. Its completely within their normal routine censorship of reviews that fall outside of their community guidelines. Ive been contacted by countless Airbnb guests who said their review had been censored from the platform. Its easy for Airbnb to deem pretty much anything in violation of its review policy if its so inclined, because the wording of that policy is so vague.

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The customer service rep told me that disclosing a hosts vaccination status violated Airbnbs relevancy section. This baffled me. I could see an argument for it being private information, but irrelevant? This wasnt one of those Airbnbs with contactless check-in where you never see your host. To those of us who understand that COVID now is largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated, that the vaccinated are nevertheless at risk of breakthrough infection, and that the virus is often transmitted by unmasked people in confined spaces, knowing the vaccination status of anyone whose home youre sharing seems, in fact, like highly relevant information.

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On the other hand, Ive never discussed with an Airbnb host whether they received flu or MMR vaccines, and if that topic did somehow come up, I wouldnt feel obliged to mention it in my review. Where should the line be drawn?

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According to its review policy, Airbnb can delete any review for being irrelevant if it includes, among other things, commentary about a persons social, political, or religious views, profanity, name calling, and assumptions about a persons character or personality, or content that refers to circumstances entirely outside of anothers control.

In the United States in late 2021, getting vaccinated is, thankfully, within ones control, so that point doesnt apply. My review hadnt included any assumptions about the hosts character or personalityI stated the fact that they told us they were unvaccinated but offered no theories as to why that might be the case, or what conclusions one could draw from it. So I assume my review was removed for including commentary about a persons social, political, or religious views.

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It makes complete sense to police reviews for that sort of commentary. By and large, allowing reviewers to make lifestyle observations like the hosts were a same-sex couple or the host was a single mother or the host never got a high school diploma is just opening the door for discrimination. Similarly, most information about a hosts health is both irrelevant and none of your business. (For example, The host told me that he takes antidepressants or The host was clinically obese.)

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So I understand in general why these policies are in place. Im just not convinced that COVID vaccination status, when we are in the middle of a COVID pandemic, fits into the same category. Whether you take Lexapro, voted for Trump, or have a mezuzah on your door has no impact on your ability to provide a safe home. Whether or not you got vaccinated against COVID does.

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Publicly, Airbnb takes COVID very seriously, which makes sense from a business perspective: If people didnt believe they were safe in Airbnbs, they wouldnt stay in them. Airbnb requires hosts to commit to safety and cleaning practices, which include masking and social distancing when required by local authorities, and sanitizing with approved disinfectants. All this provides some protection, but vaccination is better. Sanitizing remote controls and washing hands becomes mere hygiene theater when guests are prevented from sharing with one another the actual risks present in a home.

I dont envy Airbnb having to decide what sort of information is and is not acceptable to share in a review. Maybe hosts vaccination status is useful information about the potential dangers of the household, akin to warning a future traveler that the stairs were steep or the bathtub was slippery. Maybe it is a personal choice that would bias potential customers. Or maybe it is both.

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Hosts of course have the right to remain unvaccinated, and they may not want that information made available, either because it could cost them business or because they consider their health choices to be a private issue. I reached out to some short-term-rental hosts who have been particularly vocal about this matter on the community forum and connected with James, who operates an Airbnb in north Minnesota. In a written message, James said: I think COVID vax status is a personal matter. Everyone who is afraid of COVID should get vaxed, and if they are vaxed they should have nothing to worry about as they are protected supposedly.

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I keep returning to that Moab trip and asking: Did I do the right thing in trying to notify future travelers about our hosts vaccination status? Did Airbnb do the right thing in removing my review? The fact that Im still not sure makes me suspect this is a situation without a right answer at all. In retrospect, I think the onus was on us long before I started writing my review: If avoiding sharing enclosed space with unvaccinated people was truly a high priority, we should have asked our hosts about this before booking, found a hotel or an Airbnb with contactless check-in, or stayed home. Ive learned a lesson there. And Ive also learned a lesson about online reviews: What you read may well be the truth. But its not the whole truth.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
ARCHIVED - Spain on storm alert for Christmas week



Weather warnings have been activated for six provinces on December 20

Christmas week has begun in Spain without the snow originally predicted by meteorologists, except in mountainous regions, but instead with widespread rainfall and occasions of fog . According to Aemet, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day could be very wet in many areas of the country thanks to several weather fronts sweeping in from the Atlantic.

Towards the end of the week, an intense storm will bring prolonged rainy periods to the western part of Spain, with the southern coast of Galicia, Extremadura and western Andalucia in for the worst of the weather.

Thick fog has put the provinces of Huesca, Zaragoza, Teruel, Lleida, Tarragona and Navarra under a yellow alert on Monday December 20 and there will be strong south-easterly winds on the western coasts of Galicia and the Gulf of Cadiz.

The rest of the week will be characterized by widespread rainfall across the country, although heavy precipitation is less likely along the Mediterranean coast, brought on by a subtropical atmospheric front which will result in several very humid days.

The temperatures are unlikely to fluctuate much, although in general the mercury will be a little higher than normal for this time of year, and the temperate winds blowing in from the west should decrease the chance of frost considerably.

Image: Aemet
Employers are often forced to lower their requirements when searching for a high-skilled employee.

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High-skilled workers ready to take up jobs may be hard to come by in Slovakia. This is particularly true for IT professionals, the biggest Slovak job search website reports.

Yet, the IT sector is not the only one lacking a qualified workforce in Slovakia, even though it is the most prominent. Employers have encountered problems when looking to fill jobs in management, trade, economy and finance, administration, banking, electric technologies, energy and production, according to the Profesia. sk website. Experts add healthcare professionals, engineers, automotive industry specialists and teachers to professions that are most in demand.

Investment Advisory Guide Well-arranged information about the economy, labour market, investor support, legislation, and real estate as well as investment opportunities in Slovakia. For more details visit ouronline shop.

Market watchers see two plausible measures for improving the markets condition  opening the labour market to migration as a short-term solution and, in the long term, thoroughly reforming Slovakias education system. Some are sceptical about whether the change will arrive soon enough. The competition in the neighbouring countries adds to their worries: if Slovakia does not catch up with its neighbours efforts to lure workers from abroad, its labour market will lag behind even more than it does already.

Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic strengthened the demand for workers in some sectors, noted Martin Kahanec, founder and director of research at the non-governmental think tank Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).

There is a demand for employees who could adapt to new conditions, such as new digital smart technologies, who have a high stress tolerance, a high level of endurance, who are responsible and can work independently with a high level of self-discipline, Kahanec told The Slovak Spectator.

IT even more in demand during the pandemic

Profesia spokesperson Nikola Richterova uses the example of the IT sector to show that the pandemic increased the use of new technologies, which subsequently increased the value and demand for IT specialists on the labour market. The sector suffered from a lack of qualified workers even before the pandemic hit.

The IT sector has lacked a labour force ever since it was established, Brian Fabo, an analyst with the National Bank of Slovakia, told The Slovak Spectator. There is still a lack of people. Employers repeatedly say that they would be able to employ many more.

Richterova noted that the huge competition on the side of employers forces companies to lower their demands. This is why the increasing number of offers is suitable for graduates.
The law is retroactive.

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The state will take responsibility for the side effects of the vaccines against Covid-19.

Our paywall policy The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.

This stems from the amendment approved in parliament on December 10. The law is retroactive, which means the state's responsibility is effective since the day the first vaccine was administered in Slovakia on December 26, 2020.

The law will become effective after President Zuzana Caputova signs it.

Until now, hospitals, vaccination centres and outpatient departments carried the responsibility for damages caused by the vaccines. The state guaranteed only the damages caused by the unregistered Russian vaccine Sputnik V which Slovakia used for vaccination only for several weeks in the summer, the Sme daily wrote.

The state will now take responsibility for registered vaccines too. People who suffer damages can therefore sue the Health Ministry if the health damages were caused by the vaccine itself and not by the healthcare workers during the vaccination process.

Slovakia lacks the compensation mechanism for side effects of Covid vaccines Read more

The change should motivate more general practitioners to vaccinate in outpatient departments.
The government will reconsider the valid rules only after the New Year, Omicron may complicate matters.

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Despite the gradually decreasing number of hospitalised Covid patients, Slovakia will not switch back to regional rules.

The Covid automat warning system, with a different alert at the district level based on epidemic indicators, had been valid until the lockdown imposed in the country starting on November 25, 2021. Shortly before, the number of hospitalised patients with Covid-19 had exceeded 3,200 for the first time, a number that the Health Ministry earlier indicated as the limit beyond which hospitals would be at a risk of collapsing.

The number of patients in hospitals dropped below 3,000 last week for the first time in a month. On December 19, hospitals reported that they were treating 2,984 Covid patients.

In response to the calls of some coalition politicians to revert to the Covid automat warning system, the Health Ministry advises maintaining caution.

SaS and Sme Rodina want to open restaurants
Historic decision in favour of Roma children educated in Slovakia's special school system.

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The placing of Roma children in special primary school classes for children with a mild mental handicap has been declared illegal.

The Presov district court ruled in favour of the anti-discrimination case involving three Roma children from the municipality of Hermanovce in the Presov district.

The court awarded compensation to the children amounting to 5,000 each, reported Stefan Ivanco from the Civic and Human Rights Advisory Centre, which provided free legal representation to the children. The verdict is not valid yet; it can be appealed against, the TASR newswire reported.

Ivanco said that the court decided that the defendant Private Centre of Special-Pedagogic Consultancy in Presov discriminated against Roma children in the education process based on their ethnicity.

Related article

Related article Slovakia struggles with the segregation of Roma and disabled children Read more

Segregation in school

The court said that errors in the psychological diagnosis were also demonstrated by the overall disproportionally high rate of Roma children placed in special classes.

The court also confirmed the school's responsibility in the segregation of Roma children in special classes, situated outside of the main building and attended only by Roma children.

Many Roma children have been wrongfully educated in special schools and classes, Ivanco said, as quoted by TASR.

Government apologises for coercive sterilisation of women Read more

Ivnco recognised that the Education Ministry has noticed the problem and acknowledged that it needed to be solved in various governmental documents, but he does not see any real systemic solution for now. He is persuaded that psychological diagnoses in schools should be used to determine the individual educational needs of children who could be educated along with all other children in an inclusive school environment.

Historic decision

Historically it is the first decision of courts favouring Roma children who were illegally educated in a special school system in Slovakia, said the attorney cooperating with the advisory centre and legal representatives of the plaintiff Vanda Durbakova, as quoted by TASR.

MEPs find poor hygienic and living conditions during visit to Roma neighbourhood Read more

The Presov court has joined the courts in Hungary and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which have issued the same rulings in similar cases, she added.

I believe that thanks to this decision, a change will come to other schools and Roma children will have the chance for a good education, said one of the plaintiffs, Sebastian Cervenak, as quoted by TASR.
The interior of the new buses is air-conditioned and equipped with 39 hygienic leatherette seats and stainless steel handles.

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New, almost 18-metre-long buses will soon transport passengers in the streets of Bratislava.

From the overall order of 70 Otokar Kent C. buses, the first eight have arrived and the others will be delivered gradually in the next year, said Bratislava Mayor Matus Vallo and chair of the board of directors of Dopravny Podnik Bratislava (DPB), the capital's public transport company, Martin Rybansky.

These are modern, low-floor buses with high-performance air-conditioning and modern technologies, said Rybansky, as quoted by the TASR newswire. The first supplied buses will be travelling the streets of Bratislava in the upcoming weeks, he noted, adding that the buses will be deployed to lines with capacity problems. New buses will replace the older ones in the vehicle park of the company.

Vallo says the new and modern public transport vehicles should motivate inhabitants and visitors of Bratislava to use public transport more.

WiFi connection and USB chargers

Following a public procurement, the Bratislava city carrier signed a framework agreement with Otokar Otomotiv in May for the purchase of 70 new low-floor, low-emission and capacity buses. According to the carrier, this purchase means the final farewell to the old Karosa buses in the streets of Bratislava. The price of one new Otokar Kent C articulated bus is 254,950.

The interior of the new buses is air-conditioned and equipped with 39 hygienic leatherette seats and stainless steel handles. There are also blue seats reserved for passengers with reduced mobility and reserved areas for wheelchairs, prams and bicycles. Other amenities include WiFi, USB chargers and an APC system for automatic passenger counting.

Nearly as many cars as people. Statistical yearbook says a lot about Bratislava Read more

The buses are also equipped with a camera and informational system, including detectors for the visually impaired and the blind. The information system will include external, full-colour information boards and new internal information panels, which display the current departures of other relevant lines in real-time.

The vehicles will meet the Euro VI level D emission standard, the most stringent one according to the carrier.
https://sputniknews.com/20211220/-what-does-the-us-government-do-with-its-huge-stockpile-of-cryptocurrencies-1091669187.html

What Does the US Government Do With Its Huge Stockpile of Cryptocurrencies?

What Does the US Government Do With Its Huge Stockpile of Cryptocurrencies?

El Salvador may be the first country to accept cryptocurrency as legal tender, but when it comes to stockpiles of cryptocurrency, the country pales in comparison with the humongous amount the US government has amassed

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us

auction

bitcoin

cryptocurrency

ethereum

xrp

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El Salvador may be the first country to accept cryptocurrency as legal tender, but when it comes to stockpiles of cryptocurrency, the country pales in comparison with the humongous amount the US government has amassed, CNBC reported. Bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, XRP, tether, and others  over the years, US authorities have obtained billions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrencies.This doesnt mean that the Department of the Treasury believes that the days of the US dollar are gone or that it is ready to part its ways with fiat currency. The cryptocurrencies the government has collected have been seized as part of operations to combat crime  fraud, hacking, drug smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, etc.So what does the government do with this massive stockpile? The answer is quite prosaic - it sells cryptocurrencies at auctions and then divides the proceeds between the government agencies, or gives the money to individuals who have fallen victim to certain crimes, like fraud. It seems that when it comes to the sale of cryptocurrencies, the US government needs a piece of advice from the gurus of the market. According to CNBC, in 2018, the authorities auctioned off 500 bitcoin for around $5 million. Had had it been sold now, the sale would have brought it nearly $23 million. In 2019, it sold 30,000 bitcoin to US billionaire Tim Draper for $19 million. That deal would have been more than $1.3 billion today.To date, the government has seized and auctioned off almost 200,000 bitcoin alone, which is currently around $8.6 billion. Meanwhile, the stockpile has been growing significantly over the years. According to CNBC, the stockpile has become so massive that the authorities have resorted to help from the private sector, which now aides them in managing the storage and sale of cryptocurrencies.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/algeria-is-perhaps-palestinians-most-loyal-ally---heres-why-1091659895.html

Algeria is Perhaps Palestinians' Most Loyal Ally - Here's Why

Algeria is Perhaps Palestinians' Most Loyal Ally - Here's Why

Over the years, the Palestinians have received more that half a billion dollars from the Algerian government. They have also received military support and training, along with regional and international backing.

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middle east

africa

israel

palestinians

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Relations between Fatah, that controls the West Bank, and Hamas, in charge of the Gaza Strip, have seen many ups and downs since 2007, when the Islamic group seized power in the enclave driving out forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.But those ties have hit a low ebb. Three weeks ago, forces loyal to President Abbas entered Jenin, launching an operation aimed at curbing the threat of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, who are active in the area.Tensions between the two also flared up in Lebanon following a deadly shooting at a Palestinian refugee camp earlier this month, when four members of Hamas were killed, allegedly by Fatah militants.Fighting for Palestinian UnityLocal experts have already reiterated that such tensions could harm the chances of reconciliation, something that could potentially damage Palestinians' international and regional standing. But there are also those who've decided to take matters into their own hands and bridge the gap between the two.Algeria has been one of the key actors on that front. At the beginning of December, the country's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stated his nation was willing to host a meeting between Palestinian factions "soon".Algiers is also planning to host the Arab League summit in March 2022, where one of the central topics will be the Palestinian issue and ways to overcome the crisis.Kamel Mansari, news director for Le Jeune Independant, one of the leading outlets in the North African nation, says the Palestinian issue is close to the hearts of the Algerian people because it reminds them of "the horrible sufferings" the nation went through at the hands of French colonialists that controlled the country for 132 years.Standing by the PalestiniansYet, Algerian support for the Palestinians hasn't been limited to symbolism. In 1967, during the Six-Day War, it backed Arab allies by sending troops and aircraft. It took a similar move six years later, during the Yom Kippur War, and it trained militants from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and provided them with weapons.On the financial front, Algeria has been one of the most active donors. In 2010, it was reported that the North African nation donated more than $600 million to the Palestinians over the course of ten years.And, recently, Algiers has pledged $100 million to the Palestinian Authority in a bid to help it to fight the economic crisis in the area.On the international stage, Algeria has been one of the most vocal voices in favour of the Palestinians. In 1979, it cut relations with Egypt following the latter's recognition of Israel and in 1994 it raised eyebrows at Jordan for choosing to take a similar path.No to RecognitionAlgeria's western neighbour Morocco thinks otherwise. In December 2020, Rabat inked a normalisation agreement with Israel, opening the door to economic, security, and military cooperation between the two nations.Earlier that year, normalisation pacts were also signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, who established ties with the Jewish state under the US-brokered Abraham Accords. When pacts have been signed, the general feeling was that the Palestinian cause has been largely neglected. But Mansari says it will never be the case for the Algerians. His country won't be one of those recognising Israel.

Hess Dirty Zionist propaganda by a British servant. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was the Palestinians most loyal and generous protector. 0

Turkish Warrior Very true. Respect to Algeria. Turkish folk support and respect Algeria. But our president Erdogan is a Arab/Jew loving traitor to the Palestinian cause, supplying TB2 drones to Morocco but not to ally Algeria. Wait Algeria we will get rid of him soon and join your cause. 0

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/billionaire-roman-abramovich-becomes-portuguese-citizen-after-learning-about-ancestors-heritage-1091671193.html

Billionaire Roman Abramovich Becomes Portuguese Citizen After Learning About Ancestors Heritage

Billionaire Roman Abramovich Becomes Portuguese Citizen After Learning About Ancestors Heritage

The owner of the famous English football club Chelsea now has three passports. In 2018, he became an Israeli citizen due to a local law that has been in place since 1950.

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europe

roman abramovich

portugal

jews

citizenship

billionaire

persecution

inquisition

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Billionaire Roman Abramovich has become a citizen of Portugal after learning about his ancestors' heritage, local media reported. The businessmans spokesperson has confirmed the news, saying the 55-year-old was granted a Portuguese passport on 30 April, but the media learned about it only recently.This became possible due to a 2015 law that offers naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews, who were persecuted during the Inquisition, as well as Conversos (Jews forcefully converted to Christianity).Thousands of Jews have been granted Portuguese citizenship since the law was introduced. Each application is vetted by experts, who look for evidence of interest in Sephardic culture. Over the years, the billionaire has donated large sums of money to organisations fighting anti-Semitism as well those promoting Jewish culture.Reports say he has donated over half a billion US dollars to Jewish causes in various countries, including in Russia, Israel, Britain, Lithuania, and Portugal.The billionaire now has three passports. In 2018, he became an Israeli citizen after withdrawing his UK visa application amid a diplomatic spat between Russia and the United Kingdom, which started following the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.Incidentally, by becoming a Portuguese citizen Abramovich, who is ranked 144th in the Forbes billionaire list, earned himself the title of the richest person in Portugal. The previous holder of the title was Americo Amorim, who died in 2017. Forbes estimated his net worth to be around $4.8 billion. Abramovich is estimated at $14.2 billion.

Porra To become Portuguese citizen all you have to do is having money yo invest there. Portugal needs money and sell citizenship for any money till one single penny. This robber of Russians people is Portuguese in money rights. Would he be an Spinosa relative? 2

mandrake Jew noting more nothing less! 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/deployment-of-weapons-near-russia-to-require-taking-steps-to-balance-situation-kremlin-says-1091664895.html

Kremlin: Deployment of Weapons Near Russia to Require Measures to Balance Situation

Kremlin: Deployment of Weapons Near Russia to Require Measures to Balance Situation

The deployment of various types of weapons near Russian territory will require steps to balance the situation, according to the Kremlin.

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russia

us

ukraine

dmitry peskov

kremlin

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The statement from the Kremlin follows Russian diplomats warning earlier in the day that the country is waiting for an answer to its proposals for security guarantees.Konstantin Gavrilov, who heads the Russian delegation at the arms control negotiations in Vienna, warned NATO against "constantly hitting Russia's weak spots", and called for de-escalation, saying that the alternative is military-technical and military responses from Moscow.The Russian Foreign Ministry previously published two draft agreements regarding security guarantees between the Russian Federation, the United States, and NATO. The proposals suggest NATO won't expand further into Eastern Europe and prohibit the US and Russia from deploying intermediate and short-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory. It will also limit troop, warship, and aircraft deployment for both sides to curb tensions.Putin-Zelensky MeetingCommenting on Russia-Ukraine ties, Peskov noted that the Kremlin has not received any specific proposals from Kiev regarding a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The spokesman also dismissed the wording of a Ukrainian bill on granting citizenship to Russians persecuted for "their political beliefs".

pussymuncher Disciplinary deployment of nukes on Cuba should shake them up. 12

Barros Sure Russia. Always in alert. 6

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russia, us, ukraine, dmitry peskov, kremlin
https://sputniknews.com/20211220/dutch-prosecutors-insists-mh17-was-downed-by-buk-missile-from-donbass-1091666031.html

Dutch Prosecutors Insist MH17 Was Downed by Buk Missile From Donbass

Dutch Prosecutors Insist MH17 Was Downed by Buk Missile From Donbass

The Dutch prosecutors office insists that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 was downed by a Buk missile from the Pervomayskoye settlement controlled by Donbas militia, prosecutor Thijs Berger said on Monday.

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netherlands

mh17

mh17 crash investigation

joint investigation team (jit)

donbass

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Russian testimony was added to the MH17 crash case to balance the dossier, Berger added.Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed on 17 July 2014 in eastern Ukraine while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. All 298 people on board (most of them Dutch citizens) were killed. Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, where the plane was shot down, have blamed each other for the incident.Following the deadly crash, the US and EU immediately put the blame on Moscow and imposed sanctions against Russia.The investigation into the crash is being conducted by Dutch prosecutors and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT). The international group of investigators claims that the plane was downed by a Buk missile belonging to the Russian Armed Forces, something Moscow categorically denies. Russia launched its own investigation and provided the JIT with evidence, including radar data, showing that the plane had been shot down by a Ukrainian Buk missile. Moreover, the said missile had remained in Ukraine since 1986 and never went back to Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union.However, all of that information was ignored by the Dutch investigators.The MH17 court accused Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, and Oleg Pulatov, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko of causing the plane crash.

discoversci Dutch prosecutors are nothing but sociopaths. Very very dangerous people, tightly connected to dirty elites. Criminals par excellence. 5

Question All They are liars. We the public are not blind to the truth which was well reported from the scene. Thank you Ruptly! 5

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/ex-mossad-chief-cohen-shared-secret-info-with-flight-attendant-her-husband-claims---report-1091656462.html

Ex-Mossad Chief Cohen Shared Secret Info With Flight Attendant, Her Husband Claims - Report

Ex-Mossad Chief Cohen Shared Secret Info With Flight Attendant, Her Husband Claims - Report

After stepping down as the Jewish State's top spy, Cohen made several high-profile statements. In particular, he hinted that the Mossad blew up Iran's... 20.12.2021, Sputnik International

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mossad

scandal

spy

israel

yossi cohen

sexual affair

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Israeli intelligence agency Mossad's former chief Yossi Cohen revealed state secrets to a flight attendant with whom he was having an affair, as well as to her husband, Israel's Channel 13 broadcaster reported on Sunday.According to a TV special, the full investigation of which is expected to be premiered on Tuesday in Hebrew, Cohen's affair began in late 2018 and saw him boast to the pair about different sensitive facts from the spy agency's operations around the world, as well as give them information on his foreign travels.The flight attendant's husband claimed that Cohen also revealed insights about his management approach, in particular, that he allegedly fired six top agency officials in the first 10 days at his post, "because they werent loyal to the system."More to the story, the husband shared with the channel that Cohen would send his wife texts in which he referred to her as "my princess" and "my beauty."According to the Times of Israel, in response to the allegations, Cohen stated that he never divulged any classified material or security secrets.The latest allegations are not exactly new, as the former spy was accused of divulging state secrets and communicating with a flight attendant back in the summer. And Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was reportedly considering a complaint lodged with the Justice Ministry at the time.Back then, the former Mossad chief categorically refuted the claims, adding that there was no flight attendant with whom he was in a relationship at all.After giving a rather outspoken interview upon leaving office, Cohen was slammed by many in his home country for the supposed secret revelations, which, apart from the Natanz facility explosion's responsibility, included the purported 2018 operation in which the agency stole Iran's nuclear archive from safes in a Tehran warehouse, and also a revelation that Iran's assassinated top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had been on the Mossad's radar for years.According to Israeli media, embattled Cohen reportedly helped his daughter get a position at a firm with ties to a senior Emirati official while still serving as Israel's top spy. His term as Mossad chief ended in June, and David Barnea took over. He was named the head of SoftBank's Israeli branch by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son a short time later. Cohen, who was appointed by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has stated that he would not rule out running for prime minister in the future, but he is not currently considering it.

https://sputniknews.com/20210816/israel-police-reportedly-probe-ex-mossad-chief-for-alleged-misconduct-disclosing-secret-info-1083625921.html

Wayne Gabler To the CIA aligned flight attendant? Gay flight attendant aligned with said CIA? 1

ECO Jewish sissy haha  what a casino 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/hillary-clinton-thanks-trump-for-inspiring-her-thriller-book-while-hes-up-for-2024-rematch-1091655699.html

Hillary Clinton Thanks Trump for Inspiring Her Thriller Book, While He's Up for 2024 Rematch

Hillary Clinton Thanks Trump for Inspiring Her Thriller Book, While He's Up for 2024 Rematch

Trump was on air on Sunday at the exact same time that Clinton was giving an interview on another channel, providing his assessments of the current... 20.12.2021, Sputnik International

2021-12-20T01:11+0000

2021-12-20T01:11+0000

2021-12-20T01:11+0000

donald trump

us

hillary clinton

book

2016 election

losers

2024 us presidential elections

us election 2020

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In a Sunday TV appearance, Hillary Clinton promoted her new political thriller State of Terror, which she claimed is based on her political rival, former President Donald Trump.Clinton, who has virtually retired from politics since her bitter 2016 defeat, is currently promoting her new occupation - writing fiction books. But after repeatedly describing a possible Trump election in 2024 as a threat to democracy, Clinton's current media showcase has sparked some speculation that she is testing the waters for another bid for the presidency.Fareed Zakaria of CNN asked the former secretary about rumors that her new book is a "thinly veiled attack on President Trump."Clinton, who still cannot seem to let go of her election defeat five years ago, continued her narrative that the former US president is continuing his "assault" on American democracy.The former first lady accused Trump of "masterminding" the January 6 US Capitol violence and yet again warned that he was a "danger" to the country.According to reports and reviews of Clinton's book, the main characters of the novel are two women, the secretary of state and her best friend. Clinton herself served as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama before running for president in 2016.The story of the book reportedly takes place during the start of a new administration. Three European towns are struck by devastating explosions shortly after the inauguration. The secretary of state and her adviser are compelled to embark on a long journey through internal government bureaucracy in order to solve the mystery of who is behind the bombings, which is presumed to be a Pakistani arms dealer who was released from prison by a previous US president. Clinton's novel has already received positive reviews, most of which indicated that she drew inspiration from actual life, like Russian President Maxim Ivanov, which was apparently inspired by Clinton's impressions of the real President Vladimir Putin. And Trump is portrayed as a one-term president who departed Washington for Florida after losing his re-election bid to plot his comeback. The former president has been portrayed as ignorant, vindictive, and charismatic in various ways, demanding "loyalty" from all who served in his administration. Interestingly, Fox News aired a pre-recorded interview with Trump at the same time, and the former president responded to his opponent's criticism, claiming he would welcome a challenge from Clinton in 2024. However, Trump added that Clinton is "a crooked woman" who cheated in the previous election and tried to spy on him.

https://sputniknews.com/20211219/trump-would-like-a-2024-rematch-with-crooked-clinton-says-its-obvious-biden-not-in-charge-1091654899.html

Uninformed What a "Stereotype" of a Yank , does this does that writes a book , memoirs , blah blah blah , in the stereotype (as if its programmed in) later on when its known it a useless liar as if everyone did not know it also start whining and telling all about its poor me sagas and exposing those around it , if the murders and associated bullshit was not serious it would be a Joke to have a real good laugh at . 3

TruePatriot Killary has truly lost what little she had left of her mind. Time for her to just crawl back under the rock from which she emerged. 3

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/india-power-breakdown-in-jammu-as-electricity-department-employees-strike-against-privatisation-1091658677.html

India: Power Breakdown in Jammu as Electricity Department Employees Strike Against Privatisation

India: Power Breakdown in Jammu as Electricity Department Employees Strike Against Privatisation

India's Jammu region is witnessing a major power outage as thousands of employees from the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (JKPDD) have gone on indefinite strike.

2021-12-20T11:27+0000

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2021-12-20T11:27+0000

politics

politics

electricity

india

electricity

politics

jammu

jammu

electricity

electricity supply

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India's Jammu region is witnessing a major power outage as thousands of employees from the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (JKPDD) have gone on indefinite strike.The strike was called by the Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee, an amalgam of all the associations under the umbrella of the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department.They are opposing the government's move to merge JKPDD into the Power Grid Corporation of India and the handing over of its assets to private companies.The JKPDD employees have decided not to carry out any repair and maintenance work until the government accepts their demands.They want a reversal of the government's decision to privatise assets, regularisation of daily wages for power employees, and the release of their salaries.Meanwhile, in order to restore electricity in the region, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has sought help from the military.In a letter to the Department of Military Affairs of the Federal Ministry of Defence, Raghav Langer, the divisional commissioner of Jammu, shared that due to the strike by electricity department personnel in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir essential services have been severely affected in the Jammu region."We would like to hereby requisition the Indian Army to assist in the restoration of the said essential services by provisioning manpower to man critical electricity stations and water supply sources", Langer stated. After the letter from Langer, the Indian Army has helped in restoring electricity in some areas.Yet, political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have reacted sharply over the request for the army to assist in restoring electricity. They slammed the administration for its "incompetence" and the inconvenience people are facing.Former state chief and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said: "The army has been called to operate the power infrastructure in the Jammu division of J&K. There is no bigger admission of failure for a civilian administration than to call upon the army"."It means a total breakdown of governance has been accepted by the J&K government", he added. The General Secretary of the People's Conference Party, Imran Reza, also added his voice to those criticising the administration, claiming that the strike has exposed its "incompetence and callousness"."On one hand, the livelihood of thousands of power sector employees is at stake. On the other hand, the survival of millions of citizens of J&K", he said.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/iran-conducts-air-defense-drills-above-bushehr-nuclear-facility-1091664673.html

Iran Conducts Air Defence Drills Above Bushehr Nuclear Facility

Iran Conducts Air Defence Drills Above Bushehr Nuclear Facility

The Iranian armed forces carried out an air defence exercise in the airspace above the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Monday morning, Deputy Governor-General of the Bushehr Province for Political, Security, and Social Affairs, Mohammad Taqi Irani, said.

2021-12-20T10:05+0000

2021-12-20T10:05+0000

2021-12-20T10:12+0000

middle east

iran

iranian nuclear program

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In June, operations at Bushehr were briefly disrupted by what the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said was sabotage involving cyberattacks.The Bushehr facility is located in the southeastern part of Iran along the coast of the Persian Gulf. It is a joint Iranian-Russian project. The plant's first energy block was built and connected to the national power system of Iran in September 2011.Iran is yet to settle its debt with Russia for the construction of the Bushehr plant, as its funds remain frozen in Japanese and South Korean banks due to US sanctions.

mandrake Just waiting for the iranians to down a f35 ortwo in the skies over the nuclear facilities or hang the saboteurs the jews send in the lamppost and if thenjews dont watch it, there might be a spartacus row oflampposts from tehran to tel aviv and in each lamppost a jew swinging 4

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/metropolitan-police-arrest-man-in-connection-with-attack-on-belarusian-embassy-in-london-1091676230.html

Metropolitan Police Arrest Man in Connection With Attack on Belarusian Embassy in London

Metropolitan Police Arrest Man in Connection With Attack on Belarusian Embassy in London

The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Monday that one man was arrested near the Belarusian embassy in London on Sunday as they responded to a report of a disturbance outside the building that left a diplomat with a facial injury.

2021-12-20T18:48+0000

2021-12-20T18:48+0000

2021-12-20T18:48+0000

belarus

embassy attack

uk

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Police were called at around 19:40hrs [19:40 GMT] on Sunday, 19 December to a report of a disturbance outside of the Embassy of Belarus, W8. A member of staff reported he had been assaulted and was left with a facial injury. One man was arrested nearby and taken into custody, Police Press Bureau officer Matthew Russell said in a statement e-mailed to Sputnik.Earlier, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that on Sunday evening a group of people damaged the facade of the embassy in Kensington and that their diplomats were physically attacked, with one of them requiring urgent medical attention.On Monday morning, the area around the Belarusian embassy in London was calm and no additional security measures were observed by a Sputnik correspondent visiting the site.However, traces of white paint are visible on the facade above the entrance to the building.According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the UK charge d'affaires in Minsk was summoned over the attack.

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/modi-govt-has-gone-democrazy-silencing-opposition-voices-suspended-parliamentarian-1091660558.html

'Modi Gov't Has Gone Democrazy, Silencing Opposition Voices': Suspended Parliamentarian

'Modi Gov't Has Gone Democrazy, Silencing Opposition Voices': Suspended Parliamentarian

The upper house chairman suspended 12 parliamentarians at the start of the ongoing winter session of parliament, which began on 29 November and lasts until 23... 20.12.2021, Sputnik International

2021-12-20T12:59+0000

2021-12-20T12:59+0000

2021-12-20T13:31+0000

narendra modi

bharatiya janata party (bjp)

india

parliament

narendra modi

india

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The Indian parliament, currently marred by protests from opposition parties, has been witnessing adjournments on a daily basis since the upper house chairman, M. Venkaiah Naidu, suspended 12 lawmakers on 29 November. Naidu, who is also the country's vice president, previously served as a federal Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government. The opposition has termed the suspension of parliamentarians from the Rajya Sabha (the upper house) as "undemocratic and in violation of all the Rules of Procedure". The suspended lawmakers have decided to protest on the parliamentary premises during the ongoing session. Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Shiv Sena politician and one of the 12 suspended parliamentarians, spoke with Sputnik and shared why she felt the need to protest against the federally governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the behaviour of the house chairman against them. Sputnik: How do you view the suspension of parliamentarians from the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament? Priyanka Chaturvedi: Even experts have termed our suspension unconstitutional. The entire quantum of punishment is the whole session, which means you're effectively disallowing 12 parliamentarians from speaking or raising the issues of their constituencies, not letting us raise our questions.Moreover, even criminals and terrorists get an opportunity to speak for themselves and present their case. Here, on the basis of some CCTV footage which shows that we were disrupting the house, we got suspended.The CCTV footage is controlled by the government, even the opposition has been not given access to the whole footage. This is a total disregard of democracy.Our other issues are that our mics are silent. If we raise a voice inside the house, our protest's telecast is also not shown. Why is this happening with the opposition?Sputnik: You've repeatedly claimed not being involved in the protest and disruption of the House. Do you think you have been deliberately suspended? Why?Priyanka Chaturvedi: On the day for which the government suspended us, 11 August, the government wanted to pass the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021.This bill affected the lives of millions of small traders in the country. This government was set to pass the bill without a discussion. And every lawmaker (not just the 12 of us) from the opposition stood up and protested against it. On what basis did they suspend only 12 lawmakers? Why such selective targeting? Sputnik: The two latest parliamentary sessions have seen adjournments on a daily basis, with the government accusing the opposition of not letting it run the parliament.Priyanka Chaturvedi: If the opposition is responsible for running the parliament, let the parliamentary affairs minister be from the opposition. The responsibility of running the house lies solely with the leader of the house and the parliamentary affairs minister. It is their primary duty that all the bills that they introduce are discussed with the opposition.Sputnik: The opposition unanimously supported your protest. Can we view this as the emergence of a united opposition?Priyanka Chaturvedi: The suspension of 12 lawmakers across all party lines has sent out a very clear message to all opposition leaders that if we do not unite against such unruly behaviour, very soon, we all may have to say goodbye to parliamentary democracy in India.This parliament, where we work right now, can turn into a museum and a new one (the new parliament building) that is being built will be a tourist site if the opposition stays silent. So I'll be glad if opposition parties get united in this protest. Parties may have different opinions, our politics could be different. But our call of duty is higher, which is to safeguard the country's democracy and our constitutional values. We should be united in our commitment towards the people.Sputnik: In your view, what's the BJP's attitude to this?Priyanka Chaturvedi: The whole incidence shows the authoritarian attitude which the government is building. It seems that there is no space for free speech.Not just opposition, even journalists are restricted in the parliament in the name of COVID.The prime minister can have election rallies attended by tens of thousands of people, but journalists are not allowed inside the parliament in the name of COVID.You're crushing journalists' questions, opposition voices, how many more people will you de-platform to allow your version of democracy to function  which is actually "democrazy" because of its craziness.

Cross Bane When you were disrupting procedures and smooth functioning of the parliament, you felt so powerful. Where has your power gone now? In your *ss? 0

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/moscow-needs-urgent-response-from-us-on-security-guarantee-proposals-deputy-fm-says-1091660845.html

Moscow Needs Urgent Response From US on Security Guarantee Proposals, Deputy FM Says

Moscow Needs Urgent Response From US on Security Guarantee Proposals, Deputy FM Says

Russian diplomats announced their proposals on 15 December, publishing the details on the Foreign Ministry's website on Friday.

2021-12-20T07:00+0000

2021-12-20T07:00+0000

2021-12-20T08:40+0000

sergei ryabkov

us

russia

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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has urged Washington to give an immediate response to the proposals for security guarantees, stressing that the situation surrounding Russia-US relations is difficult.He noted that Washington will try to slow down the negotiation process, but stated that Moscow needs an answer as soon as possible because the situation continues to deteriorate.The Russian Foreign Ministry published two draft agreements on security guarantees between the Russian Federation, the United States, and NATO last week. The first proposal, entitled "Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Security Guarantees", proposes legally binding commitments by Moscow and Washington not to deploy weapons and forces in areas where they may be a threat to each other's national security. It also stipulates that both sides won't send their ships or aircraft within striking distance of the other party, limits the deployment of intermediate and short-range missiles, and suggests that nuclear weapons already deployed are expected to be returned to their country of origin.Moscow also demanded that NATO halts its eastward expansion towards Russia's borders and not to invite post-Soviet countries into the bloc, or create military bases on their territory.

GOLDENTOP Only a fool believes in NATO's plede 3

Golem If the western vermin are insisting that its up to every country to decide the direction of their foreign policy then the Russians should take the vermin at their word and should station nuclear missiles pointing at the US in both Venezuela and Cuba and see how the stinking hypocrites like that. 3

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/norwegian-foreign-minister-calls-russias-security-proposals-to-us-nato-completely-unrealistic-1091658967.html

Norwegian Foreign Minister Calls Russia's Security Proposals to US, NATO 'Completely Unrealistic'

Norwegian Foreign Minister Calls Russia's Security Proposals to US, NATO 'Completely Unrealistic'

Norway's Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has called the lists of proposals Russia has sent to NATO and the US, including a stop to the alliance's expansion eastward, not feasible.

2021-12-20T06:25+0000

2021-12-20T06:25+0000

2021-12-20T06:25+0000

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Norway's Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has called the lists of proposals Russia has sent to NATO and the United States, which involve a halt to the alliance's eastward expansion and removal of weapons from member states included in the bloc post-1997, unrealistic.In May 1997, NATO and Russia concluded the so-called Basic Treaty, which provides for cooperation between the Western defence alliance and Russia, including a permanent council for talks.In that cooperation agreement, no promises were made that NATO wouldn't admit new members. However, assurances of non-expansion were provided to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which Russia continues to remind NATO of at every opportunity.In 1999, two years after the Basic Treaty was signed, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic chose to join NATO. Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania followed in 2004 alongside former Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Since then, NATO has opened up to Ukrainian and Georgian membership, but no progress has been made so far.According to Huitfeldt, it is entirely up to each country to choose which international organisations it should be a member of.Huitfeldt further argued that it is Russia that is responsible for the tensions with Ukraine and the West following an alleged military buildup on the border that prompted yet another scare of a Russian "invasion", even if the movement of troops occurred fully within Russia's own borders. "There is no basis for the Russian force-building. It is destabilising, and it creates a security situation for Europe that we have not seen for a long time", Huitfeldt said, calling on Moscow to ease tensions.According to Huitfeldt, dialogue is key in the current situation."We ask Russia to stand down. At the same time, we are concerned with maintaining the low voltage in the north, and fortunately we have not seen any buildup of strength there", Huitfeldt concluded.The newly-minted foreign minister earlier called to limit NATO traffic near Russia and suggested it was in Norway's interest to use its own armed forces as a means of balancing deterrence with reassurance.On 17 December, the Russian Foreign Ministry published two draft agreements on security guarantees between the Russian Federation, the US, and NATO that had been handed over to US officials.Among other things, NATO is asked to abandon its military activities in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, while NATO and Russia are required not to deploy intermediate and short-range missiles in areas from where they can hit each other. Both parties are also required not to conduct exercises above the brigade level near an agreed upon border zone, to regularly exchange information on one another's military drills, and to establish hot lines for emergency contacts.Commenting on the draft proposals, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov emphasised that they are not "formulated as a menu, where it is possible to pick and choose", but rather "reinforce each other and must be evaluated in their totality".Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Russia will be forced to take measures to create a system of counterthreats if the US and NATO reject Moscow's security proposals.The Western media, meanwhile, continues to spin the narrative of Russia massing troops with the sole purpose of invading Ukraine, to the point of publishing maps of the future "invasion", which Moscow has repeatedly rejected as absurd. Kiev, by contrast, is seeking help from the West in the form of lethal weapons to "defend" itself and has promised Russia "lot of coffins coming back" in the event of hostilities.

https://sputniknews.com/20211218/moscow-if-us-rejects-security-proposals-russia-will-be-forced-to-create-counterthreats-1091631658.html

Hess You can't tell warmongers to stop preparing for war. Norway is a US base and will be destroyed by Russia in the event of war. 8

keyboardcosmetics h, if they would only elect women there would be peace on earth, they said :) If you want to meet idiots go to Norway.  Norwegian Knut Hamsun (1859-1952. Nobel Prize in Literature. 7

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/poland-picks-contractors-for-building-fences-at-belarus-border-1091667238.html

Poland Picks Contractors for Building Fences at Belarus Border

Poland Picks Contractors for Building Fences at Belarus Border

Poland has selected two companies that would build solid fences on the border with Belarus in the country's latest step to prevent illegal immigration from its neighbour's territory, Polish Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration Maciej Wasik said on Monday.

2021-12-20T11:43+0000

2021-12-20T11:43+0000

2021-12-20T11:48+0000

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The construction will begin either late this year or early next year, and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2022, he said.The construction of solid barriers to replace existing barbed fences was initiated in October by the Polish parliament to halt illegal migration from the Belarusian territory.In early November, Polish Minister of Interior and Administration Mariusz Kaminski unveiled the details of the construction, saying that three round-the-clock shifts will work to build the new 180-kilometre (111.8 miles) long and 5.5-meter (18 feet) high fence. It will be equipped with motion sensors and cameras.Migrants have been gathering at Belarus' borders with its EU neighbours  Poland, Latvia and Lithuania  since summer. The three EU countries reinforced border security and used crowd control equipment to thwart illegal crossing attempts. Some of the migrants, mainly from the Middle East, were flown back home.The European Union has accused Belarus of manufacturing the crisis in retaliation for sanctions. The Belarusian government has rejected the accusation, saying that sanctions simply left the country without the resources to curb illegal migration through its territory any longer.

ema.ruv LA POLONIA DOVREBBE ESSERE CHIUSA TUTTA ATTORNO...!!!. QUESTI ASSASSINI COMPLICI DELLA N. A. T. O. E DI TUTTI I LORO CRIMINI IN TUTTO IL MONDO ANDREBBERO PROCESSATI PER CRIMINI CONTRO L' UMANITA'. 0

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belarus, europe, poland, border, wall
https://sputniknews.com/20211220/rossiya-segodnya-head-kiselev-warns-west-against-repeating-cuban-crisis-in-situation-with-ukraine-1091675263.html

Rossiya Segodnya Head Kiselev Warns West Against Repeating Cuban Crisis in Situation With Ukraine

Rossiya Segodnya Head Kiselev Warns West Against Repeating Cuban Crisis in Situation With Ukraine

Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, said on Monday that the tense situation around Ukraine has the potential of escalating into a new Cuban missile crisis if the West fails to provide Russia with the security guarantees it has requested.

2021-12-20T17:46+0000

2021-12-20T17:46+0000

2021-12-20T18:58+0000

west

us

russia

ukraine

dmitry kiselev

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In an interview with the BBC, Kiselev said that if Ukraine joins NATO or the alliance decides to advance its military infrastructure in Ukraine, Moscow "will hold a gun to America's head." Russia has the military capability for that, he added.He stressed that Moscow does not want escalation, and if it happens, it would be by the West's choice.Red LinesWhen asked if Russia is ready "to use force to defend its red lines", Kiselev said "One hundred percent, because for Russia this is a question of life or death".For the Kremlin, the "red lines" include NATO's expansion eastward and deployment of offensive weapons in countries neighbouring Russia, especially Ukraine.After the BBC reporter suggested that Moscow is "dictating" to its neighbours by insisting that former Soviet republics can't have anything to do with NATO", Kiselev pointed to the "historical reality".'Comparable Threat'In the event of NATO failing to reach a consensus with Russia, Moscow is ready to "create a comparable, analogous threat by deploying its weapons close to decision-making centres", he noted.Security ProposalsOn Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements with the United States and NATO, where, among other things, mutual guarantees of EU security are stipulated. For example, the documents entail non-deployment of intermediate- and short-range missiles within the limits of reach of each side and NATO's commitment not to expand eastward, which includes the non-accession of former Soviet republics.Another provision of the draft agreements obligates NATO to present guarantees of non-expansion to the territory of Ukraine specifically. If NATO and the US do not respond to Russia's security requirements, it might lead to a new round of confrontation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik.

https://sputniknews.com/20211210/moscow-offering-us-nato-alternative-to-new-cuban-missile-crisis-scenario-foreign-ministry-says-1091417821.html

Zeke Aln Putin is a wise man, and needs stand up to the modern day Genghis Khan at any cost! 6

DesertDogs nato is like a child that keeps trying to bully other kids, especially ones that can't defend themselves! Russia needs to make an example to show you are serious when it comes to discipline! 6

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/russia-expels-two-german-diplomats-1091672307.html

Russia Expels Two German Diplomats

Russia Expels Two German Diplomats

German ambassador in Moscow Geza Andreas von Geyr has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and informed about the expulsion of two German diplomats over Berlins similar move, the ministry said on Monday.

2021-12-20T15:13+0000

2021-12-20T15:13+0000

2021-12-20T15:41+0000

russia

diplomatic relations

germany

diplomatic expulsions

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Earlier in December, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats over the case of murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. Moscow informed the ambassador about its "strong protest" over Berlins "unfriendly move."The ministry also said that "the Russian side categorically rejects" accusations of Moscows involvement in the murder of Khangoshvili.On 15 December, the Berlin High Court found Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov (Krasikov) guilty of the murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The defense insists on the lack of evidence base, the decision on the appeal has not yet been made. After the verdict, the German Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechaev and announced the expulsion of two Russian diplomats.Berlin Calls Moscow's Decision to Expel 2 German Diplomats Unfounded"This step did not come as a surprise, but from the point of view of the federal government, it is absolutely unfounded," the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The ministry recalled that the decision of Berlin to expel Russian diplomats on December 15 had been made on the basis of a German court decision."The federal government seeks a dialogue with Russia on the basis of international law and mutual respect. Today's decision of the Russian Foreign Ministry again complicates these relations," it added.

NoGo It is teeth for that, should be more one expelled (false one, same as they found  when ever is needed) for spying for hypersonic weapons. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/trump-clinton-2024-rematch-may-cement-hillarys-reputation-as-a-three-time-loser-analyst-says-1091674964.html

Trump-Clinton 2024 Rematch May Cement Hillary's Reputation as a Three-Time Loser, Analyst Says

Trump-Clinton 2024 Rematch May Cement Hillary's Reputation as a Three-Time Loser, Analyst Says

American media are suggesting that Hillary Clinton may throw her hat in the ring of the 2024 presidential elections while the Democratic Party is apparently seeking a potential nominee as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' approval ratings are plummeting.

2021-12-20T19:13+0000

2021-12-20T19:13+0000

2021-12-20T19:13+0000

barack obama

joe biden

michelle obama

donald trump

world

us

opinion

hillary clinton

kamala harris

2024 us presidential elections

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The idea that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may throw her hat into the 2024 elections is making the rounds in the media. Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on 14 December suggested that Clinton "wants to run for president again" since she "knows the Biden administration is falling apart."The very next day, American journalist Joe Concha presumed in his op-ed for The Hill that "2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is an interesting prospect to consider when looking for a viable candidate, particularly if an 80-something President Biden decides not to seek a second term."In early December, the former secretary of state launched an online class eloquently titled the "Power of Resilience," on the online learning platform MasterClass and read a portion of the victory speech she planned to give after the 2016 election. On 12 December, she gave an interview to NBCs Willie Geist warning that if Trump or anyone from his entourage wins in 2024 it will be the end of democracy in the US. "Hillary Clinton is doing all this media suddenly because she honestly thinks she can mount a comeback," US journalist Jack Posobiec suggested last Monday on Twitter, adding that Clinton had reportedly "called more than one donor."2024: Hillary Vs Trump?According to Ortel, Hillary has never accepted her loss to Barack Obama in 2008 and the one to Donald Trump in 2016. Furthermore, to her wide circle of loyalists she seems like a viable contender in 2024, he suggests.Meanwhile, as Trump teases a potential re-run in 2024, observers forecast that Hillary and Donald may cross swords in the political arena one more time.Ortel projects that "a Trump Clinton rematch will cement Hillary's reputation as a three-time loser." At the same time, he does not rule out that Trump may elect to step back and play kingmaker. "Were [Hillary] wise, she too would let other, much younger candidates battle the Republican nominee, whoever that might be," the analyst adds.Michelle Obama Seems Better Pick Than Hillary or KamalaA November Hill-HarrisX survey revealed that Vice President Kamala Harris and former first lady Michelle Obama are the top two potential picks for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, the vice president cannot boast good approval ratings. Last month, a Suffolk poll put her approval at 28% and disapproval at 51%. In early December, a Rasmussen survey found that just 39% of likely voters have a favorable impression of Harris, while 57% have an unfavorable view of her. To complicate matters further, theres been an exodus of high-level staffers from Kamala's team, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post revealed that Harris has refused "to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members" and would "then berate employees when she appeared unprepared." In late November, CNN hinted that Harris could not make it to the Oval Office in 2024, suggesting that Joe Biden's abrupt decision to run again had been prompted by his veep's bad polling.Under these circumstances, it's Michelle Obama, not Hillary Clinton, who could be a potential alternative for the Dems, according to Ortel.Still, Ortel highlights that "the Democrat brand is being soiled daily by the arrogance, incompetence and aloofness of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff," which will seriously affect the Dems' election odds in 2022 and 2024.Hillary's Potential 2024 Bid and Clinton FoundationHillary Clinton's alleged desire to run could be prompted not by the need to "save" democracy from Trump, but Hillary's intent to re-establish her status as a power broker, according to the Wall Street analyst. During Clinton's tenure as secretary of state and in the course of her presidential campaign, the Clinton Foundation received multi-million donations from domestic and foreign donors. However, after Hillary's sweeping defeat in 2016, the amount of donations to the Clintons' charity started to shrink steadily.According to Axios, donations to the charity plummeted to $16 million in 2020, down nearly 75% from the non-profit's peak when Clinton was running for president in 2016. For comparison's sake, in 2019 the charity took in $29.6 million, while in 2016 it received $62.9 million.Ortel, who has conducted a private investigation into the Clintons' network of charities, believes that the Clinton Foundation is "the largest unprosecuted fraud.""That said, other presidential foundations especially including Bush charities and The Barack Obama Foundation also have arguably failed to comply with relevant and important laws," he remarks.The analyst notes that during his probe into the handling of the Trump-Russia investigation by the FBI, DoJ Special Counsel John Durham also examined matters concerning the Clinton charity and reportedly talked to the Foundation's whistleblowers Larry Doyle and John Moynihan.

https://sputniknews.com/20211124/joe-biden-is-throwing-his-hat-into-the-2024-ring-but-do-democrats-really-want-him-to-run-1090987961.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211106/analyst-as-steele-dossier-source-charged-with-lying-all-roads-lead-to-hillary-clinton-campaign-1090517273.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211029/hillary-beware-clinton-foundation-whistleblowers-reportedly-interviewed-by-special-counsel-durham-1090324361.html

Nonyank There needs to be someone much younger and that hasn't made their lifes work out of LIES.....for starters. 1

fleabitten She's one of the most hated women in America! 1

2

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https://sputniknews.com/20211220/us-advises-citizens-to-avoid-travel-to-ukraine-due-to-increased-threats-from-russia-1091676472.html

US Advises Citizens to Avoid Travel to Ukraine Due to 'Increased Threats From Russia'

US Advises Citizens to Avoid Travel to Ukraine Due to 'Increased Threats From Russia'

The United Stated in its latest travel advisory for Ukraine encourages Americans to avoid traveling there over alleged increased threats from Russia, the State Department said in a release on Monday.

2021-12-20T18:59+0000

2021-12-20T18:59+0000

2021-12-20T18:59+0000

us

ukraine

travel advisory

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"The Department of State continues to advise U.S. citizens not to travel to Ukraine due to COVID-19 and to reconsider travel due to increased threats from Russia. Exercise increased caution due to crime and civil unrest. Some areas have increased risks," the release said.Americans should know about reports that Moscow is preparing for significant military action against Ukraine, according to the release."U.S. citizens are also reminded the security conditions, particularly along Ukraines borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice," the release said. "U.S. citizens choosing to travel to Ukraine should be aware that Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine would severely impact the U.S. Embassys ability to provide consular services, including assistance to U.S. citizens in departing Ukraine."The State Department went on to say that Russia "occupies and has attempted to annex Ukraines Crimea peninsula," and has a large military presence there."Occupation authorities continue to abuse and arbitrarily imprison foreigners and the local population, particularly individuals who are seen as opposing Russias occupation of the peninsula," the release stated. "The U.S. government prohibits its employees from traveling to Crimea and is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Crimea."Moreover, the State Department claimed that Russia-led forces control areas of Donetsk and Luhansk."Individuals, including U.S. citizens, have been threatened, detained, or kidnapped for hours or days after being stopped at checkpoints controlled by Russia-led forces," the release said. "The U.S. government restricts U.S. government employees from traveling to the eastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and adjacent regions, which limits the ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in these regions.""Crime targeting foreigners and property is common. Demonstrations, which have turned violent at times, regularly occur throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv," it added. "Politically targeted assassinations and bombings have also occurred. There are reports of violent attacks on minority groups and police by radical groups."Tensions around Ukraine have been aggravated over the past several weeks over West's claims of an alleged Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border, Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, pointing to NATO's military activity near Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Russia says it has the right to move forces within its own territory.

https://sputniknews.com/20211213/us-obsessed-with-alleged-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-moscow-has-no-such-plans-deputy-fm-says-1091478435.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211209/why-has-ukraine-been-so-important-for-us-russia-policies-since-the-end-of-cold-war-1091394193.html

https://sputniknews.com/20211209/gop-senator-urges-biden-not-to-rule-out-first-use-nuclear-action-against-russia-over-ukraine--1091372901.html

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us, ukraine, travel advisory
https://sputniknews.com/20211220/watch-cop-tell-students-if-police-take-bribe-it-gets-the-job-done-in-indias-uttar-pradesh-1091664213.html

WATCH Cop Tell Students 'If Police Take Bribe, It Gets the Job Done' in India's Uttar Pradesh

WATCH Cop Tell Students 'If Police Take Bribe, It Gets the Job Done' in India's Uttar Pradesh

Bribery is quite rampant in almost all departments in India. According to a report by the global civil society Transparency International that was published in... 20.12.2021, Sputnik International

2021-12-20T12:42+0000

2021-12-20T12:42+0000

2021-12-20T12:42+0000

uttar pradesh

police

india

bribery

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While the Indian government talks of trying to end the bribery culture with new laws or regulations in the country, a police official in Uttar Pradesh state has been captured in a video clip justifying such a culture. The 36-second video, shared on Monday by various journalists, shows a police official interacting with schoolchildren during a workshop."Even in your experience, you'll realise that there is no better department than the police. If the police take money (or bribe), it also gets the work done. Go to another department, they take money, but the work will not happen", the official said.However, soon after the video went viral, the state's Unnao District Police, in a tweet, said: "The higher official was informed on the case and the whole matter will be investigated".Some social media users in a lighter vein said that this may be the first time police have accepted the truth with such honesty. "Why an inquiry for speaking the truth".To end bribery in India, the federal government has made changes in laws over the last decade, including through the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018, The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, among other steps. But the implementation of these laws is still a big question, as India ranked 80 out of 198 countries in a corruption perception index report from 2019.

Cross Bane Vaze and Parambhiru Singh of Maharashtra state are examples of delivering the good. 0

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uttar pradesh, police, india, bribery
They were not physically harmed by the kidnappers, Showalter said. He said the main physical challenges included the heat, mosquitoes and contaminated water for bathing, which led some of them to develop sores. Sometimes the young children got sick.

However, he said everyone appears to have emerged from captivity in good health.

The adults received small food portions, such as rice and beans for dinner, although the captors provided plenty of food suitable for the small children, he said.

The hostages gathered multiple times during the day for prayer and religious devotions, and sometimes singing loud enough for each other to hear when they were in separate rooms, Showalter said.

They also sought to encourage other hostages who were being held for ransom in separate kidnappings, Showalter said.

Over time, the hostages agreed to try to escape, and chose the night of Dec. 15 to flee.

When they sensed the timing was right, they found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path they had chosen to follow, and quickly left the place they were held, despite the fact that numerous guards were close by, Showalter said.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, attributes much of his groups popularity to the failure of the other project, referring to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

The majority of Palestinian factions believe that resistance, and particularly armed resistance, has to be one of the tools in our struggle for freedom. He said the easing of the blockade doesnt address the root of the problem, which is the siege and the occupation.

Bennett was an outspoken critic of the previous governments policy of allowing Qatar to send suitcases of cash into Gaza through an Israeli crossing.

But within months of becoming prime minister, the payments to needy families resumed through a U.N.-run voucher system, and Qatar resumed its contribution to the Hamas-run governments payroll in the form of fuel.

Israel denies it has given in to Hamas demands. The new government says it has modified policies to try to ensure that humanitarian aid bypasses Hamas while responding militarily to even minor attacks.
For the past several years, Charlie Hayden hasnt gotten anything from his vegetable garden. The problem, he told the Marion Town Council during its Dec. 20 meeting ,could be summed up in one word: deer.

Hayden

presented the council with a petition asking the town to work with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and create an urban archery season to help control the deer population.
The senator said the Coalfield Expressway did not get funded federally but he is hopeful private activity bonds from coal companies could be used to reduce the cost of building the road. Hackworth said the Virginia Department of Transportation is working to make the road happen as a way to take some traffic off Interstate 81.

He said the phase taking the Coalfield Expressway into Grundy is ready to start and should be complete in two to three years. Getting the coalfield expressway done is the single biggest thing that could happen for southwest Virginia, he said.

Redistricting will shift the senator to the east if approved in its present form. Hackworth would lose Buchanan, Russell, Wise and Dickenson. He gains all of Smyth, Giles, half of Wythe and 45 percent of Montgomery.

The Supreme Court developed that plan. The plan also has Will Wampler and Israel OQuinn in the same district. We hate losing any of our district. They are more akin to our beliefs. We have told the ones we might lose that we will still be there for them he said.

Richlands, Va.  Law enforcement, education and building will get help under bills being submitted by Senator Travis Hackworth when the legislature convenes in January.
Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Assault  Woodland police Saturday arrested Tahj Bridges, 26, of Longview, on suspicion of second-degree assault, attempting to elude, possession of a stolen vehicle and being a fugitive from justice.

Assault  Longview police Friday arrested Mateo Chavez, 18, of Kelso, on suspicion of assault in the second and third degrees.

Burglary  Cowlitz County deputies Friday arrested Tyson Knight, 33, of Kelso, on suspicion of first-degree burglary, domestic violence assault and third-degree malicious mischief.

Stolen property  Longview police Friday arrested Hannah Pool, 34, of Olympia, on suspicion of stolen property trafficking, second-degree theft and criminal trespassing.

Assaults

1600 block of Kessler Boulevard, Longview. Friday. Report of assault by a patient.

900 block of 16th Ave., Longview. Friday. Report of assault.

4400 block of Ocean Beach Highway. Friday. Report of a threat to assault caller.

Burglaries

900 block of Sandy Bend Road, Castle Rock. Friday. Report of various items taken from two properties.

1800 block of Washington Way, Longview. Friday. Report of several packed moving boxes being taken.

2800 block of Baltimore Street, Longview. Friday. Maintenance man reported several broken windows and other various damage to property.

Stolen vehicles

400 block of Seventh Ave., Longview. Friday. Silver 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager. Washington BRX1237. Dent on passenger side sliding door and back fender.

3100 block of Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. Friday. Blue 1998 Honda Civic. Washington BWL4252. Paint peeling on hood and roof. Back Drivers side window is broken and covered in black tape.

1100 block of 10th Ave., Longview. Friday. Black 2005 Ford Explorer. Washington C85864X. Reporter let someone take car for a test drive a few weeks ago and hasnt seen the car since.

Thefts

3100 block of Pacific Ave., Kelso. Friday. Report of theft of mail and packages including World War II pistol barrel.

1400 Pleasant Road, Kelso. Friday. Dark colored Toyota Tundra. Report of theft of package.

3900 block of Old Pacific Highway, Kelso. Friday. Report of theft of catalytic converter.

200 block of Dusty Drive, Kelso. Friday. Report of theft of mail.

1300 block of Hudson Street, Longview. Friday. Report of a dumpster diver.

1200 block of 14th Ave., Longview. Friday. Report of a customer trying to leave without paying.

1700 block of Pacific Ave., Woodland. Friday. Report of stolen cellphone.

Vandalism/malicious mischief

1900 block of First Ave, Longview. Friday. Inmate destroyed tablet that belongs to the jail.

100 Block of Monterey Drive, Kelso. Friday. Report of previous occupants of residence broke garage door and left garbage.

900 block of 12th Ave., Kelso. Friday. Report of front door being kicked in at house where relative was living.

3000 block of Oregon Way, Longview. Friday. Report of someone breaking car windshield with a bat.

Vehicle prowl

1300 block of Third Ave., Longview. Friday. Report of at least three vehicles being broken into.

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Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Possession of stolen vehicle  Longview police Saturday arrested Jacob Alan Fitzgerald, 21, of Vancouver, on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle, third-degree theft and resisting arrest.

Failure to register  Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Saturday arrested Daniel Martinez Serrano, 31, of Kelso, on suspicion of failure to register as a sex offender.

Theft  Longview police Saturday arrested Ryan Lynn Smith, 41, of Portland, on suspicion of second-degree theft and retail theft with circumstances.

Fugitive from justice  Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Sunday arrested Michael Scott Crislip, 32, of Kelso, on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice, a community custody violator and obstructing a public servant.

Robbery  Longview police Sunday arrested Wesley Adam Threet, 35, of Elma, Washington, on suspicion of second-degree robbery and criminal impersonation.

Fugitive from justice  Longview police Sunday arrested Bradley Joseph Will, 41, of Longview, on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice.

Burglary

800 block of Fifth Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. Shed door kicked in, nothing appears to be missing.

Stolen vehicles

200 block of Kelso Drive, Kelso. Saturday. Silver Honda Civic. License unknown. Three subjects took the vehicle.

4100 block of Oak Street, Longview. Saturday. Maroon 2012 Jeep Compass. Washington AZV0678. Stolen from garage.

Thefts

500 block of Pacific Avenue, Kelso. Saturday. A man with a red bandanna covering his face stole a vacuum.

1200 block of Commerce Avenue, Longview. Sunday. A man stole a womans wallet.

Vandalism/malicious mischief

1500 block of Commerce Avenue, Longview. Saturday. Appears someone threw part of a scooter at the door.

400 block of Oregon Way, Longview. Saturday. Front door glass pane broken.

1400 block of California Way, Longview. Sunday. Someone threw a rock through the window, nothing appears to be stolen.

Vehicle prowl

400 block of 20th Avenue, Longview. Saturday. Two subjects possibly prowling vehicles, one had its door open. Owner said nothing of value was taken.

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Dozens or protesters were released after an Apple iPhone 12 manufacturing unit, run by Foxconn, was hit by food poisoning.

Police have released dozens of those detained for blocking a key highway in a protest against food poisoning at a Foxconn unit, the country's second instance of unrest at an Apple Inc supplier factory in a year. The highway was blocked for hours in the southern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, home to a plant where the Taiwan contract manufacturer, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, began assembling the iPhone 12 this year.

India is among the countries, such as Mexico and Vietnam, that are becoming increasingly important to contract manufacturers supplying American brands as they try to minimise the impact of the trade war between China and the United States.

It was not immediately clear if production was disrupted by the protests sparked by last week's food poisoning incident that led to 150 employees being admitted to hospital.

Foxconn declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

A police official said plant workers and their relatives were among those who blocked the highway linking Chennai to India's technology hub of Bengaluru.

While the nearly 70 women detained over Saturday's protest were released the following day, some of the 22 men held were arrested, added the official, who sought anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media on the issue.

Most of Foxconn's workers in India are women.

In December last year, thousands of contract workers at a factory owned by Apple supplier Wistron Corp destroyed equipment and vehicles over the alleged non-payment of wages, causing damages estimated at $60 million.

Apple seeks dismissal of India apps market antitrust case, cites tiny market share

Apple seeks dismissal of India apps market antitrust case, cites tiny market share

The filing was made after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) started reviewing allegations that Apple hurts competition by forcing app developers to use its proprietary system which can charge commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases.

Apple denied the allegations in its filing to the CCI and stressed that its market share in India is an "insignificant" 0-5%, while Google commands 90-100% as its Android operating system powers most other smartphones.

"Apple is not dominant in the Indian market ... Without dominance, there can be no abuse," Apple said in the submission dated Nov. 16 which was signed by its Chief Compliance Officer, Kyle Andeer.

"It has already been established that Google is the dominant player in India," it added.

Apple and the CCI did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Alphabet Inc's Google declined to comment when asked about Apple's assertions in the filing.

The complainant in the case, a little-known non-profit group called "Together We Fight Society", said that Apple with iOS dominates the market for non-licensable mobile operating systems.

Apple countered that in its filing, saying the entire smartphone market - which includes licensable systems like Android - is the market that should be taken into consideration.

Apple also described the Indian complaint as a "proxy filing" in its CCI submission, saying that the complainant was "likely acting in concert with parties with whom Apple has ongoing commercial and contractual disputes globally and/or that have complained to other regulators."

The U.S. tech company did not give any evidence in its submission to support its claim. The non-profit told Reuters that Apple's remark was "made to prejudice the mind" of the CCI "without any iota of proof."

In the coming weeks, the CCI will review Apple's response to the allegations and could order a wider investigation or dismiss the case altogether if it finds no merit in it. Details of CCI investigations are not publicly disclosed.

The CCI is separately conducting an investigation into Google's in-app payment system as part of a broader probe into the company after Indian startups last year voiced concern.

Apple's iOS powered about 2% of 520 million smartphones in India as of end-2020 with the rest using Android, according to Counterpoint Research, though it adds that Apple's smartphone base in the country has more than doubled in the last five years.

GLOBAL ISSUE

Apple has been grappling with similar allegations in other parts of the world. In the United States, it is locked in a legal battle with Fornite creator Epic Games over the issue and South Korea this year became the first country to ban dominant app store operators from forcing developers to use their payment systems.

In the European Union, regulators last year started an investigation into Apple's in-app fees for distribution of paid digital content and other restrictions.

Companies like Apple and Google say their fees cover the security and marketing benefits their app stores provide.

In its CCI filing, Apple argued that the in-app commissions it charges are "not unfair or excessive" and have decreased over time, adding that it charges lower rates from small developers.

"Only a small number of large developers, many of which are multi-billion-dollar conglomerates, pay the headline rate of 30%," Apple said.

"Competing platforms have charged similar or higher commissions as Apple. Particularly, Google has charged a 30% commission on its app store," it said.
Check your Android smartphone for this dangerous app that has Joker Malware. Save yourself this way.

If you are using an Android smartphone, then you need to check immediately if your device is infected by this infamous piece of malware which can end up costing you a lot of money. Joker Malware, one of the most persistent threat actors that keeps coming back to the Google Play Store. It was first detected in 2017 and became the most popular choice of cybercriminals to invade phones of Android users. In 2019, Google Play Store had also published a long blog post about its fight with Joker malware.

Now, Joker malware has been found on an app which has already been downloaded 5,00,000 times from the Google Play Store. The app which is posing a serious threat to such a large number of users is known as Color Message. The Google Play Store app looks safe at first sight. It claims to make your SMS texting more fun with new emojis. But the team of researchers from the mobile security solutions firm Pradeo found that the camouflaged app promising to offer 'fun and beautiful' messaging experience is actually infected with Joker Malware.

The security firm categorises the Joker malware as Fleecewear and its primary function is to replicate clicks and capture SMS in order to trick users into subscribing to unwanted paid premium services. Color Message does the same. Shockingly, the malware detection is almost a year old but still it was available on Google Play Store till December 16. However, Google Play Store has banned the app from the store. However, the app still poses security concerns for those users who had downloaded it in the past must still have it on their Android devices.

What do you need to do?

If you are one amongst those 50,000 who have downloaded the Joker infected Color Message app, then delete it immediately from your device. You can directly press the app icon in your menu to get the uninstall option. Besides that, you can open your Google Play Store then head towards Menu, where you will get the My Apps & Games option. Select the Color Message app and choose uninstall.

Are you safe now?

Apparently not! Uninstalling or deleting an app is not enough to free your device from its harm. As in the case of the Color Message app, uninstalling would not be enough to cancel the subscriptions that you have been secretly signed up for due to the malware. For that you need to reopen Google Play Store and move ahead to Subscriptions in Menu. Check all of the premium subscriptions you've signed up for, and if any of them appear to be suspect, choose it and then cancel the subscription. Then you must follow the on-screen directions.

Now. you will be perfectly safe from loss!
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

TikTok is once again capturing attention for an alleged viral trend involving U.S. schools.

Several school districts in the U.S. have issued warnings, beefed up security and canceled classes, with some citing threats made on the social media app TikTok.

"We are writing to inform you and not alarm you," school administrators in Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois, said in a message to parents. "We have been made aware of a nationwide viral TikTok trend about 'school shooting and bomb threats for every school in the U.S. even elementary' on Friday, December 17."

Some schools in states including California, Minnesota and Texas have closed for the day, while others have increased police presence.

In a statement on Twitter, TikTok said "we handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness, which is why we're working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok."

What is TikTok's role in this, and how do they handle threats on their platform? Here's what you should know.

What is TikTok's response to alleged threats?

In a statement to U.S. TODAY, TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza said TikTok is continuing to "aggressively search" for any related content on its platform.

"We are deeply concerned that the proliferation of local media reports on an alleged trend that has not been found on the platform could end up inspiring real world harm," she said.

In a tweet published Friday, TikTok said they are "working to remove alarmist warnings that violate our misinformation policy" after local authorities, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed there's no credible threat.

"If we did find promotion of violence on our platform, we'd remove and report it to law enforcement," said the company.

How does TikTok moderate content?

The app has a safety team based in the U.S. Any content uploaded to TikTok passes through technology to inspect for possible policy violations then is reviewed by a member of the app's safety team, according to a July post from Eric Han, head of U.S. safety at TikTok.

TikTok has since rolled out new tools to automatically remove any uploaded content that might violate its guidelines.

"Creators will be able to appeal their video's removal directly in our app or report potential violations to us for review, as they can today," Han wrote in July.

TikTok also has policies in place to assist law enforcement in the event of an emergency.

"If as part of an emergency request we receive information that is sufficient in our assessment to establish a good faith belief that there is an emergency involving imminent harm or the risk of death or serious physical injury to a person, we may provide user data necessary to prevent that harm, as permitted by applicable law," reads an excerpt of TikTok's law enforcement guidlines.

TikTok and recent online challenges

This isn't the first time TikTok has been associated with a viral trend involving schools. In October, students at some schools faced charges over a "slap a teacher" challenge that had reportedly started on TikTok.

The app released a statement in October saying while the challenge did not trend on TikTok, it would remove any related content. Following the statement, an article from fact-checking site Snopes reported there was little evidence the challenge existed on TikTok.

In September, there was also the "devious licks" trend, which involved stealing or vandalizing school property. TikTok said it would remove any content related to "devious licks" including hashtags, and redirect any hashtags to their community guidelines.

Explore further Ireland investigates TikTok over child, China data concerns

(c)2021 U.S. Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: Tokyo Tech

One of the barriers to generating electricity from wind and solar energy is their intermittent nature. A promising alternative to accommodate the fluctuations in power output during unfavorable environmental conditions are hydrogen storage systems, which use hydrogen produced from water splitting to generate clean electricity. However, these systems suffer from poor efficiency and often need to be large in size to compensate for it. This, in turn, makes for complex thermal management and a lowered energy and power density.

In a study published in Journal of Power Sources, researchers from Tokyo Tech have now proposed an alternative electric energy storage system that utilizes carbon (C) as an energy source instead of hydrogen. The new system, called a "carbon/air secondary battery (CASB)," consists of a solid-oxide fuel and electrolysis cell (SOFC/ECs) where carbon generated via electrolysis of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), is oxidized with air to produce energy. The SOFC/ECs can be supplied with compressed liquefied CO 2 to make up the energy storage system.

"Similar to a battery, the CASB is charged using the energy generated by the renewable sources to reduce CO 2 to C. During the subsequent discharge phase, the C is oxidized to generate energy," explains Prof. Manabu Ihara from Tokyo Tech.

As the carbon is stored in a confined space in the SOFCs/ECs, the energy density of the CASB is limited by the amount of carbon it can hold. Despite this limitation, the researchers found that the CASB had a higher volumetric energy density compared to hydrogen storage systems.

Another indicator of battery performance is the charge-discharge efficiency. To evaluate this metric, the researchers performed a charge-discharge experiment. They observed that the transformations between C and CO 2 were due to "Boudouard reactions" characterized by a redox reaction of a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), CO 2 and C. Specifically, during the charging phase, C was deposited on the electrode via the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 and the reduction of CO via the Boudouard decomposition. During the discharge phase, the C was oxidized to CO and CO 2 via the Boudouard gasification reaction and electrochemical oxidation respectively. The researchers found that the C utilization for energy generation of the CASB depended on the equilibrium between the 3 different carbon species (C, CO 2 , CO), also known as the "Boudouard equilibrium."

The CASB system was able to use most of the carbon deposited on the electrode for energy generation, demonstrating a high Coulombic efficiency of 84 percent, indicating that most of the stored energy can be obtained during the discharge phase. Furthermore, it showed a superior power density of 80 mW/cm2 and a charge-discharge efficiency of 38 percent that was sustained over 10 charge-discharge cycles. This suggested that no degradation of the fuel electrode occurred.

"Compared to hydrogen storage systems, the CASB system is expected to have a smaller system size and higher system efficiency," says Prof. Ihara. Their new system could lay the foundation for compact and efficient carbon energy storage systems that could work alongside renewable energy sources for a fossil-fuel-free future.

Explore further Charging stations can combine hydrogen production and energy storage

More information: Keisuke Kameda et al, Carbon/air secondary battery system and demonstration of its charge-discharge, Journal of Power Sources (2021). Keisuke Kameda et al, Carbon/air secondary battery system and demonstration of its charge-discharge,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2021.230681
Qatar Airways is taking Airbus to court in London to resolve a dispute about its A350 fleet.

Qatar Airways said Monday it had launched legal proceedings against Airbus in the High Court in London, following a dispute with the aircraft manufacturer over degradation of the exterior fuselage surfaces.

The issue has led the airline, one of the Gulf region's "big three" carriers, to ground some of its A350 planes and not accept further deliveries of the wide-body aircraft from the European firm until the problem is resolved.

"We have sadly failed in all our attempts to reach a constructive solution with Airbus in relation to the accelerated surface degradation condition adversely impacting the Airbus A350 aircraft," Qatar Airways said in a statement.

The airline added it "has therefore been left with no alternative but to seek a rapid resolution of this dispute via the courts".

Airbus declined to comment Monday.

The plane manufacturer said earlier this month it was ready to seek independent arbitration to settle the dispute.

It has argued the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has confirmed its findings that the paint-related issue had "no airworthiness impact on the A350 fleet."

The firm has also accused Qatar Airways of misrepresenting the problem as an airworthiness issue.

In its statement, the airline said it had initiated the legal proceedings in the technology and construction division of London's High Court "to ensure that Airbus will now address our legitimate concerns without further delay".

Qatar Airway noted it has currently grounded 21 A350 aircraft.

"We strongly believe that Airbus must undertake a thorough investigation of this condition to conclusively establish its full root cause," it added.

"Without a proper understanding of the root cause of the condition, it is not possible for Qatar Airways to establish whether any proposed repair solution will rectify the underlying condition."

 2021 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Innovative technologies of Industry 4.0 are in every part of nowadays business processes. Automated guided vehicles, robots, smart tools, augmented and virtual realityonly a shortlist of tools used in small, medium, and large enterprises around the world. However, the researchers of Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania mark that employees remain the key factor in every part of the business chain and raise a questionhow can contemporary technologies be used to investigate their performance?

Many would agree that warehouse management is a fundamental aspect of the efficiency and effectiveness of every trade or manufacturing company. However, despite all the innovative solutions in the logistics market, warehouses still heavily rely on human operators and their performance. According to Business Wire, more than 80 percent of warehouses today still have no form of automation, meaning all the operations depends only on the employees.

Therefore, the researchers of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania decided to dig deeper into this field and with the help of smart tools to reveal what are the most important factors on logistics workers' productivity.

"Human workers guarantee the flexibility required by material handling processes thanks to their cognitive and physical abilities, which are still hard to replicate with automated systems in a cost-effective way. Therefore, we see a need to consider human and work environment factors to increase business performance, employees' safety, and their well-being," says Alessandro Stefanini, researcher at the Kaunas University of Technology School of Economics and Business in the ERA Chair Industry 4.0 Impact on Management Practices and Economics (IN4ACT) project.

A new approach in the operations management sphere

Study of IN4ACT researchers proposed a new angle to investigate the performance of the employees. While observing the opportunities that wearable sensors and similar smart tools, like smartphones, or smartwatches are providing to the different types of research, scholars of IN4ACT raised a questionhow can wearable sensor tools support the investigation of individual, collaborative, and environmental factors in the operations management sphere?

"The key problem which we aimed to cope with was related to the investigation of individual, collaborative, and environmental factors affecting workers' well-being and productivity during logistics activities. The first point was related to the assessment of whether these aspects were important or neglectable. Secondly, it was interesting to evaluate which factors have the most relevant impacts. In addition, a second motivation for this research is related to the investigation of how smart tools can support the investigation of individual, collaborative, and environmental factors in business management," says Stefanini.

The investigation took place in a logistics hub of one of the largest producers of tissue paper in Europe. The warehouse, located in Lucca, Italy, extends for 24,000 square meters and is dedicated to the storage of paper for hygienic and domestic uses. Monitoring was carried out for three months, and during this time five workers were observed for a total of about 1600 hours.

"Smartwatches were employed to systematically measure operators' behavior-related variablessuch as body movement, heart rate, voice, and operators' interactionsduring working activities. As regards the environmental aspects, thermo-hygrometer and lux-meter systemswith datalogger functionwere synchronized and placed in the warehouse area to constantly monitor and collect data on working conditions. It allowed us to study the behaviors of logistics employees and their environmental conditions in deeper and more efficient ways, directly and without compromising their operational activities," says Stefanini.

Smartwatches reveal the importance of relationships and the environment

This data-driven methodology and tech tools allowed researchers to reach strong qualitative results. Data from heart rate, movement, and voice monitoring revealed that employees' performance is remarkably influenced by human attitudes, interactions, emotions, and environmental conditions, though showing different relationships depending on the individual characteristics of each employee.

"While analyzing the data received from the smartwatches, we concluded that the interactions with the team leader and with the colleagues have different effects on the employee performance based on the time of the day and the individual traits. Although some relationships are theoretically predicted by past researches, analysis of both human and working environmental factors in real settings is almost absent," says the researcher.

When talking about the main findings, it is interesting to notice that the level of interaction with some individuals, according to the researchers, seemed to have more impact on productivity than others. While it is not surprising that productivity of employees decreased in the second half of the shift, with the steepest declining trend in the last two hours. The investigation also showed that the effect of human interaction on performance is dependent on the time of the day: a higher level of interaction seems to be beneficial in the morning, whereas many interactions in the afternoon seem to lower productivity. Similarly, with the help of smart tools researchers were able to notice that some operators were considerably more productive during specific days of the observation.

"Digging deeper into the information provided by the analysis of body signals, we found that heart rate monitoring in beats per minute (BPM) was the third most important predictor. When BPM is too high, the productivity tends to slightly shrink. Similar evidence also emerges from the analysis of heart rate peaks, which are usually associated with lower predicted performancethey seem to represent cases of overexertion or altered emotional states. Similarly to BPM, productivity seemed to be greater when the minimum value of body movement is higher," says Stefanini.

Finally, according to the research, environmental conditions also appeared to have a relevant impact on productivity.

"Specifically, luminosity had a positive effect on performance: the more intense the illumination, the higher the predicted productivity was. The size of this effect changed depending on the individual, with some employees being more affected by this environmental condition than others. Humidity and temperature seemed not to affect performance, except when they were particularly low or high. In particular, high temperature appears to predict lower performance," explains the researcher.

The possibilities of smart tools

The study made by IN4ACT scholars addresses the issue of investigating behavioral factors in business management. The study showed how it is possible and relatively simple to in-depth explore the human and environmental factors during work activities using body-worn sensors, which record individual, collaborative, and environmental data in real-time.

"This research opens up new avenues for profiling employees and adopting individualized human resource management, providing managers with indications for implementing an operational system capable of potentially checking and improving workers' well-being and performance. Our findings are promising and encourage further similar studies exploring human and environmental aspects during human-intensive activities," says Stefanini.

Explore further How to successfully implement digital strategies

More information: Davide Aloini et al, Enhancing operations management through smart sensors: measuring and improving well-being, interaction and performance of logistics workers, The TQM Journal (2021). Davide Aloini et al, Enhancing operations management through smart sensors: measuring and improving well-being, interaction and performance of logistics workers,(2021). DOI: 10.1108/TQM-06-2021-0195
The Brazos County Health District confirmed the first case of the COVID-19 omicron variant in Brazos County on Monday.

Health officials said Monday that they are still trying to determine if the case of omicron in Brazos County is community spread or travel-related.

The omicron variant was first detected in South Africa in November and has quickly made its way across the globe, including 45 states in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC officials say the omicron variant may spread more quickly than other variants of the virus, including the delta variant. Other information about omicron remains unknown and requires more data.

CDC officials say that current vaccines are expected to protect those who get the omicron variant against severe illness, hospitalizations and death. However, breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people are still likely.
A U.S. federal government commission associated with international rights has been targeted by a backdoor that reportedly compromised its internal network in what the researchers described as a "classic APT-type operation."

"This attack could have given total visibility of the network and complete control of a system and thus could be used as the first step in a multi-stage attack to penetrate this, or other networks more deeply," Czech security company Avast said in a report published last week.

The name of the federal entity was not disclosed, but reports from Ars Technica and The Record tied it to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Avast said it was making its findings public after unsuccessful attempts to directly notify the agency about the intrusion and through other channels put in place by the U.S. government.

At this stage, only "parts of the attack puzzle" have been uncovered, leaving the door open for a lot of unknowns with regards to the nature of the initial access vector used to breach the network, the sequence of post-exploitation actions taken by the actor, and the overall impact of the compromise itself.

What's known is that the attack was carried out in two stages to deploy two malicious binaries, the first of which potentially enabled the unidentified adversary to intercept internet traffic and execute code of their choosing, permitting the operators to take complete control over the infected systems. It achieves this by abusing WinDivert, a legitimate packet capturing utility for Windows.

Interestingly, not only both the samples masquerade as an Oracle library named "oci.dll," the second-stage decryptor deployed during the attack was found to share similarities with another executable detailed by Trend Micro researchers in 2018, which delved into an information theft-driven supply chain attack dubbed "Operation Red Signature" aimed at organizations in South Korea. The overlaps have led the Avast Threat Intelligence Team to suspect that the attackers have had access to the source code of the latter.

"It is reasonable to presume that some form of data gathering and exfiltration of network traffic happened, but that is informed speculation," the researchers said. "That said, we have no way to know for sure the size and scope of this attack beyond what we've seen."
LOS ANGELES (AP)  It was a showdown between Ryusuke Hamaguchis Drive My Car and Jane Campions  The Power of the Dog  for members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, but the group managed to give top honors to both on Saturday.

The Japanese film Drive My Car was named best picture and The Power of the Dog, a Western drama set in 1925, got runner up. Campion, meanwhile, received best director with Hamaguchi as her runner up.

Simon Rex took best actor for his turn as an ex porn star in Sean Bakers  Red Rocket, and Penelope Cruz was named best actress for playing a photographer and new mother in Pedro Almodovars Parallel Mothers.

Supporting actress went to Ariana DeBose, who plays Anita in West Side Story, while supporting actor was a tie between Vincent London for Titane and Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog.
WHO IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S HUSBAND?

Also unclear! She was living with him when she was arrested in New Hampshire, but court documents have not made his name public. He did support her bail attempts, but has not been spotted at the trial.

DOES GHISLAINE MAXWELL HAVE ANY NOTABLE SUPPORTERS?

Her family  the scions of the late publishing magnate, Robert Maxwell  is sticking by her. Two of her siblings, Kevin and Isabel, have attended each day of proceedings. The Maxwells strongly assert the U.S. justice system is making a patsy of their youngest sister. Ghislaine is notably the baby of the family and said to have been the favorite of her father, who died falling off a yacht named for her.

WHO IS THE JUDGE FOR GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL?

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. That promotion is not expected to interfere with proceedings in the Maxwell case, but the trial was in recess for the first three days of its third week so she could answer questions from the U.S. Senate panel charged with considering her elevation.
Here are a few photographers readers sent me links to that I thought you might enjoy



Alessandra Manzotti

Longtime reader John Hansen-Flaschen sent this link. It's a video with stills serving as a "virtual exhibit" of the work of Alessandra Manzotti, who was invited to join six other photographers on an expedition to Mongolia in 2018, where she documented the burkitshi, the eagle hunters of central Asia. I admired the phrase "trading easy drama for resonant simplicity" quoted near the end. We should all be able to say as much. I like the work; it skirts around the pictorial and the picturesque with just enough specificity. John writes, "I spent three weeks in Mongolia years ago. The eagle hunters are among the most remarkable humans alive today." If you want to know more about them, there's a good article by Andrea DenHoad at The New Yorker.

Anne de Henning

Regular reader Animesh Ray sent a link to Anne de Henning, who I didn't know. Which makes some sense, as she appears to have been most active in France and the Middle East, and her books are published in French. As often happens, my lossshe's a highly accomplished photojournalist with a long list of credits, not to mention a life full of adventures. Take a scroll down through her brief illustrated bioquite a life! (It might help to understand that when I was comin' up, the globetrotting photojournalist was the model for aspiring hobbyists and amateurs. They were who everyone wanted to be. Later, the model shifted to the moneymaking pros, and now I don't even know what the model issocial-media influencers? That's a post for another day.)

Raghubir Singh

Although obviously an accomplished photographer in her own right, I learned from Anne de Henning's website that she was married to the late Raghubir Singh, a photographer whose work I greatly admired when he was active. Although he lived largely as an ex-pat, his subject was his native India. Unfortunately he died young of a heart attack at 59 and he and his influence left the scene. I admit I hadn't thought of him in some years, although I have several of his books, including Kerala, River of Color, and The Grand Trunk Road. His website is moribund, but you can see a small sampling of small JPEGs at MetCollects. Raghubir Singh is ripe for a revival one day; he was the real deal. His is a name you should know.

Dina Litovsky

This video by the young New York City based photographer Dina Litovsky points up an important principle in photographyit's that, consciously or unconsciously, we tend to have stock or standard ways we like to picture things. The quintessential study of the Amish "the way we like to see them" is probably the lyrical, pastoral work of George Tice, as in the book Fields of Peace. That's the romanticized vision. But getting too stuck in tropes can mean we blind ourselves to people and things as they really are. As you'll see in the BBC Reel video Where the Amish go on holiday, that's what interested Dina Litovsky about the Amish on the beaches of Florida.

= + = + = + = + =

Hope you enjoy checking out a few of these four. Big thanks to John Hansen-Flaschen, Animesh Ray, and my friend Steve Rosenblum, who sent along the Litovsky video link. (Thanks also to everyone who sends me tips, whether I use them or not. One of my Resolutions for 2022 is to follow up on more of them.)

The Print Sale starts at 2:00 U.S. Eastern Time today.

Mike

Book o' the Week:

Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny, by Ann Marks, is the most complete picture of the mysterious governess-photographer yetand the picture is more surprising than we thought.



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Can small business be both profitable and environmentally conscience? An upcoming webinar series aims to prove that companies can not only be green, but make more green by doing so.

Climate Economy Education Inc., a non-profit based in Makanda, and the Illinois Green Business Association are teaming up to offer a four-part webinar series in February to show area businesses why sustainability is important and how operating costs can be lowered by going green.

Webinars are scheduled for 10 a.m. each Thursday in February.

The Feb. 3 session, What is Sustainable Business and Why Does it Matter? will look at consumers interest in green businesses and explore ways to become more sustainable. On Feb. 10, the webinar, Increasing Profit Margins by Reducing Energy and Water Use, will show how conservation practices can reduce energy use by up to 30% and reduce costs.

The Feb. 17 Waste Less & Save Money with the Three Rs and Green Purchasing session will show ways to reduce, reuse and recycle both in production and purchasing. The final session, set for Feb. 24, Get Recognized for your Sustainability Efforts, will teach participants on available sustainability certifications and recognition programs for green businesses.

President and CEO of Climate Economy Education Amy McMorrow-Hunter said the webinar series will explore ways that businesses can work to be greener.

There are really practical things that businesses can do today, she explained. There are business models that are good for the climate economy and humanity as well as the bottom line. We really want to help local business thrive with renewable energy, water efficiency and pollution prevention.

The webinars will also cover how Southern Illinois businesses can gain recognition for their efforts through the Illinois Green Business Association, a nonprofit that helps businesses find profitability in sustainability.

Small businesses have significant opportunities to lower operating costs and increase resiliency through green practices, Cassie Carroll, director of the Illinois Green Business Association, said in a media release about the webinar series. Green businesses not only benefit directly, but they also contribute to healthier communities and are seen as leaders by their customers.

McMorrow-Hunter explained businesses can benefit from the series and by becoming more sustainable in their business practices.

They're going to save money and they're going to increase the efficiency of their operations, she said. They're going to waste less and they're going to build ties with the community by having a stronger community presence and really showing that they're invested in the success of the entire community,

McMorrow-Hunter said efforts to promote sustainability in business will continue after the series conclusion.

I hope to do a lot of follow-up activities and discover what topics we can dive into more deeply, she said. Well survey participants and find out what they are interested in learning more about.

The webinar series is free, but pre-registration is recommended. For more information or to register, visit www.sisustainabilitynetwork.com or call McMorrow-Hunter at (618) 713-2896.

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South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott has been out front in battling sickle cell disease. His Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act, approved in 2018, increases efforts to collect data to accurately measure the number of Americans affected by sickle cell disease.

And it reauthorized through 2022 the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program, which includes expanding support services for adolescents making the transition to adult care.

Sickle cell disease -- also called sickle cell anemia -- gets its name from the shape of the red blood cells in a person with the disease. The red blood cells in those patients are crescent, or sickle-shaped, as opposed to the normal round disc-shaped red blood cells that can easily move through vessels and arteries.

Complications can be treated and pain medications given, but the sickling of the cells cannot be reversed.

Sickle cell anemia is not contagious and the only cure is a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. But those transplants are extremely risky and can result in serious side effects, even death.

While the CDC estimates 100,000 Americans suffer from sickle cell disease, the exact figure is unknown because of limited efforts to collect data on the disease. At least 17 innovative therapies (gene, cell, and otherwise) are currently in development to treat SCD, but current treatment options are limited, and access gaps are sure to persist, even as cures and other promising medications come to market.

The program created by the legislation allows the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue grants to no more than 20 eligible entities (defined as states, state health or public health departments, and institutions of higher education) for the purposes of:

 Collecting data on the demographics and prevalence of sickle cell disease.

 Conducting public health initiatives with respect to the disease.

 Identifying and evaluating strategies for SCD prevention and treatment.

This past week, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation sponsored by Scott and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker designating each September as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month.

Awareness is vital. As Scott states: "With this resolution, we commit to raising awareness and seeking out legislation that will help our medical community fight  and one day, cure  this painful disease.

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The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center has announced the 2022 Alex Higgins Memorial Space Camp Scholarship. Since 2001, more than 50 New Hampshire children and teens have traveled to the U.S. Space Camp & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, for a week of simulated astronaut or pilot training, thanks to the scholarship. This represents a combined effort among Alex Higgins family, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to honor Alexs memory. Space Camp provides the opportunity for children and teens to engage in a science and engineering adventure that Alex Higgins truly enjoyed.



New Hampshire students ages 9 18 are invited to apply for these tuition, room, & board scholarships; travel costs to Huntsville, AL are not covered. The application process included student essays, academic transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Completed applications are evaluated by a panel including Discovery Center staff, Alexs family, and other community members. Applications are due Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 and winners will be notified by March 17, 2022. The application form can be found at www.starhop.com.

All of this years scholarship winners will be recognized at the Discovery Centers AerospaceFest in September 2022. In light of the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, this years scholarship has been extended, so that the Primary Crew winners may attend Space Camp in 2022 or as safety concerns dictate.

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center features 21st century interactive exhibits on aviation, astronomy, Earth and space sciences, an all-digital, full-dome planetarium and a wide variety of science, technology, and engineering and mathematics programs. The engaging, robust educational programs are geared towards families, teens, seniors, students, community groups and lifelong learners. For more information, visit www.starhop.com.
(TBTCO) - Sang 4/1/2022, Vien Kinh te tai chinh (Hoc vien Tai chinh) to chuc hoi thao dien bien thi truong, gia ca o Viet Nam nam 2021 va du bao 2022. Theo du bao cua gioi chuyen gia, nha quan ly, lam phat nam 2022 cung se thuc hien trong tam tay, khoang tu 2-3%, thap hon muc 4% Quoc hoi e ra.
A woman hit by a truck driver on an Evansville off-ramp was taken to a Billings hospital for surgery, police said.

Evansville police initially said the woman would be flown to Denver for treatment on several serious injuries, but Chief Mike Thompson said on Monday that high winds made that flight impossible.

The woman was hit by a box truck around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday while standing on the side of the road calling for help after her car spun out on the Interstate 25 off-ramp at Wyoming Boulevard due to snow.

Thompson said on Monday that she suffered a broken back and hip along with injuries to her leg and pelvis. The hospital in Billings was the closest place that could get her in for the surgeries she requires, Thompson said.

The truck driver had reportedly veered into the dirt next to the ramp and driven parallel to the road for around 700 feet before reentering the ramp and hitting the woman and her car. Her car was knocked into a fence and she was sent into a ditch around 30 feet from impact, according to police.

The woman was believed to be pregnant, police said. She had been visiting family in Natrona County.

The driver was not injured in the crash, Thompson said last week, and faces several charges including careless driving. He is set to appear in court in mid-January.

Police are also awaiting results of a blood test on the driver, which will likely take six to eight weeks.

The ramp was closed for around two and a half hours on Wednesday due to the crash.

Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst.

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Wyoming Catholic College and one of its vice presidents are the subjects of two lawsuits filed this month related to ongoing accusations of fraud against the colleges former chief financial officer.

In June, a federal lawsuit alleged that former CFO Paul McCown faked bank statements and other documents to leverage a $15 million loan from New York firm Ria R Squared.

Of that money, the suit states, $10 million went to WCC as an anonymous donation, and $375,000 was transferred to Jonathan Tonkowich, the schools vice president of operations.

According to the complaint, Tonkowich had introduced McCown to R Squared.

Most of that money has since been seized by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into McCown, two new lawsuits filed by R Squared earlier in December say.

But the college still has around $240,000 from that sum, one of the suits alleges. And Tonkowich, the other claims, has around $74,000 that the firm believes came from McCowns loan.

While the suit alleges that the college has refused to return the remainder of the money received from the loan, a spokesperson for WCC said that in September the institution had offered to pay back a significant portion of the remaining amount, but the firm did not respond.

The college was not directly implicated in the initial suit against McCown, and a representative said that McCown resigned his position on June 25. He had been on administrative leave for around three weeks prior, after the school learned of the allegations against him.

Tonkowich was also placed on leave when the allegations surfaced this summer, but later returned to his position.

Joseph Susanka, vice president of advancement at WCC, said in a statement to the Star-Tribune that there has been little communication between R Squared and the college. The complaints, Susanka said, list a number of factual inaccuracies and false allegations against the College and its employees.

The College was an unsuspecting victim in this matter and was in no way a party to the alleged fraudulent transaction between McCown and Ria R Squared, the statement said. It has incurred significant and unanticipated legal and administrative expenses because of it.

In an answer to the initial set of allegations filed in August, McCown invoked the Fifth Amendment to deny nearly every claim in the suit on the basis of avoiding self-incrimination.

McCown reportedly first sought financial advice from R Squared for the colleges endowment. Court documents state that he later came to the firm for personal advising, saying he had just gotten an influx of money.

The suit states he falsified statements that appeared to show a $750 million deposit into his account at Wyoming Community Bank, allegedly using forged letterhead and impersonating a real bank employee via email.

The money seized by federal law enforcement, as part of the ongoing investigation, cannot be accessed by R Squared.

According to the suit, the college initially said it would turn over the entire sum it received once an internal investigation into the alleged fraud was completed. After stating the money was in the process of being returned once McCowns allegations became public this summer, school leadership allegedly changed course in the fall.

Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst.

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Wyoming took another step in fighting back against federal vaccine mandates Saturday, this time in the court battle over worker requirements at larger businesses.

Wyoming joined 26 other states in asking the Supreme Court to halt implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHA) mandate that requires workers at businesses with 100 or more employees to either get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing and mandatory masking.

Wyomings participation comes as no surprise. Fighting back against the mandate was the basis for holding a special legislative session earlier this year, and Gov. Mark Gordon has been outspokenly against the rule.

In November, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put a halt on the worker vaccine mandate while the courts considered the matter. Then on Friday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals removed the stay, clearing the way for the mandate to go into effect next month. The following day, a group of 27 states asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the national stay.

While we are disappointed with the decision of the 6th Circuits panel, we immediately requested that the Supreme Court halt this mandate and hear this case, Gordon said. This overreaching rule exceeds OSHAs authority and threatens the rights of Wyoming citizens and her industries.

The Sixth Circuit disagreed. The rule is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that has killed over 800,000 people in the United States, brought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs, wrote Judge Jane Stranch, a nominee of former President Barack Obama. She was joined by Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, a nominee of President George W. Bush.

Critics of the directive say OSHA is not authorized to make the emergency rule, partly because the coronavirus is a general health risk and not exclusive to the workplace.

If the mandate moves ahead, it is set to go into effect Jan. 4 and is estimated to cover 84 million people. OSHA has announced it will not issue citations for violating the rule until Jan. 10.

At the time the Wyoming Legislature held its special session, the mandates rules and regulations had not yet been released, making it difficult to legislate against. Ultimately, the session ended with a bill that does little more than allocate $4 million towards fighting the mandate in court.

Wyoming and a litany of other states are also fighting mandates pertaining to federal contractors, certain National Guardsmen and health workers in facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid funding. Some of these challenges have been successful so far, leading to pauses in certain parts of the nation.

Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis

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Two homes in Maraval which are occupied by businessman Adrian Scoon were searched yesterday 
Recent events in Washington, DC, USA, the revered capital of the United States of America, have shaken the moral authority of that country to lecture, threaten and coerce other countries in the name of democracy, rule of law and human rights.

The disgraceful scenes of Americans storming their own sacred Capitol buildingthe long-claimed sanctuary for democracywas bad enough, but what preceded it was worse.
Above all else, it is your understanding of the science of the mind that determines your des
Larry H. Miller Dealerships: For the eighth year, employees of Larry H. Miller Dealerships are spreading joy and holiday cheer to Tucson and Phoenix residents through the dealership groups annual 10 Days of Giving campaign. Over the course of the holiday campaign, employees presented $236,700 in donations to 21 charities across Arizona, $42,000 of which are supporting nonprofits in Tucson.

This years Tucson donations support charities that provide pajamas and books for abandoned and abused children, hunger relief for kids, free arts for children who are experiencing cancer and other serious illnesses, affordable housing, support and empowerment for young girls experiencing hardship, essential services for youth who have no familial support, and more.

The 10 Days of Giving campaign will support the following nonprofit organizations in Tucson:

Angel Heart Pajama Project, $5,000 donation; Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, $2,000 donation; Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, $10,000 donation; Youth on Their Own, $10,000 donation; Beads of Courage Programs, $5,000 donation; Habitat for Humanity Tucson, $10,000 donation.
Tucson-based Raytheon Missiles & Defense was awarded nearly $400 million in Pentagon contracts for an advanced version of a ship-defense missile and a new, all-weather guided bomb as the year drew to a close.

The Navy recently awarded Raytheon a $269 million contract to produce the newest Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM), a front-line ship defense weapon, for the U.S. and about a dozen allied nations through March 2025.

The contract for the upgraded ESSM Block 2 missile is part of a $1.3 billion, full-rate production contract for the new variant that Raytheon was awarded in September, when $358 million was initially obligated.

The Navy says the ESSM Block 2 is a critical weapon to defend ships against a new generation of fast, low-flying and highly maneuverable cruise missiles.

The Navy has obligated about $108 million of its own funding for its missiles, while allies including Australia, Norway, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain and Turkey will be spending a total of about $160 million for the new ESSMs, according to a Pentagon contract notice.
James S. Big Jim Griffith lived such a big life defining Tucsons senses of place and self that its hard to imagine this special place without him, as many admirers have been saying since his death Saturday at age 86.

He was a folklorist, cultural anthropologist, storyteller extraordinaire, banjo picker, University of Arizona scholar of religious art, artifacts and practices, co-founder of the Tucson Meet Yourself festival, lover of Tohono Oodham waila music and kwalya dance, historical preservationist board member of Patronato San Xavier, a 6-foot-7-inch-tall cowboy poet, an author, an encyclopedia of wit and wisdom.

Other descriptions keep coming to mind as well, often in Spanish, for those who knew him best.

He was the best companero that one could have  simply the best companion for the journey, any journey, anytime, said Father Greg Adolf, who often traveled with Griffith, his friend of 45 years, on Kino mission tours to Sonora.

He was one of the best connectors of people, across any divide, wall, chasm, Adolf said in an emotional interview Sunday. We always said build bridges, not walls. He was a founder, who built foundations so others could build on them.

Peter Yucupicio said Griffith was what we say in our villages, un hombre de su palabra, a person of his word. His word meant something to all of us.

Yucupicio is chairman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe but describes himself as more than that, Jims good friend. I am 64 now, but going back to my teens and 20s, he would come to our villages, our communities, and everyone would greet him  Theres Jim right there. He became a member of our community, of our Yaqui life and traditions.

Theres only one Big Jim, he said. And the thing he did was to bring awareness of all the different types of ethnicities and races living here, and the beauty of bringing us all together.

He had that big heart to all people, said Gertrude Lopez, a waila accordionist and, as leader of Gertie N the T.O. Boyz, the only female band leader on my reservation.

I am very thankful for having him in my life and knowing all he did for Native peoples, but also for all of Tucson, said Lopez, recalling that Griffith came to many of her gigs.

I thank the Lord for him, she said. Lot of blessings to him and his family and to the whole Tucson family.

All welcome

Griffith, who was born in Southern California in 1935, moved to Tucson in the 1950s for undergraduate studies in anthropology at the University of Arizona, and went on to get his Ph.D. there, as well, says his daughter, Kelly.

He died very peacefully at his home in Tucson on Saturday, Dec. 18, after several years of health problems, she said.

He had a good 86-year run. He really did, noted Loma, Jims wife of nearly 60 years. She met him in Santa Barbara, California, before he moved to Tucson, and later moved here to marry him, Kelly says.

As friend after friend points out, Loma is an inseparable part of his legacy.

Their gracious hospitality, always at the ready, is at the heart of many joyous scenes and anecdotes being remembered.

He always told me, You just stop by anytime you want. Its an open-door policy,' said Martin DeSoto, who was on the Patronato board with Jim and is a docent of San Xavier Mission.

I would come by, and we would talk about santos, books, his travels  and, on an inch ruler, we probably only got to about an eighth of an inch of his knowledge on any subject, because he knew so much. Its our history  the Oodham, the Yaqui, everyone. And Loma would always say, Take whatever books you want.

DeSoto didnt have far to go to bask in that friendship. The Griffiths lived just outside the boundary of the San Xavier District of the Tohono Oodham Nation, close to the mission. Jim moved out there in about 1955, when I was about 2 years old, DeSoto said, because he loved the historic church so much and wanted to live among the Oodham.

DeSoto had been born very nearby on his grandparents and parents ranch and still lives in that area. He recalls that another renowned Southwestern historian and anthropologist, the late Bernard Bunny Fontana, also had a home nearby.

Jim was playing banjo and was part of the music ministry when DeSoto first met him at a Saturday night mass at the mission in about 1992.

Like many others, DeSoto tells of Jim and Lomas memorable parties.

His summer birthday parties, in August, are imprinted on my childrens minds, said Joseph Wilder, retired director of the Southwest Center. It was just fabulous to see all the desert rats who showed up  (archaeologist) Julian Hayden, Bunny Fontana, (author) Chuck Bowden. It was part of my childrens formation, and werent they lucky, to see this desert life that was informed by the place and the languages spoken here.

Jim would have someone barbecuing carne asada, and there would be a trio of mariachis.  He was simply an icon of Tucson, and I looked up to him, literally and figuratively.

The food wasnt just delicious, it was a chance for Griffith to say, with a trademark little smile on his face, that every time you have carne asada or a quesadilla, you are celebrating Padre Kino, as Father Adolf noted.

As an expert on Eusebio Francisco Kino, who founded the San Xavier Mission, and churches in what is now Sonora, Griffith loved to point out the many foods the 17th century Jesuit missionary explorer introduced to the borderlands.

One borderland, undivided

Griffith also worked for decades to celebrate and promote the Sonoran Desert borderlands as a cohesive region, the Pimeria Alta of Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona, our own cultural treasure house of food, song, common expressions. We live in the borderlands, everything from Tucson to Hermosillo, Adolf said.

Adolf believes Griffith recognized Kino as a fellow bridge builder, transcending his culture and bringing together cultures. I think they were kindred spirits.

They both had a great gift of asking others what they know, for their valuable, priceless information about desert living, he said. The spirit of hospitality, of all being welcome, was returned to both in turn, Adolf added.

Griffith was always a learner and a friend, not just a teacher, said Maribel Alvarez, who holds the Jim Griffith Endowed Chair for Public Folklore at the UA.

She believes thats one reason Indigenous communities feel very close to him and have a tremendous, abiding love for Jim, Alvarez said. Sometimes, she said, the relationship between Indigenous people and anthropologists can be contentious, as in, here comes the outsider to say how these people live.

His No. 1 value was respect, she said. He was deeply curious about people, and he knew the one thing that can breach tough conversations is to enter with respect and not with preset ideas.

Yucupicio agrees.

He would always sit there and learn. I would go with him on trips to Sonora, and it was always an honor to talk about Yaqui history. He would say, You have been around here for thousands and thousands of years. Yes we have, I would say. Driving with him was always a learning time for me and for him.

Alvarez is also the program director for Tucson Meet Yourself, the festival Griffith co-founded in 1974, drawing about 2,000 people the first year. In 2019, before the pandemic, it brought 150,000 to downtown to enjoy food, music and dances of the richness of cultural traditions and practices we have here, from Chinese, to Polish, to Yaqui, to Filipino and scores more.

He held it all together as the emcee, Alvarez noted. He taught us about culture as a living, dynamic way of connecting through relationships and respect.

He helped Tucson to understand itself, said prominent local author Gregory McNamee. He taught us about who we, as Tucsonans, are.

As DeSoto put it, Were all one people, one body. He didnt like any division.

In addition to wife Loma and daughter Kelly, Griffith is survived by a son, David, and two grandchildren.

A celebration of his life will likely be held in the new year.

Contact Arizona Daily Star writer Norma Coile at ncoile@tucson.com
Mayleen Badilla, a student at the Gallego International School, was announced the statewide winner of the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest earlier this month.

The Tucson Cyber Lions Clubs said in a news release that the contest has run for 30 years and is open for children ages 11-13.

According to the contest guidelines, entries are judged for the students expression of the theme, artistic merit and originality.

Badillas entry included a painting of a peace hand gesture, and a globe filled with smaller depictions of joyful human interactions, cultural celebrations, flags of various countries and the LGBTQ community, and education.

IRHS band director in Rose Parade

Mark Hodge, the band director for the Ironwood Ridge High School Marching Band, will join band directors from across the country to march in the 133rd Pasadena Tournament of Roses Rose Parade.

About 300 band directors will lead a custom-designed animated float that will convey the theme, We teach music. We teach life, sponsored by the Ohio-based Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation. The parade will take place on Jan. 1.
While the Tucson area has welcomed dozens of new bars and restaurants since the start of 2021, several businesses shut down for good this year.
Orphaned fawns slept in her fireplace while a Gambels quail hunkered under a priceless Indian blanket. At one time, five owls took over one of the rooms in her house and baby javelinas were housed in her bedroom so she could haul them into her bed every couple of hours for feeding.

According to Sarah, I have the only javelina in the country that sleeps on a waterbed and pees on the Wall Street Journal.

Yet Sarah did not attach herself to the animals she cared for. They are not pets, she admonished. I know when I get 'em, theyve got to go. Her goal was to return as many as possible to their natural habitats.

Dan died in 1975 and by then, word had reached the Arizona Game and Fish Department that a woman was keeping wild animals in her house and on her property, an illegal activity. An agent appeared on Sarahs doorstep to investigate but once he saw the care Sarah gave the animals, he not only refused to reprimand her but declared, you dont need to be cited, you need to be licensed. In November 1975, she was officially certified by Arizona Game and Fish to care for wildlife.
Tutoring time: Student enrollment is open through Wednesday on the Oklahoma State Department of Educations website for the Oklahoma Math Tutoring Corps.

Financed with federal COVID-19 relief dollars, participation in the high dosage tutoring program is limited to eighth grade students attending any Oklahoma public school.

Students who enroll in the program will receive virtual tutoring, three times a week from a qualified teacher or college student. All tutoring will be held outside of school hours with services scheduled to begin on Jan. 11.

Mask on, mask off: Claremore Public Schools has opted to keep its mask requirement in place after the holidays.

As approved Monday by the districts board of education, Claremores mask requirement will remain in effect until the end of the spring 2022 semester unless an Oklahoma County District Courts temporary injunction is lifted or the board of education decides to revisit the issue.

Meanwhile, mask requirements will not be in place at Glenpool and Tahlequah when classes resume in January.
Santa wont have to worry about slipping on any snowy rooftops this Christmas, nor climbing down chimneys into many roaring fireplaces in the Tulsa area this year.

Temperatures are expected to be 15-25 degrees above normal in the Tulsa area, with highs expected in the mid-70s on Friday and in the mid-60s on Christmas Day.

The record high for Christmas Eve is 80 degrees, set in 1955. The Christmas Day record in Tulsa is 73 degrees, set in 1922.

Its been 99 years since weve been this warm for Tulsa (around Christmas), said Steve Piltz, meteorologist in charge at the Tulsa National Weather Service forecast office.

Its pretty unusual if this forecast turns out right.

The normal high for Dec. 24 and 25 is 49 degrees in Tulsa.

The last white Christmas in Tulsa  either with recorded falling snow or at least an inch on the ground on Christmas Day  was in 2009, when 6 inches were on the ground, he said.

On average, Tulsa has an 11% to 12% chance of having a white Christmas on any given year, Piltz said.
After serving nearly 45,000 Oklahomans Real ID needs, the Department of Public Safety megacenter in south Tulsa is set to close Jan. 7.

The state agency opened an Oklahoma City megacenter in July followed by the Tulsa site on Aug. 16 as tag agents across the state were experiencing nightmare wait times for those needing Real IDs and drivers license tests.

DPS employees, some from far outside the Tulsa area, were shuffled to help staff the megacenter located at 7130 S. Lewis Avenue in the Kensington Business Center, according to staff at the Tulsa site.

Many who utilized the megacenter, open 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, reported being able to complete the transaction in 30-45 minutes. DPS staff at the Tulsa site reported seeing an increase in visitors to the megacenter since the Oklahoma City site closed Dec. 10. About 54,000 were served at the OKC megacenter, DPS said last week.
The first couple of months are going to be a huge traffic tie up at the interchange, she said.

Completion of the bridge replacements, ramp realignments and highway widening is scheduled for early 2023, weather permitting.

This massive $90 million project will greatly impact traffic in the west side of the city over the next two years, and drivers are urged to plan ahead for significant delays to commutes and travel in this area, ODOT said in a statement.

While I-44 and U.S. 75 will remain open during this project, there will be times that lanes will be narrowed and the corridors may only have one lane open to traffic, ODOT said.

There will also be ramp closures at the cloverleaf, along with full closures of Union Avenue over I-44 and on Skelly Drive at times.

Traffic will be slow in all areas of the work zone and drivers are urged to set aside distractions and give their full attention to the road. Alternate routes such as I-244 should be considered, especially during peak travel times, ODOT said.

The project is the largest in Tulsas history in terms of cost, Mitchell has said.
But this isnt the first time he has had to search for a sister. All three of his sisters have been taken before, and he regularly participates in searches for other Native American women.

For a long time, Indigenous people like Nokusece Wind and grassroots groups were the only advocates for the MMIW crisis, but over the past few years, the crisis has been given bigger and bigger platforms. Just this year, federal action and the Oklahoma Legislature have directed more funds and aid to combat the crisis and help victims.

Nokusece Winds oldest sister was a victim of domestic violence. Her ex-partner was convicted in Tulsa County of domestic assault after he ran over her leg with his car as she was trying to escape from him, court records state. She needed surgery to put two metal rods in her leg after the injury, her brother said.

He uses his first-hand experience and his search and rescue training to help find Indigenous people and bring them home. He acts as an on-the-ground advocate for families and victims, conducting searches, talking with law enforcement officers and spreading the word on social media.
OKLAHOMA CITY  In the weeks and months immediately after the Supreme Courts landmark McGirt decision, Gov. Kevin Stitt and top members of his administration had meetings and phone calls with most leaders of Oklahomas Five Tribes to discuss next steps.

Information requested by The Oklahoman and provided by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Muscogee nations shows Stitt and tribal leaders havent met in person since February. Stitt also has not met with leaders of the Quapaw Nation, the latest tribe to be covered by the Supreme Court ruling.
There might be much good will and exciting events forthcoming, but Warfield said accepting limitations means understanding that maybe you arent ready or able to do as much as normal. Perhaps you pick and choose rather than putting up all the decorations or visiting all gatherings.

What am I able to do this year? Warfield said. Whats going to be the most meaningful for me and my family?

It might be tough, Warfield said, but asking for help is OK. Maybe its cooking or cleaning or running errands, but people want to help so its OK to accept it, she said.

Warfield recommended acknowledging feelings as they arrive instead of bottling them up to potentially create a larger emotional challenge and toll later. If you encounter a reminder of a loved one who died or a wave of intense remorse or grief, acknowledge it by putting it into words and sharing with those you trust.

A lot of times people think, Oh I dont want to put a damper on the excitement of the holidays by talking about my feelings, my grief, Warfield said. But people want to support you. People want to help you.

So it is absolutely OK and absolutely healthy to talk about it.
The United States Mission in Vietnam has recently announced the Fulbright Vietnamese Student Scholarship Program for the 2023-24 academic year, granting approximately 20 fully-funded scholarships to participants.

The Fulbright Vietnamese Student Program is a competitive, merit-based scholarship program which recruits and nominates young Vietnamese professionals for masters degree courses at U.S. universities, according to the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam website.

Selected candidates will receive a full scholarship which covers tuition and fees, a monthly stipend, round-trip airfares, and health insurance while pursuing a masters degree in the U.S.

According to the website, the scholarship program is open to Vietnamese students who gain at least one undergraduate degree, at least two years of work experience after graduation by the time of application, and a valid minimum score of TOEFL iBT 79 or IELTS 6.5 or PTE-Academic 58.

The program is designed to cover various fields of social sciences and humanities, including American literature, education project/program management, American studies, environmental studies, psychology, agricultural economics, management of IT/information systems, public administration, anthropology, journalism, and others.

To participate in the program, students have to submit the online application by 5:00 pm, April 15, 2022.

The dossier must include two essays, three letters of recommendation, transcripts and degrees, test score reports, and a curriculum vitae.

Established in 1946 and funded by the U.S. government, the Fulbright program aims at achieving mutual understanding through academic and cultural exchange.

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Ninth and 12th graders in two districts and 25 communes, wards, and towns at high risk of COVID-19 transmission in Hanoi will stop going to offline classes, which were just resumed on December 6, and switch to online learning from Monday until further notice.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training made the request on Sunday to urge district-level education offices and schools to report the adjustment to their local authorities for approval.

The move aims to ensure health safety for teachers and students amid rising COVID-19 case numbers in the capital city.

Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da Districts and 25 communes, wards, and towns in the city are currently classified as level-three pandemic risk, corresponding to orange zones, in the governments four-level risk assessment scale according to a notice dated December 17 of the municipal Peoples Committee.

Earlier, ninth graders in outlying Ba Vi District resumed in-person learning from November 8, while students in the same grade in 18 districts and towns returned to school from November 22, followed by 12th graders in 30 districts and towns from December 6.

About 64,000 ninth and 12th graders have attended offline classes since then, according to the Department of Education and Training.

Authorities in Hanoi had required all students to stay home and switch to remote learning since May 4 due to a serious COVID-19 outbreak.

Hanoi has documented more than 24,200 COVID-19 infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam on April 27.

Over 6.8 million adults out of eight million people of the Vietnamese capital city have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, with more than 5.8 million of them fully vaccinated, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

The city is carrying out vaccinations against COVID-19 for local children aged 12 to 17 until the end of the first quarter of 2022, with those from 16 to 17 years old getting the shots first.

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MANILA -- The death toll in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Rai has risen to 208, after the storm carved a trail of destruction in central and southern provinces late last week, the national police spokesperson said on Monday.

There were 52 people still missing, according to police data, as relief efforts continued following one of the deadliest typhoons to have struck the Southeast Asian country.

The police have been mobilised for relief operations and to ensure order in calamity stricken areas, national police spokesperson Roderick Alba said.

The number of casualties cited by police was far higher than the 58 deaths recorded by the national disaster agency up to now. The agency said it was still validating reports from affected regions.

Residents gather by a collapsed house in Hernani town, Eastern Samar province on December 17, 2021. Photo: AFP

More than half of the deaths reported by police were fatalities in the central Visayas region, which includes Bohol province, home to some of the country's most-popular tourist destinations, including dive spots.

On Sunday, Bohol Governor Arthur Yap reported 74 deaths in his province, citing partial reports that he said had been verified by both the health department and local government officials.

Relief operations have been accelerating but remain hampered by damage caused to communication and power lines, which have yet to be restored in many devastated areas.

Residents salvage belongings from their destroyed homes in the coastal town of Dulag in Leyte province on December 17, 2021, a day after Super Typhoon Rai hit. Photo: AFP

Rai had displaced nearly 490,000 people in the Philippines before it moved toward the South China Sea over the weekend, also leaving huge destruction in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte, and Surigao del Norte, including the popular Siargao surfing destination, and Dinagat Islands.

President Rodrigo Duterte has committed to release around 2 billion pesos ($40 million) in funds to typhoon-hit provinces to help in recovery efforts.
The Ministry of Health registered 14,977 additional coronavirus cases across Vietnam on Monday, together with 1,937 recoveries and 225 pathogen-related mortalities.

The latest infections, including 11 imported and 14,966 domestic transmissions, were recorded in 61 provinces and cities, the ministry said, noting that 9,000 patients were infected in the community.

Hanoi documented 1,612 of the newest local cases, Ben Tre Province 985, Ca Mau Province 967, Tay Ninh Province 947, Can Tho City 773, Khanh Hoa Province 709, Ho Chi Minh City 687, Binh Dinh Province 411, Dong Nai Province 284, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province 273, Thua Thien-Hue Province 228, Binh Thuan Province 222, Lam Dong Province 174, Binh Duong Province 155, Da Nang 142, Quang Ninh Province 136, Quang Nam Province 129, Hai Phong City 95, and Ha Giang Province 85.

Vietnam had confirmed 16,093 locally-acquired infections on Sunday.

The country has recorded 1,549,945 community transmissions in all its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave erupted on April 27. A combined 1,107,082 of them have recovered from COVID-19.

Ho Chi Minh City is still the epicenter with 495,370 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 289,330, Dong Nai Province with 95,212, Tay Ninh Province with 64,961, Long An Province with 39,709, Dong Thap Province with 36,404, Can Tho City with 34,128, Tien Giang Province with 31,262, An Giang Province with 29,624, Hanoi with 25,879, Khanh Hoa Province with 24,310, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 23,944, Binh Thuan Province with 23,435, and Da Nang with 9,447.

Vietnam reported only 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in total in the previous three waves.

The health ministry logged 1,937 recovered patients on Monday, raising the total to 1,109,899.

The toll has increased to 29,791 fatalities after the ministry reported 225 deaths on the same day, including 56 in Ho Chi Minh City, 30 in Dong Nai Province, 22 in An Giang Province, 16 in Binh Duong Province, 14 in Ben Tre Province, and the remainder in 20 other provinces and cities.

Vietnam has detected 1,555,455 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the country early last year.

Health workers have administered upwards of 139.4 million vaccine doses, including 696,414 shots on Sunday, since vaccination was rolled out nationwide on March 8.

Above 75.8 million of the countrys 98 million people have received at least one dose while over 62.2 million have been jabbed twice.

The number of third doses  including additional primary shots for immunocompromised people, boosters, and third jabs of Cubas Abdala vaccine  has reached 1,298,208.

Vietnam targets to fully inoculate 100 percent of its adult population this year. Many provinces and cities are immunizing children aged 12-17 against COVID-19, using Pfizer-BioNTech shots.

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Christmas is just around the corner! Saigonese can feel it in the air, but there is also a sense of caution.

With health concerns and with grief and loss still fresh, the pandemic has once again dampened the Christmas joy in Ho Chi Minh City.

The city's iconic sights such as shopping malls, churches, and pedestrian streets see fewer gatherings and less jubilant atmosphere as Christmas nears.

The luxurious shopping center Diamond Plaza, alight with decorations, sadly welcomes just several visitors, a modest number compared to that of photographers and souvenir street vendors working there.

Four children pose for a photo in front of a Christmas backdrop at Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

Visitors are also reluctant to pray at the nearby Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, while pedestrians at the Nguyen Hue promenade just stop quickly, snap a few pictures, then leave.

My whole family has just got over a challenging time when all the members caught the virus, so we decided to take a tour around the city to refresh our minds, said Kim Anh, a local resident.

Normally, Anhs family would be so eager to join the vibrant atmosphere during the holiday season. However, they found it different this year since they have just returned to their 'new normal.'

Although we have been confirmed free of the virus, we must follow the COVID-19 safety regulations, Anh added.

A souvenir street vendor in Ho Chi Minh City sees sluggish sales as she has traded nothing during the day. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

Triet, a resident in Tan Binh District, barely took a few photos for his wife and children at Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street and left quickly.

We dropped by the street just to feel the Christmas air, instead of wandering around the city like we did in the past few years, Triet said.

Christmas has brought us a joyful time, but health and safety are our top priorities."

Lien, a souvenir street vendor in Thu Duc City under Ho Chi Minh City, witnessed a huge drop in the number of visitors flocking to famous places compared to the previous years.

Diamond Plaza in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, decorated with dazzling Christmas backdrops, sees a drop in the number of visitors this year. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

She said that this years atmosphere feels somewhat gloomy and the COVID-19 pandemic dampens many businesses' sales, as people are afraid of going to public places.

This year is so harsh!" she shared.

"I have just sold around 20 percent of what I would sell a few years ago.

Last year, Lien sold a lot even with her goods displayed only at noon, but this year, she has earned nothing since the morning.

The mPlaza Saigon building in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, welcomes just a few visitors this year. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

Families with small children stop by for a check-in and quickly leave the mPlaza Saigon building for fear of COVID-19 infection. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

A family takes a wefie in front of a Christmas-themed backdrop in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Hoang An / Tuoi Tre

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A karaoke parlor in Ho Chi Minh City has been caught operating against the local government's ongoing non-essential business ban and allowing its customers to use narcotics.

A source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper confirmed on Sunday that police in District 11 raided a venue on Minh Phung Street on Saturday night.

A total of 38 men and women were using the karaoke service inside four rooms, and eight of them tested positive for drugs.

All 38 people were escorted to the police station to facilitate the investigation.

Officers raided the venue in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, December 18, 2021 in this supplied photo.

Officers also confiscated an amount of synthetic drugs and other relevant evidence.

There were seven employees at the venue, officers added.

Preliminary investigation showed that the venue disguised itself as a recording studio to illegally operate as a karaoke service.

Customers often came to the location to use marijuana and synthetic drugs and party all night long.

Motorbikes of customers are parked inside the venue in this supplied photo.

The owner is Ly Vinh Tan, a 37-year-old resident in District 11.

Tan admitted he had been operating the karaoke service since October.

Ho Chi Minh City has been the hardest-hit since the fourth virus wave hit the country on April 27, with nearly 494,700 cases.

Karaoke parlors, along with bars and discos, have been suspended since April 30 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The municipal authorities resumed these services on November 16 but closed them again on November 18, stating that the activities still posed a high risk of transmission.

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Police in Vietnams Central Highlands province of Lam Dong arrested a 43-year-old man two hours after he slit his 38-year-old wifes throat over financial conflicts and fled on Sunday morning.

Police officers identified the man as Hoang Van Lam and the victim as Dang Thi Thanh.

While Thanh was sleeping in their house in Lam Dongs Bao Lam District at around 2:00 am on Sunday, Lam used a knife to control her and slit her throat.

After Thanh died on the spot, Lam fled the house.

Their family members were quick to discover the incident and report it to local authorities.

Police officers managed to arrest Lam hiding at a nearby coffee field about two hours later.

According to the mans initial testimony, he and his wife had a conflict over financial issues recently.

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A spring flower festival, along with a flower street, has been scheduled to kick off in Ho Chi Minh City in late January 2022 to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday with the theme Homeland Spring with Warm Love, in compliance with required epidemic prevention measures.

The annual Spring Flower Festival will last for 11 days, from January 27 to February 6, 2022, in Tao Dan Park in District 1 to welcome Tet, with Lunar New Years Eve falling on January 31, the Vietnam News Agency quoted a plan approved by the citys administration.

Pursuant to the plan, which was prepared by Ho Chi Minh City Greenery Parks Company and the Department of Construction, the festival will offer free admission to visitors.

Festival goers will have a chance to contemplate more than 3,000 diverse and attractive ornamental plants and flowers, ornamental fish, bonsai, rockery and miniature landscapes.

They will also enjoy Tet traditional cultural activities, including folk theater art performances, folk games, fruit tray displays, floral arrangements, traditional martial arts, lion and dragon dances, circus shows, magic, calligraphy, and gastronomy.

Along with the Spring Flower Festival, the city will also organize Tet flower markets at six locations, including three at September 23 Park in District 1, Le Van Tam Park in District 1, and Gia Dinh Park in Phu Nhuan District.

Three other places are in Thu Duc City, District 8-based Binh Dien wholesale market, and District 7s Phu My Hung area.

State-run Saigontourist will coordinate the annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street, lasting from January 29 to February 4, on Nguyen Hue Street in District 1 in parallel to the festival.

During the period, all vehicles will be suspended from Nguyen Hue Street and all street sections that lead to the events area.

These cultural events have been in the pipeline as Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in particular have eased strict COVID-19 restrictions since early October to reopen the economy in the strategy of living safely with the coronavirus, including accelerated immunization and compliance with epidemic prevention rules.

Local authorities have requested the events organizers to ensure all service staff and visitors take coronavirus prevention measures like face mask donning, body temperature measurement, hand disinfection, and health declaration.

As of Sunday, the southern city of nine million people had administered over 7.96 million first jabs and some 6.92 million second shots to its adult population, alongside more than 1.34 million doses to children aged 12 to 17 years old, the Department of Health reported.

Since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the city has documented 495,318 COVID-19 cases and 19,094 deaths, the Ministry of Healths data shows.

Nationwide, a total of 1,540,478 patients have been recorded, including 1,107,962 recoveries and 29,566 fatalities.

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By Curt MacDougall

It started with a garage sale a few months ago, in those halcyon days between the vaccine and the variants. My wife is always on the lookout for vintage items (however you define the term) since getting her mid-mod groove on a while back. Lamps and clocks are the typical finds but, as Forrest Gump was fond of saying, You never know what youre gonna get.

This time she hit the jackpot  not only a sixties-era piece, but a Christmas item to boot (another of her character flaws, er, quirky pursuits). An old-school blow mold Santa, in decent shape for his age and sporting a three dollar price tag. Either the owners didnt know what they had, as these things are becoming desirable and causing prices to climb, or they didnt care and just wanted the jolly old elf out of their garage. I didnt gripe too much, operating under the it could always be worse assumption  at about four feet high, he was far less obnoxious than the giant inflatable Santas and their ever-whirring air pumps.

So this is his first season on the front porch...in fact, yesterday was his first day. And it turns out the blow molds are kind of a hot ticket. By that I mean the reprobates among us wont hesitate to snatch them up and spirit them away due to the aforementioned desirability factor. To avoid such a fate, I brought him inside at the end of the night rather than just unplug him, and stood him next to the front door in anticipation of setting him right back out again the next day.

But I forgot to clear these actions with my dog Toby. As he was descending the stairs later that evening, I heard him growling softly, something he rarely if ever does. At first I couldnt figure out what might be the problem, but then I realized that Kris Kringle was now an interloper in Tobys world. Standing there in the half-light with his bag of toys and that vapid smile, the old guy could have been looting the place for all Toby knew.

Fair enough. Once I grasped the situation, I tried to explain who this rotund cherub dressed in red was, but Toby was having none of it. At that point all I could do was spin Santa around so that he and the dog were no longer making eye contact. That seemed to placate Toby, who crept up to the plastic statue and gave it a tentative sniff before going about his business. All good.

Of course, being of a certain age, by the next morning I forgot that I had done any of this. So as I came down the stairs

What to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature man with a sack full of cheer,

At first I was startled and said What the frick?!?

But knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick,

He stood in a corner, his back turned to me,

Looking as if he were taking a pee.

I smiled when I saw him, finding it cute,

But then had a thought bout the jolly old coot.

With COVID and lockdowns two years in a row,

A piddling Santa seems quite apropos.

 Curt MacDougall

Curt's journey has been unconventional, to say the least, something he likens to Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates. From airborne traffic reporter to marketing shlub, freelance columnist and television news producer, the road has never been boring. And through it all there was the need to write, whether it was jokes for a radio morning show, website content for an engineering firm, humorous musings in one of Michigan's largest daily papers or scripts meant to make news anchors sound as if they knew what they were talking about. Other examples can be seen at his blog, Lies Jack Kerouac Told Me, where he writes largely about small matters and smally about great affairs, to borrow from James Thurber (another inspiration).
By John LeComte

Sybil Frey has become one of VLCFF's top cheerleaders.

I'm your biggest fan, Frey said with a beaming smile during our zoom interview from her home in Virginia. I honestly can't put into words how much I've enjoyed these classes. It's a great way to learn your Catholic faith, and it's not intimidating. Even for somebody like me.

Sybil converted to Catholicism in 2014, and the 62-year old says that's the main reason she began looking for online -educational options.

My knowledge was limited, but my desire pushed me to educate myself to have a more complete understanding of Catholicism, she said.

Frey's desire to learn more about her faith has resulted in her completing a whopping 45 courses with the VLCFF and looking to register for even more.

I keep thinking that I am through, but your classes are so interesting and I have learned so much I can't stop, she said. I've been surprised by the high quality and rigorous content of the classes and I have learned so much.

Sybil currently works at St. Thomas More Church in Lynchburg, Va., and found out about VLCFF classes through the Diocese of Richmond.

I truly appreciate the format allowing somebody who works full-time to study and finish the assignments without having to attend a class at a specific time, she said. It's a great program. I would encourage people to participate.

As I mentioned earlier, Sybil continues to promote VLCFF courses.

I spread the word all the time about the University of Dayton's VLCFF. It's too valuable a resource for Catholic education  a real treasure!

VLCFF classes resume Jan. 17, 2022 and are offered year-round. Check out all the courses and calendar here. VLCFF also offers classes in Spanish and Arabic. Scholarships are available. Contact us for details.
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime Group Inc. secured about $512 million from nine cornerstone investors, as it reopened orders Monday for a Hong Kong initial public offering delayed by concerns over U.S. sanctions.

Most Read from Bloomberg

State-backed Mixed-Ownership Reform Fund and Shanghai Xuhui Capital Investment Co. are among those that have committed to buying the shares, according to the latest terms of the IPO.

The original share-sale schedule was derailed earlier this month after a move by the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction the company for its alleged role in creating facial-recognition software used in the oppression of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang autonomous region of western China. The company has said the accusations are unfounded.

Due to the dynamic and evolving nature of the relevant U.S. regulations, we have required to exclude U.S. investors from the global offering including the issuance in Hong Kong, the company said in a revised filing to the citys stock exchange. The sanctions still dont prevent a U.S. investor from buying or trading its class B shares, it said.

The AI startup said it will reopen orders for its Hong Kong offering on Monday for its first-time share sale. Trading is expected to start Dec. 30. The other cornerstone investors include Shanghai Guosheng Group, Shanghai AI Fund, SAIC Motor, Guotai Junan Investments, a venture fund under the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp., C-Mer Group and Taizhou Culture & Tourism, the terms showed.

The company is still seeking to raise as much as $767 million from the listing, offering 1.5 billion shares at HK$3.85 to HK$3.99 apiece. SenseTime said in a statement last week that it would refund retail investors after failing to price its IPO on Dec. 10 as previously expected. It had aimed to start trading on Dec. 17.

Story continues

China International Capital Corp., Haitong International Securities Group Ltd. and HSBC Holdings Plc are listed in the prospectus as joint sponsors. Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong) Ltd. and BOCOM International Securities Ltd. ceased to be joint bookrunners, joint lead managers and underwriters in the revised filing.

(Updates with details)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Get Ready for the 2022 888poker LIVE London Festival

December 20 2021 Calum Grant

888poker are kicking 2022 off with a massive bang as the 888poker LIVE London Festival returns to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino for 12 days of non-stop poker action. The return of the series marks the company's first live event since the 2020 888poker LIVE Festival Madrid and first 888poker event taking place in London since 2019.

The festival runs from January 6-17 and is hosted by one of the most prestigious casino's in the city, commonly referred to as The Vic.

The series has a variety of events with varying buy-ins so that those beginning their poker journey can get involved. Some big prizepools are sure to be generated and players can rejoice in the fact that all tournaments will feature the 888poker Shot Clock as well as Big Blind Antes.

In total, there are nine separate tournaments with the showstoppers being;

888poker LIVE London Festival - 444 Opening Event

888poker LIVE London Festival 888 Main Event

2,200 High Roller

Along with this trio of events, the schedule includes a 50 buy-in Ladies Event and a 200 buy-in Omaha PLO tournament. Further to this, those familiar with 888poker online tournaments will recognise events such as the The Voyage, The Turbo Deepstack, The Big Shot and The Dash Rumble.

A full schedule of the festival is available at the bottom of the article.

Qualify for 888poker LIVE London Festival Online

As well as having a plethora of live satellite events at the 888poker LIVE London Festival, there are plenty of opportunities to get your seat at the Main Event as well as other events on 888poker's online platform.

Players can enter step satellites that begin from just one cent and work their way up to the top or they can fast track themselves by entering a $55 qualifier for the 444 buy-in Opening Event. Players can also take advantage of the $109 qualifiers for the 888 buy-in Main Event. Online qualifiers are currently running and you can find them in the 888poker client.

All step satellites, satellites and qualifiers are open to UK players only.

888poker Strategy: 5 Tips for Spotting Online Poker Tells with Sofia Lovgren

888poker LIVE London Festival - Opening Event

2017 888poker LIVE London Festival winner Christopher Kyriacou

The first tournament on schedule is the 888poker LIVE London Festival - Opening Event and comes with a 444 buy-in, an increase from previous years. There are four starting flights running from January 6-8, with Day 1D operating under a turbo format, before the final day gets underway on January 9.

As well as the above online satellites, there are two turbo satellites to the Opening Event taking place at The Vic which will cost 50 to enter.

888poker LIVE London Festival - Opening Event Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Thursday, January 6 6 p.m. 444 888Live London Festival - Opening Event Day 1A Friday, January 7 6 p.m. 444 888Live London Festival - Opening Event Day 1B Saturday, January 8 1 p.m. 444 888Live London Festival - Opening Event Day 1C Saturday, January 8 5 p.m. 444 888Live London Festival - Opening Event Day 1D Turbo Sunday, January 9 1 p.m. - 888Live London Festival - Opening Event Final

888poker LIVE London Festival - Opening Event Satellite Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Friday, January 7 3 p.m. 50 Turbo Satellite to Opening Event Saturday, January 8 1 p.m. 50 Turbo Satellite to Opening Event

888poker LIVE London Festival - Opening Event Previous Winners

Year Buy-In Entries Winner Country Winner's Prize (GBP) Prizepool (GBP) 2018 220 533 Arvydas Budvitis Lithuania 17,000* 165,670 2017 220 771 Christopher Kyriacou United Kingdom 20,000* 142,758 2016 220 700 Svetlin Ivanov France 16,440* 138,600

*Indicates payout deal

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888poker LIVE London Festival Main Event

Adrian Constantin Wins 2019 888poker LIVE London Main Event

While the Opening Event comes with a slightly higher buy-in, the entry fee for the 888Live London Festival Main Event has been reduced from 1,100 to 888. There are five Day 1's with Day 1E being a turbo event and these run from January 13-15.

Day 2 will commence on January 16 at 2 p.m. GMT before the final day which starts at the same time on the following day.

There are several chances to get into the Main Event on the cheap with ten live satellites scheduled during the series.

888poker LIVE London Festival Main Event structure:

Starting Stack: 30,000

Day 1 Level Time: 40 minutes

Day 1E Turbo  15 minutes

Day 2 (& Onward) Level Times: 40 minutes (30 minutes once 5 handed on the final table)

Re-Entry: Unlimited

Registration is open until the draw is displayed for Day 2.

888poker Shot Clock and time bank cards will be in use for this event

888poker LIVE London Festival Main Event Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Thursday, January 13 6 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 1A Friday, January 14 1 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 1B Friday, January 14 6 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 1C Saturday, January 15 1 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 1D Saturday, January 15 7 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 1E Turbo Sunday, January 16 2 p.m. 888 888Live London Festival Main Event Day 2 Monday, January 17 2 p.m. - 888Live London Festival Main Event Final Day

888poker LIVE London Festival Main Event Satellite Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Sunday, January 9 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. 110 Satellite to Main Event Monday, January 10 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. 110 Satellite to Main Event Tuesday, January 11 2 p.m. 110 Satellite to Main Event Wednesday, January 12 8 p.m. 110 Super Satellite to Main Event Cash Out Satellite Thursday, January 13 2 p.m. 110 Satellite to Main Event Thursday, January 13 8 p.m. 110 Super Satellite to Main Event Cash Out Satellite Friday, January 14 1 p.m. 110 Turbo Super Satellite to Main Event Saturday, January 15 1 p.m. 110 Turbo Super Satellite to Main Event

888poker LIVE London Festival Main Event Previous Winners

Year Buy-In Entries Winner Country Winner's Prize (GBP) Prizepool (GBP) 2019 1,100 518 Adrian Constantin Romania 100,000 512,820 2018 1,100 656 James Williams United Kingdom 121,000 649,440 2017 1,100 427 Tom Hall United Kingdom 78,888* 427,730 2016 880 288 Ka Him Li United Kingdom 45,300 228,096

*Indicates payout deal

888poker Strategy: 5 Tips for 3-Betting in Position from Chris Moorman

888poker LIVE London Festival High Roller

2019 888poker LIVE London Festival High Roller Champion Chris Moorman

The biggest buy-in of the 888poker LIVE London Festival is the 2,200 buy-in High Roller and occurs towards the tail end of the series. Again, there are opportunities to get your seat for the event for a fraction of the price as there are two 240 satellite tournaments for the high stakes event.

There have been some esteemed winners in previous years with WSOP bracelet holder Chris Moorman and WPT Main Event Winner Matas Cimbolas taking the crown on the last two occasions.

888poker LIVE London Festival High Roller Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Wednesday, January 12 6 p.m. 2,200 High Roller Day 1 Thursday, January 13 5 p.m. 2,200 High Roller Final Day

888poker LIVE London Festival High Roller Satellite Schedule

Date Time (GMT) Buy-in Event Tuesday, January 11 8 p.m. 240 Satellite to High Roller Wednesday, January 12 2 p.m. 240 Satellite to High Roller

888poker LIVE London Festival High Roller Previous Winners

Year Buy-In Entries Winner Country Winner's Prize (GBP) Prizepool (GBP) 2019 2,200 39 Chris Moorman United Kingdom 27,000 77,200 2018 2,200 74 Matas Cimbolas Lithuania 42,505 146,520 2017 2,200 69 Jamie Lunt United Kingdom 34,985* 136,626 2016 2,000 37 Eric Le Goff France 30,000 84,600

888poker LIVE London Festival Full Schedule

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Before he enrolled in college, Rocco Ranallo had quite a few labor-intensive jobs including landscaper. But he didn't want to spend his life in a back-breaking career.

"I wanted a better future for myself," Ranallo said. "I didn't see a future in landscaping, and I knew I could give back to society through earning a degree."

The 36-year-old from Blairsville, Georgia, can see a future now thanks to his bachelor's degree in cybersecurity from the University of North Georgia (UNG). Ranallo was one of about 600 graduates UNG honored during commencement ceremonies Dec. 17-18 on UNG's Dahlonega Campus.

All graduates heard words of wisdom from three familiar faces. Dr. Katherine Adams, assistant professor of social foundations and leadership education in the College of Education; Dr. Timothy May, associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters; and Dr. Bryson Payne, professor of computer science in the Mike Cottrell College of Business, were the keynote speakers for the three commencement ceremonies.

Each speaker noted the graduates' resilience to continue their degrees amid the COVID-19 pandemic and commended them on completing their educational journeys. May said with their degrees the graduates now have a "super power."

"A degree tells people you know how to learn," he said.

Ranallo said he learned from Payne and other computer science faculty.
A Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon shot down a small drone over the U.S. Al-Tanf base in southern Syria this month. The RAF fighter used an Asraam (Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missile) to destroy the small incoming drone, Forbes writes.

Any air defenses haven't been deployed to Al-Tanf as it has in bases in neighboring Iraq that have been threatened by rocket and drone attacks. Consequently, enemy drones threatening Al-Tanf have to be intercepted by jets. In the past, U.S. Air Force F-15s have also shot down Iranian-made drones near the base.

Take the case of Saudi Arabia. When the State Department announced the recent Saudi order for 280 Raytheon AIM-120C AMRAAM long-range air-to-air missiles it noted that the missiles "have been instrumental in intercepting the persistent UAS [drone] attacks that have put U.S. forces at risk and threatened the more than 70,000 U.S. citizens in the kingdom".

Indeed AMRAAM-armed Saudi F-15s have been used to intercept Houthi drones from Yemen. The fact that using multi-million AMRAAMs, or surface-to-air missiles such as the Patriot, against relatively primitive drones that cost, at most, tens-of-thousands to manufacture and deploy, isn't cost-effective has been repeatedly pointed out in recent years.

On Sept. 14, 2019, a swarm of low-flying explosive-laden drones and cruise missiles penetrated Saudi airspace and struck the critical Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities with pinpoint accuracy. The attack, believed to have been carried out by Iran, took a mere 17 minutes and cost less than $2 million.

The attackers showed the Saudi kingdom how vulnerable its most critical infrastructure was despite its possession of advanced high-tech air defenses. A relatively simple group of attack drones appear to have taken advantage of Saudi Arabia's lack of 360-degree radar coverage.

"Most conventional air defense radar is designed for high-altitude threats like missiles," Dave DesRoches at the National Defense University in Washington told Reuters shortly after that attack. Cruise missiles and drones operate close to the earth, so they aren't seen because of the earth's curvature. Drones are too small and don't have heat signature for most radar".

Fighter jets conducting regular low-level combat air patrols might be the only way to adequately detect and counter such threats. However, constantly maintaining such patrols is unfeasible.

In May 2021, Israel posted a video showing a fighter jet F-16 tracking and shooting down a drone. The fighter was flying so low as it did so that a cockpit warning could repeatedly be heard saying "altitude, altitude."

Even Israel, which probably has the most advanced multi-layered air defense in the world, seemingly cannot rely entirely on ground-based systems to detect and defend itself against enemy drones.

Then there is Iran. In October, an video emerged from a training exercise showing an Iranian MiG-29A Fulcrum and an F-5 Tiger II. The F-5 fired a target, and the MiG-29 immediately fired one of its Vympel R-73 heat-seeking air-to-air missiles, which promptly destroyed that target. What the exercise was exactly for remains unclear. It could well have been the Iranian air force training to counter low-flying drones. After all, Iran undoubtedly does not want to fall victim to an attack of the kind perpetrated against Saudi Arabia back in September 2019.

Drones were essential to Azerbaijan's victory against the Armenian military during last year's Nagorno-Karabakh war. They successfully destroyed several of Yerevan's advanced air defense systems.

In light of this proliferation, one can expect to see many more instances of fighter jets being used to counter these unmanned aerial vehicles in the skies above the Middle East in the near future.
Pakistan hosts OIC meeting that aims to devise a mechanism for the international community to deliver aid to Afghanistan, despite sanctions.

Al Jazeera reports that envoys from 57 Islamic nations and observer delegations gathered on Sunday for the biggest conference on Afghanistan since the United States-backed government in Kabul fell in August. After the Talibans lightning return to power [The organization forbidden in Russia], billions of dollars in aid and assets were frozen by the international community, plunging the nation of 38 million into the worst hunger crisis since records began.

Pakistani officials said a total of 70 delegations were taking part, including Taliban foreign minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi and delegates from the US, China, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Diplomats will face the delicate task of working out ways of channelling aid to the stricken Afghan economy without also propping up the Taliban, whose government has not been recognised internationally. The president of the Islamic Development Bank, Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, has offered to manage trusts that could be used to move money into Afghanistan, jumpstart businesses and help salvage the deeply troubled economy. Any aid pledges were set to be announced on Sunday evening.

Speaking at the opening of the special meeting, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said fallout from the deepening crisis could mean mass hunger and a flood of refugees. We cannot ignore the danger of complete economic meltdown, Qureshi said. He added the OIC was being asked to consider a six-point plan to help Afghanistan that would engage with Taliban authorities to help ease pressure on their country. It would include coordinating aid, increasing investment, helping rebuild Afghan institutions and providing technical experts to manage the economy. Meanwhile, Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan in his keynote address urged the US to de-link the Taliban government from Afghan citizens to prevent a humanitarian crisis and chaos in Afghanistan. They [the US] must de-link the Taliban government from 40 million Afghan citizens, even if they [have] been in conflict with Taliban for 20 years, Khan told delegates.

No nations have yet formally recognised the Taliban government. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the only three countries to recognise the previous Taliban government of 1996 to 2001.

Muttaqi, the Talibans acting foreign minister, said the new government had restored peace and security and done much to address demands for more inclusive government with respect for human rights, including the rights of women. All must acknowledge that political isolation of Afghanistan is not beneficial for anyone, therefore it is imperative that all support the prevailing stability and back it both politically and economically, he said, according to a text of his remarks.

Al Jazeeras Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the credibility of the OIC was at stake, following previous criticisms over perceived failures to follow up on its promises. All eyes will be on the conference, Hyder said. It will be important to see whether these countries, which is the second largest group of nations after the United Nations, will be able to come up with a tangible solution to help Afghanistan in its crisis.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, who is attending the meeting, has expressed his intention to work with humanitarian groups in the country and to find mechanisms to deliver aid.

The OIC meeting was not expected to give the new Taliban government the formal international recognition it desperately craves. Ahead of the session, Qureshi had said the meeting would speak for the people of Afghanistan rather than a particular group. He stressed there was a difference between recognition and engagement with the new order in Kabul. Let us nudge them through persuasion, through incentives, to move in the right direction, he told reporters. A policy of coercion and intimidation did not work. If it had worked, we wouldnt have been in this situation.
Today Baku is hosting the international round table entitled "Russia-Azerbaijan in a new system of regional security and economic cooperation. Results of the year and prospects".

The event is attended by Russian and Azerbaijani politicians, economists, political scientists and public figures, including: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Integration and Relations with compatriots Artem Turov, Azerbaijani MP, head of the Azerbaijan-Russia inter-parliamentary friendship group Nizami Safarov, head of scientific research at the Dialogue of Civilizations Institute Aleksey Malashenko, Chairman of the Azerbaijani parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship, professor, full member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of sciences, Vice-President of the International Union of Economists Ziyad Samedzade.

The event was organized by the North-South political science center and the Baku Network analytical expert network.
Several airlines will start to make flights between Istanbul and Yerevan in the coming days, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a joint press conference with his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah.

Cavusoglu said that the issue of resuming flights is being discussed in the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

The Turkish foreign minister stressed that Ankara stands for peace and stability in the South Caucasus and closely coordinates its actions with Azerbaijan related to the dialogue with Yerevan.

Ankara and Yerevan have already appointed special representatives for the dialogue and discussions in this sphere will continue, Cavusoglu said. The special representatives of the two countries will meet soon. Turkey is taking steps to increase confidence-building measures in the region.
NATO will not let Moscow dictate the alliance's military posture, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on a visit to German troops based in Lithuania.



"We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level but just as well by putting up a credible deterrence," Lambrecht told reporters in Rukla on her first visit to German troops abroad.



"We will discuss Russia's proposals...But it cannot be that Russia dictates to NATO partners their posture, and that is something that we will make very clear in the talks (next week at the NATO council)," Reuters cited her as saying.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released two drafts of documents concerning legal guarantees of security Russia would like the United States and NATO to provide. Russia said it wanted NATO to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine.



Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow is extremely disappointed by the signals coming from Washington and NATO regarding the Russian proposals on guarantees of security.

"The signals from Washington and Brussels disappoint us extremely," the diplomat said, commenting on White House spokeswoman Jen Psakis remarks regarding the potential talks on guarantees of security with Russia.



The Deputy Minister noted that Russia is receiving only public statements about its proposals from the U.S. and NATO.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in a meeting in the Pakistani capital on Sunday held talks on bilateral ties and regional developments.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of a session of the Emergency Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In the meeting, the two foreign ministers expressed satisfaction over the growing relations between Tehran and Baku, IRNA reported.

The 17th Session of the Emergency Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was held on December 19 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps launched a large-scale war game along the southern coasts of Iran on Monday.

The exercise, codenamed Payambar-e Azam 17 (The Great Prophet), involves various IRGC units such as the ground force, the aerospace force, and the cyber-electronic division.

The war game covers the coastlines of the southern provinces of Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan.

The units taking part in the drill carry out offense operations at the strategic level to practice action against the origins of the hypothetical enemys attack.

In comments at a press conference on Monday morning, the IRGC deputy commander for operations, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforooshan, said the war game is aimed at boosting the preparedness of the IRGC combat units and has been designed with the simulation of one of the most sophisticated offense tactics used in the hybrid warfare and the complexity of the hard and soft wars, Tasnim reported.

A series of military systems and weapons recently delivered to the IRGC would be employed in the drill, the general noted.
The next meeting in the "3 + 3" format to be held in Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavushoglu told reporters after an emergency meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

The minister said that a meeting at the level of deputy ministers in the "3 + 3" format was held in Moscow:

"Georgia did not participate, but we plan to hold the next meeting in Turkey and we hope that Georgia will also take part in this meeting," Cavusoglu added.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will pay a working visit to Georgia today, according to the press office of the Georgian government.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili will hold a face-to-face meeting with his Armenian colleague in the government administration building, following which a sitting of an intergovernmental economic commission will be held at 14:00.

Members of the governments of both countries will take part in the session, Agenda.ge reported.

PM Garibashvili visited Armenia in October 2021, when the PMs of Georgia and Armenia discussed bilateral and regional cooperation.

During the meeting, the statesmen discussed a peaceful neighborhood initiative proposed by Garibashvili aimed at promoting stability in the South Caucasus by facilitating dialogue and confidence-building.
The energy situation in Europe is deteriorating, "complete chaos" ensues in a large part of the continent, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said during the inspection of the Kostolac thermal power plant.

"At the moment, in Serbia, everyone has electricity, except for 500 households, which is on the verge of statistical error. We managed to provide everyone with electricity, the network is stable. We can calm down a little, although complete chaos is just beginning to come in a significant part of Europe, this can be seen literally everywhere, on all exchanges, at all prices," he said.

According to him, the energy crisis in Serbia was overcome, including through the purchase of fuel oil from Azerbaijan and Iran, TASS reported.
Vietnam Airlines has proposed resuming regular flights to Europe and Australia from January 1, 2022.

The national flag carrier has prepared resources to serve the markets, with the initial weekly frequency of about two flights on each route, according to a representative from Vietnam Airlines.

The restoration would help the corporation bring into full play its aircraft fleet, cut operational costs and consolidate its position, while preventing the risk of domination by international airlines at gateways.

Under a plan mapped out by the Ministry of Transport, regular international flights from/to Vietnam will be resumed in two phases, with air travel with nine foreign destinations to be available again in the first phase and fifteen in the second phase.

Vietnam will restore regular international air routes with Beijing/Guangxi (China), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (the Republic of Korea), Taipei (Taiwan, China), Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore, Vientiane (Laos), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and San Francisco/Los Angeles (the US).

During the second phase, flights will be likely to reconnect Vietnam with six more other foreign destinations, including Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hong Kong (China), Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Sydney (Australia) and Moscow (Russia).

Concerned authorities will evaluate the implementation of the plan before allowing regular international flights to reach the pre-pandemic level.

According to a new guidance issued by the Ministry of Health, fully vaccinated foreign arrivals with negative COVID-19 test results will only need to self-quarantine at home or places of accommodation for three days upon entry into Vietnam by air.

The new regulations will be effective from January 1, 2022, the day Vietnam is set to resume regular international flights on a pilot basis./.

Source: VNA
Without digital transformation, the increase in average labor productivity of Vietnam in the coming years will be only 5-6%/year, but thanks to digital transformation, Vietnam can increase labor productivity by 8-10%/year.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung says that every 10 years, an economic crisis occurs in Vietnam. The economy has dropped to the bottom with GDP growth rate forecasted at only about 2% due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Such crises took Vietnam years to recover and the growth rate was slow. The GDP growth in 2022, if good, will only reach 5% at the highest.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is challenging Vietnams goal of becoming a high-income country by 2045. Experience from other countries shows that, to become a high-income country, economic growth must reach 8-9%/year, within 20 years, as in Japan and South Korea.

However, the pandemic will leave consequences for many more years, affecting Vietnams GDP growth rate. Meanwhile, the period of 2020-2030 is the best time to build the "foundation" for the countrys goals, because after 2030, Vietnam will begin entering a period with an aging population. Economic experts said that if developing countries do not make a breakthrough during the period of "golden population", they will find it difficult to overcome the "middle income trap" and have no chance to rise to become a developed country.

Vietnam's growth over the past time has mainly relied on increasing investment capital, and less on increasing labor efficiency and applying advanced technology in production. The ICOR was high, 6.25% for the period 2011-2015, and 6.14% for the period 2016-2019, a slight decrease. Thus, Vietnam has relied too much on physical capital for growth.

According to a report of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the labor productivity of Vietnamese workers is near the bottom among ASEAN countries. If the labor productivity growth rate is maintained at 5-6%/year as before the epidemic, Vietnam can reach the same level as the Philippines in 2038 and Thailand in 2069, while these countries have not yet escaped from the middle income trap.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that in the context of the economy being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and low labor productivity, Vietnam needs to accelerate the development process of the digital economy on the basis of science and technology, and innovation in order to improve productivity, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy.

The World Bank Chief Economist Jacques Morisset said that digitalization increases labor productivity and helps the economy operate efficiently. In recent years, Vietnam's digitization speed has been very fast. In the pandemic, many Vietnamese enterprises have progressed very quickly, making great leaps in digital transformation.

Specifically, 60% of businesses are using online platforms and tools, and the e-Government is providing over 2,000 online procedures. Vietnam has many advantages to develop the digital economy such as a young population, a high percentage of smartphone users and the second fastest growing Internet economy in Southeast Asia, after only Indonesia.

Experts say that to achieve high annual GDP growth Vietnam must rely on an increase in labor productivity, instead of being capital intensive. Digital transformation will create a new growth source and this is an opportunity for Vietnam to make a breakthrough.

Without digital transformation, the increase in average labor productivity of Vietnam in the coming years will be only 5-6%/year, but thanks to digital transformation, Vietnam can increase labor productivity by 8-10%/year. This will help boost GDP growth and be an opportunity to break out of the "middle income trap".

Manpower challenge

The report "Vietnam's digital economy potential" made by economic consulting firm AlphaBeta indicates that, if digital technology is fully utilized in the economy, it can bring in 74 billion USD for Vietnam by 2030. It is expected that the sectors that will benefit the most are industrial production, agriculture and food, education and training.

Experts also point out eight key technologies that have the potential to contribute to Vietnam's digital economy. They are mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, financial technology, Internet of things and remote sensing, advanced robotics, and additive manufacturing. When developing these technologies, new business models will be created which can help increase revenue, save costs and increase productivity. These technologies can create significant economic value for businesses and governments, contributing to GDP growth.

However, there are many barriers that need to be removed to develop the digital economy in Vietnam, such as manpower, talent, trust, access to technology and digital adoption. In particular, manpower is still a big obstacle, which raises the question of the importance of education and training.

A survey by Vietnam Report shows that businesses are facing many challenges in digital transformation. Although digital transformation has been fast, it is only in the early stage, as digitization mainly takes place in distribution channels. Many small and medium-sized enterprises are confused about the concept of digital transformation. Meanwhile, they account for more than 96% of the total number of enterprises in Vietnam. Most of them have not yet approached digital technologies, are not equipped with a business mindset about digital platforms, and lack a business strategy on digital platforms. The main reason is weak human resources.

According to the Vietnam Vocational Education Association, Vietnam has 236 universities, of which 149 are training IT, providing more than 50,000 IT engineers annually. There are also 412 college and intermediate IT vocational training schools, annually providing about 12,000 IT experts for the industry. Although human resources operating in the IT industry in Vietnam have reached the milestone of 1 million people, IT firms still lack manpower. Vietnam lacked 400,000 IT staff in 2020 and this number rose to about 500,000 people in 2021.

Vietnam has many IT training schools but the training quality has not yet met the practical needs of enterprises and have not been applied to life. Of IT graduates, only 30% are qualified, meeting some requirements, and the remaining 70% need re-training.

Currently, IT human resource demand is largely focused on data analysis, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital marketing, programming languages... Therefore, if Vietnam becomes a "base" for technology production, it is necessary to have a comprehensive and methodical solution; otherwise, it will lose its advantage.

Vietnam is lacking business managers, qualified experts and technicians to promote digital transformation and innovation. These people are capable of leading the digital economy. For the Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of population quality, published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2019, Vietnam currently ranks 117th out of 189 countries and territories. Vietnam has never entered the top 100 most developed countries in this list.

According to the World Banks Jacques Morisset, in the next few years, the structure of the labor market will change. As new technologies and platforms emerge, some professions will disappear while new jobs will appear. It is necessary to train human resources to adapt to new technologies, ensure flexibility, and be ready to switch to other professions.

Vietnam needs to quickly come up with a solution to the shortage of human resources with digital skills. The government needs to create space for the private sector to participate in digital transformation. Along with that is the breaking down of legal barriers, creating openness for digital connections.

Tran Thuy

Government urged to launch economic stimulus package National Assembly deputies have recommended that the Government design an economic stimulus package, but both the Government and the National Assembly have yet to discuss the topic.
A number of businesspeople fled or tried to flee the country to avoid arrest, including the following:

Tran Ngoc Anh

1. On May 19, 2019, the C03 agency of the Ministry of Public Security issued a wanted decision for Bui Quang Huy, General Director of NC Technique Co Ltd, or Nhat Cuong. The owner of the company had fled before the police carried out a search of his company and house.

"Any person has the right to immediately escort the wanted person to the nearest police stations, Procuracies, or People's Committees," the arrest warrant stated.

Huy allegedly instructed his workers to conduct illegal transactions to purchase 255,311 electronic products worth VND2.927 trillion from 16 suppliers in Hong Kong, China. He bought 254,364 products and made a profit of VND221 billion.

In 2014, Huy instructed his workers to set up two accounting books to monitor the operations of the company. He directed the use and recording of data related to Nhat Cuong activities based on the two accounting systems using ERP and MISA software.

The figures about assets, capital, revenue, profits, costs and investments in subsidiaries that were established by Huy were recorded on ERP software for internal supervision. The figures were not recorded on MISA software, which was used for official declarations and reporting to state management agencies.

At the appellate court hearing on the case of smuggling and violation of regulations on accounting systems causing serious consequences related to Nhat Cuong, the jury decided on civil compensation (for the amount of illegal profits) of over VND221 billion.

The jury decided that the defendants had the right to sue Nhat Cuongs owner for damages, asking him to pay the defendants the money in another civil case.

Phan Van Anh Vu

Prior to this, the 11 defendants had appealed a decision of the Hanoi People Procuracy. They said that Nhat Cuong Company owned by Huy pocketed VND221 billion worth of income from smuggling, while the defendants were just hired workers and did not get the money, so they did not have the responsibility of paying compensation for damages.

At the appeals court, defendant Tran Ngoc Anh, former Deputy General Director of NhatCuong, said that only the owner of Nhat Cuong (Bui Quang Huy) received the illegal benefits from smuggling and that he had used the money to buy many assets. The assets were frozen by the investigation agency.

Anh said he was only a hired worker and could not benefit from the companys smuggling, so he could not pay the money for the owner who had fled.

2. On December 21, 2017, the police conducted a search at the home of Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu Nhom), former Chair of Bac Nam 79 Construction JSC in Da Nang. However, Vu Nhom had fled the country.

One day later, the investigation agency filed charges against Vu Nhom for deliberately disclosing the States confidential documents. Since Vu was not found at his residence, the agency issued a wanted decision.

On January 2, 2018, Singapores ICA (Immigration & Checkpoints Authority) detained Vu for violations of Immigration Law. Two days later, Vu Nhom was taken to Hanoi on a flight from Singapore.

Two days later, MPS arrested Phan Van Anh Vu and Vus escape was revealed in a case related to Nguyen Duy Linh, former Deputy General Director of the General Department of Intelligence.

Vu Nhom stated that while talking to Linh via phone, Linh advised him to travel abroad and go as far as possible, preferably to Europe.

Vu was sentenced to 30 years in prison on many charges in different cases. Meanwhile, Linh was sentenced to 14 years for receiving bribes of VND5 billion from Vu Nhom.



Two other men were accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Vu for promising to help him get US passports.

3. Regarding the case of HCM Citys former Vice Mayor Nguyen Thanh Tai, the investigation agency issued a wanted decision for Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, former Director of HCM City House Trade Management Company Ltd after Thuy fled.

The investigation agency has temporarily suspended the investigation of Thuy. When she is found, the investigation will resume.

Some sources said Thuy left for the US to get healthcare services in 2018 before the filing of charges and arrest warrant were released (October 7, 2019).

Thuy was accused of asking Tai to allocate 5,000 square meters of land on advantageous positions in an illegal way, thus causing a loss of VND250 billion to the state.

Thuy, as an accomplice, was the person who signed documents that violated the law, such as the document on proposing the establishment of a joint stock company to implement the project; a document asking for land allocation; and a proposal for liquidation of a house at No 12 Le Duan Boulevard, causing loss and waste of State property.

T. Nhung

Medicine, land baron detained for law violations The Hanoi Police have prosecuted and detained Nguyen Thi Loan, Chairwoman of Vimedimex Medi-Pharma JSC, for alleged violations of land auction regulations.
The General Directorate of Vocational Education plans to offer training in 20 professions that are new to Vietnam.

Truong Anh Dung, Director General of the Generate Directorate

The agency recently held a meeting on guidelines for vocational education in the future.

Truong Anh Dung, Director General of the Generate Directorate, stressed that vocational education includes students at primary and intermediate levels and junior colleges, but also workers in the labor market.

Vocational education needs to be organized well to produce skillful workers who meet requirements in the digital era. Among 55 million labourers, only 24.5 percent own degrees and certificates, according to a report.

Dung said the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is building a strategy on vocational education to be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval this month. Its expected that the vocational education scale will double or triple in the future and 20 new professions will be added to the training program.

There are 1,908 schools and training centers in the vocational education system, including 900 junior colleges (3-year training) and intermediate schools (2-year training), and 1,000 continuation education centers.

Regarding the training scale, the system enrolls 2.2 million students every year. Of this, only a quarter have regular training at intermediate schools or junior colleges, while the remaining follow the continuing education mode.

Currently, 24.6 percent of workers are trained workers. Vietnam wants to increase the proportion but the current vocational education scale cannot do this.

Around 2.2 million workers receiving training every year is a very small figure for a country with 55 million laborers and 100 million people, Dung said, adding that in Australia, one in every four people take vocational training.

We plan to enlarge the vocational education scale by twofold in the next five years and three times in the next 10 years, Dung said.

He said that vocational education in the immediate time would follow a model with quality classifications.

There will be a group of high-quality trainees, and some will be skilled enough to walk abreast or even outstrip counterparts in developed countries.

We will train 20 professions and occupations that will serve economic development in the future. These professions do not exist in the current labor market, Dung said.

To reach the goal, the general directorate is restructuring the network of vocational education establishments.

As for the criticism that Vietnam has too many vocational education establishments, Dung said it has nearly 1,900 vocational education establishments and nearly 100 million people, while Australia has a population of 28 million but has 2,400 establishments.

The typical characteristic of Vietnams vocational education system is that most are state-owned. The goal is to reduce the number of state-owned establishments, merging ineffective establishments and increasing the number of private ones.

The general directorate is designing a new strategy, including one on improving workers skills.

In addition to producing more high-quality workers, Dung said Vietnam needs to provide vocational education in rural areas, to ethnic minorities and the poor.

Solutions are also needed for reform of curricula, teaching staff and managerial officers; and improvement of facilities at schools.

According to Dung, the value of vocational education and workers skills will contribute to higher productivity and competitiveness.

Vu Xuan Hung, Director of the Regular Training Department, said the vocational education system aims to catch up with other countries but also outstrip them in some professions.

He said that vocational education needs to help workers master 4.0 technologies in their careers.

They may have different professions, but all the professions have relations with technology. Our idea is equipping them with technological knowledge that will help them satisfy requirements in all business fields and professions, he said.

Thanh Hung

Vocational education: VN prepares the best workers to welcome both small and large companies Vocational education needs to be organized well to produce enough workers who meet requirements set by investors in the ongoing FDI wave, experts have said.
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue arrived at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi on December 19 night, successfully concluding the six-day official visit to the Republic of Korea and India.

National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and a high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese NA conclude the six-day official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) and India (Photo: VNA)

During his stay in the RoK, the top legislator held talks with Speaker of the Korean National Assembly Park Byeong-seug and met with RoK Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, while in India, Hue held talks with Speaker of the Lok Sabha (House of Representatives) of India Om Birla and had meetings with Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of India Venkaiah Naidu.

NA Chairman Hue also attended events to promote cooperation between localities and businesses of the two sides, which have contributed to further promoting the Vietnam  RoK strategic cooperative partnership, and the friendship and comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership between Vietnam and India.

The trip continued to affirm Vietnam's open foreign policy of diversification and multilateralisation, proactiveness, and activeness and responsibility of the Vietnamese Party and State, thus improving the country's position in the region and the world.

It also continued promoting the strength of parliamentary diplomacy in bilateral relations with the two important strategic partners of Vietnam in Asia, strengthened political trust with senior leaders of the RoK and Indian parliaments, and experience sharing on parliamentary activities as well as measures for economic recovery and development amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trip has achieved comprehensive results in politics, foreign affairs, vaccine diplomacy, people-to-people diplomacy and overseas Vietnamese work.

As many as nine cooperation agreements were inked between Vietnams ministries, sectors and agencies and those of the RoK and India, while 39 investment certificates and cooperation agreements worth 15 billion USD were handed over during the trip.

One the highlights of the trip visit was the specific results of the "vaccine diplomacy" work and cooperation in fighting COVID-19.

Through high-level meetings with businesses, NA Chairman Hue received COVID-19 vaccines, supplies and materials for producing COVID-19 treatment drugs, and financial support from RoK and Indian enterprises.

A ceremony to hand over vaccines, supplies and materials for producing COVID-19 treatment drugs to Vietnamese agencies and enterprises was organised immediately after the plan carrying the Vietnamese delegation landed at Noi Bai airport./.

Source: VNA
Da Nang has won the Smart City Award Vietnam 2021, the second time this central city has been honoured with this prize.

A view of Thuan Phuoc Bridge spanning the Han River in Da Nang city.

The award, presented by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) on December 18, honours the cities, orgnisations, and businesses considerably helping cities become smarter and more liveable, competitive, and sustainable. It is also intended to encourage enterprises to create advanced technological products and boost cooperation in building and developing smart cities in the country.

Da Nang also secured three specialised prizes: the smart governance and management award (also presented to northern Thai Nguyen province and Sam Son city of central Thanh Hoa province), the smart healthcare award, and the smart environment award.

While the smart tourism award was bestowed upon the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Thai Nguyen obtained the attractive startup city award.

Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the VINASA Founding Council, said smart city building is now not only the choice of big cities but also an urgent requirement of all cities nationwide. The COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years has resulted in more pressure forcing cities, especially major ones, to swiftly apply technology and smart development solutions to enhance their anti-pandemic capacity, protect peoples health, and maintain production and business activities in the new normal.

For the past nearly five years, 54 of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have been conducting smart city building, 30 approved smart city development programmes and plans, 15 approved the architecture for IT and smart city development, and 38 set up provincial-level intelligent operation centres.

Details about the award winners can be found at http://smartcitiesvietnam.com and www.vinasa.org.vn./.

Source: VNA
The financial industry is leading the way in using the cloud, but other firms in Vietnam are also using the platform for digital transformation, according to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Conor McNamara, General Manager of AWS Southeast Asia.

Conor McNamara, General Manager of AWS Southeast Asia, told ICTnews that most businesses in all industries, from large enterprises, small and medium sized enterprises, and startups to the public sector In Southeast Asia, saw growth in the use of cloud computing in many activities. It is similar to Vietnam where more businesses have turned to cloud computing to digitize business operations and built new business models to respond to the pandemic.

He acknowledged that the banking and finance sector has undergone strong digital transformation in the past year in both Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Although the number of businesses applying cloud computing has increased in Vietnam, McNamara said that businesses face challenges in connecting cloud computing and on-premises data.

Vietnam is one of the first countries where AWS launched the AWS Outposts service. This cloud solution helps businesses solve the problem of using cloud computing services consistently on their entire IT infrastructure while still linked with on-premises data.

Regarding digital transformation related to cloud computing, he pointed out three main factors.

First, Southeast Asia is driving a wave of innovation, relying on a digital workforce that is equipped to meet the growing demand for cloud computing. The current workforce must be trained in the next five years.

Next, the number of startups in the cloud platform is on the rise. These firms can take advantage of digital platforms in the cloud to make services available to anyone, anywhere.

Finally, many financial institutions in the region are using cloud technology to tap underserved markets. This promotes demand for financial services in many non-urban areas, furthering understanding of digital finance while ensuring safety and security.

Hai Dang

Make-in-Vietnam cloud computing and the opportunity to gain market share at home Cloud computing platforms will be a new-generation telecommunications infrastructure used for the development of a digital government, economy and society.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on December 18 organized a ceremony to honor students winning prizes at international Olympiads and international science and technology competitions.

MOET honors students winning prizes at international competitions

In 2021, MOET sent seven teams with 37 excellent students to Olympiads, including one group attending Asia Pacific Informatics Olympiad, one to Asia Pacific Physics Olympiad and seven to international Olympiads of mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics and informatics.

All the contestants won prizes at the competitions, including 12 gold medals, 13 silver, 10 bronze and 2 consolation prizes. Vietnamese students were among the top 10 countries with highest achievements at international competitions with many students winning the highest scores.

At Asia Pacific APIO ( Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad), all six Vietnamese students won prizes, including 2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze. The achievements put Vietnam into the fourth position, after China, Iran and Japan.

At APhO (Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO), the 8-member team won 2 gold medals, 1 silver, 3 bronze and 2 certificates of merit. Nguyen Manh Quan from Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted got the highest score and received a certificate of merit from the APhO president.

At IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad), all six competitors won prizes, including one gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze, which put Vietnam into the fourth position among 107 countries.

At IPhO (International Physics Olympiad), the five Vietnamese students won 3 gold and 2 silver medals.

At IChO (international Chemistry Olympiad), all Vietnamese students got medals, including three gold and 1 silver. Vietnam ranked the third, after China and Russia.

At IBO (International Biology Olympiad), the Vietnamese team of four selected students won 1 gold medal, 2 silver and 1 bronze.

At International Olympiad in Informatics, all the four students won silver medals.

Vietnam also had seven projects attending REGENERON ISEF 2021. One project won official prize of the competition and two obtained special prizes awarded by science and technology institutions and businesses.

The official prize was awarded for the robot arms for people with full arm paralysis designed by Pham Duc Linh and Nguyen Duc An from Han Thuyen High School in Bac Ninh.

The special prizes belonged to the research project on high-school students psychological difficulties when studying online by Hoang Viet Phuc, Vu Phuong Mai of Lao Cai High School for the Gifted; and a project on stimulating math thinking by Huynh Dang Khoa and Le Anh Chau from Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School in Thua Thien-Hue.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said the high achievements of Vietnamese students at international competitions in 2021, and 2017-2021 in general are proof of the relentless efforts by students, teachers and schools in the path of reaching the pinnacle of knowledge.

MOET has also awarded certificates of merit to 21 teachers who selected, trained and organized national teams of selected students to attend international competitions.

Thanh Hung

Inspiring Characters 2021: Student with autism wins IMO medal, enters university Dinh Vu Tung Lam, who was diagnosed as being in the autism spectrum, is now confident in his abilities and is continuing to nurture his love for mathematics.
VIENNA (AP)  Germany should implement stricter measures this week to slow the spread of the omicron variant, the German government's new expert council said Sunday, a day after the government announced it would impose travel restrictions on people coming from Britain.

The council  comprised of Germany's top virologists and health officials  said omicron brings a new dimension to the pandemic developments."

Omicron cases are doubling in Germany around every 2 to 4 days, the council said, making it slightly slower than the spread in the U.K. but faster than any previous variant.

To combat the next wave of infections and keep Germany's already stretched hospitals from being overwhelmed, the council recommended stricter government policies to reduce Germans' contacts.

Effective, nationally coordinated countermeasures to control the infection process need to be drawn up, in particular well-planned and well-communicated contact restrictions, it said in a statement.

The council also recommended speeding up Germany's booster vaccination program. Germany has fully inoculated 70.2% of its population, and 30.3% have received a booster shot.
Five years ago: A truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State. (The suspected attacker was killed in a police shootout four days later.) A Turkish policeman fatally shot Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov at a photo exhibit in Ankara. (The assailant was later killed in a police shootout.)

One year ago: Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump suggested without evidence that China  not Russia  might have been behind a cyberespionage operation against the United States government; Trump also tried to downplay its impact. Millions of people in England learned they would have to cancel their Christmas get-togethers and holiday shopping trips; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said holiday gatherings could not go ahead and non-essential shops would have to close in London and much of southern England as part of a higher level of coronavirus restrictions.

Todays Birthdays: Actor Elaine Joyce is 78. Actor Tim Reid is 77. Paleontologist Richard E. Leakey is 77. Musician John McEuen is 76. Singer Janie Fricke is 74. Jazz musician Lenny White is 72. Actor Mike Lookinland is 61. Actor Scott Cohen is 60. Actor Jennifer Beals is 58. Actor Robert MacNaughton is 55. Magician Criss Angel is 54. Rock musician Klaus Eichstadt (Ugly Kid Joe) is 54. Actor Ken Marino is 53. Actor Elvis Nolasco is 53. Actor Derek Webster is 53. Actor Kristy Swanson is 52. Model Tyson Beckford is 51. Actor Amy Locane is 50. Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp is 49. Actor Rosa Blasi is 49. Actor Alyssa Milano is 49. Actor Tara Summers is 42. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (JIH-lihn-hahl) is 41. Actor Marla Sokoloff is 41. Rapper Lady Sovereign is 36. Journalist Ronan Farrow is 34. Actor Nik Dodani is 28.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
NEW YORK  Following a year of professional milestones born of her work on Americas history of slavery, Waterloo native and Pulitzer Prize-winning Black journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones said she is clear-eyed about her mission to force a reckoning around the nations self-image.

The New York Times Magazine writer began this year in a protracted tenure fight with her alma mater in North Carolina  the dispute ended when she announced in July that shed take her talents to a historically Black university  and is closing it as a national best-selling author.

Ive gone from being just a journalist to becoming some sort of symbol for people who either love me and my work or revile me and my work, she said.

Hannah-Jones recently spoke to The Associated Press in an interview about the ongoing controversy over The 1619 Project, a groundbreaking collection of essays on race that first appeared in a special issue of The New York Times Magazine in 2019. Now in book form, the project has become a touchstone for Americas reckoning over slavery and the reverberations for Black Americans.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, and Born on the Water, a picture storybook collaboration with co-writer Renee Watson and illustrator Nikkolas Smith, each have spent consecutive weeks atop the Times bestseller list since their Nov. 16 release. A TV documentary on the work is due out later in 2022.

Still, Hannah-Jones said the backlash to her work is evidence that the U.S. is approaching a make-or-break crossroads on its global standing as a democracy.

I think that we are in a very frightening time, she said in the interview at APs New York City headquarters.

People who are much, much smarter than me, who have studied this much, much longer than I have are ringing the alarm, Hannah-Jones said. I think we have to ask ourselves  the narrators, the storytellers, the journalists: Are we ringing the alarm in the right way? Are we doing our jobs to try to uphold our democracy?

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AP: If anything, what did this year teach you about where we are in our country currently, when it comes to racial justice and our reckoning with history?

Hannah-Jones: This year, to me, is just reflective of what Ive always understood about this country. And that is that steps forward, steps towards racial progress, are always met with an intensive backlash. That we are a society that willfully does not want to deal with the anti-Blackness that is at the core of so many of our institutions and really our society itself.

AP: Can you point to any progress in how the discourse has developed or evolved?

Hannah-Jones: Certainly the fact that very powerful people are so concerned about a work of journalism called The 1619 Project that they would seek to discredit it, that they would seek to censor it, that they would seek to ban it from being taught, does speak to the fact that there are millions of Americans who want a more honest accounting of our history, who want to better understand the country that were in, who are open to new narratives.

AP: Do you think this country is poised to make any progress on issues of racial justice, and especially around education?

Hannah-Jones: Many in mainstream media got caught up in the Republican propaganda campaign, which tried to conflate the teaching of a more accurate history, the teaching of structural racism, with trying to make white children feel badly about themselves or guilty. And so much of the coverage was driven by that.  I hope that theres going to be some serious examination of the role that we as media played (in) really putting forth and legitimizing what was a propaganda campaign.

AP: The 1619 Project is now a book. For people who dont understand, how is it different from what was published in The New York Times Magazine?

Hannah-Jones: We all know that there has been a tremendous amount of scrutiny of the 1619 Project.  I think those who had questions can now go and actually see the source material, can see the historiography that undergirds the work. For anyone who comes to it with an open mind, it is going to be deeply surprising. Theyre going to learn so much about both the history of their country, but also the history that shapes so much of modern American life.

AP: Some people would say that this is all an agenda-driven piece of work.

Hannah-Jones: And theyd be right.

AP: Why are they right?

Hannah-Jones: Because it is. The agenda is to force a reckoning with who we are as a country. The agenda is to take the story of Black Americans in slavery, from being an asterisk to being marginal to being central to how we understand our country. When people say that, though, I know that theyre saying it in disparaging ways. Im just being honest about the nature of this work.  Weve been taught the history of a country that does not exist. Weve been taught the history of a country that renders us incapable of understanding how we get an insurrection in the greatest democracy on Jan. 6.

AP: What issues do you see as dominating our politics in 2022?

Hannah-Jones: I try to never predict the future. And Im also not a political reporter.  We, as Americans, are going to be severely tested in the next year or two to decide, what are we willing to sacrifice to be the country that we believe that we are? And whose rights do we hold as fundamental in this country? And are all Americans worthy of having those same rights? I dont think we know the answer to that. But I think what is important for us to know is we decide.

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WATERLOO  Social workers will ride with Waterloo police officers under a new partnership to address local mental health needs, officials announced Monday.

Elevate Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic social workers will accompany patrol officers to respond as a team to residents who are experiencing a crisis.

Elevate also provides mental health crisis intervention training for officers.

The goal of this program is to decriminalize behavioral crises and reduce stigmas by having crisis specialists available 24/7 both within the police department and through Elevate and other service providers, said Waterloo Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald. Our cooperative and collaborative approach proactively addresses underlying issues that often result in law enforcement intervention, incarceration, or the application of force.

Capt. Joe Leibold said the arrangement will free up officers for other calls.

Officers can get tied up hours at a time acting as a counselor on the street, and Elevate frees us up from that. They can take over and talk them through the crisis or get them the services they need, Leibold said.

Elevate has been assisting Waterloo Police since Jan. 1 on calls that involve a crisis response or services to those with mental health disorders. On Monday, the two agencies finalized an agreement to expand and improve crisis services in the community by embedding social workers with the police.

Embedding social workers takes this partnership a step further, said Elevate Program Director Bob Lincoln.

The Elevate mission to expand availability of evidence-based behavioral health treatment for people of all ages is consistent with the WPD mission tenet of sanctity of life, he said. This partnership will help make sure mental health needs are addressed in a timely and more effective manner.

Elevate currently has three social workers assigned to the program, and the plan is to put them on different shifts, Leibold said. He said the department will monitor to see when there are traditionally high volumes of mental-health related calls and assign the social workers to times when they are needed most.

Law enforcement is confronted with mental health crises on a daily basis with few good options available to address the situation, said Mayor Quentin Hart. This partnership is an excellent example of innovative problem solving for mutually beneficial outcomes for our residents.

Elevate, a new clinic in downtown Waterloo, uses a no walls approach to provide behavioral health in Black Hawk County. The agency offers an array of services such as trauma informed care therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, veteran support, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, medication assisted treatment and other substance use disorder treatments.

The agency, as well as the ride-along social workers, are funded through a $4 million CARES Act grant, Lincoln said.

Elevates counselors and Mobile Crisis Team are dispatched through the states Your Life Iowa line at (855) 581-8111 or by text at (855) 895-8398.

For an appointment call (833) 370-0719 or walk in at 604 Lafayette St., second floor of the Fowler building. Business hours hour are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Weekend appointments are available as needed.







Photos: Missing children in Iowa(tncms-asset)4395427a-623a-11ea-9c13-00163ec2aa77[2](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)c3e4351e-68a9-11eb-8790-00163ec2aa77[3](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)888c1e80-5aaa-11eb-8323-00163ec2aa77[4](/tncms-asset)

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WATERLOO  A Waterloo man who bought 39 guns in a matter of months in 2020 has been arrested on federal firearm charges.

Waterloo police arrested Joshua William Butler, 34, on Friday on three counts of making a false statement on a firearms purchase, drug user in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

A grand jury handed up an indictment with the charges in April, and the case remained sealed until Monday.

According to the indictment, Butler is accused of submitting false information when he bought 37 pistols from Scheels sporting goods in Cedar Falls, Mr. Guns in Waterloo and Sieh Guns of Avoca, Iowa, between October 2020 and January 2021.

Authorities allege he filled out forms stating the weapons were being purchased for himself when they were actually purchased for other people.

Purchases include 9 mm handguns manufactured by Glock, Canik, Taurus, Springfield Armory, Beretta, Ruger and SAR Arms. The purchases also include several weapons of the same model  for instance, he bought six Taurus G3C pistols and 11 Taurus G2C pistols, according to court records.

When Waterloo police and officers with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI approached Butlers Mulberry Street home to search it on Jan. 22, they could smell the odor of marijuana outside, according to court records.

The found prepackaged marijuana, bags and scales in the home and empty handgun boxes. But they only found one gun  a 9 mm Glock Model 19 pistol with a scratched-off serial number, records state.

Photos: Guns in Northeast Iowa crime cases(tncms-asset)008a5a44-0fd1-11ea-bd86-00163ec2aa77[1](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)0f16a662-3a69-11eb-bfe7-00163ec2aa77[2](/tncms-asset)

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WATERLOO  Nikole Hannah-Jones had some criteria in mind when looking for the space that would host her 1619 Freedom School.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and Waterloo native told a hometown crowd Sunday that it needed to be a beautiful, modern, comfortable and affirming facility.

She found that downtown in the second floor of the Masonic Temple building. It has been renovated and furnished to create a learning environment for the after-school program, which is moving into the space next month. An open house was held there Sunday.

We had a vision that we would take the students that most people had given up on, said Hannah-Jones. The program will serve about 30 Waterloo Community Schools fourth- and fifth-graders from low-income families who are behind on their literacy skills. Black history is woven into the curriculums reading and writing lessons.

Freedom schools were alternative academic schools in the south during the Civil Rights movement, explained Sheritta Stokes, a district teacher who is the programs director.

The year 1619 was when the first Black slaves came to North America. That year is a focus of the New York Times Magazines 1619 Project, for which Hannah-Jones lead essay won the Pulitzer Prize. An expanded version of the magazine issue, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, has just been released as a book.

The idea of developing the program sprang from a discussion she had with Stokes, a childhood friend, after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Hannah-Jones said Black families in Waterloo Schools lack the level of resources available to many white families. So their children already come in disadvantaged when they start attending school. She noted that remote learning options a lot of students have participated in since the pandemic began have left some further behind their peers.

I told Sheritta we should start a program, recalled Hannah-Jones, much of whose work as a reporter has revolved around school segregation and equality in education.

I understood that so much academic struggle is around literacy, she said. Behavior problems are really about kids who struggle to read. ... I decided to build something here because I know that our kids are not stupid.

Stokes agreed and enlisted the help of three other Waterloo women to help lead the effort. They include Joy Briscoe, the talent and outreach specialist for Waterloo Schools; Lori Dale, adviser with the Educational Talent Search program at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education; and Sharina Sallis, community relations manager for CUNA Mutual Group.

We did this on weekends and in our free time because we so believe this needed to happen, Hannah-Jones said of the groups work.

The program has an eight-unit curriculum created by professors at Georgetown University and the University of Missouri. She said students will develop their literacy skills as they learn the great and majestic history of Black people in America. Every teacher in our school is certified, she noted, of the eight current and retired teachers who will be working with students.

Space for the program in the Masonic Temple is divided into two main rooms. Both large and small group instruction will take place in a room with a variety of table and chair configurations. On the other side of the wall is a commons area that provides a place for children to go for activities like independent reading.

In the instructional room, a row of large tables is near the center, close to a mounted smart display screen. Along one wall is a series of small tables with partitions between them. On the other side of the room are a variety of comfortable couches and chairs, some laid out to face each other in a square.

Two smaller spaces are off the instructional room. One is a conference room and lending library, where two walls are lined with shelves full of books. The other is a kitchen where children will eat snacks when first arriving at the program.

Walls in the instructional room contain seven different murals on wood panels created by St. Louis artist Cbabi Bayoc. They include quotes and slogans, with depictions of Black children reading and writing. There are also historical images of African-Americans such as Linda Brown and Ruby Bridges, children involved in the integration of schools during the 1950s.

As desired, Sallis said, those murals as well as the comfortable seating areas and ample table work stations helped make the 1619 Freedom School a space that will be affirming for those learning there. It conveyed the message of support, it conveyed the message of worthiness, she said.

The program relies on private funding for its operations. To make a contribution, go online to 1619freedomschool.org/donate.

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DES MOINES  After experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths after the Thanksgiving holiday, Iowa goes into Christmas week with continued high widespread virus activity and no significant gains in vaccination.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said 788 people were hospitalized on Monday, a slight decline from Fridays 810. The agency said 171 people remained in intensive care, one person less than on Friday.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows more than 10,700 cases and 112 additional deaths have been reported in the past seven days in Iowa, where 7,680 people have died.

The CDC says 64.1% of Iowans have received at least one dose of vaccine, leaving more than 35% of the population still unvaccinated.

Eastern Iowa hospitals Mercy Cedar Rapids and UnityPoint Health-St. Lukes announced last week they would postpone elective surgeries that werent urgent until after Christmas because of the increased patient load has placed increasing strain on both hospitals capacity and staffing.

As of Monday, the 14-day average positivity rate in Black Hawk County was in the high category at 15.2%.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Some stories really stick with you as a reporter and writer. When Im really into a story, Ill bend my editors ear with the highlights before I ever write a word, and usually those are stories about animals, especially dogs, interesting people, history and culture. Sharing the details out loud helps me shape and organize the narrative, plus it keeps me excited about actually crafting the piece.

In November, I teamed up with a colleague, Zachary Dupont, from our sister paper, The Mason City Globe Gazette, on a project to find out what happened to the Samoyeds taken in the massive rescue three years ago at White Fire Kennel in Manly. We conducted more than 50 interviews with adopters from around the country that were both heartbreaking and inspiring for the Where are They Now piece.

Another memorable story was the July feature on 110-year-old Margaret Cundy of Cedar Falls, a kind and rather feisty lady with a memory as sharp as a tack. In her lifetime, she lived through two world wars and pandemics and experienced all of the worlds advancements since her birth in 1911. Im grateful I was able to share her story before her death Oct. 29.

Over the years, Ive written multiple stories on artist Bill Close of New Hartford, but Ive enjoyed none more than describing his most recent creation, a wooden ark he carved featuring at least 30 of Minnesotas iconic symbols, including the Edmund Fitzgerald, Paul Bunyan and a large can of Spam. Its an amazing piece of art and so remarkably detailed that you can spend hours identifying objects, like the Highlight magazines Hidden Pictures puzzle.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on a five-part series called Treasure Trove. I was able to bring readers along for a peek inside the permanent collections at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, Grout Museum, Hearst Center for the Arts, University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art and the Cedar Falls Historical Society. We found fascinating works of art that have never been publicly displayed, fragile historical artifacts and a few creepy, weird things too, like a mans winter coat made from his favorite stallions hide  tucked away at CFHS.

And those cobwebs. This summer it seemed like every surface was festooned with cobwebs and spiders. Its one of those things we were all talking (or complaining) about, so I decided to find out why and reached out to Donald Lewis, Iowa State University entomologist. Mystery solved.

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DES MOINES  The state board that provides oversight of physicians has received 17 complaints about doctors in Iowa spreading false or misleading information about COVID-19, a state official said.

Of those 17 complaints, five have been dismissed without the board taking any disciplinary action; 12 complaints remain under investigation, according to Kent Nebel, executive director of the Iowa Board of Medicine.

That puts Iowa in the vast majority nationally: roughly 1 in 5 state medical boards has taken disciplinary action against a licensee for disseminating false or misleading information about COVID-19, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards.

And just 1 in 4 state medical boards has published statements about the dissemination of false or misleading COVID information, according to the national federation.

The complaints also put Iowa in line with national trends: two-thirds of state medical boards have experienced an increase in complaints relating to licensees disseminating false or misleading information, according to the national federation.

The staggering number of state medical boards that have seen an increase in COVID-19 disinformation complaints is a sign of how widespread the issue has become, Humayun J. Chaudhry, president and CEO of the Federation of State Medical Boards, said in a news release. We are encouraged by the number of boards that have already taken action to combat COVID-19 disinformation by disciplining physicians who engage in that behavior and by reminding all physicians that their words and actions matter, and they should think twice before spreading disinformation that may harm patients.

Under Iowa law, all complaint and investigation information is confidential, Nebel said. If any disciplinary action is taken, it would become a public record.

The Board evaluates each complaint on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a physician has engaged in conduct that may be harmful to patients or the public, Nebel said.

In Iowa, 7,680 people have died from COVID-19 or COVID-related causes, according to state public health data. The state, like many other areas in the country, is currently experiencing another wave of infections, once again putting significant stress on hospitals. The 843 Iowans hospitalized for COVID is the most since late November 2020, the heart of the worst of the pandemic.

In Iowa, 58.4% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to federal data. Thats the 25th-highest rate in the nation.

This summer, the Federation of State Medical Boards board of directors issued a statement responding to what it called a dramatic increase in the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation by physicians and other health care professionals on social media platforms, online and in the media. The statement warned that such actions could result in disciplinary action, including the suspension or revocation of medical licenses.

Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not. They also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interests of their patients and must share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health, the statement said. Spreading inaccurate COVID-19 vaccine information contradicts that responsibility, threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.

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First, I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point, Peng said in the latest clip. Peng added that her post on Weibo was a private matter which people have many misunderstandings about. Peng, 35, claimed to have been living at her home in Beijing without supervision since global concerns for her safety were raised, and said that she wrote to WTA chief Steve Simon last month to deny the allegations of sexual assault she had apparently lodged against 75-year-old Zhang Gaoli, though the latter figure wasnt mentioned in her new video address.

Source: Chinese tennis star denies sex assault allegations in new video  RT Sport News

Remember I said:

This reminds me of all the lies spouted about North Korea and eating babies and using aircraft guns to execute innocent people and then having the innocent people show up and all okay. No babies eaten also!

Just another Western Lie to discredit whom they hate and are scared of

My my the western world stepped in it again

WtR
Wreaths Across America aims not only to honor and remember veterans but also to teach the next generation about the sacrifices made for freedom. It asks the millions of volunteers who assemble across the country to say the veteran's name as they place the wreath on the deceased's headstone.

"You die once when your heart stops beating  you take that last breath physically, Hanson says. But then you die a final time when your name is spoken for the last time, and then you're forgotten. We don't want our veterans to be forgotten."

The organization's annual pilgrimage from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery stops at schools, monuments and veterans homes to remind Americans of the importance of remembering.

The delivery of wreaths around the country wouldn't happen, however, without the hundreds of truck drivers who volunteer their time, fuel and equipment. The event is the result of a yearlong effort involving the organization's headquarters in Maine and coordinators who volunteer in local communities.

This year, over 525 truckloads of wreaths were delivered, representing 390 carriers. Meanwhile, more than 2 million volunteers, a third of whom are children, placed wreaths on headstones across the country.

Worcester, the Maine wreath maker, made his annual trek to Arlington this year, as he has since 1992.

When I brought down those 5,000 wreaths that first year, I just thought it was a way for me to say thank you, for what we have in this country, he says. I could have never imagined it would strike a chord like it has and made such an impact. Me and my family continued to be humbled by the support this program receives across the country.

Wreaths may be donated in honor, or in memory, of a veteran. You also can search for cemeteries that participate in Wreaths Across America.


Providence Stage 2 RC Drill Program Approved

Perth, Dec 20, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Monger Gold Limited ( ASX:MMG ) is pleased to announce that a Stage Two follow-up Reverse Circulation (RC) drill program of 27 holes for 2,790m (plus 200m contingency for hole extensions if required) has been approved by the Board of Directors at the Providence Prospect, Mt Monger North Project. The program aims to test the discovery of high-grade gold intercepts from the Stage One RC drill program at depth and along strike. (MMG announcement below on 09 November 2021 "Drilling Uncovers Significant High-grade Gold at Providence")Extension RC drilling at the Providence Prospect (Mt Monger North) returned the following gold intersections:- MNRC004 8m @ 16.15 g/t Au from 60-68m including 1m @ 111.4 g/t Au from 61-62m and 1m @ 15.01 g/t Au from 63-64m- MNRC007 8m @ 31.84 g/t Au from 66-74m including 1m @ 37.03 g/t Au from 68-69m; 1m @ 18.20 g/t from 69-70m and 1m @ 190.06 g/t Au from 70-71mThe Stage One drilling was designed to follow-up Silver Lake Resources Limited's ( ASX:SLR ) drill intersections (2011) into upper saprolite portions of the new deeper discovery:- NMRC070 1m @ 20.7 g/t from 54m (ends in mineralisation)- NMRC078 2m @ 7.93 g/t from 22m- NMRC077 2m @ 4.21 g/t from 33mCommenting on the upcoming drilling campaign, Monger Gold's Chairman Mr Peretz Schapiro said "The exceptional results from our maiden drill campaign have demonstrated the prospectively of the Providence prospect and enhanced our confidence in the project.Whilst this project has been explored by numerous companies over the years, it appears that they had been focused on shallow oxide mineralization and have overlooked the potential for deeper narrow vein high-grade gold mineralization in the fresh rock. The high-grade results we have recently received validate our hypothesis.We are very much looking forward to this next phase of drilling as we look to increase the potential strike and add depth to this high-grade gold system. Subject to results, we anticipate that following this campaign we will be able to release a Maiden Mineral Resource".Testing of gold mineralisation is planned to deeper levels (new drill holes have -60deg dip and 130 deg magnetic azimuths) over a 270m southwest extension, towards old surface workings also with a southwest strike. No drill holes have been completed in the proposed new MMG drill program extension area, both at depth and along strike. The parallel drill traverses are spaced at 25 metre intervals in the northeast drilling beneath shallow historical holes (grid of historical drilling by other mining companies) and 40 metres towards the southwest (new extension step-out grid) with drill holes 20 metres apart along each traverse. This drill hole spacing will test the extents and continuity of gold mineralisation discovered by MMG and will enable a resource estimation if confidence is increased in gold continuity.The orebody is interpreted to be steeply northwest dipping and southwest striking in the form of high-grade narrow veins with silica-sericite-sulphide alteration, primarily hosted in fresh rock on the contact between mafic dolerite, intrusive porphyry and shale in the hinge of an antiform on the eastern side of a major northwest striking regional fault zone. Interpretation of MMG's November 2021 exploration extension drill results demonstrate that previous explorers' drilling primarily targeted shallow oxide zone gold mineralisation in the northeast sector. It is apparent that historical drilling overlooked the potential for significant deeper narrow vein high-grade gold mineralisation in fresh rock. MMG is currently in negotiations with drill companies to complete this substantial second stage drill program, which will likely commence in mid-late January 2022. A plan and three sections from MMG's November drill holes and the planned drilling are illustrated in figures 1-4*.Analysis of multi-element samples from end-of-hole vertical vacuum drilling to basement (gold results announced 3rd November 2021) imply that the Providence Prospect area is traversed by a large northwest striking structure in the southwest sector, with above background trace element values (arsenic, tungsten, molybdenum). Also, previously unidentified high-magnesium diorites (sanukitoids), frequently associated with gold deposits in the Yilgarn Craton, have been identified east of the prospect, from MMG's multi-element assays, suggesting that the adjacent area contains deep-seated mantle-taping structures.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Monger Gold Ltd

With an enterprise value AUD $1m and AUD $5m in funding, Monger Gold Limited's (ASX:MMG) intention is to generate value for shareholders by directing funds raised by the Offer into targeted and systematic exploration of our Projects, resulting in the definition of one or more JORC compliant gold and nickel resources.


Horizon Moves to 100% Ownership of Penny's Find Gold Project

Perth, Dec 20, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to advise that it has reached agreement with Labyrinth Resources Limited ( ASX:LRL ) to acquire the remaining 50% of the high-grade Penny's Find gold project located 50km northeast of Kalgoorlie in the Western Australian goldfields.As announced to the ASX on 22 March and 14 July 2021, the Company entered into a 50:50 Joint Venture with Labyrinth, completed an RC and diamond drilling program and compiled an updated Mineral Resource estimate. Labyrinth have recently announced the acquisition of projects in Canada and have agreed to divest their remaining 50% interest in the joint venture on the following terms:- A$500,000 in cash at settlement- A$250,000 in fully paid ordinary shares in Horizon at settlement at a deemed price based on the 10-day VWAP and escrowed for 6 months- Horizon to assume future deferred payment obligations- Mining start payment of $200,000- First gold payment $200,000- Contingent non-commencement of mining payment of $100,000- Net smelter royalty of 5%, payable on the first 50,000 ounces produced from M27/156 and thereafter a 2.5 % net smelter royaltyThe Agreement is subject to standard conditions precedent for a transaction of this nature including Ministerial consent, any third-party assignments and provision of mining information with Settlement expected in the March Quarter 2022.The Company will now continue the evaluation of the underground deposit on a 100% ownership basis, complete further infill and extensional drilling and assess development options including near term development and toll milling and / or inclusion of the project in the consolidated Feasibility Study.For more information on the project, we refer you to the ASX announcement "Penny's Find JV Mineral Resource Update" dated 14 July 2021 on the Company's website.About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.


Botswana Drilling Complete - Cu-Mineralisation Increases

Sydney, Dec 20, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cobre Limited ( ASX:CBE ) is pleased to announce that the 2021 drill programme on Kalahari Metals Limited's (KML) Endurance Prospect in Botswana has now been completed.Following the previous announcement to the market (refer ASX Announcement 8 December 2021), the programme was extended to include two follow-up holes to test the lateral and vertical extent of alteration and copper (Cu) mineralisation intersected in the central portion of the Endurance Prospect. Provisional results from the follow-up holes are summarised in this announcement.- Both follow-up holes have intersected alteration zones with visible Cu-mineralisation demonstrating lateral and vertical continuity to the target hydrothermal system;- In addition to previously identified vein-hosted chalcopyrite mineralisation, further fine-grained copper sulphide mineralisation has been noted in hydrothermally altered sandstone host-rocks- indicative of a more proximal position to a potential Cu-Ag mineral deposit; and- Both follow-up holes display an increase in the quantity of visible Cu-mineralisation, and alteration associated with stockworks and veins.The recently completed drill programme, consisting of 10 diamond holes totalling 2,948m, was designed to test a range of targets based on earlier Reverse Circulation (RC) and stratigraphic drilling results. Encouraging results from this phase of work provide an important exploration milestone as targeting moves from a regional assessment of the extensive 25km long Endurance Prospect, to testing of focussed mineralised targets.Commenting on the provisional results at the Endurance Prospect, Cobre's Executive Charmain and Managing Director Martin Holland said:"We're delighted to finish off the 2021 exploration programme with encouraging results from the Endurance Prospect. The intersection of alteration and mineralisation in several positions along this prospect highlights the significant potential for finding economic mineralisation on KML's tenure.Over the course of 2021 we've completed 7,700m of drilling on the KML projects, allowing for a regional evaluation of several prospects and generation of a number of exciting targets. We look forward to testing these in 2022."Endurance 2021 Programme OverviewThe Endurance Prospect has been modelled as an extensive, 25km long anticlinorium located in a similar structural setting to ASX listed Sandfire Resources' ( ASX:SFR ) T3 and A4 deposits situated 5km and 10km to the north respectively. The recently completed drill programme has focussed on structurally related breaks in folded AEM conductors supported by detailed magnetic data, stratigraphic information from earlier RC and diamond programmes and soil sampling results (Refer Figure 1*). Several of the recently drilled holes have intersected alteration and complex vein stockworks often with associated (minor) Cu-mineralisation demonstrating the effectiveness of the targeting process and exploration potential of the prospect. The current announcement focusses on a target area in the central portion of the prospect (Refer Figure 2*) where two additional diamond holes (KIT-E-D028 and KIT-E-D029), totalling 614m, were drilled to test the lateral and vertical extent and distribution of alteration and mineralisation in intersected in drill hole KIT-E-D023.- Both follow-up holes intersected hydrothermal alteration, complex quartz-carbonate veins and stockworks with an increase in the quantity of visible Cu-mineralisation;- Mineralisation intersected includes both vein-hosted chalcopyrite as well as fine grained disseminated copper sulphide mineralisation along parting planes (Refer Figure 3*);- In addition to chalcopyrite, rare bornite was noted in KIT-E-D029; and- Quartz-carbonate veining styles and associated alteration minerals including dolomite, chlorite, hematite, sericite and K-feldspar along with zones of bleaching and albitisation (Refer Figure 4*) provide significant encouragement given the similarity in setting to known deposits on the Kalahari Copperbelt.A summary table comparing alteration and sulphide mineralisation between recent drill holes is provided in Table 1*. Northwest-Southeast sections through KIT-E-D023, KIT-E-D028 and KIT-E-D029 are provided in Figure 5*.Samples from the recent drill programme are currently being dispatched to ALS laboratories in Johannesburg for analysis.*To view tables and figures, please visit: https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/5A7T8Z12 About Cobre Limited

Cobre Limited (ASX:CBE) is a copper and base-metals explorer with projects in Western Australia and Botswana. The Company recently discovered a new high-grade VMS deposit enriched in Copper, Gold, Zinc and Silver in Western Australia, and is currently exploring approximately 8,100 km2 of tenements within the Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB) in Botswana.


Bidder Statement for Focus Minerals Ltd

Sydney, Dec 20, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Theta Gold Mines Limited ( ASX:TGM ) ( FRA:3LM ) ( OTCMKTS:TGMGF ) refers to its ASX announcement of 9 December 2021. In relation to TGM's off-market takeover bid for Focus Minerals Limited ( ASX:FML ) (Focus) (Offer), and in accordance with item 5 of section 633(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act), TGM attaches a copy of its bidder's statement (Bidder's Statement).The Bidder's Statement has been lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and sent to Focus today.TGM's Offer to Focus shareholders is 2 TGM shares for every 1 Focus share on issue as at 21 December 2021. Further details of the Offer and the implications for Focus shareholders (including the conditions to the Offer) are set out in the Bidder's Statement.TGM anticipates sending the Bidder's Statement to Focus shareholders shortly and in accordance with the Corporations Act timetable.In accordance with section 633(4) of the Corporations Act TGM advises that it has specified 21 December 2021 at 7.00pm (Sydney time) as the date for the purposes of determining the persons to whom information must be sent under items 6 and 12 of section 633(1) of the Corporations Act.About Theta Gold Mines Limited

Theta Gold Mines Limited (ASX:TGM) (OTCMKTS:TGMGF) is a gold development company that holds a range of prospective gold assets in a world-renowned South African gold mining region. These assets include several surface and near-surface high-grade gold projects which provide cost advantages relative to other gold producers in the region.

Theta Gold Mines core project is located next to the historical gold mining town of Pilgrim's Rest, in Mpumalanga Province, some 370km northeast of Johannesburg by road or 95km north of Nelspruit (Capital City of Mpumalanga Province). Following small scale production from 2011-2015, the Company is currently focussing on the construction of a new gold processing plant within its approved footprint at the TGME plant, and for the processing of the Theta Open Pit oxide gold ore. Nearby surface and underground mines and prospects are expected to be further evaluated in the future.

The Company aims to build a solid production platform to over 100Kozpa based primarily around shallow, open-cut or adit-entry hard rock mining sources. Theta Gold Mines has access to over 43 historical mines and prospect areas that can be accessed and explored, with over 6.7Moz of historical production recorded.


Wiluna Concentrator Successful Commissioning

Perth, Dec 21, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited ( ASX:WMC ) ( FRA:NZ3 ) ( OTCMKTS:WMXCF ) is pleased to announce that the Company has successfully accepted Care and Custody of its A$26 million Sulphide Ore Concentrate Plant ("the concentrator") after first ore was introduced as planned. This took place after the recent practical completion of the plant by GRES subsequent to the successful dry and wet commissioning of the plant.The project, whose contract was awarded to GRES by WMC in December 2020 and commenced in March of 2021 was built at a cost of approximately A$26 million and was completed on budget and without any significant health or safety issues. Due to shipping delays and a shutdown at the factory in India where the flotation cells were constructed (both COVID-19 related), the project was completed a little over two months later than originally anticipated.Due to the connection of the concentrator to the existing Wiluna Crushing and Milling circuits, the changeover from free-milling operations to flotation took a matter of a few hours during the first shift of operations. By day 2 of commissioning nameplate throughput capacity was reached which enabled the product filter to be commissioned just 24 hours after first ore was introduced to the circuit.Ramp-up of production from the mine and the concentrator, as well as the achievement of design product quality, will be the focus in the immediate term.Milan Jerkovic, Wiluna Mining's Executive Chair commented:"We are delighted to have commissioned our Stage 1 Sulphide Ore Concentrator which will eventually, after full ramp-up, treat 750,000 tonnes per annum of ore and produce around 90kozpa-100kozpa of gold contained in concentrate. This production, when added to the approximate 20kozpa of gold dore we will continue to produce, is intended to enable us to get to nameplate production by June 2022.To have completed and commissioned the plant on budget and safely with only a few months lost to the original schedule in this time of COVID is an outstanding effort and I thank all of the Wiluna team who worked so diligently during this period along with the team from GRES who were outstanding despite the challenges they were dealt.The completion and commissioning of Stage 1 is the start of what we plan to be a major, staged transformation of Wiluna from a small free-milling producer to one of the largest gold producing mines in Australia over the next three years producing concentrate and gold dore from our significant sulphide deposits of gold at the Wiluna Mining Operations".*To view photographs, 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.
The Albuquerque Journal, along with KOAT-TV and KKOB radio, plans to highlight literacy over the next 12 months, feature some of the successful programs available in the state and compile and make available a running list of resources for children and adults.

STORIES

WHERE TO GET HELP

The following is the Journals beginning and ongoing effort to compile a list of literacy resources. It is a yearlong work in progress, and we are asking that our readers, if they know of a program in their community that is not listed, please contact us with that information at rnathanson@abqjournal.com, or mmurphy@abqjournal.com. And remember to use your local library as a good place to ask about programs in your area.

ALBUQUERQUE ADULT LEARNING CENTER INC.: With four locations around the Albuquerque area, the center was founded in 2010 as a grassroots, community-based organization to provide free adult education and literacy as preparation for students to get their Higher Secondary Certificate, or HSC, or their General Educational Development, or GED, certification. The centers serve people ages 16 and older, regardless of what level of literacy they have. Class sizes are limited to 15 students, with morning afternoon and evening blocks. To learn more, call 505-907-9957, or go online to abqalc.org.

ADULT EDUCATION AND LITERACY PROGRAM and NEW MEXICO ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM : Both programs are operated by the Adult Education Division of the New Mexico Higher Education Department. They are taught out of college and university campuses and at nonprofit organizations statewide.

The Adult Education and Literacy Program, available at 24 locations, takes place in classroom settings. Serving all adult learners who enter anywhere on the literacy spectrum. Another main focus is on workplace readiness skills to help people participate in the workforce.

The New Mexico Adult Literacy Program is available at 15 locations around the state with instruction mostly on a one-on-one tutoring approach. It is geared for adults who may have goals other than jobs or college, such as a desire to support their children in their schools and being able to help them with their homework, or being able to read a newspaper or to become a U.S. citizen, said Amber Gallup Rodriguez, HEDs director of adult education.

For a list of adult education programs through the Higher Education Department, go to https://hed.state.nm.us/students-parents/adult_education.

ALBUQUERQUE READS: This is a project of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and works in conjunction with the Albuquerque Public Schools to provide one-on-one tutoring of kindergartners and first graders. The program currently targets three APS elementary schools  Bel-Air, Whittier and Atrisco  that have been identified as high priority Title 1 schools with high numbers of low-income children who are at risk of reading failure. Albuquerque Reads has more than 300 volunteer tutors trained by certified teachers. For further information, call 505-843-7323, or go online to abqreads.com

ALBUQUERQUE ARCA LITERACY PROJECT: This program offers customized literacy efforts from professional tutors on reading and writing, as well as training in the use of basic computer skills, for people with barriers to traditional learning. ARCA partners with Central New Mexico Community College and other agencies to provide mentors who tutor the students at CNM or via online learning platforms. For more information, call 505-332-6700, or visit www.arcaopeningdoors.org/services/literacy-project.

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL NEW MEXICO: With one location in Albuquerque and one in Rio Rancho, the clubs offer a Summer Brain Gain program and a school year Power Hour program. Cost for Summer Brain Gain ranges from $75 to $100 per week, and includes breakfast lunch and snacks. Financial aid is available for qualifying families. The Power Hour program allows kids K-12 to go to club sites, where before they engage in fun sports, games and other recreational activities, they must sit down and complete their homework or work on some type of educational enterprise. Club staff members and volunteers are on hand to offer assistance. Cost for the Power Hour program is $35 a week and scholarships are available for qualifying families. The fee includes membership to the Boys and Girls Clubs and all its activities. The clubs also plan to offer an after school Power Hour program in the 2021-22 school year at select elementary schools. To learn more call 881-0777, or go online to www.bgccnm.org.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES, ALBUQUERQUE: This faith-based organization provides literacy programs and a learning center for non-speakers of English, including immigrants and refugees. The primary vehicle for this is classes in English as a second language. Skills taught include reading, writing, comprehension and preparation for high school equivalency certification. Catholic Charities also provides after-school care for children ages 5 to 12, an adult education program to help students improve their literacy skills and get their high school equivalency certification, and job training and apprenticeship programs. For more information, go to ccasfnm.org, or call 505-724-4670.

DISCOVER A BOOK: This program operates through the ABQ Ride bus system. Racks on 185 city buses are regularly replenished with books for young children to look at or read, or for parents to read to their children while riding the bus. They may take the books with them when they depart the bus. Books may be dropped off at any Albuquerque Public Library branch. For information, visit ReadToMeABQnetwork.org.

To request free books, send a message to BookDrive66@gmail.com

LIBROS FOR KIDS: This grassroots nonprofit gets books into the hands of kids under age 5 who live in Bernalillo County, and serves as the local affiliate for Dolly Partons Imagination Library. The Imagination Library provides one new book each month to kids under age 5. Half the cost must be paid for by a sponsor in most cases. Qualifying children receive the monthly book directly through the mail from the Imagination Library. Libros for Kids also engages in other projects to provide books, particularly for kids in the South Valley, Downtown and the International District. To register, go to librosforkids.org.

LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES: This is another faith-based organization that offers English as a second language to non-speakers of English. The focus is on teaching enough English to write a resume, fill out job applications, find work or start their own business. Lutheran Family Services also teaches their clients about how banks work, about credit, how to avoid predatory lending and how to create personal budgets and pay bills on time. The vast majority of participants continue to attend ESL classes around their work schedules, either at Lutheran Family Services, CNM or other institutions. For more information go to Lfsrm.org, or call 505-933-7032.

OASIS ALBUQUERQUE, INTERGENERATIONAL TUTORING PROGRAM: The focus is on students in first through third grades who are not reading at grade level, although tutors will work with students in the fourth and fifth grades, as well. The students who need reading assistance are identified by teachers at about 65 schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Belen and Bernalillo. Oasis is able to call on a pool of 600 volunteers, who typically go into the schools and work with students individually for one hour each week. For more information, go to Albuquerque.Oasisnet.org

READ TO ME: This program is intended to put books into the hands of very young children to encourage reading and to help them build their own home library. A yearly book drive generally collects about 60,000 or more new and gently used books that are distributed to local nonprofits, schools with large numbers of low-income students and homeless shelters. Read to Me also provides books for distribution on city buses and on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. For information, go to ReadToMeABQnetwork.org. To request free books go to BookDrive66@gmail.com

STORY TIME IN THE PARK: This Albuquerque Public Schools program is geared toward elementary school children and their families. The intent is to encourage children to read, and parents to read to and with their children, thereby encouraging literacy and academics during the summer. Held daily from June 7 to July 15 at 28 parks in the Albuquerque area, as well as in some community centers and low-income housing communities. Free lunch will be provided Mondays through Fridays, and free books and related lesson plans with reading strategies and parent tip sheets will be distributed Mondays through Thursdays. For Story Time in the Park locations and times, go to www.aps.edu/title-i/story-time-in-the-park.
DENVER  Prison staff had no idea what was happening when an inmate suddenly lost consciousness at the Limon Correctional Facility in May.

It turned out the man was overdosing from fentanyl that had been snuck into the facility on the Eastern Plains. The drug is an opioid said to be 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

The inmates overdose was fatal, and an officer who responded to help him was exposed to the fentanyl and became extremely ill. The officer was given Narcan, an opioid-overdose reversal medication.

We are so, so thankful that the officer survived, said Sherrie Daigle, the state DOC inspector general, whose office is tasked with investigating crimes within the states prison system and keeping drugs out of its facilities. It could have been just as bad as the offender.

The Limon case, which came before the arrests of five prison staff accused of smuggling drugs into the facility, was one of at least three fatal drug overdoses inside a Colorado prison in the past 13 months. The deaths underscore what the CDOC says is a scourge of narcotics flowing into the states facilities, including ultra-potent, hard-to-detect synthetic drugs that can be absorbed into paper and mailed to inmates.

We have found more drugs in the past two, two and a half years than they have in the history of the Inspector Generals Office, Daigle said.

Data from the Department of Corrections shows a steep increase in the amount of drugs seized in state prisons over the past four years.

In the first six months of this year, for instance, the agency seized more than 400 grams of cocaine. In 2018, the agency seized 48.4 grams of the drug.

In the first six months of 2021, more than three times the amount of heroin was seized than in all of 2018. Methamphetamine, suboxone and prescription drug seizures, meanwhile, were set to exceed their 2018, 2019 and 2020 levels.

The amount of drugs seized in the first six months of this year represents tens of thousands of potential doses, according to prison officials.

Daigle said its difficult to tell if her office is getting better at finding contraband drugs smuggled into state prison or whether more are finding their way into facilities.

Honestly, she said, I dont know. I wish I could answer that question.

 How the drugs are getting in

The Colorado Department of Corrections takes a number of steps to stop drugs from entering the states prisons, including routine urine testing of inmates, monitoring phone calls and screening all mail.

But there are gaps in the system that inmates have found and exploited.

Daigle said prisoners have been instructing their family members to buy a special kind of paper with high cotton content and then spray it with an oil containing synthetic cannabinoids, colloquially known as spice. The oil is colorless and odorless and cant be detected during the mail-screening process.

Each piece of paper can contain as many as 96 doses of the drug, which can sell for as much as $40 each inside prison. Inmates insert a paperclip or a staple into a light socket or electrical outlet to create a spark and smoke the drug-laden paper.

The problem is they dont know what kind of dose theyre getting on that paper, Daigle said. They dont know how much has been sprayed on there. Even the people that sprayed it on there dont know what the dose is. So its extremely, extremely dangerous when the offender inhales this. They have severe reactions. And we have recently had an offender die from a spice overdose.

Recently, prison officials have begun photocopying all incoming inmate mail to combat the contraband by preventing inmates from obtaining the original documents.

The problem is we cannot photocopy legal mail, Daigle said. And so now they are trying to beat us by sending in false legal mail.

The CDOC is also asking the state legislature to help them address the problem.

The agency is asking lawmakers for $300,000 next fiscal year, which begins in July, to establish a K-9 drug detection unit that would consist of four teams, each with a dog and a handler. The cost would decrease to $200,000 in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

State prison officials say the K-9 unit would allow them to quickly screen mail and inmate cells.

By having the K-9, we shouldnt have to go in and rifle through every single piece of paper or go through all of their property because the dog will let us know if theres anything that we need to search harder for, Daigle said.

State budget writers seem open to the request. Its hugely problematic, said state Sen. Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat who serves as vice chair of the Joint Budget Committee.

But Moreno wants to see more data from the Department of Corrections on which facilities have had the biggest problem with contraband drugs.

There are also concerns that four dogs for the states sprawling prison system wouldnt be sufficient.

I tried to be reasonable in my request to the legislature, Daigle said. I think that four dogs will give us a good starting point. I would like to have some data behind us to back up putting in a request for more dogs. Ultimately, it would be wonderful to have a dog at each facility.

 Other overdose cases

The CDOC never determined how the fentanyl that killed the inmate in Limon got into the prison.

We did not make an arrest in that case, Daigle said. We did not determine how the drugs got into that facility. We believe it was through staff.

Five staff members were charged in the following months with smuggling drugs into the facility  though not related to the overdose. (The Lincoln County coroner did not provide the name of the inmate who died from the overdose, but confirmed the death.)

Daigle said her office probably charges a prison worker at least once a month with bringing drugs into a facility. (The CDOC employs about 6,000.) People visiting inmates are charged at about the same rate, if not once a week.

The other two Colorado prison overdose deaths in the past 13 months happened in Fremont County. One was Nov. 30, 2020, at the Colorado Territorial Prison, while the other was at the Colorado State Penitentiary on July 16.

The inmate who died July 16 died of a spice overdose, Daigle said.

The Fremont County Coroners Office did not respond to a request for information on the inmates who died from overdoses, including their names.

Daigle sees expanded efforts to keep drugs out of prisons as an issue that affects not only the states inmate population, but also the broader community.

Prisoners family members can be collateral damage when their loved ones behind bars become indebted to dealers.

Keeping the drugs out of prison not only helps whats going on inside, its also very important for the family members who are being extorted and who are sometimes threatened by drug dealers from the outside, she said. So the more we can keep the drugs out of prison, itll help everyone in the community.

 Jails are dealing with the issue, too

Prisons arent alone in dealing with an apparent uptick in problems with contraband drugs. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, who is the president of the County Sheriffs of Colorado, said jails are in the same boat.

I cant speak for every sheriffs office and every jail in the state of Colorado, but I think I can speak generally in saying that the trends that the Department of Corrections is experiencing are very much mirrored in the county jails, he said. Just in the last couple of months we had what we believe were several fentanyl exposures in our facility to the point where we had five Narcan deployments in a two-day window to people who were exhibiting overdose traits.

In Arapahoe County, a jail inmate was recently charged with drug distribution and bringing contraband into the jail after handing a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl to a cellmate who overdosed and died in June. Ernest Mares brought eight or nine little blue pills into the jail by hiding them inside his shoe, according to court documents.

Reams said he also has had two inmates die of methamphetamine overdoses in his facilities.

Reams said he has brought on drug-sniffing dogs to work in his facilities and started making newly arrived inmates go through body scanners. Weve tried to think of everything under the sun to prevent the drugs getting into the facility, he said.

The quantity of illicit drugs stopped before entering his jail or found in his facilities has gone up exponentially in the last, I would say, three to four years. At first, it was marijuana, but now its transitioned to cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, suboxone and everything in between.

I think the easier and the smaller those drugs get in dosage size and the more addictive that those drugs are also becoming  its a huge motivator for those who are addicted to the drugs or who want to profit from distributing the drugs, Reams said. I dont think you can call overdoses in jails an anomaly anymore.

But Reams said he isnt necessarily surprised. In fact, he says, it only makes sense, given that about 80% of the inmates in his jail are involved in some kind of illegal narcotics trade or illegal drug trade.

The CDOC believes that about 70% of its inmates enter state prisons already addicted to drugs. Prisoners are offered treatment and counseling.

Prisons are a microcosm of society, Daigle said. And really what it comes down to is the challenges we see on the outside are the same challenges we run into on the inside.
When Westminster United Methodist Church in Houston resumed in-person services late last year, after a seven-month halt due to COVID-19, there were Sundays when only three worshippers showed up, according to the pastor, Meredith Mills.

Since then, attendance has inched back up, but its still only about half the pre-pandemic turnout of 160 or 170, Mills estimates.

Its frustrating, she said. People just seem to want to leave home less these days.

Some houses of worship are faring better than Mills church, some worse. Polls by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows how dramatically church attendance fell during the worst of the pandemic last year, even as many say they are now returning to regular service attendance.

Among mainline Protestants, just 1% said in a May 2020 poll that they were attending in-person services at least once a week. In the new poll, 14% say theyre doing so now, compared to 16% who say they did in 2019.

Among evangelical Protestants, 37% now say they are attending services in person at least weekly, while 42% said they did that in 2019. In the May 2020 poll, just 11% said they were attending services in person that often.

Among Catholics, 26% attend in person at least weekly now, compared with 30% in 2019. In the 2020 poll, conducted as many bishops temporarily waived the obligation for weekly Mass attendance, just 5% were worshipping in person at least weekly.

At St. Ambrose Catholic Parish in Brunswick, Ohio, the six services each weekend drew a total of about 3,800 worshippers before the pandemic, according to the pastor, Bob Stec. Current weekend attendance is about 2,800, Stec says, with 1,600 or more households joining online worship.

Elsewhere, churches large and small have taken hits in attendance.

John Elkins, teaching pastor at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Brazoria, Texas, says 25 to 30 people have attended services recently, down from around 50 before the pandemic.

For some, I was not political enough, he said via email. Some wanted more activities, some just stopped going to church.

Sovereign Grace, a Southern Baptist church, had never offered online worship before the pandemic. When in-person worship was halted for a month in 2020, leaving online worship as the only option, Elkins said he did more crisis counseling for congregation members than ever before.

At the much larger First Church of God in Columbus, Ohio, there was a near-total halt to in-person worship between March 2020 and September of this year. On two Sundays in September 2020, worshippers were invited back to the church to test the feasibility of in-person services.

But it was obvious they were still uncomfortable  they came dressed like they were working at Chernobyl, said the senior pastor, Bishop Timothy Clarke, evoking hazmat suits appropriate for confronting a nuclear disaster.

Pre-pandemic, the predominantly African American church held three services each weekend, including one on Saturday evenings, with average total attendance of 2,500. Now theres a single service on Sunday, and only 500 worshippers  with masks and proof of vaccination  are allowed into a sanctuary that can seat more than 1,500.

The return to in-person worship gives us a sense of connection and community, Clarke said. But you also have safety.

At All Saints Episcopal Church in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, average Sunday attendance dropped from about 140 pre-pandemic to as low as 30 before climbing back, reaching 120 earlier this month. The Rev. Steven Paulikas credits a mandatory mask policy.

Mask wearing puts people at ease about their health and allows them to do what people come to church to do  worship God, he said.

Attendance is down sharply from pre-pandemic levels at St. Barnabas Lutheran Church in Cary, Illinois, which halted in-person, indoor worship for more than six months in 2020. Instead it held drive-in services in the parking lot.

Before the pandemic, about 115 people would attend one of two services offered on Sundays, said the pastor, Sarah Wilson. Now theres one service, and attendance is down by more than half.

Some families are still nervous about being in a room with others, even though most people attending are vaccinated and we require masks, she said. Other people have re-ordered their priorities and worship isnt one of them.

Friendswood United Methodist Church, in the Houston suburbs, has endured not only COVID-19 disruptions but also flooding during a winter storm last February that rendered the sanctuary unusable. It just reopened for services this month, said the pastor, Jim Bass.

Pre-pandemic, Friendswoods Sunday services would draw about 900 worshippers; Bass was pleased that about 650 gathered when the sanctuary reopened for high-energy, music-filled services on Dec. 5.

However, he said average attendance has been only half of that during most of the pandemic, creating a $400,000 shortfall in expected giving.

Like many houses of worship, Friendswood offered online services as an alternative to in-person attendance. He considers them a mixed blessing  a plus for elderly congregation members worried about their health, but a disincentive for others who are increasingly disconnected from the church.

Theyve become spectators, Bass said.

At Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina, Rabbi Asher Knight was elated that recent Hannukah celebrations drew about 300 people in person. Overall, attendance now is roughly half of pre-pandemic levels, but an improvement over periods earlier this year when only a handful of worshippers appeared.

It was demoralizing and painful to lead worship with virtually no one present, he said. But in October and November, people got the booster and their children got vaccinated and they slowly started coming back.

In September, amid a surge in COVID cases, Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida, observed the Jewish High Holy Days with no in-person services. So the sanctuary wouldnt look so empty for online services, Rabbi Judith Siegal and her staff filled it with cardboard cutouts of congregation members, including children and pets.

In-person worship has now resumed, and the range of weekly attendance  75 to 125 people  is close to pre-pandemic levels.

Were still wearing masks, and the seating is still spread out, Siegal said. But our members love it.

Among Christians, the option of worshipping online has been embraced by many evangelical Protestants, according to the AP-NORC poll. About 3 in 10 have livestreamed services at least weekly in recent months, compared with about 1 in 10 Catholics or mainline Protestants.

Three-quarters of evangelical Protestants say they pray privately at least weekly, compared with roughly half of mainline Protestants and Catholics, the poll found.

Roughly a quarter of evangelical Protestants say theyve recently talked by phone or video conference with a religious or spiritual leader at least a few times a month, compared with about 1 in 10 mainline Protestants and Catholics.

Some faith leaders, such as Meredith Mills, see some positives, such as more energy in the church, even with fewer worshippers.

The ones showing up right now are the people who really want to be there, she said. Theres a lot of joy in the room Sunday mornings. Its one of the reasons that, despite everything, I still love my job.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,083 adults was conducted Oct. 21-25 using a sample designed to be representative of U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
CHANDLER, Ariz.  A Chandler police officer has died of COVID-19 complications, according to authorities.

Police officials announced Saturday that Jeremy Wilkins died Friday night.

They said Wilkins was a 23-year veteran who also worked in the Prescott Valley Police Department.

Police said Wilkins death is considered a line of duty death.

He is survived by his wife, five children and five grandchildren.

Authorities said funeral plans were pending.
PHOENIX  Thousands of Arizona high school students can now get free college tuition thanks to a new statewide scholarship program.

The Arizona Promise Program will provide scholarships for eligible low-income students to fully cover their tuition and fees if they enroll at one of the three state universities  Arizona State University, the University of Arizona or Northern Arizona University.

The goal is to make higher education more accessible for students from low-income families, a necessary step for a strong future economy in the state.

The Arizona Legislature approved the new program earlier this year.

The universities for years have had lots of financial aid, but what weve done here is passed a state law that requires it, said John Arnold, executive director of the Arizona Board of Regents, which is overseeing the scholarship.

So its not a decision, theres not a pool of money, its not first come first served  it is state law that if you do your part, you graduate from high school, you meet the admission requirements for the university, if you are a low-income family, you go without tuition and fees. I think its a really powerful message, Arnold added.

Last year only 28% of Arizona public high school graduates enrolled in a four-year college, and the rate was even lower for low-income students, per an analysis from the Board of Regents.

At the current pace, only about 17% of Arizonas current ninth-graders will have a four-year degree by 2029, much lower than the expected portion of jobs that will require that level of education.

The scholarship will cover all eligible students who enroll at a state university. Students who meet the qualifications will automatically get the funding through their university.

An estimated 3,800 students currently enrolled at the three universities are expected to be eligible for the program and funded this spring, according to data from the Board of Regents.

The total universe of eligible Arizona high school students is not clear, but last year about 12,400 Arizona students who filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid would have financially qualified, according to the board.

Likely even more students are eligible for the promise program but did not fill out the financial aid form in anticipation of applying to college.

State lawmakers funded the program with an initial $7.5 million this year, and the board is pushing for over $30 million next session. But regardless of state allocations, all eligible students will get funding.

Many states and cities already have promise programs in place  locally, for example, Mesa has a free tuition program for Mesa Community College students.

The hope is that this state scholarship will help increase Arizonas relatively low level of college completion and also incentivize high school students to be college-ready and graduate so they can have access to free tuition.

Its messaging down into eighth, ninth, tenth grade to students and their families who are making long-term decisions about their academic career, that even if youre a very low-income person, you can go to college, that avenue is available to you, that our state wants you to go to college, and we want that promise there for you, Arnold said.

Who is eligible for free college?

Students who qualify get a guarantee that their tuition and fees will be covered, according to the board. The scholarship fills any gaps for students in tuition and fees after their Pell Grant and any other aid they may receive.

This is a promise. Its a guarantee, Arnold said. If you meet all of those criteria, you receive the scholarship.

Scholarships are starting this coming spring semester for qualified students who already are enrolled. The board and three universities are working on plans to market it across the state to get more eligible students aware of the program and ready to enroll next fall.
HARRISBURG, Pa.  Gov. Tom Wolfs administration and a voting-system manufacturer are trying to prevent Republican lawmakers from expanding what they call a forensic investigation of Pennsylvanias 2020 election to a new front: inspecting voting machines.

It is another step driven by former President Donald Trumps baseless claims about election fraud.

Lawyers for Wolfs top election official, Veronica DeGraffenreid, asked a court late Friday afternoon to stop a digital data exchange scheduled for next Wednesday in southern Pennsylvanias sparsely populated Fulton County.

The election equipment used in last years presidential election in the heavily Republican county has already been decertified by the state after Fulton County let a software company inspect the equipment. The firm  West Chester-based software company Wake TSI  was not federally accredited to inspect voting machines, and it later played a role in Republicans widely discredited partisan audit in Arizona.

Allowing a similarly unaccredited and inexperienced contractor hired by Pennsylvanias Senate Republicans to obtain digital data from the equipment will spoil evidence in Fulton Countys lawsuit challenging the states decertification, lawyers for DeGraffenreid wrote in a court filing.

On Dec. 10, the investigating committee chair, Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, sent a letter requesting the digital data from the election computers and hardware used in the 2020 election by Fulton County.

Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems warned Fulton County that granting the Senate Republicans contractor access to its equipment to get the digital data violates their contract.

But Dominion  whose voting equipment has been at the center of some of the most feverish conspiracy theories about last years presidential election  said Fulton County has a backup copy of the data that it could simply provide without granting access to Dominions equipment.

However, a lawyer representing Fulton County, Tom King, said in an interview Saturday that digital election data is not only what Dush wants.

Rather, Dush wants the Senate Republicans contractor, Envoy Sage, to conduct a forensic investigation to determine if Dominions equipment used there was the same equipment as was certified by the state of Pennsylvania for use in last years election, King said.

I think people simply want to know whether what was used in Fulton County was in fact the equipment that was certified for Dominion to supply in Pennsylvania or whether it wasnt, King said. Whether it was or wasnt is not clear to us at this point.

King said a county commissioner who spoke with Dush told him that the thrust of the inquiry was about the Dominion equipment. Wake TSIs inspection did not cover that, King said.

Voting systems that pass anti-tampering tests are certified by states. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission accredits labs to test voting machines and provides guidance to states on how to maintain a chain of custody over voting systems.

King said granting the request is allowed under the contract and that he views Envoy Sage as highly qualified to do the work. Separately, King also said that the exercise will not affect the court case or the states rights in court.

Court arguments were scheduled for Tuesday.

Trump and his allies have applied ongoing pressure in those battleground states where he lost to Democrat Joe Biden  including in Pennsylvania  for his allies to investigate ballots, voting machines and voter rolls for evidence to support their baseless claims about election fraud.

Dush  who has advocated for overturning Bidens victory over Trump in Pennsylvania  did not say why he is seeking the access, or whether he is seeking similar access in other counties.

He did not return a message about it.

Dush has insisted the undertaking has nothing to do with Trump or trying to overturn last years presidential election, but rather is about fixing problems in the states elections.

In any case, analyzing voting machine data is not specifically outlined in the Senate Republicans $270,000 contract with Envoy Sage, raising the question of whether Trump-aligned groups are footing part of the bill, as they did in the Arizona undertaking.

Dush has said he wanted to bring the Arizona-style election audit to Pennsylvania.

Unlike in Arizona, a subpoena approved by Dushs Republican-controlled state Senate committee to Pennsylvania election officials stopped short of demanding ballots and voting machines, and other counties have rebuffed less formal requests.

But in Fulton County, Dush has found a willing partner.

There, Trump won more than 85% of last years vote, according to official returns, and registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats by 7 to 2.

In post-election internal emails released through public records requests, Fulton Countys two Republican commissioners expressed solidarity with Republican senators who later sought to block Pennsylvanias electoral votes from being cast for Biden. One wrote, We cant let this election get stolen.

No prosecutor, judge or election board in Pennsylvania has raised a concern about widespread fraud in 2020s election, and courts at all levels have rejected claims about fraud, irregularities and violations.

___

Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter.
NEW YORK  British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell appeared in court on Saturday for a rare weekend hearing where attorneys made arguments about how the judge should instruct a jury on the law in Maxwells sex abuse trial.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan scheduled the hearing  held in an otherwise closed courthouse and with jurors absent  in an effort to keep Maxwells trial on a fast track that will have her case reach a jury early next week. Closing arguments and Nathans reading of about 80 pages of instructions are set for Monday.

Prosecutors and Maxwells attorneys spent the morning in federal court in Manhattan sparring over the exact wording the judge will use to describe to jurors the legal elements that must be proven to convict Maxwell on six criminal counts, including sex trafficking of a minor. One of the requests by Maxwells lawyers that was approved: the judge should refer to her as Ms. Maxwell instead of the defendant.

An attentive Maxwell sat at the defense table, sometimes taking notes. Her brother and sister, ever present at the trial these past three weeks, were among the spectators.

Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges that prosecutors say show that she and financier Jeffrey Epstein were involved in a scheme to groom teenagers to have sexual encounters with him. The defense has countered by claiming shes being made a scapegoat for 66-year-old Epstein, who killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited his own sex trafficking trial.

The defense rested its case on Friday after Maxwell told the judge she wouldnt testify.

Your Honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no reason for me to testify, Maxwell said.
LUBBOCK, Texas  A 4-year-old boy was shot and killed during an apparent drive-by shooting in an east Lubbock neighborhood, police said Saturday.

Police said in a statement officers responded to a report of shots fired Friday night and learned 4-year-old Cornelius Carrington had been shot. The boy had already been taken by a private vehicle to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Police said Saturday no arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.
ATLANTA  A Texas man has been sentenced in Atlanta to serve more than 12 years in federal prison for organizing online groups to share child pornography where users were encouraged to share pictures and videos of all things taboo.

Michael Stephen Autry, of Brownwood, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Atlanta to serve 12 1/2 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. Autry, 42, had pleaded guilty in June to distribution of child pornography.

Autry created a group called Taboo Train 2.0 on the Kik messaging app in June 2017. Federal prosecutors said in a news release that he wrote that the group was meant for members to share pics and videos of all things taboo.  incest, young, your own family members, etc. to discuss taboo fantasies and real life stories.

An undercover FBI agent was invited to join the group and was able to record communications and postings and identify the groups members. The group had more than 50 people, many living outside the U.S., but most didnt post photos or videos, prosecutors said.

Within a few weeks, prosecutors said, the groups members showed more sexual interest in boys than girls, so Autry created a new group called The Common Interest. The undercover FBI agent was also invited to join that group. Again in an introductory message, Autry said the group was meant for taboo images, specifically incest, teens, and taboo relationships (young/old, teacher/student, etc.) That group had more than 60 members.

In November and December of 2017, Autry was added to two other groups on Kik where members shared photos and videos of children being sexually abused. He invited the undercover FBI agent to join both groups.

It shocks the conscience when someone finds pleasure in looking at photos and videos showing children being sexually abused, U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in the release. It is even more disturbing when someone like Autry gathers men together in online groups for the purpose of sharing these horrific images.

Eleven other people have been charged with child pornography offenses for their membership in these Kik groups, prosecutors said.
DENVER  The 110-year prison sentence meted out Dec. 13 to the truck driver who killed four people when he lost his brakes on Interstate 70 put a renewed spotlight on Colorados mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and on district attorneys ability to use such laws to ensure convictions lead to prison time.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was sentenced to a prison term twice as long as some Colorado murderers after his convictions triggered provisions in state law that forced District Court Judge Bruce Jones to lay down a minimum 110-year sentence.

The judge said during the sentencing hearing that he had no discretion to set a lesser prison term, though he would have liked to. One family member of a man who died in the fiery 28-car pileup in Lakewood said he did not want a life sentence for the truck driver.

And the day after the sentencing, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King  who pursued the convictions that led to the 110-year sentence  said in a statement she would welcome a reconsideration of the prison term.

Aguilera-Mederos sentence stretched to more than a century because under Colorado law, first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault are so-called crimes of violence in which prison sentences must run consecutively, and not concurrently, when they spring from the same incident.

This is a grossly excessive sentence, said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. It cries out for the reform of sentencing laws. But I think calls for change also need to be directed at the seldom-criticized but largely unchecked power of prosecutors. They have the power to decide who goes to prison and for how long. Prosecutors decide on the charges to file, and they decide what plea bargains to offer.

King refused to talk to The Denver Post about the case, which was initially charged under her predecessor, Pete Weir, and instead sent statements through a spokesman.

The facts and consequences of Mr. Aguilera-Mederos decisions that day were extraordinary enough to support pursuing first-degree assault charges, she said. Aguilera-Mederos refused to accept any plea offer other than a traffic ticket, King said, and the convictions recognize the harm caused to victims of the crash.

My administration contemplated a significantly different outcome in this case, but Mr. Aguilera-Mederos wasnt interested in pursuing those negotiations, she said.

Aguilera-Mederos attorney, James Colgan, would not discuss what sort of plea bargain was considered, except to say that the discussions were not fruitful.

Silverstein said Kings statement suggests the district attorneys office overcharged the case to try to pressure Aguilera-Mederos into pleading guilty rather than taking the case to trial.

Its out of line for the prosecutor to blame the defendant for exercising his constitutional rights, Silverstein said.

George Brauchler, former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, disagreed.

I have little sympathy for someone who turns down a reasonable plea bargain offer, and then goes to trial and bemoans the fact that the worst thing that could happen to them happened, he said.

Colorados mandatory minimums largely were established in the 1990s as a tough-on-crime response to rising crime rates and a perception among conservative politicians that the states judges were handing out light sentences, said Stan Garnett, former Boulder County district attorney.

There were concerns that sentences for the same crimes varied dramatically depending on the judge and perhaps on the defendant, Brauchler said.

The laws give tremendous power to district attorneys, Garnett said.

You can, in the way you charge the case, predetermine what the sentence is going to be, and put an extreme amount of pressure on the defendant to plea, he said. It makes it impossible for a judge to fashion a sentence that fits the particular crime and particular defendant.

Brauchler said the laws ensure that perpetrators of violent crime who harm multiple victims are held responsible with prison sentences for each victim, since the terms must run consecutively.

This guy killed four people, Brauchler said. How much time are four lives worth?

He added that people convicted of vehicular homicide in Colorado, which carries a recommended sentence of between two and six years in prison, are eligible to be sentenced to probation instead of prison.

If that was the only charge, vehicular homicide, that guy might have walked out of the courtroom, he said. Theres no outcome, using those weak charges, that comes even close to justice. That cant be justice when you kill four people.

A jury in October found Aguilera-Mederos guilty of four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempted first-degree assault, four counts of careless driving causing death, two counts of vehicular assault and one count of reckless driving.

The states mandatory-minimum laws have faced criticism in recent years, and some of the states minimums have been reduced or removed.

State Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who sits on the states year-old Sentencing Reform Task Force, said Tuesday that hes looking into Aguilera-Mederos case.

When I saw the story this morning, I thought it was worth making some inquiries of both prosecutors and defense counsel alike as to whether this is an anomaly, whether this is something we ought to deal with and, frankly, to see whether it is something as were doing our sentencing reform that could be addressed, he said.

The task force, formed by Gov. Jared Polis last year to review and suggest changes to the states sentencing laws, began its work with misdemeanor cases and has not yet considered reforms to felony sentencing, said Maureen Cain, a task force member and director of legislative policy and external communications for the Colorado Public Defenders Office. That work should start next year.

Aguilera-Mederos intends to appeal the jurys verdict, Colgan said, and is also considering a variety of challenges to the sentence, though those challenges will have to wait until the appeal process concludes. An online petition calling for Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos sentence had more than 1 million signatures Wednesday night.

The law is just so frustrating because it ends up in miscarriages of justice like this, Colgan said Tuesday. The law is poorly written.

The states mandatory sentencing law allows for the trial judge to reduce the sentence within 91 days of Aguilera-Mederos commitment to the Department of Corrections, after the department evaluates Aguilera-Mederos and submits a report to the judge. The judge must find unusual and extenuating circumstances to modify the sentence, the law says  a step Jones implied hed be willing to take.

Aguilera-Mederos could also ask the court to reconsider the sentence through other legal avenues, Colgan said.

Colgan expects Augilera-Mederos will not be eligible for parole until he is in his 70s or 80s  state law says he must serve 75% of his sentence (thatd be about 82 years) before he can be paroled.

That percentage often ends up being closer to 50% of the total sentence once the Department of Corrections applies credits for time served, good time and other measures, Brauchler said.

Nobody on planet Earth can tell you how many days this guy will serve before he is parole-eligible, Brauchler said.

Colgan said the states mandatory minimum sentencing laws should be changed to give more discretion to judges.

(If) you dont allow the judge to put some humanity into the law, it becomes a rubber stamp, he said, and everybody gets sucked in.
DENVER  The U.S. militarys new Southern Command Gen. Laura Richardson said Friday she is focused on strengthening military relationships with South American countries despite fraught politics.

Richardson was in Denver to speak at a graduation ceremony at her alma mater, Metropolitan State University, a little more than a month after taking on her role as the highest ranking female in the U.S. Army.

While the politics between the U.S. and South American nations might not be what we would want . the military relationships are really strong, Richardson said in a media roundtable.

Richardson referenced an example in El Salvador where U.S. political relationships are souring. In November, Jean Manes, the interim charge daffaires in El Salvador announced she was leaving her post and said the government of President Nayib Bukele is showing no interest in improving the bilateral relationship.

Manes departure was preceded by the Bukele government pulling out of an anti-corruption agreement with the Organization of American States and their refusal to extradite members of the MS-13 gang to the U.S. for trial.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government also published lists of allegedly corrupt officials in Central America which included Bukeles Chief of Staff Carolina Recinos.

Meanwhile, Richardson said the U.S.-El Salvador security partnership remains strong, adding that she recently called the Minister of National Defense Rene Francis Merino Monroy to offer condolences for his son who died as a pilot in an aircraft accident. The U.S. also sent a helicopter unit from Honduras to aid with search and rescue, she said.

Richardson noted that 23 countries came to the Southern Commands October change of command ceremony where she was officially given her position as head of the agency.

That was really tremendous to have that many come and represent because they want to partner with us, she said. They want to do the exercises. They want to work with us as much as possible.

Since assuming the position, Richardson traveled to Colombia and Brazil. She recalled her father in her hometown of Northglenn, Colorado, asking how far she was and what time zone she was in.

I wonder how many other people are like my father and dont realize how close things are, she said. Because those are our neighbors,.

As the new agency head, Richardson said shes thinking about how to maintain relationships with nations large and small so we never leave anybody  untouched or feeling like were not partnering with them.

Richardson said the work of Southern Command is increasingly related to humanitarian response due to climate change disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes. Theyre also dealing with heightened illicit drug trades noting that metric tons of cocaine intercepted by the U.S. more than doubled between 2019 and 2020.

As a woman who broke through numerous glass ceilings in the military, Richardson said she strives to represent her demographic and make them proud and quipped, you can get in there and hook and jab with the rest of them.

___

Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
PHOENIX  The Arizona commission that is redrawing legislative and congressional district lines appeared poised to tilt congressional maps heavily toward Republicans before votes on Friday made that seem less likely.

Fridays decision by the independent chair to side with the commissions two Democrats was a surprise for many because Chairwoman Erika Neuberg has only broken with the panels two Republicans twice in recent months. The decisions come as the panel races to finalize next week the new maps that will be used for the coming decade.

The congressional maps have appeared likely to allow Republicans to pick up at minimum two additional seats, tilting the states nine-member congressional delegation from its 5-4 Democratic majority to a 6-3 Republican makeup. But even with the changes made by the commission Friday, Democratic seats held by Reps. Tom OHalleran and Anne Kirkpatrick, who had previously announced she planned to retire, could flip.

The congressional map adopted by a 3-2 vote Friday starts with three solid Democratic districts and four Republican. Two others are very competitive. Changes the commission made and more in the coming days will determine the final outcome.

The Republicans had proposed a map that had six solid Republican seats, two Democratic and one competitive district that leaned slightly toward Democrats.

The legislative map is also very much in flux, and the five members of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission spent much of Friday morning rejiggering district lines after a 3-2 vote to start with a revised map suggested by the panels two Democrats.

Democrats are trying to lock in gains their party made in the past decade that saw them draw nearly even in the 60 member GOP-controlled House. The Republican majority in the 30-seat Senate has been fairly consistent at a one- or two-seat margin since the previous once-a-decade redistricting.

Republicans hold single-seat margins in each chamber and their proposal for the 30 districts was tilted toward retaking some of those seats.

Democrats watching the process see little hope theyll end up with a chance to win legislative control.

It doesnt look like theres going to be a pathway where Democrats are going to be able to take control unless like literally every star aligns and every, every kind of factor that sways elections lines up all at the same time, said state Sen. Martin Quezada.

The panel, made up of two Republicans, two Democrats and Neuberg, an independent chair who has mainly backed Republican-backed versions of the maps, met three days this week and has four additional meetings scheduled. It will meet Sunday through Wednesday, when it plans to vote on final maps.

However, Neuberg sided with the Democrats on the legislative map Friday morning. She said their proposal better incorporated the needs of the states minority communities.

I want the public to know were disappointed, Republican Commissioner Douglas York said after that vote.

Despite Friday mornings disappointment, Republicans have successfully pushed their priorities in the Legislature, drawing a new safe seat in the heavily Democratic Tucson area where they were locked out in 2011.

Where they really have come out ahead  at least so far  is on the congressional maps. Draft maps adopted in October changed OHallerans 1st District to a strong Republican District by adding conservative Yavapai County. The current and proposed districts run east and include the Democrat-heavy Navajo Nation.

An effort Democratic Commissioner Derrick Watchman made last week to erase the inclusion of Yavapai County fell flat, as Neuberg refused to go along.

The draft maps also remade Kirkpatricks 2nd District into a GOP-favoring district by excluding parts of Tucson and adding northern Pima County areas that are much more Republican.

Neuberg also made it exceptionally clear on Thursday that she disagreed with a Democratic push to focus on making more competitive districts. The commission created by voters in 2000 lays out a series of criteria the panel must consider, and she said her view was that competitiveness was the least of those.

Shes been more focused on communities of interest, which other commissioners also focus on. In reality, those communities of interest have consistently equaled putting areas with like-minded political bent together.

Neuberg has also repeatedly acted as a peacemaker and consensus-builder, and drew praise earlier last week from Democratic Commissioner Shereen Lerner. She said Neuberg was being unfairly criticized by Democrats, as the chair of the 2011 commission was a decade ago by Republicans.

I believe our chair has the best interest of the state in mind and will work toward that end, Lerner said. And I know she has worked to understand the needs of our state.

Neuberg said she decided to start with the Democratic congressional map Friday because it better addressed areas she was concerned with. Whether that leads to a more balanced end product remains in doubt.
PORTLAND, Maine  A big postal rate increase over the summer hasnt stopped catalog retailers from stuffing mailboxes this holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service says more than 300 million catalogs flooded into peoples mailboxes last month, and the overall number of catalogs has grown 12% over last year, officials said.

The boost continues a positive trend for catalogers that are defying those who predicted their demise in a digital world.

The industry is not dying. There are plenty of companies that are still aggressively mailing catalogs, said Paul Miller, vice president and deputy director of the American Catalog Mailers Association.

Some online retailers like Bonobos, Amazon and Wayfair began mailing catalogs in recent years. A few that went away, like the Sharper Image and J. Peterman, have returned. Heavyweights like Lands End, Hammacher Schlemmer and L.L. Bean never wavered.

Several factors are working in favor of catalog retailers.

For starters, digital advertising on e-commerce websites has grown as much as 20% to 40% this year even as privacy policy changes  Apples efforts in particular  have made it more difficult to target ads and measure their effectiveness, said Andrew Lipsman, retail analyst at eMarketer.

Further, some find online shopping difficult to navigate  a space that is jumbled thanks to algorithms, marketing and advertising, analysts say, making it hard for people to find what they want.

Jonathan Zhang, a professor of marketing at Colorado State University, said another important factor is that catalog and store shoppers are more loyal to brands than people who shop online only.

His research found a higher return on investment from catalogs because those shoppers buy more than online-only shoppers.

The internets clutter tends to produce shoppers who search for specific things, preventing the serendipitous discoveries that shoppers make while browsing in a store or catalog, he said.

New York shopper Helen Kaplow acknowledges its easier to thumb through catalogs and circle items of interest or dog-ear the pages, rather than scrolling through websites. One of her favorite catalogs around this time of the year is from The Vermont Country store.

Catalogs do seem a bit old-fashioned. Theyre so analog. But I think it may be their only way of getting visuals in front of you, said Kaplow, who hasnt set foot in a store in years.

Nonetheless, catalogs remain expensive to print and mail.

The U.S. Postal Service gave a one-two punch to the industry this year with a 3% postage increase in January followed by an additional, unexpected increase of nearly 9% implemented in August.

But consumer spending remains hot and catalogs are a way for retailers to differentiate themselves, so it makes sense for retailers who can afford to distribute catalogs to do so, Lipsman said.

Catalog numbers dropped about 40% between 2006 to 2018, when an estimated 11.5 billion were mailed to homes, but theyve stabilized and are showing signs of an uptick in volume, according to Miller at the ACMA.

Miller said catalogs wont be going away anytime soon, partly because they have staying power compared to the fleeting impact of email, online advertisements and other digital communication.

People are used to clicking and moving on, but the catalog is still sitting there on your coffee table. Its going to continue to entice you to shop, he said.
The newly launched Q Station co-working space and business accelerator in Nob Hill is bustling with activity, although visitors there might not know it.

During a recent tour of the 9,000-square-foot center, which opened last April, only a handful of people were scattered throughout the sprawling facility, working quietly on iPads and laptops.

But, while not visible to visitors, dozens of individuals are now collaborating constantly through Q Station at any given time, linked together in cyberspace through Q Stations array of business development services that aim to accelerate the growth of space-related companies, and of firms working on directed energy, or laser and microwave technology.

In fact, the centers first accelerator program is well underway, having launched in October with a cohort of six early-stage space companies that now meet monthly online, and in frequent workshops and events between the monthly meetings.

Those meetups are helping unite the cohort teams with a broad range of local support organizations and individuals, said Randy Trask, New Mexico Trade Alliance president and Q Station executive director.

Our teams cover every aspect of support that the companies need, Trask told the Journal. Its an a la carte tool box they can tap into through collective events and individual meetings that offer broad learning opportunities, resources and business connections.

Q Station is basically a hybrid economic development center to help new and existing companies from New Mexico and elsewhere grow their businesses here, Trask said. But its just the tip of the iceberg in local efforts to expand New Mexicos space-related economy.

Maturing business environment

The Nob Hill center is part of a broad ecosystem thats now providing comprehensive public and private support to build the states nascent commercial space sector into a thriving industry.

That network includes an array of public and private agencies and organizations that have come together in recent years to make New Mexico a national hot spot for space-related development.

New Mexico has long been a key player in the space industry, with local development spurred largely by space-related endeavors at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, and at the states national laboratories. Those federal entities have helped attract a formidable array of private companies to provide support services, including such large firms as Boeing and Northrop Grumman, plus small and mid-sized homegrown businesses.

Those activities, combined with advanced aerospace programs at the states three research universities, have created a huge pool of space-related talent in New Mexico.

And that, in turn, has converted the state into a key national hub for military efforts to modernize the nations space-based defense technology, and to build an industrial platform for emerging commercial space endeavors.

Those efforts have gained momentum as the U.S. strives to retain its leadership position in the 21st-century commercial space industry, through which governments and private industry across the globe are working to develop new technology for space exploration and human settlement.

In southern New Mexico, a growing number of companies are now independently creating new commercial space technology and services at Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic is spearheading the development of space tourism for private individuals.

In contrast, in the Mid-Rio Grande Corridor, industry momentum is generally connected to the newly formed U.S. Space Force. Thats because key defense entities responsible for technology development and readiness, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, and the AFRL-run Space Vehicles Directorate, are located at Kirtland.

Like NASA, which now relies heavily on private companies for products and services, the Space Force and the Air Force have both turned to the private sector to help build the technology needed to modernize the nations space defense systems.

To do that, theyve created novel programs to boost commercial innovation through public-private partnerships, including business accelerators and incubators that help align commercial space development with defense needs, often leading to contracts for companies with promising technologies.

In New Mexico, those efforts have blossomed into a broad ecosystem that includes Q Station and other support programs for companies, with many public and private entities cooperating together on those programs in coordination with the AFRL.

Hyperspace Challenge

The AFRL itself helped ignite those joint efforts by launching a Space Force Accelerator Program in 2018, which now includes a business development center for space-related companies in Colorado Springs.

In New Mexico, it created an annual Hyperspace Challenge accelerator program for select companies to learn about government needs and explore ways to align their technology development with those missions.

AFRL coordinates the Hyperspace Challenge in cooperation with the ABQid business accelerator run by CNM Ingenuity, which manages all of Central New Mexico Community Colleges commercial endeavors. It culminates each fall in a demo day where participating companies compete for cash prizes.

Participating firms work directly with government scientists, engineers and mentors to learn about technology needs, design business plans to meet them, and explore funding and contract opportunities, said Space Force Accelerator Program Director Gabe Mounce.

To date, 49 companies have participated. About 70% of them later won contracts, received funding, or built new partnerships.

Its all about establishing connections between companies and government stakeholders to accelerate the development of technology through business innovation, Mounce told the Journal.

This year, the Hyperspace Challenge was expanded to include universities in addition to private companies, allowing 11 university research teams to participate, including one from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.

That program expansion can allow the Space Force to gain more access to academic research and expertise, while promoting networking among universities and private companies, said AFRL New Mexicos Technology Engagement Office Director Matt Fetrow.

The participants can learn from each other, Fetrow told the Journal. That can lead to new partnerships and possibly new startup companies.

AFRL-backed tech hubs

Last year, the AFRL created a new entity, SpaceWERX, to further develop its support programs for space-related companies. Thats now the umbrella organization for Space Force technology innovation, said Mounce, who also serves as SpaceWERX deputy director.

Among other things, SpaceWERX administers the AFRLs Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, funding for space-related companies seeking technology development grants. And its working to create innovation hubs in such key locations as Albuquerque, which led to Q Stations establishment this year.

The AFRL contracted the NM Trade Alliance to operate Q Station. And the Trade Alliance and its partners  including the city of Albuquerque, the state Economic Development Department and Global Ties ABQ  won a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to support Q Station programs, including management of two accelerator cohorts per year, starting with the first one for space companies that began in October.

Two companies from New Hampshire and South Carolina are participating in the current cohort, along with four from other countries, including Germany, Italy and Singapore. Local firms could be selected for future cohorts, but the inclusion of companies from other states and countries gives the Space Force access to a much broader array of technology innovation, while allowing the Trade Alliance and its partners to bring new businesses and investment into the state, said Trask, the Alliance president.

By supporting international companies, were addressing a niche opportunity that we dont see happening in most other places, Trask said. These are companies that want to expand into the U.S. They need a lot of hand-holding, more so than domestic companies, on how to get set up and do business here.

The inaugural Soft Landing space-tech cohort is specifically designed to ease entrance into New Mexico for out-of-state and foreign companies, providing comprehensive wrap-around services to help them get established here throughout the yearlong accelerator program. The Trade Alliance and its partners provide those services, along with many allied organizations also working to build the local space industry.

New Space NM, for example  an industry association that launched in 2018  is providing networking and mentoring to connect Q Station companies directly with local resources, and other space-related public and private entities. That group now unites 138 New Mexico-based companies and organizations as active members in a New Space Alliance thats working to build collaborative relations, mutual support and partnerships, said New Space CEO Casey DeRaad.

Were working with all six companies in the Q Station cohort to connect them with buyers and suppliers for their technologies, DeRaad told the Journal. Weve met with each one of them, and weve already introduced some to large prime contractors and Space Force folks. We hope to organize a private investor showcase next March, where some of the cohort companies can present their technologies.

The goal is to lay the operational foundations for the Q Station firms to remain in New Mexico and grow their companies here after the accelerator ends, Trask said. In fact, program participants are required to make Q Station their U.S. headquarters, register their business in New Mexico and have at least one employee working at the facility.

The companies receive free workspace there for a year, with a paid university intern assigned to them. And the program includes quarterly field trips to key space-related installations in New Mexico, including a tour of the AFRL at Kirtland, and an outing to Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range next year.

The goal is to make them think they shouldnt leave New Mexico, Trask said. The onus is on us to make their experience here so positive and worthwhile that they dont ever think of going somewhere else.

Companies relocating

The strategy is already working, said Q Station Program and Operations Director Alberto Solis. Equatorial Space Systems  a Singapore-based cohort participant thats developing hybrid rocket propulsion systems that use a mix of solid and liquid fuels  is planning to move its entire operation to New Mexico.

Theyre in the process now of relocating their company to Albuquerque, Solis told the Journal. They want to do a launch next March from Spaceport America.

Neutron Star Systems, another cohort participant thats headquartered in Germany, officially incorporated a U.S.-based affiliate company  Neutro Star Systems USA Corp.  on May 31 after participating in the SpaceWERX accelerator program in Colorado early this year. It now plans to make New Mexico the permanent home for its U.S. affiliate, said Neutron Chief Technology Officer Marcus Collier-Wright.

At Q Station, theyre rolling out the red carpet for us coming to New Mexico, Collier-Wright told the Journal.  We plan to set up our operations in New Mexico and stay there.

The company is developing electric-based propulsion engines to maneuver systems that are already operating in space, which could significantly lower fuel costs and provide a lot more control capabilities for such things as in-orbit servicing of satellites or space-based assembly and manufacturing operations. In the long term, it plans to integrate its technology with nuclear power reactors to create advanced propulsion systems for cargo missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, said Neutron CEO Manuel La Rosa Betancourt.

Q Station offers us a way to articulate this vision by facilitating connections to key players in the New Mexico ecosystem, which offers the unique combination of leading know-how on nuclear engineering, and a strong government presence, Betancourt told the Journal in an email.  Our main hope is to build a team of pioneer engineers in New Mexico that can help us realize this vision.

Neutron also participated in this years Hyperspace Challenge, winning a third-place $10,000 prize at the Dec. 3 demo day. That provided immense company recognition among potential government customers, advancing its commercial prospects, while reinforcing its plan to operate in New Mexico, Collier-Wright said.

One government contractor already got in touch with us as a result, he said.

Unite & Ignite Launchpad

Q Station is generally geared toward startups and early-stage companies that need a lot of accelerator and incubator assistance. But later-stage firms that are nearing production, or already making products and generating some revenue, need an advanced level of support to fully transition from research and development into manufacturing, and then to scale their operations through revenue-generating contracts with government and commercial customers.

To assist those firms, AFRL and New Space NM have partnered to create the Unite & Ignite Launchpad, which will include two incubator facilities, or innovation hubs, next to Kirtland and the Albuquerque International Sunport. New Space received a five-year, $11 million AFRL contract last spring to build out and operate those facilities.

New Space inaugurated the first hub this summer, although its still putting the final touches in place for that 8,700-square-foot facility, located just north of the Sunport.

Apart from open collaborative spaces, offices and conference rooms, it will include high-tech equipment for small satellite manufacture, and for building, testing and evaluating space technology components and products. It will also include a clean room, New Space CEO DeRaad said.

Its designated as an open, unclassified lab space where companies can do hardware demonstrations.

Its not for startups, but for next-level companies whose business concepts are already developed with initial technology prototypes, but who need infrastructure and direct customer connections to attract investment, and get to a higher level of technology and business readiness to scale up, DeRaad said. Its for rapid prototyping and direct connections with stakeholders to unite companies with suppliers, customers and others, and ignite new technology development.

A second, 15,000-square-foot innovation hub will be located at the forthcoming MaxQ mixed-use complex that Thunderbird Kirtland Development LLC is now building on the north side of the Air Force base to house space-related companies and other businesses. MaxQ could eventually concentrate dozens of high-tech firms together in office, laboratory, retail and manufacturing facilities on 70 acres of Kirtland property, stretching from Carlisle to Truman on the south side of Gibson.

New Space expects to open its MaxQ-based facility by year-end 2022, offering similar business development and networking services as its first hub near the Sunport, but with the addition of secure management protocols and space for tenants to work on classified projects, DeRaad said.

A lot of mid-level firms are already planning to lease space there, plus one large, established company, DeRaad said.

Full-cycle ecosystem

Taken together, the Hyperspace Challenge, Q Station and Unite & Ignite offer a full suite of accelerator and incubator programs and services for space-related companies at all stages to launch and grow their businesses here, Trask said. Hyperspace and Q Station are geared more to startups and firms in the early stages of building space products and services.

Hyperspace, which is mostly conducted online, provides broad outreach to attract local, national and international companies, and connect them with resources and potential customers. Q Station, in contrast, offers a permanent, physical hub with longer-term wraparound services to help firms get fully established in New Mexico.

Unite & Ignite helps businesses transition to the next level, from research and development to manufacturing operations.

New Mexico has a huge research and development base in place that has attracted many companies here, but its hard for private companies to move from R&D contracts into manufacturing operations and jobs, Trask said. We see a real opportunity now to grow it all to that next level.

The full-circle ecosystem unites public and private entities together across the board, from defense and other government agencies to educational institutions, private companies, economic development organizations and industry associations. And, in that sense, New Mexico is spearheading a whole of government approach  which is emerging at the national level to retain U.S. leadership in the global space industry  but, in this case, at the state level.

Its also opened the gates that traditionally separate defense and other government agencies from civic and business organizations, allowing personnel from AFRL and other Kirtland-based entities to come out from behind the fence to collaborate directly with local industry and community groups, Trask said.

For now, the pandemic is still forcing most local programs and events to take place online, which conceals to some extent the bustling activities already underway at, for example, Q Station. But as coronavirus restrictions ease, Q Station will launch more open-group activities, including technology workshops, regular networking events, and such things as fireside chats with space-related experts, Trask said.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

The goal of improving the literacy levels of New Mexico youth in the states three secure juvenile lockup facilities is critical, but you cant get to a kids head, unless you start at their heart, said Joyce Gormley, deputy superintendent of juvenile justice education for the state Children, Youth and Families Department.

The two centers operated by CYFD in Albuquerque are Camino Nuevo Youth Center and the adjacent Youth Diagnostic and Development Center, which provide education through their combined Foothill High School. In Las Cruces, the John Paul Taylor Center houses the Aztec Youth Academy.

The three schools within the secure facilities use a curriculum that is aligned to state Public Education Department standards, the basics of which are four core courses and two electives.

The relationship that our teachers and our staff build with students is beyond any other education institution Ive worked at, Gormley said. Weve had a lot of members from outside the community, and even national education experts, come in and observe classrooms. They always comment about how the teachers have such great respect and rapport and have built strong relationships with the students. Thats essential in education, but extremely essential when youre dealing with our population.

Improving the odds

As part of that relationship, teachers also recognize the importance of meeting kids where theyre at and helping them grow in terms of academics, acquisition of life skills or dealing with behavioral health issues, she said. From there, we work on providing rigorous, engaging, student-centered activities so that they can connect with the content and make gains in math and reading.

While literacy doesnt guarantee health, wealth or happiness, it sure improves the odds, and conversely, illiteracy doesnt guarantee involvement in crime, but increases the odds of that as well, said Kurt Steinhaus, Cabinet secretary-designate of the Public Education Department.

But heres another thing about literacy: If you practice reading, you get better at it, and thats as true for first graders as it is for adults, Steinhaus said. Thats why I wanted the 2021-22 school year to be New Mexicos Year of Literacy, to remind everyone how important this skill is and to practice it.

CYFD currently has about 85 youths in its three secure facilities. The majority of them are 17 and 18 years old and most were placed there for a one- or two-year commitment, with about a dozen on whats called a youthful commitment, which will keep them in CYFDs custody until age 21, Gormley said.

GED, diploma prep

By state law, CYFD is required to provide educational programming to all youth in its care, and the youth are required by law to attend classes.

Our students, for the most part, are compliant and engaged, Gormley said. For many of the youth, the courses prepare them to take the GED or acquire a high school diploma.

In determining the literacy level of youth, administrators and teachers at Foothill and Aztec look at existing school transcripts and conduct assessments using a number of measurements, including TABE, Test of Adult Basic Education, which is given when a youth enters the facilities, and just before he or she leaves, Gormley said.

The assessments of the incoming youth show they are on average three to five years below level in math, and two to 3 years below level in reading, she said.

In addition, about 40% of the students qualify for an individualized educational lesson plan, or IED, because of some sort of a learning disability or an eligibility that impedes them from accessing the generalized curriculum, Gormley said.

The TABE scores of some exiting youth show as much as four years growth, she said, although the range, averaged over five years, shows improvement of 2 years in reading and somewhat lower in math.

Reducing recidivism

Other measurements of success can be found in the increasing percentage of youth who yearly pass the GED, and the decreasing recidivism rate, Gormley said.

In 2015, 71% of youth who took the GED passed; in 2019 it was 86%.

In FY 2019, the youth recidivism rate was 44.5%; in FY 2021 it had dropped to 33.4%.

The total cost for CYFDs secondary education programs last year was $4.7 million, which came directly from the state, and $200,000 from federal grants, Gormley said. Because safety and security is always a priority, dormitories (divided by age and other factors) are never mixed and never exceed 12 youth. Likewise, class size is limited to 12.

How we function as an agency or how we function as a facility impacts how we provide education, Gormley said. And unlike education in adult state prisons, our agency does a great job of funding our educational programs, she added. When we have a need, and the need is justified, then the need is filled by the agency.

Editors Note: This is the second in a two-part series about education programs and incarceration. The series is part of The Literacy Project, an initiative by the Journal in cooperation with KOAT-TV and KKOB News Radio that focuses on the literacy crisis in New Mexico.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

While many inmates in state prisons are required to participate in educational programs, the notion of continuing their education often becomes a distant thought after they are released.

Its partly the overwhelming nature of reentry, and life being what it is, they often have priorities like survival and reestablishing family that can get in the way, said Beth Dorado, director of Gordon Bernell Charter School in Albuquerque.

But I also think that there is a disconnect in the transitional services that give people a place to move forward, such as the limited number of transitional housing available to them and the difficulty of getting connected to a behavioral health provider, she said.

One transitional option is Gordon Bernell, an Albuquerque Public Schools charter school with three campuses. The campus inside the Metropolitan Detention Center and a second on north Fourth Street offer a high school program and an adult education program, while a third campus at the Albuquerque Job Corps only offers the high school program.

The high school program, for men and women ages 18 to 21, is funded by the state Public Education Department and allows participants to complete the requirements of a regular high school in New Mexico.

So theyre earning credits, and taking assessments, and the hope is that they will earn a high school diploma, Dorado said.

The adult education program, for people age 22 and older, is funded by the state Higher Education Department and supports a variety of initiatives, including helping students obtain their GED or HiSET certifications, or engage in some career pathway work to prepare them for jobs, Dorado said.

Weve always had a focus on working with students who are currently or have recently been incarcerated, and our population has always skewed towards older students, she said.

Gordon Bernell is unique in that it is the only educational institution in the state, outside of the Department of Corrections own education component, that deals almost exclusively with justice-involved individuals.

However, Amber Gallup Rodriguez, HEDs adult education division director, said that of 26 HED-funded adult education programs around the state, seven use a portion of their money to serve some institutionalized individuals.

Voluntary participation

The school program inside MDC does not require participation as is the case with many state prison inmates.

Our students sign up voluntarily, and we have a process to help transition them to our school on Fourth Street, Dorado said.

About 80% of the Gordon Bernell students at the Fourth Street campus come from MDC. The remaining 20% come from the surrounding community because they prefer the schools flexible model, Dorado said.

There is also an increasing number of students who had been taking classes while at MDC and were later transferred to a state Department of Corrections facility. After theyve been released, a number of them do come back to us.

Dorado said she would like to expand the relationship with the Department of Corrections, and with the departments Probation and Parole division, so that inmates leaving a prison are referred to Gordon Bernell, where they can continue their education as well as have access to some career preparation.

Founded in 2008, the Gordon Bernell Charter School began with one campus inside the jail and another located in Downtown Albuquerque. The program grew quickly and expanded to nine locations, including the Sandoval County Jail, and recovery facilities for men and women operated by state Probation and Parole services, Dorado said.

Legislative setback

In 2018 the state Legislature rewrote the eligibility definition for public education funding, cutting students off after age 21, Dorado said. That was most of our population. Our mean age student was 35, so about two thirds of our students no longer qualified to fit in that category of who was eligible to earn a diploma because they were too old.

Eventually, the Gordon Bernell School was able to get funding for older students through the state Higher Education Department and local grants. Now, those in the adult education program can pursue certifications through the GED (General Educational Development) or HiSET (High School Equivalency Test), Dorado said.

Currently, the school serves from 1,000 to 1,500 students throughout the year, about 300 at any given time. About 200 are in the program funded by $2.2 million from PED; about 100 students are in the program funded by $254,000 from HED, with an additional $100,000 in local grants.

I wouldnt say our HED budget covers the need, but it definitely provides what we need to launch the program and we are grateful for it and the relationship that continues to build, Dorado said. As we strengthen the program and show results, weve been assured by HED that the program can and will grow.

Measurable skills gains

Measuring the success of the students in the high school program can be gauged through literacy and basic math proficiency scores and by graduation results, Dorado said.

The three campuses of the school are collectively averaging about 60 graduates a year with either a diploma or a high school equivalency certification, she said.

In the adult program, were also looking for those measurable skills gains, but were also looking for gains in job and life skills, which are a little harder to measure but equally as important, she said.

Looking at thousands of Gordon Bernell student test scores from 2015 on, Dorado said the average student enters the school at about the sixth grade level, which is higher than literacy levels at prisons nationwide, where according to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 70% of inmates can not read above a fourth grade level.

This may be because most of the Gordon Bernell students at or from the Metropolitan Detention Center are more motivated and voluntarily participate in education programs.

Individuals with the lowest literacy levels are often the most hesitant to participate, Dorado said.

Further, students who were consistently enrolled for at least four months at the school improved by at least one grade level in literacy.

Overwhelmingly, the thing I hear most from our students is regret that they didnt finish school, she said. They realize they wont be able to change their lives and get the jobs theyre interested in until they get an education. Thats one of the reasons why its so gratifying to work with this population, because they really are invested in doing it different this time around.

Theyre sick and tired of being sick and tired.
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? Thats what Journal readers have been asking after 7-year-old Pronoy Bhattacharya was run down in a crosswalk on Central Avenue on Dec. 12 as his family left the River of Lights. Police say the second grader was struck by an all-terrain/off-highway vehicle, and an arrest warrant has been issued for the driver.

But readers also say such lawlessness on Albuquerque streets is nothing new  in fact it has become more and more common. Albuquerque police say they ticket and tow in these cases. And City Councilor Isaac Benton plans to introduce legislation next year to address the Mad Max dystopia our city streets have become, especially in his district, which includes the stretch where Pronoy died.

THE LAW: Rebecca Atkins with the Albuquerque Police Department says ATVs are not street-legal in Albuquerque. Other states/cities have exceptions for these vehicles, but not here. When the ATVs or other off-road type vehicles are seen on the street, officers stop them, cite them and tow the vehicle.

Charlie Moore, spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Division, says state statute 66-3-1011 prohibits ATVs/OHVs on paved roads. The state law says in part a person shall not operate an off-highway motor vehicle on any  paved street or highway except to cross a street after coming to a complete stop or if allowed by the local entity or the state Transportation Commission.

The state Department of Game and Fish has a list of where ATVs/OHVs are allowed on pavement at www.wildlife.state.nm.us/ohv/ohv-laws-and-rules/. Counties from Catron to Taos and cities from Alamogordo to TorC do allow ATVs/OHVs on paved roads.

Albuquerque and Bernalillo County do not.

THE READERS: But the Journal has received numerous letters saying the law is routinely ignored and rarely, if ever, enforced.

Casey Citrin emails as a resident of the Raynolds Addition neighborhood west of Downtown, I and many others in my area have repeatedly called 242-COPS, written comments on the 311 app, written and called our City Councillor Ike Benton  and yet nothing has happened to address the long-standing problem of this lawlessness in our area. I have seen ATVs, dirt bikes, dune buggies and many other non-legal vehicles racing around at high speeds many, many times  on Central, Gold, Silver  and have heard them even more often into the wee hours of the night.

Paul shares via email Ive definitely noticed an uptick of these types of vehicles driving on streets in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.  Why (arent) APD/RRPD doing something about it?

Prissy posts on Nextdoor I run near 98th and Arroyo Vista from time to time and there have been numerous incidents where I was almost ran over by these type vehicles and motor bikes on the secluded dirt paths near 98th and Arroyo Vista. There are clear, blatant signs that state these vehicles arent allowed in those areas. When they are riding, they kick up dirt and cant see anything. I often see children walking their pets or other runners. Ive called the police several times and nothing is being done.

Kent Argubright bought tickets to take the family to the River of Lights Dec. 9, but the traffic jams and parking in dark, almost full lots blocks away made it impossible to get a senior citizen and two developmentally delayed adults into the event safely. We drove home in disappointment. He asks why there was no police presence, signs warning parking lots were full/guiding drivers to alternative lots, or buses as with Balloon Fiesta. Unless things change/improve, its not a safe holiday option for my family any more.

THE CITY COUNCILOR: Benton wholeheartedly agrees. In a candid conversation Thursday he expressed outrage at Pronoys death and the lawlessness on too many Albuquerque streets in every quadrant of the city. He said the bosque and Central are a cherished cultural area where people come to visit  its our patronage, heritage, has to be protected.

But he also cautioned many of the lawless drivers are armed. Are as high as can be. Are already criminals. Officers are  in a tough place.

Benton credited APD Chief Harold Medina with being on board with bringing back speed cameras, a force multiplier as the department works to add officers. He said councilors are looking at adding automated noise detection or equipping public safety officers with noise meters and cameras. And he said he looks forward to working with the new councilors in 2022 to stiffen up the citys spine and not back down on enforcement.

As Casey writes: The people who live in the Downtown area deserve some enforcement, and all who visit Downtown deserve to be safe. I am furious and heartbroken that it has taken the (death) of a child to get people riled up about this. I want to see some action!

Editorial page editor DVal Westphal tackles commuter issues for the metro area on Mondays. Reach her at 505-823-3858; dwestphal@abqjournal.com; or 7777 Jefferson NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87109.
SANTIAGO, Chile  Former leftist student leader Gabriel Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the countrys presidential runoff election.

And he already is under pressure from wary investors, who sent Chiles stocks tumbling by more than 6% on Monday while the value of its peso fell sharply against the dollar.

Boric spent months traversing Chile, vowing to bring a youth-led inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The bold promise paid off. With 56% of the votes, Boric on Sunday handily defeated his opponent, far right lawmaker Jose Antonio Kast, and at age 35 was elected Chiles youngest modern president.

Amid a crush of supporters in downtown Santiago, Boric vaulted atop a metal barricade to reach the stage where he used the indigenous Mapuche language to initiate a victory speech to thousands of mostly young supporters.

We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business, Boric said. We know there continues to be justice for the rich, and justice for the poor, and we no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chiles inequality.

In his speech, the bearded, bespectacled president-elect highlighted the progressive positions that launched his improbable campaign, including a promise to fight climate change by blocking a proposed mining project in the worlds largest copper producing nation.

He also called for an end to Chiles private pension system  the hallmark of the neoliberal economic model imposed by Pinochet.

Chiles main stock market index slid by more than 6% Monday while the peso fell against the dollar.

Economists said Boric will have to propel economic growth and investment to finance promised social spending.

If the capacity for growth is not stimulated, you could have a high level of social discontent over the lack of opportunities, said Juan Bravo, an economic analyst at the Diego Portales University.

His ambitious agenda is made more challenging by a gridlocked congress and ideological divisions recalling the ghosts of Chiles past that came to the fore during the bruising campaign.

Kast, who has a history of defending Chiles past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two percentage points in the first round of voting last month. But his attempt to portray his rival as a puppet of his Communist Party allies who would upend Latin Americas most stable, advanced economy fell flat in the head-to-head runoff

Still, in a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately conceded defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone congratulating his opponent on his grand triumph. He then later traveled personally to Borics campaign headquarters to meet with his rival.

And outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire, held a video conference with Boric to offer his governments full support during the three-month transition. That will follow a runoff that saw 1.2 million more Chileans cast ballots than in the first round and raise turnout to nearly 56%, the highest since voting stopped being mandatory in 2012.

Its impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera, said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center in Washington. Chilean democracy won today, for sure.

In Santiagos subway, where a fare hike in 2019 triggered a wave of nationwide protests that exposed the shortcomings of Chiles free market model, young supporters of Boric waved flags emblazoned with the candidates name while jumping and shouting as they headed downtown for his victory speech.

This is a historic day, said Boris Soto, a teacher. Weve defeated not only fascism, and the right wing, but also fear.

Boric will become Chiles youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvadors Nayib Bukele. Only one other head of state, Giacomo Simoncini of the city-state San Marino in Europe, is younger.

The new government is likely to be closely watched throughout Latin America, where Chile has long been a harbinger of regional trends.

It was the first country in Latin America to break with U.S. dominance during the Cold War and pursue socialism with the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. It then reversed course a few years later when Pinochets coup ushered in a period of right-wing military rule that quickly launched a free market experiment throughout the region.

Borics goal is to introduce a European-style social democracy that would expand economic and political rights to attack nagging inequality without veering toward the authoritarianism embraced by so much of the left in Latin America, from Cuba to Venezuela. Its a task made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic, which sped up the reversal of a decade of economic gains.

Boric was able to prevail by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas. For example, in the northern region of Antofagasta, where he finished third in the first round of voting, he trounced Kast by almost 20 points.

Also key to his victory were Chilean women, a key voting bloc who feared that a Kast victory would roll back years of steady gains. Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine, has a long record of attacking Chiles LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws.

Boric, in his victory speech, promised that Chiles women will be protagonists in a government that seeks to leave behind once and for all the patriarchal inheritance of our society.

___

Joshua Goodman reported from Miami.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip  Each month, hundreds of trucks heavy with fuel, cement and other goods cross a plowed no mans land between Egypt and the Gaza Strip  and Hamas becomes stronger.

Hamas collects tens of millions of dollars a month in taxes and customs at the crossing in the border town of Rafah, according to estimates. The funds help it operate a government and powerful armed wing while international aid covers most of the basic needs of Gazas 2 million residents.

That this is happening with the quiet acquiescence of Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, might come as a surprise.

Israel says it works with Egypt to supervise Rafah in return for quiet. The opening of the crossing was a common interest for all parties to ensure a lifeline for Hamas that would enable it to maintain calm in Gaza and prevent an explosion, said Mohammed Abu Jayyab, an economist and editor-in-chief of a business daily in Gaza.

But theres more to it. After surviving four wars and a nearly 15-year blockade, Hamas has only become more resilient, and Israel has been forced to accept that its sworn enemy is here to stay.

It has largely accepted Hamas rule in Gaza because a prolonged invasion is seen as too costly. At the same time, Hamas furnishes Israeli leaders with a convenient boogeyman  how can the Palestinians be allowed statehood if they are divided between two governments, one of which steadfastly opposes Israels very existence?

Meanwhile, Hamas willingness to use violence  in the form of rockets, protests along the border or incendiary balloons  has helped it to wrest concessions from Israel.

Hamas stuck to its position and the Israeli government made a lot of compromises after the war in May, said Omar Shaban, a Gaza-based political analyst. Hamas was stubborn.

___

MILLIONS EACH MONTH

After Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade aimed at preventing the group from arming. A massive economy based on smuggling tunnels sprang up in and around Rafah. Hamas levied taxes on goods that were brought in.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered the tunnels destroyed after leading the 2013 overthrow of an Islamist government that had been sympathetic to Hamas. But four years and another Gaza war later, Egypt agreed to Hamas demands to open an above-ground commercial crossing.

Imports through Gazas only other functioning commercial crossing  with Israel  are already taxed by Israeli authorities, who transfer some of the revenues to the Palestinian Authority, so Hamas can only exact small tariffs without noticeably inflating prices. Rafah belongs to Hamas.

Hamas does not release figures on public revenues or expenses. An Egyptian government media officer did not respond to a request for comment.

Some 2,000 truckloads of cement, fuel and other goods entered through Rafah in September, nearly twice the monthly average in 2019 and 2020, according to Gisha, an Israeli rights group that closely monitors the Gaza closures.

Rami Abu Rish, the managing director of the crossings at the Hamas-run Economy Ministry  who used to supervise tax collection from the tunnels  says authorities derive no more than $1 million a month from the Israeli crossing and up to $6 million from Rafah.

But the Palestinian Authoritys Finance Ministry estimates Hamas derives as much as $30 million a month, mainly from taxes on fuel and tobacco coming in through Rafah, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal figures.

A cigarette importer in Gaza  who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing the trade  said a small group of merchants imports 9,000 to 15,000 crates of cigarettes through Rafah each month, with Hamas charging $1,000 to $2,000 per crate. That alone would bring in $18 million on average.

Abu Jayyab, the Gaza economist, estimates Hamas makes up to $27 million a month. Thats in addition to taxes and customs paid on cement and fuel.

Mohammed Agha, whose family owns a chain of gas stations in Gaza, was one of the few businessmen who agreed to speak publicly about Hamas management of the crossings. He said gas station owners are forced to buy most of their fuel from the supplies coming through Rafah because Hamas benefits from the trade.

He said Hamas jailed him for two months in 2019 when he protested the arrangement.

We as businessmen are sustaining the government as the wider economy suffers, he said. Before Hamas, 1,000 shekels (about $320) a month was enough for a family to get by. Now, 5,000 isnt enough because they tax the citizens.

The money Hamas collects could go to its estimated 50,000 civil servants or supporters of the political movement. Or it could be spent on Hamas armed wing, which has improved its military capabilities with every war and fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel in 11 days last spring.

___

HAMAS AND ISRAEL

Hamas burst onto the scene during the first intifada, or uprising, in 1987. As the then-dominant Palestine Liberation Organization joined the nascent peace process with Israel, Hamas embraced armed struggle.

The militant group launched scores of attacks, including suicide bombings, in the 1990s and 2000s. Hundreds of Israelis were killed. The group called for Israels demise and rejected peace negotiations. It adopted a more moderate political platform in 2017, but its goals hardly changed.

In 2006, Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian elections, igniting a bloody power struggle with President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party. Hamas seized power in Gaza the following year, confining his authority to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Abbas peaceful approach has spared the West Bank from war and isolation, but he has been powerless to end the 54-year military occupation or stop the expansion of Jewish settlements. There have been no substantive peace talks in over a decade, and Israels current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

By contrast, Israel withdrew all its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005  after a second and more violent Palestinian uprising  and its soldiers cannot enter without risking war.

Israel refuses to talk to Hamas, but over the last decade it has negotiated a series of informal cease-fires through Egyptian, Qatari and U.N. mediators in which it has eased the blockade in return for calm.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, attributes much of his groups popularity to the failure of the other project, referring to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

The majority of Palestinian factions believe that resistance, and particularly armed resistance, has to be one of the tools in our struggle for freedom. He said the easing of the blockade doesnt address the root of the problem, which is the siege and the occupation.

Bennett was an outspoken critic of the previous governments policy of allowing Qatar to send suitcases of cash into Gaza through an Israeli crossing.

But within months of becoming prime minister, the payments to needy families resumed through a U.N.-run voucher system, and Qatar resumed its contribution to the Hamas-run governments payroll in the form of fuel.

Israel denies it has given in to Hamas demands. The new government says it has modified policies to try to ensure that humanitarian aid bypasses Hamas while responding militarily to even minor attacks.

All construction materials  including those brought in through Rafah  are imported through a monitoring system established with the U.N. and the PA after the 2014 war. Israel says it is barring all new, large construction projects until a deal is reached to return two captives and the remains of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas since 2014.

Restrictions on so-called dual-use items that could be used for military purposes are in place at both the Israeli and Egyptian crossings, said Abu Rish, the Hamas crossing official.

A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said the goal is to maximize humanitarian aid while minimizing the risk that it benefits Hamas. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, would only say that Israel is aware of the Rafah imports, and is relying on Egypt to ensure that the same restrictions are in place there as there are at the Israeli crossing.

___

THE OTHER CHOICE IS NOT BETTER

Even as Hamas generates revenue for its government and from the crossings and taxing businesses, the international community sustains the people of Gaza.

U.N. agencies have spent more than $4.5 billion in Gaza since 2014, including $600 million in 2020 alone. Most of that funding goes through the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides food aid, health services and operates schools for some 280,000 children.

The wealthy Gulf state of Qatar has sent $1.3 billion to Gaza since 2012 to fund reconstruction and health services, including $500 million pledged after the May war.

The largesse can be seen in Gaza City, where Qatari funds were used to build a scenic seaside promenade and expand a main road that runs past a Qatari-funded housing complex and the Qatari diplomatic mission, which resembles an embassy.

On the surface it all looks very prosperous, with families strolling past beach cafes, amusement parks and even a handful of luxury hotels. But the new construction is merely a backdrop to the grinding living conditions endured by most Gazans.

Unemployment hovers around 45% and nearly three out of five Gazans live in poverty, the World Bank reported in November. The average Gazan only has 13 hours of electricity a day and tap water is undrinkable.

Still, there has been almost no public opposition to Hamas within Gaza because Palestinians see no viable alternative. The Palestinian Authority has come to be seen by many as a corrupt, authoritarian extension of Israeli rule.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Gazas Al-Azhar University, said the absence of protests doesnt mean the Palestinians in Gaza are happy with Hamas.

He attributed the lack of visible opposition to Hamas violent crackdown on protests over taxes and the rising cost of living in 2019, as well as the PAs failures.

The other choice is not better than Hamas, he said. Fatah and the PA are still seen by the Palestinian people as a very corrupted organization.

A poll this month found that despite the deprivations wrought by the confrontations between Hamas and Israel, 47% of Gazans would vote for Hamas if parliamentary elections were held, compared to just 29% who would vote for Abbas Fatah.

Hamas isnt going anywhere. And Israel knows it.

They are facing a number of problems here, Abusada said. But resilience is part of their strategy. Theyre not going to give up.

___

Associated Press writer Helen Wieffering in Washington contributed to this report.
NIIGATA, Japan  Eiko Kawasaki stood at the port of Niigata, the place from which she left for North Korea more than 60 years ago, and tossed chrysanthemum flowers into the sea to pray for her peers who could not come back. Then she burst into tears.

As a 17-year-old girl seeking a better life, Kawasaki joined a resettlement program led by North Korea that promised a Paradise on Earth  where everything was supposed to be free and those with Korean roots like her could live without facing discrimination.

Kawasaki was among some 93,000 ethnic Korean residents in Japan and their relatives who joined the program only to find the opposite of what was promised. Most were put to brutal manual labor at mines, in forests and on farms and faced discrimination because of Japans past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

One of the rare survivors who made it back to Japan, her birthplace, Kawasaki, now 79, is on a mission to keep alive the tragic stories and memories of the deceived resettlement victims.

She aspires to open a museum and revitalize a street in Niigata to commemorate the resettlement program under the auspices of Japanese and Korean friendship groups.

Kawasaki held a commemoration ceremony at the port in early December, marking the day the first ship left for North Korea 62 years ago. Participants offered a moment of silence to the victims who had perished despite their hopes of returning to Japan someday.

Luckily, I came back to Japan alive. Since I consider my life here to be an extra bonus Ive received, I want to devote all my time left to doing whatever I can do to make sure this tragedy does not happen again, Kawasaki said.

Born in Japans ancient capital of Kyoto as a second-generation Korean, she was curious to see the much-touted but isolated communist country after studying at a pro-North Korean school. She says she was brainwashed.

Kawasaki had doubts about the promised future when her ferry arrived at a North Korean port and was met by hundreds of cadaverous people covered with soot from head to toe, she said.

Everything looked completely black, she recalled. The third biggest international port in North Korea looked much shabbier than the Niigata port. That moment I realized I had been deceived.

Then she saw her former schoolmate who had left for North Korea earlier, collecting leftover lunch boxes that Kawasaki and other passengers didnt finish. The schoolmate told her she should have eaten it because she wouldnt have access to such good food anymore.

I was stunned and thought my heart would stop in shock, Kawasaki recalled.

Kawasaki was stuck in North Korea for more than 40 years until she fled in 2003 to Japan without telling anyone  including her family  after seeing the bodies of those who died of starvation during famines, she said.

Though Kawasaki is safe in Japan, she never feels at ease because she worries about her husband and children still in North Korea. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, she has lost contact with them, and all the letters and packages she sent have been returned.

My biggest worry now is their survival, Kawasaki said.

Kawasaki and other defectors want to rejuvenate a 1.5-kilometer (about 1 mile) stretch called Bodnam, or willow street, by planting new trees to replace those that have withered or died since the resettlement program ended in 1984. Older trees were planted to mark the 1959 launch of the resettlement program.

The street has gotten shabby because people paid little attention to the resettlement program or they couldnt care less about it. I thought I had to change that, said Kawasaki.

Among her supporters is Harunori Kojima, 90, a former communist who once backed the resettlement program.

Kojima said he wanted to join the Bodnam street project because of a sense of guilt and regret that he long supported the program despite knowing the severe conditions in the North.

He saw the reality during a 1964 trip to North Korea but could not tell the truth to those associated with the pro-Pyongyang organization or to his Japanese communist comrades. That matter is still tormenting my heart.

Kojima published a book in 2016 including photos he took of those who left for North Korea, newspaper clips endorsing the program and letters he received from victims who yearned to return to Japan, as a way to document the history  and as atonement.

He noted the repatriation was strongly backed by Japans government, Japanese media and many nonprofit organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report described the victims of the resettlement program as forcibly disappeared people whom North Korea kept under strict surveillance, deprived of liberty and freedom of movement. It said many were likely to be among the first victims of the 1990s famines due to their lower social status.

Kawasaki and several other defectors are seeking damages in a lawsuit against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over human rights violations they say they suffered under the resettlement program.

Kim is not expected to appear or compensate them even if the court orders it, but the plaintiffs hope the case can set a precedent for the Japanese government to negotiate with North Korea in the future on seeking the Norths responsibility. A ruling is expected in March.
GUATEMALA CITY  The body of Guatemalan migrant Daniel Arnulfo Perez Uxla was laid out for the memorial service Sunday in his hometown of El Tejar, in the highland province of Chimaltenango.

Perez Uxla was one of four migrants killed in a Dec. 9 truck crash in southern Mexico whose bodies were returned to their homeland Saturday. A total of 56 migrants died when a people smugglers semi-trailer truck jammed with migrants overturned on a highway.

Perez Uxla was a 41-year-old ironworker who left for the United States in hopes of paying off a mortgage on his home, after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic.

His coffin was surrounded by white and yellow flowers and candles at his tin-roofed home. He left behind a wife and three children.

His wife, Mariela de Perez, said he would be buried immediately Sunday. I dont want to prolong the agony for everyone, especially for my children, she said.

His and three other migrants bodies arrived on a charter flight from Mexico on Saturday and were taken in hearses to their hometowns for burial. The other three victims were from San Marcos province, on the border with Mexico.

They were identified as Leonel Estuardo Gomez Zepeda, Daymen Erick Fuentes Bravo, Cecilio Federico Ovalle Cifuentes.

Most of the 56 victims were believed to be from Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

De Perez still had hopes of finding her husband alive, and she travelled to Mexico after word spread about the accident. After looking in all the hospitals in the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, she finally found him in the last place she had wanted to go: the morgue.

I found him him two days after I arrived, in the morgue, she said.

De Perez then went to the curve in the highway where the crash occurred, to light a candle for her husband.

I am not Catholic, but my in-laws are, and I know they would have wanted me to light a candle at the spot where he died, she said.

In the town of Malacatan, in San Marcos province, Santos Gomez wept over the death of his son Leonel Estuardo Gomez Zepeda, who left behind four daughters.

He had such high hopes, Santos Gomez said. Here, you can only earn enough to eat, nothing more.

The elder Gomez said he heard about the crash on social media, and then had to identify his sons body.

Assistant Foreign Minister Eduardo Hernandez said that so far six of the dead have been identified as Guatemalan citizens, and there is reason to believe 14 more are also Guatemalans.

Authorities say fingerprints have been used to identify the bodies, as well as relatives identification of their loved ones through photographs.

More than 100 migrants were injured in the crash. Some remain hospitalized in Mexico.

The truck was packed with as many as 250 migrants, and survivors said that speed and weight of the human cargo may have played a role in the crash.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands  The European Unions executive branch on Monday authorized a fifth COVID-19 vaccine for use in the 27-nation bloc, giving the green light to the two-dose vaccine made by U.S. biotech company Novavax.

The European Commission confirmed a recommendation from the blocs drug regulator to grant conditional marketing authorization for the vaccine for people ages 18 and over. The decision comes as many European nations are battling surges in infections and amid concerns about the spread of the new omicron variant.

Novavax says its testing how its shots will hold up against omicron, and like other manufacturers has begun formulating an updated version to better match that variant in case in case its eventually needed.

At a time where the omicron variant is rapidly spreading, and where we need to step up vaccination and the administration of boosters, I am particularly pleased with todays authorization of the Novavax vaccine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Much about omicron remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. Scientists say omicron spreads even easier than other coronavirus strains, including delta, and it is expected to become dominant in some countries by early next year. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection. But even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.

The Novavax shot joins those from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca as the authorized vaccines in the EU. The bloc has ordered up to 100 million Novavax doses with an option for 100 million more.

The European Commission said the first doses were expected to arrive in early 2022. EU member states have ordered around 27 million doses for the first quarter of next year.

Last week, the World Health Organization gave emergency approval to the Novavax vaccine, paving the way for its inclusion in the U.N.-backed program to get such vaccines to poorer countries around the world.

The European Medicines Agency, the EUs drug regulator, said that its human medicines committee concluded by consensus that the data on the vaccine were robust and met the EU criteria for efficacy, safety and quality.

COVID-19 vaccines train the body to recognize the coronavirus by spotting the spike protein that coats it, but the Novavax option is made very differently than the most widely used shots.

It is a protein vaccine, made with an older technology thats been used for years to produce other kinds of vaccines. The Maryland-based Novavax uses genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in insect cells. Scientists extract and purify the protein and then mix in an immune-boosting chemical.

Novavax President and CEO Stanley C. Erck said the company would deliver the first protein-based vaccine to the EU during a critical time when we believe having choice among vaccines will lead to increased immunization.

Last summer, Novavax reported that a study of 30,000 people in the U.S. and Mexico found the vaccine was safe and 90% effective against symptomatic infection from earlier variants, similar to findings from a trial of 15,000 people in Britain. A follow-up study found a booster dose six months after the last shot could rev up virus-fighting antibodies enough to tackle the extra-contagious delta variant, which at the time was the biggest threat.

The Novavax vaccine was long anticipated to help increase global vaccine supplies, as the shots require only refrigerated storage. But Novavax was delayed for months because of problems lining up large-scale manufacturing.

In a statement, Novavax said the Serum Institute of India manufacturer will supply the initial doses for the EU and later doses will come from other manufacturing sites in its global supply chain.

Dr. Gregory Glenn, Novavaxs research and development chief, recently told The Associated Press the problem wasnt producing the spike protein itself, which is straightforward, but capacity to make and bottle large quantities. Glenn said the company now has enough manufacturing capability. It partnered with the huge Serum Institute of India, and two companies recently received emergency authorization of the shots in Indonesia and the Philippines. In addition, Novavax has lined up production facilities in the Czech Republic, South Korea and elsewhere.

Novavax has been given emergency use authorization in Indonesia and the Philippines, has applications pending with the World Health Organization and Britain, and plans to file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by years end.

___

Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
DENVER  U.S. Rep. Jason Crow says he has tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine.

In a tweet on Sunday, the Colorado Democrat said he is fully vaccinated and got a booster shot and is experiencing only mild symptoms.

Crow encouraged everyone eligible to get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. He also said he would continue to push for affordable access to rapid and reliable testing for all Americans.

Also on Sunday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey said they have also tested positive for COVID-19, as the country deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the omicron variant.
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. - Butte County Sheriffs Office said it is seeking more information about a man that was arrested in San Joaquin County for sexual crimes against children.

35-year-old Jason Young was arrested Thursday and is currently in the San Joaquin County Jail on no bail, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office.

Sheriff deputies said there are nine counts of sexual crimes against children and two known victims.

But, detectives believe there are more victims in Butte County.

Butte County Sheriffs Office said anyone with information is asked to contact the investigation unit at (530) 538-7671.
REDDING, Calif. - Redding police were searching for a shooting suspect Monday morning after a man was shot several times with a pellet gun.

The shooting was reported just after 2:30 a.m. Monday. Redding police said the shooting happened in the area of Sonoma and Court Street.

They said the victim and the shooter knew each other and there is no danger to the public. The victims wounds are not life-threatening.

Police are still investigating the circumstances that led up to the pellet gun shooting.
REDDING, Calif. - A 92-year-old man who was reported missing last week was found dead in Sacramento County on Saturday, Redding Police Department said.

Police said Joe Marsiano was found dead near his vehicle in Tyler Island, a remote area in southern Sacramento County.

RELATED: Redding PD looking for missing 92-year-old man

Marsiano went missing on Dec. 11. Police asked the public for help locating him the next day.

Police said the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office has taken over the investigation and no other information is available at this time.
Inshorts, Indias #1 English news app, recently concluded a highly engaging ad on the app that was a part of Cadburys Cookie-Clipse campaign for their chocolate centre filled cookie - Chocobakes. Inshorts, which is known for its cutting-edge ad-tech solutions, knitted a unique innovative ad format to commemorate the solar eclipse day that couldn't be observed in India.

With 4th December also being World Cookie Day, Cadbury in association with Inshorts helped users to witness this astronomical marvel through the help of a cookie on Snapchats AR filter. This intriguing campaign generated a great response with 26 lakh impressions and reached over 16.6 lakh unique viewers with an impressive engagement rate of 17.08%.

With this, Inshorts enabled Cadbury to build a deeper connection with its consumers that also led to them garnering the industrys best engagement rate.

This one-day campaign helped the brand to further create noise about their latest campaign and engage the tech-savvy millennials on the app. The ad opened up with a bright sun with the Cadbury Chocobakes box below it. The advertisement urged viewers to slide along the Cadbury logo to reveal the Cookie-Clipse. As the users get intrigued they slide along the bar, which leads to a cookie emerging from the box and covering the sun that creates a perfect cookie eclipse.

The click here button further pushes the user to know what it's like to cookie-clipse the sun for real. Upon tapping the button, users are diverted to snapchats AR filter on their smartphone, which when pointed towards the sun, hides it with a cookie to give them an eclipse-like experience in the sky.

Speaking about the partnered campaign with Inshorts, Sunainika Singh, Category Head - Biscuits & Bakes, Mondelez India said, Cadbury Chocobakes loves celebrating the joy of discovery. The world Cookie Day, coinciding with the Solar Eclipse was a great opportunity for Cadbury Chocobakes center-filled cookies to give a nice surprise to delight our consumers. The Cookie-Clipse AR filter is an innovative interaction with our brand that will definitely find a sweet spot with consumers.

Speaking about innovation in the ad tech space, Piyush Thakur, National Sales Head at Inshorts, said, Inshorts being the leader in the short form content space has effectively catered to the changing consumer preferences by consistently investing in ad-tech and thus offering novel and customized ad solutions to brands. With the primary focus on creativity and innovation, the campaign was non-intrusive, interactive, and clutter-free - enabling Cadbury to reach out to its target audience unconventionally and exclusively while instilling excitement for its product.

Armed with strong user behavior insights combined with creativity and adtech innovation, Inshorts has carved a niche for itself in the digital advertising space with thumb-stopping ad formats like Motion Story, Digital Magazine, Video story, and gesture-controlled ads. Today Inshorts delivers industry-best results for over 1000+ leading brands like Mahindra, Samsung, GSK, Dell, Volkswagen, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Royal Enfield, Mercedes, BMW, and many more
Luminous Power Technologies, a leader in power backup and home electricals in India, announced its official sponsorship with Tamil Thalaivas for the upcoming season of the Pro Kabaddi League. As part of this partnership, Tamil Thalaivas will now sport the Luminous brand logo on their jerseys. In addition, the brand will get visibility through the official website and respective social media platforms, besides creating a stronger association with the sport and the team.

Ms. Ruchika Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Luminous Power Technologies, said, " It is our pleasure to associate with Tamil Thalaivas and we are confident that the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League will significantly improve the sport's and players' growth. We take privilege in contributing to the development of Kabaddi in India. Our belief is that Tamil Thalaivas embodies our enthusiasm, and we are looking forward to a fantastic season ahead. "

Commenting on this partnership, Nikhil Bhardwaj, Director, Tamil Thalaivas, said, "We're excited to partner with Luminous Power Technologies. The brand has established a significant foothold in the power solutions sector over the decades, proving optimum performance, durability, and quality. These attributes are in line with our team's ethos and spirit. We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership with the brand and a successful season ahead."

Vivo Pro Kabaddi is a ground-breaking initiative by Mashal Sports Pvt. Ltd. and Star India Pvt. Ltd. Since its inception in 2014, the League has revolutionized kabaddi's sport with incredible innovations, making it an aspirational sport for players and fans alike. Backed by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) and supported by participating members of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) and the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF), the League has witnessed tremendous growth over the past seasons.
Option Designs, one of the leading creative agencies of India has taken over the marketing and branding of Baani real estate. Baani has been dealing with luxury real estate for 35 years and has been providing the best services in the industry.

Option Designs has been rapidly growing in the advertising and digital space and is excited to share the same space with Baani, a brand that has built their reputation as not just stylish, but also trustworthy and reliable. Theyre in charge of the brand building & marketing communication for Baani.

Baani has decided that it is time to position themselves as the first name that people think of when thinking of luxury real estate and has contracted with Option Designs to help make their vision a reality. While speaking about their work with the brand, Option Designs said, We are committed to getting people to know about the legacy that Baani has in the architecture industry. We want people to think of the impact that Baani has had on the industry in terms of redefining luxury, style, and comfort.

Rahul Gandhi, Co-Founder, Option Designs, speaking about their collaboration said, We are really excited about this association with Baani. Theyre well established and reputed, and working on their revamp has been a fun and challenging but rewarding experience.

While speaking about their collaboration, Vinay Verma, Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Baani said, Option Designs has a keen understanding of our brand requirements. Their out-of-the-box approach, passion, and enthusiasm towards creating new things assured us that this partnership has potential to reap great benefits for both the parties.
Scripting another chapter of success in the real estate segment, PR Professionals, flagship of PRP Group, has bagged the PR mandate of Smartworld Developers. The firm that boasts excellence in delivering path-breaking communications campaigns for the real estate sector will now support this newest entrant in the real estate sector in formulating result-oriented and value-driven brand campaigns. Backed by reputed organizations such as India Infoline, Piramal Group, and the Bansal Family, Smart World Developers envisages transforming the real estate scenario and setting benchmarks through innovative designs, advanced technology, expedited project delivery, and superior customer service. Smart World Developers is eyeing expansion in key real estate markets such as Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai MMR, Pune, Bengaluru, Goa, and Hyderabad in the near future. And now, PRP will help it to amplify and effectively communicate its vision, ambitions, and best practices to its valued customer base.

We want to thank Smartworld Developers for entrusting us as their communications partner in their mission of delivering best-in-class and globally acknowledged real estate projects in the country. We are glad that our past record and client-first approach have earned the confidence of such a visionary brand that is imbued with a vision to bring world-class real estate assets to India, utilizing the most up-to-date smart technologies to set new benchmarks. We are really excited and looking forward to a fruitful partnership ahead, said Sarvesh Tiwari, Founder & Managing Director  PR Professionals.

Today, PR Professionals has become a preferred choice of national and international real estate brands in the communications domain for its vision in operations, innovation in strategies, and results-driven approach. Over the years it has nurtured unparallel expertise in this segment and have been working with brands like DLF Ltd, M3M Group, Vatika Group, Elan Group, Krisumi Corporation, to name a few. PR Professionals till date has counselled over 20 real estate companies and has successfully handled communications for over 40 residential and commercial projects in super luxury, luxury, premium, and affordable segments.

PR Professionals recently celebrated its 10th foundation day in September 2021. From a humble beginning 10 years ago to becoming Indias fastest-growing PR firm, PR Professionals under the able leadership of Founder and Managing Director, Sarvesh Tiwari, the company has grown by leaps and bounds and earned the trust of its valued clientele across sectors. Founded in 2011 with a small team of three people and a vision of giving back to society, the company now proudly operates across seven time zones, working tirelessly across ten domestic and six offshore offices, and boasts a working strength of 150 associates. In its decade-long journey, PRP has been successfully catering to a diverse clientele, including government and development organizations, multinational corporates, real estate giants, startups, educational institutions, and many prominent brands. Apart from being an excellence-driven communications firm, the firm is the only organization that pledges to work for social welfare.
India is at the cusp of a remarkable economic recovery, having been able to administer 100 crore vaccine doses, bringing business back to usual. The economic revival has augured well for all business verticals, especially the realty sector that is witnessing green shoots with buoyancy being observed across categories.

Often described as the engine of the economy, the real estate sector ranks third among the 14 major sectors in terms of direct, indirect, and induced effects. The growth of this sector is being sustained by the Union government offering a new lease to life with progressive infrastructure spending that is becoming a major development driver.

As a media house dedicated to the growth of the economy, TV9 Network in association with Orient Bell has launched Building a New India, a programme on how the realty sectors aspirations are aligned with the vision for New India. The network is set to host a series of conversations across India, bringing together veterans on a panel all of whom are realty experts and renowned policymakers. The panels will largely focus on topics catering to housing, retail, hospitality, and commercial.

Speaking on the launch, Raktim Das, Chief Growth Officer, TV9 Network said With things getting back to normal, the realty sector is gradually progressing with a growth cycle that will see better infra-affordability in the country. Our platform Building a New India perfectly captures the stance of the Indian economy with key opinion leaders putting forward an expert point of view that will define the realty industry in the next few years

Mr. Madhur Daga, MD, Orient Bell Tiles said, New India is becoming a Smart India through the adoption of technology in the real estate sector and Orient Bell Tiles is aligned with the vision of a New and Smart India

The culmination event of the series was hosted at Hotel Oberoi, Delhi on 11th December 2021 which had eminent speakers such as Balvinder Kumar, Member, UPRERA; Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaursons; Nayan Raheja, Director, Raheja Developers; Kavi Jain, Architect, Nirman and Ashish Agarwal, Director, Aditya Builders.

The discussion on the topic of Housing for New India - Is Policy, Builder and Homeowner on the same page, revolved around tech transformation, policy push and capital infusion bringing a thorough perspective around investment in realty.

Balvinder Kumar, Member, UPRERA at the panel said, It was around 2008 when a real estate crisis emerged and reached its peak by 2014. At a time like this when a lot of buyers and builders were facing several concerns and disputes, the legislation was amended to include the RERA. In Uttar Pradesh, the process was initiated around 3 years back and ever since then we have filed 39,600 cases out of which most have also been solved. RERA has played a major role in winning back the audiences trust and with the market showing an increasing development, builders have begun completing their projects as per an organized framework. Keeping these developments in mind we truly believe that for the next two years the situation will be under control and projects that were delayed or stalled will also be completed.

Supporting Balvinder in his opinion Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaursons added, Most of the complaints that we hear of even today are much before the 2016 RERA act came into regulation. These were due to reasons related to financial approvals, land acquisition, movements unanticipated by developers coupled with the entry of inexperienced people in this field. It was only after the implementation of RERA that the act served as an entry barrier and smoothened the financial closure and timely approval of documentation. RERA has helped build trust from buyers and developers alike because anyone who sees a RERA number will know that there is a judicial body involved to ensure timely and secure financial transactions

Sharing a contrary opinion and highlighting how policy changes impact pricing in real estate, Ashish Agarwal, Director, Aditya Builders said, The implementation of RERA has led to a fewer number of projects because of the various complex processes involved in launching a project. Builders tend to take a backseat just seeing the number of approvals required and this may ultimately impact buyers in the longer run. The introduction of any regulatory framework or policy definitely leads to an increase in cost. However, just like developers manage outsourcing tasks for authorities, the approvals process can also be designated to an outside agency that will help speed up the process. All this while RERA was solving problems related to buyers and they must now focus on solving the problems related to the developers

Talking about the additional impacts of a policy change, Nayan Raheja, Director, Raheja Developers said, I believe more than the cost, the timeline of a project has been impacted. Almost 10 years back developers would commit to delivering a project to buyers in 36 months. Now right from the start buyers are informed to hold a 5-year timeline in mind. There has been an impact on the number of players also entering this field. A number of inexperienced players ventured into this business that led to quite some chaos. While RERA has helped to organize the real estate business, it definitely needs to solve the grievances of customers and developers alike.

Kavi Jain, Architect, Nirman added, Prior to the implementation of RERA, there were several players who were trying to set shop in the real estate field. Post-2016, its only the most serious players who have managed to deliver and complete new projects. The inventory that still remains stalled or unbuilt is that of mostly the non-serious and inexperienced players who had ventured before RERA came into action.

The program will air on TV9 Bharatvarsh on Sunday, 19th December at 11.30 am and stream live on the Facebook page of TV9 Bharatvarsh at 3.30 pm
Armasuisse

Bern, 20.12.2021 - armasuisses Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus is working together for the first time with the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI) in the area of cyber security. The cooperation includes the provision of open-source software applications, which enable the creation and management of security advisories in a format usable by machines. The aim is to make the exchange of information on security vulnerabilities easier and so helping to improve the cyber security.

The CYD Campus tasks include the development and testing of cyber technologies. Under this aspect, the CYD Campus is now working together with the German BSI to support the development and distribution of the Common Security Advisory Frameworks (CSAF) and to demonstrate its feasibility. The CSAF aims to separate the contents of security advisories from their visual appearance and to standardise their exchange. As a result, two software application prototypes have emerged which are now successively being developed into complete open-source tools. In the future, they should help operators, manufacturers and authorities to exchange vulnerability information more efficiently. The aim is a contribution in increasing the cyber security.

Increasing challenges for companies

With their work on the CSAF, the CYD Campus and the BSI are counteracting the increasing number of published security advisories. As up to now, automated processing of security advisories has either not or only on a very restricted basis been possible, the increasing number of security advisories brings major challenges to companies.

Information on IT vulnerabilities

Information on IT vulnerabilities that have become known are summarised in security advisories. These typically contain information on the type and criticality of the identified vulnerabilities, which products and versions are affected and how they can be resolved. In Switzerland, for example, this type of information is collected by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and forwarded to concerned users after appropriate cross-checking.

Automatic retrieval of security advisories

Today, security advisories are usually published in the form of human-readable documents. There is also no standardised procedure on where and how they are published. The CSAF wants to change this and enable a machine-processable format of security advisories. The CSAF standard defines where and in which format security advisories should be provided. In this way, for example companies, operators and authorities can retrieve security advisories automatically and match them with their own databases. The CSAF is thus making a crucial contribution to helping companies maintain an overview and securing their systems in the future. The CYD Campus is working together with the German BSI as part of the national strategy to protect Switzerland against cyber risks (NCS 2018-2022). Together, the specialists from Germany and Switzerland are promoting the development and distribution of the CSAF standard.

Address for enquiries

Jacqueline Stampfli

Deputy Head of Communications armasuisse

+41 58 464 60 42

Publisher

Armasuisse

http://www.ar.admin.ch/



General Secretariat DDPS

https://www.vbs.admin.ch/




The FDA or Food and Drug Administration who is in charge of regulating the vaccine in the U.S. was recently hit with a freedom of information request from a group of 30 scientists and academics from across the globe wishing to get an insight into the approval process of the Pfizer vaccine.

Kalkine Media anchor, James Preston: With billions of COVID 19 shots having been mandated by various governments, the desire for more information surrounding the process of their creation and approval from governing bodies has reached fever pitch.

The crack in Pfizer and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) iron dome-style data safeguarding, arrived in the form of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release with the request filed on August 27, 2021, to access all the Pfizer documentation that the FDA had relied on to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization. An agency that has received a FOIA request is required to determine within 20 business days after the receipt of any such request whether to comply with such request, as set out by the 1967 FOIA law. It took the FDA though three months to release the first 91 redacted pages, on November 20.

The highly confidential Pfizer documents, which have been synonymous with the extreme lack of transparency revealed by the actions of pivotal governmental agencies, over the past 20 months, lead critics of the official narrative to demand show us the data, is finally being revealedwell sort of, the first few hundred redacted pages out of a trove of 451,000.

Transcribed by Anne Dachel. Update:The video has been removed. Anne faces suspension from Facebook for running it. Dec 16, 2021, (Australia) Kalkine Media Explosive revelations about the FDA and Pfizer's COVID vaccine [PART 1]

The first 500 pages have been released from the drug manufacturer, and to talk us through the documentation is investigative journalist from TrialSite News, https://trialsitenews.com/ Sonia Elijah.

Lets talk about the insane response from the FDA and how long they actually want to make this information public.



Can you take us through the timeframe?

Sonia Elijah: Around August 23rd, the FDA licensed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for individuals aged 16 and over. Then a large group of about 30 scientists and academics filed a Freedom of Information Act request a few days later, requesting to see all the documentation that the FDA relied on to license, to actually authorize the emergency use authorization of the vaccine.

Under FOIA law, Freedom of Information Act law, the 1967 law, an agency has up to 20 days, within 20 business days to determine whether theyre going to comply with the request.

It took the FDA, I think it was around November 20th when they did release the first batch of documents, and what they released with less than one percent of the actual documentation they have. They have up to 471,000 pages. They released just a few hundred.

They responded that they were going to release at a rate of 500 pages a month. That would take them to 2076 to release all the documentation.

They then came back and said, actually weve got additional pages, its going to take us up to 2096 to release all the information to the public. So its really shocking.

Preston: Given that this has been rolled out at such a large scale, we should be getting this information as soon as humanly possible, and for me, 70 years is nowhere near the kind of timeframe.

Whats the usual turnaround time for a Freedom of Information Act request?

Elijah: Its about 20 business days that an agency determines whether to comply with the request, 20 business days.

Preston: In terms of the delivery of the actual documentation though, is that something that we can usually see for that size of information?

Its probably not something weve dealt with too many times in the past in terms of the sheer volume of pages and documentation.

When were seeing such things as maybe like a hundred thousand pages, whats typically the turnaround period? Is that maybe a month after that request has been lodged?

Elijah: Well I know they can do a lot better than 500 pages a month. So theyre literally at a snail pace. Theyre dragging their feet. Theyre doing all they can to sort of prolong the time to do it.

Its really shocking. The people, you know, the public deserves to know, and the FDA needs to work a lot harder to facilitate the FOIA request.

Preston: Lets look squarely at the first 500 pages itself. What generally is covered in this first release and what time period does it tend to focus on in terms of the approval process?

Elijah: So the analysis that I did, I targeted a specific document called The Cumulative Analysis of Post-authorization Adverse Event Reports of the Pfizer vaccine, and that covered the period from December 1, 2020, when it was given emergency use authorization, to February 28, 2021. Thats a 3 month period that were talking about.

Theres a lot you can actually glean from this document even though there are many unknowns. It is a redacted document, unfortunately.

Though we dont know the number of total doses given, then we cant calculate the incidence rate. But what we do know is that about 1,228 deaths were recorded in that three month time period.

[This] is very alarming because you have the former chief medical officer of Pfizer talking to the Washington Journal around April of this year saying that thered been no deaths recorded directly because of the vaccine, and that no corners were cut.

Thats sort of quite shocking when we know that this document was producedwell the cutoff period was February 28th of this year.

Then we have the astounding number of adverse events. Were talking about over 40,000 adverse events were recorded.

Not only that, so those are individual, actuallyI make a mistake40,000 individual cases, so for the individuals reporting, and then 150,000 events, meaning sort of symptoms.

In one case you could have various symptoms, three or four symptoms connected to an individual.

Preston: According to the document, how closely linked to the COVID vaccine from Pfizer are those actual adverse events?

Is there a direct correlation according to this report?

Elijah: What is interesting, because they give us some statistics, they talk about, they give us the medium value. So for a lot of these event outcomes, the median value is less than 24 hours.

So thats from the time a person has taken that vaccine to the actual adverse event occurring is less than 24 hours.

Then you have, for example, the category of anaphylaxis, you have nine recorded deaths, and out of the nine deaths, four deaths occurred on the same day that the individuals took the vaccine. So that gives a very strong indication of vaccine death causality.

Preston: Thats a very close connection based on, especially as you say, four in the same day.

From this report as well, that Ive seen with what youve done with TrialSite News, it also appears that women are actually disproportionately affected by the drug.

What can you tell us about that?

Elijah: Its really alarming to see that literally across the board in all categories of adverse events, youre seeing women three times more affected by these adverse events.

But what particularly stands out is the category of anaphylaxis. You have women eight times being more affected by that adverse event. Thats very alarming.

It sort of reveals theres a gender specific vaccine safety risk going on here.

What is also very alarming is that throughout this document, Pfiser says theres no new safety risks recorded.

So theres like nothing new to report here. So its all sort of brushed under carpet.

Preston: I know one thing weve seen is that certainly here in Australia, theres been a bit of hesitation from our GPs and other physicians who have suggested if you are looking to have children soon, if you are pregnant, then you shouldnt be taking the vaccine.

Whats been the scenario over in the U.K., for example? It that a similar situation?

Elijah:I think pregnant women are encouraged to take the vaccine here as sort of protect yourself, protect your unborn child.

Its very concerning because in this document, there is a category called missing information

Its what was missing in the original package that was sent to the FDA.

What I have analyzed, what Ive done report on, its sort of like an amended version of what Pfizer has given to the FDA. So they sort of include now the missing information which is to do with pregnancy and lactation.

You have adverse events happening there. You have spontaneous abortions and premature births and neonatal deaths.

Preston: Spontaneous abortions. Can you go into that in a bit more detail? What exactly does that entail? Is this pregnancies that were otherwise completely healthy until this point?

Elijah: Yes, so its sort of a pregnant mother having a miscarriage. Its very alarming.

Preston: This is sort of in that same 24 hour period? Whats the period were looking at for this data set?

Elijah: Im actually just looking at, so for the pregnantits quite a long report I wrote, so I dont have the data basically for that, but I remember there were about 270 unusual pregnancies, and there were about 25 spontaneous abortions from what I remember.

And were talking about a 3 month time period here, and as we know we are coming up to a year of the vaccine.
The fact that the FBI has lost its way has been on public display for at least five years now. Truth be told, it probably strayed off course way before that. But during the Trump Presidency, it became too obvious to ignore. It has been involved in everything from the creation of an insurance policy against the peaceful transition of power, to the targeting of parents as domestic terrorists for the sin of disagreeing with school boards. How did our premier law enforcement agency stray so far from its motto of fidelity, bravery, and integrity?

Simply put, the FBIs current state is the result of horrible leadership. Any organization with a solid culture of ethics can survive a bad leader, but the FBI has had 20+ years of ethically challenged leadership. Over time that leadership influences hiring, firing, promotions, and training. Given enough time under bad leadership, even the strongest foundation of ethics will crumble, and be replaced by a culture of corruption -- as weve seen with the FBI.

A significant shift in the culture of the FBI happened under Robert Mueller. Mueller came up through the ranks of the DoJ -- holding the positions of Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney, and Deputy Attorney General. He was appointed to lead the FBI, by President George W. Bush, in 2001, just one week prior to 9/11.

Almost immediately upon being sworn in as the director, Mueller began politicizing the bureau by bringing in outside people to staff high-level positions. One of those people was the execrable Andrew Weismann, who at the time had just been in the headlines for his own scandals. Yet that was just fine by Mueller. He appointed Weismann to be the special counsel to the director in 2005. The ethically challenged Weismann eventually became the FBI general counsel in 2011, to provide legal guidance throughout the FBI, and nobody saw any problem with that.

Yet it is what Robert Mueller did after leaving the FBI that provided a window into his ethical principles. In 2017, Muller was appointed special counsel to lead the investigation into Trump/Russia collusion. Within two months of joining the investigation, Mueller learned that the whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by Hillary Clinton and the DNC. Did he expose the hoax and its perpetrators? Nope. He continued the investigation for over three more years and allowed it to influence a mid-term election. If he was so void of ethical principles as a special counsel, is it hard to believe that he was equally unprincipled as the FBI director?

James Comey was also a product of the prosecutorial side of the DoJ. Like Mueller before him, he was a U.S. Attorney and Deputy Attorney General. James Comey is a man of unquestionable integrity -- according to James Comey. In fact, peers and subordinates gave him the nickname The Cardinal due to his sanctimonious self-regard.

Director Comey decided to run the Clinton email investigation out of FBI headquarters, rather than a field office so that it could be overseen by such giants of virtue as Peter Strzok and himself. Under Comeys guidance, it was a unique investigation. No grand jury was used, no subpoenas were served, key witnesses were given immunity, and the investigators themselves destroyed the evidence. Comey then went on national television and laid out how all of the elements of a felony had been committed by Madame Secretary Dirty Tricks. But then surprise, surprise -- no indictment would be sought because Hillary really didnt mean it. It turns out that The Cardinal is not only a paragon of virtue, hes also a mind reader.

With that broadcast, Comey unveiled the partisan FBI for all of the world to see. Corruption had officially arrived at the FBI, and The Cardinal wasnt even hiding it.

But Comey didnt stop with his election interference by simply giving Hillary a pass. He also began painting an image of criminal behavior by the Trump campaign. After Wikileaks began publishing excerpts of purloined DNC communications, the DNC alleged that its email servers had been hacked by Russia, working in collusion with the Trump campaign. The DNC refused to surrender its servers to the FBI for forensic analysis but assured the FBI that its contractor -- Crowdstrike -- had investigated and confirmed the allegations. Did Comeys FBI subpoena the servers? Nope. Did Comey shut down the investigation because the supposed victim was refusing to cooperate? Nope. He took one political partys word that it had been victimized by another political party. No evidence was needed, it was just accepted as fact. Just like that, the Trump/Russia collusion hoax was off and running.

Comey didnt just fail to stop the hoax; he was an active participant. In his first meeting with President Trump, The Cardinal assured the President that he didnt do weaselly things. He then did the most weaselly thing possible, he bypassed the White House counsels office and sent two agents to set a perjury trap for the newly appointed National Security Advisor -- General Michael Flynn. They told the general it was an informal discussion to coordinate national security. It was actually a formal interrogation, planned to catch Flynn in a misstatement, and was done without mirandizing him first. Lie to the President -- check. Violate White House protocol -- check. Lay a trap for an unsuspecting peer, with no evidence of a crime -- check. Brag about it on TV -- check. Sure -- nothing weaselly about that.

Comey was eventually fired by Donald Trump, but only after substantial damage had been done.

Christopher Wray also came up through the ranks of the DoJ, holding the positions of Assistant U.S. Attorney, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Principal Deputy Attorney General. Donald Trump appointed him to lead the FBI upon the termination of James Comey. To say that Wray has been a disappointment would be a monumental understatement.

He was caught lying to congress. That would be a felony for those keeping score at home. He told Congress that the FBI had no involvement in the investigation of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich. However, later it was discovered that the FBI had in its possession Richs laptop and thousands of pages of investigatory notes, all discovered via a freedom of information request. In fact, the FBI had possessed that evidence for three years, all the while claiming it had no such evidence. This is significant because there are credible allegations that Rich may have been involved in the DNC email hack -- the hack that the FBI had previously blamed on the Russians and Donald Trump.

Lying to Congress pales in comparison to what Wray has been up to during the first year of Bidens administration.

Wray has been in full cooperation with the DoJ initiative to target protesting parents as domestic terrorists.

Wray approved the FBI raid to seize working documents of reporters employed by Project Veritas.

Wray has dispatched hundreds of agents across the country to identify and interview anyone who attended the January 6 protest in Washington D.C.

A high-level whistleblower is even alleging that resources are being redirected from Islamic terrorism to white supremacist investigations, with the definition of white supremacist being somewhat flexible.

What do these actions have in common? They are all unconstitutional acts of government intimidation of citizens for exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Clearly, neither ethics nor fidelity to the Constitution is guiding principles at Wrays FBI.

A common denominator among all of these directors is that none came from the policing or investigating side of law enforcement. They all came from the prosecution side. They all made their mark as political appointees of various presidents. Leadership of the FBI was the plumb assignment that each was given as a reward for pleasing various political sponsors. The last three FBI Directors are all the embodiment of D.C. swamp creatures.

Placing political creatures in charge of a supposedly nonpartisan agency inevitably leads to partisan behavior. As long as the FBI is going to play politics, it might as well play for the team that stands for ever-increasing government size and power -- the Democrats.

After 20+ years of such leadership, the culture at the FBI has changed. Is the oath of office still meaningful to agents? The fact that there have been few whistleblowers to the various scandals involving the FBI speaks volumes. Far too many agents are just following orders, not testing those orders for constitutionality, as their oath requires.

That is the heart of the problem. Bad leaders can be replaced overnight. A corrupted culture requires years to rebuild.

This is part one of a three-part series on FBI corruption.

Quentin Smith is a military veteran and retired FBI Special Agent who served in the bureau for nearly 29 years and now lives in Idaho.

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: FBI

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Does responsibility for the deaths of over 1 million Americans make Tony Fauci a mass murderer? Its actually worse than that. Consider the basic evidence:

An estimated 800,000 American deaths have been attributed to COVID.

An estimated 388,000 Americans have been killed by safe and effective COVID vaccines. This doesnt include those merely injured with strokes or heart problems. (I personally have an acquaintance who suffered a stroke after getting the jab.) It includes many kinds of deaths.

Safe, inexpensive, and effective life-saving therapeutics for COVID are readily available. Their use could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Big Pharma is making billions of dollars from the production of the COVID vaccines and booster shots. Pfizer expects to bring in $36 billion from worldwide sales of its COVID-19 vaccine. . . .Moderna will deliver fewer doses but is still expecting up to $18 billion in sales for the year for its COVID-19 vaccine. . . .

Therefore, it is no surprise that with the active help of a compliant, frightened Big Pharma-supported media, Fauci and his allies have ignored, banned, smeared, covered up, or censored word about these life-saving treatments that include monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and the Zalenko COVID-19 Protocol among others.

With the active support and encouragement of the Fauci-led health establishment, doctors have been fired or suspended from their hospitals for prescribing ivermectin to save their patients.

The Fauci-supported lockdowns and mask mandates have done immense damage to the American economy as well as the lives and businesses of millions of Americans, not to mention our precious and increasingly fragile civil rights spelled out in the Constitution.

Most damning of all, Fauci himself funded gain of function research at U.S. University labs and later in China. The CIA and the Pentagon through DARPA were all apparently working in tandem with Fauci to teach the Chinese how to weaponize bat virus. Dangerous pathogens were studied and made far more deadly to humans through all this research. Most people can see that this is all very sinister, and this man is not someone who should be running U.S. public health, but its even worse. . . . (Faucis) sordid past goes back to the AIDS crisis and his diabolical experiments on children which killed at least 85 children at least. The experiments were barbaric and illegal, but he did it anyway. He gained control of foster homes in 7 states and then turned the pharmaceutical industry loose on these children. The children were powerless with no legal representation and no guardian. They were tortured literally to death. Many of them did not even have HIV but were simply human guinea pigs. Those children who refused the drugs or were noncompliant were taken to Columbia hospital and had feeding tubes installed to administer the drugs. At least 85 died during the experiments. This atrocity wasnt enough for him though, so he took the experiments to Africa where he killed many pregnant mothers.

This is all laid out in Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.s remarkable book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.

Havent heard much about the book, you say? Havent seen Kennedy being interviewed on the network news shows or the late-night talk shows? No book tours? Its no wonder. There is a wall of silence and fear throughout the media. This silence makes a mockery of Brett Baiers fair, balanced and unafraid. The suits at Fox News, heavily dependent on Big Pharma revenue, would never let him touch the subject. At least the other networks, all part of the conspiracy of silence, dont make those kinds of hypocritical claims about their style of journalism. Simply put, there is certainly no way the Big Pharma-supported media is going to challenge a primary source of revenue. Think about all the ads you see daily for products that will supposedly cure, control or prevent a multitude of illnesses such as COPD, HIV, Afib or some diseases you never even knew existed. They represent hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the networks.

To Amazons credit, Kennedys book is available online and currently shows 3,000 ratings with 94% of them earning five stars. So the word on Fauci and his multiple misdeeds has not been totally contained.

The book is intense, crammed with 450 pages of data, and difficult to read notes and references. There is no index. So its not easy to find specific references. But as one reviewer has noted, open any page and start reading. Youll be shocked at what you learn, particularly if you are one of those who have been nodding respectfully with every Fauci proclamation.

The book is a stunning indictment of Fauci. After reading the book, another reviewer summed Fauci up as the face of treason and war against humanity. . . .(who is guilty of) a clear conflict of interest and a record of Institutional failure . . . . Fauci in his role as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) no longer looks out for public health but instead is in the business of pharmaceutical promotion. Just a few of the facts exposed in this book would be enough, but there are more than just a few. In 1984 when Fauci took over NIAID, 11.8% of Americans had a chronic disease, and now it is 54%. It was his job to research and discover why autism, allergies and many other diseases were increasing and eliminate the toxins causing it. Instead of acting as a true public health agency he used it to develop and sell pharmaceutical products.

On a page dealing with effective alternatives to the Big Pharma vaccines, one doctor is quoted as saying, No one wanted Americans to know that you didnt have to die from Covid-19. Its 100 percent treatable. We proved it. No one had to die. But even worse, Weve seen lots of really bad vaccine side effects in our patients. Weve had seven strokes  some ending in severe paralysis. We had three cases of pulmonary embolism, two blood clots, two cases of Graves disease and one death. In other words, the vaccines are actually quite dangerous. This might explain why large numbers of health care providers have been among those refusing to take the jab.

A very few congressional leaders have recognized this Fauci-promoted national disaster. Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert says, Fauci needs to be held responsible for the deaths that are being created by the things hes foisting on the American people.

Hes right. While Fauci, who whines that attacks on him are attacks on science, is the greatest killer of this new century, the story is out there for all willing to see it. He helped create the disease. He has blocked safe, low-cost, effective treatments that would have saved tens of thousands of lives while making the drug companies insanely rich with dangerous vaccines. In the meantime, he has created the unnecessary climate of fear and hysteria that has ruined the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans.

Its time for him to be held to account.

Frank Hawkins is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies, and published novelist.

Image: White House / public domain, enhanced with FotoSketcher

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Roses are red, violets are blue, is an old nursery rhyme, poem, and eventual song title, ending in the honeys sweet and so are you. A modern-day version might be rewritten:

Peace is red, crime is blue Vote for Democrats, and youll find this true

Rising crime in American cities is often ignored by the media which, instead, focuses on the Omicron variant and fully vaccinated universities and sports teams shutting down over new COVID cases, flying in the face of common sense and everything we have been told about vaccinations.

ABC News dipped its toe into crime reporting recently with this headline, It's just crazy: 12 major cities hit all-time homicide records. While COVID cases might be spiking, so is crime, with some cities breaking decades-old homicide records.

"It's terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It's just crazy. It's just crazy and this needs to stop," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said after his city surpassed its annual homicide record of 500, which stood since 1990.

Is this what President Joe Biden means by build back better? Is this somehow former President Donald Trumps fault, despite him being out of office for almost a year now? ABC News offers a few potential explanations but misses a big one.

Experts say there are a number of reasons possibly connected to the jump in homicides, including strained law enforcement staffing, a pronounced decline in arrests and continuing hardships from the pandemic, but that there is no clear answer across the board.

Its interesting that the media and law enforcement have trouble finding motives or explanations when those might be politically incorrect. For example, if a young Muslim male shouts Allahu Akbar before opening fire on a crowd of shoppers, big media will struggle to find motive. This story of a French terrorist shooting makes the point, The New York Times claimed Wednesday that it is unclear what motivated the gunman who shouted Allahu Akbar before opening fire on a Christmas market in France.

What is the common denominator regarding the homicide spike in 12 major American cities?

FoxNews screen grab

While ABC News is befuddled as to what these 12 cities have in common, Fox News, practicing journalism by asking basic questions of who, what, where, and why, easily found the common denominator. All 12 cities are led by Democrat mayors.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, famous for letting his city burn and be destroyed by BLM and Antifa, is a Democrat. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is also a member of the donkey party, as is Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Mayors of Indianapolis Joe Hogsett, of Philadelphia Jim Kenney, and of St. Paul Melvin Carter, are all Democrats.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller is a Democrat as is Greg Fischer of Louisville. So are the mayors of Baton Rouge, Columbus, Toledo, and Rochester. Each mayor of these 12 cities is a proud member of the Democrat party.

While ABC News struggles to find an explanation, it took me just a few clicks on my computer, alone without a research staff which ABC undoubtedly has, to unearth this correlation between rising crime cities and the political party of leaders of those cities.

This correlation is not surprising. One clue might be in the attitudes of Democrats toward law enforcement, crime prevention, incarceration, all factors which influence criminal activity.

Breitbart compiled a list of who has been naughty or nice when it comes to defunding the police. Here are a few examples.

Start with Portland, Last year Portlands Democrat-dominated city council gutted the police budget by nearly 15 percent, a loss of $27 million from a $200 million budget.

Portland voters must approve of this, The citys new district attorney, who won 77 percent of the vote, chose not to pursues cases against some 550 charged with interfering with police officers during last years riots and protests. As the saying goes, In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.

National leaders, safe within their security-tight cocoons either in Washington, D.C. or their home districts, which they occasionally visit, fan the flames of defunding the police.

Breitbart kept a list of such statements. President Joe Biden, during his campaign, supported reallocating police resources. His cackling sidekick Vice President Kamala Harris agrees saying, I applaud Eric Garcetti for defunding the Los Angeles police department.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats refused to criticize the Minneapolis City Council for defunding the police. Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar called for dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department. Her sister in silliness Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to reallocate resources away from police, claiming the crime surge is simply hysteria. Another squad member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley still supports defunding the police.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn compared federal law enforcement to Nazi Gestapo, claiming last years violence in Washington, D.C. was from the police, not looting and fire-starting thugs. Bidens Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta supports, decreasing police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of the police in our lives.

How hard is this to explain? Democrats at a local, state, and national level push to defund the police and are quick to pile on and punish any law enforcement officers who for the most part are trying to do the best they can in the violent and unpredictable world of confronting and arresting criminals. Examples are legion, from Michael Brown to George Floyd.

When your boss doesnt have your back, you may look away from criminal activity, which is known as the Ferguson Effect. If those in charge believe proactive policing in minority neighborhoods is racially oppressive, then it is much easier for the average cop to just look the other way, rather than risk losing their job, pension, or winding up in prison if things dont go perfectly.

Heather MacDonald summed this up nicely:

If local and national leaders are unable to summon the will to defend our most basic institutions from false and inflammatory charges of racism, they have forfeited their right to govern. Unless new leaders come forth who understand their duty to maintain the rule of law, the country will not pull back from disaster.

CNN, in an accidental foray into honest journalism, reported this headline, Even Democrats are now admitting 'Defund the Police' was a massive mistake.

MSN News acknowledged the same:

The Democratic Partys quest to defund police forces, an act in which it kowtowed to its hard-left-wing base, has come to a very bitter end. The resulting surge in violent crime has produced a massive public backlash that threatens the careers of elected Democrats throughout the nation. Naturally, the endangered species is trying to distance itself swiftly from the wreckage that defund the police has left behind.

ABC News conclusion of no clear answer seems as clear as could be. If you defund and criticize something, expect less of it. Red cities and states, for the most part, offer residents a rosy life. At the same time, the blue locales provide not violets, but crime, murder, and mayhem. Remember this when it comes time to vote, and more importantly count the votes.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer. On Twitter as @retinaldoctor.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, NATO, in a violation of the verbal agreement between Secretary of State James Baker and Russian Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, launched a massive expansion to the east.

This expansion can be seen from Moscow only as a strategy to encircle Russia and turn its neighbors into hostile countries. As long as Russia was economically and militarily weak, the process proceeded unabated. NATO has grown from 16 countries before the reunification of Germany, to 28 today.

George Kennan, American diplomat and author of the concepts of Cold War and containment, prophetically warned America about the danger of this policy in the New York Times on February 5, 1997:

.. expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold war era.... Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.

The current events emanate from this most fateful error.

Todays Russia is in a position to put an end to it, and President Putin has drawn a red line over Ukraine.

He made it perfectly clear that he would not allow Ukraine to join NATO. To resolve the issue peacefully, he suggested to President Biden that the U.S. would offer Russia a guarantee that Ukraine would not be admitted to the NATO military alliance. But NATOs secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, rejected the idea and affirmed a NATO right to bring more countries into the alliance. Unless the situation changes, Moscow will have no choice but to invade Ukraine.

There is little risk for Moscow in doing such an invasion, either militarily, politically, or economically.

Militarily, President Biden has already thrown Ukraine under the bus when he ruled out NATO military intervention. But even if Biden changed his mind, NATO countries that have downgraded their military capabilities are no match to the Russian army. Should Putin order the invasion; Russian tanks will be in Kiev in less than 24 hours. There have been reports suggesting that U.S. defense officials believe he may do so in 2022.

Politically, there will be a lot of noise and condemnation, but nothing tangible. After Russia's annexation of Crimea, Russia was kicked out of the G-8 and suspended from the Council of Europe. Those severe punishments were not worth a grain of sand from the Crimean beaches.

Putin also remembers well that when the Red Army ravaged Budapest in 1956, built the Berlin wall in 1961, and invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, America with its NATO allies stood by helplessly, watching the carnage, all full of bluster and no action.

Economically, it is unlikely that the democracies would support additional sanctions on Russia. They would be opposed to the idea as it would undoubtedly exacerbate the current economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic and produce a crisis that would hit their own countries' economies.

But even if additional sanctions are added to the existing ones, these western democracies should realize, after traveling this anguished road for seven and a half years, that Moscow sees the Ukrainian situation as a geopolitical issue paramount to their security. Hence, even if the sanctions are kept in place for the next hundred years, it will not weaken Moscows resolve. Doing the same thing would not produce different results.

A different result, however, could be achieved if Biden and his team took Napoleons advice and try to understand Russian foreign policy: If you know a country's geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy, Napoleon wrote.

American leaders obviously are not on good terms with geography; otherwise, they would realize that the land of the Rus that stretches throughout Europe and Asia for nine time zones, scarcely populated with just fewer than 150 million, can only protect itself by having a buffer zone between Russia and potential adversaries.

The irony is that Putin practices George Kennans containment policy in reverse. His strategy is to contain NATOs expansion. As long as Ukraine is an independent state that serves as a buffer state between Russia and NATO, it will be at the mercy of Russia. For this reason, Russia would preserve Ukrainian independence. Under this scenario, NATO would not attack Russia without violating the sovereignty of Ukraine. In this case, Russia would come to her aid.

As long as America and its NATO allies are contemplating punitive measures against Russia instead of trying to resolve the problem they have created, the invasion seems inevitable.

Should an invasion take place, Ukraine would no longer remain a unitary state. Russians would split Ukraine into three separate countries Eastern, Central and Western. For Ukraine, which is racked by internal incompatibilities, the separation would be almost natural. It will also send a strong message to the former Soviet satellites  NATO is not the salvation, it is a liability.

Alexander G. Markovsky is a scholar of Marxism and a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank that examines national security, energy, risk-analysis and other public policy issues. He has published over 100 articles and is the author of two books "Anatomy of a Bolshevik" and "Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. He can be contacted at alex.g.markovsky@gmail.com

Ted Belman is the founder and publisher of Israpundit.org

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano is a noteworthy maverick within the Catholic Church hierarchy. He retired as papal nuncio to the United States in 2016 and has exposed what he sees as great scandals within his Church. This lengthy Wikipedia entry provides background.

The archbishop has issued a Christmas letter to the United States that is unusually blunt about what he sees as a conspiracy underlying the handling of COVID. Archbishop Vigano first shared this message with John Wells on Ark Midnights The Fortnight Intelligence Briefing. The letter was then published in Gateway Pundit but is presented here for readers' convenience.



Abp. Vigano in 2013 as papal nuncio to the United States.

White House Image/Lawrence Jackson  http://www.state.gov.

DEAR AMERICAN PEOPLE, DEAR FRIENDS, for two years now, a global coup has been carried out all over the world, planned for some time by an elite group of conspirators enslaved to the interests of international high finance. This coup was made possible by an emergency pandemic that is based on the premise of a virus that has a mortality rate almost analogous to that of any other seasonal flu virus, on the delegitimization and prohibition of effective treatments, and on the distribution of an experimental gene serum which is obviously ineffective, and which also clearly carries with it the danger of serious and even lethal side effects. We all know how much the mainstream media has contributed to supporting the insane pandemic narrative, the interests that are at stake, and the goals of these groups of power: reducing the world population, making those who survive chronically ill, and imposing forms of control that violate the fundamental rights and natural liberties of citizens. And yet, two years after this grotesque farce started, which has claimed more victims than a war and destroyed the social fabric, national economies, and the very foundations of the rule of law, nothing has changed in the policies of Nations and their response to the so-called pandemic.

Last year, when many still had not yet understood the gravity of the looming threat, I was among the first to denounce this coup, and I was promptly singled out as a conspiracy theorist. Today more and more people are opening their eyes and beginning to understand that the emergency pandemic and the"ecological emergency" are part of a criminal plan hatched by the World Economic Forum, the UN, the WHO, and a galaxy of organizations and foundations that are ideologically characterized as clearly anti-human and  this needs to be said clearly  anti-Christian.

One of the elements that unequivocally confirms the criminal nature of the Great Reset is the perfect synchrony with which all the different Nations are acting, demonstrating the existence of a single script under a single direction. And it is disconcerting to see how the lack of treatment, the deliberately wrong treatments that have been given in order to cause more deaths, the decision to impose lock downs and masks, the conspiratorial silence about the adverse effects of the so-called "vaccines" that are in fact gene serums, and the continuous repetition of culpable errors have all been possible thanks to the complicity of those who govern and the institutions. Political and religious leaders, representatives of the people, scientists and doctors, journalists and those who work in the media have literally betrayed their people, their laws, their Constitutions, and the most basic ethical principles.

The electoral fraud of the 2020 presidential election against President Trump has shown itself to be organic to this global operation, because in order to impose illegitimate restrictions in violation of the principles of law it was necessary to be able to make use of an American President who would support the psycho-pandemic and support its narrative. The Democratic Party, part of the deep state, is carrying out its task as an accomplice of the system, just as the deep church finds in Bergoglio its own propagandist. The recent rulings of the Supreme Court and the autonomous action of some American states  where the vaccination obligation has been declared unconstitutional  give us hope that this criminal plan can collapseand that those responsible will be identified and tried: both in America as well as in the whole world.

How was it possible to arrive at such a betrayal? How have we come to be considered enemies by those who govern us, not in support of the common good, but rather to feed a hellish machine of death and slavery?

The answer is now clear: throughout the world, in the name of a perverted concept of freedom, we have progressively erased God from society and laws.We have denied that there is an eternal and transcendent principle, valid for all men of all times, to which the laws of States must conform. We have replaced this absolute principle with the arbitrariness of individuals, with the principle that everyone is his own legislator. In the name of this insane freedom  which is license and libertinage  we have allowed the Law of God and the law of nature to be violated, legitimizing the killing of children in the womb, even up to the very moment of birth; the killing of the sick and the elderly in hospital wards; the destruction of the natural family and of Marriage; we have recognized rights to vice and sin, putting the deviations of individuals before the good of society. In short, we have subverted the entire moral order that constitutes the indispensable basis of the laws and social life of a people. Already in the fourth century B.C., Plato wrote these things in his last work the Laws and identified the cause of the Athenian political crisis precisely in the breaking of the divine order  the cosmos  between these eternal principles and human laws.

These natural moral principles of the Greco-Roman world found their fulfillment in Christianity, which built Western civilization by giving them a supernatural impetus. Christianity is the strongest defense against injustice, the strongest garrison against the oppression of the powerful over the weak, the violent over the peaceful, and the wicked over the good, because Christian morality makes each of us accountable to God and our neighbor for our actions, both as citizens and as rulers. The Son of God, whose Birth we will celebrate in a few days, became Incarnate in time and in history in order to heal an ancient wound, and to restore by Grace the order broken by disobedience. His social Kingship was the generating principle of the ordo Christianus that for two centuries now has been fiercely fought against by Freemasonry: because the Revolution it promotes is chaos; it is disorder; it is infernal rebellion against the divine order so as to impose Satan's tyranny.

Now, as we see what is happening around us, we understand how mendacious were the promises of progress and freedom made by those who destroyed Christian society, and how deceptive was the prospect of a new Tower of Babel, built not only without regard for God but even in direct opposition to Him. The infernal challenge of the Enemy is repeated over the centuries unchanged, but it is doomed to inexorable failure. Behind this millennial conspiracy, the adversary is always the same, and the only thing that changes are the particular individuals who cooperate with him.

Dear American brothers and sisters! Dear Patriots! this is a crucial moment for the future of the United States of America and of the whole of humanity. But the pandemic emergency, the farce of global warming and the green economy, and the economic crisis deliberately induced by the Great Reset with the complicity of the deep state, are all only the consequence of a much more serious problem, and it is essential to understand it in depth if we want to defeat it. This problem is essentially moral; indeed, it is religious. We must put God back in the first place not only in our personal lives, but also in the life of our society. We must restore to Our Lord Jesus Christ the Crown that the Revolution has torn from Him, and in order for this to happen a true and profound conversion of individuals and of society is necessary. For it is absolutely impossible to hope for the end of this global tyranny if we continue to remove from the Kingdom of Christ the nations that belong to Him and must belong to Him. For this reason, the movement to overturn Roe v. Wade also acquires a very important meaning, since respect for the sacredness of unborn life must be sanctioned by positive law if it is to be a mirror of the Eternal Law.

You are animated by a yearning for justice, and this is a legitimate and good desire. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," says the Lord (Mt 5:6). But this Justice must be based on the awareness that this is a spiritual battle in which it is necessary to take sides without equivocation and without compromise, holding transcendent and eternal references that even the pagan philosophers glimpsed, and that have found fulfillment in the Revelation of the Son of God, the Divine Master.

My appeal for an Anti-Globalist Alliance  which I renew today  aims precisely to constitute a movement of moral and spiritual rebirthwhich will inspire the civil, social and political action of those who do not want to be enslaved as slaves to the New World Order. A movement that at the national and local level will be able to find a way to oppose the Great Reset and that coordinates the denunciation of the coup that is currently in progress. Because in the awareness of who our adversary is and what his aims and purposes are, we can disrupt the criminal action he intends to pursue and force him to retreat. In this, the opposition to the pandemic farce and the vaccination obligation must be determined and courageous on the part of each of you.

Yours must therefore be a work of truth, bringing to light the lies and deceptions of the New World Order and their anti-human and anti christic matrix. And in this it is mainly the laity and all people of good will  each in the professional and civil role he holds  who must coordinate and organize together to make a firm but peaceful resistance, so as not to legitimize its violent repression by those who today hold power.

Be proud of your identity as American patriots and of the Faith that must animate your life. Do not allow anyone to make you feel inferior just because you love your homeland, because you are honest at work, because you want to protect your family and raise your children with healthy values, because you respect the elderly, because you protect life from conception to its natural end. Do not be intimidated or seduced by those who propagate a dystopian world in which a faceless power imposes on you contempt for the Law of God, presents sin and vice as licit and desirable, despises righteousness and Morality, destroys the natural family and promotes the worst perversions, plans the death of defenseless and weak creatures, and exploits humanity for its own profit or to preserve power.

Be worthy heirs of the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and do not follow those of your Pastors who have betrayed the mandate they have received from Our Lord, who impose iniquitous orders on you or who remain silent before the evidence of an unheard of crime against God and humanity.

May this Holy Christmas illuminate your minds and inflame your hearts before the Infant King who lays in the manger. And just as the choirs of the Angels and the homage of the Magi united with the simple adoration of the Shepherds, so also today your commitment to the moral rebirth of the United States of America one Nation under God  will have the blessing of Our Lord and will gather those who govern you around you. Amen.

May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

+ Carlo Maria Vigano, Archbishop,18 December 2021
Japan stands as a beacon to Americans and most of the industrialized world for its COVID vaccine policies, which are far more humane and realistic than those foisted on us by Fauci & Co.

In The Epoch Times, Aaron Kheriaty writes:

Japan's ministry of health is taking a sensible, ethical approach to Covid vaccines. They recently labeled the vaccines with a warning about myocarditis and other risks. They also reaffirmed their commitment to adverse event reporting to document potential side-effects. Japan's ministry of health states: "Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided." Furthermore, they state: "Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent." Finally, they clearly state: "Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated." They also link to a "Human Rights Advice" page that includes instructions for handling any complaints if individuals face vaccine discrimination at work.

This is the policy that the U.S. should have but doesn't.

But why is Japan so out of step and so sensible?

I don't think the cause is a generalized concern for restraint when it comes to the ministries of the Japanese national government. While it is true that a sincere concern for human rights has become part of Japan's national culture since the Occupation reforms installed by the U.S. and Allies after Japan's defeat in WWII, high-handedness on the part of national bureaucrats is far from unknown there. They are recruited from elite universities and are widely regarded as the best and the brightest, not least by themselves. I have personally witnessed the difference in the way in which bureaucrats are treated in the U.S. and Japan, and it is substantial.



Japan's health ministry. Photo credit: BlackRiver, CC BY 3.0 license.

One possible explanation might be that the political clout of the Western vaccine-makers is less than in some other countries. Japan has a large and sophisticated pharmaceutical industry of its own, and none of its major companies has come out with a COVID vaccine. Make of it what you will.

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If Martin Luther King were alive today, it's plausible that he would say something like this:

I am saddened to report to you today on what will go down in history as one of the greatest assaults on freedom  and reason  in the history of our nation.

Sevenscore and 18 years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions who were enslaved. But, more than 150 years later, many Americans are still not free. Or perhaps I should say they have once again had their freedoms stripped from them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I had a nightmare last night.

In it, I saw that, more than 150 years after Lincoln validated Mr. Jefferson's Declaration, too many Americans are still living lives of quiet desperation...shunned, mocked, and alone. Too many Americans of all colors have been banished to the corners of society, exiles in their own land. So we have come here today to dramatize this shameful condition.

I had a nightmare last night.

I saw how elites of both parties, in conjunction with unelected bureaucrats, have made certain that they have unfettered access to the great American dream while deliberately making that dream almost impossible to achieve and attain for the little people in "fly-over country."

I had a nightmare last night.

These elites have told the rest of us that they are the arbiters of whether or not our jobs are important, whether or not we may leave our homes, whether or not we may board a plane, or whether we are "allowed" to attend a funeral or a church service. They have stripped us of our selfhood and robbed us of our dignity by imposing mask and vaccine mandates. They have even tried to  once again  usurp control over our very bodies, telling us that we must allow an experimental "gene therapy" into our bloodstreams, though the future repercussions of this cannot possibly yet be known. Similarly, they have used our children  black children, white children, children of every color  as guinea pigs, telling them that they can be any gender with which they identify if we just apply puberty blockers and call them by their preferred pronouns. The Framers would be aghast.

I had a nightmare last night.

For so long as bigoted, self-serving, racist ideologues are allowed to wantonly denigrate America, divide its citizens, and pit faction against faction, she will never live up to its founding tenets. For so long as BLM and Antifa are allowed to roam her streets with impunity, intimidating, defacing, destroying, and desecrating, we shall never be truly free. For so long as Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project are being taught in our schools, true equality  and amity  will be impossible. For so long as "intersectionalism" is the guiding principle of "progressivism," there will be no chance for all races to come together to heal this nation. For so long as we are instructed to look at others and see only race, color, or creed  not character  we will be confined to the dark and desolate valley of bigotry, unable to proudly trod the sunlit path of racial justice.

I had a nightmare last night.

We must  all of us  push back and make certain that this nightmare doesn't come to pass.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of intersectionalism to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Let us forever banish the growing nightmare...in favor of a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident. that all men are created equal."

Yes, I had a nightmare last night. But I have a dream today. A dream that all of us will one day agree that all lives matter, not just the lives of those whom the elites currently favor because they believe it is in their own interest to do so.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Yes, I had a nightmare last night. But I have a dream today. I beg you all to help me turn that dream into reality.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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Why do the Elite harbor this fevered obsession with Jan. 6? For two reasons: (1) It is their magic fetish waved about in the desperate hope of warding off the return of Trumpism (with or without Trump) to the Casa Alba. (2) It reflects their habitual projection of their own evil onto the seething mass of deplorables.

Precisely what is this evil they are projecting? In a word: treason.

The U.S. Constitution defines treason in Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 this way: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

Are the Elite guilty of treason? Let me count the ways?

1. In Afghanistan, delivery of $85 billion in military supplies and thousands of hostages to the enemy.

2. Mass destruction in our cities. Politicians who protect the mobs are accessories after the fact and accomplices to this treason.

3. Defunding the police. The primary responsibility of local government is to protect their constituents and keep the streets safe. But the local Elites in many cities have sided with the criminal element against the law-abiding citizenry.

4. Sabotage of the military through wokification, as documented by James Hasson in Stand Down.



Image: Cicero on treason. A-Z quotes.

5. In his masterful book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Yale Historian Paul Kennedy exhaustively documents that military power is convertible with economic power. Therefore, sabotaging the economy is sabotaging the military.

6. Giving aid and comfort to China, not least through the attempted Building Back Better legislation that Sen. Manchin just jettisoned.

7. Destroying the economy with the flood of illegal aliens.

8. Destroying the economy with the climate hoax.

9. Destroying the economy with the war on energy: shutting down the XL pipeline, bankrupting energy companies, deliberate depletion of our oil reserves, etc.

10. Destroying the economy with the COVID hoax. J. Deane Waldman's December 18 American Thinker piece, "The COVID Scam: The Progressive Path to Power, and Tyranny, nails down the details of this hoax.

Thus are the Elite waging war on America. This is organized treason, another name for insurrection.

Every mass society acts through its institutions. Having successfully completed their Gramscian "march through the institutions" and having successfully hijacked the 2020 presidential election, the Elite now occupy all the institutional high ground of American society. They occupy the FBI, CIA, DoD, POTUS, Congress, DHS, Education, and more.

All the Elite need now to render their victory complete and irreversible is to sever the intergenerational transmission of culture. The Elite have assigned to public education the mission of assimilating all the children into the prog culture. When that mission is completed, you and your children will not understand each other, and you and your grandchildren will be strangers.

Today the Elite are on a roll. What will stand in their way?

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
A lot of "community groups" are going to get grant money, so I suppose that's a political accomplishment for Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot. But when it comes to actually combatting the wave of violent crime that is ruining Chicago, her lavishly funded "Our City, Our Safety Plan" is mostly futile. Its focus on the "root causes" renders it as inapposite as Vice President Kamala Harris's "root causes" effort to stem the flood of illegal aliens across our southern border. Maybe someday, it will pay off a little bit. But the magnitude of the catastrophe underway will not be stanched by its measures.

David Struett has a good article on the plan in the Chicago Sun-Times:

[T]he Lightfoot administration is planning to pump more than $400 million into its own community safety plan that targets 15 of the city's most violent community areas. The plan, "Our City, Our Safety," was unveiled more than a year ago and has produced few results so far, according to crime data kept by the Sun-Times that shows many of those communities have gotten more dangerous. The mayor told the newspaper she is hoping the unprecedented level of spending over the next two years will eventually narrow the "safety gap" by concentrating on violence prevention, street outreach, affordable housing, job training, health and wellness, and community development. [emphasis added]

The specifics of where the money will go:

The budget drafted by Lightfoot and approved by the City Council contains $411.6 million to implement "Our City, Our Safety." $85 million on violence intervention, including victim services, street outreach and other violence reduction programs.

$62 million for affordable housing and homeless programs.

$80 million for assistance to families and youth jobs.

$40 million for health and wellness programs.

$114.6 million for community development and parks.

$30 million for small business.

This caught my eye:

The city's list of investments under the plan was last updated in July. It shows more than $50 million going to more than two dozen organizations for street outreach, victim services, transitional jobs, scholarships and domestic violence.

About 2 million per group. What does that work out to per vote?

Writing at Wirepoints, Mark Glennon comments:

It should come as no surprise that the Our City, Our Safety Plan has not worked. Look through it yourself. It's mostly social justice gibberish. "Equity" appears 30 times. "Violence is an equity issue," it says. "Empower and heal people" is its "Pillar No 1." "Racism" appears 105 times. "At the root of violence is systemic racism which has been pervasive throughout Chicago and its history," it says. "Participate in local and national collaboratives to elevate policy positions," whatever that means, is one of its strategies.

Seventy percent of the funding for the plan comes from the feds, via The American Rescue Plan  the pandemic-induced slush fund. That money is going to dry up, and keeping the plan going will require a lot more money from Chicago taxpayers, already hard pressed to keep the pensions of retired city workers funded. Otherwise, it will be a temporary way of buying votes. Call me cynical, but hey, it's Chicago.

Hat tip: Peter von Buol.

Graphic credit: YouTube screen grab.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
In a just and sensible America, Victor Davis Hanson would be chair of the history department at Harvard, teaching a mandatory and beloved course in the history of Western civilization, to be followed in undergraduates' sophomore year by his equally popular year-long course in American history, both of which would be imitated nationwide by most if not all American colleges and universities.

These courses would be fact-intensive, and unlike the rather hagiographic picture students like this writer received during the '50s, it would not only emphasize the achievements of America and the West, but would honestly and rationally confront their infractions and low points. But the overarching message would be clear: though imperfect, as are all human endeavors, the creative genius of the West has given humanity the vast majority of what has made the modern world superior materially and, through the Judeo-Christian tradition, preferable morally to much of the past, and America can fairly claim to be the finest model of a nation whose governmental and economic system has produced the most fairness, prosperity and ordered freedom, for the largest percentage of its people, of any nation in history.



YouTube screen grab.

But alas, this was not to be. Instead, since the seventies, we have lost the better part of two generations of badly miseducated American youths; and the inability of any American institution today to vigorously refute the patent falsehoods about our nation and the West being spewed by the woke left is a direct consequence of that tragic miseducation.

Mankind seems destined to swing from one distorted extreme to its logical opposite: 19th-century Western man had an arrogant swagger, understandably, given his near total dominance, and that arrogance carried through well into the 20th century in its educational institutions' presentation of history. But now, and for the better part of two generations, our proponents of cultural self-loathing, even more irrationally and reality-averse, have taught the young to believe that all of our achievements and endeavors are mirages, and our entire history is tainted with evil. Nonsense, of course. But the untutored young believe what their elders teach them.

So here we are. Two largely ignorant generations of Americans and Europeans are factually and intellectually unequipped to confront the ludicrous falsehoods and calumnies that are presented to them as revealed woke truth  and are entirely ignorant of how the West's creative genius has been largely responsible for the dramatic elevation of mankind's condition's of life during the last 150 years.

I have a modest suggestion for Victor Davis Hanson, from whom clear, logical, unpretentious historical writing seems to flow in great rivers:

Between columns of lucid commentary, write two brief narrative histories, with the goal of filling the major factual and logical gaps in historical understanding so widely present among today's under-40s. The first, of America; the second of the West as a whole. Such an undertaking, about 300 pages each, would be no panacea for today's ignorance and confusion  but then, for our present condition, there is no panacea. It would be a small step, in a climate of ignorance and destructiveness so profound that small steps, and the long road, are all that's left to those of us who see the tragedy of what is being thrown away.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Algeria strategic and key for Italy, Ambassador Pugliese 'Developing collaboration for renewable energy'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, DECEMBER 20 - Algeria "has become a strategic and fundamental partner" for Italy, Italy's Ambassador Giovanni Pugliese said on the sidelines of the Assembly of Ambassadors at the foreign ministry in Rome. The connections between Algeria and Italy - he told ANSA - "are very deep, as witnessed by President Mattarella's visit last November, which was a great success and had great visibility".



For Italy, Algeria "has become a strategic country: one-third of gas used by Italy comes from here; over 200 Italian companies have carried out infrastructural work, we are present in the food industry sector. It is a complete, 360-degree relationship". Pugliese added that Algeria is for Italy the first commercial partner in Africa and it is also "a trustworthy partner on great themes. I am thinking about the fight against illegal immigration and good collaboration that exists on Libya".



Speaking about ecological transition and an increase in the use of renewable energy, which would lead to a reduction in gas use, Algeria does not fear a drawback, he said. "Algeria has great gas reserves and we know that gas is very important in energy transition. Gas is expected to have a fundamental role for at least another 20-30 years. Algerians are aware of this.



There is a parallel collaboration, both bilateral and with the EU, in the development of renewables; I am talking about solar energy, hydrogen, biorefineries. There is a lot of optimism and the collaboration is excellent".



Speaking about Covid-19, Pugliese recalled that the first gesture of solidarity towards Italy at the beginning of the pandemic came from Algeria with a provision for the north of materials and equipment ("a heartfelt gesture"); at the moment, 20-25% of the population has been vaccinated, "a peculiar figure that takes into account the fact that 60% of Algerians are under 30 and youths feel less in danger. There is however growing awareness".(ANSAmed).




MADRID - Several migrants landings were reported over the weekend on the Canary Islands.



According to data provided by the emergency service of the archipelago, between Saturday and Sunday nearly 600 people arrived, including women and children. The landings occurred on Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife. On the latter, 105 people arrived after being sighted on a boat several hundreds of miles away. Spanish news agency Efe reported that some of them told Spanish security forces that at least 17 passengers on their boat died during the crossing. Their bodies were thrown into the sea, they said.



The same agency reported that over the past few hours Spanish rescue workers saved another 86 people who were intercepted as they were travelling on boats to the Canary Islands.
BEIRUT - The Lebanese have a right to know the truth on the devastating explosion that rocked the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, killing 200 people, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday during a visit to Lebanon. Guterres's visit to the country, which is dealing with its worst economic crisis in decades, started Sunday and will last until Wednesday.



Guterres on Monday morning went to the site of the explosion and laid down a wreath of flowers. "The Lebanese people deserve the truth", he said. "An impartial and transparent investigation into this tragic event is crucial to ensure justice", the secretary general wrote on his Twitter profile. In Lebanon the probe entrusted to Judge Tareq Bitar has been so far hindered by the entire political class in power. The judge was unable to question any of the high-level political, institutional and security leaders suspected of responsibility.



Before visiting the port, Guterres on Monday morning met with Lebanese religious leaders, including the Maronite Patriarch Bishara Rai and Sunni Mufti of the Republic Abdellatif Derian.



Guterres also met with leaders of Shiite, Druze, Orthodox religious communities, among others. In a statement released on his official twitter profile, the UN secretary general recalled that "Lebanon's identity is rooted in the values of openness, tolerance and coexistence". During the meeting in Beirut, Guterres praised the role of religious leaders in safeguarding these values, in particular "at this difficult time for the country and for people".


Northern Ireland has enough Covid funding to last for two or three weeks of restrictions, the DUP leader has said.

Extra funding to contend with the Omicron surge in cases was announced for all UK regions on Sunday.

The Treasury has said Northern Ireland is to receive 75 million, on top of another 75 million announced last week.

The Department of Finance said last weeks announcement was mostly not new money and already featured in Stormonts spending plans

The Executive is set to meet on Wednesday to discuss further restrictions as the number of daily coronavirus cases continues to increase.

At the weekend, deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill warned that Omicron will hit Northern Ireland like a tonne of bricks, with up to 30,000 new cases a day in the worst-case scenario,

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has urged the reintroduction of the furlough scheme.

The Government has committed to double the amount that we have available in terms of supporting our efforts to deal with the Omicron variant, he told the BBC.

But even at that, that just leaves us with 150 million and, during the last lockdown, on top of the furloughing scheme, the cost to support the economy and deal with the pandemic was running at somewhere in excess of 200 million a month.

So, at the moment, in terms of what we have to deal with Omicron, we have got enough to deal with about two or three weeks.

If we are moving towards more restrictive measures, then obviously we cant consider that in a vacuum.

Belfast during an earlier period of lockdown (PA)

We have been saying to the Government at Westminster, if we are getting into a situation where people are not going to be able to be at work because of the pandemic, then clearly we cant have a situation where peoples family finances are undermined, where they are unable to provide for their loved ones.

We will need a furloughing scheme in those circumstances.

We dont know yet if that is the situation we are now heading into.

Sir Jeffrey emphasised that the Stormont Executive needs to consider the economy when deciding on any new restrictions.

Obviously we are very concerned about the current situation. I have been speaking to the First Minister (Paul Givan) on a daily basis, we have been keeping in touch with the Government at Westminster, he said.

We are endeavouring to co-ordinate our response here in line with what the UK Government is doing in England.

We are somewhat behind England in terms of the spread of the Omicron variant, but there is no doubt that the spread of this infection is going to rise significantly.

The Executive will meet on Wednesday to decide on further measures, and at the moment we are in discussions with the Department of Health and the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser about what further restrictions might look like.

Obviously when considering something as serious as lockdown it is not just a question of what are the measures we need to take to protect the population, but also what impact does that have on the economy if we have lockdown.

Meanwhile, the booster vaccine programme has opened to all over-18s who received their second dose at least three months ago.

The death of one further patient who previously tested positive for Covid-19 and another 2,148 cases of the virus were also notified by the department of health on Monday.

On Monday morning, there were 276 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom 34 were in intensive care.
President Joe Biden has welcomed a new addition to the family, a puppy named Commander.

Mr Biden shared a photo Monday on his official Twitter account with a caption that said, Welcome to the White House, Commander as well as a brief video of him tossing a ball to Commander and walking the dog into the White House.

No other details about the dog were provided.

Meet the newest Biden. pic.twitter.com/JHAbH53iRk  President Biden (@POTUS) December 20, 2021

The puppy appears to a German shepherd, the breed of Mr Bidens other two dogs, and was a gift to him from his family, according to CNN, which first reported on the puppys arrival after it was seen scampering around the White House South Lawn on Monday.

His name appears to be a play on Mr Bidens status as commander in chief of the US armed forces.

Mr Biden brought his other dogs to the White House shortly after he took office in January.

Champ died in June at age 13.

Major, who was much younger than Champ, was involved in several biting incidents during his relatively short tenure at the executive mansion and was returned to Mr Bidens home in Delaware.

Mr Bidens wife, Jill, had said in April that a cat would soon be joining the family at the White House, but a feline has not yet shown up or been announced.
A man who killed a three-year-old girl while she was in his care after becoming angry that she had not finished her lunch has been jailed for 11 years.

Paul Marsh, 27, inflicted catastrophic head injuries on Jessica Dalgleish at her home in Sandgate, near Folkestone, on 21 December 2019, Kent Police said.

Marsh had grown increasingly frustrated with looking after Jessica in the weeks leading up to her death. Bruising was discovered on her face and head suggesting he had assaulted her on previous occasions, which were not reported to police at time.

Witness evidence showed that he carried out the fatal attack after the toddler had struggled to eat all of her lunch.

He called emergency services at 3.10pm on the day of the killing claiming he had discovered Jessica on the floor in a dazed state. Paramedics arrived and arranged for her to be flown to specialist care in London, but she died in hospital in the afternoon on Christmas Eve 2019.

Marsh suggested she may have fallen down the stairs while playing, but his account of the incident was unclear, leading detectives at Kent Police to investigate.

Medical experts later found Jessicas injuries were more likely to have been caused by an impact, such as being thrown against the headboard or side of her bed.

Marsh was charged with Jessicas manslaughter and child cruelty and was convicted on November 3 following a trial.

At Maidstone Crown Court on Monday, the 27-year-old, formerly of Lydd, was jailed for a total of 11 years.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber, Senior Investigating Officer for the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: This is a tragic case in which a young girl has been robbed of her life before it had really begun.

Marsh was reluctant to get medical attention for Jessica on the day he inflicted these injuries and he has since sought to evade justice by changing his account and lying about what actually happened on that day.

A meticulous investigation by my team, including sensitive interviewing of a number of witnesses and careful analysis of complicated medical evidence, has led to Marsh being found guilty of manslaughter.

I hope the jurys verdicts and the sentence handed down today give Jessicas relatives some sense of closure as they continue to mourn her tragic death.
Three teenagers have been charged with the murder of a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death, police said.

The boys  aged 15, 16 and 17  will appear before Cheltenham Magistrates Court on Monday accused of killing of Ramarni Crosby in the Tredworth area of Gloucester.

Ramarni Crosby was stabbed to death in the Tredworth area of Gloucester (Gloucestershire Police/PA)

The teenager, known as Marni, who was from the Frampton on Severn area of Gloucestershire, suffered multiple stab wounds on the evening of Wednesday December 15 in Stratton Road. He died at the scene.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Almond, from Gloucestershire Polices major crime investigation team, said: These charges are a significant step in progress, but the investigation into Ramarnis tragic death does not stop here.

Three teenage boys from Gloucester have jointly been charged with the murder of 16-year-old Ramarni Crosby. The boys, aged 15, 16 and 17, are due to appear at Cheltenham Magistrates Court today. They cannot legally be named due to their age.https://t.co/A3YFA4Muar pic.twitter.com/7cnz2S3uiU  Glos Police (@Glos_Police) December 20, 2021

This continues to be a very much active investigation and were still working to establish the circumstances around what took place.

Anyone who has information or witnessed what happened that evening and has not yet come forward is asked to please help us now, and speak to police or Crimestoppers anonymously.
A major cybersecurity vulnerability is impacting nearly all of the internet, sending everything from financial institutions to government entities scrambling to patch their systems, before cybercriminals and nation states can launch cyberattacks.

Known as the Log4j vulnerability, the flaw impacts a piece of open-source logging software that allows developers to understand how their programs function. The idea is to help companies understand potential bugs or performance issues in their own software.

But Log4j, which is part of the software offered by the open source Apache Software Foundation, can be exploited to allow attackers to take over the computers and networks of any organization running the program.

Patches have already been released, but applying them is a different story. Organizations, whether government or private, are notoriously slow when it comes to updating their software.

It's a very, very serious issue, NYU Tandon School of Engineering associate professor Justin Cappos told Yahoo Finance. Since it's part of the software supply chain, many different pieces of software can be affected.

The fear is that the flaw could be used by attackers to take remote control of any unpatched system and use them as their own. That, experts say, could give cybercriminals the means to do everything from stealing user data to taking control of real-world infrastructure.

The danger of Log4j

The Log4j vulnerability is dangerous for two reasons: how widely used the software is, and how attackers can take advantage of the flaw.

If you have the vulnerability, and I exploit it, that means I can run my code on your machine, explained Herb Lin, senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. So now it's like I'm on your machine, and now I can do anything that you can do.

According to Lin, that can include doing things like stealing emails, destroying files, and installing ransomware. And the potential damage doesnt stop there.

I can now take control of the generator that your computer is connected to or the telephone switch or the chemical plant and so on and so forth, Lin said. So that's the issue. The vulnerability comes from the fact that this code has been a part of millions and millions and millions of installations around the world.

The Log4j flaw can be used to do everything from attacking corporate email systems to impacting real-world infrastructure. (Image: Getty)

Another major problem is the fact that you, as an individual, have no control over whether the internet companies you trust to protect your files will deploy the appropriate patches quickly.

If there's a bug inside of Microsoft Word I might be able to go and say, Oh, I don't use Microsoft Word. I don't need to worry about this, right? But here the problem is that you may not even be aware where the software is being used, said Cappos.

Criminals and nation states are already trying to exploit the vulnerability

According to Microsofts threat intelligence team, the majority of the attacks related to the Log4j vulnerability have been related to scanning attempts. That means the attackers are trying to see whether potential victims are vulnerable to attack.

Think of it like a burglar trying the door locks on a row of cars parked on a dark street. The cybercriminals are essentially trying to see who has locked their doors and who hasn't.

Some hackers, meanwhile, are already using the flaw to launch attacks, including installing crypto miners on victims machines, stealing user credentials, and taking data from compromised systems.

Microsoft (MSFT) says groups in Turkey, China, Iran, and North Korea are also developing the means to take advantage of the Log4j flaw. And some Iranian and Chinese groups are already using the exploit to beef up their own existing cyber attack capabilities.

The Department of Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has already ordered federal civilian agencies to patch their systems and has advised that non-federal partners do so as well.

Patching the internet isnt easy

Fixing a problem like the Log4j flaw requires that companies that use the software download the appropriate patch. But it will take time for companies to implement the latest software. Thats because major organizations have to also ensure that the patch doesnt impact their own programs.

More cynically, theres the fact that some companies simply dont follow the best cybersecurity practices and so dont patch their systems in a timely manner, if at all.

What can you do? Nothing, really. The Log4j flaw isnt something that most individual users can address. Its up to the companies that have their information to address the exploit on their own. And if they dont, then your data could leak out there into the wild.

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In the sly new finance movie "Azor," a Swiss banker named Yvan de Wiel is visiting Argentina in 1980 on business, but the military dictatorship's "dirty war" against its political opponents keeps slithering up around him. In an opening scene, De Wiel watches quietly as soldiers detain two young men on the street. After the camera cuts away and returns, only one young man remains, his partner joining the ranks of Argentina's thousands of desaparecidos. You dont have to worry, the banker's driver reassures De Wiel; they're in a Swiss Embassy vehicle, shrouded in diplomatic and moral immunity.

A soldier waves the car through, and De Wiel  whose own Swiss partner has also gone inexplicably missing  is off to reassure his jittery, ultrarich Argentinian clients that their money and their secrets are safe. But unlike many movies about the impunity of the 1%, the elite of "Azor" are homebound, paranoid and scared to speak the truth above the volume of a whisper. Their polite Swiss banker can't protect them from a gangster government that kidnaps their racehorses and their heirs with leftist tendencies. "Theyre chasing us like rabbits," a matriarch tells De Wiel the first moment she's sure she won't be overheard.

While De Wiel visits the wealthy's sitting rooms, swimming pools and exclusive clubs, the nation's violence stays off-screen, but the dread never leaves the frame. Not least because it's unclear where a banker's loyalties might lie when the military suddenly has an "El Dorado" of seized assets that only someone with French cuffs and a Swiss passport can easily liquidate. The film's title is a banking codeword for "be quiet, careful what you say," and the story prefers the horrors of the unsaid.

American viewers will find that "Azor"  the first feature-length film by Swiss director Andreas Fontana, now streaming on Mubi  is a minimalist departure from U.S. movies about high finance, which can't help but explain themselves, usually loudly. In Oliver Stone's 1987 "Wall Street," financier Gordon Gekko's iconic "greed is good" speech summarized the intellectual status of a decade of deregulation, junk bonds, leveraged buyouts and retreats by organized labor. Martin Scorsese's "Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) drinks Champagne from the same Reagan era flute. "I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich," Leonardo DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort exhorts a mob of ecstatic traders.

In 2011's "Margin Call," which depicts the start of the 2008 financial crisis, a midlevel trader played by Paul Bettany unapologetically rails against the John Q. Publics who had been happy with Wall Street's toxic adjustable-rate mortgages when it meant bigger houses and fatter 401(k) accounts for the little guy. "They want what we have to give them, but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from," he complains from his convertible. When the antiheroes are running things, they get to give the speeches.

More recent Hollywood treatments of the finance world have become didactic to the point of agitprop, coinciding with a realignment of American politics in which Republicans have gotten more trade-protectionist and young people more socialist. To help dramatize the planet's absurdly complex 2008 financial crisis for his 2015 film "The Big Short," Adam McKay cast Margot Robbie to sit in a bubble bath, sip Champagne and break the fourth wall to explain mortgage-backed securities directly to viewers. Steven Soderbergh's 2019 movie "The Laundromat" borrowed the same device for Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman, who wore garish tuxedos as they let audiences in on the secrets of global offshore banking. It's art about capital that desperately hopes you're getting the message.

"Azor" skips the narrative tricks and sticks to the less macho world of Swiss private banking, where families often run banks that are handed down from generation to generation. "Its a very specific milieu, quite powerful and discreet," Fontana says. Fontana's grandfather had been a banker, and Fontana was fascinated by a posthumous diary entry about a 1980 visit to Argentina that never mentioned the political situation unfolding "in the off-screen of the notebook." (It did mention the American election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency.)

Swiss director Andreas Fontana at a film festival in Berlin in June. (Stefanie Loos / Associated Press)

Fontana decided the script  which, he stresses, is not biographical  should similarly "show only the very strictly necessary things, and all the rest, to let the audience imagine it." He strove to be sociologically "accurate" to the environment, casting the pictures Argentinian characters with nonprofessional actors from the countrys real-life elite. The director of casting called me the snake charmer," Fontana says of the recruiting process. "If I was a journalist, Im sure they would not have been working on this project."

The film's main character, De Wiel, played by actor Fabrizio Rongione, has inherited a bank and a large house in Geneva from his father, but De Wiel seems to lack the charm, the awareness and the cunning of his missing partner Keys, who disappeared shortly after investigating a prospective client nicknamed "Lazaro." While the bank is De Wiel's patrimony, it's his wife, Ines (played by Stephanie Cleau), who's the real brains of the operation. Their marriage, and its gendered imbalances, are the film's other major subsurface conflict.

Ines can read a room better than her husband, can put people more at ease, and therefore must constantly explain to him what's actually happening. She knows which jackets her husband needs to wear to make his shoulders look more imposing. My husband and I are one and the same person  him, Ines confides to a female client. After she's blocked from joining a meeting at a racetrack because of her gender, and her husband meets and loses a client, she bristles at his ineffectiveness. Your father was right," she tells him. "Fear makes you mediocre.

As with many finance movies, Azor is ultimately a success story more than a hero's journey. De Wiel abandons the country estates and the hotel swimming pools where he's comfortable for a journey into the wilderness, where even his fellow Swiss transactioneers have been afraid to go. "War is won on the front," one sinister client, a pro-junta priest with a penchant for speculating on foreign currencies, reminds De Wiel before the trip. The film's conclusion tells an even bleaker story about Swiss private finance than most American movies do about Wall Street.

After giving an interview with The Times for this story, Fontana reflected on his research process in a follow-up email. "You should know that I met about ten private bankers during my research, and among them, one has since committed suicide, and the other has disappeared, nobody knows what happened to him," Fontana says. "It's a milieu without oxygen, without love even, I would say." In Geneva, Fontana says, there's a local saying "that the children of bankers, when they are not bankers themselves, are artists or junkies." He adds, "It's a terrible phrase."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Chilean presidential candidate Gabriel Boric, from the Apruebo Dignidad party, is seen before a televised debate at TVN in Santiago, on November 15, 2021. (Photo by ESTEBAN FELIX / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ESTEBAN FELIX/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) (ESTEBAN FELIX / POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Leftist Congressman Gabriel Boric, 35, will become the youngest president in Chiles history after winning a comfortable victory in the South American nation's most polarized election since its return to democracy more than 30 years ago.

With virtually all of the vote counted, the millennial progressive who burst into prominence a decade ago as a shaggy-haired student protest leader had garnered almost 56% of the ballots.

That compared with about 44% for his opponent, Jose Antonio Kast, 55, a far-right career politician and admirer of Chiles former military dictatorship.

In a Twitter message, Kast said he had spoken with Boric and conceded.

From today [Boric] is president-elect of Chile and deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration, Kast said, about an hour after polls closed. Chile always comes first.

Boric is to take office March 11 for a single four-year term. He will be 36 on inauguration day.

"I'm going to be the president of all Chileans, those who voted for me, those who didn't, those who did not vote," Boric said Sunday in a video call with outgoing President Sebastian Pinera.

Boric will face a divided Congress that will force him to negotiate with the right-wing opposition as he begins to attempt to implement a sweeping agenda.

Still, the results represented the latest triumph for the left in Latin America, where the COVID-19 pandemic has battered economies and left many voters soured on traditional political parties. Leftist leaders have been elected since 2020 in two of Chiles neighbors, Bolivia and Peru, and a center-left president leads adjacent Argentina.

The runoff vote in Chile featured a study in contrasts  the leftist former student activist allied with the Communist Party and the ultraconservative free marketeer who reminds many of former President Trump and his South American devotee, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

In recent weeks the race became a contest to attract middle-of-the-road voters, with both candidates moderating some of their more extreme positions. The results showed that Boric had more success in wooing voters beyond his leftist base.

In first-round voting last month, Kast narrowly finished first and Boric second in fragmented balloting that saw no one garner a majority, leading to Sundays runoff.

Both candidates represent a stunning rebuke of the centrist left and right parties that have alternated governing Chile since 1990, after the 17-year military rule of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Many voters  both left- and right-leaning citizens  seemed motivated to cast ballots in an effort to avoid a candidate they considered an extremist from taking power.

"I voted for Boric only so that right-wing fascism doesn't win," Felipe Malinarich, 23, who studied physical training but works fixing washing machines, said after voting in the working-class neighborhood of San Bernardo, south of Santiago. "I decided to give the lesser evil a chance."

Among those voting for Kast was Lucia Barrera, a 69-year-old stay-at-home mother.

"This is a critical election for Chile because, in my humble opinion, our freedom is at stake," Barrera said after casting her ballot in the affluent area of Las Condes, east of Santiago. "The leftist candidate is allied with the Communist Party, which we all know is not democratic."

Running under the banner of the leftist I Approve Dignity coalition, Boric has repeatedly denounced neoliberalism, the conservative free-market strategy pioneered by the so-called Chicago Boys  influential Chilean economists trained at the University of Chicago.

If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave! declared Boric in July.

Since emerging from Pinochets dictatorship, Chile  the worlds leading copper producer and a dependable U.S. ally  has been widely viewed as a wealthy bastion of stability and economic progress in a volatile region. However, mass street protests in 2019 exposed deep divisions in the nation of 19 million where, amid considerable wealth, half of workers earn about $500 a month. Opposition to a transit fare hike quickly expanded into a nationwide mobilization against inequality.

Kast, a former congressman who admires Pinochets rule, ran on a socially conservative, anti-immigrant and tax-cutting agenda reminiscent of Trump. His law-and-order pronouncements appealed to many still irate about the 2019 unrest, which left at least 31 people dead, paralyzed the country for months and resulted in torched shopping malls, supermarkets and subway stations.

Boric was one of the architects of the deal that helped end the 2019 protest and led to a referendum to rewrite the constitution imposed in 1980 by Pinochet.

In his campaign, Boric vowed a gradual implementation of his controversial plans to nationalize the pension and health systems, raise the minimum wage to $600 a month (from $400) and reduce the workweek from 45 to 40 hours. He has also backed off from a proposal to dissolve the national police force, known as the carabineros , instead calling for reforms.

Special correspondent Poblete reported from Santiago and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
This photo provided by the Washington County (Ark.) Jail shows Joshua Duggar after being arrested in April by federal authorities on child pornography charges. Duggar was convicted last week. (Washington County (Arkansas) Jail via Associated Press)

When reality TV star Josh Duggar was convicted this month of receiving and possessing child pornography, it brought a shocking end to the Duggars' decade-plus reign as the Fundamentalist Kardashians.

On their TLC shows 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On, the ultra-conservative Arkansas clan known for its love of tater tot casserole and the letter J projected a mesmerizing aura of domestic tranquility.

Josh, the eldest of 19 children, was the golden boy, marrying at 20 and accepting an influential job with the Family Research Council's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C.

Now he's a convicted sex offender. Over the course of a six-day trial in Fayetteville, prosecutors presented compelling evidence that Duggar used the dark web to download material depicting the sexual abuse of children to a laptop at his car dealership  images a Homeland Security agent described as in the top five of the worst of the worst that I've ever had to examine. The 33-year-old father of seven faces up to 40 years in prison.

Duggar's conviction has shaken a wholesome reality TV empire that's grown larger than the family itself, provoking new scrutiny of TLC's reliance on shows about large broods with young stars, as well as its role in whitewashing the Duggar family's views on sex, gender roles and procreation in order to make them more palatable to a mainstream, predominantly female audience.

Anna and Josh Duggar pose Friday, April 10, 2009 in Springdale, Ark. (Associated Press/TLC/Jessa Duggar)

The case against Josh Duggar is just the latest in a series of scandals involving the alleged sexual abuse of children by people linked to TLC programs. Last year, former Little People, Big World star Jacob Roloff said he was molested by a producer on the series. The producer could not be reached for comment.

In 2017, Toby Willis, who appeared with his wife and 12 musically gifted children (who, like the Duggars, were home-schooled and had names beginning with J) in The Willis Family, pleaded guilty to four counts of child rape.

TLC also canceled the controversial, highly rated Here Comes Honey Boo Boo in 2014 when it was reported that June Shannon, mother of series star Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, was dating a man convicted of child molestation. In 2011, Remigio Remy Gonzalez, who appeared in several episodes of Cake Boss, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. And Andrea Clevenger, a mother who featured in the series "Cheer Perfection," pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy in 2014.

This is not the Duggars' first brush with scandal, either. InTouch magazine reported that a decade earlier Josh had been investigated by local police for allegedly molesting five younger girls, including four of his sisters, in 2002-03.

According to a 2006 report by the Springdale, Ark., police, the Duggars enrolled their son in a Christian treatment program in 2003, about a year after Josh, then a teenager, first told them he had been inappropriately touching his sisters. In the same report, the parents said they sent Josh for a stern talk with a family friend who worked in law enforcement but that they did not report the alleged abuse. (The friend later went to jail himself on unrelated child pornography charges.)

Megyn Kelly, formerly of Fox News, interviews Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar of the TLC program "19 Kids and Counting" at their home in Tontitown, Ark. The interview followed the publication of a 2006 police report detailing molestation allegations against their eldest son, Josh. (Handout/Getty Images)

The report also indicated that producers at "The Oprah Winfrey Show," who had booked the family on the program, received an email from an anonymous source warning them about Joshs alleged behavior and forwarded it to Arkansas authorities, who then opened an investigation. This led many to question whether Jim Bob and Michelle had handled the incident appropriately  and what, if anything, TLC knew about the allegations when they put the Duggars on TV. No charges were filed against Josh Duggar.

After months of public pressure, TLC canceled 19 Kids and Counting in July 2015 but chose to stay in the Duggar business with Counting On, a Josh-free spinoff that premiered later that year. The series, which aired for 11 more seasons and nearly 100 episodes, focused on Josh's sisters  including at least two of his alleged victims  as they married young and spawned a whole new generation of reality stars.

TLC declined to comment for this story, but after his arrest in April, the network issued a statement: TLC is saddened to learn about the continued troubles involving Josh Duggar. '19 Kids and Counting' has not aired since 2015. TLC canceled the show on the heels of prior allegations against Josh Duggar and he has not appeared on air since then.

But the problems with the Duggars  and TLC more broadly  didnt begin or end with Josh.

The network had originated in the 1970s as a project to bring educational programming to Appalachia using a NASA satellite, then relocated to cable and gradually shifted into unscripted lifestyle shows.

The Discovery-owned channel became a reality TV juggernaut in the mid-2000s thanks to a spate of reality shows about large, unconventional and typically religious families living in small-town America. These included 17 Kids and Counting  the title changed as the Duggars had more kids  and Jon & Kate Plus 8, which followed Jon and Kate Gosselin, a Pennsylvania couple with sextuplets and twins whose marital discord became a national obsession.

Michelle Duggar poses on Aug. 2, 2007, with her husband, Jim Bob, second from left, and children, including their oldest son Josh, tallest standing, after the birth of her 17th child in Rogers, Ark. (Beth Hall / Associated Press)

The Duggars, who appeared in several documentary specials before landing their own series in 2008, were an ideal fit for TLC's emerging brand identity as the red-state Bravo. The women wore ankle-length denim skirts and waist-length perms. The boys sported neatly trimmed crew cuts and matching polo shorts. Even for some liberals, it was impossible to resist the spectacle of child-rearing on such an epic scale  or to deny the Duggar kids were cute and well-behaved.

Produced by the North Carolina-based Figure 8 Films, 19 Kids and Counting became a big hit, with ratings cresting as the older girls began to marry off. A record 4.4 million viewers watched Jill Duggar tie the knot with Derick Dillard in 2014, the network's biggest audience since the premiere of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" four years earlier. This success made the Duggars wealthy  they reportedly made $25,000 to $40,000 an episode, with millions more in income from speaking fees, book sales, DVDs and brand sponsorships  and helped boost profits for TLC, bringing the network an estimated $25 million in ad revenue in 2015, according to research firm iSpot.tv.

It also turned the Duggars into mainstream celebrities who announced pregnancies on "Today," regularly graced the covers of tabloid magazines and even flew private planes.

But there were longstanding questions about the way "19 Kids and Counting" and other unscripted programs featuring underage stars were able to skirt child labor laws because they were classified as documentaries. A 2010 investigation by The Times revealed that producers of "19 Kids and Counting" and other reality TV programs had not obtained work permits to employ minors under 16. Patriarch Jim Bob Duggar said at the time the family didn't consider the filming to be work. (A representative for Figure 8, which made "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and several other TLC shows, declined a request to speak for this story.)

And the questions go beyond labor law. As children, the Duggars' offspring were conscripted into a reality show that stripped them of their privacy and anonymity, all in service of their parents extreme religious beliefs. Our desire in opening our home to the world is to share Bible principles that are the answers for lifes problems, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have said.

The inexpensive reality TV subgenre popularized by the Duggars is a staple on the network to this day: The most visible of these current series is "Sister Wives," about a polygamist with four (soon to be three) wives and 18 kids. But there are others, such as Outdaughtered, which follows a Texas couple with six daughters, including a set of quintuplets; and Welcome to Plathville, about a Duggar-esque conservative Christian family in rural Georgia with nine flaxen-haired, home-schooled children.

The allegations that have plagued the Duggars and other TLC personalities will likely continue to attract attention as parent company Discovery, boosted by the popularity and profitability of its unscripted programming, pursues a proposed $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia.

In 2020, TLC had its most-watched primetime year ever and remains a top-rated cable network with young female viewers.

"Jon + Kate Plus 8" star Kate Gosselin and some of her children with president and CEO of TLC, Angela Shapiro, speaking at the Discovery Upfront event April 23, 2008, in New York City. (Amy Sussman / Getty Images)

From the start, there were indications of the Duggars' strict religious views, particularly in the early seasons' focus on their stringent rules for romance: chaperoned courtship with mates pre-approved by their parents; no kissing before marriage. But beliefs that might be politically sensitive or controversial were largely glossed over as the series grew in popularity.

The Duggars are associated with the Biblical patriarchy movement, which holds that men are ordained by God to be the leaders of their households and strongly discourages birth control.

In their bestselling books, the Duggars endorsed the teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a religious ministry, and its homeschooling division, the Advanced Training Institute. The groups founder, Bill Gothard, promoted extreme sexual modesty, including the idea that God sometimes "let" sexual abuse happen to victims because of "immodest dress," but resigned in 2014 after more than 30 women accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

19 Kids and Counting also regularly documented the Duggars at events organized by the group in ways that omitted key information: For instance, episodes featuring commencement ceremonies from Alert Academy, an IBLP-led quasi-boot camp, never mention that the program denounces homosexuality and endorses the use of loving corporal correction on children.

Producers of the show rarely pressed the Duggars on their views or delved into their off-camera activism, which included recording a robocall against a local LGBTQ rights ordinance.

The purity culture embraced by the Duggars "teaches girls and women that they are responsible not only for their own sexual thoughts, feelings and choices, but for the sexual thoughts, feelings and choices of others, particularly those of men, says Linda Kay Klein, author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free.

This meant the older Duggar daughters were taught to use a code word, Nike, to warn their brothers and father to look at their feet if a provocatively dressed woman was approaching  a detail shared in their book, "Growing Up Duggar."

It also meant that when the molestation allegations against Josh Duggar became public in 2015, his sisters and alleged victims Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald were put on TV to defend him.

AJ Calloway interviews Jill Duggar Dillard and husband Derick Dillard during their visit to "Extra" at its New York studios on Oct. 23, 2014. Jill's wedding was featured in "19 Kids and Counting" and set a ratings record for TLC. (D Dipasupil / Getty Images for Extra)

People who are calling him a child molester or pedophile or rapist  Im like, that is so overboard, Seewald told Megyn Kelly on Fox News. Josh was merely "a young boy in puberty and a little too curious about girls, she said. The extent of [the abuse] was mild  inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims, most of it while [the] girls were sleeping.

Michelle Duggar also pushed troubling ideas about consent, repeatedlycounseling other women to never say no to sex with their husbands, even if they were tired or hugely pregnant. Anyone can fix him lunch, but only one person can meet that physical need of love that he has, and you always need to be available when he calls, she said in an interview with Today.com.

Baked into the title of the show  "and counting"  was the assumption that Jim Bob and Michelle would continue having children in perpetuity, turning procreation into a bizarre endurance contest rather than a choice with potentially severe health risks.

In 2009, 43-year-old Michelle Duggar came down with preeclampsia, a life-threatening condition, and gave birth to her 19th child via emergency C-section three months early. After another miscarriage two years later, Michelle remained determined to reach the magic number 20 and consulted with a fertility doctor.

19 Kids and Counting On made it seem like "its quirky and zany to run a household with that many children, says Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, when in reality older girls are often forced to serve as co-parents to the detriment of things like their education.

Once the Duggar girls reached adulthood, there were few options available to them other than marriage, kids and reality TV. Josh was nowhere to be seen in "Counting On," but the series still focused on young women who'd already spent much of their childhoods taking care of younger siblings or being trailed by a camera crew.

Yet it also spent little time addressing the consequences of having one's first kiss, or childbirth, aired on TV  or, outside of an early episode, the abuse they allegedly experienced at Josh's hands.

Ultimately, not all the Duggar daughters were happy to carry on the family business. Jill Dillard, one of Josh's alleged victims, and her husband quietly left the show in 2017 because, as she later told People, they were unable to control their major life decisions and were not compensated for appearing in "19 Kids and Counting" or "Counting On" until they took legal action.

The trial and its aftermath appear to have exposed further rifts beneath the family's once-harmonious facade. In an evidentiary hearing, Jim Bob testified that he couldn't recall the specifics of the behavior Josh had confessed to him as a teenager  a claim the presiding judge called a selective lapse in memory that was not credible." In contrast, several of Josh's siblings issued statements forcefully denouncing their brother after the guilty verdict. Last week, Jim Bob badly lost a primary race for the Arkansas state senate in which he ran as a "pro-family" Republican.

When TLC finally canceled "Counting On" this summer, months after the child pornography charges against Josh Duggar, the network said it was "important to give the Duggar family the opportunity to address their situation privately.

It may be about 15 years  and a dozen or so kids  too late for that.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Trevor Noah is suing a New York doctor and hospital over "permanent, severe, and grievous" injuries he said he suffered after a November 2020 surgery. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah has filed a malpractice lawsuit against a New York doctor and hospital after allegedly suffering "permanent, severe, and grievous" injuries following a November 2020 surgery.

The Comedy Central star filed the lawsuit in New York's Supreme Court against orthopedic surgeon Dr. Riley J. Williams III and the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan last month, accusing them of professional negligence and seeking unspecified damages. The hospital rebutted the claims.

The 14-page complaint, filed on Nov. 29 and obtained by The Times on Monday, does not explicitly say what Noah was treated for between Aug. 25, 2020, and Dec. 17, 2020, nor does it specify the type of surgery he underwent on Nov. 23, 2020, only referring to his ailments as "various medical conditions and other related treatment, including surgery." The lawsuit also accused the physician and facility  an academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health  of "failing to diagnose and properly treat the condition" Noah had.

The lawsuit claimed that Noah was "rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled" and that he sustained "severe and painful personal injuries" as well as "nervous shock, mental anguish, severe emotional distress and great physical pain" as a result. The complaint also alleged that the 37-year-old comedian was confined to bed and home for a long period of time and underwent hospital and medical aid, treatment and attention for the ailment. He also allegedly suffered loss of enjoyment of life and "was prevented from engaging in his usual occupation for a long period of time."

"Since some of his injuries are of a permanent nature, he will continue to suffer similar damages in the future," the document said under each cause of action.

It's unclear how Noah's alleged ailments affected production on "The Daily Show," which took a three-month hiatus over the summer and returned in September. Representatives for the late-night series did not immediately respond Monday to The Times' request for additional comment. Nor did Noah's attorney Justin Blitz, who filed the lawsuit.

The complaint said that the defendants failed to inform Noah of the risks, hazards and alternatives to the treatment and that they failed to obtain his informed consent so that said treatment could be given.

"A reasonably prudent person in the position of the plaintiff would have refused the treatment rendered, had they been so informed of the risks, hazards and alternatives to the treatment rendered," it said.

Among Noah's claims that the doctor and facility allegedly acted in "a negligent and careless manner," the complaint also said that the defendants and their agents "failed to treat and care for [Noah] in accordance with the standards of care and treatment generally accepted in the community" and, among a list of other things, failed to prescribe proper medications; discontinue certain prescription medications; use proper tests and examinations."

In a Monday statement to The Times, the Hospital for Special Surgery declined to get into the specifics of Noah's case.

"HSS received a complaint filed on behalf of Mr. Trevor Noah. We have shared with Mr. Noah's attorney a detailed rebuttal to the claims, which are meritless," a representative for the hospital and Williams said in a statement. "Due to HIPAA we are restricted by law from addressing publicly specific aspects of the treatment of any patient."

The facility added that it is "committed to excellence in the care we provide to each of the more than 150,000 patients we treat each year."

HSS was founded in 1863 and is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the United States, according to its website.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Starbucks (SBUX) on Monday reiterated its tough stance against unionizing, saying that while the movement was not in the best interests of its workforce, it would bargain in good faith with one location that voted to organize.

Recently, partners at a store in Buffalo scored a big win after voting to form the coffee giant's first ever union. On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) confirmed the vote, according to an internal memo obtained by Yahoo Finance. Yet the Seattle-based coffee chain remains opposed to the effort.

From the beginning, weve been clear in our belief that we do not want a union between us as partners, and that conviction has not changed, Rossann Williams, Starbucks EVP and president of U.S. Retail and Canada wrote to all U.S. partners, which Starbucks call its employees.

She added that: We have also said that we respect the legal process, insisting the company would "bargain in good faith with the union that represents partners in the one Buffalo store that voted in favor of union representation. Our hope is that union representatives also come to the table with mutual good faith, respect and positive intent."

The 50-year-old company actively lobbied against the Buffalo effort, saying it's more than 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores operate best when it works directly with its employees.

Voting wrapped up last week, where a second cafe narrowly rejected the measure, and a third coffee shop is still waiting on results amid a number of challenges to individual ballots.

Starbucks Workers United, a union representing the workers, filed objections with the NLRB for two elections on Thursday. Union organizers claim that Starbucks dramatically and negatively affected the results of the vote at the second cafe store.

Meanwhile, union representatives of the Buffalo Starbucks location will begin to negotiate a contract for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

Its unclear when the results for the third store will be finalized. However, the Starbucks union movement has now spread to Arizona and Boston, as workers at two locations in the city are taking up their effort to form a union.

Starbucks to stay true to Mission and Values'

The upscale coffee giant is one of many companies confronting a pandemic-era reckoning with a stressed out and underpaid workforce, and has moved to address quality of work and pay issues.

In late October, Starbucks announced its plans to increase all U.S. hourly wages to at least $15 an hour, up from the current $12 rate, by the summer of 2022. This will bring the average pay for all U.S. Starbucks hourly partners to nearly $17 per an hour.

The memo sent Monday morning emphasizes the companys desire to remain directly connected with its partners.

We stand for fairness and equity for our partners. We stand for growing and learning together," executives wrote.

"We stand for the Starbucks Experience, and building a company together where partners and the business can thrive and share success. Most importantly, we always stand together as one Starbucks. Always, the letter said.

Shares of Starbucks have been mixed, losing ground recently but up 5.2% year-to-date. Analysts continue to view the vote as neutral to the coffee giants bottom line if the unionization takes hold, given its vast resources and pricing power.

We do not believe the recent news creates a need to adjust our model at this time, but have chosen to provide a backdrop scenario analysis to assess what it could mean, should the situation become more pervasive," Brett Levy, executive director at MKM Partners, wrote in a research note last week.

While reiterating the stock as a "Buy," Levy said higher labor costs could push up operating expenses across 15% of its stores, translating into a bottom-line hit of around 3%.

Brooke DiPalma is a producer and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. President of France Emmanuel Macron welcomed the release of 10 Armenian POWs from Azerbaijan.

Ten Armenian soldiers were released. I want to salute the decisive action of the European Union, with which we will continue to promote this path of dialogue towards peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We are going forward, Macron tweeted.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Conference marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Ukraine was held in Kiev on December 17, organized by the Armenian Embassy, the Armenian community and the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.

The conference touched upon the history of the bilateral relations, the ways that will contribute to improving the relations between Armenia and Ukraine.

Armenias Ambassador to Ukraine Vladimir Karapetyan addressed the conference participants, highlighting the fact that the Ukrainian foreign ministry also participated in the organization of the event. He said that the foreign ministries of Armenia and Ukraine make efforts for the bilateral ties to be as warm as the relations between the two nations are. However, he noted that the diplomats still have a lot to do in order to make the relations between the two countries in accordance with the expectations of the Armenian and Ukrainian citizens.

Other events are also expected to take place on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Armenia-Ukraine diplomatic ties.
According to Shreya Mundhra in the EurAsian Times, Japan has recently been making headlines regarding its increasing Defense budget amid growing tensions with China. The most recent development is that Tokyo is planning to earmark its biggest five-year Defense budget from the fiscal year 2023 to top $264 billion (30 trillion yen) for the first time.

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The additional budget invested by Japan for defense spending will primarily be utilized for the acquisition of new equipment, as well as to deploy troops to the southwest islands near China and Taiwan. (Picture source: U.S. NARA & DVIDS)

Nikkei Asia has reported that the Japanese government is moving towards increasing the nations five-year defense spending to 30 trillion yen in a plan that is to be announced in 2022. This budget will be a component of the governments Mid-term Defense Program. It is based on per-year spending of around 6 trillion yen. This amount includes the 5.4 trillion yen that was allocated in the fiscal year 2022 budget plan, in addition to the 770 billion yen allotment that was included in the supplementary budget plan of 2021, Shreya Mundhra reports.

In the midterm plan, the government will provide an approximation for the total budget for five years by summing up the price of defense equipment. The current plan, set for the fiscal years of 2019-2023, has set a total budget of about 27.5 trillion yen. The next plan will be revised a year ahead of schedule. There is a possibility of the budget being increased by close to 3 trillion yen. This move comes in light of threats posed primarily by China, Russia, and North Koreas growing military might in the region.

In the event of a conflict with North Korea, the US military bases on Japanese land are bound to contribute to the military effort. It is expected that Pyongyang will respond by launching short and medium-range ballistic missiles at targets in Japan. The likelihood of nuclear-armed cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles cannot be completely ruled out. Furthermore, China and North Korea each operate 60-70 submarines. and Russia operates around 20 as part of its Pacific Fleet. Japan thus has the necessity to, and presently is involved in scaling up its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, Shreya Mundhra comments.

Tokyos disputes with Beijing and Moscow also extend to outstanding territorial disputes regarding its sovereignty over far-flung islands. The dispute over Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has also intensified owing to the swift expansion of the PLA Navys operational capability. In the wake of these countries possessing both conventional and nuclear-armed missiles that Japan wants to avoid, there is an effort to prepare an integrated multi-layer missile defense ability. Furthermore, China has a huge arsenal of cruise missiles and short to medium-range ballistic missiles.

Alongside this, China and Russia are building pressure using their military aircraft which have been patrolling near Japanese airspace with increased frequency. Japan needs improvements to ground-based air defense to address these multiple threats. The increase in budget will help here.

The additional budget invested by Japan for defense spending will primarily be utilized for the acquisition of new equipment, as well as to deploy troops to the southwest islands near China and Taiwan. Funding will be directed towards strengthening missile defense.

Japan currently has a need to maintain naval vessels that are slated to replace the Aegis Ashore ground-based interceptor missile system. The country has to pay for the development of the next generation of fighter jets that are to be deployed around 2035. Tokyo has further plans to acquire P1 maritime patrol aircraft and C2 transport aircraft.

Spending will also cover new sectors such as cyber defense, space, and electromagnetic waves. Tokyo will invest in satellites capable of detecting missile launches from space. Funding will be directed into research on technology to deal with cyberattacks.
According to a news published by the Deutsche Welle website on December 16, 2021, Former Chancellor Angela Merkel's German government has approved the sale of 16 IRIS-T SL medium-range air defense missile systems to Egypt. The IRIS-T SL is manufactured by the German company Diehl Defense.

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DIEHL launcher vehicle with 2x4 IRIS-T SL missile containers mounted on MAN truck chassis at ILA Berlin Air Show 2016. (Picture source Wikimedia)

According to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) arms trade database, in 2019, Egypt would have ordered seven IRIS-T SL/SLM surface-to-air defense missile system from Germany.

The IRIS-T SL is a mobile surface-to-air defense missile system using the IRIS-T SL guided missile. The further development of the IRIS-T air-to-air guided missile was specifically designed for ground-based air defense. Selective adaptations in aerodynamics and rocket motor allow an extraordinary range of 40 km and an altitude coverage of 20 km.

The IRIS-T missile is equipped with an imaging infra-red (IIR) seeker for high accuracy and all-aspect capability in severe electronic counter measures (ECM) environments. The solid-fueled motor with thrust vector control ensures the engagement of highly maneuverable targets.

The IRIS-T SLM air defense missile system is able of destroy a wide range of aerial threats (except ballistic missiles), including rockets, cruise missile, drones, helicopters and fighters, under jamming conditions.

To combine the advantages of a long range radar based midcourse guidance and the high resolution imaging infrared seeker for precise terminal homing, IRIS-T SLM is equipped with a data link for on-flight target data updates and a GPS-aided inertial navigation system.

A standard launcher vehicle of IRIS-T SL two pods of four missile launcher containers that can be reload by a reloader vehicle equipped with a crane placed on an elevation platform. The IRIS-T SL launcher can be adapted to different types of wheeled or tacked vehicles being fully transportable by military transport aircraft.

A battery of IRIS-T SLM includes launcher units including missiles as well as weapon master computer, generator or antenna; an Active Electronically Scanned Array 3D multifunctional radar. It enables 360 degree coverage and is used for both airspace monitoring and target data provision. If necessary, it can be supplemented with electro-optical sensors.

The Tactical Operations Center (TOC) is manned by two operators. The connection to the other system elements takes place via radio link or fiber optic cable. In addition, the TOC has the data interfaces and communication options necessary for connection to higher-level management or information structures. This external connection can be real-time or non-real-time.
As reported by Defense Studies, on 16 December 2021, the Marine Assault Amphibian Battalion of the Royal Thai Marine Corps (RTMC) demonstrated the sea-to-shore operation capabilities of its Chinese-made NORINCO VN16 Tracked Amphibious Assault Vehicles and US-made AAV7A1 Amphibious Assault Vehicles upgraded by the Thai company Chaiseri.

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Royal Thai Marine Corps (RTMC) has demonstrated the capabilities of its first three Norinco VN16 amphibious light tanks (Picture source: Royal Thai Marine Corps)

1st-year military preparatory students, class 64, AFAPS (Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School), discovered the operation capabilities of NORINCO VN16 Tracked Amphibious Assault Vehicles and US-made AAV7A1 Amphibious Assault Vehicles Krom Luang Chumphon Camp, Sattahip District, Chonburi Province, on December 16, 2021, Defense Studies reports.

Three units of VN16 amphibious assault vehicles were delivered in late May 2021 to the amphibious vehicle battalion. Marine Corps Brigade. They were demonstrated for the first time during the farewell parade for military service personnel in September 2021. On December 16, these VN16s demonstrated amphibious operations from sea to coast in conjunction with 12 AAV7A1 amphibious vehicles of the Royal Thai Army Amphibious Vehicle Battalion that has been modernized by Chaiseri Metal & Rubber Co. Ltd.

In September 2020, the Royal Thai Navy's Central Procurement and Price Information Center announced a project to purchase 3 amphibious assault vehicles (Phase 1) for 398,143,400 baht ($12,579,570.05) from NORINCO which delivered them just eight months after the announcement of the procurement selection.

The Thai Marine Corps wants to procure VN16 (Phase 2), adding 3 more vehicles in fiscal year 202. The total of vehicles to purchase may be expanded to 9 or 12 if there is not cut from the defense budget that also foresees the supply of 2 Panus R600 8x8 amphibious armored vehicles and a prototype of amphibious combat vehicle (AAV: Amphibious Assault Vehicle) project by the National Defense Technology Institute DTI (Defence Technology Institute).

The ZTD-05, also named VN-16 in the export version, is an amphibious light tank designed and manufactured in China by NORINCO, especially for naval infantry units. The ZTD-05 is armed with a 105 mm gun. The ZTD-05 belongs to the series of amphibious vehicles developed by China.

It is the fastest and most advanced medium-sized AAV. The ZTD-05 was designed for China by the Russian Tula KBP bureau, using the fighting compartment of the Russian BMP-3 armored infantry fighting vehicle as to the starting point. The Kurgan machine-building plant was involved in the development of the rest of the vehicle, as well as the launch of its mass production. in September, Thailand has announced the acquisition of three VN16 amphibious light tanks for its Marine Forces.

The ZTD-05 or VN-16 is propelled by a strong-powered engine and can navigate at a high speed in water up to 45 km/h. The vehicle can run at a maximum road speed of 65 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 500 km.

The ZTD-05 or VN-16 is armed with a fully-stabilized 105mm rifled gun, similar to that found on the ZTS63A amphibious tank.

Secondary weapons include a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and two sets of four smoke grenade launchers mounted on the side of the turret.

64th class pre-cadet students of Royal Thai Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS) discover NORINCO VN16 Tracked Amphibious Assault Vehicles and US-made AAV7A1 Amphibious Assault Vehicles on 16 December 2021 (Picture source: Royal Thai Marine Corps)
In Maharashtra, six more persons have tested positive for Omicron, that raised the state's tally of such cases to 54

New Delhi: With several fresh Omicron cases reported on Sunday from Maharashtra and Gujarat, the total tally of the patients infected with the new Covid-19 variant in the country has gone over 150.

Delhi, which has the second highest number of Omicron cases in the country, meanwhile logged 107 fresh Covid-19 cases, its highest daily rise since June 27, and one death related to the deadly virus.

In Maharashtra, six more persons have tested positive for Omicron, that raised the state's tally of such cases to 54. While two of the patients had a history of travel to Tanzania, two others had returned from England and one from the Middle East. All five of them were fully vaccinated and two of these patients are women. Another new patient is a five-year-old boy from Junnar in Pune district.

Out of 54 Omicron cases in Maharashtra, 22 were found in Mumbai, which include cases through screening at the international airport. Of these 22 patients, two hail from Karnataka, one each from Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Maharashtras Jalgaon and Aurangabad districts, 11 cases are in Pimpri Chinchwad, seven in Pune rural, three each in Pune city and Satara, two each in Kalyan Dombivli (Thane district) and Osmanabad, one each in Buldhana, Nagpur, Latur, Vasai-Virar.

Since December 1, a total of 1,28,518 travellers have arrived at the international airports in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Of these, 18,726 are from at risk countries. Sixty-four Covid-19 patients are from at risk countries and 19 from other countries. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing.

In Gujarat, the total number of Omicron patients has gone up to 10, with three fresh cases of the new variant detected in Gandhinagar, Anand and Surat. While Anand and Gandhinagar have logged their first Omicron cases, Surat has reported its second. All three, including a teenager, have a history of international travel.

In the last 24 hours, 7,081 fresh Covid-19 infections were reported in India, taking the total tally of cases across the country to 3,47,40,275. With 264 fresh fatalities, the total death toll related to the deadly virus has now gone up to 4,77,422.

The total number of active Covid-19 cases have, however, gone down to 83,913, which is 0.24 per cent of total infections, the lowest since March 2020. The national Covid-19 recovery rate also stands at 98.38 per cent, the highest since March 2020.
Modi was speaking at an event to celebrate the Goa Liberation Day, observed on December 19 every year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and others, during a programme organised on the occasion of the 60th Goa Liberation Day, at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Taleigao, Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. (PTI)

Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that Goa would have been liberated from the Portuguese rule much earlier had the country's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel lived for some more time.

He also said that although India got independence much before Goa became free, people of the country could not enjoy at that time as they felt uneasy thinking that one part was the country was still under foreign rule.

Modi was speaking at an event to celebrate the Goa Liberation Day, observed on December 19 every year to mark the day Indian armed forces freed the coastal state from the Portuguese rule in 1961.

Had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been alive for a little more time, Goa would have been liberated earlier, Modi said.

Patel, deputy PM in the Nehru cabinet, died on December 15, 1950. He is credited with the liberation of Marathwada region in Maharashtra from erstwhile Nizams rule. In the past, several BJP leaders had blamed the then prime minister Jawarhalal Nehru for the delay in liberation of Goa. Modi said India had got independence before Goa was liberated.

People of this country could have enjoyed the fruits of independence, but they could not do so. People were uneasy because one part of India (Goa, Daman, Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli) was still under foreign rule. Several of the freedom fighters left everything to join Goans in their freedom struggle, he said addressing the Goa Liberation Day event at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium near here.

This happened because India is not just a political power, but it is a country that protects human values. The countrymen consider the entire nation a family. We have the philosophy of nation first, he added.

At this point of time, I would like to say that had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel lived longer, Goa would not have to wait so long to be liberated from the Portuguese rule, Modi said.

Talking about his recent visit to Rome, Modi said, Some time ago, I went to Italy and the Vatican City. There I also had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis. I invited him to visit India, to which Pope Francis said This is the greatest gift you have given me. This is his love for Indias diversity, our radiant democracy.

Modi lauded freedom fighters, including those from outside Goa, who fought for the state's freedom. When India got Independence, they still continued the fight to liberate Goa, he added.

They ensured that the struggle to liberate Goa did not end after India's independence, he said.

Modi also congratulated the Goa government for topping in various parameters of good governance.

The state has topped on parameters like per capita income, exclusive toilet facility for girls in schools, tap water in every household, door to door waste collection, and food security, he said.

Modi remembered former Goa chief minister late Manohar Parrikar, saying he had understood the potential of the state and nurtured it for welfare of the people.

Parrikar, who was the defence minister during the first term of the Narendra Modi government, died on March 17, 2019 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
209 arrested for clashes; BJP protests, seeks repoll

Kolkata: Violence marred the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election on Sunday when three persons were injured in two separate incidents of crude bomb explosions, while the Opposition parties candidates and agents were allegedly attacked and evicted from the polling booths by Trinamul Congress workers in many of the 144 wards.

While the voter turnout was recorded at 63.63 per cent, 209 persons were arrested by the Kolkata police for creating trouble during the poll.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who cast her vote at Mitra Institution in Bhowanipore in the afternoon, however, claimed: Kolkata witnessed a peaceful civic poll. We wanted this because the election is a mass festival in democracy. People cast their votes in a festive mood. There are 144 wards. If someone cannot contest the polls, he would make drama. It is better to ignore them. The Kolkata police is the best. They tried their best. The district police also helped in ensuring no outsiders were able to enter the city.

In the evening Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari complained to West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar during a meeting at Raj Bhavan along with a BJP delegation, including MLAs. He said: We demand that this poll be nullified and a repoll held. The police acted as TMC cadres. We will submit evidence of rampant violence, rigging and other anomalies at the Calcutta high court where a case on the civic poll has been underway.

In the morning, a gang of miscreants hurled crude bombs near Khanna High School on Beliaghata Main Road in Entally. Joint commissioner of police (headquarters) Shubhankar Sinha Sarkar said no one was injured in the incident that took place at around 9.45 am. He added: Later, some miscreants came from Narkeldanga and hurled a bomb in front of Taki School in the Amherst Street area. Three persons were injured. They were admitted to hospital. One of the accused was arrested while others have been identified and will be caught soon.

At the same time, allegations of large-scale electoral malpractices like booth-jamming, rigging and appearance of false voters and street fights were reported from other parts of the city. In most of them, the BJP candidates and their agents were attacked by the TMC workers. The list includes at least five party candidates, including Meena Devi Purohit, a councillor.

Even CPI(M) candidates were not spared in some wards. The BJP lodged a complaint with the West Bengal State Election Commission while its workers began a state-wide protest in the city and districts from the afternoon. Later, eight BJP MLAs, who had plans to meet Mr Adhikari at his residence in Salt Lake in the presence of 16 other party MLAs, sat on dharna at the MLAs hostel on Kyd Street after finding that its entrance was locked from outside.

Mr Dhankhar, who left Raj Bhavan to cast his vote at a nearby polling booth and expressed concerns over reports of the violence, also turned furious as Mr Adhikari and other BJP MLAs were stopped by the Bidhannagar police from leaving the Salt Lake address before they met him.
In the first two weeks of December 2021 alone, attacks against Christians were reported in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka

Last week the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties published a report on the concerted attacks against Karnatakas Christian community and their places of worship. Also last week, Karnataka has announced a law that further curbs religious freedom for minorities. I contributed to the PUCL report and thought its findings were worth sharing.

The background to this is that targeted attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship are on the rise across India. In the first two weeks of December 2021 alone, attacks against Christians were reported in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka.

Incidents of organised violence and disturbance against the community have been accompanied by threats that are being followed up by legislation. Laws restricting religious freedom and regulating inter-faith marriage have been legislated in five BJP-ruled states since 2018, squeezing the right to freely propagate and practise religion. The BJP government in Karnataka is also proposing to survey the states churches, to no apparent end other than monitoring Christians, their religious activity and their places of worship.

Hate crimes are not registered as a separate category by the State and there is little official information available on the matter. A fact-finding report released earlier this year documented over 90 hate crimes and mentioned over 300 against Christians and their churches and prayer halls, primarily in northern India.

This report (Christians under attack in India, by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, United Christian Forum and United Against Hate) has recorded themes that the present report also corroborates. These are denial of worship, the illegal detention of clergy and worshippers and filing of false complaints. And all this is accompanied by the pushing of legislation and of inflammatory rhetoric from the BJP and its leaders and associates. It is important that civil society document to the best of its ability the violence, repression and intimidation aimed against Indias minorities, often with the approval of the State and the parties in power.

In Karnataka, this is the way in which the attacks happen: An organised group often numbering in the hundreds intrudes and begins chanting bhajans and slogans inside the church and prayer hall while the service is on. They shout accusations of forcible conversion without defining what this is or any evidence that it is happening. They are often violent and assault those gathered for prayer. The police seems to be aware of the impending violence but mostly arrives after the event. The mob records their criminal trespass and violence on their phones but often prevent the worshippers from doing the same, leaving little or no visual record of the offence.

The mobs signal their religious difference through flags, scarves and slogans emphasising the intended polarisation. Their trespass is not seen as the primary crime by the State and the media, which does not appear to be able to look past the unsubstantiated and undefined accusations of forced conversion. The pastor and other clergy are often snared by the mobs and the police files cases against the victims, including those who are merely exercising their constitutional and fundamental right to practise their faith. The role of the State is often negative, and the police intrudes into the personal lives of worshippers, demanding to know what caste they belong to. They note the identities and personal details of the clergy and worshippers and tend to intimidate those they are required to protect. Often the result is that worshippers stop coming to the mass, and perhaps thats what is intended. Indeed, the State itself often instructs, as this report will show, the church to discontinue its activity and its prayer, ostensibly a fundamental right enjoying a high degree of freedom from State encroachment. In one case, the police was offended that Christians were congregating to worship on the day of a Hindu festival. Often the role of the police is not to ensure that the violence and intimidation is contained, but to seek a compromise between the attackers and the attacked so that order is prioritised over law. The focus is usually on looking beyond the acts of violence and intimidation.

The violence is also accompanied by casteism and caste-based abuse and violence. The attackers and intruders often use casteist abuse when addressing the worshippers.

Worshippers continue to be targeted after the initial act of intrusion and violence. After the violence, this report documents the trauma that is due to societal causes: the loss of livelihood in some cases, social boycotts, ostracisation, loss of entitlements, loss of residences in other cases and in all cases a loss of dignity. The individuals that cause offence come from Hindutva umbrella groups and are organised by them, as the PUCL report shows. BJP legislators and ministers are sometimes directly involved. However, the ensuing damage in terms of the social ostracisation and boycott usually happens because it is the neighbours and associates, previously unperturbed, who turn against the victims.

Sometimes the victims and survivors also lose their jobs and livelihood. This seems to show that the spread of the prejudice ripples on after the event and the immediate act of violence is not the only problem. The impending legislation in Karnataka will accelerate the process of the targeting of minorities by Hindutva groups, will give cues to the State, and particularly the police, to join in and prevent and obstruct the freedom of religion of Karnatakas Christians and will encourage vigilantes to make their name by attacking congregations. This will be consistent with events in the other five BJP-governed states that have brought in laws against freedom of religion since 2018.
Patriarch Sako invites people of "good will", Christians and Muslims, to observe the day tomorrow and "wisely" for "peace and stability" and the construction of "a true democratic state". The Archdiocese of Baghdad distributes basic necessities and a sum of money to a thousand needy families.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - The Chaldean Patriarchate has called for a day of fasting and prayer for Iraq, a nation in search of a "new balance" and a future of "development and security" after the US invasion, subsequent violence and the jihadist madness of the Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis). The initiative scheduled for tomorrow, December 21, is being promoted by the primate himself, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, who addresses the Christian community and all people who care about the good of the nation, including Muslims.

In the message, the Cardinal emphasizes that through prayer and the initiative of people of "good will" he seeks to "alleviate the crisis" left by the parliamentary elections and accelerate the "formation of a national government."

He adds that the aim is to work "wisely" to build a "true democratic state" and achieve "peace and stability." A twofold commitment, the patriarchal note concludes, in this period in which Christians "are about to celebrate the birth of Christ, messenger of peace and love."

At the beginning of November, particular concern was aroused by the attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who was unharmed during a drone attack on his home. Analysts and experts had linked the operation to the recent electoral round, contested by a part of the political spectrum, in particular by pro-Iranian Shiite movements which were defeated in the polls. The growing tension had already caused more than one alarm bell to ring among the Chaldean bishops, who had repeatedly called for a strong government to curb the violent drift and a situation of chaos that would plunge the country into the abyss.

In launching the pre-Christmas day of fasting and prayer, the Chaldean Church and the Archdiocese of Baghdad promoted at the same time a distribution of aid for a thousand needy families in the capital. An initiative strongly desired by Patriarch Sako himself, in collaboration with the activists of Caritas Iraq. The Christian leaders distributed a food basket containing basic necessities and redistributed the proceeds of a fundraiser for needy families that raised 20 million Iraqi dinars (just over 12 thousand euros in total).
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Residents of the region remember "Uncle Valerius," the artist who traced drawings and greetings on ice and snowy expanses. He died last year of Covid. Beloved throughout Russia, his works also photographed by the International Space Station.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Russians of Siberia, and also of other regions, have organized a special "flashmob" to honor the memory of Valerij Melnikov. Known as "Uncle Valerius" of the village of Markovo, in the Priamurje region (eastern Manchuria) on the Russian side of the Amur River, he traced drawings and written greetings on the ice and snowy expanses. With the help of spades, pickaxes and other tools, many people of different ages and backgrounds take to the snowy landscapes to imitate ice art in the period heralding the New Year and Christmas holidays (Christmas in Russia is celebrated after New Year's Day, on January 7).

For more than 10 years after his retirement, Uncle Valerius devoted himself in solitude to compose greetings for his fellow citizens of Priamurje, drawing festive writings and images on the frozen surface of the great river that separates Russia from China and Mongolia, and on many other snowy spaces. The International Space Station photographed its own New Year's card drawn on the Khomutin River in 2017.

Then the media began to write about the exploits of Uncle Valerius, who quickly became a celebrity throughout the country for this unique form of art capable of making kind and welcoming even the most hostile landscape of winter frosts. Groups of tourists from various cities began to visit Markovo, and on New Year's Eve greeting cards from all over Russia arrived for Uncle Valerius.

Uncle Valerius died in 2020, killed by the coronavirus at the age of 73, after working as a technician in a factory and a trader. Over 20 years ago, due to meningitis followed by a heart attack, he lost his hearing. As he himself said in interviews, he was in a coma for 10 days: as soon as he woke up, he asked to turn on the radio, but without hearing any sound. In the solitude of silence he started to compose drawings on snow and ice - different every year - to feel alive and "not to bore people".

In interviews, Valerius explained that he didn't like solitude: "It's like the howling of the Siberian wolf... they say that men don't cry, but it's not true. I am a person of company, in the collective I have always been a leader, but circumstances have made me live this experience; I don't want to think I am worthless, I want to be needed, otherwise why live?".

The idea of New Year's cards, Melnikov recounted, came to him out of the blue: he wanted to give people a reason to face the new year with optimism. Uncle Valerius had his own method of drawing, so the figures that were outlined had to freeze first, and then come to life with a work of at least a month, cleaning them every day from the snow that was deposited on them; a kind of "snow icon", to be composed with religious dedication.

In his memory the inhabitants of the Amur region joined in continuing the tradition of snow greetings, and they were joined by people from many cities of Siberia: Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Ekaterinburg, Omsk and Jakutsk. The event had its center precisely in Markovo, his native village.

Frozen postcards will be carved on the right bank of the Ob River, at the Europe-Asia bridge of the Ural River and on the banks of the Om and Iseti Rivers. In Jakutsk the greeting will be painted on Lake Talom. The first postcard in memory of Uncle Valerius is already ready in Blagovescensk, where the collaborators of the social and cultural center of the city, Vitalij Guz and Stanislav Gavrik, prepared the greetings in the pond of the Friendship Park.
A BBC investigation reveals July massacre of 40 men who were thrown into mass graves. The generals spokesman fails to deny the episodes of violence. In recent days, new combat aircraft, including an ATR, have been inaugurated, despite an arms embargo.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) - In July this year Myanmar's military junta carried out a series of mass killings, torturing and burying at least 40 men in mass graves according to a BBC investigation. The British broadcaster interviewed 11 witnesses and compared their stories with video collected by Myanmar Witness, an NGO that investigates human rights violations in the country.

The massacres took place in Kani province, Sagaing district, in central Myanmar. In the months preceding the killings clashes had intensified between the Burmese army, which in February ousted the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and the People's Defense Forces, the ethnic anti-golpe militia.

The most serious incident occurred in the village of Yin, where the Burmese military tortured and beat to death and then threw at least 14 men into a ravine.

"We couldn't stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying." "We begged them not to do it. They didn't care. They asked the women, 'Are your husbands among them? If they are, do your last rites'." A man who managed to escape the killings said that soldiers inflicted horrifying abuse on the men for hours before they died. "They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day," the survivor said. "Some soldiers looked young, maybe 17 or 18, but some were really old. There was also a woman with them." the survivors explained to the BBC.

In the nearby village of Zee Bin Dwin 12 mutilated bodies were found, including that of a child and a disabled person. It is clear that the military junta has targeted the male component of the population in response to attacks by resistance forces, although family members of those killed have insisted that their relatives were not involved in armed attacks. One woman who said her brother, who was killed by soldiers, "didn't even know how to handle a slingshot."

The BBC turned the accusations over to Burma's Minister of Information and junta spokesman, General Zaw Min Tun, who did not deny that soldiers carried out mass killings. "It can happen," he said. "When they treat us as enemies, we have the right to defend ourselves."

In recent days, during the Burma Air Force's 74th anniversary celebrations, the generals showed off some modified and modernized military aircraft, including an ATR-72 600. The ATR-72 600 aircraft are manufactured in France by ATR, a joint venture between France's Airbus and Italy's Leonardo Corporation. Amnesty International, Italy-Burma.Insieme, Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo and Atlante delle Guerre recalled that an arms embargo is in place against Myanmar that includes "spare parts" and "a ban on the export of dual-use goods."

According to the monitoring site Acled, there were more clashes and armed attacks in Myanmar between February 1 and November 26 than in Yemen and Afghanistan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the announcement on the sidelines of the summit of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation held yesterday in Islamabad. Ankara and Doha are ready to operate Kabul International Airport. Plans to build a railway to Uzbekistan were also discussed at the summit.

Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Turkey could run five airports in Afghanistan together with Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said after the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held yesterday in Islamabad.

OIC members decided to set up an emergency fund in response to the humanitarian crisis that has gripped Afghanistan after the Taliban retook the country.

At a press conference, Cavusoglu explained that a delegation of experts will travel first to Doha and then to Kabul to discuss ways to operate Kabuls Hamid Karzai International Airport. Turkey and Qatar began to focus on this issue soon after the US withdrawal.

They later plan to reach out to the Emirate of Afghanistan to discuss running four other airports. "We will operate the airports jointly with Qatar if conditions are favourable, Cavusoglu said.

Although the OIC has not formally recognised the Taliban government, Turkey has adopted a pragmatic approach, and will monitor developments in the country, keeping communications open with all relevant local leaders.

On the sidelines of the OIC summit, plans to build a new railway between Kabul to Tashkent were also discussed.

Acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Uzbekistan's Transport Minister Makhkamov Ilkhom, who promised to train Afghan staff. The project, which is expected to cost US$ 4.8 billion, should start in the spring.

A delegation will soon visit Uzbekistan to discuss the technical issues, said Ahmad Wail Haqmal, a spokesman for the Taliban Ministry of Finance.
Ali Abu Luhum, 38, was convicted of using two anonymous twitter accounts to reject religion and promote atheism. This included denying God and posting content that endangered public order. The Saudis allegedly used Pegasus software to influence a UN panel investigating the kingdoms involvement in Yemen.

Riyadh (AsiaNews)  A Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni migrant to 15 years in prison last October for apostasy, but the news only became public recently, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.

The human rights organisation called on Saudi authorities to reform the kingdoms justice system, starting with the decriminalisation of blasphemy and offences related to religion and personal beliefs.

In a statement, HRW notes that Ali Abu Luhum, 38, reportedly posted some comments online via two anonymous Twitter accounts, which prosecutors claim were registered to phone numbers linked to the accused.

"The court found that the tweets were promoting 'apostasy, unbelief, and atheism'", HRW said, reporting the trial was held without defence witnesses, in a climate of pressure.

Abu Luhum was charged, among other things, of denying the existence of God" as well as publishing content that prejudices public order, religious values, and public morals on social media.

The defence has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which is still evaluating the case. Meanwhile, Ali Abu Luhum is being held in a prison in Najran, near the border with Yemen.

Saudi authorities are sparing no expense to portray the country as tolerant and reforming, but contradicting state orthodoxy on religion still results in a decade-and-a-half prison sentence, said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

The modernisation of the Wahhabi kingdom, he adds, must first end the policing peoples personal beliefs and accept decriminalization of blasphemy.

A modernizing Saudi Arabia needs to first stop, Page said. As it seeks to modernize its criminal justice system, Saudi Arabia should urgently prioritize decriminalizing peaceful speech, starting with the decriminalization of blasphemy.

In trying to reduce the countrys dependence on oil, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans "Vision 2030" programme includes upgrading the local version of Islam.

Recent reforms have included the social and religious changes, such as grating women the right to drive and access to stadiums.

However, all this has been overshadowed by the arrest of senior officials and business people, the crackdown against activists and critical voices, the sectarian convictions, and the Khashoggi affair.

More recently, reports indicate that Saudi Arabia used the Israeli Pegasus spy software against United Nations investigators called to shed light on the Yemen conflict.

Israeli software was reportedly used in 2019 to target the phone of Kamel Jendoubi, chairman of the UN expert group.

The panel of experts were allegedly put under financial, political and diplomatic pressure to influence the outcome.
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For those who are not aware of what is going on, Alex Zanardi was injured after an accident on June 19, 2020, during a road race for Paralympic athletes. The Italian athlete's handbike collided with an oncoming truck, and Alessandro Zanardi suffered what was described as severe facial and cranial trauma.The Paralympian underwent several operations since then to reconstruct his face, but it was reported that he started showing signs of interaction back in September 2020 and that he regained his sight and hearing back in December 2020. Since January 2021, reports claim that Alex Zanardi was able to speak again.In October, Alex Zanardi celebrated his 55th birthday, and the athlete and his family want to thank all those who sent him their best wishes. While appreciating public interest in his recovery progress, his family requests people to respect their privacy, so they arranged an interview with the BMW Group, a company that has chosen Alex Zanardi as an Ambassador , to explain the situation.The biggest challenge this year for Alessandro Zanard i was the possibility of leaving the hospital and returning home to his family. The Italian racing legend is being treated daily by a team of doctors, and his progress has been described as steady.Daniela Zanardi explained that the Italian racer is now spending most of the day with his family, which is a major improvement from the days when he was in the hospital bed.According to the Zanardi family, Alex's arm strength has increased significantly from the time of the accident, which means that he also has control of his hands, not only of his voice and eyes.The Zanardi family wants to express its appreciation for Alex's fans across the world, who sent their good thought and prayers to the Italian racer. We wish him a speedy and steady recovery.
A place of mystery and dreams, Mars has been the subject of intensive study for decades now. Weve found traces of water, possible hints at past life, and a great potential for the future. But above all, we keep seeing strange images on the surface of the planet, as our imagination tries to make sense of something its not used to seeing.In the case of the image we have here, taken by the HiRISE camera from an altitude of 249 km (155 miles) back in 2017, the official vista is that of an undisclosed region of the planet that looks like a crater from a meteor impact rather than an ancient caldera of a volcano.Its a mystery depression comprising what appears to be a bed connected to a crater, a bed that might have once supported either water or lava.While for the people over at NASA and the University of Arizona, who are constantly looking over HiRISE photos, the image is a good opportunity to give insight into some of the interesting geology of this area, for us its yet another reason to see strange shapes.If you look close enough in the main pic of this piece (click photo to enlarge), youll see in the upper right corner something that looks like a big nose with the right half of the face attached to it. In the opposite corner, we get another half-face, this one seemingly showing an eye and a much bulkier nose further down.Because thats how strange Mars is when pareidolia springs into action.
With holidays just around the corner, the Bavarian automaker decided to show off its high-end wheelers once again and delight its fans and customers with a cinematic two-minute clip starring a loyal BMW supporter. Christoph Waltz is not at his first collab with the German car manufacturer. Just last year, the inglorious basterd took part in the NEXTGen 2020 event, playing an important role in the design world premiere of the BMW iX , as a co-creator.Now, Waltz returns for a new BMW project, starring in a short, funny clip, next to Oliver Zipse (Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG), social media sensation Alex Hirschi (a.k.a. Supercar Blondie), fashion designer Alexa Chung, and Kai Langer, Head of Design at BMW i.The movie is centered around Christoph Waltz , who is on his way to meeting Zipse at BMWs headquarters in Munich, Germany. Unfortunately for him though, he finds out from the receptionist that he has to attend the companys Christmas party in order to do so, which makes him change his mind and try to escape the festive area. Turns out that while the actor is very interested in the ecological aspects of sustainable drive technology, valuing premium quality and technological precision, he doesnt find Christmas all that appealing.A cat-and-mouse game follows as Waltz is now on the run to avoid the party, as a BMW staff member in a Christmas hat tries to do the opposite and take him there. Trying to leave the building proves to be more difficult than the actor thought it would be and well let you discover why in the video below.
You may have heard his name before, as this is not the first time when he has employed his revenge on package thieves. This category usually targets porches , and they take packages that have been delivered without the recipient being at home when they arrived.In some cases, those packages are insured, and the recipient will get a new package without added cost, but that is a rare and fortunate case.Even if everything was insured and there is no material loss to the victims, that still does not justify theft. What is worse is that some of these thefts are simply another form of damage, such as broken windows, when it comes to vehicles. Moreover, the owner of the vehicle must then spend time making a complaint, as well as schedule a visit to a workshop to have the window replaced.Meanwhile, thieves profit as they sell stolen goods wherever they can. Sadly, these thefts will not stop, but there are ways to protect yourself from them.Mark Rober has gone a different route, and he devised the fourth generation of his glitter bomb. The latter is a device that mimics the package of an expensive item, but shoots glitter and films package thieves when they get hit by it.In the video, you will get to see a package thief in action as he strikes a parked vehicle. It only takes seconds for them to strike, and it starts with a look through the window to see if there is anything that appears to be valuable left in the vehicle.In the case of Mark Rober's vehicle, he left a backpack on the backseat, as well as a box that looks like one that contains an Xbox. The latter was not taken, as the thief preferred to snag a backpack. In this case, the contents of the backpack were valuable but could have been worthless if it had been empty.What you can learn from this is to never leave things in your vehicle when you leave it parked. Do not leave a backpack or a purse on the backseat, even if all they have inside is your gym equipment. Thieves do not know what is inside the backpack, and your window might get smashed for a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.As you can see, they break the rear window with a single blow, which leads us to believe that they used an emergency car window breaker and seat belt cutter tool. You should keep one of those in your car taped to the lower part of your seat to have a way to get out of your vehicle in the event of an accident.In other words, the best way to prevent people from stealing things from your vehicle is to never leave anything inside the passenger compartment that did not come with the car. Having an insurance policy that covers theft will also prove handy, but prevention is better than treatment.
SUV

On that list, and close to the top, is Toyotas mighty Land Cruiser , a beast that seems to have been around for ages, taken on both the roads and the unbeaten paths with equal prowess.Land Cruisers of old are today more valuable than brand new SUVs, in some cases, and this is exactly what entities like the FJ Company bet on to keep their businesses going. The American company has been at it for a while, and their builds featured here on autoevolution on more than one occasion.The latest FJ-handled Land Cruiser (and perhaps the last of the year) comes in the form of this 1976 example titled Reimagined.Based on a body and chassis original to the FJ43 , the larger version of the FJ40, the Freeborn Red apparition is as close to a sleeper as these things get, in that it looks pretty much stock, but its anything but.The seller of the, Canepa, promises underneath that underwhelming looks a perfect combination of performance, style, and handling, coming in a package with classic looks and upgrades to make it meaner than the Japanese ever envisioned it to be.One of the most important upgrades comes in this case in the form of a new powertrain, comprising a new Toyota 1GR-FE 4.0 Liter V6 engine, working with a 5-speed manual transmission. Then, we get side power steering rack, vehicle stability control, traction control, and an anti-lock braking system, but also King shocks, and 16-inch wheels with BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires.Inside, the retro feel is the most prominent, but that is paired with modern-day amenities, including air conditioning, custom sound system, and a digital instrument cluster.For off-road adventures, the FJ Company equipped this thing with a hi-lift jack, Warn Zeon 8 winch and a jerrycan to hold reserve fuel.The Land Cruiser is now for sale from Canepas lot with just under 1,500 miles (2,400 km) since re-made, but the price for it is a secret between the dealer and prospective buyers.
AMG

Few things are more dramatic in Khoshbins life than getting a supercar out of his garage. Fortunately, this time he did not have a whole bunch of McLarens or Rolls-Royces to pull out before getting to his favorite toy, but he still had one more surprise for his fans - his Rembrandt was low on gas.It was freezing outside driving to an event. Khoshbin did not have his top up, and to make it worse, his Bugatti Veyron Rembrandt doesnt come with a cup holder.He gets VIP parking for his supercar at the event alongside other iconic cars such as a yellow Zonda S, a Ferrari SF90 Stradale, a LaFerrari Aperta, and an F40.Outside there are more iconic cars, including a classic Type 35 Bugatti, a Mercedes-Black Series, a McLaren Speedtail, and many more. Khoshbin admits his favorite car at the event was the Pagani Roadster and the LaFerrari Aperta He has an order out for a 1-of-75 AMG GT Black Series. He explains it comes with a one-style paint design (silver with white stars) and a two-tone Alcantara interior. It also comes in one-spec without an option for alterations. Its exclusive, meaning you need to be a Mercedes-AMG One owner to get one of these bad boys.One of his fans makes a snazzy comment about his cars never having gas, and he responds with, "perhaps i need to buy a gas station." Khoshbin hands over his gifts to the toy drive and gives a vote of thanks to the organizers. He hopes the kids love his contribution.
SUV

Although its hindered by questionable styling upgrades, the 700 Widestar is genuinely quick in a straight line. Take, for instance, the first drag race in the featured video. Not only does it dig in better, but the Brabus also has the longer legs over its bone-stock brother due to 950 Nm (701 lb-ft) of torque compared to the carmakers rating of 850 Nm (627 lb-ft) for the G 63.Next up, the matte-black utility vehicle proves its mettle against an S-Class Coupe with V8 power. On the third run, the 700 Widestar fails to assert dominance over the GLE 63 S 4Matic+ Coupe. The subsequent rivals, namely the G82 M4 and a Hamann-tuned X5 M, both make easy work of the body-on-framefrom Bottrop. Two more challengers in the guise of a Jeep Trackhawk and an F80 M3 show the Brabus their rear ends.Clearly not intended for strip-slaying shenanigans, the 700 Widestar is capable of hitting 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 4.3 seconds, onto a top speed of 240 kilometers per hour (149 miles per hour). This performance is made possible by a plug-and-play module with a more aggressive software mapping for the injection system, ignition, and turbochargers. A sportier exhaust system also needs to be highlighted.On the visual front, the distasteful exterior is complemented by a more luxurious interior clad in Alcantara and fine leather upholstery. A new set of paddle shifters and lots of Brabus insignias bring the point home.
EV

Set to premiere at the 2022 edition of the Tokyo Auto Salon, which will kick off on January 14 for the media, and the next day for visitors, the Keiis a tiny electric vehicle that promises to be safe and comfortable.That may not tell us much, but Mitsubishi has confirmed that it previews a new battery-electric kei car , which will enter the eponymous segment in its home market early next fiscal year (April 2022-March 2023).The Kei EV Concept is a new generation all-electric kei car, founded on safety, security, and comfort, as well as environmental friendliness, Mitsubishi says. It combines easy handling and practical size of a kei car with smooth yet powerful road performance of an EV, while offering advanced driver assistance systems and connectivity.Debuting alongside the zero-emission show car at the event taking place in the Land of the Rising Sun in a little over three weeks from today will be the Ralliart Concept. The teaser image accompanying the announcement reveals an aggressively shaped diffuser, incorporated into the rear bumper, with reflectors on the top side and what appears to be, after some minor Photoshop editing, an F1-like third brake light mounted in the middle.The Ralliart Concept car brings together Mitsubishi Motors engineering passion for Monozukuri challenges (craftsmanship), the Japanese automaker explains. With a premium feel and a strong sense of presence, the styling expresses the companys vision for the new Ralliart .As usual, autoevolution will be reporting from the event, so stay tuned for the latest and greatest premieres, including these two studies from Mitsubishi.
kWh

We just signed our third partnership agreement with a major auto manufacturer. Were very excited to be working with this global luxury auto company to further the reach of our solid-state lithium-metal battery technology.#TheFutureIsSolid https://t.co/pfHxw1xqa3  QuantumScape (@QuantumScapeCo) December 17, 2021

The one we have missed was announced on September 17, 2021, through a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). According to that document, QuantumScape had reached a deal with a second top ten (by global revenues) automaker that has committed to purchasing 10 MWh of capacity from QS-0, QuantumScapes pre-pilot production line facility. Those solid-state cells would be used in prototypes. Supposing they may have 100battery packs, the 10 MWh would represent 100 prototypes.The global luxury OEM did not have many aspects disclosed by QuantumScapes new SEC filing. The solid-state battery startup only said that this carmaker will reserve capacity of battery cells from its QS-0 pre-pilot production line facility. Depending on how testing goes, it may eventually purchase these solid-state cells.Despite the lack of information, we may play with what we have to try to guess which companies now have a deal with QuantumScape apart from Volkswagen. The startup stressed that the second automaker that partnered with it is among the ten largest ones by revenue, which means they are not among those with higher production numbers.According to Statista , the ten leading carmakers in 2020 regarding how much they earned are Volkswagen, Toyota, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, BMW, SAIC, Stellantis, and Hyundai. We can rule out Toyota, which is pursuing its own tech. According to Focus2Move , Ford is beaten in production number only by Toyota, VW, and Hyundai, but this ranking only takes brands into consideration, not the groups to which they belong. Anyway, Ford has a deal with Solid Power and is possibly not interested in QuantumScape.Toyota produced 9.5 million vehicles and is followed by Volkswagen (8.9 million), General Motors (6.8 million), Hyundai Group (6.4 million), Stellantis (6.2 million), Honda (4.4 million), Ford (4.2 million), Nissan (3.6 million), Renault (2.94 million), and Daimler (2.5 million). The only companies in the revenue ranking that are not among the ten biggest ones in production numbers are BMW and SAIC. Considering BMW and Mercedes-Benz are considered luxury car brands and that BMW also has a partnership with Solid Power, that leaves SAIC as the most likely possibility. Volkswagen's ties with the Chinese brand make it even more likely.Regarding the global luxury brand that is QuantumScapes third partner, it could include a wide range of companies, but we can eliminate some of them. Mercedes-Benz announced in November an investment in Factorial Energy, so it probably is not after QuantumScape. Most other luxury brands belong to Volkswagen, Stellantis, or Toyota. Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover are the only ones that fit as global luxury OEMs with no investments in battery companies that we are aware of. We'd bet on one of these car companies as QuantumScape's third partner.Well only know for sure which automakers QuantumScape is talking about when they decide to reveal that, as did Volkswagen. As long as solid-state batteries are available as soon as possible, it does not matter which badge these electric cars present. On the other hand, the fact that QuantumScape already has three carmakers willing to buy its batteries is something the startup can celebrate  and competitors may fear.
The deal was brought to our attention by Bloomberg News, which came across a draft of the procurement contract at city offices. According to the document, NYPD will pay $52,000 for each car, which means these will either be Long Range versions with some improvements or Performance versions with a discounted price. It could also be a custom police car built by Tesla with input from NYPD, as the electric carmaker already has pilot programs with several police departments in the U.S. and abroad The purchase is part of a broader push toward electrification both at local and federal levels, to meet the climate goals. NYPD aims to transition to an all-electric fleet of cars in the future, so the Tesla contract would be a good start. Although the deal seems big enough to be important for Tesla, it doesnt mean much for the Department. NYPD employs almost 36,000 uniformed officers and operates a fleet of 9,621 cars, as listed by the NYC Mayors Office of Operations.Electric cars have huge advantages as police cars, beyond zero emissions promises. As demonstrated in other limited pilot programs in Michigan and California, EVs can significantly cut departments fuel and maintenance expenses.A police car spends a lot of time idling, so you can see how an electric car like the Tesla Model 3 can save a lot of fuel. Electric cars also have the advantage of being virtually silent, which makes them ideal vehicles for stealth operations.A deal between NYPD and Tesla will signal a tectonic shift in the law enforcement vehicle preferences if it goes through. Although police departments operate different vehicles from different brands, Ford is a dominant player in this segment, according to Bloomberg . Choosing the Tesla Model 3 over the Ford Mustang Mach-E might go down to the disappointing test results of the latter with the Michigan State Police . But it could also be leveraged to get a sweeter deal from Ford.
FSD

@chadkirchner What do you know about Tesla apparently using 2017 packs in brand new cars? Ive never heard about this before. pic.twitter.com/EHa1X05CG7  William (@willzlife) December 19, 2021

1/2 New thread. TSLA is selling Demo 21 Long Range Model 3s with low miles, and a disclaimer that the battery was built in 17 and may be degraded by 12%. I put a ton of links in a thread that broke. Heres the search criteria for the Bay Area: https://t.co/6Hh5wYkUEP pic.twitter.com/iY8beAlgxx  Seth Horwitz (@Seth_Horwitz) December 20, 2021

The Twitter user @willzlife sounded the alarm in a tweet shared on December 19. He said he had never seen 2021 cars made with 2017 components. After that, Seth Horwitz did a search and found similar cases in Austin, Honolulu, Denver, Portland, Los Angeles, Miami, and Bay Area. We checked Teslas pages on December 20.There are 15 cars in this situation in the Bay Area, 5 in Austin, 2 in Honolulu, 3 in Denver, 2 in Portland, 6 in Los Angeles, and 1 in Miami. All of them are 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range units withcosting more than $60,000. All 29 EVs come with 2017 battery packs.That suggests two things: either these cars were already built with 2017 battery packs, or they had to have their original battery packs replaced with these older components. Tesla informs 353 miles of range for all of them but places a fine print underneath the ads that states that range figures may be up to 12% lower due to battery age.That is not the most transparent way to inform customers about such a change. Why Tesla has not placed at least an asterisk to warn about the lower range or corrected it right away in the page is something only the company could explain.If Tesla was willing to do that, it could also tell customers why it has decided to replace so many battery packs with four-year-old components offering 12% less range. Either Tesla chose to get rid of them, or it just does not have those parts available. Wed ask the company about it if it talked to the press. On December 9 , we told our readers that Tesla was getting in contact with Model Y Performance owners to replace their battery packs due to delaminating battery cells. These cars have the same battery packs as Model Y Long Range units: the more powerful electric motors are the only difference. There may be a connection between these 2021 Model 3 units with 2017 battery packs and the 2021 delaminating battery cells.Perhaps in an effort to make these cars more attractive, Tesla has given them FSD. However, that is a pretty curious move. A brand-new Tesla Model 3 costs $50,990. The Full Self-Driving package costs $10,000, which makes the final price be $60,990. Thats less than what Tesla is asking for, for many of these used Model 3 LR with 2017 battery packs. The only issue would be waiting until March 2022 for delivery.It makes no sense at all to pay more for a vehicle with an older battery pack just to get it now than in three months. Anyway, it may be the case that it works with Tesla customers: the company seems to be counting on that.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NHTSA

EV

A total of 2,679 units of the zero-emission vehicle are being included in the safety campaign conducted in the United States by the Korean automaker and the). These were built from January 21, 2016, to June 24, 2019, and only 1% are estimated to have the defect.According to the safety watchdog, the Ioniq can enter the fail-safe mode during operation, causing the Ready lamp to flash. This is usually accompanied by reduced acceleration and overall power output. However, in rare cases, a slow, unintended acceleration can occur following the accelerator pedal release, the NHTSA says. Such a problem could increase the risk of a crash, hence the recall. The steering and brakes are unaffected, though.So, what is the root cause of the issue? An unstable electrical ground, as per the NHTSA , which can create a communication error within the vehicles Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. A simple software update and repair of the ground wiring will get rid of the defect, and, as usual, all work will be performed free of charge.A Korean media report, regarding an incident of unintended acceleration in a car in its domestic market, is how the company became aware of the issue and subsequent to conducting an investigation, they discovered the cause. The decision to announce a safety recall was taken last month.Hyundai is expected to reach out to owners of the said Ioniq EVs on or before February 4, 2022. That is also when their dealers will be informed of the problem. Concerned owners who may have additional questions on the topic can contact the auto firms customer service at 1-855-371-9460, using the official recall number 215, and/or the safety agency at 1-888-327-4236.
Well, fortunately for us, the Dutch at Auto Top have made a compilation of some popular JDM legends that have graced public roads with their presence. While they may not have been the most powerful models in their segment when they reached the market, that has not stopped many of them from becoming appreciated by enthusiasts.While the Dutch channel focused on car reviews puts these models through top-speed runs, which may not be the strongest point for some models in the video, that does not mean that they disappoint. The Suzuki Swift Sport is an example of what can be done with low weight and reasonable power.This video also lets us enjoy the naturally aspirated hearts of the Lexus GS F and the EP3 Honda Civic Type R. It is worth noting that some vehicles in this video have been modified to a certain degree.However, the video is not about the individual modifications, but about Japanese vehicles driven to their top speed on the German Autobahn. And yes, the video feels incomplete without a Supra It goes without saying that you must never attempt to replicate what you see in this video, as driving this fast is only allowed on certain portions of the German Autobahn, and only if weather conditions allow it. If you are driving on one of those portions, it will be up to you, but otherwise do not attempt to max out your vehicle.The most powerful vehicle in this video, a modified Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX with a claimed 706 horsepower is, by far, the fastest-accelerating vehicle in the clip. It can sprint from 50 (ca. 80 kph) to 100 mph (ca. 160 kph) like it was on a Sunday drive, and that is not all. We suggest watching the video to the end to see what it can do.
Yet if you were in the mood for something from the other side of the aisle, but with the same Jack Daniels flavor, heres something that never got officially made, but we wouldnt have minded if it did.The bike youre now looking at was once a stock V-Rod from Harleys muscle bike family. After it crossed the doors of a German garage called Rod Squad , it got converted into something thats now called Lynchburg Lemonade.As some of you already know, thats not exactly a Jack Daniel's drink, but a cocktail that generally uses said whiskey, mixed with triple sec, sour mix, and lemon juice. The end product is a yellow-ish drink that packs a punch.The V-Rod wearing the same name is not yellow, but does pack a punch, mostly through the hardcore aesthetics it got gifted with. We get new wheels with gloss black rims hiding under custom fenders, an Alcantara seat, candy brown fuel tank, covers, and bits of the engine, and new handlebars.The engine remains mostly stock, but it was gifted with an Akrapovic exhaust system and a new airbox cover. The build rides on a fork that is two inches lower than standard, backed by an all-round Arnott air suspension.The project was first shown by the Rod Squad back in May but, as usual, with no info on how much it cost to put together.
If you ever wanted to modify your Nissan vehicle from the factory, there are two popular ways to go about it. The first is through the brand's motorsport division  NISMO  with sportier kits, upgraded suspension bits, and more. The other way to do so is by giving it the Autech makeover. Unlike NISMO, Autech parts and kits are often limited to Japanese customers.

It seems Nissan has big plans for NISMO and Autech in the future, making them available to more customers around the world. The automaker has announced that Autech and NISMO will be merged to form a new vehicle customization and motorsports company called Nissan Motorsports & Customizing Co., Ltd. The new company will be established on April 1, 2022, and will be led by NISMO's current CEO Takao Katagiri.

Autech, with its wide range of expertise, is a pioneer of customized vehicles. NISMO, through motorsports and enhanced driving pleasure, is a symbol of the spirit of challenge in Nissan cars. We are confident that the integration of these two companies will bring us even closer to the pinnacle of exciting mobility we are aiming for, said Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's Chief Operating Officer.
Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and South Korea on Wednesday became the latest countries to report cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. They followed similar announcements made in Brazil and Japan on Tuesday.

Why it matters: The arrival of the "variant of concern" in more countries underscores the difficulties governments are facing as they seek to reopen economies stalled by nearly two years of pandemic restrictions in the era of global air travel.

The big picture: Since the variant was identified by scientists in South Africa last month, Omicron cases have been confirmed across Europe, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong and Australia. The U.S. was among several countries to impose travel restrictions on southern African nations in response.

Dutch scientists confirmed Tuesday the variant had been circulating in the Netherlands before it was discovered in South Africa.

What's happening: Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry on Wednesday reported its first Omicron case, according to the kingdom's state-run Saudi Press Agency. The case involved a "citizen arriving back from a North African country," SPA reported.

South Korean officials reported the country's first five known cases of the Omicron variant, per Reuters.

Health officials in Brazil on Tuesday reported two positive test results for Omicron, confirming the first cases of the variant in Latin America, per Reuters.

Japanese officials reported the country's first Omicron case earlier Tuesday, the Japan Times reported. It reported a second case on Wednesday, per AP.

Nigeria's health institute said on Wednesday it has identified the country's first three Omicron cases. Those cases involved individuals who arrived in Nigeria from South Africa in the past week, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Earlier Wednesday, the NCDC reported that it also detected the Omicron variant in a sample collected in October, but it later retracted that statement, per the New York Times. An NCDC spokesperson told the Times that the October sample was the Delta variant.

The NCDC did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Go deeper: Omicron dashboard

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details throughout.
The Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed to Congress today that four people arrested at the southern border since Oct. 1 match names on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database, a congressional aide briefed on the correspondence told Axios.

Why it matters: Three of the people arrested were from Yemen and one was from Serbia. The four arrests are more than the number of similar people taken into custody during recent full fiscal years, according to the source. In fiscal 2018, six people from Yemen and Bangladesh were arrested.

Most migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border come from Mexico or Central America and are seeking asylum, family reunification or better jobs in the U.S.

Republican House members who visited the border on Monday said an unspecified number of migrants crossing the border had names matching those on the terror watchlist.

Former President Trump and other conservatives have frequently warned  sometimes inaccurately  about foreign terrorists entering the United States via the southern border.

The big picture: The watchlist is long, and it includes people who are "known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities," according to the FBI.

The Department of Homeland Security stopped more than 3,700 people on the watchlist from coming into the country during fiscal year 2017, ending Sept. 30, 2017.

Most were stopped at airports.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with further details about the watchlist.
The soldiers were flown to Yerevan by a plane chartered by the European Union. Toivo Klaar, the EUs special representative to the South Caucasus, was also on board.

The EU said their release was the result of an agreement reached by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at their December 14 meeting in Brussels hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.

An important humanitarian gesture follows the efforts by EU to work with both countries to build on mutual trust, it added in a statement.

Michel said after the Brussels talks that Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to de-escalate tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore rail links between the two South Caucasus states. Aliyev described the talks as productive.

A total of three dozen Armenian soldiers were taken prisoner during the November 16 fighting on the border which left at least 13 troops from both sides dead. Azerbaijan freed ten POWs on December 4.

A few days later, Armenian courts allowed the Investigative Committee to arrest four of them on charges of violating rules for performing military service. They will face between three and seven years in prison if convicted.

Armenian opposition figures and human rights lawyers criticized the arrests, saying that Baku could exploit them to further delay the release of dozens of other Armenian servicemen remaining in Azerbaijani captivity. Pashinians political allies dismissed these warnings.
Aliyev and Pashinian held a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on November 26 before meeting twice in Brussels last week. The Brussels talks were organized by European Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

I want to point out that after the meetings in Sochi and Brussels I see an opportunity for us to move step by step along the path of opening an era of peaceful development for our country and the region, said Pashinian.

At least the government of Armenia will do everything in its power to achieve progress in this direction, he told senior officials of the countrys National Security Service (NSS).

Pashinian did not go into details of the talks. He said the NSS will have to cope with more serious challenges in this new environment but did not elaborate.

The first Aliyev-Pashinian meeting in Brussels lasted for than four hours. Michel said afterwards that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders pledged to de-escalate tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore rail links between the two South Caucasus. But he admitted that they failed to patch up their differences on the status of a highway that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenias southeastern Syunik province.

Speaking just a few hours before the December 14 meeting, Aliyev said people and cargo passing through that Zangezur corridor must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian swiftly rejected the demand, saying that it runs counter to Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings reached with Russian mediation.

Aliyev described the talks as productive before meeting with Pashinian again on December 15.
A growing number of states are getting rid of requiring concealed weapons licenses. Florida could be next
Volta Joins in Support of the Environmental Protection Agencys Announcement of Historic Greenhouse Gas Pollution Rules for Passenger Vehicles
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Gayle W. Botley, the former external auditor for the Beaumont Independent School District, will be paid $75,000 plus court costs not to exceed $1,300 to settle a lawsuit he filed in 2018 contending his contract was wrongfully terminated.

The settlement was approved Tuesday by the Board of Trustees, but terms were released Friday after both parties signed the agreement.

The settlement avoids a trial and wraps up a protracted legal battle dealing with incomplete audits from multiple years and helps to close a tumultuous chapter in BISD finances and leadership.

In October 2018, Botley sued the district to collect more than $173,000 in fees he contended he was owed for audit work done in fiscal 2013.

The suit followed a ruling by a state administrative judge that summer that Botley failed to follow state rules in testing internal financial controls for the school district but declared he was not negligent in his performance.

The district suffered a loss of $4 million in previous fiscal years resulting from embezzlement by two former financial officers who were convicted and served prison sentences.

The fallout from the financial loss caused the Texas Education Agency's commissioner at the time to sideline elected school district trustees and install an appointed board of managers, which served for several years. During that interim, BISD did not have trustee elections.

Botley contended that he could audit only the information provided to him and that the embezzling financial officers hid evidence of their crime. He told the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy he was not responsible for not uncovering the financial fraud.

The state board suspended his license instead of revoking it and placed public notices of his failures on his record.

Botley completed his suspension and his license is listed as current by the state accounting board.

Botley was not available for comment on Friday afternoon.

The settlement releases the school district from any further claim by Botley and it also states that it is not an admission of liability nor is the settlement admissible as evidence against any party in any subsequent claim or proceeding.

Botley signed the settlement of the suit dated Dec. 15, 2021, which was filed in 60th District Court.

Board of Trustees president Robert Dunn and board secretary Stacey Lewis signed it on behalf of Beaumont ISD.

Dan Wallach is a freelance writer.
CONCORD, Mass. (AP)  A drawing purchased at an estate sale in Massachusetts for $30 is believed to be a rare work by a Renaissance artist worth tens of millions of dollars.

International art experts say the previously unknown drawing by Albrecht Durer could be one of the most significant art discoveries in recent memory, The Boston Globe reports.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  It was a showdown between Ryusuke Hamaguchis Drive My Car and Jane Campions  The Power of the Dog  for members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, but the group managed to give top honors to both on Saturday.

The Japanese film Drive My Car was named best picture and The Power of the Dog, a Western drama set in 1925, got runner up. Campion, meanwhile, received best director with Hamaguchi as her runner up.
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (AP)  Authorities have recovered the body of a man who was working at a distribution center in North Carolina for the QVC home-shopping television network when a massive fire erupted, destroying most of the facility, a local official said Sunday.

Edgecombe County Manager Eric Evans said authorities found the man's body Sunday morning at the facility near Rocky Mount.

Fire had not actually touched that section of the building, where the body was discovered, Evans said. An autopsy has not been done, but they are assuming it may have been through smoke inhalation.

The Edgecombe County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post that 21-year-old Kevon Ricks has been identified as the worker who died.

QVC confirmed the death in a statement released Sunday night. The company also said it was offering resources to the rest of its Rocky Mount employees, including shutdown pay through December 31 and a hotline for workers to get updates and leave questions.

More than 300 employees were working at the 1.2 million-square-foot facility when the fire broke out early Saturday.

On Saturday, Evans initially said all of the centers employees appeared to be accounted for. Later, however, he said the sheriffs office was looking for a worker who was missing after the fire.

Ricks' relatives told WTVD-TV they hadn't heard from him since the fire. A relative told the TV station they were informed of the body's discovery.

Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted he was saddened by the loss of life during the fire.

Ive been in contact with local and state officials about that tragedy and taking steps to help families hurt by the loss of more than 2000 jobs, he posted.

Evans estimates the fire destroyed at least 70% of the facility. He said firefighters were using machines to clear debris in order to extinguish hot spots that were still flaring up Sunday.

Crews from nearly 45 fire departments were fighting the blaze more than 12 hours after it began.

The statement from QVC on Sunday said the company was still working to understand the impact on customer orders.

Our Customer Care representatives are prepared to help as this situation continues to evolve. We appreciate our customers patience and their outpouring of support to our Rocky Mount team, the statement said.

QVC. Inc. is based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qurate Retail Inc. Evans said QVC is one of Edgecombe County's largest employers.

It's devastating, but everybody is concerned and everybody is pulling together for these employees and their families, he added.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)  A Texas judge on Wednesday delayed the murder trial of a former police officer who is charged with fatally shooting a Black woman through a back window of her home in 2019.

Aaron Dean's trial in the killing of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in Fort Worth had been set for Jan. 10. Judge David Hagerman granted a defense motion to postpone it because two experts were unavailable to testify in January.

Hagerman tentatively scheduled jury selection to begin on May 9 and opening statements on May 16.

No further continuances will be granted in this case, Hagerman said.

Any further pretrial motions, including a defense request to move the trial out of Tarrant County, are tentatively scheduled to be heard on May 2.

The case has been repeatedly delayed since Dean shot Jefferson during a late-night wellness check at her mothers house. Many cases were delayed 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.
Erik Charles Maund, whose family runs Volkswagen and Toyota dealerships in and around Austin, has been charged for allegedly hiring hit men to kidnap and kill his former girlfriend and her boyfriend, federal prosecutors stated in a news release on Monday, December 13. The three-count federal indictment comes 21 months after the brutal murders of Nashvillians Holly Williams, 33, and William Lanway, 36.

Maund, 46, has been indicted on charges that he paid a purported former Israeli soldier and two ex-Marines $750,000 to kill the victims in March 2020, according to a release from the Nashville Police Department. In early February 2020, Maund emailed Williams, with whom he had a prior relationship, to see her during his visit to Nashville, the indictment state.

Nashville Police Department

After his visit on March 1, 2020, Maund, who is married, received a series of text messages from Lanway, who had a romantic relationship with Williams. Lanway had demanded payment and threatened to expose Maund's "relationship" with Williams if he did not receive it, the indictment stated.

Maund then allegedly enlisted three men to deal with the threats: Gilad Peled, a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces from Austin; Bryon Brockway, a former active-duty U.S. Marine from Austin; and Adam Carey, from North Carolina, also a former active-duty Marine.

It is believed that Peled, Brockway, and Carey traveled out of state to Nashville to surveil Williams and Lanway, the release noted. The trio used a Pinger account to communicate with the alleged couple.

On March 12, 2020, Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of Williams' apartment complex in West Nashville and murdered Lanway by shooting him multiple times, according to the indictment.

Nashville Police Department

They then kidnapped Williams and drove her and the body of Lanway to a construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in West Nashville, where they murdered Williams by shooting her several times. The bodies were then discarded at the construction site and within hours of the murders, the Pinger account used to communicate was deleted and a rental car rented by Brockway was returned.

The indictment also alleges that since March 11, 2020, Maund transferred in excess of $750,000, via wire, from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled, as payment to the three men for the kidnapping and murders of Williams and Lanway.

According to the release, Maund and the three alleged hit men have all been charged in a three-count indictment with conspiracy to commit kidnapping; kidnapping resulting in death; and carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, prosecutors said.

If convicted, the defendants face up to life in prison.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that Texas has officially commenced construction on a partial wall to finish work along the state's southern border with Mexico started by former President Donald Trump's administration. The wall's panels, which went up this week on the edge of Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley, are designed to help fill empty sections remaining along the federal border wall.

Photos shared on Twitter by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin show progress being made on the wall, which Melugin explained uses state land, state money instead of federal funding. Texas is also using the same contractor deployed by Trump before plans to finish the wall were eventually canceled by President Joe Biden, Melugin says.

These are the first panels in what will be a 1.7-mile stretch designed to help fill gaps where there is no federal wall, Melugin tweeted. More projects planned. Abbott quote tweeted Melugin Friday, opining that Biden allows open border policies and refuses to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border and enforce immigration laws. Texas is stepping up to do the federal governments job.

The wall project is part of Abbotts Operation Lone Star which launched in March to combat the alleged "smuggling of people and drugs into Texas. The effort has been heavily criticized by immigrant and civil rights organizations, including the ACLU of Texas, Civil Rights Project and Texas Defense Project, which on Wednesday, along with seven other groups, filed a complaint with the Department of Justice over the border arrest programs discriminatory nature.

The true intent of this program is to punish migrants, expand Texas massive correctional system and deter future migration, Liz Castillo, organizer with the Detention Watch Network, told the Houston Chronicle.

In September, Abbott passed a $1.88 billion spending bill for border security funding to supplement another $1.05 billion the state approved in the spring, according to the Texas Tribune. About $750 million of the bill will go toward the construction of a border barrier in addition to $250 million the state approved over the summer as a down payment for the wall. In the meantime, Abbott has used shipping containers, razor wire and, most recently, boats to craft makeshift barriers that deter migrants from entering the state.

In an appearance on Fox News Friday, Abbott said $3 billion of tax payer money has been contributed to border security efforts. He said the wall will cost less than it did for the Trump administration because unlike the Trump administration, were not having to devote money to acquire the landThe state of Texas owns [land] on the border itself," he explained. "Secondly, there are property owners of massive acreage on the border who are fed up with Bidens open border policies, and they are donating their land to Texas for us to be able to use that land for free to build a wall on their property.
ROME (AP)  Pope Francis doubled down Saturday on his efforts to quash the old Latin Mass, forbidding the celebration of some sacraments according to the ancient rite in his latest salvo against conservatives and traditionalists.

The Vaticans liturgy office issued a document that clarified some questions that arose after Francis in July reimposed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass that Pope Benedict XVI had relaxed in 2007.

Francis said then that he was reversing his predecessor because Benedicts reform had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church and its liturgy.

The Vatican repeated that rationale on Saturday, saying the clarifications and new restrictions were necessary to preserve the unity of the church and its sacraments.

As pastors we must not lend ourselves to sterile polemics, capable only of creating division, in which the ritual itself is often exploited by ideological viewpoints, said the prefect of the Vatican's liturgy office, Archbishop Arthur Roche, in an introductory note to the world's bishops.

Francis crackdown on the old Mass has outraged his conservative critics, many of whom have gone so far to accuse him of heresy and watering down Catholic doctrine with his focus on the environment, social justice and migrants. Francis says he preaches the Gospel and what Jesus taught, and has defended the restrictions by saying they actually reflect Benedict's original goal while curbing the way his 2007 concession had been exploited for ideological ends.

His July law required individual bishops to approve celebrations of the old Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, and required newly ordained priests to receive explicit permission to celebrate it from their bishops, in consultation with the Vatican. Saturday's decree makes clear the Vatican must explicitly authorize new priests to celebrate the rite.

In addition, the new document Saturday imposes restrictions targeting the sacramental life of the church.

It forbids using the ancient ritual for the sacraments of Confirmation and ordaining new priests, and will make it exceedingly difficult for traditionalists to access the sacraments of Baptism, Marriage and Anointing of the Sick according to the old rite.

This de facto prohibition arises because these sacraments can only be celebrated in so-called personal parishes that were already in existence and dedicated to traditionalist communities. There are exceedingly few of these parishes around the world, and Francis barred the creation of new ones.

Roche Christmas Massacre, tweeted Rorate Caeli, a traditionalist blog that has been critical of Francis and his crackdown on the Tridentine rite.

Benedict XVI had brought peace to the church. An end to the liturgical wars," the group said in a follow-up message to The Associated Press. "The current pope has chosen to reignite them. There is no logical reason for that. Just an underlying desire for division and violence.

Francis agreed to the publication of the document, which was signed by Roche, who is prefect of the Vaticans liturgy office.

It was written in the form of questions and answers, including some that get into minute details that make clear the Vatican's effort to minimize the spread of the old Mass: Parishes may not, for example, publicize the celebration of the old liturgy in parish bulletins or allow them to be celebrated at the same time as the so-called New Order Mass.

In a clear bid to dissuade seminarians from even learning the old rite, the new instruction urges seminary teachers to lead their charges to an understanding and experience of the richness of the liturgical reform called for by the Second Vatican Council.

If a priest who is authorized to celebrate the old rite gets sick at the last minute, he can't be substituted with one who doesn't have prior approval. In addition, priests may not celebrate an old rite Mass and the New Order one on the same day.

Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, said the restrictions mean celebration of the old Latin Mass will become extremely difficult" and the sacraments even more so.

This would drastically reduce the number of celebrations, and cause great pastoral harm," he said in an email.
Tom Andrews, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar (left), walks with officials towards a learning center at a Rohingya refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Dec. 17, 2021.

A United Nations envoy says he has credible information about Rohingya militants being involved in kidnapping, abusing and even killing fellow Rohingya at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh.

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants gunned down Md. Muhib Ullah, a prominent Rohingya activist, at a refugee camp in Coxs Bazar district in late September, Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told reporters at the end of a six-day visit to Bangladesh.

I visited his [Muhibs] office and stood in the very spot where he was murdered. His murder was believed to be at the hands of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, Andrews told reporters on Sunday.

I have received credible reports that members of ARSA have killed, tortured, abducted, and threatened Rohingya refugees.

Members of ARSA, an insurgent group active in Myanmars Rakhine state, say they want to defend the Rohingya Muslims from the Burmese government, which for decades has violated the stateless minority groups human rights.

In 2016, a rag-tag bunch of ARSA members attacked police posts in Rakhine, an act that ignited a brutal military offensive, which led to nearly three-quarters of a million Rohingya fleeing across the border into Coxs Bazar.

In the past two years, reports have persisted that ARSA operates in the sprawling refugee camps, but Bangladesh always has  and continues to  deny this.

He [Tom Andrews] talked about ARSA, but we did not see any presence of ARSA here, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen told reporters on Sunday.

If he identified any ARSA member and shared the information with us, we will send them to their country. We want to see the ARSA people.

Khin Maung, founder of the Rohingya Youth Association, believes Andrews claim.

The U.N. representatives statement about ARSAs presence in Rohingya camps is true. We have been talking about the presence of ARSA in Rohingya camps for a long time, he told BenarNews.

The government should continue drives against ARSA activities. ARSA was involved in the killing of Muhib Ullah.

A retired Bangladeshi air commodore and security expert, meanwhile, said he believed that ARSA members were active in Coxs Bazar, but added the onus is on the U.N. to solve the Rohingya crisis.

If the U.N. expresses concern over the presence of ARSA in Rohingya camps, they should take necessary steps to solve the Rohingya issue immediately, Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury told BenarNews.

Rohingya have rights as refugees

Andrews also urged Bangladesh to grant freedom of movement to the refugees, but the foreign minister said that wouldnt happen.

The U.N. rapporteur said that a barbed-wire fence around the Rohingya camps was not keeping their residents safe.

I was informed by officials that the fence was constructed to protect Rohingya from criminal activities from outside. But I also heard concerns that that the fence was not only ineffective in achieving its purpose, it also makes residents more vulnerable to dangers such as fires, he said.

Many Rohingya spoke to me about the substantial insecurity nighttime brings to the camps. Women in particular are at risk of sexual and gender based violence.

On Monday, a human rights organization said Bangladesh must end restrictions on Rohingya refugees.

The Rohingya have rights as refugees, and its in the interest of Bangladesh to better protect those rights, including the right to freedom of movement, Ismail Wolff, regional director at Fortify Rights, said in a statement.

Rohingya give thanks to Bangladesh but continue to face restrictions and violations of their basic rights and struggle to live with dignity.

Foreign Minister Momen said the government would not allow such freedoms.

We wont agree to allow free mobility of the Rohingya people as they took shelter here [only] for the short term, Momen said.

Another human rights watchdog as well as U.N. rapporteur Andrews said they worried about education for the 400,000 Rohingya children who live in the camps.

Human Rights Watch said Bangladeshs government had decided to close thousands of home-based and community-led schools for Rohingya refugee students, while Andrews said the plan was to shut down only private schools in the camps.

Mohammad Shamsud Douza, an additional commissioner for refugee relief and repatriation, confirmed to BenarNews that only private schools were being shut down.

All educational institutions except for private learning centers in Rohingya camps are open. We shut the private learning centers because they were operating illegally, Douza said.

According to Momen, the foreign minister, these private centers were promoting radicalism in the camps and following the Myanmar curriculum that the legal centers follow.

Therefore, the government has asked to stop those unauthorized activities, he said in a statement on Sunday.
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) members inspect the spot where secular blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death, in Dhaka, March 1, 2015.

Nearly seven years after Muslim extremists killed Bangladeshi secular blogger Avijit Roy and injured his wife outside a Dhaka book fair, the United States announced a reward of up to $5 million Monday for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone involved in the attack.

It was not immediately clear why the U.S. government announced the potential reward only now. But in Washington, a State Department official said the investigation into the case remained open and the United States was seeking information that could help law enforcement catch perpetrators of the heinous terrorist attack on Roy and his wife, both American citizens.

The U.S. Department of States Diplomatic Security Service, through its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) office, is offering a reward for information on the terrorist attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh that left U.S. citizen Avijit Roy dead and his wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, seriously injured, the State Department said in a statement.

The Secretary of State has authorized a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of anyone involved in the murder of Roy and the attack on Ahmed.

The statement also said anyone with information should text RFJ via Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp at +1 (202) 702-7843. Any tips provided would remain confidential, they added.

Roys killing was among a spate of cold-blooded murders of secular writers and intellectuals that gripped Bangladesh from 2013 to 2016.

Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist group based in Bangladesh, claimed responsibility for the attack.

This past February, a Bangladesh court sentenced to death five of six Islamic militants who were found guilty of the February 2015 attack on Roy and his spouse. However, two of the convicts were not in the courtroom as police have yet to find and arrest them.

This reward is being offered, and offered now, because this investigation remains open, and we are seeking information that will assist law enforcement agencies in bringing to justice the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attack, a State Department spokesperson said.

[W]e look forward to receiving the leads that we expect this reward offer to generate.

In Dhaka, officials at Bangladeshs national police headquarters did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment on Monday.

Roy, a dual Bangladeshi-U.S. citizen, lived in the United States with his wife. He came to Bangladesh to attend Dhakas annual Ekushey Book Fair in February 2015, despite repeated online death threats against him.

On the evening of Feb. 26, 2015 machete-wielding men attacked Roy and his wife as the couple was leaving the campus of Dhaka University  the venue for the literary festival.

The assailants hacked Roy to death. Ahmad survived the attack but was seriously injured.

Of the two who are on the run, Akram Hossain took part in hacking Roy to death, while notorious former major Syed Ziaul Haque planned the murder, prosecutors had said.

Haque is allegedly the chief of the militant outfit Ansar-al-Islam, which is also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). In 2019, investigators told BenarNews that they were unsure whether the notorious Major Zia  who was blamed for multiple terror attacks in the country  was still alive.

The State Department said that soon after ABT claimed responsibility, Asim Umar, the now-deceased leader of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, posted a widely circulated video claiming that AQIS followers were responsible for the attack on Roy and Ahmed.

Bangladesh banned ABT in May 2015. The next year, the U.S. State Department designated AQIS a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Since another secular activist and blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was killed by Muslim zealots in February 2013, several other writers, bloggers, publishers, activists and intellectuals were slain in machete-attacks, mostly in 2015 and 2016.

The State Department noted that Roy challenged fundamentalism in Bangladesh by advocating for freedom of expression.

Roy coordinated international protests to raise awareness of the plight of imprisoned atheist bloggers in Bangladesh and was a well-known critic of social repression, it said.

He was targeted and killed for his outspoken beliefs and activism.

The Rewards for Justice Program, administered by the State Departments Diplomatic Security Service, was set up in 1984.

It has paid in excess of $200 million to more than 100 people who provided actionable information that helped prevent terrorist attacks, bring terrorists to justice, and resolve threats to U.S. national security, the statement said.
The Liaoning, an aircraft carrier, and other Chinese navy ships take part in a drill in the western Pacific in 2018.

China recently deployed both of its active aircraft carriers on combat-oriented drills in the South China Sea, a sign that Beijing is growing more confident about its carrier fleets capabilities, an analyst said.

The Shandong, the second aircraft carrier of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, was sent on a multi-disciplinary exercise aimed at improving combat readiness, according to a report published on Sunday by the Peoples Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

The crew will take part in a series of drills including deck-top landings of fighter jets, damage control and maritime search and rescue, the report said.

It did not specify the location nor the timing of the exercise and only said the carrier had embarked on the mission in early winter.

A sister publication, the Global Times, said the carrier was now sailing in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, the PLA Navys first carrier, the Liaoning, and its escorting ships were on a routine exercise in the Pacific Ocean that may see them perform drills in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.

Having two carriers at sea at almost the same time, plus supporting vessels, shows that the PLA Navy is becoming increasingly confident about using these assets to project power in support of China's strategic interests, said Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Aircraft carriers are complex and costly, which is why so few navies operate them, he said.

But possessing them allows countries to project power around the globe in ways no other warships can, he added. They are the ultimate symbols of major power status.

At the weekend, Japans Ministry of Defense Joint Staff said in a press release that the Japanese navy had dispatched airplanes and ships, including the Izumo, a destroyer, to follow and track the Liaoning strike group as it sailed through waters between Okinawa and Miyako islands.

The strike group comprises the Liaoning, the Type 055 large destroyer Nanchang, the Type 054A frigate Rizhao and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu.

They were first spotted on Dec. 15 and were now sailing southwards to the Philippine Sea after conducting ship-based aircraft take-off and landing exercises.

The Liaoning transited the Miyako Strait twice in April while it carried out drills near Taiwan and the South China Sea, and observers say the pattern may repeat this time.

In a separate development, the guided-missile frigate Wuzhou under the PLA Southern Theater Command conducted a maritime training operation earlier this month in the South China Sea, marking a very busy period for the PLA Navy in the region.

In October, three aircraft carriers and a dozen other warships from U.S.-allied nations staged one of the biggest shows of maritime power in the South China Sea.

The U.S. Navy has 11 aircraft carriers, all nuclear-powered. China has the biggest maritime force in the world with 355 ships, but only two aircraft carriers.

Race to develop aircraft carriers

Chinas first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (Type 001), is a reconstructed Soviet-built aircraft carrier, commissioned into the PLA Navy in 2012. The second one and the first domestically built, Shandong (Type 002), was commissioned in December 2019.

A U.S. Defense Department report on Chinese military released last month said a third aircraft carrier was projected to be operational by 2024, with additional carriers to follow.

This second domestically built carrier will be larger and fitted with a catapult launch system.

This design will enable it to support additional fighter aircraft, fixed-wing early-warning aircraft, and more rapid flight operations and thus extend the reach and effectiveness of its carrier-based strike aircraft, the report said.

Besides China, Japan, Korea and Singapore also harbor super carrier ambitions.

The Japanese Navy is believed to be putting the finishing touches on converting two destroyers in its fleet into light aircraft carriers.

The race to develop bigger and better aircraft carriers highlights the precarious situation in the South China Sea, which observers see as one of the imminent flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific.
Surigao del Norte province residents clean their clothes in a river after Super Typhoon Rai struck the Philippines, Dec. 18, 2021.

The death toll from Super Typhoon Rai (Odette) shot up as rescuers reached areas in the Philippines that were previously inaccessible after last weeks devastating storm, officials said Monday.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the Philippine National Police reported that the death toll had climbed to 375 throughout the country. But the statement from the police department carried this caveat: Increase in casualties is subject for validation from the affected regions.

Many of the deaths were in the island province of Bohol in the central Philippines, where the Loboc River burst its banks and flooded entire communities, officials said. Arthur Yap, the provincial governor, said the death toll had reached 94  20 more than he reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, 29 foreigners were evacuated from Siargao Island, a popular surfing destination in the south where the storm made landfall on Thursday, according to Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

They are all in good health condition based on the report of our coast guard, Timbal told a virtual press conference.

Those evacuated by the Philippine Coast Guard included citizens from the United States, France, Britain, Australia, Singapore, Denmark, the Czech Republic, China, Russia, Switzerland and Canada.

The storm, known among locals as Odette, was the 15th to hit the Southeast Asian country this year. It dumped heavy rain and brought strong winds over large areas around the eastern seaboard of Mindanao in the southern portion of the country.

Odette reached super typhoon status on Thursday as it ripped roofs from homes, felled trees and toppled power lines.

Vice President Leni Robredo said her team visited the heavily hit central Philippines over the weekend.

Were in Cebu now. Signal is difficult. Devastation everywhere. Been traveling more than 2 hours already from the airport to Cebu City. Traffic is bad: Roads still being cleared of electric lines and posts that toppled down, and lines are long at gas & water refilling stations, she wrote in a tweet.

The ferocity of Typhoon Odette was very evident everywhere. So much destruction in both small and big structures, Robredo told reporters.

Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo (foreground right) comforts a woman after inspecting damage caused by Typhoon Rai in the Dinagat Islands, Dec. 19, 2021. [Office of the Vice President via AP]

After reaching Siargao on Monday, the U.N.s World Food Program (WFP) and government crews hooked up satellite phones to enable survivors of the storm to call their loved ones.

This communication facility will assist in the Philippine governments communication and coordination with emergency responders as a crucial component in providing urgent life-saving relief and aid to the victims of Typhoon Rai, the WFP said in a statement.

Lucille Sering, the former chief of the national Climate Change Commission, said the storm destroyed entire communities in General Luna, a seaside area on Siargao whose restaurants and hotels cater to local and foreign tourists.

Initial reports show that communities in Typhoon Odettes path suffered massive damage to their houses. Many families need emergency shelter materials, sleeping kits and solar lamps, she said. Construction materials are also urgently needed for immediate rehabilitation, specifically in Siargao, as the typhoon damaged houses and evacuation centers.

Officials on the island said a gymnasium that was converted into an evacuation center before the storm had its roof blown off, adding that those who sheltered inside it were lucky to survive.

Elsewhere, the British humanitarian agency Oxfam claimed Maasin, a city in Southern Leyte province, became a virtual ghost town after 70 villages across the city were practically wiped off the map by the typhoon.

Maasin officials were appealing for food, water, hygiene kits, sleeping mats, tents and shelter materials for more than 9,000 families displaced by the storm.

Around 75 percent of the roads remain unpassable as of this time and there are no communication lines, Oxfam said.

Soldiers carry infants through flood waters in Shah Alam, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2021. [AP]

Malaysia floods

Meanwhile, several states in neighboring Malaysia were recovering from heavy flooding caused by torrential rains that began on Friday. The flooding displaced more than 63,000 and left at least 11 dead, according to government officials who expect the death toll to increase as waters recede.

More than 450 evacuation centers were opened in Kelantan, Pahang, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Kuala Lumpur and Terengganu.

It was an indirect effect of Typhoon Rai, Azizan Abu Samah, senior research fellow at the Institute of Earth and Ocean Sciences, at the University of Malaya.

He said as the storm moved northeasterly toward Vietnam, moisture built up leading to the heavy rain across Peninsular Malaysia.

People need help

In Manila, acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered immediate housing assistance to people whose homes were destroyed.

President Duterte underscored that while the effects of the typhoon are devastating even as the country continues its battle against COVID-19, the government must help because people need help, Nograles said.

In November 2013, more than 6,500 people died or were missing after Super Typhoon Haiyan hit the central Philippines, causing massive storm surges that inundated coastal communities.

Haiyan was the strongest storm to make landfall in the Philippines, and five years later many areas are feeling the long-term effects of the devastation. While lessons have been learned after that, and many areas built back better, Rais destructive power still overwhelmed many communities, officials said.

Mark Navales in Cotabato, Philippines, Richel V. Umel in Iligan, Philippines, and Muzliza Mustafa in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
Karen refugees receive meals along the Moei River in Myanmar that serves as a border with Thailand as they prepare to return to their homes, Dec. 19, 2021.

More than 1,500 additional Myanmar residents crossed the border into Thailand during the previous 24 hours as they fled fighting between Burmese junta troops and a joint force of Karen rebels and pro-democracy activists, two sources said Monday.

The influx began on Sunday as fighting flared in Lay Kay Kaw township, forcing residents to cross the frontier to Mae Kon Ken village in Thailand, the sources said. Mae Kon Ken is about 3.5 miles east of Lay Kay Kaw and 14 miles south of Mae Sot district, where about 2,500 refugees arrived last week after escaping similar fighting.

On Dec. 20, the 14th Infantry Regiment found 1,559 displaced people crossing the border into Thailand, so they were placed at a ranch in Mae Kon Ken as a temporary shelter. They were given basic humanitarian aid, the Tak Province Border Center said in a statement issued Monday evening.

Before dusk on Monday, 101 refugees returned home voluntarily, bringing the tally to 1,458, the center said. Meanwhile, the number of refugees who previously fled the fighting was reduced to 2,075 after a few hundred returned home.

Some displaced people wanted to go back to Myanmar voluntarily because their worry was eased and they wanted to live a normal life, the center said, adding that more than 400 returned home on Saturday.

According to the border center, Thai troops fired five warning shots into Myanmar on Sunday after seven unidentified shells landed on the Thai side of the Moei River.

The Naresuan Task Force ordered its 14th Infantry Regiment to fire five smoke rounds in warning in accordance to respective shelling, that statement said, adding that the task force had lodged a protest with the joint Township Border Committee comprised of Thai and Burmese members.

An armored personnel carrier and trucks belonging to the Myanmar Armed Forces are parked in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Dec. 19, 2021 [Karen sources via BenarNews]

A Karen source who asked not to be named because of security concerns said the fighting inside Myanmar had raged on for a week.

They were still fighting on Sunday, there was sporadic shooting all day. Myanmar deployed artillery in Lay Kay Kaw, the source told BenarNews.

While Myanmar officials denied his statement and would not say if any troops had been killed since the skirmishes resumed, the source claimed that about 50 junta personnel had died in the fighting.

He noted that 132 people crossed back to Myanmar on Sunday through the area controlled by the Karen Border Guard Force, a subdivision of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces).

The anti-junta fighters include the pro-democracy Peoples Defense Force militiamen and fighters with the Karen National Liberation Army, which is the armed wing of the Karen National Union political group.

The source said he and others delivered relief aid, including food and supplies, at both shelters after receiving permission from Thai authorities, adding they were not allowed to have contact with the displaced people.

On Monday, the United Nations called on Thailand to treat the refugees humanely.

UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, today emphasized the need for urgent protection and assistance for refugees who have fled intensified fighting in and near Lay Kay Kaw, Kayin state, Myanmar, and who have crossed into Thailand, the U.N. said in a statement.

UNHCR, together with partners, reiterates to the Royal Thai government its readiness to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance and protection support to the new arrivals.

Kunnawut Boonreak in Chiang Mai, Thailand, contributed to this report.
Investigations editor

Larry Parnass joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, CommonWealth Magazine and with the Reuters news service.
U.S. health regulators have authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus.
2021 was a busy year in the Berkshires. Amid an ongoing pandemic, we also saw the largest forest fire in Massachusetts in the last two decades. U.S. Capitol Police Officer William Billy Evans, a North Adams native, was killed in the line of duty in April. A dispute between West Stockbridge's businesses, restaurant Truc Orient Express and The Foundry theater drew national attention as celebrities waded into the fray. A Pittsfield nursing home was cited for abuse, business owners on North Street struggled to find a balance between optimism and frustration, and many area businesses struggled to remain open amid supply chain issues and labor shortages.

The news, however, was not all grim. After a year of pandemic shut downs, with many businesses closed or changed, schools closed and Berkshire workers staying home, this summer saw a loosening of restrictions. Rick Bua, the state's first confirmed case of COVID-19 by community spread received his vaccine. Berkshires shuttered cultural venues returned with in-person seasons and suspended traditions were enjoyed again.

Here's our countdown of the Top 5 most read stories published this year, based on page views:

1. After receiving second dose, Yo-Yo Ma transforms waiting period into performance at Pittsfield vax clinic

Nothing captured more of the world's attention this year than Yo Yo Ma's impromptu performance at a COVID-19 vaccination appointment at Berkshire Community College in March. He turned the observation area into a special concert for workers and other patients, with a cello he couldn't leave in the car.

2. What does the Farmer's Almanac predict for this coming winter? Don't wait to dig out the coats

The 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Irene was ushered in this August by Hurricane Henri. It was all hands on deck here in the Berkshires to meet a storm that, in the end, brought only a little rain. Other big news weather stories of the year included a July that never seemed to stop raining (and threatened local produce production), climbing summer temperatures, and a fall foliage season that seemed late and had the last laugh.

Our most clicked weather story of the year? A look ahead to the coming Berkshire winter, which the trusted Farmer's Almanac predicts will be long, cold and dry.

3. Berkshire troubadour David Grover remembered as 'a musician's musician'

News of the passing of beloved entertainer David Grover was met with an outpouring of love and gratitude from family, colleagues and Berkshire residents, young and old, he had entertained during the course of his decades-long career in the Berkshires.

Berkshire troubadour David Grover remembered as 'a musician's musician' UPDATE: Iconic Berkshire-based guitarist David Grover died Wednesday evening from complications following a car accident in upstate New York.

4. Pittsfield man, David Lester Ross, among dozens facing charges after Capitol invasion

Three Berkshire County men were arrested in connection to the U.S. Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021. David Lester Ross was arraigned in January in D.C. Superior Court on charges of unlawful entry of the Capitol grounds and violating curfew.

5. Days Gone By: A look back at the Wyndhurst-Cranwell property from the Eagle's Archive

Stepping away from current events a bit, 10 of the top 100 pieces we published this year come from our photo archives. Readers were fascinated by our look back on the Hoosac Tunnel, the longest in-use railroad tunnel east of the Rocky Mountains, whose history of casualties gave it the nickname "The Bloody Pit." Also popular was a look back at the paper mills once prevalent throughout Berkshire County. None drove more interest, though, than our look back at the Wyndhurst-Cranwell property.
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

The View from White Oaks

Lauren R. Stevens: This year's lesson for the next year is that we can't go it alone
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Top 10 Google Searches Of 2021 In India Overall Year Ender

  :      ,     2021  -10  
A stringent lockdown, once again, will do more harm than any good: Dr JA Jayalal

Calling the COVID-19 pandemic a huge eye-opener in helping the Government of India to realize the need for a robust digital healthcare framework system in place, healthcare experts and doyens at the 7th IHW Summit and Awards opined that it is high time that India have a proper digital highway in place to address to the growing healthcare needs of its massive population. The seven edition of the flagship event was organized by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing Council with Optum and Zyla as Health tech and Innovation partners respectively.

Underscoring the challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dr J.A. Jayalal, President, Indian Medical Association, said, The Government of India needs to adapt to the new technology, so that, even if there is a third wave, will allow us to sail through. Obviously, there will be multi-thronged challenges as long as COVID-19 is around, but there is no need for a lockdown anymore. A stringent lockdown, once again, will do more harm than any good.

While adopting a digital healthcare system is a must, it comes with its own sets of challenges in a country, according to Vibhav Garg, Director-Health Economics & Govt Affairs, India HUB & ASEAN, Boston Scientific.

Stressing the need for an integrated healthcare system in India in the post-COVID-19 world, Dr Harsh Mahajan, Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging said, The government needs to rope in more private players in the existing healthcare system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us one very important thing  to provide high-quality healthcare, and that too, when physical distancing is a must, you need an around-the-clock digital healthcare system in place. That is why it is need of the hour for the Government of India to put in a place a robust digital framework, said Swati Rangachari, Vice President and Country Leader, Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements, United Health Group | Optum.
This has to be one of the most insane statements ever made by any White House in American history.





White House COVID Response Coordinator tells unvaccinated Americans to be prepared to die:



You're looking at a winter of severe illness and death. pic.twitter.com/HU5d7WJ9YH  Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 20, 2021





Biden himself read off nearly the exact same script on Thursday:





Biden warned that unvaccinated Americans face a winter of severe illness and death amid a surge of Covid cases and the spread of omicron https://t.co/94MfFCDnzc pic.twitter.com/DgQsiY7CmS  Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) December 17, 2021



After uttering that absolute tripe, he boldly and brazenly lied, once again, by claiming that if you're "vaccinated" and "have your booster shot" then "you're protected from severe illness and death -- period."



Are any of the "fact-checkers" going to fact-check that crock of s**t?







That's a rhetorical question, of course, they'd be more likely to "fact-check" us for pointing out it's all lies.



"Vaccinated" Americans are catching covid left and right and many of them are dying -- that's the whole reason the regime is now shifting to saying everyone needs "booster" shots for the "vaccines" they were told were "95% effective."



That's the reason "prestigious" propaganda outlets like The Atlantic are writing articles saying we're now in a "Pandemic of the Vaccinated" and shilling endless boosters.







That's the reason the Biden regime is working behind the scenes to shift their narrative from promising "freedom from the virus" to saying we must "learn to live with" covid and focus on "severity instead of case numbers," as CNN just reported.



Ultra-vaxxed nations like South Korea are currently entering new lockdowns and seeing record deaths.





Weird: South Korea goes in full #Lockdown because it has the highest death rate since #corona began despite 84% of the population is vaccinated (one of the highest rates in the world) and everybody wears a mask all the time and everywhere. pic.twitter.com/cjakuCLlum  marc friedrich (@marcfriedrich7) December 19, 2021

France has officially set a new high in cases, 4.5 months into vaccine passports, 19 months into mask mandates and with 92% of adults at least partially vaccinated, but at least politicians and experts are still pretending vaccine passports & mask mandates can slow the spread pic.twitter.com/9nI0ROjFh0  IM (@ianmSC) December 15, 2021

Cases in Portugal are up 554% since they started vaccine passports for major events and nightlife, but Im sure vaccine passports will work in England after failing literally everywhere else theyve been tried pic.twitter.com/EYSWtMXi3b  IM (@ianmSC) December 15, 2021



Meanwhile, for contrast, South African officials are saying that the "omicron" variant is so mild that they're going to dump all contact tracing and quarantines.







The only reason we could have a "Winter of Death" would be if they start denying us medical treatment based off vaccination status as neocon trash like David Frum are calling for.





Tucker Carlson slams David Frum for wanting the unvaccinated to suffer and die.



Read more: https://t.co/yKleclswxt pic.twitter.com/90wTyUJmbd  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 14, 2021



They've already started denying white people monoclonal antibody treatment based off race, so it's entirely within the realm of possibility.



It's also possible we could see a surge in deaths due to vaccine-induced antibody-dependent enhancement, leaky vaccines, suppressed immune systems, heart attacks, heart disease, blood clots and mass medical experimentation on children with zero testing in advance -- but all that would be the fault of the regime itself!



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WINNIPEG - Manitoba continued to face surging COVID-19 infections on Monday at the same time it ended its role in notifying most close contacts.

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This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, blue/pink, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, NIAID-RML

WINNIPEG - Manitoba continued to face surging COVID-19 infections on Monday at the same time it ended its role in notifying most close contacts.

People with confirmed COVID-19 cases will be asked to tell their contacts themselves, the province's website said.

The change was made as Manitoba prepares for increasing cases due to the Omicron variant to "exceed public health contact notification resources."

In some settings, including schools, health-care facilities and personal care homes, public health workers will continue efforts with staff to inform close contacts.

The province reported 807 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths over the last three days. On Sunday, it marked its highest single-day number since June with 333 infections. There were 200 on Monday.

The province said in a news release that nine more cases of the Omicron variant were also identified for a total of 17.

There were 137 people hospitalized with COVID-19, 27 of whom were in intensive-care units.

The provincial five-day test positivity rate was eight per cent.

Manitoba residents were preparing for tightened restrictions on gatherings and capacity to come into effect on Tuesday.

Gyms, movie theatres and restaurants  where people are required to be vaccinated  faced a limit of half capacity.

Private indoor gatherings with vaccinated people will be capped at household members plus 10 others. Gatherings with anyone unvaccinated will be limited to one household plus five guests.

Churches that require proof of vaccination will be limited to half capacity, while those that do not require vaccination status will be limited to 25 people or 25 per cent capacity, whichever is less.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon has said the restrictions are necessary to curb the spread of the Omicron variant and to prevent long-term harm to overburdened hospitals.

The stricter rules are to be in place for three weeks until Jan. 11.

Also, following the province's request last week for military help, Ottawa announced Canadian Red Cross nurses will be arriving in Manitoba.

Hospitals have begun prioritizing urgent surgeries and postponing elective and non-emergent procedures. Dr. Ed Buchel, the provincial medical lead for surgery, said it was a difficult decision, but it was necessary to prepare for rising case numbers following holiday gatherings.

In particular, Buchel said, surgical staff are feeling frustrated about rural areas where vaccination rates remain much lower.

"It is frustrating for all of us," he said. "We know the vaccines are available. We know the vaccines are safe."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2021.
The omicron variant may have made its way into three Brandon schools and possibly a fourth, according to Brandon School Division Supt. Mathew Gustafson.

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The omicron variant may have made its way into three Brandon schools and possibly a fourth, according to Brandon School Division Supt. Mathew Gustafson.

A letter received by The Brandon Sun sent out to parents dated Dec. 19 from Manitoba Health, Seniors Care and Active Living stated at Vincent Massey High School at least one previously confirmed COVID-19 case from Dec. 13 and 14 in a Grade 9 cohort is now highly suspected of being an omicron variant case.

The new case still has to be sequenced for confirmation, Gustafson said.

"This may become a confirmed case, I dont know when that would be," he said. "There is usually a delay between sequencing and testing. And I would expect as the number of omicron cases increase in the community, we would expect to see more students test positive for that also."

He said he did not know the details around the case and the division is not involved with writing the letters. The contact tracers and public health have the details. The school division distributes the letter and works with providing information.

The possible omicron case at Vincent Massey follows news over the weekend of three other schools that have confirmed omicron variant cases: Linden Lanes, Meadows and Riverheights. Gustafson, who confirmed the omicron cases at these schools on Sunday, said four classes between the three schools are affected by the omicron variant exposure. He reiterated the variant case numbers would likely change because those are from past exposures and all the students in those classes wouldve received revised letters. They are not releasing any further information until families are notified.

A letter from Meadows School dated Dec. 19 confirmed the omicron exposure. With three days left before the Christmas break, it advised parents their childs attendance is at their discretion, as well as the cancellation of several events, including Spirit Week, kindergarten to Grade 4 Christmas Concert recording, the virtual Christmas Assembly and all Christmas parties and festivities.

The division has taken aggressive measures, like consistent masking, hand washing and other hygiene, students and staff staying home when sick, Gustafson said. If there is a chance of exposure, those measures become critically important in the cohort system. Those are still needed and become valuable tools.

"This is why a class could go to remote learning, but not the whole school," he said.

For example, if there was an omicron exposure, they can limit the number of students who would be impacted, he said. He released a letter on Dec. 19 to parents explaining this, and that school administrators and divisional administration would be available during the holidays to keep families up to date.

This comes as Brandon School Division staff and students are heading into the winter break facing concerns of rising COVID-19 cases in classrooms.

The Sun reported an outbreak of the virus was declared at Meadows School on Friday. Public health has registered at least seven COVID-19 cases attached to Meadows in the two weeks before Dec. 14, according to the provinces COVID tracking map.

The last day of school before winter break is Wednesday, said BSD board of trustees chair Linda Ross, and the school division will see how things go over the holidays in terms of COVID-19 cases in Brandon and the province.

"More than one [case] is too many, but overall if we look at the numbers its relatively small," Ross said during a phone interview on Saturday. "I think were managing as well as we can and there hasnt been the spread in schools. Were keeping a really close eye on it, but when the time comes and we need to go on remote learning then thats what well do."

Due to the recent COVID-19 exposures at Meadows, BSD and the province decided to move a Grade 5/6 class to remote learning on Wednesday, with these students set to return to in-person instruction on Jan. 6, 2022. No other class at the school has moved to remote learning at this time.

Ross said there are some worries about entering into the winter break because students will be off for a couple of weeks and likely attending more social gatherings in comparison to the last two years.

It has been reassuring to see steady vaccination rates for students, she said, but it will be interesting when youth return to the classroom after increased exposure to other people.

She cautioned people to be as safe as possible over the holidays, while encouraging them to find rest and relaxation when possible with close family.

BSD administrators will be on call over the winter break to help navigate any COVID-19 cases or exposures that may arise.

"I think that people are mostly available as it is. Everybody always has their phone turned on and is checking their emails 24 hours a day because of the craziness of the society we live in now," Ross said. "It will be necessary for administrators to do that over the break."

She noted an additional concern is the identification of the omicron variant at a BSD school. The variant appears to be more contagious, but with less severe outcomes in comparison to other variants of the virus. Individuals associated with the class have been informed of the variant that was identified.

The provincial government has begun distributing tests for students to help track spread, Ross said, and will help the division if COVID-19 numbers continue to increase.

The BSD letter released to parents on Friday stated Manitoba is increasing access to rapid test kit supplies providing voluntary rapid antigen tests for students in kindergarten to Grade 6. It is not clear when BSD will receive a shipment.

A survey will be sent to BSD parents that will allow families to opt out of receiving a test kit.

BSD faces a different situation with the fourth wave of COVID-19, Ross said, as the school division has gained experience in moving to online learning. The first time students moved to virtual learning helped the division establish a strong foundation to ensure students have continued access to education, she said, but for families, online learning remains an anxiety because some parents are having to stay home from work complicating their lives.

"Its hugely difficult for families with young kids, but at least we kind of know how to get started," Ross said.

She added BSD has been fortunate in Brandon in that people have been compliant in terms of vaccination and health measures. COVID-19 jabs are helping control the spread of the virus and the division is watching closely to see how the situation is changing.

"There isnt a lot of panic. Theres certainly a concern, absolutely concern. But I think that people have been fairly rational about it," Ross said. "If youre a parent and your kid has COVID, youre going to be really, really, worried, but the cases have been relatively mild at this point."

Elsewhere in the division, at least 13 other BSD schools have been contending with recent COVID-19 cases.

These exposure sites, as of Sunday afternoon, include Riverheights School, Vincent Massey High School, Linden Lanes School, J.R. Reid School, Neelin High School, Ecole New Era School, St. Augustine School, King George School, Riverview School, George Fitton School, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School, Ecole Harrison and Spring Valley Colony School.

Since Sept. 7, there have been a total of 2,071 cases provincially in school-aged children or staff  from Dec. 2-17, there have been 306 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health Region.

BSD continues to encourage protective measures including self-monitoring for symptoms, staying home when sick, consistent mask use, hand hygiene, physical distancing and vaccinations. Schools are also continuing to monitor ventilation systems and employ cohort systems to limit contacts and prevent the spread of the virus.

"Were doing the best we can in terms of keeping things safe and doing the best monitoring we can," Ross said.

 ckemp@brandonsun.com, kmckinley@brandonsun.com, with Brandon Sun files
Innovation and collaboration will be needed to help address a labour shortage in all sectors of agriculture.

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Innovation and collaboration will be needed to help address a labour shortage in all sectors of agriculture.

This shortage of manpower is being especially felt in the pork industry, said Manitoba Pork general manager Cam Dahl.

"Were seeing labour as a significant constraint on the growth of the sector and in some cases the ability of operators to have that long-term sustainability of their operation," Dahl said.

"It is something that is of serious concern. This isnt just a pork sector issue. Its something that covers all of agriculture, so we need to work on this together."

The shortage of manpower can be felt throughout the entire value chain, Dahl said, and is of concern in the barns, at processing plants and with technical positions like veterinarians.

A Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council study indicated 40 per cent of farm operations in 2020 were unable to meet all of their labour needs. In the pork sector, 50 per cent of pork producers reported being unable to fill all of their operations.

"Thats a significant, significant shortfall," Dahl said.

By the end of 2029, the industry is looking to be short more than 120,000 workers.

There is a pressing need to address the scarcity of labour as soon as possible, Dahl said, but cautioned there will be no quick solutions.

The lack of workers has been a crisis that has been building over many years. It has been largely brought on by fewer people living in rural Manitoba. Many youths who grew up on farms are opting for urban living, he said, costing the sector a traditional source of labour and agriculture expertise.

At the same time, demands in the industry, especially on the technical front, have been requiring new skill sets and expertise.

These losses in labour were only exacerbated during COVID-19, Dahl said, because it became increasingly difficult for foreign workers to come in and help in the industry.

"COVID didnt cause the problem, but it definitely has highlighted the need to find solutions," Dahl said.

If the shortage of manpower is not addressed, it could be a limiting factor for the growth and development of the pork industry, and agriculture overall.

Pork is a key economic driver in Manitoba, Dahl noted, and contributes almost $2 billion to the economy each year. This economic contribution is continuing to grow year-over-year, but will be unable to continue if jobs in the sector go unfilled.

"If people just think of their neighbours and the small businesses, if over half of the small businesses in your community cant fill the vacant positions that they have, it starts to have a real impact on the local economy," Dahl said.

Two solutions are actively being sought to solve agricultural jobs going unfilled  better promotion of available industry careers and recruiting foreign workers.

There has been an impetus to talk to Canadians, especially urban-based Canadians like those in Winnipeg and Brandon, to encourage them to explore careers in the industry.

"We need to do a better job as agriculture of getting the message out that agriculture is an exciting place to be. Its on the cutting edge of genetic technology. Agriculture is on the cutting edge of nutrition. It is an interesting career in veterinarian medicine," Dahl said. "Agriculture is a really cool place to be."

Dahl said they want to inspire to consider careers in agriculture and help people consider the perks of rural life.

The industry also needs to ensure they can bring in people abroad and new Canadians to work in the agriculture industry.

"The solution is going to need to be on both fronts," Dahl said.

He noted these solutions are centred on collaboration with other sectors of agriculture.

Keystone Agriculture Producers recently launched a labour task force to address the issue and work together as commodities within the province and across the country to solve the shortage of skilled labour in agriculture.

Dahl praised federal Agricultural Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau for last weeks release of her mandate letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  solving agriculture labour was one of the top issues included.

The letter included a mandate addressing the persistent and chronic labour shortages in farming and food processing; prioritizing measures to support efficiency and climate-resiliency in agriculture; strengthening food security; encouraging sustainable growth across the country; and strengthening Canadas food system as a whole.

"With the support of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, and in partnership with provinces and territories, employers, unions and workers, develop a sector-specific Agricultural Labour Strategy to address persistent and chronic labour shortages in farming and food processing in the short and long term," reads the letter.

The mandate also included pathways for agricultural temporary foreign workers, supports the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to expand pathways to permanent residence for international students and temporary foreign workers through the Express Entry system.

It has been positive to see the release of the letter, Dahl said, because it speaks to the urgency of addressing the growing labour shortage.

"Agriculture does come together and work together on issues," Dahl said. "Agriculture is a place that does collaborate  both across the country and between commodities. Its going to take time and its going to take collaboration across agriculture and across the country."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
The Unforgivable



Netflix, (M) 112 minutes

Its a long time since weve been treated to Sandra Bullocks sunny side and its nowhere to be seen in The Unforgivable. She gives an implacably long-faced performance as Ruth Slater, a woman whos just been released from prison.

Ruth has served 20 years for killing a local sheriff in a struggle as police tried to evict her and her five-year-old sister from their home.

Sandra Bullock as former prisoner Ruth Slater in The Unforgivable. Credit:Kimberley French/Netflix

Directed by up-and-coming German talent Nora Fingscheidt, the film is an American remake of a 2009 series by Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley), one of British TVs most accomplished writers. The series starred Suranne Jones, who has firmly established herself as televisions Mistress of the Reckless Act.
Annette and Bob Simpson, aged 82 and 86, are eligible to get their booster on Christmas Eve, but sought to get the jab week earlier, so they would be better protected from catching the virus from family members over Christmas.

But when they tried over the weekend, they were refused because they were not yet eligible, by just days. They were told at the pharmacy the next available time for a shot was December 30  six days after their five-month eligibility mark.

Annette and Bob Simpson were turned away from a pharmacy offering booster shots because they requested it six days earlier than their five-month eligibility mark. Credit:Luis Ascui

I felt like saying, well, if I do catch COVID, Ill sue you. But I didnt say that, Mrs Simpson said. I thought that was just being pedantic.

I had heard that people were getting boosters early anyway. And I thought well, with Christmas and everything and being with all the teenagers and the family, it was better to have it earlier. It was only six days early.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Sweaty saddle, hints of ambergris, oodles of pippy hedgerow fruits. The way wine people waffle on about what theyre tasting can seem fanciful at best  and downright off-putting to anyone whos not obsessed by the subject. Every specialised area of life, from sport to science, has its own peculiar lexicon that can seem baffling to anyone not intimately involved in that field. But seemingly made-up and often ludicrous tasting descriptors  from heady nose of exotic spices to firm, sinewy palate  can make wine talk particularly intimidating. Its just fermented grape juice, for Gods sake! Why do you wine geeks need to wrap it up in all these layers of flowery language? The answer is, its worth making an effort to understand the thinking behind wine words, to learn some jargon  even to embrace the odd silly tasting note  because it can truly enhance your enjoyment of this most fascinating subject. So, what are the rules of wine talk? How much is scientific and how much is poetry? And when should you describe your wine as funky or smashable? The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a tipple and recorded the fact in the tomb of the astronomer Nakht from about 1421BC. Credit:Getty Images Where did wine talk come from? People have been talking and writing about wine for as long as theyve been making it. Language is particularly important in the wine world because its pretty much the only way of sharing our impressions of taste and flavour with another person (interpretive dance is another option, of course, but is not commonly practised).

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When we listen to music or look at a painting we dont need to verbalise our shared experience because we can all hear it or see it out there in the world. But to let someone else know what you think of the wine youre drinking  thats in your nostrils and on your tongue  and to compare your impressions with theirs, you have to talk about it. Wine talk in the ancient world was mostly limited to distinguishing between the merits of one wine over another. Some of the amphorae of wine buried with Tutankhamun over 3000 years ago are inscribed with the simple phrase very good quality. No indication what it actually tasted like. In the first century, Pliny the Elder and others wrote about Roman wine in detail. While Plinys writing is big on technical aspects of winegrowing and is very concerned with the reputation of wines from specific regions, its short on tasting notes: he described one very old wine as having the consistency of honey with a rough flavour. Thats it. W. S. Benwell described the colour of a rose as brickish autumn russet, like the faded sail of a Venetian fishing-boat. By the 19th century, wine was being written about in slightly more evocative but still vague terms, usually by well-educated and well-travelled gentlemen with enough time on their hands to study wine, and money to spend on the best bottles. Wines were described as harmonious and health-giving, ferruginous and vigorous, all rather grand and Victorian. This gentlemanly tradition continued into the 20th century with writers such as the Australian doctor W. S. Benwell who, in the early 1960s, described the colour of a rose as brickish autumn russet, like the faded sail of a Venetian fishing-boat  presupposing his equally gentlemanly readers would be thoroughly familiar with the references.

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The burgeoning middle-class interest in wine in the 1970s and 80s gave rise to a new breed of wine writer: the popular critic. To attract readers, the language became less poetic, more prosaic  and yet more effusive. Influential US critic Robert Parker epitomised this new way of talking about wine, with descriptions of wines that were dark, dense and rich, with powerful flavours of cinnamon, leather and blackcurrants, big, tough and fat with exceptional concentration and so on. Middle-class dining in the 70s and 80s gave rise to a new type of wine writer: the popular critic. Credit:Getty Images Are there rules for describing wine today? In the mid-1980s, in an effort to bring some scientific rigour to the field, Dr Ann Noble at the University of California, Davis, developed the wine aroma wheel. This useful tool grouped wine flavours into general categories (such as fruity, woody, earthy) in an attempt to help tasters take a more analytical approach to wine appreciation. There are things to be said for both the analytical and evocative approaches to talking about wine. In each case, the trick is to balance effective communication of the qualities of the wine youre tasting with meaningful description of the experience of tasting it. The analytical approach  finding a word to describe each aspect of the wine-tasting process in order, from looking at the appearance of the wine in the glass to thinking about how long the aftertaste stays with you  is a helpful way to create a memory of what youre tasting.

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So, to describe a shiraz, say, as having medium-full colour, typically varietal aromatic nose, some high-toast oak, moderate concentration of fruit, savoury complexity, noticeable tannins and good length on the palate is correct and, to a certain extent, objective. But its a bit dull, isnt it? Much better, I think, to say bold purple in the glass, bursting with the perfume of pepper and toasty vanilla, grippy and gamey on the tongue, like well-hung venison and freshly dug truffle, deliciously satisfying. But some people might say, at this point, a wine taster is just making stuff up. How can something produced from grapes smell like pepper or vanilla  not to mention well-hung venison and truffle? Im not making it up, honest. Well, not the pepper bit. Or the toasty vanilla. (Well come back to the dead deer and fungi in a minute.) Describing a glass of riesling as smelling like spring blossom isnt just waffle. Many grape varieties  and, therefore, the wines produced from them  contain flavour compounds that are found in other foods and plants and elsewhere in nature. The shiraz grape variety, for example, contains an aromatic compound called rotundone, also found in peppercorns. So, when I describe a young shiraz as tasting peppery, I dont mean it has aromas that remind me of pepper, I mean it has aromas that are the same as pepper. Similarly, describing a glass of riesling as smelling like spring blossom isnt just waffle. Riesling grapes contain aromatic chemical compounds called monoterpenes  geraniol, nerol, linalool  which are also present in the scent of flowers. And the toasty vanilla comes from the barrels that the wine was matured in: barrels are made by bending oak staves around open flames, which chars the wood, creating heaps of complex aromatic compounds  vanillin from the wood itself, smoky flavours from the charring process  that are imparted to the wine as it sits inside the barrel.

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Ann Noble and her wine aroma wheel in 1999. Credit:Quentin Jones OK, I get all that. But what about the well-hung venison? Ah, yes, well this is where we wine people do stray into the realm of figurative language  metaphor, analogy and even, dare I say, poetry. The English language doesnt have a lot of words to directly describe the sensation of having an aromatic alcoholic liquid in our mouths, or words that help us distinguish one aromatic alcoholic liquid from another. So we are forced to use comparisons. The wine doesnt taste precisely of venison and truffles but it does elicit feelings in me when I drink that are similar to the feelings I get when I eat those foods (which would, by the way, taste great washed down with the shiraz). Take my description, too, of the tannins in the shiraz. Tannins are the astringent-tasting phenolic compounds found in grapes. They dont literally grip your tongue as you drink the wine  but using the word grippy is a good way of conveying the drying sensation of the astringency in the liquid.

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A Griffith University graduation ceremony for nursing and midwifery students that was attended by more than 2600 people has been identified as a COVID Omicron cluster.

The event was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, one of 455 exposure sites to declared by Queensland Health by Monday afternoon.

The number of sites is expected to grow, and so too are the number of COVID-19 cases.

A COVID-19 cluster has been linked to a Griffith University graduation ceremony at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said Omicron cases had already been identified at the graduation ceremony, which took place on Monday, December 13.
In 1979, I set off for New York where I had the privilege of working in Marcel Breuers office but by the time I returned to Sydney in 1980, post-modernism was at its height. Its not surprising that the subject for my graduate thesis was: High-Tech Architecture in Britain 1960-1980, the vehicle that enabled me to explore the continuation of modernism, as opposed to the seduction of Post-Modernism which had become, for a short time, the fashion of the day. The thesis examined Norman Fosters Sainsbury Centre, Willis Faber and Dumas Building, Renzo Pianos beautiful lightweight structures and, of course, the Pompidou Centre which was the apotheosis of High-Tech Architecture in the 1970s.

I first set eyes on the Centre George Pompidou in 1978 when I was a third-year architecture student at the University of New South Wales. An aerial photo from Architecture Review revealed a new futuristic architecture in front of a flat public plaza contrasting with the surrounding historic fabric of Paris Marais quarter. It was an exhilarating sight for a 21-year-old student.

My thesis put this new architecture into context and described the historic influences which gave rise to it - the Industrial Revolution, Corbusiers Vers une Architecture, Gropius Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohes functionalism, Archigram and Buckminster Fuller. Charles Eames and the Californian case study houses also found an important place in this lineage.

Richard Rogers seemed to me to be the high priest of high-tech architecture. The work he produced had a vibrancy and exhilaration rarely seen since the pioneering days of modernism. He went on to produce many other great projects and master plans around the world and throughout his life.

Richard George Rogers was born in Florence in 1933. His father was a doctor and his mother an art connoisseur. The Rogers family fled to England just before the outbreak of World War II, with Mussolinis rise to power, but the British education system wasnt kind to the young Richard. He suffered from dyslexia which, in those days was not understood and went undiagnosed. Instead, his teachers considered him stupid and unsuited to a career requiring intellectual or creative ability. He described his depression as being so bad that by the time he left school without a single A level grade, he had no idea what his future might be.

Richards parents, Nino and Dada, sent him to Italy, where he worked briefly in his cousin Ernesto Rogers architecture practice in Milan. With Ernestos help, the Architectural Association in London were convinced to admit Rogers into the diploma course and, despite a relatively undistinguished career there, he received the final year prize for the design of a facility for children with special needs.
Hong Kong: Pro-Beijing candidates swept to victory in the first major election in Hong Kong since Beijing dictated only patriots could govern the city, a move that wiped out the pro-democracy bloc and kept voters away.

The city recorded its lowest ever turnout in the legislative ballot on Sunday, as voters boycotted the electoral system overhauled by the mainland Chinese government, delivering a blow to its efforts to legitimise the process.

Starry Lee Wai King celebrates on stage after winning a seat in the Legislative Council general election in Hong Kong, China, on Sunday. Credit:Getty Images

Voter turnout was 30.2 per cent, according to preliminary government data, compared with a record 58.3 per cent in the previous election. That marked the lowest figure since direct elections began three decades ago, with just 1.35 million people out of almost 4.5 million registered eligible voters casting their ballot.

Some ex-Hong Kong residents living on the mainland were allowed to cast a ballot in special one-way polling booths open only to their side of the border.
At least 48 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on Royal Caribbeans Symphony of the Seas cruise ship that docked in Miami on Saturday, the company said, as the Omicron variant continues to spread around the world.

The sprawling ship, which boasts a nightclub and theatre, left Miami on December 11 for a seven-day trip and made a handful of stops, including the Caribbean islands of St Maarten and St Thomas.

Nearly 50 passengers on the Symphony of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19. Credit:AP

Coronavirus regulations stipulated by the company meant that all travellers over the age of 12 had to be fully vaccinated and produce a negative test result before the voyage.

The company said it did not have plans to cancel any of its upcoming cruises.
We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business, Boric said. We know there continues to be justice for the rich, and justice for the poor, and we no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chiles inequality. Loading He also gave an extended shout-out to Chilean women, a key voting bloc who feared that a Kast victory would roll back years of steady gains, promising they would be protagonists in a government that would seek to leave behind once and for all the patriarchal inheritance of our society. In Santiagos subway, where a fare hike in 2019 triggered a wave of nationwide protests that exposed the shortcomings of Chiles free market model, young supporters of Boric, some of them waving flags emblazoned with the candidates name, jumped and shouted in unison as they headed downtown to join thousands who gathered for the president-elects victory speech. This is a historic day, said Boris Soto, a teacher. Weve defeated not only fascism, and the right wing, but also fear.

At 35, Boric will become the countrys youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvadors Nayib Bukele. Only one other head of state, Giacomo Simoncini of the city-state San Marino in Europe, is younger. His government is likely to be closely watched throughout Latin America, where Chile has long been a harbinger of regional trends. It was the first country in Latin America to break with the US dominance during the Cold War and pursue socialism with the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. It then reversed course a few years later when Pinochets coup ushered in a period of right-wing military rule that quickly launched a free market experiment throughout the region. Thousands of mainly young supporters celebrated Gabirel Borics victory after the Chile presidential run-off election on Sunday. Credit:Getty Images Borics ambitious goal is to introduce a European-style social democracy that would expand economic and political rights to attack nagging inequality without veering towards the authoritarianism embraced by so much of the left in Latin America, from Cuba to Venezuela.

Its a task made more challenging by deepening ideological divisions unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, which sped up the reversal of a decade of economic gains. Loading Kast, who has a history of defending Chiles past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two points in the first round of voting last month but failed to secure a majority. That set up a head-to-head run-off against Boric. Boric reversed the difference by a larger margin than pre-election opinion polls forecast by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas who dont side with political extremes. For example, in the northern region of Antofagasta, where he finished third in the first round of voting, he trounced Kast by almost 20 points. An additional 1.2 million Chileans cast ballots on Sunday (into Monday AEDT) compared to the first round, raising the turnout to nearly 56 per cent, the highest since voting stopped being mandatory in 2012.

Its impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera, said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Centre in Washington. Chilean democracy won today, for sure. Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine, emerged from the far-right fringe after having won less than 8 per cent of the vote in 2017. An admirer of Brazils far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, he rose steadily in the polls this time with a divisive discourse emphasising conservative family values and playing on Chileans fears that a surge in migration  from Haiti and Venezuela  was driving crime. As a legislator, he has a record of attacking the LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws. He also accused Pinera, a fellow conservative, of betraying the economic Pinochet. Kasts brother, Miguel, was one of the dictators top advisers. In recent days, both candidates had tried to veer towards the centre. Im not an extremist. ... I dont feel far right, Kast proclaimed in the final stretch even as he was dogged by revelations that his German-born father had been a card-carrying member of Adolf Hitlers Nazi party.

In a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarising rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately conceded defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone congratulating his opponent on his grand triumph. He then later travelled personally to Borics campaign headquarters to meet with his rival. Meanwhile, outgoing President Sebastian Pinera  a conservative billionaire  held a video conference with Boric to offer his governments full support during a three-month transition. But Borics victory likely to be tempered by a divided congress. In addition, the political rules could soon change because a newly elected convention is rewriting the countrys Pinochet-era constitution. The convention  the nations most powerful elected institution  could in theory call for new presidential elections when it concludes its work next year and if the new charter is ratified in a plebiscite. Former two-term Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, now the UN high commissioner for human rights, backed Boric, saying he would put Chile on a path of progress for all, of greater freedom, equality and human rights.
Mid-sized motorcycle maker on Monday said it is recalling 26,300 units of its Classic 350 motorcycles to rectify issue with a brake part.

In a statement, the company said its technical team has discovered a potential issue in one of the parts - the brake reaction bracket attached to the motorcycle swing arm - used specifically on the 2021 single-channel ABS and rear drum brake Classic 350 motorcycles.

Under specific riding conditions, it was discovered that exceptionally higher braking load applied on the rear brake pedal could lead to potential damage of the reaction bracket, which could further lead to unusual braking noise, and potential deterioration of braking efficiency in extreme conditions, it added.

The issue has been clearly isolated to the single-channel ABS, rear drum brake Classic 350 models, manufactured between September 1, 2021, and December 5, 2021.

"Keeping the safety of customers in mind, and as a precautionary measure, we have decided to proactively call in close to 26,300 single-channel ABS and rear-drum-brake enabled Classic 350 models and reinforce the brake reaction bracket of the swing arm for all units," noted.

service teams, and/or local dealerships will reach out to consumers whose motorcycle vehicle identification number (VIN) number falls within the manufacturing period mentioned above, it stated.

Consumers can also proactively visit the company website or reach out to their local Royal Enfield workshops regarding the issue, Royal Enfield, which is a part of Eicher Motors, noted.

"We have robust and rigorous testing and development protocols, and adhere to global validation standards of quality and durability. However, issues like this can arise under specific, extreme riding conditions, and we are committed to resolving this at the soonest, with minimum inconvenience for our customers," the company stated.

In May this year, Royal Enfield had recalled around 2,36,966 units of Classic, Bullet, and Meteor models in India and various international markets to replace defective ignition coil.

(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 (ADB) will provide USD 350 million loan to improve access to urban services in India by accelerating policy actions and reforms to enhance service delivery and promote performance-based central fiscal transfers to urban local bodies (ULBs).

The will provide knowledge and advisory support to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in programme implementation, including monitoring and evaluation, the multi-lateral agency said in a statement.

It will also support urban local bodies particularly in select low-income states to implement policy reforms, prepare investment plans, and provide recommendations on cross-cutting issues like climate change, environmental and social safeguards assessment, and gender equality and social inclusion.

Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary in the finance ministry signed the loan agreement for the first sub-programme of USD 350 million under Sustainable Urban Development and Service Delivery Programme while Takeo Konishi, Country Director of ADB's India Resident Mission, signed for

The first sub-programme will establish essential policies and guidelines for urban reforms at the level followed by specific reform actions and programme proposals at the state and ULB-level under second sub-programme.

After signing the agreement, Mishra stated that the programme is aligned with the government flagship programmes that promote cities as engines of economic growth by improving the quality of urban life through the creation of high-quality urban infrastructure, assured service provisions, and efficient governance.

Konishi said the programme builds upon ADB's long engagement with India in the urban sector with continued support to the central and state governments to undertake reforms to ensure universal and improved access to basic urban services such as water supply, sanitation, and affordable rental housing, especially for the poor most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The said with increasing urbanization, cities are expected to become a strong engine of growth for Indiagenerating economic activity and outputs, creating jobs for a significant volume of workers, improving competitiveness and urban livability, and protecting the environment.

(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.)
OfBusiness, a Delhi-based startup that sells industrial goods online and provides financing, has raised $325 million in a funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures II, Tiger Global Management, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. It was valued at nearly $5 billion.

The company said its B2B e-commerce revenue run rate is over $1.7 billion and SME loan book is more than $360 million in size. finances small businesses through its shadow-banking arm 'Oxyzo Financial Services'.

has registered a six-fold rise in its valuation in months since it was valued at $800 million in April in a funding round. In June, the company turned unicorn when it closed a $160 million funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of around $1.5 billion.

OfBusinesss operating revenue grew 2X to Rs 1,748 crore in FY21 as compared to around Rs 850 crore in FY20, according to Entrackr. Around 85.47 per cent of this income came via sale of industrial goods and raw materials. Its sales have ballooned 2.2X to Rs 1,494.1 crore in FY21 as compared to Rs 665.6 crore in FY20.

OfBusiness, in a statement about the series G funding round, said its e-commerce revenue will grow fourfold year-on-year in FY22.
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Fitness and wellness startup Cult.fit on Monday said it has acquired at-home cardio equipment - RPM fitness, Fitkit and Onefitplus. The deal size was not disclosed. Cult is also making a foray into outdoor bicycles business with acquisition of brand Urban Terrain.

"The were built and scaled by Mohit Mathur and his team at Shoora Retail, who are all joining Cult to further expand the business...Combined scale is about USD 20 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 100,000 units of annual sales. These smart equipment connect with smartphones which users can use to track their performance...in a virtual game environment," a statement said.

Cult is also getting the manufacturing capability for bicycles and service network that extends to over 19,000 pin codes in the country, it added. This is the second acquisition in the space by Cult.fit after the acquisition of Tread, a Bengaluru-based smart fitness-bike startup last year.

Cult also recently completed a USD 150 million series F fundraise and had entered the unicorn club.

This acquisition enhances our product portfolio of at-home smart exercise equipment. We now have a range of options at all price points, starting from simple air bikes for Rs 5,000-7,000 to premium Cult bike for Rs 50,000. The fitness hardware market is expanding around the world, and we strive to bring the best innovation to our customers," Cult.fit Head of Digital Health Shamik Sharma said.

He added that Cult.fit is building the largest house of fitness D2C (direct to consumer) in the country, having the largest community of fitness enthusiasts.

We are excited to join hands with Cult. With their captive fitness user base, tech know-how, brand and capital, we should be able to double our business within the next year. Additionally, given Cult's unmatched ability to build fitness communities, we can also rapidly grow our bicycles portfolio to emerge as India's premier tech-led community bicycle brand, Shoora Retail founder Mohit Mathur said.

Cult.fit said it is also expanding the manufacturing capability which will ensure control over the end-to-end supply chain, thus ensuring greater profitability and superior control on margins.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Japan's Osaka Gas Co said on Monday it has entered India's urban market by investing in the local unit of Singapore-based AGP International Holdings (AG&P) as part of its overseas expansion drive.

Demand in India's natural gas market is set to surge as the government wants to raise the share of the cleaner fuel in its energy mix to 15% by 2030 from the current 6% to combat climate change.

Osaka Gas, Japan's second-biggest city gas supplier, plans to invest up to $120 million in the Indian unit of AG&P together with a state-private fund, Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development (JOIN).

The AG&P unit has exclusive gas sales rights for eight years for 12 geographic areas, and infrastructure licenses for 25 years in those places.

Osaka Gas, which did not disclose how big a stake it would own in the unit, said India was a key growth market in Asia for the firm.

"We also want to pursue other business opportunities in India, including renewable energy," Katz Sato, senior general manager at Osaka Gas, told reporters.

The company has embarked on an overseas expansion to achieve its long-term goal, set in 2017, to triple its recurring profits by 2030, with contribution from abroad to account for one-third of the total profit, from about 5% in 2017.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Pravin Char)

(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.)
IT firm on Monday said it has been working with Telefnica Germany to digitally transform its microwave network with open software defined networking (SDN).

Telefnica is working to standardise its management interface by collaborating with multiple vendors and partners, according to a statement.

" is helping Telefnica achieve this by bringing its domain expertise and continuous integration capabilities to the partnership. has been working with the telco to implement new standards for its DevOps model including enhancing its processes and requirements," it added.

This includes the continuous management support of service operations for the organisation's overall SDN Architectures.

Software-defined networking technology refers to an approach to network management that enables dynamic network configuration to improve network performance and monitoring.

Tech Mahindra said the project involves the deployment of microwave transmission automation aimed at elevating service delivery and network operations.

All microwave devices in Telefnica Germany's mobile backhaul network are accessible via a single harmonised Network API which supports an open microservice framework, it added.

"We have been actively collaborating with Telefnica on this project. We made an important contribution to the integration results and have driven us to continuously broaden our capabilities.

"This reflects our commitment to invest in open source technologies and scaling out networks within just weeks," Tech Mahindra President (EMEA Business) Vikram Nair said.

Telefnica is able to accelerate its digital transformation efforts to provide a more efficient and future-proof service to its customers, he added.

The move to SDN will enable Telefnica to adopt automation functionality in the future more easily.

"Software-based approaches such as SDN are helping us to reduce the complexity of our network architectures and to drive our network expansion even faster and with higher quality through a greater degree of automation.

"For example, our Telefnica technology team is already continuously developing new applications that can be made available across manufacturers within a matter of weeks," Mallik Rao, chief technology and information officer at Telefnica Deutschland, 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.)
Anil Agarwal-led said on Monday it has acquired Goa-based Nicomet, a leading and cobalt producer.

The company is making the when the market is tightening with a surge in battery demand and an increase in global stainless-steel production in recent years--a trend expected to continue into 2022, said Vedanta in a press release.

"We are excited about Vedantas foray into and cobalt production which will play a critical role in supporting Govts mission for an Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Nickel and Cobalt are a metal of great strategic importance, especially for our transition towards clean energy and electric mobility. Currently, India imports 100 percent of its nickel requirements and our focus will be to boost domestic production that would fuel Indias transition to a net zero economy," the release quoted Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Limited, as saying.

Nicomet has a capacity to produce 7.5 tonne per annum of nickel and cobalt. With an ambitious growth plan in place, Vedanta said it is well poised to meet 50 percent of the countrys total nickel demand.



Not every needs CCI approval. Under the Competition Act, certain jurisdictional thresholds have to be crossed by the parties to trigger a notification requirement. Moreover, there are also certain exempts that parties can avail from a notification requirement. Since Nicomet was in liquidation, it is possible that based on its asset and turnover value, the was able to avail such an exemption and no notification was needed explained Neelambera Sandeepan, joint partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys, referring to the Competition Commission of India, the anti-trust regulator.



With this acquisition, has become the only nickel producer in the country. The comany didn't disclose the deal size of the acquisition. Since the asset acquired was under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), it does not require CCI (Competition Commission of India) approval, said spokesperson at



Nicomet marks a major strategic acquisition for Vedanta as it is expected to strengthen its iron and steel business portfolio. Nickel is a key raw material used in the manufacturing of stainless steel and batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). Alongside, cobalt is used for lithium-ion batteries for EVs, energy storage systems and in superalloy for steelmaking.



The plant has not been operational since 2018 so there is no head count at the unit at present. We (Vedanta) plan to restart this unit by March 2022, said the Vedanta spokesperson.

The Nicomet acquisition is in line with Vedantas ESG mission and will support Indias carbon neutrality goals, said Vedanta.

Certified with ISO 9001 for quality and with strong R&D focus, Nicomet has emerged as a certified producer of high-quality battery grade Nickel Sulphate Crystals used for manufacturing batteries of electric vehicles globally. Indias demand for nickel is currently pegged at 45,000 tonne per annum which is entirely met through imports at present.
Womens representation is improving significantly in the workforce across roles and hierarchies as the economy battles the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, said apna.co, Indias largest and professional networking platform.

With around 5 million female users, apna has recorded trends that are encouraging and highlight the shifting dynamics of Indias rising workforce. The platform has witnessed a 430 per cent increase in female users in 2021. According to apna, this percentage will continue to grow in 2022. Cities such as Pune, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad noted a significant rise in users on the platform. Maximum female content creators on apna communities hail from metros such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

According to a recent report from the IMF, reaching gender parity would boost Indias GDP by as much as 27 per cent, said Manas Singh, chief business officer of apna. Similarly, the World Bank reports that Indias GDP growth rate will climb above 9 per cent if have an equitable share of and the nation can boost its growth by 1.5 percentage points per year if just 50 per cent of join the workforce.

The pandemic and its subsequent work-from-home regime created avenues for women to join the workforce. Female users also showed an inclination towards building professional networks and invested their time towards the same. apna became a safe space for them to have professional conversations and interact with industry peers. Women have been actively engaging in apna communities on government, business, learning languages, tele-caller, back-office jobs, teacher, computer/data entry, beauticians, lab technician and cooking.

While we still have a long way to go, the 2021 Women Workforce data by apna is encouraging and signifies an upward graph in their participation, said Singh. Through the mission of #AcceleratingIndia, we will continue empowering our female users and building a trusted platform for them to find relevant job opportunities.

As per data from apna, there was a 12X increase in women interviewing on its platform in comparison to last year. In fact, on average women are interviewing at least 8 times a month  33 per cent more times than men. This highlights the accelerated intent in women to apply for more They are not only joining the workforce but also taking up unconventional jobs and breaking barriers created centuries ago.

With easily available and verified hyperlocal opportunities, mentorship programs and upskilling courses, apna became a default choice for Indias women workforce. Interestingly, 39 per cent of the female users on apna are 12th pass or lower and rely on apna to find jobs and build their professional network. The platform is empowering millions of women by helping them find a career in around 70 categories.

More popular roles on apna included tele-callers and BPO, back office, receptionist, front office, teacher, accounts, finance, admin, office assistant and data entry operators. Unlike last year, apna also recorded a rise in women applying for various non-traditional roles, including delivery partners, security guards, lab technicians, fitness trainers and drivers to name a few.
Quick commerce platform Zepto, which was launched five months back by two teenage Stanford dropouts, has raised $100 million in its Series C round at a valuation of $570 million. The company said that its last funding round of $60 million was 45 days back and its valuation has doubled since then.

Aadit Palicha, CEO and co-founder of Zepto, told Business Standard, Our median delivery time is 8 minutes 24 seconds and our average order values are 20-30 per cent higher than that of food delivery We are planning to launch in a few dozen cities, but have not zeroed in on which ones we will go to as yet

Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinators Continuity Fund led the round, with participation from new and existing investors, including Glade Brook, Nexus, Breyer Capital, Lachy Groom, Global Founders Capital, Contrary Capital, and others.

The company said it has been tripling its user base every month. Over the past 2 months, Zepto has expanded beyond Mumbai by launching in Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune and a launch in Kolkata is on the cards.

Kaivalya Vohra, co-founder and CTO, said: Today, our month-on-month buyer retention rate is 65 per cent with an 88-point Net Promoter Score. This data has given us the confidence to expand the 10-minute model across the country.

In just 5 months, weve launched 100 micro-warehouses - each of which has the capacity to do over 2,500 orders/day  and were planning to launch at an even faster rate going forward, he added.
Chief Minister on Monday said the state will continue to be under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 and a decision on withdrawing it will be taken only if the present peace prevails for a longer term.

He expressed apprehension that the militant groups might not reciprocate the same way if the is withdrawn from

Sarma, however, said that no state government wants to continue with if the law and order situation is peaceful and conducive.

"The government is of the view that if this kind of peaceful situation continues at a later date we will be able to take a call on whether we need in entire Assam or we need it only in some parts," Sarma told reporters here.

He cited the example of Arunachal Pradesh, which decided to withdraw the Act in consultation with the central home ministry from many parts of the state, except in three districts.

"AFSPA or not cannot be a call of the government. It has to depend on the overall situation, law and order situation of the state. Now suppose I withdraw, will that be reciprocated by the militant organisations?



"If they do not withdraw and we do, the Army will not be able to carry out any operation meaning thereby you are inviting chaos. So I think AFSPA withdrawal is linked to the peace and stability of the state," Sarma said.

Stating that no state government will want to continue with AFSPA if the law and order situation is peaceful and conducive, he said "I am only saying this in the context of our state and not Nagaland because I have no jurisdiction to do so. On Nagaland I do not have any assessment. I do not want to comment on the situation that exists in that state," he added.

Nagaland Assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the Centre repeal AFSPA from the North East and specially from the state "so as to strengthen the ongoing efforts to find a peaceful political settlement to the Naga political issue".

Thirteen civilians were gunned down by security foces at Oting village of Mon district on December 4 in a botched anti-insurgency operation leading to cries by civil groups and rights activists for repeal of the "draconian law". The chief ministers of Nagaland and Meghalaya had also sought the revocation of the Act.

The Assam government had extended the existing "Disturbed Area" status of the state for another six months with effect from August 28, thereby continuing AFSPA in the state.

The Act was imposed in Assam in November 1990 and has been extended every six months since then after a review by the state government.

AFSPA empowers security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without any prior warrant. It also gives a certain level of immunity to the security forces in case of an operation going wrong.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid the Omicron scare and the growing number of cases in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said all samples that test positive for the infection will now be sent for genome sequencing.

He also urged the Centre to allow the administration of booster shots to the fully vaccinated city residents.

The chief minister appealed to people not to panic and wear masks as they are the most effective protection against the virus.

"For the last few days, COVID-19 cases are increasing in the city. Yesterday (Sunday), it was over 100. We don't know what type of Covid cases these are, normal or the Omicron variant. So, to ascertain this we have now decided to send the samples of all positive cases for genome sequencing," Kejriwal said at a press conference.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) during which the Omicron situation, including its possible effects and steps to deal with it, was discussed, according to the chief minister.

Delhi has reported 24 cases of the Omicron variant so far, according to sources.

Kejriwal appealed to the Centre to allow the administration of booster shots to those Delhi residents who have already received both doses of Covid vaccine.

"About 99 per cent of our eligible population has received the first dose and about 70 per cent has been vaccinated with both doses.

"I request the central government to allow booster doses for all those who have been vaccinated with both doses. We have the infrastructure to administer booster doses. We can start with our healthcare workers and then vaccinate the rest of the population," he said.

Kejriwal also said the home isolation system will be strengthened in Delhi as according to experts the Omicron variant only causes mild symptoms.

"We will strengthen the home isolation system as most cases will not require hospitalisation. There is no need to panic in view of the Omicron variant as we have made adequate arrangements in hospitals to deal with any outbreak," he said.

He said the government has made adequate arrangements for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and everything else that may be needed to combat the virus.

"We will not let the people of Delhi face any difficulty in their treatment," he added.

The chief minister held a meeting on November 30 to review preparations to tackle a possible third wave of and the spread of the Omicron variant.

It has been assessed that 30,000 Covid beds are ready in Delhi. The government will be able to arrange 100 beds per ward on a two-week notice, which will take the total bed capacity in Delhi to over 64,000, according to an official statement.

Additionally, 6,800 ICU beds will also be ready very soon. Medicine stocks are currently being added and home isolation arrangements are being strengthened, the government statement said.

The Delhi government has issued a Covid helpline number -- 1031 -- to help patients with any problem. The helpline is operational 24x7. The call attendants work in three shifts and can attend 600 to 700 calls.

The government is also focusing on increasing manpower for Covid management to be prepared for a possible spread of the disease. This will include medical, nursing and paramedical students trained in oxygen therapy, Covid management and paediatric ward Covid management.

A workforce of 5,000 health assistants has been readied for any future needs, the statement said.

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The government has started administering Covid-19 booster shots on a trial basis.

The country's Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the program in Dhaka on Sunday, while a nurse Runu Veronica Costa, who had received the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country, was also administered the first booster dose, reports Xinhua news agency.

After inaugurating the program, Maleque told journalists that the drive will be extended throughout the country in phases.

He said frontliners and the elderly will be given priority for booster shots initially.

Senior Health Ministry officials, journalists and religious leaders also received their booster doses on the day.

launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive in January to contain the pandemic that has spread across the South Asian country.

--IANS

ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Noting that the pandemic is not yet over, Army chief General M M Naravane on Monday said the outbreak of COVID-19 has taught everyone many lessons and disaster management in the backdrop of the pandemic is a reality and a major challenge.

He also highlighted the importance of global and regional cooperation while tackling any pandemic-like situation.

He was speaking at the inauguration of PANEX-21, a trans-national, multi-agency exercise organised in Pune from December 20 to 22 with a focused aim to "foster jointness and develop capabilities in disaster management aspects for the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) nations".

The Army chief said the fact is that the pandemic is not over as new variants have added realism to the conduct of this exercise.

The South Asian region is prone to a large range of natural hazards, including floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, and tsunami, he noted.

"Rapidly growing unplanned urbanisation, ecological degradation, and corresponding climate change effects and dynamically varying socio-economic conditions have increased our exposure to various natural hazards," he said.

All have witnessed the rising frequency of disasters with more intense and catastrophic events, he pointed out.

"Our response strategies have also evolved, added by rapid improvements in technology have become more robust and resilient. Trans-national cooperation between BIMSTEC nations continues to be driven by common and shared challenges," he said.

The pandemic has overwhelmed the national capacity, disrupted the supply chain, and brought everyone back to the drawing board, he said.

"Disaster management in the backdrop of the pandemic, is a reality and a major challenge and this also forms a basic theme of PANEX-21," he said.

The earlier exercise was conducted in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, General Naravane said.

"A lot has changed since then. The devastating effects of the pandemic have been witnessed and acknowledged by the world. We have realised that our standard operating procedures which worked well in the past are no longer active and we would need transformative changes," he said.

It was realised that resource preservation in the times of pandemic is as challenging as an application for disaster management, the Army chief said.

He said it has become incumbent for the response teams to first protect themselves before being able to assess others.

"We have also come to accept that no single agency has the capability or capacity to handle the challenge on their own.

Not only that, such has been the strain on the resources that even well-developed countries with modern infrastructure have looked beyond for aid and assistance," he said.

PANEX-21 is unique as it is for the first time the exercise of this magnitude has been undertaken to review the mechanism and streamline the response strategy in the backdrop of pandemics, he said.

The BIMSTEC regional organisation comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, besides India.

General Naravane said the outspread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world has taught everyone many lessons in terms of preventive control, mitigation strategy and protocols.

"We all have witnessed in the recent past the massive disaster caused by the COVID-19 pandemic since the end of 2019 in the entire world and which is still causing havoc in many countries," he said.

"India has already seen its worse effects during the second wave in April-May 2021, during which we lost a lot of precious lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has, indeed, congressed the world community together to tackle the challenges and to mitigate at the earliest," he said.

The development of various vaccines and vaccination drives to inoculate citizens at the earliest is a major step in this regard, he noted.

"The outbreak of the pandemic also witnessed the world community rising to the circumstances with incredible and farfetched levels of not only cooperation amongst each other, but also garnering support to provide assistance in terms of medicines and other administrative requirements of the affected states during these testing times," he said.

General Naravane said the country is well-versed that a natural disaster will not wait for the pandemic situation to subside.

"Moreover, a dual disaster is a current reality that we must be prepared for, so as to mitigate its impact on our populations. Therefore, the importance of trans-national cooperation to gain regional cooperation on this is imperative. BIMSTEC is such a group of member nations which share many commonalities and have been involved culturally & economically since many years," he said.

He said equally important in all this is the industry that adapted and responded to new requirements through innovative solutions.

Noting that the industry has been an important stakeholder, he said, "The Indian industry is supported by policy initiative of the government as we are on the growth curve in the recent years. Cost-effect technological solutions and disaster management strategies would act as a force multiplier."



"Considering the contemporary environment and the challenge at the present, PANEX 21 has been conceptualised as a three-stage exercise. The first is this seminar, which will provide an opportunity to brain-stormed relevant issues, crystalize our thoughts deliberately," he said.

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The Omicron variant of the is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or have recovered from the COVID-19 disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan added it would be "unwise" to conclude from early evidence that Omicron was a milder variant that previous ones.

"... with the numbers going up, all health systems are going to be under strain," Soumya Swaminathan told Geneva-based journalists.

The variant is successfully evading some immune responses, she said, meaning that the booster programmes being rolled out in many countries ought to be targeted towards people with weaker immune systems.

"There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant," director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the briefing.

"And it is more likely people vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 could be infected or re-infected," Tedros said.

Their comments echoed the finding of study by Imperial College London, which said last week the risk of reinfection was more than five times higher and it has shown no sign of being milder than Delta.

WHO officials said however that other forms of immunity vaccinations may prevent infection and disease.

While the antibody defences from some actions have been undermined, there has been hope that T-cells, the second pillar of an immune response, can prevent severe disease by attacking infected human cells.

WHO expert Abdi Mahamud added: "Although we are seeing a reduction in the neutralisation antibodies, almost all preliminary analysis shows T-cell mediated immunity remains intact, that is what we really require." However, highlighting how little is known about how to handle the new variant that was only detected last month, Swaminathan also said: "Of course there is a challenge, many of the monoclonals will not work with Omicron." She gave no details as she referred to the treatments that mimic natural antibodies in fighting off infections. Some drug makers have suggested the same.

Ending The Pandemic

In the short term, Tedros said that holiday festivities would in many places lead to "increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths" and urged people to postpone gatherings.

"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," he said.

But the WHO team also offered some hope to a weary world facing the new wave that 2022 would be the year that the pandemic, which already killed more than 5.6 million people worldwide, would end.

It pointed towards the development of second and third generation vaccines, and the further development of antimicrobial treatments and other innovations.

"(We) hope to consign this disease to a relatively mild disease that is easily prevented, that is easily treated," Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, told the briefing.

"If we can keep virus transmission to minimum, then we can bring the pandemic to an end."

However Tedros also said China, where the SARS-CoV-2 was first detected at the end of 2019, must be forthcoming with data and information related to its origin to help the response going forward.

"We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future," Tedros said.
The COVID-19 vaccines can be "tweaked" to provide protection against new variants of the virus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, Director Dr Randeep Guleria said.

His remarks come amid rising cases of the Omicron variant of and the ongoing debate about whether a booster shot is needed to increase antibodies.

Speaking at a programme organised here in Maharashtra on Sunday, Dr Guleria said that as far as the severity of the Omicron variant is concerned, the next few weeks will be very crucial.

"Although there is this new variant of COVID-19, the silver lining is that it does seem to be a milder disease and we should have protection as far as the vaccine is concerned. And I think it is important to remember that vaccines can be tweaked," Dr Guleria here said on Sunday.

"We will have second-generation vaccines. This is something which we need to keep in mind. The current vaccines are effective but with new variants, they will decrease on immunity, however vaccines can be tweaked," he added.

He was speaking at the Dr V S Prayag Memorial Oration 2021 organised here in Maharashtra by the Association of Physicians of India.

The government in May had further extended the gap between the two doses of Covishield from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is currently administered in a two-dose regimen with a gap of four to six weeks.

"Every year, a new vaccine (for diseases in general) is created based on surveillance data provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO), therefore it is easier to do it," Dr Guleria said.

While Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24, India's first two cases of this heavily mutated version of the were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

Till Sunday, 153 cases of Omicron were reported in 11 states and Union Territories in India.

Dr. Guleria said the production of new vaccines each year demonstrates that it is possible to adapt existing vaccines to keep up with viral mutations.

Speaking about the tweaking of vaccines, he said that it is being done for the influenza vaccine.

"There are also studies going on about if we can have a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine. Let's say the Delta variant and Beta variant combined into one vaccine that makes a bivalent vaccine," he said.

Talking about the Omicron strain, Dr Guleria said that it appears to escape humoral immunity.

"As per the preliminary reports from South Africa, there is a high risk of infection in individuals previously infected with a different strain. To validate this we need more data," he said.

As far as the severity of the (viral) disease is concerned, more data is needed.

"The data from SA suggests that it is just a milder form of the disease. But there is a counterargument that it is currently affecting the younger age group," Dr Guleria added.

He said that as far as the severity of the Omicron variant is concerned, the next few weeks will be very crucial.

In his presentation, Dr Guleria mainly stressed three points - COVID-19 burden and AIIMS' contribution, the effect of COVID-19 on the lungs and lessons learned, and the way forward.

He added that new variants will continue to emerge and mutations will take place.

"The virus will also be more transmissible. It has to spread rapidly for its survival. So if we put our guards down, in terms of COVID appropriate behaviour (CAB), it will further add to the transmission," Dr Guleria said.

He said CAB and vaccination are very important tools in this aspect.

Dr Guleria said genome sequencing has become more and more important in view of the emergence of new variants and it needs to be done on a large scale.

Speaking about the challenges on the vaccination front, he said that equitable distribution to billions of people is very important.

On the lessons learned and the way forward, Dr Guleria said that the increasing frequency of epidemics and pandemics can be seen in the 21st Century.

"Just look at the 20 years of data. What has happened? We started with H5N1 which was bird flu, we had SARS, MERS, then we had H1N1. We had outbreaks of Ebola, ZIKA...so what are we seeking, unlike the 20th century more infections..and all of them were of 'zoonotic origin," he added.

Dr Guleria said increased activities like trade, travelling, connectivity, growing urbanisation, encroaching on the environment, and global warming etc. are some of the reasons for the rise in infections.

Speaking about the 'One Health Concept,' he said that human health and animal health are interdependent and linked to the health of the ecosystem of which they are part.

"Hence we need to work on the solution at the local and global level keeping in mind to prevent future pandemics," he added.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the has decided to extend the distribution of free ration in the city for six months till May 31, 2022.

The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

"We have started distributing free ration ever since the outbreak of coronavirus. The time period of this scheme has ended, so this is being extended by six months. The Cabinet today decided that free ration distribution will continue till May 31 next year, Kejriwal said in a virtual press conference.

The scheme ended on November 30.

The distributes free ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

The city has over 2,000 fair price shops, 17.77 lakh ration card holders and around 72.78 lakh beneficiaries.

Free ration is given over and above subsidised grains distributed to them through ration shops.

The PMGKAY was launched in March last year to ameliorate distress caused by COVID-19. Initially, the scheme was launched for April-June last year, but was later extended to November 30.

In November this year, Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had said that the Centre had no proposal to extend distribution of free ration through the PMGKAY beyond November 30.

Then too, Kejriwal had said that the free ration distribution would be continued in Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government till May 31, 2022.

The Delhi chief minister had also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to extend the free ration distribution scheme to benefit the poor.

(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.)
Deputy Chief Minister on Monday accused the BJP of corruption in civic bodies saying the Delhi government paid Rs 2,588 crore to the MCDs till December but the BJP that administers them still didn't pay salaries to its employees.

Speaking at a press conference here, Sisodia said the Delhi government has given 75 per cent of the total budget reserved for the MCDs in three installments and the rest 25 per cent is due in January.

"As per the budget, the Delhi government should give the MCDs Rs 3,488 crores, of which Rs 2,588 crore have been paid till December. The final 25 per cent of the money is due in January, but the employees haven't been paid their salaries," Sisodia said.

He added that the Delhi government has not even deducted any amount for the loans it gave to these bodies and that they owe the government Rs 6,889 crore.

"Since Arvind Kejriwal govt came into power in 2015, we haven't taken the loan amount back from the MCDs. The BJP embezzled Rs 6,889 crore, there is no accountability for the Rs 2,588 crore, and then they say there is no money," the AAP leader said.

He also alleged that the BJP is busy making money through corruption in the MCDs instead of worrying about paying salaries, cleaning up the city, and maintaining hospitals and schools.

"I will give you some examples of how deeply BJP is involved in corruption in the It is involved in Rs 2500 crore rent scam, Rs 1800 crore house tax scam, and Rs 1800 crore property tax scam," Sisodia said.

He also alleged that the BJP rented waste segregation machines for Rs 6.3 lakh instead of buying them, which would have cost Rs 17.5 lakh each.

"All the machines could have been bought for Rs 1 crore, but it decided to pay an irrational rent and embezzled another Rs 1000 crore.

Then it proposed to pay Rs 306 rent per metric tonne of waste processing. Each machine processes about 6000 metric tonne waste that comes up to Rs 18.36 lakh in rent. So Rs 18.36 lakh is being paid in rent for a machine that costs Rs 17.5 lakh to buy," he said.

"Then the BJP says it doesn't have money. The thing is that the BJP has enough money, it's just the that doesn't have any," he said.

The deputy CM also accused BJP of making Rs 10,000 crore through illegal parking in Delhi.

The Delhi finance minister also accused BJP of swindling up to Rs 400 crore in a parking scam by selling parking space at throwaway prices to earn commission.

"The BJP had sold 13 parking lots in the North MCD to private mafia for pennies and waived crores in property taxes for them.

All these parking lots could generate thousands of crores in revenue each year. However, in order to gulp down commission, the BJP first sold all of the parking at rock-bottom prices and then waived their house tax, Sisodia said.

Responding to Sisodia's allegations, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the amount disbursed by the Delhi government for the fiscal year 2021-2022 was in fact fixed for year 2012 which has since doubled after the third, fourth, and fifth Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations.

"Dy CM said that Delhi Government has released three-fourths of municipal funds for current year 2021-22 but didn't tell that the amount paid was fixed for year 2012 while after that 3rd, 4th & 5th Delhi Finance Commission's recommendations have doubled the amount and Delhi Government despite accepting the recommendations has not implemented them," Kapoor said.

Denying other allegations as "baseless", Kapoor added that the North DMC has not sold any car parking and it is getting them constructed under PPP Model.

(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.)
Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Monday launched Project 'Abhaya', a joint initiative of the force and an NGO for safety and security of girls, officials said here.

Abhaya means "one who is fearless", and the joint initiative by the Police and NGO Shakti Foundation is aimed at empowering, educating and making aware, they said.

Speaking on the occasion, Asthana underlined that protection of women, and the weaker sections is the utmost responsibility of any society, and police personnel have to be extra-cautious and devoted while dealing with such matters, Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said in a statement.

"We must strive to ensure the prevention of such crimes, and the launch of the 'Abhaya' project is a step in that direction as the society also needs to be well aware and educated," Asthana said.

He added that the Delhi Police has ensured higher conviction rates in crimes against women and in comparison with other metro cities in India.

According to data shared by the Delhi Police, its conviction rate in rape cases is 47.25 per cent against a average of 39.3 per cent, in molestation cases, it is 47.32 per cent against 27.9 per cent, in kidnapping cases, it is 40 per cent against 35.6 per cent, in outraging modesty cases, it is 50 per cent against 27.7 per cent, in POCSO cases, it is 79.12 per cent against 39.6 per cent, and in dowry death cases, its conviction rate is 100 per cent.

During the event, a booklet titled "ABHAYA was also unveiled, along with the Abhaya statue.

Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and senior officers of the force were present on the occasion.

"The booklet has been compiled by experts in the field of women safety, and it explains several aspects of personal physical safety, which are required to be learnt by every child. It contains information with pictorial content on how minor girls can prevent themselves from becoming victims of sexual offence, good touch and bad touch, whom to contact when any hostile condition emerges etc," the statement read.

(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.)
Three doses of a Covid vaccine may not be able to curb the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid, warned Ugur Sahin, CEO of Germany-based BioNTech.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the variant, known to escape vaccine immunity, has spread to about 90 countries.

"We must be aware that even triple-vaccinated are likely to transmit the disease. It is obvious we are far from 95 per cent effectiveness that we obtained against the initial virus," Euronews quoted Sahin as saying to the French daily Le Monde on Monday. BioNTech partnered with US drugmaker Pfizer to develop the two-dose revolutionary Covid jab, based on mRNA technology.

Despite this, Sahin noted that early data from the UK and South Africa is providing us with "reassuring information".

The latest research from South Africa, where Omicron was first reported, suggested that two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine offered 70 per cent effectiveness in reducing the risk of hospitalisation. Israeli researchers have also found that the booster doses of the vaccine works against Omicron.

"There will be a loss of effectiveness against Omicron over time, it's very likely, but it's still to be measured how quickly. I will not base predictions on preliminary laboratory data but on real-life data, which is much more appropriate," the German immunologist said.

Sahin said testing for Covid-19 is important, especially for the elderly and during winter, as are other protective measures such as mask-wearing, adding, "otherwise we will not be able to control the rapid expansion of this new variant".

The German company is already designing a vaccine adapted to the new variant, using Omicron's spike protein and its 32 mutations as an antigen. Sahin announced this should be ready by March, the report said.

"We remain on track with our 100-day target, which means we should be able to deliver our first suitable vaccines to Omicron in March, subject to regulatory approval," he said.

Some researchers have voiced concern about the effect of these new vaccines as instead of boosting new immune defences, they could risk boosting inadequate ones.

"This principle is an unproven hypothesis, personally, I don't think this is a real problem. The immune system has high adaptability and plasticity, and should be able to activate both, strengthening existing immune responses while generating new antibodies," Sahin said, adding "but we will obviously have to assess it."

Scientists at WHO have also predicted that Omicron has "substantial growth advantage" over the Delta variant and it will soon take over Delta. It is still unclear how effective vaccines are against the new variant, the WHO said.

Meanwhile, Moderna, which has also produced an mRNA vaccine, on Monday said that a booster dose of its vaccine appeared to be protective against Omicron.

Moderna said that its research so far showed that a 50 microgram dose of its vaccine, which is the current amount for a booster jab, increased the level of antibodies 37-fold, compared with two doses.

It also said a full dose of 100 micrograms boosted antibody levels 83-fold, it said.

--IANS

rvt/vd

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Foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries on Monday jointly called on Prime Minister

The meeting came a day after they attended the third India-Central Asia Dialogue hosted by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

No details about the meeting between Modi and the visiting ministers were immediately available.

Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval were present in the meeting between Modi and the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In the dialogue on Sunday, India and the Central Asian countries discussed a plethora of issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.

The foreign ministers called for immediate humanitarian aid to Afghan people, renewed demand for a "truly inclusive" government in Kabul and asserted that Afghan territory must not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist activities.

In the last few years, India has been focusing on expanding overall cooperation with the energy-rich Central Asian countries, considering them to be part of its extended neighbourhood.

The upswing in India's engagement with the region followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's whirlwind tour of the five countries in July 2015 that resulted in the expansion of two-way ties in a range of areas.

The recent developments in Afghanistan reinforced the importance of the Central Asian countries with three of them -- Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- sharing borders with the war-torn nation.

The security advisors of all the five Central Asian countries attended an India-hosted regional dialogue on Afghanistan on November 10. NSAs of Russia and Iran also participated in it.

The second meeting of the India-Central Asia dialogue was organised by India in October last year virtually.

(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.)
Four new cases of the Omicron variant of were reported in on Sunday, which took the state's count of the persons infected with this strain to eleven, officials said.

A 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy who came from the UK, a Surat-based woman who had recently visited Dubai and a Tanzanian national are the new patients of the Omicron variant found in the state.

The NRI (non-resident Indian) had tested positive for the infection in the RT-PCR test carried out at the Ahmedabad international airport soon after his arrival from the UK on December 15, a department official said.

"The man's sample later confirmed that he was infected with the Omicron variant," Anand district officer Dr M T Chhari said. He was scheduled to reach the state's Anand city from Ahmedabad.

"But, after he tested positive for the coronavirus, he was taken to the Ahmedabad civil hospital from the airport. The patient is currently recovering at the Ahmedabad civil hospital, Dr Chhari said.

His co-passengers and other contacts have tested negative for the viral infection, the official said.

On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy from Gandhinagar was also detected with the Omicron variant after returning from the UK, Gandhinagar Municipal Commissioner Dhaval Patel said.

A 23-year-old Tanzanian national, who had tested positive for COVID-19 at Rajkot on December 15, and a 39-year-old businesswoman in Surat, who recently returned from Dubai have also been found infected with the new variant of the virus, officials said, adding that with these cases, the overall Omicron case count in the state has risen to eleven.

The Tanzania national had arrived at Ahmedabad via Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam, had tested negative for the virus in the RT-PCR test carried out at the airport. However, when he was tested again upon reaching Rajkot, he was found positive on December 15, said Rajkot collector Arun Mahesh Babu.

"The genome sequencing of his sample on Sunday confirmed him to be infected with the Omicron variant," he said.

The woman from Surat had gone to Dubai with her two sons and returned to Surat on December 5. On December 13, while on her way back to Dubai, she tested positive for COVID-19 in an RT-PCR test carried out at the Surat airport, officials said.

All her contacts, including her son and daughter, have tested negative for the virus, the official said.

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A Pakistani fishing boat with six crew members and carrying 77 kg of worth around Rs 400 crore was apprehended in the Indian waters off the coast, officials said on Monday.

The drug seizure was made on Sunday night in a joint operation by the Indian Coast Guard and the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), they said.

Gujarat's defence PRO in a tweet said the Coast Guard in a joint operation with the state ATS apprehended the Pakistani fishing boat 'Al Huseini' with six crew members on board in the Indian waters.

They seized "77 kg of worth approximately Rs 400 crore," the tweet said.

The boat was brought to the Jakhau coast in Kutch district of for further investigation, it stated.

In April this year, the Coast Guard and the ATS had carried out a similar operation and apprehended a boat with eight Pakistani nationals and carrying 30 kg of worth about Rs 150 crore, from the Indian waters near the Jakhau coast in Kutch.

Last month, the ATS had seized a heroin drug consignment worth about Rs 600 crore from an under-construction house in Gujarat's Morbi district.

The ATS had said the consignment was sent by Pakistani drug dealers to their Indian counterparts via the Arabian Sea.

In September this year, in the single largest heroin haul in India, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized around 3,000 kg of the drug, believed to be from Afghanistan and likely worth Rs 21,000 crore in the global market, from two containers at the Mundra port in Kutch, officials earlier said.

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Israel on Monday imposed travel ban to ten countries, including the US, Canada and Germany by adding them to its no-fly list, citing concerns over the spread of the new Omicron variant that has infected 175 people in the country.

Acting on health ministry recommendations, Israeli cabinet ministers voted on Monday to put the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey on the no-fly list.

The cabinet ministers have now approved (in a telephone vote) the expansion of the list of red countries, in accordance with the recommendation of the Health Ministry State Classification Committee, pursuant to a discussion that was held on Sunday at the Cabinet meeting", a statement from the PMO said.

"Italy, the USA, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey will be defined as red countries starting tomorrow (Tuesday, December 21, 2021) at midnight (the night between Tuesday and Wednesday), subject to approval by the



Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee", it said. Travel to and from the so-called "red countries" is expressly forbidden, unless permission is granted by a special committee. Those who return from these countries must remain in quarantine for seven days.

As per local media reports, 17 people on a flight from Miami on Sunday tested positive for COVID-19, with most of them suspected of carrying the Omicron variant.

The Israeli Health Ministry, meanwhile, announced that it has discovered 40 new Omicron cases, taking the total number of cases of the new COVID-19 variant to 175 in the country.

Assessments presented to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday predicted that the number of Omicron cases in Israel could reach between 400 and 600 over the next week, in light of the number of cases that cannot be traced back to people who traveled abroad, the Haaretz newspaper reported.

"Three weeks ago, I warned the citizens of Israel that a new wave was coming, the Omicron wave. One day later, the Corona Cabinet convened and we decided the first in the world to bar foreign nationals from entering Israel. This was an important and brave decision that bought all of us precious time. However, not everyone understood this in real time," Bennett said in a statement on Saturday.

The rare move to red-list the US comes amid rising infections in Israel and marks a change to pandemic practices between the two nations with close diplomatic relations.

"There were those who thought we were exaggerating. There were those who said 'He's hysterical.' But I thank the members of the government who understood that it was necessary first of all to buy time and keep the variant away from Israel's borders as much as possible," Bennett asserted.

"The Omicron is already in the country, from the Knesset (Israeli parliament) to kindergartens and it is spreading fast. The numbers are still not high but this is a very contagious variant and doubles every two or three days, as we are seeing around the world. It is possible to say that the fifth wave has begun, he added.

Urging people to "act rationally and calmly", and do the right thing, Bennett said that the government intends to overcome this wave while continuing economic activity and education as much as it can.

"The way is to delay the rate of spread as much as possible and use the time we are buying to vaccinate the children of Israel as quickly as possible, he said, urging the citizens to get their children vaccinated.

"In the US, over five million children have been vaccinated and they have no significant side effects. We can learn from their experience", the prime minister said.

Bennett called upon people to maintain social distance as much as possible, use masks, requested business owners and CEOs in and out of high-tech to allow employees to work from home and get children vaccinated quickly.

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The Delimitation Commission on has proposed six additional assembly seats for Jammu region and one for Kashmir while reserving 16 constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, triggering strong protests from parties such as the Conference which made it clear that it would not sign the report in its present form.

Participating for the first time in the commission's deliberations, the NC's three Lok Sabha members led by party president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah expressed their reservations over the draft report, especially the biased process of seat sharing, a party spokesperson tweeted.

The party, within hours of the meeting, made it clear that it "will not be a signatory to this report."



The PDP, JK Apni Party and the People's Conference (PC), which is regarded as being friendly towards the BJP, also protested strongly against the commission's draft recommendations which will alter the electoral map of

Kashmir division currently has 46 seats and Jammu 37. The population of Jammu region is 53.72 lakh and Kashmir division 68.83 lakh, according to the census of 2011.

BJP MP and union minister Jitendra Singh, however, said after the meeting that there was no objection from any of the associate members and "in fact Dr Abdullah went on to say that there were some misgivings about the commission...."



"They have done a good job. There was no objection from any side. Now the Delimitation Commission has proposed to increase the seats to 90. They have followed objective parameters on the basis of population, accessibility, topography and terrain of individual districts. I don't feel anyone would be dissatisfied with it. No political party can find fault with it," Singh said.

However, the Conference, in its tweet, said, "Misrepresenting and distorting the facts with malicious intention! Very misleading statement. We have clearly expressed our resentment over the draft of the Delimitation Commission, the biased process of seat sharing. The party will not be a signatory to this report."



According to a statement issued by the Delimitation Commission, associate members appreciated the fact that the commission visited the Union Territory and met a large number of people and assured that all necessary assistance would be extended in the work of delimitation.

The commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai held its second meeting here on Monday. It has five Lok Sabha members from as associate members and Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as ex-officio member.

Giving a presentation before the associate members, Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar informed that since the last delimitation, the number of districts has increased from 12 to 20 and the number of tehsils from 52 to 207.

The population density in the districts varies from 29 persons per square km in Kishtwar to 3,436 persons per square km in Srinagar.

Taking all these into account, the Delimitation Commission has categorised all 20 districts in three broad categories A, B and C giving margin of 10 per cent (plus/minus) of average population per assembly constituency, while proposing allocation of the constituencies to the districts.

The commission has also, for some districts, proposed carving out of an additional constituency to balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to their inhospitable conditions on the international border.

For the first time, in Jammu and Kashmir, nine seats are proposed to be allocated for Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population. Seven seats are proposed for Scheduled Castes. Twenty-four seats of the assembly continue to remain vacant as they fall under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The commission has asked all associate members to submit their views on the proposed increase of seats by December 31.

Abdullah, who is also the chairman of the five-party People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), said after the meeting that he would brief the grouping as well as his party colleagues of the deliberations of the commission.

"We attended the meeting for the first time because we wanted the voice of people of Jammu and Kashmir to be heard. The meeting took place in cordial manner and we all were explained the method adopted for coming to the conclusion," Abdullah said.

NC vice president Omar Abdullah tweeted that it was deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than data which should have been its only consideration.

"Contrary to the promised 'scientific approach', it's a political approach," he said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, headed by former minister Altaf Bukahri, also rejected the proposal.

"This is outright unacceptable to us. Apni Party demands a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base," it said.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the commission has been "created simply to serve BJP's political interests by dividing people along religious and regional lines. The real game plan is to install a government in JK which will legitimise the illegal and unconstitutional decisions of August 2019".

She was referring to the government's decisions of abrogating J&K's special status under Article 370 and bifurcating it into union territories.

People's Conference chief Sajjad Lone said the recommendations were totally unacceptable. "They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a meeting with J&K leaders in June, had said the ongoing delimitation exercise has to happen quickly so that polls can be held to install an elected government that gives strength to its development trajectory.

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Even as the job posting activity remained neutral sequentially in November as economic activity recovers, tier-II cities show positive hiring sentiment, according to a report.

According to the Monster Employment Index, job posting activity remained neutral in November this year compared to October.

However, hiring demand across industries witnessed a nine per cent jump year-on-year in the previous month, mainly aided by a surge in the economic activities after the second wave of COVID-19, the report said.

With back-to-office trends in full swing, the office equipment/ automation (21 per cent) industry continued to witness the highest month-on-month growth in job postings on increased investment in office automation due to the reopening of workplaces. It is followed by telecom/ISP (14 per cent), printing/packaging (7 per cent), garments/ textiles/ leather, gems and jewellery (4 per cent), oil/ gas/ petroleum, power (3 per cent) and travel and tourism (3 per cent) industries, it said.

Industries such as retail, banking/ financial services, insurance, education, logistics, courier/ freight/ transportation stabilised during November witnessing muted growth, said the report.

On the other hand, shipping/ marine (-9 per cent), IT-hardware & software (-3 per cent), FMCG, food and packaged food (-2 per cent), and healthcare, biotechnology and life sciences, pharmaceuticals (-2 per cent) industries accounted for a slight month-on-month decline in hiring intent, it said.

Among cities, Kolkata (2 per cent) witnessed a slight month-on-month uptick in job posting activity in November, followed by Coimbatore and Jaipur showing stabilised growth.

It was also noted that the production and manufacturing industry saw a 19 per cent month-on-month uptick in Kolkata.

However, major cities such as Pune (-4 per cent), Bengaluru (-3 per cent), Delhi-NCR (-3 per cent), Chennai (-2 per cent), Hyderabad (-2 per cent) and Mumbai (-1 per cent) noted a monthly decline in hiring activity.

Cities such as Kochi (-4 per cent), Chandigarh (-3 per cent), Ahmedabad (-2 per cent) and Baroda (-1 per cent) also witnessed falling intent to hire, the report said.

"While hiring activity has stabilised this month, we continue to see promising sparks of recovery especially in tier-II cities such as Coimbatore and Kolkata, which are faring considerably well after months of decline.

"With more and more companies aiming to return to physical offices in the new year and employ hybrid workforce models, there has been huge investment in office automation as well," said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com, a Quess company.

Moreover, salary trends in November indicate positive remuneration sentiments for the Indian IT industry, reflecting the increasing scope and growing demand for professionals in the sector, he noted.

The Monster Employment Index is a comprehensive analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India every month.

Meanwhile, data from the Index indicated that there was positive growth in the hiring activity across experience levels, with hiring for top management professionals (over 16 years) witnessing an uptick of two per cent, senior level (11-15 years) an increase of 1 per cent, mid-senior level (7-10 years) an increase of 3 per cent.

Intermediate level (4-6 years) and entry-level roles (0-3 years) witnessed a marginal growth of 1 per cent in November compared to the previous month, the report added.

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A Bill to link electoral roll data with ecosystem was passed in on Monday after a brief debate amid continuous protest by opposition members over various issues, including the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021, piloted by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion during which some opposition members demanded that it be referred to a parliamentary panel for scrutiny.

After the Bill's passage, was adjourned for the day amid continuous protest by opposition members.

Rejecting the demand for referring the Bill to a panel, Rijiju said various proposals which are part of the bill have already been suggested and recommended by the Standing Committee of Law and Personnel.

The minister further said that the bill will cleanse the election system and eliminate multiple entries.

He further said the government wanted a full debate on the Bill but could not do so because of the uproar in the House.

The minister said that the Bill, which is gender neutral and has four qualifying dates for entry into electoral roll, is in consonance with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Most of the opposition members demanded that the Bill may be referred to the standing committee for scrutiny and detailed deliberations.

Leader of Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Supriya Sule of the NCP wondered why this important Bill was being pushed in a tearing hurry by the government.

Many opposition members suggested for garnering public opinion on such an important legislation.

This is no way to pass a legislation and there should be a proper debate and discussion on this, said N K Premchandran of the RSP.

Others who opposed the Bill included Ritesh Pandey (BSP), Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) and E T Mohammed Basheer.

The Bill seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

It also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to ask for number from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll, and to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency".

At the same time, the amendment Bill makes it clear that "no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed".

Such people will be allowed to furnish other alternative documents as may be prescribed.

According to the Bill circulated to members ahead of its introduction, various sections of the Representation of the People Act will be amended.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill states that Section 23 of the RP Act will be amended to allow linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem "to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in different places".

Amendment to Section 14 of the RP Act will allow to have four "qualifying" dates for eligible people to register as voters.

As of now, January 1 of every year is the sole qualifying date.

People who turn 18 on or before January 1 can register as voters. Those turning 18 after that have to wait for one whole year to register as voters.

Now, "the 1st day of January, 1st day of April, 1st day of July and 1st day of October in a calendar year" will be the qualifying dates in relation to the preparation or revision of electoral rolls.

Amendment to Section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and Section 60 of the RP Act, 1951 will allow the elections become gender neutral for service voters.

The amendment will also help replace the word "wife" with the word "spouse" making the statutes "gender neutral".

An Armyman's wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman Army officer's husband is not, according to provisions in the electoral law. With "wife" being replaced by the term "spouse", this will change.

Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh in October.

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Chief Minister cautioned people on the rising graph of Covid infections, underlining that the new Omicron variant spreads faster, while inaugurating Kolkata Christmas Festival at Allen Park here on Monday.

Banerjee also called for unity among people of all faith to forge a strong India, while asking people to spread Christmas cheer and encouraging replication of the festival's celebrations for which Kolkata is well-known, in other towns of the state with historic churches.

"We have to be cautious amid (the spread of) this Omicron variant. It spreads faster. I will request all those who have returned to the country and tested positive to keep themselves isolated," the chief minister said. reported 414 new cases on Monday with Kolkata accounting for 145, but has as yet reported only one Omicron positive case. Two more suspected cases who have flown in from Sweden and UK are being tested for the new fast spreading variant. Banerjee cautioned that "when around 300 people fly in a flight and a few are infected, chain of infections may happen."



The state which has a strong Christian population of over 7 lakh, including both Bengali Christians and Anglo-Indians, with members of all communities chipping in for the Christmas and New Year festivities, usually sees large numbers of visitors flying into the city during this period.

The chief minister also quoted from the Vedas, Hindu religious texts, to ask people of all faith to remain united. "We have to remain united. We love all religions, castes, community and creeds... We must remember that our country will be strong only if our unity is strong," she said. Banerjee alluding to the rise of intolerance in parts of the country, also said there were "many tensions" and "political pollution" besetting India. Allen Park and Park Street as well as many other areas of Kolkata usually sport Christmas decorations, lighting and nativity representations in pubic places, drawing popular participation in the festivities.

While encouraging festivities, the state government has also posted police at various places to discourage crowding and to enforce Covid regulations. Banerjee asked the state tourism department to help replicate such popular festivities in other areas with historic churches such as Chandanagar, a former French colony with Latin architecture, Bandel, which boasts of a 16th century church and Krishnanagar, which has a mid-19th century Roman catholic church which is considered a tourist attraction.

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A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.

The other shots  including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia  do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.

A global surge of infections in a world where billions of people remain unvaccinated not only threatens the health of vulnerable individuals but also increases the opportunity for the emergence of yet more variants. The disparity in the ability of countries to weather the pandemic will almost certainly deepen. And the news about limited vaccine efficacy against Omicron infection could depress demand for throughout the developing world, where many people are already hesitant or preoccupied with other health problems.

Most evidence so far is based on laboratory experiments, which do not capture the full range of the bodys immune response, and not from tracking the effect on real-world populations. The results are striking, however.

The Pfizer and Moderna shots use the new mRNA technology, which has consistently offered the best protection against infection with every variant. All of the other vaccines are based on older methods of triggering an immune response.

The Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac  which make up almost half of all shots delivered globally  offer almost zero protection from Omicron infection. The great majority of people in China have received these shots, which are also widely used in low-and middle-income countries such as Mexico and Brazil.

A preliminary effectiveness study in Britain found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine showed no ability to stop Omicron infection six months after Ninety percent of vaccinated people in India received this shot, under the brand name Covishield; it has also been widely used across much of sub-Saharan Africa, where Covax, the global Covid vaccine program, has distributed 67 million doses of it to 44 countries.

Researchers predict that Russias Sputnik vaccine, which is also being used in Africa and Latin America, will show similarly dismal rates of protection against Omicron.

Demand for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been surging in Africa, because its single-shot delivery regimen makes it easy to deliver in low-resource settings. But it too has shown a negligible ability to block Omicron infection.

Antibodies are the first line of defense induced by vaccines. But the shots also stimulate the growth of T cells, and preliminary studies suggest that these T cells still recognize the Omicron variant, which is important in preventing severe disease.

What you lose first is protection against asymptomatic mild infection, what you retain much better is protection against severe disease and death, said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. He called it a silver lining that Omicron so far appears less lethal than the Delta variant.

But this protection will not be enough to prevent Omicron from causing global disruption, said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

The sheer scale of infection will overwhelm health systems, simply because the denominator will be potentially so big, he said. If you have a burst of infection worldwide, a shock, what does the world look like on the other side of it? Is it, The war is over, or, The war has just entered another phase? We havent begun thinking about any of that.

People with breakthrough cases may experience only asymptomatic infection or mild illness, but they can pass the virus to unvaccinated people, who could fall more severely ill, and become a source of new variants.

Dr. Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, said that more data was needed before drawing conclusions about vaccines effectiveness against Omicron  and that accelerated should continue to be the focus of pandemic response.

Preliminary data from South Africa suggest that with Omicron, there is a much higher chance of people who already had Covid getting reinfected than there was with the original virus and previous variants. But some public health experts say they believe that countries that have already been through brutal waves of Covid, such as Brazil and India, may have a buffer against Omicron, and vaccination after infection produces high antibody levels.

The combination of vaccination and exposure to the virus seems to be stronger than only having the vaccine, said Ramanan Laxminarayan, an epidemiologist. India, he noted, has an adult vaccination rate of only about 40 percent but 90 percent exposure to the virus in some areas.

Without a doubt Omicron is going to flood through India, he said. But hopefully India is protected to some extent because of vaccination and exposure.

China does not have this layer of protection to back up its weak vaccines. Because of Chinas aggressive efforts to stop spread of the virus within its borders, relatively few people have previous exposure. Only an estimated 7 percent of people in Wuhan, where the pandemic began, were infected.

Much of Latin America has relied on the Chinese and Russian vaccines, and on AstraZeneca. Mario Rosemblatt, a professor of immunology at the University of Chile, said that more than 90 percent of Chileans had had two doses of one vaccine, but the great majority of these were Coronavac, the Sinovac shot. High vaccination coverage combined with early reports that Omicron does not cause serious illness is leading to a false sense of security in the country, he said.

We have to get people to understand that it doesnt work like that: If you get high transmissibility youre going to have the health system saturated because the number of people getting ill will be higher, he said.

Brazil has recommended that all vaccinated people get a third dose, and it started using Pfizers vaccine for all boosters, but only 40 percent of the vaccinated have turned up to get the extra shot. Dr. Amilcar Tanuri, a virologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said with cautious optimism that the high levels of previous Covid exposure might blunt Omicrons impact but noted that the most vulnerable Brazilians, vaccinated first, got Coronavac, and tens of millions more were given AstraZeneca.

Mr. Morrison called Omicrons ability to evade the protection of vaccination a massive setback for low- and middle-income countries, where, far from any discussion of boosters, the focus is still on delivering first shots.

The world gets cleaved into two parts, right? he said. Its those that have a quick path toward boosters versus those who have had very limited progress and suddenly theyre subject to this new lashing.

Just 13 percent of people in Africa have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.

Dr. Laxminarayan said the Indian government, to which he is an occasional adviser, was considering booster shots, but the Delta variant still poses a significant threat in India, and two vaccine doses offer protection against Delta. That presents the government with a difficult choice between focusing on getting people who remain unvaccinated, or only partly vaccinated, to two doses, or trying to get boosters to older people and those with high-risk medical conditions as protection against Omicron.

The news that the non-mRNA vaccines offer little protection against infection from Omicron may further erode demand for shots in countries already struggling to build demand, Mr. Morrison said.

This challenges the whole value of vaccines, he said. If youre so far behind and then you suffer this, its going to feed anti-vaccine sentiment and weaken confidence.

Tolbert Nyenswah, a senior researcher with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the emerging threat to countries in the global south that have relied on non-mRNA vaccines was an indictment of wealthy countries failure to share that technology or help build production points in low- and middle-income countries.

As a consequence, dangerous variants will continue to emerge from areas with low vaccination coverage and will prolong the pandemic, predicted Dr. Nyenswah, who was deputy minister of health in Liberia through that countrys worst Ebola outbreak.

Dr. Berkley at Gavi said it would be a serious mistake for countries to ease up on their vaccination push or to assume that only mRNA vaccines are worth distributing.

We may be seeing a situation where countries say, If developed countries dont want these vaccines, then we dont want these vaccines, he said. That, of course, would be the wrong interpretation, if it turns out that these vaccines prevent against severe disease and death.



Lynsey Chutel, Carl Zimmer and Emily Schmall contributed reporting.
Residents of on Monday woke up to the coldest morning of the present season, with a minimum temperature of 7.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the region, the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) here said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a cold wave warning for the region on Monday and Tuesday, RMC's scientist Bhavna told PTI.

The minimum temperature here will remain around the same for the next three days, and there is a possibility of the mercury rising after December 23, she said.

Besides Nagpur, various other places in Maharashtra's region have also been witnessing cold conditions.

On Monday, Amravati recorded the minimum temperature of 8 degrees celsius, Gondia 8.2 degrees Celsius, Wardha 9 degrees Celsius, Bramhapuri 10 degrees Celsius, Buldhana 10.5 degrees Celsius, Akola 11.3 degrees Celsius, Chandrapur 11.4 degrees Celsius, Gadchiroli 11.6 degrees Celsius, and Yavatmal 12.5 degrees Celsius, as per the RMC.

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Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik on Sunday claimed that some "official guests" will be visiting his residence early morning on Monday.

Taking to Twitter, the leader said that he will be ready to welcome them wholeheartedly with tea and cookies.

"It has come to my knowledge that some official guests will be visiting my residence early morning tomorrow. I will be ready to welcome them wholeheartedly with tea and cookies. If they need the correct address, they can call me," Malik said in a tweet.

Earlier on December 10, Malik also claimed that some "government guests" were soon going to pay him a visit.

"Friends, I have heard that government guests will come to my home today or tomorrow, I welcome them," the leader tweeted in Hindi.

Last month, Minister had claimed that some people are trying to frame him in a false case just like they did with former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

Deshmukh was arrested earlier this month by the ED for his alleged role in a money laundering case and is currently in jail under judicial custody.

Meanwhile, several cases have also been filed against Malik by family members of NCB Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.

Since the Mumbai cruise drug bust case in October 2021, Malik has launched several attacks against Sameer Wankhede and his family accusing them of changing their religion and cast to bribery allegations.

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No fresh COVID-19 case was registered in for the third consecutive day on Monday, while three more patients were cured of the disease, a senior health official said here.

Arunachal Pradesh's COVID-19 tally remained at 55,320, while the number of active cases dipped to 23 and the total number of recoveries stood at 55,017, the official said.

The COVID-19 death toll remained at 280 as no fresh fatality was reported, State Surveillance Officer Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

The COVID-19 recovery rate in the state now is 99.45 per cent, he said.

The Capital Complex region, comprising Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, has the highest number of active cases at 18, followed by Namsai, West Kameng, Tawang, Lohit and East Siang districts at one each.

The administration has tested over 12.02 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 100 on Sunday, Jampa said.

State Immunisation Officer Dr Dimong Padung said that 14,47,803 people have been inoculated so far, including 22 on Sunday.

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Authorities at two genome sequencing laboratories in Delhi on Monday said they have the capacity to handle a higher number of samples for detection of the Omicron variant of

Amid the Omicron scare and the growing number of cases in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said all samples that test Covid positive will be sent for genome sequencing.

"In the last couple of days, daily cases have increased to over 80 and then it again crossed the 100 mark on Sunday.

"We would like to know if these are cases of old variants or the new Omicron variant. Hence, all samples which test positive will be sent for genome sequencing," he said in an online briefing.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, during which the Omicron situation, including its possible effects and steps to deal with it, was discussed.

Delhi has reported 24 cases of the Omicron variant so far and 12 of them have been discharged so far. The city's first Omicron case -- a 37-year-old man from Ranchi -- was detected on December 5. He has been discharged.

The national capital on Monday reported 91 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths, while the positivity rate increased to 0.20 per cent. The city recorded 85 Covid cases on Thursday with a positivity rate of 0.15 per cent.

On Sunday, the daily rise in cases was 107, the highest single-day rise since June 27, with a positivity rate of 0.17 per cent while one death was also recorded, according to official data.

There are two genome sequencing laboratories, one each at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and Loknayak Jaiprakash (LNJP) Hospital, which are being run under the Delhi government.

"We can handle 1,000 samples per week. Though the daily cases have increased in the last couple of days, only about the capacity of 500 samples per week is being used. So, at present, we have sufficient capacity. As the need arises, we will double it," a source told PTI.

Sources at LNJP Hospital said the genome sequencing laboratory there was capable of handling a greater number of Covid samples now.

In June, Kejriwal had announced that two genome sequencing laboratories to identify variants of will come up at the LNJP Hospital and the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.

Setting up of these laboratories were part of the Delhi government's preparations to tackle a possible third wave of coronavirus.

The facility at ILBS is equipped with the latest machines called NextSeq and MiSeq which can sequence the whole virus to the tune of 400 sequences per week, officials had said earlier this month.

The Delhi government had recently also approved a new machine for ILBS, the NovaSeq, which will allow the processing of viral sequences up to 3,000 every week.

Amid a jump in cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus reported in Delhi, doctors have warned that people should avoid all kinds of gatherings as this is a highly transmissible variant, and follow Covid-appropriate behaviours, else the situation may worsen.

According to experts, Omicron is far more transmissible than the Delta variant. Cases of the latest variant of coronavirus are likely to mount in the coming days, they said given the pattern of rise in cases in a few of the major cities in South Africa.

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is tightening travel restrictions for people coming from Britain in response to the rapid spread of the variant there.

The country's national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, added Britain to its list of virus variant areas late Saturday. This means anyone traveling from the to must enter a mandatory quarantine for 14 days, regardless of their vaccination status.

The new restrictions, which take effect at midnight Sunday, come as the is reporting record-high numbers of new infections.

On Saturday, Britain saw 90,418 new COVID-19 cases, on Sunday it reported 82,886 more cases.

The joins eight African countries, including South Africa, on Germany's list of virus variant areas.

The Robert Koch Institute's announcement comes in the wake of tightened restrictions for other countries across Europe as the continent faces a fourth wave of infections.

Starting Sunday, considers France and Denmark high risk areas, meaning those who are not vaccinated or recovered from the virus must quarantine for 10 days after entering the country. Dozens of countries, including nearly all of Germany's direct neighbours, have now been added to this category.

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Opposition parties have decided not to attend meeting called by the government to end the deadlock in in the ongoing of Parliament.

The decision was made after a meeting of opposition parties this morning.

"We will not attend the meeting called by the Government. We will demand the resignation of MoS Home Ajay Kumar Misra and revocation of suspension of 12 Opposition MPs in We will not let both Houses of Parliament function," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

Today's meeting of floor leaders of both Houses of Parliament was convened to chalk out the further strategy on revoking suspension of 12 Opposition MPs and demand for resignation of Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri issue.

The Opposition leaders also discussed the invitation of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday questioned the Centre's move to call only four parties whose members in the have been suspended instead of all Opposition parties.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned on Friday with an announcement from the Chair to meet at 11 am on Monday, citing a decision taken in a meeting held earlier in the day with the government and opposition leaders.

A meeting was held earlier on Friday to find a solution regarding the uproar created in the House by the Opposition parties in previous days.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu made the announcement soon after the House assembled for the day at 11 am and papers were laid on the table as well as government mentioned the business for next week.

Naidu said it was discussed in the meeting to find a solution to the issue being raised by the Opposition parties and maintain peace and smooth functioning during House proceedings.Subsequently, the Rajya Sabha Chairman adjourned the House till 11 am on Monday (December 20).

In previous days the House faced disruption on various issues, especially over the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs.

In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government.

The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021.

The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI.

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Residents of many cities in & faced shut down on second consecutive day, as Development Department (PDD) employees continued their strike against the proposed privatisation of electricity in the Union Territory.

The PDD employees have been on strike since Sunday against the J&K administration decision to privatise the department and merge it with the Grid Corporation of India.

University has postponed offline and online examination for undergraduate and postgraduate students tomorrow in view of the strike.

The PDD employees held anti-government protests in Srinagar and demanding in writing from the Lieutenant Governor that it has shelved the proposal of privatisation.

According to sources, while the administration parleyed with the PDD employees, it also visited several power distribution facilities in Jammu to speed up restoration of electric supply.

The administration in its talks with the employees was represented by divisional commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langar and additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Mukesh Singh.

The deadlock between the two bodies has put thousands of J&K residents in extreme hardship amid bone-chilling winter, while hundreds of COVID-19 patients are struggling to keep their oxygen concentrators on.

The government has made an appeal to employees to call off their strike and has offered to put on hold its privatisation plan, but employees are insisting on a written assurance.

Talking to reporters here, a spokesman of protesting employees said the employees are ready to call off strike provided government gives them in writing assurance for their four core demands, particularly regarding privatisation and release of their salaries.

Over 20,000 employees of the PDD are on an indefinite strike.

Most of the 20 districts of Jammu and are facing power breakdown since Sunday while it has been restored in some areas in Jammu and Srinagar and also in few other districts, the sources said.

On Sunday, Langer wrote to the department of military affairs, ministry of defence, requesting for the assistance of the army in the restoration of the essential services.

Since then the army has been deployed to restore essential services, officials said.

The deployment was made following a requisition by the administration to the army, the officials said.

The army acted swiftly and deployed its troops at critical electricity stations and water supply sources to restore power supply, officials said.

Langar on Sunday said the government has already acceded to all demands of the striking employees, including the proposed joint venture between the Jammu and Power Transmission Corporation Limited and the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

He also described the power reforms as "inevitable".

There have been few rounds of talks already at various levels with the PDD employees the power sector reforms are inevitable and the government of India has clearly told us to ensure that the reformation is seen through, Langer said.

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Even as the highly transmissible variant has been "raging" through the US and the world, it is likely to put strain on the hospital system in the country in the coming weeks, warned President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"The one thing that's very clear, and there's no doubt about this, is its extraordinary capability of spreading," Fauci was quoted as saying on NBC News, referring to the variant.

"It is just raging through the world, really." He said is likely to overtake the Delta variant in the US.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Omicron has been detected in 89 countries. It is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant, the agency said, including in countries with high levels of population immunity. The variant already accounts for the majority of cases in the UK.

"Our hospitals, if things look like they're looking now, in the next week or two, are going to be very stressed with people," Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was quoted as saying to ABC news on Sunday.

"We have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated. And that's going to be a real problem for stress on the hospital system," he warned.

The warning comes as Covid-19 infections in America have spiked over the past week: both New York State and the District of Columbia have reported successive days of record cases. The risk of infection is particularly high for those among Americans who are either unvaccinated or did not receive a booster shot.

Further, according to early data, the Omicron variant might cause less severe disease than Delta. However, public health and infectious disease experts caution that it is too early to tell, because hospitalisations in the UK and South Africa -- with high Omicron cases -- continue to rise. Thus, the WHO has also noted that the variant could surge hospital admissions even if it is less severe.

"When you have so many, many infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight to moderate diminution in severity," Dr. Fauci said.

Yet Fauci said that he didn't anticipate the US moving toward broad shutdowns.

"I don't foresee the kind of lockdowns that we've seen before, but I certainly see the potential for stress on our hospital system," he said.

White House officials have so far ruled out any new travel restrictions, though the US does now require a Covid test within one day of travelling to America. Fauci also urged Americans to be "prudent" with their holiday plans and to "wear masks in airports and on planes".

According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country is now averaging more than 125,000 new Covid-19 cases a day. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 50,846,828 and 806,439, according to Johns Hopkins University.

--IANS

rvt/dpb

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Russian President on Monday held a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister and exchanged views on the situation in the "Asia-Pacific" region, a Russian official said.

Russia often refers to the Indo-Pacific region as Asia-Pacific.

The official said the two leaders also discussed practical aspects of implementing the agreements finalised during Putin's visit to India on December 6.

" warmly thanked for the hospitality extended to the Russian delegation during the high-level visit to New Delhi on December 6," the Russian official said.

"They discussed practical aspects of implementing the agreements reached at the talks and expressed mutual intent for the further multifaceted development of relations of the special and privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India," he said.

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Senior diplomat Pradeep Kumar Rawat was on Monday appointed as India's next to China.

An Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1990 batch, Rawat is currently serving as Indian envoy to the Netherlands.

"He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a brief statement.

Rawat will succeed Vikram Misri.

Rawat's appointment comes in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff.

He had earlier served in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Rawat served as of India to Indonesia and Timor-Leste from September 2017-December 2020. He speaks fluent Mandarin.

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The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 12 more and seized two fishing trawlers for allegedly poaching in the country's territorial waters, taking the number of Indians apprehended in the last two days to 55, an official statement said on Monday.

The arrests were made in seas South of Mannar in the Sri Lankan waters on Sunday.

It comes a day after the Navy arrested 43 and seized six fishing trawlers in seas Southeast of the Delft Island in Jaffna.

As part of the Navy's effort to prevent poaching by Indian fishing trawlers in Sri Lankan territorial waters, the Navy managed to take hold of 8 Indian fishing trawlers and 55 during operations conducted by the Northern and North Central Naval Commands on 18th and 19th December, the Navy said in a statement.

The operations were carried out adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

Arrangements are being made to hand them over to relevant authorities for legal action after Rapid Antigen Tests of the apprehended Indian fishermen, the statement said.

Fishermen from both countries are arrested frequently for inadvertently trespassing into each other's waters. The fishermen issue has become a major irritant in bilateral ties.

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The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has approved the extension of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin's shelf life up to 12 months from the date of manufacture, the vaccine-maker said.

This approval of shelf life extension is based on the availability of additional stability data, which was submitted to CDSCO. With the shelf life extension, hospitals can now utilise the stock to avoid vaccine wastage, a press release said.

Covaxin is approved for use under the 28-day multi-dose vial policy from Drug Controller General of India and the WHO Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL).

Covaxin Open Vial is stable at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for 28 days and not required to be discarded immediately in a day or at the end of immunisation session.

Bharat Biotech said it believes in doing a bit for the environment. The multi-dose vial policy saves money for procurement agencies by reducing the cold chain logistics and management thereby reducing the carbon footprint, costs related to open vial wastage, cold chain distribution, cold chain storage and biomedical waste disposal among others.

Most importantly, we believe in being environmentally friendly by reducing the quantum of packing materials and single-use plastics that are utilised in vaccines manufacturing, storage, distribution and disposal, the company said.

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A 27-year-old woman with a travel history to the UK was found infected with the Omicron variant of in Gujarat's Vadodara on Monday, officials said, adding that the patient is asymptomatic.

This is the third Omicron case in Vadodara and the 12th in Gujarat.

The woman had returned from the UK on December 13 via Mumbai. She had tested negative for at both the airports, a health department official said.

Later, she complained of fever and gave samples for COVID-19 test, reports of which confirmed the infection, the official said.

Her sample was later sent for genome sequencing. The test report on Monday confirmed that she was infected with the Omicron strain, he said.

The only two close contacts of the woman have tested negative for coronavirus.

The woman patient is asymptomatic and currently, in isolation at a private hospital, the official added.

Earlier, a couple, who had returned to Vadodara from Zambia, had tested positive for the Omicron variant.

Apart from Vadodara, Omicron cases were reported from Surat, Jamnagar, Anand, Gandhinagar, and Mehsana districts.

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Manila-headquartered multilateral lending agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a USD 112-million loan to establish a skill in Assam.

"The Government of India and the signed on December 17 a USD 112-million loan to set up a skill in Assam that will strengthen industry-aligned and flexible skills education and training system in the state," it said in a statement.

Rajat Kumar Mishra, additional secretary in the Ministry of Finance, signed for Government of India the agreement for the Assam Skill (ASU) Project, while Takeo Konishi, country director of ADB's India Resident Mission, signed for

The project will support the design and construction of environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient ASU campus and facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, said. It will also develop the ASU's management and operating systems, business models, and promote professional development of faculty members.

Partnerships with leading institutional and industry partners will ensure designing of industry-aligned and flexible skills education and training programmes.

These will include cutting-edge digital skills programmes, career development programmes and services, and continuing education programmes, ADB said.

"The project will enhance collaboration between the ASU and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and higher education institutions within the state and in neighboring countries to establish programs for common strategic industries," it said.

Courses offered would include agricultural and food technology, manufacturing and construction, mobility, management and finance, tourism, hospitality and healthcare.

ADB also said the loan is supplemented by a USD 1 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to support introduction of technologies for smart campus management and integrated teaching, learning, and career development management.

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Prime Minister on Monday assured India Inc that the government would focus on reducing the compliance burden while exhorting the top companies to make full use of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

During the pre-Budget deliberations with corporate leaders, he said the government is fully committed to taking initiatives with a view to give impetus to the economic progress of the country.

This was the second such interaction of the prime minister with industry representatives in the run-up to the next Union Budget, according to an official statement released after the meeting.

Last week, he had met with leading private equity/ venture capital players to seek suggestions on making India a more attractive investment destination.

Stressing on the inherent strength of the country, displayed during the battle against COVID-19, he said, "Just like the country aspires for a podium finish at the Olympics, the country also wants to see our industries among the top five of the world in every sector, and this is something for which we should collectively work towards." He thanked the industry leaders for their inputs and suggestions, and exhorted them to make full use of policies like PLI incentives.

The government has come out with the PLI scheme to spur manufacturing in various sectors and also promote exports.

The prime minister said the corporate sector should invest more in areas like agriculture and food processing, and talk about the shifting focus on natural farming.

He also spoke about the focus of the government towards reducing the compliance burden, and sought suggestions on areas where undue compliances need to be removed.

The industry representatives gave their feedback to the prime minister and also expressed their commitment towards contributing to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision of the prime minister.

They said that due to his leadership, the economy of the country is moving ahead on the path of recovery after COVID-19, through his timely interventions and transformative reforms.

Heads of corporates also spoke about steps that can be taken to further boost the ease of doing business in the country.

They also talked about India's commitments at COP26 and how the industry could contribute towards achieving the goals outlined, it said.

T V Narendran of Tata Steel said the government's timely response has led to a V-shaped recovery after COVID-19 while Sanjeev Puri of ITC gave suggestions to further boost the food processing industry.

This is one of the many interactions being done by the prime minister ahead of the budget to receive inputs and suggestions from the private sector.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is due to present on February 1 the Budget for the next fiscal year that starts on April 1, 2022.

Since coming to power in 2014, the BJP government has unveiled a series of reforms that have helped India climb on the global ease of doing business ranking.

It is now pushing for making India a manufacturing hub. Production-linked incentive schemes for sectors from automobiles to semiconductors and solar have been announced to attract global manufacturers to set up a base in the country.

Emerging from the meeting, TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said, "What's most important is his (prime minister) focus on research innovation, his belief in the capacity that India has to step way beyond where we are." Gopinathan further said the prime minister has laid out a clear vision statement saying that in every sector in every industry, India should be among the top five globally.

Manu Kapoor of Samsung India said the prime minister has come out with a lot of decisions on PLIs to support manufacturing and exports.

Time has come for Indian business and Indian industry, India's banking and financial sector to think about scale without fear, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak said.

"I am enthused about the potential of India, and Indian banking and finance are out there ready to support industry across, sustainability inclusion digital and infrastructure," Kotak said.

Mallika Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of Tractors and Farm Equipments Ltd, said the whole interaction today was about how to take India forward.

Observing that the prime minister has a grand vision and ambitions for India, Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said the industry is fully committed to contributing to his grand vision by making India a manufacturing hub.

After the interaction, Sumant Sinha, chairman and MD of ReNew Power, said the meeting was interesting, positive and encouraging.

"He heard us for almost two hours, about all issues and problems and also the opportunities that corporates like us talked about in our respective sector," Sinha said.

OYO Chief Executive Officer Ritesh Agarwal said that under the leadership of Modi, the number of unicorns has surged from just 11 in 2016 to 79 at present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Nidhi Verma and Florence Tan

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - has extended oil supply contracts for Indian refiners by three months to March 2022 due to a delay in the commissioning of its 615,000 barrel-per-day Al-Zour refinery, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

This year, had shortened an annual oil supply deal with Indian refiners to 9 months ending in December.

Petroleum Corp has told buyers in India that their contracts would be extended to March 2022, sources said.

The sources did not elaborate on when the new Kuwaiti refinery would begin operating. KPC did not respond to a request for comment.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, imported about 382,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil from Kuwait in November, the highest since March 2015, trade data showed.

From March to November 2021, India's imports of oil from Kuwait rose by about 45% to 253,000 bpd compared with the same period a year ago, the data showed.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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At least 82 per cent consumers consider it would be somewhat or extremely inconvenient for them to re-enter all their details for every card-based online payment, said a nationwide survey on popular opinion conducted in view of the central banks new security guidelines.

The Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) survey found consumers think they are likely to face several risks, if they re-enter all their details for card-based This included risk of transaction failure due to entering incorrect card details for every transaction (44 per cent), and risk of exposing their confidential card-details to third persons while making payments in public (42 per cent).

The online survey--conducted among 1,100 respondents--found fears of risks is likely to make 28 per cent of consumers shift to paying cash on delivery.

The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) circular on "Card Transactions: Permitting Card-on-File Tokenisation (CoFT) Services" (tokenisation), dated September 7, 2021, read with the Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators (PA)and Payment Gateways (PG), bars merchants from storing consumers card details from January 1, 2022. It instead permits CoFT, and directs merchants to purge the card details currently stored with them by this date.

The survey found that consumers are more likely to store their card details with merchants they transact with frequently. It showed that consumers are aware of possible risks involved in storing their card details with online service providers.

As many as 57 per cent consumers said they trusted different stakeholders of card-based online payments, and they stored their card details online despite the risks. Other notable reasons for storing card details online included convenience (58 per cent), and benefits in the form of cashbacks/rewards (57 per cent).

This highlights strong consumer preference towards storing card-details online, along with the extent of adverse impact of lack of timely operationalisation of tokenisation.

At a webinar held by CUTS to discuss the CoFT deadline on Friday, Aruna Sharma, Former Member, Digitisation Committee voiced her support for RBIs move to permit tokenisation. However, she also cautioned against the stringent deadline of 31 December 2021, making it less than four months for operationalising the new paradigm. She further said that consumers may be forced to re-enter all their card details for making each card- based online payment, in case CoFT was not implemented by the deadline for merchants on purging stored card details.

Other experts in the webinar also said that if CoFT is not implemented by this deadline, it will force consumers to re-enter all their card details (card number, expiry date, name on card) for making each card-based

"In light of these findings, it is recommended that avoids inflicting a double blow to digital payments. Consumers have already experienced adverse consequences of lack of timely implementation of RBIs circular on Framework for processing of e-mandates for recurring online transactions. A similar fate awaits them, in case tokenisation is not implemented by the deadline," CUTS said in a statement.

However, given that the has only set a functional deadline for merchants to purge the stored card details, while not fixing a technical deadline for card issuers and card networks for enabling tokenisation, timely implementation appears to be unlikely.

There is merit in adopting a tiered approach in fixing deadlines, one for operationalising tokenisation, and a subsequent one for purging card details, said CUTS.
In the last six months, has seen a rush of investment proposals from the reminiscent of the boom during 2004-2006 as companies push the growth pedal.

has approved proposals adding up to 65.48 million tonne (mt) in the last six months and over a two-year timeframe it stands at 74.84 mt, according to Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of (IPICOL), the single point of contact for all industrial investments in the state.

The proposals are a mix of brownfield and greenfield projects. Among the major greenfield projects is ArcelorMittal Nippon Steels proposed 24 mt plant while brownfield expansion includes those of Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), JSWs Bhushan Power & Steel,

Bhupendra Singh Poonia, managing director, IPICOL, said, in the last six months, Odisha has received proposals of Rs 2.48 trillion from the and in the last 2 years, Rs 3.49 trillion.

Our target is to achieve more than 100 mt by 2030 and we anticipate that we will be able to meet it, he said. Currently, Odisha has a steel capacity of 32.45 mt.

Explaining why the state has been able to attract sizable investment in the sector, Poonia said, We have a natural advantage. Odisha has one-fourth of iron ore reserves, one fourth of coal reserves and more than 50 per cent of bauxite reserves and almost the entire chromite.

A slew of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed between 2004 and 2006 for greenfield projects adding up to 150 mt across Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. But the top steel producers appear to be expanding in Odisha in a major way this time around.

Factors in favour

Isha Chaudhary, director, CRISIL Research, pointed out that Odisha has 45-48 per cent of Indias iron ore reserves of higher grade (more than 62 per cent Fe) which is typically used by Indian steelmakers.

Thereby, in order to gain raw material security, we have seen Odisha to be a popular choice for expansion plans. JSW Steel, AMNS, JSPL and many more companies have already announced expansions in the state. Also, the recent auctions that have taken place in Odisha have been bagged by several large steelmakers, she added.

Major steel producers have bagged mines in Odisha since 2020. ArcelorMittal India Private Ltd (AMIPL) bagged an iron ore mine early 2020 while JSW Steel bagged mines with reserves of more than a billion tonnes. In the recent auctions, and JSPL bagged mines.

Plus, there are other advantages at play here. Raw material security, access to port, slurry pipe infrastructure are the advantages the state offers. Ease of business has also improved with the government focus on promoting investments in the state, said Chaudhary.

Key challenges

During the last steel boom, major steel projects had tripped on land and mines. The mine allocation policy has changed since from a nomination basis to auctions, de-risking the business model to an extent.

But land may still be a challenge, especially as far as greenfield projects are concerned. Poonia, however, pointed out that technology had reduced the land requirement for projects to a great extent.

He also said that the land acquisition act and the rehabilitation and resettlement policy followed by Odisha is one of the best in the country.

The government was acquiring land under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 during 2004-2006. But for private land, it is now following the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013.

But there are rumblings still at the local level for some projects. Commissioning of greenfield plants by 2030 will be a key monitorable as there are multiple challenges faced including land acquisition, lengthy approvals, higher capex costs, said Chaudhary.

Jayanta Roy, senior vice president, ICRA, also identified land and international funding for steel projects with high carbon footprint as possible challenges.

Many leading steel producers as well as several medium to small sized players are considering their capacity expansion plans now, encouraged by favourable metal prices, rising utilisation levels of existing capacities and healthier financial position, said Roy.

However, the players need to be mindful of technology and processes to be used, given the focus of various stakeholders on environmental concerns, and the fact that the has a large carbon footprint globally, he pointed out.




Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved setting up of Delhi Teachers' University, Chief Minister announced.

The university will offer a four-year integrated teacher programme after Class 12, in which BA and BEd, BSc and Bed, and BCom and BEd courses will be incorporated.

The cabinet approved the proposal today and bill in this regard will be brought in the next session of Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal said at a press conference.

While pursuing the course, those enrolled in the university will be attached to schools for training purposes.

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The (SP) will field a maximum number of Brahmin candidates in the upcoming in

Senior Samajwadi leader and former Speaker, Mata Prasad Pandey, said that SP president Akhilesh Yadav would field maximum Brahmin candidates, particularly in eastern UP, to ensure return to power.

Pandey was speaking at a Brahmin summit organised by the party in Katheri constituency in Ambedkar Nagar on Sunday.

"Brahmins have been persecuted by the current BJP government and the anger in the community is palpable. Brahmins, who constitute 13 per cent of the population, will get a lion's share of tickets this time and we will tap this simmering angst to notch up a poll victory," he told reporters.

He said that Brahmins are self-reliant and do not seek benefits from the government. All they want is respect and dignity, he added.

Most Brahmin leaders from 20 UP districts who participated in the conclave endorsed the former Speaker's views and held up the battle axe of Lord Parshuram to announce a "dharm yudh" against the anti-people policies of the BJP government.

SP vice president Jai Shankar Pandey while avoiding a query on whether the was trying to replicate Mayawati's social engineering formula, said, "Each district will have one or two Brahmins in the fray on a ticket."

The Brahmin meet at Katehri, coincided with 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' flagged off by BJP national president J.P. Nadda in Akbarpur, headquarter of Ambedkar Nagar district.

Brahmin icon Parshuram's battle axe motif along with conch shells were distributed to all.

Ashish Pandey Dipu, organiser of Brahmin conclave, said, "We distributed battle axes and conche shells, which symbolise Brahmin pride.

--IANS

amita/dpb

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Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, Chief Minister will distribute free smartphones and tablets to about one crore final year students in the state.

The first phase of the scheme will roll out on December 25, which marks the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

On that day, one lakh smartphones and tablets will be given to final year students at Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, said an official statement issued here on Monday.

The announcement comes days after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a veiled dig at Adityanath, accused the chief minister of not knowing how to use a laptop.

The statement said a large number of students, including girls, from every district of the state will participate in the programme on December 25.

Adityanath will distribute 60,000 smartphones and 40,000 tablets to the youths at the event, it said.

According to the statement, free smartphones and tablets will be given to about one crore students to make them technically sound.

Final year students of MA, BA, BSc, ITI, MBBS, MD, BTech, and MTech, among others, will be given preference, it added.

Special Secretary, IT and Electronics Department, Kumar Vineet said, "More than 38 lakh youths have registered themselves on the Digi Shakti Portal. Further registration is going on."



Orders have been issued by the government to companies like Lava, Samsung and Acer for the supply of smartphones and tablets. The companies will provide them before December 24, the statement said.

In the first phase, an order of about Rs 2,035 crore has been issued for the purchase of smartphones and tablets. Orders have been placed for 10.50 lakh smartphones at the rate of Rs 10,740 per smartphone and for 7.20 lakh tablets at the rate of Rs 12,606 per tablet, it said.

Addressing a public meeting in Rae Bareli on Friday, Akhilesh Yadav had said, "Even people in the villages have started using mobile phones and they know how to use them. But our Baba chief minister does not know how to operate them. Since he does not know how to use a laptop, he is not distributing laptops to youths. The laptops that were distributed during the SP regime are still working today.

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Despite the US dollar depreciating against the afghani, Afghanistan's national currency, the prices of essential items like food and fuel still remained high.

The US dollar depreciated to 98 afghanis on Sunday, from 130 afghanis days ago, reports Xinhua news agency.

"I face a lot of problems at home, but when I visit local bazaars I face much bigger problems including the high price of basic goods and foodstuff. The price of essential goods is doubled in comparison with a month ago," Sayyed Mohammad, a resident from northern Jawzjan province, told Xinhua.

He said the prices of goods skyrocketed following a sharp decline of afghani value early this week.

"The rate of foreign currencies has dropped in recent days, but the price of food, gas and fuel as well as car rent did not drop so far."

Since the takeover of in August and the formation of the Taliban-led caretaker government in September, the country has faced economic problems.

Basic services in are collapsing while food and other life-saving aid are about to run out.

The situation worsened following the freezing of over $9 billion of Da Bank (DAB), the country's central bank, assets by the US as well as a halt of funds by the World Bank and the Monetary Fund (IMF).

"We are facing a major economic crisis and the reason behind the crisis is the freeze of Afghanistan's assets by the United States, I came to Kabul to withdraw my savings from a private bank after I failed to get money in my hometown, however, I failed to collect money despite wasting time and waiting for days," Mohammad said.

"If the US does not return our assets, Afghans will face a humanitarian catastrophe soon," he said.

The caretaker government has repeatedly called upon the US to unfreeze assets with aid agencies warning of acute food shortages for more than 22 million Afghans in the coming winter.

"I have been trying to get my salary for two weeks after a government announcement. There is uncertainty in banks around the country, we cannot get our savings or salaries from our own accounts," Mohammad Sharif, a civil servant, said.

The majority of some 400,000 state employees have only received wages of two months since July. The government has announced that civil servant can receive their salaries, however, problems and crises in the banks remained a hurdle for servants to get salary on time, according to Sharif.

"The government is facing a financial crisis amid a decline in revenue and it is still unable to pay the salaries of the several remaining months. On one side, business owners have increased the prices of their goods because the foreign currencies are rising quickly. On the other side, most Afghans have so little in their wallets to buy food and firewood as the winter is coming," he said.

The recent crisis has forced many Afghans to flee the country, but the officials have been trying to convince the people to stay, promising them that the challenges will be solved in near future.

"Unfortunately, the Afghan citizens no longer have enough money to buy goods, everyone is suffering a stifling economic crisis," said Salim Khan, a Kabul resident.

--IANS

ksk/

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European stock index futures fell 2% on Monday amid a global sell-off in equities as investors fretted over rapidly rising COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant and the impact of tighter pandemic-related curbs on the global economy.

Futures tracking Europe's top 50 firms slumped 2.5%, with 29,149 contracts changing hands by 0708 GMT.

Among regional markets, UK's FTSE futures dropped 1.8%, while German DAX futures lost 2.5%. Elsewhere, Asian shares fell to one-year lows and oil prices slid more than 3%.

The Netherlands imposed a lockdown on Sunday, while the prospect of tighter COVID-19 measures ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays looms large over several European countries amid the swift spread of the Omicron variant.

Meanwhile, futures tracking the U.S. stocks benchmark S&P 500 fell 1.3% after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden's hopes of passing a $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, said on Sunday he would not support the package.

Goldman Sachs cut U.S. real GDP forecast for the first quarter of 2022 to 2% versus 3% previously, and marginally reduced forecasts for the second and third quarters.

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In video reviews of the latest drone models to his 80,000 YouTube subscribers, Indiana college student Carson Miller doesnt seem like an unwitting tool of Chinese spies.



Yet thats how the US is increasingly viewing him and thousands of other Americans who purchase built by Shenzhen-based SZ DJI Technology Co, the worlds top producer of unmanned aerial vehicles. Miller, who bought his first DJI model in 2016 for $500 and now owns six of them, shows why the company controls more than half of the US drone market.

If tomorrow DJI were completely banned, the 21-year-old said, I would be pretty frightened.

Critics of DJI warn the drone maker may be channelling reams of sensitive data to Chinese intelligence agencies on everything from critical infrastructure like bridges and dams to personal information such as heart rates and facial recognition. But to Miller, consumers face plenty of bigger threats to the privacy of their data. There are apps that track you on your smartphone 24/7, he said.

That attitude is a problem for American officials who are seeking to end DJIs dominance in the US. Earlier this week, the Biden administration blocked American investment in the company, a year after President Donald Trump prohibited it from sourcing US parts. Now, lawmakers from both parties are weighing a bill that would ban federal purchases of DJI drones, while a member of the Federal Communications Commission wants its products taken off the market in the US altogether.



In many ways, DJI has become the poster child of a much wider national security threat: The Chinese governments ability to obtain sensitive data on millions of Americans. In recent weeks, former top officials in both the Obama and Trump administrations have warned that Beijing could be scooping up personal information on the citizens of rival nations, while walling off data on Chinas 1.4 billion people.

Each new piece of information, by itself, is relatively unimportant, Oona Hathaway, a professor at Yale Law School who served in the Pentagon under President Barack Obama, wrote in Foreign Affairs, referring to surveillance and monitoring technologies. But combined, the pieces can give foreign adversaries unprecedented insight into the personal lives of most Americans.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been far ahead of the West in realising the importance of data in gaining both an economic and military advantage, according to Matt Pottinger, a former deputy national security adviser in the Trump Administration. If Washington and its allies dont organize a strong response, Mr Xi will succeed in commanding the heights of future global power, he wrote in a co-authored New York Times op-ed last month.

The data battle strikes at the heart of the US- strategic competition, and has the potential to reshape the world over the coming decades  particularly as everything from cars to yoga mats to toilets are now transmitting data. Harnessing that information is both key to dominating technologies like artificial intelligence that will drive the modern economy, and crucial for exploiting weaknesses in strategic foes.

Concerns related to data security will be a defining issue for the next decade as technological advances lead to explosive demand for ever more bits of information, according to Paul Triolo, a former US government official who specialises in global technology policy at risk consultancy Eurasia Group. The result, he added, is likely an almost complete bifurcation of the internet, reflecting the values of competing political systems.

The democratic and authoritarian digital worlds will be built on largely different hardware, with different standards, and limited points of connection, Triolo said. This will drive up costs for businesses operating across these two spheres, reduce innovation, and lead to geopolitical tensions, reduced trade, and a much more complex world for companies to operate within. Other countries will be forced to choose sides in this divide, and this will be painful and costly.

Already, data security concerns are starting to balkanise manufacturing supply chains and financial markets amid fears that governments will weaponize information gleaned from smartphone apps, medical devices and consumer products like Policy makers in both the US and are rushing to implement more measures to protect their citizens data.

Beijing has acted more swiftly, passing laws aimed at preventing user data from seeping into the wrong hands while strengthening the governments ability to control information held by private firms, part of a wider crackdown on its biggest tech companies.
Hitting back at Prime Minister Imran Khan over his recent remarks on and IS threats originating from the country, former Afghan President has said that Islamabad must not interfere in Kabul's affairs, reported local media.

During the Organisation of Islamic Council's meeting on Sunday, Khan had said that faced attacks from Afghanistan's border in which the IS was said to be involved.

"These remarks are not true and are obvious propaganda against In fact, from the beginning, has been facing Daesh's threat from Pakistan," TOLOnews quoted Karzai as saying in a statement.

Emphasising that the government should not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, Karzai said that Islamabad should avoid speaking on behalf of Afghanistan in forums.

On Sunday, Khan also said that people in Afghanistan faced widespread poverty due to years of corruption in the Afghan government. He also referred to previous governments in Afghanistan.

Such remarks insult the people of Afghanistan, said Karzai-- who has served two times as president of the country -- in a clear warning to Islamabad that it must stop talking on behalf of Kabul at gatherings held at global levels.

(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.)
Israel's prime minister on Sunday called on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus as the new variant showed signs of spreading, while health authorities prepared to expand a travel ban to include the United States.

In a prime-time televised address, Naftali Bennett said the number of cases of the new variant remains relatively low in part thanks to earlier moves to ban most foreigners from entering the country. But he said it was just a matter of time before the numbers begin to rise.

The fifth wave has begun, he said.

Bennett said it was especially critical for parents to get their children vaccinated. last month began offering vaccines to younger children between the ages of 5 and 12, but authorities say the vaccination rate in that age group remains disappointingly low.

The children's vaccine is safe, and it is the responsibility of the parents," Bennett said.

A parent who has been vaccinated three times also needs to protect his children. Don't leave your children exposed and vulnerable to the coming omicron, he added.

Predicting a spike in cases in the coming weeks, he said the government is working on new safety recommendations. In the meantime, he urged people to social distance, wear masks and to work from home whenever possible. Before taking office in June, Bennett harshly criticised his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, for imposing painful lockdowns that hit the economy hard.

rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year, and more than 4.1 million of Israel's 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The country's health ministry has reported at least 134 confirmed cases of the variant since its emergence in late November. The Haaretz news site on Sunday said some 17 travelers with the coronavirus arrived on a single flight from Miami, most of them with the variant.

largely closed its borders last month after the emergence of omicron. Foreign nationals are not allowed to enter, and all Israelis arriving from overseas are required to quarantine including those vaccinated.

Israel has also declared dozens of countries with high coronavirus rates to be red, banning Israelis from traveling there. Health authorities recommended that the US and Canada be added to that list, with the decision expected to go into effect on Wednesday.

Israel has recorded at least 8,232 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

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A Japanese billionaire, his producer and a Russian cosmonaut departed the Station and headed back to Earth, wrapping up the first visit by self-paying tourists to the orbiting outpost in more than a decade.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin boarded the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which undocked from the station at 2350 GMT (5.20 am IST) Sunday.

They were set to land in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9.13 am (8.43 am IST) Monday about 150 kilometers southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.

Maezawa, 46, and his 36-year-old producer were the first self-paying tourists to visit the station since 2009.

Speaking to The Associated Press last week in a live interview from the orbiting space station, Maezawa said that "once you are in space, you realize how much it is worth it by having this amazing experience."



Asked about reports claiming that he paid over USD 80 million for a 12-day mission, Maezawa said he couldn't disclose the contract sum but admitted that he paid "pretty much" that amount.

In October, Russian actor Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko spent 12 days on the station to make the world's first movie in orbit, a project sponsored by Russia's space corporation Roscosmos to help burnish the nation's space glory.

Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japan's largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at USD 1.9 billion.

Staying behind at the station are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei; Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency.

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Moderna Inc said on Monday that a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be protective against the fast-spreading Omicron variant in laboratory testing and that the current version of the vaccine would continue to be Modernas "first line of defence against Omicron." The vaccine maker said the decision to focus on the current vaccine, mRNA-1273, was driven in part by how quickly the recently discovered variant is spreading.

"What we have available right now is 1273," Dr Paul Burton, Moderna's Chief Medical Officer, said in an interview. "It's highly effective, and it's extremely safe. I think it will protect people through the coming holiday period and through these winter months, when we're going to see the most severe pressure of Omicron."

The company said a two-dose course of its vaccine generated low neutralising antibodies against the Omicron variant, but a 50 microgram booster dose increased neutralising antibodies against the variant 37-fold. A higher, 100 microgram booster dose of the same vaccine drove antibody levels even higher - more than 80 times pre-boost levels.

Burton said it would be up to governments and regulators to gauge whether they want the enhanced level of protection that a 100 microgram dose might confer. The company said that the 100 microgram dose was generally safe and well tolerated, although there was a trend toward slightly more frequent adverse reactions.

In the light of continued uncertainty and increased death toll (Omicron deaths in UK reached 12), The World Economic Forum on Monday said it has decided to defer its Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos. The meet, scheduled for January 17-21, 2022, is now planned for early summer.

Vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are the two which are effective against Omicron. However, both have been linked to rare cases of heart inflammation. New Zealand authorities on Monday said they had linked a 26-year-old man's death to Pfizer vaccine after the person suffered myocarditis after taking his first dose.

Novavax receives EU regulator backing

The European Union's drug regulator on Monday approved use of the vaccine from US-based Novavax in people 18 years and older, paving the way for a fifth shot in the region as the Omicron spreads.

Data from two large studies showed the vaccine has an efficacy of around 90 per cent, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said, adding that there was currently limited data on its efficacy against concerning variants, including Omicron.

The company said on Monday it would start shipping vaccines to the EU's 27 member states in January.

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ZURICH (Reuters) - The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday postponed its annual meeting in due to the spread of the Omicron variant, putting off the event scheduled for January until mid-2022.

A month before world business and political leader were due to gather in the Swiss ski resort, its organisers said they had decided to postpone in light of continued uncertainty over Omicron, adding the event was now planned for "early summer".

Davos, which in the past has attracted around 3,000 business chiefs, political thinkers and state leaders, was deserted last year after the event was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Dating back to 1974, the private event has over the years entertained guests including former U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Irish rock star Bono.

"Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting. Preparations have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels," the Geneva-based WEF said on its website.

"Despite the meeting's stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary."

The cancellation is the second year in a row for after organisers shifted the annual meeting to Singapore in 2021, before abandoning it altogether.

Switzerland is tightening pandemic curbs while not opting, for now, to enforce a stricter limited lockdown.

Next year's meeting had been set to focus on accelerating stakeholder capitalism, harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and ensuring a more inclusive future of work, the WEF said in September.

Participants will now instead join a series of virtual "State of the World" sessions with global leaders, it said.

The population of the remote Alpine town of Davos swells from 10,000 to about 30,000 during the summit, where much of the action happens outside the conference at side meetings and networking events.

Founded by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab, the WEF meeting has in previous years served as a backdrop for political breakthroughs.

In 1989, North and South Korea held their first ministerial-level meetings in Davos, while at the same meeting, East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl met to discuss German reunification.

And South African President de Klerk met Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at Davos, their first joint appearance outside South Africa, in 1992.

(Reporting by Michael Shields and John Revill; Editing by Emma Farge, Alison Williams and Alexander Smith)

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Poles flocked to city centres across the country Sunday to defend a US-owned television network that is being targeted by the country's right-wing government and to protect in a European Union nation where democratic norms are eroding.

Among the protesters were older Poles who decades ago resisted the country's communist regime and who fear that the democracy that they helped usher in is now being lost.

Many Poles believe Poland's populist right-wing government is turning the country away from the West and adopting an authoritarian model closer to that of Turkey or Russia with attempts to exert political control over the courts and silence critical media.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition party, called on Poles to show solidarity and change their leadership.

"Let's sweep this power away!" Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and a former EU president, told the crowd in Warsaw.

The protests were called after the parliament on Friday unexpectedly passed a bill that would force Discovery Inc. to sell its controlling share of TVN, Poland's largest television network.

The lower house of parliament had voted for it in the summer but it was vetoed by the Senate. Without any notice, the parliament suddenly brought the bill back and the lower house overrode the Senate's veto.

The fate of the bill now lies with President Andrzej Duda. The main protest on Sunday took place in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw, with demonstrators demanding that Duda veto the bill.

Government leaders have defended the legislation by arguing that it is important for national security to ensure that no company outside of Europe can control companies that help form public opinion.

TVN operates an all-news channel TVN24 and its main channel, TVN, has a nightly evening news program viewed by millions that offers critical reporting of the government. Critics believe Poland's right-wing government is merely moving to silence an outlet that seeks to hold power to account.

A string of speakers on Sunday accused authorities of attacking Poland's democratic foundations, and the crowds chanted "Free media!"



Jaroslaw Kurski, deputy editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal newspaper that has uncovered a string of government scandals and been sued many times by government allies, accused the ruling party of seeking to silence the media in order to steal Poland's next elections, which are scheduled in 2023.

"The mafia has taken over the country. They want to master all elements of public life," Kurski said.

The United States, a close ally of Warsaw, had urged lawmakers not to pass the law. The US charge d'affaires, Bix Aliu, said the US was "extremely disappointed" by the passage of the bill and urged Duda "to use his leadership to protect free speech and business."



Duda, who is allied with the ruling party, in the summer indicated that he would not support it, but on Friday he said he still needed to analyze it.

TVN launched an online petition Sunday calling on Duda to veto the bill, which by the evening was signed by over 1.7 million people.

"The attack on has far-reaching consequences for the future of Poland," the appeal reads. "Mutual relations with the USA, the greatest ally and guarantor of our country's security, are being destroyed. We cannot allow it!"



Discovery also vowed in a statement to "relentlessly fight for our business.

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US Senator announced that she has tested positive for Covid-19 despite being administered a booster shot against the virus.

The Democratic Senator from Massachusetts tweeted that her regular test last week came back negative, but that on Sunday she "tested positive with a breakthrough case", reports Xinhua news agency.

Warren said she was only experiencing mild symptoms and felt "grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated and boosted".

It's not clear whether Warren has contracted the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which is driving Covid-19 flare-ups in the US.

The country's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned that Omicron is "going to take over" the US in the winter, urging Americans to get fully vaccinated and boosted.

UPresident Joe Biden is expected to deliver an Omicron-focused speech on Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the administration is "prepared for the rising case levels", and the President will detail how they will respond to the challenge.

--IANS

ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
TV has finally reached a deal with to restore ESPN, FX, and its other channels to the streaming service.

A while ago, banned ESPN, ABC and some other affiliated channels from being available on TV.

"We are pleased to announce that after a brief disruption, we have reached a new distribution agreement with Google's TV for continued carriage of our portfolio of networks," Disney said in a statement.

YouTube TV removed Disney's TV channels last Friday night, writing in a blog post that, "We have held good faith negotiations with Disney for several months. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to reach an equitable agreement before our existing one expired, and their channels are no longer available on YouTube TV."

Now, ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, National Geographic, FX and Freeform will return to the Google-owned OTT service, as well as other affiliated channels, including Disney XD and 2

YouTube TV said it would lower its price by $15 to $49.99 per month. It would return to its original $64.99-per-month service cost, but that it will "honor a one-time credit for all impacted members".

"For active members who have not yet received that $15 discount on their monthly bill, you will automatically receive a one-time credit on your next bill with no action needed," YouTube TV noted. "For members who were impacted and have initiated the cancellation process, we would love to welcome you back."

--IANS

wh/dpb

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Ahead of the Union Budget, stock brokers' association Anmi has urged the government to prescribe a time limit on for issuance of show-cause notices and cut down minimum fine on small investors to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 5 lakh at present for market violation rules.

At present, the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 does not prescribe any period of limitation for issuance of a show-cause notice (SCN) or for completion of the adjudication proceeding.

This results into several proceedings being initiated by the regulator several years after the alleged violation resulting into unnecessary hardship and grave prejudice to market participants and affects their ability to effectively respond to such notice, Anmi said in a statement on Monday.

In pre-budget proposals for 2022-23, the Association of National Exchanges of Members of India (Anmi) on the behalf of its 900 stock brokers,



said that time limitation should be imposed upon in terms of the outer limit for issuance of show-cause notice.

"Such time limitation being imposed would greatly improve the efficiency of the securities market regulator," it added.

Also, the brokers' association asked the government to bring down the minimum penalty of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 1 lakh for small investors.

"There is no discretion with the adjudicating officer to apply his mind or consider the gravity or the seriousness of the offence and small investors are suffering on account of minimum penalty of Rs 5 lakh levied even for petty offence," it added.

Under the rules, any person indulges in fraudulent and unfair trade practices relating to securities, he shall be liable to a penalty of Rs 25 crore or three times the amount of profits made out of such practices, whichever is higher subject to payment of minimum penalty of Rs 5 lakh.

In addition, stock have sought industry status for Sebi-registered market intermediaries and rationalisation in the goods and services tax (GST) rates for the broking industry.

The industry status for market intermediaries will remove unwarranted restrictions and cost of funding and raising capital requirements for market intermediaries.

It has also requested the government to do away with the concept of speculative income and limit income classification arising out of capital market transactions to business income, long-term capital gain, and short-term capital gain.

Further, the association has urged government to provide tax exemption up to Rs 1 lakh in short term capital gain tax as well as provide tax exemption to senior citizens for dividend earned up to Rs 50,000.

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To reign in rising food inflation, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has barred exchanges from launching new futures contracts in seven food items for one year with immediate effect.

The commodities are paddy (non-basmati), wheat, chana, mustard seeds and their derivatives, soybean and its derivatives, crude palm oil, and moong.

In one of the biggest crackdowns on commodity derivative futures since trading was opened in 2003, the regulator said that no new contracts will be allowed in the seven commodities. As to their running contracts, no new position will be allowed to be taken; only squaring off will be allowed.

In a related development, the Centre has extended the permission for free import of refined palm oil until December 31, 2022. Earlier, the provision was allowed until December 31, 2021.

Indias retail inflation rate rose to a three-month high of 4.91 per cent in November from 4.48 per cent in the previous month, driven largely by the rise in to 1.87 per cent from 0.85 per cent, despite the Centre and states reducing taxes on petrol and diesel.

Trade sources said that in the case of paddy (non-basmati), wheat and moong, though there were products available on the exchanges, they attracted very little volumes. As to mustard seed and chana, taking fresh positions had already been suspended in August.

The maximum impact of the decision is expected to be on the soybean complex and crude palm oil. The combined average daily turnover of refined soy oil, soybeans, rapeseed and chickpeas on the was 12.7 billion rupees ($167 million) so far in 2021, exchange data showed.

Crude palm oil clocked an average volume of around Rs 200 crore daily on the Multi Commodity Exchange.

At close on Monday, soybean seed January futures were 4 per cent down from the previous close at the NCDEX, while February futures were 2.36 per cent down from the previous close.

At close, soybean seed January futures were 4 per cent down from the previous close, while February futures were 2.36 per cent down from the previous close. In the case of soy oil, the January futures were 1.76 per cent down from the previous close, while February futures was up 0.09 per cent.

This seems to be a knee-jerk reaction by the government and driven solely by inflation concerns. The Centre has tried all sorts of measures to control edible oil prices including bringing duties to zero, and this (banning futures) seems to be the last bullet in their trigger, said Atul Chaturvedi, president of the Solvent Extractors Association of India, a body of oilseed extractors and refiners.

Chaturvedi said the ban is expected to be lifted by March when the next mustard crop starts hitting the market and prices cool down.

Monday's measure makes it tough for importers and traders of edible oils to do business as they extensively use domestic exchanges to hedge their risk, said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of edible oil broker and consultancy Sunvin Group, according to Reuters.

The poultry industry has been demanding a curb on futures trading in soy seed, along with an extension of the import deadline for soymeal, as it was hurting its margins. Soymeal is a key constituent of poultry feed meal and its rates are directly connected to soybean prices because seed has more than 80 per cent meal and 18 per cent oil content in them.

Production of soybean, according to the first advance estimate of the 2021-22 kharif crop released by the ministry, is expected to be 12.72 million tonnes - marginally lower than the 12.89 million tonnes produced last year.

For chana, wheat and mustard seed, production is still to be ascertained as the 2021-22 rabi sowing is still on.

But the latest data from the ministry showed that in the case of wheat, rabi crops have been sown in around 27.77 million hectares till December 17, which was just around 0.87 per cent less than last year, while chana has been sown in around 9.79 million hectares which has been 1.43 per cent more than the area covered during the same period last year.

The maximum area increase has been in mustard seed because farmers, encouraged by high prices, have sown mustard crops in around 8.42 million hectares until December 17  thats 24 per cent more than last year.

Trade sources said that if the weather remains benign in the coming weeks, India is on course to harvest a bumper 11 million tonnes of mustard in 2021-22, up from 8.5 million tonnes in 2020-21 year.
Shares of Future Group's listed companies rallied up to 20 per cent on the BSE in Monday's trade, in an otherwise weak market, after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday suspended Amazon's 2019 deal with (FRL). The antitrust watchdog also imposed Rs 200 crore penalty on the e-commerce major for certain contraventions. CLICK HERE FOR FULL ORDER



Among individual stocks, (Rs 57.50) and Future Supply Chain Solutions (Rs 80.75), Future Lifestyle Fashions (Rs 59.20), Future Enterprises (Rs 11.61) and Future Consumer (Rs 8.19) rallied 20 per cent each on the BSE in the intra-day trade. In comparison, the S&P BSE was down 1.5 per cent at 56,134 points at 09:28 AM. Despite today's surge, most of these stocks were down between 15 per cent and 35 per cent from their respective 52-week highs.

In its 57-page order, the competition watchdog said it considered necessary to examine the combination afresh, given that the two players were known in the online marketplace and offline retailing and had contemplated strategic alignment between their businesses.
The price of 10 gram of gold decreased by Rs 10 on Monday, with 24 carat gold trading at Rs 48,680 and 22 carat at Rs 47,680.

The price of 1 kg of silver remained unchanged and the precious metal is selling at Rs 62,200.

In Delhi, the price of 24-carat gold stands at Rs 52,200, while in Mumbai it is at Rs 48,680, according to the Goodreturns website.

The price of 10 gram of 22-carat gold in Delhi and Mumbai is at Rs 47,850 and Rs 47,680, respectively.

In Chennai, 10 gram of 24-carat gold is selling at Rs 50,120 on Monday, while 10 gram of 22-carat gold is selling at Rs 45,940.

In Kolkata, 24-carat gold is selling at Rs 50,550, while 22-carat gold's price is at Rs 47,850, as per the Goodreturns website.

The price of gold varies across the country due to excise duty, state taxes, and making charges.

In Chennai, the price of 1 kg of silver is at Rs 66,000, while in Delhi and Mumbai, the metal is selling at Rs 62,200.

Silver is selling at Rs 62,200 per kg in Kolkata and Bengaluru, while in Hyderabad, the metal is selling at Rs 66,000 a kg.
Citing the already stretched valuations of the domestic market, brokerage HDFC Securities is expecting the indices to make tepid gains in 2022, growing in low single digits, and sees the at around 62,000 and the Nifty at 18,500-19,000 by December next year.

The domestic market has for long been trading at a price-to-earnings premium of 21 per cent over global equities and 72 per cent over the emerging peers now, making it the most expensive large market.

The fast emerging Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been roiling the this month. Foreign funds, which own over a quarter of the market and the main driver till recently, have been on the back-foot, pulling out Rs 17,700 crore so far in December.

Pencilling in a tepid market growth in 2022 given the already stretched valuations and record high premium, HDFC Securities managing director and chief executive Dhiraj Relli told PTI that he expects only single-digit growth for the Sensex, expecting it to close at around 62,000 and for the Nifty at 18,500-19,000 by December 2022.

He based his limited optimism to the likely support the market may get from IT, pharma, FMCG and consumer-oriented online companies.

closing at 62,000 by December means the index will be marginally above its all-time closing peak of 61,765.59 scaled on October 18 this year, while the Nifty too finished at a record 18,477.05.

But since then, it has been a choppy ride for the as foreign investors have been dumping stocks like hot coal.

Foreign portfolio investors have pulled out Rs 17,696 crore till December 17 amid uncertainty due to the new the Omicron strain, and announcement of faster tapering by the US Federal Reserve. In November too they were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,521 crore.

However, Relli is very bullish about the long-term prospects of the markets as the recent rally has been driven by retail investors and domestic funds, as a result of the rising financialisation of savings.

The market is on the cusp of an exponential growth, Relli said, attributing his optimism to the growing 'China plus One' strategy under which the country is likely to benefit.

He also feels the first half of the market movement will be led by the Budget-focused stocks and the second half by defensives.

He expects stocks in the low cost discretionary spends segments like cinemas, eating out and travel to gain in the long-run.

On the IPO frenzy, he warned investors to be selective as some promoters are too greedy, adding that retail investors in particular should not follow the herd mentality.

HDFC Securities, which has missed the new customer addition bus since the pandemic for want of online demat account opening facility and on-boarding of only parent HDFC Bank customers, is looking to add at least 2 lakh new customers every month till March and continue to grow the topline by 20-25 per cent over the next five years.

It has been adding 1.5 lakh customers since it began on-boarding non-HDFC Bank customers and upgraded its tech capabilities since this June. As a result, its customer base has crossed 3.7 million now, up from 2.7 million in March 2021 and 2.4 million in March 2020.

But this is still way below is new-age peers like Zerodha, Upstox, and Angel One, among others, who offer discount broking services. Since the pandemic began, the total investor base has more than doubled to over 90 million, going by the latest BSE data.

Relli said almost 80 per cent of his new customers are under 35 years and of the total new additions, almost 40 per cent are women, compared to only around 25 per cent earlier.

A key feature of HDFC Securities' offering is that it is the only brokerage that offers margin facility for as long as 275 trading days -- the highest in the industry, and it earns over 25 per cent of its total income from interest income on such margin funding.

Unlike most of its peers, Relli said, the broking house earns 80 per cent of its trading income from equities and the rest from derivatives, while for the industry in general it is around 50 per cent and 60-75 per cent for discount brokers.

(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 Australian share market finished session lower on Monday, 20 December 2021, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday and drop in other Asian-pacific markets today, as the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to stoke worries over an economic slowdown worldwide.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 11.81 points, or 0.16%, to 7,292.16. The broader All Ordinaries index sank 24.01 points, or 0.31%, to 7,602.21.

The top performing stocks in this index were BLUESCOPE STEEL and VIVA ENERGY GROUP, up 4.1% and 3.7% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in this index were MAGELLAN FINANCIAL GROUP and CIMIC GROUP, down 32.9% and 13.4% respectively.

Total 8 of 11 sectors ended higher despite the decline in the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Health Care was the best performing sector, gaining +0.83%, while energy was the worst performing sector, falling 3.39%.

Market risk sentiments were largely subdued amid lingering concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with the fast spreading variant now present in 89 countries. Domestically, New South Wales reported a record 2,501 new cases on Sunday, with no deaths. Victoria also reported 1,302 new cases, but no deaths.

Shares of energy companies were major drag on the market, due to declining crude oil prices. Santos declined by 4.8%, Ampol decreased by 1.5%, and Beach Energy fell by 4.3%.

Financials were lower, with ANZ Bank and Macquarie Group both down by 1.4%.

National Australia Bank fell by 1%, but Commonwealth Bank closed 0.1% higher.

Shares of materials and resources were higher on the back of firmer iron ore prices. Fortescue rose 2.5% and BlueScope steel increased 4.1%. Rio Tinto welcomed its new chairman with a gain of 0.2%.

Shares of healthcare sector out-performed the market. thanks to a 0.6% gain in CSL and 2.9% rise in Sonic Healthcare. Ventilator maker Fisher & Paykel increased by 2.6%, and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals gained 3.4%.

COMMODITY NEWS: Crude oil prices were lower in Asia trading hours amid concerns that continued spread of the omicron Covid variant likely to dent consumption demand, with the World Health Organization recently warning that the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community spread. International benchmark Brent crude futures fell by 3.3% to $71.13 per barrel. U. S. crude futures shed 3.71% to $68.23 per barrel.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was at $0.7091, off levels above $0.72 seen last week.

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Bharat Forge Ltd is quoting at Rs 655.55, down 6.49% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The stock jumped 25.06% in last one year as compared to a 23.81% rally in NIFTY and a 17.2% spurt in the Nifty Auto index.

Bharat Forge Ltd fell for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 655.55, down 6.49% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 2.84% on the day, quoting at 16502. The Sensex is at 55491.94, down 2.67%.Bharat Forge Ltd has eased around 11.53% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Bharat Forge Ltd is a constituent, has eased around 9.93% in last one month and is currently quoting at 10678.65, down 4.02% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 21.35 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 15.88 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark December futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 659, down 6.17% on the day. Bharat Forge Ltd jumped 25.06% in last one year as compared to a 23.81% rally in NIFTY and a 17.2% spurt in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 39.52 based on TTM earnings ending September 21.

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The Mainland China share market finished session lower on Monday, 20 December 2021, extending the sharp losses in the previous session, as a rate cut in China's lending benchmark failed to lift investor sentiment. Meanwhile, selloff pressure intensified on concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with the fast spreading variant now present in 89 countries.

At close of trade, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.07%, or 38.76 points, to 3,593.60. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, dropped 1.77%, or 44.73 points, to 2,478.42. The blue-chip CSI300 index declined 1.5%, or 74.34 points, to 4,880.42.

The People's Bank of China has cut one of the country's most important lending rates in a sign that the government is pushing ahead with policy easing measures to counter a loss of economic momentum. The central bank cut the one-year loan prime rate, which is widely used as a benchmark for the loans banks make to their customers, from 3.85% to 3.8%.

The five-year loan prime rate remained unchanged from the prior month at 4.65%. Monday's rate cut was the first since April 2020, when the country was grappling with the initial outbreak of coronavirus.

The People's Bank of China this month cut the reserve requirement ratio, a rate for banks, in effect pumping close to $200 billion into the financial system.

In the third quarter, gross domestic product grew 4.9% year-on-year, its slowest pace in a year. Challenges across the country's real estate industry have intensified since then, with new home prices falling for several consecutive months and heavily-indebted developer Evergrande defaulting along with several of its peers.

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan was down against the U. S. dollar on Monday after softer mid-point fixing by the central bank and after lowering the lending benchmark rate to prop up slowing economic growth. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.3933 per dollar, 282 pips, or 0.44% weaker, than the previous fix of 6.3651. In the spot market, the onshore yuan CNY=CFXS was changing hands at 6.3785 per dollar at midday, 0.04% weaker from the previous late session close.

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Multi-technology public sector major ITI received a work order worth Rs 432.97 crore from TANFINET (Tamil Nadu Fibrenet Corporation), a Govt. of Tamil Nadu Undertaking regarding BharatNet Phase-II in Tamil Nadu for Package D.

The project will be implemented within a span of 360 days, followed by three years for Operations & Maintenance (O&M) from the date of 'Project Go-Live' in accordance with the delivery schedules.

The scope of work of includes planning, survey, supply, installation, commissioning, testing, end-to-end integration, operation & maintenance of Optical Fibre Network (OFN) and Electronics for Broadband connectivity under BharatNet Phase- II in Tamil Nadu for Package D. As part of this package, ITI will be covering 10 districts/ 109 blocks/ 3,103 Gram Panchayats/ 845 revenue villages across the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu state providing a minimum of 1 Gbps bandwidth service.

The package also includes radio connectivity for Gram Panchayats that cannot be connected through fiber, implementation of horizontal connectivity to government premises, schools, and primary health centres (PHCs). Around 15,000 kms of fiber cable will be laid, that includes underground and aerial fiber to connect Gram Panchayats with blocks, district centers, and state headquarter.

ITI is the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) for MahaNet-I (BharatNet Phase II) in Maharashtra. In Gujarat, ITI is executing two packages of BharatNet Phase II, for Gujarat Fiber Grid Network (GFGNL).

On a consolidated basis, ITI's net loss stood at Rs 55.78 crore in Q2 FY22 as compared to a net loss of Rs 56.05 crore in Q2 FY21. Net sales stood at Rs 352.49 crore in Q2 September 2021, registering a 18.8% drop from Rs 433.97 crore in Q2 September 2020.

ITI, a multi-unit central public sector undertaking, is a total solution provider in telecommunications segment. It offers complete range of telecom products covering the whole spectrum of switching, transmission, access and subscriber premises equipment.

Shares of ITI rose 0.35% to Rs 113.45 on BSE. As of 30 September 2021, the Government of India held 90.06% stake while the Governer of Karnataka held a minor 0.03% stake in the company.

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Ramkrishna Forgings said that its board will consider a proposal for subdivision of company's equity shares on Tuesday, 18 January 2022.

On the same day, the board will consider and approve the unaudited standalone and consolidated financial results of the company for the quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2021.

Further, the board will also consider declaration of third interim dividend for the financial year 2021-22 and fix the record date for the same.

Ramkrishna Forgings is a manufacturer & supplier of closed die forgings of carbon and alloy steel, micro alloy steel and stainless steel forgings. The company supplies to various sectors like automotive, railways, farm equipment, bearings, oil & gas, power and construction, earth moving & mining, both in India & overseas markets.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 44.06 crore in Q2 FY22 as against a net profit of Rs 1.45 crore in Q2 FY21. Net sales during the quarter increased by 129.7% year-on-year to Rs 578.82 crore.

The scrip fell 3.04% to currently trade at Rs 857 on the BSE.

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Shares of Shriram Properties were currently trading at Rs 103.85 on the BSE, at a discount of 11.99% as against the issue price of Rs 118.

The scrip was listed at Rs 94, representing a discount of 20.34% to the initial public offer (IPO) price.

So far, the scrip has hit a high of 106.35 and a low of 91.75. Over 11.80 lakh shares of the company have changed hands in the counter till now.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Shriram Properties was subscribed 4.60 times. The issue opened for bidding on 8 December 2021 and it closed on 10 December 2021. The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 113-118.

The offer comprised of the fresh issue of upto Rs 250 crore and and offer for sale of upto Rs 350 crore.

The proceeds from offer for sale will go to investor selling shareholders and other selling shareholders. Of the fresh issue proceeds, the company proposes to repay/pre-pay in full or part of certain borrowing availed by the company or subsidiaries to the tune of Rs 200 crore and balance is for general corporate purposes.

Ahead of the IPO, Shriram Properties on Tuesday, 8 December 2021, finalized allocation of 2,27,66,949 equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 118 per share, aggregating to Rs 268.65 crore.

Shriram Properties, a part of Chennai based Shriram Group, is one of the leading residential real estate development companies in South India, primarily focused on the mid-market and affordable housing categories. It is also present in the mid-market premium and luxury housing categories as well as commercial and office space categories in its core markets.

The company as of 30 September 2021, has completed 29 Projects (representing 16.76 million square feet of saleable area) and of this about 24 completed projects (accounting 90.56% of saleable area) are in the cities of Bengaluru and Chennai.

The real estate company reported a net loss of Rs 68.28 crore on sales of Rs 118.18 crore in the six month ended September 2021.

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The offer received bids for 103.82 crore shares as against 1.45 crore shares on offer.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Supriya Lifescience received bids for 1,03,82,92,452 shares as against 1,45,28,299 shares on offer, according to stock exchange data at 17:00 IST on Monday (20 December 2021). The issue was subscribed 71.47 times.

The issue opened for bidding on 16 December 2021 and it will close today, 20 December 2021. The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 265-274 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 54 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

Ahead of the IPO, the company on 15 December 2021, finalized allocation of 1,14,96,351 equity shares to anchor investors at an allocation price of Rs 274 per share, aggregating to Rs 315 crore.

The IPO comprise of fresh issue of equity shares worth up to Rs 200 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 500 crore by existing shareholders.

Satish Waman Wagh, the promoter of the company, currently holds an aggregate of 7,26,42,390 equity shares, aggregating to 99.26% of the pre-offer issued share capital. The post IPO shareholding for the same is expected to be around 68.24%.

The objectives for the fresh issue are funding capital expenditure requirements of Rs 92.3 crore, Rs 60 crore for repayment/pre-payment, in full or part of borrowings and remaining amount will be used for general corporate purposes.

Supriya Lifescience is one of the key Indian manufacturers and suppliers of active pharmaceuticals ingredients (APIs), with a focus on research and development. As of 31 October 2021, the company has niche product offerings of 38 APIs focused on diverse therapeutic segments such as antihistamine, analgesic, anesthetics, vitamin, anti-asthmatic and antiallergic.

The business operations of the company are supported by a modern manufacturing facility located in Parshuram Lote, Maharashtra, which is approximately 250 km from Mumbai. Its manufacturing facility has received approvals from USFDA, EDQM TGA-Australia, KFDA-Korea, PMDA Japan, NMPA (previously known as SFDA)- China, Health Canada, in relation to the products being exported to the relevant jurisdictions.

The manufacturing facility is spread across 23,806 sq.mt, having reactor capacity of 332 KL/ day and seven cleanrooms. In addition, company has acquired a plot of land, admeasuring 12,551 sq.mt, near the present manufacturing facility, wherein the Company intends to expand its manufacturing infrastructure.

The company intends to continue to drive R&D initiatives towards the development of innovative APIs. It also intends to improve its R&D capabilities, with a focus on capturing more high-value first-to-market opportunities in key international markets, as well as leveraging broad product basket to enhance market position globally.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 65.96 crore on sales of Rs 224.80 crore in six month ended September 2021.

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The finance minister in her 2019 Budget announcement called for the creation of an SSE, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in its September 28 board meeting this year approved the creation of such an exchange. The intervening period was spent by Sebi first, in setting up a working group under Ishaat Hussain, which submitted its report in May 2020. The regulator then followed this by setting up a technical advisory ...

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The Central government has called a meeting of five on Monday whose MPs have been suspended from the to break the deadlock between the government and the Opposition in the House.

12 MPs were suspended from the House on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament from 5 including Congress, TMC, Shivsena, CPI, CPI(M). After the suspension, all 12 MPs have been sitting on Dharna daily basis in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister earlier said that the government was ready to consider revoking the suspension of the MPs if they apologize for their conduct in the House. While the Opposition leaders rejected the government's proposal for apologizes and said that they would not seek an apology.

was adjourned several times due to the ruckus in the Upper House by the Opposition parties demanding to revoke the suspension of MPs in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

The Winter session of Parliament is scheduled to culminate on 23 December.

(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.)
Hitting out at the BJP, senior Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member on Monday said that despite all its efforts, it could not topple the three-party coalition Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra which will complete its full term.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, Raut also said that Congress leader after tying up with the Shiv Sena has started talking the language of Hindu and Hindutva.

Q. Amit Shah has alleged that you (Shiv Sena) relinquished Hindutva for power?

A. It does not suit the Home Minister of the country to use such language. Pune is the land of Shivaji Maharaj. It was from here that Lokmanya Tilak started the freedom movement. We consider Pune a holy land. People go there and try to tell the truth, but those who are unable to do so, resort to lies. But we have neither betrayed nor deceived anyone, it is known to all. Now we (BJP and Shiv Sena) are on two separate paths in You do your politics, we are doing our own. You (BJP) are repeatedly trying to topple the Maharashtra government and have failed miserably. Our government will complete its full term, and this is a 25-year arrangement.

Q. Leave aside BJP, you have been accused of compromising Hindutva for the sake of power.

A. (Laughing) The answer is in the question itself. If we were Hindutvawadi, then why did they (BJP) leave us in 2014? In 2014, you first left us for power.

Q. You have been accused of making an alliance with the Congress, and the NCP for power.

A. So what if we went with the Congress? Now has also started talking about Hindus and Hindutva. This is the result of our friendship.

Q. Amit Shah has also said that the Maharashtra goverenment is running on three wheels which are punctured.

A. We are happy that our government is running on a three-wheeler auto-rickshaw. This is a vehicle of the poor. The Central government has increased the prices of daily commodities so much that people have no option but to travel in auto-rickshaws, don't they?

--IANS

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(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.)
Exposing the lies being spread by the AAP leadership directly from the ground level, Chief Minister Charanjit Channi on Monday visited the school in his maternal village Makdona Kalan to show that it was not only perfect but one of the best schools in the state.

The Chief Minister during a walk from Morinda to Sri Chamkaur Sahib inspected the school from where the AAP leadership has been indulging in slanderous campaign.

Channi said he had already sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for this school besides astroturf worth Rs 70 lakh.

Taking on the AAP leadership, he reminded them that as compared to any school of their frivolous 'Delhi model', this school has one of the best infrastructure, computer lab, library, eduset online facility and modern projector room.

The Chief Minister said ironically the same school was visited some days ago by self-contradictory Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who tried to paint it in bad colour by showing a store room.

He said even the store room was better but Sisodia opted to switch off the lights of the room, when they failed to get any tangible evidence against the school, to prove their wrong point.

"This exposes the propaganda unleashed by outsiders to fulfil their lust for power," added Channi.

The Chief Minister said the AAP leaders are clamouring for power but their nefarious designs will be thwarted by the wise people of

He warned the AAP leaders to desist from spreading false stories about education and the health system of the state, which are one of the best in the country.

Channi asked AAP leaders that instead of fault finding in and Punjabis they should focus on providing basic facilities to Delhi where people are suffering due to their poor performance.

--IANS

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(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 Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to link electoral rolls with the ecosystem to weed out duplication, was passed in the on Monday amid protest by the Even parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, considered friendly to the government opposed the Bill.

The Trinamool Congress, the Congress, and the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI M), bitter political enemies outside Parliament, came together to object to the Bill, which was passed with virtually no discussion amid a din and slogan shouting as members brandished placards that said: Prime Minister Absent detailing the days that the PM has not been present in the House since the winter session began in November. Another MP carried a placard that urged the PM to drop Minister of state for Home, Ajay Mishra Teni, from the council of ministers. It seemed even the treasury benches were unprepared for the vehemence of the oppositions rejection of the Bill.

The Bill provides linking of number with electoral rolls besides giving four opportunities to enrol in a calendar year as a voter upon attaining the age of 18. Besides, the Bill has provisions of gender neutrality in regard with service voters and to enable the requisition of any premises for election purposes.

However, every member who spoke said the Bill will infringe the fundamental rights of citizens. They also alleged that the Bill violates the Supreme Court judgment on and demanded that it be referred to a standing committee. Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Adhir Ranjan Choudhury said the Bill was beyond the legal competence of the House. Tewari said as per the verdict on the famous Puttaswamy versus Union of India order in the Supreme Court, the Aadhaar Act does not allow for linking of the Aadhaar number to the electoral roll. The Aadhaar Act is very explicit. It is an Act which is for the targeted delivery of financial and other subsidy benefits and services. Voting is a legal right.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the Bill was outside the legislative competence of the House as it violates the limits on legislation set by the Supreme Court NK Premachandran (CPI M) said: No person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except in accordance with the procedure established by law. This is what Article 21 of the Constitution says. On the basis of Article 21, in Justice Puttaswamy versus Union of India case, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has held that right to privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. In this case, linking the electoral roll with Aadhaar definitely infringes the right to privacy and violates Article 21. Shashi Tharoor (Congress) said Aadhaar was only proof of residence, not proof of citizenship.

Later, after the had passed the Bill, Law Minister Kiran Rijiju said amendments in the Bill would bring clean and fair elections. He said linking of Aadhaar number with electoral rolls is not compulsory or mandatory but voluntary. Refuting to allegations of the opposition, he said, the amendments were based on the recommendations made by Election Commission and the standing committee as well. He said the government had thoroughly discussed the recommendations with ECI and the states as well.
The ruling on Monday accused the opposition in of working with the "mantra of disturbance and disruption" and said they do not want the House to function, after leaders of five opposition parties did not attend a meeting called by the government to break the deadlock over the suspension of 12 members.

These parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena, have argued that the government should have called the entire opposition for the meeting as they have been together in protesting the suspension of these members over their alleged unruly conduct in during the last session.

Leader of the House in Piyush Goyal said it is clear that the opposition is not interested in running the House, and they have nothing to offer except disturbance and disruption.

They could have made their point in the meeting, and the government might have invited everyone, he said, noting that the leaders of five parties were called at the direction of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu who wanted both sides to sit together to thrash out a solution.

Noting that Congress leader Anand Sharma had referred to the suspension of seven opposition MPs in 2010 who were later allowed to resume their work, Goyal cited from the minutes of the proceedings then to say their suspension was revoked only after the then leader of opposition Arun Jaitley tendered an apology.

Even then one of the seven members remained suspended, Goyal said, adding that no member was among the suspended members in 2010 but Jaitley as the leader of opposition expressed regret.

The senior leader said the 12 suspended MPs should tender an apology to restore Parliament's and the Chair's dignity and added that this will not belittle them.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who along with BJP MP Anil Baluni joined Goyal at the press conference, said this has been precedence for over six decades that suspended members have almost always apologised for their conduct before being allowed to join Parliament's proceedings.

Demanding revocation of the suspension of 12 MPs, opposition parties have disrupted Rajya Sabha proceedings day after day, forcing the Chair to repeatedly adjourn the House.

(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 Basavaraj Bommai on Monday asserted that the ruling BJP will not allow religious conversion of helpless people in the state.

Speaking at a function organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishath (VHP), he said that his government would soon bring in anti-conversion laws. "Innocent people are being converted across the state. They are lured by money and financial assistance," he said.

Religious conversions are not merely about increasing the number of people. The mindset has to be changed. What appears to be luring initially will eventually affect society. "Our government, our nation will not allow such thing to happen. There is an attempt to encash poverty in our society," he reiterated.

As per law there is no provision which facilitates to lure people for conversions. There is no scope for this in the Constitution. The people who are opposing the Anti-Conversion bill were ready to implement it in 2019. Now, they are bound by political compulsions, he said.

State government would take decisive steps to stop vandalism. Stringent action would be initiated against those who take law into their hands, the Chief Minister said speaking to media.

"The main perpetrators of the recent vandalism in have already been arrested. We will not allow any hooliganism to continue," he added.

State Home Secretary and DG of Police have taken up the issue with their Maharashtra counterparts to protect the life and property of Kannadigas in Maharashtra, and also providing security for government vehicles, Bommai said.

--IANS

mka/shb/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI/NewsVoir): MMTC-PAMP, India's only fully integrated ecosystem for gold and silver, announced its entry into the prestigious Fortune 500 India list which ranks India's largest corporations by revenue.

It is the brand's debut on the index which was first instituted by Fortune India in 2010. With an annual reported revenue of Rs. 21,204 Cr in FY21, MMTC-PAMP ranks number 68th on the index, the highest amongst the new entrants in the list.

Speaking on the occasion, Vikas Singh, MD & CEO, MMTC-PAMP said, "As India's largest refinery for both gold and silver, we are humbled to be ranked highest among all debutants in the latest Fortune 500 India List. We have the capacity to fulfil about 30% of India's requirement for gold, and in the last two years have set up a robust b2c business where we sell 24K, 999.9 purest gold coins and bars, premium silver products, and digital gold, an innovative new age investment instrument, direct to consumers.

"With the gold jewellery buyback, and old gold refining business we have set up a strong mechanism which can recycle the large deposit of old gold which lies idle in Indian households. Our debut in the Fortune 500 rankings in tough market conditions stands testament to our efforts towards ensuring the highest standards in quality, purity, corporate ethics and other aspects of our operations. It also underlines the faith our customers have on our products and their recognition of the brand's relentless focus on customer centricity. The enterprise value for FY21 is the strongest indicator of millions of customers' trust in MMTC-PAMP," Singh said.

With customer-centricity at its core, MMTC-PAMP was established in 2008 as a joint venture between MMTC Ltd., a Govt. of India undertaking, and Switzerland based bullion brand MKS PAMP. MMTC-PAMP has been continuously leveraging innovation and technology to provide world-class products to customers.

MMTC-PAMP India Pvt. Ltd. has created India's largest precious metals integrated ecosystem over the last decade. We are the only good delivery refinery in India to be simultaneously accredited by London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and India Good Delivery Standard.

Our offerings (Bullion, Casted bar, Minted coins, etc.) stand out across the precious metals value chain, while our services like Refining, Gold Accumulation Plan (Digital Gold), Gold Buyback, Hallmarking, etc. can be benchmarked against the best global standards. We are proud to be one of Asia's largest refineries, importing gold and silver ore from over 20 mines globally. We have received several awards since our inception from local and global industry bodies for the transparency and sustainability that we rigorously uphold in our acquisition, refining and supply of precious metals in the Indian market.

The company is one of the pioneering players in the Indian precious metal market and is today India's largest gold refiner and fabricator with an annual refining capacity of more than 300 tonnes of gold and 600 tonnes of silver. A top-notch team is building a culture of innovation and new age products like digital gold that has democratised investments in gold, as people can start investing in the yellow metal for as low as Rs. 1 directly from their smartphones.

MMTC-PAMP launched its own direct to customer digital channel (https://shop.mmtcpamp.com) to sell 24K, 999.9 purest gold and 999.9 purest silver coins and bars direct to customers. This is in addition to the 12 Purity Verification Centres the brand runs across India to sell minted gold and silver products, and buy back old gold. The brand remains an integral partner to the Govt of India's Gold Monetisation Scheme.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Regulatory News:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211219005059/en/

AD HOC ANNOUNCEMENT PURSUANT TO ART. 53 LR

Vifor Pharma Group and its partner American Regent, Inc., a Daiichi Sankyo Group company, today announced that they have reached settlement agreements with Mylan Laboratories Ltd., and Sandoz, Inc., that resolve the patent litigation brought in response to Abbreviated New Drug Applications seeking approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a generic version of Injectafer.

Under the terms of the settlements, Vifor Pharma and American Regent will grant Mylan Laboratories Ltd., and Sandoz, Inc., licenses to market generic ferric carboxymaltose products in the United States beginning 1 July 2026 (subject to U.S. FDA approval). Details of all settlements are confidential.

We are pleased to have settled all outstanding patent litigations regarding Injectafer, commentedDr. Oliver P. Kronenberg, Group General Counsel of Vifor Pharma. With these agreements in place, we can continue to focus on addressing the significant remaining unmet medical need to diagnose and appropriately treat iron deficiency anemia to improve lives of U.S. patients, together with our partner American Regent.

Injectafer is an important treatment option for patients with iron deficiency anemia, said Gretchen Fritz, Chief Legal Officer of American Regent. American Regent is proud of the innovation and decades of hard work that made this treatment option possible and available to patients in the U.S. We are pleased to resolve the burdens of litigation, and excited for future results of our ongoing robust clinical program for Injectafer.

In the US, more than 1.7 million patients have been treated for iron deficiency anemia. Injectafer has been studied in more than 40 clinical trials that included over 8,800 patients worldwide. Injectafer has been approved in 83 countries since initial European Union (EU) approval in 2007 and is the most extensively studied intravenous iron.

About Vifor Pharma Group

Vifor Pharma Group is a global pharmaceuticals company. It aims to become the global leader in iron deficiency, nephrology and cardio-renal therapies. The company is a partner of choice for pharmaceuticals and innovative patient-focused solutions. Vifor Pharma Group strives to help patients around the world with severe and chronic diseases lead better, healthier lives. The company develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products for precision patient care. Vifor Pharma Group holds a leading position in all its core business activities and consists of the following companies: Vifor Pharma and Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma (a joint company with Fresenius Medical Care). Vifor Pharma Group is headquartered in Switzerland, and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange, VIFN, ISIN: CH0364749348).

For more information, please visit viforpharma.com.

About American Regent, Inc.

American Regent, Inc., a Daiichi Sankyo Group company, is a top-10 injectable manufacturer. For over 50 years, American Regent has been developing, manufacturing, and supplying quality generic and branded injectables for healthcare providers. For nearly 20 years, we have been a leader in IV iron therapy. American Regent is committed to U.S.-based manufacturing. In 2018, more than 99% of units supplied were formulated, filled, and finished at our U.S.-based facilities, making us uniquely positioned to quickly mobilize to respond to shortages or changes in market needs. Speed counts. Flexibility matters. Reliability and quality are paramount. Because patients should never have to wait for the medications they need. For more information, please visit www.americanregent.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211219005059/en/
Cruise ship operator Royal Caribbean has offered a 25% refund to about 2,500 passengers after they were made to wait for almost a day to get a Covid-19 test Wednesday in Hong Kong. The ship, which set sail on Sunday, was ordered to cut its journey short and return to dock at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, after local health authorities found that the passengers included nine close contacts of Covid cases. All nine tested negative

Jan 06, 2022 05:04 PM
IATSE immediately wrote to Tangent to demand they pay their workers what was owed to them. The union also wrote to the ministries responsible for employment standards enforcement in each province to ensure they were aware of the situation and to demand an immediate investigation into the matter.

The union also provided free legal support to all terminated workers by educating them on their legal rights and providing step-by-step assistance on how to file and successfully pursue employment standards complaints in each province.

On Friday, IATSE announced that multiple government agencies in Canada have ordered Tangent to pay whats owed to former employees. For the former studios Toronto location, the order came from Ontarios Ministry of Labor, Training, and Skills Development, while the Winnipeg order was issued from the Department of FinanceManitoba Employment Standards.

This order will see hundreds of thousands of dollars go directly into the pockets of workers, said Matt Loeb, IATSE International president.

John Lewis, IATSE International vice president and director of Canadian affairs, added, The IATSE will stand up for animation workers in every province of this country regardless of whether they are actually members of the IATSE. The animation industry is very precarious, and these workers need strong union support to defend their rights and improve their working conditions.
The #FBI is still seeking information on people who took part in the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. If you know this individual, visit https://t.co/iL7sD5efWD. Refer to photo 247 in your tip. pic.twitter.com/CetMHzU190  FBI (@FBI) March 4, 2021

While Johnston has not publicly confirmed his attendance nor has he been arrested, numerous colleagues have identified him as a participant in the riot. Cassandra Church, who worked with Johnston on Harmontown, wrote on Twitter, Im no detective, but I do know Jay. He said he was there. And thats him in the picture. So Another Harmontown colleague, Spencer Crittenden, stated in a now-deleted tweet that Johnston is also a craven Trump supporter and was there at the time. Tim & Erics Tim Heidecker also fully confirmed through reliable sources that Johnston was present at the riot.

Johnston has not appeared in the current season 12 of Bobs Burgers. His other voice acting credits in animated series include Rick and Morty, Mary Shelleys Frankenhole, and Moral Orel, the latter of which he also directed and produced. His onscreen credits include Better Call Saul, Arrested Development, The Sarah Silverman Program, and Mr. Show with Bob and David.

Bobs Burgers is co-produced, aired by, and animated by subsidiaries of Fox Corporation, which also owns Fox News Channel, a primary source of right-wing disinformation.

Fox Corporation has continued to produce fabricated claims and conspiracy theories about the riots, including a recent three-part film called Patriot Purge that suggests January 6 was a false flag operation by the U.S. government to hurt conservatives. Two right-wing Fox News contributors, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, quit the network in the fallout from that series. Goldberg told NPR that Fox News traffics in all manner of innuendo and conspiracy theories that I think legitimately could lead to violence.

Fox Corporation declined to comment to The Daily Beast about Johnstons ban, responding, Thanks for reaching out, FOX has no comment.

The Walt Disney Company, which owns Bobs Burgers, also refused to comment on the matter, telling The Daily Beast, We will not be providing a comment.
Photo: The Canadian Press Japanese space tourist Yusaku Maezawa speaks during an interview with The Associated Press from the International Space Station, ISS, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Maezawa said he experienced motion sickness after arriving at the space outpost and it took him a few days to adapt to zero gravity. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)

A Japanese billionaire, his producer and a Russian cosmonaut safely returned to Earth on Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin made a soft landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:13 a.m. (0313 GMT) about 148 kilometers (about 92 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.

After their capsule landed, all-terrain vehicles carrying Russian rescue teams deployed to the site to assist the crew and conduct a medical check-up.

Maezawa, 46, and his 36-year-old producer Hirano were the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. Misurkin was on his third space mission.

Speaking to The Associated Press last week in a live interview from the orbiting space station, Maezawa said that once you are in space, you realize how much it is worth it by having this amazing experience.

Asked about reports claiming that he paid over $80 million for a 12-day mission, Maezawa said he couldnt disclose the contract sum but admitted that he paid pretty much that amount.

In October, Russian actor Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko spent 12 days on the station to make the worlds first movie in orbit, a project sponsored by Russias space corporation Roscosmos to help burnish the nations reputation for space glory.

Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japans largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $1.9 billion.

Staying behind at the station are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei; Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency.
Photo: The Canadian Press Defence attorney Earl Gray delivers closing arguments, Monday.

The suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright made a blunder of epic proportions and did not have a licence to kill, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday.

Kim Potter's attorney Earl Gray, though, countered during closing arguments in Potter's manslaughter trial that the former Brooklyn Center officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn't a crime.

In the walk of life, nobodys perfect. Everybody makes mistakes," Gray said. My gosh, a mistake is not a crime. It just isnt in our freedom-loving country.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge said during her summation that Wright's death was "entirely preventable. Totally avoidable.

She drew a deadly weapon, Eldridge said. She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wrights chest, and she fired."

Gray argued that Wright caused the whole incident because he tried to flee from police during a traffic stop.

Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately," he asserted.

Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her Taser because the traffic stop was chaos, Gray said.

The jury was set to deliberate once closing arguments concluded.

Potter, 49, told jurors on Friday that she didnt want to hurt anybody, saying during her sometimes tearful testimony that she shouted a warning about using her Taser on Wright after she saw fear in a fellow officers face. She said she was sorry it happened and that she doesnt remember what she said or everything that happened after the shooting, as much of her memory of those moments is missing.

Eldridge said Monday that the case wasnt about whether Potter was sorry.

Of course she feels bad about what she did.  But that has no place in your deliberations, she said.

Playing Potters body camera video frame by frame, Eldridge sought to raise doubts about Potters testimony that she fired after seeing a look of fear on the face of another officer who was leaning into the cars passenger-side door and trying to handcuff Wright. The defense argued that he was at risk of being dragged.

Playing the video not at the right speed where it showed chaos, playing it as slow as possible  thats the rabbit hole of misdirection, Gray said.

As prosecutors have done throughout the three-week trial, Eldridge stressed that Potter, who resigned from the police force two days after the shooting, was a highly trained and highly experienced 26-year veteran and said she acted recklessly when she killed Wright.

She made a series of bad choices that led to her shooting and killing Daunte Wright, Eldridge said. This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. ... This was a colossal screwup. A blunder of epic proportions.

Although there is a risk every time an officer makes traffic stop, that didn't justify Potter using her gun on Wright after he pulled away from her and other officers during an April 11 traffic stop as they were trying to arrest him on an outstanding weapons possession warrant, Eldridge said.

Carrying a badge and a gun is not a license to kill," she said.

Potter is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 killing of Wright, who was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.

Potter, who was training another officer at the time, said she probably wouldn't have pulled over the 20-year-old Wright's car if she had been on her own that day.

Potters attorneys argued that she made a mistake but also would have been justified in using deadly force if she had meant to because of the potential harm to the other officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, if he had been dragged by Wrights car.

While playing Potters body camera video frame by frame, Eldridge raised doubt about Potters assertion that she saw fear in Johnsons face. She pointed out that Potter was behind Luckey for much of the interaction and that Johnson didnt come into view of her body camera until after she opened fire.

Wright's death set off angry demonstrations for several days in Brooklyn Center. It happened as another white officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the killing of George Floyd.

Eldridge went into detail on the elements to prove first-degree manslaughter, including the requirement that a slaying be a voluntary act. She said various actions taken by Potter  unsnapping her holster, shifting a piece of paper from her right hand to her left, putting her hand on her gun as she approached Wrights car  were all voluntary acts and not reflexive.

Chu told jurors that intent is not part of the charges against Potter and that the state doesnt have to prove she tried to kill Wright.

The judge said to prove first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors have to prove that Potter caused Wrights death while committing the crime of reckless handling of a firearm. This means they must prove that she committed a conscious or intentional act while handling or using a firearm that creates a substantial or unjustifiable risk that she was aware of and disregarded, and that she endangered safety.

For second-degree manslaughter, the state must prove that she acted with culpable negligence, meaning she consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm.
Photo: Contributed Health Canada is warning Canadians that a couple of popular brands of hair products are being recalled due to the presence of the chemical hazard benzene

Health Canada is warning Canadians that a couple of popular brands of hair products are being recalled due to the presence of the chemical hazard benzene.

A safety notification issued on Monday (Dec. 20) states that several batches of Herbal Essences and Pantene Aerosol Spray Dry Shampoo and Aerosol Spray Dry Conditioner are being recalled from the marketplace due to the "detection of benzene."

The products were manufactured in the United States and were sold in Canada from November 2018 to Dec. 17, 2021; the company reported that 800,183 units of the affected product were sold in Canada.

Consumers should stop using and appropriately discard the recalled aerosol spray products, and contact the company for reimbursement.

Health Canada notes that benzene is a "human carcinogen" and exposure to the chemical can occur by inhalation, orally, and through the skin. Exposure may lead to cancers including leukemia and blood cancer of the bone marrow, as well as life-threatening blood disorders. However, exposure modelling and risk assessments conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) find that daily exposure from the recalled products isn't expected "to cause adverse health consequences."

As of Dec. 16, no illnesses have been reported related to the use of the affected products.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claims that Moscow could try to exclude the European Union from talks on security guarantees.

"Russia's ultimate intentions are not clear, except that it seeks to threaten and weaken Ukraine.

Different scenarios can unfold. ...We cannot exclude Russia's desire to use this crisis as leverage for its declared purpose to reshape the security framework in Europe, also excluding the Europeans from the discussions," Borrell said on his blog on Sunday.

He emphasized that any Russian action against Ukraine and its sovereignty would have serious consequences and expressed hope that the US will not allow Brussels to get excluded from talks on security.

"...the EU must of course be at the table of any discussion on the European security architecture. Russia's Foreign Ministry this Friday released a draft proposal on security guarantees between Russia and the US as well as to European members of NATO. It is clear that the EU must be an integral part of such discussions," Borrell stressed.

He recalled the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter, as well as mechanisms and rules of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which, according to Borrell, must be used when engaging with Russia on issues of security.

On Friday, Moscow published draft agreements between Russia, the United States and NATO on security guarantees. The proposals, if agreed to, would ban NATO from expanding in eastern Europe and prohibit the US and Russia from deploying intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory, among other terms.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Sunday that NATO was going to discuss Russia's proposals on security guarantees this week.

The security issue has surged in importance on the backdrop of the growing tensions around Ukraine, as Russia stands accused of allegedly deploying troops near the Ukrainian border in preparation for an invasion.

Moscow has repeatedly denied these accusations, pointing to NATO's military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security. Russia has also said that it has the right to move forces within its own territory.

(ANI)

Also Read: Afghanistan has been facing ISIS threat from Pakistan: Hamid Karzai
The humiliating retreat of the United States from Afghanistan and the perceived disengagement of the US from the Middle East or at least the reduced emphasis Joe Biden gives to the region has led the Gulf States and other countries to reassess their positions and try to mend relations with old rivals.

This resulted in some rather surprising foreign policy shifts among several Middle Eastern states and perhaps has increased prospects for stability in the Gulf.

Although the US Administration says that it is still engaged in the Middle East, there is no doubt that much more attention in the US foreign policy is now given to China, Russia, and the far east. As a result, Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council states wonder how reliable the United States as a security provider is.

Gonul Tol, Director of the M.E. Institute's Centre for Turkish Studies says: "Signs of a US retreat from the region, highlighted by the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan shattered faith in Washington's regional role".

This made several Middle East leaders realize that in the absence of the US protective shield they must bury the hatchet with old enemies or at least reduce the number of the hostile countries they have to face. So, they decided to give diplomacy chance and see what happens.

Let's see now the big changes taking place in inter-state relations in the Middle East.

For the first time in history, an Israeli Prime Minister visited the United Arab Emirates. Last week Naftali Bennett paid an official visit to the UAE and had talks in Abu Dhabi with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The two leaders discussed possibilities of cooperating in the fields of agriculture, food security, advance technology, health, renewable energy etc.

Bennett said he believed the two countries could "set an example of how we can make peace in the Middle East". This meeting comes just fifteen months after the two countries signed, in the context of the Abraham Accords, the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE.

In the flurry of diplomatic activity taking place in the region, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS), who apparently decided that the Saudi Kingdom should try to resolve problems with countries with which it had been at loggerheads in the past, visited Doha on December 8 and had talks with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani.

The two leaders declared their willingness to enhance cooperation between their countries and to support security and stability in the region.

It should be noted that MBS was the man who in 2017 organized Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt to cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and impose a trade embargo and a blockade on the small emirate, allegedly for backing Islamist militants. The four Arab countries restored diplomatic relations with Qatar and ended their embargo on January 5, 2021.

MBS has already visited the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait in an effort to reduce as far as possible geopolitical and strategic differences existing among GCC states and particularly in their relations with Iran.

Kuwait and Qatar maintain relations with Iran, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain try to stop Iran's reach in the region.

The reconciliation achieved among the Gulf states has allowed Turkey, which has been a close ally of Qatar, to make efforts to restore relations with the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a visit to the UAE last February and tried to make a fresh start in relations between the two countries. In November Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) paid a visit to Turkey, the first such visit in nine years since relations between the two countries were frozen in 2012.

The UAE and Turkey hold widely different views on the question of the Muslim Brotherhood and support different sides in the Libyan conflict. Erdogan also blamed the UAE for backing the 2016 coup in Turkey.

A clear sign of a new page in relations between Ankara and Abu Dhabi is the announcement that the UAE has allocated a $ 10 billion dollar fund for strategic investments in Turkey, the economy of which is crumbling under an unprecedented fall in the exchange rate of the Turkish Lira.

Recently, Turkey has been trying hard to restore its frosty relations with Egypt, although in the past Erdogan repeatedly verbally attacked the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and called him "an illegitimate tyrant". The Egyptian Foreign Ministry in its turn described Erdogan's rule as "oppressive and authoritarian".

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry responded to Turkey's overtures by saying that "Egypt is eager to find a resolution and a formula for restoring relations with Turkey, but more work needs to be done".

A major change in the region could happen if talks taking place intermittently between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the United Arab Emirates and Iran lead to a thaw in their relations and perhaps end the proxy wars in Yemen and elsewhere.

So, it is evident that the US Afghanistan debacle has shaken its allies in the Arab world and the Middle East in general and forced their governments to reassess their positions and rivalries as well as try to find peaceful solutions to long existing problems.

As author Amin Saikal, an expert on Middle East affairs, points out: "The Afghanistan debacle has shaken many of America's allies around the world, making them wonder about the US's reliability as a partner.... America's Afghanistan fiasco has set in motion a series of realignments in the region. And it illustrates that the pax Americana that dominated the Middle East for most of the post-World War II period is gradually being dismantled. The process stands to accelerate with President Joe Biden's promise to withdraw 2,500 US troops from Iraq by the end of this year."

(ANI)

Also Read: EU Foreign Policy chief warns against 'excluding' Brussels from security talks with Russia


Peruvian cement market expands 3% in November

ICR Newsroom By 20 December 2021

Cement dispatches in Peru increased three per cent YoY and 21 per cent when compared with November 2019 to 1.208Mt, according to Asocem, the countrys cement association.



Asocems member cement producers manufactured 1.157Mt of cement, up two per cent YoY and up 25 per cent when compared with November 2019. In addition, they also produced 0.915Mt of clinker, representing an increase of 38 and eight per cent when compared with November 2020 and November 2019, respectively.



Domestic production was complemented by cement and clinker imports. Cement imports halved to 54,000t in November 2021 when compared with the year-ago period. Of the total, Vietnam was the largest importer, shipping 45,000t to Peru, followed by Chile (5000t), Bolivia (1000t), and Peru(1000t), which reflected customs declarations from Paita. Callao was the main customs entry point with 44,000t, followed by Tacna (5000t), while Matarani, Desaguadero and Paita imported 1000t each.



Clinker imports reached 118,000t in November 2021, down 30 per cent YoY. Of this total, 70 per cent, or 83,000t were dispatches from South Korea. An additional 33,000t were imported from Ecuador and 3000t from Perus Free Trade Zones. With a volume of 83,000t Salaverry was the main customs entry point of these imports, followed by Callao (33,000t) and Matarani (3000t).



In November 2021 Asocem members exported 21,700t of cement  up 43 per cent YoY and up 34 per cent when compared with November 2019. In addition, there was a 124 per cent surge in clinker exports to 34,700t in November 2021.

Published under
EPB is continuing its partnership with TVA in addressing hardships created by COVID-19 by investing $50,000 which TVA will match to provide United Way of Chattanooga an additional $100,000 to bolster local economic recovery. The money will provide direct support for those who find themselves in a moment of immediate need. Such needs often include food, health services, transportation, crisis relief, housing, utility payments or childcare.Although we were hoping the impacts of the pandemic would be behind us by now, many people in our community are still experiencing challenges, said David Wade, EPB president and CEO. As part of our mission to serve the community, EPB is proud to partner with TVA, United Way and the network of local nonprofits which came together to provide support for our neighbors in need during this unprecedented crisis.Since the pandemic began, EPB and TVA have partnered with United Way of Greater Chattanoogas Bridge Fund, which was formerly called Restore Hope. To date, that fund has assisted 1,174 households, including 1,718 adults and 1,574 children in the greater Chattanooga area. The fund was designed to assist individuals and households experiencing lost wages or other adverse circumstances due to COVID-19.Our community stepped up like never before to help our neighbors, commented Lesley Scearce, CEO & president of United Way of Greater Chattanooga.Its been clear that in an ongoing crisis, collaboration is essential. We are so proud of the meaningful impact that has come from the generous, ongoing support of our community.United Way has partnered with 12 Chattanooga area nonprofit agencies to support the needs of those directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including La Paz, Boys and Girls Club of Chattanooga, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, Rock Bridge Community Church, Helen Ross McNabb Center, Clinica Medicos, Bethlehem Center, Chattanooga Area Command, Northside Neighborhood House, Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, Signal Centers, United Way of Rhea County and the Walker County Heartbeat Fund.The Bridge Fund has been supported by dozens of community members and organizations such as Truist, Maclellan Foundation, Chattanooga Whiskey, First Horizon, HamiCo Inc., Chattanooga Gas, Southtree and Pinnacle Financial Partners.With this additional $100,000 in funding to support people impacted by the COVID crisis, EPB and TVA have invested $420,000 to support local economic recovery, and EPB employees donated an additional $20,000 to the effort. Because of these organizations and donors throughout the city, $967,000 has been raised to support neighbors in crisis since the spring of 2020.TVA and local power companies in the TVA seven state service area have helped 637 charitable organizations across the Tennessee Valley region provide assistance to those most impacted by the ongoing pandemic."Nearly 90 years ago, TVA was created with a clear mission to benefit the public good," said Jeff Lyash, TVA president & CEO. TVAs Community Care Fund demonstrates that commitment by helping our friends and neighbors when they need it most.TVA and local power companies partnered for an additional $8.3 million in assistance through TVAs Community Care Fund, which has been extended through fiscal year 2022 with an additional $5 million in matching funds from TVA.
Lots of towns, both large and small, have exceptional mayors with excellent vision that benefits their communities. Several neighborhoods near me have their own unofficial mayors, including the folks on my street, Bartram Road.

I met our mayor shortly after moving in, and Ashley Williams just shrugged and smiled at her introduction as mayor. Shes the one who started gathering the neighbors over food and drink, giving an occasion for folks who previously only nodded and waved to actually visit and get to know each other face-to-face.

I love this neighborhood, but was caught unawares over the holiday gift giving a few months after I moved in. In the space of a few days, my mailbox was jam-packed with everything from bottles of wine to lovely scented candles to yummy treats. Which was such fun! But I was in a state because my gifts didnt measure up. There was no way they could!

After stressing out for a couple of years and racking my brain trying to find thoughtful, useful and reasonable gifts for my neighbors, I was grateful when Mayor Williams came to my rescue. She reached out to all of these lovely, caring folks on my street and asked if they might be interested in sponsoring a couple children through the Salvation Armys Angel Tree Program in lieu of exchanging gifts. Applications are taken at the Salvation Army for children ages birth through 12, as well as for senior adults age 60 and above. There are numerous nonprofit organizations that folks could support at the holidays in this same way, including the MCR Foundation, the Chattanooga Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Toys for Tots and so many more.

The Bartram text thread immediately combusted with a slew of resounding YES! emojis. Everyone was all in, and all immediately stepped up to shop for all manner of requests for gifts for children.

And so for the second year, Bartram neighbors are shopping for dolls and games and warm clothing for children who may not have found them under their Christmas tree. Thanks to the vision of our thoughtful leader, Christmas will be brighter for a few children, and a lot easier for lots of households on Lookout.

* * *

Ferris Robinson is the author of three childrens books, The Queen Who Banished Bugs, The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds, and Call Me Arthropod in her pollinator series. Making Arrangements is her first novel. Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity is a collection of true tales about mans best friend. Her website is ferrisrobinson.com and you can download a free pollinator poster there. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.






The staff of Stone Cup Cafe at 208 Frazier Ave. told police a man was sitting on their balcony and refusing to leave. Officer spoke with the man and identified him. The managers of Stone Cup Cafe said they did not wish to have the man trespassed from the location but just wanted him to leave for the day. The man agreed to leave without further incident.

* * *

A woman at Truck Liners Plus at 108 Honest St. told police she had an ex-employee on the property causing a disorder. On arrival, the woman said the employee had already left and did not require police any more.

* * *

Police responded to a suspicious activity on Walker Avenue. Upon arrival, the officer spoke with the person living at the residence. He said he did not call police and no one has tried to break into his house. The officer also saw no forced entry at the door and no suspicious activity.

* * *

Police assisted a citizen searching for his wallet on Citico Avenue. Police were unable to find his wallet in the area.

* * *

A woman at the La Quinta Inn at 7051 McCutcheon Road said she left her car parked in the lot when she got there around 8 p.m. the previous evening and checked into the motel. When she returned to her car the next day she discovered a dent in the passenger side rear door and she said it wont open from the outside but from the inside only. There are no estimates yet.

* * *

Police were asked to check on suspicious people on McCallie Avenue. An officer spoke with them and found they lived on the block and were just enjoying the weather.

* * *

A man on Shady Circle said two of his vehicles were entered overnight and rifled through. He said nothing was damaged or stolen.

* * *

While working Teleserve, police spoke with a man on the phone who said a woman made continuous calls to the Boil Shack, harassing the business. Police attempted to make contact with the woman, but she sent the call to voicemail. An officer left the woman a voicemail with a friendly reminder to not contact the Boil Shack again, but if she continues to do so, if they so wish to press charges, she could be charged with TCA 39-17-308. Harassment, section (a) A person commits an offense who intentionally: subsection (2) places one or more telephone calls anonymously, or at an hour or hours known to be inconvenient to the victim, or in an offensively repetitious manner, or without a legitimate purpose of communication, and by this action knowingly annoys or alarms the recipient.

* * *

An officer responded to a noise complaint on Kirby Avenue. An anonymous caller complained of loud music coming from a residence. On scene the officer heard a loud radio on the front porch and spoke to the resident who apologized and turned the music off.

* * *

Police received a call from a woman on McCallie Avenue who said a man knocked on her door, asking to come in. The woman said the man called her by her middle name and continued to ask her to open the door. Later that same evening, just after midnight, police were called back to the same residence when the woman said she heard a light knock at her door in which she thought it was one of her roommates. She said the knocks turned into what sounded like someone kicking on the door. She looked out her window and saw the same man from earlier that day. She said he was a tall, white man with scruffy hair and appeared to be a college student. Police searched the area and could not find anyone matching that description.

* * *

A man on Spears Avenue had lost his keys and could not get inside his home. Police were able to wake his roommate to open the door. Both thanked police for the assistance.

* * *

CPD Dispatch received a text to 911, "Emergency I need an officer behind CARTA Car-a-Van off 727 East 11th St." When Dispatch attempted to find out the nature of the emergency there was no reply. Police arrived in the area, searching for any signs of distress or anyone flagging down police. Police found nothing and Dispatch was unable to reach the person that sent the text. CPD Dispatch did relay to police that the same party called in from East 12th Street on six occasions on Oct. 31. With no further communication and no source of distress, police left the area.

* * *

A man on Cromwell Road said that someone cut the lock of his trailer and removed a number of tools and accessories. He said he would have to report serial numbers at a later time.

* * *

A man on Edgmon Forest Lane told police he saw a black male in green pants with a brown vest walking into the forest behind his house. Police searched the area but did not locate anyone matching the description.

* * *

A person at Walmart at 490 Greenway View Drive was seen by loss prevention staff and CPD concealing several items. The person passed all points of sale, was detained and let off with a warning from Walmart loss prevention staff. Walmart did not want a report, but a report was done to document the whereabouts of the suspect for further investigations.

* * *

Police were called to a residence on East 49th Street where a man and woman were in an argument. The woman said she called police because the man was calling his sister to come pick him up and move out his items. He told the officer they had gotten into an argument because of a disagreement the night before and him saying he would move out. The man called his sister to come pick him up and the woman called police to prevent any further altercation. The woman called back to cancel police, saying the situation had been resolved and no police presence was needed. Both appeared to be only in a verbal argument and said they would be fine for the evening now that the sister was no longer coming to pick up the man.

* * *

Police received a call about a man with a gun in Miller Park. Upon arrival police realized the caller called police on the security guard for the park. The security guard said he had to remove a woman from the park. Before police could gather her information she left the scene. The security guard said the woman was trespassed from the park.

* * *

An officer assisted a woman and her fiance on East 12th Street. She said she was attempting to order an Uber, however was unable to make the payment go through. After observing her attempt to order it a second time, the officer offered to transport her and her fiance to her residence on Pope Street. She offered the officer payment and the officer denied it. She did take the officers offer and he was able to transport both without incident.

* * *

A man at the Brew and Cue at 5017 Rossville Blvd. said he was inside the business when one of the security guards came in and told him that two men were going through the toolbox in the back of his truck. The man said when he went outside the two men fled on foot down East 50th Street. He said he jumped in his truck and was able to locate the men where a physical altercation took place. The man said he was able to get back most of his belongings but said the men made off with a Milwaukee Impact Driver ($600). There is no suspect information.
The Conservation Fund announced the addition of roughly 1,101 acres to the Bear Hollow Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in south central Tennessee, in partnership with the Open Space Institute (OSI), The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee (TNC), and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).

Bear Hollow Mountain Wildlife Management Area goes from near Winchester, Tn., to the Alabama state line.

A dding this property - known as the Corum tract - to the Bear Hollow Mountain WMA was a top priority for TWRA. The addition connects two sections of the existing WMA that were previously divided by the Corum property, improving continuity of state-owned land and expanding protected habitat for wildlife and recreation, officials said. dding this property - known as the Corum tract - to the Bear Hollow Mountain WMA was a top priority for TWRA.The addition connects two sections of the existing WMA that were previously divided by the Corum property, improving continuity of state-owned land and expanding protected habitat for wildlife and recreation, officials said.

The Conservation Fund purchased the Corum property in March of 2021 to buy time for TWRA to secure necessary funds for its purchase. Today, Corum has been officially transferred to the agency for their permanent ownership as part of the WMA.

Connectivity of protected landscapes like this one are essential for forest health, habitats, and climate resiliency, said Ralph Knoll, The Conservation Funds Tennessee State Director. Were thrilled to see this acquisition of Corum complete, as it builds off of decades of conservation work that were achieving across Tennessee in partnership with TWRA, OSI, TNC and Tennessees Congressional delegation.

Not only does this purchase offer connectivity to the landscape but protects critical habitat for a number of wildlife species of Greatest Conservation Need and provides additional outdoor recreational opportunities in this part of the state. Thanks to all the parties involved in making this conservation effort a true success, said Wally Akins, Assistant Chief, Wildlife and Forestry Division, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

The Corum addition is made up of mostly forested land that is highly ranked for terrestrial habitats and Karst attributes - very unique rocky landscapes. The property provides suitable habitat for eight bat species of Greatest Conservation Need, including three federally listed species. Corum also supports several federally listed plant species, including Price's Potato Bean and Moorefield's Leather-flower.

Funding for this effort was made possible, in part, through generous support from OSI. Additional funding was secured by The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee through three donations from the Riverview Foundation, the WestRock Foundation, and a private estate gift.

OSI is proud to have supported this astounding conservation success for Bear Hollow Mountain WMA, and for the people of Tennessee, said Joel Houser, OSI's Southeast Field Coordinator. This land will remain viable habitat for biodiversity, even as the climate changes. We salute The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, for their tireless efforts on behalf of Tennessee's natural places.

The forests and streams of southeast Tennessee provide so many things for people and nature: multi-use public recreation opportunities, protected wildlife habitats, and clean air and water, to name just a few. The Nature Conservancy is grateful for the chance to assist The Conservation Funds purchase of the Corum tract, said Terry Cook, TNCs Tennessee State Director.

TWRAs acquisition was enabled by the U.S. Forest Services Forest Legacy Program through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is allocated annually by the U.S. Congress. Tennessees U.S. Congressional delegation representing Franklin County includes U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty, and U.S. Representative Scott DesJarlais.

The 17,000 acre Bear Hollow Mountain WMA has extensive second growth hardwood forests. Some of the ridgetops have been cleared for the restoration of native warm grasses, which in combination with the hardwood forests provide excellent habitat for Neotropical migratory songbirds. There are developed hiking trails including to an overlook, and the area is popular for wildlife viewing and hunting.
Rodizio Grill Hamilton Place announces its new general manager, Vishal Malhotra. Mr. Malhotra has joined the Brazilian Steakhouse family with more than 20 years of experience in hospitality.

Mr. Malhotra said he is most excited about the challenge and opportunity to learn a new style of restaurant and cuisine.

The 3rd annual Rodizio OnFire kicks off the New Year with limited-time menu features which have been well received in years past.

Rodizio Grill Hamilton Place will be featuring many favorites like Peppercorn Steak and Cayenne-Cinnamon Pineapple.

Mr. Malhotra said, Guests should expect a positive environment coupled with tasty Brazilian cuisine and refreshing cocktails.

More information can be found by calling 498-3999 or visiting www.rodiziogrill.com/chattanoogahamiltonplace
(This is the second of 10 essays about why Im running for County Mayor between now and Primary Day on May 3.)

Through countless conversations across Hamilton County as a candidate for county mayor, Ive encountered both curiosity and confusion about the role of county mayor. After all, County Mayor Jim Coppinger is the only living person who has served as Hamilton County mayor, and we have not had an open seat race for the position in 28 years. Furthermore, we have *never* had a contested Republican Primary for mayor of Hamilton County.

The vast majority of Americas counties do not have an elected head of county government. County commissions typically nominate one of their own into an executive position or hire a county manager. Only two states use the title county mayor in all counties  Tennessee and Hawaii. Arkansas and Texas use the title county judge, as Tennessee did prior to 1978.

Over the last eight weeks, I have emphasized that public education makes up 64 percent of the countys budget and that measurable improvement in our schools will positively impact everything from crime to workforce development to the recruitment of high-paying jobs.

As a father of four, a public school parent and member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, overseeing our states largest college system with 40 technical and community colleges, the quality of public education is very personal to me. And, I believe that an education-focused county mayor could profoundly, and permanently, transform public education in Hamilton County for the better.

So what is a county mayor in Tennessee? The County Technical Assistance Service, an agency within the University of Tennessees Institute for Public Service, says, The county mayor should have a better picture of the total government operation than any other county official, and should also have the knowledge, information and leadership ability to steer the county in the direction most beneficial to the countys future.

Between now and May 3, 2022, I will make the case that modernizing the facilities within our school system, recruiting and retaining great educators and expanding career training are almost undeniably the direction most beneficial to the countys future.

But that brings us back to the CTAS statement that leadership is the most important responsibility of a county mayor.

Leadership is the word that should define the first-in-a-generation 2022 campaign for Hamilton County mayor. This kind of leadership is not a part-time job; it is a seven days a week job, as County Mayor Coppinger has often told me.

Anyone looking for a clear job description for county mayor will be disappointed because the job itself is poorly defined by state law. Many of the duties and responsibilities of the county mayor are not specifically addressed in the Tennessee Code, says CTAS. But CTAS goes on to pivot back to leadership, saying, the county mayor is expected to provide leadership and direction to the county in most policy areas.

The mayor is the countys fiscal agent and chief accounting officer, solely responsible for creating a budget that exceeds $800 million annually. Considering Hamilton Countys 74 public schools comprise 64 percent of the budget, its no surprise that County Mayor Coppinger recently told Doug Daughtery of Hamilton Flourishing in an interview that education is a major focus of his job.

Public education is one of the things we focus on every day, said County Mayor Coppinger in response to a question about his priorities as county mayor. Its all about relationship building. The county mayor works closely with the superintendent  at the end of the day it is a joint relationship between county general government and the Department of Education."

Hamilton County Schools new superintendent, Justin Robertson, will get an eight-month jump start on Hamilton Countys next county mayor when he takes over in January.

With the right leadership in the office of Hamilton County mayor, the joint relationship between the county mayor and the superintendent of schools will thrive and lead to an incredible era of career-focused education across our public school system, inspiring hope in our most challenged neighborhoods and earning the confidence of all Hamilton County parents.

But the politics can wait. For now, Merry Christmas from Shelby and I, along with River, Griffin, Aldridge and Smith.

Weston Wamp
In 1999, HBO premiered The Sopranos featuring James Gandolfini as a conflicted mob boss struggling to balance the demands of his real family with those of his crime family. From the first episode, the chemistry between Gandolfinis Tony Soprano and his wife Carmela, played by Edie Falco, was genuine enough to seem real.

Falco and Gandolfini had a great rapport and grew close over the shows six-season run. After his death, she and her Sopranos co-star Aida Turturro, who played Gandolfinis conniving sister, Janice Soprano, found the series too difficult to watch.

James Gandolfini shared some traits with Tony Soprano

#TheSopranos' Edie Falco says James Gandolfini always ate for real, and they once stopped filming because he had so much ice cream



"He was like a five-year-old: The ice-cream is good, I like it! I was like, You gotta stop, youre gonna get sick!" https://t.co/MvgEwE4fyJ pic.twitter.com/HAZDHQ1nRz  Screen Rant (@screenrant) December 1, 2021

As Soprano, Gandolfini gave us a glimpse of a character as sensitive and childlike as he was ruthless and cunning. As it turns out, some of the qualities we saw on-screen were part of his off-screen persona. I have a little bit of a temper, Gandolfini admitted to 60 Minutes. He acknowledged that there were some seeds of Soprano in his personality. One reason people, you know, are good at certain characters after a long time is cuz the writers see stuff, and they put it in, and it makes life easier for you.

Like his character, Gandolfini loved to eat. Falco recalled that the cast used tricks to look like they were eating. But she said her on-screen husband truly ate it all:

Jim ate in every frigging take, and he ate between takes. There was one scene we were shooting, where he was eating a bowl of ice cream, and in every take, he ate and would then re-fill the bowl, and then at one point, I realized hes not really listening to me  he had gone into a sugar coma! We had to stop and shoot the rest of the scene another day.

Ironically, the International Business Times pointed out that a scene in Season 4, Episode 10 eerily foreshadowed his real-life demise. Blindsided by a drug intervention, Christopher Moltisanti lashes out at Soprano, saying, Im going to kill myself? The way you fkin eat, youre gonna have a heart attack by the time youre 50!

Sadly, on June 19, 2013, at the age of 51, Gandolfini died of cardiac arrest while on vacation in Italy with his 13-year-old son Michael. While dining with his son, he appeared to be in good spirits. But the next evening at 10 pm, he suffered a massive heart attack in his room at the Boscolo Hotel Exedra in Rome.

Edie Falco and Aida Turturro couldnt watch more than four episodes of The Sopranos

Former The Sopranos costars Edie Falco and Aida Turturro in 2021 | Bruce Glikas/Getty Images

While their characters butted heads on the show, Falco and Turturro are actually good friends. We speak a lot, and sometimes I sleep over at her house because I dont have a house in the city, Turturro told Page Six. Shes kind enough to let me crash.

Like Falco, Turturro had a deep connection with Gandolfini. They met on Broadway while doing A Streetcar Named Desire. He played my husband, and the first day he walked in late to the rehearsal wearing his bike chain around him I was like, Oh no, here comes trouble,' she told the New York Daily News. From that day on I would say it was love. Love in the sense of having a brother, another family member all of a sudden.

Falco and Turturro recently attempted to watch their own show. They only made it through four episodes, explaining:

It was too fraught, and a big part of that is Jim. People die, and you move on, then you see them on screen, and it is too shocking. And Jimmy and I were kids then! Neither of us knew what we were doing, but we worked in the same way, not preparing, but like kids in a sandbox. Aida and I watched a few episodes and I said, This is killing me.'

Edie Falcos onscreen marriage to James Gandolfini feels very real to her

Edie Falco says 'Sopranos' co-star James Gandolfini was her 'real soul mate' https://t.co/vmMFCEVroJ pic.twitter.com/wj7PlSVXQU  New York Post (@nypost) October 18, 2021

In the words of the Guardian, Falcos on-screen marriage to Gandolfini was her longest relationship. She thinks her fictional marriage was her longest relationship because her parents were unable to provide her with a working marriage template.

There was very little about my upbringing that was conventional, she explained. We had two creatively minded young people trying to make a family, so we really grew up feral. She also watched her actor mother and Jazz drummer father divorce and remarry twice, creating what she called a lot of chaos.

Falco, who has two adopted children, never married, though she did have serious relationships, notoriously with actor Stanley Tucci who left his wife for her. According to the New York Times, Tucci eventually went back to his wife. We were together, and then we broke up because there was no way that was going to be a good thing, Falco said.

As an actor, the chaos she witnessed at home seems to have served her fictional marriage. Her fights with Gandolfini are still wrenching to watch. Falco credits his organic acting style for the realism they created on screen. Jim was never anything other than Tony which made it easy for me to be nothing other than Carmela, she said to the Archive of American Television. so the experience of my marriage to him was as real as, kind of any relationship Ive had in a weird way. Its stored in a different part of my being but, the experience of being married to that man feels very dimensional and real inside of me.

RELATED: Where to Watch the Sopranos Movie The Many Saints of Newark
The hilarious adult animated Netflix series F is for Family is very much inspired by real-life events, as it turns out. Comedian Bill Burr co-created the series, which critics often say is one of the funniest on television. It is loosely based on Burrs childhood growing up in the 1970sbefore anything was called politically incorrect.

(L to R) Laura Dern as Sue Murphy, Debi Derryberry as Maureen Murphy, Jonathan Banks as Big Bill Murphy, Haley Reinhart as Bill Murphy, Justin Long as Kevin Murphy, and Bill Burr as Frank Murphy | Netflix

The series writers were heavily influenced by Burrs standup comedy, as well as some of their own experiences growing up in the 70s. But there is one specific scene from the pilot episode that Burr loves because it actually happened to him as a kid. Read on.

The episode most special to Burr is the pilot because it happened IRL

Burr voices the character of Frank Murphy in F is for Family. Murphy lives with his wife, Sue, and their three children. Despite all the cursing and shouting, they are a loving familyin their own dysfunctional way. Netflix describes the series as a time when kids roamed wild and beer flowed freely.

A Reddit fan asked if there is one episode most special to Burr. In a video Netflix posted, he responds, saying, Yeah, theres a number of scenes in the pilot episode Burr could hardly contain his laughter when he starts talking about the scene where Bill is up in a tree, and bigger kids are throwing rocks at him.

That happened to me and my best friend when I was a kid, he said. There were no fireworks, we exaggerated itbut we were up there hanging on, crying, he says, smiling, before bursting out with a loud chuckle. And that was just such a regular day back then, he says, commenting on his experiences growing up in the 70s in Canton, Massachusetts, which is just south of Boston.

How did F is for Family end? Spoiler alert.

F is for Family ended on November 25, 2021, after five seasons on Netflixand some fans were surprised to find out what happened to some of the characters.

Major spoiler alertskip over this next section if you havent streamed the final season yet.

Netflix Life reports that fans were surprised to see Ginny and Franks sister, Eileen, get together by the end of season five. Theres also another happy coupleKevin eventually wins Alice back.

Viewers doubted whether Buster would make the jump, flying his motorcycle over an airplanebut somehow he managed to make a successful landing even after a night of drinking.

It wasnt all good news for every character, though. Fans were rooting for Frank to get promoted, but he got demoted. And in a sentimental moment, Frank learns that his dads final words, box 16, were actually Bach 16, his favorite song. He was able to carry out his fathers final wishes by playing the song at the cemetery.

In another part of the fitting ending, Frank realizes his family means everything. He had been fighting with Sue, but he returns home from the bar and apologizes.

Burr is keeping his fans happy with several new projects in the works

Since F is for Family ended, Burr is keeping busy so his fans will have plenty of opportunities to keep laughing. He hosts his own comedy podcast, Monday Morning Podcast. Hes also in the Roku original series, Bill Burr Presents Immoral Compass, streaming for free on the Roku Channel since November 5, 2021.

If thats not enough, Burr has also returned to standup comedy with a live show, Bill Burr the Tour. He will travel throughout the U.S., with show dates scheduled through August 2022.

Wait, theres more. Burr will join a slew of other legendary comedians for the Netflix is a Joke comedy festival, which takes place in over 25 venues throughout Los Angeles from April 28 through May 8, 2022.

RELATED: Who Is Bill Burrs Wife and Do They Have Any Kids?
Psychoanalyst Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) and Detective Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) are teaming up for another season of solving crimes in early 20th-century Vienna. Vienna Blood Season 2 premieres in early 2022 on PBS. Heres what we know so far about the new season of the historical mystery series.

Vienna Blood Season 2 premiers Jan. 9

Vienna Blood Season 2 |  Endor Production Ltd/MR Film GmbH

RELATED: Endeavour Season 8 Gets Fall 2021 Airdate In U.K.  When Will It Air on PBS?

The new season of Vienna Blood comes two years after season 1 aired on PBS in January 2020. The show was renewed for a second season in July 2020, and the new episodes begin airing on PBS on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, at 10 p.m. ET (Check local listings).

Vienna Blood Season 2 has six episodes, which will air on Sunday nights through Feb. 13. Episodes will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS video app. In addition, all of season 2s episodes will be available to stream on PBS Passport beginning Jan. 9. PBS Passport is a special benefit for PBS members; you can learn more about it on the PBS website.

What will the new season be about?

Vienna Blood Season 2 | Courtesy of  Endor Production Ltd/MR Film GmbH

RELATED: Sanditon Season 2: PBS Reveals First Look at 5 New Cast Members

In Vienna Blood Season 2, doctor and Sigmund Freud disciple Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) once again team up to investigate strange and baffling crimes in the cosmopolitan city of Vienna. While the dazzling capital is bubbling with new ideas about philosophy, psychology, and art, theres also a troubling undercurrent of rising nationalism, antisemitism, and murder.

This season will feature three, two-part mysteries.

In Vienna Blood Season 2 Episode 1, The Melancholy Countess, Part 1, a depressed Hungarian countess drowns in the bath while staying in a luxury hotel. Her death looks like a suicide, and intense scrutiny falls on her psychoanalyst, Max. Oskar and Max team up to find out the truth behind the countess death and save Maxs professional reputation.

This seasons other two mysteries involve a mutilated corpse discovered in a Vienna slum and a monk who is found brutally murdered in a monastery.

Vienna Blood is filmed on location in Austria

Vienna is in the name of the show, but is Vienna Blood actually filmed in Austrias largest city? Yes. Thats because the character of the city is central to the shows stories.

[O]ne of the key things about it is that the entire show is filmed on location in Vienna, writer Steven Thompson told the BBC in 2019. And Vienna is a key character and consequently every scene we got to a different place, a different ballroom, a different salon, a different part of this incredible city. Part of the fun of filming it has been me gradually having an understanding of Vienna and getting to know Vienna.

We have wonderful locations which you would not know were not 1906, producer Hilary Bevan Jones said. Occasionally we have to hide something of now but most of the time the natural authenticity is very good. And we have fantastic costume and make-up designers so together we can step back into this time in history.

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ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

Yellowstones prequel 1883 tells the origin story of the Dutton Ranch.

It stars Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott, and Isabel May.

Where have fans seen May before?

Isabel May | Emerson Miller/Paramount

The new Yellowstone prequel 1883 is the latest project from creator Taylor Sheridan, and it features a star-studded cast. The western will feature country music superstars, an Oscar nominee, and two Oscar winners. Theres also a young actor named Isabel May who plays Elsa Dutton, an ancestor of Kevin Costners John Dutton.

Where have Yellowstone fans seen May before?

The Yellowstone prequel 1883 tells the origin story of the Dutton Ranch

The flagship Yellowstone series is a story about rancher John Dutton and the land that has been in his family for decades. But how did his ancestors acquire that Montana land that John would build into the largest ranch in the United States? Thats what viewers will find out in the prequel 1883.

According to a press release, 1883 follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in Americas promised land  Montana.

1883 has some serious star power

Country music superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill star in 1883 as James and Margaret Dutton  the great grandparents of Costners John Dutton. They are the first members of the family to settle the Montana land that becomes the Yellowstone Ranch.

James and Margaret are the patriarch and matriarch of Yellowstones Dutton family. But to get to Montana, they need someone to lead them. That job goes to Shea Brennan, played by Oscar nominee Sam Elliott.

Shea is a tough-as-nails, handsome cowboy with immense sadness in his past, and he has the herculean task of guiding the group from Texas to Montana, and he does not suffer fools.

The 1883 trailer also revealed that the prequel will feature guest appearances from Oscar winners Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Hanks. Thornton will star as Marshal Jim Courtright, while Hanks will be featured as a Union Army General.

Where have Yellowstone fans seen Isabel May?

While many of the adults in the cast are well-known names, the younger cast members are relative newcomers. This includes Isabel May, who plays James and Margarets daughter Elsa.

May is a 21-year-old from California who made her acting debut back in 2018 in the series Young Sheldon, when she appeared in nine episodes as Veronica Duncan. But, May is mostly known for starring in the Netflix Emmy-nominated series Alexa & Katie. May played the titular Katie Cooper for the series three-season run that featured 39 episodes.

May also starred as Zoe Hull in the 2020 film Run, Hide, Fight. And, she has two other projects currently in post-production. One is a film titled I Want You Back, with co-stars Scott Eastwood and Jami Gertz. May is also starring in The Moon & Back, a comedy about a high school student who tries to make a movie after she discovers a script that her late father had written.

Elsa Dutton is the heart and soul of the Duttons in 1883

According to Outsider, Mays character of Elsa is the heart and soul of the Dutton family in 1883. She will serve as the audiences guide to the Wild West during the late 19th century, as she is the series narrator.

Yellowstone fans got their first chance to hear May as Elsa in the prequels official trailer and extended trailer, of which she narrated both.

I heard a thousand stories, but none could describe this place, Elsa says in the extended look trailer. It must be witnessed to be understood. And yet, Ive seen it, and I understand it even less than I did before I cast eyes on this place.

How is Elsa Dutton related to the Duttons on Yellowstone?

James and Margaret Dutton are the parents of three children  Elsa, John, and Spencer. If weve done our math correctly, James and Margarets son John appears to be the grandfather of Costners John Dutton. Which makes Elsa his great-aunt.

The young John Dutton in 1883 is the first of three Johns in the family line. He will grow up to have his own son named John  who was referred to as John Sr. (Dabney Coleman) in season 2 when he appeared via flashback as the father of Costners John Dutton.

The special two-hour premiere of 1883 airs Sunday, December 19 on the Paramount Network before the series moves exclusively to Paramount+.

RELATED: 1883: How Is Faith Hills Character Related to Kevin Costners John Dutton in the Yellowstone Prequel?
Ida Beard disappeared in the summer of 2015, at the age of 29. Beards mother, Rebecca Ponkilla, left, and a sister, Zina Deere, right, searched for answers to why she went missing and still seek clues about her well-being and whereabouts. They are shown during an interview in Deere's home in southeast Oklahoma City in 2019. Deere is holding her son, Nathaniel. Her older son, Ezekial is holding Ida's granddaughter, Aileen Beard.
The dining table was set for a fine yet intimate family dinner, accented by festive holiday decor and aglow with candlelight.

The aroma of food filled the cozy Canadian home, along with family chatter after a Saturday out braving cold temperatures and Christmas crowds in the city.

I asked the hostess if I could help with anything. No, youre our guest, she warmly replied. Were almost ready.

As I wandered into the dining room and saw the picture-perfect place settings, tears filled my eyes. To be given a seat at the tableany tableis one of lifes greatest gifts, I thought to myself. To be given a place at this table? A miracle.

On the surface, this looked like a scene from a Hallmark movie or a holiday commercial. In the shadow of an elegant Christmas tree, the host couple prepared dinner together while the laughter of their children mingled with Christmas carols in the background.

The backstory, however, was far from picture perfect. And the hospitality being extended to meperhaps the unlikeliest of invitations Id ever receivedhad not come without a significant cost.

The hostess was Lori Anne Thompsona woman who was groomed and sexually abused in 20142016 by my then-boss, Ravi Zacharias, who had been a world-renowned Christian apologist. The guest was yours trulyI had been the spokesperson for Thompsons abuser throughout the abuse crisis. Indeed, for years I was part of the machine that nearly crushed her family.

It is hard to overstate how brutally the Thompson family had been treated by Zacharias and the ministry he ledor how far reaching the consequences of this injustice inflicted upon them extended.

When Lori Anne and her husband, Brad, confronted Zacharias in 2017 about his predatory behavior, Zacharias filed a RICO lawsuit against them and set out to destroy their reputation in the courts of law and public opinion. Lori Annes bravery paved the way for numerous other women to come forward in 2020and an investigation confirmed in 2021 that Zacharias was a serial sexual predator who harmed many people.

So here we were on a December evening in Canada. It was the final night of my stay at the Thompson home, a visit that capped off a roller coaster yearor four years, ratherthat had left me heartbroken and dismayed yet curious and determined to learn from survivors even as I learn to advocate for them.

In fact, my visit, our first time ever meeting in person, was exactly four years to the day of the infamous December 3, 2017, statement in which Ravi Zacharias and RZIM denied wrongdoing and maligned Lori Anne and Brad.

That statementa false narrative first published by Christianity Todayspread like wildfire throughout the globe and amounted to what Thompson described to me as a death sentence against them.

We almost didnt survive that, she told me.

But miraculously, against all odds, they did survive. Despite the crushing weight of character assassination, the mockery of their marriage by those who claimed the moral high ground, the slick PR campaigns designed to discredit their testimony, the Christian celebrities who lined up to support their abusers account while they were silenced, and the threats to sue them into oblivion funded by donors with deep pockets (phrases Zacharias would oft repeat)here they were, still standing.

There is a reason we are referred to as survivors, Lori Anne shared with me, recounting the horrific nature of abuse. Many dont make it.

The contrast between reality and the lies Id been told about this kind and gracious couple was almost too jarring for my mind to comprehend. For years, Zacharias had portrayed the Thompsons as two very wicked human beings who were serial extortioners engaged in satanic type slander and falsehoodand other leaders were eager to propagate this narrative. Sadly, too many people still believe a version of this account, something Im reminded of frequently.

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As one who is still wrestling with my own complicity from years in a toxic system that covered for the powerful man at the top while silencing the victimized women who sought justice, to be welcomed by the Thompson family was no small thing. It is something I wouldve thought impossible just a year ago.

We never thought ill of you, Lori Anne assured me as I choked back tears at the dining table. To be lavished with such compassion? Overwhelming. I felt so undeserving yet deeply grateful.

I never imagined Id go from being a spokesperson to a whistleblower in a Christian organization known for its pursuit of truth, and I certainly never expected to be embraced by the very people who were most harmed by the man I worked for and the ministry he founded. To be given such grace is one of the most meaningful gifts Ive ever received.

Describing our visit, Thompson tweeted, These past few days have brought fresh revelations of profound predation; shared insights from opposite ends of the cane that crushed us; and collective wide eyed wonder, of the souls that survived it all. Truth has tucked its toes under our table, and supped in peace.

During this season, we tend to love stories that have bows on them, where every element ties neatly together and even the Grinchs heart grows three sizes in a day. But healing and growth take time, and sometimes the miracle isnt in a perfect ending but in a trajectory that has reversed course and is starting to see hope on the horizon.

Even as Lori Anne and I both continue on the path to restoration, with much still to grieve and lament , our time together felt like a significant step toward understanding and wholeness.

There is nothing Hallmark about this level of harm, Lori Anne later told me. What you witnessed in our home is a miraclebut it was a bloody one. It also cost victims to commune and communicate with you, even as it may have cost you to commune and communicate with them.

She is right. There is an immense cost to listening to survivors, to believing their voices enough to journey alongside them in pursuit of justice, to reckoning with our own complicity in a system that has further harmed those already victimized.

Its costlier still to forgive those who have wronged you, to love those who are different than you, to offer a seat at your table to an unlikely and undeserving guest.

Its costly and risky, and sometimes pursuing reconciliation is premature and unwise. But when genuine restoration takes place, its beautiful. As we leave familiar circles to forgive and love and invite others into our own lives, we follow the example of the one whose birth we celebrate: the one who left his heavenly throne and entered a dark world to live as a human, die a sacrificial death, and offer us, his enemies, the gift of life eternaladoption into the family of God. It is the unlikeliest of invitations. It is the miracle of Christmas.

There was nothing Hallmark about that first Christmasour Savior born in a time and region marked by scarcity, social unrest, political division, and even pending infanticide. The life of Christ, Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, was a miracle of all miraclesbut it was a bloody one. It cost our Savior his life to welcome us into his kingdom, even as it costs us daily to follow him.

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Psychologist Diane Langberg says, To truly follow Christ is to set forth on a journey of ever-expanding benevolence, from the narrow limits of familiar territory into the dark and unfamiliar world of the oppressed and sufferingand to people often unlike ourselves.

Image: Courtesy of Ruth Malhotra

Such benevolence means we must not overlook the pain, injustice, and trauma in our fallen world that make Advent that much more significanta lesson survivors continue to show me in this journey. As Lori Anne reflected, We mustnt miss the misery that precedes the manger and how much Christ meets us in our oppression.

The Christmas story reminds us that there is indeed light shining in the darkness, that beauty can be found in the most unexpected places, and that miracles do happen amid the mess and mire of real life. My visit with the Thompson family this month provided a glimpse of that. It is because God and sinners reconciled some 2,000 years ago that Lori Anne Thompson and I can be friends today. It is because in his name all oppression shall cease that all who follow Jesus must work together to pursue justice for the abused and freedom for the captive.

It is because he appeared and the soul felt its worth that the message of ChristmasImmanuel, God with usgives us hope in this life and the next. It is because God is not dead, nor doth he sleep that we have confidence the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.

In this season of celebration and joy, may we learn to lament the consequences of sin and meet each other in our suffering, even as we work toward justice and long for the reign of our coming King.

Ruth Malhotra is passionate about helping Christians communicate truth with clarity and grace. She managed public relations at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries from 20132021.
Captive missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for miles over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow.

The group of 12 navigated by stars to reach safety after a two-month kidnapping ordeal, officials with Christian Aid Ministries (CAM), the Ohio-based agency that the missionaries work for, said Monday at a press conference.

The detailed accounting of their journey to safety comes after news Thursday that all 17 hostages were finally free. CAM later announced they had forgiven their captors.

A total of 17 people from the missionary group12 adults and five minorswere abducted October 16 shortly after visiting an orphanage in Ganthier, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area, where they verified it had received aid from CAM and played with the children, CAM has said. The group included 16 Americans and one Canadian.

Their captors from the 400 Mawozo gang initially demanded millions of dollars in ransom. Five other captives had earlier reached freedom. It is still unclear if any ransom was paid.

CAM general director David Troyer did say supporters of CAM raised funds for possible use for a ransom, but he refused to say whether one was paid for any of the releases.

One of the missionaries, speaking an Anabaptist church in Pennsylvania on Sunday, said there were times the captives wished someone would pay the money for their release.

We did start to doubt and say, You know what, why doesnt someone just pay the money? but I believe that was Satan himself, the missionary said in a three-hour recording of his testimony obtained by CT.

According to the missionary, the men, women, and children prayed and sang three times a day during the two months they were held hostage, rebuked Satan, shared the gospel repeatedly with their captors, and learned to trust God for their deliverance.

The Lord wanted us to put our complete trust in him, he said. It wasnt by the arm of man that we were delivered at all. It was small things and big things that the Lord did for us.

The missionaries didnt try to escape until all of them agreed that thats what God wanted them do to. After walking through through the night, and emerging out of thicket of briars and brambles, they knocked on the door of a house near a highway and discovered two Christians practicing trumpet music for church on Sunday. One of the men loaned them a cell phone to call CAM.

After a number of hours of walking, day began to dawn and they eventually found someone who helped to make a phone call for help, CAM spokesman Weston Showalter said, his voice beginning to choke. They were finally free.

The 12 were flown to Florida on a US Coast Guard flight, and later reunited with five hostages who were released earlier.

CAM displayed photos at the news conference showing the freed hostages being reunited, along with a video of the group singing a song that had inspired them during their captivity.

Image: Screenshot - WEWS / AP Photo

The missionaries were taken hostage on their way back from the orphanage on the afternoon of October 16.

They had no idea what was ahead of them, Showalter said. Only five or 10 minutes after getting underway, they saw a roadblock up ahead. The groups driverthe one Canadian in the groupturned around, but a pickup truck pursued them, and gang members surrounded the van, CAM spokesman Weston Showalter said. He said early reports that the driver was a Haitian national were not accurate.

He said they were initially crowded into a small room in a house, but were moved around several times during their captivity.

They were not physically harmed by the kidnappers, Showalter said. He said the main physical challenges included the heat, mosquitoes, and contaminated water for bathing, which led some of them to develop sores. Sometimes the young children got sick.

However, he said everyone appears to have emerged from captivity in good health.

The adults received small food portions, such as rice and beans for dinner, although the captors provided plenty of food suitable for the small children, he said.

The hostages gathered multiple times during the day for prayer and religious devotions, and sometimes singing loud enough for each other to hear when they were in separate rooms, Showalter said.

They also sought to encourage other hostages who were being held for ransom in separate kidnappings, Showalter said.

Over time, the hostages agreed to try to escape, and chose the night of December 15 to flee.

When they sensed the timing was right, they found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path they had chosen to follow, and quickly left the place they were held, despite the fact that numerous guards were close by, Showalter said.

Based in Berlin, Ohio, CAM is supported and staffed by conservative Anabaptists, a range of Mennonite, Amish, and related groups whose hallmarks include nonresistance to evil, plain dress, and separation from mainstream society.

None of the freed hostages were at the press conference. They came from Amish, Mennonite, and other Anabaptist communities in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Ontario, according to CAM.

After the news conference, a group of CAM employees stood and sang, Nearer My God to Thee in the robust, four-part acapella harmony that is a signature of conservative Anabaptist worship.

Additional reporting by CT.
Mike Pence joins Samaritan's Purse volunteers to aid tornado victims in Kentucky

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Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, joined volunteers with the Evangelical Christian aid organization Samaritans Purse to help cleanup efforts in Kentucky following a recent line of deadly tornadoes.

On Dec. 10, over 60 tornadoes struck in six states, destroying hundreds of homes and killing over 70 people in Kentucky alone.

On Saturday, the Pences volunteered in Mayfield, Kentucky, working alongside dozens of volunteers in the town that became a focal point for national media coverage after the collapse of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory trapped dozens and killed at least eight.

Also joining the volunteers for the cleanup on Saturday was Edward Graham, son of the Samaritans Purses President Franklin Graham and grandson of the late evangelist Billy Graham.

According to a statement released by Samaritans Purse, the Pences encouraged and prayed with residents affected by the tornadoes. He also encouraged those volunteering amid the Christmas season to help those in need.

We just wanted to come down and say thanks for putting hands and feet to your faith, Pence told volunteers. The fact that youre taking time at this time of year is even more meaningful. Seeing you here is testament to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In a video, Pence said that the devastation in Mayfield is heartbreaking.

But to see Samaritans Purse on the scene coming literally all across this country to volunteer, helping to clear the damage, helping put their lives back together and doing it all in Jesus name, I know its been an encouragement to these homeowners that weve spoken to, the former Indiana governor said. People in this community need healing, and the Bible tells us that if His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray, Hell heal our land and Hell heal this community.

Volunteers with Samaritans Purse, who worked on the property of former Police Chief Dale Murphy, gave him a copy of the Holy Bible that they and the Pences signed.

What an encouragement this was to residents who have been through so much and to those volunteering, Graham stated in a Facebook post. Thank you to the Pences for showing the love of Jesus Christ in the aftermath of this deadly storm.

The six states impacted by the tornadoes are Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. Kentucky reportedly had one tornado that stayed on the ground for over 200 miles.

With help from local churches, Samaritans Purse has established tornado relief operations in Mayfield, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and northeast Arkansas. Volunteers in those locations are cutting and removing broken trees, removing wet drywall and carpeting, tarping roofs, salvaging belongings and locating missing items from destroyed homes.

We want to show these folks that are down in the ditch the love of Jesus Christ. And we know theres a need, and we are able to help these folks right where they are, in Jesus name, Todd Taylor, Samaritans Purse U.S. disaster relief program manager, told The Christian Post last week. Once yards have been cleaned and raked up, even if the house has been destroyed, it gives the homeowners hope and a place to start. And thats when we can start sharing the Gospel.

In Illinois, the fierce weather system led to the collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, resulting in six deaths, prompting an investigation into the warehouses collapse.

A letter sent Monday by progressive Democrat lawmakers to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and founder Jeff Bezos argued that the tragedy could have been avoided had the company followed proper safety procedures.

As we work to ensure that tragedies such as this one are not repeated, we seek answers about what happened at your Edwardsville warehouse, stated the letter, and whether your policies may have contributed to this tragedy.
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On December 1, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, a case that poses the best chance in over a generation to overturn Roe v. Wade. Julie Rickelman, senior director of U.S. litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights, argued that the Court should strike down Mississippis Gestational Age Act  the bipartisan legislation banning abortion after 15 weeks that was at issue in the case.

Although Rickelmans arguments occasionally aligned with the truth, the majority of what she said does not pass a fact check. Lets examine several of those claims.

Claim 1: Justice Roberts questioned whether a 15-week ban on abortion, as opposed to a ban at the point of viability (generally set at 22-24 weeks gestation), would have a severely negative impact on women in their place in society. Rickelman responded by stating, People who need abortion after 15 weeks are most often in the most challenging circumstances  In fact, the data has been very clear over the last 50 years that abortion has been critical to womens equal participation in society.

The Truth: In Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, a publication of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, the authors acknowledge that women seeking late-term abortions do so for the same reasons women receive earlier abortions  stressful circumstances of unprepared pregnancy, single-motherhood, financial pressure and relationship discord. Killing a child is not the solution to challenging circumstances.

Claim 2: Justice Roberts mentioned that the list of countries that do not ban abortion prior to viability includes North Korea and China. Rickelman responded, First thats not correct about international law. In fact, the majority of countries that permit legal access to abortion allow access right up until viability  So, for example, Canada, Great Britain and most of Europe allows access to abortion right up until viability

The Truth: Across the globe, only six countries allow abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy  North Korea, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Canada, and the United States. While Rickelman was correct that Canada and the United Kingdom offer abortion up until viability, she was wrong in characterizing that as typical for Europe. In fact, only two countries in Europe (the United Kingdom and Finland) allow abortion for broad social reasons or socioeconomic reasons. Around the world, 100 countries completely outlaw abortion or only allow abortion to protect the life of the mother or in cases of rape, incest, or fetal abnormality.

Claim 3: Justice Gorsuch asked Rickelman whether the undue burden standard is unworkable. Rickelman replied, The only thing thats at issue in this case is the viability line, and the viability line has been enduringly workable. The lower federal courts have applied it consistently and uniformly for 50 years. And the Fifth Circuit here below had no difficulty striking down this law unanimously, 3-0. So its been an exceedingly workable standard.

The Truth: Theviability line has shifted from 28 weeks when Roe was decided in 1973 to 22-24 weeks today. Multiple babies have even survived at 21 weeks. Viability is not a standard that can be uniformly applied because it varies from person to person. Characterizing viability as an exceedingly workable standard is either wishful thinking or willful ignorance.

Claim 4: Justice Alito questioned Rickelman about her defense of the viability line. He asked, The fetus has an interest in having a life, and that doesnt change, does it, from the point before viability to the point after viability? Rickelman ultimately responded, It [the viability standard] is principled because, in ordering the interests at stake, the Court had to set a line between conception and birth, and it logically looked at the fetus ability to survive separately as a legal line because its objectively verifiable and doesnt require the Court to resolve the philosophical issues at stake.

The Truth: The matter of an unborn child being a human being is not a philosophical issue; it is a scientific fact. Furthermore, at no point in time do babies  born or unborn (or countless fully grown adults)  have the ability to survive separately, so if Rickelman actually believes that the Courts line where a person has the ability to survive separately is the logical point before which a person can be killed  she is endorsing abortion, infanticide, and the right to kill anyone who cannot survive on their own.

Claim 5: In an exchange with Justice Alito, Rickelman claimed that access to abortion is part of the American tradition. She said, At the founding, women were able to end their pregnancy under the common law. And, in fact, this Court  specifically called out and relied on Roes conclusion that at the time of the founding and well into the 1800s, women had the ability to end a pregnancy.

The Truth: Multiple amicus briefs were filed proving the opposite. The Thomas More Society noted that English common law originally followed in the American colonies considered abortion after quickening as a serious crime, and early state laws made abortion throughout pregnancy criminal. As Josh Craddock pointed out in his seminal piece, Protecting Prenatal Persons: Does the Fourteenth Amendment Prohibit Abortion? published in Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, quickening was used to protect prenatal life as soon as it could be discerned  not to exclude life prior to that moment. In other words, at the time of the American founding, once there was evidence of life in the womb, it was protected. Professors Mary Ann Glendon and O. Carter Snead echoed this argument.



Craddock also noted that by the time of ratification of the 14th Amendment, which is used to justify the right to privacy under which abortion is legalized, not only did common-law and state practice protect the unborn, but dictionaries used person and human being interchangeably, and the authors of the 14th Amendment expected it to especially protect the weak and marginalized. Esteemed legal scholars John Finnis and Robert George, as well as Lee Strang, submitted amicus briefs arguing along the same line of thought.

As we pray for the outcome in Dobbs, let us also pray for Julie Rickelman  that this brilliant woman will seek the truth and one day use her God-given gifts to defend life.

Originally published at the Family Research Council.
Pastors challenge govt officials 'scaremongering campaign' against Evangelical Christians

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Two evangelical pastors in Bulgaria have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to order a Bulgarian city to end its "scaremongering campaign" against non-Eastern Orthodox Christians after city officials and police sent a letter to all school administrators instructing faculty to inform children of the danger evangelical Christians pose.

The pastors, Zhivko Tochev and Radoslav Kiryakov, filed a brief with Europes top court earlier this month, responding to the arguments of the Balkan nations government in defense of its letter, which was sent by the City Council of Burgas, together with the police, to school administrators in 2008.

In the letter sent by officials with the city of Burgas, all non-Eastern Orthodox Christians were labeled as being part of sects.

Officials also accused Protestants of carrying out a massive campaign of agitation  tricking new members  disuniting the Bulgarian nation, said the human rights group Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is representing the pastors.

The letter also alleged that there was a danger of suffering mental aberrations and disorders when attending Protestant church services. The students in the class were asked to report if they had ever met someone from one of the named groups. The government also provided material to the press to generate coverage on what was referred to as its War on the Sects.

When we read the letter, we were shocked because after the fall of communism, we thought that we would be able to share the Gospel freely, Pastor Kiryakov was quoted as saying. At the same time, the media also started to say that we are dangerous cults and sectarians, and that people should be very careful.

ADF Internationals allied lawyer Viktor Kostov said religious beliefs are part of the dignity of human beings and have to be respected.

The actions of the government in this case were reckless and they caused significant damage to the ability of the pastors that I represent, Tonchev and Kiryakov, to exercise their religious rights, he said. They also caused damage to all other congregations and, in a larger context, to all believers in the city and in the country.

In 2018, Christian leaders in Bulgaria sounded an alarm about two proposed draft laws that were being advanced in the countrys parliament at the time that would revise the countrys Religious Denominations Act.

The amendments would hold that Bulgarian citizens may only carry out liturgical activities if they have completed theological education in Bulgaria or have a foreign diploma recognized by Bulgarian government institutions and state-sanctioned denominations.

The New York-based World Evangelical Alliance, which serves an international network of churches in 129 nations, voiced concern with the draft laws, stressing that they threaten to force evangelical churches and institutions to close or face unbearable and discriminatory administrative burdens and has implications on the funding and financial management of religious communities as well as on the training and appointing of clergy.
Trump to celebrate Christmas at First Baptist Dallas during The History Tour

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Former President Donald Trump is expected to celebrate Christmas with one of the strongest supporters of his presidency, Pastor Robert Jeffress, at First Baptist Dallas church on Sunday as he continues The History Tour, which takes a look back at his time serving as the 45th president of the United States.

We are blessed to have my friend and our 45th president to worship with us this Sunday morning at First Baptist Dallas, Jeffress said in a statement cited by CBS DFW. America has never had a more pro-life and pro-religious liberty president than Donald J. Trump. We owe President Trump a debt of gratitude for all he has done for our great nation.

While The History Tour will be looking back at Trumps presidency, Jeffress promised that his time at First Baptist Dallas on Dec. 19 will be focused on the birth of Jesus Christ.

The focus of the music and message this Sunday will be on the most important event in human history  the birth of Jesus Christ. President Trump is known for his love for Christmas and what it represents. We are thrilled to have him join us for this Christmas worship experience this Sunday morning, Jeffress said.

The tour, which includes a series of live conversations between former Fox News host Bill OReilly, who's now on Newsmax, and Trump, and began with stops in Sunrise and Orlando, Florida, and will continue at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday.

Trump promises that his conversation with OReilly will be hard-hitting.

These will be wonderful but hard-hitting sessions where well talk about the real problems happening in the U.S., the former president said in a statement cited by The Dallas Morning News. I will be focusing on greatness for our country, something seldom discussed in political dialogue. If we dont make our country great again, we will soon no longer have a country!

Other than those focus areas, Trump further promised that the event, where tickets are currently priced between $95 and more than $2,000, will be fun, fun, fun.

Months before Trumps election as the 45th president in 2016, Jeffress praised him for his selfless desire to be president.

"Although as a pastor I cannot officially endorse a candidate, I want you to know that I would not be here this morning, if I were not absolutely convinced that Donald Trump would make a great president of the United States," he told Trump's crowd of adulators at the time.

And as the first of two impeachment enquiries was underway against Trump in the fall of 2019, Jeffress defended him.

Look, I dont pretend to speak for all evangelicals but this week I have been traveling the country and Ive literally spoken to thousands and thousands of evangelical Christians. I have never seen them more angry over any issue than this attempt to illegitimately remove this president from office, overturn the 2016 election and negate the votes of millions of evangelicals in the process, Jeffress said in an interview.

And they know that the only impeachable offense President Trump has committed was beating Hillary Clinton in 2016. Thats the unpardonable sin for which the Democrats will never forgive him, he added.
Christian groups ask Supreme Court to stop Biden employer vaccine mandate

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Christian organizations have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the enforcement of the Biden administrations COVID-19 vaccine mandate following an appeals court decision last Friday allowing the employer mandate to take effect.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a stay issued by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing for the rule stipulating that businesses with 100 or more employees require employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing by early January.

The First Liberty Institute, a legal nonprofit specializing in religious liberty cases, filed an emergency application for stay with the nations high court over the weekend on behalf of multiple faith-based organizations, arguing that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The application was filed with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees the 6th Circuit.

The Ministries seek an immediate stay of [OSHAs emergency temporary standard] while the court of appeals considers the merits of their petitions for review, because the ETS fails to provide any religious exemptions or accommodations for religious employers as required by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Liberty application states.

First Liberty represents the Daystar Television Network, Inc.; the American Family Association, Inc.; and Answers in Genesis, Inc.

On behalf of Christian colleges and seminaries, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal nonprofit that has successfully argued several religious freedom cases before the Supreme Court, asked Justice Kavanaugh to halt the enforcement of the federal vaccine mandate.

ADF represents the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Asbury Theological Seminary, Sioux Falls Catholic Schools, Cambridge Christian School, Home School Legal Defense Association and the Christian Employers Alliance.

ADF contends that relief is warranted because the Mandate seeks to issue sweeping non-workplace, public health measures. ADF believes that OSHA failed to satisfy the requirements of the ETS provision.

It is problematic enough that the Mandate exceeds OSHAs authority, imposes $3 billion in compliance costs, seeks to resolve one of the most hotly debated political topics in recent memory, and seeks to alter the federal-state balance, continued the ADF.

But the Mandate also inserts federal power into the employment decisions of religious institutions, despite the fact that the OSH Act does not allow OSHA to regulate religious nonprofit organizations.

The Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in a lawsuit against the mandate, also expressed the intention of continuing the legal battle against OSHA. President Kevin Roberts said in a statement Saturday that his organization will explore all legal options for challenging the circuit courts decision.

President Biden was wrong to impose this authoritarian mandate on the American people and the circuit courts ruling only adds confusion and uncertainty. If this ruling is upheld, it will set a dangerous precedent for future encroachments upon our freedom, said Roberts.

While we are disappointed in the 6th Circuits misguided ruling, we remain confident we will ultimately prevail. Until then, we wont stop fighting for the millions of Americans affected by this unlawful mandate.

OSHA unveiled its temporary emergency standards final rule in November.

OSHA has determined that many employees in the U.S. who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 face grave danger from exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the workplace, the agency stated at the time.

This finding of grave danger is based on the severe health consequences associated with exposure to the virus along with evidence demonstrating the transmissibility of the virus in the workplace and the prevalence of infections in employee populations.

OSHA maintains that the rule is necessary to protect unvaccinated workers from the risk of contracting COVID-19 at work, adding that workers are becoming seriously ill and dying as a result of occupational exposures to COVID-19, when a simple measure, vaccination, can largely prevent those deaths and illnesses.

The majority of the 6th Circuit panel concluded that OSHA has long had the authority to regulate hazards that co-exist in the workplace and in society but are at heightened risk in the workplace.

OSHAs issuance of the ETS is not an enormous expansion of its regulatory authority. OSHA has regulated workplace health and safety on a national scale since 1970, including controlling the spread of disease, the courts opinion authored by Obama appointee Judge Jane Stranch reads.

[V]accination and medical examinations are both tools that OSHA historically employed to contain illness in the workplace. The ETS is not a novel expansion of OSHAs power; it is an existing application of authority to a novel and dangerous worldwide pandemic.

Judge Joan Larsen, a Trump appointee, dissented.

Here, the Secretary asks for maximum authority and maximum discretion; he wants to

issue a rule of national import, covering two-thirds of American workers, and he wants to do it without clear congressional authorization, without even public notice and comment, and with a capacious understanding of necessity, Larsen wrote. Such a combination of authority and discretion is unprecedented, and the Secretary is unlikely to show that he has been granted it.

In a statement Saturday, the U.S. Department of Labor said it wont penalize companies that dont comply with the regulations until Jan. 10. The agency wont issue citations for companies that dont comply with its testing requirements until Feb. 9 so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance.
Christmas in Revelation

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At the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown cries out in desperation, Isnt there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about? Can you imagine what the audience response would have been if, instead of the passage in Luke 2, Charles Schultz had chosen the following text for Linus to present:



A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. (Rev. 12:1-5).

And that, says Linus, is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

A walk through Revelations Christmas Story

Although certainly not traditional Christmas fare, the above passage from the Bibles last book provides unique insight into the birth of Christ over what we find in Matthew and Luke. Lets take a quick walk through the Christmas story via the lens of John (the author of Revelation) in his prophetic work.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

Theres no Mary and Joseph in this nativity; instead, the second half of Revelation starts with the first in a series of events called signs (12:3; 13:1314; 15:1; 16:14; 19:20). These are symbols that God reveals, which typically contain an element of prophetic warning.

The woman depicted is the second of four symbolic women in the book (Jezebel, 2:20; the great harlot, 17:17; the bride of the Lamb, 19:78). Is this Mary as in the gospels or someone else?

There have been both reasonable and bizarre conjectures as to her identity, with perhaps the strangest being the 19th-century cult leader Joanna Southcott who claimed the woman was herself. While some make the case for Mary (Roman Catholicism) or the Church, I believe the biblical evidence points to the woman being Israel.

In the dream of Joseph chronicled in Genesis 37:911, the sun and moon refer to Jacob and Rachel, and the 11 stars are Josephs brothers. Moreover, the Bible says it was through Israel that Jesus Christ came into the world (Rom. 1:3; 9:45) with the nation often being compared to a woman, including one in travail giving birth (Isa. 54:5; 66:7; Micah 4:10; 5:23). Being in pain is nothing new to Israel; it has suffered satanic antiSemitism continually right up to our present day.

So, while in Matthew and Lukes Christmas story we have Mary giving birth to Jesus, in Revelation John pictures the persecuted nation of Israel doing so.

Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.

In the gospel accounts, it takes several chapters for Satan to explicitly appear, but in Revelations Christmas story, hes immediately front and center.

The second sign in Revelation is great only in the respect of it being large and monstrous. The Bible clearly says the dragon is Satan (Rev. 12:9), with the color red (pyrros) depicting death (cf. the 2nd rider in Rev. 6:4) and the fact that the devil is a murderer (John 8:44).

While theres no debate as to the dragons identity, there is disagreement over what his multiple heads, horns, and crowns mean. Yet, later in Revelation, were told that the heads represent mountains (Rev. 17:9), and the horns represent kings (Rev. 17:12). In all likelihood, the Antichrists future kingdom is being depicted: one of a renewed Roman empire consisting of a ten-nation confederacy with the ten horns representing leaders who will rule under Antichrist (cf. Rev. 13:1; Dan. 7:2325).

Pastor and commentator R.C.H. Lenski sums up the imagery in this verse as Satan wearing symbols of arrogated dominion.

And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

Were given a quick understanding of the magnitude of spiritual evil and its formation against the Christ child with this verse. Literally, one-third of the angelic host followed Satan in his rebellion against God and now operate as demons who work against Jesus.

While some try to argue that the stars represent something other than angels, Rev. 12:9 and Dan. 8:10 indicate these are members of the rebellious angelic host.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

Satan has been forever trying to kill Jesus.

Here in Revelation, John shows his reader a picture of the struggle between the woman and Satan, which is a throwback to the beginning of human history where God addressed the woman and the serpent (Gen. 3:1416). Ever since God told Satan that the womans offspring would crush his head, there has always been a dragon standing by, waiting to destroy Israel and the ancestors of the Messiah.

In Matthews Christmas story, we see just one attempt: the satanically-inspired campaign of Herod to murder all the young male children (Matt. 2:16), who are the first Christian martyrs. But there have been plenty of other efforts made by the devil to stop Jesus from coming and fulfilling His mission.

Influenced by Satan, Cain killed his brother Abel, and Pharaoh (called a dragon in Ezek. 29:3 as is Nebuchadnezzar in Jer. 51:34) drowned the male children of the Hebrews. With murderous intent, Saul hurled his spear at David (1 Sam. 20:33), and Haman plotted to exterminate the Jewish people living in the provinces of Persia (Est. 3). At one point, the Messiahs line was limited to one young boy (2 Kings 11:13).

All the devils work has proven fruitless, though, because Jesus Christ has conquered the dragon through His birth, life, and ascension, as the next verse indicates.

And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

The Christmas storys trinitarian score concludes at, God: 3; Satan: 0.

Satan fails at his attempts to stop Christ from coming, fails at his attempts to stop Jesus from accomplishing His mission, and fails at his attempts to stop Jesus from being glorified.

And to remind his readers of Christs firm reign, three times in Revelation John quotes words from Psalm 2:9, You shall break them with a rod of iron (2:27; 12:5; 19:15). The imagery is the exact opposite of a helpless baby in a manager in this version of Christs birth.

Note that God is the agent in the passive voice of the phrase her child was caught up to God. The catching up of the Child refers to His Ascension, not to the later Rapture of the church as some propose (the Rapture of the church would not constitute a deliverance of the male Child from Satan).

And so there you have it  the Christmas story as told by John in Revelation. It is the unveiling of the ascended Christ, the exalted Christ, and the Christ who is coming again in glory. Just as in Lukes Christmas account, the only proper response to all this is, Glory to God in the highest (2:14).

Were told in Hebrews 12:2 that we look: unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And that is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Indian authorities investigate Mother Teresa charity over claims of converting orphan girls

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Amid rising Christian persecution in India, police in the western state of Gujarat are investigating Mother Teresas charity, which runs orphanages and schools for abandoned children, after officials filed a police complaint under the states anti-conversion law alleging the nuns are forcibly converting girls.

Police have filed a case against the Missionaries of Charity, which was founded by Mother Teresa, under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act of 2003 for allegedly hurting Hindu religious sentiments and luring" young girls "toward Christianity" in a shelter home it runs in Vadodara city, The Indian Express reported.

The police complaint says District Social Defense Officer Mayank Trivedi and the Chairman of the Child Welfare Committee of the district visited the Catholic charitys Home for Girls in Makarpura area on Dec. 9 and found that girls were being forced to read the Bible and pray with the intention of steering them into Christianity, the newspaper said.

Between February 10, 2021, and December 9, 2021, the institution has been involved in activities to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus intentionally and with bitterness The girls inside the Home for Girls are being lured to adopt Christianity by making them wear the cross around their neck and also placing the Bible on the table of the storeroom used by the girls, in order to compel them to read the Bible It is an attempted crime to force religious conversion upon the girls, reads the complaint.

A spokesperson from the charity was quoted as saying, We are not involved in any religious conversion activity We have 24 girls in the home. These girls live with us and they follow our practice as they see us doing the same when we pray and live. We have not converted anyone or forced anyone to marry into Christian faith.

While Christians make up only 2.3% of Indias population and Hindus comprise about 80%, the countrys radical Hindu nationalists have been carrying out attacks on Christians under the pretext of punishing the minority for allegedly using monetary rewards to convert Hindus to Christianity.

Several Indian states, including Gujarat, have passed anti-conversion laws, which presume that Christians force or give financial benefits to Hindus to lure them into converting to Christianity. While some of these laws have been in place for decades, no Christian has been convicted of forcibly converting anyone to Christianity. These laws, however, allow Hindu nationalist groups to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks on them under the pretext of the alleged forced conversion.

India ranks as the 10th worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2021 World Watch List.

The group warns that since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014, persecution against Christians and other religious minorities has increased.

In 2017, more than 100 members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to Indias interior minister, urging him to allow U.S.-based Christian child sponsorship organization Compassion International, which was forced to close operations in India due to allegations that it was funding religious conversions, to continue its work in that country. The Colorado-based charity said at the time that the decision impacted nearly 147,000 babies, children and young adults registered in its child development programs, as well as 127 staff.

Compassion International executives denied the allegation and said they were not given a chance to rebut the governments claims, according to The New York Times.

Open Doors USA reports that Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences.

Hindu extremists believe that all Indians should be Hindus and that the country should be rid of Christianity and Islam, an Open Doors fact sheet on India explains. They use extensive violence to achieve this goal, particularly targeting Christians from a Hindu background. Christians are accused of following a foreign faith and blamed for bad luck in their communities.

Human rights groups in India said in October they had documented over 300 incidents of Christian persecution in just the first nine months of 2021, warning that this year might be the worst in terms of the number of such incidents in the countrys history.
Pro-abortion Catholic politicians shouldn't receive communion: Nancy Pelosi's archbishop declares

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A Roman Catholic archbishop whose territory includes the church that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi belongs to has recommended that pro-abortion Catholics should not receive communion.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of California released a pastoral letter on Saturday that addressed whether Catholics who actively campaign on behalf of pro-choice policies should be allowed to receive communion.

The Catholic Church official directed his comments at figures like Pelosi, who, while being a practicing Catholic, is known for her strong support of legal abortion.

Your Catholic ideals inspire you in your work to help those who experience discrimination, violence, and injustice, and you deserve the gratitude of your fellow Catholics and our nation for this service. But we cannot empower the weak by crushing the weakest, wrote Cordileone.

If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your advocacy for abortion, you should not come forward to receive Holy Communion. To publicly affirm the Catholic faith while at the same time publicly rejecting one of its most fundamental teachings is simply dishonest.

In the conclusion of the letter, Cordileone emotionally implored pro-abortion Catholics to reconsider their stance and work to end abortion, stating the killing must stop.

God has entrusted you with a prestigious position in society. You have the power to affect societal practices and attitudes. Always remember that you will one day have to render an account to God for your stewardship of this trust, he added.

And please stop pretending that advocating for or practicing a grave moral evil  one that snuffs out an innocent human life, one that denies a fundamental human right  is somehow compatible with the Catholic faith. It is not.

The archbishop went on to ask pro-abortion Catholics to return home to the fullness of your Catholic faith, saying they await you with open arms to welcome you back.

The question over whether pro-abortion Catholic politicians can be denied communion has been given increased focus in the wake of the election of President Joe Biden.

In October 2019, then-presidential hopeful Biden was denied communion at a mass at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in South Carolina due to his policy stances on abortion.

A Pew Research Center poll released in late March found that two-thirds of American Catholics believe that Biden should not be denied communion, despite his views on abortion.

Pew found a partisan divide over the issue, as 55% of Catholic Republicans thought he should be denied the sacrament, while 87% of Catholic Democrats thought he should not be denied it.

For his part, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego stated in February that he felt denying Catholic officials communion over their support for abortion was very destructive.

I do not see how depriving the President of other political leaders of Eucharist based on their public policy stance can be interpreted in our society as anything other than the weaponization of Eucharist, said McElroy, as reported by CRUX Now.

In June, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will consider a draft document that, if approved, would recommend that pro-abortion Catholic politicians not receive communion.

Even if approved, however, the draft document would only recommend the denial of communion, with local dioceses still being allowed to make their own rules on the issue.
Trump wins CPAC Dallas straw poll by landslide, DeSantis comes in second

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Former President Donald Trump continues to be the GOP's presidential frontrunner for 2024 after winning a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference hosted by the American Conservative Union in Dallas, Texas, over the weekend.

Trump held the lead with 70% of CPAC attendees saying they'd vote for him if the Republican Primary were held today and he was running.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was the runner-up in the poll, lagging behind the former president with just 21% of the vote among attendees at CPAC in Dallas. However, the poll also asked attendees who they'd vote for if Trump wasn't in the race and DeSantis led the pack with 68% of the vote.

The 19 other contenders, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence each received 1% or less of the vote.

With Trump hypothetically out of the race, the other contenders received more votes in the straw poll. Pompeo received 5%, Donald Trump Jr. and Cruz both garnered 4%, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem received 3%, and all other candidates had less than 2%.

The conference, which is usually held annually near Washington, D.C., is considered the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world." This year the event was also held in Orlando, Florida.

Trump performed better in the CPAC Dallas straw poll than CPAC Orlando back in February where he won less of a majority.

At CPAC Orlando, 55% of respondents said they would support Trump as the Republican nominee, 21% said they would support DeSantis, and 4% expressed support for Noem.

DeSantis is a former congressman and U.S. Navy JAG officer who has gained national attention for not mandating ongoing lockdown restrictions in response to COVID-19, thus keeping Florida's economy open.

His Democratic opponent in the 2019 gubernatorial race, Andrew Gillum, who many had expected to win the election, later came out as bisexual following a drug and sex scandal in which he was found passed out in a Miami Beach hotel room with two other men and three bags of methamphetamines months after he lost.

In a separate poll at the Western Conservative Summit last month, DeSantis received more votes than Trump. In that poll, 74% percent of attendants at the Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian Universitys public policy think tank, approved of DeSantis as a 2024 presidential candidate, while 71% said they preferred Trump over dozens of the other top contenders, both Republican and Democrat.

The other top candidates, in order of most approval to least, included Sen. Ted Cruz (43%), Mike Pompeo (39%) and Sen. Tim Scott (36%).

Trump, who has flirted with the possibility of another presidential run, addressed a friendly crowd at CPAC Dallas that chanted USA! USA! as he took the stage on Sunday.

He began his speech shortly after the results of the 2024 presidential election straw poll were released.

"With the help of everyone here today, we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists and the critical race theorists," Trump said in his 90-minute speech. "We will secure our borders, we will stop Left-wing cancel culture, we will restore free speech and free elections and we will make America great again."

His speech also hinted at a 2024 presidential run, addressed his recent lawsuits against Big Tech companies, 2020 election fraud, and attacked President Joe Biden and Republicans who have not been loyal to him.

"I love my Republicans, but we're really kicking their a--, too," Trump said, referring to party members who might run against him for president. But we love them. But we like it because they're friends of ours, right? So it's OK. I think we can say that affectionately."

Though Trump has not announced whether he will run in 2024, he told Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity he has already made up his mind about whether he's running or not.

On Fox News Sunday Morning Futures, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo: I do know my answer, but I cant reveal it yet, because that has to do with campaign financing and everything else.

Trump has also assured Republicans that he will not start a new political party.
Whats wrong with premarital sex, cohabitation and watching porn? Apologist Sean McDowell answers

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While many Christians are taught that premarital sex and cohabitation aren't advisable for many reasons, a growing number of single believers are following secular society's model instead of the biblical model.

In the most recent episode of "Challenging Conversations" on the edifi podcast network, host Jason Jimenez, who's also a pastor and founder of Stand Strong Ministries, was joined by apologist Sean McDowell to discuss why some 60% of professing Christians believe cohabitation and sex outside of marriage are OK.

Jimenez said he and McDowell, who hosts classes on premarital sex and marriage at Summit Ministries, wanted to speak truth in love, as Ephesians 4:15 says, and began the discussion by reading what the Biblical Counseling Coalition says about sex outside of marriage:

[P]remarital cohabitation has become common in the Church because many Christians have made todays secular values their own. Our society cherishes 'trying before buying,' convenience at any cost, sex without rules, companionship without commitment, and relationship without responsibility  everything premarital cohabitation provides. Instead of questioning such values  if not downright opposing them  countless Christians have adopted them. Its no wonder so many of them are living together before tying the knot.

Similarly, exposure to pornography on television and social media, they added, has been a leading cause for why many Christians are engaging in premarital sex and think it's taboo or outdated to only have sex in biblically defined marital relationships.

LISTEN TO THE CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS' PODCAST ON EDIFI

Speaking about the saturation of unbiblical ideas about sex, pornography and relationships that Gen Zers and youth are exposed to, McDowell noted that, unlike the 1980s and '90s when exposure was limited to select movies, MTV and a few other sources, today, youth have easy access to porn and are inundated with unhealthy messages.

In every Netflix show, TikTok video, social media  the amount of information  and the big change, I think, is the ubiquity of porn.  I think this has shaped how this generation thinks about sex and relationships more than anything else. It affects their brains. It affects their bodies. It affects their expectations. This is truly a pornified generation, said McDowell, who published a book in 2020 titled, Chasing Love: Sex, Love, and Relationships in a Confused Culture.

Another reason why more Christians are having casual sex outside of marriage and engaging in increased porn use, McDowell said, is because depression and loneliness are at an all-time high due to the lockdowns in response to COVID-19.

So you take emotional hurt, relational breakdown, an increase in secularism and this nonstop message of an unbiblical or nonbiblical, and sometimes anti-biblical view of sexuality, we can begin to understand the soup our kids swim in, so to speak, on these issues, McDowell added.

To illustrate why cohabitation isn't a beneficial way to "test drive" what marriage might be like, McDowell said he recently told students in a high school class he teaches that living with someone actually puts couples at a disadvantage for having a successful, future marriage. "Living with someone lacks the very thing that makes a marriage work, which is commitment," he stressed.

Pornography, the other societal ill that Jimenez and McDowell discussed at length, is destroying people's ability to have strong relationships and marriages, including for couples who regularly attend church.

The ethic of pornography is that a noncommitted one-time spontaneous sexual act is the most fulfilling," McDowell said. "Thats the narrative of much of pornography. Thats the opposite of what youre experiencing, the opposite of what Scripture teaches.

"Sex has a relational, it has a spiritual, it has an emotional component designed by God to be best experienced when all of those are present in a married relationship," he said.

Two areas where the Church has gone astray, he added, is to say one of two things. Either that "sex is bad, don't do it." Or to say, "'You think the world has good sex  come to church, well give you the best sex.

Im like, wait a minute  we are playing by the exact playbook of our culture rather than Scripture, McDowell said in response to what some church leaders tell Christians on how to view sex.

So what we should say is that sex is designed not just for physical pleasure in the way that the culture describes it. Its meant for commitment, vulnerability, love and trust. And it is most beautiful  in fact, somebody flourishes the most and has a deeper sense of love  [when] sex is designed for a loving, committed, marital relationship where there is trust, and there's care, and there's commitment.

Jimenez noted that in the church world, sex is often a "taboo" topic and it isn't "handled in a biblical fashion." He asked McDowell why that is.

"Ignorance is bliss," McDowell said, adding that churches fear having the conversation and aren't aware of how much children are being bombarded with messages pertaining to sex through social media and the educational system. "They'd rather convince themselves that it's somebody else's kid than deal with the messiness of it."

"The other thing," he added, "is that it's just an unbiblical viewpoint" and "bad theology" to say that sex is bad, despite what the Bible says, especially in the Song of Solomon. "It's when we step outside of God's design that sex is bad and hurtful and harmful."

Parents and grandparents, he said, must have these challenging conversations with the children and youth in their family because the world has changed, and they're going to take in messages from the secular world if they're not taught the Christian view of sex.

Jimenez also raised concerns about so-called "Christian" leaders and authors who are promoting the message that sex outside of marriage can be just as "sacred" as within marriage, as long as it's consensual.

"Sadly, this progressive pastor you're referring to ... has bought a complete gnostic worldview. ... It's one that favors the mind and disparages the body. So basically, come to the conclusion that the body carries no inherent meaning as long as we decide the context. Then sex outside of marriage is just as meaningful as sex within marriage. So our mind trumps our bodies. That's a gnostic worldview; that's not a biblical worldview.

"The Bible says we are body and we are souls. And we are to honor God with our bodies. Offer yourself as a living sacrifice. And love God with your bodies. ... This is the same reasoning we hear behind a lot of the transgender narrative ... the body is malleable. That's not a biblical worldview.

"The biblical worldview is that God has made us male and female, and marriage is meant to be that a man leaves his mother and father and clings to his wife and the two shall become one. That is God's design for body and for soul."

Jimenez then asked McDowell to respond to the argument from some that the Bible doesn't specifically condemn sex outside of marriage. McDowell replied that that was "partly because of the culture people lived in," which wasn't a hook-up culture like post-sexual revolution America.

"It didn't condemn it because there wasn't the same kind of phenomena we've seen" in society today. "But it sets up a pattern of what marriage is supposed to be. ... All other kinds of sexual immorality is unequivocally condemned," he added, noting that the church in Corinth and others had failed to live it out.

Jimenez added that intimacy is a gift God has given to marriage and encouraged married couples to share that intimacy together.

Listen to this fascinating discussion on the 'Challenging Conversations' podcast
NY Gov. Hochul tells churchgoers to get vaccinated, 'spread the love of Christ' this Christmas

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The governor of New York encouraged a Baptist congregation to spread love and spread friendship during the Christmas season rather than the coronavirus as she pleaded with churchgoers to get vaccinated.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, delivered a video message to Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn on Sunday. She touched on various issues, including gun violence, education and COVID-19 vaccination. Hochuls speech took place as concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus have led several colleges and school districts to suspend in-person learning.

So during this holiday season, I have one request. We dont want to spread COVID. We will spread love and we will spread friendship and spread the love of Christ during this holiday season, stated the 63-year-old politician.

Remember why we are together. It was the birth of Christ that we honor and we celebrate. And that is the spirit that fills all of us during Christmas. And lets not lose sight of that. We all have each other and were going to continue to fight for each other, protect each other because thats what Christ would want us to do.

Hochul spoke about her upbringing in the 1960s, describing herself as a member of a social justice Catholic family where we didnt just listen to the teachings of Christ on weekends, we also put ... those words into action.

My parents helped start a neighborhood center to help people who had so many needs. And as a child, I went and saw this in person and realized all of us are called to serve, she continued.

Describing herself as hard-wired since the very beginning to serve Godspeople, she cited her ascendancy to the governorship as the latest example of how she had been pulled to public service.

That sense of faith has guided me on the right path every single day, she maintained. As I asked God for ... his prayers, and I ask all of you for your prayers to continue to lift me up.

Hochul spent most of her remarks focusing on the efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

As she wore a necklace emblazoned with the word vaxxed, the governor called on worshipers to take advantage of the available defenses to fight against this omicron.

Get our grandkids vaccinated. I dont want anybody else to miss a single day of school, she added.

We have to rebuild them. We have to get them back in a classroom, get them in that nurturing environment, she added.

The governors video appearance at Bethany Baptist Church was not her first attempt to encourage the faithful to take the coronavirus vaccine.

In a late September speech at the Brooklyn-based Christian Cultural Center, Hochul told those gathered to be my apostles and encouraged them to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, Please get the vaccine because I love you and I want you to live, Hochul stated at the time.

I want our kids to be safe when theyre in schools. I want to be safe when you go to a doctorsoffice or to a hospital and are treated by somebody. You dont want to get the virus from them.

In August, then-Lt. Gov. Hochul became the first female governor of New York when her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, resigned after a state attorney general investigation concluded that he had sexually harassed several women.
Pro-life groups slam Biden's selection of pro-abortion 'radical' to head FDA

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Pro-life groups have condemned President Joe Biden's nomination of a pro-abortion radical to lead the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Robert Califfs nomination has received renewed attention after members of the Senate Health Committee questioned him Tuesday at his confirmation hearing. Biden announced Califf as his choice to serve as commissioner of the FDA last month. If confirmed, Califf would regain the role he briefly held during the latter part of the Obama administration.

Robert Califf is the wrong choice for FDA commissioner, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, in a statement. His track record under [former President Barack] Obama provides evidence of his disregard for life and health.

Dannenfelser expressed concerns about Califfs actions to promote and increase the use of chemical abortions (abortion pills) during his previous tenure: If confirmed, Califf will work hand-in-hand with Joe Biden, [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Xavier Becerra, and the radical abortion lobby to make every mailbox, post office and pharmacy in America function as an abortion center. He must not be confirmed. Senators on both sides of the aisle should want to ensure that any new FDA commissioner will put the safety of women and children first.

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, wrote a letter to members of the Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee expressing opposition to Califfs confirmation: Dr. Califf previously held this position during the Obama administration in 2016. Under his leadership, the FDA significantly weakened the health and safety standards, known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation System (REMS), for chemical abortion pills, allowing them to be used as late as 10 weeks in pregnancy.

Additionally, women were no longer required to ingest the Chemical Abortion pills at the abortion facility dispensing the drugs. Instead, women were encouraged to take the drugs at home, essentially acting as an amateur abortionist and DIY-ing their own abortion. The FDA even removed the mandated complication report, leaving the abortion drug distributors accountable for only deaths, not harm, she added.

After listing some of the complications caused by chemical abortions and the inadequate patient examinations at abortion clinics, including life-threatening undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy and infertility due to lack of blood type screening, Hawkins urged senators to reject this blatantly partisan nomination.

Hawkins added: Dr. Califfs championing of chemical abortion without medical oversight  knowing the risks  proves he is motivated by political power, not the safety and wellbeing of the Americans he seeks to serve. Given the opportunity to lead the FDA once again, we fully expect Dr. Califf to continue his abuse of power and act as a radical abortion activist, disregarding the wellbeing of the American people.

Pro-life concerns about Califfs nomination to serve as FDA commissioner come as the debate about chemical abortion has reached a new level of intensity during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, pro-abortion groups sued to allow women to obtain chemical abortions without first visiting a doctor, citing concerns about their health in light of the pandemic.

A federal judge lifted the requirement that an abortionist must see patients in person before dispensing the abortion pills, which the U.S. Supreme Court later reimposed. After Biden took office earlier this year, the FDA temporarily lifted the ban on women obtaining abortion pills by mail. A group of House Democrats later called on the FDA to permanently allow women to take the abortion pills without seeing a doctor first.

In 2016, Califf received near-unanimous confirmation from the Senate, with all but four senators voting to approve his appointment. Three of the four senators who opposed his confirmation, all Democrats, remain in the Senate. The lone Republican to oppose Califfs confirmation, then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., no longer serves in the chamber.

This time, senators on the Democratic side of the aisle have once again expressed the most concern about Califf, albeit for reasons other than his position on chemical abortions. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, announced in a statement Tuesday that Dr. Califf is not the leader Americans need at the FDA and I will oppose his nomination.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., one of the four senators who opposed Califf in 2016, indicated his opposition this time as well, stating, We need a leader who is ready for reform in pursuit of improving public health outcomes and Dr. Califf is not the candidate. On the other hand, several Republicans told Politico they planned on supporting Califf, including Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Susan Collins, R-Maine., Roger Marshall, R-Kan. and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
SD Gov. Kristi Noem introduces bill to 'restore protections for prayer in schools'

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South Dakotas Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has introduced a bill that would allow students in public schools to pray every morning at school if they so choose despite pushback from secular groups to similar bills in other states.

On Monday, Noem released the text of legislation that would require a moment of silence in schools to begin the school day.

In a statement, Noem shared her belief that every student deserves the opportunity to begin their day with a calm, silent moment.

I hope students will take this opportunity to say a quick prayer or reflect on their upcoming day. However they choose to take advantage of this time, it will be beneficial to students and teachers alike, she added.

The bill calls for all public school districts in the state to provide students and teachers the opportunity each morning that school is in session to have a moment of silence lasting up to one minute.

Potential uses for this moment of silence include voluntary prayer, reflection, meditation or other quiet, respectful activity.

The legislation would mandate that no school employee may dictate the action to be taken by students or teachers during the moment of silence and that no student may interfere with another students engagement in the moment of silence. It also clarifies that the language in the bill shouldnt be construed to permit schools to conduct the moment of silence as a religious exercise.

The legislation contends that a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day is necessary to provide students and teachers with a reprieve from the frenzy of daily life and to set a tone of decorum that will be conducive to learning.

South Dakota is one of several states where elected officials are pushing for a moment of silence in schools.

An Ohio Senate bill introduced in October would establish a moment of silence in schools.

In June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that would give students a daily opportunity to reflect and be able to pray as they see fit.

Separation of church and state advocacy groups see the moment of silence measures as causes for concern.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates for a strict separation of church and state, wrote a letter to the Ohio Senate criticizing Senate Bill 248 as an unconstitutional promotion of religion.

The Wisconsin-based advocacy group expressed particular opposition to the language of the bill calling on each public school district to provide for a moment of silence each school day for prayer, reflection, or meditation upon a moral, philosophical, or patriotic theme.

FFRF Staff Attorney Ryan Jayne maintained that moment of silence bills that contain an explicit reference to prayer  such as the bills in Ohio, Florida and South Dakota  run afoul of U.S. Supreme Court precedent in the 1985 Wallace v. Jaffree decision. The court struck down an Alabama law setting aside time for meditation or voluntary prayer during the school day.

The addition of or voluntary prayer indicates that the State intended to characterize prayer as a favored practice, the decision stated.

The Supreme Court concluded that such an endorsement is not consistent with the established principle that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion. Jayne argued that the Ohio bills mention of prayer before other potential uses for the moment of silence makes the endorsement even more clear.

There can be no serious doubt that the primary intent of this bill is to inject religion into the public school day, which is an improper legislative purpose, he wrote. Mandatory moment of silence bills are a trend across the country and invariably they are described in terms of promoting religion.

DeSantis described the Florida moment-of-silence bill as an initiative allowing students to pray as they see fit and one that counters attempts to push God out of every institution. The headline included with the statement from Noems office about the South Dakota bill characterizes the legislation as an effort to restore protections for prayer in the classroom.
Altar depicting 'Last Supper' survives Kentucky tornado while church was destroyed

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An altar depicting Michelangelo's "The Last Supper" remained standing while the rest of the church suffered catastrophic damage from the deadly tornado that struck Mayfield, Kentucky, last weekend.

The First Christian Church of Mayfield was destroyed on Dec. 10 thanks to the tornado that toppled many buildings in the town of about 10,000 people, including the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, where at least eight people died and dozens were trapped before being rescued.

But to the surprise of the church's Senior Pastor Milton West, an altar and cross from the Mayfield house of worship remained standing and undamaged.

The altar is where the church congregation would typically serve communion, according to West.

"We have managed to salvage our beautiful communion table," West said in a Facebook video on Monday. "We managed to save the most important pieces of what is left of our church."

He said the congregation has been fortunate that the "loss of life" in the church family has been "minimal."

In an interview with TODAY, West noted that the communion table was the "center of our worship experience."

Although no one died from his congregation, West said four families lost their homes due to the storm.

"I think they're beginning to cope with the reality of what has happened, and they're certainly grieving and sad over the loss," West added. "We are doing what we can to keep people's spirits up."

Despite the need to rebuild the church, West shared with the congregation a message in the hopes that they wouldn't view the church's destruction as a bad sign.

"What you try to do is have them reframe, rethink what it all means and not to overinterpret it," West said. "There are a lot of people out there who would say that this is a sign from God that something is wrong. We do not embrace that notion at all. Our faith is positive, and God is never the author of bad things in people's lives."

West remains optimistic for the future of his congregation, saying tragedy has the potential to unite members during a time of fractured "political, theological and personal views."

"We grieve, we cry and we hug and we pull ourselves together and go to the next step of trying to recover and rethink where we want to be as a church, but our people have stayed strong during all of this," he said.

"I think this gives people an opportunity to pull together for the common good. Those differences don't matter when you're trying to rebuild your lives. I think we're going to see that diminish here in Mayfield for quite some time."

In the storm's aftermath, First Christian Church held a worship service on Sunday for community members outside of the destroyed building.

First Christian Church announced on Thursday that it will hold its next worship service this upcoming Sunday at Mayfield Elementary School, declaring, "Our church lives again!"

Rev. Joey Reed, a minister at Mayfield First United Methodist Church, took shelter during the storm with his wife in the closet within the basement of their church building.

When the storm subsided, the couple realized the house of worship had been damaged and torn to the ground around them. The ceiling came down and bricks and metal were everywhere on site.

"I realized it might be my last few moments of my life on this earth and I was very glad to be with my wife," Reed said in an interview with CBS News.

"I know her prayer and mine was that we'd be spared. I was afraid for my children, what would happen to them and how they would respond to this," he continued.

Amid the devastation, Reed is able to give thanks to God.

"The devastation around us is incredible.  Thanks be to God the parts of the building that came down didn't come down on us," he said. "All I care about is the fact that the most valuable possessions in my life, my wife's life and my children, they're all safe, and everything else is replaceable."

The church may be gone for now, but Reed said the memories made in the building will remain strong.

"That building was the repository of our memories, and we have to remember that those memories still belong to us," Reed was quoted as saying. "They cannot be taken from us by something even as devastating as this tornado."

As four tornadoes struck Kentucky from Friday night into Saturday morning, at least 74 people have died and over 100 residents were reported missing as of Tuesday.



In total, over 30 tornadoes struck in six states from Friday night into Saturday morning.
Idaho sheriff who allegedly pulled gun on church youth group giving out thank-you notes is charged

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The Idaho Attorney Generals Office has charged Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and exhibition of a deadly weapon after he allegedly pulled a gun on a church youth group handing out paper turkeys in his neighborhood last month.

Sheriff Craig Rowland, who was charged on Tuesday, claimed he only had one drink before the incident but told Blackfoot Police Chief Scott Gay that he really screwed up during the Nov. 9 confrontation, according to KTVB7.

The seven girls, aged 12 to 16, were from a local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation and were accompanied by their female leader.

It has been a very difficult experience for our child to go through, especially the confusion caused whenever the behavior of trusted adults seems harmful and unpredictable, a parent of one of the girls told The Idaho Statesman. Throughout the entire ordeal, the Blackfoot Police Department and the representatives from the Attorney Generals Office have been absolutely professional and thorough. We are grateful for the way they have handled this situation.

Court documents allege the group was going around posting thank-you notes shaped like turkeys on the doors of congregation members and then ringing the doorbell and running away so they wouldnt be seen.

When they reached Rowlands neighborhood, everything went well until they tried to leave a note for Rowland and his wife.

Rowland recalls in court papers that it was about 8 p.m. as he was taking his Yorkie outside that he saw two people run down the road from his house. He said he checked to see if his patrol vehicle had been broken into, then went back inside his home. Minutes after that, he said he heard his front screen door open and a knock.

Thinking someone was trying to break inside his house, Rowland said he asked his wife to get his gun and went outside. Home surveillance video shows Rowland in his long johns, socks and a T-shirt, then looking down and saying, Thank you and Thats frickin bulls***.

He said he later saw a vehicle driving down the road. He stopped it and opened the drivers side door.

I reach in and pull the driver out by the hair, Rowland told investigators, according to court documents. I say, Who the f*** are you? And I do have a gun in my hand, but I still have my finger on the slide.

Rowland admitted pointing his gun at the womans head, and she would later identify herself as a neighbor and family friend for three decades. The sheriff contends that he didnt recognize her and would eventually allow the group to leave as he returned to his home.

Thats when I really got scared because the gun was still at my head and he didnt know who [I] was, the woman noted in an affidavit, reports KTVB7.

The girls and their group leader recalled things differently. They claimed he threatened to shoot their group leader, saying the f-bomb multiple times.

Rowland, who will appear in court on Dec. 22, insists he wasnt drunk and that the recent time change really messed me up. He claimed to have been on edge because of interactions he and his wife previously had with community members.

I have been doing this job for 36 years. Ive had drunk Indians drive down my cul-de-sac. Ive had drunk Indians come to my door, he said. I live just off the reservation, we have a lot of reservation people around us who are not good people.
The Christian Post's top 10 news stories of 2021 (part 1)

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2021 began with the continuation of COVID-19 lockdowns and the push for all Americans to receive vaccinations that were first made available under the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed program. Despite the success of vaccinating a majority of Americans and the push for booster shots, more patients died this year of complications from the virus than in 2020.

This year also began with new leadership in the White House under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose administration made the controversial decision to require all government contractors and private businesses  including Christian organizations  with at least 100 employees to mandate coronavirus vaccinations. That decision has led to pushback from states and employers, both secular and religious.

Christians also had much to reflect on this year as they wrestled with the fallout of scandals involving prominent Christian leaders, some of whom were known worldwide and garnered international media attention.

The ranking of The Christian Post's top 10 news stories was determined by CP's editors based on what interested our readers and what we believe were the most significant events of 2021.

In the following pages, we count down the latter half of CP's top 10 news stories of 2021. Read part 2 of CP's top 5 news stories of the year here.
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The COVID-19 pandemic upended our lives and forever changed how we function. Things we never debated in the past  everything from hybrid work environments to masking politics  have become everyday conversations. And now in our second holiday season during a pandemic and growing mental health crisis, many of us have normalized our fears and frustrations. Children are watching adults arguments and isolation and pain  and they too are struggling to make sense of weird schedules and sad feelings and holiday tensions.

As the effects of the pandemic carry forward, so does the number of children with anxiety. A recent report from the U.S. Surgeon General cited that research covering 80,000 youth globally found that depressive and anxiety symptoms doubled during the pandemic, with 25% of youth experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms. Much ink has been spilled over the last 20+ months on the vital role that emotional wellness plays in development and overall health, and rightfully so.

Many of us are looking forward to valuable family time this holiday season  but we can also acknowledge the stress and weariness that comes with travel and family disagreements. Just as we make sure our children are prepared for winter weather with hats and gloves, we should also prepare their minds to healthily respond to hard conversations and uncertainty. Here are some ways that parents or caregivers can help children build resilience.

Admit your own anxiety

You dont have to be outwardly fearful or expressive for your stress to affect the children around you. Children pick up on how you feel even if you dont explicitly tell them that something is wrong. They are far more insightful than we often give them credit for being. To help avoid passing stress along to children, acknowledge to yourself what you are feeling and take note of its affecting your daily life.

When a parent is worrying about something out of their control or suppressing their own feelings, their child is likely feeling an extension of that stressor. Its crucial that parents or caregivers slow down and acknowledge what theyre feeling. Managing internal anxiety is as important as being aware of how it manifests itself externally.

Our children feel deeply. Its good to remember that they have big emotions tooand to remind ourselves and them that God can handle those big emotions. In fact, the Bible is full of emotional stories: Once Adam and Eve sinned, they felt ashamed. Sarah rejoiced when she was able to give birth to her son Isaac. David cried out in despair in the Psalms. Mary was frightened by the angel Gabriel when he first appeared. Jesus, the King of the Universe, wept for his friend and cried out when he was forsaken on the cross by His Father. Were made in the image of God, so its ok  and good, even  for us and our children to experience the full range of human emotion.

Take time to acknowledge how youre feeling. Then youll be better prepared to help your children do the same.

Validate their feelings

Anxiety manifests itself differently in every child, depending on age and personality. It can show up in a myriad of ways like nightmares or agitation, irritability, unusual conflict with siblings, fear of separation from parents, or refusal to go to school or other activities. And since children arent always straightforward with what theyre feelings  sometimes because they dont yet understand how to express themselves  it can be difficult to determine whats going on below the surface. When these behaviors crop up, its important to ask your children what theyre feeling and validate their emotions, even when they cant put exact words to them. A good opportunity to do this is when theyre helping with errands or chores during downtime at home.

You want your questions to feel like a safe conversation  not like youre grilling your child or like theyve done something wrong. Its important for children to be heard and reassured. Something thats not always obvious to them is that its okay for multiple emotions to exist at once. They can have fun even on a day when they feel sad. They can be strong and brave even when theyre feeling afraid. One way to invite children to share how theyre feeling is by sandwiching conversations about their fears between stories about their strengths.

For example, name a time you noticed your child expressing courage or strength. Then, validate a vulnerable feeling or fear you think they may be experiencing and allow them time to express that feeling in their own words. Before you end the conversation, remind your child that this feeling is normal and does not change the strength you see in them. When we give validity to the feelings that children share with us, we create a space for them to grow emotionally, and we teach them how to healthily share their burdens with a safe support system.

Be a storyteller

In the Old Testament, we see many passages where Gods people set up stones to remind them of Gods care and protection during hard times. They did not want to forget how God had led them through challenges and the stories that the memorials represent dont sidestep hard issues. Joshua instructs Israel to construct a stone memorial after God parted the Jordan river so that future generations remember both Israels wandering in the desert and Gods care. When David sets up his Ebenezer, it is to remind everyone that while Israel had sinned, God was merciful to defeat their enemies (1 Sam 7:12).

We should follow this biblical example  telling our children stories of trials and successes and how God has been with them through it all. Remind them about the time they overcame a difficult test at school or did well during a game against a tough opponent. Remind them how they prayed when they were sad and God comforted them, or how they asked God to help them and He did. This reinforces the idea that, even when life is challenging, they can thrive and see signs of Gods protection.

Parents should name hardships so that the next time an issue arises, children can meet it with confidence. For example, if your family got into a heated discussion the last time you were at a grandparents house for dinner, you can talk about that experience, ask what your child felt, and equip them with tools to better manage it this time around. This could look like removing themselves from the conversation if they feel uncomfortable or having a word they can use to signal to change the subject if things get heated.

During the holiday season when children are spending more time at home, we can help them grow and develop healthy habits to cope with their anxieties. Most importantly, we can show them they are not alone. Despite the flurry of tasks and extra errands, now is the perfect time to check in on your mental health and that of your children. We can acknowledge our own worries and approach our children with compassion and patience.
12 remaining missionaries kidnapped in Haiti are now free

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The Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries thanked God Thursday morning as it announced that the 12 remaining missionaries who were among 17 kidnapped by the notorious 400 Mawozo gang in Haiti have now all been released.

We glorify God for answered prayer  the remaining 12 hostages are FREE! Join us in praising God that all 17 of our loved ones are now safe. Thank you for your fervent prayers throughout the past two months. We hope to provide more information as we are able, the international aid ministry said in a statement to The Christian Post, which also quoted a portion of Exodus 15:1.



I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the verse says.

The release of the remaining 12 missionaries comes just 11 days after the release of three others on Dec. 5. Some two weeks prior to that, the gang released two missionaries described as sick adults.

A source with knowledge of the first two releases told The Miami Herald that no ransom was paid even though the 400 Mawozo gang leader, Wilson Joseph, had threatened to kill all the missionaries if his gang didn't receive $1 million each for their release.

It was unclear on Thursday if any ransom was paid to release any of the missionaries.

When the kidnapping occurred, the abducted group included six men, six women and five children, of which 16 are Americans and one is Canadian. They ranged in age at the time of their kidnapping from 8 months old to 48 years old.

While negotiations for their release were ongoing between the gang and officials from the Haitian and U.S. governments, a video of Joseph circulated on social media showing that the crime boss wasnt pleased with the pace of negotiations.

I swear by thunder that if I dont get what Im asking for, I will put a bullet in the heads of these Americans, Joseph threatened in late October, according to a translation cited by Bloomberg Quicktake.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a press briefing late last month that President Joe Biden was committed to making sure that every single one of the missionaries returned home safely, particularly the children.

I personally give an update on this issue every single day to the president, who is taking a deep interest in making sure we get every single one of those people home safely, Sullivan said.
Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. (Exodus Chapter 40 verse 36)

In my studies of revival history, one of the constant themes Ive seen is that most revivals stopped when those involved stopped moving and camped around a truth. The Spirit of God is constantly on the move, and we must learn to follow the cloud if we are to sustain the current and future moves of God.

The children of Israel were told to follow the cloud of Glory which stood above them. They only stopped when the cloud stopped moving and those who refused to follow the cloud would eventually die in the wilderness due to the intense heat.

It takes discernment and humility to know when God is moving and when we are to transition from one season to another. One of the lessons Ive learnedfrom church history is that the enemy of the current move of God is often the previous move of God.

Most people fight changes because humans often want to keep their traditions and it's very easy to reduce the church to traditions of men.

Many denominations are void of the presence of God because they are where God used to be and not where he is. The cloud has moved but the songs, the messages, the dance keeps going on because the people are used to the routine.

They can simulate the routine repeatedly and even if they get bored, they convince themselves that they are serving God and they are faithful believers. Even in Pentecostal churches, many have been stuck in a routine, its the same stuff week in week out, the same kind of songs, the same structure, the same pattern of service, the same rigid routine.

When movements become monuments

A lot of denominations today started as moves of God, but they stopped moving with God and have now become monuments to the past. They talk about the good old days but there is little to talk about in the present. Just like the marriage Jesus attended with his disciples (John 2:1-12).The wine has finished but the feast endures, the source of joy is gone but the protocols continue, they have reduced God to routines, so even if God manifests, they will reject him because it may follow the established order of things.

The Pharisees and Sadducees knew all the prophecies concerning the Messiah, they had been waiting for him for thousands of years but when he finally appeared, they rejected him because he didnt appear the way they thought he would appear so they could not discern the Messiah in a manger. They persecuted the one whom they had always longed to see. What a tragedy!

Moves of God

Revival often comes in waves and it takes wisdom to ride the waves. Revival is not meant to be an end in itself but a wave that often leads to another wave. When Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in October 1517, it marked the beginning of the reformation.

After the reformation, came the Anabaptist movement. Luther himself criticized the new move. He said the Anabaptists should be drowned as they attempt water baptism. Luther is a great saint but he didnt discern the new wave that had come.

Other moves of God arose such as the Quaker movement, the Moravian missionary and prayer movement, the first and second great awakening, the Welsh revival, the Azuza Street revival, the healing school of John G. Lake, the Charismatic Outpouring, the Hebrides revival, the latter rain movement, the Pensacola revival, etc. All were different waves of the move of God.

Many chose to journey with the cloud but others chose to camp around traditions and turn what should be a movement into a monument.

Listen to the son

When Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, and John, the first thought that came to Peters mind was to erect monuments in response to the glory he had seen:

And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. (Mathew Chapter 11 verse 3-5)

God had to turn his attention from building into listening to Jesus. Its not about the monuments we can build in the name of Jesus, it's not about how large our congregations are, it's not about how beautiful the cathedral is. Its about listening to Jesus and walking with him.

All that is erected out of ambition, competition, or simply as a relic to the past will burn when our works are judged before God. All that will remain is that which is done in love and obedience to Jesus. Listen to the son and move as he moves.
NEW YORK (AP)  Starbucks says it will negotiate in good faith with workers at the first store to unionize in the company's 50-year history.

In a letter sent to all U.S. employees Rossann Williams, an executive vice president, said Starbucks never favored unionization and still prefers to speak directly to employees, but respects the legal process and wants to work with those in Buffalo who voted in favor of union representation.
Houston business leaders need to cut their companys greenhouse gas emissions and lead the transition to a low-carbon economy, the chairman of the Houston investment Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co., said Wednesday.

Bobby Tudor, speaking at the annual meeting of the Greater Houston Partnership, told the hundreds of Houston business leaders at the event that local executives need to publicly commit to lowering carbon emissions in their businesses and work to develop new technologies  such as carbon capture and alternative energy  to reduce green house gas emissions in the atmosphere.

In the energy industry, Tudor said, companies need to work to lower emissions of methane, the main component of natural gas and powerful greenhouse gas released during drilling operations. He called on the industry to reduce the burning of, or flaring, of natural gas, which could be used to transition away from coal-fired power plants, among the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide.

We need to publicly commit to lowering emissions that come from our own businesses, Tudor said. I think the (oil and gas) industry is on this, but more needs to be done.

Dont quit, cant quit oil

Tudor emphasized that despite much talk of diversifying the local economy and the coming transition from fossil fuels to wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, Houston needs and will continue to need oil and gas for at least the next few decades.

We all know that the central driver to the emergence and establishment of Houston as a leading global commercial and cultural center is the energy sector, Tudor said. The industry has been very good to Houston.

Energy still makes up 9 percent of the local economy, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, a business-financed economic development group. Energy also supports much of Houstons manufacturing industry.

Energy drives almost everything in the local economy, Tudor said, and barring some unexpected technological breakthrough, Houston and the rest of the world will continue to rely on fossil fuels for the coming decades.

I dont have much much sympathy for people who say we need to keep it in the ground, Tudor told reporters after his speech.

Fuel Fix: Get energy news sent directly to your inbox

The problem with arguments that the oil and gas industry needs to be scrapped is that so much of the worlds economy depends on cheap, reliable fuels, Tudor said. Energy has played a key role in development efforts that have lifted millions from poverty.

Right now, he said, the most economical way to get electricity to those people is coal or natural gas.

Nonetheless, he said, executives and boards of directors must begin considering how to address climate change into strategic decisions and corporate governance. Saying the problem is difficult is not an excuse for inaction.

The industry knows how hard it is to change energy systems, Tudor said. But thats not enough.

erin.douglas@chron.com

Twitter.com/erinmdouglas23
DENVER (AP)  The 110-year prison sentence meted out Dec. 13 to the truck driver who killed four people when he lost his brakes on Interstate 70 put a renewed spotlight on Colorados mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and on district attorneys ability to use such laws to ensure convictions lead to prison time.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was sentenced to a prison term twice as long as some Colorado murderers after his convictions triggered provisions in state law that forced District Court Judge Bruce Jones to lay down a minimum 110-year sentence.

The judge said during the sentencing hearing that he had no discretion to set a lesser prison term, though he would have liked to. One family member of a man who died in the fiery 28-car pileup in Lakewood said he did not want a life sentence for the truck driver.

And the day after the sentencing, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King  who pursued the convictions that led to the 110-year sentence  said in a statement she would welcome a reconsideration of the prison term.

Aguilera-Mederos sentence stretched to more than a century because under Colorado law, first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault are so-called crimes of violence in which prison sentences must run consecutively, and not concurrently, when they spring from the same incident.

This is a grossly excessive sentence, said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. It cries out for the reform of sentencing laws. But I think calls for change also need to be directed at the seldom-criticized but largely unchecked power of prosecutors. They have the power to decide who goes to prison and for how long. Prosecutors decide on the charges to file, and they decide what plea bargains to offer.

King refused to talk to The Denver Post about the case, which was initially charged under her predecessor, Pete Weir, and instead sent statements through a spokesman.

The facts and consequences of Mr. Aguilera-Mederos decisions that day were extraordinary enough to support pursuing first-degree assault charges, she said. Aguilera-Mederos refused to accept any plea offer other than a traffic ticket, King said, and the convictions recognize the harm caused to victims of the crash.

My administration contemplated a significantly different outcome in this case, but Mr. Aguilera-Mederos wasnt interested in pursuing those negotiations, she said.

Aguilera-Mederos attorney, James Colgan, would not discuss what sort of plea bargain was considered, except to say that the discussions were not fruitful.

Silverstein said Kings statement suggests the district attorneys office overcharged the case to try to pressure Aguilera-Mederos into pleading guilty rather than taking the case to trial.

Its out of line for the prosecutor to blame the defendant for exercising his constitutional rights, Silverstein said.

George Brauchler, former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, disagreed.

I have little sympathy for someone who turns down a reasonable plea bargain offer, and then goes to trial and bemoans the fact that the worst thing that could happen to them happened, he said.

Colorados mandatory minimums largely were established in the 1990s as a tough-on-crime response to rising crime rates and a perception among conservative politicians that the states judges were handing out light sentences, said Stan Garnett, former Boulder County district attorney.

There were concerns that sentences for the same crimes varied dramatically depending on the judge and perhaps on the defendant, Brauchler said.

The laws give tremendous power to district attorneys, Garnett said.

You can, in the way you charge the case, predetermine what the sentence is going to be, and put an extreme amount of pressure on the defendant to plea, he said. It makes it impossible for a judge to fashion a sentence that fits the particular crime and particular defendant.

Brauchler said the laws ensure that perpetrators of violent crime who harm multiple victims are held responsible with prison sentences for each victim, since the terms must run consecutively.

This guy killed four people, Brauchler said. How much time are four lives worth?

He added that people convicted of vehicular homicide in Colorado, which carries a recommended sentence of between two and six years in prison, are eligible to be sentenced to probation instead of prison.

If that was the only charge, vehicular homicide, that guy might have walked out of the courtroom, he said. Theres no outcome, using those weak charges, that comes even close to justice. That cant be justice when you kill four people.

A jury in October found Aguilera-Mederos guilty of four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempted first-degree assault, four counts of careless driving causing death, two counts of vehicular assault and one count of reckless driving.

The states mandatory-minimum laws have faced criticism in recent years, and some of the states minimums have been reduced or removed.

State Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who sits on the states year-old Sentencing Reform Task Force, said Tuesday that hes looking into Aguilera-Mederos case.

When I saw the story this morning, I thought it was worth making some inquiries of both prosecutors and defense counsel alike as to whether this is an anomaly, whether this is something we ought to deal with and, frankly, to see whether it is something as were doing our sentencing reform that could be addressed, he said.

The task force, formed by Gov. Jared Polis last year to review and suggest changes to the states sentencing laws, began its work with misdemeanor cases and has not yet considered reforms to felony sentencing, said Maureen Cain, a task force member and director of legislative policy and external communications for the Colorado Public Defenders Office. That work should start next year.

Aguilera-Mederos intends to appeal the jurys verdict, Colgan said, and is also considering a variety of challenges to the sentence, though those challenges will have to wait until the appeal process concludes. An online petition calling for Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos sentence had more than 1 million signatures Wednesday night.

The law is just so frustrating because it ends up in miscarriages of justice like this, Colgan said Tuesday. The law is poorly written.

The states mandatory sentencing law allows for the trial judge to reduce the sentence within 91 days of Aguilera-Mederos commitment to the Department of Corrections, after the department evaluates Aguilera-Mederos and submits a report to the judge. The judge must find unusual and extenuating circumstances to modify the sentence, the law says  a step Jones implied hed be willing to take.

Aguilera-Mederos could also ask the court to reconsider the sentence through other legal avenues, Colgan said.

Colgan expects Augilera-Mederos will not be eligible for parole until he is in his 70s or 80s  state law says he must serve 75% of his sentence (thatd be about 82 years) before he can be paroled.

That percentage often ends up being closer to 50% of the total sentence once the Department of Corrections applies credits for time served, good time and other measures, Brauchler said.

Nobody on planet Earth can tell you how many days this guy will serve before he is parole-eligible, Brauchler said.

Colgan said the states mandatory minimum sentencing laws should be changed to give more discretion to judges.

(If) you dont allow the judge to put some humanity into the law, it becomes a rubber stamp, he said, and everybody gets sucked in.
Tell us about yourself and your family:

I grew up in Winchester where I graduated high school in 2001. I met my wife, Jennifer, while we went to Winchester High School and we were married in 2006. We have two amazing children; Gabe, 6, and Keely, 4. I served 4  years in the U.S. Army Infantry. Three years I was assigned to C Company 1/502nd Infantry with the 101st Airborne with which I participated in the initial invasion of Iraq. I was recalled shortly after being married and then sent to Kunar, Afghanistan, where I was assigned as part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team-Asadabad.

Describe what you do professionally, as well as your roles within the community:

I supervise the Special Investigations Unit in Springfield for the Illinois State Police. I'm currently the commander of the Winchester American Legion, past commander of the Winchester V.F.W., and I am on several committees that organize events in support of veterans.

What first made you get involved with your chosen field?

I had always wanted to join the Army and was able to do so in 2002. With the tempo of deployments and the desire to be more stable with my wife, I decided to leave in 2005. With the transition to civilian life after being recalled, I was searching for a sense of belonging and teamwork as well as a job that could make an impact in my community, which led me to the state police. Scott and Nichole Mason, along with Chuck Roberts, convinced me to join the American Legion and V.F.W., respectively.

Describe what drives you to get involved within the community:

It was several individuals and a series of events that led me into my current role with veterans groups. I had spoken with Scott Mason about forming an Iraq and Afghanistan veterans group and by virtue of his wife, Nichole Mason, he was involved with the Winchester American Legion.

A good friend, and Vietnam veteran, Roberts had been trying to get me involved with the V.F.W. and I eventually became the commander there. Helping veterans became a passion for me and with 2020 shutting down, fundraising and our American Legion Post running extremely low on funds, I began to brainstorm ideas with my wife along with Masons.

Eventually, multiple veterans from the community began talking about fun ideas and from that came our Veterans Ball, Block Party, and Race With Veterans. Veterans are a unique group who, whether they have served in peace or went to war, have a difficult time finding comradery like they had during their service. From these events and getting together, veterans, their families, and our community have all come together not only to save the American Legion but to find the comradery that most of us have missed since leaving the service.

What's the best thing to happen to you because of your community or career service?

I think it's easy to be a pessimist in todays day and age. It's pretty easy to sit in the dark and think of all the tragedies we witnessed whether in Iraq or Afghanistan, or especially here at home. The news seems to be more and more concentrated on division within America and through social media and I think it's easy to sit and become deeply pessimistic.

For me, doing these veterans events shows me what America really is. It would have been easy for veterans and our community to let the American Legion go to the wayside and to collapse into another defunct building. But what everyone did to come together, from our veterans, Mayor Rex McIntire, Winchester City Council, local businesses and our community showed me that we are still a community invested in each other and that there is hope for the rest of our nation to come back together.

What's your personal philosophy on life?

I'm not sure I have a philosophy, but I do believe in withholding judgement on anyone until you get to know them. No book can be judged by its cover and while a lot of people can "talk the talk," it's their actions that we should watch.

Tell us about someone or something that has influenced you:

I would have to say our local Vietnam veterans are the greatest influences for me. They served with such honor and distinction only to come home to an ungrateful nation. Roberts kept encouraging me to join the V.F.W. when I got home. I didn't realize he knew what I needed before I knew it. Terry Aossey, who has such a positive outlook on life, John Grey, who was my mailman growing up and who always encouraged me to do well in school ... I should have listened. Roger Pratt, who is one of the most humble men I know, and Joy Wood, who fought sexism in the Air Force to become a colonel.

These veterans went through hell overseas and yet they continue to serve our community often times without any desire for recognition and with amazing humility.

What changes would you like to see in your community in the next 10 years, and how can they be brought to fruition?

I think we as a community and a nation need to put down our phones and communicate with each other face-to-face, especially with people of different backgrounds, experiences, etc.

It's easy to get locked into a small screen where we are limited to like minded people and to not communicate outside of our own social groups. We need to have more open, respectful debate on the problems our community and nation are facing. We can not depend on the government to fix things for us. As a community, and a nation, we need to work together to fix things ourselves. We need to focus more on education and teaching our youth to have an open mind and to use common sense.

If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you be doing instead?

Outside of being retired to spend time with my family, I can say there isn't anything I'd rather be doing.

In law enforcement, and working within these veterans organizations, I can make an impact locally and on a state level. Both can be stressful and difficult to do, but at the end of the day I'm surrounded by great people and I am able to make an impact.

How do you think someone meeting you for the first time would describe you?

Generally, when I meet someone I don't say very much until I can get a read on who they are as a person. So the first meeting, they would likely call me quiet, standoffish, or maybe rude with my silence. Once you get to know me I am anything but silent and getting me to stop talking can be the problem.

What do you do when you aren't working or volunteering?

I love spending time with my wife and kids. My kids are an adventure every day and they fill our lives with so much enjoyment, there's not a lot of a desire to leave our house. I do go hunting and spend time outdoors as much as possible, which can be tough with our busy schedules. Outside of that, my wife and I love having people at our house for dinner and drinks.

What do you consider the biggest challenge about your community?

Because there isn't a big draw to our town, people don't get to experience what Winchester has to offer. One of my favorite things is driving uptown on Saturday morning and seeing the town come to life. With the new businesses like Rural Cyclery, Great Scott Store, and people stopping and having conversations, it seems like you're in a Hallmark movie at times. The draw to Winchester is Winchester, and until you experience the small town feeling it has, you don't understand what the big deal is.

Tell us about your biggest strength:

I'm not sure it's a strength, but I am the type of person that if there is something to do, I can't stand around and wait.

Anyone who has dealt with me on something would know that I can go 100 miles an hour when I get an idea and I tend to just do things myself to make them happen. My wife might disagree with that when it comes to the things around the house.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be, and why?

I have a tendency not to ask for help. I always feel like I'm bothering people if I ask for help and so I generally just do things myself. People have a desire to help, and I enjoy the group projects, but unless I can not do it myself, I have a tendency just to do things myself so that I don't have to bother others.

What are your goals for yourself?

My biggest goal is to be a good father and husband. I want my children to grow up to be comfortable asking me for help as well as being capable of doing things themselves. I want them to be good citizens who are proud of our nation and hopefully to live their lives in peace.

What might someone be surprised to know about you?

I don't like attention at all.

I'm not sure who nominated me for this, and while I appreciate it, I'd rather the recognition go to any of the other people who have worked hard for our veterans and community.

I get a lot of credit, but former commander Matt Lawson worked hard to preserve the physical American Legion building when it was collapsing. Former commander Nichole Mason worked hard to bring in the Global War On Terrirism veterans who weren't joining for miscellaneous reasons, me being among that group. I just happened to inherit what Nichole Mason and Lawson worked over a decade to preserve.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  A pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed Sunday in southern Mexico, dumping a group heading to a Christmas party into a ravine and sending 23 people to the hospital, authorities said.

The civil defense office in the Pacific coast state of Oaxaca said people from the town of Santos Reyes Nopala were walking over the bridge to get to a party when the structure failed.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP)  Stacey Abrams, who built her national reputation by advocating for voting rights, is calling on Congress to take action on federal voting rules as the Democrat launches a second bid to become Georgia's governor.

Senators including Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, Abrams close ally, have been arguing in recent days that the Senate must try again on federal voting standards, despite earlier setbacks.

In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Abrams said senators need to override Republican opposition to new federal voting guarantees by weakening the legislation-blocking filibuster to allow the Democrats' bare majority to pass new rules. Otherwise, Abrams said, more Republican-dominated state legislatures nationwide will adopt voting restrictions like Georgia did this year.

Starting in January, when legislators come back into session in 2022, were going to see a maelstrom of voter suppression laws. I understand the resistance to completely dismantling the filibuster. But I do believe theres a way to restore the Senate to a working body so that things like defending democracy can actually take place.

Abrams lost narrowly to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 after becoming the first Black woman to ever become a major party's nominee for governor. She maintains that Kemp used his position as secretary of state to unfairly tip the scales in his favor by doing things like purging voters from the rolls. Kemp denies wrongdoing. Abrams' loss and her response, including forming a new voting group called Fair Fight, vaulted her to national prominence among Democrats.

This year, Republicans pushed through a new voting law in Georgia which, among other things, cuts days for requesting an absentee ballot, shortens early voting before runoff elections and limits drop boxes.

Democrats fear it will chip away at their gathering strength in Georgia, where President Joe Biden won the state's 16 electoral votes and then Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff won runoffs in January, delivering control of the U.S. Senate to their party.

Republicans argue the law is fair to all and was necessary to restore confidence in the states elections after claims of fraud by then-President Donald Trump inflamed many GOP voters. Those claims have been debunked and repeatedly rejected by courts.

Abrams insists she can still win election in Georgia next year even if there are no changes to its new law.

I will do everything in my power to make certain that these new onerous voter suppression laws do not effectively block voters from their right to vote, she said. And so yes, theres absolutely a pathway to win.

Abrams said that pathway leads in a different direction than the traditional approach to policy taken by Southern Republicans, instead seeking to improve the prospects of those who don't get a fair shot today.

This is a state that is on the cusp of greatness. But we have high income inequality; we have low graduation rates relative to our capacity; we have a broken public health infrastructure system, Abrams said. But we also have the ability, if we had good leadership, to invest in our communities, in all of our communities across the state.

Republicans are mobilizing against that approach, saying it would undermine freedom and the economy in Georgia, and that Abrams is just using Georgia as a stepping stone to run for president. Although she said she'd like to be president one day, Abrams pledges to serve a full term as governor.

In a lacerating attack on Kemp, Abrams argued he failed to recognize the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been callous in his refusal to expand the Medicaid health insurance program to poor adults.

Leadership is about leading. Its not about guessing, and more importantly, its not about abdicating responsibility by saying everyone just figure it out, Abrams said. If we wanted a system where everyone could figure it out, we wouldnt need to elect the governor.

Kemp maintains he's struck the right balance between health and the economy during the pandemic. He noted that he avoided unpopular lockdowns and that Georgia has a record-low unemployment rate right now.

But with former Sen. David Perdue challenging Kemp in the Republican primary, Georgia's 2022 governor's contest might not be an Abrams-Kemp rematch. Abrams said Thursday that she would focus on her campaign, saying she didn't know enough about Perdue to evaluate his record.

I dont really know what it is, and Im someone whos paid very close attention to politics, Abrams said.

In a year where national public opinion has turned sour on Biden and Democrats, Abrams believes she can still win. She said thats in part because Georgia is different, with a population on the cusp of becoming majority nonwhite, and because her approach is different, with a focus on one Georgia where she says Im going to talk to every community and Im going to have plans for every community.

Republicans, though, maintain that Abrams will never overcome the tide of anti-Democratic sentiment and hope to lure wayward white suburbanites home, as well as pry away some African American, Latino and Asian voters.

Abrams is preaching patience to those communities.

Winning an election isnt about magic, she said. Voting isnt magic. It is medicine. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes continued investment.

The terrain that Abrams is campaigning on could change in other ways in coming months. Congress is considering creating a workaround to give health insurance to more people in states that have refused to expand Medicaid to poor adults. Extending Medicaid benefits has been the central focus of Democratic campaigns in Georgia for a decade. Abrams said she would celebrate if Congress expanded Medicaid, but said Georgia would still have a high uninsured rate and a troubled public health system.

The U.S. Supreme Court could clear the way for Georgia to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Passed in 2019, the law is currently on hold before an appeals court. Abrams called it a forced pregnancy bill.

Im going to do everything in my power to ensure that no woman is forced to put her family, herself or her life in jeopardy, simply to satisfy the political whims of a conservative man who has never had to make that choice, she said.

___

Follow Jeff Amy at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
FARGO, N.D. (AP)  An extraordinary number of patients are stretching resources at emergency rooms in North Dakota's largest city to the limit.

We are at  and often beyond  capacity every single day, said spokesman Louis St. George of Essentia Health in Fargo. He said it's due to a combination of COVID-19 and non-COVID patients.

Unfortunately, throughout this pandemic people have delayed seeking care and thus often present to our emergency departments with more acute conditions and in need of a higher level of care, St. George said.

St. George said the demand at Essentia may be unprecedented, KVRR-TV reported.

Weve rarely, if ever, seen this kind of constant demand of our emergency departments," he said. And this sustained demand has inevitably increased wait times, although we work judiciously to keep wait times as low as possible.

St. George says the Essentia staff has been working tirelessly to meet the demand. Employees are working longer shifts and taking fewer days off, he said.

The situation at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo is similar. Spokesman Nathan Aamodt said Sanfords ER continues to experience record volumes.

Our hospital capacity has been extremely high during this time as well. Most of the patients we are seeing are not COVID-19 related, Aamodt said.

North Dakota health officials reported more than 2,500 active cases of the coronavirus with about 160 people hospitalized as of Thursday. The state's hospital tracker showed there were about 150 staffed inpatient beds available and 10 staffed intensive care unit beds open throughout North Dakota.

The tracker showed two inpatient and two staffed beds available at Fargo Sanford and none of either at Essentia.

About 694 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people were confirmed in the state over the past two weeks, which ranks 23rd in the country for new cases per capita, according to data released Thursday by Johns Hopkins University researchers. One in every 316 people in North Dakota tested positive in the past week.

The situation in Fargo is not unusual when compared to other hospitals across the nation. In the Twin Cities, doctors, nurses and health care workers used a newspaper ad to explain that the situation is critical. It was signed by nine executives of health care systems.

The top of the ad had a large headline that said, Were heartbroken. Were overwhelmed.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Two U.S. senators and a third lawmaker say they have tested positive for COVID-19 after having been vaccinated, as the nation deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the omicron variant.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow is the latest to announce he has tested positive. In a tweet on Sunday, the Colorado Democrat said he is fully vaccinated and got a booster shot and is experiencing only mild symptoms.

Also on Sunday, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey said they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Congress was on recess Monday for the holidays, but many lawmakers were in Washington last week meeting with colleagues and others on Capitol Hill.

Crow said he tested positive after returning from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine.

Crow encouraged everyone eligible to get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. He also said he would continue to push for affordable access to rapid and reliable testing for all Americans.

In separate statements Sunday, Warren and Booker said they had been fully vaccinated with two doses and a booster and their symptoms were mild. They also encouraged others to get the trio of shots if eligible.

Warren tweeted: Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted."

She didnt elaborate on where she might have contracted the virus but said she's regularly tested and turned up negative for COVID-19 earlier this past week. Spokespeople for her office didn't respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

Warren was at the U.S. Capitol this week along with other senators as Democrats seek to pass President Joe Bidens $2 trillion social and environmental bill.

Booker, in a statement from his office, said: Im beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster  Im certain that without them I would be doing much worse.
BOSTON (AP)  A Massachusetts doctor has agreed to pay $115,000 to resolve allegations that he improperly prescribed controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice, federal prosecutors said.

Edward Driscoll, a physician who practiced at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, has agreed to the payment to resolve allegations that he violated provisions of the Controlled Substances Act, according to a statement last week from the U.S. attorney's office in Boston.
On a steamy July afternoon in Fort Scott, Kansas, 16-year-old Lindsey Lewis, dressed in a swimsuit and shorts and driving her well-loved convertible, picked up her friend Jill Overstake. They stopped for sodas on their way to the local rock quarry. A group of friends they called "the boys" were jumping off the rocks into the water.

Once there, Lindsey gave her friend a look that implied, "Shall we?"

"Absolutely not," Jill said. "It's not safe."

Lindsey smacked Jill on the shoulder playfully, as she often did, and said, "We're doing it!"

She grabbed Jill by the hand and in they went, splashing into the murky water 25 feet or so below. They laughed as they got out, their long hair dripping, the sun warm on their skin.

"In hindsight, it summed up our relationship, Lindsey pulling me by the hand and taking me out of my comfort zone," remembers her friend, who is now 34 and goes by Jillian Forsberg.

Jillian shared that joyous memory at Lindsey's funeral.

In 2018, her childhood friend, "L3" for Lindsey Louise Lewis, died suddenly from an aortic dissection. A tear in the wall of her heart's aorta allowed blood to rush between the wall's layers.

Lindsey was 31, an energetic, ambitious lawyer working in Dallas who had just bought her first house with her boyfriend. She collapsed after work while exiting an elevator into the parking garage and died on the scene.

Jillian, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, learned of her friend's death the next day, when she woke up to screenfuls of texts and messages on her phone.

The girls met in middle school and bonded over feeling different, together. Lindsey was a bridesmaid at Jillian's wedding and made a surprise appearance at her baby shower. They kept up via texts and photos. Jillian had admired Lindsey's courage, compassion and zest for life.

In her shock and grief, Jillian dug deep into researching heart disease, wondering if anything could have saved her friend.

Most people who have aortic dissection say they feel a sudden ripping or stabbing chest pain that sometimes spreads to the back. It can potentially be treated with surgery and medication.

Lindsey's boyfriend said she had complained of some chest pains but had chalked them up to stress and anxiety.

"If she could have seen a cardiologist in her last few weeks, she might have had a lifesaving surgery," said Jillian, who accepts that she will never know.

Jillian also thought, if this can happen to my friend, it can happen to me.

Within weeks of Lindsey's death, Jillian started to exercise regularly for the first time in her life. She now works out six days a week, following online cardio and strength routines at home.

Last year, Jillian began eating healthier foods and more home-cooked meals. She lost 20 pounds, her husband lost 70.

On social media, she regularly wrote about Lindsey and implored people to stay healthy, get regular checkups and go to the doctor if they felt any chest pain.

This year, an invitation to participate in American Heart Association fundraising events gave Jillian a chance to not only raise money for heart research and continue spreading the word about heart health, but to share Lindsey's bright light with others.

"When I speak, of course the focus is on how she died," Jillian said. "But I also want to show people, this is how she lived. She was living her best life."

Aimee Lewis, the youngest of Lindsey's three sisters, was in the audience at an event this past summer.

It was difficult to sit through, she said, but she was glad Jillian was on the stage.

"I appreciate her spreading the word about hearts and being healthy," Aimee said.

Aimee, a barber, also talks to people about remaining healthy and getting checkups. "A lot of my clients have been with me for eight or 10 years and know what I've been through."

The Lewis family started a law scholarship at Lindsey's alma mater in her honor, and they spread a bit of her ashes every time they travel together. Jillian keeps some of Lindsey's ashes in a locket and in an urn.

Every Friday, Jillian, who works at a bridal shop, wears red as part of a Go Red for Women campaign to bring attention to heart health. She also "says yes" to more things, as Lindsey did, and often plays music that reminds her of her friend, singing both their parts. She even uses Lindsey as an example while raising her young daughter.

"Lindsey was braver than I'll ever be," Jillian said. "I don't ever want to let her go."

Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.

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AUBURN, Maine (AP)  A house in Maine exploded and a man was seriously injured when someone used butane to try to extract a psychoactive compound from marijuana, state police said.

The explosion took place Sunday in Auburn. Police said the investigation determined the explosion occurred because of the use of the gas to extract THC from the marijuana.
SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP)  An intertribal agency says Wisconsin's draft environmental review for a planned reroute of an oil and gas pipeline across northern Wisconsin is incomplete and flawed.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released its draft environmental impact statement on Thursday for a roughly 40-mile (64-kilometer) reroute of Enbridge's Line 5 in Ashland and Iron counties. The pipeline carries up to 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of oil and natural gas liquids per day from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.

Enbridge, a Canadian company, is seeking to move the pipeline after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued the company in 2019 to shut it down and remove it from their reservation.

The proposed reroute is expected to cross nearly 200 bodies of water and temporarily affect 135 acres (55 hectares) of wetlands. Enbridge says the nearly 70-year-old pipeline is a vital link to fuel across the region.

Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents 11 Ojibwe tribes, told the DNR in a Dec. 10 letter that the states review has significant gaps in information.

The commission says it doesn't have enough data on the effects an oil spill would have on downstream waters, including Lake Superior. They also say it doesn't assess compliance with the Bad River tribes water quality standards or combined impacts of other projects.

There really needs to be a thorough description of the risks being posed by putting this pipeline around the reservation ... and Enbridge does not have a great history with spills, said John Coleman, the commission's environmental section leader.

Enbridge was responsible for one of the nations largest inland oil spills in July 2010 that contaminated nearly 40 miles (64 kilometers) of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan and cost more than $1.2 billion to clean up. More recently, Minnesota regulators fined the company $3 million for failing to follow the states environmental laws after Enbridge pierced a groundwater aquifer during construction of Line 3, releasing at least 24 million gallons of water.

Line 5 has had around 30 spills that have released more than 1 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids on land since 1968, according to federal pipeline safety data obtained by the National Wildlife Federation.

The draft review says an oil spill to nearby surface waters like the Bad River would temporarily impair water quality for weeks to months. The analysis said its unlikely a large oil spill would reach the lake since much would become trapped in sediments and vegetation at the river bottom, along stream and riverbanks and in wetlands before reaching this far downstream.

The commission added the agencys review appears to exclude alternatives based on Enbridges analysis, includes problems with reference to treaty rights along the route, lacks sections on water quality, and details incorrect route location and mapping.

Ben Callan, the DNRs integration services section chief, declined to comment on the commissions remarks. He noted the agency intends to review all comments to update, clarify or correct any information.

The company said in a statement Friday that its pleased the reroute is moving forward.

Agreement has been reached with all private landowners along the 40-mile (reroute), chosen because it minimizes environmental impacts and protects critical resources, wrote Michael Barnes, an Enbridge spokesperson. We will move forward with construction once all necessary permits are received.

Labor unions and the states largest business lobby have backed the project and argued the lines shutdown would negatively impact businesses and residents in Wisconsin. Theyve highlighted the 700 jobs it would bring.

Enbridge is currently fighting efforts by the state of Michigan to shut down Line 5 in the Great Lakes. The pipeline provides around 65% of the propane supplied to residents in Michigans Upper Peninsula and around 55% of the states propane fuel.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard staged a major military exercise across the country's south on Monday amid heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, state TV reported.

The Guards aerospace division, ground troops and naval forces joined in the five-day drill, the report said, with maritime forces set to maneuver in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow gateway for 20% of the world's traded oil.

The exercise comes days after talks to revive Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers broke up in Vienna. Iran has accelerated its nuclear advances as negotiations to return to the accord struggle to make headway.

When asked by a reporter during a press briefing whether Iran would consider enriching uranium to weapons-grade 90% purity, the foreign ministry spokesman gave a vague response.

The level, amount and quality of enrichment are in line with the needs of Irans peaceful nuclear program, Saeed Khatibzadeh said. All these measures have been taken with the knowledge of the International Atomic Energy Agency and will continue to be so in the future."

His comment came after Iran's hard-line Kayhan newspaper published an editorial arguing that Iran should enrich uranium up to 90% purity and become a world nuclear power if negotiations in Vienna fail to grant the country sanctions relief.

Since former President Donald Trump pulled America out of the nuclear deal and reimposed crushing sanctions, Tehran has started enriching uranium up to 60% purity  a short technical step from the 90% needed to make an atomic bomb.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful. But the country's steps away from its obligations under the 2015 accord have alarmed its archenemy Israel and other world powers. Israel has repeatedly threatened unilateral action against Iran's nuclear program.

On Monday, Gen. Gholamali Rashid, a top Guard commander, vowed a harsh response to any Israeli military action against Iran.

Iranian forces will launch a crushing attack on all bases, centers, paths and space used to carry out the aggression without delay, the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

Any threat to Irans nuclear and military bases by the Zionist regime is not possible without the green light support of the United States," he said.

Earlier on Monday, residents in Bushehr, some 700 kilometers (440 miles) south of Irans capital, Tehran, reported seeing a light in the sky and hearing a loud explosion near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

It was the second time this month that sudden anti-aircraft firing erupted the middle of the night near an Iranian nuclear facility, which Iranian forces hours later described as drill for its surface-to-air missile defense system.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania on Tuesday rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection, joining other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying to stonewall the committee.

In a statement, Perry called the committee illegitimate.

In a letter to Perry on Monday night, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, that Perry had an important role in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.

The lawmaker's refusal will test how far the committee is willing to go in its quest for information as members have so far resisted subpoenaing one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by Trumps supporters and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The letter is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as the members inquire about the details of Perry and other congressional Republicans who met with Trump ahead of the Capitol attack and strategized about how they could block the results at the Jan. 6 electoral count.

Also in the letter, Thompson added that while the panel has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its Members," it also has "a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.

The committee has also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of Jan. 6 events.

The lawmaker, representing Pennsylvania's 10th District, was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trumps effort to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.

Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of Bidens victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trumps request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.

The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perrys claims.

The recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department wasnt doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clarks help because hes the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this, the report said.

Perry has said his official communications with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.

The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clarks lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.

The panel has already interviewed around 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the Jan. 6 attack and the events leading up to it.

Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying Vice President Mike Pence and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the Jan. 6 congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trumps claims.

An angry mob of Trump supporters was echoing his false claims as it brutally beat Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Bidens victory.

Thompson, in his request for a meeting with Perry, wrote: We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.

___

Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.
MOSCOW (AP)  A Japanese billionaire, his producer and a Russian cosmonaut safely returned to Earth on Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin made a soft landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:13 a.m. (0313 GMT) about 150 kilometers ( 90 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.

Low clouds prevented the deployment of search-and-rescue helicopters to the area, so rescue teams reached the landing site in all-terrain vehicles to assist the crew and conduct medical checkups. They reported that the trio was feeling fine.

Later in the day, they will be flown to the Star City space flight preparation facility outside Moscow for post-flight checks and rehabilitation.

Maezawa, 46, and his 36-year-old producer Hirano were the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. Misurkin was on his third space mission.

Speaking to The Associated Press last week in a live interview from the orbiting space station, Maezawa said that once you are in space, you realize how much it is worth it by having this amazing experience.

Asked about reports claiming that he paid over $80 million for the 12-day mission, Maezawa said he couldnt disclose the contract sum but admitted that he paid pretty much that amount.

In October, Russian actor Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko spent 12 days on the station to make the worlds first movie in orbit, a project sponsored by Russias space corporation Roscosmos to help burnish the nations reputation for space glory.

Staying behind at the station are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei; Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency.

Speaking to the AP from orbit, Maezawa deflected criticism from those who questioned his decision to spend money on space travel instead of using it to help people back on Earth, saying that those who criticize are perhaps those who have never been to space.

He said he felt a little bit of motion sickness and it was a little bit difficult to sleep, adding that future space tourists should be prepared to spend up to five days adapting to zero gravity.

Maezawa said he was happy with the length of his trip, saying that 12 days was about right for me to adapt to the motion sickness and enjoy the rest of the flight.

After asking the public for ideas before the flight, Maezawa had compiled a list of 100 things to do in space that included playing some sports inside the space station such as badminton, table tennis and golf.

Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company that organized his flight, previously sent seven other tourists to the space station between 2001 and 2009.

Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japans largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. Forbes magazine has estimated his net worth at $1.9 billion.

The tycoon has also booked a flyby around the moon aboard Elon Musks Starship and will be joined on that trip by eight contest winners. He said he plans to undertake that mission in 2023.
SEATTLE (AP)  A longtime King County sheriffs detective made several false statements under oath when she obtained a search warrant in a murder case three years ago  resulting in a mans false arrest on drug charges, newly unsealed federal court orders show.

Detective Kathleen Decker, a now-retired 33-year veteran of the King County Sheriff's Office, was looking for a murder weapon when she asked a Washington state judge for a warrant to search the car and apartment of Seattle resident Gizachew Wondie in 2018. At the time, federal agents were separately looking into Wondie's possible involvement in selling drugs.

Wondie was not a suspect in the homicide, but Decker's search warrant application said a gun he owned was the same weapon that had been used to kill 22-year-old Amarah Riley as she was driving in Skyway, just south of Seattle, a few months earlier.

In reality, Decker was aware that the gun was only a potential match for the murder weapon and that further testing was required to prove it, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said in court orders that were unsealed on Friday.

Further, Decker falsely claimed that a different Black man pictured in an Instagram photo holding a gun was Wondie, and that Wondie had a propensity for violence, when in reality he had never been accused of a violent crime. Decker also omitted information from her search warrant application that suggested Wondie no longer possessed the gun she was looking for.

The Court concludes Detective Deckers noted statements in the affidavit can only be reasonably construed as reckless conduct, if not intentional acts," the federal judge wrote. "This is particularly so for a 33-year veteran detective working in Major Crimes, investigating homicide, robbery, and felony assault cases. Detective Decker was seeking a search warrant for evidence of the crime of Murder in the First Degree. Her attention to accuracy and truth should have been paramount, but that was not the case in the affidavit she submitted.

Decker was the sheriff's office detective of the year in 2018. The department called her an outright legend in a Facebook post marking her retirement last year.

The King County Sheriff's Office said Monday it is reviewing the judge's orders, which were issued in July, and noted Decker's "34 years of commendable service. Decker did not immediately respond to a message sent through social media. During a court hearing earlier this year to examine the validity of the search warrant, she acknowledged some of her statements were incorrect or exaggerated, but she said she did not deliberately mislead the judge who issued the warrant.

Wondie sued Decker and King County earlier this month for civil rights violations.

This case demonstrates how frail the justice system can be when truth is disregarded in favor of a false and convenient narrative tailored for an expedient result, Wondie's attorney, Dan Fiorito, said in an email Monday.

Riley was killed in September 2018. In early December that year, Decker obtained a search warrant for Wondie's car and apartment from King County Superior Court Judge Kristin Richardson. Two days later, Decker had a special weapons and tactics team confront Wondie as he parked his car near Seattle Central College, where he was studying computer science.

The SWAT team was led by Detective George Alvarez, who had a troubled history with the sheriff's office and was fired earlier this year for his actions leading to a man's fatal shooting in 2019; he is also named as a defendant in Wondie's lawsuit. The SWAT team arrested Wondie and found drugs on him, although Decker acknowledged during her testimony at the court hearing that there was no probable cause to arrest him.

Investigators then questioned Wondie, learned he had another apartment and obtained a separate warrant to search that apartment  where they found 11,000 Xanax pills, 171 grams of cocaine, a pill press and other evidence of drug dealing.

He was charged federally with possession of drugs with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Wondie's attorneys, federal public defenders Mohammad Hamoudi and Sara Brin, challenged the charges against him, saying that but for Decker's false statements, investigators would not have had grounds to confront their client, interview him or discover any evidence of drugs.

Last June, the federal judge held a two-day hearing at which Decker testified. Jones subsequently agreed with Wondie's arguments, suppressing all of the evidence against him, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle was forced to dismiss the charges. Jones initially sealed his orders to protect details of the homicide investigation, but agreed to unseal them with redactions at the request of Wondie's attorneys.

In an emailed statement Monday, Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said prosecutors had pursued the case against Wondie despite some errors" in the search warrant because they believed the separate drug investigation into Wondie provided independent justification for the search.

In light of the substantial public safety concerns occasioned by the defendant's activities, we believed that it was appropriate to continue to pursue the prosecution and defend the search, Langlie wrote.

One of the key issues was Decker's use of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that can help police link crime-scene evidence to guns that have been previously used in crimes. The results of queries to the NIBIN network come back quickly, but they can yield false-positives and require further in-person examination by a firearms examiner to confirm.

Wondie's gun had been seized by Seattle police in 2017, after he had reportedly brandished it in public. Charges against him were dropped in that case and the gun was returned, but while police had it, they test-fired it and entered the images of the shell casing into the ATF's network.

When investigators recovered shell casings from the scene of Riley's homicide, Decker sent one for testing through the network. It yielded a possible hit to Wondie's gun. But further confirmation could not be obtained. Because Seattle police had destroyed the shell casing from the test-fire, it was not available for microscopic comparison to the casing recovered from Riley's killing.

Nevertheless, Decker wrote in her affidavit that the test results link conclusively to the shell casings collected from the Amarah Riley murder scene.

That misrepresentation was far more egregious ... than to be classified as mere negligence, Jones wrote.

Decker was a respected and well-known detective. She instructed others in law enforcement on investigative techniques, including the art of tracking people through woods or fields.
MISSION, Kan. (AP)  Rural Kansas hospitals are struggling to transfer patients as COVID-19 numbers surge, with some patients left stranded in emergency rooms for a week while they wait for a bed.

Space also was in short supply last winter and again over the summer when the delta variant first hit the state. The situation improved slightly this fall, but now is worsening again, according to Motient, a company contracted by Kansas to help manage transfers.

It isn't just rural hospitals looking for beds. Overwhelmed hospitals as far away as Minnesota and Michigan have been looking for beds in larger Kansas hospitals. Often there simply isn't room.

Dr. Richard Watson, founder of Motient, said Friday that the long-distance transfers and long waits for beds are becoming commonplace as the pandemic ends its second year, adding, Its already as crazy as it can be.

"When you are talking about moving people from Minnesota to Kansas City for treatment. Its like Mayo Clinic in reverse," he said.

Kansas averaged 41 new COVID-19 hospitalizations a day for the seven days ending Monday, according to state health department data, as total confirmed and probable cases for the pandemic topped 500,000.

Gov. Laura Kelly said she has no plans to pursue the same aggressive strategy of closing schools and businesses statewide that she did in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature ended a state of emergency in June and curbed the power of the Democratic governor and even local officials to impose restrictions.

We have the tools to stop the spread, Kelly told The Associated Press Monday. People really do need to not only get fully vaccinated, they need to get the booster shot.

Jesse Thomas, also of Motient, said Monday that it takes an average of eight and a half hours from the time a smaller hospital starts looking for a bed in a larger hospital to when an ambulance or air transportation arrives, up from about five hours this summer.

It used to be rare, and now its not rare," he said of the long waits.

Forty patients were on the board waiting to be transferred on Friday. Some have been languishing in emergency departments while they await transfers for days, sometimes more than a week, Watson said.

Watson said larger hospitals don't want COVID-19 patients unless they are really sick, adding that some are only accepting COVID-19 transfers if they need to be on a ventilator.

They know that their beds are at a premium and they have to hold them for the people who need them," Watson said, adding that COVID-19 patients who just need oxygen wind up stuck. He said the shortage of beds and staff to care for patients also has stranded patients with other health issues, such as heart attacks.

He said staffing shortages in nursing homes also contribute to the bed shortage because it means there is nowhere to send patients who are improving but still need extra care.

You cant put somebody in that bed if they cant clean it out," he said.

Dr. Jackie Hyland, the chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System's St. Francis campus in Topeka, complained about the problems nursing home shortages were causing on a recent call with Kansas and Missouri hospital officials.

It causes a backup all the way through to our emergency room and holding emergency room patients there, preventing them from getting admitted to a hospital bed," Hyland said.

Watson said he has never seen a problem like this on such a broad scale.

You may have a patient here or there thats having a difficulty and the hospital may be in a tight spot, but to have the whole system with people just locked in place for days at a level of care they really need to move out of, thats a different world for us, he said.

Watson said he anticipated the capacity issues would only grow worse over the holidays.

People expect there to be a different story," Watson said. But you know, here we got it: Its unvaccinated people. Omicron moves through. Nobodys paying attention. They all want it to go away for Christmas. Its not going away."

A handful of omicron cases have been detected in the state in recent days. The latest two were announced Monday in Wyandotte County in the Kansas City area.

___

Associated Press reporter John Hanna in Topeka contributed to this report.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Madison man has been charged in the Dec. 7 death of a St. Louis man.

William A. Jenkins, 44, of Madison, was charged Dec. 13 with three counts of first-degree murder, all Class M felonies; attempted armed robbery, a Class 1 felony; and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony.

The charges were filed Dec. 13 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office and suppressed until the following day.

According to court documents, at about 11:48 p.m. Dec. 7 Madison Police received a 911 call about a shooting and a male subject down in the 1700 block of Wayne Lanter Avenue. The victim, identified as Andre Hutson, 38, of St. Louis, was pronounced dead at the scene and the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis was activated to investigate the incident.

Each murder charge against Jenkins presents a different theory on the killing.

According to court documents Jenkins was attempting to rob Hutson when Jenkins allegedly shot him. Jenkins has a 2013 Madison County felony conviction for mob action, making him ineligible to possess weapons or ammunition.

Bail was set at $3 million.

Other felony charges filed recently by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Wardell D. Webber, 29, of Collinsville, was charged Dec. 14 with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Dec. 12 Webber allegedly strangled a household or family member. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Michael J. LeTempt, 50, of Granite City, was charged Dec. 15 with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Aug. 30 LeTempt allegedly strangled a household or family member. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Luis J. Prado, 27, of Harliingen, Texas, was charged Dec. 15 with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony, and retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Troy Police Department. On Dec. 14 Prado allegedly spit in the face of a Troy Police officer and took a number of items from the Troy Pilot store at 820 Edwardsville Road. Bail was set at $45,000.

 Courtney Randle, 50, of Alton, was charged Dec. 15 with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. On July 29 Rnadle allegedly was carrying a loaded and accessible .38 caliber handgun in a vehicle. Randle has a 1999 Madison County felony conviction for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, making him ineligible to possess weapons or ammunition. Bail was set at $45,000.

 Jeremy R. Fehr, 40, of Collinsville, was charged Dec. 13 with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony, and reckless discharge of a firearm and domestic battery (second subsequent offense), both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Dec. 11 Fehr allegedly was found to have a Glock 41 .45 caliber handgun. He allegedly fired the weapon, endangering three people, and allegedly struck one of them, a household or family member, in the mouth with the handgun. Fehr has 2014 St. Clair convictions for felony aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, as well as a 2019 conviction for domestic battery. Bail was set at $100,000.

 Terrez T. Whitehead, 20, of East St. Louis, was charged Dec. 13 with aggravated unlawful use of weapons and obstruction of justice, both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. On Dec. 12 Whitehead allegedly was found to have a Glock 43 9 mm handgun in his vehicle without a concealed carry permit, and he allegedly gave false information to an Alton Police officer. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Levauntez D. Conway, 21, of Collinsville, was charged Dec. 13 with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Dec. 11 Conway allegedly was found to have a loaded and accessible Glock 43 9 mm handgun in a motor vehicle without a Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry license. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Brandon L. Whitehead, 26, of Granite City, was charged Dec. 13 with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Dec. 12 Whitehead allegedly was found to be carrying a Ruger LCP .380 caliber handgun. He has a 2019 Madison County conviction for burglary, making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $15,000.
BOSTON, Mass. (AP)  A potential egg shortage in Massachusetts has pushed state lawmakers to implement a new set of standards for the egg industry, averting projected scarcity in 2022.

Lawmakers agreed to add new standards to a 2016 voter-approved animal welfare law that required all eggs and meat farmed and sold in the state to come from livestock that was not confined to tight spaces. The new standards would allow farmers to hold animals in spaces less than 1.5 square feet of space, The Boston Globe reported on Sunday.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Monday to spend $1.5 billion on economic development efforts for businesses, including possible funds to build a General Motors factory to manufacture electric vehicle batteries in the Lansing area.

The legislation creates the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, which will be funded from state revenue with $1 billion to be used for assistance to companies.

Funds totaling $409 million will also be allocated to support restaurants, gyms and other areas of business highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The legislation, which includes four bills, passed the GOP-led Legislature with bipartisan support last week.

Thanks to the effective collaboration between legislative leadership, my administration, and community and business leaders, I signed bills that will back small businesses and empower Michigan to grow and attract billions in investment and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs," Whitmer said in a news release Monday.

GM's plans to build its third U.S.-based electric vehicle battery plant were announced earlier this month. GM said the plant would cost as much as $2.5 billion to build and employ up to 1,700 people, starting operation in 2025.

Other large-scale opportunities could be coming Michigan's way if the state can lure in businesses, said Wendy Block, vice president of Business Advocacy and Member Engagement for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, earlier this month.

The Michigan Manufacturer's Association echoed Block's sentiment in the news release from the governor's office.

Michigan must out-compete other states to attract and retain manufacturing investment," MMA CEO John Walsh said. We commend the Legislature and the Whitmer Administration for working together and coordinating closely with the manufacturing industry to allow us to engage in the interstate battle for current and future jobs and investments."

___

Anna Liz Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Midland County could participate in an opioid settlement that would make Midland eligible to receive a direct payment as a result of the Janssen Settlement, a class action lawsuit brought by local government units against the manufacturers of opioids and the negative effects of the opioid crisis on local government.

This item is one of several to be considered at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Midland County Services building.

There's also a request to purchase a portion of a Midland County-owned parcel, and its recommended to be approved during a board of commissioners meeting Tuesday. A parcel near South Thayer Road in Midland could be sold, if commissioners approve negotiations of a sale on behalf of the county.

And one of Midland's beloved attractions could receive a $100,000 grant agreement with the Midland Area Community Foundation that would fund some of the Pere Marquette Rail Trail refurbishment project.

In other business, an amended Secondary Road Patrol & Traffic Accident grant award from the Michigan State Police Office of Highway Safety Planning will be considered Tuesday.

The amended amount of the grant award is $55,253, an increase of $15,269 over the original grant award. The term of this agreement is from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2022.

Midland County could extend an existing grant agreement that supports the prosecutor's office efforts to catch up on a backlog in cases by retaining a law school graduate for assistance. The county could approve a Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Fund Extension to the existing agreement with the Michigan State Police by $70,082.

The term of the extension is for one year beginning Dec. 31.

In other news, the Daily News recently reported a furry friend, who is a chocolate lab named Joey, helping the Midland County Prosecutors Office uplift survivors and office staff. Similarly, there's a canine advocate, a golden retriever named "Monarch Marley" at the Midland County Juvenile Care Center.

Commissioners will consider a "hold harmless" agreement between the County of Midland and Ryan Griffus and other employees of the Midland County Juvenile Care Center regarding potential incidents with the canine.

Midland County Commissioners will also consider another grant agreement with the Midland Area Community Foundation in the amount of $10,000 related to the Midland Area Honor Guard Uniform Project.

County policy could change after Juneteenth has been recognized as a federal holiday. Midland County's designated holidays, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Good Friday and Veteran's Day, could now include Juneteenth.

If approved, County offices will be closed on June 19 and employees shall normally not be required to work.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, two months after the Confederacy had surrendered. According to the Associated Press, it was about 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Southern states.
DANVILLE, Ala. (AP)  Neighbors say new Alabama rules governing the spreading of poultry sludge on farmland aren't doing enough to reduce the smell of decaying chicken or the animals it attracts.

The Decatur Daily finds that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has received 51 complaints about one site alone in Morgan County in the last year, almost all saying putrid odor makes it impossible for neighbors to use and enjoy their own property.

Another great week of chicken death up here, wrote Ken Thompson. Thanks ADEM for the smell of death up here at our homes.  Looking forward to a weekend and running to the car so you dont puke when the smell overtakes you.

That July 23 complaint and others target Hidden Valley Farm, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Danville. It's owned by Georgia-based Recyc Systems Southeast, which in turn is owned by Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions.

The poultry sludge is not chicken excrement. Rather, it is a slurry containing bits of dead chickens, along with other waste from rendering and processing plants.

Until April 2020, applying poultry sludge on farmland was unregulated in Alabama. Since then, regulations prohibit application or storage of the sludge within 500 feet (150 meters) of inhabited buildings or within 100 feet (30 meters) of waterways or the property line. No testing of materials is required. The applicator is supposed to develop a plan to minimize animals like rodents, bugs, coyotes and birds, and to minimize odors and fugitive air-borne dust.

Complaints have also been filed against Denali operations in Jefferson, Clay, Jackson, Barbour, Cullman, Russell, Etowah and Marshall counties. Alabama's other major poultry waste distributor, Synagro, has been targeted by 20 complaints this year. Most involved farms in Marshall and Blount counties.

The complaints have prompted dozens of ADEM inspections, but few citations. ADEM has notified Denali of violations six times this year on farms in Morgan, Russell, Etowah, Blount, Clay and Marshall counties, usually involving violations of setback requirements. Synagro has received two notices of violation this year and three warning letters.

Opponents have formed Waste Sludge Awareness, which had its inaugural meeting Dec. 2 in Guntersville.

Environmental group Black Warrior Riverkeeper began receiving complaints of foul odors coming from an old coal mine in north Jefferson County. ADEM issued a cease-and-desist order to Denali in March, and in August fined the company $34,500.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper's Nelson Brooke said waste companies save time and money by spraying lots of sludge in a small area.

They just dont follow the minimal regulations that we have, and the guidelines, which require this stuff to be tilled into the ground and sprayed at a smaller volume so it can adequately percolate into the ground, Brooke said.

That way they can get rid of way more of it quicker, get back to the tanker truck and completely spray that whole 18-wheeler and get on to the next one. Thats cheaper for them, cheaper for the company thats getting rid of it," Brooke said.

Southern Environmental Law Center is representing Black Warrior Riverkeeper and Alabama Rivers Alliance in a challenge to ADEM's regulations. Lawyer Barry Brock said Alabama's rules are weaker than any surrounding state, requiring no testing or treatment for pathogens.

In other states where they do allow that kind of industrial waste to be land-applied, they at least have requirements that it be tested," Brock said.

Rickey Turner, senior project manager at Denali, said his company provides an important service that saves money for poultry processors, disposes of waste that would otherwise fill landfills, and benefits farmers by fertilizing land.

Every single time we try to rebuttal, it always gets misrepresented. Were always made out to be the bad guy, Turner said.

He said extensive testing requirements are unnecessary because the chicken sludge is merely food waste. He said Denali does some testing, both for nutrient value and for the presence of some metals.

Theyre not showing the full picture of what ADEM is requiring us to do before we can even land-apply," Turner said. We have to have a nutrient management plan that shows soil samples, and metals in the sludge and nutrients in the sludge.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP)  An Ohio man convicted of murdering two teenagers inside his detached garage more than two years ago has been sentenced to 21 years to life in prison.

Victor Santana, 65, of Dayton was sentenced Monday in Montgomery County Court on convictions of murder and felonious assault in the deaths of Devin Henderson and Javier Harrison. Prosecutors had sought the maximum term of 36 years to life.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  The outgoing mayor of Columbia, South Carolina has been awarded a Harvard fellowship to mentor and teach students.

Steve Benjamins office announced Monday he will teach a course in health policy and leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health during the spring 2022 term.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials issued detailed new rules Monday prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities. The new guidelines come nearly a year after some current and former service members participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, triggering a broad department review.

According to the Pentagon, fewer than 100 military members are known to have been involved in substantiated cases of extremist activity in the past year. But they warn that the number may grow given recent spikes in domestic violent extremism, particularly among veterans.

Officials said the new policy doesn't largely change what is prohibited but is more of an effort to make sure troops are clear on what they can and can't do, while still protecting their First Amendment right to free speech. And for the first time, it is far more specific about social media.

The new policy lays out in detail the banned activities, which range from advocating terrorism or supporting the overthrow of the government to fundraising or rallying on behalf of an extremist group or liking or reposting extremist views on social media. The rules also specify that commanders must determine two things in order for someone to be held accountable: that the action was an extremist activity, as defined in the rules, and that the service member actively participated in that prohibited activity.

Previous policies banned extremist activities but didn't go into such great detail, and also did not specify the two-step process to determine someone accountable.

What was wrong yesterday is still wrong today, said one senior defense official. But several officials said that as a study group spoke with service members this year they found that many wanted clearer definitions of what was not allowed. The officials provided additional details about the rules on condition of anonymity because they were not made public.

The military has long been aware of small numbers of white supremacists and other extremists among the troops. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders launched a broader campaign to root out extremism in the force after it became clear that military veterans and some current service members were present at the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In a message to the force on Monday, Austin said the department believes that only a few service members violate their oath and participate in extremist activities. But, he added, even the actions of a few can have an outsized impact on unit cohesion, morale and readiness - and the physical harm some of these activities can engender can undermine the safety of our people.

The risk of extremism in the military can be more dangerous because many service members have access to classified information about sensitive military operations or other national security information that could help adversaries. And extremist groups routinely recruit former and current service members because of their familiarity with weapons and combat tactics.

The number of substantiated cases may be small compared to the size of the military, which includes more than 2 million active duty and reserve troops. But the number appears to be an increase over previous years where the totals were in the low two-digits. But officials also noted that data has not been consistent so it is difficult to identify trends.

The new rules do not provide a list of extremist organizations. Instead, it is up to commanders to determine if a service member is actively conducting extremist activities based on the definitions, rather than on a list of groups that may be constantly changing, officials said.

Asked whether troops can simply be members of an extremist organization, officials said the rules effectively prohibit membership in any meaningful way  such as the payment of dues or other actions that could be considered active participation.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that there's not a whole lot about membership in a group that you're going to be able to get away with." He added, "In order to prove your membership you're probably going to run afoul of one of these criteria."

Kirby also said that commanders will evaluate each case individually, so simply clicking like on one social media post, for example, might not merit punishment depending on all the circumstances involved.

He also noted that the Pentagon does not have the ability or desire to actively monitor troops' personal social media accounts. Those issues would likely come up if reported to commanders or were discovered through other means.

The regulations lay out six broad groups of extremist activities and then provide 14 different definitions that constitute active participation.

Soon after taking office, Austin ordered military leaders to schedule a so-called stand-down day and spend time talking to their troops about extremism in the ranks.

The new rules apply to all of the military services, including the Coast Guard, which in peacetime is part of the Department of Homeland Security. They were developed through recommendations from the Countering Extremist Activities Working Group. And they make the distinction, for example, that troops may possess extremist materials, but they cant attempt to distribute them, and while they can observe an extremist rally, they cant participate, fund or support one.

The rules, said the officials, focus on behavior, not ideology. So service members have whatever political, religious or other beliefs that they want, but their actions and behavior are governed.

In addition to the new rules, the Pentagon is expanding its screening for recruits to include a deeper look at potential extremist activities. Some activities may not totally prevent someone from joining the military, but require a closer look at the applicant.

The department also is expanding education and training for current military members, and more specifically for those leaving the service who may be suddenly subject to recruitment by extremist organizations.

More than 650 people have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, including dozens of veterans and about a half dozen active duty service members.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Netherlands (AP)  Prosecutors on Monday began explaining evidence and their indictment to judges in the murder trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with involvement in downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

Prosecutors are scheduled to take three days to walk judges through the indictment at hearings in a top-security courtroom on the outskirts of Schiphol Airport  the departure point for the Boeing 777, which was heading for Kuala Lumpur when  according to prosecutors and international investigators  it was shot down.

Today we are here to do right by the 298 victims of flight MH17, public prosecutor Thijs Berger told the court.

Monday's hearing began against a backdrop of soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine that has drawn fears of an invasion. Moscow has denied plans to attack its neighbor, but demanded the West provide a set of legal guarantees precluding the expansion of NATO to Ukraine and other Russian neighbors and the deployment of the alliances weapons there, a demand NATO has rejected.

Determining the truth in this case may also contribute to averting new violence in the future, Berger told the judges.

After all, a world that makes no effort to ascertain the truth and to punish the guilty when hundreds of innocent civilians are murdered is leaving its civilians as fair game, he added. And for that reason truth and lies need to be distinguished and perpetrators need to be punished. That is our task in this courtroom.

Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew when MH17 was downed, was at the court for the hearing.

We get to hear the conclusions of the prosecution, and on Wednesday we will hear the sentencing demands of the prosecution. So this ... for us, its very important, he said.

None of the four suspects has appeared at the trial. Only one, Oleg Pulatov, has Dutch lawyers representing him in court. They say that he denies involvement. Pulatov is one of three Russian suspects together with Igor Girkin, and Sergey Dubinskiy. They are charged together with Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.

The trial began in March last year with the solemn reading of the names of all the people who died when the plane shattered in midair and plunged to the ground in agricultural fields in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine.

An international investigation into the crash concluded that MH17 was brought down by a buk misssile that was trucked into Ukraine from a Russian military base. Investigators say the missile launcher then returned to Russia. Moscow denies involvement.

On Wednesday, prosecutors will tell judges what punishments they want for the four suspects. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

The hearing will then be adjourned until March, when defense lawyers for Pulatov will make their presentation to judges. Both sides can make responses and final statements over the summer and verdicts are expected before the end of next year.
PHOENIX (AP)  The National Institutes of Health is investigating a University of Washington primate facility in Arizona after a Phoenix newspaper reported finding widespread disease with the potential to compromise science at one of the nations largest facilities for breeding pigtailed macaques.

The Arizona Republic reported Monday the institutes Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare confirmed the probe started after the newspaper published its story in October and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint.

The newspaper found that at least 47 monkeys had died during the past eight years at the facility north of Mesa from Valley fever, a flu-like illness caused by a fungus from regional soil.

The illness threatens results of tens of millions of dollars in research into human viruses and diseases including AIDS, HIV, hepatitis, Zika, Ebola and COVID-19, the newspaper reported, and raised questions about whether the Arizona site was the right location for the facility.

The institute's Office of Extramural Research said in a statement it takes seriously and investigates every allegation of non-compliance.

The NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare has opened an investigation regarding the allegations sent by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the statement said. It also said OLAW does not comment on allegations while an investigation is underway.

The Republic said it also found:

 Monkeys drank well water tainted with perchlorate, a contaminant leached from ponds containing rocket fuel runoff from an adjacent defense contractor, despite recommendations that a water treatment system be installed in 2016.

 The primate centers financial situation was in disarray, according to federal reports, with high staff turnover and low morale following a sexual harassment scandal.

 The center was cited in May for failing to alert Washington state regulators that macaques imported into the state had Valley fever and was cited by federal regulators for conduct detrimental to animal welfare. At least five monkeys had died since 2017 because of poor care or improper oversight, the Republic reported.

The institute said PETA would be informed of the outcome of the investigation and that records of the closed investigation would be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

University of Washington spokesman Tina Mankowski told the Republic the university provided answers to Office of Animal Welfare questions related to a letter that referred to a story in the Arizona Republic, and that the office said no additional action was required.
CHESNEE, S.C. (AP)  A man in South Carolinas Upstate region is accused of attacking his mother and stepfather with a meat cleaver.

Spartanburg County deputies were called to a home in Chesnee around 6 p.m. Saturday, WYFF-TV reported. They found two people stabbed. They were taken to a hospital.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  A man was arrested in Colorado on suspicion of killing a teenage girl in San Francisco more than four decades ago and detectives say he may be a suspect in other unsolved homicides.

Mark Stanley Personette, 76, was arrested in suburban Denver on Thursday following a joint operation by San Francisco police, the FBI and the Jefferson County Sheriff's office, authorities announced Sunday. He was booked for investigation of homicide in connection with the 1978 death of Marissa Harvey.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP)  The federal judge presiding over the upcoming hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery said Monday she plans to summon a jury pool of roughly 1,000 people scattered across an expansive area that covers 43 Georgia counties.

U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood told prosecutors and defense attorneys at a pretrial hearing that she was granting their joint request to cast a wider net for potential jurors.

Jury selection in the federal case is scheduled to begin Feb. 7. Attorneys had argued in legal filings it could be tough to seat an impartial federal jury so soon after the same three defendants were found guilty of murder in state court the day before Thanksgiving.

I think the reasons set forth on both sides are extremely valid, Wood said, adding: It's a case that has received so much pretrial publicity.

The judge said she plans to have approximately 1,000 jury duty notices and questionnaires mailed to people living throughout the federal court system's Southern District of Georgia, which covers 43 of Georgia's 159 counties.

The Southern District has a population of about 1.6 million people, with Savannah and Augusta being its largest cities. Its farthest community from the courthouse is rural Wilkes County, located more than 210 miles (338 kilometers) north of Brunswick.

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William Roddie Bryan, are scheduled to be sentenced in the state's murder case Jan. 7, exactly a month before the federal trial begins. Their murder convictions carry a mandatory life sentence. The question for the judge is whether they will serve life in prison with or without a chance of parole.

A Glynn County jury in November found all three guilty of murder and other crimes in the Feb. 23, 2020, killing of Arbery. Bryan recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting the 25-year-old Black man with a shotgun after Arbery spent several minutes running as the three men chased him in pickup trucks.

Now the McMichaels and Bryan face hate crime charges at the federal level that allege they violated Arberys civil rights, unjustly pursuing and threatening him on a public street, because he was Black.

The judge said Monday she plans to keep the federal trial in Brunswick, noting the families of Arbery and the defendants live there, as do many of the witnesses being called to testify.

Typically in a federal trial, a jury would be pulled from Glynn County, which includes Brunswick, and six neighboring counties.

Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the courthouse he's fine with a jury coming from a wider area of the state.

It don't matter, because the evidence is overwhelming, he said.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck after they spotted Arbery running past their home on a Sunday afternoon last year. They later told police they suspected he was a burglar, though they did not see him committing any crimes.

Bryan joined the chase in his own truck, telling police he used the vehicle to force Arbery into a ditch and cut off his escape from the subdivision. He used his cellphone to record video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery as he tried to run around the McMichaels idling truck.

Travis McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense after the running man attacked him and tried to grab his gun. Defense attorneys said the three men had reasonable grounds to suspect Arbery was a criminal and wanted only to detain him until police could arrive.

At the time of his death, Arbery had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing to study to become an electrician like his uncles.

Attorneys on both sides in the federal case have said they hope selecting a jury from a wider area will help avoid the slow-paced grind that made jury selection last 2 1/2 weeks before the state trial could begin.

The states jury pool was drawn exclusively from Glynn County, where Arberys death had dominated news reports and social media feeds. Most potential jurors arrived at the courthouse already knowing basic facts about the case and many were dismissed for having strong opinions.

The judge agreed with attorneys to send a 14-page questionnaire to potential jurors along with their jury duty notices. Attorneys will be able to review them before jury selection begins.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A Mississippi legislative watchdog group is questioning the effectiveness of a nonprofit company that provides job training for people in prison.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, said in a recent report that the Mississippi Prison Industries Corporation has not maintained a proper database to show how many inmates are receiving job training, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.

The PEER report said Prison Industries has been subjected to little oversight, neglected its statutory duties, and struggled with financial stability.

The report also said the corporation's "lack of operational and financial success has raised serious concerns regarding the entitys ability to remain viable.

The Legislature created Prison Industries decades ago to provide job training for inmates and reduce recidivism.

The PEER report said Prison Industries does not have enough data to give an accurate recidivism rate and has not targeted inmates most likely to need recidivism prevention. It also said the training offered has a slim chance of turning into a job.

Bradley Lum, the CEO of Prison Industries since 2019, told the Daily Journal that he respects the PEER committee but believes his organization's work speaks for itself.

We want to help every person that has touched our correctional facility to be the best person that they can be, Lum said.

He said during the past 12 to 18 months, the company has connected more than 200 inmates with jobs and only one of them has returned to the prison system.

The states goal in creating the prison industry corporation in the 1990s was to give incarcerated people skills and training they could use to gain a meaningful job once they got out of prison and to reduce the costs of running state government.

The Prison Industries employees would train the inmates who would produce goods that could be sold. Profits would transfer back into the organization.

Because of this arrangement, Prison Industries receives no money from the Legislature and must operate from the revenue it produces. The organization has continued to lose money the past several years, according to PEER.

A 2018 PEER report raised similar financial concerns. At the time, the group recommended three options: The corporation could seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, ask the Legislature to dissolve the organization or cut its unprofitable product lines. The organization chose the third option.

Mississippi is one of two states that operates its prison industry program through a nonprofit corporation. Most states use their corrections department to carry out inmate training programs.

In the recent report, PEER advised the Legislature to consider abolishing the nonprofit and merging its duties with the Department of Corrections.

Last week, the Department of Corrections said it is working with Mississippi Prison Industries and a veterans program to teach welding to some inmates as a way to prepare them for jobs once they leave prison.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visited Starr County on Saturday to inaugurate the first stretch of a border wall being built by the state, calling it an unprecedented investment in border security.

Construction crews on site said about 880 feet of barrier have been installed as of Saturday afternoon.

Abbott has made immigration enforcement one of his top agenda items as he seeks reelection next year. At a news conference in front of the new wall segment Saturday, Abbott condemned the federal governments immigration policies  though some were extended from the Trump administration  and criticized President Joe Bidens reversal of the efforts to build a barrier between the U.S. and Mexico.

This unprecedented action is needed for one single reason, and that's because the Biden administration has failed to do its job, Abbott said.

In fiscal year 2021, immigration enforcement agents reported 1.7 million encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border, breaking a previous high of 1.6 million encounters in fiscal year 2000. Encounters are defined as the number of times a migrant has been stopped by immigration agents.

The Biden administration currently enforces two strict Trump-era immigration policies. Title 42, a pandemic health order, was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year to rapidly expel migrants to their home countries without the opportunity to ask for asylum. Following a court order, the Biden administration also revived the Trump administrations Migrant Protection Protocols, which forces asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico as their cases make their way through U.S. immigration courts.

Abbott has been prioritizing border security as he runs for reelection with Trumps endorsement. Abbotts likely Democratic challenger, Beto ORourke, dismissed the governors Saturday announcement.

Border communities are tired of Greg Abbott hosting photo-ops instead of of fixing the real challenges facing our border communities today, like the Abbott Tax border families will pay on their utility bills because he has failed to fix the grid, O'Rourke said in a statement.

Abbott was joined by Texas General Land Office Commissioner George P. Bush, as well as representatives from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard.

Bush, who is currently running for Texas Attorney General, said this stretch of wall was being constructed on state-owned land that has been leased out to a local farmer.

It's on state acreage that we stand today where the people of Texas finally said, enough is enough, Bush said. Enough of open borders, enough of disorderly chaos  If the Washington, D.C. establishment doesn't do their job, Texas will.

Abbott announced in June that the state would build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border using state money and crowdfunded private donations. The governors office appropriated $250 million of state money as a down payment for the wall-building effort, and lawmakers appropriated an additional $750 million for border barriers during one of the legislative sessions this year.

As of Dec. 13, the state has collected $54 million in private donations, mostly coming from one single donor: Timothy Mellon, the chair of Pan Am Systems, a privately-held transportation and freight holding company. Mellon has previously donated to immigration enforcement efforts in the past.

In total, the state now has at least $1.05 billion for its border barriers.

That would fund between 31 and 183 miles of barrier construction, based on the per-mile costs of the contracts initiated by the Trump administration, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. The contracts, which were halted by the Biden administration, ranged from $6 million to $34 million per mile for wall construction.

The Texas-Mexico border is 1,254 miles long  roughly 1,000 miles of which has no barrier.

On a Fox Business Network program Friday, Abbott noted that the state-funded wall will cost less than the Trump-era estimates indicated because Texas will be using land the state already owns, versus having to acquire the land.

Unlike the border in California, Arizona or New Mexico, which is largely federal  or in some cases tribal  land, much of the Texas-Mexico border is privately owned, with some owners holding the titles to their property since the 1760s.

In September, the Texas Facilities Commission awarded an $11 million contract to a joint venture between Michael Baker International Inc. and Huitt-Zollars to manage the project, identify state land where barriers can be built and find willing private landowners to facilitate construction, according to the request for proposal.

The wall panels are being put up by Posillico Civil, Inc., which was awarded a contract not to exceed $162 million in November.

Texas Facilities Commission Chair Steven Alvis said at the news conference Saturday that the wall construction process has been moving expeditiously, noting that steps that usually take two to three months took two to three days. He said this stretch of wall went up in five days.

The Trump administration completed 55 miles of barrier along the Texas-Mexico border  21 miles of new barrier and 34 miles of replacement barrier.

Abbott has ramped up immigration enforcement in recent months, flooding the border with state troopers and National Guard personnel instructed to arrest migrants on state criminal charges. Just this week, immigrant and civil rights groups called on the Department of Justice to investigate the program. Abbott has also sued the Biden administration for attempting to reverse Trump-era immigration policies.

Mandi Cai contributed to this report.

Disclosure: The Texas General Land Office has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction, Dec. 18, 2021: Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Gov. Greg Abbott participated in a Fox News program Friday. His appearance was on a Fox Business Network program.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.


When the Llano County Library shuts down for three days this week, starting Tuesday, it wont be for the holidays.

Instead, a group of six librarians in this small Central Texas county will be conducting a thorough review of every childrens book in the library, at the behest of the Llano County Commissioners Court. Their mission will be to make sure all of the reading material for younger readers includes subjects that are age-appropriate. A new young adults plus section will be added to separate books written for an older teen audience from those geared toward younger readers.

The three-day closure of the library system in Llano County, about 80 miles northwest of Austin, also means a temporary shutdown of its virtual portal through the online book provider Overdrive.

I think we owe it to all parents, regardless if its a school library or a public library, to make sure that material is not inappropriate for children, Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham said.

The Llano County communitys push to scrutinize the local librarys book stacks comes two months after a Texas lawmaker first questioned the inclusion of more than 850 books about race, equality or sexuality in public school libraries.

And Llano County is not the only community in Texas asking harder questions.

The rise in public library book complaints

Local public libraries in Texas, including those in Victoria, Irving and Tyler, are fielding a flurry of book challenges from local residents. While book challenges are nothing new, there has been a growing number of complaints about books for libraries in recent months. And the fact that the numbers are rising after questions are being raised about school library content seems more than coincidental, according to the Texas Library Association.

I think it definitely ramped it up, said Wendy Woodland, the TLAs director of advocacy and communication, of the late October investigation into school library reading materials launched by state Rep. Matt Krause in his role as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating.

In response to Krauses inquiry, Gov. Greg Abbott tapped the Texas Education Agency to investigate the availability of pornographic books in schools. In the weeks since, school districts across the state have launched reviews of their book collections, and state officials have begun investigating student access to inappropriate content.

As more residents began turning their sights on local libraries, the state library association set up a peer counseling helpline for librarians to get support from others more familiar with book challenges.

A library may get one or two [book challenges] in two years, or some librarians have never had challenges, Woodland said. So this is very rare and very unusual and different from the way challenges have been brought forth in the past.

In Victoria, about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio, Dayna Williams-Capone says the number of complaints about books is the most shes seen in her nearly 13 years working at the Victoria Public Library.

In August, Williams-Capone, the director of library services in Victoria, said her office received about 40 formal requests for review of books, primarily books for children and young adults that touch on topics of same-sex relationships, sexuality and race.

After Williams-Capone and her staff reviewed the requests, they decided to keep the books in the library. Residents who filed the complaints pushed forward, appealing the decision to the librarys advisory board for about half of the books, Williams-Capone said.

Last Wednesday, the librarys board voted not to remove the books from library shelves.

I dont think theres a danger in asking the questions and having a civil conversation and learning from each other, Williams-Capone said. I think that the danger is when we lose that big-picture view of who all is a part of our community, and that the needs of some members of our community might be very different than what we think our own personal needs are or our own family needs.

One Victoria resident who pushed for book removals was Cindy Herndon.

Its nothing that I have against anybody in any community, said Herndon, 64. I dont have any resentment or lack of respect for them. Its just about protecting the children and exposing them to things that they really dont need to see right now.

One of the books she wanted removed was The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, a coming-of-age novel about a mixed-race gay teen who becomes a drag artist.

After reading the book, Herndon said she was opposed to it because to her it seemed to sexualize children, especially into alternate lifestyles, and make them want to be someone else than who they were born to be.

Another Victoria resident, Amy Garvel, joined other residents, and the group combed through the librarys online catalog. They compiled a list of more than 200 books they found inappropriate, ranging from picture books to young adult books, Garvel said. Garvel herself submitted two requests for removal for the books If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo and Rick by Alex Gino.

Garvel, who describes herself as a conservative and has a 9-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, said shes been very careful about what content they consume.

My goal is really to protect the children in our community in general, not just my own children, said Garvel, 43. Im hoping that [the library] sees that were not trying to censor books that were trying to protect our children. I mean, the library was one of the last places that we could feel safe.

How the process works and why its getting blowback

Local public libraries are not regulated by the state. Instead, they are usually part of a county or city budget funded by local taxpayers.

Williams-Capone, the Victoria library services director, described how books are selected in the first place, and her librarys process is typical for most. Staff members peruse lists of bestsellers and literary award winners. They scan literary journals. Library staffers also consider how often visitors check out certain titles or subjects to determine future purchases.

Rules for public libraries, including complaints about content, are determined at the local level.

When a resident challenges a book, theres a process in place, to handle that complaint, said Woodland, the TLA spokesperson. That process is typically crafted in writing by local governments with input from library staff.

But in these latest challenges, there have been complaints from some local residents that the process may give library staff too much of an upper hand.

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L. C. Rosen, which follows a gay teenager who starts a teen sex advice column, has seen challenges in Irving and elsewhere.

At the urging of local residents, City Council members were meticulously briefed on how the Irving Public Library handles complaints against books kept in its libraries. After the book underwent a request for consideration, which included an initial staff review and an appeal, it was kept in circulation.

Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer said he read the book in full, and even though he didnt particularly care for parts of the book, he understood the need for it.

If you read the full book, it tells you that you can have a loving relationship with a person of your same gender, Stopfer said during an Oct. 14 meeting. Everybodys not going to like everything. Its not something that I enjoyed reading, but I understood what the purpose of it was, and what the outcome was supposed to be.

In that same Irving City Council meeting, Flory Malloy, a self-described mother of seven with a doctorate in biblical studies, told council members she felt the library system and its appeal precess seemed pointless because in the end, books that are challenged remain on the shelves.

The process ended with a denied appeal to remove the book, she told council members as she described one challenge that appeared to go nowhere. It seems to be a point of pride for the Irving Public Library that they have never removed a book as the result of this process, so whats the purpose of this time-consuming review process?

In Tyler, city spokesperson, Julie Goodgame confirmed that library officials there have been informed about concerns regarding book content. But theres been no specific complaint about a particular book, she said.

More changes for libraries?

Back in Llano County, Cunningham, the county judge, said the library systems three-day closure is the first of perhaps many changes for the library. He said the county plans to soon establish a library advisory board that will help establish policies on requests to reevaluate books in circulation.

Although parents and lawmakers have stressed they are attempting to protect children from inappropriate content, authors of works that have been at the center of these disputes see the fights as a way to stifle and censor diverse representation in literature.

And librarians see their role as offering reading material for a wider audience.

These efforts to mute or censor diverse voices in books is part of the just overall extreme divisiveness in our country that was really just exacerbated by the pandemic, [and] the actions taken by Rep. Krause and others have added fuel to that, Woodland said.

She understands there will be those who may not like all of the books in a library. Thats not the point of a public library, she said.

No book is right for everyone, but one book can make a big difference in one persons life, she said. Thats what libraries are about  providing those windows and doors and mirrors to the community.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
As the United States braces for a potential omicron surge, you may be asking: Should I cancel or alter my holidays plans?

"No, I would not advise vaccinated people to change their holiday plans due to omicron," said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases doctor at UCSF.

Gandhi's response is very different for people who havent gotten a COVID-19 vaccination. "I would avoid parties and travel if I were an unvaccinated adult," she said. "Please get vaccinated if you are not yet vaccinated, as the vaccines are safe and effective."

Gandhi noted that, although disease-fighting antibodies from a COVID infection or vaccine can wane over time, and the virus can evolve to make it harder for antibodies to bind, theyre not the only line of defense.

"T cells from the vaccine still work against Omicron and B cells (generated by the vaccines) adapt the new antibodies they produce to work against variants," Gandhi explained in an email. "Therefore, we see that mild symptoms can still occur (with antibodies being the main protective modality in the nasal passages), but the vaccines are still protecting omicron-infected individuals from severe disease."

RELATED STORY: Vaccinated? You can stop worrying about omicron

The omicron variant, a strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spurred a new wave of cases in South Africa in November and is beginning to appear in the United States. While delta remains the dominant variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data Wednesday suggesting omicron cases will increase sharply in January.

Early evidence indicates the variant is highly transmissible, and the Bay Area already saw a mini-outbreak among a group of fully vaccinated, boosted employees of Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Medical Center. None of the staffers seemed to have passed it on to anyone, and they all had mild symptoms, according to a statement from Kaiser.

"The omicron variant may be more transmissible, but all the data so far is pointing to this variant being more mild" than earlier strains, said Gandhi.

Despite that hopeful message, theres been a lot of conflicting information. So we asked the experts how vaccinated people should think about parties and travel during the next few weeks.

Can vaccinated people attend holiday parties and feel safe?

Vaccinated people should feel comfortable attending indoor holiday parties at friends' homes and removing masks if everyone is vaccinated and not having any symptoms, Gandhi said. That includes elderly relatives, along with anyone who is immunocompromised or who has multiple medical conditions  especially if theyve gotten a booster shot.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases doctor at UCSF, advised that people hosting holiday gatherings, dinners and reunions with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people move them outdoors. If you decide against asking people about their vaccine status, you should probably assume some of them are unvaccinated, and keep the festivities outside. Asking everyone to take a rapid antigen test can be used for additional security, Chin-Hong said. Over-the-counter tests can be purchased online or at most pharmacies and give you results in 15 minutes. Theyre not as reliable as PCR tests, but you can take them at home, and theyre likely to catch anyone whos at their most contagious.

"You can consider, who's elderly, unboosted, immunocompromised?" Chin-Hong said. "Are there kids under 5? Those are the factors that might push you into additional testing."

You can also check your local public health orders for guidance on indoor private gatherings. For example, while San Francisco doesn't require individuals hosting private events in their homes to confirm the vaccination status of guests, the public health department recommends masks regardless of vaccination status when different households are mixing indoors.

Should vaccinated people alter their holiday travel plans?

Both Gandhi and Chin-Hong also encouraged vaccinated people to keep their travel plans, whether road tripping or hopping on a plane.

"For vaccinated people, especially if youre boosted, I think you can travel with confidence this year," Chin-Hong said. "You have to travel with COVID smarts, thinking about who you are, where youre going. Look at the vaccination status of the community where you're going. Is [COVID-19] surging? If it is, it doesnt mean you dont go, but it means you should be more careful with crowded indoor settings."

What if you're traveling with kids 4 and under who can't be vaccinated?

Gandhi said she considers travel with young kids to be safe. "Children under 4 are very low-risk for COVID, and omicron seems to be even more mild of a variant," she said.

Chin-Hong added that families should consider whether any of their kids have pre-existing conditions when making their decisions: "Think about the risk factors for kids getting ill ... the kids getting sick are those with neurological diseases or who are immunocompromised. You may be more careful with that child."

Gandhi noted that travelers should key into restrictions and requirements around travel, as some places are clamping down in response to omicron. Some countries may require you to provide a negative COVID test before arrival, regardless of vaccination status. "You might want to check ongoing travel bans and travel restrictions to ensure that these dont ruin your trip," she added.
DEL RIO  George P. Bush stood less than the length of a football field from the Rio Grande in early December and pointed at the rivers calm current, which he said allowed for easy passage for migrants trying to cross into Texas from Mexico.

Wearing a white George P. Bush for Attorney General polo shirt and surrounded by Border Patrol agents, he said Texans all along the border are having their lands, livelihood and safety threatened by migrants and violent smugglers who trespass on their property.

That would be grounds for prosecution under state law, said Bush, currently the Texas land commissioner, who is running to be the states top law enforcement official. [But] we haven't promptly processed a lot of these cases that are being brought by private landowners, farmers [and] ranchers.

Bush said thats because fellow Republican incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton has failed to deploy resources to help overwhelmed county officials process the hundreds of migrants charged with state crimes, like trespassing, under Gov. Greg Abbotts executive order to crack down on immigration.

But under his leadership, Bush said, the attorney generals office would deploy a mobile prosecution unit to help local officials process and prosecute the border-crossers arrested for state crimes, he told reporters during a recently completed border tour.

Texans have through and through said this is the No. 1 issue wherever we traveled to the state, he said. Paxton declined to comment for this story.

As he ramps up his campaign to unseat Paxton, Bush is making border security one of his top priorities. In July, he used his authority as land commissioner to sue the Biden administration for halting construction of the border wall in South Texas. Last month, he authorized construction of a state-funded border wall on state land.

Current Texas Land Commissioner and candidate for attorney general George P. Bush speaks to National Border Patrol Council labor union reps on Dec. 7, in El Paso. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune

Members of the Texas National Guard work 12 to 13-hour shifts guarding the Texas border wall, construction crews and materials near Del Rio on Dec. 8, 2021. Thousands of National Guard troops were deployed to Del Rio after an increase in migration at the southern border. Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune

First: George P. Bush speaks to National Border Patrol Council labor union representatives in El Paso. Last: Members of the Texas National Guard work 12- to 13-hour shifts guarding the Texas border wall, construction crews and materials near Del Rio. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre and Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune

Earlier this month, his campaign went on a Secure the Border tour through El Paso, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo and McAllen that focused on the need for a border wall and stricter immigration enforcement by federal authorities. This weekend, Bush stood next to Abbott and other state lawmakers to tout the start of construction on a state-funded border wall on state land in Starr County.

But Bush isnt the only one in the crowded Republican primary race talking about the border. Political watchers say its a risk to pitch himself as the border candidate when Paxton has former President Donald Trumps endorsement and a record of suing the Biden and Obama administrations on immigration policies.

If youre someone who really cares about border security, youre probably pretty satisfied with Paxtons commitment there, so I dont know how much margin there is for him to gain, said Matt Mackowiak, a GOP political consultant. The land commissioner is playing catch-up.

The other two Republicans in the race, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler, also support bolstering security at the border.

Guzman questioned Bushs ability to successfully tackle border issues, criticizing the land offices response to Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts and its struggles on the plan to redesign the Alamo.

The border is more than a photo op or a Republican Primary talking point, its an issue that affects Texas for decades to come and it will take an attorney with skill and experience to hold the Biden Administration accountable for fulfilling its responsibility and securing the border, Guzman said in a statement, pitching similar proposals. That is not George P. Bush.

Gohmert declined to comment for this story.

Republican officials throughout the state have blamed the Biden administrations policies for an increase in the number of migrants coming across the border this year. Nearly every month this year, Border Patrol has had more than 100,000 apprehensions at the countrys southwest border, with a high of 213,000 in July.

Republicans say that increase from the numbers seen during the Trump administration, which had a high of 144,000 apprehensions in May 2019, shows why the border wall must be completed and policies like remain in Mexico, which requires asylum-seekers to wait outside of the U.S. while their claims are processed, must stay in place. The Biden administration recently restarted the program after a federal judge ordered it.

Bush said hes the first candidate in the attorney general race who has proposed ideas to bolster how the state helps federal authorities deal with migrants. As attorney general, he said, he would free up state lawyers to aid local officials prosecuting migrants arrested for state offenses, and would institute tougher criminal penalties for drug smugglers and human traffickers.

The AG has got to lead on this, and thats where Ken, unfortunately, has not stepped up to the plate, he said, adding that Paxton is too busy dealing with his securities fraud indictment and an FBI investigation into accusations of malfeasance.

George P. Bush visits the border barrier that separates Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune

Political theater

To some, Bushs border security strategy appears to be a ploy to score points with immigration hardliners who often swing the Republican primaries.

Hes got to win over some social conservatives if he has any chance of winning the nomination, said Juan Carlos Huerta, a political scientist at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. [For] anybody seeking the Republican nomination for statewide office in Texas, if theyre not running tough on the border, theyre not going to do well.

His opponents have also taken notice of his focus on the issue. Rochelle Garza, a Brownsville Democrat who is running for attorney general, blasted his border visit as political theater that ignored the regions other serious problems.

George P. Bush, along with the rest of the Texas GOP, use the Rio Grande Valley and border communities as a scapegoat for their failed leadership, she said. As an RGV native, Ive seen what our communities need. We need Medicaid expansion, diversification of job opportunities, investment in infrastructure, including rural broadband, and affordable housing. We deserve better than to be treated as a pawn for the GOPs divisive politics.

But Bush said he has always supported tough border security and immigration enforcement. Those who question his commitment to the issue, he said, have not been paying attention.

He points to his endorsement by the National Border Patrol Council, the Border Patrols 18,000-member union, as proof that he has backed up his talk with action. Brandon Judd, the unions president, said Bush has long pushed for the state to become more involved in helping federal immigration authorities deter migrant crossings.

This has been an issue for him for an awful long time, not just during the election, Judd said. This is something that hes wanted to accomplish from day one. Thats the reason why we supported him.

George P. Bush visits the border barrier that separates Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune

Border balancing act

Bushs border tour also gives him an opportunity to visit with conservative Latino voters hes cultivated for years in the Rio Grande Valley  ones who, like him, want tougher border security.

George P. is counting on South Texas and the RGV to be a major area where he can overperfrom in the March primary, Mackowiak said. It gives him the opportunity to earn media, show them hes in their community and hes focused on issues that affect their lives.

But it also forces him into a careful balancing act between playing up his border security credentials and the vision hes pushed for years of a more diverse GOP.

Bush is the son of a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico. During his eight years as land commissioner, hes at times been outspoken about the Republican Partys need to reach out to voters of color and has expressed compassion for immigrants.

In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting in 2019, the suspected shooter told authorities he wanted to stop the Hispanic invasion of Texas. Bush was the first GOP official to denounce the attack as domestic terrorism by a white extremist.

But hes also engaged in tough-on-immigration rhetoric that blames the Biden administrations border policies for what he called disorder, anarchy and chaos at the border. In July, he tweeted a video of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers chasing a car full of migrants near the border and wrote, This level of invasion is unsustainable.

Critics drew parallels between Bushs language and that of the El Paso shooter. He later walked back the comment, saying it lacked eloquence and was meant to refer to the violence of drug smugglers and human traffickers.

Still, Bush is confident he can straddle the line between growing the Republican tent and securing the border.

I think you can do both, Bush said, adding that the Mexican trade that fuels much of Texas border economies depends on safe borders.

I am the son of a legal immigrant, he told reporters in Spanish. If you want to come here and be part of our great country, you have to respect the law.

That response is in line with the establishment GOPs thinking on immigration, which Bushs family helped popularize at the turn of the century through its call for compassionate conservatism. Bushs uncle, former Texas Gov. George W. Bush, pushed for comprehensive immigration reform as president in 2007 that included a path to legalization for unauthorized immigrants.

But the Republican Partys views on the issues have shifted to the right in the years since, Mackowiak said, and George P. Bushs stance on immigration enforcement has always been tougher than that if his uncle or father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Thats not a question, Mackowiak said. But the question Republican voters are going to ask is, Is he more conservative than the attorney general? I dont think hes saying that. Hes saying, Im going to give you a better option without the scandals and the legal troubles.

A U.S. Border Patrol airboat patrols the Rio Grande alongside shipping containers that form a makeshift border wall in Eagle Pass. Credit: Nick Wagner for The Texas Tribune

Is border enforcement working?

During his tour, Bush stopped at an unfenced part of the border in Laredo where officials say Border Patrol is understaffed and overwhelmed by frequent border crossings. In Del Rio, he visited the site of an encampment of more than 10,000 Haitians in June that brought the city to a halt. Then he visited part of former President Donald Trumps unfinished border wall.

In Eagle Pass, he toured the so-called Steel Curtain, a makeshift barrier of shipping containers backed up by razor-wire fencing on the banks of the Rio Grande that is meant to deter migrant crossings. The barrier is on city property in between Eagle Pass two international bridges, which account for nearly half of the citys yearly revenue.

What does this do for the mayor, for the city manager, for the City Council, if you suddenly have another caravan of 20,000 folks shut down the bridge and close down the economy? Bush said, recounting the havoc Del Rio officials said the Haitian migrant camp wrought on the citys economy.

George P. Bush listens to National Border Patrol Union Local 2455 members Chris Cabrera and Oscar Vela in Laredo as they explain how the area is monitored. Credit: Danny Zaragoza for The Texas Tribune

As he visited with National Guard soldiers deployed to the border by Abbott, law enforcement officials spotted a group of people on the Mexican side of the river scouting a potential crossing. They opted against it after noticing the soldiers tracking them through binoculars.

Bush says its proof that the deterrence tools are working.

But Scott Nicol, a McAllen activist who opposes a border wall, said the barriers are ineffective because a majority of border crossers are asylum-seekers looking to turn themselves in to federal authorities.

They walk to it and stay there to get picked up by the Border Patrol, Nicol said. It doesnt deter anybody. It doesnt stop anybody. And the people coming arent bad people anyway. Its a fake issue.

The humane thing to do is to say OK, we have asylum seekers coming, they need our assistance, lets try and help them out, he added.

Bushs border tour garnered much media attention in the cities he visited, with the land commissioner easily gliding between English and Spanish at press conferences. But Bush said he wasnt worried about convincing anyone about his border security credentials.

I'm not going to pander, he said. I'm just going to go with my agenda, my focus, and people can join us and restore integrity to this important position.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/20/texas-george-p-bush-attorney-general-border/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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Quebec invites 326 in new Arrima draw Quebec's immigration ministry releases details of the December 9 immigration draw. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

Sans Font Size A

A

Quebec invited 326 workers to apply for a permanent selection on December 9.

The Ministere de lImmigration, de la Francisation et de lIntegration (MIFI) invited these immigration candidates to apply for the Quebec Regular Skilled Worker Program (QSWP). Invited candidates needed to have profiles in the Arrima pool with scores of at least 633 points.

The latest invitations also targeted candidates with a valid job offer outside the Montreal Metropolitan area who work in occupations that are currently in high demand in Quebec. The following is the list of the 29 targeted occupations provided by the government:

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

NOC 0213 Computer and information systems managers

NOC 2131 Civil engineers

NOC 2132 Mechanical engineers

NOC 2133 Electrical and electronics engineers

NOC 2141 Industrial and manufacturing engineers

NOC 2143 Mining engineers

NOC 2147 Computer engineers (except software engineers and designers)

NOC 2171 Information systems analysts and consultants

NOC 2172 Database analysts and data administrators

NOC 2173 Software engineers and designers

NOC 2174 Computer programmers and interactive media developers

NOC 2175 Web designers and developers

NOC 2231 Civil engineering technologists and technicians

NOC 2232 Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians

NOC 2233 Industrial engineering and manufacturing technologists and technicians

NOC 2241 Electrical and electronics engineering technologists and technicians

NOC 2281 Computer network technicians

NOC 2282 User support technicians

NOC 2283 Information systems testing technicians

NOC 3012 Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses

NOC 3233 Licensed practical nurses

NOC 3413 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates

NOC 4031 Secondary school teachers

NOC 4032 Elementary school and kindergarten teachers

NOC 4214 Early childhood educators and assistants

NOC 5131 Producers, directors, choreographers and related occupations

NOC 5223 Graphic arts technicians

NOC 5241 Graphic designers and illustrators

NOC 6221 Technical sales specialists  wholesale trade

The latest draw is Quebecs thirteenth of the year. In 2021, total of 3,564 candidates have now been invited to apply for permanent selection by the province through Arrima.

Quebe held one draw in January, then held monthly draws between March and June. There was no draw in July, but there were three draws in August, two in September, and since then the province has returned to monthly draws.

What is the Quebec Regular Skilled Worker Program?

The Quebec Regular Skilled Worker Program is for skilled workers who are more likely to establish themselves economically in the province. The program is popular among skilled workers and international graduates who wish to immigrate permanently to Quebec to work.

Candidates who are invited to apply for permanent selection have a maximum of 60 days to submit their application and pay processing fees. Quebec aims to process complete applications within six months, starting on the date all the required information has been received. This includes all forms and documents.

If successful, candidates will get a Certificat de selection du Quebec (CSQ or Quebec Selection Certificate). They can then use this document to apply for permanent residence to the Canadian federal government.

Those who wish to settle in Quebec, are assessed under a different system than applicants who want to settle somewhere else in Canada. Quebecs immigration programs are managed by the province and are distinct from Canadas federal programs.

Quebec admission targets for 2022

Quebec recently released its immigration admission targets for 2022. Most newcomers are expected to come through the provinces economic immigration programs, including the Quebec Skilled Worker Program (QSWP) and the Quebec experience program (PEQ).

The plan calls for the admission of 49,500 to 52,500 immigrants in 2022 across all immigration categories, as well as an additional 18,000 admissions to reach the admission levels that were not met by the federal government in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that more than 70,000 newcomers could be admitted to the province of Quebec in 2022.

If you received an invitation to apply for a Quebec Selection Certificate, you may email qcita@canadavisa.com to learn about the next steps regarding your application.

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Periods of snow. Low 27F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
Late last week, Shawn McCreesh, a writer at New York magazine, declared what remained of the media-holiday-party industrial complex to be over. Denizens of New York Citys media industry, including McCreesh himself, had begun (en masse, or so it seemed) to test positive for COVID-19, and there was, McCreesh noted, a lot of public finger-pointing going on. Gawker ran a brief blind item asking which media companys very large holiday party resulted in a rash of COVID diagnoses? Insider subsequently reported that a number of positive cases followed BuzzFeeds holiday party on December 10, and that BuzzFeeds staff Epidemiologist was on the case; Katie Notopoulos, a reporter at the site, quipped that BuzzFeed has truly unlocked the secret to making things go viral. Not that they were the only media company to have had a holiday party recentlyothers did, too, including both Insider and New York. Julia Reinstein, also of BuzzFeed, coined the term Media Variant. McCreeshs headline immortalized it.

The backdrop here, of course, is the Omicron varianta bona fide strain of COVID that is currently spreading like wildfire through New York City, the wider region, and the worldwith governments and private companies, including in the media industry, making adjustments and tightening their COVID protocols, sometimes considerably. In the days after its holiday party, BuzzFeed froze large group meetings and nonessential business travel until at least early January, and mandated masks in the office. On Thursday, management at the Washington Post, which had already mandated third vaccine booster doses for staff, emailed employees to say that they will also need to get tested weekly once they start returning to the office from late January. On Friday, the New York Timess Washington bureau canceled its holiday party. On Saturday, CNN said it would close its offices to all staffers who dont need to be there, and revert to scaled-down studio arrangements that better enable social distancing. Yesterday, Chuck Todd hosted Meet the Press from a remote location after a member of his household tested positive. Also over the weekend, SNL disinvited its studio audience and sent most of its cast home just hours before the broadcast was set to begin. Guest host Tom Hanks was left to walk on stage to thin applause from what he described as the surviving crew members.

Our new issue: Celebrating CJR at 60

If this all feels a bit March 2020 to youoffice closures, individual COVID cases feeling noteworthy again, Tom Hanksyou arent alone: in recent days, headlines in numerous major outlets have also made the connection. (The Associated Press: Surging COVID-19 cases bring a 2020 feel to the end of 2021; the Times: As Virus Cases Surge, New Yorkers Feel a Familiar Anxiety; BuzzFeed: People Are Comparing The Omicron Era Were In To March 2020, And Yup, The Vibes Are Upsettingly Similar.) Many journalists, however, have been at pains to point out that this isnt March 2020: not just because the calendar has moved on, but because millions of Americans have since had at least two, and often three, vaccine doses, which seem highly protective against severe illness with Omicron, if not necessarily infection. Because the circumstances are so different now, Oliver Darcy, a media reporter at CNN, argued on Friday, the news coverage should be, too. Speaking on air yesterday, Darcys colleague Brian Stelter elaborated. I know there are flashbacks right now to March 2020, but the differences are the story, he said. You know that phrase weve heard all year long: living with COVID? The keyword of that phrase is not COVID, the key word is living. He went on to ask whether its still appropriate for the press to obsess over case numbers alone. It feels to me like, in some media circles, this was the week where getting COVID became an inevitability.

This, indeed, is not March 2020, in terms of the dynamics of the virus. But the feeling of that time does echo, and not just as some abstract sentiment: it reflects the more concrete similaritythat the press as a whole has struggled to articulate, then as now, because doing so is hardof millions of people trying to recalibrate their personal risk calculations in light of manifest viral spread but acute ongoing uncertainty as to the exact consequences of that spread. (There remains a lot about Omicron that we just dont know for sure, not least whether its intrinsically milder than prior variants or merely milder in vaccinated people.) Local and national news outlets have sought to assuage the resulting anxiety with a wave of explainers and advice articlesnot least around how confident you should feel about your holiday planswhile reporters have shared their own calculations: Maggie Haberman, of the Times, tweeted that she went to a packed movie theater on Saturday; Dan Diamond, of the Post, told his Facebook friends (and everyone else) that hed paused some of his hobbies and resumed double-masking, in part with his holiday plans in mind; Ed Yong, of The Atlantic, canceled his fortieth birthday party and wrote a piece explaining why. Many articles relayed advice from experts. Also writing for The Atlantic, Ashish K. Jha argued that the national conversation is vacillating between panic and indifference and that neither is helpful; instead, he wrote, we should chart a middle course, with increased vaccination and rapid testing central to that goal.

No amount of media explainers, however, can explain what we dont yet know about the risks of Omicron; as Diamond put it in his Facebook post, at this stage, anyone who swears that Omicron will *surely* lead to a mild case in a vaccinated person is over-promising. More fundamentally, the threat posed by Omicron cannot responsibly be covered as a function of individual calculations alone. Throughout the pandemic, dominant US media narratives have emphasized personal responsibility for avoiding infection and severe illness, not least around masking and vaccination. (Often, these narratives have been bolstered by official messaging, and that is only growing sharper: on Friday, Jeff Zients, the White House COVID coordinator, told reporters that while the administration will work to minimize Omicron disruption for the vaccinated, the unvaccinated should expect a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.) Personal responsibility is an important part of the COVID story, of course. But so, too, are systemic and institutional failings. Many unvaccinated people have refused the vaccine from a place of privilege; others are scared about the repercussions of taking time off work. Vaccination is not always sufficient to protect immunocompromised people. And people cant do rapid tests if rapid tests arent available.

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Throughout the pandemic, there has been much good coverage, not least at the local level, of all these failures; recent days alone have seen a flood of articles (and angry tweets) about testing issues. But these problems often havent penetrated the top levels of the news cycle (the moment that the US urgently needs better testing infrastructure is too late to be focusing on inadequate testing infrastructure), and when they have, theyve often been flattened out into oversimplified narratives. Ultimately, as Yong and others have pointed out, what we know of Omicron so far suggests that its biggest risk is at this systemic level: most vaccinated people who get it will probably be more or less fine, but so many people could get it that a relatively small percentage of severe cases might overwhelm hospitals anywayand if that does happen, by the time we can see it, itll be too late to stop it. (Throughout COVID, news outlets have struggled conceptually with such lags between cause and visible effect.) Even coverage that centers systemic risk sometimes treats it as a separate phenomenon from individual action. But systems are made up of individuals, whose choices rebound beyond themselves.

We dont yet know exactly what will happen with Omicron, but as we wait to find out, coverage must conceive of individuals decisions not only as discrete calculations tailored to their personal circumstances, but as component parts of society-wide chains of transmission and response. In his piece on his decision to cancel his birthday party, Yong wrote that while Omicron hasnt greatly changed his personal risk calculus, it is spreading so rapidly that if someone got infected at my party, my decision to host it could easily affect people who dont know me, and who had no say in the risks that I unwittingly imposed upon them. Omicron is unlikely to land me in the hospital, but it could send my guests grandparents or parents to one. The story is not so much who is getting sick at holiday parties as who might get sick despite not getting an invite.

Below, more on the pandemic:



Some news from the home front: Today, CJR is out with a new archival magazine to mark the occasion of our sixtieth anniversary. In this issue, we have sought to convey the scope and ambition of CJR over the course of its life, Kyle Pope, our editor and publisher, writes in an introductory note. The stories are organized thematically, rather than chronologically, to help connect the dots from one age to the next. In these pages, youll find Walter Lippmann; David Simon; assessments of the Kerner Commissions findings, fifty years apart; and wariness of bloggers citing Jenny McCarthy as a vaccination expert. Youll also find Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, referring to this magazine as the fucking Columbia Journalism Review. You can explore the new issue here.



Other notable stories:

From the magazine: Amy Davidson Sorkin on the moments when trust is tested

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
The owner of a Philadelphia refinery that was shut down after a June 2019 explosion secured at least $93 million in additional coverage from its insurers after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled in favor of the policyholders interpretation of the policy, the plaintiffs law firm says.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath on Wednesday granted partial summary judgment in favor of PES Holdings LLC on two provisions in the policy and denied the insurers motion to dismiss a bad faith claim. She rejected the insurers argument that a stipulated loss value of $250 million included in the policy did not apply to PES claim because it would result in a payment that amounts to more than the actual cash value of the property.

While the final replacement cost and actual cash value amounts remain in dispute, the record reflects that the insurers have calculated these amounts as approximately $166 million and $73 million, respectively, the plaintiffs law firm, Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, said in a press release. Now that the court has determined that PES is entitled to a minimum of the replacement cost up to $250 million, the insurers will be required to make up the difference.

A fire at the hydrofluoric alkylation unit of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery led to a series of explosions that rendered the refinery inoperable. PES filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month after the explosions.

PES had a mortgage on the property with ICBC Standard Bank that required it to maintain at least $750 million in insurance on the site. PES purchased policies through 30 insurers that provided $1.25 billion in coverage.

Rather than rebuild, the company sold the property to Hilco Redevelopment Partners, which plans to build a logistics facility on the 1,300-acre site.

The decision not to replace the refinery, however, led to a dispute with PES insurers, which included Allianz Global Risks US Insurance, several Lloyds of London syndicates, HDI Global Insurance Co., Liberty Mutual, XL Insurance America, Ace American and Zurich American Insurance Co.

PES filed a lawsuit against 26 of those insurers in February 2020, alleging a breach of contract and a breach of their duty of good faith and fair dealing.

The insurers argued that PES could recover only the actual cash value of the refinery, which was an amount equal to the replacement cost less a deduction for physical depreciation. But Walrath ruled that a stipulated loss value clause in the policies allowed PES to recover either the actual cash value or the full replacement cost, up to $250 million.

The parties also disputed how much could be deducted from the payout for depreciation. The insurers argued that labor costs should be included in that depreciation because PES had decided not to rebuild. This resulted in an actual cash value of $73 million, compared to the insurers estimated replacement cost of $166 million.

Cohen Ziffer says that Judge Walraths ruling means that PES is owed at least $166 million, but it continues to seek payment of the full $250 million policy limit.

Walrath also rejected the insurers argument that PES may not pursue its bad faith claim because it did not show the amount of its damages by submitting the legal bills that were paid. The insurers also argued that New York law, which governs the insurance contract, does not allow parties to recover attorney fees as consequential damages from bad faith claims.

Walrath said in her opinion that she was not persuaded by the case law that the insurers submitted.

The court agrees with PES that the time to consider any claim it may have for legal fees is after trial, the opinion says. Such consequential damages are due only if, and when, the court determines that the insurers acted in bad faith.

With that decided, Walrath bifurcated the case so that liability for damages and the amount of those damages will be decided during separate trials. The Bankruptcy Court has scheduled the first trial, which will determine liability, to begin Jan. 24.

This has been a long road, but as we are approaching trial, this decision goes a long way towards getting PES the insurance coverage to which it is entitled, the Cohen Ziffer law firm said in a statement. We look forward to establishing our right to the remaining disputed funds at trial.

About the photo: Flames and smoke emerge from the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex in Philadelphia, Friday, June 21, 2019. (AP File Photo/Matt Rourke)
Clifford Chance advises Aldar on acquisition of majority stake in Egypt's SODIC alongside ADQ

Aldar-ADQ consortium enters as a long-term strategic equity partner to help guide future growth.

Clifford Chance has advised Aldar Properties PJSC in connection with the acquisition of 85.52% of the outstanding share capital of The Sixth of October for Development and Investment S.A.E. (SODIC) following a successful mandatory tender offer submitted by an Aldar-ADQ consortium.

Headquartered in Cairo and listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), SODIC is one of Egypts leading real estate companies with a 25-year track record of success and sustained growth in the residential, commercial, and retail sectors. SODIC also benefits from a significant land bank for future development.

The Abu Dhabi based consortium, which is controlled 70% by real estate developer and manager Aldar and 30% by ADQ, one of the regions largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of major enterprises spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabis diversified economy, will focus on identifying growth opportunities and guiding the companys long-term strategy. The consortiums objective is to advance SODICs position as a leading national developer by scale and reputation, growing its portfolio of mixed-use residential communities in Greater Cairo, the North Coast and other major markets.

The transaction comprises an all-cash mandatory tender at a purchase price of EGP 20.0 per share, which valued SODIC at EGP 7.1 billion. The offer was accepted by shareholders representing 85.52% of outstanding share capital, resulting in a transaction value of EGP 6.1 billion (USD 386.8 million).

The Clifford Chance team was led by Mohammed Al-Shukairy, Regional Managing Partner, Middle East, with support from senior associates Gareth Dray and Rizwan Irfan Butt.

Mohammed commented: "We are very pleased to have supported Aldar in this strategic transaction as part of its international expansion in a priority market. This is undoubtedly a significant development for both Aldar and for the Egyptian real estate market as a whole."

Ranked 1st for M&A in the Middle East and Africa by Mergermarket in 2020, Clifford Chance regularly advises on the region's most high profile, largest and innovative M&A transactions. This has recently included advising Nakheel on its transaction with Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) in relation to 19 district cooling assets; DP World on its acquisition of JSE-listed Imperial Logistics; Al Khaliji Commercial Bank on its merger with Masraf Al Rayan, the first ever public company statutory merger in Qatar; PIF on its US$69 billion sale of its stake in SABIC; AD Power's US$20 billion sale to TAQA; and NCB on its US$223 billion bank merger with Samba.
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With the rise of both the hybrid workplace and fully remote workers, enterprises now face growing demands for a new work-life balance  and the prospect of losing employees if they dont offer more workplace flexibility.

More specifically, companies that decide to go back to a fully on-site arrangement could lose up to 39% of their workforce, according to the 2021 Gartner Hybrid Work Employee Survey of 2,400 knowledge workers.

As a result employers need to practice radical work environment flexibility, the survey indicated, allowing employee performance to be determined not by how many hours they clock in, or when theyre in the office, but by their accomplishments.

Did I get to the outcome you needed? Yes? Then allow me the autonomy I want instead of prescribing the amount of time I need to be in a chair, said Adam Preset, vice president analyst for Employee Experience Technologies at research firm Gartner.

Shifting from an office-centric to a human-centric workplace where employees have flexibility reduces fatigue by 44%, increases intent to remain with a company by 45%, and boosts performance by 28%, according to Gartners survey.

And, as employee surveys now routinely show, it can keep workers from becoming part of the "Great Resignation."

Remote work doesn't mean an end to burnout

If people work more because they're not commuting anymore or because they're having fewer social interactions in a physical workspace  and they fill that time with extra work  they're exceeing their capacity without realizing it every day, Preset said.

That kind of overload can slowly build to the point workers feel so overworked they decide they need a big change. Sometimes that means drawing a line in the sand around the number of meetings they have, other times it means cutting back on available hours.

Organizations have tried to tackle these issues with technology  unplugging at certain times or putting in place more controls so people can be offline and catch their breath, according to Preset.

For example, some software tools allow people to take a deeper look into how they're spending time at work  and whether they're spending too much time overall. Other tools can get more granular, reporting on the number of meetings a person has. Or from a human resources perspective, a company can offer more programs to help employees feel connected to the larger team.

"The possibility that an employee might not stay because they feel overworked combined with the fact there are so many opportunities for them to move around, means that it's essential for organizations to look at this challenge wholistically in terms of technology and people issues," Preset said.

Another issue: many managers tend to gravitate toward working in the office, and favor employees who do the same. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote workers were often made to feel as if they were less valued than their on-site colleagues. As a result, they often participated less in meetings and offered fewer ideas.

We are again in danger of leaders creating hybrid meetings that are too much like the meetings we used to have, Preset said. Leaders should consider whether theyre engaging in old behavior thats no longer appropriate in the hybrid work world.

Its a big problem I see: people backsliding, he added. Dont try to figure out how to get things back to normal. Youre in the new normal now.

Instead of holding an on-site meeting in a conference room, managers and executives should vary the routine and conduct meetings from their desks or even from home to level the playing field, Preset said.

Even in a virtual collaboration environment, old-fashioned techniques still apply. Its still good practice to start a team meeting with good news" (i.e., new hires, positive project outcomes, etc.), remember to ask people what they think and whether they have questions, and highlight action items at the end.

One new no-no: When listing available job positions dont require in-office work unless it's absolutely necessary.

With the exception of certain entry-level positions where in-person mentoring is key, I'll never post another job listing with a required office location, said Shawn Dickerson, vice president of marketing at project and work management software vendor ProjectManager.

Dickerson has remotely managed his own marketing team for the past six years, and called it a positive experience; now, there's really no other choice to do it otherwise.

The job market is flush with companies offering fully remote and flexible work environments, which gives restless employees an advantage they've not had before.

So if a worker goes onto LinkedIn and searches for remote as the work location, even for executive positions, there are typically hundreds available, Dickerson said.

Youve got some of the big investment banks that are insisting people are going to come back to the office, but I think when they find people changing jobs, especially in this hot market, they may walk back some of those mandates, Dickerson said.

Workstream, collaboration and project management tools can help

Navigating the new normal means having to learn about a dizzying array of tools; simply using email and shared document platforms won't cut it. Cloud-based suites such as Microsoft Teams can usually handle basic collaborations tasks. More focused apps such as Slack might work for some companies, but be too limited for others. And some companies find they need a hodge-podge of tools from a variety of vendors to work effectively  albeit at the risk of overwhelming workers.

Picking which option works best for the most employees is at the heart of what companies must decide as the COVID-19 pandemic rolls into its second year.

With workers scattered in all directions, its increasingly critical that companies be able to track projects and allow teams to effectively communicate in real time.

Tools that enable the latter include planning software and services, collaborative work management applications, and workstream collaboration software. They all generally revolve around agile practices  taking small bites out of a large projects, such as software builds, to make them more digestible.

Agile planning tools enable organizations to scale up agile practices to support a single enterprise view for a project. They serve as a "hub" for the definition, planning, and management of work.

ProjectManager Agile work management software can provide a single, unified view of projects.

According to Gartners Magic Quadrant  an overall view of vendors, products and market positions  leading enterprise agile planning tools include Atlassian, Broadcom, Digital.ai, GitLab, Planview, and Targetprocess. Microsofts Project, Siemenss Teamcenter, and IBMs Planning Analytics are also in the mix, according to Gartner.

More focused collaborative work management (CWM) tools offer task-driven workspaces with a focus on planning and execution; they combine task, project, workflow, and automation capabilities with conversations, content publishing, reporting, analytics, and dashboards. These tools tend to be used more at small and mid-sized firms with fewer than 500 employees

Standouts in this area, according to Gartner, include Adobe Workfront, Asana, ClickUp, Microsofts Lists, Monday.com, and WorkOtter.

And workstream collaboration (WSC) tools tend to focus on remote-work issues  the same issues workers increasingly want companies to address. They're designed to provide a cohesive experience for employees and can unify messaging, meeting, content sharing, and task coordination, according to Gartners Market Guide for Workstream Collaboration, published in March.

The major vendors offering workstream collaboration software include well-known names like Ciscos WebEx Teams, Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Rocketchat, Slack, Wickr Pro and Enterprise.

Standardize where possible, and lower the 'noise'

There's a down side to the proliferation of options for companies managing a hybrid workforce: with the adoption of WSC tools surging, employees can be overwhelmed by the noise of being part of multiple chat-based channels," Dickerson said.

Having a system of record to track your team's projects, tasks, assignments, and progress is a best practice  regardless of your team's situation," he said. "But being in the same office can act as a band-aid for bad processes. Being a hybrid team requires a more programmatic approach."

Regardless of which direction a company takes, it's important to standardize on work and project management platforms so employees can communicate and collaborate on projects. Too many platforms can mean too few people become proficient at using them.

With all the different ways to handle projects, its really important for an organization or workgroups to have standard methods that they use. One thing thats common in a lot of technology areas is platform proliferation, Preset said.

Gartner also recommends:

Communicating the value of WSC tools to employees by sharing best practices and employee success stories in internal communications, providing talking points for supervisors and using leadership town halls.

Elevating WSC tools as a foundation for remote and hybrid work by using them as the integration hub for meetings, content services, and collaborative work management.

Working with enterprise architecture teams to define guidelines and usage scenarios for non-WSC chat tools.

For most employees, companies only need to figure out what's good enough for routine communications, project management, and hybrid work  and then deploy those applications.

Specialized technology, such as collaborative work management software, should only be used when the more general platforms won't work for more complex projects. Thats when you get collaborative management software and go off and get enterprise agile planning tools and project management reporting, Preset said.

Different work styles require different tools

While companies may look to standardize on work, project collaboration and employee communication tools, its important to remember that not all employees work the same way. Some might be more comfortable with a waterfall project management approach, using a Gantt chart to manage tasks. Others prefer agile project management tools, such as Kanban boards that are designed to help visualize work progress and flow.

ProjectManager A Gantt waterfall project management chart.

Senior managers might put together a project using a Gantt chart, while members of that same project team end up using Kanban board. Its OK to blend waterfall and agile project management methods, according to Dickerson.

Collaboration tools and employee communication applications (ECA) are also beginning to overlap. Communication tools often include chat, something that can overlap with similar functions in other tools. (ECA vendors have historically focused on enterprise-wide communications such as newsletters, HR information, executive views, policies and state of the company information, according to Gartner.)

Cloud office vendors (Google and Microsoft) have commoditized basic workspace chat, file-sharing and meeting capabilities to varying degrees, Gartner said in its Market Guide for Workstream Collaboration report.

A sense of unity is key

Another hurdle managers face involves creating a sense of belonging and camaraderie in the hybrid workplace, where there are no water coolers employees can congregate around to chat and get to know each other.

From a management perspective, its about how do we make the work more appealing so [workers] feel less overloaded and more socially connected to the organization. Thats the huge challenge here, Preset said.

In the beginning of the pandemic, organizations in crisis mode reacted by supporting employees with the bare minimum of tools needed to do their jobs outside the office. Managers simply looked to confirm that their employees were delivering on commitments and goals. Any productivity and employee engagement beyond that took a backseat, Preset noted.

Now that organizations have better adjusted to remote and hybrid work environments, theyre rethinking how they deliver on goals and do a better job at creating a collaborative environment.

Dickerson suggested a simple starting point.

Take time to laugh. The things that bond a team virtually are the same things that bond us in person: shared experience and a lot of laughter, Dickerson said. A team Zoom meeting without plenty of laughs is like driving a station wagon. It'll get you there, but it's no fun for anyone.
12/20/2021

Photo (c) bymuratdeniz - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)

Total U.S. confirmed cases: 50,896,569 (50,777,087)

Total U.S. deaths: 806,635 (806,302)

Total global cases: 275,036,978 (274,343,184)

Total global deaths: 5,357,666 (5,352,372)

Moderna says booster is effective at blocking Omicron variant

Moderna has announced preliminary data about the effectiveness of its booster against the Omicron variant. The company says the shot gives recipients a high level of protection against the new COVID-19 threat.

The currently authorized booster shot increased neutralizing antibody levels against the Omicron variant by approximately 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels. A 100 g dose of the vaccine booster increased neutralizing antibody levels approximately 83-fold compared to pre-boost levels.

To respond to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future, said Stephane Bancel, Modernas CEO.

Huge number of cases have no symptoms, study finds

The world is in the grips of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Could an increase in testing have something to do with it?

Researchers in China have completed a study that suggests 40% of people who test positive for the virus have no symptoms. Thats many more than previously believed. Health experts say people who dont know they have COVID-19 may unknowingly be spreading it to more vulnerable populations.

This finding of a high percentage of asymptomatic infections among air or cruise travelers suggests that screening and quarantine on airport arrival is important for reducing community transmissions, especially in countries without local transmission, the authors write.

Three Democratic lawmakers test positive

Three members of Congress  all Democrats  took to Twitter over the weekend to report that they have tested positive for COVID-19. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) all said they are experiencing mild symptoms. All had been vaccinated.

"I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case, Warren wrote in a tweet. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted."

In his announcement, Crow said he "just returned from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine and tested positive for a breakthrough COVID infection."

Around the nation

Indiana: Indiana ranks last in the nation on WalletHubs list of the safest states to avoid COVID-19. The state achieved the dubious distinction by having a low rate of vaccinations and a high rate of deaths, hospitalizations, and positive test results.

Colorado: More than a quarter of the states residents who died of COVID-19 lost their battle after vaccines were widely available and pandemic restrictions were lifted. Colorados death toll from the virus rose past 10,000 last week  more than 2,900 of those have come since the start of July

Nebraska: COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a 2021 high last year, and Dr. Angela Hewlett, the chair of Nebraska Medicine's health security, says the surge is displacing patients with other conditions. We are in the process of converting an entire hospital tower over to COVID, and I think its important for people to remember that these beds were not unoccupied, she told reporters.

New Jersey: The state is partnering with Vault Medical Services to provide free in-home COVID-19 tests to state residents. This new program increases the availability and accessibility of testing, particularly for those who may not be able to get to a testing site, said Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli.
In the absence of a counter-narrative the common masses get influenced by the mainstream media narrative



He said that he made several complaints but got no redressal. In Central and Southern part of India another law named Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,1967 exists, which is also used mainly against the Dalit and Adivasi people. There are many such incidents of torture and discrimination around India. Similar incident of gang-rape happened on gun-point in a place called Vakapalli, Andhra Pradesh in 2007 by the Greyhounds personnel, a police special force against the anti-Naxalites. The victims of the vakapalli are yet to get justice. In January 2018, a video posted by one Indian Army soldier named Kamlesh Yadav went viral on social media as he alleged that he is facing caste discrimination in the army.He said that he made several complaints but got no redressal. In Central and Southern part of India another law named Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,1967 exists, which is also used mainly against the Dalit and Adivasi people. There are many such incidents of torture and discrimination around India.

Media 'consent' After the

This kind of act of the media towards manufacturing consent in favour of government policies, be it economic, political or cultural, can be a threat towards the democratic set up of the Indian state if left unchecked. Even the caste privileged academia of India also shows less interest to be critically engaged with such topics.

In the absence of a counter-narrative the common masses get influenced by the mainstream media narrative and a common consent is developed in favour of the behaviour of the army as well as police. Take for example another recent incident from Assam, an adjacent state of Nagaland, where on November 29 a student leader was lynched by a mob.

In response to that a demand of instant justice was called by people on social media. A State-based journalist said in a viral video why the person who was leading the mob needed to be shot at sight. Later on, when the same person had been apprehended, he was killed in a similar situation where the police claims that he got hit by a police van after trying to run off from another police van.

This death was

This sense of impunity may lead to the total collapse of rule of law in a country. Hence, it's the right time to end or at the least address this culture of silence maintained by the mainstream media, political parties and other democratic institutions. Otherwise it may lead us to a police state and our greatest achievement as the largest democracy of the world can also come under threat.

---

*Ashok Danavath is a tribal graduate scholar from TISS, Hyderabad, has worked as a Policy, Development and Welfare professional at Libtech India and is currently at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands, researching on marginalization of SC-ST communities in India. Taniya Laskar is Secretary-General of the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee; a lawyer by profession she is also a rights practitioner and activist working on NRC citizenship issues of marginalised people in northeast India. A version of this article has appeared in Live Wire After the BJP came to power in 2014 , amidst allegations of the government politicizing the security forces, sections of media houses started to radically accommodate news favoring the defense institutions over mass issues. They justified the disastrous economic measures like demonetization by comparing common people standing in queue to the army personal patrolling in borders.This kind of act of the media towards manufacturing consent in favour of government policies, be it economic, political or cultural, can be a threat towards the democratic set up of the Indian state if left unchecked. Even the caste privileged academia of India also shows less interest to be critically engaged with such topics.In the absence of a counter-narrative the common masses get influenced by the mainstream media narrative and a common consent is developed in favour of the behaviour of the army as well as police. Take for example another recent incident from Assam, an adjacent state of Nagaland, where on November 29 a student leader was lynched by a mob.In response to that a demand of instant justice was called by people on social media. A State-based journalist said in a viral video why the person who was leading the mob needed to be shot at sight. Later on, when the same person had been apprehended, he was killed in a similar situation where the police claims that he got hit by a police van after trying to run off from another police van.This death was celebrated by bursting crackers and shouting slogans in favour of the police in Assam. One thing worth mentioning here is that, in most of these extra-judicial killings the victims belong to a marginalized identity be it caste, class or gender.This sense of impunity may lead to the total collapse of rule of law in a country. Hence, it's the right time to end or at the least address this culture of silence maintained by the mainstream media, political parties and other democratic institutions. Otherwise it may lead us to a police state and our greatest achievement as the largest democracy of the world can also come under threat.---

Two recent tragic incidents have left Indian people in shock and despair. One is the death of the former Army Chief and the first Chief of Defence of the Indian Armed Forces General Bipin Rawat along with 12 other defense personnel and another is the gunning down of 14 innocent civilians by the Indian Army under the alleged suspicion of them being militants. Both of these incidents are very disturbing and need the attention of Indian people in their own spaces.But if we examine closely, we see a disturbing silence around the Nagaland incident among all the media platforms, be it mainstream, alternative or social media. Major politicians film actors, celebrated cricketers , social media influencers etc. have expressed their condolences over the former incident but kept almost a not-to-speak-of on the later one.Nagaland is a tribal dominated State. It has been under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) since 1958. Widely described as draconian, under this Act any Army personnel, even a non-commissioned officer, can fire upon civilians on the basis of mere suspicion. The enforcement of this Act is very controversial since among the five States in which it is in force, three are tribal and the other two are minority dominated states.The Act was challenged in the Supreme Court of India by the organization Naga Peoples Movement of Human Rights in 1980. But the Supreme Court upheld it as a temporary measure. Yet, after four decades it's still operative over there.In 2016, it again came into controversy due to unaccountable encounters done by the Indian Army in Manipur. An enquiry was ordered against 1,528 extra-judicial killings done under the impunity granted by AFSPA. Despite this there is a culture of silence maintained by sections of Indian media and other democratic institutions towards the oppressive nature of the law and the irrational impunity granted to the armed forces in those states. This culture of silence can enable any institution to behave with toxicity.The Indian Army has also been enjoying impunity against several allegations of caste discrimination and gender-specific violences. For example, in December 2014, the Court directed the Indian Army to pay a sum of Rs 10 lac as ex-gratia amount to the family of Thangjam Manorama, who was reportedly raped and killed by the paramilitary unit of Indian Army. Such a case also happened in 1991 in a village named Kunan Poshpora in Kashmir.
As we've explained to you before, the very first dogfights didn't involve guns attached to the plane and fired using cockpit controls. Before these, pilots fired pistolsthey pointed out of the plane with a handgun. We saw one battle like this even at the end of World War II, in which a British pilot managed to bring down a German plane with a .45 caliber pistol.

The very first dogfight happened 32 years earlier, during the Mexican Revolution. Fighting for the Revolutionaries was Dean Ivan Lamb, an American who'd traveled from New York down to Naco in Mexico as a mercenary. Fighting for the establishment was another American mercenary, California reporter Phil Rader.

Lamb got in a plane to attack Rader, who was already in the air in a bomber. The troops below watched as the planes flew in parallel, with the two men exchanging pistol fire. But what no one on the ground realized was that Lamb and Rader were friends. They were each deliberately aiming just below the other's plane, missing every time.

Given how hard it is to aim a pistol while flying a plane, you might wonder whether this secret partnership, which Lamb revealed later, was just a cover story to explain why he hadn't landed a single shot. But we have reason to believe him because this wasn't the only time Lamb pulled a stunt like this.
NEW HAVEN  Several New Haven-area school districts reported higher-than-average student absences and increased police presence Friday as they confronted a nationwide flux in social media posts referencing possible threats against schools.

State police have said they are monitoring rumors of school violence circulating on the app TikTok. The posts may have related to a TikTok challenge to skip school Friday, said the agency, which indicated Thursday it had not identified any specific or credible threats to Connecticut schools.

But later that day, a separate threat sent Guilford into a panic.

There was a screenshot of a threatening statement that has been distributed in communities all over the country that may have GHSes, said Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman. It began circulating ... around student and parent groups here in Guilford, and it absolutely escalated the anxiety level.

The Guilford Police Department determined that it didnt appear to be credibly related to Guilford schools, Freeman said, adding that the threat appears to have circulated in states including California and Utah. They quickly identified that it was the same thing that was being shared all over the country.

The district nevertheless opted to increase police presence, especially around arrival time, according to Freeman, who said there were officers stationed at every school Friday morning.

We wanted people to see and know that there was a presence there, he said.

But to the superintendents disappointment, high school attendance levels were lower than 50 percent, he said.

Im really disappointed, and Im angry that students didnt feel that they could comfortably and confidently come to school today, Freeman said.

The challenges of the last couple years have worn (students) down, he said, citing the pandemic, lack of social interaction and real occurrences of school violence in the news.

And then for stuff like this to happen  its not funny ... This TikTok challenge is not entertaining, and its not funny, Freeman said. It is frustrating, and it is bad for our kids.

In recent weeks, separate threats against schools in Hamden, New Haven and North Haven prompted lockdowns, early dismissals and closures.

While no recent threats specifically targeted North Haven Public Schools  the towns only scare affected a magnet school  the district faced a spike in student absences Friday, Superintendent of Schools Patrick Stirk said via email.

He believes the absences were related to the current climate, he said.

As concerns about the TikTok rumors rose, North Haven joined other districts in ramping up police presence on campus.

NHPS (North Haven Public Schools) increased police presence at arrival and dismissal, Stirk wrote. All schools have a dedicated School Resource Officer and there were additional NHPD officers on each schools campus throughout the day.

West Haven also has escaped specific threats but decided to increase security in response to the TikTok trend, according to Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro.

The district worked very closely with the West Haven Police Department to put precautions in place. There was added police presence at all of the schools, he said in an email Friday.

Though West Haven saw a slightly higher than average number of students out Friday, Cavallaro said, he expressed uncertainty about whether social media rumors of threats caused the increased absences.

Still, the current climate affects education, he said.

When we have to spend time addressing these issues, it takes away from teaching and learning, he said While we understand it is important to reassure the entire community that the schools are safe and spend time especially with younger children explaining these issues, were not teaching them to read, write, and solve math problems.

Justin Harmon, director of marketing and communications with the New Haven school district, did not immediately have attendance data available.

As of Friday, the district had not received any credible threats of violence to city public schools, he said via email.

We are continuing to be vigilant to any threats that get reported to us, sharing them with New Haven police and apprising parents, Harmon wrote.

Reporter Ben Lambert contributed to this story. meghan.friedmann@

hearstmediact.com
Who will be teaching Black and Latino history classes? The question came quickly to those charged with developing the new course for Connecticuts high schools.

This question we asked all the way back in 2019-2020 doing our focus groups, said Michelle Lebrun-Griffin, a consultant with the State Education Resource Center of Connecticut, which was designated by the state legislature to develop and implement the program.

More than 50 high schools across the state are field testing the cultural studies course this year before the state mandates all high schools offer the elective course next fall. Some teachers are bringing their lived experience to the class while others are learning right along with their students.

Im very upfront with what I know and what I dont know, and what I have experienced and what I havent experienced. I find that transparency extremely helpful in teaching the course and having an open mind, said Cecile St. Jean, a white social studies teacher at P-TECH Norwalk.

Lisa Breen, a Spanish teacher at the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School, called the history course a complete game changer. The integrated magnet arts high school is using an interdisciplinary approach and collaborating with other subjects such as the arts, media studies, and the language department.

This course is groundbreaking, said Breen, who is African American. Its content brings Black and Latino communities together, exposing truths that all students (of every race) need to learn, reflect and synthesize.

Lebrun-Griffin and fellow SERC consultant Nitza Diaz-Candelo recognized early that Connecticut has a high prevalence of white teachers, and it was more than likely a white instructor would be teaching the new class. Only about 10 percent of all educators in the Connecticut are non-white, according to state data.

The two sensed some initial uncertainty from teachers but said all of them had the desire to teach the course from the start.

It wasnt that they had to teach the course because no one else could. Teachers wanted to be a part of this. They wanted to be a part of the initial implementation and didnt want to wait the year, Lebrun-Griffin said.

Old Saybrook Public Schools had little choice but to have a white teacher pilot its Black and Latino history course. Despite efforts to recruit Black and Latino teachers, 97% of the staff in the district identifies as white. The course is being co-taught at the high school by a social studies teacher and the librarian, with support from a bilingual teacher.

The feedback Ive has been positive. The course is fully enrolled, said Amity Goss, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for Old Saybrook Public Schools said this week. The district plans to keep the course an elective class.

Superintendent Kevin Smith of Wilton Public Schools, which is not part of the initial field study for the course, said he would feel comfortable with any member of the Wilton High School social studies department teaching the Black and Latino history class next year.

They are all state certified to teach social studies and would be well-prepared to instruct in this course, Smith said.

In an early focus group with students, SERC asked younger participants whether the teachers race would make a difference. They got a split response, but early feedback from students currently enrolled in the course shows they are more interested in the information that they are receiving than the person who is delivering it.

This class helps me learn about the hidden history of my ancestors and helps me understand myself as a person. It incorporates two big parts of who I am, said Lavinnia Nazareth, a junior at Westbrook High School, who identifies as half Black and Latina.

P-TECH Norwalk juniors Chance Teel and Julian Rivera both recently said they were encouraged to take the class by their parents.

My culture, yes its a U.S. territory, but its not really talked about in U.S. history, said Rivera, who has a Puerto Rican background. I wanted to dive a little deeper. ... I thought learning more about my background could help me in the future.

SERC is providing ongoing professional development to build the current course and help schools implement it for next year. Teachers are learning from experts and scholars on course topics and receiving a bevy of primary documents that they can use to build their lessons in lieu of textbooks.

Some students at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School have taken what theyve learned from the class and applied it to projects outside the classroom. They have submitted paintings, poems and other artwork to the city of Hartfords project highlighting the accomplishment of African Americans using the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Next, the students will collaborate with the schools Spanish department and the Advocacy to Legacy nonprofit to explore Hartford region sites, such as the Puerto Rican Heritage Walk in the city, Parkville Market, and other sites to create an empowering illustrated anthology of current voices, said Ron Cannada, who teaches the focused history course at the magnet high school.

Race is obviously discussed, Cannada said of the course, however the driving force of the curriculum is how students can develop unity and cohesiveness in their own multicultural communities and everyday life as informed responsible citizens.

emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com
NEW YORK (AP)  The case for and against Ghislaine Maxwell has been made, and as soon as Monday, her fate will rest squarely in the jury's hands.

Maxwell, a socialite, has denied allegations from four women who say they were teens when she helped the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse them. Her lawyers say she has been wrongly targeted by prosecutors intent on holding someone  anyone  accountable after Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on related sex-abuse charges.

The evidence phase of the trial concluded within three weeks. With just days left before a verdict is expected, its time to take stock of developments.

WHO ARE GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S ACCUSERS?

The prosecution, mounted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, hinges on the accusations of four women who say they were teenagers when Maxwell and Epstein sexually exploited them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Three testified under the pseudonyms Jane, Kate and Carolyn. One, Annie Farmer, decided to tell her story publicly.

WHAT WAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL UP TO BEFORE HER ARREST?

Maxwell was arrested in July 2020  almost a year after Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. After Epstein's death, she withdrew from public activities like running an oceans charity. Her whereabouts became a subject of public speculation. Was that her eating a burger and reading a book on CIA operatives in Southern California? Was she living in Britain or Paris or maybe even Massachusetts? Prosecutors say she went into hiding in New Hampshire  where she was eventually arrested  in a million-dollar home where she kept her cellphone wrapped in foil.

SO HAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL BEEN IN JAIL THIS WHOLE TIME?

Yes, despite multiple requests for bail, Maxwell has spent well over a year lodged in federal lockup in Brooklyn. Maxwell has triple citizenship with the U.S., U.K. and France, the last of which does not extradite its citizens. Her attorneys and family have lambasted jail conditions, which they say are punitive and inhospitable to Maxwells ability to mount a proper defense.

HOW EXACTLY DO YOU PRONOUNCE GHISLAINE?

Think French. Hard "g," silent s. First syllable: ghee, like the clarified butter, and quick. Second syllable, like a country lane and slightly emphasized.

IS THE GHISLAINE MAXWELL TRIAL AIRING ON TELEVISION OR STREAMING?

No. It's in federal court, which doesn't allow cameras. That's why all the images from the courtroom are sketched.

WHEN DID TESTIMONY BEGIN?

Nov. 29.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE PROSECUTORS TO MAKE THEIR CASE?

The prosecution's case lasted two weeks, across 10 days of testimony.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE THE DEFENSE TO MAKE THEIR CASE?

Two days.

THAT'S IT?

Yes, the witness lists for both sides were greatly truncated. The whole trial was originally projected to last six weeks!

WHEN WILL GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL BE OVER NOW?

It's hard to give a precise estimate, but closing arguments are set for Monday and the jury could get the case as soon as the end of that day. We might see a verdict as early as Christmas, which also happens to be Maxwell's 60th birthday.

WHY DIDN'T GHISLAINE MAXWELL TESTIFY?

When offered the chance, she told the judge  not without some defiance  that she had no need to testify, as the prosecution had failed to adequately prove their case. But regardless, it's rare for a high-profile defendant to put themselves on the stand, as it opens them up to a lot more scrutiny.

WHAT EXACTLY WAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S RELATIONSHIP WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

They were romantically involved, but at some point  the timeline is unclear  she says she transitioned to being more of an employee, running his households. Prosecutors have accused of her as functioning as Epstein's madam, procuring underage girls to satisfy him sexually.

WHERE DID JEFFREY EPSTEIN HAVE HOMES?

All over the place: Palm Beach, Florida; New Mexico; Manhattan; the U.S. Virgin Islands; Paris.

WHAT DID JEFFREY EPSTEIN DO FOR A LIVING?

He left his teaching career at a tony Manhattan prep school to work at Bear Stearns, an investment bank, and then started his own money-management business. He would not disclose his assets and income even after his July 2019 arrest, but he seems to have built a fortune managing investments for others.

HOW IS PRINCE ANDREW INVOLVED IN ALL OF THIS?

He's not. Not exactly, at least. A woman is suing the British royal, saying he sexually abused her when she was 17. She says Maxwell facilitated her meetings with Andrew, who has denied the account. But the woman's accusations have been left out of this trial. That lawsuit won't go to trial until at least late 2022. Andrew's name has come up in this trial, though: a pilot of Epstein's private jet, dubbed the Lolita Express by the news media, testified he had flown Andrew and an accuser confirmed she told the FBI she had flown with the prince, as well.

WHO IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S HUSBAND?

Also unclear! She was living with him when she was arrested in New Hampshire, but court documents have not made his name public. He did support her bail attempts, but has not been spotted at the trial.

DOES GHISLAINE MAXWELL HAVE ANY NOTABLE SUPPORTERS?

Her family  the scions of the late publishing magnate, Robert Maxwell  is sticking by her. Two of her siblings, Kevin and Isabel, have attended each day of proceedings. The Maxwells strongly assert the U.S. justice system is making a patsy of their youngest sister. Ghislaine is notably the baby of the family and said to have been the favorite of her father, who died falling off a yacht named for her.

WHO IS THE JUDGE FOR GHISLAINE MAXWELL'S TRIAL?

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. That promotion is not expected to interfere with proceedings in the Maxwell case, but the trial was in recess for the first three days of its third week so she could answer questions from the U.S. Senate panel charged with considering her elevation.

HOW HAS GHISLAINE MAXWELL BEEN SPENDING HER TIME IN JAIL?

According to a website set up by her family, Maxwell has been working through a pile of books. Her reading list runs the gamut of criminal-justice related books like the award-winning Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson to Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department Justice by Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and former lawyer for President Donald Trump. She's also been making her way through Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy series and popular book club fiction pick Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman.

IF CONVICTED, HOW MUCH TIME IN PRISON WOULD SHE BE LOOKING AT?

Potentially many years.

LET'S REWIND: WHAT EXACTLY IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL CHARGED WITH?

This ongoing trial revolves around six charges:

1. conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

2. enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

3. conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

4. transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

5. sex trafficking conspiracy

6. sex trafficking of a minor

A superseding indictment in March also charged Maxwell with two counts of perjury, but the judge granted the defense's request to spin those off into a separate trial.

SO THERE'S MORE TO COME?

Yes. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, there's more to come.
With a greater urgency for testing and surveillance, the state is grappling with the impending loss of COVID testing partner Sema4, a Stamford-based lab linked to Gov. Ned Lamonts wife, that plans to cease its role in the effort by next month.

The omicron variant, still a bit enigmatic to leading health professionals, may end up the dominant strain in Connecticut within weeks. Since it was first classified by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern late last month, pressure has been put on testing and surveillance to track its spread.

Compounding the demand for increased testing is the busy holiday season that comes amid a surge in cases, thus far still largely linked to the delta variant, as people contemplate how to see family and friends.

Were talking to our hospital partners; were talking to everybody else thats providing the testing, Lamont said. Were going to provide more testing capacity for the state. Testing is one of the ways were going to get through COVID.

Lamont on Monday said he has heard recent concerns over testing, but pointed out there are 400 sites across Connecticut and hours will be expanded at state-sponsored locations.

The number of daily tests has fluctuated in recent weeks, state data shows, from lows in the tens of thousands to as high as about 53,000. This time last year, when Connecticut was similarly experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, the daily tests range from the low 20,000s to a high of more than 66,000.

I think, give us a couple weeks, but we are expanding testing every day to make that more available, Lamont said.

Lamont said they also planned to pause some of the vaccine mandates that require those who opt-out to get tested to open up more appointments.

But the loss of Sema4, one of four companies hired in July by the state Department of Public Health to manage 23 testing sites across the state, could stress the situation.

On Friday, Lamont called Sema4s plans a loss for the state.

I mean they were a great testing partner for Connecticut and beyond, Lamont said.

Sema4 notified the DPH on Wednesday of its plans to end its contract with the state as the company exits the testing industry by mid-January, and returns to its core business  genomic testing.

The companys contracts with the state had come under scrutiny since Annie Lamonts firm, Oak HC/FT, is an investor in Sema4, which has received millions of dollars from the state to perform COVID testing.

Lamonts spokesperson Max Reiss said Friday that the administration had zero input into Sema4s decision to stop its COVID testing operation.

Lamont said the state is working with health partners and others to make up for this eventual loss in testing capacity.

Lamont emphasized the importance for testing as the state experiences a spike in infections, including confirmed cases of the omicron variant.

Were going to have to make up that loss because more testing capacity is more important. More people are getting tested than ever before, double where we were just in the last few weeks, Lamont said.

While demand for tests is high, they are still available through a number of providers, experts said.

We have the ability to test, said Dr. Ulyesses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare, Because of the demand, its like ordering a cabbage patch kid. ... Theyre out there.

But Wu stressed the need for availability of home test kits, which have become increasingly popular in recent months.

The wait time for testing is longer. What we need is to have more availability of at-home testing, which is much harder, Wu said.

Im not exactly sure why Europe can do it, and we cant, he added.

Art Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine and a Ridgefield resident, was more critical of the testing situation in Connecticut and elsewhere, pointing out situations where there have been long lines of people waiting to get screened.

Testing is disgraceful in Connecticut and around the country. ... Home tests are cheap  the state should be buying them, Caplan said.
ATLANTA, Ga. (AP)  The body of a man who fell into Georgia's largest lake while working on his boat was found with sonar on Sunday and retrieved by a remotely operated vehicle, officials said.

James Dunn Lindsey, 46 of Cumming, fell into Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta, on Thursday, news agencies reported. The lake north of Atlanta covers 38,000 acres (15,400 hectares) acres and has 700 miles (1,130 kilometers) of shoreline.
Eleven airports in the state have been awarded nearly $12.5 million in federal infrastructure funding that is expected to help them increase flights and invest in infrastructure improvements.

Connecticut leaders announced the funding from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday. This is the first of a series of grants the airports will receive over the next five years as part of the federal infrastructure package passed in November.

Bradley International Airport will get the biggest chunk, with more than $9 million.

Gov. Ned Lamont said this will turbo-charge Connecticuts comeback.

The allocations announced [Friday] by the Federal Aviation Administration to Bradley and our general aviation airports will accelerate much-needed safety, capacity, and airfield improvements, he said in a statement. New federal funding will complement state and private investments and make Connecticut even more competitive.

Over the next five years, $45 million will go toward Bradley, said U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.

Bradley has been recognized as one of the top airports in the country and this funding will continue to help the airport and region thrive, he said in a statement.

The money will partially fund two projects at Bradley.

The first will streamline the baggage detection system, which forces passengers to carry their own checked luggage and constrains available ticket counter space, officials said. This project will also add additional gate and concession space. The airports federal inspection services may also eventually be moved to create a seamless terminal facility for all travelers.

The second project will reimagine passenger circulation, replacing the centrally located exit lane with vertical circulation cores on each end of the terminal, officials said. This will alleviate terminal congestion by providing space to expand the footprint of the main TSA security checkpoint and route passengers more directly from their concourse to baggage claim.

These funds will be put to good use at Bradley Airport building capacity for airline growth so we can continue offering service to new nonstop destinations across the country and globe, said Kevin A. Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, in a statement. These funds will also provide for important safety and airfield investments in airports across the state. We are committed to providing the safest and most convenient airport experience possible, and [Fridays] announcement will ensure that we are able to meet that goal now and in the future.

At the the Connecticut Airport Authoritys general aviation airports, the money will be used generally to enhance airfield infrastructure and undertake other necessary safety projects.

Other airports

In this round, Tweed New Haven Airport will get more than $1 million.

Improving our transportation infrastructure is vital to growing Connecticuts economy and, thanks to the great work of our federal delegation, we will now be able to undertake additional and incredibly important projects that will help create jobs, enhance safety, protect our environment and improve the overall passenger experience here at Tweed Airport, Sean Scanlon, executive director, said in a statement.

Igor I Sikorsky Memorial in Bridgeport will receive $763,000. Airport Director Michelle Muoio said the grant will be used to evaluate and pursue coastal flooding resiliency efforts as well as opportunities to expand safety measures and optimize airport services for new and existing users.

Danbury, Groton-New London, and Waterbury-Oxford airports will each get $295,000. Another $159,000 each will go toward Danielson, Hartford-Brainard, Meriden Markham Municipal, Robertson Field and Windham airports.

Danbury Municipal Airport plans to use the funds to toward rehabilitating a vital taxiway, said Michael Safranek, Danbury Municipal Airport administrator.

The bipartisan infrastructure package is already proving to be a game-changer for Connecticut, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement. This first round of funding for our states airports will help to increase flights to destinations around the world while improving safety and security and enhancing the overall customer experience. The people and businesses of Connecticut will continue to see their lives dramatically improved as a result of these historic investments in our states infrastructure.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., noted travelers are experiencing long lines, canceled flights and crowded airports.

This federal funding will help Connecticut airports increase their capacity, making travel much more convenient, he said in a statement.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  Police have arrested a man who was a fugitive sought by state and federal authorities for multiple carjackings and armed robberies.

Twenty-four-year-old Christian Velez was taken into custody in New Britain on Friday night. The Hartford Courant reported Velez was the subject of multiple arrest warrants in connection with a series of robberies that began in early September.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP)  Police in Georgia are looking for a man accused of using his truck to kill his brother-in-law after a Christmas party and a fight.

Gwinnett County police say they dont know what started the fight Saturday morning between 34-year old Ernesto Pelayo, of Lilburn, and his sisters husband, 41-year-old Juan Davila, of Lawrenceville, news agencies reported.

A call to a possible business number for Pelayo, requesting comment, was answered by a woman who hung up after an Associated Press reporter identified herself.

Both men had gone to a Christmas party that started Friday night in Lawrenceville, an unincorprated community about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta, the Gwinnett County Police said.

Police said the fight began behind the house where the party was held and somehow wound up in the street. About 5:15 a.m. Saturday, Pelayo reportedly got into his truck, ran it into Davila and drove off, said said Sgt. Michele Pihera, police spokeswman.

Davila died at a hospital.

Pihera said warrants accuse Pelayo of felony murder and aggravated assault. His truck is described as a black Dodge Ram 3500 with Georgia license plate TAT2291.

Araceli Davila, who identified herself as Davila's daughter, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by email her father was kind-hearted and helpful.

He was there for everyone and always had a loving smile, she wrote. He truly had a heart of gold and was incapable of holding a grudge. He loved my mother, my siblings and I with all his heart and he was always there for us.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  A minimum-security state prison inmate has been placed on escape status, South Dakota corrections officials said Monday.

Authorities say Paul Standing Crow Beck left his work release job site in Rapid City on Sunday without authorization. He faces a charge of second-degree escape, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  U.S. Magistrate Judge Kate M. Menendez has been confirmed by the Senate to fill Minnesota's federal court vacancy, the state's two senators announced over the weekend.

Menendez was nominated by President Joe Biden in September. She appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in early November to take questions and talk about her five-year stint as a magistrate judge, the Star Tribune reported.
STORY LINK Pound Australian Dollar Exchange Rate Muted as Omicron Worries Continue

Pound (GBP) Falls amid Rumours of Plan C Restrictions and Omicron Fears

Australian Dollar (AUD) Rises as Country Opens Up Despite Soaring Covid-19 Cases

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Forecast: Will UKs Growth Struggle Under Weight of Omicron?

Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues:

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Trends Sideways as Omicron Variant Weighs Heavily on PoundThe Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate rose overnight but has fallen today, as the Omicron variant weighs heavily on the Pound (GBP). A strengthened Australian Dollar may also have scuppered the currency pairs chances for any upward movement.At time of writing the GBP/AUD is at around $1.8565, which is largely unchanged from this mornings opening figures.The Pound has fallen against its rivals today as reports suggest that further restrictions may be on the horizon in order to combat the Omicron variant.UK health minister Sajid Javid as made it clear that fresh restrictions before Christmas could be imposed within a matter of days, with further rumours of a circuit-breaker lockdown coming immediately after Christmas. Businesses have accused the government of imposing a lockdown by stealth as Oxford Street saw its footfall this weekend at 17 % below pre-pandemic levels.Should the UK government introduce new restrictions its likely the Pound will fall further. Confidence in the currency could be regained should Chancellor Rishi Sunak announce further measures to supports struggling businesses.Jac Tyrell, chief executive of the New West End Company, echoed the frustration felt by many of the countrys businesses:With less than five days to go until Christmas day and the probabilities of a circuit-breaker lockdown increasingly on the horizon, the retail and leisure sector is now facing a huge amount of financial uncertainty when it should be enjoying a much needed shot in the arm.Sterling may face Brexit headwinds again today following the shock resignation of lead Brexit negotiator David Frost this weekend. Frost had previously been leading the UKs negotiations with the EU regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol, and recent reports had indicated some progress had been made. With Liz Truss set to step in to fill the role, the Pound could see further downward movement should the negotiations become unproductive.The Australian Dollar (AUD) has climbed against its riskier rivals today despite fears that Omicron variant may hamper the countrys recent rebound.Positive private sector and employment data from last week had strengthened hopes that the country would see a post-lockdown boost after removing the last of its major Covid-19 restrictions. Consumer fears regarding the Omicron variant and surging Covid-19 cases may dampen those expectations and cause a dip in the Australian Dollar.The Australian government finds itself in a difficult position, as businesses implore the government to continue with reopening the country despite the rise in Covid-19 cases. Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, had the following to say on the matter:Locking in a strong recovery will mean sticking to the plan to reopen, managing the supply constraints that are putting a handbrake on the recovery and tearing down Fortress Australia. We have to continue reducing the economic friction that makes it hard to do new things.The Aussie may also have seen a boost today from rising iron ore prices and a weakened Chinese Yuan (CNY).Looking to the week ahead, the final reading of the UKs GDP growth figures for the third quarter are currently forecast to show a further slowdown. This comes after the Bank of England (BoE) slashed its growth forecasts for December and 2022 last week in the face of the Omicron variant. Thursdays consumer confidence figures are also forecast to show a fall after a slight recovery last month, and should both data sets print as expected then it could push the Pound further down.For the Australian Dollar, significant data comes in the form of multiple releases from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Investors will likely dissect todays mid-year economic outlook and Tuesdays meeting minutes for any indications of the RBAs monetary policy moving forward.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

TAGS: Forecasts
Facebook announced it's changing its name to Meta, signaling that 3D virtual reality platforms are about to expand in a big way.

Visitors are pictured in front of an immersive art installation titled Machine Hallucinations  Space: Metaverse by media artist Refik Anadol.

For most people on Earth, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a type of involuntary emergency brakeeverything in the real world slowed down.

But on the other end of the spectrum, humanitys increased reliance on technology pushed that sector into overdrivethings have sped up substantially from a technology perspective in the last couple years. And based on recent developments, the pace of advancements may only accelerate from here.

Theres simply no other way to look at it after one of the worlds largest and most recognized technology companies literally changed its name to better position itself for a technological future that it believes will be closely tied to the metaverse.

So what exactly is the metaverseaside from the new name of Facebook, which is now Meta (FB)?

First and foremost, its only a concept. And that concept might be best described as the next iteration of the internet. In the future, its envisioned by some that humans will conduct their digital lives via a virtual/augmented 3D reality world: the metaverse.

This digital world would theoretically be accessible via smartphones, personal computers, wearable tech and virtual reality-oriented headsets, among other things. All of which would essentially allow a person to conduct their digital life as an avatar in a digital worldattending work meetings, educational activities or even family events as ones virtual self.

Clearly, that would represent a much more immersive experience than the ones offered today.

Whether that vision is ultimately realized or something completely different materializes is anyones guess. But corporate leaders at the Meta corporation apparently felt strongly enough about the concept that they were willing to wager the future of their company on it.

One company that already operates a type of metaverse is Roblox (RBLX), which has millions of active daily users. After a very promising Q3 earnings report, the stock ripped about 40% higher on Nov. 9.

And verse-related developments dont stop there. Not long after Facebook dropped its Meta bomb, the focus shifted to another huge player in the world of technology.

Nvidia (NVDA), which is well-known for producing some of the most advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) in the world, announced last year that the company was developing the omniverse. But that effort gained fresh attention in the wake of Facebooks transformation to Meta.

Like the metaverse, the omniverse is a concept-stage virtual environment. However, in the case of the omniverse, the target audience is engineers. The goal of the omniverse is to establish a virtual 3D platform where engineers can work on their designsalone or in collaborative groups.

Ultimately, the vision is that engineers will be able to access and utilize a wide range of software platforms in the omniverse, thus minimizing the silo-effect that can occur when engineers across different disciplines are stuck in their own specific (and isolated) environments.

Nvidia itself doesnt want to own the omniverse, it only wants to help enable and power it. Although that type of neutral support can ultimately transform into control over the environmentintended or otherwiseas seen with Googles influence over search engine results.

The closest approximation to the omniverse might be the virtual 3D engineering laboratory used by Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe, which enables this fictional scientist to access a wide range of applications and data during the design process. Its expected that the omniverse will play a big role in the design and development of the metaverse.

Either way, its clear that the rate of change in the technology sector isnt going to slow down anytime soon, and these two tech titansMeta and Nvidiawill undoubtedly play a big role in influencing what the future looks like.

Sage Anderson is a pseudonym. Hes an experienced trader of equity derivatives and has managed volatility-based portfolios as a former prop trading firm employee. Hes not an employee of Luckbox, tastytrade or any affiliated companies.

Originally published In Luckbox Magazine. Subscribe for free at getluckbox.com/dailyfx
Fairy tales almost always have a happy ending. Perhaps the most heart-warming, especially at this time of the year, the panto season, is that of Cinderella.

There are countless versions of the basic story, going back to the 9th century, with a Chinese tale on an identical theme, also involving a magical shoe that fits only the victimised heroine.

Every version has a 'wicked stepmother'  invariably a cruel and dominating personality.

Every version of Cinderella has a 'wicked stepmother'  invariably a cruel and dominating personality

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, was murdered by his father's partner Emma Tustin

But this winter, we have watched two unremittingly horrifying real-life versions, with the murders of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, just 16 months old, both killed by the female partners of their natural parents.

Star was beaten to death by her mother's girlfriend Savannah Brockhill, while Arthur was murdered by his father's partner Emma Tustin. Both these killers dominated the home.

In Tustin's case, there was an especially haunting echo of the Cinderella narrative and its 'ugly sisters' who are indulged while the stepdaughter suffers.

Lord Laming, who chaired the official investigation into how the authorities failed Baby P, told me: 'Nowadays families come in many shapes. I suspect social workers are now trained to accept the family structure as presented without question'

Emma Tustin was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years

When sentencing her to a minimum prison term of 29 years, Justice Mark Wall said one of the most troubling aspects was that Tustin's own two children 'lived a perfectly happy life in that house' while Arthur was being 'subjected to unthinkable abuse'.

Shocked

This case, in particular, reminds me of the fate of Maria Colwell, who was beaten to death at the age of seven by her stepfather William Kepple on a council estate in Brighton in 1973.

Maria's biological mother had several children with Kepple following the death of her first husband.

These offspring were favoured by the couple, and the court heard how Kepple would buy his biological children ice cream and force Maria to watch them eat it while starving her (she was described as a 'walking skeleton').

Maria died of her injuries, which included brain damage. The country was shocked and disgusted by what emerged in the trial, including the inadequacy of the social services of the day in not protecting this brutalised child, despite at least 30 calls by neighbours reporting what they had seen.

Star Hobson, just 16 months old, was beaten to death by her mother's girlfriend Savannah Brockhill

A public inquiry was launched, which identified three overriding elements: lack of communication between the various agencies involved, poor training for social workers dealing with 'at-risk children', and what were described as 'changes in the make-up of society'.

Following the publication of the committee's report, countless articles declared that 'this must never happen again'.

But similar cases have continued to happen again, and as a succession of further public inquiries has shown, almost invariably involving the same failings by the authorities.

Savannah Brockhill beat 16-month-old Star Hobson to death

This is not to deny the fundamental point that it is the children's killers alone who deserve to be punished.

Another recent high-profile example of this horribly familiar litany of abuse and official incompetence was four-year-old Daniel Pelka.

He was never taken into care, even after his school in Coventry reported that he was emaciated and would be seen eating food out of bins.

He was finally beaten to death in 2012 by his violent stepfather Mariusz Krezolek, who was convicted of murder along with Daniel's mother Magdalena Luczak.

Maria Colwell, who at seven-years-old, in 1973, was murdered by her stepfather in Brighton

Four years before that, there was 'Baby P'  Peter Connelly  whom social services, despite more than 60 visits, left to be battered and mutilated by his mother's sadistic boyfriend, Stephen Barker.

A local GP had reported seeing bruises on Peter's head and chest within a month of Barker moving in with the baby's mother in November 2006.

Barker was constantly described as the 'stepfather', but the term seems highly inappropriate.

Not only was he unmarried to Peter's mother, Tracey Connelly: he was the latest of a parade of men moving in and out of that home, which truly lived up to the term 'broken'.

However, if we use the word 'step-parent' to mean anyone living as the partner of a child's natural mother or father, then a blindingly obvious fact emerges.

As all the cases I have mentioned illustrate, the murder of children is much more likely to occur in such homes than in those where both biological parents remain with their offspring.

Denial

This was set out in peer-reviewed detail by two Canadian academics, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, in a 1994 paper, 'Some differential attributes of lethal assaults on small children by step-fathers versus genetic fathers'.

Having ploughed through decades of data, the researchers observed: 'The youngest children (aged zero to two) incurred about 100 times greater risk at the hands of step-parents than of genetic parents.'

They added that in the murders of children up to the age of five, 'homicide risk from stepfathers was approximately 60 times higher than from genetic fathers'.

The study concluded: 'Excess risk to stepchildren cannot be attributed to reporting or detection biases, nor to . . . poverty.

'Step-parenthood per se is the relevant risk factor . . . a relatively extreme consequence of the fact that genetic parents' solicitude [care for a child's wellbeing] generally exceeds that of step-parents'.

It's worth noting that adoptive parents did not feature nearly as often as step-parents in terms of fatal child abuse. The reason is that these parents made a conscious decision to nurture children to whom they were not biologically related.

Professor Daly coined a term to describe the phenomenon he and his colleague had so comprehensively analysed. He called it the 'Cinderella Effect'.

Although given that more than 90 per cent of murderous step-parents are male  whereas Cinderella's 'abuser' was the evil stepmother  the term predominantly applies to the more violent of the sexes.

Daly's basic point about the overwhelmingly greater risks from step-parents is irrefutable  even though, as he later remarked: 'There are people who desperately want to say it isn't so.'

There are reasons for this denial. One is that we all know of stepmothers (and stepfathers) who are wonderful and care deeply for the children of their partners  just as we will also have come across a biological parent who treats his or her children appallingly.

Bleak

The other reason for denial is the so-called 'non-judgmental' modern outlook that has refused to recognise the extent to which marital break-ups and the proliferation of transient sexual relationships have been, in aggregate, a devastating danger to the welfare of so many children.

Parental separation is easier than ever: but the consequences of broken homes are no less difficult to mend.

Though it is necessary, in this bleak context, to note that children are much more at risk in homes with transitory so-called step-parents than in those with a mother living alone with her own children.

But do our social workers, when visiting homes with a recently acquired 'stepfather' (or indeed stepmother, such as the ex-bouncer Brockhill who killed Star Hobson), take appropriate note of the Cinderella Effect?

Peter Connelly, 17-months-old, died in 2007. He was battered and mutilated by his mother's sadistic boyfriend, Stephen Barker

I put this to Lord (Herbert) Laming, whom I admire greatly. Laming, now 85, chaired the public inquiry into the murder in 2000 of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie by an aunt and her boyfriend, and also the official investigation into how the authorities failed Baby P.

Laming replied: 'I suspect you are on to something important. When I began my career in 1960, most families operated with a familiar structure.

'Nowadays families come in many shapes. I suspect social workers are now trained to accept the family structure as presented without question, and that in current practice the adults in the life of the child are invited to define their family  and this is accepted without question in an effort to be non-judgmental.

'I suspect in many cases a detailed history of the family is not taken. I hope I am wrong in that assumption, but the little evidence I have seems to make the point.

'In each of the recent cases reported, the family structure raised very many questions of great importance to the safety and wellbeing of the child.'

Alas, it did.

And these were real-life histories in which no one lived happily ever after.
Hounded out of her job for her feminist views in the trans debate, academic Kathleen Stock is an archetypal victim of cancel culture.

My moles tell me that a number of senior Tories are now lobbying Downing Street to give Kathleen Stock (pictured) a peerage writes Andrew Pierce

Stock, who is gay and opposes self ID for trans people, which makes it easier for biological males to enter women-only spaces, was until recently Professor of Philosophy at Sussex University.

Then balaclava-wearing trans-rights activists forced her out of her job by running a vindictive campaign, brandishing signs demanding for her to resign and, they hoped, ending her career.

Yet Stock may have the last laugh. My moles tell me that a number of senior Tories are now lobbying Downing Street to give her a peerage  even though the academic was hardly famous before the row put her at odds with the woke orthodoxy.

One source says: She could go in to the Lords as an independent  her voice would be hugely important in the culture war. The move would be cheered by traditionalists as much as it would infuriate the Twitterati.

Yet would Boris Johnson ever get it past his wife Carrie?

Mrs J has consistently sided with LGBT pressure group Stonewall, which takes a diametrically opposed view from Stock and continues to insist that trans women are women.

Although the red benches are stuffed as it is, in my view this is one brave scholar who does deserve to don the ermine.

Mrs J has consistently sided with LGBT pressure group Stonewall, which takes a diametrically opposed view from Stock and continues to insist that trans women are women Andrew Pierce writes

Overheard in the Commons: Will all the members of the public who were fined for breaking lockdown rules now be getting a refund?

Revealing why she turned down the BBC1 controller job, Dame Esther Rantzen said: There are some people who are very good performers and communicators who should never go into management.

Management means you have to see if someone two doors down is having a party against the rules, doesnt it?

Who at Broadcasting House could she mean?

The betting markets correctly predicted the result of last weeks by-election in North Shropshire, but bookies are in for a nasty shock if punters are right about the identity of the next PM.

According to the Oddschecker website, the most popular bet for the next Prime Minister is currently Jeremy Corbyn

According to the Oddschecker website, the most popular bet is currently Jeremy Corbyn  and he accounts for a remarkable 22 per cent of all bets. The odds? William Hill is offering 250-1 if Jez is next to wave from the steps of No. 10. Perish the thought!

Talking of Corbyn, Stephen Pollard, departing Jewish Chronicle editor, reveals how his newspaper exposed the anti-Semitism under the bearded socialists leadership. We had a mole in his campaign team, reveals Pollard.

He turned up to help but was sickened by casual anti-Semitic remarks he heard from some other volunteers.

More proof that Keir Starmer was right to kick out Corbyn.

Freed from Cabinet duties, having been sacked as media minister last September, John Whittingdale had time to enjoy a night out rocking to Bootleg Blondie, the worlds No 1 Debbie Harry tribute band.

Whitto was a fan of the lookalike siren: This version is better . . . And theyre endorsed by Debbie! he enthused as he posted a picture of Debbie Harris at Witham Public Hall in Essex.

The band played hits including Hanging On The Telephone and Call Me. I hope these didnt bring back painful memories of the reshuffle.

TV crew at it like news bunnies

Tucked away in the winter edition of Order! Order!, the magazine for ex-MPs, is former Tory MP Jerry Hayes.

Ex Tory MP Jerry Hayes ooks back fondly on the days of L!ve TV in the winter edition of Order! Order!; the magazine for ex-MPs writes Andrew Pierce

He looks back fondly on the days of L!ve TV, the cable station run by the Mirror newspaper group during the late 1990s that broadcast such edifying content as topless darts, a News Bunny mascot and a stripper to deliver financial news.

My favourite moment was being interviewed by David Banks, ex-editor of The Mirror, recalls Hayes.

In the ad break, the camera operators hopped onto a nearby couch and had sex. And then casually went back to film us.

Whatever they say, sex clearly doesnt always sell: the station lost 7 million a year before it was closed.
From a giant cabbage bigger than a grown man to someone spotting a rainbow that actually has an end, sometimes nature likes to colour outside the lines.

People from around the world have shared show-stopping examples of nature being wild and free - with the very best collated in a gallery by Bored Panda.

One image shows a hedge that grows to look exactly like an elephant. In another, a lemon decides it would much rather look like a carrot.

Elsewhere, a pavement bears an interesting mark after being struck by lightening, and a geode rock portrays a perfect beach scene.

Here, FEMAIL shares some of the best examples...

No quacking way! Have you seen a tomato be. quite this impressive before? It would be quite the statement piece at dinner

One lucky US dweller happened upon nature's version of a life size elephantin fact, it's so real perhaps there's one hiding behind the leaves...

This perfect swirly dandelion is so aesthetically pleasing it's almost hypnotic. Those curls go on forever...

Have you ever seen a rock that simultaneously fulfils your crystal needs and makes you want to go on holiday?

This adorable cat from the US has a few too many toes on its paws but honestly look all the cuter for it

This UK driver woke up to a frosty windscreen that perfectly emulated icy mountains with a kayaker enjoying th scenery below

You know what they say, follow your dreams... And if you're a lemon who wants to be a carrot then so be it

This Lichentenburg figure on the side of the pavement in the US is a brilliant scar of a lightening mark

Finally we have an answer! This US driver found the end of the rainbow, and while gold isn't obvious, it is strangely gold in that area...

A human cabbage! Okay, not quite but this UK-grown vegetable is so large it completely swamps the grandpa who grew it

The combination of this spiderweb and some direct sunlight somehow created a perfect hologram of a CD

Fresh lovely eggs! A great example of what real, unfiltered nature looks like: chicken eggs of all shapes and colours
This festive brainteaser challenges you to spot the mistletoe hidden in the office Christmas party.

The vibrant graphic, created by British events insurance provider Protectivity, showcases a Christmas party, with plenty of people and decorations filling the scene.

The current record to find the hidden plant stands at an impressive 14 seconds. So, can you find it any faster?

Scroll down for the answer - but don't cheat!

Only the most eagle-eyed participants will be able to spot the mistletoe hidden within this festive brainteaser

Putting puzzlers' observation skills to the test, the puzzle is packed with colourful details to confuse the eye.

But if you're struggling, concentrate your attention towards the bottom left of the busy image.

Give up? Scroll down to find the well-hidden mistletoe circled.

The vibrant graphic, created by British events insurance provider Protectivity, showcases a Christmas party, with plenty of people and decorations filling the scene. The answer is circled

Meanwhile, the countdown to Christmas has begun, and Toff London has released a challenging brainteaser guaranteed to get heads scratching this holiday season.

Hidden amongst identically striped candy canes lies one odd one out with a very subtle difference - it is facing in the opposite direction.

The current record to spot the odd candy cane out is two minutes - but can you beat it?

Hidden amongst identically striped candy canes lies one odd one out with a very subtle difference - it Is facing in the opposite direction

Christmas gift specialists, Toff London, have released the brainteaser to celebrate Christmas and to get customers excited for the big day.

Commenting on the brainteaser, Faisal Bhatti, Chief Operations Officer at Toff London said: 'With Christmas right around the corner, we wanted to help spread some festive cheer with a tricky brainteaser that the whole family can get involved with.'

So, are you any closer to finding the answer? Scroll down and find the answer in the circled image.

The answer is revealed in the circle, with the cane facing in the opposite direction

Elsewhere, MIST has shared an equally infuriating brainteaser.

Whilst most Brits are relaxing and getting tucked in bed before the big day, Santa's workshop is in disarray.

With only a few hours until midnight, Santa's elves are feeling stressed. There are toys that need to be fixed, gifts that must be wrapped and the Christmas cheer is low in the workshop.

Scroll down for the answer

As chaos hits the workshop, every elf is feeling the stress - except for one. This easy-going elf is embracing the spirit of Christmas, and working to get the job done whilst not letting the pressure get to them

As chaos hits the workshop, every elf is feeling the stress - except for one. This easy-going elf is embracing the spirit of Christmas, and working to get the job done whilst not letting the pressure get to them.

Can you spot the one cheery elf in Santa's stressful workshop? The current record to beat is 1 minute - how did you do?

Scroll down to find the only elf with a happy smile on his face.

Did you spot the one cheery elf (circled) in Santa's stressful workshop? The current record to beat is 1 minute - how did you do?

Meanwhile Feel Good Contacts have just launched their Christmas brainteasers for the festive season.

They boast an average time taken of 20 seconds to solve these puzzles - so can you beat this score?

In today's puzzle, the retailer challenges you to find the doe among the reindeer in this Christmas inspired scene - scroll down for the answer, but no cheating!

In the first puzzle, the retailer challenges you to find the doe among the reindeer in this Christmas inspired scene - scroll down for the answer, but no cheating!

The scene sees dozens of reindeer clearly identifiable by their antlers, some leaping and some grazing in a forest.

But there is one lone doe in the scene, which you may spot as it doesn't have antlers.

Focus your attention on the top half of the picture and you may spot it - otherwise keep scrolling to reveal the answer.

The doe can be seen circled in the top left-hand corner, standing under the tree and surrounded by reindeer

And elsewhere only the most eagle-eyed participants can spot the Christmas tree hidden within the festive-themed scene in this tricky seek-and-find puzzle.

The brainteaser, by UK-based 247 Blinds, challenges you to find the item between plenty of leaves and flowers.

Putting puzzlers' observation skills to the test, the vibrant graphic is packed with details to confuse the eye.

Only the most eagle-eyed participants can spot the Christmas tree hidden within the festive-themed scene in this tricky seek-and-find puzzle (pictured)

To top it off, all the surrounding features are in similar shades of green, meaning the matching Christmas tree is well camouflaged.

But if you're struggling, concentrate your attention towards the bottom right of the busy image.

Give up? Scroll down to find the well-hidden Christmas tree circled.

The Christmas tree was hidden towards the bottom right-hand section of the vibrant puzzle

Meanwhile, this autumnal seek-and-find quiz challenges you to find the hidden hedgehog, but will you be up to the challenge?

British blinds retailer 247 Blinds have created this challenging brainteaser with a seasonal theme to test your attention to detail.

If you're looking for a clue, try focusing your attention on the bottom of the image and you might have more luck. Still struggling? Simply scroll down for the answer.

Scroll down for reveal

Can you find the tiny hedgehog hiding in this leafy scene for a brainteaser created by British blinds retailer 247 Blinds?

To make it harder, the hedgehog is shaped to look like the items that surround him, so that you'll need to have a proper look at the picture to locate him.

Struggling to find the little critter? Focus your attention on the bottom part of the picture.

Giving up or want to check you got it right? You can scroll down to see the answer.

If you want some more, try your hand at more tricky brainteasers below!
An Australian woman who packed her bags and moved to the UK to marry her 'obese' fiance is sick and tired of being branded as 'fake' by thousands online.

Size six Sienna Keera, 26, and plus-size actor George Keywood, 27, say their relationship is real and full of 'so much love' in TikTok videos and have no time for haters who doubt them.

The couple met on Instagram in 2018 and spoke for six months before Sienna made the move overseas.

Despite their weight differences, which may say is 'odd', the pair are happily married and have a one-year-old son called Oliver.

Sienna told 7Life she just wants trolls to 'leave their relationship alone'.

Scroll down for video

Australian woman Sienna Keera, 26, (pictured, right) moved to the UK to marry her 'obese' husband George Keywood, 27 (pictured, left)

Despite their weight differences, the pair are happily married and have a one-year-old son called Oliver

Their loved-up TikTok videos have caught the attention of a global audience and in several other videos the couple respond to negative comments.

'Yeah it's all a facade guys, we're paid actors.. that's not a child [screaming] in the background,' she said in one clip, and George said: 'Get over it'.

In another video, George can be seen with the couple's toddler on his knee, while Sienna dances in front of the camera.

The cruel words so casually slung at them by the general public appear on the screen as she moves.

'You two won't last.' 'This isn't love.' 'They are both so odd.' 'It's all fake for TikTok.'

Sienna also says their sex life is 'the best I've ever had' and that despite the cruelty from followers online, she finds his 'belly' a 'turn on'.

The couple have been branded as 'fake' and 'an odd match' by thousands online due to their weight differences

In response to those who criticise her relationship, Sienna told FEMAIL: 'The hate doesn't get to us. We love each other and nothing anyone says will change that.

'Our aim is to encourage people to accept themselves for who they are. Thank you to everyone who supports us and sends positive messages our way.'

Fans have been quick to support the pair, with one person writing: 'Better cuddles!! You go guys,' while another said: 'Absolutely beautiful couple.'

A third added: 'I don't see what the obsession is over the fact that he's a big man and you're gorgeous. Who cares what y'all look like. You love each other and seem to have a happy healthy family.'

Sienna said she just wants internet trolls to 'leave her relationship alone'

The Australian mother insists George (pictured together) is her 'dream man' to her 55,900 followers, with her fiance telling the 'skinny boys' that Sienna has 'always liked fat boys'

They explain that their lives are full of love, for each other and their young son, and that they are happy, but despite this some has gone as far as to say the young woman looks scared in all of her videos with her partner.

'They aren't hate comments, they are concerns, she looks scared in her videos and barely blinks,' one person said.

Others described them as 'the ultimate TikTok couple'.

Another woman said she is a size six and her 'most beautiful relationship' was with a man who weighed 140kg.

Sienna and George refuse to let the haters keep them down despite Sienna being regularly called a gold digger and George constantly told he's 'punching'.

Sienna also showcases her slender physique in figure-hugging ensembles - while George is equally unashamed to show off his body, often appearing in the clips topless.

The Australian mum insists George is her 'dream man' to her 55,900 followers, with her fiance telling the 'skinny boys' that she has 'always liked fat boys'.

A woman has hit back at haters who suggested her relationship with a plus-size man is 'disgusting and fake' (pictured together)

But their loved-up videos, which often get millions of views each time, have been branded 'uncomfortable', 'weird' and 'not genuine' by some TikTok users.

Recalling how they met, Sienna said: 'We talked on Instagram for like six months and then we basically got together. I moved to the UK from Australia that's the short version anyway.'

The duo receive plenty of messages full of support for their relationship, but also many negative comments about their weight difference.

But when asked if George was plus-size when first meeting, the father replied: 'She's always liked the fatties way long before I came into her sights.

'Just to clear things up, she's always liked fat boys. Unlucky for all you skinny boys you've got no chance.'
A $24 mascara has been named one of the best-selling products at Woolworths for 2021 - and it's the most popular cosmetics buy over the past 12 months.

The MCoBeauty XtendLash Tubular Mascara has now held the title of best-selling cosmetics item in the supermarket for two consecutive years and it's easy to see why.

Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis, who is currently on holiday in Mexico with her fiance Michael, revealed that she has been using the mascara instead of her usual name brand buy.

'Look at this formula ... I haven't even curled my lashes but it's so impressive and dark. I'm in shock,' she said.

The MCoBeauty XtendLash Tubular Mascara has now held the title of best-selling cosmetics item in the supermarket for two consecutive years and it's easy to see why

Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis, who is currently on holiday in Mexico with her fiance Michael, revealed that she has been using the mascara instead of her usual name brand buy

The award-winning mascara stands out from traditional options because it has a tubular formula that coats each individual lash in a synthetic polymer that stays put all day long.

MCoBeauty promises the vegan and cruelty-free product won't flake or smudge and is easily removed with warm water.

But the MAFS star isn't the first celebrity to discover the highly coveted product.

MCoBeauty's XtendLash Tubular Mascara has been the best-selling mascara in Woolworths for two consecutive years

Australian comedian Celeste Barber insists the mascara is the best she's ever tried.

The ultra-relatable funny woman, who was recently announced as the new face of the brand, took to Instagram stories to plug her favourite products - including the mascara she claims is her favourite of all time.

'Honestly, I'm the last person who should be giving beauty advice, so I won't,' the 38-year-old said.

Australian comedian Celeste Barber insists the mascara is the best she's ever tried

The mascara, which promises to maximise length, curl and volume without flaking or smudging, is a budget-friendly imitation of Kevyn Aucoin's 'The Volume Mascara', a cult favourite that costs $45 at cosmetics stores like Sephora.

Celeste, who famously raised over $50million for Australian bushfire relief in 2020, also heaped praise on MCoBeauty's $28 Miracle Hydra Glow Oil-Free Foundation and its $22 Instant Camouflage and Contour Concealer.

She described the combination of the two as 'the absolute t***s'.

Celeste said she loves the foundation because of the natural coverage it gives skin, adding: 'It comes with a little primer and it doesn't look like you've got makeup on!'

The $24 mascara promises to maximise length, curl and volume without flaking or smudging (pictured, a customer before and after applying the product)

MCoBeauty's XtendLash (pictured) is a budget-friendly imitation of Kevyn Aucoin's 'The Volume Mascara', a cult favourite that costs $45 at cosmetics stores like Sephora

She went on to rave about the $18 Brow Fill and Set pencil and gel, which she uses to shade her eyebrows that 'fell victim' to the over-plucking trend of the 1990s.

MCoBeauty products have been flying off shelves since the endorsement, which would have reached many of the comedian's 7.6million Instagram followers.

The brand is known for its range of affordably priced dupes of high-end products including the $45 Kevyn Aucoin mascara and Tarte Cosmetics' $42 Shape Tape Concealer.
Pet sitting company Mad Paws is on a national hunt for new 'cuddle officers' ahead of what's looking to be a busy summer season for pet-sitters.

Over two million Australians adopted pets since the beginning of the pandemic and they're looking for reliable temporary caretakers for their fur babies while they holiday abroad.

The website offers multiple options for day-time and overnight services, with pet-owners being able to choose whether they would like to drop their pets off with a trusted sitter or have a sitter house-sit for them.

Over two million Australians adopted pets since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020

Poll Will you be pet-sitting this summer? YES, I've already got jobs lined up. NO, I'm taking my dogs on vacation with me! Will you be pet-sitting this summer? YES, I've already got jobs lined up. 3 votes

NO, I'm taking my dogs on vacation with me! 1 votes Now share your opinion





While no particular skills are necessary, Mad Paws General Manager Kate Herbert said 'loving animals is essential... we're looking for people who are trustworthy and willing to give pets as many cuddles as they need.'

The job's pay varies as workers can choose their own hours, but regular sitters are known to make an average of $1600 a month.

'Finding a job as a full-time student is hard,' said one of Mad Paws' pet-sitters. 'But the flexibility meant that if I had lectures or assignments, I could work around them.'

While for others, they had an alternative motive for their side hustle.

'I don't have a pet of my own, and this job just fills the dog-shaped hole in my soul.'

'I work for Mad Paws mainly because my apartment doesn't allow pets and it breaks my heart.'

The job's pay varies but regular workers make an average of $1600 a month for pet-sitting

The company is highly-rated by customers as well:

'Several people kept recommending Mad Paws to me... and I'm so glad they did! The sitter was so caring, and treated my dog like their own.'

'I have used Mad Paws twice now, and both times it has been a wonderful, easy experience. It's so relieving to know I can rely on someone to check in on my fur babies while I'm away.'
A incredible Mediterranean-style rooftop bar has brought Santorini to Melbourne to satisfy those dreaming of a Greek holiday.

The Golden Fleece has just opened in South Melbourne and features a stunning fit out to make you feel like you're on a Mediterranean holiday with white rendered walls, colourful mosaic details and curved archways decorated with ceramic pots and cacti.

Serving a range of wines, beers and signature cocktails, the Golden Fleece features two chic floors of dining space with a rooftop terrace on the upper level and its own onsite bottle shop.

Scroll down for video

A Santorini-style bar has just opened in Melbourne's south and will make guests feel like they're on a Greek holiday

The Golden Fleece has just opened in South Yarra and features a stunning fit out with white rendered walls, colourful mosaic details and curved archways decorated with ceramic pots and cacti

The bottle shop will have a subscription service where you can order your favourite wines, cocktails and beers delivered to your door each month.

Guests can order from the Greek-inspired menu of eclectic pizzas, fresh pastas, and a tapas menu including saganaki, salt and pepper calamari, white anchovies, arancini, house olives, bread, and dips.

Isaac Constantine and Zachary Riggs who foundered the Chapel Street dive bar, Two Wrongs, are the brains behind the new Greek eatery.

The onsite bottle shop will have a subscription service where you can order your favourite wines, cocktails and beers delivered to your door each month

Serving a range of wines, beers and signature cocktails, the Golden Fleece features two stunning floors of dining space with a rooftop terrace on the upper level

The new venue is set to host live music and DJs, collaborative events, art gallery showings and more.

For more information, head to The Golden Fleece website here.

Destination themed venues have become a trend of late in response patrons being travel starved after Covid lockdowns and boarder closures.

Destination themed venues have become a trend of late in response patrons being travel starved after Covid lockdowns and boarder closures

Earlier this year, a Palm Spring-style bar opened up on the rooftop of one of Sydney's trendiest breweries.

Perched atop the warehouse taproom of Philter Brewing, Marrickville Springs is a pastel-coloured oasis complete with a white breezeblock cocktail bar, custom neon lighting and a 10-metre retractable roof that makes the space usable all year round.

A retro-inspired rooftop bar has opened above one of Sydney's trendiest breweries (pictured)

Perched atop the warehouse taproom of Philter Brewing, Marrickville Springs is a pastel-coloured oasis inspired by the iconic desert resort of Palm Springs

Inspired by the American desert resort of Palm Springs, the venue is one of the first rooftops in the inner-west, a region more used to grungy dive bars and live music joints.

Philter co-founder Stefan Constantoulas describes his latest venture as an 'oasis in the middle of the city' where drinkers can enjoy a menu that includes the brewery's award-winning XPA, classic cocktails and a polarising craft beer slushie.

'If you think of Palm Springs as an oasis in the middle of the desert, Marrickville Springs is like an oasis in the middle of the city,' Mr Constantoulas told Broadsheet.

The walls are splashed with pastel tiles and a mural by local artist Mielo, while potted plants and white timber seating make up the bulk of the decor

The walls are splashed with pastel tiles and a mural by local artist Mielo, while potted plants and white timber seating make up the bulk of the decor.

Guests can also load up on vintage Aussie snacks, with a menu of retro classics such as prawn cocktail and '90s-style cheese plates.

The rooftop, which can fit up to 60 people, was due to open in early spring but Sydney's second Covid wave which plunged the city into a gruelling 15-week lockdown put plans on pause.

Drinkers can enjoy a menu that includes the brewery's award-winning XPA, classic cocktails and a polarising craft beer slushie

Doors flung open on Friday, October 22, but locals are raving about their new haunt on Instagram.

'Oh my lordy that is amazing, love it,' one person wrote, while a second commented under a photo of the bar: 'Looks sick, need to go.'

A third added: 'This is soooo exciting. Looks like paradise!'

The adults-only venue is open weekends from 12 midday to 11pm on Friday and Saturday, and 11am to 6pm on Sunday.
A sex party planner has revealed that demand has increased so much since the start of the pandemic she's had to find bigger venues, and it's women who are leading the way in seeking out threesomes.

Emma Sayle, the British owner of the worldwide private members club Killing Kittens, which organises parties where members invited to 'play' together, has told the Sunday Times the coronavirus pandemic has been good for business.

The happily married mother-of-three, who is an old acquaintance of Kate Middleton from her days at Downe House, an all-girls boarding school in Berkshire, started Killing Kittens in 2005.

She said she's received more than 40,000 membership requests from single women in the past year and a half.

She added that polyamory - where a couple have other sexual partners - and bisexuality - being attracted to both sexes - have become particularly popular as more and more people wish to experiment with sex.

Meanwhile, Kate Lister, author of The Curious History of Sex, explained that some people have been more inclined to have fun in their sex lives as a way to distract themselves from the doom and gloom of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emma Sayle, the British owner of the worldwide private club Killing Kittens, which organises sultry parties where members are invited to 'play' together, has told the Sunday Times the coronavirus pandemic has been good for business

Emma, who began her sex empire in 2005, is an old acquaintance of the Duchess of Cambridge. Pictured together in West London in 2007

'Were getting more and more messages from throuples,' Sayle, who's had her finger on the pulse of the world's sex life for more than 15 years, said.

She added that while being bisexual would have been shocking at the turn of the millennium, it is now 'dull' in the realm of sexuality as it is today.

And she's added women are the one chasing the thrills and majorly signing up to her services.

'Weve seen a massive jump in membership, over 40,000 single girls joined in the past year and a half.'

The happily married mother-of-three, pictured, who is an old acquaintance of Kate Middleton and started Killing Kittens in 2005, said she's receiving more than 40,000 membership requests from single women in the past year and a half.

She added that she has been shopping for bigger venues to have Killing Kittens parties since the beginning of lockdown after this surge in members.

The parties, which the Killing Kittens website claims are all about female empowerment, take place at various sites in London and around the world which are kept secret to non-members and revealed closer to the dates.

On the night, mask-clad members flock to a chosen location and enjoy champagne and canape before activities heat up.

There, Killing Kitten revendicates that it 'challenges established gender stereotypes in everything [it] does and our events are no different.'

'We are determined to level the playing field when it comes to sex, sexual play, and dating. We want to empower those who have been disenfranchised to access pleasure and nourish their sex lives,' the members club's website reads.

Emma, centre, with models for Killing Kittens. The members club was created in 2005 and has a strong anti-discrimination policy

The website also has a long list of forbidden behaviours, from 'racism' and 'transphobia' to 'ageism, fatphobia' and 'swerfism' - a current of feminism which opposes sex workers - and 'classism.'

And the club's in person events, planned from December through March in various secret locations around London, are all sold out until April 7, a testament to the club's popularity.

Historian Kate Lister explained that people are turning to sex to celebrate life after experiencing a drop of libido due to Covid-19.

She said that historically, the aftermaths of traumatic events such as the two World Wars, the Spanish flue and the Black Death have led to bouts of sexual Carpe Diem.

More than 40,000 signed up for Emma's services in the past year and a half, she revealed, adding 'throuples' are particularly popular (a Killing Kitten model)

This is because they ten to make people realise life is short and they might as well as some fun.

'Not only on a biological level of "we must keep the human race going", but also its a stress relief, a distraction, the antithesis of what were fearing happening,' she said.

As examples, she revealed that more soldiers caught venereal diseases during the first World War than any other ailment apart from the Spanish flu, and that religious sinners denounced mass orgies and public sex happening during the plague in the Middle Ages.
A young couple claim they got hitched after only two weeks of dating - because they thought it was the best way to commit to each other.

Clara Bell, 18, and Trey Bell, 20, tied the knot in a dreamy Florida beach wedding with a $200 service - just three hours after deciding to get hitched.

Teenage bride Clara, from Louisville, Kentucky, announced her impromptu nuptials on TikTok on October 16, when she shared a video captioned 'getting married in three hours, stay tuned'.

Follow-up videos featuring photos of the newlyweds embracing on the beach have received more than five million views and thousands of comments.

It's possible to obtain a marriage license and wed the same day in Florida, but couples must have completed a pre-marriage course beforehand, or else there is a three-day wait.

Clara and Trey have not explained when or if they took the course.

Clara Bell, 18, and Trey Bell, 20, tied the knot just two weeks after they began dating in a dreamy Florida beach wedding with a $200 service

After reconnecting on Snapchat in September and spending two weeks together as a couple, the pair took a trip to Panama City in Florida and ended up eloping

When Trey mentioned the idea of getting married, they looked up whether they could wed that same day - and ended up tying the knot three hours later

Clara and Trey, who make money through TikTok, had met and briefly dated in 2018 before going their separate ways.

After reconnecting on Snapchat in September and spending two weeks together as a couple, the pair took a trip to Panama City in Florida and ended up eloping.

Clara said: 'We were dating for two weeks before the wedding. We spent every day together during that time and got married on the same day that Trey proposed the idea - we eloped.

'Our families didn't attend because it was so last minute - it was literally just the two of us. There was a minister who we had come to the beach with a photographer, but that was it.

When Trey first proposed the idea of getting married Clara was on board despite thinking it was crazy

The couple revealed their marriage news to their friends and followers via social media platforms snapchat and TikTok

Clara and Trey, who make money through TikTok, had met and briefly dated in 2018 before going their separate ways.

'When Trey first proposed the idea of getting married, I was pretty on board. I was like 'That's crazy', but we did it.

'Our families were certainly surprised. I hadn't told my parents about Trey. So not only did I have to say I was married, I had to introduce them to my husband because they didn't know him.

'It was surprising in a shocking way, like 'What?! You did what?!'

'But they're happy now. Trey met my parents; I've met his parents. They're super happy for us now, but at the time, they were just shocked and confused. I wouldn't say they were shocked in a bad way though.'

The feelings the couple had came back when they started talking again, after three years apart. When they reconnected, it felt natural and right

Clara felt the decision to marry was based on a desire to make the relationship 'work out', as their earlier attempt had been cut short.

The pair's parents were shocked when they heard of the news but quickly congratulated the young couple

Trey said: 'When I mentioned the idea of getting married, we just looked up whether we could get married that day.

'There was a company in Panama City Beach who had that option, so they're the company we went with. They gave us the minister and all the paperwork and stuff.

'I didn't think we'd get married after two weeks, but I did think we'd get married at some point.'

The couple had originally met three years earlier when they met via Snapchat and briefly dated before going their separate ways.

Follow-up videos that showed photos of the newlyweds embracing on the beach have received more than five million views and thousands of comments

Clara felt the decision to marry was based on a desire to make the relationship 'work out', as their earlier attempt had been cut short.

The couple had originally met three years earlier when they met via Snapchat and briefly dated before going their separate ways.

Claire said: 'We'd dated for a little while when I was 15 and Trey was 17. He reached out to me on Snapchat, asking me to go kayaking. I went kayaking and then we dated for that summer.

'When we went to different schools, we separated. He went off to college in Kentucky, and I went to a prep school in Georgia to finish high school there.

'We didn't speak for all that time because we were three states apart, but then we reconnected this year over Snapchat and just got married.

'The feelings we had came back when we started talking again, after three years apart. I'm sure we still had feelings in those years, but there wasn't a lot of communication going on. When we reconnected, it felt natural and right.'

Whilst many have praised them online, there have been a number of negative comments from racist trolls who object to Clara and Trey being an interracial couple.

The couple chose a company in Panama City Beach who had the option to marry that same day so that's who they chose

While the couple made the right decision for themselves, they say had a unique situation and wouldn't necessarily recommend it for anyone else

'We were at the beach in Florida and had the ceremony there. We came home from the trip married.

Clara felt the decision to marry was based on a desire to make the relationship 'work out', as their earlier attempt had been cut short.

Clara said: 'When we had to split because we moved to different states, it felt like 'right person, wrong time'.

'So now that everything was working out, it just felt like we should do it, even though it seemed like a crazy thing to do, because I wanted it to work out this time.'

The couple are still adjusting to married life, as a young couple as they have now moved in together.

Whilst many have praised them online, there have been a number of negative comments from racist trolls who object to Clara and Trey being an interracial couple.

Clara said: 'We had naysayers online who thought we'd gotten married too soon. People still comment all the time 'We'll be here in two months when they get divorced'.

'I think we had a unique situation. We knew each other years ago, it's not like we met for the first time and then got married.'

'I wouldn't recommend that everybody does it, but for us, I feel like it was the right decision.

Many commenters came out to criticise the couple and were quick to put time limits on how long the marriage would last

'A lot of the feedback was coming from people who were shocked that we were an interracial couple.

'I thought that was very odd, I didn't expect that reaction. I don't come from a racist family so I didn't realise this would be a reaction.

'The online critics do affect us positively as well. The fact that people have so many opinions mean we tend to get a good number of views on all of our videos - and then we make money from that. So, it works out.'

The couple are still adjusting to married life, as they have now moved in together.

Some commenters were supportive of the couple's decision to elope and get married in Florida

Clara said: 'I'd say we're still in the honeymoon stage. Marriage is definitely difficult, but not extremely difficult.

'We didn't have premarital counselling or anything, so we've had to work things out when it comes to us having different opinions about stuff or how things should be done.

'We have different expectations of how things like cleaning should be done. It was also kind of difficult in the beginning in terms of getting our families on track.'

TikTok users were divided in their response to the couple's wedding, with many criticising them for their decision.

One commented: 'Just wait till they get divorced cause they only dated for two weeks.'

One TikTok user wrote: 'Let's see how long it will last till you become a single baby momma to Jayden', whilst another said: 'Parents must be disappointed.'

However, other TikTok users came to the defence of Clara and Trey.

One wrote: 'Beautiful couple, ignore the hate, they're jealous.'

Another said: 'So much hate towards you guys, for no reason. Do what empowers you guys, let God handle the rest.'

One TikTok user said: 'This is absolutely ridiculously beautiful. You guys look so happy.'
The Royal Family will not allow the Queen to spend Christmas alone as she marks the festive season for the first time without the late Duke of Edinburgh, a royal expert has claimed.

Her Majesty, who yesterday decided to miss her usual church service at Windsor as a precaution due to the increasing threat of the Omricon variant, is due to leave for Sandringham on Wednesday, but the plans are being kept under constant review.

Despite fears the 95-year-old monarch may abandon plans to host family festivities at the Norfolk estate, royal correspondent Katie Nicholl told True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat that it's unlikely she will spend the holiday completelely alone.

Prince Andrew is one of the names being mooted to join Her Majesty for Christmas Day because he is 'always by the Queen's side'.

She added that following the death of Philip at the age of 99 in April, it's possible Sarah Ferguson - who had a frosty relationship with the Duke - could join her former husband Prince Andrew for festivities.

The Royal Family will not allow the Queen to spend Christmas alone without the late Duke of Edinburgh, a royal expert has claimed. Pictured, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with children George and Charlotte at Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene in 2019

Her Majesty, who yesterday decided to miss her annual church service at Windsor as a precaution due to the increasing threat of Covid, is set to leave for Sandringham on Wednesday. She is pictured at Sandringham with her late husband in 2019

'The idea the Queen will be on her own for Christmas without Philip, I simply cannot believe the family will allow to happen, I don't think it will happen', Katie told True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat.

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward added that Andrew, 61, will 'definitely be there, he is always at the Queen's side' before Katie speculated that 'maybe now Philip isn't there, Fergie will be too'.

The Queen yesterday missed her usual church service at Windsor as part of the measures being taken to protect the traditional Christmas celebrations, which have been held at Sandringham since 1988.

This will be the first Christmas the Queen has marked since the death of her husband of 73 years, Philip, earlier this year and it is understood that family members are preparing to rally round her so she does not have to spend it alone.

The royal expert added that following the death of Philip at the age of 99 in April, it's possible Sarah Ferguson - who had a frosty relationship with the Duke - could join her former husband Prince Andrew for festivities. The Duke and Duchess of York are pictured at Ascot in 2019

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children, Prince Andrew and daughters Beatrice and Eugenie and Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex's family are expected to make the trip to join the Queen for the festivities this week.

The Queen is still keen to go to her beloved 20,000-acre estate at Sandringham, where she normally stays until early February  particularly as she spent last year at Windsor with only her late husband and a handful of staff, due to lockdown.

Andrew's ex-wife Sarah, 62, continues to live with the Duke of York at their home of the Royal Lodge in Windsor and while he shares a close bond with his mother - Fergie has been excluded from the royal celebrations for many years since their divorce.

While Philip regarded their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with affection, he is thought to have regarded the Duchess of York as 'simply beyond the pale'.

According to Gyles Brandreth, the late Duke decided 'enough was enough' when photos appeared in a daily newspaper of Sarah topless and having her toes sucked by a lover in the South of France.

While Philip regarded their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with affection, he is thought to have regarded the Duchess of York as 'simply beyond the pale'

Katie went on to speak about Her Majesty's relationship with son Andrew, who is facing questions over his controversial friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.

He is being sued in New York by Virginia Giuffre, now 38, who claims he sexually abused her on three separate occasions when she was 17  in London , New York and on Epstein's Caribbean island.

Andrew, who is not facing any criminal charges, 'categorically' denies Ms Giuffre's allegations against him.

'My understanding is she has had quite full and frank conversations with Andrew', she said. 'He has assured her he is innocent and she has put her faith in him.

'I think the position she finds herself in is two fold really, there's a dichotomy. She's monarch and has had to make a decisions as a monarch.

'Difficult decisions in stripping her son of his duties and patronages and basically removing him from royal life and putting him into early retirement, given their closeness that must of been hard.

'But of course the other role she fulfils is the role of mother and we are seeing her standing by Andrew.'
Martha Stewart has proudly flaunted a clay nativity scene she made during her time in prison - while promoting a replica set that she is selling off for $150.

The talk show host, who spent five months behind bars in 2004 and 2005 for obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges, previously revealed that she passed the time by doing all sorts of arts and crafts - including pottery and crocheting.

She made the impressive, 14-piece nativity set out of clay while incarcerated, and now, you can purchase a replica of it to put on display in your home.

The 80-year-old promoted the set on TikTok - which she described as a 'really beautiful and special gift' for the holiday season, which comes with 'a little street cred.'

Branding it 'Martha's jailhouse nativity set,' the internet wasted no time in making jokes about the business woman 'capitalizing on her prison work.'

Martha Stewart is selling a replica of the ceramic nativity scene that she made while in prison for $149 - and the original pieces still have her inmate number on the bottom of them

She made the impressive, 14-piece nativity set out of clay while incarcerated - and now, you can purchase a replica of it to put on display in your home

The 80-year-old promoted the set on TikTok - which she described as a 'really beautiful and special gift' for the holiday season, which comes with 'a little street cred'

'If youd like to give a really beautiful and special gift this Christmas with a little street cred, theyre all inspired by - guess what - a set I made when I was confined,' Martha said in the clip, as she showed off the various pieces from the set.

'These are exact replicas of a nativity scene that I made in my pottery class when I was away at camp.'

The TV personality captioned it: 'Youll never guess where I made this nativity scene... Get ready for a story time.'

Many viewers quickly rushed to the comment section to share their thoughts, and most viewers found the situation pretty hilarious.

'Martha Stewart capitalizing on her prison work is energy we all never knew we needed this year,' one person wrote.

Another added: 'Not even Christian but I want to buy these to point out "Martha's jailhouse nativity" to guests.'

'Only Martha goes to camp and brings back decorations,' someone else said.

'Martha, how do you even make jail sound luxurious?' one TikToker asked.

The only differences between the replicas and the originals are that they are glazed in white instead of light brown, and that they don't contain her inmate numbers etched on the bottom of them.

The only differences between the replicas and the originals are that they are glazed in white instead of light brown, and that they don't contain her inmate numbers etched on the bottom

The set, which costs just under $150, comes with 14 pieces in total, including baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the three wise men, shepherds, ox, camels, and more

Martha previously explained that she had to 'beg' for permission to make the ceramic pieces - since inmates were only supposed to make one a month

The set, which costs just under $150, comes with 14 pieces in total, including baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the three wise men, shepherds, ox, camels, and more.

'The set creates a complete scene of the first Christmas,' the description reads on her website.

'The figurines are about 6 to 8 tall (though some are smaller), and finished with a glossy ivory glaze that will reflect the shimmering lights around your home and provide an extra dazzle to the divine display.'

Martha was involved in an insider trading scandal back in 2001, when she sold about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems - a company that developed cancer-therapy drugs and was run by her close friend Sam Waksal.

Insider trading is when an individual buys or sells stocks that they have in a company using secret information that is not yet available to the public.

One day after Martha sold her shares, the company's stock took a major dive because it was announced that the FDA had not approved their most recent drug, Erbitux.

Sam was arrested for advising his friends and family - including Martha - to sell their stocks before the FDA publicly made the announcement.

Martha was involved in an insider trading scandal back in 2001, when she sold about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems - a company that developed cancer-therapy drugs

She was found guilty of obstruction of justice and conspiracy, and sentenced to five-months in prison after she was allegedly warned the company's stock was about to tank

Despite Martha insisting that she didn't know about the FDA's rejection before everyone else, she was eventually charged with securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. She was found guilty of the latter two charges.

The conviction resulted in a five-month prison sentence, followed by five months of house arrest, and two years of probation.

She served her time in Alderson Federal Prison Camp - located in West Virginia.

In 2007, Martha actually showed off the nativity scene on her show, and she explained that she had to 'beg' for permission to make the ceramic pieces - since inmates were only supposed to make one a month.

'Even though every inmate was only allowed to do one a month, and I was only there for five months, I begged because I said I was an expert potter - ceramicist actually - and could I please make the entire nativity scene,' she explained.

Branding it 'Martha's jailhouse nativity set,' the internet wasted no time in making jokes about the business woman 'capitalizing on her prison work'

Over the years, she has opened up about what it was like for her to be imprisoned, and in 2017, she called it a 'horrifying' experience.

'It was horrifying, and no one - no one - should have to go through that kind of indignity, really, except for murderers, and there are a few other categories,' she said during an appearance on Katie Courics podcast.

'But no one should have to go through that. Its a very, very awful thing.'

During a 2021 interview with Harper's Bazaar, the cooking expert explained how the five-month stint made her 'stronger.'

'I knew I was strong going in and I was certainly stronger coming out,' she admitted.

She added that although she was not 'bitter about it,' she developed 'a lot' of mental health 'problems' from being in prison - but didn't want to talk about it further.
Bridget Moynahan said she had no comment on the rape allegations against her Sex and the City co-star Chris Noth, insisting that she doesn't 'know anything about' it so it would be 'inappropriate' for her to comment.

But the 50-year-old actress, who reprised her role as Mr. Big's ex-wife Natasha Naginsky in HBO Max's And Just Like That, did say she was fine with his character's death in the new season.

'I thought it was okay. It made sense,' she told Elle.

Last week, Noth, 67, was accused of rape by two women, who both shared details of their alleged assaults with The Hollywood Reporter  with one of the women saying she was just 22 when Noth, then 49, attacked her and left her needing stitches.

The report led another woman to come forward and accuse Noth of groping her, while actress Zoe Lister-Jones recalled behavior that made her describe him as a 'predator.'

Bridget Moynahan said she had no comment on the rape allegations against Sex and the City costar Chris Noth, insisting she doesn't 'know anything about' it (pictured in 2014)

The actress plays Natasha Naginsky, who was briefly married to Noth's character Mr. Big in the original Sex and the City series

She did say she was fine with his Noth's death in the new reboot, And Just Like That, saying: 'I thought it was okay. It made sense'

Moynahan decline to comment on the allegations when asked about them by Elle.

'I dont know anything about it would be inappropriate for me to comment on things I dont have any knowledge of,' she said.

She readily discussed the show, however, and did give her thoughts on Big's death by heart attack in the premiere.

'Its part of life  its part of the lives of women and men of a certain age,' she explained of why she thinks the death made sense.

'Its whats happening. To me, it was like, Okay, this is the way that theyre jumping into it, ripping off the Band-Aid. Good for them [for] being bold and being real.

'Im seeing friends of mine have real emotional, grieving responses to the first two episodes. Like, sobbing. These characters have been part of peoples lives for so long and they have really gotten invested in the characters lives; they are grieving for someone they feel like they have known.

The actress also admitted that she was 'thrilled when I got the phone call' to come back for the reboot, after 'kind of feeling left out of the party' when she didn't get to be in the movies.

The 50-year-old actress reprised her role in HBO Max's And Just Like That

She did sing Sarah Jessica Parker's praises: 'Sarah Jessica Parker is such a pro. Her comedic timing, her expressions, the way she makes adjustments... she really is so good'

And though she reserved comment about Noth, she sang Sarah Jessica Parker's praises.

'Sarah Jessica Parker is such a pro. Her comedic timing, her expressions, the way she makes adjustments... she really is so good,' she said.

Last Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter published the explosive allegations against Noth, which the actor has vehemently denied.

In the report, both accusers  who went by pseudonyms Zoe, now 40, and Lily, now 31  claimed that Noth raped them from behind in front of a mirror. The first attack allegedly took place in 2004, while the second reportedly occurred in 2015, three years after Noth married his wife, Tara Wilson, with whom he has two children.

Both women claimed that the recent publicity surrounding the Sex and the City reboot 'stirred painful memories' of their encounters with Noth and 'triggered' them to go public with their claims.

The first, Zoe, said she met Noth while working 'in an entry-level position at a high-profile firm where Noth and other celebrities regularly had business' in 2004. She claimed that the actor  who was then at the height of his Sex and the City fame and, according to Zoe's then-boss was seen as a 'god' by her and colleagues  began flirting with her in the office.

Last Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter published explosive allegations against Noth, with two women claiming that he raped them

Noth, pictured with his wife Tara Wilson this month, denied the allegations against him

At the time, Noth had been dating his now-wife Wilson for three years; the pair began their relationship in 2001 after first meeting at The Cutting Room, a New York jazz club owned by the actor where Wilson, who was in her early 20s at the time, worked as a bartender.

However, according to Zoe, Noth began leaving 'flirty' messages on her voicemail  which she was alerted to by her boss.

Zoe claimed that she was raped by Noth in his West Hollywood apartment when she returned a book he had lent her.

She said he 'kissed her' as soon as she walked through the door, then moved her to his bed and removed her shorts and bikini bottoms before raping her 'from behind' while they were 'facing a mirror.'

She also claimed that the actor did not use protection, that he 'laughed at her' when she asked him to get a condom  and that she was left bleeding after the assault, and had to go to the hospital to get stitches.

'It was very painful and I yelled out, "Stop!"' she told THR. 'And he didnt. I said, "Can you at least get a condom?" and he laughed at me.'

'I had stitches. Two police officers came. I wouldnt say who it was,' she says, claiming that she feared she would 'not be believed' and could 'be fired' if she publicly accused Noth of rape.

One woman claimed that the alleged attack took place in Noth's Greenwich Village apartment ( pictured) and that he raped her from behind, in front of a mirror

Noth and Wilson (pictured in 2002) met while she was working as a bartender at New York jazz club The Cutting Room, which the actor owns

Noth's second accuser, Lily, who is now working as a journalist, told a similar story to THR, alleging that the actor raped her in his home in Greenwich Village after they struck up a flirty relationship while she was working as a server at former New York nightclub No.8 in 2015, when she was 25.

At the time, Noth  who was then 60 years old  had been married to his wife for three years and the couple had one child together, Orion, who was born in 2008. They have since had a second son, Keats, born in 2020.

Lily said she was 'truly star-struck' when he began 'hitting on her' and ended up going with him to a restaurant.

Afterward, Noth invited her back to his home to 'sample his collection of whiskeys'  and says he began trying to 'make out with her' when they got there.

'I should have said no more firmly and left,' she said, claiming that 'the next thing she knew' he had pulled down her pants and 'was standing in front of her' before 'thrusting his penis into her mouth.'

She said that she mentioned the fact that he had a wife and child, only for the actor to tell her that 'marriage is a sham' and 'monogamy is not real.' Lily claimed Noth then raped her from behind in a chair in front of a mirror.

'He was having sex with me from the back in a chair. We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened,' she says

After the report was published, Zoe Lister-Jones described Noth was a 'sexual predator'

In her Instagram story on Thursday, Lister-Jones said she was 'relieved' by Big's death because she remembers him being 'consistently sexually inappropriate' with a female promoter

After the alleged assault took place, Lily said she went to the bathroom and put on her skirt, claiming that she 'felt awful' and 'totally violated.'

'All of my dreams with this star I loved for years were gone,' she added.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Noth admitted that he had 'consensual encounters' with the two women, but he strongly denied any accusations that he assaulted them.

'The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,' the statement reads.

'These stories couldve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago  no always means no  that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual.

'Its difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I dont know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.'

Though Officer Drake Madison of the LAPD initially told Deadline on Thursday that 'there is no investigation at this point' into the claims against Noth, an LAPD spokesperson later told People that they are 'looking into the nature of the report' and trying to figure out 'when, where or even if a report was filed.'

She also recalled him sniffing her hair when she guest starred on Law and Order: Criminal Intent

She concluded her statement by cursing out Noth's character on Sex and the City, claiming that he capitalized on the role to seduce women

However, Officer Madison added: 'At this time, there's no record of a report being filed. Without a report, there is no investigation.'

Late on Thursday, actress Zoe Lister-Jones also detailed her encounters with the embattled actor, claiming that he was 'sexually inappropriate' to women who worked at a New York City club he owned, and sniffed her neck while drunk on set of the detective show.

'Last week, my friend asked me how I felt about Mr. Big's death on And Just Like That, and I said honestly, I felt relieved,' she wrote on Instagram.

'He asked why, and I told him it was because I couldn't separate the actor from the man, and the man is a sexual predator,' she went on, before detailing some of her experiences.

Then a third woman accused Chris Noth of sexual assault for allegedly groping her at a Manhattan restaurant in 2010 when she was 18.

The unnamed 30-year-old Canadian tech executive claimed Noth, then 55, groped her while she was working as a hostess at the Da Marino restaurant in Midtown, the Daily Beast first reported.

Noth came in intoxicated, allegedly telling her, 'I love Canadian women' as he pressed her against 'his erection.'

'I remember how electrifying his hand, the hand I watched hold Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, felt grabbing me,' Ava said.

She claimed Noth then followed her into the back office and began kissing her and pressing her against a desk.

She alleged that that he pulled down her tights and touched and clung onto her so strongly that after she managed to push and kick him away, her 'limbs hurt in the morning.'

'It felt as though I was the only person in the universe who could hear me saying no,' she told the outlet.

She said the actor also felt her tampon and asked if she was at the end of her period before continuing to grope her.

Despite Ava's protests, Noth allegedly carried on until she told him 'not here,' convincing him that they could carry on somewhere else.

'I haven't been able to shake the memory of how the kitchen staff looked at me as I emerged from the office with Chris Noth,' she said.

Noths publicist told the Daily Beast that the actor 'denies this as ever happening and has no idea who this woman is.'
Lady Kitty Spencer's twin sisters have enjoyed a fun-filled few days in South Africa after returning to Cape Town for Christmas.

Society beauties Amelia and Eliza, both 29, are following in the footsteps of their older sister, Lady Kitty Spencer, who has forged a career in modelling after becoming a firm fixture on the London social scene.

However the twins, who moved to the capital earlier this year, returned to their hometown to enjoy the week before the festive holiday with friends.

Posting on her Instagram page, Lady Amelia shared a series of snaps as she snuggled up with fiance Greg Mallet at a close friend's wedding.

Lady Kitty Spencer 's twin sisters Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza, both 29, have enjoyed a fun-filled few days in South Africa after returning to Cape Town for Christmas

The blonde beauty opted for a sparkling black dress for the occasion with a high slit up the thigh.

Meanwhile her sister Lady Eliza donned a shorter silver gown for the event, and posed for photos alongside her boyfriend Channing Millerd.

As well as partying with her loved-ones at the wedding, the sisters also went on a series of nights-out with friends.

It comes weeks after the twins were spotted out and about in London at Winter Wonderland.

Posting on her Instagram page, Lady Amelia shared a series of snaps as she snuggled up with fiance Greg Mallet at a close friend's wedding (left) and partying in South Africa (right)

Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia, Earl Spencer's daughters, didn't let the freezing temperatures put them off an outing to the Hyde Park funfair.

Photos shared on Instagram show the sisters rugged up in coats as they went on rides with their friends and partners.

Amelia, who announced her engagement to her real estate beau of 11 years in July 2020, and Eliza are the daughters of Earl Spencer and first cousins of Princes William and Harry.

They were most recently seen at Tatler's Little Black Book party and made a string of appearances during fashion month in September.

As well as partying with her loved-ones at the wedding, the sisters also went on a series of nights-out with friends

Lady Amelia posted one snap as she donned a little black dress and partied with friends ahead of the festive holiday

Amelia and Eliza, who are both signed to Storm Model Management, grew up with their father and mother Victoria Aitken in Constantia but spent significant time in the UK after their parents split and Charles moved back to the family's seat, Althorp.

They have two half-sisters and half-brother from their father's second and third marriages, and half-brother from their mother's second marriage.

Earlier this year, the pair were hailed by society bible Tatler as among the hottest and most elegant socialite siblings from across the world who are used to moving in the same circles as supermodels, aristocrats and royals.

They were ranked among others as one of the most glamorous sets of twins on the elite social scene.

Attending a friend's wedding in South Africa, Lady Amelia opted for a sparkling black dress with a high slit up the thigh (left and right)

Lady Amelia and Greg were unafraid to pack on the PDA at the wedding, with the socialite going on to share a series of pictures snuggled up with her beau later

The sisters have an unbreakable bond as twins, with Lady Amelia telling Tatler she and Lady Eliza have always been close and are 'very similar'.

'We love doing the same things and share the same friends,' she said.

'You're guaranteed to have a best friend there always  you can't really compare it to anything else.'
Sex therapist Shirley Zussman, who trained under the famed team Masters and Johnson and practiced for over 50 years, has died at the age of 107.

Her son, Marc Zussman, confirmed her death on December 4 to the New York Times this weekend.

Zussman, who was born in New York City, received her doctorate from Columbia University, trained with her husband at the Masters and Johnson Institute, and served with him as co-director of the Human Sexuality Center at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center.

She published two books; was president of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists; wrote a sex column for Glamour magazine, and appeared on countless news and talk shows over the course of her illustrious career.

'Shirley was a pioneer in sex therapy and an excellent role model,' Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who took a class taught by Zussman and had her own prolific career as a sex therapist, told the New York Times.

Sex therapist Shirley Zussman, who trained under the famed team Masters and Johnson and practiced for over 50 years, has died at the age of 107

Zussman was born in New York City in 1914, received her undergraduate degree in the '30s, and earned her doctorate from Columbia University in 1969

Zussman was born Shirley Edith Dlugasch on July 23, 1914 on Manhattan's Lower East Side to a doctor father and surgical nurse mother.

She was raised in Brooklyn, and in 1930 began attending Smith College, where she majored in psychology. She would go on to get her degree from the New York School of Social Work at Columbia University.

Excelling in higher education already made her a trailblazer, and she chose a particularly new and unique discipline in majoring in psychology.

'When I was at college, it was not a time when women were interested or even thought in terms of careers,' she said, according to Medium. 'Their idea was to  have a good education, get married, and have children, and bring them up in the way they were brought up themselves.'

Zussman did get married, too, to Leon Zussman, a gynecologist and obstetrician. The pair had two children, Marc and a daughter, Carol Sun.

In 1966, she was working as a psychiatric social worker and psychotherapist when she and her husband were invited to a lecture by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, who became famous for treating sexual dysfunction and demystifying sex.

The researchers had just published a book, Human Sexual Response, which would eventually go on to be a huge success.

She and her husband, Leon Zussman, a gynecologist and obstetrician, were co-directors of the Human Sexuality Center at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center

The lecture struck a chord for Zussman and her husband.

'They were recognizing that it was not all not just glamorous and wonderful to be sexual, but that one almost had to learn to be a good partner,' she told Time in 2014.

'And I thought, "We can do that! Why cant we do that?"'

Zussman got a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1969. She wrote her dissertation about husbands being present in the delivery room when their children were born  something that was quite rare at the time.

She and her husband then trained at the Masters and Johnson Institute.

In the '70s, they became co-directors of the Human Sexuality Center at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, where they treated married couples  including women who didn't have orgasms and men who were impotent or ejaculating prematurely.

According to Medium, Zussman said that women would come in ignorant about their own bodies, seeing their vulvas as 'unexplored territory.'

They trained together at the Masters and Johnson Institute under Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson (pictured)

She would help them to better enjoy sex with a holistic approach.

'You have to look at your priorities,' she told Time. 'You have to decide what is important to make you feel good about yourself and your life. And to help make your partner feel good. To establish something that is gratifying, that fills a need that we all have to be close to somebody.'

She added that sexual pleasure 'is only one part of what men and women want for each other. They want intimacy. They want closeness. They want understanding. They want comfort. They want fun. And they want somebody who really cares about them beyond going to bed with them.'

In 1979, she and her husband published a book, 'Getting Together: A Guide to Sexual Enrichment for Couples,' which tackles sex from both physical and psychological standpoints.

Zussman was also president of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists two times; edited a newsletter called 'Sex Over Forty'; and spent about 15 years writing a monthly column called 'Sex and Health' for Glamour magazine.

She frequently on television as well, and over the years was interviewed by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, and Phil Donahue, and also appeared on 20/20, NBC Nightly News, and CBS News.

She and her husband published 'Getting Together: A Guide to Sexual Enrichment for Couples' in 1979 (left), and in 2017, she also published 'What's Age Got to Do with It?: A Collection of Essays' (right)

She was professionally active late into her life, and in 2017, she published another book called 'What's Age Got to Do with It?: A Collection of Essays.'

Dr. Ruth Westheimer (pictured) described Zussman as 'a pioneer in sex therapy and an excellent role model'

She was even still seeing patients at the age of 105.

In 2014, she reflected on changing attitudes about sex therapy in her over five decades of practice.

'I dont think that the stigma around sex therapy exists like it was in the early years,' she said.

'People were ashamed they had to go to a psychiatrist or a social worker, because it means they needed help. Many people resist[ed] the idea that somebody needs to tell them how to have sex.'

In addition to her two children, Zussman is survived by three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1980.

Dr. Ruth  who took a course taught by Zussman and her husband at their Long Island clinic while she was a program director at Planned Parenthood  said that learning from Zussman was her first experience studying sex.

'They were trailblazers, because she was a therapist and her husband was a gynecologist and that validated the work. It gave it the legitimacy that sex therapists like me needed. I wouldnt be talking about orgasms if it wasnt for Shirley,' she told the New York Times.
Even the best of home cooks can get flustered on Christmas day.

Whether it's cooking for fussy in laws, catering for a bigger crowd than normal or just working with perpetually dry turkey, nailing the perfect dinner can be tricky.

Speaking to FEMAIL, top chefs from across the UK have revealed their top Christmas cooking tips, from covering the turkey in pineapple juice to cooking it in a 10 per cent salt brine.

Meanwhile, Yasuda Akinori of Japanese restaurant SUMI said that adding soy sauce to gravy gives it a meat umami flavour, while Daniel Mertl, Head Chef at Ganymede, recommended turning your roasties every 20 minutes to ensure perfect crispness.

Speaking to FEMAIL, top chefs from across the UK have revealed their top Christmas cooking tips, from covering the turkey in pineapple juice to cooking i t in a 10 per cent salt brine (st

Add a teaspoon of pineapple juice to turkey brine: Sameer Taneja, Executive Chef at Michelin-starred Benares

'To nail a perfect juicy roast this Christmas, try adding a tablespoon full of pineapple juice while marinating the turkey as this not only imparts sweetness, but acts as a tenderiser and softens the meat as well as retaining good moisture in the turkey.'

Add soy sauce to your gravy: Yasuda Akinori, Head Chef of SUMI

'Take your gravy to the next level this Christmas by adding a couple of splashes of soy sauce in as you're simmering it.

'Soy sauce has a brilliant rich, umami taste, and it adds a real depth of flavour.

'It's also quite meaty in taste so it's perfect for those looking to enhance a vegetarian gravy.'

Use 10% salt to water brine ratio: Oliver Marlowe, Owner Chef Director, The Hunter's Moon

'To make sure you don't end up with a dry turkey on the big day, I'd recommend brining your bird in a 10 per cent salt to water liquid mix overnight prior to cooking.

The salt dissolves some of the muscle proteins, meaning the meat contracts less while in the oven so therefore it loses less moisture.

It gives a game-changing depth of flavour, making it very difficult to overcook so there's one less thing to worry about on the big day!'

Par-boil your roasties on Christmas Eve: Jonas Karlsson, Head Chef at Aquavit London

'It's no secret that there are supply chain issues, and this could result in a shortage of turkeys.

'Whilst fresh is always of course best, to take some of the pressure off buy your turkey now and freeze it, and simply remove from the freezer 2-3 days before Christmas to slowly defrost in the fridge.

Love your leftovers! Use your day out roasties to make an epic potato croquette Ioannis Grammenos, Executive Chef at Heliot Steak House 'The leftovers from the Christmas day can be used up to two days after the event and there's so many options! You can make pies, sandwiches, curries, casseroles, and vegetable puree side dishes. One of my favourites is to use the roasties to make epic potato croquettes, delicious dipped in yoghurt with olive oil and garlic.' Vivek Singh, Executive Chef and CEO of The Cinnamon Collection 'One of my favourite ways to use up leftover turkey is to make a big batch of butter chicken sauce, with either fresh or tinned tomatoes, and fold through leftover pieces of turkey to make a delicious and hearty curry.' Advertisement

'You can also par-boil and half roast your potatoes on Christmas Eve.

'Not only will it be one less thing to worry about, but you'll also have extra crisp, double-roasted potatoes to boast about!'

Make your Yorkshire pudding batter 24 hours in advance: Callum Graham, Head Chef of Bohemia at The Club Hotel & Spa

'Preparation is really key for Christmas and anything you can prepare ahead of time you should do.

'Alongside peeling and cutting your vegetables on Christmas Eve, you could also make your cauliflower cheese so that it's ready to just pop into the oven the next day.

'My top tip would be to make your Yorkshire pudding batter 24 hours before its needed, as that gives it ample time to rest and helps ensure you'll get a good rise.'

Turn roasties every 20 minutes: Daniel Mertl, Head Chef at Ganymede

'For the best roast potatoes use a floury potato like Maris Piper. Peel and cut into large chunks, and boil in salty water until the edges start to look fluffy, then drain and let them steam for a few minutes.

'Now, using either goose or duck fat, cook the potatoes on a high temperature (around 190 degrees), turning them every 20 minutes or so.

'For extra flavour, add half a bulb of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme halfway through, cook until golden brown and crispy.'

Vac-pack your turkey and cook at 70C: Matthew Whitfield, Executive Chef at The Terrace at The Montagu Arms

'For the best flavour and texture, always buy free-range  we buy from Owton Butchers in Southampton.

'For the most-moist meat, we take off the breast and butterfly it, and then stuff it with chestnut stuffing and roll into a log.

'We then vac pack it and cook it at 70 degrees Celsius for 3 hours. When it's cooked, take it out and roast the skin so it's crispy.

'The meat is really succulent and has the stuffing running through it. Delicious!'

Save the usual Christmas morning stress and put your bird on the night before, is a consensus among chegs

Brine turkey for 24 hours: Henry Brosi, Executive Chef of Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane

'My top tip is to brine the whole turkey in a good chicken stock 24 hours prior to roasting, as this will keep the turkey extremely moist.

'I'd also recommend buying a turkey crown with the legs removed (boned and rolled) as this will save you two hours on the cooking time of the turkey  you can always ask your local butcher to do this!'

Make curry cauliflower steak for vegans: Michael Carr, Head Chef of Fenchurch Restaurant, London's Sky Garden

'A great vegan alternative on Christmas Day is a cauliflower steak  it's an absolute winner when done right! You cut the thick middle part of the cauliflower out, and then you add all the different herbs and spices (you can't go wrong here because the cauliflower is so versatile).

'I personally like getting a masala curry powder and rubbing that all over, before cooking the cauliflower like a steak in really hot oil and serving with creme fraiche and herby-basil tomatoes.'
With the countdown to Christmas officially underway, people across the nation are eagerly booking trips abroad in the hope of being reunited with their families and loved ones in time for December 25.

But with the ever-changing Covid-19 guidelines, its no wonder many have been left worried that new travel restrictions on testing and isolating could ruin their festive plans.

Government-approved PCR testing company DAM Health are experts in administering mandatory Covid-19 PCR tests and offer a speedy, stress-free service by providing rapid results and essential travel documentation so that you can take a well-earned break this Christmas.

And whats more, travellers can get tested and tests results are available in 24 hours.

DAM Health's clinics are open nationwide now for mandatory PCR tests for travellers

To make things even easier, the reputable company has opened 45 clinics across the UK  including Manchester, Liverpool, Essex, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and London.

So, all you need to do is get yourself to one of the many testing centres before travelling and within two days after youve returned - and youre good to go! Alternatively, theres also a postal option available, so you barely need to move a muscle.

Due to a huge demand for fit to fly certificates this winter, DAM Health is urging people to book now in order to secure a test in time for the busy period. After all, nobody wants a nightmare before Christmas!

People all over the country can benefit from our Covid-19 PCR testing service, says Director of DAM Health Professor Joseph. Anyone travelling abroad will need a negative result and a fit to fly certificate - so its very important to book tests well in advance of travel.

And, with rules around coronavirus restrictions ever-changing, people can be confident with DAM Health as we are on hand to help ease any stress travellers may face this winter. We are testing for new strains of the virus too so people can be confident about travelling with a negative result.

Our local clinics are convenient and help people get themselves ready for foreign travel.

We are experiencing huge demand for tests now so we are urging people to book with us now and not leave it until the last minute.

DAM Health is led by the award-winning Professor Frank Joseph

If youre looking for tests to travel to your destination, then scroll down for all the information you need to know  and book now by clicking HERE.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE FLYING OUT OF THE UK

To ensure Christmas remains the most wonderful time of the year, travellers are urged to check foreign travel advice for the country theyre heading to because it will likely have its own test requirements to enter, usually known as a Fit-to-Fly test.

Prior to travel, its also important to confirm the country is allowing people to enter from the UK, whether proof of vaccination status or a negative Covid-19 test is required and whether quarantine on arrival is needed.

Proof of test results will need to be shown via a printed document, text message or email at various parts of the journey in order to be allowed to travel.

Covid passes issued in the UK can be used throughout the EU as evidence as long as it is dated later than 1 November 2021.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE RETURNING TO THE UK

Fully vaccinated:

Everyone over 12, visiting or returning to the UK needs to have taken a pre-departure test - either lateral flow or PCR  two days before travelling to prove they do not have Covid-19. This test is mandatory, including for those who are vaccinated. Free NHS tests cannot be used for travel.

All travellers returning to the UK must also submit an online passenger locator form no more than 48 hours before arriving.

Not vaccinated:

Anyone not vaccinated must similarly take a PCR or lateral flow/antigen test two days before travelling to the UK.

Additionally, they must book and pay for day 2 and day 8 Covid-19 PCR tests which will be taken after arrival.

DAM Health offers a mandatory day 2 and 8 PCR test for just 119, with the option of doing so in-clinic or through the postal service with results available in 24 hours. And with so many clinics dotted around the UK, theres likely one just around the corner!

With the countdown to Christmas officially underway, people across the nation are eagerly booking trips abroad in the hope of being reunited with their families and loved ones in time for December 25

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO WHEN YOU ARRIVE BACK IN THE UK

Fully vaccinated:

On arrival, international travellers have two days to complete a day 2 Covid-19 PCR test which must be booked before travel, and bought privately from a government-approved list of providers. This is available at DAM Health clinics, one of the leading providers in the UK for Covid-19 testing, for just 69 with results available in as little as 24 hours. Alternatively, theres also a postal self-service option available at the same cost.

Travellers must self-isolate until they test negative. If the test result is positive, then 10 full days of self-isolation are required.

Hotel quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from the 11 countries on the red list has recently been abandoned. These include Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.

Not vaccinated:

After arriving in the UK travellers must self-isolate at home for 10 full days. They must then take the day 2 and day 8 Covid-19 PCR tests which were booked prior to travel.

The first test must be taken on or before day two, and the second test on or after day eight.

Test to Release is also an option for unvaccinated passengers to the UK who wish to shorten their quarantine. This quick and professional service is offered by DAM Health for 149, with results delivered within 24 hours. So theres no need to delay!

TESTS AVAILABLE AT DAM HEALTH CLINICS DAM EXPRESS A RT-PCR test for Covid-19 with a certificate needed for travel. It is an oropharyngeal test and takes 10 minutes to swab each tonsil. Results are all received within 3 hours (available in Fulham, Liverpool and Manchester) Reduce your quarantine by 5 days. This test is performed in clinic, pending a negative day 2 result has been received. EMERGENCY SAME DAY APPOINTMENT TESTING Fit to Fly PCR Test - 149 A RT-PCR test for Covid-19 with a certificate needed for travel. Results are received by midnight. Fit to Fly Antigen Test - 39 The lateral flow test checks for viral protein and usually gives a result within 15-30 minutes. It can be used for entry into some countries. The results are received within 2 hours. Day 5 Test to Release - 149 This test is performed in clinic, pending a negative day 2 result has been received. Rapid results are delivered by midnight.

ALL ABOUT DAM HEALTH

Testing with DAM Health is quick and easy

Are you struggling to keep up with the ever-changing Covid-19 guidelines?

Luckily, DAM Health is on hand to provide evolving and effective solutions to keep pace with fluctuating global restrictions imposed on international travel.

The Liverpool-based company is headed by the award-winning Professor Frank Joseph and offers every testing solution to help ease the burden of stress for holidaymakers this winter.

So far, the company has provided tests for more than 300,000 people in the UK and is now testing for new strains of coronavirus so that Brits can continue to go on holiday with the necessary documents.

The tests have an accuracy rate of 98%, with an impressive turnaround time for PCR test results of just 24 hours, so you can have peace of mind this Christmas season.

DAM Health, which has clinics across the UK, Europe and Mexico, is also the chosen testing partner for high-profile clients including Scottish Rugby, Glasgow Rangers FC and Crystal Palace FC.

And whats more - Dam Health is also the only Covid-19 testing company in the UK to partner with a new global health passport app.

Health Passport Worldwide allows travellers to see their PCR and lateral flow test results uploaded onto the health passport app  offering reassurance and confidence for travel, not to mention a simple process at airports around the world.

So what are you waiting for?

Tests with DAM Health can be booked at local clinics at www.dam-health.com
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The United States has reached a startling milestone in its fight against the new Omicron variant. Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of the strain, with 221 infections being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning.

The country has now joined a dubious group of five countries with more than 1,000 cases of the new variant, reaching 1,079 as of Monday morning - a 25 percent increase from the 858 cases confirmed on Sunday morning.

It comes as experts begin to learn more about the variant, which was first discovered late last month in South Africa. Omicron is the most mutated Covid strain yet, with over 50 mutations total - including 30 on its spike protein. Early data shows it can evade protection provided by all three available Covid vaccines, though getting a booster shot can significantly shore up a person's protection against infection.

On Monday morning, Dr Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC's Good Morning America that America should move past trying to prevent infections, and instead work to stop hospitalizations and deaths.

'The goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs,' he said. 'That's an unrealistic goal. The goal should be prevent deaths and severe illness which vaccines will do.'

As of last week, the variant accounted for three percent of active cases in the U.S., though the figure will likely be higher when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports figures this week. The Delta variant, which caused a massive case surge over summer, accounted for 97 percent of cases that week.

No matter the variant, Covid is spiraling out of control in the U.S., though the growth of cases has slightly slowed over the past week. As of Monday morning, 133,012 Americans are testing positive for Covid every day, a 21 percent increase over the past two weeks.

America's daily death total has remained steady over the past week despite the increase in cases. As of Monday, 1,296 cases are being recorded every day, a nine percent increase over the past two weeks. Deaths not rising at the same rate as cases is a positive sign that the vaccines are still effective at stopping breakthrough cases from developing into severe cases.

Hospitalizations are increasing, though, with 69,387 people being admitted due to the virus each day - a 16 percent increase over the past two weeks.

The largest increases are being felt by Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Both islands have been hard struck by this recent surge. In Puerto Rico, cases have jumped 619 percent over the past two weeks, though hospitalizations and deaths have remained low. Hawaii has experienced a 383 percent increase in Covid cases over the past two weeks - the most of any state - though the death rate has remained minimal.

Dr Ashish Jha (left), dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that the U.S. should focus on preventing Covid hospitalizations and deaths, as preventing all infections at this point is an 'unrealistic goal'. Dr Vivek Murthy (right), the U.S.'s Surgeon General, said that he is 'worried' about unvaccinated people as the Omicron variant begins to take hold in the nation

While more vaccinated people are contracting the virus during this outbreak, it is still believed that unvaccinated people are mush more likely to suffer severe infection or death from Covid. Dr Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, told CBS Mornings on Monday that the unvaccinated are in deep danger.

Florida has also reported a 226 percent increase in Covid cases over the past two weeks, though figures from the state may be unreliable as it does not regularly report data. Washington D.C., which has proven to be another hotspot, has also recorded a 252 percent case increase over the past two weeks.

'There will be a stark difference between those that are vaccinated and boosted, and those that are unvaccinated,' he said.

'With those have maximal protection from a vaccination and boost, you either won't get infected or if you get an infection it will be most likely mild.

'But if you are unvaccinated I am worried about you. I'm worried that your risk of being hospitalized or, God-forbid, losing your life to this virus is quite significant.'

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients issued a stark warning on Friday as well.

'For the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,' he said at a briefing Friday.

Most recent CDC data shows that 72.8 percent of Americans have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 61 percent of people are fully vaccinated. Around 18 percent - or 60.2 million - Americans have received their booster as well.

Dr. Jha, the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, to @arobach on omicron: "The goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs. Thats an unrealistic goal. The goal should be prevent deaths and severe illness which vaccines will do." https://t.co/OQowSiZeFa pic.twitter.com/c7cxb5jbeu  Good Morning America (@GMA) December 20, 2021

Data revealed by Moderna, manufacturer of the nation's second most commonly used vaccine, shows that its booster shot increases the availability of Omicron fighting antibodies 40-fold in people that are fully vaccinated. It matched similar date release by Pfizer earlier this month, reporting that a booster dose can re-establish protection against the vaccine evasive strain.

Another study last week found that the one-dose J&J vaccine provided little to no protection against infection from Omicron. Data on the company's booster shot is not yet available.

Hawaii is currently the U.S. leader in growth of cases, up 383 percent over the last two weeks. Hospitalizations have not kept pace, though, only growing six percent during that time span, a sign that the 63 percent of the population that is vaccinated has some protection from the virus.

Florida (226 percent increase in cases over the past two weeks) and Connecticut (137 percent increase) have also seen cases more than double over the past two weeks, with the latter also suffering a 69 percent increase in hospitalizations in that time despite 74 percent of the population being fully vaccinated.

New York and New Jersey are the states believed to have the largest prevalence of the new variant, and both are experiencing an increase in cases as well. Most recent data published by the CDC last Tuesday estimates that a combined 13 percent of cases in the two states are of the Omicron variant - far outpacing the 2.9 percent national rate and every other region.

Both are suffering sharp increases in cases as well, with New York posting an 82 percent increase in cases over the past two weeks, and New Jersey up 66 percent.

The country as a whole is not suffering a Covid surge, though, with the virus even starting to recede in some areas. States in both the Northeast and Great Plains - both regions that experienced a sharp increase in Covid cases in early fall - are now seeing those surges decline.

Currently, states in the Northeast are leading America's COVID-19 surge, but case growth is starting to settle. Rhode Island, for example, is recording the most new cases per 100,000 residents as on Monday morning, at 101. The state that was once experiencing a doubling of cases over two weeks is now only seeing 53 percent growth, though, as the virus starts to slow down.

New Hampshire is averaging 90 new cases out of every 100,000 residents every day, second in the nation and a 12 percent increase from previous weeks. It appears that its surge is nearing its peak as well, though, as case growth as slowed to a halt in recent days.

Vermont has the highest vaccination rate in America - with Rhode Island and New Hampshire following just behind - with 76 percent of residents fully vaccinated. The state was the site of one of the largest Covid surges in the nation only weeks ago, but now things are trending in the right direction.

The state is still averaging a relatively high 65 out of every 100,000 residents testing positive for the virus every day, tenth in the country, but new cases have shrunk by six percent over the past two weeks. Other states in the region that are starting to see case growth slow, and even Connecticut which currently holds the 'worst outbreak in America' honor, should see Vermont as a promising sign for the future.

Out west, states in the Great Plains are seeing massive decreases in weekly case rate. Unlike their counterparts in the east, which have vaccination rates upwards of 70 percent, these states have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Montana, which has only fully vaccinated 54 percent of its residents, has seen daily cases drop 53 percent, and has one of the lowest infection rates in America with 14 of every 100,000 residents testing positive every day.

Wyoming and Idaho are the two least vaccinated states in America, with 47 percent and 46 percent of their populations jabbed respectively. Both have managed to control the spread of the virus in recent weeks, though, with cases down 40 percent in Wyoming and 18 percent in Idaho.

Both are also recording 18 positive tests every day per 100,000 residents, also among the lowest rate in America.

States in the region were being hammered by Covid only a few months ago. From Washington on the Pacific Northwest coast to Michigan in the eastern time zone, the states up north went through the ringer in October. The virus seems to have burned out in the western half of America, though, quelling some fears that the rise of Omicron would make an already disastrous situation even worse.

Even Michigan, a state that had its hospitals sent into a crisis due to rising case earlier this month, is recording a 15 percent decrease in cases in recent weeks.

Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Oregon - all in the Midwest, plains, southwest or pacific regions of America - have recorded decreases in cases over the past two weeks. Washington and California are reporting minor increases of eight percent and four percent respectively.

This all comes as the Omicron variant lands in the U.S., and was expected to near-instantly cause case surges nationwide. The highly transmissible variant is certainly in America, accounting for three percent of cases two weeks ago and having been confirmed over 1,000 times as of Monday morning.

It has not made the massive impact it was expected to yet, though. The variant was known to in the United States as early as November 19, as a Minnesota man contracted the virus then from another person at an anime convention in New York City.

Now a month since the first recorded transmission of the variant within the U.S., only small select areas are suffering from surges.

America's Covid situation is not rosy everywhere, though. In addition to New York and New Jersey, some southern states are experiencing surges as well.

Florida has experienced a 226 percent increase in cases over the past two weeks. Georgia (66 percent increase in cases), Louisiana (63 percent), Mississippi (50 percent) and Virginia (50 percent) are posting sharp increases as well. While some of these states are still reporting low cases totals per capita, these upward swings are a worrying sign that they are experiencing the early stages of an Omicron outbreak.

In the Midwest, Illinois may be suffering a large scale outbreak soon as well, with cases up 53 percent over two weeks as the rest of the region sees a decline in case growth.

Over in the UK, the world leader in confirmed Omicron cases - with 37,101 sequenced - continues to reel in the wake of a new wave of the virus. Neil Ferguson, one of the nation's top epidemiologists warns that the country could face 5,000 deaths from the variant every day and the National Health Service (NHS) could be overwhelmed if a new lockdown is not imposed.

The new strain is now also the dominant variant in the UK.

Also among the global Omicron leaders in Denmark, with 15,452 confirmed cases, may soon go into another lockdown with capacity restrictions in many venues and the closure of some event spaces like theatres to handle a record surge in the Nordic nation.

Norway has confirmed 3,394 cases, and has entered partial lockdown of its own. The country was among the first to experience an outbreak tied to the variant after a holiday party by a local energy company in Cape Town, South Africa, brought dozens of cases of the variant back into Norway.

'It still remains the case that getting vaccinated and boosted is the best way to protect yourself, even against Omicron,' Murthy said.

More than 40 passengers on Royal Caribbean Cruise test positive for Covid after docking in Miami Forty-four passengers onboard Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas cruise tested positive for COVID-19 after the ship docked in Miami on Saturday. The cruise line also announced that one of the passengers onboard a prior cruise itinerary had tested positive for the Omicron variant. Forty-four out of 6,074, passengers - or about .72 percent - onboard the cruise that departed on December 11 tested positive for COVID after the trip around the Eastern Caribbean. The cruise line said they've all been quarantined. The scene is slightly reminiscent of the early stages of the outbreak in 2020, when cruise ships became the first super-spreaders due to their enclosed environment and contact between travelers from different cities and countries. Royal Caribbean said future cruises won't be halted. Onboard Royal Caribbean cruise ships, passengers age 12 and older are required to be fully vaccinated and to test negative to board the cruise. Those under 12 are required to have a negative test. Royal Caribbean has advised passengers to get tested three to five days after disembarking, following CDC guidelines. Advertisement

The Surgeon General said that the most important metric for judging the vaccines is the ability to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from Covid, which are still unlikely for people with booster shots. He does warn that people who are boosted can still suffer a breakthrough infection.

This all comes during the holiday season. Millions of Americans plan to travel this week - if they have not already - to visit family and friends around the country for Christmas. Especially after many holiday festivities were canceled last year, it would be hard to convince people not to meet with family for the holidays.

Dr Jha says that travel is safe as long as people have taken precautions.

'We know that planes themselves are pretty safe,' Jha said.

'What I advise family, friends, who are traveling over the holidays is [it is] obviously very helpful if they're fully vaccinated and boosted, that I think is the most important thing.

'The second most important thing is wearing a good mask, wearing a high quality mask. Because airports, other places, don't have great ventilation.

'Travel is doable safely, but we've got to take care of ourselves.'

He is also an advocate for schools to remain open as long as children are masked and regularly tested.

The Omicron variant is already spreading rapidly around the U.S., and accounts for at least three percent of active cases, if not more. In some major metropolitan areas, like Seattle and New York City, it could even be making up half of cases.

The CDC also warns that cases could quickly rocket in the U.S.

The agency released projections last week showing America will suffer up to 15,600 new Covid deaths a week as of January 8 - or 2,228 deaths per day - a 58 per cent increase from 8,900 deaths currently being recorded each week, equivalent to 1,285 deaths a day.

Another CDC prediction estimates that between 620,000 and 1.3 million Americans will have been diagnosed with Covid by the week that ends on December 25 - Christmas Day.

That represents a 55 percent leap on the 840,000 cases that have been recorded over the last week.

Dr Pavitra Roychoudhury and her team of infectious disease experts at the University of Washington find that around 50 percent of cases in Seattle are of the Omicron variant. Her team uses spike gene target failure (SGTF) to sequence large batches of cases from the area. While SGTF is not as accurate as the genetic sequencing performed by health officials, it can give a good snapshot of the prevalence of certain variants in large sample sizes.

The CDC has been under intense criticism in recent weeks for its apparent failure to keep up with the new variant. The agency only releases data once a week on the prevalence of strains in the U.S., and the data reflects are previous week - meaning it is already outdated by the time it is public.

An inability for the CDC to regularly release variant data has made it impossible for America to get an accurate look at where the pandemic, and most notably the Omicron variant, stands.

Instead, the federal government has left the job up to state level officials, which all have different reporting schedules and are not uniform in their approach to the pandemic.

On the other hand, country's like the UK, Denmark, Norway and South Africa have all managed to sequence cases regularly and provide their populations with regular snapshots of the current state of the pandemic.

While Roychoudhury's team believes the prevalence of Omicron is much higher than three percent, the nation will not know last week's data until Tuesday.

She told DailyMail.com last week that she believes results from the Seattle area are likely reflective of many major U.S. cities, like New York City.

Dr Roychoudhury's team finds that 50% percent of Covid cases in Seattle, Washington, are of the Omicron variant, based of SGTF testing. She believes this figure applies to other major population centers in the U.S. as well

In New York, which quickly became a hub for the virus when it first arrived in March 2020, things are beginning to unravel. The city has been plagued with long lines at vaccine testing sites in all five boroughs. The city is averaging 7,683 new cases every day, a new record. In response, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would distribute 500,000 at-home tests and one million masks to residents to prevent the spread of the virus.

Across the pond, London has emerged as an early Omicron hub, and could be a preview of what is to come for the U.S. and other major population centers. Nearly every one-in-every-four positive cases in England are in London, and the variant is now the nation's dominant strain.

The UK is currently averaging a record 68,051 new Covid cases every day, with 93,045 Britons testing positive on Monday. The number of new cases in the country has increased by 60 percent over the past week. While deaths have remained low, a recent uptick in hospitalizations - up 7.3 percent to 900 per day last week - has some fearing the NHS could be overwhelmed.

Ferguson is among many health officials urging the Government to impose another lockdown on much of the UK to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not indicated either way on whether he would be open for another lockdown if cases in the country continue to grow.

Britain's daily Covid cases have rocketed to record levels for the third day in a row with 93,000 people diagnosed in 24 hours

Daily Covid cases in South Africa have risen 10 per cent in a week today. But the country is currently enjoying a public holiday, which likely skewed the figures

Moderna booster Shot triggers 40-fold increase in antibodies Moderna Inc. said on Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appeared to be protective against the fast-spreading Omicron variant in laboratory testing - and that the current version of the vaccine would continue to be Moderna's 'first line of defense against Omicron.' They found that a third dose increased the level of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron nearly 37 times compared to just getting the two shots. Still, company officials said, they plan to develop a vaccine specifically to protect against Omicron - which they hope to advance into clinical trials early next year. Data from the study showed that 50mcg of the Moderna vaccine, the half-dose recommended by the Food and Drug Administration increased neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron approximately 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels, while a full dose increased it 83-fold. The new data included blood samples from 20 people given a Moderna boost of 50mcg or 100mcg, with the results analyzed at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Centre at Duke University Medical Centre. All groups had low neutralizing antibody levels to Omicron before receiving a booster and were looked at again 29 days after the booster jab. With the 50mcg dose, the researchers found neutralizing geometric mean titers, a measure of antibody levels, increased to 850 29 days later, a 37-fold increase. The 100mcg dose saw this increase further to 2228 29 days post dose, a 83-fold increase. Moderna's study comes just weeks after its competitor, Pfizer, conducted a similar test to measure the effectiveness of its booster doses. Advertisement

Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer of England, warns that 'records will be broken a lot' in the near future as the variant only continues to spread. He also warns that with the way the variant is doubling around every 2.5 days, the nation could face around 460,000 new Covid cases every day by Christmas Eve - a figure that would collapse the nation's health system.

Johnson did institute some measure to prevent the spread of the virus earlier this month, though, instituting a work from home order, enacting a mask mandate and requiring proof of vaccination or negative test to enter some venues.

Denmark is following behind the UK, having confirmed 15,452 cases of the Omicron variant as of Monday morning. The Nordic nation was struck early by one of the largest confirmed Omicron outbreaks and the situation has only been exacerbated since.

A Christmas lunch event in the Viborg region, attended by 150 students on November 27 from two local high schools has been linked to 70 cases of the variant, though all were mild.

Currently, the nation is averaging a record 8,984 new cases per day, a logged the largest single day Covid case total ever on Thursday with 9,999 cases added to the ledger.

Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen announced new measures to prevent spread of the virus last week, joining the UK.

People who can will now be ordered to work from home, and virtual schooling has been extended as well. On Friday, she announced that concert halls and theatres will be closed in response to a recent surge.

This comes after orders earlier this month, where bars and nightclubs were forced to have reduced operating hours, being forced to close at midnight now, in an effort to prevent transmission.

European Union officials are sounding alarms as well, saying that the variant could be the continent's dominant strain by mid-January.

In South Africa, the nation where the variant was first detected, Covid is beginning to recede, a promising sign that the nation's Omicron fueled outbreak is running out of steam after a month.

The nation is averaging 20,082 new cases every day, a decrease from last week when over 23,000 cases were being reported every day. While it is still a much larger figure than what the country was reporting only a month ago, it signals that the variant is potentially burning out.

Hospitalizations are on the way down, though, with eleven times fewer South Africans being hospitalized with Covid now than were during the Delta surge over summer - a sign of hope going forward as the U.S. and UK begin their own struggles with the virus.

South Africa recorded 6,887 Covid related hospitalizations last week, a decrease from the 7,433 recorded a week earlier.
A 26-year-old New Zealand man's death is being attributed to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The man, who is unnamed in a report by local health officials, died of myocarditis earlier this year and did not seek out medical treatment for his condition.

After an investigation, officials determined that his death was caused by the vaccine, at least the second death caused by the jab in the country, with other potential deaths occurring overseas.

The Covid vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by health officials in the U.S., UK, New Zealand and across the world. The risk of myocarditis has long been known, but experts believe it is minimal, and the upsides of the vaccine make it worth it.

A 26-year-old man from New Zealand died of myocarditis that health officials ruled to be caused by the Covid vaccine. It is at least the second state in the island nation caused by the vaccine. Pictured: A health worker in Auckland, New Zealand, delivers a jab of a Covid vaccine to a person in a car on October 16

Health officials, including the CDC, have long warned about the risks of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and their links to myocarditis. The jabs are safe and effective despite the risk, health officials say (file photo)

'With the current available information, the board has considered that the myocarditis was probably due to vaccination in this individual,' a COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board said in a statement.

The man's death occurred within two weeks of his first dose, and it was not reported that he had received a second dose.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company was aware of the report of the death in New Zealand, it monitored all reports of possible adverse events, and continued to believe the benefit-risk profile for its vaccine was positive.

New Zealand's vaccine safety board also said another two people, including a 13-year-old, had died with possible myocarditis after taking their vaccinations.

More details were needed before linking the child's death to the vaccine, while the death of a man in his 60s was unlikely related to the vaccine, it said.

At 26, the man was at the age most at risk to suffer from heart inflammation as a result of the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning in May that young people, and specifically young men, under 30 were at risk of developing the condition after receiving the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA shots.

At a presentation regarding the approval of the Covid booster shots, the CDC revealed data showing a male under the age of 30 is at least twice as likely to develop the condition than his older counterparts.

People aged 18 to 29 who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (left) were less likely to develop myocarditis than people who received the Moderna vaccine (right). The chart shows rates of the condition per every one million recipients of that vaccine in each age group. The Moderna vaccine is not available to Americans under the age of 18

After age 30, the risk of myocarditis heavily falls off.

The risk has been more greatly associated with the Moderna vaccine rather than Pfizer's, and it even caused the Food and Drug Administration to delay authorizing the shot for children 12 to 17 - a level of authorization Pfizer's shot has.

The virus is still much more risky than the vaccine, though. Even if a person does not suffer a sever case - or even death - the risk of developing myocarditis after being infected by Covid is much higher than it is after receiving the vaccines.

A recent study from Kaiser Permanente Southern California found that around seven out of every one million people that receive a two-shot COVID-19 vaccine will develop myocarditis.

The same study found that 47.5 out of every one million Covid patients experience heart inflammation.

While myocarditis will often resolve itself, it can be dangerous.

Heart inflammation can often lead to fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pain for patients.

People with inflamed hearts are at a higher risk for heart failure, heart attacks and strokes.

Attempting strenuous physical activity with an inflamed heart could also potentially lead to sudden cardiac arrest, or even death.

The condition is relatively minor usually, though, and will often resolve itself without the need for medical intervention.

Despite the rare side effects, the vaccine safety board said the benefits of vaccination greatly outweighed the risks.
With cases of Covid infection reportedly doubling every one and a half to two days, thanks to the emergence of the Omicron variant, we have spoken to leading experts in the UK to answer key questions to help you negotiate the latest stage of the coronavirus pandemic.

How bad is Omicron if you get it?

The evidence so far suggests the infection is generally mild and may damage the lungs less than Delta and the original Wuhan strain.

According to research by Cambridge University, Omicron appears less efficient at infecting cells in the deep part of the lungs, which can lead to severe illness.

'Reports from South Africa show there has been surprisingly little serious disease with the Omicron variant for the number of cases recorded,' says Andrew Preston, a professor of microbial pathogenesis at Bath University.

However, he adds: 'We should be cautious about extrapolating this experience to the UK because the profile of our population is very different.

According to research by Cambridge University, Omicron appears less efficient at infecting cells in the deep part of the lungs, which can lead to severe illness

'The UK suffered relatively badly in the first wave, suggesting our population has a higher predisposition to suffering serious disease.

'The level of immunity also differs between the two populations and the other infectious diseases experienced during the lifetime of a South African and a UK resident is different, and this can affect how they respond to particular infections.'

Ultimately, how ill you get with Covid is down to a number of factors, including underlying health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, says Will Irving, professor of virology at Nottingham University.

'In general, it's down to a combination of how rapidly your immune system responds and the size of the infecting dose'  in other words, how many virus particles you inhale.

'It's then a race between the pathogen replicating and the body's attempts to eliminate the pathogen.

'The benefit of vaccination is that it speeds up the body's response and makes it more likely that the immune system will win the race before serious disease develops.'

Why are the symptoms so different?

Early data suggests symptoms of Omicron are more similar to those of the common cold: runny nose, headache, fatigue  either mild or severe  sneezing and sore throat, rather than the classic Covid symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, says Professor Preston.

'This may be because Omicron has a number of mutations that make it different from previous variants,' he adds.

'For example, Omicron has 50 mutations, including 32 in the S gene, the gene that encodes the virus's spike protein which allows it to access our cells.

'This compares with up to 13 mutations on the S gene with Delta. It is possible some of these mutations alter its interaction with our bodies, and this changes the pattern of symptoms caused by Omicron infection.'

Another factor, he suggests, is that 'higher levels of immunity' in the population may alter the way Omicron interacts with our bodies, 'limiting the amount of virus that accumulates or tissues the virus reaches.

'There are also more respiratory viruses circulating this year  such as colds and flu  and this could also change the pattern of symptoms, as they can stimulate a general immune response in the body, causing symptoms such as fever, which is designed to slow down the reproduction of pathogens.'

Early data suggests symptoms of Omicron are more similar to those of the common cold: runny nose, headache, fatigue  either mild or severe  sneezing and sore throat, rather than the classic Covid symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, says Professor Preston

Why is Omicron so infectious?

'The mutations that have occurred in Omicron make it better able to infect the body,' says Professor Preston. 'There is some evidence to suggest that it is able to bind to the ACE2 receptor more tightly, facilitating its infection of our cells.' ACE2 receptors are proteins found on the surface of many types of cells and the route the virus uses to infect them.

'Also, Omicron is more able to evade immunity, from either vaccination or prior infection, so is able to infect people that other variants can't,' he says.

But there are some advantages. Omicron spreads rapidly because only a small amount of virus is needed to infect someone, says Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, who runs the ZOE Covid tracking app.

'The symptoms appear quicker  two days after contact  and seem to last less time. This is not ideal for the virus as people are shedding less virus for less time, and are less likely to pass it on unwittingly.'

Could I catch Delta and then Omicron?

'In short, yes,' says Professor Preston. 'Omicron in particular appears to be able to overcome the protection generated by both prior infection with another Covid variant such as Delta and prior vaccination.

'This is not unusual; Delta was able to evade to some extent the immunity stimulated by the Alpha variant. The good news is that it's almost certain any symptoms will be milder than if you hadn't been previously infected or vaccinated.'

I'm vaccinated. Will I catch Omicron?

Two doses of Covid vaccine offer far less protection against the new Omicron variant than against Delta.

Initial data suggests that 25 weeks after the second jab your level of protection against Omicron ranges from 10 per cent to 40 per cent depending on the jab you had, according to an analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) earlier this month. Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine offered 40 per cent protection against symptomatic infection with Delta and possibly less than 10 per cent against Omicron.

For two doses of the Pfizer jab, the figures were 60 per cent and under 40 per cent respectively.

Similar results emerged from research by Columbia University in the U.S. published last week, which found that Omicron is 'markedly resistant' to all four Covid vaccines.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser for UKHSA, said: 'I think what we're seeing is that if you've had two doses more than three months ago, then it's not going to prevent you from getting symptomatic disease.'

Two doses of Covid vaccine offer far less protection against the new Omicron variant than against Delta

However, the same analysis found that a booster jab increases protection to more than 70 per cent. This was backed by data from Imperial College, published last week, which suggests that two weeks after a second dose of vaccine, protection against Omicron is between 0 and 20 per cent; but this rises to between 55 and 80 per cent following a booster.

One reason for this is that, even though boosters aren't designed for the Omicron variant specifically, they trigger the body into making more antibodies.

Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system when it is under threat to seek out and destroy bugs and viruses.

And research has found that it is quantities of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid) that count, even if they are not particular to that variant.

Other studies suggest that killer T-cells, which are also triggered by a vaccine, retain much of their ability to target the virus even when it is a new variant.

'We still expect two doses of vaccine to dramatically decrease your risk of suffering serious disease from Omicron, compared to unvaccinated individuals, but it's clear that boosters offer significantly greater protection against disease, and this is very likely to also translate into decreasing the amount of transmission as well,' says Professor Preston.

Am I more likely to pass it on if I'm not jabbed?

'In a word, yes,' says Professor Irving. 'Being vaccinated or having Covid generates some degree of protection so you can still get infected  but it will help to limit how much the virus replicates in the body and lessen your viral 'load'.

This may not be enough to prevent a vaccinated person being infectious to others. But they are likely to be less infectious because they're likely to carry less virus in their body and for shorter periods.'

How long before my booster kicks in?

'When the body first comes into contact with a challenge  in this case, either the Covid pathogen itself or first vaccination  it takes between seven to 14 days to produce sufficient levels of antibodies and T-cells to fight the virus,' says Professor Preston.

'Subsequent responses are faster and stronger, so your immune response to a booster jab will be a matter of days, although to be on the safe side ten days is considered to be the point at which you will be receiving maximum protection.'

Professor Irving says antibody levels will remain high for four to six weeks after a booster dose and 'decline gradually thereafter'.

'The effect of the booster in the long term is that it generates increased numbers of memory cells, types of immune T- and B-cells, which can be activated quickly to make antibodies if there is any real infection in the future,' he adds.

'Memory cells can last for years against some diseases [studies show memory B-cells for smallpox last at least 60 years], and some of the antibodies produced by these memory cells will react against Omicron as, although it has mutations, the majority of the virus will remain the same.'

Why does the jab make some feel ill?

'The body's immune response to both infections and vaccines generally involves inflammation to deal with the 'perceived' enemy and this reaction can make us feel poorly,' says Professor Preston.

'So the aches and fever that some feel after a jab are actually our own body's response to the vaccine, not the vaccine itself.

'Inflammatory molecules called cytokines, which circulate in the blood after a jab and play a part in stimulating protection, can have various effects on the body, such as acting on the hypothalamus in the brain, which controls temperature, causing it to rise to kill off the 'enemy' it thinks is there.

'However, for most these 'side-effects' of vaccines are mild and short-lived compared to the diseases they protect against.'

For the 'vast majority of people' side-effects to the first dose, second dose or booster, such as a sore arm, headache or temperature, will last at most 48 hours and can be controlled by paracetamol, adds Professor Irving.

'The body's immune response to both infections and vaccines generally involves inflammation to deal with the 'perceived' enemy and this reaction can make us feel poorly,' says Professor Preston

'They dissipate once the acute inflammatory response induced by the vaccine has died down.

'However, there will be individual variation, and for a small minority of people, these side-effects may last slightly longer.'

When will the Omicron wave peak?

Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, last week predicted the Omicron wave will 'peak quite fast' and then fade away sooner than previous variants.

Professor Preston explains why this may happen: 'The build-up of infection is a combination of the infectiousness of the virus and the susceptibility of the population it is infecting.

'Omicron infections are rising fast because the variant is super-infectious and two doses of the vaccine don't offer good protection against it, so many people are susceptible to catching it.

'The plus side is that after quickly infecting a large number of people, these people will then develop some immunity and the pool of people who remain susceptible to Omicron will get smaller and smaller.

'When this happens, the rate of infection will start to decrease, hopefully rapidly. So the quicker the virus depletes the susceptible pool, the sooner the rate of infection will start to decrease. The number of people getting boosted each day will also probably decrease the susceptible pool.'

Changes in behaviour  wearing face masks, cancelling parties and working from home  will also help slow down infections, says Professor Spector.

'These changes will slow the spread of the virus, but in the new year cases could hit a peak higher than anything we've ever seen before,' he says.

How accurate are the tests?

There has been a suggestion that lateral flow tests (LFT) do not detect this variant  this is not the case because the viral proteins still bind to the antibodies used in the test.

When it comes to PCRs, 'a number of PCR tests target three different regions of the virus genome to determine whether the virus is present or not  each test comprises three separate results, providing excellent robustness,' says Professor Preston.

'However, some of the mutations in Omicron lie in one of these regions [affecting the S gene PCR target]. This means this particular aspect of the test is no longer able to identify Omicron, although the two other regions can, which means the test is still very robust.

'In fact, this failure of the S gene target is proving remarkably useful, helping to quickly identify which cases are caused by Delta  a positive for all three targets  and Omicron  two positives but a negative for the S gene.

'Genome sequencing is needed for definitive proof of Omicron infection, but this takes a week. The PCR test data is priceless while infections are increasing so quickly.'

'If there are a lot of colds going around and more people have mucusy noses, then this could compromise the quality of the nose swab for LFTs,' adds Professor Preston.

'Likewise, if Omicron itself causes a runny nose, then this could produce a similar effect. However, PCR tests require both a throat and nose sweep on the same swab, so it seems unlikely to affect pcr results.'

For the 'vast majority of people' side-effects to the first dose, second dose or booster, such as a sore arm, headache or temperature, will last at most 48 hours and can be controlled by paracetamol, adds Professor Irving

Can I get one of the new Covid pills?

'Two new antiviral pills  molnupiravir and Paxlovid  have been shown to be safe and effective against Covid in clinical trials,' says Professor Preston.

'These medications interfere with the ability of the virus to reproduce in our bodies, hopefully reducing the severity of the infection.

'Currently, only molnupiravir has been approved for use in the UK, and for people with mild to moderate Covid who are at increased risk of developing serious disease because they have other risk factors such as type 2 diabetes or chronic lung conditions.

'Therefore, these pills will be targeted at this particular group of patients, rather than everyone who tests positive for the virus. Importantly, it is likely that these medications are most effective if administered early during the infection, so a prompt diagnosis is vital. It will be down to your GP to decide whether you should receive it.'

Another drug, sotrovimab, designed to reduce the risk of vulnerable patients with Covid needing hospital treatment, was also made available on the NHS yesterday. Again, this needs to be given quickly, in the first five days after infection.

What if I feel ill but test negative?

'The best course of action is to still isolate and test regularly,' says Professor Preston. 'No test is 100 per cent accurate.

'In a situation where you have a very large number of Covid infections, as we are now experiencing in the UK, even a small percentage of false negatives from tests adds up to a lot of people who might have Covid even though their test is negative.

'Taking several tests over a number of days is much more likely to give you a true result.' Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, recommends having a PCR test if repeated lateral flow tests are negative but you still have symptoms, because PCR tests are more accurate.

'The best course of action is to still isolate and test regularly,' says Professor Preston. 'No test is 100 per cent accurate

What if someone in my house has Covid?

'The best advice is to isolate from them,' says Professor Preston. 'Covid is caught by breathing in air that is contaminated with the virus so avoid sharing the same air space as much as you can.

'In theory the virus can travel under doors but the escape of air under doors is minimal, certainly compared to opening it. If the person with Covid has to use a room that you also use, ask them to open the windows before they leave.

'How long you should wait to enter will depend on the size of the room; if there is good turnover of air, just a few minutes will be sufficient. In the bathroom, cleaning around the sinks and taps where saliva may be present is a good idea.'

Wearing masks around the house will also help, says Thorrun Govind. However, cleaning surfaces will have a pretty minor effect because we now know that Covid is an airborne infection.

Why did two variants start in South Africa?

'No one knows where Omicron came from but South Africa was the first region that it reached with the surveillance infrastructure to pick it up,' says Professor Preston.

'Although first reported there, some of the early cases in other countries suggest it was already present in other places. For example, the first Belgian case had travelled to Egypt and Turkey, so the virus was clearly in other places even very early on.'

This is similar situation to the so-called 'Kent' (Alpha) variant, which was first detected by researchers in Cambridge thanks to sophisticated gene sequencing, but which also occurred elsewhere in the world independently.

One theory is that such variants may have mutated many times over a period of months in patients with compromised immune systems.

Should we wear those beak masks?

IN Europe, you see lots of people using the higher grade FFP2 and FFP3 masks. Should I start wearing one?

Whatever mask you choose, wearing it correctly is the most important thing, says Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

'The mask should cover the nose and mouth and be well-fitting with a tight seal to provide optimum protection,' she says.

Professor Preston adds: 'Higher quality masks such as FFP2 and 3 do provide better protection than the regular face coverings. They filter out finer particles and protect the wearer from airborne infectious material in high-risk environments.

'However, the main purpose of wearing masks in public spaces is to prevent people from transmitting the virus to others; they are not the main line of protection against contracting Covid-19 which  unfortunately  remains reducing your contacts with other people. FFP2 and 3 masks are really important for protecting those who encounter high levels of virus often, such as healthcare workers who are interacting with Covid patients. It's vital the supply of these mask types is protected for these members of our society  don't rush out and buy one.'

How much does a mask cut transmission by?

Estimates range from a few to 20 per cent, says Professor Preston. 'This might not sound much but day in, day out, in a country of 60 million, this amounts to a very large number of possible transmissions prevented.'
As we face a rising tide of Omicron cases, much has been made of the importance of protecting the NHS and taking steps to minimise the spread.

This is so that there are enough NHS staff to cope with the people who need hospital treatment.

So why, then, are so many NHS healthcare workers unvaccinated?

On December 12, the Prime Minister launched an urgent national appeal calling on Britons to get boosted now  to protect ourselves and the NHS against the coming tidal wave of the Omicron Covid variant.

But many of those millions who responded to his call would be shocked to learn that several of the professional bodies that represent NHS medical staff oppose the introduction of mandatory vaccinations for those working face-to-face with patients in hospitals.

As we face a rising tide of Omicron cases, much has been made of the importance of protecting the NHS and taking steps to minimise the spread. This is so that there are enough NHS staff to cope with the people who need hospital treatment. So why, then, are so many NHS healthcare workers unvaccinated?

The Department of Health estimates that more than 200,000 NHS workers remain unvaccinated (with 103,000 unvaccinated trust workers and 105,000 domiciliary care workers, according to figures given to the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on November 25). It is not known how many agency staff are unvaccinated.

Whats more, when faced with having the jab or losing their job, only 54,000 (26 per cent) would agree to be vaccinated, while 126,000 (61 per cent) would leave their jobs. (There are more than 1.4 million people working for NHS trusts.)

Hardly surprising, perhaps, with professional bodies including the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association opposed to mandatory vaccination for their members.

On November 9, following a six-week consultation, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that all frontline NHS staff would have to be fully vaccinated or face the prospect of being sacked. To give all staff enough time to be fully vaccinated, the deadline is April 2022.

When faced with having the jab or losing their job, only 54,000 (26 per cent) would agree to be vaccinated, while 126,000 (61 per cent) would leave their jobs. (There are more than 1.4 million people working for NHS trusts.)

Nearly half of the responses to the consultation were health and care staff working with patients. More than a third (36 per cent) of those opposed the introduction of mandatory vaccination, but some of the most trenchant opposition came from professional bodies.

The Royal College of Physicians said it was very concerned that if jabs were made obligatory it could have a negative and far-reaching impact on the NHS workforce.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said it believed that all health and care staff should choose to be vaccinated, but added that our view is that making any vaccination mandatory is not sensible or necessary.

The Royal College of Nursings stated position is that all members of the nursing team should have any vaccine deemed necessary to help protect themselves, patients, colleagues, family members and the wider community.

But it adds: The RCN has significant concerns that mandating vaccines will further marginalise those who are currently vaccine hesitant and put further pressure on a hugely depleted workforce by forcing people out of employment.

The risk of any patient picking up a Covid infection in hospital from an unvaccinated member of staff is unknown. But research by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals Trust found two of the 22 patients whod been infected in Addenbrookes between March and June 2020 had caught it from staff.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said it believed that all health and care staff should choose to be vaccinated, but added that our view is that making any vaccination mandatory is not sensible or necessary. An NH worker is seen being vaccinated

chris Illingworth, the study lead and a senior lecturer at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, says: The first rule in medicine is to do no harm.

People  should be able to feel certain that the clinical staff treating them have done everything they can to keep them safe.

The reasons for healthcare staff refusing to be vaccinated are varied and complex. A large study published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health in Europe in July looked at vaccine hesitancy. Based on six studies involving nearly 12,000 staff, it found almost a quarter were vaccine hesitant, but that rates varied between ethnic groups.

Most hesitant were those identifying as Black Caribbean (54.2 per cent), followed by Mixed White and Black Caribbean (38.1 per cent) and White British (21.3 per cent).

Among the overall 63.1 per cent concerned about safety or potential side-effects, most concern was expressed by Asian respondents (71.4 per cent), followed by Mixed (69.2 per cent), Black (68.9 per cent) and White (59.3 per cent).

There was also concern about whether the vaccines had been thoroughly tested in all ethnic groups: 46.7 per cent of Black respondents were worried about this, and 34.6 per cent of Asians.

Helen Donovan, the professional lead for public health at the Royal College of Nursing, told Good Health: Improving confidence in vaccines is complex and there are variations across different cultural groups, different religious groups, and between different vaccines.

Daniel Sokol, a leading medical ethicist and barrister who has acted as an ethics adviser for various government bodies, believes organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing have no business arguing against mandatory vaccination.

They risk damaging public trust and confidence in the medical profession, he told Good Health.

Very few reasonable patients would want to be treated by unvaccinated staff. I cant imagine many reasonable clinicians would want to work closely with them either.

From an ethical perspective, he added, there was no question that healthcare staff working with patients should be vaccinated.
GlaxoSmithKline has appointed former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis as the new non-executive chairman of its consumer healthcare arm, which it plans to spin off and list in London next year.

Lewis, who is credited with driving a major turnaround at Tesco following its accounting scandal, will take up the role in January, the pharma giant said today.

The 56-year old will be in charge of picking board members for the new company, which is expected to list on the London Stock Exchange when it becomes a separate entity in the summer of 2022.

Taking the lead: Sir Dave Lewis has been picked to become the new chairman of the GSK arm which owns Panadol and Sensodyne

GSK's consumer healthcare business - whose brands include Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol pain relief - is a joint venture with Pfizer and made more than 10billion in sales last year.

Analysts have predicted that the spin-off will be worth around 45billion.

GSK chairman, Sir Jonathan Symonds, said Lewis will bring 'outstanding global consumer and retail sector experience' to the new company.

Lewis' appointment may placate activist investors Elliott Management and Bluebell Capital, both of which have challenged the split, arguing GSK should sell the consumer business rather than listing it as a new company.

They have questioned GSK chief executive Emma Walmsleys ability to lead the science-focused firm, and Elliott urged it to hire non-executive directors with expertise in pharma and consumer healthcare.

Since leaving Tesco last year, Lewis has joined the board of PepsiCo and become chairman of wildlife charity WWF-UK.

In October, the industry veteran was also also appointed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to advise the Government on how to tackle the supply chain crisis, which had resulted in staff and labour shortages across the UK.

'I am looking forward to being part of its exciting future as an independent company and the very positive impact it can have on people's health all over the world,' he said.

His appointment comes after confirmation earlier this year that the current boss of the consumer healthcare division, Brian McNamara, will become chief executive of the spin-off.

GSK shares are down 2 per cent to 15.80 amid a wider market sell-off.
Stock markets have recouped some of this morning's losses but still ended the day in the red as fresh Covid restrictions dented UK and European investor confidence.

The FTSE 100 closed down 1 per cent, or 71.9 points, at 7,198.0, while the FTSE 250 also fell 1 per cent, or 230.5 points, to 22,549.9.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor, said: 'Fears about new Omicron restrictions and below-average festive week volumes look set to drive a choppy week of trade ahead with little sign of a Santa rally so far.

'In fact, it looks as though he came and went already with the FTSE 100 rallying in the first week of December before retracing around 60 per cent of those gains.'

Britains Prudential Regulation Authority has fined Standard Chartered 46.55million for failing to be open and cooperative with the regulator, and for failings in its controls.

Former Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has been appointed by GlaxoSmithKline as non-executive chair designate of the new consumer healthcare company, which will result from the proposed demerger from GSK in 2022.

GSK said Lewis's appointment will take effect from 1 January 2022.

Elsewhere, the World Economic Forum has postponed its annual meeting in Davos to next summer due to the Omicron outbreak.

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Standard Chartered has been fined by Britain's financial services regulatory body for inaccurately reporting its liquidity position and control failures.

It will pay a 46.55million settlement to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for five breaches committed between March 2018 and May 2019, including a failure to notify the PRA of an error until after a four-month internal probe was concluded.

In October 2017, the regulator imposed new liquidity expectations on Standard Chartered over worries regarding an enhanced risk of higher US dollar liquidity outflows.

Banking fine: Standard Chartered will pay a 46.55million settlement to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for five breaches committed between March 2018 and May 2019

Though the PRA acknowledged that the FTSE 100 group's liquidity position 'remained in surplus to its core liquidity requirements,' it added the bank's reporting errors meant it 'did not have a reliable overview of its USD liquidity position.'

The banking giant would have paid around 20million extra had it not agreed to settle the case, but the amount it will pay is still the largest ever handed out in a PRA-only enforcement case.

Standard Chartered's sanction comes two months after the Reserve Bank of India hit the group's Indian division with a minor penalty for breaking rules on reporting frauds and a cyber security incident.

Its highest-ever fine was a $1.1billion (842million) settlement agreed with US and UK financial authorities in 2019 for breaching anti-money laundering regulations and trading with numerous countries, such as Iran and Syria, in violation of sanctions.

Many British financial services institutions have also been recently slapped with fines, including HSBC and NatWest just last week for acting insufficiently to combat money laundering at their banks.

At the start of the month, the two firms, along with Barclays received 344million (293million) in penalties by the European Commission for their roles in the 'Sterling Lads' currency cartel.

Settlement discount: The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority would have fined Standard Chartered around another 20million had the case not been settled

This scandal centred on an online chat forum used by foreign currency traders from five banks who were exchanging sensitive information with each other. The commission said that this was evidence of 'collusive behaviour.'

Commenting on today's announcement, Sam Woods, the PRA's chief executive and Bank of England's Deputy Governor, said: 'We expect firms to notify us promptly of any material issues with their regulatory reporting, which Standard Chartered failed to do in this case.

'Standard Chartered's systems, controls and oversight fell significantly below the standards we expect of a systemically important bank, and this is reflected in the size of the fine in this case.'

The PRA added that its investigation found that Standard Chartered also failed to implement a documented policy setting out when liquidity errors should be notified to the regulator.

It also found the bank failed to maintain and operate adequate controls testing and checks over liquidity. The bank did not ensure it has appropriate human resources to investigate potential misreporting, the PRA added.

A spokesman for Standard Chartered said it 'accepts the findings' of the PRA related to liquidity reporting errors it said it 'self-identified and self-corrected in 2018 and 2019.'

'These errors did not affect Standard Chartered's overall liquidity position, which remained in surplus throughout the period,' it added.

'Standard Chartered has cooperated proactively and fully with the PRA's investigation and has made significant improvements to and substantial investment in its liquidity and regulatory reporting processes and controls and remains committed to accurate regulatory reporting.'

Shares in the financial services firm closed trading 1.3 per cent lower at 426.1p on Monday.
Wetherspoon has appointed four pub managers to its board of directors in an effort to bring 'more pub experience' to top level decision-making.

The company said it had received over 100 applications from staff around the country and appointed two employees to full director status, and two as associate directors.

While this is an unusual move for a UK-listed company, Wetherspoon chairman and founder Tim Martin said this was key for a firm's success.

Worker directors: Wetherspoon has appointed four to its board today

'A successful pub company depends primarily on gradual improvements, based on suggestions from employees,' he said today.

'Pub and area managers, and other members of pub teams, have always participated in weekly decision-making meetings, which distil suggestions from the 'front line'.

'The appointment of employee directors will extend this approach to board meetings and will help to preserve the culture of the company for the future.'

West Midlands regional manager, Debbie Whittingham - who joined the group in 1992 - and Hudson Simmons, the area manager for Sheffield, have been appointed as employee directors with full PLC director status.

Meanwhile, the regional manager for the Manchester area, Will Fotheringham, and the pub manager of the Imperial in Exeter, Emma Gibson, have been made associate employee directors.

All will act as directors from today, and will remain in place for three years.

Luke Hildyard, the executive director of the High Pay Centre, a think-tank that focuses on pay and corporate governance, was cautious in welcoming the move.

He said: 'The perspectives workers directors can offer in terms of improvements to customer service and employee relations are obvious.

'The new Wetherspoons directors would have more credibility and independence if theyd been elected by colleagues rather than appointed by existing board members and it should also be remembered that boardroom representation is a complement not a substitute for full trade union rights and recognition.

'But this is a positive step by Wetherspoons that will benefit both workers and shareholders in the long term.'

Wetherspoon chairman and founder Tim Martin welcomed suggestions from the 'front line'

While the appointment of worker representatives to corporate boards is popular in countries such as Sweden and Germany, in the UK it is not commonplace.

In 2019, outsourcing company Capita became the first FTSE 250 company for 30 years to appoint workers as directors on its main board.

Before that, the last worker to be appointed by a major UK pubic company board was at First Group, when train driver Mick Barker joined the boardroom in 1989.

Putting employees on companies' boards was one of then-Labour-leader Jeremy Corbyn's top policies in 2018.

It was also one of the key initiatives proposed by Theresa May when she became prime minister in 2016, but has been dropped by the current government.

The Government's updated UK Corporate Governance code, which took effect from January 2019, allowed listed companies to invent their own system for 'engaging' with employees.

They can even ignore the directive entirely if they explain their decision to investors.

According to a recent report commissioned by The Financial Reporting Council 'only a tiny fraction of firms' - or just five FTSE 350 companies - had worker directors on their board.

'Perhaps these are not the radical changes that some had hoped for,' concluded the report, which was carried out by Royal Holloway University and the Involvement and Participation Association in May this year.
Sarah Palin says she'll get the COVID-19 vaccine 'over my dead body' because she claims Dr. Anthony Fauci misled the public by saying that those who have been infected with coronavirus had natural immunity.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee tested positive for COVID-19 in March. After her diagnosis, she encouraged the public to wear masks and take the pandemic seriously.

But during her appearance on Sunday at the Americafest event staged by the conservative student group Turning Point USA in Phoenix, the 57-year-old firebrand 'mama grizzly' struck a different tone.

Palin said it was Fauci's 'inconsistent' comments about natural immunity that has dissuaded her from getting vaccinated.

'Do you remember he said that if you had Covid, you would be naturally immune?' Palin said during an on-stage interview with Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of TPUSA.

Sarah Palin says she'll get the COVID-19 vaccine 'over my dead body' because she claims Dr. Anthony Fauci misled the public by saying that those who have been infected with coronavirus had natural immunity

Palin made the remarks during her appearance on Sunday at the Americafest event staged by the conservative student group Turning Point USA in Phoenix. She is seen right alongside TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee tested positive for COVID-19 in March, as did members of her family. After her diagnosis, she encouraged the public to wear masks and take the pandemic seriously

In March, Palin revealed she tested positive for coronavirus. She encouraged Americans to wear masks. She is pictured wearing a mask in an Instagram video

Palin is seen above with her son, Trig. Palin says the coronavirus worked its way through her family, infecting herself, her daughter and Trig

Don Jr. gets 'Let's Go Brandon' chant going during speech at Americafest Don Jr. got a 'Let's Go Brandon' chant going during his speech at a conservative conference in Phoenix on Sunday. The former president's son appeared at Turning Point USA's Americafest event. 'How about a "Let's Go Brandon"?' Trump asked as he took the stage. The crowd were happy to oblige and after about 30 seconds, Trump added: 'You know there's another way to say that, but I will not condone that kind of behavior from you fine, young individuals.' The phrase became a euphemism for 'F**k Joe Biden' after a sports host mistook it for the latter during an interview at a NASCAR race in October. In his speech, Trump slammed transgender inclusion in sports, referring to the University of Pennsylvania's swimmer Lia Thomas. Thomas, who previously competed as a man, smashed the Ivy League record and trounced her opponent by a staggering 38 seconds at a recent meet. Don Jr. also claimed China is 'laughing' at the US after the Air Force over efforts to 'make sure you have plenty of transgender pilots.' The USAF announced in April it would implement new policies to protect the rights of airmen who have transitioned or are transitioning to a different gender. Advertisement

'So at the time we were led to believe we wouldn't need to have the shot. Well, then they changed their tune. Those of us who have had Covid, they're telling us that even though we've had it - we have natural immunity - now that we still have to get a shot.'

She added: 'And it'll be over my dead body that I get a shot.

'I will not. I won't do it and they better not touch my kids either.'

In the spring, Palin told PEOPLE magazine that she and some of her family members tested positive for COVID-19, including her 12-year-old son Trig, who has Down syndrome.

Palin and her son 'buckled down in isolated quarantine' but then 'symptoms started overnight with a slight fever and sore muscles,' she said.

'As confident as I'd like to be about my own health, and despite my joking that I'm blessed to constantly breathe in the most sterile air, my case is perhaps one of those that proves anyone can catch this,' the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and television personality said.

The virus worked its way through her household, with her daughter first exhibiting symptoms, Palin said.

'[O]ne of my daughters awoke to having lost her sense of taste and smell [and] immediately had a positive COVID test, then was quarantined in isolation,' she said.

After initially testing negative, Palin said she developed coronavirus symptoms 'overnight' and suffered a fever, muscle soreness and loss of taste and smell.

It was unmistakable that 'COVID caught me,' she said.

'That day I finally tested positive  like millions of other Americans,' she said.

Palin then observed symptoms in son Trig.

Don Jr., the former president's son, speaking on stage at the Americafest on Sunday

Tucker Carlson speaking at the event in Phoenix on Sunday

'Children with special needs are vulnerable to COVID ramifications, so with a high fever he was prescribed azithromycin, which really seemed to help, and I increased amounts of vitamins I put in his pureed food,' she said.

Palin encouraged Americans to wear masks, calling it 'better than doing nothing.'

'Through it all, I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it's better than doing nothing to slow the spread,' Palin said.

Palin said in a statement, 'I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there.'

'There are more viruses than there are stars in the sky, meaning we'll never avoid every source of illness or danger,' she said. 'But please be vigilant, don't be frightened, and I advise reprioritizing some personal time and resources to ensure as healthy a lifestyle as you can create so when viruses do hit, you have at least some armor to fight it.'

In September, Fauci appeared on CNN and was asked about an Israeli study which suggested that those who have recovered from COVID-19 had a greater degree of protection from the virus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Palin said it was Fauci's 'inconsistent' comments about natural immunity that has dissuaded her from getting vaccinated

Palin announced that last month that she may consider a run for the Senate in 2022. She burst onto the national scene in 2008, when then-Senator John McCain of Arizona named her as his running mate during the race for the presidency

In light of the findings, Fauci was asked how public health officials should go about trying to convince those who have natural immunity after being infected to get vaccinated.

'I don't have a really firm answer for you on that,' Fauci said.

'That's something that we're going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response.

'The one thing the paper from Israel didn't tell you is whether or not as high as the protection is with natural infection, what's the durability compared to the durability of the vaccine.'

'So it is conceivable that you got infected, you're protected, but you may not be protected for an indefinite amount of time,' Fauci said.

'So, I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously because you very appropriately pointed out, it is an issue and there could be an argument saying what you said.'

Fauci's comments align with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions' recommendation that those who have recovered from the virus should still receive a vaccine.

In September, Palin appeared on Fox News and reiterated her position that she didn't need to get vaccinated because she had natural immunity.

'I am one of those white common sense conservatives,' she began, 'I believe in the science and I have not taken the shot.

'I do believe in science and the Faucism of the day back then was if you've had COVID, I've had COVID, well then mother nature was creating an immunity into me.'

An article published by Science.org titled 'Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccinebut vaccination remains vital' discusses the Israeli study.

While the study does prove the power of the human immune system, it goes on to show that people who previously had COVID and received one dose of the vaccine 'were more highly protected against reinfection' than people who had COVID and did not receive the shot.

The conclusion of the study did not question or dismiss the need for previously infected people to receive the vaccine entirely but suggested that those people may only be in need of one dose instead of two.

However, the CDC cited a study which found that unvaccinated people who had been previously diagnosed with COVID were 2 times more likely than vaccinated people to be reinfected.

The study conducted in the United States noted 'the benefit of vaccination for previously infected persons.'

More than 202 million Americans have been fully vaccinated as of Sunday.

Government officials are intensifying calls for those who have not been vaccinated to get the shot in light of the surge of cases fueled by the Omicron variant.

Health officials said that while more studies are needed, it appears the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant, which was blamed for the most recent wave of newly diagnosed cases.

While Palin may not have plans to get the COVID vaccine, she has hinted that she may be jumping back into politics with a bid for the US Senate in 2022.

Palin would be running against incumbent Lisa Murkowski, who has held the position since 2002 and serves as the second-most senior Republican woman in the Senate.

'If God wants me to do it I will,' Palin told a conservative Christian crowd on July 22 in Pasadena, California, after New Apostolic Reformation leader Che Ahn asked her if she was planning on running for the Senate seat.

'What I would do if I were to announce is say you know what, you guys better be there for me this time because a lot of people weren't there for me last time and that's why characterization-wise, I got clobbered,' Palin said.
Israel is set to slap a travel ban on the US and Canada in an attempt to stop the COVID Omicron variant from spreading there.

The recommendation comes after it was reported that a recent flight from Miami brought in 17 people who were infected with coronavirus. Most of those infections were caused by the Omicron variant, according to local media.

The proposed ban would stop Israelis traveling to the US, Canada or any other countries on the so-called red list. Any Israeli passport holders visiting from a banned country would have to isolate on arrival, regardless of vaccination status.

People from banned countries who don't hold an Israeli passport will be forbidden from visiting altogether.

In order for the recommended travel ban to go into effect, it must be approved by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's cabinet as well as the Knesset - Israeli parliament.

Barring US travel for Israeli citizens and residents would mark a significant step for Bennett's government, given the hundreds of thousands of dual nationals and close ties between the countries.

Bennett said Israel was in the midst of its fifth wave of Covid-19. Authorities reported 794 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday - slightly above the seven-day average of 754.

The number of deaths reported remained in the single digits.

Since the start of the pandemic last year, more than 1.36 million Israelis have been infected with coronavirus. More than 8,200 have died.

The Israeli health ministry is recommending that travelers be barred from flying to the United States, Canada, and several European countries. The image above shows several El Al Airlines Boeing 737 plans on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv in March 2020

The countrys health ministry has reported at least 134 confirmed cases of the omicron variant since its emergence in late November.

The Haaretz news site on Sunday said some 17 travelers with the coronavirus arrived on a single flight from Miami, most of them with the Omicron variant.

'The Omicron variant is already here,' he told a press conference after a cabinet meeting, 'and it's spreading fast.'

Speaking earlier, Bennett reiterated that he would continue to restrict travel in order to avoid further lockdowns.

He said Israel had gained 'precious time' by curbing travel immediately after the Omicron variant was detected in South Africa last month.

'European countries are either in lockdown or are heading that way,' he said, stressing that for Israel 'time is running out.'

Lawmakers on Sunday approved an earlier health ministry recommendation to bar Israeli citizens and residents from travelling to France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Britain and Denmark were already on the red list, as was most of Africa.

In addition to the US, the health ministry recommended that Canada, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey be red-listed, guidance that is awaiting approval from the government and lawmakers.

Israeli citizens and residents who are already abroad when a country is declared red must quarantine for a week after returning home.

Non-resident foreigners from all countries are barred from entry unless they have special permission.

Bennett called on Israelis to work from home and encouraged parents to vaccinate their children.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel was in the midst of its fifth wave of Covid-19. Authorities reported 794 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday - slightly above the seven-day average of 754. The number of deaths reported remained in the single digits. Since the start of the pandemic last year, more than 1.36 million Israelis have been infected with coronavirus. More than 8,200 have died

'Our goal is to brave this wave without it affecting the economy and education as much as possible,' he said.

'The way to achieve that is by slowing down the infection rate, and vaccinating Israeli children in the meantime as quickly as possible.'

Ran Balicer, chairman of Israel's national expert panel on Covid-19, told AFP the travel rules were allowing for most life to continue as usual inside Israel.

'The more strict you are in preventing importation and delaying local transmission, the more lax you can be in disturbing the economy and everyday life,' he said.

Balicer estimated that Israel would ease its restrictions once local transmission of Omicron began to rise, reducing the relative proportion of cases coming in from overseas.

He said it was not yet clear if the strain posed a risk of severe illness and death.

More than 4.1 million of Israel's estimated 9.3 million people have received three shots of a coronavirus vaccine, with the country currently giving jabs to children aged 5-11.

Ex-FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb says theres NO indication COVID Omicron variant causes more severe illness and highlights South African data showing those infected are less likely to end up in hospital

The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that there was no indication that the new Omicron variant of COVID causes more severe illness.

Dr Scott Gottlieb spoke with CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday to discuss new developments of the variant which was first detected in South Africa in late November.

Despite being considered more transmissible, Gottlieb made an effort to ease fears surrounding Omicron based on the low number of hospitalizations of patients infected with the new variant.

'There's no indication that it causes more severe illness,' he told network host Margaret Brennan. 'What we've seen in South Africa in particular, is a decoupling between the cases and hospitalizations,' meaning those infected are less likely to need professional medical treatment.

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that there is no indication the new Omicron variant is a more severe illness

Gottlieb spoke with CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan about the new developments with the Omicron variant

Gottlieb also added that the hospitalization rate was down 30 percent in South Africa relative to cases with more severe admissions linked to past waves down 80 percent.

He also attributed low severity of the illness to the immunity level of populations in both the US and South Africa.

'Probably around 80 percent of Americans and 90 percent of South Africans have some level of immunity, either from prior infection or through vaccination,' he added.

'So even though we're still getting infected because this is spreading through immune evasion, it's spreading by evading the immune- immunity that we've acquired.'

South Africa announced on Friday that hospital admission rates had lowered since the Omicron variant surfaced on November 25.

About 7,600 people with COVID are seeking treatment in the country's hospitals with the current excess death rate measured at below 2,000 a week.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, more than 90 percent of hospital deaths were among the unvaccinated.

In the US, a total of 45 states have reported at least one case of the new variant amid the surge of COVID cases prior to the upcoming holiday season.

Scientists including White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci have also highlighted preliminary data showing Omicron is less likely to cause serious illness, although they've urged people to remain cautious while more evidence is collected.

Since the start of December, both U.S. COVID cases and deaths have risen about 50 percent and the number of hospitalized COVID patients climbed 26 percent, according to a Reuters tally.

The presence of the new Omicron variant has so far been identified in 830 cases across the country.

During the interview, Brennan noted that Americans feared another lockdown or stricter guidelines may be in order due to the new variant and surge of cases.

'Well, look, I think people are really tired of living diminished lives from COVID generally, and you're seeing that in terms of what people are doing, they're re-engaging activity that we know are going to be conducive to the spread of this virus,' he responded. 'Omicron really has thrown a curveball here.'

Gottlieb added that extra precautions needed to be taken such as receiving a COVID test, wearing masks and getting the booster shot.

He said, however, that the new variant is 'moving very fast' in other nations and that we may 'face a hard four to six weeks' in the near future.
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Britain has recorded 82,886 Covid cases as Sajid Javid has refused to rule out another lockdown before Christmas and SAGE advisers told government officials that mixing of households should be banned 'very soon'.

The number of cases has risen by 32,473, or 64.4 per cent, in seven days. But is lower than yesterday's figure of 90,418.

Some 45 deaths were recorded today, a decrease of 7 from last week's 52 and a percentage decrease of 13.5.

And cases of the Omicron variant have risen by 50 per cent in just 24 hours to 37,101 as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a further 12,133 cases today.

It comes as Health Secretary Sajid Javid this morning refused to rule out the possibility of another lockdown before Christmas.

Mr Javid admitted 'everything is under review' after SAGE delivered a grim assessment that the number of infections could reach two million by the end of the month without tougher restrictions - floating a 'circuit breaker' ban on households mixing and closure of non-essential shops.

Medical and science chiefs Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance briefed the Cabinet yesterday that more measures are required to stop hospital admissions soaring above 3,000 per day in England. Modelling suggests the peak could be as high as 10,000 and the daily death toll might reach 6,000.

There is deep resistance among ministers about the prospect of plunging millions of people back into lockdown wrecking Christmas again while evidence remains unclear.

Questions have also been raised about whether Mr Johnson even has the political capital to push through restrictions, after a massive revolt against Plan B last week and the bombshell resignation of his Brexit minister Lord Frost overnight, highlighting the danger of 'coercive' policies.

However, Mr Javid appeared to hint at a looming shift this morning, saying the SAGE analysis is 'sobering' and the government is ready to 'do what is necessary'.

Pushed on whether a circuit breaker could be ruled out before Christmas, Mr Javid told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: 'There are no guarantees in this pandemic, I don't think.

'At this point we just have to keep everything under review.'

Of the advice from scientists, he said: 'It's a very sobering analysis. We take it very seriously.

'We do have to challenge data and underlying assumptions, I think that is appropriate, and take into account a broader set of facts.'

The gloomy news of another potential Christmas of chaos came as:

Sajid Javid refused to rule out the possibility of another lockdown before Christmas;

Sadiq Khan declared a 'major incident' in London amid fears the capital could run out of police officers, firefighters and NHS workers to cover shifts because rapid rise of Covid cases;

The number of people in hospital with the Omicron variant rose by 20 to 85 and cases increased by 69% in a day with another 10,059 infections recorded;

'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson said most people infected with Omicron in Britain would not get seriously ill because they will be protected by their immunity from vaccines or prior infection.

In interviews this morning, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the government has to use the 'data that we have got' and infections were rising quickly

Government advisors are understood to be urging ministers to take action 'immediately' to stop a significant wave of hospitalisations and warn that it willl be at least a week before the effect of any action taken now is seen.

The aim of a 'circuit breaker' ban on household mixing would be to stop hospitalisations overwhelming the NHS until booster jabs can be given to all adults, which the government hopes to achieve in January.

Some critics of the SAGE message point to data from South Africa which shows that far fewer people are hospitalised by Omicron leading to speculation that it could cause milder symptoms.

They also say that the Omicron wave in the 'ground-zero' Gauteng region where the variant was first detected has peaked much more rapidly than previous waves. After rising rapidly for three weeks cases in Gauteng are now falling.

SAGE advisers counter that South Africa's high levels of immunity from infection and young population could be responsible for the lower hospitalisation numbers.

Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews and a member of Sage, said it was clear that Plan B measures alone would not be enough to stop the spiralling numbers of Omicron cases in the Uk and that the Government needs to 'act now'.

He added: 'Now, you could have it after Christmas, the problem is after Christmas it's probably too late, it's probably by then we will have had a huge surge of infections with all the impact upon society.'

Officials draw up plans for two-week 'circuit breaker' lockdown - including bans on households mixing Plans for a two-week circuit breaker after Christmas with a ban on indoor mixing are being drawn up, it emerged last night. Leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warn that restrictions are needed 'very soon' to avoid hospitalisations rising to 3,000 a day. During the meeting on Thursday, the experts backed a ban on indoor social contact and hospitality. In what could be a blow to Britons planning New Year parties, they want fresh measures to come in before January 1. 'The timing of such measures is crucial,' said the minutes, seen by the BBC. 'Delaying until 2022 would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings.' Whitehall officials are preparing draft regulations that would ban meeting others indoors except for work purposes, and pubs and restaurants would be limited to outdoor service only, reported The Times. According to the Sage minutes, the advisers recommended moving back to restrictions set down in Step One and Two of the roadmap out of lockdown in the spring, which involved a ban on indoor social contact and indoor hospitality. They warned that solely sticking to Plan B could lead to 'at least' 3,000 hospital admissions a day in England. Admissions have been between 800 and 900 a day in the past week. Introducing these measures early enough 'could substantially reduce the peak in hospital admission and infections compared with Plan B alone', the minutes said. Boris Johnson was presented with several options yesterday for a so-called Plan C, ranging from 'mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown', according to the Financial Times. Ministers will decide this weekend whether any new Covid restrictions are needed following the latest dire warnings from scientists. Advertisement

The surging statistics came as Professor Neil Ferguson  whose projections have spooked No10 into lockdowns before  called for curbs to be tightened by New Year on the back of his latest modelling of the mutant strain.

He told BBC 4's Today Programme hospitalisations could be overwhelmed by Christmas as Omicron cases rise in the next week with a 'very large epidemic underway'. He added: 'The level of protection against severe disease is not perfect and the very large case numbers may still translate into very large numbers of hospitalisations.'

During the Sage meeting on Thursday, the experts backed a ban on indoor social contact and hospitality. In what could be a blow to Britons planning New Year parties, they want fresh measures to come in before January 1.

Leaked minutes from Sage, seen by the BBC, said scientists had told ministers that tougher measures need to be brought in 'very soon'.

'The timing of such measures is crucial,' said the minutes. 'Delaying until 2022 would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings.'

An emergency Cobra meeting this weekend will discuss if a joint response to the threat of the Omicron variant is needed across the UK. The meeting will raise fears that more curbs could be imposed before Christmas  despite the opposition of Tory MPs and Downing Street's apparent determination to get through without them.

It comes as the number of confirmed Omicron cases in England reached 37,101, up 12,133 on the previous day's total, figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Saturday showed.

Hospital admissions in England for people with confirmed or suspected Omicron rose to 85, from 65.

On Friday, Britain recorded its highest number of daily infections since the pandemic began, with a total of 93,045 people testing positive for Covid in the past 24 hours, up 60 per cent in a week.

Industry experts had feared the Government's increasingly alarmist messaging surrounding the Omicron mutant strain was affecting customer confidence over what should be a peak period for pubs, bars and restaurants.

Festive takings are expected to fall by up to 40 per cent in December - crippling venues that survived by a thread during previous lockdowns and expect to receive no financial support this time around.

Prof Reicher, who was speaking to Times Radio in a personal capacity, said the time to act was now to prevent the new variant overwhelming the NHS.

It comes amid reports officials have been drawing up draft plans for a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown after Christmas.

The Financial Times reported that Boris Johnson was presented with a number of options on Friday under a so-called Plan C, ranging from 'mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown'.

The newspaper quoted allies of the Prime Minister who claimed Mr Johnson still wanted to go down the guidance route, but that he also had to be realistic about the threat of Omicron.

The BBC reported the advisers had recommended moving to restrictions seen in step one and two of the easing of lockdown restrictions in the spring. This included a ban on indoor mixing and indoor hospitality.

They reportedly warned against delaying further interventions until 2022.

Is it REALLY safe to cut the 10-day quarantine? How long are people infectious for? Britain's Covid's self-isolation sentence could be halved to just five days, some academics have argued. Data suggests roughly 98 per cent of virus transmission occurs either before people become ill, or within five days of symptoms starting. Dr Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert from the University of St Andrews, said earlier this year: 'Given most transmission happens very early on, the isolation period could be much shorter for the cases. 'Viral load peaks pretty quickly, so people are highly infectious within the first few days.' How long can Covid patients test positive for? Lateral flow tests, which offer results in as little as 15 minutes, work best for sniffing out the people who are most infectious. They look for viral proteins called antigens in samples taken from the nose and throat. But the kits are less sensitive than gold-standard PCRs, which sees swabs sent off to laboratories to be analysed for viral genetic material. It means they are less likely to spot someone when they are infected, but also less likely to give a positive result when someone has gone past their peak infectiousness and have a lower viral load. PCRs, on the other hand, are extremely sensitive and can pick up the presence of viral fragments long after the illness has cleared. For this reason, a positive PCR result does not always mean someone is still contagious. Advertisement

The Times reported that draft regulations were being prepared which could ban meeting others indoors except for work purposes and that pubs and restaurants would be limited to outdoor service only, for two weeks after Christmas.

On Saturday, Prof Reicher told Times Radio that 'all the science suggests that (Plan B is) not going to be enough'.

He said: 'The only way really, or at least the most effective way, we can have an immediate effect is to decrease the number of contacts we have.

'In many ways, the most effective way of diminishing contact is to have a circuit-breaker.

'When people say "look, we don't want to close down", of course, we don't want to close down. But the problem is at the moment, things are closing down anyway, because of the spread of infection.

'So I think we need to act now.'

Lord Victor Adebowale, chairman of the NHS Confederation, voiced support for a circuit-breaker, warning that a cautionary approach should be taken.

He told Times Radio: 'I would support the circuit-breaker. My members would support the circuit-breaker.

'We've been calling for Plan B for some time now and we're glad that it was voted through. I think the Government has to be prepared to recall Parliament if further interventions are needed.'

He added: 'The fact of the matter is we should be taking the precautionary principle. We should be protecting our NHS and our public services. We have no economy without health.'

A Government spokesperson said: 'The Government will continue to look closely at all the emerging data and we'll keep our measures under review as we learn more about this variant.'

Professor Ferguson today told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme Omicron did not yet appear to be more severe than the previous Delta and Alpha variants.

He said: 'The severity aspect is the least well defined because we've observed relatively few hospitalisations. Case numbers are low. We don't see a particularly strong signal of any change in severity compared with Delta.

'That's not to say it's going to look like the Alpha wave we had a year ago because we do expect all those people with immunity and vaccination will have milder disease.

'But intrinsically Omicron doesn't look to be much different to Delta. There is a lot of uncertainty so we'll know a lot more about that in a week's time because numbers of cases and hospitalisations are building quickly.'

Having two vaccinations or Covid previously gives Britons 'very little' protection from the virus - but they will still have 85-90 percent protection from serious illness, he added.

'From a public health perspective it means we expect immunity people have built up over the last 12 months to be better preserved against severe disease than against infection. If you've been infected before or only had two doses of the vaccine you have very little protection against being infected with Omicron.

'But the protection against severe disease should hold up well. Perhaps 85-90 percent protection. The challenge we face with a very large epidemic on the way is even that level of protection against severe disease is not perfect and the very large case numbers may still translate into very large numbers of hospitalisations.'

He said the country is currently at risk of overwhelming the NHS. 'With increasing amounts of data coming in. It is a real concern we will be heading into something that has the risk of affecting the behaviour of the health service. People are changing their behaviour and that will have an impact, whether it is enough is hard to say.'
A Florida woman has been arrested 18 months after she allegedly burned down a former psychiatric hospital for children and took a selfie in front of the smoldering ruins.

A lengthy investigation into the May 2020 blaze led Monmouth County, New Jersey, investigators to Evelyn V Alvino, 20, from Pinellas Park, Florida.

She was arrested in November and extradited to New Jersey to face arson, burglary, criminal trespassing, and criminal mischief charges. Alvino is said to have torched the building while mourning the end of a relationship with a boyfriend.

Alvino, who was described by friends as somebody who would 'do anything to hurt someone without any regard,' caused more than $3.5 million in damages to the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center, which had to be demolished after the blaze in 2020.

Firefighters from more than 11 firehouses in Wall Township were needed to put out the blaze, which they feared would spread to a nearby wooded area and park.

During 'a thorough social media scrub' conducted by investigators, several photos emerged of Alvino trespassing and spraying graffiti on the Brisbane Center, before allegedly using an accelerator to start the fire.

An 18-month investigation into the fire at Brisbane Center led Monmouth County, New Jersey, investigators to Evelyn V Alvino, 20, from Pinellas Park, Florida

Alvino, who was described by friends as somebody who would 'do anything to hurt someone without any regard,' caused more than $3.5 million in damages to the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center

The structure was in 1948 by Arthur Brisbane and it was then gifted to the state to treat emotionally disturbed children

The fire caused more than $3.5 million worth of damage to The Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center.

The structure was in 1948 by Arthur Brisbane and it was then gifted to the state to treat emotionally disturbed children.

The building had been abandoned for almost 15 years when Alvino set it on fire on May 30, 2020.

According to detectives, the building and structures in the vicinity had been burglarized before the fire.

Investigators have also said pictures Alvino posted on Instagram after the fire showed that others joined her in trespassing the facility.

'They advised that [Alvino] asked to go to the Brisbane Center to 'destroy the building,' an affidavit stated, NJ.com reported.'[They] posted several pictures of themselves trespassing and spraying graffiti on the Brisbane Center, placing themselves directly on the premises.'

Friends of Alvino told investigators she had started the fire after having an argument and breaking up with her boyfriend.

Alvino then allegedly flew to Florida, after posting on social media that she 'almost caught charges.'

A warrant for Alvino was issued on September 7, after she was charged with arson, burglary, criminal trespassing, and criminal mischief.

According to detectives, the building and structures in the vicinity had been burglarized before the fire

Evelyn V. Alvino, 20, of Pinellas Park, was arrested last month and extradited to New Jersey to face arson and other charges

The building had been abandoned since 2005

Alvino was arrested on November 9 at her home in Pinellas Park by members of the US Marshals Service and the Pinellas Park Police Task Force.

Alvino reportedly poured accelerant throughout the building and lit the fire.

'Several pictures on social media clearly show Evelyn's intent and mindset,' an affidavit states.

'Evelyn is known in her friend group to have a 'terrible temper' and will 'do anything to hurt someone without any regard,' it added. 'She is also reported to have no regard for the law and/or safety of others.'

The affidavit also stated that firefighters were noticeably exhausted by the time they had put out the fire, and they were initially worried that the fire would spread to nearby woods and a public park.

'Several vendors responded to replenish the firefighters' food/water in an effort to restore energy after hours of fighting the fire,' it stated. 'When looking at the building, it appeared to have graffiti sprayed on the entire building.'

The affidavit also stated that firefighters were noticeably exhausted by the time they had put out the fire, and they were initially worried that the fire would spread to nearby woods and a public park

Firefighters from 11 firehouses were needed to put out the blaze
Republican operatives used Kanye West's unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid as an opportunity to stealthily syphon votes from Joe Biden, a newly-published report says.

The report lays out how powerful conservatives quietly managed the Grammy winning musician's campaign in an effort to divide Democratic voters during the hotly-contested presidential race.

When announcing his candidacy July 4, 2020, West signaled that he no longer supported then-president Donald Trump and that he would either run as a Republican if Trump dropped out, or as an independent if not.

He denied at the time that his aim was to split the black vote and hurt the chances of Biden. It was 'a form of racism and white supremacy' to suggest all black people should support the Democrats, he said.

It's now been revealed that West's camp hid its connections to Republican hot shots, including influential party advisor and Virginia Senator Jill Vogel, when building his campaign.

It's not clear whether West knowingly participated in the alleged scheme, but he hinted he'd been misled when abruptly withdrawing from the race ahead of the vote.

Republican leaders used Kanye West's unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid as an opportunity to stealthily syphon votes from Joe Biden, a new report claims

West's campaign team intentionally concealed its connections to conservative operatives in a move that might have breached federal election laws

Despite court documents reflecting that Vogel worked the campaign, her name did not appear in FEC filings and the omission might have breached federal election laws, The Daily Beast reported.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington spokesman Jordan Libowitz called the effort 'amateur hour.'

'It's very clear that the whole point behind Kanye's campaign was to try to re-elect Donald Trump,' he told the outlet. 'Whether that was a goal of Kanye is another issue. But he was clearly seen as a way to steal potential votes from Biden.'

A source close to the case denied claims that West was used as a political pawn and said both Republicans and Democrats were tapped to lead his campaign.

During a four-hour interview with Forbes last year, West said he envisioned a White House management model based on the secret country of Wakanda in the film Black Panther.

The musician said he initially supported Trump because he allowed 'God to be part of the conversation' and added that he wore the MAGA hat 'to protest the segregation of votes in the black community.'

When announcing his candidacy July 4, 2020, West signaled that he no longer supported then-president Donald Trump (pictured together on December 13, 2016)

West said he was pro-life and anti-jab, calling vaccines 'the mark of the beast.'

On abortion: West said that his belief in God and the words of the bible have led him to be pro-life. He acknowledged that he had not yet developed a foreign policy.

Weeks before the presidential election, West announced his withdrawal from the race in a stunning announcement.

He claimed in a longwinded Twitter rant that longwinded Twitter rant he had been 'used to spread messages I don't believe in.'

'My eyes are now wide open,' he said. 'I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative.'

Kanye West the surprising declaration that he would be withdrawing from politics in a long-winded Twitter rant on Tuesday

Republican Vogel, managing partner of law firm Hotzman Vogel, worked on West's campaign - despite him running as an independent, court documents obtained by the Daily Beast revealed.

The Republican lawmaker advised the campaign beginning in summer 2020 and was 'basically behind it all' despite her name not appearing on FEC filings, a source told the outlet.

Libowitz said it's possible Vogel might have sought to fly under-the-radar to spare herself from 'any embarrassment that may come with being publicly affiliated with the train wreck that was the Kanye campaign.'

He added: 'It's also likely that she did not want people to know that a Republican operative was behind his campaign.'

It's not a crime for lawyers to volunteer their service to for political purposes, but campaigns are obliged to report the amount value of the in-kind service and disclose the person's identity.

Court documents showed that Vogel used her professional email in correspondence related to West's campaign.

Common Cause vice president Paul S. Ryan said that if Holtzman Vogel's involvement in the campaign was extensive and not disclosed in the FEC filings, it could be considered an illegal contribution.

'The importance of disclosure in this matter can't be overstated,' Ryan told The Daily Beast. 'It's no secret that Kanye West's candidacy would have a spoiler effect, siphoning votes from Democrat Joe Biden.

'Voters had a right to know that a high-powered Republican lawyer was providing legal services to Kanye - and federal law requires disclosure of such legal work.'

Pictured: West appears emotional as he holds his first rally in support of his failed presidential bid in North Charleston, South Carolina on July 19, 2020

FEC filings show West's campaign paid $20,000 to GSP Inc., which is believed to be an acronym for Grand Slam Finance

West's campaign garnered less than $4,000 in donations and was largely funded by loans from the rapper

Questions were also raised about West's campaign using an acronym in an apparent attempt to downplay its involvement with Grand Slam Finance, which it referred to as 'GSF' in campaign filings.

The Austin, Texas-based company has been hired on other occasions to help Republican campaigns, and West's team paid the firm about $692,000 for 'compliance' and 'accounting,' the Daily Beast reported.

Legal documents reviewed by the outlet confirmed that Grand Slam Finance worked extensively with Kanye's campaign.

Ryan labeled the disclosures as 'strange' and said it was unusual for a consultant to be 'suddenly banking way more than it previously has for services, all from one campaign.'

West's music manager John Boyd denied that musician was used as a Republican pawn but noted that he didn't have complete control over the campaign.

'He had companies, individuals working for him, I don't even know if he knew what they were doing that deeply. That's my personal view,' Boyd told the Daily Beast. 'There were definitely agendas out there that perhaps he didn't have full control over.'

West's campaign garnered less than $4,000 in donations and was largely funded by loans from the rapper himself. About 60,000 people voted for him during the presidential election that drew nearly 160 million voters.

But critics said it's unlikely that the campaign's Republican ties was a coincidence.

'You're not just going to trip and find your way into these Republican circles,' Libowitz said. 'BakerHostetler works for the Republican National Committee,' he said, referencing a New York firm which Kanye 2020 paid $152,000 a full mo

West's publicists did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment, nor did Vogel.
Hordes of shoppers have emptied supermarket and pharmacy shelves as rapid antigen tests in a pre-Christmas rush.

Some stores such as Chemist Warehouse and Priceline have sold out of the tests in some shops and online, leaving potentially infectious revellers to attend family events.

Meanwhile, as the nation faces a supply chain crisis, just one rapid antigen test has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia.

Of the 15 home tests available, ten have been manufactured in China, two tests have been developed in the United States, one in Germany and one in South Korea.

But while authorities encourage Australians to use rapid antigen tests, an infectious diseases expert has warned the kits can give a false sense of security.

Rapid antigen tests have replaced toilet paper as the hot ticket item of the Covid-19 pandemic as hordes of shoppers empty supermarket shelves ahead of Christmas

Of the 15 home tests available to Australians that have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, ten have been manufactured in China (pictured)

Infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon from the ANU Medical School told the Today Show the tests could only pick up about 50 per cent of cases for people who are asymptomatic.

Professor Collignon said while detecting half of the cases was better than nothing, if the person was suffering symptoms the tests were 80 to 90 per cent effective.

'Yes, they have got a place, particularly if you're going to see elderly relatives and you're worried you might have it,' the Covid expert said.

'But I think compared to PCR, they are not as accurate, particularly for those without symptoms, so we've got to be careful about not over-relying on them to give us a false sense of security.'

Infectious diseases expert Robert Booy echoed the professor's sentiments when he told Sunrise hosts the rapid tests were only about 70 per cent effective in determining a positive case.

The disease expert said repeated testing will improve the quality of the tests and increases a person's chance of finding the infection.

Infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon (pictured) said Australians shouldn't become over-reliant on rapid antigen tests that could give a false sense of security

Across the country hordes of residents are stripping pharmacy and supermarket shelves of the rapid tests, as families look to be reunited for the festive season

As the nation faces a supply chain crisis, just one rapid antigen test has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia (pictured, people at a Melbourne testing clinic)

He said a negative result is often 98 to 99 per cent reliable stating: 'If you get a negative test, you know it's negative'.

Meanwhile, Mr Booy said PCR tests were 'sensitive but not perfect' and could detect about 95 per cent of positive cases.

The over-the-counter detection kits are not available to purchase in South Australia, and are not approved as a diagnostic tool in Western Australia.

However on the east coast the tests are ensuring frontline and hospitality staff can attend work, families can be reunited, and Christmas celebrations can go ahead.

A pack of five can be purchased from Chemist Warehouse for $50 while a two pack costs $25 and promises results in 10 to 15 minutes, however stock is scarce.

'Rapid antigen tests should be made widely available in the community and they should be FREE to encourage peeps to test themselves before leaving the home everyday,' one Twitter user wrote.

A pack of five can be purchased from Chemist Warehouse for $50 while a two pack costs $25 and promise results in 10 to 15 minutes (pictured)

Rapid antigen tests are ensuring frontline and hospitality staff can attend work and families can be reunited (pictured, people queue for a Covid test in Melbourne)

Across the country hordes of residents are stripping pharmacy and supermarket shelves of rapid antigen tests (pictured) in the lead-up to Christmas

'Singapore, NZ and other nations are giving out free face masks and rapid antigen tests. Many people cant afford to buy them. Australia should be doing the same,' another user agreed.

Testing clinics across the country are feeling the pressure as Australians desperate to travel interstate over the festive season line up for hours to get swabbed.

Most interstate travel requires a negative test before departure but with results taking two to three days, the wait is sending travel plans into turmoil.

Infectious disease expert Mary-Louise McClaws has called for free rapid tests to be available to residents as case numbers nationally surge to 4,000 a day.

People could face a three-hour wait to get swabbed at testing clinics in NSW and Victoria amid pre-Christmas chaos (pictured, Melburnians wait to get tested on Monday)

Case numbers continue to rise as holiday visitors start to flood interstate (pictured, people wait outside a Bourke Street testing clinic in Melbourne)

The professor warned there were signs of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections ahead of the Christmas holidays in NSW, as the virus is seeps into other states.

'All of a sudden we have got the highest number we have had in NSW and I think this is sadly heralding a fourth wave,' she told the Nine Network on Friday.

'We really do have to be careful because what we have learnt from the England experience when Delta happened (was) all of a sudden children became the target for the virus and this is exactly what is happening again.'

Thousands of households face spending Christmas locked inside their homes as the Omicron variant sends dozens of positive cases and close contacts into isolation.

Worrying new international data has found Omicron is 'no milder' than the Delta variant - but five times more likely to re-infect (pictured, people queue outside a Melbourne test clinic)

NSW recorded 2,051 new Covid cases on Monday while Victoria reported 1,302 new infections less than a week before Christmas (pictured, a drive-through testing clinic at Bondi Beach)

Health officials in NSW have admitted they have no clue how many cases of the highly-infectious mutant strain are active in the state because it's too expensive and time consuming to test for - but that there are likely thousands.

The revelation comes as worrying new international data finds Omicron is 'no milder' than the Delta variant - but five times more likely to re-infect.

Queensland and Tasmania have both reintroduced mask mandates in indoor settings, amid rising case numbers as holiday visitors start to flood interstate.

In NSW, Premier Dominic Perrottet has so far refused to bring back any restrictions despite mounting pressure, just days after removing density limits and allowing the unvaccinated the same freedoms as those who've had the jab.

The state recorded 2,051 new Covid cases on Monday while Victoria reported 1,302 new infections less than a week before Christmas.
A chemical company that will stop making AdBlue in Australia next year has finally agreed to ramp up production of the diesel exhaust fluid before the factory is shut.

Australia is facing a supply chain crisis after China this year banned the export of the fertiliser urea, a key ingredient in AdBlue, and the federal government is now scrambling so trucks and diesel cars keep running after January.

Incitec Pivot in November announced that from December 2022, it would stop making AdBlue at its Gibson Island plant in Brisbane, with chief executive Jeanne Johns blaming a failure to secure a gas deal.

The chemical and fertiliser maker supplies about 10 per cent of the Australian AdBlue market and is the only Australian manufacturer to make the solution from urea melt.

A chemical company that will stop making AdBlue in Australia next year has agreed to ramp up production of the diesel exhaust fluid before the factory is shut

With Australia's existing AdBlue reserves set to run out in mid-January, Energy Minister Angus Taylor (far left) on Monday announced a deal with Incitec Pivot to ramp up production of the technical grade granular urea. Prime Minister Scott Morrison (second, right) visited Incitec Pivot's Brisbane plant on Monday, posing in a picture with Mr Taylor and CEO Jeanne Johns (centre)

Half of Australia's diesel trucks and many late-model utes and four-wheel drives simply won't start without AdBlue because engine management systems require it to reduce the levels of nitrogen oxide pollution going into the atmosphere.

China has this year banned the export of fertilisers in a bid to contain food prices which has led to a global shortage of urea, the key ingredient in AdBlue.

With Australia's existing AdBlue supplies set to run out in mid-January, Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Monday announced a deal with Incitec Pivot to ramp up production of the technical grade granular urea.

'The ramping up of production by Incitec Pivot will be done without impacting agricultural fertiliser supply to local farmers or disrupting local distribution chains for AdBlue,' he said.

'This agreement is another important part of the government's broader strategy to build supply chain resilience, which includes addressing shipping issues, ensuring local supplies of critical products and bolstering local manufacturing capability.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited Incitec Pivot's Brisbane plant on Monday, posing in a picture with Mr Taylor and Ms Johns.

Incitec Pivot didn't feature on the government's Monday media announcement but on Friday, Ms Johns reiterated the company's decision to close the Gibson Island plant in December 2022, and instead import fertilisers as its explores making green ammonia in Brisbane instead.

Australia is facing a supply chain crisis after China this year banned the export of the fertiliser urea, a key ingredient in AdBlue, and the federal government is now scrambling so trucks keep running after January (pictured is Chinese President Xi Jinping)

'This provides the potential to transition Gibson Island to a renewable manufacturing future, following our decision in November to cease operations at the end of 2022,' she told shareholders at the annual general meeting.

Why is AdBlue shortage a worry? Without AdBlue, diesel engines in truck, utes and four wheel drives won't start It contains urea, which is commonly used as a fertiliser A refined version of this urea is added to diesel engines to reduce nitrogen oxide exhaust fumes This diesel exhaust fluid is marketed in Australia as AdBlue containing 32 per cent urea and 68 per cent de-ionised water China supplies 80 per cent of the Asia-Pacific region's diesel-grade urea But Australia's biggest trading partner has banned urea exports in a bid to contain food prices This has seen a scramble to source urea from alternative markets like Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar Source: National Road Transport Association Advertisement

'This difficult decision was reached after being unable to secure, long-term, affordable gas supply.'

Ms Johns, the CEO, on Monday hailed the agreement with the government in a separate statement.

'Our expert teams have been working around-the-clock on a solution to help address an Australian AdBlue supply shortage,' she said.

'We're very pleased our domestic manufacturing expertise can be mobilised and we're working together with the federal government to expand supply of this critical material that we all rely on to keep Australia moving.'

Incitec Pivot released a statement on December 10 promising to ramp up AdBlue production.

'We are fully committed to supplying our domestic customers' requirements and are currently investigating ways we can increase manufacturing capacity of the urea used to make AdBlue solution over the next few months,' it said.

'Incitec Pivot Limited supplies around 10 per cent of the Australian market for AdBlue solution and is the only Australian manufacturer to make the solution from urea melt.

'The remaining 90 per cent of the Australian AdBlue market is reliant on imports of technical grade urea.'

The National Road Transport Association estimates China supplies 80 per cent of the Asia-Pacific's urea, which means alternative supplies of the diesel additive need to be sourced from Indonesia and the Middle East.

A fortnight after South Korea signed a deal with Indonesia to supply 120,000 tonnes of urea a year over three years, Australia's Trade Minister Dan Tehan on Monday announced the Indonesia would supply Australia with 5,000 tonnes of refined urea in January - enough to another month's worth of AdBlue.

'By working closely with our partners, we have been able to secure this critical supply for Australia,' he said.

'We will continue to strengthen our close relationships around the world to support and further Australia's interests.'

Half of Australia's diesel trucks and many late-model utes and four-wheel drives simply won't start without AdBlue because engine management systems require it to reduce the levels of nitrogen oxide pollution

Mr Tehan flagged approaches to shore up supply with countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Japan.

Korea in November sent Australia 27,000 litres of urea.

New Zealand-headquartered chemical company DGL supplies 60 per cent of Australia's AdBlue market with most of its manufacturing done in New Zealand.

In October, DGL acquired chemicals business AUSblue, an AdBlue manufacturer and distributor based on a pure urea solution.

Earlier this month, Mr Taylor said Australia had only five weeks left of AdBlue, with shipments bound for Australia providing enough for another fortnight.

Without new supplies, Australia would therefore run out by the beginning of February.

Former Incitec Pivot CEO James Fazzino is leading the government's AdBlue taskforce along with Andrew Liveris, a former chairman and chief executive of The Dow Chemical Company who was former US president Donald Trump's chief manufacturing adviser.
A leading health expert has issued a timely warning on the usefulness of rapid antigen tests as people rush to secure the DIY tests ahead of Christmas.

Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist from the ANU Medical School, warned that the tests had been shown to only pick up half of positive Covid cases in people who are asymptomatic.

The test kits are rapidly disappearing off the shelves of grocery retailers and pharmacies as people seek a quick way to make sure they are not infecting family and friends before Christmas functions.

'There is a place for rapid antigen tests but you've got to remember if you're asymptomatic, they probably only pick up 50 per cent of cases,' Professor Collignon told the Today Show on Monday.

Professor Collignon said the tests were mainly effective if a person already had symptoms.

'Then they're probably 80-90 per cent effective in picking [the infection] up but if you've got symptoms, you should be having a PCR test and isolating,' he said.

He said people using the quicker, cheaper test before visiting an elderly relative, for example, should be prepared for the fact that it may not pick up an infection.

Professor Collignon said the provision of free rapid antigen tests at testing sites in England had provided ineffective in stopping a large rise in the number of cases.

'They have a place but compared to a PCR test, they're not as accurate, particularly for those without symptoms,' he said.

'We've got to be a bit careful about not overcalling it and not over-relying on them to give us a false sense of security.'

Rapid antigen tests are disappearing from shelves as people seek a quick way to make sure they are not infecting family and friends before Christmas functions

Long queues for PCR testing had also forced people to seek out the alternative option of rapid antigen tests

The tests generally retail for $10-15 but there have been reports of Sydney pharmacies selling them for as much as $40 as supplies run short due to high demand.

Long queues for PCR testing in Sydney, in particular, had also forced people to seek out the alternative option of rapid antigen tests.

NSW Health recommends using the DIY tests before attending gatherings in crowded indoor or outdoor places, when visiting a person vulnerable to infection, before going to a high risk setting such as an aged care facility, or when returning from a place with a high number of Covid-19 cases.

But it also advises that a more accurate PCR test is required anyway if the rapid antigen test returns a positive result.

People enduring long queues for the more accurate PCR tests had forced people to seek out the quicker, cheaper alternative of rapid antigen testing

The tests generally retail for $10-15 but there have been reports of Sydney pharmacies selling them for as much as $40 as supplies run short due to high demand

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration only approved a list of rapid antigen tests for home testing use in Australia from November 1, leading to criticism in took too long to introduce the faster, cheaper tests.

As far back as March, World Health Authority (WHO) adviser and Covid expert Professor Marylouise McLaws had called for introduction of the tests alongside the lab-based PCR tests.

'Many of us are very frustrated, that there's these very accurate tests for identifying you as negative and not being used and added to the multiple layers to keep the community safe and allow people to move around and enjoy mass gatherings,' Professor McLaws had told the ABC.

'These [RAT] tests have been validated against the PCR [test] when the prevalence [of the virus] is lower and they're still better than no test at all,' she said.

In an interview on the Nine Network, Professor McLaws called on the Federal Government to make rapid antigen tests available for free so people don't inadvertently spread the virus while travelling during the holidays.

The Federal Health department is yet to respond on whether it will implement measures to increase availability of rapid antigen tests in Australia.
Five alleged looters have been arrested over claims they targeted victims of the deadly Kentucky tornadoes, stealing cars, copper wire - and even Ugg boots.

The suspected thieves were arrested in Graves County, Friday, and include suspected car thief Kaitlyn Moore, 29.

She is said to have stolen a car, and was also found with crystal meth inside an unspecified 'body cavity' afterwards, it is claimed.

Linda Morris, 52, is said to have stolen a car, copper wiring and a brand new pair of Ugg boots, and was also found in possession of meth, it is claimed.

It is unclear if she and Moore stole the drugs they were found with.

Kaitlyn Moore, left was accused of stealing a car and hiding meth in one of her body cavities, while Linda Morris, right, is said to have taken a car, copper wiring and Ugg boots

Cops caught Kevin Stowe, 55, (pictured) driving a vehicle with a stolen license plate and carrying more than $120,000 in cash. He was charged with theft of an automobile and theft of a vehicle registration plate

Ronnie White, 57, (left) and Lynne Bailey, 56, (right) were also charged with unlawful taking of an automobile

Cops caught Kevin Stowe, 55, driving a vehicle with a stolen license plate and carrying more than $120,000 in cash.

He was charged with theft of an automobile and theft of a vehicle registration plate, suggesting that he had already been toting the huge pile of cash he was found with.

Ronnie White, 57, and Lynne Bailey, 56, were also charged with unlawful taking of an automobile.

Graves County sheriff's deputies caught the alleged thieves on Friday after receiving reports of suspicious activity about half a mile away from the Mayfield candle factory that was leveled in the storms.

Police said the suspects were rummaging through personal property and loading items into stolen vehicles - which were owned by people who were displaced, hospitalized or deceased from the storm - at the intersection of Pritchett Road and US Highway 45 South.

Authorities stopped the suspects before they could flee and have since taken them to nearby county jails. The thefts remain under investigation.

Looters began ravaging the state after a deadly storm swept the Midwest last weekend, killing at least 78 people in hardest-hit Kentucky and destroying more than 1,000 homes.

Five looters arrested after stealing cars, cooper wiring, shoes and other household items from victims of the devastating tornadoes that struck Kentucky last week

Looters began ravaging the state after a deadly storm swept the midwest last weekend, killing at least 78 people in hardest-hit Kentucky and destroying more than 1,000 homes

The Graves County suspects were targeting communities in the southwestern part of the state, which was 'particularly hit hard by the tornado and resulted in deaths,' the sheriff's office said Saturday.

The suspects issued contradicting statements to police, some alleging homeowners gave them permission to take the stolen property.

Investigation proved those statements to be false.

In wake of the crime spree, deputies and state police have increased patrols in the areas affected by the tornadoes.

Those who do not reside or have a legitimate business in Graves County are not allowed permitted in the area, as stated in the emergency declaration and ordered curfew impacting the county.

'This is meant for your safety and the safety of personal property,' the sheriff's office said.

Police across the state have arrested at least 11 people, including the Graves County suspects, for looting from tornado-damaged property.

In nearby Caldwell County, authorities caught four Michigan men taken items from damaged homes and cars, according to Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Police across the state have arrested at least 11 people, including the Graves County suspects, for looting from tornado-damaged property (Pictured: A damaged bank in western Kentucky)

The December 10 tornadoes killed at least 93 people in five states, including 78 in Kentucky. Six were killed in Illinois, five in Tennessee, two in Arkansas, and two in Missouri (Pictured: Damage in Mayfield, Kentucky as seen on Dec. 17)

The Michiganders were charged with possession of burglary tools, receiving stolen property, possession of handgun by a convicted felon, and possession of marijuana.

The 'full force of the law will be brought against anyone who tries to take advantage of Kentuckians,' Cameron announced in a press release.

His comments came after Gov. Andy Beshear warned Friday against looting in damaged areas, calling the action 'despicable,' and vowed those 'found guilty would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law'.

The December 10 tornadoes killed at least 93 people in five states, including 78 in Kentucky, according to ABC News. Six were killed in Illinois, five in Tennessee, two in Arkansas, and two in Missouri.

The victims in Kentucky range in age from 2 months old to 98 years old.

In Mayfield, more than 100 employees of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory braved a tornado inside the facility, with some saying they were trapped under as much as five feet of rubble.

Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees against the family-owned candle factory in Kentucky.

They are asking for an undisclosed amount after they say they were told that if they left the factory they'd be fired - despite tornado sirens going off.

The before-and-after of the factory, which was completely obliterated by the tornado as it tore through Kentucky, leaving nothing but rubble behind. The company has since denied telling its employees they couldn't leave and are offering hazard pay

Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees after the Mayfield Consumer Products factory allegedly said they couldn't go home before the tornado on December 10

Only a few hours later, the whole factory was destroyed by the tornado, killing eight and injuring several. It is unclear how many are injured or missing.

The lawsuit claims the company showed 'flagrant indifference to the rights of Plaintiff Johnson and to the other similarly situated Plaintiffs with a subjective awareness that such conduct will result in human death and/or bodily injuries.'

The company has since denied this claim, stating that they followed protocol.

There were at least 44 tornados reported in nine states: Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama.

The continuous tornado path spanned 163.5 mi, making it the longest continuous tornado track in Kentucky history. It's also the deadliest tornado outbreak in the US since May 2011, when more than 170 people were killed.
A high-profile opinion columnist who was sacked after three decades with a five minute phone call is considering making a move into politics.

Architecture critic and writer Elizabeth Farrelly plans to become 'some kind of political representative' after she was dumped from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ms Farrelly contributed weekly columns to the newspaper for 30 years before she was let go in a five minute phone call because she had failed to disclose she registered as a Labor party candidate at a recent local election.

The shock dismissal has only motivated Ms Farrelly to pursue her political passion as she now tosses up the possibility of running in the NSW state election in 2023.

Architecture critic and writer Elizabeth Farrelly plans to become 'some kind of political representative' after she was dumped from The Sydney Morning Herald

Ms Farrelly had contributed weekly columns to the newspaper for 30 years before she was let go in a five minute phone call because she had failed to disclose she had registered as a Labor party candidate at a recent local election

'If you had a chance to do something for the place, particularly on climate and corruption, or if it was about bringing some sort of decency to government  even in small ways affecting genuine change  then I'd be interested,' she told The Australian.

Ms Farrelly said if she decided to make a move into politics she would focus on becoming a member in an inner-city electorate.

'I've always lived in the inner city one way or another,' she said. 'The cliche is about inner city elites, but I honestly don't think they are elites. I think there's a lively mindset, a lively community.'

The staunch Labor supporter will be unable to pursue a political career beyond state government as she also holds a New Zealand citizenship.

Dual citizens are not allowed to hold a seat in federal parliament.

Ms Farrelly companied she was sacked from the SMH in a furious post to Facebook on December 12 where she described the move as a 'ruthless king-hit' to her career.

The newspaper said the decision was made by new editor Bevan Shields after the columnist failed to disclose she registered as a Labor Party candidate at the December 4 local council elections.

Ms Farrelly published a piece in which she blasted Liberal and independent councillors in the Strathfield electorate, where she registered to run.

An editor's note announcing her registration was added to her weekly column on December 11 - week after the election.

Ms Farrelly revealed she had been sacked from The Sydney Morning Herald in a furious post to Facebook on December 12 where she described the move as a 'ruthless king-hit' to her career

The publication said the decision was made by incoming editor Bevan Shields after the columnist failed to disclose she had registered as a Labor Party candidate at recent local council elections

The following day, Mr Shields phoned Ms Farrelly to inform her she had been let go from the newspaper.

'Today, after a working relationship lasting more than three decades, my time with the Sydney Morning Herald came to an abrupt end,' she wrote in response.

'According to the five-minute out-of-the-blue phone call I received from the new editor on the other side of the world, this termination is due to an apparent lack of transparency on my part.'

Ms Farrelly said her failure to disclose her registration to the Labor Party was an oversight and not meant to intentionally mislead her readers.

She said though she was interested in having a crack at a state seat or joining the local council the final decision was 'unresolved'.

Ms Farrelly had published a piece in which she blasted Liberal and independent councillors in the Strathfield electorate, where she had registered to run

In an article announcing her departure Mr Shields (pictured) stated Ms Farrelly's registration as a Labor candidate should have been disclosed to the newspaper and her readers

While only 'vaguely interested', the columnist decided to register her interest online on the final day of registrations to keep the option open.

'I was not preselected for the Labor federal candidate, nor for the Labor Council ticket, so I did not run in the recent council election,' she continued in the post.

Ms Farrelly admitted to campaigning for the Labor Party in the lead-up to the election but she said it 'did not cross her mind' to notify her employer.

She said there was no 'undisclosed conflict of interest of which my readers should have been made aware'.

When contacted by the SMH, the architecture critic described her termination as 'grossly disproportionate'.

'It was a small, inadvertent misdemeanour that was met with an irreversible punishment and that is grossly unfair,' she wrote.

'I can't think of any other workplace with this kind of treatment of long-standing honourable service and where such treatment would be acceptable.'

The New Zealand-born writer and architecture critic (right) is one of Australia's best known columnists and has contributed to the Sydney Morning Herald for 30 years

In her late-night post to social media, Ms Farrelly said that while a change in direction 'scared her to death' she was up for the challenge.

'On the other hand, it's time for a change and I am determined to transform the Herald's ruthless king-hit into a new opportunity. Watch this space,' she wrote.

In an article announcing her departure newly appointed editor Mr Shields, 36, thanked Ms Farrelly for her 'longstanding contribution' to the newspaper.

'The Herald is determined to extend its coverage of urban design and architecture, and this will include new voices in our opinion pages in 2022,' he said.

'Elizabeth's registration as a Labor candidate should have been disclosed to us and our readers.

'Her registration makes future contributions very difficult given the close connection between urban development and politics.'
French fishermen last night ditched a threat to block Christmas deliveries to Britain  so they can have time off over the holidays.

The U-turn comes after fishing barons had threatened for months to scupper cross-Channel trade unless the Government handed over access permits to UK waters.

Industry bosses said many skippers take time off for the festive period so they scrapped their long-standing plan to punish Britain this week by blockading ports and the Channel Tunnel.

The protest wont happen during the festive period. Its on standby. We will look at it again at the start of January, said Olivier Lepretre, chairman of northern France fisheries committee.

Some of the fishermen wanted to act on the 23rd and the others wanted to protest on the 4th after the holidays. It divided people straight away.

French fishermen last night ditched a threat to block Christmas deliveries to Britain  so they can have time off over the holidays. Pictured, French fishermen block trucks at the Eurotunnel near Calais in November

Olivier Lepretre (pictured), chairman of northern France fisheries committee, said the protest will not happen during the festive season

The threat had been focused on targeting British imports and exports, providing a further blow to the UKs Covid-hit economy.

Mr Lepretre said there had been a 50-50 split during initial talks between members of the industry bodies that represent the interests of French fishermen.

Not all boats have the same level of fishing activity. The gillnetters are extremely busy up until the end of the year. And in January, it drops off. For the trawlers, it is the opposite. They stop for a bit for now and then start up again in January.

French fishermen staged a two-hour Brexit protest on November 26, cutting off road access for freight to the tunnel and blockading three ports including Calais.

Mr Lepretre, whose boat is one of those that has failed to secure a permit, said he asked president Emmanuel Macron last week to slap extra checks on UK vessels.

These checks do not have to be the hardest possible, but we do want there to be pressure on the British, he said.

He added the president promised the checks will come into effect on January 1 and could include tougher customs procedures and stricter sanitary inspections in French ports.

Having failed to convince Britain to hand over the contested licences, France on Friday vowed to sue the Government at a special arbitration panel set up under the Brexit trade deal with Brussels.

Banners installed by French fishermen on the fences of the Eurotunnel Freight Terminal near Calais during a day of protest in November

Paris claims Britain is deliberately withholding 73 permits from its skippers, who enjoyed unfettered access to UK waters while it was a member of the bloc. But French officials also admit they have received 93 per cent of the more than 1,000 they applied for.

The European Commission is expected to respond later this week, although Downing Street sources are confident of victory.

Under the Brexit deal, both Britain and the EU can ask for the other side to be hit with punitive measures if they can convince the arbitration panel they are failing to honour the pact.

A win for France could see heavy tariffs slapped on British fish exports to the EU, or even UK trawlers banned from fishing in EU waters. Eurocrats will consult the other 26 EU governments before deciding whether to go ahead with the legal proceedings.
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Disgraced former Representative Anthony Weiner was spotted in the Hamptons on Sunday going for a walk with his 10-year-old son in an all-camouflage outfit.

Weiner was last seen with estranged wife Huma Abedin in New York City in October.

The former Congressman was seen with his face focused on his cell phone while his son played with a device of his own, and held it at a height that suggested he was making a FaceTime video call.

The high-profile exes have occasionally been seen out together since they filed for divorce in 2017 following Weiner's sexting scandal with a 15-year-old girl.

Abedin and Weiner appear to have remained civil despite their divorce, which was finalized in 2018. They are said to be committed to co-parenting their only child Jordan, but have no interest in a romantic reunion.

In 2011, Weiner confessed to accidentally posting a crotch picture in his grey boxers on Twitter after convincing her for a week that it was 'the work of a hacker,' and Abedin was 'filled with rage' and 'stunned to the core,' she also wrote in her book Both/And.

Disgraced former Representative Anthony Weiner was spotted in the Hamptons on Sunday going for a walk with his 10-year-old son in an all-camouflage outfit

The former Congressman was seen with his face focused on his cell phone while his son played with a device of his own

Weiner was last seen shopping with estranged wife and mother to his son Huma Abedin in New York City in October

Weiner has largely stayed out of the spotlight during Abedin's book tour, though he did release a statement that encouraged people to buy the book, titled Both/And

Abedin's estranged husband has had his own repeated sex scandals that led to his arrest. Weiner resigned within a few weeks of the Twitter scandal in 2011, later unsuccessfully running for New York City mayor twice, in 2005 and 2013.

In 2016, DailyMail.com also revealed that he had been sending lewd text messages to a 15-year-old girl that included more explicit photographs. Weiner, now 56, served 18 months in prison before being released from jail in 2019.

Abedin announced in 2016 that she planned to separate from him but the pair has yet to finalize their divorce.

Weiner and Abedin married back in 2010, in a star-studded ceremony at a Long Island mansion, officiated by President Bill Clinton, and during which Hillary Clinton called the bride the closest thing she had to a second daughter.

Huma Abedin attends the 2021 Met Gala on September 13

Abedin and Weiner are pictured in November 2015, at a fashion gala in New York City

Abedin and Weiner are seen in September 2017, in Manhattan Civil Court, for a hearing in their divorce case

Abedin and Weiner are seen together after doing the school run with their son Jordan in October 2019

But the couple's high-powered political union hit troubled waters the following year.

Weiner stepped down from his seat in New York's 9th congressional district in 2011, after he accidentally tweeted a crotch-shot of himself in his underwear to the public, on his official page.

Abedin writes in the book that she was 'filled with rage' and 'stunned to the core' when Weiner confessed to her in 2011 that he accidentally posted a crotch picture in his grey boxers on Twitter, after convincing her for a week that it was 'the work of a hacker.'

She was newly pregnant with their son at the time and was traveling frequently with Clinton, then Secretary of State.

Weiner accidentally posted the photograph on his feed instead of sending it as a direct message to a woman he'd been flirting with on Twitter.

Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner in 2013, two years after the crotch picture scandal when he unsuccessfully ran for Mayor

This is the photo Weiner accidentally posted on Twitter. He intended to send it to a woman as a private message. The unedited version showed the outline of his penis

He first told Abedin that it was 'the work of a hacker,' which she believed, then after a week told her what had really happened.

'Whats wrong? I asked,' she wrote.

'And then, just like that, life as I knew it was officially over. Its true, he said. I sent the picture...

'I was simultaneously filled with rage and stunned to my core. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me and run straight through my body,' she wrote.

I was simultaneously filled with rage and stunned to my core. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me and run straight through my body

At the time, Weiner was a Democratic Congressman for New York. He resigned within a few weeks of the scandal, then ran unsuccessfully for New York City mayor twice, in 2005 and 2013.

In 2016, DailyMail.com revealed that he had been sending lewd text messages to a 15-year-old girl that included more explicit photographs.

He served 18 months in prison before being released from jail in 2019.

Abedin announced in 2016 that she planned to separate from him but the pair has yet to finalize their divorce.

In her memoir, Abedin told how she'd been traveling with Clinton and was staying at Buckingham Palace in the weeks before the crotch picture scandal erupted.

She had just discovered she was pregnant and wrote a letter to Weiner from the room where she was staying at the palace, saying: 'Dear Anthony  Is it possible for any two people to be happier or more blessed? Some days, I cannot believe it.

'We must remember to be grateful to God that He has given us so much. I love you. Huma Weiner, May 24, 2011.'

The investigation into Weiner's devices began when DailyMail.com revealed that the disgraced congressman had an online sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl for months and sent her lewd messages and pictures

When the scandal exploded, Abedin said she was most upset when she learned The New York Times planned to report on her pregnancy.

She said she went into Clinton's office and sobbed.

'I wanted to tell you myself, was all I could get out before I burst into tears.

'She walked me over to the window seat, sat with me, rubbing my back, trying to reassure me, telling me over and over again that it was going to be okay. I was crying so loudly that her assistant Claire Coleman closed the door to the outer office...

'After I dont know how long, when I caught my breath, HRC asked, Do you still want to go on this trip?

'"I think its important for me to do my work," I said, blowing my nose.

'I think it would be good for you to go, too, she said,' Abedin wrote.

Abedin stuck by Weiner. The pair is shown last year in New York City. She announced in 2016 that she planned to separate from him, but they have not finalized their divorce

Huma is still close with Clinton. They are shown in the Hamptons earlier this year

She went on the trip with Clinton and was stunned when she was told by a White House staffer that then-President Barack Obama wanted to talk to her.

'A phone call with the president of the United States to talk about my personal humiliation? It was more than I could bear. Please just tell him I am so sorry for embarrassing the administration.' Abedin wrote.

She said she 'didn't recognize' the man who sent the crotch tweet.

'I did not know that Anthony. The Anthony I knew was so many things, but not that.'

When asked to comment on Abedin's memoir, Weiner praised his estranged wife, but he didn't answer any questions about his alleged cheating.

'Huma is a remarkable woman who has written a truly amazing book,' he told the New York Post. This is a time for her to tell her story. It is both riveting and ultimately uplifting.'

After everything they had been through, Abedin included a thank-you to Weiner in her book's acknowledgments, according to the Associated Press.

She explained that through joint therapy she came to believe that he suffered from an illness and that his behavior was 'not controllable, but compulsive.'

Abedin noted that Weiner gave her a son  'my reason for living now.'

She added that it was also about love, saying: ' I know what its like to be loved. I've had it. It was short, it was very fleeting, but its a pretty extraordinary experience...

'And he is the only man who ever gave that to me.'
The Northern Territory has opened its borders to travellers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as quarantine requirements for arrivals end.

Travellers now have to return a negative PCR test taken within three days of their arrival in the territory.

They also need to get retested within three days of arriving and again on their sixth day in the NT.

Unvaccinated travellers have been barred, with only returning residents exempt.

The Northern Territory welcomed back fully vaccinated travellers from interstate on Monday

Travellers will need to show proof they are vaccinated or evidence they are ineligible for the jab.

Tests are free at NT government coronavirus testing facilities and travellers are not required to isolate while they wait for the results.

Authorities are also handing out free rapid antigen test kits at the airport for use at home if people develop symptoms.

The Northern Territory has reopened its domestic borders, just in time for Christmas

Arrivals must stay in high vaccination areas, such as Darwin and Alice Springs.

The are also required to download the G2G Now app and complete location check-ins when ordered.

Most travellers are banned from dozens of remote communities where vaccination rates remain below 80 per cent.

Unvaccinated people who try to get into the territory will be turned away and could face a fine of more than $5000.

Those allowed in must quarantine at their own expense for 14 days.
New York teenager's body was found a day later in nearby Sutro Heights Park

Marissa, 15, failed to return from Golden Gate Park while visiting family in 1978

He was booked for investigation of homocide in connection to Marissa Harvey

A man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a teenage girl in San Francisco more than 40 years ago as police suggest he may be a suspect in other unsolved homicides.

Mark Stanley Personette, 76, was arrested in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday in connection to the death of Marissa Harvey in 1978, police confirmed on Sunday.

The 15-year-old girl, from New York, had failed to return from a day trip to Golden Gate Park while she visited her family in San Francisco.

Her body was found the next day in nearby Sutro Heights Park. She had been sexually assaulted and died of strangulation, SFGate reported.

More than 40 years later, Personette has been booked for investigation of homocide in relation to the teenager's death.

Mark Stanley Personette (pictured), 76, was arrested in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday in connection to the death of Marissa Harvey in 1978

The 15-year-old girl, from New York, failed to return from a day trip to Golden Gate Park while she visited her family in San Francisco. Her body was found in a nearby park the next day

His arrest came after a joint operation by San Francisco police, the FBI and the Jefferson County Sheriff's office, authorities announced on Sunday.

Speaking about the initial investigation, the San Francisco Police Department said investigators used the best available technology available at the time and exhausted every lead, but the case went cold.

In October last year, police reopened the investigation and determined Personette to be a suspect using 'advanced investigative methods', a police statement said. It did not specify the methods used.

San Francisco police released booking photographs of Personette taken over several decades, including a 1979 arrest in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

Police urged law enforcement agencies across the nation to review any unsolved sexual assault-related homicides involving young women to determine if there is a connection to Personette.

Police Chief Bill Scott said: 'For more than four decades, Marissa Harvey's family members have been relentless advocates to bring her killer to justice, and we hope this development in the case begins to bring a measure of healing and closure they've been too long denied.'

Police released booking photos of Personette, including a 1979 arrest (pictured), as they urged law enforcement to review unsolved homocides for a link to Personette

Marissa, who was adopted, went to San Francisco in March 1978 after discovering that she had an older biological sister, who she shared a mother with, according to media reports.

At the time, her mother Marguerite Schultz told Newsday: 'We didn't really want her to, but we felt it would be unfair if we didn't let her go.'

Marissa reportedly flew alone to San Francisco during the Easter holidays and spent the weekend with her sister, before asking if she could go horseback riding.

Her sister's friend dropped her at the Golden Gate Park Stables but, unbeknownst to them, the stables were shut.

When Marissa failed to return later that day, her sister reported her missing and her body was found the next day.

In 1978, her mother Marguerite Schultz said: 'Marissa was a very special, very different, little girl.'
Schools are banning non-biodegradable glitter and looking to ditch Christmas crackers amid calls to introduce more eco-friendly festive initiatives.

One school asked pupils bringing in Christmas jumpers to swap them instead of buying them new, and in another school the nativity scenery and costumes were all reused or recycled.

Eco-conscious pupils, parents and teachers are demanding more action on the climate crisis in schools - and Christmas time is no exception.

It comes after youth activists took to the streets of Glasgow during school time last month alongside campaigner Greta Thunberg to demand action on climate change during the global Cop26 summit.

The young Swedish activist has inspired many pupils in UK schools to call for greater change in recent years, school leaders have said.

Jane Prescott, head of Portsmouth High School and former president of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), said students' interest in sustainability has been 'gaining even greater momentum'.

She told the PA news agency: 'What Greta has done I think is galvanise their opinions and make them realise that, yes, it is worth making a stand about.'

This year, for the first time, Portsmouth High School ran a festive jumper swap among its pupils to reduce the purchasing of new seasonal clothes every year.

Mrs Prescott told PA: 'It was really welcomed by the parents, but also by the girls. They're quite environmentally conscious and they're very into sustainability and they like the idea that something that isn't worn out they can recycle and pass on to somebody else who can use it the following year.'

Year 2 pupils at Manor Park School and Nursery in Knutsford, Cheshire, perform their Christmas nativity play which is recorded by headteacher Simon Cotterill, in December 2020

Glitter is not allowed at the private girls' school due to its impact on the environment. 'At one time prep schools and primary schools were full of glitter, at this time of year we have banned it,' the head added.

Some schools also tried to reduce the amount of festive decorations - such as Christmas crackers and table cloths - they use to reduce waste.

'I think crackers in schools probably have had their day and we probably won't have crackers at all next year,' Mrs Prescott added.

Graham Frost, head of Robert Ferguson Primary School in Carlisle, has banned non-biodegradable glitter from this year due to environmental concerns.

He told PA: 'I have outlawed the plastic glitter for craft activities so essentially anyone who puts an order through the school office they will be vetted and turned back if they try and order regular plastic glitter.

Children at Tops Day Nursery in Christchurch, Bournemouth, use lentils and rice to make pictures in 2017 after the nursery banned the use of glitter due to environment concerns

'My hope is that if more schools take that line then the suppliers that supply schools will think very carefully about sourcing things which are more in keeping with our environmental sensitivities.'

Mr Frost added: 'I think there is a growing feeling that if we're in the business, as we are, of preparing children for the future, with that future being imperilled by climate change, it is therefore imperative that we as schools do all we can to be a force for change and, to some extent, a force for influence.

'So enabling young people to write, to speak out, to express their response to their learning in environmental education is becoming much more important.'

At Canary Worth College Glenworth, a primary school in London, old boxes were used for the scenery, and old clothes and rags for the costumes, in the nativity production in order to be more sustainable.

Youth activists took to the streets of Glasgow last month alongside Greta Thunberg (pictured on November 5) to demand action on climate change during the global Cop26 summit

Martin Blain, head of the school, said: 'This year the environment has become our main agenda item and they [staff and pupils] were very keen that we weren't using new things to do that.'

At the school's Christmas lunch, festive decorations were also scaled back.

On the environment, Mr Blain said: 'The fact is it is very much on the agenda. People are concerned about it and I think this is driven by young people.'

Jane Prescott, head of Portsmouth High School, said students' interest in sustainability has been 'gaining even greater momentum'

James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'Young people are especially passionate about doing more to protect the environment and schools are responding to that.

'Figures like Greta Thunberg are inspiring to young people who see that they can make a difference and make their voices heard.

'Christmas can be a time of excess and it is more and more causing people to think about how that impact can be mitigated.

'We know that pupils are so much more aware of their environmental impact these days and at this time of year in particular it is they who are asking questions about how they can enjoy a more environmentally friendly Christmas.

'Whether it's recyclable wrapping paper and Christmas cards, or the reduction of plastics in presents, many are thinking about how they can make a difference.'

He added: 'The move towards more eco-friendly practices is something schools consider year-round, and they are introducing innovative new ways of working all the time - often at the suggestion of their own students.'

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'Schools put a great deal of focus on the environment in all that they do because of the vital importance of this issue in general and particularly for their pupils who rightly feel very strongly about the need for a greener world.

'The recent Cop26 climate change conference may well have intensified that interest and Christmas provides a great opportunity to channel this enthusiasm into practical activities.'
A newly-ordained pastor from Chicago is dressing up in drag in order to lead church services with children.

Aaron Musser, who was ordained this summer, can be seen addressing children from a pulpit in his church dressed in a blonde wig, white dress, and makeup before spreading the word of the Lord to children at his parish at St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square.

The event took place last Sunday, and saw Musser read a religious book about Joy to a group of children.

A Lutheran pastor in Chicago offered drag prayer time for children at his church

Aaron Musser, who was ordained this summer, donned a blonde wig, white dress, and makeup to share in worship with the children in his parish

Musser posted a statement from the church stating that his teaching in drag was to teach 'joy'

'I have an awesome story to share with you today,' Musser could be heard telling the story as he tossed his hair either side reports The Post Millennial.

'I am also a boy most of the time when I'm here, but today, I'm a girl,' he explained.

Musser wrote in an announcement on Facebook: 'The sixth Sunday of advent is rejoice Sunday. It's a chance for us to rehearse what a life of joy could look like. It's a dress rehearsal. Preaching in drag is a theological reflection on joy: Joy overflows so abundantly, it can't help but make itself known. Weaving together the day's theme, queer theory, and lectionary texts, we will 'dress rehearse' for joy.'

The lesson was also broadcast over Zoom allowing plenty of other parishioners to witness

Musser is openly gay, as stated in his personal Facebook page

The announcement noted that 'Seminarian Aaron' would be 'preaching in drag!' adding that the church wanted everyone 'to wear garments/accessories that make you feel 100%, like the best version of yourself.'

Musser writes openly about incorporating 'Queerness' into his teachings stating 'that Queerness is beautiful and a right', in one of his Facebook postings.

'Queer sexualities, gender identities, and gender expressions outpour from the depths of our being. We are who we are. And we can articulate our truth,' he wrote on his personal Facebook page.

Musser took time to have pictures with other members of church staff before posting it online

Musser wrote in an announcement on Facebook: 'The sixth Sunday of advent is rejoice Sunday. It's a chance for us to rehearse what a life of joy could look like. It's a dress rehearsal. Weaving together the day's theme, queer theory, and lectionary texts, we will 'dress rehearse' for joy.'

'Queerness is sacred. Certain straights don't believe that we speak truth,' Musser notes, adding that he also has a political angle: 'If you vote red, you vote against me and my rights.'

In a heartfelt posting on the Church's Facebook page, Musser said that it had been some time before many people had experienced 'joy'.

'Its been so hard to know what that joy will be, because its been so long since some of us have been joyful. Its been a difficult and tiring couple of years.

'And I decided instead of telling you, this is how I want you to be joyful, as we prepare for this dress rehearsal, I figured I would instead put on a dress as so many who have inspired me have done. I decided to follow their example, showing that liberation from oppressive laws clears a path for joy.

'But allowing yourself to feel joy can be scary. I wasnt sure how the outside world would handle me when they saw me this morning. Joy is difficult to feel, its vulnerable. But isnt it so beautiful? he stated.

There were many messages of support online although the church has suspended comments

There were plenty of messages of support online.

'Thank you for your inspiring and empowering message of beautiful joy!!' wrote Kristin Engstrom.

'Aaron, this is freaking amazing,' added Taylor Walker.

'Thank you for sharing joy with us today! Im really feeling it, so thank you! I needed it!' said Liz Frey.

'Amazing message! Thank you for sharing this beautiful joy!' agreed John Thomas Sipf.

Despite the positivity aired online, the church has now stopped comments from being posted.

'Weve frozen comments on this post for the time being. We appreciate all the love and encourage you to keep praying for full inclusion, affirmation, and justice for LGBTQIA+ people in the church,' the church wrote.

Musser's drag story time is one of a number of similar events that have sprung up across the nation in recent years.

Once upon a time, in 2015, a writer in San Francisco named Michelle Tea got the idea for 'Drag Queen Story Hour': men in full drag reading children's books to kids and parents in programs aimed at providing 'positive and unabashedly queer role models.'

Since then, Drag Queen Story Hours have been held at libraries or book stores in big cities including Los Angeles, New York, and costume-loving New Orleans.

In some smaller communities, the programs have sparked protests from conservative and religious groups but Chicago, where Musser preaches, is on the cusp of the Republican Midwest while being in a very left-leaning Democratic city.
A survivor of the killer mini-tornado that swept through Sydney's Northern Beaches has relived the terrifying moment he threw his mother to safety as his home was ripped apart.

At ground zero of the wild freak storm which killed one woman and left two more fighting for their lives, shell-shocked locals in Dee Why began the clean up operation on Monday.

The roof of one building on Pacific Parade was torn off and ended up wrapped around another a hundred metres away on Griffin Road, while shattered debris litters every street of the beachside suburb.

A resident in one of the top floor units of the destroyed block of apartments revealed how he and his elderly mum ran for their lives as the building gave way to the sheer explosive power of the hurricane-force gales.

A survivor of the killer mini-tornado that swept through Sydney's Northern Beaches has relived the terrifying moment he threw his mother to safety as his home was ripped apart (pictured)

'I was looking out the window and I've just never seen wind or rain like it,' Adam told Daily Mail Australia.

'We were actually trying to hold the glass because we were worried it was going to come in.

'Then we just heard this indescribable sound. When I saw the tables and chairs fly off the balcony that's when I knew we had to make a run for it.'

What was already a terrifying situation now became a matter of life and death and Adam ordered his mum to run to the back of the building.

The roof of one building on Pacific Parade was torn off and ended up wrapped around another a hundred metres away on Griffin Road (pictured)

A resident in one of the top floor units of the destroyed block of apartments revealed how he and his elderly mum ran for their lives as the building gave way to the sheer explosive power of the hurricane-force gales (pictured)

'As we were running, the roof just lifted completely off,' he said. 'I just basically threw her into the hallway. We literally dived as the roof came flying off.'

His mother had only recently come out of hospital with a broken arm and thanks to her son' quick-thinking managed to survive the terror without any fresh injuries.

'In the grand scheme of things everything's fine,' he said. 'My nieces, who are seven and six, were here the night before and they'd left two hours prior to this happening.

'We just lost a TV and a sofa, so it's all good.'

At ground zero of the wild freak storm which killed one woman and left two more fighting for their lives, shell-shocked locals in Dee Why began the clean up operation on Monday (pictured)

Shattered debris litters every street of the beachside suburb (pictured)

With no roof, they are staying at friends' places. 'Multiple friends have offered us a bed and a place to stay,' he said.

Adam hopes he'll never have to go through anything like this again: 'It's something that's once in a lifetime.

Adam is from Bournemouth in England and has lived jn Australia for 10 years.

'My mum is stuck here because of Coronavirus,' he revealed. 'She came for three months and has been here for over a year now, so it's not the best of times.

'It hasn't been the best year.'

Salvage crews used chainsaws to cut down and remove fallen trees

One resident revealed his sofa was lost in the storm, with one found in a neighbouring street (pictured) in the aftermath

The day after, Adam realises how fortunate they were.

'I think it's just adrenaline and shock [at the time], everything is in slow motion. We just couldn't really believe it was happening. It's just fight or flight and we just ran for our lives.

'I'm thinking how lucky we are really. A few hours before my nieces were there.

'It's just a few material items we lost and we haven't really got a scratch on us.

'We were incredibly lucky. I'm just amazed there weren't more fatalities,' he said.

A massive Norfolk pine tree hit powerlines, which fell on three women who were trying to take shelter at a car park at Ocean St, Narrabeen.

A 68-year-old woman died at the scene, while two other women  aged 19 and 71  were critically injured, police said.

The two injured women were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where they both remain in a serious but stable condition.

Emergency crews worked through the night making the buildings safe and blocking off the surrounding streets, with SES crews stretched to breaking point.

Roof debris littered the street, with parts falling on cars parked far from the affected building (pictured)

Debris litters every street in the devastated coastal suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches (pictured)

As salvage crews used chainsaws to cut down and remove fallen trees, other locals took to the streets to survey the damage in what looks like a war zone.

One woman resident relived the horrifying moment she realised the huge dark shape speeding towards her was the roof of an another building.

'The wind was so strong. I've never seen anything like it,' Cathy told Daily Mail Australia. 'I looked out the window and couldn't see the building next door a few metres away. There was no visibility.

'My husband and I started holding the windows at first because we thought they were going to blow in.

Parts of the roof ripped off were found wrapped around another building 100m away (pictured)

One woman resident relived the horrifying moment she realised the huge dark shape speeding towards her was the roof of an another building (pictured above)

'Then we saw the roof from around the corner coming over. It landed on our block on the south side.'

'The two units on that side were evacuated. The four on our side are OK, but there's no electricity.'

Another local from the building which lost its roof told how he spotted it lying in the backyard.

'I was just looking out the window and the rain was coming down, then it went sideways and hail came in at the same time,' said John.

The State Emergency Service responded to nearly 600 calls for help in the wake of the storm (pictured)

Air conditioner ducts were also ripped form buildings and sent flying (pictured)

'I didn't know the roof had come off until I saw [part of] it in the backyard.

'It was shocking to find out that it cleared that building [beside it] and went to the other side of the road as well. That was more amazing.'

His unit is OK inside, 'but there's water dripping in the stairway and upstairs it's coming through the light switches.'

He has since fled the unit while engineers work to secure the property and restore power, although he said his internet had survived the storm.

'I went to my godparents, but the police made sure no one was staying on the top floor,' he said. 'I think we all just decided to stay somewhere else.

Another local from the building which lost its roof told how he spotted parts of it lying in the backyard (pictured)

Volunteers are still on the ground with police and NSW Fire & Rescue crews to clear debris (pictured)

He hopes to be able to move back in before Christmas and added: 'We've got two days of sun I think and hopefully the engineers can get a lot of work done in that time.'

Adrielle and Klaus from Brazil live next door but were not at home when the storm struck and were stunned by the scene they found on their return.

'It looked like a war,' she said. 'Our plants were destroyed, our clothes that we left out to dry were all over the place.

Locals were stunned by the scene after the brief but savage storm had passed (pictured)

'At the back there was a tree that fell on a car. But no one suffered any injury here.'

Klaus added: 'Our neighbour lost their roof, but I think they went to a friend's house.'

Another said it was the intense weather they had ever seen.

'I had just gone out to my balcony to get a bit of fresh air,' said Lachlan. The the storm hit. I couldnt even see across the road. The rain was coming in sideways.

'It was the most crazy thing ever. The wind and the rain picked up and I looked outside and saw part of the gutter flying up the street and hitting cars.

The SES said most calls were for leaking roofs and fallen trees (pictured) that were blocking roads as well as downed powerlines and people who were stuck in lifts

Then we saw the roof that had smashed in here. Within five minutes it was all over.

Another local woman said she was just fortunate to have got off the streets just minutes before it hit.

Ive never seen anything like it and Ive lived here 15 years. Its just unbelievable, just incredible,' said Tina. 'I was standing at a bus stop half an hour before it came through. I was bloody lucky.

All the pine trees that I can see from my balcony are just denuded, basically.

Nearby neighbour David added: It was pretty gnarly, it was pretty intense. It was very quick. Ive never been in a cyclone but I imagine itd pretty much be like this.

Ive never seen worse weather. It was crazy. When the storm hit I was at Mona Vale and driving through there were trees uprooted everywhere.

The damage was widespread throughout Dee Why

There were so many sirens, fire engines rushing through, ambos, police and locals running through the streets to help wherever they could.

Local postman Brendan revealed the storm left debris scattered everywhere.

'It didnt last very long but there was so much damage. There was foliage everywhere. You couldnt see the road. It was quite incredible. It was freakish, he said.

Jake Atkinson was in Manly at the time the storm struck but was astonished to return home to Dee Why to see the devastation.

Rescue workers said it was a miracle more people were not killed by falling debris (pictured)

It wasnt really that bad in Manly, but it was like a war zone when I got back to Dee Why, so I was lucky to miss it,' he said.

At our place weve got all sorts of debris that has come from the unit block that lost its roof about 400 metres away.

The State Emergency Service responded to nearly 600 calls for help and volunteers are still on the ground with police and NSW Fire & Rescue crews who are helping people clear debris and secure homes that have lost roofs.

Adam Jones from the SES said most calls were for leaking roofs and fallen trees that were blocking roads as well as downed powerlines and people who were stuck in lifts.

Fallen trees (pictured) have closed streets and damaged property

'We can't promise that we'll have everyone ready for Christmas but that is the goal of every member out there today,' Mr Jones told ABC TV.

'Powerlines are incredibly dangerous. If they are down, stay away from them.

'Do not assume that they're turned off because they're on the ground. Try to stay 16-20 metres away from them,' he said.

More than 35,000 homes lost power, with areas including North Turramurra, Frenchs Forest, Forestville and St Ives still affected.

Ausgrid says employees were working around the clock to restore services.
During a brilliant career spanning six decades perhaps Richard Rogers least remarkable achievement was to be the architect of Cool Britannia.

As such he oversaw the design of the Millennium Dome and, along with everyone else involved in the New Labour project, suffered the backlash when the opening night turned into what he called a nightmare of nightmares.

In fact Lord Rogers, who has died aged 88, was one of the most innovative and influential architects in the world during the second half of the 20th century.

Like Rolls-Royce, Paul Smith or David Beckham, Rogers was in his own field a British global icon of excellence and style.

During a brilliant career spanning six decades perhaps Richard Rogers least remarkable achievement was to be the architect of Cool Britannia'. He is pictured with his wife Ruth

He was also an exemplar of the dictum that a prophet is not always recognised in his own land. His most celebrated  and controversial  creation, the Pompidou Centre, is to be found in the capital of our ancient rivals.

Rogers influence went beyond the design of extraordinary buildings. What had started as his London studios staff canteen became, under the guidance of his second wife Ruth Rogers, a zeitgeist eating place and Michelin-starred training ground for celebrity chefs. Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Theo Randall cut their teeth at the River Cafe.

Rogers life had drama and exoticism from the very start. He was born in Florence, Italy, in 1933 into what he described as a rather spoiled upper middle class Anglo-Italian family. His paternal grandfather was a dentist who had emigrated from England. Young Richard  never Riccardo  had an Anglophile upbringing.

Opposed to Mussolini and with war looming, the family moved to smoggy and cold London, where they lived in far more modest circumstances. It was hell at first, he later recalled.

His most celebrated  and controversial  creation, the Pompidou Centre, is to be found in the capital of our ancient rivals

An undiagnosed dyslexic, Rogers left school without A-levels. It was not until his National Service that he found his metier.

Thanks to his ability to speak Italian, he was posted to his mothers home town of Trieste, under British and US military rule, where he was able to meet an architect cousin, Ernesto Rogers.

While on leave he worked in Ernestos office in Milan. Back in the UK, Rogers applied to the Architectural Association to be taken on its diploma course.

In spite of his lack of formal qualifications, he was accepted.

During his studies he met undergraduate Su Brumwell. They married in 1960 and soon after left for America, where Rogers took up a Fulbright scholarship at Yale. While studying there for his Masters, Rogers met another outstanding British student of architecture called Norman Foster.

Their mutual inspiration and brief working relationship were to have a profound impact on their profession and the worlds urban landscapes.

When they returned to Britain, Rogers and Foster, along with Su Rogers and Fosters wife Wendy Cheeseman, formed a firm called Team 4. Although the partnership ended before the decade was out, a significant course had been set.

Rogers and Foster became the major figures in a new British-led school of design known as high-tech architecture. It has been called the last major architectural movement of the 20th century.

In 1972, in partnership with the young Italian architect Renzo Piano, who would later design The Shard, Rogers won a competition of 681 entries to design a new cultural centre for Paris.

What would become known as the Pompidou Centre was finished in 1977. But long before, the multi-coloured, six-storey steel and glass leviathan had become the focus of outrage by traditionalists.

Like the Parisian blot, the Dome  renamed The O2 arena  is now part of the London landscape and used by millions each year. Rogers did not do regret, though he could be scathing of others projects

Less than a kilometre from Notre Dame, this was a prefabricated temple of the high-tech style inspired by industry, engineering and functionality.

The guts had been turned inside out so that air conditioning, electrical and water systems and even the structural load bearing were on the exterior. A glass enclosed escalator zig-zagged outside from ground level to roof.

The centre housed Europes largest modern art museum. But it was an artwork and provocation in itself. Le Monde called it an architectural King Kong.

Rogers said later: The shock of the new is always really rather difficult to get over. All good architecture is modern in its time. Parisians have come to love the Pompidou  or at least accept it as an eccentric part of the landscape. After the Pompidou, everything changed for Rogers professionally. It had already done so in his private life.

At a dinner party in 1969 he had been introduced to young American design student Ruth Elias. They fell in love and he divorced Su, mother of his three sons. The most painful thing Ive ever done, he said. In 1973 Rogers and Ruth married and he had two more boys, one of whom, Bo, died in 2011.

In 1986 Rogers delivered his second major project, the Lloyds building in London. Like the Pompidou, it had its innards on the outside including 12 glass lifts, the first of their kind in the UK

In 1986 Rogers delivered his second major project, the Lloyds building in London. Like the Pompidou, it had its innards on the outside including 12 glass lifts, the first of their kind in the UK.

In 2011 it was given Grade I listed status, the youngest UK building to have received the accolade.

Among a number of distinctive projects, Rogers firm designed the European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg and Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

He was made a Labour peer in 1997 and became something of a guru to the Blairites. But his involvement as a creative force in what became the Millennium Dome project began during the previous Tory administration. New Labour seized on the plan as a symbol of their political triumph in the age of Cool Britannia.

Rogers firm designed a 365 square metre, glass fibre tent on the Greenwich peninsula.

The structure was to house an exhibition; a mishmash of displays and ideas by other artists and thinkers. Alas, many were lame. Worse was the grand opening, described as one of the greatest PR disasters in history.

The great and the good lined up for hours on Millennium Eve and way into the New Year, waiting to get past the hopelessly ill-prepared security. The world fell in on the heads of those linked to the Dome.

For Rogers, it was reminiscent of the opening of the Pompidou Centre. But like the Parisian blot, the Dome  renamed The O2 arena  is now part of the London landscape and used by millions each year. Rogers did not do regret, though he could be scathing of others projects.

He loathed the Fenchurch building aka the Walkie Talkie in London and lamented Prince Charless traditionalist influence. Nor did he apologise for being involved in some of the worlds most expensive private residential developments, such as One Hyde Park, in spite of his Leftist views.

In September 2020, he announced he was stepping down from the practice he founded 43 years earlier. He said: I will enlighten myself and let them [his partners] go ahead. His retirement has been a short one. His legacy is profound.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Queensland had 59 new cases of Covid as the Omicron variant takes hold in the state.

'I expect to see more and more cases coming up into Christmas and over New Year, but we are well prepared for this,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

The latest figure is an increase on the 42 Covid-19 cases recorded in Queensland yesterday, which was double the number recorded just 48 hours earlier.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard nominated a 'cluster of concern' as a graduation ceremony for Griffith University paramedics and nursing students that was held on Monday last week at Brisbanes Convention and Exhibition Centre and attended by more than 2600 people, where today's press conference was held.

The whole event - from 7.30am to 12.30pm - has been classified as a casual contact event. Fifteen cases had now been linked to the event, some of which were Omicron.

'It's like the whole episode will be an Omicron cluster,' Dr Gerrard said.

Forty-nine of the new cases were locally acquired, 16 are linked to a previously announced case and 33 cases are under investigation. Nine of the cases were acquired interstate and one was overseas acquired.

Queensland now had 89.6 per cent of eligible people with a first dose of a Covid vaccine, and 84.51 percent fully vaccinated.

Dr Gerrard said cases were doubling every 48 hours.

'We've had 43 confirmed Omicron cases in Queensland so far and of those tested yesterday, there were 13 Omicron cases and eight Delta cases,' he said.

Yesterday he was forced to revise his prediction that Omicron would be the dominant strain in weeks, saying that could happen 'in days' after 21 of the most recent 25 positive cases were found to have the more new variant.

'This is happening very rapidly, again even more rapidly than we originally predicted, we thought that might take weeks, it looks like if this trend continues it will be dominant within days,' he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Queensland had 59 new cases of Covid as the Omicron variant takes hold in the state

Ms Palaszczuk dismissed fears Queensland will reintroduce border restrictions.

'There is a balance to get right here in terms of people seeing their loved ones,' she said.

'We are not seeing that high influx into our hospitals at the moment.

'What we are seeing from the evidence to date is that people are having less severe disease from this variant.'

'Queenslanders feel that added measure of safety that people are getting that PCR test coming into Queensland, but we know this variant is highly contagious, it's sweeping across Australia and becoming dominant strain in Australia.'

The news cases were spread across Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba region and Townsville.

'It will be very instructive to learn in the next 1-2 weeks what pattern we see in the hospitals,' Dr Gerrard said. 'There is no-one in intensive care in the hospitals at the moment.'

After 20 total cases on Friday, and 31 just 24 hours ago, Chief Health Officer John Gerrard expected the number to surge after Queensland opened its borders to fully vaccinated interstate travellers last Monday.

He said the fact the isolated Mount Isa township was now affected indicated the virus' spread.

'It's not just the coastal cities that are affected, now it's the inland cities,' Dr Gerrard said.

'It is likely most Queenslanders will be potentially exposed to this virus in the coming weeks.

'If this rate continues, we will see significant numbers in January as predicted.'

Ms Palaszczuk dismissed fears Queensland will reintroduce border restrictions at Monday's Covid-19 update

A a 'cluster of concern' was identified at Brisbanes Convention and Exhibition Centre (pictured) after a graduation ceremony for Griffith University paramedics and nursing students

Yesterday Dr Gerrard said no one was in intensive care, with only one of the 42 new cases showing symptoms. He said the 'moderately unwell and breathless' woman was unvaccinated.

'There are 66 patients in hospital but of those 66 patients, only one of them is there for medical reasons,' Dr Gerrard said on Monday.

'There are other reasons why patients might be in hospital with COVID-19 such as isolating them from sick relatives.'

Early signs indicated vaccines 'appear effective' against Omicron, Dr Gerrard said, with current cases showing 'very mild symptoms'.

Dr Gerrard said the state government was changing the way it dealt with Covid cases.

'Previously we have been admitting all patients with Covid-19 to hospitals in Queensland, mostly for infection-control purposes,' he said.

'We are moving away from that model and we are clearing beds to allow capacity in the coming weeks, should we require it.'

As of last Friday, unvaccinated people are banned from attending most Queensland venues, including cafes, restaurants, nightclubs, stadiums and theme parks. Pictured: People out in Surfers Paradise present their vaccination status at a nightclub

As of last Friday, unvaccinated people are banned from attending most Queensland venues, including cafes, restaurants, nightclubs, stadiums and theme parks.

The Palaszczuk government also reintroduced face masks for indoor settings including retail stores, public transport and rideshare services from 1am last Saturday,

On Monday the Queensland government also announced a $200 million funding injection for Queensland hospitals to cope with increasing Covid 19 cases and the resulting added pressures on the health system.

Ms Palaszczuk said the money was 'ready to go' to help the health system manage Covid cases at home rather than in hospitals.

Two police officers based at the Gold Coast and one at Logan who had tested positive for Covid had forced more than 100 officers into quarantine across the two stations.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said police had planned for such an event and would maintain police numbers on the frontline.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard nominated a 'cluster of concern' as a graduation ceremony for Griffith University paramedics and nursing students held on Monday last week at Brisbanes Convention and Exhibition Centre and attended by more than 2600 people

Dr Gerrard had a shaky moment towards the end of the press conference when asked whether Queensland Health was monitoring compliance with the requirement of visitors to the state to take a PCR test on day five of their visit.

'This is not going to be the main source of infection in Queensland, The virus is already here and it has nothing to do with day five testing,' he responded.

Dr Gerrard was asked why Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath had previously described the day five test as 'very important'.

'It [the day five test] is not the most important aspect of the public health measures at the moment.

'The most important is that if people are symptomatic, they get tested.

'It is a minor aspect of the public health response.'
The father of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins slammed Alec Baldwin (pictured) over his role in her death, saying he was at least 'partially responsible'

The father of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins slammed Alec Baldwin for accidentally shooting his daughter dead, saying the star was at least 'partially responsible' for the killing.

'It is clear to me Baldwin fired the shot from his hand so it's hard for me to understand how he cannot be held partly responsible for my daughter's death,' Anatoly Androsovych told The Sun.

'I can't understand the behavior of Alec.'

The 61-year-old father said he doesn't understand Baldwin's claim that the gun that killed Hutchins went off without him pulling the trigger.

'The revolver is the type of gun which doesn't shoot before the trigger is pressed and Alec is partially guilty for causing that shot,' Androsovych said.

He questioned why Baldwin, 63, deleted a string of tweets he sent in wake of the tragedy.

'Why did he sweep out his tweets when it became clear the shooting was on rehearsal?' he stated. 'And why did he fire the shot during the preparations?'

Androsovych, a Ukrainian who served as a submarine captain, also shared that he is worried his 9-year-old grandson, Anrdos, may not 'ever fully recover' from the incident.

'Andros is slowly getting back to life, but this is huge blow for all of us,' he said.

Halyna Hutchins' (pictured with her husband Matthew and son Andros) father said he doesn't understand Baldwin's claim that the gun that killed Hutchins went off without him pulling the trigger. He said: 'I can't understand the behavior of Alec'

Hutchins (center) died after being shot by Baldwin during a rehearsal on Oct. 21 in New Mexico

Androsovych's comments came just days after Baldwin denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins on the set of Rust on October 21.

Baldwin denied the allegations in a tweet Thursday, sent after Sante Fe sheriffs in New Mexico issued a search warrant for his iPhone.

The 63-year-old actor tweeted an article from Newsweek which claimed that he had requested a bigger gun before the accidental shooting.

'This, in fact is a lie,' Baldwin wrote over the article link.

'The choices regarding any props by me for the film RUST were made weeks before production began. To suggest that any changes were made 'before fatal shooting' is false,' he added.

The search warrant, requested by Santa Fe sheriffs, authorizes police to review all text messages and photos on the actor's iPhone, as well as any stored location data, as part of their investigation.

According to the search warrant, Baldwin told police that he exchanged emails with the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, regarding what style of gun to use in the film.

They ultimately decided on a Colt .45 pistol.

The actor had been handed the antique pistol for the scene, and was told that it was 'cold' - not loaded.

Hutchins' father, Anatoly Androsovych, shared that he is worried his 9-year-old grandson, Anrdos (pictured center with his parents), may not 'ever fully recover' from the incident

Androsovych's comments came just two days after Baldwin denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins (pictured) on the set of Rust on October 21

Alec Baldwin is seen on October 21, after speaking to investigators about the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin's phone is now being sought by the team probing Hutchins's death

He was rehearsing a scene in which he pulls out his gun and, in an interview with ABC on December 2, said that he never pulled the trigger, but the gun went off anyway.

Hutchins, a 42-year-old cinematographer, was shot and killed. The director of the film, Joel Souza, was shot in the shoulder and survived.

It is unclear why it has taken so long for New Mexico police to seize Baldwin's phone.

The actor has insisted that he has fully cooperated with the investigation, and no arrests have been made.

Baldwin on December 2 gave an emotional interview to ABC's George Stephanopoulos, in which he said he did not pull the trigger, and felt no guilt because he believed he had done nothing wrong.

'I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They're shocked. It's loud,' he said.

Baldwin has spoken of his devastation at Hutchins's death, and paid tribute to her as a wonderful cinematographer and a great person.

Baldwin spoke to George Stephanopoulos for an interview which aired on Dec. 2. During the interview hed denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins on set

The set of Rust, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside of Santa Fe

Hutchins was shot just moments after the crew entered a church set to rehearse a scene (above)

He told Stephanopoulos he didn't know she'd died until hours later, at the end of his police interview when he was photographed in the sheriff's parking lot in Santa Fe.

He said that he has been told by people 'in the know' that it is 'highly unlikely' he'll face criminal charges.

'Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can't say who it is, but it's not me,' Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.

Baldwin's version of on-set tragedy 'I'm just showing. I go, 'How 'bout that? Does that work? You see that? Do you see that?' 'And then she goes, 'Yeah, that's good.' 'I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They're shocked. It's loud. They don't have their earplugs in. 'No one was - the gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun. 'If they were cosmetic rounds, nothing with a charge at all, a flash round, nothing. 'She goes down, I thought to myself, 'Did she faint?' 'The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me 'till probably 45 minutes to an hour later.' He added: 'Well, she's laying there and I go, 'Did she hit by wadding? Was there a blank?' 'I never pulled the trigger. No, no, no. You would never do that. 'The gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun. 'Nobody gave a f*** who you are any more until this. You see a lot of people with their phones now, in a coffee shop,' he said, showing them filming him. Advertisement

'Honest to God, if I thought I was responsible I might have killed myself. And I don't say that lightly.'

He also took a swipe at former President Donald Trump, his media foe who he impersonated on Saturday Night Live, for suggesting that he 'loaded the gun himself.'

'He said that I did it deliberately. Just when you think things can't get any more surreal, here's the president of the United States making a comment on this tragic situation.'

Baldwin, after the interview aired, posted to Instagram a photo of him cradling one of his six young children.

'No matter what happens to me. No matter what I suffer. If I win or lose, anything. Anything. No one can take away from me the joy and love you have given me, @hilariabaldwin,' he wrote.

'These are tough times. The world is choked with fumes of hate. But you have given me a reason to live. Our life with our family is all I care about. Nothing else. I owe that to you.'

Baldwin described in detail for the first time the immediate aftermath of the accident on October 21. He was filming a scene inside a church on the set of the movie when the gun was handed to him.

'She's getting me to position the gun - everything is at her direction. I draw the gun, to her marker. I'm not shooting to the camera lens, I'm shooting just off. In her direction. This was a completely incidental shot, that may not have ended up in the film.'

Baldwin says he cocked the gun, and was discussing with Hutchins how it looked on camera.

'I'm just showing. I go, 'How 'bout that? Does that work? You see that? Do you see that?' And then she goes, "Yeah, that's good."

'I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They're shocked. It's loud. They don't have their earplugs in.

'No one was - the gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun. If they were cosmetic rounds, nothing with a charge at all, a flash round, nothing.

'She goes down, I thought to myself, "Did she faint?" The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me 'till probably 45 minutes to an hour later.'

He added: 'Well, she's laying there and I go, "Did she hit by wadding? Was there a blank?" Sometimes those blank rounds have a wadding inside that packs, it's like a cloth that packs the gunpowder in. Sometimes wadding comes out, it can hit people, and it could feel like a little bit of a poke.

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

'But no one could understand. Did she have a heart attack? Because remember the idea that someone put a live bullet in the gun was not even in reality."

'I never pulled the trigger. No, no, no. You would never do that.'

Dave Halls, the assistant director who was watching, confirmed Baldwin's account, through his lawyer.

He said he stood over her for 'about 60 seconds' and was then ushered out. Was she conscious?' Stephanopoulos asked. 'My recollection is yes,' said Baldwin.

He said 'no one had any idea' there was live ammunition used until a police officer showed a photo of the shrapnel removed from Souza's arm.

He said then began 'the agony, insanity, that someone put a live bullet in the gun. She was laying there and she was there for a while I was amazed at how long they didn't get her in a car or get her out, but they waited until a helicopter came,' he said.

'And by the time the helicopter took off with her we were literally all glutted to that process outside.

'When she finally left, I don't know how long she was there for. She kept saying, she's stable, just as you disbelieve there was a live round in the gun, you disbelieve its going to be a fatal accident.

'At the end of my interview with the sheriff's department, they told me 'we regret to inform you she didn't make it,' they told me then and there.'

He added: 'That's when I went outside and called my wife.'
By Padraig Collins for Daily Mail Australia

A survivor of the killer mini-tornado that swept through Sydney's Northern Beaches has relived the terrifying moment he threw his mother to safety as his home was ripped apart.

At ground zero of the wild freak storm which killed one woman and left two more fighting for their lives, shell-shocked locals in Dee Why began the clean up operation on Monday.

The roof of one building on Pacific Parade was torn off and ended up wrapped around another a hundred metres away on Griffin Road, while shattered debris litters every street of the beachside suburb.

A resident in one of the top floor units of the destroyed block of apartments revealed how he and his elderly mum ran for their lives as the building gave way to the sheer explosive power of the hurricane-force gales.

A survivor of the killer mini-tornado that swept through Sydney's Northern Beaches has relived the terrifying moment he threw his mother to safety as his home was ripped apart (pictured)

'I was looking out the window and I've just never seen wind or rain like it,' Adam told Daily Mail Australia.

'We were actually trying to hold the glass because we were worried it was going to come in.

'Then we just heard this indescribable sound. When I saw the tables and chairs fly off the balcony that's when I knew we had to make a run for it.'

What was already a terrifying situation now became a matter of life and death and Adam ordered his mum to run to the back of the building.

The roof of one building on Pacific Parade was torn off and ended up wrapped around another a hundred metres away on Griffin Road (pictured)

A resident in one of the top floor units of the destroyed block of apartments revealed how he and his elderly mum ran for their lives as the building gave way to the sheer explosive power of the hurricane-force gales (pictured)

'As we were running, the roof just lifted completely off,' he said. 'I just basically threw her into the hallway. We literally dived as the roof came flying off.'

His mother had only recently come out of hospital with a broken arm and thanks to her son' quick-thinking managed to survive the terror without any fresh injuries.

'In the grand scheme of things everything's fine,' he said. 'My nieces, who are seven and six, were here the night before and they'd left two hours prior to this happening.

'We just lost a TV and a sofa, so it's all good.'

At ground zero of the wild freak storm which killed one woman and left two more fighting for their lives, shell-shocked locals in Dee Why began the clean up operation on Monday (pictured)

Shattered debris litters every street of the beachside suburb (pictured)

With no roof, they are staying at friends' places. 'Multiple friends have offered us a bed and a place to stay,' he said.

Adam hopes he'll never have to go through anything like this again: 'It's something that's once in a lifetime.

Adam is from Bournemouth in England and has lived jn Australia for 10 years.

'My mum is stuck here because of Coronavirus,' he revealed. 'She came for three months and has been here for over a year now, so it's not the best of times.

'It hasn't been the best year.'

Salvage crews used chainsaws to cut down and remove fallen trees

One resident revealed his sofa was lost in the storm, with one found in a neighbouring street (pictured) in the aftermath

The day after, Adam realises how fortunate they were.

'I think it's just adrenaline and shock [at the time], everything is in slow motion. We just couldn't really believe it was happening. It's just fight or flight and we just ran for our lives.

'I'm thinking how lucky we are really. A few hours before my nieces were there.

'It's just a few material items we lost and we haven't really got a scratch on us.

'We were incredibly lucky. I'm just amazed there weren't more fatalities,' he said.

A massive Norfolk pine tree hit powerlines, which fell on three women who were trying to take shelter at a car park at Ocean St, Narrabeen.

A 68-year-old woman died at the scene, while two other women  aged 19 and 71  were critically injured, police said.

The two injured women were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where they both remain in a serious but stable condition.

Emergency crews worked through the night making the buildings safe and blocking off the surrounding streets, with SES crews stretched to breaking point.

Roof debris littered the street, with parts falling on cars parked far from the affected building (pictured)

Debris litters every street in the devastated coastal suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches (pictured)

As salvage crews used chainsaws to cut down and remove fallen trees, other locals took to the streets to survey the damage in what looks like a war zone.

One woman resident relived the horrifying moment she realised the huge dark shape speeding towards her was the roof of an another building.

'The wind was so strong. I've never seen anything like it,' Cathy told Daily Mail Australia. 'I looked out the window and couldn't see the building next door a few metres away. There was no visibility.

'My husband and I started holding the windows at first because we thought they were going to blow in.

Parts of the roof ripped off were found wrapped around another building 100m away (pictured)

One woman resident relived the horrifying moment she realised the huge dark shape speeding towards her was the roof of an another building (pictured above)

'Then we saw the roof from around the corner coming over. It landed on our block on the south side.'

'The two units on that side were evacuated. The four on our side are OK, but there's no electricity.'

Another local from the building which lost its roof told how he spotted it lying in the backyard.

'I was just looking out the window and the rain was coming down, then it went sideways and hail came in at the same time,' said John.

The State Emergency Service responded to nearly 600 calls for help in the wake of the storm (pictured)

Air conditioner ducts were also ripped form buildings and sent flying (pictured)

'I didn't know the roof had come off until I saw [part of] it in the backyard.

'It was shocking to find out that it cleared that building [beside it] and went to the other side of the road as well. That was more amazing.'

His unit is OK inside, 'but there's water dripping in the stairway and upstairs it's coming through the light switches.'

He has since fled the unit while engineers work to secure the property and restore power, although he said his internet had survived the storm.

'I went to my godparents, but the police made sure no one was staying on the top floor,' he said. 'I think we all just decided to stay somewhere else.

Another local from the building which lost its roof told how he spotted parts of it lying in the backyard (pictured)

Volunteers are still on the ground with police and NSW Fire & Rescue crews to clear debris (pictured)

He hopes to be able to move back in before Christmas and added: 'We've got two days of sun I think and hopefully the engineers can get a lot of work done in that time.'

Adrielle and Klaus from Brazil live next door but were not at home when the storm struck and were stunned by the scene they found on their return.

'It looked like a war,' she said. 'Our plants were destroyed, our clothes that we left out to dry were all over the place.

Locals were stunned by the scene after the brief but savage storm had passed (pictured)

'At the back there was a tree that fell on a car. But no one suffered any injury here.'

Klaus added: 'Our neighbour lost their roof, but I think they went to a friend's house.'

Another said it was the intense weather they had ever seen.

'I had just gone out to my balcony to get a bit of fresh air,' said Lachlan. The the storm hit. I couldnt even see across the road. The rain was coming in sideways.

'It was the most crazy thing ever. The wind and the rain picked up and I looked outside and saw part of the gutter flying up the street and hitting cars.

The SES said most calls were for leaking roofs and fallen trees (pictured) that were blocking roads as well as downed powerlines and people who were stuck in lifts

Then we saw the roof that had smashed in here. Within five minutes it was all over.

Another local woman said she was just fortunate to have got off the streets just minutes before it hit.

Ive never seen anything like it and Ive lived here 15 years. Its just unbelievable, just incredible,' said Tina. 'I was standing at a bus stop half an hour before it came through. I was bloody lucky.

All the pine trees that I can see from my balcony are just denuded, basically.

Nearby neighbour David added: It was pretty gnarly, it was pretty intense. It was very quick. Ive never been in a cyclone but I imagine itd pretty much be like this.

Ive never seen worse weather. It was crazy. When the storm hit I was at Mona Vale and driving through there were trees uprooted everywhere.

The damage was widespread throughout Dee Why

There were so many sirens, fire engines rushing through, ambos, police and locals running through the streets to help wherever they could.

Local postman Brendan revealed the storm left debris scattered everywhere.

'It didnt last very long but there was so much damage. There was foliage everywhere. You couldnt see the road. It was quite incredible. It was freakish, he said.

Jake Atkinson was in Manly at the time the storm struck but was astonished to return home to Dee Why to see the devastation.

Rescue workers said it was a miracle more people were not killed by falling debris (pictured)

It wasnt really that bad in Manly, but it was like a war zone when I got back to Dee Why, so I was lucky to miss it,' he said.

At our place weve got all sorts of debris that has come from the unit block that lost its roof about 400 metres away.

The State Emergency Service responded to nearly 600 calls for help and volunteers are still on the ground with police and NSW Fire & Rescue crews who are helping people clear debris and secure homes that have lost roofs.

Adam Jones from the SES said most calls were for leaking roofs and fallen trees that were blocking roads as well as downed powerlines and people who were stuck in lifts.

Fallen trees (pictured) have closed streets and damaged property

'We can't promise that we'll have everyone ready for Christmas but that is the goal of every member out there today,' Mr Jones told ABC TV.

'Powerlines are incredibly dangerous. If they are down, stay away from them.

'Do not assume that they're turned off because they're on the ground. Try to stay 16-20 metres away from them,' he said.

More than 35,000 homes lost power, with areas including North Turramurra, Frenchs Forest, Forestville and St Ives still affected.

Ausgrid says employees were working around the clock to restore services.
A teenager who sparked a seven-day lockdown in Byron Bay after travelling to the area with his father who had Covid-19 has been fined $35,000.

Kristian Radovanovic, 19, did not appear for his sentence as he has travelled to Serbia with his father to care for his grandmother, the Waverley Local Court was told on Monday.

He pleaded guilty to four charges after the Rose Bay family travelled to NSW's northern rivers region to buy a farm in late July and failed to abide by public health orders.

For not using a QR code and failing to wear a mask in a general store Kristian Radovanovic was fined $5,000 and $7,500 respectively, and for not wearing a mask nor using a QR code in a taxi he was fined $12,500 and $10,000 respectively.

Kristian Radovanovic, 19, did not appear for his sentence as he has travelled to Serbia with his father to care for his grandmother, the Waverley Local Court was told on Monday

Radovanovic pleaded guilty to four charges after the Rose Bay family travelled to NSW's northern rivers region to purchase a farm in late July and failed to abide by public health orders

The former gyprocker was already serving a community corrections order following a police pursuit while drink driving, and a conditional release order for affray after joining a brawl.

Magistrate Paul Mulroney said all offences involved a disregard for public health and safety.

'He did not care at all about the rest of the community,' he said.

'What he did was not just irresponsible, not just criminal, but had the real potential to put the lives and the wellbeing of the community at serious risk.

'I am imposing substantial fines to drive home to other people who don't think this is serious... there should be significant consequences.'

Lawyer David Newham said Kristian Radovanovic's father had twice tried to buy property in the northern rivers region in 2020 but in June 2021 his senior business partner inspected a farm and in essence communicated 'this is the one'.

When a Serbian father tells his son to jump, Mr Newham said, he asks 'how high?'.

'At that point in time, they didn't know they were infected with Covid-19 at all,' the lawyer said.

The family packed up some belongings and travelled to Byron Bay on July 31 to inspect the land but were disappointed.

Lawyer David Newham said Kristian Radovanovic's father Zoran (pictured) had twice tried to buy property in the northern rivers region in 2020 but in June 2021 his senior business partner inspected a farm and in essence communicated 'this is the one'

Zoran sold this home in Forestville for $2.25 million in 2020 before moving to Rose Bay in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

The father, Zoran, made an offer on a Nimbin property on August 5, but by this time he was having breathing difficulties he assumed was his chronic asthma.

Days later the 52-year-old was admitted to hospital with the virus, subsequently leading Byron Bay and surrounding areas into a one-week lockdown in August.

Mr Newham said his client accepted there was no excuse for his conduct but pointed out 'half the people around were doing the same thing'.

Zoran Radovanovic's case is also up for mention at Lismore Local Court on Monday.
Virtually every part of the Australian economy is vulnerable to the supply chain crisis that is not predicted to improve until 2023.

An Australian Industry Group survey of 346 CEOs found two-thirds of them had encountered difficulty securing essential goods to run their business.

The manufacturing, construction and service group's chief executive Innes Willox said almost every job in Australia depended on goods being shipped in from overseas.

'The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in the operations of global and domestic supply chains and laid bare many Australian vulnerabilities as an island nation with 98 per cent of trade and most jobs connected to or reliant on sea freight in some way,' he said.

Mr Willox said global lockdowns were likely to prolong the supply chain crisis for at least another two years.

Virtually every part of the Australian economy is vulnerable to the supply chain crisis with an industry group now predicting it won't ease until 2023. An Australian Industry Group survey of 346 CEOs found two-thirds of them had encountered difficulty securing essential inputs to run their business (pictured is a ship at Port Botany in Sydney)

'The increase in global demand for goods, lengthy lockdowns and infections of workers, the global shipping container shortage, reduction in shipping services and port skipping, Australian industrial actions, and rising costs, have been creating supply chain chaos, which is not projected to so much as moderately ease until 2023 and beyond,' he said.

'These pressures can undermine our economic recovery from the pandemic and ultimately dampen economic growth.'

Federal Treasury doesn't agree with the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook published last week forecasting economic growth of 3.75 per cent in 2021-22.

That is more than double the 1.5 per cent annual pace of 2020-21 which included a recession sparked by the national lockdowns of March 2020.

The update to the May budget forecasts mentioned the supply chain more in the context of other countries.

The AI Group's survey of 346 private sector CEOs was taken in October 2021, with the companies collectively employing 119,827 people or an average of 378 each.

The manufacturing lobby group's chief executive Innes Willox said almost every job in Australia depended on goods being shipped in from overseas

Almost two-thirds, or 65 per cent of them, reported that sourcing goods was harder in 2021 than 2020.

'Supply chain problems should be assessed by how essential the goods are to the wellbeing of Australians and how critical they are to the production of an essential good or service whether for domestic consumption or for export,' Mr Willox said.

Fifty-two per cent of them, expected their ability to source goods for their business would continue to be disrupted in 2022.

'There are many other reports of individual businesses and entire industries struggling with supply chain pressures, with a dominant view that we won't see so much as a moderate easing in these conditions until as late as 2023,' the report said.

The AI Group survey was conducted in October before concerns were raised about the supply of diesel additive AdBlue.

Global supplies diminished after China stopped exports of the key ingredient urea in a bid to contain fertiliser prices.
No individual minister is indispensable. Even the most talented is replaceable. After their departure, the ship of state sails on regardless.

Even so, the resignation of Brexit mastermind Lord Frost is an agonising body blow to Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister had already endured a miserable week, suffering a huge backbench rebellion against Covid restrictions and a catastrophic by-election defeat.

Boris Johnson and David Frost pictured together last year. Mr Johnson hailed the now resigned Brexit minister as 'the greatest Frost since the Great Frost of 1709'

But the loss of his friend and ally (Mr Johnson hailed him as 'the greatest Frost since the Great Frost of 1709') is on a different level. For it strikes at the very heart of his faltering premiership.

Principled, patriotic and a skilful diplomat, Lord Frost is a man of true substance. In a lightweight Cabinet, he brought political and intellectual heft.

Why is his exit so damaging? While recent turbulence has centred on Mr Johnson's character and judgment, Lord Frost quit due to growing disillusionment with the Tory party's troubling direction of travel.

With customary acuity, he warns the PM that he risks squandering the opportunities of Brexit.

The Government shows depressingly little inclination towards creating the nimble low-tax, low-regulation economy needed to deliver the full benefits of regaining sovereignty.

Yet low taxes are an article of Conservative faith. Mr Johnson must demonstrate he understands this.

Easing personal and business taxes might just reduce the heat from the growing backbench insurrection.

Lord Frost also hits the nail on the head over ruinous green policies.

The Mail believes passionately in safeguarding the planet for future generations. Yet the reckless dash to achieve 'net-zero' carbon emissions will come at an eye-watering cost, hit struggling families with soaring bills and leave us dangerously dependent on foreign powers to keep the lights on.

Perhaps most pertinently, Lord Frost believes it is vital to keep the country open through Omicron.

Lord Frost, who has now resigned from his role as Brexit minister, pictured in November

Gloomy scientists are urging the PM to batten down the hatches once more to save the NHS from  and for  a minority who stubbornly refuse to be vaccinated.

But cancelling Christmas again would not only cause another volcanic eruption within the party, it would be unbearable and  given No10's rule-breaking parties last year  beyond outrageous.

Locking down after a year of jabs would be a grotesque failure of government policy.How many firms would go bust?

How many people would snap mentally? What damage to education? And how many vulnerable children will be abused  or worse?

Without proof that Omicron is anything more than a mild illness, the PM must resist. It's not good enough to pull the plug on our lives just to be on the safe side.

Mr Johnson can certainly recover from his current woes. But his approach to government must change. Lord Frost's departure is a massive wake-up call.

Ruling like the Sun King from inside Downing Street simply hasn't worked. He needs to get back to a system of collective Cabinet decision-making responsibility.

He should also listen to his party. They are Conservatives. He must demonstrate by deeds not words that he is one, too.

The Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured in September earlier this year) will assume Lord Frost's Brexit duties

Trust Truss on EU

While sorry to see Lord Frost go, this paper thinks choosing Liz Truss to assume his Brexit duties is a great signal of intent.

The Foreign Secretary will bring determination and dynamism (and, hopefully, the zeal of a Remainer convert) to the battle over the flawed Northern Ireland Protocol.

She'll stand up to the EU. Trickier will be stopping No10 diluting our demands.

During talks with Brussels, Lord Frost took tips from a book on Kremlin negotiating tactics. Miss Truss should order a copy.
It hasn't gone down well in Nottingham, which claims Hood as one of their own

A teacher claims to have found the birthplace of Robin Hood  and it would make him a Yorkshireman.

Dan Eaton believes an ancient marker stone and carved cross he discovered behind the playground of Loxley Primary School in Sheffield marks the cottage where the legendary folk hero was born.

His revelation is made in his book, Reclaiming Robin Hood, which is sponsored by Sheffield Council as part of a campaign to bring Robin home.

Hallamshire  an old name for Sheffield  was mentioned in medieval legend as Robins birthplace. And ancient records have come to light stating the outlaw, Robin of Loxley, was born at Little Haggas Croft, Loxley, in around 1160.

There are now calls for a statue depicting Robin as a young boy to be built in the suburb as part of Sheffields increasingly popular Robin Hood tourist trail

Co-author Dr David Clarke, of Sheffield Hallam University, said: Loxley, in Hallamshire, was identified as Robins birthplace in two historical sources that date from the early 17th century.

There are now calls for a statue depicting Robin as a young boy to be built in the suburb as part of Sheffields increasingly popular Robin Hood tourist trail.

But the book hasnt gone down well in Nottingham, which has long claimed the outlaw as its own.

Current Sheriff of Nottingham Merlita Bryan said: Robin Hood is as much from Sheffield as Jarvis Cocker is from Nottingham. Everyone knows his arch rival wasnt the Sheriff of Sheffield.

Dan Eaton believes an ancient marker stone and carved cross he discovered behind the playground of Loxley Primary School in Sheffield marks the cottage where the legendary folk hero was born.

She added: We get it - Yorkshire wants a piece of the legendary action.

Weve had similar claims from Kent, Wales and elsewhere before, but really everyone knows that he was from Nottingham.

But were always happy for others to help spread the word about the worlds favourite outlaw.

It has also been claimed the outlaw met his death around 1247AD after leaving the safety of Sherwood Forest to be healed by nuns in Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire.

The Prioress was the mistress of one of Robins enemies and is said to have slashed open one of his veins while pretending to treat him.
A Washington DC school teacher is on leave after she allegedly told third graders in the school library to reenact scenes from the Holocaust.

The teacher at DC's Watkins Elementary School assigned specific roles to the pre-teens in an attempt to teach the horrors. The instructor, who has not been identified, was placed on leave Friday.

A Jewish student was even cast in the role of Adolf Hitler in the bizarre reenactment, according to another student's parent.

At the end of the re-staging, the student was told to act out the leader of the Third Reich's suicide, which saw Hitler shoot himself dead.

Principal MScott Berkowitz said that originally, the students were taking their library class to do a self-directed project ahead of winter break.

Watkins Elementary School in Washington, DC was the site of a bizarre reenactment of the Holocaust Friday

Principal MScott Berkowitz (pictured) said that originally, the students were taking their library class to do a self-directed project ahead of winter break

A Jewish student was even cast in the role of Adolf Hitler in the bizarre reenactment, according to another student's parent

However, the instructor apparently had other ideas, asking students to spend their research time participating in the reenactment.

'I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be asked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder,' Berkowitz said in an email to parents.

Another parent said that her son was told to pretend to be on the trains that ran to the concentration camps before simulating death by gas chamber.

The student was also told to fake shooting his classmates, the parent, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said.

There are additional accusations that the instructor was making anti-Semitic statements throughout.

Another parent said that her son was told to pretend to be on the trains that ran to the concentration camps before simulating death by gas chamber

The entire class had a meeting with the Watkins Elementary School mental health response team after the incident, according to Berkowitz's email

When asked why they were doing this, they responded: 'Because the Jews ruined Christmas.'

The teacher then told the students to keep the reenactment a secret, but they immediately told their homeroom instructor, according to a parent.

A school investigation is now taking place and the incident was reported to the school district.

'This was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident,' a spokesperson for DCPS said.

The entire class had a meeting with the Watkins Elementary School mental health response team after the incident, according to Berkowitz's email.
Efforts to protect the Queen's Christmas plans at Sandringham continue as she decided to miss church yesterday as a precaution due to the threat of Covid, it has been reported.

Queen Elizabeth is set to make a decision on her Christmas plans in the next 48 hours, reports suggest, after it was revealed she may abandon plans to host family festivities at the royal estate in Norfolk because of coronavirus.

Her majesty missed her usual church service at Windsor yesterday as part of the measures being taken to protect the traditional Christmas celebrations, which have been held at Sandringham since 1988.

The Queen, 95, is set to leave for Sandringham on Wednesday, according to the Sun, and staff are working to prepare the rooms in anticipation that she will be joined by family.

This will be the first Christmas the Queen has marked since the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, earlier this year and it is understood that family members are preparing to rally round her so she does not have to spend it alone.

The Queen continues to take cautious measures to protect her plans to host family Christmas festivities at Sandringham this year as Covid continues to cast doubt on whether they will go ahead. Pictured: The Queen with her family at Christmas Day service in King's Lynn in 2017

The Royal Family have been celebrating Christmas at the Sandringham estate since 1988

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children, Prince Andrew and daughters Beatrice and Eugenie and Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex's family are expected to make the trip to join the Queen for the festivities this week.

The Queen is still keen to go to her beloved 20,000-acre estate at Sandringham, where she normally stays until early February  particularly as she spent last year at Windsor alone apart from her late husband and a handful of staff, due to lockdown.

A source confirmed to the Mail on Sunday that the Queens Christmas plans are under review and added: 'There is a strong desire for it to be as normal as it can be but obviously this is subject to practical concerns.'

It is unlikely the 95-year-old Monarch will join the 200-strong congregation at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham for the traditional Christmas Day service.

Instead, she is expected to attend a private service similar to last year when a Royal chaplain delivered a sermon and readings.

But there are alternative plans in place. Should the risk of Omicron be considered too great for the Queen, who has recently suffered a bout of ill- health, then a scaled-back celebration could be held at Windsor Castle.

Pictured: William and Kate walk behind Prince Charles with their children after attending the Christmas Day service at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in 2019

The Mirror reports that a decision will be made in the next 48 hours and that a palace source said the Queen will 'lead from the front' if the Government decides to issue any further advice about mixing over the Christmas period.

The source told the newspaper: 'The Queen and the rest of the family are mindful the situation is ever changing and many thousands of families may also be affected.

'A decision on whether the queen travels as planned will be made as soon as possible.'

It comes after the Queen 'regretfully' scrapped next week's traditional Royal Family Christmas lunch amid Omicron fears.

While the Queen has been forced to pull out of several engagements over the past two months  including a visit to Northern Ireland  she has been well enough to carry out her duties as head of state.

Last week, she was seen taking part in video calls and a Palace source confirmed she had been walking unaided in London to honour a diary commitment after travelling to the capital from Windsor.

Changes to the Palace schedule, often schemed out months in advance, are never undertaken lightly, however. And behind the scenes everything is being done to help the Queen save the familys Sandringham Christmas.

Sandringham is special not only because of all the fond memories of Prince Philip and the hard work he did to transform the estate, the insider told the Mail on Sunday, But also because its the very place where her father passed away.

Its the reason why, normally, she will never leave Sandringham after the Christmas break until she has marked his anniversary on February 6.

It will be a particularly poignant date, for next year marks the 70th anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI  and the point at which the Queen will have been on the throne for seven decades.

The Platinum Jubilee celebrations will be yet another milestone for the Queen who in 2015 surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria to become the longest-reigning British Monarch.
Almost four in five patients currently battling coronavirus in ICU are unvaccinated as NSW records 2,501 new cases and residents are warned restrictions could return.

The chilling statistic was revealed in Monday's Covid numbers, which mark a slight drop from the pandemic record of 2,566 infections reported on Sunday.

Of the 33 people currently being cared for in intensive care units across NSW, a staggering 26 have not been vaccinated against coronavirus, authorities said.

Hospitalisation rates have seen an uptick wth 261 patients being treated in the state - up from 227 - while five additional patients entered ICU overnight.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet reassured the state that the surge in ICU numbers was a 'very important' indicator vaccines were working against the Omicron variant.

'The evidence is clear. The numbers do not lie. Getting vaccinated protects you and your family and that has been a key success for our state in being able to open up,' Mr Perrottet told reporters on Monday.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (pictured) reassured the state that the surge in ICU numbers was a 'very important' indicator vaccines were working against the Omicron variant

Of the 33 people currently being cared for in intensive care units across NSW, a staggering 26 have not been vaccinated against coronavirus (pictured, a patient in St Vincent's ICU)

It comes as the premier warned the return of some restrictions were on the horizon to combat the surging number of Omicron cases across the state.

Cases have soared due to the relaxation of rules and the spread of the more infectious but potentially less severe Omicron strain identified last month.

Mr Perrottet said the focus should be on hospitalisations not case numbers but warned that restrictions could tighten up if ICU wards become overwhelmed.

'We will always tailor our response to the circumstances, ICU presentations are key,' the state leader said.

'If we need to tailor our responses from time to time, we will. There are challenging times today, there will be challenging times tomorrow.'

But the premier suggested he wanted to avoid lockdowns, saying: 'We are not going to have a knee-jerk reaction and dent confidence in the state.

He urged residents to get their booster shots if they had their second jab more than five months ago and said the state was prepared for rising cases.

The new infections means thousands more Australians and close contacts will be unable to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones as they are forced into isolation.

As NSW continues to set national records for daily COVID-19 infections, the premier is resisting calls to reinstate mask mandates but says he will act if required

NSW has recorded 2,501 new Covid-19 cases while Victoria has recorded 1,302 new infections less than a week from Christmas

Australia has been warned against betting too much on Omicron proving milder than previous Covid-19 variants as infections surge across the country.

University of New South Wales professor of epidemiology John Kaldor cautioned a lot remains unknown about the Omicron strain.

'The first thing to figure out, as with any new variant, is first of all how infectious (is it)? Then, secondly, how much disease is it causing and, particularly, how well are the vaccines working?' he told ABC radio on Monday.

'We've got the answer to the first one of those three, but we haven't got the answer to the second and the third as yet.'

Some 94.9 per cent of NSW residents aged 16 and older have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 93.4 per cent of people are fully jabbed.

More than 81 per cent of people aged 12-15 have had one dose of a vaccine and 78.1 per cent have had both doses.

Professor Kaldor warned waiting to see whether hospitalisation rates worsened before making a call about pandemic restrictions was risky.

'We can't be waiting to watch that number (and) react in some way to make our decisions at this stage,' he said.

He expected new infections to climb into the tens of thousands in the absence of more public infection controls, particularly in NSW.

'If the severity is of a scale that's even half that of Delta, then there'll be a really strong impact on the hospitals and their ability to just to provide care to people who need it,' Prof Kaldor said.

NSW is urging people to keep wearing masks indoors while other health experts are calling for mask mandates to return in those settings.

A total of 3,958 infections were recorded across the country on Sunday

Hospitalisation rates have sharply increased with 261 patients being treated - up from 227. ICU figures have also jumped from 28 to 33

Dan Suan, an immunologist at Westmead Hospital, says the new Omicron variant is so contagious urgent action is required.

'Sydney is sleepwalking into a catastrophic disaster in January if we don't do something about it right now,' he said in a Facebook post

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who contracted Omicron during an oversees trip to the United Kingdom and United States, said people needed to get on with their lives.

'It was really mild, a couple of days and the rest of time you had the virus, you didn't feel sick. And that is one of the frustrations,' he told the Seven Network.

Mr Joyce, who is double vaccinated, has been cleared to leave hotel quarantine in Washington and return to Australia for Christmas.

Epidemiologist Adrian Esterman wanted the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation to follow the United Kingdom's lead and recommend boosters three months after a second dose.

He feared leaving the gap at five months will result in 'thousands of people infected for no reason'.

Epidemiologist Adrian Esterman wanted the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation to follow the United Kingdom's lead and recommend boosters three months after a second dose

The University of South Australia professor anticipated booster shots becoming an annual event, if not more frequent than that.

Victoria has seen a rise in hospitalisations with the figure now sitting at 406 - up from 392 - with the number of ICU patients stabilising at 81.

On Sunday, South Australia reported 80 new COVID-19 cases, Queensland 42 and the ACT 18.

There were nine new infections in the Northern Territory as authorities there anticipated extending a lockdown in the town of Tennant Creek.

Tasmania reported three new cases as it prepared to mandate masks indoors.

Australia's full vaccination rate for people aged 16 and older is sitting at 90.42 per cent. The first dose rate is nearing 94 per cent.

The number of boosters delivered into arms exceeds 1.3 million, with more than 640,000 doled out in the last week.
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California got some good news this past week as massive snow storms which dumped several feet of the white stuff on the Sierra Nevada Mountains boosted the drought-stricken states average snowpack - with more stormy weather in the forecast for the coming days.

In a seven-day span, California saw its average snowpack surged from just 18 percent to 98 percent. That means that the total snow accumulation for this time of year is around normal.

Snowpack is snow that lies on the ground in mountainous areas. When the weather gets warmer, the snowpack melts and flows into lakes and reservoirs where it becomes an important source of freshwater.

The snowpack atop the Sierra Nevada is critical for California because it supplies around 30 percent of the states water.

The snowpack atop the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California increased substantially over the past week thanks to 'atmospheric river' storms, according to meteorologists. The deeper the purple on the above map, the heavier the snowpack

Half Dome and the banks of the Merced River are coated in white after a major Pacific storm dumps a foot of in snow in Yosemite Valley along the Sierra Nevada crest on Thursday

A person looks toward snow-topped mountains behind the Los Angeles downtown skyline following heavy rains on Wednesday

The image on the left shows the snowpack atop the Sierra Nevada mountain range on December 10. The photo on the right shows the amount of precipitation as of Friday

The maps above provided by the California Department of Water Resources show the extent to which the average snowpack increased statewide within a span of just seven days

Meteorologists in the Golden State said that it is critical that the Sierra Nevada snowpack be higher than usual this winter in order to offset severe drought conditions which forced Governor Gavin Newsom to ask residents to voluntarily reduce water usage.

Southern California, whose water shortage is more severe than that of its neighbors up north, also saw some relief thanks to the storms.

'The Tuesday storm that brought 1 to 2 inches of rain to the coastal and valley areas put a dent in our rainfall deficit,' the National Weather Service office in San Diego tweeted.

While snowpack increased in California, other drought-stricken states in the West continue to experience severe water shortages, including New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada.

The storm system brought a welcome dump in the Sierra Nevada, where ski areas that struggled in November reported upwards of 4 feet of fresh snow in advance of the busy Christmas and New Years weekends.

The Palisades Tahoe ski resort - the newly renamed combination of Squaw Valley, home to the 1960 winter Olympics, and neighboring Alpine Meadows - reported more than 5 feet of snow over three days.

In this photo provided by the Northstar California, fresh snow from a storm surrounds a ski lift at the resort in Truckee on Tuesday

In this photo provided by the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, fresh snow surrounds the Mammoth Mountain ski resort in Mammoth Lakes, California, on Monday

Forecasters warned people in mountainous areas to prepare for days of snowfall and possible road closures. The above image was taken in Mammoth Mountain on Monday

The image above shows snow at Yosemite National Park in California on Thursday

Another round of widespread rain and heavy snow in the mountains is shaping up for recently drenched California and much of Nevada in the coming week and could create hazards for holiday travelers, forecasters said Saturday.

Several waves of precipitation are forecast to move inland as a cold low pressure system from the Gulf of Alaska deepens off the West Coast, the National Weather Service said.

The timing of the precipitation was not certain but was likely to begin in the far north on Monday, become more widespread on Tuesday and extend through Southern California by midweek.

Coastal peaks north of San Francisco Bay could receive up to 8 inches of rain by Christmas morning.

The Sacramento weather office said mountain snow levels could initially start below 3,000 feet and then trend above 4,500 feet.

Holiday travel could be significantly disrupted by these storms, with little break in the snow during this extended event, the Sacramento office said.

There will be few, if any, meaningful breaks in the weather for the Sierra once the storms begin on Tuesday, so plan ahead, the Reno, Nevada, weather office added.

While the storms brought much-needed precipitation, they also prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders for areas hit by mudslides and flash flooding.

In this photo provided by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, snow continues falling in Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California on Wednesday

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area warned motorists that chains were required on the wheels of their cars as snow continued falling on Wednesday

Firefighters and law enforcement vehicles are shown responding to calls about downed power lines on in Nevada City, California on Tuesday

Motorists navigate downtown Grass Valley, California's roadways during an early morning snowfall on Tuesday

A worker takes a break while removing shingles from a roof with a view of the freshly snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains in Huntington Beach, California on Wednesday

A snow-removing vehicle is seen above at work at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in Mammoth Lakes, California on Wednesday

The image above was taken by a drone that flew over Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in Mammoth Lakes, California on Wednesday

The image shows the snowfall at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in Mammoth Lakes, California early on Wednesday morning

The image above shows a snowboarder riding down Big Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California on Wednesday

The image above was provided by Big Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California on Wednesday

The 'Swinging Bridge' is coated in white after a major Pacific storm dumps a foot of in snow at Yosemite National Park on Thursday

The image above was taken as snow fell on Big Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California on Tuesday

The powerful system was a so-called atmospheric river that sucks up moisture from Pacific Ocean and dumps it at lower elevations as rain and in the mountains as snow.

The storm began last weekend in Northern California and brought heavy precipitation as far inland as Nevada, where more than 6 feet of snow fell since Sunday night at the Mt. Rose ski resort just southwest of Reno and more than 4 feet fell at Heavenly on Lake Tahoe's south shore.

Mammoth Mountain in the eastern Sierra also got about 4 feet.

Residents near the Alisal Fire burn scar in California's Santa Barbara County were ordered Monday to evacuate over concerns that heavy rains might cause flooding and debris flows.

The order was lifted Tuesday afternoon.

Similar orders were issued for people living near burn scars in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, where rockslides were reported.

A mountain route into the resort town of Big Bear was expected to be closed until Wednesday while crews cleared several feet of mud and debris.

A car balances against a bridge trestle after entering the rising Los Angeles River in Los Angeles on Tuesday

A fireman aids a stuck driver as a major storm hits California with rain and snow, flooding streets in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California's Water Policy Center, said the storm won't be a drought-buster, but water watchers are excited about all of the snow it's dumping in the Sierra Nevada.

Melted snow that runs into California's watershed when the weather warms makes up about a third of the state's water supply.

It's important for a strong base of snow to develop in December so that storms later in the winter have something to build on, he said.

Most western U.S. reservoirs that deliver water to states, cities, tribes, farmers and utilities rely on melted snow in the springtime.

'You're literally putting water in the bank up there,' he said.

Any moisture is much-needed in the broader region that's been gripped by drought that scientists have said is caused by climate change.

The latest U.S. drought monitor shows parts of Montana, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah are classified as being in exceptional drought, which is the worst category.
New York City's largest police union has shared its outrage over the release of a prisoner who was responsible for the first death of a female NYPD officer.

The Police Benevolent Association said the release of cop-killer Darryl Jeter 'is a blow to every cop who puts her life on the line to stop criminals from preying on innocent New Yorkers'.

Jeter shot and killed Officer Irma 'Fran' Lozada in 1984 after she and her partner chased him for allegedly stealing a subway rider's chain necklace while riding the L train through Brooklyn.

Lozada, who was 25 when she died, was the first female NYPD officer killed in the line of duty.

The New York City police union is outraged over the release of a prisoner who was responsible for the death of NYPD officer Irma 'Fran' Lozada (pictured)

Union leaders said the release of cop-killer Darryl Jeter (pictured during his 1985 murder trial) 'is a blow to every cop who puts her life on the line to stop criminals from preying on innocent New Yorkers'

'Police Officer Lozada's sacrifice was a testament to the courage she shared with all New York City police officers, regardless of gender, race or creed,' PBA President Patrick Lynch told the New York Post on Sunday.

Jeter was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 32 and 1/2 years to life in prison. He was released on parole on December 7 after serving 36 years.

The convicted killer was on parole for a robbery charge when he fatally shot Lozada.

She was chasing him after he stole a chain from a straphanger on the L subway line in Brooklyn. She was alone at the time after having been separated from her partner.

Lozada's body was found hours later in a vacant lot amid tall weeds.

Members of the NYPD attend the funeral of colleague Officer Irma Lozada in 1984

A photograph of Officer Irma Lozada's tombstone. Lozada had served with the NYC Transit Police Department for four years, after working three years as an auxiliary police officer

Lozada, 25, was the first female NYPD officer killed in the line of duty

Jeter was sentenced before legislation was passed making life without parole the top sentencing option for cop killers.

The police union says his release is insult to officers everywhere and the organization will 'continue to urge Governor Hochul and the State Legislature to fix our broken parole system before another hero's sacrifice is dishonored.'

Lozada had served with the New York City Transit Police Department for four years, after working three years as an auxiliary police officer.
Elon Musk has complained that he does not receive enough credit for the number of crashes his Tesla Autopilot technology likely saves, compared to accidents which have seen people killed.

Musk, who was named Time Magazine's 2021 Person of the Year, spoke out about the intense scrutiny his company faces, particularly over accidents seemingly caused by a reliance the company's self-driving technology.

'There's something somebody said to me at the beginning of when we were pursuing autonomy: even if you save 90% of the lives, the 10% that you don't save are going to sue you,' Musk explained to Time.

Elon Musk has complained that Tesla does not get rewarded for lives its Autopilot technology saves but instead is blamed for people killed as NHTSA probes 12 US crashes linked to the technology that left one woman dead

'I think it's one of those things where you're not going to get rewarded necessarily for the lives that you save, but you will definitely be blamed for lives that you don't save,' he added

Musk is the world's richest person and his company Tesla is worth about $1 trillion, making it more valuable than automakers Ford Motor and General Motors combined. Over the last few weeks, Musk has sold nearly $13 billion worth of Tesla shares.

Tesla, the global EV leader, has pushed many young consumers and legacy automakers to shift focus to electric vehicles.

Tesla's Autopilot technology has come under scrutiny having been linked to 12 accidents since 2018, with those 12 smashes now being probed by the NHTSA.

Jenna Monet's Tesla slammed into the back of a parked fire engine on Interstate 70 in 2019

Jenna Monet, 23, died when her Tesla crashed into a parked fire truck in the passing lane

It has led to the families of drivers involved in fatal crashed suing the company while others take issue with Tesla allegedly 'misrepresenting and using deceptive marketing for its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving services.'

Almost all smashes have involved parked emergency vehicles, leading to speculation that flashing lights can confuse the Autopilot system's sensors.

Musk insists that when it comes to self-driving technology, he has never misled or risked Tesla owner's safety.

'I don't think there's a CEO on this planet that cares more about safety than me,' Musk told the Financial Times.

Tesla's Autopilot can make driving safer as it monitors the vehicle's surroundings, keeping the car in the center of the lane and safely away from other cars.

The company stresses that it does not allow the car to drive on its own and in order to avoid accidents still needs drivers to remain attentive, with their hands on the wheel.

The Tesla car was on autopilot at the time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed

How does Tesla's Autopilot work? Autopilot uses cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radar to see and sense the environment around the car. The sensor and camera suite provides drivers with an awareness of their surroundings that a driver alone would not otherwise have. A powerful onboard computer processes these inputs in a matter of milliseconds to help what the company say makes driving 'safer and less stressful.' Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous. Before enabling Autopilot, driver must agree to 'keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times' and to always 'maintain control and responsibility for your car.' Once engaged, if insufficient torque is applied, Autopilot will also deliver an escalating series of visual and audio warnings, reminding drivers to place their hands on the wheel. If drivers repeatedly ignore the warnings, they are locked out from using Autopilot during that trip. Any of Autopilot's features can be overridden at any time by steering or applying the brakes. The Autopilot does not function well in poor visibility. Advertisement

The 11 crashes have occurred when Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.

That incident saw Tesla using Autopilot strike a firetruck that was parked partially in the travel lanes with its lights flashing. Crews were handling another crash at the time.

Since then, NHTSA said there were crashes in Laguna Beach, California; Norwalk, Connecticut; Cloverdale, Indiana; West Bridgewater, Massachusetts; Cochise County, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina, Montgomery County, Texas; Lansing, Michigan; and Miami, Florida.

Tesla insists that to engage autopilot, a person must have their hands on the steering wheel at all times, ready to take over if the automated systems fail.

If no weight is detected on the steering wheel, the car sends the driver an alert reminding them of the rule, but it doesn't necessarily bring it to a stop - at least not right away.

In some videos posted by car enthusiasts, it takes two minutes for it to even detect that no one has their hands on the wheel.

During the second quarter of 2021, one crash was recorded for every 4.41 million miles driven on Autopilot compared with 1.2 million miles without.

Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was investigating 765,000 Tesla vehicles that have been produced since 2014 after it was found that Full Self-Driving software had caused 12 accidents involving first-responder vehicles, killing one and injuring 17 others.

The deadly accident happened in Interstate 70 in Cloverdale, Indiana, in December 2019 and saw passenger Jenna Monet, 23, killed after the Tesla being driven by her husband Derrick slammed into the back of a parked fire engine.

Tesla will stop driving on autopilot if it cannot detect a person's hands on the wheel. To get around it, people have been doing this - putting an item on the wheel or lodging it there - to trick it

Other drivers balanced water bottles on the steering wheel to make the car think they were still engaged with it

In one from 2019, it took the two minutes to detect no one was behind the wheel. The car then sends the driver an on-screen prompt, then it starts beeping loudly before finally slowing down.

In the 2019 video, it took 40 seconds from the first prompt for the car to stop completely.

Tesla's website is vague about what exactly happens if no one is at the wheel when autopilot is engaged.

'Before enabling Autopilot, the driver first needs to agree to 'keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times' and to always 'maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle.'

'Subsequently, every time the driver engages Autopilot, they are shown a visual reminder to 'keep your hands on the wheel,'' it says.
The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that there was no indication that the new Omicron variant of COVID causes more severe illness.

Dr Scott Gottlieb spoke with CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday to discuss new developments of the variant which was first detected in South Africa in late November.

Despite being considered more transmissible, Gottlieb made an effort to ease fears surrounding Omicron based on the low number of hospitalizations of patients infected with the new variant.

'There's no indication that it causes more severe illness,' he told network host Margaret Brennan. 'What we've seen in South Africa in particular, is a decoupling between the cases and hospitalizations,' meaning those infected are less likely to need professional medical treatment.

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that there is no indication the new Omicron variant is a more severe illness

Gottlieb spoke with CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan about the new developments with the Omicron variant

Gottlieb also added that the hospitalization rate was down 30 percent in South Africa relative to cases with more severe admissions linked to past waves down 80 percent.

He also attributed low severity of the illness to the immunity level of populations in both the US and South Africa.

'Probably around 80 percent of Americans and 90 percent of South Africans have some level of immunity, either from prior infection or through vaccination,' he added.

'So even though we're still getting infected because this is spreading through immune evasion, it's spreading by evading the immune- immunity that we've acquired.'

South Africa announced on Friday that hospital admission rates had lowered since the Omicron variant surfaced on November 25.

About 7,600 people with COVID are seeking treatment in the country's hospitals with the current excess death rate measured at below 2,000 a week.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, more than 90 percent of hospital deaths were among the unvaccinated.

In the US, a total of 45 states have reported at least one case of the new variant amid the surge of COVID cases prior to the upcoming holiday season.

Scientists including White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci have also highlighted preliminary data showing Omicron is less likely to cause serious illness, although they've urged people to remain cautious while more evidence is collected.

Since the start of December, both U.S. COVID cases and deaths have risen about 50 percent and the number of hospitalized COVID patients climbed 26 percent, according to a Reuters tally.

The presence of the new Omicron variant has so far been identified in 830 cases across the country.

During the interview, Brennan noted that Americans feared another lockdown or stricter guidelines may be in order due to the new variant and surge of cases.

'Well, look, I think people are really tired of living diminished lives from COVID generally, and you're seeing that in terms of what people are doing, they're re-engaging activity that we know are going to be conducive to the spread of this virus,' he responded. 'Omicron really has thrown a curveball here.'

Gottlieb added that extra precautions needed to be taken such as receiving a COVID test, wearing masks and getting the booster shot.

He said, however, that the new variant is 'moving very fast' in other nations and that we may 'face a hard four to six weeks' in the near future.
A Melbourne radio host has revealed gruesome details of the moment her rescue greyhound was attacked by an aggressive pitbull.

Emily Power, a magazine editor and radio host on 3AW, told listeners her beloved dog Ember was viciously attacked during a walk in Richmond on Friday.

The pitbull had been tethered to the back of a ute in a nearby carpark but snapped the rope and lunged at its calm and unsuspecting victim.

'From the rope breaking and her on my dog's face it was a second, but it was enough time for me to think we're going to die,' the emotional host recalled on Monday.

'You hear stories about these dogs. The level of violence is unreal.'

Emily Power (left), a magazine editor and radio host on 3AW, told listeners her beloved greyhound Ember (right) had been attacked during a walk in Richmond on Friday

'From the rope breaking and her on my dog's face it was a second, but it was enough time for me to think we're going to die,' the emotional host (pictured) recalled on Monday

The pitbull broke Ember's jaw during the brutal attack with Ms Power revealing the owner of the vicious dog 'said nothing' and made no move to help.

'I was on the ground with her and she was bleeding all over me and screaming, and I was screaming for help,' she said.

'The fellow who owned the pitbull didn't say a word to me which is almost the most hurtful thing of all.'

The radio host said a Good Samaritan agreed to take her and Ember to a local vet, despite the canine bleeding profusely.

Ember has undergone one surgery already and is scheduled for another on Monday.

Ms Power said Richmond Police were investigating the dog attack with the help of CCTV footage, with the incident also in the hands of the council.

'It's changed my life forever,' she admitted. 'I'm going to need some help feeling confident walking her again and she'll need some help too.'

The RSPCA has said English staffies and American staffies are the two of the three most commonly surrendered dogs (pictured, a stock image of a pitbull terrier)

The pitbull broke Ember's jaw (pictured) during the brutal attack with Ms Power revealing the owner of the vicious dog 'said nothing' and made no move to help

Ms Power had adopted the sweet eight-year-old greyhound from the Victoria-based Greyhound Adoption Program in June of this year.

Her co-host Stephen Quartermain said he hoped 'justice would take its course' and said the dog may have to be 'dealt with' if it was attacking other dogs.

'We hate to see that happen but you can't have dogs just randomly attacking other dogs, perhaps people or even children,' the host said.

It comes just months after the owner of a giant American pitbull was savagely attacked and left with severe bite wounds at her rural home in Pheasants Nest, south-west of Sydney, in September.

Desperate neighbours were forced to beat the savage dog - said to be the size of a miniature pony - with an iron bar.

The powerful American Staffordshire terrier, reported to weigh more than 80kg, tore at its owner's face.

Ember (pictured with her owner) has undergone one surgery already and is scheduled for another on Monday after the attack left the rescue dog with serious injuries

The woman's daughter and two neighbours rushed to help but the dog turned on them, savaging the second woman, ripping her flesh from the bone, and snapping at a man trying to save them.

In June, four-year-old Joey Hodgins was bitten in the face by a rabid dog - believed to be a pitbull or Staffordshire bull terrier - at Coogee Oval in Sydney's east.

Although the Maroubra youngster's facial wounds were superficial, the Hodgins family vowed to track the dog owner down to prevent any further attacks.

His mother Danni said she couldn't help but feel lucky her son still had a lip and nose following the vicious incident.

Leading Sydney vet Dr Sam Kovac, 32, is begging for authorities to ban the breed before anyone else is killed or mauled.

Ms Power had adopted the sweet eight-year-old greyhound Ember (pictured) from the Victoria-based Greyhound Adoption Program in June of this year

He stresses he doesn't want existing American Staffordshire terriers euthanised - but wants an immediate ban on selling, breeding, importing or rehoming the breed.

'This latest attack is just history repeating,' he previously told Daily Mail Australia. 'Most of the time they won't be killers.

'But when you're dealing with such a powerful breed that's been bred to fight and kill, when they really want to do this, nobody can do anything to fend them off.

'They should not be allowed to be bred in this country.'

The RSPCA has said English staffies and American staffies are the two of the three most commonly surrendered dogs.
Health officials have revealed how to avoid a lonely Christmas stuck in quarantine as Australia's latest Covid-19 crisis worsens: go outside.

Millions of Australians are anxious they'll be plunged into self-isolation and be unable to reunite with loved ones this festive season as cases with the new Omicron variant explode.

NSW recorded 2,501 new Covid cases on Monday, Victoria reported 1,302 while the 105 infections in South Australia is the state's highest spike in daily infections.

Experts say holding events outside and limiting indoor gatherings to less than four hours are the best ways people can avoid getting the dreaded alert to self-isolate several days out from December 25.

People are urged to host outdoor Christmas festivities to reduce the risk of Covid (pictured friends having a picnic in Sydney)

Wearing masks when talking to others face-to-face is also recommended.

'Have Christmas on the verandah or reduce your time inside a house with others to less than four hours,' a Victoria Department of Health statement read.

'You may still have to get tested but your time in isolation will be shorter.'

The advice comes after Victoria overhauled rules regarding household and close contacts.

Household contacts must still quarantine for seven days if fully vaccinated.

But a person will now only be deemed a household contact if they have spent four hours indoors with a positive case.

Australia's latest Covid-19 crisis has worsened with almost 4,000 new cases recorded across the nation on Monday, placing high demand on testing clinics (pictured in Melbourne)

Previously, non-household close contacts such as workmates, friends and classmates also had to isolate for seven days.

Now they only have to quarantine until they test negative.

Similar rules are in place in in NSW, where fully vaccinated close contacts are required to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative test.

For celebrations at home, NSW Health recommends all visitors be fully vaccinated avoid large, multi-generational gatherings and host festivities in the backyard, courtyard and other outdoor spaces.

'Limit the length of time spent with people who you don't live with. Keep gatherings smaller and shorter than usual,' the NSW Health website states.

Victorian and NSW health authorities suggest shorter and small gatherings with loved ones with Christmas, preferably outdoors

In Queensland, vaccinated close contacts must still quarantine for seven days and get tested on day five.

If the day five test is negative, the contact may leave home quarantine on day eight, but must wear a mask and not visit 'high risk' settings.

Those who test positive must remain in isolation until they're cleared of the virus, which can take up to three weeks.

The spike in cases has seen overwhelming demand at testing clinics with Melburnians waiting up to three-and-a-half hours to be swabbed so they can receive their result in time to spend Christmas with loved ones.

'It's only natural for Victorians, before they get together to see family at Christmas time, they want to get tested and have that peace of mind that they're COVID-free,' state MP Ben Carroll said.

Australia recorded 3,986 new cases across the nation on Monday as Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an urgent National cabinet of state and territory leaders.
An ex-army sharpshooter has been jailed for 20 years for gunning down Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin from 300m away at a crowded drag racing event.

The 35-year-old man, whose name is suppressed, admitted assassinating Martin in a an alleged $150,000 contract killing in December last year.

The hit was allegedly carried out on the orders of rival Comancheros gang boss David James Pye, who has also been charged with murder.

Martin, 51, was watching drag races at Kwinana Motorplex in Perth with his family when the ice cool sniper shot him through the torso and he bled to death.

The assassin also pleaded guilty to injuring Ricky Chapman, the boyfriend of Martin's stepdaughter, who was wounded by bullet fragments.

An ex-Army sharpshooter mercenary (pictured) has been jailed for 20 years for gunning down Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin from 300m away at a crowded drag racing event

Nick Martin (pictured) was shot in the back at the Perth Motorplex on December 12, 2020, in front of horrified families who were trying to watch the nitro cars high-octane drag racing

David James Pye (pictured) has been charged over the sniper murder of Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin at Kwinana Motorplex in Western Australia last December

$150,000 BIKIE HIT The $150,000 fee - originally thought to be $300,000 - allegedly agreed for the killing of Perth bikie boss Nick Martin is thought to be one of the biggest murder contracts ever purportedly offered in Australia. WA Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters that detectives attached to Operation Ravello also charged a second man in relation to the murder of Mr Martin at Perth Motorplex last December. 'The charges relate to the [alleged] payment of that murder,' he said. 'And also [an alleged] payment for the murder of another outlaw motorcycle gang member that was not carried out.' Mr Blanch said payments made during Melbourne's 'underbelly' gangland wars were much lower. 'We've seen matters over east, certainly during the underbelly period, where amounts were far lower than that, during their 36 murder spree of gangland figures,' he said. Advertisement

Justice Stephen Hall said the killer would have faced 30 years in jail if he hadn't agree to testify against Pye at a later date because of the 'extraordinary seriousness of the offending'.

He said the offer to work the authorities was 'exceptional and deserving of a very significant discount' - but warned the 30 year sentence could still be imposed if he failed to follow through with his side of the deal. He'll be eligible for parole in 18 years.

Prosecutor Justin Whalley revealed the killer had been recruited by Pye and the pair had kept in touch by an encrypted phone app.

Pye offered the killer $10,000 to plan the hit, said Mr Whalley, including visiting the Martin's home and flying a drone over the property.

Two weeks before the killing, the assassin did a reconnaissance trip to the motor racing complex and watched Martin from just 10m away as he added the finishing touches to the lethal plan.

Pye and the killer later agreed on a long-range shooting and the bikie boss offered $150,000 for the job, with half upfront, the court was told.

But when the killer collected a bag of cash the next day, he found it contained just $40,000.

Three days before the killing, the assassin went back to the motor complex and although Martin didn't show up, the killer used the time to move a safety ramp to give him a better shot at him.

The following day, Mr Whalley said the killer went out into the bush and fired off 200 rounds to practise and fine tune his sniper rifle, reports The West Australian.

Martin (pictured) died in the arms of his wife Amanda as she tried to give him CPR. His last words were: 'babe, I've been shot'

On the day of the shooting, he swapped the tyres on his car and put on false plates. He went in and out of the complex to confirm Martin was there before returning in a camo suit and sneaking through a hole in the fence he'd cut earlier.

From 335m away, he worked out the distance and wind speed and its effect on his rifle before watching Martin through his rifle scope for 10 to 15 minutes.

Finally he chose his moment and squeezed the trigger. The shot tore into Martin's chest before exiting his lower back and striking fellow bikie Ricky Chapman in the leg and then hitting his arm.

Martin was assassinated in front of hundreds of onlookers including his wife Amanda and stepdaughter.

After being hit, Martin told his wife, 'Babe, I've been shot', as she tried to give him CPR while he died in her arms.

David James Pye (right) leaves Perth District Court with Rebels president Nick Martin (left) in Perth in October, 2013. Mr Pye has now been charged with ordering the killing of Mr Martin

The killer then calmly packed up his gear and left. He would later get the barrel replaced on his rifle and changed his tyres again to avoid detection...and then waited to be paid.

But when he went to the bank two days later, instead of the $100,000 he was expecting, there was just $50,000.

The court heard Pye told him: 'The other person didn't kick in. It is what it is...'

Despite being short-changed, the killer did not pursue it with Pye, and police allege he was then promised $800,000 to execute another rival bikie gang boss in Thailand, although that later dropped to $600,000.

The assassin was also allegedly paid to kill senior Comancheros bikie Ray Cilli (pictured)

The assassin allegedly discussed killing senior Comancheros bikie Ray Cilli with Pye after the the success of the hit on Martin.

The assassin took $145,000 as a downpayment from Pye - and sent the bikie boss a video of him rehearsing the hit - but was arrested before it could be carried out.

Pye - codenamed The Baker by detectives - is now facing charges on ordering the Cilli hit and also of commissioning another on a 35-year-old woman.

Prior to his sentencing at WA Supreme Court on Monday, the military assassin's lawyer David Manera revealed the hitman's soft side, despite his cold-blooded killing.

'He's quite a thoughtful person, he's quite an intelligent person and he's actually quite a sensitive person,' he said.

'I know that flies in the face of what he's charged with but that's how he appears to me.'

A $1 million reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the shooter who killed Nick Martin, 51, (pictured with wife Amanda)

On Monday defence counsel Simon Freitag said the hitman had put a target on his back 'for the rest of his life' by co-operating with police over the killing.

He added: 'The offender, while in protection at Casuarina at the moment, will not always be.

'And while in prison its not at all surprising there are many associates of the deceased - and also Pye - in the prison system.'

But the prosecution insisted the sharpshooter had every opportunity to walk away and not pull the trigger on the shot that killed 'sitting duck' Martin.

The chaos at the racetrack on December 12 in Perth after Martin was executed is pictured

'Every one of those hundreds of seconds he spent looking through the scope at Mr Martin and wife was an opportunity for him to come to his senses,' said Mr Whalley.

He said the killer had shown stupidity and 'a callous disregard for for the sanctity of human life'.

Mr Whalley added: 'Hes taken one life, hes ruined many others, including his own, for what? The promise of $150,000.

'He could have got a FIFO job and made that in less than a year.'

Rebels bikie Nick Martin was ridden in to Pinnaroo Cemetery in a coffin covered in pictures of $100 bills (pictured) at his extravagant bikie funeral on December 23

Police spent months on the investigation with 100 officers on the job, while the WA Government offered a $1 million reward to anyone who had information on the shooter.

His death also sparked a crackdown on bikies by police who conducted raids and ended up charging more than 100 people.

Martin's funeral on December 23 saw 200 police officers keeping an eye on the proceedings, with a police sniper watching from a helicopter as patched gang members said their final farewells.

Martin's coffin was covered in pictures of $100 bills and Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower played as bikies took turns to walk up and touch it as it was brought in under a marquee for the service.

Hundreds of bikies from the Rebels and other clubs attended Martin's funeral on December 23

The ex-soldier and adrenaline junkie who worked as a base jumping instructor was arrested at his Perth home in March over Martin's murder.

The ex-soldier was part of soldier of fortune outfit Shadows of Hope, which calls itself 'the world's most dangerous and fearless charity'.

It works in war zones around the world both in combat and delivering aid and medicine for both sides.

Last year, the organisation shared a post online paying tribute to the soldier for his service in Iraq, describing him as their 'resident thrill-seeker and heartbreaker'.

'When the way to save lives is illegal or cast in the shadow of bureaucracy, it takes unorthodox attributes and attitudes to get the job done,' the group wrote.

One of the possible shooter locations previously identified at the Perth Motorplex. A long shot would indicate a sniper, experts say

'He was a natural fit for this role, and his tireless work, courage, and unique humor have given so much to those we serve.'

He'd been unable to return to Iraq or any other conflict zones because of the coronavirus pandemic and worked as a base jumping instructor in Perth.

The daredevil sport is a lifelong passion and on March 31, 2017, he jumped off a 70-storey skyscraper in Hong Kong with former Bachelor Locky Gilbert.

It is not suggested that Gilbert was in any way involved in the shooting of Martin.

Dozens of photos on his Facebook page show the former soldier paragliding, rock climbing skydiving and base jumping from buildings.

The man also portrays a softer side with a love of animals with posts posing with quokkas and cuddling kangaroo joeys while urging others to consider becoming volunteer wildlife carers.

The daredevil sport is a lifelong passion and on March 31, 2017, he jumped off a 70-storey skyscraper in Hong Kong with former Bachelor Locky Gilbert

Other posts portray him as an animal lover. He's pictured taking a selfie with a quokka
A Star gaming manager who borrowed more than $7000 from employees to fund her gambling addiction has been fired and banned from the Sydney casino.

Minh Nguyen was a Casino Special Employee supervising gaming tables and security among other important roles when she borrowed thousands from staff under her management in 2020 and 2021.

After cutting one employee's shift short she offered to drive them home and asked for $1000 while speaking about family issues.

She then stopped at an ATM so they could extract the cash, and only paid the money back several months later at a petrol station after the staff member made multiple attempts to retrieve the loan.

The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority said the decision was made to help the woman with her 'personal gambling addiction'

Ms Nguyen also asked for $3000 from another employee and promised to return it within two months, and was given $2000 but repaid only half that amount five months later.

The casino employee was then unable to be contacted due to unanswered calls and disconnected phone numbers.

Staff reported they were scared to discuss the issue and felt like they could not say no to their manager.

NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority chairman Phillip Crawford said her licence was revoked to prevent further gambling-related harms.

'The repeated nature of the contraventions indicates a lack of honesty and considerable lack of diligence or ability with respect to regulatory compliance,' he said in a statement.

He said the decision was to also help with her 'personal gambling addiction'.

Ms Nguyen stated she did not feel she used her powerful position to influence those staff members into giving her money.
The body of a missing 21-year-old man was found inside a QVC distribution facility following huge fire - after the home shopping network claimed everyone had escaped to safety.

Authorities in Rocky Mount, North Carolina said search and rescue teams found the body of Kevon Ricks on the outbound side of the loading dock Sunday morning.

He was a devoted father-of-one who'd started working at the QVC warehouse just three weeks prior to his tragic death. It is unclear how he died, with an investigation ongoing.

The blaze ripped through the building Saturday morning just after 2 a.m. Fire officials said 75 percent of the structure was destroyed from the fire.

'This is a very active and fresh investigation,' said Edgecombe County manager Eric Evans during a press conference on Sunday afternoon. '[We're] not able to answer any questions at this point and time, but thank you for being here.'

The fire was so powerful that 45 crews from six fire departments responded and worked for several hours to extinguish it. Crews were working around-the-clock, running 12-hour shifts.

Kevon Ricks, 21 (pictured), with his 1-year-old son Kylan in this photo. Ricks died in a 5-alarm fire at the QVC distribution facility he worked at Saturday morning

The blaze ripped through the building Saturday morning just after 2 a.m. Fire officials said 75 percent of the structure was destroyed from the fire

The fire was so powerful that 45 crews from six fire departments responded and worked for several hours to extinguish it

QVC officials had previously claimed that 'everyone inside the center made it out safely.' They have yet to comment on their error.

Ricks, according to family members, was the father of a 1-year-old boy named Kylan and had just begun working at the QVC factory a few weeks ago. They said he was last heard from at 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning.

Kevon's aunt, Stephanie Randolph, thanked everyone for their prayers and shared the news about her missing nephew.

'I really wish he would've made it out,' she said. [It's] just a tragic turn of events.'

It was Randolph who alerted police that Ricks was still missing.

'I went to QVC and I let the state trooper know, 'look, I'm sorry but we've got one person missing. We've not heard from him,'' she said.

Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina tweeted out his condolences at Ricks' death at the facility

Around 1,200 people work at the QVC facility and the local chamber of commerce claimed up to 2,500 families will be impacted by the fire. The facility has been in operation for 21 years

Randolph also thanked firefighters for trying to save her nephews' life.

'Y'all did what you could... couldn't move no faster than you did,' she said.

For now, Randolph says that Kevon's family is focusing on taking care of one another as we hit the holiday season.

'Only thing we're worried about is making sure his son is well taken care of, making sure his mom gets the proper help that she needs to deal with and making sure all the family is good,' said Randolph.

The cause of the blaze is yet to be determined. Fire officials said that there was a history of incidents here, having responded to the area multiple times for false alarms.

Dyamon Skinner, the fiance of Kevon Ricks, posted a tribute to her fiance and his relationship to his son

Stephanie Randolph, Ricks' aunt, alerted police to the fact that he was still missing after QVC had said everyone got out safe

TyNasha Ricks, Kevon's sister, offers her own tribute for her brother, who died at the age of just 21

Around 1,200 people work at the QVC facility and the local chamber of commerce claimed up to 2,500 families will be impacted by the fire. The facility has been in operation for 21 years.

QVC has promised to provide shutdown pay to all workers through the end of the month, as they continue to assess the next steps for 2022.

Governor Roy Cooper tweeted out a lamentation of Ricks' death Sunday.

'I'm saddened by the loss of life during the QVC Distribution Center fire in Rocky Mount,' Cooper wrote. 'I've been in contact with local and state officials about that tragedy and taking steps to help families hurt by the loss of more than 2000 jobs.'

Tributes poured in for Ricks from family members on Facebook, including his fiance Dyamon Skinner, aunt Stephanie Randolph and sister TyNasha.

'He was just getting the hang of parenthood, we both were,' wrote fiance Dyamon. 'He walking around looking for [Kylan], and I just dont know what to tell him. I just dont know.. this is a wound that will NEVER heal.'

'Ima Miss all the memories me and my brother had,' TyNasha wrote. 'That was my BESTFRIEND and everybody knew tht.'

'We breathing without breathing,' exclaimed Randolph. 'Help us carry his name above and beyond for his Son and family.'
Scott Morrison has declared Australia won't follow Europe back into lockdown over surging cases due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Most European nations have tightened restrictions and the Netherlands has even gone back into lockdown to protect its hospital system.

But Mr Morrison said the situation in Australia is different because it's summer and 90.5 per cent of over 16s are fully vaccinated.

Scott Morrison and Liberal candidate for Macquarie Sarah Richards on Monday morning

'We will make our Australian way through this, we always have, the situation in the northern hemisphere is different to Australia,' he said in eastern Brisbane on Monday.

'They are not standing over there in the Netherlands in 34C, it's winter and people are more indoors, we know the virus does move differently in different seasons.'

Mr Morrison urged Aussies to get their booster shots if they had their second jab more than five months ago.

'Anyone who is concerned and who is ready to have their booster shot, I would urge them to go and get it because that is the best defence against Omicron,' he said.

'That is the key advice we have received and if we do that, then we can keep our nerve, keep calm and carry on.'

Asked if he supports mandatory mask wearing, Mr Morrison said masks should be optional.

'I was at carols in the Shire last night it was magnificent and fantastic, really enjoyed it with the family but we were all wearing masks, not everyone was but we chose to and that's how it should be,' he said.

Masks are compulsory for shopping in Victoria and Queensland but optional in NSW where Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to treat his citizens 'like adults'.

Australia recorded 3,986 new Covid cases on Monday including 2,501 in NSW, 1,302 in Victoria, 105 in South Australia, 59 in Queensland, 13 in the ACT and three each in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Mr Morrison said he will meet state premiers virtually on Tuesday for an 'informal' National Cabinet session to discuss Omicron.

Winter infections are soaring across Europe amid the spread of Covid variant Omicron as countries desperately bid to slow transmission with the introduction of further restrictions

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said tighter Covid rules are on the table but called for calm. Pictured: Bronte Beach in Sydney's east on Saturday

Denmark became the first EU country to lift its Covid restrictions three months ago, but the emergence of the new variant has seen Europe revert back to tougher rules as cases and hospitalisations are on the rise again.

The UK lifted its lockdown restrictions on July 19, but Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday warned there are 'no guarantees' Christmas Day will go ahead without a lockdown.

He admitted 'everything is under review' after scientists delivered a grim assessment that the number of infections could reach two million by the end of the month without tougher restrictions - floating a 'circuit breaker' ban on households mixing and closure of non-essential shops.

It came as France barred UK holidaymakers from entering the country without a 'compelling reason' this week, while Germany added Britain to its list of high-risk countries.

Protestors clashed with police in Belgium earlier this month amid demonstrations against the tightening of restrictions across the continent.
Four adults and three children were found dead in a Minnesota home Saturday night in a suspected gas poisoning accident said to have happened as they slept.

Although police have not confirmed their identities or cause of death, Noticias Digital - Honduras reported that Belin Humberto Hernandez, Elder Noah Hernandez, Breylin Favela Hernandez, Mike Bradley Hernandez, Earliest Mariela, Marleny Door and Marbeli Hernandez all died in their sleep.

The family - comprising a mom, dad, three kids, an aunt and a niece - are said to have succumbed to gas poisoning, although further details about the tragedy have yet to emerge.

Authorities did, however, state there were no signs of violence or forced entry at the Hernandez-Pinto family's Moorhead home, according to KVRR.

They also said there are no known threats to the community and officials are not actively seeking any suspects.

The seven member Hernandez-Pinto family was found dead in their Moorhead, Minnesota home on Saturday night after they reportedly succumbed to gas poisoning in their sleep

Police responded to the family home, located in 4400 block of 13th Street South, shortly before 8pm Saturday after relatives conducting a welfare check found their bodies

Police responded to the Hernandez-Pinto family home, located in 4400 block of 13th Street South, shortly before 8pm Saturday after relatives conducting a welfare check found their bodies.

Preliminary investigation revealed that neighbors hadn't seen the family since Friday.

Local police called in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to help process the scene. Investigators did not provide any information about the cause of death but noted that the bodies were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office for autopsies.

Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson released a statement to the TV station confirming the tragedy: 'This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays. My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend.

'Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time. Please know there is no threat to the community and the Moorhead Police Department, with the assistance from the Moorhead Fire Department, are investigating.'

Preliminary investigation revealed that neighbors hadn't seen the family since Friday

Authorities did, however, state there were no signs of violence or forced entry at the Hernandez-Pinto family's Moorhead home. They also said there are no known threats to the community and officials are not actively seeking any suspects

Those who knew the family said the children would often play at a nearby park with other kids in the community.

One Moorhead resident also shared that neighborhood kids would gather at the Hernandez-Pinto family home to play in an inflatable bouncy house that they reportedly owned.

While their exact ages remain unknown at this time, the children are said to have attended S.G. Reinertsen Elementary School and Moorhead High School.

The school district will be forming a crisis response team to help the academic community deal with the tragedy.

Meantime, a GoFundMe account had been established to help with funeral costs and other expenses.
A New Zealand man has died after the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine 'probably' caused a rare heart problem, authorities have revealed.

Rory James Nairn, 26, died in his Dunedin home on November 17, less than two weeks after taking his first dose on November 5.

A preliminary post mortem examination identified myocarditis, a rare inflammation of the heart muscle, as the likely cause of death and New Zealand's Covid-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board said the issue was 'probably' brought on by the jab.

Mr Nairn's fiancee Ashleigh Wilson said he started feeling 'flutters' a few hours after having his first dose of the vaccine but that they dismissed the symptoms as stress-related because they were in the process of selling and buying a house as well as planning a wedding.

Around 3am on November 17, the couple decided to go to hospital for 'reassurance' but Mr Nairn collapsed while getting ready to go in the bathroom and was later pronounced dead.

'With the current available information, the board has considered that the myocarditis was probably due to vaccination in this individual,' authorities said in a statement.

The death is only New Zealand's second linked to a known but rare side effect from the vaccine after health authorities in August reported a woman had died after taking her doses.

Rory James Nairn, 26, (pictured) died in his Dunedin home on November 17, less than two weeks after taking his first dose on November 5

Mr Nairn (pictured with fiancee Ms Wilson) started feeling 'heart flutters' on the evening of November 5, the same day he received the vaccine but did not seek help for the symptoms

Mr Nairn, who died within two weeks of his first dose, had not sought medical advice or treatment for his symptoms.

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can limit the organ's ability to pump blood and can cause changes in heartbeat rhythms.

Ms Wilson, who is vaccinated, has said she wants the public to be more aware of the potential side effects of the jab so they know to seek help immediately.

She said the risks are all a bit 'blase' with only a small pamphlet handed out after getting a shot.

She said Mr Nairn's symptoms started hours after his first does and continued until 12 days later he suffered heart palpitations and an 'uncomfortable' feeling in his chest.

'We finally decided to head to the hospital at 3am for reassurance,' Ms Wilson said. 'Within moments, Rory went into cardiac arrest and died instantly in our home.'

'I watched him die and I could not get to him. We were about to leave for the hospital and he was in the toilet and I heard a thud,' she told the NZ Herald.

'He had fallen, his body was blocking the door, his full weight was against it and I couldn't get it open.

'I could just see him through a crack in the door, I could see that he was gone.'

Ms Wilson called 111 and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Mr Nairn for 40 minutes before pronouncing him dead.

'He was 26 years old, with no pre-existing medical conditions. He played rugby, went diving and hunting on the weekends, worked hard as a plumber,' Ms Wilson said.

'We had our whole lives ahead of us!'

Mr Nairn, who died within two weeks of his first dose, had not sought medical advice or treatment for his symptoms

'He was 26 years old, with no pre-existing medical conditions. He played rugby, went diving and hunting on the weekends, worked hard as a plumber, and had his whole life ahead of him, Ms Wilson (pictured with Mr Nairn) said

The vaccine safety board also said another two people, including a 13-year-old, had died with possible myocarditis after taking their vaccinations.

More details were needed before linking the child's death to the vaccine, while the death of a man in his 60s was unlikely related to the vaccine, it said.

Despite the rare side effects, the vaccine safety board said the benefits of vaccination greatly outweighed the risks.

'In Australia, myocarditis is reported in 12 out of every 100,000 people after receiving the Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine,' the Therapeutic Goods Administration said.

'Cases typically occur within 10 days, and usually resolve after a few days following treatment and rest.

'While it is more commonly reported in young men and teenage boys after the second dose (five to 11 cases in 100,000 people), it remains rare.'

Despite the risk, the TGA warned: 'Myocarditis is seen much more commonly in people who become infected with Covid-19 than in people who are vaccinated.

'We encourage people to seek medical attention if they experience symptoms that could suggest myocarditis or pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane around the heart).

'This includes chest pain, palpitations (irregular heartbeat), fainting or shortness of breath, particularly if they occur within one to five days of vaccination,' the TGA said.
A shopper has been charged after trying to bite a police officer and strange a dog when she was asked to wear a mask in a supermarket.

The incident occurred at Nanango, north-west of Brisbane, Queensland over the weekend.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski mentioned the woman's arrest at the state's Covid-19 update on Monday.

'Regrettably, a person had to be arrested because when challenged by police for not wearing a mask in an IGA at Nanango,' Mr Gollschewski said.

'(She) took it upon herself to seriously assault police, attempt to bite them and attempt to strangle a dog.'

The woman has been charged with serious offences of animal cruelty, serious assault against police as well as breaching the Chief Health Officer's directions.

'A person had to be arrested because when challenged by police for not wearing a mask in an IGA at Nanango (pictured), [she] took it upon herself to seriously assault police, attempt to bite them and attempt to strangle a dog,' Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said on Monday

'The message is quite clear: Our police officers will give you the opportunity to comply with directions,' Mr Gollschewski said on Monday.

'Take that opportunity, take the mask, wear it, better still, carry the mask and wear it when you need to. We will be out and about.'

Queensland reintroduced a mask mandate as of 1am last Saturday in response to the rapid growth of Omicron-related cases in the state.

Masks are required again in retail settings, hospitals, aged care, public transport, rideshare and airports from 1am tomorrow.

Masks are not required in outdoor settings or in workplaces, the Premier said.

The mandate will be revised once 90 per cent of eligible Queenslanders are fully vaccinated.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced 59 new cases of Covid at Monday's update, up from 42 cases on Sunday

Police responded to 48 service calls for unvaccinated people seeking to enter businesses in the 24 hour reporting period, but no issues arose from these incidents.

As of last Friday, unvaccinated people are not permitted to enter most Queensland venues. Grocery stores, places of worship and public transport are exempted as essential services.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced 59 new cases of Covid at Monday's update, up from 42 cases on Sunday.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said new cases in Queensland were doubling every 48 hours.

'We've had 43 confirmed Omicron cases in Queensland so far and of those tested yesterday, there were 13 Omicron cases and eight Delta cases,' he said.

On Monday Queensland had 89.6 per cent of eligible people with a first dose of a Covid vaccine, and 84.51 percent fully vaccinated.
Scott Morrison has called a National Cabinet meeting for Tuesday after Australia recorded 3,986 new Covid cases.

The Prime Minister described the meeting of state premiers - which was not due next until next year - as 'informal'.

Despite calling the meeting, Mr Morrison declared Australia won't follow Europe back into lockdown over surging cases due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Most European nations have tightened restrictions and the Netherlands has even gone back into lockdown to protect its hospital system.

But Mr Morrison said the situation in Australia is different because it's summer and 90.5 per cent of over 16s are fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Macquarie Community Breakfast in Windsor, north west of Sydney on Monday

'We will make our Australian way through this, we always have, the situation in the northern hemisphere is different to Australia,' he said in eastern Brisbane on Monday.

'They are not standing over there in the Netherlands in 34C, it's winter and people are more indoors, we know the virus does move differently in different seasons.'

Mr Morrison urged Aussies to get their booster shots if they had their second jab more than five months ago.

'Anyone who is concerned and who is ready to have their booster shot, I would urge them to go and get it because that is the best defence against Omicron,' he said.

'That is the key advice we have received and if we do that, then we can keep our nerve, keep calm and carry on.'

Asked if he supports mandatory mask wearing, Mr Morrison said masks should be optional.

'I was at carols in the Shire last night it was magnificent and fantastic, really enjoyed it with the family but we were all wearing masks, not everyone was but we chose to and that's how it should be,' he said.

Masks are compulsory for shopping in Victoria and Queensland but optional in NSW where Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to treat his citizens 'like adults' despite calls from the Labor Opposition to require them.

Australia recorded 3,986 new Covid cases on Monday including 2,501 in NSW, 1,302 in Victoria, 105 in South Australia, 59 in Queensland, 13 in the ACT and three each in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Winter infections are soaring across Europe amid the spread of Covid variant Omicron as countries desperately bid to slow transmission with the introduction of further restrictions

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said tighter Covid rules are on the table but called for calm. Pictured: Bronte Beach in Sydney's east on Saturday

Denmark became the first EU country to lift its Covid restrictions three months ago, but the emergence of the new variant has seen Europe revert back to tougher rules as cases and hospitalisations are on the rise again.

The UK lifted its lockdown restrictions on July 19, but Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday warned there are 'no guarantees' Christmas Day will go ahead without a lockdown.

He admitted 'everything is under review' after scientists delivered a grim assessment that the number of infections could reach two million by the end of the month without tougher restrictions - floating a 'circuit breaker' ban on households mixing and closure of non-essential shops.

It came as France barred UK holidaymakers from entering the country without a 'compelling reason' this week, while Germany added Britain to its list of high-risk countries.

Protestors clashed with police in Belgium earlier this month amid demonstrations against the tightening of restrictions across the continent.
Dinosaur health bureaucrats in two Australian states are continuing to add to Christmas Covid-despair with bans on rapid antigen testing kits for the general public.

Rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 have been approved for use in the home on a federal level in Australia since the start of November, but in South Australia and Western Australia they remain on the blacklist.

With Christmas now just days away, experts are urging health officials in the rogue states to give the public access to them.

People are seen waiting in line at a pop-up Covid-19 testing facility outside of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art complex in Melbourne in June

A child hits the slopes on Mount Buller last week. Crowds were decimated by an order for people to be tested before being allowed on the mountain

Covid safe signage on Mount Buller was all set for bumper crowds in June, but then they were told they needed a negative Covid PCR test to enter

Daily Mail Australia first revealed the importance of the rapid antigen testing kits in June when Victorians were trapped in yet another hard lockdown.

Back then, the Victorian ski fields faced another bleak winter thanks to that state's refusal to grant the public access to them.

It would be five long months before Premier Daniel Andrews finally acknowledged worldwide health advice and embraced the sale of the tests to the general public.

The move came after the Therapeutic Goods Administration finally cleared the way for their public use after doggedly refusing during repeated lockdowns.

Epidemiologists consider them an 'extra tool' to help slow the spread of the virus in combination with the more accurate, but more expensive PCR tests.

In South Australia, the use of rapid antigen tests by the general public remains prohibited 'given the low level of COVID-19 in the community to date and the wide availability of gold-standard PCR testing'.

It was the same advice frustrated Victorians had endured during their record-breaking lockdown in Melbourne.

Now Melburnians attempting to travel west to the rogue states to visit family are being forced to relive their nightmares all over again.

Health departments in both western states continue to knock the rapid tests, which cost between $15 and $20 per test rather than $180 per PCR test.

'This is due to the known inaccuracy of rapid antigen tests when there is not significant community spread of COVID-19, and the risk of false positive and false negative results,' health bureaucrats claim.

'The continued restriction of this test in South Australia when it is permitted in other states reflects the different levels of COVID-19 in communities throughout Australia. '

A woman receives a PCR test in Melbourne. Calls for more rapid tests increased as Melbourne's lockdowns continued

Rapid antigen tests could be the way out of future lockdowns

RAPID TESTS ENDED SLOVAKIAN LOCKDOWN In October and November, Slovakia tested a large percentage of its population in several rounds of mass rapid antigen testing. Determined not to enter another lockdown, two rounds of rapid mass testing saw the prevalence of Covid drop by more than half. While the approach may not work everywhere, the findings supported population-wide rapid testing, when combined with other measures, as an important tool for combatting the pandemic. Advertisement

The lockout brigade in Western Australia share similar concerns over the use of rapid testing as the South Australians.

'At this time, experts advise that rapid antigen tests should only be used with medical oversight under public health direction, in specific settings,' it states.

'Misinterpretation of rapid antigen test results can have significant public health consequences, including inappropriate management of the patient and their contacts, particularly if confirmatory testing is not done.'

University of South Australia Epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman told the ABC the ban on rapid antigen testing was 'silly'.

'There's a large number of tests that have now been approved and this is the silly thing, you can actually buy them on the internet and many companies are doing that,' he said.

Active Covid cases have continued to climb in South Australia since it opened its borders.

On Monday, the state recorded 105 new cases - a record number for one day.

It is the fourth day of record case numbers in South Australia, with 406 active cases.

Professor Esterman claimed rapid antigen tests were just another tool that can help slow the spread of the virus.

'It would make much more sense for the Commonwealth Government to actually provide them free of charge to the public,' he said.

A man receives a PCR test in Sydney on Wednesday

Premier Daniel Andrews' government refused to budge on rapid antigen testing kits during Melbourne's six lockdowns despite their use within the private sector

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has been the poster boy for more expensive PCR testing.
Deputy Commissioner Robert Ganley, head of the NYPD's employee-relations unit was flown in a Department helicopter to attend a function in Philadelphia

The deputy commissioner of the NYPD is coming under fire after it emerged he was flown almost 100 miles in the Department's police helicopter simply to attend a glitzy gala in Philadelphia last weekend.

Robert Ganley, head of the NYPD's employee-relations unit, was standing in for New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea at the Annual Army-Navy Gala on December 10th.

The chopper took Ganley, who earns $400,000-a-year, from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport to Philadelphia for the night out in the City of Brotherly Love in a flight taking roughly one hour as apposed to a two-and-a-half to three hour drive down the busy Interstate 95.

Members of the Fire Department of New York who attended the same event made to with driving there.

The 'copter, which would normally be used for monitoring emergencies, was instead forced 'out of service' as the crew waited for a further four hours at Penn's Landing Heliport in Philadelphia before making the return flight back to the Big Apple - all on the taxpayer's dime.

According to the New York Post, the trip would have set back taxpayers at least $1,600 - far in excess of the amount it would have cost to drive.

Deputy commissioner Ganley attended a gala held by the Ben Franklin Global Forum in a dinner honoring 'The Heroes of September 11, 2001.'

The 100 mile trip would normally take about two-and-a-half hours by road or rail. The helicopter trip took about an hour at total cost of around $1,200

Ganley's use of the aircraft was authorized by Shea and deemed justified according to NYPD spokeswoman, Sgt. Jessica McRorie.

'The properly authorized use of a department aircraft was to ensure that Deputy Commissioner Ganley would also be able to honor prior commitments on both Friday and Saturday,' Sgt. McRorie told The New York Post.

On the Saturday, Ganley attended the Police Benevolent Association's Widows' and Children's holiday party, which started at 11:30am.

Friday night's flight was signed off by Shea and followed department protocols, McRorie said.

Critics of the NYPD were unhappy at the apparent wastage of police resources.

'It's a worthy event. But to send him in an expensive helicopter when it's a short drive  it's not like he was going eight states away,' an unnamed source said to the Post. 'For 9/11 stuff, I usually give lots of slack. But c'mon, the money spent on fuel would've been better spent going into a Sept, 11 survivors fund.'

'This needs to be investigated,' said New York City Councilman Robert Holden who said it was a 'poor decision'.

'People actually commute to work in Manhattan from the Philly or Cherry Hill area. They could have found some other way, train or driving,' he said.

Holden also said that it was 'very suspect' the NYPD would not publicly share Ganley's schedule in an attempt to justify the flight.

Although no official bill has been released, the cost of aviation fuel for the 200-mile round trip is likely to be around $1,200, at a cost of $600 per hour.

NYPD pilots who were flying the trip draw an annual salary of around $100,000.

Counterparts working for the FDNY say representatives from their service also attended the event in Philadelphia but drove themselves to and from the function.
A single Texas man looking for love erected a giant billboard on a highway in November in order to help him find 'a good woman.'

Contractor and fitness junkie Jim Bays, 66, came to Central Texas in June after moving his business down from Washington to get a fresh start.

Bays, who had previously been divorced twice and fathered five children, saw a giant billboard for a sale while driving on a Texas highway when he became inspired with the idea.

The billboard features Bays donning a cowboy hat reading 'Wanted: A Good Woman. 50-55ish. For talks and walks and mutual acts of kindness.' A phone number that goes to a specially-created voice mail box is also included.

Texas man Jim Bays, 66, erected a billboard on a Texas highway in November to advertise himself in the hopes of meeting 'a good woman'

Since the board was put up in November, Bays said he has gone on four or five dates but said he still believes he hasn't found the right one yet. He has also received two dozen voicemails.

He had originally attempted to meet women using dating apps but had no such luck as he felt it did not present someone's authentic personality and had trouble coordinating dates with his busy schedule as he works six days a week.

'It's not like when you were in high school and it's easy to meet somebody,' Bays told Austonia.

'How do you meet somebody that's on the same page? How do you create the number of accidents that need to happen in order for you to meet somebody that you really mix well with?'

He had been married twice before and now recognizes what he wants in a new relationship for himself and his partner.

'My first wife, I loved her to death and she loved me too, but we were two generals in the house, two leaders in the house,' he said.

'We were always butting heads because of that. I think my first wife married a boy. She wanted a man but she married a boy.'

He had been married to his first wife for eight years and then 19 for his second.

'Looking back on it, Im in a real stressful business and it takes up a lot of my time,' he told KXAN.

'I think I shot myself in the foot. Oh well, life is life. Live and learn.'

Bays is also the father of five children, between the ages of 12 to 41, and had also kept them busy as he enrolled his daughters in dance classes.

'I wanted to get them involved in something that taught them how to work hard and get to be good at something,' he said.

'It also took them away from me when I had an opportunity because my projects own me until I'm done.

'I think what happened was, I got my kids and my wife too busy and then they didn't have time for me when I had time because they were busy.'

Bays has since decided to put his boyish ways behind and look for his ideal woman who is determined, and independent and of course a bit on the younger side.

When asked about who the woman of his dreams is, he did not hold back in revealing his top candidate.

'Jennifer Aniston's not bad,' he jokingly remarked. 'Im kiddinga little bit.'

As his billboard states, however, he is simply just looking for a little 'kindness.'

'Im just looking for a nice woman to spend the rest of my days walking talking and doing kindnesses,' he told KXAN.
Police in the Bay Area believe they've uncovered new evidence to solve the 24-year-old cold case of a missing mother of three who disappeared without a trace after a job interview.

Janie June Coe, then 38, had a job interview on April 29, 1997. After the interview ended around 3 p.m. that day, she headed for her home on Penrod Drive in Petaluma.

The job interview was the last place Coe was ever seen. She was reported missing a few days later on May 2, after she didn't pick up her children from their grandfather's house.

Police in the San Francisco area now believe DNA evidence has given them a break in the case, although they've yet to offer more detail of what exactly the evidence is comprised of, and whether they've made progress to establish who the DNA belongs to.

Coe's 1989 Ford Aerostar was abandoned and found in a field on May 5. Police said she had friends in the area, but none had heard from her after her disappearance.

She left home without contact lenses and glasses she needed to drive, further alarming investigators.

Janie June Coe, then 38, was last seen leaving a job interview on April 29, 1997. She was reported missing on May 2 and hasn't been seen since.

The Petaluma Police press release include an image of what Coe might look like now at the age of 63

Missing person Janie June Coe's 1989 Ford Aerostar van was found abandoned May 5, 1997, near an open field in Napa, about 35 miles from her home

She was said to be the kind of person who 'did not like to venture far from home.' Napa, where the car was found, is about 35 miles from Petaluma.

About three hours after Coe was last seen, a woman driving a Ford Mustang used her ATM card at a bank in Petaluma.

Video surveillance caught the transaction but it was of poor quality and you couldn't make out the woman's face or the license plate of the car.

Police have not given any details about the nature of the evidence or where they got it from, but they deemed it important enough to put out a bulletin calling for more information from anyone who had it.

'Janie's children have not heard from her since her disappearance,' the Petaluma Police Department said in a statement. 'Twenty-five years later, new DNA evidence has emerged in Janie's disappearance.'

'New DNA evidence was discovered in some of the evidence that had been collected during the initial investigation,' the department continued. 'This has led to new witness contacts and investigative leads as detectives continue to follow-up on this active investigation.'

A reward of up to $2,500 is being offered by the Sonoma County Alliance Community Engagement and Safety Rewards Fund for information

Coe was said to be the kind of person who 'did not like to venture far from home,' according to police

The police press release include an image of what Coe might look like now at the age of 63.

She is described as being 5'4, 115 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Corie Joerger in Petaluma at 707-778-4456. A reward of up to $2,500 is being offered by the Sonoma County Alliance Community Engagement and Safety Rewards Fund for information.
A childminder is under investigation by police over claims she 'pressed teddies into a crying baby's face' after disturbing footage showed her 'blowing hard at the screaming infant'.

Police are probing the 36-year-old after she was recorded appearing to put the toy towards the six-month-old's face as the youngster cried.

Detectives said they were looking into prosecuting the woman while Ofsted closed the nursery.

It comes after a series of cases of horrific child killings in UK courts, including Star Hobson, 16 months, and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six.

A childminder is under investigation after disturbing footage showed her 'blowing hard' on a screaming infant

Footage showed the nanny - wearing a cardigan and skirt - appearing to play with the baby as it howls in terror.

She leans in and 'blows hard' on the child, pulling its cot backwards and forwards despite its tears.

She lets off one last powerful blow before placing the teddy on the infant's face and holding it there before moving away. She says: 'When you scream. I blow.'

Gloucestershire Police told the Sun they were 'seeking advice from the Crown Prosecution Service'.

A source told the newspaper: 'Any parent will find the videos horrific to watch. Babies could have died in her care.'

Police are probing the 36-year-old after she was recorded putting the toy on the six-month-old's face as the youngster cried

Last week Star Hobson's mother Frankie Smith, 20, was handed an eight-year sentence for allowing her daughter's death.

Meanwhile Smith's girlfriend Savannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for life for murdering the youngster.

Earlier this month Emma Tustin, 32, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years after beating the defenceless youngster at her home in Solihull.

Arthur's father Thomas Hughes, 29, was found guilty of his son's manslaughter and jailed for 21 years.
Scott Morrison has repeatedly dodged questions about his government subsidising the cost of rapid antigen tests, as thousands of Australians battle to get their hands on a kit to test for Covid before Christmas Day.

The Australian Prime Minister spoke to reporters during a trip to the John West logistics plant in Brisbane on Monday afternoon as Covid cases skyrocket around the country's east coast.

When asked whether the federal government would pay for the rapid tests as people attempt to travel to see family for Christmas, Mr Morrison failed to answer the question and instead embarked on a dismissive ramble.

'All the way through we have worked practically through the issues and we will do that in a calm and common sense manner,' he said.

Scott Morrison launched into a bizarre rant after being questioned over subsidising rapid antigen tests while speaking from a John West logistics plant in Brisbane on Monday

There are growing calls for the government to subsidise rapid tests in the states where they are prohibited as cases continue to skyrocket across Australia (pictured, a testing queue in Melbourne on Monday)

Mr Morrison was then probed again about the possibility of subsidised rapid tests, where he said he had 'already answered the question'.

'So...no then? I mean, he hasn't actually done any work, let alone in a calm and sensible manner. We all now it's the states who've done the work,' one person wrote on Twitter.

'Not even spin anymore its just nonsense responses,' tweeted another.

Rapid antigen tests are prohibited in Western Australia and South Australia, despite calls from health officials to have them used in combination with full PCR tests.

Health departments in both western states continue to knock the rapid tests, which cost between $15 and $20 per test - rather than $180 for a single PCR test.

In SA, the use of rapid antigen tests by the general public remains prohibited 'given the low level of COVID-19 in the community to date and the wide availability of gold-standard PCR testing'.

'This is due to the known inaccuracy of rapid antigen tests when there is not significant community spread of COVID-19, and the risk of false positive and false negative results,' health bureaucrats claim.

'The continued restriction of this test in South Australia when it is permitted in other states reflects the different levels of COVID-19 in communities throughout Australia.'

A cabinet meeting between the PM and state premiers is set to be held on Tuesday, with rapid antigen testing sure to be on the agenda.

Rapid antigen tests are prohibited in Western Australia and South Australia, despite calls from health officials to have them used in combination with full PCR tests (pictured, a woman doing a rapid test)

The drive-through testing centre on Bondi Beach (pictured on Sunday) has been inundated with people seeking tests before they travel to see family for Christmas

The country recorded a combined 3,986 new Covid cases on Monday, prompting Mr Morrison to call the 'informal' meeting.

meeting of state premiers - which was not due next until next year - as 'informal'.

Despite calling the meeting, Mr Morrison declared Australia won't follow Europe back into lockdown over surging cases due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Most European nations have tightened restrictions and the Netherlands has even gone back into lockdown to protect its hospital system.

But Mr Morrison said the situation in Australia is different because it's summer and 90.5 per cent of over 16s are fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Macquarie Community Breakfast in Windsor, north west of Sydney on Monday

'We will make our Australian way through this, we always have, the situation in the northern hemisphere is different to Australia,' he said in eastern Brisbane on Monday.

'They are not standing over there in the Netherlands in 34C, it's winter and people are more indoors, we know the virus does move differently in different seasons.

'I think Australians need to know that if they are going to get on a plane and get somewhere they can get off at the other end.'

Mr Morrison urged Aussies to get their booster shots if they had their second jab more than five months ago.

'Anyone who is concerned and who is ready to have their booster shot, I would urge them to go and get it because that is the best defence against Omicron,' he said.

'That is the key advice we have received and if we do that, then we can keep our nerve, keep calm and carry on.'

Asked if he supports mandatory mask wearing, Mr Morrison said masks should be optional.

'I was at carols in the Shire last night it was magnificent and fantastic, really enjoyed it with the family but we were all wearing masks, not everyone was but we chose to and that's how it should be,' he said.

Masks are compulsory for shopping in Victoria and Queensland but optional in NSW where Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to treat his citizens 'like adults' despite calls from the Labor Opposition to require them.

Australia recorded 3,986 new Covid cases on Monday including 2,501 in NSW, 1,302 in Victoria, 105 in South Australia, 59 in Queensland, 13 in the ACT and three each in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Winter infections are soaring across Europe amid the spread of Covid variant Omicron as countries desperately bid to slow transmission with the introduction of further restrictions

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said tighter Covid rules are on the table but called for calm. Pictured: Bronte Beach in Sydney's east on Saturday

Denmark became the first EU country to lift its Covid restrictions three months ago, but the emergence of the new variant has seen Europe revert back to tougher rules as cases and hospitalisations are on the rise again.

The UK lifted its lockdown restrictions on July 19, but Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday warned there are 'no guarantees' Christmas Day will go ahead without a lockdown.

He admitted 'everything is under review' after scientists delivered a grim assessment that the number of infections could reach two million by the end of the month without tougher restrictions - floating a 'circuit breaker' ban on households mixing and closure of non-essential shops.

It came as France barred UK holidaymakers from entering the country without a 'compelling reason' this week, while Germany added Britain to its list of high-risk countries.

Protestors clashed with police in Belgium earlier this month amid demonstrations against the tightening of restrictions across the continent.
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Chances of a white Christmas for some parts of Britain are growing, as forecasters keep a close eye on a looming 'battleground' of icy Arctic air and milder, wetter conditions.

After a gloomy and foggy weekend saw the coldest night of the winter so far, with temperatures plunging to -9.1C (15.6F) in Braemar in the Cairngorms last night, today and tomorrow are set to be brighter for many.

But from Wednesday, it is expected to turn chillier again, just ahead of the onset of wetter air from an area of low pressure moving in from the Atlantic, which is expected lead to snow in upland areas going into Christmas Eve.

The Met Office added that this could potentially even spread to low-lying parts of the Midlands, northern England and Scotland, and that motorists travelling this week before should 'prepare for icy, wintry conditions'.

Bookmakers Coral and Ladbrokes both have Edinburgh odds-on for a white Christmas at 4-5, while Newcastle is evens, Birmingham 6-4, London 7-4 and Cardiff and Belfast both 2-1.

Snow covers the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons in Wales on Christmas Day in 2010. The last time there was snow across much of the country on December 25 was that year, when 83 per cent of weather stations reported lying snow

Wetter air from low pressure moving in from the Atlantic is expected lead to snow in upland areas going into Christmas Eve

This graphic from the Met Office shows cold air moving in from the north, but milder air heading in from the south-west

Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said: 'From Wednesday evening we will see wetter, milder conditions for southern and western areas, while to the north it will remain cold and bright.

'It's at the boundary between the two that we could see a risk of snow through Thursday and Friday. But there remains a great deal of uncertainty about exactly when and where.

'Any significant snowfall is likely to be on higher ground, but anyone travelling in the run-up to Christmas will need to prepare for icy, wintry conditions.'

She added: 'We could see some snow showers over the hills in northern parts of the UK - it's probably the most likely place to see any snow. You couldn't rule out some sleety snow further south than that, but there's a really big question mark on it.'

BBC forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas described it as a 'battleground' with 'cold air spilling in from the north, milder air heading in from the south-west' as the festive weekend approaches.

BBC Weather is currently forecasting that London could have temperatures of 52F (11C) on Christmas Day.

The day could also see further snow showers to northern hills, but forecasters are not expecting disruptive amounts of wind.

The last time there was snow across much of the country on December 25 was in 2010, when 83 per cent of weather stations reported lying snow.

That was only the fourth time since 1960 where that has happened in at least 40 per cent of UK locations.

Today and tomorrow are expected to remain largely dry with more bright spells than over the weekend. But nights will remain frosty, with temperatures plunging as low as -2C (28F) tomorrow even in the South.

The outlook for after Christmas is currently for another spell of high pressure, bringing a return to settled, cold and dry conditions.

On Saturday night, Braemar in the Cairngorms reached -8.9C (16F) making it the coldest night of the winter so far. This was then beaten again in the same location last night with a low of -9.1C (15.6F).
A Japanese billionaire returned to Earth on Monday after 12 days on the International Space Station where he made videos about performing mundane tasks in space including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom.

His journey marked Russia's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States.

Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted into Kazakhstan at around the expected landing time of 3:13am GMT on Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Maezawa plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the moon, operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

He and his assistant are the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama travelled to the Mir station in 1990.

Their return from space caps a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel.

Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa (pictured) and his assistant Yozo Hirano returned to Earth on Monday after 12 days on the International Space Station

Maezawa and Hirano (pictured getting out of the spacecraft reentry capsule) made videos about performing mundane tasks in space including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom at the International Space Station

Maezawa and Hirano's (pictured) journey marked Russia's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States

Billionaires Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, bursting into a market Russia is keen to defend.

Russia has a history of sending self-funded tourists to space.

In partnership with US-based company Space Adventures, Russian space agency Roscosmos has previously taken seven tourists to the ISS since 2001 - one of them twice.

The last was Canada's Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009, who was dubbed the first clown in space.

In October, Russia launched its first untrained cosmonauts into space since Laliberte's trip, delivering a Russian actress and a director to the ISS, where they filmed scenes for the first movie in orbit.

Billionaires Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year (pictured L to R Audrey Powers, William Shatner, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries prepare for their Blue Origin flight to space put on by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos)

Richard Branson carries crew member Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders while celebrating their flight to space at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences in July

Moscow had stopped sending tourists to space after NASA retired its Space Shuttle in 2011, which left Russia with a monopoly on supplying the ISS.

NASA bought up all Soyuz launch seats for a reported $90 million (80 million euros) per spot - effectively ending tourist flights.

That changed last year when a SpaceX spacecraft successfully delivered its first astronauts to the ISS.

NASA began purchasing flights from SpaceX, stripping Russia of its monopoly and costing its cash-strapped space agency millions of dollars in revenue.

While the cost of tickets to space for tourists has not been disclosed, Space Adventures has indicated they are in the range of $50-60 million.

Roscosmos plans to continue growing its space tourism business, already commissioning two Soyuz rockets for such trips.

Footage from the landing site, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the central Kazakhstan town of Zhezkazgan, showed the trio smiling after being helped out of the Soyuz descent module and into evacuation vehicles in freezing, foggy conditions.

'The crew is feeling good,' a commentator on NASA TV said, translating comments from Russian mission control.

Russia's defence ministry had said on Sunday that Maezawa and Hirano were set to be surprised by recovery crews with a traditional Japanese noodle dish.

The trio spent 12 days on the orbiting laboratory where the Japanese tourists documented their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's popular YouTube channel.

The trio (L to R, Hirano, Misurkin, Maezawa) spent 12 days on the orbiting laboratory where the Japanese tourists documented their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's popular YouTube channel

Maezawa, one of Japan 's richest men, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at about 7:30 GMT on December 8

Yozo Hirano, the assistant to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, exits the spacecraft reentry capsule after returning to Earth Monday after 12 days on the International Space Station

Addressing his one million followers on YouTube, the 46-year-old billionaire explained how to brush teeth and go to the bathroom in space.

In one of the videos, he explained in detail the business of relieving oneself on the ISS.

'Peeing is very easy,' he said as he demonstrated a handheld funnel astronauts use to suck their urine away.

In other videos, he showed his followers how to properly drink tea and sleep in zero gravity.

When the three space travellers arrived on the ISS on December 8, they joined a seven-team crew who were engaged in space biology and physics research.
A mother-of-two who stabbed her abusive ex-boyfriend when he attacked her with a broken bottle has been spared jail after a judge ruled she had been the victim of 'long term domestic and physical abuse.'

Emma Westwood, 36, had won a restraining order against Christopher Clark due to his violent behaviour towards her during their year long relationship but for 18 months he kept ignoring the contact ban and continually harassed her.

When he went to prison, Westwood moved to a secret address but Clark, 36, tracked her down following his release and after getting drunk on vodka he attacked her at her home in Sale, Greater Manchester.

During the 3am confrontation, Clarke broke down the front door of Westwood's home and lunged at her with the broken bottle before she fought back and stabbed him twice in the chest. He fled into the street before collapsing outside.

Westwood was charged with wounding Clark, of Wythenshawe, Manchester, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

But she was handed a 16-month jail sentence suspended for two years after prosecutors accepted her plea to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding due to Clark's abusive behaviour.

Emma Westwood (pictured outside Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester), 36, was handed a 16-month jail sentence suspended for two years after prosecutors accepted her plea to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding due to her ex-boyfriend's abusive behaviour

The pair had started dating in 2018 but in September the following year, Clark was issued with a restraining order banning him from contacting Westwood for three years after he was convicted of assault and sending malicious communications.

Despite the ban Clark carried on contacting Westwood and in February was jailed for 26 weeks for breaching the restraining order, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

She then moved house but he tracked her down at 3am on April 17 this year.

On the night of the incident, police were called to the scene by Westwood's father to find Clark lying on the pavement outside with blood pouring from his wounds.

Clark recovered from his injuries but declined to give a statement to officers and Westwood was arrested after she admitted to stabbing him in self defence.

Prosecutor Mark Kellet said: 'The previous evening he drank around four ciders and a couple of vodkas. He said: ''I was not sober but I was aware of what was going on'' but it seems he does not remember a great deal after that.

'Police were called to the address to find Mr Clark on the pavement lying on his side. He smelt of alcohol and was unconscious.

'He sustained a stab wound to the left of his chest and a small laceration on his arm. He needed oxygen and was resuscitated. He had no idea what had taken place.'

Mr Kellet added: 'The defendant said she had had an argument with Mr Clark. She said he had broken the door and he went to stab him to defend herself.

'In police interview she said they had argued and they had gone to the kitchen. She picked up a knife and he had a broken bottle. She said he came to towards her. She said he had previously attacked and strangled her.

'She said he went to grab the knife off her and he sustained injuries. She said he wouldn't leave her alone. She explained how he calls her all of the time. She said the argument started because he took her phone.

'She said he had punched her and did whatever he wanted during their relationship. She said he had manipulated her, that he wasn't nice to her and didn't make her happy. But she had not intended to do anything to him.'

Clark was issued with a restraining order banning him from contacting Westwood for three years after he was convicted of assault and sending malicious communications, Minshull Street Crown Court (pictured) heard

In mitigation defence counsel Matthew Curtis said: 'This defendant moved into that address to escape difficulties in the relationship. She is the subject of a restraining order and it is designed to protect her.'

Sentencing Judge John Potter told Westwood: 'In June 2018, you started a relationship with Christopher Clark. You had a child together and you have another child from a previous relationship.

'Your relationship between the two of you is categorised by you being the subject of a number of incidents of domestic violence at his hands. The evidence for that assertion is plain from the analysis of Christopher Clark's previous criminal convictions.

'In September 2019, he was convicted for battery and for sending menacing communications and the victim in that case was you. A restraining order was granted in your favour which remains in place until March 2022.

'There are further convictions recorded against him for harassment on you following a number of occasions where he has breached that restraining order. In February 2020, Mr Clark was sent to prison for 26 weeks for breaching that restraining order.

'You yourself were the victim of long term domestic and physical abuse, that abuse being at the hands of Christopher Clark.

'Whilst he was in prison, in order to start afresh away from that relationship, you and your children moved to another property. The venue which you hoped to keep a secret from Mr Clark.

'However, on April 16, after Mr Clark had been released from custody, he discovered where you were living. You had no wish to resume any relationship with him but at 3am the following morning having found out where you were, he came to your address.

'He had had a considerable amount to drink when he gained access to the address. He rang your father to taunt him that he had found out where you were and that he was there.

'An argument took place and in the course of that argument, he armed himself with a broken bottle and you armed yourself with a knife. There after in excessive self defence, you struck him with the knife twice to the chest and to his arm.

'He left the premises only to collapse outside. The police and an ambulance were called and he was taken to hospital. He had no long term injury or wish to provide any statement. You were arrested in these proceedings against the background to him having suffered a serious injury.

'To your credit, you told the police the truth about what had happened. You were honest and open with the police immediately. The knife you used is a very dangerous weapon. But there is exceptional mitigation to stop you from going to custody today.'
Lisa Wilkinson claims politicians are refusing to toughen Covid restrictions, despite the risk of the Omicron variant, as they fear if they do so it will hurt them in the polls.

The Project host claimed Australian leaders are pivoting away from the public health advice they once relied on because they're aware 'the greatest gift they can give as politicians at the moment is Christmas'.

Governments were acting on an understanding that Omicron - while very contagious - is a less potent strain of the virus than Delta and its predecessors - with Australian National University professor Peter Collignon predicting the current case surge will peak by mid-January and then ebb away.

Chief health officer Paul Kelly had also said Australia's high vaccination rates meant there was unlikely to be a high number of hospitalizations and deaths, but The Project interviewed epidemiologist John Kaldor who said the 'jury was out' on how severe Omicron could be.

Poll SHOULD THERE BE TIGHTER COVID RESTRICTIONS OVER CHRISTMAS AS OMICRON CASES SURGE? YES NO SHOULD THERE BE TIGHTER COVID RESTRICTIONS OVER CHRISTMAS AS OMICRON CASES SURGE? YES 241 votes

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'Our leaders are steadfast in arguing that Omicron is likely to be a more mild Covid variant and that our vaccine coverage is among the best in the world. So, with boosters on the way as well, do you know something they don't?' Ms Wilkinson asked Professor Kaldor.

'It sounds like they know something that I don't,' he replied.

'The question of whether it is milder - the jury is still out on that one. We have very early evidence particularly on whether the vaccines protect as well against this variant as they have against Delta, that is information still being accumulated.'

The Project host had repeatedly called for stricter and stronger lockdowns throughout the pandemic.

In August she was moved to apologise to the people of Victoria for the spread of the Delta variant from Sydney, and claimed 'the lockdown was not hard enough and people wanted a hard lockdown', although Premier Daniel Andrews soon brought his policies into alignment with NSW when it became clear that lockdown measures could not contain the virus.

Professor Kaldor said he is not advocating for a return of lockdowns but is calling for governments to re-introduce mask mandates and restrictions on large gatherings over the festive season.

'What we are trying to say is, this is a variant which is clearly spreading very, very fast,' he said.

'There are a number of things we can do to slow that spread that are not particularly major impositions on the community at large and those things can really help us to buy time until we find out exactly what is going on with this new variant.'

More than 90 per cent of the Australian population over 16 are now fully-vaccinated (pictured, a woman being jabbed at the State Library Victoria)

Australian Covid cases are soaring at record high levels with 3,986 reported on Monday and tens of thousands a day expected to follow next month. Pictured: Covid testing queue in Melbourne

He admitted it would not be a popular move, but said Christmas is the most high risk time of year as large groups are getting together and travelling across the country.

Australian Covid case numbers are at record high levels with 3,957 positive results recorded on Monday from 272,987 tests - a positive rate of 1.45 per cent.

On the first day of this month there were 1,415 positive results from 187,286 tests - a positive rate of 0.76 per cent, showing the infection rate had almost doubled in three weeks.

While the number of hospitalizations had increased by 65 per cent since Dec. 1, the numbers are still only around half of what they were during the peak of the Delta wave, and there were no deaths recorded across Australia on Monday compared with daily double figures in September and October.

Although Scott Morrison has called a National Cabinet meeting for Tuesday to discuss the surge in Omicron cases with state leaders, the prime minister has declared Australia won't follow Europe back into lockdown.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet also vowed there will be no more Covid restrictions despite 2,501 new infections in the state on Monday.

Hospital numbers are also creeping up, with 34 more patients rushed into hospital in NSW on Monday, taking the total to 227.

Five more people are now in intensive care, bringing that number to 33, with 11 now breathing through a ventilator.

'We are taking a balanced and proportionate response. It is completely focused on keeping people safe while at the same time opening up our economy and ensuring that people are able to work, be in jobs and provide for their families,' Mr Perrottet said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured at John West Logistics plant in Brisbane, December 20, 2021) has vowed there will be no more lockdown despite soaring cases

Epidemiology Professor John Kaldor (right) told Lisa Wilkinson (left) there is nothing to suggest Omicron is a milder strain of Covid than other variants

'There will also be new variants of this virus. It is not going away. We need to learn to live alongside it.'

Other states have taken a more cautious approach with masks now compulsory for shopping in Victoria and Queensland.

Australia recorded 3,986 new Covid cases on Monday including 2,501 in NSW, 1,302 in Victoria, 105 in South Australia, 59 in Queensland, 13 in the ACT and three each in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Michelle Lynn Stultz, 46, from North Carolina, allegedly led her friend to believe she was diagnosed with terminal cancer

A woman who allegedly lied and said she was terminally ill with cancer has been charged after her friend gave her hundreds of dollars, according to police.

Michelle Lynn Stultz, 46, from Clemmons, North Carolina, allegedly led her friend to believe she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was struggling with money due to medical treatments.

The alleged victim, who has not been named, claimed she gave Stultz a total of approximately $975 on four different occasions, according to the Northern Iredell County Sheriff's Office.

The victim told police that when she discovered that Stultz was not suffering from cancer, she confronted her and asked for the money back, Sheriff Darren Campbell said.

The woman, who reported the incident to police on August 27, claimed Stultz stopped all communication with her after this.

An investigation found Stultz had solicited money from other individuals and churches, while she also created a GoFundMe page, according to police.

The alleged victim, who has not been named, claimed she gave Stultz a total of approximately $975 on four occasions, according to the Northern Iredell County Sheriff's Office (pictured)

On the fundraising page, Stultz allegedly led donors to believe that she was struggling with money after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Police said Stultz was taken into custody in her hometown of Clemmons and was taken to Iredell County Detention Center and granted a $5,000 bond.

She has been charged with four counts of felony obtaining property by false pretenses.
Two monkeys accused of killing 250 dogs in an Indian district by dropping them to their deaths from tall buildings and trees have been caged by locals.

Footage shows the enraged primates locked in cages after locals accused monkeys of retaliatory attacks after a pack of dogs killed one of the monkeys' infants.

Panic-stricken residents have also come under attack in the villages of Majalgaon and nearby Lavul in Maharashtras Beed district.

The monkeys were captured by the regional forestry department and are set to be taken to Nagpur, where they will be released in a different part of the forest.

Snarling monkeys accused of killing 250 dogs in an Indian district by dragging them to the top of buildings and trees and dropping them have been put behind bars

Footage and images show the enraged primate locked in cages after the vicious revenge attacks carried out when a pack of dogs killed one of the monkeys' infants

Panic-stricken residents in the villages of Majalgaon and nearby Lavul in Maharashtras Beed district were also attacked by the monkeys before they were apprehended and put in cages

The monkeys were captured by the regional forestry department and are set to be taken to Nagpur, where they will be released in a different part of the forest

Enraged monkeys have killed 250 dogs in an Indian district by dragging them to the top of buildings and trees and dropping them. Pictured: Footage purportedly showing a monkey carrying a puppy on a roof in India, Lavul village

Villagers had reported monkeys setting upon dogs as soon as they saw them before taking them up to a high place - the top of a building or a tree - and dropping them to their death.

The reports say that in the last month alone, 250 dogs have been killed in this way.

According to India's News18 website, 'not a single pup' was left in Lavul where even school children are being chased and attacked.

Pictures in Indian media appeared to confirm the attacks. In one, a monkey can be seen on a roof carrying a puppy to the edge of a building.

Separate footage, possibly of the incident that sparked the revenge attacks, showed dogs chasing monkeys through the village as local women and children ran for safety. The dogs appeared to be protecting a child.

Residents of the village contacted officials at the forest department, asking that they round up the monkeys. But one forest official dismissed the idea that the animals were carrying out revenge attacks.

Children were seen fleeing the enraged monkeys which have killed 250 dogs in an Indian district by dragging them to the top of buildings and trees and dropping them

Two panic-stricken women flee enraged monkeys that have attacked residents 'in revenge' after a pack of dogs killed one of the monkeys' infants

Pictures in local media show a monkey on a rooftop holding a dog

According to the villagers, the monkeys are taking revenge.

They say that the violence erupted when some of the dogs killed a baby monkey.

Villagers had tried to take upon themselves to save the dogs.

But when they did, the monkeys fought back against their efforts, with the news station reporting some men even fell from heights themselves when trying to save dogs that had been dragged there.

Clearly not content with the extermination of the dogs, monkeys are now said to be going after young children.

School children are reportedly being attacked by the monkeys, creating a further sense of panic among the villagers.

In one reported instance, an eight-year-old was grabbed and dragged away by the monkeys, forcing villagers to throw stones at them to scare them off.

Pictured: One of the monkeys appeared to go for a child in the village, before a dog ran at the monkey, scaring it odd

Rampage: Video from the village of Lavul shows monkeys terrorising people in the street. Locals say the animals have been killing their dogs
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A left-wing millennial who rose to prominence during anti-government protests was elected Chile's next president on Sunday, after a bruising campaign against a free-market firebrand likened to former US president Donald Trump.

With 56 per cent of the votes, Gabriel Boric, 35, handily defeated by more than 10 points opponent Jose Antonio Kast, 55, who tried unsuccessfully to scare voters that his young, inexperienced opponent would upend Chile's vaunted record as Latin America's most stable, advanced economy.

In a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarising rhetoric of the campaign, Mr Kast immediately recognised defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone with his opponent congratulating him on his 'grand triumph'.

The streets of Santiago exploded in celebration after leftist millennial Gabriel Boric was declared Chile's new president with an unexpectedly large victory over his far-right rival

With almost 100 percent of ballots counted, leftist lawmaker Gabriel Boric, 35, became Chile's youngest-ever president leading with 56 per cent to 44 per cent for his far-right rival Jose Antonio Kas

Supporters of left-wing millennial presidential candidate Gabriel Boric celebrated on the streets of Chile's capital of Santiago after his election win

Thousands took to the streets to celebrate just two years after thousands were out protesting in demonstrations and clashes with police in Chile

Gabriel Boric won Chile's presidential election yesterday. Pictured: He made a victory speech during the celebrations in Santiago, Chile

Gabriel Boric, kisses with his partner Irina Karamanos in front of the thousands of people who came to celebrate the candidate's victory

Supporters waving flags took to Chile's streets in celebration. The election win came two weeks after Chile's Congress passed a law to legalize same-sex marriage

Mr Boric became the country's youngest leader after his rival concedes defeat on Sunday

He then later travelled personally to Mr Boric's campaign headquarters to meet with his rival.

Meanwhile, outgoing president Sebastian Pinera  a conservative billionaire  held a video conference with Mr Boric to offer his government's full support during the three month transition.

'I am going to be the president of all Chileans,' Mr Boric said in the brief televised appearance with Mr Pinera.

Who is Gabriel Boric, the left-wing millennial elected Chile's youngest ever president? Gabriel Boric, 35, was born in Punta Areneas, southern Chile, in 1986 and became a leader of student protests in 2011 that threw Chile into a state of gridlock. He was a charismatic student leader with strong left-wing tendencies. Mr Boric studied law in Santiago but never completed his degree, instead getting elected to Chiles Congress in 2013. He served two terms as a deputy and was one of the first people in Congress to come from outside Chiles two traditional parties. Gabriel Boric, 35, became the youngest ever president in Chile after his election win in December 2021. Thousands of Chileans flocked to the streets to celebrate the left-wing millennial's win His critics labelled him as a radical youngster without experience who could try to build a socialist but authoritarian state similar to Venezuela or Cuba. However, the young president-elect claims he is a moderate who simply wants to create a welfare state in Chile, one of the most unequal countries in the world. After his presidential election win on December 19, 2021, beating Jose Antonio Kast, a far-right supporter of General Pinochet with 56 per cent of the votes, he said he wanted to expand social rights while ensuring fiscal responsibility. Yet political commentators in Chile have warned that although the Mr Boric has big ideas he may struggle to pass them through the Chilean Congress, which is fairly equally split between right-wing and left-wing parties. Advertisement

In Santiago's subway, where a fare hike in 2019 triggered a wave of nationwide protests that exposed the shortcomings of Chile's free market model, young supporters of Mr Boric jumped and shouted in unison.

They headed downtown to join thousands who gathered for the president-elect's victory speech.

'This is a historic day,' said Boris Soto, a teacher. 'We've defeated not only fascism, and the right wing but also fear.'

In his first public speech after defeating the far-right Jose Antonio Kast with 56 per cent of the votes, the former student leader assured that his commitment 'is to take care of democracy every day' and thanked the other six candidates who competed in the election

A person blows fire as supporters of Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric celebrate following the official results of the runoff presidential election, in Santiago, Chile

Mr Boric's victory is likely to be felt throughout Latin America, where ideological divisions have been on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic, which reversed a decade of economic gains, exposed longstanding deficiencies in health care and deepened inequality that is among the worst in the world.

At 35, Mr Boric will become Chile's youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.

He was among several activists elected to Congress in 2014 after leading protests for higher quality education.

Chilean presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, from the Partido Republicano party, reacts following his defeat to Mr Boric

Thousands came to downtown Santiago to celebrate the historic election victory. Pictured: Supporters stayed into the night, waving flags and lighting flares

He has vowed to 'bury' the neoliberal economic model left by general Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship and raise taxes on the 'super rich' to expand social services, fight inequality and boost protections of the environment.

Mr Kast, who has a history of defending Chile's past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Mr Boric by two points in the first round of voting last month but failed to secure a majority of votes, setting up a head-to-head runoff between the two.

Mr Boric was able to reverse the difference by a larger margin than pre-election opinion polls forecast by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas who do not side with political extremes.

An additional 1.2 million Chileans cast ballots on Sunday compared to the first round, raising turnout to nearly 56 per cent, the highest since voting stopped being mandatory in 2012.

Mr Boric's victory is likely to be felt throughout Latin America, where ideological divisions have been on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Celebrations in Santiago yesterday

'It's impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera,' said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Centre in Washington.

'Chilean democracy won today, for sure.'

Mr Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine, emerged from the far right fringe after having won less than 8 per cent of the vote in 2017.

An admirer of Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, he rose steadily in the polls this time with a divisive discourse emphasising conservative family values and playing on Chileans' fears that a surge in migration  from Haiti and Venezuela  is driving crime.

As a lawmaker he has a record of attacking Chile's LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws.

In recent days, both candidates tried to veer toward the centre.

Mr Boric will become Chile's youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvador's Nayib Bukele

'I'm not an extremist  I don't feel far right,' Mr Kast proclaimed in the final stretch even as he was dogged by revelations that his German-born father had been a card-carrying member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.

But while Mr Kast made a lightning trip to Washington, where he met with Republican senator Marco Rubio, Mr Boric sewed together a broader coalition with more traditional leftist parties, added centrist advisers and promised that any changes would be gradual and fiscally responsible.

Mr Boric's victory is likely to be tempered by a divided congress.

In addition, the political rules could soon change because a newly elected convention is rewriting the country's Pinochet-era constitution.

The convention  the nation's most powerful elected institution  could in theory call for new presidential elections when it concludes its work next year and if the new charter is ratified in a plebiscite.
The jury in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial could begin deliberating today as the prosecution and defense make their closing arguments.

Maxwell, 59, faces life behind bars if convicted on six counts of enticing and transporting underage girls to to be abused by pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, her former lover and long-time companion.

The closing arguments are expected to run to around six hours before the jury are sent out to deliberate by the judge at the Manhattan federal court in New York.

Legal experts believe jurors will reach a verdict by the end of the week as they are unlikely to want the case hanging over them into Christmas.

It comes amid warnings that if Maxwell is sent down she could start 'naming names.'

Ghislaine Maxwell pose for a photo at what appears to be a ski resort. Prosecutors showed dozens of never-before-seen photos of the pair together to convince jurors of the closeness of their relationship

Maxwell listens to arguments during her trial on Saturday

Maxwell's siblings Isabel and Kevin have been attending throughout (pictured on Friday evening)

From an anti-vax student and a trader's assistant to an immigration charity volunteer: The six men and six women of the jury who will decide Maxwell's fate Split between six men and six women, the jurors range in age from their 20s to their 70s, and are a broad ethnic mix as you would expect in New York. Juror number 29 is a white man in his 40s, he is often seen with a Starbucks coffee cup and taking notes. He is a university graduate and is now vice president at a life-sciences company. His husband is an architect and they share a love of board games. He said of Maxwell during the screening process: 'I don't think I have heard anything in particular related to her. I have heard of, obviously, Jeffrey Epstein.' Juror 48 is a 70-year-old white lady who volunteers at a food bank and immigration charity. She retired from an HR job at a charity in 2017 and plays chess, likes knitting and bike rides. Her home was raided two years ago by burglars, but she said this has not changed her view on law enforcement. Juror number 50 is a 35-year-old man with a finance degree who works as an executive assistant for private firm. He had seen the news about Jeffrey Epstein on CNN. Another is a black woman in her 50s with a masters degree in business. She has been spotted chatting with the juror sitting next to her. She is not a big newsreader and has no social media except for LinkedIn. During the selection process, she said she had heard of Epstein and was also aware of Maxwell's arrest. Another juror is a woman in her 60s who works as a trader's assistant. She lives with her son, his wife and their children, and watches a lot of 'police shows' like Law & Order. The youngest among them is a 28-year-old black woman who is doing a master's degree in public administration. She lives with her mother and daughter. The woman said she had heard about Epstein but not Maxwell. She mentioned her college degree had hit an impasse due to a mandatory vaccination requirement. The jurors were drawn from more than 600 candidates who had to take a 51-question survey. In the US there is much greater transparency than in the UK about jurors and their backgrounds. The prosecution and defence lawyers are able to veto any jurors they want. In Maxwell's case, the defence had 10 challenges, while the government had six. The questionnaire included asking jurors if they had any personal experience of sexual abuse and whether they were prejudiced against people with 'luxurious lifestyles.' 'Do you have any strong views regarding people who are wealthy?' One question asked. Advertisement

'This could be bad news for Prince Andrew and other high-profile men who hung out with Ghislaine and Jeffrey Epstein,' a legal source connected with the case told The Mail on Sunday.

'It is possible she will begin to co-operate and tell what she knows in an attempt to lessen her jail term. We know that prosecutors are looking at other co-conspirators in connection with Jeffrey Epstein's child sex ring. Ghislaine undoubtedly possesses information which could assist prosecutors in other cases. If she decides to co-operate, her testimony could be devastating. She was Epstein's right-hand woman for years, imagine what she knows?'

Prince Andrew has been mentioned three times throughout the trial, including by Epstein's pilot who testified that he flew on 'the Lolita Express.'

One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Roberts, is suing the Duke of York separately in New York, claiming she was forced to have sex with the royal on three occasions, including at Maxwell's Belgravia townhouse.

Andrew vehemently denies all the allegations.

Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were also named in court as associates of Epstein, as were actor Kevin Spacey and a slew of Wall Street financiers and politicians.

Maxwell's defense will argue that she is being tried as a stand-in for Epstein who was found hanged in his Manhattan prison cell while awaiting trial in 2019.

US prosecutors and Maxwell's lawyers are expected to take between two and three hours each to sum up their case in the Manhattan federal court in New York.

Judge Alison Nathan will then instruct the 12 jurors how to consider the charges before instructing them to retire to deliberate their verdict.

They must reach a unanimous decision to convict. If they cannot agree, then the judge could declare a mistrial.

Prosecutors have sought to portray Maxwell as Epstein's partner-in-crime in the high-profile trial that began on November 29.

They argued that between 1994 and 2004, she recruited young girls to be sexually exploited by the American money-manager who died in jail two years ago while awaiting his own trial.

The trial heard lurid claims by four women against Maxwell, the daughter of former newspaper baron Robert Maxwell.

Two said they were as young as 14 when Maxwell allegedly began grooming them and arranging for them to give massages to Epstein that ended in sexual activity.

One, identified only as 'Jane,' detailed how Maxwell recruited her at summer camp and made her feel 'special.'

She said sexual encounters with Epstein became routine, with Maxwell sometimes present.

Another, going by 'Carolyn,' said she was usually paid $300 after sexual encounters with Epstein, often by Maxwell herself.

A third alleged victim was Annie Farmer, now 42, who said Maxwell fondled her breasts when she was a teenager at the New Mexico ranch owned by Epstein.

The defense has argued that Maxwell was being used as a 'scapegoat' for Epstein's crimes after he evaded justice.

Maxwell, who dated Jeffery Epstein, has been charged with six counts of enticing and transporting underage girls for sexual abuse by the financier

The jury in Maxwell 's trial was shown these photos that speak to the close relationship between the pair, which prosecutors have characterize as 'partners in crime'

They also quizzed the women's ability to recollect quarter-century-old events.

Maxwell's attorneys argued that 'false memories' had been implanted into the minds of the women under questioning and due to intense media scrutiny.

The socialite declined to take the stand but made a brief statement to the judge on Friday.

'Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond reasonable doubt so there is no need for me to testify,' she said.

The trial had been expected to last into January, but Maxwell now faces the possibility of learning her fate before Christmas Day, her 60th birthday.

She pleaded not guilty to all counts, which carry a total of up to 80 years behind bars.
Schools will likely see disruption until Easter as a rise in Omicron cases sparks a wave of staff absences, Nadim Zahawi warned as he issued a desperate call for qualified teachers to sign up to help.

The Education Secretary is calling on qualified teachers - who left the profession or who pursued other careers - to apply on the Get Into Teaching website as soon as possible, ideally before Christmas Eve, so they can join the workforce in January.

Schools have been experiencing low attendance from both teachers and pupils ahead of the winter break, and Department for Education (DfE) officials admitted yesterday that they expect Omicron to bring about high levels of staff absence throughout the spring term.

The Government is now asking retired teachers to 'come forward and join the national mission' amid fears that the number of teachers forced into self-isolation by the coronavirus variant could lead to school closures or entire year groups being sent home.

Schools will likely see disruption until Easter as a rise in Omicron cases sparks a wave of staff absences, Nadim Zahawi warned (pictured: Parents doing the school run in September)

New push to cut ten-day Covid isolation period to a week after experts warn that current rules could cripple the economy Ministers are considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days. As reported in Saturday's Daily Mail, health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy. Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive. But the 'blunt tool' fails to account for infectiousness and is fuelling 'lockdown by stealth' by keeping so many people at home. Now it has emerged that modelling by government scientific advisers indicates it would be possible to reduce the isolation period without having a significant impact on infection rates if people had a negative test before they were released. Sources say the change in policy is 'being looked at' to stop the country grinding to a halt. It even has the backing of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, whose doom-laden forecasts prompted previous lockdown measures. Advertisement

Education Secretary Mr Zahawi said: 'It has been my absolute priority since day one in the role to do everything in my power to protect education  which is why today I am asking any teachers no longer in the profession to come forward if they are available to temporarily fill absences in the new year.

'Although 99.9% of schools have consistently been open this term, with cases of Omicron increasing we must make sure schools and colleges have the teachers available to remain open for face-to-face education.

'Anyone who thinks they can help should get the process started now on the Get Into Teaching website, and everyone should get boosted now to help reduce the amount of disruption from the virus in the new year.'

The DfE said in a statement: 'The Omicron variant is expected to continue to cause increased staff absence levels in the spring term, and some local areas may struggle to find sufficient numbers of supply teachers available unless former staff come forward.'

Dr Nikki Kanani, Medical Director of Primary Care for NHS England and NHS Improvement, also called on teachers and school staff to get a Covid booster jab during the Christmas break.

Dr Kanani, a south east London GP, said: 'We're asking teachers to come forward during the school holidays to get protected before school starts again.

'We have got pop-ups, we've got mobile units, we're working with community and faith leaders to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to get this protection, so please come forward.'

The Department for Education (DfE) said in a press release that some local areas may struggle to find sufficient numbers of supply teachers available unless former staff come forward.

DfE staff eligible to come forward, who are not working on the Department's own covid response, will be released to do so.

The Disclosure and Barring Service said it will be ready to meet 'any spikes in demand for its service'.

The Government is now asking retired teachers to 'come forward and join the national mission' amid fears that the number of teachers forced into self-isolation by the coronavirus variant could lead to school closures or entire year groups being sent home (pictured: Nadim Zahawi)

The Government is also working with Teach First to help bring about a temporary return to the classroom for those who trained as teachers but work in other jobs currently.

Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First said: 'Teachers have gone above and beyond throughout the pandemic, doing an inspirational job to support their pupils and communities in the face of adversity.

'Yet the disruption to school life and extended periods at home mean pupils' education has inevitably suffered, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

'Given the challenges that schools now face, we want to see what more can be done to help  including how we, and those of our alumni who have trained as teachers but currently work outside the profession, may be able to support schools to remain open safely in the new year.'

The Government had previously set up a temporary register in March 2020 to support former social workers to return to frontline practice.
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Covid-related staff shortages are today bringing Britain to a grinding halt, causing huge disruption for airline passengers, shutting attractions, taking one of the nation's best-known TV shows off air and now sparking fears of missed bin collections.

Staffing shortages at BA - blamed on Covid and self-isolation rules - have today caused pre-Christmas travel 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport.

The shortages, combined with weather-enforced delays, have resulted in cancelled flights, queues at the border and a sea of stranded luggage strewn across baggage reclaim.

It comes as Boris Johnson today delayed making a decision on imposing new coronavirus curbs as furious Tory MPs demanded the Prime Minister tell the nation if people can go ahead with their Christmas plans.

The PM hosted an emergency meeting of his Cabinet this afternoon to discuss if extra measures are needed to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.

But a final decision was reportedly not made at the meeting which means it now seems unlikely that further restrictions will be rolled out before Christmas.

Earlier today, London's Natural History Museum and Edinburgh Castle both had to shut due to a surge in Covid cases among staff.

And, in an unprecedented move, ITV revealed its flagship show Good Morning Britain has been cancelled between Christmas and New Year.

Bosses of the channel say there will be no episodes aired of the breakfast show between Wednesday, December 29 and Friday, December 31 'due to the pandemic'.

A string of West End shows, including the Lion King, Wicked and Moulin Rouge! have also been forced to cancel pre-Christmas performances due to Covid, with cast and crew members testing positive in recent days.

Royal Mail chiefs are warning of potential delays to postal services this Christmas, while councils fear disruption to bin services over the holiday period due to Covid-related staffing issues.

The staffing shortages come as ministers are today considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days.

Health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy.

Yesterday confirmed cases of the variant yesterday rose by nearly 50 per cent to 37,000 in just 24 hours. London is the worst-hit area, sparking the city's mayor Sadiq Khan to declare a 'major incident'.

In other coronavirus developments:

The operator of the Real Greek and Franco Manca restaurant chains has urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to announce further support for businesses 'in the next 24 hours'.

Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that businesses need more support to get them through the difficult months ahead.

Patricia Marquis, England director at the Royal College of Nursing, said it is looking like a 'very bleak picture' for nursing staff over the next few weeks.

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University and a GP, said 'we are in deep, deep trouble of potentially talking ourselves into annual lockdowns'.

Mr Raab said 12 people have now died with the Omicron variant but could not say how many of those were vaccinated.

Brighton and Hove City Council warn the sheer volume of waste and recycling over Christmas and New Year could see bin collections being late or falling behind. Pictured: Library image from the bin strike in Brighton earlier this year

Today, in an unprecedented move, ITV announced it has cancelled flagship show Good Morning Britain between Christmas and New Year

It comes as London's Natural History Museum (pictured) and Edinburgh Castle have had to shut due to a surge in Covid cases among staff

BA passengers are today facing pre-Christmas travel 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport with cancelled flights, queues at the border and a sea of stranded luggage strewn across baggage reclaim.

@British_Airways flown from Newcastle to Heathrow today. BA have lost our luggage. We are flying to NYC tomorrow. What do we do @British_Airways This is the state of baggage claims at Heathrow airport. All luggage left unattended and told by staff to take what is ours. Disgrace pic.twitter.com/jUYZUBqGhP  Amy Scott (@ayscott11) December 19, 2021

The number of confirmed cases of Omicron in England increased by 69 per cent on the previous day's total - up 9,427 to 23,168, figures from the UKHSA showed today

It comes as ITV today announced it is axing GMB's Christmas live shows due to concerns over Covid. The show, which has been broadcast weekday mornings on ITV since 2014, was scheduled to be broadcast between Christmas and New Year.

ITV axes Good Morning Britain between Christmas and New Year due to Covid concerns ITV has today announced it is axing Good Morning Britain's Christmas live shows due to concerns over Covid. The show, which has been broadcast weekday mornings on ITV since 2014, was scheduled to be broadcast between Christmas and New Year. But today bosses announced they had decided to pull the mid-Christmas shows. It comes just days after one of its presenters, Sean Fletcher, tested positive for Covid, A spokesperson for ITV told MailOnline: 'GMB was due to be on air from Wednesday 29 December to Friday 31 December but due to the pandemic and to protect our teams, we have decided to give them an extended break. 'GMB will not broadcast next week, but will be back on air on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.' According to the Sun, staff at the show have agreed to 'gingerly soldier on until the end of this week' with the planned broadcasts. However presenters of the show, which features regular host such as Susanna Reid, Charlotte Hawkins and Kate Garroway and temporary anchors such as Adil Ray and Richard Madeley, have reportedly been asked to do their own make-up. There will also be tight controls on who can and cannot enter the GMB set, based at Television Studios in White City, London. A TV source told the Sun: 'This is all but unheard of, to lose a whole week of a flagship show like this. 'It just shows how alarmed everyone is within the network and on the show itself. 'We even aired throughout the height of the pandemic, but lately it is becoming near impossible with staffing shortages and fears about the Christmas period being derailed for everyone. The final pre-Christmas shows will go ahead, while the Christmas Day episode, which has been pre-recorded, will also be broadcast. The announcement comes after presenter Sean Fletcher has revealed he had tested positive for Covid earlier this week. The TV star shared the news with his Instagram followers on Sunday afternoon with a photograph of his positive Covid test. Advertisement

But today bosses announced they had decided to pull the mid-Christmas shows. It comes just days after one of its presenters, Sean Fletcher, tested positive for Covid,

A spokesperson for ITV told MailOnline: 'GMB was due to be on air from Wednesday 29 December to Friday 31 December but due to the pandemic and to protect our teams, we have decided to give them an extended break.

'GMB will not broadcast next week, but will be back on air on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.'

According to The Sun, staff at the show have agreed to 'gingerly soldier on until the end of this week' with the planned broadcasts.

However presenters of the show, which features regular host such as Susanna Reid, Charlotte Hawkins and Kate Garroway and temporary anchors such as Adil Ray and Richard Madeley, have reportedly been asked to do their own make-up.

There will also be tight controls on who can and cannot enter the GMB set, based at Television Studios in White City, London.

A TV source told the Sun: 'This is all but unheard of, to lose a whole week of a flagship show like this.

'It just shows how alarmed everyone is within the network and on the show itself.

'We even aired throughout the height of the pandemic, but lately it is becoming near impossible with staffing shortages and fears about the Christmas period being derailed for everyone.

The final pre-Christmas shows will go ahead, while the Christmas Day episode, which has been pre-recorded, will also be broadcast.

Meanwhile, at least five national attractions have had to close because of the surge in Covid cases. The Natural History Museum, in South Kensington, will be closed from Tuesday 'due to an unforeseen staff shortage'.

The Natural History Museum, the second most visited museum in the UK, said it would remain closed for at least a week.

The National Army Museum in Chelsea, the Wellcome Collection in Euston and the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury have also all announced they will close.

The British Museum will remain open, but has warned that some galleries may have to close at short notice.

In the West End, Disney's The Lion King, which is performed at the Lyceum, will be stopped from Tuesday until Boxing Day. A statement released on Twitter said the move was due to 'Covid-enforced absences within our cast and crew'.

Wicked, being shown at the Apollo Victoria, has been cancelled on Tuesday, while preview performances of Moulin Rouge!, at the Piccadilly Theatre, have been cancelled from Monday through to Thursday.

Performances of Cabaret At The Kit Kat Club, featuring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley and being staged at the Playhouse Theatre in the West End, were cancelled last week with more cancellations announced on Monday.

Meanwhile, waste and recycling collections could be affected over the festive season, authorities have warned, with councils already reporting a rise in sickness.

One authority, Brighton and Hove City Council, warn the sheer volume of waste and recycling over Christmas and New Year could see bin collections being late or falling behind.

The council says managers are working hard to recruit agency staff as back up, and are offering unaffected staff overtime in a bid to keep the service running to full capacity.

In Hampshire, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council said there will be no changes to bin collections this year. However the authority warned staffing issues could still affect bin rounds

Councillor Steve Davis, co-chair of the council's Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee, told the Brighton Argus: 'All of our Cityclean staff have worked extremely hard throughout the pandemic in all conditions and in all weathers.

'Like the rest of the country, we thought we'd seen the end of the worst of Covid, but unfortunately it's still continuing to spread and take hold.

'As a council, we want to be honest and say there will most likely be missed and delayed collections, but we ask all our residents to please bear with us as we'll be doing the very best we can under the circumstances.'

In Hampshire, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council said there will be no changes to bin collections this year.

However the authority warned staffing issues could still affect bin rounds. In a post on Twitter, the council said: 'Unless adverse weather or staffing issues affect bin rounds there will be no changes to bin collection days this year so put your bin and any extra rubbish or recycling sacks out on your usual day.'

Meanwhile, Royal Mail today warned customers that it may have to shut down six-day deliveries in some areas ahead of the busy Christmas period, due to a Covid.

In the West End, Disney's The Lion King, which is performed at the Lyceum, will be stopped from Tuesday until Boxing Day. A statement released on Twitter said the move was due to 'Covid-enforced absences within our cast and crew'

Wicked (pictured: Library image) , being shown at the Apollo Victoria, has been cancelled on Tuesday, while performances of Moulin Rouge!, at the Piccadilly Theatre, have been cancelled from Monday through to Thursday

Wicked, being shown at the Apollo Victoria, has been cancelled on Tuesday, while preview performances of Moulin Rouge!, at the Piccadilly Theatre, have been cancelled from Monday through to Thursday.

In the West End, Disney's The Lion King, which is performed at the Lyceum, will be stopped from Tuesday until Boxing Day. A statement released on Twitter said the move was due to 'Covid-enforced absences within our cast and crew'

The post firm had last week warned of disruption to deliveries in areas such as Bristol, Exeter and Chelmsford due to a shortage of staff and an increase in work load.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told MailOnline today: 'Deliveries are operating as normal across most of the country. We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.

'In a small number of local offices this may temporarily not be possible due to local issues such as COVID-related self-isolation, higher than usual levels of sick absence, resourcing or other local factors.

'We are providing targeted support to the local offices affected by these issues and we apologise to customers for any inconvenience they may have experienced.

'Our staff are continuing to work incredibly hard, as they have done throughout the pandemic. We are thankful for all of their efforts and determination at the busiest time of year for the business.'

It comes as delays struck again yesterday at Heathrow, with BA chiefs blaming fog on Sunday morning for setting back their flight schedule.

Airline bosses said flights had to be delayed or cancelled due to bad visibility, causing huge delays throughout the day and into last night.

And they say this was made worse due to a wave of Covid related sickness and staff being forced to self-isolate.

MailOnline understand the delays became so bad at one point that passengers were told to go home and leave their baggage at the airport to be collected by BA staff and sent to their address.

This resulted in a sea of unclaimed baggage building up beside the conveyor belts before it was pulled together and moved to a safe location.

Astonishing pictures and video show unattended suitcases scattered around conveyor belts at Heathrow's Terminal 5 last night, with one passenger describing it as 'complete chaos'

At least half a dozen BA flights from the west-London airport have been cancelled today, while pictures show long lines of people queuing for Border Control at Heathrow. BA chiefs have blamed a combination of fog and staffing shortages due to Covid for the delays.

Heathrow passengers also took to Twitter to share photographs of people queuing in the corridors waiting to get through to Passport Control

Queue chaos at Manchester Airport: Hundreds of passengers are forced to wait for 'three hours' Passengers flying from Manchester Airport to Spain were forced to wait in crammed lines for more than three hours with 'no social distancing or air conditioning'. Ian Gold was due to fly with his wife, and their two daughters but their flight was delayed due to the 'infuriating' situation at the airport. He said seven of ten security gates were closed and only one boarding pass was open, resulting in the queues 'growing and growing' up to more than 1,000 people. Mr Gold blamed the issues on 'staff shortages' and said people in the queue were talking about cuts that had been made at the airport. Manchester Airport has lost almost 500 members of its workforce to redundancy over the past 12 months due to plummeting passenger numbers as a result of the pandemic and the associated travel restrictions. A spokesman for the airport told MailOnline said the longer security queues were due to a 'greater number of passengers than expected, and a higher-than-usual rate of staff absence'. Passengers travelling to Spain from the UK are currently required to fill in and sign an online health control form and must show a QR code, generated from the form, on arrival at a Spanish airport. Tourists to Spain must show proof they have received at least two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, while EU citizens or those accompanying EU citizens may present alternative documentation to a vaccine certificate. Advertisement

One passenger to pass through the airport yesterday, Nicola Woods, who was travelling from Heathrow to Edinburgh, told MailOnline: 'I flew yesterday with BA and it was chaos. Several flights were cancelled.

'My flight was meant to leave at 6.30pm but was pushed back and pushed back so didn't leave until 8.30pm.

'Once we landed we were told that none of our cases had been put on the plane.

'The passenger next to me had his flight to Inverness cancelled so had taken the Edinburgh flight and was planning to take a train to finally pick up his car and drive home.

'Still no word from BA as to when we can expected our cases.'

Some passengers however told MailOnline that their baggage had been lost. One passenger travelling into Heathrow last night took to Twitter to share his experience.

Jack Lawrence, a biomedical science masters student, wrote on Twitter: 'Big queues to get out of the airport for those whose flights have been cancelled too.

'Apparently luggage from all the cancelled flights is also all being chucked on the same luggage carousel. There's so much chaos with bags - both from cancelled and actual flights that British airways is now suggesting people go home and submit a missing baggage claim.'

Others also described the situation as 'complete chaos'. Natalia Kaliada said on Twitter: 'Complete chaos at Heathrow. Massive delays of getting the luggage.

'No system in place. People are strongly advised to leave without their luggage. Christmas Vibe!'

Another passenger wrote: 'BA - Just started our honeymoon and our bags are stuck at Heathrow, your customer service phone line is not open and the missing bag reporting system will only let us log a report for one of our bags.'

Meanwhile, BA flights to Malaga, Barcelona, Glasgow and Amsterdam from Heathrow have been cancelled today.

One flight to Germany, which yesterday introduced a travel ban for UK tourists, has also been cancelled.

A spokesperson for BA told MailOnline: 'We've apologised to customers whose flights were cancelled due to operational constraints.

It comes as astonishing pictures and video show dozens of unattended suitcases scattered around conveyor belts at Heathrow's Terminal 5 last night, with one passenger describing it as 'complete chaos'.

Some passengers were even told to go home and leave their luggage at the airport - and have it sent to their address - instead of facing long waits to get their bags.

Meanwhile, at least half a dozen BA flights from the west-London airport have been cancelled today. Pictures show long lines of people queuing for Passport Control at Heathrow, which is operated by the UK's Border Force.

New push to cut ten-day Covid isolation period to a week after experts warn that current rules could cripple the economy Ministers are considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days. As reported in Saturday's Daily Mail, health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy. Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive. But the 'blunt tool' fails to account for infectiousness and is fuelling 'lockdown by stealth' by keeping so many people at home. Now it has emerged that modelling by government scientific advisers indicates it would be possible to reduce the isolation period without having a significant impact on infection rates if people had a negative test before they were released. Sources say the change in policy is 'being looked at' to stop the country grinding to a halt. It even has the backing of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, whose doom-laden forecasts prompted previous lockdown measures. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday how he would feel about reducing quarantine to seven days, Professor Ferguson said: 'All the modelling and analysis would suggest if it's coupled with lateral- flow testing it's not going to reduce the effectiveness of the measure that much.' Advertisement

BA chiefs have blamed a combination of fog and staffing shortages due to Covid for the delays and bag issues, but said its staff are working 'extremely hard' to fix the issues.

Heathrow meanwhile say baggage in Terminal 5, which is exclusively used by BA and its sister airline Iberia, is the responsibility of BA.

The 'chaos' comes at one of the busiest times for air travel, with tens thousands of people making their way to the UK to be with their families for Christmas.

It also comes as passengers into Manchester Airport yesterday faced delays of up to three hours in crammed lines for more than three hours with 'no social distancing or air conditioning'.

'Our teams are working extremely hard to get our customers rebooked and on their way as quickly as possible.'

There also reportedly delays at Border Control, with pictures last night showing long queues on the approach to passport control.

One passenger wrote: 'Heathrow Airport needs to pull up its pants. It's chaos.'

Border Control is the responsibility of Border Force, which falls under the Home Office, who have been contacted for comment. Heathrow meanwhile said the issues at Terminal 5 were down to individual airlines.

It comes as passengers flying from Manchester Airport to Spain were forced to wait in crammed lines for more than three hours with 'no social distancing or air conditioning'.

Ian Gold was due to fly with his wife, and their two daughters but their flight was delayed due to the 'infuriating' situation at the airport.

He said seven of ten security gates were closed and only one boarding pass was open, resulting in the queues 'growing and growing' up to more than 1,000 people.

Mr Gold blamed the issues on 'staff shortages' and said people in the queue were talking about cuts that had been made at the airport.

Manchester Airport has lost almost 500 members of its workforce to redundancy over the past 12 months due to plummeting passenger numbers as a result of the pandemic and the associated travel restrictions.

A spokesman for the airport told MailOnline said the longer security queues were due to a 'greater number of passengers than expected, and a higher-than-usual rate of staff absence'.

Passengers travelling to Spain from the UK are currently required to fill in and sign an online health control form and must show a QR code, generated from the form, on arrival at a Spanish airport.

Tourists to Spain must show proof they have received at least two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, while EU citizens or those accompanying EU citizens may present alternative documentation to a vaccine certificate.

Mr Gold, his wife, and two daughters started queuing at Manchester Airport at 12pm today and got to the front three hours and 45 minutes later.

Calling it a 'real disgrace', Mr Gold said: 'There's old people with sticks and no where to sit, there's no ventilation, there's no social distancing.

He said his flight was due to take off at 4.10pm but had to be delayed until 5.45pm as a result of the queues.

He added: 'There was a gentleman flying to Saudi Arabia in absolute panic because the flight was either gone or about to go.

A lady with two young babies was trying to get through. It was just a disaster zone.

'This is important. We are talking about social distancing. It should be run properly. I've never seen anything like it.'

Ian Gold said he and his family were forced to queue for more than three hours at Manchester Airport on Sunday afternoon

Mr Gold said there was no possibility to social distance in the queue and there was a lack of air conditioning. A spokesman for Manchester Airport said the longer security queues were 'due to there being a greater number of passengers than expected, and a higher-than-usual rate of staff absence'

'Seven security gates are closed out of 10. That is infuriating, it really is. Everyone is next to each other. There's no air conditioning. It is scorching. I am furious about it. There are people in their 70s and 80s, they are literally trying to run to their planes. The line just kept growing and growing.'

Mr Gold said only one boarding pass gate was operating, while all the others were closed.

Were you caught in the BA chaos at Heathrow? Contact me with your experience and pictures at: james.robinson@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

A spokesperson for Manchester Airport told MailOnline: 'We have, at times this weekend, experienced longer security queues than we would like. This is due to there being a greater number of passengers than expected, and a higher-than-usual rate of staff absence.

'Our customer service staff continue to do all they can to assist passengers.

'Wherever possible, travellers are being prioritised within the queue, but we are aware some people have unfortunately missed flights and, along with their airlines, we have been working to support their onward travels as best we can.

'Due to additional pre-departures checks, as countries update guidance for travel, it is very important that passengers arrive at least three hours before their scheduled flight time if they have to check in and drop bags. They can arrive two hours before if travelling just with hand luggage. Passengers should also familiarise themselves with security rules, especially if they haven't travelled for some time.

'We apologise to all affected for any inconvenience caused and are working to rectify the situation as soon as we can.'

It comes as it was revealed yesterday that ministers are considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days.

As reported in Saturday's Daily Mail, health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy.

Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive.

But the 'blunt tool' fails to account for infectiousness and is fuelling 'lockdown by stealth' by keeping so many people at home.

Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive

It even has the backing of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, pictured, whose doom-laden forecasts prompted previous lockdown measures

Now it has emerged that modelling by government scientific advisers indicates it would be possible to reduce the isolation period without having a significant impact on infection rates if people had a negative test before they were released.

Sources say the change in policy is 'being looked at' to stop the country grinding to a halt.

It even has the backing of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, whose doom-laden forecasts prompted previous lockdown measures.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday how he would feel about reducing quarantine to seven days, Professor Ferguson said: 'All the modelling and analysis would suggest if it's coupled with lateral- flow testing it's not going to reduce the effectiveness of the measure that much.'

Tory MP Peter Bone backed a change, saying: 'We need a more sophisticated policy that can help get people back to work as soon as possible.'

Officials estimate a million people a day could soon be infected with the Omicron variant, which would leave 'swathes' of the population interned. Experts say this could trash the economy by leaving shops, bars and restaurants with too few workers and customers while emergency services would also be understaffed.

The number of NHS staff in London absent due to Covid has more than doubled in four days and one in three of the workforce would be absent by New Year's Eve if the growth rate continues.

Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursing's England director, said such a situation would be 'catastrophic'.
Pope Francis has declared domestic violence 'almost satanic' in some of the strongest language he has used to condemn such actions.





'The problem is that, for me, it is almost satanic because it is taking advantage of a person who cannot defend herself, who can only [try to] block the blows,' he said. 'It is humiliating. Very humiliating.'





He made the comment during a programme broadcast on Sunday night on Italy's TG5 network in which he conversed with three women and a man, all with difficult backgrounds.

Pope Francis (pictured in Vatican City on December 19) has declared domestic violence 'almost satanic' in some of the strongest language he has used to condemn such actions

'The number of women who are beaten and abused in their homes, even by their husbands, is very, very high,' he said in answer to a question by a woman named Giovanna, a victim of domestic violence.

Giovanna said she had four children to care for after they escaped from a violent home.

Pope Francis said Europe had failed to heed the lessons from history during his address on Sunday to people at a migration camp.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago, the pope has several times spoken out against domestic violence, which has increased in many countries since lockdowns left many women trapped with their abusers.

Police figures released last month showed there are about 90 episodes of violence against women in Italy every day and that 62 per cent were cases of domestic violence.

The pope said women who were beaten and abused had not lost their dignity. 'I see dignity in you because if you didn't have dignity, you wouldn't be here,' he told Giovanna.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago, the pope (pictured meeting children helped by the Santa Marta Dispensary during a special audience on Sunday) has several times spoken out against domestic violence

Turning to other examples of human misery, he listened to a homeless woman speak of life on the street and a man trying to get back on his feet after 25 years in jail.

Francis has set up services in the area around the Vatican to give Rome's homeless healthcare, bathing, and hair-cutting facilities.

In 2020, when a palazzo just off St Peter's Square that was once a convent became vacant, he ordered it to be turned into a homeless shelter, overruling suggestions that it be converted into a luxury hotel.
A woman has allegedly bitten a Queensland police officer while attempting to 'strangle a dog' after refusing to wear a mask at a supermarket northwest of Brisbane.

The 48-year-old was arrested on a string of charges after she entered a Nanango IGA without a mask and allegedly became 'uncooperative towards staff'.

'When challenged by police for not wearing a mask in an IGA at Nanango...(she) took it upon herself to seriously assault police, attempt to bite them and attempt to strangle a dog,' Queensland Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters.

The officer was allegedly bitten when they tried to separate the 48-year-old, who began rolling around on the ground with her dog after police approached.

'As police approached the woman, she allegedly dropped to ground, pulling hard on the leash of her small dog and (began) rolling on to it,' a police spokesperson said.

'While attempting to arrest and separate the woman from her dog, she allegedly bit an officer.'

The woman was charged with three counts obstruct police, one count each of failing to comply with public health direction, breach of duty of care by inappropriate handling, commit public nuisance and serious assault of police officer by biting.

Mr Gollschewski said the incident was regrettable but believed overall Queenslanders had responded well to mask and vaccine mandates.

Police responded to 48 service calls for unvaccinated people seeking to enter businesses in the 24 hour reporting period, but no issues arose from these incidents.

As more interstate hotspot travellers enter Queensland, 195,856 border passes have been issued since the state re-opened, with 36,314 vehicles arriving by road at checkpoints on Sunday.

The deputy commissioner said 199 cars were turned around and eight people placed into hotel quarantine.

A total of 8,521 people arrived by air into Queensland with 40 turned around and 15 sent to hotel quarantine.

No fines have been issued to travellers failing to get their required five-day COVID-19 test after arriving in Queensland, but Mr Gollschewski said that's part of the newly implemented border system.

'What we take throughout the pandemic, particularly when we're changing systems as we are now, is give people a chance to comply with the system to understand what's required and work with them,' he said.

Queensland recorded 59 new cases on Monday, with close contacts of recent positive cases forcing more than 100 officers into isolation.

However Mr Gollschewski said police have the resources to deal with the shortfall.
Queensland Police has launched a search for a woman who slipped and fell into the water at the Babinda Boulders scenic reserve in the Cairns region.

Police say she was reported missing at 2.45pm on Monday by friends who said she had failed to surface.

An immediate search of the area began but the woman was not found.

The woman went missing at a scenic reserve near Cairns (pictured) while on a trip with friends

Police divers from Brisbane are en route to assist with the search that involves police, SES and Swift Water Rescue, and will continue throughout the night.

Multiple drownings have occurred at the popular scenic spot over past decades.
Agriculture minister David Littleproud has warned Australians against panic buying a key diesel exhaust fuel ingredient vital to keeping the country's freight and logistics sectors on track.

Mr Littleproud said the unnecessary stockpiling of the diesel exhaust fluid AdBlue would lead to worse outcomes.

'We're saying to people please don't rush out and make unnecessary purchases. If we just stick to our normal behaviours it will be OK,' he told Sky News.

It comes as Australia is set to scale up the manufacturing of urea, a key ingredient of AdBlue, after a global shortage left the country with around seven weeks' supply when China restricted exports.

Simon Henry, of AUSblue's parent company DGL, said AdBlue shortages had become 'the Achilles heel' of Australia's economy. An AUSblue road train is pictured

The federal government and fertiliser manufacturer Incitec Pivot struck an agreement to significantly increase the local production of urea.

The company will design, trial and, once tests are successful, scale up manufacturing of significant quantities of technical grade urea to supply the domestic market.

Indonesia is giving Australia 5000 tonnes of refined urea in January. Trade Minister Dan Tehan said this was enough for about a month's worth of AdBlue.

'By working closely with our partners, we have been able to secure this critical supply for Australia,' he said.

'We will continue to strengthen our close relationships around the world to support and further Australia's interests.'

He flagged approaches to shore up supply with countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Japan.

Korea in November sent Australia 27,000 litres of urea.

One of Australia's biggest service station chains is now restricting purchases of diesel additive AdBlue (pictured is a BP service station in Sydney)
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Britain's daily Covid cases remaind flat today and have barely moved in four days despite Government scientists insisting the Omicron outbreak is doubling every 48 hours.

Department of Health figures showed 91,743 positive tests in the last 24 hours, up two-thirds on last Monday but only 10 per cent more than yesterday. It also marked the third time in four days they have reached 90,000.

There were fears that Britain was about to be hit by astronomical case numbers after infections nearly doubled from 48,000 last Sunday to 93,000 on Friday.

But they have barely moved since, despite, Government modelling predicting there could be a million new Omicron infections per day by the end of the year and that Omicron is growing exponentially.

A record 1.5million Britons are being tested for the virus every day currently, which suggests the issue is not a lack of testing capacity.

The flatlining statistgics come as a similar trend emerges in Britain's Omicron epicentre London, where just 22,750 cases were recorded today.

While that marks a 100 per cent increase in a week, today's cases are up only marginally on yesterday's 21,594 and down on the peak of 26,000 at the weekend. A record 250,000 tests a day are also being done in the capital.

In other promising news, hospitalisations stayed flat nationally with 919 recorded on December 14, the latest available, which was barely a change on 926 from seven days earlier. Another 14 deaths from the virus were also announced by health chiefs today, up 15 per cent in a week.

Britain's Omicron death toll has risen to 12, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab revealed today, while hospital admissions for the variant have climbed to 104. Experts have warned the hospital number is likely an underestimate due to the time it takes to analyse positive tests for variants.

Meanwhile, South Africa's Covid outbreak shrank for the third day in a row, but a drop in testing is thought to be behind today's slump, with around 30 per cent of those swabbed still testing positive. Covid hospitalisations have dropped by a fifth, but daily deaths have reached their highest level since Omicron hit the country.

Modelling from No10's scientific advisers over the weekend suggested the UK could see 10,000 daily admissions and 6,000 daily deaths at the peak of the Omicron wave this winter, but experts today dismissed the figures as 'factitious'.

It came as Boris Johnson today delayed deciding whether to impose new Covid curbs, but warned he could 'rule nothing out' amid fears further restrictions will be imposed in the coming days.

Mr Johnson hosted an emergency meeting of his Cabinet this afternoon on whether further measures were needed. But no final decision was made at the meeting, which means it now seems unlikely that more restrictions will be imposed before Christmas.

But the Prime Minister said afterwards that the 'situation is extremely difficult' and the 'arguments either way are very, very finely balanced'. He said ministers had agreed to keep data under 'hour by hour' review and stressed that all options were still on the table.

This graph shows London's daily Covid cases by date reported. It reveals that they now appear to be stayng level despite predictions that Omicron infections are still doubling every two to three days

The number of confirmed cases of Omicron in England increased by 69 per cent on the previous day's total - up 9,427 to 23,168, figures from the UKHSA showed today

In other Covid news:

Health Secretary Sajid Javid bragged about hitting one million jabs a day on Saturday... but the total includes first and second doses dished out;

Experts today slammed 'fictitious' Omicron doomsday scenarios from SAGE that suggested Britain could face 10,000 hospitalisations a day;

Ten-day isolation for people that catch Covid could be slashed to one week within days;

Moderna booster shots can beat Omicron and trigger a 40-fold surge in antibody numbers, company said;

Four in 10 Covid cases are asymptomatic and pregnant women are most likely to be 'silent carriers', according to a major study;

Warnings mount that 10,000 hospitality firms could shut without urgent financial help as work-from-home turns cities into ghost towns.

South Africa's daily Covid cases fall for the THIRD day in a row and hospital admissions drop 20% in a week as Omicron wave fades in the epicentre Daily Covid cases in South Africa have fallen week-on-week for the third day in a row and hospital admissions are tumbling just a month into its Omicron outbreak. Data from the National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) shows just 8,515 people tested positive in the past 23 hours, down from 13,992 last Monday. The 40 per cent drop is the biggest since the Omicron outbreak hit the country. In another sign the wave is fading, hospitalisations fell by a fifth today with just 323 people admitted. It's the second day they've fallen after they dropped 53 per cent yesterday. But there was a big dip in testing today, with 28,000 carried out compared to 45,000 last week, which may be influencing the case numbers. But the test positive rate has also slightly dropped on last week, suggesting that the outbreak could be waning. Fatalities - which are the biggest lagging indicator - rose to 105 today in a 855 per cent hike last Monday. It marked the highest daily figure in South Africas latest wave, but is a fraction of the 844 daily deaths the country recorded at the peak last winter. South African doctors have insisted for weeks that Omicron is milder since raising the alarm about it on November 24. But there has been ongoing debate over whether it is intrinsically milder or if South Africa is benefitting from very high levels of natural immunity after being battered by Delta just months ago. South Africa has accused the UK of panicking about Omicron, where Government scientists are warning of up to 6,000 daily deaths and 10,000 hospital admissions at the peak this winter. Advertisement

It came as SAGE modelling was slammed as 'fictitious' after projecting 6,000 daily Covid deaths and 10,000 hospitalisations this winter in a worst-case scenario.

In advice to ministers published this weekend, the Government's scientific advisers said there could be astronomical casualty numbers without more 'stringent measures'.

The 6,000 deaths a day figure was calculated by Warwick University scientists and made similarly pessimistic assumptions about vaccine effectiveness, as well as that current curbs reduce transmission by just 20 per cent.

If both of these predictions were to come true, it would mean that 60 per cent of people who get admitted for Covid at the peak of the Omicron wave will die.

By comparison, at the peak last January there were on average 4,000 admissions a day and 1,300 deaths giving a hospital-fatality rate of 32.5 per cent. Warwick said it factored in 'extreme pressure' put on the NHS by Omicron.

However, SAGE noted that the most likely scenario would be 2,000 hospitalisations per day this winter, half of the previous peak, but the group said there were still key unknowns about Omicron.

The worst-case scenarios were presented despite 48.8 per cent of over-12s being boosted, 81 per cent being double-jabbed, and reports from South Africa that the mutant strain is milder.

Crucially, the modellers did not look at any scenario in which Omicron causes milder disease than Delta or if people start to change their behaviour in the coming weeks in response to the variant.

SAGE's chief modeller Professor Graham Medley from LSHTM revealed this weekend that the committee does not consider optimistic scenarios because 'that doesn't get decisions made'.

An ex-Government scientist who wished to remain anonymous today told MailOnline that the numbers are 'fictitious', adding: 'Models have to simplify the world to predict the future, but clearly that's an absurd future.'

They said the doomsday scenarios were comparable to 'science fiction', adding: 'But we don't tend to question it because we worship numbers'. Professor Keith Willison, a chemical biologist at Imperial College London, slammed the models as 'widely pessimistic' and 'fraudulent'.

Professor Anotida Madzvamuse, a maths expert at Sussex University, warned SAGE's estimates were at best 'highly unlikely', with current data not supporting 'such a grim forecast'.

He told MailOnline: 'From my point of view, these figures are highly unlikely, the numbers to-date seem to suggest very low deaths due to Covid and even the number of hospitalisations are nowhere near what we experienced last winter.

'The data on the ground does not support such a grim forecast. All these assumptions are pretty much hypothetical, they are not inferred from the data as we normally do with our modelling.'

Professor Keith Willison, a chemical biologist at Imperial College London, slammed the models as 'widely pessimistic' and 'fraudulent'.

He told MailOnline: 'Well, the chairman of the SAGE modelling (Graham Medley) committee admitted at the weekend: "We model scenarios that are useful to decisions".

'These worst case 'scenarios' are produced so the behavioural group in SAGE can frighten the UK population into submission and further lockdown.

'The Covid death scenarios are wildly pessimistic, I would say fraudulent. The Omicron variant symptoms are also mild. I think we are arriving at a good place where Covid is an endemic but controllable disease.'

The Prime Minister convened a virtual meeting of his top team at 2pm as he faced a growing Cabinet revolt over a potential further crackdown.

The PM had been presented with three options to tackle the variant amid surging case numbers, with the lowest level of intervention consisting of advice to limit household mixing indoors, according to The Telegraph.

The second level would see mandatory restrictions on household mixing, the return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew for pubs and restaurants while the third and toughest level would see a return to something close to a full lockdown.

SAGE's modelling team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found there could be 10,400 hospitalisations in England per day at the peak of the outbreak in February in a worst-case scenario. They assumed that Omicron will continue to grow exponentially even under Plan B curbs, two jabs offer just 50 per cent protection against severe disease from the mutant strain and boosters just 80 per cent

The 6,000 deaths a day figure was calculated by Warwick University scientists and made similarly pessimistic assumptions about vaccine effectiveness, as well as that current curbs reduce transmission by just 20 per cent . If both of these predictions were to come true, it would mean that 60 per cent of people who get admitted for Covid in the coming months will die. The different coloured lines show changes in the peak depending on when more stringent measures are introduced. These are December 19 (blue), December 26 (orange), January 3 (yellow) and January 10 (purple)

SAGE's modelling team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine presented projections on infections (purple), hospitalisations (red) and deaths (black) under different scenarios between now and August 2022. The top graph shows hospital admissions from the beginning from the pandemic. They estimated there could be 10,400 hospitalisations in England per day at the peak of the outbreak in February in a worst-case scenario (far right red graph), if Omicron escapes immunity from vaccines and previous infection and the boosters have a low efficacy. They assumed that Omicron will continue to grow exponentially even under Plan B curbs, two jabs offer just 50 per cent protection against severe disease from the mutant strain and boosters just 80 per cent

Warwick University scientists calculated there would be 6,000 deaths a day if Plan B alone remains implemented and there is 'extreme pressure' on the NHS. The graph shows death estimates if Plan B has low effectiveness (top row of graphs) to high effectiveness (bottom row), while the columns show death projections based on Omicron's severity (low to high, left to right)

Mr Johnson is now considering his next move, knowing that any decision to tighten Covid rules will spark a furious Tory backlash.

Downing Street at lunchtime refused to be drawn on the proposals which are reportedly under consideration, with the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman telling reporters: 'At this point we are still monitoring the data and keeping a very close eye on it we would update if any decisions are taken.

Why it's easier to believe in Father Christmas than SAGE's 6,000 Covid deaths a day Modelling by SAGE was today slammed as 'fictitious' after projecting 6,000 daily Covid deaths and 10,000 hospitalisations this winter in a worst-case scenario. In advice to ministers published this weekend, the Government's scientific advisers said there could be astronomical casualty numbers without more 'stringent measures'. The 6,000 deaths a day figure was calculated by Warwick University scientists and made similarly pessimistic assumptions about vaccine effectiveness, as well as that current curbs reduce transmission by just 20 per cent. If both of these predictions were to come true, it would mean that 60 per cent of people who get admitted for Covid at the peak of the Omicron wave will die. By comparison, at the peak last January there were on average 4,000 admissions a day and 1,300 deaths giving a hospital-fatality rate of 32.5 per cent. Warwick said it factored in 'extreme pressure' put on the NHS by Omicron. However, SAGE noted that the most likely scenario would be 2,000 hospitalisations per day this winter, half of the previous peak, but the group said there were still key unknowns about Omicron. The worst-case scenarios were presented despite 48.8 per cent of over-12s being boosted, 81 per cent being double-jabbed, and reports from South Africa that the mutant strain is milder. Crucially, the modellers did not look at any scenario in which Omicron causes milder disease than Delta or if people start to change their behaviour in the coming weeks in response to the variant. SAGE's chief modeller Professor Graham Medley from LSHTM revealed this weekend that the committee does not consider optimistic scenarios because 'that doesn't get decisions made'. An ex-Government scientist who wished to remain anonymous today told MailOnline that the numbers are 'fictitious', adding: 'Models have to simplify the world to predict the future, but clearly that's an absurd future.' They said the doomsday scenarios were comparable to 'science fiction', adding: 'But we don't tend to question it because we worship numbers'. Professor Keith Willison, a chemical biologist at Imperial College London, slammed the models as 'widely pessimistic' and 'fraudulent'. Advertisement

MailOnline understands that there are currently no plans for the PM to hold a Downing Street press conference this afternoon.

Meanwhile, The Times reported that Mr Johnson and the Cabinet delayed a decision because they were not yet convinced the latest Omicron data justified announcing new restrictions.

However, the newspaper said the Government could opt to impose a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown in England after Christmas, potentially starting on December 28.

It was reported on Saturday that Whitehall officials had drawn up regulations which would effectively re-impose 'Step 2' of the PM's lockdown exit roadmap for two weeks.

That would mean a ban on indoor socialising and a return of the rule of six for outdoor gatherings. Bars, pubs and restaurants would be banned from serving people indoors.

The lack of clarity sparked an angry response from Tory former chief whip, Mark Harper, who tweeted: 'Not telling the public whats going on is unacceptable. These are big decisions affecting everyones lives, peoples livelihoods and mental wellbeing across the country.

'We all deserve to see the data Ministers see. Show us your workings. We can do so much better than this.'

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University and a GP, said this morning that 'we are in deep, deep trouble of potentially talking ourselves into annual lockdowns' as he argued the question should be 'when are we going to treat people like adults?'.

But Stephen Reicher, professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews and a member of government advisory body the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), said 'we need to reduce our contacts'.

Asked about Christmas, he said: 'The safest thing is not to meet up before Christmas. If you want a good Christmas dinner, I would say be very careful about meeting up before Christmas.'

At least 10 Cabinet ministers are said to be resisting further curbs because they have concerns about the accuracy of expert modelling on the spread of Omicron.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is one of the ministers to have expressed concerns about the projected numbers, according to The Times, after SAGE warned there could be 3,000 patients a day in need of hospital treatment without urgent action.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, told the Cabinet on a call on Saturday that curbs should be rolled out as soon as possible but one third of senior ministers are said to be against the move.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab this morning refused to rule out additional restrictions before Christmas Day as he said he could not make 'hard, fast guarantees'.

Mr Raab said the Government is aiming to take 'informed decisions and of course we want to take them earlier rather than later'.

The warnings came just 24 hours after Lord Frost, up to now a close ally of Mr Johnson, dramatically quit as Brexit Minister slating 'coercive' Covid curbs and high taxes.

Lord Frost walked out with a parting shot at the 'direction of travel' and saying he had hoped the end of lockdown would be 'irreversible'. His departure was described as a 'watershed moment' in what had been an extremely damaging week for Mr Johnson.

Today, in an unprecedented move, ITV announced it has cancelled flagship show Good Morning Britain between Christmas and New Year

BA passengers are today facing pre-Christmas travel 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport with cancelled flights, queues at the border and a sea of stranded luggage strewn across baggage reclaim.

It comes as London's Natural History Museum (pictured) and Edinburgh Castle have had to shut due to a surge in Covid cases among staff

Covid staff shortages are today bringing Britain to a grinding halt, sparking huge disruption for airline passengers, shutting key attractions and taking one of the nation's best-known TV shows off air.

Staffing shortages at BA - blamed on Covid and self-isolation rules - have today caused pre-Christmas travel 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport.

The shortages, combined with weather-enforced delays, have resulted in cancelled flights, queues at the border and a sea of stranded luggage strewn across baggage reclaim.

Sajid Javid brags about hitting 1m daily jab target on Saturday... but that includes boosters AND first/second doses Sajid Javid today bragged that the UK finally hit a million jabs administered in a single day  as the country repeatedly fails to hit Boris Johnson's booster goal. Mr Javid triumphantly announced on Twitter this afternoon that 'over a MILLION jabs were delivered across the UK on Saturday - what an achievement'. But a closer look at the figures shows that number includes first, second and third doses delivered that day to inflate the total number of jabs to 1,024,833. The million-jabs-a-day goal is the white whale of the UK's Covid booster programme after Mr Johnson pledged to turbocharge the booster rollout a week ago, a target the campaign has continually failed to reach. His tweet came just minutes after it emerged the country failed to hit Boris Johnson's million booster doses per day target for the seventh day in a row. A total of 846,466 third doses were administered across the country on Sunday, latest figures show, down on the 904,598 on Saturday. The Health Secretary's bragging came as Boris Johnson's official spokesperson today insisted No10 will still hit its goal of offering every adult in the UK a Covid booster jab by New Year, despite falling short every day since it was announced. Advertisement

It comes as London's Natural History Museum and Edinburgh Castle have both had to shut due to a surge in Covid cases among staff.

And today, in an unprecedented move, ITV revealed its flagship show Good Morning Britain has been cancelled between Christmas and New Year.

Bosses of the channel say there will be no episodes aired of the breakfast show between Wednesday, December 29 and Friday, December 31 'due to the pandemic'.

A string of West End shows, including the Lion King, Wicked and Moulin Rouge! have also been forced to cancel pre-Christmas performances due to Covid, with cast and crew members testing positive in recent days.

Royal Mail chiefs are warning of potential delays to postal services this Christmas, while councils fear disruption to bin services over the holiday period due to Covid-related staffing issues.

The UK's staffing shortages come as ministers are today considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days.

Health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy.

Today Boris Johnson is holding an emergency meeting of his Cabinet as he decides whether to impose new coronavirus curbs before Christmas.

The Prime Minister convened a virtual meeting of his top team at 2pm as he faced a growing Cabinet revolt over a potential further crackdown to slow the spread of Omicron.

Yesterday confirmed cases of the variant yesterday rose by nearly 50 per cent to 37,000 in just 24 hours. London is the worst-hit area, sparking the city's mayor Sadiq Khan to declare a 'major incident'.

It comes as ITV today announced it is axing GMB's Christmas live shows due to concerns over Covid. The show, which has been broadcast weekday mornings on ITV since 2016, was scheduled to be broadcast between Christmas and New Year.

But today bosses announced they had decided to pull the mid-Christmas shows. It comes just days after one of its presenters, Sean Fletcher, tested positive for Covid,

A spokesperson for ITV told MailOnline: 'GMB was due to be on air from Wednesday 29 December to Friday 31 December but due to the pandemic and to protect our teams, we have decided to give them an extended break.

'GMB will not broadcast next week, but will be back on air on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.'

According to The Sun, staff at the show have agreed to 'gingerly soldier on until the end of this week' with the planned broadcasts.

However presenters of the show, which features regular host such as Susanna Reid, Charlotte Hawkins and Kate Garroway and temporary anchors such as Adil Ray and Richard Madeley, have reportedly been asked to do their own make-up.
The man who allegedly ordered the hit on bikie boss Nick Martin was said to be so impressed with the work of the assassin that he promised hundreds of thousands of dollars for more murders, as the details of their incredible alleged plot are revealed.

Court documents from the trial of a former Shadows of Hope sharpshooter, who pleaded guilty to shooting the former Rebels leader, reveal the preliminary meetings between him and Rebels-turned-Commanchero David James Pye.

Pye allegedly initially contacted the 35-year-old man in early 2020 via encrypted messaging service Wire, asking about his experience and skills.

He allegedly offered $150,000 for Martin's murder, with the former soldier, who cannot be named, meticulously scoping out a plan over a series of weeks and months to assassinate him.

That plan was executed on December 12 last year, with the shooter firing a bullet through Martin's abdomen which proved fatal.

The man was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years behind bars on Monday.

Nick Martin was assassinated at Perth Motorplex on December 12, 2020 after a contract killing that was allegedly masterminded by former Rebels associate David Pye

An ex-SAS sharpshooter mercenary (pictured) has been jailed for 20 years for gunning down Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin from 300m away at a crowded drag racing event

David James Pye (pictured) has been charged over the sniper murder of Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin at Kwinana Motorplex in Western Australia last December

The Shadows of Hope sniper first met Pye through the encrypted app, before allegedly meeting in person at the Commanchero bikie's home between August and September in 2020, court documents state.

The pair allegedly shared messages over a period of time, discussing the 35-year-old's experience overseas and the skills he developed in relation to shooting.

Pye allegedly then told the man about Martin, that he was the head of the Rebels Motorcycle Group and a series of disagreements between the two had seen Martin take a hit out on Pye.

The Commanchero transfer allegedly then offered $10k to pay for expenses in relation to the planning of the murder of his rival.

The man allegedly accepted the money and spent several weeks researching Martin, including internet searches, social media analysis and surveillance of the Rebels leader that included flying a drone over his home to check his security.

He would attend the Perth Motorplex in Kwinana on several occasions to assess the layout of the venue, observe Martin's usual seating position and plot the vantage point where he would carry out the murder.

The 35-year-old allegedly returned to Pye's home and offered him options for killing Martin, recommending the racetrack as the ideal location. Pye allegedly then offered him the job.

Nick Martin (pictured) was shot in the back at the Perth Motorplex on December 12, 2020, in front of horrified families who were trying to watch the nitro cars high-octane drag racing

One of the possible shooter locations previously identified at the Perth Motorplex. A long shot would indicate a sniper, experts say

He was allegedly offered $150k to execute Martin at the Motorplex, with half the money to be paid upfront and the remainder after its completion.

The Shadows of Hope soldier accepted, court documents show, driving over to take the money the next day but finding it to only be $40k after counting the bills.

He zeroed in on a shooting location and on December 9 again attended the track, moving an aluminum safety ramp that interfered with his line of sight to Martin's usual seating place.

On December 12, the day he assassinated Martin, the 35-year-old changed the wheels on his car in an attempt to disguise the vehicle.

He arrived at the Motorplex at 4:25pm and walked through the arena, taking pictures of Martin's usual seating position. He would then leave and went to a quiet place to gather his thoughts, before changing the registration plates on his vehicle.

The assassin entered the pit area at about 6:30pm that evening and followed Martin into the spectator area. He would then leave the Motorplex, dress in a camouflage suit with gloves and re-entered through a hole in the fence he had cut on a previous visit.

He crawled into an area of heavy vegetation between 7:23pm and 8:33pm where he had a direct line of sight to Martin.

The man watched the Rebels boss through the scope of his Tikka rifle for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, observing his movements before he fired a single shot.

There were roughly 2,000 people at the venue at the time, with a five-year-old child sitting on Martin's daughter's lap just behind the Rebels leader.

The bullet struck Martin in the chest, causing him to say to his wife and associates who were sitting around him: 'I've been shot'.

Martin (pictured) died in the arms of his wife Amanda as she tried to give him CPR. His last words were: 'babe, I've been shot'

The chaos at the racetrack on December 12 in Perth after Martin was executed is pictured

$150,000 BIKIE HIT The $150,000 fee - originally thought to be $300,000 - allegedly agreed for the killing of Perth bikie boss Nick Martin is thought to be one of the biggest murder contracts ever purportedly offered in Australia. WA Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters that detectives attached to Operation Ravello also charged a second man in relation to the murder of Mr Martin at Perth Motorplex last December. 'The charges relate to the [alleged] payment of that murder,' he said. 'And also [an alleged] payment for the murder of another outlaw motorcycle gang member that was not carried out.' Mr Blanch said payments made during Melbourne's 'underbelly' gangland wars were much lower. 'We've seen matters over east, certainly during the underbelly period, where amounts were far lower than that, during their 36 murder spree of gangland figures,' he said. Advertisement

The bullet travelled through his abdomen and struck friend Ricky Steven Chapman in the left leg before lodging in his right arm.

The Shadows of Hope sniper then left the area unobserved through the hole he had cut in the fence, drove back to an associate's house where he changed his wheels and license plate again.

Martin was pronounced dead at 9:56pm that night after being rushed to Rockingham Hospital. Chapman was also hospitalised and needed surgery to remove the bullet from his arm.

The shooter allegedly returned to Pye's house a couple of days after the shooting to collect the rest of the money, believing he was entitled to another $100k after allegedly agreeing to $150k.

After allegedly taking the money home and counting it he found the sum to be $50k short. He allegedly asked Pye why there was not the agreed upon sum, before Pye told him: 'the other person didn't kick in. It is what it is'.

The shooter changed the barrel on his firearm at a local armoury just over a month after the shooting.

At some stage between late January and early February the killer allegedly returned to Pye's house where the Commanchero allegedly said his associates had been so impressed with his work they had further targets for him to investigate.

Pye allegedly named Ray Cilli, a self-exiled former senior member of his gang who is now believed to be living in Thailand.

He allegedly offered $800k for the killing of Cilli, including $100k for research and $400k in total upfront before the murder, with the remaining $400k to be paid after completion.

David James Pye (right) leaves Perth District Court with Rebels president Nick Martin (left) in Perth in October, 2013. Mr Pye has now been charged with ordering the killing of Mr Martin

The assassin was also allegedly paid to kill senior Comancheros bikie Ray Cilli (pictured)

The man said he would consider the alleged offer, before Pye allegedly contacted him again to say the offer had been reduced to $600k because they had lost large quantities of drugs to police raids.

He allegedly returned to Pye's house on February 15 where he allegedly accepted the hit on Cilli and took a bag that Pye indicated had $150k inside.

When he arrived home he counted the money and found it had $145k, short of their alleged agreed upon price. He would allegedly return again a few days later and take another $200k that was going towards the murder of Cilli.

Pye was allegedly in regular contact with the assassin about the progress on the Cilli hit.

There is no suggestion he ever intended to kill Cilli nor that he had formed a concluded intent to do so.

CCTV footage of the Motorplex showed the 35-year-old in attendance on November 28, December 9 and December 12, which helped police hone in on him as a potential suspect.

Rebels bikie Nick Martin was ridden in to Pinnaroo Cemetery in a coffin covered in pictures of $100 bills (pictured) at his extravagant bikie funeral on December 23

Hundreds of bikies from the Rebels and other clubs attended Martin's funeral on December 23

Mobile phone data also put him in the shooting location prior to Martin being shot dead.

They recovered $249,550 in cash that had been hidden by the Shadows of Hope shooter that allegedly was paid by Pye for the murder of Martin and planned murder of Cilli.

Justice Stephen Hall said the killer would have faced 30 years in jail if he hadn't agree to testify against Pye at a later date because of the 'extraordinary seriousness of the offending'.

He said the offer to work the authorities was 'exceptional and deserving of a very significant discount' - but warned the 30 year sentence could still be imposed if he failed to follow through with his side of the deal.

The Shadows of Hope sniper will be eligible for parole in 18 years.
Britons across the country are up in arms over the shortage of lateral flow tests as experts are warning they must do a swab just before seeing friends and family.

Stephen Reicher, professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews and a member of government advisory body the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group, told BBC Breakfast: 'If you want a good Christmas dinner, I would say be very careful about meeting up before Christmas.

'But you can do things to stack the odds in your favour if you ever do meet up - the first thing to do is to make sure that you have a lateral flow test.'

But furious Brits are still unable to get their hands on Covid test kits as the Government website continues to say they are out of stock and pharmacies have been forced to turn customers away.

Karen Honnor said: 'Who knew that the ''must have'' Christmas item this year would be lateral flow tests! The quest to get our hands on some so we can follow the rules is proving as difficult as hunting down a cabbage patch doll.'

And Luke Everitt took to Twitter to write: 'Lateral flow tests are rarer than hens teeth. I'm surprised this isn't being covered more given that it is a big weakness in our response to the Omicron spike.'

Journalist Martin Bright wrote: 'Not a single box of lateral flow tests in any of our local pharmacies in North London. They tell me there is a single supplier.

'Hopeless shambles.'

And Lee Adam Kent made a joke on the classic inspirational quote 'live, laugh, love' by writing: 'Live, laugh, lateral flow test'.

It comes as Irene Petersen, a professor of epidemiology at University College London, said official advice on testing should be updated as those infected with Omicron 'may switch from being non-infectious to infectious within hours'.

Furious Brits are still unable to get their hands on Covid test kits as the Government website continues to say they are out of stock and pharmacies have been forced to turn customers away

Britons across the country are up in arms over the shortage of lateral flow tests as the Government website continues to say they are out of stock and pharmacies have been forced to turn customers away

Amid lateral flow test shortages, the UK Health Security Agency has issued pharmacies with a poster telling customers that they are out of stock and to 'try again tomorrow'

Government guidance currently recommends taking a lateral flow test 'if you will be in a high-risk situation that day'.

Prof Petersen told The Sunday Telegraph: 'That's not good enough. We're seeing so many examples now where people have taken a test a day before and then when they take one the day after they are positive.

'Omicron is very, very fast, so the test result expires very quickly. It is hours that we are talking about now.'

However the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned pharmacies not to expect more deliveries of lateral flow tests over the weekend, according to Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

Amid the shortages, the UKHSA has issued pharmacies with a poster telling customers that they are out of stock and to 'try again tomorrow'.

And as another lockdown looms over the country, disgruntled Brits trying to stay safe over the festive period have taken to Twitter to voice their irritation over being told by the Government to do a Covid test as often as possible but being unable to get their hands on any.

Despite assurances more stock would be provided last week, most pharmacies were left unable to get any deliveries of lateral flow tests on Friday (stock image)

UKHSA warned pharmacies not to expect LFD deliveries over the weekend, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee said. Pictured: Boots pharmacy in Epsom, Surrey

Paul Jaymes said: 'London Covid-19 testing systems seem close to breaking point. PCR tests taking days to get results, rendering them somewhat ineffective.

'Lateral flow tests completely out of stock everywhere.'

Another wrote: 'No one can get a Covid test and all of the at home tests are sold out.'

Dominic Tinley said: 'I'd love to know how Boris Johnson brown-noser Maggie Erewash found a trolley full of Covid test kits as a prop for a rare news interview she gave today, because according to gov.uk they've been out of stock all week.'

Another irritated user wrote: ''Test every two days'.

'Tried five pharmacies today, all out of stock...'

And as another lockdown looms over the country, disgruntled Brits trying to stay safe over the festive period have taken to Twitter to voice their irritation over being told by the Government to do a Covid test as often as possible but being unable to get their hands on any

Actor David Schneider uploaded a picture of the Government website showing thath no PCR tests are available throughout the entire country.

He wrote: 'NHS website crashes. No lateral flow tests available. Now no PCR tests available.

'It's almost as if Boris Johnson made his announcement to distract from his lies without any plan or thought for the consequences.'

It comes as Boris Johnson is facing a crunch 48 hours to decide if he will impose new coronavirus curbs before Christmas as he faces a growing Cabinet revolt over a potential further crackdown to slow the spread of Omicron.

The Prime Minister has been presented with three options to tackle the variant amid surging case numbers, with the lowest level of intervention consisting of advice to limit household mixing indoors, according to The Telegraph.

The second level would see mandatory restrictions on household mixing, the return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew for pubs and restaurants while the third and toughest level would see a return to something close to a full lockdown.

New push to cut ten-day Covid isolation period to a week Ministers are considering slashing the quarantine period for people who test positive for Covid from ten to seven days. As reported in Saturdays Daily Mail, health experts, MPs and business leaders have called for a change, warning that the current rules risk crippling healthcare and the economy. Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive. But the blunt tool fails to account for infectiousness and is fuelling lockdown by stealth by keeping so many people at home. Now it has emerged that modelling by government scientific advisers indicates it would be possible to reduce the isolation period without having a significant impact on infection rates if people had a negative test before they were released. Sources say the change in policy is being looked at to stop the country grinding to a halt. It even has the backing of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, whose doom-laden forecasts prompted previous lockdown measures. Asked on BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Saturday how he would feel about reducing quarantine to seven days, Professor Ferguson said: All the modelling and analysis would suggest if its coupled with lateral- flow testing its not going to reduce the effectiveness of the measure that much. Advertisement

Patricia Marquis, England director at the Royal College of Nursing, urged the Government to listen to scientific advisers to ease pressure on the NHS.

She told BBC Breakfast that the Government should listen to 'whatever the scientific advisers are saying in both the pattern of spread of Omicron, and the effect that it's having on people, their health and the health service' and that the science needs to guide whatever comes next to protect the NHS from what could be a 'real collapse'.

However, GP Carl Heneghan said the country is in a different place from last year, and 'we are in deep, deep trouble of potentially talking ourselves into annual lockdowns'.

As he was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Heneghan asked: 'When are we going to treat people like adults?', adding that the behaviour of people in England has 'already changed'.

He said: 'It's already changed in response to the messages. If you're in Greater London now, (population in) the workplace is down by 40%. In the City of London, it's up to 60%. So people are able to respond to information or adapt their behaviour accordingly.

'People will moderate their behaviour accordingly. That's what we need to trust people to do going forward because that's the only sustainable policy.

'This time last year, there were over 2,000 people being admitted (to hospital). So we're in a very different place with the presence of vaccines, the presence of boosters, antivirals on board, and you have to reflect on that information.

'Because what happens is this is as good as it gets.'

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said he cannot give any 'hard, fast guarantees' that more restrictions will not be needed ahead of Christmas Day.

However, he added that the country is in a better position 'to enjoy Christmas with loved ones this year'.

On Wednesday, the UKHSA said it plans to increase capacity of home delivery of lateral flows and PCR tests to 900,000 a day after what it described as a 'week of unprecedented demand'.

Ministers blamed 'distribution issues' on the lack of lateral flow tests after delivery slots on the Government's website run out and pharmacies were told they couldn't have extra swabs this week.

But the PSNC, which represents all 11,200 pharmacies in England, said the UKHSA told them orders placed on Wednesday and Thursday would be cancelled, with orders from Friday onwards being fulfilled as more stock becomes available.

More stock is expected to be delivered to pharmacies on Monday and throughout next week, while Parcelforce will be on hand to deliver extra stock if required.

Grant Shapps blamed 'distribution issues' on the lack of lateral flow tests after delivery slots on the Government's website run out and pharmacies were told they couldn't have extra swabs

The UKHSA's agreement with Alliance Healthcare, which distributes healthcare products to more than 110,000 pharmacies and hospitals, sets out delivery within three working days.

People who get COVID-19 after vaccine may have 'super immunity' A new study finds that those who get a breakthrough COVID-19 infection after being fully vaccinated may acquire 'super immunity' from another infection. The small study compared 26 vaccinated staff at Oregon Health & Science University who had breakthrough infections to people who were vaccinated but never got the coronavirus. The breakthrough group saw a surge in antibodies. 'The increases were substantial, up to a 1,000 percent increase and sometimes up to 2,000 percent, so it's really high immunity,' said study author Fikadu Tafesse, a molecular microbiology and immunology professor at OHSU in Portland, Oregon. 'It's almost "super immunity."' Advertisement

Alastair Buxton, PSNC's Director of NHS Services, said: 'It is regrettable that despite reassurances earlier this week, UKHSA have now told us that many pharmacies will not receive further LFTs today, and possibly on Saturday.

'Pharmacies are still experiencing huge demand for tests, and this is adding to the considerable pressures that they are already under at this busy time of year.

'Pharmacy teams are working flat out to meet patient demand for tests, healthcare advice and medicines, with some also busy offering COVID boosters.'

Grant Shapps blamed 'distribution issues' on the lack of lateral flow tests after delivery slots on the Government's website run out and pharmacies were told they couldn't have extra swabs.

Mr Shapps claimed there are enough lateral flow tests to go around - despite the Government's own website yesterday saying there were 'no tests available to order for home delivery'.

But he said the issue had been getting the tests out to people. Mr Shapps said health chiefs were working with the Royal Mail, Amazon and other delivery firms to get tests out to homes and pharmacies.

Squirming as he answered a question from Sky New's Kay Burley, he said: 'Just on lateral flow tests, which actually, uniquely, in that as far as I can see there aren't other countries that have been supplying these free of charge to their citizens, major economies haven't generally been doing this, and we have in this country, you are right, particularly since the new measures, the booster programme, asking people to be testing, came in, it can be difficult at different times of day to get those.

Covid hospital admissions have spiked by more than a third in a week in Britain's Omicron hotspot of London, official data shows

The number of confirmed cases of Omicron in England increased by 69 per cent on the previous day's total - up 9,427 to 23,168, figures from the UKHSA showed today

Mr Shapps went on to say: 'I did notice yesterday actually that at certain times of day you could get them, they are coming back in.

'There's plenty of supply in the country, what we are having issues with is the distribution route.

'And I know my colleagues at the health department are working with Amazon and Royal Mail and others to try and make sure that distribution gets out and still goes to pharmacies.'
Elon Musk has claimed he will pay more than $11billion in taxes this year after Elizabeth Warren accused him of 'freeloading' during a bitter war of words between the pair.

The Tesla CEO, 50, took to Twitter to claim he would be paying billions of dollars in taxes this year following a row with Massachusetts Sen. Warren over his taxes.

He wrote: 'For those wondering, I will pay over $11billion in taxes this year.'

Musk could face a tax bill of more than $10billion in 2021, which could be the largest individual payment to the Internal Revenue Service, according to calculations by Bloomberg News.

It comes amid claims that Musk 'paid nothing' in federal income taxes in 2018 and less than $70,000 in 2015 and 2017, while Warren dubbed Musk 'the world's richest freeloader' amid a row over the billionaire's taxes.

Musk responded to her criticism by saying that he 'will pay more taxes than any American in history this year'.

Elon Musk (pictured) said he would be paying billions of dollars in taxes this year following his row with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren over his taxes

He took to Twitter to announce that he would be paying more than $11billion in taxes this year

Musk is currently the richest man in the world with a net worth of $265.4billion, as of last Monday, followed closely behind by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

His company Tesla is worth about $1trillion and over the last few weeks, Musk has sold nearly $14billion worth of Tesla shares.

Musk and Warren's war of words began after the news broke that Musk was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Warren tweeted last Monday: 'Let's change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.'

But Musk soon hit back, writing 'Stop projecting', and dubbing the politician and former law professor 'Senator Karen'.

'You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend's angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason,' Musk continued.

'Please don't call the manager on me, Senator Karen.'

He also shared a link to a Fox News opinion article claiming Warren lied about having Native American heritage to benefit from affirmative action.

It comes after Warren (pictured) dubbed Musk 'the world's richest freeloader' during a war of words over the billionaire's taxes

But in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Warren clapped back, calling Musk 'the world's richest freeloader,' and claiming he 'evidently has a very thin skin'.

Joy Reid gave the Massachusetts senator a chance to respond to Musk's now infamous 'Senator Karen' tweet.

The MSNBC host prefaced her interview by calling Musk 'the absolute worst,' highlighting his opposition to President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda, and noting that, even though he has called for an end to government subsidies, electric vehicle subsidies helped Tesla get ahead.

Elon Musk was named Time Magazine's 2021 Person of the Year

Then, after quoting Warren's tweet, Reid touted a ProPublica report, saying: 'Its investigation found that in 2018, Musk paid nothing in federal income taxes, and less than $70,000 in 2015 and 2017.'

She then turned the conversation over to Warren to get her thoughts on Musk's tweet about her, to which Warren replied: 'The world's richest freeloader evidently has a very thin skin.

'But you know the part that makes me angry about this?' she continued.

'It's on behalf of every public school teacher, every waitress, every computer programmer, every street cleaner who actually paid taxes, and that means they paid more than Elon Musk did in federal income taxes.

'And that's just not right, and it means the system is broken.

'But the days when these guys not only get to rake it all in, but then rub everybody else's nose in it while they head off into outer space and declare how they did this all on their own when they were subsidized by the federal government and subsidized by every waitress and public school teacher who paid their taxes' is over.

'This is wrong and Elon Musk needs to eat a big dish of that,' she concluded.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized Telsa CEO Elon Musk after he was named Time Magazine's 2021 Person of the Year. She called on him to pay his fair share of taxes

Musk attacked the senator on Twitter and dubbed her Senator Karen

Warren's tweet was not the first time the billionaire has slammed politicians critical of his wealth and alleged exploitation of tax loopholes to pay little or no taxes at all.

Last month, Musk mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders who called on the nation's 'extremely wealthy' to pony up more cash in a tweet, drawing the attention of Musk, who had sold more than $5billion of his Tesla stake.

Musk did so after launching a Twitter poll that guided him toward selling $25 billion in stock to fund President Joe Biden's proposed billionaire tax.

Musk, responding to Sanders' demands, indicated he wouldn't draw the line there.

'I keep forgetting that you're still alive,' Musk, the world's richest man, tweeted at the senator.

'Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word '

He also attacked Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, who supported a wealth tax for billionaires and criticized Musk's twitter poll.

'Whether or not the world's wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn't depend on the results of a Twitter poll,' Wyden wrote. 'It's time for the Billionaires Income Tax.'

Musk lashed back by mocking Wyden's face, writing, 'Why does ur pp look like u just came?'

Musk attacked senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden after they also complained about his lack of paying taxes and called on billionaires to pay their fair share

His row with Warren, though, comes as the Tesla founder was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year after selling off his possessions and moving to Texas, launching rockets into space, inventing new driverless cars, sharing his Asperger's diagnosis while hosting Saturday Night Live and influencing the stock market with this tweets.

In his bid to become the Person of the Year, Musk spoke with Time Magazine and discussed his 'semi-separated' status with Grimes, slammed vaccine mandates as an 'erosion of freedom' and shared his plans to fly a Noah's ark spaceship packed full of animals to Mars as he works to colonize the planet.

As of Monday, Musk has a net worth of $265.4billion. Speaking about being the richest man in the world and all of history Musk pointed to someone who he claims is even richer than he is.

'Well, I think there's like some, you know, sovereigns. I think [Russia's] President Putin is significantly richer than me. I can't invade countries and stuff,' Musk said.

'When looking at income and asset distribution, it is very important to normalize that for age. So as societies age, there are more older people; the older somebody is, the richer they are,' he explained.

'But a lot of the push for higher government involvement and expropriation of assets by the government is pushed by a bunch of politicians who are actually saying that resources shouldn't be in control of private individuals. They should be in control of the government,' Musk said.

One of the billionaire's biggest criticisms is his enormous wealth, while paying little to none in taxes.

Recently, he openly bashed President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan, which is fully funded by 'the very largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans'.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made history several times this year including SpaceX's September launch of the first all-civilian crew into space. The aerospace company also won a $3 billion contract with NASA - sparking a feud with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Musk (pictured in January 2020) is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $265.4billion, as of last Monday, followed closely behind by Amazon's Jeff Bezos

The SpaceX CEO commented on the success of the aerospace company.

'If we have ships and boosters but no engines, we would be losing billions of dollars a quarter. And if that continued, then bankruptcy would not be out of the question,' he admitted.

'I feel as though we've had many years of success and a lot of people at the company have never seen a launch failure. A lot of people have never in their career experienced a recession,' Musk boasted.

'If somebody entered the workforce after 2009, it just seemed like things always go up. I was concerned that we may be getting complacent,' he shared.

Musk has described himself as a 'utopian anarchist' and aims to utilize his businesses to create a more efficient and automated future.

'If there's a utopia where people have access to any goods or services that they want, there's plenty for everyone. If we have a highly automated future with the robots that can do anything, then any work you do will be because you want to do it, not because you have to do it. I don't mean to suggest chaos, but rather that you're not under anyone's thumb,' Musk said.

In 2012, when Tesla was just a fledgling company, Musk was awarded stock options as part of a compensation plan that would give him 22.8 million shares at a stock price of $6.24. His gains on those shares have now reached nearly $28 billion.

Stock options give the investor the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a stock at an agree-upon price. It also allows the trader to choose a specific date when they expect a stock to rise or fall, known as the expiration date, according to Investopedia.

In Musk's case, his stock options come due in August 2022, and in order to exercise them, Musk has to pay the the income taxes on the gains, and since they are taxes as an employee benefit or compensation, they will be taxed at 37 percent, plus the 3.8 percent net investment tax, CNBC reports.

Musk will also have to pay the top tax rate in California, since the options were granted and earned when he was a California resident.

Combined, CNBC reports, the state and federal tax rate on his gains will be 54.1 percent, so the total tax bill would be $15 billion by August.

Meanwhile, Telsa has disclosed that he has taken out loans using his shares as collateral, and with the sales, he may want to repay some of those obligations.

As the company noted in its third-quarter Securities and Exchange 10Q filing: 'If the price of our common stock were to decline substantially, Mr. Musk may be forced by one or more of the banking institutions to sell shares of Tesla common stock to satisfy his loan obligations if he could not do so through other means.

'Any such sales could cause the price of our common stock to decline further.'

Tesla closed at $975.99 on Wednesday, up more than 1 percent from the day before.
An infectious gastro outbreak is sweeping through Victorian childcare centres leaving dozens of young kids with severe stomach pain, diarrhoea and vomiting.

There have been 56 gastroenteritis cases in the state's childcare system in the past six weeks, with health officials growing increasingly concerned about the 'rapid' spread.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton sent out an urgent warning to parents on Monday night to keep their children at home if they feel even slightly unwell.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton (pictured) is warning parents about the 'rapid' spread of gastro

An infectious gastro outbreak is sweeping through Victorian childcare centres leaving dozens of young kids with severe stomach pain, diarrhoea and vomiting (stock image)

'Viral gastroenteritis is highly infectious and may spread rapidly,' Professor Sutton said.

'Infants or children, as well as staff, who develop vomiting or diarrhoea should not attend child care, camps or any other group activities until at least 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped.

'If symptoms are severe or they persist, or you are concerned, see a GP for advice and possible testing.'

Doctors fear the dreaded norovirus - present in the vomit and faeces of an infected person - is to blame for the gastro outbreak.

The virus is commonly spread through person to person contact with a positive case who has unwashed hands.

It can also be transmitted via contaminated food and water, as well as on surfaces.

Doctors fear the dreaded norovirus - present in the vomit and faeces of an infected person - is to blame for the gastro outbreak (stock image)

The virus is commonly spread through person to person contact with a positive case who has unwashed hands (stock image)

Norovirus causes inflammation of the stomach or intestines, the condition known as acute gastroenteritis.

It normally takes between 12 to 48 hours to develop symptoms and lasts for up to three days and sometimes even longer.

The horror symptoms include nausea, stomach pain, diarrhoea and vomiting, which can lead to severe dehydration.

In more extreme cases, sufferers can experience fever, headaches and body aches.

Health officials are urging parents to make sure their children wash their hands regularly, particularly when around other kids.
This is the bizarre moment a vandal carries out a late night knife attack - on a giant inflatable Christmas tree.

Shaun Davies, 22, was left gobsmacked when the festive display outside his home in Wrexham, Wales, was targeted by a mindless vandal last Tuesday night.

Security cameras filmed the yob, who was with two friends, marching over and putting a knife through the inflatable fir, causing it to deflate to the ground.

Mr Davies had created the dazzling winter wonderland outside his home to raise money for charity after his partner Jodie Murphy, 33, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

He says he was left devastated when he woke the next day to find one of the decorations in a pile on the ground with a slash mark through the middle.

Caretaker Mr Davies has spent thousands of pounds over the last five years decking out the front of his home with Christmas lights, decorations and a grotto.

This is the bizarre moment a vandal carries out a late night knife attack - on a giant inflatable Christmas tree. Shaun Davies, 22, was left gobsmacked when the festive display outside his home in Wrexham, Wales, was targeted by a mindless vandal last Tuesday night

He said: 'This year I spent a few hundred pounds adding to the display as we wanted it to be bigger and better than ever for Jodie.

'But we woke up on the Wednesday morning to discover the Christmas tree had been slashed with a blade and couldn't believe it.

'Our first thought was 'what is the point in that?' Why would you go around stabbing an inflatable Christmas tree? It's just a bit odd.

'The aggression he does it with is extremely shocking as well. It's like he wanted to cause maximum damage - but it was just a blow up tree.

'We think it must have been a knife because the cut was so large and clean. The most worrying thing is that somebody is walking the streets with a knife.

'It's disappointing because it is obvious the display is for charity. We have signs up about checking yourself for cancer and there's also a donation tin.

Mr Davies was left devastated when he woke the next day to find one of the decorations in a pile on the ground with a slash mark through the middle

'The police sound keen to apprehend him as the biggest concern is that somebody is wandering around with a blade and obviously willing to use it.

'The response has been amazing though and somebody from Australia has even been in touch offering to pay for another one.

'Acton Community Council has also said they will replace it so there has been some positivity to come from all of this.

'Most people love the display and say they travel to see it every year, even in the summer people stop me in the street and ask about it.

'This year is the first time we have raised money for charity because the hospital has been amazing with Jodie.

'We're trying to raise not only money but awareness because a lot of people have said to Jodie, 'oh I never check, I always just assumed I was too young to get it'.

'Obviously, men can get it too, I think when she went for her last chemo there was actually two or three men getting chemo for breast cancer there as well.

Security cameras captured the yob, who was with two friends, marching over and putting a knife through the inflatable fir, causing it to deflate to the ground

'It was all for a good cause so we were quite angry that somebody would want to stab an inflatable Christmas tree,' he added.

The money is being raised for the Shooting Star unit at Wrexham Maelor Hospital - which the family say has been 'fantastic' in its support of Jodie.

Mr Davies's mother Julie added: 'We're more annoyed at the fact it's been done when we're collecting for Shooting Stars, than anything else.

'It's very upsetting as it's a worthy cause which is one very close to our hearts.

'But it's also frightening that someone is walking around with a knife - thankfully it wasn't a person who was slashed.'

Social worker Ms Murphy was shocked to be given the news she had breast cancer in September.

She said: 'This summer I felt a lump in my breast but due to being young and healthy with no family history I never suspected anything sinister.

'Luckily my GP was fantastic and referred me to the breast clinic straight away. Within four weeks I had the shock diagnosis of breast cancer.

Mr Davies had created the dazzling winter wonderland outside his home to raise money for charity after his partner Jodie Murphy, 33, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Above: The yobs then ran away

'As I found the lump early, thankfully it hasn't spread and my prognosis is good.

'I'm currently in the middle of chemotherapy and the Shooting Star unit has been fantastic in supporting me, Shaun and my daughter Violet.

'I've had to take some time out from the business to get better but since sharing my experience I've been astounded at the number of women and men who don't check their bodies for changes.

'So many people have contacted me since I shared my diagnosis to say it's made them go to the GP which is just fantastic.

'Cancer is sneaky and early detection is absolutely key.'

The incident has been reported to North Wales Police, which is investigating the matter.
Rachel Riley has been awarded 10,000 in damages in a High Court libel battle after suing a former aide to Jeremy Corbyn for wrongly accusing her of calling the ex-Labour leader a 'Nazi'.

Television presenter Ms Riley, 35, is 'entitled' to 'vindication' over a tweet posted by Laura Murray, 32, more than two years ago, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled today.

The row began after a Brexiteer smashed an egg on Mr Corbyn's head during a visit to Finsbury Park Mosque in north London on March 3, 2019.

Ms Riley, a numbers expert on the Channel 4 show Countdown, had initially posted a screenshot of a January 2019 tweet by Guardian columnist Owen Jones about an attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, which said: 'I think sound life advice is, if you don't want eggs thrown at you, don't be a Nazi.'

She added 'Good advice', with emojis of a red rose and an egg.

Ms Murray later tweeted: 'Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.'

Ms Riley, who had become a vocal critic of Labour's handling of anti-Semitism allegations, said she was being sarcastic in her tweet, did not call Mr Corbyn a Nazi, and told the judge that Ms Murray's tweet caused serious harm to her reputation.

Mr Justice Nicklin concluded that Ms Riley had demonstrated that Ms Murray's tweet had caused serious harm to her reputation. He found that both women had been truthful in the evidence they gave and had done their best to 'assist the court'.

In a tweet, Ms Riley said: 'I'm extremely pleased to have won my libel case vs Laura Murray, former head of complaints for the Labour Party. This has been a very draining process and I'm relieved to finally have vindication.'

Television presenter Ms Riley, left, is 'entitled' to 'vindication' over a tweet posted by Laura Murray, right, more than two years, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled today

Ms Murray was stakeholder manager in Mr Corbyn's (both pictured) office when he was Labour leader, and went on to be the party's head of complaints, before going into teaching

In a tweet, Ms Riley said: 'I'm extremely pleased to have won my libel case vs Laura Murray, former head of complaints for the Labour Party. This has been a very draining process and I'm relieved to finally have vindication'

TIMELINE: RILEY'S CLAIM AGAINST EX-CORBYN AIDE January 10, 2019: Former British National Party leader Nick Griffin tweets he had re-watched footage of '100 far-left thugs attacking a BNP MEP press conference' in 2009. He says Guardian columnist Owen Jones was 'cheering them on (from the back)'. Mr Jones replies, saying: 'I think sound life advice is, if you don't want eggs thrown at you, don't be a Nazi. Seems fair to me.' March 3: An egg is hurled at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at Finsbury Park Mosque. Rachel Riley later posts a screenshot of Owen Jones' egg tweet, saying it was 'good advice', with an emoji of a red rose and an egg. That same day Laura Murray, a senior aide to the then Labour leader, tweets: 'Today, Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. 'Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. 'This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her... Ever.' Ms Riley launches legal action. April 24, 2020: Ms Riley wins the first round in her High Court libel claim over the tweet. Mr Justice Nicklin says that an 'imputation that a person had publicly supported a violent attack on someone is plainly defamatory at common law'. He adds that it is 'conduct which would substantially affect, in an adverse manner, the attitude of other people towards the claimant or have a tendency so to do'. But he rejects a claim from Ms Murray's lawyer that she was expressing an opinion when she said Ms Riley had said the Labour leader 'deserved to be violently attacked'. He said it was 'a simple factual statement and would be understood as such'. May 10, 2021: Ms Riley tells the High Court she was unable to sleep and bombarded with abuse after Jeremy Corbyn's former aide claimed she said he 'deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi'. December 20, 2021: Rachel Riley is awarded 10,000 in damages after Mr Justice Nicklin rules she is 'entitled' to 'vindication'. Advertisement

She added: 'It never needed to come to this, but Im grateful to have had an outlet to set the record straight.

'This is the culmination of several tough years for many Jewish people and allies. I hope this serves as a reminder you cant defame people without consequence, even on Twitter.'

Ms Murray was stakeholder manager in Mr Corbyn's office when he was Labour leader, and went on to be the party's head of complaints, before going into teaching.

She argued that what she tweeted was true and reflected her honestly held opinions.

Mr Justice Nicklin ruled at an earlier hearing that Ms Murray's tweet was defamatory.

He concluded that the tweet meant Ms Riley had 'publicly stated' Mr Corbyn had been attacked when visiting a mosque; that he 'deserved to be violently attacked'; by doing so she had shown herself to be a 'dangerous and stupid person' who 'risked inciting unlawful violence'; and that people should not 'engage with her'.

The judge was asked to consider whether serious harm had been caused to Ms Riley's reputation, and whether Ms Murray had a defence of truth, honest opinion, or public interest.

Ms Riley, who studied mathematics at Oxford University and is on maternity leave from Countdown after giving birth in November, told the judge she was Jewish and had a 'hatred of antisemitism'.

She said she spoke out against antisemitism and thought the Corbyn-led Labour Party was 'fostering antisemitism'.

Ms Murray told the judge that her job had involved her working with the Jewish community to 'try to find solutions to the problem of antisemitism which was becoming evident within parts of the Labour Party membership'.

Ms Riley had earlier written in a statement: 'I had not tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn deserved to be violently attacked.

'I was really affronted at being called ''dangerous and stupid'' and that people were being told not to have anything to do with me ''ever''.

'I had made a sarcastic but in my opinion relevant and important comment in relation to Owen Jones and a few hours later the defendant was spreading it round on Twitter that I advocated violence against Jeremy Corbyn because in her words, I had said that he deserved to be attacked because he was a Nazi.'

Ms Riley claims Ms Murray was 'dog whistling' her sympathetic Twitter followers to direct a 'pile on' of anger and hate.

She previously told the High Court: 'The allegations in the Tweet have made me feel vulnerable to physical attack which is naturally very worrying.

'The volume of abusive and threatening messages was all-consuming.

'I found it hard to focus on my work and suffered sleepless nights. Even now, the abuse has gone unchecked and my reputation is not vindicated.'

Ms Murray has told the court Ms Riley was being 'deliberately provocative' by tweeting 'good advice' on the day that Jeremy Corbyn was egged.

She denied defaming Riley, arguing truth, honest opinion and responsible publication in her tweet.

Ms Murray told the court all the tweets that she had seen were saying 'how can you call Jeremy Corbyn a Nazi?' with none of them saying 'this is a comment on hypocrisy, this is a tweet on double standards'.

Ms Riley posted a screenshot of a January 2019 tweet by Guardian columnist Owen Jones about an attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, which said: 'I think sound life advice is, if you don't want eggs thrown at you, don't be a Nazi.' She added 'Good advice', with emojis of a red rose and an egg. Ms Murray later tweeted: 'Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.'

Mr Justice Nicklin ruled that Ms Murray's tweet was defamatory in common law. Pictured: The High Court in London - where the case was heard

Asked if she could see it was a 'pile on', she said: 'The way it seemed to me was that it was a deliberately provocative of Jeremy Corbyn being attacked.

'The tweet about Nazis being attacked, saying ''good advice,'' ''if you don't want to be egged don't be a Nazi''. The way it looked to be was that it was deliberately provocative and designed to provoke a reaction from the left.

'And it was getting that reaction, lots of people were saying ''Jeremy Corbyn's not a Nazi, that's not a fair comparison to make''.

'Given that many, many people were criticising Rachel Riley like this, the purpose of my tweet was to advise people, as many as would listen, ''don't engage with this,'' ''it's a waste of time,'' ''no one gets anything from it,'' ''it's a huge waste of emotional resources''. I could see this was really counter productive. It's just totally useless.'
A Georgia university has reportedly banned a fraternity from hanging a Christmas wreath on its front door as it is a violation of school policy.

Emory University, in Atlanta, reportedly told the school's Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity the Christmas wreath on the front door was a violation of school policy and an incident report would be written up.

Josh Gamse, assistant director of sorority and fraternity life, emailed the students on December 3 to inform them that the facilities team would be taking down the decorations, according to Campus Reform.

The email was understood to have said: 'Since this is the second violation of the policy, an incident report will be submitted to the Office of Student Conduct.'

Emory University, in Atlanta, reportedly told the school's Alpha Tau Omega fraternity (file photo above) that the Christmas wreath on their front door was a violation of school policy

Davis Van Inwegen, ATO's house improvement chair, told Campus Reform that the fraternity was not aware that they had violated the policy, insisting the restriction was new.

Referring to Gamse's email, which mentions two violations, Van Inwegen said he believes the first infraction was inflatable polar bears that were displayed on Thanksgiving, but insisted he did not know this was a violation.

According to the University's housing policy, sorority and fraternity houses are allowed to request permission to put up exterior holiday decorations, but they must be approved and put up by the Housing Operations team.

It states: 'Sorority lodges and fraternity/themed houses are permitted to request installation of exterior holiday decorations.

'The organization must provide the decorations and a plan.'

According to the policy, the Housing Operations team will put up exterior decorations after the Thanksgiving break and will take them down during the winter holidays, while all requests must have been made by October 31.

According to the University's housing policy, exterior holiday decorations on sorority and fraternity houses must be approved by October 31. Pictured: Building at Emory University

The policy adds that 'exterior holiday decorations must not be installed or removed by students' and that 'violators of this policy will face disciplinary action'.

Van Inwegen claimed the rule is new and said he did not know the policy the fraternity was using was outdated, saying a Google search sent the students to an old policy.

It is understood that the new restriction was updated in Emory University's policy on July 31.

Van Inwegen claimed Gamse told him that he was going to ask IT to see if they could 'do anything' about the outdated version of the policy on Google.

Emory University is a private research university which was founded in 1836 and was named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory.

It is the second-oldest private institution for higher education in Georgia.

MailOnline has contacted Emory University for comment.
Vulnerable Covid patients will be offered an antibody drug on the NHS from today to help them fight off the virus.

Xevudy, made by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, was shown to slash the risk of hospitalisation and death from older strains by 79 per cent in clinical trials.

GSK says early lab results suggest it also offers high protection against the Omicron variant which has made other antibody therapies weaker.

Britain has ordered 100,000 doses of the drug, but questions have been raised whether this is enough given the incoming Omicron wave.

The Prime Minister's spokesman was today unable to confirm whether they would buy more if needed.

It is the second treatment to be cleared for use on the NHS, after Regeneron's monoclonal antibody drug Ronapreve was approved in August. It is already being rolled out in NHS hospitals.

Adding to the need to order more Xevudy, German researchers revealed today that Ronapreve  which was famously used to treat Donald Trump when he caught the virus last year  is 'inefficient' against Omicron.

However, they found Xevudy held up when exposed to mutant strain in lab experiments.

NHS chiefs say the treatment is suitable for around 1.3million of the most vulnerable patients in the UK, including organ transplant recipients and cancer patients.

The monoclonal antibody is given intravenously over 30 minutes, and must be administered within five days of an infection starting.

It works by binding to the virus spike protein  which it uses to invade cells  to slow down an infection.

But scientists say it will still be effective against Omicron because it binds to an area on the spike that has not mutated in the variant.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England's medical director, said: 'These new drugs have an important role to play.

'If you test positive and are at high risk then we will be contacting you, and, if eligible you will be able to get access to these new treatments.'

Xevudy, a monoclonal antibody, will be available on the NHS from today. Health chiefs said it would be available to vulnerable patients such as organ transplant recipients or cancer patients

Monoclonal antibodies are manufactured in laboratories and work by mounting an immune response against the virus in people whose bodies are too weak to do it on their own.

It binds to the Covid spike protein  which it uses to invade cells  stopping the virus from sparking a serious infection.

How does sotrovimab work? Britain's medical regulators have approved a second Covid antibody drug. Sotrovimab, sold under the brand name Xevudy, contains lab-made antibodies that can fight the virus off. They are based on those extracted from patients that cleared an infection. The drug works by mounting an immune response in patients whose bodies are too weak to do it on their own. Its lab-made antibodies bind to the Covid spike protein  which it uses to invade cells  helping to stop an infection progressing. Medical regulators recommend it is used in Covid patients with mild to moderate symptoms. It should be administered within five days of the first warning signs appearing. Some 100,000 doses have been ordered for the UK. Seriously ill patients are currently receiving Ronapreve  also a monoclonal antibody drug  in NHS hospitals. Advertisement

The Prime Minister's spokesman said today they had bought a 'significant number' of doses.

The Department for Health is yet to say whether there are plans to buy further doses.

NHS England will contact eligible patients over the coming weeks to let them know about the treatment.

They will then be sent a PCR test to use as soon as they start suffering symptoms of Covid.

If the result is positive, they will be invited to get a dose of Xevudy.

The NHS said the drug would form a 'first line of defence' against the virus.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) approved the treatment for patients at the start of this month.

It is administered over 30 minutes through an intravenous drip and works by binding to the Covid spike protein  which it uses to invade cells  and preventing it from multiplying in the body.

Preliminary tests found Ronapreve  already in use in the UK  was not as good at stopping infections with Omicron compared to other strains.

Separate testing of another monoclonal antibody manufactured by US-based company Eli Lilly also indicates it is less effective against the variant.

Vaccines are a country's first line of defence against the virus.

But in cases where jabs do not trigger immunity in some patients, or the virus starts to get around jab-induced antibodies, then these drugs are the second line of defence.

Ronapreve is also available to patients on the NHS.

But the treatment is expensive costing around 2,000 per dose. It was famoulsy administered to Donald Trump when he was suffering from Covid.

And two groups of Germany based scientists separately found the Ronapreve drug wont help in the fight against Omicron.

One team of Cologne-based researchers said: 'The neutralizing activity of several monoclonal antibodies is strongly affected against the Omicron variant and will limit treatment options for Omicron-induced Covid.'

Meanwhile, another group of experts in Goettingen said Ronapreve was 'inefficient' in inhibiting the strain.

But both studies, which have not yet been peer reviewed, found Xevudy continued to work against Omicron.
What are 'non-crime hate incidents' and what will happen to them after today's ruling? Non-crime hate incident reports were introduced in 2014 following recommendations by the independent Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. They are 'any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice', according to the College of Policing's guidance on hate crimes. Reports of non-crime hate incidents can show up in criminal record checks for six years, yet there are no grounds to appeal against them. Judge Victoria Sharp has now ordered the College of Policing to come up with new 'safeguards' to make sure that any future recording of non-crime hate incidents does not disproportionately interfere with the legal right to speak their mind. This means non-crime hate incidents will still exist but the guidance around their use will be tightened. Advertisement

A former police officer has won a Court of Appeal challenge over police guidance on 'hate incidents' after claiming it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.

Harry Miller, a former officer who describes himself as 'gender critical', was approached by colleagues at Humberside Police over alleged transphobic tweets in January 2020.

The force recorded the complaint as a 'non-crime hate incident', defined by the College of Policing's guidance as 'any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice'.

It is not known what was in the tweets, which were later deleted, though he is known to have retweeted a poem which included the line: 'Your vagina goes nowhere'.

Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both Humberside Police's actions and the College of Policing's guidance at the High Court and, in February last year, a judge ruled the force's actions were a 'disproportionate interference' with Mr Miller's right to freedom of expression.

But his challenge to the College's guidance was dismissed, with the judge finding that it 'serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate'.

However, in a new ruling, the Court of Appeal found the guidance also breached his freedom of expression rights. The College of Policing will now have review its guidance to add in more safeguards for freedom of speech.

Dame Victoria Sharp said: 'The net for 'non-crime hate speech' is an exceptionally wide one which is designed to capture speech which is perceived to be motivated by hostility... regardless of whether there is evidence that the speech is motivated by such hostility.

'The volume of non-crime hate speech is enormous and the police do not have the resources or the capacity to investigate all the complaints that are made.

'There is nothing in the guidance about excluding irrational complaints, including those where there is no evidence of hostility and little, if anything, to address the chilling effect which this may have on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.

'There is no provision for proportionality to be applied to recording [the incident]. And the guidance says nothing about the language to be used or whether someone should be notified that a record, flagged as a hate incident, has been made of a complaint against them.'

The former officer succeeded in a challenge to police guidance over 'hate incidents' at the Court of Appeal

Speaking outside court, Mr Miller said being offensive was 'one of the cornerstones of freedom'.

'Being offensive is not, cannot and should not be an offence,' he said.

'Only when speech turns to malicious communication or targeted harassment against an individual should it be a problem.'

Speaking earlier to Talk Radio, he said: 'These people [College of Policing] are complete and utter idiots. They went all through the High Court trying to argue that there's such a thing as a non-crime, crime and non-hate, hate. They need shutting down.

'The consequences are far reaching. Up until today, a non-crime hate incident could appear on your record and police could send it to your employer to prevent you from getting a job or a promotion.

'This is a great day for British democracy and freedom. We have kicked it out the park.'

An anonymous member of the public complained about Mr Miller's tweets, leading to Humberside Police recording the complaint as a 'hate incident' in January 2020.

Mr Miller challenged Humberside Police's actions and the College of Policing guidance at the High Court.

He was successful in his battle against the force, with the court ruling Humberside Police's actions were a 'disproportionate interference' to his right to freedom of expression.

Mr Miller was unsuccessful in an additional challenge to the College of Policing, though, after it was found its guidance 'serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate'.

In March, Mr Miller's lawyers told the Court of Appeal that police guidance over hate incidents 'violates the right to freedom of expression'.

Lawyers for the College of Policing, meanwhile, argued any interference with the right to freedom of expression 'is proportionate to the legitimate aims pursued by the guidance'.

The court heard guidance had been 'fully replaced', with updates including 'a strong warning against police taking a disproportionate response to reports of a non-crime hate incident', including directly referencing the High Court's ruling.

Dame Victoria, though, said today: 'In my opinion [the revisions] do not go very far or not nearly far enough to address the chilling effect of perception-based recording more generally.'

One of the messages which Mr Miller was known to have retweeted was a poem which included the line: 'Your vagina goes nowhere'

An example of one of the tweets Mr Miller has posted on his social media account

Assistant Chief Constable Iain Raphael, College of Policing said today: 'Freedom of expression within the law is a fundamental right which should be protected. Policing strives every day to protect the vulnerable from harm, uphold fundamental rights and enforce the law.

'The College of Policing supports this work through setting standards and sharing knowledge that helps forces and individuals provide better service to the public.

'Complaints of hate are often complex and our guidance seeks to help officers understand how best to do a difficult part of their job.

'The balance we have always aimed to strike is between the need to protect vulnerable people and communities from harm with the need to facilitate and protect freedom of speech.

'The court has found we need to make safeguards in our guidance more explicit to help police officers proportionately enforce the law. We will listen to, reflect on, and review this judgement carefully and make any changes that are necessary.

'The judgement provides clarity that police have the power to record, retain and use a wide variety of data and information to keep people safe.

'By recording correctly, the police can gain insight into potential tensions in communities and harm caused to individuals. All police guidance is kept under continual review and is adapted to keep pace with the complex demands of protecting the public.'

Mr Miller was successful in a challenge to guidance over the reporting of 'hate incidents' at the Court of Appeal

In a statement following, Free Speech Union general secretary Toby Young praised the Mr Miller's 'courage and tenacity'.

He said: 'The Free Speech Union is proud to have played a part in winning this landmark victory, but the lion's share of the credit must go to Harry Miller.

'Thanks to his courage and tenacity, we can all rest a little easier in our beds tonight, knowing the police are not about to knock on our doors because we've made an inappropriate joke on Twitter. They should be policing our streets, not our tweets.'

Following last year's victory over Humberside Police, a judge described the force's actions as having a 'substantial chilling effect' on Mr Miller's right to free speech.

Announcing the court's decision, Mr Justice Julian Knowles said Mr Miller's tweets were 'lawful' and that the effect of the police turning up at Mr Miller's place of work 'because of his political opinions must not be underestimated'.

He added: 'To do so would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom. In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society.'

In April, Home Secretary Priti Patel said allegations of hate incidents should be wiped from an individual's record if no crime is found to have been committed.

A Home Office source said: 'These so-called 'non-crime hate incidents' have a chilling effect on free speech and potentially stop people expressing views legally and legitimately.

'If people are found to have done nothing wrong the police shouldn't punish them.'

In February last year, police said they had recorded almost 120,000 'non-crime hate incidents' between 2014 and 2019.

South Wales police were found to have logged the highest number of 'hate incidents' with 13,856 cases.

Metropolitan Police logged over 9,000 in the same time period.
The wife of a man charged with murdering their newborn baby has told cops he may have been sleepwalking when their four-week-old daughter was killed.

Charles Dugan, 26, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, is accused of beating the infant to death on August 29.

He originally told detectives the baby choked on her milk but has since claimed she fell and hit her head while he was asleep.

The girl's mother told officers earlier this month that Dugan often suffered from sleepwalking and once tried to 'body slam' her while sleeping.

Dugan said he didn't remember if he was sleepwalking when the baby was injured.

Charles Dugan, 26, of Fayetteville, is accused of beating the infant to death on August 29

He was arrested on Thursday in connection with an unrelated alleged battery at a local hospital.

While at the police station, he was asked again what had happened the night the infant died and he told cops he couldn't remember. This contradicted his earlier account, 5 News reports.

During the initial investigation, the girl's mother said she had left Dugan to look after the baby like she normally did when she went to work.

She left the house at around 5.15pm and did not return until after 9pm when she was contacted by Dugan.

Dugan told detectives he put the baby in her crib swaddled in a blanket and propped a bottle in her mouth with another blanket.

He said he went to the bathroom and came back 10 minutes later to find his daughter choking, with milk pouring from her nose.

Dugan claimed he tried to call 911 but couldn't connect and so he went to a neighbor's apartment who called the emergency number.

Earlier this month, the coroner's report came back and found that the baby girl suffered head injuries caused by blunt force trauma and that she had signs of healing from recent rib fractures.

The medical report ruled she died by homicide.

Dugan was interviewed again on December 6, telling officers he fell asleep with the girl on his chest and she had fallen and struck her head.

'Dugan said he had fallen asleep with the child on his chest and believed she had dropped to the floor,' the police report said.

'Dugan was unsure if the infant had struck the coffee table near the sofa or landed directly on the floor but said he woke up to the infant screaming on the floor. He went on to say the incident happened 30-45 minutes before he put the child in her crib.'

He said he'd never told anyone before about the child falling.

On December 9, the girl's mother said that her husband sleepwalks and had previously 'body slam[ed]' her while having a sleepwalking episode.

'Dugan told investigators he didn't remember if he had been sleepwalking when the infant was injured,' the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported, citing the police report.

The accused and the mother were married, according to The Daily Beast.

Dugan is charged with second-degree murder and being held at the Washington County Detention Center.
An American businesswoman who built a 200,000 eco-home in the Scottish Highlands has been ordered to tear it down after breaching strict planning controls.

Developer Eve Wilder, from Oregon, had the wooden property constructed on the banks of Loch Migdale in Sutherland before putting it up for sale on the property market.

Described as the 'ideal' Highland getaway, the one-bedroom eco-home was built to the 'highest standard' and every material used was 'non-toxic', according to a sales brochure for the property.

However Highland Council has now ordered Ms Wilder to have the building demolished within four months after the 'unauthorised development was carried out without the knowledge or permission of the local planning authority'.

The eco-home was put up for sale by the developer before being removed from the property market when the demolition row emerged.

The 200,000 eco-home (exterior pictured) was constructed on the banks of Loch Migdale in Sutherland, Scotland

The property's owner Eve Wilder, from Oregon, has now been ordered to demolish the site within four months. Pictured: The interior of the property

The council have also said the development affects the natural scenic beauty of the Dornoch Firth.

A council spokesperson said: 'This unauthorised development was carried out without the knowledge or permission of the local planning authority.

'The planning authority believe that the unauthorised development was completed whilst the appellant was residing in the United States of America, therefore it can be reasonably expected that the development be removed as there are no guarantees that the appellant will return to the UK and therefore the unauthorised development would remain in situ for an unknown period.

'That being said, the planning authority are keen to have this matter resolved and would be open to the appellant providing a detailed plan of the timescale and works to be completed for the removal of the development as required by the enforcement notice.'

Ms Wilder was initially told she would need to take down the one-bedroomed property within three months but after appealing the council timeframe she has now been granted four months.

The eco-home is described as the 'ideal' Highland getaway and every material used is 'non-toxic', according to a sales brochure for the property

The council said the development affects the natural scenic beauty of the Dornoch Firth and construction was 'carried out without the knowledge or permission of the local planning authority'

The one-bedroomed property in the Scottish Highlands will now need to be take down within four months

She also claimed the issue could be resolved by altering plans and seeking retrospective permission for the house.

An appeal letter on her behalf read: 'It is considered that the requirements of the notice exceed what is necessary to remedy any breach of planning control or indeed any injury to both immediate and wider surrounding amenity caused by that breach.

'In this regard, the site property could be physically amended in design terms to meet the policy design requirements of the planning authority and, as a consequence, such matters could potentially be resolved through a retrospective planning application as opposed to serving a notice requiring total demolition.

'Given the appellant's residence, it is considered that it is unreasonable to expect the appellant to comply with the terms of the notice within a three month period and falls short of what should reasonably be allowed.

'The appellant would suggest that a six month period would be more appropriate given the logistics of instructing and managing such an operation at distance.'

Government reporter Steve Field said: 'I uphold the enforcement notice but allow the appeal to the extent that I vary the terms of the notice by changing the time period for compliance to four months.

'I have considered all the other matters raised but there are none which would lead me to alter my conclusions.'
A man has been beaten to death in India after a 'sacrilegious' attempt to interrupt prayers at Sikhism's holiest shrine which was caught on live television.

The unidentified man jumped over a railing into the Golden Temple's inner sanctum during Saturday evening prayers in the city of Amritsar.

Footage from inside the temple shows a man wearing blue clothes and a yellow pagri leap over the railing into the inner sanctum and grab a sword kept in front of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.

He is then grabbed by worshippers who violently drag him back over the railing and out of the inner sanctum.

Separate video shows a man sitting next to the prayer leader jump up to stop the assailant, on the left edge of the shot, as he leaps into the sanctum.

Footage, which MailOnline has chosen not to publish, purports to show the man with his hands tied behind his back being beaten and kicked.

Footage from inside the temple shows a man wearing blue clothes and a yellow pagri leap over the railing into the inner sanctum and grab a sword kept in front of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book

He is then grabbed by worshippers who violently drag him back over the railing and out of the inner sanctum

Video shows a man sitting next to the prayer leader jump up to stop the assailant, on the left edge of the shot, as he leaps into the sanctum

Footage, which MailOnline has chosen not to publish, purports to show the man with his hands tied behind his back being beaten and kicked

Police told New Delhi Television that the man was killed after the incident and that they were checking CCTV footage to glean more information.

'The man, about 20 to 25 years of age, had a yellow cloth tied on his head and jumped the fence... the people inside held him and escorted him out to the corridor where there was a violent altercation and he died,' Parminder Singh Bandal, deputy commissioner of Amritsar police, told the channel.

Punjab state chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi condemned the man's 'most unfortunate and heinous act' in a series of tweets from his office late on Saturday.

Channi also ordered a probe to find out the 'underlying motive and real conspirators behind the dastardly act.'

Defence of the Guru Granth Sahib and Sikh shrines against desecration is a highly sensitive issue for the community.

Sikh devotees gather to pay respect at the Golden Temple in Amritsar a day after a man was beaten to death after he jumped into the inner sanctum

Punjab state chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi (pictured at the Golden Temple on December 19) condemned the man's 'most unfortunate and heinous act' in a series of tweets from his office late on Saturday

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Harjinder Singh Dhami (Centre, bottom) offer prayers after a man was beaten to death at the Golden Temple in Amritsar

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 after she ordered a brutal army assault on the Golden Temple to flush out separatists.

Her killing sparked a bloody pogrom in the capital New Delhi which left nearly 3,000 Sikhs dead.

In 2015, a controversial biopic of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak was pulled after protests prompted by his depiction in human form, which is against the tenets of the religion.

And a group of Nihang - a warrior order within the Sikh faith - tortured and killed a man on the outskirts of New Delhi in October after accusing him of desecrating the holy book.
A failed artist has been jailed for a minimum of 36 years for stabbing to death his mother's 300 million baronet lover before trying to kill her in a murderous rage - as his sister told him 'you took a knife to our world'.

Thomas Schreiber, 35, stabbed Sir Richard Sutton to death with a kitchen knife at the 300million baronet's country estate near Gillingham, Dorset.

He also attempted to murder his mother, Anne Schreiber, Sir Richard's partner during the knife attack in April.

Schreiber, who lived with the couple at the mansion rent-free following his mother's divorce from his biological father, admitted carrying out the 'horror show' attack but denied murder.

However, he was convicted of Sir Richard's killing and the attempted murder of his mother following a three-week trial at Winchester Crown Court.

Today he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years for murder and attempted murder.

Schreiber was also sentenced for driving a Range Rover dangerously when he failed to stop for armed police in a 135mph pursuit following the killing, before he was detained in central London where he stabbed himself in the chest and shouted at officers to shoot him.

The court heard the sobbing defendant describe himself as being a 'coward', before apologising to his family and saying he was 'in total shock and horror' that he was capable of such an incident.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Garnham told the court Schreiber had launched a 'vicious attack' to kill his father and it was 'only by a whisker' his mother survived.

Thomas Schreiber (pictured), 35, stabbed Sir Richard Sutton to death with a kitchen knife at the baronet's country estate near Gillingham, Dorset

He also attempted to murder his mother, Anne Schreiber, Sir Richard's partner during the knife attack in April.

The judge added: 'Your actions have caused utter devastation in the Sutton and Schreiber families. You treated Sir Richard's house and possessions as if they were your own.

'You showed neither him or your mother any respect, instead during your time in their home you displayed a breath-taking sense of entitlement, at times you left Sir Richard feeling like a prisoner in his own home.

'You are a man with a very bad temper.'

Speaking outside the court following the sentencing, the family of Sir Richard described the loss of a 'generous, loving, elderly man'.

In a statement, they said: 'We welcome the outcome of the trial and that justice has been seen to be done.

'However, this was a tragic and devastating loss of life, taken far too early, of a generous, loving, elderly man who only wanted to enjoy his twilight years; an elderly man who was our father, a brother, a grandfather and a friend to all who knew him.

'We will treasure our memories of him forever and his values, of being warm and compassionate to all those he met and worked with, will live on; as will the love, respect and devotion he showed to his family and friends every day.

"We will never forget him, nor his never-ending kindness and generosity. He will be sorely missed.'

Schreiber (pictured here in a court sketch) admitted carrying out the 'horror show' knife attack on the pair on April 7 this year - the eighth anniversary of the death of his alcoholic father David

Sobbing and shaking, Schreiber's sister Rose McCarthy also read a victim impact statement during the hearing.

Speaking directly to her brother, she said: 'You took a knife to our world. In doing so you took away Richard, you took away the most innocent and kindest of men in the most brutal of ways. He never stood a chance.

'You also killed our mother, you took her life away and left her trapped in a body she can't use, and is in constant pain.

'She can't even wipe away her own tears. You destroyed everything, Mum can't even hold her own grandchildren, she can't give me a hug.'

With the defendant crying in the dock, she added: 'Tom, I love you but I struggle so badly with what you have done, what a waste of all these lives for a moment's anger.'

Sir Richard's daughter, Caroline Sutton, added: 'My father was the kindest and most generous man you'd ever meet.

His son, Sir David Sutton, also gave a statement to the court in which he described his father as a 'generous, loving, elderly man' who was killed in a 'senseless act'.

He said: 'I think of my father every single day. I just cannot believe and comprehend that he is not here anymore. I will never see him again, only in memories in my mind, which too easily become fogged over by the horrendous ending he had.

'Having only seen my father in person twice in the previous 15 months due to lockdown and the fact he was isolating, it was a real surprise when he came down to our home in February 2021 to bring me a birthday gift.

'It was a special time; we gave him a whistle-stop tour of the projects we had achieved during lockdown. Little did I know at that time that would be the last time I saw him.

'The circumstances of his parting gives me feelings of intense anger, sadness and distress.

During a break in proceedings on Monday, a sobbing Schreiber spoke to his sisters from the dock, saying: 'I am so sorry, I really am, I love you.'

In a letter to the judge, he spoke of his 'heartfelt shame and total disgust' at his actions, and added: 'All I wish to do is travel back in time to that terrible day so I can change everything and bring Sir Richard and my mother back to life.'

Expressing his wish that he had sought help for his mental health, he said: 'I have been a coward, hugely arrogant and selfish in my behaviour. I am so sorry for this and wish I had the clarity of thought I have now, I remain in total shock and horror that I could be capable of such actions.'

'This was not the actions of a demonic monster but someone in need of help and intervention.'

Schreiber admitted carrying out the 'horror show' knife attack on the pair on April 7 this year - the eighth anniversary of the death of his alcoholic father David.

After, he said his mother Anne Schreiber shouted at him for being 'drunk like his father'.

The trial has heard the defendant was angry with his mother for 'abandoning' his father, who suffered from depression, to move in with Sir Richard (pictured)

After 'sponging' off Sir Richard Sutton for years, Thomas Schreiber (pictured with his mother) stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife in a frenzied attack which left the hotelier in a pool of blood outside his bedroom door

Thomas Schreiber's sister Louisa pictured outside Winchester Crown Court on Friday

Ms Schreiber suffered up to 15 separate injuries on her head and body, including a partially severed spinal cord which has left her paralysed.

Schreiber had also pleaded guilty to driving a Range Rover dangerously on the A303, A4 and M3 when he failed to stop for armed police in a 135mph pursuit into central London (pictured: Police arrest Schreiber)

He told the court: 'I just went completely crazy, I completely snapped and I just launched for her and began attacking her uncontrollably.'

He had admitted manslaughter but denied the murder of the baronet, saying he had 'lost control' of himself and had not intended to hurt him or his mother.

Ms Schreiber suffered up to 15 separate injuries on her head and body, including a partially severed spinal cord which has left her paralysed.

Sir Richard suffered three deep wounds to his face and five to his chest, up to 12cm deep.

Schreiber had also pleaded guilty to driving a Range Rover dangerously on the A303, A4 and M3 when he failed to stop for armed police in a 135mph pursuit into central London.

As he was detained in Chiswick, the defendant stabbed himself in the chest and told officers: 'Please kill me now, please just shoot me.'

The trial has heard the defendant was angry with his mother for 'abandoning' his father, who suffered from depression, to move in with Sir Richard.

Schreiber, an aspiring painter, also felt Sir Richard treated him unfairly compared to his two sisters despite him receiving a 1,000 monthly allowance and 100,000 towards buying a house.

The court heard family arguments descended into violence on three previous occasions, including once when Sir Richard hit the defendant with his walking stick in November 2020. It caused the cane to shatter and left Schreiber 'humiliated'.

The defendant blamed lockdown for worsening his mental health by forcing him to remain in the 'toxic pressure boiler' environment of Sir Richard's estate.

Sir Richard was listed at number 435 in the Sunday Times Rich List last year with an estimated family fortune of 301million.

He owned a sprawling property empire and more than 16,000 acres of land, including the five-star Sheraton Grand on London's Park Lane and the Athenaeum hotel in Mayfair.

Sir Richard had two children by his first wife Fiamma, and five grandchildren.

Mrs Schreiber, a Danish-born physiotherapist who has a practice in Milborne Port, Dorset, has three grown-up children including son Thomas.

Detective Inspector Simon Huxter, of Dorset Polices Major Crime Investigation Team, said: 'Our thoughts remain first and foremost with the family of Sir Richard and Anne and I again want to thank them for their support during the investigation and trial process as well as the dignified way they have conducted themselves throughout.

'I would also like to repeat my thanks to all those officers and staff from Dorset Police and other forces involved in this detailed investigation, as well as the CPS prosecution team for the role they have played in helping to secure this conviction and sentence.'
The Department of Defense has delayed granting exemptions to more than 12,000 American troops looking to avoid getting the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons, blaming the lengthy review process for creating a backlog in the approval process.

The lack of approvals is creating new tensions within the military, even as the vast majority of the armed forces have gotten their shots. All of the branches are at least 95 percent vaccinated as of last Friday.

Since the vaccine mandate came into effect in August, some soldiers have refused to get their shots. More than 100 Marines and 37 Air Force members have been fired from duty after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered mandatory jabs for all troops.

The Navy is looking to discharge 5,731 sailors and the Army has identified 3,800 soldiers for separation for refusing to get vaccinated.

The services, urgently trying to keep the coronavirus pandemic in check by getting troops vaccinated, are now besieged with exemption requests they are unlikely to approve.

Air Force officials initially said religious exemption requests would be answered in 30 days. But they have gotten more than 4,700 requests - far more than the other military services, and the logistics of the lengthy review process has made it difficult to meet that timeline.

The Navy has received about 2,700 religious exemption requests, the Marine Corps has 3,100 and the Army about 1,700.

The military has seen a surge of soldiers applying for religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccination. None of the applications have been approved so far and many are likely to be rejected.

About 30,000 American soldiers have not been vaccinated after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced it would be mandatory for all members of the military

Meanwhile, soldiers claiming religious reasons for avoiding the shots are perplexed because exemptions are theoretically available, yet seem impossible to obtain.

Caught in the middle are chaplains, who must balance the desire to offer compassionate care and guidance to personnel with the need to explain a complicated process that may well be futile.

They also must assess requests from those who may be using religion as an excuse to avoid a vaccine that, while credited with preventing needless deaths, has become politically charged.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said repeatedly that getting the vaccine is critical to maintaining a heathy and ready force

'So many of them come in thinking that I make the decision, and if they make this case, that it's a done deal,' said Maj. A'Shellarien Lang, an Army chaplain for the National Guard.

'I don't make the decision. And so when they find that out, it's a kind of game-changer in the sense that they know that the process has to continue.'

According to the services, at least 30,000 service members are not yet vaccinated, but several thousand of those have gotten temporary or permanent medical or administrative exemptions approved.

Of the remaining - which is likely 20,000 or more - thousands are working their way through the exemptions process, such as for religious reasons, or have flatly refused. That's about 1.5% of the roughly 1.3 million active duty troops.

Obtaining a religious exemption is rooted in a process that predates the pandemic and has been used for decisions such as whether troops on duty can wear head coverings or beards for religious reasons.

In addition to discussions with chaplains to determine whether they have a 'sincerely held belief,' troops must meet with commanders and medical personnel.

The final decision is made higher up the chain of command and is also based on whether the person's vaccine exemption will pose a risk to mission accomplishment, unit cohesion, the health and safety of the force, and military readiness.

Even in the past, few troops have cleared those hurdles to get religious exemptions.

And because the pandemic can directly affect the force's health and readiness, the bar is even higher, so military leaders aren't surprised by the lack of approved exemptions.

But for the troops and chaplains, it's been a bit overwhelming.

'It's just been a lot of interviews, a lot of memos,' Lang said. 'I find that my colleagues are stressed just because of the logistics of getting the memo done and having to make sure they're keeping up with the process. It's like rapid fire.'

COVID VACCINATION RATES ACROSS US MILITARY SERVICES: Navy - 98 percent

Army - 97.9 percent

Air Force - 97.5 percent

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Some of the religious exemption requests that were rejected have been appealed, but there is little data on that.

'We did not expect the surge of requests,' said Air Force Col. Paul Sutter, chief chaplain for religious affairs at Space Force, which is included in the Air Force.

An Air Force reservist who requested a religious exemption said she's aware of none approved so far, and she is not optimistic.

The reservist, who asked that her name be withheld for privacy reasons, said her chaplain was very straightforward, laying out the process and noting the lack of approvals.

Still, she said, she believes 'God has a plan for my life.'

Sutter and Col. Larry Bazer, deputy director of the National Guard's joint chaplain office, said they tell their chaplains to be impartial as they speak with service members and to follow the process.

'Meet the member where they are. Let them articulate who they are, how they believe and how they live out that faith,' Sutter said he advises chaplains. 'We're just looking for their articulation of their deeply held beliefs. You're looking for a consistency in how they adhere to those beliefs.'

Army Chaplain Maj. A'Shellarien Lang, right, and National Guard Chaplain Col. Larry Bazer are meeting with troops to prepare them if their requests are not accepted.

Lang, who has done more than 50 interviews, said a key question she asks is what service members plan to do if their request is denied - a possibility some don't expect.

She said some troops believe God doesn't want them vaccinated and are torn by what they see as a contradiction if God somehow doesn't ensure they get the exemption.

'If in their heart and their mind, they say this is God's will for my life, and if the answer is no, it's going to shatter that faith because there's no balance.

There's no room for God to say no,' she said. 'When I create the space to say what if God says no, then that opens up another whole level of faith conversation.'

The Air Force reservist who spoke on condition of anonymity said she was raised a Christian and is willing to retire if her request isn't granted, even though it would mean giving up her G.I. Bill tuition benefits that she would get if she stayed another year or more.

'I will have to forfeit that,' said the mother of three children, including a newborn. Forgoing the tuition benefit, which she could transfer to her children, is worth it, she said. 'I have no doubt God will provide for me.'

The reservist, whose husband is in the Army and is vaccinated, was pregnant when the vaccine came out, and she was concerned about a possible reaction. Health officials have asserted it is safe for pregnant women, but in some cases the military has granted temporary exemptions to women.

The reservist said her opposition is rooted in her faith, including concerns that some vaccines were tested on fetal cell lines developed over decades. The vaccines don't contain fetal material.

The Vatican has deemed it 'morally acceptable' for Catholics to get the shot and other Christian faiths have done the same.

But some religious leaders have offered exemption letter templates and voiced support for vaccine avoidance.

The services, in many cases, provided chaplains with interview questions such as whether the service member's 'pattern of conduct' is consistent, whether the member routinely complies with religious practices and whether the member participates in activities 'associated with the belief.'

Chaplains also take into account whether service members previously received religious accommodations.

'I don't really dig into how long they've been in church and all of that kind of stuff because it's really about their current reality of what they really believe,' Lang said. 'And in that moment - let's suppose it's a political decision, but they wrap it in religiosity - that's still what they believe in that moment.'

The chaplains said the interviews have had the side benefit of making troops more aware that religious personnel are available and that the meetings are triggering longer conversations about other issues.

'It's really been a bridge to just some greater ministry,' Lang said.

Chaplains also are reaching out to each other for support. The past two years have been challenging for them as they worked with troops facing a wide range of struggles - from COVID-19 losses, job pressures, racial unrest and protests, and deployments.

'It really has been a major stress on our chaplain corps - just to be there as their chaplain,' said Bazer, a rabbi. 'Overall folks are good, but folks are tired. I think our faith gives us that extra strength to keep us going - it's that spiritual adrenaline push.'
A headmistress has ditched the titles of 'head boy' and 'head girl' at her Church of England school after claiming the terms were 'outdated.'

Rachael Lucas, 47, said pupils elected to the roles at Bolton St Catherine's Academy in Greater Manchester would now be known as gender neutral 'head ambassadors'.

She said the new titles would provide 'a welcoming atmosphere for all' and the move was part of the school's 'desire to continue to be known as an inclusive community.'

The three chosen pupils were Ted Hodson-Fitton, Jemima Alasoudura and Sophia Hughes. The school has maintained the head boy and girl titles in its junior school.

Sophia Hughes, Ted Hodson-Fitton and Jemima Alasoudura are the new 'head ambassadors' at Bolton St Catherine's Academy in Greater Manchester

Mrs Lucas said: 'At Bolton St Catherine's Academy we recognise and celebrate diversity and inclusion.

'We are delighted to be able to showcase our commitment to this by thinking about how we address our lead student ambassadors - moving away from the outdated notion of a head girl and boy.

'Small gestures can have big impacts, and with many other initiatives around school, we are signalling our resolution to be an institution that is welcoming to all.'

A post on the school's website added: 'Taking the place of the traditional Head Boy and Girl titles, we will now use the term Head Ambassadors. The three selected students to take on this exciting role are Sophia, Ted and Jemima.

Headmistress Rachael Lucas said the three pupils would be known as 'head ambassadors'

'They have already started strong, by giving their first public speech at Open Evening, touring parents around the Academy, hosting activities and helping at Summer School.

'They also assisted staff on our Year 7 Transition day at the beginning of term. We are looking forward to seeing all they achieve this academic year.'

More than 20 pupils applied for the 'ambassador positions' at the 1,260-pupil school which teaches children from the ages of 3-16.

They completed an application form and gave a speech, outlining the reasons they wished to take on the roles. Three students were chosen - Ted, Sophia and Jemima.

Bolton St Catherine's Academy was formed in 2009, following the merger of two other schools

The other students who applied were selected to be 'Year 11 ambassadors', and are said to be 'identified' in the academy with a special silver tie.

So far, they have assisted with open evenings, Year Seven transition meetings, tours for visitors around the academy, and they will be hand delivering Christmas cards to the local area in December.

Ted said: 'I am grateful for the opportunity to be a head's ambassador because I am able to represent my school in a positive way, showing our community how amazing we are.'

Sophia added: 'Our community is a place to thrive from and not a place to impose limitations.'

The school's website made the announcement and also featured a picture of the three pupils

And Jemima said: 'Being someone from a multi-heritage background within an English school, has helped me to understand the importance of celebrating culture and diversity within school life, and as a head's ambassador it's essential to me that as a school that we celebrate those differences that make us all unique.'

The school, which was formed in 2009, following the merger of two other schools currently has an 'LGBTQ+ group' for students.

History teacher Mrs Lucas arrived at St Catherine's in 2017 having been deputy head at Sir John Thursby Community College in nearby Burnley.

Earlier this year she said she would be filing a report to public health officials about pupils flouting lockdown edicts after several schoolgirls turned up to class wearing false eyelashes having had them applied by professional beauticians, apparently in breach of Covid rules.
A Utah college student who went missing after leaving her dorm room a week ago to meet a man from an online fetish chatroom, was rescued by the police from the home of her alleged kidnapper, where she was found naked and covered in coal in the basement.

Law enforcement officials arrested 39-year-old Brent Brown in connection with the disappearance of Madelyn Allen, a 19-year-old Snow College student from Ephraim. He now faces charges of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnaping, rape and object rape.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Brown took away Allen's wallet and phone, and tied her up while he was at work, later claiming that it was part of kidnapping role-play.

During a press conference on Saturday night, Allen's overjoyed parents recounted how they fell to their knees after getting a call from the police, telling them their daughter has been found alive.

Allen met Brown in a group chat on the messaging app KIK and agreed to have him pick her up in Ephraim on December 13, the affidavit stated.

Snow College security video showed Allen leaving her dormitory after 9.20pm last Monday.

Scroll down for video

Madelyn Allen, a student at Snow College in Utah, was rescued from the Loa, Utah, home of her alleged kidnapper, Brent Brown, 39, on Saturday, after a five-day search

Snow College security video captured Allen leaving her dorm on the night of December 13

After meeting Brown online, Allen was said to have arranged for him to pick her up in Ephraim, Utah after walking out of her college dorm

Police used cellphone tower data to track down Allen, discovering her in the basement of this home on Main Street in the town of Loa, Utah

This map shows the distance between the Snow College campus in Ephraim, Utah, and the house in Loa, Utah, where Allen was found five days after her disappearance

When Allen failed to return home the next morning, her roommates filed a missing person reported, reported The Salt Lake City Tribune.

Investigators learned that Allen has been struggling with depression and anxiety, and that she used dating apps. A search of her phone records revealed text message exchanges of a violent sexual nature, according to the affidavit.

While police were looking for Allen, she was at Brown's home in Loa, nearly 90 miles away, where, according to the court records, the relationship between the college student and her date became nonconsensual and violent.

The affidavit stated that Brown took away Allen's Phone, allowing her only to text her family the words 'I love you!' on December 14 - a message that alarmed her parents and siblings, prompting them to go to the authorities.

Brown allegedly tied up Allen while he was at work, took away her wallet and threatened to 'come after her family and sister' if she were to tell anyone about him.

After Brown learned that police were looking for Allen, he threw away her phone, but not before the authorities were able to use cellphone tower data associated with her December 14 text message to track her to Loa.

As police officers were scouring the small town of 500 inhabitants, according to the affidavit, they spotted a petite woman with blonde her in the basement of a home on Main Street.

Authorities announced the news of Allen's rescue during a press conference on Saturday night

Allen's parents, Jonathan and Taunya Allen, expressed their gratitude and joy after being reunited with their daughter

Court documents allege that Allen met Brown on the messaging app KIK and arranged for him to pick her up on December 13. Brown allegedly took the teen to him home, where he tied her up and took away her personal belongings

Allen texted her family 'I love you' on December 14, which alarmed them

When they knocked on the door, asking about Allen, the man who answered - later identified as Brown - told them he was alone in the house and refused to let them in without his parents' permission, the documents stated.

Officials obtained a search warrant and entered the home on Saturday, where they located a Snow College identification card belonging to the missing student. During a subsequent search of the residence, police found Allen alive in the coal room in the cellar, naked and covered in coal.

The affidavit stated that police officers found Brown to be in possession of a gun and three knives, reported Gephardt Daily.

Under questioning, Brown allegedly admitted to meeting Allen in a slave domination fetish group on KIK, and picking her up on December 13, reported ABC4.

Brown also reportedly said that he took away Allen's phone, kept her tied up to prevent her from leaving and threatening her family, but he claimed it was all part of their sexual role play involving a kidnapping scenario, according to KSL-TV.

Authorities, however, said that Allen was being held against her will.

According to the affidavit, Allen confirmed to the police that she had communicated with a KIK user by the nickname 'Cowboy' and agreed to meet with him on December 13 at Snow College.

Allen said that after Allen brought her to his home in Loa, he made her strip naked and prohibited her from putting her clothes back on for the entire duration of her captivity.

According to the affidavit, the following morning, after Brown took away her phone, Allen became concerned that she would not be allowed to leave. She said Brown always had a large knife on his belt.

The 19-year-old student claimed that her alleged captor raped her several times a day, even though she did not want to have sex with him, and that he once choked her.

Allen said she did not try to leave because Brown knew her family's address and had made threats against them.

She said that Brown told her he had mailed her phone to the southern border so that nobody could find her, and later claimed that police had stopped looking for her.

A candlelight vigil was held on Sunday as part of a 'gathering of gratitude' after Allen's rescue

Following her dramatic rescue, the 19-year-old was taken to a hospital for a checkup, after which she was reunited with her family.

During a press conference on Saturday announcing Allen's rescue, her parents, Jonathan and Taunya, spoke of their gratitude and relief at having their daughter back,

'We got the phone call and [the police chief] said, "I have her." We dropped to our knees,' Jonathan Allen, said. 'We were so grateful, elated. We couldnt describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other.'

Her uncle, Jacob Allen said Madelyn has been through a 'dangerous and traumatic' ordeal, but she is a 'fighter' and a survivor.

On Sunday, Allen's family held two candlelight vigils as part of 'gatherings of gratitude' to celebrate her rescue.
A knife-wielding North Carolina man was shot and killed by police officers as he repeatedly stabbed his ex-wife's teenage daughter after refusing to put down the weapon.

The incident occurred in the 10,000 block of Blairbeth Street in Charlotte on Sunday night.

The man's ex-wife fled after he forced his way into the Charlotte home, police said in a news release. She alerted cops that her 13-year-old daughter was still inside.

Officers found the man holding the girl at knifepoint and tried to 'de-escalate the situation' before he stabbed her multiple times, police said.

The teenager was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries on Saturday, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. She is in stable condition.

Authorities said they are not releasing the names of the man or the victim at this time.

A man was shot and killed by police in North Carolina as he stabbed his 13-year-old stepdaughter in the 10,000 block of Blairbeth Street in Charlotte, North Carolina

Cops 'were met with something that horrific, to see a 13-year-old getting stabbed, and they were left with no choice' but to shoot, said Charlotte Police Chief Johnny Jennings (pictured)

The man's ex-wife fled after he forced his way into the Charlotte home, police said. She alerted police that her daughter was still inside

The cops 'were met with something that horrific, to see a 13-year-old getting stabbed, and they were left with no choice' but to shoot the man, Charlotte Police Chief Johnny Jennings said.

'The motive to stab a 13-year-old is something that is beyond comprehension for us.'

Police said it is unclear for how long the man had the teenager under control.

'There is the question whether she was stabbed previously to the encounter with the officers but what we know now is that as she's being treated, she's being treated for multiple stab wounds and that's still something that has to be uncovered once we talk to the officers,' Jennings said.

Police said it is unclear for how long the man had the teenager under control. She is now recovering in the hospital

The names of the knife-wielding man, who died at the scene, and the officer who shot him weren't released

None of the officers were injured.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating and the officer will be placed on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure after a shooting.

Police said the department would support the officer who fired the shot, who was upset at how the situation unfolded.

Jennings described him as heroic, FOX 46 reported.

It is the third officer-involved shooting this year, CMPD said.
Democrat Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday night, hours after Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker tweeted news of their own diagnoses.

The spate of new infections among Democratic lawmakers is further fueling fears that the Omicron variant causing chaos around the globe has worked its way inside the United States Capitol.

In addition to them, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced on Monday that he also tested positive for the virus.

'This morning, as part of my regular testing routine, I received a positive rapid test for COVID-19. I have been vaccinated and boosted, and I am feeling fine at the moment,' the Republican elected official wrote on Twitter.

'As the Omicron variant becomes dominant, I want to urge you to get vaccinated or get your booster shot as soon as possible.'

Crow, who recently returned from a Congressional trip to Ukraine, revealed his diagnosis just after 9 p.m. last night.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (left) and Colorado Rep. Jason Crow (right) are the latest high-profile politicians to announce positive COVID-19 diagnoses

The military veteran said his symptoms were mild and credited the efficacy of his initial vaccines and booster shot for keeping him safe.

Like Warren and Booker did during their announcements, Crow used his illness as an opportunity to urge unvaccinated or un-boosted Americans to get their shots.

'I just returned from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine and tested positive for a breakthrough COVID infection,' Crow wrote.

'Im thankful to be fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing only mild symptoms (the vaccine is safe and effective).'

In a follow-up post he continued, 'Everyone eligible should get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. Ill continue to push for affordable access to rapid, reliable testing for all Americans.'

Crow is now isolating at home.

Crow revealed his diagnosis after returning from a Congressional delegation to Ukraine

Maryland's Republican governor announced he also tested positive for COVID on Monday morning despite being fully vaccinated and boosted

It's not immediately clear who else was in the delegation to Ukraine. DailyMail.com has reached out to Crow's office.

The number of Omicron cases in the US nearly doubled overnight from Friday to Saturday and has been detected in at least 44 states. As of Saturday morning, there were 830 cases of the new strain confirmed by DNA sequencing across the country, a 97 percent spike from Friday morning - but the number is likely much higher.

It's not known if Crow, Warren and Booker are suffering from the Omicron variant or the still-more prevalent Delta strain.

Lawmakers who normally would be back home for the legislative holiday have remained in Washington, DC in a long shot bid to score a win for President Joe Biden's agenda before the new year.

Warren, 72, was the first to announce her diagnosis and said her infection was mild and that she had both vaccine doses as well as her booster shot.

'I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case,' the progressive Democrat wrote.

'Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted.'

She used her Sunday announcement to make a public plea for people who haven't yet been inoculated to get it done.

'As cases increase across the country, I urge everyone who has not already done so to get the vaccine and the booster as soon as possible - together, we can save lives,' Warren wrote.

Booker, 52, also made the public announcement only a few hours after Warren had confirmed her own diagnosis.

Elizabeth Warren revealed her positive diagnosis on Twitter Sunday afternoon, and Cory Booker announced his a few hours later

Senator Warren announced her diagnosis on Twitter and also urged others to get vaccinated amid the rise in COVID cases and the Omicron variant

Booker announced that he began feeling symptoms on Saturday but have only been relatively mild

'I learned today that I tested positive for COVID-19 after first feeling symptoms on Saturday,' he said on Twitter.

'My symptoms are relatively mild. Im beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster  Im certain that without them I would be doing much worse.'

The lawmakers' positive diagnosis comes as the newly discovered Omicron variant wreaks havoc across the world just as people ready to gather for the Christmas holiday.

Warren became the ninety-second member of Congress to test positive for coronavirus since the pandemic began, making Booker the ninety-third and Crow the ninety-fourth.

One lawmaker, GOP Rep. Ron Wright of Texas, died after a battle with COVID in February 2021. Representative-elect Luke Letlow died of the virus a week before he was due to take office.

Warren's brother Don Reed Herring previously died last year after he had contracted the virus at the age of 86.

Herring, who served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, died on April 21, 2020 after contracting coronavirus in an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Oklahoma where he was recovering from pneumonia.

The family was told that other patients staying at the same facility were infected with coronavirus and Herring tested positive in early April but did not show symptoms for eleven days.

After his diagnosis, Warren said she spoke with her brother nearly every day, but she, his wife, and the rest of the family were unable to visit him due to the highly contagious nature of the pathogen.

'He had had pneumonia and had been hospitalized,' Warren explained.

'This is back in February. He wanted to go home after he'd been hospitalized and his doctor said, "No, I want you to just go to a rehab and just get some of your strength back". Pneumonia really takes it out of you. And, you know, he's old.

'And so, he went to the rehab and was ready to go home. He was packed up and ready to go home when somebody tested positive, and they wouldn't let him leave. And I called him every day for 11 days, and every day he would say, "I'm just fine". In fact, he said, "I think I probably had it before and I'm just too tough and didn't even notice".

Warren with her brother Don Reed Herring who passed away from COVID in April 2020

Warren is seen with her three brothers Don (left), John (right center) and David (right)

Warren is seen as a young girl with her three brothers, including her brother Don wearing an Air Force uniform

On April 15, however, Herring was rushed to Norman Regional Hospital, where he was placed in intensive care without a ventilator. He died six days later.

'And then he got sick, and then he died, by himself. That's the hard partreally hard part,' Warren said of being unable to visit her brother when he became ill.

'It's hard to process things like this because everything is happening at a distance. And human beingswe're not set up for that. We're wired to be with each other. It makes it hard.

'I lost three very important people in my life many years ago in what felt like a short period of time: my mom, my daddy, and my Aunt Bee,' she added.

'Each of them died differently. My mother, very suddenly and unexpectedly. My daddy, lingering cancer. I held his hand as he died. With my mother, I had been there on the day that she died, in the night. My Aunt Bee got sick and then couldn't recover.

'But I was with them. And I was with my brothers and my cousins and my kids. And we shared memories; we grieved together.'

Warren said that she could 'remember thinking I couldn't breathe' when she heard of Herring's coronavirus diagnosis at first but that when he didn't show symptoms for more than a week, they had begun to think about him leaving the hospital.

'And for 11 days, I'd call him in the morning, call him in the evening, and he'd tell me, "Oh, it's fine", and laugh,' she said.

'And he was irritated that he couldn't leave. And I had begun to think, "This is okay. We're going to get him out of there". In fact, I'd been talking: Would Davidmy other brotherbe the one to pick him up, or was John going to come? You know what I mean: working on the logistics of how to get him out of there.'

The former Democratic presidential candidate added that all she could do was imagine what her brother was going through as she could not be with him or either of her other two brothers

'And then I called, and no one answered his phone, his cell. And that had happened a couple of times because he'd been doing something else. But nobody answered,' she said.

'And so, a little while later I called back, and then I got the news that he had been taken to an emergency room. In any other state of the world, I would have been there with him. We all would have been there with him. And instead he was by himself. I just kept imagining what's happening to him. Is he afraid? Is he cold? I kept thinking about whether he was cold.

'There's no one there to talk to him while he waits for the doctor. There's no one there to be with him while he receives the news.

'Then I found out they put him in intensive care. I would get the information via the nurses about what his blood-oxygen levels were. And all I could do would be talk by phone with my brothers. It's not the same. You need to touch people. We have to hug; we have to be with each other.'

Warren had not revealed a member of her family had coronavirus before she confirmed Herring's death in late April 2020 in a statement to the Boston Globe.

'I'm grateful to the nurses and other front-line staff who took care of my brother, but it is hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say 'I love you' one more time.

'And now there's no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close,' she said.

'I will miss my brother.'

The announcement of Warren's diagnosis comes after the rise of COVID cases that has swept throughout the US amid the recent development of the Omicron variant.

Since the start of December, both U.S. COVID cases and deaths have risen about 50 percent and the number of hospitalized COVID patients climbed 26 percent, according to a Reuters tally.

The presence of the new Omicron variant, which is believed to be responsible for the most recent surge, has so far been identified in 830 cases across the country.

Kentucky, Arkansas, Maine, Kansas and Wyoming confirmed new Omicron cases on Sunday, bringing the total to 45 states.

The surge in recent cases is a 40 percent increase from November's numbers, with 118,717 cases being reported each day.

Testing has now confirmed the presence of Omicron in every US state except for Oklahoma, Montana, North and South Dakota, Indiana, and Vermont, though the eventual arrival of the highly transmissible variant in every state seems assured.

Highly vaccinated states in the Northeast seem to be struggling the most at the moment as cold weather, waning immunity and the new variant all contribute to a new case surge.

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island also recorded record high daily cases this week.

In the past month, 60,000 patients have been newly treated in hospitals across the country with doctors and officials urging the United States' unvaccinated population - 39% of Americans - to receive the shot in order to create space for non-COVID patients.

This increase has spiked hospitalization rates in various Midwestern states, as well as California, and there are 67,306 patients currently treated nationally.

On average, 1,290 people have died from the virus daily during the past week; the virus has killed more than 800,000 Americans since the pandemic began.

More than 50.7 million others have contracted the virus.
Country could be pushed into de facto lockdown with so many isolating

Ministers are considering cutting isolation for infected from 10 to seven days

Covid-infected Britons may only have to stay at home for a week after catching the virus, as ministers consider reducing the current 10-day rule due to fears Omicron will cripple the economy.

According to Government modelling, up to 2million people could be catching the ultra-transmissible variant per day during the peak this winter.

There are growing fears it could push the country into a de facto lockdown with so many isolating with mild illness, even if hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

Sources say the change in policy is 'being looked at' and Health Secretary Sajid Javid is thought to be eager to shorten the isolation timeframe as hospitals and businesses struggle due to absent workers.

He has asked experts for urgent advice on whether knocking three days off the requirement is possible, in hopes of implementing the change within days.

The change would likely be met with a requirement for those exiting their seven-day isolation to take daily lateral flow tests.

Under the current rules, people must self-isolate for 10 days from when their Covid symptoms started  or from their positive test if they are asymptomatic.

But more than half a million Britons tested positive in the last week alone and infection rates are expected to keep claiming over the coming weeks, with officials warning of 1million new cases every day.

And a third of NHS staff in London, where mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident over the weekend due to Omicrons impact on the city, could be stuck at home by January.

Health experts, MPs and business leaders said case numbers coupled with the 10-day rule could trash the economy by leaving shops, bars and restaurants with too few workers and customers while emergency services would also be understaffed.

Anyone who is infected with the virus must isolate for ten days after first developing symptoms or testing positive. But ministers are looking at cutting the requirement to seven days as experts say the move could be effective but daily tests should be introduced

The number of confirmed cases of Omicron in England increased by 69 per cent on the previous day's total - up 9,427 to 23,168, figures from the UKHSA showed today

Health Secretary Sajid Javid is thought to be eager to shorten the isolation timeframe as hospitals and businesses struggle due to absent workers. He has asked experts for urgent advice on whether knocking three days off the requirement is possible, in hopes of implementing the change within days

Data from Oxford Universitys Pathogen Dynamics Group released in August shows up to 40 per cent of transmission occurs before symptoms emerge, with most happening in the two days before people fall ill. And people seem to be least infection on the last three days of their isolation

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: Well, we will keep anything like that on the isolation period under review based on the latest clinical advice.

We would update if that were to change.

Modelling by Government scientific advisers indicates it would be possible to reduce the isolation period without having a significant impact on infection rates if people had a negative test before they were released.

The move is also backed by 'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, whose Covid projections prompted the first lockdown.

Asked on BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Saturday how he would feel about reducing quarantine to seven days, Professor Ferguson said: All the modelling and analysis would suggest if its coupled with lateral-flow testing its not going to reduce the effectiveness of the measure that much.

Tory MP Peter Bone backed a change, saying: We need a more sophisticated policy that can help get people back to work as soon as possible.

And Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, told the Telegraph most Omicron transmission occurs within the first five days of catching the virus, after which infectiousness falls.

The number of NHS staff in London absent due to Covid has more than doubled in four days and one in three of the workforce would be absent by New Years Eve if the growth rate continues.

Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursings England director, said such a situation would be catastrophic.
A Sky salesman has won 51,082 after he was fired for suggesting to a female colleague that women who wear short skirts are to blame if they get raped.

Raja Minhas, 44, said that if women walk around dressed 'inappropriately' some men see it as an 'open invitation' to sexually assault them after observing a teenager's dress in the Blackburn shopping mall where he worked.

The 'successful' sales adviser - who earned more than 100,000 as well as receiving a 2,296 Sky TV package - was fired for gross misconduct.

But he won a claim of unfair dismissal after a judge ruled he had expressed remorse and the comments were made in a private conversation, and not to the two girls.

A hearing in Liverpool was told that Mr Minhas had been working on a Sky stall for more than two years in a shopping centre in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 2019 when he made a comment to his female colleague.

Raja Minhas (pictured), 44, said that if women walk around dressed 'inappropriately' some men see it as an 'open invitation' to sexually assault them after observing a teenager's dress in the Blackburn shopping mall where he worked

Mia Klemetti said that Mr Minhas remarked, after two teenagers aged around 15 or 16 walked past, that 'girls in general who wear skirts like that and then get raped - it's their own fault'.

The pair got into a heated discussion with Ms Klemetti telling him she believed a woman should be able to wear what she wanted and no-one should get raped because of their clothing choice.

The tribunal heard he said that he thought if girls dressed like that 'sick people' might take advantage.

He told investigators: 'I was working with Ms Klemetti, I saw two girls walking past, both girls were dressed inappropriate. 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.

'Then Mia said, ''that's not true, it's not the girls' fault, they can dress how they want to dress, it's the individual's choice, good or bad''.

'In my opinion if they wear that type of clothing some sick minded people around could take advantage of this inappropriate dress attire.'

Another colleague, Farhan Qudeer, overheard the conversation and later reported the comments to his manager.

He said he felt he had a duty to report what he had heard as it would give 'Pakistanis a bad name'.

The tribunal heard that Ms Klemetti told the managers that Mr Minhas's remarks would affect the way she dressed in future but in general he 'wasn't a bad man' and would never hurt someone.

The 'successful' sales adviser - who earned more than 100,000 as well as receiving a 2,296 Sky TV package - was fired for gross misconduct

When Mr Minhas was questioned, he said that while he felt some customers dressed 'inappropriately' he knew he had no right to comment on what they were wearing.

He said that his comments were a 'momentary lapse of judgment' which would not be repeated and which he regretted.

He added that he wanted to apologise and the tribunal found he was 'contrite, apologetic and showed remorse'.

Despite his apologies he was suspended and eventually dismissed for gross misconduct, partly on the incorrect assumption he made the comments directly to the women as they walked past.

However, a tribunal concluded that while Mr Minhas had 'strong views' as to how people should behave he should not have been dismissed as he 'never condoned rape'.

In its judgement, the panel said: '[Mr Minhas] was guilty of some misconduct because Ms Klemetti did feel that she would not dress in a certain way in front of [him].

'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 [Mr Minhas] 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.'

He added: 'The comment made to Ms Klemetti was part of a general discussion about clothing.

'Mr Minhas... had strong views as to what people should wear and do.

'For example he felt that women should not breast feed in public. But he also made it abundantly clear that these were simply his views and he had no issue with other people having a different point of view.'

A subsequent remedy hearing in Manchester heard that after being sacked by Sky Mr Minhas got another job as a salesman for an agency in Hertfordshire.

At the hearing he asked to have his old job at Sky back. But his request was denied.

Judge Robinson concluded: '[The pandemic] and the resultant problem [it has] engendered would make it difficult, if not impossible, from a practical point of view to place the claimant back with Sky.

'Mr Minhas may not be embarrassed by returning but some of his colleagues may well be and the industrial atmosphere therefore, if not actually poisoned, would not be helpful in a small setting where salesman and saleswomen have to get along in order to promote Sky's products.

'He was able, through his hard work and skill, to earn a considerable amount each week and he must be compensated properly for his consequent loss.'
President Joe Biden arrived back in Washington, D.C. Monday from his Wilmington, Delaware home after his Build Back Better plan was effectively killed over the weekend by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

When landing back in D.C., Biden immediately walked to the Oval Office to get to work, ignoring reporters who were shouting questions related to the breakdown of his ambitious agenda.

Also facing the president as he returns to the beltway are record-setting spikes in cases of COVID-19 with the swift spread of the Omicron variant.

Traveling with Biden from Delaware to D.C. on Monday are his son Hunter, 51, and grandson Beau Jr., 1, who were not pictured.

Biden is also preparing for remarks Tuesday where he will announce new measures to address coronavirus concerns as Omicron spreads through cities leading to case spikes not yet seen before in the pandemic.

Upon returning from his weekend away and going into Christmas week, Biden is facing a new low disapproval of 55 per cent, according to a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released Monday. The new poll includes 44 per cent who strongly disapprove and shows support among independent voters alone has dropped eight points in the last week.

Forty-one per cent of Americans approve of the job Biden's doing as president.

President Joe Biden departed Wilmington, Delaware on Monday for Washington, D.C. as he returns to a crisis within his party after his Build Back Better agenda was effectively killed during his weekend away

Biden's return comes as his disapproval rating hit a new high of 55%, according to a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released Monday

Biden salutes Marines as he boards Marine One to return to Washington, D.C. on Monday, December 20 for a busy week ahead of his Christmas holiday

When landing back on the White House South Lawn on Monday, Biden walked to the Oval Office and ignored reporters shouting questions about Manchin definitively saying he will vote against BBB

COVID has surged in with the emergence and spread of the Omicron variant this month

While Biden's approval rating has been steadily dropping below the 50 per cent mark since mid-August, the recent lows are indicative of how the country feels about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the late spring and early summer, when COVID cases had dropped substantially amidst the initial wave of vaccinations, Biden's approval sat between 51-54 per cent. His approval and disapproval ratings have since then flipped.

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of the strain, with 221 cases being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning. The country has now joined a dubious group of five countries with more than 1,000 cases of the new variant, reaching 1,079 as of Monday morning.

It comes as experts begin to learn more about the variant, which was first discovered late last month in South Africa. Omicron is the most mutated COVID strain yet, with over 50 mutations total - including 30 on its spike protein. Early data shows it can evade protection provided by all three available COVID vaccines, though getting a booster shot can significantly shore up a person's protection against infection.

On Monday morning, Dr Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC's Good Morning America that America should move past trying to prevent infections, and instead work to stop hospitalizations and deaths.

'The goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs,' he said. 'That's an unrealistic goal. The goal should be prevent deaths and severe illness which vaccines will do.'

The new low ratings also come as Biden faces obstacles related to his keystone agenda  the Build Back Better social spending and welfare plan.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia said in an interview on Sunday when talking about BBB: 'I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation.'

'I just can't,' he told Fox News Sunday host Bret Baier. 'I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there.'

He added: 'This is a no.'

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of Omicron strain, with 221 cases being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning

Massive case spikes are being seen throughout the whole country as the highly contagious but admittedly less series Omicron variant swiftly spreads

Vaccination rates are still plateaued, with most Americans who wanted the vaccinated already receiving the jab

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he will go forward with holding a vote on BBB to force Manchin to vote no after killing the bill by saying he can't support the behemoth social spending legislation.

'Senators should be aware that the Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better Act, very early in the new year so that every Member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television,' Schumer wrote in a letter to colleagues.

'We are going to vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act  and we will keep voting on it until we get something done,' the New York Democrat insisted.

The White House said that Manchin's comments on Sunday were not in line with 'good faith' discussions between the senator and Biden, including a meeting at the president's Delaware home in October.

The White House accused Manchin of breaking his word following months of negotiations.

On Sunday, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told Fox News that he will not vote to pass Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better agenda  even in the New Year

'Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground,' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.

'If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position,' she added, 'and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator's colleagues in the House and Senate.'

Psaki said the White House will continue to apply pressure on Manchin in hopes he will 'again' change his mind on BBB.

'Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position on Build Back Better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word,' she said.

'Senator Manchin's comments this morning on Fox are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances.'

She added: 'Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework 'in good faith.'
White House chief of staff Ron Klain doubled down on the White House's doomsday warning for the unvaccinated on Monday.

'We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You've done the right thing, and we will get through this,' said White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients in a press briefing.

'For the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.'

'Who is this for? Unvaccinated Americans are not going to be persuaded by messaging like this,' New York Magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi questioned on Twitter.

'The truth is the truth,' Klain wrote back.

Republicans were quick to criticize the dire message from the White House.

'This is what Joe Biden has given America, a climate of fear and recrimination - all to augment his power and cover over his epic failures of leadership,' Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote on Twitter.

'They deserve to die. - President of the United States,' Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter.

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of the strain, with 221 infections being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning.

The country has now joined a dubious group of five countries with more than 1,000 cases of the new variant, reaching 1,079 as of Monday morning - a 25 percent increase from the 858 cases confirmed on Sunday morning.

It comes as experts begin to learn more about the variant, which was first discovered late last month in

Omicron is the most mutated Covid strain yet, with over 50 mutations total - including 30 on its spike protein. Early data shows it can evade protection provided by all three available Covid vaccines, though getting a booster shot can significantly shore up a person's protection against infection. No matter the variant, Covid is spiraling out of control in the U.S., though the growth of cases has slightly slowed over the past week. As of Monday morning, 133,012 Americans are testing positive for Covid every day, a 21 percent increase over the past two weeks.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain doubled down on the White House's doomsday warning for the unvaccinated on Monday

Elsewhere in the briefing, Zients insisted that vaccines are effective, even against the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

'Our vaccines work against Omicron, especially for people who get booster shots when they are eligible,' he said. 'If you are vaccinated, you could test positive. But if you do get COVID, your case will likely be asymptomatic or mild.'

'One hundred sixty thousand unvaccinated people have already needlessly lost their lives just since June, and this number will continue to go up until the unvaccinated take action.'

The White House has attempted to shift messaging away from case counts and towards severe illness.

'We're getting to the point now where ... it's about severity,' said Xavier Becerra, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in a meeting with reporters this week. 'It's not about cases. It's about severity.'

'There's a degree of difficulty that now comes in trying to decide what means it's severe and what you have to do to stay out of that threshold of severity,' Becerra said. 'But I think that's where we're heading, is to try to be able to tell the public that.'

This is what Joe Biden has given America, a climate of fear and recrimination - all to augment his power and cover over his epic failures of leadership https://t.co/7lGiQVpBoD  Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 20, 2021

They deserve to die. - President of the United States https://t.co/jMLRw91KQE pic.twitter.com/D3LwhCd3AD  Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 20, 2021

Id say this is much worse than about any mean tweet Ive seen Vicious and Disgusting. #FJB pic.twitter.com/1sXAJlxUTJ  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 20, 2021

Moderna Inc. said on Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appeared to be protective against the fast-spreading Omicron variant in laboratory testing - and that the current version of the vaccine would continue to be Moderna's 'first line of defense against Omicron.'

As of Dec. 19, the daily average case count in the US was up to 133,012, up 21% from two weeks ago. The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 was up to 69,387 per day on average, a 16% increase from two weeks ago. Deaths were up 9%, to 1,296 per day.

As cases rise across the nation, the fastest spread is currently in the Northeast. While the Delta variant continues to be the dominant strain, Omicron cases are rising quickly and health officials believe soon the Omicron variant will become dominant.

About 61% of Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

On Monday, Boston became the latest city, alongside New York and Philadelphia, to ban the unvaccinated from indoor venues.

From January, proof of vaccination will be required for indoor dining at restaurants, including bars and nightclubs; indoor fitness centers; and indoor recreational spaces, like theaters, concert venues, and sports arenas.

Klain has become the White House's dominant public defender on Twitter, and even former chiefs of staff have questioned how he has the time to be so active on social media given the demands of the job.

Josh Bolten, who served as chief of staff to President George W. Bush, said in a recent discussion at American University's Sine Institute of Policy & Politics: 'Frankly I don't know how he does it  how he actually keeps up with what he's supposed to be focused on, which I think he is keeping up, and doing all this public communicating at the same time.'

He spoke of how 'an errant tweet from Ron Klain can throw a news cycle spinning off in a bad direction.'

'I'm both impressed and sort of unimpressed that he gives a significant amount of his time to that,' he added.

Former Barack Obama Chief of Staff Jack Lew also argued against the idea, telling interviewer Tara Palmeri he doesn't maintain a Twitter account.

'I don't think that's a good way for public policy to be made,' he said of Twitter generally.

'I personally think senior officials should have mediated social media presences, if they have them at all, and avoid getting into the back and forth,' said Lew. But he noted that Klain has schooled numerous Democratic presidential candidates in debate prep sessions and that 'Ron is as good of a debater as you're going to find.'

He said he was as good as anyone at 'not making mistakes - but you don't get to make any mistakes.'

Klain landed his boss in hot water last month when a federal judge upheld a stay on the president's vaccine order for private businesses, citing Klain's retweet of an MSNBC host's thoughts on the new OSHA rule.

'OSHA doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is an ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations,' MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle posted.

One member of the bench, Judge Kurt Engelhardt, ruled that Klain's retweet was an 'endorsement' of the phrase 'work-around.'

Engelhardt wrote in the court's opinion that public interest is 'served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions.

Appearing to refer to Klain he added, 'Even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials.'
A political science professor who serves on a panel that advises the CIA on when countries might slide into civil war amid factors like undemocratic tendencies has identified the U.S. as farther down that potential path than many could imagine.

'We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,' said Dr. Barbara Walter, who serves on the Political Instability Task Force, which guides intelligence analysts on countries overseas that might be on the brink of conflict.

The University of California San Diego academic, who has studied hotspots like Syria and helps run a blog on political violence, said the U.S. meets several of the telltale signs that are part of a road to insurgency.

'No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war,' she writes in her forthcoming book, How Civil Wars Start.

'If you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America  the same way youd look at events in Ukraine or the Ivory Coast or Venezuela  you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory,' she writes, according to the Washington Post.

She concludes that the U.S. has gone through the 'pre-insurgency' and 'incipient conflict' phases  without deciding whether the Jan. 6th Capitol riot constitutes part of the 'open insurgency' phase.

A Stockholm-based democracy institute called Donald Trump's repeated attacks on the validity of the 2020 election results a 'historic turning point' that 'undermined fundamental trust in the electoral process'

She also labels the U.S. as an 'anocracy'  a category between a democracy and an autocracy, after a slide based on factors in its criteria during the four years of the Trump administration  with the U.S. falling from a score of 10 to a score of 5.

'We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,' said Dr. Barbara Walter of UC San Diego

That put the nation far behind its traditional peers.

'We are no longer the worlds oldest continuous democracy, according to Walter. That honor is now held by Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, and then Canada. We are no longer a peer to nations like Canada, Costa Rica, and Japan, which are all rated a +10 on the Polity index.



Three retired US generals issued a warning of their own on Friday, fearing a potential split in the military might play out in a civil war if there is a coup attempt after 2024.

They pointed to 'signs of potential turmoil in our armed forces,' and noted that a 'disturbing number' of active-duty members of the military took part in the Capitol riot, accounting for more than 1 in 10 people charged.

Former Army Major Gen. Paul Eaton, former Brigadier Gen. Steven Anderson and former Army Major Gen. Antonio Taguba outlined their concerns in a Washington Post op-ed.

Walter labels the U.S. as an 'anocracy'  a category between a democracy and an autocracy

Former Army Major Gen Paul Eaton (left), former Brigadier Gen Steven Anderson (center) and former Army Major Gen Antonio Taguba (right) penned a column in The Washington Post Friday warning of another coup attempt after the 2024 election similar to the January 6 Capitol riot that will divide the military and cause a possible civil war

Democracies vs. 'anocracies' where governments 'undermine faith in elections' and 'vilify opponents' Democracies: Representative government; Fundamental rights; Civil liberties and checks on government; Media integrity and effective legislature; Competitive elections where opposition has a chance Anocracies: Mix democratic and non-democratic features; Weakening checks on government and eroding civil liberties; Stable with authoritarian elements; Rejection of oversight by legislature; Purges of non-loyalists in bureaucracy; Use of force against protests; Vilification of opposition; Characterized by human rights violations; Undermining of faith in electoral system Source: Center for Systemic Peace, Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Advertisement

'The potential for a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines  from the top of the chain to squad level  is significant should another insurrection occur. The idea of rogue units organizing among themselves to support the rightful commander in chief cannot be dismissed.'

The added: ''As we approach the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, we - all of us former senior military officials - are increasingly concerned about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and the potential for lethal chaos inside our military, which would put all Americans at severe risk,' the generals penned.

'We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time,' they added.

The U.S. in November appeared on the list of 'backsliding democracies' compiled by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

According to the report, 'The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale.'

It called Trump's repeated attacks on the validity of the 2020 election results a 'historic turning point' that ''undermined fundamental trust in the electoral process' that precipitated the riot and had 'spillover effects, including in Brazil, Mexico, Myanmar and Peru, among others.'

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who serves on the select Jan. 6th committee, in a new New Yorker profile describes Trump's role last year as initiating a 'self-coup.'

'The scariest of the three rings is the inside of the coup. I use that word, "coup," knowing that its not the usual political parlance,' he said. 'A coup usually takes place against an elected President. This was a President moving against a Vice-Presidentit was, as the political scientists call it, a self-coup," he said of Trump's efforts to get Mike Pence not to count votes from states where Trump was claiming fraud occurred.
Jurors have begun deliberating in the manslaughter trial of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who prosecutors say made 'a blunder of epic proportions' and 'a series of bad choices that led to her shooting and killing Daunte Wright' during a botched traffic stop in April.

The mostly white jury was released from the courtroom after the state delivered its rebuttal to Potter's lawyers' closing statements early Monday afternoon.

The state argued that Wright's death was 'entirely preventable. Totally avoidable,' while the defense countered that Potter had made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn't a crime.

Judge Regina Chu told jurors that she will not make them deliberate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. They'll return after the holiday if they haven't reached a verdict by then.

Speaking on Monday morning, prosecutor Erin Eldridge attempted to remove any doubt and refocus jurors' minds after eight days of testimony.

This was 'no little oopsy' she said. 'This was not putting the wrong date on a check. This was not entering the wrong password. This was a colossal screw up, a blunder of epic proportions.'

Closing arguments began in the manslaughter trial of the former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter (pictured) on Monday

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge said during closing arguments in Kim Potter's manslaughter trial Monday that Wright's death was 'entirely preventable. Totally avoidable'

Officer Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran in the force, claims she accidentally shot Daunte Wright (right) when she reached for her gun instead of her taser during a traffic stop over his expired plates in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 11

'It was precisely what she had been warned about for years. It was irreversible and it was fatal.'

Eldridge stripped it back, 'We're here because the defendant Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of Brooklyn Center Police Department pulled the wrong weapon and she shot and killed Daunte Wright. And at the heart of it this case is very simple.

'It's a case about the defendant's reckless handling of her firearm and it's about her culpable negligence. It's about what she did on April 11.'

'The defendant told you her sons will be home for the holidays,' Eldridge stated. 'You know who won't be home for the holidays is Daunte Wright.

'Daunte Wright's parents Katie and Arbuey will have an empty seat at their table [this holiday].'

Taking the court through the events of April 11 minute by minute Eldridge reminded jurors how Potter had aimed her gun at Wright's chest, tracking his movements.

She was not, Eldridge noted, tracking Sergeant Mychal Johnson's movements even though the defense has claimed that she was trying to protect and who was, they maintain, in danger of being dragged by Wright's car.

Eldridge dismissed Potter's claim that she saw a look of fear in Johnson's face before pulling what she thought was her taser. According to Eldridge, 'If she even caught a glimpse of Sgt Johnson [ahead of firing the shot] she wouldn't have got a good look at him.'

Potter's attorney Earl Gray, though, argued that Wright 'caused the whole incident' because he tried to flee from police during a traffic stop

Daunte Wright's father Arbuey Wright arrives at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis Monday ahead of closing arguments in Kim Potter's trial

Wright's mother Katie Bryant is seen outside court Monday morning

Eldridge was blunt, 'She drew a deadly weapon. She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wright's chest, and she fired.

'The defense will tell you that Daunte Wright is somehow to blame in causing his own death but make no mistake, we're here because of the defendant's actions not Daunte Wrights.'

For 26 years, Eldridge said, Potter carried her gun on her duty belt, on the right-hand side. For 26 years she trained in its use every year and for 19 year she trained in the use of her taser and signed off on acknowledging the danger of weapon confusion.

CHARGES AND POTENTIAL PENALTIES IN KIM POTTER TRIAL: FIRST-DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER PREDICATED ON RECKLESS USE/HANDLING OF FIREARM AND SECOND-DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER: First-degree manslaughter in this case means prosecutors allege that Potter caused Wright's death while committing a misdemeanor - the 'reckless handling or use of a firearm so as to endanger the safety of another with such force and violence that death or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable.'

The second-degree manslaughter charge alleges that she caused his death 'by her culpable negligence,' meaning that Potter 'caused an unreasonable risk and consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm' to Wright, while using or possessing a firearm.

Neither charge requires prosecutors to prove Potter intended to kill Wright. POTENTIAL PENALTIES: The maximum for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years; for second-degree, it's 10 years. But Minnesota judges follow sentencing guidelines that normally call for less - just over seven years for first-degree, and four years for second-degree.

Prosecutors have said they will seek a longer sentence due to aggravating factors, which is what they did in former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial for killing George Floyd.

The longest sentences that could conceivably stick on appeal are double the top of the guidelines range. But that's more than the statutory maximum of 15 years for first-degree manslaughter, so 15 years would be the cap for Potter if she's convicted. The realistic maximum on the lesser charge would be 9 1/2 years.

Presuming good behavior, Minnesota offenders typically serve two-thirds of their time in prison and one-third on supervised release. Source: AP Advertisement

Yet she drew her gun, Eldridge said, 'That's culpable negligence and reckless handling of a firearm resulting in death.

'It's about the defendant's rash and reckless conduct it's not about her being a nice person. Even nice people have to obey the law.'

The case is not, she insisted, about the smell of marijuana, or an outstanding warrant for Wright's arrest or the discovery of a protection order against him and, she added, 'it certainly isn't about someone being dragged.'

According to Eldridge, 'What this case is really about is about an officer who mishandled her firearm. That's why we're here and even if you take the defendant's word for it, she admits that's what she did.

'She knew it was wrong and she knew from the very beginning she was no rookie it wasn't her first day on the job. She was an FTO she had 26 years of experience on the street'

Doubling down on her dismissal of the defense's contention that Potter was motivated by a belief that he fellow officer Sgt Johnson was in any danger at all Eldridge said, 'The defendant didn't save Sgt Johnson's life. Both Alayna Albrecht-Payton and Sgt Johnson were in the line of fire.

'If anyone saved Sgt Johnson's life it was Daunte Wright when he took a bullet to the chest. And you saw Officer Luckey was so close that the cartridge casing bounced off his face.'

'Carrying and gun and a badge is not,' she said, 'A license to kill. You don't get to shoot someone when things don't go according to plan.'

No-one, the prosecutor said, 'is saying the defendant meant to kill Daunte Wright.' But no intent is necessary to convict her.

To convict on the first count of manslaughter in the first degree the jury must find that she caused Wright's death on April 11, 2021, while committing the crime of reckless handling or use of a firearm.

Addressing the jury ahead of closing arguments Judge Regina Chu explained that reckless handling or use of a firearm is a conscious or intentional act in connection with the handling of a firearm that creates a substantial risk that she is aware of and that endangers the safety of another person.

Guilt on the second count  manslaughter in the second degree  requires the jury to find that Potter caused Wright's death on April 11, 2021, through culpable negligence whereby she created an unreasonable risk and consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm.

There is no need for jurors to believe that Potter intended to cause harm, only that her actions were intentional and that a reasonable person would have foreseen a strong probability of those actions causing death or great bodily harm.

Eldridge told the court: 'An ordinary prudent person would not have drawn a weapon, aimed it and pulled the trigger all without recognizing or confirming what was in her hand.

Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown body cam and dash cam footage of the dramatic moment Potter shot Wright dead after 'accidentally' pulling out her gun instead of her taser

Prosecutors argued that Potter betrayed her badge and oath by using her weapon 'rashly or recklessly' on the day of the botched traffic stop

Potter broke down in tears as she testified in her trial Friday, hoping to persuade jurors to acquit her of manslaughter charges in what she has said was a gun-Taser mix-up

'The defendant created an unreasonable risk to Daunte Wright and everyone else around him by doing what she did. She put that into motion.

'She consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm by pulling a weapon and firing it without given it a second thought.

'She knew she had a loaded Glock on her belt, loaded with hollow point rounds and all you had to do was pull the trigger.

'Not only did that have the probability of killing someone. She actually killed someone.'

'We're here because this was entirely preventable. Totally avoidable if she had followed her training, paid attention to what she was doing and considered the risk.'

According to Eldridge, Potter herself admitted her guilt, in her testimony in court and in her candid words, caught on bodycam footage, immediately after the shooting.

Eldridge reminded jurors: 'On April 11 she said: 'I shot him. I pulled the wrong f***ing gun. I'm going to prison. I killed a boy.'

'She used deadly force she put a bullet through his heart, and she killed him. And her statements are admissions that she was unreasonable.

'She put it all in motion despite all the risks. It's her hand. It's her gun. It's her actions.'

Even the decision to use a taser was not a wise one, Eldridge maintained, reminding the court of the evidence of state Use of Force witness Professor Seth Stoughton.

She urged them to look cynically upon the credibility of members of Potter's 'police family' who testified in her support  several of them state witnesses.

The state, Eldridge pointed out, doesn't get to choose the witnesses to a crime. 'The defendant has found herself in trouble and her police family had her back'

'Don't speculate,' she urged them, 'Don't get sucked down that rabbit hole of hypotheticals and misdirection.'

She urged them to use their common sense she urged, review the videos, play them and replay them and to focus their attentions on the views of experts further from 'the bias of other officers.'

She was seen screaming and burying her face in her hands moments after she fired her gun

Bodycam footage from a fellow officer showed Potter sitting roadside repeating over and over, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' and crying that she is 'going to prison'

Returning to the theme of the opening statement that she delivered last week Eldridge reiterated: 'She betrayed her badge and she betrayed her oath. She betrayed Daunte Wright and her fellow officers and her conduct was criminal.'

This case is not about Wright, she told them: 'He is not on trial. He's not the reason we're here today, so whether or not you agree with this decision to flee is not what this case is about.

'He's not the defendant here. This case is about Kimberly Potter. We're here today because of her conduct, her choices and her actions. We're here today because she killed Daunte Wright.'

The way Eldridge painted it, this wasn't just a tragedy, it was a crime and it was the result of the choices that Potter had made.

Finishing up her lengthy closing, Eldridge said: 'Of course she's sorry. Of course she feels bad. There's no disputing that but that has no place in your deliberations.

'Be fair, act honestly, deliberate without prejudice, bias or sympathy and without regard to your personal likes or dislikes.

Potter, 49, is charged with first and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Daunte Wright

'This case is not about remorse. It's about the defendant's actions in shooting and killing Daunte Wright.

'She knew how to get it right, but she failed to get it right. She failed Daunte Wright.

'She chose wrong, instead of right. She chose her gun and she shot Daunte Wright.'

In a bullish response to the state's closing statement, defense attorney Earl Gray told the jury, 'Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately. Those are the cold-hearted facts.'

He insisted that Wright, not Potter, was responsible for his death; his struggling, his refusal to surrender, he said: 'That was the cause.'

Gray began his closing statement by angrily taking issue with Eldridge's allegation that the defense had tried to run the jury 'down a rabbit hole of misdirection.'

Speaking aggressively he began, 'We apparently were accused that we might run you down a rabbit hole of misdirection. That's what they said.

'Playing the video not at the right speed where it showed chaos? Playing it as slow as possible, showing photographs [as the state did]- that's the rabbit hole.

'Kim, Luckey, Johnson, Wright were fighting. So, when you go into that jury room play it like it's supposed to be played.

'No threat from Daunte Wright? He broke free and took off in his car even after he was shot.'

As for Eldridge's assertion that there was no place for sympathy in the jury's deliberations, Gray demanded, 'What are the photos of Daunte Wright doing up there with his child? They're asking for sympathy, not us.'

'Johnson not worried at the scene? That isn't what he testified to.'

In this image from video, Matthew Frank, assistant attorney general, delivers a rebuttal during closing arguments on Monday, December 20

Defense attorney Earl Gray countered that the former officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn't a crime

Judge Regina Chu told jurors that intent is not part of the charges against Potter and that the state doesn't have to prove the cop had tried to kill Wright

According to Gray it was false to take body-worn camera and present it as proof that Potter could not see Johnson's face.

The body-worn camera was fixed on her chest, he said, 'But when she leans in of course she sees Johnsona look on his face like she's never seen.'

He lambasted the state for having 'the temerity' to call Professor Seth Stoughton who admitted on the stand that he couldn't recall his own brief experience as a police officer many year ago.

And he added: 'They have the temerity to say the cops, because they're a family, lie.'

Where Eldridge was methodical, Gray was scattered, reactionary and angry.

Next, he took issue with the fact that the state had used Potter's consistent training against her calling it a 'real Catch 22.' 'Can you imagine if she'd missed a session?' he asked.

Gray described that state's argument that Daunte Wright 'had nothing to do with his death,' as 'absurd.'

He reminded the jury of the sequence of events, the stop which he characterized as 'perfectly legal.'

He reminded them that Wright did not have a license, did not have insurance, had expired tags, an outstanding warrant, a protection order against him and that Officer Luckey smelt and saw marijuana on approaching the vehicle.

In an uncomfortable allusion Gray noted: 'Officer Luckey, being a nice guy  he could have taken him against the car and put a knee on his neck but no - he says, 'You're arrested.'

Within seconds, Gray said: 'He breaks away. That's the cause. That's what caused this whole incident.

'If he would have gone with the officers, go take a ride downtown and it's over. That is the superseding cause that caused that death.'

'He purposefully decided to drive away,' Gray said. '[Wright] just didn't want to go to jail. That's the superseding cause, [it] comes after the defendant's acts. Her acts were all legal and then he tries to break away and consciously she thought she was doing the right thing.'

He added: 'Don't listen to Stoughton saying you should just let him go. That's not protecting the public, or serving the public. They had to stop him.

'He's fighting my client. My client goes around Luckey and grabs her gun instead of her taser.

'I don't think that anybody here, even the state, would contest the fact she thought she had her taser.

'It was chaos.'

Gray turned his attention to the defense's belief that Potter not only had a right to use a taser but could have used deadly force.

He said, 'Johnson was there, and Stoughton can say what he wants, but what did (defense Use of Force expert) Ijames say? No question that Officer Potter had a right to use deadly force even though she didn't mean to.

'The only person they call is Stoughton, the $95K contract a year guy, who has not been a cop for 15 years and was a cop for 5 years and doesn't remember if he had a critical [incident]. And you compare him to Ijames - 47 years or some as a cop.

Potter became emotional as she recalled shooting 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a fatal traffic stop on April 11 during her testimony Friday

Displaying a picture of Potter's gun and taser side by side, prosecutor Erin Eldridge drew out the differences between the two weapons before the jury

'Our expert doesn't charge. He drove up here having had heart surgery two weeks ago That's how strongly he believes.'

Warming to his theme Gray pointed to the state's other witnesses - Officer Luckey, 'He said Kim Potter isn't going to jail. In his opinion Kim had a right to use deadly force.

'Flesland a commander, been in the navy 10 years, 21 years as a police officer he's the commander at Brooklyn Center and he said on the hypothetical I gave him, the same hypothetical that happened at this scene, and he said yes she could use deadly force.

'Then we've got Gannon, a man who was in the marine corps who fought in battle for this country who wanted to give Kim Potter due process and got terminated for it he says she had a right to deadly force.'

Laying it out for the jury he said, 'They have to prove beyond a reasonable that she did not have a right to deadly force.

'We've just proven through three witnesses that she did.

'Are they the kind of individuals that would lie, give. A false opinion?'

As far as Gray was concerned Potter did not cause Wright's death  he did. And she had the right not only to use her taser but to use deadly force.

These, he said: 'were two absolute reasons why she is not guilty.'

The third reason, he said, came down to the statute itself  something he accused the state of 'brushing over.'

According to the statute, Potter can only found guilty of reckless handling or use of a firearm if, 'Under the totality of the circumstance she commits a conscious or intentional act in connection with the handling or use of a firearm.

'You have to be aware of it,' Gray thundered. 'How could you recklessly handle it if you didn't know you had it?'

Pausing for a moment he noted: 'You may ask yourself why she's charged with these crimes but that's for another day we don't talk about that.'

Another reason for finding her not guilty, Gray said, was quite simply, 'She made a mistake.'

Referring to the testimony of Dr Laurence Miller who spoke of 'action error,' and the workings of the brain in those moments, Gray admitted he did not understand everything the doctor said but that he knew this. 'In the walk of life nobody's perfect.'

He told them that character evidence was important  that Potter was a good person and had been all her life.

He continued: 'Nobody's perfect and this lady here made a mistake and my gosh a mistake is not a crime.

'It just isn't in our freedom loving country that we're going to put you in jail for a mistake you made.'

Body cam footage showed a struggle ensued when Potter and her trainee officer tried to arrest Wright (pictured) after learning during a traffic stop that he had an outstanding warrant against him

Dash cam footage also captured the struggle that broke out between the officers and Wright after he jumped back into his car

Wrapping up and gathering his notes from the podium, Gray said: 'The Potter family thanks you for listening to this case.

'It's a very emotional case but you have to look at the law and the evidence about did she have a right to use d force of course she did whether she knew it or not. She didn't know she had a gun so how could she consciously recklessly handle one?

'Everything they were doing as good police officers until Daunte Wright took it upon himself to flee. He even left after he was shot.'

Thanking the jury for their attention he concluded, 'If you look at the evidence and use your instructions it's not a difficult case. They failed in every element, miserably failedKim Potter isn't guilty of these crimes.'

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank delivered the defense's rebuttal closing argument.

In it he told the jury that there is no 'mistake' defense.

'That's not the law,' he told them, 'No matter how often the defense says, 'mistake.'

How does an officer use a gun instead of a Taser? HOW FREQUENTLY DOES THIS HAPPEN? Experts agree that such incidents are rare and probably happen fewer than once per year throughout the U.S. A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal Americans for Effective Law Enforcement documented nine cases dating back to 2001 in which officers shot suspects with handguns when they said they meant to fire stun guns. WHY DOES IT HAPPEN? Reasons that have been cited include officer training, the way they carry their weapons and the pressure they feel during dangerous and chaotic situations. To avoid confusion, officers typically carry their stun guns on their weak sides - the side of their nondominant hand - and away from handguns that are carried on their dominant hand's side. That's how Potter carried hers, and the chief of her suburban Minneapolis police department at the time of the shooting said that's how the department's officers were trained. WHAT DOES THE DEFENSE SAY? Defense attorney Paul Engh told jurors in his opening statement that an expert would testify about how in chaotic situations like this shooting, a person's ingrained training takes over. He said Potter had 26 years of gun training, but fewer years of training on her Taser, which is a newer weapon. Engh said Potter made an 'action error,' the sort in which someone does something while meaning to do something else, such as writing the previous year on a check out of habit, or typing an old password into a computer. He also compared them with errors made under stress by experienced pilots or surgeons. Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and the founder of the Force Science Institute in Mankato, Minnesota, has used the phrase 'slip and capture' errors to describe the phenomenon. Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress - that their actions 'slip' and are 'captured' by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on using their stun guns. Other experts are skeptical of the theory. Source: Associated Press Advertisement

'How can you recklessly handle a firearm?' he asked. 'That's exactly the point. She pulled her handgun instead of her taser and her apparent intention was to pull a taser. That's recklessly handling a firearm, that's how.'

Frank dismissed the defense focus on deadly force as 'after the fact justification,' and pointed to the problem of that being that the facts just 'don't align.'

He said: 'Common sense tells us that often when people try to come up with justification after the fact [the stories] fall apartthey render the justification incredible.'

As Frank told it the defense couldn't have it both ways  Potter couldn't have feared Johnson would be dragged if she didn't believe that Wright was in a position to operate the vehicle.

'That's the problem with trying to create justifications later. Miss Potter did not believe that the use of deadly force was necessary to protect anybody,' Frank said.

'She just wanted to prevent Mr Wright from fleeing a traffic stop that her trainee initiated.

'The testimony simply lacks credibility.'

'Watch [the videos] in real time,' he encouraged the jury.

'Daunte Wright never assaulted those officers. The characterization of fighting and struggling is not supported by the evidence.

'He was trying to flee, no doubt about it, but he was not struggling or fighting. He simply pulled away and tried to operate the car. He never even threatened the officers. Nobody has disputed those facts.'

The most important evidence of all, Frank said, was Potter's own actions and words  before, during and after shooting Wright.

He said: 'Actions speak louder than words. Here I think they both speak at the same volume.

'Actions and words speak very loudly that she did not believe deadly force was necessary.

'She immediately expresses surprise. She immediately said she had pulled the wrong gun She immediately expressed shock she had done something so very wrong.

'Consider the real volume of her action. She is distraught she is beside herself, 'I'm going to prison,' and 'I killed a boy.'

Frank described the notion that Potter 'believes Daunte Wright caused his own death' as 'stunning.'

He slammed it as 'absurd,' 're-branding,' that was 'factually and legally wrong.'

Returning to the idea that Potter simply made a 'mistake' and that that was any sort of defense Frank said: 'It's like blaming gravity for falling down a hole. If a person gets themselves in a hole it's not gravity's fault. A mistake is not relevant here, it's not a defense to the charges.

'She wasn't sleep-walking. This wasn't a reflexive action. Her conscious, intended conduct was drawing a gun and shooting.

'It is her conduct that creates the risk. Her conduct created a risk that she would use the wrong weapon and her conduct in going to her gun holster, drawing her gun and pointing it and pulling the trigger, these were the conscious acts.'

Frank concluded: 'She knew of all the risks and she did it. She killed Daunte Wright. The state respectfully requests that you find guilt on both charges.'

After delivering some additional instructions to the jury Judge Chu addressed them, 'Now members of the jury the case is in your hands. We will await your verdict.

'We appreciate you being here. Now it's time for you to do your job'

Dismissing the two alternates Judge Chu sent the remaining jurors out with the words: ' Good luck.'

After the jury was dismissed, Potter's defense moved for a mistrial on the grounds that Frank's rebuttal was improper in its scope. Judge Chu was quick to deny the bid and deliberations will continue.

After two and a half hours of deliberations the jury came back with a question. They wanted to know when Potters interview with defense witness Dr Laurence Miller took place.

Miller testified about 'action error' and told the jury that the brain defaulted to prior programing, or more 'baked-in learning,' in moments of great stress.

During her interview with him Potter told the doctor that she didn't know why she pulled her gun, saying that there was no thought in her brain other than to draw her taser.

This fact was held up by the prosecution as speaking against the defense's contention that she acted out of a conscious imperative to save her fellow officer, Sgt Johnson, from being 'dragged' by Wrights car.

Judge Chu did not answer the jurys question beyond telling them that all of the evidence was in and they were to rely on their own memory.

The defense rested its case on Friday after Potter took the stand telling jurors in a tearful testimony that she 'didn't want to hurt anybody,' and that she shouted a warning about using her Taser on Wright after she saw fear in a fellow officer's face.

Potter, 49, testified that she was 'sorry it happened.'

She said she didn't remember what she said or everything that happened after the shooting, saying much of her memory of those moments 'is missing.'

Prosecutors have to prove recklessness or culpable negligence in order to win a conviction on the manslaughter charges.

Wright's death set off angry demonstrations for several days in Brooklyn Center. It happened as another white officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the killing of George Floyd.
At least 12 people were killed and 21 others were injured after a passenger bus crashed through a road barrier and nosedived into a river in southeastern Ecuador near the border with Peru.

The Attorney General's Office said the bus was traveling along the Macas-Taisha route in the province of Morona Santiago when the driver lost control of the vehicle and plowed through the guard rail and fell 55 feet below.

Ten of the victims  including the driver - were declared dead on the scene by paramedics.

A woman and young girl were later pronounced dead at a local hospital, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.

Twelve people - including a minor - have been confirmed dead following a bus crash in Morona Santiago, Ecuador, on Sunday. Authorities said 21 passengers were injured in the accident

Authorities remove belongings from a passenger bus that crashed through a bridge guard rail and then fell 55 feet below into the banks of the Colorado River in southeastern Ecuador on Sunday, killing 12 people, including the driver, and injuring 21 passengers

At least three of the fatal victims had not been identified as of Monday.

The injured passengers were removed from the banks of Colorado River in the canton of Macas and rushed to Macas General Hospital, prosecutor Leslie Chuqui said.

The Attorney General's Office of Ecuador said the driver lost control of the bus before hitting the guard rail and falling into the banks of the Colorado River in the southeastern province of Morona Santiago

Villagers rush in Macas, Ecuador, rush to the aid of bus passengers after the vehicle fell from a bridge on Sunday. The accident left 12 people - including the driver - dead

Villagers tend to victims of a bus crash that left 12 people dead and 21 injured Sunday in Ecuador

Villagers in the rural town of Macas were bathing in Colorado River when they noticed the bus plowing into a shallow part of the river that's primarily filled with rocks.

'The bus was coming at full speed, like if it was flying,' a witness told digital news outlet Expresate Morona. 'But we did not image that what took place would happen.'

The witness said that she and her family and other people on site rushed to help the injured before rescue workers arrived.

It's the second deadly passenger bus incident in a week in Morona Santiago after 18 people were killed and 25 were injured after a bus crashed and overturned on a road in the canton of Sucua.
A deranged Idaho man was charged with cannibalism after he mutilated an elderly victim and microwaved his body parts before feasting on the remains to 'cure his brain,' authorities said.

James David Russell, 39, killed and ate the body parts of 70-year-old David Flaget on September 10, according to an amended criminal complaint filed by Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall filed on Wednesday.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Russell believed that he could 'heal himself by cutting off portions of (Flaget's) flesh' in order to 'cure his brain.'

'When dealing with death and carnage it's a shock to our conscience,' Bonner County Detective Phillip Stella told the Shoshone News Press on Thursday.

'As far as I know this is the first cannibalism charge in Idaho.'

When asked about the relationship between the men, Stella said that the two had several 'runs-ins' prior to Flaget's death in Clark Fork, located about 80 miles south of the Canadian border.

James David Russell, 39, is accused of being the first person to be charged with cannibalism in the history of the state of Idaho

David Flaget, 70, who was allegedly killed by Russell on September 10 after several 'run-ins'

Russell's prosecution was halted in late October after First District Magistrate Judge Tara Harden found him unfit to stand trial for first-degree murder and ordered him to the Idaho Security Medical Program.

The results of the mental health evaluation on Oct. 5 remain under seal by court order.

Russell is scheduled to appear for a review hearing on Dec. 28.

'Flaget had several conflict-like run-ins with Russell and told the family about them,' Stella said.

'The family had enough warning signs that Mr. Russell was a danger to himself or others.'

Police seized a bloody microwave and glass bowl from the crime scene, along with a bloodied knife and duffel bag.

Authorities also found pieces of Flaget's body after searching Russell's residence, including a 'thermal artifact,' a day after the murder.

A thermal artifact is when heat is applied to a small portion of bodily remains and not the entire body.

Dr. Veena Singh completed an autopsy on the human remains on September 13, and found that the tissue discovered in Russell's home were that of Flaget.

However, some of Flaget's remains have not yet been found, according to authorities.

'There's a lot of facets we will certainly never know,' Stella told the News Press of the crime.

'It wasn't the bloodiest crime scene, but it's more of the psychological, "what the heck is going on here?" and "why am I picking up pieces?"'

'It's a walk down the dark path that we dont see very often.'

On September 10, sheriff's deputies were alerted of a possible murder at a home on Lower Mosquito Creek Road, where they said they found Flaget unresponsive and upside down in the passenger's seat of his truck.

Flaget's wrists were duct taped together, and it is believed he was restrained before he was murdered, police said.

Russell initially fled law enforcement and barricaded himself in the loft space of the garage of the home he was living in.

Russell eventually complied with officer's commands and was arrested, however authorities noted that he did not understand his Miranda rights after they were repeatedly read to him.

Under Idaho law, '[A]ny person who willfully ingests the flesh or blood of a human being is guilty of cannibalism.'

The law was put on the books in 1990.
Prosecutors have labeled Ghislaine Maxwell a 'sophisticated predator' in their closing arguments this morning.

'She was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,' Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe told the jury Monday. 'She ran the same play book again and again and again.'

'She was a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids,' she added. 'Maxwell was the key to the whole operation.'

Prosecutors reiterated the allegations made during the weeks-long trial that Maxwell acted as Jeffrey Epstein's 'right hand' who caused 'deep' and 'lasting harm' to young girls.

Prosecutors have labeled Ghislaine Maxwell a 'sophisticated predator' in their closing arguments this morning

'She was a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids,' the prosecution said Monday. 'Maxwell was the key to the whole operation'

Four of Maxwell's siblings - Kevin, Isabel, Ian and Christine - arrived to court to support their sister Monday

Four of Maxwell's siblings - Kevin, Isabel, Ian and Christine - arrived to court to support their sister Monday.

Isabel and Kevin Maxwell have shown up daily to support Ghislaine.

Epstein accuser Sarah Ransome was also seen arriving with the hopes for a conviction.

Ahead of closing arguments, federal prosecutors released photos and videos into evidence, including video of a raid of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion in 2005.

There were several images of Maxwell accuser Annie Farmer, who testified last week that she was abused on Epstein's New Mexico ranch when she was 16.

Also submitted was a photo of two boxes of the Twin Torpedo sex toy that was recovered by the FBI at Epstein's home.

Prosecutor Moe said that the evidence included testimony from housekeepers, victims and bank receipts which showed Epstein wiring $30million to Maxwell.

She said that the evidence was 'clear and consistent and it shows only one conclusion: Maxwell is guilty.'

Moe said she wanted to talk the jury through eight different reasons why they should convict Maxwell.

The first was that she and Epstein were 'partners in crime', the crime in question being the 'sexual exploitation of young girls'.

Moe said: 'Maxwell was Epstein's right hand and for many years they were in a romantic relationship. They were partners.'

Moe told the jury about an essay that Maxwell had written in which she talked about how she had been with Epstein for 11 years and that they were 'great partners and best friends'.

Moe told the jury: 'Ladies and gentlemen, when you are with someone for 11 years you know what they like. Epstein liked underage girls. He liked to touch underage girls. Maxwell knew it. Make no mistake, Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. Epstein could not have done this alone'.

Moe said that a single, middle aged man showing an interest in teenage girls would come off as 'creepy'.

She said: 'That sets off alarm bells. But when that man is accompanied by a posh, smiling, respectable, age appropriate woman, that's when everything starts to seem legitimate'.

When that woman asks the girls to give that man a massage, it 'lures them into a trap'.

Moe said: 'It allows that man to get away with molesting these girls. Maxwell was key to the whole operation'.

Moe told the jury about photos that had been introduced into evidence including one of Maxwell and Epstein swimming naked in a pool.

Another, which had been made public, showed Maxwell massaging Epstein's foot with her breasts.

Moe said: 'What you are looking at are two people in a sexual relationship. They were partners'.

Further evidence they were partners came from the 58-page household manual from Epstein's Palm Beach home which Moe said Maxwell wrote.

She said: 'These were the rules that Maxwell put in placethis makes clear she was the lady of the house'.

Moe said that the idea put forward by the defense that Maxwell was 'just an employee' was nonsense.

She said: 'Of course Maxwell knew what was going on in that house. She had an iron grip on what was happening there'.

Moe told the jury about testimony from Juan Alessi, the former Palm Beach house manager, who said that after Epstein's massages with young girls, he had to clean off the sex toys and put them in a basket in Maxwell's bathroom.

Maxwell wrote a list of 13 different kinds of oils and lotions to be used during the massages.

'She was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,' Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe (pictured) told the jury Monday

Epstein accuser Sarah Ransome was also seen arriving with the hopes for a conviction

Moe said: 'Again and again the evidence shows you how closely Maxwell was involved in Epstein's so called massages.

'She managed all the details right down to the lotions and oils. She was in on the whole thing'.

Among the instructions in the household manual was the command to staff to 'hear nothing, see nothing and say nothing.'

Moe said that the jury knew 'exactly why' Maxwell wanted such rules in place: 'It's because she was Epstein's partner in crime. In that house behind closed doors Maxwell and Epstein were committing horrifying crimes'.

The second reason why the jury should find Maxwell guilty is that she 'ran the same playbook' with all of her victims, Moe said.

She said that the similarities between the four accusers in the case were 'incredibly powerful evidence of the defendant's guilty'.

Maxwell helped to select victims who were 'vulnerable' and struggling, Ms Moe said.

Jane was 14 years old and her father had just died. Annie was 16 and wanted to go to college. Kate was 17 and was 'dazzled' by Maxwell. Carolyn was living with an alcoholic mother and had been abused when she was four.

Maxwell and Epstein would invite them to his house in New York, his ranch in New Mexico or his home in Palm Beach to 'isolate' them.

Moe said: 'That was by design. It was Maxwell's design. Maxwell was hanging out with these girls and isolating them and befriending them'.

Once the girls were alone Maxwell began to 'normalize' talk about sex and then sexual contact, Moe said, citing the massage that Maxwell gave to Annie Farmer.

In fact Maxwell touched the breasts of three of the accusers, Moe said.

She told the jury: 'They were kids in massage rooms on massage tablesit's powerful evidence of the defendant's guilt'

All the girls described interacting with the 'same woman,' Moe said.

She said: 'They knew her as charming, sophisticated.a woman who moved in social circles that were intimidating.

'The relationships Maxwell cultivated with these girls were essential to the scheme.Maxwell helped established a close relationship that became the cover for sexual abuse.'

Moe said that reason number three for a conviction was Jane's story.

She claimed that Maxwell and Epstein recruited her at the age of 14 at and arts camp in Michigan and flew her around his homes where she was repeatedly abuse.

One of the first instances of normalizing sex was Maxwell being topless by the pool at Epstein's Palm Beach home.

Moe told the jury: 'By the way, you know that's true because you have seen Maxwell topless by the pool too', referring to the photo they had been shown

Moe said that such behavior had a 'purpose' which was 'setting the stage for what came next'.

Maxwell became Jane's 'big sister' and made it seem like this was all 'casual' and 'normal', Moe said.

She said: 'None of it was normal. It was not OK. It was deeply disturbing. They were molesting an underage girl. That's what Maxwell did'.

Moe said that Maxwell played an 'essential role' in the massages and, as Jane testified, she was the person who was 'most frequently in the room when Epstein molested her'

The abuse went on for years and Maxwell and Epstein saw Jane 'literally growing up in front of their eyes', Moe said.

She said: 'She turned 15, 16 and 17. They maintained a coercive relationship that went on until her early 20s'.

As she wrapped up her two hour and ten minute closing statement, Moe mocked the defense opening that Maxwell was being blamed for something a man did.

In fact Maxwell 'made her own choices', Moe said.

Moe agreed with the defense claim that the case was about 'memory, money and manipulation' only 'not in the way' they described.

In particular she urged the jury to think about the $300 that Carolyn was paid for massages with Epstein and compare it to the $30m that Epstein gave to Maxwell.

Moe dismissed the evidence of 'false memory' expert Elizabeth Loftus, a defense expert witness, as a 'total distraction'

Maxwell's lawyers had to discredit the victims because the truth was that their testimony was 'devastating' against her.

She said: 'You common sense tells you that the witnesses are not lying and cannot be all misremembering the same thing.'

The couple appear in one photo in what appears to be a European city. Ghislaine is seen kissing Jeffrey on the cheek

One photo shows Maxwell kissing the pedophile's cheek with her arms wrapped around him. Many have testified that they believed Epstein and Ghislaine were boyfriend and girlfriend

Maxwell confirmed that she would not be testifying in a dramatic moment on the final day of her defense Friday.

Maxwell stood up with her hands held together as her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim put her arm around her.

Judge Alison Nathan asked Maxwell if she would be testifying as she had the right to do so.

Speaking confidently in a cut glass English accent, Maxwell said: 'Your honor, the government has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no need for me to testify.'

And after just two days and nine witnesses, Maxwell's defense rested.

As Maxwell was led away back to prison at the end of the day, her sister Isabel, who was standing in the public gallery, made a prayer sign for her.

Maxwell hugged all of her lawyers one by one before walking out of the court.

Maxwell's second day of defense got off to a rocky start Friday when it emerged that one witness refused to respond to a subpoena, another said they would take the fifth and a third was not being called.

The defense was able to call witness Dr. Eva Andersson, 60, an internist and former girlfriend of Epstein who is now married to hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin. Glenn, 64, was previously accused of having sex with Virginia Roberts when she was an underage teen - allegations he's denied.

The former Miss Sweden wore a black blazer, black pants and a gray and black dress, her blonde hair being shoulder length as she denied taking part in orgies.

In her testimony earlier in the trial, Maxwell accuser under the pseudonym Jane claimed that an 'Eva' had taken part in orgies with her and other women at Epstein's home in Palm Beach, Florida, during the 1990s when she was a teenager.

Maxwell's lawyer Jeff Pagliuca said to Dubin: 'I apologize for asking these questions. Have ever been in a group sexualized encounter with the person we are calling Jane?'

Dubin said: 'Absolutely not.'

Pagliuca said: 'Were you ever in a group sexualized massage with Jane?'

Dubin said: 'I have not'.

Dubin said that she dated Epstein 'off and on' from around 1983 to 1990 or 1991, the time he began dating Maxwell.

In 1994 she married Glenn Dubin but said that she stayed friendly with Epstein and socialized with him and flew on his private plane, including with her three children.

Pagliuca asked Andersson if she was 'comfortable' with Epstein's relationship with her children, and she said she was.

Pagliuca asked if Epstein was 'fond' of her three children, one of whom was his goddaughter. Dubin said: 'Yes he was'.

Asked if her children were fond of Epstein, Dubin said: 'They were'.

Pagliuca asked if the children had an 'uncle-like relationship' with Epstein and gave him the nickname 'F', apparently short for Jeff, and Andersson said that was correct.

Dubin was shown a number of flight log entries from Epstein's private planes including one where she is listed as flying with Jane.

Asked if she remembered ever meeting Jane, Dubin said: 'I don't recall ever meeting this person'.

Dubin (seen leaving court Friday) dated Epstein for 11 years in the 80s. Dubin's husband is hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, who has been accused of having sex with Virginia Roberts when she was a teen

The defense was able to call two witnesses Friday, including Eva Dubin, Epstein's former longtime girlfriend and former miss Sweden

Pagliuca showed Dubin a photo that was found inside Epstein's house which she said showed her youngest daughter, his goddaughter.

Dubin said she had 'never seen this picture before' in a moment that appeared to surprise the defense.

The defense was able to call witness Dr. Eva Andersson, 60, an internist and former girlfriend of Epstein who is now married to hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin (pictured together)

During her testimony, Pagliuca asked Dubin: 'Did you observe any inappropriate conduct between Mr. Epstein and any teenage females?'

She replied: 'I did not'.

During cross examination prosecutor Alison Moe asked Dubin if she knew if, between 1994 and 2000 Epstein and Maxwell were in an 'open relationship.'

She replied: 'I couldn't really say whether they did or did not'.

Dubin confirmed that she was having issues with her memory due to a medical condition which she did not specify, although she has publicly described a battle with breast cancer.

She said: 'It's very hard for me to remember anything far back. Sometimes I can't even remember things from last month.

'My family notices and I notice it. It's been an issue'.

As Dubin walked into the court, Maxwell turned her head around and looked to the door and followed her with her eyes as she walked in and up to the witness box.

During Dubin's evidence Maxwell stared intently at her, sitting up in her chair.

Dubin appeared curt and tense: it was not clear if she was willingly giving evidence or after being subpoenaed.

During a 2016 deposition which was revealed publicly for the first time in 2019, Rinaldo Rizzo, a butler for the Dubins, tearfully described seeing a 15-year-old girl in his boss's kitchen in 2005.

Rizzo said he saw a 15-year-old Swedish girl confined to Epstein's private island and kept there as a sex slave.

Rizzo testified in his deposition that the girl was brought to the home by Maxwell and Epstein, who were visiting the Dubins.
An oncologist dubbed 'God' and 'Dr Hope' by grateful patients today avoided being struck off for giving inappropriate treatments after testimony from celebrities he cared for.

Professor Justin Stebbing, 50, was spared by a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) tribunal, who instead suspended him for nine months after acknowledging the 'unprecedented testimonial evidence' that had been provided on his behalf.

In October, the world-renowned oncologist admitted failings over 12 patients between 2014 and 2017, including over-treating some close to death or failing fully to explain risks.

The historian Niall Ferguson was among those to back him. He said: 'I urge you to impose some more lenient penalty for such transgressions as he may have committed.

'As far as I can see his lapses have been trivial relative to the enormous good he's done as a medical scientist and doctor.'

Professor Justin Stebbing. In October, the world-renowned oncologist admitted failings over 12 patients between 2014 and 2017, including over-treating some close to death or failing fully to explain risks

One unnamed celebrity said: 'He's a world-class oncologist. With my case history, unsurprisingly I feel I owe my quality of life and life itself to Professor Stebbing's care and I believe standard treatment would have seen my children lose their mum while they were still school kids.

'I've learned to live with the fear of cancer and more recently the fear of succumbing to Covid - they are unwanted gifts from Mother Nature.

'But the organisation protecting safety has needlessly added a man-made fear that of losing the care of this life -saving oncologist.

'I am dismayed that the removal of his license could even be a consideration, even more so when there are lesser sanctions that can be imposed.'

The tribunal heard how his 'international reputation' for innovative cancer treatment has led to wealthy cancer patients from around the globe turning to him in the hope of extending their lives.

They've included Sir Michael Parkinson, actor Lynda Bellingham and New Zealand multi-millionaire Sir Douglas Myers.

Prof Stebbing was accused of failing to provide good clinical care to 12 patients between March 2014 and March 2017.

He initially sought to defend many of his clinical decisions but eventually admitted 30 of 36 charges against him and was found guilty of three others.

Failures included the 'inappropriate' treatment of patients given their advanced cancer or poor prognosis, overstating life expectancy and the benefits of chemotherapy and continuing to treat patients when it was futile.

He also admitted failing to gain informed consent for treatment from patients, failing to keep proper records and dishonesty after attempting to cover his tracks by altering paperwork.

The tribunal ruled in November that Professor Stebbing's fitness to practise was impaired due to his misconduct with all 12 patients.

The General Medical Council said that Prof Stebbing wrongly prescribed drugs outside of gold-standard medical protocols, often to frail patients. He is pictured above with the late Sir Roger Moore

It pored over the often harrowing details of each patient's cancer struggle, with evidence from dozens of witnesses, which included patients' families, experts and Prof Stebbing himself.

He had referenced the 'Lazarus-like responses' to treatment among some of his other patients and described how he took on challenging and difficult cases to 'try to change the certainty of death'.

But a recurring theme in the case was patients receiving treatment in spite of their disease progression, deteriorating condition or poor prognosis, and most of the 12 died within a month.

Experts called by the GMC spoke of the need to used evidence-based medicine, to recognise the limitations of treatment and have 'honest and open' conversations with patients and their families to help them make difficult decisions about their end of life care.

But he argued that he'd reflected on his past mistakes and had been on a 'humbling' and 'chastening' learning experience.

He said he'd been wrong to treat patients, despite wanting to give them 'a chance' or 'hope', and was now a 'very cautious, conservative doctor'.

The 12 patients, he said, had been difficult cases and he'd used his clinical judgment and 'fallen the wrong side' of a fine-line by opting to treat.

Sharon Beattie, QC for the GMC, had sought a sanction of erasure arguing that Prof Stebbing had 'repeatedly' insisted that clinical matters had been 'fine-line' decisions leading to concerns about his lack of insight and his behaviour being repeated.

There were further concerns about an 'ongoing risk' to patient safety, she said, and he'd embarked on a 'persistent course of conduct' and 'persistent dishonesty' which he'd attempted to cover-up.

Prof Stebbing had sought to avoid a more serious sanction by highlighting his extensive research work, some of which he said was ongoing and near to completion, and the detrimental affect it would have to his career.

His patients have included Sir Michael Parkinson, (pictured) actor Lynda Bellingham and New Zealand multi-millionaire Sir Douglas Myers

He argued that it would be hard for projects to continue if he was struck off.

Prof Stebbing's QC Mary O'Rourke said she disagreed with the tribunal's finding on impairment and noted that his lapses had occurred in 'one of the worst periods of his life' when he was suffering mental health problems.

She said that Prof Stebbing had not taken on the 12 patients 'for money' but for the 'best of motives' and the 'greater good', even if his actions became misguided.

Ms O'Rourke read out dozens of testimonials in support of Prof Stebbing from patients and their families, leading oncologists and colleagues who told of his 'genius', 'excellence' and novel research which had garnered international recognition.

Some claimed it would be an 'unbelievable tragedy' and an 'unconscionable and incalculable' loss if he was unable to continue working.

In handing out the tribunal's sanction decision, MPTS panel chair Margaret Obi noted that it had considered a number of factors which could justify erasure but there were also factors which indicated a lesser sanction of suspension would adequately protect the public and the wider public interest.

As well as the 'unprecedented testimonial evidence' submitted on his behalf, she noted how Prof Stebbing's 'poor mental health and personal stressors' at the time of his dishonesty.

She described the behaviour as 'uncharacteristic', saying it took place more than four years ago and had not been repeated.

Ms Obi also noted Prof Stebbing's significant remediation work and that there was 'no evidence of a deep-seated attitudinal failing'.

Lynda Bellingham was also among those treated by the leading oncologist

She said the starting point for suspension was 12 months to mark the gravity of his misconduct.

'However, the tribunal also balanced this against the particular circumstances in this case,' she said.

'The tribunal had regard to the innovative and ground-breaking work that Prof Stebbing is currently undertaking in the interests of the public and the testimonials from a wide range of people including renowned award-winning scientists and clinicians from around the world.'

She said that while PS Stebbing had argued his contract with ICL would be terminated if he was suspended, there was a possibility that 'because of his status and unique talent' - as noted by his testimonial witnesses - the clinical and academic community in oncology 'would endeavour to ensure his work is not discontinued or delayed indefinitely'.

Ms Obi added that tribunal took the view that given the particular circumstances of this case there was public interest in permitting Prof Stebbing to return to practice as soon as possible but lowest period of suspension it could impose in order to mark the seriousness of his misconduct was 9 months.
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday in a bid to stop her investigation into his family business.

The former president is accusing New York State's top prosecutor of retaliating against him as a political opponent, according to the New York Times.

For more than two years James has been looking into whether the Trump Organization committed fraud by misrepresenting the value of Trump's real estate assets in statements to banks and tax authorities.

'Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent,' the lawsuit states.

Attorneys for the former president claim he and his family have been subjected to James' 'bitter crusade' and accuse her of 'bombarding' them with subpoenas.

Trump's lawyers asked an upstate New York court this morning to stop James' investigation, claiming it infringes on his constitutional rights.

In a statement sent to DailyMail.com, James' office said 'no one is above the law.'

'The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation,' James said.

'To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.'

Trump accused New York AG Letitia James of embarking on a 'bitter crusade' against him and his family in his Monday lawsuit

Trump hit back at James on Monday afternoon, accusing her of being 'nothing but a corrupt official doing the dirty work of your party.'

'Tell Letitia that she is not dealing with the Cuomo brothers, a corrupt Governor in a corrupt state, including your office and others, and Fredo, who did the Governors dirty work for him. Despite many years of investigation that nobody else could have survived even if they did things just slightly wrong, yours is just a continuation of the political Witch Hunt that has gone on against me by the Radical Left Democrats for years,' the ex-president fumed.

'This is not about delay, this is about our Constitution! You are nothing but a corrupt official doing the dirty work of your party. You should not be in office. This could well be the reason you were just rejected by the people of NY in your inept run for governor. You didnt quit for a higher purpose, you quit because your poll numbers were atrociousyou didnt have a chance. New York got lucky!'

James had announced a run for governor of New York before suspending her campaign to once again mount a bid for the Attorney General's office.

Trump attorney Alina Habba told CNBC in a statement: 'Letitia James targets President Trump with a callous disregard for the ethical and moral obligations she swore to abide by when she became Attorney General.'

Trump responded to James' statement announcing her investigation will go on unabated

'She has short changed the state by commencing this partisan investigation and has forever tarnished the sanctity of her office. By filing this lawsuit, we intend to not only hold her accountable for her blatant constitutional violations, but to stop her bitter crusade to punish her political opponent in its tracks,' Habba said.

Earlier this month James said she was seeking a deposition from Trump as part of her civil probe, which began in March 2019 while he was still in the White House.

The report that she wanted to question Trump in early January prompted a furious backlash.

'Letitia James wants to politically weaponize her position as Attorney General instead of exemplifying impartiality and protecting the interests of all New Yorkers,' he said last week while also accusing James of 'prosecutorial misconduct.'

James is also working alongside Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in his office's ongoing criminal fraud probe into the Trump Organization.

That investigation has already produced charges against the Trump Organization's Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg as well as the Trump Payroll Corporation.

Trump has frequently dismissed both probes as 'witch hunts' and accused Vance and James of political motivations and urged them to focus on rising crime rates in New York City.

Sewell most recently helped lead the police department in Nassau County, which is the safest county in America, according to a US News report

'She should focus her attention on helping to resurrect the once Great State of New York where crime and poverty continue to wreak havoc, with murder, rape, drug sales, and just about every other form of crime at record levels, and now with a just-announced highest unemployment rate in the Nation,' he wrote.

'New York is dying before our very eyes, and all the Democrat Prosecutors are focused on is how we can get and punish Donald Trump, who many would say has done, over the years, a spectacular job for New York!'

During the week ending December 12, New York City saw 10 murders, a 43 percent year-over-year increase. Rapes increased 38 percent after 29 people were victimized during the same period.

Overall, murders are up 2.3 percent, rape is up 2.2 percent, and overall crime is up 4.8 percent in the city year-over-year.

Already this year, 454 people have been murdered in the Big Apple, and 1,413 others have been raped. Another 12,994 New Yorkers have been robbed and 19,809 have been the victims of felony assault.
A California man died after paramedics responding to his cardiac arrest refused to enter the care facility he was in because they misinterpreted an outdated COVID-19 state memo, officials said.

Staff at Rialto Post Acute Facility Care in Riverside made 911 calls reporting that Joseph Angulo, 56, 'had stopped breathing' shortly before 8pm on November 11.

But when Rialto Fire arrived at the center, paramedics refused to enter the facility and told staff to move the patient to the entrance instead.

Frantic nurses and a police officer who also responded to the scene repeatedly told the responders they could not move Angulo as he was actively receiving CPR and on an industrial hospital bed without wheels.

The paramedics reportedly claimed they 'would do the same as staff so they should hurry up and bring [Angulo] outside.'

After the first responders allegedly told staff that 'if they didn't like the rule, they should call your congressman,' Officer Ralph Ballew entered the facility and pushed the bed to the entrance as a nurse kept performing CPR. Paramedics eventually took over.

Angulo was then transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, less than two miles away from the center, but was pronounced dead at 8.38 pm.

The paramedics might have refused to enter the facility citing an April 2020 COVID-19 memo from the San Bernardino County Fire Chief's Association that advised personnel responding to long-term care facilities to request patients be removed out of the building to minimize potential exposure to COVID-19.

Staff at Rialto Post Acute Facility Care made 911 calls reporting that Joseph Angulo, 56, 'had stopped breathing' shortly before 8pm on November 11. Frantic nurses and a police officer who also responded to the scene repeatedly told the responders they could not move Angulo as he was actively receiving CPR and on an industrial hospital bed without wheels

According to a police report, staff also told law enforcement they had never faced such a situation, despite having called first responders to the facility several times in the past

Officer Ralph Ballew entered the facility and pushed the bed to the entrance as a nurse kept performing CPR. Paramedics eventually took over

The paramedics reportedly claimed they 'would do the same than staff so they should hurry up and bring [Angulo] outside'

At the time, the department advised all dispatch centers to request the facilities to move patients to the door or outside the location.

However, the memo also stated: 'If [the] patient cannot be transferred to exit for or outside prior to arrival, one member of Fire/EMS personnel should initially interact with the patient.'

They have been placed on leave after the city opened an investigation.

Staff at Rialto Post Acute said they rely heavily on paramedic equipment such as defibrillation, intubation, IV access, and medication administration, to save patients in great distress as Angulo was, The Washington Post reported.

According to a police report, staff also told law enforcement they had never faced such a situation, despite having called first responders to the facility several times in the past.

The employee who made the 911 call added that the dispatcher told them paramedics 'had to come in.'

In the bodycam footage, Officer Ballew is shown outside the center, while two paramedics stand by entrance.

Ballew and the paramedics have a brief conversation, which is inaudible, before the officer decides to enter the facility to 'see what's happening.'

As he enters, the frantic staff he would later describe as 'distraught and upset by the lack of effort,' is seen walking past him and repeatedly telling him that Angulo is in cardiac arrest.

'Please! It's cardiac arrest,' says an employee of the care facility, while another voice 'Come, pull the wheel.'

'They won't come in. They're saying it's state law that they cannot come in,' Ballew answers.

When he goes inside the room where Angulo was, the man can be seen receiving CPR by a nurse.

When Ballew goes inside the room where Angulo was, the man can be seen receiving CPR by a nurse

The two paramedics have been placed on leave after the city opened an investigation into the matter

Ballew then pushes the bed, with a nurse is still on top of Angulo, and steers it down the hallway and to the paramedics, who eventually take over the CPR.

'You did a great job, it's exhausting,' Ballew tells the nurse who is catching her breath after her desperate attempts to save Angulo's life.

One of the paramedics allegedly told staff that they 'were doing the same thing we would have to do if we went in...So, hurry up and bring him out so we can help,' according to Ballew.

Ballew also said the other paramedic told him staff 'should call their congressman,' if they didn't like the policy.

'Despite being in their line of sight, fire personnel still insisted on [the patient] being brought to them outside before they began life-saving efforts and made no effort to assist me in getting [the patient] outside,' Ballew said in a report.

After one of the care facility employees raised a complaint to the City's Attorney, officials opened an investigation into the matter, and the paramedics have been placed on leave pending the probe.

Rialto Mayor Pro Tem Ed Scott said the tape was difficult to watch and it was unlike the well-regarded Rialto Fire Department to decline help to the community, FOX 11 reported.

In the aftermath of Angulo's death, the San Bernardino County Chapter of the Emergency Medical Services Authority said paramedics cannot refuse care unless the situation is dangerous.

'Upon acceptance of a call assignment, California paramedics cannot refuse service (i.e., assessment, treatment, transport) unless directed by law enforcement or if the scene is unsafe. Local protocols may change instructions for the conditions to assess, treat, and/or transport,' a statement by the organization said.

Angulo's family has been notified of the pending investigation.
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Israel on Monday added the United States to its 'no-fly' list, citing concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Under the edict, which goes into effect on Tuesday, Israelis would need special permission to fly to the United States, now one of more than 50 countries to which its citizens cannot travel.

Few other countries have red-listed the US amid the Omicron surge, though roughly 50 countries have effectively sealed their borders to all non-citizens, including Australia, China, Russia and Japan, as well as many small island nations.

Israel's rare move to red-list the U.S. comes amid rising coronavirus infections there and marks a change to pandemic practices between the two nations with close diplomatic relations.

An ultra Orthodox Jewish passenger looks at the departures board at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday. Israel has banned travel to Italy, the United States, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey amid the ongoing spread of the coronavirus Omicron variant

Many countries have effectively sealed their borders to all non-citizens, as seen in the map above from Kayak.com

Acting on Health Ministry recommendations, cabinet ministers voted on Monday to put the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland and Turkey on the no-fly roster, Bennett's office said in a statement.

Countries effectively closed to US travelers Australia

China

Israel

Japan

Morocco

New Zealand

Philippines

Russia

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Any Israeli passport holders returning from a banned country would have to isolate on arrival, regardless of vaccination status, and people from banned countries who don't hold an Israeli passport will be forbidden from visiting altogether.

The order comes after it was reported that a recent flight from Miami brought in 17 people who were infected with coronavirus. Most of those infections were caused by the Omicron variant, according to local media.

In a televised address on Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel had bought some time by moving fast to limit travel when Omicron was first detected last month, but that this was now waning. He predicted a surge of sicknesses within a few weeks.

Israel has logged 134 confirmed Omicron cases and another 307 suspected cases, the Health Ministry said. Of these, 167 were symptomatic, it said.

In a rapid first response to Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong, Israel banned the entry of foreigners on November 25 and has imposed three- to 14-day quarantine orders for Israelis returning from abroad.

Barring US travel for Israeli citizens and residents marks a significant step for Bennett's government, given the hundreds of thousands of dual nationals and close ties between the countries.

Other countries that were approved to be added to the travel ban starting Wednesday are Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

Bennett said Israel was in the midst of its fifth wave of Covid-19. Authorities reported 794 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday - slightly above the seven-day average of 754.

The number of deaths reported remained in the single digits.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel was in the midst of its fifth wave of Covid-19. Authorities reported 794 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday - slightly above the seven-day average of 754. The number of deaths reported remained in the single digits. Since the start of the pandemic last year, more than 1.36 million Israelis have been infected with coronavirus. More than 8,200 have died

Since the start of the pandemic last year, more than 1.36 million Israelis have been infected with coronavirus. More than 8,200 have died.

The Haaretz news site on Sunday said some 17 travelers with the coronavirus arrived on a single flight from Miami, most of them with the Omicron variant.

'The Omicron variant is already here,' he told a press conference after a cabinet meeting, 'and it's spreading fast.'

Speaking earlier, Bennett reiterated that he would continue to restrict travel in order to avoid further lockdowns.

He said Israel had gained 'precious time' by curbing travel immediately after the Omicron variant was detected in South Africa last month.

'European countries are either in lockdown or are heading that way,' he said, stressing that for Israel 'time is running out.'

Israelis are now barred from flying to the United States, Canada, and several European countries. The image above shows several El Al Airlines Boeing 737 plans on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv in March 2020

Lawmakers on Sunday approved an earlier health ministry recommendation to bar Israeli citizens and residents from travelling to France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Britain and Denmark were already on the red list, as was most of Africa.

Israeli citizens and residents who are already abroad when a country is declared red must quarantine for a week after returning home.

Non-resident foreigners from all countries are barred from entry unless they have special permission.

Bennett called on Israelis to work from home and encouraged parents to vaccinate their children.

'Our goal is to brave this wave without it affecting the economy and education as much as possible,' he said.

'The way to achieve that is by slowing down the infection rate, and vaccinating Israeli children in the meantime as quickly as possible.'
An award-winning Tennessee elementary school teacher has been arrested and charged with repeatedly raping and sexually abusing two young relatives.

Jonathan Ullrich, 50, a first-grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School who was named Teacher of a Year in 2020, has been indicted on 27 counts, including aggravated sexual battery, incest, rape of a child and especially aggravated sexual exploitation.

Ullrich, who is seen shirtless in mugshot, has been suspended from work without pay.

Officials at Williams County Schools wrote in a statement that the accusations against the teacher are 'horrific.'

Jonathan Ullrich, 50 (pictured shirtless in his booking photo), a first-grade teacher from Tennessee, has been charged with aggravated sexual battery, incest, rape of a child and aggravated sexual exploitation

Ullrich was named Teacher of the Year at Fairview Elementary School in February 2020

According to a Maury County Grand Jury indictment, Ullrich is accused of sexually abusing two children under the age of 13 between 2016 and November 2021, reported The Tennessean.

The victims in question were not students at Ullrich's school. It has been reported that both children are related to the suspect.

Ullrich is accused of sexually abusing two relatives under age 13 from 2016 until November 2021

Ullrich has taught first grade at Fairview Elementary for seven years, where he has come to be known as a highly regarded educator.

'He seemed like a nice gentlemen,' Sheila Staggs, the mother of a student in the school system, told WJHL 'He had a great reputation. He was actually teacher of the year last year, and he had a great rapport with the students.'

Prior to 2014, Ullrich had served as principal at Longview Elementary School for seven years until 2014, when he was abruptly removed from that post and reassigned to work at the district's central office through the end of the school year.

It later emerged that Ullrich lost his job as a principal after making sexually charged comments to at least one female staff member.

After being suspended for three days and undergoing anti-harassment training, Ullrich was allowed to resume teaching at Fairview Elementary.

Ullrich has been suspended without pay from Fairview Elementary School, where he has taught for seven years

Earlier this month, deputies were serving warrants on Ullrich concerning unspecified civil matters, unrelated to the criminal charges, when he fled into the woods, sparking an hours-long standoff.

'The charges filed against Mr. Ullrich in Maury County are horrific. The district has no indication that any of the charges out of Maury County are related to his work in WCS,' Williamson County Schools said in a statement. 'However, families who may have information to share with local law enforcement are encouraged to contact the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.'

Ullrich was ordered held in the Maury County Jail on $200,000 bail. He is due back in court on January 4.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has staged what it called a 'major' military drill around the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with the US over its nuclear programme.

Military chiefs said the five-day drill will involve ground, navy and airborne forces training in the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes.

The drill, dubbed Exercise of the Great Prophet, takes place two days after nuclear talks between Iran and other world powers broke up without agreement - following clashes over new demands from Tehran.

Iran is holding military drills in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes each day

The drills involved land, sea and air forces and will take place over five days, according to the Revolutionary Guards

China, Britain, France, Germany and Russia are trying to negotiate new limits to Iran's nuclear programme amid fears it is trying to develop weapons, with America participating indirectly.

A previous deal, signed by President Obama, was torn up by Donald Trump - prompting Iran to significantly advance its nuclear technology including enriching uranium close to levels needed for a bomb.

Joe Biden has signalled that he would be willing to sign some kind of deal that would mean Iran giving up the weapons-grade material and putting in place curbs to ensure no weapons can be built, in return for relief from economic sanctions that have crippled the ruling regime.

But, since Obama negotiated his deal, leadership in Tehran has been handed over to hardliner Ebrahim Raisi who is striking a harder tone than predecessor Rouhani.

Against that backdrop, drills by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took place around the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday.

The Guard's aerospace division, ground troops and naval forces joined in the five-day drill, a report by Iranian state media said.

Pictures of the drill showed commandos in dinghies and two gunboats taking part in landing drills in the strait.

General Gholamali Rashid, a top Guard commander, vowed a harsh response to any Israeli military action against Iran.

Iranian forces will launch 'a crushing attack on all bases, centers, paths and space used to carry out the aggression without delay,' the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

Iran released photos of part of the drill, which it said showed commandos practicing assault landings in and around the Strait

As well as the sea drills, Iran said aircraft had taken part in early-morning exercises around the country's main nuclear plant at Bushehr

An Iranian gunboat and two dinghies take part in military drills in the Strait of Hormuz

'Any threat to Iran's nuclear and military bases by the Zionist regime is not possible without the green light support of the United States,' he said.

Earlier on Monday residents in Bushehr, where Iran's nuclear plant is located, reported hearing loud explosions and seeing lights in the sky - sparking fears it could be under attack by arch nemesis Israel.

The Iranian military later said this was part of the drill, while vowing to give a 'crushing response' to any Israeli attack.

Negotiations over Iran's nuclear technology have been taking place in Vienna, but broke up on Friday without agreement as Iran's top diplomat went back home to seek further guidance on measures to be put in place.

European diplomats said it was 'a disappointing pause' and that negotiators in Vienna are 'rapidly reaching the end of the road.'

However, they did point to 'some technical progress' so far.

A senior U.S. official involved in the talks also expressed frustration.

'It was better than it might have been, it was worse than it should have been, which leaves us in an uncertain position as to whether we can get to where we need to go in the short time that we have left to get there,' the official said.

Participants said they aim to resume quickly, though they haven't yet firmed up a date. China's chief negotiator, Wan Qun, said the talks will 'resume hopefully before the end of the year.'

Enrique Mora, the European Union diplomat who chaired the talks, echoed that, saying: 'I hope it will be during 2021.'

The United States has participated indirectly in the ongoing talks because it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal.

The drills come two days after talks between Iran and other major world powers over its nuclear programme (pictured) broke up without agreement

'For the eighth round, we have a lot of work ahead, a very complex task, I have to say,' Mora said. 'Difficult political decisions have to be taken.'

The original accord was meant to rein in Iran's nuclear program in return for loosened economic sanctions.

Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China are still part of the agreement.

Negotiators from the three Western European powers said they 'respect' Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani's decision to return to Tehran 'though it brings a disappointing pause in negotiations.'

They said the other participants were ready to continue the talks, and stressed that 'this negotiation is becoming ever more urgent.'

After twice expressing frustration during the recent talks, they said that 'there has been some technical progress in the last 24 hours, but this only takes us back nearer to where the talks stood in June.'

'We hope that Iran is in a position to resume the talks quickly, and to engage constructively so that talks can move at a faster pace,' the European negotiators said.

Iran's nuclear program 'is now more advanced than it has ever been,' making it critical that Tehran refrain from taking further steps that escalate the situation, they said.

'As we have said, there are weeks not months before the JCPOA's core non-proliferation benefits are lost,' they added. 'We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation.'

Russia's delegate to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said the latest round has set a 'sound basis for more intensive negotiations.'

'The negotiators now much better understand each other,' Ulyanov wrote on Twitter.
At least a dozen major U.S. cities have set grim new records for homicides in 2021  and the year is not over yet.

The city that may be the worst among them is Portland  where I'm from.

Portland turned over its streets to Black Lives Matter-Antifa rioters last year and allowed the far-left to dictate public policy.

Elected officials in the 'City of Roses' condemned the police, defunded law enforcement and coddled violent criminals in the name of 'anti-fascism' and 'anti-racism.'

Now it's dealing with yet another year of surging murders, shootings, riots, homeless encampments, mass looting and violent criminality.

In early December, the Portland Police Bureau announced that it would only be responding to the most serious 911 calls involving life or death scenarios.

'Due to critical incidents happening today and PPB's staffing shortage, officers are responding to Priority 1 and 2 calls only right now and response times may be delayed for certain calls,' wrote the PPB as the police department struggled to get enough officers to respond to a violent armed carjacker on a highway in north Portland.

Responding officers eventually shot out the windows of a fleeing car being driven by suspect Brandon Keck, who died.

In 2021, Portland surpassed its all-time record for murders at 87 homicides so far, more than a 50 percent increase over last year's high number.

The city turned over its streets to Black Lives Matter-Antifa rioters last year and allowed the far-left to dictate public policy. Elected officials in the 'City of Roses' condemned its police, defunded law enforcement and coddled violent criminals in the name of 'anti-fascism' and 'anti-racism.' (Above) An protest organizer speaks as a fire burns at the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse on August 1, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.

At least a dozen major U.S. cities have set grim new records for homicides in 2021  and the year is not over yet. The city that may be the worst among them is Portland  where I'm from. (Above) Andy Ngo, Portland-native and journalist.

The deadly incident that shut down an entire major highway in Portland for hours wasn't the only time in recent weeks that Portlanders in need of emergency help were put on hold.

When Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on Nov. 19, Antifa rioters gathered to try and burn down the county jail in downtown as revenge.

'Significant resources have been diverted to address this riot and it is affecting response times. While we have officers assigned to address emergencies citywide, lower priority calls will have to wait for a while,' PPB wrote on Twitter.

Two days after the riot, a Portland woman called 911 at 3:37 p.m. pleading for help because she was in a hostage situation.

Responding officers were fired upon at the residence in question, forcing them to retreat and call in specialized units.

Ten hours later, officers finally broke inside and apprehended the armed suspect, 29-year-old Davonte Donahue. Mariela Gonzalez Rocha, the young Latina woman who called police for help, was already dead.

Even without an emergency crisis eating up immediate law enforcement resources, the city has struggled to respond quickly to high-priority 911 calls.

Before rioting began in May 2020, the average response time for high-priority life and death emergency calls was around eight minutes.

Now it takes 60% longer.

Last month, Mayor Ted Wheeler (pictured) ordered the director of Emergency Communications to provide him with data showing how long police were taking to respond following a surge of complaints by residents. (Above) Wheeler speaks during a news conference on Jan. 25, 2021 amid ongoing criminal destruction and violence occurring in his city

Lower priority 911 calls can take hours and police often never show up, according to public records from the Bureau of Emergency Communications.

Last month, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also doubles as the police commissioner, ordered the director of Emergency Communications to provide him with data showing how long police were taking to respond following a surge of complaints by residents.

But the mayor should look to himself first for the situation Portlanders find themselves in today.

As 2021 comes to an end, the consequences of the political decision-making by Wheeler and those on the city council to defund and demoralize law enforcement after George Floyd's death is clear: more black and brown people are dyingand few are able to get the help they need when they call police.

From Seattle to Austin and New York City, every American city that defunded police last year immediately experienced surging violent criminality. And even before this year is over, 12 American cities, all led by Democrats, broke their all-time annual homicide records.

Though Portland doesn't have anywhere near as many murders as larger cities long plagued by gang warfare, for example, Chicago and Philadelphia, Portland takes the dishonor of having among the highest percentage increase of homicides anywhere in the U.S. for two years in a row now.

Until recently, the city enjoyed a reputation for being quirky, progressive and safe.

After Floyd's death, Portland's city council hacked away at the policing budget in order to appease the demands of violent far-left extremists who carried out a nightly campaign of terror.

The far-left rioters torched buildings, carried out mass lootings, maimed those who dared to stand up and even murdered one man, a Donald Trump supporter.

For their violence and intimidation, the city rewarded them by defunding police to the tune of $27 million and abolished the Gun Violence Reduction Team within the PPB, citing systemic racism.

In early December, the Portland Police Bureau announced that it would only be responding to the most serious 911 calls involving life or death scenarios due to a lack of resources. (Above) Portland Police Bureau tweet alerting public to delay in police response times due to 'staffing shortage'

Ten hours after Mariela Gonzalez Rocha (left) called Portland police in November 2021, officers finally broke inside her apartment and apprehended 29-year-old Davonte Donahue. Rocha was already dead.

Amid months of riots last year that demoralized law enforcement and drove officers to resign or take early retirement en masse, the whole country on average experienced an unprecedented surge in homicide.

From 2019 to 2020, the U.S. on average recorded a 30 percent increase in homicides. That's the biggest jump in murders in a single year since the FBI began compiling homicide statistics in the 1960s.

But in Portland, where the far-left riots were sustained the longest with the moral support of local politicians, that jump was 83 percent last year.

And it became worse.

In 2021, Portland surpassed its all-time record for murders at 87 homicides so far, more than a 50 percent increase over last year's high number.

For a city of 650,000 residents, Portland had more homicides this year than larger cities on the west coast like San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

Compounding the problem is that the number of sworn officers in the Portland Police Bureau is at its lowest since the 1980s despite the city experiencing surging population growth for the last 30 years.

Currently, there are around 788 sworn officers in the city, or about 1.2 officers per 1,000 people. Compared to other American cities of similar population size, Portland has the fewest officers per thousand people. For example, Boston has three officers per thousand, Milwaukee has 2.8, and Washington, D.C. has five.

Portland lost 140 officers to retirement, transfers and resignations since rioting began a year and a half ago.

In exit interviews released to local journalists, officers who resigned in Portland often cited Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt as one of the reasons.

Schmidt, an outspoken progressive and police critic, came into office during the height of the riots in the summer of 2020 and promptly enacted a policy decriminalizing most riot-related offenses. His successful 2020 campaign was supported by Real Justice, a political action committee co-founded by radical anti-police activist Shaun King.

Over 90 percent of those arrested at the riots last year in Portland for crimes ranging from arson to assault had their cases effectively dropped.

Mayor Wheeler now says he wants to add at least 300 new officers to the Portland Police. He also proposes rehiring retired officers and offering $25,000 signing bonuses to new recruits. But the efforts are too little and too late.

Unable to deny the bloody consequences of BLM and Antifa-inspired politics in Portland, the city council has attempted to reverse course.

Some of their proposals would be amusing were it not for the number of people dying each week. In October, Portland city council member Jo Ann Hardesty, who was the most vocal about defunding police and called last year's riots 'the new civil rights movement,' ordered the city place more traffic cones in the roads to combat surging shootings. It didn't work.

Last month city council voted to refund police in a new budget that added back $5.2 million to what was cut last year. The Gun Violence Reduction Team that was abolished has also been resurrected under a new name, the Focused Intervention Teambut it's not operational because few officers are volunteering to join.

Mayor Wheeler now says he wants to add at least 300 new officers to the Portland Police. He also proposes rehiring retired officers and offering $25,000 signing bonuses to new recruits.

But the efforts are too little and too late. The bureau has struggled for over a year and a half to find enough recruits.

Meanwhile, a new year is around the corner and another spate of officers are expected to retire.
Two babies sheltering in a bathtub during the deadly tornadoes that hit Kentucky this month miraculously survived under the overturned tub after it was sent flying from the devastated home, their grandmother said.

Clara Lutz, who frequently babysits her two infant grandchildren - Kaden, 15 months, and Dallas, three months - put them in a bathtub with a blanket, a pillow and a Bible as her house started shaking from the tornado rolling through on December 10.

Her home in Barnsley, Kentucky, did not have a basement to shelter in.

'I felt the rumbling. I felt the shaking of the house. The next thing I knew the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands. I couldn't hold on,' Lutz told Click Orlando.

'I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be. I had no clue at all where these babies was. All I could say was: "Lord please bring these babies back to me safely. Lord please, I beg thee."'

Clara Lutz (center) was babysitting her grandchildren Kaden, 15 months (left), and Dallas, three months (right), when a tornado was ripping through her Barnsley, Kentucky, home

She sheltered the baby from the storm in a bathtub with a blanket, pillow and Bible. They were later found underneath the overturned tub in Lutz's yard (pictured)

Dallas (left) suffered a brain bleed, which stopped before Lutz could get to the hospital. Kaden (right) survived without any injuries

Lutz's home was stripped down to the foundation in the chaos and she was hit in the back of the head with the tub's water tank.

Officers found the bathtub in her yard, upside down, with the babies underneath. They had even stayed dry under the tub as it began to rain.

'The sheriff come down, I got in the sheriff's car right at the end of my driveway. They opened up the door and brought me Kaden, my 15-month-old. It wasn't long after that they brought me Dallas, my three-month-old,' Lutz said.

'He had a big 'ol goose egg on the back of his head. We didn't know what was wrong.'

Dallas suffered a brain bleed from the effects of the storm and was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville.

However, the bleeding stopped before Lutz got to the hospital, she told the news station.

The children's parents live in the north end of the county and their home was nearly untouched by the tornado.

In Kentucky, state emergency management officials and the state health department have said that the current death toll is 78.

The governor, who noted that his staff believes there are an additional three deaths, said Saturday that all of the people reported missing in the state after the outbreak of tornadoes have been accounted for.

The winds send everything inside flying, including the holiday decorations

The roof was torn apart after a tornado spun through it on December 10

The bank in Mayfield, above before the storm, is one of nine branches across Kentucky

At least 93 people have been confirmed dead across five states after more than 40 tornadoes pummeled the region.

The December 10 tornadoes killed six in Illinois, five in Tennessee, two in Arkansas and two in Missouri.

Surveillance video showed a tornado tearing through a bank in Mayfield, Kentucky, when dozens of fatal twisters wreaked havoc.

The FNB Bank branch in Mayfield - the same Western Kentucky town where eight people died at a candle factory - was destroyed by a tornado on the same night.

Video from inside the bank shows Christmas trees and standee posters shaking from the wind as the twister approaches. The lights flicker off before the tornado rips through the lobby, ripping off the glass doors and sending a Christmas tree flying.

Billy and Judy Miller died while holding hands during last weekend's deadly tornadoes that ripped through Kentucky

The elderly couple had been married for 56 years when they died when a tornado tore through Muhlenberg County - northwest of Bowling Green - in western Kentucky Friday night

Also in Kentucky, an elderly couple married for 56 years died holding hands after the devastating tornadoes.

Billy and Judy Miller were two of the victims killed as storms tore through Muhlenberg County - northwest of Bowling Green in western Kentucky - late Friday night.

'They had passed away together, holding on to each other,' their granddaughter, Serenity Miller told KHOU.

'Their love was so deep for each other, we knew they wouldn't be able to survive without each other.'

Miller said that despite half a century together and losing a son, Billy Miller Jr, and a daughter, Heather Miller Brooks, her grandparents' love for each other never dimmed.

In Mayfield, more than 100 employees of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory braved a tornado inside the facility, with some saying they were trapped under as much as five feet of rubble.

Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees against the family-owned candle factory in Kentucky.

They are asking for an undisclosed amount after they say they were told that if they left the factory they'd be fired - despite tornado sirens going off.

Only a few hours later, the whole factory was destroyed by the tornado, killing eight and injuring several. It is unclear how many are injured or missing.

The lawsuit claims the company showed 'flagrant indifference to the rights of Plaintiff Johnson and to the other similarly situated Plaintiffs with a subjective awareness that such conduct will result in human death and/or bodily injuries.'

The company has since denied this claim, stating that they followed protocol.

Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees after the Mayfield Consumer Products factory allegedly said they couldn't go home before the tornado on December 10
Police have launched an urgent search for a missing clubber who disappeared after going to Heaven nightclub in London on Thursday night.

Harvey Parker, 20, has not been seen or heard from since the early hours of Friday, December 17.

The student was last seen at a Lil Simz concert at O2 Academy Brixton on Thursday evening before going to LGBTQ+ nightclub Heaven in Charing Cross, Central London.

Posts have described the student as around 5'9, mixed race, slim and with short black hair.

The 20-year-old has not been on social media and their phone has been unresponsive since the event.

Members of the public have been urged to look out for the second-year music student, particularly those in South London, West London, Lee Green, Lewisham, Soho and the West End.

Harvey Parker, 20, (pictured) has not been seen or heard from since the early hours of Friday, December 17

Friends say the 20-year-old attends York University so may also have connections there.

One post on Twitter read: 'We are looking for Harvey. He is 20 and vulnerable.

'He's missed 3 work shifts and not on socials since 1.30am on Friday -unheard of - and not in touch with any friends.

'His family has visited all London hospitals and informed police.'

Friends say the student attends York University so may also have connections there

Another friend wrote: 'MY FRIEND IS MISSING. Harvey has been missing since Thursday evening.

'They went to a concert in Brixton before going to Heaven nightclub near Embankment and leaving there at 4am.'

Lambeth Police stated: 'MISSING PERSON APPEAL.

'We are currently very concerned about the welfare of Harvey PARKER who was last seen on the 16th December 2021 at Heaven Nightclub at Charing Cross.

'If you have any information which may help us find Harvey, please contact us and quote Ref 21MIS039522.'
The number of immigrants in the U.S.  both illegal and legal  has hit an all-time record high, with a Monday report showing 46.2 million foreign-born people are living in the country.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies report on the Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Study (CPS), immigrants made up 14.2 per cent of the U.S population as of November 2021.

This figure is the highest the U.S. immigration population has been in 111 years. It is also triple the share of the population since 1970 and double since 1990.

In 2021, the U.S. saw record-breaking surges in immigration with illegal crossing over the southern border with Mexico as Joe Biden took office and loosened restrictions coupled with legal immigration spikes after Donald Trump lost reelection.

While legal immigration does contribute to the record-high number, illegal immigration is the main contributor to the latest numbers.

Customs and Border Protection data shows they have encountered at the southern border more than 1.75 million migrants illegally crossing or attempting to seek asylum in the U.S.

Numbers released this last week show CBP encountered 173,620 illegal crossers in November alone  an uptick from the October crossings of 164,753.

Foreign-born people living in the U.S. has hit its highest ever under President Joe Biden in November as more people immigrate and other travel illegally over the southern border

A record number of immigrants  legal and illegal  are living in the U.S. with 46.2 million foreign-born people in the country

The Center for Immigration Studies report shows projections that the immigration population in the U.S. could reach 17 per cent by 2060 if it stays on this trajectory

A record number of migrants have surged across the U.S. southern border since President Joe Biden took office. Migrants mostly from Central America wait outside the National Migration Institute in Mexico City on Monday in hopes of obtaining humanitarian visas to transit Mexican territory

Immigration through all channels severely depleted in 2020, likely due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump's hard-line anti-illegal immigration policies.

Demographer and chief author of the report Steven Camerota explained, according to The Washington Times: 'There was pent-up demand for legal immigration, and illegal immigration has exploded in one of the greatest surges, if not the greatest, we've ever seen.'

'It's driving the numbers up and up and up,' he added.

CBP officials saw a 140 per cent uptick in illegal crossings at the southern border last month from November 2020, when there were only 72,113 encounters.

The November figure is still down from 192,001 encounters in September and 209,840 in August.

Agents saw 127,653 unique individuals attempt to cross, a 10 per cent increase over October. More than 50 per cent were processed for expulsion under Title 42, a coronavirus public health order.

Encounters with unaccompanied children rose 9 per cent to 13,959.

Fiscal year 2021 saw the highest number of border crossings on record at 1.7 million.

Since Biden became president, more than 1.77 million migrants have surged over the border. Migrants wait in Mexico City to hear if they will get visas for Mexico as they travel north

CBP commissioner Chris Magnus struck a positive tone on the new border figures.

'CBP's November Monthly Operational Update reflects an incredible amount of work on behalf of the American people to keep dangerous drugs and products out of our communities, to facilitate travel and billions of dollars in trade, and to maintain security along our borders,' Magnus said in a statement.

'It's an honor to lead a workforce whose mission is so vital to our economic health and national security. CBP's vigilance is key to disrupting smugglers and transnational criminal organizations as they exploit vulnerable populations and attempt to traffic illegal and dangerous products.'

Agents reported 173,620 encounters at the US-Mexico border in November, up from 164,303 encounters reported in October

The November figure is still down from 192,001 encounters in September and 209,840 in August

Meanwhile, the Biden administration this month was forced to resume former President Trump's Remain-in-Mexico policy by court order. Two bids by the Biden administration to end the policy, which requires those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims are being processed, were overruled in court.

And on Friday Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that Democrats cannot include immigration reform in President Biden's Build Back Better plan being debated in the Senate.

And after Biden ceased Trump's plan to complete the border wall, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is taking steps to build the border wall in his state.

Abbott has aimed to crack down on migration through Operation Lone Star Initiative, which utilizes Texas' National Guard and its Department of Public Safety.

The initiative has already placed physical hurdles, like steel shipping containers, on borderlines to block migrants.

The initiative has already placed physical hurdles, like steel shipping containers, on borderlines to block migrants

'Texas has officially started building its own border wall,' Abbott tweeted on Friday. '

Biden allows open border policies and refuses to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border and enforce immigration laws. Texas is stepping up to do the federal government's job.'

During an appearance on Fox Business on Friday, Abbott said that the Texas legislature had allocated $3 billion for the project.

'Three billion dollars of Texas taxpayer money has been devoted to this cause of Texas securing the border, and so we have a lot of money available to us to continue to build the wall,' Abbott said, adding, 'For Texas [this] is going to cost less than it did for the Trump administration for one reason. And that's because in Texas, unlike the Trump administration, we're not having to devote money to acquire the land The state of Texas owns [land] on the border itself.'

Abbott also said, 'There are property owners of massive acreage on the border who are fed up with Biden's open border policies, and they are donating their land to Texas for us to be able to use that land for free to build a wall on their property.'

However, Abbott said Texas would try to get the federal government to foot the bill.

'We are seeking federal government to pay for this and there have been requests made by members of the Texas Congressional Delegation to the federal government for funding to get all of this done,' Abbott said. 'Texas will also be bringing legal action against the federal government for the state of Texas to get reimbursed for all the costs we have incurred to do the federal government's job.'
A mother and son have been found guilty of killing a 17-year-old boy in a machete attack.

Nicola Leighton became 'furious' after Levi Ernest-Morrison and his friends kept knocking on her door looking for her son Tyreese Ulysses.

When 19-year-old Ulysses learned they were 'bothering' his mother, he rallied friends, all armed with knives, jurors were told.

They jumped out of Leightons 'distinctive' red Suzuki 4x4 jeep and some of the group chased Levi and one of his friends.

Levi, who had autism and nerve damage which gave him drop foot, meaning he needed to walk with a crutch, was caught and fatally stabbed on the evening of April 10.

Leighton, of Sydenham, was today found guilty of murder and having an offensive weapon.

Ulysses, from Catford, south London, who previously admitted having a weapon, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter by a majority of 10 to two after a jury deliberated for more than 40 hours.

Two youths, aged 16 and 17, who had also admitted having weapons, were unanimously convicted of murder.

Levi Ernest-Morrison (pictured) was killed on April 10 in Sydenham, southeast London.

An artist impression of Nicola Leighton, 36, and her son Tyreese Ulysses, 19, appearing at the Old Bailey

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones QC previously told a court the attack in Sydenham, south London, took just 30 seconds.

Afterwards, the attackers sprinted back to the waiting car, driven by Leighton, which sped away from the scene.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: 'That evening, when Levi and the others came knocking on her door, Nichola Leighton was furious.

'She rang the police about it and told the police that if the boys came back, she was going to batter them.

'But before she had phoned the police, she contacted with her son Tyreese Ulysses.

'The prosecution say that having heard from his mum that Levi and his friends had come round to his mums house and were bothering her, he then rallied the troops.'

Levi (right) had autism and nerve damage which gave him drop foot, meaning he needed to walk with a crutch

Leighton admitted driving the boys to the scene but denied being aware they were armed, while her son claimed they only wanted to scare off the gang.

The defendants were remanded into custody to be sentenced on January 28 next year.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on a charge of murder relating to another youth, aged 15.
Former President Donald Trump was heckled in Dallas Sunday for confirming he received his COVID-19 booster shot.

Trump appeared onstage with ex-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly for the final stop of their 'History Tour.'

'Both the president and I are vaxxed,' O'Reilly said. 'Did you get the booster?' he asked Trump.

Trump answered, 'yes,' to which O'Reilly replied, 'I got it too,' as members of the crowd started to yell.

'Don't, don't, don't, don't ... no, no, no,' Trump responded, wagging his hand at a section of the crowd. 'There's a very tiny group over there,' the ex-president said, pointing.

Trump had encouraged the crowd to 'take credit' for the vaccine. 'You're playing right into their hands when you're sort of like 'oh the vaccine,'' the ex-president said.

Former President Donald Trump (left) was heckled in Dallas Sunday for confirming he received his COVID-19 booster shot alongside former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (right)

Data shows that Republicans are much more skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccines than their Democratic counterparts.

And while Trump has touted his Operation Warp Speed - the public-private partnership his White House spurred for swift COVID-19 vaccine development - he's also allowed anti-vaccination sentiment to fester by giving it some cover.

He did so Sunday by telling the audience that they didn't have to get their shots.

'If you don't want to take it you shouldn't be forced to take it,' Trump said. 'No mandates,' he said to cheers.

He previously refused to get his COVID-19 vaccine on-camera, doing it quietly before leaving the White House in January.

In September, Trump floated that he might not get the booster.

'I don't think so,' he told Sharyl Attkisson for her show Full Measure. 'I mean, I don't think so - I really feel I'm in pretty good shape with respect to that. But let's see what happens.'

'If I feel it's good, if I feel it's necessary, I would get it,' the ex-president added.

He, again, didn't get his booster shot televised.

While in the White House, Trump also downplayed the benefits of wearing a mask.

He held large rallies against the advice of public health professionals in the months leading up to the November 2020 election.

Trump was infected with COVID in October 2020 and was hospitalized.

Still, he considered his administration's handling of the pandemic a triumph.

Trump's spokeswoman Liz Harrington sent out a crowd shot of the Dallas event, after part of the crowd heckled the ex-president and Bill O'Reilly when they revealed they had been boosted

'We did something that was historic,' he boasted on Sunday. 'We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. We, together, all of us. We got a vaccine done, three vaccines done, and tremendous therapeutics like Regeneron and other things that have saved a lot of lives.'

'We got a vaccine done in less than nine months. It was supposed to take from five to 12 years,' the ex-president continued.

Trump said it could have been like the 'Spanish flu of 1917 where up to 100 million died.'

The Spanish flu pandemic happened between 1918 and 1919 and 50 million died worldwide, with an estimated 675,000 fatalities occurring in the United States.

The COVID-19 death count in the United States has surpassed 800,000.

'Take credit for it,' Trump told the audience about the vaccines. 'What we've done is historic. Don't let them take it away. Don't take it away from ourselves.'

Trump previously got booed at a rally in Alabama in August when he recommended to the crowd that they get their shots.
Ownership of Bitcoin is highly concentrated, with just 0.01 percent of all holders controlling 27 percent of the cryptocurrency, a new study has found.

The top 10,000 Bitcoin accounts hold 5 million Bitcoins, worth about $232 billion at current prices, according to the recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

This level of concentration brings 'systemic risk' in part because a small number of people could trigger a price collapse if they sold their holdings at once.

'Despite having been around for 14 years and the hype it has ratcheted up, it's still the case that it's a very concentrated ecosystem,' study co-author Antoinette Schoar at MIT Sloan School of Management told the Wall Street Journal.

The study was conducted by mapping every transaction in Bitcoin history for the first time ever, and found that wealth concentration in the cryptocurrency is greater than in the US economy at large.

The top 10,000 Bitcoin accounts hold 5 million Bitcoins, worth about $232 billion at current prices and 27% of the total available, a new study found

In the US, where wealth inequality has been rapidly increasing, the top 1 percent of households hold about a third of all wealth, according to the Federal Reserve.

The study by Schoar and Igor Makarov at the London School of Economics warned that despite its promise of decentralization, Bitcoin is becoming highly concentrated in several important ways.

An estimated 114 million individuals hold Bitcoin worldwide, but nearly a third of the value is concentrated in 0.01 percent of accounts, the study found.

They authors found that major Bitcoin exchanges explain 75 percent of real Bitcoin transaction volume, and that Bitcoin mining capacity is 'highly concentrated.'

Bitcoin has surged since March 2020 when it was trading at around $5,000, reaching a peak of $68,990.90 last month. It has since dropped off its record highs

When Bitcoin first launched, anyone could create a node on their computer to process transactions, also known as mining, but the endeavor has now become highly specialized, requiring vase computing power.

'Our results suggest that despite the significant attention that Bitcoin has received over the last few years, the Bitcoin eco-system is still dominated by large and concentrated players, be it large miners, Bitcoin holders or exchanges,' the authors wrote.

'This inherent concentration makes Bitcoin susceptible to systemic risk and also implies that the majority of the gains from further adoption are likely to fall disproportionately to a small set of participants.'

The total number of Bitcoins that will ever be created is capped algorithmically at 21 million.

An estimated 114 million individuals hold Bitcoin worldwide, but nearly a third of the value is concentrated in 0.01 percent of accounts, the study found

There are currently around 19 million Bitcoins in circulation, and the rate of new coin creation slows as time goes on.

More than 1 million Bitcoins, worth some $50 billion, are owned by the creator of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity is unknown, and whose accounts have sat untouched for more than a decade.

Bitcoin has surged since March 2020 when it was trading at around $5,000, reaching a peak of $68,990.90 last month. It has since dropped off its record highs.

On Monday cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ether edged lower, with Bitcoin down 1.5 percent at $46,147.78 and Ether down 2.2 percent at $3,819.51.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's stunning statement that he can't bring himself to support President Biden's $1.8 trillion Build Back Better plan Sunday left Democrats scrambling to see what  if anything  they could salvage.

Many of the provisions poll well  while also satisfying core Democratic constituencies that the party considers paramount to motivating its base. With no reconciliation deal, more are likely won't see any action for the remainder of the Congress  unless party leaders can start over or identify something that satisfies Manchin.

'I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,' Manchin told Fox News Sunday. 'I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there,' he said  in comments that drew furious pushback from the White House, which called on him 'to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word.'

Most of the provisions stand little chance of clearing the Senate  where 60 votes are needed to break a filibuster  without protection of budget reconciliation legislation, which is why the White House worked for so long to try to get Manchin on board.

Refundable child tax credit

A centerpiece of the plan is a child tax credit that Manchin has both criticized  saying it should be targeted and go with a work requirement  to something that ought to be extended for the duration of the bill rather than expire in a 'gimmick' to keep the cost down.

A ten year version is expensive, so if there is still a deal to be reached, the proposal could be jettisoned. Or, it could be tweaked in other ways to keep costs down.

According to the Huffington Post, Manchin told some fellow Democrats he thought parents would waste the money on drugs.

The Washington Post reported Monday that a $1.8 trillion counteroffer from Manchin last week jettisoned the program entirely.

Manchin, who has drawn attacks from the left for his financial holdings in the coal industry, has long complained about the bill's climate provisions. He says the nation cannot transition too quickly to cleaner energy sources or become dependent on foreign sources of energy.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) infuriated fellow Democrats when he announced Sunday that he could not support the president's Build Back Better package

Universal pre-K

Also caught up in the implosion of Build Back Better is a proposal pushed by progressives to provide support for universal pre-K across the country. The $1.8 trillion framework included partial funding for the program. Manchin would have provided for it through the 10-year scope of the bill.

The bill that passed the House contained $380 billion for pre-K and child care assistance  although it was phased in over a period of six years.

The pre-K provisions were slated to cost $110 billion.

The bill that passed the House contained $380 billion for pre-K and child care assistance. Manchin himself would have kept funding for pre-K in a proposal he shared with the White House

The apparent collapse of Build Back Better comes after Biden acknowledged the bill wouldn't move in the Senate before Christmas

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in communication with Manchin, and vouched for him in October. 'Look, I think that Joe Manchin is a great member of Congress  of the Senate, we're friends. We're Italian Americans, we get along, Catholic, we have shared values. I have enormous respect for him. ... So we have our common ground'

Climate

Smoke billows from the Conemaugh Generation Station in New Florence, Pa.

The bill's climate provisions are greatly imperiled by the rupture. It is unlikely they could ever pass as a stand-alone bill in the Senate.

The White House framework included $555 billion for investments in clean energy.

Manchin reportedly backed a version in the $500 billion to $600 billion range.

Home care and housing

The White House framework also included $150 billion for home care, and $150 billion for housing, plus $130 billion in credits to help lower premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

Immigration

A provision of the bill to provide temporary protections to million of immigrants living in the country illegally had already suffered a major blow even before Manchin. On Thursday night, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough ruled for the third time it was not allowable under the chamber's reconciliation procedures, which requires provisions mainly have a budget impact to be included.

It would allow certain immigrants to apply for five year work permits.

But according to McDonough, they provisions were 'substantial policy changes with lasting effects just like those we previously considered and outweigh the budgetary impact.'

Paid family leave

The House-passed bill It included four weeks paid leave for employees who get sick or must care for a family member. The proposal was scaled back from 12 weeks leave in an earlier $3.5 trillion version.

Manchin had already raised his concerns about the provisions, projected to cost more than $200 billion over a decade.

'Spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we cant even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity,' he said last month  although fellow lawmakers were looking to reel him in.
Daily Covid cases in South Africa have fallen week-on-week for the third day in a row and hospital admissions are tumbling just a month into its Omicron outbreak.

Data from the National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) shows just 8,515 people tested positive in the past 23 hours, down from 13,992 last Monday. The 40 per cent drop is the biggest since the Omicron outbreak hit the country.

In another sign the wave is fading, hospitalisations fell by a fifth today with just 323 people admitted.

It's the second day they've fallen after they dropped 53 per cent yesterday.

But there was a big dip in testing today, with 28,000 carried out compared to 45,000 last week, which may be influencing the case numbers.

But the test positive rate has also slightly dropped on last week, suggesting that the outbreak could be waning.

Fatalities - which are the biggest lagging indicator - rose to 105 today in a 855 per cent hike last Monday.

It marked the highest daily figure in South Africas latest wave, but is a fraction of the 844 daily deaths the country recorded at the peak last winter.

South African doctors have insisted for weeks that Omicron is milder since raising the alarm about it on November 24.

But there has been ongoing debate over whether it is intrinsically milder or if South Africa is benefitting from very high levels of natural immunity after being battered by Delta just months ago.

South Africa has accused the UK of panicking about Omicron, where Government scientists are warning of up to 6,000 daily deaths and 10,000 hospital admissions at the peak this winter.

UK's Covid cases stay flat for fourth day running at 91,743 Britain's daily Covid cases have barely moved in four days despite Government scientists insisting they are doubling every 48 to 72 hours. Department of Health figures showed 91,743 infections were recorded today, up two-thirds on last Monday and a tenth on yesterday. It also marked the third time they had breached 90,000 cases a day, after a record 93,045 were announced last Friday and 90,418 on Saturday. But this was still lower than the estimated doubling time would suggest. Covid testing does not appear to be the issue, with a record 1.5million Britons now swabbing themselves every day for the virus. In epicentre London 22,750 cases were recorded today, which was marginally up on yesterday's 21,594 but down on the highs of 25,000 from the weekend. A record 250,000 tests a day are also being done in the capital. In other good news hospitalisations stayed flat with 919 recorded on December 14, the latest available, which was barely a change on 926 from seven days earlier. Another 14 deaths from the virus were also announced by health chiefs, up 15 per cent in a week. Advertisement

The 8,515 daily infections recorded across South Africa means 3.3million people in the country have tested positive over the course of the pandemic so far.

The NICD said there are nearly 200,000 active cases in the country.

It carried out 28,250 tests in the last 24 hours and 29.9 per cent were positive. For comparison, around five per cent of the UKs daily Covid tests are positive.

Most cases were recorded in Kwazulu-Natal in the east (2,496), followed by the former epicentre Gauteng in the north east (1,890) and Western Cape (1,625).

South Africas positivity rate most recently peaked at 35 per cent last Tuesday and has been trending downwards since.

Meanwhile, 328 infected people were admitted to South Africas 666 hospitals and 8,435 people with Covid are currently receiving hospital care.

Some 457,320 Covid hospitalisations have been recorded since the pandemic began.

And 105 new deaths were recorded, bringing the countrys Covid fatality toll to 90,453.

The data from the country suggests the outbreak is fading around a month after it was first detected, while ministers and scientists in the UK are panicking about the impact the wave will have over the coming weeks.

The UK's fight against Omicron is strengthened by the booster campaign. South Africa is not dishing out third doses and just 23 per cent of their population is vaccinated.

However, UK experts have warned Britain's older and denser population is more susceptible to a big and deadly outbreak.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whity last week said he expected to see the UK's daily cases rise extraordinarily due to Omicron, but also 'come down faster than previous peaks', mirroring South Africa's experience with the strain.

Professor Whitty told MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee last week: 'I think what we will see with this is  and I think were seeing it in South Africa  is that the upswing will be very incredibly fast even if people are taking more cautious action.

Professor Whitty added: 'Itll probably therefore peak really quite fast.

'My anticipation is it may then come down faster than previous peaks but I wouldnt want to say that for sure.'

It comes as Britain's daily Covid cases have barely moved in four days despite Government scientists insisting they are doubling every 48 to 72 hours.

Department of Health figures showed 91,743 infections were recorded today, up two-thirds on last Monday and a tenth on yesterday.

It also marked the third time they had breached 90,000 cases a day, after a record 93,045 were announced last Friday and 90,418 on Saturday. But this was still lower than the estimated doubling time would suggest.

Covid testing does not appear to be the issue, with a record 1.5million Britons now swabbing themselves every day for the virus.

In epicentre London 22,750 cases were recorded today, which was marginally up on yesterday's 21,594 but down on the highs of 25,000 from the weekend. A record 250,000 tests a day are also being done in the capital.

In other good news hospitalisations stayed flat with 919 recorded on December 14, the latest available, which was barely a change on 926 from seven days earlier.

Another 14 deaths from the virus were also announced by health chiefs, up 15 per cent in a week.

Britain's Omicron death toll has now risen to 12, with 104 patients suffering from the variant hospitalised. But Professor Chris Whitty has warned that the delayed in testing samples suggests there are likely already many more patients hospitalised with the virus.

It came as Boris Johnson today put off a decision on whether more Covid curbs should be imposed before Christmas, with angry Tory MPs demanding the Prime Minister tells the nation whether festive plans can go ahead.

Mr Johnson hosted an emergency meeting of his Cabinet this afternoon on whether further measures were needed. But no final decision was reportedly made at the meeting, which means it now seems unlikely that more restrictions will be imposed before Christmas.
Connecticut State Police and K-9 dogs returned to a park in New Canaan on Monday to conduct another search for Jennifer Dulos, who has been missing since May 2019.

Monday's search was focused on a plot of land adjacent to Waveny Park, not far from where Dulos' SUV was found abandoned more than two years ago. The mom-of-five has not been seen or heard from since, and she has been presumed dead.

Officers and police dogs were observed scouring New Canaan's mulch dump in a wooded area. Officials said they anticipated this latest phase of the investigation to be lengthy.

'The Connecticut State Police Major Crimes detectives and K-9s are in Waveny Park on a standard follow-up investigative effort out of an abundance of caution to explore every avenue related to the case. These follow-ups are standard procedure as our detectives thoroughly investigate any and all leads,' said State Police official Brian Foley.

Connecticut State Police returned to Waveny Park in New Canaan on Monday and searched this adjacent mulch pile as part of the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos

Officials used machinery and K-9 dogs to search the site as part of 'a standard follow-up investigative effort out of an abundance of caution'

Jennifer went missing in May 2019, after dropping her five children off at school. She and her husband, Fotis Dulos (right), were in the middle of a bitter divorce and custody battle

TIMLINE OF FOTIS DULOS CASE: 2004: Fotis Dulos and Jennifer Farber get married. It is his second marriage In the same year, her father Hilliard starts loaning him money for his property business, Fore Group. 2015: Fotis and Michelle Troconis start taking trips he paid for which he claimed were for business. They later start an affair. January 2017: Hilliard Farber dies March 2017: Gloria Farber takes over his estate June 2017: Jennifer files for divorce, saying she is afraid of her husband February 2018: Gloria Farber sues Fotis Dulos for unpaid loans May 24, 2019: Jennifer vanishes after dropping off her five children at school June 2019: Fotis and Michelle Troconis are arrested for evidence tampering Gloria Farber files an order for custody of the children. House in Avon is briefly searched but not extensively. August 2019: Troconis 'turns' on Dulos in police interviews, admits she lied when she said she had an alibi for him September 2019: Fotis is arrested again for evidence tampering January 2020: Dulos and Troconis are charged with murder January 28, 2020: Dulos is found unresponsive at his Farmington home January 30, 2020: Fotis dies in hospital June 11, 2020: Police search house in Avon, CT January 19- 20 2021: Police returned to Farmington, CT and use excavator to search yard December 3, 2021: Troconis loses bid to stop wearing GPS ankle monitor before trial December 20, 2021: State Police return to Waveny Park in New Canaan to search adjacent mulch pile for clues Advertisement

Officials have not revealed what prompted Monday's search of the park area, only say they were 'following up on previous investigative information,' reported Hartford Courant.

Jennifer disappeared on May 24, 2019, after dropping off her and estranged husband Fotis Dulos five children at school in New Canaan.

At the time, she and Fotis were in the middle of acrimonious divorce and child custody battle.

Fotis was accused of killing Jennifer at her home, but he died by suicide in January 2020 after being charged with murder.

Two people are still awaiting trial on allegations that they helped cover up the killing  Michelle Troconis, Fotis' former girlfriend, and Kent Mawhinney, his friend and one-time lawyer. Each has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.

Police believe that Fotis attacked Jennifer in the garage of her rented home in New Canaan before he allegedly discarded her body with Troconis' help.

While police have yet to find Jennifer's remains, they did discover pools of blood in her garage, which someone had attempted to mop up and clean. They also found traces of her blood in her Chevrolet SUV - which was later found abandoned in a parking lot near Waveny Park.

Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner James Gill, who reviewed evidence gathered by police, has concluded that Jennifer likely suffered injuries during an attack that were not survivable without immediate medical intervention.

Fotis denied any involvement in Jennifer's disappearance before taking his own life while out on bail.

Fotis' former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis (left), has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, accused of helping Fotis dispose of Jennifer's body

Police previously searched this property owned by Fotis Dulos in Farmington, Connecticut

Troconis was implicated in the case after police said surveillance video from hours after Jennifer disappeared showed her and Fotis dumping trash bags at various locations in Connecticut which were later found to contain traces of the mother's blood.

Troconis initially gave her boyfriend an alibi and said they had been together all morning.

She then changed her story in a second interview with police and, according to arrest affidavits, said he'd given her an 'alibi script'.

Police searched a pond in Waveny Park in New Canaan after Jennifer's SUV was found abandoned in the area

Earlier this month, a judge rejected a request from Troconis, who is out on bond, to stop wearing an ankle monitor ahead of her trial.

Troconis is due back in court on February 15.

Since May 2019, law enforcement officials have searched multiple locations associated with Jennifer and Fotis, including a pond in Waveny Park in New Canaan.

In June of last year, cops searched a home in Avon, Connecticut, and in January 2021, police used an excavator to dig up the yard at Dulos' former residence in Farmington.
Ghislaine Maxwell's defense delivered closing arguments Monday afternoon, telling the jury in her sex trafficking trial that the British socialite is 'an innocent woman wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit.'

In her closing remarks, Maxwell's lawyer Laura Menninger said: 'The government has failed to prove any charge beyond a reasonable doubt and the only correct verdict in this case is not guilty on each count.'

The defense again attempted to discredit the accounts of the four accusers, as Menninger stated, 'The evidence has established what we told you it would, that the stories relied on by the government are erroneous memories, manipulation and money. But in this case the order is reversed. The money brought the accusers to the FBI where their personal injury lawyers sat right there.'

As for how Maxwell was portrayed, Menninger said that she had been made to look like 'Cruella de Vil and the Devil Wears Prada all wrapped up into one'.

Such a portrait was 'as old as Hollywood', Menninger said.

Ghislaine Maxwell's defense delivered closing arguments Monday afternoon

In her closing remarks, Maxwell's lawyer Laura Menninger said Maxwell is 'an innocent woman wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit'

Menninger said: 'We are not here to defend Jeffrey Epstein, he is not my client', but she added: 'Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein'

Menninger said, 'The lawyers manipulated their stories and the government accepted their stories without ever corroborating them.'

Menninger said that 'suddenly' the accusers 'recovered memories years later.'

She said: 'The recovered memories that Ghislaine was involved, that Ghislaine was there, that Ghislaine was the culprit.'

Menninger said that the prosecution spent a lot of time talking about Epstein's lifestyle, about his wealth and his property and his private planes 'just like a sensationalist tabloid would'.

A bruised Ghislaine Maxwell is seen in this photo of her alleged mistreatment in prison

Menninger said that Epstein was a 'master manipulator' who 'abused his money and his power'.

She said: 'We are not here to defend Jeffrey Epstein, he is not my client', but she added: 'Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein'.

Menninger claimed that when Epstein died the prosecution 'pivoted' to going after Maxwell.

The idea was that 'Ghislaine was there, she must have known.'

Menninger criticized prosecutors for showing the jury dozens of photos out of 38,000 seized from Epstein's New York home in 2019.

She said: Where are the other 31,960 photos? Who was in those photos? Was it other girlfriends? Other women?

Nor should the jury draw any inference from Epstein keeping photos of Maxwell. Menninger asked the jury that if an ex boyfriend or girlfriend had photos of them, would that make them a 'sex offender'?

Menninger condemned the use of such images as 'straight up sensationalism.'

Turning to the accusers' memories, Menninger said that they 'inserted Ghislaine Maxwell into their narrative' after they 'lawyered up'.

Menninger said: 'You don't need a lawyer to talk to the FBI'.

Menninger said that it fell to the defense to ask the 'tough questions' of the accusers and cross examination had shown that the 'truth was manipulated and changed over time' for the purpose of the victims getting a payday.

Menninger went through inconsistencies in the statements by Jane and Carolyn and said that they had suffered from 'post event suggestion', as their 'false memory' expert Elizabeth Loftus had described it - adding new and false information after the event.

According to Menninger, the prosecution had 'broken promises' to produce numerous house staff, family members and other witnesses to back up the claims.

The idea put forward by prosecutors Maxwell became a 'facilitator of sexual abuse' for Epstein to maintain her wealthy 'lifestyle' was wrong.

Menninger said that Maxwell at the time was a 'beautiful woman in her 30s' who was just starting out on her career.

Epstein was 'manipulating everyone around him' and 'dating women behind her (Maxwell's) back'.

Menninger said that 'maybe it was Jeffrey who needed Ghislaine and her connections', rather than her needing him for his money.

Turning to each accuser, Menninger said that Jane was like an 'actress who forgot her lines' - Jane is an actress on a soap opera.

Four of Maxwell's siblings - Kevin, Isabel, Ian and Christine - arrived to court to support their sister Monday

One photo shows Maxwell kissing the pedophile's cheek with her arms wrapped around him. Many have testified that they believed Epstein and Ghislaine were boyfriend and girlfriend

The couple appear in one photo in what appears to be a European city. Ghislaine is seen kissing Jeffrey on the cheek

During the morning session, Prosecutor Alison Moe said in the prosecution's closing arguments that the evidence included testimony from housekeepers, victims and bank receipts which showed Epstein wiring $30million to Maxwell.

She said that the evidence was 'clear and consistent and it shows only one conclusion: Maxwell is guilty.'

Moe said she wanted to talk the jury through eight different reasons why they should convict Maxwell.

This photo of a young Annie Farmer in a school picture was submitted into evidence by the government

The first was that she and Epstein were 'partners in crime', the crime in question being the 'sexual exploitation of young girls'.

Moe said: 'Maxwell was Epstein's right hand and for many years they were in a romantic relationship. They were partners.'

Moe told the jury about an essay that Maxwell had written in which she talked about how she had been with Epstein for 11 years and that they were 'great partners and best friends'.

Moe told the jury: 'Ladies and gentlemen, when you are with someone for 11 years you know what they like. Epstein liked underage girls. He liked to touch underage girls. Maxwell knew it. Make no mistake, Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. Epstein could not have done this alone'.

Moe said that a single, middle aged man showing an interest in teenage girls would come off as 'creepy'.

She said: 'That sets off alarm bells. But when that man is accompanied by a posh, smiling, respectable, age appropriate woman, that's when everything starts to seem legitimate'.

When that woman asks the girls to give that man a massage, it 'lures them into a trap'.

Moe said: 'It allows that man to get away with molesting these girls. Maxwell was key to the whole operation'.

Moe told the jury about photos that had been introduced into evidence including one of Maxwell and Epstein swimming naked in a pool.

Another, which had been made public, showed Maxwell massaging Epstein's foot with her breasts.

Moe said: 'What you are looking at are two people in a sexual relationship. They were partners'.

Further evidence they were partners came from the 58-page household manual from Epstein's Palm Beach home which Moe said Maxwell wrote.

She said: 'These were the rules that Maxwell put in placethis makes clear she was the lady of the house'.

Moe said that the idea put forward by the defense that Maxwell was 'just an employee' was nonsense.

She said: 'Of course Maxwell knew what was going on in that house. She had an iron grip on what was happening there'.

Moe told the jury about testimony from Juan Alessi, the former Palm Beach house manager, who said that after Epstein's massages with young girls, he had to clean off the sex toys and put them in a basket in Maxwell's bathroom.

Maxwell wrote a list of 13 different kinds of oils and lotions to be used during the massages.

The six charges against Maxwell: THE CHARGES Conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts (5 years max sentence) Enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts (20 years) Conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity (20 years) Transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity (10 years minimum, life maximum) Sex Trafficking Conspiracy Sex Trafficking of a Minor Ghislaine Maxwell also faces two charges of perjury but those counts are due to be tried after her sex crimes trial. The charges relate to testimony she gave in 2016 in a defamation case filed against her by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre. THE 'FACTS' Prosecutors say Maxwell groomed three girls between 1994 and 1997 for Epstein. They are not named in the indictment, but she allegedly targeted them in London, Florida, New York and New Mexico. Maxwell, it is alleged, would befriend the girls by asking them about their life and their schooling. She would put them at ease by taking them to the movies and taking them shopping, winning their trust to later deliver them to Epstein, it's alleged. To 'normalize' the abuse that would come later, prosecutors say she undressed in front of the girls herself and asked them sexual questions. She then not only facilitated Epstein abusing them, prosecutors say, but took part in some of it herself. The alleged sex abuse includes 'sexualized group massages'. The indictment also says Maxwell made the girl feel 'indebted' to Epstein by encouraging them to take money from him and let him pay for their education and travel Advertisement

Moe said: 'Again and again the evidence shows you how closely Maxwell was involved in Epstein's so called massages.

'She managed all the details right down to the lotions and oils. She was in on the whole thing'.

Among the instructions in the household manual was the command to staff to 'hear nothing, see nothing and say nothing.'

Moe said that the jury knew 'exactly why' Maxwell wanted such rules in place: 'It's because she was Epstein's partner in crime. In that house behind closed doors Maxwell and Epstein were committing horrifying crimes'.

The second reason why the jury should find Maxwell guilty is that she 'ran the same playbook' with all of her victims, Moe said.

She said that the similarities between the four accusers in the case were 'incredibly powerful evidence of the defendant's guilty'.

Maxwell helped to select victims who were 'vulnerable' and struggling, Ms Moe said.

Jane was 14 years old and her father had just died. Annie was 16 and wanted to go to college. Kate was 17 and was 'dazzled' by Maxwell. Carolyn was living with an alcoholic mother and had been abused when she was four.

Maxwell and Epstein would invite them to his house in New York, his ranch in New Mexico or his home in Palm Beach to 'isolate' them.

Moe said: 'That was by design. It was Maxwell's design. Maxwell was hanging out with these girls and isolating them and befriending them'.

Once the girls were alone Maxwell began to 'normalize' talk about sex and then sexual contact, Moe said, citing the massage that Maxwell gave to Annie Farmer.

Ghislaine Maxwell's second accuser Carolyn took the stand on Day Seven of the British socialite's sex trafficking trial

In fact Maxwell touched the breasts of three of the accusers, Moe said.

She told the jury: 'They were kids in massage rooms on massage tablesit's powerful evidence of the defendant's guilt'

All the girls described interacting with the 'same woman,' Moe said.

She said: 'They knew her as charming, sophisticated.a woman who moved in social circles that were intimidating.

Juan Alessi said that he worked as a maintenance worker and house manager for Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion between 1990 and December 2002

'The relationships Maxwell cultivated with these girls were essential to the scheme.Maxwell helped established a close relationship that became the cover for sexual abuse.'

Moe said that reason number three for a conviction was Jane's story.

She claimed that Maxwell and Epstein recruited her at the age of 14 at and arts camp in Michigan and flew her around his homes where she was repeatedly abuse.

One of the first instances of normalizing sex was Maxwell being topless by the pool at Epstein's Palm Beach home.

Moe told the jury: 'By the way, you know that's true because you have seen Maxwell topless by the pool too', referring to the photo they had been shown

Moe said that such behavior had a 'purpose' which was 'setting the stage for what came next'.

Maxwell became Jane's 'big sister' and made it seem like this was all 'casual' and 'normal', Moe said.

She said: 'None of it was normal. It was not OK. It was deeply disturbing. They were molesting an underage girl. That's what Maxwell did'.

Moe said that Maxwell played an 'essential role' in the massages and, as Jane testified, she was the person who was 'most frequently in the room when Epstein molested her'

The abuse went on for years and Maxwell and Epstein saw Jane 'literally growing up in front of their eyes', Moe said.

She said: 'She turned 15, 16 and 17. They maintained a coercive relationship that went on until her early 20s'.

As she wrapped up her two hour and ten minute closing statement, Moe mocked the defense opening that Maxwell was being blamed for something a man did.

In fact Maxwell 'made her own choices', Moe said.

Moe agreed with the defense claim that the case was about 'memory, money and manipulation' only 'not in the way' they described.

In particular she urged the jury to think about the $300 that Carolyn was paid for massages with Epstein and compare it to the $30m that Epstein gave to Maxwell.

Moe dismissed the evidence of 'false memory' expert Elizabeth Loftus, a defense expert witness, as a 'total distraction'

Maxwell's lawyers had to discredit the victims because the truth was that their testimony was 'devastating' against her.

She said: 'You common sense tells you that the witnesses are not lying and cannot be all misremembering the same thing.'

Maxwell's lawyer Laura Menninger questioned the alleged victim - who is using the pseudonym Jane - and attempted to undermine the accuser's memory during the first week of the trial

Menninger asked why Virginia Roberts was not testifying in court, saying acidly: 'If she could corroborate Carolyn you think they may have had her come in and do that'

Menninger said she was 'not sure' why Kate was giving evidence as she was over the age of consent.

She claimed that Kate 'traded up' from her existing boyfriend - who was significantly older than her - for Epstein with whom she stayed in touch until her 30s.

According to Menninger, Kate 'made her choice' to continue talking to Epstein.

Menninger said that Carolyn didn't mention Maxwell when she first spoke to the FBI in 2007 and only did so after Epstein in 2019.

Carolyn was even wrong when she claimed to have seen a photo of Maxwell pregnant.

Menninger said there was 'no evidence Ghislaine Maxwell was ever pregnant'

Menninger mocked the prosecution expert on grooming as the 'ultimate victim apologist'.

She sarcastically said 'what a smoking gun' by pointing out that just one email from Maxwell had been put into evidence for a 10 year conspiracy and that was her moaning about the housekeeper.

Menninger asked why Virginia Roberts was not testifying in court, saying acidly: 'If she could corroborate Carolyn you think they may have had her come in and do that'.

As she rounded out her argument, Menninger offered what was perhaps the clearest attempt at an explanation of Maxwell's actions.

She said prosecutors had said that Maxwell was Epstein's 'right hand woman' who 'controlled everything in his life'.

By this logic 'she is to blame for his sins'.

But Menninger said: 'Everyone knew Jeffrey was keeping secrets from Ghislaine except Ghislaine'.

His pilots were flying other women around on his planes, his secretaries were sending other women flowers and Alessi was told to take Maxwell's pictures down when other women were coming to the Palm Beach home.

Menninger said: 'Someone like Jeffrey Epstein is always trying to control the people around him. He used his position to manipulate people and play them off against one another'.

Summing up the case Menninger said that prosecutors had not proved how an 'Oxford educated' woman like Maxwell could become a facilitator of sexual abuse.

She said: 'Ghislaine Maxwell is being tried here for being with Jeffrey Epstein. That might have been the biggest mistake of her life but it was not a crime'.

In the prosecution rebuttal, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said that the idea Maxwell didn't know what was happening was 'absurd'.

Ms Comey said that Maxwell was 'complicit', adding that 'she was in the room so of course she knew'.

She called the $30m that Epstein paid to Maxwell 'we molested kids together money'.

Ms Comey said that the idea the accusers were doing this for money did not make sense.

They had already got their payouts from the Epstein victims compensation fund before the trial started and they put themselves through the 'hell' of testifying and being cross examined.

Ms Comey said that Maxwell's arrogance was the reason why she never thought she would face justice.

She said: 'The defendant never thought these teenage girls would have the strength to report what happened to them.

'In her eyes they were just trash. Beneath her.

'These girls would never stand up to a power couple like Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein and if they did, who would believe them?

'Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein who rubbed shoulders with Presidents and celebrities and business leaders.

'But the defendant didn't count on these teenage girls growing up into the women who testified at this trial'.

Ms Comey urged the jury to 'see her for the predator she is' and find her guilty.
A Georgia teen is being charged as an adult for allegedly brutally raping a 15-year-old classmate inside the bathroom of a Powder Springs high school.

Malachi Mpata, 16, was nabbed after he pushed the girl against a wall, grabbed her by the throat and demanded that she perform sex acts on him, an arrest warrant said.

He also slapped the girl and hurled insults at her during the assault, which happened after school hours at McEachern High School, according to the warrant obtained by DailyMail.com.

The girl was then taken to the boys' bathroom where she was raped as her attacker wrapped his hand around her neck, the warrant said.

Mpata was arrested December 7 by Cobb County Police Department's special victims unit in connection with the November 17 assault.

He's facing rape and sodomy charges.

Malachi Mpata, 16,is facing rape and sodomy charges after a 15-year-old classmate reported being attacked inside a boys' bathroom at a Georgia high school last month

He allegedly slapped the girl and hurled insults at her during the assault, which happened after school hours at McEachern High School, according to an arrest warrant

The Cobb County School District said in a statement indicating it 'immediately reported' the assault to police and said it would not comment further on the case to protect the girl's privacy.

Citing privacy laws, the school declined to comment further on the case.

A woman who lives across the street from Mpata said she was floored to learn of the arrest.

'I just honestly, I'm shocked,' Sarah Dell told CBS46. 'I just can't believe what he's being accused of.. He watches the kids without his mother even asking.

'I've seen him around children, he's been in my house. I mean he's going to school and said he wants to be a doctor. It's just stunning.'

The attack happened at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia after school hours

School district officials said they immediately reported the attack to Cobb County police

Powder Springs, with a population of about 15,000 people, is 22 miles outside Atlanta.

It's the second time in recent months that the Cobb County School District - which serves nearly 113,000 students - has been rocked by sex crime charges.

Last month, cops charged 29-year-old Zachary White with two counts of sexual assault by a teacher after he allegedly had sex with a student inside his Osborne High School office, Fox News reported.

The case prompted school principal Joshua Morreale to address the issue in an online statement.

'The safety and wellbeing of our students continues to be the most important thing to me as your principal,' he said. We are cooperating fully with the Cobb County police, are conducting a thorough internal investigation, and have no reason to believe these allegations threaten any other Osborne students.

'Effective immediately, the teacher will not be allowed on campus as the investigation continues.'
A coroner is demanding action from a hospital after four patients died in six months of complications from the same gallstones procedure.

Carol Cole, 53, William Doleman, 76, Anita Burkey, 85, and Peter Sellars, 72, died after undergoing an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure (ERCP).

Coroner Laurinda Bower said following a 15-day inquest that it was the systems in place in Nottingham that led to their deaths rather than the technical competence of a trainee doctor who carried out all four surgeries.

Bower is set to issue a prevention of future deaths report demanding action from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust following concerns that the four patients were not properly informed of the risks relating to the procedure.

The coroner found that Mrs Cole, Mr Doleman, Ms Burkey and Mr Sellars died of complications following the ERCP - a procedure whereby a tube is passed through a patient's throat to examine and remove possible gallstones from the common bile duct.

Carol Cole, 53, was one of four patients who died after undergoing an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure (ERCP)

Anita Burkey, 85, died after undergoing an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure (ERCP)

The four patients were treated by trainee doctor Muthuram Rajaram but Bower concluded that it was the 'systems in place' to properly gain consent and inform patients of the risks relating to the procedure that were the issue, not the technical competence of Dr Rajaram.

The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust now has 56 days to create an action plan after receiving the coroner's prevention of future deaths report, reports the BBC.

Concluding the inquest, the coroner said: 'These cases quite rightly provided cause for concern when it was identified that all four deaths had occurred at the hands of the same trainee and within the space of about six months.

'But as the evidence has crystallised during the course of the inquest, the issues appear to be more to do with the systems in place in Nottingham rather than with the technical competence of Dr Rajaram.'

The coroner found that William Doleman, 76, (left) and Peter Sellars, 72, (right) also died of complications following the ERCP

The inquest heard that Mr Doleman should not have undergone the ERCP, Mr Sellars and Mrs Cole were not informed about the individual risks, while Ms Burkey was not consulted enough.

Mrs Cole, from Broxtowe, died from an aggressive form of pancreatitis at Queens Medical Centre University Hospital and her death was ruled as 'not natural' by Bower.

The mother-of-two was diagnosed with gallstones last year after experiencing abdominal pain, which led to her undergoing an ERCP.

But after going home following the procedure, Mrs Cole described feeling like her 'insides were ripping' and said she was 'in agony'.

She was rushed to hospital with pancreatitis and placed in intensive care, but she later died.

Mrs Cole, from Broxtowe, died from an aggressive form of pancreatitis at Queens Medical Centre University Hospital and her death was ruled as 'not natural' by Bower

Trevor Cole, who had been married to his wife Carol for more than 20 years, said: 'Our whole family is devastated at having to adapt to life without Carol.

'None of us were prepared for this after the procedure was only a minor, routine operation and I had no idea that she was so dangerously unwell that evening.

'I was in shock when I was told that Carol was gone and can't remember much after this other than having to break the news to our sons, Ashley and Mitchell. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

'She was taken from us far too soon and will be missed by everyone who knew her. To me, she was perfect and I will never forget her.'

The coroner, addressing the families, said: 'I cannot imagine how difficult it has been for all of you to have lost a loved one in these circumstances.

'I hope that in time, you draw some comfort from the fact that it is certainly my intention that some learning can come from these deaths such that the safety of this high risk procedure continues to improve, that the understanding of personal risk and discussion of those risks with patients becomes a standard part of the pathway, and that shall be the legacy of Bill, Anita, Peter and Carol.'

Phillip McGough, of Freeths Solicitors, which represented the families of Mr Sellars, Ms Burkey and Mr Doleman, told the BBC: 'Our clients have been vindicated in their belief that many things went wrong here to varying degrees and there were many questions that needed to be answered.

'[They're] saddened because based on what we've heard over the past three weeks at this coroner's court, so much of what happened was avoidable.

'We can only hope that the lessons learned here are applied by the hospital trust going forward.'

John Walsh, Deputy Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: 'We would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the families for their loss and we are truly sorry for any shortcomings in the care we provided.

'Although each case is unique, we should have done more to involve families in decisions about patient care as well as taken other actions to manage these complex, high-risk cases.

'We have made significant changes to a number of our Trust policies and processes in these areas, including a review of, and changes to when and how we declare a Serious Incident, to ensure that patients undergoing an ERCP procedure receive the appropriate and timely care they need.'
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia dismissed criticism that the GOP is full of 'white supremacists' during a speech on Sunday because she observed 'yellow people' in the audience.

Speaking to a packed and enthusiastic crowd at youth conservative group Turning Point USA's multi-day AmericaFest 2021, the GOP firebrand dropped the anti-Asian slur when commenting on the diversity of her audience.

'When I walked in yesterday, I was like, "What kind of people come here?" So I'm walking around and seeing some good people,' Greene said as a few whoops and cheers can be heard.

'And I see white people, black people, brown people, yellow people, and then there's talk of freedom, and loving America, and conservative principles.

'Some crazy people in here were talking about how much they loved this guy named Jesus, and I heard something I really like, I think I heard that a lot of people here like a guy named Donald J. Trump.'

The crowd erupted in cheers of agreement.

'And then I said oh, oh, I know exactly what this is - the Left calls this a white supremacist party. Okay, okay, I know what I'm going to now,' Greene said.

Greene spoke at day two of the youth conservative group's multi-day AmericaFest 2021 event

She received a warm welcome from the large crowd attending her speech

She described herself as 'one of those three-name people' and said she was a member of Congress, adding her fellow lawmakers 'hate it.'

Describing someone Asian as 'yellow' is a well-known racial slur, dating back at least to the term 'yellow peril' being used in the 1800s in reference to the fear Asian immigrants to the US would upend Western values.

Anti-Asian sentiments reached an alarming peak when the COVID-19 pandemic first began, resulting in a wave of violent attacks against Asian Americans nationwide.

It's not clear if that's the context Greene used it in. DailyMail.com has reached out to her office for comment.

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement calling for Greene to be held accountable for making the remark.

'Each and every day, AAPI people across the country walk out of their homes in fear of people like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, fear of getting accosted on the street, fear for the well-being of family and friends, or fear of simply existing in a nation where extremists have made them the face of a pandemic,' the DNC said.

'Make no mistake, it is this type of racist rhetoric that continues to divide our country and has put so many of the AAPI community in danger.'

The group added, 'This is far from the first example of Greenes racism, extremism, and disrespect for our fellow Americans.'

Star Trek actor George Takei took offense to the lawmaker's comments on Twitter. Part of Takei's childhood was spent in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

'I honestly havent heard someone use yellow people for decades. Perhaps she meant yellow bellied people because there are certainly lots in that crowd,' the actor wrote.

Star Trek actor George Takei, who spent part of his childhood in a Japenese internment camp, criticized Greene's comments

As recently as October, a Republican state senator from Oklahoma came under fire for using the term 'yellow' in reference to Asian Americans during a presentation.

During a presentation on the racial wealth gap by policy analyst Damion Shade, State Senator David Rader asked, 'Well into your presentation did you go to yellow families?'

Shade corrected him to say 'Asian Americans,' to which Rader replied: 'You use Black term, white term, brown term so I was just gonna jump in there with you.'

Greene herself has been accused of making anti-Asian comments in the past.

In July she joined Steve Bannon's War Room podcast where she said she'd deport Chinese Americans with Communist sympathies.

'I would kick out every single Chinese in this country that is loyal to the CCP. They would be gone. I do not care who they are,' Greene said on July 21.

'I don't care how much money you have, how much land you own, how many businesses you own, how much money you've donated to colleges and universities, I don't care about who your kid is, and how many students you've sent to colleges.'
A Russian government-linked businessman carried out a global, multi-million-dollar insider trading scheme using hacked corporate information, US federal prosecutors said on Monday.

Vladislav Klyushin, 41, whose company offers media monitoring and cybersecurity services to clients including the Russian government, was charged by federal prosecutors in Boston along with four other Russians.

Klyushin was extradited to the United States from Switzerland over the weekend, despite furious protests from Moscow that his arrest was part of a politicized 'hunt' for Russians in DC.

Prosecutors accuse them of conspiring to trade on non-public information ahead of earnings announcements by obtaining secret company information through hacking.

Vladislav Klyushin, 41, whose company offers media monitoring and cybersecurity services to clients including the Russian government, was charged in an indictment unsealed on Monday

Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel Mendell speaks to reporters on Monday after Vladislav Klyushin, a Kremlin-linked Russian businessman was extradited from Switzerland to the US

The indictment alleges the Russians hacked into the networks of two vendors that help companies filing quarterly and annual reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Those companies included Tesla, Kohl's, Roku, Snap and Steel Dynamics, prosecutors said.

The scheme netted the defendants tens of millions of dollars from 2018 to 2020, according to charging papers.

'The integrity of our nation's capital markets and of its computer networks are priorities for my office,' said Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel Mendell in a statement.

'Today's charges show that we, the FBI, and our other law enforcement partners will relentlessly pursue those who hack, steal and attempt to profit from inside information, wherever they may hide.'

Klyushin's U.S. lawyer had no immediate comment.

Klyushin was on a family ski trip in Zermatt, Switzerland (seen above in a file photo) when he was arrested in March at the request of US authorities

Nikolai Rumiantcev (left) and Ivan Yermakov (right) were also charged in the scheme

The businessman owns M13, a Russian company that offers media monitoring as well as cyber-security services.

Its website says its services are used by the Russian presidential administration and government.

Klyushin was extradited on Saturday from Switzerland, where he arrested in March while on a family ski trip. His Swiss lawyer had called the case a politically motivated pretext to secure his extradition.

His legal team has said the real reason for the extradition request was his work and contacts within the Russian government that gave him access to security information.

They said he came under U.S. prosecutors' scrutiny because they accused one of his work colleagues of hacking into files of the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to help sway the 2016 election.

An FBI affidavit list the alleged illegal access of company documents before they were filed with the SEC and publicly available

One of his employees at his company M-13, Ivan Yermakov, was among 12 purported Russian military intelligence officers charged in 2018 with hacking offenses related to the election.

Yermakov was charged alongside Klyushin in a March 2021 criminal complaint unsealed on Monday. He could not be reached for comment.

Also charged in the complaint was Nikolai Rumiantcev, 33, of Moscow.

They are charged with wire fraud, hacking, securities fraud and conspiracy, and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Mikhail Vladimirovich Irzak, 43, and Igor Sergeevich Sladkov, 42, both of St. Petersburg, Russia, are also charged in the District of Massachusetts as part of the scheme.

Ermakov, Rumiantcev, Irzak and Sladkov remain at large and are believed to currently be in Russia.
Brazen thieves have stolen more than $1million worth of silver bullion from a truck travelling between Sydney and Melbourne.

NSW police are appealing for help in solving the theft that was discovered when the truck arrived in Melbourne on November 29 after leaving NSW on November 26.

The consignment  192 individual 5kg silver bars  was being transported by a Kenworth truck and silver Krueger trailer, police said in a statement on Monday.

Brazen thieves have stolen more than $1million worth of silver bullion from a truck travelling between Sydney and Melbourne (pictured, an individual 5kg bar of silver bullion)

The consignment  192 individual 5kg silver bars  was being transported by a Kenworth truck and silver Krueger trailer, police said in a statement on Monday (stock image)

Detectives believe the robbery took place as the truck left Maldon, near Picton in the NSW Macarthur Region, from 4:30pm on November 26 to 8am on November 29.

The silver bullion is estimated to be worth $1,015,000.

Police have released an image of one of the silver bars as well as its packaging, in an appeal for public information on Tuesday.

Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers.
Australia's leaders will discuss whether people will soon need three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated and a potential mask mandate days out from Christmas.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will convene an 'informal' national cabinet in a virtual meeting with state and territory heads on Wednesday to discuss the threat of the new Omicron variant.

He is due to update the first ministers with the most recent information on Omicron and urge them to stay calm and provide consistent border arrangements ahead of the holidays.

Scott Morrison will meet with state and territory leaders to discuss the new Omicron COVID variant

The time frame of booster shots is due to be discussed, with South Australia pushing for a shortened interval amid Omicron concerns.

Nine newspapers reported Australia's vaccine advisory body, ATAGI, is reviewing whether three doses will be required to be considered fully immunised.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Paul Kelly has also reportedly recommended a mask mandate in all indoor settings in an effort to curb an escalation in Omicron cases.

When speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Morrison said the government would follow health advice on mask mandates, with there being some circumstances where mask wearing was "commonsense".

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has resisted a push to reintroduce a mask mandate as cases in the state soared to record levels over the past week.

NSW recorded 2501 new daily cases on Monday with 261 people in hospital. Of those, 33 are in intensive care.

Victoria reported 1302 additional infections with 406 people in hospital including 81 in intensive care.

South Australia recorded 105 new infections, while there were 59 in Queensland. The ACT recorded 13 cases and Tasmania three.

Three new infections were also confirmed in the Northern Territory as it extended a lockdown in the town of Tennant Creek until Wednesday.

Australia's principal health advisory body, the AHPPC, has reportedly recommended the increased use of rapid antigen tests as cases continue to grow.

When asked about whether the government would answer calls for the tests to be made free in a bid to minimise the risk of transmission over Christmas, Mr Morrison said he had worked practically through the issues "all the way through" the pandemic.

The AHPPC also recommended removing travel bans on countries with rampant Omicron transmission given the high numbers of cases worldwide.
A Georgia federal judge said Monday that she would look high and low, pulling the names of 1,000 people from 43 different counties, to find impartial jurors for the upcoming hate crimes trial against three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery.

Gregory and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William Brian Jr were found a guilty of murder in state court on November 23 by a panel of 11 white jurors and one black juror. In compiling that jury pool, 1,000 people in the mostly-white Glynn County were called.

The three men will now stand trial in federal court on Feb. 7 for hate charges that they targeted Arbery because of his skin color.

Lawyers for both sides argued that with the extremely close press scrutiny that the first trial got that it will be harder to find people who have not heard and formed an opinion of the case.

'I think the reasons set forth on both sides are extremely valid,' Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said, adding: 'It's a case that has received so much pretrial publicity.'

Federal prosecutors and the defense lawyers in the federal case have said they hope selecting a jury from a wider area will help avoid the slow-paced grind that made jury selection last two-and-a-half weeks before the state trial could begin.

Arbery, 25, had been jogging through the McMichael's neighborhood when they started to follow him, ultimately leading to his death

Pictured: Travis McMichael (left), his father Gregory McMichael (center) and their neighbor William Bryan Jr (right)

Gregory and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William Brian Jr were found a guilty of murder in state court on November 23 by a panel of 11 white jurors and one black juror. In compiling that jury pool, 1,000 people in the mostly-white Glynn County were called. Pictured: The moment Arbery was shot by Travis McMichael

The state's jury pool in the murder trial was drawn exclusively from Glynn County, where Arberys death had dominated news reports and social media feeds.

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

Most potential jurors arrived at the courthouse already knowing basic facts about the case and many were dismissed for having strong opinions.

The judge agreed with attorneys to send a 14-page questionnaire to potential jurors along with their jury duty notices. Attorneys will be able to review them before jury selection begins.

The judge said she plans to have approximately 1,000 jury duty notices and questionnaires mailed to people living throughout the court's Southern District of Georgia, which covers 43 of Georgia's 159 counties.

The area has a population of about 1.6 million people, with Savannah and Augusta being its largest cities.

Its farthest community from the courthouse is rural Wilkes County, located more than 210 miles (338 kilometers) north of Brunswick.

The state trial also drew from a pool of 1000 Georgians, however only one Black juror sat on the panel.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley found that there was 'intentional discrimination' by the defense team in jury selection, but state law did not permit him to change the make-up.

A Glynn County judge is scheduled sentenced the three men on January 7, exactly a month before the federal trial begins.

Their murder convictions carry a mandatory life sentence.

The question for the judge is whether they will serve life in prison with or without a chance of parole.

Bryan recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting the 25-year-old Black man with a shotgun after Arbery spent several minutes running as the three men chased him in pickup trucks.

Now the McMichaels and Bryan face hate crime charges at the federal level that allege they violated Arberys civil rights, unjustly pursuing and threatening him on a public street, because he was Black.

The judge said Monday she plans to keep the federal trial in Brunswick, noting the families of Arbery and the defendants live there, as do many of the witnesses being called to testify.

Typically in a federal trial, a jury would be pulled from Glynn County, which includes Brunswick, and six neighboring counties.

Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the courthouse he's fine with a jury coming from a wider area of the state.

'It don't matter, because the evidence is overwhelming,' he said.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck after they spotted Arbery running past their home on a Sunday afternoon last year.

Ahmaud Arbery's father Marcus Arbery, center, is removed from the courtroom after Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley read the jury's verdict the trial of Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021, in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. The three defendants were found guilty

Three white men were convicted of murder for chasing and shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he ran in their Georgia neighborhood last year. The jury rejected their self-defense claim

They later told police they suspected he was a burglar, though they did not see him committing any crimes.

Bryan joined the chase in his own truck, telling police he used the vehicle to force Arbery into a ditch and cut off his escape from the subdivision.

He used his cellphone to record video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery as he tried to run around the McMichaels idling truck.

Travis McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense after the running man attacked him and tried to grab his gun. Defense attorneys said the three men had reasonable grounds to suspect Arbery was a criminal and wanted only to detain him until police could arrive.

At the time of his death, Arbery had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing to study to become an electrician like his uncles.
The heartbroken parents of a young woman who took her own life after being denied entry into Western Australia to see her family have spoken out against the cruel border closures that prevented their reunion.

Gillian and Alain D'Argent have revealed the ongoing pain they suffer having not been able to comfort their daughter Robin, who had been struggling with post-traumatic stress and depression.

The beauty consultant, 31, was refused entry into Perth in October and November of this year, after she moved to Sydney to start a new chapter in her life.

While interstate and away from her parents, Robin was professionally diagnosed with mental health problems, and after being prevented from reuniting with family she took her own life on December 1.

Gillian and Alain D'Argent (pictured) have revealed the ongoing pain they suffer having not been able to comfort their daughter Robin, who passed away on December 1

WA has remained tightly closed to areas it defines as Covid hotspots, recently slamming its door on NSW residents after the state was deemed an 'extreme risk'.

Robin's grief-stricken parents believe their daughter would still be alive if not for Mark McGowan's harsh border measures.

'We believe that if she had been able to come through to Perth on a holiday we could have changed the situation,' Mr D'Argent told 9News.

In a cruel twist, the couple are now stranded in Sydney and unable to enter WA themselves after they flew east to organise their daughter's possessions and collect her ashes.

The D'Argent's have also been knocked back twice by WA authorities in their attempts to obtain G2G passes and bring Robin home.

'Absolutely devastated, it's an extra stress that you've got on you that you shouldn't have, it's become a more stressful situation,' Mr D'Argent said.

The grieving father told Perth's 6PR radio that they had only received Robin's ashes and death certificate on December 16, making it almost impossible to get a flight back before the border slammed shut two days later.

Robin's grief-stricken parents believe they would still have their daughter if not for Western Australia's tough border rules which denied entry to their daughter (middle) twice

The beauty consultant, 31, (pictured) was refused entry into Perth in October and November of this year, and experienced PTSD and depression while living in Sydney

'It's not like we've come to Sydney for a holiday, we have come to deal with our daughter's death which is traumatic enough, and we can't even get home and try to start a life with the knowledge that our daughter's no more with us,' he said.

The couple have since experienced a break-through in their plight to return to Perth after being granted a last minute travel exemption on Monday night.

The D'Argent's will be forced to grieve the loss of the daughter while undergoing 14-day hotel quarantine in Perth across the Christmas period.

Friends and family took to social media to send messages of support to the grief-stricken parents, one saying Robin went 'too early in life'.

'I miss you and love you so much. I wish I could turn back time,' one of the beauty consultant's friends wrote on Facebook.

Premier Mark McGowan on Friday announced he would lock out Queenslanders for Christmas amid rising Covid case numbers and fears of the Omicron variant.

The WA Premier declared the Sunshine State as 'medium risk', meaning travellers must have an exemption to enter and isolate for two weeks upon arrival.

The D'Argent's will be forced to grieve the loss of the daughter Robin (pictured) just days out from Christmas, while undergoing 14-day hotel quarantine in Perth

Tasmanians will also now have to self-isolate for 14 days in WA with the state now dubbed 'low risk', however they will not need an exemption.

Mr McGowan had already on Wednesday locked out NSW residents, deeming the entire state 'extreme risk' as Covid infections continue to soar.

Under the 'extreme risk' criteria, travellers from NSW will not even be able to enter WA even for compassionate reasons and exemptions will only be granted to certain government and specialist workers.

The measure will come into effect from midnight on Saturday, hampering travel plans for Australians hoping to spend Christmas on the west coast.

The Northern Territory has been deemed low risk, South Australia medium risk and Victoria extreme risk, meaning every interstate visitor will have to quarantine upon entry into WA.
A shamed primary school teacher filmed kicking and slapping a horse during a hunt has been sacked.

Sarah Moulds, who was condemned by the RSPCA for alleged animal cruelty after shocking footage of her emerged, has now lost her job at Somerby School after she was suspended last month.

The disgraced rider and mother-of-two from Somerby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, learned her fate today following a six-week investigation by education chiefs.

Mowbray Education Trust Chief Operating Officer Paul Maddox said in a statement : 'I can confirm that Sarah Moulds' employment with the Trust has been terminated.

'As a Trust we are committed to ensuring the best standard of education for all of our young people and we look forward to continuing this throughout the 2021/22 academic year and beyond.'

Mrs Moulds was a senior leader and class three team teacher at her local Somerby School and was also a director of the Knossington and Somerby Pre-School before her termination.

The 37-year-old was seen lashing out at the horse following a Cottesmore Hunt meet in the county earlier this year.

Sarah Moulds, a foxhunter who was filmed appearing to punch and kick a horse, has lost her job as a primary school teacher after an investigation by the school in relation to the viral video

Mrs Moulds was a senior leader and class three team teacher at her local Somerby School (pictured) and was also a director of the Knossington and Somerby Pre-School before her termination

A clip captured by anti-hunt activists went viral, sparking outrage nationally and globally.

The Pony Club, which claims to be the world's largest equestrian youth organisation with more than 30,000 UK members, also axed her as a team manager while condemning her actions as 'unacceptable'.

In the aftermath of the video going viral, Mrs Moulds received abuse and death threats and moved to a secret location away from her semi-detached 350,000 property for several days.

A neighbour previously told how she had fled because she 'feared for her life,' saying: 'She's had to go away after receiving death threats and loads of vile abuse. It's awful and has got very much out of hand. She fears for her life.'

The neighbour added: 'I don't know what happened and in what context but what is now happening to Sarah is horrible. She's terrified of being in her own home in case someone targets her or her kids there.'

The local rider added: 'She has young children and she is worried about them as well as herself.

This is the shocking moment Sarah Moulds appears to kick and repeatedly slap a horse after a hunting event organised by Cottesmore Hunt, a group based in Rutland, East Midlands

'She's well known and respected in equestrian circles and her social media was bombarded with comments from very angry people after the video went viral and she's now had to close it down.'

Her uncle David Kirkham from Bonsall, Derbyshire, insisted: 'She is a very upright person, a fantastic person who absolutely loves her horses.

'I've seen the video but we don't know what the horse had been doing and if it was out of control. But we know it ran out onto the road and she told it off.

'She was reprimanding the horse. There was no malice intended. She is very well thought of and respected.'

In the footage, a white horse trots away from the back of a horse trailer before it is stopped by a young rider.

A woman dressed in cream breeches and a navy jacket then grabs the reins of the animal before she kicks its body and slaps it repeatedly in the face as it tries to pull away.

The RSPCA described the incident as 'upsetting' and appealed for witnesses to get in touch

The Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs, who say they use 'non-violent direct action to save wildlife', shared the video on its Twitter page and tagged the RSPCA.

The group said that the incident took place on November 6 after a Cottesmore Hunt, one of the oldest hunts in Britain, and the incident demonstrated 'violence running through their veins'.

Cottesmore Hunt said it did not condone the actions shown in the video 'under any circumstances'.

The group said it 'will be reminding all of our supporters that this will not be tolerated'.

Countryside campaigner Chris Packham called on the RSPCA to 'urgently investigate and definitively prosecute this appalling abuse - thus upholding our standards of animal welfare protection'.

The RSPCA confirmed it had seen the footage which it described as 'upsetting' and said an investigation had been launched, with a business card seen outside Mrs Moulds's home days after the incident.

Pictured: An RSPCA card with a note was pinned to the front door of Mrs Moulds's house

Meanwhile, BBC Springwatch presenter and zoologist Megan McCubbin said the footage showed 'disgusting behaviour'. She said: 'Yet another ugly side of an activist some call 'sport'.'

The Hunting Office also criticised the footage and said the perpetrator does not belong to its hunting associations, adding that 'it expects the highest level of animal welfare at all times'.

Anne Brummer, the CEO of animal welfare organisation Save Me Trust, said: 'Absolutely disgusting, she should be prosecuted and not allowed near a horse again. No one around her seems socked, what is wrong with these people.'

The RSPCA, who said the footage was 'really upsetting', has also confirmed it is launching an investigation into the incident after the video sparked outrage online.

Mrs Moulds has declined to make any comment.
As the UK recorded another 194,747 cases - up 6.4 per cent on a week ago - Boris Johnson told MPs that the growth is 'the fastest we have ever known' and older, more vulnerable people are now being affected. However, he said bluntly that the government 'does not believe we need to shut down our country again'. Instead Cabinet has agreed to stick to the existing 'balanced and proportionate' Plan B restrictions in England that are 'taking the edge off' the Omicron wave. The obligation to work from home where possible, as well as wear masks in many settings and use Covid passes at large events and nightclubs will be reviewed again before they expire on January 26 - but Mr Johnson hinted strongly that they will not be renewed. The premier was congratulated by senior Tories including Jeremy Hunt and Theresa May for holding his nerve despite pressure to clamp down before Christmas. In another boost, Nicola Sturgeon has U-turned by following England and cutting the self-isolation period in Scotland from 10 days to seven. Challenged by another Conservative former minister, Steve Baker, in the House, Mr Johnson said he hoped that once Omicron 'blows through' the country 'life will return to something much, much closer to normality' and the current restrictions will 'not be necessary'. But Mr Johnson has also disappointed many by batting away calls for the self-isolation period to be trimmed immediately to five days to help fill gaps in the workforce - with more than a million people currently under house arrest.
A woman has died in a Melbourne laneway, with her body found early on Tuesday.

It is understood the woman was last seen alive on the balcony of a residential apartment above Rose Lane, between Little Bourke and Lonsdale streets.

Her body was recovered around 3am, Victoria police confirmed, as they appealed for help from the public.

A woman's body was recovered in the Melbourne CBD around 3am on Tuesday, Victoria police confirmed, as they appealed for help from the public

It is understood the dead woman was last seen alive on the balcony of a residential apartment above Rose Lane early on Tuesday

Uniformed police and detectives worked together to investigate what happened to the woman found dead in Rose Lane on Tuesday morning

Police were on the scene in Rose Lane before daylight and quickly barred public access.

Detectives worked with local police as they tried to piece together what happened.

'The circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear however it is believed the woman was last seen on the balcony of a residential apartment in Rose Lane shortly before she was discovered,' Victoria police said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia shortly after 7am.

Police confirmed in a separate statement that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Victoria police appealed for anyone with information on the incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Police released a statement Tuesday mid-morning saying the woman's tragic death was not being treated as suspicious
A hero Wisconsin mother-of-two died eight days after suffering severe injuries when she saved her four-year-old son from being brutally attacked by the family's pitbull.

Heather Pingel, 35, from Bowler, suffered kidney failure, lung damage and both of her arms had to be amputated after the pitbull viciously attacked her and her son, Damian, on December 8.

She was rushed to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where she died of her injuries on December 16. Damian received 70 stitches to his leg and is back home recovering.

'I just want people to know she died a hero,' Shannon Pingel, Heather's sister, said. 'I hate that this happened, but I'm thankful she saved my nephew ... she is the best mom. She did everything for her babies.'

Heather Pingel, 35, from Bowler, Wisconsin, suffered kidney failure, lung damage and both of her arms had to be amputated after the family dog viciously attacked her and her son, Damian, on December 8

She was rushed to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on December 16

'If you saw Heather you saw the kids too, especially Damion. From the day he was born he was attached to mom's hip. Such a mommy's boy. She will always be our hero and will forever be missed,' Shannon added.

According to the Shawano County Sheriff Office, Heather's boyfriend, Shane Bernarde, came home in the afternoon of December 8 to the violent scene, The Wasau Daily Herald reported.

After realizing the family dog was attacking Heather in the bathroom, Shane grabbed the dog, pulled it outside, and shot the animal dead. He was also bitten in the process.

Damian needed 70 stitches to his leg but has since been discharged and is recovering at home. It is unclear if Heather's and Shane's daughter, Carmen, was in the house at the moment of the attack.

Meanwhile, Heather's injuries were extensive. The stay-at-home mother lost both arms as a result of the attack and suffered infections to her lungs and kidneys that eventually led to her death.

Heather's sister, Shannon, has since created a GoFundMe page to raise funeral costs, revealing that Shane had lost his job just a day before the attack. More than $28,000 out of the $50,000 goal has been raised

The family dog had shown signs of aggression before, the Sheriff's Office said.

But Shannon said a prior incident had happened more than six years ago and the attack was not directed towards a child. She added her sister feared the dog would be killed if they'd taken it to a shelter.

'She was worried he would get killed if taken to a shelter. He wasn't a scary, aggressive animal. We all were around him, which is why this is all so unbelievable,' Shannon said.

Family members believe the attack was triggered after Damion fell down the stairs and started crying, as the dog was known to be skittish to loud noises.

Shannon has since created a GoFundMe page to raise funeral costs, revealing that Shane had lost his job just a day before the attack.

'She is nothing but a hero. We need help with medical bills, funeral costs, and help raising her [two] beautiful babies. She was way too young to leave and this is all so sudden and shocking. Any and all help is greatly appreciated,' the description of the fundraiser read.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday, December 23.
Dr. Scott Atlas, who served on President Donald Trump's White House Coronavirus Task Force, questioned in an interview set to air Wednesday why the former president didn't fire Dr. Anthony Fauci.

'The question 'why weren't these people fired?' will go down in the history books as an unanswered question,' Atlas told Fox News' Steve Hilton on his California Rebel Base podcast in a clip first obtained by DailyMail.com.

'I was shocked that it wasn't done because President Trump is not afraid of firing people,' Atlas continued. 'I mean, this is obvious and he's certainly not afraid of, I don't think, anything really  he's shown that.'

Atlas felt Trump was acting more cautiously because of the optics of firing Fauci during an election year and said his aides were warning against the move.

His comments also come after Trump said he thinks he did the right thing by not ousting Fauci despite their differences. The ex-president has often criticized the National Institutes of Health doctor who helped establish and lead the initial U.S. COVID-19 response.

'I did it right, because if you do fire him you're going to have a firestorm on the left again, as usual,' Trump told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo in an interview pre-taped on Friday.

Trump-era WH COVID adviser Dr. Scott Atlas said the former president didn't fire Dr. Anthony Fauci because aides warned him not to during an election year

Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Sunday: 'I did it right, because if you do fire him you're going to have a firestorm on the left again, as usual'

'And I didn't listen to him, if you think about it,' Trump reasoned. 'He wanted to keep our country open to China and I closed it. He wanted to keep our country open to Europe and I closed it. He talked about masks being no good, well I'm not a huge mask believer but I think they have some purpose, and now he's a radical masker.'

'No, I think I did the right thing because we would have had a firestorm,' the 45th president told Bartiromo in the interview that aired on her Sunday morning program.

Atlas said that Trump should have known to fire Fauci and other doctors who helped lead the White House coronavirus response  including former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.

'He understood the destruction of the lockdowns,' Atlas said. 'But it was allowed to continue and my belief is that it was, from what I heard inside, an election year and the political side of his advisors were saying 'don't rock the boat, it's a political year, we're close to an election.''

'Fauci and Birx had high public approval, possibly in part due to the fact that they disagreed with the president, but this was part of a strange logic to keep them on.'

While Fauci still works with President Joe Biden's administration in the continued COVID response, Birx does not.
NSW has eased requirements for international arrivals, with fully vaccinated travellers no longer having to isolate for 72 hours.

From Tuesday, overseas arrivals to Sydney will have to get a COVID-19 PCR test within 24 hours and isolate at home until they return a negative result.

Unvaccinated adult travellers are still required to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine.

The new rules are in line with Victoria but international travellers in NSW must also undergo another test on the sixth day after arriving.

International flight crew members who arrive in Australia and are fully vaccinated must self-isolate until they have a negative COVID-19 test result, or until they depart on a flight leaving Australia.

NSW has things easier for overseas arrivals a day after the premier called for more responsibility

NSW Health is urging people to keep wearing masks indoors and health experts are calling for a return to mask mandates indoors, as nervous people cancel or reconsider summer holiday travel plans.

But a week after mask requirements were removed for all but the highest risk settings, Premier Dominic Perrottet says it's time for "personal responsibility".

'We are treating the people of our state like adults,' he said on Monday.

Meanwhile, there are long queues at testing facilities as people seek reassurance they won't have to go into isolation for Christmas and pharmacies and shops are running out of Rapid Antigen Tests.

NSW recorded 2501 COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours until 8pm on Sunday - a drop of 65 cases on the previous day's record high of 2566.

There are 261 patients in hospital - up from 227 - and 33 people are in ICU, an increase of five.

Newcastle remains the epicentre of the Omicron cluster with more than a quarter - 660 - of the new cases recorded in the Hunter, and there are 4368 active cases in the district.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant is urging caution this Christmas and recommended people take a rapid antigen test before going to an indoor gathering.

'Choose outdoor, well-ventilated places for gatherings and limit the size of those gatherings,' she said.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx repeatedly misled the public about her office's handling of the Jussie Smollett case and was responsible for 'a major failure of operations' in dismissing charges against the Empire actor, a special prosecutor's damning report states.

The 68-page confidential report detailing missteps and multiple instances of false statements made by Foxx and her prosecutors in the initial investigation of Smollett was released after a judge ruled on Monday that it should be made public.

Some of the offices actions may be violations of legal ethics, special prosecutor Dan Webb concluded. He said Foxx and others in her office did nothing criminal.

Smollett, 39, was convicted earlier this month of lying to police in January 2019 about what he said was a racist, homophobic attack in downtown Chicago.

Prosecutors said Smollett, who is black and gay, staged a fake attack involving a noose to get publicity. He is expected to be sentenced next year.

The report includes findings by Webb, who took over the case after Foxx dropped charges against Smollett in March 2019.

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A newly release report by a special prosecutor has found that Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx (left) and her office were responsible for 'a major failure of operations' in dismissing charges against Jussie Smollett (right)

In June 2019, Chicago police released bodycam footage of the Empire actor wearing a noose he claimed his assailants allegedly put on him during the January 2019 attack

Webb was tasked with investigating Foxx's handling of the case and whether Smollett should face charges.

The report says that Webb's investigation 'did not develop evidence that would support any criminal charges against State's Attorney Foxx or any individual working at the CCSAO (Cook County State's Attorney's Office).'

But according to the report, the special prosecutor 'did develop evidence that establishes substantial abuse of discretion and operational failures by the CCASO in prosecuting and resolving the Initial Smollett Case.'

Webb alleged that Foxx and her office made 'false and/or misleading statements to the public regarding the nature and reasons for the dismissal' of the initial case, and in doing so breached their 'obligations of honesty and transparency.'

Nigerian brothers Olanbinjio Osundairo, left, and Abimbola Osundairo, admitted they were paid $3,500 to stage an attack on Smollett, who first met Abimbola on the set of Fox's Empire

Jussie Smollett leaves court on December 9 after being found guilty of five of six counts of disorderly conduct

Jussie Smollett - guilty on five of six charges of disorderly conduct Count 1 - GUILTY This count accuses him of telling responding Chicago Police Officer Muhammed Baig at around 2:45am, some 45 minutes after the purported attack, that he was the victim of a hate crime. He said two attackers put a rope around his neck. Count 2 - GUILTY This refers to Smollett telling the same officer he was a victim of a battery, describing attackers beating and pouring bleach on him. Counts 3 and 4 - GUILTY These are when Smollett made the same claims but to a different officer, Kimberly Murray, later that morning, at just before 6am. Count 5 - GUILTY This accuses Smollett of again telling Murray at around 7:15 p.m. that he was the victim of a battery. Count 6 - NOT GUILTY This refers to Smollett reporting on February 14, 2019, to detective Robert Graves that hed been a victim of an aggravated battery. Advertisement

Webb released a portion of the report including its major conclusions, in 2020. The full report released Monday documents interviews with Foxx, dozens of employees of her office, Chicago police officers and friends and family members of Smollett.

It says Foxx  who recused herself from the Smollett case before it was dropped  told the special prosecutors office that she was 'surprised' when all 16 counts against Smollett were dropped, and that she believed he should have been required to admit some wrongdoing, which he was not. Instead, he got off with a restitution of under $10,000 and minimal community service.

She also said she believed prosecutors in her office 'wanted to get this guy out of town' because of the media attention that accompanied the case and the 'throngs of people' it had brought to the courthouse.

Foxx acknowledged during her interview that getting rid of the case 'shortchanged, I think, the accountability that the city deserved,' reported Chicago Tribune.

Foxx later said in a media statement that the case was dropped just like thousands of other similar cases, which Webb concluded was not true.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb has concluded that Foxx and others in her office made false and misleading statements about their handling of the Smollett case

Foxx was quoted as saying that prosecutors wanted to get rid of the case because of the 'throngs of people' it had brought to the courthouse. Pictured: supporters of Foxx clash with protesters during a demonstration in April 2019

'The fact that such a significant mischaracterization could be asserted without sufficient vetting, repeated by figureheads of the (Cook County States Attorneys Office) and then never corrected or clarified  particularly in a case the (office) knows has captured the public attention  is unacceptable for an office that must be transparent and maintain public confidence,' Webbs report states.

Webb also found that Foxx improperly changed her public position about the strength of the evidence against Smollett.

After calling the case against him 'strong,' she wrote in a Chicago Tribune editorial shortly after the charges were dropped that securing a conviction was 'uncertain.' That pivot was 'false and misleading,' Webb concluded.

Foxxs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report. When the initial findings were released last year, the states attorneys office said it welcomed Webbs findings that no one on the staff committed a crime and that no undue outside influences affected prosecutors decisions, but rejected any characterization of abuses of discretion or false public statements.

Webb also pursued the investigation against Smollett, and a grand jury in 2020 indicted him on new charges of lying to police. A jury convicted the 39-year-old earlier this month on five of six counts of disorderly conduct, a low-level felony.

Smollett has maintained his innocence, and his attorney says they will appeal the conviction.

Cook County Judge Michael Toobin, who appointed Webb as special prosecutor to look into the case, ruled Monday that his full report should be made public now that Smollett's trial is complete.
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With Christmas just five days away, Americans are waiting for up to six hours to get a COVID test as long lines build up in US cities and cases rise thanks to the recently-discovered Omicron variant.

As of Monday morning, 133,012 Americans are testing positive for COVID every day, a 21 percent increase over the past two weeks, and 1,296 deaths are being recorded each day, a nine percent increase over the past two weeks.

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of the new Omicron strain, with 221 infections being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning.

In Manhattan, a nurse told DailyMail.com that patients hoping for COVID tests waited up to six hours at the CityMD Urgent Care on East 14th Street on Monday.

An operator for NYC Health + Hospital's COVID Hotline couldn't predict wait times at any of its more than 50 COVID testing centers across the five boroughs, but said that 'hundreds and thousands of people' were lined up throughout the city on Monday afternoon.

'Make sure to dress super warmly and make sure to pack a dinner,' COVID Hotline operator Nathan Wilkes suggested those planning to join the staggering queues in the coming days.

A long line stretches outside a mobile COVID testing clinic in New York's Upper West Side Monday, with many New Yorkers waiting for up to six hours to receive a test

Another long line stretches outside a clinic in Brooklyn on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers seeking out tests before spending time with loved ones over the holidays

New Yorkers were critical of their city on Twitter after waiting in long lines for pre-holiday COVID testing

'We now have people who took their test on Thursday and we now have people calling me at the airport and screaming that their results aren't in. You have no idea how many positive test results that I'm reading,' he told DailyMail.com.

'It's just that bad.'

Airport testing sites have also been overwhelmed, with travelers seeking a rapid pre-departure test facing waits of up to five hours, potentially spoiling Christmas plans.

The shocking scenes have led to angry calls for the Biden administration to get its act together and hurry up with approving home testing kits, which are widespread in other countries, including the UK.

In Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, one woman equated a seven-hour-long line for a COVID test on Monday to the bowels of hell.

'I [joined] the line at 9:45 (a.m.). Its just after 12 (p.m.) and I finally made it to the end of the block to wrap the corner. Baby this is hell, change my mind,' Twitter user @kaycee_345 wrote.

'Hour [seven]. Finally inside the testing center. Theres [three] more people still in front of me but at least we are out of the cold and I finally have some feeling in my hands and fingers again.'

Brooklynites who arrived just as MedRite Urgent Care on Court Street waited for two hours to get tested for COVID-19 - those who arrived later, a Twitter user wrote, had waits up to four hours.

Brooklynites who arrived just as MedRite Urgent Care on Court Street waited for two hours to get tested for COVID-19 - those who arrived later, a Twitter user wrote, had waits up to four hours

A New Yorker is swabbed for COVID-19 at one of the city's mobbed mobile testing centers on Monday afternoon

'Hopefully test comes back negative, but if not the virus got a nice head start vs my immune system lol,' @clarkcharlie03 wrote.

Other users - and many grumbling in lines - wondered how New York City hasn't yet found a way to efficiently meet the demand for tests.

'100+ person lines at every covid testing center i've passed in NYC. Every Tom, Dick and Harry getting checks for $1400 a month for eternity but we can't figure out how to test people efficiently for covid? Thanks - 2 years and we still can't easily get tested,' wrote @seanvid.

But the long lines aren't just in New York. Long lines were seen throughout the country, with social media users posting photos while waiting for COVID tests in major cities like Boston, Philadelphia and D.C.

City residents wait in a line extending around the block to receive free at-home rapid COVID-19 test kits in Philadelphia, Monday

Philadelphia residents wait in a line extending around the block to receive free at-home rapid COVID-19 test kits in , Monday

About 300 people waited in line at Simpson Recreation Center for free COVID testing kits in Philadelphia on Monday

Boston residents criticized Mayor Michelle Wu on social media, calling for more comprehensive COVID testing throughout the city.

'Looks yum!' commented user @emhens1 on a picture of eggs Benedict on the politician's Twitter.

'Can you figure out how its easier for me to get on a train to NYC to get COVID tested than wait for 4-5 hours in 20 degrees at Tufts? Ive tried 8 community testing sites in Boston so far with no luck for the last 4 days. Any ideas? Commuter rail to Natick?'

In Friendship Heights, Washington, lines for COVID testing were around the block, and in Philadelphia, hundreds bundled up and waited to get tested or get free at-home testing kits.

In Friendship Heights, Washington, bundled-up residents waited around the block for COVID testing

People wait in their cars in a long line at a drive-up COVID testing facility in Maryland on Monday

In Miami-Dade County, Florida, and in Maryland, hundreds waited in their cars for drive-up COVID tests today.

Outside of the U.S., in Vancouver, drivers waited in a twelve-block, six hour line to get tested, according to a Twitter user.

'f youre THAT sick, you shouldnt be driving around and likely cant spend hours in the car waiting. So WHY are you getting tested, #Vancouver??'

Outside of the U.S., in Vancouver, drivers waited in a twelve-block, six hour line to get tested, according to a Twitter user

As of last week, the Omicron variant accounted for three percent of active cases in the U.S., though the figure will likely be higher when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports figures this week. The Delta variant, which caused a massive case surge over summer, accounted for 97 percent of cases that week.

No matter the variant, COVID is spiraling out of control in the U.S., though the growth of cases has slightly slowed over the past week. As of Monday morning, 133,012 Americans are testing positive for Covid every day, a 21 percent increase over the past two weeks.

America's daily death total has remained steady over the past week despite the increase in cases. As of Monday, 1,296 cases are being recorded every day, a nine percent increase over the past two weeks. Deaths not rising at the same rate as cases is a positive sign that the vaccines are still effective at stopping breakthrough cases from developing into severe cases.

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of Omicron strain, with 221 cases being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning

Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of Omicron strain, with 221 cases being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning

Vaccination rates are still plateaued, with most Americans who wanted the vaccinated already receiving the jab
One of Australia's leading doctors has slammed fearmongering predictions about the impact of Omicron, saying data on the new Covid-19 strain is 'encouraging'.

Australia's ex-deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth has hit out at a host of doomsayer experts predicting the worst as another wave of the virus spreads.

Australia's figures indicate Omicron is highly infectious but less potent than previous strains of the virus, particularly given the nation's very high rate of vaccination.

The percentage of tests giving a positive result has climbed from 0.76 per cent on December 1 to 2.12 per cent on Tuesday.

However in the same period the number of active cases requiring hospitalization has fallen from 3.59 per cent to 2.52 per cent.

Despite that available data, those advocating a return of lockdown restrictions, mask mandates and such measures were pushing for more safety-first policies because it is too soon to tell how severe Omicron could be.

'The people who are most worried about this in the scientific community were saying its early days four weeks ago and are still saying this. And both can't be true,' Dr Coatsworth told News Corp.

Dr Nick Coatsworth (pictured) has lashed has slammed doomsayer experts fearing the worst about the new Omicron variant

University of NSW modelling has suggested NSW could have up to 25,000 new cases a day by February - eight times higher than the current number.

However, Dr Coatsworth slammed that figure as not 'accurate', challenging claims by clinical immunologist Dr Dan Suan that the state was 'sleepwalking into an Omicron disaster'.

'People who take Dan's position believe that the peak will be enormous. UNSW modelling says 25,000 a day, I just don't think that's accurate,' he said.

'The key period will be the next seven days. We will be able to see how many of the 2500 odd testing positive every day are actually going into hospital.'

There were 284 cases being treated in NSW hospitals on Tuesday - 1.51 per cent of active cases - while 39 were in intensive care, compared to 242 at the peak of the Delta wave in late September.

That relatively low rate of serious illness mirrored the overseas experience: of the almost 25,000 cases in the UK on the weekend, just 85 people were in hospital.

Dr Coatsworth has also lashed out at Dr Omar Khorshid in recent days after the Australian Medical Association president gave a dire warning about the impact on the healthcare system if cases continue to explode.

Dr Coatsworth predicts cases in NSW to continue rising but believe they'll be 'lower than we expected' (pictured testing clinic in Bondi)

Dr Khorshid tweeted on Saturday: 'Even if Omicron turns out to be mild in vaccinated people, an explosion of cases will have a devastating effect on healthcare- GPs looking after community cases, furloughing of exposed workers and of course the unknown proportion who will need to be treated in hospital.'

At the peak of the Delta strain, there were twice as many Covid patients in hospital beds without the 'devastating effects' Dr Khorshid predicted.

Dr Coastworth hit back in a lengthy reply, claiming by the AMA has 'rarely been positive or hopeful' throughout the pandemic.

'This adopts the 'a small percentage of a huge number is still a big number' fallacy that has swept through #covid19aus and #auspol since Omicron emerged,' he commented.

Modelling suggests NSW could have up to 25,000 new cases a day by February, which Dr Coatsworth slammed as 'inaccurate' (pictured, Sydneysiders at Bondi on Saturday)

Dr Coatsworth has also slammed AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid in a tweet on the weekend

'It assumes no changes to control measures in a vaccinated population. Yes, it will be devastating if we don't adapt.'

'Adapt the policies. Don't furlough as many staff as we did pre-vaccine. Test to stay at work in healthcare facilities. Use check-in at high risk events. Message empowerment not restrictions. Masks if hospitalisations go up. Boosters for vulnerable as a priority.'

'Recognise that control measures are less effective for omicron, it's now about bolstering the health system. Stop branding anyone who takes a different view as 'let it rip', its not a thing now we have vaccines.'
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Monday asked the Biden administration to respond to a slew of lawsuits appealing the decision to allow his vaccine mandate for workers to go into effect.

Business groups, religious entities, 27 U.S. states and the Republican National Committee have urged the Supreme Court to block the Biden administration's nationwide vaccine-or-testing COVID-19 mandate for large businesses, which covers around 80 million American workers.

The various challengers filed court papers over the weekend asking the conservative-majority court to put on hold a decision by an appeals court on Friday to allow the mandate to take effect.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Monday asked the Biden administration to respond to a slew of lawsuits appealing the decision to allow his vaccine mandate for workers to go into effec

Kavanaugh responed because he oversees emergency appeals from the Sixth Circuit.

He asked the White House to respond to the challengers by Dec. 30.

The justices have not acted on the challengers' request that the court immediately hit pause on the mandate.

The dispute reaches the high court as the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant surges, with public health officials bracing for a 'tidal wave' of cases in the United States.

On Friday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati lifted a November injunction that had blocked the rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which applies to businesses with at least 100 workers.

Democratic President Joe Biden in September unveiled regulations to increase the adult vaccination rate as a way of fighting the pandemic, which has killed more than 809,000 Americans and weighed on the economy.

An appeals court ruled Friday that President Joe Biden's (pictured) vaccine and testing requirement for workers can go into effect, prompting red states, business groups and religious entities to ask the Supreme Court to intervene

The rule originally set a Jan. 4 deadline for compliance.

OSHA has since said it would not issue citations related to the order before Jan. 10 and would not take any action on noncompliance with the testing requirement before Feb. 9.

Among the challengers are 27 mostly Republican-led states, various individual businesses and business groups, and two groups of religious entities, including the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Business challengers include the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that represents small businesses.

The challengers say, among other things, that OSHA overstepped its authority by using a process that allows it to issue emergency measures to address specific workplace safety hazards under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The challengers argue that Congress never intended the law to be used to issue such a sweeping regulation.

'This case involves a historically unprecedented administrative command,' Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in the states' court filing.

The dispute is not over whether vaccine mandates are 'wise or desirable,' he added, but rather 'the narrow questions whether OSHA had authority to issue the mandate, and whether it lawfully exercised whatever authority it had.'

Courts have separately blocked Biden's vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in half the states in the country. The administration's request that the mandate be allowed to go into effect nationwide is also pending before the Supreme Court.
Make no mistake the disappointment will be crushing. For all the good intentions, the Queen will be bitterly sorry that she will not be celebrating Christmas this year at Sandringham.

It is not just the fact that, for the second year running, she will be absent from the Norfolk estate which is home to so many of her most treasured Christmas memories, but also that she will be deprived once again of the company of many of her family.

Their absence, particularly of her great-grandchildren, will be felt especially keenly.

After a year which began with the loss of her husband Prince Philip and ended with her having to cancel public engagements after a lengthy bout of ill health, her hopes had been raised by the prospect of a first family gathering at Sandringham since 2019.

The Queen will be disappointed to not host traditional Christmas festivities at Sandringham this year. Pictured: The Queen with family at Christmas Day service in King's Lynn in 2017

It had promised to be one of the biggest royal get-togethers for years, with US-based Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex and their children the only absentees.

Despite the murmurs from royal aides that the Queen will be visited by family over Christmas  with all appropriate guidelines followed  it inevitably means that the normal celebrations will be considerably scaled back.

Palace officials insist the Queens decision was a personal one and only taken after careful consideration, which is thought to have included medical advice.

It also seems likely that next years Platinum Jubilee events almost certainly featured in the decision-making process.

The Jubilee is a significant  and personal  landmark, and Her Majesty wishes to minimise any risk to events, says a courtier.

Putting herself, potentially, in harms way with a big family gathering is one such possible threat. Up to 50 family members were set to join the Queen, who had been expected to travel to Sandringham by helicopter either today or tomorrow.

Queen leaves the St Mary Magdalene's church after Royal Family's Christmas service in 2019

Other royal guests were due to arrive by Christmas Eve.

Although not bubbled with key staff at Windsor as earlier in the pandemic, special precautions had been taken to keep the Queen safe and Covid-free. They include her personal staff taking daily lateral-flow tests.

I understand that one servant had tested positive in recent days, but this played no part in the Queens decision to remain at Windsor.

However, I do understand that aides were concerned about the possibility of the Queen being exposed to infection with such a big group assembling at Sandringham  the same reason why this weeks wider Royal Family lunch was cancelled.

The question now is which members of the family will be with the Queen on Christmas Day.

It seems likely that beleaguered Prince Andrew, who lives close by at the Royal Lodge, may remain at Windsor to be with his mother, as could Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex and their children.

Pictured: The Queen receives the Sultan of Oman and his wife, the first lady of Oman, during an audience at Windsor Castle in one of her most recent official engagements this month

Although the plans are not yet firm, I am told the Queen will not be eating her Christmas lunch alone.

It was not immediately clear if some family members will still travel to Sandringham, though it is understood Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge are set to spend the holiday break at Anmer Hall, their Norfolk home close to Sandringham House.

Last year, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall spent Christmas Day at Highgrove, his country estate in Gloucestershire.

This year will mark the second time in 33 years that the Queen has spent the festive season away from Sandringham.

Until the 1980s, Christmas was regularly spent at Windsor Castle, but the arrival of her grandchildren meant the royals needed the additional space of the Norfolk mansion.

It is still possible that the Queen will be able to travel to spend some of her winter break up at Sandringham  she usually remains there until February 6, which is the anniversary of her father King George VIs death. Next year will be an especially poignant date, for it marks the 70th anniversary of her accession.
Alex Berenson has filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter challenging his ban

The independent journalist Alex Berenson has filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter challenging his ban from the service over a tweet questioning the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

The lawsuit filed on Monday in US District Court for Northern California seeks Berenson's reinstatement to Twitter and unspecified monetary damages over his permanent ban in August.

A spokesperson for San Francisco-based Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

Berenson, a former New York Times reporter and prominent skeptic of many pandemic policies, was banned from Twitter over a tweet in which he stated that COVID vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission of the virus.

The lawsuit filed on Monday in US District Court for Northern California seeks Berenson's reinstatement to Twitter and unspecified monetary damages over his permanent ban

Berenson was banned from Twitter over this tweet, according to his lawsuit

'Mr. Berensons claim that the COVID-19 vaccines do not stop infection or transmission of COVID-19 was true at the time and is true now,' his attorneys said in the complaint.

Since his ban, Berenson has gone on to author the bestseller Pandemia

'It is undisputed that vaccinated persons can contract and spread COVID-19,' the lawsuit adds, noting that Dr. Anthony Fauci himself has stated in published interviews that vaccinated people can be infected.

However, the crux of the lawsuit does not rest on whether Berenson's criticism of vaccines was objectively true or not.

The detailed 70-page complaint alleges that Twitter is legally a 'common carrier,' similar to a railroad or a telegram, which is required under California and federal law to provide service to all comers.

'Twitters role in public debate in the twenty-first century resembles that of the telegraph in the nineteenth,' the lawsuit argues.

Berenson's attorneys also argue that he has 'a uniquely viable claim that Twitter acted on behalf of the federal government in censoring and barring him from to its platform.'

The complaint argues that his Twitter ban came just days after high officials including President Joe Biden called for a crackdown on pandemic misinformation on social media, and that the company was responding to government pressure in banning him.

Pictured: a screenshot of Berenson's suspended Twitter account. The social media platform permanently banned the former New York Times journalist for his tweets

The suit claims violation of the First Amendment, false advertising, and violation of California common carrier law, among other complaints.

Since his ban from Twitter, Berenson has been publishing his opinion and reporting on the platform Substack, and has released a book titled Pandemia, which reached the bestsellers list.

In the tweet that earned him his ban, Berenson wrote: 'It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Dont think of it as a vaccine.'

'Think of it  at best  as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS,' he added.

Berenson began his anti-mask and vaccine mandate crusade last year, when an Op-Ed he penned for the Wall Street Journal claimed the pandemic had caused 'a new age of censorship and suppression.'

Berenson began reporting on the pharmaceutical industry and financial crime for the New York Times in 1999, before leaving the newspaper in 2010

'Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies,' Berenson wrote.

'As someone whos been falsely characterized as a coronavirus denier,' he wrote at the time. 'I have seen this crisis firsthand.'

Berenson began reporting on the pharmaceutical industry and financial crime for the New York Times in 1999, before leaving the newspaper in 2010 to pursue a career as a full-time author and novelist.

The Yale-educated writer was dubbed 'the pandemic's wrongest man' by The Atlantic over his predictions about the virus.

He had originally predicted that the US would not surpass 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The country has now exceeded 800,000 deaths.

Berenson had previously enjoyed a large social media following, with over 340,000 followers prior to his permanent Twitter ban.

In announcing his lawsuit on Substack, he wrote: 'Remember, folks - Dont take the law into your own hands, you take em to court!'
With the alarming rise in Covid-19 case numbers, Australian families are looking for rapid antigen tests to save Christmas and stop the further spread of the virus.

But RATs are increasingly hard to come by - not because of a lack of them, but because they are in warehouses, not in pharmacies.

Many pharmacies, particularly in NSW and parts of Queensland, are selling out amid growing concerns there won't be enough to see the country through summer.

A person (pictured) displays a Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit at home. Some pharmacies are experiencing shortages of the tests

But Trent Twomey, the national president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said there is enough stock to go around, it's just in the wrong places.

'I was on the phone yesterday with the three major wholesalers in Australia, they assure us that they have enough availability of the rapid antigen tests,' he told the Today show on Channel Nine.

'However, they are all at their major distribution hubs which are down in Victoria. When the ships and planes come in from around the world that's where they go.'

Mr Twomey said there has been a 'massive run on the point of care tests' in New South Wales and also in some of the areas of south east Queensland.

He said this is why there are shortages in pharmacies and in some regional distribution hubs.

'They assure us over the next 24 hours there will be trucks and ships and trains and all sorts of things getting that stock out of major distribution hubs in Melbourne out to the rest of the states and territories,' Mr Twomey said.

Because Melbourne is where the tests arrive in to Australia, Victoria is not experiencing the same lag of supply that other states are.

Wit rapidly increasing Covid case numbers, people are fearing having to isolate over Christmas - though the Sydney revellers pictured here seem to have little fear

Mr Twomey said rapid antigen tests should be supplied free by the government and that they are far cheaper than a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test.

'I've had both. I was working down in our Canberra office last week. I came back into Queensland, and I did actually what (Queensland Premier) Annastacia (Palaszczuk) told me to do, get a PCR 72 hours before I left and on day five when I got back,' said Mr Twomey.

Between his first and second PCR test, he used a rapid antigen test to supplement it.

'If the government wants to keep this coronavirus and all of its variants on the notifiable disease list, as it probably should, then they need to make things like testing, things like vaccinations and treatments when they eventually come in in the coming weeks and months, free and easily available,' he said.

Australian Christmas Day celebrations (pictured) could be marred by people having to isolate due to the Omicron or Delta Covid variants

Mr Twomey said many other countries have made a PCR test at the pathologist free and also made rapid antigen tests free through doctors and pharmacies.

He also spoke about the falling number of pharmacies offering booster jabs of Covid-19 vaccines, saying they were surprised the federal government reduced the waiting time from a second shot to a third.

'Pharmacists and GPs are overwhelmed. We have been flooded by demand for the boosters, we were caught off guard when the Commonwealth reduced the vaccination interval from six months to five months,' he said.

Despite being taken by surprise, he said pharmacists support the move.

'It's the right thing to do, ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) made the right decision based on the right evidence.

Australians are crossing their fingers that Covid-19 does not hamper and year of Christmas celebrations (pictured)

'What we have seen is there are 3,500 pharmacies participating six months ago in the primary dose vaccination strategy and we have seen that reduce now to just over 2,000 for the booster program,' he said.

The childhood vaccination program, which is starting on Monday, January 10, has only got 1,300 pharmacies signed up to take part so far, with the Australian Medical Association saying it's the same situation with general practices.

Mr Twomey said the reduction in numbers of health professionals prepared to administer vaccines is money, not supply issues.

He said the federal government has 'cut the funding to pharmacies and cut the funding to GPs for the administration of the third dose'.
China unleashed an astonishing attack on Britain yesterday, claiming there was 'no genuine democracy' in Hong Kong under UK rule.

In a statement issued just hours after new elections in Hong Kong  which were condemned as a 'sham' by critics  Beijing said calls for democratic reform were repeatedly rejected under British rule, and the UK had restricted freedom of speech while racially discriminating against Chinese residents.

Hong Kong's last British governor, Lord Patten, dismissed the claims as 'mendacious' and said China was conducting a 'comprehensive and vengeful' destruction of freedoms in the former British colony.

Members of pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) clap hands during a press conference after winning 19 seats in the Legislative election in Hong Kong

Last year, ahead of the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover to China from British rule, Beijing introduced a draconian national security law aimed at cracking down on dissent and pushing Chinese values.

As a result, pro-Beijing candidates won a landslide victory in local elections this weekend, after a 'patriotic' vetting process effectively eliminated most pro-democracy activists and other opposition figures from running.

Others have already been jailed, disqualified or fled overseas since China introduced the security law.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss joined other countries to express 'grave concern' over the result, which came after a record low turnout of 30 per cent.

Beijing blamed Covid and 'anti-China elements' for the dramatic decline in turnout. Some activists had called for a boycott of the vote and the largest pro-democracy group, the Democratic Party, fielded no candidates for the first time since 1997.

Only one of the 90 seats in the Legislative Council, the city's de facto parliament, was won by a self-proclaimed 'opposition-leaning' candidate.

Hours after the election results, Beijing issued a government white paper on Hong Kong's 'democratic progress', which claimed that China had 'designed, created, safeguarded and pushed forward Hong Kong's democratic system'.

State mouthpiece The Global Times reported the white paper as saying there was 'no genuine democracy' under British rule and that the colonial government had 'maintained a repressive rule in Hong Kong, tightly controlling the Press and restricting freedom of speech'.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured earlier this year) joined other countries to express 'grave concern' over the result, which came after a record low turnout of 30 per cent

Lord Patten, the governor of Hong Kong for five years until its handover, said: 'Every effort we made to introduce democracy was resisted by China at every step.

'But we were developing democratic systems in Hong Kong. About half the legislature was elected. We know that China is mendacious, we know that they break their word.

'They have been comprehensively and vengefully going about the destruction of freedom in Hong Kong, including the rule of law and freedom of speech.

'I fear for the future of Hong Kong, and for Hong Kongers.'

Lord Patten said Sunday's elections were 'shamefully fraudulent' and that the successful candidates had been selected by Beijing, not elected by voters.

More than 300,000 people in Hong Kong hold British National (Overseas) passports, granted to those permanent residents who were classed as British Dependent Territories citizens before the 1997 handover to China. About 89,000 have applied to come and live and work in the UK under a new scheme set up last year.

v.allen@dailymail.co.uk
Mothers devote just 25 per cent of their attention to their toddlers when distracted by a smartphone, a new study has warned.

Researchers fear this could damage a child's development and cause greater 'far-reaching' consequences because of inadequate mother-child interaction.

They suspect the same goes for fathers using a mobile to browse social media and the internet, but didn't test the assumption in the study.

Scroll down for video

Research: Mothers devote just 25 per cent of their attention to their toddlers when distracted by a smartphone, a new study has warned (stock image)

How do toddlers develop social skills? Language development explodes from between the ages of two and four, according to American obstetrician Dr Amos Grunebaum. A child's vocabulary, understanding and communication skills flourish at around these ages, he says. These skills are an essential foundation for how a child interacts with others and they significantly impact cognitive, social and emotional development and their future lives in school and beyond. By the time a child reaches its second birthday it should have mastered pointing to common objects; three body parts; labelling familiar objects such as cup, dog and shoe. Most two years olds can: follow a two step instruction; use more than 50 words - although half will be unintelligible; make phrases of two or more words; use simple plurals and personal pronouns; know the names of close friends and family. Most three-year-olds will be able to follow two or three step commands and speak in three to four word sentences. They should now be much easier to understand and have a vocabulary of around 200 words. They should be inquisitive, asking many questions - why, what, who, where, when - and be able to say their name, age and gender. They may understand place words like 'in', 'on' and 'under' and be able to name a best friend. Their conversation will begin to become more interactive and two-way. As a child transitions to preschool, their understanding is becoming much more refined. They will begin to understand time words and order words - today, tomorrow, first, next. They will be getting better at following more complex instructions and she should be able to hear and understand speech in a variety of settings. Their pronunciation will be improving but she may still struggle with difficult consonant like sh, th and l. They may begin to name letters and numbers. They may be able to retell events and keep a simple conversation going. Their personality will begin to shine through as she chooses topics of conversation that interest her. Advertisement

Instead, research led by Dr Katy Borodkin of Tel Aviv University in Israel involved observing dozens of toddlers and mothers.

The mothers were asked to perform three tasks alongside their child, all of whom were aged two to three.

The first required them to browse a specific Facebook page and 'like' videos and articles that interested them.

The second was to read printed magazines and mark the articles that interested them.

The third saw them tasked with playing with their child while the smartphone and magazines were outside the room in a space of 'uninterrupted free play'.

Researchers said the goal was to simulate situations in real life where the mother has to take care of her child, while at the same time devoting some of her attention to her smartphone.

To encourage natural behaviour, the mothers were unaware of the purpose of the experiment when browsing a smartphone or reading a printed magazine compared to periods of uninterrupted free play.

'The mothers talked up to four times less with their children while they were on their smartphones,' said Dr Borodkin.

Not only did they engage in fewer conversations with the toddler but the quality of the interactions was also poorer, researchers said, as the mothers provided less immediate and content-tailored responses, and more often ignored explicit child bids.

Dr Borodkin added: 'Even when they were able to respond while browsing Facebook, the quality of the response was reduced  the mothers kept their responsiveness to a bare minimum to avoid a complete breakdown in communication with the toddler.'

As the mothers performed the tasks, the researchers assessed three components of mother-child interaction.

Firstly they examined maternal linguistic input  the spoken content that the mother conveys to the child  which is regarded as an important predictor of a child's speech development.

Previous studies have revealed that reduced linguistic input leads to decreased vocabulary in children, a shortcoming that may extend to adulthood.

Next, the researchers examined 'conversational turns', a back-and-forth between parent and child that helps language and social development, as the child learns that he or she has something to contribute to the interaction as well as the basic social norms of social interactions.

Finally, maternal responsiveness was examined through the extent the mother responded to their child's speech.

This was measured by the immediacy of the response and its contingency on what the child said.

'We found that the three components of mother-child interaction were reduced by a factor of two to four relative to uninterrupted free play, both when the mother was reading printed magazines and browsing on her smartphone,' said Dr Borodkin.

'In other words, the mothers talked up to four times less with their children while they were on their smartphone.

'They exchanged fewer conversational turns with the toddler, provided less immediate and content-tailored responses, and more often ignored explicit child bids.

'Even when they were able to respond while browsing Facebook, the quality of the response was reduced  the mothers kept their responsiveness to a bare minimum to avoid a complete breakdown in communication with the toddler.'

Research led by Dr Katy Borodkin of Tel Aviv University in Israel involved observing dozens of toddlers and mothers (stock image)

While the researchers did not find that one medium distracted the mothers more than the other between smartphones and magazines, Borodkin said 'it is clear that we use smartphones much more than any other media, so they pose a significant developmental threat'.

She added: 'It should be noted that we currently have no research evidence suggesting an actual effect on child development related to the parental use of smartphones, as this is a relatively new phenomenon.

'However, our findings indicate an adverse impact on the foundation of child development. The consequences of inadequate mother-child interaction can be far-reaching.'

While the study focused on mothers, the researchers believe the findings also apply to fathers and their toddlers as well, since smartphone usage is similar between men and women.

The study has been published in the Journal of Child Development.
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NASA's massive $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which could help find life on other worlds, will finally launch on Christmas Eve, following months of delays.

It will launch atop a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket from Arianespace's launch complex, located near Kourou, French Guiana.

The telescope has faced multiple delays in its long history, with the most recent from December 22 until Christmas Eve after the Webb was 'jolted' by a clamp.

'There's so much riding on this,' NASA administrator Bill Nelson told AP, 'opening up just all kinds of new understanding and revelations about the universe.'

The joint NASA, European and Canadian space agency telescope has now been cleared for launch and is set to lift off at 07:20 ET (12:20 GMT) on December 24.

NASA will be streaming the launch live on NASA TV, and MailOnline will also be covering the exciting event as it happens on December 24.

NASA's massive $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which could help find life on other worlds, will finally launch on Christmas Eve, following months of delays

It will launch atop a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket, from Arianespace's launch complex, located near Kourou, French Guiana in South America

The telescope has faced multiple delays in its long history, with the most recent from December 22 until Christmas Eve after the Webb was 'jolted' by a clamp

Instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) an infrared imager from the edge of the visible through the near infrared NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range. MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) will measure the mid-to-long-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 27 micrometers. FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph), is used to stabilize the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations. Advertisement

Already years late in leaving the Earth for space, Webb will look back to almost the beginning of time to when the first stars and galaxies were forming.

It will also examine the atmospheres of exoplanets and could be used to find life on another world.

James Webb has been developed at a cost of $8.8 billion (6.6 billion), with operational expenses projected to bring its total price tag to about $9.66 billion (7.2 billion), according to Reuters.

It will launch on an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, a town in French Guiana, the location of the European Space Agency's Guiana Space Centre, where most Ariane rockets launch.

There have been multiple launch delays in the past year, with one from December 18 to December 22 caused by a communication issue between the observatory on the launch vehicle.

That was resolved, but the telescope had also been 'jolted' during the transition to the rocket fairing.

Numerous other delays have plagued the telescope's construction and testing history.

The James Webb Space Telescope began development in 1996 and was originally envisaged to launch in 2007 as a successor to Hubble, which is still active.

'Since it is Christmas Eve, all the congressional delegations that were going down, all of that has evaporated,' NASA administrator Bill Nelson told AP, adding that 'even the NASA and contractor team has dwindled'

Already years late in leaving the Earth for space, Webb will look back to almost the beginning of time, to when the first stars and galaxies were forming

t will also examine the atmospheres of exoplanets, that is those worlds orbiting other stars, and could be used to find life on another world

NASA BRUSHES OFF PETITION TO RENAME JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE In October, NASA announced that it will not rename the James Webb Telescope ahead of its launch in December, despite a petition against honoring a space pioneer who some have now claimed was homophobic. Webb, who died in 1992 aged 85, was the second administrator in NASA's history, taking over at the request of John F. Kennedy in 1961. He ran the agency until 1968 and was instrumental in the Apollo programs that would see, the year after his departure, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. In 2002 the agency announced that its $10billion new telescope - due for launch in December 2021 - would be named after him. Yet in recent years the decision has stirred criticism, and a petition this year to rename it has received 1,200 signatures. Organizers accuse Webb of being homophobic, due to his role in the 1963 firing of a gay NASA employee. Questions were also asked about his participation in a 1950-52 'Lavender Scare', when he was at the State Department, and 91 gay people were 'purged'. But on September 30 Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said they had decided against renaming the telescope. 'We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope,' he told NPR. Advertisement

In October, James Webb finally arrived in French Guiana following a 16-day sea voyage onboard the MN Colibri, and was removed from the transport container prior to recent launch preparations.

Fuelling operations began on November 25, according to NASA, and took about 10 days.

The space telescope was then secured on top of the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday, December 11, at the Guiana Space Centre.

'After its arrival in the final assembly building, Webb was slowly hoisted nearly 130 feet and then perfectly aligned on top of the Ariane 5, after which technicians bolted Webb's launch vehicle adapter down to the rocket,' NASA said in an earlier update.

This attachment stage was 'one of the most delicate operations during the entire launch campaign for Webb', NASA added.

When it does finally launch, James Webb 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 should reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.

One of the objectives is to look back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies that formed, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

Webb will look at the universe in the infrared, while Hubble has examined it since its 1990 launch primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

Webb has a much bigger light-collecting area, letting it look at greater distances, and therefore further back into time than Hubble.

NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will work in tandem for a while.

About 28 minutes after its eventual blast-off, the James Webb will detach from its launch vehicle and begin 'the most complex sequence of deployments ever attempted in a single space mission,' NASA said.

It is so large it will fold, origami-style, to fit in the rocket, according to NASA, and unfurl 'like a Transformer' in space, spreading its mirrors out to collect light from deep in the history of the universe.

In October, James Webb finally arrived in French Guiana following a 16-day sea voyage onboard the MN Colibri, and was removed from the transport container prior to recent launch preparations

Fuelling operations began on November 25, according to NASA, and took about 10 days

The space telescope was then secured on top of the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday, December 11, at the Guiana Space Centre

RECENT JAMES WEBB DELAYS July 16, 2020: From March 2021 to October 31, 2021 September 8, 2021: From October 31, 2021 to December 18 November 22, 2021: From December 18 to December 22 December 14, 2021: From December 22 to December 24 Advertisement

Webb will travel to an orbit about one million miles away from Earth and undergo six months of commissioning in space  including unfolding its mirrors and sunshield, cooling down, aligning and calibrating.

'Astronomers worldwide will then be able to conduct scientific observations to broaden our understanding of the universe,' NASA says.

The telescope is named after the late James E. Webb, an American government official who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and played an integral role in the Apollo program.

NASA's decision to name the device after him was a controversial one  he has been accused of homophobia since his passing in 1992 due to his role in the 1963 firing of a gay NASA employee.

In October, NASA announced that it will not rename the James Webb Telescope ahead of its launch in December, despite a petition against honouring a space pioneer who some have now claimed was homophobic.

Webb, who died in 1992 aged 85, was the second administrator in NASA's history, taking over at the request of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

He ran the agency until 1968 and was instrumental in the Apollo programs that would see, the year after his departure, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon.

Webb will travel to an orbit about one million miles away from Earth and undergo six months of commissioning in space  including unfolding its mirrors and sunshield, cooling down, aligning and calibrating

'Astronomers worldwide will then be able to conduct scientific observations to broaden our understanding of the universe,' NASA says

The telescope is named after the late James E. Webb, an American government official who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and played an integral role in the Apollo program

Primarily an infrared telescope, Webb will have a wider spectrum view than Hubble and operate further out from the Earth, in a solar orbit.

Hubble is about 340 miles above the Earth surface, whereas Webb will be over a million miles away.

Research by Ohio State University claims that within five years of it coming online, James Webb will have found signs of alien life on a distant world.

Graduate student Caprice Phillips calculated that it could detect ammonia created by living creatures around gas dwarf planets after just a few orbits.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been described as a 'time machine' that could help unravel the secrets of our universe, with distant objects emitting light from further back in time.

Primarily an infrared telescope, Webb will have a wider spectrum view than Hubble and operate further out from the Earth, in a solar orbit

Research by Ohio State University claims that within five years of it coming online, James Webb will have found signs of alien life on a distant world

ARIANE 5: THE EUROPEAN HEAVY-LIFT LAUNCH VEHICLE Ariane 5 is the European heavy-lift space launch vehicle. It was developed and is operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency and launched out of French Guiana. It sends satellites into geostationary and low Earth orbit and has an 82 consecutive successful streak since first launch in 2003. It was built by Aribus and costs up to 185 million (159 million) per launch to get a payload into space. It has a height of 171ft over the two stages and can take a maximum payload of 23,953lb. Ariane 5 is the launch vehicle of choice to send the James Webb space telescope to the L2 point. Advertisement

The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago.

It will also observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.

Thousands of astronomers around the world have built future careers based on the potential of the Webb telescope.

One group of researchers hope to use Webb to witness 'cosmic dawn' - the moment of first light for the first stars in the universe billions of years ago.

The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of roughly 40 Kelvin, which is about minus 387 Fahrenheit.

James Webb is designed to last for five years but NASA hopes it will operate for a decade or more - similar to the fact Hubble has outlasted its lifespan by decades - although unlike Hubble it can't be easily repaired.

The telescope will observe the Universe in the near-infrared and mid-infrared  at wavelengths longer than visible light. To do so, it carries a suite of state-of-the-art cameras, spectrographs and coronagraphs.

Aside from procuring the Ariane 5 launcher and launch services, ESA is contributing the NIRSpec instrument and a share of the MIRI instrument.

The first images will be test shots, rather than of anything specific - it could copy Hubble and take an image of Jupiter as its first observation.

Up to 30 per cent of the first year of observations will be aimed at exoplanets, to study their orbit, size and atmosphere, in search of alien life.
A grisly Viking ritual in which a victim's back was cut open and their ribs and lungs pulled out of the hole to resemble wings was anatomically possible, a study found.

The 'Blood Eagle' is said to have been reserved for only the most hated enemies of the notorious Scandinavian raiders who lived from the 8th to the 11th centuries.

With no physical archaeological evidence nor contemporary written records, the ritual is known only from transcriptions of poetry and sagas made centuries later.

Accordingly, the outlandishly grotesque practice has long been dismissed by historians as being nothing but a misunderstanding of complex poetry.

(Or, some have suggested, a consequence of an wilful desire on the part of Christian writers to portray their Nordic foes as barbaric heathens.)

However, a multi-disciplinary team led from the University of Iceland have determined that it could have been performed using known Viking weapons.

Any victim would not have lasted long, the researchers said  and they would, contrary to the legends, certainly be dead before their lungs were fully exposed.

The team also said that the ritual was consistent with the Viking's habitual treatment of enemies and corpses, and may have been tied to the defence of their honour.

The Blood Eagle ritual has been depicted in both the History Channel drama 'Vikings' as well as the 2019 USSwedish folk horror film 'Midsommar'.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A grisly Viking ritual in which a victim's back was cut open and their ribs and lungs pulled out of the hole to resemble wings was anatomically possible, a study found. Pictured: a depiction of an execution  possibly a Blood Eagle ritual  on a 7th century stone monument from the Swedish island of Gotland

The 'Blood Eagle' is said to have been reserved for only the most hated enemies of the notorious Scandinavian raiders who lived from the 8th to the 11th centuries. Pictured: actors performing a re-enactment of a Viking raid

With no physical archaeological evidence nor contemporary written records, the ritual is known only from transcriptions of poetry and sagas made centuries later. Pictured: a barbed Viking spear of the kind that historian Luke John Murphy and colleagues believe would have been capable of performing the Blood Eagle ritual to open a person's back

Accordingly, the outlandishly grotesque practice has long been dismissed by historians as being nothing but a misunderstanding of complex poetry. Pictured: a Blood Eagle ritual sacrifice as depicted in the conclusion of the 2019 USSwedish folk horror film 'Midsommar'

In their study, Dr Murphy decided to eschew the long-debated question of whether or not the Blood Eagle ever actually took place  and focussed instead on whether performing the ritual would actually be anatomically feasible in the first place. 'Our answer is a clear yes,' they said

AN ACCOUNT OF THE BLOOD EAGLE RITUAL According to the account in the Orkneyinga saga, the Blood Eagle ritual was a form of human sacrifice. The text describes how Torf-Einarr Jarl subjected his rival for the rule of Orkney  Halfdan haleggr, son of King Haraldr harfagri of Norway  to the brutal execution. It translates as: 'They found Halfdan haleggr there, and Einarr had an eagle carved onto his back with a sword, and had all the ribs cut from the spine and pulled out the lungs through the cut, and gave him to Oinn for his victory.' Advertisement

The study was undertaken by historian Luke John Murphy of the University of Iceland in tandem with a team of medical scientists from Keele University.

'The ritual allegedly involved carving the victim's back open and cutting their ribs away from their spine, before the lungs were pulled out through the resulting wounds,' the researchers wrote on the Conversation.

'The final fluttering of the lungs splayed out on the outspread ribs would supposedly resemble the movement of a bird's wings  hence the eagle in the name.'

Existing scholarship on the blood eagle, the team explained, has typically focussed on the medieval tests describing the ritual  leading to disagreements over the exact terms used to describe the 'cutting' or 'carving' of the victim's back.

In their study, Dr Murphy decided to eschew the long-debated question of whether or not the Blood Eagle ever actually took place  and focussed instead on whether performing the ritual would actually be anatomically feasible in the first place.

'Our answer is a clear yes,' the researchers asserted.

To reach this conclusion, the team combined a thorough reassessment of nine medieval accounts of the ritual with their modern understanding of anatomy and physiology to assess what impact the blood eagle would have on the human body.

Dr Murphy and colleagues propose that barbed or lugged Viking spearheads would have been able to 'unzip' the rib cage quickly from the back  and that while the procedure would have certainly been difficult, it would not have been impossible.

In fact, they suggested, such a weapon may be depicted on one of the 7th century 'Stora Hammars' stone monuments from the Swedish island of Gotland, which depicts a scene that could well be a Blood Eagle or other manner of execution.

Various muscles would be needed to be cut in order to fracture and articulate the rib cage outwards to form 'wings'  including the trapezius, rhomboids and diaphragm.

However, the researchers conceded, 'we also realized that even if the ritual was carefully performed the victim would have died very quickly.'

'Therefore any attempts to reshape the ribs into "wings" or remove the lungs would have been performed on a corpse. That last "fluttering" would not have happened.'

Dr Murphy and colleagues propose that barbed or lugged Viking spearheads would have been able to 'unzip' the rib cage quickly from the back  and that while the procedure would have been difficult, it would not have been impossible. Pictured: barbed Viking spearheads

In fact, they suggested, such a weapon may be depicted on one of the 7th century 'Stora Hammars' monuments (pictured  the relevant panel is third from the top) from the Swedish island of Gotland, which depicts a scene that could be a Blood Eagle or other form of execution

According to the researchers, there is plenty of archaeological and historical evidence to suggest that that Blood Eagle ritual, while certainly unusual, would not have been entirely out-of-character for the brutal Viking-age warrior elite. Pictured: an enhanced close-up of the execution, possibly a Blood Eagle ritual, on the Stora Hammars monument

'They had no qualms about displaying the dead bodies of humans and animals in special rituals, including during spectacular executions,' the researchers wrote. Pictured: a Blood Eagle ritual as depicted in the History Channel drama 'Vikings'

According to the researchers, there is plenty of archaeological and historical evidence to suggest that that Blood Eagle ritual, while certainly unusual, would not have been entirely out-of-character for the brutal Viking-age warrior elite.

'They had no qualms about displaying the dead bodies of humans and animals in special rituals, including during spectacular executions,' the researchers wrote.

One so-called 'deviant burial' studied by the team featured the skeleton of a well-dressed, 10th-century noblewoman from Birka, Sweden.

The poor individual had been found with her head severed and its remains tucked under her arm. Her missing jawbone  perhaps destroyed during the decapitation  had been replaced with one from a pig.

One so-called 'deviant burial' studied by the team featured the skeleton of a well-dressed, 10th-century noblewoman from Birka, Sweden

The poor woman had been found with her head severed and its remains tucked under her arm. Her missing jawbone  perhaps destroyed during the decapitation  had been replaced with one from a pig. Pictured: the original excavator's drawing of the Birka grave, left, with an artists reconstruction of the burial, right

These extreme treatments are understood to have been reserved for exceptional circumstances and typically tied to situations where reputation and honour  considered crucial by the Viking warriors  were seen to have been threatened.

A trigger for such brutality, the team said as an example, might include the capture of a prisoner who had previously subjected a Viking warrior's father or other male relative to a shameful death.

Medieval sagas depict such victims being thrown into pits of snakes, burned to death in a longhouse or even having their guts torn out and nailed to a post

The Blood Eagle may have been a more over-the-top case of this kind of revenge  with the sagas depicting it as a way for the practitioner to reclaim their lost honour.

Medieval sagas depict victims being thrown into pits of snakes, burned to death in a longhouse or even having their guts torn out and nailed to a post. Pictured: part of a baptismal font from Norum, held in the Historiska museet in Stockholm, which depicts Gunnarr Gjukason, a 5th century king of Burgundy, having been thrown into a snake pit

'The anatomical realities of the blood eagle make it clear that the procedure would be attention-grabbing,' the researchers wrote in their paper.

It would have resulting in 'blood, skin and removed organs [being] distributed over the immediate area, practitioners soaked in gore, and the victims screams  particularly during the highly painful removal of soft tissue from their back  likely audible over a significant distance.

'If the blood eagle was ever performed, it appears that it would have conformed with the discourse of spectacular demonstrations of elite power in the Viking Age.'

The full findings of the study were published in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies.
Facebook allowed photos of beheadings and violent hate speech from ISIS and the Taliban to be tagged as 'insightful' and 'engaging', a new report reveals.

Extremists have turned to the social media platform as a weapon 'to promote their hate-filled agenda and rally supporters' on hundreds of groups, according to the review of activity between April and December this year.

These groups have sprouted up across the platform over the last 18 months and vary in size from a few hundred to tens of thousands of members, the review found.

One pro-Taliban group created in spring this year and had grown to 107,000 members before it was deleted, the review, published by Politico, claims.

Overall, extremist content is 'routinely getting through the net', despite claims from Meta  the company that owns Facebook  that it's cracking down on extremists.

There were reportedly 'scores of groups' allowed to operate on Facebook that were supportive of either Islamic State or the Taliban, according to a new report

META'S STANCE ON TERRORIST GROUPS 'We do not allow individuals or organisations involved in organised crime, including those designated by the US government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs); hate; or terrorism, including entities designated by the US government as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs), to have a presence on the platform. We also don't allow other people to represent these entities. 'We do not allow leaders or prominent members of these organisations to have a presence on the platform, symbols that represent them to be used on the platform or content that praises them or their acts. In addition, we remove any coordination of substantive support for these individuals and organisations.' Taken from Meta's transparency centre Advertisement

The groups were discovered by Moustafa Ayad, an executive director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online extremism.

MailOnline has contacted Meta  the company led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg which owns several social media platforms inlcuidng Facebook  for comment.

'It's just too easy for me to find this stuff online,' said Ayad, who shared his findings with Politico. 'What happens in real life happens in the Facebook world.'

'It's essentially trolling  it annoys the group members and similarly gets someone in moderation to take note, but the groups often dont get taken down.

'That's what happens when there's a lack of content moderation.'

There were reportedly 'scores of groups' allowed to operate on Facebook that were supportive of either Islamic State or the Taliban.

Some offensive posts were marked 'insightful' and 'engaging' using new Facebook tools released in November that were intended to promote community interactions.

The posts championed violence from Islamic extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan, including videos of suicide bombings 'and calls to attack rivals across the region and in the West', Politico found.

In several groups, competing Sunni and Shia militia reportedly trolled each other by posting pornographic images, while it others, Islamic State supporters shared links to terrorist propaganda websites and 'derogatory memes' attacking rivals.

Meta (or Facebook as it was known until the end of October) is led by Mark Zuckerberg (pictured)

FACEBOOK CHANGES ITS NAME TO META TO DISTANCE ITSELF FROM SCANDALS In October, Facebook (the company, not the product) changed its name to 'Meta'. The name is part of Zuckerberg's new ambition to transform the social media platform into a 'metaverse' - a collective virtual shared space featuring avatars of real people. But the decision was seen as an attempt by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to distance his company from mounting scandals after leaked whistleblower documents claimed its platforms harmed users and stoked anger. The company is steeped deep in crisis after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents and made bombshell claims that it 'puts profits over people' by knowingly harming teenagers with its content and stoking anger among users. Advertisement

Meta removed Facebook groups promoting Islamic extremist content when they were flagged by Politico.

However, scores of ISIS and Taliban content is still appearing on the platform, showing that Facebook has failed in its efforts 'to stop extremists from exploiting the platform', according to Politco.

In response, Meta said it had invested heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) tools to automatically remove extremist content and hate speech in more than 50 languages.

'We have removed the Groups brought to our attention,' a Meta spokesperson told MailOnline in a statement.

'We dont allow terrorists on our platform and remove content that praises, represents or supports them whenever we find it.

'We know that our enforcement isnt always perfect, which is why we are continuing to invest in people and technology to remove this type of activity faster, and to work with experts in terrorism, violent extremism and cyber intelligence to disrupt misuse of our platform.'

The problem is much of the Islamic extremist content is being written in local languages, which is harder to detect for Meta's predominantly English-speaking staff and English-trained detection algorithms.

'In Afghanistan, where roughly five million people log onto the platform each month, the company had few local-language speakers to police content,' Politco reports.

'Because of this lack of local personnel, less than 1 per cent of hate speech was removed.'

Adam Hadley, director of not-for-profit Tech Against Terrorism, said he's not surprised Facebook struggles to detect extremist content because its automated filters are not sophisticated enough to flag hate speech in Arabic, Pashto or Dari.

'When it comes to non-English language content, theres a failure to focus enough machine language algorithm resources to combat this,' Hadley told Politco.

Meta has previously said it has 'identified a wide range of groups as terrorist organisations based on their behaviour, not their ideologies'.

'We do not allow them to have a presence on our services,' the company says.

In July this year, Facebook started sending users notifications asking them if their friends are 'becoming extremists'.

Screenshots shared on Twitter showed one notice asking 'Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?'

In July, Facebook users started receiving creepy notifications asking them if their friends are 'becoming extremists'

Another alerted users: 'You may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently.' Both included links to 'get support'.

Meta said at the time that the small test was only running in the US, as a pilot for a global approach to prevent radicalisation on the site.

The world's largest social media network has long been under pressure from lawmakers and civil rights groups to combat extremism on its platforms.

This pressure may have ramped up in 2021, following the January 6 Capitol riot when groups supporting former President Donald Trump tried to stop the US Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the November election.
TikTok is taking on Deliveroo with a new food delivery service called TikTok Kitchen that has menu items based on viral videos.

Set to launch in the US in March 2022, TikTok Kitchen will let customers order dishes that were originally created by TikTok users in their short video posts.

These include baked feta pasta, corn ribs and 'pasta chips'  cooked pasta shapes coated in cheese and air-fried, perfect for dipping.

TikTok Kitchen will be a 'virtual restaurant' that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up from orders placed online and over the phone.

A TikTok spokesperson told MailOnline that TikTok Kitchen is 'still very much in the planning stages' and that it's not anticipating a launch before next spring.

The 'viral' menu items include baked feta pasta, corn ribs and 'pasta chips' (left) - cooked pasta shapes that are cheese coated and air-fried

TIKTOK KITCHEN TikTok Kitchen is a new food delivery service for US customers in 2022. It will let customers order dishes that were originally created by TikTok users in video posts. These include baked feta pasta, corn ribs and 'pasta chips' - cooked pasta shapes coated in cheese and air-fried. TikTok Kitchen is a virtual restaurant  it serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up from orders placed online and over the phone. Other virtual restaurants include WingSquad, MrBeast Burger, Barstool Bites and Pauly D's Italian Subs. Advertisement

It's unclear if TikTok Kitchen will be separate from (or feature as an option within) the standard TikTok app, which lets users make clips to share with their followers.

TikTok has teamed up with Virtual Dining Concepts, an Orlando, Florida based marketing firm, for the service.

'The menu is inspired by the hottest food trends on TikTok,' Virtual Dining Concepts says on its website. 'The dishes celebrate food trends made famous by TikTok creators.'

TikTok is used by more than 1 billion people worldwide on a monthly basis and provides a space for a wide range of creators to post videos featuring recipes and food hacks.

These culinary trends have made the food space explode, Virtual Dining Concepts says.

TikTok and Virtual Dining Concepts will initially open around 300 US locations to cook up TikTok Kitchen menu items for delivery, British-born Virtual Dining Concepts founder Robert Earl told Bloomberg.

However, there are plans to expand this number to around 1,000 US locations by the end of 2022.

MailOnline has contacted TikTok for comment. The firm is yet to reveal plans to bring TikTok Kitchen to other countries, including the UK.

TikTok is a Chinese social media app where users can live stream, create short videos and music videos and Gifs with a host of functions (file photo)

RECIPES POSTED ON TIKTOK ARE A HIT WITH YOUNG BRITS Thanks to TikTok, pesto eggs, mozzarella doughnuts and pasta chips are proving a hit with young Britons, who are turning to the social media app for cooking tips. The video clips, as part of the social media trend viewed by millions, also include recipes such as whipped lemonade and feta pasta. The trend to turn to TikTok for food ideas was identified by the Waitrose Food and Drink report earlier in 2021. Read more: TikTok recipes are a hit with Brits who turn to social media for cooking tips Advertisement

Other successful virtual restaurants  which have no bricks-and-mortar locations for letting customers dine in unlike industry giants such as McDonald's  include WingSquad, Barstool Bites and MrBeast Burger.

Meals are prepared in commercial kitchens or shared kitchens before being delivered locally by services like Deliveroo and UberEats.

Menu items on TikTok Kitchen are likely to reflect the passing nature of trends on the social media app, which regularly come and go.

So if a dish becomes viral, it will likely be added to the TikTok Kitchen menu.

On TikTok, a multitude of bizarre and random videos gain traction when they're viewed by more and more people, before becoming 'viral'.

Any TikTok user can create a food trend  presented in a short step-by-step video recipe, for example  that takes off and becomes famous.

Despite this, names of the original dish creators will not be credited for their creations, according to Bloomberg.

'It isnt clear how TikTok will determine the authorship of certain viral dishes, which sometimes belong to more than one person, or what revenue it expects to generate and distribute, the site reports.

However, it does plan to devote profits from TikTok Kitchen to the creators of the menu dishes and 'support promising culinary talents'.

TechCrunch received confirmation from TikTok that creators will be receiving credit for dishes on the menu and 'will be featured prominently throughout the partnership'.

'Proceeds from TikTok Kitchen sales will go to both support the creators who inspired the menu item and to encourage and assist other creators to express themselves on the platform in keeping with TikToks mission to inspire creativity and bring joy to its users,' TikTok said.

TikTok also clarified TikTok Kitchen is more of a campaign to bring TikTok food to fans, rather than TikToks venture into the restaurant business  even though that's precisely what it is.
Male desert darkling beetles perform oral sex on females to gain consent to mate, a new study finds.

Scientists at Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science observed precopulatory oral sexual for the first time among the cryptic desert beetle Platyope mongolica (P. mongolica), an act in which the males contact the females genitals using their mouths.

The team, who conducted the study in Mongolia, China, identified four steps of the insects natural mating process: males pursuing females, oral sexual contact, mounting, and copulation.

However, if a female is not satisfied with the males performance, it will runaway and leave the male beetle to continue searching for a mate to mount and copulate.

Male desert darkling beetles perform oral sex on females to gain consent to mate, a new study finds. It was also found that the shorter a male spends on oral sexual contact, the longer a male spends on copulation attempts, and the more likely it is to be unsuccessful

The study was conducted with male and female beetles collected by the researchers, who observed them in a lab setting.

This allowed them to closely observe precopulatory oral sexual, which was done by males using their maxillary palpi, a sensory organ on the mouth, to rub the female's genitals.

The team observed females entice males by displaying their abdominal terminus upward to show interest in sexual activity.

Females usually stop moving and prostrate their heads as they extend their abdominal terminus higher to submit to mating, reads the study published in Ecology and Evolution.

However, if a female is not satisfied with the males performance, it will runaway and leave the male beetle to continue searching for a mate to mount and copulate

Males search and pursue females until the females stop moving. The remarkable courtship before copulation is that males repeatedly rub their maxillary palpi on the female's genitals before an attempt to copulate.

A total of four of experiments were conducted to better understand if oral sex plays an important role in successful copulation.

The first experiment removed males' antennae but kept females intact and in the second, researchers removed only the maxillary palpi of males and the females remained intact.

During the third experiment, the females genitals was coated with petroleum jelly and in the last portion of the study, the males and females were left intact and undisturbed.

Results showed that copulation duration significantly decreased after removal of males maxillary palpi, researchers wrote in the study.

Removal of males antennae did not decrease copulation duration with females.

However, all the interference treatments (T1-T3) have a significant decrease in the rate of successful copulation.

It was also found that the shorter a male spends on oral sexual contact, the longer a male spends on copulation attempts, and the more likely it is to be unsuccessful.

We confirm that precopulatory oral sexual contact is a form of investment for successful copulation, the study reads.

Our study adds to a new understanding of the evolutionary significance of precopulatory oral sexual behavior in insects, making substantial contributions to sexual selection and evolution.
Australia beat England by 275 runs in the day-night second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval on Monday to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.

Chasing a daunting victory target of 468, England were all out for 192 in the final session of the pink-ball contest.

Sportsmail's LAWRENCE BOOTH is in Australia and has provided his player ratings for both teams from the second Test.

ENGLAND

Haseeb Hameed - 2

Went backwards after two gritty innings at Brisbane. His whip to mid-on on the second evening was horrific, and his hands look worryingly low on Australia's bouncy pitches.

Haseeb Hameed went backwards in the second Test and his low hands are a worry in Australia

Rory Burns - 5

Couldn't make it past five balls again in the first innings, but better signs during his second-innings 34. Four overthrows typified England's scrappiness in the field.

Dawid Malan - 7.5

The only England batsman capable of keeping Root company  even if he looks vulnerable outside off stump against Lyon. Grabbed his first two Test wickets with his leg-spin.

Joe Root - 7

Batted beautifully on the third morning, but troubled by the height and bounce of Cameron Green. Has to take responsibility for the absence of Wood and England's wrong lengths in the first innings.

Ben Stokes - 6

Knuckled down with the bat, even if he was reduced to strokelessness by Lyon: faced 175 deliveries in all for 46 runs. England's battering ram with the ball, despite the usual concerns about his fitness.

Ollie Pope - 2

Two single-figure dismissals, two lame strokes. Has now made 13 in three innings since his promising 35 at the Gabba, and his average have dipped below 30. Must be a question mark for Melbourne.

Ollie Pope's place in the England XI could be under threat after another poor batting display

Jos Buttler - 6

Fought hard on the last day, but was lucky not to make a pair, and bizarrely inconsistent behind the stumps: world-class diving to his left, village-green moving to his right.

Chris Woakes - 4

Match figures of one for 149 confirmed the pre-match suspicion that Wood should have played instead. He battled with the bat, but Woakes may have played his last Test in Australia.

Ollie Robinson - 6.5

Always steady, and is England's leading wicket-taker in the series with seven. But he bowls too many no-balls, and his batting has regressed since 42 on Test debut against New Zealand.

Stuart Broad - 6

Deserved a little better than two for 100, and had Smith dropped first ball in the second innings. But, like Anderson, he was too defensive on the first day.

James Anderson - 6.5

Match figures of 39-16-66-3 showed the respect Australia's batsmen have for him, but - as at Adelaide four years ago - he should have aimed fuller.

James Anderson has the respect of Australia's batters but he should've bowler fuller vs them

AUSTRALIA

David Warner - 8

Overcame the return of Broad, his 2019 nemesis, to compile another punchy 90-odd. Looks a different player in home conditions.

Marcus Harris - 3

As much of a walking wicket as either of England's openers - even if he twice fell victim to superb catches by Buttler.

Marnus Labuschagne - 9

Enjoyed some luck, but had the skill to exploit it, making 103 and 51. Leaves the ball superbly.

Marnus Labuschagne (right) put England's batters to shame with the bat and scored a century

Steve Smith - 8

Back to his run-making ways with a first-innings 93, but was lucky to get as many as six in the second. Caught six in the slips.

Travis Head - 7

Cracked a 49-ball fifty after Australia threatened to get stuck on the fourth day, and has added unexpected depth to their batting.

Cameron Green - 7

Removed Root for the second innings in a row, and used his height to intercept everything in the gully. Finally made a few runs too.

Alex Carey - 7

His first-innings 51 helped put Australia back on course, and his glovework remained smooth. A clear upgrade on Tim Paine.

Alex Carey is a clear upgrade behind the stumps for Australia after succeeding Tim Paine

Michael Neser - 7

A lively debut. Starting with a quickfire 35, then removed Hameed with his second ball. Also picked up the big wicket of Malan on the fourth evening.

Mitchell Starc - 8.5

Showed why he is the leading wicket-taker, by some distance, in pink-ball Tests. He was all over England throughout, and struck the crucial blow by removing Root in the last over of the fourth day.

Jhye Richardson - 8

Australia's weak link in the first innings, he collected five in the second - always striking at crucial moments.

Nathan Lyon - 8

Outstanding against England's left-handers, Australia's off-spinner was responsible for keeping Stokes quiet in both innings.
Arsenal are considering signing three Juventus stars in the upcoming January transfer window, according to reports.

With Ghanaian Thomas Partey and Egyptian Mohamed Elneny set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations, Gunners manager Mikel Arteta is thought to be keen to strengthen his midfield with a new addition or two.

And according to Marca, Dejan Kulusevski and Arthur Melo are on the Spaniard's wanted list, with a sensational potential return for Aaron Ramsey also mooted.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta (above) is reportedly targeting three Juventus stars in January

Former Gunners midfielder Aaron Ramsey could be set for a sensational return to the Emirates

The Premier League club heavily backed Arteta in the summer, sanctioning six major signings in Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares at a combined cost of around 145million.

After the sale of midfielder Joe Willock to Newcastle, that was a net spend of circa 120m - the highest in the Premier League as clubs generally reduced their spending due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Arteta is still keen to add to his squad, with Kulusevski and Arthur reportedly interesting the north London side, who are also monitoring developments with their former midfielder Ramsey.

Ramsey, 30, spent 11 successful years at Arsenal before leaving on a free transfer for the Italian giants on a giant 400,000-a-week contract.

Arthur Melo (second left) and Dejan Kulusevski (right) are the other two players mentioned

Arteta is thought to be keen on adding to his midfield, with Ghanaian Thomas Partey (left) and Egyptian Mohamed Elneny (right) set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations in the new year

However, the Welshman has struggled for game time under new manager Massimiliano Allegri, only playing 98 minutes so far this season, with reports claiming the Old Lady could even terminate his contract early.

Ramsey may therefore be available on a free transfer, greasing the wheels of a potential return to the Emirates.

Brazilian Arthur, formerly of Barcelona, has found himself behind the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur, Manuel Locatelli, Adrien Rabiot and Weston McKennie in the pecking order and may be keen on a move to secure more game time.

Marca state Arsenal have already opened official negotiations with the Serie A side over a move for talented Swedish star Kulusevski, 21, worth 25m plus add-ons, but Juve are holding out for more like 35m.
Joey King has been doing very well with her boyfriend Steven Piet, 30.

And this week the Kissing Booth actress made rare comments to DailyMail.com about their relationship, sharing that they are doing happier than ever after meeting on the set of The Act in 2019.

'He is such a sweetheart,' the 22-year-old beauty said while at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston Hospital with a 'meet & greet' while delivering gifts from Coca-Cola North America. 'I am so lucky to have him in my life. I am looking forward to spending Christmas with him.'

It's love: Joey King has been doing very well with her boyfriend Steven Piet. And this week the Kissing Booth actress made rare comments to DailyMail.com about their relationship, sharing that they are doing happier than ever after meeting on the set of The Act in 2019

Sweet: 'He is such a sweetheart,' the 22-year-old beauty said while at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston Hospital with a 'meet & greet' while delivering gifts from Coca-Cola North America

She also said what is on the menu.

'I love cooking for Christmas,' she began. 'My boyfriend is an amazing cook and he taught me a lot, so he pretty much inspired me. This year I am making a honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and a pecan pie.'

And they definitely are homebodies.

'We cook at home, I have gotten a lot better thanks to my boyfriend, and we like to watch movies,' she offered.

'We recently watched my film Ramona and Beezus, it was nice to see again, it is such a special movie.'

Lucky lady: 'I am so lucky to have him in my life. I am looking forward to spending Christmas with him,' she added

The film starred Joey and Selena Gomez.

'I was nine when I made that movie and it was the first time I realized that I wanted to act as a profession.'

She was a child star who started working at age four.

Joey also explained that she celebrates both Christmas and Hanukah.

Chef King: She also said what is on the menu. 'I love cooking for Christmas,' she began. 'My boyfriend is an amazing cook and he taught me a lot, so he pretty much inspired me. This year I am making a honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and a pecan pie.' Seen in Atlanta

In her skinny jeans: Joey had on tight fitting jeans, boots and a black top with her hair back

'I like to do both, and I will be back in Los Angeles to celebrate,' she told DailyMail.com.

Asfar as her hit film series Kissing Booth, which she made with ex-beau Jacob Elordi, she said that she loves the franchise.

'Playing Elle Evans and pretty much growing up with her made a huge impact on my life,' she said.

'She taught me it's OK to mess up. I wish I was more like Elle.'

DailyMail.com caught up with King at the Childrens Miracle Network to bring some Real Magic to Atlanta-area kids who deserve it most this holiday season.

A big heart: King said on Instagram that giving back was important to her

King has been in Atlanta to shoot The Uglies.

Joey recently surprised kids at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston Hospital with a meet & greet and delivered gifts and gift cards from Coca-Cola North America.

The surprise visit was inspired by Coca-Colas new platform - Real Magic.

Coca-Cola North America partner, Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, serves more than 10 million kids each year across the U.S. and Canada. Donations go to local hospitals to fund critical life-saving treatments and healthcare services.

This fall, Coca-Cola launched its new global brand platform, Real Magic, as an invitation to the world to celebrate humanity and a reminder that magic lives in the moments of connection that happen when people come together to embrace our unique perspectives, just like we come together to share a Coke.

Real Magic is a rallying cry for people to come together and believe in each other and the magic that lives in unexpected moments that elevate the everyday into the extraordinary.
He recently put the finishing touches to his new getaway in Cabo San Lucas, three years after purchasing the land for $50million.

But James Packer won't be ushering in the festive season in Mexico this year, reports The Herald Sun.

The Australian billionaire, 54, will spend the next month at his $20million Aspen property, West Buttermilk Estate, and his sprawling $80million mansion in LA.

Dreaming of a white Christmas! James Packer will spend the festive season at his $20million Aspen property, West Buttermilk Estate, and his sprawling $80million mansion in Los Angeles

Packer often spends Christmas at his Aspen home, which he jointly purchased with his ex-wife Erica Packer in 2013.

In 2019, the former couple celebrated the holidays as a family at the estate with their children, Indigo, 11, Jackson, nine, and Emmanuelle, seven.

The lavish property has seven spacious bedrooms and seven bathrooms, enough to accommodate his kids, family and guests.

Fond memories: Packer often spends Christmas at his Aspen mansion (pictured), which he jointly purchased with his ex-wife Erica Packer in 2013

Co-parents: In 2019, the former couple celebrated the holidays as a family at the estate with their children, Indigo, 11, Jackson, nine, and Emmanuelle, seven (all pictured)

Lavish: The Aspen property has seven spacious bedrooms and seven bathrooms, enough to accommodate his kids, family and guests

It also has a state-of-the-art kitchen with an island breakfast bench and solid timber cabinetry, a medieval-style dining room, and a generously sized living room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the scenic hills.

Packer purchased his property in Los Angeles' ritzy suburb of Holmby Hills in 2018.

The 2,694 sqm house has seven bedrooms, an eight-car garage, beauty salon, outdoor swimming pool, home theatre, cigar room and wine room.

LA mansion: James purchased his $80million mansion in Los Angeles (pictured) in 2018 to be closer to his three children, who live in the city with his ex-wife Erica

Stunning: The 2,694 sqm house has seven bedrooms, an eight-car garage, beauty salon, outdoor swimming pool, home theatre, cigar room and wine room

The casino magnate bought the home to be closer to his children, who live in LA with their mother Erica.

It's unclear whether he will spend Christmas with his socialite girlfriend Kylie Lim, who hasn't been pictured with Packer for months.

Meanwhile, Packer has spent the last eight weeks 'out of the spotlight' at his Argentinian polo ranch.

He is said to be feeling 'rejuvenated' after two months of 'rest and relaxation' at the picturesque estate.
She's the granddaughter of the late, great conservationist Steve Irwin.

And it appears eight-month-old Grace Warrior Irwin Powell already has an affinity for Australian wildlife.

Her parents, Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell, shared several photos to Instagram this week of their little girl getting up close and personal with animals.

Legacy: Grace Warrior, the granddaughter of the late conservationist Steve Irwin, already has an affinity for wildlife. Her parents, Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell (left), shared several photos to Instagram this week of their little girl getting up close and personal with animals

In one photo, the lively baby plays with a cassowary chick named Fergo.

Bindi captioned the post: 'Two cute chickies. Meet Graces new best friend, Fergo the cassowary chick. They absolutely love each other!

'We are so proud of our breeding program to protect this endangered species.'

Chandler also posted snaps of himself and Grace meeting some kangaroos.

BFFs! In one photo, the lively baby plays with a cassowary chick named Fergo

He captioned the post: 'Red roo mornings with my buddy.'

It comes after wildlife warrior Bindi shared a sweet picture of her family to Instagram on Saturday as they posed with their adorable Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Piggy.

A breezy-looking Bindi, Chandler and Piggy smiled as Grace gazed at the camera, with Bindi captioning the photo: 'All the love.'

Family: It comes after wildlife warrior Bindi shared a sweet picture of her family to Instagram on Saturday as they posed with their adorable Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Piggy

Chandler wore the iconic the Australia Zoo uniform while Bindi opted for a more relaxed-look for the occasion.

Fans commented on what a lovely family photo it was.

Grace Warrior recently proved herself to be the star of the show after meeting the newest addition to the Irwin family zoo.

Cute! Grace Warrior recently proved herself to be the star of the show after meeting the newest addition to the Irwins' zoo: a family of Sumatran elephants

Australia Zoo has welcomed Sumatran elephants to the popular Sunshine Coast park, and the adorable bub was seen waving to the majestic animals.

A clip of Grace was shared to Twitter with the tot waving enthusiastically to the elephants as her mother cradled her in her arms.

The family was also seen cuddling toy elephants in the zoo's gift shop.

A tonne of love! The family was also seen cuddling toy elephants in the zoo's gift shop

It comes after Bindi took Grace to meet a baby koala for the first time last Tuesday.

The new mother, 23, shared adorable images of the moment on Twitter and said the encounter 'made her heart happy'.

The sweet pictures were also taken at the Irwin family's Australia Zoo.

Hi! Dressed in a cute onesie and a bow band on her head, Grace waved enthusiastically to the elephants as her mother cradled her in her arms

'Koala joey meeting our joey makes my heart happy,' Bindi wrote alongside the snaps, adding a love heart emoji.

In the images, Bindi and her husband Chandler Powell, 25, smiled as they held Grace up to a koala joey sitting on a branch.

'Cute family photo,' one fan commented underneath.

'Koala joey meeting our joey makes my heart happy': It comes after Bindi took Grace to meet a baby koala for the first time last Tuesday

Another added: 'A cute koala and the most adorable baby on earth. Honestly, Bindi, I don't know how you and Chandler manage to deal with all that sweetness.'

Bindi and Chandler announced their daughter's birth on March 26, just a day after she was born on their first wedding anniversary.

Bindi first met Chandler in 2013, when the young American wakeboarder went on a guided tour of Australia Zoo in Queensland.

New addition: Bindi and Chandler announced their daughter's birth on March 26, just a day after she was born on their first wedding anniversary

It comes after the couple revealed Grace's first word in an interview with Who magazine last month.

They said the child's first word was 'da', short for 'dada' or 'daddy'.

'Hearing her say 'Da' and look at me was the highlight of my life. Nothing compares at all,' Chandler said.
The Bachelor's Laura Byrne and fiance Bachelor Matty 'J' Johnson have revealed the reality of preparing for holidays with two young children amid NSW's Omicron explosion.

Posting to Instagram on Sunday, Laura shared a photo of the couple looking forlorn as they prepared to take their daughters Marlie-Mae, two, and Lola, ten months, to Queensland for the holidays.

'From highs to lows,' Laura began.

Reality: The Bachelor's Laura Byrne (left) posted an Instagram photo of herself and fiance Matty 'J' Johnson (right) looking glum on Sunday, revealing the unglamorous reality of holiday preparation with two young kids amid Australia's Omicron explosion on Sunday

'The face of two parents who just spent 2.5 hours in the car with screaming kids, waiting in line for Covid tests,' she added.

She followed this up with a photo of the couple pulling an ecstatic pose, captioned: 'But tomorrow we are driving to Brisbane and nothing is going to get in the way of how excited we are (except if we had Covid... that would certainly put a dampener on things).'

NSW recorded 2,051 new Covid cases on Monday while Victoria reported 1,302 new infections less than a week before Christmas.

Excitement: Laura followed this up with a photo of the couple pulling an ecstatic pose, captioned: 'But tomorrow we are driving to Brisbane and nothing is going to get in the way of how excited we are (except if we had Covid... that would certainly put a dampener on things).'

Holidaymakers heading to Queensland have to show a negative Covid test before crossing the state border.

It comes after Laura revealed herself and Matty may not be finished with having children, after being quizzed by a fan on Instagram.

When asked by a fan if she's planning on having more kids, Laura excitedly responded: 'Depends on the day!'

Clucky: It comes after Laura revealed herself and Matty may not be finished with having children, after being quizzed by a fan on Instagram

She continued: 'Actually depends on the exact moment of the day. If you ask me post toddler meltdown, I'd say no.'

'All other times it's a yes!'

The reality TV lovebirds got engaged in April 2019 and are yet to tie the knot.
Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin has been rushed to hospital, just days before Christmas.

The 29-year-old shared the unpleasant news on Monday, uploading a photo to Instagram of herself lying in a hospital bed while hooked up to an IV drip.

'Three days of the worst gastro I've ever had in my life [skull and bones emoji], she captioned the photo.

'Out of action': Former Married At First Sight star Davina Rankin, 29, revealed on Monday she had spent the past three days recovering from the 'worst gastro I've ever had in my life'

'Out of action for a little while folks... on the plus side I guess this means I get to eat double come Christmas Day, right?' she added.

Gastroenteritis, commonly shortened to 'gastro', is an intestinal infection with symptoms including diarrhoea, cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever.

Davina's health battle comes just weeks after the mother of one spent time in hospital recovering from breast implant removal surgery.

Surgery: It comes weeks after the mother of one spent time in hospital recovering from her breast implant removal. She is pictured with her daughter, Mila-Mae, after her explant surgery

Before and after: Davina underwent explant surgery last month, after suffering for years with symptoms associated with breast implant illness. Left: Davina before having her implants removed; and right without implants one week after surgery

The former Zoo magazine covergirl removed her 12-year-old implants last month after suffering for years with suspected breast implant illness.

Breast implant illness refers to a wide range of symptoms that can develop after undergoing reconstruction or cosmetic augmentation with breast implants.

Speaking to fans earlier this month about her recovery, Davina said her health had markedly improved in the days since her implants were removed.

On cloud nine: Speaking to fans earlier this month about her recovery, Davina said her health had markedly improved in the days since her implants were removed

'Mentally I just feel extremely clear. It's really hard to explain. I also feel way less anxious about everything,' she said.

'I've found my energy levels are through the roof. I feel really, really clear.'

Davina added she was able to breathe more deeply after her implants were removed.

She was featured on season five of Married at First Sight in 2018, and infamously 'cheated' on her partner Ryan Gallagher with Dean Wells.
Keanu Reeves said his favorite costume he wore for Halloween was as Dolly Parton on the cover of Playboy in 1978.

The A-list actor, 57, appearing Wednesday on Red Table Talk with his The Matrix Resurrections costars Carrie Ann Moss, 54, and host Jada Pinkett Smith, 50, was asked what his favorite Halloween costume he ever wore was.

'I was Dolly Parton as the Playboy Bunny,' Reeves said. 'My mother was a costume designer and she made some costumes for Dolly Parton and she once did the cover of Playboy.'

The latest: Keanu Reeves, 57, appearing Wednesday on Red Table Talk, said his favorite costume he wore for Halloween was as Dolly Parton on the cover of Playboy in 1978

On the cover, Parton wore a black and pink sequined costume which was initially designed by the late Zelda Wynn Valdes, who was the first ever Black designer to have a shop on Broadway Street in New York.

'Somehow I guess [Dolly] didnt take that home, so we had it, and it was Halloween,' Reeves said. 'So I put on the ears, then the bustier, I wore sneakers with fishnet stockings and a bowtie. I had some pretty long hair.'

Parton this past summer recreated the Playboy look to celebrate her husband Carl Dean's 79th birthday in a clip she posted on social media.

'He still thinks Im a hot chick after 57 years and Im not going to try to talk him out of that,' Parton said. 'I was kind of a little butterball in that one. Well, Im string cheese now, but hell probably think Im cream cheese, I hope.'

Reeves recalled, 'My mother was a costume designer and she made some costumes for Dolly Parton and she once did the cover of Playboy'

Reeves appeared on the program with his The Matrix Resurrections costars Carrie Ann Moss and host Jada Pinkett Smith

On the cover of the issue, Parton wore a black and pink sequined costume which was initially designed by the late Zelda Wynn Valdes, who was the first ever Black designer to have a shop on Broadway Street in New York

In the Red Table Talk interview, Reeves was also asked about about his reputation as Hollywoods nicest guy, and how he gives back to himself.

He said he likes going for motorcycle rides, reading and going to the movies, as well as working.

'For me, my work is that as well,' he said. 'I often sometimes get asked, "You know, youve been at this for a while," and theyre like, "Do you still love it?" And Im like, "Yeah, I love it even more." For me, work is life.'

The Matrix Resurrections is set to debut on December 22 in both theaters and on HBO Max.
She has been supporting Michael Ball and Alfie Boe on their Christmas tour.

And 29-year-old Megan McKenna knew how to both wow and warm up the crowd on Sunday night as she took to the stage at the O2 Arena, London, amid her flourishing singing career.

Megan - who has completed numerous spells on reality shows such as Ex On The Beach and The Only Way Is Essex - proved that her career is heading much further down the performance path as she belted out her songs in a dazzling Dress 2 Party number.

Stealing the show! Megan McKenna put on a breathtaking display on Sunday night as she performed at the O2 arena - in a moment she described as 'a whole other level'

Essex star Megan looked a natural as she impressed the crowd with her vocals up on the North Greenwich stage.

The songstress, who was crowned The X Factor: Celebrity champ back in 2019, left a loose curl in her layered locks and ensured her makeup was effortlessly applied for her 'whole other level' moment.

Megan has been bumping up her discography over the past few years and she just released a festive single called Family at Christmas.

Belting it out: 29-year-old Megan knew how to both wow and warm up the crowd on Sunday night

Dazzling: Megan - who has completed numerous spells on reality shows such as Ex On The Beach and The Only Way Is Essex - proved that her career is heading much further down the performance path

Go on girl: The Essex star looked a natural as she impressed the crowd with her vocals up on the North Greenwich stage

Special: Megan has been supporting Michael Ball and Alfie Boe on their Christmas tour

Megan's 2.3million Instagram followers also got to revel in her joy of performing at the 20,000 capacity venue.

The excited TV personality wrote: 'A MOMENT', alongside candid snaps of her posing against an O2 backdrop.

She also took to her Instagram story to tell her fans about her big moment.

'That was a whole other level!' she gushed, before adding: 'Oh my god I am at the O2!'

Photo opportunity: Megan's 2.3million Instagram followers also got to revel in her joy of performing at the 20,000 capacity venue

Grateful: 'Oh my god I am at the O2!' the songstress gushed on her Instagram story

Aside from her stage work, Megan recently opened up about ditching lip filler which has left her feeling 'happier and natural'.

In an interview with Closer Magazine, Megan lauded her new natural look and credited therapy for helping her get to where she is today.

She admitted: 'It's been hard. I had to have therapy and I had to have help.

'I feel happier, more natural. It got to the point where my lips were the only thing people talked about when I was on TV. I wanted to be known for my voice not my trout pout.'
The Girl Before

Rating:

The Weakest Link Strictly Special

Rating:

The death rate on dramas set in sleek modernist houses of cement and glass has been so high this year, we need to invent a word for it: 'Murdernism.'

Keeley Hawes was stranded in a concrete box filled with smart gadgets, after her architect husband broke his neck on the stone stairs, in Finding Alice.

Acres of marble walls and worktops surrounded Joanne Froggatt as her hubby plotted to kill her in Angela Black. She lived in a mausoleum, not a home.

It was the same story for Connie Nielsen as Jo, who took a near-fatal tumble (down dodgy stairs again) in Close To Me, and Elaine Cassidy in the Irish thriller Intruder.

Jane moved straight in. So did Emma and her needy boyfriend Simon (real-life couple Jessica Plummer and Ben Hardy, both from EastEnders). That was confusing, until it gradually emerged that we were watching two stories, three years apart

Windows bigger than Imax screens and electronic front doors are a promise of bloodshed to follow. Any woman who thinks of moving into a place with timber cladding on the outside or a staircase that has no banister might as well call 999 right now.

Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) failed to spot the dangers, in yet another of the genre, The Girl Before (BBC1).

She blundered on, even when her control freak of a landlord handed her a list of 200 rules for minimalist living  including no children, no pets, no plants, no rugs and no books.

Creepy Ed (David Oyelowo) also informed her that his computers would choose the background music and monitor her in the shower. Still, the rent was reasonable, so Jane moved straight in.

So did Emma and her needy boyfriend Simon (real-life couple Jessica Plummer and Ben Hardy, both from EastEnders). That was confusing, until it gradually emerged that we were watching two stories, three years apart.

The key word there is 'gradually'. This four-part psychological chiller  adapted by J.P. Delaney from his own novel  is painfully slow. In places, it's like watching concrete set.

When Ed takes Jane to a cafe, we have to wait while they find a table, order their drinks ('I'll have a latte, please. No, make that cappuccino') and then pause again when the coffees arrive.

This four-part psychological chiller  adapted by J.P. Delaney from his own novel  is painfully slow. In places, it's like watching concrete set

It's also horribly bleak. One woman has suffered a stillbirth, the other a rape at knifepoint, both of which are described in detail.

Ed is grieving for his wife and baby, killed in an accident when the concrete house was still a building site. He says this 'terrible crushing defeat' feels like a gamble that failed, and he's angry because he hates to lose a bet.

Clearly, minimalism is unhealthy for the soul. What Ed, Jane and Emma need is a three-piece velour suite and a shelf-load of holiday souvenirs. That'll cheer them up.

Or they could go on Romesh Ranganathan's revived version of The Weakest Link Strictly Special (BBC1). In contrast to the original, where Anne Robinson was vile to everyone, the new host is spreading love by the shovelful.

'Right, this is very exciting, guys, can you feel it? I'm gonna be really nice to you,' he told his celebrity contestants.

When Catherine Tyldesley from Corrie got her first question right, Romesh told her: 'Catherine, I want to single you out for some very high praise. That was amazing, well done for that.'

He's kept the catchphrase, 'You are the weakest link  goodbye.' But he prefaces it with: 'This breaks my heart.'

The quiz is as good as ever, packed with rapid-fire questions that veer from the embarrassingly simple ('Which party won the most seats at the last General Election?') to the truly challenging.

Anton Du Beke will be high-kicking himself for this one: 'What 'J' is an era in prehistory during the age of dinosaurs?'

It's 'Jurassic', of course. But Anton said 'Germanic'.

Proud mum of the weekend: Alan Carr's mother was enjoying her first visit to the Albert Hall as her son hosted The Royal Variety Performance (ITV).

'She didn't know the camera would be on her,' he admits. 'Though I kept dropping hints she should get her hair done.' Awww.
Big Sean did not hold back his thoughts on his former mentor Kanye West during his Drink Champs interview which was released Saturday.

The 33-year-old rapper sat down with the RevoltTV podcast and discussed comments Ye made back in November (on the same platform) which included a statement made that signing Big Sean to his G.O.O.D. Music label was 'the worst thing I've ever done.'

In Sean's response, he called his record deal 'sh**ty', claimed he was owed millions by the Donda rapper, and said overall he was 'on some b***h a**s s**t' in the interview.

Firing back: The 33-year-old rapper brought the heat as he sat down with Drink Champs and discussed disparaging comments - both personal and professional, Ye had made about him back in November

In West's initial chat with Drink Champs he smeared the California-born rapper's name personally and professionally, which prompted Sean to return the favor while also defending himself, during his interview.

West had said of the I Don't F**k With You rapper: 'Let me tell you  I already decided that when I die, on my tombstone its gonna say, "I deserve to be here because I signed Big Sean."'

And he had continued to slam both Sean (and John Legend ) for not supporting him publicly during his failed bid for president.

'Both John Legend and Big Sean, when I ran for office, got used quick by the Democrats  I don't rock with neither of them,' Ye had said.

Shooting his shot: Trying to play the 'good guy' card throughout the chat, he spoke about his loyalty to West, the quality of the products he'd produced under GOOD Music, how grateful he had always been and how other industry vets thought his deal was 'sh**ty' yet he stayed because the rapper gave him a 'golden opportunity' from the jump

Beef: West had said of the I Don't F**k With You rapper: 'Let me tell you  I already decided that when I die, on my tombstone its gonna say, "I deserve to be here because I signed Big Sean"'

Addressing his less-than kind statements Sean said: 'At first I thought it was hilarious. I thought the s**t was funny -- then I took it personal.'

'I love Kanye, bro. I love him for the opportunity he gave me and all these things...[but] I thought what he said was some b***h a**s**t.'

Trying to play the 'good guy' card throughout the chat, he spoke about his loyalty to West, the quality of the products he'd produced under G.O.O.D. Music, how grateful he had always been and how other industry vets thought his deal was 'sh**ty' yet he stayed because the rapper gave him a 'golden opportunity' from the jump.

'I took it personal because I'm the only artist whose put out five albums under G.O.O.D. Music. [Kid] Cudi left a long time ago, business-wise, you know what I'm saying? They still cliqued up and linked up, right.

'So, I'm the only artist who put out five albums under G.O.O.D. Music. I'm the only artist who put out back to back to back No. 1s, platinum albums, double platinum albums.'

Proven himself: 'Whether it's to contribute to him in the studio, whether it's to contribute a line, write a verse for him...Wherever he's at in the world, bro, I've traveled around the world for this man every time he's called'

Loyalty: Sean who signed with GOOD Music in 2007, said that not only has he been loyal enough to West to put out five albums under the label, he's also gone to work with him collaboratively or even minimally at the drop of a hat without asking for credit; pictured with West in Wyoming in 2019 during the making of Jesus Is King

Sean then spoke to his confusion as to why West would drag him: 'Every time Kanye has called on me, every single time, no matter what I was doing, within one day's notice, I'm wherever he's at, bro.

'Whether it's to contribute to him in the studio, whether it's to contribute a line, write a verse for him...Wherever he's at in the world, bro, I've traveled around the world for this man every time he's called.

'And have done this and not asked for publishing a lot of the times,' he continued to say, adding that it was because 'being signed to Kanye is a golden opportunity. It's something that...he changed my life and I love him for that.'

He then got into the business side of his label deal with G.O.O.D. Music (he signed in 2007), and said his manager thought it was a 'sh**ty record deal' as did Jay Brown of Roc Nation who called it 'the worst deal he's ever seen.'

Finances: Sean then got into the business side of his label deal with G.O.O.D. Music and said his manager thought it was 'sh**ty' as did Roc Nation co-founder Jay Brown who called it 'the worst deal he's ever seen', before divulging that he was owed around $6 Million

'When I heard what [Kanye] was talking about, it didn't make sense, bro. Because, my manager saw my record deal and said, "This is a sh**ty record deal." I would never say that, though. Why? It's an opportunity and I can work myself out of anything...Jay Brown [from Roc Nation] said it was the worst deal he's ever seen.'

Sean continued to say that between having to audit West's label and spending 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' on his own music under it, he was owed around $6 Million.

'I had to spend my own money auditing my label, 'cause millions of dollars are missing and you can tell when millions of dollars are missing. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on my label, thinking Universal owe me this money and the money had been paid to G.O.O.D Music,' he said.

Additionally he took shots at West's sudden 'good' relationship with Drake who he 'was biggin' up on the [Drink Champs] interview' whereas he found himself dragged despite being 'loyal to a fault.'

Huh? After West had appeared on Drink Champs in November, Sean had taken to Twitter to speak on his bizarre statements  even revealing that he was with him immediately after by way of a photo.

Politics: 'Both John Legend and Big Sean, when I ran for office, got used quick by the Democrats  I don't rock with neither of them,' Ye had said on the chat, which caused Sean to retort in his interview 'I didn't even have his contact' and said he 'purposely didn't endorse anybody publicly [or] politically because my mans is running'

On the political front he maintained that he was 'the first person to tweet Kanye for President.' He did however say that at the time of West's failed presidential bid,he did not even have West's contact number, but added: 'I purposely didn't endorse anybody publicly [or] politically because my mans is running.'

After West had appeared on Drink Champs in November, Sean had taken to Twitter to first speak on his bizarre statements  even revealing that he was with him immediately after by way of a photo.

'Was just wit this man, he ain't never say none of that!!! And this was just after the interview! I'm dying laughing at you @kanyewest.'

And hours before that he seemed to be tipped of to the fact that the Power rapper was saying some 'crazy' stuff during his chat, as Sean tweeted that the hosts had already asked him to be on the next episode  despite not knowing what exactly had been said.
One Tree Hill alum Chad Michael Murray is giving fans an early present this holiday season by sharing his idea for reboot of the hit drama series.

Apparently, the topic of 'if' and 'when' the drama series will be rebooted came up during an interview with E! News.

During the conversation, the 40-year-old actor, who played the role of Lucas Scott for nearly a decade, sounded nearly certain that there will be some sort of revival of the show, which had been a bonafide hit after premiering back in 2003.

Reboot preps: Chad Michael Murray, 40, revealed he's preparing for a revival of One Tree Hill; the former star who played the role of Lucas Scott is pictured on March 2019

'I can't imagine that it won't at some point,' he revealed after laughing about the much-talked about topic of conversation, adding, 'We get asked all the time. I know I do. And I know Hilarie [Burton] does, and I see everybody at least once or twice a year.'

Burton played Peyton Sawyer, a talented visual and musical artist, who finds love and romance with Lucas (Murray) more than once during the show's run.

Murray, 40, told E! News, 'I got to imagine at some point, there would be some version of it.'

Confident: 'I can't imagine that it won't at some point,' the now 40-year-old actor said in reference to a reboot of One Tree Hill during an interview with E! News; Murray is pictured during a scene with his long-time cop-star Hilarie Burton, who played Payton Sawyer

Murray is so sure that there will be some sort of reunion or reboot that he's already started to craft a storyline; one that he's been bouncing around in his head that involves 'a new generation' of the show, dealing with today's issues.'

'There's just so many things now that are so very different than it was back in the early aughts,' he explained, in a reference to the decade of the 2000s.

'So, you can do issues that are relating to children and kids that [they] are dealing in high school today.'

In order to pull off any kind of revival, Murray said there has to be the 'right team' in place, and that the process entails pulling some people 'out of whatever it is that they're doing,' noting how, 'Everyones got hands in so many other things, and then get everyone together and go.'



Story ideas: Murray says he's already started working on a storyline that involves 'a new generation' of the show, dealing with today's issues'; the actor is seen with Sophia Bush, who played Brooke Davis on the show

The original drama series, created by Mark Schwahn with Murray serving as the lead male role as Lucas Scott, premiered on The WB back in September 2003.

After the merger with UPN, the show was broadcast on The CW beginning in September 2006 until the end of its nine season run in 2012.

Murray starred on the show for the first six seasons, left for the next two seasons, but eventually returned as a 'special guest' during an episode for the ninth and final season that premiered on January 11. 2012.

One Tree Hill is the fourth-longest-running series on The CW network, behind, Smallville, 7th Heaven and Supernatural.

The series would eventually conclude with its final episode airing on April 4, 2012.

There has been talking of reviving a number of former popular teen shows, which has resulted in new versions of Gossip Girl and Saved By The Bell in recent years.
Cameron Daddo has spoken about hurting his wife Alison Brahe by cheating on her three years after tying the knot in 1991.

The Australian actor, 59, discussed his marriage on Nova FM's Separate Bathrooms podcast and admitted it's important to 'learn how to apologise'.

'We were told by Reverend Brian that married us. He said you're going to hurt your partner the most of anyone in your life. In my case, it's probably true,' an emotional Cameron said.

Candid: TV star Cameron Daddo became emotional as he discussed hurting his nineties model wife Alison Brahe after he cheated on her and blamed his infidelity on alcohol

'So it's a good idea to learn how to apologise, mean it and then make the necessary actions, so you don't repeat it. That's a good lesson,' he added.

The couple wed in 1991 and have three children together, daughters Lotus, 24, and Bodhi, 14, and a son, River, 20.

Earlier this month, Cameron and Alison celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

'We were told by Reverend Brian that married us. He said "you're going to hurt your partner the most of anyone in your life". In my case, it's probably true,' an emotional Cameron said

Back in 2019, Cameron revealed his marriage was never the same again after his extra-marital affair in 1994.

Alison added that the couple had to go through a 'hell of a lot of work' before they could finally reach a happy place.

'I was the one who left the marriage,' Cameron told Woman's Day, clarifying that he had been unfaithful, not Alison.

Affair: Back in 2019, Cameron revealed his marriage was never the same again after his extra-marital affair in 1994

His infidelity took place in America, after he had relocated there for his acting career.

Alison admitted that their marriage was hardly 'couple goals', but they worked on it and are better off today.

'You don't get to 28 years of marriage without a hell of a lot of work and struggles  and a fair chunk of pain and tears,' she said.

In a blog post for daddy website The Father Hood, Daddo blamed alcohol for his infidelity.

'I was the one that left the marriage,' he said, citing alcohol and his work schedule as the main reasons behind his infidelity.

'When I acted out in that way, I didnt really want to be there,' he continued.

'There were reasons how I got into that place. And a lot of it was alcohol and being alone, feeling really lonely and being literally oceans away from my partner.'

The star said that he and Alison both received counselling to repair their marriage, and that the experience ultimately became something that they could grow from.
She's been on a weight loss journey since quitting alcohol last year.

And Chrissie Swan looked slimmer than ever as she left Nova FM's Christmas party in Melbourne on Thursday.

The radio host, 48, highlighted her svelte frame in a form-fitting ensemble, sporting a blue printed jumped and black ripped jeans for the festivities.

Brand new me! Chrissie Swan, 48, looked slimmer than ever as she left Nova FM's Christmas party in Melbourne on Thursday.

Her look was completed with black leather sneakers, a watch and large silver hoop earrings.

Chrissie styled her chestnut locks to the side and slung a pair of spectacles over her collar.

After exiting the party, the media personality was seen chatting to an unknown man during what looked to be a rather animated conversation.

Trim: The radio host highlighted her svelte frame in a form fitting ensemble, sporting a blue printed jumped and black ripped jeans for the festivities

Festive: Her look was completed with black leather sneakers, a watch and large silver hoop earrings

Conversation: After exiting the party, the media personality was seen chatting to an unknown man during what looked to be a rather animated conversation

She gesticulated animatedly as she spoke to the man on the busy footpath.

The sighting comes over a year after Chrissie gave up alcohol and turned to meditation and walking during Melbourne's gruelling 112-day lockdown.

In March, Chrissie said she was feeling better than ever following a booze-free night of karaoke with a girlfriend.

Chat: She gesticulated animatedly as she spoke to the man on the busy footpath

Listening: Chrissie frowned and tucked her hands into her pockets as she listened to the man speak

'Booze-free activity degree of difficulty: 10 = karaoke. UNLOCKED! I can't quite believe it but it IS POSSIBLE. Fresh as a daisy this morning and I still have my voice!' she captioned a photo.

A month later, the mother-of-three revealed that her sleep had also improved since giving up alcohol.

'I stopped drinking booze of any kind (alcohol is diabolical for sleep and anxiety too),' she explained, as she detailed a sleep study she was taking part in.

Booze-free: The sighting comes over a year after Chrissie gave up alcohol and turned to meditation and walking during Melbourne 's gruelling 112-day lockdown

What a transformation! In March, Chrissie said she was feeling better than ever following a booze-free night of karaoke with a girlfriend. Pictured left before weight loss in 2017, and right after weight loss on Thursday
Kanye 'Ye' West purchased more than 4,000 toys for children in Chicago, that were distributed on Sunday.

West, 44, contributed to the Toys for Englewood event held at Kennedy King Gymnasium, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

'I'm so proud that Kanye is, once again, responding to our request to help the children of Englewood and beyond,' Stephanie Coleman, who is Alderman of Chicago's 16th Ward, told the station.

The latest: Kanye 'Ye' West, 44, purchased more than 4,000 toys for children in Chicago that were distributed on Sunday at the Toys for Englewood event held at Kennedy King Gymnasium. West was snapped last month in LA

Coleman added: 'He is no stranger to our community. His presence has always been felt in our neighborhoods and he loves visiting, but this Christmas he has truly been our modern-day Santa Claus.'

Coleman told WGN-TV that West is a 'hometown hero' always willing to help with community needs.

'We want to thank him for understanding that children in Englewood, and on the South Side and in Chicago in general, some will be without this holiday,' Coleman told the station. 'Some are without their fathers due to gun violence, due to mass incarceration, so today, we are here being a blessing.'

Others who contributed to the event included Andre and Suheir Williams, owners of the S2 Grill Express restaurant, multiple aldermen and community figures, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

Stephanie Coleman, who is Alderman of Chicago's 16th Ward, said that West is 'our modern-day Santa Claus'

Tables of toys and games were laid out for children in the community to choose from

West late last month appeared at the Los Angeles Mission to deliver 1,000 meals to Skid Row ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

'The narrative God wants is to see that we can be redeemed in all these relationships,' the Grammy-winner said, according to Page Six. 'Weve made mistakes. Ive made mistakes.'

West, who appeared alongside Rev. Troy Vaughn at the mission's annual Thanksgiving event, 'had never been there and wanted to see everything going on,' and 'talked about saving the world and how he had all these ideas to work with LA Mission,' a source told the outlet.

People congregated around the tables at the holiday event
Reece Hawkins just made headlines after a botched family holiday saw his model wife London Goheen and son Stone, nine months, turned away from the border in Switzerland.

But the hunky 26-year-old put his travel dramas behind him to flaunt a new neck tattoo on Sunday in a photo shared to Instagram.

Reece shared a photo with a male pal before showing the tattoo on his neck which read: 'Temptation'.

Tatt's new! Reece Hawkins (pictured) showed off his new neck tattoo on Sunday, pushing travel dramas aside after his wife and son were banned from entering Switzerland

Reece was dressed in an all-black ensemble while wearing sunglasses at night.

'Business as usual,' he captioned the post.

It was certainly a change of pace after his jet-setting adventures included a botched family holiday to Switzerland this month.

Bon voyage! Reece (pictured) continued his jet-setting adventures following his botched family holiday with wife London Goheen and nine-month-old son Stone earlier this month

Reece recently spent time in Switzerland without his 23-year-old wife, after she was turned away at the border for being unvaccinated against Covid-19.

While Texas-born Goheen was forced to return home to the U.S. with baby Stone, her Australian husband continued his Swiss vacation, before jetting to Mexico.

Posting to Instagram Stories last Wednesday, the father of three shared a video of himself drinking coffee with a group of friends at a beachside hotel in Tulum.

'Sometimes all you need is your pack complete': Hawkins (left) was also pictured with a male pal (right) on the beach in Tulum last Wednesday

'Business as usual for the team [coffee cup emoji],' he wrote next to the clip.

It comes after new details emerged about Hawkins and Goheen's botched family holiday to Switzerland.

Hawkins had been travelling in Switzerland for some time when Goheen planned to visit him with their baby Stone last week.

Abroad: Hawkins had been travelling in Switzerland for some time when his Texas-born wife Goheen planned to visit him with their baby Stone last week

'The longest two days ever': The bikini model said she'd booked her flight to Switzerland before the new vaccination laws were announced, and that she and Stone had travelled for 14 hours only to see Hawkins for two hours under police supervision

However, these plans combusted when Goheen was turned away at the border for being unvaccinated against Covid-19.

Switzerland recently imposed new rules restricting unvaccinated travellers from entering the country in response to the Omicron variant.

Hawkins had managed to enter the country despite also being unvaccinated because the rules hadn't yet taken effect when he crossed the border.

Single mum: Last month, Tammy Hembrow (centre) appeared to confirm she has sole custody of Wolf (left) and Saskia (right), the two children she shares with her ex-fiance Hawkins

Rather than leaving the country after learning his wife and child would not be joining him, Hawkins continued his whirlwind trip around Switzerland, leaving Goheen and Stone to fly back to their home in America without him.

After arriving back in the United States, Goheen told fans she was 'exhausted, sleep deprived and had been crying all day' in an emotional Instagram Story.

The bikini model said she'd booked her flight to Switzerland before the new vaccination laws were announced, and that she and Stone had travelled for 14 hours only to see Hawkins for two hours under police supervision.
Gemma Fordham, head of content at Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network, has departed her role after six years at the high profile radio network.

Daily Mail Australia understands staff were informed of her departure on Monday, with the move coming after a leadership restructure at Austereo.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron for Austereo confirmed: 'In 2022 SCA will take a highly localised programming approach which will deliver increased autonomy and responsibility to its Metro Content Directors on the ground in each market to program their stations for success.

Exit: Gemma Fordham (pictured), head of content at Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network, has departed her role after six years at the high profile radio network. Daily Mail Australia understands staff were informed of her departure on Monday, with the move coming after a leadership restructure at Austereo

'To lead this approach, SCA will appoint a brand agnostic Head of Metro Content early in the new year, which aligns to its regional structural change earlier this year that saw Blair Woodcock appointed as SCAs Head of Content - Regional. The new Metro role will sit across both networks and work closely with local Content Directors.

'This change means that SCA will no longer have separate, brand-aligned Heads of Network moving forward, thereby impacting both the Head of Hit Network (Gemma Fordham) and Head of Triple M Network (Mike Fitzpatrick) roles.'

He continued: 'Gemma Fordham has made the decision to leave SCA to enjoy an extended break with her family... SCA wishes Gemma all the best and thanks her for the significant contribution to Hit content over many years.'

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron for Austereo confirmed: 'Gemma Fordham has made the decision to leave SCA to enjoy an extended break with her family. SCA wishes Gemma all the best and thanks her for the significant contribution to Hit content over many years'

The exit comes after a string of failed breakfast programs at the network, starring huge names like Sam Frost, Grant Denyer, Rove McManus and Em Rusciano.

Comedian McManus and Home and Away actress Frost had their breakfast radio program was axed in 2017, after they were moved to an evening time slot following dismal ratings.

In June 2017, the Rove and Sam show was canned altogether and The Bachelorette star's contract also ended with Southern Cross Austereo.

' Rove and Sam's 7-8 pm show on the Hit Network will finish up today, June 30,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia at the time.

Axed: Comedian McManus (left) and Home and Away actress Frost (right) had their breakfast radio program was axed in 2017, after they were moved to an evening time slot

'Rove's remaining within the SCA family and working on a new project with another part of our business. Sam's contract has now ended and we wish her well with her coming up TV work.'

The duo were replaced by comedians Em Rusciano and Harley Breen's The Em Rusciano Show with Harley Breen.

But by November 2017 c omedian Breen announced his resignation from Hit's 2DayFM show.

The news came after the breakfast show continuously struggled in the ratings.

Out: In June 2017, the Rove and Sam show was canned altogether and The Bachelorette star's contract also ended with Southern Cross Austereo

'It's by no means an easy decision, but it's the right one,' Harley said during his on air announcement.

He was subsequently replaced by TV personalities Ed Kavalee and Grant Denyer and the show was rebranded Em, Grant and Ed by the Hit Network.

Further trouble came when Rusciano resigned from 2Day FM in early September 2018, shortly after claims staff refused to work with her because she was 'toxic.'

'Casual bombshell alert. This Friday will be my last day on air for 2Day FM breakfast, and I want to make it crystal clear that this is entirely my decision and not one I made lightly,' she said on air at the time.

Incoming: The duo were replaced by comedians Em Rusciano (right) and Harley Breen's (left) The Em Rusciano Show with Harley Breen

Quit: But by November 2017 Breen announced his resignation. The news came after the breakfast show continuously struggled in the ratings

'The truth is when I found out I was pregnant, I made my mind up on the spot that this year would be my last year of breakfast radio.'

She added: 'I had intended to work through until December, but as my pregnancy is progressing I'm finding it increasingly harder to fulfill the requirements of my job. So after talking it through with my family, and my boss Gemma [Fordham, Hit Network's Head of Content], it was decided that I should finish up.'

Rusciano was publicly accused of creating a 'toxic' workplace at the Hit Network.

'She makes it a toxic work environment,' a former staff member told News.com.au.

Moves: He was subsequently replaced by TV personalities Ed Kavalee (far left) and Grant Denyer (right) and the show was rebranded Em, Grant and Ed by the Hit Network

'In all honesty, I actually feel really sad for her. She seems really insecure. She portrays this really confident, 'I think I'm the greatest!' image but I think it stems from a really deep-seeded insecurity, which is really sad.'

'She just doesn't know how to interact with people. She won't compromise with anybody. She always has to be right.'

Another ex-employee told The Daily Telegraph there 'had been casualties at the hands of Em Rusciano' at 2Day FM.

Claims: Further trouble came when Rusciano resigned from 2Day FM in early September 2018, shortly after claims staff refused to work with her because she was 'toxic'

'Things are at breaking point, people just cannot work with her energy,' they said.

'The audio producer is now working on another show, the publicist is refusing to work with her and one of the producers has told the company that they are looking for other work. All of that on top of the previous host [Harley Breen] leaving.'

In August 2019, the bad news kept coming as Grant Denyer's 2Day FM Breakfast show with co-stars Ed Kavalee and Ash London was cancelled.

'I have really enjoyed it. It's nice to join an elite group of people who've been sacked from radio' Denyer said in an Instagram post at the time.

More bad news: In August 2019, the bad news kept coming as Grant Denyer's 2Day FM Breakfast show with co-stars Ed Kavalee and Ash London (far left) was cancelled. The Hit Network announced the news after the show suffered 18 months of dismal ratings

He added: 'Tried my hardest, did my best and overshared more than I should have.'

The Hit Network announced the news after the show suffered 18 months of dismal ratings.

The axing marked the sixth failed attempt by 2Day FM to launch a successful breakfast show following Kyle and Jackie O's departure in 2014.

In a statement at the time, Hit Network boss Gemma Fordham said Sydney listeners can expect an 'exciting and upbeat breakfast alternative'.

'I have really enjoyed it. It's nice to join an elite group of people who've been sacked from radio' Denyer said in an Instagram post at the time

She added: 'And a huge thank you must go to our breakfast show team, Grant, Ed & Ash, for the past 18 months.

'They are absolute professionals, have been a true delight to work with and have contributed to a culture of fun, community and inclusiveness we are proud of at 2Day.'

It was announced in late 2020 that Dave Hughes, Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan would take the breakfast slot with The Morning Crew.

But by August 2021, the show had tumbled to an all-new low, slipping down 0.9 points to a 2.4 per cent market share.

It was a dramatic decline for the trio who began broadcasting together in January.

Loss: The axing marked the sixth failed attempt by 2Day FM to launch a successful breakfast show following Kyle and Jackie O's departure in 2014. Pictured: Hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson

Two years prior, Grant Denyer, Ed Kavalee and Ash London also recorded the same low numbers, according Radio Today.

However The Morning Crew appears to be staying on the air for now, with comedian Hughes revealing just last week that he will be moving to Sydney next year to host the show.

The 51-year-old, who has primarily been hosting the prgram with Ed Kavalee in Melbourne, told The Daily Telegraph's Confidential that he's 'buying a property in Sydney in the next month or so'.

Earlier this year, Gemma Fordham waxed lyrical about her deep love for her job at Austereo.

More issues: It was announced in late 2020 that Dave Hughes (centre), Ed Kavalee (left) and Erin Molan (right) would take the breakfast slot with The Morning Crew. But by August 2021, the show's ratings had tumbled to an all-new low

'I love that every day is different, of course, we all get that in radio. I guess I love the creative freedom,' she told Radio Today.

'There's so many days where I laugh to the point where I have tears streaming down my face. And that could be from off-air teams or on-air teams. What a gift that is.'

She added: 'I've always said this, that I never take it for granted. I kid you not, when I get out of the lift every day at 2Day, I still feel so excited and so lucky, like I did when I was a teenage girl and I first started at 2Day. It still blows my mind when I walk in the office every day.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Southern Cross Austereo for further comment.
Tara Reid showcased her tan and toned legs in a black minidress, matching jacket and a grey beanie while grabbing diner at Craig's in West Hollywood.

While out with her boyfriend Nathan Montpetit-Howar and identical twins John and Edward Grimes on Saturday, she accessorized with a sleek leather handbag, thigh-high boots and a pair of fingerless gloves.

For their fun night out, the co-founder and VP of studio sound technology company Phantom Acoustics, 37, wore a black sweatshirt, matching jeans and boots.

Looking good! Tara Reid showcased her tan and toned legs in a black minidress, matching jacket and a grey beanie while grabbing diner at Craig's in West Hollywood

Her friends matched each other in black and gold paisley jackets, leather pants and combat boots.

The American Pie actress and Hi Happy Films CEO have been dating for about two years.

Tara's been keeping busy with work on the thriller film Supersonic, in which she stars opposite Michael Pare, as well as Dr. Quarantine, Ghostkiller and more.

Going strong: The American Pie actress and Hi Happy Films CEO have been dating for about two years

Stars: Irish twins John & Edward Grimes rose to fame 11 years ago on the UK edition of X Factor, where they were mentored by Louis Walsh

The New Jersey native is best known for her roles in Urban Legend, Cruel Intentions, as well as three of the four American Pie comedy films.

More recently, she played April Wexler in all six of the Sharknado films that aired on the Syfy channel (2013-2018).

Her former Celebrity Big Brother co-stars, Jedward, actually quarantined with the couple amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a new interview last year, the American Pie actress said they kept busy amid California's lockdown by writing songs and winding down with some meditation.

Tight-knit group: Her former Celebrity Big Brother co-stars, Jedward, actually quarantined with the couple amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Irish twins John & Edward Grimes rose to fame 11 years ago on the UK edition of X Factor, where they were mentored by Louis Walsh.

The media personalities forged a close friendship with Hollywood actress Tara when they all featured on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011.

Explaining how the trio have been bonding during the state's isolation period, the film star told Page Six's Maggie and Ian: 'We are all artists. John and Edward, you should see the songs they're writing right now!'

Smitten: The American Pie star is currently dating the Phantom Acoustics founder

The brothers have lent a helping hand to Tara during their stay by 'cleaning her windows' and listening to daily Deepak Chopra meditations for the past 11 days.

Detailing the intimate routine, the boys said: 'We did it last night together with all the lights off. Tara loves it!'

The blonde beauty recently admitted living with Phantom Acoustics founder Nathan has been challenging as the couple, who usually both lead busy schedules, are currently stuck in the house for long periods of time.

She told In Touch: 'It is a make or break kind of thing because you're always together and we argue because there's no break, but we're getting through it.

Throwback: The media personalities forged a close friendship with Hollywood actress Tara when they all featured on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011 (pictured)

'I think you've just got to check each other's feelings and try to give each other as much space as you possibly can, like when I'm I want space, and when he's doing business, he wants space so we go into different rooms.'

In the work department, Tara's manager Philippe Ashfield said the Sharknado actress could be cast as Carole Baskin in a Tiger King-inspired movie.

The Netflix docu-series became a sensation this year, chronicling a feud between Carole and zookeeper Joe Exotic who was convicted of trying to take a hit out on her.

'We are in talks with the producers and she is being considered, that is all I can say at the moment as casting is on hold,' Philippe told New York Post.
Georgia Love is flogging her secondhand clothes to raise money for charity, as she prepares to move into her new $1.3million home in Victoria with her husband Lee Elliott.

On Monday, the 33-year-old journalist took to Instagram to reveal she'd made a new account with a flurry of worn ensembles for her followers to snap up, including many she'd been gifted in the past.

She told her fans that any money from those items would go straight to the Pancare Foundation, after tragically losing her mother to pancreatic cancer in 2016.

Everything must go! Georgia Love (left) is flogging a number of old clothes on Instagram for charity, as she prepares to move into her new $1.3million townhouse in Victoria with her husband Lee Elliott (right)

'I'm selling some clothes before I move house. Head over to @glovewardrobe. Prices as marked', she wrote.

Included on her 'for sale' list is a very popular Life of the Party Dress from Mossman, which Georgia wore to a wedding in 2019.

She's selling the hot pink number - which is no longer available online - for $150.

Own a piece of Georgia Love! On Monday, the 33-year-old journalist took to Instagram to reveal she'd made a new account with a flurry of worn ensembles for her followers to snap up, including many she'd been gifted in the past

Pretty! Included on the list is the very popular Life of the Party Dress from Mossman, which Georgia wore to a wedding in 2019

Bargain: She's selling the hot pink number - which is no longer available online - for $150

Georgia is also getting rid of an P.E Nation bralet for $50 which 'didn't suit' her, and a pair of Peter Alexander pure silk pyjamas for $50.

The sales come after Georgia and Lee revealed they had purchased a townhouse in Victoria's upmarket Hampton East in October, which was listed for sale at between $1.3million and $1.35million.

The home, located in the family-friendly suburb, is just 30 minutes away from the Melbourne CBD.

For sale! Georgia is also getting rid of an P.E Nation bralet for $50 which 'didn't suit' her

Up for grabs! She's also flogging a pair of Peter Alexander pure silk pyjamas for $50

It features a spacious four bedrooms, as well as three bathrooms, and an expansive living-dining area.

There's also high ceilings and Tasmanian oak floors throughout, a double garage, and is close to the beachside.

The modern kitchen includes state-of-the-art Smeg appliances and a waterfall-edge island.

New home: Georgia and Lee have purchased a townhouse in Victoria's upmarket Hampton East, which was listed for sale at between $1.3million and $1.35million. Both pictured

Location location: The home, located in an upmarket, family-friendly suburb, is just 30 minutes away from the Melbourne CBD

Additionally, there is an 'al fresco' kitchen with a fridge and extra sink, and a sheltered courtyard perfect for outdoor entertaining.

The stunning bedroom level is flanked by leafy trees for privacy, and the master suite comes with a balcony.

One of the expansive bathrooms features a freestanding bath, while an en suite comes with a dual vanity.
Gabi Grecko has warned women against getting fat injections to their buttocks.

The model and rapper, who is the former wife of late billionaire Geoffrey Edelsten, posted a series of videos to her Instagram Stories on Saturday, claiming women who undergo the procedure end up looking like they have 'cellulite'.

'I would suggest against a*s shots because from what I know, and what I have been told, is that once you inject fat, [they're] unlike implants that are encapsulated, they're in one circle, they don't move around, they don't change sides, they stay the same,' the 32-year-old said in the clip.

Warned: Gabi Grecko (pictured) has warned women against getting fat injections to their buttocks. The model and rapper posted a series of videos to her Instagram Stories on Saturday, claiming women who undergo the procedure end up looking like they have 'cellulite'

'But when you inject fat from your stomach into your a*s, what happens is, it can move around. It might decide on Tuesday to go to the left side or right side'.

She then went on to speculate that reality star Kim Kardashian, 41, has had the procedure.

'Look at Kim Kardashian. Those pictures come out where you can see the cellulite. And it's not about the cellulite, it wasn't cellulite. It was the fat from the fat transfers, like kind of moving around,' Gabi said.

'I would suggest against a*s shots because from what I know, and what I have been told, is that once you inject fat... from your stomach into your a*s, what happens is, it can move around. It might decide on Tuesday to go to the left side or right side,' she said

Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kim has consistently denied that her famous derriere is surgically or cosmetically enhanced.

Gabi herself is no stranger to cosmetic procedures.

Last year, the American rapper posed for a series of racy selfies on while showcasing a rather protruding new pout.

Updates: Gabi herself is no stranger to cosmetic procedures. Last year, the American rapper posed for a series of racy selfies on while showcasing a rather protruding new pout

When approached for comment, Gabi told Daily Mail Australia that she'd had 1ml of dermal filler injected into each lip.

'I have filler, but I don't like it. I'm letting it dissolve,' Gabi said.

In 2016, she was photographed leaving a plastic surgeon's office in Manhattan with a surgical bra across her chest following a breast augmentation.

Gabi rose to fame after marrying Australian billionaire businessman Geoffrey Edelsten 2016. He died in June, aged 78.
Rose Ayling-Ellis has spoken about the special moment she shared with her mother Donna after living the Glitterball trophy on Saturday night.

The Strictly Come Dancing winner, 27, said that her mother has continually been her biggest advocate throughout her life and always 'fought' to make everything accessible to her during a 'difficult' education.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast with her competitor and host Dan Walker and Sally Nugent, Rose described how everyone was rushing over to offer their congratulations, but she broke down when she saw her mum.

Love: Rose Ayling-Ellis has spoken about the special moment she shared with her mother Donna after living the Glitterball trophy on Saturday night

Dan referenced a picture he had previously shared on his Instagram page, of Rose tightly hugging her mum while holding her trophy following her historic win.

Rose, who was appearing on Zoom with her dance partner Giovanni Pernice, said: 'When I won I was so shocked I couldn't speak. Everyone came up saying well done and when my mum hugged me i just burst into tears.

Recalling the journey she has been on with Donna, Rose explained: 'At primary school, nursery school, going way back, where my education was difficult, so my mum had to fight to make it accessible for me.'

Sweet: The Strictly Come Dancing winner, 27, said that her mother has continually been her biggest advocate throughout her life and always 'fought' to make everything accessible to her during a 'difficult' education

She added: 'Everything I did, I was constantly fighting to get what I needed.'

Despite the support from her mum, Rose admitted that she didn't think it would end how it has, saying: 'We just didn't except it would end up with me winning Strictly come dancing.'

Rose defiantely added: 'It's so normal for disabled people that we're used to fighting all the time, so it's nice not to. And to actually win.'

When asked how her Sunday was after winning the show, Rose said: 'It was very weird. Very quiet, I felt like what just happned? Didn't feel real.'

Winners! Rose and Giovanni were crowned champions on Saturday night

Rose also spoke about how she feels to be a role model for youngsters in the deaf community, something she wasn't able to have herself.

She said: It's so lovely, I didn't have that when I was growing up, I didn't have anyone to look up to. I think it's important to everyone to inspire what they're doing. Like when it comes to an interview make people realise it's not a big deal.

'I'm excited to see what will happen and what will come next.'

Meanwhile, Giovanni - who has competed in seven competitions without winning the show, proudly held up his Glitterball, saying: 'It's still here - it's coming everywhere!'

Mum: Speaking on BBC Breakfast with her competitor and host Dan Walker and Sally Nugent, Rose described how everyone was rushing over to offer their congratulations, but she broke down when she saw her mum (Donna pictured recently)

'I think it's been a fantastic journey from the beginning, we put out a big statement. It's nice to win the show, but I think we made a statement. Which was so important for Rose and the deaf community.'

Giovanni went on to discuss how he was never worried about trying to teach a deaf person to dance before meeting his partner Rose.

He said: 'I think it was a different way of teaching, but I wasn't worried. I was more excited. I've been on the show so long, so I needed a new sort of sparkle.

Speaking of their first dance together during week one, he said: 'The Jive was different, so difficult because its a lot of counting. But when we did the Foxtrot I thought okay, she can dancing. It's been phenomenal.

Rose, who was appearing on Zoom with her dance partner Giovanni Pernice, said: 'When I won I was so shocked I couldn't speak. Everyone came up saying well done and when my mum hugged me i just burst into tears'

'When we started our Foxtrot week 3 I thought. I know this year was the hardest and best we've had. Everyone could have been in the final. We were just there every week thinking about our dance.'

'I am beyond proud to be a part of this journey with Rose. It's been my privilege from day one. She was really focused on sending a statement.

'Our couple's choice, we noticed even small things we can make a difference. I think we should all push ourselves to include the deaf community, and any community. If I did it for 13 weeks anyone can.'

It has been reported that Rose could earn over 1 million following her victory.

Rose - who currently plays Frankie Lewis on BBC soap EastEnders - has been tipped for big things after she and Giovanni danced their way to the Glitterball Trophy.

Celebrity agent Barry Tomes told the Daily Star newspaper: 'The world is at her feet. She could earn over 1million in 2022. With a calm agent who isn't in it for a quick buck, she will easily earn that. And she'll deserve every single penny of it.

'There is already talk of her doing movies. I've heard roles are being offered to her.

'I'd love to have a client like Rose. The public adores her. She's so natural. You don't feel like there's an agenda in what she's doing.'

However, reports that the deaf actress will be swapping Albert Square for Hollywood any time soon were down played by BBC bosses.

A source told The Sun newspaper: 'There is no truth in this. Rose has no intention to quit EastEnders and is very much looking forward to filming again in the New Year.'

The rumours come after the soap star beat Great British Bake Off winner John Waite and his dancing partner Johannes Radebe in the grand final of the Saturday night favourite.

Rose - who wowed the judges with her performances during the final - said to Giovanni upon their win: 'I just want to say you are so amazing. You pushed me to believe in myself more than I believe in myself. You are an incredible teacher, but not just that. You are a wonderful friend.

'We've gone through a lot, and I just want you to know no matter what happens, no matter how busy we get, I want to you to know you've always got a piece of my heart. You really do.
An Australian influencer has been roasted online for her very unusual pronunciation.

Ashley Mescia, 21, told her fans via Instagram Stories on Monday that she's dropped her car off at the depot, pronounced "de-pot", as she's getting it shipped from Sydney to Queensland.

Popular Instagram account Celeb Spellcheck re-posted the video to their page on Monday, captioning it: 'I'm a little depot, short and stout.'

Called out: Australian influencer Ashley Mescia (pictured) was roasted by a popular Instagram account for her VERY unusual pronunciation of the common word 'depot' on Monday

In the original clip, a glamorous Ashley ran her hands through her blonde tresses and told fans: 'Hey guys, I thought I'd give you a little update but I just dropped my car off at the "de-pot" because I'm getting it shipped up to Queensland.'

Many of Celeb Spellcheck's fans found the post to be hilarious and the 'giggle' they 'needed today', while others described Ashley as 'cute'.

As the likes on Celeb Spellcheck's post increased, Ashley took to her Instagram Stories again, asking how everyone already knew how to pronounce the word.

'How did everyone know how to pronounce depot but me? Don't know where I'd be without social media honestly,' she said.

Unusual: Ashley, 21, told her fans via Instagram Stories on Monday that she's dropped her car off at the depot, pronounced "de-pot", as she's getting it shipped from Sydney to Queensland

Having a laugh: Popular Instagram account Celeb Spellcheck re-posted the video to their page on Monday, captioning it: 'I'm a little depot, short and stout'

Addressing the faux-pas: As the likes on Celeb Spellcheck's post increased, Ashley (pictured) took to her Instagram Stories again, asking how everyone already knew how to pronounce the word

Meanwhile, Ashley isn't the only influencer to be called out by Celeb Spellcheck recently.

In late October, Sophie Guidolin was accused of duping her followers after filming a video of herself using skincare products.

The 32-year-old shared a sponsored post to Instagram for Skora Skincare, rubbing their blemish spot remover on a pimple on the left side of her chin.

The following day, she claimed the product had worked but shared a photo of the opposite side of her face.

Brushing it off: 'How did everyone know how to pronounce depot but me? Don't know where I'd be without social media honestly,' she said

In the firing line: Meanwhile, Ashley isn't the only influencer to be called out by Celeb Spellcheck recently. In late October, Sophie Guidolin (pictured) was accused of duping her followers after filming a video of herself using skincare products

Getting attention for all the wrong reasons: The 32-year-old shared a sponsored post to Instagram for Skora Skincare, rubbing their blemish spot remover on a pimple on the left side of her chin

Sophie's post was re-shared by Celeb Spellcheck and captioned: 'The poor brand honestly.'

Instagram star Kurt Coleman commented below the post: 'That's cracking me up.'

Model Jessie Gurunathan wrote: 'Wait, what the heck did I just watch?! Does she really think she's fooled us switching face sides? This is too much for a Sunday.'
Channel 10 released the first trailer of Australian Survivor: Blood V Water on Monday.

The bombshell seventh series will feature a massive twist, with family members joining the 2022 season as pairs - but in the end, there will only be one Sole Survivor.

The trailer also confirms that two-time American Survivor winner Sandra Diaz-Twine, 47, is set to compete on the show alongside her daughter Alanna Twine, whose nickname is Nina.

Like mother, like daughter: Channel 10 released the first trailer of Australian Survivor: Blood V Water on Monday - and it confirmed two-time American Survivor winner Sandra Diaz-Twine (right) is set to compete on the show, alongside her daughter Alanna Twine (left)

'I'm the queen of Survivor as I'm the first two-time winner ever,' Sandra says in the action-packed preview.

'I have a secret weapon - my baby girl Nina. Ya'll better look out, because I taught her well.'

'Survivor has always been an individual game,' host Jonathan LaPaglia adds. 'But this season, that's all about to change.

She's back! 'I'm the Queen of Survivor as I'm the first two-time winner ever,' Sandra says in the action-packed trailer. 'I have a secret weapon - my baby girl Nina. Ya'll better look out, because I taught her well' Pictured on the US Survivor

'Survivor has always been an individual game,' host Jonathan LaPaglia (pictured) adds. 'But this season, that's all about to change'

'For the first time on Australian Survivor, they will be playing with a member of their own family.'

The trailer also confirms rumours that two other well-known Survivor stars will be making an appearance; Samantha Gash and Mark Wales.

The duo met on the 2017 Australian season, and married in a festival-themed barn wedding two years later.

'Playing Survivor with your spouse is a very dangerous idea. But the good thing is, if one of us wins we both win,' a voiceover, believed to be Mark, adds.

Grand return: The trailer also confirmed rumours that two other well-known Survivor stars would be making an appearance; Samantha Gash and Mark Wales

More drama: The theme has featured twice in the US version of the series - in 2013 with the titular Survivor: Blood vs Water, and again in 2014 with Survivor: San Juan del Sur

Other mystery stars spoke about their close bond with family members, with one saying: 'I love my sister so much, but out here you're going to have to take out your loved one at some stage.'

Another loving boyfriend says of his partner: 'If she gets voted out, it's going to rip my heart in two. Australia's going to see the big man cry.'

'Knowing that you've got someone you can lean on from day one that we can absolutely trust with our lives, is a huge bonus,' another adds.

Drama: Another loving boyfriend said of his partner: 'If she gets voted out, it's going to rip my heart in two. Australia's going to see the big man cry' Pictured: A shirtless contestant

Drama: Other mystery stars spoke about their close bond with family members, with one saying: 'I love my sister so much, but out here you're going to have to take out your loved one at some stage'

The theme has featured twice in the US version of the series - in 2013 with the titular Survivor: Blood vs Water, and again in 2014 with Survivor: San Juan del Sur.

However, it's the first time it's ever been done before on the Australian version of the franchise.

The new series is set to air in February 2022.
Danny Miller looked on cloud nine as he shared an adorable snap with his two-month-old son Albert on Monday.

The former Emmerdale actor, 30, is enjoying being back at home with his fiancee Steph Jones after winning this year's series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

The soap star was lying on the couch with his son in the photo as he asked his followers if they could see a family resemblance.

Heartwarming: Danny Miller looked on cloud nine as he shared an adorable snap with his two-month-old son Albert on Monday

Danny attached a poll to the snap, asking: 'Looks like daddy? The double' or 'Can't see it'.

The actor recently shared a snap of himself alongside Steph and Albert as they enjoyed a day out at a Christmas market.

Wrapped up in a padded jacket, Danny captioned the post: 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.'

It comes after Danny revealed he's been forced to isolate again since leaving Gwrych Castle after Steph tested positive for Covid.

Family: The actor recently shared a snap of himself alongside his fiancee Steph Jones and Albert as they enjoyed a day out at a Christmas market

The actor took to Instagram to reveal he was once again in quarantine with his bride-to-be and their baby son Albert.

He said: 'So after 23 days of not being able to see Steph and Albert, which was the hardest time of my life, we now have the perfect opportunity to catch up with one another as we begin isolation.

He detailed: 'Steph has unfortunately caught Covid. She's not feeling the best today so she's just gone down for a sleep while Albert's asleep.

'So I thought I'd amuse myself by catching up with all you guys and show a little bit of love and thanks by doing a little Q&A.'

Oh no! Danny was forced into isolation AGAIN after Steph tested positive on Friday

Reunited! He said: 'We now have the perfect opportunity to catch up with one another as we begin isolation

Bad idea! One fan asked the EastEnders star what the first thing he did when he got home was as they took advantage of his recent question and answer session

Danny confirmed that the rest of his family are well and they will be out of isolation on Christmas Eve, as he answered his fans' burning questions to pass the time.

One fan asked the EastEnders star what the first thing he did when he got home was as they took advantage of hos question and answer session.

Danny responded as he confessed: 'McDonald's, and quickly regretted it! BAD stomach pains.'

He added: 'Steph ordered me 20 nuggets, double cheeseburger, cheeseburger and a chicken sandwich meal so I had a good choice but only managed the double cheeseburger.'

Danny, who revealed that he lost a huge 1.1 stone on the series, also added that he needed to go shopping as many of his clothes now no longer fit him.
Grant Hackett married Sharlene Fletcher in a secret ceremony in Melbourne last year.

And on Monday, the former swimmer and the vegan chef celebrated their first wedding anniversary.

The 41-year-old shared a photo of the pair with their son, Edward, one, to Instagram, along with a moving caption.

Wedding day: Grant Hackett married Sharlene Fletcher in a secret ceremony in Melbourne last year. And on Monday, the former swimmer and the vegan chef celebrated their first wedding anniversary, sharing a rare wedding photo to Instagram. Pictured with their son

'Happy first wedding anniversary to the most amazing wife and mother. I'm grateful every day I get to spend this life with you,' Grant wrote.

Sharlene posted to her own Instagram, sharing a rare wedding photo of the pair at their nuptials with their baby son.

'One year today! #neverbeenhappier #myperson #bestfriend,' she wrote in her caption.

'Happy first wedding anniversary to the most amazing wife and mother. I'm grateful every day I get to spend this life with you,' Grant wrote

Sweet: Sharlene posted to her own Instagram. 'One year today! #neverbeenhappier #myperson #bestfriend,' she wrote in her caption

Grant shared a handful of images from their wedding day last year.

In a gushing tribute to his new bride, Grant revealed he could no longer wait to be married - even though the pandemic ensured the wedding was smaller than he and Sharlene, 36, had hoped.

He wrote at the time: 'I feel so blessed to call you my beautiful wife @sharhackett. With a year that's been filled with so much uncertainty it's been such a perfect way to finish off 2020.

Happy daze: Grant shared a handful of images from their wedding day last year

Could not wait: In a gushing tribute to his new bride, Grant revealed he could no longer wait to be married - even though the pandemic ensured the wedding was smaller than he and Sharlene, 36, had hoped

'With COVID-19 continuing to delay our nuptials and the ability to properly plan our wedding, with all of our friends and family in the one location both locally and from overseas, Sharlene and I just wanted to say 'I do'!'

Sharlene likewise shared a number of photos from the wedding, along with an equally emotional caption.

She wrote: '201220 Yesterday I married my best friend. We had such a beautiful intimate ceremony with just two of our very best friends and all the munchkins! I'm currently still on cloud nine.

Family: Grant and Sharlene welcomed their baby boy Edward Anthony Hackett in January 2020

'To my husband @grant__hackett thank you for making me feel so special and loved. I cannot wait to continue doing life with you and growing old together.'

Grant and Sharlene announced their engagement in October 2019.

In July 2019, Grant announced he and his then-girlfriend were expecting a baby, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.

Happy: Grant and Sharlene announced their engagement in October 2019

'I felt I was going to hit 40 and I wanted another opportunity as a dad,' he said.

'I knew I wanted more children but only with a committed person who was going to be a life partner.'

Grant and Sharlene welcomed their baby boy Edward Anthony Hackett in January 2020.

Romance: Sharlene met Grant on the Gold Coast in 2015, and began dating in August 2018

Sharlene met Grant on the Gold Coast in 2015, and began dating in August 2018.

The athlete has described his relationship with Sharlene as 'incredible' and said the desserts chef is a good influence on him.

He has two other children, twins Charlize Alley and Jagger Emilio, 12, from his previous relationship with Neighbours star, Candice Alley, 39.
She was forced to pull out of Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing final due to a foot injury last week.

But AJ Odudu looked in great spirits on Monday as she was seen for the first time since the competition's finale as she headed to the BBC studios.

The presenter, 33, beamed and posed for the cameras as she hobbled on her crutches down the street to go to an appearance on Morning Live.

Star: Stylish AJ Odudu looked in good spirits as she stepped out on her crutches on Monday... after being forced to pull out of the Strictly final last Saturday due to a foot injury

She looked as stylish as ever despite her injury, wearing a pair of red and black tartan trousers which showed off her toned figure.

AJ completed the look with a white logo T-shit and heeled black leather boots for the outing.

She wore her curly hair swept back in an up do and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look as she braved the chilly London weather.

Happy: The presenter, 33, beamed and posed for the cameras as she hobbled on her crutches down the street to go to an appearance on Morning Live

On Saturday's episode, AJ couldn't fight back the tears after pulling out of the Strictly Come Dancing final due to a foot injury.

Sitting alongside professional partner Kai Widdrington, 26, the star, who suffered ligament damage to her foot during rehearsals this week, emotionally reflected on her experience to Strictly host Claudia Winkleman.

'Honestly, Claudia, I don't know how to describe what it feels like to have a broken heart. But that's what it feels like,' she began before breaking down.

Looking good: She looked as stylish as ever despite her injury, wearing a pair of red and black tartan trousers which showed off her toned figure

Staying strong, the TV star continued: 'But, we have had the best time on this show and you know, I have been putting on a brave face, Kai has been putting on a brave face.

'We've loved the show tonight. Rose and John and Johannes and Giovanni are incredible - but we wanted to be on the dancefloor with them.

'We've been swallowing tears throughout the night but I'm just so happy. I'm genuinely happy and grateful to be here - to have done all those incredible dances, to have learned so much, to have met all these beautiful people - [I] had the best outfits ever!'

Style: AJ completed the look with a white logo T-shit and heeled black leather boots for the outing

AJ and Kai have been at the heart of romance rumours during the course of the show and she used the time to pay a heartfelt tribute to him - and their 'unbreakable bond.'

'I literally would not have been here without Kai. Learning to dance has truly been the biggest joy and every single week we have said "dance like it's your last."

'And I'm so glad we did that from week one because we didn't know that our last dance was our last dance. We didn't know. But I am glad that our last dance(s), plural, I'm glad that they were brilliant and everyone enjoyed them as much as we did.'

Out and about: She wore her curly hair swept back in an up do and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look as she braved the chilly London weather

Animated: Despite the sad news and her injury AJ looked as happy as ever as she made her way down the street

A choked up Claudia also praised a stoic Kai, who made his Strictly debut this year.

The choreographer responded: 'This girl just every week outdoes herself. Every week when I come into the training room I feel like the most luckiest professional to be in the room with a woman like this. She is the most strongest character, even after the setbacks that we've had.

'She's made my first season on Strictly the best experience ever and this will always hold a place special in my heart. We didn't get the chance to dance tonight, but my God does she look the part!'

EastEnders' deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis and her dance partner Giovanni Pernice lifted the glitterball as she was crowned winner of Strictly Come Dancing after competing against John Whaite in the most diverse final in the show's 17-year history.

The nail-biting end to the 2021 series came down to the viewers' vote after both Rose, 27, and John, 32, who formed the first ever male sex partnership with Johannes Radebe, tied on the leaderboard with the judges praising both for the 'groundbreaking' roles they have played in the competition.

As her name was unveiled as the winner of Strictly 2021, Rose said to Giovanni: 'I just want to say you are so amazing. You pushed me to believe in myself more than I believe in myself. You are an incredible teacher, but not just that you are a wonderful friend.

'We've gone through a lot, and I just want you to know no matter what happens, no matter how busy we get, I want to you to know you've always got a piece of my heart. You really do.'
Gugu Mbatha-Raw has revealed she would be 'flattered' to be asked to take on the role of Meghan Markle in The Crown.

The actress, 38, said in an interview with Tatler that she would definitely 'consider' the opportunity if it arose, although no official casting has been made yet.

Gugu looked incredible for her cover shoot with the publication, posing in a sheer black dress before changing into a backless Grecian gown.

Star: Gugu Mbatha-Raw has revealed she would be 'flattered' to be asked to take on the role of Meghan Markle in The Crown

Asked how she would feel if she was offered the role after fans tipped her for the part, she exclaimed: 'Oh my God, that's hilarious. I'd be very flattered; I'd have to consider it.'

Although she has never come across Prince Harry and Meghan in Los Angeles, she added that she feels sympathetic towards them.

She said: 'I wish them luck. It's a tricky transition to make.'

The beauty went on to explain that in the US she has noted how charmed Americans are by the Royal Family.

Beauty: Gugu looked incredible for her cover shoot with the Tatler, posing in a sheer black dress before changing into a backless Grecian gown

'It sort of feels like a fairytale from an American viewpoint. I'm sure it's not an easy life. And I'm sure we don't know the half of it. But I respect it', she told.

Gugu will next be seen in the new BBC One psychological thriller, The Girl Before, which follows Jane who gets the chance to move into an ultra minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect (David Oyelowo).

On her role, Gugu said: 'I thought it had an interesting combination of style and substance. The mystery of it was intriguing and also, to be quite honest, it gave me the chance to work in the UK after a long time on hiatus [in the US during the pandemic].

Famous: The actress, 38, said in an interview with Tatler that she would definitely 'consider' the opportunity if it arose, although no official casting has been made yet for Meghan (pictured)

'She's driven and ambitious. I probably share that with her. [But] I feel like Jane is very restrained...I think I'm much more lighthearted and carefree.'

In 2018 Mbatha-Raw was made an MBE for services to drama and she found out after a letter had arrived at her mother's house in Witney.

She explained: 'It had some sort of royal stamp on it. And I remember joking to my mum, 'Oh, it's probably the damehood.' When I opened it, I was shocked. My mum was thrilled.'

Show: Gugu will next be seen in the new BBC One psychological thriller, The Girl Before (pictured in the first episode)

To her surprise, it was Doctor Who that the Prince of Wales mentioned when he appointed her an MBE.

Gugu said: 'I thought, 'Oh my God, is Prince Charles a Whovian?' He said he'd visited the set.'

The Girl Before premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Sunday, December 19.
Emmerdale's Matthew Wolfenden has reportedly returned to set following the race row that rocked the soap.

The actor, 41, who stars as David Metcalfe, was said to have been spotted leaving the set in Leeds last week by fans, according to Metro.co.uk.

It is not known if Matthew, who joined the cast in 2006, was back filming or if he was visiting the set for another reason.

Return: Emmerdale's Matthew Wolfenden has reportedly returned to set following the race row that rocked the soap

Matthew has not filmed scenes for Emmerdale since becoming embroiled in a race row back in September.

He and co-star Isabel Hodgins were alleged to have 'mimicked the accent of a mixed-race actress' on the set of the popular ITV soap.

A representative for Emmerdale declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

Fellow Emmerdale star Aaron Anthony was said to have dramatically quit because he is 'bitterly angry' with two of his co-stars who are facing the race probe.

Furious: Emmerdale's Aaron Anthony was said to have dramatically quit because he is 'bitterly angry' with two of his co-stars who are facing a race probe (pictured on the soap)

Aaron, who plays Ellis Chapman, has told producers he will not be returning after his contract ends because he is furious with his colleagues' alleged behaviour, claims The Sun.

Last month, reports emerged an unnamed actress of Emmerdale was upset following an inappropriate comment made towards her, before it was claimed her accent was mocked during the fall out.

It was said Matthew, and Isabel, 27, who portrays Victoria Sugden, are the pair facing allegations.

Both stars - who joined the soap in 2006 - have categorically denied claims of racism and have suggested the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

It was claimed Matthew, 41, and Isabel Hodgins, 27, are the pair facing allegations. They have both categorically denied claims of racism

Aaron, 28, is reportedly so 'furious' about the row and how the subsequent investigation 'has been handled', he has decided to leave the show after two years.

A source told the publication: 'Aaron is bitterly angry about this situation and he has had to be persuaded to come back to Leeds film his scenes in recent months.

'He has done some filming over the last couple of weeks, but the understanding is that those scenes will be his last.

'He has been very vocal in his opinions about the allegations and about the way in which the enquiries have been handled by the bosses. He now feels his position on the show is untenable.'

MailOnline has contacted Aaron's representatives and Emmerdale for comment.

Recast: Aaron (L) took over the role from disgraced actor Asan N'Jie (R), who was sacked for threatening to 'kill' fellow soap star Jamie Lomas, 44, at the TV Choice Awards in 2019

It was also reported at the time that following the alleged incident, Matthew rowed with Aaron.

The source went on to say the pair subsequently had a 'tense conversation', adding that afterwards, Matthew and Isabel 'stopped filming.'

The insider added: 'Emotions have been running high' on the set since the incident, with cast unsure 'what to believe'.

Aaron took over the role from disgraced actor Asan N'Jie, who was sacked for threatening to 'kill' fellow soap star Jamie Lomas, 44, at the TV Choice Awards in 2019.

Meanwhile, Matthew and Isabel were previously said to not be returning until next year.

An Emmerdale spokesman told MailOnline: 'While we would never comment on individual cases, Emmerdale has robust policies in place to deal with any allegations brought to our attention and take the appropriate steps.'

MailOnline has contacted the agents for both stars at the time.

Race row: Meanwhile, it's said the female cast member at the centre of the race row is continuing to film 'as normal', though she wishes she 'wasnt entangled in it'

It's said the female cast member at the centre of the race row is continuing to film 'as normal', though she wishes she 'wasnt entangled in it'.

The publication reports the 'issue is far from solved' and as two of Emmerdale's biggest stars their sudden absence from set have cause major 'production issues'.

Both Matthew and Isabel were embroiled in the soap's huge Super Soap Week stunt in October, where their characters had plunged into fast-flowing rapids after the rope bridge collapsed.

However, with both Isabel and Matthew gone, it has led to scripts being 'hastily rewritten', which has caused some confusion for dedicated viewers.

It's said bosses had planned to keep the huge storyline 'prominent', but with both characters off screen for 'an unspecified period of time', it has presented a 'a real challenge' for scriptwriters.

The pair were last seen onscreen on October 28, with the onscreen lovers heading off to visit Victoria's stepmother Diana Blackstock in Portugal.
It was recently claimed that she has 'turned her back' on a Hollyoaks return in favour of working on her OnlyFans account - after being offered an ultimatum by the show.

And Sarah Jayne Dunn appeared worlds away from the drama on Sunday, as she lived it up in Dubai with her husband Jonathan Smith and their son Stanley, five.

The family soaked up the rays while enjoying a day aboard a luxury motor yacht along the countries' stunning coastline.

Living it up! Sarah Jayne Dunn appeared worlds away from the drama on Sunday, as she lived it up in Dubai with her husband Jonathan Smith and their son Stanley

Sarah, 40, showcased her phenomenal physique in a tiny leopard print bikini, which highlighted her slim waist, toned legs and ample assets.

The former soap star wore her blonde locks in loose curls and accessorised her swimwear look with gold necklaces and aviator shades.

Meanwhile, her husband Jon showed off his toned torso in a pair of checked shorts, while he covered his eyes from the rays with reflective shades.

Family time: The family soaked up the rays while enjoying a day aboard a luxury motor yacht along the countries' stunning coastline

Alongside the gallery of images, Sarah wrote: 'I've had worst mornings tbf'

In one of the snaps as they lounged on the boat's sun deck, Sarah's son cuddled up to her as they posed for the picture.

Alongside the gallery of images, Sarah wrote: 'I've had worst mornings tbf.'

Sarah also shared images from their evening at Hakkasan resturant where they visited for dinner later that day.

The beaming star shared snaps as she enjoyed cocktails at the swanky venue.

Dinner time: Sarah also shared images from their evening at Hakkasan resturant where they visited for dinner later that day

Cocktail o'clock! The beaming star shared snaps as she enjoyed cocktails at the swanky venue

The holiday comes after Sarah reportedly turned down the opportunity to return to Hollyoaks after she was sacked from the soap over her OnlyFans account.

According to reports, she has turned her back on the show, despite bosses leaving the door open for her by not killing off her character of 25 years, Mandy Richardson.

Speaking to The Sun, a source said the former soap star has no desire to return, after walking away from the show after being given an ultimatum over the X-rated site.

They said: 'Now Sarah has had some breathing space following the row she has decided she definitely doesnt want to go back.

'Her OnlyFans account is massive and she is in the top one percent of worldwide creators on the platform. Sarah's fans are loving it and so is she.

'The door is closed as far as she is concerned and she will not be going back.'

Decisive: According to reports, the actress has turned her back on the show, despite bosses leaving the door open for her after not killing off her character Mandy Richardson (above)

The mum-of-three explained her decision to join the 18+ site as: 'Im simply moving my racier images to another platform.

'This is a decision Ive thought long and hard about.

'This is about taking control of your own images, your own choices and what you want to do with your body.'

Following her axe from the Channel 4 soap, the star defended having an account on the controversial site.

She insisted that her content is no different to photos of her which are posted on Instagram or appear in lads' mags.

Revelation: A source said: 'Now Sarah has had some breathing space following the row she has decided she definitely doesnt want to go back'

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Sarah Jayne argued: 'It's the kind of pictures I've done all my life!' and reiterated that it wasn't her decision to leave the show.

In a statement at the time, a Hollyoaks representative told The Sun: 'Hollyoaks is a youth-facing drama with many young viewers, who follow our cast very closely, both in the soap and outside of it.

'We take our responsibility to our young audience very seriously and therefore the show does not allow any Hollyoaks cast members to be active on certain 18+ websites.

'We had hoped we could reach a resolution with Sarah that would allow her to remain in her role as Mandy, but we respect her choice to continue to produce content on OnlyFans.

'In the past four years since her return to the show her legacy character has been an integral part of some our most important storylines and we will be very sad to see her go.'
He's a member of one of the most famous bands in the world.

However, U2 bassist Adam Clayton, 61, looked unrecognisable as he stepped out in London.

The guitarist's new look came as a stark contrast to how his fans will remember, with Adam swapping his typically short locks for long hair and a beard.

World famous: He's a member of one of the most famous bands in the world. However, U2 bassist Adam Clayton, 61, looked unrecognisable as he stepped out in London (pictured right in 2005)

In recent years, Adam has embraced his greying locks but typically styled them in punkish spikes.

The international star opted for a more mature look for his outing and looked dapper in a stylish grey fleece coat as he nipped out to run errands in the city.

U2 celebrated the 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby last month, but their focus is on the future as they continue to work on a follow-up to 2017's Songs of Experience.

Smart: The international star opted for a more mature look for his outing and looked dapper in a stylish grey fleece coat as he nipped out to run errands in the city

Earlier this month, Adam confirmed that the Dublin band hope to release a new album in 2023 and tour - Covid permitting.

His bandmate the Edge told Rolling Stone magazine they were working with each other on a new song idea.

He said: 'We are firmly locked in the tower of song and working away on a bunch of new things,' the guitarist says, noting that they're still in the very early stages of the process.

Rock royalty: In recent years, Adam has embraced his greying locks but typically styled them in punkish spikes (pictured in 2018)

'I'm just having so much fun writing and not necessarily having to think about where it's going to go.

'It's more more about enjoying the experience of writing and having no expectations or limitations on the process.'

U2s most recent album, 2016 Songs of Experience, topped the UK and American chart but failed to produce any hits.

The band toured the album in 2018 grossing $128m (113m) with nearly a million tickets sold.
Lori Harvey partnered with the LA Mission to deliver Christmas gifts to nine young girls from the Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems on Saturday.

The 24-year-old socialite went to the foster home in Los Angeles with a sack of gifts from KimChi, Chic Beauty, Hammitt Handbags and even some products from her own line, SKN by LH.

'It's a blessing to give back,' the LA Mission posted on their Instagram on Sunday as Lori shared the messages on her Instagram Stories.

A real star: Lori Harvey partnered with the LA Mission to deliver Christmas gifts to nine lucky girls from the Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems on Saturday

Giving mood: The 24-year-old socialite went to the institute in Los Angeles with a sack of gifts from KimChi, Chic Beauty, Hammitt Handbags and even some products from her own line, SKN by LH

'We partnered with Lori Harvey to make a surprise visit to a girls foster home in mid-city LA. We are so grateful to be able to share joy this holidays and know that others want to join us in supporting those who may not always get special times like this,' it was added/

The Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems was founded by Elouise Dangerfield in 1985. The former licensed vocational nurse became concerned about the growing number of drug addicted infants without quality rehabilitative care available.

The institute's mission statement is 'to provide compassionate, culturally relevant services to empower our foster youth.

'Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems has two goals: The first goal is to provide services that enable all foster youth to reach their maximum emotional, social, educational, and developmental potential.'

LA Mission is thankful: 'We partnered with Lori Harvey to make a surprise visit to a girls foster home in mid-city LA. We are so grateful to be able to share joy this holidays and know that others want to join us in supporting those who may not always get special times like this'

Helping young girls: The Dangerfield Institute of Urban Problems was founded by Elouise Dangerfield in 1985. The former Licensed Vocational Nurse became concerned about the growing number of drug addicted infants without quality rehabilitative care available

'Our second is to instill the necessary empowerment tools to families through positive professional parental role models, and provide extensive counseling, therapy, and parenting education.'

The nine girls in the foster home are cared for by a woman named Lorrie, who 'uplifts the lives of young girls on a daily basis.'

Lorrie has dedicated her life to ensuring that these girls, who would otherwise not have a fair chance at life, get a shot at success.

Young girls properly cared for: The nine girls in the foster home are cared for by a woman named Lorrie, who 'uplifts the lives of young girls on a daily basis'

Steve Harvey's daughter recently launched her own business, a skincare line.

She has always been passionate about quality skincare since that she grew up watching her mom, Majorie Harvey, invest in her skincare.

SKN by LH is a vegan and cruelty free skincare line that is made in the United States. Currently, the brand only has five products, which include a cleanser, Niacinamide cream, peptide eye complex, vitamin-c serum and white tea toner.

Besides giving back and running her own business, Lori was recently a judge for Miss Universe 2021, where she awarded Miss India the title for this years competition.
Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have taken the next step in their burgeoning romance.

According to a report from HollywoodLife, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 41, met the 28-year-old Saturday Night Live funny man's mother Amy for 'several hours' during Kim's trip to New York City over the weekend.

'It went really well,' a source told the outlet.

Going strong: Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have taken the next step in their burgeoning romance. Seen in November 2021

The latest: According to a report from HollywoodLife, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 41, met the 28-year-old Saturday Night Live funny man's mother Amy for 'several hours' during Kim's trip to New York City over the weekend. Seen in 2019

Meanwhile, In Touch reported that Pete had 'already introduced' his mom to Kim a couple of weeks before the new couple were spotted at a movie theater in Pete's native Staten Island on Saturday night.

An insider revealed that Amy, 52, and Pete's 23-year-old sister Casey have 'already given their seal of approval.'

'They all met up on Staten Island,' the source added.

Close: The comedian shares a close relationship with Amy and Casey. Pete lived with his mother for several years at a house that they purchased together in Staten Island. Pictured in 2016

The comedian shares a close relationship with Amy and Casey.

Pete lived with his mother for several years at a house that they purchased together in Staten Island.

Last April, the stand-up performer said that he had moved out of his mother's basement and into his own home.

'I just moved out of my mom's house,' he said in a TikTok video as he entered his new apartment. 'I'm fully out. I got a pad.'

Moving out: Last April, the stand-up performer said that he had moved out of his mother's basement and into his own home. Seen in 2018

On Saturday evening, Kim and Pete were seen along with Scott Disick and a mystery woman catching a movie together.

According to HollywoodLife, they watched the star-studded crime drama House Of Gucci.

The King Of Staten Island star had a night off after SNL suffered a COVID-19 outbreak that caused the show to pivot immensely after four players  including Colin Jost  and additionally Lorne Michaels tested positive.

He did however appear in a pre-taped bit  which host Paul Rudd said wrapped in the wee hours of Saturday morning  called An Evening with Pete, where he played a washed up version of himself.

Close bond already: Kim had already met Pete's family weeks ago said InTouch; seen here in November

Romantic: HollywoodLife also reported that the pair dined together at Angelina's Ristorante. Seen in 2021

HollywoodLife also reported that the pair dined together at Angelina's Ristorante. A source said that Kim had the restaurant's Cacio E Pepe pasta and 'couldn't stop raving about it.'

She reportedly told the owners that she would be 'back' to have it again.

Earlier in the afternoon on December 18, Davidson was spotted entering a hotel in Manhattan, where Kim is currently staying.

Kim's meeting with Amy comes after reports that the reality star's family is reportedly 'excited' to spend more time with her new love interest.

Family: 'The whole family is a fan of Pete's and would love to spend a holiday with him,' the insider said after it was reported he was invited to the usual Kardashian Christmas blowout  which Kanye West may also be in attendance for

The mega-famous reality TV family are said to be a 'fan' of his  with Kris Jenner being particularly 'obsessed,' per E! News.

There have already been reports that the SKIMS founder has invited Pete to spend the Christmas holiday with the whole family, and is contemplating celebrating New Years Eve with him in Miami.

'She's really excited about having him around and Kris is already obsessed with him,' a source close to Kim told the publication.

'The whole family is a fan of Pete's and would love to spend a holiday with him.'

Kim  who recently filed to be declared legally single from estranged husband Kanye West just last week  is said to be weighing New Year's Eve plans with Davidson.

The comedian is set to co-host Miley's New Year's Eve Party' for NBC and Peacock, with some sources saying she will be in attendance.

Kardashian Christmas: The SKIMS founder, 41, has reportedly invited the Staten Island native to spend the Christmas holiday with the whole family, before she rings in New Years Eve with him in Miami; pictured December 2019

'Kim and Pete have many upcoming plans and things are going really well. She has even considered going to support him in Miami for New Year's. He has told her he'd love for her to be there,' the insider divulged.

Reportedly the Donda rapper was also invited to the family's blowout Christmas party: 'There is a possibility they will both be there,' the insider said of a possible 'awkward' celebration.

Amid Kim's ongoing split from West after seven years of marriage, an insider recently claimed that Pete and his humor have been 'the best antidote' for her.

'He's exactly what Kim needed after her divorce - someone to make her laugh and just have a fun time with. The end of her marriage was a very dark time for her and Pete has been the best antidote.'

As he continues to be 'all in' on Kim a source reiterated: 'He's so into her and is always "my girl" this and "my girl" that.'
He was one of Hollyoak's most prominent characters and Sami Maalik's time in the quaint Cheshire village has to an end.

The character, portrayed by Rishi Nair, made a huge decision on Mondays E4 episode, following the drastic action he took in order to get a confession out of rapist Ali Shahzad (Raji James).

In some charged scenes, he confronted Ali outside the police station, telling him that if he even considered reporting Imran (Ijaz Rana) for holding him hostage  he would have him murdered and make it look like he took his own life.

Goodbye for now? Hollyoaks star Rishi Nair has left the door open for a possible return to the show

Ali, who was as cool as a breeze, looked back on the the depths hed gone to in the past in order to get what he wanted, and so he gave into Sami's demands.

Unfortunately, Sami came to regret this actions, and not happy about what hed done  he came to the drastic decision to leave Hollyoaks.

After saying goodbye to his family and loved ones, he packed up his belongings and bid an emotional farewell to his home of four years.

However, it may not be goodbye forever, as Rishi has left the door open for a possible return to the show after four years playing the character.

The handsome actor made his debut on the long-running soap back in 2017.

Speaking about his impending departure he said: 'I don't want to say this is goodbye forever because we never know what the future might hold but I feel like he's left at a good time. We've seen him go full circle.

'He came to the village looking for revenge and was a bit of a villain at the beginning and we've kind of seen the real Sami and his soft side has come through.

That's all folks: Rishi's character has taken centre stage in a number of high-profile plots over the years

'He acted as the dad of the family looking out for his younger siblings and they're growing up now and they're not kids anymore. He'll always be there but he doesn't need to be there every day.'

Rishi's character has taken centre stage in a number of high-profile plots over the years.

His character Sami first arrived in the village to get revenge on James Nightingale (Gregory Finnegan), who he believed had a role to play in the events which led to his dad's death.

Back soon? Speaking about his impending departure he said: 'I don't want to say this is goodbye forever because we never know what the future might hold but I feel like he's left at a good time. We've seen him go full circle'

Reflecting on his most memorable storyline, Rishi says there's one that stands out from the rest:

'My favourite storyline by far was far-right radicalisation, it being the first-time racism was ever covered on a UK soap, and being such an integral part of that storyline made me feel so proud.

'It meant so much to me to cover that on a personal level as well. It was great hearing the stories and the reception it had, with people stopping you on the street, and messages on social media about how happy they were that it was being covered on prime-time TV covered in such a real way,' he said.

Looking good: The handsome actor made his debut on the long-running soap back in 2017



The character has featured in numerous romances over the years, with highlights including his relationships with both Sinead Shelby (Stephanie Davis) and Verity Hutchinson (Eva O'Hara).

When asked about how he thinks Sami would feel if Shaq and Verity finally got together he revealed:

'We know that Sami gave Shaq and Verity his blessing before he left but I think he was in love with Verity, he thought he was going to have a kid with her and they were planning to move away together.

'Sami's a real loving person and wants other people to be happy.'

He added: 'I think if they did get together it would probably kill him a little bit on the inside but with time I'm sure he would be okay with that and he would just want Shaq and Verity to be happy and if that means them being together then so be it.'

Hollyoaks fans have seen the Maalik family face a turbulent few months.

With emotions running high in the fictional family's household yet again, Sami explains how their on-screen dynamic has made them friends for life off-screen:

'I've met so many friends that started off as colleagues but are now like my family, especially with my Maalik family - From the beginning, we have been like a real family.

'We are so close outside of the show, we go for family meal's all the time and were always there for each other.

'Even after I've left the show they won't be getting rid of me, I'll still be turning up to all the Maalik meals.'

Fans will be able to watch Sami's exit when Hollyoaks drop their Christmas box set after 7pm on Friday 17 December.
Kendall Jenner, 26, posted a message about coping with anxiety to her Instagram stories on Sunday.

She took pictures from Cleo Wade's book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom For A Better Life, which creatively shares life lessons and inspiration through poetry, mantras and affirmations.

The supermodel has been an advocate for mental health and has been very open about her struggles with anxiety on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and her social media platforms for several years.

Kendall Jenner, 26, posted a message about coping with anxiety to her Instagram stories on Sunday. She took pictures from Cleo Wade's book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life, which creatively shares life lessons and inspiration through poetry, mantras and affirmations

Active on Instagram: The supermodel has been an advocate for mental health and has been very open about her struggles with anxiety on Keeping up With the Kardashians and her social media platforms for several years

The specific pages from Heart Talk she chose to highlight on her Instagram said: 'And the best news of all is that it is never too late to become the person you've always wanted to be.'

The reality TV personality chose to personally underline the text that said: 'No matter how overwhelming the feelings that come stress and anxiety are, we must always remember that we are human.

'And though we may not be able to control their arrival, we always have the power to release them.'

Mental health matters: 'Pause. Breathe slowly and deliberately. Think positively. Remember your strength. These feelings will eventually leave, because ultimately they know they have no home within your sacred self'

It also read: 'Pause. Breathe slowly and deliberately. Think positively. Remember your strength. These feelings will eventually leave, because ultimately they know they have no home within your sacred self.'

Earlier this year in May, Kendall sat down with Vogue and opened up about her struggles with anxiety for their series Open Minded.

'I remember being really young and having shortness of breath and going to my mom and telling her that,' the Victoria Secret angel said during her Vogue interview. 'In hindsight, now I know that that was obviously anxiety.'

Supermodel opens up about mental health: 'I remember being really young and having shortness of breath and going to my mom and telling her that,' the Victoria Secret angel said during her Vogue interview. 'In hindsight, now I know that that was obviously anxiety'

Kendall's main goal when discussing how anxiety has affected her life is to help de-stigmatize the negative correlation mental health issues and anxiety have in the world.

The model has been balancing her modeling career as well as launching her own business, 818 Tequila, in May.

Her brand works closely with family-owned farms in Jalisco, Mexico to bring the alcoholic beverage to life. Kendall has also said that the name of the tequila is an area code that is 'home to her.'
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Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field has slammed Cynthia Nixon over her fashion demands when asked about her former assistant Molly Rogers' work styling the cast on HBO Max's And Just Like That.

The Oscar nominee, 79, didn't mince her words when she admitted she 'liked some of it, but not all of it', adding 'but I know what Molly's dealing with' during a recent interview with the Sunday Times.

Doubling down, she said: 'I know those gals! Sarah Jessica [Parker] thinks she knows everything - and she does. Cynthia Nixon thinks she knows everything - and she doesn't! Even today, when I speak with Molly, it's about Cynthia. I say, "I remember what you are going through."

Burn! Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field (L, pictured in 2003) shaded Cynthia Nixon (R) over her fashion demands after being asked about her former assistant Molly Rogers' work styling on HBO Max's And Just Like That

Despite Patricia's sharp tone, she did wish Cynthia happy birthday in 2020 and she hosted two fundraising events in the summer of 2018 for her failed campaign for New York Governor.

For her work on Sex And The City, Field was nominated for five Emmy Awards, win one win and six Costume Designers Guild Awards, with four wins.

She went on to return as costume designer for the Sex And The City movie (2008) and the sequal (2010), however she was unable to reprise her role for the reboot due to her Emily In Paris commitments.

Field has also worked on high fashion film and TV projects including Ugly Betty and Devil Wears Prada, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Miranda: Cynthia is currently reprising her role in And Just Like That (pictured)... alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis

The 79-year-old Oscar nominee told The Sunday Times: 'I like some of it, I don't like all of it, but I know what Molly's (L, pictured in 2005) dealing with. I know those gals! Sarah Jessica [Parker] thinks she knows everything - and she does'

Patricia said: 'Cynthia Nixon thinks she knows everything - and she doesn't! Even today, when I speak with Molly, it's about Cynthia. I say, "I remember what you are going through"'

HBIC: The power dynamic shifted this year as the 55-year-old Emmy winner (L) earned a $10M paycheck to executive produce, reprise her role as Miranda Hobbes, and direct the January 6th episode titled 'Diwali' (directing Sarah Jessica Parker on October 20)

Many might argue that AJLT lost its edge without Field and her 'bestie' Kim Cattrall, who played lusty PR exec Samantha Jones in all six SATC seasons and the forgettable movie spin-offs.

Speaking about her absence from the popular series, Field said: 'It is a vacuum. I hear it everywhere. Everyone is mad she wont be in it.'

The two-time Emmy winner gushed to Page Six earlier this month: 'I would love to do a show with [Kim].'

'#cynthiaforny': Despite Field's sharp tone, she did wish Cynthia happy birthday in 2020 and she hosted two fundraising events in the summer of 2018 for her failed campaign for New York Governor

We miss you! Many might argue that AJLT lost its edge without the two-time Emmy winner and her 'bestie' Kim Cattrall (R, pictured September 17), who played lusty PR exec Samantha Jones in all six SATC seasons and the forgettable movie spin-offs

Patricia is currently serving as costume consultant for Netflix dramedy series Emily in Paris starring Lily Collins, which returns for a second season this Wednesday.

It comes as SJP, Cynthia and Kristin Davis collectively spoke out over the allegations of sexual assault against actor Chris Noth.

The three stars of new Sex And The City spin-off And Just Like That... posted a joint statement on Monday - their first reference to the historical claims made by two women.

Patricia gushed to Page Six earlier this month: 'I would love to do a show with [Kim]'

'Hit the jackpot!' Field is currently serving as costume consultant for Netflix dramedy series Emily in Paris starring Lily Collins (L, pictured in 2019), which returns for a second season this Wednesday

'We are deeply saddened to hear the allegations against Chris Noth,' the short announcement began. 'We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experiences. We know it must be a very difficult thing to do and we commend them for it.'

Noth's famed character Mr. Big was killed off after suffering a heart attack in the first episode of the Sex and the City revival, titled And Just Like That..., earlier this month.

Last week the actor, 67, was accused of rape by two women, who both shared details of their alleged assaults with The Hollywood Reporter.

One claimed she was just 22 when Noth, then 49, attacked her and left her needing stitches.

'We support the women': It comes as SJP, Cynthia and Kristin Davis collectively spoke out over the allegations of sexual assault against actor Chris Noth (Pictured; 9th Dec, 2021)

The report led another woman to come forward and accuse Noth of groping her, while actress Zoe Lister-Jones recalled behavior that made her describe him as a 'predator.'

Both of the accusers in the THR report claimed that Noth had sex with them from behind in front of a mirror.

The first attack allegedly took place in 2004, while the second reportedly occurred in 2015, three years after Noth married his wife, Tara Wilson, with whom he has two children.

Speaking out: On Monday, the three main stars of And Just Like That... spoke out in support of the women who came forward with the allegations

The two women both also allege that the attacks took place in one of Noth's homes - the first in his Los Angeles apartment and the second in his New York City property - after the actor invited them over.

Both claim that the recent publicity surrounding the Sex and the City reboot - And Just Like That - 'stirred painful memories' of their encounters with Noth, who has featured heavily in the news in the past week as a result of the shock death of his character, Mr. Big, in the first episode of the new series.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Noth, who has two sons with Wilson - Keats and Orion - admitted that he had 'consensual encounters' with the two women, both of which reportedly took place while he was in a relationship with his wife, but he strongly denied any accusations that he assaulted them.

'The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,' the statement reads.

'These stories couldve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago  no always means no  that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual.

'Its difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I dont know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.'

Noth returned to small screens recently in the Sex And The City reboot, And Just Like That...

On Friday a third woman came forward and accused Noth of allegedly groping her at a Manhattan restaurant in 2010 when she was 18.

The unnamed 30-year-old Canadian tech executive claimed Noth, then-55, repeatedly groped her while she was working as a hostess at the Da Marino restaurant in Midtown, The Daily Beast first reported.

She alleges that Noth pulled down her tights and touched and clung onto her so strongly that after she managed to push and kick him away, her 'limbs hurt in the morning.'

He was also accused of beating and threatening to kill and disfigure his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Beverly Johnson between 1990 and 1995, according to a resurfaced article that was posted online this week.

The bombshells have caused his agency, A3 Artists Agency, to drop him, and a long-time friend of the actor told The Sun that Noth's wife, Tara Wilson, might not spend Christmas with him.

It also led to him losing a $12 million deal to sell his tequila brand.

Entertainment Arts Research, Inc., a Nevada-based beverage company that often buys into celebrity drink brands, said Sunday that it's immediately ending discussions to buy Noth's Ambhar tequila.

And Just Like That caused controversy after it killed off Noth's character in the very first episode after his character worked out on his Peloton bike

'At this point in time it doesn't make sense for us to move forward with this deal in light of the claims, which must be taken with the utmost seriousness,' said Bernard Rubin, CEO of EARI in a press release. 'That said, we continue to be on the lookout for spirits brands that fit EARI's ethos of social responsibility.'

Meanwhile, on Monday, Noth was fired from the CBS crime drama series The Equalizer.

'Chris Noth will no longer film additional episodes of The Equalizer, effective immediately,' Universal Television and CBS said in a statement obtained by Deadline.

Noth is said to appear in an upcoming episode of the show, which is already seven episodes into its second season. Noth has been appearing in the series since 2021.

The actor made a splash in the new Sex and the City series, after his character was killed off riding a Peloton bike - with Noth later cashing in on the moment by starring in a viral commercial for the exercise company.

However, just days after it was released, Peloton deleted the ad following the claims of rape and sexual assault.

In statement, Peloton confirmed to DailyMail.com last Thursday: 'Every single sexual assault accusation must be taken seriously. We were unaware of these allegations when we featured Chris Noth in our response to HBO's reboot. As we seek to learn more, we have stopped promoting this video and archived related social posts.'

The commercial was produced by movie star Ryan Reynolds and his marketing company Maximum Effort, with the actor also narrating the clip.
Miles Teller was spotted enjoying a vape break while on the set of the upcoming miniseries The Offer about the making of the classic 1972 film The Godfather.

The 34-year-old actor puffed on a vape and chatted with a colleague as he stood on the sidewalk in Hollywood.

The Whiplash star donned a baby blue ruffled dress shirt and a mahogany brown suede tuxedo when he was seen on Monday.

Smoke break: Miles Teller was spotted enjoying a smoke break while on the set of the upcoming miniseries The Offer about the making of the classic 1972 film The Godfather

The Pennsylvania native sported light brown suede shoes and slicked his short brunette hair back with gel.

Classic cars from the 1960s and 1970s were parked on the street for the shoot.

Written by Escape At Dannemora co-creator Michael Tolkin, The Offer details the backstage drama during the making of the seminal movie.

On set: The 34-year-old actor puffed on a vape and chatted with a colleague as he stood on the sidewalk in Hollywood

Miles stars as producer Al Ruddy who won an Oscar for the film. Juno Temple plays his assistant Bettye McCartt who helped him fend off threats from the real mafia.

The Godfather was based on a novel of the same name, whose author Mario Puzo helped director Francis Ford Coppola adapt the screenplay.

They faced fierce opposition from the mafia, including the advocacy group the Italian-American Civil Rights League founded by mob boss Joe Colombo.

In character: The Whiplash star donned a baby blue ruffled dress shirt and a mahogany brown suede tuxedo when he was seen on Monday

'It became clear very quickly that the mafia - and they did not call themselves the mafia - did not want our film made. We started getting threats,' Bettye said.

Al was informed by the LAPD that the mob were following his car and so, to throw them off the scent, he would switch vehicles with his employees.

Bettye told Vanity Fair about one night when she drove his car back to her house - and after she left the automobile its windows were shot.

Co-star: Miles stars as producer Al Ruddy who won an Oscar for the film. Juno Temple plays his assistant Bettye McCartt who helped him fend off threats from the real mafia. Juno pictured in October 2021

She recognized the gesture as 'a warning - to Al' and added that there was a note on the dashboard warning him not to complete the picture.

Al eventually managed to strike a deal with Joe Colombo that involved deleting the sole use of the word 'mafia' from the screenplay.

Joe himself was later shot by a hitman at a League rally - which Ruddy was asked to attend but had been warned off of - and survived.

The cast of The Offer includes Matthew Goode as the troubled but charismatic producer Bobby Evans and Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola.

Iconic: Francis Ford Coppola directed the grand mafia saga which starred Al Pacino (left) and Marlon Brando (right) as father and son
Oliver Proudlock gave his Instagram followers an intimate glimpse at life with his pregnant wife Emma Louise Connolly on Monday as he rested his head on her blossoming baby bump.

The Made In Chelsea star, 33, was topless as he laid in bed with Emma, 30, who he married last year.

Reality star Oliver could be seen tenderly touching his model partner's stomach as she wore some white underwear and a vest top, with Oliver captioning the snap: 'Happy place.'

Baby on the way: Oliver Proudlock, 33, gave his Instagram followers a glimpse at life with his pregnant wife Emma Louise Connolly, 30, on Monday as he rested his head on her baby bump

The couple announced they were expecting their first child together on Thursday last week.

They posted a sweet social media video which showed the moment the couple were pronounced husband and wife in 2020, before cutting to Oliver holding up a newborn jumper with the phrase 'Yeah baby!' embroidered on it.

Emma captioned the announcement clip posted on Thursday: '1 year married, 1 yeah baby on the way. We are bursting with love and gratitude for our very precious little growing gift!.

Loved-up: The couple announced they were expecting their first child together on Thursday last week

Earlier this year, Oliver revealed he and Emma only met face to face after they spent a staggering four years messaging each other.

Oliver explained that he had been in Scotland for five days to do Personal Appearances and go partying, back in his Made In Chelsea days.

He said: 'I hadn't seen any culture and I became good mates with these guys there and they said look 'you should go and check out this art gallery called Kelvin Grove.

Happy couple: Made In Chelsea star Oliver and model Emma married last year and will soon welcome a baby to the world

'So I was like "ok cool", so I went down there and I was on the ground floor and I came into the central room and there was this long catwalk.

'It was this graduate fashion show, and so I'm standing there at the front and this model walks down and it's Emma. And I'm like "oh my gosh, this chick is out of control." And we catch eyes and then after she's doing her show, doing her thing.

'I went back to my buddies and I said "guys, I saw this girl, described what she looked like, she was just insane!

Yay: The pair announced the news with a sweet video which showed Oliver holding up a newborn jumper with the phrase 'Yeah baby!' embroidered on it

'And they were like "sounds like this girl Emma Louise." So I was like "show me". So they showed me a picture and I was like "oh my god that's her." I was probably just like 'I'll probably never see her again.'

The Made In Chelsea star admitted: 'Had I not decided to go to this particular place on that day I don't think we'd be together now and I always look back on that moment.'

But, a few weeks later, when Oliver returned to Edinburgh for another PA, he saw a photograph of Emma modelling jewellery.

'I'm standing at the baggage reclaim and I look up and there's this huge billboard for this jewelry company, and it was Emma modelling this jewellery on this billboard.

'And I was like "oh my god" and it was the same guys from Glasgow who picked me up and I was like "guys I just saw her on this billboard, it's a sign. I need to get her number or find her or whatever it is." And I ended up finding her on Facebook.'

Proudlock sent a friend request, which spurred Emma to drop him a message, and their communication began.

Gorgeous: Emma showed off her baby bump last week as she paired an all-in-one with a comfy blue collegiate sweatshirt while she posed with her hand on her hip

He explained: 'We ended up talking on Facebook for, I don't know, two or three months maybe and then she was in Glasgow this time.

'I was down in London and then about a year in she moved down to London with modelling, we got each other's number.

'We then messaged for three years. But we never met, and it was a weird one. She was seeing someone at the time, nothing serious but we would just message just like harmless stuff.'

Growing bump: In a later post, she wore another one piece which had an oil spill pattern on it as she applied a black and white filter over the top

After messaging for years without ever having met, Oliver decided to go to the commonwealth games in Glasgow, after hearing that Emma would be there and knowing that they were both single.

'I was like "I have got to go." I messaged my buddies, same guys from all those years back, and I'm like "guys, I found her four years later. Guys, it's time. I need your help."'

After travelling up to Glasgow, Proudlock messaged Emma to let he know he was there.

There it is: The couple shared a kiss as they held up a newborn jumper on Oliver's Instagram Stories

Oliver explained that Emma made the train with about a minute to spare, running down the platform carrying numerous bags.

He admitted: 'I was just like "oh my god" I just remember that moment so well, and that was the first time we actually met, on a train journey from Glasgow to London.'

And, it appears that Emma was definitely worth the wait, because not only did their train ride lead to a date the next evening, the couple are now happily married.
Belagavi: Amid tension over the defacing of the statue of 19th century warrior Sangolli Rayanna here, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said "decisive action" would be taken against miscreants who disturb law and order in the state.

"We will initiate stringent action against those disturbing law and order in the state. This time decisive action will be taken so that the miscreants do not continue their activities," Bommai told reporters.

Replying to a query on miscreants defacing Sangolli Rayanna's statue in Belagavi bordering Maharashtra last week, Bommai said the police have arrested all the main accused related to the case.

"The previous governments were never doing this. We are controlling them all," Bommai said.

Meanwhile, various Kannada organisations on Monday staged protests blocking the National Highway-4 at Hire Bagewadi in Belagavi where the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha is located.

The activists who came to Belagavi in huge numbers from various parts of Karnataka staged a road blockade. They were seen intercepting ministers and legislators who were on the way to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, where the Legislature session is on, demanding stringent action and ban on the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, members of which were allegedly behind the incident.

Praveen Shetty of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, who spearheaded the agitation, demanded the externment of MES activists.

"We demand ban on MES and externment of their leaders. They dare to destroy the statue of Sangolli Rayanna. We will observe bandh. We are all going to meet together under the leadership of Vatal Nagaraj," Shetty told reporters.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for questioning in a case linked to the 2016 'Panama Papers' global tax leaks case, officials said on Monday.

Aishwarya Bachchan, 48, the daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan, has been asked to depose before the agency in Delhi.

The ED has been probing the case since 2016 when the global leaks came to light. It later issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

Some other instances of alleged irregularities linked to the family are also under the scanner of the federal probe agency, the officials said.

Dubbed 'Panama Papers', an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists had named several world leaders and celebrities who had allegedly stashed away money abroad in offshore companies. Some of them are stated to be holding valid overseas accounts.
New Delhi: Condemning terrorism including cross-border terror and its sponsors along with radicalism at the third India-Central Asia Dialogue on Sunday in New Delhi, the foreign ministers of India and the five Central Asian countries -- Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Turkmenistan -- demanded that Afghan territory should not be used for terror acts while also pushing for establishment of a truly representative and inclusive government there.

Turkmenistans foreign minister Rashid Meredov said the dialogue was also in preparation for the Central Asia-India Summit that will be held in January, which gives a strong indication that the five Central Asian heads of state/government could indeed be the chief guests at Indias Republic Day parade on January 26.

In a joint statement issued after the dialogue, India and the five nations decided to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and called for preserving the rights of women, children and other national ethnic groups in the strife-torn nation. The strong reference to cross-border terrorism and radicalism is seen as a veiled indication towards Pakistan, without naming it.

As external affairs minister S. Jaishankar told his five counterparts about a readiness to take India-Central Asia ties to the next level that must focus around 4 Cs: Commerce, Capacity Enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts, all six foreign ministers also agreed that connectivity initiatives should be based on the principles of transparency, broad participation, local priorities, financial sustainability and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. This is also seen as yet another veiled barb at the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), without naming it. It may be recalled India had refused to join the BRI because of ts flagship project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Emphasising the important of India-Central Asia connectivity projects such as the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) as well as Ashgabat Agreement on International Transport and Transit Corridor, all six ministers also agreed on the importance of the Iranian port of Chabahar for India-Central Asia connectivity (through the sea-land route via Iran). Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, Turkmenistan FM Rashid Meredov, Kazakh FM Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Tajik FM Sirojiddin Muhriddin and Kyrgyz FM Russian Kazakbaev took part in the dialogue.

In his opening remarks, Mr Jaishankar said: We are very pleased at the state of our bilateral relations. But we know that the potential is very much more. Each one of us today faces the test of rebuilding our economy But together we can do this better and India, I assure you, will be your steadfast partner. We already have a good history of cooperation. But my message to you today is a readiness to take it to the next level. Our ties must now focus around 4 Cs: Commerce, Capacity enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts.

On Afghanistan, he added: We all also share deep-rooted historical and civilisational ties with Afghanistan. Our concerns and objectives in that country are similar: a truly inclusive and representative government, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance and preserving the rights of women, children and the minorities. We must find ways of helping the people of Afghanistan.

In a joint statement, India and the five Central Asian countries said: The ministers condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reiterated that providing safe haven, using terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism, terror financing, arms and drugs trafficking, dissemination of a radical ideology and abuse of cyber space to spread disinformation and incite violence, goes against the basic principles of humanity and international relations. They stressed that perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with principle of extradite or prosecute. ... They called on the international community to strengthen UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation and fully implement the relevant UNSC resolutions, Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and FATF standards.

On Afghanistan, the statement added: The sides discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and its impact on the region. The ministers reiterated strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan while emphasising the respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity and non-interference in its internal affairs. They also discussed the current humanitarian situation and decided to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. The ministers reaffirmed the importance of UNSC Resolution 2593 (2021) which unequivocally demands that Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts and called for concerted action against all terrorist groups. The ministers also agreed to continue close consultations on the situation in Afghanistan.
Andhra Pradesh government has advised people to avoid travel during the festive season so as to curb the spread of Omicron. (PTI file photo)

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has advised people to avoid travel during the festive season so as to curb the spread of Omicron, the highly infectious Coronavirus variant.

The advisory was issued in the context of the onset of the Christmas, New Year and Sankranti festivals. A sneeze or a cough from the infected would suffice to spread the virus and the vulnerable groups like those aged above 60, those suffering from multiple health problems and chronic diseases like cancer, pregnant women and others need to be more careful.

Avoid travel by public transport as far as possible, the advisory said. People have been advised to continue with the Covid19 protocols like wearing masks, avoiding mass gatherings etc.

Conduct of RT-PCR test on all international travellers arriving in AP, as also other states, is a must. Officials have been asked to conduct a fever survey and take up Covid19 vaccination to all eligible persons to ensure protection from Omicron.

India has so far reported over 150 Omicron cases, with Telangana registering 20 cases. The state health authorities say that though more cases are being reported in the UK, the US and other countries, the symptoms of Omicron are relatively mild except for the high rate of infection, and the mortality rate is also very low.

State health director Dr G Hymavathi said, We have advised all the collectors to take up a campaign to ensure Covid jabs to all the targeted populations, follow Covid appropriate behaviour scrupulously and avoid travel as far as possible.

IMA AP branch president Dr Srinivasa Raju said, We have sent an advisory to the chief ministers office, underlining the importance to expedite Covid-19 jabs for all targeted persons and also to conduct RT-PCR tests for all travellers at domestic airports. A massive campaign on SMS dealing with sanitation, wearing masks and maintaining social distance is advisable, so that we can curb the spread of Omicron in our state.

The health authorities are critical about a section of the people failing to wear masks and avoiding Covid jabs while many are also busy organising social gatherings on one pretext or another.
Alappuzha: A day after Alappuzha was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, police on Monday said two people have been arrested in connection with the death of SDPI's K S Shan and claimed "substantial lead" in the investigation into the murder of BJP's OBC Morcha's Ranjith Sreenivas.

ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the two separate cases, said preliminary investigation revealed that there were 10 accused in the killing of Shan on Saturday night.

While Prasad and Ratheesh were arrested in connection with the killing of the SDPI state secretary, eight other people involved in the crime have been identified and police teams have been deputed to nab them.

He said the arrested man-Prasad- was the main organiser of the murder of Shan. He allegedly organised men, vehicle and planned the killing of Shan, Sakhare said.

Police is also probing if there was any larger conspiracy behind the killing of the SDPI leader, he said.

Sakhare also spoke about the progress made in the investigation into the killing of BJP's OBC Morcha's state secretary Sreenivas, claiming "concrete clues" about the assailants.

He said the police have got a "substantial lead" about 12 people involved in the killing of Sreenivas. Their identities are being verified, the senior police official said.

Sakhare refused to provide more details but said the police is also probing if there were larger conspiracy behind the killing and if it is established, the people who participated in it would also be brought before law.

Following the killing of the SDPI state secretary Shan late Saturday night, the BJP leader Sreenivas was hacked to death less than 12 hours later on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, state police chief Anil Kant on Monday directed his force to take precautionary measures in the wake of the recent incidents in Alappuzha.

The entire police force of the state will be deployed for this. Police officers will be allowed leave only in emergency situations, a statement issued by the office of the State Police Chief said.

Kant has also directed the police to tighten vehicle inspections day and night in the state and set up necessary police pickets in problematic areas.

Anti-social elements wanted in connection with various offences will be nabbed, police said.

Prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 were imposed in the entire Alappuzha district and additional police forces were deployed there and senior officers camped there to monitor the law and order situation.

SDPI state secretary KS Shan was buried in a khabaristan near his residence on Sunday evening after his body was kept for public viewing.

Cremation of the BJP OBC Morcha's state secretary Ranjith Sreenivas, who was hacked to death at his home on Sunday morning, will be done today.

His body has been handed over to the party leaders after post-mortem, police said.

An all-party meeting convened by the Alappuzha district Collector on Monday afternoon has been postponed to tomorrow after the BJP expressed inconvenience, official sources said.
Hyderabad: Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Sunday said learning does not stop at university in the legal profession, rather it begins after it and it is unending.

Legal profession is interdisciplinary and inter-sectional. Law as an instrument is deeply embedded and derived out of our social realities. Therefore, a successful practitioner of law must also be well versed with literature, philosophy, history, economics and politics of the land, the Chief Justice said during the 18th convocation ceremony of Nalsar University.

The CJI expressed his happiness over Nalsar University of Law transforming into one of the top-most law universities in the country and for the students of this university making a mark in the International programmes.

Recalling his association with the Nalsar University, the Chief Justice said, You will be surprised to know that this huge university had started functioning from a small bungalow in Barkatpura. I was part of a collective endeavour to set up a world class law university in Hyderabad along the lines of National Law School, Bengaluru. This robust institution took shape with active support of the then government.

Telangana High Court Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, who is also the Chancellor of the Nalsar University, handed over degree certificates to the students. The Chancellor also presented the gold medals to the students who stood top in all levels. LLB students  Maitrayee and Abhijit Singh  won six gold medals each for their academic performance.

Faizan Mustafa, the Vice-Chancellor of University, said Nalsar has been assigned A grade status and stood top among the national law universities in the country.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Telangana sta te government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for the financial assistance of Rs 6.43 crore for procuring e-books and others.
Hyderabad: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Monday staged protests across the state against the BJP-led government at the Centre over the latters decision not to procure paddy from Telangana in rabi season.

The protesters demanded that the Centre procure entire paddy from Telangana in both Kharif and rabi seasons.

State ministers, TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives and party leaders led the protests in villages and towns across assembly constituencies. They took out rallies and held funeral processions trashing the Centre, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The protests were accompanied by drumbeats in all the districts before the effigies of BJP and the Centre were burnt amid slogans flaying the anti-farmer policies of the Centre.

The protests were held in response to a call given by the TRS president and chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao to party leaders and cadre on Friday.

TRS working president, IT minister KT Rama Rao and MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha skipped the protest programmes due to prior engagements, said party sources.

Finance and health minister Harish Rao led the protest in Gajwel. This was the third phase of the protests organised by the TRS over the issue of paddy procurement. On November 12, the party leaders and cadres staged dharnas in all assembly constituencies. Later, the chief minister himself led a three-hour "Maha dharna" at Indira Park, on November 18, which was attended by the state ministers, MPs, party MLAs, MLCs etc.
The world has of late seen several new four-member geopolitical groupings of major powers, termed as Quads, rise. Australia, India, Japan and the United States created a Quad in 2007, on the sidelines of an Asean Regional Forum (ARF) meeting. Early this year, the foreign ministers of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the US met in Israel to christen a new West Asian Quad. This complemented on Indias west what the original Quad had created to its east in the Indo-Pacific region.

But a different kind of Quad is now in play where four big powers are elbowing for strategic space. Of the four, two are rising, one slipping and the fourth defending the status quo. This involves China, India, Russia and the United States. In the past month the leaders of all four have had bilateral summits amongst each other. The meaning of this interplay needs to be deciphered.

At the core of this drama is the tension between India and China as well as Americas troubled relationship with China and Russia. China has been unwilling to revert to the pre-Galwan mutually agreed principles of troop deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This has kept bilateral relations from fully normalising.

China has continued deployment of troops in larger numbers than normal along the LAC despite the onset of winter. The Indian military has therefore also been compelled to mirror these deployments to stymie any fresh Chinese military adventure. Russia in turn has similarly testy relations with the US and the European Union over the deployment of 1,15,000 of its troops close to the Ukraine border. Fear has gripped Kiev that Russia is waiting to intrude militarily in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putins trip to India was to demonstrate that Russia was not isolated internationally. Mr Putin held his virtual summit with US President Joe Biden only days after his visit to India on December 6, for the 21st annual bilateral summit.

President Putin conveyed to President Biden, during their summit, that the Russian red lines are that Nato should rethink its forward military activities and deployments in the former Warsaw Pact nations, abutting the Russian border.

Many analysts have pointed out that when the Soviet Union allowed the peaceful reunification of Germany and withdrew its troops from the East Bloc nations, then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had demanded that Nato, the Western alliance system, should not admit the newly liberated nations. Seeing a weakened Russia under President Boris Yeltsin, the US and its allies ignored that unwritten understanding.

President Putin has been trying to retrieve that lost strategic buffer. Russia has adopted a multi-pronged approach. One is an attempt to undermine the major Western democracies by manipulating the social media during elections. The controversy during the 2016 US presidential election was never fully resolved.

Two, Russia has allegedly used mercenaries to intrude into contested areas to alter the ground realities. Three, it has employed its energy resources to create divisions in the Western alliance. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline across the Baltic Sea serves to stir up differences between the US and Germany. It also punishes Ukraine by denying it crucial revenues which earlier pipelines through it generated. Russia is thus trying to stop further shrinkage of its strategic space in Europe. It would at the very least want that the 2008 Nato offer to induct Ukrainian and Georgia is aborted. It is against this background that India and Russia met at the summit level.

One irritant for Russia has been India diversifying its weapons purchase sources. Israels defence industry did not threaten Russia as much as the United States because of the sheer depth of platforms that the US can offer. Also, US weapons sales are never merely commercial transactions. They are a means to influence the foreign policy choices of the recipient nations, if not compelling them to align fully with the US. The partisan divisions in the US Senate also enable the US to use legislative hurdles to seek unrelated strategic concessions.

How complex the task is when balancing relations between two powers at loggerheads becomes apparent from simply looking at the trade figures. India-Russia trade last year was $8.1 billion, compared to $146 billion with the US. Even with the EU, it is $71 billion. But Russia has always been more forthcoming in sharing critical technologies in the field of space, missiles, aviation and submarines. However, Russia has a shrinking population and overdependence on its oil and gas resources, which may be in a sunset phase in the coming years.

Besides accessing technologies that the US may not share, India also wants to ensure Russia does not move too deeply into the China-Pakistan corner.

India-Russia relations, spelt out as the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in the 99-point Joint Statement, sound hyperbolic. The military dimension dominated the outcome. The resolve to hike bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2025 seems unrealistic. The agreement to jointly produce 6,00,000 AK-203 rifles appears more doable. The reiteration of the order for the S-400 battery system, despite the threat of US sanctions under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), would have reassured Russia that India was retaining strategic independence despite its growing relations with the US. Russia would also be sharing Indias concerns about the post-Taliban developments in Afghanistan as well as the growing Chinese role in Central Asia. But India also hosted the Summit for Democracy hosted by President Joe Biden, which Russia and even more so China condemned. The fact that China was able to compel Pakistan PM Imran Khan to skip it despite an invitation shows how alignments shift depending on the subject. China claimed its democracy, called consultative democracy, was the most effective. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has argued that it has dang nei min zhu, or intra-party democracy. A premier Chinese university posed 10 questions to the US, alleging the role of money and the prevalence of hunger as degrading US democracy.

With a major global power shift underway, this kind of jostling between major powers is inevitable. In the 19th century, the interplay in Europe was between five powers  England, France, Prussia (Germany after 1871), Russia and Austria. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck quipped that the aim was to be with three or more, never two or less. When diplomats could not maintain the balance, the First World War followed. The world may again be slipping towards similar instability due to the big powers jostling for space and influence.
Shares of India's Future Group companies surged about 20 per cent on Monday after the country's antitrust agency suspended Amazon.com Inc's 2019 deal with the group, potentially making it easier for Reliance Retail to buy Future's retail business.

The regulator ruled the US e-commerce giant suppressed information while seeking regulatory approval on an investment in Indian retailer Future Group two years ago.

The suspension potentially dents Amazon's attempts to block the sale of Future's retail assets to Reliance Industries Ltd's unit.

Also Read | Why CCI suspended Amazon's deal with Future Coupons

Amazon has for months successfully used the terms of its $200 million (Rs 1,522 crore) investment in Future Group to block the Indian retailer's attempts to sell retail assets to Reliance for $3.4 billion (around Rs 25,900 crore).

Future Retail, Future Consumer, Future Enterprises and Future Lifestyle Fashions climbed nearly 20 per cent, with shares of Future Retail touching a two-month high.

Reliance Industries shares slid 2.2 per cent amid a broader market sell-off.

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In 2018, I lived on Stanford University campus (where my wife was studying) and was intrigued by a French philosopher Rene Girard, a professor there. According to Rene, - human desire tends to be based on other peoples desires. We want things not because of what they are worth, but because people like us want it and we want to imitate them. This is a really powerful thought.

Whether it is the decision to marry or have children or even where we work, everything is determined by what others are doing and what they think. When I was graduating college in 2010 - everybody wanted to work on the trading floor or in the investment banking business of Goldman Sachs.

Ten years hence - it is Google, Amazon, and other tech startups. Our parents chased financial well-being, such as owning a house, a car as the primary pursuit of life. Today it can be the number of followers you have on social media, and tomorrow it may be something else. The fact is that our actions depend a lot on what other people think is cool.

Now, Lets come to investing. John Bogle (founder of Vanguard) once said, Money flows into most funds after good performance, and goes out when bad performance follows. Why does this happen?

Returns offer ease decision making

With hundreds and thousands of mutual funds out there - high returns become the default filter for choosing investments. Buying a mutual fund is equivalent to trying to decide between 1000 different hair dryers.

Its hard to predict which hair dryer will work and which wont. The best decision is to buy a decent one and stick to it for a very long-time -, but investors keep on buying the best hairdryer and selling the worst hairdryer.

Investors dont understand that juggling hairdryers is more damaging over the long-run. Every hairdryer goes through good and bad performance over a longer time span.

Social proof

If everyones investing in it  it must be good. Ratings tend to be high for good performing funds. If returns are the first filter for investors, the next filter tends to be star ratings.

Very rarely will investors see a good fund with a bad rating. Unfortunately, ratings also tend to follow good performance, so investors are back to square one. In fact, in many cases, rating upgrades tend to happen after a period of good performance by the investment.

Mean reversion

A lot of studies show mean reversion in the investment industry as well. By definition, mean reversion is a theory that suggests that asset prices tend to revert to an average level over a long enough point in time.

This theory also suggests that investors following the opposite of return chasing should ideally make more money, i.e., sell good performing investments and buying poor performing investments. In technical terms, this means portfolio rebalancing and yes - it works wonders and forms the basis of intelligent investment management.

Unfortunately, many investors do the opposite of rebalancing - buy more funds that are performing well and sell funds that are not performing well.

Advisors and wealth managers do not advise poor-performing funds. If an advisor sells a good performing fund and it does not perform - its technically the funds fault. If he sells a poorly performing fund which then delivers poor returns, thats the advisors fault. To give another example - if someone advises Infosys as a stock recommendation and if Infosys underperforms - something is probably wrong with Infosys.

But if an analyst recommends a small-cap stock - then its the analysts fault. Investing in under-performing managers and selling strong performers may end up being a good strategy - but comes with significant career risk. That is why you should never expect an advisor to recommend a poor performing fund.

Outcome bias

The investment industry is obsessed with not the process but the outcome of things. Advisors and investors are not judged by the quality of their decisions but by their investment outcomes. A good decision going sour is a sign of poor decision making. A wrong decision with a little bit of luck is a sign of superior decision making.

Good performers talk about their investing prowess, and low performers speak about bad luck. Not many talk about their investing process and frameworks.

FOMO (fear of missing out)

This one is relatively self-explanatory. Its the reason equity flows tend to be highest at market peaks. Fear of short term loss (FOSTL) is the reason why nobody invests during market bottoms. Overall, FOMO and FOSTL lead to poor long-term investment outcomes.

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Popular automobile components-maker Remsons Industries has unveiled the company's new brand identity.

Remsons Industries collaborated with The Unlock Company to bring out the new and distinctive logo with the motto-- "Let's Make Great'.

We have been focussed on the agenda to pitchfork Remsons Industries into the next orbit of growth. We have put in place various measures to upgrade the key pillars of our company. People, Structures, and Technology. An important peg in this journey is the brand interface. It needed a refresh, in line with our overall intent and business vision," Remsons Group CEO Amit Srivastava said.



Remsons Group CEO Amit Srivastava



We are truly privileged to be working with Remsons Industries. It is the freedom and open slate we got from the leadership team at Remsons, that helped us take the creative leap. The centrepiece of our strategy was to create a distinctive logo and make it represent a refreshing brand attitude. The handcrafted specially designed typography represents the solidity, the sharpness of intent and commitment to technology of the organisation," Arijit Ray CEO & founder, The Unlock Company, said

It should be noted that Remsons Industries runs a massive state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, built on 120000 square feet of land area, at Chakan, Pune.

Besides the auto-control cables and gear shifters, it makes integrated auto-components including brake assemblies, pedal boxes, jacks, winches and more for the last 50 years.

While it is important to push ahead on our resolve to move onto the next orbit of growth, it was important to get the right brand voice. We were looking at an agency partner who could understand our culture, intrinsic DNA, the foundations that built our company and then create our new logo and brand philosophy,  Rahul Kejriwal, executive director, Remsons Industries said.

The company noted that significant investments have been made in Research & Development, internal processes, recruiting, training, and skilling up talent across functions. The employee-friendly culture of the organisation is being taken to the next level by making people the fulcrum of the companys growth aspirations and thereby make Remsons a great place to work.


The World Economic Forum on Monday said it has decided to defer its Annual Meeting 2022 in the Swiss Alpine ski resort town of Davos in the light of continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak.

The Annual Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland between January 17-21, 2022, is now planned for early summer.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its last Davos summit, attended by top leaders from across the world, in January 2020, just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, while the 2021 meeting could not take place due to the outbreak.

The Geneva-based entity, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, had first planned to shift the 2021 annual meeting to another location in Switzerland and then to Singapore, before finally cancelling it.

In a statement on deferring the 2022 meeting to early summer, the WEF said participants will instead join a headline series of 'State of the World' sessions bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

"Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting. Preparations have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels," it said.

The WEF said despite the meeting's stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.

"The health and safety of everyone involved in physical meetings -- participants, collaborators and the host community -- have always been the Forum's priority," it said.

"The deferral of the Annual Meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society," said Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

"Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace. We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon," he added.

Among others, more than 100 leaders from India, including union ministers, chief ministers and CEOs, had already been registered for the Davos Annual Meeting 2022, for which 'Working Together, Restoring Trust' was decided as a theme.

It was billed as the 'first truly global opportunity for leaders from business, government and civil society to come together again and set the agenda for a sustainable recovery' in a post-pandemic world.

Januarys planned Annual Meeting will be deferred to later in 2022 https://t.co/eUI8Ea4TeL  World Economic Forum (@wef) December 20, 2021

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Lakhs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) across India, including those in Bengalurus Peenya industrial complex, went on a one-day strike on Monday to protest the steep rise in the prices of steel and raw materials including aluminium, copper and engineering plastics.

The strike was organised by the All India Council of Association of MSMEs (AICA), which represents 170 MSME associations.

The MSMEs have been facing one crisis after another since 2016  demonetisation, the introduction of GST, the economic slowdown in 2019 and the Covid-19 lockdown in the first half of 2020.

Aluminium alloy prices have risen 154.7%, copper prices have jumped 119.4% and steel prices have climbed 82.2% in the period from April 2020 until October 2021, while those of kraft paper (packing grade) and engineering plastic have doubled, data from Bengaluru-based Peenya Industries Association showed. PIA represents 6,500 MSMEs.

AICA spokesman R Ramamurthy urged the Indian government to restore prices to 2020 levels.

We have been hit by Covid already and to top it (off), the price hike is not being absorbed by the consumers. So, government intervention is urgently required for restoring the prices to pre-Covid levels, Ramamurthy said.

Economic impact

PIA President B Muralikrishna, who pegged the associations strike-related loss at Rs 500 crore, asked the government to cut import duty and do something to address the cartelization by steel manufacturers in order to control the sky-rocketing prices. The organisations will wait for about a month for the government to respond and then take a call on future plans of action, he added.

Several major organisations in Karnataka participated in Mondays strike, including the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA), the Bangalore Chamber of

Industry and Commerce (BCIC) and the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI). They have held discussions with the central and state governments.

FKCCI has taken up the matter with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and requested her to come up with fresh measures to support the MSME sector.

I made it very clear to the Union Finance Minister that if the government wants the MSME sector to survive, then urgent steps have to be taken, FKCCI President I S Prasad said, highlighting problems including high customs duty and anti-dumping duty.

Others urged the government to make the sector a priority.

The post of development commissioner of MSME ministry has been vacant for the past six months. This speaks volumes about how serious the government is with regards to the sector, said KE Raghunathan, Convenor of the Consortium of Indian Association.

Over 10 lakh companies participated in the strike with an estimated loss of about Rs 15-25,000 crore including large scale industries, AICAs Ramamurthy said, adding that losses from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu alone are expected to top Rs 1,500 crore.

In Tamil Nadu

In Coimbatore, the Manchester of South India home to thousands of MSMEs, as many as 46 associations, including the influential Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, participated in the protest demanding the immediate intervention from the Centre.

There is not even one raw material whose price has not increased exponentially in the past one-and-a-half years How do we survive if the prices continue to increase? asked K Maniraj, president, Coimbatore Pump Manufacturers Association. He added the Centre should constitute a Monitoring Committee with representatives from MSMEs that would oversee the prices of raw materials.

Over 40 crore individuals in the country are dependent on MSMEs and rued increase in prices of raw materials, according to M S Sampath, the president of the Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association.

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The Bengaluru civic agency has made Covid-19 tests mandatory in private hospitals for patients complaining of severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) or influenza-like illness (ILI).

"All the SARI, ILI patients coming to OPD in private hospitals in BBMP limits should be tested for Covid-19 compulsorily and other patients also could be advised to undergo the same if needed," the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike quoted Special Commissioner Dr Trilok Chandra, in a statement.

Addressing a meeting with the Private Hospitals And Nursing home Association (PHANA) and more than 100 private hospitals, he said that precautionary measures should be taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the city.

Also Read  Bengaluru: No second dose given but many get completion certificates

The officer asked the hospitals to ensure that everyone visiting the hospital are inoculated. If a visitor has taken only the first dose of the vaccine, the hospitals should ensure the administration of the second dose.

Dr Chandra assured the representatives of PHANA that the Covid-19 cases in the city were stable.

However, as a precautionary measure, the private hospitals were asked to be ready to reserve beds for Covid-19 patients, including a separate paediatric ward. He also insisted that real-time information on bed availability be uploaded to the PHANA portal.

All necessary measures should be taken to ensure proper availability of oxygen, he told the representatives of PHANA.

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With the revenue department not taking the execution orders issued by the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) seriously, homebuyers have started demanding an alternative enforcement mechanism to get an early refund or relief from the promoters.

The fresh demand comes at a time when a majority of the K-RERA orders have remained just a piece of paper.

K-RERA data shows only 312 home buyers benefited from the 6,111 complaints registered in the regulatory body over the last five years. The money recovered from the promoters or builders, who failed to complete the project on time, is very low. Only Rs 6.8 crore of Rs 245 crore was recovered. Thats 14 of 595 recovery certificates issued.

An alternative enforcement mechanism, homebuyers believe, could be empowering the K-RERA to enforce execution orders that currently lies with the district administration. If a deputy commissioner or tahsildar does not enforce the orders, the execution powers should automatically be given to the regulatory body, a homebuyer said.

In a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the Karnataka Homebuyers Forum detailed the shortcomings of the existing system. A senior official in K-RERA said they were considering writing to the government seeking powers to enforce the orders.

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Karnataka has been administering second doses of Covid vaccines at a brisk rate since mid-November, but there are some concerns over people getting vaccination completion certificates without actually getting the dose.

Koramangala resident Bhojraj (name changed), 52, had abstained from getting a second dose of Covishield after developing a severe adverse effect four weeks after getting his first dose in May. A severe rash developed on my hands, spreading to my chest, back and abdomen, which lasted for eight weeks, he explained, clarifying that he had never had a rash in his life.

Following a biopsy, his doctors told him that the cause was an adverse effect due to medication. Because of this, I was advised to hold off getting the second dose until my antibody levels dropped. At which point, I was advised to take a dose of Covaxin as my second dose, Bhojraj said.

But with no official policy on mixing vaccines, Bhojraj said he was stuck. Then, to his shock, on December 16, he received a message congratulating him on completing his vaccination cycle.

Also Read | India's Omicron count crosses 150

I was stunned to receive the message which is not at all true, he said. He added that his situation has become complicated by the fact that tests have shown that he has zero antibodies to protect against Covid-19.

I do not have any antibodies and I require protection. I now face a lot of uncertainty about how to get this second dose, he said.

It is a problem faced by 46-year-old Chandrika, another city resident. Her son, Shashi Kiran G, explained that his mother, while initially vaccinated in May, had to postpone taking a second dose owing to medical reasons. She is on heart medication for three months; doctors have advised not taking the vaccine during this period, he said.

However, on December 11, Kiran said he was surprised to see that his mother had received a message showing that she had completed her vaccination cycle. This has caused a lot of concern. I think this is a scam by the government to increase the vaccine coverage numbers, he said.

Govt knows the problem

Health officials said they have received multiple such complaints from the public. Based on our understanding, 99% of these are errors being made by field staff, explained Dr Arundhathi Chandrasekhar, Director, National Health Mission, who is among several senior officers in charge of the vaccination programme.

With vaccinators operating in public places and going house-to-house, phone numbers of recipients are being incorrectly entered in the field. The result is that another person gets a message that they have been vaccinated even though they might not have been, she added.

Another Bengaluru resident, Dr Shabana, remains unconvinced. Her father-in-law, a retired 78-year-old army officer, also received an erroneous second dose vaccination certificate. He had received one dose each after having inadvertently registered on two different phone numbers, so the erroneous two-dose certificate is not inaccurate. However, it does not instil trust in the system, she explained.

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The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has castigated Prime Minister Imran Khan for allegedly defaming the country and its political parties only to hide his own corruption at a time when foreign dignitaries were in the capital to attend the 17th extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dawn news reported.

Speaking at a news conference, PML-N's information secretary and MNA Marriyum Aurangzeb asked the Prime Minister to step down from the office, if he really wanted to provide relief to the masses.

Referring to the Khan's interview to Al Jazeera on December 17 in which he had once again blamed the past rulers' corruption for the "country's destruction", she said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had already completed more than three years of its term, but it seemed that the Prime Minister had been suffering from "Sharif family phobia" as he kept on mentioning the names of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif all the time, instead of highlighting his own achievements.

Aurangzeb questioned the timing of, what she called, the political interview and alleged that it was an attempt to sabotage and damage the country's image at a time when the foreign ministers of the Islamic countries were arriving in Pakistan for the OIC meeting.

She alleged that Khan had committed the same act when Chinese President Xi Jinping was to visit the country in 2014 during the PML-N government's time.

She said it seemed that the prime minister did not possess the mental capacity to understand the sensitivity and importance of the OIC gathering and how he should present a positive image of the country to the leaders of the Muslim world in Pakistan, Dawn news reported.

This, she said, was because Khan knew nothing other than persecuting and victimising the opposition and blaming them for his failures.

Aurangzeb further alleged that the Prime Minister was bringing a bad name to Pakistan only to hide his own incompetence.

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The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from the Covid-19 disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan added it would be "unwise" to conclude from early evidence that Omicron was a milder variant that previous ones.

"... with the numbers going up, all health systems are going to be under strain," Soumya Swaminathan told Geneva-based journalists.

The variant is successfully evading some immune responses, she said, meaning that the booster programmes being rolled out in many countries ought to be targeted towards people with weaker immune systems.

"There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the briefing.

"And it is more likely people vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 could be infected or re-infected," Tedros said.

Also read: World Economic Forum defers Davos meeting amid Omicron outbreak

Their comments echoed the finding of study by Imperial College London, which said last week the risk of reinfection was more than five times higher and it has shown no sign of being milder than Delta.

WHO officials said however that other forms of immunity vaccinations may prevent infection and disease.

While the antibody defences from some actions have been undermined, there has been hope that T-cells, the second pillar of an immune response, can prevent severe disease by attacking infected human cells.

WHO expert Abdi Mahamud added: "Although we are seeing a reduction in the neutralisation antibodies, almost all preliminary analysis shows T-cell mediated immunity remains intact, that is what we really require."

Read | Vaccination drive needs to be strengthened: Swaminathan

However, highlighting how little is known about how to handle the new variant that was only detected last month, Swaminathan also said: "Of course there is a challenge, many of the monoclonals will not work with Omicron."

She gave no details as she referred to the treatments that mimic natural antibodies in fighting off infections. Some drug makers have suggested the same.

Ending the pandemic

In the short term, Tedros said that holiday festivities would in many places lead to "increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths" and urged people to postpone gatherings.

"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," he said.

But the WHO team also offered some hope to a weary world facing the new wave that 2022 would be the year that the pandemic, which already killed more than 5.6 million people worldwide, would end.

It pointed towards the development of second and third generation vaccines, and the further development of antimicrobial treatments and other innovations.

"(We) hope to consign this disease to a relatively mild disease that is easily prevented, that is easily treated," Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, told the briefing.

"If we can keep virus transmission to minimum, then we can bring the pandemic to an end."

However Tedros also said China, where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first detected at the end of 2019, must be forthcoming with data and information related to its origin to help the response going forward.

"We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future," Tedros said.

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Donning orange bibs, a group of women fan across a Johannesburg township notorious for crime, knocking on doors and stopping anyone they come across on the streets, including teenagers returning from school.

They are called gender-based violence brigades and their mission is herculean: to confront South Africa's plague of femicide and violence against women and children.

The cases are gruesome, and the numbers are dizzying.

A law student was murdered, her body chopped into pieces and stuffed into a suitcase. Another university student was raped, bludgeoned to death with an industrial weighing scale inside a post office. An eight-months pregnant woman was hanged from a tree.

"We can't just ignore what we (see) until justice takes its course," said Juliet Ngonyama, 52, her orange bib hanging from her shoulders.

Orange is a symbol of revolution in South Africa. In this case, it symbolises the activists' determination to curb the violence that has worsened since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

As the women speak with residents, they unearth cases that would have otherwise gone unreported.

Walking in pairs, they engage whoever they come across -- male or female.

"Gender-based violence is abusing women, children and men emotionally physically, financially and psychologically," is their opening refrain.

South Africa has an unenviable reputation having some of the world's highest levels of violence against women.

More than 100 rapes are reported daily, while on average a woman is murdered every three hours, according to official data.

The latest quarterly crime statistics showed a 7.1-per cent increase in rapes, with 9,556 women raped between July and September.

"These statistics are shameful," an exasperated President Cyril Ramaphosa said in November.

He has characterised violence against women as a "second pandemic" after Covid-19.

"We are in the grip of a relentless war being waged on the bodies of women and children that, despite our best efforts, shows no signs of abating.

"If a nation's character can be judged by how it treats women and children, then we are falling desperately short," he said.

The Gauteng provincial government started the women's brigades in August last year "to ensure that victims are reached out to in their household through a door-to-door campaign," said the campaign's coordinator, Senosha Malesela.

"Overall we are seeing an increased number of... cases being opened in police stations," he said.

On that day in Rabie Ridge township, neighbours alerted the brigades to a 22-year-old woman who had been repeatedly abused by her brother.

She was too petrified to discuss the details because her brother was nearby. Instead, she gave her phone number for the brigades to follow up later that evening.

Women like her, trapped within the same space as their abusers, often end up at shelters. But South Africa only has about 100 such shelters to serve the entire country, and not all provinces fund them well.

The Nisaa centre in Johannesburg's southern Lenasia township is as old as South Africa's democracy.

Its manager Gladys Mmadintsi does not remember a single day when the centre did not house a victim since it opened its doors in April 1994.

"Instead of going down,... it's worse now," said Mmadintsi, 57.

St Anne's Home in Cape Town has also seen an increase in abuse since the pandemic.

When AFP journalists visited, one woman had arrived the night before, and another with a baby and toddler in tow arrived that morning.

Pandemic restrictions, especially limits on movement, have caused more women to seek shelter, said St. Anne's director Joy Lange.

"Before, people in abusive relationships could escape by going to work," she said, adding that the "intensity of the violence" has grown.

Parliament in September passed three bills to tighten its laws on gender-based violence, but advocates say that will not address the causes of the problem.

South African men often grow up without fathers, and have also suffered from violence, said Craig Wilkinson, founder of a non-profit organisation, Father A Nation.

With false notions of masculinity and rampant unemployment, men are in "a perfect storm", he said.

"No amount of law enforcement can fix broken and wounded men," he said. Legislation alone is "like putting a lid on a pressure cooker. There's going to be an explosion. You have got to deal with the pressure".

"We need to re-father our men, validate them, restore them, teach them how to use their strength."

Violence targeted at women is so normalised that "it's a lot more difficult for people to come out and seek help and to try to help other survivors", said Nisaa programs manager Sima Diai.

It took Nathalie, 40, who has been at Nisaa for two months, a decade before she sought help. She recounted endless bouts of abuse, being hit with a crowbar and suffering three broken ribs.

Jacqueline, 29, has been at St Anne's for nine months. She recalls "that guy beat me so badly, I hated myself for letting that happen".

She's not laying charges against her abuser, but is glad she survived "because you have a story to tell".
Alleging large-scale rigging during the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections, opposition BJP on Sunday met West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and urged him to take steps to countermand the civic polls.

Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari claimed that there were over 100 instances of irregularities during the polls, and not more than 20 per cent of the electorate could cast votes.

"Most CCTVs were non-functional with papers and stickers pasted on the camera or their connection points pulled out The chief minister is turning the state into a dictator-run republic, he said.

Sporadic incidents of violence including hurling of bombs at two booths and skirmishes between political workers marred an otherwise humdrum polling as 63.63 per cent of the nearly 40.5 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm on Sunday, when voting ended.

High drama was witnessed outside a Salt Lake area house where Adhikari was holding a meeting with party MLAs, after the Bidhannagar city police cordoned-off the entire area and stopped him from leaving for Raj Bhawan, where he was scheduled to meet the Governor, citing a directive of the State Election Commission that non-residents cannot enter the city on polling day.

In a video that surfaced on social media, BJP vice-president Jay Prakash Majumder was seen arguing with police officers, asking them on what grounds were they taking such action.

A deputy commissioner rank officer was heard telling him: "We cannot allow you to proceed to Kolkata as polling is being held and you are not residents of the metropolis."

Adhikari also alleged he was manhandled by a junior police officer, and that the gates of the MLA hostel in Kolkata were locked till 5 pm, preventing eight BJP legislators from attending a legislature party meeting.

Later, the governor, in a tweet, said: BJP delegation led by LOP @SuvenduWB has urged the Governor to take steps to declare polls #KMC null and void in view of rampant violence, rigging and @KolkataPolice acting for ruling party. A thorough probe was sought in the locking of opposition MLAs in the hostel.

"Delegation also sought investigation into the virtual house arrest @bidhannagarpc of LOP @SuvenduWB and several MLAs, being reminiscent of emergency. According to them, ruling party Ministers and MLAs had free run with support @KolkataPolice."

A BJP delegation on Sunday evening submitted various footages and documents to the SEC, demanding repolling.

Adhikari said the KMC elections is being monitored by the Calcutta High Court, and the party will also submit footages in support of its claims to the court on December 23.

"I saw her (CM Mamata Banerjee) thanking police for having stopped outsiders. How long will she keep labelling residents of the state as outsiders? the leader of opposition added.

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A day after the municipal elections were held for Kolkata Municipal Corporation, parties in opposition in West Bengal, on Monday, took to the streets to protest alleged high-handedness of Trinamool supporters on the day of the polls, and with allegations that police and state election commission have failed to ensure a fair election.

Outside its party head office in Kolkata, BJP supporters jostled with police force, as they wanted to rally in protest. They were, however, not permitted to do so. The BJP had called for a protest rally against widespread violence, booth rigging and false votes on Monday.

Also Read  Kolkata civic polls held, Opposition alleges TMC high-handedness

A BJP delegation had also met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday evening and demanded that the polls be nullified. Late on Sunday night, BJP leaders, when obstructed from entering the state election commission office, sat on a dharna at the premises. The BJP national president JP Nadda and national leaders had also tweeted to extend their support to their state unit and condemned the alleged atrocities that took place during the day.

The Left Front is organising protests on Monday and Tuesday. Left supporters protested outside the state election commissions office. Congress supporters too took to the streets. Leaders of the Left and the BJP separately moved court against the alleged high-handedness of the Trinamool supporters.

The ruling Trinamool leadership has ignored the allegations, claiming that the vote has been fair. The opposition is involved in theatrics, the Trinamool leadership has claimed. The results are expected to be declared after vote count on Tuesday.

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Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Monday reached Delhi office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to join the probe in connection with Panama papers leak case for alleged FEMA violation.

A top ED official confirmed about her joining the probe to record her statement.

He said that the actress was summoned thrice to join the probe. It was the third summon which she received.

"We had summoned her for December 20. The summon was sent to her Mumbai's residence. Abiding by the summon she joined the probe," said an ED official.

Now SIT of elite officials of the ED are recording her statements.

This is not the first time when she has been summoned. She was earlier summoned on two occasions. However, she didn't join the probe. Earlier on November 9, she was summoned to record her testimony in the case, but she did not come.

The ED had lodged case under FEMA after Panama Papers showed how companies were set up in offshore islands to avoid taxes. Aishwarya Rai and others have been named in the case.

In 2016, the Panama Papers leak case came into the light in which Aishwarya Rai and Bachchan family members were also named. Names of Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan also cropped up in the case. According to the information, in May 2005 a company was reportedly incorporated at British Virgin Islands in which Aishwarya and other Bachchan family members were directors.

In June, her director's post was changed and she became a shareholder in the company. After three years the company became inactive. Later, after her name came into Panama Papers leak, an SIT was formed to look into the matter.

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The Gandhinagar police on Monday arrested top leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) including its state president Gopal Italia, Isudan Gadhvi and over 60 others for trespassing BJP headquarters, rioting, among other charges.

The arrests came after a protest by the AAP leaders at BJP office "Kamalam" in the state capital against question paper leak in the head clerk recruitment examination.

A group of AAP leaders had barged into BJP headquarters, where they sat singing "Ramdhun '' (chants of Lord Ram's name) while demanding action in the paper leak case. AAP has alleged that while they were singing "Ramdhun '' in a symbolic protest, BJP leaders 'attacked' them. The local police also arrived immediately and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the gathering. The BJP has alleged that AAP leaders created a ruckus at the party's "private office" and misbehaved with women members.

Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police, Mayur Chavda, while stating that 60 to 70 AAP leaders were arrested, said that many persons were injured in the incident including members from the "complainant's side" as police officials. When asked if several AAP leaders also suffered injuries, he told reporters that he hadn't received any complaints. The AAP leaders have been booked for trespassing (IPC-452), assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty (IPC-353), rioting (IPC-144), to be read with conspiracy (IPC 120B) among other charges against a mob of 400 to 500 people.

"Isudan Gadhvi, Gopal Italia, Nikhil Savani, Shiv Kumar, Pravin Ram and 60 to 70 other leaders have been arrested. They will be produced before the court on Tuesday. We have registered the FIR following a complaint lodged by BJP," Chavda said during a press conference. He also said that a blood sample of one person has been sent for forensic examination to ascertain if the person was drunk or not. The FIR, based on a written complaint filed by a member of BJP women's cell, mentions her alleging "Isudan Gadhvi seemed like a drunk".

In a video clip, tweeted from Gujarat AAP's Twitter handle, Isudan Gadhvi is heard saying that the party was planning to take up the issue of the paper leak as "BJP has been leaking the papers repeatedly. Eight to ten persons would be arrested but BJP leaders would get away. We had organised a meeting in Gandhinagar to decide what to do with the case since AAP is in opposition. Our 200 members were stopped from reaching Gandhinagar. Then, we decided to make a representation to C R Paatil who is running the government. Therefore, we went to Kamalam to stage a symbolic protest and while we were singing Ramdhun, BJP leaders attacked us..."

A BJP spokesperson said that "AAP entered its headquarters like anti-social elements and without any authority." It also said that nine of its members were injured after they were allegedly attacked by AAP leaders. The FIR mentions the names of AAP leaders Italia, Gadhvi, Shiv Kumar, Nikhil Savani, Hasmukh Patel, Pravin Rami.

Sources said that AAP had planned to stage a protest outside the state Assembly. It took everyone including the local police by surprise when they reached Kamalam. "Had we announced our plan in advance, they couldn't have reached the BJP office. We succeeded in our planning but many of our workers sustained injuries in their head, legs, arms and other body parts due to police lathi-charge," an AAP leader said.

Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister and party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet, "The barbarous attack on AAP leaders in Gujarat is highly condemnable. The voice of rights of the people can't be suppressed by sticks or dictatorship."

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India's Omicron Covid count rose to 151 on Sunday after Maharashtra reported six more cases while a 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy, who recently arrived in Gujarat from the United Kingdom, also tested positive for the variant.

According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories -- Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (9), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).

Six persons tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, raising the state's tally of such cases to 54, the health department said.

While two of these patients had a history of travel to Tanzania, two others had returned from England and one from the Middle East. All five of them are fully vaccinated.

Another patient is a five-year-old boy from Junnar in Pune who is a close contact of Dubai travellers from Junnar, it said in a statement.

Also Read | Most vaccines unlikely to protect against Omicron infections, according to initial studies

"Total six cases were diagnosed today - four of them found during the airport screening in Mumbai. One of these four patients is from Mumbai, two from Karnataka and one from Aurangabad," it said.

Out of 54 cases in the state, 22 have been found in Mumbai.

In Gujarat, a non-resident Indian tested positive for the coronavirus infection in the RT-PCR test carried out at the Ahmedabad international airport soon after he arrived from the UK on December 15, a health department official said on Sunday.

"The man's sample was later found infected with the Omicron variant," Anand district health officer Dr M T Chhari said.

He was scheduled to reach the state's Anand city from Ahmedabad.

"But, after he tested positive for the coronavirus, he was taken to the Ahmedabad civil hospital from the airport. The patient is currently recovering at the Ahmedabad civil hospital," Dr Chhari said.

His co-passengers and other contacts have tested negative for the viral infection, the official said.

Also Read | As Omicron spreads, India may need to adopt a hybrid model of testing

A 15-year-old boy from Gandhinagar was also detected with the Omicron variant after returning from the UK, Gandhinagar Municipal Commissioner Dhaval Patel said.

On Saturday, Maharashtra had reported eight more cases, Telangana's tally jumped from eight to 20, while Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectively.

Of the six cases reported in Karnataka on Saturday, one was a passenger from the UK, while five others were from Covid-19 clusters in two educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada district, officials had said.

While Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24, India's first two cases of this heavily mutated version of the coronavirus were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

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Explainer | Why was Djokovic not let into Australia?...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone on Monday, amid speculation over Moscow mediating between New Delhi and Beijing to help end a 20-month-long military stand-off along the disputed boundary between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

Modi and Putin followed up on some of the issues discussed during the annual summit the two leaders had held in New Delhi about a fortnight ago, according to a press release issued by the Prime Ministers Office in New Delhi. Putins office in Moscow, however, stated that he and Modi exchanged views on the international stability and security problems, including the situation in the Asia-Pacific.

The phone call between the two leaders took place just days after Moscow made it public that it had proposed a trilateral RIC (Russia-India-China) summit among Putin, Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Also Read  India, China 'effectively managed, controlled' eastern Ladakh frictions: Chinese FM Wang Yi

Putin held the annual India-Russia summit with Modi in New Delhi on December 6. He also had a videoconference with Xi on December 15. Putin's aide, Yury Ushakov, said in Moscow that the leaders of Russia and China had agreed to endeavour to hold the next RIC summit with the Prime Minister of India in the near future.

New Delhi, however, remained non-committal on Moscows proposal for the RIC summit.

Modi, Putin and Xi had held the second RIC summit on the sideline of the G-20 conclave in Buenos Aires in December 2018  almost 12 years after the then leaders of the three nations had held the first trilateral meeting. They had held the third RIC summit on the sideline of the G-20 meet in Osaka in June 2019.

The RIC summit, however, could not be held in 2020 and 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world and Indias relations with China hit a new low over the military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Also Read  In India visit, Putin's message to the US and China

The phone call between Modi and Putin on Monday helped firm up the future course of action on the issues discussed by the two leaders earlier this month, including opportunities for furthering defence cooperation, cooperation in the supply of fertilizers, enhancement of India's engagement with the Russian Far East, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi.

The proposal for a trilateral Putin-Modi-Xi summit came amid the continuing stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) along the LAC, the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector.

Also Read  Putin, Xi hail Russia-China ties during virtual summit

The stand-off started in April to May of 2020, when the Indian Army had to deploy additional troops in response to the Chinese PLAs move to amass a large number of troops near the LAC in an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo along the disputed boundary and to push the line westward. It reached a flashpoint on June 15, 2020, when 20 Indian Army soldiers and at least four Chinese PLA personnel were killed in a violent clash at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.

The protracted negotiations between diplomats and senior military commanders of India and China resulted in the mutual withdrawal of front-line troops by the Chinese PLA and the Indian Army from the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso (lake) in February and from the Gogra Post in August this year. The two sides, however, could not agree on disengagement in other remaining face-off points along the LAC.

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Upset over alleged "personal" remarks made against her, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan on Monday lashed out at the ruling BJP in Rajya Sabha with a "curse" that it will face bad days.

An agitated Bachchan also told the chair that he should be fair and alleged that an attempt was being made to stifle the voice of opposition.

Participating in the debate on NDPS (Amendment) Bill, Bachchan chose to raise the issue of the 12 suspended opposition members and said Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was in the chair, himself used to protest in the Well of the House. This evoked a sharp reaction from BJP members.

"I don't want to thank you because I don't know whether I should remember when you used to walk into the Well shouting...or today when you are sitting in the chair," she said when called to speak on the bill.

Also Read | ED summons Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in case linked to Panama Papers leak

Objecting to her remarks, Rakesh Sinha (BJP) said she was casting aspersions on the chair.

But Bachchan continued her speech and lamented that at a time when the country is facing several important issues, the House has allocated 3-4 hours for a debate on rectifying a "clerical error" in the Bill.

Amid the din, she alleged that personal remarks were made against her and sought protection from the chair.

"I expect you to take action on the comment he made on me and my career. You want to be fair. You are sitting on the chair, you don't belong to any party, sir," she said.

"How can they make personal remarks in the House...Aap logon kay buraey din aayengay (Your bad days will come), I curse you," she said.

The remarks claimed by Bachchan as "personal" could not be heard in the noise.

Also Read | No one ever succeeded by intimidating Bengalis: Jaya Bachchan

Leaders of the BJP and the SP have been attacking each other as the crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh are due early next year.

Bachchan's outburst came on a day her daughter-in-law and actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a case linked to the 2016 'Panama Papers' global tax leaks case.

Her statement was being recorded under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), official sources said.

The SP has accused the Centre of targeting its leaders due to political vendetta, a charge denied by the BJP.

Kalita repeatedly urged Bachchan to confine herself to the Bill being debated.

She responded by saying that efforts were being made to stifle the voice of opposition members.

Kalita said that the chair would go through the records and remove unparliamentary remarks if any.

The chair meanwhile called the next member to speak on the Bill, but soon after adjourned the House for 30 minutes because of the continuous din.
Though the English translation of 'Matri Shakti' (Mother Power) and 'Nari Shakti' (Women Power) may make one think that the two terms are different but in Hindi parlance they are the same as both denote the women.

What, however, differentiates them is that while one is BJP sponsored while the other is 'powered' by the Congress but even here there is a similarity between the two. Both are intended to garner the support of the 'aadhi abadi' (half of the population) in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The otherwise caste and religion driven polls in UP is witnessing entry of a hitherto unheard and unknown factor in the form of women. Courtesy Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's assiduous campaign to target the women voters in the state through announcement of reservation of 40 per cent nominations for the women in forthcoming assembly polls and a slew of other measures in case her party forms the next government in the state.

Read more: Trouble for BJP in UP as Nishads fume over reservation delay

Congress, on the call of Priyanka, held a series of programs and undertook footmarch in different parts of UP as part of its 'Nari Shakti' program, on Monday. Congress' women leaders held interaction with the women during the 'yatras' and also apprised them about Priyanka's slogan 'ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon' ( I am a girl and I can fight).

Priyanka has also been interacting with women in different parts of the state. On Sunday she interacted with women at Raebareli and asked them to vote unitedly.

Apparently to counter Priyanka's 'women card', BJP has launched its own 'Matri Shakti Samman' program. Prime minister Narendra Modi will be taking part in the program in Prayagraj on Tuesday.

A UP BJP leader told DH here that more than one lakh women from different districts adjoining Prayagraj would be taking part in the program. ''Women have benefited most under the BJP regime....other parties remember them only during the elections,'' said former BJP MLA Dipak Patel.

Officials in Prayagraj said that Modi would be transferring Rs one thousand crore to a self help group (SHG) that claims to have 16 lakh women members. He would also be interacting with some representatives of the SHGs during the program and was also expected to make some announcement for the welfare of the women.

Several senior women BJP leaders, including union minister Smriti Irani, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti and others, will be attending the program.

Political analysts as well as the women feel that it's a healthy development. ''At least women have now acquired centrestage in the polls,'' said Mamata Tewari, a housewife and a resident of Lucknow's Triveni Nagar locality.

Veteran political analyst JP Shukla also said that the issues of the women were different from others in many respects. ''Though it is yet to be seen if women will vote according to their own preferences or follow then male members of their families but it is good to see the parties vying for their support,'' Shukla said.

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Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the government of trying to divide the Opposition by calling only a few parties to resolve the ongoing impasse over the suspension of 12 MPs.

Kharge said, "The Government is conspiring to divide the Opposition but the parties are united on the issue. It should call an all-party meeting."

He was reacting to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi calling a meeting on Monday of Opposition parties whose MPs were suspended last month for the Winter Session.

Get the latest updates on the Parliament proceedings here

Joshi has called the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India to end the stalemate in the House which has been continuing since day one of the session.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had suggested that both the parties should resolve this issue as the House could not function properly this week.

Seeking an apology from the suspended MPS, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal had alleged that even after attacking marshals and misbehaving with the female marshals, senior Opposition members were unrepentant.

Also Read | 'Unfair, unacceptable': CPM's Kareem, CPI's Viswam criticise government's selective invitation for meeting over suspension of MPs

"The government is ready to consider their request provided they apologise," he had added.

However, Mallikarjun Kharge said, "We have been repeatedly telling you that the crime which we have not committed is being put on us," and charged the government with misleading the House on the incident.

Congress has also convened a virtual meeting to devise a common strategy in both the Houses.

The Winter session is slated to end on December 23.

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Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday in one voice rejected the Delimitation Commissions proposal to increase the number of Assembly seats in Jammu region by six against one in the Valley.

In a draft proposal discussed during its meeting in New Delhi with five associate members, the Commission, headed by Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai, has increased the number of Assembly seats in Jammu region from 37 to 43 while in Kashmir the tally has been increased from 46 to 47.

The Delimitation Commission has categorised all 20 districts in the Union Territory in three broad categories A, B and C giving a margin of +/- 10% of average population per assembly constituency, while proposing allocation of the constituencies to the districts. The commission has also, for some districts, proposed carving out an additional constituency to balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to their excessive remoteness or inhospitable conditions on the international border, according to a press release issued in New Delhi.

Nine seats are proposed to be allocated for the Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population, for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir. Seven seats are proposed for Scheduled Castes.

The commission requested the associate members to furnish views, comments and suggestions by December 31.

The Commission on Monday called five J&K Member Parliaments, including National Conferences (NC) Farooq Abdullah, Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, BJPs Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma. The panel has asked the associate members to submit their suggestions by the end of December.

Read more: Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission ready with report on resizing of constituencies

In its first paper drafted by the Commission, nine seats have been proposed for Schedule Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes in Jammu and Kashmir, while 24 seats are expected to remain in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

However, Kashmir based political parties in one voice termed the proposal of the Commission as unacceptable.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission werent misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census & proposing 6 seats for one region & only one for Kashmir.

My apprehensions about the #DelimitationCommission weren't misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census and preposing six seats for one region and only one for Kashmir," @MehboobaMufti https://t.co/lKXyTVspCw  Gulam Jeelani (@jeelanikash) December 20, 2021

This commision has been created simply to serve BJPs political interests by dividing people along religious & regional lines. The real game plan is to install a government in J&K which will legitimise the illegal & unconstitutional decisions of August 2019 (sic), she added.

NC vice president and former CM Omar Abdullah in a tweet said: The draft recommendation of the J&K delimitation commission is unacceptable. The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with 6 going to Jammu & only 1 to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census.

It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been its only consideration. Contrary to the promised scientific approach its a political approach, he said in another tweet.

It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been its only consideration. Contrary to the promised scientific approach its a political approach.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) December 20, 2021

J&K Peoples conference chief Sajad Lone, who was a cabinet minister on BJP quota in the erstwhile J&K government from 2015-2018 said it was a shock to those who believe in democracy.

The recommendations of the delimitation commission are totally unacceptable. They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy, he tweeted.

J&K Apni Party, which is believed to be a proxy of the BJP, too rejected the proposal. J&K Apni Party rejects the proposal of the delimitation commission. This is out-rightly unacceptable to us. We demand a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base. We strongly demand the GoI to intervene, the party said in a statement.

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BJP may have managed to rope in the Nishad Party to counter Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav's alliance with caste-based smaller outfits in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh but the demand for reservation by the members of the Nishad (boatmen, fishermen) community as a pre-condition for their support has put the saffron party in a fix and also threatens to divide the votes of the Nishads.

As the Nishad Party (NP) president Sanjay Nishad as well as other leaders of the community upped the ante and asked BJP to get the centre to include the community in the SC category and announce reservation for them, the state leaders of the saffron party had urged the central party leadership to at least give some assurances to the Nishad community in this regard.

Read more: At Nishad rally Amit Shah invokes Ayodhya

''It is not possible to accept the demand for reservation....it is a complicated and lengthy process...it can not be done in a hurry,'' said a state BJP leader while speaking to DH here.

Nishad community leaders, however, rubbished the assertion saying that the demand for reservation had been there for quite a long. ''The demand is not new...we have been demanding inclusion in the SC category for several years....BJP is trying to fool us,'' said Gyanendra Nishad, who has formed his own outfit Jalvanshi Nishad Party. Gyanendra had recently set up his party's office in Gorakhpur, the home town of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

He said that the NDA government in Bihar had rejected the demand of the Nishad community for reservation. ''We know that BJP will never give us a reservation,'' he said, criticising NP president Sanjay Nishad for 'surrendering' before the saffron party.

Also Read | 'No reservation, no votes': BJP gets Nishad Party ultimatum ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls

Sanjay Nishad, however, rejected the allegations and said that he would reconsider his party's alliance with the BJP if their demand for reservation was not accepted. ''We have already made it clear to the BJP...it has to agree to give us reservation if it wants votes of our community,'' he added.

Several claimants of the Nishad votes have sprung in the state in the past few months. NDA ally in Bihar Vikassheel Insan Party led by Mukesh Sahni, who calls himself 'son of mallah' has also declared that his party will put up its nominees in the forthcoming assembly polls in UP.

''Nishads have never voted for a single party.....of the many Nishad outfits none can claim to have the support of the entire community....it is doubtful if the community will rally behind any particular party in the forthcoming polls,'' said Chaudhary Lautam Ram Nishad, another community leader.

The BJP, according to sources, is wary of making any such commitment before the election since it would open the proverbial Pandora's box for them.

"If we announce reservation for Nishads, other communities will also come up with similar demands. The Kayasthas are already seeking reservation in the OBC category. Besides, Dalits will also rise in protest because they will find that their quota is being encroached upon by Nishads. We cannot afford this kind of situation when polls are just a few weeks away," said a senior BJP functionary.

Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav has further queered the pitch for the BJP by saying that if voted to power he would order a caste census and ensure reservation accordingly.

It is noteworthy that the Nishad community has been demanding inclusion and reservation in the scheduled caste category but due to constitutional and political reasons, the issue has been left pending.

Previous government in the state have taken the decision to include 17 OBC castes, including Nishad, in the SC category, but the same was stayed by courts since the issue can be decided only by the Centre.

The courts said that such a decision by the state government was in violation of Article 341 of the Constitution.

In 2005, even during Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime, the order to include 11 OBC castes in the SC category got stuck in the legal grooves. Mayawati was also ready to include these OBC castes in SC but also wanted the reservation quote for scheduled castes to be increased.

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A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid-19 vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defence against infection by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Stay tuned for updates.
Amid protest by Opposition over Lakhimpur violence and suspension of 12 MPs Rajya Sabha is adjourned till 3 pm. Earlier in the day, the Opposition rejected the Centre's invitation to floor leaders of five parties for a meeting to resolve the impasse over the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs and demanded the inclusion of all the parties. Come back tomorrow to follow Deccan Herald's live coverage of the Parliament.
With joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami on the dais, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam on Monday narrated a short story of Jesus Christ to drive home his point that good leadership is one that forgives and accepts the wrong-doers after they have expressed regret for their acts.

The comments by Panneerselvam is being interpreted as his way of telling Palaniswami, his deputy in the party, to display leadership qualities in taking back V K Sasikala, the ousted deputy general secretary of the AIADMK. The former Chief Minister made the comments at a Christmas celebration here which saw top leaders of the AIADMK in attendance.

In his speech, Panneerselvam referred to a short story in popular Tamil daily Dinamalar under the column Christmas Thoughts which talks about a father accepting his son wholeheartedly after the latter realised his mistake of breaking away from the family.

Read more: DVAC conducts fresh searches at 14 places related to former Tamil Nadu minister P Thangamani

Jesus Christ, who told this story, said he did not come to the world to protect the good. He said he has come to the world to reform those who have sinned. Good people will always remain good. But accepting and taking back those who have done wrong implies the good quality of leadership, Panneerselvam said with a smile on his face.

While Panneerselvam seems amenable to accommodating Sasikala in the party, Palaniswami is dead opposed to her re-entry as he fears such a move would undermine his authority within the party. It was under Sasikalas guidance, the AIADMK Legislature Party had in 2017 elected Palaniswami as its leader.

Panneerselvams short story and his message to his colleagues comes close on the heels of the party unanimously electing him and Palaniswami as coordinator and joint coordinator respectively of the AIADMK. The unanimous election which was conducted after the Executive Council had cleared an amendment to the party by-laws triggered speculations that the doors on Sasikala were shut.

However, Panneerselvams statement on Monday has renewed the debate on Sasikalas possible re-entry into the AIADMK. In October, Panneerselvam had directly attacked Palaniswami for his distasteful comments on Sasikala saying those at the helm of the party should maintain dignity and discipline.

OPS latest statement also came on the day Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai told a popular English daily in an interview that for the betterment of the state, in the long run, all good leaders should come together and the AIADMK should remain strong.

Political observers said Panneerselvams comments are a clear message that he was not averse to taking Sasikala back into the AIADMK. This is not the first time that OPS has spoken indirectly about Sasikala. And this will not be the last time. He feels there is nothing wrong in re-admitting Sasikala into the party, despite being aware that the EPS faction which wields majority is not in favour, a political analyst told DH.
Following detection of Omicron cases among arrivals from countries not designated as 'at-risk', Telangana health authorities said they will implement isolation rules for all arrivals who test positive for Covid-19, irrespective of the country of origin or transit.

Of the 20 persons found to be infected with the Omicron variant, only four are from countries categorised as 'at-risk', which majorly comprises cases from the UK.

We are trying our best to confine all the arriving passengers at the Hyderabad international airport till their Covid-19 test results are out and if anyone is found positive, we are taking them to Gachibowli TIMS (while their samples are sent for genome sequencing to confirm the variant), Dr Srinivasa Rao, Director of Public Health, Telangana, told DH.

The Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) is, at present, serving as the government's isolation and treatment centre for confirmed and suspected cases of the Omicron variant.

But the passengers from non-risk countries are refusing to cooperate. They are not understanding the seriousness of the situation and demand that Government of India guidelines should only be followed, Rao said.

Also Read  Bharat Biotech seeks trial for intranasal Covid-19 vaccine booster

The state, till Saturday evening, reported 20 cases of Omicron variant, while genome sequencing results of 15 Covid-19 positive samples are awaited.

Officials had to trace arrivals from Kenya, UAE, Sudan and Somalia after their genome sequencing reports confirmed the Omicron variant. Most of the patients were found to be staying in Paramount Colony, in Tolichowki of Hyderabad, known as a hub for visitors from the African countries.

Rao said surveillance, sanitisation and testing, and implementation of SOPs are being carried out in the locality, which is yet to be declared a containment zone.

While anxieties are spreading over Omicron's local spread in the city, the official denied reports claiming that the locals and foreign visitors are being non-cooperative with officials. In fact, we have collected around 900 samples from the locality. While reports came in for 200 samples, only two were Covid-19 positive. We have sent these for genome sequencing, Rao said.

The top health official said that a Somalian who had arrived in Hyderabad a few days ago for cancer treatment was shifted to Gandhi Hospital, the state's nodal Covid-19 care centre, on Monday for better medical care. The person is already suffering from an advance stage cancer, Rao said.

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After Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha floor leader Elamaram Kareem and CPI's Binoy Viswam have shot off a letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi urging him to call a meeting of all Opposition parties instead of selective invitation, saying if the government is "sincere" in resolving the impasse over suspension of 12 MPs, it should do so.

Kareem's letter on Sunday came hours after Joshi wrote to him inviting him and four other floor leaders, whose MPs were suspended for the entire Winter Session, for a meeting.

Kareem, who is among the 12 suspended MPs, said it was "quite unfortunate" that the government has delayed initiation of talks with the Opposition even after three weeks of suspension.

"Even now the action of the government is not sincere as the meeting is meant for only the floor leaders of the suspended MPs' parties. As you are well aware that the entire Opposition has been taking a unified stand on this suspension issue," he wrote.

.@cpimspeak #RajyaSabha floor leader @ElamaramKareem_ writes to Parl Affairs Min Joshi on invite to 5 parties on 12 MPs' suspension. Says quite unfortunate that it took 3 weeks to initiate talks, Urges govt to call meeting of all Opp parties if it is sincere @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/0Ns6RbFXrH  Shemin (@shemin_joy) December 19, 2021

All the Opposition parties together had requested Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and the government to hold such a meeting to resolve the stalemate from day one, he said.

"It is the government which delayed it and the current decision of inviting only a section of the Opposition party leaders for the meeting is completely unfair and unacceptable. If the government is sincere in resolving this issue, I would request you to convene the meeting of all Opposition parties instead of calling only five parties from it," Kareem wrote.

CPI Parliamentary Party leader Binoy Viswam alleged that the government was now attempting to divide the Opposition by "only calling leaders of some parties" for the meeting.

"This is extremely incorrect and shows the government insincerity in finding an actual resolution to the current stalemate," Viswam wrote.

.@cpimspeak #RajyaSabha floor leader @ElamaramKareem_ writes to Parl Affairs Min Joshi on invite to 5 parties on 12 MPs' suspension. Says quite unfortunate that it took 3 weeks to initiate talks, Urges govt to call meeting of all Opp parties if it is sincere @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/0Ns6RbFXrH  Shemin (@shemin_joy) December 19, 2021

Joshi has invited floor leaders of Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, CPI(M) and CPI, whose MPs were suspended, for a meeting with Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and himself.

Also Read  Centre calls meeting of party leaders of 12 suspended MPs; Oppn unlikely to attend

Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also wrote a similar letter to Joshi, describing the government's selective invitation as "unfair and unfortunate".

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In a joint operation, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Monday apprehended six Pakistani nationals with 77 kg heroin consignment worth Rs 400 crore from their fishing boat in a mid sea operation off Jakhau coast in Kutch district.

ATS officials said that the consignment was supposed to land at Gujarat port and smuggled further to Punjab for local consumption. "There are handlers based in Rajasthan and Punjab who are behind this. We have identified their local pointsmen, who were to collect the consignment," officials said.

A statement issued by ICG stated that six crew members of Pakistani fishing boat "Al Hussaini" were apprehended in Indian waters and 77 kgs of heroin worth Rs 400 crore were recovered from the boat. It said that ICG "ship sighted the suspiciously moving boat, which on being challenged, tried to flee, that was outmaneuvered. Ship displaying prompt agility forced them to surrender." The note added that the contraband was kept in five bags weighing 77 kg of heroin. It was the second joint operation in the last three months in which heroin worth Rs5,50 crore was confiscated.

ATS officials said that the conspiracy to smuggle the contraband was hatched by two Pakistani drug mafia identified as Haji Hasan and Haji Hasam. The crew members set sail from Karachi and after reaching 35 nautical miles off Jakhau port in Kutch tried to contact their handler in Gujarat through very high frequency (VHF) channel-71, to contact their local handlers from 35 nautical miles from the Jakhau coast. They were using code words, Hari-1 and Hari-2 to contact their handlers here.

The @IndiaCoastGuard in a joint Ops with ATS #Gujarat has apprehended one Pak Fishing Boat "Al Huseini" with 06 crew in Indian waters carrying 77 kgs #heroin worth approx 400 crs Boat brought to Jakhau for further investigation@PMO_NaMo @NIA_India @AjaybhattBJP4UK @ANI pic.twitter.com/W3Ahfb33vu  PRO Defence Gujarat (@DefencePRO_Guj) December 20, 2021

The boat belongs to one Shahbaz Ali. The crew members have been identified as Md Imran Vagher, Ismail Badala, Md Sajid Vagher, Sagar Vagher, Md Danish Vagher, Ashfak Vagher, all residents of Karachi.

The fresh operation came barely a month after ATS had seized 120 kg narcotics worth Rs 600 crore in the international market smuggled from Pakistan, in Morbi and Dev Bhumi Dwarka districts. Before these two cases, DRI had seized a whopping 3000 kg of heroin worth over Rs 20,000 crore from Mundra port which had landed from Afghanistan. This case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency.

The ATS said in note that since August 2018, it has seized about 920 kg of drugs, worth Rs 4,600 crore in international markets and arrested Pakistani, Iranian and Afghan nationals along with their Indian handlers. The officials believe that "smuggling activities through the sea route has increased in the past several years primarily due to land border trade halt between Indian and Pakistan."

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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday defended a party colleague's comments likening roads to 'Hema Malini's cheeks', saying that such comments had been passed earlier as well and was a "mark of respect" for the iconic Bollywood actor.

"This type of comparison has happened earlier too. It's a respect for Hema Malini. So, don't see it negatively. Earlier, Lalu Yadav had also given a similar example. We respect Hema Malini," the Rajya Sabha MP told news agency ANI.

On Sunday, Maharashtra minister Gulabrao Patil stirred up a political controversy comparing the roads in his constituency of Jalgaon district to actor-lawmaker Hema Malini's cheeks. The remark invited a strong reaction from the state.

Patil is the Water Supply & Sanitation Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Meanwhile, Hema Malini told ANI that the comments were not in good taste, particularly coming from an elected representative. The BJP MP noted that the trend was first started by Lalu Prasad Yadav a few years ago and many followed suit.

#WATCH "A trend of such statements was started by Lalu Ji years ago and many people have followed this trend. Such comments are not in a good taste," says BJP MP Hema Malini on Maharashtra minister Gulabrao Patil comparing roads to her cheeks pic.twitter.com/SJg5ZTrbMw  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

When asked if she would seek an apology, she quipped that she did not care for such things. The actor also jokingly said she should now 'look after her cheeks' if they are being used as metaphors.

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The Shiv Sena MPs in the Lok Sabha on Monday protested against the recent desecration of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in Bengaluru and demanded the resignation of the Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

The Shiv Sena MPs from Maharashtra trooped into the well of the Lok Sabha soon after the House assembled for the day and the proceedings of the Question Hour commenced. They raised slogans condemning the desecration of the statue of the 17th-century founder of the Maratha Empire and criticising the Bharatiya Janata Partys government in Karnataka.

Some miscreants smeared black ink on the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Bashyam Circle in Sadashivnagar in Bengaluru last Friday. Police till Sunday arrested seven people suspected to be involved in defacing the statue.

Also Read | Shivaji statue row: Maharashtra sees waves of protests ahead of Amit Shah's visit

The Shiv Senas protest in the Lok Sabha against the desecration of the statue came after Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Maharashtra also strongly reacted to the incident in neighbouring Karnataka.

The Shiv Sena supremo and Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, stated that the Union Government must take cognisance of the issue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene to stop atrocities on Marathi people of Karnataka.

Thackeray also stated that Modi should ask Bommai to take action against the miscreants.

Arvind Sawant and the other Shiv Sena MPs on Monday trooped into the well of the Lok Sabha, protesting against the incident. They held up placards, demanding the resignation of Bommai as Chief Minister of Karnataka. They joined the MPs of other opposition parties who were also in the well of the Lok Sabha, protesting on other issues.
Businessman Raj Kundra, who was arrested in a pornography case earlier this year and later granted bail, on Monday claimed he has never been involved in the production and distribution of pornographic content in his life.

In a statement issued on a social media platform, Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, said the entire episode was nothing but a "witch hunt". The businessman also said has already been pronounced guilty by the media, and he wishes his privacy is not intruded anymore with this continued "media trial".

The Supreme Court last week granted protection from arrest to Kundra in connection with an FIR registered against him for allegedly distributing pornographic videos.

In July this year, Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police in another case where he was accused of distributing porn films through an app. He was granted bail in September.

Also Read | Cheating case: We haven't received a single rupee, says Shilpa Shetty

On Monday, Kundra stated that, After much contemplation, considering there are many misleading and irresponsible statements and articles floating around and my silence has been misconstrued for weakness. I would like to start by stating that I have NEVER been involved in the production and distribution of pornography EVER in my life."

"This whole episode has been nothing but a witch hunt. The matter is subjudice so I can not elucidate, but I am ready to face trial and have full faith in the judiciary, where the truth will prevail."

Kundra said, unfortunately he has already been pronounced guilty by the media and that his family and he have been subjected to a lot of pain (continuously), violating his human and constitutional rights at different levels.

"The trolling, negativity and toxic public perception has been very debilitating. To set the record straight, I do not hide my face in shame, but wish that my privacy is not intruded anymore with this continued MEDIA TRIAL. My priority has always been my family, nothing else matters at this juncture," he said.

Kundra said he believes it is every person's inalienable right to live with dignity and he requests the same. The businessman had been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually explicit videos.

Fearing arrest, Kundra first sought an anticipatory bail from a sessions court, but it was refused, so he moved the Bombay High Court, claiming that he had been framed. The HC also rejected his anticipatory bail application on November 25.

The FIR named actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey as co-accused. Kundra's lawyers had claimed he was in no way connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos even as the actors, who were named as co-accused, had given full consent to shoot the videos.

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The results of the elections to 25 seats of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 20 local authorities constituencies were announced on December 14. The BJP and the Congress had contested from 20 constituencies each and the Janata Dal(S) in 6. Both the BJP and the Congress have won 11 seats each. The JD(S) has managed victory in only two constituencies and one seat was captured by independent candidate Lakhan Jarkiholi. An analysis of the results from the perspective of the contending parties and their prospects for 2023 is in order.

First, let us take the case of the ruling BJP. The chief minister had claimed that the party would win 14-15 seats and thereby secure a comfortable majority in the Council consisting of 75 members. However, the results have shown that the party has fallen short by one seat to reach the majority mark. Though the chief minister has publicly defended the partys performance in the polls, pointing to the six additional seats won by it, he seems to be a worried man, going by the defeat in the prestigious Belagavi constituency.

The debacle has exposed the partys weakness in the constituency despite its member Ramesh Jarkiholi having a strong base there. It is an open secret that Ramesh Jarkiholi indirectly supported his younger brother Lakhan Jarkiholi, dissatisfied with the manner in which his resignation was extracted following his alleged involvement in a sex tape scandal a few months ago. The defeat of the party candidate and chief whip of the party Mahantesh Kavatagimath has embarrassed the party to a great extent. The electoral verdict has led to some members demanding action against Ramesh Jarkiholi, holding the Jarkiholi brothers (Balachandra and Ramesh) responsible for the defeat of the party candidate. But it is unlikely that the party leadership will initiate any action against him. It hopes that Ramesh Jarkiholi would persuade his younger brother Lakhan Jarkiholi to support the government in the Council when it comes to getting bills passed.

Belagavis defeat notwithstanding, the party candidates have won with smaller margins in many other constituencies. The margin of victory in Kalaburgi was 149, in Uttara Kannada 183, in Chitradurga 358 and in Shivamogga 344. In Bengaluru, the margin of victory for the BJP was 397 votes against the millionaire Congress candidate Yusuf Sheriff. In Kodagu, where the party has a strong base, the victory margin was 102. The lowest was in Chikkamagaluru, where the party candidate managed to win with the lowest margin of just six votes. All in all, the poll results have come as a warning bell to the ruling BJP. It looks like Basavaraj Bommai is yet to establish himself as a strong pan-Karnataka leader and astute election strategist.

As regards the Congress party, its candidates too won in 11 constituencies, though the partys tally came down from 29 to 26. Former CM Siddaramaiah has declared that the voters are yearning for a change of government in 2023. The Congress performance was the result of a united campaign headed by party president D K Shivakumar and the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah. The selection of candidates, too, was done without any internal bickering.

Eight of its 11 successful candidates are fresh faces. The party candidates won in Mandya, Kolar and Tumakuru, besides retaining Mysuru and Bengaluru Rural. KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed won by a big margin from the Dharwad dual constituency, giving the party a shot in the arm against the BJP.

As for the JD(S), the tally came down from 13 to 11, as its candidates won only in two constituencies. Party patriarch Deve Gowdas grandson Suraj Revanna registered a comfortable victory in Hassan. With the victory of Suraj Revanna, the family has four members in the state legislature, lending credence to the perception that the JD(S) is a family party. With the loss of its seats in Mandya, Kolar and Tumakuru, the partys dominance in the Vokkaliga belt has declined. The much-speculated electoral alliance with the ruling BJP did not materialise. The partys allegation that there was a secret understanding between the BJP and the Congress lacks credibility.

With many senior leaders deserting the party in recent times and with no influence in northern Karnataka and coastal regions of the state, the partys existential crisis seems to have deepened. The party is perceived to be led by electoral opportunism most of the time. The 2023 Assembly elections will witness a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Congress, with the JD(S) becoming a marginal player. It may, however, come to the fore if the verdict turns out to be in favour of a hung Assembly!

(The writer is former Professor of Political Science, Bangalore University, and former Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi)
The farmers agitation, which went on for over a year and cost the nation more than 700 lives, has ended. But not many in New Delhi have cared to judge the pulse of the farmers. One of three controversial laws, on which the agitation continued for so long, concerns the central question of minimum support price (MSP). To understand this, one must go back more than half a century in Indian agriculture.

It is important to note in this context that the principle of MSP was put in place by New Delhi in 1966-67 to ensure that dwarf wheat varieties imported from the International Centre For Maize and Wheat Research (CIMMYT), Mexico, and crossed with the native ones, was widely cultivated by Indian farmers. Hence, the crop was only wheat, to start with, and the MSP fixed was Rs 54/quintal (100kg). Later, this principle was extended to rice, where dwarf varieties imported from the International Rice Research Institute, in the Philippines were crossed with the native ones and farmers were coerced to cultivate them. This was the beginning of the green revolution campaign in India.

The Price Support Policy of the government is directed at providing insurance to agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices. The minimum guaranteed prices are fixed to set a floor below which market prices cannot fall. Until the mid-1970s, the government (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, CACP- an apex body for pricing policy under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India) announced two types of administered prices: Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and Procurement Prices (PP).

The MSPs served as the floor prices and were fixed by the government in the nature of a long-term guarantee for investment decisions of producers, with the assurance that prices of their commodities would not be allowed to fall below the level fixed by the government, even in the case of a bumper crop. Procurement prices were the prices of kharif and rabi cereals at which the grain was to be domestically procured by public agencies (like the FCI) for release through PDS. It was announced soon after harvest began. However, these provisions were not strictly adhered to by the government as we shall see below.

Also Read | Farm laws needed to fill a void

Situation on the ground:

The farmers are worried that the new legislation may eliminate the minimum support price (MSP) on their yield.

A Union government committee report states that only 6 per cent of the countrys farmers take advantage of MSP. Punjab and Haryana farmers only benefit from the MSP provision. A 2016 Niti Aayog report states that 100 per cent of farmers in Punjab sell their crops at MSP, no data are available for Haryana.

Despite the promise of the PM and Minister of Agriculture about the continuance of the MSP regime, the following questions linger:

How many farmers benefit from MSP every year?

The government has no data on this. Under the PM Kisan Yojana, 14.5 crore farmer families get Rs 6,000 every year. This shows that there are at least 14.5 crore farmer families in the country. But, how many farmers get MSP benefit?

On September 18, the Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution told Rajya Sabha that as of September 9, there were 43.33 lakh farmers taking advantage of MSP on wheat during the rabi season.

Of these, 10.49 lakh were from Punjab, and 7.80 lakh were from Haryana. That is, more than 42 per cent of the farmers were from Punjab and Haryana.

The number of farmers selling paddy on MSP in the kharif season was 1.24 crore. Of these, there were 11.25 lakh farmers from Punjab and 18.91 lakh farmers from Haryana. More than 25 per cent of the farmers were from Punjab and Haryana. No data is available from Telangana, the current Rice Bowl of India.

According to the government, the number of farmers selling paddy crops at MSP in the kharif season increased by 70 per cent in 2019 compared to 2015. Similarly, the number of farmers taking advantage of MSP on wheat during the rabi season also increased by 112 per cent in 2020 compared to 2016. The procurement has not yet started for the kharif season 2021.

But the government does not buy even half of the yield every year. Statistics show that the government did not buy even half of the wheat and paddy yield in the last five years.

According to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), in 2015, 1.044 lakh tonnes of paddy were produced, of which 342 lakh tonnes, i.e., 33 per cent, were purchased by the government. Similarly, in 2019-20, paddy yield was 1,179 lakh tonnes, of which the government purchased 510 lakh tonnes, i.e., 43 per cent.

Along with this, 923 lakh tonnes of wheat were produced in 2015, out of which the government purchased 230 lakh tonnes, i.e., 25 per cent. Whereas, 1,072 lakh tonnes of wheat was produced in 2019, of which 390 lakh tonnes, i.e. 36 per cent of the wheat was purchased by the government.

The above data clearly show that there is a clear disconnect between what the government professes and what it practices.

Also Read | Farm laws repeal historic, will still tell farmers about its benefits: Narendra Singh Tomar

What should now be done?

Indian soils, in particular in Punjab, are degraded due to the environmental hazard of the chemical-centric green revolution. The carbon levels, the most important index of soil fertility, have steeply declined. The only route by which this could be corrected is to introduce soil-enriching legumes like beans. But the stranglehold of the wheat-paddy rotation comes in the way because of the MSP lever. The key to crop diversification is the MSP, in other words, ensuring that MSP provision is extended to all crops. This has been succinctly put forth by a Punjabi farmer during this authors field trip to the state, when he said, Why would I spend Rs 3 lakh on a borewell and deplete groundwater further from my fields if I can be assured of MSP for other crops?

Will New Delhi listen?

(The writer is ex-prof, National Science Foundation, The Royal Society, Belgium)
In the latest State of the States Report brought out by India Today (December 6, 2021), Karnataka has bagged the 10th rank out of 20 big states in the country. For a state known to be progressive with several achievements to its credit, this presents a rather negative image. The assessment of the performance of states has been done under 12 categories: economy, infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, law & order, governance, inclusive development, entrepreneurship, tourism, environment and cleanliness.

It is particularly disturbing to see Karnatakas performance in some sectors. Except for environment (second), and health (fourth), in all other areas, it figures below five. In governance, its position is as low as 15, in tourism 16 and in agriculture 18; worse, in inclusive development, it has hit rock bottom by securing the last position, 20.

These rankings have been arrived at based on certain parameters for each category (totally 123 parameters have been used). For instance, to assess the state of the economy, parameters used are net per capita income, percentage of population above the poverty line, consumer price index and so on. In respect of agriculture, the indicators include money spent on agriculture in the last budget compared to the total area of agriculture, percentage of area irrigated of the total cultivated land, productivity etc. In short, the assessments are based on rational criteria.

Also Read | A kinder, gentler Bengaluru, please

What is disconcerting is the fact that over the last 19 years, from 2013 to 2021, Karnataka does not figure in the first five, except in 2017 when it was ranked third. The top positions are dominated by five states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, with states like Maharashtra and Gujarat making their presence felt during some years.

Even in the category of Most Improved States, Karnataka doesnt fare any better. In economy, it has declined from the sixth position in 2020 to the 11th in 2021 and in infrastructure, from nine to 18th. Inclusive development has shown consistently poor performance over the last four years: from 14th place in 2018 to 17th in 2019 and 18th during the last two years. What is shocking, however, is the state plummeting from the top position in 2018 to 19th in 2021 in entrepreneurship. This comes at a time when we are boasting about Bengaluru being the hub of entrepreneurs in India. It is heartening, though, to see Bihar, usually considered a backward state, emerge as the most improved big state, rising from the ninth rank the previous year.

One can be critical about the findings of a research study and raise questions about the methodology adopted or the indicators employed. Let me refer to a similar study carried out by the Public Affairs Centre.

Called the Public Affairs Index, it is a data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the sub-national level and ranks the states on three primary themes - growth, equity and sustainability which form the basis for measuring the performance of states. Each of these three is sub-divided into five sub-themes: voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law. Linking all the themes to Sustainable Development Goals, a Composite Index is generated using 43 indicators.

Here again, although Karnataka fares a little better at seventh in the overall rankings of 18 large states, it has actually slipped from the third position in 2016 and the fourth in the subsequent four years. In 2021, while it has done relatively well in sustainability (fourth) and reasonably well in growth (fourth), it fares very poorly (16) in the category of equity. It is interesting to note that the findings of both the studies coincide with respect to the important parameter of equity (PAC), corresponding to inclusive development (India Today), where the states performance is ranked very low.

A comparative analysis of the two studies reveals some interesting facts. Kerala and Tamil Nadu rank among the best performing states over the years in both - from 2004 to 2021 in India Today rankings and from 2016 to 2021 in that of PAC. Just considering the performance of the last three years, in India Today rankings, Tamil Nadu figures continuously at the top all the three years while Kerala stands at fifth in 2019, fourth in 2020 and third in 2021.

In a somewhat similar, but slightly different assessment by PAC, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at first and second positions continuously for the last six years. The other states in the top five best performing categories include Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat (India Today), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Among the states figuring at the bottom, Bihar and UP are common in both followed by states like Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand.

A new feature that has been included this year is the Covid Response Index by PAC and the Happiness Index by India Today. The former looks at the two aspects of the Covid preparedness response and the containment response, where the southern states have emerged at the top under both categories. Interestingly, Assam with a strong performance in Covid preparedness has been ranked high while Maharashtra figures at the bottom in both. Whatever the rankings under this theme, it has been observed that Indias national response to the Covid-19 pandemic was notable and nimble-footed and states deserve substantial credit for the success of the countrys response.

In the happiness index, the scoring was based on the prosperity of a state along with scores from its rankings in education, health, governance, infrastructure, law and order and cleanliness. Not surprisingly, Kerala has emerged as the happiest state, followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Of course, there is always a subjective element in happiness and different criteria can be used in its measurement. But the first attempt at such an exercise adds a new dimension to the concept of peoples welfare.

In an era of competitive politics, it is essential to promote a competitive spirit among states in the field of development and governance. The two studies carried out by two independent organisations are the outcome of data-based research and provide rich material for evidence-based policymaking which is gaining importance.

Policymakers and administrators of Karnataka would do well to take note of the performance of the state in different categories and address the factors responsible for its deterioration or stagnation during the recent years. Special attention must be paid to matters relating to equity or inclusive development, where we lag even behind backward states like Bihar and Jharkhand.

Once a model state, Karnataka must set its goals high and devise strategies to achieve them.

(The writer is former chief secretary, Government of Karnataka)

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What feelings play in the mind of one who visits a temple? Are shame and humiliation topmost among them?

The adventurous devotees who prepare for weeks to visit Kailash Mansarover; the Warkaris who walk 21 days to Pandharpur; those who observe rituals for 41 days for Sabarimala - does shame drive these efforts? What of ordinary Hindus whose day is incomplete without a morning visit to the temple? A small old Hanuman temple in South Mumbai known for the clanging of its bells for the 8 pm aarti invariably sees passers-by stopping outside with hands folded. Do they feel ashamed hearing the bells and seeing the circling flame of the diya? Or do they get a feeling of solace?

As a child, I remember seeing women of my community going barefoot to the temple, all decked up and happy, carrying plates covered with offerings. Shame was the last word you would associate with them.

Last week, a Muslim from Mumbai was arrested at Ujjain's ancient Mahakal temple. The young man, accompanying his Hindu girlfriend, had presented a Hindu's Aadhar card so that they could watch the spectacular early morning aarti together. This news brought to mind the joy with which a "Tam-Bram" had told me how, straight after her nikah, she'd taken her Muslim husband to Tirupati to get Lord Venkateshwara's blessings for the marriage. This was 40 years ago when inter-faith couples didn't have to risk arrest under laws designed to thwart such marriages. But even MP's stringent "love-jihad" law didn't deter the Mumbai couple from trying their luck at Ujjain. What could have driven them except love, faith and the confidence of youth?

So what did Union Home Minister Amit Shah mean when he recently said that before Narendra Modi became PM, "people going to temples felt a sense of shame?" The moment he was appointed PM, said Shah, Modi smeared his forehead with ash and performed a Ganga aarti at Varanasi, thereby "starting a new era".

He was right.

In the Modi era, the prime minister of a secular country thinks nothing of spending public money performing lavish pujas and Hindu rituals and ensuring they are telecast to every home. Never mind if the puja is to consecrate a temple at the very site that a mosque was demolished by members of his parent organisation, leading to the communal violence that cost thousands of lives. In case the message was lost in the spectacle of last year's Ayodhya puja, the PM spelt it out last week when he inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor: "If an Aurangzeb comes, a Shivaji also rises." Was this assertion necessary at what was supposed to be essentially a religious function?

It appears that for the PM and the home minister, religion is a battlefield, and worship no different from victory.

Amit Shah recalled how the Maa Vindhyavasini temple in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, for which Shah had just launched an approach corridor, had to be "hidden inside homes owing to fear of attack from Muslims." The last time this ancient temple made news was in June, when it re-opened to huge crowds after a long lockdown. Were the devotees, who threw fears of Covid to the winds, driven by "shame and humiliation" over what happened to the temple centuries ago?

One wonders what feelings torment Amit Shah and Narendra Modi when they visit temples. Not piety for sure. For, what they say on these ostensibly religious occasions reveals a deep, bitter resentment at events long buried in history, events that the majority of Hindus don't even know, let alone recollect. What also comes across from their words is a sense of triumph, the assertion that they have, at long last, enabled their faith to prevail over the enemy's.

These very emotions drive Hindutvawadis in Gurugram and Belagavi to repeatedly hound and attack Muslims and Christians gathered to pray in desolate parking lots, churches and even homes - a classic case of leaders and followers mirroring each other. But it is the very opposite of these emotions that define Benares, and indeed the Kashi Vishwanath temple, where Modi proudly invoked "virasat" (legacy).

It was in this temple that Ustad Bismillah Khan learnt to play the shehnai; his family members were the temple's musicians. His daily riaz was in the Balaji temple nearby. In 2006 and 2010, bomb blasts during the evening Ganga aarti in Benares killed 23 persons, mostly Hindus, but no riots broke out.

Now that's the "virasat" the MP from Varanasi should have recalled. But then he wouldn't have sent the message he wanted.

(The writer is a journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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Every community  religious, linguistic or caste-based  has the right to assert itself, particularly in a democracy, as it restricts the assertion within the framework of the law. No one can deny the Hindu community this inherent right. Instead, it is incumbent upon us to understand that the more we object to such efforts, the more momentum it will gather.

The inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor is another milestone in the assertion of the 'Hindu'. While expressing concerns about it, and there are some genuine reasons for it, we must remember such developments are not unprecedented in independent India. The Ayodhya temple's shilanyas (foundation laying) ceremony was allowed in 1989 in full connivance of the late Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India.

About the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kashi Vishwanath, we should recall that Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and now an icon of the secular brigade, inaugurates several Durga Pujas every year. We also have the tweet of the Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, of December 3. It read, "A few days ago when I had visited Shri Ramlala in Ayodhya, a thought came to my mind that I should bring all my elders of Delhi for a darshan of Lord Shri Ram. The first train of pilgrimage was flagged off from Delhi to Ayodhya today. These were very emotional moments for me. May everyone's journey be blessed. Long live Rama." Kejriwal himself inaugurated the train. These examples and innumerable others underscore that religion and religious symbolism are used in this country by leaders on both ends of the spectrum - hardcore seculars and hardcore Hindutwavadis.

Also Read | Politics of puja: PM's Kashi speech betrayed bitter resentment, not piety

Again, in the long run, it is futile to object to such symbolism on the ground that the Preamble of our Constitution says India is 'secular'. In 1948, when Prof KT Shah, who represented Bihar, brought a proposal in the Constituent Assembly that "India shall be a Secular, Federal, Socialist Union of States", BR Ambedkar, the Dalit icon often referred to as the maker of the Indian Constitution, strongly opposed it.

While arguing the Constitution was secular, Ambedkar said, "What should be the policy of the State, how the society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself because that is destroying democracy altogether." Ignoring Ambedkar, the word 'secular' was inserted in the Preamble in 1976, and it can be deleted too if Parliament so wishes.

So, then, on what ground we may raise questions on the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, particularly when it is built on land (including the Gyanvapi Koop and Nandi idol) made available without any controversy? We will gain nothing by criticising the effort, which is a part of Hindu assertion. But we must express concern about the inherent intention of using it in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and in the future to further the agenda of political Hindutva, which targets the 'others'.

Also Read | Mahatma Gandhi would be happy to see Kashi today: CM Yogi

Here, the line of distinction is thin but essential. Unlike Hindutva, the Hindu way of life that has thrived in this land for thousands of years is secular, though it is also associated with a plethora of religious rituals. But, at the core, it is about dharma (whatever 'holds' an individual, a family, a community, and the creation as a whole) and karma (deeds in consonance with dharma).

Most importantly, dharma has in its fold rajdharma, which signifies protecting all the subjects who have not done wrong. The Indian Muslims and other minorities consisting of one-fifth of the Indian population have a place of pride among the subjects (now called citizens) of India. So a true Hindu, particularly a ruler, is bound to protect the innocent minorities and their genuine interests.

In simple terms, the resurrection of the concept of a timeless Kashi, protected by its kotwal Kal Bhairav, is tantamount to going back to the roots. It cannot be used to muzzle the rights of anyone. According to Hindu scriptures, Shiva means 'perfection'. This concept, secular by nature, cannot be towed into any controversy like "mandir wahin banayenge (the temple shall be constructed there)". It will be profane to drag the transcendental into base political fights.

Also Read | Kashi Vishwanath Corridor: Locals unhappy over 'lost homes', demolition of iconic building

As a political party, the BJP often uses Ram, Krishna (who were humans, real or mythical) and even Shiva (the transcendental) for narrow political gains. Worse, it uses such figures to target the 'others' and thus violates the concept of rajdharma. Unfortunately, our secular leaders and intellectuals do not care to counter the BJP on the grounds of dharmic philosophical thought and allow it to usurp the entire 'Hindu' space.

In fact, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will do well if it realises that assertion of the Hindus, something started by Swami Vivekananda one and a half-century ago, will be bereft of its true glory if it targets the 'others'. But, perhaps, it is futile to expect the Sangh may shun narrow Hindutva to embrace the true 'dharmic' path, which is the essence of the Hindu way of life.

(The writer is a journalist and author based in Kolkata)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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Himalayan glaciers are melting at an accelerated pace, a new study concluded on Monday, gathering fresh evidence on the loss of ice mass in the Third Pole.

The study, led by scientists at the University of Leeds, reports that in recent decades the Himalayan glaciers have lost ice ten times more quickly over the last few decades since the last major glacier expansion 400-700 years ago, a period is known as the Little Ice Age.

They lost 40% of their Little Ice Age areas, which means the disappearance of 390-586 cubic km of ice. This is the equivalent of all the ice contained today in the central European Alps, the Caucasus, and Scandinavia combined. The rate of such loss is faster in the eastern Himalayas.

Also Read | Extreme Greenland ice melt raised global flood risk: Study

The study also reveals that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world  a rate of loss the researchers describe as exceptional. If continued this might threaten the water supply for millions of people in India and Pakistan.

Our findings clearly show that ice is now being lost from Himalayan glaciers at a rate that is at least ten times higher than the average rate over past centuries. This acceleration in the rate of loss has only emerged within the last few decades, and coincides with human-induced climate change, Jonathan Carrivick, corresponding author and deputy head of the University of Leeds School of Geography, said in a statement.

Published in Scientific Reports, the research is based on a reconstruction of the size and ice surfaces of 14,798 Himalayan glaciers during the Little Ice Age and comparing them with current data observed through satellite images.

Also Read | Record-breaking winter winds have blown old Arctic sea ice into the melt zone

The rivers of ice spreading over an area of 28,000 sq km in the Himalayan heights now occupy 19,600 sq km area  a 40% loss.

Scientific research on the retreat of Himalayan glaciers remains a contentious area after a group of Indian scientists who observed the glaciers on the ground disputed research studies that used satellite data to draw their conclusions.

One such report contradicting the glacier retreat claims was commissioned by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and came out more than a decade ago.

Also Read | Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060

Authored by V K Raina, former deputy director-general of the Geological Survey of India, it concluded that while some of the Himalayan glaciers were indeed retreating, others like Siachen were advancing. In addition, there are other glaciers where the rate of retreat declined in recent years.

The Himalayan mountain range is home to the worlds third-largest amount of glacier ice, after Antarctica and the Arctic and is often referred to as the Third Pole.

The acceleration of melting of Himalayan glaciers has significant implications for hundreds of millions of people who depend on Asias major river systems for food and energy. These rivers include the Brahmaputra, Ganges and Indus.

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Around the world, 2021 was a year shaped by weather extremes. Germany and China saw devastating floods, while parts of Europe and the United States were ravaged by wildfires. Drought in East Africa led to crop losses and hunger, from Kenya to Madagascar.

Worsening disasters - in many cases made more likely and severe by climate change - have at last pushed governments to grasp the importance of meeting an international goal to rein in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F), experts say.

In 2015, when the landmark Paris Agreement was struck, about 195 nations formally committed to limit warming to "well below" 2C (3.6F) above preindustrial times, while "pursuing efforts" for a more ambitious ceiling of 1.5C.

The potentially devastating effects of letting the Earth's climate heat up beyond that lower limit became more evident this year, according to government officials and climate scientists.

"(We) did witness a clear shift from other countries to support keeping 1.5C alive," said UN ambassador Aubrey Webson of Antigua and Barbuda, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States, uniting 39 nations from the Pacific to the Caribbean.

Also Read | The world wants more lithium but doesnt want more mines

Those island states have long led the push for the 1.5C goal to prevent further catastrophic losses, with many of them at risk of being swallowed up by rising seas as the planet warms.

The problem now is that while support for the 1.5C limit won fresh political backing in 2021, it remains out of reach.

Countries are still wrangling over how to get on track to meet the goal, with pledges to cut climate-heating emissions not yet on the scale or time-frame needed.

The planet has already heated up by 1.1C since the industrial revolution unleashed widespread use of fossil fuels.

Webson said the new high-level momentum behind 1.5C - as seen among leaders this year, from the G7 and G20 summits to the COP26 UN climate talks - must be matched by rapid action.

"Rhetoric and pledges without implementation are fool's gold for small islands," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Emissions gap

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said man-made carbon dioxide emissions need to fall by about 45 per cent by 2030 from 2010 levels, and reach "net zero" by mid-century to give the world a good chance of limiting warming to 1.5C and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

The good news is that 90 per cent of the global economy is now covered by national net-zero emissions targets, up from 68 per cent in 2020, according to the Net Zero Tracker compiled by a coalition of four research groups.

Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute, which works with governments to achieve a green transition, said the surge in net-zero pledges showed growing commitment to the 1.5C goal.

"We now have almost universal acceptance of the 1.5C target - that's a big step forward," he said.

Also Read | In Hamburg, surviving climate change means living with water

A flurry of net-zero pledges were made before and at November's COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, with host Britain claiming success for keeping the 1.5C goal alive, even while admitting "its pulse is weak".

The two-week meeting ended with a pact that included a pledge to double funding to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate impacts, as well as commitments to "phase down" coal power and end "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies.

UN environment chief Inger Andersen said COP26 "did not get as far as we had hoped" - but had kept 1.5C within reach. She called for climate ambition and action to be ramped up "urgently and meaningfully" to put the world on a safe path.

Efforts need to be redoubled because emissions-cutting pledges for 2030 made so far would still leave the world facing an average temperature rise of 2.4C, estimates Climate Action Tracker, a non-profit research group.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, noted COP26 was meant to close the gap in emissions reductions needed to limit warming to 1.5C.

"While that didn't happen, it is now clear that 1.5C is the only temperature goal that is reasonable for society to aim for," she said.

At the same time, it is harder to achieve, as leaders did not step up "fully" at COP26, she added.

Climate policy expert Niklas Hohne of the Germany-based NewClimate Institute said that while more leaders had spoken out in favour of a 1.5C limit than 2C, the "discrepancy between the firmness and the reality of the 1.5C goal has widened in 2021".

Recognising this, the Glasgow summit agreed countries should come back with more ambitious plans to curb emissions next year.

'Way off track'

Differences over which countries should shoulder more responsibility to cut emissions faster and further - and how to pay for measures to do that, such as adopting clean energy - have complicated efforts to keep the 1.5C goal within reach.

The United States and China top the emissions chart - both historically and in terms of today's greenhouse gases - although on a per-person basis, China drops down the ranking.

Malaysian environmentalist Meena Raman, who has attended UN climate talks since 2007, said the main question had never been over opting for the 1.5C goal but rather how to ensure it is achieved in a fair way - something COP26 failed on again.

"Net zero by 2050 is what we call 'The Great Escape'. We need to get to real zero (emissions) within this decade," said Raman, president of Friends of the Earth Malaysia.

The World Meteorological Organization warned in October that greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is "way off track" to cap rising temperatures.

In August, an IPCC report said average global temperatures would likely cross the 1.5C threshold within the next 20 years - bringing stronger droughts, heatwaves, floods and storms.

Former IPCC chair Robert Watson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that goal is "now harder to reach than ever before".

"The rhetoric is consistent with 1.5C, but the pledges are not," said the British chemist, warning that the less ambitious global target of staying below 2C is also in doubt.

For example, since COP26, China and India have told their mining firms to boost coal production to plug energy shortages, while President Joe Biden asked U.S. oil and gas companies to raise production to ease high prices, Watson pointed out.

In addition, Britain's trail-blazing pledge to slash its emissions 78 per cent by 2035 from 1990 levels is not supported by - or consistent with - current national policies, he noted.

"2021 can be summed up as the year of rhetoric not action," said Watson.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday linked the early demise of Union Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel to the delay in the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule, even as he underscored the strong bond between India and Goa, even as both regions were controlled by different regimes through history.

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All eyes will be on the Cabinet meeting scheduled on Monday noon, during which the state government is expected to clear the controversial anti-conversion Bill.

Though the Belagavi legislature session began last Monday, the government is yet to table the much-discussed Bill in the Assembly.

The Opposition has accused the ruling BJP of dragging its feet over the Bill.

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Congress MLCs walked out of the Karnataka Legislative Council on Monday unhappy with Home Minister Araga Jnanendra's response on the defacing of statues that has caused tension in Belagavi.

Jnanendra said 38 persons have been arrested so far in connection with recent incidents of defacing statues or burning Kannada flag. He said a "befitting lesson" would be taught to miscreants.

"There is no question of protecting anybody, and stringent action would be taken to ensure that miscreants do not raise their heads again," Jnanendra said.

"The Marathi-speaking people have also kept the MES at bay. Some people attached with the MES do such things during the Belagavi session or before elections, just to show their existence, as the MES has no strength," the minister added.

Earlier, Opposition members charged that the government with police and intelligence departments failed to prevent such incidents.

The Opposition MLCs charged that while an attempt-to-murder case was booked against pro-Kannada leaders in connection with smearing ink on an MES leader's face, less serious sections were applied in the case of defaced Sangolli Rayanna's statue.

Congress MLC S Ravi termed Jnanendra as "a weak home minister" that led to a verbal clash between the ruling and the opposition benches.

Congress still baying for minister's scalp

The Congress attempted to raise Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj's alleged involvement in a land-grabbing case in both houses of the legislature on Monday. In the Assembly, the Congress was in the well demanding a discussion and the minister's resignation. However, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the matter is sub-judice and cannot be discussed.

In the Council, Congress MLCs demonstrated in the well as soon as the session started. They staged a walkout post-lunch break, after Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti said he would consider their notice under Rule 68 on the issue and would take a suitable decision. The Congress' demand was to be given a date for a discussion on the issue.

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The state government has constituted a committee to look into the possibility of upgrading the College of Fisheries into a Fisheries University in Mangaluru.

The expert committee is expected to submit the report after analysing the pros and cons of carving the college from Bidar-based Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (KVAFSU), to set up a separate fisheries university in Mangaluru.

The nine-member committee is headed by the commissioner of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services. The director of the Directorate of Fisheries is its member-secretary. Prof I Karunasagar, senior director (retd) and advisor (research and patents), Nitte Deemed to be University, is co-chairman of the committee.

Members of the committee are the chief executive officer of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, the director of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, registrar of University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bengaluru, registrar of Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar, dean of Fisheries College, Mangaluru; Dr Anjanappa, head of Fisheries College, Mangaluru.

The committee has been asked to submit a report by January 31, 2022, declares an order issued by B N Praveen, Under Secretary to Government, Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.

Stakeholders of the fisheries sector in the coastal districts had urged the government to upgrade the 52-year-old college as an independent university.

Even the College of Fisheries Alumni Association had submitted a memorandum on October 4, 2021. Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council too had passed a resolution in August 2021 seeking university status for the college. The agenda tabled in the council had said that the college established at Ekkur in 1969 was the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

In the past, the college was affiliated to UAS, Bengaluru, and later came under KVAFS in 2005. The minister for fisheries and port had appealed to the chief minister to announce a Fisheries University in the 2021-22 budget with a token grant. The chief ministers office had directed the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries to look into the proposal.

The Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner in his report on July 6, 2021, and the director of the fisheries department in a report on July 13, 2021, had stressed the need for setting up a university of fisheries or an autonomous institute in Mangaluru.

Based on the report, the minister for the animal husbandry department had sought permission from the finance department. The finance department in turn had sought a report from the expert committee on setting up a fisheries university.
The fresh round of linguistic tensions following the defacement of Shivaji and Sangolli Rayanna statues is going to impact the last four days of the Belagavi session, with the Opposition set to target the government over law and order issues.

Tempers among Kannada and Marathi-speaking communities in parts of Belagavi had flared up after a Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) leader was smeared with ink, following which a Karnataka flag was torched in Kolhapur. The defacement of Shivaji and Sangolli Rayanna statues and retaliation by various groups have forced the state to impose prohibitory orders in Belagavi, where the legislature session is currently in progress.

Amid the vandalism and uproar, key issues like widespread corruption in the tender process of various government projects and the case of hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki are bound to take a back seat.

Also Read | 'No post is permanent': Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai triggers rumours of his exit

The ruling BJP has targeted the Opposition for the situation in Belagavi, holding Congress workers responsible for disfiguring Shivaji statue in Bengaluru and Rayanna statue in Belagavi. Meanwhile, Kannada organisations have sought a ban on MES  a prominent Marathi organisation in Belagavi and surrounding areas.

That these incidents have occurred during the Belagavi session  when the state administrative machinery is concentrated in the border district  will give ammunition to the Opposition. The divide between Kannada and Marathi-speaking population has already been a subject of discussion in the Assembly, which passed a censure motion last week after the burning of a Kannada flag in Kolhapur. The JD(S) has been raising such linguistic issues of late in a bid to place itself as a pro-Kannada

party.

Apart from this, the Congress will continue to demand a discussion on the FIR registered against Urban Development Minister Byrati Basavaraj, which was rejected by Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri on Friday. Similar demands in the Legislative Council have consumed nearly two days of proceedings.

Corruption charges

These issues will push the allegations of corruption in tender processes and the Sriki case to the backburner. Sources said the Opposition, too, was not keen to discuss the graft issue due to the video involving Congress leader V S Ugrappa and expelled media coordinator M A Saleem. The video had pinned the blame on KPCC president D K Shivakumar for increasing commission rates for government projects. Sources said the Congress feared a strong retaliation from the BJP if the issue is taken up.

Meanwhile, demanding the state to repeal farm laws along the lines of the central government, farmer organisations will stage a protest in Belagavi during the session.

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The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday approved the controversial anti-conversion bill on Monday, paving the way for it to be tabled in the ongoing legislature session.

According to sources, the Cabinet agreed to clear the 'Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021', without any changes. It will be tabled in the Assembly most likely on Tuesday.

The Bill proposes up to 10 years of imprisonment for forced religious conversion. Imprisonment ranges from 3 to 5 years with a fine of Rs 25,000. For conversion involving a minor, woman or an SC/ST person, jail term is 3 to 10 years, with a fine of Rs 50,000.

Also read | We will not allow conversion of helpless: Karnataka CM Bommai

Further, the Bill makes a provision for the court to ask the accused to pay up to Rs 5 lakh as compensation to those who were made to convert.

Mass conversion will attract 3-10 years of jail time with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

The Bill has come under criticism from Opposition parties, who have accused the BJP government of introducing it to target the Christian community. The JD(S) has announced that it wouldn't support the Bill, making it a challenge for the Basavaraj Bommai government to pass it in the Legislative Council, where it depends on the regional party.

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Karnataka Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, KS Eshwarappa, said on the floor of the House on Monday that the miscreants who vandalised the statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and burnt the Kannada flag must be shot dead.

The act of vandalising the statue of freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna and burning Kannada flag is highly condemnable and the miscreants should be tracked and shot dead, he said.

Also Read: Sangolli Rayanna's statue vandalised in Belagavi

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy demanded that the miscreants who indulged in the desecration of the statue and burning of Kannada flag must be extradited.

The organisations which were involved in the acts must be banned, he said, terming the incident as a cowardly act.

Those who are attempting to bring disharmony must not be spared, he added.

Tension prevailed in Belagavi, which boredrs Maharashtra, after a statue of Rayanna was vandalised, following news that a statue of Shivaji was damaged in Bengaluru.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday asserted that the ruling BJP will not allow religious conversion of helpless people in the state.

Speaking at a function organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), he said that his government would soon bring in anti-conversion laws. "Innocent people are being converted across the state. They are lured by money and financial assistance," he said.

"Religious conversions are not merely about increasing the number of people in a community. The mindset has to be changed. What appears to be luring initially will eventually affect society. Our government, our nation will not allow such things to happen. There is an attempt to encash poverty in our society," he reiterated.

Also read: Karnataka Cabinet clears controversial anti-conversion bill

"As per law there is no provision which facilitates to lure people for conversions. There is no scope for this in the Constitution. The people who are opposing the anti-Conversion bill were ready to implement it in 2019. Now, they are bound by political compulsions," he said.

State government would take decisive steps to stop vandalism. Stringent action would be initiated against those who take the law into their hands, the Chief Minister said speaking to media.

Also read | 'No post is permanent': Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai triggers rumours of his exit

"The main perpetrators of the recent vandalism in Karnataka have already been arrested. We will not allow any hooliganism to continue," he added.

State Home Secretary and DG of Police have taken up the issue with their Maharashtra counterparts to protect the life and property of Kannadigas in Maharashtra, and also providing security for Karnataka government vehicles, Bommai said.

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A Derry couple are just made-up this week after their make-up business won the Cosmetic Clinic of the Year prize at the annual Northern Ireland Hair & Beauty Awards ceremony in Belfast.

Filtered Aesthetics, which is based on Derry's Waterloo Street is run by Simone and Larry Ferguson, beat off some strong competition from beauty clinics in Bangor, Belfast, Holywood, Magherafelt and Newtownards to win the award that was presented to the duo at the Europa Hotel.

What made this achievement all the more impressive was that this was the first time the award has gone to a Derry-based beauty clinic.

The clinic has come a long way for the Ardmore-based couple since they set up business back in August 2018 and, as Larry says, it all began with a birthday present.

He said: Simone gained her aesthetic qualifications in the summer of 2018. Aesthetics was something that she always had an interest but life was so busy that trying to get the courses and pay for them was tough.

She turned 30 in 2018 and I bought her the initial courses as a birthday gift. She started immediately working from the spare room in our house treating clients working around her full-time job and family life.

My role in the business did not start until the summer of 2020. As Simone's and the business popularity grew there was a fair bit of back of house operational things such as orders and invoices that needed attention and as Simone was busy with other things I decided to 'lend a hand' and never left.

Before the business was set up Simone was actually working as a nurse in Altnagelvin. She had worked there since qualifying as a nurse in 2010 and worked as a ward sister in the Acute Medical Unit (Ward 41). Simone made the full leap into full time self employment in 2019 working from a log cabin turned clinic.

My background is a bit different. I have a degree in business and I am a qualified school teacher. I worked in various schools in Northern Ireland and then got a job working in the North West Regional College.

When we were in lockdown working from home in 2020, I decided to put my business degree to good use and helped with accounts taking the pressure from Simone and now continue in my role as Business Manager.

Since the business began three years ago, both Larry and Simone have seen it grow and the expansion of it does not look like stopping any time soon as the hunt is on for new premises to accommodate the ongoing growth and success of Filtered Aesthetics.

Larry added: At the start it was Simone, a diary and pen in the back room of our home. But as popularity grew more space was needed and we purchased a cabin at the side of our home and turned it into a clinic with reception and treatment room.

We also needed admin staff as Simone could not do both anymore as the diary was full. As well as this we had two other nurses working with us.

As word spread the one treatment room was not enough so the cabin needed redesigned to incorporate two rooms and small reception/waiting area. Space was tight and luckily we found where we currently are.

At the minute we are at 18 Waterloo Street in Derry city centre. We have a reception, office and two treatment rooms more admin staff and the diary and pen method is a thing of the past. We now have an online booking system has everything we need to run the clinic efficiently and effectively.

This is not our permanent address however. Space is again becoming tight as our nurses client lists continue to grow.

The award was no doubt a massive boost for the business but Larry is especially pleased for Simone as the prize is a reward for all her hard work.

He continued: This award means so much to us both. I am especially pleased for Simone. She puts so much effort into her job and nobody sees the dedication I see at home.

She stays up all hours reading about various treatments or any conditions that clients may have so she can be well informed when it comes to treating them so their safety is ensured.

We feel that's the benefits of having these treatments carried out by medical professionals as they would have good medical knowledge so that conditions can be managed well and the treatments do not exacerbate their conditions.

I have seen her late at night even chatting with clients on social media about treatments or any worries they may have.

As for the business its absolutely fantastic that after just three short years in business we have been recognised as the best in Northern Ireland.

It's a great achievement but a great responsibility to for us to ensure we keep the same levels of service and community engagement. This is not a time to rest on our laurels. This is just the beginning.
Derry businesses could be facing a skills and talent drain if the Government of the Irish Republic in Dublin does not amend, or do away with, cross-border tax legislation.

That is the opinion of the new President of the Derry Chamber of Commerce, Aidan O'Kane, in an exclusive interview with The Derry News.

Mr O'Kane, who is a director of Derry-based IT firm, AllState, said firms such as his and others in the city could well have their potential talent pool reduced come the New Year.

Since the mid-1990s, the Republic of Ireland has had cross-border tax legislation that states that while a resident of the Republic can work for a firm in Northern Ireland, all work for that company must be done within Northern Ireland.

Any work-related phone calls or emails read or sent that are done when within the Republic of Ireland would see that person liable to pay tax to the Irish Revenue along with what they are already paying to the British Treasury having been employed by a Northern Ireland-based firm.

Because of the Covid pandemic leading many the world over having to work from home, Dublin relaxed this rule.

However, this 'amnesty' is due to expire on New Year's Eve 2021 and pre-pandemic rules on cross-border tax will return  something that Mr O'Kane says could affect firms in Derry and everywhere else on the Northern side of the border.

The Fine Gael Northern Ireland Engagement Group visited the region last November and they requested a meeting with ourselves.

As I also hold the position as co-chair of the Cross Border Workers Coalition and I gave them an update of some of the challenges that we're facing now with regards to people who work for Northern Ireland companies and their inability to work from home in Donegal without being liable for double taxation.

This really perked their interest. It was a new thing for them in terms of them not being aware of this particular challenge.

The Irish Government had put a temporary waiver of this rule in place for the duration of the pandemic which was due to expire at the end of this month.

With cross border taxation going the other way  living in Derry but working for a firm in Donegal  the HMRC shows a lot more flexibility with regards to that scenario.

The Irish Government exercises zero flexibility for Donegal employees of firms in Derry or anywhere else in the North. If you are at home in Donegal, you cannot answer a work-related phone call in normal (pre-pandemic) times.

If you're an Irish resident working for a Northern Irish-based company, you can't even check emails. There is zero tolerance and zero flexibility.

My gut instinct, having engaged with a lot of employees affected by this as well as a lot of employers who also have a liability, is that a blind eye is turned on this.

There are also some people who are living in blissful ignorance of this over the last 10 or 15 years. But there just isn't an understanding of it.

To give you an idea, there are 25,000 cross border workers right across the border regions. We have estimated that there are 12,500 Republic of Ireland residents working for Northern Ireland-based companies that could potentially fall foul of this rule.

The Revenue actually get tax returns from about little over a thousand people from that. So there is a massive number of people that have kept their heads below the (cross border tax) parapet.

It's different for Northern Ireland residents working for Republic of Ireland-based firms. There is a degree of flexibility from the HMRC with a visitor's exemption which allows up to 60 (taxable) days in a year but there isn't a reciprocal thing the other way.

Mr O'Kane also expressed a concern that the Dublin Government might be more proactive in reclaiming the cross border tax once the amnesty ended as it will back companies such as AllState NI into a corner on who they could employ and also see talented workers in Donegal being a loss to Derry's economy by seeking work elsewhere in the south of Ireland.

He added: From a Chamber perspective, we are very concerned about this. We want to see a permanent solution to this  not just a temporary 'stay of execution' that is currently in place for the pandemic.

We want a permanent solution because  guess what  working from home is here to stay. Employees expect that and employers want to offer that.

But if this tax restriction reverts back to the way it was pre-pandemic, then we'll find that Northern-based companies will start making decisions about who they employ based on their residency because some roles require 24/7 (hours and days)  that's just the nature of it.

And then what you may also find  which will be a double-whammy  will be where prospective employees from Donegal start making decisions about where they bring their skills and talents to.

From that, what you will have will be a people/skills border starting to be created purely because of this tax.

The Northern Ireland Protocol has been grabbing all the headlines about freedom of movement and trade within the island of Ireland. However, something such as the cross-border tax is a much more realistic prospect of affecting the local economy of Derry and the North West.

So much so that it could even affect any potential investment from foreign companies in Derry if they see a restricted skills and talent pool and decide to set up in the Republic of Ireland instead.

Mr O'Kane continues: This is something that pre-dates Brexit and certainly pre-dates anything in relation to the Protocol. This is a piece of Irish Government tax legislation that goes back as far as just more than two decades ago.

This is firmly written in the Irish tax system that goes back to what's called the Trans-border Workers Relief. This relief is to allow individuals who reside in the Republic of Ireland to work for a 'foreign' employer  such as a company in Derry and all of their tax is at source and they don't have to pay any other tax to the State.

But there is a condition there  namely that all duties for their employer must be carried out outside of the State (the Republic of Ireland).

For example, if the company you work for is in Derry, you must carry out all work-related duties for that firm in Northern Ireland. If you're on the phone from Strabane to Lifford and you're over that bridge (the border), you hang up that phonecall. You can't also check your emails without paying tax to the Irish Government.

All of this cuts off any decision or ability to work from home  such as someone wanting to buy a cheaper house in Donegal than they could get in Derry but have the cross border tax hanging over them with regard to working from home.

To show the reality of it. I am a director for AllState NI. We've got 900 people based between Derry and Strabane and I'm involved in selection processes for candidates.

We look to Donegal for our talent pool as Derry, despite being the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth largest on the island of Ireland, still doesn't have the footfall in population that will sustain or attract foreign direct investors (FDIs).

We look across the border which is pretty much an invisible, seamless border. But FDIs take a look and suddenly that 100,000 population is a 350,000 population.

I'm asked by candidates, 'what are the working conditions?' and 'what is the work-life balance?'. And we have to be upfront and say 'if you live in Donegal, you cannot work from home for us'. We're very black and white on that  we will not contravene any other international tax liabilities. And that's really unfortunate.

It also affects firms from abroad who are considering investing in Ireland but may be deterred from doing so in Derry. It has the potential to affect the economy of Northern Ireland.

FDIs do their homework. They take a good look at it  they don't accidentally set up in a place like Derry. They take a look at what their access to the talent pool would be like. They also look at talent pipelines  namely talent that is coming out of the universities and colleges  and if they like what they see, they'll set up, they'll stay and they'll grow.

I know this from my own company and from talking to other investors in my role with the Chamber. They do ask those questions like 'what are the skills within this area?' and 'is there an active cluster (of skills)?'.

If we suddenly have to be faced with the prospect of having to not actually being able to draw upon skills from Donegal for example, then those decisions of FDIs and inward investment are suddenly going to be curtailed.

Mr O'Kane has said the Derry Chamber of Commerce has actively engaged Dublin in talks on how to deal with this issue of cross-border tax legislation. However, he admits that progress on change has not advanced as quickly as both he and the Chamber would have liked.

He said: We've met with the Republic's Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael), three times  which is unheard of for a lobby group  and he has given our suggestions on how to amend this law a lot of consideration.

We've given him a lot of advice, we've had a 'tax strategy' group paper that was dedicated to our issue but yet, we are still not seeing permanent change.

We're instead seeing a little bit of protectionism creeping in as well. We're finding that it's easier to land something on the moon than change the tax law.

The Irish Revenue has recognised there's very little financial impact from this. The two things they are concerned about is equity and competitiveness.

With equity, there is the possibility of two people in the same household, say in Letterkenny, be on two completely different tax systems with one of them being at a greater (financial) advantage than the other.

Minister Donohoe has said to us directly that that is against one of the fundamental pillars of the Irish tax system.

But things have changed and you have to adapt tax legislation with changes in society. For example, working from home being such a fundamental shift.

With competitiveness, which was a big concern for Minister Donohoe, there is not enough data to make a decision that suddenly any changes in tax law that would result in Northern Ireland-based companies being not only more competitive but being at a more competitive advantage than their southern-based business counterparts.
People Before Profit councillor, Maeve O'Neill, has called upon Translink and the Executive to invest more into rail expansion into the North West.

Cllr O'Neill, who represents The Moor ward, met with Translink officials  along with fellow People Before Profit councillor, Shaun Harkin  to discuss public transportation and demands from Translink employees for better pay and conditions.

A source of frustration is what the councillors see as 'a lack of urgency' on phase three of the Derry-Coleraine rail upgrade with Cllr O'Neill calling for more action instead of more discussions.

She said: Rail expansion is critical. We'll be engaging with the all-Ireland strategic rail review but, to be honest, we should now be laying new tracks instead of having another round of discussions.

The political establishment is very far behind on this and can't be trusted to deliver.

For example, there is real frustration at the lack of urgency on completing phase three of the Derry-Coleraine upgrade and the continuance of unequal weekend service for the North West.

We get soundbites from the DfI Minister instead of action.

Access to public transportation is crucial. There are still far too many barriers to public transportation use for people in rural areas and for people with a disability.

For public transportation to be successful we need dedicated bus lanes.

Figuring this out should be an urgent matter as more housing gets built on main road arteries.

We want to see public transportation using renewable energy that's easily accessible and free for all.

This will shock the billionaire owners of the car, oil and gas industry but it would immensely benefit the vast majority of people.

Taking this approach requires a complete rethinking of transportation beginning with the needs of passengers and workers.

In response a DfI spokesperson said: Since coming into office Minister Nichola Mallon has been clear that her priority is to address regional imbalance, tackle the climate crisis and better connect communities across Ireland.

The Minister has huge ambitions for our all island rail network and earlier this year jointly announced with her counterpart Minister Eamon Ryan an All-Island Strategic Rail Review which will consider our network across this island to view how we can improve it for everyone.

The public consultation to seek views from communities and stakeholders on this ambitious piece of work that will help inform our decision making and investment in our rail network closes on January 21, 2022 and we would encourage people to get involved.

This review, under the leadership of Minister Mallon and Minister Ryan, expands on the commitment under the New Decade, New Approach agreement to examine the feasibility of a high/higher speed rail link between Belfast, Dublin and Cork by now including Derry and Limerick.

Minister Mallon is also committed to delivering phase three of the Derry to Coleraine railway line and had allocated funding for a new feasibility study.

That study is now complete and a business case is being produced. Minister Mallon has been clear, that the North West has suffered decades of under investment and that must change.

With the study now complete, the Minister is pressing ahead with plans to see rail investment and change delivered on the ground.

After decades of a lack of delivery, and for the first time in over 100 years, Minister Mallon is ensuring that we look at improving the rail network across the island and that we better connect communities in Derry and beyond.

A Translink spokesperson added: Translink has ambitious plans to transform public transport in Northern Ireland to create advanced public transport services and integrated networks connecting people and communities, enhancing the economy and improving health and environmental wellbeing for all.

We are doing this by continually improving the quality and accessibility of our services through innovation and a keen focus on our customers.

We are also accelerating our environmental actions to tackle the climate crisis and have already started to introduce new zero emission buses to the fleet as part of our Climate Positive Strategy. We also recently announced 30million for 38 new zero emission battery electric buses for Foyle Metro in Derry due to be in service in 2023.

We are continuing to engage with the All-Ireland Strategic Rail Review, led by the Department for Infrastructure and the Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport, which will investigate the possibility for enhancement and expansion of the railway network across Ireland.

Public transport is vital for our region to thrive. There is much more to do and we welcome the opportunity to engage with all elected representatives as we work to deliver an effective and successful network for a better connected, healthier and greener Northern Ireland.
Lord Frosts replacement as Brexit minister will need to find solutions to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work, Stormonts deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill has said.

She said businesses have been left high and dry by Brexit uncertainty and stability is required.

Lord Frost announced he had resigned with immediate effect on Saturday as he told Boris Johnson that building a new relationship with the EU would be a long-term task.

He had been leading negotiations with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the part of the Brexit divorce deal which ensures a free flowing border on the island of Ireland but which has created a series of new checks and processes on Irish Sea trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

London and Brussels are trying to reach agreement that would reduce customs paperwork and the numbers of checks and inspections required on goods.

Ms ONeill told the BBC Sunday Politics programme: This is the same David Frost who negotiated Brexit and he has worked to undermine it every day since.

I am less concerned about what is going on in the Tory Party and the dismay and the disruption.

What I am more concerned about is that the protocol is made to work, that pragmatic solutions are found, that certainty and stability is achieved for all of our business community here who have been left high and dry in terms of uncertainty because of the Brexit mess.

David Frost will be replaced by another minister and whoever that minister is, they need to find solutions, work with the EU, make the protocol work and provide that certainty and stability that is desperately required.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who has repeatedly threatened to pull down the Stormont powersharing institutions over the protocol, said the resignation of Lord Frost is a bad sign for the Prime Ministers commitment to removing the Irish Sea border.





Sir Jeffrey said: This Government is distracted by internal strife, and Lord Frost was being frustrated on a number of fronts.

We wish David well. We enjoyed a strong relationship with him and his team, but this raises more serious questions for the Prime Minister and his approach to the NI Protocol.

Whether on Northern Irelands access to medicines, our economic prosperity and trade with the rest of the United Kingdom, or on the growing divergence between NI and GB, this protocol has been a deeply damaging deal for the people we represent.

The Prime Minister must now urgently decide which is more important  the protocol or the stability of the political institutions.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said a new Brexit minister need to be appointed quickly.

He said: The negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol are moving in a sequential manner, first with medicines, then trade, the democratic deficit and the role of the ECJ.

Following the resignation of Lord Frost, it is important that a new lead negotiator is put in place quickly who understands the issues that need to be dealt with.

The protocol negotiations are at a critical juncture and what we need to see are solutions that remove the Irish Sea border and fully respect Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the protocol negotiations cannot become a victim to the chaos at the heart of Government in London.

He added: Frosts resignation is an opportunity to reset the approach to the dialogue with the European Commission, to refresh the relationship with the EU and to return to the solutions that are presented to these challenges in the Good Friday Agreement.

My clear view is that Boris Johnsons days as British Prime Minister are numbered.

He has lost control of his parliamentary party, ministers are beginning to desert his Government, and his moral authority, if it ever existed, is in tatters.

The next phase of politics between and across these islands must be marked by a commitment to co-operation in the best interests of the people we represent.
How many bands can say theyre about to release their second album yet have never actually been in the same room as each other?

This week Im talking to someone whos doing just that. Jonny McAllister, of Warriors of the Dystotheque, an international four-piece that blend a wide range of influences into a unique sound that can only be fully appreciated by listening to them.

Jonny talks to me about his musical past, present and future, as well as the experience of recording the new album.

Can you talk a bit about your career prior to joining this group?

I was in bands and DJing from I was in my teens, and come the end of the 1980s I was beginning to hear Acid House and Techno. As the 1990s went on I really got into the slower weirder sounds of what was Trip. It was around 1994 when I got my decks and began to DJ and by 1999 I had moved to Coventry in England to study music and was promoting my own event called Frequency across Coventry, Leicester and Birmingham and booking the biggest DJ and live shows in the world over the next five years.

After Leeroy Thornhill had left the Prodigy, I booked him for his first ever DJ set and arranged another show the following night in Birmingham where we both played.

We had a good few days and we decided wed DJ together. We had gigs across the globe during the three years we DJd together,

When this came to an end, Phil from Orbital had just split from his brother Paul and I booked him for his first DJ gig, he knew what Id put together for Leeroy and asked me to do the same with him and myself, so we pretty much done the same for a few year.

Studying music in 2000, I met Sean Graham who is also part of WotD. He was a resident DJ at my Frequency nights alongside Sam Goody and myself.

I also had a Warehouse in Coventry back in the mid 00s where we ran monthly events across the Electronic music spectrum.

This took me up to 2010 when I decided I needed a break, so I returned home to Ireland January 2011, taking a break from everything music until late 2014.

As a multi-national group, do you record your music together or remotely?

Its all been remotely since we started in 2014 We all start tracks in our studios. Either Mike and Nick who are twins in New York, Sean in Coventry or myself in Derry, then we share the wav files and just add to everything as we go before I sort the final arrangement.

Were seasoned pros at whats became the norm as weve 11 EPs and an album released up to now, and the new albums about to drop in February. Its being Produced by Howie B, whos produced for U2, Bjork and Massive Attack, amongst many others.

"At the start of lockdown Howie actually collaborated with us on a track called No Borders, our response to Brexit, Trump and the Tory little Britain mindset we are unfortunately surrounded by.

Has Brexit affected the band at all?

Not really. Like I said above, weve been recording remotely since we began and, bar Sean and myself, weve never met the twins nor spoken or Facetimed. Its all been done by email, messenger etc.

"The only thing is now were about to release the second album next year and both the singles currently released from it are getting massive support, being premiered on BBC 6 Music.

Were currently on the Jazz FM playlist and the past four weeks weve been getting calls to do live shows and festivals but, obviously, weve a massive hurdle anyway with the international set up but Brexit is making things more tricky to sort out a live show right now.

Youve got a very unique sound. Who would you say would be your main influences?

Weve the likes of Portishead, Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers, The Cramps, NIN, Ministry, Cinematic Orchestra, Shawn Lee, Frank Zappa, New Order and Bonobo off the top of my head.

Weve no rule book as to how we should sound. All four of us bring completely different things to the band and it reflects in the music, but saying that we crossover loads with vibes were into. Its the different sounds we bring into the melting pot that gives us our sound and keeps it fresh for us.

Now, since its Christmas I thought Id give a mention to Louise DeCosta, whose brilliant new single, Carol of the Bells, will be featured on BBC ATLs Christmas Carol Service today. Its also now available on Spotify and all other platforms.

Id like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Joint statement on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Luxembourg and Ireland

Press release

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Ireland are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year. Relations were established 20 December 1961.



On this special day, the Government of Ireland very much welcomes the decision of the Government of Luxembourg to establish a resident Embassy in Dublin, which will open in 2022.



Ireland and Luxembourg already enjoy excellent bilateral relations and good cooperation in areas such as political, economic and cultural issues. Both of our Governments will continue to work to deepen these ties. The opening of a resident Embassy not only underlines the commitment of Luxembourg to further strengthening our links but also marks a point of departure which will give new impetus for a substantial development of our relationship.

Luxembourg and Ireland are also close partners in our European Union, to which we both share a deep commitment. In these challenging times, due to the ongoing health crisis, Luxembourg and Ireland have been able to count on our excellent bilateral relations and close cooperation within the EU, as we work together to tackle the common challenges that we face.



Our collaboration at the European level reflects the shared goals held by the citizens of both our countries. As committed members of the European project, Luxembourg and Ireland support the development of a stronger European Union, based on the common values that form its foundation. Our two countries will continue to work closely together towards this goal, as dynamic, open and reliable partners.



Our countries are equally committed to defending and promoting our shared values of democracy, human rights, the rule of law and effective multilateralism. Irelands membership of the UN Security Council for the period 2021-2022 and Luxembourgs membership of the UN Human Rights Council for the period 2022-2024 show that commitment in action.



We strongly believe that nations modest in size can achieve great things through active and collaborative engagement and cooperation. The opening by Luxembourg of its new resident Embassy in Dublin is an important step in continuing this work together. As we look towards the next 60 years of diplomatic relations, we have no doubt the quality and depth of our ties of friendship will only continue to grow.



Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, T.D., said:



I am delighted by the decision of the Government of Luxembourg to establish a resident Embassy in Dublin. This is very welcome and will be of great significance in strengthening bilateral relations between our countries, which are already excellent. Our close relationship and friendship is based on our shared strong belief in the benefits of multi-lateral cooperation and our common EU values.



As we mark the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations between our two countries this month, I look forward to continuing to develop the ties of friendship and cooperation between the people of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Ireland.



Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne, T.D., said:



Luxembourg is a close partner for Ireland, bilaterally and within the EU. We enjoy a strong friendship and people to people links, not least the Irish people based in Luxembourg who work in this important EU centre.



I am very pleased that the Government of Luxembourg has decided to establish a resident Embassy in Dublin. I look forward to our continued work to deepen our bilateral relationship and the links between us.



Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, said:



Driven by shared values and firmly anchored in our common membership of the European Union, relations between Luxembourg and Ireland are characterised by deep friendship. That is why I am particularly pleased about the forthcoming opening of a resident Luxembourg Embassy in Dublin and the opportunities it will offer in terms of cooperation and further strengthening the links between our citizens and our business communities.



On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations, let me also pay tribute to the vibrant Irish community in Luxembourg, many of whom work for our common European project, and salute the important contribution of this community to the economic, social and cultural life in Luxembourg.



ENDS

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The RTX 2050 is based on the Ampere GA107 architecture which also shaped the RTX 3050.

As gaming laptops become more affordable, Nvidia is looking at lowering the bar for modern gaming even more with the announcement of the RTX 2050 GPU. Laptops that come with the RTX 2050 will hit markets sometime in mid-2022. We have no idea what these newer RTX 2050 laptops will cost but they should be cheaper than laptops with an RTX 3050. The RTX 2050 is based on the Ampere GA107 architecture which also shaped the 3050. This essentially means that gamers will be able to experience games with ray-tracing enabled.

Nivida also announced the GeForce MX550 as well as the GeForce MX570 gaming laptops. From what we can see, these two laptops will be aimed at the low-end segment of the market, with mainly first-time customers looking for a laptop that can run the most games at a decent price. Nvidia has not released the specs for these cards and has only said that they offer more CUDA Cores and faster memory speeds. We will just have to wait and see what exactly these laptops offer once we get our hands on them.

Nvidia's new RTX 2050 laptops have been announced

In fact, in terms of the growth of gaming in the country, we earlier reported that a new report by Niko Partners stated that India is the fastest-growing gaming market in the world. Niko Partners is a market research and consulting firm covering video games, esports, and streaming in Asia. The new report covers the mobile and PC games market in India and is one of ten reports covering the Asia-10 market. Asia-10 countries include Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Also Read: India Is Tipped To Be The Fastest-Growing Mobile And PC Games Market Globally
Eastlake apartments sell out of foreclosure for $6M



Real Estate Editor By BRIAN MILLER Real Estate Editor

Photo by Pilot Ventures [enlarge] The project shifted during construction, so county figures havent caught up to the brokers description.





The fairly new Odessa on Lake Union, at 3120 Harvard Ave. E., has sold for almost $6.2 million, according to King County records. The seller was a court-ordered receiver for 3120 Harvard LLC. That entity, associated with Barcelo Homes, acquired the Eastlake project in 2018 for almost $1.4 million. Odessa began life under different ownership as a congregate apartment building, and Barcelo appears to have bought it while under construction. Several liens were later filed.

The buyer was Odessa Harvard LLC, which is associated with local firm Graham Capital. Public records indicate a loan from Alaska USA Federal Credit Union.

The seller's brokers were Jason Kono, Matt Johnston and Casey Zejdlik of CPX. (Update: Capital Pacific NW and the brokerage arm of Pilot Ventures recently merged into whats now called CPX.)

The deal was worth about $695 per square foot, including what was originally planned to be 1,380 square feet of retail. Those two bays now look to have been reconfigured into three live/work units during late construction; those average 740 square feet, and rent for around $2,150.

CPX now cites a nominal 35 units, the majority of which are a mix of micro units and SEDU lofts averaging 177 square feet. All apparently have small private bathrooms. Odessa also has four resident lounges with full-size kitchens. The property went on the market in August, with no listed cap rate.

The five-story Odessa has 8,844 square feet, using county figures, plus two structured parking stalls and eight bike stalls. Randall Spaan Designer was the architect. Barcelo built most of the project, which began under BK Investment Group LLC.

Lender Goldman Sachs foreclosed on the Odessa this summer, after making a nearly $5 million construction loan last year. Oregon firm J. Fanelli Properties was appointed the receiver. A final certificate of occupancy was issued in August. A studio is listed at $995 per month; it's unclear how many units have been rented.

Some units appear to have tiny cooktops and refrigerators; the original plan, apparently modified during the pandemic while under construction, was 32 mostly dormitory-style units, with shared kitchens and social areas.





Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517.




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Photo by Neil Walter Co. [enlarge] Viking is the first of a possible eight industrial buildings in the development.





A large, new and recently leased industrial building at 302 33rd St. S.E. in Puyallup has sold for $105 million, according to Pierce County records. The seller was Viking JV LLC, associated with Michelson Commercial Realty and Development of St. Louis, which acquired the land in 2016 for over $9.2 million, then later subdivided it. Washington Capital Management was a partner in that land deal  and likely a development effort, too.





. . .
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SEATTLE  The Gear Works building in South Park, at 500 S. Portland St., sold for a bit under $11 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Gear Works Seattle, which was established in 1946 by the Ramberg family. That storied business closed three years ago and sold most of its assets to next-door neighbor Machinists Inc. The family had owned the property for decades.





. . .
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SEATTLE  A Ballard industrial property at 600 N.W. 40th St. sold for almost $6.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Leman Slye LLC, which acquired the property in 1999 for nearly $1.5 million.





. . .
Cochin Shipyard in major expansion, diversification drive

Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) is constructing New Dry Dock, one of the largest such facility in India, at an estimated cost of Rs1,799 crore. This dry-dock will have a length of 310 metres and will be a stepped dock with a width of 75 metres at the wider part and 60 metres at the narrower part. It will have a depth of 13 metres and a drought of 9.5 metres.

The new dry-dock, when commissioned, will help CSL to have a more diversified product profile. This, dual purpose dry dock is planned essentially to tap the market potential of repairs/ construction of specialised and technologically advanced large vessels such as LNG vessels, Jack Up Rigs. Drill Ships, large dredgers, aircraft carriers and repair of offshore platforms and larger vessels.

The new dry dock will be able to comfortably handle aircraft carriers of 70,000 tonnes docking displacement and tankers and merchant vessels of 55,000 tonnes docking displacement. The dock floor is designed to take a loading of 600 tonnes/metre. The design caters for sufficient safety margins as per international codes. The new dock is expected to be commissioned by July 2023.

Cochin Shipyard Limited had taken over on 30 years lease the existing ship repair facility of Cochin Port Trust (CoPT) located at Willingdon Island, Kochi and is in the process of developing it into a state-of the-art International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) by installing ship lift and transfer system, six dry berths and associated facilities at an estimated cost of Rs970 crore. The ISRF will modernise, expand and substantially augment the existing ship repair capacity of CSL. The ISRF includes 6,000 tonne shiplift for ships up to 130 x 25 m with six work stations and allied facilities, and total outfitting berth of 1,500 meters approx. The facility is expected to be commissioned by January 2023.

Besides, CSL had set up Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Limited (HCSL), as a joint venture with Hooghly Dock & Port Engineers Limited (HDPEL), aimed at supporting inland water vessel construction in line with the governments vision of developing the countrys national waterways. Pursuant to the union cabinet approval, HCSL has become a wholly owned subsidiary of CSL with effect from 1 November 2019. Initially set up at Kolkata, HCSL targets to develop various types of vessels like Ro-Ro vessels, river-sea cargo vessels for bulk, liquids, containers, passenger vessels and other watercrafts for the inland waterways. The total investment for this project is Rs168 crore. The facility is currently ready for operations.

As part of its long term strategy, viz, `CRUISE 2030, CSL aspires to achieve 6 to 8 fold growth by 2030 and towards this the company has identified deep sea fishing vessel construction as one of the potential opportunities. Since fishing vessel segment calls for a dedicated facility so as to cater to the large volume of business which is different from the conventional shipbuilding process, CSL was in search of a suitable facility to enter into this segment. CSL found an opportunity in TSL, Malpe, which was under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) and bidding for TSL through IBC was considered appropriate. Accordingly CSL submitted its resolution plan, which was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chennai on 4 March 2020. The facility is now a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of CSL. An amount of Rs70 crore has been invested and the facility is currently operational.

CSL commenced operations of its Mumbai Ship Repair Unit in October 2018 through an agreement with the Mumbai Port Trust to upgrade, operate and manage Ship Repair Facility at Hughes dry-dock and berth nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Indira Dock of Mumbai Port. Subsequent to the execution of the agreement, CSL has commenced ship repair operations in Mumbai. The facility undertakes repairs of both defence and commercial ships.

CSL commenced operations of its Kolkata Ship Repair Unit in March 2019 through an agreement with Kolkata Port Trust for operations and management of ship repair facility at Netaji Subhas Dock (NSD) for a period of 30 years. The new venture is being managed by a separate unit of CSL known as CSL-Kolkata Ship Repair Unit (CKSRU). Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the CKSRU facility on 12 January 2020. The facility undertakes repair of both defence and commercial ships.

CSL commenced operations of its Andaman unit at Port Blair through an agreement with the Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) Administration for ship repair at the Marine Dockyard, a facility that is currently being operated directly by the A&N Administration. Under the ambit of this agreement, CANSRU will assist the administration in developing an overall ship repair ecosystem at Andaman & Nicobar Islands. CANSRU will also assist and associate in augmentation and modernisation of existing facilities. Focus is on skill development in consultation with the administration and technical institutions located in the Islands, is also part of the mandate of the agreement. The agreement is for a period of 30 years, during which CSL is expected to spruce up the operational efficiency of the dockyard as well as improve the overall ship repair ecosystem in the island to ensure faster turnaround and minimise downtime of the vessels, which are the lifeline for the islands.

The government, on its part, has taken various measures for strengthening the shipping sector and make it internationally competitive.

Accordingly, it has revised the criteria for granting the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) in chartering of vessels through tender process, for promoting tonnage under Indian flag and ship-building in India, so as to make India an `Atma-nirbhar Bharat, in terms of tonnage and ship-building in India.

The following is the revised hierarchy of RoFR:

Indian built, Indian flagged (Indian owned);

Foreign built, Indian flagged (Indian owned);

Indian built, foreign flagged (foreign owned).

This will promote demand of Indian built vessels as the Indian built vessels will have the priority in chartering and will also provide additional market access and business support to ships built in India. Further, financial assistance is provided to Indian shipyards in order to promote Indian industry and to enable them to acquire global shipbuilding contracts while competing in international markets.

The revised Make in India order issued by the DPIIT in September, 2020 stipulates that global tender enquiries should not be issued for public procurement of all goods and services with estimated purchase value of less than Rs200 crore, as this can increase the demand for the complete ecosystem. For acquisition of any type of vessel/ repair of vessel by government department/ agencies, including public sector undertakings (PSUs) through global tendering process, ministry of ports, shipping and waterways wouls continue to implement existing policy of RoFR. This again is a major policy to create demand.

Similarly, the ministry has recently promulgated standard operating procedure for procurement/charter of tugs in major ports in India as per which tugs required for services of all major ports shall be built in Indian shipyards as per standardised designs to be published by the IPA.

The ministry of ports, shipping and waterways is trying to channelise domestic demand towards Indian shipyards by support for development of ancillary industries, measures for GST rationalisation for ship repair, supporting Indian ship design firms and ancillary/maritime clusters. The first maritime cluster called as Konkan Maritime Cluster has been launched recently.

The ministry has implemented a new scheme for promotion of flagging of merchant ships in India by providing subsidy support to Indian shipping companies in global tenders floated by ministries/ departments/ CPSEs in order to promote the objective of Atamanirbhar Bharat. The government approved a scheme on 14 July 2021 to provide Rs1,624 crore over five years as subsidy support. As an outcome of the scheme, Indian shipping companies will become internationally competitive while importing government cargo.

Further, inland vessels have been allowed to operate within in five nautical miles of the base line (inshore traffic corridor) in fair season and fair weather conditions.

Foreign flagged passenger (cruise) vessels have been allowed to visit more than one Indian ports up to 2029 without licence from DG Shipping.

The notification on construction, survey, certification and operation of Indian river sea passenger vessels by the DGS order, issued on 28 July 2017, has expanded the scope of River Sea Passenger vessels by covering more vessels in order to address varying needs of transportation of passengers and tourism in Indian coast.

Union minister for ports, shipping and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal gave this information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
HAL developing new commercial aircraft suitable for regional operatopns

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has developed a commercial aircraft, Hindustan-228, which is an advanced version of its Do-228 aircraft that is already deployed under the regional connectivity scheme, Udan. Hindustan-228 aircraft is being certified to the latest international airworthiness standards with modern avionics system and will be suitable for operations under UDAN scheme.

HAL has entered into an agreement with Alliance Air for dry leasing of its two Do-228 aircrafts for deployment in the North Eastern Region.

The project is funded by HAL. The total funds sanctioned and released by HAL for this project is Rs72.33 crore for the prototype manufacturing and type certification from DGCA. Additionally, HAL has sanctioned Rs266.85 crore for the manufacture of six more aircraft.

HAL has already carried out a successful ground run and Low Speed Taxi Trials (LSTT) of a prototype Hindustan-228 aircraft, a potential commercial aircraft after Type Certification by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

HAL Kanpur carried out the first engine ground run of Hindustan-228 aircraft on 27 May 2021 in co-ordination with DGCA team. Further, ground runs were also carried out for testing of various systems. Subsequently, the LSTT was carried out in co-ordination with DGCA team on 15 August 2021 and the required test parameters were met.

Minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt gave this information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
US to give automatic job authorisation to spouses of H-1B visa holders

The Joe Biden administration has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B visa holders, following a court reversal of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that prohibited H-4 spouses from benefiting from the automatic extension of their employment authorisation during the pendency of stand-alone EAD applications.

The court passed the verdict on a litigation filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on behalf of immigrant spouses this summer.

The Department of Homeland Security opted for a settlement in the class-action lawsuit, a step that would benefit thousands of Indian-American women.

The settlement in this regard was reached by the Department of Homeland Security in a class-action lawsuit.

The H-4 visa holders group that always met the regulatory test for automatic extension of EADs (employment authorisation documents), but the agency previously prohibited them from that benefit and forced them to wait for reauthorisation.

People were suffering. They were losing their high-paying jobs for absolutely no legitimate reason, causing harm to them and US businesses, reports cited Jon Wasden from AILA as saying.

Although this is a giant achievement, the parties agreement will further result in a massive change in the position for the USCIS, which now recognises that L-2 spouses enjoy automatic work authorisation incident to status, meaning these spouses of executive and managers will no longer have to apply for employment authorisation prior to working in the United States, AILA said.

We are delighted to have reached this agreement, which includes relief for H-4 spouses, through our litigation efforts with Wasden Banias and Steven Brown.

It is gratifying that the administration saw that settling the litigation for non-immigrant spouses was something that should be done, and done quickly, said Jesse Bless, AILA director of federal litigation.

The Obama administration had given work authorisation to certain categories of spouses of H-1B visa holders, which was reversed by the administration of President Donald Trump.

So far, more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian-American women, have received work authorisation after the settlement.
Isro has technologies to help small island states during natural calamities: Jitendra Singh

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has developed the requisite technologies and expertise to provide information on advance warning of cyclones, monitoring of coast lines and coral reefs using space based inputs to support small island states to help them protect from inundation due to rising temperatures.

Stating this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, minister of state for science and technology and earth sciences and MoS for PMO, personnel, public grievances, pensions, atomic energy and space, Jitendra Singh, said Isro is gearing up to provide such information to some of the small island developing states (SIDS) in the Indian Ocean Region.

He said, India, UK, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius jointly launched an initiative, Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) to provide technical support on disaster resilience of infrastructure systems to SIDS, during the 26th Conference of Parties held in Glasgow, UK by United Nations.

The minister said, IRIS, will also support SIDS by facilitating access to existing financial mechanisms for resilient infrastructure development. IRIS will extend its support on demand basis to 58 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) across geographic regions.

Isro carries out prediction of track, intensity, landfall time and location of all cyclones originated in the Indian Ocean using space based inputs. While India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the mandated agency to provide the cyclone forecast advisories, Isro supports IMD in improving the prediction methodologies and publish R&D outputs for the help of all.

Isro has carried out vulnerability assessment of the selected states along the Indian coastal region and has identified coastal stretch that are susceptible due to sea level rise. Isro provides near real time prediction of storm surge and surge induced inundation for Indian coast during cyclone using satellite observations and numerical model. Maps of coral reefs of Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been published and are updated regularly. A region-specific Coral Bleaching Monitoring System based on sea surface temperature data is hosted on Isros VEDAS geoportal.
Louth County Libraries are kicking off the new year with a number of online virtual events and workshops for people of all ages.

Clever Little Handies taking place 11th January at 10.30am, is a baby sign class for parents with babies from newborn up.

We already know babies can communicate with their hands before they can talk; they can wave; they can clap; they can point. They have the dexterity in their hands to formulate signs long before they have the muscle dexterity in their mouths to form words.

By teaching them sign language from an early age they will have a vocabulary to use, even if theyre not formulating words.

This 4 week term is brought to you via zoom and will be nursery rhymes, songs and poems with ISL signs that pertain to the day to day with the baby.

Supporting Positive Behaviours Post Christmas with Aoife Lee from Parent Support takes place Tuesday 11th January at 7pm.

Aoife Lee regularly appear on Virgin Medias Ireland AM show as their parenting expert & The Dermot & Dave Show on TodayFM

In this session Aoife will be talking about understanding our childrens behaviours and how as parents and caregivers we can support ourselves and the children by maintaining boundaries and behaviours on the day-to- day challenges of parenting.

Following the Christmas break of downtime and device use, she will also be chatting about managing screens during the school term.

Moo Music Virtual Workshops takes place Wednesday 12th January at 10am.

A fun, interactive music session for children aged 0-5 years and their parents or grandparents. Sing, dance, play and have fun.

All Night Long - how to eat to optimise sleep and recovery zoom workshop with Glenville Nutrition takes place Wednesday 13th January at 7pm

Up to 75% of us suffer from sleep issues during our lifetime and it is certainly a common complaint at the moment.

Getting enough sleep is critical to support long term mental and physical health and can significantly impact your performance and coping mechanisms within a day or two.

This practical talk covers how much sleep we really need, why quality and quantity are both important and how sleep impacts our health.

Find out if you are in sleep debt and the 8 steps to better sleep that you can start to work on today.

To book your place at any of these events email libraryhelpdesk@louthcoco.ie or Tel 042 9353190
Kevin Lunney spoke slowly and calmly as he described the fear he felt that nobody would come to help as he crawled along a country road, shivering from the cold, with his shin broken, knife wounds to his chest and blood dripping from his face.

Giving his evidence in a matter of fact style, he did not embellish or exaggerate.

He was not cross-examined at any length; the truth of what he said was proven by the injuries he suffered.

Mr Lunney said his attackers repeatedly told him to resign from his position as a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings and to put a stop to litigation with which he was involved in Belfast and Dublin.

In opening the trial, prosecution counsel Sean Guerin SC said that what was done to Mr Lunney was connected to his directorship role and that his attackers were acting on behalf of others.

But, he added:

"It is unnecessary to dwell on the background of the company in any detail."

The men on trial, he said, were not connected to "any previous dealings with Quinn Industrial Holdings, or Mr Lunney or anyone connected to it."

There was, he said, no personal motive involved.

Mr Lunney began by saying that at 6:30pm he had been driving up the country lane to his home in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh when he saw a silver BMW in front of him.

He stopped, the BMW reversed at speed and crashed into his Toyota Landcruiser.

Two men wearing face masks and dark clothing jumped out of the BMW and dragged Mr Lunney from his car before a third man, nominated as 40-year-old YZ by the Special Criminal Court, pressed a Stanley knife against Mr Lunney's face, and ordered him into the boot of his Audi A4.

They drove him to a remote farmyard and led him into a blue horse trailer where he was stripped to his boxer shorts, doused in bleach, beaten and threatened.

YZ slashed him with a knife.

At one point Mr Lunney was forced to stretch out his leg and one of his attackers used a wooden bat to strike his shin.

Mr Lunney felt the bone break but was struck again almost immediately in the same spot.

The ordeal would end with Mr Lunney being dumped on the side of a country road.

He dragged himself, with only the use of one arm and one leg, towards the light of a distant window until tractor driver Aaron Brady and local woman Celine Duignan discovered him, bleeding and helpless.

They comforted him, covered him with blankets and gave him 7-Up.

When he arrived at Cavan General Hospital it was assessed that, apart from the obvious injuries, he was suffering from hypothermia.

His testimony, which was in line with what he told Gardai, shone a light on how the investigation unfolded.

In particular the investigation was spurred by his revelation that during the assault, his attackers decided they needed bleach to destroy forensic evidence.

Two of the attackers left and when they returned 15 minutes later they rubbed bleach into Mr Lunney's hands, legs, torso and face.

Gardai canvassed local shops and found that Luke O'Reilly (68) had bought a bottle of Domestos from a Gala shop at Killydoon in Cavan at almost exactly 8pm, a time that coincided neatly with the account given by Mr Lunney.

They got a warrant to search Mr O'Reilly's home where they were greeted by Mr O'Reilly, who told them:

"I know why you are here. Because I bought that bottle of bleach."

He handed over his mobile phone and gave Gardai a statement, telling them he had nothing to hide.

When Gardai checked Mr O'Reilly's phone, they saw that he had been in contact with known criminal Cyril McGuinness, also known as Dublin Jimmy, who is now deceased.

When they seized records relating to McGuinness' number, they saw that at pivotal points during the preparation for and currency of the kidnap and assault on Mr Lunney, McGuinness was in contact with the accused man known as YZ.

By tracing YZ's movements on CCTV and mobile phone contacts around the time of the kidnap, Gardai formed the cases against Alan OBrien (40) and Darren Redmond (27).



Mr Lunney was also able to give Gardai snippets of information that led them to where the assault took place.

He said he was in the boot of the Audi A4 for about 45 minutes, travelling at speed for much of the journey.

As he lay in the boot with the back seat down, he was occasionally able to see through the window and identified a Lakeland Dairies sign and a pub with a cream-coloured sign, about one metre in length running down the side of a building.

The trial judge would later remark that this account showed Mr Lunney's "uncanny ability to accurately estimate the passage of time even though his attackers removed his watch early on."

When he was taken from the boot, he could see that he was in a yard overgrown with weeds and with a number of trailers.

The one he was taken to was a blue horse box with animal dung on the floor, and beside it, he said, was a white trailer and a brown building.

Three days after the abduction, a Garda discovered a yard in Drumbrade, Ballina that seemed identical to the one described by Mr Lunney.

It soon emerged that the yard belonged to Luke O'Reilly.

Forensic testing revealed that blood DNA inside a blue horsebox in the yard matched that of Kevin Lunney.

When Gardai examined the mobile phones of all the accused, they discovered that after buying the bleach in Killydoon, Mr O'Reilly drove north, away from his home at Kilcogy towards Drumbrade, where Mr Lunney was being held in a yard that he owned.

At the same time, YZ's phone was pinging off masts running along the N55 heading south towards Mr O'Reilly.

The court acquitted Mr O'Reilly of all charges against him because, as was argued by defence counsel Michael Lynn SC, it was not proven that he knew what was to happen to Mr Lunney.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that what happened at the yard owned by Mr O'Reilly must have occurred with "some degree of consent and knowledge" on his part.

The phone calls with McGuinness that coincided with calls between McGuinness and YZ, the court said, must have involved "some apprehension on his part that criminal activity was afoot."

The court therefore concluded that Mr O'Reilly was "providing some form of local advice or assistance".

The court also said that it doubted whether Mr O'Reilly "could have believed that all of that effort was being deployed in pursuit of some trivial purpose."

The court further found that Mr O'Reilly did not offer a "full or truthful account of his movements and actions" when questioned by Gardai and they did not accept his account that he bought the bottle of bleach for his wife.

Mr Justice Hunt said it is "difficult to envisage" that the bleach used on Mr Lunney arrived from any source other than Mr O'Reilly.

The court, however, said that Mr O'Reilly was not charged with assisting a criminal organisation or criminal activity in a general sense, but as a principal offender for false imprisonment and intentionally causing harm to Mr Lunney.

Mr Justice Hunt said:

"Accordingly, the prosecution must establish that it is an inexorable inference that Mr OReilly knew or intended that his actions and assistance would be directed towards these specific offences."

Mr O'Reilly's casual demeanour in the Gala shop and open co-operation with Gardai "offers some support for the construction that he did not know the specific reason why he was delivering bleach on behalf of Mr McGuinness," the court said.

Mr Justice Hunt added:

"Even if we might consider the prosecution scenario more likely, a reasonable doubt arises as defined in criminal law."

The circumstantial cases against the three men who were convicted relied largely on mobile phone and CCTV evidence.

Many days of the trial were taken up by legal argument over the legality of Gardai accessing mobile phone data and using CCTV harvested from shops, pubs and other private operators.

Gardai were aware in 2019 of the legal difficulties around using mobile phone evidence and so accessed phone records using ordinary warrants rather than the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011.

The court in this trial rejected the defence arguments and ruled that Gardai had acted properly in using warrants to access information that was to be used in the investigation of serious crime.

The court also rejected the defence's arguments that the use of CCTV by Gardai amounts to mass surveillance and should be forbidden.

In the case of YZ, the court listed seventeen strands of circumstantial evidence which Mr Justice Hunt said were "sufficient to support beyond reasonable doubt the conclusion that Mr YZ was heavily involved in these crimes before, during and after the commission thereof."

The evidence included his being seen on CCTV driving a Renault Kangoo van on the day of the abduction and the previous day, traveling from Dublin to Cavan and back, taking in areas close to Mr Lunney's home and Drumbrade where the assault happened.

Mr Lunney's DNA was found in the van in an area of suspected blood staining that the prosecution said could only have been transferred inadvertently by one of Mr Lunney's attackers.

During the trial, YZ's defence counsel Michael O'Higgins SC asked the court to consider whether the prosecution had excluded the possibility that Mr Lunney's DNA was planted inside the Renault Kangoo, which was subsequently destroyed by a fire at a storage yard in Cavan in February 2020.

The court heard Gardai were satisfied the fire was caused by batteries that were charging overnight in an office attached to the yard where the van was kept.

The scene was examined by both Gardai and by an insurance assessor who is an expert on fire damage, the trial heard.

Mr O'Higgins submitted that no access log was kept for the van while it was stored in a forensic examination unit and he pointed to the failure of forensic Gardai to spot an area of brownish red marking in the van that, when examined two days later, was found to be blood.

Mr Justice Hunt however, said the failure of forensic Gardai to find the area of blood staining was the result of oversight and not the result of an "implausible, complicated, unnecessary plan to plant evidence."

The judge said any such finding would require that a person had access to a sample of Mr Lunney's blood, which the judge said is "far-fetched to say the least".

The court concluded that the van was "used as a means of transport by those involved in the preparation for and execution of these crimes."

YZ was also connected to the Audi used to kidnap Mr Lunney when gardai found an eFlow tag in YZ's home that belonged to the Audi's previous owner.

The court also found that from Mr Lunney's descriptions of his attackers, YZ was responsible for inflicting most of the serious injuries.

The court also found that despite the controversy during the trial, YZ's guilt was proven without the need to consider mobile phone evidence.

It was, Mr Justice Hunt said, "of little or no decisive effect" given the other evidence showing YZ's obvious presence at the critical locations at critical moments in the preparation for and carrying out of the offences.

The main function of the mobile phone evidence, Mr Justice Hunt said, was to "add an additional degree of certainty and detail to a conclusion already established beyond reasonable doubt."

In relation to O'Brien, the court rejected his claim that he did not leave Dublin on the day of the abduction.

The court was satisfied that O'Brien was the passenger seen on CCTV footage in the Kangoo with YZ and that he was one of the three men directly involved in the abduction and assault.

Turning to Redmond, the court found that there were three strands of evidence that proved his guilt: He was seen with YZ and O'Brien in Dublin before they left for Cavan on the day of the offences, his DNA was found in the Kangoo, and his mobile phone was traced traveling from Dublin to Cavan and back in tandem with the Kangoo.

In passing sentence Mr Justice Hunt described Mr Lunney as a "decent man" who was the victim of a brutal assault designed to stop him going about his lawful business.

He sentenced YZ to 30 years imprisonment, O'Brien to 25 years and Redmond to 18 years with the final three suspended.
This is the story of a courageous Armenian pet lover, who decided to embark on an entrepreneurial journey in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Stuck at home during lockdown, Kristine Soghomonyan saw first-hand the benefits to herself and her children of owning and caring for pets.

Four German shepherds and a parrot helped her family cope with pandemic-induced isolation and inspired her to open her first Pet City  a magical pet food and accessories store  in Yerevan.

Pet City is a client of the EBRD Women in Business programme in Armenia, supported by the European Union and Sweden.

Special bonds

Kristines aim in opening her first shop was to reward these loyal companions by creating a cosy environment, filled with laughter, colour and pleasant aromas, that people could visit freely with their furry friends.

Pet City offers a wide array of pet pampering products, from accessories and toys to grooming products and delicious and nutritious food, but as Kristine says, nothing comes close to the love and loyalty our little friends share with us so generously.

Owning a pet makes you kinder, more thoughtful, says Kristine. Wet noses, wagging tails, cuddles, the sheer joy they show on seeing us  pets are part of the family and give us unconditional love and emotional support, even when we are feeling low.

Now with three branches across the capital and an online shop, Pet City employs 24 people. All believe in the pet effect, that the strong bond between pets and their owners brings not only physical health benefits, but improves mental wellbeing and reduces anxiety and feelings of isolation.

We are so lucky to be in this business, Kristine says. From the outset, we have made so many friends  with our employees, our clients, their pets, we feel like a big, happy family.

Moving forward

Kristine and Pet City joined the EBRDs Women in Business programme (WiB) with a loan from a local partner bank, Converse Bank. The loan enabled Pet City to buy a space for one of its shops, rather than rent.

Women entrepreneurs play a critical role in driving economic development around the world, and Armenia is no exception, says Kristine. When Converse Bank first learned of our intention to buy a space for one of our shops, they offered us help through the Women in Business programme. Our project became a priority and all administrative tasks were processed smoothly and quickly.

Through WiB and together with the EU, the EBRD works with local partner financial institutions, such as Convers Bank, to help female entrepreneurs access the finance they need to grow their businesses. The programme also offers advisory services with funding from Sweden to help women-led companies excel in marketing, management, human resources and more.

After securing our space for the shop, we feel much more confident than before. We are ready to move forward, says Kristine.

This is just beginning of a long journey, she adds. Our aim is to remain a beloved destination for our loyal clients and their furry friends and to do everything possible to turn occasional clients into loyal customers.
EBRD, EU and GCF provide financing package to Ahli United Bank in Egypt

Combination of US$ 52 million loan and US$ 30 million trade facility

Loans to benefit underserved small businesses and support greening of supply chain

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Union (EU) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are boosting green finance and the development of value chains for the Egyptian private sector with a financing package of US$ 82 million to Ahli United Bank in Egypt (AUBE).

The package consists of a US$ 30 million credit line for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a US$ 10 million value chain loan under the EU-funded Trade and Competitiveness Programme, and a US$12 million green value chain loan supported by the GCF and the EU, as well as a US$ 30 million trade facility under the EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP).

The SME credit line will help increase access to finance for small businesses that remain underserved despite their crucial role in the Egyptian economy. The loan will also allow AUBE to extend its support to SMEs located in remote regions outside Greater Cairo and Alexandria.

The value chain and green value chain loans will support SMEs in agribusiness, manufacturing and services, logistics, and information and communication technologies in efforts to enhance their competitiveness. The programme will allow small businesses to invest in advanced technologies and in climate mitigation and adaptation solutions that enhance the development of green value chains. The programme also supports equal opportunities for men and women.

The trade facility will be used to issue guarantees in favour of confirming banks to support trade finance instruments issued by AUBE and provide cash advances to fund trade-related loans for pre-export and post-import financing and local distribution of imported goods.

Heike Harmgart, Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, said: I am very proud to sign this financial package, which will benefit an underserved segment of the economy. Together with the EU, the GCF and AUBE, we are contributing to greener, more inclusive and sustainable economic growth as well as helping to create more jobs for people in Egypt.

We are pleased to collaborate with EBRD and GCF to support some important segments and businesses in the domestic market, in alignment with the Bank's strategy and the countrys economic development plan. The multi-purpose financing package will be directed to further strengthen our SMEs value proposition. AUB continues to expand its clientele base while assuming a responsible role in boosting the green economy, said Hala Sadek, CEO and Board Member, Ahli United Bank Egypt.

AUBE is 95.7 percent owned by Ahli United Bank, the largest bank in Bahrain.

Egypt is a founding member of the EBRD. Since the start of its operations in Egypt in 2012, the EBRD has invested more than 8 billion in 138 projects in the country. The EBRDs areas of investment include the financial sector, agribusiness, and manufacturing and services, as well as infrastructure projects such as power, municipal water and wastewater services, and contributions to the upgrade of transport services.
US$ 5 million loan to Nika Pharm in Uzbekistan

Local producer of medicines to improve product availability in remote regions

Improved research and development capacity, import substitution

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is stimulating the local production of pharmaceuticals in Central Asias most populous country, Uzbekistan, by extending a senior loan of up to US$ 5 million to local producer Nika Pharm.

Nika Pharm is an established manufacturer of generic pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs for use in the treatment of common colds, and in gastroenterology, paediatrics and urology. It will use the financing to acquire specialised manufacturing equipment for capacity expansion at its principal production facility in the countrys capital, Tashkent.

The company will also build three new warehouses with a combined storage area of around 3,000 m2 in the regional centres of Fergana, Termez and Urgench by 2023. This will allow Nika Pharm to increase the availability of its pharmaceuticals in remote regions, which are home to almost half of Uzbekistans population.

Upgrading the companys research and development function will help Nika Pharm to manufacture competitively priced high-quality medicines for the countrys rapidly growing population. Customers across Uzbekistan will welcome more competition in a market that relies heavily on imports, accounting for up to 75 per cent of domestic consumption.

Nika Pharm will also increase the range of its medicines, particularly important for a market set to grow significantly in the next five years.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than US$ 2.8 billion in Uzbekistans economy through 105 projects.
Works are to commence shortly on a 9 million water infrastructure project to support future growth and development of Ballyvolane.

Irish Water, working in partnership with Cork City Council, said it is to commence the expansion works of the water and wastewater infrastructure in Ballyvolane in early January 2022.

Once complete, the new water and wastewater infrastructure will support growth and development through the provision of water and wastewater services.

Geda Construction Ltd, who will deliver this project on behalf of Irish Water, will commence the project within weeks.

It is anticipated the works will take approximately 18 months to complete.

Lisa Cogan of Irish Water. Pic Sean Curtin True Media.

Commenting on the project, Lisa Cogan of Irish Water said: As part of Irish Waters commitment to develop water and wastewater infrastructure and to provide additional capacity to allow for growth and development around the country we are delighted to announce approximately 9 million investment in the local water and wastewater infrastructure in Ballyvolane. The project will be carried out in three phases over 18 months and on completion will play a role in supporting the development of new and existing homes and businesses in the area.  The three phases of construction are:

Phase 1: Construction of a wastewater pumping station on Ballyhooly Road commencing January 2022. Planned completion Autumn 2022. Planned working hours are 7am to 6pm  Monday to Saturday.

Phase 2: Construction of approximately 1.5km of watermains on Lower Dublin Hill Road to the junction with Ballyhooly Road. Works will continue northbound on Ballyhooly Road ending just south of Whites Cross. Works are planned to commence in early Spring 2022 and will take approximately 4 months to complete.

Phase 3: Upgrade of over 200 meters existing watermains on Ballyhooly Road, and the construction of approximately 2.6km of wastewater mains on Ballyhooly Road and North Ring Road to the Old Youghal Road junction. Works are planned to commence in late Spring 2022. Confirmed commencement and duration will be communicated closer to the time.

Ms Cogan said that areas of work will be limited to short sections to limit the impact on the local community.

Local and emergency traffic will always be maintained. We understand that this type of work can be inconvenient and work crews will make every effort to minimise any disruption while we work to assist in the development of Ballyvolane.

Irish Water is responsible for public water and wastewater infrastructure and is committed to providing a safe and reliable water supply, protecting the environment, and supporting growth and development across housing and business. The building, repair, and upgrading of Irish Waters water treatment plants, wastewater treatment plants, water, and sewer network will require a multi-billion euro investment programme over many years. Irish Water is investing 5.2 billion in the period from 2020-2024 in drinking water and wastewater quality and capacity and new infrastructure.
A doctor advised a patient to get a Covid vaccination and the young man reacted by assaulting the doctor.

This arose when the patient was attending the GP in East Cork.

While the assailant - 34-year-old Jason Butler of St Vincents hostel, Anglesea Terrace, Cork - was put on a probation bond on the charge of assault causing harm, it could still trigger the imposition of a three-month jail term.

The matter came to light at Cork District Court where there was an application to have the suspension revoked on a previously imposed three-month term, in light of the assault on the doctor.

Butler was convicted recently at Midleton District Court on a charge of assault causing harm to Dr Gerard McLaughlin at the East Cork Clinic on June 21. Butler was put on a probation bond in respect of that conviction.

However, this was all brought to the attention of Judge Olann Kelleher at Cork District Court today in respect of another case involving Jason Butler.

The other case was one of engaging in threatening behaviour. Butler was previously convicted on that charge and given a three-month sentence which was suspended in February on the basis that he would keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

The June assault on the doctor resulted in that sentence being re-entered before Judge Kelleher.

Joseph Cuddigan, solicitor, outlined the background to the matter from Midleton, He was attending his GP. He was not compliant with his medication at that time. The GP suggested he should take the Covid vaccination.

Mr Butler reacted badly and struck the GP. He subsequently wrote a letter of apology. The GP did not make any victim impact statement.

Judge Kelleher said by way of clarification, He got the Probation Act for striking the GP  is that the bottom line?

Sergeant Pat Lyons said, Correct.

Mr Cuddigan said that Butler, who had been living at St Vincents hostel, was presently under the close supervision of the staff assisting him at Cork Simon Community.

Judge Kelleher had to decide on whether or not to revoke the suspension on the three months sentence in all the circumstances.

I will adjourn it until January 17 and make a decision on it then. I need to have an update from his psychiatrist and I need to know if he is taking his medication, Judge Kelleher said.
A CORK woman is appealing to Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney to help save the lives of an Afghan family in hiding from the Taliban.

Joya Kuin, who works as an event manager at Corks community boatyard Meitheal Mara, has asked Mr Coveney to help secure visas and a place on the Irish Refugee Protection Programme for her friends Samira and Hamed Naderi, and their baby son Zahid.

The Naderi family are fugitives from Afghanistans Taliban government, and say they have been told they will be killed if caught.

Ms Kuin said she is appealing to Mr Coveney, and to his Government colleagues, to help secure visa waivers for the family, and to allow them to come to Ireland as refugees.

Ms Kuin said she had gotten to know Mr Naderi when she had been a fundraiser for the Afghan Womens Network, where Mr Naderi had worked.

Mr Naderis wife Samira had worked as a scientist teaching young women under the previous Afghan government. The couple has been in hiding with their infant son since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last August after the United States withdrew its troops from the country.

As soon as the Taliban took over Kabul, they raided the offices of the Afghan Womens Network, closed them down, and confiscated all staff records, Ms Kuin told The Echo.

Shortly afterward, she said, the Taliban came looking for Mr and Ms Naderi and told Mr Naderis family that he would be killed if found.

Since then, Ms Kuin said, the family has been in hiding and she has only been able to make contact with them once, when Mr Naderi told her the Taliban had been going door-to-door, arresting people who had worked in government, media, education, and progressive organisations.

The family has had to move again, and I havent been able to get any further updates on their case and Irish visas, Ms Kuin said.

Theyre in imminent danger and I just cant stress enough how urgent this situation is.

Ms Kuin said she and her friends have already secured a home for the Naderi family if they are granted refugee status and allowed to come to Ireland. Cork arts manager Nicki ffrench Davis and her husband, fiddle-maker Bertrand Galen, have agreed to host the family in their home and to help them integrate into the community.

We have everything ready in Cork City to support them, to help them make a life in Ireland, and all we really need at this stage is just for the officials to look at their case and save their lives, Ms Kuin said.

Petition

An online petition set up by Ms Kuin to Mr Coveney, Childrens Minister Roderic OGorman and Justice Minister Helen McEntee, has received over 1,000 signatures.

Ms Kuin said she was appealing directly to Mr Coveney, both as minister for foreign affairs and as her local TD, to help rescue her friends, who, she says, are in mortal danger.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: Minister Coveney is aware of the case and his office has received correspondences.

These requests for assistance have been brought to the attention of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth which is the relevant Government department on this matter.

When The Echo contacted the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth, a spokesperson said the Irish Refugee Protection Programme currently has some 400 places available for humanitarian cases from Afghanistan, and this is being kept under review, as capacity allows.

The Department of Justice is responsible for visas for travel to Ireland, including in cases where people wish to join a family member residing in Ireland.

That department is currently prioritising family reunification applications for Afghan international protection beneficiaries and visa applications for the family members of people residing in Ireland who are currently based in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said.
Curraghs donates 5k to help red pandas

The Curraghs Wildlife Park will donate 5,000 to help red pandas in the wild through its conservation fund in memory of Kush. The endangered panda shot to fame after escaping from his enclosure on two separate occasions before being safely returned.

Following his adventures the eight-year-old had become a dad for the first time in 2020 with partner Sara  with the proud pandas welcoming two more cubs this year.

The donation will be made to the Red Panda Network and used to expand and connect crucial habitat in Nepal, as well as educational and anti-poaching projects.

The Parks conservation fund has supported six projects since its creation and helped species including lemurs, silvery gibbons and Manx Shearwaters.

It is paid for by the generosity of members and visitors who choose not to opt out of a small donation when buying tickets and memberships.

General Manager Kathleen Graham, said: Kush was a poster boy for his species and definitely did his bit to raise awareness  so I know hed approve. The Red Panda Network is making a real difference and this substantial donation will boost efforts to secure land and plant thousands of trees that will bridge fragmented habitats in a biodiversity hotspot.

In the wild red pandas are found in mountain forests of Asia and are classed as endangered by the International Union for the IUCN

Recent estimates suggest there are only 10,000 left in natural habitat, but that figure could be as low as 2,500 experts believe.
Man charged with robbery of Olympian Mark Cavendish at home

A man has been charged with robbing Manx cyclist Mark Cavendish at his home in Essex.

It happened at around 2.35am on Saturday 27 November.

Romario Henry was arrested on Saturday.

The 30 year-old, of Bell Green, Lewisham, London will appear at Colchester Magistrates Court today (Monday 20 December) charged with two counts of robbery.

Two 27 year-old men  one from Gillingham and one from Camberwell  were also arrested last week.

They have been released on bail until 112 January
On Monday, the Biden administration finalized new fuel efficiency standards designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions put out by passenger vehicles. By 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency will require that automaker fleets travel an average of about 55 miles per gallon, up from the 37 miles per gallon standard theyre held to as of this year.

The agency estimates the policy will save American drivers between $210 billion and $420 billion through 2050 on fuel costs. Over the life of a model year 2026 vehicle, that will translate to about $1,080 in individual consumer savings after factoring in the higher initial cost of a more efficient vehicle. The EPA estimates the policy will also prevent the release of about 3.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the same time frame.

We followed the science, we listened to stakeholders, and we are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planet  and save families money at the same time, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

The new standards effectively mirror those put forward by the Obama administration in 2012. Had former President Trump not weakened those in 2018, they would have required automakers to make vehicles that could travel about 51 miles per gallon by 2025.

Jeff Alson, a former EPA senior engineer, told The New York Times, the new standards recapture the emissions cuts carved out by the Trump administration. Thats good, but its not going to get us anywhere near the level weve got to get to reduce vehicle emissions enough to protect the planet, he said.

We've reached out to Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota and Stellantis for comment on today's rulemaking.

The new standards mark the most significant climate action taken to date by President Biden. As of 2019, the transportation sector has been the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. However, the announcement comes just one day after Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he would not support the Democratic partys Build Back Better plan. Among other items, the approximately $2 trillion plan includes a proposal for up to $12,500 in individual tax subsidies for Americans who buy an EV as their next car.
Were in the midst of a modern day space race. Where once the two most powerful empires on the planet vied to be first to the moon, we now have corporations led by billionaire barons  Elon Musks SpaceX, Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic  boasting a future filled with exo-planetary tourism. In 2021, the heads of these private companies finally made good on their myriad promises, successfully launching civilians, astronauts and, in two cases, themselves into the uppermost reaches of Earths atmosphere.

SpaceX continues to lead the burgeoning private spaceflight industry from the front. In January, the company successfully launched its first rideshare mission aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, ferrying 133 microsatellites into orbit along with 10 of its own Starlink satellites. SpaceXs Starlink ISP service, which now serves more than 10,000 customers, has put some 1,475 of the microsats into orbit above the planet (with a total of 42,000 planned, offering global coverage by September), despite the vehement protests of astronomers who fear their presence will blind ground-based telescopes.

SpaceXs endeavors to get its Starship prototype off the ground have not been nearly as successful as Starlink, mind you. The 100-passenger spacecraft, which was designed to help fulfill CEO Elon Musks dream of colonizing Mars and, presumably, titling himself God Emperor of the Red Planet (or some such), spectacularly exploded on the launchpad following a high-altitude test flight in March.

SN10 engine was low on thrust due (probably) to partial helium ingestion from fuel header tank. Impact of 10m/s crushed legs & part of skirt. Multiple fixes in work for SN11.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2021

A subsequent test of the SN11 Starship prototype later that month didnt even get back to the landing pad. SN15, which launched in May, did however manage to land in one piece. The company is currently working on a plan to launch a Starship prototype into orbit, though no timetable is currently set for that launch  it was originally slated for July then pushed back to November, depending on regulatory approval, and is now set for January.

But those failed tests have done little to slow SpaceXs roll over its competition. In February, NASA awarded SpaceX with a $331.8 million contract to bring its Gateway station into lunar orbit in 2024. And in April, NASA gave the company a $2.9 billion contract to ferry its Artemis lunar lander to the moon.

Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin responded to the Artemis contract by first protesting the fundamentally unfair decision with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), which delayed progress on the project until July when the GAO dismissed the claims, even though Bezos offered NASA $2 billion to grant them the contract instead.

"We stand firm in our belief that there were fundamental issues with NASA's decision, but the GAO wasn't able to address them due to their limited jurisdiction," the company said following the GAOs announcement.

Still seething from the GAOs rebuke, Bezos then filed suit against NASA in Federal Claims court, essentially trying to sue [its] way to the moon, per Musk. Blue Origin claimed this was done "in an attempt to remedy the flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA's Human Landing System," a spokesperson for Blue Origin told Engadget in August. "We firmly believe that the issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition, and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America." Blue Origin eventually lost that lawsuit as well.

And thats when a prestige competition between the two richest men on Earth devolved into a middle school slap fight with SpaceX accusing Amazon of intentionally delaying proposals for its Starlink service while Amazon countered with incriminations that Musk and SpaceX dont follow the rules.

Whether it is launching satellites with unlicensed antennas, launching rockets without approval, building an unapproved launch tower, or re-opening a factory in violation of a shelter-in-place order, the conduct of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies makes their view plain: rules are for other people, and those who insist upon or even simply request compliance are deserving of derision and ad hominem attacks, Amazons FCC filing reads.

This year, not only did SpaceX become the first private company to successfully transport astronauts to the ISS, it also offered its first orbital flight for civilians with the launch of the Inspiration4 mission in September. A quartet of amatuer astronauts spent three days circling the Earth in a Dragon Capsule before safely returning. And while Musk has not yet left the planets atmosphere aboard a rocket of his companys design, he has reportedly made a $10,000 down payment on a trip aboard a future Virgin Galactic flight.

One notch Bezos has on his belt that Musk does not is the fact that he has, in fact, flown aboard his own spacecraft. Following successful test flights of Blue Origins upgraded New Shepard in both January and April, Jeff Bezos and his brother  along with 18-year old Oliver Daemen (whose parents spent $28 million for the honor) and 84-year-old Wally Funk  successfully traversed the Karman line on July 20th. Blue Origin followed up that feat in October when it shuttled William Shatner, of Star Trek fame, into space. During that flight, Shatner, who is 90, unseated 84-year-old Funk as the oldest person to go to space. Way to snatch the last few highlights from an old womans life, Captain Kirk.

Looking ahead, Blue Origin is working on a spacecraft capable of handling a Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for DARPA  and competing against Lockheed Martin to successfully demonstrate it outside of low Earth orbit in 2025. The company also announced at the end of October that it hopes to build and deploy a commercial space station called the Orbital Reef  think, the ISS but with more intrusive advertising  by the second half of this decade. NASA has since awarded the project a Space Act Agreement, along with funding through the design phase, as part of its Commercial LEO Development program.

Virgin Galactic, on the other hand, started its 2021 off in a holding pattern. The companys SpaceShip II test at the end of last December  its first major flight out of the Spaceport America site in New Mexico  ended in abruptly after the ships engine failed to ignite. A subsequent redo test scheduled for February was also delayed to May after the company opted to make additional technical checks.

While these arent major setbacks in the same vein as say an exploding StarShip, VGs continued delays have pushed back the companys goal of commercial space tourism flights to at least 2022. They did not, however, impact Virgin Galactics unveiling of SpaceShip III in March.

In May, VGs perseverance paid off when SpaceShip II successfully completed its rocket-powered test flight, flinging a pair of pilots and a cargo hold full of NASA experiments into the very upper reaches of the atmosphere. The following month, Virgin Galactic received approval from the FAA to begin commercial operations, becoming the first such company to secure permission from the aviation industry. With the FAAs blessing firmly in hand, Virgin Galactic decided to blast CEO Sir Richard Branson into space  heedless of Blue Origins derisions  the following month. On July 11th, Branson and his crew did just that  well, technically.

Buoyed by the success of their boss flight, Virgin Galactic began offering tickets to would-be space tourists for the low, low discount price of $450,000. As of the start of November, more than 100 tickets have been sold.

Bransons flight was not flawless, however, and that raised the ire of the FAA. During SpaceShip IIs landing, the spacecraft deviated from its Air Traffic Control clearance as it returned to Spaceport America, per the FAA. In a subsequent statement from the company, Virgin disagreed with the FAAs characterization.

When the vehicle encountered high altitude winds which changed the trajectory, the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure it remained within mission parameters, the company argued. Our pilots responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions exactly as they were trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures. Although the flights ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, it was a controlled and intentional flight path that allowed Unity 22 to successfully reach space and land safely at our Spaceport in New Mexico. At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory. A brief investigation by the FAA eventually cleared the company to resume test flights.

Despite these advances in private spaceflight systems, dont expect the space tourism industry to take off before at least the start of the next decade. If Virgin Galactics recent price hike from $250,000 to $450,000 per ticket is any indication, very few people will be able to afford such a trip for the foreseeable future. So while two of the worlds richest men may have had the honor of temporarily escaping our gravity well, dont think youll get your chance anytime soon  unless you can win it like a Golden Ticket like Keisha S did.
LG is best known for productivity-oriented laptops and particularly, its lightweight Gram 17  but not any serious gaming models. Now the company has revealed what it calls its "first gaming laptop" with some high-end specs. The 17-inch UltraGear 17G90Q model packs an 11th-generation Intel Tiger Lake H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

It also comes with a 300 Hz 1080p IPS display, and should have pretty decent endurance for gaming or content creation with the 93Wh battery. There's a good selection of ports, including a USB 4 Gen 3x2 (Type C) with Thunderbolt 4, another USB-C 3.2 2x1, two USB 3.2 Gen 2x1, HDMI, microSD, headphone jack and RJ45. Other features include a power button fingerprint sensor and 1080p webcam.

LG

It's got an aluminum case with an attractive grey/purple color scheme and is fairly slim for a 17-inch gaming laptop (21.4mm). It's decently lightweight at 5.82 pounds, though a bit heavy compared to MSI's 17-inch GS76 Stealth laptop, which is 5.4 pounds and has a bigger battery.

LG didn't reveal the key pricing, but it could be a good option for folks who like the LG brand and appreciate the understated styling. It's set to arrive in the US and South Korea starting in early 2022, and LG will reveal more details at CES 2022 on January 4th.
The holidays are a time for love, joy, heartwarming moments, and getting together with your crazy family to enjoy each other's company...and, for some people, also to remind yourself why you don't do this more than a couple of times a year.

As much as we love our families, getting everyone together for the holidays can be insane - but at least it's probably not SITCOM levels of insane. Specifically, these sitcom episodes. When your fam starts driving you bonkers, just throw one of these on and remind yourself: It could always be worse.

(Then go back and join the fun, because that's what Christmas is all about.)

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas, S6E13

The single Christmas Special made for the insanity that is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (until yesterday, that is!) didn't air when it was originally made, as it was originally a dvd extra - it's technically the last episode of season 5, but it first aired on television after the finale of Season 6 in 2019.

In it, Mac and Charlie accidentally ruin each other's childhood Christmases, and Frank continues a very upsetting Christmas tradition in which he gets Dennis and Dee their dream presents, only to destroy them. They then plot to try to trap Frank in the plot of A Christmas Carol, which, while it doesn't quite go as planned, does still help him see the light.

The Office: Moroccan Christmas, S5E11

Everyone is in peak form for this Christmas party, especially Meredith, who gets so drunk she catches fire, and Dwight, who is scalping Unicorn-Barbie hybrid dolls to desperate parents. Plus, Phyllis tells everyone Angela is cheating on Andy, and Michael attempts to kidnap Meredith and take her to rehab.

None of this makes any sense, but it REALLY makes no sense in a workplace. But somehow the episode still manages to be sweet.

Everybody Hates Chris: Kwanzaa, S3E10

In this episode, Julius decides the family is not going to celebrate Christmas this year, but Kwanzaa - but only because it's cheaper. At the very least, there is a sweet plotline where Chris, assigned to do a good deed over the Christmas break, decides to help Kill Moves find his mom.

It's very sweet and VERY Christmas in the 90s.

Community: Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas, S2E11

Talk about crazy - Abed has an actual mental break in this episode, and his friends stage a disguised therapy session for him to try to pull him out of it. The twist? We see everything from his perspective, and ABED is seeing everyone as stop-motion animated, just like the classic Christmas claymation movies.

It's funny, heartwarming, nostalgic, and insane, all at once - which, to be fair, IS what Community does best.

New Girl: The 23rd, S1E9

New Girl has a great Christmas episode practically every season, but the first one takes the cake in our opinion: Between the insanity of the gang going to Schmidt's office party (with his honestly terrifying coworkers), Winston befriending the boss's son, Nick trying not to miss his flight for the fifth year in a row, and Jess realizing she doesn't love her boyfriend, it's the perfect combo of festivity and tension for the holiday.

It also ends on a sweet note, with Nick deciding once again to put Jess' and his friends' happiness first and opting to miss his flight to run down the street yelling with them.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Deck The Halls, S1E15

There's a little extra crazy in any Christmas where two very different sides of your family come together, and that's exactly what happened in the first Fresh Prince Christmas special, when Will tries to do Christmas in Bel-Air the same way he used to do it back home in Philly.

Needless to say, the neighborhood did not respond as he expected.

It'll be interesting to see if they plan to take this discussion anywhere in the new Fresh Prince remake, Bel-Air, that they're planning for Peacock.

Bob's Burgers: Christmas in the Car, S4E8

Bob's Burgers does Christmas insanity literally every year, but the mild horror movie element of the family slowly becoming convinced that they're being run down by a candy cane truck as they try to get their Christmas tree home before the next day is a work of art. Plus, it's got a heartwarming ending, AND a dutch baby.

The joke about the tree dying before Christmas because they put it up the day after Halloween is also perfect.

Friends: The One With The Holiday Armadillo, S7E10

Friends has surprisingly few holiday episodes, be they Christmas or Thanksgiving, so picking this as the best one is kind of easy.

We don't feel like we really need to explain why this one is crazy. Ross is dressed as an armadillo trying to explain Hannukkah to his son Ben (because they were out of Santa suits). Oh, also, Joey is Superman, and Monica is revealed to have a thing for Santa Claus.

Seinfeld: The Strike, S9E10

The Seinfeld writers later wished they had called this one 'Festivus' for all its fame, because that IS the bit that stuck around.

This isn't technically a Christmas episode, but an episode about George's childhood celebration, Festivus, a holiday invented by his father, in which everyone stands around a metal pole, airs their grievances with each other, and then they wrestle.

The First Episode of The Simpsons

This is not only a crazy Christmas episode, but also the very episode that introduced us to the Simpsons we all know and love - it was the very first episode of the show to air.

In it, Homer becomes a mall Santa to try to make enough money to buy his family Christmas presents, because their cat had just been hit by a garbage truck on Christmas Eve. He fails to do that, then tries to make the money by betting it at a racetrack.

He loses that too, but he gets something better: Their dog, Santa's Little Helper. Homer adopts him after he sees his owner berating him for not winning the race (it was a GREYHOUND racetrack), calling him a loser - but Homer takes one look at his sad little face and says, "He's a SImpson," and decides to take HIM home for Christmas.

Heartwarming AND crazy.

Black-Ish: Just Christmas, Baby!, S10E3

Every family has that one Christmas where it either feels like their parents relax about it, or it feels like they snap. In this episode of Black-ish, when Dre and Bow go absolutely nuts over Christmas after realizing it's their last one before Zoey heads to college. Add a newborn baby to the mix, and you've got a recipe for a Very Specific To Family Kind of crazy.

Also, Tyra Banks is there.

Ted Lasso: Carol of the Bells, S2E4

This one is crazy AND sweet, as we get a glimpse into the team's varying Christmas plans, which include Roy and Keeley having their "sexy Christmas" interrupted by a sad student with terrible breath, and Ted, also sad, opens presents over Facetime with his son in his first Christmas alone since the divorce. It's not long, however, before Rebecca shows up to make things brighter by turning him into a Santa Claus himself.

Everyone eventually comes together, and it ends in a song.
Twin Health today announced the appointment of Prabh Singh as the CEO for its India operations.

Founded in 2018, Twin Health invented the Whole Body Digital Twin to reverse and prevent chronic metabolic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, while improving energy and physical health. The health tech firm had recently raised $155 million Series C funding to scale its presence in India and the US, claimed the company.

Prabh Singh will head the India operations for strategy, marketing, regulatory, public policy, go-to-market, product, and technology divisions. He will be responsible for scaling Twin Health in India as the country has the second highest number of lifestyle-related diseases in the world after China. Prabh is currently serving as EVP and Head of Subscriptions at the Disney-owned video streaming service Hotstar and will take over his new position at Twin Health in January 2022, the company said.

"I am delighted to have the opportunity to transform the quality of life for millions in India through the revolutionary technology invented by Twin Health. Twin Healths consumer-centric technology will be a game changer in reimagining and redefining healthcare in India. I look forward to partnering with Twin Healths missionary founder - Jahangir, who wants to make a huge and positive impact on the World." said Prabh Singh.

Commenting on the development, Jahangir Mohammed, Founder and CEO, Twin Health said, I am excited to welcome Prabh to the Twin Health family. Prabh is a tremendous leader and has demonstrated expertise in strategically growing strong businesses. His track record, experience and excitement about joining our team makes him an ideal leader for India as we continue to grow the business, transform healthcare and impact lives."

Singh has two decades of consumer and technology experience across India and Asia. He has worked at Hindustan Unilever, Google and most recently with Hotstar. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and College of Business Studies, University of Delhi.

Twin Health is backed by Sequoia Capital India, ICONIQ Growth, Perceptive Advisors, Corner Ventures, Tru Arrow Partners, LTS Investments, Helena and Sofina.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
December 20, 2021

Chicago's Newest Condo Tower Welcomes International Real Estate Professionals for an Exclusive Preview, Year-end Celebration and Officer Installation

Cirrus Condominiums in the modern, urban redevelopment neighborhood of Lakeshore East, opened its doors for the first time to members of the FIABCI-USA Chicago/Midwest Council. Gathering for their first in person networking reception in some time on Thursday evening December 16, the members were treated to previews of the latest development in Chicago's Prix d' Excellence Award-winning Master Planned Community.

Set at the intersection of the Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, Lendlease and Magellan are developing the crown jewel of Lakeshore East. As part of a 3-building master plan sits Cirrus, a 47-story, 350-unit luxury condominium building with residences from 1-4 bedrooms and priced from the mid-$400k's to over $4M. With over 48,000 square feet of amenities and a brand new park, Cascade Park, right outside the door, luxury has a new address at Cirrus.

To mark the occasion, FIABCI-USA President Eugenia Foxworth of Foxworth Realty in New York installed the Officers for 2022 in the presence of FIABCI World President 1996-97 Sheldon Good and FIABCI World Board Member Rusmin Lawin from Indonesia. The officers are William Endsley, Principal, World Citizen Consulting as President; Betty Milam, Broker, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services as President-Elect; Hollie Himmelman, Broker, @properties as Immediate-Past President; Elizabeth Kinsella, Global Members Services Manager, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World as Secretary/Treasurer; Marsha Collins-Mroz, Managing Broker/Consultant, MyGlobalPartner Team as Vice-President; Dmitriy Selektor, Associate Broker, eXp Realty, Bloomfield, MI, as Vice-President; Dr. Margo Weinstein, MW Leadership Consultants as Vice-President; Nancy Suvarnamani, President, Century 21 S.G.R. as Vice-President; and Gizo Ujarmeli, CEO, AMAXIMMO LLC, Wausau East, WI, as Director.

"With this outstanding leadership team, the mission of FIABCI to showcase the best in the global real estate community is in good hands and I am already impressed with the programs they have planned for next year," noted President Foxworth. The Board immediately got to work by welcoming a delegation from the Ministry of National Development Planning, Republic of Indonesia to Chicago on Sunday December 19 in their study tour of the development of Chicago and the Burnham Plan in preparation for the moving of the Capital from Jakarta to a new master planned city in East Kalimantan.

--------------------------------

FIABCI, the International Real Estate Federation provides access and opportunity for real estate professionals interested in gaining knowledge, sharing information and conducting international business. With members in 70 countries, including 100 Professional Associations, 65 Academic Institutions and individual members from all professions of the sector, FIABCI is the most representative organization of the real estate industry in the world and holds special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. For more information about FIABC visit www.fiabci.org/. # # #
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all say family is what gives us the most meaning in life, but whats the second most meaningful thing?

Most people in wealthy countries say its their job, according to Pew Research, the nonprofit, nonpartisan pollster. And for good reason.

Jobs provide us with an identity, a purpose and a sense of accomplishment. Good workplaces make us feel a sense of community, intellectual stimulation and financial reward.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: COVID drove women out of workforce, and employers must do more to bring them back

Companies looking for workers should take note, especially when there are 1.7 openings for every job seeker, according to Labor Department data. Employers looking to keep staff must learn from the findings if they want to keep the Great Resignation from emptying their workplaces.

Pew researchers interviewed 19,000 adults in 17 wealthy countries to see what gives peoples lives meaning. Family was the runaway favorite, and occupation came in second globally. But some cultures, including the United States, had surprisingly different ideas.

Italians felt the most attachment to their work, with 43 percent saying it gave them the most meaning. Only 6 percent of South Koreans said they were their work. U.S. citizens were in the middle, with a third saying their job was the key source of happiness.

The third highest-ranking item in the global survey was material well-being. People find it very important to feel financially secure with just a tad of luxury.

The lifestyle elements respondents cite run the gamut from food on the table and a roof over my head to a decent income to support my family and no debt to enough money to enjoy riding motorcycles or other activities like travel, the surveys authors report.

Americans, it turns out, have very different priorities. What gives them meaning helps explain why the United States follows its own path on many social welfare issues.

U.S. respondents put family first, but they put friends and material well-being in second and third place. Occupation came in fourth, and the United States is the only place where faith ranked in the top five: 15 percent said it was most important. No other nation put religion in the top 10.

The results may seem counter-intuitive since Americans work longer hours, take less vacation and enjoy far fewer benefits from their work than residents of other countries. But apparently, we work-to-live, not live-to-work.

The polling results also help explain the Great Resignation. More than 12 million people quit their jobs between August and October, a rate 21 percent higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economists and social scientists debate why so many are switching jobs or why the percentage of working-age adults in the job market is lower than usual.

Some blame generous, pandemic-era unemployment benefits; others say its fear of contracting COVID. Workers are looking for higher wages, but many are reassessing their lives following two years of tumult.

A new survey from consulting firm McKinsey found that a third of the unemployed said their physical or mental health kept them from working. A lot of people are not getting the care they need.

Another clear fact is that women are quitting more than men, and low-wage workers in public-facing jobs are quitting more than office-bound professionals.

What do the hardest-hit sectors have in common? Unpredictable hours, high stress, little paid time off, few benefits, low wages and little upward mobility.

In other words, the hospitality, recreation and retail sectors make it hard for employees to spend time with family and friends or to build enough wealth to feel financially secure, the three things that give most Americans meaningful lives.

Economists say workers have rarely had so much power in the labor market. Employers are advertising 11 million jobs to 6 million unemployed. But this imbalance is unlikely to bring lasting change to employment standards without government intervention.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Shortages in daycare, elder care and nursing slowing economic recovery

Wages are rising, with most major companies promising a starting wage of $13 or more. But the Labor Department reports exploitative managers in 2020 still paid 274,000 Americans the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which is below the poverty level.

More than 700,000 working Texans do not have health insurance because state lawmakers will not require it and will not provide it via Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program.

Child care and elder care are beyond the financial resources of hundreds of thousands of working-class Texas families, which helps explain why women are staying home.

Texas businesses need more workers, but to get them, they must understand what workers need to reenter the workforce. Successful managers understand whats important to employees and help them live meaningful lives.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
Located on the banks of the Guadalupe River, Lucy Coopers Ice House opened its New Braunfels location Wednesday, serving up its creative eats and plenty of drinks.

Lucy Coopers is a popular 21 and over San Antonio bar that opened in 2018 near U.S. 281 and Thousand Oaks and found success with such unique menu items as clothesline bacon and tin can nachos, as well as a large variety of pizzas, burgers, shrimp boils and chicken wings. In a 2019 review, Express-News dining critic Mike Sutter called it the best bar food in San Antonio.
School districts in Texas are now required to teach students about dating violence, family violence, child abuse and sex trafficking after a new law went into effect in early December.

But advocates are concerned that a last-minute change to the laws language means the children who need the information the most, will be the least likely to get it.

In June, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the original version of the bill over concerns that it didnt allow parental involvement. During the second special session, legislators passed a revamped version of the law that included Abbotts input.

Parents are now required to sign a permission slip for their students to be educated on these subjects, raising concerns that children who may be experiencing abuse at the hands of a parent will be excluded from receiving information that could help them.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, helped craft both versions of the bill. He said he thought a lot about the impact this new provision might have.

But the reality is that I can't pass the bill without having that opt-in, he said. And so I think the greater good is served by passing the compromise bill with the governor to make sure we touch as many lives as possible.

From all-in to opt-in

The law, known as the Christine Blubaugh Act, is named after a 16-year-old who was killed by her ex-boyfriend in Grand Prairie, Texas in 2000. The original legislation, which didnt require parental permission, had bipartisan support and passed the Senate on a 29-2 vote. The bills sponsors said they were shocked when the governor vetoed it.

At least when Governor [Rick] Perry had objections about things, his legislative staff would work with your team to deal with the objection, said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. But that doesn't seem to be the same course of action as Governor Abbott.

In a statement to The Texas Tribune, a spokesperson for Abbott said the governor said he cares deeply for the rights of parents, as well as the safety of children.

"There were good intentions in [the original bill] but the bill failed to recognize the right of parents to opt their children out of the instruction," said press secretary Renae Eze. "Having been signed into law by the Governor, middle school and high school students will now receive instruction on the prevention of child abuse, family violence, and dating violence, while ensuring the rights of parents in their childs education.

West and Anchia worked with Abbotts office to draft the new legislation, which says districts must obtain written consent from a students parent before offering them education on dating violence, family violence and child abuse.

As a parent of two high school students himself, Anchia said hes encouraging all parents to sign the paperwork to enroll their students in the course.

As a parent, I'm not trained in these interventions or these tools, he said. So I really want somebody who understands them, who knows what they're doing, to be able to communicate this information to my child.

Advocates say theres been an increased focus in recent years on helping students identify and prevent family and dating violence  but theres still more work to be done.

Roy Rios, prevention manager for the Texas Council on Family Violence, said there are plenty of evidence-based, age-appropriate curriculums on family and dating violence being used in school districts around the state.

These classes teach students about healthy relationships, give them a vocabulary to understand abuse and point them to resources and places to seek help. But Rios said a lot of the training is about helping students to embrace their leadership skills to be a good bystander and member of the community.

They take those lessons with them into college, or however they spend their adult lives, said Rios. What we're seeing through the research is that these types of programs equip young people on how to avoid victimization, and how not to perpetrate violence in their lives.

He hopes the new law will give every student access to this education. But he and other advocates worry that requiring parents to sign up will diminish the reach.

Some students may simply fall through the cracks, especially those who dont live with their parents or forget to get the paperwork signed. Some parents may not want their children educated about child abuse, particularly if they are the perpetrators of the abuse. Others may not want to admit that their child could fall victim to dating violence.

Its not great to hear that we as adults are often not privy to all of the dynamics of a young person's life, said Rios. But what we do know is that young people talk to each other. Often it takes the support of peer networks to understand how to intervene, how to offer support to a young survivor.

Heather Bellino is the executive director at the Texas Advocacy Project, a domestic violence legal advocacy group. She is also a parent, and said she appreciates the need for parental input in what their children are taught.

Being a parent, that's your heart walking around outside of your body and you want to protect it in every way you can, she said. But sometimes protecting in every way you can means stretching a little bit outside of your comfort zone.

Shes imploring parents to get educated on these issues themselves  and sign their students up for the curriculum.

Opting out of this training, she said, wont stop your child from being abused.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Travel in the Lone Star State is approaching pre-pandemic levels, with more than 8.8 million Texans expected to leave for the holidays, according to AAA Texas 2021 Year-End Travel Forecast.

The number of Texans planning to travel 50 miles or more this holiday season is up 32 percent from 2020 and only 8 percent less than in 2019, before the coronavirus became a pandemic, the state affiliate of AAA said.

The number of people flying to holiday destinations is projected to be up 177 percent over last year, though a majority of travelers  8.3 million people  will be driving.

Nationally, the trends follow a similar pattern. Airlines will see a 184 percent increase this year, and auto travel will jump 28 percent. In all, more than 109 million people will drive, fly or bus out of town.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio has some of the cheapest gas in Texas, AAA says

The increase in people traveling out of town this season comes as the cost to do so is up. Airline, hotel and car rental prices are higher now compared to last year.

Airline ticket prices are up 5 percent for Christmas week flights and 27 percent for New Years Eve travel, with the lowest round-trip fares costing about $150 and $180, respectively.

Renting a car, meanwhile, will run about $100 to $130 during the holidays, and AAA Texas recommends booking as early as possible because selection will be scare.

At least if you are staying in-state, Texas has some of the cheapest gas prices in the country.

For those leaving the Lone Star state, dont forget to check COVID-19 guidelines for wherever youre headed. Some states  such as California, Nevada, Oregon, New Mexico, Washington and Illinois  still have mask mandates in place or require proof of vaccination to visit certain places.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net
For 25 years, Howie Nestel and his fellow volunteers have hosted Gotcha Covered, a collection drive to help San Antonios less fortunate.

This month, Nestel greeted each driver who brought donations to a drop-off point at Park North Shopping Center. He hugged longtime donors, posed for photos with old friends and welcomed new contributors.

Then he helped his crew carry donations to a staging area in the parking lot. They lugged boxes of clothing, diapers and toys. They hauled bags of canned vegetables and nonperishable goods. They carted away gifts wrapped in Christmas paper dotted with tiny Santas.

Ronald Cortes /

At days end, they loaded donations  waist high, 18 parking spaces wide  into four trucks.

Its been my personal calling, said Nestel, 57. We dont know a persons situation. Life is uncertain and could spiral downward. If you reach out and give them a hand up, you might be saving their life.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonios top chefs train active duty military at Culinary Institute of America

Since 1996, Nestel and hundreds of volunteers have collected tons of food, clothing and toiletries through the charitable group he calls Gotcha Covered. The Battered Women and Childrens Shelter, Haven for Hope and the San Antonio Food Bank are among the nonprofits that the collaborative has helped through the years. Nestel said donors this year brought in 54,000 pounds of clothing, toiletries and 6,000 pounds of food.

Nestel is founder and president of Sharkmatic Advertising, which has provided marketing and sales services to more than 1,500 companies for 30 years. The collection drive is part of his companys culture. Nestel said employees are instrumental in getting the word out through the agencys website and posters designed in the office, with the company incurring the costs.

Ronald Cortes /Contributor

Nestels friend and former KENS-TV anchorman Jeff Goldblatt has helped promote Gotcha Covered since 2017. Hes proud of Nestel, whom he referred to as a mensch, Yiddish for someone of noble character.

Howie is the truest person of high integrity and honor, Goldblatt said. He really is someone to emulate.

His faith figures prominently in his life and philanthropy.

One of the core tenets of Judaism is to repair the world, Nestel said. There is a teaching called Tikkun Olam that says if you save one life, its as if youve saved the entire world.

His humanitarian work has led to sharing his passion as an inspirational speaker.

Some people live one year 80 times, repeating the same pattern, Nestel said. Id rather live 80 unique and extraordinary years. To live an extraordinary life, you must be willing to destroy the law of familiarity.

On ExpressNews.com: Shes like an auntie: Northeast Side crossing guard uses music to connect with students, parents

Nestels outreach began in fall 1996. He was walking with friends to lunch downtown when they saw a familiar face  a man who lived on the streets. They invited him to join them at a Mexican restaurant, where they asked about his well-being. The man had found shelter at New Jerusalem Baptist Ministries on the near East Side. Nestel and a friend talked with the churchs pastor and hosted a collection drive for the shelter.

Ronald Cortes /Contributor

The response stunned them, as they received more donations than they sought. They delivered the overflow of items to SAMMinistries, a nonprofit that helps prevent homelessness.

Community service is like a big La-Z-Boy chair, Nestel said. Its easy to get into, hard to get out of. You derive so much benefit from it.

Caring for others runs in his family. In the early 1900s, Nestels grandparents made their way from Eastern Europe to Mexico. Money was short in the early months, but good Samaritans provided aid. When they moved to Laredo, his grandfather paid his benefactors kindness forward.

He opened a store where Nestel witnessed his older relative coming to employees aid. He heard stories of people who stole from the store, but his grandfather Raul Goldberg would let them keep the items and he wouldnt press charges.

Nestel, the oldest of three children, grew up in a middle-class family in Laredo. Hes fluent in Spanish, the only language he spoke until he was 6.

About the author A 22-year veteran of the Air Force, Vincent T. Davis embarked on a second career as a journalist and found his calling. Observing and listening across San Antonio, he finds intriguing tales to tell about everyday people. He shares his stories with Express-News subscribers every Monday morning. See More Collapse

His humanitarianism can also be traced to personal loss. When he was 13, his 3-year-old cousin Kimberly died of cancer. The tragedy triggered a response to help ease others pain.

A year later, he got involved with a Kiwanis Club, serving children in his community. At 15, his parents declared bankruptcy and the family had to move into an apartment. But Nestels philanthropic work didnt stop and continued through high school and college. Nestel got into advertising after he graduated from the University of Texas at Austins business school with a degree in marketing.

An interview with the CEO of Citicorp convinced him that he was better suited for something outside finance. His first job after graduation was with Proctor & Gamble for one year, and he worked at an international ad agency for two years before he opened his own business. After five name changes, he settled on Sharkmatic, based on his love of scuba diving and sharks.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Bond Girls find support during chemotherapy

For several years, Nestel and his collaborators hosted a two-night collection drive. They slept in cardboard boxes under the blinking sign of Central Park Mall, now Park North. Police officers watched over the volunteers settled in oversized boxes from midnight to sunrise. Nestel said that while the show of solidarity didnt come close to life on the streets, it gave volunteers an idea of why their time is important.

The news media shared his charitable work. In 2002, Nora Fernandez, a news anchor for Telemundo San Antonio, covered the event. The next year, she came back for an interview, and Nestel had one caveat  she had to spend the night in a cardboard box. After the 10 p.m. newscast, she returned with the news director, station manager and cameraman to honor her promise. Nestel had separate boxes for them to sleep in.

He stayed up all night talking to Fernandez. After a two-year courtship, they married. They have three children: Jacob, Nikki and Max. His family and children share his passion, helping collect donations each year. The ultimate success for Nestel as a parent would be for his children to pursue a mission of humanity and charity work.

I want to strive to improve, he said. I dont want the journey to be lonely. I want to take people with me.

vtdavis@express-news.net
Now might be a good time to start planning your summer vacation to Mexico.

Starting on June 5, 2022, Texas-based Southwest Airlines will offer a daily nonstop flight from San Antonio International Airport to Cancun International Airport, according to a news release. Southwest currently only flies from the Alamo City to Cancun on Saturdays.

On ExpressNews.com: These are the nonstop flights Southwest is adding out of San Antonio

Outgoing flights to Cancun will depart at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday landing in Cancun at 10:35 a.m. Saturday flights will take off at 7 a.m. and arrive in Mexico at 9:35 a.m.

Return flights will depart Cancun at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday flights will depart at 5 p.m. and return to San Antonio at 7:40 p.m.

On ExpressNews.com: Ted Cruz keeps joking about fleeing to Cancun as experts warn of future blackouts

Southwest also said that it will add a new nonstop route from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Cozumel, Mexico. The service, which begins June 11, 2022, will be a Saturday only flight. The airline will also expand its Saturday service from ABIA to Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos to a weekly flight.

Earlier this month the airlines announced it will also add a nonstop flight from San Antonio to Oklahoma City and resume daily nonstop flights from Los Angeles in April.

The expansion in service out of San Antonio International Airport comes just a month after elected officials approved a $2.5 billion renovation that will add a new terminal, more gates, more amenities and international flights.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
Since the Supreme Court has given Texas the green light for its new legal approach that all but bans abortions, Gov. Gavin Newsom says, California will use the same theory to curtail guns  letting private citizens sue people who sell assault rifles and parts for untraceable ghost guns.

SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!, Newsom tweeted Saturday. If thats the precedent then well let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets.

State officials will try to craft a measure that would allow residents to seek damages of at least $10,000, plus legal fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit in California.

If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, Newsom said in a news release late Saturday, then California will use that authority to protect peoples lives, where Texas used it to put women in harms way.

REALTED: Texas now bans medical abortions after seven weeks of pregnancy

In seizing on Texass successful approach, Newsoms plan is likely to attract controversy along the lines of what embroiled lawmakers there after they banned all abortions after a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. The new law, which is already spurring droves of women to seek abortion access in California and other states, is unique in relying on enabling private citizens to sue abortion providers for the same amount Newsom is proposing in his new gun measure, $10,000.

President Biden criticized that citizen litigation path as the most pernicious aspect of the Texas abortion law because, he said, it creates a sort of vigilante system by encouraging the public to police the issue.

Newsoms office billed his gun announcement as a direct response to Fridays Supreme Court decision that largely allowed the Texas abortion measure to stand.

Jessica Levinson, a Supreme Court expert who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told The Chronicle that Newsom is hoping again to be a quarter step ahead of public opinion and one step ahead of where he can go legally, as he was in his support of same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana.

He is proposing to use a mechanism that he and many others have vilified. But I think its quite smart, right? I think its a big F you to the Supreme Court, Levinson said. If youre going to allow unconstitutional laws  or I should say in this case, constitutionally questionable laws  that are insulated from judicial review, then were going to use that to our advantage.

Newsom gave few details about his plan. Its prospects in the Legislature were not clear.

Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said Sunday that he has been working with the nonprofit Brady Campaign,which advocates for gun control, on similar legislation that he plans to introduce when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Ting called it a very simple issue: The gun industry needs to be held liable for the use of firearms to commit crimes, or gun-related incidents that result in injury or death. Almost every other industry in this country is held liable for what their products do, he said.

Ting said he fully supports the governors statement, on guns and hopes the Legislatures Democratic supermajority will get the proposal passed.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said Sunday that its too soon to say what lawmakers will do, but noted that the supermajority has passed very, very strong gun safety measures. The governor and Legislature agree that well do whatever we can to drain the gun swamp, to reduce the number of guns in our society, particularly assault weapons, he said in a phone interview.

Newsom is clearly calling into question the Texas approach on abortion, he said. Wiener called the Supreme Court completely out of control in allowing a law like this to remain in effect.

If youre going to go down this slippery slope, this is where the slope leads, he said. I want all of this to go away, the Texas law and anything like it, but if the Texas law is going to move forward, of course were going to see other proposals relating to other constitutional rights.

The Supreme Courts decision on Texas law means there is no limit on the kinds of laws that can be adopted that create civil liability for the exercise of constitutional rights  including same-sex weddings, or criticizing a governor, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeleys School of Law.

UC Berkeley law Professor Khiara Bridges said the decision also subverts the constitutional guarantee that all citizens have the same rights, no matter where they live  with the prospect of a patchwork of rights in the nation, she said. People in Texas wont have abortion rights. People in California wont have gun rights. People in Florida wont have the right to practice non-Christian religions. People in Kentucky wont have the right to marry someone of the same sex.

Assault weapons and ghost guns have emerged as legal controversies in recent years after a series of contradictory court rulings and frustration about a lack of accountability after mass shootings.

An AR-15-style assault rifle that was illegal in California but purchased out of state was used in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting that killed three people in 2019. The shooting at San Joses Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in May, in which nine people were killed, involved several legal handguns but illegal high-capacity ammunition.

Second Amendment advocates have been quick to challenge state and local efforts to curb access to guns and ammunition. Public opinion polls find Californians generally favor tightening the rules.

Levinson said Newsom probably expects gun legislation to face legal challenges, even up to the Supreme Court.

If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, Newsoms news release said, we should do just that.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Lauren Hernandez and Kellie Hwang contributed to this report.

Lauren Hepler is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LAHepler
As he challenges Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the states top law enforcement post, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has expanded his agencys traditionally limited role in border security and immigration, top issues for Republican primary voters.

Bush, who met with law enforcement officials and residents along the border earlier this month on a four-day Secure the Border tour, also ventured onto Paxtons turf over the summer when he sued the Biden administration for halting construction of the border wall that started under former President Donald Trump.

Bushs agency, the General Land Office, also recently leased a tract of state-owned land to be used for the first 1.3-mile segment of Texas planned border wall. The commissioner accompanied Gov. Greg Abbott to the border Saturday for a press conference marking the start of wall construction.

Without any room to maneuver to Paxtons right on border matters, Bush is instead questioning the AGs competence, arguing Paxton has done little to help overwhelmed local prosecutors enforce Abbotts plan to jail migrants on state charges, and that Paxton failed to ensure President Joe Bidens timely compliance with a court order  which arose from a Paxton lawsuit  requiring the reinstatement of a Trump-era program that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending.

This is the No. 1 issue facing our state, Bush said between stops on his border tour. I mean, Ken hasnt done anything on cartels and criminal networks that are organized on our side of the border, in doing what he possibly can to work with prosecutors in Mexico, to freeze payment systems that these organized criminals are utilizing.  Im going to bring a different perspective on the issue and leverage every single legal angle that I can.

Paxton spokesman Ian Prior called Bushs border tour a PR stunt and pointed to high-profile immigration wins for Paxton, including a court order earlier this year blocking new applicants to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and another requiring Biden to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy.

In contrast to AG Paxtons significant border-security bona fides, George P. Bush and his family have a long history of being very soft on illegal immigration, Prior said.

Bushs uncle, George W. Bush, as president signed federal legislation that produced more than 600 miles of fencing along the border, though he has also criticized Trumps immigration policies and rhetoric.

The most important issue

Republican consultant Craig Murphy said GOP candidates up and down the ballot will make sure they have a well-known position on the border, which polling has shown is easily the top issue among conservative voters.

Still, with the AG candidates mostly aligned on immigration and other policy issues, Murphy said he expects the primary will likely come down to Paxtons record.

Its probably not going to be the issue the race hinges on, Murphy said. I dont see it being the thing that people are still talking about in the last week of this campaign or in the last month.

Paxton, who has been under felony indictment for securities fraud charges since 2015, is up against three challengers on the March primary ballot: Bush, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler. All three have focused on Paxtons legal woes, which now include an FBI investigation spurred by corruption accusations from top aides in his office.

Bush and Gohmert have argued Paxton is vulnerable, with Bush telling supporters at his campaign kickoff that Democrats will have their first statewide elected office in close to 30 years if Paxton is the Republican nominee.

On HoustonChronicle.com: replace this text with your teaser head and add hyperlink

But Paxtons standing has not yet diminished among the most conservative voters, according to early polling that has shown him leading Bush thanks in part to his appeal to extremely conservative voters.

Since taking office in 2015, Paxton has waged numerous high-profile court battles against Biden and former President Barack Obama over immigration, the Affordable Care Act and other policies Texas Republicans oppose. Paxtons recent legal wins on immigration  along with his endorsement from Trump, the partys standard bearer on the issue  appear to have kept him in favor with GOP activists and voters.

Still, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has continued to report high levels of migrant encounters along the southern border. While Abbott has launched a plan known as Operation Lone Star, which calls for migrants to be arrested and jailed largely on state trespassing charges, Bush said Paxtons office has failed to lend assistance to county attorneys along the border who are tasked with prosecuting the cases.

Bush said he would have organized a unit of prosecutors made up of willing and able young attorneys in Austin to help the border counties handle their spike in caseloads. He noted that several hundred migrants arrested on trespassing charges under Abbotts initiative have been released on no-cost bonds after local prosecutors failed to bring charges for weeks, an apparent violation of state law.

You cant just hold people in prison without a charge, Bush said. In large part, thats (happening) because you just dont have enough boots on the ground to help people.

Give em what they want

By its nature, the Attorney Generals Office, which defends the states interests in court, plays a much more direct role in immigration policy than the General Land Office, which typically focuses on politically obscure topics such as veterans benefits and managing oil and gas leases on state land.

Yet in July, Bush found his opening to press on a border issue: a state-owned farm in Starr County that he argued in a federal suit was being negatively impacted by literal caravans of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. The suit claimed that the Biden administration could not legally block funding for the construction of a border wall approved by Congress under Trump.

Three months later, Paxton, filed a similar suit in a different federal court making the same core argument.

Bushs campaign immediately attacked the attorney general for duplicating his work.

Paxton decided to show up and follow suit, largely copying and pasting our filing in a different court, Bush said.

Bush acknowledged his agency doesnt typically handle border security issues but argued the border wall case involved the Land Office because the flow of migrants onto state-owned land was decreasing its value.

Prior called Bushs lawsuit confusing and toothless.

In contrast to Bushs border-wall suit, AG Paxtons lawsuit is much stronger and filed on behalf of the entire State of Texas, not just a ranch managed by Bushs office, Prior said.

Jerry Patterson, Bushs predecessor, said he never delved into border security and immigration as land commissioner, and argued that Paxton should have been the one to file suit over the border wall.

Its all about politics. And to be fair, theres nothing wrong with that, said Patterson, who tried unsuccessfully to reclaim his seat from Bush in the 2018 primary. If the people think somebody with a totally unrelated office decides to weigh in on border security and they want him to do it, then give em what they want.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  The aggressive cellphone break-ins of a high-profile lawyer representing top Polish opposition figures came in the final weeks of pivotal 2019 parliamentary elections. Two years later, a prosecutor challenging attempts by the populist right-wing government to purge the judiciary had her smartphone hacked.

In both instances, the invader was military-grade spyware from NSO Group, the Israeli hack-for-hire outfit that the U.S. government recently blacklisted, say digital sleuths of the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab internet watchdog.

Citizen Lab could not say who ordered the hacks and NSO does not identify its clients, beyond saying it works only with legitimate government agencies vetted by Israel's Defense Ministry. But both victims believe Polands increasingly illiberal government is responsible.

A Polish state security spokesman, Stanislaw Zaryn, would neither confirm nor deny whether the government ordered the hacks or is an NSO customer.

Lawyer Roman Giertych and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek join a list of government critics worldwide whose phones have been hacked using the companys Pegasus product. The spyware turns a phone into an eavesdropping device and lets its operators remotely siphon off everything from messages to contacts. Confirmed victims have included Mexican and Saudi journalists, British attorneys, Palestinian human rights activists, heads of state and Uganda-based U.S. diplomats.

But word of the Poland hacking is especially notable, coming as rights groups are demanding an EU-wide ban on the spyware. The 27-nation European Union has tightened export restrictions on spyware, but critics complain that abuse of it by EU member states urgently needs to be addressed.

Citizen Lab previously detected multiple infections in Poland dating from November 2017, though it didn't identify individual victims then. The Pegasus spyware has also been linked to Hungary, which like Poland has been denounced for anti-democratic abuses. Germany and Spain are reportedly among NSO's customers, with Catalan separatists accusing Madrid of targeting them with Pegasus.

Once you start aggressively targeting with Pegasus, youll join a fraternity of dictators and autocrats who use it against their enemies and that certainly has no place in the EU, said senior researcher John-Scott Railton of Citizen Lab.

Former EU parliament member Marietje Schaake of the Netherlands, now international cyber policy director at Stanford University, said: The EU cannot credibly condemn human rights violations in the rest of the world while turning a blind eye to problems at home.

The Polish targets see the hack as evidence of a perilous erosion of democracy in the very nation where Soviet hegemony began unraveling four decades ago.

Just hours before Zaryn answered emailed questions about the hack from The Associated Press, a provincial prosecutor filed a motion seeking the arrest of Giertych, the lawyer, in a financial crimes investigation.

Zaryn did not comment on whether the two matters might be related. He said Poland conducts surveillance only after obtaining court orders.

Suggestions that Polish services use operational methods for political struggle are unjustified, Zaryn said.

An NSO spokesperson said Monday that the company is a software provider, the company does not operate the technology nor is the company privy to who the targets are and to the data collected by the customers. Citizen Lab and Amnesty International researchers say, however, that NSO appears to maintain the infection infrastructure.

The company spokesperson also called the allegations of Polish misuse of Pegasus unclear: Once a democratic country lawfully, following due process, uses tools to investigate a person suspected in committing a crime, this would not be considered a misuse of such tools by any means.

In July an investigation by a global media consortium found Pegasus was used in Hungary to hack at least 10 lawyers, an opposition politician and several journalists. Last month, a Hungarian governing party official acknowledged that the government had purchased Pegasus licenses.

In 2019, independent Polish broadcaster TVN found evidence the government anti-corruption agency spent more than $8 million on phone spyware. The agency denied the report but Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was more ambiguous, saying all would be clarified in due time.

In the last four months of 2019, Giertych was hacked at least 18 times, Citizen Lab found. At the time, he was representing former Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Civic Platform, now head of the largest opposition party, and former Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, now a European Parliament member.

The jaw-droppingly aggressive tempo and intensity of the targeting  day-by-day, even hour-by-hour  suggested a desperate desire to monitor his communications, Scott-Railton said. It was so unrelenting that the iPhone became useless and Giertych abandoned it.

This phone was with me in my bedroom and it was with me when I went to confession. They scanned my life totally, he said.

Most of the hacks occurred just ahead of an Oct. 13, 2019, parliamentary election that the Law and Justice party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski won by a slim margin, leading to a further erosion of judicial independence and press freedom.

Giertych was also involved representing an Austrian developer at the time who claimed that Kaczynski, Polands most powerful politician, stiffed him as a deal to build twin business towers in Warsaw fell apart. Revelations of that deal-gone-sour triggered a scandal because Polish law bans political parties from profit  and the towers were to be built on land owned by Kaczynski's party.

Giertych also represented Sikorski in an illegal w iretapping case in which the former foreign minister's conversations were recorded and published; Sikorski alleges the government failed to investigate the possible involvement of Kaczynski allies. Last year, anti-corruption officials searched Giertych's home and office in a manner a Polish court deemed illegal and the EU called emblematic of how Poland's government treats hostile lawyers in politically sensitive cases.

When the Lublin regional prosecutor applied for a court order Monday seeking Giertych's arrest, it said the lawyer had refused to appear for questioning, and seemed to be deliberately hiding from justice.

Giertych called this absurd and said the financial wrongdoing investigation was trumped-up, that a Poznan court had already dismissed it for lack of evidence. Prosecutors say he is suspected of money laundering for legal fees he received in a Warsaw property dispute case a decade ago.

Citizen Lab was still investigating how Giertychs phone was infected but said it expects a zero-click vulnerability, which wouldn't involve user interaction. They believe Wrzosek was similarly hacked. Citizen Lab found six intrusions on her phone from June 24-Aug. 19.

Last year, Wrzosek ordered an investigation into whether presidential elections should be postponed over concerns they could threaten the health of voters and election workers. Almost immediately, she was stripped of the case and transferred to the distant provincial city of Srem with two days notice.

"I didnt even know where the city was and I had nowhere to live there, said Wrzosek, who was hacked shortly after returning to Warsaw and resuming media appearances critical of the government.

A vocal member of an independent prosecutors' association, Wrzosek learned shed been hacked  and tweeted about it -- when Apple sent out alerts last month to scores of iPhone users across the globe targeted by NSOs Pegasus, including 11 U.S. State Department employees in Uganda. In a lawsuit it filed the same day, Apple called NSO amoral 21-century mercenaries. In 2019, Facebook sued the Israeli firm for allegedly hacking its globally popular WhatsApp messenger app.

Wrzosek has filed an official complaint but doesnt expect prompt accountability, believing the same services that tried to break into my phone will now be conducting the proceedings, looking for perpetrators.

___

Bajak reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.
The new omicron variant took only a few weeks to live up to dire predictions about how hugely contagious it is but scientists dont yet know if it causes more severe disease even as the world faces exploding cases just before Christmas.

Everything is riskier now because omicron is so much more contagious, said Dr. S. Wesley Long, who directs the testing lab at Houston Methodist Hospital  and over the past week has canceled numerous plans to avoid exposure.

Omicron now is the dominant variant in the U.S., federal health officials said Monday, accounting for about three-quarters of new infections last week.

The speed that it's outpacing the also very contagious delta variant is astonishing public health officials. In three weeks, omicron now makes up 80% of new symptomatic cases diagnosed by Houston Methodists testing sites. It took the delta variant three months to reach that level, Long said.

The mutant's ability to spread faster and evade immunity came at a bad time  right as travel increased and many people let down their guard. But what the omicron wave will mean for the world is still unclear because so many questions remain unanswered.

Heres the latest on whats known and whats still to learn about omicron.

HOW MUCH PROTECTION DO VACCINES OFFER?

Vaccines in the U.S. and around the world do not offer as much protection against omicron as they have against previous versions of the coronavirus. However, vaccines still help  a lot. Lab tests show while two doses may not be strong enough to prevent infection, a booster shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine produces virus-fighting antibodies capable of tackling omicron.

Antibody levels naturally drop over time, and a booster revved them back up again, by 25 times for Pfizers extra shot and 37 times for Modernas. No one knows exactly what level is high enough  or how long it will be before antibody levels begin dropping again.

After a booster, the protection against an omicron infection still appears about 20% less than protection against the delta variant, said Dr. Egon Ozer of Northwestern University.

But if the virus gets past that first line of defense, the vaccinated have additional layers of protection.

The vaccines are going to protect you against severe disease, hospitalization and death, said Houston Methodist's Long. And thats really the most important thing.

Those extra defenses include T cells that mobilize to beat back the virus, plus memory cells that, once reactivated, race to make more and stronger antibodies.

WHAT ABOUT NATURAL IMMUNITY?

A prior infection doesnt seem to offer much protection against an omicron infection although, like with vaccination, it may reduce the chances of severe illness.

In South Africa, where omicron already has spread widely, scientists reported a jump in reinfections that they hadnt seen when two previous mutants, including delta, moved through the country.

In Britain, a report from the Imperial College of London on Friday found the risk of reinfection from omicron was five times higher compared to the earlier delta variant.

Health experts say anyone whos survived a bout of COVID-19 still should get vaccinated, because the combination generally offers stronger protection.

WHY ELSE DOES OMICRON SPREAD SO FAST?

Scientists are trying to decode the dozens of mutations that omicron carries to figure out what else is going on. Researchers in Hong Kong recently reported hints that omicron may multiply more quickly in the airway than delta did, although not as efficiently deep in the lungs.

What scientists can't measure is human behavior: Many places were relaxing restrictions, winter forced gatherings indoors and travel has jumped right as omicron began spreading.

IS OMICRON CAUSING MILDER ILLNESS?

Its still too early to know  especially given that if the vaccinated get a breakthrough infection, it should be milder than if omicron attacks the unvaccinated.

Early reports from South Africa suggested milder illness but doctors were unsure whether thats because the population is fairly young  or that many retained some protection from a recent delta infection.

And that British study found no evidence that omicron has been milder than delta in Britain, even with young adults  who would be expected to have milder illness  having higher rates of infection with omicron.

"Theres a hint, and I think many of us are hopeful, that omicron will be less severe. But I dont think we can bet the farm on that. Were still talking about SARS CoV-2, a virus that has killed millions of people, said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School.

WHOS MOST AT RISK?

Based on the behavior of other variants, if youre older, if you have underlying conditions, if youre obese, youre more likely to have severe disease. I dont think its going to be any different than other variants, said Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University.

But even if you dont get very sick, an omicron infection could certainly ruin the holidays. Experts agree that in addition to getting vaccinated and boosted, it's wise to get back to the basics of protection: Wear masks indoors, avoid crowds and keep your distance.

___

AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report.

___

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.
WEST HARTFORD  The town council has adopted an ordinance that officially makes the operation of all-terrain vehicles illegal on town property.

The move is a response to a spate of incidents that occurred in August and September, when police estimated around 200 riders of all-terrain vehicles and other unregistered vehicles twice drove through West Hartford and neighboring communities. A smaller ride of around 70 riders also occurred in August.

Town Manager Matt Hart said the ordinance was introduced to the public safety committee before finding its way to the town council for a vote.

West Hartford and other communities in the greater Hartford area were dealing with this problem where we experienced large groups of ATVs that were traveling through town, violating various state motor vehicle laws, including going through traffic lights and stop signs and committing lane violations, Hart said at a public hearing preceding the town council meeting last week.

Many of those vehicles we suspected were not registered to be operated on our public roadways, Hart continued. We had problems with congestion. Some other drivers certainly felt intimidated by these vehicles.

The ordinance states that the use of ATVs will not be allowed on any land under the jurisdiction of the town of West Hartford, including but not limited to streets, sidewalks, parks or any other property owned or leased by the town.

Hart said the ordinance will allow West Hartfords police officers to issue a state infraction with a fine totaling $108 under the violations of municipal motor vehicle ordinances.

Other communities across the state have similar ordinances in place, Hart said. I would not view this as a panacea, but it should be another useful tool for our police officers to curb this problematic behavior.

In September, police said the ATV joyrides were a cause for concern and attempting to stop the rides while in progress could make the situation more dangerous.

With the new ordinance, officers can seize the vehicles and have it transported to a storage facility at the owners expense to be held until such time as adequate arrangements are made by a responsible adult for it to be transported to an appropriate location.

The ordinance also states that if no arrangements are made within 72 hours, the vehicle may then be sold at public auction.

Council member Carol Blanks, who is the chair of the public safety committee, said she views this as a proactive response to the problem.

This is very important, Blanks said. I am a strong proponent of being proactive instead of being reactive. I do believe the time is now where we need to get ahead of this issue and send a message. I dont want to say its long overdue, but its always important to address the situation when it comes about, instead of the wait-and-see attitude before a tragedy occurs. We need to take care of this and we need to take care of it immediately.

Alberto Cortes, who is a newly elected council member, said he was pleased to see the ordinance adopted by the town council. Cortes, a Republican, ran on a platform that prioritized public safety.

The ordinance is a step in the right direction, Cortes said. Its another tool for our public safety officers. I appreciate something like this coming up in my first official session.

Mayor Shari Cantor also agreed that the ordinance would help protect West Hartfords residents.

I think this is a good step to help keep our streets safe, Cantor said. We know there was a lot of concern. One of the strengths of West Hartford is that its a pedestrian-friendly community and we have to work at that. That doesnt come by chance. We have sidewalks, but we need to make our roads safe and keep them safe. We think this will help control something that is very difficult to control.
FAIRFIELD  Juveniles were arrested Sunday after fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle, officials said.

On Saturday, at approximately 10:15 a.m., a resident of Hurd Street reported having just observed two men attempting to enter a neighbors vehicle, police said. The subjects fled the area in a silver Nissan Altima, bearing a New Jersey license plate. The vehicle was determined to be stolen, having been taken in an armed carjacking in New Haven on Dec. 16, police said.

The vehicle was later seen by police on Oldfield Road near Penfield Road. Officers saw it was occupied by at least three individuals, police said.

The vehicle continued to Post Road and was in traffic at a red light near Sanford Street when the operator observed a marked police vehicle in the area. The vehicle then began moving around traffic and increased its speed. Officers temporarily lost sight of the vehicle until it was observed entering Interstate 95 north via Mill Plain Road, police said.

Officers attempted to stop the vehicle as it traveled north on I-95. The vehicle didnt stop and continued at a high rate of speed. In compliance with pursuit policy, the attempt to stop the vehicle was terminated and the Connecticut State Police were advised of the last known location of the vehicle, police said.

An investigation revealed the Nissan Altima arrived on Hurd Street and the front seat passenger exited the vehicle and opened the front passenger door of a Hurd Street residents unlocked vehicle, police said. A rear seat passenger began to walk across the street to another home when they were interrupted by another resident exiting their residence, police said.

The suspects then returned to the Nissan and fled the area. It appears nothing was taken from the vehicle, likely due to the attempted theft being interrupted, police said.

On Sunday at approximately 4:30 p.m., Fairfield police saw a stolen Toyota Camry traveling through downtown Fairfield on Post Road near Beach Road, police said.

Fairfield police followed the stolen vehicle on I-95 north from exit 22 to exit 27, when officers attempted a traffic stop, police said; The operator of the stolen vehicle failed to pull over and the vehicle increased its speed.

As the stolen vehicle approached exit 27-A, the operator crossed over several lanes of traffic, crashing into another vehicle and ultimately coming to rest as it crashed into a Jersey barrier, police said.

The two occupants of the stolen vehicle, both juveniles aged 13 and 16, were taken into custody on scene. The 16-year-old sustained minor abrasions to his legs. There were no other injuries reported on scene, police said.
Pig producers have welcomed a major increase in the volume of British pork on Asdas shelves as the sector continues to struggle with a backlog of pigs on farm.

Over the 11 retailers surveyed as part of the latest AHDB Porkwatch, the proportion of British pork facings increased from 77% in September to 80% in November, compared with 79% a year before.

British bacon facings were up from 54% in September to 56%, while ham was down from 65% to 63% and sausage from 87% to 86%.

The fresh pork figure will be welcomed as the UK pork sector struggles with a backlog of pigs on farm and dire financial situation, particularly at a time when there are large volumes of significantly cheaper EU pork available to UK retailers.

The National Pig Association (NPA) wrote to all the big retailers in October seeking commitments to back British producers during the current crisis.

The main reason for the improved fresh pork figure is a big shift in Asdas purchasing habits  its fresh pork facings were up from 41% in September to 56% in November. This compares with 51% in November 2020 and just 39% in July 2021.

Asdas bacon facings were also significantly up, from a recent low of 29% in September to 41% in November, while its ham facings were up from 26% to 29% and sausage facings were stable at 83%.

Asda has generally posted the lowest figures, with the exception of recent addition, Iceland, when it comes to British pork on display in previous surveys.

But the November survey puts it broadly on a par with Tesco, which saw little change from September, with fresh pork facings up from 55% to 56%, alongside minimal change in the other categories, recording 38% in bacon, 59% for ham, and 83% sausage.

NPA chief executive Zoe welcomed the general trends in this latest survey, but said there was still more retailers could do to support to struggling British pork producers.

As always, we thank those retailers stocking 100% British pork or close to it and using that as a selling point to consumers," she said.

And I also want to single out Asda for the great strides it has made in increasing the proportion of British pork on its shelves. That has made a real difference and we look forward to seeing even further progress in the next Porkwatch survey."

However, she said it was disappointing to see no progress in Tesco stores. "We would love to see more British products on their shelves as we approach Christmas."

She added: We continue to urge all retailers to do what they can to support producers during this crisis - whether through prioritising British pork over imports, wherever feasible, and promoting that to consumers."
John Deere has signed an agreement to acquire majority ownership in Kreisel Electric, a battery technology provider based in Austria.

Kreisel, which develops high-density, high-durability electric battery modules and packs, has created a charging infrastructure platform (CHIMERO) that utilises this patented battery technology.

Since 2014, it has been a leading innovator focused on the development of immersion-cooled electric battery modules and packs for high-performance and off-highway applications.

The company has a differentiated battery technology and battery-buffered charging infrastructure offering.

It currently serves a global customer base across multiple end markets, including commercial vehicles, off-highway vehicles, marine, e-motorsports, and other high-performance applications.

John Deere says it sees demand growing for batteries as a sole or hybrid-propulsion system for vehicles.

Products in Deeres portfolio such as compact utility tractors, small tractors, and road-building equipment could rely solely on batteries as a primary power source.

Deere says it intends to continue to invest in and develop technologies to innovate, deliver value to customers, and work towards a future with zero emissions propulsion systems.

Pierre Guyot, senior vice president at John Deere Power Systems said: Kreisels battery technology can be applied across the broad portfolio of Deere products, and Kreisels in-market experience will benefit Deere as it ramps up its battery-electric vehicle portfolio.

"Deere will provide the expertise, global footprint, and funding to enable Kreisel to continue its fast growth in core markets."

He added: This is an opportunity to invest in a company with unique technology thats designed for the demanding conditions where Deere customers work.

Furthermore, building an electrified portfolio is key to John Deeres sustainability goal of pursuing new technologies that reduce the environmental impact of new products and work toward zero emissions propulsion systems."

Kreisel Electric will retain its employees, brand name, and trademark, and continue to operate from its current location in Austria.

The company was founded by the brothers Johann, Markus and Philipp Kreisel and has approximately 160 full-time employees.

The transaction requires final regulatory approval in Austria, with closing expected to take place in approximately 60 days. Financial details are not being disclosed.
NFU Mutual has provided Police Scotland with a 4x4 vehicle as part of its support for the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC).

The Toyota Hilux 4x4 will be used by Police Scotland officers to crack down on rural theft, poaching and heritage crime.

While Covid restrictions have kept some criminals out of the countryside, thieves are now returning and turning their attention to high-value farm GPS systems.

Meanwhile, quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) remain high on thieves shopping lists because of their high value and portability.

Bob Henderson, agricultural field engineering lead at NFU Mutual, said: By providing the 4x4 we want to support rural crime officers to do their job, which often involves accessing rough terrain and remote locations.

NFU Mutual has supported the SPARC initiative since it launched because it operates across the whole of Scotland and has a clear strategy to tackle rural crime through visible policing, sharing intelligence and involving farmers and the wider community.

Over the past four years, the rural insurer has invested over 240,000 to support SPARC.

It also funds a farm vehicle theft unit at the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), which co-ordinates machinery theft intelligence between police forces, Border Force and Interpol.

Inspector Alan Dron, of Police Scotland said: This vehicle further demonstrates the desire of all those on SPARC to work together, being visible and helping to prevent, reduce and tackle criminality committing crimes in Scotlands rural communities.
Over 3.1 million was spent on second hand agricultural machinery at a major auction on behalf of R C Baker Ltd, hosted by Cheffins.

The sale, which took place on Thursday 16 December, broke records, with 525,000 paid for a Claas Xerion 5000 slurry tanker, the highest amount paid for any second-hand piece of agricultural machinery at auction.

The R C Baker sale is the highest grossing on-site sale to have been hosted by Cheffins, with over 600 bidders in total take part, online, on the phone or at the sale itself.

Hosted at the R C Baker Ltd premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire and also streamed live online, the auction included over 150 lots, including a fleet of John Deere tractors and various other machinery items and implements.

Highlights from the sale include: 425,000 for a 2017 Vredo 7028/3 self-propelled spreader; 183,000 for a 2020 John Deere 7R330; 126,000 for a 2013 Claas combine; 117,500 for a 2020 John Deere 6215R and 117,500 for a 2020 John Deere 6250R.

These were offered alongside a collection of implements, with a range of drills, cultivators, trailers, trailed tanks and muck spreaders as well as various slurry equipment.

Bidders from all four corners of the UK and also from overseas joined in both online and in person.

Managing director of RC Baker Ltd, Charles Baker said: "I have taken the decision to retire and spend some more time with the family, so this was a fantastic way to finish off what has been an amazing journey, growing and developing the business for nearly half a century.

Charles Baker, who started contracting in 1974, has an inspiring track record in the industry. Starting out with his Ford 4000 he grew the business significantly over the years to having an extensive fleet of modern machines.

Mr Baker is a well-known figure in the farming world, having built up a strong and well-respected business.

He chaired NAAC (National Association of Agricultural Contractors), been a guest speaker at a number of farming events, including the Oxford Farming Conference, and won the prestigious Farmers Weekly award for Contractor of the Year.

Oliver Godfrey, director at Cheffins said: This was a standout sale and was supported worldwide, with bidders from all four corners of the UK and also from overseas joining us both online and in person.

"This was well-maintained equipment, and the Baker team have a fantastic reputation in the market, which directly translated into some very strong bidding across the board.

Charles Baker, who started contracting in 1974, has an inspiring track record in the industry

"This was the first time that many of these machines had been offered to the open market, and this helped to generate some real momentum in the lead up to the sale, which saw over 70,000 views online.

The sale took place on Thursday 16 December at the RC Baker Ltd premises at Spring Hill Farm near Banbury, Oxfordshire.
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
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SHANGHAI, Dec. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Looking to the future" post-pandemic photography contest ended officially on December 20.

The contest aims to manifest the cultural charm, technological strength of Shanghai in the post-pandemic era, and further promote cultural exchanges and cooperation between Shanghai and the world.

A total of 3,617 photographs were collected domestically and 15,049 photographs were received from the international entry.

Sponsored by Visual China Group's subsidiary Shanghai Yuezhi Network Technology Co., Ltd. and co-sponsored by 500px, the "Looking to the future" post-pandemic photography contest won the support fund of "Chinese Culture Go Global" in Shanghai.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1712514/04_2.jpg
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - New Zealand will on Monday release November figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In October, imports were worth NZ$6.64 billion and exports were worth NZ$5.35 billion for a trade deficit of NZ$1.286 billion. Taiwan will provide November numbers for export orders; in October, orders were up 14.6 percent on year. China will see updates for prime rates for one-year and five-year loans; previously, they were 3.85 percent and 4.65 percent, respectively. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Streem brand and platform to continue in Australia and New Zealand

and Current leadership team retained with a long-term growth mandate

Deal enables Streem to leverage the global capability of Cision across social, data and distribution.

Cision to have full-service entry into the valuable ANZ market with its local and global customers benefiting from access to Streem's unique content and capabilities.

SYDNEY, Dec. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Realtime media monitoring company Streem today announced it has accepted an offer to be acquired by global communications intelligence company Cision.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the transaction results in a sale of 100% of Streem shares to Cision and will see the Streem brand and platform continue in Australia and New Zealand under its current leadership team and local staff.

Significant benefits will flow to Streem customers from the global reach of Cision, and clients will continue to receive the same local support, expertise and Streem platform they have experienced since the company's launch.

Streem came to market in 2017, led by CEO Elgar Welch, a former staffer in the prime minister's office, and CTO Antoine Sabourin with a mission to provide the market's first realtime media monitoring platform. Today, Streem is one of the fastest growing media intelligence companies in ANZ and services the majority of the market's major government departments, banks, airlines, telecommunications and energy companies.



Early financial backers included Quantium founding director Tony Davis, former ACCC chief Graeme Samuel and ex-Wallabies captain John Eales. The company's local Board of Directors are Samuel Marks, Karyn Munsie and David Wakeley.

The company's innovative technology and platform offering resulted in a major recasting of the ANZ media intelligence industry, with hundreds of major brands including Telstra, Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank and the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet moving to Streem in the last four years.

"With more than 100 local staff servicing over 400 leading clients, Streem has grown faster than we ever could have imagined thanks to great tech, strong support from customers and an incredible local team," Streem CEO Elgar Welch said. "Backed by Cision, we'll continue to build upon that growth, delivering new tools and products to help communications teams work smarter."

Cision is the world's largest provider of communications intelligence, with nearly 5,000 staff across 24 countries. Already active in Australia and New Zealand with its PR Newswire, Brandwatch and Falcon.io brands, the acquisition of Streem adds a full-suite of media monitoring and analysis capabilities that gives both local and global customers interested in ANZ coverage access to a significantly enhanced service.



"Streem has quickly established itself as the customer preferred media intelligence platform in the ANZ market," Cision CEO Abel Clark said. "Streem's customers will benefit enormously from Cision's global reach and we're excited to be able to offer a full-suite of monitoring, distribution, insights and social media solutions in ANZ that both our local and global customers can benefit from."

Streem will continue to operate as an independent brand with its full-service media monitoring and insights services, and customers will quickly see the benefits of Cision's global footprint including integrations of Brandwatch's social data, PR Newswire's media database and global media content and analytics spanning millions of sources.

Streem CTO and co-founder Antoine Sabourin said the company's success was driven by a strong focus on solving real world problems for communications teams.

"Cision's investment means Streem can keep investing in great people, tech and innovation, resulting in major benefits for customers in the coming weeks and months," Sabourin said.



Streem's Management team will continue with the business, and original co-founders Elgar Welch (CEO) and Antoine Sabourin (CTO) will remain in their respective roles.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of calendar 2022 and is subject to clearance by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the United States.

About Streem

Streem is the ANZ market's fastest growing media intelligence company, delivering comprehensive and realtime Print, Online, TV, Radio & Social media monitoring, insights and reporting to leading corporate and government organisations including Telstra, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. Through Desktop, Tablet and Mobile, Streem's customers can see, stream and analyse millions of news items in realtime, helping PR and Corporate Affairs teams to do their jobs.

About Cision

As a global leader in PR, marketing and social media management technology and intelligence, Cision helps brands and organizations to identify, connect and engage with customers and stakeholders to drive business results. PR Newswire, a network of over 1.1 billion influencers, in-depth monitoring, analytics and its Brandwatch and Falcon.io social media platforms headline a premier suite of solutions. Cision has offices in 24 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA and APAC. For more information about Cision's award-winning solutions, including its next-gen Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.com and follow @Cision on Twitter.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1713088/Cision_Logo.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1713089/Streem_Logo.jpg
Implementations at Tata Mutual Fund, Murabaha Marena, Alkhaleej Bank, Quara Finance, and Emkan Finance, honoured for excellence in innovative technologies

SINGAPORE, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Azentio Software ("Azentio"), a Singapore-headquartered software products business owned by funds advised by Apax Partners, today announced that it has won five awards at the IBS Intelligence (IBSi) Global FinTech Innovation Awards 2021. The prestigious awards program identifies and honours technology players and banks for their excellence in driving impact through innovative financial technology implementations.

IBSi is a leading global fintech research, news analysis, and advisory firm; and its FinTech Innovation Awards are a global commemoration of the best in banking and fintech with 199 participants from across 48 countries, vying for the top honours in 30 award categories this year.

Robin Amlot, Managing Editor of IBS Intelligence, said, "It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Azentio team for their exemplary performance in this 3rd edition of the IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Innovation Awards 2021. Over the years they have grown and this year they are recipients of 5 awards across categories, this is no mean feat in this highly competitive awards event".

"We are immensely proud to receive these esteemed awards. Azentio set the bar high in 2021 and was a strategic partner in many of the key implementations across marquee financial services institutions. This achievement reinforces our mission to foster continuous innovation and our commitment to deliver successful banking transformation projects for our clients", stated Tony Kinnear, Chief Executive Officer, Azentio.

The honours include:

Best Investment & Fund Management Implementation Award for the Most Impactful Project at Tata Mutual Fund, India , with the MFund Plus Wealth & Asset Management Solution

for the Most Impactful Project at Tata Mutual Fund, , with the MFund Plus Wealth & Asset Management Solution Best Islamic Banking Implementation Award for the Most Impactful Project at Murabaha Marena Finance, KSA, using the Kastle Universal Lending Solution (ULS)

for the Most Impactful Project at Murabaha Marena Finance, KSA, using the Kastle Universal Lending Solution (ULS) Best Islamic Banking Implementation Award for the Best Project Implementation at Alkhaleej Bank, Sudan , with the iMAL Islamic core banking platform

for the Best Project Implementation at Alkhaleej Bank, , with the iMAL Islamic core banking platform Most Effective Digitization/Paperless Initiative Award for the Most Impactful Project work at Quara Finance, KSA, using the Kastle ULS

for the Most Impactful Project work at Quara Finance, KSA, using the Kastle ULS Most Innovative API/Open Banking Model Award for the Most Innovative Project at Emkan Finance, KSA, with Kastle ULS.

About Azentio

Azentio Software provides mission critical, vertical-specific software products for clients in banking, financial services and insurance verticals. Azentio has over 800 clients in more than 60 countries with a team of over 2,000 employees across offices in 9 countries globally.

Azentio Software Private Limited is wholly owned by Funds advised by Apax Partners.

About IBS Intelligence

IBS Intelligence (IBSi) is the world's only pure-play financial technology focused research, advisory, and news analysis firm, with a 30-year track record and clients globally. The company takes pride in covering 400+ technology vendors globally - the largest by any analyst firm in this space.

Media Contact:

Danielle Karam

danielle.karam@azentio.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1712686/Azentio_Software_Logo.jpg
- Restructuring will be implemented through a pre-arranged Chapter 11 process in U.S. Bankruptcy Court

- Provides for the injection of $537 million of capital through a $337 million equity rights offering and a $200 million new revolving facility

- Company has obtained an additional $170 million debtor in possession financing facility from existing creditors to help fund the Chapter 11 process

- The deleveraging resulting from the restructuring will place the Company in a strong financial position enabling it to continue global operations

- Company will continue to satisfy substantially all obligations to employees, customers and suppliers as leasing operations and aircraft deliveries will continue in the normal course

LIMERICK, Ireland, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company, together with its subsidiaries ("NAC" or the "Company"), the world's largest regional aircraft lessor, today announced that it has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement (the "RSA" or the "Agreement") with its equityholders and lenders holding over 73% of NAC's approximately $6.3 billion in debt obligations (collectively, the "RSA Parties"). The terms of the RSA establish the framework for a consensual and comprehensive financial restructuring that will restructure the Company's debt obligations, provide additional capital through a new equity rights offering, and best position NAC for future growth and success as global economic and industry conditions continue to improve. To implement the financial restructuring, the Company has filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The RSA contemplates a consensual and comprehensive restructuring of the Company's debt obligations (including the conversion of a substantial amount of the group's debt to equity) with an infusion of $537 million in additional capital through a $337 million new equity rights offering and a new $200 million revolving credit facility. The Company has obtained an additional $170 million debtor in possession financing facility from its existing creditors to help fund operations during the Chapter 11 process. The additional capital will serve to support the Company's liquidity position and its plans to pursue growth in purchasing aircraft. Additionally, the RSA provides the Company with a stable platform to allow NAC to continue satisfying substantially all of its obligations to its employees, customers, and suppliers, as well as provide lease management services and deliver aircraft throughout the Chapter 11 process.

In conjunction with the petitions, NAC has filed a series of motions, which, once approved by the Court, will enable the Company to operate its business in the ordinary course throughout the Chapter 11 process. These motions will also allow NAC to continue to honor obligations to its employees, customers, and suppliers on previously agreed upon schedules and terms.

Following its emergence from the Chapter 11 process, the reorganized NAC will be majority-owned by its largest creditors, who are committed to the Company's long-term success and will invest substantial new equity capital in the business. Martin Moller, Founder of NAC, and the Company's existing shareholders are supportive of this transition in ownership. A newly reconstituted Board of Directors will be appointed upon emergence.

"NAC is taking this proactive step in the U.S. because we believe it is the most efficient and effective way to implement a consensual and comprehensive financial restructuring," said Justin Bickle, Vice Chairman of NAC and Chairman of its Restructuring Committee. "With the strong support we've received from our lenders to date, we are pleased to be entering the Chapter 11 process with a restructuring support agreement in place to implement the financial restructuring of the Group that will position NAC for future growth and success as industry conditions continue to improve."

Martin Moller, former Chairman and Founder of Nordic Aviation Capital, commented "As my 30-year chapter with NAC comes to a close, I am comforted to see the significant support demonstrated by the lenders and their confidence in NAC's business model. I have the utmost confidence in the Company's resilience and ability to continue to serve customers in a sustainable manner throughout this process and beyond."

Norman C.T. Liu, President & CEO of NAC said, "This is a positive first step to position NAC for longer term success and provides financial resources to develop the business. Our aim is to maintain our leadership position in regional aircraft leasing and expand into adjacent single aisle areas. During the Chapter 11 process, the NAC team will work hard to serve our many airline customers. I would also like to thank our employees for their dedication and our many business partners for their support."

Additional Information

Additional information about the Company's Chapter 11 cases, including access to Court filings and other documents related to the restructuring process, is available at https://dm.epiq11.com/nac or by calling NAC's restructuring information line at +1-503-597-7711 (international) or 1-855-654-0899 (toll free in the U.S.).

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as the Company's restructuring counsel, Clifford Chance LLP and William Fry LLP are serving as legal counsel, Ernst & Young is serving as restructuring advisor, and Rothschild & Co is acting as investment banker.

About Nordic Aviation Capital

NAC is the industry's leading regional aircraft lessor serving almost 70 airlines in approximately 45 countries. NAC's fleet of 475 aircraft includes ATR 42, ATR 72, De Havilland Dash 8, Mitsubishi CRJ900/1000, Airbus A220 and Embraer E-Jet family aircraft.
Not for release to US wire services or distribution in the United States



Announcement to the Toronto Stock Exchange And Australian Stock Exchange

HIGHLIGHTS

Approximately US$10 million to be raised via institutional share placement

Placement strongly supported by a number of leading institutional investors

Placement strengthens RTG's balance sheet as Mt. Labo Exploration and Development Corporation ("Mt. Labo") continues to progress the Mabilo project together with other business development opportunities

SUBIACO, WESTERN AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / December 19, 2021 / The Board of RTG Mining Inc. ("RTG", the "Company") (TSX:RTG)(ASX:RTG) is pleased to announce that the Company has received commitments to raise approximately US$10 million (circa A$14.2 million) in a private placement to institutional and sophisticated investors ("Private Placement").

Euroz Hartleys and Foster Stockbroking, together with INTE Securities LLC and M2-Advisors (the "US Placement Agent"), acted as Joint Lead Managers to the Private Placement.

The Private Placement received strong institutional support, demonstrating the considerable support for RTG's interest in the high grade copper/gold/magnetite Mabilo Project in the Philippines and the Company's other potential opportunities.

The Private Placement will result in the issue of approximately 158.4 million Chess Depository Instruments ("Securities") to be listed on the ASX at an issue price of A$0.09 per Security, representing a 25% discount to RTG's last closing price on the ASX of A$0.12 (20% discount to the 10 day VWAP and 18% discount to the 20 day VWAP).

Net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to assist Mt. Labo advance the Mabilo Project towards start-up, the first phase being a Direct Shipping Operation including addressing the restructuring plans in the Philippines, to provide Mt. Labo with the opportunity to undertake a 3 hole drilling program focused on the porphyry target, to continue to pursue new potential business development opportunities, including the Panguna Project in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, for partial repayment of the Corporate Loan Facility, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Placement Details

The Private Placement consists of 158.4 million new Securities to be issued at an issue price of A$0.09 per Security ("Issue Price") to raise total funds of circa US$10 million. The Securities are expected to be issued on or around 24 December 2021 (other than the Director Participation) under the Company's ASX placement capacity, comprising the issue of:

102,041,551 Securities using the Company's 15% placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 to raise approximately US$6.4 million (before costs); and

56,402,894 Securities using the Company's 10% placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1A to raise approximately US$3.6 million (before costs).

The Private Placement will be conducted under exemptions from prospectus and registration requirements of securities laws in relevant countries. The Private Placement is subject to approval of TSX.

Directors of the Company intend to subscribe for up to 2,166,666 Securities under the Private Placement, subject to receiving shareholder approval pursuant to ASX Listing Rule 10.11 (Director Participation).

The US Placement Agent will be issued 5,827,959 unlisted advisor options equivalent to 5% of the gross proceeds of the Private Placement to US clients, exercisable at A$0.09 with a five year expiry from date of issue. Each unlisted option is convertible into one CDI (Advisor Options).

The Company intends to hold a General Meeting, likely in February to seek shareholder approval in respect of the Director Participation. A Notice of Meeting will be sent to shareholders in due course.

ABOUT RTG MINING INC

RTG Mining Inc. is a mining and exploration company listed on the main board of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange. RTG is currently focused primarily on progressing the Mabilo Project to start-up having recently received a mining permit for the Project, with a view to moving quickly and safely to a producing gold and copper company.

RTG also has a number of exciting new opportunities including the Panguna Project in Bougainville, which it remains committed to but during these uncertain times the primary focus is on advancing the Mabilo Project.

RTG has an experienced management team which has to date developed seven mines in five different countries, including being responsible for the development of the Masbate Gold Mine in the Philippines through CGA Mining Limited. RTG has some of the most respected international investors as shareholders including Franklin Templeton, Equinox Partners and Sun Valley.

ENQUIRIES

Australian Contact

President & CEO - Justine Magee

Tel: +61 8 6489 2900

Fax: +61 8 6489 2920

Email: jmagee@rtgmining.com

US Contact

Investor Relations - Jaime Wells

+1 970 640 0611

jwells@rtgmining.com

COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

Date: 20 December 2021

Authorised for release by: By the Board of Directors

CAUTIONARY NOTE STATEMENT

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor does it accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

This announcement includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this announcement, other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements, including statements made or implied relating to the anticipated timing, closing, size, structure of and exemptions utilized under the Private Placement, the use of the net proceeds from the Private Placement, the timing of the shareholder meeting to approve Tranche 2 of the Private Placement, the Company's opportunities to diversify its Philippine interests and to participate in the redevelopment of the Panguna Mine in Bougainville, the Company's objectives, strategies to achieve those objectives, the Company's beliefs, plans, estimates and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, plans for further exploration. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from RTG's expectations include uncertainties related to market conditions and demand for the Private Placement, the receipt of requisite shareholder and regulatory approvals, fluctuations in gold and other commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs, recovery rates, production estimates and estimated economic return; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the development of RTG's mineral projects; the need to obtain additional financing to develop RTG's mineral projects; the possibility of delay in development programs or in construction projects and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones for RTG's mineral projects and other risks and uncertainties as discussed in RTG's annual report for the year ended December 31, 2020 and detailed from time to time in our other filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities available at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. RTG will not release publicly any revisions or updates to these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.

NOT FOR RELEASE OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES

This announcement has been prepared for publication in Canada and Australia and may not be released to US wire services or distributed in the United States. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Any securities described in this announcement have not been, and will not be, registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States except in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, registration under the US Securities Act and applicable US state securities laws.

SOURCE: RTG Mining Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/678536/US10m-Raised-in-Oversubscribed-Private-Placement
Rio Tinto has called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from Western Australian manufacturers to build 100 rail cars for its Pilbara iron ore mining operations.

The EOI callout follows Rio Tinto's announcement in September it would look for opportunities for Western Australian suppliers to help grow the local rail car manufacturing industry and support local jobs.

Rio Tinto will initially purchase 50 rail cars from the successful supplier, followed by an ongoing commitment of 10 rail cars a year for the next five years.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott said, "I strongly encourage Western Australian manufacturers to submit an Expression of Interest to build these iron ore rail cars to service our Pilbara operations.

"We're pleased to offer this opportunity to local businesses to support local jobs and the Western Australian economy.

"As the local manufacturing industry grows, we will continue to look at ways to engage local businesses to be part of our supply chain."

The EOI supports the vision of the WA Government's iron ore rail car action group, which was formed to develop Western Australia's manufacturing capability and which Rio Tinto is a member.

Western Australian manufacturers are encouraged to visit the Rio Tinto Buy Local portal for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211219005136/en/

Contacts:

Please direct all enquiries to Media.enquiries@riotinto.com

Media Relations, Australia

Jonathan Rose

M +61 447 028 913

Matt Chambers

M +61 433 525 739

Jesse Riseborough

M +61 436 653 412

Jamie Macdonald

M +61 467 725 51

Rio Tinto plc

6 St James's Square

London SW1Y 4AD

United Kingdom

T +44 20 7781 2000

Registered in England

No. 719885

Rio Tinto Limited

Level 7, 360 Collins Street

Melbourne 3000

Australia

T +61 3 9283 3333

Registered in Australia

ABN 96 004 458 404

riotinto.com

Category: Pilbara
TOKYO, Dec 20, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. today announced it has entered into an agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. for the commercialization and distribution of filgotinib (generic name, product name: Jyseleca), an oral, JAK1 preferential inhibitor for indications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease in Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). In December 2019, Eisai signed a partnership agreement with Gilead Sciences K.K., a Japanese subsidiary of Gilead, for the distribution and co-promotion of filgotinib in Japan.Under the terms of the new agreement, Eisai will obtain an exclusive marketing right for filgotinib in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore from Gilead. Gilead has received approval for the treatment of RA in Taiwan and has applied for approval of filgotinib for the treatment of RA in South Korea. Following approvals, Eisai will take over the manufacturing and marketing licenses for filgotinib from Gilead in South Korea and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Singapore, Eisai will apply for approval for filgotinib. With this agreement, Eisai will pay Gilead a contractual up-front payment, as well as regulatory milestones and sales milestones.Filgotinib is a once-daily, oral, JAK1 preferential inhibitor. In Japan, filgotinib has been approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (including prevention of structural joint damage) in patients who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapies. In April 2021, Gilead Sciences K.K. applied for an additional indication of filgotinib as a treatment for patients with moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis.Eisai will leverage its strong business foundation throughout Asia, provide new treatment options for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, and contribute further to addressing the diverse needs of, and increasing the benefits provided to, patients their families, and healthcare providers.About filgotinibFilgotinib is a once-daily, oral, JAK1 preferential inhibitor. In Japan, filgotinib has been approved for the treatment of RA (including prevention of structural joint damage) in patients who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapies. In April 2021, Gilead Sciences K.K. applied for an additional indication of filgotinib as a treatment for patients with moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis.In addition, filgotinib has been approved in the European Union and Great Britain for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis who have responded inadequately or are intolerant to one or more disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Filgotinib has also been approved in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who have had an inadequate response with, lost response to, or were intolerant to either conventional therapy or a biologic agent. Applications have been submitted to the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis and are currently under review.About the market for biological products South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and SingaporeThe market of biological products in 2020 in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore is approximately US $ 400 million, accounting for approximately more than 80% of the total market for biological products in Asia (Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam).(1) Many of biological products are adapted in the treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.(1) Copyright 2021 IQVIA. Internal analysis based on IQVIA Analytics Link 2020. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.Media Inquiries:Public Relations Department,Eisai Co., Ltd.+81-(0)3-3817-5120Source: EisaiCopyright 2021 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto Plc. (RTPPF.PK, RIO.L, RIO, RTNTF.PK) late Sunday said it has called for Expressions of Interest or EOI from Western Australian manufacturers to build 100 rail cars for its Pilbara iron ore mining operations. The EOI callout follows Rio Tinto's announcement in September about its plans to look for opportunities for Western Australian suppliers to help grow the local rail car manufacturing industry and support local jobs. The company said it will initially purchase 50 rail cars from the successful supplier, followed by an ongoing commitment of 10 rail cars a year for the next five years. The EOI supports the vision of the WA Government's iron ore rail car action group, which was formed to develop Western Australia's manufacturing capability and which Rio Tinto is a member. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott said, 'We're pleased to offer this opportunity to local businesses to support local jobs and the Western Australian economy. As the local manufacturing industry grows, we will continue to look at ways to engage local businesses to be part of our supply chain.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

Ligelizumab, a high-affinity anti-IgE antibody, demonstrated superiority compared with placebo at Week 12 in Phase III PEARL 1 and PEARL 2 trials, but not versus omalizumab1

Novartis is continuing to evaluate the PEARL data and will provide an update in due courseas well as next steps for the program

Basel, December 20, 2021 - Novartis today announced top-line results from PEARL 1 and PEARL 2 Phase III studies in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), which showed that the studies met their primary endpoints of superiority for ligelizumab versus placebo at Week 12, but not versus omalizumab1.

"We are disappointed that we have been unable to demonstrate superior efficacy for ligelizumab versus standard of care in the treatment of CSU," said John Tsai, M.D., Head of Global Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "We will continue to evaluate the potential for ligelizumab to bring benefit to patients in the areas of chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU) and food allergy, where there is significant unmet need."

Full PEARL 1 and 2 Phase III data will be made publicly available after study completion in the second half of 2022.

CSU is an unpredictable, systemic skin disease, characterized by the spontaneous and recurrent appearance of itchy, painful hives (wheals) on the skin, angioedema or both for at least 6 weeks2,3 and affects up to 1% of the population at any one time2. Approximately 60% of patients do not achieve complete control with first-line treatment antihistamines4-7.





Novartis recently began Phase III studies for remibrutinib (LOU064), a highly selective, potent oral BTK inhibitor that has previously shown rapid and effective CSU disease control8,9.

Novartis in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU)

Novartis is dedicated to reimagining the care of patients with diseases that can severely limit quality of life such as CSU, psoriasis, acne and atopic dermatitis. Novartis is committed to developing medicines that will advance the treatment of CSU, so patients are able to live their lives without the distressing and unpredictable symptoms of this debilitating disease10. These include ligelizumab (QGE031) a high-affinity monoclonal anti-immunoglobulin E antibody and remibrutinib (LOU064), a highly selective, potent oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor with a potential best-in-class profile for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. Any new therapies will add to our portfolio of medicines that already includes Xolair (omalizumab), our existing approved therapy for CSU.

About ligelizumab

Ligelizumab (QGE031) is a high-affinity, monoclonal anti-immunoglobulin (Ig) E antibody. In a Phase IIb dose-finding trial, more patients experienced complete resolution of wheals (hives) with ligelizumab compared with Xolair (omalizumab)11.

About PEARL 1 and PEARL 2

PEARL 1 and PEARL 2 (NCT03580369 and NCT03580356) are two identically designed Phase III, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, active- and placebo-controlled, parallel-group studies12,13. The twin studies are designed to establish efficacy and safety of ligelizumab in adult and adolescent patients (=12 years of age) with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) who remain symptomatic despite H1-antihistamine treatment by demonstrating better efficacy over placebo and Xolair (omalizumab)12,13. More than 2,000 adult and adolescent patients across 48 countries were randomized to ligelizumab 72 mg, ligelizumab 120 mg, omalizumab 300 mg or placebo with treatment given every 4 weeks for 1 year12-14. Patients initially randomized to placebo were switched to ligelizumab 120 mg from Week 24 until the end of the 52-week treatment period. The primary outcome measured the change from baseline in Urticaria Activity Score over 7 days (UAS7) at Week 1212-14.

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "may," "could," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "seek," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," "dedicated," "continuing," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for ligelizumab, or regarding potential future revenues from ligelizumab. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that ligelizumab will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that ligelizumab will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding ligelizumab could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 108,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com (https://www.novartis.com).

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews (https://twitter.com/novartisnews)

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library (https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library)

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

References

Novartis Data on File. Maurer M, Weller K, Bindslev-Jensen C, et al. Unmet clinical needs in chronic spontaneous urticaria. A GA2LEN task force report. Allergy. 2011;66:317-330. Vestergaard C and Deleuran M. Chronic spontaneous urticaria: latest developments in aetiology, diagnosis and therapy. Ther Adv Chronic Dis. 2015;6:304-13. Zuberbier T, Latiff A, Abuzakouk M, et al. The international EAACI/GA2LEN/EuroGuiDerm/APAAACI guideline for the definition, classification, diagnosis, and management of urticaria. Allergy. Published 2021 Sept 18. doi:10.1111/all.15090. Kaplan AP. Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: Pathogenesis and Treatment Considerations. Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2017;9(6):477-482. doi:10.4168/aair.2017.9.6.477 Maurer M, Costa C, Gimenez Arnau A, et al. Antihistamine- resistant chronic spontaneous urticaria remains undertreated: 2-year data from the AWARE study. Clin Exp Allergy. 2020;50(10):1166-1175. doi:10.1111/cea.13716. Guillen-Aguinaga S, Jauregui Presa I, Aguinaga-Ontoso E, Guillen-Grima F, Ferrer M. Updosing nonsedating antihistamines in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Dermatol. 2016;175(6):1153-1165. doi:10.1111/bjd.14768. Clinical Trials.gov. A Phase 3 Study of Efficacy and Safety of Remibrutinib in the Treatment of CSU in Adults Inadequately Controlled by H1 Antihistamines (REMIX-1). NCT05030311. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05030311 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05030311). [Last accessed: December 2021]. Clinical Trials.gov. A Phase 3 Study of Efficacy and Safety of Remibrutinib in the Treatment of CSU in Adults Inadequately Controlled by H1- Antihistamines. NCT05032157. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05032157 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05032157). [Last accessed: December 2021]. Weller K, Maurer M, Grattan C, et al. ASSURE-CSU: a real-world study of burden of disease in patients with symptomatic chronic spontaneous urticaria. Clin Transl Allergy. 2015;5:29. Maurer M, Gimenez-Arnau AM, Sussman G, et al. Ligelizumab for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria. N Engl J Med. 2019;381:1321-1332. ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT03580369. A Phase III Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Ligelizumab in the Treatment of CSU in Adolescents and Adults Inadequately Controlled with H1-antihistamines [online] April 2020. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03580369 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03580369) [Last accessed: December 2021]. ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT03580356. A Phase III Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Ligelizumab in the Treatment of CSU in Adolescents and Adults Inadequately Controlled with H1-antihistamines [online] March 2020. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03580356 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03580356) [Last accessed: December 2021]. Severin T, Maurer M, Gimenez-Arnau A, et al. Ligelizumab versus omalizumab in CSU: Phase 3 design and rationale. Presented at the 4th GALEN Global Urticaria Forum; December 5-6 2018; Berlin, Germany.

# # #

Novartis Media Relations

E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

Michael Meo

Novartis Global Media Relations

+1 862 274 5414 (mobile)

michael.meo@novartis.com (mailto:michael.meo@novartis.com)







Julie Masow

Novartis US External Communications

+1 862 579 8456

julie.masow@novartis.com (mailto:julie.masow@novartis.com) Louise Clark

Novartis Global Communications

+41 79 123 8172 (mobile)

louise.clark@novartis.com (mailto:louise.clark@novartis.com)





Novartis Investor Relations

Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944

E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com (mailto:investor.relations@novartis.com)
The global tier-one mobility tech suppliers will unveil updates to its shared mobility concept, 'M.Vision POP' and 'M.Vision 2GO' for the first time

Attendees will have the opportunity to create an avatar and experience various mobility concepts developed by Hyundai Mobis in the metaverse

Hyundai Mobis will display 20 technologies ready for global orders and a digital exhibition online

SEOUL, South Korea and LAS VEGAS, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai MOBIS (KRX:012330), one of the world's largest vehicle technology leaders will showcase its eco-friendly mobility vision in both the real and virtual world at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 5-8.

The M.Vision POP and M.Vision 2GO shared mobility concept vehicles combine e-corner module technology for 90-degree rotation of all four wheels and easier parallel parking, a communication lamp on the front grill that engages nearby pedestrians for safer autonomous mobility. M.Vision POP, a battery-run EV, and M.Vision 2GO, a fuel cell-run EV, will be displayed at the Hyundai Mobis booth located at the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at Booth 5343.

CES attendees will also be able to experience the technology leaders' M.Vision POP and M.Vision 2GO concept vehicles in the metaverse. Visitors to the exhibition can create a personalized avatar, upload the avatar to M. Vision Town, Hyundai Mobis' metaverse space, and "test drive" each concept vehicle's capabilities.

"We designed an exhibition that demonstrates the advancements and capabilities of Hyundai Mobis innovation through the power of the accelerating metaverse," said Vice President of Communication, Jin-ho Park. "Customers around the world will be able to experience various technologies for an eco-friendly mobility future."

Hyundai Mobis will come to CES 2022 ready to do business, with plans to host a private booth that showcases 20 new products available for global orders, including integrated cockpit, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), head-up display (HUD), electrification, and lamp technologies. Hyundai MOBIS will also host an online exhibition for visitors that plan to attend CES virtually. Starting January 4, virtual attendees can visit http://business.mobis.co.kr/kr/virtualshowroom and participate in the online exhibition.

About Hyundai MOBIS

Hyundai Mobis is the global no.7 global automotive supplier, with annual sales of nearly $30 billion USD. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Seoul, Korea.

Hyundai Mobis aims to become a lifelong technology partner for vehicles and people. The company has outstanding expertise in sensors, sensor fusion in ECUs and software development for safety control. The company's products also include various components for electrification, brakes, chassis and suspension, steering, airbags, lighting and automotive electronics.

Hyundai Mobis currently employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. With the R&D headquarter in Korea, Mobis operates 4 technology centers in Germany, China, India and the United States.

For more information, please visit the website at http://mobis.co.kr/

Media Contacts:

Choon Kee Hwang

+82-2-2018-5519

ckhwang@mobis.co.kr

Luke Thomas

(407) 233-9639

luke.thomas@edelman.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1712361/Digital_rendering_Hyundai_Mobis_metaverse_mobility_exhibit_coming_CES_January.jpg
ISTANBUL, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Regional geopolitics, balance of power and ongoing conflicts, resistance to globalism and Eurasian cooperation in the Black sea region were discussed in a talk show on Ulusal TV hosted by Emra Shen. https://youtu.be/0I0OpUN6Jv0 Experts presented their vision of the sovereign Turkish policies given the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the growing USA presence in the region.

The former Head of Turkey's Military Intelligence, Retired Lt. General Ismail Hakki Pekin made an emphasis on the broken balance of power in the Black sea region and the role of the NATO expansion: "The latest color revolutions have allowed to advance NATO forces to the Russian boarders. Turkey was also encouraged to put pressure on Russia in the Black sea, Caspian and South Caucasus regions. Yet, Turkey is not interested in a deterioration of relations with Russia".

Professor Torgul Ismail added that the expansion itself was possible not only due to the cold war mentality that is still present in the international relations, but also because of Russia's attempts to cooperate with the NATO in the 1990s, when it was in a deep crisis situation and in need for financial aid. "When Putin came to power, the priorities have changed", he adds. Talking about peace and stability not only in the Black sea region, but in Eurasia, Prof. Torgul highlights the importance of cooperation between Turkey and Russia as strong neighbouring countries. "The current situation requires reinforcement of our own power and its demonstration. Anti-NATO conversations have become much more active now, as it has started causing problems".

Historian and representative of the VATAN political party Mehmet Perinchek elaborated on the role of the USA and its aggressive policies aimed to implement the unipolar model: "Destabilization and attempts to change regimes to US-friendly ones have taken place in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Eastern part of the Black sea region is chosen as a point of pressure on Russia that poses threats to USA dominance". Turkey, in his opinion, is also suffering because of its critique of the unipolar system.

According to the experts, Ukraine is experiencing frustration and disappointment in their Western partners as they are not providing the full support that Ukrainian elites count on, and this leads to a shift towards China. Cooperation between Turkey and Ukraine shouldn't be targeted against Russia. Journalist Deniz Berktay continues: "The West is the key threat to cooperation between Russia and Turkey. The growing tension between Russia and Ukraine means that American ships will try to enter the Black sea again. Stability in the region is threatened".

"Turkey hasn't recognized Crimea as a part of Russia, but it hasn't joined international sanctions against it. Now I want to ask if it possible to be in good relations with both, Russia and Ukraine. We have relations with Russia and relations with Ukraine - we should chose balanced policies and be a mediator", the journalist concludes.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1710342/Ulusal_TV_News_Center.jpg
DGAP-News: Atriva Therapeutics GmbH / Key word(s): Conference

Atriva Therapeutics to take part in upcoming scientific and industry conferences in early 2022



20.12.2021 / 10:00

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Atriva Therapeutics to take part in upcoming scientific and industry conferences in early 2022

Tubingen and Frankfurt (Germany), December 20, 2021 - Atriva Therapeutics GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of host-targeting antiviral therapies, announced today its participation in the following upcoming scientific and industry conferences:

BIO Partnering at JPM

January 10- 14, 2022, virtually

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, CEO of Atriva, will be available for networking and one-on-one discussions.

https://www.bio.org/events/bio-partnering-jpm

Biotech Showcase

January 10 - 12 and January 17 - 19, 2022, virtually

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, Dr. Stephan Stenglein, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Bjorn Cochlovius, VP Business Development, will be available for networking and one-on-one discussions.

https://informaconnect.com/biotech-showcase/

8th Annual LSX World Conference

February 8 - 9, 2022, 133 Houndsditch, Liverpool St., London, UK

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger will be available for networking and one-on-one discussions.

https://www.lsxleaders.com/lsx-world-congress

BIO CEO & Investor Conference

February 14 - 15, 2022, New York Marriott Marquis, New York, USA & Virtual

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger will be available for networking and one-on-one discussions.

https://www.bio.org/events/bio-ceo-investor-conference



BIO-Europe Spring(R)

March 28 - 30, 2022, Basel, Switzerland,

and April 4 - 6, 2022 (Digital Partnering)

Atriva Therapeutics will be available for partnering via the partneringONE platform.

https://informaconnect.com/bioeurope-spring/



About Atriva Therapeutics GmbH

Atriva Therapeutics, founded in 2015, is a biopharmaceutical company that is pioneering the development of host-targeting antiviral therapies. It was set up by a team of leading scientists in viral research as well as proven industry experts. The company aims to develop a therapy platform to treat severe respiratory diseases induced by RNA viruses with a high unmet medical need, such as influenza and COVID-19. The Atriva lead product zapnometinib (INN, currently known as ATR-002) is a first-in-class, host-targeting agent that aims to inhibit viral replication and to favorably modulate the body's immune response in such RNA viruses. Zapnometinib is under clinical development and has successfully completed a Phase I trial to demonstrate safety and tolerability in healthy subjects. The Company is actively enrolling patients in a Phase II study to evaluate efficacy in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.[1] A Phase II study in influenza is currently planned, as are further Phase II and III studies in COVID-19. The Company owns 11 patent families with broad international coverage related to the use of MEK inhibitors and other kinase inhibitors for antiviral therapies. The patent life runs through 2041. Atriva Therapeutics is based in Tubingen and Frankfurt, Germany.

Atriva is a founding member of the BEAT-COV initiative. www.beat-cov.de

For further information, please visit www.atriva-therapeutics.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Contact:

Atriva Therapeutics GmbH

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, CEO

phone: +49 69 667781 5180

mobile: +49 151 7443 3175

lichtenberger@atriva-therapeutics.com Media and Investor Relations:

MC Services AG

Eva Bauer / Raimund Gabriel

phone: +49 89 210 228 80

atriva-therapeutics@mc-services.eu

[1]RESPIRE - A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Multi-Centre Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of ATR-002 in Adult Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

20.12.2021 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de




RAPALA VMC HEADS INTO THE 2022 ICE FISHING SEASON WITH STRONGEST CATALOGUE IN COMPANY HISTORY, REINFORCING ITS GLOBAL MARKET LEADERSHIP IN ICE FISHING WHILST BENEFITTING FROM GROWING DEMAND AS PANDEMIC LOCK DOWN MEASURES CONTINUE WORLDWIDE

The 2022 ice fishing season is here, and with it comes a winter product offering from Rapala VMC that includes more brands and more exciting products than has ever been seen in years past. Now including both 13 Fishing, firmly established within the international ice fishing scene since the mid 2010's - and most recently, Okuma, a global mega rod & reel brand with over 35 years of experience now set on a new growth journey, spearheaded by Rapala VMC's 2021 acquisition of the brand in Europe and Russia.

On top of this great new addition to our brand portfolio, the market is currently experiencing an unprecedented demand for electric-powered ice augers, thanks both to booming participation in ice fishing, and a sweeping transition from gas/fuel power to more efficient and sustainable electric power. With StrikeMaster as our flagship lithium technology ice auger brand, Rapala VMC is perfectly positioned to enjoy this trend, delivering more high-performance ice-cutting products to demanding consumers than ever before.

"We are extremely proud to be able to claim that today, StrikeMaster is undeniably the market leader in powerheads and ice drills," says Tapio Verho, Director of Rapala VMC's ice fishing business. "Innovative products such as the 100% electric-powered Lithium 40V Ice Auger and new, lightweight Lithium 24V Ice Auger have raised the bar of what is accepted by enthusiastic hard water anglers worldwide, propelling the brand to this esteemed position." Furthermore, ice fishing anglers are eagerly stocking up on Rapala's latest ice accessories & safety gear, along with 13 Fishing FreeFall ice combos. VMC's newest ice jigs have disappeared from shelves after being launched in Europe, following on from years of growth in North America. Sufix ice lines are proving more popular than ever and Rapala's Ice blades continue to be the blades-of-choice for serious ice-drilling anglers.

Exciting Okuma products are now hitting shelves across Europe under Rapala VMC's distribution for both the 2022 winter and summer seasons with a proven range of over 350 reel models, and over 450 different rods and combos across predator, carp, saltwater, spinning, trolling, game fishing, casting, centerpin and ice. Customer excitement is very high and pre order bookings are very strong. Our customer base is loyal and confident with several retailers having come to value the technical features, high performance, durability, and massive assortment that Okuma is bringing to the recreational fishing industry. Okuma's product range is highly suited to European and Russian fishing methods, and Okuma will become the flagship brand in Rapala VMC's European rod & reel product portfolio. Together with 13 Fishing and other Rapala VMC Group brands, the Group's impressive product portfolio will form a winning platform in the region.

For winter ice fishing enthusiasts, Okuma brings a range of micro-sized baitfeeders on the Ceymar reel platform. These specialist reels are built for tough conditions with features such as Okuma's Precision Elliptical Gearing and Rotor Equalizing System that improve performance in cold weather.

"With three of our five PD&I centers located in the main ice fishing regions globally, we're very well positioned to capitalize on emerging trends as they happen. Be it in the vast Nordic region surrounding Helsinki, or the cold clear Canadian lakes of Ontario, to the epicenter of all ice fishing 'The American Ice Belt' stretching directly though Minnesota," comments David Neill, Executive Vice President, Product Development & Innovation at Rapala VMC. "Having our development teams located in these key fisheries allows us to work together with top pro's - with this we are able to capture trends early and continuously bring new and emerging techniques to the marketplace. 2021/22 has been no exception with products like the Jigging Shadow Rap and Rap V now in store. Both are modernized vertical jigging lures that will be attractive to all gamefish through the ice. With many new offerings in Rapala VMC's key ice brands, pre-season sales were at record breaking levels in all regions."

An earlier-than-usual start to the Nordic winter season has seen ice fishermen already braving the cold. This quick, cold change has helped kick off what we expect to be a great winter season of sales and outdoor activities enjoyed by many. We are excited and grateful to be able to bring anglers such a diverse product line to choose from this winter season.

RAPALA VMC CORPORATION

Nicolas Cederstrom Warchalowski

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Nicolas Cederstrom Warchalowski, President & Chief Executive Officer, +358 9 7562 540

Olli Aho, Investor Relations, +358 9 7562 540

Attachment
CABORCA, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / Mexus Gold US (OTCQB:MXSG) ("Mexus" or the "Company) announced that the company recently sold gold at $1,800oz from the material sent to the refiner on 12/8/2021.

The company has been busy over the last month updating a deep submersible pump, a large carbon filter pump, and the leach pad sprinkler pump. This time consuming and costly endeavor was necessary for production and exploration expansion.

"Mexus is currently in good faith negotiations with a mining/exploration company for one of its three properties. We expect to have an agreement by January 7th, 2022." added CEO Paul Thompson.

About Mexus Gold US

Mexus Gold US is an American based mining company with holdings in Mexico. The fully owned Santa Elena mine is located 54km NW of Caborca, Mexico. Mexus also owns rights to the Ures property located 80km N of Hermosillo, Mexico. This property contains 6900 acres and has both gold and copper on the property. Founded in 2009, Mexus Gold US is committed to protecting the environment, mine safety and employing members of the communities in which it operates.

For more information on Mexus Gold US, visit www.mexusgoldus.com .

Mexus Gold US (775) 721-9960. Paul Thompson Sr

Cautionary Statement

Forward looking Statement: Statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including the failure to complete successfully the development of new or enhanced products, the Company's future capital needs, the lack of market demand for any new or enhanced products the Company may develop, any actions by the Company's partners that may be adverse to the Company, the success of competitive products, other economic factors affecting the Company and its markets, seasonal changes, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from those contained in this press release. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any statements in this press release.

SOURCE: Mexus Gold US

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/678512/Mexus-Gold-Production-Continues-Potential-Agreement-With-Mining-Partner
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Griffon Corp. (GFF), through its unit The AMES Companies, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hunter Fan Company from MidOcean Partners for $845 million. Hunter is a leading U.S. brand of residential ceiling fans. Griffon said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings and cash flow. In the first full fiscal year of operation, the company expects Hunter to contribute $400 million in revenue and $90 million of EBITDA, excluding synergies, resulting in earnings accretion of at least $0.50 per share. Ronald Kramer, Griffon's CEO, said: 'The acquisition of Hunter, along with the expected sale of Griffon's Defense Electronics business, marks a repositioning and strengthening of the Griffon portfolio which will further accelerate our growth, increase shareholder value, and is an effective use of our capital.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Materials manufacturer Covestro said that it has signed a long-term corporate power purchase agreement with energy provider EnBW for solar-generated electricity. As per the deal, Covestro has secured 63 megawatts (MW) of capacity from EnBW's solar farm in Brandenburg, Germany. The solar power will be deployed at the German Covestro sites in Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen for 15 years from the beginning of 2022. Covestro noted that it will use the renewable energy there primarily for the production of more sustainable, mass-balanced plastics manufactured in a so-called drop-in process using alternative raw materials. These include mass-balanced polycarbonates and mass-balanced thermoplastic polyurethanes. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Kroger will be the first retailer to introduce new Hope and Sesame Non-GMO Verified sesamemilk in 48 oz refrigerated bottles

Kroger is expanding the Hope and Sesame sesamemilk product line into select Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers and Mariano's locations

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is excited to announce that it is expanding its product portfolio and distribution partnership with The Kroger Co. ("Kroger"), America's largest grocery retailer.

Kroger currently offers Hope and Sesame Organic sesamemilk in shelf-stable cartons in three different flavors: Original, Unsweetened and Chocolate, in participating stores across the U.S. With the new purchase orders, Kroger will be the first retailer to introduce the new Hope and Sesame Non-GMO Verified sesamemilk in 48 oz refrigerated bottles. Kroger is launching Unsweetened Original and Unsweetened Vanilla sesamemilk into the refrigerated Non-Dairy section at select Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers and Mariano's locations.

"Entering Kroger with our brand-new Non-GMO Verified refrigerated lineup of Hope and Sesame sesamemilk marks an important milestone for Planting Hope as we continue to scale operations and rapidly expand our retail footprint," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-founder of Planting Hope. "We are excited to further our mission of providing ultra-nutritious, plant-based, planet-friendly food and beverage options to the loyal customers of the Kroger family."

Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk - An Ultra-Nutritious, Sustainable Milk Alternative

Vegan

A good source of protein: 8g of complete protein per serving (complete protein = contains all nine of the essential amino acids that humans need to obtain from food sources)

An excellent source of vitamin D and calcium

Certified Gluten-Free

Certified Kosher

Non-GMO Project Verified and Certified by the Plant Based Foods Association

Sesame - One of the Most Sustainable Crops on the Planet

Requires little water to cultivate and thrives in drought conditions

Bee-friendly and self-pollinates

An excellent cover crop, contributing positively to sustainable agriculture

Sesamemilk upcycles the protein remaining after sesame seeds are pressed for oil (traditionally considered a byproduct used for animal feed)

Selection and availability may vary by store. To find a participating store, use the locator tool on the Hope and Sesame website.

About Hope and Sesame

Hope and Sesame has cracked the code on unlocking the dense nutrition in tiny sesame seeds to create an important new trend in plant milk: sesamemilk, both ultra-nutritious and highly planet-friendly. Sesame is sustainable, requiring very little water to cultivate, it's naturally drought- and pest-resistant, and can self-pollinate. Sesamemilk is nutritionally comparable to dairy milk, delivering 8g of complete protein per serving (including all 9 essential amino acids) - that's 8x the protein in most nut milks and 3x the protein in most oat milks. Hope and Sesame sesamemilk is vegan, a good source of protein, an excellent source of vitamin D and calcium, is Certified Gluten-Free and Certified Kosher, and is free from soy and dairy. All Hope and Sesame products are Non-GMO Project Verified and Certified by the Plant Based Foods Association. Hope and Sesame was awarded Best Milk Alternative and Best Plant-Based Sustainability in FoodBev's 2021 World Plant-Based Food Awards and received the 2020 Sofi Award for Best New Product, Plant-Based Milk from the Specialty Food Association.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.

Planting Hope develops, launches and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's cutting-edge and award-winning products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company with a focus on nutrition, sustainability and diversity. For more information visit: www.plantinghopecompany.com.

Company Contact:

Julia Stamberger

CEO and Co-founder

(773) 492-2243

julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Media Contact:

Rachel Kay Public Relations

Becca Stonebraker

(818) 383-3929

becca@rkpr.net

Investor Relations Contact:

Caroline Sawamoto

Investor Relations

(773) 492-2243

ir@plantinghopecompany.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals the potential demand for the Company's products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company's products, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's prospectus dated October 29, 2021 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/678441/Planting-Hope-Debuts-Refrigerated-Sesamemilk-in-Kroger-Stores
ABP Publishing plans to sell 2021 non-fungible tokens (NFT). Therefore, the company becomes the first audiobook publisher that releases records in the blockchain network store. It is a unique event, the ABP Publishing representatives say, as users will get a golden opportunity to obtain the individual copy of a favourite audiobook. "ABP as a digital publisher is always on the lookout for new distribution ways. Each platform and distribution format offers access to new audiences for our authors, says CEO Andrey Mishenev. We see the distribution via NFT marketplaces as a new experience for us and our listeners. Indeed, each book is currently at the listener's disposal as long as the platform where it has been purchased is available. Owning the NFTs, in its turn, allows listeners to have a particular copy of the audiobook forever". The NFT-collections have been placed at OpenSea (https://opensea.io/andrmish). There users can buy the bestsellers 2021 such as Breath by James Nestor, The Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez, and Just Shut Up and Do It by Brian Tracy. Except for these titles, listeners will get access to 14 more audiobooks on different topics: from the classic The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker to the revolutionary Unfu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop "Our distribution results show that the interest to audiobooks grows steadily. Compared to the 2 nd quarter 2021, the sales in the 3rd one are higher on 20%, continues Mr Mishenev. NFT is a growing trend, and we think it can become one more highly sought platform. We understand that the people listening to digital audiobooks are interested in innovative technologies and we do our best to accommodate their demands".

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Eudemian Ventures' first fund targets software startups with early market traction.

Eudemian Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco, California, and Munich, Germany, announced the close of its $10M debut venture capital fund to support early-stage, U.S.-based software startups.

The firm was founded in 2018 by Raoul Felix Maier, who has over 20 years of experience as venture investor, entrepreneur and former management consultant. He previously co-led the Technology Practice and startup initiatives at Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm.

"From day one, our vision has been to build a venture capital firm that makes a meaningful global impact. With the close of our first fund, we're able to help the world's boldest entrepreneurs build category-leading businesses. If I had to summarize our investment thesis in a few words it would be this: We invest in great leaders," says Raoul Felix Maier, Austro-American Founder and Managing Partner at Eudemian Ventures.

Over the past 30 years, seed and early-stage startups have seen an average internal rate of return (IRR) of 25%, with software companies more likely to produce extreme outlier returns. Eudemian capitalizes on this top-performing asset class as a strategic investor supporting founders from the very beginning and has already seen a top-decile IRR on its current investments.

To help startups build and scale, the Eudemian team has access to multiple of the world's top management consulting platforms to provide its founders with customers, partners, channels and top-tier talent, both in North America and in Europe.

The fund is backed by a community of family office limited partners with a vested interest in software, including prominent names on both sides of the Atlantic like Martin Alexander and Eva Schoeller at Schoeller Group and Mark Silverman at Silverman Family Holdings.

"We see smaller, early-stage venture capital funds as an essential component of our asset allocation to build family wealth over the next decades. I am delighted and honored to be partnered with Raoul and his diverse top-caliber team at Eudemian Ventures and am confident that their sweet spot stage-focus, transatlantic footprint and unique way of sourcing and winning deals will create the next premier brand in the industry," says Mark Silverman of Silverman Family Holdings.

Enabled by a scout-based sourcing and a rigorous screening and due diligence process, Eudemian's initial portfolio includes investments in GRIN, most recently valued at $910 million, Tinycare and AdQuick.

To learn more about Eudemian Ventures, please visit https://www.eudemian.vc/.

About Eudemian Ventures:

Eudemian Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco, California, and Munich, Germany. Led by a global and diverse team of experts with backgrounds in startup entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity, and management consulting, the firm was founded by Managing Partner Raoul Felix Maier, a leading investor and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience. To date, Eudemian Ventures has invested in 12 startups with a current total enterprise value of $1.8 billion.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211220005175/en/

Contacts:

Gisela Maier

Eudemian Ventures, LLC

gisela@eudemian.vc
LONDON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Eigen Technologies (Eigen), the global intelligent document processing (IDP) provider, is delighted to announce that its Co-founder & CEO Dr Lewis Z. Liu has won the inaugural Blossom Award for Entrepreneurship in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the British-Chinese community.

Founded by Alan Mak MP and Cathy Watts, the Blossom Awards bring together the nation's leaders and influencers to recognise inspirational achievers from one of the UK's most-established, patriotic and successful communities.

The Awards focus on members of the British-Chinese community who were born in the UK, or who have spent a majority of their lives living or working in the UK, and therefore have a strong connection to the United Kingdom and consider themselves British.

The Entrepreneurship award celebrates individuals from the British-Chinese community who are leading the way in founding and growing a business. Since founding Eigen in 2015 Lewis has grown the business to over 150 people based in London, New York and Lisbon. Eigen is a leader in AI technology and serves 40% of the world's most important banks.

Dr. Lewis Z. Liu, Co-founder & CEO of Eigen Technologies said:

"I am delighted and humbled to win this award. When I arrived in the UK back in 2008, I couldn't have imagined that I would be recognised in this way. Having built a life and family in London, and become a British citizen, it means so much to be recognised in this way. As someone of Chinese heritage living in both Britain and the United States, I have always appreciated the importance of contributing to society and setting a positive example of leadership to others. In both Britain and the United States those of Chinese heritage are underrepresented as founders and leaders of tech businesses such as mine. I hope that I have done a small bit to help change this and inspire others to do the same. I would like to thank the organizers Alan Mak MP and Cathy Watts for a brilliant inaugural awards. The calibre of the nominees shows that they will undoubtably go from strength to strength in the years ahead."

Contact

Thomas Cahn, Eigen Technologies

Email: tom.cahn@eigentech.com

Website: www.eigentech.com

About Eigen Technologies

Eigen is an intelligent document processing (IDP) company that enables its clients to quickly and precisely extract answers from their documents, so they can better manage risk, scale operations, automate processes and navigate dynamic regulatory environments.

Eigen's customizable, no-code AI-powered platform uses machine learning to automate the extraction of answers from documents and can be applied to a wide variety of use cases. It understands context and delivers better accuracy on far fewer training documents, while protecting the security of clients' data.

Our clients include some of the best-known and respected names in finance, insurance, law and professional services, including Goldman Sachs, ING, BlackRock, Aviva and Allen & Overy. Almost half of all global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) use Eigen to overcome their document and data challenges. Eigen is backed by Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Lakestar, Dawn Capital, ING Ventures, Anthemis and the Sony Innovation Fund by IGV.
RIPON, Wis., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Speed Queen, the global leader in vended commercial laundry, has redefined the customer experience with stores around the globe. The brand is now bringing this premium experience to Germany with a new store in Berlin on Alexanderplatz.

"Speed Queen-branded Laundromats bring a laundromat experience like no other," said Marco Treggiari, director of Speed Queen-licensed stores in Europe. "We are excited to expand this exceptionally profitable business concept to Germany. Through our more than 900 licensed stores across Europe, we have proven out this highly successful model, which delivers great return on investment for owners via a superior experience for customers."

Speed Queen Laundromats are now at work in 28 European countries and more than 465 cities. In addition, the 700 investors are further testament to the incredible value this business brings. Customers across Europe have linked the Speed Queen brand with the pinnacle of laundry experience, one that leverages speed, efficiency, and technology to help them complete the laundry chore quickly.

Like all Speed Queen Laundry stores, the Alexanderplatz location will feature durable, highly efficient, large-capacity washer-extractors and tumble dryers to help customers complete their laundry task in less than an hour. The 24-pocket store is expected to open December 20th. Additional laundries are planned for other investors in Berlin (Karl Marx Strasse), Krefeld, Stuttgart, and Cologne.

With premium attributes such as large capacity machines hosted in a sleek retail space, a customer-facing mobile app, and rewards program and owner features, which include a digital marketing platform and business dashboard, Speed Queen has revolutionized the vended laundry experience for both owner and customer. "The difference is really tangible for the customer; it makes the chore of doing laundry a totally different experience" highlights Marco Treggiari.

"In the next stage of our expansion, we'll build more off the American laundromat model, where stores can have more than 100 machines and gross more than $1 million," Treggiari said. "Like Alexanderplatz's store, we'll drive more ambitious projects that will have a larger footprint and more than 20 pockets. Actually, we already have some large laundromats now in Paris, in Barcelona, in Madrid, in Dublin, in Warsaw and in Roma."

For more information on Speed Queen and to learn more about opening a Speed Queen-branded store in your own market and to locate the Speed Queen closest to you, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

About Speed Queen

Speed Queen provides coin laundry owners with a variety of innovative and reliable commercial washers, dryers, and laundromat equipment since 1908. As an industry leader, Speed Queen is dedicated to providing its market expertise to help grow the self-serve laundry industry. The brand is an entity of Ripon, Wis.-based Alliance Laundry Systems LLC, a leading global manufacturer of commercial laundry products and provider of services for laundromats, multi-housing laundries and on-premises laundries. To learn more, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1713622/Speed_Queen_Laundry_Store.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1522329/SQLS_Logo_2019_FIX_Logo.jpg
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
EQS-Ad-hoc: Forbo Holding AG / Schlagwort(e): Sonstiges

Veranderung im Verwaltungsrat der Forbo Holding AG



20.12.2021 / 18:15 CET/CEST

Veroffentlichung einer Ad-hoc-Mitteilung gemass Art. 53 KR

Fur den Inhalt der Mitteilung ist der Emittent / Herausgeber verantwortlich.



MEDIENMITTEILUNG

Dr. Reto Muller wird sich an der ordentlichen Generalversammlung 2022 nicht mehr zur Wiederwahl stellen. Der Verwaltungsrat der Forbo Holding AG wird Dr. Eveline Saupper und Jens Fankhanel neu zur Wahl in den Verwaltungsrat vorschlagen. Baar, 20. Dezember 2021 Austritt aus dem Verwaltungsrat Dr. Reto Muller wird sich nach 11 Jahren Zugehorigkeit an der nachsten ordentlichen Generalversammlung vom 1. April 2022 nicht mehr fur die Wiederwahl als Mitglied des Verwaltungsrats zur Verfugung stellen. Er gehort dem Gremium seit 2011 an und ist Mitglied des Audit- und Finanzausschusses. Im Namen des Verwaltungsrats der Forbo Holding AG danke ich Dr. Reto Muller fur seinen sehr geschatzten und kompetenten Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung des Unternehmens. Er hat in dieser Zeit seine breite internationale Erfahrung und sein vertieftes Industrie-Know-how erfolgreich eingebracht. Fur die Zukunft wunschen wir ihm alles Gute, sagt This E. Schneider, Exekutiver Verwaltungsratsprasident. Zuwahlen in den Verwaltungsrat Der Verwaltungsrat der Forbo Holding AG wird der Generalversammlung vom 1. April 2022 Dr. Eveline Saupper und Jens Fankhanel neu zur Wahl in den Verwaltungsrat vorschlagen. Dr. Eveline Saupper, Schweizer Staatsburgerin, ist professionelle Verwaltungsratin. Nach Stationen bei Peat Marwick Mitchell (heute KPMG) und Baker McKenzie, Zurich und Chicago, war sie Mitarbeiterin und ab 1994 bis 2014 Partnerin in der Anwaltskanzlei Homburger in Zurich. Als Partnerin war sie zudem in verschiedenen Managementfunktionen in den Bereichen IT, Finanzen und Human Resources tatig. Sie studierte Recht an der Universitat St. Gallen, schloss ihr Studium als lic. iur. ab, promovierte zum Dr. iur. und erwarb das Zurcher Anwaltspatent. Sie ist zudem diplomierte Steuerexpertin. Jens Fankhanel, deutscher Staatsburger, ist CEO der Kardex-Gruppe. Nach mehreren Jahren in der internationalen Beratung und Projektleitung ist er seit 2002 in verschiedenen Managementfunktionen in Industrieunternehmen tatig, die Losungen fur Intralogistik und automatisierten Materialfluss anbieten. Seit 2011 ist er bei Kardex und hat seit 2016 die Verantwortung als CEO der Kardex-Gruppe. Er verfugt uber ein grosses Wissen in der Digitalisierung, in der Strategieumsetzung und in der Fuhrung internationaler, technischer Unternehmen. Sein Studium schloss er als Dipl.-Ing. Elektrotechnik/Vertiefung Automatisierungstechnik und technische Kybernetik an der Universitat in Chemnitz ab. This E. Schneider betont: Wir freuen uns, mit Dr. Eveline Saupper eine ausgewiesene Expertin in den Bereichen Steuern, Finanzen und Human Resources und mit Jens Fankhanel einen erfahrenen Industriemanager fur Digitalisierung und Automatisierungstechnologien fur den Forbo-Verwaltungsrat gewinnen zu konnen. MEDIENMITTEILUNG (PDF-FILE) Forbo ist ein fuhrender Hersteller von Bodenbelagen, Bauklebstoffen sowie Antriebs- und Leichtfordertechnik. Forbos Linoleum-Bodenbelage sind aus naturlichen Rohstoffen hergestellt, biologisch abbaubar und CO 2- neutral (cradle to gate), ohne Kompensation. Fur die Herstellung von heterogenen Vinylbelagen verwendet Forbo phthalatfreie Weichmacher der neuesten Generation, deren Grundschicht bis zu 45% rezykliertes Material enthalt. Der BioBeltTM ist ein biologisch abbaubares Transportband, das weitgehend durch Materialien aus nachwachsenden pflanzlichen Rohstoffen produziert wird. Das AmpMiserTM-Transportband ermoglicht Energie- und daraus resultierende CO 2 -Einsparungen von bis zu 50%. Fur Forbo als verantwortungsbewussten Hersteller ist der umsichtige Umgang mit allen Ressourcen fur eine nachhaltige Zukunft ein wichtiger Grundwert. Forbo beschaftigt rund 5 500 Mitarbeitende und verfugt uber ein internationales Netz von 25 Standorten mit Produktion und Vertrieb, 6 Konfektionierungszentren sowie 49 reinen Vertriebsgesellschaften in weltweit insgesamt 39 Landern. Der Nettoumsatz im Geschaftsjahr 2020 betrug CHF 1 117,7 Mio. Der Sitz der Gesellschaft befindet sich in Baar im Kanton Zug, Schweiz. Die Konzerngesellschaft Forbo Holding AG ist an der SIX Swiss Exchange kotiert (Valorennummer 354151, ISIN CH0003541510, Bloomberg FORN SW, Reuters FORN.S). Kontaktperson:

This E. Schneider

Exekutiver Verwaltungsratsprasident

Telefon +41 58 787 25 49

www.forbo.com

www.forbo.com -> Nachhaltigkeit

Ende der Ad-hoc-Mitteilung
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

20 December 2021

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 52,520 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 894.35p per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 17 February 2021.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 831,339; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 224,159,964.

The figure of 224,159,964 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks closed notably lower on Monday amid fears of fresh disruptions across supply chains globally following tighter restrictions in Europe amid rapidly surging Omicron Covid-19 cases.



Several countries, including France and Austria have tighted travel restrictions. Paris has canceled its New Year's Eve firework celebration, while Germany, which has ruled out a Christmas lockdown, has warned a fifth wave could no longer be stopped.



French Prime Minister Jean Castex has warned that the Omicron variant is 'spreading at lightning speed' and that it should be the dominant variant by the start of next year. The country has imposed restrictions on travelers from the United Kingdom.



Worries about the deadlock over U.S. President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion investment bill weighed as well on sentiment.



The pan European Stoxx 600 shed 1.38%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 0.99%, Germany's DAX declined 1.88% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.82% down, while Switzerland's SMI ended lower by 0.99%.



Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey closed with sharp to moderate losses.



Belgium and Poland ended marginally down, while Czech Republic edged up slightly.



Shares of oil companies tumbled as oil prices plunged on worries that a rise in Omicron Covid-19 cases would stall economic growth and dent fuel demand.



In the UK market, Antofagasta and Informa ended lower by 5.5% and 5.3%, respectively. Darktrace, Prudential, ABRDN, Smith (DS), M&G, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Fresnillo, BP and Smurfit Kappa Group lost 3 to 4.7%.



Scottish Mortgage, Barratt Developments, Vodafone Group, Rio Tinto, Smith & Nephew, Evraz, ICP and CRH also declined sharply.



Rentokil Initial climbed 6.5%. Royal Mail, Sage Group and Tesco gained 1 to 1.5%.



In the French market, WorldLine declined more than 6.5%. Technip, Renault, ArcelorMittal, Airbus, Faurecia, Safran, Michelin and Publicis Groupe lost 1 to 4%.



Shares French commercial real estate company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield ended more than 2% down. The company announced a deal to sell its Solna Centrum, a metro station and shopping mall in Stockholm, to Alecta Fastigheter, an arm of Swedish pension fund Alecta, for 2.8 billion Swedish Krona or around 272 million euros.



In Germany, Porsche Automobil, Munich RE, Linde, Adidas, Deutsche Wohnen, Bayer, HeidelbergCement, SAP, MTI Aero Engines, Fresenius, Siemens, Daimler, Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank lost 2 to 4%.



Merck gained about 2.1%. HelloFresh, Qiagen and E.ON posted moderate gains.



Novo Nordisk A/S plummeted 11.7%. The Danish drug maker late on Friday announced that manufacturing snags at a contract supplier will make it unable to meet demand in the U.S. for its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy.



In economic news, The euro area current account surplus remained unchanged in October, data from the European Central Bank showed. The current account surplus came in at EUR 18 billion in October, unchanged from September.



In twelve months to October, the current account surplus totaled EUR 311 billion or 2.6 percent of GDP, up from EUR 186 billion or 1.6 percent of GDP a year earlier.



UK manufacturers reported strong growth in demand in December, broadly unchanged from last month's record high pace, the Industrial Trends Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed on Monday.



The order book balance came in at +24% in December, slightly down from +26% in November. This was much better than the long-run average of -13%.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
RICHARDSON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / Optex Systems Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:OPXS), a leading manufacturer of precision optical sighting systems for domestic and worldwide military and commercial applications, announced financial highlights for the year ended October 3, 2021.

During the twelve months ended October 3, 2021, revenue decreased from our prior year period by $7.7 million, or 29.6%, and gross margin decreased from our prior year period by $3.6 million, or 58.6%. Operating income for the twelve-month period ended October 3, 2021 decreased by $3.4 million to a loss of ($0.5), from income of $3.9 million during the prior year.

The erosion in the gross margin and operating profit is primarily due to lower revenue across both segments, unfavorable manufacturing overhead adjustments on reduced production volume and some shifts in product mix toward less profitable product groups. General and administrative expenses decreased by $0.2 million as compared to the prior year, offsetting a small portion of the gross margin decline.

As of October 3, 2021, the Company had working capital of $12.9 million, as compared to $11.7 million as of September 27, 2020. During the twelve months, we generated operating cash flow of $0.5 million, received proceeds from the exercise of warrants of $0.3 million, paid down our line of credit by ($0.4) million, spent ($0.9) million for the purchase of 449,088 shares against our previously announced stock repurchase plans and ($0.3) million on acquisitions of property and equipment. We ended the quarter with a strong cash balance of $3.9 million as compared to $4.7 million as of the fiscal year end 2020. As of October 3, 2021, the Company had an outstanding payable balance of zero against our working line of credit. The line of credit allows for borrowing up to a maximum of $2.3 million. As of October 3, 2021, our outstanding accounts receivable was $3.2 million.

Danny Schoening, CEO of Optex Systems Holdings, Inc., commented, "The pandemic and COVID had an undeniable effect on our business. With almost a 30% reduction in revenue, the past year we focused on two areas. First, we took the operational steps necessary to preserve cash while continuing to invest in key technology programs required for long-term growth. Second, we stayed extremely close to our customers, maintained our strong market share position, and were successful in building the backlog to position us well for 2022.

With a slow return to normalization, our business is recovering briskly. As we begin to execute on our 67.5% year over year increase in backlog, we will strive to regain the momentum we had in 2019 and 2020 and intend to exit 2022 with a broader product and process offering while having maintained each and every customer."

Our key performance measures for the twelve-months ended October 3, 2021 and September 27, 2020 are summarized below.

(Thousands) Twelve months ended Metric October 3, 2021 September 27, 2020 % Change Revenue $ 18,222 $ 25,890 (29.6 ) Gross Margin $ 2,520 $ 6,088 (58.6 ) Gross Margin % 13.8 % 23.5 % (41.3 ) Operating Income $ (494 ) $ 2,883 (117.1 ) Gain (Loss) on Change Fair Value of Warrants $ 2,535 $ (508 ) (599.0 ) Net Income (Loss) Applicable to Common Shareholders $ 1,471 $ 1,227 19.9 Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) $ (3 ) $ 3,328 (100.1 )

During the previous eighteen months through October 3, 2021, we experienced a reduction in new orders and ending customer backlog in our Optex Richardson segment. We attribute the lower orders to a combination of factors including a COVID-19 driven slow-down of contract awards for both U.S. military sales and foreign military sales (FMS), primarily during the second half of fiscal year 2020, combined with significant shifting in defense spending budget allocations in US military sales and FMS away from Army ground system vehicles toward other military agency applications. In addition, the pandemic has caused several program delays throughout the defense supply chain as a result of plant shutdowns, employee illnesses, travel restrictions, remote work arrangements and similar supplier chain issues. Our Applied Optics Center segment experienced a significant decline in orders during the second half of fiscal year 2020, however during the last twelve months, the segment has seen a sizable increase in new orders as a result of increased military spending in Army infantry optical equipment and an increased customer base.

Backlog as of October 3, 2021 was $27.3 million as compared to a backlog of $16.3 million as of September 27, 2020, representing an increase of 67.5%. During fiscal year 2021, Optex Systems Holdings received new orders totaling $29.2 million, a 65.9% increase, as compared to new orders of $17.6 million during the prior year. The 2021 orders consist of $7.6 million in support of our periscope product line, $19.6 million attributable to the Applied Optics Center and $1.2 million attributable to sighting systems and support, and $0.8 million in other products.

We are seeing increases in demand and proposal activity for both laser coated filters and optical assemblies and anticipate additional order bookings for both our commercial and military products for deliveries beginning in fiscal year 2022. On August 2, 2021, the Company announced a contract award of $8.4 million with a new customer as part of a twenty-four-month purchase order for laser filter units and on September 21, 2021, the Company announced a $3 million commercial order for optical devices.

(millions) October 3, 2021 September 27, 2020 % Change Backlog as of period end $ 27.3 $ 16.3 67.5

We use adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) as an additional measure for evaluating the performance of our business as "net income" includes the significant impact of noncash valuation gains and losses on warrant liabilities, noncash compensation expenses related to equity stock issues, as well as depreciation, amortization, interest expenses and federal income taxes. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA is a meaningful indicator of our operating performance because it permits period-over-period comparisons of our ongoing core operations before the excluded items, which we do not consider relevant to our operations. Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure not required by, or presented in accordance with, U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP").

The table below summarizes our three-month operating results for periods ended October 3, 2021 and September 27, 2020, in terms of both the GAAP net income measure and the non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA measure. We believe that including both measures provides information that is useful in evaluating our financial results across periods.

(Thousands) Twelve months ended October 3, 2021 September 27, 2020 Net Income - GAAP $ 2,131 $ 1,825 Add: (Gain) Loss on Change in Fair Value of Warrants (2,535 ) 508 Federal Income Tax (Benefit) Expense (101 ) 531 Depreciation 263 248 Stock Compensation 228 197 Interest Expense 11 19 Adjusted EBITDA - Non GAAP $ (3 ) $ 3,328

Our Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $3.3 million to $0.0 million during the twelve months ended October 3, 2021 as compared to $3.3 million during the twelve months ended September 27, 2020. The decrease in EBITDA is primarily driven by a decrease in revenue of $7.7 million resulting in lower operating profit of $3.4 million and other changes of ($0.1) million.

On August 26, 2021, 3,936,391 outstanding warrants expired worthless, resulting in a $2.5 million gain on change in fair value of warrants and the elimination of the balance sheet warrant liability.

Highlights of the unaudited Condensed Consolidated and Segment Results of Operations have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. These financial highlights do not include all information and disclosures required in the consolidated financial statements and footnotes, and should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2021 filed with the SEC on December 20, 2021.

Optex Systems Holdings, Inc.

Consolidated Statements of Income



(Thousands, except share and per share data)

Twelve months ended

October 3, 2021 September 27, 2020 Revenue $ 18,222 $ 25,890 Cost of Sales 15,702 19,802 Gross Margin 2,520 6,088 General and Administrative Expense 3,014 3,205 Operating Income (Loss) (494 ) 2,883 Gain (Loss) on Change in Fair Value of Warrants 2,535 (508 ) Interest Expense (11 ) (19 ) Other Income (Expense) 2,524 (527 ) Income Before Taxes 2,030 2,356 Income Tax Expense (Benefit), net (101 ) 531 Net Income $ 2,131 $ 1,825 Deemed dividends on participating securities (660 ) (598 ) Net income applicable to common shareholders $ 1,471 $ 1,227 Basic income per share $ 0.18 $ 0.14 Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - basic 8,241,021 8,464,572 Diluted income per share $ 0.18 $ 0.14 Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - diluted 8,323,809 8,589,919

The accompanying notes in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2021 filed with the SEC on December 20, 2021 are an integral part of these financial statements.

Optex Systems Holdings, Inc.

Consolidated Balance Sheets



(Thousands, except share and

per share data)

October 3, 2021 September 27, 2020 ASSETS Cash and Cash Equivalents $ 3,900 $ 4,700 Accounts Receivable, Net 3,183 2,953 Inventory, Net 7,583 8,791 Prepaid Expenses 262 229 Current Assets 14,928 16,673 Property and Equipment, Net 1,017 1,006 Other Assets Deferred Tax Asset 1,288 1,227 Right-of-use Asset 3,599 1,416 Security Deposits 23 23 Other Assets 4,910 2,666 Total Assets $ 20,855 $ 20,345 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current Liabilities Accounts Payable $ 551 $ 833 Operating Lease Liability 528 417 Accrued Expenses 851 1,077 Warrant Liability - 2,544 Accrued Warranty Costs 78 83 Customer Advance Deposits - 1 Current Liabilities 2,008 4,955 Other Liabilities Credit Facility - 377 Operating Lease Liability, net of current portion 3,133 1,037 Other Liabilities 3,133 1,414 Total Liabilities 5,141 6,369 Commitments and Contingencies - Stockholders' Equity Common Stock - ($0.001 par, 2,000,000,000 authorized, 8,523,704 and 8,795,869 shares issued, and 8,488,149 and 8,690,136 outstanding, respectively) 9 9 Treasury Stock (at cost, 35,555 and 105,733 shares held, respectively) (69 ) (200 ) Additional Paid in capital 25,752 26,276 Accumulated Deficit (9,978 ) (12,109 ) Stockholders' Equity 15,714 13,976 Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 20,855 $ 20,345

The accompanying notes in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2021 filed with the SEC on December 20, 2021 are an integral part of these financial statements.

ABOUT OPTEX SYSTEMS

Optex, which was founded in 1987, is a Richardson, Texas based ISO 9001:2015 certified concern, which manufactures optical sighting systems and assemblies, primarily for Department of Defense (DOD) applications. Its products are installed on various types of U.S. military land vehicles, such as the Abrams and Bradley fighting vehicles, Light Armored and Armored Security Vehicles, and have been selected for installation on the Stryker family of vehicles. Optex also manufactures and delivers numerous periscope configurations, rifle and surveillance sights, and night vision optical assemblies. Optex delivers its products both directly to the military services and to prime contractors. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.optexsys.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to the products and services described herein. You can identify these statements by the use of the words "may," "will," "could," "should," "would," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," "likely," "forecast," "probable," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, continued funding of defense programs and military spending, the timing of such funding, general economic and business conditions, including unforeseen weakness in the Company's markets, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, delays in completing engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, changes in the U.S. Government's interpretation of federal procurement rules and regulations, changes in spending due to policy changes in any new federal presidential administration, market acceptance of the Company's products, shortages in components, production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components, inability to fully realize the expected benefits from acquisitions and restructurings or delays in realizing such benefits, challenges in integrating acquired businesses and achieving anticipated synergies, changes to export regulations, increases in tax rates, changes to generally accepted accounting principles, difficulties in retaining key employees and customers, unanticipated costs under fixed-price service and system integration engagements, changes in the market for microcap stocks regardless of growth and value and various other factors beyond our control.

You must carefully consider any such statement and should understand that many factors could cause actual results to differ from the Company's forward-looking statements. These factors include inaccurate assumptions and a broad variety of other risks and uncertainties, including some that are known and some that are not. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement. You should carefully evaluate such statements in light of factors described in the Company's filings with the SEC, especially on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. In various filings the Company has identified important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expected or historic results. You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors. Consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a complete list of all potential risks or uncertainties.

Contact:

IR@optexsys.com

1-972-764-5718

SOURCE: Optex Systems Holdings, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/678717/Optex-Systems-Holdings-Inc-Announces-Year-Ended-October-3-2021-Financial-Highlights
The report, which collected data from 25 million member actions and over 300 organizations, has been developed by loyalty technology provider, Antavo

71.6% of companies with an existing loyalty program plan are now planning a near-term revamp

A seamless omnichannel experience, personalized rewards, and loyalty-enhanced data collection will be the most important features

LONDON, Dec. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Antavo , a loyalty technology provider recognized in the APAC region, with clients such as Lagardere, Kathmandu and Love, Bonito has launched a new report about the landscape of loyalty programs through the eyes of brands.

The report highlights the vital role customer loyalty programs have played throughout the Covid-19 crisis, and how the pandemic-induced acceleration of eCommerce looks set to usher in a wave of brand loyalty innovation over the next three years.

According to the Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022 , more than six in ten (62%) businesses report that their loyalty program has helped to keep customers engaged during the Covid-19, with the effect most pronounced for brands running tiered programs. Program members who had a higher tier level also had a 30% higher purchase frequency over the course of the global crisis, compared to members with a lower tier.

"During the pandemic, brands running loyalty programs consistently found it easier to keep their audiences engaged - particularly when it came to their highest value customers," said Attila Kecsmar, CEO & Co-founder of Antavo. "While the global crisis certainly dampened many customers' spending power, what we observed is that those who were halfway through their journey to a higher loyalty tier, or were sitting on unspent points, were far less likely to abandon these favored brands."

The report also revealed that many brands are planning to rethink their loyalty strategy. While 61% of brands invested in the development of their loyalty strategy during the pandemic, more than two thirds (72%) of respondents are now planning a further revamp within the next three years.

Maciej Kroenke, Partner at PwC said, "Covid-related market turmoil has brought even more attention to the topic of customer loyalty. Brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as a number of eCommerce retailers, focused their activities on better understanding and loyalising the customer base. Looking ahead, loyalty programs are expected to play an even more significant role in marketing activities, especially those that involve a mobile app. "

Predicted to be worth $15.5 billion by 2025, the loyalty market is shifting from a purely transaction-based model to a more personalized and emotionally engaged model which focuses on long-term customer engagement and satisfaction. In fact, the report found that 77.3% of companies who have a loyalty program that doesn't reward member behavior outside of the buying cycle, plan to change that within the next three years.

Love, Bontio, Southeast Asia's leading digitally native direct-to-consumer ("DTC") womenswear brand boldly launched its first loyalty program (powered by Antavo) in a similar sentiment.

"Our loyalty program, LBCommunity+ serves as a love letter to our customers, whom we affectionately refer to as our LBCommunity," said Vanessa Yeo-Barger, VP of Brand at Love, Bonito. "Listening and responding to our customers' needs, integrating them as part of our community through engaging content and perks is what we believe in. With Antavo, we are thrilled with the platform's ability to continuously adapt our loyalty program to the changing and growing expectations of our customers."

Antavo's report compiles data from 25 million loyalty program member actions and over 300 corporate organizations, and aims to support program development and decision-making for brands and businesses across a range of sectors, from fashion to food and drink.

The full Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022 is now available for download: https://bit.ly/3sB7grh

Watch the Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022 video for more exciting discoveries: https://youtu.be/hvywVTB2dSg

For more information please contact Eva Bacsi, Marketing Director at Antavo: eva.bacsi@antavo.com
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 20, 2021) - Nevada Zinc Corporation (TSXV: NZN) ("Nevada Zinc" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it plans to raise up to $850,000 in a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Financing").

The Financing will consist of the issue of up to 11,333,333 units ("Units") priced at $0.075 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one (1) common share ("Common Share") and one half (1/2) of one Common Share purchase warrant, with two half-warrants being equivalent to one whole warrant ("Warrant"), and with each whole Warrant exercisable for a Common Share at an exercise price of $0.14 for a period of eighteen (18) months from the date of issuance. The Company can elect to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants in the event that the closing price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange equals or exceeds $0.28 for ten (10) consecutive trading days, in which case the Warrants will expire sixty (60) days after the date that the Company provides written notice of acceleration.

The net proceeds from the Financing will be used by the Company to fund the completion of its zinc sulfate multiphase pilot plant program, permitting for the Company's Lone Mountain zinc deposit, and for general corporate and working capital purposes. The Financing is subject to an over-allotment option allowing Nevada Zinc to raise an additional $250,000 on the same terms.

The Common Shares issued in connection with the Financing will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance. The Company may pay a finder's fee to eligible finders.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Nevada Zinc

The Company is focused on its wholly-owned Lone Mountain zinc project in central Nevada where it has been working since 2014 on a high-grade zinc carbonate-oxide deposit. To-date the Company has completed a pit constrained, high-grade, Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 3,257,000 tonnes at a grade of 7.57% Zn and 0.70% Pb (July 2018) and filed a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the production of zinc concentrate (June 2019). The PEA does not incorporate the potentially significant economic benefits of producing zinc sulfate products as a source of zinc in crop fertilizers and animal feed for the US agricultural and chemical sectors. This initiative is the focus of Nevada Zinc's ongoing multiphase pilot plant program. In July 2020, the Company entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Cameron Chemicals Inc., a leading U.S. producer and distributor of granular micronutrients to the agricultural, turf, and horticultural industries with manufacturing facilities in Washington, Virginia and Michigan. Under the terms of the Collaboration Agreement, Nevada Zinc and Cameron will work together to establish a range of zinc-based micronutrient products to be produced by the Company and marketed by Cameron through its distribution networks. In March 2021, Nevada Zinc commenced a multiphase pilot plant program for the production of zinc sulfate and to further de-risk and advance the Company's highly prospective Lone Mountain zinc project. In September 2021, pursuant to the pilot plant program, the Company was successful in producing a bench scale, high-grade zinc sulfate monohydrate sample (please refer to the Company's news release dated September 20, 2021).

Additional information about the Company is available on the Company's website: www.nevadazinc.com

For further information please contact:

Nevada Zinc Corporation

82 Richmond St. East, First Floor

Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1

Tel: 416-409-8441 Email: info@nevadazinc.com

Max Vichniakov, President, CEO and Director

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming test work and pilot plant programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, receipt of regulatory approvals and permits, successful completion of ongoing programs, potential mineral recovery processes, potential economic outcomes, etc. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "does not expect", "plans", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity and zinc chemicals prices, the changing regulatory landscape in the US and abroad, the effectiveness and feasibility of technologies which have not yet been tested or proven on a commercial scale, competitive risks and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108160
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2021 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Xebra Brands, Forbidden Spirits, i3 Energy, and Queensland Gold Hills discussing their latest press releases.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

Mexican Supreme Court grants injunction allowing Xebra (CSE:XBRA) to commercialize cannabis

Xebra Brands' subsidiary, Desart MX, SA de CV has been granted an injunction providing it with first-mover-advantage in the Mexican CBD and CBG market. Official licenses will be granted by the Mexican Health Regulatory Agency (COFEPRIS) in due course. Xebra believes its first-mover advantage in the Mexican CBD and CBG market could last 1 to 3 years. Xebra Brands Chairman Robert Giustra sat down with Caroline Egan to discuss the company's next steps.

For the full interview with Robert Giustra and to learn more about Xebra Brands' latest news, click here.

Forbidden Spirits Distilling (TSXV:VDKA) begins trading on the TSXV

Forbidden Spirits has commenced trading on the TSXV after closing its qualifying transaction. The company raised concurrent financing of C$3,567,903. It intends to use the proceeds to complete the amalgamation and for general working capital purposes. CEO Blair Wilson spoke with Caroline Egan about becoming a public company.

For the full interview with Blair Wilson and to learn more about Forbidden Spirits' latest news, click here.

i3 Energy PLC (TSX:ITE) announces 2022 Canadian Capital Programme & dividend

i3 Energy plc has announced its 2022 Canadian capital programme and dividend guidance. 2022 Canadian capital programme highlights include 15 i3 operated wells to be drilled across the company's portfolio in Central Alberta, incremental peak production of up to 5,250 boepd, US$184MM of combined 2022/23 Net Operating Income (NOI), and a commitment to pay a minimum of 11.827 million in dividends. Graham Heath, CFO of i3 Energy plc sat down with Caroline Egan to discuss the programme.

For the full interview with Graham Heath and to learn more about i3 Energy PLC's latest news, click here.

Queensland Gold Hills (TSXV:OZAU) acquires additional stake in Big Hill Gold Mining Company

Queensland Gold Hills (OZAU) has increased its interest in the Big Hill Gold Mining Company to 95 per cent. Big Hill holds a 100 per cent interest in an exploration permit and two mining licenses that comprise the Big Hill Gold Project located in Queensland, Australia. Blair Way, CEO of Queensland Gold Hills sat down with Carolyn Egan to discuss the news.

For the full interview with Blair Way and to learn more about Queensland Gold Hills' latest news, click here.

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in activities that would lead to conflicts of interest and Market Herald and/or its affiliates will use all reasonable efforts to comply with conflicts of interest disclosures and regulations to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

CONTACT:

The Market Herald

Brianna Anthony

brianna.anthony@themarketherald.ca

themarketherald.ca

SOURCE: The Market Herald

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/678781/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-interviews-with-Xebra-Brands-Forbidden-Spirits-i3-Energy-and-Queensland-Gold-Hills
Nextech AR Solutions Corp. ("Nextech" or the "Company") (OTCQB: NEXCF) (NEO: NTAR) (CSE: NTAR) (FSE: N29), a Metaverse Company and leading provider of augmented reality ("AR") experience technologies and services is pleased to announce it will host a livestream event tomorrow, December 21, to discuss its new 3D virtual events platform, the pandemic implications for the virtual events business, and the Metaverse.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211220005926/en/

TOMORROW! Join Nextech AR CEO Evan Gappelberg, COO Eugen Winschel and President Paul Duffy for a special livestream event to discuss positioning virtual events in the Metaverse, and the major metaverse upgrade to Nextech's ARs virtual events platform, ARitize Events 3D. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Speaking live:

CEO Evan Gappelberg

COO Eugen Winschel

President Paul Duffy

Kyle Rabinowitz

The livestream event will cover positioning virtual events in the Metaverse, and the major metaverse upgrade to Nextech's ARs virtual events platform, ARitize Events 3D. Learn how you can take your next event or training into the Metaverse with stunning upgraded augmented reality features such as 3D Virtual Sets, 3D AR Showrooms and human holograms.

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Presentation time: 1:00pm EST

Registration Link: click here to register

Dial-in:

+1 3462487799

Meeting ID: 95109490538

Passcode: 107877

In a recent press release, the Company announced the launch of a major 3D Metaverse Upgrade to its events platform, making the opportunity for 2022 very exciting. As the pandemic continues and new variants like Omicron have emerged, the company is seeing an uptick in its virtual events business.

The 3D Competitive Edge

By successfully integrating its metaverse product offering into their events platform, immersive virtual events are now available as part of its growing suite of metaverse solutions. "ARitize Events 3D" is now able to showcase 3D products and human holograms seamlessly with its existing suite of augmented reality solutions, creating a first of its kind metaverse event platform. Video preview of the new features Watch Here

To date, Nextech's events platform has hosted hundreds of events with notable customers including Amazon, TEDx, Dell, Broad Institute, Enterprise Florida, Johnson and Johnson, Restaurants Canada and more.

To learn more, please follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or visit our website: https://www.Nextechar.com.

About Nextech AR

Nextech AR Solutions is a Metaverse company that develops and operates augmented reality ("AR") platforms, transporting three-dimensional ("3D") product visualizations, human holograms and 360 portals to its audiences altering e-commerce, digital advertising, hybrid virtual events (events held in a digital format blended with in-person attendance) and learning and training experiences.

Nextech focuses on developing AR solutions for the Metaverse, however most of the Company's revenues are derived from three e-Commerce platforms: vacuumcleanermarket.com ("VCM"), infinitepetlife.com ("IPL") and Trulyfesupplements.com ("TruLyfe"). VCM and product sales of residential vacuums, supplies and parts, and small home appliances sold on Amazon.

Forward-looking Statements

The CSE and the NEO have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "will be" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the completion of the transaction are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Nextech will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211220005926/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Lindsay Betts

investor.relations@Nextechar.com

866-ARITIZE (274-8493) Ext 7201
20n Bio, a Malvern, Pa.-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug discovery company focusing on designing new proteins for therapeutics, raised $3.3m in seed funding.

The round was led by BlueRun Ventures China.

The company will use the funds to expand its scientific team, establish its discovery platform, and start multiple early studies in oncology and other genetic diseases.

Founded by Dr. Mingfu Zhu in September 2021 with its lab in Malvern, PA. Prior to 20n, 20n Bio is dedicated to the computational design of novel protein therapeutics. Launched in 2021, the company aims to address unmet medical needs by leveraging artificial intelligence to generate protein drugs in silico with desired biophysical, functional, and pharmacological properties.

20n plans to quickly expand its current team of five full-time Ph.D.-level employees by hiring more computational protein engineers and RNA biologists. The company recently added two computational structural biologists Dr. Yaoqi Zhou at Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, and Dr. Longxing Cao at Westlake University who is a finalist of the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific 2021 to its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Zhu was an assistant professor at Duke University Medical Center and held multiple executive roles at leading US and Chinese biotech companies. He is an expert in computational genomics and co-founded several artificial AI-powered biotech companies in drug discovery and cancer diagnostics.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
Eudemian Ventures, a San Francisco, CA- and Munich, Germany-based venture capital firm, closed its $10M debut venture capital fund to support early-stage, U.S.-based software startups.

The fund is backed by a community of family office limited partners with an interest in software, including prominent names on both sides of the Atlantic like Martin Alexander and Eva Schoeller at Schoeller Group and Mark Silverman at Silverman Family Holdings.

Founded in 2018 by Raoul Felix Maier, who has over 20 years of experience as venture investor, entrepreneur and former management consultant, previously co-leading the Technology Practice and startup initiatives at Kearney, a global management consulting firm, Eudemian Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm which has to date invested in 12 startups with a current total enterprise value of $1.8 billion.

To help startups build and scale, the team has access to multiple of the worlds top management consulting platforms to provide its founders with customers, partners, channels and top-tier talent, both in North America and in Europe.

Enabled by a scout-based sourcing and a rigorous screening and due diligence process, Eudemians initial portfolio includes investments in GRIN, most recently valued at $910m, Tinycare and AdQuick.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
Figment, a NYC-based blockchain infrastructure and services provider, raised $110m in Series C funding at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation.

The round was led by Thoma Bravo, with participation from Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Binance Labs, Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, Bitstamp, CMS Holdings, Two Sigma, B Capital Group, Franklin Templeton, DTCP, and StarkWare.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its ability to support the adoption, growth and long-term success of the Web 3 ecosystem  as well as grow its headcount.

Led by Lorien Gabel, co-founder and CEO, Figment provides blockchain infrastructure, protocol staking, and research and is now expanding its reach into the application layer to give entrepreneurs and developers the ability to build products and services on Proof of Stake blockchains. Its Hubble and Prime applications as well as its governance expertise allow token holders to analyze, monitor and make informed decisions. It builds Web 3 developer communities via the Learn education program and then make it simple for developers to launch applications and manage smart contracts via the DataHub platform. And finally by building and operating The Graph based indexers, the company enables the efficient search and querying of blockchain data.

In 2021, the company reached over $7.5B in digital assets staked to its infrastructure across the 50+ supported networks, now supporting over 130+ institutional clients, launched Figment Capital, the investment arm of Figment that is dedicated to accelerating the growth of new decentralized protocols and applications by leveraging experience, connections, and expertise in the Web 3 space and invest in innovative projects, joined the Pyth data oracle network as a core contributor and partner, working closely with Pyth network participants, and The Graph ecosystem.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
At the end of November 2021, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the acquisition of SXiQ, an Australian digital transformation services company specializing in cloud applications, cloud platforms and cloud cybersecurity.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The acquisition will enhance IBM Consultings capabilities in Australia and New Zealand to modernize applications and technology infrastructure in the cloud. SXiQ will join IBM Consultings Hybrid Cloud Services business.

Led by John Hanna, Managing Director, SXiQ works with Australian enterprises, as well as the Australian operations of global Fortune 2000 companies, to migrate and modernize their cloud infrastructure and applications across multiple industries including financial services, consumer products, energy, healthcare, and the public sector. The company also works with clients to monitor and optimize their spend on cloud resources.

The acquisition follows recent acquisitions by IBM of cloud consulting firms such as Nordcloud, Taos, and BoxBoat  earlier this year, which expanded IBMs multicloud transformation, management expertise and capabilities in Europe and North America.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
SkySafe, a San Diego, CA-based airspace security and management technology company, raised $30m in Series B funding.

The round was led by Kingfisher Investment Advisors with participation from new investors Gaingels, and MIT alumni investment fund Castor Ventures, as well as previous investor Andreessen Horowitz.

The company, which has raised $45m in total financing, intends to use the funds to accelerate growth through strategic hiring, R&D, and expanded production of its airspace security system for commercial adoption.

Founded in 2015 by former U.S. Air Force Officer Grant Jordan, along with fellow MIT alum Scott Torborg and Michael Spindel with co-founder Paul Wicks, SkySafe provides drone defense and airspace control solutions to military, public safety, and commercial customers. The company applies advanced radio technology, reverse engineering, and deep threat analysis to develop tools to safely and effectively operate authorized drones while protecting against threats for airspace security. Its modular hardware and software can be tailored to specific regulatory environments to protect public spaces from potential drone threats. Simultaneously, it supports the adoption of commercial drone use for surveying, disaster relief, delivery, hobbyists and other consumer applications.

SkySafe technology is deployed to customers globally in more than 30 countries. International airports, prisons, stadiums, border patrol, law enforcement agencies, and U.S. and allied militaries all use the technology.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
USound, a Graz, Austria-based global developer and manufacturer of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) loudspeakers for personal devices and wearable technology, raised $30m in funding.

The round was led by eQventure, with participation from Hermann Hauser (co-founder of ARM) and Longzhong Yang (co-founder of BYD), as well as the European Investment Bank.

The company intends to use the funds to to move into mass production of its second generation MEMS loudspeakers for several global companies.

Led by Ferruccio Bottoni, Chief Executive Officer, USound is developing and manufacturing MEMS-based audio products for several international companies, including MEMS microspeakers for global TWS earbud brands, hearing aid companies like Shenzhen Magnet Technology Co., Ltd, augmented reality glasses with MEMS audio for a major technology company, and in-ear health monitors for HMS. The company is also deploying its MEMS speakers in audio glasses like Fauna, a consumer fashion technology brand and is to be technology partner for OPPOs Installation at Milan Design Week 2021.

USounds second generation MEMS speakers offer full support for spatial audio and withstand water submersion of up to 3 meters, reducing the complexity of manufacturing waterproof consumer electronics. Its second generation was developed with the support in part of a $2m grant from the European Commissions Horizon2020 program.

FinSMEs

20/12/2021
Morris Plains, NJ, Dec. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the past two years, there has been a seismic shift in how individuals and companies think about their impact on the environment. It is widely accepted that movement toward a low-carbon world, as quickly as possible, is of critical importance. This cannot happen overnight. For most industries, including aviation, this is an enormous challenge.

Air transport is a vital feature of our modern, globalized world, but decarbonising the aviation business model requires systemic changes and consumers are increasingly worried about the impact flying has on climate change.

At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), 23 nations, including the U.K. and U.S., formed the International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition, which aims to:

Reduce aviation CO2 emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5C

Support the adoption of an ambitious goal toward net zero CO2 emissions by 2050

Ensure the maximum effectiveness of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIAdiscussed below)

Promote the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which will cut emissions by up to 80%

Promote the development and deployment of innovative low- and zero-carbon aircraft

However, these aims must run in parallel with doing what we can today, and carbon offsetting is an immediate and measurable way for individuals and businesses to take responsibility for their current carbon footprint whilst on their journey to net zero.

What Is Carbon Offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is an important part of an effective climate or carbon management strategy to offset, or balance, the residual emissions that cannot currently be reduced.

When an activity like air travel produces CO2 emissions, these emissions can be offset by preventing or reducing a similar amount of emission elsewhere. This compensation can be performed by airlines, airports or passengers.

Some examples include planting trees to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, investing in renewable energy solutions such as wind farms or hydro-electricity and delivering cleaner technologies that replace fossil fuels such as energy-efficient cooking stoves in developing countries.

Any carbon offset project must meet three criteria to be effective:

There must be additionality. The reductions in emissions achieved by the project would not have occurred unless the project was implemented.

The reductions in emissions achieved by the project would not have occurred unless the project was implemented. There must be no leakage. You cannot reduce emissions in one place if it means theyre increased somewhere else.

You cannot reduce emissions in one place if it means theyre increased somewhere else. It must be permanent. The reduction wont be reversed in the future. (This can be a challenge for forestry projects.)

An additional benefit is that many offsetting projects also deliver positive outcomes for local communities, economies, health and the natural world, contributing to the UN sustainable development goals.

What Are Aviation Companies Doing About This?

In the aviation industry, there is the ICAO-backed Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Whilst still voluntary, the CORSIA scheme is aimed at helping the sector achieve its climate targets in the short and medium term by complementing emissions reduction initiatives.

It is a market-based solution that airlines are using as a step toward becoming net zero by 2050. Currently, 88 states, representing over 77% of international aviation activity, have agreed to participate voluntarily in the first phases of CORSIA.

Airlines participating in CORSIA from 2021 will keep a record of their emissions. No later than the end of a three-year period, they will begin to buy their carbon offsets from the Aviation Carbon Exchange run by IATA. The amount of offset isnt calculated solely on the airlines emissions, but rather proportionally calculated on the growth of emissions of the whole industry above a 2019 baseline.

IATA says that, This marketplace will provide airlines and other aviation stakeholders (such as airports and aircraft manufacturers) the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint by purchasing credits in certified projects that reduce carbon emissions.

At an individual level, many airlines offer the opportunity for passengers to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions from their flights. Some airlines offer this at the time of booking, while many give passengers the choice of doing so separately from the booking. Many passengers dont know the option exists, and even more are confused (or dubious) about whether to participate. It is currently estimated that less than 1% of passengers make use of voluntary carbon offsetting.

Some airlines, such as British Airways, have also introduced an option to pay an additional charge for part of your flight emissions to be reduced by using SAF. The airline will source the SAF quantity necessary to make 10% of your flight emissions carbon neutral. The difference in pricing is considerable. As an example, a return flight from London to Los Angeles in business class will cost 21.94 to offset, and 137.94 to offset with 10% of emissions reduced by using SAF.

What About Global Aerospaces Approach?

Global Aerospace has partnered with Carbonfunds Carbonfree Program, investing in carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emissions generated by corporate air travel and office energy use. Carbonfunds Quality Assurance Protocol ensures that every project meets or exceeds international certification standards.

Globals 2021 certified offset projects include The RussasValparaiso Tropical Forest Conservation Projects and the Crow Lake Wind Farm Project in South Dakota.

Offsetting is one part of Global Aerospaces overall environmental strategy. The company is committed to being at the forefront of insuring new technologies, including SAF and low- and zero-carbon aircraft, enabling businesses to mitigate risks that will ultimately lead to a reduction in the emissions of the industry.

About Global Aerospace

Global Aerospace is a leading provider of aircraft insurance and risk management solutions for the aviation and aerospace industries. Our over 95 years of aviation insurance experience enable us to develop customized insurance programs structured around the needs of our clients. Recognized for our industry leading customer service, we serve as a trusted partner to a diverse range of aviation businesses and their insurance producers. https://www.global-aero.com/

Global Aerospace Media Contact

Suzanne Keneally

Vice President, Group Head of Communications

+1 973-490-8588
RADNOR, Pa., Dec. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against Snap Inc. (Snap) (NYSE: SNAP). The action charges Snap with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the companys advertising business. As a result of Snaps materially misleading statements made to the market, Snap investors have suffered significant losses.



CANNOT VIEW THIS VIDEO? PLEASE CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR SNAP LOSSES

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: January 10, 2022

CLASS PERIOD: July 22, 2020 through October 21, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:

James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Toll Free (844) 887-9500 or Email at info@ktmc.com

SNAPS ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

Snap is an American camera and social media company that develops and maintains technological products and services such as the social media application Snapchat, an eyewear product that connects with Snapchat and captures video Spectacles, and advertising products including AR (augmented reality) and Snap ads.

In its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Snap admits that it generates substantially all of its revenues by offering various advertising products on Snapchat and that it monetizes its business primarily through advertising based on its user data. In June 2020, as part of an ongoing privacy push, Apple Inc. (Apple), which developed and maintains the popular mobile operating system, iOS, for its mobile devices, publicly announced new data privacy features for iOS. Following this announcement, Snap continuously downplayed and misled investors regarding the impact that Apples new data privacy features would have on its business. In April 2021, Apple released the new data privacy features for iOS.

The truth emerged on October 22, 2021, when Snap filed its third quarter 2021 report for the period ending September 30, 2021 on a Form 10-Q, disclosing Snaps weaker-than-expected revenue and weaker-than-expected guidance because of its advertising business, due to Apples privacy changes. In the report, CEO Evan Spiegel disclosed that Snaps advertising business had allegedly been affected by recent privacy changes introduced by Apple in its iOS mobile operating system in June and July. Specifically, Spiegel claimed that the new Apple-provided measurement solution did not scale as we had expected, making it more difficult for our advertising partners to measure and manage their ad campaigns for iOS. Following this news, Snaps stock price fell $19.97 per share, or 26%, to close at $55.14 per share on October 22, 2021.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Snap investors may, no later than January 10, 2022 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages Snap investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. At the end of the day, we have succeeded if the bad guys pay up, and if you recover your assets. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

James Maro, Jr., Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(844) 887-9500 (toll free)

info@ktmc.com

A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f17a8ca8-4b28-410e-9872-8c7df6ccc2f6
TOKYO, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. As proof of ownership, NFTs can include digital arts and collectibles to real estate and other physical assets. True and traceable ownerships nature empowers content creators far greater than ever before.

The third quarter of 2021 alone saw over $10 billion in NFT trade volume across blockchains, a substantial increase from Q2's $1.2 billion. While NFT adoption in gaming has already reached a certain maturity, for example concerning the trade of in-game objects, different other industries, especially those involved with the production of digital content such as music or video, are experimenting with the technology.

NFTs are a rising phenomenon in APAC; the collectors can bring their NFTs to exhibitions and online auctions.

Solana, a blockchain network that launched in 2020, is an open-source and public blockchain platform. Solana has many technological breakthroughs; it allows its users to create, mint their own tokens, NFTs as well as securely store them with low cost and fast throughput. Monkey Kingdom is now one of the biggest NFT projects on Solana.

Introduction of Monkey Kingdom

The Monkey Kingdom consists of 2,222 algorithmically-generated Sun Wukong-inspired NFTs hosted on the Solana platform: home to the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystem in the realm of cryptocurrency today. The artwork itself is based upon the legendary Monkey King  the titular character of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, best known for his supernatural abilities and whimsical escapades. A cultural emblem widely recognized and appreciated within global Asian communities today, Sun Wukong epitomizes wisdom, optimism and perpetual youth  concepts that resonate with generations old and new alike.

Monkey Kingdom's underlying mission is to not only foster a sense of inclusivity within the NFT community but also to act as a means of amplifying Asian voices and experiences worldwide within the Web 3.0 ecosystem.

Since its recent launch on November 27th  just last month  the project has skyrocketed in popularity: it has grown to become one of the most successful NFT projects in the world. It has become one of the first massively successful NFT projects launched in Asia and is currently compared to the likes of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cryptopunks. Its global traction has been facilitated by the support of prominent Asian celebrities along the way, including the likes of Steve Aoki, JJ Lin, Sunny Wang, Dizzy Dizzo, Ian Chan (from Hong-Kong based boyband Mirror) and Verbal (founder of prominent streetwear brand AMBUSH), to name a few.



Following the success of the projects initial launch, the highly-anticipated second drop will be taking place on December 21st with the introduction of Baepes  Female Wukong Apes. All proceeds garnered from the initial sale of the NFT will be donated to a charity of choice, with the goal of supporting Asian communities worldwide.

Monkey Kingdom Christmas Party [23:00 HKT, December 23rd, 2021]

To celebrate the success of the project thus far and extend appreciation to the growing community, Monkey Kingdom will be partnering with world-renowned DJ Steve Aoki this month to host the Monkey Kingdom Christmas Party on Cryptovoxels  a digital metaverse acclaimed for its immersive high-end events and experiences. The digital party will take place on a large, temple-inspired stage built on the Cryptovoxels platform.

Ranking amongst the worlds Top Ten DJs last year, Steve Aoki is armed with an array of virtuosic credentials. The Grammy-nominated DJ, record producer, and record executive in the international electronic music industry will be spinning a 60-minute set on the 23rd of December at 23:00 HKT. Prior to his set, Taiwanese artist Dizzy Dizzo will also be opening the show with a spectacular performance.

The Monkey Kingdom would like to extend a warm invitation to all holders and members of the community, as well as any guests and fans that simply wish to join the festivities or tune in to view the performance  ushering in the holiday season as a united collective.

Media Contact-

Company: Monkey Kingdom Ltd

Email: kingofmonkeykingdom@gmail.com

Website- https://monkeykingdom.io

and https://baepes.monkeykingdom.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Monkeykingdom

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monkeykingdom_/ (note there is an underscore)

Metaverse Party Links

https://party.monkeykingdom.io

http://monkeykingdom.io/party

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a5feeee9-1aad-47f2-9481-bb8e4730d69d




CMR Surgical expands into the Middle East

Versius being used to perform minimal access surgery (MAS) in several hospitals across the United Arab Emirates ( UAE )

CMRs new UAE office will be the first office in the Middle East enabling expansion of operations in the region

Cambridge, United Kingdom. 20 December 2021 00:01 (GMT). CMR Surgical (CMR)  the global surgical robotics business behind the next-generation surgical robotic system, Versius  has today announced that it has successfully installed Versius into three hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the Company continues to expand globally in line with its mission to bring the benefits of minimal access surgery to more people around the world. To support the region, CMR has invested in the opening of a Middle East hub office in UAE and expects further sales in the region in the short-term.

In partnership with Gulf Drug, Versius has been acquired by hospitals across the UAE, where it is being used in a rapidly increasing number of surgeries in both public and private hospitals including at the Saudi German Hospital, Al Zahra Hospital, and American Hospital Dubai. The UAE, amongst other countries across the Middle East, has made considerable and rapid advances to adopt surgical robotics into clinical practice, and is seeing significant benefits by enabling more patients to receive MAS.

The installation of Versius across the UAE follows the introduction of the system in Europe, India and Australia. Versius has been used to perform a range of surgical specialities including Gynaecology, Colorectal, General and Urology surgeries to date. These include complex cancer cases that would otherwise have had to be performed via open surgical techniques, significantly reducing recovery time for patients and getting them out of hospital sooner.

Per Vegard Nerseth, Chief Executive Officer of CMR Surgical said: It is wonderful to announce our commercial progress in the Middle East and we are excited to be amongst an ecosystem of innovative companies in Dubai. Our presence in Dubai shows how our business approach on an international scale has evolved, representing expansion into an important region where our mission of increasing access to keyhole surgery really resonates. The rapid pace and adoption of Versius into world class hospitals in Dubai has been outstanding and we look forward to further developments across the Middle East.

Dr Hatem Moussa, Director of General and Oncological Surgery at American Hospital Dubai said: With Versius, our team has been able to perform highly complex surgeries at high volume with greater dexterity, precision and ease. Having successfully performed fifty minimal access surgeries in forty-five days, the introduction of Versius is allowing us to treat more and more patients using minimal access techniques, which has great benefit for both patients and our surgeons, who would otherwise often experience physical discomfort performing a high number of operations manually. Versius is a great asset to us at American Hospital Dubai and the region overall, and I am delighted we have adopted this innovative new technology.

Dr Reem Osman, Regional Chief Executive Officer at Saudi German Hospital Group said: Introducing robotic surgery will help our doctors achieve their surgeries with much better results and recovery time, delivering what we always promise  the best healthcare to our patients. This new state-of-the-art technology that is CMRs Versius Surgical Robotic System is a very important advance to the world of surgery, dynamically digitising healthcare while ensuring a safe and comfortable experience for patients.

The new CMR office, located in the Dubai Free Zone brings together top talent and highly experienced teams to help transform surgery and access to robotics for MAS in an advanced market. The UAE has a well-funded healthcare system looking to adopt new innovations providing an opportunity to bring surgical robotics to an underpenetrated region, for the benefit of hospitals and patients. The purpose-built building includes office space, conference and meeting rooms, and a high-tech robotics lounge to showcase Versius and facilitate training for frequent visiting surgeons. Working with partners, CMR anticipates significant growth in the Middle East region in the coming years.

The announcement follows CMRs commitment to an accelerated commercial expansion following a successful $600 million (425 million) Series D funding round, the largest-ever private MedTech raise earlier this year. The funding will support the continued expansion of the company, bringing Versius to more hospitals and patients around the world, as well as the continued development of the Versius digital ecosystem, such as Versius Connect  a specialised app developed for surgeons using Versius.

 ENDS 

Media Contacts:

If you wish to see more, please contact CMR Surgical at:

Press Office, CMR Surgical

T +44 (0)1223 755801

E pressoffice@cmrsurgical.com

Notes to editors:

The Versius Surgical Robotic System

Versius resets expectations of robotic surgery. Versius fits into virtually any operating room set-up and integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, increasing the likelihood of robotic minimal access surgery (MAS). The small, portable and modular design of Versius allows the surgeon to only use the number of arms needed for a given procedure.

Biomimicking the human arm, Versius gives surgeons the choice of optimised port placement alongside the dexterity and accuracy of small fully-wristed instruments. With 3D HD vision, easy-to adopt instrument control and a choice of ergonomic working positions, the open surgeon console has the potential to reduce stress and fatigue and allows for clear communication with the surgical team. By thinking laparoscopically and operating robotically with Versius, patients, surgeons and healthcare professionals can all benefit from the value that robotic MAS brings.

But its more than just a robot. Versius captures meaningful data with its wider digital ecosystem to support a surgeons continuous learning. Through the Versius Connect app, Versius Trainer and CMR clinical registry, Versius unleashes a wealth of insights to ultimately improve surgical care.

About CMR Surgical Limited

CMR Surgical (CMR) is a global medical devices company dedicated to transforming surgery with Versius, a next-generation surgical robot.

Headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, CMR is committed to working with surgeons, surgical teams and hospital partners, to provide an optimal tool to make robotic minimal access surgery universally accessible and affordable. With Versius, we are on a mission to redefine the surgical robotics market with practical, innovative technology and data that can improve surgical care.

Founded in 2014, CMR Surgical is private limited company backed by an international shareholder base.
Green Energy Group (SBX plc) (the Company) is pleased to announce that Finn Atle Hamre has agreed to step up to the position as interim CEO. Mr Hamre comes from the position as COO, which he has held since he joined the Company in June 2018. Mr Hamre has more than 20 years experience in the Offshore Oil and Gas industry internationally both within the Seismic and Subsea sectors, of which more than 15 years in senior executive management positions such as Managing Director for GC Rieber Shipping Asia and Chief Commercial Officer for GC Rieber Shipping ASA. Mr. Hamre holds a B.Eng. (Hons) in Naval Architecture, and a Master of Business Administration. He is a Norwegian citizen and resides in Norway.



To this end, Gunnar Jansen steps down as CEO and will refocus his efforts on the commercial side of the business as VP sales. The Board wishes to thank Gunnar for his considerable contribution as CEO during the last two years.

Contact:

Stale Rodahl

Executive Chairman

Ph: +47 4840 0593




English French

Alstom to supply Belgiums SNCB with an additional 98 multifunction M7 train cars

Part of a framework contract signed in 2015 for the supply of up to 1,362 M7 train cars

Over 100 M7 cars already in commercial operation on the Belgian network

20 December 2021  Alstom has received a new order to supply a further 98 double-deck M7 multifunction train cars to the Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges (SNCB). The order forms part of a framework contract signed in 2015 for the supply of up to 1,362 M7 train cars and is worth a total of around 268 million. SNCB has ordered a total of 747 train cars to date.

The M7 train car is based on the same concept as double-deck M6 train car, which are popular and known for their high level of reliability. The new interior arrangement and enhanced passenger information systems optimise passenger comfort.

The train provides SNCB with broad operational flexibility since the cars can operate commercially as multiple-unit trains or can be drawn by specialised traction stock along with other car types. The trains can operate up to a speed of 200 km/h across Belgiums electrified network and on cross-border lines linking the country with the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

This order underlines the high level of confidence SNCB has in our double-deck trains, says Bernard Belvaux, Managing Director Alstom Benelux. Indeed, we now are in the process of delivering this new equipment. More than one hundred passenger cars are already operating on the Belgian network with a high level of availability and recognised levels of comfort. We are excited to serve the transport system in Belgium by supplying a comfortable solution that addresses the growth in passenger numbers.

The M7 power car is developed by Alstom at its Valenciennes double-deck centre of excellence. The M7 cars are assembled at Alstom's sites in Bruges, Belgium, and Valenciennes, France. Alstoms site in Crespin, France, performs the carbody assembly of the trailer cars. Alstom's center of excellence in Charleroi, Belgium, supplies the traction system and the national and European signalling systems. Alstom's centre of excellence in Siegen, Germany, supplies the bogie system for the M7 trailer cars and Le Creusot, France, supplies the bogie systems for the M7 steering cars.

About Alstom Leading societies to a low carbon future, Alstom develops and markets mobility solutions that provide the sustainable foundations for the future of transportation. Alstoms product portfolio ranges from high-speed trains, metros, monorails and trams, to integrated systems, customised services, infrastructure, signalling, and digital mobility solutions. Alstom has 150,000 vehicles in commercial service worldwide. With Bombardier Transportation joining Alstom on January 29, 2021, the enlarged Groups combined proforma revenue amounts to 14 billion for the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021. Headquartered in France, Alstom is now present in 70 countries and employs more than 70,000 people. www.alstom.com Contacts Press:

Samuel MILLER - Tel.: +33 (0)6 65 47 40 14

samuel.miller@alstomgroup.com







Sonia THIBAUT  Tel.: +32 0473 933873

sonia.thibaut@alstomgroup.com



Philippe MOLITOR  Tel.: +33 (0)7 76 00 97 79

philippe.molitor@alstomgroup.com



Investor Relations:

Martin VAUJOUR  Tel.: +33 (6) 88 40 17 57

martin.vaujour@alstomgroup.com







Claire LEPELLETIER  Tel.: +33 (6) 76 64 33 06

claire.lepelletier@alstomgroup.com













Attachment
THIS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL) (the Company or First Tellurium), announces that, further to its news release dated December 16, 2021, it is amending the terms of its non-brokered private placement (the Offering) such that it proposes to now offer up to $175,000 through the sale of up to 500,000 units at a price of $0.35/unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.45 per warrant share for a period of two years from the date of issue of such warrants. The Company may pay a finders fee consisting of cash to eligible finders as permitted under applicable securities laws and CSE policies. Proceeds from this offering will be used for exploration programs on the Companys Deer Horn property.



About First Tellurium Corp.

First Telluriums unique business model is based on leveraging diverse partnerships to generate revenue and value. Working with Indigenous peoples, NGOs, governments and industry, First Tellurium explores for metals in British Columbia and helps indigenous communities grow and thrive through various industrial, social and environmental ventures.

First Tellurium proudly adheres to and supports the principles and rights set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in particular the fundamental proposition of free, prior and informed consent. First Tellurium has been a vocal advocate of the BC Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act since its introduction and passage in the British Columbia legislature in November 2019. First Tellurium also supports federal Bill C-15, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

On behalf of the board of directors of

First Tellurium Corp.



Tyrone Docherty

Tyrone Docherty

President and CEO For further information please contact:



Tyrone Docherty

604.789.5653

tyrone.doccap@dccnet.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulations services accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking information

All statements included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions made by the Company based on its experience, perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. In addition, these statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will prove inaccurate, certain of which are beyond the Companys control. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof or revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated event.




Not for distribution to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States

TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giyani Metals Corp. (TSXV:EMM, GR:A2DUU8) ("Giyani" or the "Company"), developer of the K.Hill manganese oxide project (the K.Hill Project) in Botswana, is pleased to announce completion of its initial exploration drilling campaign at the Otse manganese oxide prospect (Otse) and update on exploration at the K.Hill Project.

Highlights

Total of 66 reverse circulation ( RC ) drill holes have been completed at both the north and south target areas ( Otse North  and  Otse South ) for a total 4,149 metres.

) drill holes have been completed at both the north and south target areas (  and  ) for a total 4,149 metres. Initial Otse results show high grade mineralization in multiple holes with intersections in excess of 50% manganese oxide ( MnO ), as analysed by an on-site portable X-ray Fluorescence ( pXRF ) machine.

), as analysed by an on-site portable X-ray Fluorescence ( ) machine. Samples from Otse are to be dispatched for assay and metallurgical testwork will be undertaken prior to mineral resource estimation, which is currently expected in the first half of 2022.

Geological modelling of the full K.Hill Project, including the recently discovered southern extension (K.Hill Extension) is progressing prior to a new mineral resource estimate for the combined project, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2022.

Otse Exploration

Giyani has completed its first RC drilling campaign at Otse North and Otse South following up on targets previously identified with an induced polarization survey. Drilling has been focused around the site of historical workings and data has shown excellent correlation between northwest-southeast trending chargeable anomalies and manganese mineralization.

Visible mineralization has been confirmed by pXRF analysis. From the holes analysed on-site, the most notable results include:

Interval Grade Including Grade Hole ID From To Total MnO% From To Total MnO% RCOT21_006 29.5 36.5 7.0 39.5 32.5 36.0 3.5 52.2 RCOT21_015 18.0 35.5 17.5 53.8 18.0 33.5 15.5 56.6 RCOT21_020 29.0 45.0 16.0 20.7 30.5 34.0 3.5 34.7 RCOT21_021 17.0 19.0 2.0 31.3 RCOT21_025 17.5 22.5 5.0 22.4 20.5 21.5 1.0 30.9 RCOT21_026 24.0 29.5 5.5 21.4 RCOT21_031 12.0 21.0 9.0 20.3 RCOT21_035 26.5 35.0 8.5 29.5 30.5 33.5 3.0 37.0

Note: pXRF analysis currently available for 50 out of the 66 completed holes.

A first batch of 803 samples has been submitted to SGS in South Africa for assay and a second batch will be sent at the start of 2022. Following assay, mineralogical analysis and metallurgical testwork will be undertaken, which will allow the Company to build a geological model and carry out a maiden resource estimation for Otse. This work is expected to be completed in Q2 2022, although this timeline remains subject to laboratory availability, for which the Company notes that facilities in South Africa and worldwide have been experiencing delays due to COVID-19 and its related knock-on effects.

Otse is located approximately 50 kilometres east of the K.Hill Project and is connected by a well-maintained, sealed road network.

Map of Otse South showing drill holes against geophysical chargeability:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f2edf63c-23f0-43ec-a3ef-71a556e13645

Map of Otse North showing drill holes against geophysical chargeability:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/41bc9ebb-7144-4dfe-844b-57dba40f390a

K.Hill Extension

Following the previously announced RC drilling campaign over the K.Hill Extension, to the south of the K.Hill Project, mineralogical analysis and geological modelling is progressing. Once finalised, the Company expects to be able to report inferred and indicated resources for the enlarged K.Hill Project, that being the K.Hill Project inclusive of the B Horizon and K.Hill Extension. The Company is currently forecasting an updated mineral resource estimate in the first half of 2022.

Robin Birchall, CEO of the Company, commented:

With the delivery of further exploration success at Otse and K.Hill Extension, we are putting Giyani in the best possible position to capitalize on our first mover advantage in the battery-grade manganese space. Initial results at Otse indicate that we have a significant source of high-grade material to feed our proposed processing facility, lowering future operating costs and further extending our project life. Meanwhile, following our new discoveries at the K.Hill Project, we will soon have a better understanding of the true scale of our flagship project.

We are already starting to see laboratory analysis turnaround timelines coming under pressure, as the world continues to wrestle with COVID-19 and the latest Omicron variant. As global mining activity ramps up in earnest, it is possible that we will see reporting timelines start to lengthen.

With strong global sales of electric vehicles in 2021, the demand for sustainably sourced critical battery materials, including high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM), is set to intensify. As one of the very few new sources of low carbon HPMSM in development globally, we are well positioned to capitalize on this growing market. Our expanding resource base will give us the flexibility to expand our production to the rapidly rising levels of consumption.

I would like to thank the entire Giyani team and our core team of consultants for their hard work during 2021 and we are greatly looking forward to delivering value for all stakeholders in 2022.

About Giyani

Giyani is a mineral resource company focused on becoming one of Africas first low-carbon producers of high-purity electrolytic manganese precursor materials, used by battery manufacturers for the expanding electric vehicle market, through the advancement of its manganese assets in the Kanye Basin in south-eastern Botswana (the Kanye Basin Prospects), through its wholly-owned Botswana subsidiary Menzi Battery (Pty) Limited. The Companys Kanye Basin Prospects consist of 10 prospecting licenses and include the past producing Kgwakgwe Hill mine and project, referred to as the K.Hill Project, the Otse manganese prospect and the Lobatse manganese prospect, all of which have seen historical mining activities.

The Company is currently undertaking a feasibility study on the K.Hill Project, following an updated PEA announced on April 12, 2021 with a post-tax NPV of USD332 million and post-tax IRR of 80%, based on a current development plan to produce around 0.89 Mt of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate over a 10 year project life. The PEA did not include any production from the B Horizon, the K.Hill Extension or the Otse or Lobatse prospects.

Additional information and corporate documents may be found on www.sedar.com and on Giyani Metals Corp. website at https://giyanimetals.com/.

Qualified Persons / NI 43-101 Disclosures

Mr. Luhann Theron, MSc., Pr.Sci.Nat. 400184/15, of Lambda Tau is registered with the SACNASP. Mr. Theron is currently at site and is a qualified person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Theron is the Chief Geologist for the Company and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content contained in this press release but is not independent for the purposes of NI 43-101.

About Lambda Tau

Lambda Tau Botswana is a locally based geological services and exploration consulting services provider, offering services across Southern Africa. For more information visit https://www.lambdatau.co.za.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Giyani Metals Corp.

Robin Birchall, CEO

Contact:

Robin Birchall CEO, Director

+44 7711 313019

rbirchall@giyanimetals.com

George Donne

VP Business Development

+44 7866 591 897

gdonne@giyanimetals.com

Judith Webster

Corporate Secretary and Investor Relations

+1 416 453 8818

jwebster@giyanimetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. persons," as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act ("U.S. Persons"), except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Company's securities to, or for the account of benefit of, persons in the United States or U.S. Persons.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Giyani expects to occur, are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "does not expect", "plans", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Specific forward-looking statements and forward-looking information herein includes completion of receipt of TSXV approval for the private placement and completion of the private placement.

All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the relevant management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to certain assumptions, important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Giyani's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In the case of Giyani, these facts include their anticipated operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, and plans related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future. This information relates to analyses and other information that is based on expectations of future performance and planned work programs.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation: inherent exploration hazards and risks; risks related to exploration and development of natural resource properties; uncertainty in Giyani's ability to obtain funding; commodity price fluctuations; recent market events and conditions; risks related to the uncertainty of mineral resource calculations and the inclusion of inferred mineral resources in economic estimation; risks in how the world-wide economic and social impact of COVID-19 is managed; risks related to governmental regulations; risks related to obtaining necessary licenses and permits; risks related to their business being subject to environmental laws and regulations; risks related to their mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers, or claims and other defects in title; risks relating to competition from larger companies with greater financial and technical resources; risks relating to the inability to meet financial obligations under agreements to which they are a party; ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; and risks related to their directors and officers becoming associated with other natural resource companies which may give rise to conflicts of interests. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect Giyani's forward-looking information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking information or statements.

Giyani's forward-looking information is based on the reasonable beliefs, expectations and opinions of their respective management on the date the statements are made, and Giyani does not assume any obligation to update forward looking information if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions change, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For a complete discussion with respect to Giyani and risks associated with forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, please refer to Giyani's Annual Information Form, all of which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (NYSE American: WTT) announced that its CommAgility brand is part of a consortium awarded funding from the UK government to develop 5G infrastructure for an Open RAN project. CommAgility is part of the 5G DU-Volution project, which will evolve distributed unit (DU) devices to meet emerging industry requirements including reduced power, smaller footprint, improved spectrum efficiency and lower latency. CommAgility was chosen for the project due to its capabilities in 5G PHY and stack hardware and software, and it will be contributing its extensive 5G baseband processing software portfolio and expertise to enable the development of the DU.



The 5G DU-Volution project aims to integrate products into a DU component ready for deployment in 5G networks. The consortium is led by ADVA Optical Networking. Other partners alongside CommAgility are AccelerComm, British Telecom, the University of York, and Scotland5GCentre. The consortium partners were awarded the funding as one of the winning teams in the UK's Future Radio Access Network Competition (FRANC).

The UK government has recently announced a joint ambition, with mobile network operators, for 35% of the UKs mobile network traffic to be carried over open and interoperable RAN architectures by 2030. Open RAN (O-RAN) splits the equipment needed for the Radio Access Network (RAN) into multiple components, including the DU. This undertakes much of the signal processing to convert radio signals to data that can be transported over optical and wireline networks to the core network.

Open RAN is a key enabler in developing 5G infrastructure, and creating flexible, efficient 5G networks, said Edward Young, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at CommAgility. Were proud to be part of the 5G DU-Volution project, and we look forward to working closely together with our partners.

- END -

About Wireless Telecom Group

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton, CommAgility, Holzworth, Microlab, and Noisecom, is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems, and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, semiconductor, and medical industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across existing and emerging wireless technologies. With a product portfolio including peak power meters, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, signal processing modules, 5G and LTE PHY/stack software, power splitters and combiners, GPS repeaters, public safety components, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group supports the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe.

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.s website address is wirelesstelecomgroup.com. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Such risks and uncertainties are identified in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Investor Contact

Andrew M. Berger

Managing Director

SM Berger& Company

(216) 464-6400

andrew@smberger.com

Marketing Contact

Nick Daines

nick@lumenpr.com

Tel: +44 (0) 115 8412109

Mobile: +44 (0) 7958 534731

Wireless Telecom Group Inc.

25 Eastmans Road

Parsippany, NJ 07054

Tel: (973) 386-9696

Fax: (973) 386-9191

www.wtcom.com
Portland, OR, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the Singapore bunker fuels market was estimated at $17.6 billion in 2020 and is expected to hit $24.5 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 3.5% from 2021 to 2030. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, market size & estimations, competitive scenario, and wavering market trends.

IMO regulations on sulfur content in marine fuel and increase in oil & gas exploration activities drive the growth of the Singapore bunker fuels market. On the other hand, competition from regional players and different fuel reduction initiatives by the shipping community hinder the growth to some extent. However, several LNG break bulk services opportunities have been beneficial for the market growth.

Download Report Sample (180 Pages PDF with Insights) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/14860

COVID-19 scenario-

The outbreak of the pandemic led to a steep decline in demand for bunker fuel from the marine industry, which impacted the Singapore bunker fuels market negatively, especially during the initial phase of the lockdown.

However, as the overall situation gets better, the market is expected to recoup soon.

The Singapore bunker fuels market is analyzed across type, commercial distributor, and application. Based on type, the LSFQ segment accounted for the major share in 2020, holding more than two-thirds of the total market. The same segment would also grow at the fastest CAGR of 18.3% throughout the forecast period.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Singapore Bunker Fuels Market Request Here

Based on commercial distributor, the oil majors segment generated the highest share in 2020, accounting for around two-fifths of the total market. The same segment is also projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 9.8% from 2021 to 2030.

Based on application, the container segment held the lions share in 2020, garnering nearly one-fourth of the total market. The same segment is also expected to cite the fastest CAGR of 5.8% by the end of 2030. The other segments studied in the report include bunk carrier, oil tanker, general cargo, chemical tanker, fishing vessels, and gas tankers.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/14860

The key market players analyzed in the Singapore bunker fuels market report include Exxon Mobil Corporation, Glencore Singapore Pte. Ltd., Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services Pte. Ltd., PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Vitol Marine Fuels Pte. Ltd., Sentek Marine & Trading Pte. Ltd., SK Energy International Singapore Pte. Ltd., and Total Energies. These market players have incorporated several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to brace their stand in the industry.

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London, England, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC Pink: NSAV), a cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset technology company, today announced that the launch of its second Decentralized Cryptocurrency Exchange (DEX) https://nsavdex.io will take place on December 23, 2021 and be deployed on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) https://www.binance.org/en/smartChain , further expanding the Companys presence in the $2 trillion global cryptocurrency market. Binance is the worlds largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange and using Binance protocol is a major advantage for NSAVDEX 2. The NSAVDEX 2 marks another major milestone for the NSAV ECOsystem and will provide our users with a colony range of DEX services. The NSAVDEX 2 will have among the highest technical specifications and standards in the DEX industry and provide users with an unparalleled experience.

NSAVDEX 2 is a permissionless fully decentralized exchange (DEX) platform. With NSAVDEX 2 you can Trade, Stake, and Liquidity mining. NSAVDEX 2 has 1 second finality and can support up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). The NSAVDEX 2 decentralized exchange will be governed by the community (governance details to be announced) and users are able to trade digital market assets, play Lottery and prediction, and earn passive income by referral programs, subject to our terms and conditions (please inquire via our DEX Telegram). NSAVDEX 2 is scalable and individuals can access unlimited markets with the NSAVDEX 2 exchange. The NSAVDEX 2 has Inter-Blockchain Technology (IBC) in its protocol. Besides Spot Products pair, more derivative pair such as Futures, Options, Perpetual contracts, Crypto Funds, Crypto Indies, and trade NFTs. One platform for all Crypto products.

The NSAVDEX 2 is proud to announce the use of Binance Smart Chain, which has dual-chain architecture and empowers its users to build their decentralized apps and digital assets on one blockchain and take advantage of the fast trading to exchange on the other.

Highlights of Binance Smart Chain:

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Compatible:

Supports all the existing Ethereum tooling along with faster finality and cheaper transaction fees.

Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) Consensus Mechanism:

Method of verifying transactions that reduces fees. Binance Smart Chain is an innovative solution to bring programmability and interoperability to the Binance Chain. Binance Smart Chain relies on a system of 21 validators with PoSA consensus that can support short block time and lower fees.

Cross-Chain Transfer:

Ability to move between different blockchains. Binance Smart Chain comes with efficient native dual chain communication; Optimized for scaling high-performance dApps that require fast and smooth user experience.

Binance Smart Chain's Block Time:

Binance Smart Chains 3-second Block Time is the length of time it takes to create a new block in a cryptocurrency blockchain. A block is verified by miners, who compete against each other to verify the transactions and solve the hash, which creates another block.

The combined total of all DEXes is surging at the moment, as the demand for DeFi has remained resilient. Septembers volume alone exceeded $78 billion. The management of NSAV and its partners are pioneers in the Digital Asset and Blockchain industry and believe the Company can compete in the global DeFi arena.

Dato Sri Desmond Lim, Interim CEO and Senior Vice President of Cryptocurrency Operations for NSAV and Silverbear Capital partner stated, Today again marks another important milestone for NSAV. Management has been extremely busy with the task of building the NSAV ECOsystem and today we celebrate the upcoming launch of our second NSAVDEX Exchange, the NSAVDEX 2, and demonstrating once again, our dynamic strategy. The Company would like to thank everyone who assisted in completing this project in a timely manner and of course, our loyal shareholders for their continued patience and support. Finally, we would like to thank the digital asset team at Silverbear Capital for their strategic perspective and advice.

NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology company, which provides turnkey technological solutions to the cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset industries. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, financial services, advisory services and information technology.

For further information please contact NSAV at info@nsavholdinginc.com

The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/nsavtech

The NSAV corporate website can be accessed at http://nsavholdinginc.com

The NSAVDEX Exchange website can be accessed at https://nsavdex.org/#/home

The NSAV Premium OTC Crypto Trading Desk website can be accessed at https://nsavholdinginc.com/otc-desk/

The NSAV Hong Kong OTC Crypto Trading Desk website can be accessed at https://hkotc.co/

The NSAVDEX Exchange Telegram account can be accessed at https://t.me/NSAVDEXorg

Silverbear Capital Inc. https://www.sbcfinancialgroup.com.hk/ , a leading, global investment banking firm, will be advising NSAV on strategic matters relating to the Companys cryptocurrency exchanges and OTC Crypto Trading Desks. Silverbear will also help guide NSAV in ensuring that its exchanges and OTC Desks are continually in compliance, given the rapidly increasing regulatory environment in the cryptocurrency industry.

Silverbear Capital Inc. (SBC) has a dynamic of disciplines on a broad commercial level and practice. SBC has a strong group of Partners in a wide range of disciplines with seasoned experience in finance, management, and professional practice. https://www.sbcfinancialgroup.com.hk/meet-our-team/ .

Disclaimer: Silverbear Capital Inc. does not constitute investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to sell, or a solicitation to buy, or any other investment product (nor shall any such shares or product be offered or sold to any person) in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities law of that jurisdiction.

This press release contains certain 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, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward- looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Net Savings Link, Inc. or any other person.

Contact

Net Savings Link, Inc.

info@nsavholdinginc.com

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Regina, Saskatchewan, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Researchers with the University of Regina, the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre at the First Nations University of Canada, and the Jim Pattison Childrens Hospital have received funding of $1.27 million over 5 years from the federal governments Canada Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant for a virtual health care pilot project in northern First Nation communities.

Indigenous children in remote Canadian communities are at risk because of poor access to comprehensive and local pediatric health care. They require rapid solutions that are culturally safe, community directed, and consistent with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action, says Dr. Gregory Hansen, pediatric neurointensivist at the Jim Pattison Childrens Hospital and adjunct nursing professor at the University of Regina.

Virtual health care allows specialists to provide a real-time assessment of the patient, who will also be able to offer support and follow-up conversations with the patient and their families.

Each community our team is working with will now have access to pediatric specialists without patients or their families having to leave their communitiessomething that is long overdue, says Cassandra Opikokew Wajuntah, assistant professor and director of the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre at the First Nations University of Canada.

The pilot project builds on a previous pilot project with one northern Saskatchewan First Nation led by co-investigator Tanya Holt, with the Jim Pattison Childrens Hospital, that used a robot remotely operated by a pediatrician in Saskatoon to conduct virtual clinical visits. The new pilot project will see researchers using tablets to conduct virtual clinical visits with patients in several northern First Nation communities. The tablets are expected to provide more convenience, efficiency and portability.

Developing a virtual health system in First Nations communities that is guided by community engagement allows the focus to be on caregiver engagement and customizing software, says Hansen. Were currently working with 15 First Nations communities to create a virtual health-care platform based on what they want and need. We hope that more communities will sign on once we get started.

The CIHR Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.

-30-

About the University of Regina

The University of Reginawith campuses located on Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 territories, the ancestral lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota and Nakoda nations and the homeland of the Metisis a comprehensive, mid-sized university that traces its roots back to the creation of Regina College in 1911. Today, more than 16,000 students study within the University's 10 faculties, 25 academic departments/schools, 18 research centres and institutes, and three federated colleges (Campion College, First Nations University of Canada, and Luther College). The University of Regina has an established reputation for excellence and innovative programs that lead to undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees.

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Arlington, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arlington, Virginias BoxStar Movers has been serving the residential and commercial moving needs of those in Northern Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland for many years now. Its a moving company that realizes that moving is never fun for a family or business but the stress associated with this challenging task can be minimized. One way that the company helps its customers prepare for a move is to give them some helpful tips in reference to a move timeline.

These tips have helped many of its customers avoid some of the moving pitfalls which add stress to this event. A representative of the company, Duman Zhumagulov, says, When we first started in the moving business, we noticed some tendencies that the people and businesses we moved had that led to making their moves more difficult than they should have been. So, we put our experience to work and came up with a timeline regarding certain aspects of a move that will help make the moving process easier for a customer.

Zhumagulov stated that planning for a move should start at least 5-weeks before the move is to take place. The very first planning step should for someone about to undergo a move should be to create a moving timeline and a checklist. Next is to schedule an in-home visit with a moving company and follow that up by coming up with a budget for the move. He also mentioned that the 5-week mark is also a great time to declutter a home or business and to decide if its time to also move on from some unused items that have no sentimental value. Its also a good idea to make sure a moving company that is about to be hired has all of the necessary insurances in place, invest in moving boxes & other items, and plan when to shut off utilities. The company representative stated that this will give someone plenty to do until around a week before the move, then it will be time to start packing, something he added that no family or a business wants to undertake last minute, especially if there are fragile items that will be moved.

The one-week mark is also a time to gather important documents, schedule a moving time with the moving company, and prepare an inventory checklist. Cleaning the property and taking care of any sales paperwork should also be nearing completion at this point. He says that will take someone to moving day where they should plan to wake up early, double-check that everything is packed properly, and go over the inventory list of what is to be moved again. Steps should also be taken to protect floors & carpets and prepare to work together with the movers in a cordial and mutually respectful manner. Zhumagulov mentioned that after they have completed a move for someone, they will even go over with them some important after-move steps. The company representative pointed out that these moving tips apply whether a customer of theirs is moving just around the corner or all of the way to the west coast.

Because of its moving expertise and the helpful moving advice that they give to their residential and business customers, BoxStar movers has received many glowing reviews on its services. Acadia Brooks proclaimed, Box star was amazing! Easiest and least stressful move Ive ever had. Eden was really great and helped take apart my bed without prior notice when it wouldnt fit into my new apartment. Everyone was kind, the total was exactly as quoted, and they were extremely efficient. I really recommend them. No damage, no stress, no attitude. Friendly and great all around. Aziz B. stated, I recently hired BoxStar movers. They did a great job. They provided long-distance moving services to relocate our office from Reston, VA to Chicago, IL. They went above and beyond our expectations. The salesperson gave us a better price and we received great service. These reviews were taken from the companys Google Maps Business listing where it averages a stellar 5 out of a possible 5-stars on over 70 reviews.

https://youtu.be/TMmLpYj-erk

Those that are interested in learning more about the moving services that this VA Moving Company offers can get in touch with them by phone, email, or website moving quote form.

###

For more information about BoxStar Movers, contact the company here:



BoxStar Movers

Duman Zhumagulov

2028439181

sales@boxstarmovers.com

4650 Washington Blvd #1012, Arlington, VA 22201
Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) has selected Cerence Browse, Cerences AI-powered, cloud-based content domain, to bring the power and intelligence of internet search engines directly into Toyota and Lexus vehicles in its next-generation multimedia system. TMNA is the first automaker to deploy Cerences new cloud service, Browse.

Cerence Browse will enable Toyota and Lexus passengers to ask general information or real-time event questionsincluding (but not limited to) geography data, stock information, astronomy, holidays, currencies, politics, nutrition, celebrities, news events, and much more. While previous voice solutions have focused on providing answers to mostly driving- or trip-related questionssuch as checking the weather, getting directions, or looking up restaurantsCerence Browse brings a new level of overarching real-time knowledge, extending the capabilities of TMNAs in-car experience.

Cerence Browse accomplishes this by connecting to several external knowledge sources and web search engines. It then transforms the users spoken requests to information queries and web searches, selects the best answer and converts this into a voice response that does not require the driver to take their eyes off the road.

Cerence Browse from Cerence Inc. on Vimeo.

Were proud to be the first automaker to deploy Cerence Browse and empower our customers with on-the-go access to the information theyre accustomed to from other smart home or mobile voice assistants. Buyers of the all-new 2022 Lexus NX and 2022 Toyota Tundra models will be the first to experience this great feature. Charan Lota, vice president and executive chief engineer, Toyota Motor North America, Connected Technologies

Cerence Browse leverages Machine Reading Comprehension AI that scans through real-time information and extracts meaning, just as a human would, to find the best possible answer to general user questions such as Tell me about the Space Needle, as well as more specific queries such as How tall is the Space Needle?
Oy Kati Ab, a long-term drilling contractor of Keliber, a company developing a European lithium project (earlier post), has started to use Neste MY Non Road Diesel renewable fuel oil in the drill rig at Kelibers exploration site in Central Ostrobothnia. The measure will reduce the emissions caused by drilling by more than 50%.

Neste introduced Neste MY Non Road Dieselsuitable for construction, forest machine contracting, agriculture and heatingto the market in January 2021. The renewable fuel oil is a significant new addition to the renewable diesel known in road transport.

Neste MY Non Road Diesel is comparable to Neste MY Renewable Diesel used in road transport in terms of the raw material base and emissions reduction. In addition to a smaller carbon footprint, the use of renewable fuel oil reduces local emissions produced by older machines.

In 2021, Neste MY Non Road Diesel is available only with limited amounts and in some locations. Distribution is made through direct delivery from Nestes Porvoo terminal.

When we learned that Neste MY Non Road Diesel was available also in Northern Finland this autumn, Keliber was the first company we proposed to introduce it, and we received a positive answer right away. Tapani Niskakangas, Acting Managing Director at Kati

According to calculations made at Kati, the switch from regular fuel oil to renewable fuel makes it possible to reduce emissions by 50% or even more. It is estimated that during 2020 drilling at the Keliber work site generated emissions of 78.04 tonnes of CO 2 e, of which 95.2% was caused by fuel usage. If the biofuel had been used, the estimated emissions would have been 37.90 t CO 2 e or 51% less. The emission reduction (40.14 t CO 2 e) is equivalent to 286,714.3 kilometers by car, which would take one 7.15 times around the globe.

Kati started to use renewable fuel at the Keliber site during the second week of December. According to Tapani Niskakangas, the switch was easy: the machines run as smoothly as they do on fossil fuel. When it comes to safety issues, the renewable fuel does not endanger water organisms or human health. The price tag for the fuel is about 25% bigger than for fossil fuel, which means an increase of about 2% in the total drilling cost.

Oy Kati Ab Kalajoki is an expert in ore exploration and diamond core drilling. The company has a certified environmental management system since 2004. Cooperation with Keliber on the lithium project has continued for about 20 years. In recent years, Keliber has had continuous exploration and resource drilling operations, and the annual total drilling has varied from 10 to 20 kilometers.
Transient Plasma Systems Inc. (TPS), which develops and markets nanosecond pulsed-power systems that unlock the potential of low-temperature plasma to be used in a variety of applications, says that it has made significant advances in its ignition technology, including development milestones in control software, plug configuration, and cost reduction, narrowing the gap to commercialization.

Advanced ignition technologies, such as those offered by TPS, have been widely recognized as enablers to achieving higher combustion efficiency and lower emissions for gasoline-powered engines. Traditional ignition systems when used to enhance internal combustion engine (ICE) efficiency and lower emissions are handicapped with high energy consumption and poor durability leading to an unattractive cost of ownership.





TPS ignition system

The TPS ignition system, based on nanosecond pulsed power technology, has demonstrated promising results in engine tests at automotive OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers and national laboratories. TPS technology has been shown to improve fuel efficiency by as much as 20% at low load points (such as highway driving) and 10-15% over an entire drive cycle.

The keys to commercialization have been demonstrating cost, size and optimized energy consumption in line with automotive requirements.

The advances achieved by TPS in 2021 include:

A robust control software that allows for tailoring and optimizing the energy used for ignition during engine operating cycles.

An innovative plug configuration that reduces the breakdown voltage, resulting in significant cost and size reduction of the power supply.

We believe the nanosecond pulsed power technology from TPS is unique and can be applied across a wide variety of applications. In particular, TPS technology offers a groundbreaking approach to reducing emissions from combustion engines and improving the environment. it is vital that the transportation world continues to improve the combustion engine technology. Jim Demetriades, executive chairman of Transient Plasma Systems and CEO of Kairos Ventures

Kairos Ventures is the Los Angeles venture capital firm funding TPS.

Despite the rush towards EVs, combustion engine vehicles continue to be a significant part of the car manufacturers business, driving revenue and profits. These vehicles have long lifetimes and will continue to occupy the roads next to clean EVs for years to come. Emissions from these combustion engine vehicles can be minimized by employing the latest technologies such as advanced ignition.

The ignition technology advances made by TPS in 2021 have enabled us to significantly narrow the gap to commercialization. For advanced ignition systems to be adopted, cost, size and lower energy consumption are critical. We feel confident that our technology is ready to usher in the benefits of lower emissions, and lead the industrys push toward cleaner mobility. Dan Singleton, CEO and co-founder of Transient Plasma Systems

TPS technology has other applications as well, such as emissions reduction from diesel engines and commercial kitchen exhaust systems, plasma treatment of surfaces for cleaning, as well as ozone generation.

Results obtained from work performed under a recent DOE grant showed nearly 80% reduction in particulates from a 1.8 hp diesel engine. The TPS solution is not expected to need regeneration, unlike conventional diesel particulate filters (DPF), greatly reducing maintenance and improving regulatory compliance.

TPS has also successfully demonstrated its kitchen exhaust solution by a 90% reduction in particulates and odor, in a test with a leading commercial kitchen equipment OEM.

Lastly, the TPS surface treatment solution has been shown to very effective in treating hard-to-bond materials like ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) as well as depositing dense, defect free coatings for biomedical applications, corrosion protection and barrier coatings. It has also achieved precision functionality in coatings via finely tuned polymerization.

TPS foundational technology was developed at the University of Southern California (USC), with more than a decade of support from the Department of Defense. The company was spun out of USC with the express purpose of translating the technology into products and systems to address demands in both military and commercial markets.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian authorities on Monday notified the country's former president that he is suspected of high treason and aiding terrorist organizations in Ukraine's eastern separatist territories.

A statement by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) of Ukraine said the former President Petro Poroshenko is suspected of facilitating the activities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples republics  the two pro-Russia separatist governments in the eastern rebel area  by having his government buy coal from the separatist territories in 2014-2015.

Poroshenko, 56, served as Ukraines fifth president from 2014 to 2019 until losing in an election to the current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Poroshenko faces up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property if found guilty.

The suspicions regarding the former presidents involvement in the case have been dismissed by the European Solidarity party, which is headed by Poroshenko.

The actions of law enforcement agencies have nothing to do with law, this is a political order of Zelenskyy, who is maniacally obsessed with the idea of reprisals against his main opponent, the party said in a statement.

According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Irina Venediktova, the amount spent by Ukrainian state-owned enterprises for the purchase of coal is more than 200 million hryvnia (about $ 7.6 million).

Poroshenko became the fourth suspect in the coal scandal. Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life, is accused of allegedly acting as an intermediary in the purchases and has been under house arrest for six months. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the godfather to Medvedchuk's youngest daughter.

Ukraine faced an acute shortage of resources after separatists backed by Russia seized the territory on which the country's main coal mines were located. The authorities accused Medvedchuk of conspiring with officials under the Poroshenko administration to purchase coal from mines in separatist-controlled areas in 2014-2015 as a way to finance the separatists. Russia has denied actively supporting the separatists.

Ukraine's ex-minister of energy, Vladimir Demchishin, and businessman Sergei Kuzyara are also involved in the case.

Poroshenko is visiting Turkey. The investigators attempted to hand him a summons on the eve of his departure but were unable to do so. His lawyer, Ilya Novikov, said that Poroshenko has been summoned for questioning on Dec. 23.

It is not clear when Poroshenko will return to Ukraine.
NEW YORK (AP)  A jury began deliberations Monday, tasked with considering whether Ghislaine Maxwell is a dangerous predator who recruited teens to be sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein  as prosecutors put it  or the innocent woman a defense attorney described.

The jury received the case just before 5 p.m. after two prosecutors and a defense lawyer delivered their closing arguments over a six-hour period. They deliberated less than an hour and went home after being told to return at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Maxwell, 59, had been composed, if not cheerful, as she interacted with her lawyers and family members for the first three weeks of the trial. But she seemed emotional as Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey rebutted defense arguments and asserted the British socialite believed her four trial accusers were beneath her.

In her eyes, they were just trash, Comey said as Maxwell shook her head slightly and then drooped her eyes.

Earlier, she had wiped her eyes twice as Comey attacked defense portrayals of the women who testified about abuse they incurred as teenagers. The prosecutor said Maxwell played a pivotal role in Epstein's quest to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Defense lawyer Laura Menninger had argued that the women's recollections of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell were flawed memories manipulated decades later by lawyers seeking payouts or U.S. government investigators seeking a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.

Comey called a defense claim that Maxwell didn't know about abuse that occurred for more than a decade a laughable argument.

Those four witnesses gave you the most damaging testimony in this trial, she said. These women put themselves through the hell of testifying at this trial even though they have nothing to gain.

Comey added: They did it for justice.

The prosecutor started her remarks by disputing a claim by the defense that nearly all the evidence pertained to Epstein, and Maxwell did not deserve to be blamed as an conspirator in his crimes.

This case is about that woman, Comey said, pointing at Maxwell, who sat at the defense table in a white sweater as four of her siblings watched from the first bench of spectators in a courtroom where everyone followed spacing rules dictated by the coronavirus.

Earlier, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe called Maxwell the lady of the house when Epstein abused girls at a New York mansion, a Florida estate and a New Mexico ranch.

Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous, Moe said. She cited over $30 million that Maxwell received from Epstein over the years. Maxwell and Epstein committed horrifying crimes.

Menninger, though, said prosecutors had failed to prove any charges beyond a reasonable doubt: Ghislaine Maxwell is an innocent woman, wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit."

Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein, Menninger stated plainly.

She cited numerous inconsistencies in statements made by women over the years, saying their memories are highly flawed and there are "many reasons to hesitate and many reasons to doubt.

Shes being tried here for being with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe thats the biggest mistake of her life, but its not a crime, Menninger added.

The summations came at the start of the fourth week of a trial that was originally projected to last six weeks. With a coronavirus outbreak in New York worsening by the day and a holiday weekend ahead, Judge Alison J. Nathan urged lawyers to keep their closings tight so the jury could begin deliberating as early as Monday.

Maxwell has been jailed since her arrest in July 2020. The judge has denied her bail repeatedly, despite her lawyer's arguments that the pledge of her $22.5 million estate and a willingness to be watched 24 hours a day by armed guards would guarantee her appearance in court.

The closings came after two dozen prosecution witnesses testified, including the four women who say they were abused by Epstein with the help of Maxwell when they were teenagers.

Moe told jurors that Maxwell was a refined age-appropriate woman who provided cover for Epsteins creepy behavior.

She asked them to ignore the testimony of a psychology professor called by the defense, saying the testimony that memories can fade over time and be influenced by what people hear, see or read was a total distraction.

These women know what happened to their own bodies, she said. Your common sense tells you that being molested is something you never forget, ever.

But Menninger defended the testimony of the memory expert, citing instances in which Maxwells accusers never mentioned the defendants name when they first spoke of the abuse they endured from Epstein.

She said the testimony from accusers was manipulated by lawyers representing them as they pursued millions of dollars in payouts from a special fund set up after Epsteins suicide to compensate his victims.

Menninger said the women suddenly recovered memories that Ghislaine was there.
GREENWICH  The Greenwich Public Schools will continue to focus on making improvements in its special education program in the new year, but some members of the Board of Education said they want more input on the process.

Outside consultants delivered a major report over the summer that outlined recommended improvements needed in the embattled special education program, which for years had drawn complaints from parents and was considered out of step with modern techniques.

Stacey Heiligenthaler, interim chief officer of special education and student supports at GPS, told the school board last week that the department is planning ahead to 2022 for an expanded learning environment and specialized services.

Thats looking at co-teaching at the elementary and secondary level, implementing a unique learner program for our upper elementary schools, having an inclusion specialist for programming and also repurposing a position for a reading lab teacher to help with our students most significant reading needs and help move them up, and help support our teachers in providing reading services, Heiligenthaler said.

The school board expects to hear a further update from Heiligenthaler about the action plan and the status of implementing the improvements at its meeting Feb. 3. Board Secretary Karen Hirsh said she hoped the board would have the opportunity to provide feedback, and Heiligenthaler said she would be more than happy to attend any school board meetings before then.

There are a lot of incredible things happening so it would be nice to be able to hear that in a board meeting sooner rather than later, Hirsh said. There are some question marks in certain areas that I think wed like more information on sometime soon.

Board Vice Chair Karen Kowalaski agreed it would be helpful to bump that up and get an update in January, saying she was concerned that the board was sheltered from the implementation of the recommendations. The board needs more information on the timing, rollout and priorities as well as the costs of the changes, she said.

I am slightly troubled by the fact that there hasnt been more board input, Kowalski said. The board might not approve all the recommendations, she said, calling for more discussion on the report.

The report, which was put together by outside consultants Public Consulting Group, called for a revamping of the districts special education services and listed 28 recommendations. The recommendations were listed in six categories: learning environment and specialized services; leadership; high expectations; human capital; systems and structure; and family and community engagements. Full implementation could take as long as three to five years, the report said.

Within each of those recommendations, we put together an objective and target with very distinct action steps as well as persons responsible and timelines, Heiligenthaler said.

The objectives and targets are posted at the districts website at www.greenwichschools.org/teaching-learning/special-education/special-education-review, with feedback coming in from parents and teachers. More information about those tasked with implementing changes is posted at https://bit.ly/32oMAaR.

We will continue to get ongoing feedback as we go through the process, Heiligenthaler said. A number of the recommendations have been completed or are close to completion, such as the redesign of the special education transportation process, the organizational structure of the special education office, the collaboration between departments like HR and finance to make sure were working together as well as the special education processes and procedures manual.

The longer-term recommendations include improvements in the general classroom and collaborative teaching and co-teaching across the district. She said it would take several years and said steps have been added to the action plan to put the fundamental pieces in place.

The plan gets more specific moving into 2022 and calls for providing the community with more information so everybody is aware of what were doing, Heiligenthaler said.

That will include updating the website by marking tasks as completed.

The special education report, which was made public in June, said there was inertia and a lack of urgency in improving key areas such as communication and engagement, continuum of services and professional development, which has seeded mistrust against parents.

Parents had long called for a report, telling the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate and Taxation that the needs of their children were not met in the special education program.

But Heiligenthaler assured the school board that so far parents are on board with the report and the work that is underway.

We are really making an effort to be in communication with parents, both through the parent groups as well as individual schools and individual parents, she said. Parents have responded very positively to the changes and are seeing things occurring in the schools right now.  Change doesnt happen overnight. Im not able to hit a magic button and have everything change, but I definitely think were moving in the right direction and parents are seeing and feeling that.

That was good to hear, board member Joe Kelly said.

Promises made must be promises kept, Kelly said. We certainly made a lot of promises to our special education community.

School board member Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony, who serves with Hirsh as the school board representatives on the Special Education Advisory Council, urged everyone to avoid delays on the long-range priorities.

We need to remember the real urgency here, Mercanti-Anthony said. These are our most-needed students, and this has been an issue for obviously too long.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
PAW PAW, Mich. (AP)  On a windy December morning in rural southwest Michigan, an American flag flapped at half-staff outside Paw Paw Early Elementary School. A social worker with a miniature therapy dog named Trixie offered comfort at the entry doors.

Children wearing face masks scampered off buses into the morning chill, some stooping to pet the shaggy pup before ambling inside.

Like kids in so many cities and towns around the globe, the youngsters in Michigans Van Buren Intermediate School District have been through a lot these past few years. A relentless pandemic that continues to disrupt classrooms, sicken friends and loved ones, and has left some district families jobless and homeless. Three student suicide attempts in the county since in-person school resumed full-time this fall, two student suicides last year. And now, a deadly shooting just two days earlier at a school a few hours away.

But with an infusion of federal COVID relief money and state funding this year plus a belief among local school officials that kids cant succeed academically if they are struggling emotionally, Van Buren's 15,000-plus students are all receiving extra help.

In a school year that was supposed to be a return to normal but has proven anything but, the district has launched an educational program based on a key component of modern psychology  cognitive behavior therapy. Principles of this method are embedded in the curriculum and are part of the districts full embrace of social and emotional learning.

Students in every grade are taught how thoughts, feelings and behaviors are linked and how learning how to control and reframe thoughts can lead to more positive outcomes. The program includes more intensive lessons for kids struggling with anxiety, depression or trauma, along with sessions on suicide prevention. All district employees learn about the concepts.

While schools in the U.S. and elsewhere are increasingly teaching social and emotional learning skills, many use a more piecemeal approach, creating a designated class for talking about feelings, or focusing that attention only on the most troubled kids. Many lack funding and resources to adopt the kind of comprehensive approach that Paw Paw and its neighbor schools are attempting, weaving evidence-based psychology methods into the curriculum and involving all students and staff.

Effective social and emotional learning doesnt happen only at certain times of the day or with certain people, it should be reflected in all school operations and practices, said Olga Acosta Price, director of the national Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. With disruptions from the pandemic so widespread, that kind of approach is needed now more than ever, she said.

As second-graders at Paw Paw Early Elementary sat crossed-legged on the floor on this December day, they received an introduction from their teacher and a video presentation, learning how to identify, manage and reframe big feelings like anxiety, anger and sadness.

The youngsters were given an example: Feeling angry and yelling at your mom because she forgot to buy your favorite breakfast cereal. That makes you more upset and your mom feel sad. Instead, remember that you also like waffles and could ask her nicely to make some, leading you both to feel happier as you begin your day.

At the adjoining elementary school for older grades, in a group session for more at-risk kids, four fifth graders practiced a mindfulness exercise, slowly breathing in and out while using a forefinger to trace up and down the fingers on the other hand. Behavior specialist Eric Clark, wearing a black face mask printed with the message, Be Nice, led the session, calmly accepting a defiant girls refusal to participate.

Clark said that since school resumed, hes seen kids with lots of anxiety, thoughts of self-harm and feeling completely overwhelmed, they just dont want to do it anymore.

I think were starting to see some of the effects of the past few years, he said. The extra stresses of not knowing whats next and not knowing if were going to have school because we have too many cases or not knowing if another variant has come in or not knowing if somebody has a job still.

Clark said the psychology-focused program the district has adopted, dubbed TRAILS by its University of Michigan creators, is helping everyone manage the challenges.

We cant control whats coming at us, but we can control how we respond to it, Clark said.

Abby Olmstead, a dark-haired, dark-eyed 10-year-old girl with a splash of freckles across her nose, says the finger-breathing exercise calms her and that working with Clark has been helping me a lot.

He always makes me laugh when I have anxiety, and thats not a bad thing, she said.

Her mom, Dawn Olmstead, said Abby struggled with online school last year and is learning how to better manage her frustrations.

I definitely approve of what theyre doing for social and emotional learning, Olmstead said. If that was not there, you couldnt get down to the basics for my own daughter.

More than 1,000 district employees, even bus drivers, have received training in the program.

From the superintendent on down to every staff person, we have said you need to know what makes kids tick, said Corey Harbaugh, Paw Paw schools curriculum director. You need to be better at that so that every adult a student comes into contact with  from the moment they get on a bus in the morning, the moment they get off in the afternoon  every adult has been trained and has been given some tools to work with kids around social, emotional skills.

Some parents have questioned the approach, arguing that their kids are well-regulated and dont need it. And some mistakenly think social and emotional learning is somehow related to a method of understanding American racism called critical race theory.

Harbaugh doesnt back down.

Were very direct in saying we know this is good for kids. The research is there, he said.

Studies have shown that social and emotional learning programs can improve academic performance, classroom behavior and stress management. Research also suggests TRAILS lessons for at-risk kids can reduce depression and improve coping skills.

Almost 700 U.S. schools have paid contracts to receive support and implement the program. Its website provides free online materials that are downloaded more than 2,000 times daily, and users come from all over the world, said Elizabeth Koschmann, a University of Michigan researcher who developed the program. Those downloads have skyrocketed during the pandemic.

She said schools contact her almost daily, asking how how they can possibly keep up with students who are falling apart, staff who are losing morale and experiencing tremendous burnout, and just a pervasive sense of exhaustion, despair, and hopelessness.

Evidence supporting the need for more attention to students' mental well-being is plentiful.

U.S. emergency rooms have seen a surge in kids with mental health crises including suicidal behavior, depression and eating disorders. Pediatric mental health therapists are scarce in many areas and kids often wait months for outpatient treatment.

In a December 7 public health advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy cited research showing that depression and anxiety symptoms doubled among youth worldwide during the pandemic. Expanding school-based programs is among his recommendations.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is among groups that recently made similar recommendations in declaring childrens faltering mental health a national emergency.

With teachers and students all struggling with the effects of the pandemic, more needs to be done, said Dr. Sara Bode, chair-elect of the academy's school health council and a pediatrician at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Comprehensive programs are critical because we cannot individually treat our way out of this crisis.

At Paw Paw Middle School, an emergency drill interrupted 8th graders writing down values and behavior theyd like to see in a social contract for the class. The drill gave students and administrators time to reflect on the recent school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, allegedly by a boy just a few years older than these kids.

Paw Paw students were told to seek the nearest classroom rather than flee outside, in case a shooter was positioned there.

Will Bowater, 13, said the reminders are stressful but that it helps to know that there are people who are, like, collected enough to think about how to deal with stuff like that.

He said the schools focus on feelings and positivity is a good thing, even if sometimes it does kind of sound, a bit, like, corny.

Harbaugh acknowledged its a work in progress.

If you come to look at our school, social, emotional learning and Paw Paw, were not serving up a gourmet meal here, he said. Were in the kitchen, theres flour everywhere, the eggs are broken and you know, weve got things in motion and the ovens are heating behind us. Were trying to figure it out. And were going to keep at it.

___

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Samsung launched today its Discover Winter shopping campaign in the United States. It offers discounts, freebies and enhanced trade-in values when you get one of the company's latest foldables.

The series of one-day promos begins with a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 deal today that that includes a $150 outright discount, a free leather case in a color of your choice and a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 TWS earphones. Trading in your old smartphone can see you receive credit of up $900 towards your purchase, but even without it it's a pretty solid deal.

The foldable flagship phone is available in both 256GB and 512GB storage capacities, as well as all three Phantom colors - Black, Green, Silver.

Similar savings will be available on different products in the following days, and heres the full list so you can be prepared:

Date Device Savings December 20 Galaxy Z Fold3 $250 + ETI up to $900

+ free Buds2 and case December 21 Frame TV QLED 4K Smart TV (2021) Up to $700 off December 22 Galaxy Z Flip3 Bespoke Edition $150 (free customization) + ETI up to $600

+ free Buds2 and case December 23 Neo QLED 8K Up to $3,500 December 24 Galaxy Z Flip3 $75 + ETI up to $600

+ free Buds2 and case December 25 Odyssey 49" Gaming Monitor $600 December 26 Jetbot Robot Vacuum with Intelligent Power Control $100 + get $75 eCert with purchase

Each deal begins at 12 PM/noon EST and ends at 11:59 AM the next day and is only available on the Samsung US website.

Click here for the Galaxy Z Fold3 deal
On Guam we know that an island Christmas has a feeling all its own, despite the cultural symbols around it focusing on regions with cold weather.

We revel in this glorious transition to Fanomnakan  though most holiday imagery and lyrics fixate on snow and staying cozy  which is exactly why Harold Pangelinans Chamorro Christmas Mix feels so delightful.

The CD, produced and recorded in 2020 by Bear Rock Productions, features traditional CHamoru Christmas songs such as Na Guinaiyayon and Fanmatto Man Henge, as well as a handful of new original works from Pangelinan and co-writer Jeff Borja.

It reminds you again of home, of being back home and listening to the contemporary Christmas music, being together with families, relatives and so forth, Pangelinan said.

Just because, you know, it reminds you of the island that youre from. You know, this is where Im from, this is our music. And this is what we love to bring to the public and to the world and let people know this is our joy during the Christmas season.

Inspiration

Pangelinan has been active in the music scene on Guam and in the Marianas Islands for about 25 years. He has performed with Candy Taman and Frank Bonkonggo Pangelinan as part of the Chamolinians in Saipan, and has put out various albums on Guam over the years.

He eventually went on to sing in the choir at St. Josephs Church in Inalahan, where he found the inspiration for Chamorro Christmas Mix.

People kept on asking me to do Christmas songs, because I used to sing with the choir in Inalahan  Wed sing the Christmas songs, and then Christmas came, Pangelinan said.

So people kept saying, Hey, we like your voice, can you make a Christmas album? We know you do a lot of love songs and break up and make up songs, but we want also to make something Christmas. So can you just bring back some of the old CHamoru music? Old CHamoru songs that we sing in churches? Okay, no problem. Ill do that, too.

In addition to well known CHamoru songs, Pangelinan has included some of his original CHamoru songs on the album, such as Kirida, and O Bithren Maria.

Song of Thanks and When I Call Your Name, which Pangelinan describes as gospel blues, are the only English songs on the album and are his original works.

Culture

Pangelinan is passionate about spreading Christmas cheer as well as CHamoru language and culture, both for the enjoyment of people still on Guam and for those who have moved elsewhere.

The reason we create and distribute music in CHamoru is because we want to keep up the culture, the language and the music, for the generations to come up, Pangelinan said.

For them to know that this is their language, and they should learn it and remember that this is their culture. This is their island. This is their people. And this is where they come from. So to make sure that they dont forget where they came from, even if they go to the States, or they go somewhere else. They know where they came from, and have that pride that, you know, Im from the island of Guam. And this is our music, and its beautiful because it describes our people.
More than 80 businesses and organizations participated in the Toys for Tots campaign on Guam this year, according to the military.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas has issued new COVID-19 entry protocols set to be effective Dec. 20, according to a news release.

Under the new protocols:

Fully vaccinated inbound travelers will be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival. This also applies to children who are ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine but are residing in a fully vaccinated household.

Specimen collection will be conducted at the port of entry. While waiting for the results of their COVID-19 test, the traveler must quarantine at home or lodging until results are received.

A qualified essential worker must submit a negative PCR test with their application 72 hours prior to arrival via www.staysafecnmi.com.

Unvaccinated travelers are required to quarantine in a designated government facility for seven days, and will be tested after the seven-day quarantine. Any traveler who tests positive for COVID-19 will be isolated in the designated government facility for an additional 10 days.

People are considered fully vaccinated:

Two weeks after their dose of an accepted single-dose or

Two weeks after their second dose of an accepted 2-dose series

The newly implemented entry protocols are part of the CNMI Governors COVID-19 Task Force and Commonwealth Healthcare Corporations strategy to keep residents safe, according to the release.

Also, effective Monday, the COVID-19 Community Center opens in the Koblerville Youth Center in Saipan for community assistance, according to the release.
F.B. Leon Guerrero 6th grader, Aurea Ulloa, celebrated her birthday last Sunday full of love and presents not gifted to her, but for others.

Ulloa previously requested guests to donate shampoos, soaps and other toiletry items so she and her family can give them to those in need during the holiday season.

I was taught that there are other kids that dont have stuff that my sisters and I have, and Christmas is all about giving. Its more important than receiving, said Ulloa. And, my birthday is 10 days before Christmas, so I think it would be a nice thing to do.

Ulloa and her family reached out to the Governors office, knowing that they are supporting nonprofits and expressed their desire to donate according to Governors spokesperson, Krystal Paco-San Augustin.

More donations

Ulloa and her family presented to a caravan of donations to the governor on Monday.

Governors office also donated several dozen of toys and toiletries.

Aurea is a rising star and we're very proud of her and thank her parents and family for teaching her such wonderful values at a young age, said Paco-San Augustin.

Despite the challenges resulting from the pandemic, we are so humbled and grateful to our island community for always stepping up to help those in need, especially this time of year. Even small acts of kindness like Aurea's add up.

Additionally, Paco-San Augustin said that in the governors brief meeting with Ulloa, Leon Guerrero said she sees Ulloa running for governor one day.

The donations will go to benefit Tohge Guam, one of the many nonprofits GovGuam is supporting this year.

Tohge Guam is a peer ran organization that supports individuals struggling with mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.
A man who picked up a package containing methamphetamine was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison.

The sentence for Ricky Santos, 33, was given after a recommendation of 51 months, or a little more than four years, by Assistant United States Attorney Rosetta San Nicolas.

We know your honor that 435 grams of methamphetamine with a 99% purity. This is a lot of drugs ... and thats why we ask in spite of the fact that he is a first-time offender for a drug case is that a lot of drugs could have gotten out on the street, San Nicolas argued.

Santoss attorney, Briana Kottke from the Federal Public Defenders office requested a 46-month sentence because of his minimal role.

Ricky was not responsible for how the items were packaged, Kottke said. He was just asked to pick up the box and thats the extent of his involvement in this case.

Violations

Chief Judge France Tydingco-Gatewood eventually gave the 51-month sentence and although it couldve been more, she cites his violations, while on pre-trial release, as the determining factor.

When you were told by the court to follow conditions of release you didnt. I frown upon that one because when a judge lets you out ... you must follow them, Tydingco-Gatewood said to Santos in reference to testing positive for methamphetamine.

However, Tydingco-Gatewood encouraged Santos to clean up his act for the benefit of his children who he hasnt seen in 10 years.

I need you to focus here Ricky, youre young, you better get it together. Show your daughters that you can get yourself together, Tydingco-Gatewood said. Is that a true statement? You havent been with your daughters since they were three?

Yes, Santos said.

Wow, Tydingco-Gatewood responded.

Arrest

Santos was arrested after he brought a package of methamphetamine from the post office to his house and was seen burning the packaging outside his residence, court documents state.

A later search of the residence discovered approximately 2.6 pounds of methamphetamine in a bag of dog food.
The Guam Department of Education and Guam Education Board swore in newly elected officers for the 2021-2022 Island-wide Board Of Governing Students on Monday at the Guam DOE Headquarters in Barrigada.

At the in-person and virtual event, 11 of the 12 student representatives were at the first-floor gallery of the headquarters. One was present virtually.

The Island-wide Board of Governing Students has a group of students, each elected or appointed by their peers to represent their respective schools in the Guam Education Board.

Carbullido

Chief Justice Philip Carbullido said he was honored to administer the oath to the new student officials.

He commended the students for not just focusing on their studies but participating in the importance of government to represent their peers island-wide.

(The organization) plays a very important role in providing input and voice to the representation of the student interest. I think its an important step in your development as leaders in our community, said Carbullido. Your voice provides important positions in reference to our Guam Department of Education and Im sure theyre mindful and listen to the various interests in the positions you take.

FernandezGuam DOE Superintendent Jon Fernandez address to the organizations officers focused on how important their roles are.





This is something we see across the country, across the world and definitely here on Guam, the need the opportunity to have students, like yourselves, participate in the decision making thats not only going to affect you as students but students after you, said Fernandez. During this pandemic, its really important to understand what our students need and how we can support our students. Mendiola

Echoing both Carbullidos and Fernandezs statements, GEB Chairman Mark Mendiola emphasized that although much of their leaders would like to hear what the students have to say, there should be stable communication between them and the board.

This is opportunity that youve gone above and beyond just the traditional focus of your classes but really putting yourself out there and be an advocate for quality education within the Department of Education, said Mendiola. Of course a lot of our leaders would like to hear what the students would have to say but at the same time too, we have to find that balance and that balance is where we have constant dialogue with each other and come up with the best solutions for the betterment of our entire community.

Students elected are as follows:

George Washington High School senior John Paul Pineda as public relations officer

John F. Kennedy High School senior Sophie Nochefranca as chair

Simon Sanchez High School senior Grace Dela Cruz as vice-chair

Southern High School junior Jessica Pendon as secretary

Other members are:

George Washington High School senior Kyla Trinidad

John F. Kennedy High School senior Morris Emmy Bawit

Okkodo High School seniors Darryl Mercado and Zekiya Mapilisan

Simon Sanchez High School senior Ryae Cosca

Tiyan High School juniors Isabella Paco and Samantha Piyelit
Former Gov. Carl T.C. Gutierrez is the president and CEO of Guam Visitors Bureau, permit czar, and chairman of the Governors Economic Strategy Council. Send comments or questions to GVB at communityrelations@visitguam.org.
Are we living in a jungle? What would that make us? Are we a bunch of simians making unintelligible grunts as we pass each day, not building u




Haiti - FLASH : Donation of 165,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines but...





The Ministry of Health informs that on Saturday, December 18, 2021, it received a batch of 57,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine donated by Denmark and a batch of 108,000 doses of vaccine (J&J) donated by the US Government as part of the COVAX initiative.



"We are pleased to announce that Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population has received a donation of 108,000 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines from the United States through the COVAX program. We are grateful for the collaborations that help fight the Covid-19 pandemic" said the United States Embassy in Haiti



Recall that after the refusal of 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33423-haiti-flash-haiti-refuses-a-donation-of-756-000-doses-of-the-who-astrazeneca-vaccine.html who would hace as cause the ten cases of thrombosis (out of more than 20 million injections) which would be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Ministry of Health had asked the WHO to send it laboratory vaccines (J&J) (which is also not free from rare side effects). https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33448-haiti-health-the-minister-of-health-wants-another-vaccine-than-astrazeneca.html Note that the vaccine (J&J) requires only a single injection, which means that a person will only need to take one dose and it can be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.



Haiti, unable to obtain the vaccine (J&J) at the time, the USA donated 500,000 doses of Moderna vaccine https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34237-haiti-covid-500-000-vaccines-in-haiti-75-of-haitians-do-not-want-to-be-vaccinated.html , a large part of which had to be returned by Haiti because of the low rate of vaccination in the countries https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35449-haiti-flash-haiti-worst-vaccination-rate-in-the-caribbean-and-latin-america.html and the approach of the expiration date https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34990-haiti-covid-vaccination-failure-haiti-will-his-exchange-expired-vaccines.html



However, what the press release does not say is that Denmark has since May 3, 2021 abandoned the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to the (very low but existing) risks of atypical thrombosis. B>



The United States Embassy in Haiti fails to say that 2 days before receiving the vaccine in Haiti, Rochelle Walensky, the Director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said in a statement that US health authorities recommended getting vaccinated against COVID-19 with Pfizer and Moderna rather than Johnson & Johnson, due to the [low] risk of thrombosis from J&J's vaccine.



Sara Oliver, responsible for presenting the data for the CDC explained that independent US experts were unwilling to advise against the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of the possible impact that such a decision could have outside the United States. These experts say Johnson & Johnson's vaccine lowers the risk of hospitalization, but poses higher health risks. Adding that the "J&J" vaccine will remain available in the United States, in particular for people for whom messenger RNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are contraindicated or if the latter are not available.



Stressing in conclusion "the" J&J "vaccine always presents more benefits in the face of Covid-19 than risks"



Find out more about COVAX :

Covax is an initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) is the result of an extraordinary and unique global collaboration, with more than two-thirds of the world engaged (Governments, World Health Organizations, laboratories, scientists, the private sector, civil society and philanthropy), with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines regardless of people's wealth.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35519-haiti-diaspora-covid-19-daily-bulletin-639.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35449-haiti-flash-haiti-worst-vaccination-rate-in-the-caribbean-and-latin-america.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34990-haiti-covid-vaccination-failure-haiti-will-his-exchange-expired-vaccines.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34237-haiti-covid-500-000-vaccines-in-haiti-75-of-haitians-do-not-want-to-be-vaccinated.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33423-haiti-flash-haiti-refuses-a-donation-of-756-000-doses-of-the-who-astrazeneca-vaccine.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33448-haiti-health-the-minister-of-health-wants-another-vaccine-than-astrazeneca.html



SL/ HaitiLibre
























Haiti - Education : 20% of Haitian children aged 6 to 10 do not attend school





"In Haiti, 2 in 10 children aged 6 to 10 do not attend primary school. [...]" says the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on its Twitter account



In addition, experts expect these figures to increase after the August 2021 earthquake and the violence that shakes Haiti. A UNICEF report released in late August indicated that 70% of schools in the south had been destroyed or damaged in the 7.2 magnitude earthquake.



As of December 2021, it was estimated that nearly 400,000 students had still not been able to return to class, with reconstruction and rehabilitation work progressing very slowly https://www.haitilibre.com/article-35472-haiti-actualite-zapping .html



Unicef has also warned that one in two children is at risk of dropping out because their age does not correspond to the grade in which they are learning (80% of children who drop out of school are overage). In this sense, the UN agency launched a non-formal and vocational training program, in which 1,541 adolescents aged 15 to 18 participated.



Limited access to education has increased this year, following the earthquake of August 14, 2021, which destroyed hundreds of educational infrastructure in the country's southern peninsula, leaving thousands of children without school.



Moreover, the outlook darkens with the increased control of armed gangs that operate with impunity in Port-au-Prince, forcing schools to pay for safety. "In areas controlled by gangs, principals and teachers are under constant threat and, if they refuse to pay, their schools are attacked," said Jean Gough, Unicef Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.



Education in Haiti, a few figures :



Increase in the net enrollment rate from 75.8% to 88% between 2002 and 2016 (Source: Ministry of National Education)



Almost 6 out of 10 children in the second year of fundamental cannot read according to international standards (Source: Early Grade Reading Assessment)



The attendance rate for 6-11 year olds increased from 50% to 84% (Source: EMMUS IV and EMMUS VI).



Almost 250,000 children aged 6 to 11 are out of the school system, down from the 500,000 recorded in 2007 (Source: Study on children out of school)



The net primary school enrollment rate is lower in rural areas (80%) than in urban areas (91%) and significantly lower in some departments.



80% of children who drop out of school are "over-aged."



Only 68% of children from the poorest households attend primary school against 92% from the richest households and the level of learning remains very low.



In Haiti, only 63% of children aged 36-59 months attend an early childhood education program.



S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





USA : An American Haitian Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

The US Senate confirmed early this morning the choice of American of Haitian origin Alexia Marie Gabrielle Latortue as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Note that Alexia Latortue is the daughter of former Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue



USA : Message of condolence

"My deepest condolences to Isakson's family on the passing of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson. My thoughts and prayers are with them. He was one of the CBTPA renewal champions https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-28048-icihaiti-economy-haitian-delegation-of-the-private-sector-in-washington-dc.html in the US Senate which has created around 65,000 jobs in Haiti. His commitment to improving relations between the United States and Haiti was undeniable" Haitian Ambassador to Washington Bocchit Edmond



Taiwan alongside farmers

The Taiwanese Ambassador Wen-jiann KU met the Minister of Agriculture Bredy Charlot and reaffirmed the firm support of Taiwan (Republic of China) for agricultural production in Haiti by handing over a new tranche of funding from the RESPONSE Project to the Ministry.



FNE : 12 new national schools

"Despite the political unrest and the health crisis that have marked the past 3 years 12 of our 28 national schools under construction have now been completed", informs us the National Fund for Education (FNE)



USAID associated with researchers in Haiti

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID-Haiti) has partnered with researchers in Haiti under the Partnership for Increased Engagement in Research (PEER) program to collect data on learners with disabilities and improve performance. access to inclusive education. Professor Nelson Sylvestre trains university students in educational research as part of the PEER project in Haiti.



Minister Rival signs a soccer ball

Sunday December 19, Raymonde Rival, Minister of Youth, Sports and Civic Action participated in the thanksgiving mass organized at the Church of Sainte Therese in Petion-ville on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first women's football match in Haiti. Like most of the participants, the Minister signed on the ball given to Alix Coutard, one of the coaches of this first match between the College Canado Haitien and the Sacre Coeur. A match that ended at the time with the victory of the Sacred Heart [3-2]



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

The hunting of male mountain lions in hunting districts 416, 446, 451, 452 and 454 in north-central Montana closed at one-half hour after sunset Saturday, Dec. 18.

The order halting the hunt came shortly after Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials received word that the pre-established harvest quota for the combined districts had been met.

For more information, visit FWPs website at http://fwp.mt.gov/hunt/by-species, to check the current quota status, or call the toll-free number at 1-800-385-7826.

The hunting of female mou...
Last minute shoppers: North Carolina books to the rescue

Are there new North Carolina books that would be good holiday presents for hard-to-give-to people on my list?

Related Stories N.C. history books now more widely available



I get that question every year just before Christmas. Answering it gives me a chance to spread the word about the work of our states diverse authors.

Here are some ideas:

First are two books that won top national awards this year.

David Zucchinos Wilmingtons Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, won this years Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. The prize committee described the book as A gripping account of the overthrow of the elected government of a Black-majority North Carolina city after Reconstruction that untangles a complicated set of power dynamics cutting across race, class and gender.

Last month Jason Mott won the National Book Award for Fiction for his fourth novel, Hell of a Book. The prize committee described it as a structurally and conceptually daring examination of art, fame, family and being Black in America.

Either book would make a great present to anyone who takes pride in the accomplishments of fellow North Carolinians

Another sure-fire successful present for anyone who loves North Carolina is Bland Simpsons new book, North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky. Simpson, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor, musician, song writer, environmentalist, and engaging writer takes his readers across North Carolina, stopping at the most interesting and precious spots. The lovely photographs that illustrate his journey, by themselves, make the book a treasure.

For a barbecue lover, or someone who is just curious about our states affection for this smoky dish, expert John Shelton Reed has written another book, On Barbecue. It is a compilation of Reeds engaging short writings about various barbecue topics. Because Reed knows barbecue and knows how to entertain his readers, the new book would be a welcome gift.

Although Frank Porter Graham, president of the University of North Carolina, has been dead almost 50 years, the stamp he put on public life in this state remains strong. A new biography, Frank Porter Graham: Southern Liberal, Citizen of the World, by William Link, helps explain Grahams enduring influence. It would be an excellent gift for anyone who wants to understand North Carolina history, especially if the recipient tilts liberal.

One feature of the Graham book is a history of a complicated effort to open the University of North Carolina to Black students. The liberal Graham had to deny Blacks admission because he was bound by rules established by the universitys conservative trustees.

Another view of this question, one by a young author of color, is chronicled in a new book, To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation's Oldest Public University, by Geeta N. Kapur. Because the book examines examples of racism at UNC through the years, beginning with the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the campuss oldest building, it would be a good present for someone wanting to see all sides of difficult public challenges.

DG Martin talks about North Carolina Bookwatch, which ended earlier this month.The fourth novel of one of North Carolinas most promising and popular young fiction writers, Wiley Cash, may be his best ever. In When Ghosts Come Home, set in Brunswick County in 1984, Cash weaves a story of drugs, racial conflict, local politics, family challenges, and petty jealousies among law enforcement agencies.

Even As We Breathe, the debut novel of Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, is the first novel published by an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Set in Asheville and the area near the town of Cherokee during World War II, it tells a poignant story of a young Cherokee boy trying to find a place in a white world.

This list is only a beginning.

Your local bookseller can provide many more options.

* * * * *

D.G. Martin hosted North Carolina Bookwatch for more than 20 years. In the final episode of the series, Martin's old friend Bland Simpson interviews him about the his two decades as host. A musician, photographer, eco-awareness advocate and storyteller, Simpson takes up the host chair to lead Martin in a look back at the history of North Carolina Bookwatch. Click here to view the final program, with Bland Simpson.
SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has called for a national review of planning enforcement after struggling to keep up with cases.

As the Standard reported last week, it has already agreed to no longer enforce minor breaches of planning rules due to a backlog of cases following the coronavirus pandemic.

Now it is to write to Michael Gove, Secretary for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, asking for a forthcoming planning review to include the issue of enforcement.

Councillor Elizabeth Gillespie said: Its a nonsense that we dont have statutory funding for our enforcement team.

They do a hugely stressful job and need more financial support, more staff.

Leigh Rawlins, who represents Sonning Common said: When it comes to planning, the public has lost confidence in the system.

He claimed the system was loaded in favour of developers wanting to make a profit and the enforcement system had gone the same lax way too.

Ian White, a Conservative who proposed the motion as chairman of the councils scrutiny committee said: We all know there is shortcomings with current enforcement. We should ask the Secretary of State to consider planning enforcement, which is important but often forgotten, and look at areas where other approaches are taken, like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The council voted unaminously to send the letter.
A GIRL who admitted manslaughter after a teenage boy was knifed to death has had her custodial sentence increased.

The 14-year-old was sentenced to three years and two months for the killing of Olly Stephens, 13, at Bugs Bottom field, near his home in Emmer Green, on January 3.

Three Court of Appeal judges agreed the sentence was unduly lenient and ruled that the custodial term should be increased to five years.

The girl was 13 at the time of the incident, which involved two boys, aged 14, who were found guilty of murder following a five-week trial at Reading Crown Court in July.

One was sentenced to 13 years in a young offenders institution and the other to 12 years. None of the defendants can be identified because of their age. All three were sentenced in September.

The Court of Appeal in London was told that the girl admitted setting up Olly in luring him to the field following a row between the boys on social media but that she was not aware anyone had a knife.

Olly was ambushed by the two boys who were said to have grievances with him.

Tom Little QC, who represented the Solicitor General Alex Chalk, argued that the girls sentence was unduly lenient.

Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Picken and Judge Mark Lucraft agreed.

During the trial, the jury was shown videos and pictures of the boys holding and handling knives.

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, described a video of the younger boy swinging a knife at the older boy as scary.

The younger boy said he and his group of friends had an interest in knives and they would frequently share pictures of them in a group chat. He claimed the video of him swinging a knife was clearly a joke. The older boy had deleted 57 image files and 15 video files, including a photo of him holding a knife, which Ms Morgan said was possibly the murder weapon.

The vegetable knife was never found as it was thrown off Reading Bridge into the river after the murder.

Ms Morgan described a series of phone messages sent to Olly by the older boy the night before the murder as threatening.

The boy told the court he was trying to big himself up in the messages and he was only holding a knife for a photo opportunity.

The killers told the court they did not mean to cause Olly serious harm but they had had grievances with him.

After the trial, Ollys parents, Stewart and Amanda, urged other parents of teenagers to take their phones off them, saying social media had played a massive part in their sons death.
A MAN who killed his mother because he was convinced she was a demon has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

Daniel OHara-Wright, 24, was walking with his mother Carole, 62, in woodland at Watlington Hill on October 23 last year when he turned on her.

Oxford Crown Court heard how he used a broken glass bottle, sticks and his feet in the attack before removing his mothers eyes.

OHara-Wright has paranoid schizophrenia and the jury was directed to find him either not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

It took jurors two-and-a-half hours to reach a unanimous verdict on Friday.

OHara-Wright, from Hillingdon, was not in the dock to hear the verdict as he is an inpatient at Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital.

A court hearing on Tuesday will decide whether he should remain there.

The court heard how he and his mother had been walking at the National Trust beauty spot when he attacked her ferociously.

He then fled across the countryside. He drank from a pond, then threw himself in front of a car and told the terrified driver he had fallen from the sky .

He bit the head off a chicken and climbed an electricity pylon, electrocuting himself so badly his arm had to be amputated.

Finally, he broke into a house and slashed at himself in a shower.

Summing up the case, Judge Ian Pringle QC recounted the testimony of psychiatrist Dr Nicholas Kennedy.

He said: He suddenly saw his mother turning into a demon. He thought he was being lured to a place where he would be attacked by the demon and he decided to kill [her].

The psychiatrist said he was certain OHara-Wright believed he was damaging a demon.

He added: He beat her savagely. He took her eyes out so the demon couldnt see him and to prove to the demon he was a god.

A pathologist described Mrs Wrights fatal injuries as bizarre. The cause of death was traumatic acute upper area obstruction, with blunt force injuries to the head, neck and chest and external neck compression.

The jury heard from the woman who was driving near the scene when OHara-Wright jumped into the road and got in her car.

Louise Townsend said: Next thing I knew this man was on the car bonnet and he was looking at me and I knew something was not quite right. He sat in the passenger seat and said, I fell from the sky... do you believe in God? I was too frightened to reply.

She drove OHara-Wright for a short distance but he fled after they fought over her handbag and another vehicle stopped.

He was later arrested by police after he broke into a house.

The jury was also told that he assaulted an officer by spitting at him and, on another occasion, attacked a nurse with a spoon.

Earlier, the court heard how OHara-Wright would go on long rambles with his mother, who had taken early retirement.

The day before her death they travelled to Virginia Water, Surrey, and posed together for selfies.

Summing up, OHara-Wrights barrister, Mark Graffius QC, told the jury: This photograph was taken, as you know, just the day before the 23rd and it encapsulates, you may think, what everyone knew  that Daniel truly loved his mother.

And that evidence is a critical starting point for you in your deliberations.

As his father told the police, Daniel and Carole got on very, very well.

He described OHara-Wrights psychotic episode as an eruption of a volcano.

He believed with absolute conviction that the person he was attacking was not human at all.

For years, his behaviour had become increasingly erratic. He converted to a strict form of veganism and grew interested in gnosticism, the belief that humans contain part of God.

Psychiatrists instructed by both the prosecution and the defence agreed that these were the early symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, the disease with which he was diagnosed after killing his mother.

Mr Graffius said: You may feel with each building block of the evidence that we have covered and the evidence  clear evidence  of the psychiatrists, each building block fitting into the next, that you are overwhelmingly driven to one obvious conclusion: that at the time of this terrible and truly tragic killing, Daniel OHara- Wright was insane.
Appointment

20 December 2021

Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita has appointed Gilles Arzur as Executive Chef to oversee the Resort's newly enhanced culinary outlets and all kitchen operations. In his new role, Arzur will now find his home among the individual pool villas and exotic nature of the Resort, where a total of five restaurants and the brand new BluBar provide an international selection of dining experiences.

With a number of international postings to his name, this arrival to Mauritius also continues to strengthen Arzur's opening expertise, following him being the Executive Chef for the opening of both Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora and Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach, and now re-opening Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita after the recent extended closure and culinary renovations.

Before joining the team in Mauritius, Arzur's global career saw him transition between a variety of roles in Europe, the US and Middle East, as well as enjoying a taste of island life in French Polynesia. Now, in Mauritius, Arzur will oversee BluBar and the Resort's five restaurants: the new seafood-inspired Asian restaurant of Umi.Zaka; the central beach hub of Bambou for all day dining refreshment; authentic Italian dishes in the tranquil lagoon-front setting at Acquapazza; the modern French bistro of Beau Champ; and La Plaz beach grill, which is located on the exclusive Four Seasons beach on the nearby island of Ile aux Cerfs and reached via a 15-minute boat ride from the Resort.
Event

Hawaiian hoteliers are getting together and you're invited!

The Hawaii Hotel Conference is your opportunity to connect with the larger hotel community and hear industry leaders and experts share the latest hotel market trends and policy updates impacting your hotel.

The event is free and open to all Hawaiian hoteliers who will have the opportunity to:

Network with local hoteliers and industry leaders

with local hoteliers and industry leaders Learn the latest recruiting tips and best practices

the latest recruiting tips and best practices Hear VIP speakers including state tourism executives and elected officials

VIP speakers including state tourism executives and elected officials Catch-up on the very latest policy updates impacting your hotel

on the very latest policy updates impacting your hotel Discover the latest state and national hotel market data trends

A complimentary networking reception will follow.

Secure your seat, register today!

Please reach out to Brittany Mortensen if you have any questions.

Hawaii Hotel Conference powered by HHA & AHLA is organized by AH&LA
Press Release

20 December 2021

If you want to know the future, look to the past, they say. We are at a time of year thats ripe with reflection and ambition. As we all look back at twelve months of hard work - at what went well and what didnt  and make plans for 2022, does it help to look further back than a calendar year?

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Almost every society that has developed over thousands of years has attempted to preserve its history and pass on wisdom and experience to future generations. Learning ones heritage is a reckoning, asking one to consider the legacies that will underpin future decisions.

Throughout 2022, we will celebrate 150 years in travel, taking a look at travel in the past and travel in the future, a future CWT is excited to shape and enable, and that is undeniably about innovation and forging new paths.

We trace our own heritage back to 1872, when Belgian engineer and industrialist, George Nagelmackers, sold the American concept of sleeping cars to European rail operators. Until then, passengers had stopped each night at the Grand Railway Hotel of the town they were in and continued their journey in the morning - so sleeping through the night while moving not only revolutionised the time involved, but also the manner in which it was done. So new was the concept that he had to establish a business selling the product itself, as the railways were not equipped to do so.

Another aspect of our lineage, and one of the earliest travel agencies in the US, Ask Mr Foster, was founded in Florida sixteen years later to handle burgeoning demand, and the pace of travel change accelerated from then onwards.

The first airline, the German Airship company DELAG, was founded in 1909, and the first scheduled commercial airline flight in the US (in a wood and muslin flying boat) took place in less than five years later. and, with the rapid growth of airlines in the 1920s, the age of commercial travel was fully upon us. And new opportunities kept coming to satisfy demand - the first airport rental car service, Avis Rent a Car was created in 1946, and airline reservation systems were developed to help with the incoming jet age of travel.

100 years after Mr Nagelmackers rail innovation, Carlson Wagonlit Travel was launched as the first truly global travel management company. The timing reflected the growth of global organisations seeking a single provider in all regions of the world.

At around the same time, the birth of the internet gave rise to new ways of planning and booking travel. Online booking tools began to emerge and the rise of email heralded the beginning of the digital transformation of travel.

Re-branded simply as CWT, in 2019, we launched our travel platform, myCWT  enabling buyers and traveling employees to engage with our services through six channels  mobile, web, messaging, email, phone and their preferred online booking tool.

From the not so humble train to high-speed services hovering above tracks, from travel by ship to rocket ships traveling into space, we see an exciting horizon for travel in the future. Look out for our celebration of 150 years in travel throughout 2022.
Press Release

20 December 2021

The 24th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly, which met in Madrid (30 Novemer-3 December) unanimously approved Dr. Mlambo-Ngcukas nomination for the position. She will serve as Chair for four years, starting on 3 December 2021, taking over from Pascal Lamy, former Director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute.

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It is with great honour that I accept this appointment and I will, together with the members of the Ethics Committee, work hard to provide a fair guidance towards more ethical practices in the tourism sector. said Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili added: With her rich background and experience of leadership, Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka will ensure that the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics continue to serve as a compass directing us towards a fairer and more inclusive tourism sector.

New Committee Members Confirmed

The World Committee on Tourism Ethics is the independent body responsible for interpreting, applying and evaluating the provisions of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. The Committees tasks include the promotion and dissemination of the Code as well as the evaluation and monitoring of its implementation. Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka brings to the role significant experience working in the fields of human rights, equality and social justice, most notably serving as an Undersecretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women for two terms.

The 24th UNWTO General Assembly also approved the appointment of the following as Committee Members: Ms. Mayada Belal (Undersecretary for the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for Cultural Cooperation), Mr. Jose Ignacio Besga Zuazola (President of the Basque Country Ethics Cluster), Ms. Susan Longley (General Secretary of the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF), Ms. Daniela Otero (Chief Executive Officer of Skal International).

Ms. Gunnur Diker (Partner and General Manager of Eurasia Tourism Ltd.), Mr. Shahid Hamid Fih (Chairman & Founder of SHotel Hospitality Management & Consultancy Ltd) and Prof. Marina Novelli (Professor of Tourism and International Development at the University of Brighton) were also appointed as alternate members of the Committee.

RELATED LINKS:
Press Release

20 December 2021

CHICAGO - Continuing its national opportunistic investment activities, Oxford Capital Group, LLC today announced the acquisition and planned full scale interior renovation of the iconic 453-room Westin Book Cadillac Detroit Hotel, located at 1114 Washington Boulevard in the Washington Boulevard Historic District of downtown Detroit. Oxford, along with its partner Taconic Capital Advisors, led complex negotiations with multiple constituents, ultimately resulting in the modification, restructuring, and assumption of the commercial mortgage-backed security loan. As part of its investment commitment, Oxford and Taconic will lead a comprehensive refresh of the guest rooms, public space, meeting rooms, and ballrooms over the next 24 months. The hotel will remain open and operational throughout the renovation period.

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"The Book Cadillac is arguably Detroit's most iconic hotel asset. We are excited to announce this acquisition and look forward to strategically upgrading and refreshing the property so that it remains a market leader in downtown Detroit as the city and the nation continue their post-COVID recovery trajectory," says John W. Rutledge, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group, LLC and Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC. "We worked closely with various city agencies on this complex transaction and are grateful for their support."

The Westin Book Cadillac was the tallest building in Detroit and the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, and was one of the city's top hotels for nearly 60 years. It closed for renovations in 1984 and remained empty for more than two decades, reopening in 2008. As part of their agreement with Marriott, Oxford Capital Group is making a substantial investment into newly designed guest rooms and all public spaces, including the lobby, meeting rooms, and ballroom. The historic property will be reimagined by Oxford in collaboration with The Gettys Group and Marriott as sophisticated and classic with sculptural elements refined by elegant details to create a luxurious and residential feel.

"We are pleased to have negotiated this highly complicated transaction to acquire such a prominent historic asset," says Matthew Kalt, Vice President of Oxford Capital Group, LLC and Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC. "The Westin Book Cadillac is a landmark property revered in Detroit for nearly 100 years, located in the center of the city, and we look forward to leading the renovation of the hotel and to continue to be a part of Detroit's revitalization."

Eric Sitman, a Director with Taconic Capital Advisors says "We are excited to execute on our first transaction with the Oxford team and hope it is the first of many. The Westin Book Cadillac represents a tremendous value-add opportunity for one of the most historic and iconic assets in all of Detroit. Our partnership looks forward to improving the hotel's positioning through a comprehensive renovation as the city of Detroit, along with the rest of the world, recovers from COVID."

About Taconic Capital Advisors

Taconic Capital is a global institutional investment firm that pursues an event driven, multi-strategy investment approach dedicated to generating strong risk-adjusted returns over multiple market cycles. Taconic was founded in 1999 by former Goldman Sachs partners, Frank Brosens and Ken Brody. The company has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong with over 100 employees worldwide.

Taconic's vertically integrated commercial real estate business has a distressed focus and invests across asset classes as well as up and down the capital structure, from joint venture equity to senior debt. Taconic benefits from differentiated relationships and sourcing channels including CMBS special servicers as well a robust network of lenders, operators and investor partners across the U.S. Taconic's commercial real estate investments to-date represent approximately $2.6 billion of value and over 150 distinct transactions.
Press Release

20 December 2021

Mr. Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) and Mr Vinayak Deshpande, MD - Tata Projects with the all-woman project execution team at Ginger Hotel site in Santacruz, Mumbai.

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MUMBAI - Committed towards driving women empowerment and creating an equitable workplace across industries, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) has collaborated with TATA Projects for the construction of the new Ginger hotel at Santacruz, Mumbai by an all-woman engineering team. This marquee project is a significant step forward in promoting varied opportunities for women in other-wise traditionally male-dominated industries such as construction.

Mr. Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL, stated, At IHCL, we are committed to providing equal opportunities for all. Today, the world is marching towards a future where women are continuing to push the boundaries across sectors. This partnership with Tata Projects reiterates this belief. We are proud of the all-woman team helming the construction of the all new Ginger Santacruz.

The 371-room hotel with a built-up area of over 19,000 sq. m will be constructed over a course of 19 months. The building process will incorporate the latest construction techniques and technologies. Located at a prime location in close proximity to Mumbai Airport and Western Express Highway, this will be a flagship Ginger hotel and is being constructed by one of Indias leading construction companies - Tata Projects.

Mr. Vinayak Deshpande, Managing Director - TATA Projects, said, The Ginger hotel project is progressing well under the leadership of an all-woman team. This is reflective of the culture of the Company, which encourages women to embrace diverse roles in the workplace. The success of this team is important for motivating more women to build their careers in the construction and engineering sector. Another key feature is that new technologies such as BIM and 3D are also being deployed to ensure on-time and quality construction.

IHCL has been on a continuous journey of empowering women including the recently launched all-woman run luxury residences in Chennai. The company has implemented various other industry-leading practices such as Extended Maternity Leave, compulsory creche facilities, medical reimbursement for family expansion including IVF treatments, amongst others. Tata Projects policies have created platforms for women employees to participate in different functions of the business at all levels, gain experience in their fields, and achieve their career aspirations.

About TATA Projects Limited

TATA Projects is one of the fastest growing and most admired infrastructure companies in India. It has expertise in executing large and complex urban and industrial infrastructure projects.

The company provides turnkey end-to-end solutions to set up fully integrated rail & metro lines, commercial buildings and townships, data centres & airports, power generation plants, power transmission & distribution systems, oil & gas refineries, chemical process plants, water and wastewater management solutions, complete mining and metal purification systems.

It is currently executing some of the most marquee projects across India such as New Parliament Building, Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, Multiple Stretches Of Dedicated Freight Corridors, and Metro Rail Lines across multiple cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

The company is driven to deliver projects on-time, using world-class project management techniques and has uncompromising standards for safety and sustainability.
Press Release

20 December 2021

Austin, Texas - Pathfinder Hospitality (previously Pathfinder Development), a 3rd party and owner/operator management company headquartered in Austin, announced today that it has completed a major rebranding. This rebrand was inspired by all of the company growth and changes that have happened over the course of the pandemic and paves the way for the companys goals in the future. The rebrand includes a new name, logos, and an entire new color scheme.

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Pathfinder Hospitality (previously Pathfinder Development) was started in 2005 and has left its mark in the state of Texas and is looking to go beyond state lines in the near future. Pathfinders portfolio of hotels has consistently outperformed and the portfolio will have growth announcements in the new year. Pathfinders core pillar is Platinum Service, and that applies to team members, clients, guests, and beyond. Currently, Pathfinders portfolio includes the Residence Inn Austin Southwest, Holiday Inn Express & Suites NW Austin Arboretum Area , Best Western Plus Pflugerville, Staybridge Suites - Humble/Beltway 8, Staybridge Suites - Nasa/Clear Lake, and the current development of the Aloft Austin Southwest, which is slated to open in April 2022.

During the pandemic, Pathfinder Hospitality saw an opportunity where many saw fear. Instead of saying no, Pathfinder looked for ways to stretch their resources and re-invest time into areas of the business that needed the most attention. As Pathfinder enters 2022, they do so with new sales, revenue, and marketing strategies, a desire to expand in asset classes beyond just hotels, many new team members, and lots of exciting news to come.

Pathfinder Hospitalitys Mission? To provide best in class hospitality by delivering memorable experiences, enriching the lives of others, investing in our teams, and creating high-value growth for all stakeholders. In doing this, Pathfinder will expand the reach of its unrivaled hospitality.

While the Pathfinder Development name has been established for a long time, company growth and new goals called for a name that encompasses all of what we are looking to achieve as it pertains not only to hotels, but the other asset classes we are planning to expand into such as Multi-Family, Short Term Rentals, and Senior Living (Active Adult), says Danielle Schneider, Head of Business Development & Partnerships and a 2021 HSMAI Hospitality Hero Award winner. While Development will still be a large pillar to the Pathfinder name since they will still be involved in developing projects from the ground up, it was crucial that Hospitality be added to the face of the company. Pathfinder was also limited by its logo and brand colors, so the new

design and direction allows for more warmth and inclusivity for all hospitality efforts. The new brand represents the essence of who we have evolved to as an organization and what we aspire to always be, says Rahul Bahl, Founder and Managing Director.

This rebrand would not have been possible without the talented partners of Pathfinder Hospitality. Pathfinder partnered up with local Austin agency, Legend & Ko for all designs and final brand guidelines. Legend & Kos motto is Growing Goodness, and that is exactly what co-founder & designer, Jordan Walkowski, brought to the project. The project was internally supported by the entire Pathfinder team and was led and managed by Pathfinders Director of Marketing & Business Development, Melissa (Mel) Miller, who joined the Pathfinder team in May 2020. The website was updated by Zachery Brown, who did Pathfinders site relaunch back in September 2020.

With this exciting update, we are pleased to tease some more news in the new year!
Opinion Article

20 December 2021

Location ... location ... location. Its a constant refrain in real estate and, by extension, the hotel industry. The turn of phrase took on a whole new meaning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Depending on orientation, some hotels thrived, some survived, some shuttered and some didnt survive.

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Asset type also had consequence. Full-service hotels situated in downtown locations with ample meeting space and F&B outlets were a victim of circumstance and did not fare well on a profitability continuum. Meanwhile, hotels in secondary or tertiary markets, so-called drive-to markets, or properties within resort destinations had a better chance to stay afloat or succeed. With commercial and international business choked off and a reliance on domestic leisure travel, hotels that catered or skewed more heavily toward that segment were spared the pandemics full wrath; in fact, some markets in 2021 performed better than they did over the same time frame in 2019, according to HotStats data.

Consider Key West, Fla., the states southernmost point known for conch, Hemingway, key lime pie, nightlife and myriad water activities. Prior to the pandemic, the island city, which historically produces its best results in winter months as a haven for snowbirds, performed favorably in the first quarter of 2019, recording gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) of $256.24. For the year, Key Wests GOPPAR was $175.23, placing them well higher than the total U.S. GOPPAR of $89.14.

Its no surprise that Key West GOPPAR plummeted in Q2 2020, recorded at just $5.39, 97% lower than the Q2 2019 level. The city clawed back, however, and by Q1 2021, its GOPPAR of $261.92 eclipsed Q1 2019 by $5. Its a remarkable turnaround, one that carried through the entire year and, rather incredibly, could be described as gangbusters. Both Q2 and Q3 2021 exceeded their 2019 comps by $118 and $86, respectivelyillustrating how a resort destination not only survived but thrived during a global pandemic. Its no surprise, then, that JLL has called the Florida Keys the best hotel investment market in the world.

Similar resort-specific destinations across the U.S. performed admirably during the pandemic. Colorado Springs, home to the iconic Broadmoor, had a splashy Q3, with GOPPAR reaching $88.95, $24 higher than Q3 2019 and the highest for any quarter since 2018.

The Georgia city of Savannah benefits from its coastal location and tourist/leisure demand drivers, from architecture and history to food and climate. It, too, has outperformed its pre-pandemic performance: In Q3 2021, it recorded GOPPAR of $91.28, $15.41 higher than at the same time in 2019.

Photo: HotStats Limited

No one could have predicted the pernicious impact of the pandemic. Certainly, some hotels have the serendipity of location and asset type and those with a business mix that skewed more toward leisure came out on top. Others, with a business mix that catered toward corporate or convention business, struggled to stay afloat.

New strains of COVID are not making it easy on the hotel industry. Just when we thought we were out of the woods and into the clear, a new wave of infection is introduced and communities hunker down or people become more wary of movementindividuals and companies, alike. Any cap on travel is negative for the hotel industry. The bright side is that despite a global pandemic, travel continues to be sacrosanct; its not an experience that people are ready to give up on and the data illustrate it.

As the calendar turns, the hotel industry is looking to a brighter 2022, but remains in a precarious position. Markets like Key West could be in for another blockbuster yearthat may not portend well for the collective hospitality industry.
Opinion Article

20 December 2021

Business and city hotels in India have long overlooked the leisure segment, focusing on corporate clients and groups as their bread and butter. However, domestic leisure travelers came to the rescue of these properties when revenue from traditional business models based on corporate travel vanished suddenly owing to the pandemic. Hoteliers soon adopted the saying that amidst every crisis, lies a great opportunity, and quickly adapted to capitalize on the demand. They redesigned their offerings to appeal to both local guests and leisure travelers, introducing a variety of workcation, staycation, and F&B packages  a paradigm shift for many hotels that have previously catered to business travelers. This shift in strategy has helped stabilize hotel occupancy in business hubs, with occupancy in cities like Mumbai and Delhi reaching 64-67% by October 2021.

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Workcations, Staycations, and even Bleisure  extending the work trip into the weekend for a small holiday  are all trends that will gain traction in the medium term, especially given the uncertainty as new COVID variants emerge. As a result, these offerings can be developed into long-term opportunities for hoteliers. Moreover, the single largest concern for business hotels in the pre-pandemic era was how to increase occupancy during the weekends when corporate demand dropped significantly. As the pandemic has created a whole new segment of local staycations, business hotels now have the opportunity to attract this segment even when business travel returns to its peak. Given the right focus, this trend of city staycations can be an absolute game-changer with regards to the performance of business hotels, which usually saw high occupancies during the weekdays and struggled to fill rooms during the weekends. To set themselves apart from their competitors, it is imperative that hoteliers get creative, try out interesting new concepts, and develop unique experiences for local guests.

Specially curated dining or wellness packages, or those focused on specific local events, themes, or activities, can be designed to appeal to a wide range of leisure guests  solo travelers, couples, families with small children, extended families, group of friends, pet-parents, and so on. For example, a family movie night package can include a private screening of their favorite film in the hotel banquet, replete with popcorn and snacks. Parents with little children can take advantage of a workcation package that includes a safe and secure childcare facility. Another concept that may appeal to families, particularly during the winter months, is a camping package with tents and bonfire activities for children. In the absence of international travel, redecorating the hotel as a foreign tourist destination and offering dining packages that celebrate the local cuisine could also attract guests. Special bleisure packages can be created as per the negotiated discounted room rate, with extra benefits like discounted wellness treatments and special dining packages, to incentivize guests to stay longer. The possibilities are only limited by the budget and the creativity.

Leisure travelers, however, are generally more price-sensitive than business travelers and seek to enhance their travel experience. This is one of the key reasons why, after the first and second COVID waves subsided, several luxury city hotels saw increasing demand on account of the enticing staycation packages they offered. To provide guests with unique experiences, hotels can collaborate with local attractions like museums, amusement parks, and restaurants. Other attractions can be heritage walks with historians, specially curated wine tastings, cooking and mixology workshops with local celebrity chefs.

While corporate travel has picked up momentum in recent months, it still has a long way to go before reaching pre-pandemic levels. Focusing on the leisure segment, in the meanwhile, can help city hotels create additional revenue long after the pandemic has passed, as they learn to strike a balance between corporate and leisure segments.
The world likely will generate more electricity from the dirtiest source this year than ever before, indicating just how far the energy transition still needs to run in the fight against climate change.

Coal-fueled generation is set to jump 9% from last year, according to an International Energy Agency report released Friday. That U-turn from the declines of the previous two years threatens the worlds trajectory to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the organization said.

The U.S. and European Union had the biggest increases in coal use at about 20% each, followed by India at 12% and China -- the worlds largest consumer -- at 9%, the IEA estimated. The comeback is being driven by economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, which is outpacing the ability of low-carbon energy sources to maintain supply.

Coal is the single largest source of global carbon emissions, and this years historically high level of coal power generation is a worrying sign of how far off track the world is in its efforts to put emissions into decline toward net zero, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

Record natural gas prices have increased reliance on other sources, including coal, and amplified calls for faster investments in renewables. Power prices in Europe have more than tripled in the past six months, and its become more profitable to burn coal than gas. Still, utilities have struggled to get their hands on it even as China and the U.S. boost production.

Carbon-dioxide emissions from coal in 2024 are now predicted to be at least 3 billion tons higher than in a scenario reaching net-zero by 2050, the report said. The IEA expects peak coal to occur next year at 8.11 billion tons, with the biggest production increases coming from China, Russia and Pakistan.

The Paris-based IEA said in May that development of new oil, gas and coal sources must stop this year if the world is to meet emissions targets in line with the Paris Agreement. Climate campaigners were dismayed in November when a key aspiration of the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland was watered down to produce a pledge to phase down -- rather than phase out -- coal use. U.S. President Joe Bidens administration since has halted federal aid to new fossil-fuel projects abroad.

Some banks have pledged to phase out their financing of coal, though activists want to see greater urgency. This year, coal demand as a whole -- for power generation as well as cement and steel production -- is set to rise by 6%, the IEA said.

That demand could set a record next year, depending on economic growth and weather patterns, the agency said. One Australian exporter predicts strong demand for at least two more decades.

Regional disparities in use are playing out globally as Europe shuts down coal power stations while China and India step up production. The European Union ramped up its climate pledge in July, targeting a 55% drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, relative to a 1990 baseline, with a transition to cleaner sources at the center. Its a tough target, especially considering that countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic primarily power themselves with coal and lignite.

For now, China accounts for about half of global coal production and needs to meet rising domestic demand. The government has pressured miners to reduce prices and lower the cost of burning coal during this years energy crisis, which triggered blackouts and rationing in the country.

It is disappointing that coal power may hit an all-time high in the very same year that countries agreed to phase it down, said Dave Jones, global program lead at climate think-tank Ember. Coal power will inevitably begin to decline soon: China has committed to phasing down coal from 2025, while Indias huge renewables target should remove the need for more coal.
Maynard Holt and Bobby Tudor will retire in January from Tudor, Pickering & Holt, the Houston investment bank they founded in 2007 with Dan Pickering in 2007. Under the direction of its three principals, Pickering and former Goldman Sachs bankers Holt and Tudor, the firm carved out a niche for itself as a boutique investment bank, acting as a financial adviser to companies in the energy industry.

Despite its small size, the company helped finance the shale revolution the remade the U.S. and global energy industry. Tudor Pickering & Holt participated in some of the largest and most significant energy transactions of recent years, including the entry of state-owned Chinese oil and gas company CNOOC into the U.S. shale oil market, with a $1.1 billion asset purchase from Chesapeake Energy. TPH also served as financial adviser to Cimarex Energy, a Permian Basin oil producer, in its merger with Cabot Oil & Gas, an Appalachian Basin natural gas producer. That deal, valued at $17 billion, closed in October.

The New York financial services firm Perella Weinberg Partners acquired TPH in 2016. Pickering left the company in 2019, but remains a shareholder and a senior adviser to Tudor Pickering & Holt. Holt and Tudor will remain partners in the firm until they retire. Holt also hosts TPHs Close of Business Tuesday, a weekly video presentation on the latest energy news and trends.

They recently spoke with the Houston Chronicle about the state of the energy industry, their careers and their futures. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: What were your original goals when you founded TPH?

Holt: Having been at Goldman for a long time, and having been around the industry for a long time, we thought there was probably a different way to do things. We were excited about working with private and public companies and being a global firm. We were also excited about working with technical and industry people.

Tudor: We felt the world of energy finance and investment banking was changing and bringing industry technical expertise to the table as a financial adviser was going to be increasingly important. Research was a big part of that and how we organized our advisory business was also a big part of it.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Oil execs expect more deals in the Permian amid volatile oil prices

Q: What part did each of you play in the early years of the firm?

Holt: Id been an upstream person at Goldman. I was always the head of the exploration department of the company, thinking we could try this, we could do that.

Tudor: We very much ran the business as a trio. As a practical matter most everything we did, all three of us were involved. I had spent a chunk of my career being in London and understanding international markets. That was important to our vision.

Q: How does TPH differ from other investment banking firms?

Holt. One thing that made us different was the Morning Note (newsletter) in which the research department every day was commenting on what was happening with the world. That note was very influential.

Tudor. Our view was that we did need to be differentiated. If our work just sort of looked like and sounded like any other investment bank, we were likely to lose. The core of that for us is we just knew more about our clients business than our competitor.

Q: What is the largest deal that youve been an advisor on? The most complex?

Holt: TPH represented CNOOC in 2010. Thats the day that it was like: Are you kidding? We were a small firm with a handful of research guys, and we showed up working for one of the major Chinese state-owned companies. That was the biggest, What just happened? moment.

Tudor: Id agree with that.

Q: Did any of the merger deals that your firm was involved with fall through?

Holt: A lot of them fell through. For every one that happened, a lot of them didnt. But I dont think we had one that had been announced that did not happen. There was nobody that had set a wedding date that didnt go through with it.

Tudor: We established a lot of credibility with private companies, and very often they were controlled by private equity firms like EnCap Investments, Riverstone Holdings or NGP Energy Capital in Dallas. Those firms were early adopters of TPH and given the amount of activity around those firms, that had a lot to do with our early momentum as well.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Cabot, Cimarex complete merger, reveal new name

Q: How have developments such as the shale oil revolution changed the energy investment industry?

Holt: In the early days of shale, we were doing a lot of transactions based on companies growing, expanding, getting access to more inventory and getting more infrastructure. From 2015 on, and certainly in the last few years, weve been doing much more consolidation work. The industry has been trying to cut costs, improve profitability and get more scale.

Tudor: The most significant development has been the change in mindset of the energy investing community about what they want from the management teams. Its pushed us toward a phase of consolidation, as opposed to new company formation. Its also pushing in the direction of energy transition.

Q: How did the merger with Perella Weinberg Partners change things for TPH?

Holt: What we feel really proud of, it didnt change things and that almost never happens. Usually, when two companies merge, particularly companies in the financial services industry, the smaller firm changes significantly: culturally, operationally and strategically. Not only did things not change, arguably were more TPH than when we entered that marriage.

Tudor: We were very fortunate during the period 2017-19, when the industry was going through such turmoil to have a partner in PWP that had such an outstanding restructuring franchise. When we paired our energy depth and expertise with their restructuring expertise, it was a powerful tool and we very quickly took huge market share in that space.

Q: In regard to the Cabot merger with Cimarex Energy, what was it like to work on a deal that large?

Holt: We were excited because it was different strategically. You werent just merging two things of the same flavor. It was different in that sense of trying to create a new platform, which is more resilient, more versatile, more able to withstand all the volatility of oil and gas, and more able to achieve the scale people are looking for.

Tudor: We were involved because wed built a really good relationship with both of those companies. The depth of our knowledge of their asset bases and of the capital markets were really needed by the clients.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Clean energy dreams bump against economic realities of oil and gas

Q: What does the future hold for M&A activity in the oil and gas industry?

Holt: I think theres going to be quite a lot of it. But you need to be really careful and make sure you have the right partner, the right company culture. Everythings really got to come together in a way that makes sense.

Tudor: The whole energy transition space is similarly ripe for M&A activity, but for a slightly different reason. Much like in the early days of the shale revolution, new fresh capital is very hungry to get exposed to this space. Its looking for places to get deployed.

Q: What are your future post-retirement plans?

Holt: I find the energy transition to be fascinating. Spending more time in that debate and trying to make it better and more civil could be very fun. I plan to remain involved with the Close of Business podcast that comes out on Tuesdays. Just thinking about how the energy world plays out, I think is going to be interesting and fun.

Tudor: Ill stay in the middle of the energy business as well. Im currently leading the Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI), under the umbrella of the Greater Houston Partnership. HETI is working to develop and execute a specific regional strategy related to the energy transition with the end goal of making sure that a decade from now, or three decades from now, Houston continues to be the energy capital of the world.
NEW YORK (AP)  Former President Donald Trump revealed he received a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd in Dallas.

Trump made the disclosure Sunday night during the final stop of The History Tour, a live interview show he has been doing with former Fox News host Bill OReilly.

Both the president and I are vaxxed," OReilly said at the American Airlines Center, drawing some jeers from the audience, according to video shared online by OReillys No Spin News.

Did you get the booster? he asked the former president. Yes," Trump responded. I got it, too," O'Reilly said, eliciting more hectoring.

THE HISTORY TOUR: Donald Trump returns to Houston on Saturday for appearance with Bill OReilly

Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Trump told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.

While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates, he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed on his watch. At the same time, he has refused to urge his supporters to take them, even though Republicans remain far less likely than Democrats to be protected.

For instance, while other world leaders, including former Vice President Mike Pence, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, received their doses publicly to promote the lifesaving medicine, Trump chose to receive his in private  an acknowledgement of the unpopularity of the vaccine with large swaths of his base. And while he has blamed the Biden administration for high levels of vaccine skepticism, he repeatedly undermined public health recommendations while in office, encouraging the use of unproven treatments and playing down the threat the virus posed as he tried to prioritize economic recovery and secure a second term.

Trump had told the Wall Street Journal in a September interview that he probably" wouldn't get a booster shot.

I feel like Im in good shape from that standpoint," he told the paper. Ill look at stuff later on. Im not against it, but its probably not for me.

VACCINES: Moderna says its booster increases antibody levels '37 fold' against Omicron

The U.S. has been urging all eligible Americans to get booster shots as quickly as possible as the country faces a surge in the new, highly contagious omicron variant. Both Moderna and Pfizer have said that booster shots of their COVID-19 vaccines appear to offer protection against the new strain, which preliminary evidence suggests can better evade vaccines than previous versions.

Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, and received experimental monoclonal antibodies treatment. His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, revealed in a book released this month that Trump was far sicker than the White House disclosed at the time.

Before the booing, Trump on Sunday told the audience that they should take credit" for the success of the vaccines developed while he was in office.

Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. We together, all of us  not me, we  we got a vaccine done, three vaccines done, and tremendous therapeutics Trump said. This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now. Take credit for it. Take credit for it.... Dont let them take it away. Don't take it away from ourselves."

You're playing right into their hands when you sort of like, Oh the vaccine, he added. "If you don't want to take it, you shouldn't be forced to take it. No mandates," he said, drawing cheers. But take credit because we saved tens of millions of lives. Take credit. Don't let them take that away from you.

Trump aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
HURON, S.D. (AP)  It began, as almost all really great things do, with the germ of an idea. But this is a germ which, during the time of COVID, flourished and etched itself into many families histories, across the state.

Ive always had this urge to do a tree in the Capitol in Pierre during the holidays, said Huron craftsman Steve Riedel. And for some time, Ive had a desire to do something with wood from our familys homestead, down around Ramona.

What became of the merging of those two is the most unique of stories. A story about so much more than wooden ornaments, the Huron Daily Plainsman reported.

Steve Riedel is a craftsman and woodworker, who does some astounding wood carving, some remarkable painting and also writes. The idea to do a tree at the Capitol has been in here for a while, he said, tapping the right side of his head. We have always really enjoyed going to see the trees at the Capitol each year and I just always thought it would be neat to decorate one.

While that idea germinated, Riedel retired from his position at Our Home, Inc., and was faced, as most retirees are, with the question of What do I do now? He had gathered some wood  red cedar - from the family homestead, posts cut and placed by his grandfather in the early 1900s, and decided to put a piece on his wood lathe and see what emerged. It turned into a pair of similar hanging ornaments, rich in color and capturing the grain of wood more than 120 years old.

That result stirred up the flame on the ember for the Capitol tree idea. Just doing a tree at the Capitol would be great, but we really wanted to do something unique, Steve said. Eventually, the idea of creating ornaments for all 66 of South Dakotas counties floated to the surface, then morphed into creating each ornament from wood that was actually from that county.

We went to some friends of ours here in Beadle County and started off there, Steves wife Marietta said. We thought people might think we were kinda crazy. But they thought it was a marvelous idea and we got our first piece of donated wood from them. That donation became a candy cane, Steves first, and got the ball rolling.

Would you be able to help me with a small project, please?

To get wood from each of South Dakotas counties, one has to actually go to each county. And while the Riedels have friends in many places, not all were good wood sources. The strategy became: find an interesting farm - someplace with character, Marietta said  and simply knock on the door. Over the seeking process, Marietta said they became better at spotting places with more potential.

They started in early 2020 and had garnered some nice donations when the pandemic struck.

So, we were pretty much closed in here and had a lot of time on our hands, Steve said. He turned and finished ornaments and Marietta navigated trips  mostly out and back in a day  to gather more wood. We looked to find a place where two or three counties would come together, Steve said, to limit the amount of travel needed.

They developed a bit of a feeling about places that may yield good finds, and an approach that helped thaw natural resistance from homeowners. Lets face it, Steve said, we took precautions, but some of this took place as COVID was getting going.

What they developed was an approach that asked for a little help with their project. What they found, according to Steve, was an outpouring of trust and generosity, from people we had never met before, but helped us and allowed us, in many cases, to become a part of their familys story.

While Steve was creating ornaments, and amid the road trips, a booklet was born. In it, there are photos of each countys ornaments  many have more than one  that are on the tree, a mention of the type of wood, if known, the donors and what the wood was used for in a previous life.

Copies of the booklet are with the tree in Pierre, for people to look through and get a better understanding of what they are seeing.

But books are finite. The stories of the people they met and where the wood donations came from could fill volumes.

None of the wood is new, Steve said. When I was growing up, my mother always said we should make due with what we have. So thats what I wanted to do here. I was looking for wood with a past, however humble. What the Riedels found were more than five dozen new friends across the state, with nearly as many stories.

There was this one older guy, said Steve - beginning this particular memory as he does many of the others  and while he was interested, he was not willing to give up anything for the project. A three-foot piece of old fence post? No, I may have a use for that, was the consistent answer, Steve said. But the retired farmer wandered down to his old shop and told Steve he just may have something he could part with.

He took down a complete double-tree horse hitch, Steve said. Here, I guess you can take this, he said. Steve told the farmer that he couldnt take something like that  something that had value both as a keepsake to the farmer and more. But he insisted, Steve said. He did end up giving me the old post, which I turned for the ornament. I couldnt bring myself to cut the hitch apart.

The Riedels walked through many tree strips with land owners, gathering wood from various storage piles  and old manure spreaders, Steve noted. For some reason a lot of old wood was sitting in retired manure spreaders.

Two other memories that stand out among the dozens created from their South Dakota Road Trip, are from a stop in Haakon County, in the middle of western South Dakota. It was there that they were given a piece of fence  likely pine  by Jerry and Joy Jones. The wood, according to the Jones, was from a post that was split by Jerrys grandfather Tom Berry, who later became South Dakotas Governor.

Another stop found them at a homestead where the people were willing to help, but were on their way to another engagement.

So the husband just said, Theres a pile of old wood down on the side of the barn and another behind the granary. Just go and take whatever you need. Your idea sounds great!

Its hard to imagine telling two strangers to just take what they want and then leaving them at your home, Steve said.

This started out to be something I wanted to do, Steve said. But it turned into so much more about what I... what we, got out of it. We created some wonderful times together in our state, when we otherwise would have been shut up at home, we met many, many wonderful people. It really was a lesson on how wonderful and generous people of this state are.

In Moody County, walnut trees planted by a donors great-grandfather yielded some beautifully grained, dark hardwood, which Riedel eventually married with a lighter wood collected from an additional donor in the area, to create a two-toned ornament.

The trees were old and had died, Steve said, and I was thankful to get some pieces from him. Then he asked us to come in the house. What they found inside were an impressive run of cabinets, a huge old farm table and a large kitchen island, all made of solid walnut from those trees.

Wood has a connection and a history, Steve said. Wood is warm.

The Riedels children  a son lives in Hot Springs and their daughter is in Denver  were able to join them in Pierre last month to decorate the tree. We were having fun, sharing some of the stories with the kids, Marietta said.

Steve added that he learned a great deal about family histories and how someones great-grandfather had worked with wood. It was an opportunity to display a tiny slice of our states history, generously shared with us by people from every county, he said. It was just a wonderful experience. And it was far more fun than I ever imagined. I am fortunate and blessed to have been able to do this.
Carolyn Kaster/AP

BOSTON (AP)  U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Sunday she has tested positive for COVID-19 as the country deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the omicron variant.

The Massachusetts Democrat tweeted she's vaccinated, has received her booster shot and is experiencing mild symptoms in a breakthrough case of the virus.
Omicron is here. And its spreading at staggering speed, ushering in a new phase of the pandemic.

Harris County reported its first casualty from the omicron variant of the coronavirus on Monday, less than one month after the heavily mutated version of the virus was detected in South Africa. Announcing the death, which is believed to be the first recorded due to omicron in the nation, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the latest variants arrival in the Houston area feels like whiplash after a period of receding cases.

Shes not the only one grappling with the swift rise of omicron amid the busiest travel season of the year: Houston-area doctors watching omicrons breakneck march across much of the globe said the highly transmissible variant is likely to take hold in the coming months, with potentially severe consequences for the one-third of Texans who remain unvaccinated. The World Health Organization estimates the variant is reproducing itself faster than any previous iteration, with the number of new cases doubling every 1.5 to 3 days.

Houston doctors worry omicron could sweep the city just as families gather for the holidays. Omicron accounted for 82 percent of new symptomatic Houston Methodist COVID cases as of earlier this week, hospital officials said. Thats even higher than the national rate of 73 percent, reported on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On HoustonChronicle.com: More than half of Houstonians who died from COVID had diabetes

Most concerning to Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist, is the sheer number of new cases being reported and the overall percentage of positive COVID tests. Those two metrics, used by experts to gauge how quickly the virus is spreading within the community, are rising in lockstep  with eye-popping speed.

It just looks like a rocket, Long said Monday of the latest charts showing the near-vertical ascent of new cases.

The daily average of positive cases in the Texas Medical Center saw a ten-fold increase in the past two weeks, from about 230 a day in early December to more than 2,000 each day last week. The sharp rise in infections led Hidalgo to raise Harris Countys threat level to significant on Monday.

Unfortunately, the omicron variant has arrived in Harris County in full force, Hidalgo said in a statement. These trends are understandably frustrating  especially as we close out the year with friends and family. But we can still blunt the force of this latest wave if we take action.

Doctors were less optimistic, citing omicrons swift rampage across Europe and its highly contagious nature. While experts continue to see ample evidence for the efficacy of vaccines and masking, they also see signs the latest variant could spur breakthrough infections.

This virus is better able to evade the immune response we have developed through vaccination and natural immunity, said Dr. Pedro A. Piedra, a virologist at Baylor College of Medicine.

Piedra estimates omicron will replace delta in the months to come. He is not alone in predicting an omicron wave, even as its severity remains a question mark.

Three weeks ago, Houstons rate of transmission for the coronavirus  a key indicator health officials use to gauge community spread  was 0.67, according to the Texas Medical Center. That means each person with the virus was likely to spread it to less than one person. That rate has more than doubled as of last week, to a 1.58 rate of transmission, meaning each infected person likely spreads the virus to one or two others.

The number of positive tests in Houston has quadrupled since last week. And local hospitalizations rose to 597 on Sunday, a 38 percent increase over the previous week, as the virus tightens its grip on the states health care system ahead of the Christmas holiday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Children have not been spared: At Texas Childrens Hospital, pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last four days.

The reason for omicrons rapid ascent is written in its spike proteins, found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID. The variant contains a high number of previously unseen mutations that account for its ability to infect people faster and more efficiently than any previous iteration of the virus.

As scientists hurry to understand its properties, one thing is certain: Its astonishing rise was months faster than that of delta.

We have seen a rather dramatic shift, said Dr. James Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief at the Texas Childrens Hospital.

On HoustonChronicle.com: In Anahuac, the only hospital for 25 miles is tiny and built for a bygone era. Its chief nurse feels right at home.

The childrens hospital has not yet detected omicron cases in children, but Versalovic said its likely to be imminent. Thats in stark contrast to the delta variant, he said, which was slow to show up in pediatric populations. Delta was first detected in Houston adults in April; the first child case was not found until June.

Omicron is operating on a much tighter time frame, Versalovic said.

In announcing Harris Countys elevated threat level, Hidalgo urged residents to get vaccinated and boostered ahead of the holidays. Preliminary data suggests that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, widely available at pharmacies and clinics around Houston, are more effective than other vaccine brands at preventing breakthrough omicron cases.

It could very well save your life or that of a loved one, Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said the first Harris County resident to die of the omicron variant was not vaccinated and had an underlying health condition. He has been identified only as a man in his 50s who lived in Precinct 2.

nora.mishanec@chron.com

sam.kelly@chron.com
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo raised Harris Countys COVID-19 threat level to significant Monday, as the number of infections rise sharply, sparked by the spread of the omicron variant.

Level 2: Orange, is the second-highest threat level in the county. While it falls short of suggesting that residents stay home under all circumstances, Threat Level 2 recommends that people minimize all uneccessary contacts in order to stem the flow of the virus.

Unfortunately, the Omicron variant has arrived in Harris County in full force, Hidalgo said in a statement. These trends are understandably frustrating  especially as we close out the year with friends and family. But we can still blunt the force of this latest wave if we take action.

New cases in the area have nearly tripled in the last week, with the Texas Medical Center reporting about 2,094 cases per day compared to about 721 the week before.

COVID HELP DESK: Has a vaccinated person ever died from omicron variant?

The COVID-19 testing positivity rate has jumped from 2.7 percent to 6.2 percent in that span, and hospitalizations at the medical center have grown from about 68 people per day to about 110.

Mondays development comes less than a month after Hidalgo lowered the threat level from Orange to Level 3: Yellow, or moderate. At that time, scientists were still in the early stages of understanding the omicron variant, which had only been discovered in a handful of countries.

Since then, cities around the country have struggled to contain the spread of the highly transmissible variant, and the latest statistics are a sign that Houston also may be headed for another wave.

As we approach Christmas and New Years, consider giving yourself and your family the gift of health by getting your booster, getting tested before any gatherings of people outside of your household, and wearing a mask, Hidalgo said. It could very well save your life or that of a loved one.

While early research shows the omicron variant has a higher likelihood of breaking through vaccines, especially those manufactured by makers other than Pfizer and Moderna, people who have been vaccinated are much less likely to fall seriously ill and end up in the hospital, or dead.

sam.kelly@chron.com
A Lake Jackson man who saved an injured boy from drowning in a river near Freeport will receive an award for the heroic act.

Randy Wilkinson Jr. is among 17 recipients of the Carnegie Medal, according to a Monday announcement from the Carnegie Hero Fund, a Pittsburgh-based organization.

The award recognizes people throughout the U.S. and Canada who put their lives in danger to save others. The organization will give each recipient a financial grant of an undisclosed amount.

Wilkinson, a 31-year-old electrician, was visiting a friend in Freeport in October 2019 when he heard screaming from the Old Brazos River, the organization said.

He drove to the riverbank and saw a boy screaming for help in the middle of the river. The boy, 11, had severely injured his leg and was clinging to the base of a pier.

Wilkinson pulled off his shoes, jumped into the water and swam 300 feet across the river. He brought the child to safety on his back and returned to the dock, where a police officer lifted the boy to safety, according to the Carnegie organization.

Five people who died while trying to rescue children from rough waters were among the award recipients.

The fund was created in 1904 by Andrew Carnegie and has distributed more than 10,000 medals and $43 million in grants, scholarships and benefits for award recipients and their surviving relatives, according to the organization.

anna.bauman@chron.com
Beginning in April, the city will require builders of many Houston homes to make accommodations for solar panels in their designs.

The change will not require new homes to have solar panels, but it will mean developers must incorporate the potential for their installation in the future into their plans. They will have to identify where on the roof the panels could go, ensure ventilation pipes or other hardware do not impede that space, leave a conduit from the roof to the electrical box for wiring, and allow space in that box in case a homeowner decides to pursue panels later.

The change stems from a 13-3 City Council vote earlier this month to upgrade several of Houstons development ordinances, including adopting the 2015 uniform building, residential, fire, mechanical and electric codes developed by the International Code Council. Councilmembers Mike Knox, Michael Kubosh and Letitia Plummer voted against the codes; Councilmember Greg Travis was absent.

The city mostly had been using the 2012 uniform codes, and Mayor Sylvester Turner said it was past time for an update. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was among the entities encouraging the city to update its codes, Turner said.

Were going to have to change our standards, we cant stay in 2012, Turner said. Im sensitive to costs too, but the city hasnt implemented 2015 standards, we didnt implement 2018 standards, were now at 2021.

The new codes take effect in April, and the city now will begin engaging industry stakeholders in a process to adopt the uniform 2021 codes, the mayor said.

The changes came over opposition from the development industry, which said the new rules have onerous costs that will price less affluent home-buyers out of the market. The so-called Solar Ready provision garnered much of the industrys scrutiny leading up to the vote.

Some builders have complained the solar requirement will cost between $1,000 and $2,000, which will be passed to the consumer.

No one does anything for free. So, if it costs $1,000, were going to charge the buyer a little more than $1,000, thats just what you have to do, said Mike Dishberger, chief executive officer at Sandcastle Homes. This (rule) is based on todays technology, and solar panels and systems have changed dramatically over the last 15 years In 10 years, when somebody wants to (put them in), it may not be what they need at the time.

Houston first adopted the Solar Ready provision, called Appendix U, in 2016, but it included broad exemptions and did not enforce most of its requirements. It will do so now for homes with roofs of a certain size and orientation toward the sun.

City officials estimate it will affect about a quarter of all new homes. Dishberger said it will be more like half.

The changes aim to ensure homeowners do not have to make dramatic renovations or pay for costly studies to install solar panels in the future.

The choice reflects a modest step toward green development for Houston, a city long tied to its oil and gas industry roots. The citys Climate Action Plan calls for generating 5 million megawatt-hours of solar electricity per year by 2050, about half of its solar potential for small building rooftops. Solar permits have spiked in recent years  from fewer than 100 in 2015 to more than 500 in 2018  but remain uncommon.

City officials say the costs of complying with the provision will be negligible for builders.

The builders/designers are very knowledgeable on the intricacies of each model and plan they produce and can easily identify unobstructed roof areas, Mark Savasta, the citys chief building official, wrote in a guidance about the updated code.

This will save building departments and solar designers time and effort when installing future solar systems. If a homeowner wishes to install a solar energy system later, this documentation can save thousands of dollars in research, installation, design and integration of the solar system into the house.

The solar-ready rules should be a statewide policy, said Stewart Masterson, president of Texas Solar Outfitters.

Solar ready saves the homeowner money by roughing out the house for solar during construction, Masterson said. It is a good selling point for the builder.

District C Councilmember Abbie Kamin, who has advocated for stronger action on climate issues since her election, argued the change represents cost savings for residents who pursue solar.

All of this is to say: If you couldnt put solar on your roof and afford that installation, this just makes it cheaper to be able to do it down the road, Kamin said.

Dishberger, a former president of the Greater Houston Builders Association, said he thinks the city could have made other accommodations. Some builders asked for exemptions if they get certain green certifications, such as LEED or ENERGY STAR, or put in chargers for electric vehicles. The city did not adopt those recommendations.

Developers also complained about the process, saying they have had more say in past iterations. The mayor said the process to adopt the 2021 codes will take that into account.

To avoid that conversation that we heard from many people, that their voices were not heard, that they were not included, I want to establish that engagement piece from the very beginning, so no one can come and say you didnt hear from us, Turner said.

Other updates include a more stringent requirement for separating homes. The current rule allows for dwellings at least three feet apart. That has been updated to five feet, unless the homes are outfitted with certain fire-wall protection or sprinklers. Dishberger said that could cost up to $5,000.

Fire Chief Samuel Pena has said it is a public safety issue and the minimum requirement in the new code.

Editors note: This article has been corrected from the original version to reflect that the codes take effect in April.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
Regarding Thiessen: Arizonas maverick should kill the reconciliation bill, (Dec. 16): After reading Marc Thiessens opinion piece, I wondered why he didnt have the same concerns when Republicans passed the tax cuts bill in 2017. I recall that most economists and the Congressional Budget Office reported that the tax cuts would increase the deficit over a trillion dollars. The bill was also passed by Republicans with no support from the Democrats. We now know that the deficit did in fact increase by over that amount. I guess we do have short memories.

Gene Orlando, Spring

The brazen hypocrisy of the the GOP regarding deficits is on full display again. They had no problems voting for Trumps tax cuts, knowing full well that they would lead to massive increases in the federal deficit. They had no problem increasing the nations debt level to facilitate more borrowing to pay for those tax cuts. Now, though, they are crying about out of control spending and massive deficits. Both parties  and the American people, too  have become addicted to deficit spending. The only difference is what those deficits are paying for.

The GOP prefers to borrow to pay for tax cuts favoring corporations and wealthy individuals; Democrats favor borrowing to spend on infrastructure and social programs. What is overlooked is that America is in competition with China to be the dominant power in the 21st century. China has one political party that is committed to pushing her into world leadership position, whatever it takes. America has two political parties, and one party is trying to rally Americans to confront the challenges of the 21st century while the other is trying to take America back to a former time when America was great. Americans hold the future of the country and our children in their hands. Next year they will determine which road America will take: forward or back.

Gonzalo Martinez, La Porte

Restore our standing

This Christmas, while celebrating Christs birth, lets be reminded of his commandments, mainly love thy neighbor as thyself especially between enemies/adversaries, to bring justice and peace to all by firmly opposing those poisoning society with lies, misinformation, hatred, intimidation and violence causing wasteful animosity, tribalism and chaos  alienating those who can solve our most critical problems, public and otherwise, such as fighting COVID. Those adverse conditions do not save America. They seriously harm it by dividing us, blocking constructive dialogue and social progress as the Jan. 6 Capitol riot did by disrupting our constitutional process. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Christs message was essential for Americas Founding Fathers, who gave us the freedom we cherish. It can help us enormously today. Only truth sets us free. Lies do the opposite. As former Defense Secretary James Mattis said last summer: Only by adopting a new pathwhich means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding idealswill we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad. I urge all to heed Christs call thereby helping to restore Americas good standing at home and abroad. May God help us do this!

Raul Field Escandon, Houston

Tools available to check kids mental health

Regarding Sometimes they blame themselves: How to help grieving kids who lost a parent to COVID, (Dec. 12): Dr. [Julie] Kaplow shines a light on a critical and deeply concerning issue. While the physical, economic and social impacts of COVID-19 have been explored in detail over the past two years, its psychological effects, especially on children, are often overlooked. As a mental health professional with more than 20 years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand how early identification and intervention proves critical to the effective treatment of mental health conditions and suicide prevention efforts. Kaplow provides valuable advice regarding how to reach children and youth during times of struggle. To elaborate, I invite readers to consider some additional proven resources that, when applied, anyone can leverage to help our youth develop strong, safe and stable relationships with their friends, peers and the adults in their life. To aid parents in effective prevention, the "What's On Your Mind?" guide offers parents and caregivers easy-to-understand instructions on how to talk to their kids about mental health issues. Regarding early identification and intervention, the Columbia Protocol is a simple set of six questions that anyone can use to check for suicide risk that provides screening measures and recommendations for next steps.

Similarly, California's ACEs Aware Initiative offers screening tools for children, adolescents and adults to check for adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress from a clinical perspective. Preventative, evidence-based approaches that normalize how we talk about mental health and depression are critical to prevent these tragedies and combat the associated stigmas.

Keita Franklin, Ph.D., New York, N.Y.
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CIO Spotlight: Leon Roberge, Toshiba America Business Solutions

What roles or skills are you finding (or anticipate to be) the most difficult to fill? In almost every technology hub, the labour market is extremely challenging. You must balance the training of junior resources with the need for senior talent that can hit the street running.
Has 2021 provided some reasons to celebrate, despite all of its challenges?

To round up the year on an upbeat note, Lenovo, together with AMD and Microsoft, has launched a photography contest in Asia Pacific calling on all photographers  amateur, avid, hobbyist or professional  to showcase their creativity and originality. Entitled See the Big Picture, the campaign encourages everyone to celebrate the positive moments in an otherwise difficult year.

Netizens are invited to celebrate the years most inspiring moments

From December 17, 2021 to February 20, 2022, contestants in the Philippines are invited to submit original photographs that represent these positive moments. Winners stand a chance to win prizes including a cash prize of up to US$5000 or Php252,000.00, one of Lenovos premium line of laptops such as the Yoga Slim 7 Carbon OLED, and subscriptions to the Adobe Creative Cloud photography plan.

To participate in See the Big Picture, contestants must submit their photos via the campaign microsite, in square, portrait, or landscape format, with a maximum file size of 20MB, along with a photo title and short synopsis explaining the thinking behind the photo. Submissions will be judged based on their creativity, originality, and composition. More details on submission guidelines can be found here: www.lenovo.com/seethebigpicture
About a month into Arlyn Zelaya's new job at Orlando-based BW Property Management Group, he went bowling with the owner (and his boss), Solomon Williams. That night, Zelaya decided to tell him something: He was homeless and living behind a church.

Williams wanted to see what Zelaya was talking about. At 9 or 10 p.m., the pair left the bowling alley and pulled into the Kaleo Ministries church parking lot. Behind the building, about 50 people were crammed in a tent encampment.

It was a tough thing to see, Williams says. He spent an hour talking to people in the area. "There were skilled laborers," he says, "living back there in tents, just not being given an opportunity." He decided that night in April 2019 he was going to find a way to help Zelaya--and as many others as he could.

Williams's BW Property Management Group provides home repair and maintenance services to about 2,200 properties in Orlando through a combination of in-house employees, contractors, and subcontractors. What began as an ad hoc effort to find unhoused people paid work over the years has turned into an employment initiative that has been transformative for some of its beneficiaries.

Williams says BW has trained and employed roughly 50 unhoused people in the past three years--and helped provide living spaces on occasion. Most recently, he started an initiative to build tiny houses and give them to anyone who lives on the 20-acre plot of land behind Kaleo Ministries, donating $120,000 to the cause between his own funds and the company's. The endeavors helped BW land on Inc.'s 2021 Best in Business list, which highlights companies that go above and beyond to make an impact in their communities.

"I feel my purpose is to help those who are less fortunate, or can't help themselves," says Williams.

A father's example

Growing up, Williams saw people come to his father, a pastor in Tallahassee who also worked construction and owned a carpet cleaning and installation business, asking for jobs. His father would find them paid labor building, cleaning, or doing lawn work. When Williams started his own business in 2008, he eventually found a way to do the same thing. Early on, he'd give work to unhoused people, often picking up laborers waiting for jobs in front of Home Depot. But, after that evening with Zelaya, Williams began working with the church to expand his efforts. "[My father] was a minister," Williams says. "But I found this to be my ministry right here."

Williams uses his in-house crews of painters and lawn care professionals for his charitable efforts. The most entry-level position is on the marketing team, where anyone who needs a day's work can hop in a van, go to a neighborhood, and flier houses for BW under the supervision of a marketing manager. Most people, Williams says, have cellphones, so the company tracks their progress with the MapMyRun app and pays folks with Cash App, a peer-to-peer payment app. They start at $10 an hour, but wages go to $15-plus an hour after training with the painting or lawn teams. After that, workers can progress to running their own crews and independently meeting with clients, and make $600 a week base pay. Williams says he hopes to inspire them to be entrepreneurial, and says the key to helping out people who are in tough situations is staying flexible.

He often helps find or pay for housing for folks who show up consistently, and will provide employees with security deposits and trucks. Zelaya says he's lost count of how many times Williams helped him out with rent when he was getting back on his feet. "We operate as if we're a nonprofit," Williams says, explaining that he prefers to use most of BW's profits for charity. "I learned from my parents that my reward will come from heaven," he adds. The company is on track to make between $1.2 million and $2 million in revenue in 2021.

Williams is hoping the tiny home initiative will give even more people living behind Kaleo the support they need: He plans on offering employment to those who are interested and will seek their assistance in the building of the homes. The homes will be free for people to stay temporarily. If a person or family should choose to live permanently in their tiny home, Williams plans to draw up leases.

Williams says he tries to invest in the people who come from Kaleo to work for him in other ways, too. He is trying to get everyone set up with a digital wallet to accept payment from the company, or help with things like groceries, Ubers, or hospital bills. Sometimes, he says, it's a matter of getting someone a hotel room and a place to sleep for the week, and talking to them about their lives. "I just listen," he says, and he'll follow up, especially if someone is struggling with mental health.

Zelaya is one of those employees who has moved up within the company and out of homelessness. To get away from a rough childhood growing up in Miami, Zelaya eventually moved to Orlando and started a lawn care business. But, after a divorce, he lost his home and his business, and wound up living behind the church and applying on craigslist to work for Williams. Three years after starting at BW, Zelaya remarried and owns his own home. "I went from living in a tent to now I have a three-bedroom house," he says. "If I hadn't had this opportunity ... I'd probably be in prison or not living." Zelaya now is a crew leader and works with BW clients semi-independently. He says he wants to stick around and help BW grow, especially its program for unhoused people.

And Williams has big plans for BW's future. The business can accept cryptocurrency as payment, and aims to establish a formal franchise program. (Currently, the company is "test piloting" franchises with independent contractors.) He says he's in talks with a publicly traded company for a possible merger.

"I'm just going to pour into the community until I can't do it anymore," says Williams.

EXPLORE MORE Best in Business COMPANIES
Chris Sacca is trying to save the world. The venture investor and founder of Lowercase Capital, known for his early bets on Uber, Twitter, and Instagram, launched Lowercarbon Capital in 2017 to back companies that cut carbon emissions and suck carbon out of the sky. No longer investing billions of dollars in technology and consumer product startups, Sacca, 46, stepped away from Lowercase four years ago to focus on healing the planet, reforming the criminal justice system, and making Silicon Valley more diverse.

"I wanted to apply everything I'd learned and the skill I have as a huge lever, but in a way that mattered," Sacca says, adding that it's never been cheaper to start companies that can help solve the global climate crisis. "They don't rely on government intervention or government subsidies anymore, and I have the brand where the best companies in the world find me."

Though he no longer sits on the boards of fast-growing tech startups, Sacca still makes time to advise the entrepreneurs Lowercase has backed over the years. One such founder, Shivani Siroya, shares Sacca's passion for solving big problems on a global scale. The 39-year-old former United Nations analyst founded the fintech company Tala in 2011 to lend money to consumers in developing countries who have little or no credit. Today, Tala has loaned billions of dollars to more than four million borrowers in India, Kenya, Mexico, and the Philippines. Starting a business on three very different continents was a strategic decision, according to Siroya.

"We picked basically the largest remittance corridors around the world," she says. "My goal was essentially not just to prove that we could be global, but to actually be in the flow of money."

In October, Tala raised a $145 million Series E funding round, bringing its total funding to $350 million. Led by fintech company Upstart, with participation from Sacca's Lowercase Capital, the funding will help Tala provide new financial products, including a cryptocurrency offering that the company announced in May 2021. While Siroya is in the enviable position of having had more investor interest than she could accept in her latest round, she also has concerns about experimenting with new credit products while continuing to grow Tala's core business. We sat Sacca and Siroya down so they could discuss how Tala can keep expanding globally, authentically--and sustainably.

Siroya

You've seen lots of companies all the way through to scaling up. What did the founders do to put a culture of growth in place?

Sacca

Obviously, to be a founder, you have to be able to get off zero and put that first chunk of the company together. But becoming a global, multibillion-dollar company requires a whole other skill set that's not innate. What's fascinating is when I see founders who are inherently gritty learn to constantly reflect and evolve their own skillset to adapt to a totally different company. It happens by this continual process of self-inventory, experimentation, and being a listener. It's actually one of the places where--to speak in broad, sweeping gender terms--in my experience women are better listeners and better question-askers. I think that's served you really well. You'll say, "OK, I see where the company is going. Let me go talk to people who have been in that situation and understand what worked for them and what didn't." You have leveraged the growth and team-building of so many people who have come before you, and done so ahead of time.

"We talk a lot about adjacency, but I call it proximity. If you are an outsider from your customers, then you need to work even harder to actually be one with them." --Shivani Siroya

Siroya

One of my goals is to continue to show that our portfolio is going to get more efficient and more profitable, but at the same time we're thinking about going to a multiproduct experience where we are experimenting very quickly. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Sacca

The biggest pitfall for so many startups is trying to do too many things at once. You know that what you have to do in the early days is focus. You have to pick one of those things. But you specifically have shown that you know how to ruthlessly execute and realize a vision. You've earned the right to do more than one thing. You can say, "I know where the next play is, and, by the way, we're going to J-curve on our way there. We can't immediately make it profitable." Investors knew that coming into this round. They lined up dying to give you money on that basis.

Siroya

One of the things I've always admired about you is your ability to connect the dots. You're constantly synthesizing different things, whether it's the news, culture, startups, or what's happening with your kids. How do you make the space to have those reflections?

Sacca

I think people over-compartmentalize, even the distinction between work and family. Who you are outside of work and inside of work are inextricable. The lessons you learn as a manager directly apply to raising kids, and vice versa. We all just want to be heard and have that emotional validation, and you can't build a product if you can't empathize and put yourself in somebody else's shoes. We're building the most optimized computer scientists of all time right now--the super-bro. God, they can crank out lines of code, but they've never traveled or studied abroad. They've never met poor people, they've never had a shitty job or worked in the service economy, and they really don't have a sense of empathy. So when they go to build a product, they build it for other super-bros and we end up with these monoculture products and these leaders who don't understand the true cultural impact of the stuff they let happen on their platform. You literally lived and worked among the people you serve, so you know that you can't help people until you've been adjacent to them. So much of what we have to do is an exercise in being able to say, "What's that person's experience? What are they motivated by? What are they afraid of?" And so I think through that, you start to see the interrelatedness of all this stuff.

Siroya

We talk a lot about adjacency, but I call it proximity. If you're an outsider from your customers, you need to work even harder to be one with them. For me, that was a lot about seeing, without technology, how people already solve problems. The biggest thing that I learned while we were starting Tala was that your customers will actually show you different ways that they use your product.

Sacca

I love that.

Siroya

It's the coolest part of our story. Part of our evolution is actually just seeing what they did with it and realizing, "Oh, OK, let's go create that so that they can go do that."

"The biggest pitfall for so many startups is trying to do too many things at once." --Chris Sacca

Sacca

Great salespeople deeply understand the person they're talking to and how to empower them to make a good decision. Once they know you're not here to take advantage of them, you have the on-ramps to help them in so many other ways.

Siroya

Speaking of connection, when we went remote first, we lost no business continuity. There's more connection actually to me now than there ever was for our whole team, because nobody is sitting next to me.

Sacca

So no one has privileged access to you.

Siroya

That's why we decided to go remote first. Because now it's like, that person sitting in Kenya who's doing customer service, they're no different from our CFO in that sense. But, the difference is, our team members are not sitting with their peers, so that connection is harder to form. What advice do you have?

Sacca

I have at least three team members I've never been in the same room with. I've never met my CFO in 11 years. But I know what matters to him, what's special to him, what drives him and why he works with us. I try to ask people about what random stuff they buy on eBay. Investing that little bit of time results in a more genuine connection than one with the person who might just sit next to you. I love your point about the egalitarian nature of no one having privileged access to you. With total strangers, my calls these days often start with, "How are you guys holding up? Do you have kids? How are they doing? How have they been going to school?" Do you know how dramatically different the next 15 minutes of that call is going to be if you start with, "God, this year's been weird. Can we all admit that this is crazy?"
Biden's Build Back Better social spending and climate bill may be as good as dead after Democratic senator Joe Manchin over the weekend crushed any hopes that he'd vote for the nearly $2 trillion package.

Pointing to concerns over ballooning federal debt levels, the West Virginia Senator shared in a Sunday statement that the "American people deserve transparency on the true cost of the Build Back Better Act." The bill is projected to add on roughly $160 billion to the deficit over a 10-year stretch, according to findings from the Congressional Budget Office.

Without Manchin's support, the bill, which included billions for climate change mitigation and an enhanced child tax credit among other initiatives, would almost certainly fizzle. Not a single Republican senator has announced support of the bill, which passed the House in November. The loss of a deal is certain to have wide-ranging effects. For small businesses, the part that's liable to sting the most is the absence of the Small Business Administration's direct lending program.

A small but mighty provision in the bill would have authorized the SBA's foray into direct lending, a first for the agency outside of disaster loans. The statute was expected to set aside $2 billion for the SBA to make direct loans of $150,000 or less. That number would notch up to $1 million for small manufacturers.

Advocates of the measure saw the SBA's engagement with direct lending as a chance to expand access to capital, especially for underserved entrepreneurs and businesses from disadvantaged communities. Many businesses were sweet on it too--85 percent of small businesses said they support expanding the SBA's authority to dole out direct loans, according to a new survey from the Small Business Majority, an advocacy organization.

But to understand why this initiative was potentially necessary for small businesses, it's important to take a step back and address the problem that direct lending solves, suggests Michael Roth, a former SBA interim chief who is now a managing partner of Next Street, a small-business advisory firm.

First consider the successes and failures of the Paycheck Protection Program, the forgivable loan program, which helped millions of small businesses access more than $800 billion in loans during the first year and a half of the pandemic. He points to an analysis released in October by New York University researchers and David Snitkof, of the financial services automation platform Ocrolus. It shows clear racial disparities in PPP lending. It is well-known at this point that banks, during the early part of the pandemic, tended to favor their own customers over non-customers and that contributed to a racial disparity in who got the forgivable loans. Black business owners were more likely to receive their PPP loans from fintech lender as opposed to a bank.

Similar trends persist in other SBA lending pipelines. During Funding Year 2021, Black-owned businesses received just 5 percent of all 7(a) loans, according to a November Congressional memo. The same memo shows that Hispanic-owned businesses received only 8 percent of all 7(a) loans.

So, Roth suggests, leaving small-business lending entirely up to the SBA's network of privately held financial institutions may be doing a disservice to Black-owned, Latino-owned, and women-owned businesses.

That's why he favors direct lending. As Roth sees it, the SBA's proposed direct lending model acts as a public option if businesses can't access capital through the private market. By offering direct lending, it's expected that small businesses could easily access these loans without regard to their banking relationships or their location. The latter may be an especially beneficial perk for businesses located in banking deserts for instance.

Without authorization to wade into direct lending, however, it is still possible for the SBA to continue to serve underrepresented entrepreneurs. It could, say, allow fintechs to engage in traditional SBA lending. (The PPP was the first time fintechs were offered admission into the SBA lending continuum.)

It could also welcome more smaller-dollar banks into its approved lender stable. While more than 5,000 lenders were approved to support PPP loans, around 1,800 institutions were considered active lenders prior to the pandemic. Brad Thaler, vice president of legislative affairs at the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions (Nafcu), a trade association, explained that loans of $150,000 or less is a sweet spot for credit union lending. And according to Nafcu's research team, 57 percent of 7(a) loans made by credit unions clocked in at under $150,000 over the past five years.

Still, credit unions make up only a meager segment of this lending arena. During Funding Year 2021, roughly 100 credit unions doled out small dollar loans totaling nearly $37 million, which is about 3 percent of all SBA's 7(a) loans under $150,000, according to the SBA. So giving them a bigger seat at the table could empower more smaller-dollar lenders to come to the aid of more underrepresented founders.
Values drive corporate performance. My research concludes that a specific set of values drives sustained success. As I wrote in Value Leadership, these values are embodied in seven principles such as fulfill your commitments, value human relationships, foster teamwork, win through multiple means and fight complacency.

The Drucker Institute has its own ideas of what makes for a successful organization and it has concluded that 2021's best-managed company is Microsoft. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft did well -- scoring in the top six -- in four of its five main components of management excellence -- employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength. Sadly, it was 261st out of 846 companies on customer satisfaction.

Microsoft -- whose stock price has soared 681 percent since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in June, 2014 -- has increased its overall score more than any other company tracked by the Drucker Institute since it began publishing this ranking in 2017.

Here are three things that contributed to Nadella's success and how business leaders can use them to benefit their organizations.

1. Create a culture of customer value creation.

Most new leaders change the culture as a first order of business. Nadella changed Microsoft from a company that pushed its products on customers -- without regard for whether they were best for the customer -- to one that put customers first.

In March 2018, I met with Nir Tenzer, then CEO of cybersecurity firm, nsKnox Technologies, who worked for Microsoft from 2006 to 2017. Tenzer spent the last four years of his Microsoft career as chief operating officer of its South Africa operations.

Tenzer explained that before Nadella became CEO, customers did not trust Microsoft so they were not eager to buy. Nadella changed Microsoft's culture in a way that made current and potential customers feel that Microsoft cared about their success.

Nadella made that change in the face of significant challenges at Microsoft. Microsoft not only had to improve the way it interacted with customers but also how it created "new products and services to existing customers. The main challenge was how to grow and to scale and how to transform while [continuing to] perform," he said.

Nadella created a new culture which he dubbed the "growth mindset." The new culture, encouraged "learning, trying and even failing. The new concept made employees enthusiastic about learning and [tackling] areas outside of their comfort zones. That of course boosted sales while also helping partners and customers. The new products and services also opened new opportunities with new groups of customers," said Tenzer.

Follow Nadella's approach to cultural change so your company can attract and motivate the best employees -- and they will help you win and keep more customers.

2. Innovate by fostering employee learning.

Drucker Institute recognized Microsoft largely due to the improvement in its innovation score. I attribute that to Microsoft's decision to promote Nadella -- who created Microsoft's prosperous cloud business -- to replace its previous CEO, Steve Ballmer.

Nadella ditched his predecessor's leadership strategies. Willy Shih, a professor of management at Harvard Business School, told the Journal, "His willingness to let go of the old and move to the new and move to cloud-first, that was a key decision."

Nadella fostered innovation by encouraging people to adopt a new approach to product development. "We had to introduce and to promote new products and business models ([software as a service] vs. perpetual [licenses]). We had to drive our employees to interact with new corporate decision-makers - business vs. the original technical ones. We had to scale our employees to master new advanced products," Tenzer told me.

Business leaders must alert employees to a fundamental truth -- success can breed failure unless they are always fighting complacency. The way to do that is through perpetual learning with a mindset of intellectual humility.

3. Hold people accountable for results.

Finally, when you change your company's culture and approach to innovation, your top executives will complain because you are forcing them to adjust how they think and act.

In response, Nadella issues an ultimatum to his 150 top executives. According to Business Insider, he told them, "Once you become a vice president, a partner in this endeavor, the whining is over. You can't say the coffee around here is bad, or there aren't enough good people, or I didn't get the bonus. To be a leader in this company, your job is to find the rose petals in a pile of shit. You are the champions of overcoming constraints."
A child artist, an iconic pop star and an alleged abuser  Michael Jacksons legacy will forever be fraught with these adjectives.

More than a decade after his death, the controversies around his personal life have not died down. The questions remain unanswered with new allegations and revelations coming out to shock fans.

We recently came across a Luminary Original podcast Telephone Stories  The Trials Of Michael Jackson and we were transported back to the early 2000s when the news reports and stories around the iconic star started getting murky.

Hosted by Brandon Ogborn and Omar Crook, Telephone Stories heads straight to the question we want answers to  guilty or innocent? Which one was it - was Michael Jackson a serial child molester or a generous protector of children, maligned for his good intentions?

But even digging through old file reports, interviews, and investigations cant give us a straight answer.

Telephone Stories brought on board Michael Jacksons defense attorneys, the investigators and prosecutors who pursued him and the writers and tabloid journalists who followed the case to dissect the trial proceedings. The details of the painstakingly public trial turn into a searching chronicle of race, fame and abuse.

Picked from the 14-episode podcast, below are some of the biggest controversies (and questions!) around the life of Late Michael Jackson that still haunts his fans:

Sleepovers With Kids In His 30s?

What was hard for fans to digest was the fact that a 30-year-old man was having sleepovers with children as young as 8-10 years. Was he trying to vicariously relive his childhood through them or was this a part of the heinous crimes he has been accused of?

mjstory.co.il

Michael Jackson had confessed that he has slept in the same bed as the 13-year-old Jordan Chandler (one of his accusers) more than 30 nights in a row. Child actor Macaulay Culkin has also been a part of Michaels sleepovers but so far has denied any claims of sexual abuse or wrongdoings.

Accusations of Child Sexual Abuse

First accused in 1993 by the then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, Michael Jackson settled the case out of court by paying off the family a whopping $23 million and his familys lawyer $5 million.

Telephone Stories hosts Brandon Ogborn and Omar Crook share their take on this settlement and shared insights from lawyers who revealed that Michael Jackson continued maintaining his not guilty stand.

gannett-cdn.com

New Accusations After The 2002 Documentary

In 2003, after the controversial documentary Living with Michael Jackson, 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo and his family accused Michael Jackson of child sexual abuse and keeping the family captive at Neverland after receiving severe backlash and investigations following the documentary.

Shot extensively over a period of eight months at his Neverland Ranch estate in California, the documentary first shocked people when Jackson was captured discussing sleeping arrangements and holding hands with Arvizo.

The documentary presenter Martin Bashir even questioned the appropriateness of a grown man having sleepovers and sharing a bed with a young child. However, Michael Jackson dismissed them as anything sexual and called it a beautiful thing, revealing he had shared his bed with many children.

In the podcast, Telephone Stories, lawyers revealed gory details of the case and how Gavin accurately recollected minute details like birthmarks around Michael Jacksons genitals.

Not just Gavin, but a total of 5 children he shared beds with have come out over the years accusing him of sexual abuse. This includes Jordan Chandler, Jason Francia, Gavin Arvizo, Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck.

Neverland Ranch Estate & The Staff Statements

Pinterest

Michael Jacksons lavish property in California, Neverland Ranch estate is fraught with its own controversies. The place is said to be inspired by his favourite fictional character Peter Pan and has a rail line and bronze statues of kids.

During his trial, the place was searched by the police and it is claimed that they found an extensive collection of adult erotic material that he kept in his room along with S&M bondage and photos of naked boys.

The staff at Neverland has sold their stories about catching Michael Jackson in the act, made statements and even retracted them several times through the course of the court proceedings.

In Telephone Stories, the hosts reveal how Jacksons defense attorney Thomas Mesereau picked apart the witnesss credibility making the case weak.

Crippling Debt And Death from Drug Overdose

The Washington Post

Even as die-hard Michael Jackson fans thronged to see his concerts, he didnt find many sponsors. He struggled to build his finances and reputation.

The finale episode of Telephone Stories picks up after the trial and talks about his sudden death from a drug overdose in 2009. But the Trial of Michael Jackson doesnt end with his death. There were several court proceedings that ran years after his death as new accusers spoke up and demanded compensation.

Intrigued by the complex life and death of Michael Jackson?

Head to Luminary and check out the Telephone Stories podcast right away! You can start streaming the first episode here with a free trial.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the Army to assist in restoring power. This was following an indefinite strike by power-development employees. Employees have gone on strike in protest of the government's plans to privatise the power sector.



AFP

At a time when the region is under a sub-zero temperature, most parts have plunged into darkness due to no electricity.

What happened on the ground?

The J&K government had announced a merger of the UT's Power Transmission Corporation Limited (PTCL) and Power Distribution Corporation Limited (PTDL) with the Power Grid Corporation of India on December 4, which did not go well with the people. When the erstwhile J&K state was bifurcated into two Union Territories in 2019, the J&K Power Development Department (JKPDD) was divided into two corporations.

Representational Image/Reuters

The employees are opposing the decision to privatise some assets and questioning the delay in salary disbursement. The agitators are also opposing the merger of the J&K Power Development Department into the Power Grid Corporation of India. The employees have been on strike since Friday midnight. They have decided not to carry out any repair and maintenance work until the government accepts their demands.

The employees want a reversal of government decision to privatise assets, regularisation of daily wage power employees, and the release of salaries.

According to a spokesperson of the coordination committee of power supply employees, after failing to reach an agreement with the government, employees from all unions and associations, ranging from linemen to senior engineers, decided to go on an indefinite strike and staged demonstrations in the twin capital cities and district headquarters for the second day on Sunday.

File Photo

Around midnight on Friday, almost 20,000 employees in the power sector went on strike in support of their numerous demands.

Complete blacked out

Many parts of the Union Territory have been completely blacked out as a result of the ongoing strike, and people are suffering greatly as a result of the lack of electricity and water, particularly in Jammu division and many parts of Kashmir divisions.

On Sunday evening, officials from the J&K administration met with representatives of engineers who had gone on strike. The talks, however, failed to produce any outcomes.

With employees not available to continue the proper functioning of the power department, administration called on the army to provide manpower, specifically technicians and engineers to continue the proper functioning of the system.

The Army has been asked to assist the civil administration in restoring power in J&K. Army engineers have already begun to arrive at grid/power installations in various parts of J&K, especially in Jammu. Divisional commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langer has written to the department of Military Affairs, Ministry of Defence, requesting for the assistance of the army in the restoration of the essential services.

NDTV

The letter by the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu read, "It is to bring to your kind notice that due to strike by electricity department personnel in the union territory of J&K, essential services have been severely affected in the Jammu region. We would like to hereby requisition the Indian army to assist in the restoration of the said essential services by provisioning manpower to man critical electricity stations and water supply sources,

Strike against privatisation plans

Talking to a local newspaper Greater Kashmir, Convenor, Jammu and Kashmir Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee, Munshi Majid Ali said that from lineman to engineer, all employees of power department are on strike against the privatisation move of the government.

He further said  We have called for an indefinite strike after the government failed to address our issues,

Regarding the formation of a Joint venture between JKPTCL and PGCIL for maintenance and development of Transmission and sub-transmission networks, he said, Employees are aghast at this unilateral decision made by the UT government which is nothing but a step towards privatisation of the already unbundled corporation. The members termed the inclusion of 33 KV network within the ambit of JKPTCL as unreasonable and illogical and a brazen violation of Electricity Act 2003.

Sachin Tickoo, general Secretary of the power employee union told NDTV, It's a systematic transfer of assets which we are opposing. They are selling the assets of the transmission sector. They want to give 50% shareholding to the power grid which is against the interests of Jammu and Kashmir".

He further said "It's the issue of our existence. It's the fight of the people we are fighting. we will be left with nothing if we lose the transmission sector. It's the backbone of the power department"

AFP

The government appears not to take a harsh stance against the employees rather have initiated talks with them. A government spokesperson according to India Today said, During each round of talks, the government representatives have appealed to the power employees to call off their strike as people in both Jammu and Kashmir divisions are suffering."

In the wake of Covid-19 contagion and nail-biting cold in both the divisions, the coordination committee of the power employees is requested to end its strike,

Union Minister Jitendra Singh while talking to reporters said, The administration is on the job and time cannot be stopped as we have to keep pace with development in the rest of the country. The employees are part of society and if they feel insecure, it is the responsibility of the rulers to address their concerns and move forward along with them.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
Leaders of the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin, whose president, Indian American Dr. Anupama Gotimukula, said the organization is planning to focus on bringing awareness of cervical cancer in India at the Global Healthcare Summit 2022. (photo provided)
R has some excellent mapping options. There is the leaflet R package, which I use when I want to do a lot of customization. There is tmap, which I like for its nice balance between power and ease of use. And recently Ive started also using mapview.

mapviews raison detre is exploratory visualization  more specifically, generating useful default maps with very little code. As little code as:

mapview(mydata, zcol = "mycolumn")

One function, two arguments, done. That makes it extremely easy to explore geospatial data, or to create a fast prototype. Plus mapview has a few cool syntax options for viewing multiple maps.

mapview in action

For this demo Ill use a shapefile of US states and data about population changes by state in the last 20 years. If you want to follow along, download the data zip file:

download Sample data for mapview tutorial State and state capital data for use with InfoWorlds mapview tutorial Sharon Machlis

As usual, first a little bit of data prep. The code below loads four packages, downloads a GIS file defining state polygon borders, then joins that with state populations in 2000, 2010, and 2020.

library(tigris)

library(mapview)

library(dplyr)

library(sf)

us_geo <- tigris::states(cb = TRUE, resolution = '20m')

pop_data <- readr::read_csv("state_population_data.csv")

all_data <- inner_join(us_geo, pop_data, by = c("GEOID" = "GEOID"))

With my data ready, this single line of code is all I need to create an interactive map to explore my data, colored by percent change between 2010 and 2020:

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20")

A screenshot of the default map is shown below, including a pop-up table which appears if you click on a state and hover text which appears if you hover/mouse over a state.

Screenshot by Sharon Machlis Default mapview map generated with one small line of code.

Notice whats not in the code that generated this map. I didnt have to specify in any way that Im analyzing polygons or that I want a map colored by polygon; mapview() chose defaults based on the type of geospatial file. The code mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20") is all you need to generate an interactive choropleth map  including hover text and pop-ups.

The default pop-up includes every field in my data, and it is probably not what Id want an end user to see. However, its useful for exploring my data. And the pop-up is customizable, which Ill get to in a bit.

If your data set doesnt have row names, mapview() uses the row number for the pop-up tables top row. You can add row names to your data set with base Rs row.names() function to get more user-friendly table titles.

By the way, if your table doesnt look as nicely formatted as the one in this map, try updating GDAL on your system. I updated the rgdal package on my system and it solved a table formatting problem.

More mapview features

If you look very carefully at the top left of the map in the screenshot above, you should see some text showing the longitude and latitude of where my mouse was at the time I captured the image, as well as the leaflet map zoom level. Both of those change as you interact with the map.

This default map also includes scale in kilometers and miles at the bottom left. And, at the bottom right, there is a button with the name of the data set and column. If you move the map around or zoom in or out, clicking that button brings you back to the map starting point.

Visualize points with mapview

Adding points to a map is just as easy as polygons. For points, Ill use a CSV file of state capitals with their longitude and latitude.

In the code below, I use the rio package to read the CSV, but you could use another option such as readr::read_csv() . To use latitude and longitude data for GIS work in R (not only for mapview), you then need to turn the data frame into a spatial object. The sf packages st_as_sf() function does this.

capitals <- rio::import("us-state-capitals.csv")

capitals_geo <- st_as_sf(capitals, coords = c("longitude", "latitude"),

crs = 4326)

st_as_sf() needs as arguments the data frame, a vector defining which columns have longitude and latitude info, and your desired coordinate reference system, in this case one used by a lot of background map tiles.

Once the data is transformed, I can use it to add a points layer to my map with another call to mapview() :

mapview(all_data, zcol="PctChange10_20") +

mapview(capitals_geo)

I didnt have to tell mapview that capitals_geo contains points, or which columns hold latitude and longitude data. In fact, once I create my first mapview object, I can add layers to the map without calling mapview() again; I can just use the point objects name:

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20") + capitals_geo

The map now looks like this:

Screenshot by Sharon Machlis Map with polygons and points.

Invoke automatic visualizations

You can also ask mapview to automatically visualize geospatial objects in your R session. The packages startWatching() function creates a map of any sf object you add to or change in your R session after the function is invoked. You can see how it works in the video embedded at the top of this article.

Customize R maps with mapview

There are mapview() arguments to customize map options such as color for polygon boundary lines, col.regions for polygon fill colors, and alpha.regions for opacity.

You can rename a layer with the layer.name argument if you want a more user-friendly layer name. This appears on the legend, the bottom right button, and when opening the layer button toward the top left.

In this next code block, I change the polygon colors and opacity using the Greens palette from the RColorBrewer package and an opacity of 1 so the polygons are opaque. (Note you will need the RColorBrewer package installed if you want to run this code on your system.)

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20",

col.regions = RColorBrewer::brewer.pal(9, "Greens"),

alpha.regions = 1)

The Greens palette has a maximum of nine discrete colors. mapview complains if you dont give it a palette with the number of colors it needs, as in the warning below, but it will do the interpolating work for you.

Warning message:

Found less unique colors (9) than unique zcol values (41)!

Interpolating color vector to match number of zcol values.

You can use a diverging palette in your map, too, such as the RdYlGn palette:

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20",

col.regions = RColorBrewer::brewer.pal(11, "RdYlGn"), alpha.regions = 1)

Screenshot by Sharon Machlis

This maps dark background appeared automatically, because mapview determined the map included a lot of light colors. You can turn off that basemap behavior with

mapviewOptions( "basemaps.color.shuffle" = FALSE )

Visualize two maps together

Now to a couple of those cool syntax options I mentioned at the beginning. Here Im creating two maps, one for the 2010 to 2020 population change and the other for 2000 to 2010:

map2020 <- mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20",

col.regions = RColorBrewer::brewer.pal(9, "Greens"), alpha.regions = 1,

layer.name = "Pct change 2010-2020"

)

map2010 <- mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange00_10",

col.regions = RColorBrewer::brewer.pal(9, "Greens"), alpha.regions = 1,

layer.name = "Pct change 2000-2010"

)

You can place the maps side by side and have them move in sync with the leafsync package and the sync() function.

library(leafsync) sync(map2010, map2020)





Screenshot by Sharon Machlis These two maps pan, zoom, and move in sync together.

Or, you can put two maps on the same layer and have a side-by-side slider to compare the two, thanks to the leaflet.extras2 package and the | (Unix pipe, not R pipe) character.

map2010 | map2020

Screenshot by Sharon Machlis The map slider can move left to right to show either the left or right map version.

Dont want legends, pop-ups, or hover text on a map? Those can be turned off with

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20", legend = FALSE, label = FALSE, popup = FALSE)

You can also turn off the background map tiles by using a data sets custom projection. One case where thats useful is if you want a map of the US showing Alaska and Hawaii as insets, instead of where they actually are geographically, for a more compact display.

The first four lines of code below use the albersusa package to generate a GIS file with Alaska and Hawaii as insets. But the resulting default mapview map of this data still shows default background tiles, resulting in Alaska and Hawaii appearing overlayed onto Mexico.

library(albersusa)

us_geo50 <- usa_sf("lcc") %>% mutate(GEOID = as.character(fips_state))

pop_data50 <- readr::read_csv("data/state_population_data50.csv")

all_data50 <- inner_join(us_geo50, pop_data50, by = c("GEOID" = "GEOID"))

mapview(all_data50, zcol = "PctChange10_20")





Screenshot by Sharon Machlis Sometimes you would like to use a custom projection and remove the background map tiles.

If I tell mapview to use the datas native projection, though, the projection is accurate and the background no longer includes map tiles.

mapview(all_data50, zcol = "PctChange10_20",

native.crs = TRUE)





Screenshot by Sharon Machlis Using a custom projection can allow for more flexible displays, such as this map of the US with Alaska and Hawaii as insets.

More R mapview customizations

You can customize your bin breakpoints with the at argument. In the code below, I set breaks using base Rs seq() function, going from -4 to 20 by increments of 2. The map colors and legend will show the new breaks.

mapview(all_data, zcol = "PctChange10_20",

at = seq(-4, 20, 2))

You can customize your pop-ups and hover text using the same techniques as with the leaflet R package. Im sure there are multiple ways to do this, but this is my usual process:

First, create a vector of character strings  with HTML code if you want formatting  using the full dataframe$column_name syntax for variables. I find the glue package useful for this, although you could paste() as well. For example:

mylabel <- glue::glue("{all_data$State} {all_data$PctChange10_20}%")

Second, apply the htmltools packages HTML() function to the vector with lapply() so you end up with a list  because you need a list  such as:

mypopup <- glue::glue("<strong>{all_data$State}</strong><br />

Change 2000-2010: {all_data$PctChange00_10}%<br />

Change 2010-2020: {all_data$PctChange10_20}%") %>%

lapply(htmltools::HTML)

mylabel <- glue::glue("{all_data$State} {all_data$PctChange10_20}%") %>%

lapply(htmltools::HTML)

My pop-up list now looks something like this:

head(mypopup, 3)

[[1]] <strong>Washington</strong><br />

Change 2000-2010: 14.1%<br />

Change 2010-2020: 14.6%

[[2]] <strong>Puerto Rico</strong><br />

Change 2000-2010: -2.2%<br />

Change 2010-2020: -11.8%

[[3]] <strong>South Dakota</strong><br />

Change 2000-2010: 7.9%<br />

Change 2010-2020: 8.9%
Louisiana property and casualty insurers will be assessed $100 million to cover the cost of two regional insurance companies facing insolvency due to losses from Hurricane Ida.

The Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association board voted Nov. 30 to assess admitted insurers 1% of 2020 net written premiums, weeks after Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon filed injunctions seeking a government takeover of Access Home Insurance Co. and State National Fire Insurance Co.

Insurance guaranty funds are non-profit, member-funded associations responsible for paying claims when insurers go insolvent.

LIGA said insurers will be able to recuperate the assessments over 10 years in the form of tax credits.

They dont get the value of their interest income that they lost, but they do get their principal back, said John Wells, executive director of LIGA.

LIGA, which last assessed fees on insurers in 2004, usually pays between $4 million to $8 million a year on claims.

The association had approximately $148 million in net assets at the end of 2020.

The combination of hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta in 2020 cost insurers $10.6 billion. Hurricane Ida is projected to cost insurers between $20 billion and $40 billion, according to the state department of insurance.

The two carriers that went under account for 1% of Louisianas property insurance market.

Access has about 20,000 policies and more than $17,500,000 in direct written premium, while State National Fire has about 9,000 policies and $3,000,000 in direct written premium.

LIGA can pay up to $500,000 per claim and $10,000 for premium refunds. Louisiana is one of only nine states that have guaranty fund coverage of $500,000 per policyholder.

On one hand these are some extraordinary times, following the hurricane a couple of insurance companies, but this is stuff that we do whenever insurance companies go out of business across the country, Wells said.

Topics Carriers Louisiana
Argo Group International Holdings Ltd., the Bermuda-based underwriter of specialty insurance, announced an agreement to sell its Malta business operations, ArgoGlobal Holdings (Malta) Ltd. and its subsidiaries, to Riverstone Holdings Ltd. (part of the RiverStone International group), an acquirer and reinsurer of legacy and discontinued insurance businesses.

This sale supports our strategy to focus on U.S.-based specialty insurance risks, said Andy Borst, interim president of international operations. ArgoGlobal SE business was primarily focused on insuring risks in Europe and has not been actively underwriting business since 2020.

The terms of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, were not disclosed. Closing of the transaction is expected to occur during the first half of 2022.

We are delighted to have executed a second legacy transaction with the Argo Group, which strengthens our important business relationship, said Luke Tanzer, RiverStone Internationals CEO. We look forward to working closely with Argo through the completion phase and to continue to service ArgoGlobal SE policyholders and claimants to the high standards currently provided.

Source: Argo Group International Holdings Ltd.

Topics USA Excess Surplus New Markets
OSLO/COPENHAGEN  Insurer Storebrand has agreed to buy the Norwegian unit of Danish pension provider Danica from Danske Bank, the companies said on Monday.

Norways Storebrand will pay 2.01 billion Norwegian crowns ($221.4 million) for Danica Pensjonsforsikring AS, the sixth-largest provider of defined contribution pensions in Norway, with a 5% market share.

With Danica on board, we strengthen our presence in the occupational pensions market for small and medium-sized enterprises and our personal risk offering, Storebrand Chief Executive Odd Arild Grefstad said.

Danske Bank expects a one-off gain of 400 million Danish crowns ($60.5 million) from the deal to sell the Danica unit, which manages assets worth 30.4 billion Norwegian crowns and earned a pretax profit of 127 million Norwegian crowns in 2020.

Brokers Nordnet said in a note to clients that Danskes Norwegian operations lacked sufficient scale and that the banks return on equity would improve if it sold out of Norway altogether.

Danske rejected the idea of a full retreat, however.

We have been a player on the Norwegian market for 150 years, and the Norwegian market will remain important to Danske Bank, said Glenn Soderholm, Danskes head of personal and business customers and chair of Danicas board.

However, the sale of the Norwegian part of the pension business at an attractive price represents a very good opportunity for us to execute on our strategy to simplify and strengthen our business, he added.

The acquisition will not affect Storebrands ability to pay dividends for 2021 and is expected to improve its return on equity as well as its capacity for payouts to shareholders in the longer term, the Norwegian company said.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Danske Banks shares were down 2.5% at 0915 GMT while Storebrands were down 2.6%, in line with a 2.6% retreat in European banking stocks as global markets tumbled on fears of the Omicron variant.

($1 = 9.0780 Norwegian crowns; $1 = 6.6073 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo and Nikolaj Skydsgaard in Copenhagen; editing by Tom Hogue, Devika Syamnath and Pravin Char)

Topics Mergers Carriers
Two men have died from injuries suffered in wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres across Kansas last week, authorities said Friday, Dec. 17.

Richard Shimanek, 84, a farmer and rancher who lived near Leoti, died Thursday night at a hospital in Denver, Leoti Mayor and Fire Chief Charlie Hughes said. He was outside his home trying to fight the fire Wednesday, Dec. 15 when he fell and couldnt get up, Hughes said.

The Ellis County sheriffs office said that the remains of Derrick Kelley, 36, were found near his burned vehicle in a rural area of the county. The coroner identified the remains, the sheriffs office said.

Kelley was last seen in Hays on Dec. 15, shortly before his fiancee reported him missing. The sheriffs office said he was believed to be driving on county roads toward Natoma.

Both men were killed in wildfires that erupted Dec. 15 in western and central Kansas, fueled by dry conditions and winds up to 90 mph (145 kph). The Kansas Forest Service said 625 square miles (1,620 square kilometers) burned in 11 counties in western Kansas, with smaller fires in other counties.

In the small town of Paradise in Russell County, one family was counting its blessings but also mourning the loss of their home and cows.

Brett Thompson, the 58-year-old mayor of Paradise, suffered eye injuries when he tried to rescue his cattle herd, said his daughter, Caity Thompson. While he was out, his home burned down _ the only house in the town of about 50 to be destroyed by the fire.

His wife escaped before their home was destroyed, and the familys grain elevator business was also spared, said Caity Thompson, a teacher in Jetmore who returned home when she heard about the fire.

Its a mixture of emotions, she said. Were devastated that the house is gone, along with half our cattle herd and a lot of our livelihood. But we still have the grain elevator, my grandma and sister still have their houses, and the main thing is my dad is alive.

As the fire moved through the region on Dec. 15, residents in Paradise and three other small towns were evacuated, said Dustin Finkenbinder, fire chief in nearby Waldo. The fire destroyed an area about 45 miles (72 kilometers) long, he told The Kansas City Star.

We fought fire and winds 50 miles an hour before, but nothing like maybe 100 miles an hour. So we just kind of did what we could, he said. As far as damage, I mean I guess catastrophic would be the right word.

Several smaller fires across the state were contained by Friday and crews were monitoring them to prevent reignitions, said Shawna Hartman, spokeswoman for the Kansas Forest Service.

But several larger fires were still burning , some in areas that were inaccessible to ground crews, she said. Officials were using helicopters to dump water on those fires, in an attempt to knock back the flames and heat and allow ground crews in.

It will take several days to determine how many acres burned and to completely contain the blazes and make the areas safe, she said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Kansas
Some Indiana doctors and health experts warned last week that a Republican-backed proposal aimed at limiting workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements would hurt efforts to stem the illness as the states hospitals are strained with their highest-ever overall patient counts.

They were vastly outnumbered, however, by dozens of people during a nearly seven-hour-long legislative hearing on the bill who questioned the effectiveness and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, argued against the proposed federal vaccination mandates and brought up a litany of grievances about government-ordered lockdowns and mask requirements.

The House committee hearing was held as Republicans aim to quickly advance the proposal once the legislative session starts Jan. 4. The bill includes administrative actions that Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb says would allow him to end the statewide COVID-19 public health emergency order thats been in place since March 2020.

House Republicans have taken up the effort they maintain would protect individual rights by forcing employers to grant exemptions to workers who claim medical or religious objections to any workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

Major business organizations argued against the proposed vaccination exemptions, which employers would have to accept from workers without further inquiry. The head of the state chamber of commerce said the proposal would discourage employers from requiring vaccines even if they believe it is best for their workers and customers.

Dr. Gabriel Bosslet, an Indiana University Health critical care physician, told the committee that hes seen people die needlessly because they didnt get vaccinated and was frustrated with an intensive care unit where nearly all COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

The message this bill sends is that vaccines are not important, Bosslet said. Vaccines are important. They are the only way to end this.

Indiana is averaging about 35 COVID deaths per day this month and hospitalizations with the illness have topped 3,000 people this week for the first time in nearly a year amid the states ongoing infection surge, according to tracking by the state health department. That is up about 150% in the past five weeks and the most such patients since just before Christmas Day last year.

About a quarter of those patients are in hospital intensive care units. Those COVID cases and other severe illnesses have given the states hospitals their highest-ever total patient counts of about 12,000, according to the Indiana Hospital Association.

Republican leaders had planned an extraordinary fast-track approval of the vaccine requirement limitations but called off a planned one-day session for the Monday after Thanksgiving after similar testimony during a Nov. 23 hearing that divided medical and business groups from an array of vaccine objectors.

Republican House Majority Leader Matt Lehman of Berne, who is sponsoring the bill, described the measure Thursday as ensuring individual liberties so that people wouldnt lose their jobs over not being willing to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

We must protect Hoosier workers, Lehman said. The genesis of this, the reason that we need to continue, is that we need to make sure Hoosier workers are protected.

Indiana has the countrys ninth lowest rate for a fully vaccinated population at 51.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eight rural counties scattered around the state have vaccination rates below 40%.

Holcomb has criticized President Joe Bidens proposed vaccine requirements for businesses but hasnt backed Lehmans bill, saying he supports the rights of businesses to make their own decisions.

Holcomb has said he would end the statewide public health emergency if lawmakers approved steps that would allow the state to keep receiving enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expenses and those eligible for food assistance programs, along with allowing the state health commissioner to issue a standing doctors order for the administration of COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11.

Holcomb said Wednesday he believed those items had universal agreement and should be dealt with separate from the vaccine requirement issue.

Why not deal with what we agree on, get that out of the way and then have our discussion? Holcomb said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Legislation Indiana
Tens of millions of workers across the U.S. are in limbo as federal courts have issued different rulings related to President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandates for larger private companies, certain health care workers and federal government contractors.

A federal appeals court panel has allowed a vaccine requirement for employers with 100 or more workers, although Republican attorneys general, business associations and conservative groups have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A vaccine mandate for companies that have contracts with the federal government is on hold nationwide, while a separate mandate for health care employees who work for providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding has been blocked in half the states.

The courts are responding to lawsuits brought by Republican-led states, conservative groups and some businesses. They argue in part that the vaccine requirements infringe on states rights to regulate public health matters. Numerous legal challenges are pending, some involving groups of states and others filed by states acting alone.

Separate Biden administration vaccine mandates for federal government employees and the military remain in effect, as do mask requirements for airline passengers and people using public transportation.

Court OKs Biden Covid Vaccine Mandate for Employers; Supreme Court Appeal Likely

The legal cases concern whether the federal government can force employers to require vaccinations. Courts have generally been accepting of requirements that businesses and universities have put in place on their own _ as well as those imposed by state and local governments.

More than four-fifths of adults nationwide already have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But Biden contends his various workforce vaccine mandates are an important step to drive up vaccination rates and contain the virus outbreak, which has killed more than 800,000 people in the U.S. OSHA Sets Dates for Vaccine Mandate Penalties The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said Saturday that it would not issue citations tied to its coronavirus vaccination mandate before Jan. 10, so that companies have time to adjust to and implement the requirements. The federal agency separately said there would be no citations of companies regarding its testing requirements before Feb. 9. The mandate was previously slated to take effect Jan. 4 Read more here.

The reasoning across the cases is basically the same, which is that these statutes dont give the president or the agency in question the authority to issue the mandates, said Gregory Magarian, a constitutional law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Biden administration contends its rule-making authority is firm and supersedes any state policies prohibiting vaccine requirements. Recent experience shows that such mandates generally prompt people to get vaccinated: By the time a Biden requirement for federal workers to be vaccinated took effect in late November, 92% had received at least their first dose of the shot.

Following is a rundown of some of Bidens most sweeping vaccine requirements and the status of the legal fights over them.

LARGE BUSINESS MANDATE

What it would do: Under a rule published by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Nov. 5, businesses with 100 or more workers are to require employees to be vaccinated. If they are not, they would need to be tested weekly and wear masks while working, with exceptions for those who work alone or mostly outdoors. The rule was to go into effect Jan. 4. The requirement would affect businesses with a cumulative 84 million employees, and OSHA projected it could save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.

Whos challenging it: The requirement is being challenged by 27 Republican-led state governments, some conservative and business groups, and some individual businesses. The states mostly filed lawsuits in groups, though Indiana challenged it alone. Their arguments include that its the job of states, not the federal government, to deal with public health measures. The Biden administration maintains that the measure is legal. Some labor unions also contested the rule, though not for the same reasons as the Republicans and business group. They say it doesnt go far enough to protect workers.

Where it stands: The OSHA rule is allowed to take effect, at least for now. On Dec. 17, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the mandate, reversing a decision by a panel of judges in the New Orleans-based 5th circuit. The legal challenges originally were filed in various U.S. appeals courts. The cases subsequently were consolidated into the Cincinnati-based 6th circuit, which was selected at random.

Whats next: Republican attorneys general, business associations and several conservative groups immediately appealed the 6th circuit ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, OSHA announced that it would not issue citations before Jan. 10 for its vaccination mandate or before Feb. 9 for its testing requirement to give employers time to adjust.

HEALTH WORKER MANDATE

What it would do: Under a rule published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid on Nov. 5, a wide range of health care providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding were to require workers to receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4. The rule would affect more than 17 million workers in about 76,000 health care facilities and home health care providers.

Whos challenging it: The rule was challenged in four separate lawsuits filed by Republican-led states, mostly in groups. Florida and Texas mounted their own challenges. The states argued that there were no grounds for an emergency rule, that CMS had no clear legal authority to issue the mandate and that the rule infringes on states responsibilities.

Where it stands: The rule is on hold nationally, but a ruling Dec. 15 gives it the possibility of moving ahead in about half the states. A Missouri-based federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Nov. 29 barring its enforcement in 10 states that had originally sued. The next day, a Louisiana-based federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement in the rest of the states. But on Dec. 15, that was narrowed to the 14 suing in that court. And on Dec. 15, a federal judge in Texas granted an injunction that applies only to that state. After the decisions, there is a possibility the mandate could be enforced in 25 states where no injunction is in place. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid have not said whether they will pursue that path.

Whats next: The court rulings are being appealed by the Biden administration. On Dec. 16 the administration asked the Supreme Court to block the lower court orders that are keeping the mandate from going into effect in about half of the states. The case filed in Missouri is being considered by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case filed in Louisiana, which was brought by a coalition of 14 states, is being considered by the 5th Circuit. So far, theres been no move to consolidate the challenges in a single court.

FEDERAL CONTRACTOR MANDATE

What would it do: Under an executive order issued by Biden on Sept. 9, contractors and subcontractors for the federal government are required to comply with workplace safety guidelines developed by a federal task force. That task force subsequently issued guidelines requiring that new, renewed or extended contracts include a clause requiring employees to be fully vaccinated Jan. 18. That meant those receiving a two-dose vaccine must get their second shot by Jan. 4. There are limited exceptions for medical or religions reasons. The requirements could apply to millions of employees.

Whos challenging it: The guidelines have been challenged through more than a dozen lawsuits, including seven brought by Republican-led states or coalitions of states. The arguments are similar to those against other vaccine mandates, asserting the Biden administration exceeded the procurement rule-making powers granted by Congress, infringed on states responsibilities and didnt properly gather public comment.

Where it stands: The rule is on hold. A federal judge in Georgia issued a ruling Dec. 7 prohibiting enforcement of the requirement for contractors nationally. The ruling came a week after a judge in Kentucky barred enforcement of the requirement in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

Whats next: Legal challenges pending in several other states could lead to additional rulings on requests for injunctions. The Kentucky or Georgia rulings also could be appealed.

A quick consolidation of the federal contractor lawsuits appears unlikely.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Commercial Lines Business Insurance
A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84 million U.S workers.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overrules a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.

The mandate from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was to take effect Jan. 4. With Fridays ruling, its not clear when the requirement might be put in place, but the White House said in a statement that it will protect workers: Especially as the U.S. faces the highly transmissible Omicron variant, its critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment.

Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups said they would appeal Fridays decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Update: After Latest Court Ruling, Must Employers Follow Bidens Vaccine Mandates?

Twenty-seven Republican-led states joined with conservative groups, business associations and some individual businesses to push back against the requirement as soon as OSHA published the rules in early November. They argued the agency was not authorized to make the emergency rule, in part because the coronavirus is a general health risk and not one faced only by employees at work.

The panels majority disagreed.

Given OSHAs clear and exercised authority to regulate viruses, OSHA necessarily has the authority to regulate infectious diseases that are not unique to the workplace, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, who was nominated to the court by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, wrote in her majority opinion.

Vaccination and medical examinations are both tools that OSHA historically employed to contain illness in the workplace, she wrote. OSHA Sets Dates for Vaccine Mandate Penalties The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said Saturday that it would not issue citations tied to its coronavirus vaccination mandate before Jan. 10, so that companies have time to adjust to and implement the requirements. The federal agency separately said there would be no citations of companies regarding its testing requirements before Feb. 9. The mandate was previously slated to take effect Jan. 4 Read more here.

Gibbons noted that the agencys authority extends beyond just regulating hard hats and safety goggles. She said the vaccine requirement is not a novel expansion of OSHAs power; it is an existing application of authority to a novel and dangerous worldwide pandemic.

She was joined in the majority decision by Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, an appointee of former President Barrack Obama, a Democrat.

The case was consolidated in the 6th circuit, which is dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Earlier this week, the circuits active judges rejected a move to have the entire panel consider the case, on an 8-8 vote.

The dissent in Fridays ruling came from Judge Joan Larsen, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, who said Congress did not authorize OSHA to make this sort of rule and that it did not qualify as a necessity to use the emergency procedures the agency followed to put it in place.

Larsen also argued that vaccinated workers do not face grave danger from working with those who are not vaccinated.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, said she would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the order. At least two conservative advocacy groups said they had already appealed to the nations highest court.

The Sixth Circuits decision is extremely disappointing for Arkansans because it will force them to get the shot or lose their jobs, Rutledge said.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who also is chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said in a Twitter message Friday that he was confident the mandate could be stopped.

The vaccine requirement would apply to companies with 100 or more employees and would cover about 84 million workers in the U.S. Employees who are not fully vaccinated would have to wear face masks and be subject to weekly COVID-19 tests. There would be exceptions, including for those who work outdoors or only at home.

The administration has estimated that the rule would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor, which includes OSHA, said the 6th circuits ruling will allow the agency to implement common-sense, science-based measures to keep workers safe and healthy during a deadly pandemic.

The vaccine rule for private employers is separate from other vaccine mandates announced by the Biden administration that apply to federal government contractors and workers in health care facilities that receive funding from Medicaid or Medicare. Those rules also are under assault from conservatives and have been paused in at least some parts of the country.

Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and DeMillo from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Commercial Lines Business Insurance
A federal judges decision to unravel a settlement shielding members of the Sackler family from future opioid litigation could upend a controversial corner of U.S. bankruptcy law: protecting third parties who have not filed for Chapter 11 themselves.

In a written opinion late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said federal law did not authorize so-called nondebtor releases granted in September to Sackler family members in the court restructuring of their company, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP.

Whether such releases are allowed represented the great unsettled question of the case, which had split federal appeals courts for decades, McMahon said.

Companies or individuals filing for bankruptcy are entitled to protections against creditors, including plaintiffs suing them, while they attempt to reorganize.

Judges increasingly over the years have shielded nondebtors with releases when approving a reorganization plan, especially when those third parties contribute money to the restructuring.

Indeed, absent releases, the Sacklers threatened to withdraw their $4.5 billion contribution to Purdues reorganization  a settlement aimed at resolving thousands of opioid lawsuits by steering money to U.S. communities reeling from the epidemic.

This, if it stands, will completely upend Chapter 11 practice, said Lindsey Simon, an assistant law professor at the University of Georgias law school. It effectively takes nondebtor releases off the table.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, among those who had objected to Purdues reorganization, said on Thursday he was prepared to eventually take his argument to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Purdue late Thursday said it would appeal McMahons ruling. On Friday, the company said nondebtor releases have long been allowed under the law in most jurisdictions  because they have long played a critical role in the successful resolution of mass tort bankruptcies in the United States.

Sackler representatives declined to comment or did not immediately respond to a request.

Boy Scouts and USA Gymnastics

Such releases, or the potential for their use, have sparked controversy not only in the Purdue case, but bankruptcy proceedings arising from litigation over sexual abuse involving the Boy Scouts and former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

Members of the bankruptcy bar who favor the releases contend they facilitate complex settlements, encouraging otherwise reluctant third parties to contribute funds toward reorganizations that rehabilitate businesses or resolve widespread litigation.

Critics argue the releases allow rich and powerful companies, directors, executives and investors to latch onto a bankruptcy case and extinguish their legal liability without subjecting themselves to their own Chapter 11 filing.

Congress designed bankruptcy filings for debtors facing crushing liabilities, not defendants seeking an end run around trial courts and juries, according to some legal experts.

In October, Johnson & Johnson Inc created a company to shoulder liabilities from 38,000 lawsuits alleging talc in its iconic Baby Powder contained asbestos and caused cancer. The subsidiary then filed for bankruptcy.

In what is often a precursor to third parties obtaining nondebtor releases, a judge granted an injunction halting litigation not only against the company under bankruptcy protection but also J&J, which did not file for Chapter 11.

J&J maintains its consumer talc products are safe and confirmed through thousands of tests to be asbestos-free.

Federal appeals courts over the years have issued conflicting decisions on whether such releases are allowed, with extra attention paid to whether they are being granted without permission from creditors.

McMahon, in her decision overturning Purdues bankruptcy plan, lamented a 2005 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion that urged nondebtor releases be granted sparingly in unique cases because they are ripe for abuse.

This will no longer do, McMahon said, noting the appeals court questioned whether bankruptcy law allows the releases. Either statutory authority exists or it does not. She said the Bankruptcy Code only allows nondebtor releases over creditor objections in cases arising from asbestos exposure.

In 1994, Congress authorized nondebtor releases specifically to help companies faced with monumental asbestos liabilities. Under the law, insurers would contribute to a trust to pay claims from people dying of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses.

In return, those insurers received nondebtor releases to prevent asbestos victims from turning around and suing them after collecting from the trust.

McMahon Opinion

In her ruling, McMahon said Congress never authorized the release mechanism beyond that circumstance.

More than 95% of Purdues 120,000-plus voting creditors approved the companys reorganization, including 43 states and territories, the company has said.

Those objecting to Purdues plan included eight states, and more than 2,600 personal injury claimants, McMahon said. The U.S. Justice Departments bankruptcy watchdog and the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan also objected.

Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would all but ban nondebtor releases, and further restrict the ability of third parties to have litigation against them halted while a debtors bankruptcy is pending.

The Sacklers must not be permitted to evade accountability by abusing our bankruptcy system, and I applaud the District Court for recognizing what Ive long believed  that nonconsensual third-party releases are not only immoral and unjust, but also illegal, House Oversight Chairwoman Caroyln Maloney, among the legislations backers, said in a statement late Thursday.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland late Thursday also applauded McMahons decision to overturn the Purdue plan.

(Reporting by Mike Spector in New York and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Amy Stevens and Jonathan Oatis)
A knot saw operator suffered a partial amputation of an index finger in June 2021 when his hand came in contact with a rotating blade that lacked adequate machine guarding. A few weeks earlier, a similar saw at the Maxwell Hardwood Flooring plant in Monticello lacerated a co-workers palm severely, leaving them with nerve damage.

An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration into Maxwell Hardwood Flooring determined that the flooring manufacturer failed to record the laceration on the companys OSHA 300 log, as the law requires.

OSHA cited the company for one willful violation, and three serious and two other-than-serious violations for five unguarded circular saws in use, lack of safe access and egress to and from walking-working surfaces, obstructed exit routes and a lack of a stair-rail system and handrails. OSHA proposed $204,797 in penalties.

OSHA issued citations for recordkeeping violations on Nov. 19, and for willful and serious violations on Dec. 2.

Maxwell Hardwood Floorings disregard for the safety of its workers has left two people with serious injuries, said OSHA Area Director Kia E. McCullough in Little Rock, Arkansas. Workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace. Employers must comply with safety requirements to ensure workers return home each day safely. When an employer fails to fulfill its obligation, OSHA will hold them accountable.

Exposure to amputation hazards is one of the top 10 most frequently cited violations. OSHAs Machine Guarding webpage provides compliance assistance resources to help employers identify amputation hazards, and follow required procedures to properly guard stationary and portable machines.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHAs area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Source: OSHA

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Manufacturing
Texas Department of Insurance Chief Deputy Commissioner Doug Slape is a recipient of this years Robert Dineen Award, the highest honor for a state regulator bestowed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Slape was honored with the Robert Dineen Award for his outstanding service and contribution to the state regulation of insurance, and for exhibiting an attitude and performing activities that foster the advancement of the insurance regulatory profession.

For more than 30 years, Doug Slape has built expertise across multiple areas of insurance regulation; shown leadership with a transparent, reasoned approach to developing solutions to complex issues; and provided national and global leadership to maintain states ability to effectively regulate insurance without federal preemption.

Were proud the NAIC has honored Doug for his many contributions to state insurance regulation, said TDI Commissioner Cassie Brown. His efforts have impacted the way state regulators and insurance companies conduct business throughout the U.S. and in other countries.

Slapes contributions to insurance regulation include:

Developing enhancements to the solvency regulation framework, which resulted in more resilient insurers in times of stress.

Leading the initiative to automate the review of quarterly financial filings to address the complexity of risk-focused supervision.

Educating and advocating for the state-based system internationally through the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.

Advocating for a coordinated approach to long-term care solvency that protects consumers, builds consensus among states, and maintains the effectiveness of the state-based system of insurance regulation.

Slape has served in a leadership position in many NAIC groups, including as chair of the Financial Analysis Working Group, Capital Adequacy Task Force, Risk Focused Surveillance Working Group, AIG Working Group during financial crisis, Audit Software Subgroup (now IT Examination Working Group), and Captive and Special Purposes Subgroup.

Source: Texas Department of Insurance

Topics Texas
The former president of Floridas Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has been found not guilty by a federal jury after he was charged with excavating a channel without authorization at his waterfront mansion.

Thomas Grady, now the chairman of the Florida Board of Education, has been at the center of the governors effort to bar local school districts from requiring masks for students and staff. Some have suggested that the federal waterway charges were politically motivated by federal authorities who have advocated mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They tried to bully him into pleading guilty, but he had the courage to stand up, which very few folks  even innocent people  have, Gradys attorney, David Markus, told the Miami Herald newspaper.

Grady, a wealthy securities lawyer who also was once head of the Florida Office of Financial Regulations, was accused in September with illegally excavating a waterway at his Florida Keys home without approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was charged with violating the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, a misdemeanor.

Grady maintained that he obtained all the necessary approval from local, state and federal agencies. The contractor on the job also testified that he believed that all needed permits had been obtained, according to news reports.

Grady, a former legislator who also maintains a residence in Naples, Florida, has been a controversial figure in Florida for the past decade. During his short stint at the Office of Financial Regulation, part of the Department of Financial Services, he reportedly spent more than $16,000 on travel and office furniture while closing agency offices around the state, according to news outlets.

In 2012 he was named president of Citizens, the state-backed insurer of last resort. There, Grady also was scrutinized for $10,000 in expenses, including posh hotels during a trip to Bermuda. Then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed Grady to the education board in 2015.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. acquired Escondido, California-based Bradawn Insurance Services Inc.

Dawna Gray and her associates will remain in their current location under the direction of Scott Gregory, head of Gallaghers Southwest Region employee benefit consulting and brokerage operations.

Bradawn Insurance Services offers health and welfare consulting services to large multi-state public, privately held, nonprofit and for-profit employers and organizations.

Arthur J. Gallagher is an insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Topics Mergers California A.J. Gallagher
The area of seed potato crops for certification in Ireland increased to 299 hectares in 2021, helping to fill a gap left by a Brexit ban on imports from non-EU countries.

This was a 29% increase in Irish seed potato production, over the previous five years.

The average area of seed potatoes certified in Ireland for the years 2016 to 2020 was 231 hectares, ranging from 203 hectares in 2019 to 253 in 2016.

Over the same period, the quantity of seed potato certified by the Department of Agriculture ranged from 2,123 tonnes in 2020 to 3,308 tonnes in 2016.

In the same years, between 2,990 (in 2016) and 4,015 tonnes (in 2020) of seed potato were imported from Scotland.

But with a reduction in imports due to Brexit, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said his officials are monitoring the area of Irish seed potato crops to be entered for certification in 2022.

In the Dail, he promised that his department will make adequate staff resources available for inspection and certification of seed potato crops, if there is another significant increase in the area of seed potatoes entered for certification in 2022.

Answering a question from Cavan-Monaghan Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy, he said figures for the quantity of seed potato imported from Scotland in 2021 are not currently available.

I am very much aware of the impact of Brexit on the seed potato sector and am committed to the development of this sector.

Meanwhile, following a recent visit to the Meade Potato Company in Lobinstown, Co Meath, Sinn Fein MEP Chris MacManus has written to European trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis to raise the concerns of Irish potato growers.

He said: EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031 prohibits the import of seed potatoes into EU member states from third [non-EU] countries other than Switzerland.

As Scotland is now a third country, a consequence of this regulation is that imports of seed potatoes are now prohibited. This situation is obviously creating significant disruption in the previously unhindered trade.

My understanding is that the only way this can be rectified is by recognition of the UKs phytosanitary standards as equivalent.

To date, the British government has refused the EUs request to agree to the dynamic alignment of standards, in exchange for the equivalence recognition, and this had led to a stalemate in talks.

However, Mr MacManus said the Irish seed industry is not in a position, at present, to supply the entire national requirement.

In recent years, Britain, but mainly Scotland, has provided Ireland with the most significant proportion of the imported seed required.

He said the impact of the breaking of this supply chain is expected to have dramatic consequences in 2022.

I made it clear to the commissioner that everything must be done in the current talks to reach an immediate solution.

Mr McConalogue has confirmed that the import of seed potatoes is currently prohibited, due to Britains new status as a third country.

He also revealed in the Dail that Ireland is the only EU state designated a high health status under EU legislation for the growing of seed potatoes.

Notwithstanding the challenges, I am firmly of the view that there is significant potential to increase the production and supply of Irish grown seed potatoes. I am committed to further developing this sector, he said.

This potential can only be achieved through close collaboration and full buy-in within the sector. I consider an industry-led approach, supported by DAFM, will be the most viable sustainable approach.
When I first saw The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with my dad at a Johannesburg multiplex one afternoon in that idle dead zone between Christmas and New Year, not everyone in the audience was left as rapt as they might now claim to have been.

Thats it? asked a bewildered punter in front of us, to nobody and everybody in general, as the credits rolled to the droning vocal windchimes of Enya.

Thats really the end?

He and his partner skulked out of the cinema before anyone could reassure them more was on the way. I assume they got the memo eventually.

Even for those of us forewarned of Peter Jacksons bold three-film adaptation strategy, however, the limbo in which the first installment left us was disorienting and exhilarating, like being woken abruptly from a still-escalating dream.

Twenty years on, to a Generation Marvel audience, that shock might be hard to understand.

A vast amount of blockbusters these days are but chapters in a larger narrative; their fans are less preoccupied with endings than with closing-credit teases and hints for whatevers coming next.

By 2001, we were fully accustomed to ubiquitous sequels, of course, though they largely feigned completeness in themselves each time; the promise of future extensions and rehashes was left tacit, a sort of silent gentlemans agreement between studios and paying viewers.

It might be unfair to draw a straight causal line between Jacksons project and the glumly corporatised franchise culture that overwhelms Hollywood cinema culture today.

For one thing, it shares either the credit or the blame with Christmas 2001s other colossal fantasy-film event: Chris Columbuss pedestrian but immediately obsession-inspiring Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, the first move in a more conservative strategy  only one film made at a time, at least to begin with  that nonetheless worked like gangbusters.

Columbuss film might not have had its follow-ups ready to go the way Jacksons did, but its scene-setting narrative and ellipsis of an ending as good as promised them, pending the audiences thumbs-up.

You dont need me to tell you how that turned out, but cinematically, the Potter franchise-starter was marked by its commercial caution: its imagination was safely limited, its storytelling by-the-book in all senses, its budget spent to yield more value than magic.

The Fellowship of the Ring, by comparison, was a reckless, wondrous extravagance to complement New Line Cinemas considerable risk-taking in funding the production of all three films upfront for over 235m, based on the conviction of a New Zealander best known in Hollywood for some cheerfully icky indie horrors and one brilliant, Oscar-nominated arthouse downer about teen female patricide.

One can only presume Jackson talked a good game. But he filmed one, too. From the films luxuriant, immediately immersive prologue, the viewer feels in the grip of a storyteller with complete conviction in his own vision  granted the money and wherewithal to realise what had long existed in his minds eye.

Director Peter Jackson.

That prologue alone is a pretty jaw-dropping feat of showing off: Guided by the seductively knowing voiceover of Cate Blanchetts Galadriel, we swoop through centuries and mountain ranges in mere minutes, merely passing through scraps of battle scenes that only preview the digital dazzle of grand-scale warfare to come, and are given our first intriguingly repulsive glimpse of Andy Serkiss Gollum, the uncanny motion-capture creation that would swiftly change the possibilities of human performance in mainstream film-making.

I had forgotten that The Fellowship of the Ring offers us this much straight out of the gate: Jackson is not a film-maker to hold onto his cards, even if spreading JRR Tolkiens admittedly vast narrative across three years and nine hours was nothing if not an exercise in delayed gratification.

Somehow, however, The Fellowship of the Rings keeps renewing its spell, giving us more things to literally ooh-and-aah over: The first, perfectly art-directed reveal of Bilbo Bagginss higgledy-piggledy home, its exquisitely shabby detailing extending outdoors into the impossibly green, rolling, topsy-turvy shire; the cameras first, awed sweep across Lothlorien, its soaring elf-gothic architecture impossibly hanging off vertiginous cliffs; the astonishing movie star entrance granted Liv Tylers Arwen on horseback, shrouded in ethereal mist and the backlighting of a Meat Loaf music video.

Never the most instinctively tasteful of film-makers, Jackson doesnt shy from New Age kitsch in his aesthetic; he just presents it with enough assurance and spectacular extravagance that we come to believe in it too.

I had always been less a Tolkien fanatic than an admirer, yet the first films immense achievement was to hook even agnostics with the sheer bravura excess of its world-building: Few who saw it didnt return the next year, and the one after, if only to see how much grander things could get.

That it all felt so fully and comfortingly imagined from the off was the beauty of Jackson and New Lines mad all-in-one gambit. There was little room here for adjustment or focus-grouping or interference: its imagination was brought to us whole.

The Fellowship of the Ring taught studios that audiences could be strung along for serials, that film-makers too could enjoy the expansive, sprawling privileges of what had hitherto been largely defined as televisual storytelling  albeit on a visual scale that, a decade prior to Game of Thrones, was still thought of as cinemas advantage.

Yet if the film changed cinema in this respect, few successors have used its expansions to similarly thrilling advantage  including Jackson himself, whose gaudy, bloated Hobbit trilogy had none of his first Tolkien outings breathless, liberated romanticism.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, meanwhile, proved that franchises could be built around multiple disparate visions rather than a single impassioned one, its corporatised cluster of superhero adventures covering a safe number of audience bases without ever approaching the near-deranged singularity of vision driving Jacksons franchise-starter.

You can even see the legacy of Jacksons game-changing battle scenes  all vast expanses of mud and blood and metal  in the murky, charcoal-hued digital showdowns that most contemporary superhero movies climax with these days, minus the crisp, crunchy tactility and human touch.

Somehow, The Fellowship of the Ring revitalised and ruined Hollywood cinema all at once 

a kind of riddled curse that Gollum himself would be proud of.

Guardian
A judge and jury will hear the case next year against a Romanian national accused of murdering a man at Boreenmanna Road in Cork during Christmas 2019 as the accused has been sent forward for trial.

The victims dismembered body was found in the grounds of a derelict house at Boreenmanna Road in Cork during the Christmas period two years ago.

On the application of Sergeant Pat Lyons at Cork District Court, Judge Olann Kelleher sent the case forward to the Central Criminal Court for trial. It will be a matter for that court to set a date for the trial.

Ionut Cosmin Nicholescu with an address at Branistea Village, Branistea Communve, Damovita County, Romania, was remanded in custody as his case was sent forward to the Central Criminal Court.

Defence solicitor, Shane Collins-Daly, said the accused would be bringing an application for bail before the High Court in Dublin. No date has yet been set for such an application.

Judge Olann Kelleher gave the accused man the alibi warning, which essentially requires the defendant to put the prosecution on notice if they intend calling evidence to show they were somewhere else at the time of the offence.

Legal aid

Mr Collins-Daly asked for legal aid to be extended for a barrister and a senior counsel at the Central Criminal Court.

The solicitor also asked for legal aid for the translation of the book of evidence into Romanian. He said the defendant could speak English but that his English would not be good enough for the technical matters in the book of evidence. Judge Kelleher agreed to extend free legal aid in respect of both of those applications.

While the book was served on Nicholescu last week he did not appear at Cork District Court in person but by video link from prison as he was in isolation due to Covid-19 protocols in prison last week. The book of evidence was served by Detective Garda Alan McCarthy on the defendants solicitor, Mr Collins-Daly.

Frankie Dunne whose body had been discovered at a derelict site at Castlegreina House, Boreenmanna Road, Cork, in 2019

The defendant is charged with the murder of Francis (Frankie) Dunne. Nicholescu is charged that on a date unknown between December 27 and December 28, 2019, he murdered Francis Dunne at Castlegreine House, Boreenamanna Road, Cork, contrary to Common Law.

Detective Garda Alan McCarthy gave evidence previously of arresting Mr Nicholescu at Dublin Airport, Swords, Co. Dublin, and later charging him with the murder of Mr Dunne. Nicholescu replied: I didnt do that, when the charge was put to him after caution.

Judge Kelleher previously agreed to a defence application to direct the prison authorities that Mr Nicholescu receive any necessary medical attention in prison.
The Port of Cork welcomed one of the worlds largest-ever car carriers to its port yesterday, the first commercial vessel to arrive at the ports new container facility in Ringaskiddy.

The Morning Laura, with a capacity to transport 8,000 vehicles, docked in the port for approximately eight hours to discharge 682 vehicles.

The vessel began its journey in Korea before it stopped in Morocco, Italy, Spain, and Britain, before Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

It began its journey in Korea before it stopped in Morocco, Italy, Spain, and Britain, before Cork.

The Port of Cork said that due to congestion, and the associated costs at other ports, it was feared the vessel would have to discharge the vehicles destined for dealerships in Ireland in Rotterdam port, which would have incurred further cost in having to ship them.

Picture: Eddie O'Hare

However, it said it partnered with shipping company EUKOR, to ensure the supply chain and distribution of new cars for sale in the New Year was not impacted.

The 682 vehicles, of which nearly 40% are electric, were shipped by manufacturers such as Hyundai, Kia, and Ssangyong.

The Morning Laura was the first ship to have docked at the ports new deep-water berth in Ringaskiddy.

Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The facility will see the transfer of container shipping services from Tivoli that will, in turn, free up land closer to Cork city for redevelopment.

We were very pleased to be in a position to accommodate their vessel and to play our part in maintaining the supply chain, particularly at this pivotal time of year for car sales, dealerships and indeed new car customers across Ireland, Conor Mowlds, chief commercial officer, Port of Cork, said.

Picture: Eddie O'Hare

This is further proof of the Port of Corks ease of access as a trade route to Europe and beyond and we look forward to maintaining and building on this new relationship with EUKOR into the future.
Far from the high rent pressure zones of Dublin lies Newcastlewest, a thriving town 40 minutes' drive from Limerick City.

A quick trawl online shows very little available on the rental market in the area  one three-bedroom property on the outskirts advertised with a rent of 1,150.

But a short distance away, a larger property is advertised on a different website at reduced rent in return for occasional fun in a house share arrangement with the landlord. So what is the catch?

The advertisement is just one of a number placed by sleazy landlords on less popular websites, offering reduced or free rent in return for sex.

While one of the properties is in Newcastlewest, the others are in different parts of Dublin.

One of those offers a friends with benefits arrangement in return for free accommodation.

Other advertisements which have expired in recent weeks were also offering rental arrangements in return for sexual favours  also in Dublin.

Concern has been raised about the existence of such arrangements by the chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell.

She says tenants taking up such accommodation are not entering into a situation of equal power.

It is a reality that someone is effectively selling sex for the amount of what the rent is," she said.

While tenants who end up in such arrangements will rationalise it to themselves when they enter into the arrangement, she says, the reality is that it equates to non-consensual sex because the tenant has no power in such a situation.

In such a case, the landlord sets the rule, sets the agenda, and is essentially purchasing sexual services," she said.

"It is consensual in so much that the tenant is entering into the arrangement but they have no power.

She said many people enter into arrangements of survival sex, either for money or in some cases, for accommodation.

The tenant has no security of tenure, no tenancy agreement. They always have to be pleasing to the person giving them shelter. It is a massive power imbalance between the two.

"The possibility of abuse is constant. The tenant must be available all the time. It is preying on people who have a need for accommodation.

Dr Cliona Sadlier, executive director of the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI), said: If sex is exchanged because you may be made homeless if you dont, that is not consent freely given."

She said RCNI has seen a growth in the amount of transactional pressure being put on young girls by young boys and older men looking for sex in return for something else.

A sex for rent arrangement is similar in nature.

What we see all the time is people telling us how sex has turned into something transactional.

In September, Labour TD Ivana Bacik introduced the Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill 2021 in the Dail.

Among the provisions in the bill is the proposed strengthening of protections against eviction for those who are renting.

Ms Bacik said she is really concerned about the existence of advertisements offering low or free accommodation in return for sex saying they indicate just how difficult it is currently for renters to find affordable accommodation.

"It is yet another reason why we need to move urgently to pass stronger laws protecting renters and why we need a three year rent freeze.

Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns said the increased presence of such advertisements is deeply concerning.

"There should be a filtering system on apps or websites to prevent these ads appearing and, at the very least, they should be immediately removed when reported.

"I would appeal to tenants, who have been sexually harassed or abused by their landlord, to come forward and report these despicable people to the gardai.

The issue was raised in 2019 by then Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger, who said sex for rent was becoming a reality for many tenants.

She told the Dail of messages she has been shown by a female tenant who was propositioned by her landlord when she told him she was leaving because the rent was too expensive.

Following that, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) discussed the possibility of conducting research to establish how prevalent was the practice in Ireland. However, the research has not taken place.

The possibility of including a question on the RTBs annual survey was examined and a meeting was held between the RTB and rape crisis representatives.

The consensus from the meeting was that there is a research gap on the issue of sex for rent and that it is important to gain a better insight into the occurrence of the issue.

"However, adding a question(s) to the current RTB annual tenant survey was not deemed to be the most appropriate method in which to research the issue given the impact it could have on participants and interviewers and due to the influence the face-to-face survey method may have on the response rate and data quality because of the sensitive nature of the topic.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.

According to the RTB, they do not have a role to play in relation to ads seeking sex for rent arrangements as the organisation only has jurisdiction once a tenancy begins. But the spokesman said: The RTB believe that any form of sexual harassment, intimidation or inappropriate behaviour in a persons home is very serious."

He said if someone feels threatened by a landlord or their authorised agent either verbally or via emails/text messages and it is interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of their tenancy, a tenant can apply for Dispute Resolution with the RTB citing breach of landlord obligations.

Housing Minister Darragh OBrien has condemned the advertising of sex in return for free or low-rent accommodation, and urged people to contact gardai about such advertisements.

A spokesman for his department said the Government has taken a number of steps in the past 18 months to increase protections for renters and pointed to the recently launched new Threshold campaign which is supported by the Department of Housing, called Own Your Rights.

The campaign aims to provide tenants with immediate and urgent assistance with issues affecting them.
Burma More Than Meets the Eye: Myanmar Junta Leaders Renovation of Pagoda

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing (left), Vasipake Sayadaw (in woolen hat, second from right) and Min Aung Hlaing's son Aung Pyae Sone (third from right) place the new diamond orb at Kyaik Devi pagoda on Saturday. / Cincds

Myanmar coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his familys renovation of a centuries-old pagoda has aroused suspicions, with many people questioning the reasons for it and condemning the presence of monks they see as close to the junta.

Regime-controlled media on Saturday aired footage of Min Aung Hlaing, his wife Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, their daughter Khin Thiri Thet Mon, their son Aung Pyae Sone and his wife Myo Yadana Htike attending a ceremony marking the renovation of the Kyaik Devi pagoda in Hlegu Township in the outskirts of Yangon Region. They invited Buddhist monks to consecrate the pagoda.

The clerics in question are Dhammasuta Chekinda and U Kovida. The latter, commonly known as Vasipake Sayadaw, is famous for his vows of silence.

Dhammasuta Chekinda is known for his summer school programs, in which he teaches teenagers Buddhism and other subjects like civics, attracting hundreds of youngsters annually. The monk has barely appeared in public since the coup and has been tight-lipped about the regimes brutal crackdowns on peaceful protesters, some of whom were the same age as his summer school students.

Vasipake Sayadaw is more controversial. Min Aung Hlaing has been his follower since 2006, when the general was serving as the commander of the Myanmar militarys Triangle Region, which oversees eastern Shan State. Renowned as a skilled astrologer and occult practitioner, the monk is believed to be the generals astrological adviser.

U Kovida has frequently been spotted at religious events with Min Aung Hlaing in recent years. In 2020, when Min Aung Hlaing placed the Hti umbrella atop an ancient temple in Bagan, the monk was there, supervising the ceremony. In the publics eyes, the event was nothing more than Min Aung Hlaings seeking of divine blessings to fulfil his wish to become the countrys president.

Following the coup, the monk was accused of advising the senior general to tell security forces to shoot protesters in the head. Most of the anti-regime protesters killed in the early days of the junta crackdown had bullet wounds to the head. As a result, he was singled out for criticism at anti-regime protests, with some protesters attaching photos of him to htameinwomens sarongsand hanging them in public places to express their wrath. Seeing the pictures of the monk he venerates attached to htamein is an infuriating sight for Min Aung Hlaing. He ordered his troops to take the womens garments down and publicly announced in his state-run papers that anyone committing the act would be charged with insulting Buddhism.

On Saturday, the monk was seen closely supervising Min Aung Hlaing as he placed a new diamond orbthe highest part of a pagodaat an old pagoda built by a Mon King centuries ago. Given the presence of his astrological adviser, and the nature of the event, Myanmar people naturally conclude the aim of the ceremony, in which the general breathed new life into the ancient temple, was nothing more than to seek divine blessings to sustain Min Aung Hlaings rule in the country.

The coup leader has been struggling since February to control the country, which has been rocked by popular armed resistance against his rule. He has killed more than 1,300 people, the majority of them opponents of his regime. Hours before the ceremony, his soldiers were heavily defeated in a clash with Karen rebels and civilian resistance fighters near the Thai border in Karen State.

After the ceremony on Saturday, Min Aung Hlaing wrote in the pagoda guestbook that he felt satisfied to be able to renovate the pagoda and wished that Myanmar be blessed with food security. Ironically, the bloodstained coup leader ended his wish by saying, Peace be upon Myanmar.

You may also like these stories:

Almost 100 Civilians Killed By Myanmar Junta Forces in September

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Burma Myanmar Junta Arrests Almost 100 Urban Resistance Fighters Over Last Six Weeks

Junta forces in Mandalay. / The Irrawaddy

Nearly 100 civilian resistance fighters in Mandalay were arrested between early November and December 16, as the military regime stepped up its hunt for members of Peoples Defense Forces (PDF), according to Mandalay-based resistance groups.

Over ten months after the military takeover, anti-coup resistance remains strong in Mandalay with regular street protests and occasional attacks on junta targets.

Some 100 urban guerilla fighters and logistical personnel were arrested between early November and December 16. Some of them were arrested stealthily. It is true that some were shot dead and wounded in arrests. Some resistance groups were hit hard. Equipment that resistance fighters had amassed at the risk of their lives was seized. And safe houses were lost, said a spokesperson for Spring Diary, an anti-regime group monitoring the post-coup situation in Mandalay.

A Buddhist monk who organizes nighttime protests in Mandalays Pyigyitagon Township said the regime is attempting to control major cities like Yangon and Mandalay by eliminating any potential threats.

They are trying to take control of major cities. They want to gain a foothold in places where PDF groups are not too strong. For example, the regime cant control the resistance of PDF groups in Sagaing Region, Kayah, Chin and other states. So they want to show that the major cities like Yangon and Mandalay are peaceful and under their control, said the monk.

A 20-year-old woman who was on her way to join a dawn protest in Mandalay was arrested after being rammed by a junta vehicle on December 8. On December 11, a motorbike rider was killed and three others seriously injured when junta troops opened fire on motorbike riders after they refused to pull over. Eight youths were killed and dozens were arrested on December 12 during regime raids on what junta forces described as PDF hideouts in Pyigyitagon and Maha Aung Myay townships.

While some arrests were made possible by junta informants and CCTV cameras, the Myanmar military has also employed ploys such as using detainees as decoys, forcing them to reveal PDF hideouts or luring them to places under false pretenses such as donating money to the resistance, said Mandalay guerilla fighters.

A spokesman for Paddamyarmyay PDF in Mandalay Region said: It is true that some members were detained. We wont cover that up. But the regime is trying to drive a wedge between the people and the PDFs by releasing misinformation and portraying the PDFs as terrorist groups. People have to be really careful about that.

Some of the detained resistance fighters were beaten to death or injured, critically in some cases, during interrogations, said Mandalay PDF groups. Tighter inspections and the rising numbers of arrests are increasingly restricting PDFs.

We only have each other. Please dont live like you have nothing to do with it. Dont cool down. We are really having a tough time on the ground. I would like to ask the people to help and protect us by providing information about the situation on the ground in their neighborhoods, said a member of the Mandalay Phoenix Force resistance group.

Junta soldiers have recently combed Mandalay for PDF members, raiding houses at night and sealing off homes by alleging that their owners have ties to the parallel National Unity Government, its legislative body the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw or PDFs. Family members of resistance fighters have also been taken hostage and people have been killed while trying to evade junta checks.

A member of the Mandalay Dragon resistance group said: People should effectively support local defense forces and underground forces near them, rather than speaking out against the coup on the internet. Removing CCTV cameras, guiding and hiding resistance fighters are also acts of revolution. Unity among the people is crucially important. It is time the people provided greater help. Otherwise, more resistance fighters will die. Only the support of people will be able to save the lives of our revolutionaries.

1,346 people were killed by the junta between February 1 and December 17, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Another 8,100 people were detained in the same period. 399 of them received prison sentences, while 36 were given death sentences, including two people under the age of 18. Arrest warrants and jail terms have been issued for 1,964 people in hiding. Of them, 39 were handed death sentences and 79 given prison terms.



You may also like these stories:

Hopes and Dreams of Myanmars Artists and Musicians Destroyed by Coup

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Myanmar Junta Forces See Heavy Casualties in Lay Kay Kaw Clashes
Burma Nine Civilians Killed by Regime Airstrikes in Upper Myanmar

A junta helicopter during the raid on Hnan Khar Village, Gangaw Township, Magwe Region on December 17. / Gangaw Youths Voice

Nine civilians including two resistance fighters were killed by a regime airstrike involving five aircraft on a village in Magwe Region last Friday.

Two helicopter gunships attacked Hnan Khar Village in Gangaw Township on Friday afternoon using machine-guns, while around 100 junta soldiers were airlifted into the village by two other choppers, according to Gangaw-Peoples Defense Force (PDF).

Meanwhile, a military jet fighter was also circling above the village.

The attack came as several leaders of local PDFs were holding a meeting at the village hall to discuss taking action against illegal logging and drug dealing in the area, a Gangaw-PDF leader told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Over 3,500 villagers fled their homes due to the airstrike, while hundreds of other people were trapped in the village.

Two civilian resistance fighters were killed in a firefight with the regime forces raiding the village. Two Hnan Khar villagers were also killed by gunshots to their heads after being detained and tied up by junta soldiers. They were arrested while working their fields and tending cattle outside the village.

Gangaw-PDFs leader, who is from Hnan Khar Village, said that a vehicle carrying eight people traveling from Gangaw was also attacked by regime forces while it was passing through Hnan Khar Village.

Five of the vehicles passengers were killed in the attack. During the raid on the village, three villagers were detained, while one villager was beaten. Myanmar military soldiers occupied the village for two days before leaving on Sunday, after burning down the house of a PDF leader and refugee camps near the village, according to locals.

A 50-year-old Hnan Khar villager suffering from health problems also collapsed and died on Sunday, after hearing a rumor that junta gunships were planning to return to the village to launch more airstrikes, according to Gangaw-PDF.

Junta-controlled state media stated on Friday that the village was raided after regime forces were tipped off that PDF members would be holding a meeting there.

The military regime claimed to have seized the bodies of six dead PDF members, as well as weapons, during the raid.

A villager told The Irrawaddy that more than 60 houses had been burned down during a total of four raids on the village in the last months.

They [junta forces] treated the village as a battlefield. These are human rights violations. We want the National Unity Government to arm us with modern firearms, a Gangaw-PDF leader said.

Also in Gangaw Township, 12 junta soldiers were killed on Sunday morning when Gangaw-PDF ambushed them with landmines as regime troops traveled from Hnan Khar Village to Myintha Village, Gangaw-PDF claimed.

After the ambush, angry junta soldiers responded by burning down a house in Myintha Village.

The military regime has frequently used helicopter gunships and jet fighters to attack PDFs in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin, Kayah and Shan states. The PDFs are mostly armed with old-fashioned or homemade weapons.

Regime forces are facing an increasing number of attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed groups across the country.

Meanwhile, the regimes atrocities continue, including the arbitrary killing of civilians, burning people alive, using detained civilians as human shields, bombarding residential areas, looting and burning houses and committing acts of sexual violence.



You may also like these stories:

Thousands Flee Into Thailand as Myanmar Junta Shells Villagers

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Burma Thousands Flee Into Thailand as Myanmar Junta Shells Villagers

Civilians try to cross the Thaung Yin River to take shelter on the Thai side on Sunday after the junta's shelling of civilian areas near Myawaddy in Karen State. / The Irrawaddy

Some 5,000 residents of villages in Karen States Myawaddy Township on the Thai border have sought shelter in the neighboring country, while an estimated 10,000 more locals remain internally displaced in the area following the Myanmar juntas heavy offensives against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and civilian Peoples Defense Force (PDF) groups.

On Sunday, more displaced people crossed the Thaung Yin River, which forms the border with Thailand, after the junta shelled civilian residential areas. A relief worker helping the IDPs said a growing number of people are stranded at the border and need help, as the fighting has escalated there.

The military fired artillery at them and some shells landed on Thai soil, the source said, adding that he heard the Thais fired back with smoke bombs as a warning.

Military tensions escalated last week when some 200 junta soldiers raided Lay Kay Kaw new town near Myawaddy on Dec. 14, alleging that democracy activists and members of PDF groups were hiding there. Two MPs-elect from the National League for Democracy, U Wai Lin Aung and Dr. Pyae Phyo, were among around 40 people detained by the junta on that day.

The raids and clashes followed the juntas accusation that the Karen National Union, Myanmars oldest revolutionary force, was supporting and sheltering striking civil servants and anti-regime armed resistance groups. The KNLA is the armed wing of the KNU.

Many internally displaced people (IDPs) have been unable to cross the river into Thailand, so Lay Kay Kaw administrative officials are arranging for temporary IDP camps to be set up in the area, said KNU Vice Chairman Padoh Kwe Htoo Win.

The military activities have continuously intensified in the area, with the deployment of 105-mm howitzers in Myawaddy. Its likely that they will fire artillery from there [at Lay Kay Kaw and surrounding areas], he said.

The junta has also sent drones and reconnaissance planes over Lay Kay Kaw and the surrounding area every day, he added.

On Monday morning, planes circled above Lay Kay Kaw, Padoh Kwe Htoo Win told The Irrawaddy in the afternoon. He added, We are worried they will bomb the area, which has many villages that are home to ethnic Karen, Mon, Shan and Bamar communities.



You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Junta Arrests Almost 100 Urban Resistance Fighters Over Last Six Weeks

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COMPANY NEWS: Cloudian today announced that its HyperStore object storage has been certified with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, a multi-cloud Kubernetes footprint that can run both on-premises in VMware vSphere and in the public cloud on Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure.

HyperStore delivers enterprise-grade persistent storage for modern, cloud-native applications in Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) customers own environments, with fully native S3 compatibility, limitless scalability, military-grade security and cloud-like agility at up to 70% less cost than public cloud offerings. Todays announcement complements Cloudians ongoing collaboration with VMware in other areas, such as enabling customers to support both modern and traditional applications from a single platform through HyperStores interoperability with VMware Cloud Foundation.

Cloud-native applications need cloud-native storage

Enterprises are increasingly deploying cloud-native applications on-premises to meet regulatory requirements and avoid the cost and complexity of moving large production workloads to the cloud. These applications require a modern storage foundation that can fully support technologies such as Kubernetes, serverless computing and microservices that are key components of these environments.

Unfortunately, traditional enterprise storage systems not only are difficult to provision and manage but also cannot deliver the cost-effective scalability needed. Purpose-built container storage offerings are more agile but lack the scalability, security and durability that cloud-native production environments demand.

Benefits of Cloudian object storage for VMware TKG

In contrast to these other solutions, Cloudian gives VMware TKG customers a highly scalable, more secure, and cost-effective enterprise storage platform with the agility and ease-of-management needed for cloud-native applications.

Key features and benefits include:

Fully native S3 compatibility, enabling application portability across on-prem and public cloud environments.

Simple API calls for high-level storage management access.

Multi-tenancy for secure, self-managed storage within a single platform.

Multi-cloud support with single-namespace simplicity, including out-of-the-box integration with AWS, GCP and Azure that maintains data in its native format.

Enterprise-grade security, including data immutability for ransomware protection, encryption for data in flight and at rest, integrated firewall, RBAC/IAM and SAML access controls, and certification with the most rigorous regulatory requirements, such as Common Criteria, FIPS and NIST 800-88.

Cost savings from consolidating traditional and modern workloads on the same platform, thereby eliminating infrastructure silos and capitalising on common skills and training.

As enterprises increasingly deploy applications of all kinds across both public and private clouds, they want a consistent operational model, said VMware senior vice president and general manager modern applications and management business group Ajay Patel.

With its native S3 compatibility, exabyte scalability and robust security, Cloudian HyperStore object storage provides a strong modern storage foundation for our Tanzu Kubernetes Grid customers.

Object storage has emerged as a key enabler for modern applications, helping organisations extract greater value from their digital assets to meet their business or mission objectives, said Cloudian chief marketing officer Jon Toor. Through our close collaboration with VMware over the past year, weve been able to extend the data management and protection benefits of our award-winning object storage platform to a broader range of customers and use cases.
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COMPANY NEWS: DHL Supply Chain, the worlds leading contract logistics provider, has accelerated its business expansion to meet a boom in demand for its services, while simultaneously increasing agent retention to a record high, with the help of a suite of Avaya OneCloud solutions.

Based in Singapore, DHL Contact Centre Services provides logistics solutions across a range of industries, including service logistics, technology, and public agencies. The COVID-19 pandemic created more opportunity to better support its customers increasing demand for fast and cost-effective contact centre services.

As many businesses found during the pandemic, the last 18 months were characterised by a huge spike in demand for high-quality customer experience services. Between 2019 and today, alongside the rollout of Avaya OneCloud, our number of concurrent agents has increased 300%, said DHL Supply Chain Singapore cluster CEO Jerome Gillet.

Retention in the contact centre industry has been a challenge for several years. With the support of a comprehensive, cloud-based collaboration tool, and an AI-powered contact centre, our retention rate has significantly increased to become the best-in-class in the industry.

The security and scalability of the product means we can replicate this customer service environment in other markets, enabling contact centre agents to log in from anywhere, at any time, and gain access to the communication and collaboration capabilities, Gillet added. In the near future, we will be scaling our contact centre offering to Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

DHL Supply Chain is oiling the wheels of businesses during an essential time, allowing it to meet demands that have only accelerated during and after the pandemic, said Avaya chief revenue officer Stephen Spears.

Cloud-based customer service capabilities, automation and knowledge management are combining to deliver these offerings at a much quicker rate while supporting those charged with providing the service.

Avaya is highlighting customer success stories and Avaya Experience Builders innovation at the annual Avaya Engage user conference in Orlando, FL this week. For more information, go to Avaya Engage 2021.
GUEST OPINION: Battered and bruised from the harsh realities of COVID lockdowns, Australian businesses are looking forward to what they hope will be a much better year ahead.

With restrictions easing and economic life showing positive signs, strategies are being drawn up to guide future growth. A key part of this process involves formulating plans for cybersecurity IT investment and deployments.

There are a number of key trends that appear likely to influence these new technology plans during 2022. They will have an impact on where funding should be allocated, and which projects should be given priority.

The trends include:

Ransomware attacks will continue to grow

The threats posed by ransomware will continue to be significant for organisations of all sizes. Attackers have found the technique can be both lucrative and disruptive for victims.

The problem has been amplified by the emergence of a Ransomware-as-a-service market in which ready-made malware payloads can be purchased by any willing buyer. This has served to increase the volume of attacks and the range of businesses being targeted.

Recent incidents of ransomware targeting supply chains are particularly concerning. When executed, they mean a single breach can have an impact on hundreds or thousands of end users. Unfortunately, the situation is only going to get worse in 2022.

SaaS and IaaS monitoring will improve

Software and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings are proving increasingly attractive for Australian businesses. They remove the need for up-front capital investments and shift technical complexity to the vendor.

However, many users have been frustrated with the access they get to performance diagnostics. In 2022, this situation will be resolved as increasing numbers of SaaS and IaaS vendors partner with best-of-breed monitoring and platform solutions. This will then provide their customers with levels of insight that had not previously been possible.

2022 will be the year of the great data steal

As workers are required to return to an office-based life, it's likely some will resist and look elsewhere for employment. Disenchanted with their current employer, some will be tempted to make copies of valuable data files and take them to a new employer.

Dubbed the 'great data steal' this trend could see some businesses lose confidential information which may then benefit a competitor. Internal data security will therefore become an even more important priority during the year.

TLS inspection will increase

For sound security reasons, the vast majority of data traffic within and between businesses is now encrypted. Unfortunately, this means that cybercriminals are following a similar strategy and encrypting rogue traffic as they attempt to infiltrate their victim's infrastructure.

As a result, security teams will need to become more serious about prioritising the inspection of encrypted channels to stop these threats and look to leverage the compute scale of the cloud to do it.

Hybrid work will continue to shake up IT infrastructure

The pandemic has changed the way employees approach their home and work life, with the majority now choosing to work for companies that allow them to work from anywhere. Moreover, flexible workspaces will prompt further investments in collaborative tools and wireless capabilities, along with cloud-agnostic technologies.

As hybrid work becomes the new normal, enterprises will accelerate their digital transformations to ensure the fast and secure access to cloud resources that they now need.

Zero trust fatigue will call for a clearer definition

Divergent zero trust definitions and confusion over what zero trust actually means, jeopardises the sensible adoption of more secure policies. Despite this, governments will drive zero trust deployment and uptake in response to the continuing threat of ransomware and other cybercrimes.

A holistic approach to zero trust is necessary to gain its benefits, yet enterprises swayed by the zero- trust hype, but who also lack a complete understanding of it, will fall victim to tick-box purchasing.

Automation will get smarter through AI and ML but will also divide opinion

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will help drive detection and response of advanced security threats during 2022. It will be more widely implemented through the automation of processes and in support of decision-making.

Workload orchestration will become a priority

Workload orchestration across cloud platforms, the edge, and data centres will be key as workloads follow people across zones. Enterprises will increasingly recognise the need to protect workload data as it moves through cloud environments.

Organisations will learn more about the internet and less about their internal network

Emphasis on traditional corporate networks will continue to decrease during 2022 as the internet becomes the connective tissue for hybrid workforces.

As enterprises move towards connectivity-as-a-service, security-as-a-service technology will deliver advanced security capabilities from the cloud to simplify IT infrastructures, while enforcing access policies consistently wherever users connect.

Operational technology will need to be modernised

Operational technology (OT) lags IT in overhauling security in response to enlarged attack surfaces. Now, OT is a risk to IT and will need rapid modernising during the year if companies are to mitigate risk to business continuity.

When you consider these powerful trends, it becomes clear that 2022 will be a time of extensive activity for many Australian businesses. Those that take the time to carefully assess how markets are evolving and align their product or services to match will be in pole position to capture new opportunities as they emerge.
GUEST RESEARCH: New research commissioned by OpenText reveals that concerns about phishing attacks is significantly increasing among IT and cyber security decision-makers, especially those at larger companies.

New data collected from IT and security executives and decision makers across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific gauged the awareness of and experiences with phishing attacks, levels of concern, business impacts, and mitigation challenges at small to midsize organisations.

The results highlight the growing importance companies need to place on ensuring their entire supply chain operates efficiently and has safety precautions in place to mitigate phishing attacks.

Key survey highlights across APAC include:

IT divisions were the primary target (55%) of all phishing attacks with web services (31%), customer service (22%) finance (15%), and CEO/board/top executives (15%) rounding out the top five

The level of concern regarding phishing threats is felt the most in APAC with 66% of respondents revealing they are very concerned. followed by 31% feeling somewhat concerned.

Forty-seven percent of APAC respondents are more likely to indicate employees are only somewhat prepared to combat phishing compared to other regional counterparts. Forty-four percent of APAC respondents indicated training investment increased and an additional 47% indicated security awareness training program is very effective.

APAC respondents are the most likely to indicate sensitive data has been exposed due to phishing at 41% compared to North America (29%) and Europe (26%). An additional 47% of APAC respondents more likely to report experience with search engine phishing.

Attackers go where the opportunity is, which explains why IT departments, top executives and finance groups remain common targets, says OpenText executive vice president SMB/C sales Prentiss Donohue. While we aim to get as close 100% as possible, it is unrealistic to expect that no employee will ever click on malicious links or fall for increasingly sophisticated and well-crafted phishing emails. This makes it vital for organisations to deploy a multi-layered approach to protect against the newest threats.

Protecting against phishing attacks is a top priority among those surveyed. In order to address these challenges, 87% of organisations are mandating security awareness training with 65% backing up email and collaboration data so its recoverable after an attack. Almost 61% of these companies are deploying endpoint security as a phishing defence mechanism.

More information can be found in the white paper.
Cybersecurity company Cybots has appointed David Toniazzo to the newly created role of ANZ direct sales channel manager.

"We are pleased to announce David Toniazzo has joined the Cybots ANZ team, particularly as we embark on a new chapter of growth for the company," said Cybots ANZ CEO and country manager Gary Denson.

"He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his many years in the technology sales world. David's strong track record and history of executive sales positions will play an integral role as we expand Cybots into the ANZ market."

Toniazzo brings more than 15 years of IT sales experience to Cybots.

He joins the company from OpenText, where he worked as ANZ channel account manager for Carbonite and Webroot.

Toniazzo previously worked in business development at Veloce, as senior presales and solutions consultant at Quest Software, and in a similar role at Globalnet Solutions.

He holds a diploma in advanced computer field service from RMIT University, along with a number of industry certifications.

"It's truly an exciting time to be part of Australia's thriving cybersecurity industry, and I'm thrilled to be joining a company that has been a pioneer in AI driven cybersecurity. Cybots' expansion into the ANZ market provides a huge opportunity for Australian SMEs to ensure they are safe and secure," said Toniazzo.

"I look forward to working with the strong team we have in place to build on the company's recent success."
Business consulting and technology company DB Results has promoted Natasha Bunshaw to the role of southern region general manager.

"Natasha's drive to engage and deliver outcomes has been instrumental in positioning us as trusted advisors for our customers," said DB Results CEO Andrew Dean.

"She has owned and driven our OutSystems practice, our agile delivery methodology, and our digital delivery capability so that they not only continue to be major growth areas for our business, but also key differentiators for the quality of our services and products."

Bunshaw joined the company in 2006 in an administrative role, and was progressively promoted to finance and contracts administrator, and then financial officer before taking on the regional general manager's position.

She holds a double degree in chemistry and law from the University of Melbourne, plus Prince2 and scrum master certifications.

"I have a real passion for delivering results and bringing out the best in our people. I am so excited to take on this role which enables me to influence and achieve these outcomes," Bunshaw said.
Security vendor Tenable has appointed Nigel Ng to the role of vice president for the Asia Pacific region.

"Ng's appointment comes at a time when organisations in APAC continue to migrate business-critical functions to the cloud to support a remote and hybrid workforce, exposing a vast majority of businesses to cyber risk in the process. As such, many of these organisations are re-evaluating their security and cloud strategies," said Tenable senior vice president of worldwide sales David Feringa.

"With Nigel's long-standing industry experience, I'm confident he will be an asset in an important region like APAC as we help customers and partners strengthen their cyber defences."

Ng brings more than 30 years of IT industry experience to Tenable.

He joins the company from RSA Security where he most recently served as vice president for worldwide sales.

Ng previously worked in sales roles at EMC, CA, Xpedite International, IPC and Osborne Computers.

He started his career at Westpac as a business systems analyst.

Ng holds a bachelor's degree in informatics from Griffith University, and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Management.

In his new role of regional vice president at Tenable, Ng succeeds well-known industry figure Gary Jackson who will retire from full-time employment at the end of the year after clocking up half a century in the industry.

"As the perimeters between the corporate and home networks continue to shatter, cybersecurity must take centre stage and be viewed as a strategic business imperative and not an impediment. The stakes have never been higher as cybercriminals continue to exploit the greatly expanded attack surface," said Ng.

"I'm honoured by this opportunity to lead Tenable APAC and take over the baton from Gary. Tenable is at a very exciting juncture of its business, built upon its leadership in vulnerability management and together with my APAC team, I look forward to working with our customers and partners to secure their ongoing shift to the cloud and dynamic environments."
GUEST OPINION: Every 11 seconds over 33,000 Google searches are entered throughout the world, in that same time somewhere an organisation will need to respond to a ransomware attack.

Since the AIDs Trojan in 1989, the first large scale ransomware attack, organisations have been faced with the questions of: How do we respond? Should we pay the ransom? This is no trivial matter, and in fact, it is likely to get a lot worse in Australia in 2022 and could become a top three matter for board room meetings all over the economy. Australia is already a major target for ransomware.

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), there was a 13 per cent jump in 2020/21 in the number of cyber-crime reports (more than 67,500). And that was just the ones which were reported.

That means there was a cyber-attack on average against an Australian business every eight minutes in that year  and it included high profile targets like JBS Foods and Uniting Care Queensland.

As a result, Australias State and Federal governments continue to intensify their focus on addressing ransomware, including the Federal governments Home Affairs Department issuing a Ransomware Action Plan document.

This package of legislation and investment in anti-cybercrime is one of the strongest to date in Australia, and includes the government introducing laws to make it a stand-alone offence for all forms of cyber extortion, reflecting the seriousness and prevalence of cyber-crime in Australia today.

Whether through legislation and regulation, investor confidence, or customer expectations, and now expert advice, both company directors, and senior managers need to be proactive and take responsibility in actively managing their organisation against the risk of ransomware  pleading ignorance will not be acceptable. As more and more company information systems are being accessed by work from home staff, including across public networks, what must be done? What is best practice?

It starts with making sure that a company ransomware strategy is understood across the relevant tiers and functions of an organisation, from the board all the way to the IT admin or security operations team, with risk and compliance brought in too. Like any crisis, its frankly too late to plan your response when disaster strikes. This is particularly important when it comes to handling a ransomware attack. In most cases, the answer to the question should we pay the ransom is no. There are multiple reasons why paying a ransom is not an effective ransomware response or remedy. And, while it may seem easier to pay, ransom payment does not guarantee business as normal the next day.

In addition, those funds your organisation has paid could fund the next attack, which may even be a key partner or customer. It could also be illegal to pay a ransom depending on the jurisdiction of your organisations operations.

Interestingly, AXA recently announced it will no longer sell cyber insurance covering ransomware. Death, taxes and cyberattacks - they are the three certainties in modern life. Every organisation will fall victim to cyberattacks, for those that fall victim to ransomware there is a lasting threat to business operations, and in many cases something malignant will have been going on for a long time.

A multi-layered security approach to prevent the attack is required upfront, but what about data recovery in the event of a breach of your network? A next-gen data management architecture offers organisations deeper data oversight and extends your security capabilities, ultimately providing a better chance of recovering against attacks.

By understanding where your data resides and eliminating the fragmentation that occurs across multiple data silos, you immediately are in a better place to protect the precious data being held. Such next-gen data management solutions and services should consolidate silos, increase visibility, remove complexity, increase automation to eliminate human error and standardise processes, and offer immutable backup by design.

Without this level of data management, organisations are unable to holistically protect, detect and recover from ransomware. If you're in a situation where you have been attacked and you must consider paying a ransom to get your data back, you've already lost. Businesses must get ahead of these attacks by preparing properly. People focus on the defence, not on the recovery.

Even though it may seem like the easiest way to get your business back up and running, paying a ransom doesn't restore your system back to normal. There is often a lot more work to do, file corruptions, and a prolonged period of network/service outage. The quick dollar paid does not provide the remedy it promises.

Taking proactive steps to next-gen data management, before an attack, by conducting regular backups and planning data recovery, will strengthen an organisations ability to respond and remedy a ransomware attack.

For the organisations that take the passive approach, the crunch time of having to decide between paying a ransom to moderately recover, or losing it all, might be just eleven seconds away.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Benoit Cure, an executive at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), stated that cryptocurrencies are growing very fast and are becoming mainstream in a different way. He emphasized that decentralized finance (defi) is a wake-up call to financial regulators. He said that countries are likely to agree on a global framework for cryptocurrency next year.

BIS officials regard Defi as a wake-up call to regulators, and global policies are expected to be introduced next year

Last week, Benoit Cure, member of the BIS Executive Committee and head of the BIS Innovation Center, talked about cryptocurrency, global regulation, and decentralized finance (defi).

Cure is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank (ECB) and held various positions in the French Ministry of Finance and the French Debt Management Office before joining the European Central Bank. He announced on Thursday that he had been nominated to lead the French competition authority.

The head of the Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements told the Financial Times that global regulators have intensified discussions on high-level global policies for cryptocurrency and decentralized finance. The publication conveyed:

After the rapid growth of decentralized finance has sounded the wake-up call for them, financial regulators may reach agreement on a global framework for cryptocurrency next year.

The executive at the Bank for International Settlements pointed out that regulators can no longer ignore defi on the grounds that it opens up new avenues. .. Interconnection with traditional finance, which will generate potential new forms of systemic risk. 

Regarding global regulation, Cure suggested that the Financial Stability Board (FSB) would be the most suitable platform for global regulators to agree on a consensus framework, and pointed out that they might do so in 2022. However, he pointed out that it is time for countries to adopt new measures, which means that it may take at least two to three years for us to achieve a stable pattern on a global scale. The BIS executive described:

The risk in 2022 is for large jurisdictions  [like] Europe, United Kingdom, United States, [and] China-keep going, but on a different track, and produce a globally inconsistent system.

Kuray pointed out that the adoption of different encryption methods by countries will create opportunities for regulatory arbitrage, allowing companies and individuals to play with the authorities by choosing the most advantageous place for their business. He added: This is a risk that should be avoided, and there is still time to avoid it. Speaking of encryption, an executive at the Bank for International Settlements said last week:

It is indeed growing very fast now. .. Become the mainstream in a different way, then it must be time for unified supervision.

What do you think of Benoit Cures comments? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Kevin Helms As an Austrian economics student, Kevin discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, and the intersection of economics and cryptography.











Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for reference only. It is not a direct offer or invitation to buy or sell, nor is it a recommendation or endorsement of any product, service or company. Bitcoin Network Does not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. The company or the author is not directly or indirectly responsible for any damage or loss caused or claimed to be caused by using or relying on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Multi-billion dollar companies around the world are betting on Bitcoin (Bitcoin).Recent analysis by Nickel Digital Asset Management, European Investment Manager Established The investment in BTC by 20 listed companies with a market value of more than US$1 trillion is approximately US$9.6 billion. Individual investors are also becoming more and more interested in this asset.

Grayscale Researchs 3rd Annual Bitcoin Investor Research found that Demand for Bitcoin has risen sharplyAccording to this research, 55% of current Bitcoin investors have started buying the asset in the past 12 months. The Grayscale report also pointed out that the market interested in Bitcoin investment products expanded to 59% in 2021, up from 55% in 2020 and slightly more than one-third in 2019, reflecting steady growth.

However, while the worlds enthusiasm for Bitcoin may be increasing, concerns about its environmental impact are more obvious than ever. For example, Grayscale Research also found in its investor research that more than 30% of investors are worried about the potential negative impact of Bitcoin on the environment. Interestingly, this consideration will not become apparent until 2021, as the report shows.

Model for calculating Bitcoins carbon emissions

Given the growing concerns about Bitcoins carbon footprint, new models are emerging to help investors and companies understand how to ensure that their BTC holdings are sustainable. For example, the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center and the digital asset management company INTAS.tech Publish A study on November 16 outlined a new way to offset the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the Bitcoin network. This formula produces two methodological factors: a transaction-based method and an ownership-based method.

Philip Sandner, a professor at the Frankfurt Academy Blockchain Center, told Cointelegraph that asset managers and investors across Germany are particularly concerned about whether Bitcoins carbon dioxide footprint meets environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Therefore, Sandner explained that he wanted to create a formula that would enable asset management companies, mining companies, exchanges, and individuals to calculate the carbon dioxide footprint of their BTC:

Usually, we will allocate the largest burden of carbon dioxide compensation to Bitcoin mining companies, but there are still ETF issuers, companies and exchanges who want to prove to customers that they are taking steps to compensate for their carbon dioxide footprint. 

According to Sandner, the goal at the beginning of the study was to first calculate the global energy consumption of Bitcoin between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021. The results show that 0.08% of the worlds carbon dioxide equivalent comes from Bitcoin. Based on this figure, Sandner stated that the maintenance of the global Bitcoin network requires 37.97 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

In order to calculate Bitcoins carbon footprint from an investors perspective, the study pointed out that companies can focus on the network usage (in bytes) or Bitcoin holdings specific to the growth of the Bitcoin blockchain in a specific time frame. period. According to the document, the average bitcoin transaction on the bitcoin blockchain contains 670 bytes, and the estimated carbon footprint is 369.49 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent. Sandner explained:

These carbon emissions can be compensated by the EU Emissions Trading System certificate. A certificate for one ton of carbon dioxide is about US$50, which is equivalent to about US$18 to compensate for a single BTC transaction. Now, if the investor or company Holding one BTC, this will cost about 2 tons of carbon emissions. If the EU emissions trading system is used to compensate, then it will be about 100 US dollars.

Benjamin Schaub, a senior consultant at INTAS.tech, told Cointelegraph that companies can apply the mentioned transaction and bitcoin ownership formula to calculate the carbon footprint they should offset. The great thing about this model is that all the required data is publicly available. There are no assumptions here, just about how the company interacts with the Bitcoin network.

Schaub added that Iconic Holding GmbH, which provides exchange-traded products in Germany, is currently applying this approach to ensure sustainability: We are still in discussions with some very large exchanges. I firmly believe that in the next year Here, the major players in the field will be more concerned about this topic.

Although it is difficult to predict the future, it is worth noting that some major exchanges and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have begun to adopt similar methods to offset Bitcoins carbon footprint.For example, Schaub pointed out that cryptocurrency exchanges BitMEX is trying to make its BTC holdings carbon neutralAccording to a recent BitMEX Research blog post, the company Believe The most effective way for users and exchanges to evaluate Bitcoins carbon footprint is through on-chain transaction fees. A BitMEX spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company concluded that, according to the companys formula, every dollar spent on bitcoin transaction fees can incentivize up to 0.001 metric tons of carbon emissions.

There are currently only a few ways to help companies offset their Bitcoin carbon emissions, Sandner commented that as the Bitcoin network ages, transaction fees become more and more important. Therefore, he believes that companies must consider a transaction-based approach when ensuring carbon neutrality.

Schaub further pointed out that the source of electricity used should be considered, and pointed out that the model developed by INTAS.tech and the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center looks at the energy mix applied in the United States and Germany: This ensures that we can observe more and more miners Aware of this topic, and looking for electricity from renewable sources.

In addition to exchanges like BitMEX developing models for calculating Bitcoins carbon emissions, some ETFs are also doing the same.For example, Canadian Bitcoin ETF issuer Ninepoint Partners launches carbon neutral Bitcoin ETF May 2021. Alex Tapscott, managing director of Ninepoint Digital Assets, told Cointelegraph that although this is the right approach, it also benefits the entire enterprise:

Many investors with ESG requirements worry about Bitcoins footprint and stay on the sidelines. We want to make it easier for them to become stakeholders and participate in the rise of Bitcoin.

Tapscott added that generally, investors in Bitcoin funds and miners themselves demand that the industry be more sustainable. In view of this, Tapscott believes that in 10 years, Bitcoin will be close to 100% renewable: It may even help subsidize the development of renewable projects because it is a rough and ready-made buyer that can be placed at the source. At the same time, carbon offset is a good way to bridge the gap.

How accurate are these models?

Although it is becoming increasingly important for companies to offset their Bitcoin carbon emissions, it is important to recognize the challenges associated with the model in question.

For example, Sandner stated that all the numbers compiled in the model he helped create are changing over time. For example, as we saw recently in Chinas mining ban, the hash rate is changing. The computing power has dropped by 50%. Therefore, Sandner realized that the fluctuation of indicators must be considered. He added that every country has a different carbon dioxide-intensive energy mix, noting that Norway tends to be more environmentally friendly than other regions.Finally, Sandner pointed out that the carbon price needs to be carefully observed and added that the price has already Increase During December.

related: No return?Crypto investment products may be the key to mass adoption

In addition, a BitMEX spokesperson mentioned that the companys formula is not a perfect method, and pointed out that the exchange expects and welcomes criticism. However, the company believes that the formula is indeed an improvement over other estimates. According to the post, the equation used is quite simple because only the average Bitcoin price is used instead of an estimate of the electricity cost of Bitcoin mining.

Sandner ultimately believes that the largest part of the work that needs to be done is still in progress, noting that most of these methods are still emerging:
The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration said on Saturday that it will not release citations related to its coronavirus vaccination mission before January 10 so that the company has time to adapt and implement these requirements.

The federal agency separately stated that it will not cite companies for its testing requirements before February 9.

The announcement was made after the Cincinnati Sixth District Court of Appeals decided on Friday that the authorization of large employers can continue. This is in contrast to the previous courts made by 27 Republican-led states, conservative groups, business associations, and some individual companies. Decided to be the opposite. Challenged authorization.

OSHA said in a statement that it will not release citations before the listed date, as long as the employer takes reasonable and sincere efforts to comply with the standard.

The authorization was originally scheduled to take effect on January 4.

The Biden administrations vaccine requirements apply to companies with 100 or more employees and covering approximately 84 million American workers. Employees who are not fully vaccinated must wear masks and undergo weekly COVID-19 tests. There are exceptions, including those who work outdoors or only work from home.

Government officials estimate that this mission will save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations within six months.
The soaring number of COVID-19 cases, long lines of test lines, and event cancellations may seem familiar, but so far, New York City hospitals have not seen the surge that swept emergency rooms in the early stages of the pandemic.

The state reported on Saturday that nearly 22,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday  surpassing the record set the day before for the highest number of new cases in a single day since testing was widely available. More than half of the positive results occurred in the city.

The Rockets cancelled the remaining performances of the Radio Citys Christmas Wonders on Friday, citing increasing challenges brought about by the pandemic. Some test sites in the city have their lines extended to the neighborhood, and home tests are still difficult to obtain. Or more expensive than usual.

But city data shows that so far, the average level of new hospitalizations and deaths is much lower than the peak in spring 2020, and even lower than the level this time last year, in the winter wave when vaccination has just begun.

According to Dr. Eric Legome, who oversees two of the networks seven EDs, the number of patients admitted to the emergency department of the Mount Sinai Health System has increased by about 20% in recent days, including various diseases. But at least so far, we have seen treatments and releases of coronavirus patients are far more numerous than earlier waves, he said.

Legome said that many people are looking for tests to help relieve mild or moderate symptoms, or monoclonal antibody therapy, but few people need oxygen or hospitalization. He operates ED on the western side of Mount Sinai and the morning edge of Mount Sinai.

The number of hospitalizations and deaths tends to rise and fall within weeks of cases. But Dr. Fritz Francois, director of hospital operations at New York University Lange Health Hospital, said that so far, we have actually seen a different situation from the previous surge.

He said that, on the one hand, COVID-19 patients go home faster.

The number of COVID-19 patients in NYU Langone has increased slightly, and there are currently about 80 patients in several hospitals near New York City and Long Island. Francois said this is about 80% less than the figure at the top of the wave last winter.

He said that New York University Langone continues to update its plan to deal with the surge, but this preparation is just the new normal.

In the huge Northwell Health system, if this happens, we are ready to do it again, but vaccination and the past two years of experience make the current situation different, Dr. John DAngelo said, integrated operations.

I believe we will get through the storm, but there are some challenges this time, and I think we have to think about it carefully, he said.

Among them: In the case of many hospitals across the country with insufficient staff due to various reasons, with the spread of omicron, more employees may be born sick or be quarantined. Northwell laid off about 1,400 people, or about 2% of its employees, earlier this fall because they refused to get vaccinated. Nevertheless, DAngelo stated that it has enough staff to meet its anticipated demand.

Northwell is the states largest private healthcare system, with nearly 22 hospitals in New York City and surrounding areas. As of Friday, the system has approximately 400 COVID-19 positive patientsup from the approximately 300 a few weeks ago. But its only a small fraction of the 1,350 points last January, not to mention the 3,500 points in the early spring of 2020.

DAngelo said that about a quarter of people were vaccinated, up from 10-15% a month ago, mainly people with underlying health problems.

The New York Presbyterian Hospital system stated that its COVID-19 admissions have increased slowly but steadily, but all of its hospitals are operating normally.
Bill Mather, a pharmacist in Greenfield, Iowa, wants to make sure that his neighbor can dispense medicine without driving long distances or waiting long hours.

Therefore, when chain pharmacies and large-scale stores began to expand into the rural market, he sold his pharmacy to Pamida, a grocery chain under Shopko Department Store, in 2007, hoping that this would allow his business to continue. Then, in 2019, when Shopko declared bankruptcy and closed more than 360 stores, he and another Shopko pharmacist helped open a new pharmacy in the city of about 2,000 people.

Across the country, when large chain pharmacies and large stores with pharmacies exit small communities, pharmacists like Mather are filling the vacancies. In some areas, pharmacists who were fired when large chain stores closed are now opening new pharmacies, usually in the same location. In other areas, pharmacy owners from neighboring towns are opening new branches. Without them, many communities would not have pharmacies.

It was not like this before. Hypermarkets like Shopko started to enter the pharmacy market 30 years ago, hoping that customers can fill their trolleys while the store dispenses them. Large chain stores have established beachhead positions in small towns by acquiring independent pharmacies or eliminating them.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of pharmacists employed in hypermarkets peaked in 2012, exceeding 31,800. But with the growth of online sales and mail delivery of consumer goods and prescription drugs, there is no reason for hypermarkets to stay. By 2019, the number of large pharmacies had fallen to less than 18,000. (The bureau no longer reports the number.)

Large stores enter smaller and smaller communities and, in essence, they outperform all other pharmacies in the area in competition, said David Zgarik, Professor of Pharmacy at Northeastern University, Boston. Now they are completely gone, pharmacy services and everything they provide are gone. They have left a vacuum in many places.

With CVS Health recently announcement 300 stores will be closed every year for the next three years, and more towns may lose another tier of pharmacies: large chain pharmacies. CVS has not yet revealed which stores will be closed.

We consider many factors when making these decisions, including local market dynamics, demographic changes, store density, and the needs of underserved communities, said Mike DeAngelis, a spokesperson for CVS Health. In fact, throughout the pandemic, reaching out to underserved people has been our top priority, such as obtaining the tests and vaccines we provide.

Kathleen Bashur Spokesperson National Chain Pharmacy Association, Indicating that chain pharmacies of various types and sizes play an important role in meeting the health and healthcare needs of communities across the country. The decision to close a store was a difficult decision, she said.

Zgarik attributed most of the decline in large pharmacies to Amazon and other online merchants, which undermined the profitability of its non-pharmacy sales. In the past, large stores could treat pharmacies as loss-making leaders and make up for their income by selling other goods. Now, Zgarrick says, large stores have to ask tricky questions about how to allocate space: After all, how do we maximize revenue per square foot? Is it by owning a pharmacy or selling tires?

Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara, chronicle The rise of Wal-Mart says that large stores are constantly re-evaluating their store locations, closing lower-margin stores, and opening new stores where they think they can make money.

They just maintain a slow drain, he said.

Lichtenstein said that the cost of building a large store is about 10 million U.S. dollars, and the annual revenue of such a store can reach 200 million U.S. dollars. Therefore, if revenue drops, leaving a certain location is not a huge loss for large companies.

So they will close the store and leave a destroyed town because Wal-Mart has let others close down, he said.

Wal-Mart did not answer questions about its closure.

Driven by people shopping at home during the covid-19 pandemic, online selection of various commodities has increased, which has put further pressure on large stores.

Compared with five years ago, they are less likely to do that kind of roaming shopping now, said Adam Hartung, a business strategy consultant. Spark partnersThey wont say,Oh, lets get a prescription, and while we are here, lets walk through the store to see the vacuum cleaner. This wont happen again.

Hartung said that there is a surplus of stores in the US retail market, which is as high as 40% compared with other countries, and more large stores may close in the next few years.

However, the closure provides an opportunity for regional chain stores or pharmacists who are willing to strike on their own.

In Orofino, Idaho, after Shopko withdrew, the mayor, chamber of commerce and many residents appealed to Rod Arnzen, a pharmacist. So Arnzen started delivering goods to Orofino from his store in Kamiah, 23 miles away. Then, he opened a branch in Orofino in the building left by the pharmacy that sold the business to Shopko.

Andy Pottenger, who owns a pharmacy in Lewiston, Idaho, 45 miles away, opened his first store in Orofino, a population of about 3,000, after receiving hundreds of responses. Two pharmacies.

Its overwhelming, he said. This reinforces the idea that we should do this.

In Montana, after Shopko closed, Mike Matovich, a third-generation pharmacist, opened stores in Roundup and Hardin.

This is a pretty large community, and there is a hospital and clinic in the town, Matovic said of Roundup. Suddenly, people drove 50 miles to replenish sick children with antibiotics in a way.

Matovic has seen what happens when a rural community loses its only pharmacy.

If there were hospital clinics and pharmacies, they would do quite well, Matovic said. Once you lose one of them, the community will start to struggle because people start to leave to get closer to healthcare.

For the residents of Greenfield, Iowa, Shopkos decision meant they had to scramble. Shopko sold the pharmacy record to a Walgreens 50 miles away. Some people turn to nearby Hy-Vee grocery stores in Atlantic or Winterset, Iowa, or Wal-Mart in Crestoneach of which is at least half an hours drive away. Others switched to mail order.

Its a mess, said Rachel Hall, a former Shopko pharmacist. People are trying to figure out what to do and where to send the prescription.

Mather, Hall, and other staff at Greenfield received only one weeks notice after being told they didnt need to worry. Their pharmacy has been one of the fastest growing locations for chain stores.

We did have Shopko trophies, but we threw them away when we left, Hall said.

A former Shopko executive contacted by KHN declined an interview request. Shopko Optical, which operates in 11 states, said it is no longer associated with Shopko Stores and declined to comment.

Mather and Hall didnt want to give up Greenfield. They contacted NuCara, a chain of 30 retail pharmacies in five states, and agreed to help them open a pharmacy in their city.

NuCara opened pharmacies in two other communities vacated by Shopko. Brett Barker, vice president of NuCara Pharmacy, said that in Cokato and North Branch, Minnesota, NuCara works with pharmacists who previously sold pharmacies to Shopko.

In Greenfield, before Shopko officially closed, Hall and Mather were prohibited from introducing customers to the new NuCara pharmacy. Hall stated that Shopkos management wanted to maintain the value of the customer files it sold to Walgreens. Therefore, Hall and Mather asked the local chamber of commerce to release news.

They found temporary space in a local hospital, which moved the billing office to accommodate them. A year later, they moved back to their original location in the old Shopko building and rented space from the new owner who runs a home furnishing store there.

After serving three generations of Greenland customers, Mather breathed a sigh of relief. There is also a pharmacy in the town. But he couldnt understand how Shopko ended things.

The way they slammed the door, I was really upset, Mather said. Its not fair to everyone in Greenfields pharmacy and the people in Greenfield. Shopko doesnt care at all.

However, this move gave Mather a complete victory. Greenfield still has a pharmacy, just like when he started at Murdy Drug in 1968. Its just a different storefront with a new name on the sign.
Electronics-related brand Radioshack announced that it will now switch to a cryptocurrency-centric model. The company stated that its focus will be on bridging the gap and introducing cryptocurrency into mainstream uses. This is the latest version of the brands story, which was known for providing retail-level electronic products in the 70s and 80s.

Radioshack launches Defi business

Radioshack is a 100-year-old brand that was associated with consumer electronic devices and personal computers in the 70s and 80s, and is now shifting its business to a cryptocurrency model. data The company provides. The mission of the companys new iteration is to bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream.

To this end, Radioshack will first launch a decentralized exchange or exchange to allow its users to exchange currencies for others without registering on a commercial exchange. Radioshack explained that the back end of this work will be provided by a partner agreement called Atlas USV. The company estimates that this partnership will allow this new swap to provide traders with less slippage because the exchange is expected to use its own liquidity model.

If launched, the exchange will have its own native token, called RADIO.

Fell to the ground twice and resurrected

Radioshacks encryption road follows the company Archive It filed for bankruptcy protection twice in 2015 and 2017, and released the last green number in 2011. However, the brand was resurrected and acquired last year, becoming part of the brand portfolio in the hands of two investors. Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez acquired the brand, and they are now investing it in this new focus based on cryptocurrency.

Investors announced when they acquired the brand that they had no intention of reviving the old e-retail business, aiming to transform Radioshack into an online market. Mel declared:

We bought raw materials to build a large enterprise. Brand means trust. And this brand is very, very strong. I have quantifiable data showing that the brand is very strong.

Radioshack is not the only traditional company that has recently switched to encryption.Kodak, a photography-related brand, also produced cryptocurrency bet As early as 2018, when it announced the launch of its own token, Kodak, the token will be used to allow users to register their photos on the platform and allow them to be used for other purposes. However, this transition was short-lived, and Kodak coins were never launched.

What do you think of Radioshack and its transformation to cryptocurrency? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goshenko Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He described himself late and entered the crypto space when prices rose in December 2017. With a background in computer engineering, living in Venezuela, and being affected by the cryptocurrency boom at the social level, he offers a different perspective on the success of cryptography and how it can help people without bank accounts and underserved people.

Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
Greg Treverton was once the chief forecaster of the United States.As Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, he is responsible for overseeing the US governments quadrennial Global trend Report. In his 2017 report, he cautiously acknowledged the weaknesses of the United States itself. It points to increasing inequality and highly polarized politics. But the report optimistically concludes that the United States has an inclusive ideal. .. Remains a key advantage.

In the four years of Treverton, now in academia, a more pessimistic view has been adopted.Last week, he published an article articleCo-authored with Karen Treverton, titled A Civil War Is Coming. It believes that the differences between the red and blue United States are now so extreme that some kind of division is inevitable. The division may be peaceful and involves a looser federation. But it can also be violent. The Trevortons pointed out ominously: Republicans are more than twice as likely to own guns as Democrats.

If this is just an isolated view, it may not make much sense. But other well-known American analysts have reached similar dystopian conclusions.See publication next month How the Civil War started Barbara Walter of the University of California is the leading academic authority on the subject.she debate The United States meets the standards of countries on the verge of internal violent conflict. In her view, this will appear as a rather consistent stream of terrorist attacks rather than a conflict between standing forces.

Even scholars who have not clearly focused on political violence are becoming increasingly pessimistic. Thomas Edsall, who tracks social science trends for The New York Times, famous Last week, political scientists increasingly argued that returning to traditional democratic norms (in the United States) will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

This panic and frustration is not limited to the blue America.Republicans even more likely The Democrats say that the countrys democracy is in danger  a reflection of Donald Trumps insistence that the 2016 election was stolen from him. Civil war talk is also common on the American right.Senator Ted Cruz meditation Last months news about Texas leaving the union.Michael Anton, who recently served on the Trump National Security Council Comparison of The United States today is based on the state of the country before the Civil War and argues: The Americans are more The disagreement with us on the eve of that great conflict was no less than. 

The deep melancholy of the American elite is related to the broader sense of national decline. One of the few things that Republicans and Democrats agree on is that the United States should now treat China as a serious and dangerous global competitor. Until recently, most Americans believed that no matter what other problems they encountered, the United States would maintain its technological advantage over China. But this can no longer be taken for granted. In a recent article, Graham Allison of Harvard University and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, debate China will soon lead the United States in technology.

The almost desperate sentiment of the United States is fostering the opposite sentiment of the Chinese elite-increasingly believing that their country is surpassing the United States and will eventually replace it as the dominant force in the world. In a recent speech, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Announce The rise of the East, the decline of the West.

The fact that 800,000 people died in the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while China claims that the number of deaths is less than 5,000 is often cited as evidence of the superiority of the Chinese system.

Chinas growing confidence is permeating official exchanges between the two countries. When U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken condemned Chinas actions on Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chinese Secretary of State Yang Jiechis reaction was dramatic contempt. debate: The United States is not qualified to say that it wants to speak to China from the perspective of strength.

Of course, in a closed system like China, it is difficult to know whether official statements about the superiority of the Chinese system reflect true self-confidence. Critics who speak out against Xi Jinping often end up in jail. Zhang ZhanA citizen journalist expressed doubts about the official account of what happened in Wuhan, where the epidemic originated, and was sentenced to four years in prison.But foreign observers and journalists who travel extensively outside Beijing Report The self-confidence and nationalism of the central government seems to be widely recognized by local Communist Party officials and the wider population.

The combination of current American democratic crisescombined with increased confidence in authoritarian statesreminiscent of the 1930s. The Great Depression convinced many people in the United States and around the world that liberal democracy has fatal flaws. The one-party states of the Soviet Union, Mussolinis Italy and Nazi Germany declared their superior efficiency to their own people and political pilgrims from the West.

Facts have proved that the shining image of authoritarian power in the 1930s concealed their deep problems, while the apparent weakness of the United States concealed its deep resilience. Those who still regard the United States as the global guardian of political freedom have to hope that history is repeating itself.

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While busy solving Jeong Yu Na's case, Ryu Yoo Seol (Lee Dong Wook) backed out after getting a promotion at work. It was when he met again the Helmet guy (Wi Ha Joon) and found a shocking revelation about his real identity in "Bad and Crazy" episode 2.

'Bad and Crazy' Episode 2: Ryu Yoo Seol Asks Help From an Expert About His Dreams with the Helmet Guy

In "Bad and Crazy" episode 2, Ryu Yoo Seol (Lee Dong Wook) was still in search of Jeong Yu Na after he got new evidence that will prove who the real culprit behind her case is.

Meanwhile, Do In Beom (Lee Sang Hong) showed the video recording he robbed from Oh Gyung Tae (Cha Hak Yeon) to Assemblyman Do Yu Gon (Lim Ki Hong) with the thought it could be used against them by the police. It turned out that it was a birthday greeting of Jeong Yu Na to her daughter.

After being troubled with his dreams, Ryu Yoo Seol went to a psychiatrist and told his story about the helmet guy, whom he just saw in his dreams. But no matter how many times he mentioned the helmet guy, the expert didn't believe him and just ended up giving him medicine.

Yang Jae Sun and Ryu Yoo Seol Have New Lead for Jeong Yu Na's Case

Upon checking all the CCTV footage, Yang Jae Sun (Cha Si Won) and Ryu Yoo Seol found a new lead for Jeong Yu Na's case and they immediately visited the place and found ashes from the place and later on confirmed to be Jeong Yu Na.

But Ryu Yoo Seol found another CCTV footage where Do In Beom visited Oh Gyung Tae's place on the night that the rookie police officer was in a critical condition. After seeing all the evidence gathered, he now believed that Oh Gyung Tae's statement was true. But it was too late because the case was already closed after Do In Beom framed again Oh Gyung Tae who was still unconscious at the hospital after he beat him up.

In Beom got Gyung Tae's fingerprint and put it on the murder weapon used to Jeong Yu Na and ended up as the suspect for her case.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Bad and Crazy' Episode 1: Lee Dong Wook Had an Intense Encounter With Wi Ha Joon

Helmet Guy is Ryu Yoo Seol's Alter Ego

Though he still wants to continue investigating Jeong Yu Na's case and to clean Oh Gyung Tae's name, Ryu Yoo Seol backed out after he got blinded by the promotion. He got the promotion that he's been waiting for but not satisfied after the emotional attachment Ryu Yoo Seol got from his latest case.

But that's when the helmet guy appeared again in his life, to remind him of the right thing he should do. The helmet guy helped Yoo Seol to find another piece of evidence that will prove the real culprit behind Jeong Yu Na's death. They went again to the warehouse and found the necklace that had a camera on it.

The police officer was surprised to see Assemblyman Do in the video together with Jeong Yu Na and confirmed that Mr. Do was the last person that Jeong Yu Na met before she died.

The next day, Yoo Seol was confused whether to pursue the case or just turn a blind eye on it since it will affect his new position as chief officer. While wandering, the helmet guy (Wi Ha Joon) appeared and that's when he finally asked his real identity.

Ryu Yoo Seol found out that the helmet guy who keeps on helping him to do the right thing was actually his alter ego.

What are your thoughts about "Bad and Crazy" episode 2? Share it in the comments!

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.
Fans would get to see Hwang Jung Min on the big screen with Jeon Do Yeon in Netflix's "Kill Bok Soon." The award-winning actor is the latest celebrity added to the star-studded cast of the action thriller movie.

Although his character has not yet been announced, his presence in the upcoming film will surely enthrall fans with his diversity as an actor.

Apart from the "Lost" actress, Hwang Jung Min will be working alongside Sol Kyung Gu, Goo Kyo Hwan and "Taxi Driver" star, Esom.

'Kill Bok Soon' Release Date and What We Know So Far

The upcoming film will join a slew of highly anticipated Korean films, which are set to be released on Netflix in 2022, including "Yacha" and SeohyunYachtLove and Leashes."

According to reports, "Kill Bok Soon" will begin production at the end of 2021 and aim to debut sometime in 2022.

The forthcoming action thriller movie is helmed by "The Bad Guys: The World of Bad Guys" director Byeon Byun and will be produced under Seed Films.

In "Kill Bok Soon," Jeon Do Yeon will transform into the mysterious killer, leaving fans in awe of her combat skills.

Interestingly, this is said to be her first action movie and her first collaboration with the streaming giant.

As for Esom, she will take on the character of Min Hee, showing the viewers her chemistry as siblings with Seol Kyung Gu.

Hwang Jung Min's Mega Hit Movie' Hostage: Missing Celebrity'

The 51-year-old star recently made waves after starring in the blockbuster film "Hostage: Missing Celebrity."

Hwang Joon Min took on the role of an A-list celebrity named Jeong Min, who was abducted and attempted to escape a group of unidentified men.

"Hostage: Missing Celebrity is directed and written by Pil Gam Seong and was based on the Chinese movie "Saving Mr. Wu," which surpassed over 1.2 million moviegoers in less than three weeks since it aired.

At the time, Hwang Jung Min's movie was head to head with "Escape from Mogadishu" starring Jo In Sung, which also raked millions during the premiere.

In an interview ahead of the film's release date, the renowned actor spoke about his experience filming the movie.

He shared that the action crime film delivered an unconventional genre that would stimulate the audience's curiosity.

With the majority of the movie revolving around him being held captive, Hwang Jung Min mentioned that the kidnapping scene setting was "fun."

"I kept running to make good scenes. They (the hostage-taker) couldn't follow me because I was running fast. I ran to death and kept shooting the same scene because there was a gap between us, so we couldn't get it in one angle," he explained as he spoke about the challenges he encountered physically.

As for the director, he praised Hwang Jung Min and said that he "was the only actor who could express those emotions of the character within a limited time."

Apart from his upcoming movie, the award-winning star is making a comeback to the small screen with a thriller crime Kdrama, "Suriname," under Netflix.

KDramastars owns this article

Geca Wills wrote this
"Snowdrop," starring BLACKPINK Jisoo and Jung Hae In, faces another petition to cancel the drama right after airing its debut episode.

On December 18, fans get to see the characters of Im So Ho and Eun Young Ro, played by the "D.P" actor and the Kpop star, as they begin their love journey amid the chaotic time.

'Snowdrop' Petition Reaches the Blue House + Gains Over 200,000 Signatures

Although the drama premiere became a trending topic on social media, several viewers appear to be disappointed with the episode prompting them to submit a petition to the Blue House.

A day after "Snowdrop" episode 1 aired, an appeal titled "Petition to stop broadcasting drama Snowdrop" was filed, pointing out the historical distortion seen on the melodrama.

According to various media outlets, the petition, which gained over 200,000 signatures, states that "Snowdrop" is romanticizing and presenting the male lead character as a spy by posing as a pro-democratic, causing it to highlight a distortion of history and "damage to the pro-democracy movement's historical value."

"At that time, the production team had no intention of doing so and they claimed, 'The setting of the democratization movement which is led or participated by the male and female leads does not appear anywhere in the script'. However, in episode 1, which was aired recently, the female lead misunderstood the male lead as a spy and saved him," the petition reads.

To recall, the late 1980s was a tough time for South Korea as many civilian and innocent people were tortured and killed by the government for being mistaken as a spy.

Moreover, the appeal also called out using the song "Sola Blue Sola," which became an iconic hymn during the "democratization movement" against the government.

Based on the petition, it highlights "the pain and victory of those who carry out the democratization movement."

It was the scene in "Snowdrop" where Im So Ho, played by Jung Hae In, was chased by Lee Kang Moo's character Lee Kang Moo, who is a member of the National Security Planning.

'Snowdrop' Loses Advertisers After Receiving Backlash

Due to the ongoing backlash, the advertisers in Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK Jisoo's Kdrama begin to pull out sponsorships.

According to reports, brands are starting to suspend or cancel their advertisement, including a tea brand, Teezan.

Following the episode 1 broadcast, the company posted an apology over their official social media accounts, stating, "We sincerely apologize for causing concern over the recent advertising sponsorship issue."

Moreover, Teezan also cleared that they "have not received any prior notice of the drama script or plot"; hence they have "not been able to review the sponsorship."

Other brands that reportedly withdrew their advertisements include Hans Electronics, a rice cake brand and a fashion brand.

Amid the height of the "Snowdrop" controversy, JTBC has not yet responded on this matter.

KDramastars owns this article

Geca Wills wrote this
As the story progresses, the cast also gives their best effort in delivering outstanding performances that viewers enjoy. Because of his amazing performance in "The Red Sleeve Cuff" Episodes 11 and 12, lead star Lee Junho set the internet afire and received high praises.

Keep on reading to know more.

Lee Junho Praised for Performance in 'The Red Sleeve Cuff' Episodes 11 and 12

In "The Red Sleeve Cuff" episode 11, Yi San (Lee Junho) was on the verge of receiving a punishment from his grandfather, King Yeonjo, after he was framed for conspiring to oust His Majesty from his throne.

The Crown Prince expressed his sincerity towards the king, even after all the painful memories he had with him. Yi San retained his love for his grandfather.

If Junho doesnt win the daesang I WILL PERSONALLY GO TO MBC and bring it to him!! #LeeJunho # #TheRedSleeve pic.twitter.com/dauJaDpMO8  Shoug (Yi Sans PROTECTOR).. (@Sh_RD1) December 18, 2021

Lee Junho wowed the viewers with his powerful acting as he portrayed the desperate and tearful Crown Prince trying to get his message and affection across his grandfather who's battling dementia.

His expressions towards Hong Dong Ro (Kang Hoon) also showed superiority - even though Yi San already knew his Lecturer is not loyal to him, he responded to him as a dignified royal and thanked him for saving his life from palace traitors.

'Acting Genius' Lee Junho Receives High Praises from Co-Star and Viewers

In "The Red Sleeve Cuff" Episode 12, when King Yeongjo threw a sword at his direction, Yi San cried out to the king who was unable to recognize him.

Here, Lee Junho perfectly delivered his lines packed with emotions amid a lachrymose scene of desperation between a grandson and his grandfather.

Meanwhile, it's not just the viewers who were impressed by the idol-actor. Lee Deok Hwa, who played the role of the king and Yi San's grandfather, was also mesmerized by the younger actor's performance. The veteran star commended Lee Junho during the drama's press conference last November.

Lee Deok Hwa confessed that the "Wok of Love" star was born to become an actor for his natural talent in performing.

No wonder Lee DeokWha sunbaenim was all praises for our Junho. Their scenes together were insane and Junho really did hold his own in front of such a formidable co star. Nothing but remarkable. # #LeeJunho #LeeDeokHwa# #TheRedSleeve @dlwnsghek pic.twitter.com/xIcTjgR0yZ   | faith (@cuckoo4nuneo) December 19, 2021

What are your thoughts about Lee Junho's performance in "The Red Sleeve Cuff"? Tell us in the comments!

For more Korean drama, movies and celebrity updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
The cast of the highly loved crime drama "One Ordinary Day," including Kim Soo Hyun, Cha Seung Won, Kim Sung Kyu, Lee Seol, Kim Shin Rok and Yang Kyung Won, bid their goodbyes and shared their honest thoughts on the drama.

Lead Stars Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won On 'One Ordinary Day' Drama Conclusion

The drama starred Kim Soo Hyun as a falsely accused murderer who seeks to clear out his name. When asked about his thoughts on the drama, the actor said, "Hyun Soo (Kim Soo Hyun) survived inside prison with his own will and skills, but lawyer Shin Jung Han (Cha Seung Won) was his sole source of strength. It's a drama that everyone must binge-watch this holiday season."

Kim Soo Hyun then expressed his deepest gratitude to his fans who supported him throughout the drama's broadcast.

Opposite Cha Seung Won, who portrayed the role of Shin Jung Han, Hyun Soo's lawyer. He said, "The drama delivered a variety of genres in South Korean dramas. It's a shame that the drama is already over. There are a lot of well-executed scenes that are really remarkable."

"The drama's success is all thanks to the hard work of the writer, director, Kim Soo Hyun, the cast and audio director," Cha Seung Won continued, thanking everyone who was involved in curating the masterpiece. "Thank you, once again, to the viewers who watched the drama without fail. I hope "One Ordinary Day" and Shin Jung Han remain in your memories for a long time."

Kim Sung Kyu, who played prisoner Do Ji Tae, said, "It was received well by the public and they enjoyed watching the drama, that alone gave me a different feeling of satisfaction."

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'One Ordinary Day' Episode 8: Kim Soo Hyun Finally Sees Light After Enduring a Tormenting Battle

"I'm relieved that the drama delivered the message well. I hope "One Ordinary Day" will be remembered as a meaningful project. Thank you for your love and support," Kim Sung Kyu added, expressing his gratitude to fans and viewers.

Supporting Actors Lee Seol, Kim Shin Rok and Yang Kyung Won Who Strengthen the Drama

Apart from the three lead stars, the drama was an absolute success because of its amazing lineup of supporting actors.

Rookie lawyer Seo Soo Jin stole the hearts of many in the recently concluded drama. Actress Lee Seol, who worked hard for "One Ordinary Day" shared, "Time flies so fast. I remember we were still filming it one day, and everyone was waiting for its big premiere. I can't believe it's over now."

When asked about her favorite scene, she chose the one where prosecutor Ahn Tae Hee (Kim Shin Rok) negotiated with her boss over Kim Hyun Soo's final sentence.

"Although it only consists of eight episodes, there are a lot of stories in the drama that no one should miss."

Promising actress Kim Shin Rok, who played villainous prosecutor Ahn Tae Hee said, "The four weeks of "One Ordinary Day" was nothing but breathtaking. It is a work that evokes thoughts and feelings from viewers, and it has an effect for a long time."

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THIS: 3 Reasons Why Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won's 'One Ordinary Day' is Loved By Many

"I want to thank everyone who supported me as Ahn Tae Hee. I will come back with a greater work as Kim Shin Rok," the actress said.

Finally, veteran actor Yang Kyung Won, who effectively portrayed the huge bully in prison Park Doo Sik, said, "The drama felt unusually long for me, I can't believe we've already reached the end."

"It's such an honor to work on such a great project with such great people. Thank you to everyone who watched and supported "One Ordinary Day," the actor added, "The drama is perfect to binge-watch after a long tiring day with a cold beer."

"One Ordinary Day," the remake of the BBC's "Criminal Justice," depicts the rollercoaster life of an ordinary college student named Kim Hyun Soo who becomes a murder suspect in an instant, and the a-rate lawyer named Shin Jung Han who does anything to win a case.

Follow KDramaStars for more Korean drama and celebrity updates!





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Written by Elijah Mully.
EUGENE, Ore. -- One man was injured and transported to the hospital after a shooting near the Space Age Fuel on Commerce Street in Eugene, police said.

A road rage incident led up to the man being shot, according to police.

There are currently no suspects in custody, police said. A suspect vehicle was last seen heading eastbound on 11th Avenue. It was described as a silver Sedan, possibly a Volkswagen, with two occupants.

A vehicle matching the description with two occupants was stopped with the assistance of Oregon State Police and Lane County Sheriffs Office but turned out not to be the suspects, police said.

The report came in around 8:53 a.m. Sunday near 11th Avenue and Commerce Street in Eugene.

Police are urging people not confront the occupants if they spot the vehicle. Instead, they are asking people with any information to call the EPD non-emergency line at (541) 682-5111.
After binging on episodes of Grey's Anatomy, many fans of the show think they can successfully duplicate the medical procedures that the doctors perform on the show.

For one Maine teenager, that came true.

What started out as a routine morning for Kristen Iarrobino and her 16-year-old son, Cyrus, turned into an almost catastrophic event.

Kristen fell outside of her home in Glenburn, just north of Bangor, after slipping on some ice that she mistook for rain.

The fall caused the coffee cup in her hand to break, cutting her wrist in the process. "When I looked down at my hand, I immediately told him to call 911," Kristen told CNN. "There wasn't a moment that I thought we could drive to the hospital. I knew we needed an ambulance."

That's when Cyrus quickly called 911 and jumped into action to help his mom.

"I was in fight or flight mode," Cyrus told CNN. He kept checking on the wound as Kristen held her sweatshirt against it to apply pressure while answering questions with the dispatcher.

The dispatcher then instructed Cyrus to find things around the house to form a makeshift tourniquet.

On the first attempt, he used a string from their junk drawer that broke, which worried them both. But Cyrus kept looking around for items.

"I'm there on my knees looking for anything to use and I rip off the laces on my new shoes," Cyrus explained. "I didn't take a second to untie them or anything."

On the side of the house, he found a small piece of plywood and began making the tourniquet. He made a knot with the shoelaces on her arm, put the stick on the knot and began twisting.

"It was one of the most painful things I've ever felt, and I've broken bones and had children," Kristen told CNN.

"Between the fight or flight mode and the adrenaline, I just kept thinking 'Don't stop, don't think about it,'" Cyrus said. "The whole time we were trying to keep each other calm," Kristen added.

Shortly after, the ambulance arrived to take over and they speedily rushed to Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Kristen told CNN that a tourniquet was on her arm for a total of 40 minutes, between the homemade one and the hospital one.

Her wrist and arm suffered from severed arteries and nerves which led to two surgeries, lasting about seven hours total. "The hand surgeon said I was a quarter of an inch going through my entire wrist," Kristen said.

The wound is about two inches wide on her wrist and goes down another two inches on her forearm. Luckily the stitches are now out, but she has a long road to recovery with therapy.

Kristen explained how grateful she is for the EMS and the hospital staff, but especially for Cyrus for being there and jumping to help.

"It was one of those things where you may see a procedure done on TV and you're like 'Oh yeah whatever,' but then you see it in real life or it happens to you and it's a completely different thing," Kristen noted.

The-CNN-Wire

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BEATTY, Ore.  Oregon State Police revealed on Monday that detectives have made two arrests connected to the grisly discovery of a Klamath County's man body in March of 2018. The investigation led detectives to Humboldt County, California.

On March 21 of 2018, the body of 35-year-old Jack Hasbrouck was discovered in the woods north of Beatty. OSP said it was apparent that Hasbrouck had died as the result of "homicidal violence," leading to the activation of the Klamath County Major Crime Team for an investigation.

The investigation would take years. According to OSP, detectives followed multiple leads until they identified a pair of suspects in Hasbrouck's murder. In late November of this year, a Klamath County Grand Jury approved a secret indictment of 43-year-old Jeremy Milton Lacy and 51-year-old Eileen Gay Lacy, a married couple, for Hasbrouck's murder.

Klamath County investigators received help from the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office in tracking the Lacys to their home near Willow Creek, California.

On December 16, OSP said, an officer from California Highway Patrol found Jeremy Lacy driving along Highway 299 east of Eureka. He was taken into custody without incident. Eileen Lacy was found a short time later and arrested. The couple was take to the Humboldt County Jail on lodged on arrest warrants.

"The Klamath County Major Crime Team would like to express their gratitude to the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office and the California Highway Patrol for their assistance in this long and difficult investigation," OSP said in a statement.

This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge.
GRANTS PASS, Ore.  One of the suspects in a deadly arson that happened at a Cave Junction home in 2019 has been found guilty on four counts, Oregon State Police announced Monday.

On January 16 of 2019, firefighters from the Illinois Valley Fire District responded to reports of a house fire at 150 E River Street in Cave Junction. After knocking down the fire, investigators found the body of 66-year-old Donald M. Thomas inside the burned home.

The Oregon State Police Criminal Division responded to investigate Thomas' death. OSP arson investigators responded as well.

After investigators quickly determined that the fire had been set intentionally, the investigation went cold until November of that year. A witness, identified as Clarabelle Compton, came forward and named "all the individuals involved," OSP said.

On November 26, investigators tracked down and interviewed four suspects  31-year-old Justin Mason, 39-year-old Richard Webb, 27-year-old Kenny Webb, and 26-year-old Dakota Crow. They were each arrested on arson, burglary, and murder charges.

Mason previously pleaded guilty and is currently serving his sentence.

Last week, Richard Webb's two-week trial ended. The jury found him guilty on four charges: Arson in the First Degree, two counts of Murder, and Burglary in the First Degree.

Kenny Webb and Dakota Crow currently have trials set to begin next year.
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A few months back, I read about a two-year-old child with a terminal cardiac condition who has spent her life in a hospital bed attached to multiple devices that maintained her survival. At the staffs request, the institutions ethics committee reviewed the childs history and prognosis and decided that the equipment could be disconnected. Her mother repeatedly blocked this option, insisting that the child, although frequently sedated, had a bubbly personality and was improving. She even contended that the physicians were denying the childs true condition for their own, clandestine ends.

How do we define life? Is it simply breathing and a heartbeat, even if these are dependent on artificial means? The idea of these bodily functions defining existence arose in the 3rd- 4th centuries A.D. when the Christian Church Fathers decreed that the only ways of achieving heaven were through torture and martyrdom and natural death with redemptive suffering. The agony allowed the soul to be cleansed of sin before it could ascend to heaven. This concept of suffering was adopted by what became Catholicism and other Christian denominations with the Reformation. However, none of these denominations could foresee the development of devices that could sustain life artificially, and while several denominations adapted to this technological advancement, others did not.

But what sin could a child confined to a hospital bed accrue to require redemption?

Humanist philosophy would find that treatment could be terminated as it is not curative but only delays death. Humanism is a collection of viewpoints that are unanimous that a person has intrinsic worth separate from any deity. Further, its tenets embrace the concept that people are a product of their culture, that a person is entitled to the maximum good within societys boundaries, emphasizes that disease and suffering must be viewed only through the sufferers eyes in determining the continuance of care and that medical care should treat the whole person and not just an illness.

From this perspective, the childs existence produces little good. She does not interact with the world other than staff and family, cannot accrue or enjoy an independent life, can rarely leave her bed, is reported to have significant pain, and is frequently sedated and unaware of her environment. She is, at best, assisted breathing and an assisted heartbeat, and nothing more. Thus, maintaining her life is denying her the only form of good remaining to her: death.

Her situation can also be visualized through Utilitarian philosophy. Here too, the term contains different formulations, but a main precept in Humanism is that an individual has intrinsic worth. However, the accretion of good relates to society and not the individual. Although controlling costs is often conflated with Utilitarianism, these philosophies do not necessarily contemplate a dollar value as the societal good. Rather, from this perspective, it can be argued that medical equipment and treatments are finite and that maintaining this child limits resources that could be better expended on other humans who could benefit from their use, especially on a short-term basis. A reasonable effort should be applied to aid the child as has been done, but once it is determined that this effort no longer promotes healing, then life-support should be withdrawn. It is no different than in treating cardiac arrest in that, at some point, treatment is deemed futile and discontinued.

A further argument is whether the mother is the best decision-maker for her child as she cannot visualize her daughters status through the childs perspective but looks at her through rose-colored glasses. Her thinking is clouded by the organizations that have supported her legal challenges in the furtherance of their goals and not those of either the mother or her daughter. From the Utilitarian perspective, the mother cannot decide what is a societal good. In this instance, physicians and ethics committees are more appropriate arbiters.

Some ethicists contend that a degree of paternalism should be returned to medical practice, although balancing this with patient autonomy would be fraught with difficulties. Although, there is research that some (perhaps many?) patients prefer physician guidance and influence rather than personal autonomy. Indeed, one ethicist has contended that this preference for physician decision-making represents autonomy as the patient chooses the doctors input.

The involvement of religious and pro-life groups not only buoys the mothers resolve and determination to keep her child alive but also makes the childs survival a political issue (remember Terri Schiavo?) rather than a medical one, an issue best made by those with the fullest understanding of the childs condition: physicians and ethics committees.

M. Bennet Broner is a medical ethicist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Former Briggs Middle School custodian Timothy Lukehart is facing first-degree rape, sex abuse, aggravated animal abuse and other charges.

According to court documents, Lukehart allegedly physically and sexually abused a child under the age of 14 years old.

The documents also state Lukehart is accused of "unlawfully and maliciously" killing a family dog.

Lukehart, 53, has been in Lane County Jail since Dec. 10.

Officials said Lukehart has not worked at Briggs Middle School for a while and the charges are not connected to the school.

Lukehart's next court hearing date is Jan. 18.
The Made in Ireland exhibition which is currently running at the NDCG in the Castle Yard is visual and sensory feast of fresh ideas and craftsmanship and offers an insight into current activity in skilled making on a national scale.

It is not only reflective of the skills of the community of makers, but it also celebrates work by families (including husband and wife Andrew Ludick and Rosemarie Durr, husband and wife Inga and Leslie Reed, as well as Jerpoint Glass  a family business established by Keith and Kathleen Leadbetter, while textile artist, Caroline Schofield, has family connections to textile mills in Kilkenny, and by collaborative groups and partnerships).

The exhibition demonstrates the importance of passing on skills, of cross-pollination and innovation. It is a true and enriching representation of the fabric of the Irish craft and design sector, incorporating the work of over 100 makers from all regions of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The exhibition which launched on November 5, was borne out of a proposal made by the project team to the Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) biennial call for exhibitions. Their aim was to bring together a snapshot of what is happening in skilled making in Ireland, to create an exhibition that is big and eclectic but also surprising, joyful, and inspirational. The open callout attracted over 420 applicants to the juried process.

CEO of Design & Crafts Council Ireland, Rosemary Steen said:

The past twenty months of closures have been a difficult time for our makers, and opportunities to show craft have been reduced, which makes Made in Ireland all the more timely. During this time the public have engaged more with the sustainability and authenticity of craft. Guilds, Associations, Networks and Societies (GANS) are at the heart of Design & Crafts Council Ireland and we look forward to continuing to support the development of technical and business skills, creating opportunities and promoting craft in Ireland through the work of our dedicated team.

Project team of Made in Ireland, Mary Gallagher, Hilary Morley and Stephen OConnell said:

It is our hope that Made in Ireland will engage with diverse audiences and build understanding of craft, design and material culture. In a desert of digital and mass manufacture, we find this oasis of making  a tangible link to the materials and traditions of this island, to its colour, its landscape and its people.

Exhibitors include makers of international renown as well as young, emerging artists and those who have practised quietly in areas of the country such as Clare Island, West Cork and the North Antrim Coast. Some are members of Design & Crafts Council Irelands Portfolio Critical Selection, while others are highly skilled makers who practise away from the spotlight and national competition.

A full list of exhibitors can be viewed on www.ndcg.ie/exhibitions/made- in-ireland

The Made in Ireland exhibition runs at the National Design and Craft Gallery in Kilkenny until January 30.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Bitterly cold. Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 9F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Bitterly cold. Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 1F. Winds light and variable.
Here's what you need to know: Monday, Dec. 20
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A mural on the Washington University campus that honors prominent figures from Black history was vandalized with racist graffiti, the university said Sunday.
A Yemeni man is captured in this photo taken by Lim Ji-hoon in 2009 at Central Souq al-Mil. A brief poem that is paired with the photo reads: "I am one of the 15 percent of Yemeni men who don't chew khat." Courtesy of Noonbit Publishing













By Kang Hyun-kyung







Lim Ji-hoon spent 33 years as an executive in charge of sales and marketing for a mid-sized Korean company involved in oil and natural gas projects in the Middle East. That job gave him rare access to the region that few Koreans had explored because of travel restrictions.







Until three years ago when he retired from his life-time job, Lim traveled back and forth between Korea and countries like Libya, Algeria, Yemen and Iran, to name a few, and worked with staff from partner companies for weeks at a time.







Intrigued by the exotic landscape and local culture, Lim, now 60, said he found himself longing to chronicle the locals and their war-struck living conditions through photography.







His dream of capturing images of the locals and their lifestyles met an obstacle as some Middle Eastern countries prohibit foreigners from taking photographs. Photojournalists were an exception, only allowed once they obtained a permit that had been issued by the host government.







The clash between his desire to visually record the Middle East and the repressive local laws, however, didn't stop him from moving forward. Driven by curiosity, then the adventurous business executive secretly took photos in some of the countries. His brave actions, however, went futile. In some countries like Iran, his cameras were seized or film rolls were destroyed by local officials after they were discovered.







But Lim's photos taken in Yemen in 2009 managed to evade the watchful eyes of local officials and he was able to bring them home.







"Yemen: A Country Built on Winds from the Arabian Peninsula" by Lim Ji-hoon

His decade-old photos were finally brought to light following years of his energetic pitches made to the Seoul-based Noonbit Publishing Co.







His poetry-photography book titled, "Yemen: A Country Built on Winds from the Arabian Peninsula," was published earlier this month and is available for sale online and in local bookstores.







The 179-page book contains his photos taken in Yemen's capital Sanaa amid heightened terror alerts issued after a suicide bombing attack took place targeting foreign tourists, including four South Koreans, and are paired with his brief thoughts of the images in the form of poems.







Lim Ji-hoon, center, wearing a pink T-shirt, poses with Libyan staff who worked with him while he was in African country for business in 2005. Lim is a business executive-turned-author of the poetry-photography book, "Yemen: A Country Built on Winds from the Arabian Peninsula." Courtesy of Lim Ji-hoon





For Lim, "Yemen" is reminiscent of the nerve-racking last day of his trip to the Middle Eastern country. He confessed that he had been uneasy all day when he went to Central Souq al-Mil, a bustling market area of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, for the photo project.







"Back in 2009, Yemen was still chaotic and at civil war with intermittent armed conflicts between the North and South. And terrorist group al-Qaeda was still there, too," he said.









On top of the political instability, Lim hit the market a day after

occurred on a highway en route to the airport. It was the second suicide bombing attack on South Koreans by al-Qaeda members. The first one that killed four South Korean tourists in Sanaa happened on March 16.







"I thought the photo project could cost me my life because I was a non-Muslim foreigner and what I was trying to do was illegal in that country," he said.







But he said he felt the urge to go ahead with it because he knew it could be his last opportunity to capture images of the country and its people living in constant danger of war and terrorism.







"Between 2006 and 2009, I had been to Yemen many times on business trips because then my company was involved in a natural gas project there in collaboration with a French company," he said.







"But I was unable to find time to take photos of the locals, partly because doing so was banned for foreigners like me and partly because I signed a contract with the French company which required me not to leave the designated areas on my own will. If breached, I would take full responsibility for my actions."







In the event that he breached the contract, and his safety was endangered as a result, Lim said, he was required to compensate any and all financial damage incurred by the French company. He eventually came to have a few hours of free time on his last day there because his company's joint project was over and the contract had ended.







Three children pose while eating bread on a step in Central Souq al-Mil in Sanaa, Yemen. Courtesy of Noonbit Publishing





He embarked on his photography project like a covert agent on a secret operation code-named "Escape from Sanna" as he had to get things done within three hours, enduring immense pressure as he tried to evade detection. The nail-biting moments continued until he left Yemen.







Waking up early in the morning, he grabbed a cab and was dropped off at Central Souq al-Mil.







The local vendors' and passengers' reactions to the stranger were mixed: Some brushed him off and gave the stranger the cold shoulder, while some welcomed him and shared hot tea.







Feeling pressured as time was running out, he said he kept pressing the shutter of his camera to take photos of his subjects. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., he hurriedly captured nearly 300 images of the poor but lively market, including children with innocent smiles, locals sharing meals, and men intoxicated with khat, a local plant that is used as a stimulant.







Heaving a sigh of relief as he was able to get all the photos he wanted during such a limited time, he headed back to his hotel, grabbed his prepacked luggage and headed directly to the airport. His plane was scheduled to leave at 2 p.m. Nerve-racking moments continued during the departure process as he feared he could lose his camera and film reels if caught. A real relief came to him when he found himself aboard the airplane heading to Oman, from where he would board a transfer flight to South Korea.







Under this photo featuring a Yemeni man walking outside a poor housing area, poet-photographer Lim Ji-hoon wrote: "I never step back, even though my enemy is light." Courtesy of Noonbit Publishing





Discussing his book, Lim said he was intrigued by the "odd calmness and serenity" among some locals he found on his way to the airport.







"I saw two women selling eggs near the airport. They looked like sisters and were giggling while chatting. Their carefree, happy chatter came as a surprise to me, because it was a day after the devastating suicide bombing attack right there. It seemed to them like nothing had happened," he said.







Lim's lingering question of the unknown source of their optimism is reflected in his poetry that is paired with the photo featuring the two women selling eggs. It reads, "What on earth made them have such smiling faces despite the tragic bombing attack? Is it the Quran that helped them clear the horrific memories of the suicide bombing attack from their heads? Or were they born optimists?"







Lim had his own interpretation of poetry-photography. Some poems he wrote underneath their respective photos taken in Yemen tell the stories of Korea, Koreans and wisdom he learned from his life experiences. In one photo, for example, a Yemeni boy plays a handmade instrument made of a string and cardboard box in the corner of a store. Under the photo, Lim writes a poem of an unnamed opportunistic woman who uses men as a stepping stone for her own success.







Asked about the alleged mismatch of his photography and poetry, Lim explained that the pair is an example showing his definition of what a poetry photography should be.







"The poem is about one thing and the photo captures a subject that has nothing to do with the poem. But once they are put together, they make sense and create a whole new meaning. This is my definition of poetry photography," he said.







Lim retired from his life-time career at the company in 2018. He has written poetry and essays since he was a university student and some of them were published.







"Yemen" is his second poetry-photography work published years after his first one called "Mount Bukhan."






Migrant workers and monks express condolences to Nuon Sukkheng, a Cambodian migrant worker who was found dead in a greenhouse made of plastic sheeting on a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, Dec. 20, 2020, during a memorial ceremony at Beomnyeon Temple, central Seoul, on Feb. 7. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han



By Lee Hae-rin



The bereaved family of a Cambodian migrant worker who died here a year ago in poor living conditions, has filed a claim for industrial accident compensation.



A committee comprised of 26 civic groups and legal organizations formed upon the death of the individual, Nuon Sokkheng, commenced the compensation procedure on behalf of her family, who is in Cambodia, Monday, the first anniversary of her death.



Sokkheng, 31, was found dead in a greenhouse made of plastic sheeting on a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, where she had been living. The heating system was not working in the facility that day, despite a cold spell in the region. Although her direct cause of death was liver disease, advocacy groups said that the poor living conditions exacerbated her health, and that this case shows the dire living conditions many migrant workers face in Korea.



The committee submitted the results of the autopsy along with a doctor's written statement showing the link between Sokkheng's death and her insufficient living conditions, to the Uijeongbu branch of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service.



The committee accused the owner of the farm of providing substandard housing, and he was later fined for violating the Labor Standards Act.



In September of this year, the committee found that no progress had been made in Sokkheng's case for industrial accident compensation and took charge of the application process on the family's behalf.



"The bereaved family initially wanted to apply for the compensation via the Cambodian embassy in Korea," Choi Jung-kyu, a lawyer in charge of the committee, told the Korea Times, Monday.



"However, no progress had been made after almost a year following the death. The current system requires the victim or the bereaved family to apply for the compensation themselves, so the committee told the family it would provide free legal support for the case," Choi said.



"It is very difficult for the bereaved families of migrant workers, who live abroad, to come to Korea and apply for industrial accident compensation themselves, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is even more difficult for every death of a migrant to get a committee like this (to work on the family's behalf)," Choi said.



According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment, 94 migrant workers died from industrial accidents in 2020, accounting for 10.7 percent of all such deaths. Furthermore, there could be more, similar deaths that remain undocumented and unknown, according to Choi.



"The autopsy for the body was not carried out until Dec. 23 of last year, three days after Sokkheng's death. Unless there is clear evidence of murder, embassies in Korea rarely request the autopsy of a migrant worker who died suddenly," Choi said. "Sokkheng's case also could have been left unsolved as one of many sudden deaths of migrant workers here, without even an autopsy."



Submitting the claim, the committee urged  in an official statement  the Korean government to proceed promptly with Sokkheng's case, so that it can be recognized as an industrial accident. "Also, it must make every effort not to discriminate against migrant workers in compensation claims, by providing enough information on the government policies and allowing others to apply on behalf of the victims, instead of obligating the bereaved families to claim the compensation themselves."






South Korea's Defense Minister Suh Wook met with his Thai counterpart in Bangkok on Monday to discuss defense cooperation between the two countries and the security situations on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, his ministry said.







Suh held talks with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who doubles as defense minister, on the second day of his three-day visit to Thailand.







During the meeting, Prayut said Bangkok wishes to expand arms industry cooperation with South Korea.







The Southeast Asian country is reviewing a new frigate project and intends to start talks on defense industry cooperation with South Korea as soon as the pandemic situation improves, he added.







Thailand secured a 3,750-ton frigate from South Korea in 2018, currently deployed for field operations.







Suh also expressed gratitude to Bangkok for purchasing additional T-50TH advanced trainer jets developed by Korea Aerospace Industries Co. in July, and said South Korea wishes to continue participating in Thailand's military procurement projects down the road.







The two ministers also agreed to join forces in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic within their militaries.







Prayut especially asked South Korea to share its knowledge with the ASEAN Center for Military Medicine (ACMM), an organization based in Bangkok that promotes health cooperation among militaries in the region.







Suh also called for Bangkok's support on the ASEAN-ROK Informal Defense Ministers Meeting, held in November for the first time, as Seoul pushes to cement ties with the regional bloc under its signature New Southern Policy. ROK stands for South Korea's formal name, the Republic of Korea.







The previous day, Suh met Korean War veterans of Thailand, one of 16 U.N. member countries that sent troops to South Korea to help defend it in the 1950-53 war.







After completing his schedule in Thailand, Suh will fly to Singapore for talks with his counterpart, Ng Eng Hen, on defense cooperation and exchanges. (Yonhap)


By Deauwand Myers





China has a long and rich history. Technologically, scholarly, and governing-wise, China was 500 years ahead of most of the ancient world. Single-sheet paper, mechanical clocks, gunpowder, guns, fireworks, and long works of literature were all invented or perfected there.



With such a glorious past, it's understandable why President Xi and his Chinese Communist Party, not to mention some Chinese citizens, have grown nationalistic and aggressive in geopolitics. Not unlike Korea, China has experienced the stinging humiliation of being conquered, invaded, occupied, or coerced by foreign powers. The Mongolians, Muslims from the west, the British, the Portuguese, and most recently, Imperial Japan all brutalized, occupied, or annexed China. These, along with the shame of decades of most of China living in abject, bone-crushing poverty, have left a lasting, bitter taste in the governing elite and China's body politic writ large.



In psychology, there's a term that's useful to us here. It is called horizontal violence: the abused re-perpetrate abuse on others. This would explain why, under the ruthless will of President Xi, China claims all of the South China Sea, builds military bases on artificial islands to reify this absurd and illegal claim, bullies smaller Asian countries to acquiesce to these claims, coerces much of the world, even the United States, not to recognize Taiwan as an independent country (a ridiculous arrangement, as Taiwan has been self-ruled for well over half a century, and the CCP has never done so), and is committing cultural and literal genocide of its Muslim minority population in China's northwest.



One of the many problems with authoritarian regimes is the cult of personality. What this means is all matters of the state take on the personality of said state's supreme ruler. Xi has basically made himself a re-imagined Mao Zedong. And like every tin pot dictator, his ego is both huge and exceedingly fragile. Witness how an innocent joke saying Xi resembles the American children's cartoon bear, Winnie the Pooh, has been deemed an act of disobedience against the state. The term "Winnie the Pooh" is literally banned and erased by China's legions of censors across all social media platforms. I'll forgive you if you think I'm joking. But Google it for yourself. It's completely childish and a bit frightening, but these are the many, many perils of living under dictatorial governments.



As such, any criticism of China's gross violations of human rights, any objection to their behavior, both internally and internationally, any critique of their form of government, is an affront, and not just to China as a nation, but to Xi personally. But then, as stated at a CCP plenary conference not long ago, Xi is the core of China's communist ideology. President Xi is the state. The two are inextricably connected.



Not unlike North Korea, China responds in oddly overdramatic English to any slight it perceives from the international community. U.S. President Biden held a virtual pro-democracy summit with all democratic countries, including Taiwan, to which Russia and China loudly protested. China went on to hold its own democracy summit, if you can believe it, and even claimed it was a democracy itself in several national publications. So laughable and ridiculous was this, the comment section was inundated with sarcastic comments from fellow Chinese citizens who were like, "yeahum, no." There were so many sarcastic comments, the entire comment sections in these publications were shut down.



The dirty, little secret about autocrats is this: they don't believe the hype they are selling. They know their rule and their form of government is illegitimate, and the amount of misery and death they deploy to maintain power produces in them the same emotion their citizens feel: fear.



Each time their legitimacy is questioned, as with the United States' decision to boycott the Beijing Olympics by not sending a diplomatic delegation there, Beijing angrily and/or childishly protested. China's foreign affairs spokesman went so far as to say "well, you weren't invited anyway." This is some elementary school behavior.



It would be funny if it weren't so deadly serious, and outside of catastrophic war, the international community has not come up with effective ways to challenge rogue regimes and their most evil of impulses. Russia annexes Crimea, and we basically did nothing. China separates Muslim children from their parents, who are sent to concentration camps wherein they are sexually abused, tortured, brainwashed, or worse by the hundreds of thousands in a brutally efficient manner, and again, no serious repercussions.



China has the second largest economy in the world. They have nuclear weapons and are producing more of them. They have a rapidly modernizing military, and in President Xi, a leader willing to deploy said military. But the international community has to disregard China's sensitivity, call a thing a thing, and act accordingly.





Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside of Seoul.


Nanocovax's COVID-19 vaccine / Courtesy of HLB



By Baek Byung-yeul



Nanocovax, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Vietnamese biotech company Nanogen, has received confirmation of its safety and effectiveness, paving its way to the global biopharmaceutical market, Korean biotech company HLB said Monday.



HLB, which acquired the global sales rights of Nanocovax's COVID-19 vaccine, said that an official from a Vietnamese public health authority told local media that the company's vaccine had exceeded the qualifications set by the World Health Organization (WHO).



"On the 17th of December, Trung Viet Dung, Chairman of Vietnam's National Ethics Committee under the Ministry of Health, stated in an interview with local news outlet PLO that 'Nanocovax's protective effect has exceeded 50%, the minimum protective effect set by the WHO,'" HLB said.



The chairman further elaborated, "Data on the Phase 3 interim results will soon be delivered to the Advisory Council for the Registration of the Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients to proceed with Nanocovax's emergency approval procedure," and, "Vietnam's Ministry of Health will formally announce the outcome of the recent meeting in the foreseeable future."



Nanocovax is the only Vietnamese COVID-19 vaccine candidate conducting Phase 3 testing. In August, HLB said that Nanocovax is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine that has succeeded in increasing the antibodies of volunteers in the Phase 2 clinical trials by more than 60 times 35 days after the first injection, and by 34 times after three months.



According to local Vietnamese media, the Ethics Committee in Biomedical Research in Vietnam has reviewed Nanocovax's interim Phase 3 results and the committee unanimously agreed that Nanocovax has verified its safety and protective effects on Dec. 16. They have requested Nanocovax's Clinical Research Organization (CRO) to submit a final report by Dec. 22.



Nanogen had submitted an emergency use application to the Advisory Council earlier this year, but had been instructed to provide supplementary data regarding Nanocovax's protective effects. Approval by the Advisory Council had been placed on hold, due to the lack of direct data on its protective effects, but the data was finally secured recently when symptomatic COVID-19 cases began to emerge amongst participant groups administered with the vaccine and placebo.



"With the confirmation of Nanocovax's protective effects, the emergency approval procedures for the vaccine are expected gain speed," an HLB official said. Once Nanocovax receives approval from the Advisory Council, approval for emergency use will be officially announced by the health ministry.



Nanogen's Phase 3a trial on 1004 participants has confirmed an antibody response of 96.5 percent and a seroconversion rate of 99.2 percent, and Phase 3b trials on 13,000 patients have also been completed. Currently there are no known cases of serious side effects or anaphylaxis



HLB said that it plans to sign a formal agreement with Nanogen once the company's vaccine is officially approved for emergency use. NextScience, an affiliate of HLB, holds around a 10-percent stake in Nanogen and another HLB affiliate, HLB Pharma, and has established a collaboration with Nanogen for the development of pharmaceutical drugs for overseas markets.


Steve Garbacz is executive editor of KPC Media Group and editor of The News Sun. Downtown is already vastly improved compared to what it was in May 2015 when he first arrived. Email him at sgarbacz@kpcmedia.com.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 18F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low near 10F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
MADISON  Starting next year, each party in the Wisconsin Assembly will be led by a Racine County representative.

On Monday, Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, was elected unanimously by her Democratic peers to be the Assemblys new minority leader when Gordon Hintz steps down from the role in January.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been the top Republican among state representatives since 2013, making him the longest-serving speaker in state history.

Neubauer was unopposed after state Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, initially said he wanted to run for the role but decided against it.

As our next leader, Rep. Neubauer will bring fresh energy, policy experience, unmatched organizing skill, and a clear vision for the Assembly Democratic Caucus, Hintz said in a news release. With Rep. Neubauer as leader, I am confident Assembly Democrats will remain strong and continue to be united in pushing back against increasing Republican extremism and attacks on our democracy while also offering a positive Democratic vision for Wisconsin.

Mondays election solidifies Neubauer, 30, as a leader in Wisconsins Democratic Party. She was first elected to the Assembly in January 2018 in a special election for the 66th District seat vacated by Cory Mason after he was elected mayor of Racine.

Im honored to share that Ive been unanimously elected the new Assembly Democratic Leader, Neubauer tweeted late Monday afternoon. I truly appreciate the support & confidence my colleagues expressed today, & Im looking forward to continuing our work to make WI a place where we all can thrive.

Hintz has been leader of minority Democrats since September 2017. Neubauer will take over a Democratic caucus that has just 38 of the Assemblys 99 seats.

In a tweet, Dane County state Rep. Dianne Hesselbein wrote, I wish @RepGreta great success as she leads our caucus into the future. I have watched and supported Representative Neubauers incredible career as a rising star among us. She is extraordinarily smart, energetic, and knows how to inspire a new generation of leaders.

Kalan Haywood of Milwaukee was elected to be assistant minority leader. Haywood, 22, is the youngest Wisconsin legislator and one of the youngest elected officials in the country.

The combined ages of the two new Democratic leaders  52  is less than the age of Vos, who is 53.

Reporting from the Associated Press is included in this article.
A large storage structure right behind the gas station at Shavers General Store started on fire on Friday, Dec. 17.

The fire created smoke that could be seen for miles, but fortunately firefighters were able to stop it soon enough that it didnt spread to the gas station, general store or any neighboring homes.

The Spring Prairie fire near the intersection of Highway 120 and Highway 11 started at approximately 9:30 a.m.

Fire crews from around the region were called in to help with the fire due to the high intense level of the fire.

The area was closed off to traffic, with all vehicles detoured around the area. A sheriffs deputy blocking off the road said no one, besides emergency crews, could get closer because they are concerned about the fire being so close to a gas station.

No cause of the fire has been released yet. It was under investigation, according to a press release issued by the Town of Lyons Fire Department on Friday evening. However it did not appear to be related to any foul play or suspicious circumstance.

One firefighter was treated on the scene for minor injuries but did not have to be transported to the hospital.

In the press release the Town of Lyons Fire Department stated, The Lyons Fire Department would like to thank all the mutual aid companies that came out today and assisted including law enforcement agencies that assisted with traffic control. We cannot thank you enough. Without your assistance, this incident could have had a much more devastating outcome.

The Lyons Fire Department also expressed its gratitude for Shavers General Stores hospitality toward emergency responders.

When the neighboring property suffered a fire it caused their business to be closed for hours but they opened their doors to not only the Lyons Fire Department but approximately 15 other departments making sure they had food, water and hot drinks, The Lyons Fire Department stated in a Facebook post.

We thank them and their staff for their kindness and generosity and hope that all the residents of Lyons and Spring Prairie Township support them as they supported us.

The post stated, The definition of a small town... people are friendly, honest, and polite to the people in their community. Shavers General Store displayed this yesterday without hesitation.
For almost 30 years, the Walworth County Composite Squadron No. 184 has provided area youths with some valuable training and hands-on experiences to help them prepare for a career in the military or aviation.

The squadron, which was established in 1992, is a part of the U.S. Air Forces Civil Air Patrol and offers aviation and military training programs for area youths, between the ages of 12 to 20.

As part of the program, the youths, called cadets, work with military and aviation professionals to learn about aerospace technology, air defense, leadership skills and military procedures.

Captain James McClure said the cadets may learn how to build a model rocket, pilot an airplane or respond to an emergency situation.

The Civil Air Patrol squadron meets from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday at the National Guard Armory, 401 Fair Ave. in Elkhorn.

Theres a little bit of everything in the course of a month, McClure said. Some of them get the chance to learn how to fly. A lot of them get an orientation flight where they go up in one of our planes.

During the summer, the cadets attend the Wisconsin Wing Encampment where they learn military skills, radio communications, first aid and practice search and rescue missions.

Putting their

skills to useThe Civil Air Patrol assists during emergency situations, search and rescue missions, humanitarian efforts and community events. Several of the cadets respond to some of the emergency situations with their trainers.

When theres a flood or a tornado, were there to help, McClure said. Its just an incredible organization.

The Elkhorn squadron mostly responds to emergencies in Walworth County, but they could be called to respond to situations in other counties, as well. There are about 20 Civil Air Patrol squadrons in the State of Wisconsin. Some of the squadrons only have adult members.

We could get a call in the middle of the night saying that a hiker has been lost on the Ice Age Trail by Eagle. We mobilize, McClure said. We have a van and a special trailer with gears, so we can go out to the site and help look and help coordinate. The planes do the searching, and the teams on the ground search and coordinate in between the planes and those on the ground.

The squadron members volunteered during VISIT Lake Genevas Electric Christmas Parade, Dec. 4, in downtown Lake Geneva helping with crowd control, putting up barricades, installing caution tape and cleaning up after the event.

The group also has helped to transport COVID vaccines, face masks and hand sanitizer throughout Walworth County.

Captain Christopher Maritz said the program gives members an opportunity to serve and be a part of their community.

As we train and educate our talented and committed cadets in Air Force values, like service before self, we protect our region not only now but also to make it safer for the future, as those cadets become the next generation of leaders, Maritz said. Our motto of Semper Vigilans  Always Vigilant  is something we strive to live by in all we learn and do as Civil Air Patrol members here in Walworth County.

Becoming a cadet

The squadron currently has about 30 members, including cadets and adult trainers, from Walworth, Rock, Racine and Jefferson counties.

McClure said many of the members go into the military or the aviation field as a career, but members are not required to have an interest in those fields to join.

Were very big on diversity and inclusion, and those are part of the values we teach, being accepting of all people, McClure said.

Cadet Amanda Harder said her father, who worked in the military, encouraged her to join the Civil Patrol Air squadron. She said she has enjoyed her experience being a part of the organization.

The people I have met is the coolest part of being in Civil Air Patrol, Harder said. How many teenagers can say they have escorted a general to and from their plane, been invited to work at the heart of CAPs EAA operations, met cadets from every walk of life from across the country and sat down with people who helped found the Civil Air Patrol and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor recipients?

Harder said even though she does not plan to establish a career in the military, she is pleased with the skills that she has learned from the Civil Air Patrol squadron.

My future career plans go in a very opposite direction, education either in agriculture or sign language, Harder said. However, if it wasnt for the senior members who invested in me and showed me what it meant to be a teacher, I dont think I would dream of becoming one in the first place.

Harders brother, Josiah Harder, said he also has enjoyed his experiences with the Civil Air Patrol squadron.

Ive enjoyed going to Wisconsin summer encampment, getting connected with a lot of people and coming back and staffing with a lot of them, he said.

Josiah Harder plans to join the U.S. Air Force in the future.

Im going to intern at a ranch for the summer and then Im considering joining the Air Guard as a civil engineer, Josiah Harder said. My father, uncle and cousin were all in the Air Force. Because of that, its been a goal to serve in the Air Force for some time.

Residents interested in joining the squadron can attend a Thursday meeting or contact 262-903-8391. Scholarships are available to help pay for uniforms and program fees.

You meet with us, then if it seems right, we get the parents involved, McClure said, then they can sign up to be in the program.

Brief history of the Civil Air Patrol

Even though the Walworth County Composite Squadron was established in 1992, the national Civil Air Patrol was formed in December 1941, shortly before War World II as a way for civilian aviators to help defend the country.

We find ourselves in the war, and these citizens along with young teen cadets would patrol the coasts looking for submarines, McClure said. I need to learn more about it, but they sunk a couple of submarines. They would be up there in their civilian planes and they had a couple of bombs in the wings.

McClure said the Civil Air Patrol has evolved to mostly responding to emergency situations and natural disasters.

Were basically an auxiliary of the Air Force, McClure said. Were the Air Forces search and rescue organization domestically.

McClure said to honor the Civil Air Patrols 80th anniversary, the cadets and adult members are being asked to wear their uniforms when they attend church services.

For more information about the Civil Air Patrol, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

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Pune (Maharashtra) [India], December 20 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Vervotech, the innovation leader in mapping solutions and curated content, announced that its board of directors unanimously appointed Dharmendra Ladi as Chief Executive Officer.

Ladi will assume the role of CEO immediately.

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Ladi takes over the role from co-founder Sanjay Ghare, who led the company through several important milestones, including its entry into the US & European markets, and the launch of its rapidly growing hotel mapping and content products. He also spearheaded securing significant growth and witnessed successful 100+ client acquisitions during the pandemic. Sanjay will continue in the role of Managing Director, and will focus on strategic matters while leading the Board.

"As the co-founder of Vervotech and creator of its product and vision, Ladi combines the deep domain knowledge and superb execution abilities we were looking for to lead the company going forward toward products with 10x quality. We are confident in his technology background and Industry expertise," said Sanjay Ghare, MD at Vervotech.

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Since founding the company in 2018, Ladi has served as Chief Product & Technology Officer where he successfully led the team that developed an advanced mapping and content solution for the travel industry. He had been in charge of strategy involving artificial intelligence and machine learning and he led projects to make hotel content more enhanced and accurate for the product users.

Accepting the position, Ladi said: "I am very proud to be selected by the board of Vervotech to take on the leadership of the company. I firmly believe that we can rely on our innovative and customer centric mindset to push boundaries and surpass our goals. We will continue to invest in our people and in the development of industry leading technology to ensure we can improve our product's content accuracy. I look forward to working to better serve our customers and drive continued growth for our company."

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

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Washington [US], December 19 (ANI): The findings of a recent study suggest that people previously infected with COVID and those vaccinated will have some 'stronger than basic' defence against the Omicron strain of coronavirus.

The research has been published in the 'Emerging Microbes & Infection Journal'.

Also Read | Omicron COVID-19 Cases in India Rise to 145.

However, the test tube (or 'in-vitro', scientifically) samples of Omicron examined in this new research did not show that it "exceeds" all other variants in its potential capability to evade the protection gained from previous infection or vaccination.

The findings also suggested that although a third-dose enhancement strategy can "significantly boost immunity," the protection from Omicron "may be compromised" -- but more research is needed to better understand this.

Also Read | COVID-19 Booster Shot 80% Effective Against Severe Omicron, Says Report.

Reporting on this very early study, lead author Youchun Wang, Senior Research Fellow from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in China, said that their results supported recent findings in South Africa which highlighted Omicron was "easy to evade immunity."

"We found a large number of mutations of the Omicron variant did cause significant changes of neutralization sensitivity against people who had already had COVID," Wang said.

"However, the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still higher than the baseline, which indicated there is still some protection effect can be observed," Wang added.

Wang, who is Former Chairman of the Medical Virology and Vice Chairman of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the Chinese Medical Association, did add caution though.

He said that because the antibody protection -- in the form of previous infection or vaccination -- decreased gradually over a period of six months, Omicron "may be able to escape immunity even better."

Plus, his team's paper predicted that whilst "a third-dose enhancement strategy can significantly boost immunity," the "protection from Omicron may be compromised."

The expert team of 11 scientists looked at 28 serum samples from patients recovering from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. They tested these against in-vitro Omicron samples, as well as four other strains marked 'of concern' by the World Health Organization (such as Delta), and two variants marked as 'of interest'.

"This study verifies the enhanced immune escape of Omicron variant, which sounds the alarm to the world and has important implications for the public health planning and the development of matching strategies," Wang summarized.

Now, the team stated that more research, carried out not just in-vitro but in real-world studies is urgently needed to better understand Omicron. And, specifically, whether it escaped from the vaccine-elicited immunity to cause more severe disease and death.

"It needs to be re-evaluated whether the antibodies can still be effective against the Omicron variant," the authors stated.

"The exact impact to human protection may be influenced by more factors such as the infectivity of Omicron variant relative to other variants to human populations and the viral fitness of Omicron once the humans are infected," they said.

"More population studies including the level of immune protection and symptoms among people infected with Omicron are needed to fully establish the global impact of Omicron to the control of COVID-19 pandemic," they added

The major caveat of this study is that it is in-vitro in nature and that it used pseudotyped (manufactured) viruses. However, previous studies have used in-vitro as an established measure of "good correlation" and the current vaccine literature has established that the in vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of vaccine protection efficacy and real-world vaccine effectiveness.

Therefore, the authors stated that their data may well predict the potential reduction of vaccine protection against the new Omicron variant. (ANI)

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New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI): Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam on Sunday said that the party will take a final decision on Monday on joining the meeting called by the Central government.

"Opposition united is fighting the suspension of 12 MPs. Calling 5 parties for discussion at the fag end of the session is to divide the opposition unity. CPI will not subscribe to it. The final decision will be taken tomorrow in the joined opposition meeting," Viswam tweeted.

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Earlier on Sunday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told ANI that the Central government has invited five Opposition parties, whose MPs are among the 12 suspended legislators, for talks on Monday. With just four days to go for the culmination of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, the move is seen as an attempt to break the deadlock between the government and the Opposition in the House.

Raut said that Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has called a meeting of leaders of Congress, TMC, Shiv Sena, CPI(M) and CPI -all parties whose Rajya Sabha MPs have been suspended

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"The Opposition leaders will meet tomorrow at 10 am at the Parliament Library Building to take a decision on participating in the meeting called by the Government", Raut further told ANI.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also this evening wrote to parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi and termed the Centre's decision to invite just four parties as "unfair and unfortunate".

Twelve Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended from the House on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament from five Political Parties including Congress, TMC, Shivsena, CPI, CPI(M). After their suspension, all 12 MPs have been sitting in dharna on a daily basis in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister earlier said that the government was ready to consider revoking the suspension of the MPs if they apologise for their conduct in the House. The Opposition leaders have however said that they would not apologise.

Rajya Sabha was adjourned several times in the ongoing Parliament session due to the ruckus in the Upper House by the Opposition parties demanding revocation of the suspension of MPs.The Parliament is scheduled to culminate on 23 December. (ANI)

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New Delhi, December 20: The Delhi High Court Monday directed the Delhi government to remove an illegally constructed temple, put up on public land in South Delhi, noting that no religious activity was going on there.

Once the Supreme Court had already directed that no unauthorised construction will be permitted in the name of temple or gurdwara, there is no question why the encroachment be not removed expeditiously so that it is not misused, the high court said. Also Read | Online Fraud in Mumbai: Engineering Student Duped of Rs 2.50 Lakh by Cyber Fraudsters.

Justice Rekha Palli directed the Delhi government to remove within 10 days the encroachment which is illegally constructed by someone in front of a property in South Delhi's Defence Colony area and asked Delhi Police to provide assistance in this. Also Read | Punjab Shocker: Elderly Woman Murdered By Neighbour On Suspicion Of Doing Occult Practices in Ludhiana District.

The court remarked, The whole city is taken for a ride for so many years... When the Supreme Court and high court find encroachment, where is the question of religious committee? Where does it (LG note) say the court cannot order demolition of illegal structure?

To this the counsel for Delhi government said the court can order demolition but if the agencies have to take a decision, they have to first take permission from the religious committee.

The court also asked the SHO of the concerned police station to ensure that the idols put inside the illegal structure are placed in a nearby temple so that sanctity of the idols is preserved and sentiments of Hindus should be respected.

The high court allowed the petition seeking removal of encroachment, in the form of an illegally constructed temple, in front of a property in the area.

During the hearing, advocate Anupam Srivastava, appearing for Delhi government and police, said that a proposal would be again sent to the religious committee headed by the Lieutenant Governor to recommend demolition of illegal structures, for seeking consent to demolish the structure.

The court perused a note by the Lieutenant Governor and said it nowhere says that no demolition should take place if it is contrary to the orders passed by a competent court.

It said that in 2009, the Supreme Court had passed an order that no unauthorised construction will be permitted in the name of temple or gurdwara or any other religious place.

Now the respondent cannot take shelter that the matters to be sent to the religious committee as it is a religious structure. I may note that the unauthorised structure is not being used as a religious structure as there is no priest and no offering given there, the judge said. The court noted that earlier the Delhi government had submitted that the authorities plan to demolish the illegal structure on October 4, however, now it has referred the matter to the religious committee.

It had earlier pulled up the Delhi government for not fulfilling its stand to demolish the illegally constructed temple and referring the issue to the religious committee for its approval, saying this will lead to chaos and more encroachment. It had said the religious committee, which is headed by the Lieutenant Governor, may be needed if there is a big temple, but if somebody puts a few bricks overnight then referring it to the panel will not serve the purpose.

The plea said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, somebody trespassed and illegally constructed a temple on public land, that is a footpath, at Bhishma Pitamah Marg, right in front of the petitioners' property.

The petition claimed that taking advantage and shelter of the illegal construction, people gather there and indulge in rowdiness and gambling and the encroached structure impedes full access to the petitioners' building.

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New Delhi, December 20: A Pakistani fishing boat 'Al Huseini' has been apprehended in Gujarat with six crew members in the Indian waters carrying 77 kgs of heroin worth approximately Rs 400 crore, Public Relations Office (PRO), Defence informed on Monday.

The joint operation was carried out by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) with Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

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"Indian Coast Guard, in a joint operation with Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), has apprehended a Pakistani fishing boat 'Al Huseini' with 6 crew in Indian waters carrying 77 kgs of heroin worth approximately Rs 400 crores," informed PRO Defence, Gujarat in a tweet.

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Indore, December 20: A former air hostess has been arrested with MDMA drugs worth approximately Rs 10 lakhs, Indore Police said.

"Indore Police has arrested a woman, a former air hostess, with MDMA drugs worth Rs 10 lakhs in the illegal market," Police Commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra said on Sunday while addressing a press conference here.

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"It has been found that members of her network brought the drugs from Mumbai to Indore, concealing them in diapers," he added.

The accused is a resident of Maharashtra's Mumbai and was an air hostess with an International airline.

Also Read | Gujarat: Pakistani Fishing Boat Carrying 77 Kg Heroin Worth Around Rs 400 Crore Apprehended in Indian Waters.

Currencies of Nepal and Bahrain have also been seized from her possession.

Investigation of the case is underway.

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Members of Sikh community staged a demonstration demanding action over the attempt of sacrilege at Golden Temple (Photo/ ANI)

Srinagar, December 20: Members of the Sikh community on Sunday staged a demonstration demanding action over the attempt of sacrilege at Golden Temple.

A local man said, "This is not the first incident. Many such activities have been taken place across the country. There is some anti-Sikh element is involved."

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A man was beaten to death in an altercation by angry devotees after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, earlier on December 18.

The incident took place during evening prayers when the man jumped over the metal railing around the Guru Granth Sahib and allegedly attempted to desecrate the Holy Book of the Sikhs with a sword.

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Meanwhile, an unidentified man was allegedly beaten to death by locals at Nizampur in Punjab's Kapurthala district on Sunday for allegedly disrespecting the 'Nishan Sahib' at the village Gurudwara.

A video of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege with the Nishan Sahib has gone viral on the Internet. He was later handed over to the police but some people reportedly insisted that the man be questioned in front of them and the man was allegedly beaten to death in an ensuing scuffle.

(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, December 20: Opposition parties have decided not to attend meeting called by the government to end the deadlock in Rajya Sabha in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. The decision was made after a meeting of opposition parties this morning.

"We will not attend the meeting called by the Government. We will demand the resignation of MoS Home Ajay Kumar Misra and revocation of suspension of 12 Opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha. We will not let both Houses of Parliament function," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

Today's meeting of floor leaders of both Houses of Parliament was convened to chalk out the further strategy on revoking suspension of 12 Opposition MPs and demand for resignation of Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri issue.

The Opposition leaders also discussed the invitation of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday questioned the Centre's move to call only four parties whose members in the Rajya Sabha have been suspended instead of all Opposition parties.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned on Friday with an announcement from the Chair to meet at 11 am on Monday, citing a decision taken in a meeting held earlier in the day with the government and opposition leaders. A meeting was held earlier on Friday to find a solution regarding the uproar created in the House by the Opposition parties in previous days.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu made the announcement soon after the House assembled for the day at 11 am and papers were laid on the table as well as government mentioned the business for next week. Naidu said it was discussed in the meeting to find a solution to the issue being raised by the Opposition parties and maintain peace and smooth functioning during House proceedings. Subsequently, the Rajya Sabha Chairman adjourned the House till 11 am on Monday (December 20).

In previous days the House faced disruption on various issues, especially over the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs. In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government.

The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021.

The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from

Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI.

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New Delhi, December 20: The geographic information system (GIS)-based 'Automatic Water Supply System' for residents of Cantonment Boards was launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the occasion of Defence Estates Day 2021, informed the Ministry of Defence on Monday.

As per the ministry, the module of the GIS-based water supply system for Cantonment Boards has been developed by the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) under the guidance of Defence Secretary and Director General of Defence Estates, Delhi.

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According to the ministry, it is an easy and fast application to provide water connection to the citizens of Cantonment. It is completely automated which provides a facility to its citizen to identify the location of the water supply connection, automatically determines the nearest water pipeline, defines the capacity of all water supply lines, calculates distance based on the location and amount payable by the Applicant including connection charges can be paid online.

The module further facilitates sanction for water connection online. Once the system issues sanction, the concerned Department in Cantt Board will ensure actual water connection within given timelines. The system is highly user friendly, efficient and transparent.

Also Read | Hyderabad Gay Couple Ties the Knot in Presence of Family Members and Close Friends.

This GIS System is first of its kind in the country. It is based on "minimum government and supports the concept of "maximum governance" as there is no manual intervention for clearance/sanction of the water connection.

In a conventional Water Supply System, citizens apply to the local bodies and the application is processed which takes time. The charges are required to be deposited offline and no time period is defined for grant of water connection. BISAG has successfully implemented the GIS module and its integration with the e-Chhawani portal is done by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

Defence Estates Day was celebrated on December 16, 2021, by Director General, Defence Estates.

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New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Supreme Court has directed the constitution of a medical board to assist a Commission of Inquiry set up to probe the death of then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai in 2016.

A bench comprising Justice S A Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari asked the Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to nominate a panel of doctors and specialists in the fields of treatment of the ailments as suffered by Jayalalithaa.

Also Read | PM Narendra Modi Meets Foreign Ministers of Central Asian Countries, Discusses Ways To Deepen Ties.

"We are also of the view that it is just and proper to constitute a medical board to assist the commission in the disposal of the case.

"Needless to say that the Commission has to furnish the said medical board, so constituted, with complete records of the proceedings. The medical board, so appointed, is permitted to participate in all further proceedings of the commission and furnish a copy of the report to the commission," the bench said.

Also Read | Maharashtra ST Bus Strike: One MSRTC Union Withdraws From Strike.

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Apollo Hospitals challenging the order of the Madras High Court which held that the commission can consider the appropriateness, adequacy or inadequacy of the treatment given by the hospital based on available medical records.

The high court had also held that it cannot interfere with the appointment of the Commission of Inquiry and direct the government to include professionals or experts on the board to assist the one-man Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Thiru. A. Arumughaswamy.

The top court in its recent order further said it was the view that it is just and proper for the Commission to furnish the documents, the depositions and the records as available in the records on an application to be made by the hospital and expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala.

"Appellant-Hospital is also permitted to make an appropriate application seeking permission to cross-examine/recall of any witness or individual including those witnesses whose evidence has since been closed and also lead its own evidence.

"If such an application is filed, we request the commission to consider the same and pass appropriate orders thereon," the bench said.

The Madras High Court had on April 4, 2019, rejected Apollo Hospital's objections to an inquiry commission set up to probe the death of Jayalalithaa looking into aspects of treatment given to her.

As mandated by its terms of reference, the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry was empowered and entitled to go into the appropriateness, efficacy, adequacy or inadequacy of the treatment given to Jayalalithaa during her 75-day hospitalisation in 2016, it said.

The AIADMK-led state government had set up the inquiry commission to look into circumstances leading to the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, at Apollo Hospitals.

The government had set up the inquiry commission to look into circumstances leading to the death of the AIADMK supremo, citing doubts expressed by various people.

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New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI): The Supreme Court has granted bail to a tribal woman accused of human trafficking on the ground that despite a lapse of almost two years her trial has not commenced and said she cannot be kept in confinement indefinitely.

A Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant, and Hima Kohli granted bail to Drabhamon Phawa, a 21-year old woman from Meghalaya, who was accused of human trafficking.

Also Read | Karnataka Reports 5 New Omicron Cases in Past 24 Hours, State Tally Reaches 19.

"Having heard counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner has suffered incarceration for a period of 18 months and has also delivered child during custody, we deem it to be a fit case to grant her bail. The petitioner is, accordingly, directed to be enlargedon bail on terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court. The special leave petitions stand disposed of accordingly," the order has stated.

Drabhamon Phawa was pregnant at the time of her arrest and had been in jail since February 2020. She delivered a child in jail.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi Moves Adjournment Motion in Lok Sabha to Discuss Ladakhs Statehood.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid and advocate TK Nayak, representing the woman, told the apex court that she herself was harbored into Delhi on the pretext of a dignified job and thereafter ruthlessly forced into flesh trade therefore, she is also the victim of the prostitution racket.

It was further submitted that Phawa was pregnant at the time of her arrest and had undergone the entire period of pregnancy within prison confinement. Since then, Phawa has delivered a child who is also in jail with her.

The Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Delhi government vehemently opposed Phawa's petition on the grounds of "severity and seriousness of offenses" alleged against her. (ANI)

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Mumbai, December 20: Equity indices plunged to over four-month lows on Monday as concerns over surging Omicron cases across the world jolted investors, sparking a heavy selloff in global markets. Relentless selling by foreign investors amid a hawkish tilt by central banks also weighed on sentiment, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 1,189.73 points or 2.90 per cent to end at 55,822.01 -- its lowest since August 23 this year. On similar lines, the NSE Nifty tanked 371 points or 2.18 per cent to end at 16,614.20. The market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies tumbled by Rs 6.79 lakh crore to stand at Rs 2,52,57,581.05 crore.

Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, sinking 5.20 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank. Kotak Bank and NTPC. Only HUL and Dr Reddy's managed to close in the green, climbing up to 1.70 per cent. Sensex Crashes 1,400 Points on Omicron Concerns; Investors Lose Rs 7 Lakh Crore.

According to experts, exploding COVID-19 cases, sustained selling by foreign institutional investors and slowing growth momentum in the developed economies have spooked markets the world over.

"India has been undergoing a phase of consolidation in the last two months. Currently, selloff is due to rapid rise in FIIs selling triggered by hawkish world central banks' policy, cautious view on Indian market due to high valuation compared to peers and drop in retail inflows," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

"We feel that we are reaching the last phase of this consolidation in terms of price correction. Some pockets have become fair, however the overall market is still trading at the upper-hand which will continue to affect the performance of broad market, in the short-term," he added.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking, said markets reacted to the news of a sharp jump in the COVID cases globally, which may result in lockdowns.

"Though the situation is under control domestically at present, any impact on the global economic recovery would dent our prospects too. Besides, the continuous outflow of the foreign fund was also weighing on the sentiment.

We reiterate our cautious view on markets and suggest focusing more on risk management," he noted. All sectoral indices ended in the red, with BSE realty, oil and gas, metal, bankex and energy indices falling up to 4.74 per cent. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices lost as much as 3.42 per cent.

Global equities spiralled lower after surging Omicron cases raised the prospects of fresh lockdowns ahead of Christmas and New Year holidays.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with heavy losses. Stock exchanges in Europe too were trading deep in the red in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude tumbled 3.51 per cent to USD 70.94 per barrel. However, the rupee notched up gains for a third straight session on Monday, rising further by 16 paise to settle at 75.90 against the US dollar as easing crude oil prices revived an otherwise lacklustre sentiment.

Foreign institutional investors continued to offload shares in the capital market on Friday, as they sold equities worth Rs 2,069.90 crore, exchange data showed.

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Fazilka (Punjab) [India], December 20 (ANI): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said that the incident of alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple in Amritsar should not be politicised and demanded culprits to be caught.

Speaking in the press conference here in Fazilka, Punjab, Sukhbir Badal said, "We do not want to do politics, we want culprits to be caught. Since no culprit was caught in the last 5 years, they were emboldened. It's sad they have formed inquiry committee of the Deputy Chief Minister. A judge should have been on the committee. This shows that they do not want to catch culprits."

Also Read | PM Narendra Modi Meets Foreign Ministers of Central Asian Countries, Discusses Ways To Deepen Ties.

Badal further slammed the Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and said, "I would like to tell Punjab Chief Minister and Dy CMs to remember the sacrilege incident in our government's rule, you had said that CM should be jailed, that CM-Dy CM had allowed it. You did politics and didn't catch the guilty and deliberately spent 5 yrs in defaming Badal family and SAD."

A man was beaten to death in an altercation by angry devotees after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, earlier on December 18.

Also Read | Maharashtra ST Bus Strike: One MSRTC Union Withdraws From Strike.

The incident took place during evening prayers when the man jumped over the metal railing around the Guru Granth Sahib and allegedly attempted to desecrate the Holy Book of the Sikhs with a sword.

Meanwhile, an unidentified man was allegedly beaten to death by locals at Nizampur in Punjab's Kapurthala district on Sunday for allegedly disrespecting the 'Nishan Sahib' at the village Gurudwara.

A video of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege with the Nishan Sahib has gone viral on the Internet. He was later handed over to the police but some people reportedly insisted that the man be questioned in front of them and the man was allegedly beaten to death in an ensuing scuffle. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, December 20: State-owned SECI has awarded a contract to the Tatas for setting up a 100MW solar project with battery energy storage system (BESS) at Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh. The project will demonstrate how, by using a large battery storage system like BESS, solar power can be used to provide clean energy during evening peak hours.

The contract has been awarded to Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd, a statement by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy(MNRE) said. The project will have a 40 MW/120 MWh BESS. It is one of the largest grid-connected BESS projects in the country.

It is supported by the World Bank and SECI's internal resources and domestic loans. This is expected to boost market confidence and catalyze further investments in the sector to enable India achieve its commitments towards a net-zero economy. The contract was signed by officials of Tata Power and SECI in the presence of Suman Sharma, Managing Director, SECI, as well as directors and senior officials of SECI and World Bank.

"This will give further push to achieving India's Climate commitments. We will work together to make RE the mainstay of our energy production," said Sharma. SECI, under the MNRE, is engaged in promoting and development of various RE resources, especially solar and wind energy, RE-based storage systems, floating solar, trading of power, consultancy as well as emerging areas such as green hydrogen, green ammonia, Waste to Energy, RE-powered electric vehicles, etc.

SECI is an implementing agency for many RE schemes of the Centre such as Viability Gap Funding schemes, tariff-based tenders for development of RE projects, solar parks etc.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kabul [Afghanistan], December 20 (ANI): Rejecting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks on terrorism in his country, former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said that the landlocked country has been facing ISIS's threat from Pakistan.

At the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on Sunday, Imran Khan had said ISIS threatens Pakistan from Afghanistan, adding that stability in Afghanistan is necessary. "We have had attacks from (the) Afghan border, from ISIL (ISIS), into Pakistan," he said.

Also Read | ICYMI: Israa Ismail is a Visually Impaired Photographer Who Relies on Her Senses of   Latest Tweet by Reuters.

Reacting to Khan's remarks, the former Afghan president said these allegations are not true, TOLOnews reported. ISIS from the beginning has been threatening Afghanistan from Pakistan, not the other way around, Karzai added.

"These remarks are not true, and are obvious propaganda against Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "In fact, from the beginning, Afghanistan has been facing ISIS's threat from Pakistan."

Also Read | Typhoon Rai: At Least 50 Still Missing After Typhoon in Philippines, Death Toll Raises to 208.

Earlier, Karzai had warned Pakistan not to interfere in Kabul's internal affairs. He had said that Islamabad should not encourage terrorism or extremism rather should establish relations with the country through "civil principles and principles of international relations."

"My message to Pakistan, our brotherly country, is that they should not try to represent Afghanistan," he said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) in October.

Pakistan organised a summit of foreign ministers from the OIC on Sunday. An OIC resolution released after the meeting said the Islamic Development Bank would lead the effort to free up assistance by the first quarter of 2022, Al Jazeera reported.

The OIC meeting did not give the new Taliban government any formal international recognition and Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was excluded from the official photograph taken during the event. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kabul [Afghanistan], December 20 (ANI): Taliban's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday downplayed remarks made by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Islamabad that the Islamic State attacks Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Muttaqi said at a press conference in Kabul that the remark made by Khan is not an insult to Afghanistan. He added that his remarks were critical of the former governments, which may have therefore caused former government officials to feel compelled to show a reaction, reported Tolo News.

Also Read | Donald Trump Sues New York Attorney General Letitia James, Seeking To End Civil Investigation Into His Business Practices.

"It was a summit, everyone has an opinion," said Muttaqi, adding, "Imran Khan criticized the former (Afghan) governments. I think officials of the former governments felt obligated to react, I don't see (Khan's remarks) as insulting."

On Sunday, at the OIC Summit, Khan said, "We have had attacks from (the) Afghan border, from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), into Pakistan."

Also Read | Maryam Nawaz Can Be A Model, Camera Loves Her, Says Junaid Safdar's Wedding Photographer Irfan Ahson.

Khan's remarks sparked a response from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghans on social media.

Karzai called Khan's remarks "an attempt to sow discord among Afghans, and an insult to the Afghan people."

"Allegations that ISIS is active in Afghanistan, threatening Pakistan from Afghanistan, is clear propaganda and in fact the opposite is true. The threat of ISIS has been directed from Pakistan against Afghanistan from the very onset," Karzai added in a series of tweets.

Muttaqi said that if the Pakistan PM meant that a weak Afghan government would not be able to control the Islamic State threat, that is another issue, and he hopes it will never happen. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
London, Dec 20 (AP) Britain's main nurses' union warned Monday that exhaustion and surging coronavirus cases among medical staff are pushing them to the breaking point, adding to pressure on the government for new restrictions to curb record numbers of infections driven by the omicron variant.

The warning throws into stark relief the unpalatable choice Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces: wreck holiday plans for millions for a second year running, or face a potential tidal wave of cases and disruption.

Also Read | Maryam Nawaz Can Be A Model, Camera Loves Her, Says Junaid Safdar's Wedding Photographer Irfan Ahson.

Many governments in Europe and the US are confronting similar dilemmas over how hard to come down in the face of omicron, which appears more transmissible than the previous delta variant that itself led to surges in many parts of the world. Early evidence suggests omicron may also produce less serious illness  though scientists caution it is too soon to say  and that it could better evade vaccine protection.

Even if it is milder, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK have surged by 50% in a week as omicron overtook delta as the dominant variant.

Also Read | UK Reports 12 Deaths Due to Omicron Variant of COVID-19, 104 People Hospitalised.

Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing union, said the situation over the next few weeks looks very bleak, as growing absences from sickness and self-isolation hit hospitals already struggling to clear a backlog of postponed procedures and treat normal winter sicknesses alongside coronavirus cases.

The British Medical Association has warned that almost 50,000 doctors, nurses and other National Health Service staff in England could be off sick with COVID-19 by Christmas Day unless additional restrictions are introduced.

But many political leaders are reluctant to impose the stiff measures they resorted to earlier in the pandemic  often because they promised their people that vaccines would offer a way out of such restrictions and it may be politically untenable to impose them again.

In the US, the prospect of a winter chilled by a wave of coronavirus infections is a severe reversal from the optimism projected by President Joe Biden some 10 months ago, when he suggested that the country would essentially be back to normal by Christmas. France is desperately trying to avoid a new lockdown that would hurt the economy and cloud President Emmanuel Macron's expected re-election campaign.

US vaccine maker Moderna said Monday that a lab tests suggested that a booster dose of its vaccine should offer protection against omicron. Pfizer's testing also found a booster triggered a big jump in omicron-fighting antibodies.

But many scientists say boosters along are not enough and tougher action is needed.

Other countries are warily watching the UK, which on Sunday reported 82,886 more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in a day, close to the record high set last week.

The Dutch government began a tough nationwide lockdown on Sunday to rein in sharply rising infections. The World Economic Forum, meanwhile, announced Monday it is again delaying its annual meeting of world leaders, business executives and other elites in Davos, Switzerland, because of omicron uncertainty.

But many European leaders have opted for something less.

France and Germany have barred most British travellers from entering, and the government in Paris has also banned public concerts and fireworks displays at New Year's celebrations. Ireland imposed an 8 pm curfew on pubs and bars and limited attendance at indoor and outdoor events.

Portugal is telling most nonessential workers to work from home for a week in January, while Greece will have 10,000 police officers on duty over the holidays to carry out COVID pass checks.

In Spain, the national average of new cases is double what it was a year ago. But authorities in the country with one of Europe's highest vaccination rates are betting primarily on mandatory mask-wearing indoors and the rollout of booster shots, with no further restrictions in the pipeline.

Miguel Hernan, an epidemiologist at Harvard University who advised the Spanish government earlier in the pandemic, said the reluctance to impose new curbs was understandable, but warned it was better to act early rather than late.

The earlier they are applied, the shorter the time they are needed, he said.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Sunday that there won't be a lockdown before Christmas but cautioned: We will have a fifth wave."

Hendrik Wuest, governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, said more restrictions could be on the horizon shortly after Christmas.

I don't think big New Year parties can happen this year  unfortunately, again, he added. Omicron won't forgive us any carelessness if we aren't cautious. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hajipur, December 20: In a shameful incident reported from Bihar, a 60-year-old man allegedly raped his relatives three-and-a-half-year-old daughter in Hajipur town.

The alleged crime occurred on December 16 but came to fore on Saturday when the minor survivors mother lodged a complaint with the police. The police arrested the accused on Sunday. Madhya Pradesh Horror: Minor Girl Raped By Father's Friend in Bhopal's Kolar; Accused Arrested

According to a report in The Times Of India, the accused had come to hajipur to attend the marriage of his niece. The complainant is the elder niece of the elderly accused, who is a resident of Samastipur district. He allegedly sexually assaulted the minor girl at the houses terrace around 11 am on December 16. The child sustained injuries in her private parts. She was initially administered treatment at a private hospital and later taken to the Sadar district hospital.

Raghav Dayal, Sadar SDPO, said the matter came to light on Saturday when the girls mother approached the police. Family members had tried to hush up the matter by agreeing to bear the cost of the girls treatment. Her mother, however, approached the police two days after the incident. An FIR was lodged with the Womens police station in this connection, he added.

Womens police station SHO Pushpa Kumari said. The girls mother had washed her blood-stained clothes, pillow and bedsheet out of ignorance. We could not collect anything as evidence from the spot. Bihar Shocker: Minor Girl Allegedly Raped By Two Men In East Champaran District; Case Registered

Further probe into this matter is underway.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 20, 2021 09:06 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
London, December 20: The number of people dying due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the UK rose to 12 on Monday from seven reported on Sunday. On December 13, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced the first death due to Omicron in the country.

The latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency also show that 104 people have been admitted to hospitals with confirmed Omicron infection, the Independent reported. Some 12,133 confirmed cases of Omicron were also reported on Sunday.

However, these figures are likely to be undercounting the true numbers, as not all Covid cases are checked in labs to ascertain if they are the Omicron variant, the report said. Moderna Announces Preliminary Booster Data, Updates Strategy to Address COVID-19 Variant Omicron.

Meanwhile, experts on the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have warned that there are probably thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England alone.

The SAGE team has advised the government to limit social contact and ban mixing of households during Christmas. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has also refused to rule out another lockdown before Christmas, the Daily Mail reported.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, the government "can't make hard, fast guarantees" that there will not be a Christmas lockdown, the BBC reported. "I'm not going to trail things when decisions haven't been made," he said, when asked whether England can expect more restrictions in the coming days.

This comes as cases of the Omicron variant have risen by 50 per cent in just 24 hours to 37,101 as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a further 12,133 cases on Monday.

Health officials also briefed the Cabinet on Sunday that more measures are required to stop hospital admissions soaring above 3,000 per day in England. Chinas Sinopharm Booster Vaccine Found Weaker Against Omicron Variant of COVID-19: Study.

Johnson had earlier warned of a "tidal wave of Omicron" in the country. As the highly transmissible variant is known to evade vaccine efficacy, the country set a new target to administer booster dose to all by the end of December, from the earlier January.

A yet-to-be peer-reviewed study by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has also projected that under the assumption of low immune escape, the UK will see 24,700 deaths, while in the case of high immune escape, the country will witness 74,800 deaths.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 20, 2021 05:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Chief medical adviser to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned about an increased risk of COVID due to holiday travel as the highly contagious Omicron variant wreaks havoc around the globe.

The nation's top infectious disease expert issued his warning during an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" with Chuck Todd on Sunday. Fauci said people need to be "prudent" if they plan to travel during this year's holiday season, New York Post reported.

Fauci emphasized every individual's "increased risk" if they decide to travel this season.

"Clearly, when you travel, there is always a risk of increased infection. That just goes with respiratory illnesses," Fauci noted.

Apart from highlighting the risk, Fauci also said that people still need to wear their masks in "congregate settings like airports" even if they are fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19.

READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden and Jonas Brothers Promote COVID Vaccines on TikTok - Watch

Anthony Fauci on Omicron Variant Hospitalizations

To date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded at least 65.2 percent of eligible Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

But due to the remaining unvaccinated people in the country, Fauci said he still believes the Omicron variant will drive up hospitalizations in the coming weeks.

According to Fauci, the Omicron variant has "extraordinary spreading capabilities." He said there were several regions in the country with a few percent of the isolates, which are positive now, and going up to "30, 40, in some places, 50 percent."

As the Omicron variant continues to wreak havoc across the globe, medical experts warned of an Omicron-fueled "viral blizzard" that will hit the U.S. Fauci echoed the same thought, saying that the Omicron variant is "raging through the world."

He noted that the Omicron variant has a doubling time of from two to three days in several regions of the country, "which means it's going to take over."

Many cases of the Omicron variant are so-called "breakthrough" infections, and according to Fauci, "there's no doubt" that the U.S. will see more of that. On Sunday, Florida reported that about 30 percent of new infections in the state were among those vaccinated but not yet received their booster shots.

"We are going to see significant stress in some regions of the country, on the hospital system, particularly in those areas where you have a low level of vaccination," Fauci said.

Health Experts Urge Americans to Get Vaccinated and Boosted

As Fauci warned about holiday travels and breakthrough infections in the light of the Omicron's threat, health experts urged Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Francis Collins told CBS "Face The Nation" that the COVID vaccine and booster shot will protect individuals against Omicron variant.

"A big message for today is if you've had vaccines and a booster, you're very well protected against Omicron causing you severe disease," Collins noted. The NIH director then called on the Americans, who belong to the 60 percent eligible to take a booster, to get their third jab and not wait.

In Sunday's interview, Fauci also highlighted the differences between vaccinated individuals and unvaccinated.

"The difference between a vaccinated and boosted person who has an infection and someone who has an infection who has never been vaccinated, there's a major difference with regard to the risk of severity," Fauci said.

The Omicron variant has reportedly been found in 43 out of 50 states. The push for vaccine and booster shots from health experts came at the end of the week in which the U.S. has surpassed 800,000 deaths from COVID-19 and saw a 17 percent surge in cases and a 9 percent rise in deaths.

READ MORE: Brazil Judge Moves to Require Proof of Vaccination From Foreign Travelers

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Dr. Anthony Fauci Weighs in on Holiday Gatherings, Travel Amid Omicron - From CNBC Television
Leftist Legislator Gabriel Boric was elected as the new president of Chile on Sunday, as the elections in the country concluded.

In the presidential runoff between Gabriel Boric and Jose Antionio Kast, Boric won 56 percent of the votes while Kast trailed 44 percent of the country's votes, BBC reported.

At 35 years old, Boric was marked as the youngest modern president when he takes office in March, Al Jazeera pointed out.

The runoff between Kast and Boric came after Kast finished ahead of Boric by 2% in the first round of presidential elections last month. However, Kast was not able to secure a majority of votes.

Meanwhile, DW News said that Boric was able to hold the capital Santiago with a comfortable lead. Since then, both Kast and Boric worked to persuade the centrist middle of the electorate.

On Sunday, an additional 1.2 million Chileans casted their ballots, securing Boric's win and mount him as Chile's next president.

READ NEXT: Lucia Hiriart: Widow of Chile's Dictator Augusto Pinochet Dies at 98

Gabriel Boric's Win in the Chile Elections 'Out of Fear': Says Expert

Despite winning, a political scientist said that Boric's winning was only out of fear.

"On both sides, people are voting out of fear... Neither side is particularly enthused with their candidate," University of Chile Political Scientist Robert Funk said.

Funk explained that voters casted their bid out of fear that if Kast wins, an authoritarian regression will be in front of Chile or because they fear that Boric is too young and "inexperienced" and that he is aligned with the communists.

It can be recalled that Boric was among the several activists elected in Chile's Congress in 2014 as he led protests for higher quality education. Meanwhile, Kast has a history of defending Chile's past military dictatorship.

However, Boric said in a phone call with President Sebastian Pinera that he will do his "best to rise" to the tremendous challenge of leading their country.

Boric has to face several challenges such as Chile's income gap, which the United Nations noted that one percent of their population owns 25 percent of their country's wealth.

Boric vowed that he will address the said issue by reforming the country's healthcare and pension systems. He also said that he would reduce Chile's work from 45 to 40 hours and that he would also boost "green" investment.

Chile Elections: Jose Antonio Kast on Gabriel Boric's Presidential Win

Despite losing for the president post, Boric's opponent in the elections, Jose Antonio Kast, took to social media to express his thoughts as the result of Sunday's event.

According to Kast, he talked to Gabriel Boric and gave his congratulations for his "great success" in the presidential runoff.

Kast also noted that Boric deserves "respect and constructive collaboration."

Acabo de hablar con @gabrielboric y lo he felicitado por su gran triunfo. Desde hoy es el Presidente electo de Chile y merece todo nuestro respeto y colaboracion constructiva. Chile siempre esta primero  pic.twitter.com/AvpBKs0GFT  Jose Antonio Kast Rist  (@joseantoniokast) December 19, 2021

"From today he is the elected President of Chile and deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration. Chile always comes first," Kast underscored.

The head of Latin America Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, Cynthia Arson, was impressed with what Kast did after he lost in the elections.

"It's impossible to not be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in... Chilean democracy won today, for sure," Arson pointed out.

READ NEXT: Chile President Sebastian Pinera Face Impeachment After Scrutiny Over Pandora Papers Leak

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Leftist Boric Wins Chile Presidential Election After Far-Right Rival Kast Concedes Defeat - From FRANCE 24 English
Spider-man stars Tom Holland and Zendaya reportedly ignored a piece of advice from the film's producer Amy Pascal to not date each other.

Pascal made the comments about Holland and Zendaya's dating life in an interview with the New York Times on Friday.

According to Pascal, the actors were warned about their relationship when they were first cast for the Spider-Man franchise.

READ NEXT: 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Fans Claim Oscars' Twitter Post Spoils the Movie-Even Though Clips From Original Films Were Posted

Spider-Man Producer Says Tom Holland and Zendaya 'Did Not Listen'

Pascal said that she warned the actors in 2016 before filming the "Spider-Man: Homecoming" to not date to keep their chemistry on-screen, Us Weekly reported.

"I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture," Pascal said. The producer said that they told the actors "Don't go there [dating] - just don't. Try not to."

Tom Holland and Zendaya were not the only stars who starred in the "Spider-Man" franchise, whom Pascal gave advice about not dating.

In the interview, the producer underscored that other stars such as Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who played Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey in "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 2012, were also warned to not date while they were filming.

"I gave the same advice to Andrew and Emma. It can just complicate things, you know?" Pascal underscored, adding that all the stars she warned about dating all "ignored her" and did not listen to her warnings.

It can be recalled that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's dating rumors surfaced in 2010. However, the two broke up in 2015 after staying together for several years.

Tom Holland and Zendaya Relationship

As for Zendaya and Tom Holland, their relationship is a bit new. The two stars met on the set of the "Spider-Man" film in 2016, but the two of them constantly appeared in each other's Instagram feed.

In July of the same year, Holland initiated posting a photo of Zendaya, as he posted a photo of them with another friend at the pool.

In 2017, the actors started attending events together. However, in July of the same year, a source claimed that Zendaya and Holland are together and that both of them are "super careful" in keeping private and out of the public's eye.

However, Holland made it clear that she treats Zendaya as her best friend in an interview with People. The next month Zendaya also denied their dating rumors in an interview also calling Holland her best friend.

Despite denying their dating rumors for two years, the "Spider-Man" co-stars were spotted together in Holland's car  sharing a kiss at a red light in Los Angeles. In September of the same year, Holland shared a mirror selfie of himself with Zendaya calling her "My MJ" as his birthday greeting to her.

Recently, Tom Holland and Zendaya made their red carpet debut as a couple, as the new installment "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was released in Theaters on Friday.

READ NEXT: Nick Cannon Explains Why He Decided Not to Treat Late Son's Cancer With Chemotherapy

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Zendaya And Tom Holland Make Red Carpet Debut As A Couple - From ET Canada
The frontline intensive care staff at Portlaoise hospital's ICU appealed to the public to 'stay safe' this Christmas as they prepare to help people survive Covid-19 after falling critically ill with the virus.

"Christmas in ICU Portlaoise Happy Christmas and happy New year stay safe," is the message tweeted out from staff as they face into the second Festive season coping with the coronavirus.

A picture tweeted shows the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise team decked out in PPE and ready to treat patients who come through the doors of the Laois hospital in need of intensive care.

While staff give the thumbs up, it's clear from the latest figures that they will be under pressure over Christmas if the latest HSE figures are to be a measure of the pressure on the system as Omicron spreads.

The COVID-19 Daily Operations Update Acute Hospitals has the latest figures from Portlaoise and other midlands and Irish hospitals at 8pm on Sunday, December 19.

Prepared by the HSE Performance Management and Improvement Unit, the report shows that there were nine patients with Covid-19 at the Laois hospital. Of these, four were critically ill in the hospital's ICU.

The Laois hospital had no general beds and no ICU beds on Sunday morning. There were no new Covid-19 admissions over the weekend.

The Laois hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which includes hospitals in Tullamore, Naas and St James's and Tallaght in Dublin.

There were 11 Covid-19 positive patients in Tullamore of whom two were critically ill. It had no ICU beds and three general beds on Sunday morning.

Naas General had 11 Covid-19 patients on Sunday evening with three of them in ICU. The Kildare hospital had 10 general beds but no spare ICU beds on Sunday morning.

Tallaght is the busiest Covid-19 hospital in Ireland. It had 40 Covid-19 positive patients with eight in critical care. It had no general beds and one ICU bed available on Sunday morning.

St James's had 21 confirmed Covid-19 patients by 8pm Sunday. Of these, 13 were critically ill. While the hospital had 75 general care beds there was just one ICU bed free on Sunday morning.

Nationally, there were 448 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in all Irish acute hospitals on Sunday evening, December 19. There were 44 new admissions in the 24 hours to 8pm to hospitals around Ireland. There were 100 suspected Covid-19 cases.

Just under a third of the 304 people in ICUs around Ireland had Covid-19 on Sunday morning. Of those very sick with the virus, 70 were ventilated. The 24 hours to 10.30am on Sunday saw six new people admitted to hospital ICUs with the virus.
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Gardai have been alerted to a incident in Killeen Co Laois in which it is claimed armed raiders turned on local people who were trying to catch them before they escaped.

Killeen Community Group reported on social media on Sunday, December 19 that four armed individuals broke into a house in the locality around 8pm.

"When neighbours have chase in a car the individuals who committed the robbery retaliated and forced their car off the road. Thankfully no one was hurt," said the post.

The group say the guards have been informed and the urge people to be vigilant for themselves and their neighbours.

The group also said on Sunday that there have been a significant amount of break-ins in the last couple of week.

"We ask people please be vigilant of suspicious behaviour by those in unrecognised vehicles," the said.
Intel Ireland has worked closely with local volunteer groups, residents and community organisations to celebrate them and recognise the impact they have on the communities around them.

Two groups in particular that Intel have supported for over 20 years during the festive season are, the senior citizens of Leixlip and the Meals on Wheels organisation.

One of the many highlights of the Intel Christmas calendar is the Annual Senior Citizens Christmas Party. Local senior citizens would usually be bussed in their hundreds to a special party but, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the usual party could not take place again this year. We did not however let this dampen the spirits of the senior citizens in the Leixlip community.

Instead of the guests going to the party as one group, this year senior citizens in the Leixlip area have been invited for a special Christmas dinner in the Springfield Hotel which is being hosted in small groups over a number of different days. This allowed the celebration to continue but ensured it could be done safely.

Another group that Intel supports during this time is the Leixlip Meals on Wheels, a voluntary organisation which cooks and delivers meals to vulnerable members of the local community. They open 4 days a week, every week of the year, and on a normal basis, they would cook and deliver around 25 meals per day or just over 100 per week. There are over 120 volunteers involved in the organisation which is split into drivers and cooks.

Typically, the Intel onsite cafe takes over the preparation of meals for recipients for a day to give the usual Meals on Wheels volunteers a well-earned day off. On December 15th the Intel cafe team prepared all the meals for delivery.

Speaking about the Christmas activities this year, Intel Ireland External Relations Manager Lisa Harlow said; Christmas is such a special time for everyone and we always take great pride in celebrating together with our local community and recognising people who give so much of their time to helping others throughout the year.

"Although things had to be done a bit differently this year, we hope that these small gestures will help show our appreciation. We wish all of the volunteers and members of the local communities a happy and safe festive season.
A married couple oversaw and ran nine brothels in the Dublin area, a court has heard.

Hani Ali Showky (45) and his wife Nicolina Velic (25) ran nine brothels and a total of 25 escorts were at the brothels at the time of the investigation.

Showky and Velic, both of Abbot Court, Cualanor, Dun Laoghaire, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the running of brothels and organisation of prostitution at various locations in Co Dublin.

They also pleaded guilty to money laundering and the use of false instruments such as bank statements, references, payslips from a fake company, a UK driving licence, amended revenue tax certificate and a UK passport.

The couple were charged after gardai served a warrant on one of the properties. In total, nine properties were searched and 18 statements were taken from escorts working at the brothels.

The court heard that Showky had rented eight properties from landlords using fake bank statements and references and would then sublet them to the escorts at a rate of 700 per escort per week.

Showky would also drive escorts between the different properties and inform them when rooms became available.

He also set up a company in June 2016 to facilitate a money laundering scheme. This company was dissolved in December 2019, and approximately 114,000 per year passed through the company accounts.

It is estimated that both accused were making a total of 5,000 in profit per week from the running of the brothels. Showky has 31 previous convictions which occurred in both Ireland and the UK.

The court heard that the two accused had not coerced or trafficked the women concerned. Furthermore, the escorts would place advertisements on Escorts Ireland, and the accused had no part in this. None of the women who were working as escorts were illegal immigrants.

A detective garda agreed with Seamus Clarke SC, defending Showky, that his client was originally from Egypt and had obtained a computer engineering degree in Cairo. He arrived in Ireland in 2011 and has two children from a previous marriage who live in the UK with his now ex-wife.

He met his co-accused Velic in 2015 and began a relationship. They were married in 2019 and Velic gave birth to a baby boy in 2020.

Dean Kelly SC, defending Velic, told the court his client was originally from Romania and came from a broken home. Her mother left home when she was 12 years of age.

Mr Kelly said his client completed her education in Romania and then travelled to Ireland at the age of 20 when she met her now-husband when he was aged 40. He said she has no previous conviction and was unknown to the gardai before this investigation, is the sole career for her child and has no family supports in Ireland.

Passing sentence today, Judge Pauline Codd outlined the degree of planning carried out by both of the accused and that none of the landlords knew that their properties were being used as brothels.

The judge noted the scant regard of using false documents, the duration of the conduct and living off illicit earnings.

She considered the mitigating factors when sentencing Showky, such as his early guilty plea, his personal circumstances, that he has taken full responsibility for the crime as well as the death of his mother while he has been in custody.

Judge Codd sentenced Showky to five years imprisonment, but suspended the final 12 months of the sentence on strict conditions.

When sentencing Velic, the judge noted that she was not as actively involved as her husband and that she was under his influence. She noted that Velic is the mother of a young child with no family support in Ireland.

Judge Codd sentenced Velic to four years imprisonment, but suspended the sentence in its entirety on strict conditions.
Absenteeism rates in schools throughout the country are expected to rise this week  that's according to a recent report from The Irish Times.

The newspaper recently reported that the motivation for this development is due to fears among parents over rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, especially with Christmas just around the corner.

It added that some school principals have said they expect attendance to be down by about 25 per cent or more.

Primary and secondary schools are due to close this Wednesday, December 22, and reopen on Thursday, January 6.

One health expert, Professor Anthony Staines, said that schools should close this week and reopen later in the new year to suppress the number of Covid-19 cases in light of the Omicron variant.

Prof Staines, who is also head of health systems at Dublin City University, said it would be "insane" to reopen schools on Monday.

In addition, Seamus Mulconry, general secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, agreed that he expects attendance rates in schools to be reduced, citing the same reasons as Prof Staines.

A spokesman for the Department of Education has denied that such an event was likely to occur, explaining that the scheduling of school holiday periods would not change.

They added that there was "no evidence to suggest that extending school holidays has a public health rationale."

However, with the amount of visible disappointment and outcry over the recent restrictions that can be seen on social media, it is unclear whether the Dept's statement will be considered by many members of the public.
Ireland's Chief Medical Officer has not ruled out the need for tougher measures to protect the health system.

Dr Tony Holohan said that no decision has been made on extra restrictions, but stressed that health officials will keep watching the situation closely in the coming days.

Health officials have confirmed Omicron is now the dominant Covid-19 strain in Ireland, accounting for 52% of cases.

Dr Holohan said, We continue to monitor the effects but a series of measures have now been mandated by Government. Theyre only coming into effect today. We believe that they will substantially cut the total volume of social contact across society.

Were not going away for Christmas."

It has taken less than two weeks for #Omicron to become the dominant strain of #COVID19 in Ireland, revealing just how transmissible this variant is.  Dr Tony Holohan (@CMOIreland) December 19, 2021

From today, restaurants and bars, excluding takeaways and delivery services, must close at 8pm.

The Government has also said there should be no indoor events after 8pm and attendance at indoor and outdoor events earlier in the day will be restricted.

Dr Holohan said that he hoped the measures would be enough to curb a sharp rise in infections, but warned people to buy into not just the letter but the spirit of that guidance.

We believe that if we can follow the measures that have been mandated and decided upon by Government that we can have without recourse to further restrictions, so my message is now to concentrate on whats in front of us.

He called on people to reduce the number of people they meet over Christmas.

Because things are open, it doesnt mean that you have to do them, necessarily.

He refused to speculate over whether schools would remain closed after the Christmas holidays, amid concerns about the spread of the virus among children.

He said that NPHET would watch the situation closely.

The chief medical officer stressed that vaccines and booster jabs should protect people from severe disease.

Asked on RTE radio whether next Christmas might look more normal, he said: My focus is on this Christmas, because were right now in a situation where, and I dont like using analogies like tidal waves and so on, but the wave of infection that this is going to represent is right in front of us now.

Im not going to speculate as to where were going to be next Christmas in relation to all of those things. My focus, as I say right now, is on the imminent risk that exists from a public health point of view arising from Omicron for the Irish public.
Most Irish employers want a hybrid model of office and remote work going forward.

That's according to a recent survey across 280 organisations by Compliance Institute, which found almost 7 in 10 employers want employees to split their time between both modes of working.

People across Ireland have been advised to work from home where possible due to the presence and increased transmissibility of the Covid-19 variant, Omicron.

Sixty seven percent of organisations say employees working from home will still need to visit the office at least once a week, with 53% saying workers will have to be in-office two or three days per week.

CEO of the Compliance Institute, Michael Kavanagh, spoke about the findings and said, "We have reached another roadblock in terms of workers returning to the office, but we are all hoping that the advice will change at some stage in the New Year. When this happens, there is likely to be something of a trial period for many organisations as they figure out the best way to accommodate their staffs changed situations, needs, and preferences."

The survey also found over a quarter of employees will need to be close enough to the office for a weekly commute, with more than 3 in 10 organisations allowing employees to work remotely from anywhere in Ireland.

Most employers were noted as being open to adopting some form of remote working, with just 4% of organisations reporting it would no longer be an option.

Mr Kavanagh said, "Remote working has the potential to become a contentious issue among workers and employers alike as efforts are made to marry the needs and desires of workers with the goals and best interests of the businesses. The pandemic has changed many peoples live/work situation as well as their goals and ambitions, and so patience and communication will be required by both employers and employees to figure out workable solutions and compromises in the months ahead.

"Questions will need to be asked such as whether it's tenable to keep renting office or commercial space when a large portion of your staff are working from home, from an alternative location, or abroad. Will employee retention become an issue if remote working is not allowed? There are many elements to weigh up."
Following the recent announcement of new restrictions and the newfound dominance of the Omicron variant, a number of government ministers have expressed fresh concerns.

According to the Irish Independent, Ministers have raised concerns with NPHET over rules which require all close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases to restrict their movements for five days.

This protocol remains in place even if the person in question has received a booster vaccine, or 10 days if they have not received the vaccine.

The newspaper also reported that the govt is concerned this will especially affect front-line workers such as gardai, the fire brigade and local authorities, as well as those who work in factories and warehouses.

Ministers also fear the newly announced close contacts regime risks closing down some workplaces.

The Irish Independent also reported that the Cabinet Committee on Covid-19 was warned earlier this year there could be an estimated 10,000 new Covid cases a day from Christmas Eve onwards.

In addition, the Committee was told that each of these people will have an average of 3.1 close contacts: this means around 41,000 people a day will be told to restrict their movements under the close contact rules.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Tony O' Holohan last month told the Irish public in a statement that they should work from home, "unless it is necessary to attend in person."

Urgent message:

Dr Holohan yesterday took to social media to urge the Irish public to follow Covid-19 prevention guidelines in the run up to Christmas.

The CMO said on his Twitter account: "It has taken less than two weeks for Omicron to become the dominant strain of COVID19 in Ireland, revealing just how transmissible this variant is."

"We have slowed transmission in the past using our basic measures & responding immediately if symptomatic  it is extremely important we do everything we can to flatten the curve of this wave now to prevent unnecessary deaths, risk to the vulnerable & to protect our health service."

He continued: "I urge anyone eligible for a booster to available of it at the earliest opportunity.

If the majority of us can now reduce our social contact, meet others outdoors, work from home unless absolutely necessary, use face masks, avoid crowds and keep indoors well ventilated."

"Very importantly, if you have any #COVID19 symptoms self-isolate immediately and arrange a PCR test, if you are a close contact of a confirmed case please restrict your movements," the CMO added.
ON NEW Years Day in 1921 two County Limerick men paid the ultimate price for Irish Freedom.

Thomas Murphy, Ballylanders, and David Tobin, Glenbrohane, were killed by Crown Forces. Last December, David Tobin, a grand nephew of Mr Tobin residing in Austin, Texas, got in touch with the Leader with a researched and factual account of their deaths.

A non-political anniversary Mass was planned by the Tobin and Murphy families in Glenbrohane church last January but it had to be called off due to new Covid guidelines. However, the local community wasnt going to forget their two fallen heroes.

This month, identical monuments were unveiled to Tom Murphy and David Tobin after Mass in Glenbrohane. They were blessed by Fr Joe Tynan who had celebrated Mass.

The Mass was poignant because David, aged 23, and Thomas, 29, of the East Limerick Brigade, attended morning Mass at St Patrick's church Glenbrohane on the day they were killed.

According to Davids brother, Ned, the two young men were spotted by an informer in church that January morning. They then went to visit Davids mother. Both were shot while attempting to escape. They had taken a break from activities for the Christmas period.

On December 5, 2021, the parade from the church to the monuments was led by a piper accompanied by three volunteers and a nurse in the uniform of the period and followed by the Murphy and Tobin families, as well as the local community. The attendance was estimated at 250.

Relatives of David Tobin included nephews and nieces. Relations of Tom Murphy included grand-nephews and grand-nieces.

John Murphy, one of the speakers at the event organised by Denis McCarthy, a grand-nephew of Tom Murphy, summed up the mood of the day.

While recalling the events of 1921, the atmosphere in 2021 was one of remembrance but despite the sombre occasion there was a sense of celebration that the monuments were finalised within the 100 years."

They are monuments to commemorate the bravery of both men and the sacrifice they paid then, with others, So that Ireland is now Independent and Free which is part of inscriptions, said John.

MC for the day was Morgan Murphy, member of Glenbrohane Community Association. Ceremonies included the blessing by Fr Tynan; singing of Amhran na bhFiann as the National Flag was borne by one of the volunteers; playing of The Last Post by a bugler; speeches by Denis McCarthy, John Murphy and John Tobin; playing of Reveille by a bugler and songs  The Galtee Mountain Boy and Fields of Shanagolden.

John said the event was totally outdoor, except for Mass, and the ceremonies and event were non-political.
SINN Fein councillor Sharon Benson has called for an inspection to be carried out across the city and county to ensure that fire hydrants are in place and in working in all housing estates.

Proposing the motion at a full meeting of Limerick City and County Council, she cited a recent case where the fire brigade went to an estate in Abbeyfeale to discover there was no fire hydrant.

That particular incident did not involve a fire but the residents were nervous and needed a response. She was asking that an audit be carried out across Limerick as it could potentially lead to serious consequences.

Where they are missing, is that a planning issue?, she asked. Who is responsible for checking fire hydrants are where they should be?

If the job of ensuring a fire hydrant in every estate lay with the council, Cllr John Sheahan said, they would need to get funding to do so. But he wanted to hear from the Chief Fire Officer as to whether or not he was happy with the level of fire hydrants.

I am not aware there is an issue generally in relation to fire hydrants, director of services Kieran Lehane said.

He had discussed the matter with the Chief Fire Officer who was satisfied with the situation, he said, and he pointed out that when the council takes an estate in charge, all infrastructure is checked, including water services.

But Cllr Stephen Keary said he was disappointed with the level of oversight by the council, and had instances of where snag lists were drawn up for estates but the the work wasnt done.

Mr Lehane asked councillors to bring any issues they were aware of to his attention.

Cllr Liam Galvin said the motion should be forwarded to Irish Water.
A FORMER mayor of Limerick has described as shocking reports that a Limerick landlord has been offering a room for rent in a shared house at a reduced rent on condition the tenant provides sexual favours on a weekly basis.

The ad for the property in Newcastle West was one of a number of ads requiring sexual favours as part of the rental agreement which the Irish Examiner followed up on.

The ad offered a room to a single lady with a twist saying, can do reduced rent for occasional fun.

When contacted by the Irish Examiner, the landlord said the cash rent would be 200 a month for the first month and 250 a month after that. He described himself as 45 of slim build and a no b/s guy.

When asked if the room was available without any sexual activity, he said it was preferable to rent it to someone willing to engage in sexual activity.

Reacting to the story in this Mondays Irish Examiner, Cllr Michael Collins said:  I find it unbelievable. It if is true, it is absolutely shocking. We are in a housing crisis. There is a huge need for accommodation. Tenants are desperate to find a place. It is unbelievable that a landlord would stoop so low as to look for sexual favours. It beggars belief. I find it unbelievable.

The former mayor added: It is shocking, that is the only way to say it. It is a terrible slur on the place, declared another local councillor, Jerome Scanlan. I would like to see where it is to see if we could get the law to sort it out.

Accommodation to rent in Newcastle West is scarce and average monthly rentals can be as high as 1,100 for a three-bedroom house.
With the addition of four new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, Kerala's cumulative caseload has surged to 15. Two cases of the new variant were detected in patients aged 41 and 67. They are mother and grandmother of a 17-year-old patient in Thiruvananthapuram who came from the UK on December 9 along with his father, mother and sister. His grandmother was in the contact list.

Two other cases of the Omicron variant were detected from Thiruvananthapuram -- a 32-year old man came from Nigeria on December 17 and a 27 year-old woman who was included in the contact list of a flight passengers. She came came from the UK on December 12.

The state had detected its first Omicron case on December 12 in Ernakulam district when a person who had returned from the UK tested positive. Four more cases of the new variant were confirmed on December 15, and two cases on December 17.

In addition to this, the national capital Delhi also reported four new cases of Omicron infection on Monday. Also, Karnataka added five new cases on Monday. With this, India's overall tally of Omicron variant has increased to 166 as of Monday, 12:30 PM.

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The number of Omicron cases have now surpassed 150 in the country and these infections have been reported from 11 states and Union territories so far, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said on Friday.

India's Omicron Covid count rose to 153 on Sunday after Maharashtra reported six and Gujarat logged four more cases of the new variant of coronavirus, respectively.

Six persons tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, raising the state's tally of such cases to 54, the health department said.

In Gujarat, a 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy who came from the UK, a Surat-based woman who had recently visited Dubai and a Tanzanian national are the new patients of the Omicron variant.

According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories

State-wise tally of Omicron

Maharashtra (54)

Delhi (22)

Telangana (20)

Rajasthan (17)

Karnataka (14)

Gujarat (11)

Kerala (11

Andhra Pradesh (1)

Chandigarh (1)

Tamil Nadu (1)

West Bengal (1)

In view of rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, India should prepare itself for any eventuality, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Sunday.

"We should prepare and hope that things are not as bad as in the United Kingdom. We need more data on Omicron. Whenever there is a surge in cases in other parts of the world, we need to monitor it closely and be prepared for any eventuality. It is better to stay prepared than to get caught off-guard," said Guleria while talking to ANI.

While Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24, India's first two cases of the this heavily mutated version of the coronavirus were detected in Karnataka on 2 December.

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A March report from a UN panel said the first autonomous drone attack may have already happened in Libya. Yet, a UN conclave in Geneva last week failed to regulate the use of killer robots on the battlefield. Mint explains the concept that has worried rights groups for long.

So, What are killer robots?

The idea of killer robots has been explored widely in science fiction movies, including Terminator, Blade Runner, and Robocop. While there is no clear definition, and we are nowhere close to the level of advancement science fiction depicts, killer robots include machines that can make their own decisions with little to no human involvement. Collectively, these weapons fall under lethal auto-nomous weapons systems (LAWS), which can include bombs, dog-like robots, and more that can use AI and other digital technologies to make decisions on the battlefield. It doesnt include drones, which are manned remotely by pilots.

Whats the convention on weapons?

The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which came into effect in 1983, is an international agreement under the UN. It is also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention and seeks to prevent the use of certain weapons that may be deemed to be excessively injurious", and as of 2001, weapons that can have indiscriminate effects". The group held a conference on 17 December, seeking to control the use of LAWS in modern warfare. A coalition of NGOs said despite a clear majority" calling for the negotiation of a law, the committee fell shockingly short" of an outcome.

View Full Image Photo: Reuters

Why is a law needed to control the use of LAWS?

Rights groups have argued that allowing robots to make life-or-death decisions is inhumane and shouldnt be allowed. In addition, they note that algorithmic decisions like this arent dependable as they could be subject to algorithmic biases, and humans wouldnt have control over the profiling and decisions robots take. It could also reduce the threshold for war.

Why do countries want these robots?

Many militaries want to use such machines since it will reduce the number of human soldiers who would be put in peril. In addition, robots are often considered more efficient, can traverse terrains that humans may not be able to, and can be used for things like crowd control. But most importantly, many proponents of killer robots for warfare argue that using robots instead of humans can significantly reduce the cost of war, while those against it argue that this comes at the cost of removing mercy from the battlefield.

Why is the treaty being opposed?

While there are a significant number of countries who are not opposing the disarmament of such weapons, those who have invested in such technologies oppose it. One of the arguments is that nations want any decision on the matter to be unanimous, while the US has argued that existing laws are sufficient for controlling LAWS. The country has also proposed a non-binding Code of Conduct", for countries that use killer robots. The UN group agreed to meet for 10 days over 2022 to discuss how to control the use of killer robots.

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A man is facing an array of charges for abusing a child for 13 years starting back when she was 5 years old, according to Laredo police.

On Dec. 10, Gabriel Paredes, 56, was served with warrants charging him with five counts of indecency with a child, one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, one count of continuous sexual abuse and six counts of sexual assault of a child.

Paredes was released on bond on Dec. 11, according to Webb County Jail records.

The case dates back to May 9, when Laredo police officers responded to a sexual assault report in the 2300 block of Maida Lane. A woman reported that she had been sexually abused by Paredes for about 13 years. She reported that the abuse began when she was 5 years old. At that time, her parents would leave her in the care of Paredes and his wife, states an arrest affidavit.

The woman also reported sexual intercourse with Paredes when she was 12 years old. The sexual abuse continued until she was 18 years old. She recalled that when she was 12, Paredes began giving her cocaine, and she became addicted at the age of 14, according to court documents.

She recalled that her mother would drop her off at Paredes home. When her cousins were asleep, Paredes would pick her up, undress her and put her on top of him, according to court documents. Paredes would also make the girl perform a sexual act on him and he would also touch her chest area, court documents state.

(The woman) stated that Mr. Paredes wanted to be like a couple, cuddling each other, states the affidavit.

The woman stopped having sex with Paredes and stopped consuming cocaine when she found out she was pregnant. The affidavit does not specify if Paredes is the father. She recalled that her son was about a month or two months old when Paredes forced himself inside her residence to have sex with her. Paredes allegedly told her it was for old times.

The woman was able to describe in detail his genital area to police.

Investigators met with Paredes and his attorney at LPD. Paredes denied the allegations. He added that about five months ago, the woman called Paredes wanting drugs for the womans husband to sell.

Mr. Paredes said (the woman) began these allegations because she is mad Mr. Paredes did not help her get drugs, states the affidavit.

On Sept. 23, investigators presented their findings to an assistant district attorneys office who approved the issuance of the warrants for Paredes.

crodriguez@lmtonline.com
With Spider-Man: No Way Home premiering in theaters worldwide this week, excitement for the latest edition in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is palpable. But the new movie is particularly special for one Laredoan.

Professional actor Rogelio T. Ramos Gomez made an appearance in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3 directed by Sam Raimi. And Ramos Gomez says he is excited for the film as it brings him great memories from his time on set in the earlier edition of the franchise.

Upon working on the film initially, Ramos Gomez didnt have much idea on what he would be doing. Even back before the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and now three Spider-Man franchises ago, these scripts were kept under lock and key. But as it turned out, Ramos Gomez found himself sharing the screen with the hero himself, playing the role of a doctor who gave Tobey Maguires Peter Parker an medical update on his friend, Harry Osborn.

Working on Spider-Man 3 was a real treat, and it also came with a big surprise, Ramos Gomez said. The script was kept under such tight secrecy that I only learned my scene was with Tobey Maguire the first day of filming. I was getting ready in my trailer when I read the daily script and realized who my character was really speaking to.

Ramos Gomez got the role after an audition  although, he obviously did not perform the scene exactly that he ended up doing with Maguires Spider-Man since he didnt know the script. Instead, it was written with a bit of a change.

When I auditioned for the role, I acted that same scene, but it was written as if I was speaking with two characters  none of which was Peter Parker, Ramos Gomez said. I filmed for two brief days, but the experience was very positive. Both Maguire and Sam Raimi were very courteous and professional. I spent my time on set concentrating on the work ahead, and to be honest pinching myself, as I could hardly believe I was working on Spider-Man 3.

This article will not spoil anything that happens in the current 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home. But for background, it will describe plot points showcased by the film in its own trailers. If you have avoided trailers in particular for this reason, you can skip the next four paragraphs.

Interestingly enough, the current trailers for the current MCU film  the third in the series by director Jon Watts  showcase some familiar villains from past Spider-Man franchises.

The trailer shows fellow Avengers hero Dr. Strange trying to help the current Spider-Man  played by actor Tom Holland  make the world forget his identity, which was revealed at the end of the previous film, Spider-Man: Far From Home. And a a spell gone wrong leads to villains from other universes making their way to the current timeline.

From Maguires Spider-Man franchise, Willem Dafoes Green Goblin, Alfred Molinas Dr. Octopus and Thomas Haden Churchs Sandman were shown in the trailers. And from the two Amazing Spider-Man movies in 2012 and 2014 staring Andrew Garfield in the lead role, villains including Jamie Foxxs Electro and Rhys Ifans Lizard were also shown.

As a fan of the Marvel universe, I am very excited about the new movie and am looking forward to seeing it in the theater, Ramos Gomez said. Unfortunately, I wont be participating in this next Spider-man film but even if I was I am sure I wouldnt have been able to speak of it until the film was released.

Funny enough, Ramos Gomez wasnt the only actor from Laredo featured in the original Spider-Man 3. In fact, Thomas Haden Church  who plays primary villain Sandman  is also a native Laredoan. However, Ramos Gomez said he never met the renowned actor.

I wish I had met Thomas Haden Church, but he was not filming the same days I was, Ramos Gomez said. If I had been given the chance, I would have mentioned I was from Laredo, and I am sure he would have gotten a kick out of that. Ive heard from several people in the industry that he is a very humble and approachable man. Who knows? Maybe he is that nice because he lived in Laredo.

Even though he might not come out in the next superhero movie, Ramos Gomez says he continues to be open for any role on such films of the MCU or any others.

What actor wouldnt be interested in a superhero movie? Ramos Gomez asked. Not only are they the biggest genre at the moment but they are also very fun to work in.

Currently, Ramos Gomez says he is very excited about his current projects because he was recently cast in a show filming in Atlanta. He will be working on his first episode right before the holiday break.

I would give you the name, but it is always better to wait until the paperwork is finalized, Ramos Gomez said. The only hint I can tell you is that I am joining this amazing show in its fifth season.

As for other aspiring actors from Laredo, Ramos Gomez was hoping to teach a seminar at TAMIU in March of 2020 before the pandemic altered those plans. He hopes that it can instead be done next year.

Still, Ramos Gomez has some advice for those who may want to continue in his footsteps and be actors in Hollywood.

I love trying to help artists from Laredo. It is full of such talented people hungry to express their art, Ramos Gomez said.

My biggest advice to people thinking of venturing into this highly rewarding but difficult industry is to really do your research and fully know what you are getting into. You have to treat this as seriously as any regular career. It is essential that you study the craft and that you have a solid plan and understand that it might take years before you succeed. But above all, you have to believe in yourself.
HONG KONG (AP)  Candidates loyal to Chinas Communist Party won a landslide victory in Hong Kongs legislative elections after pro-democracy activists were imprisoned and authorities received the power to exclude those deemed inappropriate for office.

Candidates loyal to Beijing won a majority of the seats in Sunday's election after the laws were changed to ensure that only pro-Beijing patriots could run the city.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said during a news conference Monday she was satisfied with the election despite a 30.2% voter turnout  the lowest since the British handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997.

She said that the number of registered voters reached 92.5%, a record high compared to the 2012 and 2016 elections, when around 70% of voters had registered.

For registered voters, deciding whether they want to exercise their voting rights in a particular election is entirely a matter for themselves, she said.

In this election, 1.35 million voters cast their votes. They did not just return candidates of their choice to LegCo, and I think it was also because of their support for the improved electoral system, said Lam, referring to the city's Legislative Council.

Under the new laws, the number of directly elected lawmakers was reduced from 35 to 20, even as the legislature was expanded from 70 to 90 seats. Most of the lawmakers were appointed by largely pro-Beijing bodies, ensuring that they make up the majority of the legislature.

All candidates were also vetted by a largely pro-Beijing committee before they could be nominated.

Lam said that even if there was a high turnout based on poor politics, such as the political polarization during the period of political strife in 2019, that is not something we should be glad to have.

Starry Lee, an elected pro-Beijing legislative council candidate from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong party, said the 30% turnout was within general public expectation.

As I have mentioned before, this is a new system, this is a system that we call patriots administrating Hong Kong," Lee said.

"This is a different one from the previous one, therefore you cannot compare directly. And I believe that with the new system, people need time to get used to that.

The opposition camp has criticized the elections, with the largest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party, fielding no candidates for the first time since the 1997 handover.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said there were multiple reasons for the decline in voter turnout.

It is not only the impact of the pandemic, but also the disruption and sabotage of anti-China elements in Hong Kong and external forces, Zhao said at a daily briefing.

Some overseas pro-democracy activists, including London-based Nathan Law, urged a boycott of the vote, saying the elections were undemocratic. Under the new election laws, incitement to boycott the voting or to cast invalid votes could be punished by up to three years in jail and a 200,000 Hong Kong dollar ($26,500) fine.

In a joint statement released by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the foreign ministers of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States expressed grave concern over the erosion of democratic elements of Hong Kong's electoral system and growing restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly.

Protecting space for peaceful alternative views is the most effective way to ensure the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, they said.

Lam said she expects that work with the 90 legislators will be very exciting because they have different opinions on many social issues.

Lam was to travel to Beijing later Monday on a duty-reporting trip, which she says is to give a full account to Beijing of the latest political and economic situation in Hong Kong.

I expect to cover a wide range of issues on this particular duty visit because through two very decisive acts of the central authorities, Hong Kong is now back on the right track of one country, two systems,' she said.
The South Texas Food Bank held their Hunger Relief Raffle December 15 at the food banks parking lot, where a shiny white Mercedes-Benz stood waiting for the name of its owner.

At noon sharp, the food bank started their livestream event on Facebook. Guest M.C. and ticket picker, A.B. Barrera, welcomed viewers; introduced the food bank members who were present at the event; reminded the audience about the eleven prizes that were about to be given away; and kick-started the raffle by picking out the name of the lucky winner of the grand prize - the 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLE 350.

We picked the winner of the Mercedes-Benz first because we wanted everyone that bought a ticket to get a fair shot at winning the car, Executive Director Alma Boubel explained the decision to start with the top prize.

All proceeds of this event are in benefit of food insecure families, children and elderly in the South Texas area.

Boubel also explained the reason why the food bank has held a raffle these past two years.

The food bank has not been unable to host any of its traditional fundraising events due to the ongoing pandemic, she said. Unfortunately, the pandemic along with the tough economic times that we are currently facing have caused the demand for food assistance to increase. In addition, severe weather conditions, rising gas prices and food shortages this year have posed unprecedented funding challenges to our organization, so we needed to find a safe way to fundraise so we could continue with our mission.

Boubel hopes that the food bank will be able to resume its regular events in 2022.

The South Texas Food Bank shared its thanks to the following businesses for their generous support of this event: 2JM Produce, SM Energy, Chorizo de San Manuel, Vilore, H.E.B., Deutsch & Deutsch, Arena Gun Club, Armadillo Homes, Brittingham Development Group, Guntology, Ronin Armory, AEP-Texas, Fedha Nyuki Jewelry Line, and Border Foundry Restaurant & Bar. They also express their gratitude to everyone who purchased a ticket.

Winners are as follows:

Grand Prize: Robert Cantu.

2nd Prize: Patricia Bocanegra.

3rd Prize: Richard Barrera.

4th Prize: Ernest Chamberlain.

5th Prize: Andrew Howland.

6th Prize: Leti G. Martinez.

7th Prize: Pedro Ramos.

8th Prize: Anna Galo.

9th Prize: Zapata National Bank.

10th Prize: Victoria Tamez.

11th Prize: Frances Salinas.

Winners have been notified and can pick-up their prizes at the South Texas Food Bank, located at 2121 Jefferson St., during regular business hours: Monday thru Friday 8 A.M. - 4:30 P.M. (Upcoming holidays may affect operation hours.)

About the South Texas Food Bank

The South Texas Food Bank is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger in the eight-county service area in the south Texas area by collecting and distributing food through partner agencies and programs while creating awareness and educating the community on the realities of hunger. So far in this fiscal year, the food bank has served an average of 44,000 families; 11,000 elderly; and 36,000 children per month throughout their eight-county service area that includes: Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Maverick, Dimmit, Val Verde, Kinney and Starr. South Texas Food Bank Food pantries can be found in communities like Laredo, Zapata, Hebbronville, Carrizo Springs, Eagle Pass, Brackettville, Del Rio, Roma, Rio Grande City and other rural communities.
Courtesy photo /Webb County Sheriffs Office

The Webb County Sheriffs Office welcomed seven sheriffs from the surrounding counties during a meeting with the Texas Department of Public Safety to discuss funding opportunities.

DPS Director Steve McCraw attended the meeting, which took place on Thursday at Camp Huisache.
Superintendent Seamus Boyle of the Longford and Granard Districts has warned that flashing headlights at other motorists to alert them to a Garda checkpoint or Garda patrol car up ahead could hinder the potential capture of "travelling criminals".

During a presentation given to members of the Longford Local Community Safety Partnership earlier today, Supt Boyle explained that part of the role of the Garda Traffic Unit is to assist the Detective Unit in the detection and prevention of crime.

"Youd often see a traffic car parked alongside the road and everybody starts flashing that the traffic car is up there," he said.

"Its not necessarily true that the traffic car is out there to detect speeding. At this time of the year, more than likely theyre there to catch travelling criminals or stolen cars."

Gardai have methods of detecting suspect vehicles or stolen cars, he added, and these methods can be hindered by motorists warning others of the presence of Gardai.

"So by flashing people that the guards are parked down the road, youre also warning travelling criminals that theres a patrol car up the road," he stressed.
Robert Troy TD, Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, has announced the commencement of the Companies (Rescue Process for Small and Micro Companies) Act 2021.

The commencement of the Act makes the small company administrative rescue process available to all eligible small and micro businesses in the country.

Announcing the commencement, Minister Troy stated that: Irelands small and micro companies are the backbone of our local communities and our national economy, but the past two years has seen a disproportionate and negative impact on these businesses as a result of the pandemic. Throughout this period and to ensure their long-term survival Government prioritised policies to support this vital sector.

A central part of that effort has involved a complete review of the restructuring and rescue mechanisms available to small companies in difficulty. This entailed a comprehensive review of the existing regulatory framework and an assessment of all available policy options. Arising from this review we set ourselves the ambitious task of creating an entirely new procedure to address the specific needs of small companies.

This work has been a personal priority since my appointment as Minister, therefore I am very pleased to announce the commencement of the new Small Company Administrative Rescue Process.

The legislation provides a new simplified restructuring process for viable small companies which is more cost and time-effective, initiated by companies themselves, and commenced without the need for Court approval.

Minister Troy continued: This rescue process is modelled on our existing examinership process and founded on a bedrock of well understood procedures and precedents. It is a simplified and effective process that I believe will give small and micro companies a genuine opportunity to restructure and continue to trade. If any small business is experiencing temporary difficulties but is fundamentally viable, I would encourage them to consider this process as a suitable option.

Further information on the small company administrative rescue process is available at enterprise.gov.ie/RescueProcess
The car at the centre of the terryifying incident in the midlands last night which resulted in up to 10 people being injured has been removed from the scene.

The garda cordon at O'Connell Street in Birr has also been taken down.

Gardai preserved the scene last night and arrested a teenage driver after a car mounted the footpath near a takeaway restaurant.

Another described the incident as devastating and added: A few boys were stretchered off in an ambulance... Loads of girls crying. Many had ended up on the ground without knowing what had happened to them.

Video footage has been circulated of a number of people pushing a car with a smashed windscreen (see below) along the street while others tend to those injured who are lying near the footpath.

A garda spokesperson said a "male juvenile in his late teens" was arrested last night.

He was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, brought to Birr Garda Station and released pending further investigations after a blood sample was taken.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses. The spokesperson said: At approximately 12.20am, a car collided with a number of pedestrians after mounting a footpath at O'Connell Street in Birr."

The spokesperson added: A number of persons were taken to Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore with injuries. At this time, it's reported none of the injuries are life threatening.

Gardai are appealing for any witnesses to this collision to come forward. Any road users or pedestrians who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were in the Emmet Square or O'Connell Street areas of Birr between 12.15am and 12.20am are asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardai.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Birr Garda Station on 057 9169710, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.
Homeowners are being warned of the increased risk of rats inside during colder weather as we approach Christmas.

Rentokil, Irelands leading pest control provider, has issued the warning to home and business owners to be aware of the top threats from rodents during the winter period.

The pest control provider believes that callouts for rats and mice will rise sharply in the coming weeks as these pests continue to move indoors to seek shelter from the cold weather.

Dublin was the county that accounted for the most callouts for rodents in November this year, accounting for 15% of all callouts. Galway (14%), Meath (9%) Cork (7%) and Kerry (5%) are the next counties most affected by the pests

Vacant buildings will offer rodents a warm, sheltered environment during the winter where they will be undisturbed by human activity and predators.

Richard Faulkner, Advanced Technical Field Consultant with Rentokil said: As the temperature continues to drop during the winter period, many rodents will move indoors in search of food and shelter. We would advise home and business owners to practice some simple steps which will help to protect their premises from rodent activity such as carefully storing food, keeping your property tidy and sealing any cracks in premises.

In addition to rodents, a number of pest insects will also begin to move indoors at winter time. There are a number of important key areas of pest control for the public to be aware of during the festive season:

- Open boxes of decorations outside and inspect them for any signs of insects or rodents. When finished with them, wrap them in plastic for next year.

- Inspect your tree: Both real and artificial Christmas trees can be nesting grounds for spiders, ants, fleas and a host of other pest insects. Ensure to shake your tree vigorously outdoors so that any insects or their eggs are shaken loose.

- Avoid using edible treats such as gingerbread men, chocolate coins, and candy canes as Christmas tree decorations.

- Ensure sweets, chocolate and other edibles used to fill Christmas stockings are sealed or wrapped in plastic or metal.

- Clean up all Christmas dinner leftovers, food debris, and spillages to prevent a potential food source to rodents and insects.

- Keep foodstuffs in metal or glass containers with tight fitting lids and put outdoor rubbish bags in metal bins with securely fitted lids to stop pest insects or rodents from feeding on the contents.

- Dispose of any clutter in the form of Christmas gift wrapping and packaging, to limit potential hiding places for pests.

Rentokil is advising businesses to explore unmanned, non-toxic pest control solutions, such as PestConnect, a digital solution which provides 24-hour protection from rodents. Through a system of infrared sensors, it detects and then captures or humanely kills rodents using automatically deployed bait stations and traps. Unmanned devices like PestConnect do not require human interaction and send updates and reports to users online.
Family & Parenting, Seasonal & Current Events

By Catherine Eve Published: December 20 2021

Are your kids expecting a visit from Santa and counting down the days until Christmas? Here are some fun ways your little elves can keep track of when Santa will be in your area.

Is your family expecting a visit from Santa? His big commute from the North Pole starts Friday and here are some fun ways your little elves can keep track of when St. Nick is expected in your neighborhood. Get into the spirit by following live broadcasts of Santas journey, playing interactive games, listening to holiday music, and more.

Santas Update - This website calls itself the ultimate news source about Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves, and life at the North Pole. In addition to a year-round website that features the story of Santa, it hosts a 50-hour commercial-free live broadcast from the North Pole on Kris Kringle Radio. Track Santa online, on the app, listen to special reports, enjoy holiday music, and more.

NORAD Tracks Santa - NORAD Santa tracker is a community outreach function of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Every year their team goes on a special holiday mission to track Santas flight around the world - an annual event that started in 1955.

For Santas latest whereabouts, call +1-877-HI-NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates (in most cases a real person will answer), download the app, or follow the NORAD tracker on Facebook and Twitter. Visit the website or watch this YouTube video for more info.

Google Santa Tracker - Explore, play, and learn with Santa's elves now through Christmas. Itll start tracking Santa on Christmas Eve. While youre waiting for his arrival, kids can try the interactive Elf Maker, play games, watch Penguin Proof, and check out lots of other fun stuff on the site.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of London-listed company director and manager changes announced on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Go-Ahead Group PLC - Newcastle upon Tyne-based bus and train operator - Hires David Blackwood to be senior independent director, joining the board on January 1 and replacing Adrian Ewer as senior independent director at the April annual general meeting. Ewer is reaching the end of a nine-year term. Blackwood is chair of Smiths News PLC and deputy chair & senior independent director of London Southend Airport-operator Esken Ltd.







Wizz Air Holdings PLC - Budapest-based budget airline - Senior Independent Director Simon Duffy will step down when current term expires on January 22, citing "other commitments". Barry Eccleston is promoted to senior independent director in his place.







Aviva PLC - London-based insurer - Hires Shonaid Jemmett-Page as independent non-executive director, starting Monday. Jemmett-Page is chair of Greencoat UK Wind PLC and of Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd. She also is a non-executive director of Qinetiq Group PLC and Caledonia Investments PLC.







By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Keywords Studios PLC said on Monday it expects full-year performance to be ahead of market expectations following strong trading boosted by Covid-related cost cuts.

Shares in Keywords Studios were up 8.9% at 2,734.00 pence on Monday afternoon in London.

The Dublin-based video game company said it now expects 2021 revenue of at least EUR505 million, which would be up 35% on EUR373.5 million the year before.

Keywords Studios said it expects adjusted pretax profit of EUR85 million, which would be up 55% on EUR55.0 million in 2020.

The company said the raised expectations were due to its strong performance across the year, driven by a "buoyant" video games market and new content creation.

Keywords Studios added that it has benefited from a reduction in some costs due to Covid-19. These primarily related to remote working and property costs, the company explained.

Keywords Studios said it expects this trading momentum to continue into 2022 but added that adjusted pretax profit may moderate towards its historic levels as some costs return following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@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 Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Saietta Group PLC - Bicester, England-based electric motor technology developer - Revenue for half-year to September 30 jumps to GBP795,142 from GBP56,303 year-on-year, and pretax loss widens to GBP5.2 million from GBP953,676. Says loss reflects that the company is at early commercialisation stage and includes significant share options and IPO-related costs. Floated on AIM in July 2021. Says it is on track to ramp up UK-based production capacity to target of 100,000 units per year by 2024. "With momentum from contracts secured to date and the successful launch of Propel's marine motors directly into distribution and retail, management is confident of achieving its targets for the year ended 31 March 2022," company says.







Geiger Counter Ltd - Jersey-based investor in uranium exploration and production stocks - Net asset value per share stands at 46.44p at end of September, surging from 16.47p a year ago. Says sentiment and momentum remained strong over second half of the financial year. "Your board and the investment managers remain confident that your Company has a portfolio of leading companies involved in the mining and supply of uranium and that attractive opportunities remain available to them. Power output from nuclear generation continues to rise and governments around the world are looking to nuclear power to provide both a base load for energy to supplement renewal sources and to reduce more polluting energy generation such as coal," firm says.







Income & Growth VCT PLC - London Main Market-listed venture capital trust - Net asset value per share 110.45p at September-end, up from 70.06p a year ago. NAV total return for year was 51%. "Although this period has been marked by continued challenges, the portfolio has proven to be resilient and adaptive in facing them," company says. Dividend for year is 9.00p, down from 14.00p the year before but again beating its annual dividend target of at least 6.00p.







Gore Street Energy Storage Fund PLC - energy storage fund - Says net asset value per share rises to 103.3p at end of September from 100.9p at end of March. "I am delighted to report that Gore Street has had another exceptional period of successful growth as we continued to consistently deliver against our strategy and targets, providing attractive returns to our investors in an important sector, underpinned by significant environmentally-focused tailwinds," says Alex O'Cinneide, chief executive of Gore Street Capital, the investment adviser to the company. Looking ahead, says company could reach 1 gigawatt capacity by year end with the acquisition of as few as four new projects in the coming months.







Ediston Property Investment Co PLC - invests in commercial property in the UK - Reports EPRA NAV per share of 89.6p as at September 30, up from 86.01p a year before. NAV total return for the year 9.6% and annualised dividend per share 4.42p, down from 4.88p. However, says dividend was increased by 25% to 5.00p annualised from May 2021. "With an improving NAV, an increased dividend level and significant progress in realigning the portfolio, the Company is in a better position than last year, with its asset allocation already tilted to a segment of the market that is recovering strongly," says Chair William Hill.







Panther Securities PLC - property investor - Has collected over 90% of debt due in respect of rental income changes from the first lockdown in March 2020 up to November 30, 2021. Says pre-Covid levels estimated to be 95%. "Recent events and in particular the latest Covid-19 variant could potentially reverse some of the progress made, but the income generation from the group's portfolio was resilient through the initial waves and lock downs of 2020, and the board does not believe that the current situation will be as uncertain as the initial impact created by Covid-19," company says. Confirms it will pay interim dividend for 2021 of 6p per share.







Sopheon PLC - enterprise software provider - Buys business and assets of ROI Blueprints LLC, a cloud-based solution focused on detailed enterprise planning and execution, for an initial USD1.5 million in cash and a contingent deferred earn-out of up to USD1.5 million in a mix of cash and shares. "Integrating the ROIB solution with Sopheon's Accolade product will extend the value of Sopheon's offering and expand market reach. It will also further accelerate Sopheon's migration towards cloud and SaaS," the firm says. On trading, says it expects revenue and Ebitda for 2021 to be "comfortably in line with market expectations".







Helium One Global Ltd - London-based exploration & development company - Has completed 188.5 line kilometres, or 94%, of the originally planned 200 line kilometre Phase II 2D Seismic Campaign at Rukwa. "Following encouraging early results, the company has decided to extend the survey with an additional 20 line kilometres of 2D Seismic to secure additional data over promising targets within the previously unsurveyed Momba area," it says. Adds that it remains well funded for current exploration activities. On results publication, says there have been audit delays due to pandemic and as such company has been granted extension of up to three months to release financial results for year to June 30. Plans to publish these as soon as possible, and by no later than March 31.







NetScientific PLC - London-based life sciences and sustainability, technology investment and commercialisation firm - Buys 75% stake in Cetromed Ltd, a life sciences holding company with several portfolio companies spun out of the University of Leuven, Belgium, for GBP192,390 in shares and warrants. "The acquisition of the majority stake in Cetromed will result in further internationalisation of NetScientific's portfolio and exposure to a key European high-tech cluster around University of Leuven, whilst being consistent with the Group's capital light strategy," says NetScientific.







Tufton Oceanic Assets Ltd - London-based maritime assets investor - Agrees to sell Containership Swordfish for USD19 million. Swordfish was acquired in January 2018 for USD10.3 million as one of the company's first two investments together with the Containership Kale, and it will be the firm's seventh divestment. Realised net IRR on the sale will be 27%.







Tern PLC - investor focused on the internet of things - Says portfolio company InVMA Ltd has completed GBP2.1 million equity raise and is being renamed to Konektio. Tern invests further GBP200,000 as part of the raise, bringing its stake to 36.8%. "We are very pleased that InVMA, now being renamed Konektio, has secured a significant institutional investment in order to fund the next phase of its growth. We welcome the Mercia and Foresight funds as our partners, alongside the management and founders of Konektio, to help the business achieve its significant potential," says Tern Chief Executive Al Sisto.







Urban Logistics REIT PLC - specialist UK logistics real estate investor - Puts recent equity raise to use with acquisition of four assets for GBP28.6 million at a 5.82% average net initial yield. The value accretive assets include three immediately income-producing properties and the forward funding of a development project.







Target Healthcare REIT PLC - care homes property investor - Has completed acquisition of major portfolio of 18 operational modern care homes, representing in excess of 1,200 beds and generating annual contracted rent of GBP9.2 million. Combined with previously noted acquisition of a pre-let development site in Weymouth, says total investment during the quarter has been GBP173 million.







Deltex Medical Group PLC - Chichester-based medical probes maker - Says UK subsidiary, Deltex Medical Ltd, is notified of successful UK Smart Award application by Innovate UK. The Smart Award relates to development of a hand-held, non-invasive ultrasound device for improved haemodynamic management of hospitalised patients. The total gross eligible project costs for the Smart Award are GBP494,000, of which 70% will be reimbursed to Deltex by Innovate UK.







Bluejay Mining PLC - mineral exploration and development in Greenland and Finland - Receives, in full, disputed VAT refunds due under the tribunal hearing process for the period 2012-2021, with HMRC also withdrawing the last outstanding objections to the remaining VAT claims. "Importantly, this formal withdrawal by HMRC from the Upper Tribunal appeal, means the case is now closed, thereby allowing the company to continue to reclaim VAT on its activities in connection with its projects in Finland and Greenland," it highlights.







Helios Underwriting PLC - investment vehicle that consolidates underwriting capacity at Lloyd's - Buys Exalt Underwriting Ltd for GBP409,550 in cash and shares. Says deal is in line with "strategy of increasing underwriting capacity through acquisition".







Baronsmead Venture Trust PLC - venture capital trust investing in UK businesses - Says it has raised initial GBP25 million in subscription and, on basis that pipeline for prospective investments in 2022 is strong, will utilise over allotment facility to raise additional GBP12.5 million. Baronsmead Second Venture Trust PLC also expects to have raised GBP25 million and plans to raise further GBP12.5 million.







Integrated Diagnostics Holdings PLC - consumer healthcare firm with operations in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Nigeria - To buy 50% stake in Base Consultancy FZ LLC, the holding company of Islamabad Diagnostic Centre (Private) Ltd, for USD72.4 million. IDC is one of Pakistan's largest integrated diagnostics providers, it says. Is buying stake from Evercare Group. "This is directly in line with the Company's geographic expansion strategy to penetrate new, fast-growing emerging markets characterized by favourable demographics and an underpenetrated diagnostics sector," firm says, adding deal should close in first half of 2022.







Life Science REIT PLC - life science property investor - Has completed the acquisition of freehold to further three buildings at Cambourne Business Park near Cambridge. The purchase price of GBP50.1 million, excluding acquisition costs, was satisfied in cash and reflects a net initial yield of 5.5%. Following this, company's office and laboratory space at the park exceeds 230,000 square feet across six adjoining properties, representing 100% of the commercial property on the site.







Zephyr Energy PLC - Newbury, England-based exploration & production company - Due to pandemic-related disruption, now expects acquisition of non-operated working interests in the Williston Basin, North Dakota, to close in January, having previously been expected to close on Wednesday. "Although the completion has been delayed, the company has made excellent progress towards securing the structured debt funding necessary for completion," it highlights.







i3 Energy PLC - oil & gas company with assets and operations in the UK and Canada - Unveils Canadian capital budget of USD47 million for 2022, aiming to deliver 17 gross wells across its portfolio in Central Alberta, Marten Hills, Simonette, and Wapiti, and incremental peak production of up to 5,250 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Forecasts average 2022 production above 20,000 barrels per day and peaks reaching 21,000 barrels. Commits to paying minimum of GBP11.8 million in dividends during 2022, equating to 1.05p per share. "Following an intense period of technical work to evaluate our portfolio in Canada, we look forward to a very busy 2022," says Chief Executive Majid Shafiq.







Horizonte Minerals PLC - nickel development company focused in Brazil - Receives valid acceptances in respect of 2.3 million open offer share at price of 7.0p each, raising USD220,000. This brings total equity fundraise total to GBP147 million before expenses.







Hummingbird Resources PLC - gold production, development and exploration focused on West Africa - Has analysed 12,800 metres of of multiple assays from the Sanioumale West deposit and assays from the initial drilling completed at greenfield deposits Kama and Diaban at Yanfolila. Says results show significant grade and depth, such as 8 metres at 20.82 grams per tonne at the SW deposit. Adds that further assays have recently been received from the Sanioumale East deposit drilling campaign at Yanfolila which, once fully reviewed, are expected to be reported in the first quarter of 2022.







By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned the public to expect new controls to curb the spread of the Omicron variant amid fears the NHS could be overwhelmed.

Following a special two-hour meeting the Cabinet, the prime minister said they were monitoring the data "hour by hour".

However, he said the arguments for taking action were "very, very finely balanced" a indicating fresh measures were unlikely before Christmas.

It comes after the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned daily hospital admissions could reach 3,000 without further restrictions.

"Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS," Johnson said.

"We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.

"But at the moment, what I think we want people to focus on is exercising caution a so ventilation, masks in the appropriate places, all the usual stuff about washing hands, but remember how contagious Omicron really is."

Last week Johnson suffered the biggest backbench rebellion of his premiership with 100 Tory MPs voting against rules requiring Covid passports for entry into nightclubs and other venues.

Any additional proposals could spark another revolt at a time when the prime minister is politically weakened by the ongoing row over parties in Downing Street last Christmas and the Tories' crushing defeat in the North Shropshire by-election.

By Gavin Cordon, PA Whitehall Editor

source: PA

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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The following editorial was published in the New York Daily News:

(TNS) Americas wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, but the actions of many of the troops who served can continue to uplift a fractious nation. President Biden Thursday paid tribute to three such soldiers with the Medal of Honor.

In October 2005 in Samarra, Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe was in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that was struck by an improvised explosive device, engulfing it in flames. Despite being burned more than three-quarters of his body, despite continuing enemy fire, Cashe rescued six soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter. A month later, he would die from those burns.

A fact to take to heart: Despite the fact that 16% of the active-duty military is Black, Cashe is the first African-American recipient of the medal since 9/11, a period during which 28 servicemen have been so honored.

The second soldier paid posthumous tribute was Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz. In Afghanistans Paktia Province in July 2018, the Army Ranger, in his fifth deployment, led a small unit to clear an area of enemy forces; it ended in an onslaught of gunfire. Celiz exposed himself to the fusillade as he secured a heavy weapon system and bought his unit precious time to reach cover, enabling a wounded comrade to get to a medical evacuation helicopter. He died soon thereafter of his wounds. (Celiz happens to be the first Jewish Medal of Honor recipient since 9/11.)

One soldier was at the White House to have the medal hung around his neck. In the summer of 2013, Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee was a Green Beret serving in Afghanistans Forward Operating Base Ghazni when it came under attack. An explosion ripped open the perimeter wall, and 10 armed insurgents wearing suicide vests rushed in. Plumlee then engaged the enemy fighters, killing multiple insurgents in an elaborate gunfight and saving many American lives.

Three humble soldiers who sacrificed for their brethren in good faith: America owes them not only thanks, but an honest attempt, even in small ways, to emulate their example.
COPEMISH  Tucked away in the northeast part of Manistee County is a specialized nonprofit working toward cloning the worlds oldest and largest trees. And at the heart of it all is David Milarch and his family.

Milarch is the founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, in Copemish.

For the last 30 years, my two sons  Jared and Jake  we have a nonprofit that we are cloning the largest, oldest trees on Earth to save their genetics, Milarch said. Weve cloned over 130 different species of tree  all the largest species of those here in the United States and in Ireland.

Part of that job requires sending climbing teams around the country and places like Ireland to gather materials for the international efforts.

Brian Confer/Courtesy photo

He pointed out that 98% of old growth forests in the U.S. are gone.

Weve kind of (cut them down) before weve studied them to know what the benefits were, so weve been cloning these trees and reproducing them here in our lab at the propagation facility in Copemish, he said.

Milarch said he was told 12 years ago that it would be impossible to clone redwoods older than 2,000 years old, and even more impossible to clone giant sequoias over 3,000 years old.

But that is just what the tree archive is doing, he said, adding that it also helps places like California that have seen so many fires in recent years.

And a month ago we just started replanting and rebuilding the worlds first old growth redwood and giant sequoia forest in California, Milarch said. said. Oct. 28 we shipped our clones  the worlds oldest and largest redwoods  out to (the) Presidio in San Francisco.

More Information INTRODUCING DAVE  Copemish resident for 72 years  Favorite Christmas movie is "It's a Wonderful Life"  Favorite (Dave) day of the year is Thanksgiving See More Collapse

He said the news was shared in about 150 countries with a wide reach, which he said felt surrealistic.

Were the Milarchs, six generations of us on the same land from Copemish and you realize that youre reaching that many people with (that recognition) he said.

Milarch said the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive also hears from people on its website requesting the archive to visit 150 countries largest and oldest trees for cloning.

Milarch has lived in Manistee County for 72 years and he said climate change is what keeps him going in his line of work.

Climate change is the largest threat to humanity, he said. Its devastating the chances for our grandchildren to live a normal life. The major solution to reverse climate change is to reforest the planet.

He said the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive motto is that they are working for the worlds grandchildren.

Thirty years ago, he felt like government entities and corporations werent doing anything to address the issue, so he created the archive.

In 1964, he was in the commercial shade tree business in Manistee County.

We know what reforestation will do to help reverse climate change. So we (thought) Well, lets use the biggest, oldest most effective trees to sequester CO2 and that would be the champions or the big ones that (we can) try to clone those to reproduce them and make hundreds of millions available for school children all over the world to reforest the planet. And its working, theyre starting to do it.

More information on the archive is online at ancienttreearchive.org.
Stem WEEK 2021 SCHEDULE OUR PARTNERS

The Berkshire STEM Network is the product of a state-funded initiative to connect regional schools, and businesses for the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and work force development within our community.

There are 9 regional STEM Networks across Massachusetts, all aimed at strengthening their region's STEM Network. Berkshire County's STEM Network is currently based in MCLA's Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation (CSI).

Current STEM Manager: Jane Tekin, jane.tekin@mcla.edu

OUR GOALS

Support student academic achievement in STEM subjects in order to prepare them for college and/or careers in critical STEM job sectors, including healthcare, technology, and engineering. Provide accessibility to the STEM Library, housed in MCLA's Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation. This is a free library designed to support anyone interested in STEM education with a variety of materials, from textbooks to bug kits. Partner with local businesses, educational and cultural institutions, and others who are passionate about enriching the STEM network of Berkshire County.

Connect with US


Did you know that MCLA hosts a Regional Science Resource Center (RSRC)? Housed within the Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation on MCLA's campus, the RSRC helps teachers to implement more inquiry-based, student-centered science in all classrooms by providing ongoing technical support, access to materials and equipment. All of our supplies and equipment support the implementation of the Massachusetts Curriculum in Science and Technology/Engineering for K-12 students.

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Lego Mindstorm Robotic

Starlab Inflatable Planetarium

Microscopes

Engineering is Elementary Kits and Unit Binders

All of the supplies and materials within the RSRC are available at no charge to educators within our STEM Pipeline Networkjust a simple check-out procedure with our staff!

Contact Us!

Division of Graduate and Continuing Education

dgce@mcla.edu

413-662-5575
Berkshire Eagle reports on Middle School Fairs in Berkshire County

iBerkshires coverage of the 2019 Region I High School Science and Engineering Fair at MCLA

Berkshire STEM Pipeline and its partners participated in the first annual MA STEM Week during the third week of October, 2018. See coverage here, here, and here

Northeast Public Radio covers BCC STEM Program open houses for STEM Week including MassTeach, a joint STEM Educator initiative with Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Berkshire Eagle reports on the inaugural year of the Girl's Inc. Eureka! summer science program, which was in part supported by MCLA and the STEM Pipeline, August 3rd, 2018

iBerkshires coverage of the 2018 Region I High School Science & Engineering Fair at MCLA

Berkshire Eagle reports on the South County STEM initiative from Pipeline partner, Berkshire Museum.

Berkshire Eagle highlights area third-graders getting the college experience at MCLA

Berkshire Eagle reports on the 11th Annual Berkshire STEM Career Fair at BCC, November 17th, 2017

Berkshire Eagle reports on "Eureka!", a new STEM program for 8th grade girls launched by Girls Inc.

iBerkshires' coverage of Girls Inc.'s "Eureka!" program press conference, November 2, 2017

Berkshire Eagle Coverage of the Region 1 Middle School Science Fair, April 29, 2017

Berkshire Eagle reports two new state network advisory council members

Berkshire County Robotics Challenge, March 25, 2017 in Berkshire Eagle

Berkshire Eagle's article Passion for STEM 2017 Science and Engineering Fair 3/10/17

Berkshire Eagle's article about Mt. Everett's new "Hyperspace" middle school robotics team, 2/19/17

Berkshire Eagle's article MCLA builds better teachers February 8, 2017

STEM Educator's Conference by Flying Cloud 1/12/17 at MCLA photo gallery

STEM Career Fair at BCC 11/19/16 photo gallery

STEM Network Member Flying Cloud Institute in Pittsfield Public Schools November 12, 2016

Bennington Banner's coverage of Teaching to Learn November 9, 2016

Berkshire Eagle's article on Inside the Job Market by Steering Committee member, Heather Boulger

Berkshire Eagle's coverage of 8th Grade Career Fair at MCLA June 3, 2016

Berkshire Eagle's coverage of the Region 1 High School Science Fair on March 11, 2016

Mursion Simulation Lab MCLA article, November 5, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's coverage of the Region 1 Middle School Science Fair on May 2, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's report on Pittsfield High School's Finance Academy students joining an MCLA class on April 15, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's report on Berkshire sixth-graders getting a taste of college at MCLA on April 7, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's report on BCC getting $500,000 grant from Massachusetts Life Sciences Center on March 30, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's report of High school students getting hands on experience at Nuclea Biotechnologies on March 20, 2015

Berkshire Eagle's report on The Western Massachusetts High School Science Fair from March 13, 2015

iBerkshires report on After-School STEM Program for Brayton Elementary from March 5, 2015

Students Publish Research with Professor from December 31, 2014

Berkshire Eagle's coverage of Teaching to Learn program from December 14, 2014

Berkshire Eagle's coverage of "Berkshire Goes to College" from December 2, 2014

NSF Funds Unique Program

STEM student aims to solve problems

Berkshire Eagle's report on the STEM Starter Academy at BCC from September 16, 2014

iBerkshires Report on NSF "Teach to Learn" Grant from September 15, 2014

Berkshire Eagle coverage of the Berkshire Early Learning Lab from July 29, 2014

Berkshire Eagle coverage of summer STEM programs at MCLA from July 15, 2014

iBerkshires coverage of visiting astronauts to MCLA from March 26, 2014

iBerkshires report on the funding of the STEM Pathways Project from February 6, 2013
Section V - Curriculum

Development

The development of the T2L Science Curriculum has taken place each summer as we are working towards creating a set of three units per grade level (K-7) that will cover most of the new NGSS-aligned Massachusetts Science Standards.

We have been using a modified version the the Wiggins & McTighe Understanding by Design unit template to get the planning process started. North Adams Schools curriculum administrators put together the standards, essential understanding (drawn from the NGSS disciplinary core ideas), and write unit-level student learning objectives. Teams of Science Fellows, T2L project staff, and Classroom Teachers work together to develop curriculum during the summer months. The core of the unit development is completed by the Science Fellow in collaboration with the Classroom Teacher.

One of the first tasks of the Science Fellows and Classroom teachers in creating a new science unit is to develop the essential questions for the unit, along with a first draft of the learning plan (i.e. the sequence of lessons that will need to be developed to support the unit-level students learning objectives.) We have found the following book chapter from ASCD a helpful tool in building understanding about what makes a good essential question.

ASCD Resources on Essential Questions

We spend some of our summer professional development focus on the backward design approach to unit development, and specific components of that approach such as the development of essential questions, unpacking the science standards, and the development of student learning objectives. (See Section VI Professional Development below.)

To assist them with backward design, the Science Fellows and Classroom Teachers also have available a bank of questions related to the science standards for their unit that exemplify the types of questions students should be able to answer at the completion of the unit. North Adams Public Schools curriculum administrators put together these sample questions based on our state science exams, and an NGSS-aligned test item bank purchased by the district.

Program staff provide feedback on unit plans before the Science Fellows and Classroom Teachers begin their main work of developing lessons. We encourage them to gather lessons plans and ideas from multiple sources to assist them in their work. One of the documents below lists these resources.

Program staff use the Science Unit Review Protocol below to review the drafts of each unit both during its development and for the final phase of copy editing before publication.

Files:

Unit Formatting Template

Resources for Science Curriculum Development

Science Unit Review Criteria

Revisions

As each unit is implemented, Classroom Teachers and Science Fellows discuss how each lesson went and the Classroom Teacher completes a T2L Lesson Feedback Form (see Sections IV Logistics above). In the first year of implementation we tried gathering feedback on lessons during end-of-term meetings with the Classroom Teachers as well as written feedback questionnaires collected after the unit had been taught. We found that this retrospective approach yielded little constructive feedback except from the most conscientious teachers. We now collect the individual Lesson Feedback Forms once or twice during the semester as each unit is being taught.

Program staff review these feedback sheets and develop a detailed list of changes to be made to improve each unit. Not all changes teachers suggest are implemented. Program staff, and especially the T2L staff from the North Adams Schools, thoroughly analyze teachers suggestions to ensure that they align with the standards, maintain the integrity of the unit objectives, and would be helpful to the Science Fellows and Classroom Teachers who will implement the unit in the future (i.e. that they are not idiosyncratic to a particular classroom or teaching style).

During the summer curriculum development program, the first task for the summer Science Fellows is to revise the units taught the previous year based on the revision tasks outlined by the T2L program staff. This enables the Science Fellows, who may or may not be familiar with the T2L unit structure and expectations, to work through a completed unit and develop a sense of what they will need to do when they begin to create new units from scratch. Below is an example of one of the revision plans T2L staff provided to the summer Science Fellows to guide their revision work.

File:

T2L Grade 4 Weathering and Erosion Task List

Curriculum Units

The files below are the units we have completed thus far. We will beadding to this section each summer as we complete new units. You can access additional units that we have developed and implemented, but that have not yet undergone our revision process at the North Adams Public School Website.

It should be noted that in January of 2016 Massachusetts adopted new Science and Technology Standards which are based on, but not identical to, the NGSS standards. Any standards in the units that have an MA after them have been added to the NGSS by Massachusetts. Other standards are identical to NGSS standards, sharing the same numbering system. Not all NGSS standards are included in the Massachusetts standards. Some units may also contain italicized science standards. These are the old (pre-NGSS) Massachusetts science standards. Our state science tests have not yet transitioned to the new Massachusetts science standards, so we are advising teachers to address the old standards as well when they are related to the new NGSS-aligned standards.

The units contain references to Massachusetts Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects which are derived from the national Common Core Standards. Most of the T2L units contain science literacy lessons, and/or incorporate literacy standards into individual lesson activities. Especially for elementary generalist teachers, we have found that teaching integrated units of science and literacy makes it much more likely that science curriculum is delivered.

Finally you will see in some units references to tiered vocabulary and language objectives. We are slowing trying to build examples of these supports for building academic language skills into our T2L units. These supports benefit not only our English-language learners, but all students with significant language deficits (e.g. many of our students from low income families).
Brain functioning is affected least by general anesthesia when compared to other risk factors of the patient, as per a Dutch study presented at Euroanaesthesia, the annual meeting of the The European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), published in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology.



It is reported that older patients often experience a decline in cognitive function after general anesthesia during surgery. These cognitive declines can last for months or even years.
In all honesty, the year 2021 wasn't really a great year for Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his family.



The main reason behind it was, as you all know, the arrest of SRK's eldest son Aryan Khan, in what was a cruise ship drug bust by the NCB.

Aryan ended up spending a whole month in prison as a result, before he was released back to his family.

 BCCL

Since then, Shah Rukh and his family have been living a very private life, keeping things as low key as possible in order to give Aryan as much time to recover as he needs.



However, now with Shah Rukh also returning to filming and completing Pathan alongside Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, it looks like he, along with wife Gauri have also decided to chalk up plans for Aryan to move on as well.

 BCCL

According to a Bollywood Life report, Aryan Khan is looking to now focus on his career in films, with the star kid already known to have an interest in becoming a filmmaker, a chance that he may actually now get with Bollywood.



As per Bollywood Life, Aryan seemingly had plans to go aboard and attend masterclasses of some renowned filmmakers. However, it looks like that may not be possible soon.

According to reports, Aryan, as per the conditions of his bail, had submitted his passport. This means that Aryan can't fly off to locations outside India in order to pursue filmmaking or learn from the very best.

However, that doesn't mean that he will be straying off from his dream.

In fact, as per the report, Aryan will now be living in Mumbai and would be learning about the in-depth know-how of filmmaking from within the Bollywood industry.

As per the Bollywood Life report, Aryan will be working with the top production houses in Bollywood to get a better grasp of the learnings behind the scenes.

It is a known fact that Aryan's father Shah Rukh has a wonderful repo with both Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and Aditya Chopra's Yash Raj Films, meaning that Aryan may yet have a chance to work with either Karan or YRF by assisting them in shoots, as per Bollywood Life.

 BCCL

It is also been reported that Aryan may actually be assisting Karan Johar on the sets of Takht or Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani.



Well, looks like the future looks bright for Aryan, and he may finally have a good chance to bury some things in the past.
From their courtship, eventual marriage to their controversial divorce, the equation between Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu have been the talk of the town.

A few months back, the rumours of their divorce started doing the rounds after Samantha removed Akkineni from her Instagram account and changed the name to only S.

 Naga Chaitanya Instagram

Ever since their divorce, there have been endless rumours about the reason behind it.



There have been several reports that have claimed that some of Samanthas career choices including doing bold scenes in The Family Man 2 and an item song in Pushpa are the reasons behind their split.

Now, in a recent media interaction, Naga Chaitanya may also have hinted at something similar.

He was asked about opting for different kinds of roles. He said, I am game for all kinds of roles. However, those roles should not affect my family and our reputation. I will not accept roles that would embarrass my family members.

 Samantha Ruth Prabhu Instagram

This statement of Naga Chaitanya has left many wondering if this was a sly dig at Samantha Ruth Prabhu.



While a few in support of Naga Chaitanya tweeted, #nagachaitanya was mature thats why he decided to divorce Naga Chaitanya did not ask her to quit acting but Samantha was too much glamorous after their marriage thats the reason.

Another tweet read, Naga Chaitanya should consider himself extremely and most fortunate for getting separated instead of worrying for life.

 Naga Chaitanya Instagram

There were others who extended their support for Samantha Ruth Prabhu.



One such response read, If my memory serves me right, he had a lip lock scene with his co-star in Majili. This probably wouldnt be the reason behind their estrangement. If it is, he is a hypocrite and she took the right decision. Another tweet stated, How childish.

Take a look at some of the reactions below:

I have a feeling that Samantha did the item song in the movie Pushpa just to piss off Naga Chaitanya.

#Samantha #Pushpa #OoAntavaOoOoAntava  Rao (@bubblebuster26) December 18, 2021

 Twitter

#nagachaitanya was mature thats why he decided to divorce

Naga Chaitanya did not ask her to quite acting but Samantha was too much glamorous after their marriage thats the reason  Bharanidharan (@bharani7295) December 18, 2021

@Samanthaprabhu2 because of this item song you given divorce to naga chaitanya.  soma raju (@yourstrulyRaju) December 16, 2021

NAGA CHAITANYA got FREEDOM ,,,my respect to this lady samantha became ZERO  sravan (@sravan45545523) December 12, 2021

 Twitter

Naga Chaitanya s decision it's good  S ROHAN (@SROHAN74971074) December 13, 2021

 Twitter

 Twitter

How childish  Kaushik Banerjee (@kaushikbanerje5) December 17, 2021

While Naga Chaitanya hasnt opened up about his divorce with Samantha, the actress, on the other hand, had recently stated in a Filmfare interview, I thought that with my separation, I would crumble and die. I didnt think I was capable of being this strongToday Im very very proud of how strong Im because I really didnt know I was.
Memes and jokes on Goa plans not materializing kept aside, if there is one thing that drives friends and humans to pack their bags to feel the thandi hawa of Goa or immerse in some salty water at a beach, then the only thing that comes to my mind is Dil chahta hai.



The movie which changed the way we perceive cinema, who gave stories on friendship a new life and put Goa in a beautiful light is DCH. All the credit obviously belongs to the man who conceived the idea - Farhan Akhtar. The director who turned producer then turned into an actor before finally also turning into an artist is a human who can do it all. He was recently performing in Goa and while his song Rock On is obviously a part of song requests, the entire vibe of the show changed when his fans sang Dil Chahta Hai with him.

He performed live after a hiatus of three years and what better welcome than this!

His fans got crazy commenting on his video as well. One person said, Still having goosebumps while listening. Another one said, Awesome...! Would look forward to it in Mumbai too! Rock the stage! While one adored his performance by saying, Absolutely Magic.
For quite some time now, Jacqueline Fernandez is making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Ever since her cosy and intimate pictures with conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar went viral, Jacqueline has come under public scrutiny.

While the conman is already in custody for allegedly extorting Rs 200 crore from a businessmans wife, recently, Enforcement Directorate (ED) interrogated Jacqueline as well as actress Nora Fatehi for alleged connections with him. A few weeks back Jacqueline was also stopped from flying out of India.

 Jacqueline Fernandez Instagram

Now, a recent report has claimed that besides giving her expensive gifts, Sukesh had also promised Jacqueline that he will produce a mega-budget superhero trilogy starring her in the lead. The female superhero-led trilogy was said to be of Rs 500 crore budget.



An insider told India Today, Sukesh knew very well that Jacqueline was looking for work in Bollywood. She wasnt signing too many films and he used her vulnerability to woo her even more. In one such conversation, he promised her that he would produce Indias first woman superhero project with her that would involve Hollywood VFX artists, and it will be shot on a global scale. He told Jacqueline that she resembled Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie and she deserved a superhero series made around her.

 Jacqueline Fernandez Instagram

The insider also added that while Jacqueline didnt take Sukeshs word at face value, she was still partially convinced that he meant business.



He left no stones unturned to lure Jacqueline and even did his homework about how the budget of a film is set in Bollywood and even dropped names of big producers in the Hindi film industry.

Recently, Jacqueline was asked by ED to submit her bank statements from April 2020 till date. During the interrogation, she had told ED that Sukesh had arranged for a private jet for her to fly to Chennai and that she received, limited edition perfumes and Veen alkaline water bottles every week.

 Jacqueline Fernandez Instagram

Besides this, she was also gifted two pairs of diamond earrings, two Hermes bracelets, three designer bags from Gucci and Chanel, two Gucci outfits for gym wear, a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes and a Mini Cooper. She also said that she later returned the car.


As the year inches towards its end, we find ourselves retrospecting about all that has happened in 2021.

From fighting our way through covid to getting hit with a new variant, from witnessing several controversies to bidding goodbye to some of our most cherished celebrities, the year was full of moments that made quite a lasting impression.

As did a wedding that probably managed to create a very very special place in our hearts. And before any of you take a wild guess and think of Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif, let me stop you right there and say that theyre not it.

Even though the #VicKat wedding is being called the wedding of 2021, we have good reason to contest that title and give to a couple that was more than just showbiz and glamour.

We are talking about Supriyo Chakraborty (31) and Abhay Dang (34), the first gay couple in India to have gotten married in Telangana.

The wedding took place in a private yet beautiful ceremony in Hyderabad with close friends and family showering their love on the lovely couple.

Of course, same-sex marriages are still not recognised in Indian law, but the couple decided to make it official by putting a ring on it, anyway.

And with that, created history.

The wedding was officiated by Sophia David, a friend of the couple from Hyderabad, as well as someone from the LGBTQ+ community herself.

As the groom and groom walked down the aisle, hand in hand, dressed in their white tux, Telangana witnessed its very own first same-sex wedding.

The couple that had a mix of both Punjabi and Bengali wedding traditions said, We celebrated it in an informal, yet intimate way without either of our religions or customs coming in the way.

Supriyo also mentioned that, Mehendi is always a woman-centric ceremony. We wanted to break that stereotype by holding the same for all men at the venue. During Haldi, we wore the Bengali topor (a headgear). Subsequently, a sangeet function was held wherein Kathak performances were given.

Their wholesome wedding pictures have broken the internet as people are rejoicing at the sight of patriarchal customs being tarnished to make way for modern and new India.

This included the couples parents as well, who at first werent okay with the idea, but came around in due time and are now extremely happy for their childrens union.

Supriyo Chakraborty then said, We hope to live in a world with no closets. The core value of a relationship is acceptance. We should not try to change the other person. I think a relationship stands on the firm grounds of mutual respect and that is something we would never compromise on.
LEO grants more than $2M to help programs fill talent gaps

LEO grants more than $2M to help programs fill talent gaps

December 20, 2021

Contact: Elyse Walter, 517-449-9731

LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) has awarded more than $2 million in grants to nine programs to help employers fill their talent needs. These programs connect adult education participants in the state directly with employers by linking adult education, career and technical skills and workforce development.

Programs that receive funding will work with the Michigan Works! network to identify a cohort of participants who are most prepared to successfully enter the workforce. Participants must be working toward achieving their high school diploma or its equivalency or receiving remediation services through one of the funded adult education programs.

"Providing this connection between adult learners and local employers greatly increases the employability and earning potential of Michigan's citizens," Stephanie Beckhorn, director of LEO's Office of Employment and Trainingsaid. "This program helps fill the current talent gap by educating workers with the in-demand skills Michigan businesses are looking for."

Students will receive technical training in a wide variety of areas, including construction trades, healthcare, information technology, machining, robotics and welding.

Participants will work with an adult education navigator to design an educational program best suited to their personal and employment needs. The navigator will also support participants by connecting them to supportive services, such as transportation and daycare.

Programs collaborate with employers to develop and implement these programs, ensuring services and instruction align with the needs of local employers, and to also obtain commitment to provide employment opportunities to students who successfully complete the program. Michigan Works! provides information regarding careers that align with local labor market information, employability and soft skills training, resume writing and employer connections to participants to obtain employment in a specific in-demand occupation.

Programs will be awarded up to $350,000 each. Grantees include:

CTE Center Adult Education Providers Michigan Works! Office CTE Courses / CDL Training Offered Allegan County Area Technical & Education Center Allegan, Plainwell West Michigan Works! Automotive Technology 1; Intro to Welding; Residential Construction Basics; CNA Bay-Arenac ISD Career Center Bay-Arenac ISD, Clare, Fulton, Mt. Pleasant, Bullock Creek, Swan Valley Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works! and Michigan Works! Region 7B Bridge to Healthcare (CNA); Medical Office Assistant I & II; Welding; Auto Technology; CNC/Machining; Construction Trades Michael Berry Career Center (Dearborn Public Schools) Dearborn Southeast Michigan Community Alliance Michigan Works! Health Occupations: Allied Health 1 and Allied Health 2 Sault Area Career Center and Rudyard Area Schools Engadine Consolidated Schools Upper Peninsula Michigan Works! Welding; Manufacturing; Certified Nurse Assistant; Microsoft Suite; Woodworking Genesee Career Institute* Beecher, Caro, Owosso, Genesee ISD, Lapeer, Mt. Morris, Port Huron, Swartz Creek, Tuscola, Westwood Heights GST Michigan Works! Automotive Technology; Certified Nursing Assistant; Construction Trades; Electrical Occupations; Welding; Visual Digital Communications-Screen Printing; CDL: Professional School Bus Driver Kent Career Tech Center Kent ISD, Sparta, Rockford, Belding West Michigan Works! Welding; Phlebotomy; IT Fundamentals; Applied Construction Technology; Sterile Processing; Culinary Arts and Meat Processing; Pharmacy Technician; Automotive Maintenance and Servicing Muskegon Area Career Tech Center Fruitport, Orchard View, Whitehall West Michigan Works! Welding; Machining; Medical Administration; Electrical Technologies; Construction Trades Careerline Tech Center (Ottawa Area ISD) Zeeland West Michigan Works! FANUC Robotic Programming; Plumbing; Property Maintenance and Electrical Technician; Certified Nursing Assistant Program; Applied Welding Technology Program; Medical Office Program Wexford-Missaukee ISD Career Tech Center Northwest Education Services Northwest Michigan Works Healthcare; Manufacturing; Heavy Equipment; Commercial Truck Driving

*New program
Additional distribution, water available going into holiday weekends to ensure City of Benton Harbor residents have access to water

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 20, 2021

CONTACT: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112

LANSING, Mich. - To ensure City of Benton Harbor residents have enough water for the holidays, additional hours for distribution have been added from 12 to 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 24 and Friday, Dec. 31 at Benton Harbor High School.

Residents can get additional cases of water this week as distribution sites will not be open on Christmas Day or New Year's Day. Additional quantities of water will be available during deliveries to the homebound or those without transportation to ensure availability. Self-serve water pick-up will not be available at Southwest Community Action Agency on Friday, Dec. 24 and Friday, Dec. 31.

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 the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (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.

Community volunteers from the following organizations available to assist City of Benton Harbor residents pick up water at Benton Harbor High School, 870 Colfax Avenue as follows:

Tuesday, Dec. 21

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Abundant Life C.O.G.I.C.

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Ebenezer Baptist Church

Wednesday, Dec. 22

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Purpose Church Ministries

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Purpose Church Ministries

Thursday, Dec. 23

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Ebenezer Baptist Church

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Brotherhood of All Nations

Friday, Dec. 24 - NEW

12 - 3 p.m. - Volunteers from Brotherhood of All Nations and New Covenant Community Baptist Church

Sunday, Dec. 26

2 - 4 p.m. - Volunteers from Abundant Life C.O.G.I.C.

4 - 6 pm - Volunteers from Brotherhood of All Nations

Monday, Dec. 27

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Abundant Life C.O.G.I.C.

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from New Covenant Community Baptist Church

Tuesday, Dec. 28

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Abundant Life C.O.G.I.C.

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Ebenezer Baptist Church

Wednesday, Dec. 29

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Purpose Church Ministries

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Purpose Church Ministries

Thursday, Dec. 30

12 - 2 p.m. - Volunteers from Ebenezer Baptist Church

4 - 6 p.m. - Volunteers from Brotherhood of All Nations

Friday, Dec. 31 - NEW

12 - 3 p.m. - Volunteers from Brotherhood of All Nations and New Covenant Community Baptist Church

Southwest Community Action Agency, 331 Miller Street, will host self-serve water pickup as follows:

Wednesday, Dec. 22, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 23, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 30, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

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.

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.

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.

# # #
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson visits Kalamazoo office

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson visits Kalamazoo office

November 3, 2021

"We're offering more convenient service options than ever before, including more online transactions, self-service stations at grocery stores, and in-person office service that gets people in and out in an average of just 20 minutes," said Benson. "And it's now easy to book visits in Kalamazoo, Portage, Battle Creek, and other offices throughout the region, with visits available for the same day, next day, next week and further in advance nearly all the time."

The abundance of office availability reflects the dramatic improvements made by Benson's administration. In November 2018, the average wait time for a visitor to the Kalamazoo office was 88 minutes before they received assistance. Now, the average time visitors spend in any Secretary of State office is 20 minutes total, including the time they conduct their transaction with staff.

"Secretary Benson knows the value of meeting people where they're at and we are appreciative of that in Kalamazoo, especially as people are still grappling with a return to normalcy. I cannot thank her enough for her relentless support of the hardworking staff at our branch offices, and her willingness to see firsthand how they are operating, where improvements can be made, and what issues matter most to our residents," said Sen. Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo), who joined Benson for the visit. "This people-first approach to service resulting in one less thing to worry about or stress over is exactly the relief people need as they tend to responsibilities and as we work to emerge from this pandemic together."

Michiganders have embraced the service improvements made by Benson, and now more than half - 60 percent - of all transactions are conducted without visiting a Secretary of State office. This is up from just 26 percent in 2018. The change is in part the result of Benson making more services available online and at self-service stations. She also replaced the state's 93 self-service stations - which broke down frequently - with more than 150 new machines installed through a public-private partnership that cost taxpayers nothing.

"I appreciate Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson visiting Kalamazoo today and keeping tabs on what our local branches need to better serve the public," state Representative Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) said. "As we continue to feel the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded, accessible and convenient services are needed now more than ever."

Residents have also embraced the ability to schedule their visit ahead of time, which they can do online at Michigan.gov/SOS or by calling 888-SOS-MICH. In all, 88 percent of office visits are scheduled ahead of time. Residents can also walk up to any office and they will be served immediately if there is availability or assisted with scheduling a return visit at a time convenient for them.

# # #

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).
Governor Whitmer Signs Bills Keeping Kids Safe in School, Lowering Housing Costs for Michiganders, Cutting Taxes

Governor Whitmer Signs Bills Keeping Kids Safe in School, Lowering Housing Costs for Michiganders, Cutting Taxes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 20, 2021

Contact: Press@michigan.gov

Governor Whitmer Signs Bills Keeping Kids Safe in School, Lowering Housing Costs for Michiganders, Cutting Taxes

Nearly $1 billion supplemental includes COVID testing for kids, rental assistance for families, safe water for communities, advocacy for nursing home residents, funds for law enforcement

DETROIT, Mich. - Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed HB 4398, a nearly $1 billion supplemental bill that invests federal funds from the American Rescue Plan to keep kids safe and learning in-person, protect seniors in nursing homes, and ensure Michiganders can stay in their homes. She also signed HB 5376, which cuts taxes for small businesses, and SB 103, which will simplify planning and development of electric transmission lines. The governor was joined by Speaker Jason Wentworth and Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who were instrumental in the passage of all three bills.

"Today, I signed a bipartisan supplemental bill that will help keep our kids safe and learning in-person, help families stay in their homes, and cut taxes for small businesses," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "For months, legislative leaders and I have been working together in good faith to find the most effective way to spend the federal dollars sent to Michigan by the American Rescue Plan. Today, we took another big step forward when I signed a nearly $1 billion investment that will help kids safe and learning in school, recruit and retain more teachers, protect seniors in nursing homes, help communities tackle lead in their drinking water, and get vaccines out the door even faster. I am grateful to the committee chairs, the caucus leaders, and the legislators for the hard work they put in to deliver critical aid to families, communities, and small businesses as we continue building our economy back stronger than ever. Our progress is a testament to what's possible when we work together, and this bill will build on progress we made earlier this year to enact the largest education investment in state history and pass a balanced, bipartisan budget that made game-changing investments in skills, bridges, childcare, and so much more."

Supplemental Investments

$150 million for COVID school testing to keep kids safe and learning in-person.

$140 million for rental assistance to help Michiganders stay in their homes.

$36.3 million to help communities tackle lead, fund water distribution, inspections, blood testing, and more.

$14.1 million for a Nursing Home Strike Teams grant to help older Michiganders stay safe in nursing homes.

$10 million to support teacher recruitment, training, development, and retention.

$6.9 million for Michigan State Police to help them continue protecting public safety.

Education Investment

In July, Governor Whitmer signed a bipartisan funding bill that made the largest investment in preK-12 education in Michigan history. The bill closed the funding gap between schools in Michigan, enrolled 22,000 kids and counting in free preschool through the Great Start Readiness Program, and helped schools to hire more nurses, counselors, and social workers.

Bipartisan Budget

In September, Governor Whitmer signed the Fiscal Year 2022 budget bill that includes game-changing investments in childcare and delivers on the kitchen-table issues that matter most to families, communities, and small business. The budget puts 167,000 Michiganders on a tuition-free path to higher-education or skills training, repairs or replaces 100 bridges while creating 2,500 jobs, and made a $500 million deposit into our rainy day fund, the largest one-time ever, bringing its balance to nearly $1.4 billion, the highest ever.

Michigan's Nursing Homes through COVID-19

Michigan put seniors first during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Whitmer acted quickly, followed the science, and listened to experts to slow the spread of the virus in our communities. Michigan worked around the clock to secure PPE and required testing for residents and staff. The administration put nursing home residents and staff first when it came to vaccinations, vaccinating over 264,000 nursing home residents of all races across Michigan.

Independent experts and senior advocates agreed that Michigan's nursing home policy was "right on," with the former head of the AARP praising the state's actions to keep Michiganders safe in nursing homes. An independent expert from the University of Michigan said that "found the governor's strategy to be reasonable and appropriate."

Link to the signing letter can be found here:

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Courtesy photo

BIG RAPIDS  Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital has been recognized as one of the nations best maternity hospitals.

Were honored to join some of the best hospitals in the nation for maternity care and the recognition speaks volumes about the outstanding care our OB/GYNs, nurses and our entire team provides to the families we serve, said Andrea Leslie, president of Spectrum Health Big Rapids, Reed City, United and Kelsey hospitals.
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

Michigan consumers are being advised not to eat Fresh Express Sweet Hearts Romaine Sweet Butter Lettuce because a sample of the product taken by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development tested positive for the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

The product is packaged in a 9 oz. clear plastic bag with a green and red label with white lettering and has a use-by date and lot code of "DEC 08 Z324B05A 16:04 07; Product of USA" located on the upper right corner of the front of the bag, according to a press release issued Friday by MDARD.
VIENNA (AP)  Five years after a terror attack killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, Germany's president acknowledged Sunday that the government had not lived up to its duty to protect its citizens that day.

We have to admit that the state has not been able to keep its promises of protection, security and freedom, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, adding that the years since the attack have shown that mistakes were made by German officials.
Whether youve been naughty or nice, hes coming.

As we approach the home stretch before Christmas Eve, children all over the world who observe the holiday are minding their Ps and Qs. To help you know when Santa is coming to your neighborhood (and subsequently when to make sure the kids are asleep, dreaming of sugar plums), there are many tracking services that will begin offering updates on Dec. 24.

It all started with a misprint in a department store ad in 1955 when children called the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado looking to talk to Santa. Since then, NORAD has made sure to keep up with the movements of the red suited elf and his reindeer. In addition to its website that provides up to date information, the organization has launched a mobile app and is active on most popular social media platforms.

An easily accessible way to track Santa is available through Google. All December long, the site features a variety of online games, puzzles and holiday features like an online yule log. You can even design your own elf as you watch the countdown to the start of Santas annual journey.

Using state of the art technology, you can follow along with precise updates of Santas location around the globe. It can even keep you updated on how many presents he has delivered. The tracker will be going online at 5 a.m. EST on Dec. 24. The app is also available from the Apple and Google app stores.

Santa Update provides a way to stay in contact with the big man himself. With updates around the year, Santa Update isnt limited to just Christmas Eve. Through the service, you can email, call or text him with updates on your Christmas list. Make sure to tune in on the morning of Christmas Eve though to hear the start of the live radio broadcast that features reporters around the globe and even a reporter who follows Santas sleigh in real time.
As COVID cases rise and concerns grow over the omicron variant, at least two more Connecticut colleges will require students to get booster shots before returning to campus in January.

In a message to the university community this weekend, Yale canceled all in-person final exams and said students can go home for the semester if they were concerned about COVID.

Yale and Sacred Heart University will begin requiring booster shots when students return to campus in January, officials said. Wesleyan University was among the first colleges to require COVID booster shots. The Middletown school is requiring boosters for all students, staff and faculty as part of the universitys vaccine mandate policy, according to its website.

In a message on Saturday, Marvin Chun, dean of Yale College, and deans Tamar Szabo Gendler and Lynn Cooley, said instructors will either offer remote exams at the scheduled time or give students make-up exams.

While Yale has not experienced the same increase in COVID rates as some other universities, we know that many of you are concerned about remaining on campus during the finals period, officials wrote in the message, posted on Yales website and circulated to students. Although the risk of transmission during in-person examinations is small, we want you to be able to go home now.

Officials said students are not required to leave campus early, but said they encourage students to go home if they are concerned about COVID.

Campus will close at noon Thursday, and students are asked to maintain testing, masking and social distancing.

Classes are still expected to resume on Jan. 18, but officials asked students to prepare for the possibility of remote activities and classes when they return, citing rapidly changing public health measures.

Boosters will also be required before returning to campus in January, officials said.

Like Yale, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield is requiring booster shots for all students, faculty and staff who are taking classes or working on campus. According to the schools website, students are required to receive a booster shot before returning to campus after the holiday break if they are eligible or no later than March 15.

Sacred Heart will also require students to have a PCR test within 72 hours before returning to campus after the holiday break.

All full-time undergraduate students will be tested when they return to campus the week of Jan. 17 and will be required to bring their negative pre-semester PCR results to the schools on-campus testing.

Faculty and staff will also be required to receive a booster and be tested.

Several other Connecticut colleges are encouraging booster shots, but are not yet requiring them.

Quinnipiac University is not mandating boosters, but the Hamden school officials said they are monitoring guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The university will hold an on-campus booster clinic at the beginning of the spring semester.

Fairfield University recommends a COVID-19 vaccine, but does not require it.

The University of Connecticut requires students who attend classes in-person to be fully vaccinated, but the school is not mandating boosters.

Sandra Diamond Fox has contributed to this story.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Each month, hundreds of trucks heavy with fuel, cement and other goods cross a plowed no mans land between Egypt and the Gaza Strip  and Hamas becomes stronger.

Hamas collects tens of millions of dollars a month in taxes and customs at the crossing in the border town of Rafah, according to estimates. The funds help it operate a government and powerful armed wing while international aid covers most of the basic needs of Gazas 2 million residents.

That this is happening with the quiet acquiescence of Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, might come as a surprise.

Israel says it works with Egypt to supervise Rafah in return for quiet. The opening of the crossing was a common interest for all parties to ensure a lifeline for Hamas that would enable it to maintain calm in Gaza and prevent an explosion, said Mohammed Abu Jayyab, an economist and editor-in-chief of a business daily in Gaza.

But theres more to it. After surviving four wars and a nearly 15-year blockade, Hamas has only become more resilient, and Israel has been forced to accept that its sworn enemy is here to stay.

It has largely accepted Hamas rule in Gaza because a prolonged invasion is seen as too costly. At the same time, Hamas furnishes Israeli leaders with a convenient boogeyman -- how can the Palestinians be allowed statehood if they are divided between two governments, one of which steadfastly opposes Israels very existence?

Meanwhile, Hamas willingness to use violence  in the form of rockets, protests along the border or incendiary balloons  has helped it to wrest concessions from Israel.

Hamas stuck to its position and the Israeli government made a lot of compromises after the war in May, said Omar Shaban, a Gaza-based political analyst. Hamas was stubborn.

___

MILLIONS EACH MONTH

After Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade. A massive economy based on smuggling tunnels sprang up in and around Rafah. Hamas levied taxes on goods that were brought in.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered the tunnels destroyed after leading the 2013 overthrow of an Islamist government that had been sympathetic to Hamas. But four years and another Gaza war later, Egypt agreed to Hamas demands to open an above-ground commercial crossing.

Imports through Gazas only other functioning commercial crossing  with Israel  are already taxed by Israeli authorities, who transfer some of the revenues to the Palestinian Authority, so Hamas can only exact small tariffs without noticeably inflating prices. Rafah belongs to Hamas.

Hamas does not release figures on public revenues or expenses. An Egyptian government media officer did not respond to a request for comment.

Some 2,000 truckloads of cement, fuel and other goods entered through Rafah in September, nearly twice the monthly average in 2019 and 2020, according to Gisha, an Israeli rights group that closely monitors the Gaza closures.

Rami Abu Rish, the managing director of the crossings at the Hamas-run Economy Ministry  who used to supervise tax collection from the tunnels  says authorities derive no more than $1 million a month from the Israeli crossing and up to $6 million from Rafah.

But the Palestinian Authoritys Finance Ministry estimates Hamas derives as much as $30 million a month, mainly from taxes on fuel and tobacco coming in through Rafah, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal figures.

A cigarette importer in Gaza -- who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing the trade said a small group of merchants imports 9,000 to 15,000 crates of cigarettes through Rafah each month, with Hamas charging $1,000 to $2,000 per crate. That alone would bring in $18 million on average.

Abu Jayyab, the Gaza economist, estimates Hamas makes up to $27 million a month. Thats in addition to taxes and customs paid on cement and fuel.

___

HAMAS AND ISRAEL

Israel refuses to talk to Hamas, but over the last decade it has negotiated a series of informal cease-fires through Egyptian, Qatari and U.N. mediators in which it has eased the blockade in return for calm.

Naftali Bennett was an outspoken critic of the previous governments policy of allowing Qatar to send suitcases of cash into Gaza through an Israeli crossing.

But within months of Bennett becoming prime minister, the payments to needy families resumed through a U.N.-run voucher system, and Qatar resumed its contribution to the Hamas-run governments payroll in the form of fuel.

Israel denies it has given in to Hamas demands. The new government says it has modified policies to try to ensure that humanitarian aid bypasses Hamas while responding militarily to even minor attacks.

All construction materials  including those brought in through Rafah  are imported through a monitoring system established with the U.N. and the PA after the 2014 war. Israel says it is barring all new, large construction projects until a deal is reached to return two captives and the remains of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas since 2014.

Restrictions on so-called dual-use items that could be used for military purposes are in place at both the Israeli and Egyptian crossings, said Abu Rish, the Hamas crossing official.

A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said the goal is to maximize humanitarian aid while minimizing the risk that it benefits Hamas. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, would only say that Israel is aware of the Rafah imports, and is relying on Egypt to ensure that the same restrictions are in place there as there are at the Israeli crossing.

Even as Hamas generates revenue for its government and from the crossings and taxing businesses, the international community sustains the people of Gaza.

U.N. agencies have spent more than $4.5 billion in Gaza since 2014, including $600 million in 2020 alone. Most of that funding goes through the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides food aid, health services and operates schools for some 280,000 children.

The wealthy Gulf state of Qatar has sent $1.3 billion to Gaza since 2012 to fund reconstruction and health services, including $500 million pledged after the May war.

Hamas isnt going anywhere. And Israel knows it.

They are facing a number of problems here, Abusada said. But resilience is part of their strategy. Theyre not going to give up.

___

Associated Press writer Helen Wieffering in Washington contributed to this report.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Oregon, one of the last holdout states in joining a $26 billion settlement with the three largest distributors of opioids and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, is on the verge of signing on, the state's attorney general said Monday.

The state had argued with cities and counties over disbursement of Oregons expected $329 million share and how much should go to attorneys fees. But agreement is now imminent, said Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.

The settlement, which would be the second-biggest in U.S. history, would address damage wrought by opioids.

As of just over one week ago, at least 45 states had signed onto the settlement or signaled their intent to, and at least 4,012 counties and cities had confirmed participation, according to plaintiffs attorneys.

The three drug distributors  AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson  and Johnson & Johnson agreed in July to pay the combined $26 billion to resolve thousands of state and local government lawsuits. But if the defendants feel theres a lack of participation by states and local jurisdictions, it could cause them to back away from the landmark agreement, or eventually reduce the settlement amount.

Plaintiffs' lawyers, who have been working the settlement on the national level and urging cities, counties and states to sign on, applauded the breakthrough in Oregon.

As more communities join in from each state, the greater the funds these communities will receive," lawyer Joe Rice said Monday. "This national settlement is the most efficient way to bring urgently needed resources into communities, with funds being delivered as early as April 2022.

In exchange for the payout, participating states, counties and cities would have to drop any lawsuits against the defendants and agree not to sue them in the future for the opioid epidemic.

But some feel the settlement isn't enough and doesn't cover the damage caused by opioids, which were overprescribed in massive numbers. In the U.S., more than 500,000 deaths over the last two decades have been linked to opioids, both prescription drugs and illegal ones.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has called the settlement woefully insufficient. Instead of joining, he sued AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson for $38 billion.

In Oregon, the agreement still needs to be formally approved by city councils and county commissions to become final, Rosenblum noted.

Some have already taken steps. The Yamhill County Board of Commissioners unanimously authorized the county counsel to approve the settlement last week, said Commissioner Casey Kulla. In the county southwest of Portland, as in many others, the opioid epidemic has caused overdoses, addiction and homelessness.

According to Rosenblum's office, the agreement between the state and local governments says:

 Almost half of Oregons share would go into a fund that would be used to study the availability and efficacy of substance use prevention, treatment and recovery services across the state. The funds would also be used to address treatment and prevention of substance use disorder, focused on statewide and regional programs and services.

 The remaining 55% of Oregons share would go directly to cities and counties to pay for prevention, treatment and recovery services at the local level.

Every dollar we receive must be used judiciously and wisely, Rosenblum said. For starters, it will provide us with the ability to increase access to lifesaving treatment and recovery services and will support individuals and families who continue to suffer from substance use disorder.

The settlement is second only to the $200 billion-plus tobacco settlement, in 1998, with the nations four largest tobacco companies.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
BRISTOL  A youth was charged this weekend after sharing an image depicting a threat at a local school on social media, following a nationwide trend that spurred concern in Connecticut and across the nation.

Lt. Alan Clark said police on Sunday received information about a social media post that mentioned a safety concern to a local high school.

Investigators found that a juvenile posted a picture of an unknown person in possession of weapons with the caption Bristol Central Next, Clark said, seemingly in reference to Bristol Central High School.

The juvenile who posted the message on social media was identified, and investigators found that the minor had re-posted an image that was circulating on social media by an unidentified person. The person in the photo, Clark said, had no ties to Bristol.

The investigation showed that the juvenile recklessly created alarm for the community, Clark said.

The minor was charged with second-degree breach of peace. Clark said there were no credible threats to any Bristol schools.

Last week, a social media trend  which authorities said originated on TikTok and spread to other platforms  hit the nation, with allegations of threats targeting schools across the country on Friday.

As a precaution, police across Connecticut stepped up patrols at schools. A 13-year-old student at City Hill School in Naugatuck was charged with breach of peace after sharing a post suggesting fellow students stay home from school Friday because of what he might do, police said.
VIENNA (AP)  Tens of thousands of Vienna residents turned out Sunday night to participate in a sea of lights commemoration for the more than 13,000 Austrians who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.

The event, supported by dozens of civil society organizations, drew more than 30,000 people, according to Austrian media.
MIDDLETOWN The health department has recommended everyone wear a mask indoors regardless of vaccination status, as the city sees a spike in COVID-19 cases similar to the wave experienced in January.

According to the Middletown Health Department, there were 147 new cases in the seven-day period leading up to Saturday. It was the sixth consecutive week with an increase in cases.

In the two-week period ending Dec. 11, Middletown recorded a daily average of 43.5 cases per 100,000 people, up from a daily average of 34.3 cases the previous two-week period, the citys data shows.

Middletown health officials said cases are increasing at a rate similar to January.

Acting Health Director Kevin Elak said he is concerned about this wave getting even worse, due to the uncertainty of omicron and since people will be gathering for holiday celebrations.

Im concerned because the winter surge, was expected, is going to mix with holiday gatherings and the uncertainty of the omicron variant, Elak said. Potentially not a good mix.

Elak explained there is still much to be learned about omicron.

Looking at how it is behaving in other countries such as South Africa, Denmark, Germany and the UK, it looks to be spreading extremely fast and easily from person-to-person, Elak said. It is still unknown, however, if it causes more severe symptoms.

There are a few things known about the variant. The reinfection rate is about three to eight times higher than with the delta variant, and prior infection may not give enough protection against omicron, health officials said. Effectiveness of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine is around 30 to 40 percent, which increases to about 70 to 80 percent with a booster, according to a report from the city health department.

Cases of the omicron variant in the state have risen to 40 over the past week, and are projected to comprise half of all new cases within the next two weeks.

Elak said for now, safety guidelines are not changing.

We are sticking with game plan that has kept us out of big trouble so far, Elak said.

Information on booster eligibility, and further guidance on COVID-19 is available on the citys website.
An Afghan woman who was one of the few female pilots in her country's air force quashed an online assertion that she had been stoned to death by the Taliban, saying she is alive and well on the West Coast.

Safia Ferozi spoke with Stars and Stripes by phone over the weekend about her evacuation from Afghanistan, her reaction to a viral photo purportedly showing her death and her hopes for remaking her life in the United States.

She flew out of Kabul on Aug. 15 with her husband, Jawad Najafi, and their 5-year-old daughter Nargis shortly after the capital fell to the Taliban.

An American adviser had helped the family board a U.S. military transport plane to Qatar, she said.

Meanwhile, Facebook posters named her as the woman depicted in a graphic image that was widely shared on social media. A Reuters fact check found that in fact the victim was a woman killed by a mob in 2015.

As rumors of her death spread unbeknownst to her, Ferozi was giving birth to a daughter at a U.S. military base in Qatar, she said.

Ferozi had not had access to the internet after arriving in Qatar. She found out about the viral claim only when a doctor at the hospital showed her the posts online.

The false news came as a shock, and she and her husband began trying to message relatives to reassure them that she was well.

Her fellow pilots also heard the rumors, which circulated quickly in the small community of Afghan aviators.

"I was scared," said Abdul Rahman Rahmani, once a helicopter pilot with the American-trained special mission wing.

That fear drove Rahmani to seek answers about Ferozi's fate. He finally learned from another pilot that she was safe, and Rahmani said he was overcome with relief.

Ferozi and her family spent three months at a military base in New Jersey and now plan to resettle somewhere in Oregon. Like many Afghan pilots, she dreams of being able to continue flying.

She named her newborn child Helen, saying she wanted a "strong" name for her daughter, who spent a week and a half in an intensive care unit.

Even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, female pilots faced discrimination and threats in the country's conservative society.

The pioneering aviator said she wanted to pave the way for others, but now she doubts that there will be another female pilot in Afghanistan anytime soon.

Ferozi said she cries sometimes thinking about how her old life in Afghanistan fell apart. Her world seemed to collapse in a matter of hours.

She also believes that the false assertion of her killing could have been rendered true had she stayed in the country, she said.

More than 100 former members of the Afghan security forces have been executed or forcibly disappeared by the Taliban despite a proclaimed amnesty, said a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

"If I was in Afghanistan, I'm sure it would have happened to me," Ferozi said.

This story originally appeared on Stars and Stripes.
The U.S. Space Force celebrated its second birthday Monday as the Pentagon's newest branch navigates the transition from late-night talk show punch line to full-fledged military service.

"Happy birthday, Guardians," Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond said in a video message Monday. "We've spent this past year focused on continuing to build out this service and then integrating the service to great effect. Today, what started with one person in the Space Force just two years ago, now we number over 6,650 active-duty Guardians."

The Space Force officially came into being on Dec. 20, 2019, when then-President Donald Trump signed that year's annual defense policy bill.

Read Next: Troops Find Religious Exemption for Vaccines Unattainable

Trump championed the Space Force into existence and turned it into a reliable applause line at his political rallies, though it elicited snickers and snears from comedians, Twitter users and Trump's harshest Democratic critics about him wasting money on fantasies of space battles.

But the idea for a separate military service for space predates Trump's interest and was meant to ensure the military is putting enough focus on protecting against threats from Russia and China to U.S. satellites vital to military operations and civilian life. In 2017, Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., proposed what they were then calling the Space Corps.

The Space Force, though, has had trouble shaking off its butt-of-joke image in its first two years.

When then-Vice President Mike Pence announced on the service's first birthday that Space Force troops will be called Guardians, Twitter users accused the service of ripping off the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie and comic books.

When the service unveiled its dress uniform prototype in September, there were jokes about it resembling uniforms worn in science fiction series "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica."

The Biden administration also caused a row over the Space Force shortly after taking office.

In February, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared to dismiss a press briefing question about the Space Force by comparing it to an earlier question she got about Air Force One's paint job. That prompted conservatives to accuse her of disrespecting the military.

The next day, Psaki assured that the Space Force has President Joe Biden's "full support."

Raymond acknowledged the service's PR problem in February.

"Space doesn't have a mother. You can't reach out and hug a satellite. You can't see it; you can't touch it. It's hard to have that connection," he said at the time.

Amid the controversy and jokes, the Space Force continued to plug along in its second year, filling out its ranks and other accoutrements of being a real military service.

The service began transferring members from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in its second year, after focusing the first year on moving people over from the Air Force.

The service also unveiled its rank insignia, as well as the names for its ranks.

And to mark its second birthday, the service on Monday launched a new recruiting website, spaceforce.com.

Work setting the service up will continue into its third year, including transferring missions from the Army and Navy.

And the congressional debate over the Space Force isn't done. The annual defense policy bill passed by Congress this month requires the Pentagon to study whether to establish a Space National Guard as the service's reserve component.

Monday, though, was all about the birthday celebration.

"It's been a great second year," Raymond said in his video. "I'm excited for the year ahead."

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: 'Diverse Teams Outperform:' Space Force Wants to Recruit, Train and Promote Differently
The Navy's effort to restore clean drinking water to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, gets underway Monday while thousands of military personnel and families prepare to spend the holidays in hotels or in their homes without potable water.

The Navy announced that water line flushing is set to begin at the Pearl City Peninsula military housing area on Monday as a test run for flushing most of the lines that serve the installation.

Should the Pearl City test prove successful, the service will begin flushing the housing areas closest to the well that was found to contain JP-5 jet fuel after families complained Nov. 28 that their water smelled like fuel and was making them sick.

Read Next: 'Happy Birthday, Guardians': Space Force Celebrates Its Second Birthday

As of Dec. 17, more than 1,600 military families and other occupants of base housing had been displaced to hotels, while another 2,200 were living in homes without potable water.

The services have each issued guidance to personnel on accessing temporary housing and other provisions, such as laundry services, drinking water and shower availability at nearby facilities.

The Navy plans to pay for temporary lodging for its service members through Jan. 4 and is providing partial temporary lodging allowance to cover meals for sailors who elect to stay in their houses.

The service also announced that it would host virtual daily updates to military families beginning Dec. 20 online and on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Facebook page, and it has established a way for families to be reimbursed for expenses related to the exposure, including incidental expenses not related to property loss, such as veterinary expenses, buying water or laundry services.

However, families have expressed frustration over what they see as a lack of answers from officials on the plan for ensuring that the water eventually will be safe to consume.

"As far as our homes go, you are going to just pump filtered water into our PVC pipes that is going to fill my plastic tub, which is going to re-contaminate the water. You want me to put my child in that bath, wash my dishes in it? Trust the refrigerator water for drinking?" a resident asked officials at a Dec. 18 town hall.

"We're very, very sensitive to this. Our No. 1 commitment is to the health and safety of the community," said Chris Waldron, an environmental engineer with Navy-Marine Corps Public Health Center. "The plan we put together is a comprehensive and systematic plan. It's not just a matter of doing one element and saying we are finished."

The first of more than 20 massive granulated activated charcoal filtering systems began arriving on Oahu last week. They will be used to scrub more than 25 million gallons of water -- much like Brita water filters, but on an industrial scale.

The intention is to scrub the water of enough contaminants to bring it in compliance with Hawaii Department of Health and Environmental Protection Agency requirements.

Days after the contamination was confirmed, the Navy asked residents to run the taps in their homes and opened up fire hydrants to flush the water until the state, concerned about the effects of potential contaminants on groundwater and the storm drain system, ordered the service to stop.

Residents told Military.com the smell from their taps was so strong that they elected not to do the flushing out of fear of inhaling more fumes.

They also have been told to toss out nearly all their kitchen and bath items that may have come into contact with the water, such as coffee makers and blenders, toothbrushes and pots and pans, according to Navy wife Lou Tuttle.

"The processes are so slow. Everyone is confused as to what we are [supposed to be] doing," Tuttle said.

Navy officials said last week that they will share the plan for flushing out homes with residents, which will include draining the water from hot water heaters; flushing water lines to refrigerators and other appliances; and changing water filters.

"That plan will be a very detailed plan and checklist with a whole bunch of items on it. It will not require the residents to implement that. It will be implemented by the Navy or its representatives, go into each house and perform the flushing," Waldron said.

On Nov. 20, the Navy's World War II-era Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility accidentally released 14,000 gallons of fuel and water into a tunnel that houses a fire suppression system drain line.

At the time, Navy officials said the mixture entered the tunnel and, after it stopped flowing, the service removed the liquid and placed it in an above-ground storage tank, believing that no fuel had escaped into the environment.

The Navy now believes that the contamination of the Red Hill well was a result of that spill.

Speaking to Hawaii state legislators Dec. 10, Navy officials said the contamination was not the result of a leak from the fuel facility -- an installation many residents and representatives of Hawaii would like to see closed since it sits above the aquifer that provides water to more than 400,000 area residents.

"The Navy is responsible for this crisis. We are taking ownership of the solutions, and we are going to fix it," said Adm. Sam Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, during the hearing.

Short-term exposure to jet fuel can cause skin irritation or swelling and burning through direct contact. Inhaling fumes may cause symptoms such as headache, dizziness, confusion, nausea or vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Very few human studies have been done on the long-term effects of exposure to jet fuel. Some animal studies have demonstrated that the products may cause some types of cancer and neurological damage, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. But the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency have not classified JP-5 as a human carcinogen.

The Department of Defense developed an Oahu Military Water Contamination Incident Report Registry to track the long-term health of personnel and family members, as well as others who live in the affected areas.

Residents will be automatically enrolled in the registry, according to the Navy.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: 'We Have Put You in an Unsafe Condition': Top Navy Officials Apologize for Tainted Water at Pearl Harbor
Of the 14 free agents to receive qualifying offers this winter, nine have already figured out where they will be playing next season, leading to some noteworthy adjustments to the 2022 draft order. For a refresher on the QO rules, you can check this list of what signing a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent would cost each team, or this list of what teams receive as compensation for losing a QO-rejecting free agent.

Or, for simplicitys sake, you could just read this post right here as a quick summary of the extra picks gained and lost due to these signings. First of all, four of the nine signed players dont factor into the discussion, since they are back with their former teams  Brandon Belt accepted the Giants qualifying offer in the first place, while Raisel Iglesias re-signed with the Angels, Chris Taylor re-signed with the Dodgers, and Justin Verlander re-signed with the Astros.

For the five other signed QO free agents and the five unsigned QO free agents, here is the breakdown of what their former teams would receive as compensatory picks. The specific order of the compensatory picks is based on the previous years record, so the team with the fewer wins would get the superior pick.

Extra pick after Round 1 of the draft : This is awarded to a team that receives revenue-sharing funds, and whose QO-rejecting free agent signs with another team for more than $50MM in guaranteed salary. The Rockies and Reds would therefore each qualify if Trevor Story (Colorado) or Nick Castellanos (Cincinnati) signed for $50MM+. Since the Reds had the better record between the two teams, the Rockies would pick 32nd overall and the Reds 33rd overall if both clubs indeed ended up in this same category. If Story and/or Castellanos signed for less than $50MM, Colorado and/or Cincinnati would be in the next group

: This is awarded to a team that receives revenue-sharing funds, and whose QO-rejecting free agent signs with another team for more than $50MM in guaranteed salary. The and would therefore each qualify if (Colorado) or (Cincinnati) signed for $50MM+. Since the Reds had the better record between the two teams, the Rockies would pick 32nd overall and the Reds 33rd overall if both clubs indeed ended up in this same category. If Story and/or Castellanos signed for less than $50MM, Colorado and/or Cincinnati would be in the next group Extra pick between Competitive Balance Round B and Round 3 : Four picks have already been allotted within this group, comprised of teams who dont receive revenue sharing funds. The Mets received an extra selection when Noah Syndergaard signed with the Angels, the Blue Jays received two picks when Marcus Semien signed with the Rangers and Robbie Ray signed with the Mariners, and the Red Sox got a pick when Eduardo Rodriguez signed with the Tigers. Like Toronto, the Mets could also receive a second pick if Michael Conforto signed elsewhere. The Braves ( Freddie Freeman ) and Astros ( Carlos Correa ) would also land in this category if their respective QO free agents left town. The draft order of this sandwich round based on 2021 record would line up as Mets (77 wins), Braves (88 wins), Blue Jays (91 wins), Red Sox (92 wins), and Astros (95 wins). For the moment, the four picks in this group represent the 75th-79th overall selections in the draft, though that specific order will be altered based on where the other QO players sign, or what other second-round picks might be surrendered as penalties for signing those free agents.

: Four picks have already been allotted within this group, comprised of teams who dont receive revenue sharing funds. The received an extra selection when signed with the Angels, the received two picks when signed with the Rangers and signed with the Mariners, and the got a pick when signed with the Tigers. Like Toronto, the Mets could also receive a second pick if signed elsewhere. The ( ) and ( ) would also land in this category if their respective QO free agents left town. The draft order of this sandwich round based on 2021 record would line up as Mets (77 wins), Braves (88 wins), Blue Jays (91 wins), Red Sox (92 wins), and Astros (95 wins). For the moment, the four picks in this group represent the 75th-79th overall selections in the draft, though that specific order will be altered based on where the other QO players sign, or what other second-round picks might be surrendered as penalties for signing those free agents. Extra pick after Round 4: For teams that lose a QO free agent but exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2021, their compensatory pick is pushed back to beyond the fourth round. Therefore, this is where the Dodgers will make their extra pick in the wake of Corey Seagers deal with the Rangers.

Moving on, here is what the four teams who have signed QO free agents had to give up in draft capital
Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied Sunday to mark three years since the start of mass demonstrations that led to the ouster of strongman Omar al-Bashir, as fears mount for the democratic transition.

Security forces fired tear gas at a huge crowd of protesters near the republican palace in the capital Khartoum, chanting slogans against the current military chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led a coup on October 25.

"The people want the downfall of Burhan", protesters shouted.

The generals had initially detained civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok for weeks under effective house arrest, but reinstated him on November 21.

But the move alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters, who dismissed it as providing a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.

Hamdok, who has argued he wants to avoid further bloodshed, warned late Saturday of "the country's slide toward the abyss," urging restraint from the protesters.

"We're facing today a sizeable regression in the path of our revolution that threatens the security of the nation, its unity and its stability," Hamdok said.

Protest organisers have however vowed, in a key slogan, "No negotiation, no partnership and no legitimacy".

Critics say a new partnership agreement civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok reached with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last month provided a cloak of legitimacy for his coup. By Ebrahim HAMID (AFP/File)

Previous protests against the military takeover have been forcibly dispersed by the security forces.

Nationwide, at least 45 people have been killed and scores more wounded, according to the independent Doctors' Committee.

On Sunday, authorities shut off bridges linking the capital Khartoum with its twin city Omdurman, but large crowds still gathered.

"The numbers are huge and security forces can't control them," said Mohamed Hamed, who saw the protests in Omdurman.

Military in 'complete control'

Map of Sudan. By (AFP)

December 19 has a particular resonance in Sudanese history.

Not only was it the day in 2018 when thousands launched mass protests that ended Bashir's three decades in power, it was also the day in 1955 when Sudanese lawmakers declared independence from British colonial rule.

Following Bashir's ouster, a joint military-civilian transitional government took power but the troubled alliance was shattered by Burhan's power grab.

"The coup has put obstacles in the way of the democratic transition and has given the military complete control over politics and the economy," Ashraf Abdel-Aziz, chief editor of the independent Al-Jarida newspaper, told AFP.

Sudan's military dominates lucrative companies specialising in everything from agriculture to infrastructure projects.

The prime minister said last year that 80 percent of the state's resources were "outside the finance ministry's control".

"The security apparatus has won out over political institutions. The success of a democratic transition rests on political action being the driving force," Abdel-Aziz said.

Sudanese protesters in Khartoum on December 19; previous rallies against the military takeover have been forcibly dispersed by the security forces. By - (AFP)

Khaled Omer, a minister in the ousted government, said the coup was a "catastrophe" but also "an opportunity to rectify the deficiencies" of the previous political arrangement with the army.

He warned that anything could happen over the next few months with the military still firmly in power.

"If the main political actors don't get their act together and the miliary establishment doesn't distance itself from politics... then all scenarios are on the table," Omer said.

Gains unravelling

Rallies on Sunday were the latest in a string of protests in recent weeks. By - (AFP)

The November 21 agreement also set July 2023 as the date for Sudan's first free elections since 1986.

Hamdok said he partnered with the military to "stop the bloodshed" that resulted from its crackdown on protests, and so as not to "squander the gains of the last two years".

But those achievements have been unravelling, as the political turbulence in Khartoum rekindles conflicts in Sudan's far-flung regions that Hamdok's government had made a priority to resolve.

A peace deal signed with key rebel groups last year saw the main conflict in Darfur subside, but the region remains awash with weapons and nearly 250 people have been killed in ethnic clashes over the past two months.

Some of the Arab militias -- that Bashir's government used as a counter-insurgency force in its infamous campaign in the early 2000s against ethnic minority rebels -- have been integrated into the security apparatus.

Critics say the deal did nothing to bring them to account.
Ex- President John Agyekum Kufuor has advised the leadership of the governing New Patriotic Party not to detach itself from the grassroots since doing so will destroy the democratic tradition of the party.

Under no circumstance must leadership become detached from the grassroots, since this will destroy the traditions of democracy in the party, Mr Kufuor counselled in a goodwill message to the party at its National Delegates Conference held in Kumasi on Sunday, 19 December 2021.

Mr Kufuor also urged reconciliation among the rank and file of the party.

He said: With unity and committed fellowship, the party and the governments attractiveness would be urgently restored and deepened, adding: This will sustain the government through the year 2024.

The former President also told the Conference to urge the party headquarters to urgently equip itself with a professional strategic team to ensure its opponents do not outsmart us in the current battle of wits, which is obviously prevailing in the nations political arena.

This must be sustained through the year 2024.

Mr Kufuor further encouraged all party faithful to resolve unshakably to uphold and live by the tenets of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition of constitutionalism, democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights, freedom of thought and expression; and private initiative.

He said the golden rule of each is our brothers keeper must undergird these tenets.

He called on members of the party to pray for Gods guidance and protection for the government in discharging its responsibility to the nation.

classfmonline.com
President Nana Akufo-Addo says persons who will oppose his next Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) nominee for Juaben in the Ashanti Region will incur his wrath.

Anyone who opposes my nominee next time will incur my wrath, the President warned while addressing residents of Juaben during the commissioning of the party's constituency office complex.

The President's MCE nominee for the area, Alex Sarfo Kantanka, has been rejected twice by assembly members, and the Office of the Special Prosecutor is investigating him for allegedly demanding a refund of bribes he paid to assembly members to facilitate his approval.

Currently, Juaben is without an MCE.

The President thus promised to nominate an MCE for the area soon.

I am assuring you. You will get a municipal chief executive for this area.

He also charged members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are attending the party's National Annual Delegates Conference in Kumasi to be disciplined.

He asked them to refrain from all forms of behaviours capable of bringing the name of the party into disrepute.

All Ghanaians are observing the conference. I am pleading with you all to be disciplined. I also want you all to show unity among ourselves. Lets comport ourselves to ensure everything goes on smoothly.

No party has been able to do what we have been able to do by organizing constituency, and national delegates conference. We are also proving to Ghanaians that we are pioneers of democracy. I am therefore I appealing to you all to be disciplined especially as it is happening in our stronghold.

---citinewsroom
20.12.2021 LISTEN

The Convention People's Party (CPP) has made a passionate appeal to President Akufo-Addo to return all of the party's seized assets to them.

The party made the call during the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) delegates conference in Kumasi.

The General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Jantuah, in delivering a solidarity message at the conference said the return of the assets which were seized after the 1966 coup against Ghana's first president and the party's founder, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, will help forge reconciliation for the party.

We at the CPP want to take this opportunity to plead with the president, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo to return to the CPP our assets which were confiscated in 1966 after the coups. It has to be returned to us as a form of reparation and as a form of reconciliation, she said.

After the February 1966 coup by the National Liberation Council (NLC), the military junta banned the CPP and reportedly confiscated to the State several of the party's assets, including the building that now houses the Ministry of Information and Media Relations.

The party has since been making several efforts and appeals to have the assets returned to them.

In February 2010 for instance, the CPP made a direct appeal to the Mills government to hand over its assets that were confiscated after the overthrow of Ghana's First Republic.

Lardi Nylander, the then party chairman described the continued retention of the assets by the State as discriminatory because, according to him, most companies and individuals whose properties were previously confiscated had been returned to them.

Nana Yaa Jantuah also urged the New Patriotic Party to build consensus in governance to get the support of all sides of the political divide to ensure good governance.

For you to succeed, there is the need to engage all sides to get a buy-in into your plans, programs and policies. Include all relevant stakeholders in the decision making process. Success is predicated on that, and this should be your hallmark as you steer the affairs of this nation, she added.

---citinewsroom
The Volta Regional Police Command in a swoop has arrested 34 suspected narcotic peddlers, including eight females in Ketu South.

A total of 115 motor riders and two narcotics peddlers with quantities of dried substances suspected to be Indian hemp, were also. arrested at Akatsi.

Deputy Superintendent of (DSP) Mrs Elizabeth Effia Tenge, Public Relations Officer of the Command, said the exercise was prompted by incidents of lawlessness, narcotics peddling and abuse of motorcycle used in the Volta Region, the Regional Police Command carried out swoops within the Akatsi South and Ketu South Municipalities to check the development.

In a press release copied to the Ghana News Agency, it said the operation which started December 18, 2021 was also carried out in Aflao in the Ketu South Municipality.

She said some quantity of plant materials suspected to be narcotic drugs were retrieved.

The suspects, she added, were currently going through screening and investigation and those found culpable would be prosecuted.

"The operation will continue throughout the region to ensure a safe and secure atmosphere for the celebration of the Yuletide."

The Volta Regional Police Command is assuring all law abiding citizens in and out of the Volta region that it would fight crime to the barest minimum in the region, it added.

GNA
Donning orange bibs, a group of women fan across a Johannesburg township notorious for crime, knocking on doors and stopping anyone they come across on the streets, including teenagers returning from school.

They are called gender-based violence brigades and their mission is herculean: to confront South Africa's plague of femicide and violence against women and children.

The cases are gruesome, and the numbers are dizzying.

A law student was murdered, her body chopped into pieces and stuffed into a suitcase. Another university student was raped, bludgeoned to death with an industrial weighing scale inside a post office. An eight-months pregnant woman was hanged from a tree.

"We can't just ignore what we (see) until justice takes its course," said Juliet Ngonyama, 52, her orange bib hanging from her shoulders.

Gender-Based Violence workers in orange speak to anyone they can on the streets of Gauteng province. By Phill Magakoe (AFP)

Orange is a symbol of revolution in South Africa. In this case it symbolises the activists' determination to curb the violence that has worsened since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

As the women speak with residents, they unearth cases that would have otherwise gone unreported.

Walking in pairs, they engage whoever they come across -- male or female.

"Gender-based violence is abusing women, children and men emotionally physically, financially and psychologically," is their opening refrain.

South Africa has the unenviable reputation having some of the world's highest levels of violence against women.

100 daily rapes

More than 100 rapes are reported daily, while on average a woman is murdered every three hours, according to official data.

The latest quarterly crime statistics showed a 7.1-percent increase in rapes, with 9,556 women raped between July and September.

"These statistics are shameful," an exasperated President Cyril Ramaphosa said in November.

There are only around 100 shelters for abused women across all of South Africa. By LUCA SOLA (AFP)

He has characterised violence against women as a "second pandemic" after Covid-19.

"We are in the grip of a relentless war being waged on the bodies of women and children that, despite our best efforts, shows no signs of abating.

"If a nation's character can be judged by how it treats women and children, then we are falling desperately short," he said.

The Gauteng provincial government started the women's brigades in August last year "to ensure that victims are reached out to in their household through a door-to-door campaign," said the campaign's coordinator, Senosha Malesela.

"Overall we are seeing an increased number of... cases being opened in police stations," he said.

On that day in Rabie Ridge township, neighbours alerted the brigades to a 22-year-old woman who had been repeatedly abused by her brother.

She was too petrified to discuss the details because her brother was nearby. Instead, she gave her phone number for the brigades to follow up later that evening.

Women like her, trapped within the same space as their abusers, often end up at shelters. But South Africa only has about 100 such shelters to serve the entire country, and not all provinces fund them well.

Nisaa shelter manager Gladys Mmadintsi does not remember a single day when the centre did not house a victim since it opened its doors in April 1994. By LUCA SOLA (AFP)

The Nisaa centre in Johannesburg's southern Lenasia township is as old as South Africa's democracy.

Its manager Gladys Mmadintsi does not remember a single day when the centre did not house a victim since it opened its doors in April 1994.

"Instead of going down,... it's worse now," said Mmadintsi, 57.

St. Anne's Home in Cape Town has also seen an increase in abuse since the pandemic.

When AFP journalists visited, one woman had arrived the night before, and another with a baby and toddler in tow arrived that morning.

Pandemic restrictions, especially limits on movement, have caused more women to seek shelter, said St. Anne's director Joy Lange.

"Before, people in abusive relationships could escape by going to work," she said, adding that the "intensity of the violence" has grown.

'Violence normalised'

Parliament in September passed three bills to tighten its laws on gender-based violence, but advocates say that will not address the causes of the problem.

South African men often grow up without fathers, and have also suffered from violence, said Craig Wilkinson, founder of non-profit organisation, Father A Nation.

With false notions of masculinity and rampant unemployment, men are in "a perfect storm", he said.

Campaigners say the law alone cannot end gender-based violence in South Africa. By Phill Magakoe (AFP)

"No amount of law enforcement can fix broken and wounded men," he said. Legislation alone is "like putting a lid on a pressure cooker. There's going to be an explosion. You have got to deal with the pressure".

"We need to re-father our men, validate them, restore them, teach them how to use their strength."

Violence targeted at women is so normalised that "it's a lot more difficult for people to come out and seek help and to try to help other survivors", said Nisaa programs manager Sima Diai.

It took Nathalie, 40, who has been at Nisaa for two months, a decade before she sought help. She recounted endless bouts of abuse, being hit with a crowbar and suffering three broken ribs.

Jacqueline, 29, has been at St Anne's for nine months. She recalls "that guy beat me so badly, I hated myself for letting that happen".

She's not laying charges against her abuser, but is glad she survived "because you have a story to tell".
President Akufo-Addo, has once again touted his government's achievements.

President Akufo-Addo insists that his government has chalked more successes than any other government in the fourth republic.

According to him, his government has spent more money to improve the circumstances of the citizenry in the areas of education, health, industry, agriculture, infrastructure among others.

Speaking at the NPP National Delegates Conference in Kumasi, on Sunday, December 19, 2021, President Akufo Addo said he is very proud to have led a government that has brought this much achievement to the country.

He thus charged all members of the NPP to be proud about this and also let Ghanaians know the good works of his government.

This government has spent more money on education, health, industry, agriculture, and infrastructure particularly our roads than any government in the fourth republic. We have spent more money on improving the circumstances of our people and I am very proud to have led this government that has brought this level of achievements to our country.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo had earlier admitted that Ghanaians are going through hard times.

He however failed to take responsibility for the hardship faced by Ghanaians.

I admit that Ghanaians are going through difficult times, some people are trying to say that it is my fault but you know that is not the case.

The President believes a revival of Ghana's economy is hinged on Ghanaians' decision to support the government's vision.

I am hopeful that if you all support the vision of this government, we will be able to turn things around.

citinewsroom
I am expecting Nana Akufo Addo to this long time ago when he promised to protect the publics purse but he never did, therefore, I am obliged today, to write a special article about this for our president to know that his failure to sack corrupt politicians from his administration has ruined his reputation.

I can't explain the reason the whole last week, the president wasted his entire time preaching to Ghanaians about his efforts in the fight against corruption and protecting the public's purse, while the light of corruption is unquenchable in his government.

To be a president of a country is not an easy job many think it is because as a president, the whole population of your country looks up to you for their comfort, peace, and security. Therefore, as soon as promises are not fulfilled and the right measures are not taken, the people begin to lose confidence.

Apart from some promises that have never been fulfilled, if Nana Akufo Addo wishes to convince Ghanaians that he isnt corrupt, he shouldnt have spared Charles Bissiw, Eugene Arhin, and Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, when these people were involved in serious corruption scandals.

Mr. President, if you want to be respected, gain confidence and restore your ruined reputation, please, dont hesitate to kick out any NPP politician involved in corruption in your administration. If John Mahama failed to do this or not, be a different president.

It is not convincing anymore to tell Ghanaians that you are not corrupt, while you have tolerated corrupt people in your government. There is no intelligent Ghanaian or person in any part of this world who will believe you.

It will be a waste of time to write about what Eugene Arhin, the Director of communications at the office of the President, Charles Bissiw, another NPP politician caught on camera accepting money, and Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, involved in 5 million dollars scandal, however, it worth to write about the reason the president shouldnt have accepted them in his government.

Internally and internationally, this is very unpleasant; to some extent-painful to many Ghanaians who might think Nana Akufo Addo is fooling them. Here it is, therefore, important for the president to set a good example by taking these people involved in such serious corruption scandals of their post.

That would have changed everything for the doubting Thomases to gain their lost confidence back but that never happened. This should be clear to the president if today I joined others to call him a corrupt president.

The serious political errors that the Ghanaian government takes for granted are not tolerated in many countries. For example, in June 2010, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his resignation after a year in office.

The reason was Hatoyama's failure to fulfill key election promises, which caused the government's rating to drop to 20%. This problem which led to the resignation of Hatoyama wouldnt have been any issue of concern to the Ghanaian government because Ghana is in Africa.

However, I believe Nana Akufo Addo suffered a similar fate over unfulfilled promises, the reason he asked Jean Mensah to rig the elections.

These are some of the many reasons African leaders are never given the respect they deserve because they are corrupt in everything and find it hard to accept responsibility for every bad thing happening in their countries.

It is the presidents fault to keep any corrupt NPP politician in his government and that fault can only be rectified if he removes from office such politicians because that will not only give him respect but will also prevent more damage to the NPP -Political party.

.
Parliament will convene later today, Monday, December 20 to consider the revenue mobilisation measures central to the operation of the 2022 budget.

Key among the measures is the introduction of the 1.75% Electronic Transfer Levy also known as E-Levy.

The house on Friday, December 17, 2021, passed the Appropriations Bill after budget estimates for various Ministries, Departments and agencies were approved.

The house could however not conclude work on the e-levy which is currently before the Finance Committee of the house.

The Minority and the Majority are sharply divided over the levy and its implications for financial inclusion and the cash-lite society agenda.

The Minority has said it will do all it can to ensure that the bill does not see the light of day insisting it is not in the best interest of Ghanaians.

However, the Majority has maintained that the levy will help the government raise the needed revenue to meet the infrastructural demands of the country.

The bill was laid on Friday, December 17, 2021, and was subsequently referred to the Finance Committee of Parliament.

It among others imposes a 1.75% charge on all electronic transactions above a GHC100 threshold.

citinewsroom
Titile holders Paris St Germain strolled into the last 32 of the French Cup with a no-nonsense 3-nil win over minnows Entente Feignies-Aulnoye as two Ligue 1 sides were knocked out on Sunday.

Kylian Mbappe and Mauro Icardi both netted first-half penalties before the France forward completed a double in the second half as the Ligue 1 leaders eased past a team playing in the French fifth tier.

Mbappe converted a penalty in the 16th minute after being brought down in the area and Icardi also scored from the spot following another foul on Mbappe.

Mbappe, the only member of PSG's formidable front three to start, with Neymar injured and Lionel Messi being rested, added the third six minutes into the second half after latching onto a cross from Colin Dagba.

Big hitters crash out

Meanwhile, Angers crashed out with a 2-0 defeat at fifth division side Linas Montlhery, who prevailed thanks to Pascal Leno's first-half double.

Leno headed the first in the ninth minute and doubled the advantage at the end of a counter attack 15 minutes later.

Fourth division team Bergerac also sent a top-flight side packing when they eliminated Metz 5-4 on penalties after a goal-less draw.

Olympique de Marseille survived a scare at home against fifth division side Le Cannet Rocheville, who opened the scoring in the first half, before Arkadiusz Milik's hat-trick led the Ligue 1 club to a 4-1 win.

Monaco, St Etienne, Girondins de Bordeaux and RC Lens also went through, joining 2019 winners Stade Rennais, who made it into the last 32 on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed foreign minister Liz Tuss to lead talks with Europe after the resignation of the Brexit minister David Frost sent shockwaves through the already troubled London administration.

In a statement released by Downing Street on Sunday, "Foreign Secretary Truss will take on the EU negotiating brief -- including the knotty issue of Northern Ireland's relationship with Brussels -- with immediate effect."

The reshuffle came a day after David Frost, a trusted ally of the prime minister and former Brexit negotiator, brought forward his resignation in a letter to the prime minister late Saturday.

Frost's move came after The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that he had handed in his resignation a week ago, but had agreed to wait until January before leaving his post.

In his resignation letter, Frost told Johnson he had "concerns about the current direction of travel" regarding coronavirus regulations and tax rises.

Johnson is already reeling from a rebellion by 100 of his MPs in a parliamentary vote over coronavirus restrictions and the stunning loss of a 23,000-majority seat in a recent by-election.

That was partly blamed on a slew of reports that his staff and aides had held parties last Christmas despite virus restrictions in place at the time.

Running out of time

The by-election loss for Johnson's Conservatives intensified speculation of a leadership challenge.

Frost recently came second in a poll of most popular ministers held by ConservativeHome, an influential blog read by the grassroot Tories who could end up deciding Johnson's replacement.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News on Sunday that Frost was "an outstanding public servant", adding: "I do understand his reasons, he's a principled man, you know, principled people do resign from the government."

The deputy leader of the main opposition Labour party Angela Rayner said the resignation demonstrated "a government in total chaos".

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen warned Johnson was "running out of time and out of friends to deliver on the promises and discipline of a true Conservative government.

Turning point

In his resignation letter Frost told Johnson: "I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy.

"We also need to learn to live with Covid and I know that is your instinct too," he added, in apparent reference to the new measures introduced by the government last week.

"I hope we can get back on track soon and not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere," he added.

The series of crises engulfing Johnson have seen him garner increasingly negative coverage in Britain's right-wing press, normally favourable to his leadership and his party.

56-year-old Frost was appointed as Johnson's so-called EU "sherpa" shortly after the British leader took office in July 2019.
The KwafokromApedwa section of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, currently being dualised, will be opened to traffic from Thursday, December 23, 2021, contractors working on the project have said.

The 31.7 km road will be opened for two weeks to ease traffic flow on the Highway throughout the festive season.

After two weeks, the road would be closed again for works to be fully completed, the Resident Engineer for the project, Mr Apraku Anane-Appiah, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.

The opening of the road follows directives from Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah, the Minister of Roads and Highways when he visited the project site last month.

During the visit, Mr Amoako-Attah charged the contractors to "work day and night" and open the road to traffic before Christmas.

As of Friday, December 17, 2021, the contractors had completed more than 70 per cent of the work, targeting to complete the entire project by March next year, Mr Anane-Appiah said.

He said an inspection team from the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) inspected the progress of work on Sunday and gave the approval that the road be opened to traffic for two weeks.

There are three layers of asphalting that we are doing. So far we have completed the first and second layers.

So we are going to open it (road) to traffic for two weeks and after that we will close it again and complete the remaining works, he said.

Mr Anane-Appiah said they had earmarked eight separate footbridges at the various towns along the road to guarantee the safety of residents in those areas.

He said the construction of the footbridges were not part of the original project contract so a separate proposal had been sent to the GHA for approval.

We will be doing some access roads to the towns along the Highway but with the main road, somewhere February-March we should finish, Mr Anane-Appiah said.

Work on the KwafokromApedwa project, which commenced in October 2018, was scheduled to be completed in 24 months by the China International Water and Electric Corporation.

The Government has targeted to build 11,000 km of road between now and 2024, out of which 6,000 km are expected to be fully completed by that time.

GNA
Tamale Central Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), Hon. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed has slammed the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the conduct of its 2021 National Delegates Conference.

The NPP over the weekend held this years conference in Kumasi at the Heroes Park.

On Sunday in particular, there was a mass gathering where President Akufo-Addo, his vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and other leading members of the NPP took the stage to address delegates.

Speaking to TV3 on Monday, December 20, 2021, the Tamale Central MP Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed said What they did there was a Covid spreader.

According to the vocal parliamentarian, the NPP went to Kumasi to mock Ghanaians in the face of hardships presented by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Amongst the many issues that popped up at the NPPs Conference, President Akufo-Addo admitted that things are currently difficult in the country.

He, however, stressed that it is not his doing and very soon Ghanaians will enjoy.

On his part, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Chairman Wontumi claimed that President Nana Addo Danka Akufo-Addo has made Ghana better than the United States of America and the United Kingdom in terms of the development he has brought.
20.12.2021 LISTEN

The Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has implored Members of Parliament to embrace and vote for the approval of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

The levy first announced by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on November 17 during his presentation of the 2022 budget statement has been met with stiff opposition from a section of the public particularly, Minority MPs, and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Despite weeks of talks between the Minority and Majority in Parliament, there is still no consensus reached.

While the Majority is in favour of the passing of the levy, the Minority has time and again stressed that they will reject it with the argument that it will only bring untold hardship to Ghanaians.

Speaking at the NPPs National Delegates Conference in Kumasi over the weekend, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made a plea to MPs to vote for the approval of the E-Levy when the time is due.

He said, The E-levy is a major booster for development. Dont vote against it. It will help build schools, hospitals among others in your constituencies.

The E-Levy when approved, will see Ghanaians being charged a 1.75% tax on all financial transactions that exceed GHS100 done electronically.

Modernghana News can report that Parliament will vote on the Electronic Transaction Levy today.
India has proposed to push up the minimum legal age of brides at the altar from 18 to 21 years making it equal to that of men in a move filled with the promise of health, dignity and freedom from drudgery at tender age.

PTI wire service said the government will now seek parliament's approval to amend a 2006 law to include the proposal of a task-force, set up in June 2020 to examine issues of education, nutrition, motherhood and mortality.

We want all sections of the society to become part of the progress of the mainstream, cabinet minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told media.

Just 43 years ago, girls in India could be married off at 14.

Comfort at 21

Support for the new proposal has found comfort among champions of women rights in India which has the largest number of girls married off before they turn 18.

The government also hopes it will send more women into the local job market where female labour account for only 20.5 percent of the total workforce, down 10 percent from a decade ago.

"This will give a chance to the girls to study more. They will be able to enjoy their independence (and) they will also get better employment opportunities," added Jaya Bachchan, an MP from an opposition group.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi, parliamentarian from India's ruling party, agreed the step would offer more freedom.

Families feel once the girl is 16 they (should) start looking for groom and by 18 they want to marry their daughters off so they don't give that kind of space for higher education, Joshi told Times Now TV.

Honeymoon doubts

But some say the proposal could turn into a minefield of problems for families that see single adolescent females as an extra mouth to feed.

The decision has been taken keeping in mind women's empowerment but it has to be viewed with a lot of caution as it how it will get implemented, said Urvashi Gandhi from the Delhi-based women advocacy group Breakthrough.

The situation would be very alarming if the government decides to revise the age without ensuring the parent has enough infrastructure to support girl's education that would promote livelihood for the girl and which would change mindset of people as to how they value girls, Gandhi told RFI.

Child marriage prohibited by law has declined but nuptials at puberty are still commonplace among poorer families.

India's poor has more than doubled to 134 million in just a year because of the pandemic-induced recession, according to US-based Pew Research Center.

Mary Elavinakuzhy John of the Centre for Women's Development Studies think tank called for improved education for girls and argued a mere law may not bring joy in India, where 35 percent of women tie the knot before they turn 21.

"The decision ... will not get us significantly closer to women's empowerment, John told RFI.

What we need is not a cost less legal fix that will make large numbers of women who marry before they are 21 years fall into a limbo without legal protections, but evidence that there is a better understanding of the issues at stake," she said.

The prominent academic also argues lack of jobs for younger women and home-bound school dropouts are a source of anxiety for families which see marriage as the only viable prospect.

The mean age of bride at marriage in India was 21.2 years in 2011 and it improved marginally to 22.3 years in 2018, according to a state health survey.

Once the proposal becomes law, India will find entry into an exclusive club of nations that allows women to say I Do but after 21.
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has told supporters of Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia not to gloat over the cheers he received at the just-ended National Delegates Conference of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) held in the Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi.

He said that action, in his view, was all for the lies Dr Bawumia has peddled about the economy over the years.

Dr Bawumia was ushered into the grounds for the Conference by all the governing partys MPs who have constituencies in the region, when he arrived at the venue on Sunday, 19 December 2021.

The delegates were heard chanting next to lead, as the Vice-President entered the congress grounds.

The chants were even bigger when he was invited to address the Conference.

However, Mr Asiedu Nketia told Iddrisu Awudu on Accra100.5FMs morning show Ghana Yensom in a post-Conference interview that the cheers were Dr Bawumias contribution to the running down of the economy.

The vice-president was applauded for having brought untold hardships to Ghanaians under the administration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Mr Nketia stressed on Monday, 20 December 2021.

In his view, the loud cheers and applause were a protest against Dr Bawumias mismanagement of the economy.

The applause was for how the vice-president had been deficient in the management of the economy, he emphasised.

He wondered what the Vice-President has done to deserve such an applause at a national conference of that nature.

Mr Nketia said the Vice-President has mismanaged the economy to an extent that he does not feel confident commenting on the situation anymore and, so, has now transmogrified into digitalisation guru.

Mr Nketia observed that the Vice-President is championing digitalisation as if there was no sector minister for that sector.

---Classfmonline.com/cecil Mensah
In the wee morning of Saturday, 18th December 2021, the Parliament of Ghana approved the Appropriation Bill, 2021 for GH145.4 billion for the consideration and signature of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to become law to govern the Governments planned expenditure for 2022 fiscal year. The rhetoric of the rejected 2022 Budget and the Approved 2022 Budget which had formed the basis of the Nana Akufo-Addos one-party Kabuki dance ensemble ended successfully in the way the President knows best. He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The Minority caucus has been firmly tied to the apron strings of the Majority caucus in Parliament in such a manner that despite the equally divided parliament excitement that engulfed Ghanaians after the 2020 Parliamentary elections, the President has been able to demonstrate how such a legislature could easily be made an appendage of the executive chariot. The third betrayal which was consummated with the active participation of the Minority in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021 warrants another award to the President to the high league of democratic-autocratic Family and Friends world leaders. But our President is also an innocent looking flower  beware of Greeks bearing gifts, is the saying.

The doubting Thomass who did not believe that the consensus building meeting between the equally divided Minority, and Majority was a choreographed compromise that raped and defiled the integrity of the Constitution and the rule of law in enabling the rejected 2022 Budget to be reinstated through a side door on 30th November 2021 as an approved 2022 Budget should tell Ghanaians the foundation upon which the Appropriation Bill, 2021 was approved in a bi-partisan manner in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021.

Only four days previously, on 13th December 2021 the Minority Leader, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, in a face-saving manner of his sides betrayal of the trust Ghanaians put in the split parliament told the entire world in writing in letter with reference number OP/DML/020 of even date addressed to the First Deputy Speaker inter alia, that:

Kindly take note that the NDC Minority Caucus, which I lead and my good self, vehemently disagree with your position on the motion and your conduct in this matter. We take a strong view that your conduct affronts Orders 79, 81, 82 and 90 of our Standing Orders and can no longer be tolerated. In this regards, we are resolved to pursue the matter further with the Right Honourable Speaker upon his return.

This letter was preceded by an irrevocable commitment made to the people of Ghana in an interview granted by the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, to Joy FM in which he was reported to have said that  the resolve of the Caucus is aimed at safeguarding parliamentary procedure and holding the government accountable. He is quoted to have said that:

We believe that his (Joseph Osei-Owusu) refusal to admit that motion is very biased. The [standing] order he quoted 13(2) to reject the motion, in our view has no relation completely with the mission that we are demanding, so we are responding officially to him. The Minority Leader is signing a letter to remind him that this is very unfair and we believe that he is abusing his office. He is leaving us with no other option than to wait for Mr. Speaker himself to return and then we will exploit that avenue.

The foregoing are the words of two Honourablemen and Leaders of the Minority in an equally divided Parliament which every Ghanaian had every reason to believe were spoken with honour and integrity befitting their respective status and offices. But by the time the Speaker of Parliament was reported to have arrived in the country from his medical trip to Dubai these same two Honourablemen quoted above had led their side of Parliament in the consideration of the estimates for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and by 16th December 2021 had started actively participating in the approval by the plenary of Parliament of those estimates. Class FM for instance reported that:

Ghanas parliament on Wednesday, 15 December 2021, approved the sum of GHS 921,843,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Transport and its agencies to carry out their programmes and activities for the 2022 fiscal year ending 31 December 2022.

The house has also approved the annual estimates totalling GHS575,970,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Railway Development for the year ending 31 December 2022 instead of the required capital expenditure of GHS 2,520,033,185.00

In another development, the house has approved the sum of GHS574,856,000.00 in annual estimates for the services of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation for the year ending 31 December 2022.

This conduct of active participation in considering and approving the estimates while deceiving the public of eventually challenging the decision rescinding the rejected 2022 Budget was a clear surrounded of any honour and integrity to be able to challenge the reinstatement of the rejected Budget on 26th November 2021 as the approved 2022 Budget on 30th November 2021.

Ghanaontheglobe.com reported that:

Information available to Ghanaontheglobe.com indicate that Ghanas number three as he calls himself arrived in the country on the afternoon of Monday, 13th December, 2021. Since the Speaker has arrived in the country he will in no time take over his legitimate position and preside over the rest of the meeting.

The DailyGuide Network on the 14th December 2022 conjectured that he was to arrive that evening.

On 14th December 2021 the Majority Leader called the bluff of the Minority Leadership vowing to wait for the arrival of the Speaker by adopting the conflict style of calling the honour and integrity of the Speaker into question by insinuating that he had approved the Minoritys Motion to rescind the Majoritys 2022 Budget whilst in Dubai. He is quoted by Citi News to have stated in an interview that:

The First Deputy Speaker is assuming full responsibility for the transaction of business in the Chamber, but my understanding is that the Rt. Hon. Speaker has minuted on the motion [from the Minority] that he has admitted it. If that is the case, then we are in for something dangerous.

In a typical he who pays the piper calls the tune fashion the Majority Leader, who is a Minister of State, had the audacity to equate the Minority to a child who has lost a fight to another child adversary and threatens the adversary by saying that: when my father comes you will see what he will do to you. The Majority Leader in an interview granted to Citi Newsroom on the morning of 15th December 2021 made a riposte to the Minority Leadership when he stated that:

There are colleagues who said they were upset, but they are now together in committees considering estimates. If the budget is rejected, why are you together considering the estimates? How can you come back and say that we should go back and reject the budget? I think that will be taking us back. We should allow sleeping dogs to lie.

Who can blame the Majority Leader for being patronizing to the Minority caucus whom he had successfully recruited as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs on behalf of the executive arm of government since the first and second betrayals? And the Minoritys father, the substantive Speaker of Parliament, eventually arrived from Dubai to be a Daniel come to judgment or so we all thought. Whatever date of arrival one chose, the Speaker of Parliament was at least in Ghana on the night of 14th December 2021. Parliament continued with its normal business without the public hearing or seeing the Speaker Presiding in Parliament.

On the morning of 16th December 2021 before Parliament convened Mr. Kwasi Parker Wilson, the parliamentary correspondent for Joy FM interviewed Mr. Murtala Mohammed from the Minority side, and Mr. Egyapa Mercer, from the Majority side which is published online under the title: 2022 Budget Controversy: Minority mounts pressure on Speaker to reverse approval of the budget (16-12-21) Joy TV. The Minority represented by Murtala Mohammed told the interviewer, amongst other things, that he expected the Speaker to do nothing else than to reverse the decisions Hon. Osei Owusu had taken. Mr. Egyapa Mercer for the Majority told the interviewer that the Speaker could not reverse the decision approving the 2022 budget as the matter is mute. He has no power to overturn it.

After a long wait, the Speaker finally entered the Chamber of Parliament and decided to make a statement on the 2022 budget challenges as the topic of his official communication. The Speaker found everything unconstitutional, and contrary to the Standing Orders of Parliament and conventions of Parliament with the conduct and decisions taken in his unavoidable absence by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He took issues with Quorum for the conduct of business and quorum for voting in Parliament during his absence abroad; Deputy Speaker being counted for purposes of Quorum; and Letter presented by the Minister responsible for Finance on concessions and modifications to the 2022 Budget Statement. The logic of the Speakers official communication on the substantive matter of whether the 2022 rejected Budget and Statement of Economic Policy was ever or could ever have been rescinded on 30th November 2021 was that any such purported act of rescission of the rejected 2022 Budget was unconstitutional, against the Standing Orders of Parliament, parliamentary conventions, and illegal. With the Speakers declaration of nullity of whatever took place after the 26th November 2021 rejection of the 2022 Budget one expected the consequential order for a new 2022 Budget to be submitted to the House by the Minister of Finance for consideration and approval or for the Minister for Finance to submit for consideration and approval estimates for the three months period beginning January 2022 and ending on 31st March 2022 while a new 2022 Budget was prepared and presented to Parliament.

In a typical Orwellian doublespeak fashion, (which has characterized the behaviour of the Minority caucus in Parliament which put his name forward for Speaker after his retirement from Parliament), the Speaker made a serious admission, and followed it up with the most dishonourable non sequitur to his audience:

Members, I am aware of a letter originating from the Minister for Finance which letter purports to make some concessions and modifications to the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.

The legal basis of the laying of such a letter and what actions Parliament may take as a result leaves a lot to be desired.

I have however held discussions with the Leadership of the House to find a path that is faithful to law, respects our rules and processes and ensures the governance of the country does not grind to a halt. (Emphasis supplied)

The Speaker failed or refused to tell the listening public what secret discussions took place with the Leadership of the House and how after the Speakers own declarations of nullity the House could find a path that is faithful to the law, respects our rules and processes and ensures the governance of the country does not grind to a halt when the Constitution provides an avenue of preventing governance of the country grinding to a halt in the first three months of the next fiscal year. Despite the Speakers non sequitur in logical and practical argumentation, one gave him the benefit of the doubt as he laid out the agreed steps with the Leadership of the House: 

1. The Minister responsible for Finance comes before the House with an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions.

2. These modifications and concessions will then be adopted by the House and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various Committees of Parliament.

3. I am aware the Committees have begun consideration of the estimates. It would thus be their responsibility to reconcile the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submit a report for the consideration of the House.

We the People were waiting to see how the Speaker was going to ensure the implementation of the announced agreement after the secret discussion with the Leadership of the House and how the reconciliation of the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submitted a report for consideration of the House was going to be done to convert the on-going unconstitutional process to be faithful to the law. Meanwhile, the Minority and the Majority expedited their approval of the estimates of the remaining Ministries, Departments and Agencies with steam on the 16th and 17th December 2021. The Appropriation Bill, 2021 which is supposed to be the culmination of the processes on an approved 2022 Budget was passed by Parliament in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021. The Minority Leader and the Minority Chief Whip never redeemed the promises they made to the public on 13th December 2021 on their honour to put their motion before the Speaker for a decision. The Minority preferred another Judas Iscariot consensus building meeting behind closed doors to finalize the third betrayal of Ghanaians who continue to financially sustain their presence in Parliament

The Minister for Finance and the Government side called the bluff of the Speaker by refusing to come before the House with an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions let alone for those modifications and concessions be adopted by the House to be committed to the various committees of Parliament. Indeed, with the passage of the Appropriation Bill, 2021, in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021 the various committees of Parliament on the budget appeared to have completed their work on the 2022 Approved Budget dated 30th November 2021. The Speaker, contrary to his solemn pledge to the people of Ghana has presided over a weak House and can not avoid the tag as an errand boy of the Executive arm of government who woefully failed in ensuring the ultimate best interest of the Ghanaian people are served.

The Speaker together with the Minority caucus in Parliament were reported to have been active players in the first and second betrayals of the Ghanaian people in the ministerial nominees approval process at the inception of this Parliament. I raised the matter with senior members of the opposition outside Parliament, whether the Speaker did not play tricks with Ghanaians when he presided over the rejection of the 2022 Budget and immediately left for medical treatment abroad at cost to the taxpayer so that the Minority and the Majority could have their secret consensus building meeting on 30th November 2021 with the Minority agreeing to be absent from the sitting of the House to enable the rejected Budget to be rescinded and approved. The assurances I received were of fidelity to the people of Ghana.

I have served under the democratic-autocratic President Nana Akufo-Addo, and I know first-hand how the Presidents Family and Friends government manoeuvres at whatever cost to the public purse to ensure the actualization of their de facto one-party democratic autocracy despite the 1992 Constitution. Ghanaians who doubted that the innocent looking flower President could establish a one-party government upon the pretence of running a democratic government have experienced how Mr. Innocent Looking Flower managed to recruit an equally divided parliament for a first, second and third betrayal of the people of Ghana as proof of the determination of the Family and Friends Government not to brook opposition to the looting machine. He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The only regrettable and disgraceful aspect of the Minoritys compromises and betrayals, for me personally, is the fact that its Leadership is composed of men who are descendants of the brave and honest people of the highest integrity from the former Northern Territories of the British Protectorate of the Gold Coast who voted to become part of the Independent State of Ghana at the 1956 plebiscite. Mr. Speaker where has that honour and integrity gone to, to the extent that Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, a Communications Officer of the NDC, Mrs. Zita Benson, a former NDC Minister of Tourism, and Mr. Ras Mubarak, a former NDC MP for Kumbungu, amongst others, could accuse the party's leadership in Parliament of betrayal? The words of Mr. Sammy Gyamfi on Thursday, 4th March 2021 after the first betrayal are pungent and no lessons appear to have been learnt from them:

Comrades, the betrayal we have suffered in the hands of the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, the leadership of our Parliamentary group, particularly Hon. Haruna Iddrissu and Hon. Muntaka Mubarak, and dozens of our own MPs, is what strengthens me to work hard for the great NDC to regain power. They brazenly defied the leadership of the party and betrayed the collective good for their selfish interest. And we, must not let them succeed in their parochial quest to destroy the NDC, the party that has done so much for them and all of us. The shame they have brought on the party will forever hang like an albatross around their necks.

I know that investigations into the double salary scandal can be revisited by Mr. Innocent Looking Flower at anytime and I also know that the parliamentary bribery scandal that led one member of parliament to tender a reluctant apology to the House does not lend credibility to the Minority side. But Mr. Speaker, how does one reconcile what you said at Koforidua as a Member of Parliament on 10th March 2014 on bribery in parliament and the following declaration by you as the then Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament on your Starr FM interview on the Starr Chat show with Bola Ray on that Wednesday night, with the approval of the Appropriation Bill 2021 under your watch in breach of the agreements you set forth on 16th December 2021:

"When people invest in you and you are given office, of course that is one of the reasons why I said His Excellency will have it tough fighting corruption..., because he fought the first world war [Election 2008], second world war [Election 2012] and third world war [2016], sponsored by people."

Is he saying that those people are Father Christmas, no. As a country we have to look at this... we should all admit we are all corrupt, its a fact, because of the system. (These quotes are taken from Daily Graphic publication of 21st June 2017 as was monitored by Graphic Onlines Seth J. Bokpe.)

Ghanaians deserve to be treated with integrity and decorum by its elected representatives and unelected officers under the 1992 Constitution with transparency and accountability in such important matters as the Budget which will affect their daily lives for the next year. But the Nana Akufo-Addo Kabuki dance ensemble is not done with its public deception because today, 20th December 2021, the Minister for Finance may yet submit an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions to be then adopted by the House and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various Committees of Parliament as agreed with the Speaker on 16th December 2021. Ghanaians will for the first time see how the stable door is shut after the horse has bolted but with the horse still delusionally imagined to be in the stable. The Minority has shamefully reduced the 2022 Budget to a fight against E-levy and todays dance in parliament will center also on fooling the Ghanaian public on E-levy with the Minoritys cover-up show. A Judas Iscariot will always remain a Judas Iscariot, E-levy, or no E-levy.

The first working day of the week leading to the Christmas holidays is today 20th December 2021. Ghanas Budget harvesting season for Members of Parliament starts in November of every year and ends in December. The parliamentary committees of the various estimates have finished their work and have seen to the approval of the estimates except the E-Levy dance. The most important components of the Budget harvest season which both sides of the House cherish most are the consequential allowances and entitlements of whatever nature for the Members of Parliament which they have already earned, rejected, or approved Budget. The people of Ghana can go blackberrying for all members of the one-party Kabuki dance ensemble of both sides of parliament care.

The 1992 Constitution enjoins all patriotic Ghanaians, regardless of political party affiliation, to defend it against all comprador bourgeoisies and the national political elite in all arms of the government seeking to abuse and derail the constitutional and democratic processes mandated by the Constitution. The defence of the Constitution from all political persuasions during the 2022 Budget betrayal by the one-party political elite against We the People is clear testimony of our ability to put Ghana First. Patriots shall win against the compradors and political elite by continuing to put Ghana First.

Martin A. B. K. Amidu
20.12.2021 LISTEN

Any agreement between governments led by the UKs Boris Johnson and Australias Scott Morrison must be treated with a healthy dose of suspicion. A few minutes with the UK prime minister would lead you to believe that Global Britain is a meaningful term that covers loss and prestige. A session with Morrison will lead you to a brochure type of politics, policy implemented by glossy pamphlet and slogan.

The UK-Australia Free Trade signed last week has its predictable, chorusing champions. There are the free marketing dogmatists who assume that their dogma is based on fact and that such trade is a boon for all. This is a historic agreement  its a true free-trade agreement. Everyone wins, the admirably deluded Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan stated.

At least one party seemed to win more than the other. The BBCs global trade correspondent tartly remarked that, The UK has given Australia pretty much everything it wanted in terms of access to the UK agricultural market.

There are those who see this agreement merely as a front for other prejudices, among them showing that the UK can make independent agreements without the approval of doddery, fussy types in Europe overly keen on regulations. Financial journalist Matthew Lynn delighted in an understanding reached between two countries stripped of all the supra-national baggage that the EU and its dwindling band of supporters insist are essential to free trade  and for that every reason is vastly superior to Europes creaking, overly-complex single market. The empire delusion, nostalgic and heavy, prevails in such thinking.

Then come the calculating types in Downing Street and beyond who hope that this deal with Australia becomes some sort of mighty springboard to greener pastures. When the deal was agreed upon in principle earlier this year, the UK government claimed it would ease its move into the Asia-Pacific, with the eventual hope of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Peter Jennings, a paid-up member of the Anglosphere and executive director of the partially US-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, sees the agreement as an example of what can be done when two countries decide to put some priority and effort into cooperation. Unblemished by the detail, he laments the fact those stubborn sorts in the European Union have made it just that much harder in free trade negotiations.

Those in 10 Downing Street suggest that the agreement would not only end tariffs on all UK exports to Australia but lead to 10.4 billion in additional trade. The more sombre types in the UK Office of Budgetary Responsibility predict a meagre return of 0.08% to the UK economy, but a loss of 4% in loss of free access to the EU.

All the swooning from the free trader advocates belies the critical faults in such arrangements. As a general rule, and one remarked upon by the co-authors of a RAND report from last year, a free trade agreement (FTA), an instrument to eliminate tariffs, imposes costs and obstacles on two-way trade.

The Australian Productivity Commissions report on bilateral and regional trade agreements in November 2010 was also of the opinion that such agreements can carry the risk of trade diversion. This was certainly the case with the deeply flawed Australian-US FTA (AUSFTA) which, between 2005 and 2012, diverted US$53.1 billion of trade from other sources.

The authors of the APC report were also suspicious about evaluations arising from such trade deals: these tended to be based on political considerations rather than sound economic returns.

The potential costs to Britain have stirred representatives of 14 trade bodies and companies, who warned the then UK Trade Secretary Liz Truss that the pace of these negotiations, particularly the free trade agreement with Australia, is too quick and denying the opportunity for appropriate scrutiny and consultation.

British farmers remain justifiably worried. There are concerns that certain agricultural sectors will immediately feel the effect of Australian exports. As part of the agreement, Australian sheep meat will receive an immediate tariff-rate quota (TRQ) of 25,000 tonnes, rising to 75,000 tonnes over a series of instalments. The equivalent arrangement with beef covers an initial 35,000 tonnes, eventually rising to 110,000 tonnes. Both beef and sheep tariffs will be paired in a decade.

Earlier in the year, the NFU Livestock Chair Richard Findlay proved unequivocally hostile to the deal. Australian agriculture risked being a sinister Trojan horse, undermining British standards. There is no comparison whatsoever between the robust production methods in this country and in Australia  they simply do not compare due to sheer size and scale.

Australia, Findlay points out, was the worlds biggest beef exporter in 2019 (in terms of value) and second largest (behind Brazil) in terms of volume. Such scale meant fewer regulations, a lower assurance burden and significantly lower production costs.

With little by way of fraternal feeling between Commonwealth nations, the NFU livestock chair also pointed his finger at differing standards of animal welfare between the countries. The UK government was contemplating an arrangement with a country that exported hundreds of thousands of live cattle and over a million sheep on long sea journeys to Asia and the Middle East every year. The same UK government had also contemplated banning live exports for slaughter.

This point was picked up by Vicki Hird, the head of sustainable farming at Sustain, an agri-food group. Painting a picture of antipodean barbarity, Hird enumerated the darker aspects of Australian agricultural practices. Australia, for instance, permitted the use of hormones and antibiotics to speed up growth as well as the removal of skin from live sheep [mulesing, to prevent fly-strike], and they license almost double the number of highly hazardous pesticides as the UK. And just to make things that bit grimmer, Australian farmers also used feedlots, battery cages and sow stalls.

As for the agreed protections for British farmers, NFU President Minette Batters found little comfort, suggesting they were neither extensive nor effectual. Dairy would be fully liberalised after six years, sugar after eight, and beef and lamb after 15. Phil Stocker of the National Sheep Association also noted the absence of any resolution on how TRQs could be managed in a way to limit potential damage to our own domestic trade.

A tone-deaf International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan sees little to bother the UK farming sector, or anybody else in Global Britain. For one thing, most Australian beef and sheep meat exports (somewhere in the order of 70%) made it to Asia-Pacific markets. Theyre closer for them and they get great prices. She expected no dramatic surge into UK markets from Australian products but she was very pleased to do things that will open up consumer choice. That is a choice that promises to be very costly indeed.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
The world's youngest popular author and publisher who owns "Books Without Borders Inc" and also the International ambassador of Amoawisi Kids Show on Opemsuo 104.7 FM at Manhyia Palace has donated GHC9,000 to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to support needy children register and renew their expired insurance cards.

The 10-year-old boy Master Nicholas Buamah made the presentation at the headquarters of the NHIA in Accra.

In an interview, he told ModernGhana News that he is always concerned about the healthcare of children and therefore decided on his own, to raise money on YouTube Channel to help the course.

The CEO of the NHIA, Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, the Deputy CEO incharge of Finance & Investment, Mr. Francis Owusu and the Board Chairman, Dr. Ernest K. P. Kwarko received the donation on behalf of the Authority.

Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby thanked the young man for his kind gesture and assured him of registering the children onto the Scheme.

She added that the amount donated will cater for about 1,500 children, which she said was a significant number of children to be registered and renewed onto the Scheme.

Nicholas Buamah is a published author, philanthropist and also the founder of Books without Borders, a nonprofit organization.

Nicholas has worked on several charitable projects in Ghana and now the ambassador for the Kids Department at Opemsuo Radio (104.7 FM), which is Ashanti Broadcasting Corporation, owned by His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II (Asantehene).
Eastern Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman hopeful, Paul Amaning, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is lacking leadership in dealing with its internal wrangling.

According to him, the largest opposition party appears not to have an individual to provide direction and vision in its quest to recapture power from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The President of Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association of Ghana indicated that the socialist-oriented party seems to be drifting away from its own ideologies and philosophy that gave birth to it.

The NDC has been struggling with leadership crises over the years. I dont think that leadership is just about electing who is a Flagbearer, who is Chairman, General Secretary and so on and just saying that these are our leaders. NDC lacks the vision to lead this country again, Paul Amaning exclusively told Kwaku Dawuro on Anopa Nkomo on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7

He added, It is about what these people do that then reflect whether they are leaders or not and I think in my view that the NDC has been lacking leadership this is required to put the party where it has to be.

Paul Amaning believes that the NDC has had to revise its policy document after learning of the plans the governing party has for Ghanaians.
Karpowership Ghana as part of its corporate social responsibility has donated food items to the Dzorwulu Special School ahead of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Items included bags of rice, oil, biscuits, drinks, toiletries were among the items that were donated to the school.

Presenting the items, the Corporate Communications Specialist of Karpowership Ghana, Ms. Sandra Amarquaye said the gesture is part of the company's objective to always give back to society.

Ms. Amarquaye added that, Christmas is a season of giving and receiving love, and this is Karpowership's way of offering love and support to the people here. We believe in spreading joy to everyone during the holidays and we aim to achieve that with this donation.

Ms. Amarquaye further stated that Karpowership is committed to always supporting communities and key stakeholders through various activities.

Ms. Amarquaye added that Christmas is a season of giving and receiving love, and that this is Karpowership's way of offering love and support to the students and staff of the school.

Ms. Amarquaye further stated that Karpowership is committed to supporting communities and key stakeholders always, to ensure equal and fair access to development and happiness.

Mr Moses Affran, a teacher at the Dzorwulu special school said that, We are happy you have thought of us during this period. Seeing as there are only a few days left for Christmas, these items are going to help put a lot of smiles on the faces of the children.

He also stated that their job as teachers and caretakers was not an easy one and required a lot of patience in order to teach the kids how to perform basic functions.

The headmaster of the school, Mr Fredrick Tetteh, stated that they were happy that Karpowership recognized the school as well as its students and honored them with such items.

He said, We are happy you have recognized us as an institution and honored us with these items. We also hope this will be the beginning of a wonderful relationship between us.

Karpowerships gesture is aimed at ensuring that the students are not left out of the celebrations during this festive season.

The company has embarked on several other similar initiatives to support similar communities in Ghana since it started operations because of its strong believe in bettering the lives of Ghanaians.
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said the cheers for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the New Patriotic Partys (NPP) over the weekend were noise to protest the lies of the Vice President.

The Vice President was in the company of the President, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and some other leading members of the party to make the 2021 national delegates conference of the NPP a success.

When Dr. Bawumia was invited to address the gathering, he was met with cheers that have been misinterpreted as confirmation of his acceptance to lead the umbrella party in the 2024 general elections.

However, Johnson Asiedu Nketia who has monitored the proceedings holds a different view.

According to him, the cheers were just to protest the Vice President who has failed in managing the economy of the country as promised.

The vice-president was applauded for having brought untold hardships to Ghanaians under the administration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The applause was for how the vice-president had been deficient in the management of the economy, the NDC General Secretary told Accra FM in an interview on Monday.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia further lamented how the Vice President has suddenly veered from managing the economy to establish himself as a digitalisation guru.
An investigation into the sinking of migrants in the English Channel that left 27 dead on the night of 24 November has been handed over to Parisian investigating judges.

According to prosecutor's office, the judicial investigation was opened at the weekend for "involuntary manslaughter, involuntary injury, endangering others, aiding the entry and stay of a foreigner in France in an organised gang, aiding the entry or stay in a State party to the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants in an organised gang and criminal conspiracy."

The 27 victims of the sinking, which rekindled tensions between France and the United Kingdom, have been gradually identified by investigators.

There were 16 Iraqi Kurd, one Kurd from Iran, four Afghans, three Ethiopians, one Somali, one Egyptian and one Vietnamese on board the doomed vessel.

Seven women, a 16-year-old and a 7-year-old were among the 27 victims.

33 people were orignally on board

According to the investigation, the migrants left in an inflatable dinghy "late at night" from Loon-Plage, near the northern French town of Grande-Synthe, where many exiles camp along the coast.

France's interiort ministry say only two men, an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese, were rescued.

According to one of the survivors, 33 people were originally on board when the smugglers counted them.

The investigation is being carrid out by judges from the National Jurisdiction for Combating Organised Crime (Junalco) and is charged with determining the conditions of the sinking, which remain unclear.

Questions have been raised about the calls the migrants allegedly made to the French and British authorities when their makeshift boat started to sink.

Cries for help were ignored

In an interview with Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw, the Kurdish survivor said that as the boat began to sink, passengers had called the British and French authorities in vain for help.

The Prefecture Maritime de la Manche had ruled out that the call from the stranded migrants had not been answered.

Five suspected smugglers were arrested, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, but they were not linked to the shipwreck, the deadliest since migrants began trying to cross the Channel.

This comes as French boats rescued 138 migrants stranded in the Channel late last week as they tried to reach Britain from France on makeshift vessels.
Former President John Mahama has said President Akufo-Addo must take his job a bit more seriously.

Responding to a challenge thrown by the president while he addressed the governing New Patriotic Partys National Delegates Conference in the Ashanti Region, Kumasi, on Sunday, 19 December, the former President says President Akufo-Addo must focus on fixing the economic mess.

I think the President must take his responsibilities seriously and focus on working to change the circumstances of our people, rather than the rabble-rousing skits he serves the nation, the 2020 flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said in a Facebook post on Monday, 20 December 2021.

According to the president: We have spent more money on improving the circumstances of our people than any government in the 4th republic and I am very proud that we are the government that has brought this level of achievement to the people.

He added: So, when you leave here, go with your shoulders and hand right in the sky that you belong to a government that has been most diligent in supporting the welfare of the people of Ghana.

Mr Akufo-Addo then declared: No government has our record in expenditure on social and economic transformation.

What is the one policy that the NDC and their leader John Mahama have thought about in these five years in opposition? The answer is zero, he said.

In a brief response, Mr Mahama said: To answer his rhetorical question on policy, if only he took a moment, in the comfort of his chartered jet, to read the People's manifesto, he would have, at least, learnt about the 'Big Push' (an accelerated infrastructure plan for Ghana), 'Free Primary Health Care Plan', the 1 million jobs plan, 'Ghana FIRST' (Framework for Industrial Revitalisation, Support and Transformation) and several other well-thought-through and costed policies.

Mr Mahama said: I am willing to provide him with an autographed copy of the manifesto.

With his speech of yesterday [Sunday, 19 December 2021], he has carved his niche as a good campaigner, but unfortunately a poor leader as Ghanaians have found out at great cost, the former president observed.
Ghanaian statesman, Martin A.B.K Amidu has slammed the Minority in Parliament again for what he said is allowing itself to be recruited by President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo to do his bidding.

Although the Minority has since the presentation of the 2022 Budget in Parliament given the indication that it will reject it, Martin Amidu believes it is just a plan to look good in the eyes of Ghanaians.

In a statement from the former Special Prosecutor, he makes that claim that it is because of this that the Minority has shamefully reduced the 2022 budget statement to a fight against the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

The Minority has shamefully reduced the 2022 Budget to a fight against E-levy and todays dance in parliament will center also on fooling the Ghanaian public on E-levy with the Minoritys cover-up show. A Judas Iscariot will always remain a Judas Iscariot, E-levy, or no E-levy, Martin Amidu says in his new release.

Unhappy with the entire posture of the Minority in the debate of the 2022 budget, Mr. Amidu stresses that it is about time Ghanaians are treated with integrity and decorum by their elected representatives and unelected officers under the 1992 Constitution with transparency and accountability in such important matters as the Budget which will affect their daily lives for the next year.

Read the full statement from Martin Amidu below:

2021 BUDGET APPROPRIATION BILL - HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE IN NANA ADDOS ONE-PARTY KABUKI DANCE ENSEMBLE: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU

In the wee morning of Saturday, 18th December 2021, the Parliament of Ghana approved the Appropriation Bill, 2021 for GH145.4 billion for the consideration and signature of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to become law to govern the Governments planned expenditure for 2022 fiscal year. The rhetoric of the rejected 2022 Budget and the Approved 2022 Budget which had formed the basis of Nana Akufo-Addos one-party Kabuki dance ensemble ended successfully in the way the President knows best. He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The Minority caucus has been firmly tied to the apron strings of the Majority Caucus in Parliament in such a manner that despite the equally divided parliament excitement that engulfed Ghanaians after the 2020 Parliamentary elections, the President has been able to demonstrate how such a legislature could easily be made an appendage of the executive chariot. The third betrayal which was consummated with the active participation of the Minority in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021 warrants another award to the President to the high league of democratic-autocratic Family and Friends world leaders. But our President is also an innocent-looking flower  beware of Greeks bearing gifts, is the saying.

The doubting Thomass who did not believe that the consensus-building meeting between the equally divided Minority, and Majority was a choreographed compromise that raped and defiled the integrity of the Constitution and the rule of law in enabling the rejected 2022 Budget to be reinstated through a side door on 30th November 2021 as an approved 2022 Budget should tell Ghanaians the foundation upon which the Appropriation Bill, 2021 was approved in a bipartisan manner in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021.

Only four days previously, on 13th December 2021 the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, in a face-saving manner of his sides betrayal of the trust Ghanaians put in the split parliament told the entire world in writing in a letter with reference number OP/DML/020 of even date addressed to the First Deputy Speaker inter alia, that:

Kindly take note that the NDC Minority Caucus, which I lead and my good self, vehemently disagree with your position on the motion and your conduct in this matter. We take a strong view that your conduct affronts Orders 79, 81, 82 and 90 of our Standing Orders and can no longer be tolerated. In this regard, we are resolved to pursue the matter further with the Right Honourable Speaker upon his return.

This letter was preceded by an irrevocable commitment made to the people of Ghana in an interview granted by the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, to Joy FM in which he was reported to have said that  the resolve of the Caucus is aimed at safeguarding parliamentary procedure and holding the government accountable. He is quoted to have said that:

We believe that his (Joseph Osei-Owusu) refusal to admit that motion is very biased. The [standing] order he quoted 13(2) to reject the motion, in our view has no relation completely with the mission that we are demanding, so we are responding officially to him. The Minority Leader is signing a letter to remind him that this is very unfair and we believe that he is abusing his office. He is leaving us with no other option than to wait for Mr Speaker himself to return and then we will exploit that avenue.

The foregoing are the words of two Honourablemen and Leaders of the Minority in an equally divided Parliament which every Ghanaian had every reason to believe were spoken with honour and integrity befitting their respective status and offices. But by the time the Speaker of Parliament was reported to have arrived in the country from his medical trip to Dubai these same two Honourablemen quoted above had led their side of Parliament in the consideration of the estimates for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and by 16th December 2021 had started actively participating in the approval by the plenary of Parliament of those estimates. Class FM for instance reported that:

Ghanas parliament on Wednesday, 15 December 2021, approved the sum of GHS 921,843,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Transport and its agencies to carry out their programmes and activities for the 2022 fiscal year ending 31 December 2022.

The house has also approved the annual estimates totalling GHS575,970,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Railway Development for the year ending 31 December 2022 instead of the required capital expenditure of GHS 2,520,033,185.00

In another development, the house has approved the sum of GHS574,856,000.00 in annual estimates for the services of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation for the year ending 31 December 2022.

This conduct of active participation in considering and approving the estimates while deceiving the public of eventually challenging the decision rescinding the rejected 2022 Budget was a clear surrounded of any honour and integrity to be able to challenge the reinstatement of the rejected Budget on 26th November 2021 as the approved 2022 Budget on 30th November 2021.

Ghanaontheglobe.com reported that:

Information available to Ghanaontheglobe.com indicate that Ghanas number three as he calls himself arrived in the country on the afternoon of Monday, 13th December 2021. Since the Speaker has arrived in the country he will in no time take over his legitimate position and preside over the rest of the meeting.

The Daily Guide Network on the 14th December 2022 conjectured that he was to arrive that evening.

On 14th December 2021, the Majority Leader called the bluff of the Minority Leadership vowing to wait for the arrival of the Speaker by adopting the conflict style of calling the honour and integrity of the Speaker into question by insinuating that he had approved the Minoritys Motion to rescind the Majoritys 2022 Budget whilst in Dubai. He is quoted by Citi News to have stated in an interview that:

The First Deputy Speaker is assuming full responsibility for the transaction of business in the Chamber, but my understanding is that the Rt. Hon. Speaker has minuted on the motion [from the Minority] that he has admitted it. If that is the case, then we are in for something dangerous.

In a typical he who pays the piper calls the tune fashion the Majority Leader, who is a Minister of State, had the audacity to equate the Minority to a child who has lost a fight to another child adversary and threatens the adversary by saying that: when my father comes you will see what he will do to you. The Majority Leader in an interview granted to Citi Newsroom on the morning of 15th December 2021 made a riposte to the Minority Leadership when he stated that:

There are colleagues who said they were upset, but they are now together in committees considering estimates. If the budget is rejected, why are you together considering the estimates? How can you come back and say that we should go back and reject the budget? I think that will be taking us back. We should allow sleeping dogs to lie.

Who can blame the Majority Leader for being patronizing to the Minority caucus whom he had successfully recruited as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs on behalf of the executive arm of government since the first and second betrayals? And the Minoritys father, the substantive Speaker of Parliament, eventually arrived from Dubai to be a Daniel come to judgment or so we all thought. Whatever date of arrival one chose, the Speaker of Parliament was at least in Ghana on the night of 14th December 2021. Parliament continued with its normal business without the public hearing or seeing the Speaker Presiding in Parliament.

On the morning of 16th December 2021, before Parliament convened Mr Kwasi Parker Wilson, the parliamentary correspondent for Joy FM interviewed Mr Murtala Mohammed from the Minority side, and Mr Egyapa Mercer, from the Majority side which is published online under the title: 2022 Budget Controversy: Minority mounts pressure on Speaker to reverse approval of the budget (16-12-21) Joy TV. The Minority represented by Murtala Mohammed told the interviewer, amongst other things, that he expected the Speaker to do nothing else than to reverse the decisions, Hon. Osei-Owusu had taken, Mr Egyapa Mercer for the Majority told the interviewer that the Speaker could not reverse the decision approving the 2022 budget as the matter is mute. He has no power to overturn it.

After a long wait, the Speaker finally entered the Chamber of Parliament and decided to make a statement on the 2022 budget challenges as the topic of his official communication. The Speaker found everything unconstitutional, and contrary to the Standing Orders of Parliament and conventions of Parliament with the conduct and decisions taken in his unavoidable absence by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He took issues with Quorum for the conduct of business and quorum for voting in Parliament during his absence abroad; Deputy Speaker being counted for purposes of Quorum; and Letter presented by the Minister responsible for Finance on concessions and modifications to the 2022 Budget Statement. The logic of the Speakers official communication on the substantive matter of whether the 2022 rejected Budget and Statement of Economic Policy was ever or could ever have been rescinded on 30th November 2021 was that any such purported act of rescission of the rejected 2022 Budget was unconstitutional, against the Standing Orders of Parliament, parliamentary conventions, and illegal. With the Speakers declaration of nullity of whatever took place after the 26th November 2021 rejection of the 2022 Budget one expected the consequential order for a new 2022 Budget to be submitted to the House by the Minister of Finance for consideration and approval or for the Minister for Finance to submit for consideration and approval estimates for the three months period beginning January 2022 and ending on 31st March 2022 while a new 2022 Budget was prepared and presented to Parliament.

In a typical Orwellian doublespeak fashion, (which has characterized the behaviour of the Minority caucus in Parliament which put his name forward for Speaker after his retirement from Parliament), the Speaker made a serious admission, and followed it up with the most dishonourable non sequitur to his audience:

Members, I am aware of a letter originating from the Minister for Finance which letter purports to make some concessions and modifications to the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.

The legal basis of the laying of such a letter and what actions Parliament may take as a result leaves a lot to be desired.

I have, however, held discussions with the Leadership of the House to find a path that is faithful to the law, respects our rules and processes and ensures the governance of the country does not grind to a halt. (Emphasis supplied)

The Speaker failed or refused to tell the listening public what secret discussions took place with the Leadership of the House and how after the Speakers own declarations of nullity the House could find a path that is faithful to the law, respects our rules and processes and ensures the governance of the country does not grind to a halt when the Constitution provides an avenue of preventing governance of the country grinding to a halt in the first three months of the next fiscal year. Despite the Speakers non sequitur in logical and practical argumentation, one gave him the benefit of the doubt as he laid out the agreed steps with the Leadership of the House: 

1. The Minister responsible for Finance comes before the House with an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions.

2. These modifications and concessions will then be adopted by the House and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various Committees of Parliament.

3. I am aware the Committees have begun consideration of the estimates. It would thus be their responsibility to reconcile the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submit a report for the consideration of the House.

We the People were waiting to see how the Speaker was going to ensure the implementation of the announced agreement after the secret discussion with the Leadership of the House and how the reconciliation of the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submitted a report for consideration of the House was going to be done to convert the on-going unconstitutional process to be faithful to the law. Meanwhile, the Minority and the Majority expedited their approval of the estimates of the remaining Ministries, Departments and Agencies with steam on the 16th and 17th December 2021. The Appropriation Bill, 2021 which is supposed to be the culmination of the processes on an approved 2022 Budget was passed by Parliament in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021. The Minority Leader and the Minority Chief Whip never redeemed the promises they made to the public on 13th December 2021 on their honour to put their motion before the Speaker for a decision. The Minority preferred another Judas Iscariot consensus-building meeting behind closed doors to finalise the third betrayal of Ghanaians who continue to financially sustain their presence in Parliament

The Minister for Finance and the Government side called the bluff of the Speaker by refusing to come before the House with an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions let alone for those modifications and concessions be adopted by the House to be committed to the various committees of Parliament. Indeed, with the passage of the Appropriation Bill, 2021, in the wee hours of Saturday, 18th December 2021 the various committees of Parliament on the budget appeared to have completed their work on the 2022 Approved Budget dated 30th November 2021. The Speaker, contrary to his solemn pledge to the people of Ghana has presided over a weak House and cannot avoid the tag as an errand boy of the Executive arm of government who woefully failed in ensuring the ultimate best interest of the Ghanaian people are served.

The Speaker together with the Minority caucus in parliament was reported to have been active players in the first and second betrayals of the Ghanaian people in the ministerial nominees approval process at the inception of this Parliament. I raised the matter with senior members of the opposition outside Parliament, whether the Speaker did not play tricks with Ghanaians when he presided over the rejection of the 2022 Budget and immediately left for medical treatment abroad at a cost to the taxpayer so that the Minority and the Majority could have their secret consensus-building meeting on 30th November 2021 with the Minority agreeing to be absent from the sitting of the House to enable the rejected Budget to be rescinded and approved. The assurances I received were of fidelity to the people of Ghana.

I have served under the democratic-autocratic President Nana Akufo-Addo, and I know first-hand how the Presidents Family and Friends government manoeuvres at whatever cost to the public purse to ensure the actualisation of their de facto one-party democratic autocracy despite the 1992 Constitution. Ghanaians who doubted that the innocent looking flower President could establish a one-party government upon the pretence of running a democratic government have experienced how Mr Innocent Looking Flower managed to recruit an equally divided parliament for a first, second and third betrayal of the people of Ghana as proof of the determination of the Family and Friends Government not to brook opposition to the looting machine. He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The only regrettable and disgraceful aspect of the Minoritys compromises and betrayals, for me personally, is the fact that its Leadership is composed of men who are descendants of the brave and honest people of the highest integrity from the former Northern Territories of the British Protectorate of the Gold Coast who voted to become part of the Independent State of Ghana at the 1956 plebiscite. Mr Speaker where has that honour and integrity gone to, to the extent that Mr Sammy Gyamfi, a Communications Officer of the NDC, Mrs Zita Benson, a former NDC Minister of Tourism, and Mr Ras Mubarak, a former NDC MP for Kumbungu, amongst others, could accuse the party's leadership in Parliament of betrayal? The words of Mr Sammy Gyamfi on Thursday, 4th March 2021 after the first betrayal are pungent and no lessons appear to have been learnt from them:

Comrades, the betrayal we have suffered in the hands of the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, the leadership of our Parliamentary group, particularly Hon. Haruna Iddrissu and Hon. Muntaka Mubarak, and dozens of our own MPs, are what strengthen me to work hard for the great NDC to regain power. They brazenly defied the leadership of the party and betrayed the collective good for their selfish interest. And we, must not let them succeed in their parochial quest to destroy the NDC, the party that has done so much for them and all of us. The shame they have brought on the party will forever hang like an albatross around their necks.

I know that investigations into the double salary scandal can be revisited by Mr Innocent Looking Flower at any time and I also know that the parliamentary bribery scandal that led one member of parliament to tender a reluctant apology to the House does not lend credibility to the Minority side. But Mr Speaker, how does one reconcile what you said at Koforidua as a Member of Parliament on 10th March 2014 on bribery in parliament and the following declaration by you as the then Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament on your Starr FM interview on the Starr Chat show with Bola Ray on that Wednesday night, with the approval of the Appropriation Bill 2021 under your watch in breach of the agreements you set forth on 16th December 2021:

"When people invest in you and you are given office, of course, that is one of the reasons why I said His Excellency will have it tough fighting corruption..., because he fought the first world war [Election 2008], second world war [Election 2012] and third world war [2016], sponsored by people."

Is he saying that those people are Father Christmas? No. As a country we have to look at this... we should all admit we are all corrupt, its a fact, because of the system. (These quotes are taken from Daily Graphic publication of 21st June 2017 as was monitored by Graphic Onlines Seth J. Bokpe.)

Ghanaians deserve to be treated with integrity and decorum by their elected representatives and unelected officers under the 1992 Constitution with transparency and accountability in such important matters as the Budget which will affect their daily lives for the next year. But the Nana Akufo-Addo Kabuki dance ensemble is not done with its public deception because today, 20th December 2021, the Minister for Finance may yet submit an amended statement of the Budget with the said modifications and concessions to be then adopted by the House and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various Committees of Parliament as agreed with the Speaker on 16th December 2021. Ghanaians will for the first time see how the stable door is shut after the horse has bolted but with the horse still delusionally imagined to be in the stable. The Minority has shamefully reduced the 2022 Budget to a fight against E-levy and todays dance in parliament will center also on fooling the Ghanaian public on E-levy with the Minoritys cover-up show. A Judas Iscariot will always remain a Judas Iscariot, E-levy, or no E-levy.

The first working day of the week leading to the Christmas holidays is today 20th December 2021. Ghanas Budget harvesting season for Members of Parliament starts in November of every year and ends in December. The parliamentary committees of the various estimates have finished their work and have seen to the approval of the estimates except for the E-Levy dance. The most important components of the Budget harvest season which both sides of the House cherish most are the consequential allowances and entitlements of whatever nature for the Members of Parliament which they have already earned, rejected, or approved Budget. The people of Ghana can go blackberrying for all members of the one-party Kabuki dance ensemble of both sides of parliament care.

The 1992 Constitution enjoins all patriotic Ghanaians, regardless of political party affiliation, to defend it against all comprador bourgeoisie and the national political elite in all arms of the government seeking to abuse and derail the constitutional and democratic processes mandated by the Constitution. The defence of the Constitution from all political persuasions during the 2022 Budget betrayal by the one-party political elite against We, the People, is a clear testimony of our ability to put Ghana First. Patriots shall win against the compradors and political elite by continuing to put Ghana First.

Martin A. B. K. Amidu
20.12.2021 LISTEN

The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court has granted leave to Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Francis-Xavier Sosu to amend his motion for interlocutory injunction against the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his officers.

Lawyer Sosu, is praying the court to stop the IGP from any attempt to infringe on his rights.

While asking the court to enforce his rights, and order for the enforcement of his right to free movement, protest, demonstration, and personal liberty among others under Article 14(1), 21(1), and 33 of the 1992 constitution, he is also asking for an interlocutory injunction against the IGP and his officers from attempting to arrest, investigate and maliciously prosecuting him.

In court on Monday, December 20, Lawyer Sosu prayed the court to grant him leave to amend his motion for interlocutory injunction, due to inadvertent mistakes on the motion paper.

Preliminary objections

Clarence Kuwornu, Chief State Attorney, representing the IGP raised preliminary objection against Lawyer Sosus motion for interlocutory injunction.

He said the crux of the preliminary objection is that the motion is for the enforcement of fundamental human rights but looking at the motion, it is praying that the respondent (IGP), his officers, assigns workers to be restrained from trespassing on the applicants land.

According to him, in as much as the applicants motion is for fundamental human rights, he cannot impose on the respondent (IGP) to be restrained including his assigns, workers officers from investigating and trespassing on land of the applicant.

He argued that, the IGP says the motion for interlocutory injection is incompetent since it relates to the issues of lands.

Sosus response

Responding to the Preliminary objection, lawyer Sosu who represented himself told the court that, the objection is appropriate to the extent that the wording of the motion paper is incomplete and does not wholly reflect the remedies prayed in the substantive action before the court.

He said the motion paper should have read, motion on notice praying for an order of interlocutory injection to restrain the respondent, his assigns from unlawfully arresting, investigating, and malicious prosecuting of applicant pending the determination of the suit

On the issue of the IGP and his men not trespassing on his land, he said it was inadvertently put in the motion because men from the respondent attempted to arrest the applicant at his church and home.

To this end, he, therefore, sought leave to amend the motion paper to reflect in the substantive matter.

This he said, will afford the respondent, the opportunity to appropriately respond.

The Chief State Attorney replying on the point of law, said he should withdraw the application for interlocutory injunction so we can move the substantive application.

By court

The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Barbara Tetteh- Charway granted the application.

The court said, it is clear on the face of the documents that the facts of the statement of case and affidavit in support of the case do not support the motion for interlocutory injunction.

The court explained that, anybody that reads it will know that there was a mistake.

The court subsequently granted the prayer and ordered the applicant to file his amendment by December 23.

EIB Networks Court Correspondent Murtala Inusah reports that, the respondent has been directed to file his answer to the substantive matter on January 14, 2022.

The case has been adjourned to February 1, 2022, for the substantive matter to be moved.

---kasapafmonline
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Editor, The Insight

20.12.2021 LISTEN

The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwasi Pratt Jnr., says political parties have reduced congresses to jamborees and elections.

This comment by Pratt comes after over 6,000 delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) gathered on the Heroes Park of the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Sunday 19th December 2021 for the Partys National Delegates Conference.

A high-profile delegation, including former President John Agyekum Kufuor, President Nana Akufo-Addo, Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, NPP National Chairman Freddie Blay, the General Secretary John Boadu, Alan Kyeremanteng and members of the National Executive Committee participated in the Conference.

This years conference is under the theme, Our Resolve, Our Determination, and Commitment to Ghanas Development.

The NPP will hold its primaries in 2022 to elect the partys leaders and choose the personality who will lead the party to the 2024 presidential election.

Speaking on Atinka FMs AM Drive with host Kaakyire Ofori Ayim, The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwasi Pratt Jnr., noted that gone were the days when congresses were held to give approvals to policies that have undergone vigorous debates within the party.

According to Mr. Pratt, political parties have turned congresses into jamborees leaving out important assignments such as formulating and approving policies meant to benefit the party and to a large extent the nation.

He revealed that the jamborees pose a great threat to the nations democracy.

In the past, political parties used congresses to approve or reject policies that have undergone vigorous debates. The trend has however changed. The political congresses have become jamborees. No party in Ghana currently holds congress to discuss serious policies and accept new ones, no! They have all become jamborees, Kwesi Pratt told Kaakyire Ofori Ayim.

---atinkaonline
The Deputy General Secretary for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, says it is not true that the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has advantage over other Presidential aspirants seeking to lead the NPP.

His comments come after the Vice President was hailed by most of the delegates that attended the partys Annual Delegates Conference in Kumasi

The Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Sunday stole the show at the Heroes Park in Kumasi as the NPP held its annual national delegates conference.

The popularity and charisma of Bawumia within the rank and file of the NPP came to the fore as his presence was announced  a spectacle political watchers say sends a strong signal about his popularity and the upcoming NPP flagbearership contest.

Bawumia was accompanied by all Members of Parliament of the host region, the Ashanti Region.

Flanked by his wife Samira, the Ashanti parliamentarians followed him to the dais as he exchanged pleasantries with the fellow party faithful.

It is reported that some of the delegates chanted that they want Bawumia to succeed President Akufo-Addo when he is done with his 8-year-term.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Trade and Industries Alan Kyerematen, who is also interested in becoming the next flagbearer of the NPP came three hours later.

This got a section of the public saying that Bawumia has been painted nicer than the others who may want to aspire for the position.

But speaking on Atinka TV s morning show, Ghana Nie with Co-Host Dufie Asare Adjepong, Nana Obiri Boahen explained that Dr Bawumia does not have the upper hand in the contest as being suggested.

To say they have painted Bawumia nicely over the others is not fair. it is not fair to Bawumia and it is not fair to the other aspirants. National officers urged all not to come along with posters and so most of those who had posters on their vehicles and others took them off, he said.

He continued that,Remember, Dr Bawumia did not just go there as an NPP Member, he went there as an NPP, and at the same time, he is a member of the Annual Delegates Conference by virtue of the fact that NPP is in power and he is the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.
Ghana has issued a travel ban to Malta, South Korea, and Israel in the wake of the threat posed by COVID-19 infections.

The ban takes effect from today, Monday, December 20, 2021. The ban is a result of the rising COVID-19 cases in those countries.

The Ministry announced this in separate press statements on Friday, December 17, 2021.

Even though the Ministry didnt specifically mention the Omicron variant as the reason for the ban for South Korea and Israel, it stated that clearly for Malta.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of the Republic of Ghana wishes to inform the public that the government of Ghana has initiated a travel ban on all travelers to and from Malta with effect from Monday, 20th December 2021, due to the Omicron virus.

The government added that it does not recognize any vaccine certificate from Malta.

The Ministry further wishes to indicate that the government of Ghana does not recognize any vaccine certificate from Malta.

To this end, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration wishes to state that the public should take note of the above and adhere to it accordingly.

Meanwhile, for South Korea, the ban is for a period of 14 days.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of the Republic of Ghana wishes to inform the public that the government of Ghana has initiated a travel restriction on all travelers arriving from South Korea from Monday, December 20, 2021, for a period of 14 days.

However, for that of Israel, exceptional travels are allowed, but permission must be sort first.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of the Republic of Ghana wishes to inform the public that the government of Ghana has initiated a travel restriction on all travelers arriving from South Korea from Monday, December 20, 2021, for a period of 14 days, except in exceptional humanitarian cases or during official travels

---citinewsroom
Three suspected illegal miners including an 18-year old woman have been picked up at Sekyere-Boase in the Wassa-East District of the Western Region.

Some items found at the site including four Changfan machines and one tool box, were also confiscated.

The operation on Sunday, December 19, 2021 which was undertaken by the Delta taskforce, which is part of the anti-galamsey Operation Halt II, initiated this year to clamp down on illegal mining activities, popularly known as 'galamsey.'

The woman was identified as one Doris Abena from Tamale with the identities of the other arrested miners yet to be established.

The anti-galamsey fight has seen a revival under the leadership of Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.

The Ministry has been consistent with its message that it will not renege on its resolve to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the country.

It warned that it will continue to wage war against illegal mining activities and protect Ghana's forest and natural resources while promoting responsible mining at all levels.

---3news.com
20.12.2021 LISTEN

Tree Aid, a non-governmental organization has held a stakeholder workshop for cashew value chain linkages aimed at providing a platform to establish linkages between producers, buyers and processors.

The stakeholders' engagement was held on Saturday, December 18 at the Damongo Catholic Guest House conference hall in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.

The cashew value chain linkages workshop was also to discuss issues that would boost the cashew industry in the region and the country at large.

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, the project officer for Ghana Rural Agriculture Cashew Enterprises for West Gonja, Mr. Eric H. Botir, said the meeting was tailored at bringing all cashew farmers within West Gonja Municipal who are into Village Tree Enterprises (VTE) formed by Tree Aid.

According to him, local processors were brought from Kumasi, Accra, and Tema to teach the participants ways to process their cashew to increase their income and also help them to get their nutrition.

"The importance of today's meeting is just to link all the groups from Tree Aid in the West Gonja Municipal to the outside processors and these processors are people who are already into this business for a very long time", he said.

He continued, "because this is a new area, we are trying to tap into knowledge and to also see how these farmers could sign contracts with them and sell cashew to them."
Our world is a place that holds us and all the resources we need to survive. As people, we can only thrive within societies because of the inescapable interdependence of all people, on all other people, even across time and space.

We see this through the global challenge of climate change, which connects the historical and current appropriation and stewardship of the earth, to our collective chance of meeting our needs today and in the near future.

History has shown us that we can all maintain our differences enjoy a fruitful life as a species.

But we are all different and have certain significantly distinct needs. Some of these needs are psychosocial and are satisfied through cultural and religious mixtures over a period. People may be guided, trapped, or blinded by this, when creating the communal agreements that are laws to survive on this planet.

Ghanas anti-LGBTQ bill currently under discussion at its core, disregards certain uniqueness individuals have, which does not disrupt other peoples lives that is their gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual characteristics.

There is much good science and policy expertise about how this bill is a witch hunt and only opens the gate to more draconian legislation of things that make people different yet undesirable by the majority in society. In this article, the author, Chelsea Amy Grant speaks to a section of Ghanaians to seek their opinion of the anti-LGBTQ bill currently before parliament.

While we are all different, the fact that some differences are more popular does not make them particularly right.

My hope is that the bill is completely thrown out and that other more pressing national issues are pursued.  Joseph Daniels

I've always believed in the natural law of man being with a woman. Frankly, though, l feel indifferent towards the LGBT community along with whatever variation of it arises in the near future. I don't believe they should be persecuted. For me I am okay with them as long they don't coerce people into their act especially children. However, to think of it critically it seems and perhaps it is strange, and then there are the possible STDs involved in such acts.

I am ever interested to see how the Ghanaian community reacts to it whatever be the final decision.

We can easily point them out as going against the bible and persecuting them but I don't think we should be judging them. Whatever you sow you equally reap its fruits. However, if we were being entirely critical of them then we should also consider our sins because they will all weigh the same. That's why I prefer not to despise them and believe God will be the eventual judge.

My point is the bill will be judging them but we have no right to.  Josaphat Gbenneh

Well apart from the fact that imprisonment and things. I think it's absolutely right that Ghana is frowning on it. But the imprisonment and all I feel it's harsh  Michael Crentsil

I think the Anti-Bill is good intentions wrapped in a bad package. We making the bill does not mean thats its not happening behind closed doors. And lets be honest young people are intrigued by illegal things using it as a measure for their daredevil behaviors. This bill will only make things worse. As a religious person I believe that even God gives as the right to make our own decisions despite knowing the outcome. So, I believe the bill isnt necessary at least in the way they intend it to be (as a deterrent). If they want to come out let them come out, if they want to marry let them marry. What we have to do is make information about homosexuality and the dangers associated with it to be made public. If they see all this and still want to continue at least we know its their choice and their responsibility.  Rhoda york

The people want the bill to be passed in order to preserve their cultural and religious view about sexuality and marriage. That's okay.

I haven't seen the whole bill. But commentary has it that some elements of the bill infringes upon the basic human rights of the LGBTQ ppl. If that's looked at and addressed, there's no problem with the anti-gay bill.

It should be able to protect our cultural and religious integrity regarding marriage, relationships, and the likes, while at the same time providing safe atmosphere for people who may identify as LGBTQ.  Augustus Acquaye

I feel like this whole vibe is just a confusion of identity. Its interesting to note the fundamental question bothering a generation refined in technology and scholasticism, is one of identity-the question of who am I?

As to whether this movement is right or wrong is one pivoted on morality. Towing that lane will implore the recognition of a moral lawgiver. Thoughts for another day.

The reality now is the quest to be who you feel you are lies at the behest of a bill. This is where weve gotten to. Personally, I feel its sad.

Some identities are created, learned, developed. Others come with us at birth. The corruption of the natural, in any sense, is what has brought lots of chaos to our world.- kelvin

The Writer, Chelsea Amy Grant is a student journalist currently with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
Led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, vpnMentors research team discovered a data breach related to Ghanas National Service Secretariate (NSS).

The NSS is a government program managing a mandatory year of public service for graduates of certain educational institutions in Ghana. Every year, thousands of students join the program from across the country to work in various public sectors, including healthcare.

The NSS was using Amazon Web Services to store over 3 million files from its programs. Despite password protecting some of the files in its cloud storage account, simple oversights by whoever created the account and uploaded and organized the files on the S3 bucket made this insufficient, and many files were still exposed.

As a result, up to 700,000 people from across Ghana were exposed to fraud, hacking, and identity theft  not to mention the dangers posed to the institutions they were working at and the Ghanian government itself.

Data Breach Summary

Company/Org. Ghanas National Service Scheme Headquarters Accra, Ghana Industry Public Sector Size of data in gigabytes Approx. 55 GB Suspected no. of files 3,814,795 No. of people exposed Most likely 500,000-600,000; Potentially up to 700,000 Date range/timeline March 2018  present Geographical scope Ghana Types of data exposed PII data; ID cards; employment and educational records; much more Potential impact Phishing; fraud; ransomware; anti-government dissent and misinformation; extortion Data storage format Misconfigured AWS S3 bucket

What is Ghanas National Service Secretariate?

The National Service Secretariate (or National Service Scheme, NSS) was established to promote the development of Ghanas public and private sectors.

The NSS is a one-year mandatory national service that all graduates of accredited tertiary learning institutions in Ghana are legally required to perform. Every year, 10,000s of graduates in Ghana are to serve for 12 months in various sectors, primarily within the public sector, such as healthcare, transport, and education.

Timeline of Discovery and Owner Reaction

Date discovered: September 29th, 2021

September 29th, 2021 Date vendors contacted: October 6th, 2021

October 6th, 2021 Date of 2nd contact attempt (if relevant): October 12th, 2021

October 12th, 2021 Date CERT-GH contacted: October 7th, 2021; October 12th, 2021 (replied the same day)

Sometimes, the extent of a data breach and the owner of the data are obvious, and the issue is quickly resolved. But rare are these times. We often need days of investigation before we understand whats at stake or whos exposing the data.

Understanding a breach and its potential impact takes careful attention and time. We work hard to publish accurate and trustworthy reports, ensuring everybody who reads them understands their seriousness.

Some affected parties deny the facts, disregarding our research or playing down its impact. So, we need to be thorough and make sure everything we find is correct and accurate.

In this case, the NSS was using an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket to store data collected from the public through its various activities. S3 buckets are an increasingly popular enterprise cloud storage solution. However, users must set up their security protocols manually to protect any data stored therein.

While the NSS had password-protected many documents stored on the S3 bucket, the bucket itself was left completely open, leaving the contents totally exposed and easily accessible to anyone with a web browser and technical skills.

Furthermore, due to a major oversight by whoever was in charge of organizing the documents, the password protection ended up being useless since other files with the same data were accessible in another folder in the same bucket.

Finally, many of the documents contained the NSS logo and text directly related to the scheme. Once we confirmed that the NSS was responsible for the data breach, we contacted the agency to notify them and offer our assistance. However, we never received a reply from the NSS.

Ghana's NSS logo

We also reached out to Ghanas Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-GH) twice. The second time, they replied the same day requesting more information about our discovery. After disclosing the situation to them, CERT-GH replied:

My team has verified and confirmed the vulnerability. A report has been prepared and shared with the CERT coordinating Gov Agencies incidents. We will be following up to ensure that the issue is resolved ASAP.

We followed up several times to the Ghanas CERT, but never received a replied back. We also reached out to the Ghanas government, unfortunately without success.

We followed up several times to the Ghanas CERT, but never heard back from them again. We also reached out to the Ghanas government, unfortunately without success.

Example of Entries in the S3 Bucket

In total, there were over 3.8 million files stored on the NSSs S3 bucket.

The NSS took steps to protect peoples identities by password-protecting sensitive files within the S3 bucket. However, this was done haphazardly and inconsistently, and ended up being inefficient, as those same files were exposed elsewhere in the bucket.

Different file types were stored across individual folders to keep them apart. But as well demonstrate, this wasnt enough to protect peoples data.

NSS Certificates PDF Files  60+ certificates Accessible (330k+ password-protected and inaccessible)

One folder in the S3 bucket contained 330,000+ individual certificates for people who had completed the NSS. Each one was stored as an individual PDF file.

60+ of these PDF files were completely unprotected. 330,000+ were secured via passwords.

However, as well explain below, the password protection may have been useless due to QR codes leading to the same files stored elsewhere.

Each unprotected certificate contained a massive amount of data about the person exposed, including:

Personal photos

Full names

Institutions attended

Qualifications

NSS no.

Place of residence

Period of service in the NSS

For ethical reasons, we didnt try to open the password-protected files, but we assume they all contained the same information.

NSS certificate

QR Codes  749,000

In a separate folder, the NSS was storing 749,000 QR codes that, when scanned, produced a URL that led directly to unencrypted certificates (similar to the one above). These QR codes were not encrypted or password-protected in any way.

For security and ethical reasons, we only scanned a sample of the QR codes, so we cant confirm if these were the certificates of the same people mentioned above, or a completely new set, thus exposing an additional 749,000 people.

Archived Documents  1,700+

Various documents were archived data. Most of these files were not recent and had no password protection or encryption. These included:

Correspondences between various parties within the NSS

Employment notices (including salary notices)

Payment receipts

Leaked NSS paperwork

Salary notice, equivalent to $222.79  $238.62 Leaked-NSS-receipt

Caption: receipt for $73.79

ID cards  12,000+

The NSS was also using the S3 bucket to store IDs and program membership cards from participants. These included government IDs, such as the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme, and professional IDs, most likely based on a persons placement in a certain industry (i.e., working as a nurse or midwife).

Potentially more were stored in other folders.

Ghana-Midwife-id

Ghana NHIS id

Passport Photos  912,000

The NSS was storing different types of passport photos submitted by participants with varying degrees of protection installed.

The breakdown is as follows:

27,000 regular passport photos  password protected

865,000+ biometric passport photos  unprotected

Monthly Evaluations  2 CSV Files (35 MB)

These two CSV files contained over 43,000 unique records from participants of the NSS between 2018 and 2020.

There was no password protection or encryption on the files. Some of the records included the monthly payments being made to participants, their full name, the position they were assigned to (with location), NSS number, and much more.

Unmarked Files  30,000

Finally, the S3 bucket also contained a document dump with a mix of different files types all stored together with no organization or protection. These included biometric passport photos, ID cards, and other documents uploaded by staff at the NSS.

Data Breach Impact

This data breach represents a serious risk to the government of Ghana and 100,000s citizens across the country.

For The Ghanaian Government and The NSS

Had this data breach been discovered by malicious or criminal hackers, it could have been a devastating blow to the government of Ghana. By leaking private data belonging to up to 700,000 of its citizens, the government risked a massive backlash from the public.

Across the globe, cyberattacks are increasing, and the general public is becoming much more aware of the dangers. Concurrently, in many countries, trust in the government is deteriorating rapidly, often fueled by online misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hopefully, this data will remain out of criminal hands. Still, if news of the breach spreads far enough and becomes distorted in any way, the Ghanian government will be held responsible by its citizens for putting them at risk. This could also lead to broader distrust in the government, if citizens  along with partners like businesses and other governments  grow skeptical about its data protection policies and reluctant to provide any private data for fear of it being leaked.

Aside from the reputational damage caused by the data breach, both the individuals affected and the government and the NSS could also face serious security risks as a result of phishing campaigns based on the data exposed.

In a phishing campaign, criminals send victims fake emails and text messages imitating real businesses and organizations. By building the victims trust, they hope to trick them into any of the following actions:

Providing additional PII data (i.e., social security numbers) or private information (i.e., bank account details) that can be used in the fraudulent activities listed above. Inputting debit or credit card details into a fake payment portal, so they can be scraped and used by criminals or sold on the dark web. Clicking a link embedded with malicious software that infects a users device, such as malware, spyware, and ransomware.

In the case of a government or similar entity, they could convince an employee to accidentally provide access to an otherwise secure area of a government network, or click a link that allows hackers to access an entire network. They could then plant spyware, ransomware, or similar viral software that takes down an entire branch of the Ghanaian government or public infrastructure. Or simply spies on the government undetected.

Attacks like these are becoming increasingly popular, often orchestrated by rival or antagonistic governments, and exploiting the general lack of education around cybersecurity in the workplace.

Furthermore, hackers could use the NSS assets stored in the open S3 bucket, such as logos and letter templates, to create highly effective phishing attacks due to the presence of correspondence between NSS staff and participants. It would only take one employee uneducated in spotting fake emails to compromise an entire network by clicking a malicious link.

For NSS Participants

Had malicious or criminal hackers discovered the NSSs AWS account before it was secured, they could have used the exposed data in a wide range of criminal schemes.

The exposed data would have been enough for skilled hackers to commit many of the most common forms of fraud, including:

Identity theft

Tax fraud

Insurance fraud

Mail fraud

Bank account takeover

Debit or credit card fraud

Mortgage fraud

Many more

However, even if the exposed data wasnt sufficient to exploit for criminal gains, it could also be used to carry out complex phishing campaigns targeting individuals exposed in the breach.

While not as severe as a successful phishing attack against a government, if an individual is successfully tricked, it can destroy their livelihoods.

Furthermore, much of the data exposed in this breach is permanent and can never be changed. For example, the victim of a hack can change their phone number, credit card, and email address. However, you cant change the high school you graduated from, your social security number, or personal details like your gender and date of birth.

Once this information is out in the open, it can be used against you repeatedly for the rest of your life.

The risks of a successful phishing attack are heightened in this case, as many people involved will now be working at medical facilities. Such facilities are considered high-value targets by cybercriminals, who can demand high ransoms by threatening to disrupt patient care, destroy records, and inflict devastating, potentially fatal damage. Cyberattacks on hospitals and medical institutions have been on the rise in recent years as a result.

Due to the number of people exposed in this data breach, cybercriminals would only need to successfully scam a small fraction for any criminal scheme to be considered successful.

Advice from the Experts

The NSS could have easily avoided exposing its participants data if it had taken some basic security measures. These include, but are not limited to:

Secure its servers. Implement proper access rules. Never leave a system that doesnt require authentication open to the internet.

Any company can replicate the same steps, no matter its size.

For a more in-depth guide on how to protect your business, check out our guide to securing your website and online data from hackers.

Securing an Open S3 Bucket

Its important to note that open, publicly viewable S3 buckets are not a flaw of AWS. Theyre usually the result of an error by the owner of the bucket. Amazon provides detailed instructions to AWS users to help them secure S3 buckets and keep them private.

In this case, the quickest way to fix this error would be to:

Make the bucket private and add authentication protocols.

Follow AWS access and authentication best practices.

Add more layers of protection to the S3 bucket to further restrict who can access it from every point of entry.

For NSS Participants

If youre a participant in the NSS and are concerned about how this breach might impact you, contact the department directly to find out what steps its taking to protect your data.

To learn about data vulnerabilities in general, read our complete guide to online privacy.

It shows you the many ways cybercriminals target internet users, and the steps you can take to stay safe.

How and Why We Discovered the Breach

The vpnMentor research team discovered the NSSs data breach as part of a huge web mapping project. Our researchers use large-scale web scanners to search for unsecured data stores containing information that shouldnt be exposed. They then examine each data store for any data being leaked.

Our team was able to access this S3 bucket because it was completely unsecured and unencrypted.

Whenever we find a data breach, we use expert techniques to verify the owner of the data, usually a commercial business.

As ethical hackers, were obliged to inform a company when we discover flaws in their online security. We reached out to the NSS and Ghanaian government, not only to let them know about the vulnerability but also to suggest ways in which they could make their system secure.

These ethics also mean we carry a responsibility to the public. NSS users must be aware of a data breach that exposes so much of their sensitive data.

The purpose of this web mapping project is to help make the internet safer for all users.

We have no evidence or way of knowing whether the data in our reports have been accessed or leaked by anyone else; only the database owner can know that.

We do our best to prevent this from happening by reaching out to the companies and ensuring they secure their leaking database as soon as possible.

We never sell, store, or expose any information we encounter during our security research.

About Us and Previous Reports

vpnMentor is the worlds largest VPN review website. Our research lab is a pro bono service that strives to help the online community defend itself against cyber threats while educating organizations on protecting their users data.

Our ethical security research team has discovered and disclosed some of the most impactful data breaches in recent years.

This has included exposing the growing popularity of cybercrime groups on Telegram. We also revealed how a popular Chinese game developer was leaking data from over 1 million people. You may also want to read our VPN Leak Report and Data Privacy Stats Report.

Help Us Protect The Internet!

Introducing The Leak Box

The Leak Box is hosted on the Dark Web and allows ethical hackers to anonymously report any data breach they find online. Alternatively, anyone can submit a breach here on vpnMentor, any time, from anywhere, without compromising your privacy.

Check the Leak Box here >>

Originating at www.vpnmentor.com
Ghana-based think-thank, IMANI Africa has expressed worry over the lack of direction of the countrys macro-economic policy under President Akufo-Addos government as the year comes to an end.

In a Facebook post, IMANI Africa President Franklin Cudjoe, says his outfit will focus attention on dealing with the lack of direction shown by the current government at its first public engagement next year.

My greatest worry is, that I don't know the current direction of government's macro-economic policy. IMANI's first major public engagement in 2022 shall be dedicated to dealing with this deepening sense of lack of direction, the post reads on Facebook.

Meanwhile, in a message to President Akufo-Addo, Franklin Cudjoe has urged His Excellency to let his works speak for itself instead of merely attacking political opponents at any given opportunity.

The making of a successor-King requires more than throwing salvos at your political opponents. Let your records speak for you, part of the Facebook post said.

It follows President Akufo-Addo asking former President John Dramani Mahama to show any social intervention policy he introduced during his administration.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo noted that he is ready to hand over to anyone chosen by the NPP as his successor during his address at the 2021 National Delegates Congress over the weekend.

I am determined to hand over the baton to the next NPP presidential candidate.

We want to break the 8 not just for ourselves but for Ghana because we know the zigzag, NPP comes to clean for them to be polluted, this is not the way progress will be brought to our country, President Akufo-Addo told Congress.
Tigrayan rebels announced on Monday they had withdrawn from northern Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions and retreated to Tigray, marking a new turning point in the 13-month war which has left thousands of people dead.

"We decided to withdraw from these areas to Tigray. We want to open the door to humanitarian aid," Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told AFP.

The decision was made a few weeks ago, Getachew said, later tweeting: "We have just completed the withdrawal of our forces from both #AmharaAfar regions."

The move marks a major reversal by the rebels, who previously dismissed the government's insistence on their withdrawal from Afar and Amhara for talks to begin as "an absolute non-starter".

But Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said Monday's rebel announcement was a cover-up for military setbacks.

"The TPLF have sustained great losses over the past weeks and hence are claiming 'strategic retreat' to make up for defeat," she told AFP.

"There are still pockets in the Amhara region in which they remain as well as other fronts they are attempting to open the conflict."

The war between pro-Abiy forces and the TPLF has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis and last week the UN's top rights body ordered an international probe into alleged abuses.

Since late October, the two sides have each declared major territorial advances, with the TPLF at one point claiming to be around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa by road.

Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, headed to the front last month, according to state media, and the government has since claimed to have retaken several key towns.

Communications have been cut in the conflict zone and access for journalists is restricted, making it difficult to verify battlefield claims.

Appeal to UN

The fighting has sparked alarm among the international community, as diplomatic efforts led by the African Union to broker a ceasefire failed to yield any visible breakthrough.

Getachew said TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael had written to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to inform him about the decision, with the Security Council expected to hold a closed-door meeting about Ethiopia later Monday.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed headed to the front last month according to state media. By EDUARDO SOTERAS (AFP/File)

Ireland's UN envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason, who called the meeting, told reporters the TPLF pullout offered "a welcome opportunity to hopefully create political space for dialogue".

According to copies of the letter circulating on social media, Debretsion asked the Security Council to ensure the withdrawal of Amhara forces and Eritrean troops from western Tigray.

"I can confirm that the letter is being studied," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres.

Both Amharas and Tigrayans lay claim to western Tigray, which has been occupied by Amhara forces since the war erupted, triggering large-scale displacement and US warnings of ethnic cleansing.

"We need the international community to take action," Getachew said.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch last week accused Amhara forces of systematically detaining, torturing and starving Tigrayan civilians living in the contested region.

Humanitarian 'siege'

Previously TPLF leaders had refused to pull out of Amhara and Afar unless the government ended what the rebels describe as a humanitarian "siege" of Tigray.

Aid workers have repeatedly complained that security and bureaucratic hurdles are impeding access to the region, where some 400,000 people are thought to be on the verge of famine.

Map of Ethiopia and its regions. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP/File)

The UN also suspended humanitarian flights from Addis Ababa to Tigray's capital Mekele in October amid a campaign of government air strikes in the region. The flights resumed in November.

Fears of a rebel march on the capital prompted countries such as the United States, France and Britain to urge their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible, although Abiy's government insisted the city was secure.

The war broke out in November 2020 when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, accusing it of attacking army camps.

The Nobel Peace laureate vowed a swift victory but the rebels mounted a shock comeback, recapturing most of Tigray by June before advancing into Afar and Amhara.

The fighting has displaced over two million people while 9.4 million need food aid, according to UN estimates, with reports of massacres and mass rapes by both sides.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council voted to send international investigators to Africa's second most populous nation amid warnings of looming generalised violence, in a move slammed by Addis Ababa.
Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) has dismissed claims that some GHS207million of GHS508 million earmarked for de-risking One District-One Factory loans cannot be accounted for.

The Minority made the allegation claiming that the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which is in charge of the programme, said GHS2.69 billion in loans has been given to the 1D1F programme.

Ellembelle MP Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah told journalists that we are asking the ministry that we will need the names of the banks and the names of each of the companies as well as the amount each and every company has taken.

Initially, the ministry said it will take some time for them to get these documents.

They dragged it and finally they brought us the list of the banks with the names of the companies and the amounts.

We insisted that without that we will not approve their budget, he explained.

He added: We finally got that report this morning. Unfortunately, the ministry was unable to account out of the GHS269 million loans given to the banks.

The ministry was only able to account for GHS62,281,484.29 million; what it means is that a total amount of GHS207,407, 899 has not been accounted for. In other words, that amount, as far as we are concerned, is missing.

It is important that the press and the people of Ghana take interest in this matter, and the minister at the helm of affairs, the Hon. Alan Kyerematen, must come clean to the people of Ghana to explain where the amount of GHS207,407, 899 to basically de-risk these loans to One District-One Factory is.

But responding to the claims, MoTI, in a statement signed by the Chief Director, Mr Patrick Yaw Nimo, said the statement attributed to the Ranking Member is not only misleading but totally inaccurate.

He explained that the Ministry, upon request by the Ranking Member, submitted full information on the application, the full amount of GHS269 million allocated for interest subsidy payments for loan facilities granted by selected participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) to de-risk loans and advanced to 1D1F companies.

The statement said PFIs have received a total of GHS269, 689, 383.76 as interest subsidies in support of 1D1F companies between 2017 and 2021.

Classfmonline
The Minority is set to lock horns with the Majority in Parliament this afternoon following a decision by the Finance Committee in the house to agree to consider the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

The Minority despite its opposition to the levy at the committee level today could not stop its admission to the floor of the house for debate.

After voting through the Outstanding Orders of Parliament, the Finance Committee has agreed to consider the E-Levy bill under a certificate of urgency by a majority decision.

Addressing the press after the decision was taken, Ranking Member of Parliament's Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson said the Minority is sad not only because it lost but it felt that the NPP does not believe in democracy and if they are determined to do something they want to push it regardless of the cost and implications on the citizenry.

Arguing that Mobile Money is just a medium of exchange and hence should not be taxed, the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency MP stressed the Minority is determined to fight the Majority until the E-Levy is dropped.

We cannot accept it. This is the first time Im seeing a tax of this kind. I have followed tax policies globally for a very long time and I have not seen a tax policy of this kind before and do not believe that this should be allowed to stand, Cassiel Ato Forson told journalists.

He continued, I want to say that we in the Minority will not stop there, we will take the fight to the plenary. We will fight for the ordinary Ghanaian and we will ensure that E-Levy will die today. They can defeat us at the committee but I strongly believe that when we come to the floor all the 137 NDC MPs will stand firm with the ordinary Ghanaian in ensuring that E-Levy does not see the light of the day.

The E-Levy if approved will see the government charging Ghanaians a tax of 1.75% on all financial transactions done electronically that exceed GHS100.
Except in the most extreme situations, no society, culture, or community would purposely jeopardise its indigenous peoples lives. This is not a judgmental statement but an observation based on trends. Human beings are hard-wired to act in ways that will reduce the internal dissonance they perceive. This is done by changing behaviours, thoughts or feelings to create equilibrium among contrasting ideas and desires (Bagozzi et al., 1999; Festinger, 1964). It is imperative to acknowledge that culturally entrenched community and social systems would be shattered if we simply applied top-down edicts. Therefore, we must first devise and implement policies and interventions that engage communities and encourage behavioural change from within as opposed to applying policies or laws which may appear to conflict with generations of cultural or religious traditions. Behavioural science presents an efficient tool to understanding human behaviour and decision making process to better design programmes to help people achieve their goals with minimal barriers preventing adoption or acquisition of any given behaviour.

As one of several forms of health hazards and violence against women worldwide, female genital mutilation includes all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or injury to the female organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. According to the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint-Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, in 25 countries where FGM is routinely practised and data are available, an estimated 68 million girls will be cut between 2015 and 2030 unless concerted and accelerated action is taken. The practice is believed to maintain a womans virginity until marriage and reduce libido after marriage while enhancing male sexual pleasure. It is also believed to ensure premarital chastity and fidelity while discouraging extramarital affairs. One of the major reasons why women are subjected to FGM is because it has often been seen as a prerequisite for marriage in many societies where this practice exists. Some communities believe that FGM enhances fertility by increasing the cleanliness of reproductive parts while others view it as part of their cultural heritage. There is, however, no evidence that FGM enhances fertility (Koso-Thomas, 2000) or stimulates growth hormones (Boyle et al., 1996; Carael et al., 1995; MacDougall et al., 1989; Peres et al., 1984), which are often cited reasons for its implementation.

The Ghana Case

In Ghana, many women have been victims of female genital mutilation. The Ghanaian government outlawed female genital mutilation in 1994 (Criminal code Amendment Bill; Ghana, 1994), the law dictates circumcisers can be imprisoned for up to three years. Despite legislation, some ethnic groups in the Upper East region still practice this tradition. The reality is that while the overall prevalence of FGM in Ghana is about 4%, studies have shown that it can be up to 38% in the Upper East Region with the Bawku municipality recording as high as 82% (Sakeah et al. BMC Womens Health 2018). The higher prevalence in Northern Ghana is believed to have resulted from the merger of cultures of the local people and that of neighbouring countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo where this custom is more common.

What can we do differently?

Many interventions and policies have been instituted in an attempt to control and eradicate female genital mutilation as a cultural norm but as with many policies that break down community-based practices, these attempts have often made little impact on the reformation of such communities ideological viewpoints on FGM. These interventions also tend to perpetuate the long-established business as usual forms of community engagement and sensitization modules that do not take community uniqueness into account. In todays fast-changing world especially, it is imperative to disrupt these established work forms for new ones to emerge so as not just to overcome societal problems but also thrive during these times of change. In the words of Mireille Tushiminina, the Coordinator of the UNFPA-UNICEF joint programme It isnt possible to do business as usual with different outcomes' '.

To better understand the problem of FGM in Ghana, we must first examine the factors that underpin this practice. A complete understanding of these insights will enable us to work with social actors and implement positive lifestyles and health changes. In this regard, we have to devise unique insights on how we can go about crafting interventions using observational techniques and behavioural experiments. In short, our process may look as follows: First, study what is being done currently through field observation and interactions with community people involved in fostering FGM practices. Second, devise insights that capture their attention and inspire them to consider alternative methodologies of doing things while still preserving traditions through community action, empowerment and awareness creation. Thirdly, plan out a strategy for allowing their behaviour modification efforts to take root by providing a forum where they can meet regularly for support and encouragement to break the routine of FGM.

Field observation and interactions

Field observations, interviews, focus group discussions etc. will give us a complete insight into current practices surrounding FGM. These insights could be captured through detailed observation notes and video documentation which include relevant information on what is being observed as well as interactions with persons involved in these practices across different communities. It would allow us to identify key community actors such as Cutters and Men, husbands or Fathers that may have been previously neglected by conventional approaches. Behavioural experiments can also be used at this stage to investigate peoples thoughts or feelings about certain behaviours that are part of their cultural traditions. For example, an experiment could involve intensive engagement with Cutters to unearth their motivation for practising FGM; preservation of culture, religious obligation, fiduciary duty, sources of livelihood e.t.c.

Devise insights that capture attention through community action, empowerment and awareness creation

The traditional approach has been to bring external actors to communities for outreach work to raise awareness about the dangers of female genital mutilation. This approach may not have long sustainable outcomes because it does not take local circumstances or issues into consideration. How do we work with local actors to implement effective lifestyles and health changes that do not necessarily conflict with long-standing traditional and cultural practices?

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

The most important insight here is to understand why FGM is mostly undertaken in subject communities (e.g. prerequisite for marriage, elimination of extra-marital affairs, promotion of women hygiene, enhancing sexual pleasure) and once we understand this, we work with the community members to devise alternative approaches to achieving such outcomes without endangering the health of women. Interventions through health education would be crucial but we have to encourage community members, key actors, leaders, local language media e.t.c to take ownership of these campaigns to incorporate these changes while maintaining cultural integrity and cohesion. The community should be at the core of development efforts so solutions are appropriate, sustainable and accepted locally.

Plan out a strategy for allowing their behaviour modification efforts to take root

Thirdly, we must plan out an effective strategy for our approach to yield positive outcomes within communities fostering FGM practices. This approach should allow for regular interaction between community members, social actors and policymakers to encourage the formation of new sustainable work practices. Such a strategy could include the provision of small loans or funding to existing Cutters to help them diversify their means of livelihood. It should also provide suitable training opportunities so they can become empowered enough to encourage other women who may be in support of FGM to consider alternatives that are not one-time efforts.

In summary, our approach should focus on solving problems at their source through creating forums where participation is not limited to change-makers but created by grassroots stakeholders themselves who have a stake in the future of their communities. These approaches and behavioural insight experiments can be reformed and updated as required depending on local circumstances and environmental factors. We believe that these approaches will allow for a better understanding of behaviours within communities fostering these practices, empowering community members about possible changes, allowing them to interact with policymakers to create new local work practices that are sustainable and demonstrate the importance of behavioural science in community-based interventions.
Preface

Caucus for Mature Democrats (CMD), has observed with dismay the extent of suffering and hardship visited on the masses, as a result of five years contradictions, lies and inconsistencies. A mafia style dictatorship; with the philosophy of a property owning democracy : each one for himself and God for the select few. It is therefore the select corrupt few who are benefitting from Nana Addo`s Government, not the greater majority.

Abuse of Power.

It is alleged that Nana Addo, is a walking contradiction. A classic example of terror in suit; a symbol of vindictiveness and exploitative abuse of power. A so called civil rights lawyer who is now calling on the poor and jobless to pay e-Levy. This reminds me of a campaign promise by NPP in 2016 to reduce taxes; but now calling for more taxes.

Dishonesty and Insincerity

Before the 2020 elections, Nana Addo visited the Electoral Commission and promised he would insist on free, fair and credible election results; but that did not happen. Instead there were wide spread electoral fraud and killings. About the same time in the glaring view of Diplomats, Nana Addo sat next to former President John Mahama and signed an agreement to dissolve and ban his militia. That was not to be. His militia which operated during the 2020 election, killed eight people and wounded many during the election.

Dishonesty / Borrowing

During the 2016 electioneering campaign, Nana Addo promised he would not borrow to develop the country. Borrowing to develop a country, he said, is the hallmark of an incompetent leader who fails to think outside the box. As I write, Ghana`s public debt is 360 billion Ghc and Nana Addo alone has borrowed 240 billion Ghc, more than any Government in the history of Ghana. He criticized at length taxation and promised to move the country from taxation to production. Today, he is pressing for the acceptance of his draconian e-Levy against the poor. This is contrary to what he promised.

Dishonesty / Protecting Public Purse

Nana Addo promised to protect the public purse. If you want to make money, go to the private sector not to my government, he said. In contrast Nana Addo and his appointees, according to research have over 366 corrupt cases to their credit. The Auditor General`s report in 2020, lost over 12 billion Ghc through financial irregularities; the highest ever in the 4th Republic. In spite of our Presidential jet, he chooses to fly luxurious executive jets which has cost Ghana 400 to 500 million Ghc within the last four years.

Dishonesty / Lies at its peak

In November this year, Nana Addo, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Center, told Presidents from ECOWAS, that he would readily hand over power when his term of office ends. He further stressed that he does not intend to alter Ghana`s electoral laws to extend his term of office or interfere with the 2024 General Election to favour any of the contesting political parties. This statement must be enough to scare and terrify the Ghanaians including the NDC party. This is because Nana Addo is noted over the years, for doing the direct opposite to what he says.

Poverty / Life is Hard

Life is hard. Ghanaians are struggling for a meal or two a day; even that is difficult. Over six million Ghanaians have no jobs and are struggling to survive. Fuel prices are high, releasing a chain reaction leading to high- food, transport, water, electricity and commodity prices. Fuel price in 2016, which was 16 Ghc per gallon (5 liter) is today selling at 35 Ghc per gallon. Taxes are many and unbearable and the e-Levy is certainly the last straw that will break the back of the 99 % camels suffering under of property owning democracy.

Conclusion

All this is happening because the President is a walking contradiction. He says one thing and does the direct opposite, regardless of his audience. It is on this basis that I am drawing the attention of Ghanaians to Nana Addo`s speech at Kofi Annan International Peace Center.

Dr E. K. Hayfod Executive Director

Caucus for Mature Democrats (CMD)

0277606338
Until his alleged dismissal from the Ghana Education Service (GES), many Ghanaians' including myself got to know the real name of Teacher KwadwoMichael Owusu Afriyie. I have been an admirer of the young teacher through his comedy skits and his educational philanthropy to his school. Not many Ghanaian teachers will want to be like that award winning Kenyan teacher who was awarded for his intense philanthropy to his school pupils. If we should assess the most consistent complaints of Ghanaian teachers in terms of meagre salary, it would have taken about hundreds of teacher contribution with additional support of their unions to achieve the philanthropy Teacher Kwadwo had embarked on so far for his school and other schools in his district (that is if we are to believe the words heard from his interviews).

Well, I am not here to exhaust all my energy talking about a teachers philanthropy; there are more current issues like destructive criticisms to the GES and eventually his dismissal.

Teacher Kwadwos criticisms to the GES runs from poor conditions of the school, if not service, as well as how the pre-tertiary service is run. At a point in time, there a silent perception that someone from the other side of government was pushing him to make the current government unpopular. I did not believe in such rumours especially when someone like Teacher Kwadwo has been a fierce critique of our immediate erstwhile President Mahama. He did to the former president what Calvin Tailor has been doing to the President Akufo Addo currently, just that Teacher Kwadwos version did not go beyond a social media post. It is from this that I strongly disagree with those who link the young teachers criticism of GES as political.

A few of his posts are sampled on his Facebook handle are not things any institution or service will take lightly.

On December 10, 2021, he posted something about the change of vacation days for primary schools: Where the thing reach, ibi TAKASHI we go take go this vacation. If you be hard teacher, you go fit go. If you be fearoo, you go stay. The CHOICE dey your der.

A post like this may induce disregard for authority or directives especially when it is made in the public domain to describe obedient teachers as timid.

On December 8, 2021, he questioned the relevance of the organisation of the standardized test: You want to perform a STANDARDIZED EXAMS to assess learners performance and whatever whatever This same learners that over the few years, TEACHERS have been calling on you people (GES and the rest) to bring them TEXTBOOKS and other TLRs to enable them have effective teaching and learning environment but all fell on deaf ears Now what is the purpose of the STANDARDIZED EXAMS?

This makes one carefully assess and ask questions concerning Teacher Kwadwos alleged absenteeism. Did Teacher Kwadwo attended the Ghana Accountability For Learning Outcome Project (GALOP) workshop organised for teachers?

GALOP is a joint cooperation between the World Bank and Government of Ghana to provide financial assistance to almost all under-resourced and underperforming basic schools across the country. This is in a bid to bridge resource and academic performance gap between those deprived or poorly performing schools and the already known performing ones. The amount given to schools annually from 1,500 to 5,000 Ghana Cedis or more. This amount is to be given annually for a 5 year period. This is different from the Capitation Grants government has been giving to schools.

Looking at how Teacher Kwadwo has been projecting how deprived the school he teaches in is, it will be very unusual if his school was not one of the numerous GALOP-assisted schools. Again if he had attended the GALOP workshop or has been briefed by his Headteacher on the expected outcomes of the GALOP, he would have had more than enough information on the purpose of the standardized test.

As for his comments about the laptop, it will be a topic for another day despite the fact that I have information about the alleged shady deal and would not want to exacerbate such a corrupt issue that is fading away.

Despite these criticisms, Teacher Kwadwo has made some drastic contributions to enhance teaching and learning in his school and district. The provision of food, uniforms, books, and computers to facilitate ICT teaching and learning is something most schools have been lacking all over Ghana especially in deprived communities. This is an open secret.

The provision of approved textbooks too to support new curriculum after two years of introduction has been salt to the injury of teachers in terms of facilitating teaching and learning. Anyone who says the teacher can teach effectively without approved textbook is hypocritical especially when a new curriculum has been introduced. Teaching without textbooks is just like squeezing blood out of stones. Even students pursuing postgraduate studies rely on lecture slides and books to make their learning meaningful and memorable.

Let me describe something about dismissal according to Ghanas Labour Law. The Labour Laws tells us that the employer has the right (or power) to hire and fire anyone at any time. In this case, Teacher Kwadwos direct employer is the GES. Reasons associated with dismissal can either make sense or not. In Teacher Kwadwos case reasons and other issues raises eyebrows from the two parties involved, especially with the fact that the alleged dismissal letter was backdated months ago and how Teacher Kwadwo gave his explanation for the stipulated reasons for dismissal.

Dismissal letters are personal so this will be the reason why it is not circulating in the public domain like most GES letters do. Absence without permission, failure to submit lesson notes and refusal to respond to queries are normally unprofessional conducts that are difficult to pardon at the GES. However, poor channels of communication could have been the cause of these given reasons and explanations.

ABSENCE WITHOUT PERMISSION

For the past two years, this absenteeism is a problem the GES has been struggling with and the services antidote was to stipulate that all permissions must be written that is by hand or by print. The power of the Headteacher to grant permission at the basic school level (from KG through Primary to JHS) is one day. Anything above the Headteachers one day permission goes to the School Improvement Support Officer (SISO) which was formerly known as Circuit Supervisor (CS). The SISO has the power to grant permission for 3 days. Any other days more than that requires the approval from the District or Municipal Director or directors at the regional or national level. A gentlemans agreement between a teacher and a Headteacher without letters are permitted at seldom times and pardonable for a couple of days. However, this is not a case of Teacher Kwadwo since an alleged 55 day absence is professionally unacceptable even if it was to save a presidents life. A committee set up by a Headteacher is not as powerful as we can perceive if it is not approved by the GES. Thats not how things are done.

FAILURE TO SUBMIT LESSON NOTES

The preparation of lesson notes is a Herculean Task most teachers would want to avoid. It is one of the reasons why many teachers are silent on alleged shady deal and murky rumours surrounding the teacher laptops. Teachers are relying on taking the laptops in order to bid farewell for the writing of lesson notes. Lesson notes are traditionally written by hand. Any teacher who wants to provide printed lesson notes copied online seems to be keen on cutting corners. The writing of lesson notes as a form of punishment or fear inducing mechanism is not entirely true. One miniature positive aspect of the lesson note preparation is that it affords the teacher the rare opportunity to arm themselves with current and well-researched information to enhance their teaching. No matter the information, education or experience the teacher has, lesson notes are to be handwritten and submitted for vetting. Any submission of printed copies are among one of those unapproved gentlemans agreement a Headteacher and his teachers even though it goes against the directives of the GES.

NOT RESPONDING TO QUERRIES

No organisation, even those that are run by families, take matters of not responding to queries lightly. Even though an interview with a radio station exhibited quite some attitudes of overconfidence, it sounded disrespectful to GES and anyone who has been in an educational administrative position. Even though there are some recurring challenges at the basic educational level which many teachers are frightened to talk about due to the fear of loss of jobs, Teacher Kwadwo could have used a more diplomatic way to send his concerns about the obstacles he is facing as a teacher. He has accumulated quite some influence outside of the classroom which he could have used effectively to channel his difficulties to the appropriate authorities.

From his press statement on Facebook on December 19, 2021, it seems Teacher Kwadwo relied on only his Headteacher without the approval of the GES officials in his district. The Headteacher is the first point of authority in the GES, however, there are other authorities who supervises the Headteacher in matters concerning school management and administration. This was what Teacher Kwadwo failed to acknowledge thus culminating in this rumoured dismissal. I deduce this from the fact that his alleged dismissal letter was backdated months ago that in October whiles we are in the month of December. On the one hand if this is a typographical error, the dismissal letter will be null or void; one the other hand, if the date is as it is, then someone deliberately delayed giving the letter to Teacher Kwadwo to put him in this mess.

Sincerely, a teacher like Michael Owusu Afriyie has achieve individually what most teachers would not spend their resources onprovision of uniforms, books, food and computers to schools. Apart from his comments his destructive criticism and ill comments about the GES or related persons and institutions, Teacher Kwadwo was advocating for the better for his school and district. Also, his passion for teaching and learning is commendable, thus a fact that would be difficult to deny. There is a lot more teachers and Ghanaians see in him through his passion and commitment to contribute to quality education through teaching and learning. I am one of those Ghanaians who believe his good outweigh his bad.

Martin Elorm Dogbo.

Strategic Communicator and Educationist.

[email protected]
A Chieftaincy-related violence in Asamankese in the Eastern Region has left nine people with various degrees of injuries.

From the information gathered from sources, 38 persons have been arrested by the Police in Asamankese.

The suspects were nabbed by the Police on Monday, December 20, 2021, after thugs allegedly hired by a faction in a local chieftaincy dispute involving Barima Pobi Asomaning besieged the Asamankese palace amidst firing of warning shots to aid the performance of traditional rites for his enstoolment as a parallel Chief.

The incident occurred when news spread that Osabarima Adu Darko III has been gazette as the new chief.

The followers of Barima Pobi Asomaning who are also pushing for his enstoolment took matters into their hands and fueled the violence.

The invasion of the chiefs palace by the over 30 thugs overpower the few police officers on duty.

The violence that ensued from there left nine civilians injured as some were rushed to the Asamankese Government Hospital to receive medical care.

Later, police reinforcement sent to the scene saw calm being restored as 38 suspects were arrested and detained at the Asamankese Police station.

Currently, there is said to be a heavy security presence at the palace with officers patrolling the Asamankese township to maintain order.
The Chief Justice (CJ), Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, has admonished traditional rulers and community leaders to desist from settling child abuse cases.

According to him, child abuse in various forms is criminal, hence the court needs to adjudicate amicably in order to serve as a deterrent to other community members to prevent its recurrence.

Relegating such cases to tradition, where the adjudicator is the head of family or chief, is strongly discouraged,  he cautioned.

He gave the advice at the inauguration of two Child-Friendly Gender-Based Violence Court (CF-GBVC) at Goaso in the Ahafo Region and Bibiani in the Western North Region.

The courts, which were sponsored by UNICEF with support from the Denmark Government, are equipped with modern technology like Direct Transcription System (DTS) which records court proceedings and reproduces right after a court session and CCTV cameras.

Also, there is a waiting room furnished with toys and childrens books to make the child comfortable and a testimony room for children, that serves as a blockage between a child and their abusers.

Justice Anin Yeboah said the cases on gender-based violence have been on low trajectory, however, the figures are disturbingly high, hence the need for such an adopted model of court to ensure there is accuracy of evidence and delivery of fair judgment.

He said the interest of a child needs to be important in the national development process, and he commended UNICEF and its partners for supporting the Judiciary to justice to gender-based violence, especially children.

He further charged the staff of the court to conduct routine maintenance on the new facilities so that its equipment would last to continue to deliver justice to the citizenry.

Ms. Hilda Mensah, the Child Protective Specialist at UNICEF, explained they supported the construction of the courts to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of evidence of survivors, by addressing the challenges they face in the trial process.

She also advised parents and the community to inculcate in their wards how to prevent sexual violence.

Collectively as an institution of families and communities, we need to build the life skills and capacity of children and adolescents to enhance their resilience to sexual harm,

Nana Akwasi Bosomprah, the Omanhene of Goaso Traditional Council, charged the court to discharge their duties professionally without recourse to the person's background and to caution the people of Goaso to desist from any form of violence against children.
Russia has expelled two German diplomats in response to a spat with Berlin over a German court's ruling that Moscow had ordered the 2019 assassination of an ex-Chechen commander in a Berlin park.

"The German ambassador was informed that two diplomatic employees of the German embassy in Russia were declared 'persona non grata' as a symmetrical response," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

It did not say when the German diplomats needed to leave Russia.

The ministry added that it had registered a "strong protest" with the German envoy over Berlin's expulsion of two Russian diplomats last week.

Last week, judges in Berlin sentenced Russian national Vadim Krasikov, alias Vadim Sokolov, to life in jail after convicting him of gunning down Georgian national Tornike Kavtarashvili, 40, in a Berlin park in 2019.

The murder was meant "as retaliation" for being a Kremlin opponent, a judge said.

"Divorced from reality"

Russia's foreign ministry said Monday that Moscow "categorically denies the unfounded and divorced from reality accusations" that it was involved.

Germany had already thrown out two Russian diplomats shortly after the murder in protest at Moscow's perceived lack of cooperation with the probe.

Russia denied any connection to the killing and responded with a tit-for-tat move.

Nord Stream

Relations between Russia and Germany were already at a low.

On Sunday, German Economic Affairs and Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck warned Russia of "severe consequences" and threatened to halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, if Moscow were to attack Ukraine.

"Any new military action cannot remain without severe consequences," he told the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, referring to Russian troop deployment on the Ukrainian border.

Habeck warned that "nothing can be excluded," including blocking the pipeline from operation, if "there is a new violation of the territorial integrity" of Ukraine.

"In the event of further escalation this gas pipeline could not come into service," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier this week.
A group of six French parliamentarians led by Francois de Rugy (LReM,) chair of the French National Assembly's France-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, left Taiwan late Sunday after concluding a five-day visit.

The trip is part of a pattern of low-level western politicians visiting the island that is independently ruled, but claimed by China's Communist Party.

The six-member French delegation left Taoyuan International Airport on an EVA Air flight at 11:50 p.m., concluding a visit from Wednesday to Sunday.

The other members of the delegation were MPs Jean-Luc Reitzer (Les Republicains,) Frederique Dumas (Greens,) Jean Francois Mbaye (LReM,) Aina Kuric (Mouvement Democrate,) and Jean-Louis Bricout (PS.)

The delegation met with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior government officials. De Rugy, a former president of the National Assembly and long-time supporter of Taiwan, was presented with a Medal of Honor for Parliamentary Diplomacy on Friday.

Status quo

At a Friday press event, de Rugy reiterated Paris' stance in opposing any acts of intimidation that jeopardize the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is in a particularly difficult position, facing threats from China at a time when Washington and Beijing are competing for influence in the Indo-Pacific region, de Rugy said.

"It is therefore important that democracies show support for each other and that stability and security is maintained in the strait," he added.

Without mentioning China or the regime in Beijing, Tsai said during her meeting with Rugy and his delegation that democratic partners should "collaborate closely, given the rapid changes to the international landscape and the continued spread of authoritarianism."

The parliamentary delegation is the second high-level political French group to visit the island and is the latest in a flurry of trips made by European and American politicians that have angered China.

"Country" Taiwan

In October, a French Senate delegation, headed by former Defence Minister Alain Richard, visited Taipei.

Richard's group made the trip despite warnings from China and he called Taiwan a "country" repeatedly during his stay.

Last Wednesday, China's foreign ministry criticised the latest French visit, saying "relevant parties should... stop sending false signals to Taiwan independence separatist forces".

"We firmly oppose any form of official or political interaction between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China, according to spokesperson Zhao Lijian during a daily press conference.

Taiwan by force?

Beijing claims self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary.

It has tried to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and seethes at the official use of the name Taiwan or any reference to it as a country.

Since Tsai's 2016 and 2020 election victories, Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan and aggressively tried to dissuade politicians from visiting.

China conducted military drills near the Taiwan Strait following a visit by a group of American lawmakers last month.

Taiwan's defence minister has warned that military tensions between the island and China were at their highest in four decades, after around 150 Chinese warplanes -- a record number -- made incursions into Taiwan's air defence zone in October.

(With wires)
Sandem Nab Azagsuk Azantinlow, Paramount Chief of Builsa Traditional Area in the Upper East Region, says the residents must protect all trees, especially economic trees in the area.

He reminded the natives of the Builsa Traditional Area of the protective role of trees during the slave raids of Babatu and his men in ancient years.

Trees were of utmost importance as Buluk warriors, who took cover by trees in the area before they unleashed their axes and arrows on Babatu and defeated them in the process, the paramount chief recalled.

That is the relevance of trees in the history of Buluk and so we as Bulsas have every reason to protect all trees, especially economic trees, the Paramount Chief emphasized.

Nab Azantinlow said this in a speech read on his behalf at this year's Feok festival held on the theme: Sustainability of Economic Trees, Way Forward to Development in Buluk.

The festival, usually characterized by war dance and displays of rich Buluk culture, is celebrated annually to commemorate the victory chalked by Bulsas in the 19th century when slave raiders, Babatu and his warriors invaded the Builsa land.

The Sandem-Nab called on the people of the area to reflect on the theme of the festival and said, I am happy to announce that we have seedlings of shea trees which will be distributed to people to plant.

Regarding this theme, I want to urge our two District Assemblies in Builsa North and South to put in place stringent measures to discourage bush burning that has persistently destroyed our economic trees of value, the Paramount Chief added.

Madam Vida Akantagriwen Anaab, the Builsa North Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), emphasized the need for residents of Buluk to protect economic trees in the area to reap the numerous benefits that come with it.

She said the area was blessed with economic trees, including shea trees, baobab, dawadawa, and acacia trees, amongst others and added that Beyond this, I urge all inhabitants to plant more trees, especially the already listed economic trees.

There is a great potential to develop from the economic benefits of these trees if we as a people make a conscious effort to protect the sustainable use of these trees, the MCE said.

According to her, the global market value of shea butter continued to increase due to consumer awareness about its natural and organic products.

Ghana is the largest producer of raw shea butter in Africa with exports reaching US$90 million in 2020.

The MCE noted that the beneficiaries in the economic tree industry were usually women, and the profits they made significantly improved their livelihoods.

GNA
Investors of Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) have been paid back Rs138.07 crore, including Rs70.09 crore as principal and Rs67.98 crore as an interest, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

In a written reply, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman says, In response to the various press releases and advertisements, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) received 19,644 applications in total, involving 53,642 original bond certificates or passbooks for an aggregate principal amount of Rs81.70 crore. On the basis of verifiable documents, SEBI made refunds with respect to 17,526 eligible bondholders involving 48,326 original bond certificates and passbooks for an aggregate amount of Rs138.07 crore (i.e., Rs70.09 crore as principal and Rs67.98 crore as an interest) by way of transfer through national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS).

On 31 August 2012, the Supreme Court of India (SC) handed down a historic verdict asking SIRECL and SHICL to refund Rs19,400.87 crore and Rs6,380.50 crore, respectively, to investors as the funds were illegally raised through quasi-debentures without regulatory clearance.

These two Sahara group companies collected Rs25,781.37 crore from around 3.07 crore investors through red herring prospectuses (RHP) on optionally fully convertible debentures dated 13 March 2008 and 16 October 2009 of SIRECL and SHICL, respectively.

As of 30 November 2021, the Sahara companies have deposited an aggregate amount of Rs15,485.80 crore against the principal amount Rs25,781.37 crore into the designated SEBI-Sahara Refund account, the minister says.

Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, a member of Parliament (MP) from Mumbai, had asked about the status of repayment to investors of Sahara. He had asked whether the Union government is aware that the Sahara India group could not pay back the investors of other schemes due to the embargo placed on them and about measures being taken to ensure lifting of the embargo.

However, Ms Sitharaman only shared information on money deposited by Sahara group and efforts taken by SEBI to refund the money to investors. She says, As regards Sahara India group not being able to pay back the investors of other schemes, it informed that the principal amount raised under RHP of optionally fully convertible debentures of SIRCEL and SHICL is Rs25,781.37 crore against which only Rs15,485.80 crore has been deposited in the SEBI-Sahara refund account and SEBI has been facilitating the repayment of principal and interest to the investors who invested in optionally fully convertible debentures of SIRCEL and SHICL.

As reported by Moneylife, while SEBI cannot find investors of the realty companies, lakhs of genuine investors are coming forward from all over the country demanding payment. They were lured into investing in the controversial group through four giant cooperative societies spread across India. Many have a genuine claim to the money collected by SEBI. Still, the regulator is sticking to a narrow definition of what the Supreme Court has ordered and is making no effort to help investors who were duped.

It was never the Supreme Courts intention that SEBI sit on the money. Moreover, the regulator is clearly out of ideas and it may be time for the SC to set up a committee to collect all valid claims and distribute the money. The big difference today is that there are lakhs of genuine investors who have been dupedunlike in the past when it was impossible to find a Sahara investor. ( Read: Sahara Refunds: Did the SC Want SEBI To Sit on Rs15,448.67 Crore for a Decade?
LONDON (AP)  The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Monday that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido should be recognized as the nations interim president in a case that will ultimately determine who controls almost $2 billion of gold held by the Bank of England.

A five-judge panel unanimously agreed that British courts must honor the U.K. government's 2019 decision to recognize Guaido as interim president. The question is central to the case because Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro have named separate boards to oversee Venezuelas central bank and both have laid claim to the gold.

But the case isn't over. The Supreme Court sent it back to a lower court to decide whether the Guaido board has any legal standing after Venezuelas Supreme Tribunal of Justice declared Guaido's appointments unconstitutional.

Guaido said he welcomed the ruling and looked forward to demonstrating why the U.K. courts shouldnt recognize the decisions of the Supreme Tribunal.

When we so demonstrate, the  board appointed by President Guaido will assume control of the reserves and protect them from the depredations of the usurper Maduro regime, he said in a statement.

Guaido, then leader of Venezuelas National Assembly, challenged Maduros claim to the presidency, arguing that his 2018 election was rigged and invalid. Guaido says he's the countrys interim president under provisions of the constitution that allow the head of the legislature to take power until free elections can be held.

While a number of countries, including the U.S. and U.K., have recognized Guaidos claim, he has never been able to assert his authority and Maduro remains in charge.

Attorneys for the Maduro Board said it remains the only validly appointed authority to oversee the central banks foreign assets and that ignoring the rulings of the Venezuelan courts would fly in the face of the rule of law.

They criticized the Guaido camp for drawing out the litigation for 19 months, leaving the central banks assets frozen and unavailable for use for helping people in Venezuela suffering through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Guaidos recognition flies in the face of the reality on the ground, said Sarosh Zaiwalla, a senior partner at Zaiwalla & Co., representing the Maduro board. His appointees have no ability to act on behalf of the (bank) in any effective way, or to represent it in any international legal proceedings.
911, what's the address of the emergency?

Yes ma'am, my name is Jesse Culbertson at the Franklin Park, and I need some medical help here, I'm having a lady that has collapsed.

That brief exchange July 3 this year and what happened in the following minutes caused what most are calling a miracle to occur.

She looks like she's passed out right now. She's breathing but she's kind of turning blue, Culbertson said on the 911 call. Looks like she's kind of gasping for breath. I don't know if there is a defibrillator here or not.

More Information If you have a suggestion about someone who should be profiled, send their name and any contact information available to communitynews@myjournalcourier.com. See More Collapse

West Central Joint Emergency Medical Dispatch 911 telecommunicator JaNece Sweeten, who is also a certified CPR instructor, dispatched emergency crews to the scene while talking to Culbertson.

Jesse, I need you to get very close to her. Listen to me very carefully, Sweeten said in the 911 call recording. I need you to lay her flat on her back. I'm going to teach you how to do some CPR. Listen carefully.

Sweeten's fellow 911 telecommunicator Lynne Bell, who is also certified in CPR, sent all available first responder crews to the crowded Fourth of July weekend scene in downtown Franklin and kept the crews updated on the patient's status.

Meanwhile, at the scene, bystander Gina Hamilton, a long-time registered nurse and CPR instructor, immediately recognized what was happening and took over the CPR compressions that Culbertson had been doing. Another bystander, registered nurse and CPR-certified Aleece Ford, took an automated external defibrillator that a responding police officer had brought to the scene and immediately used it on the patient.

Morgan County Sheriff's Deputy Jamie Bettis, who had previously been a CPR-trained volunteer with the Waverly Rescue Squad, was the first official responder on the scene.

I knew the equipment that would be needed, so I grabbed the AED as the rescue squad personnel were grabbing other pieces of equipment and ran it to the scene, Bettis said. Once I got there with the AED, Aleece identified herself as a nurse so I gave it over to her.

Other CPR-certified emergency responders then took over. Murrayville-Woodson EMS member Sam Carpenter helped to move the patient to the ambulance. Waverly Rescue Squad member Jason Shumaker helped to put the patient on a gurney and continued CPR while they were moving her to the ambulance. Rescue Squad member Betty Lewis began using a resuscitator mask on the patient to help restore normal breathing.

We got her in the back of the ambulance and it didn't take very long before we got a pulse back and we had a little bit of an airway, Lewis said. Pretty soon she was able to speak. So I asked her name and she said 'where am I and what is going on?' It was nice to have that response.

LifeStar paramedics, each CPR-certified, also responded and assisted at the scene.

Waverly Rescue Squad member Ron Lyons was in the back of the ambulance talking to the patient as they rushed her to Passavant Area Hospital, now named Jacksonville Memorial Hospital.

We talked, we tried to get her name, Lyons said. She asked where she was and at that time we were close to Pisgah, so that's what I told her.

The patient was evaluated at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, then flown to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield for treatment.

About 4:30 a.m. I remember waking up and the doctor was at the foot of the bed and he said 'Ms. Shanks, that was not the scenario I planned on seeing when I walked in here, said Holly Shanks. 'You are truly a miracle.'

It turns out that if she had to have a heart attack, Shanks was in the right place at the right time.

Every rib in my body was broken (from the CPR compressions), my whole body was bruised, and that's fine because I'd rather be here and have broken ribs and bruises than to not be here, Shanks said.

Shanks met on Dec. 8 with most of the people who are responsible for her being alive today. Those who responded to her emergency were being awarded recognition certificates for their efforts.

For you guys to do the job that you do is so overwhelming and heartbreaking because I know that often times the outcome isn't like this where you can hear me tell my story, said Shanks as she fought back tears. I don't know where I would be if you guys weren't there. You are all a blessing to me.

The first responders also feel blessed to have been a part of saving Shanks' life.



Much of the time the outcome is not this way. It's nice to actually get to meet the person and see, said 911 telecommunicator Sweeten.

It's gratifying to know that we saved a life, but it's really a pleasure to actually meet the life that we helped to save. It doesn't happen very often, said 911 telecommunicator Bell.

Everybody really knew what they were doing. I felt like God was really watching over all of us, said bystander Hamilton.

Holly is a close friend of our family, I feel really good about the outcome, said bystander Ford.

Generally there are not that many trained medical personnel already on the scene, said Bettis.

Praise the Lord. I've worked at Memorial for a lot of years in the emergency room and often it doesn't happen like it did that day, Lyons said.

Meanwhile, Shanks is taking one day at a time. The July 3 heart attack was her second caused by an inherited condition. She is also undergoing chemotherapy to fight cancer.

But Shanks is alive, and she's grateful.

It's very much a miracle, and everybody that played a part in it, the steps just fell together perfectly, Shanks said. I couldn't have been in a better place at a better time. Thank God for all of you who played a part that day to save my life.
Be on the lookout this week for people handing out money in Jacksonville.

It's part of the annual Bless This City campaign by Go Church at 767 S. West St. The congregation's members gathered Sunday at the church but, instead of attending their weekly service, they headed out into the community armed with envelopes of cash.

Pastor John Hutton said it's a continuation of an initiative put on hiatus last year because of the pandemic.

Three years ago, we came up with the idea to challenge people in the church to save $5 a week, Hutton said. Then, at the end of the year, for Christmas, we collected it and did an outreach campaign. We went out around town and found people shopping or at gas stations or grocery stores and just basically handed out money.

This week, Go Church will be handing out $6,500 as part of Bless This City.

The congregation is looking to change the distribution next year to hone in more on local people in need, Hutton said.

We want to find more creative ways to help families in need, he said. We are looking for outside-of-the-box ways to give into the community, help people who are down on their luck, struggling with finances.

Church members had hoped to find that new creative focus for their donations this year but ran out of time before the holidays arrived, Hutton said. So, they'll be passing out cash as they have in the past, to random people they meet.

It's the heartbeat of our church to bless people and be a way in the community that shows people there is somebody out there that cares, Hutton said.
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The death toll from the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year climbed to 375, with more than 50 others still missing and several central provinces struggling with downed communications and power outages and pleading for food and water, officials said Monday.

At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 270 kph (168 mph) before blowing out into the South China Sea on Friday.

At least 375 people were killed, 56 were missing and 500 were injured, according to the national police. The toll may still increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications and power outages, although massive cleanup and repair efforts were underway.

Many were killed by falling trees and collapsing walls, flash floods and landslides. A 57-year-old man was found dead hanging from a tree branch and a woman was blown away and died in Negros Occidental province, police said.

Governor Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, among the southeastern provinces first hit by the typhoon, said Rais ferocity on her island province of more than 130,000 people was worse than that of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful and deadliest typhoons on record which devastated the central Philippines in November 2013 but did not inflict any casualties in Dinagat.

If it was like being in a washing machine before, this time there was like a huge monster that smashed itself everywhere, grabbed anything like trees and tin roofs and then hurled them everywhere, Bag-ao said by telephone. The wind was swirling north to south to east and west repeatedly for six hours. Some tin roof sheets were blown away and then were tossed back.

At least 14 villagers died and more than 100 others were injured by flying roofs, debris and glass shards and were treated in makeshift surgery rooms in damaged hospitals in Dinagat, Bag-ao said. Many more would have died if thousands of residents had not been evacuated from high-risk villages.

Dinagat and several other typhoon-hit provinces remained without electricity and communications and many residents needed construction materials, food and water. Bag-ao and other provincial officials traveled to nearby regions that had cellphone signals to seek aid and coordinate recovery efforts with the national government.

More than 700,000 people were lashed by the typhoon in central island provinces, including more than 400,000 who had to be moved to emergency shelters. Thousands of residents were rescued from flooded villages, including in Loboc town in hard-hit Bohol province, where residents were trapped on roofs and in trees where they went to escape the rising floodwaters.

Coast guard ships ferried 29 American, British, Canadian, Swiss, Russian, Chinese and other tourists who were stranded on Siargao Island, a popular surfing destination that was devastated by the typhoon, officials said.

Emergency crews were working to restore electricity in 227 cities and towns, officials said. Power had been restored in only 21 areas so far. Cellphone connections in more than 130 cities and towns were cut by the typhoon but at least 106 had been reconnected by Monday, officials said. Two local airports remained closed except for emergency flights, but most others have reopened, the civil aviation agency said.

Bag-ao and other officials were concerned that their provinces may run out of fuel, which was in high demand because of the use of temporary power generators, including those used for refrigerated warehouses with large amounts of coronavirus vaccine stocks. Officials delivered vaccine shipments to many provinces for an intensified immunization campaign, which was postponed last week due to the typhoon.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the people of the Philippines on Sunday, referencing the typhoon that destroyed many homes.

About 20 tropical storms and typhoons annually batter the Philippines, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. It also lies along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire region, making it one of the worlds most disaster-prone countries.
Misinformation is not a new concept but the newly crowned online media giants of the 21st century have allowed it to propagate untethered. The avalanche of bad information that journalists and the public face today is one of the defining problems of the century.

The father of modern journalism, Walter Lippmann, argued in the 1920s that there can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. Perhaps given the endless ocean of information available the main role of journalists should now be to detect lies and identify, organize, and curate data. Given the ratio of bad to good information online, I believe this would be futile.

Edward O. Wilson, the American sociobiologist nicknamed The Darwin of the 21st century, captures the crux of the problem well when he says that we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.

One major issue is that regulations and journalism as an institution cannot keep up with technology. In an ironic twist of fate, trust in the media has been wavering while online tech giants like Facebook and Google have taken up huge portions of the advertisement revenues of traditional media without taking on the responsibilities of their predecessors. At best, these modern giants are aggregators of existing news; at worst, an algorithm that amplifies our own personalized echo chamber and cares only about clicks.

Tragically, most of us are not willing to reach for our wallets for quality information when we can make do with free junk news. I myself consistently use online tools to bypass paywalls, despite supposedly caring about journalists and hypocritically wanting to get paid as one. Across 20 countries that include the U.S., France, Germany, and the U.K., only 17% of the population has paid for any online news in the last year.

As if that werent enough, misinformation can be used to manipulate public opinion and drive a wedge between citizens and their government by polarizing the democratic process. The Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections is a prime example.

Additionally, misinformation has amplified damaging effects when it reaches those in positions of power. At the time of his presidency, Donald Trump claimed that the virus would miraculously go away and that it was like a flu. Deaths from the pandemic in the U.S. might have been cut in half as of May 3, 2020, if administrators had listened to experts advice just one or two weeks earlier.

What can journalists do against such reckless misinformation? We will need collective responsibility. We can also start by acquiring an international perspective. Although the internet has opened the floodgates for misinformation, it has also allowed for digital journalism to thrive by finding out what goes on around the globe much quicker in a networked and decentralized manner. This means that journalists can and should be reporting on legislation passed elsewhere that address misinformation.

For example, a law passed in France in 2018 requires social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to disclose who has sponsored online content or political ads and at what price. This transparency requirement echoes the United States Honest Ads legislation, which extended its existing broadcast standards to social media. Such actions ensure that the democratic process, increasingly influenced by new technologies, remains open to investigation and accountability.

The UK government announced that as of 2020, children in primary and secondary schools are taught to recognize and respond to misinformation online. They learn about topics related to spreading stories through confirmation bias, how to recognize manipulation and persuasion techniques, and how to make judgements about the accuracy of an online post.

More recently, the Australian government has been trying to make Facebook pay news organizations when it shares links to news stories but collects ad revenues for itself.

Beyond journalists reporting on legislation that is slowly catching up to technology, the public now participates as armchair journalists in movements like the Arab Spring and the MeToo campaign. With this democratization of information must come a dilution of responsibility amid the public.

Fake news is nothing new. In fact, it is related to the initial development of journalistic methods of verification and codes of ethics. If we are all willing to embrace these standards of verification, then each of us has access to the almost entire wealth of human knowledge.

That doesnt sound like a bad deal.
LA film critics pick Drive My Car as years best View Photo

LOS ANGELES (AP)  It was a showdown between Ryusuke Hamaguchis Drive My Car and Jane Campions  The Power of the Dog  for members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, but the group managed to give top honors to both on Saturday.

The Japanese film Drive My Car was named best picture and The Power of the Dog, a Western drama set in 1925, got runner up. Campion, meanwhile, received best director with Hamaguchi as her runner up.

Simon Rex took best actor for his turn as an ex porn star in Sean Bakers  Red Rocket, and Penelope Cruz was named best actress for playing a photographer and new mother in Pedro Almodovars Parallel Mothers.

Supporting actress went to Ariana DeBose, who plays Anita in West Side Story, while supporting actor was a tie between Vincent London for Titane and Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog.

The nonfiction film  Flee, about an Afghan refugee, got best animated film, while the documentary award went to Questloves  Summer of Soul, which chronicles a largely forgotten music festival in the summer of 1969.

Our awards cover a lot of ground and genres and they also span the globe, said Claudia Puig, the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. We are thrilled to spread our love and appreciation for this breadth of outstanding films.

The LA group isnt the first to single out Drive My Car, about a widowed actor and director and the relationship he develops with his chauffeur, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Society of Film Critics awarded Drive My Car best picture honors as well. It also took best international feature at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.
Johnson appoints foreign secretary to be Brexit negotiator View Photo

LONDON (AP)  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday announced the appointment of Britains foreign secretary to become the countrys lead negotiator with the European Union, after long-time ally David Frost resigned after a week political upheaval in the Conservative Party.

Liz Truss will have ministerial responsibility with the EU and will lead negotiations to resolve problems arising from provisions of the Brexit agreement covering trade with Northern Ireland, the prime ministers office said in a statement.

In his resignation letter, Frost expressed concern about the governments current direction of travel.

I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change, he wrote.

Frost also expressed growing disillusionment with the Conservative governments policies on taxation and COVID-19.

The Mail on Sunday, which broke the story of his resignation, said Frosts decision was triggered by last weeks introduction of new pandemic restrictions, including a requirement that people show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test to enter nightclubs and other crowded venues.

In his resignation letter to Johnson, Frost said the U.K. needed to learn to live with COVID.  You took a brave decision in July, against considerable opposition, to open up the country again. Sadly it did not prove to be irreversible, as I wished, and believe you did too. I hope we can get back on track soon and not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere.

___

Follow all AP stories on post-Brexit developments at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian authorities on Monday notified the countrys former president that he is suspected of high treason and aiding terrorist organizations in Ukraines eastern separatist territories.

A statement by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) of Ukraine said the former President Petro Poroshenko is suspected of facilitating the activities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples republics  the two pro-Russia separatist governments in the eastern rebel area  by having his government buy coal from the separatist territories in 2014-2015.

Poroshenko, 56, served as Ukraines fifth president from 2014 to 2019 until losing in an election to the current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Poroshenko faces up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property if found guilty.

The suspicions regarding the former presidents involvement in the case have been dismissed by the European Solidarity party, which is headed by Poroshenko.

The actions of law enforcement agencies have nothing to do with law, this is a political order of Zelenskyy, who is maniacally obsessed with the idea of reprisals against his main opponent, the party said in a statement.

According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Irina Venediktova, the amount spent by Ukrainian state-owned enterprises for the purchase of coal is more than 200 million hryvnia (about $ 7.6 million).

Poroshenko became the fourth suspect in the coal scandal. Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform  For Life, is accused of allegedly acting as an intermediary in the purchases and has been under house arrest for six months. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the godfather to Medvedchuks youngest daughter.

Ukraine faced an acute shortage of resources after separatists backed by Russia seized the territory on which the countrys main coal mines were located. The authorities accused Medvedchuk of conspiring with officials under the Poroshenko administration to purchase coal from mines in separatist-controlled areas in 2014-2015 as a way to finance the separatists. Russia has denied actively supporting the separatists.

Ukraines ex-minister of energy, Vladimir Demchishin, and businessman Sergei Kuzyara are also involved in the case.

Poroshenko is visiting Turkey. The investigators attempted to hand him a summons on the eve of his departure but were unable to do so. His lawyer, Ilya Novikov, said that Poroshenko has been summoned for questioning on Dec. 23.

It is not clear when Poroshenko will return to Ukraine.

By YURAS KARMANAU

The Associated Press
Guatemala town bids farewell to victim of Mexico truck crash View Photo

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  The body of Guatemalan migrant Daniel Arnulfo Perez Uxla was laid out for the memorial service Sunday in his hometown of El Tejar, in the highland province of Chimaltenango.

Perez Uxla was one of four migrants killed in a Dec. 9 truck crash in southern Mexico whose bodies were returned to their homeland Saturday. A total of 56 migrants died when a people smugglers semi-trailer truck jammed with migrants overturned on a highway.

Perez Uxla was a 41-year-old ironworker who left for the United States in hopes of paying off a mortgage on his home, after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic.

His coffin was surrounded by white and yellow flowers and candles at his tin-roofed home. He left behind a wife and three children.

His wife, Mariela de Perez, said he would be buried immediately Sunday. I dont want to prolong the agony for everyone, especially for my children, she said.

His and three other migrants bodies arrived on a charter flight from Mexico on Saturday and were taken in hearses to their hometowns for burial. The other three victims were from San Marcos province, on the border with Mexico.

They were identified as Leonel Estuardo Gomez Zepeda, Daymen Erick Fuentes Bravo, Cecilio Federico Ovalle Cifuentes.

Most of the 56 victims were believed to be from Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

De Perez still had hopes of finding her husband alive, and she travelled to Mexico after word spread about the accident. After looking in all the hospitals in the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, she finally found him in the last place she had wanted to go: the morgue.

I found him him two days after I arrived, in the morgue, she said.

De Perez then went to the curve in the highway where the crash occurred, to light a candle for her husband.

I am not Catholic, but my in-laws are, and I know they would have wanted me to light a candle at the spot where he died, she said.

In the town of Malacatan, in San Marcos province, Santos Gomez wept over the death of his son Leonel Estuardo Gomez Zepeda, who left behind four daughters.

He had such high hopes, Santos Gomez said. Here, you can only earn enough to eat, nothing more.

The elder Gomez said he heard about the crash on social media, and then had to identify his sons body.

Assistant Foreign Minister Eduardo Hernandez said that so far six of the dead have been identified as Guatemalan citizens, and there is reason to believe 14 more are also Guatemalans.

Authorities say fingerprints have been used to identify the bodies, as well as relatives identification of their loved ones through photographs.

More than 100 migrants were injured in the crash. Some remain hospitalized in Mexico.

The truck was packed with as many as 250 migrants, and survivors said that speed and weight of the human cargo may have played a role in the crash.

By SONIA PEREZ D.

Associated Press
CA Population Change View Photo

Sonora, CA  The counties in the Mother Lode followed the states trend and dipped in population over the past year.

The new statistics from the California Department of Finance show that Tuolumne County lost 689 residents to bring the population to 55,500. It was primarily due to more deaths than births. There were 766 deaths and 398 births. The county also lost 327 residents in the category of net migration (how many people move in versus move out).

Calaveras County declined by 166 residents to bring the population to 45,277. There were 586 deaths and 360 births. However, the county gained 56 people via net migration.

Mariposa Countys population fell 79 residents to 17,123 and Amador lost 190 to go to 40,506.

Overall, Californias population fell to 39.5 million, marking two straight years of decline.

The statistics are from July of 2020 through July of 2021.

The state reports that most of the population declines were in coastal regions and along the Sierra Nevada. The greater Sacramento region and the San Joaquin Valley were areas that reversed the trend and primarily saw a population increase (see map in image box).
Israel to ban travel to US, Canada over omicron variant

Israel to ban travel to US, Canada over omicron variant View Photo

JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli ministers on Monday agreed to ban travel to the United States, Canada and eight other countries amid the rapid, global spread of the omicron variant.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts office announced the decision following a Cabinet vote.

The rare move to red-list the U.S. comes amid rising coronavirus infections in Israel and marks a change to pandemic practices between the two nations with close diplomatic relations. The U.S. will join a growing list of European countries and other destinations to which Israelis are barred from traveling, and from which returning travelers must remain in quarantine.

A parliamentary committee is expected to give the measure final approval. Once authorized, the travel ban will take effect at midnight Wednesday morning.

Israel has seen a surge in new cases of the more infectious coronavirus variant in recent weeks, and began closing its borders and restricting travel in late November. Foreign nationals are not allowed to enter, and all Israelis arriving from overseas are required to quarantine  including people who are vaccinated.

Other countries that were approved to be added to the travel ban starting Wednesday are Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

Israel rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year, and more than 4.1 million of Israels 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

In a prime-time address on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged parents to vaccinate their children, declaring that the countrys fifth wave of coronavirus infections had begun. As of Sunday, Israels Health Ministry has reported 175 cases of the new variant.

Israel has recorded at least 8,232 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
7 bodies found in Minnesota home; cause of deaths not known

MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP)  Authorities said Sunday that the bodies of seven people were discovered inside a twin home in a northwestern Minnesota city but did not say how they died.

Police said the victims included four adults and three children. They were found just before 8 p.m. Saturday by family members conducting a welfare check at the home in Moorhead. Those family members called police.

There were no signs of violence or forced entry into the residence, police said. Authorities are not actively seeking any suspects.

This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays, Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson wrote in a statement sent to the Star Tribune. My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend. Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time.

The bodies were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office in St. Paul, where autopsies will be conducted.

Neighbors said the children were last seen Friday, KFGO radio reported. The Moorhead Area School District has been provided information about the victims to help prepare for student assistance, police said.

Moorhead is on the Minnesota border next to Fargo, North Dakota, in a metropolitan area of about 230,000 people.

Moorhead Police Capt. Deric Swanson said the investigation is still active and further information, including the cause of deaths and identification of the victims, will be released later.
HOUSTON (AP)  A group of attorneys and advocates have pledged to seek clemency for 110 Black soldiers who were convicted in a mutiny and riots at a military camp in Houston in 1917.

The South Texas College of Law Houston and the NAACPs local branch have signed an agreement to continue fighting for clemency for the soldiers of the all-Black Third Battalion of the U.S. Armys 24th Infantry Regiment, the Houston Chronicle reported.

They plan to ask the Secretary of the Army to posthumously grant honorable discharges and urge the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to recommend pardons to President Joe Biden.

The soldiers were either executed or given long prison sentences.

We are on a quest to obtain justice for the 24th Infantry Regiment  that organized group of men who died with shameful reputations at the hands of those who had the power of the government, the courts and the power of the media, said Bishop James Dixon, board president of the NAACP Houston Branch.

On Aug. 23, 1917, four months after the U.S. had entered World War I, the regiment mutinied in Houston. It resulted in the largest murder trial in U.S. history in which 110 out of 118 soldiers were found guilty. Nineteen were hanged.

Law enforcement immediately recorded the events as a deadly and premeditated assault by Black Army soldiers on a white population. Historians and advocates now recognize the riot as part of the regiments response to what it believed was a white mob heading for them.

For the Camp Logan soldiers who were convicted in the absence of due process, and particularly for those who then were executed as the result of those wrongful convictions, the denial of justice can never fully be undone, said Michael F. Barry, the law schools president and dean.

The all-Black regiment had been dispatched to Houston to guard Camp Logan, which was under construction for the training of white soldiers who would be sent to France during World War I.

In Houston, a city governed by Jim Crow laws at the time, tensions boiled over.

The riot was fueled by a confrontation between white Houston police officers and a Black woman whom they accused of hiding a wanted man. A soldier from the 3rd Battalion came to her defense and the officers beat him. The beaten soldier was released from custody, but rumors swirled that he had been killed. Some soldiers urged the unit to march on the police station, and others heard of an angry, white mob heading for the camp.

During the riot, 19 people died, including four Black soldiers and 15 white civilians, according to Prairie View A&M University. Five local police officers died.

While advocates note many of the Black soldiers disobeyed orders and left camp fully armed, they add there was a lack of due process, a rushed court-martial process and an inability of local civilians who witnessed the killings to identify which soldiers were responsible.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren tests positive for COVID breakthrough View Photo

BOSTON (AP)  U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Sunday she has tested positive for COVID-19 as the country deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the omicron variant.

The Massachusetts Democrat tweeted shes vaccinated, has received her booster shot and is experiencing mild symptoms in a breakthrough case of the virus.

Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted, she wrote, using the occasion to also urge anyone not vaccinated to do so.

Warren didnt elaborate on where she might have contracted the virus but said shes regularly tested and turned up negative for COVID-19 earlier this week. Spokespersons for her office didnt respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

Warren was at the U.S. Capitol this week along with other senators as Democrats seek to pass President Joe Bidens $2 trillion Build Back Better social and environment bill.
Key moments in the police shooting of Daunte Wright View Photo

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Kim Potter, a former police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, is charged with manslaughter in the April 11 shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black motorist. Here are some key moments in the case:

April 11  Police in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, stop a car driven by driven by Wright at around 2 p.m. Police say when they tried to arrest Wright on an outstanding warrant, he reentered his car and tried to drive away, and an officer shot him. News of the shooting sparks angry protests, including outside the citys police station. Not far away in downtown Minneapolis, former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin is standing trial in George Floyds killing.

April 12  The officer who shot Wright is identified as 26-year veteran Kim Potter. Chief Tim Gannon says he believes Potter meant to use her Taser, and plays her body-camera footage at a news conference that shows her shouting Ill tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser! Hundredds of protesters defy curfew to gather outside the city police station for a second night. Police use gas and flash-bang grenades to try to drive them away. Mayor Mike Elliott calls for Potter to be fired.

April 13  Potter resigns. Gannon resigns. Elliott and the City Council fire the city manager, who has oversight of police. Hundreds of protesters face off with police again at nightfall outside police headquarters, where National Guard soldiers join officers in riot gear.

April 14  Potter is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Several hundred demonstrators again clash with police outside headquarters.

April 15  Wrights family and some community members call for more serious charges against Potter. Hundreds of protesters again confront police at headquarters, with some tying air fresheners to fencing as a critique of one of the reasons officers were said to have stopped Wrights car. A criminal complaint said officers stopped Wrights car for having an air freshener obscuring the windshield and for expired tags.

April 16  A federal judge issues a restraining order prohibiting police from arresting journalists or using force against them after some say they were harassed and assaulted by officers. Demonstrators protest again outside police headquarters.

April 17  Protests continue.

April 18  Two National Guard members report being fired upon as they patrolled a neighborhood in Minneapolis.

April 22  A funeral service is held for Wright in Minneapolis, with the Rev. Al Sharpton decrying the stench of racism and police brutality in Minnesota. Meanwhile, activists demonstrate outside the home of the county prosecutor handling Potters case to demand murder charges.

May 15  The Brooklyn Center City Council passes a resolution to create new divisions of unarmed civilian employees to handle non-moving traffic violations and respond to mental health crises.

May 21  Attorney General Keith Ellison announces that his office will prosecute Potter, after Washington County Attorney Pete Orput returned the case to Hennepin County.

Sept. 2  Ellison adds a first-degree manslaughter charge against Potter.

Sept. 28  Brooklyn Center says police have been instructed to release people cited for low-level crimes and to only take them into custody if required by law.

Nov. 30  Jury selection begins in Potters trial.

Dec. 8  Opening statements are made and the first witnesses testify at the trial.

Dec. 17  Potter testifies that she didnt want to hurt anybody the day she shot Wright, saying she shouted a warning about using her Taser on Wright after she saw fear in a fellow officers face. She says she was sorry it happened.

Dec. 20  Closing arguments are made and the jury begins deliberating.

___

Find the APs full coverage of the Daunte Wright case: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright
NEW YORK (AP)  Former President Donald Trump revealed he received a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd in Dallas.

Trump made the disclosure Sunday night during the final stop of The History Tour, a live interview show he has been doing with former Fox News host Bill OReilly.

Both the president and I are vaxxed," OReilly said at the American Airlines Center, drawing some jeers from the audience, according to video shared online by OReillys No Spin News.

Did you get the booster? he asked the former president. Yes," Trump responded. I got it, too," O'Reilly said, eliciting more hectoring.

Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Trump told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.

While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates, he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed on his watch. At the same time, he has refused to urge his supporters to take them, even though Republicans remain far less likely than Democrats to be protected.

For instance, while other world leaders, including former Vice President Mike Pence, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, received their doses publicly to promote the lifesaving medicine, Trump chose to receive his in private  an acknowledgement of the unpopularity of the vaccine with large swaths of his base. And while he has blamed the Biden administration for high levels of vaccine skepticism, he repeatedly undermined public health recommendations while in office, encouraging the use of unproven treatments and playing down the threat the virus posed as he tried to prioritize economic recovery and secure a second term.

Trump had told the Wall Street Journal in a September interview that he probably" wouldn't get a booster shot.

I feel like Im in good shape from that standpoint," he told the paper. Ill look at stuff later on. Im not against it, but its probably not for me.

The U.S. has been urging all eligible Americans to get booster shots as quickly as possible as the country faces a surge in the new, highly contagious omicron variant. Both Moderna and Pfizer have said that booster shots of their COVID-19 vaccines appear to offer protection against the new strain, which preliminary evidence suggests can better evade vaccines than previous versions.

Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, and received experimental monoclonal antibodies treatment. His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, revealed in a book released this month that Trump was far sicker than the White House disclosed at the time.

Before the booing, Trump on Sunday told the audience that they should take credit" for the success of the vaccines developed while he was in office.

Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. We together, all of us  not me, we  we got a vaccine done, three vaccines done, and tremendous therapeutics Trump said. This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now. Take credit for it. Take credit for it.... Dont let them take it away. Don't take it away from ourselves."

You're playing right into their hands when you sort of like, Oh the vaccine, he added. "If you don't want to take it, you shouldn't be forced to take it. No mandates," he said, drawing cheers. But take credit because we saved tens of millions of lives. Take credit. Don't let them take that away from you.

Trump aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
MERIDEN  Roger Solis-Hernandez, 25, used to enjoy traveling for food during his free time. In 2019, he visited a food truck in New York that served as an inspiration for him to open his own business.

If you drive by Columbus Park on a Sunday afternoon you might see customers standing around the Birria Mia food truck waiting for their orders. Solis-Hernandez opened the truck in October 2020, focusing on birria tacos.

Birria tacos are a Mexican dish originally from the state of Jalisco.

Solis-Hernandez explained what makes the birria tacos different is the meat. He uses slow cooked beef, which he cooks for five to six hours before serving.

The meat is very tender, very juicy, its not like your ordinary taco, where you could just buy the meat, you season it and then throw it on the grill and its good to go, he said. This one takes its time and so many spices go into it.

Corn tortillas are grilled and topped with meat and other ingredients before the tacos are served.

Birria tacos are traditionally served with soup, sometimes a broth. At Birria Mia, the soup has meat, onions, cilantro and other veggies. People normally dip the birria tacos into the soup before taking a bite.

Solis-Hernandez said dipping the tacos is a new trend that became viral on social media. Originally, the intent was to have people eat the soup and tacos separately.

The soup is basically its own delicacy, you could eat it by itself, he said.

Solis-Hernandez explained his customers sometimes buy the soup alone.

Solis-Hernandez learned to make birria tacos by looking up recipes online, trying them and adding a personal touch. He started making them for friends and getting feedback.

He has worked at a variety of restaurants, but never was a cook. Thats why his mother is in charge of cooking.

If it wasnt for her touch, the food wouldnt be how it is, he said.

Birria Mia also offers quesadillas, burritos, nachos and tacos al pastor.

In October 2020, Solis-Hernandez purchased a small trailer and operated the business from Maple Street. He moved the trailer to Columbus Park in May and ended up selling it and custom-building a food truck in Miami.

In June, he drove the new truck to Meriden and used it the day he arrived for a catering event. He had his official grand opening a few days later.

Solis-Hernandez was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. when he was five months old. He said he is grateful the business has been successful.

It all just came down to hard work and dedication, he said.

He prepares 40 to 50 pounds of meat every day for customers from as far away as New York and Massachusetts.

As a first generation coming from a family of immigrants, I feel like it was my duty to make it feel like it was worth my parents effort, he said.

His girlfriend helps with the administrative part of the business and he has friends that have helped market the business.

For his mother, Viviana Hernandez, the business has been a life changing experience. She never imagined working for her son.

She continues her full time job while helping out with the truck.

I feel very happy, I am very proud of him, she said.

She said her husband are proud their son is working hard to be successful in the U.S., she added.

In addition to running his taco truck, Solis-Hernandez is a barber in Wallingford. He is planning to open his own barber shop next year.

Birria Mia is open Thursday to Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. or until food sells out. The business can be reached at 203-886-5467, or @birriamia on Instagram and Birria Mia on Facebook.

ksantos@record-journal.com203-317-2364Twitter: @KarlaSantosNews
WALLINGFORD  One morning in the early days of the pandemic, Rowland Technologies workers raced to Tweed New Haven Airport to deliver the plastic needed to make face shields for the late shift in a Baltimore hospital.

Many similar orders followed. Rowland Technologies supplied the materials for millions of face shields for health care workers and others as the coronavirus spread across the globe.

Locally, the plastic resin manufacturer at 320 Barnes Road donated 500 pounds of plastic to a Cheshire High School student who was making face shields on a 3-D printer.

But making the plastic for face shields isnt the only thing keeping Rowland Technologies busy. Entry into new U.S. and global markets has doubled its operation in the last five years.

Weve grown significantly, said Stephen J. DiMugno, president and managing director. We started off with nine employees now were at 120 and adding more.

After adding a 40,000-square foot expansion, Rowland Technologies was acquired in 2017 by the ORAFOL group, a former customer and plastics finisher with global markets. The deal introduced Rowland Technologies to more international customers.

Our layers play an increasing role in (ORAFOLs) ability to build their product, said Michael Iovene, Rowlands vice president of product technology. They are a very big player in reflective signs.

The deal with ORAFOL enabled Rowland to begin a 35,000 square foot addition that will increase office space, add a research and development lab, make room for larger cafeteria, expand manufacturing capacity and add a courtyard. Once completed, the company will have more than 130,000 square feet.

Rowland Technologies is an around-the-clock operation that takes raw plastic pellets and transforms them into plastic or polymer films and sheets to suit customer needs. The ORAFOL Group, headquartered in Oranienburg, Germany, develops and products for industry and trade worldwide.

ORAFOL specializes in products for the graphic industry, retroreflective films and materials, industrial adhesive tapes, structured optical components made from polymers and high-performance films based on polycarbonate, polyacrylate and thermoplastic polyurethanes.

Their unique extrusion process and proprietary in-house tooling techniques allows Rowland to make progressive solutions for a wide range of applications worldwide, ORAFOL stated in a 2017 press release announcing the acquisition.

The manufacturing headquarters on Barnes Road helps make plastic film for signs, drivers licenses, medical trays, casings for speedometers and other products used in the automotive and aviation industry.

Rowland Technologies moved from Alexander Drive and was leasing its current space from Adam Winstanley when Winstanley agreed to sell the building and an adjacent parcel that allowed the company to expand.

Supply shortages that became acute during the pandemic have been challenging, as have shortages in trained labor, DiMugno said. Most of Rowlands employees come from the local area.

Construction on the new addition is expected to be complete in the first quarter of next year and company growth is expected to increase another 20 percent, DiMugno said.

Rowland Technologies is a world-class company that continues to grow, said Wallingford Economic Development Specialist Tim Ryan. Anybody who has not been by their facility should do so, its gorgeous.

Unlike many companies that expand their operations to suit customers, Rowland invested in exterior design features and landscaping to enhance its property, Ryan said.

It shows they take great pride in the community they are working in, Ryan said. We are very grateful they continue to grow here in Wallingford and hope they continue to do that.

mgodin@record-journal.com203-317-2255Twitter: @Cconnbiz
Kin Man Hui /Staff file photo

One of San Antonio's biggest employers is implementing a wage hike. Frost Bank is increasing its minimum wage to $20 per hour, according to a news release. The pay raise went into effect on Monday, December 20, for more than 1,800 employees across Texas, including bankers, tellers, call center operators, and support staff.

"We've increased vacation, paid time off, caregiver time and community service time off," says Frost chairman and CEO Phil Green in the news release. "We've invested in technology to make us more effective and to keep us connected. And we just invested $3.5 million to reduce medical plan premiums."
They say do something you love, and youll never work a day in your life. A local TV journalist who is marking a major milestone in her career is an example of that mantra.

After joining in December 2021, Sue Calberg is celebrating 20 years at KENS 5. She received an award on Tuesday, December 14 during the KENS 5 holiday luncheon commemorating her service to the community. Calberg is a household name in the San Antonio community who takes on everyday with purpose and gratitude.

More TV News on MySA: San Antonio news icon Deborah Knapp leaving KENS 5 late-night broadcast

Calberg is among the elite few who have spent decades building relationships and telling stories of the voiceless. Her career spans more than 40 years. A San Antonio native, her roots run deep in neighborhoods, on the streets and in your homes.

This is my hometown. Im locally grown, Calberg says. The fact that I get to practice this art in my hometown is a great pride to me and great honor.

For some, figuring out what to do with their life can be difficult, however, Calberg knew exactly what she wanted to do since birth. She credits that epiphany to family.

"I grew up listening to my uncle talk about the baby days of television," she says about her uncle who was the first person hired at KENS 5 before they went on air. He would start talking about what he had done and seen, and everybody would come to a stop and listen to the things he would say.

Calberg is a continuation of her uncles legacy. She says its an honor and a privilege to pick up the baton and carry his work into the future.

Courtesy of Sue Calberg

A powerhouse in the newsroom and a force of nature when it comes to uncovering the untold story, Calberg works tirelessly with so much commitment, tenacity and passion. She has pledged to recognize the San Antonio community for what it is and share stories that reflect its rich and sometimes, often overlooked diversity.

You look at someone and you tell their story. Youre telling them - I see you. I recognize you. I honor you. I believe whatever youre doing is worthy of attention. Thats my drug of choice. That is journalism.

Whether on TV, covering a big story, or just going to the grocery store, everyone knows Sue Calberg and the impact she has on peoples lives.

When Im on the streets, people always say your that TV girl because youre not like the others. We know when you tell a story, were gonna hear the real deal- thats what they tell me.

From riding in a hot air balloon, to helicopters and covering the police beat and investigative journalism, Calberg has done it all, but shes not stopping just yet. Calberg tells MySA she has a bucket list story she would like to mark off her list.

But for now, shell keep doing what she does best  being KENS 5s News Wrangler.
Experimenting with psychedelics is taking on a whole new meaning. The Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin is launching the Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy, the first-of-its-kind center dedicated to the research of drugs such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, MDMA, and ibogaine.

According to a December 16 release, the center will apply a clinical approach to the use of psychedelics in the treatment of mental illness. To begin, researchers will focus on "military veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder, adults experiencing prolonged grief disorder or depression, and those who have experienced childhood trauma."

The drugs will be used in tandem with treatment from a trained provider. In some cases, the center will also investigate how psilocybin and transcranial magnetic stimulation work together to provide lasting relief for stress-related depression and anxiety.

Recent studies have demonstrated considerable promise for these drugs when incorporated with clinical support, and this work has the potential to transform how we treat conditions like depression and PTSD, and to identify synergies between these and other well-established therapies to achieve long-term benefits for those seeking treatment," says center co-lead Charles B. Nemeroff, professor and chair of Dell Meds Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and holder of the Matthew P. Nemeroff Endowed Chair.

Getty Images

Focusing on veterans is important, the center notes, especially considering Texas is home to the second largest population of military vets in the country, with 250,000 living just in Central Texas alone. Veterans are more likely to suffer from PTSD and "difficult mental health problems" as the result of military service.

Societal interest in psychedelics has gone from the fringe to the mainstream in recent years. Podcasts,documentaries, articles  even a New York Times Bestseller by Michel Pollan, This is Your Mind on Plants  have all helped spotlight the medicinal properties of everything from magic mushrooms to MDMA. As the spotlight has grown, so too has the economy around it. Though most of these drugs remain illegal in the U.S., tech startups have launched to try and capitalize on their popularity while pricey retreats both in the U.S. and abroad are attracting thousands of curious participants.

Along with a societal shift in the use of psychedelics, there have also been legislative changes. Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers passed HB 1802, a bill paving the way for research into "alternative therapies" such as ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin for the treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, chronic pain, and migraines.

A key ingredient in how psychedelic therapies promote mental health may be their ability to enhance neural plasticity, the process that allows the brain to adapt to new experiences  which when combined with brain modulation therapies may promote maximum benefit, says Greg Fonzo, a Dell Med professor and co-lead of the center. The potential implications are far-reaching for people with these conditions and their families, and also for the future of mental health treatment and care.
Officials and public health experts are strengthening their calls for people to get booster shots as the omicron variant proliferates across the United States, where less than a third of the fully vaccinated population has received an additional coronavirus vaccine dose.

As of Sunday, more than 60.2 million booster doses had been administered across the country - that's enough for about 30% of the fully vaccinated U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 54% of vaccinated people 65 years and older have gotten a booster, the CDC said.

In public remarks in recent days, federal and state officials have implored people to get boosted as soon as they can. But public health experts and behavioral scientists say uncertainty about who needs boosters and how they help may explain why uptake isn't higher. Still, they say booster numbers can rise, especially as messaging strengthens around the those doses amid concern about the omicron variant.

"Uncertainty and confusion is always going to translate into lower uptake," said Alison Buttenheim, a behavioral scientist who studies vaccine acceptance at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. "It's pretty easy to say, 'Oh I don't need one, or I don't know if I need one, I'll wait until I get a clearer signal.' "

In late November, federal regulators authorized Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccine boosters for all adults. Before that expansion, federal guidelines said boosters were for those 65 and older, as well as for those at high risk because of underlying health conditions. Adults who had received the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine were eligible two months after vaccination.

The CDC says all adults 18 and older should get a booster, and 16- and 17-year-olds can also get them.

The "relatively low" booster numbers can be also be explained by timing, said Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The federal government only began recommending booster shots for everyone in recent weeks, she said.

As more data emerges about the value of boosters - particularly preliminary studies that suggest boosters offer significant protection against severe disease - that hopefully will compel people to get those shots, El-Sadr said.

And for those who are still unsure, she said, public health officials should double their efforts to motivate and convey the message that "this is the moment to get it."

Health experts stressed that there has been an overwhelming amount of information to keep up with on the coronavirus vaccines, and now on boosters - and in recent weeks that has been coupled with limited information about how well the vaccines and boosters protect against the latest variant.

"We should have been shouting about boosters from the rooftop for the last month, when we first essentially saw the variant was emerging," said Rupali Limaye, a behavioral and social scientist who studies vaccine hesitancy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She said there "has to be more urgency and recommendations that we need to get this and we need to get this ASAP."

Limaye said those recommendations need to come not just from the White House but from leaders on both sides of the aisle.

In recent days, as infections have surged in cities including New York and Los Angeles, the rhetoric appears to be accelerating. In a White House briefing on Friday, Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious-disease specialist, said "fully vaccinated plus a boost" offers the best protection against covid-19, the disease the coronavirus causes.

"It is critical to get vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, it is critical for optimal protection to get boosted," Fauci said.

He warned Sunday that the nation could see record coronavirus cases as the variant spreads, days after President Joe Biden said that for the unvaccinated, "we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death."

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, warned people not to wait to get an extra shot.

"Get a booster," he said in a Sunday interview on CBS's "Face the Nation." "This is the week to do it. Do not wait."

When attention is a "limited resource," Buttenheim said it helps when messaging from officials and experts aligns with what people are experiencing around them.

"Everyone is saying this feels like March 2020 or December 2020 again," she said, noting New York City, where events are shuttering and anxiety is rising as the spread of omicron upends holiday plans.

"If you hear those things and you see those things and there's holiday travel and people are stressed, that's good fertile ground for a more urgent recommendation for boosters from the White House or your physician to resonate," Buttenheim said. It signals to people that there's "some urgency and importance around this."

Still, she stressed that people are in different "info and social bubbles," and that public health messaging may not be resonating with everyone in the same way.

As the public health crisis wears on, Buttenheim underlined the fatigue everyone is feeling.

"It's just getting harder and harder to make a clear nationwide recommendation on something and hope that people are hearing it, she said, adding: "We haven't done a good job of shifting from urgent, emergency-level, to what's clearly going to be a few more years ahead of managing ebbs and flows."

Adding to that confusion, El-Sadr said, is that officials have not been clear enough about the limitations of vaccines.

"People then started hearing that their fully-vaccinated friend was infected and thought 'this must mean vaccines don't really work'" the epidemiology professor said. "A clearer message about vaccines not eliminating risk of infection but still provide significant level of protection would have helped."

For Delaney Williams, a pharmacist in Seattle, a booster was a resource against the virus and anxiety. She got her booster in October, when delta variant cases were surging.

"It gave me a lot of peace of mind," she said. "It felt like a weight was lifted."

Williams and her husband, who was vaccinated and scheduled to get his booster, were recently exposed to the coronavirus after a weekend trip. He got infected. She didn't, even though they were not able to isolate apart from each other.

"It really is like a no-brainer to me, and I see no downsides to it and only positive things," she said. "You get to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community."

- - -

The Washington Post's Dan Keating contributed to this report.
Captive missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for miles over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow, according to the agency they work for, officials said Monday.

The group of 12 navigated by stars to reach safety after a two-month kidnapping ordeal, officials with the Christian Aid Ministries, the Ohio-based agency that the captive missionaries work for, said Monday at a press conference.

The detailed accounting of their journey to safety comes after news Thursday that the missionaries were free.

A total of 17 people from the missionary group  12 adults and five minors  were abducted Oct. 16 shortly after visiting an orphanage in Ganthier, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area, where they verified it had received aid from CAM and played with the children, CAM has said. The group included 16 Americans and one Canadian.

Their captors from the 400 Mawozo gang initially demanded millions of dollars in ransom. Five other captives had earlier reached freedom. It is still unclear if any ransom was paid.

The 12 who fled last week carried the infant and 3-year-old, wrapping the baby to protect her from the briars and brambles, said CAM spokesman Weston Showalter.

After a number of hours of walking, day began to dawn and they eventually found someone who helped to make a phone call for help, he said, his voice beginning to choke. They were finally free.

The 12 were flown to Florida on a U.S. Coast Guard flight, and later reunited with five hostages who were released earlier.

CAM displayed photos at the news conferences showing the freed hostages being reunited, along with a video of the group singing a song that had inspired them during their captivity.

__

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Days after a Colorado judge sentenced a truck driver to 110 years in prison for his role in a 2019 crash that killed four people, an online petition seeking for the sentence to be reduced has been signed by more than 4 million people.

On April 25, 2019, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving a truck on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, when it crashed into several cars, killing four people.

In October, a jury found him guilty of 27 counts, including vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. On Dec. 13, a district court judge, A. Bruce Jones, sentenced Aguilera-Mederos, now 26, to more than a century in prison, citing Colorado state law that required sentences for each count to be served consecutively, rather than concurrently.

Almost immediately, the lengthy sentence drew scrutiny, including from the judge, who, Reuters reported, said, If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence.

In a Dec. 15 editorial, The Denver Post urged Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado to commute the lengthy sentence and called on state legislators to change the law that mandated it.

Aguilera-Mederos has said malfunctioning brakes were the primary cause of the crash. The company he was driving for, identified in local news reports as Castellano 03 Trucking LLC in Houston, did not immediately return messages left at phone numbers associated with the company.

Prosecutors in the case have argued that Aguilera-Mederos was responsible for the deaths because of several decisions he made while behind the wheel, including not steering the truck, which was hauling lumber, onto a runaway truck ramp along the highway.

The day after The Denver Post editorial appeared, Jalopnik, a popular website about cars, wrote that sending an employee to a lifetime-and-a-half in prison as a result of a tragedy stemming from equipment failure isnt going to do anyone any favors.

A petition on the website Change.org called what happened a tragic accident and urged Polis to either grant Aguilera-Mederos clemency or a commutation. By Sunday, it had collected more than 4.2 million signatures.

I have been in this system for 32 years and I have never seen anything like this, said James Colgan, a lawyer for Aguilera-Mederos.

I think the chances are pretty good that the governor is going to look at that favorably, he said, adding, This is truly, truly, truly something that is out of the ordinary.

Conor Cahill, a spokesperson for Polis, said we welcome an application from the defense and will expedite consideration but have not received one yet at this time.

Colgan said he plans to seek a commutation, which lessens the severity of the sentence, not a pardon, which excuses or forgives the offense. A commutation would not change the jurys decision to convict Aguilera-Mederos but would change how much time, if any, he would spend incarcerated.

Gage Evans, the wife of William Bailey, who died in the crash, said Sunday that she does not believe the sentence should be commuted. Instead, she thinks state legislators should reevaluate the law that forces him to serve each of his sentences consecutively.

This person should spend some time in prison and think about his actions, said Evans, 65. I dont think he should be let off with a slap on the wrist.

She said that she and the other family members of the victims dispute the public narrative that Aguilera-Mederos is a victim.

We are truly the victims, she said, adding that she believes Aguilera-Mederos made bad decisions all along the way that day.

Michael Teague, a spokesperson for the Colorado 1st Judicial District Attorneys Office, said the drivers actions that day had grave impacts.

We initiated plea negotiations but Mr. Aguilera-Mederos declined to consider anything other than a traffic ticket, he said.

The 110-year sentence in this case, Teague said in a statement, is within the purview of the court and reflects the judgment of the legislature. If an appeal is pursued, we will again pursue an appropriate outcome if that opportunity arises, after consulting with the victims and survivors and receiving their input, he said.

After Aguilera-Mederos was sentenced, the Truck Safety Coalition, an organization that works with families of truck crash victims, made a pointed statement directed at trucking companies.

We hope that this outcome will result in commercial motor carriers prioritizing safety, it said on Twitter on Thursday.

Colgan said of his client, Were not saying hes innocent and didnt make mistakes but that the punishment has to fit the crime and this punishment does not fit the crime.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Teeradej Srikijvilaikul /TNS

Did you know that Apple and Android phones have had COVID-19 contact tracing apps built into their operating systems? No? Well it doesn't matter, because Texas will not let residents use the system anyway. This might be particularly troubling as the omicron variant looms.

Texas is one of 29 current states that hasn't opted to use the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications program that launched in May 2020, which will tell iPhone and Android phone users whether they were exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. The notifications, assuming a smartphone allows them, utilize third-party apps promoted by public health officials.
James D. Morgan/Getty Images for P&O Cruises Aus

San Antonio will be dreaming of a white Christmas this week as temperatures are expected to climb and result in a warm holiday. According to the National Weather Service highs will be in the lower 80s on Christmas Day.

NWS Metrologist Mack Morris tells MySA says the weather will start warming up on Christmas Eve and extend into Christmas.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Patient readers, I had to focus on beating up on Zeints, Walensky, and Fauci, and so I got a late start. Here is a skeletal version. I will break my rule on UPDATEs, and add more material in an hour or so. lambert UPDATE I added a Politics section, since that seems to be todays energy vortex. Tomorrow I will return to the regular order.

Bird Song of the Day

Im having a good time with migratory birds because their songs are so various.

* * *

#COVID19

Ive started adding NOT UPDATED in front of the charts (mostly CDC) that were not updated by the time of this posting. lambert

Vaccination by region:

The South and the Northeast plunge. Could be reporting. (If by Bubba we mean The South, then Bubba had been doing pretty well on vax, despite all the sturm und drang in the press.

61.4% of the US is fully (doubly) vaccinated (CDC data, such as it is, as of December 19. The stately 0.1% rise per day returns. We have broken the important 61% psychological barrier! Mediocre by world standards, being just below Hungary, and just above Turkey in the Financial Times league tables as of this Monday).

Case count by United States regions:

The fiddling and diddling abruptly ends. Also, as happened in 2020, I would expect a second, higher peak, from Omicron if for no other reason.

At a minimum, the official narrative that Covid is behind us, or that the pandemic will be over by January (Gottlieb), or I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? Its over (Bill Maher) is clearly problematic. (This chart is a seven-day average, so changes in direction only show up when a train is really rolling.)

NOT UPDATED One of the sources of the idea that Covid is on the way out, I would speculate, is the CDCs modeling hub (whose projections also seem to have been used to justify school re-opening). Here is the current version of the chart from the CDC modeling hub, which aggregates the results of eight models in four scenarios, with the last run (Round 9) having taken place on 2021-08-30, and plots current case data (black dotted line) against the aggregated model predictions (grey area), including the average of the aggregated model predictions (black line). I have helpfully highlighted the case data discussed above. Not updated:

Case data (black dotted line) has been within the tolerance of the models; it does not conform to the models average (black line), but it stays within aggregated predictions (the grey area).

I wrote: Its too early to say Dammit, CDC, your models were broken; but its not too soon to consider the possibility that they might be. The case data still looks like its trying to break out of the grey area. We shall see. The case data has now broken out of the grey area (see at Oopsie!). Since the models are aggregated conventional wisdom, its not fair to call them propaganda, exactly. Nevertheless. conventional wisdom is looking a little shaky, and anybody who relied on them to predict that we would be back to normal by early next year should be taking another look at their assumptions. And this is  I assume  before Omicron!

MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection:

I wrote: Well see if gets choppy again, or not. This blip upward is the first sign of choppiness.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple school systems but several large universities. Since Boston is so very education-heavy, then, I think it could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally.

NOT UPDATED From CDC: Community Profile Report (PDF), Rapid Riser counties:

Maine improved. Upper Midwest improved. Acela corridor sketchy. More flecks of red, especially in Texas. Weird flare-ups, like flying coals in a forest fire. They land, catch, but  one hopes  sputter out. The fleck of red in the middle of New York near the Pennsylvania border is, I think, Ithaca (i.e., Cornell).

The previous release:

NOT UPDATED Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile):

I have helpfully highlighted the states where the trend arrow points up in yellow, and where it is vertical, in orange. (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the arrow, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So its possible to have an upward trend, but from a very low baseline.)

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 827,323 824,520 . At this rate, I dont think well hit the million mark by New Years. I have drawn an anti-triumphalist Fauci Line to demonstrate that the new normal for deaths is quite high, even before Omicron has hit.

NOT UPDATED. Excess deaths (total, not only from Covid).

Hard to believe we have no excess deaths now, but very fortunate if so. (CDC explains there are data lags).

Covid cases in historic variant sources, with additions from the Brain Trust:

South Africa is looking better (I highlighted them) but I think thats a reporting artifact. Gauteng empties out in the holiday season, I am told; some go to the beach, others up-country. So its really too soon to declare victory. Look at the UK, too. This is a log scale. Sorry for the kerfuffle at the left. No matter how I tinker, it doesnt go away.

* * *

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery. Frank Herbert, Dune

They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

Capitol Seizure

A Punishing American Zeitgeist | An Interview with Nikhil Pal Singh [The Drift]. I linked to this when it first ran, back in February. Pretty good call: One of the strongest arguments against Trump as a harbinger of the death of our already anemic democracy is the one that points to his fundamental weakness and laziness: Trump was not ultimately interested in staffing the government with the kind of personnel who could pull the many levers that you would need to pull in order to pull off a coup. Even the judges that have been put into place by conservatives, including by Trump himself, over these last four years shot down every gambit he put before them to try and overturn the election. We still have to think about what it means to get a crowd of that size willing to do what they did, which is a serious thing. I dont want to minimize what happened. In relative terms, however, there was no significant mass mobilization against Trumps defeat. This suggests that Trumpism remains civically thin, lacking durable associational force. By contrast, every powerful institution  from Congress to the Chamber of Commerce to Twitter and Facebook and the big financial donors and the big corporations  closed ranks very quickly and harshly against the rioters and the people who incited them.  The Paperwork Coup [The Atlantic].  Evidence about the insurrection suggests that although the mob was an obvious threat to human life, it was never an especially serious one to American democracy. Coordination within the crowd seems to have been sporadic, and if White House officials were in touch with organizers, they werent likely directing them. Moreover, its not clear how the insurrection might have successfully kept Trump in office, even if it had managed to prevent certification that day. But on a separate track: That left Trump with one last gambit: keeping Congress from certifying the election on January 6. Most legal scholars agreed that the days proceedings were meant to be a formality, but Trumps kitchen Cabinet had decided they were a place to make a stand. One prong was a bid to get the Justice Department to simply say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R[epublican] Congressmen (as a DOJ official recorded Trump saying). Its still not entirely clear what Trump hoped to do once hed received that declaration, but in any case it came up short. Rosen refused, and Trumps attempt to replace him with a loyalist atop the department crashed at a January 3 meeting, where Cipollone and top Justice Department officials threatened to resign en masse. The second prong was to persuade Pence to block or delay certification on January 6.

Biden Administration

Biden Concerned Ambitious Agenda Could Be Stalled By Him Not Really Caring If It Happens Or Not [The Onion].  From May. The Onion nails it again. Cf. Stoller: A rule of thumb for Democrats is that its important not just to lose but to be thoroughly humiliated.  Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 19, 2021 This is another view of the mentality Ive labeled auto-Kinbaku-bi. The trick handcuffs are, indeed, humiliating, especially when its obvious you could have removed them at any time. Why you shouldnt expect a Biden shake-up [The Hill].  I dont think they can get better people than they already have. Best part of this article: The White House is also dealing with a nagging pandemic. A nagging pandemic? Really? Manchin hits back at White House pressure on Biden plan [The Hill]. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) hit back at White House staff Monday and warned that Democrats had miscalculated by thinking that they could pressure him into backing President Bidens spending plan. They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that theyll just say, OK Ill vote for anything, he said in a local radio interview. Well, guess what? Im from West Virginia. Im not from where theyre from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think theyll be submissive, period, Manchin added.  Clad in the armor of a righteous cause, yadda yadda yadda White House Calls Out Manchin for Inexplicable Reversal on Build Back Better [Rolling Stone]. According to Psaki, Manchin met with Biden at the presidents Wilmington, Del., home weeks ago, where he committed  to support the Build Back Better framework that the president then subsequently announced. Manchin then pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework in good faith. The president and Manchin then spoke again this week on Tuesday. The White House said Manchin submittedto the president, in person, directlya written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and scope as the presidents framework, and covered many of the same priorities.'  As we know, Manchin does like to write down these things; thats what he did with Schumer. And if the story is true  are there recordings?  I can see Biden being ticked off about being lied to in his own home. On Capitol Hill, surely. But not at his home. White House blasts Manchins inexplicable reversal on Build Back Better Act [CBS]. Whether Manchins comments Sunday morning represent an outright end to talks over the Build Back Better Act or were simply a negotiating maneuver remains to be seen. People familiar with his thinking told CBS News that he remains committed to working on provisions in the bill with more targeted legislation through regular legislative order.  With plenty of means testing! And no dental for the good people of West Virginia, gawd forbid. On testing, from Michael Mina, who is very sound on that topic: Lets give credit where credit is due  the last administration (particularly @DrGiroir) made massive strides on tests. We went from no rapid tests to distributing hundreds of millions  and created @NIH RADx!!! The Current admin spent 8 months mostly neglecting them. https://t.co/XUK983crF7  Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) December 18, 2021 In retrospect (and no, I dont love Trump), Trump left Biden with a not entirely bad hand to play. The former guy gave Biden the vaccines that Biden subsequently put all his chips on. Not only that, the former guy gave Biden the business model: Operation Warp Speed. Why in the name of all that is Holy didnt Biden apply the same model to tests? And masks? And treatments?

Democrats en Deshabille

Lambert here: Obviously, the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that cant bury itself. Why is that? First, the Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as unreformable as the PMC is unreformable ; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, thats because the PMC lacks the capability to govern . (PMC modulo class expatriates, of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network  a Flex Net? An iron octagon?  of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community. (Note that voters do not appear within this structure. Thats because, unlike say UK Labour or DSA, the Democrat Party is not a membership organization. Dull normals may identify with the Democrat Party, but they cannot join it, except as apparatchiks at whatever level.) Whatever, if anything, that is to replace the Democrat Party needs to demonstrate the operational capability to contend with all this. Sadly, I see nothing of the requisite scale and scope on the horizon, though I would love to be wrong. (If Sanders had leaped nimbly from the electoral train to the strike wave train after losing in 2020, instead of that weak charity sh*t he went with, things might be different today. I am not sure that was in him to do, and Im not sure he had the staff to do it, although I believe such a pivot to a war of movement would have been very popular with his small donors. What a shame the app wasnt two-way.) Ah well, nevertheless. For an example of the class power that the PMC can wield, look no further than RussiaGate. All the working parts of the Democrat Party fired on all cylinders to cripple an elected President; it was very effective, and went on for years. Now imagine that the same Party had worked, during Covid, to create an alternative narrative  see Ferguson et al., supra, to see what such a narrative might have looked like, and with the unions (especially teachers) involved. At the very least, the Biden Administration would have had a plan, and the ground prepared for it. At the best, a parallel government (Gene Sharp #198) would have emerged, ready to take power in 2020. Instead, all we got was [genuflects] Tony Fauci. And Cuomo and Newsom butchering their respective Blue States, of course. The difference? With RussiaGate, Democrats were preventing governance. In my alternative scenario, they would have been preparing for it. And while were at it: Think of the lefts programs, and lay them against the PMCs interests. (1) Free College, even community college. Could devalue PMC credentials. Na ga happen. (2) MedicareForAll. Ends jobs guarantee for means-testing gatekeepers in government, profit-through-denial-of-care gatekeepers in the health insurance business, not to mention opposition from some medical guilds. Na ga happen. (3) Ending the empire (and reining in the national security state). The lights would go out all over Fairfax and Loudon counties. Na ga happen. These are all excellent policy goals. But lets be clear that its not only billionaires who oppose them. Showing the PMCs inability to govern, as a class they seem unable to expand their scope of operations into new fields. Consider the possibilities of the Swiss Cheese Model. Layered defenses include extensive testing, contact tracing, ventilation systems (not merely blue collar HVAC work, but design and evaluation), and quarantines. If we look at each layer as a jobs guarantee for credentialed professionals and managers, like ObamaCare, the opportunities are tremendous (and thats before we get to all the training and consulting). And yet the PMC hasnt advocated for this model at all. Instead, we get authoritarian followership (Fauci) and a totalizing and tribalizing faith in an extremely risky vax-only solution. Why? Its almost as if theyre acting against their own self-interest, and I dont pretend to understand it. And Im not the only one whos puzzled. Even if you already did suspend the filibuster for specific reasons in the past and would now for SC nominees. It has razor-thin margins yet can still pass massive spending bills. Invoking Manchin or Sinema doesn't really explain the puzzle; it just re-describes it.  corey robin (@CoreyRobin) December 2, 2021 A second example of the PMCs inability to govern comes under the rubric of our democracy. Of the various components of the Democrat party, NGOs, miscellaneous mercenaries, assets in the press, and the intelligence community all believe  or at least repeat vociferously  that our democracy is under threat, whether from election integrity issues, or from fascism. But other components  funders, vendors, apparatchiks, and electeds  dont believe this at all. On election integrity, HR 1 has not passed. Gerrymandering continues apace (also a sign that Republicans take their politics much more seriously than Democrats do). On fascism, I suppose we have Pelosis January 6 Commission. But nothing unlawful took place, or we would have Merrick Garlands January Investigation. The combination of hysterical yammering from some Democrats and blithe indifference from others is extremely unsettling. (This leaves aside the question of whether Democrats, as a party, have the standing to whinge about either the erosion of democracy or the imminence of fascism. I say no.) Of course, there is a solution to the problems with our democracy: Prediction Democrats will solve the problem of minoritarian tyranny by losing the popular vote. https://t.co/hdw4IxTu2b  Alice in Winter (@AliceFromQueens) November 18, 2021 NEW It is said, I believe by Thomas Frank, that the Democrats are the Party of Betrayal. Certainly the Build Back Better debacle provides many examples of combinatorial betrayal. Manchin betrayed Biden (by lying to Biden at his house). Biden betrayed everybody (by believing, I am persuaded, and acting as if he had Manchins vote in his pocket*). Schumer betrayed everybody (by keeping Manchins written request a secret). Pelosi betrayed Jayapal (by splitting BIF and BBB into two bills and by relying on Republican votes). The Democrat leadership betrayed the Progressive Caucus (by explicitly and verbally making the face-to-face promise that BBB would be passed, and then not delivering). And, though this is harsh, Sanders betrayed his voters with his 2020 turn toward electoralism (by personally liking Biden, and relying on his deal-making ability, now shown to be a sham). I dont think the Squad betrayed anybody, unless you regard participating in the process as a betrayal, so theres that. NOTE * I believe Bidens top line was Manchins from the beginning, and nowhere near Sanders. * * * Liberals disappointed after Bidens first year [The Hill]. Biden deserves high marks on how his team has navigated a national health crisis, said Michael Ceraso, a progressive strategist and former campaign worker for Sanders. But that doesnt give his administration or congressional Democrats a pass on not reforming the criminal justice system, watching voting rights erode and the right to protest stripped, and allowing reproductive health to be under siege.'  Lol no, Biden doesnt deserve high marks when his death count is higher than Trumps. (And now we dont just have Democratic strategists, we have progressive strategists. Oh, good.) Pretending Problems Dont Exist Wont Make Them Disappear [Ross Barkan, Political Currents]. The real shock, for Democrats and left-leaning observers at least, came in a select few neighborhoods of New York City. For the second November in a row, a nonwhite demographic swung hard toward the Republican Party. In 2020, Latinos nationally voted in greater numbers for Trump than they did in 2016. The story was no different in the five boroughs, where Spanish-speaking neighborhoods cast votes for Trump at a much higher rate than four years prior. What came to the fore last month was how Asian voters, particularly Chinese and Korean voters, had migrated to the Republican Party. Though Sliwa lost the race, he won areas that had in earlier elections backed the Democratic standard bearer. In the 40th Assembly District, which ropes in the Asian-majority Queens neighborhood of Flushing, Sliwa beat Adams outright. A year ago, Biden had won almost 62 percent of the vote there. Hillary Clinton, in 2016, broke 67 percent. De Blasio won Flushing too. Sliwas performance there got some media attention, given Flushings position as one of the largest hubs for Asian immigrants in the United States. The improved Republican performance was not limited to Flushing. In the nearby 25th Assembly District, which takes in several eastern Queens neighborhoods with large Asian populations, Sliwa won 51 percent of the vote to Adams 45 percent. In the 26th Assembly District, which ropes in both whiter suburban neighborhoods like Douglaston and the increasingly Asian Bayside, Sliwa ran up the score, netting about 58 percent of the vote. All of this was notableBiden won 57 percent of the vote in the 26th AD and a whopping 62 percent in the 25th. Another place where the Asian movement to the GOP was pronounced was in my own backyard in southern Brooklyn.  If only Jebbie had run in 2016.

2022

Ill file this under 2022, on the hopeful assumption that by 2024, we will have forgotten all about the pandemic: The political emergency of Covid is over everywhere but among public health nerds and the increasingly fringe group for which The Pandemic gives them purpose. https://t.co/b9pix07uOV  Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 18, 2021 NC readers are disproportionately public health nerds, so we may be in a bit of an echo chamber, but Im not sure Stollers correct. Surely one way Biden was going to be not Trump was solving Covid? Which he has not done? And theres been plenty of work on the ground by dull normals, not Beltway nerds: Every non-pharmaceutical intervention you can think of, school fights and collective action over ventilation and Corsi boxes, etc.

Republican Funhouse

GOP maps Biden probes, prelude to 2024 culture war [Axios]. House Republicans have begun mapping aggressive probes of the Biden administration if they win back the majority  including inquiries into the origins of COVID, a leak of IRS data about billionaires, and accusations the NSA spied on Tucker Carlson.  What fun. Seems like pretty minor stuff. Why dont they just impeach Biden for butchering Trumps vaccine? Kanye Wests Independent Campaign Was Secretly Run by GOP Elites [The Daily Beast]. New documents show Kanye Wests doomed White House campaignstyled as an independent third-party effortappears to have disguised potentially millions of dollars in services it received from a secretive network of Republican Party operatives, including advisers to the GOP elite and a managing partner at one of the top conservative political firms in the country. Potentially even more alarming? The Kanye 2020 campaign committee did not even report paying some of these advisers, and used an odd abbreviation for anothermoves which campaign finance experts say appear designed to mask the association between known GOP operatives and the campaign, and could constitute a violation of federal laws. At the heart of Kanyes political operation was Holtzman Vogel, one of the most powerful and well-connected law firms serving major Republican political and nonprofit organizations today. And weaved throughout his campaign, whether the multi-platinum rapper realized it or not, were Republican operatives who may have been less interested in seeing a President West than in re-electing President Donald Trump. A land war in Asia: "we need men "who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls  https://t.co/Yk29kf3dg2  CM  Zero Covidista (@xuchuanmei) December 19, 2021 Thats not who we need at all. We need people who know what to do when an enormous fleet of Chinese drones appears from the mainland and heads for our carriers. That has little to do with piling up skulls (unless we go nuclear, of course).

Realignment and Legitimacy

John Adams on Sparta: John Adams had thoughts on Sparta. He really. *hated* it. " Human nature perished under this system of frigid national pride," writes he: pic.twitter.com/z0bAoQhBfD  T. Greer (@Scholars_Stage) December 19, 2021

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Todays plant (AG):

AG writes: Last Thursday night, we got our first freeze of the year here in the Sierra foothills of CA, 2700 elevation. So, still in a daze before coffee kicked in, I went out to see what I could see, hoping for some frost patterns.

The native Black Oak leaves (and acorns) that had fallen looked very interesting, just as the sun peeped over the hill and lit them softly. Especially the ice crystals along the edges of each leaf. I had about five minutes before this very delicate frost melted entirely. As Im sure any physicist will tell you, the edges or corners of any body will experience the greatest delta transfer of energy, so the crystals along the edges of these leaves will get colder (and most likely bigger, if sufficient water is available from the leaves and airthink dew point to support their growth) and will also melt first when the sun arrivesrelative to the crystals on the surface of the leaves.

The green shoots are the first shoots of the (unfortunately, nonnative, meaning European annual, and most unwelcome invader) grasses stimulated by the first rains a couple of weeks ago, and already four inches or more long.

Gorgeous!

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and  thank you!  successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:









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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
By Chiara Burlina, Assistant Professor of Applied Economics, University of Padova, and Andres Rodriguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair and Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics; Research Fellow, CEPR. Originally published at VoxEU.

Western countries are facing an epidemic of solitude. Though its impact on mental health has attracted considerable attention, little is known about its economic effects. This column distinguishes between two forms of solitude  loneliness and living alone  and studies their influence on the economic performance of European regions at the local level. Greater shares of people living alone drive economic growth, whereas an increase in loneliness has damaging economic consequences. Though the relationship is complex and non-linear, a region with more lonely people will experience lower aggregate economic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the salience of solitude in modern societies (Smith and Lim 2020). Solitude often takes place when a persons social relationships are perceived by the person to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2021). In this case, solitude can be equated with loneliness  a distressing experience that can lead to irritability, depression, and increases in premature deaths (Cacioppo and Cacioppo 2018).

Solitude may also refer to people living alone, without the company of family and friends. Living alone normally lacks the negative connotations associated with loneliness (Kurutz 2012). Increasingly, individuals live alone not because they are forced to but out of choice (Wilkinson 2014). In the so-called second demographic transition (Van De Kaa 1987), the archetypal profile of the elderly citizen living alone was replaced by that of an adult professional, often a woman, with high levels of education and stable employment. However, in times like the current Covid pandemic, which are characterised by forced or self-isolation, the life satisfaction of people living alone can decrease (Hamermesh 2020). This may have implications for aggregate economic activity.

Generally, being lonely and living alone describe different states of mind and can represent different attitudes towards life, leading to diverse aggregate economic outcomes. Factors like the greater participation of women in the labour force, increased life expectancy, and urbanisation are pushing more and more people to live alone. The share of individuals living alone has consequently been rising for some time (Sandstrom and Karlsson 2019). But living alone does not necessarily mean that individuals are lonely. Lonely individuals often feel isolated, indicating an emotional detachment from others and society, whereas many of those living alone lack this emotional detachment and lead vibrant social lives. They frequently compensate for the lack of in-person interaction within the household with a wide network of interpersonal face-to-face and digital relationships outside it.

When they are combined, these two dimensions of solitude may have detrimental implications from a purely economic perspective. First, more people feeling lonely and/or living alone may reduce the number of interpersonal and face-to-face interactions at the heart of the development of new ideas and innovation (Storper and Venables 2004). Second, many people affected by solitude may shy away from engaging in economic activities. Third, different forms of solitude may undermine trust and prevent the formation of bridging social capital, which has been identified as an important factor for regional economic growth (Muringani et al. 2021). Yet living alone is costly, and those living alone require considerable economic resources to finance the costs of properties and rents. This may somewhat counterbalance the potential negative economic effects of the rise in solitude across the developed world.

Loneliness and Alone Living and Economic Growth

We investigate the effects of living alone and being lonely on economic growth across 139 regions of Europe in the period before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Burlina and Rodriguez-Pose 2021). Our study considers three main measures of solitude: the share of people living alone on the overall population; a sociability index as a proxy for loneliness, covering the degree of interaction within a region measured by the number of in-person meetings for social purposes, regardless of frequency; and the frequency of personal interactions (ranging from daily social meetings to never meeting anyone else for social purposes).

The European geography of these different forms of solitude is extremely variegated. Figure 1 shows the geographical distribution of (a) the share of individuals living alone, and (b) the sociability index. The share of individuals living alone is far higher in Nordic countries and in Central Europe than in Iberia and Eastern Europe. National borders are in clear evidence and there is a marked rural/urban divide.

The geography of sociability/loneliness is more intricate. Southern countries such as Spain and Portugal have a higher degree of sociability. But high levels of sociability are also in evidence in other countries, such as France, the UK, and Sweden. There are strong regional variations within countries  differences in sociability between Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Wurttemberg, for example  and no clearly discernible urban/rural, city/town patterns. Many of the regions with a high concentration of people living alone  such as Brussels, most UK regions, Franche-Comte in France, or Schleswig-Holstein in Germany  also have a high sociability index.

Figure 1 Share of people living alone and sociability index

Panel a

Panel b

Sociability Drives Growth, but the Relationship between Loneliness and Growth is More Complex

Though the rise of solitude has potentially pernicious health, mental health, and social consequences, it does not pose the same threat from an economic perspective. Greater shares of people living alone contribute to driving economic growth across European regions. The increasing number of people choosing to live alone  rather than being forced to by external circumstances  can boost economic growth, provided they remain active in the labour force and willing to network and interact with others.

The rise in loneliness, by contrast, has damaging economic consequences on the whole. A society with greater numbers of people feeling lonely has a more limited capacity to generate additional wealth. The connection between loneliness and economic growth, however, depends on factors such as the frequency of meetings between people. Too much interaction, such as the prevalence of daily meetings, can undermine the benefits of in-person exchanges. Societies where a large share of individuals meet on a less than weekly basis are also less likely to grow. The sweet spot seems to be large shares of the population meeting with friends, relatives, and co-workers on average on a weekly basis.

COVID-19 is bound to accelerate the rise of different forms of solitude (Hamermesh 2020, Belot et al. 2020), necessitating a greater need for policies that mitigate its negative effects. It is not always clear how governments and administrations should intervene in areas that belong in the sphere of the individual; any form of solitude can be the result of personal choice. However, the fact that the economic consequences of rising solitude can be felt not just at the individual, but also at the aggregate level demands greater policy consideration. Policies such as facilitating choice in the case of living alone are already on the table in some countries. Greater intervention may also be required in order to combat the loneliness epidemic. In any case, searching for solutions will require addressing the roots of rising solitude to prevent or minimise its negative collective health, well-being, social, and economic consequences.

References available at the original.
(Natural News) (Op-ed) Its a privilege to travel in the US, says CNNs favorite communist doctor. You have no right to go anywhere unless Joe Biden, Fauci and Leana Wen all agree you can. This is communism growing quickly in America. Only the rich and elite, who make the insane rules for Covid, are allowed to have fun, go out to eat, travel and go to shows and sporting events. If you dont believe it, ask the China Flu dictators, who are threatening all Americans with loss of all rights, if they refuse to be shot up with billions of blood-clotting prions.

If you want to stay unvaccinated, thats your choice, but if you want to travel, you better go get that vaccine, declares the communist talking head from television who goes by the name Leana Wen. Wen has been paid to say interstate travel should be illegal for anyone who doesnt like their organs and blood vessels filled with toxic spike proteins.

China Flu promoter and death-by-vax aficionado Dr. Wen says going out in public without the Covid vaccine is just like drunk driving, you endanger society, but really, the vaccines are toxic inside your body, just like alcohol, so its actually the vaccinated that should not be allowed to drive anywhere anymore or even operate heavy machinery, including airplanes and trains. They are causing vaccine-induced accidents, a.k.a. vaxidents, all over the US roadways and highways. How does this happen?

Millions of people are suffering from myocarditis, anaphylaxis and blood clots from the Wuhan jabs, making them highly susceptible to passing out or having a stroke behind the wheel. So vaccine passports would only be useful if those passports SUSPEND driving privileges for all Covid-vaccinated sheeple until the vaccines are proven safe for the short and long term.

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Excuse me, sir/maam, have you been drinking alcohol or have you been injected with the clot shot? (Yes, the clot shot sir.) You are under arrest and being charged with DW-SPI  driving while spike-protein injected.

Having the right to travel, breathe clean air and eat food is not in the Constitution, so the CDC is now leveraging it all to force Americans into clot-shot compliance

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say you can leave your house if the CDC tells you that the flu is more contagious this year, and thus instructs you that you cant go anywhere until its eradicated completely. In fact, stay on lockdown until there are no more colds, viruses, bacteria or pathogens anywhere on Earth, so were all safe. Remember, were all in this together.

Having the right to travel interstate, its not a constitutional right, claims CNNs medical analyst (vaccine industry shill) Leana Wen. Shes so hard at work, with her panel of Covid clowns, busy analyzing what human rights she can destroy next. Do you like privileges? Then get vaccinated, she declares.

Wen brought communist China with her to America a few years back. She loves pushing abortions for Black women (shes a former president of Planned Parenthood) and toxic spike protein injections for healthy Americans, including all children, infants and pregnant women.

If you like going to visit other states in America, maybe because you have relatives there or you like to visit national parks, that time has passed, according to the shill doctors at CNN. Soon, federal cops (TSA thugs) will be checking for blood clot passports at state lines, and anyone without one will be put in Covid concentration camps, like in Victoria, Australia, and force vaccinated until death comes by heart failure (it will be labeled Covid).

Listen to the communist dictators talk trash about healthy Americans who refuse the deadly China Flu jabs:

Over 20,000 vaccine-induced deaths from the Covid jab in one year is more than DOUBLE the drunk driving deaths per year in the USA

If the talking heads at CNN really want to assist with Americans rights and freedoms, then quarantine everyone who has received a Covid vaccine, or at least suspend their drivers license for a while, because they are double the threat behind the wheel that drunk drivers pose. Whats worse is that the Covid vaccines have killed twice as many people as drunk drivers in the past year, so whos being charged with those crimes? Involuntary manslaughter  thats five to ten years in prison.

People caught operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery who have an overload of toxins in the blood, including too much alcohol, cocaine, heroin, meth or heart-straining spike proteins, should be arrested and have driving privileges suspended. They are putting innocent, law-abiding Americans lives at risk. This is a public health and safety problem.

Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news for updates on the war against dirty vaccines and socialism, and how to keep your family happy, healthy and safe.

Sources for this article include:

TheGatewayPundit.com

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Associated Press (AP) wants the Biden regime to provide answers as to why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a government database for tracking international terrorists to instead spy on and investigate as many as 20 American journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reporter.

AP executive editor Julie Pace recently sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding that he explain why investigative reporter Martha Mendozas name was run through said terrorist database and identified as a confidential informant during Donald Trumps presidency.

This is a flagrant example of a federal agency using its power to examine the contacts of journalists, Pace wrote in the communique. While the actions detailed in the inspector generals report occurred under a previous administration, the practices were described as routine.

All of this was discovered in a Homeland Security inspector generals (IG) report, which was discovered in a records request made by Yahoo News. It revealed that Jeffrey Rambo, a Border Patrol agent who was on temporary duty with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit in the Washington, D.C., area in 2017, accessed government travel records as part of a leak investigation involving another reporter by the name of Ali Watkins who now works for The New York Times but at the time worked for Politico.

The inspector general began investigating Rambo after news reports revealed that he had used government resources to investigate Watkins as part of the Trump administrations efforts to crack down on leaks to reporters, The Republic Brief reported.

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CBP denies any wrongdoing in shady investigations

Documents pertaining to the IG investigation show that Rambo routinely ran the names of journalists, congressional staff and others through various government databases in order to vet them. He did this while working through a CBP unit called Counter Network Division (CND).

Rambo reportedly ordered investigators to vet anyone he made contact with as part of the CNDs mission to combat forced labor. However, there was no specific guidance about how to actually do this vetting.

When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access to, thats just status quo, thats what everyone does, Rambo told investigators.

Before reaching out to her for her expertise in writing about forced labor, Rambo reportedly searched for Mendoza in the governments databases. This concerns the CBP because one of the agencys tasks is to enforce import restrictions.

Mendoza, by the way, won her second Pulitzer Prize back in 2016 while working on a team that reported on slave labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The AP characterized this incident as the latest apparent example of an agency created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks using its vast capabilities to target American citizens.

We are deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power, the AP said in a separate statement included in the letter. This appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the First Amendment.

The IGs office referred the findings of its investigation to a federal prosecutor for possible charges involving the abuse of government databases and lying to investigators. However, the Department of Justice (DoJ) refused to prosecute Rambo and two other DHS employees, according to the AP.

In a statement, CBP denied any wrongdoing and said its investigative practices are strictly governed, preventing illegitimate or illegal investigations from taking place.

We do not condone the investigation of reporters in response to the exercise of First Amendment rights, a DHS spokeswoman said. CBP and every component agency and office in the Department will ensure their practices are consistent with our values and our highest standards.

More news stories like this one can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

RepublicBrief.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) An emergency update here, Sunday night, Dec. 19th.

Biden has promised a winter of severe illness and death. His threat is real, but the real victims will, of course, be the vaccinated and the unprepared.

Over the weekend, I have received additional confirmations on what I suspected was already accelerating. Local funeral homes are seeing sudden spikes in deaths among vaccinated people as Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) collides with winter-induced vitamin D deficiency. Deaths are accelerating rapidly and will continue to rise through the end of February. At that time, Im told, an estimated 25,000 Americans will be dying each week (significantly more than the 15,600 the CDC is publicly warning about), all due to covid vaccine complications.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, you see, and it stores in human tissues such as the liver and kidneys. As people first enter the winter months, they often have vitamin D supplies left over from the Summer or Fall. But due to the indoor winter months with very little sunshine (and no bare skin outdoors due to the temperature), people use up their vitamin D supplies rather quickly. Most Americans are vitamin D deficient by early January, and without vitamin D circulating in their blood, they become highly susceptible to infections and cancer tumor growth throughout the remainder of the winter.

(Notably, Australia is entering its peak summer season which would normally benefit Australian citizens due to sun exposure, but the strict lockdowns and travel restrictions there are depriving people of outdoor time, exacerbating their chronic vitamin D deficiency, just as planned by the evil death cult lunatics running that country.)

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This is why right now, all across America, paramedics, morticians, EMTs and funeral directors are already noting a striking uptick in all-cause mortality. Its just the beginning, however. Its going to get far worse through at least the end of February. We could see as many as 400,000 Americans killed this winter alone by covid vaccines, adding to the estimated 800,000 who have already been murdered by the jabs. (Thats 20,000 reported VAERS deaths multiplied by the Under Reporting Factor of 40, as rough estimates.)

Life insurance companies are also seeing record payouts on their policies due to the spike in post-vaccine deaths. Covid vaccines are going to devastate the life insurance industry over the next decade, and premiums will double or triple in the coming year.

Which states will see the highest vaccine deaths this winter

Watch for a late January announcement of a deadly new strain thats dropping people like flies. But understand in advance that it will be the vaccinated who are dying, not the unvaccinated. The media will, of course, lie to you about this and claim all the dead people are unvaccinated. They will lie until the very end because they are complicit in this vaccine holocaust.

The population of America is over 330 million. The vaccine deaths of even 400,000 people this winter is barely above 1/1000th of the population, or 0.1%. This is why the media can still cover up the significant deaths its not yet enough for people to see the masses dying with their own eyes. But that will change

According to the CDC, 241 million Americans have received two doses. The CDC also claims 73% of all Americans have received booster doses, meaning they are claiming that nearly everyone who has received two doses has also taken booster doses (this claim seems fraudulent, but its the CDC, so no one believe them anyway).

The CDC has released the following map that shows vaccine doses administered per capita on a state-by-state basis. The dark blue states claim to have administered 1.5 doses for every person in the state, making them the states with the highest vaccination rates:

The states with the highest vaccination rates, of course, will be the states with the most deaths this winter. Its not difficult to see that these states and regions include California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, Michigan, Florida and most of the Northeast. Florida is likely in this list due to its high percentage of elderly, who are about 95% vaccinated.

Importantly, these are the states where the most deaths are going to occur this winter. So when the Pretender-In-Chief Joe Biden claims America is headed into a, winter of severe illness and deaths, hes not wrong. Hes just failing to mention its going to be the blue states where most of these deaths occur.

In Texas, interestingly, the counties with the highest vaccination rates are the border counties which tend to be heavily populated with ethnic Latinos. This shows how Latinos are far more compliant than other ethnic groups:

Aside from the border counties, the areas of Texas also showing darker blue are the liberal cities of Austin, Dallas / Ft. Worth, Houston and El Paso. These is where the die-offs are going to be concentrated. Similar maps are shown for Florida and other states which have blue areas designated by county.

As you can see from these maps, the US states that will be least impacted by the vaccine death wave will be Idaho, Wyoming, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Both the government and the media are trying to bury the covid vaccine deaths right now, but at some point in 2022, the death statistics will become undeniable. Increases in all-cause mortality will track almost perfectly with per capita vaccination rates. It wont take long for statisticians to see the obvious.

Each winter, another wave of vaccine deaths will take place

Unfortunately for the blue cities, counties and states, the vaccine cant be undone. Deaths will hit hard this coming winter but will likely wane during the summer of 2022 due to increased natural vitamin D. The winter of 2022 / 2023, however, will be absolutely devastating, given that the mRNA spike protein factories will have had another year to damage vascular systems and suppress immunity. Even worse, many people will be convinced to take additional booster shots through 2022, leading them right into a second winter die-off next year.

This cycle of die-offs, booster injections and media hysteria will continue until tens of millions of Americans are dead (unless somehow the genocide is stopped). This might require several years to fully play out, but during this time, Americas economy will be decimated and our civil liberties will be under constant assault. With the State of New York now considering legislation that would legalize armed medical kidnapping of the unvaccinated  and throwing them into covid concentration camps  we are testing the limits of how much medical tyranny the government can try to shove down the throats of Americans without setting off a spirited revolt.

Dead Democrats will be replaced by unvaccinated illegals given special protection status

Blue states, cities and counties, meanwhile, will suffer devastating economic consequences over the next several years, and the demographics of the die-off will see two Democrats dying from the vaccine for every one Republican. The corrupt left-wing leaders already know this, which is why they are bringing in replacement illegals who are protected from vaccinations so that they can remain fertile and reproduce once they occupy America.

Its true: Vaccines are not being given to illegal immigrants because vaccine manufacturers dont want the liability of lawsuits stemming from vaccine injuries. Thus, American citizens can be systematically poisoned, killed or made infertile by the vaccines while illegals are given protected status and allowed to occupy and repopulate the United States in order to replace the soon-to-be-dead Democrats.

Whats especially ironic is how the very Democrats who voted for this still have no clue that they are being systematically exterminated and replaced through illegal immigration.

The mass murder and depopulation of Americans is further understood by the fact that the FDA has announced the availability of abortion pills via the US mail in all 50 states while, at the same time, the FDA is conspiring with the USPS to intercept and destroy all ivermectin shipments in the mail. The mail can be used, in other words, to murder unborn babies, but never to save the life of a citizen from covid.

Thus, the United States of America, with the aggressive push of criminal mastermind Fauci and the CDC, has become a giant death camp that will produce tens of millions of covid vaccine casualties over the next decade, with replacements at the ready to take the place of the dead Democrats.

Illegals are far more reliable socialists than brainwashed left-wing Americans

Illegal immigrants from Central and South America, it turns out, vote socialist even more reliably than delusional left-wing white liberals. Thus, they have been chosen as the protected class to usher in the next century of mass poverty combined with government authoritarianism and medical tyranny. Just as illegals in America are rarely required to carry auto insurance or drivers licenses  they essentially have legal immunity in Texas, California, New Mexico and other states  they will also not be required to produce any vaccine compliance documentation. They will be allowed to move through every sector of society  including voting booths  without producing any form of identification or compliance.

The vaccine compliance will only be inflicted upon actual American citizens in order to exterminate them.

This is the scenario under which you are now living, and only those who refuse the vaccines will remain as survivors of this vaccine holocaust.

If you comply, you die. Resist the jab and you may have a chance, although it will be difficult to stem the flood of illegals currently sweeping across the country by design. They are given air tickets and deposited in swing counties and states where Democrats need an extra voting boost. They can no longer reliably pull off with ballot fraud, you see, due to increased scrutiny of electronic voting machines following the rigging of the 2020 election.

Once again, Democrats are plotting two or three moves ahead on the chess board while the GOP is playing tiddly winks and getting bamboozled at every turn. The GOP is still fighting the last war while the Democrats and the globalists are overrunning the country with each passing day.

The America you once knew is already gone. The youth have been hopelessly corrupted with LGBT grooming and the complete failure of public education. The injections required to achieve the mass die-off have already been administered. The fiat currency has been printed to the point of ruin. Now its just a matter of these maneuvers playing out.

Few people have yet come to realize that the America we once knew is already lost. Like Sun Tzu, the outcome of this war has already been determined before the first shot is yet to be fired. Now the only question is who will be in charge as America falls. Will it be the Democrats who deliberately engineered the destruction of this great nation? Or will it be the Republicans who stood by and did nothing while the Marxists and communists took over every institution?

Either way, the world you once knew is gone.

To be continued

Hear my Situation Update podcasts each day at:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport
(Natural News) Despite the fact that COVID-19 has killed more than 4.6 million people, 690,000-plus of whom have been Americans, Dr. Anthony Faucis National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases has continued to fund research in China, where the coronavirus came from.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has continued to funnel millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund scientific research in conjunction with Communist China since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, including to military-controlled organizations, the National Pulse reported late last week, citing data downloaded from the NIH website pertaining to grant monies awarded.

In addition, more than half of the grants sent since early 2020 came from Faucis agency, the outlet revealed.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) database reveals that 13 grants have been sent to the country which has stonewalled investigations into the origins of COVID-19. China has also undertaken a global propaganda campaign to blame the U.S. for the virus, while America continues to send cash, the report continued.

The report added that Southern Medical University, which is believed to be controlled by the Peoples Liberation Army and has extensive ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where COVID-19 is believed to have been developed and escaped, got an additional two grants worth around $300,000 from Fauci.

In total over $4 million has been sent to studies counting their principal investigators as working in China for state-run scientific bodies in 2020 and 2021. Seven of the studies are still active at the time of publication, the National Pulse added.

In the past, when reports began to surface that Fauci did, indeed, providing funding to the Wuhan lab, he initially denied it, though he eventually was forced to admit that, yes, he did authorize funding to the institution, according to a May report by the New York Post:

The National Institutes of Health earmarked $600,000 for the Wuhan Institute of Virology over a five-year period to study whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers Tuesday.

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the money was funneled to the Chinese lab through the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance to fund a modest collaboration with very respectable Chinese scientists who were world experts on coronavirus.

But in what seems like Fauci splitting hairs, he went on to claim during his testimony that he was certain none of those funds went for gain of function research, which is dangerous and most often used to enhance the contagious nature of a virus so as to study how it spreads and what can be done to combat it.

That categorically was not done, Fauci told lawmakers in response to questions about the research technique. NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he added.

However, Fauci added, We had a big scare with SARS-CoV-1 {SARS] back in 2002, 2003 where that particular virus unquestionably went from a bat to an intermediate host to start an epidemic and a pandemic that resulted in 8,000 cases and close to 800 deaths.

It would have been almost a dereliction of our duty if we didnt study this, and the only way you can study these things is youve got to go where the action is, he said.

So  did he, or did he not, fund gain-of-function research?

Turns out the most likely answer is, yes he did.

Documents unearthed by Richard Ebright, board of governors professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, show that Fauci was being untruthful, Newsweek reported last week.

The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement in Wuhan are untruthful Ebright said.

If verified, that means Fauci lied to Congress, which is a felony  but who among us believes the Biden regime is going to charge him?

Sources include:

MSN.com

NYPost.com

TheNationalPulse.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Police are investigating an Instacart shopper who allegedly ran over an elderly couples groceries after supposedly leaving a crude, anti-police note on the wreath hanging on their door.

(Article by Anita Job republished from LawEnforcementToday.com)

KSTP reported on Dec. 13 that the Blaine Police Department said it had identified the shopper and that charges are likely in the near future.

A purple-haired Instacart driver destroyed an elderly couple's "carefully budgeted" $50 of groceries because they have a yard sign that reads "thank you Blaine P.D."https://t.co/JxW7kikO8I  Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) December 11, 2021

In a press release, the Blaine Police Department confirmed the couple received a full refund from Instacart and further noted:

The delivery driver has been identified and the investigation continues with charges likely in the near future.

Please note that while it is wonderful to see the community support for this family, we cannot accept donations for them at the police department.

Thank you once again to our wonderful Blaine community for the support that you have shown to this family.

Instacart had replied to a concerned Twitter user and confirmed the incident was reported to its Trust and Safety Team:

We truly understand the concern with this matter and we can confirm that this has been reported to our Trust and Safety Team for review. We take these matters seriously!  Lupita

We truly understand the concern with this matter and we can confirm that this has been reported to our Trust and Safety Team for review. We take these matters seriously!  Lupita  Instacart (@Instacart) December 12, 2021

According to a report by KSTP:

The couple had placed an order for delivery from Cub Foods the morning of Dec. 6, and once the driver arrived at their home, the couple went outside to meet the driver.

The driver yelled for them to check inside their Christmas wreath, where they found a receipt with a derogatory message written on it.

The couple told police that they didnt find any groceries on the front porch; instead, they said the groceries had been run over in the driveway.

Facebook user Amber Gray claimed to be a relative of the couple and described the alleged incident:

I have a story. Its a sad one. Today two of my elderly relatives were victims of a hateful act. Targeted because of a small yard sign supporting their local police department.

These people are two of the most beautiful, generous, loving souls Ive ever known. This past year has been a rollercoaster of heartache and big life changes for them. Money is tight. Vulnerability is high.

This morning they made an Instacart grocery purchase to be delivered to their door. Nothing crazy. Just a couple of bags worth. They received the usual notifications; Tara is shopping, Tara is on her way, Tara is in your neighborhood.

Worried that Tara might struggle in their un-shoveled driveway, they rushed out to meet her. As they opened the door they heard Tara screaming for them to check inside their Christmas wreath.

It also seemed that she was stuck in the driveway, rocking the car back and forth to get free? Seeing no groceries anywhere they checked the wreath. To their utter disbelief they found a hateful note crudely scribbled on a random receipt.

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In harsh bold marker it read, Instacart doesnt pay employees sry find another slave fuck the police racist pigs.

A short time later they discovered their groceries in the driveway, casualties of Taras hateful act. She wasnt stuck after all, she was running their groceries over.

Tara probably doesnt know how carefully those $50 in groceries were budgeted for. Or how devastating the recent medical diagnosis has been. Or how scared and vulnerable her vile act of hatred made them feel.

My heart breaks for my loved ones.

Supporting law enforcement doesnt make you racist. And it absolutely doesnt give anyone the right to destroy your things or shatter your sense of safety.

I can only hope that Instacart does the right thing here and holds Tara accountable.

I hope the Police Department is able to find Tara.

I pray for Tara. I pray that she gets help. I pray that she never knows the kind of pain and fear she caused today. May she be blessed with a wonderful holiday season.

During a Dec. 13 update, Gray posted that Tara allegedly would no longer be working for Instacart:

We continue to be blown away by the show of support! Instacart has taken this very seriously and have assured us that Tara will no longer be working for them.

The police department has been fielding dozens of calls from concerned citizens questioning the GoFundMe.

They continue to assure folks that it isnt a scam. We have also been able to provide them with a name based on information received from someone who saw this Facebook post.

We hope that by bringing attention to what happened they can help prevent a similar incident. 

Gray posted a GoFundMe grocery fundraiser for her relatives and has raised over $7,300 from 110 donors so far due to the overwhelming response from people who saw her Facebook post and wanted to help.

Many of the comments on the fundraiser were positive.

Nichole London posted:

This story should be national news, what an absolute disgrace. Thank you to Amber for sharing, and for your support of the police. God bless you, and have a Merry Christmas.

Brian Allen wrote:

I love the Blaine Police!!!

Mark Carnegie noted:

I hope this little bit helps. Please forget this and try to have a Merry Christmas! From your Canadian neighbours.

Dennis Hawkings posted:

No one deserves to be treated this way, and the ones that do this need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. This was all because of a sign, how childish are these people.

Jill Heuring wrote:

Merry Christmas and God bless you!! #backtheblue.

However, some people became suspicious.

For example, on the GoFundMe account, one person, S Rivera, asked for a refund because the person was concerned about the timeframe indicated on the receipt that was allegedly used by Tara to write a nasty note.

Assuming the receipt that Tara allegedly wrote on is the one that belonged to the couple, one donor wrote:

Id like a refund. The receipt for $5.59 shows shredded cheese purchased at 12:48 AM. The Instacart shoppers screenshot photo is from 7:55 AM. Do instacart shoppers shop at midnight?

It is not clear why the person assumed the receipt belonged to the couple. It may have been a random receipt or even Taras personal receipt that was used to leave a note for the elderly couple.

The receipt in question is dated Dec. 4, which is two days before the alleged running over of groceries on Dec. 6.

Still, on Facebook there were quite a few comments about the fundraiser from other social media detectives who decided they did not approve of it as of Dec. 13.

Angie DeJesus posted:

How come the receipt has 1 item and there are a few bags of groceries??

Amanda Buschman wrote:

It doesnt make sense to me that a GoFundMe account had to be set up when Instacart refunded your groceries. As a former Instacart shopper, Im sure they issued you a refund. If your relatives are tight on money, they honestly should not be ordering Instacart and instead should have family members bring them in groceries.

Braid E Cardia expressed concern:

Was there a police report filed with the Blaine police department? Im not finding any record of what you described. I also noticed the go-fund-me is set up in your name, not the family member you speak of. My concern is to an outsider this kinda looks like a scam. Hope not!

Others took swipes at the police department and Republicans.

Jasmin Aza posted:

Ask Blaine PD for the $500 as a token for your support. They have the budget.

Jennifer John wrote:

Another Republican with a fake story and a GoFundMe to grift the people stupid enough to believe it.

One call to Instacart would have solved this issue, so anyone falling for this scam is ignorant af .

Other Facebook users simply mimicked responses from others.

In two separate, but back-to-back posts, Gareth Turtle wrote:

This didnt happen so much it unhappened things that had.

Of all the things that didnt happen, this didnt happen the most.

Misty Patton-Stephenson similarly posted:

Of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most.

Amanda Lindsey tried her best to mimic the same message:

The receipt doesnt match, Of all the things that didnt happen, this happened the didntest.

Facebook users also made several comments about Tara as of Dec. 13, and they were not exactly flattering.

Linda Daniels posted:

Tara looks like a man! He / she probably quit Instacart right away so as to try not to be tracked down. But Instacart must have record of who this person is! I am so sorry this happened!

Katrina Anderson seemed to agree:

Scary individual. Pretty sure thats not a female.

Natasha Small wrote:

I pmd you here on fb with his info! Check your message requests. Guy is NUTS!!!

You all sound so ignorant. This guy really is insane. Ive been unfortunate enough to encounter him myself.

Sharon Thompson-Johnson posted:

Amber, like you I will pray for Tara. What a horrible life she must have being so negative and against our people that put their lives in danger every hour of every day to protect us the people. Gods Blessings to our Police and to your family members that had to endure the meanness of this person, Tara.

Caresse Anderson noted:

What a pile this person is. So she feels that she can destroy other peoples stuff because they have different beliefs than her. She deserves to be locked up though I know she probably wont be and she should have to pay back 3 times what she destroyed immediately not like the years from now. What a horrible despicable person.

Despite all the negative comments about Tara, one person showed support for the alleged purple-haired rage shopper.

Kassi Mae posted:

Youre honestly an evil woman. I cannot believe what Im seeing. You scammed all of these people and are trying to get someone doxxed by a bunch of republican wack jobs while youre at it. Dont pray for Tara girl pray for your damn self. #ProtectTara.

At the end of the thread, it was noted on Facebook that Amber Gray limited who can comment on this post.

Read more at: LawEnforcementToday.com
(Natural News) Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), is suing the school over its Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine mandate.

Early on, Kheriaty did not necessarily suspect that anything was amiss. Over time, however, he started to observe a clear pattern of behavior from public health officials that deviated from traditional medical ethics.

One of the biggest red flags he noticed was the aggressive push for everyone to get injected, including those with minimal risk of infection. Suddenly, it became all about compliance rather than public health, and medical freedom went right out the window in the process.

Kheriaty could not remain silent about what he was seeing, but the minute he started doing something about it, he was punished by UCI with a suspension.

I had to stand up and try to do something about it, the professor of psychiatry and director of the UCI Health Medical Ethics Program, told The Epoch Times American Thought Leaders.

I knew that I would wake up in the morning and not have a clear conscience if he did nothing, Kheriaty added. You can watch a video interview with Kheriaty at the link below:

https://twitter.com/JanJekielek/status/1454583181735305222

Natural immunity is the only real immunity

Kheriaty says that he and his family all contracted the Chinese Flu last year, based on test results they received. Everyone recovered without a hitch and none had to be hospitalized.

It was, for me, actually a very liberating experience afterward because I didnt have to worry about the illness anymore, Kheriaty explained. I knew the science on natural immunity.

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The medical establishment now denies the existence of natural immunity, claiming that people can only attain protection against diseases if they get vaccinated for them. But Kheriaty knows the truth.

I knew that at that point, I was among the safest people to be around, Kheriaty added about the natural immunity he obtained post-infection. I didnt have to worry about transmitting the infection to my patients.

Kheriaty still complied with his hospitals mask mandates and other PPE (personal protective equipment) guidelines, but he says he knew full well the entire time that he was not a risk to others.

Where Kheriaty drew the line, however, was UCIs Fauci Flu shot mandate. A mask can be taken off, as can a gown or goggles. But once DNA-modifying gene therapy chemicals are inserted into the body, they can never be removed.

Not only that, but the jabs have been shown to damage the immune system, leaving it unable to fight off diseases as effectively  if at all  later on down the road.

Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no longer recognizes natural immunity, UCI used this expertise to support its jab mandate, which does not recognize natural antibodies as being valid.

Kheriaty was left with no choice other than to comply or sue the school. He chose the latter, and the hope is that a potential victory will set a new precedent in favor of health freedom.

What kind of discriminatory policies do we have in place that are excluding someone like me from the workplace when Im 99.8 percent protected against reinfection whereas someone who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by the companys own data that they submitted to the FDA, is 67 percent protective against COVID infection? Kheriaty wants to know.

Initially, Kheriaty was just going to comply with the mandate. He changed his mind, though, after looking at the data and considering it more, leading him to the conclusion that it is not for him. He is now committed to fighting on behalf of everyone else out there who likewise does not want to get injected.

The latest news about Chinese Virus injection tyranny can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Joe Bidens promised, winter of severe illness and death isnt merely a threat, its a roadmap to the mass murder of obedient, oblivious Democrats who believed authorities and took the spike protein injections that are mislabeled vaccines. Now, as winter accelerates and vitamin D deficiencies take hold, those obedient Democrats are going to be dying in unprecedented numbers. The CDC warns that 15,600 Americans will be dying each week by Christmas. We put that number at 25,000 Americans each week by the end of February. (See analysis here.)

Importantly, illegal immigrants are granted protected status when it comes to vaccines, since the vaccine manufacturers are afraid theyll be sued by non-American, undocumented illegals who are injured and killed by the vaccines. As LifeSiteNews reports:

Reuters reviewed internal documents from the charity operating the global vaccine program, Gavi, showing that about 167 million people could be excluded from national vaccine programs.

Non-governmental organizations participating in the program run by Gavi  called COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX  say they cant bear the legal risks of administering the vaccines to migrants.

The cover story for skipping vaccine injections for illegal immigrants is that vaccine injuries would be hard to track, but the real story is that globalists want to protect the fertility of the illegal immigrants so that they can replace the dead Democrats who took the jab.

One of the defining characteristics of Democrats is that they tend to be oblivious in their worship of false authority. They exhibit cult-like adherence to absurd demands, including turning over their children to experimental genetic engineering injections known as mRNA vaccines. Thus, Democrats are largely clueless to the reality that they are being exterminated and replaced.

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As we covered in a previous article, the states with the highest vaccine compliance (per capita) are mostly blue states dominated by Democrats: (Source: CDC.gov)

The highest vaccine death rates, of course, will take place in blue cities and states. As deaths accelerate, it wont take long for these areas to face severe emergencies in lack of personnel and collapsing infrastructure.

Even worse, most blue cities across America demanded a 100% vaccine compliance rate among city workers. This demand was widely extended to police, fire and emergency responders. But it also includes road construction crews, administrative staff, accountants and so on. The net result is that vaccine die-offs will destroy the ability of these cities to function, eventually leading to absolute chaos as the people with the knowledge and experience of how to keep the bureaucracy running succumb to the spike protein injections via boosters.

Vaccine deaths will soon make up the majority of daily deaths in America

On any given (normal) day, around 7,500 people die in America. Those are pre-covid numbers. Before long, were going to see vaccine-induced deaths exceed this number, meaning vaccine deaths would blow beyond 52,500 deaths per week. That may not happen this winter, but it is inevitable, as weve already seen that vaccines double all-cause mortality. In other words, once you take a vaccine, your chances of dying double.

Brian Shilhavy writes in Health Impact News that health authorities are preparing to mass murder millions of people under the cover of covid.

The masses in the public currently supporting Pfizer and Moderna by being obedient slaves and doing exactly what they are told to do

They have almost completed their take over of the U.S. hospital system by firing all the sane and ethical staff that refused the bioweapon shots, and implemented COVID protocols that are actually designed to bring in great profits while reducing the population of those sick with weakened immune systems.

That article references large-scale purchases of a drug called midazolam, which is used, among other things, in lethal injections.

It is now believed that this drug was used to euthanize thousands of elderly patients last year in order to create covid death statistics and push mass hysteria. Now, as The Expose (UK) reports:

The UK is about to experience a huge wave of deaths among the elderly and most vulnerable population in scenes that will resemble those of April 2020. The public will be told that Covid-19 is to blame, but the truth is that the recipe for disaster that has been cooked up by the UK Government and its circle of scientific advisors will be solely responsible.

A recipe that has included mandating vaccines for carers, dedicating the energy of the entire NHS to administering booster jabs to the nation, and the mass purchase of a drug known as midazolam yet again.

Were told that serious illness in Covid-19 presents pneumonia and accompanying respiratory insufficiency. Therefore typical symptoms include breathlessness, cough, weakness and fever. Were also told that people who suffer deteriorating respiratory failure and who do not receive intensive care, develop acute respiratory distress syndrome with severe breathlessness.

Midazolam induces significant depression of respiration, and UK regulators insist midazolam should only be administered in a hospital or doctors office under the supervision of a doctor or nurse to monitor the breathing of the patient in order to provide life saving treatment to the patient if breathing slows or stops. The drug should also be used with extreme caution in elderly patients.

Knowing that, would you use Midazolam to treat people suffering pneumonia and respiratory insufficiency allegedly due to Covid-19?

These deaths, as you might expect, will be attributed to covid itself (rather than the vaccine). But the vaccines dont work to stop covid, as evidenced by the fact that in just the last several days, Mad Money host Jim Cramer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker have all announced theyre infected with covid even though they are fully vaccinated.

The key metric to watch is excess deaths.

Excess deaths show the vaccine slaughter has only just begun

A website called USmortality.com shows charts of excess deaths. That site reveals that both 2020 and 2021 had experienced significant excess deaths.

In 2020, the excess deaths were achieved by the deliberate killing of hospital patients with ventilators and remdesivir, along with denying them treatment with ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine. These death numbers were inflicted as hospital homicide in order to drive the pandemic hysteria and create demand for vaccines.

In 2021, the excess deaths are mostly due to the vaccine themselves, which are killing people at an accelerating rate. From USmortality.com:

United States reported 3,440,941 deaths of all ages for the year 2020. Expected deaths were 3,029,015. That is an increase of 411,926 deaths (+13.6%).

To date, for the year 2021, United States reported 3,155,827 deaths of all ages. Expected deaths thus far, were 2,734,661. That is an increase of 421,166 deaths (+15.4%).

For this chart, the green line is excess deaths in 2020, and the blue line is excess deaths in 2021:

Whats especially instructive is looking at Vermont, the state with the highest vaccination compliance in America. Heres a chart showing excess deaths for 2021. Note the sharp uptick as the winter months are kicking in:

In Vermont, deaths are up 11% over the expected number. At some point, that number will reach 100% (a doubling).

In California, deaths are up 17.8% so far in 2021, with an extra 46,190 deaths. Similar numbers are reflected across many other states, both red and blue states.

What has changed in the environment that could account for all these excess deaths? Why are life insurance companies seeing major red flags with policy payouts due to the rising number of people who suddenly died?

The answer is obvious: Covid vaccines and deliberate hospital homicide. America has been transformed into a medical death camp, and people are being slaughtered with lethal injections that are mislabeled vaccines.

The ethnic cleansing genocide of America

In effect, you are watching the ethnic cleansing of America  a deliberate extermination agenda targeting American citizens. As they die, they will be replaced by immigrants from socialist, third world nations who will become the reliable democracy puppets of the ruling elite.

While vaccines and hospital homicide will eliminate many Democrats, globalists face a real conundrum in conservatives and patriots who are refusing the vaccine. Thats why theyre now calling for military martial law before the mid-term elections and the rounding up of patriots who are already being deemed insurrectionists. This was aggressively pushed by the deep state-controlled media over this last weekend. As 100PercentFedUp.com reports:

Woke Military Generals Say We Must Prepare Now For 2024 Insurrection

The three Ex-Generals are Former Army Major General Paul Eaton, former Brigadier General Steven Anderson and former Army Major General Antonio Taguba. The generals recommended that all January 6th leaders, including President Trump, be prosecuted for their supposed crimes in plotting the unrest.

If you follow the medias propaganda on this, they are essentially calling for anyone who disagrees with Democrats to be labeled a terrorist, arrested and prosecuted. They need to shut down conservatives, Christians and patriots before the 2022 mid-term elections because Democrats know they will be politically slaughtered in the mid-terms if the elections are allowed to be held.

Remember: These Democrats in power are more than happy to murder their own left-wing supporters and replace them with illegal immigrants. Do you think they wont also try to murder their opposition?

We are now living in the most dangerous time since the Civil War. And we may be facing Civil War 2.0 before this is all finished.

Get more details in todays Situation Update podcast here:

Brighteon.com/cc0b0d5f-2627-40a9-856c-eb14af8522d6

0:00 Intro

0:53 Personal News

14:26 Comedy Section

17:30 Supply Chain Collapse

29:18 Climate Change

33:41 Stablecoins

45:00 Vaccine Mandates

50:08 Decarbonization

1:01:55 Vaccine Science

1:19:50 Predictions for 2022

Discover a new podcast each day at:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport
Because of worries over linkages to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and other environmentally significant locations, Sainsbury's and five other European supermarkets have stated that they will cease selling some or all beef products originating in Brazil.

Following studies into "cattle laundering" involving JBS, Sainsbury's, Lidl Netherlands, and others took action. The corporation reportedly indirectly acquired animals from unlawfully deforested areas, according to the news organization Reporter Brasil.

Cattle Laundering

Cattle laundering occurred when animals raised on an illegally deforested plot of land are moved to a farm free of deforestation to be fattened before being trucked to an abattoir for slaughter and processing, according to a series of investigations by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in recent years.

The exact provenance of the animals is sometimes concealed, and opponents claim that the problem is prevalent in Brazil, allowing livestock from "dirty" farms associated with deforestation to be mingled with cattle from "clean" farms.

Beef Prdoucts

Reporter Brasil, in collaboration with the advocacy organization Mighty Earth, tracked deforestation-linked cattle from Brazil to European grocery shelves, including beef jerky, corned beef, and fresh meat.

Researchers discovered corned beef on sale at Sainsbury's processed in a JBS slaughterhouse in Lins, S. Paulo. The slaughterhouse apparently obtained cattle from a farm that accepts animals for fattening from remote farms sanctioned-and is now prohibited from doing so - for unlawful destruction in the Amazon rainforest.

Embargos are enforced as a penalty and a protective measure to allow land to recover after environmental crimes, such as farmers or landowners illegally chopping down trees.

"The relationship between cow ranching and the deterioration of ecosystems like the Amazon, the Cerrado, and the Pantanal is a complicated subject, which we take extremely seriously," a Sainsbury's representative told the Guardian. We've taken several initiatives with our suppliers and the rest of the industry to remedy this, but we haven't made enough progress.

"As a result, we've committed to moving our own-brand corned beef procurement away from Brazil so that Sainsbury's corned beef can be independently certified as being free of deforestation and conversion in origin."

Related Article: UK Farmers Could be Forced to Kill Their Pigs Due to Carbon Dioxide Shortage



Beef Market

JBS, which obtains cattle from the Amazon for its vast worldwide beef market, generates yearly profits of $50 billion (37.5 billion) and slaughters about 35,000 animals every day in Brazil alone. Beef shipments to continental Europe have climbed by a fifth in recent years despite the Amazon crisis.

JBS told the Guardian that it had "no tolerance for illegal deforestation, forced labor, misuse of indigenous lands, conservation units, or violations of environmental embargos," and that it had blocked more than 14,000 supplier farms "for failure to comply with our policies and standards," and that it would "continue to take additional actions as warranted" in response to the investigation by Reporter Brasil.

It also said that it has invested in a new blockchain-enabled technology that would allow it to track indirect suppliers and "reach a 100% illegal deforestation-free supply chain by 2025," according to the company. JBS claims to have investigated the vendors identified by Reporter Brasil and determined that they complied with JBS procurement procedures.

For the first time in 2020, the Guardian, BIJ, and Reporter Brasil revealed how JBS's own vehicles seemed to transfer cattle from a "filthy" ranch punished for deforestation to an allegedly "clean" ranch that supplied JBS abattoirs. According to livestock movement documents collected by the BIJ, thousands of cattle were trucked on the same route.

Disputing the Findings

The findings were contested by JBS. The discoveries, however, clearly contradicted the company's assertions that it was unable to monitor the beef supply chain's more remote regions. Following that, the business announced the creation of the "green platform," which would allow it to oversee the whole supplier system, including the problematic "indirect supplier" Amazon farms that it had previously been unable to monitor.

The findings came after a previous inquiry showed the entire scope of the UK's role in Amazon deforestation. It was revealed that around 1 billion worth of beef provided by JBS and other meat companies related to deforestation have been directly imported into the UK in recent years.

Amazon's Condition

The Amazon is a critical buffer for regional and global climatic stability. Many scientists believe that preserving the world's rainforests is essential if a climate emergency is to be avoided.

Despite this, deforestation reached 20,000 sq km per year between 1980 and 2005. And international demand for beef is fueling the problem: each year, around 5,800 square kilometers of forest - an area four times the size of Greater London - are destroyed in the Amazon and other parts of Brazil to make way for cattle ranching pasture.

"This is a watershed moment because several large retailers across Europe are emphatically saying 'No to Brazilian beef because of deforestation concerns," said Nico Muzi, Mighty Earth's Europe director. "This isn't a hazy promise or a lovely statement for a press release. This is a series of tangible business moves taken by some of Europe's largest supermarkets to cease buying and selling beef from a corporation and a country that has made far too many promises and produced far too few results."

"Christmas has arrived early for the Amazon forests, the Brazilian Cerrado savannahs, and the Pantanal wetlands," Muzi remarked.

Also Read: New Renewable Fuel Can Be 3 Times More Powerful Than Gasoline

For more news about making the environment sustainable, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israels prime minister on Sunday called on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus as the new omicron variant showed signs of spreading, while authorities prepared to expand a travel ban to include the United States.

In a prime-time televised address, Naftali Bennett said the number of cases of the new variant remains relatively low  in part thanks to earlier moves to ban most foreigners from entering the country. But he said it was just a matter of time before the numbers begin to rise.

The fifth wave has begun, he said.

Bennett said it was especially critical for parents to get their children vaccinated. Israel last month began offering vaccines to younger children between the ages of 5 and 12, but authorities say the vaccination rate in that age group remains disappointingly low.

The children's vaccine is safe, and it is the responsibility of the parents," Bennett said.

A parent who has been vaccinated three times also needs to protect his children. Don't leave your children exposed and vulnerable to the coming omicron, he added.

Predicting a spike in cases in the coming weeks, he said the government is working on new safety recommendations. In the meantime, he urged people to social distance, wear masks and to work from home whenever possible. Before taking office in June, Bennett harshly criticized his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, for imposing painful lockdowns that hit the economy hard.

Israel rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year, and more than 4.1 million of Israel's 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The countrys health ministry has reported at least 134 confirmed cases of the omicron variant since its emergence in late November. The Haaretz news site on Sunday said some 17 travelers with the coronavirus arrived on a single flight from Miami, most of them with the omicron variant.

Israel largely closed its international borders last month after the emergence of omicron. Foreign nationals are not allowed to enter, and all Israelis arriving from overseas are required to quarantine  including those vaccinated.

Israel has also declared dozens of countries with high coronavirus rates to be red, banning Israelis from traveling there. Health officials on Sunday recommended adding to the U.S. and Canada to that list, with the decision expected to go into effect on Wednesday.

Israel has recorded at least 8,232 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
SHERMAN  Residents have made their voice clear  theyd like to see a permanent, one-time repair of The Sherman School roof.

At a town meeting Saturday in Charter Hall, in a vote of 49 to 1, residents voted against a temporary repair to the roof, which has been a hot issue in town over the past few months.

Portions of the roof are considered to be in very poor shape, according to town and school officials. Sections vary in age from 1991 to 2014. Approximately 50 percent of the overall roof area is out of warranty and beyond industry standards for a useful life of about 20 years, according to Brian Berlandi, Board of Education chairman. The school has about 270 students in grades K-8.

Buckets had been set out on many occasions to catch water from leaks. The school board initially recommended permanently replacing portions of the roof, and in a town meeting Sept. 14, voters unanimously approved funds not to exceed $575,000 for this work.

However, the Board of Educations Maintenance Committee later consulted with the State Office of School Construction Grants and Review, which suggested to temporarily repair, rather than replace, the 1991 roof sections at this time. The office suggested an architect be hired to develop a full plan to take into account any unforeseen issues that can arise when the old sections of the roof are taken down.

At a Sept. 29 Board of Education meeting, by a 4 to 3 vote, the board rescinded its prior recommendation for a permanent roof replacement and, instead, recommended patching the roof temporarily for a cost not to exceed $150,000 while a detailed plan is developed to ultimately replace it.

At a Nov. 18 Board of Selectmen meeting, the group unanimously voted to send the Board of Educations new roof request back to a town meeting, which was held Saturday.

Sherman First Selectman Don Lowe, who was strongly in favor of the permanent roof repair, told Hearst Connecticut Media he was pleased with the vote.

I feel like we are pointed in the right direction right now to start fixing some of the capital problems at The Sherman School, said Lowe, adding he hopes the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen will start working together on developing a comprehensive long-term strategy for the school roof.

A no frills plan

Matt Vogt, vice chairman of the Sherman Board of Education, who is also chairman of the towns Special Committee on Capital Planning and a member of its Maintenance Committee, said the town now needs to develop a no frills plan to permanently fix the roof that is as cost effective as possible.

While developing this plan, Vogt said the town should simultaneously work into it other parts of the school that also need repair at this time, including the HVAC system, siding, electric, plumbing and windows, and water supply. The water in the school is currently not drinkable due to its high mineral content.

There are so many things that are interconnected that if you start trying to fix one thing, then you realize it has all these ramifications for other things that you need to fix, Vogt said. What we havent had is a plan to fix the entire building, and to be able to take all those things into consideration so we can do it right and do it all at once and get it done.

In the short-term, to take the school through the winter, Vogt said the Board of Education will be looking at exploring immediate options to deal with the leaky roof.

Likely, at the moment theres still buckets and I think that we will get up there and try to patch certain spots as much as we can, he said.

He said it would take more than the course of a summer to get all the work done that the school needs.

A big concern is we do not want to have to put kids in portable classrooms, he said, adding the work needs to be phased in so it utilizes staging space for materials and construction equipment.

We have to take into consideration not only fixing the facility itself but the fact that its an active educational institution, he said. There are children learning as well as employees to consider  teachers and administration, that are working with these conditions. You cant just relocate people very easily when it comes to a school. We have to get creative with utilizing the space we have. We also have to look at what, if any, new construction pieces need to be included in order to create the space that we need.

He said there are a lot of large spaces inside the school like the gymnasium, the multi-purpose room and cafeteria that can be looked at during this time.

We are going to to try to make this functional and make it work and update these systems so we can have a school that is operating for the next 20 years without all these problems that keep popping up, he said.

sfox@milfordmirror.com 203-948-9802
AP

The jury has concluded its first day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the manslaughter trial of the white suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright after she says she mistook her gun for her Taser
AP

The body of Guatemalan migrant Daniel Arnulfo Perez Uxla was laid out for the memorial service Sunday in his hometown of Tejar, in the highland province of Chimaltenango
Researchers from Arizona State University are among the leads for a new prestigious grant expected to total $15.7 million over the next five years from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to provide continued support for the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation Associate Dean and Professor David Coon co-leads the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement (ORE) Core with Jessica Langbaum from Banner Alzheimer's Institute. ASU is one of seven organizations with researchers collaborating in the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

ASU Psychology Department President's Professor Heather Bimonte-Nelson and Roberta Brinton from the University of Arizona co-lead the Research Education Component.

Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers, or ADRCs, are congressionally designated NIH Centers of Excellence. They play crucial roles in the national plan to address Alzheimer's disease, the advancement of research and care for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and the effort to find effective ways to treat and prevent these devastating diseases as soon as possible.

The new grant will help establish the role of promising blood tests in Alzheimer's research, clinical trials and clinical care, and will support Arizona's efforts to help find effective prevention therapies by 2025.

With this new funding, Coon says their core's efforts will continue to focus on recruitment and retention as well as providing education, outreach and engagement programs to help people with and without the disease, their families and professional caregivers.

Coon, who is also the director of ASU's Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging (CIHRA), says the ORE Core will also work closely with another team, the clinical core to support their inclusion in research studies to advance the fight against Alzheimer's disease together.

The ORE Core helps increase awareness about the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the challenges faced by people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias and their family caregivers. It is also critically important to remember that until there is a cure, there is care. So, we also develop and evaluate programs and services designed to reduce stress and distress that arise from these challenges." David Coon, Associate Dean and Professor, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation

This work goes hand in hand with several of the ongoing research projects at CIHRA.

"Arizona, like the rest of the world, is aging and growing increasingly diverse. Between now and 2025, Arizona is the state projected to have the greatest increase in its proportion of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Both the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and CIHRA are dedicated to involving people from diverse backgrounds and listening to their voices to help advance prevention, treatment and care," said Coon.

In her role as co-director of the Research Education Component, Bimonte-Nelson's focus is to cultivate success for future leaders in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias research.

"I consider this role an honor as well as a tremendous responsibility," she said.

Specifically, she says Research Education Component scholars will have opportunities for personalized, foundational, innovative and multi-disciplinary training using their collaborative cross-institutional approach, optimizing scholar success as trailblazers in a breadth of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias research domains.

"We are immensely appreciative to our enthusiastic mentors, the state of Arizona and the NIH for supporting our shared goals to facilitate the success of the next generation of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias scientists using an inclusive, cutting-edge, team-based scientific approach to yield a powerful and sustained impact on the field," said Bimonte-Nelson.

The Arizona ADRC includes researchers from seven organizations: Arizona State University, Banner Alzheimer's Institute, Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Barrow Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the University of Arizona.

"We could not be more grateful to our participating researchers and institutions, the state and NIH for the chance to make a profound difference in Alzheimer's disease research and care," said Eric Reiman, director of the National Institute on Aging-supported Arizona ADRC and executive director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute. "In addition to our other goals, we hope to become a go-to resource for the development of promising blood tests, find effective Alzheimer's prevention therapies within the next five years and capitalize on our ADRC resources to support these endeavors."

Since becoming the first multi-institutional research program to receive an ADRC grant in 2001, Arizona has become the most extensive statewide collaboration in Alzheimer's research in the country.

The Arizona ADRC has made groundbreaking contributions in the early-detection diagnosis, study and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, studies of the aging mind and brain, and the roles of brain imaging and emerging blood-based biomarkers in these endeavors.
Muscles appear to grow, rather than shrink, in some critically ill COVID-19 patients, finds new research being presented at Euroanaesthesia, the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), held online this year.

Bed rest and mechanical ventilation can lead to muscle wastage, which can hamper recovery and affect mobility and quality of life. Previous research has shown that muscle fibers atrophy by almost 20% after a week in ICU. There are concerns, however, that Covid may lead to even greater muscle damage.

To find out more, Dr Toon Mostien and colleagues at the Jessa Hospital, Hasselt, and Hasselt University, Belgium took muscle biopsies from critically ill Covid patients before and after intensive care admission.

Eighteen patients had their vastus lateralis, the largest and most powerful muscle in the thigh, biopsied multiple times from 1-3 days before ICU admission to 5-8 days after admission.

The patients had an average age of 69 years and 82% were male.

The samples were examined under the microscope for any changes that had occurred during the first week in ICU.

Type I muscle fibers (which support endurance activities) grew by 5.74% and type 2 fibers (which support quick, powerful moments) shrank by 5.17% but the changes weren't statistically significant.

To the researchers' surprise, the muscle fibers of four patients, however, increased "massively" in size. Type I fibers had swollen by 62% and type II fibers by 32%.

However, if these patients were excluded from the calculations, the remaining patients showed significant muscle wastage, says Dr Mostien. Type I fibers shrank by 11% and type 2 fibers by 17%.

It isn't known why the muscle fibers increased in size in four of the patients but one possibility is that their immune response to Covid damaged their mitochondria, the tiny structures that provide cells with energy.

This drop in energy could lead to more water accumulating inside the muscle cells, causing them to swell.

This type of swelling can lead to muscle fibers dying and so it is likely the increase in muscle fiber size was only temporary, says Dr Mostien.

The researchers also examined of the number of capillary contacts  the number of capillaries perfusing the muscle fibers with the oxygen and nutrients they need to thrive.

This decreased by 5.37% and 9.68% for type I and type II muscle fibers, respectively. Dr Mostien says: "Although the results were not significant, a drop in perfusion of almost 10% could potentially contribute to muscle fiber destruction."
Researchers belong to the professional groups that most Swedes trust, when they comment on the coronavirus in the media. This is one of the findings of a new study recently published by the non-profit Swedish organisation VA (Public & Science).

Healthcare professionals and researchers are the professional groups that the Swedish public had the greatest confidence in when they commented in the media during the pandemic. The public has the least confidence in politicians and journalists.

The corona pandemic has been characterised by a multitude of voices, opinions and information, during which correct, uncertain and sometimes even false information has been widely disseminated. This is why it is encouraging to see that public confidence in researchers is so strong." Gustav Bohlin, Researcher, VA (Public & Science)

In the study "Communication about corona - media reporting and trust during the Covid-19 pandemic", VA (Public & Science) studied how people in Sweden received and interpreted communication about the pandemic and their level of confidence in the media and different professional groups during the period March 2020 - April 2021.

The study also includes a content analysis of the Swedish media's reporting of research on the coronavirus and related research during the pandemic, based on online articles from Swedish Television (SVT) and the newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter.

Swedes' perception of reporting on the coronavirus

Women have a slightly higher confidence in researchers that comment in the media than men, and people with a university education have greater confidence in researchers than people without a higher education. Confidence in government officials, politicians and journalists who comment on the coronavirus rose at the beginning of the pandemic and then dropped to previous levels shortly afterwards.

"It is a well-known phenomenon that citizens stand behind their country's institutions in times of crisis," said Anna Maria Jonsson, Professor of media and communication studies at Sodertorn University, who worked with VA on the study.

Three out of four Swedes turned mainly to traditional news media, such as TV, newspapers and the radio to get information during the pandemic. The public service channels Swedish Television (SVT) and Swedish Radio enjoyed the highest level of trust throughout the period, while the public had the lowest level of trust in foreign/international media alongside the tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen.

Supporters of the Sweden Democrats felt, to a lesser extent than other parties' supporters, that the reporting on the coronavirus provided the information they needed. They also considered to a lesser extent than others that the media coverage was transparent or accommodated different perspectives.

Media reporting on the coronavirus

In a content analysis of online reporting on the pandemic in Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet and on Swedish Television, 1,173 articles relating to research or researchers were studied. The time periods for the analysis coincided with three peaks and two falls in the infection rate and hospital admissions in Sweden.

"The media coverage followed the development of the pandemic, with the greatest focus at the beginning being on the spread of infection, followed by mostly reporting about restrictions and guidelines, and then finally vaccines becoming the most common topic," explained Gustav Bohlin.

The tone of the reporting was predominantly neutral. One in five articles contained 'alarming' elements and one in ten had a calming tone. Three out of four articles take the form of 'reporting'. The proportion of articles that were investigative in nature was just under one percent. One in five articles addressed new research findings, and this was particularly common at the beginning of the pandemic.
Since its emergence in late 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected 275 million worldwide and caused over 5.3 million deaths. The global public health burden of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in the rapid development of several vaccine candidates, some of which are currently being used for large-scale vaccinations.

However, the emergence of novel SARS-CoV2 variants of concern (VoC), as well as reduced efficacy of vaccines against these new viral strains, have raised concerns these VoCs are capable of evading vaccine-mediated immunity. Therefore, continued vaccine development activities are required to improve protection and reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Study: SARS-CoV2 variant-specific replicating RNA vaccines protect from disease and pathology and reduce viral shedding following challenge with heterologous SARS-CoV2 variants of concern. Image Credit: LookerStudio / Shutterstock.com

The HDT-301 vaccine

Previous studies have reported the development of a Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus (VEEV)-based replicating ribonucleic acid RNA (repRNA) vaccine that encoded the spike protein of the original A.1 lineage of SARS-CoV-2 and was delivered with the help of a Lipid InOrganic Nanoparticle (LION).

This technology has been transitioned through the current good manufacturing practices (cGMP)-compliant, thus leading to a new drug status under the drug product name HDT-301. HDT-301 is a B.1.351-specific vaccine that is pending Phase I trials in the United States. It is also being evaluated in India under the drug product designation HGC019 in Phase I clinical trial.

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* evaluated the repRNA vaccine expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants in mice and hamsters. The delivery of the vaccine was mediated by LION and was administered through an intramuscular injection.

About the study

The current study included both in vitro and in vivo assays. For the in vitro assays, the virus was cultured in two Vero cell lines followed by the construction of spike variants.

The mouse studies included 6-8 weeks old female C57BL/6 mice that were vaccinated with 1 microgram (g) of the vaccine on days 0 and 28. The mice were then monitored for their neutralization activity against the SARS-CoV-2 A.1, B.1, B.1.1.7, and B.1.351 variants.

Comparatively, the hamster studies included 7 to 8-week-old male Syrian Golden hamsters that were acclimatized and assigned to study groups before vaccination. The hamsters were vaccinated with 20 g of repRNA complexed to LION on day 0 and boosted four weeks later.

The antibody responses were monitored by the collection of blood 25 days after the first vaccination and 14 and 21 days after boost vaccination. Furthermore, hamsters were monitored for appetite, activity, and weight loss. The hamsters were also challenged with SARS-CoV-2 and orally swabbed days two and four post-infection (PI) to study the lung tissue and blood.

Thereafter, viral RNA quantification was conducted using the swabs followed by infectious virus titration using the tissue-culture infectious dose 50 assay (TCID50), plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNTs), and histology and immunohistochemistry studies.

Study findings

The results of the current study indicated that in A.1 vaccinated mice, neutralization activity was similar against B.1 challenge virus, while 4.4-fold and 14.7 folds reduction in neutralization activity were observed against B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 challenge virus, respectively. In B.1.1.7 vaccinated mice, an 11.3-fold reduction in neutralization activity was observed against the B.1.351 variant. In B.1.351 vaccinated mice, 12.3 folds and a four-fold reduction in neutralization activity were observed against the B.1.1.7 and A.1 challenge virus, respectively.

In hamsters, it was observed that the neutralizing antibody (nAb) titers ranged from 1:320 to 1:10,240 against homologous viruses while 2- to 14-fold reductions were observed against heterologous viruses. Furthermore, 13- to 14-fold reductions in nAb titers were observed in hamsters that were immunized with A.1- or B.1.1.7-specific vaccines, respectively.

A 4-5 fold reduction in neutralization activity was observed against the A.1 or B.1.1.7 strains, respectively, when vaccinated with the B.1.351-specific vaccine. For the Delta variant, a 4- to 6-fold reduction in serum neutralization titers was observed in A.1 and B.1.1.7 spike vaccinated hamsters, respectively, while a 10-fold reduction was observed with the B.1.351 spike.

Post-boost neutralizing antibody responses in Syrian golden hamsters. Sera from animals immunized with LION complexed with repRNA vaccine variants A.1, B.1.1.7, or B.1.351 were incubated with live virus of variant A.1 (black), B.1.1.7 (pink), B.1.351 (green), or B.1.617.2 (purple) as indicated. Plaque-reduction neutralizing titers are indicated by individual symbols with geometric mean titers represented by the height of the bars. Indicated statistical comparisons performed using a two-way ANOVA with Tukeys multiple comparisons test. ns P > 0.05, * P < 0.05, *** P < 0.001, **** P < 0.0001.

All three repRNAs led to the reduction in viral shedding at the oral cavity at day two post-injection, while A.1 and B.1.1.7 repRNAs reduced viral shedding at day 4 post-injection. No viral shedding was reported with the B.1.351 repRNA-vaccinated animals at days two and four post-injection.

Measurement of subgenomic RNA suggested that vaccination with any of the repRNAs led to a significant reduction of SARS-CoV-2 burden in the lungs. Evaluation of lung pathology determined the development of more severe lesions in hamsters challenged with the A.1 or B.1.1.7 variants as compared to the B.1.351 variant.

Both bronchiolitis and vasculitis were observed in most hamsters. However, those receiving the repRNAs did not show any lesions and had reduced viral antigen levels. Notably, hamsters challenged with either the A.1 or B.1.1.7 variant showed reduced lung-to-body weight ratios as compared to the mock hamsters. Comparatively, for the B.1.351 variant, only those hamsters vaccinated with the A.1 repRNA showed a reduced lung-to-body weight ratio.

repRNA vaccination significantly reduces the viral burden in the lungs. Mock or repRNA vaccinated hamsters were challenged with 1000 TCID50 of the indicated SARS-CoV2 strains via the IN route. At day 4 PI, hamsters were euthanized, and lung tissue collected. SARS-CoV2 burden in the lung was quantified by qRT-PCR specific for the SgE RNA (A, C, E). Infectious virus in the lungs was quantified by TCID50 assay (B, D, F). Indicated statistical comparisons were performed using a One-way ANOVA with Dunnetts multiple comparison test against mock-vaccinated hamsters. * P < 0.05, **** P < 0.0001. Comparisons without indicated P-values were non-significant (P > 0.05)

Conclusions

The current study demonstrates that the LION/repRNA vaccines are capable of inducing protective immunity against several SARS-CoV-2 variants. The tested vaccines were capable of reducing the viral burden at both the upper and lower respiratory tract, as well as protecting the lung pathology against the variants. Therefore, the current study supports further development of the LION/repRNA vaccine platform to protect against the current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants.

*Important notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study has been tracking the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) throughout England since May 2020. SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The first survey report showed the decline of the first SARS-CoV-2 wave in England. The subsequent survey characterized the country's second and third waves. The third wave occurred due to the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant since May 2021. However, the second wave's peak was way higher than the other two wave peaks.

Study: REACT-1 round 15 final report: Increased breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections among adults who had received two doses of vaccine, but booster doses and first doses in children are providing important protection. Image Credit: Tong_stocker / Shutterstock

Background

In England, along with other countries in the UK, COVID-19 vaccination programs commenced in December 2020, prioritizing the vulnerable groups for vaccination first. As a result, the adult population has been offered two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to help protect them from SARS-CoV-2 infection and help decrease mortality. Research has indicated that these vaccines have significantly reduced severe illness as well as mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Studies have shown that individuals who have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines have a lower risk of the Delta infection compared to the unvaccinated group. However, some breakthrough infections due to this variant have been reported.

A third COVID-19 vaccine, known as a booster vaccine, was recently offered, and by November 2021, more than 12 million people in the UK had received booster doses. Research from Israel found that SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccines were associated with a reduction of 11.3% in confirmed infections and a reduction of 19.5% in severe infections when compared to two doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

A New Study

A new report published on the medRxiv* preprint server has presented the findings of round 15 of the REACT-1 study. This study revealed the COVID-19 infection trend from mid-October to early November 2021 in England. A self-administered swab test and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed infection. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the COVID-19 booster vaccination strategy and determine vaccination effectiveness against infection in children aged 12 to 17 years old.

About the Study

During this study, the primary variant that circulated was the Delta variant. Further, rapid vaccination programs, i.e., vaccinating all individuals above 12 years of age and above, as well as the implementation of a booster strategy, occurred. This study reported that compared to the previous rounds of data collection in September 2021, the prevalence of positive COVID-19 infection in England has significantly increased among school-aged children. However, the rate of infection was found to be lower among older people, i.e., individuals aged 65 years and above. This study further confirmed that the Delta variant and its sub-lineages had been the dominant circulating variant in England during the study period and also reported that AY.4.2. was less likely to cause symptomatic infection. At present, the spread of this sub-lineage is being closely monitored.

(A). Daily weighted swab-positivity for all 15 rounds of the REACT-1 study (black points with 95% confidence intervals, left-hand y-axis) with P-spline estimates for swab-positivity (solid black line, shaded area is 95% credible interval). Changes in testing procedures are identified by vertical dashed lines. Geographic sampling procedure changed for rounds 12 onwards (red line), round 14 had half of the respondents swab tests collected by courier and the other half post their swab test (blue line) and for round 15 all respondents posted their swab test (green line).

The authors reported that amidst the circulation of the Delta variant and relaxation of all COVID-19 restrictions in England, the rate of infection surged from September to mid-October 2021. The decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases among school-going children may be related to the half-term break. Researchers further reported that the prevalence of positive swab tests among individuals living in larger households and those with children in the household was higher than in single-person homes and those without children.

(B) Comparison of an exponential model fit to round 14-15 (red) and round 15 only (blue) and a P-spline model fit to all rounds of REACT-1 (black, shown here only for round 14 and 15). Shaded red and blue regions show the 95% posterior credible intervals for the exponential model, and the shaded grey region shows 50% (dark grey) and 95% (light grey) posterior credible intervals for the P-spline model. Results are presented for each day (X-axis) of sampling for round 14 and round 15 and the prevalence of infection is shown (Y-axis) on a log scale. Weighted observations (black dots) and 95% confidence intervals (vertical lines) are also shown. (C) Number of samples processed per day during round 14 and round 15. In round 14 the samples shipped by post are represented in orange, and those shipped by courier, in green.

Scientists indicated that measuring the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines from observational data has a high risk of biased results. Scientists faced several challenges while estimating the vaccine effectiveness in the study period. This is because most adults above the age of 65 years were vaccinated in this round, and very few remained unvaccinated, as a result of which scientists could not compare the two groups properly. Also, the possibility of the declining immune response following vaccination might have led to an increased risk of breakthrough infections among individuals who received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists observed that unvaccinated and vaccinated groups differed in several important parameters and, hence, they were matched poorly.

Comparison of P-spline models fit to all rounds of REACT-1 for those aged 17 years and under (red), those aged 18 to 54 years inclusive (blue) and those aged 55 years and over (green). Shown here only for the period of round 14 and round 15. Shaded regions show 50% (dark shade) and 95% (light shade) posterior credible interval for the P-spline models. Results are presented for each day (X-axis) of sampling for round 14 and round 15 and the prevalence of swab-positivity is shown (Y-axis) on a log scale. Weighted observations (dots) and 95% confidence intervals (vertical lines) are also shown.

Scientists were able to properly estimate the effectiveness of the booster vaccine by comparing it with two doses of primary vaccination. They found that compared to primary vaccination, the booster vaccination strategy was way more effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and decreased the rate of mortality. However, the estimates provided in this study are less robust than a similar study conducted in Israel. Scientists also revealed the benefits of single doses of vaccines administered to children aged 12 years and showed that vaccination has significantly reduced the rate of hospitalization and mortality.

Conclusion

Although the swab positivity was high at the beginning of round 15, it fell with the uncertain trend later in October. The booster vaccination strategy has been found to be extremely effective in protecting individuals from severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality compared to the two-dose primary vaccination regime. This study also highlighted that vaccinating the younger, school-going age groups also plays a crucial part in reducing virus transmission.

*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.
The immune response against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent that triggered the onset of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, continues to be the focus of intensive research around the world. The neutralization capacity, as well as durability and breadth, of the immune response, is key to its ability to protect against reinfection, especially as new variants continue to emerge and vaccination coverage continues to expand.

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* looks at the adaptive immune response to COVID-19 vaccines, wherein the authors compare heterologous to homologous immunization in terms of the elicited humoral and cellular components.

Study: Interdependencies Between Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses in Heterologous and Homologous SARS-Cov-2 Vaccination. Image Credit: Marc Bruxelle / Shutterstock.com

Background

Vaccines that immunize against SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies to the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) and neutralizing antibodies that prevent virus-receptor attachment. The observed diminution in antibody-mediated protection over time, as demonstrated by reduced antibody titers and increased reports of breakthrough infections, emphasizes the need to optimize vaccination schedules.

Another compelling reason for such research is the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine ChAdOx1-S was initially rolled out in Europe, with a large proportion of people receiving the first dose. As reports of a small but significant risk of cerebral venous thrombosis began to emerge, many countries subsequently restricted the administration of this vaccine to older people who were at low risk for this complication.

However, these announcements meant that those who had received the first dose already but were not eligible for the second dose were at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. To overcome this, heterologous vaccination was proposed, with the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine being given as the booster following an initial priming dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The chief obstacle at the time was the lack of data on the immunogenicity and safety of such a regimen.

This has since been overcome by new research; however, the need to understand corresponding cellular responses still remains. In addition, the titers of individual antibody subtypes in this situation remain to be studied.

About the study

In the current study, researchers carried out a prospective observational cohort study (COV-ADAPT) on over 400 healthcare workers, all of whom received two doses of either ChAdOx1-S (AstraZeneca/AZ) or Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccines. The mean age was 35 years, with a male to female ratio of 3:1.

There were three groups included in the current study, one which had received AZ/AZ vaccine doses, the second AZ/BNT162b2, and the last BNT162b2/BNT162b2. The first group was somewhat older than the others since they had been targeted first for vaccination as the most high-risk group.

The researchers, therefore, compensated for differences in age and sex when evaluating the immune response. Vaccine recipients were evaluated for the humoral response that included measurements of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) to the RBD, neutralizing antibodies, and avidity.

In addition, the cellular response was assessed in terms of the spike-induced release of interferon (IFN)- by T-cells. Both immune responses were tested up to two weeks before, and at 2-12 weeks after the second dose.

Study findings

The initial dose with the AZ vaccine generated lower anti-RBD IgG responses than the BNT162b2 at the first time point T1, at 70 and 226 BAU/mL, respectively. Both vaccines produced comparable T-cell activation responses.

At the second time point T2, the AZ/AZ regimen generated a markedly lower antibody response, with the anti-RBD IgG titer being only 413 as compared to 2,400 and 3,200 with an AZ/BNT162b2 and BNT162b2/BNT162b2 regimen, respectively.

Thus, both groups that used BNT162b2 as the booster had high effective anti-RBD titers.

When either the ChAdOx1-S or BNT162b2 vaccines were used as the prime dose of vaccine, no significant difference in T-cell activation was reported at about 700 and 1,277, respectively. With an AZ homologous booster dose, no increase was observed in T-cell activation. However, the BNT162b2 booster produced effective activation, regardless of which vaccine was given as the priming dose.

The greatest response appeared to depend on the time between the booster dose and the time of the assay for the AZ/BNT162b2 regimen, but none of the others.

Spike RBD IgG titers and spike-directed IFN- T-cell responses were found to be positively associated with each other at both time points overall. This was due to the major associations seen in the AZ/BNT162b2 and AZ/AZ groups at T1 but not T2, with no correlation observable in the BNT162b2/BNT162b2 group at either time point.

Moreover, the higher the T-cell activation response at T1, the better the antibody response at T2 for the BNT162b2 booster groups, regardless of the type of priming vaccine.

All three regimens were found to elicit neutralizing antibodies and increased antibody avidity. The largest increase was from the first to the second dose in the AZ/AZ and AZ/BNT162b2 groups.

Implications

This is the first study to examine the interactions between cell-mediated and antibody-mediated immunity after a heterologous immunization series using an AstraZeneca priming dose and the BNT162b2 booster dose, to protect against COVID-19.

The findings suggest that individuals with a robust initial response developed strong humoral and cellular immune responses after booster immunization.

It is also important to note that all three regimens produced the same effect on neutralization capacity, perhaps because it was already high after the priming dose. The greater period over which immunity remained active for the AZ/AZ vaccination compared to the BNT162b2/BNT162b2 group could be the result of the transcription of the spike DNA delivered by the adenovirus vectored DNA in the AZ vaccine as compared to the short lifespan of messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) that is associated with lower overall exposure to the spike protein.

In future research, this difference in the immune response with variation in the vaccination protocol must be considered an important factor in population-level vaccine programs. Secondly, a poor antibody response will not be compensated for by a strong cellular immune response. The homologous BNT162b2/BNT162b2 vaccine regimen produces a good immune response that was better than that due to the homologous AZ/AZ vaccine or the heterologous AZ/BNT162b2 regimen.

In view of the increased humoral and cellular immunity obtained with the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, these vaccines should be used to boost the immune response following a priming dose with the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is all the more important if the response to the initial dose of the vaccine was poor. Humoral responses predict the cellular responses; however, a low antibody-mediated response is not compensated for by high cell-mediated responses.

*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.
In a recent study, researchers used computational structural biology methods to analyze the role of mutations in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant, Omicron, and the infectivity and immune escape properties.

The study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* evaluates different structures of the Omicrons Spike protein and its binding with the host receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE-2), and several antibodies.

While most antibody epitopes and mutations are within the S-ACE2 interface, the results from this study suggest that these mutations within the RBD of Omicron may cause only partial immune escape, at the expense of reduced ACE2 binding affinity and bind strongly with most antibodies.

Background

The SARS-CoV-2 infection caused over 271.9 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), including over 5.3 million deaths. Despite mitigating efforts across the world, emerging variants continue to threaten the health of individuals, burden healthcare support, and destabilize the economy.

The recent SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.1.529), named Omicron, has again raised serious concerns as it rapidly spreads worldwide, despite vaccination rollouts and other non-pharmaceutical interventions.

It was first sequenced by the Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory in South Africa on the 22nd November 2021 (GISAID: EPI_ISL_6752027) and was declared as a variant of concern with the designation Omicron on 26th November 2021, by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Compared to Wuhan-Hu-1, the omicron variant had high mutations - particularly, 32 mutations in the Spike protein, which binds to the host ACE-2 to gain entry into human cells. Importantly, 15 of these mutations occur in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) - a site critical to ACE-2 interaction and epitope for most antibodies. Therefore, these mutations in the omicron variant also raise major concerns of immune escape.

Further, like Alpha and Delta variants, omicron has similar mutations at the furin cleavage site outside the RBD. This causes higher fusogenic potential, increasing the viruss infectivity.

Therefore, based on the knowledge of the mutations in omicron, it is expected to be a stronger variant of concern. While immune escape studies are extensively undertaken, the present study computationally investigates the mutations on the Spike protein, focusing on understanding how individual amino acid changes contribute to both immune escapes and increased viral infectivity.

This study attempts to,

provide a robust interpretation of the dangers of new variants based on the amino acid changes and the roles played by the residues, as opposed to concerns due to total numbers of non-synonymous changes alone.

Findings

As of November 25, the researchers defined a consensus set of mutations from 77 sequences assigned as Omicron in GISAID.

The mutations employed in the present study are the following (part of the definition of the Omicron S protein): A67V, T95I, G142D, L212I, G339D, S371L, S373P, S375F, K417N, N440K, G446S, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, G496S, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, T547K, D614G, H655Y, N679K, P681H, N764K, D796Y, N856K, Q954H, N969K, L981F. The researchers reported that the structure of the open and closed states of the trimeric S Omicron protein as well as Omicron S in complex with ACE2 and the antibodies was as described in a previous study.

They created structural models of the Omicron S protein in open and closed states, interacting with ACE-2 and for each of 77 complexes of S bound to different antibodies with known structures.

Employing Dynamical Signatures (DS) and Vibrational Difference Scores (VDS), the researchers evaluated the propensity of S variants to favor the open state. The researchers calculated the Dynamical Signature of the Omicron S protein presenting a large rigidification of the open state and some increase of flexibility of the closed state, with a Vibrational Difference Score of 7.66x10-1 J.K-1. Compared with previous studies, this is the largest score of all variants, indicating favorable interactions with ACE2.

Compared to the interactions in the wild-type, the researchers observed that the interactions in the omicron S with ACE-2 or with the antibodies were favorable and non-favorable interactions gained and lost, affecting the entire interface and not just the mutated region.

Thus, to understand the effect of mutation on binding affinity based on these interactions, the researchers introduced the Binding Influence Score (BIS), which combines the net change in interactions of a residue and those of its neighbors, except for the neighbor residues that are themselves mutating.

The researchers reported that the BIS shows excellent correlation with experimental data (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.87) on individual mutations in the ACE2 interface for the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants combined. Interestingly, the BIS showed that all mutations apart from N501Y in the protein-protein interface reduced ACE2 binding affinity.

Further, the majority of the antibodies interact with the SARS-CoV-2 S protein through the same interface as that of binding to ACE2. To evaluate the propensity for immune escape, the researchers calculated the net change of interactions and found that in only 28% of the S-antibody complexes some level of immune escape is possible.

Notably, the researchers hinted that SARS-CoV-2 is evolving selective residues such that it,

facilitates immune escape at the expense of ACE2 binding affinity.

Conclusion

This study highlights the potential evolutionary trade-off observed in the omicron variant, detailing the dynamics of the protein structure, its interactions, and subsequent effects.

Although the mutations in the Omicron S-ACE2 interface decrease the ACE2 interaction affinity, and may negatively affect the spike-antibody binding, the calculations suggested immune escape. However, the interactions with the majority of the antibodies tested here appear stronger.

*Important notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The first genome-wide ancient human DNA data from Sudan reveals new insights into the ancestry and social organization of people who lived more than 1,000 years ago in the Nile Valley, an important genetic and cultural crossroads.

Nature Communications published the analyses of the DNA of 66 individuals from a site in ancient Nubia known as Kulubnarti, located on the Nile River in Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border.

"Before this work, there were only three ancient genome-wide samples available, from Egypt, for the entire Nile Valley," says first author Kendra Sirak, who began the project as a PhD student at Emory University. "And yet the region was, and still is, an incredibly important part of the world in terms of the movement, meeting and mixing of people."

Sirak was the last graduate student of the late George Armelagos, former professor of anthropology at Emory and a pioneer in bridging the disciplines of archeology and biology. While still a graduate student in the 1960s, Armelagos was part of a team that excavated ancient skeletons from Sudanese Nubia, so the bones would not be lost forever when the Nile was dammed.

"Nubia was a place of human habitation for tens of thousands of years," says Sirak, who is now a staff scientist at Harvard University. "This ancient genetic data helps fill in some major gaps in our understanding of who these people were."

The 66 individuals date back from 1,080 to 1,320 years ago, during the Christian Period of Sudanese Nubia, prior to the genetic and cultural changes that occurred along with the introduction of Islam. The analyses showed how the Kulubnarti gene pool formed over the course of a least a millennium through multiple waves of admixture, some local and some from distant places. They had ancestry seen today in some populations of Sudan, as well as ancestry that was ultimately West Eurasian in origin and likely introduced into Nubia through Egypt.

A key finding is that social status did not have a strong relationship to biological relatedness or to ancestry in this ancient population, who lived during a period of cultural and social change." Jessica Thompson, co-senior author of the paper

Thompson, a former PhD supervisor of Sirak in Emory's Department of Anthropology, is now at Yale University.

The remains of the individuals came from two cemeteries with Christian-style burials that previous evidence indicated were socially stratified. In one cemetery, located on an island in the Nile, the skeletal remains bore more markers of stress, disease and malnutrition and the average age of those buried was just over 10 years old. By contrast, the average age at death in the other cemetery, located on the mainland, was 18 years.

One hypothesis that grew out of this skeletal evidence was that the island cemetery was for a Kulubnarti "underclass," possibly laborers for members of landowning families buried in the mainland cemetery. It was a mystery whether the social stratification may have developed because one population came from a different origin.

A genome-wide analysis suggests that was not the case -; the people buried in the separate cemeteries came from a single genetic population.

"It seems that people in this area did not use biological ancestry as a basis for social differentiation," Thompson says. "This reinforces the point that dividing people up socially on the basis of their genetic ancestry is a recent phenomenon, with no basis in universal human tendences."

Another key finding of the genetic analyses shows that some people as close as second-degree relatives were buried across the cemetery divide. Examples of second-degree relationships include grandparents to grandchildren, aunts and uncles to nieces and nephews, and half siblings.

"That indicates that there was some fluidity among the two groups of people," Sirak says. "There wasn't an intergenerational caste system that meant someone was prescribed to being in the same social group as all of their relatives."

A further interesting twist is that much of the Eurasian-derived ancestry within the population came from women. "Often when you think of ancestry and how genes move, you think of males who are trading or conquering or spreading religion," Sirak says. "But the genetic data here reveals that female mobility was really crucial to shaping the gene pool in Kulubnarti."

One possible explanation is that Kulubnarti was a patrilocal system, meaning that males tended to stay where they were born and females moved away from their homelands.

"The Christian Period Nubians from Kulubnarti are fascinating," Sirak says. "They survived in a barren, isolated, desolate region where life was never easy. I like to think that the ancient DNA research is giving a new life to these people from 1,000 years ago by providing a more nuanced view of them. Anytime you're studying someone's remains, their physical being, you owe it to them to tell the most accurate, respectful and meaningful story that you can."

Sirak came to Emory as a graduate student in 2012 to study human bones and paleopathology under Armelagos. By that time, he and fellow faculty members had built Emory's Department of Anthropology into a powerhouse of the biocultural approach to the field. In particular, Armelagos, his colleagues and graduate students studied the remains of the Sudanese Nubians to learn about patterns of health, illness and death in the past.

A long missing piece in the studies of this population, however, was genetic analysis. So, in 2013, Armelagos sent Sirak to one of the best ancient DNA labs in the world, University College Dublin, with samples of the Nubian bones.

"I had no interest in genetics," Sirak recalls, "but George was a visionary who believed that DNA was going to become a critical part of anthropological research."

Sirak soon became hooked when she saw how she could combine her interest in ancient bones with insights from DNA. She formed collaborations not just in Dublin but at Harvard Medical School's Department of Genetics and elsewhere, investigating mysteries surrounding deaths going back anywhere from decades to ancient times.

Armelagos was 77 and still mentoring Sirak, his last graduate student, when he died of pancreatic cancer in 2014. Dennis Van Gerven, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, took over Sirak's mentorship, along with Thompson. Van Gerven was among Armelagos' first group of students, and he also spent decades studying the Sudanese Nubians.

Sirak stuck with her PhD dissertation project of trying to collect enough ancient DNA from the Nubian remains for analysis.

"Ancient DNA is difficult to recover from areas that are extremely hot, because DNA tends to degrade in heat," she explains.

Genetic sequencing techniques kept improving, however, and Sirak was working at the forefront of the effort. In 2015, while still an Emory graduate student, she was among the researchers who realized that a particular part of the petrous bone consistently yielded the most DNA. This pyramid-shaped bone houses several parts of the inner ear related to hearing and balance. In addition, Sirak developed a technique to drill into a skull and reach this particular part of the petrous bone in the most non-invasive way possible, while also getting enough bone powder for DNA analysis. The use of this part of the petrous bone is now the gold standard in ancient DNA analysis.

In 2018, Sirak received her PhD from Emory and went on to work in the lab of David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in the population genetics of ancient humans.

She and her colleagues continued to push the boundaries of what's possible with ancient DNA sequencing. They managed to get whole-genome samples from the petrous bones of 66 of the Sudanese Nubians, ushering in a whole new era of bioarchaeology for the Nile Valley. "I don't think we would have succeeded in this work had we not known to focus on the specific part of the petrous bone," Sirak says.

"It's incredible to me that George asked me to focus on ancient DNA back in 2012, long before these techniques were developed," she adds. "He had a way of making anyone who was working with him really feel important and powerful and that gave me the confidence to strike out on a pioneering path."

"George Armelagos' influence is everywhere," adds Thompson, explaining that he also advised many senior people who mentored her early in her career.

Funded by National Geographic Explorer grants, Sirak is now working with Sudanese colleagues to gather and analyze ancient DNA samples from other geographic locations in the Nile Valley, going even deeper into its past, to add more details to the story of how people moved, mixed and thrived in the region across millennia.

As the last graduate student of Armelagos -; and then a mentee of Van Gerven, one of Armelagos' first students -; Sirak feels like she is completing a circle. The publication of the current paper is the realization of Armelagos' last wishes for the project.

"It's really special for me to be able to use ancient DNA to build on decades of anthropological and archeological research for the region," Sirak says. "I know that George would be proud and thrilled. I'm part of this amazing lineage of researchers now. And the desire to continue what they started is a huge motivation for me."
Bill Mather, a pharmacist in the small Iowa city of Greenfield, wanted to make sure his neighbors could fill their prescriptions without driving long distances or enduring long wait times.

So when pharmacy chains and big-box stores began expanding into rural markets, he sold his drugstore in 2007 to Pamida, a grocery chain owned by the Shopko department store company, hoping that would keep his practice alive. Then, in 2019, when Shopko declared bankruptcy, shuttering more than 360 stores, he and another Shopko pharmacist helped open a new drugstore for the city of about 2,000 people.

Across the country, pharmacists like Mather are filling the voids left when large drugstore chains and big-box stores with pharmacies pull out of small communities. In some areas, pharmacists who were let go when big chains closed are now opening new drugstores, often in the same locations. In other areas, pharmacy owners from neighboring towns are opening new branches. Without them, numerous communities would have been left with no pharmacy.

It didn't used to be this way. Big-box stores like Shopko started to move aggressively into the pharmacy market 30 years ago, hoping customers would fill their carts while the store filled their prescriptions. Large chains established beachheads in small towns by acquiring independent pharmacies or driving them out of business.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of pharmacists employed at big-box stores peaked at more than 31,800 in 2012. But as online sales and mail delivery of consumer goods and prescription drugs grew, the big-box stores had no reason to stay. By 2019, the number of big-box pharmacists had dropped to fewer than 18,000. (The bureau no longer reports the number.)

"The big-box stores came into smaller and smaller communities, and they, in essence, outcompeted all the other pharmacies in the area," said David Zgarrick, a pharmacy professor at Northeastern University in Boston. "Now they're completely gone and with them the pharmacy services and everything else they provided. They left a vacuum in a lot of these places."

With CVS Health's recent announcement that it will close 300 stores a year over the next three years, more towns could lose another tier of pharmacies: the big drugstore chains. CVS has not yet said which stores will close.

"We're considering a number of factors when making these decisions, including local market dynamics, population shifts, store density, and the needs of underserved communities," said Mike DeAngelis, a CVS Health spokesperson. "In fact, reaching underserved populations has been a priority for us all through the pandemic, such as the access to testing and vaccines we've provided."

Kathleen Bashur, a spokesperson for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, said chain pharmacies of all types and sizes play a significant role in meeting the health and wellness needs of communities throughout the nation. "The decision to close a store is a difficult one," she said.

Zgarrick attributes much of the decline in big-box pharmacies to Amazon and other online merchants that undercut the profitability of their non-pharmacy sales. In the past, big-box stores could treat pharmacies as loss leaders and make up that revenue with sales of other goods. Now, Zgarrick said, big-box stores have to ask tough questions about how to allocate their space: "'At the end of the day, how are we going to make the most money per square foot? Is it by having a pharmacy or by selling tires?'"

Nelson Lichtenstein, a University of California-Santa Barbara history professor who has chronicled the rise of Walmart, said big-box stores are constantly reevaluating their store locations, closing less profitable stores and opening new ones in places where they think they can make money.

"They just keep a kind of slow churn," he said.

The cost of building a big-box store is about $10 million, Lichtenstein said, and such stores can net $200 million in annual revenue. Pulling out of a location is therefore not a huge loss for a big company if revenues falter.

"So they will shut down the stores and leave a devastated town because the Walmart put the other guys out of business," he said.

Walmart did not answer questions about its closures.

The growth in online options for all kinds of items, spurred by people shopping from home during the covid-19 pandemic, has put further pressure on big-box stores.

"Now they're less likely to do that roaming shopping than they were five years ago," said Adam Hartung, a business strategy consultant with Spark Partners. "They're not going to say, 'Oh, let's pick up a prescription and, while we're at it, let's walk through the store and look at vacuum cleaners.' That doesn't happen anymore."

Hartung said that the U.S. retail market has an excess of shops, by as much as 40% compared with other countries, and that more big-box stores are likely to close in the coming years.

But closures provide opportunities for regional chains or pharmacists willing to strike out on their own.

In Orofino, Idaho, the mayor, the chamber of commerce and many residents appealed to pharmacist Rod Arnzen after Shopko pulled out. So Arnzen began delivering to Orofino from his store 23 miles away in Kamiah. He then opened a branch in Orofino in the building left behind by the pharmacy that had previously sold its business to Shopko.

Andy Pottenger, who owns a pharmacy 45 miles away in Lewiston, Idaho, added a second pharmacy in Orofino, population about 3,000, after receiving hundreds of responses to an ad he had placed in the local paper to gauge interest.

"It was overwhelming," he said. "That kind of cemented the idea that we should do it."

In Montana, Mike Matovich, a third-generation pharmacist, opened stores in Roundup and Hardin after Shopko closures there.

"It's a pretty good-sized community and has a hospital and clinic in town," Matovich said of Roundup, "and all of a sudden people are driving 50 miles one way to fill an antibiotic for a sick child."

Matovich has seen what can happen when a rural community loses its only pharmacy.

"If there's a hospital clinic and a pharmacy there, they're going to do fairly well," Matovich said. "Once you lose one or the other, the communities start to struggle because people start leaving to be closer to health care."

For the residents of Greenfield, Iowa, Shopko's decision meant they had to scramble. Shopko had sold the pharmacy records to a Walgreens 50 miles away. Some people turned to the Hy-Vee grocery stores in the nearby Iowa cities of Atlantic or Winterset, or to the Walmart in Creston  each at least a half-hour drive away. Others switched to mail order.

"It was sheer chaos," former Shopko pharmacist Rachel Hall said. "People were trying to figure out what to do, where they should send their prescriptions."

Mather, Hall and the rest of the Greenfield staff were given just one week's notice after being told they had nothing to worry about. Their pharmacy had been among the chain's fastest-growing locations.

"We literally had trophies from Shopko that we threw away when we left," Hall said.

Former Shopko executives contacted by KHN declined interview requests. Shopko Optical, which operates in 11 states, said it is no longer affiliated in any way with Shopko Stores and declined to comment.

Mather and Hall didn't want to give up on Greenfield. They reached out to NuCara, a chain with 30 retail pharmacies across five states, and it agreed to help them open a drugstore in their city.

NuCara opened pharmacies in two other communities that Shopko vacated. In the Minnesota cities of Cokato and North Branch, NuCara partnered with pharmacists who had previously sold their pharmacies to Shopko, said Brett Barker, vice president of pharmacies for NuCara.

In Greenfield, Hall and Mather were forbidden from telling customers about the new NuCara drugstore until Shopko officially closed its doors. Hall said Shopko management wanted to maintain the value of the customer files it was selling to Walgreens. So Hall and Mather asked the local chamber of commerce to get the word out.

They found temporary space at the local hospital, which relocated its billing office to accommodate them. A year later, they moved back into their former location in the old Shopko building, leasing the space from new owners, who were running a household goods store there.

After serving three generations of Greenfield customers, Mather was relieved the town still had a pharmacy. But he couldn't get past how Shopko had ended things.

"The way they slammed the door, I was really unhappy about that," Mather said. "It wasn't fair to all the people at the Greenfield pharmacy and the people of Greenfield. Shopko couldn't have cared less."

Yet the move brought Mather full circle. Greenfield still has a pharmacy, just as when he started at Murdy Drug in 1968. It's just a different storefront, with a new name on the sign.
Preliminary evidence from South Africa suggests the Omicron variant is highly transmissible and is more capable of causing infections in vaccinated people. There is also evidence of the Omicron variant causing reinfections, suggesting naturally acquired immunity is also less effective against the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Since the genomic surveillance efforts of South African scientists that led to the discovery of Omicron, public health officials are reporting cases of Omicron around the world, including Germany and the United Kingdom. Researchers from Italy who had previous models forecasting SARS-CoV-2 transmission published a study on the preprint server medRxiv* forecasting coronavirus case rates with the arrival of Omicron.

Study: Forecasting COVID-19 infection trends in the EU-27 countries, the UK and Switzerland due to SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern Omicron. Image Credit: benjamin poturak/Shutterstock

The Omicron variant was identified in South Africa in late November and is predicted to be more infectious than previous variants of concern. Omicron has more than double the number of mutations on its spike protein than Delta. Some of these mutations are known to evade the immune system, weakening the effectiveness of neutralizing antibodies.

Current forecasting results suggest that Omicron will cause a surge in COVID-19 cases across many European countries. In the worst-case scenario, there can be a 2.03-fold or 200% increase in daily cases, despite high vaccination levels in most regions.

The researchers stress the need for public health interventions focused on limiting the spread of COVID-19 transmission, including social distancing, face masks, and indoor ventilation.

Modeling details

The researchers used previous modeling algorithms to predict how the Omicron variant will spread across 27 countries in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland along with the number of daily and weekly COVID-19 cases.

They first based their data from existing epidemiological trends regarding Omicron transmission in South Africa. These trends began in the first that 17 days South Africa reported the Omicron variant.

If trends followed an asymmetrical sigmoidal curve following a parametric growth, then researchers could estimate the number of new COVID-19 infections in South Africa through the end of 2021.

With the Omicron outbreak in South Africa, the best-case scenario is 80,000 daily COVID-19 cases. The worst-case scenario is 120,000 daily cases.

Projections of COVID-19 cases in Europe

The researchers then used these trends and modeled it to the rate of COVID-19 cases in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. They estimated a downward trend after an initial peak of infections  though it did not initially contain the impact Omicron has on infection rates. Afterwards, they added cases based on the estimated on number of individuals at risk of infection in South Africa.

The researchers predict a surge of coronavirus cases in early 2022 in 27 European Union countries, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

Without Omicron, there is an expected 145,000 daily coronavirus cases by January 15, 2022. But this number increases with the introduction of the Omicron variant. The best-case scenario is 375,000 cases while the worst-case scenario is 440,000 daily cases.

Therefore, Omicron might represent a relative increase from the background daily rates of COVID-19 infection in Europe of 1.03-fold or 2.03-fold, that is up to a 200% increase

, explained the researchers.

The rise in cases is already underway. Denmark has rigorous SARS-CoV-2 testing requirements and is considered a leader in genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. However, Omicron cases have increased in the area, and recent reports suggest a doubling of new cases every second day.

*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.
The Omicron variant has recently risen to prominence, sparking several countries return to more severe social distancing measures and restrictions designed to reduce transmission. The Omicron strain carries several mutations in the spike protein. The spike protein is key to the pathogenicity of the disease; the S1 subunit carries a receptor-binding domain (RBD) that binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme in order to allow cell entry of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), while the S2 subunit is responsible for membrane fusion.

Researchers from the University of Rostock have been examining the effects of some of these mutations.

A preprint version of the groups study is available on the bioRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review.

The study

The RBD of the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike protein shows the amino acid sequence aa437 to aa508 stretch enough to encompass the receptor-binding motif (RBM). It has been reported that in VOCs, amino acid residue exchanges can be seen at distinct positions with the RBM. For example, the omicron variant shows ten exchanged amino acids, five of which can also be found in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-1/SARS).Through these changes, the RBM of the Omicron variant can be distinguished from the wild-type. 3D structures from both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are revealed using X-ray data, while the RBM structure is modeled using alphafold. The five RBM amino acid exchanges that are not also found in SARS-CoV-1 or the wild-type are unique to Omicron. One of the mutations Omicron carries is Y501, which strengthens the binding to ACE2, and can be found in the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma variants.

Residue K4768 has been designated as the decisive amino acid exchange for the Delta variant. This exchange remains in Omicron, and alongside residues K440, S446 and N447, these changes lend Omicron characteristics not seen in other variants  for example, K478 matching with K465, which is more characteristic of SARS-CoV-1 than SARS-CoV-2. In the Alpha variant, the residue E484 is known to weaken receptor binding. Omicron avoids this by expressing A484, matching the equivalent SARS-CoV-2 residue A471  located next to the L472 residue that comes into direct contact with ACE2. Another residue, K493, in the RBM of Omicron is positioned where N479 is found in SARS-CoV-1. N479 is another residue that contacts ACE2 and is also considered essential for binding and infectivity. An N479K exchange results in steric hindrance and weakening of ACE2 binding. S496 and R498 are rare mutations in the RBM, likely as they are assumed to have adverse effects on binding due to the introduction of charge repulsion. Y501 is thought to strengthen binding and increase replication rates. H505 is located where Y491 is on SARS-CoV-1  replacing Y505 seen in the wild-type. Y505 is directly involved in hACE2 binding, and the residue exchange is assumed to weaken binding.

The researchers performed free energy difference calculations to confirm their hypothesis: that the Omicron RBM binding to ACE2 was weaker than the wild-type. They examined the energy difference for the RBMs if either the wild-type, Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants were bound to ACE2, and compared them to respective RBM DPP-IV interactions as a negative control. According to G calculations on amino acid exchanges and their contributions to receptor binding, the Alpha RBM is the only variant that should show stronger binding to ACE2 than the wild-type. The Delta RBM shows roughly equivalent binding strength compared to the wild-type, but the Omicron RBM-ACE2 complex is less energetically favored.

Conclusion

The authors highlight that their study shows that Omicron binds to the ACE2 receptor in a significantly weaker manner than other variants and the wild-type. They suggest that the increased transmission of Omicron results from mutations outside of the RBM, and imply that the virus is beginning to adapt more to the host, with less severe disease outcomes and higher transmission.

However, there are some issues - the negative control used can be bound by SARS-CoV-2, making it inappropriate for use in this circumstance. While the binding of the Omicron variant appears to be lower, this has not been confirmed by more physical experimentation, such as binding assays, and the conclusions may somewhat overreach the evidence gathered. The best example of this would be the assumptions the authors make of the severity of disease outcome  of which there is currently very little solid data  compared to RBM-ACE2 binding. There is currently little indication that a change of this size in RBM binding and disease severity are significantly linked.

*Important notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information
After surgery under general anesthesia, older patients often experience a decline in cognitive function that can last for months or even years. This worsening brain function has been linked to deep anesthesia during surgery.

A new study tracking 1,823 adults (aged 25 to 84 years) over 12 years, suggests that patient factors like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and a lower level of education are stronger predictors of long-term cognitive decline than repeated surgery under general anaesthesia.

The findings, being presented at Euroanesthesia, the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), could aid efforts to help keep people's minds sharp as they age.

Post-operative cognitive decline (POCD) is characterised by impaired memory and concentration and can be temporary or persist for months to years after surgery. Estimates suggest that around 1 in 10 patients aged 60 and older show some degree of cognitive impairment three months after surgery, although the diagnostic criteria for POCD have not yet been standardised and causes and risk factors are still being explored.

Surgeries in older people are becoming more common, and with 12 million people aged 65 and older living in the UK, and the number expected to increase to around 20 million by 2041, this represents substantial numbers of people at potential risk .

To find out whether repeated exposure to surgery under general anesthesia during an individual's lifetime negatively affects their natural cognitive decline, Dutch researchers analyzed prospective data from 1,823 adults (average age 51 years, 50% male) with normal cognitive functioning from the Registration Network Family Practices-;a register that is representative of the Dutch population.

Participants were interviewed at the start of the study and subsequently six and 12 years later. Each examination included a medical exam and a battery of cognitive function tests to measure learning and memory, executive function, information processing speed, and selective attention and mental speed (with a colour and word brain teaser called the Stroop test in which a word like "blue" or "purple" is printed in green or red ink.) Modeling was used to look at the cognitive development of participants and correlated those to independent risk factors.

Patients who had undergone more than two general anaesthetics by the start of the study tended to be older and have other health conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, or high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) compared to those who had never had an operation under general anaesthesia.

After adjusting for factors that are known to be linked with increased risk of cognitive decline, including age, sex, educational level, smoking status, alcohol abuse, and other illnesses, the researchers found that patients who had received at least one general anesthetic were significantly more likely to perform worse on the Stroop test (selective attention and mental speed) than individuals who had never undergone surgery. However, the number of general anesthetics did not appear to impact other areas of cognitive function and performance.

Instead, the findings suggest that having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, a history of smoking, and a low education level had significantly more impact on long-term cognitive decline compared to an operation under general anesthesia.

For example, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes had a significant impact on two of the four cognitive domains tested (selective attention and mental speed and information processing speed), whilst educational level significantly impacted all four cognitive domains (see poster table 2).

There is natural continuum of cognitive decline during an individual's lifetime, so after 12 years almost everyone in the study will have developed some form of cognitive decline. Different individuals cognitively age in different ways-;the decline may be sudden or gradual, invalidating, or mild." Dr Christoph Pennings, Study Lead Author, Maastricht University Medical Center

"Our study suggests that repeated exposure to surgery under general anesthesia has little effect on long-term cognitive decline, with subtle impairments in the ability to focus on specific tasks and how quickly you can process information and make decisions based upon that information. Instead, it appears that patient factors such as a history of high blood pressure, diabetes, and educational level are more important for the speed of cognitive decline over an individual's lifetime. These patient factors seem to be more important, but also better modifiable factors than a (necessary) operation under general anaesthesia."
(Newser)  Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen, a staunch conservative, has died at age 52. Ericksen's death Friday came weeks after he said he had tested positive for the coronavirus while in El Salvador, though his cause of death wasn't immediately released. The state Senate Republican Caucus confirmed his passing Saturday but did not say where he died, the AP reports. Ericksen, a Ferndale Republican, reached out to Republican colleagues last month saying he had taken a trip to El Salvador and tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after he arrived. Reasons for his visit were unclear. In a message to state House and Senate members, Ericksen asked for advice on how to receive monoclonal antibodies, which were not available in the Latin American nation.

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He soon arranged a medevac flight from El Salvador, former state Rep. Luanne Van Werven said. Van Werven said the next week that the senator was recovering at a Florida hospital. No information about his location or condition had since been released. Ericksen represented the 42nd District in Whatcom County and had been in the Legislature since 1998, the Seattle Times reported. He served six terms in the state House before being elected to the Senate in 2010. Ericksen was a former leader of Donald Trumps campaign in Washington. He also was an outspoken critic of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslees COVID-19 emergency orders and had introduced legislation aimed at protecting the rights of people who do not wish to get vaccinated. It was unclear if Ericksen had been inoculated against the coronavirus. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people should be fully vaccinated before visiting El Salvador, where current levels of COVID-19 are high.

(Read more Washington state stories.)
(Newser)  One word dominates a full-page advertisement that appeared in Sunday's Plain Dealer, Ohio's biggest newspaper. "Help," reads the bold-font plea, surrounded by white space, smack in the middle of the ad placed by the heads of six of the Cleveland area's medical facilities to try to attract attention as hospitalizations spike during the most recent coronavirus surge, reports the Washington Post. "We need your help. We now have more COVID-19 patients in our hospitals than ever before," the ad continues, noting that the "overwhelming majority" of those taking up hospital beds aren't vaccinated. "This is preventable.

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The ad from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Cleveland Clinic, and others asks those who are eligible to get vaccinated and boosted, and to keep up health and safety protocols like social distancing, adding, "We need you to care as much as we do." The ad appeared as some area hospitals have canceled nonessential surgeries due to an influx of COVID patients, and two days after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced he was sending 1,500 state National Guard members into local hospitals to help with staffing issues. Only about 150 of those helpers are trained nurses or EMTs; the other members will assist with transport, food services, and cleanup tasks, per the Columbus Dispatch.

The Post notes that less than 55% of Ohio's residents are fully vaccinated, with only 36% having received their booster shot. This isn't the only hospital-driven ad asking the public for assistance: A week earlier, the CEOs of nine health-care systems in Minnesota placed a similar full-page ad in the Star Tribune, noting they were "heartbroken" and "overwhelmed" by the surge of "avoidable illness and death" from COVID, reports CNN. "How does this happen in 2021almost two full years since this deadly pandemic began?" that ad reads.

The New York Times reported on Friday that, as the omicron variant starts to take hold, hospitalizations nationwide have increased by 20% over the past two weeks, with about 1,300 people dying daily. As of Friday, Michigan had the highest COVID hospitalization rate in the US, with about 4,700 people hospitalized last week. One bright spot in what was once the COVID epicenter: Doctors at New York City-area hospitals say there seem to be more "treat and release" patients now compared with previous waves, with not as many needing oxygen or longer hospital stays, reports the AP. "I'm confident we'll get through this," Dr. John D'angelo of Northwell Health says, though he acknowledges the "challenges" that lie before him and his colleagues. (Read more hospitals stories.)
(Newser)  Joe Manchin is firing back at the White House after a giant rift opened between them over the weekend. In an interview on West Virginia radio Monday, the Democratic senator spoke in broad terms about his decision to announce he could not support President Biden's Build Back Better plan:

'Inexcusable': " I just got to the wit's end," he said, per the Hill. "And they know the real reason what happened. They wont tell you, and Im not going to tell you." However, he made a point to say he wasn't blaming Biden. Its not the president, its the staff," he said. "They drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable."

I just got to the wit's end," he said, per the Hill. "And they know the real reason what happened. They wont tell you, and Im not going to tell you." However, he made a point to say he wasn't blaming Biden. Its not the president, its the staff," he said. "They drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable." A guess: Manchin didn't provide details, but Politico thinks he's referring at least in part to reports last week that he opposed including the expanded child tax credit in the legislation. He told reporters they were hearing a "lot of bad rumors" about the particulars of his position on that.

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Badgering: "I knew what they could and could not do," Manchin said about the overall talks. "They just never realized it, because they figured: 'Surely to God, we can move one person. Surely we can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough.'" He added: "Well guess what: Im from West Virginia. Im not from where theyre from. And they can just beat the living crap out of people and think theyll be submissive, period."

"I knew what they could and could not do," Manchin said about the overall talks. "They just never realized it, because they figured: 'Surely to God, we can move one person. Surely we can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough.'" He added: "Well guess what: Im from West Virginia. Im not from where theyre from. And they can just beat the living crap out of people and think theyll be submissive, period." Now what? Many stories are pronouncing Build Back Betterthe centerpiece of Biden's domestic agendadead in the water, but Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg isn't so sure. "The bottom line is what its always been: If Manchin ultimately wants a bill, its fairly certain that everything else will fall in place." A post at Axios agrees: "Many Democrats told Axios on Sunday that they dont believe Build Back Better is truly dead and that its a matter of figuring out what can actually pass in 2022."

Many stories are pronouncing Build Back Betterthe centerpiece of Biden's domestic agendadead in the water, but Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg isn't so sure. "The bottom line is what its always been: If Manchin ultimately wants a bill, its fairly certain that everything else will fall in place." A post at Axios agrees: "Many Democrats told Axios on Sunday that they dont believe Build Back Better is truly dead and that its a matter of figuring out what can actually pass in 2022." Raw tension: But progressives are fuming at Manchin, and even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had pointed words for him Monday, while suggesting that the chamber might vote on the BBB plan anyway. That way, "every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television," he said, per the New York Times. (Manchin announced his "no" intentions on Fox News.)

But progressives are fuming at Manchin, and even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had pointed words for him Monday, while suggesting that the chamber might vote on the BBB plan anyway. That way, "every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television," he said, per the New York Times. (Manchin announced his "no" intentions on Fox News.) Bigger picture: The fireworks have renewed speculation that Manchin might leave the Democratic Party, and Axios reports that if that happened, he would be more likely to become an Independent, not a Republican, and to caucus with Democrats. In the meantime, Aaron Blake notes in the Washington Post that Democrats can't afford to alienate Manchin because they still need his vote on other issues such as voting rights and a potential Supreme Court replacement. "The Democrats problem with Manchin has long been that they need him significantly more than he needs them, which means they have precious little leveragewhich many dont want to acknowledge."

(Read more Joe Manchin stories.)
(Newser)  Police in Utah say a man was taken into custody Saturday night after a student who had been missing since Monday was found in his basement coal room, naked and covered in coal. Candlelight vigils planned for Sunday at Snow College became "gatherings of gratitude" after police confirmed that 19-year-old Madelyn Allen had been found alive, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. According to court papers, Allen met the suspect in a chat room online and arranged to have him pick her up Monday. Her college roommates reported her missing when she didn't come back the next day.

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Police say that while the relationship between Allen and the suspect, identified by KSL as 39-year-old Brent Brown is unclear, the teen ended up being held against her will. Brown tied Allen up while he was at work and "threatened her, saying if she left or told anyone about him, he would come after her family and sister," according to court documents. Before he threw her phone away, he allowed her to send a text message to her family. Police used the message to track Allen's phone to Loa, a town of around 500 people located 87 miles south of Snow College in Ephraim, the Gephardt Daily reports.

According to documents, police saw a light-haired woman looking out from a basement window at Brown's residencebut when he answered the door, he said he was home alone and refused to allow officers in. Police say they found Allen hidden in the coal room after they returned with a search warrant. Brown is being held without bail on suspicion of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnapping, rape, and object rape, per the Tribune. Allens father, Jonathan Allen, said the family "dropped to our knees" when police told them they had found Madelyn. "We were so grateful, elated," he says. "We couldnt describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other." (Read more Utah stories.)
(Newser)  Authorities said Sunday that the bodies of seven people were discovered inside a twin home in a northwestern Minnesota city, but they didn't say how they died. Police said the victims included four adults and three children. They were found just before 8pm Saturday by family members conducting a welfare check at the home in Moorhead. Those family members called police, per the AP. There were no signs of violence or forced entry into the residence, police said. Authorities aren't actively seeking any suspects.

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"This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays," Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson wrote in a statement sent to the Star Tribune. "My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend. Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time." The bodies were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul, where autopsies will be conducted.

Neighbors said the children were last seen Friday, KFGO radio reported. The Moorhead Area School District has been provided information about the victims to help prepare for student assistance, police said. Moorhead Police Capt. Deric Swanson said the investigation is still active and that further information, including the cause of deaths and identification of the victims, will be released later.

(Read more Minnesota stories.)
(Newser)  Former leftist student leader Gabriel Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the country's presidential runoff election, per the AP. Boric spent months traversing Chile, vowing to bring a youth-led inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The bold promise paid off. With 56% of the votes, Boric on Sunday handily defeated his opponent, far-right lawmaker Jose Antonio Kast, and at age 35 was elected Chile's youngest modern president.

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"We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business," Boric said after his victory. "We know there continues to be justice for the rich, and justice for the poor, and we no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chile's inequality." In his speech, the bearded, bespectacled president-elect highlighted the progressive positions that launched his improbable campaign, including a promise to fight climate change by blocking a proposed mining project in the worlds largest copper-producing nation.

He also called for an end to Chile's private pension systemthe hallmark of the neoliberal economic model imposed by Pinochet. It's an ambitious agenda made more challenging by a gridlocked Congress and ideological divisions recalling the ghosts of Chile's past that came to the fore during the bruising campaign. Still, "it's impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President [Sebastian] Pinera," said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Chilean democracy won today, for sure."

(Read more Chile stories.)
(Newser)  Only about one-third of the US population has received a COVID booster shot, notes the Washington Post, but one of the recipients has a particularly high profile. Donald Trump said Sunday that he received his third shot, reports Newsweek. The reveal came during a public forum with former Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly. "Did you get the booster?" O'Reilly asked the former president at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. "Yes," Trump replied. (O'Reilly added that he's boosted, too.) At that point, some booing could be heard, and Trump interjected: "Don't, don't, don't. ... That's all right, it's a very tiny group over there."

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During the forum, Trump got a better response when he came out against mandates. "If you don't want to take it, you shouldn't be forced to take it, no mandates," he said of the COVID vaccine. Insider notes that the issue is politically dicey for Trump because, generally speaking, many in his base oppose the current COVID vaccines. In Dallas, however, Trump sought to counter that by highlighting his administration's role in pushing for one. "Look, we did something that was historic, we saved tens of millions of lives worldwide when we, together, all of us, we got a vaccine done," Trump said. "You're playing right into their hands" by doubting the vaccine, he added. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  Kanye West has been officially named Ye since his name change was approved in Octoberbut to thousands of kids in Chicago, he's now Santye Claus. The rapper donated clothing and almost all of the more than 4,000 toys that were given away at an event in the Englewood neighborhood on the city's South Side, People reports. The Sunday event also featured food and games for families. Alderman Stephanie Coleman praised Ye for once again giving back to the city where he grew up. "I'm so proud that Kanye is, once again, responding to our request to help the children of Englewood and beyond," she said, per ABC7. "His presence has always been felt in our neighborhoods and he loves visiting, but this Christmas he has truly been our modern-day Santa Claus."

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Ye, who now lives in Los Angeles, wasn't at the event, though there was a Santa Claus on hand to greet children as they chose toys in a community college gym, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Coleman thanked the star for "understanding the need and filling in the gap for those children who dont have the resources for a holiday, who are missing their fathers or have lost their parents to gun violence." Ye's history of giving to Chicago includes a donation early in the pandemic to an organization that delivers meals to the elderly. (Read more Kanye West stories.)
(Newser)  In a major step to fight climate change, the Biden administration is raising vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. A final rule being issued Monday would raise mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industry-wide target of 40 miles per gallon by 202625% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration last year and 5% higher than a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency in August, the AP reports. "We are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planetand save families money at the same time," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

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Regan called the rule "a giant step forward" in delivering on President Bidens climate agenda "while paving the way toward an all-electric, zero-emissions transportation future." The mileage rules being announced Monday are the most ambitious tailpipe pollution standards ever set for passenger cars and light trucks. The standards raise mileage goals set by the Trump administration that would achieve only 32 miles per gallon in 2026. Biden had set a goal of 38 miles per gallon in August. While ambitious, the new standards provide adequate lead time for auto manufacturers to comply at reasonable costs, the administration said. EPAs analysis shows the industry can comply with the final standards with modest increases in the numbers of electric vehicles entering the fleet.

The new rules would begin with the 2023 car model year and increase emissions reductions year by year through model year 2026. The EPA called the new rules critical to address climate change. Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, making up 29% of all emissions. The move comes a day after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin delivered a potentially fatal blow to Bidens $2 trillion social and environmental policy bill, saying it was too expensive. The now-stalled bill includes a $7,500 tax credit to buyers to lower the cost of electric vehicles. (Read more vehicle emissions stories.)
(Newser)  Two separate accounts accuse the Myanmar military of systemic torture and, in one of case, mass killings. The reports, one in the BBC and the other in the New York Times, allege that military leaders who took control of the country in a February coup are attempting to crush dissent. The details:

In one township: The BBC reports that soldiers rounded up at least 40 male civilians in July, beat and tortured them to death over several hours, and then buried them in shallow mass graves in Kani Township. The area is an opposition stronghold, but families of the men say they were not involved in any attacks on soldiers. The BBC based its report on eyewitness accounts, as well as mobile phone video and photos from the human rights group Myanmar Witness.

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No denial: "We couldn't stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying," says a woman whose brother, nephew, and brother-in-law were killed. Another witness is a man who escaped: "They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts, and tortured all day," he says of the others. A military spokesperson pointedly did not deny the allegations: "It can happen," he tells the BBC. "When they treat us as enemies, we have the right to defend ourselves."

"We couldn't stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying," says a woman whose brother, nephew, and brother-in-law were killed. Another witness is a man who escaped: "They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts, and tortured all day," he says of the others. A military spokesperson pointedly did not deny the allegations: "It can happen," he tells the BBC. "When they treat us as enemies, we have the right to defend ourselves." Interrogation: The report in the New York Times describes the arrest and interrogation of Myanmar journalist Ko Aung Kyaw in March. He says soldiers at an interrogation center beat him, burned his face, stepped on his fingers, and nearly suffocated him by repeatedly placing a plastic bag over his head. They wanted his sources, but he had deleted them from his phone. "In my mind, I was dead," he recalls. "Later, when I saw the photo they took, I didnt recognize myself. My face was swollen and I didnt look like a human."

The report in the New York Times describes the arrest and interrogation of Myanmar journalist Ko Aung Kyaw in March. He says soldiers at an interrogation center beat him, burned his face, stepped on his fingers, and nearly suffocated him by repeatedly placing a plastic bag over his head. They wanted his sources, but he had deleted them from his phone. "In my mind, I was dead," he recalls. "Later, when I saw the photo they took, I didnt recognize myself. My face was swollen and I didnt look like a human." Far more: An estimated 11,000 people have been arrested since the coup, and almost all of them have been tortured to some extent, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group. More than 180 have been tortured to death, says the group.

(Read more Myanmar stories.)
NWS/Twitter

A winter storm knocked out the heat and power at University of Alaska Fairbanks overnight Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. The National Weather Service, located at UAF, was impacted. The NWS tweeted this photo after power was restored Monday, Dec. 20, 2021.
A winter storm warning is in effect for much of Interior Alaska with heavy snow and sleet possible.
Bahrainis praise simplified and quick procedures in distribution of certificates for housing units

Bahrainis praise simplified and quick procedures in distribution of certificates for housing units

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Housing Ministry continued to distribute housing units to Bahraini citizens yesterday morning.

Beneficiaries expressed their satisfaction with the simplified and quick procedures as the allocation certificates were issued to them within a few minutes.

The ministry had notified the citizens to come to the locations of their units in advance, and they were handed over the ownership documents, engineering maps and all documents electronically.

Legal and technical instructions included in the housing contract were also explained to beneficiaries before the keys to the units were handed over to them.

Yesterdays distribution of allocation certificates coincided with the celebrations of the Kingdom of Bahrains 50th National Day and the 22nd anniversary of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifas ascension to the throne.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain is supporting global efforts to help Afghanistan achieve peace, security and stability, as well as progress and development in its territories.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani participated in the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Afghanistan, which was held in Islamabad yesterday, under the patronage and in the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and President of the Islamic Summit, His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Dr Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and OIC Secretary-General Hussain Ibrahim Taha participated in the meeting.

Also attending the meeting were representatives of the US, the UK, Russia, the European Union, France, Japan and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The meeting issued a resolution affirming the commitment of the OIC member states to preserving the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Afghanistan to achieve peace, security, stability and development in its territories.

The resolution called upon all countries, the UN system and international organisations, including international financial institutions, to continue providing all possible and necessary assistance for recovery, reconstruction, development and financial assistance to Afghanistan.

It also stressed the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan.

The meeting also issued a resolution on Palestine and the Holy City of Jerusalem, in which it affirmed the importance of the Palestinian issue to the member states of the OIC, condemned the illegal measures taken by Israel to change the legal status and character of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and called on the member states and the international community, including the UN Security Council, to bear their responsibilities in this regard.

The resolution emphasised that the key to any real peace solution starts with the city of Jerusalem and preserving its historical status, to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights, foremost of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
More than 300 Bahrain and GCC motorcyclists organise special march

TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain Motorcycle Club (BMC) members have organised a special march to commemorate the Kingdom of Bahrains 50th National Day and the anniversary of His Majesty the Kings Accession to the Throne. BMC president Issa Al Awadi extended his warmest congratulations and blessings to HM the King and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister, and the loyal people of Bahrain on the glorious occasion. The national march started from Al Saya Square Complex located in the Busaiteen area in Muharraq.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A five-year-old Bahraini boy who went missing in one of East Riffa neighbourhoods was found safe following a 12-hour search by the police along with members of the local community.

The news went viral across all social media platforms yesterday after the parents of Abdulla Ahmed filed a complaint with the local police that their son had been missing from their house.

It is believed that the boy could not find his way back home after strolling out of the familys housing compound.

Terming the mission success, the Director-General of Southern Governorate Police Directorate thanked the communities in the neighbourhood for joining the search operation.

The directorate alerted all concerned officials, who carried out an intense search after the complaint was filed.

A special team combed footage from surveillance cameras in the area to track the boy, he added.

The boy was found 12 hours after the missing complaint was filed with the police department.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The upcoming Client Care Centre of Bahrain Chamber will act as a one-stop-shop offering a spectrum of services to business owners, said Sameer Nass, Chairman of the Bahrain Chamber.

The centre will also have a notary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a representative offering attestation services, said Nass, adding, this will enhance the experience of beneficiaries and the efficiency of services offered.

During a meeting with the Consul General of Bahrain in Dubai, Ambassador Saud Hassan Al-Nusuf, Nass also spoke about sharing market indicators, data, and research findings.

The meeting also discussed joining efforts between the Bahrain Chamber and Bahrains Consulate General in Dubai to promote Bahrain, attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), and encourage joint ventures. Nass commended the high diplomatic, economic, and social cooperation between UAE and Bahrain.

Ambassador Al-Nusuf explained the role of the recently inaugurated Consulate General, which will offer consulate and commercial services. He expressed the keenness of the Consulate on consolidating efforts with the Bahrain Chamber to serve business owners, promote the favourable business environment of the Kingdom of Bahrain, streamline trade, and encourage the influx of FDIs.

Present at the meeting were Bahrain Chambers first vice-chairman Khalid Najibi, vice-treasurer Waleed Kanoo; and Deputy Chief Executive Officer Dr Abdulla Al Sada.
Theres nothing quite like it: the unmistakable pop of a sparkling wine cork. Chances are that theres a celebration when you hear that sound. Weddings, anniversaries, promotions and the launching of ships all demand bubbly wine.

Sparking wine goes hand in hand with a toast. Congratulatory or honoring, a raised glass is matched with a few words or a heartfelt speech.

New Years Eve is the big occasion for this ritual. In gatherings large or small, that glass of wine marks the turning of the year.

You may have noticed that Ive so far avoided the word "Champagne." It is, of course, the classic wine for toasting. But as the French will eagerly tell you, not all sparkling wine is Champagne. Theyll also tell you that the best sparkling wine comes from the Champagne region north of Burgundy  and theyre right.

They're reluctant to admit, however, that perfectly good, sometimes great, sparkling wine comes from lots of places around the world. Spain is a big producer of Cava; Italy has Prosecco; and Germany makes Sekt. Other regions of France, like the Loire Valley, make bubbly wine too. California is so well suited for it, that many of the big French companies have thriving subsidiaries there.

Frank Whitman

Theres a sparkling wine for every price point, from $10 on up. Like so many things, you get what you pay for and brands are important. Hand-crafted sparklers are made with the best grapes in a labor-intensive, expensive process that yields distinctive character.

Wines can be made with the same care anywhere, but more often, less costly bulk processes are used outside of the Champagne region. These wines are fine and can represent good value but dont have the nuance and cachet of the Champagne method.

The familiar names of the big Champagne companies are well known: Moet, Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, Mumms and most famous of all Dom Perignon. Each house has its own style and fans who favor it. Vintage Champagnes are at the top of the prestige heap  expensive, well-dressed and delicious.

Frank Whitman

Brut (dry) and extra brut (slightly sweet) are the most commonly seen styles. Rose (usually referred to as pink) is pretty and festive. A tall, narrow flute that shows off the color and bubbles is the best glass for the task.

In recent years, there has been a trend toward grower Champagnes. Instead of selling their grapes to the big houses, Champagne vignerons are making distinctive, small-production wines under their own labels.

Frank Whitman

Mike Pelletier at Fountainhead Wines in Norwalk recommends two grower bottlings: The pinot noir based Marie Weiss Champagne Brut ($38) or Vilmart & Cie Grand Cellier ($77) fermented in oak barrels for a rich toasty style.

French Champagne makers that have set up shop in California include recognizable brands like Domaine Chandon, Mumm Napa and Roederer Estate. Schramsberg is an excellent all-American brand made in the northern tip of the Napa Valley. Domaine Ste. Michelle is a popular choice from Washington State.

The New Years wine is only half of the celebratory equation. A good toast completes the picture. Short and to the point, long and entertaining or somewhat garbled after a long evening, toasts run the gamut. Im not good at lengthy and entertaining toasts, but Ive heard some just as good as stand-up comedy. I admire those who speak comfortably in public and pull it off.

Fear not. If public speaking is not your thing, help is available.

A number of reference books supplying ready made toasts and advice on giving them are at hand. Rising to the Occasion: The Best Toasts for Any Celebration by Paul Dickson has examples from the famous and anonymous plus tips on delivery. It even has glasses of bubbly wine on the cover.

Frank Whitman

Nancy Tupper Ling and June Cotner have put together Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion to help the hesitant make a good impression.

Heres an anonymous old one I might use: May you always have love in your heart and Champagne in your belly!

With a bottle of bubbly and the right words, New Years Eve is a snap.

Frank Whitman writes a weekly food column called "Not Bread Alone." He can be reached at NotBreadAloneFW@gmail.com.
When threats spread on TikTok last week about violence at schools across the country, many students decided to stay home.

Some school districts in the Danbury area saw absences rise last Friday due to non-credible warnings about violence that were shared on the popular social media app. Several area districts increased police presence at their schools, while some schools in the state and nation closed, although the threats didnt originate locally.

Local superintendents said these threats made students anxious and disrupted education.

Such social media postings are divisive and demonstratively disruptive for students, staff and families, Brookfield Superintendent John Barile said in an email. This type of despicable activity contributes to the erosion of trust in basic humanity and our community institutions.

In Brookfield, the number of students absent increased by 321 percent from last Thursday to last Friday. There were 141 students absent on Thursday, compared to 594 students on Friday. There were 222 students absent the previous Friday, Dec. 10.

Barile attributed this extreme increase in absences to the threats.

In New Fairfield, 1,013 students were absent. Thats roughly half the district, with 2,132 students in the district in 2020-21, according to state data. New Fairfield High School saw 440 absences, the middle school had 280, Meeting House Hill School 149 and Consolidated School had 144. There were about 53 teachers absent, including for COVID reasons.

Last week was very stressful, Superintendent Pat Cosentino said in an email. Students, parents and staff were nervous and scared, which is understandable. We had no credible threats and that is why we remained open.

Bethel schools saw higher numbers of absences, too. Berry Elementary School had 19 percent of students out, Johnson Elementary School saw 21 percent of students out, Rockwell Elementary School reported 22 percent, Bethel High School had 26 percent and Bethel Middle School saw 31 percent.

The threats increased stressed in the schools, especially as students shared the messages on social media, Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver said.

Its not even the people making the threats, she said. Its people that perpetuate it that are just as much as part of the problem. It actually kind of makes me angry.

In her most recent newsletter, Carver urged parents to monitor their childrens social media, delay giving them a smartphone and to use parent control features on cell phones and tablets, among other advice.

The big problem here is almost everything that happens starts on social media or starts in technology, she said. We can't control that, so it's really getting parents to partner with us.

In Brookfield, the absences were starkest at the high school, where 325 students were out on Friday, a 364 percent increase from the day before and an 168.6 percent increase from the previous Friday. That was more than the number of students out district wide on Thursday and the previous Friday.

However, 15 fewer staff members in Brookfield were absent last Friday compared to the previous Friday.

This is a credit to the dedication of our Brookfield's Best, the faculty, staff and administration that work tirelessly on behalf of the Brookfield Public Schools, Barile said.

Growing trend

Fridays threats followed similar incidents across the state and country that have appeared to ramp up since a Nov. 30 shooting that killed four students at a high school in Michigan. Students at Danbury High School were dismissed early on Dec. 3 due to non-credible threats and a false report of a shooting.

A 13-year-old Naugatuck boy was arrested last Friday in connection with the threats, while Danbury police arrested a juvenile over the the threats that led to Danbury High Schools early dismissal.

Concerns about these threats led Newtown schools to go remote on the ninth anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting last Tuesday.

Newtown Superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue said shes glad her schools switched to distance learning that day. On Friday, however, the district didnt see a large drop in attendance, she said. The district hasnt calculated the data yet.

Im not sure how you can measure that because youve got students out who are COVID contacts and a variety, a host of reasons, she said.

Local police and security have been phenomenal in supporting the district to reduce anxiety from the threats, Rodrigue said.

This is never easy, she said. Its anxiety-producing and stressful. That being said, right before the holidays, we want to make sure that we can keep students safe and to mitigate as many distractions and disruptions as we can to their education.

Barile was frustrated with the threats.

Students, parents, staff and the public should not have to continue to endure these anxiety producing events, he said. The fear caused by these threats places an unsustainable stress on family and staff emotional health, along with undue pressure on law enforcement and the school system.

The responsible actors need to be identified and prosecuted for their responsibility in causing this nationwide school and local community disruption, he added.
RIDGEFIELD - Although the days high did not peak past 40 degrees, dozens of brave residents took a dip in the chilly waters of Great Pond over the weekend to support Special Olympics Connecticut.

Sundays Penguin Plunge was the first in a series of plunges SOCT hosts to benefit its sports, health and fitness programs for athletes of all abilities. This was the first year the organization sponsored a plunge in Ridgefield, which was hosted by the towns Police Benevolent Association at Martin Park Beach.

The goal of the PBA is to provide protection, service and financial assistance to the community wherever needed. It is made up of the men and women of the Ridgefield Police Department, and sponsors community outreach events for residents of all ages. These activities are run voluntarily by off-duty police officers.

The PBA is one of the big charitable arms of the police department, PBA President Chris DiFalco said. We do a bunch of different programs throughout the year (focused on) community policing, and (those) interactions make the job that much better.

Since members typically participate in SOCTs Torch Run each June, they wanted to find other ways to get involved with the organization, DiFalco said. Seeing Martin Park Beach as a great venue for a plunge, the PBA reached out to organizers to see if they could squeeze in an event around the holidays.

Participants had to raise a minimum of $25 before taking the plunge. DiFalco said around 35 people signed up, including a handful of PBA members.

Its a real hard sell, he said with a laugh, but it was a decent turnout for something that was planned with short notice.

Local businesses provided hot beverages and warming tents on the day of the plunge, which saw some participants donned in Santa hats. In addition to raising money for SOCT, the event also gave spectators an opportunity to see police officers as who they really are: people.

Everyone rallies behind Special Olympics  its a great organization for a great cause, and thats what the PBA is all about, DiFalco said. When they see us do silly things like getting dressed up and jumping into cold water, its a whole different side.

For more information, visit soct.org.

alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com
"Receiving our flower sales license is a significant milestone and provides Adastra with an additional pathway to pursue higher-margin revenue growth within the Canadian cannabis market," said Donald Dinsmore, COO & Director. "With the ability to be a direct supplier, we are now even better positioned to leverage the strong awareness and existing shelf space of our popular Phyto Extractions brand, as well as our national inside sales force, by offering an expanded portfolio of other products targeted at the cost-conscious and the premium craft consumers that will include pre-rolls and dried flower offerings."

Dried cannabis flower is in high demand from provincial distributors and medical clients. According to Statistics Canada, dried flower sales accounted for nearly three-quarters of legal recreational cannabis sales in the first half of 2021, worth over $1.3 billion in sales.1

Michael Forbes, Chief Executive Officer of Adastra, commented, "Adastra is in a great position to maximize profits through the continued reduction in biomass costs and the little need for capital expenditure. I am particularly excited about the upcoming launch of infused pre-rolls, as they are the fastest-growing segment in the flower category. With national shelf space to leverage, the facility, and the team to execute, these new flower SKUs will propel Adastra into record sales and profitability."



_____________________________________

1 MJBizDaily, October 20, 2021 (article)

About Adastra Holdings Ltd.

Founded in 2018 and formerly known as Phyto Extractions Inc., Adastra is a leading manufacturer and supplier of innovative ethnobotanical and cannabis science products designed for the adultuse and medical markets and forwardlooking therapeutic applications. Adastra is renowned throughout Canada for its popular line of Phyto Extractions branded cannabis concentrate products available on shelves at over 1,400 adultuse retailers across the country. The Company also operates Adastra Labs, a 13,500 sq. ft. agriculturalscale Health Canada licensed facility located in Langley, BC., focused on extraction, distillation, and manufacturing of cannabisderived products. Adastra has now successfully taken the first steps in becoming a licensed cultivator, tester, extractor, and seller of controlled substances, including Psilocybin, Psilocin, MDMA, N, NDimethyltryptamine (DMT), 5 MeowDMT, and LSD by applying for a Controlled Substances Dealer's Licence, which is under review by Health Canada. Pending Health Canada approval, Adastra is poised to be a drug formulation and development leader in this emerging sector. In addition, with the recent acquisition of 1225140 B.C. Ltd., doing business as PerceiveMD, Adastra operates a multidisciplinary centre for medical cannabis and psychedelic therapies, working alongside doctors and healthcare professionals within the regulated environment to help create efficacious remedies that address the actual needs of patients.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation concerning the business of the Company. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forwardlooking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forwardlooking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forwardlooking information in this news release includes statements with respect to obtaining a Controlled Drugs and Substances Dealer's License from Health Canada, and on the anticipated timeline thereof; statements regarding anticipated new products, the adoption thereof, and the timelines set out herein; and the intention to hire additional shifts to meet consumer demand. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forwardlooking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include the availability of a qualified workforce; changes in regulations or licensing affecting the Company's business; reduced demand for cannabis and cannabis related products; reductions in the Company's retail space and store locations; and other factors beyond the control of the Company. These and all subsequent written and oral forwardlooking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forwardlooking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed or approved the contents of this news release.

SOURCE Adastra Holdings Ltd.

For further information: Contacts: Cody Simpson, Communications Manager, P: (778) 715-5011, E: [email protected]

Related Links

https://www.adastraholdings.ca/investors/


Building world-class scientific infrastructure to advance science for Canadians

MONCTON, NB, Dec. 20, 2021 /CNW/ - Public Services and Procurement Canada

Through Laboratories Canada, the Government of Canada is providing federal scientists with world-class, innovative and collaborative facilities so they can pursue leading-edge scientific research today and into the future.

Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc and the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, on behalf of the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, announced a $23.6-million contract to Diamond Schmitt Architects to deliver design services and a $5.8-million contract to Pomerleau for initial construction management for the redevelopment of the Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre. The construction management contract is expected to be worth just over $300 million as additional work proceeds, which is expected to create and sustain a minimum of 200 jobs that will support the local and surrounding economy.

Both contracts include Indigenous Participation Plans that will see over $60 million flowing through to Indigenous businesses and communities in New Brunswick.

The Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre will bring together federal scientists working to protect and sustain Atlantic freshwater and coastal ecosystems and will house scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the National Research Council of Canada. The Canadian Space Agency will also be a virtual partner.

Site preparation and construction work is anticipated to begin in 2022, with more extensive work beginning in 2023. The project will be completed by 2030.

Quotes

"Under the Laboratories Canada strategy, the government is strengthening federal science infrastructure across Canada. Today's announcement is an important milestone in the Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre project. We are building a leading-edge facility that will advance science in the region for decades to come, and this work will also foster meaningful, long-term relationships with Indigenous partners."

The Honourable Filomena Tassi

Minister of Public Services and Procurement

"The Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre will make the Greater Moncton area a hub for research into Atlantic freshwater and coastal ecosystems. It will also create high-quality jobs for our university graduates, who will be able to take part in meaningful, immersive research that will enable us to protect our oceans, lakes, rivers and aquatic species for future generations."

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc

Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities

"This announcement is a testament to our government's commitment to support critical research initiatives to better manage our ecosystems and create good jobs in Atlantic Canada and opportunities for coastal communities, while advancing reconciliation in the region. About $60 million will flow to Indigenous businesses and communities in New Brunswick through this important project, and we look forward to continuing this collaboration in the years to come."

The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor

Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Quick facts

The Government of Canada is committed to increasing the participation of Indigenous businesses in federal procurement by awarding at least 5% of federal contracts to businesses that are owned or led by Indigenous Peoples. The federal government spends about $22 billion per year; therefore, achieving this target will provide significant economic benefits to Indigenous businesses.

is committed to increasing the participation of Indigenous businesses in federal procurement by awarding at least 5% of federal contracts to businesses that are owned or led by Indigenous Peoples. The federal government spends about per year; therefore, achieving this target will provide significant economic benefits to Indigenous businesses. Under the Indigenous Participation Plans, Indigenous businesses will receive contracts valued at 7.5% of the total contract value for pre-design services and 10% of the total base contract for construction management. For the future construction phase of the project, it is expected that an Indigenous Participation Plan of 22% will be achieved, significantly surpassing the Government of Canada's 5% objective.

5% objective. Through partnerships formed with Indigenous communities, universities, the fishing industry, non-governmental organizations and other federal government departments, interpretative spaces are being developed to help future generations of Canadians engage in marine science and ocean literacy.

The Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre project will also incorporate Indigenous elements into the design and operation of the facility through ongoing collaboration with Indigenous partners in New Brunswick .

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SOURCE Public Services and Procurement Canada

For further information: James Fitz-Morris, Director of Communications, Office of the Honourable Filomena Tassi, [email protected], 819-997-5421; Media Relations, Public Services and Procurement Canada, [email protected]
MONTREAL, Dec. 20, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial") (TSXV: IPG) (OTCQB: IMPNF) is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Investment Quebec, an agent of the government of Quebec and the Baie-Comeau Regional Industrial Development Agency ("IDM") to undertake a comprehensive scandium market study. The study will look at the benefits of establishing a North American supply of scandium and scandium-aluminum alloys products and determine the industrial and technological development impacts on the Baie-Comeau region, in general, and the Quebec aluminum industry, in particular.

In July 2021, a collaboration agreement was signed between Imperial Mining Group and Innovation et Developpement Manicouagan. This agreement was the catalyst for the awarding of a $100,700 grant by Investissement Quebec ($ 50,700) in the SME Action Plan program and the Entrepreneurial Equity Fund of ID Manicouagan ($ 50,000) to support scandium market research.

"We are grateful to the Government of Quebec and Innovation and Development Manicouagan for supporting Imperial's vision for a strong North American scandium industry," said Peter J. Cashin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Mining Group. "The results of the study will be an important input to the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) currently underway and will quantify the significant growth potential of the global scandium alloy products market once our Crater Lake operation is commissioned. It will also demonstrate the significant economic and strategic benefits that a sustainable scandium supply chain will bring to the province of Quebec and its world-class green aluminum industry. From Imperial's perspective, the Baie-Comeau region offers significant advantages due to the availability of low-cost green hydropower, the deep-water port, the expertise of the aluminum workforce and a vibrant northern community"

"In Quebec, we can be proud to have the opportunity to produce scandium from an important mineral deposit like we see at Crater Lake and the greenest aluminum in the world," said Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy and Innovation and Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development. "It is now time to join forces and prepare Quebec industry for the arrival of scandium-aluminum alloys, making them more durable and more resistant. This metal will be an important contributor to reducing manufactured platform weight."

"Baie-Comeau offers many opportunities for allied metal producers, such as Imperial Mining Group, to be strategically located near a major green aluminum production center and a value-added smelter for the North American automotive industry," said Guy Simard, Director of Industrial Development at ID Manicouagan. "In addition, Imperial's project has the potential to contribute to the advancement of two important strategies of the Government of Quebec, namely the Quebec aluminum development strategy and the action plan for the value creation in critical and strategic mineral sector."

MARKET STUDY OBJECTIVES

IPG views that the industrial port zone of Baie-Comeau an ideal choice for the establishment of scandium oxide and master alloy production capacity for the Crater Lake development. The market study will look at the implications and impacts of establishing a scandium supply chain in the Baie-Comeau region, in general, and as well as the broad Quebec aluminum industry. The study will be addressing two broad themes, being:

1. Market Analysis and Economic Opportunities

Conduct market analysis of the potential scandium downstream applications, including identifying key trends, manufacturing techniques emerging market segments, including evaluating each market for cost sensitivity.

Estimate carbon offsets for each downstream application.

Conduct market outlook for scandium oxide consumption for a 25-year timeframe for each application.

Conduct SWOT analysis of the Imperial Mining Group.

2. Market Sizing and Socioeconomic Impact Assessment

Assess the IPG's addressable market opportunities in Quebec .

. Estimate direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of the IPG scandium oxide production and economic impact of the aluminum ecosystem in Baie-Comeau

Assess broader socioeconomic benefits of the scandium production and applications in Quebec's industries, including but not limited to, follow-on investment, and strengthening of existing manufacturing clusters.

The market study work commenced on October 22, 2021 and will be completed by the end of Q1 2022. Results of the study will be incorporated into the Crater Lake project PEA which is currently being undertaken by WSP Canada (see Imperial Mining Press Release, November 5, 2021).

ABOUT IMPERIAL MINING GROUP LTD.

Imperial is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on the advancement of its technology metals projects in Quebec. Imperial is publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as "IPG" and on the OTCQB Exchange as "IMPNF" and is led by an experienced team of mineral exploration and development professionals with a strong track record of mineral deposit discovery in numerous metal commodities.

ABOUT ID MANICOUAGAN

An economic development organization, IDM supports entrepreneurship through advisory and financing services (loans and grants) to businesses and community organizations. It acts in the industrial development and socio-economic development of the Manicouagan area to maximize the benefits for the region and facilitate the networking of the various partners.

Website: www.imperialmgp.com Twitter: @imperial_mining Facebook: Imperial Mining Group

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Imperial Mining Group Ltd.

For further information: Peter J. Cashin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Phone: +1 (514) 360-0571, Email: [email protected] | CHF Capital Markets, Cathy Hume, Chief Executive Officer, Phone: +1 (416) 868-1079 x251, Email: [email protected]
In the year 2000, when Lara Dutta became the second woman from India to be crowned Miss Universe, no one thought that the country would have to wait for over two decades to hear the name India being called as the winner on that stage again. But it finally happened recently as Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu was crowned Miss Universe 2021 in Israel.

Usually, pageantry leads to a career in films, however for Harnaaz its the other way around as she has already completed two Punjabi films. Her debut film is titled Bai Ji Kuttange and features her opposite another pageant winner and fellow debutante Darasing Khurana. The latter had won the title of Mister India International 2017 and he is a proud friend and co-star after Harnaazs historic win.

The two met for the first time on the sets of their film in Chandigarh and it was an instant connection for the two. We bonded over our shared interest in food, especially both of our love for desserts, Dara smiles.

The model-turned-actor cant contain his excitement on his debut co-stars win and admires her work ethics. Harnaaz is a very hardworking girl and she tries to give her best at every point. I remember one day we were all shooting until very late in a village thats over an hour away from Chandigarh. Harnaaz thought she did not give her best in the scene we shot for and I saw her sitting looking very sad in the car while we were on our way back to the city. When I asked her about what happened, she couldnt stop crying and said that she wasnt sure if she was doing well. I just gave her a hug and assured her that she was indeed doing very well and that I was proud of her. That very moment I felt she was more like my little sister off screen, Dara shares.

The next day Dara wasnt supposed to be shooting, but he still came on set for his sister. Harnaaz was still shooting that day with the other actors and she made me promise her that I will come to see her on the set as she was feeling low. So, I made sure to travel the next day to the set to support her and cheer her up, he recalls.

With the common pageant history and their love for food, Dara and Harnaaz became very good friends through the course of the shoot of their film, and even while in Israel, Harnaaz was in constant touch with her co-star. With such a big achievement behind them, the duo is now just waiting to create magic on screen together in Bai Ji Kuttange, which marks both their debuts and releases on May 27, 2022.
The Centre on December 16 proposed to delicense electricity distribution to reduce entry barriers in the power sector enabling multiple distribution companies to operate in the same area of supply.

Divisional Commissioner of Jammu Raghav Langer has written to the Indian Army seeking assistance for the restoration of electricity supply following a strike by the electricity department personnel. It is to bring to your kind notice that due to strike by Electricity Department personnel in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, essential services have been severely affected in the Jammu Region. We would like to hereby requisition the Indian Army to assist in the restoration of said essential services by provisioning manpower to man critical electricity stations and water supply sources, read the official communique by Langer today.

The armys response on the matter is awaited. With the aim to facilitate consumers with alternative choices, the Centre on December 16 proposed to delicense electricity distribution to reduce entry barriers in the power sector enabling multiple distribution companies to operate in the same area of supply.

In the Union Budget 2021-22, the Centre had said, The distribution companies across the country are monopolies, either government or private. There is a need to provide choice to consumers by promoting competition. A framework will be put in place to give consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one Distribution Company.

Pursuant to the Budget announcements, the Centre held a series of consultations with various stakeholders including state governments, electricity regulators and industry players.

Around 20,000 power personnel, including top engineers and lineman, have gone on strike in J&K since Friday evening to protest the decision to integrate the J&K Power Development Department into the Power Grid Corporation of India, turning over assets to private corporations. They also want daily wagers to be regularised and delayed pay to be released.

Employees on strike have chosen not to do any repairs or maintenance until the government agrees to their demands. We will continue our protest till our demands are granted, said Jaipal Sharma, head of the J&K Power Employees Coordination Committee.

In the matter, Omar Abdullah, the vice president of the National Conference and a former chief minister, has encouraged the government to delegate privatisation decisions to an elected government. Further, according to an official spokesman, the government of J&K has had multiple rounds of negotiations with the power employees coordination committee, taking a sympathetic view of the problems expressed.
In reaction to the spread of the variation, the US, Japan, Israel, and a number of other nations have imposed international travel restrictions, while the WHO has warned against such restrictions.

Researchers are starting to recognize the implications of the new coronavirus variations mutations, which vastly outnumbers any prior variety in less than three weeks around the world after experts in South Africa and Botswana first alerted the world about its existence.

According to the World Health Organization, the Omicron version of the coronavirus has been found in 89 countries, and COVID-19 cases including the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in regions with community transmission, not simply illnesses acquired overseas. On Sunday, the UK reported 82,886 new Covid-19 cases, with 45 fatalities occurring within 28 days of a positive test. Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has endorsed test-to-stay techniques that prevent sending unvaccinated children home from school. As part of Europes effort to combat Omicron, France is limiting New Years Eve gatherings. In reaction to the spread of the variation, the US, Japan, Israel, and a number of other nations have imposed international travel restrictions, while the WHO has warned against such restrictions.

The booster shot rollout, as well as the concept of providing additional doses to otherwise healthy individuals, has sparked debate. People are concerned about the omicron variety spreading quickly, and they want to know if vaccination or past infection will protect them from becoming infected or having serious sickness. A booster dosage against Covid-19, according to experts, increases the quantity of circulating antibodies and has been found to provide protection from symptomatic infection with Omicron. People who have received two doses of Pfizers vaccine are susceptible to omicron infection, but a third injection enhances antibody activity against the virus, according to Pfizer. This was determined by laboratory tests utilizing the blood of vaccination recipients.

On the other hand, according to leading infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci, coronavirus booster doses from Moderna and Pfizer are predicted to provide sufficient protection against omicron at this time, thus a variant-specific vaccine is not required.

In the matter, last Friday, the United Kingdoms Health Security Agency released a report reporting preliminary findings from a real-world trial that found a two-dose course of Covid vaccines was much less effective against the omicron variety than the delta strain. However, research discovered that in the early period following a booster dosage, moderate to high vaccination efficacy of 70 to 75 percent is seen.
This event occurred about two years ago, yet it was just recently reported on by Reuters in a "special report" released on Friday.

Amazon decided to delete all comments and ratings linked to a listing on its Chinese site selling Xi Jinpings speeches and writings after receiving an instruction from Beijing.

This event occurred about two years ago, yet it was just recently reported on by Reuters in a special report released on Friday. According to the site, the government demand came after an unfavorable review was posted online. Apparently, Xi Jinpings ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics is discussed in the book. Pashto, Dari, Sinhala, Hindi, and English are among the languages in which the book has been published.

The decision is a break from Amazons usual business methods, given the companys dependence on consumer evaluations and ratings as part of its platform. According to Reuters, making this sacrifice to placate Xis administration is part of the firms plan for keeping favour in China. According to a report by Reuters, the business received an increasing number of requests from (Chinese) watchdogs to delete specific information, primarily politically sensitive stuff in 2018.

However, as China attempted to brush off the unfavorable attention, it was reported that Xis demand was triggered by negative reviews of his book. I think the problem was less than five stars, one individual stated.

This is reminiscent of how Apple Inc. has been increasingly loyal to Beijing in recent years. According to the research, Apple agreed with roughly 97 percent of Chinese government demands for information on user devices in 2019. Meanwhile, American companies, such as Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp.s LinkedIn, have abandoned the Chinese market this year, blaming the countrys increasingly difficult commercial and legal climate.
Contributed Photo / Hartford Police Department

HARTFORD  A firefighter was injured and 15 people were displaced early Sunday morning in a blaze at a three-family home on Westland Street, officials said.

The call came in at about 1:30 a.m. and companies worked through the night to extinguish the fire, a social media post said.
NEW HAVEN  The Rev. Boise Kimber, along with other city clergy, called Monday for an immediate change of leadership at the New Haven Police Department, saying that it would speed change within the force and beyond.

Kimber, head of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association, urged Interim Chief Renee Dominguez to step down, hastening her already announced plans to retire once the city finds a new chief, and Mayor Justin Elicker to appoint another temporary leader in her stead.

We believe that there needs to be a new start preparing for the next chief. If she remains there, then nothing will continue to be done, Kimber said during a press conference. We need a program. We need some of these murders solved, some of the shootings solved, in our community.

Alders earlier this month rejected Elickers nomination of Dominguez for the full-time post via a voice vote that did not require them to go on record as either for or against her. At the time, Elicker said he would try again to have Dominguez fill the role, and she said then that she would be open to the idea.

Days later, however, Dominguez withdrew entirely from the process, expressing her disappointment, and said she would retire after shepherding the department until a permanent replacement was found.

But Kimber on Monday said the city could not afford for Dominguez to remain in charge until that time, saying that a leader of vision was needed. Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson could serve in the role without great disruption, he suggested, or another member of the department.

We can no longer afford for her to maintain this position, said Kimber. I think it would do harm to our community and do harm to the department.

Former aldermanic candidate and community activist Rodney Williams, the Rev. John Lewis and Charles Brewer, head of the New Trinity Temple COGIC on Dixwell Avenue, also expressed their support for an immediate change in leadership at the Police Department.

Were ready for change, Brewer said. Were asking that the mayor would be sensitive to not only the needs of the clergy, but the needs of this entire community. I think if he was to acquiesce to our request, hed see substantial support coming from us and local community partners.

Williams thanked Dominguez for her years of service to the community, which Kimber echoed. It would be difficult, Williams said, for officers to serve under a chief they knew would not be there in the long-term.

Its a time to move on, said Williams. Shes just here, waiting to leave. I just feel like the best thing for her to do for this city, and for the Police Department, is leave now.

Dominguez said Monday that Kimbers suggestion doesnt make sense for the safety and security of the community and department.

If she was to step away now, she said, there would be a transition to another interim chief, then from that chief to the permanent one, causing further disruption. This way, she said, ongoing efforts can continue and the process to a new permanent chief can be smoother.

Mayor Justin Elicker declined to follow the suggestion in a statement Monday.

As we announced last week, weve begun the process to select a permanent chief of police. That process will include a community feedback component which Dr. Kimber is welcome to participate in. While that process is on-going, Chief Dominguez will continue to lead the department, Elicker said. She has been a strong and able leader, and Im confident she will continue to be so in her remaining months with our department.

Kimber also called Monday for a community forum on the next police chief to be held, as was done in June 2019, ahead of the appointment of then-Interim Chief Otoniel Reyes to the full time role.

He also suggested that a committee be formed, including alders, a mayoral representative and representatives of the police union, to vet potential candidates for the police chief post.

Both Kimber and Lewis said it was important for the residents of the city to have a voice in the process of selecting the next police chief.

Its about a community affair. Its about us being able to choose together, said Lewis.

On the whole, Kimber said the next chief, whether drawn from inside or outside the department, needed to be focused on buttressing community-based policing, and should look to hire and elevate Black and brown officers.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
3 1 of 3 Shelton FD / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Shelton FD / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 3





SHELTON  A driver was taken to the hospital with obvious injuries Friday after their vehicle crashed into a utility pole and rolled over, fire officials said.

Fire units were dispatched to the 600 block of River Road around 8:30 a.m. Friday for a reported one-vehicle crash.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo has denied and disowned rumours making the rounds on social media that the Chairman of Southeast Governors Forum, Dave Umahi...





Ohanaeze Ndigbo has denied and disowned rumours making the rounds on social media that the Chairman of Southeast Governors Forum, Dave Umahi recruited the office of the Secretary-General of the apex Igbo group for his 2023 Presidential bid.





We refused to join issues with faceless organizations not registered in Corporate Affairs Commission CAC, but based on the issue of clarification for the public, the chairman of Southeast Governors and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi has never met with the Secretary-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro in person, or donated any property or whooping sum of money to him, this is the efforts of Igbo saboteurs and fifth columnists from the pit of hell, a statement signed by Kalu-Odidika Kalu, Media Adviser to the Secretary-General Ohanaeze said.





The statement went on to say that the group cannot be bought by anyone including the southeast Governors.





Ohaneze said it was very much aware that as 2023 draws near, Northern and Southwest presidential aspirants have mobilized mushroom and nonexistent groups to destabilize the Southeast.





The group said all that matters to it is for an Igbo son or daughter to become Nigerias President come 2023, adding that no conspiracy theories can destabilize the leadership of Ohanaeze.





The apex Igbo socio-political organisation vowed to ensure Igbos field worthy Presidential candidates in the two major political parties for the 2023 Presidential elections.





We warn that any individual or group of persons who spread fake news against officers of Ohanaeze without any substantial evidence to support it will be prosecuted for libel and defamation of character in the court of competent jurisdiction.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has been dragged to court for refusing to make public the report submitted to him by the Ogun Judicial P...





Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has been dragged to court for refusing to make public the report submitted to him by the Ogun Judicial Panel of Enquiry into police brutality and extra judicial killings.





Abiodun was sued alongside the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, by a lawyer, Festus Ogun.





Festus Ogun had earlier in a letter, invoked the Freedom of Information Act, asking Abiodun to release, within seven days, the report of the panel he set up after the #EndSARS protest in 2020.





However, the legal practitioner said he had filed a motion ex-parte against the governor over his failure, neglect and refusal to accede to the FOI request concerning the release of the Ogun State EndSARS panel report.





In suit no: M/264/21, brought pursuant to Sections 1(3) and 20 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and Order 40 Rules 1(1) and 3(1)(2) of the High Court of Ogun State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2014, the lawyer is seeking an order granting leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review and to seek an order of mandamus directing and or compelling the Respondents whether by themselves and/or their agents to disclose and or make available to the Applicant the information requested as contained in a letter dated 18th November, 2021concerning the submitted report of the Ogun State Judicial Panel.





Contacted, the new Attorney General of the State, said steps are underway to ensure the report is out either before the year runs out or in January, 2022.





Yes, you know when there is a report like that, there will be some internal procedures to be followed, and we are still working internally and since I assumed office about three weeks ago, I have stepped up action on it.





I can assure you that either before the year runs out or very early in the new year, there will be more positive things to tell you, Ogungbade said.
The Nasarawa State Government has placed a ban on the use and sale of charcoal in the State in a bid to protect the environment. This was di...





The Nasarawa State Government has placed a ban on the use and sale of charcoal in the State in a bid to protect the environment.





This was disclosed at a press briefing in Lafia during the weekend by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr Aliyu Agwai.





According to him, the process of producing charcoal is harmful to the environment, stressing that it possesses the ability of destroying the climate and increasing global warming.





The Permanent Secretary noted that burning of charcoal, especially, would produce harmful emission capable of affecting health of residents.





Cutting trees can result in the loss of habitat for animal species, which can harm the ecosystems.





Almost all the land animals and plants live in forests and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes, he added.





He warned those selling and using charcoal to desist to avoid prosecution.





It was gathered that the development is coming amid hike in cooking gas which has forced many Nigerians to the use of charcoal as an alternative.





It has been observed that the price of 12.5 kg which was hitherto sold for N6,000 currently stands at N8,500 and above. There is also fear that the price will skyrocket further during the yuletide.
The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has assured residents that his administration is winning the fight against insecurity. ...

The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has assured residents that his administration is winning the fight against insecurity.

The governor, who urged Imolites in Diaspora to ignore the propaganda and fabricated social media publications about the security situation in the state, said the state is truly safe.

He also said his administration would continue to protect, defend the citizens of the state, especially during the festive season.

Represented by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy; Declan Emelumba, he stated this while delivering his speech during the grand finale of the 2021 Press Week which was held at the councils new secretariat, Owerri, Imo State capital.

The governor thanked Imo journalists for being partners in progress with the reconstruction, recovery and rehabilitation of the present administration.

He charged media practitioners in the state to always adhere to the ethics of the journalism profession in their reportage; urging them to be wary of social media blackmailers.

The state Chairman of NUJ, Imo chapter, Chief Chris Akaraonye, in his opening speech commended planning committee members of 2021 press week for the arrangements that made the ceremony a successful outing.

Akaraonye described the theme: Media Participation In Security & Economic Development as timely especially now Imo is being bedevilled with security challenges; and therefore applauded the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Rabiu Hussain for exclusively doing justice to the topic.

In her vote of thanks, the chairperson, Imo NUJ 2021 Press Week Organizing Committee; Dr. (Mrs) Dorothy Okafor-Nnaji, thanked the Governor for his friendly disposition to the media sector in the state.

Recall that the 2021 Imo State Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Week with the theme: Media Participation in Security and Economic Development which started on Monday 13th December has come to an end with a Thanksgiving Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church Aladinma.
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has released phone numbers for emergency cases during the festive season. The phone numbers were publ...





The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has released phone numbers for emergency cases during the festive season.

The phone numbers were published on Sunday.

The contact details were for control rooms of the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

As you celebrate this holiday season, you can contact the Nigeria Police Force in all states of the Federation in case of any emergency via the following contacts, a post on the agencys Facebook page reads.

See the phone numbers below.




Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Snow likely. High 29F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches..

Tonight

Snow this evening will give way to lingering snow showers late. Low 19F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected.
There were some watering eyes at Big Fisherman Seafood, and it wasnt because of any spice in the boil.

The Magazine Street seafood market has been shuttered since Hurricane Ida hit in August. Now, proprietor Henry Poynot has decided to close Big Fisherman permanently after 32 years in business here.

Poynot was clearing out supplies and mementos that had accumulated over the years, and he broke the news to longtime customers and neighbors as they passed by on a busy holiday shopping weekend. Some shed tears over the change.

You think about people who worked here and the customers through the years, thats what kept me here after I probably should have closed years back, he said. Ive been through Katrina, Ive lost houses. But this is the hardest thing, moving on from this now.

It is the latest loss of a longtime local business on this stretch of Magazine Street. Earlier this month, the owners of the Harrys Ace Hardware store just a few blocks up the street announced that they intend close this spring. That will mark the end of a business first started in 1910, and which has been on Magazine Street since 1958.

+12 After a century in business, Harry's Ace Hardware, an Uptown landmark, calls it quits After more than a century, Harry's Ace Hardware, an Uptown landmark on Magazine Street for most of its business life, is calling it quits.

The Harrys Ace owners attributed their decision to competition from online retailers and big box stores.

At Big Fisherman, the business of selling fresh and cooked seafood and Louisiana specialties had been gradually trailing off for years. Long gone were the days when Poynot kept a full case of local fin fish for his neighborhood clientele.

Times are changing, the mom and pop on the corner is going away, Poynot lamented.

The increasing popularity of boiled crawfish kept the doors open, but he said it was difficult to make money outside of crawfish season.

Even with crawfish though, competition has grown more intense.

There are supermarkets that will sell it boiled for less than I could afford to sell it live, he said.

The shop missed much of the 2020 crawfish season, remaining closed through the first eight months of the pandemic. It re-opened with only limited hours.

The cost of lost inventory after Ida proved to be the last straw, Poynot said, echoing a number of other local food businesses that similarly shuttered for good after the hurricane.

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Poynot owns the building at the corner of Magazine and Toledano streets. He said he does not yet know what he will do with the property next.

A Chalmette native, Poynot got his start in the business as a teenager, fishing after school and shrimping at night on progressively larger boats.

In the 1980s, he and a business partner teamed up to start a market called Little Fisherman in Chalmette. They opened a second location in St. Bernard Parish and in 1989 expanded to Magazine Street with a third, taking over a market that had been called Uptown Seafood.

After Poynot and his partner parted ways, he kept The New Orleans location and renamed it Big Fisherman.

Some customers know his employees better than him. Connie Malaro had worked here for decades, so had Michael Robinson, Poynots nephew.

Over 32 years in business here, Poynot can recall customers he met as children who are now doctors and lawyers. He even recalls a youthful shoplifter who, as an adult, became one of his better customers.

He stole a bag of peanuts off the counter, I chased him down Magazine Street, I told him if you need something you dont steal, you ask me, he recalled.

People have been bringing Poynot more conventional requests through the years - for cooking advice, for specialty meats like alligator sausage, for the lead blocks and oyster knives for shucking a sack at home.

Now 60, Poynot knows its time for him to move on, but thats been a difficult decision to digest.

Its hard coming here and talking to our old customers, he said.  it really has been a pleasure doing this and being part of their lives.

+20 Sizing up the biggest New Orleans restaurant closures of 2021, and whats replacing them Fine bistros and sandwich shops, restaurants that stood apart and spots that were just always there, maintaining their own traditions. These w

+9 Piccola Gelateria gets new Uptown home, and its after-school rush hour resumes in a flurry Great gelato has just the right blend of creamy density, vivid flavor and velvety texture, and thats certainly the case for the gelato served
A leaked homemade sex tape is bound to change a participant's life. Such videos didnt end the careers of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, but the same is not likely true for a teacher. Thats the premise of award-winning Romanian director Radu Judes Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.

The film kicks off with the smartphone recording of Emi and her husband. The scene is graphic, and even funny as one of their parents almost interrupts. The sex also gets a little kinky, but both partners clearly say what they want and how much they enjoy it. And while there isnt anything wrong with a married couple enjoying a robust sex life, once it gets uploaded to Pornhub, that part of their lives is no longer private.

Though often funny, the movie asks what is actually obscene as it works its way to a confrontation between the teacher and parents at the school. Its a frank and heated debate about privacy, community standards, prejudices and sacred cow ideas and institutions.

In the first part of the film, Emi goes through her day, dreading the meeting scheduled that evening. A few phone calls confirm that just as the video gets pulled from one internet platform, it gets re-uploaded or shared elsewhere. Theres a sense of paranoia anytime someone in the street looks at her. She also walks past billboards with nearly naked bodies and is hit on while just shopping. But also noticeable is how uncivil people can be to each other over the most mundane issues, like parking.

Jude inserts a long middle portion subtitled, A short dictionary of anecdotes, signs and wonders. It leaves the narrative aside and includes everything from a goofy vignette about blonde jokes to facts and commentary about Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was killed in the countrys 1989 revolution. The story of Medusa is presented as an allegory that people cannot face horrible truths. One scene notes that more than half of Romanian children are subjected to family violence. The film is concise, though it doesnt link all the factoids and anecdotes to the story.

The final confrontation looks like a kangaroo court, but much of the debate is engaging. Regardless of what Emi says about her privacy, some parents dont want her teaching their children. Some are extremely moralistic, and theres much to say beyond passing easy judgement. Do they really think a married woman doesnt have a sex life? Are they punishing the victim, since her privacy was violated? Are they more distracted by the fact that she enjoyed the sex, and is the underlying issue a backlash against feminism? They call her worse things than a pornographer, but is it even fair to call it porn if it was never intended for distribution or profit? Is she to blame if children were to go to adult websites, using devices provided by the parents?

Theres plenty of moral posturing and insults fly. Inevitably other arguments and slurs spill out, including antisemitism and hatred for Roma people. Romania also has issues left over from its 1989 revolution, including the use of the military against citizens who overthrew Ceausescu. The Romanian Orthodox Church also had a history of tolerating the Holocaust and working with repressive Romanian regimes.

But regardless of the broader perspectives and parents fears and prejudices, the group is set to vote on whether to keep an admittedly good teacher in the school. Emis vision of the battle is hilarious, though not necessarily the last word.

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn opens Dec. 25 at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

Nikki Glaspie celebrates her Christmas birthday with a Punkadelick show at Toulouse Theatre This show has been canceled by the venue due to the recent surge in Covid cases.
Yes. We need to do more to get this wave under control.

No. The vaccine is here and we're done with mask rules.

I never stopped wearing my mask.

Vote

View Results
After 31 years, a lot of New Orleanians know by heart the words to Benny Grunch & The Bunchs The 12 Yats of Christmas  or at least, they know how to draw out fried onion rings in spectacular fashion. A lot of Benny Grunchs holiday parodies and satirical songs, like O Little Town of Destrehan, have the easy flow of Christmas carols and are meant to be sung with others. And in the case of Aint No Place to Pee on Mardi Gras Day, theyre easy to remember when youve had a few on the parade route.

But whether or not you know all the words to Aint Dere No More wont matter, as Benny Grunch & The Bunch will help you with the lyrics when they play the Broadside on Wednesday, Dec. 22. The band hosts a sing-along at the outdoor venue and a screening of the modern holiday classic Elf.

I am going to go through my hits, and some of them, maybe some you dont pay much attention to, are really good sing-alongs, Benny Grunch Antin told Gambit last week. Im looking at a song right now called Red Light Cameras & Pot-Holes for Auld Lang Syne.

Antin doesnt waste a second and launches into a few lines of the song: Our deepest potholes go ker-schplott when they swallow compact cars / We need the S.U.V.-Curiosity like they drive around on Mars / Like were drivin around on Mars down here, like were drivin around on Mars / And ya know its bad, now Im really sad, we got more potholes than bars.

For many, Antins songs as Benny Grunch are a natural part of the holiday season. The band in 2020 celebrated 30 years of its The 12 Yats of Christmas album with a Thoity Year Annivoisary edition and a new song, K&B Stayed Open Christmas. This time of year, the gig calendar is usually packed: Benny Grunch & The Bunch could have around 25 shows during the holiday season, Antin says, but the pandemic has knocked that down by half the last two years.

This months schedule has about 10 shows, Antin says, but that does include his long-standing annual Christmas Day show at Rock n Bowl  the band kept the tradition going last year by streaming the performance from the venue.

As soon as this pandemic is over, Im thinking about a tune, it goes, Santas out of quarantine, just in time for Christmas, Antin says.

Antin, a Lakeview native, began playing music professionally in 1959 and was touring with musicians starting in 1967. He came up with the Grunch stage name while playing in Hammond during his time as a student at Southeastern. The 12 Yats of Christmas was a hit for Antin when it was released in 1990, and hes had success with a few of his non-holiday songs. His track My Pants Are Way Too Tight was used in the NBC show Homicide. Now at 76, Antin has played every state in the U.S., except for Hawaii and Alaska, which, you know, that and $1.35 will get me on the Canal Boulevard bus, he says with a laugh.

Ive just been really lucky, he adds. This is hard to make a living at, but Ive never had a real job.

The Benny Grunch & The Bunch sing-along starts at 6 p.m. with Elf screening to follow. Tickets are $10 at broadsidenola.com.
Moderna said Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine should offer protection against the rapidly spreading omicron variant.

Moderna said lab tests showed the half-dose booster shot increased by 37 times the level of so-called neutralizing antibodies able to fight omicron.

And a full-dose booster was even stronger, triggering an 83-fold jump in antibody levels, although with an increase in the usual side effects, the company said. While half-dose shots are being used for most Moderna boosters, a full-dose third shot has been recommended for people with weakened immune systems.

Omicron cases reach 93 in Louisiana, outpace U.S. average, as health officials prepare for more State health officials have identified 48 more cases of the omicron variant in Louisiana, bringing the states total to 93 infections that hav

Moderna announced the preliminary laboratory data in a press release and it hasnt yet undergone scientific review. But testing by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, announced last week by Dr. Anthony Fauci, found a similar jump.

Pfizers testing likewise found its COVID-19 vaccine triggered a similarly big jump in omicron-fighting antibodies. The vaccines made by Pfizer and by Moderna, both made with mRNA technology, are used by many countries around the world to fight the coronavirus.

Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Together, the available evidence backs health authorities increasing pleas for people to get their boosters as soon as theyre eligible.

Antibody levels predict how well a vaccine may prevent infection with the coronavirus but they are just one layer of the immune systems defenses. Other research suggests the vaccine still should induce good protection against severe disease if people do experience a breakthrough infection.

Both Moderna and Pfizer are developing shots to better match the omicron variant in case theyre needed.

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.
Lafayette City Judge Michelle Odinet called a Black man the N-word, and she didnt think anyone but family would know. It doesnt matter. She shouldnt have said it.

There are things White people shouldnt say. The N-word is one of them.

I dont care how influential and powerful you are. I dont care if its at your kitchen table or watching a recording with family. I dont care if its talking with a close Black friend. Just dont say it. Period. Hard stop.

Its not OK based on class or place in society. Theres a greater expectation for respect with people in authority and those with power. People like judges.

I dont want judges, presidents, senators, representatives, mayors, CEOs using offensive words and racial slurs when talking about Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, homosexuals, people of the Jewish faith or anyone else. Most of us know the words. We choose whether to use them. When such language becomes or is public, expect an uproar.

In 2017, comedian and late-night television host Bill Maher ad-libbed using the N-word as he discussed the rhetorical idea of working in Nebraska fields with U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska. "Work in the fields?" Maher said, showing his hands. "Senator, I'm a house [N-word]." There were giggles and groans. Its a joke, Maher said. Didnt matter.

You, White man, cant joke like that. The N-word has an angry, hurtful and wicked history.

The N-word has a bad history. Scholars trace its history to neger or niger, meaning Black. Some trace it to White Southerners who couldnt pronounce Negro. White people who used the abusive word did so to issue verbal abuse.

In time, some Black people snatched it and put it to use as a term of endearment, a rallying cry to come together, a verbal weapon against those who used it negatively. The word made a huge lurch as hip-hop and rap became hugely popular.

I cant help but think about the Black people who appeared before Odinet in court and how her warped thinking might have had an impact. After reviewing data from Lafayette City Court, I found that Judge Odinet had 6,867 cases, including 1,839 cases involving Black men and 1,084 cases involving Black women. In a city of more than 120,000 people with a Black population of about 30.9%, thats a sizable number of cases. Some of them appeared twice or more in that court.

But Odinet hasnt offered an explanation about her court duties. She hasnt apologized. She has not been repentant. She has not resigned, though she should.

To his credit, Maher immediately apologized the next day after his self-described transgression. I regret the word I used in the banter of a live moment. The word was offensive, and I regret saying it and am very sorry."

Rapper Ice Cube became famous with N.W.A., a group whose name includes a spelling version of the N-word and Wit Attitudes. Cube became famous in part for his consistent and constant use of the N-word, an important part of what catapulted him to cross-over fame in music and movies. But even Cube knows theres a line that shouldnt be crossed.

In an appearance a few days after Mahers oops, Cube asked Maher: What made you think that it was cool to say that? Cube explained that the word is like a knife, one that can be used as a weapon or as a tool and some White people use it to harm Black people. Cube told Maher its one thing when his homies use it, but it feels like someone stabbing him when a White person uses it.

I dont condone the use of the N-word. Not by Black people. But definitely not by White people. It shouldnt be used, by anyone. If some Black people choose to use it, Id rather not hear it. It disgusts me. I understand the distinction. I just dont like it.

Odinet wasnt the first White person to use the N-word. She wont be the last. Unfortunately.

Lets consider the Odinet matter a learning moment for Louisiana. Its painful, but we can grow by acknowledging that it was wrong and agree this shouldnt happen again.
According to a UK retailer, Samsung is preparing to release over 70 accessories for the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus and the Galaxy S22 Note. A deep green colourway should be heading to the Galaxy S22 Note too, based on an official S Pen render image.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here

Last week, BOX UK leaked numerous accessories for new and upcoming Samsung Galaxy tablets, including the Galaxy Tab A8. However, it has emerged that the retailer has activated even more listings for Galaxy S22 series accessories spanning the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus and what the retailer calls the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

For reference, Samsung is now expected to release the Galaxy S22 Ultra as the Galaxy S22 Note. As previous leaks have shown, the premier smartphone in the Galaxy S22 series will look more like a Galaxy Note series member than a Galaxy S one. According to BOX UK, Samsung plans to release several accessories for each device, including:

Clear Covers

Clear Standing Covers

Frame Covers

Gel Cases

Leather Covers

Protective Standing Covers

Silicone Covers (with & without straps)

Smart Clear View Covers

Smart LED View Covers
NREL Wind Energy Program Demonstrates Innovation and Leadership Throughout 2021

Dec. 20, 2021

From advancing wind energy science, technologies, and materials to demonstrating thought leadership on a worldwide scale, the National Renewable Energy Laboratorys (NRELs) Wind Energy Program played a powerful role in maximizing the impact of wind energy during 2021.

The following examples represent just the tip of the blade when it comes to NRELs 2021 wind energy-related achievements.

Multiphase Flow Capabilities Added to High-Fidelity Offshore Wind Simulations

NREL researchers enabled better understanding of wind turbine wake formation and propagation by using the Department of Energy's (DOEs) ExaWind simulation environment to perform a validation-quality simulation of a 2-megawatt wind turbine. Driven by the immense power of high-performance computing, ExaWind is an open-source suite of physics codes and libraries that enables multifidelity simulation of detailed flow on individual wind turbines and the interactions of multiple turbines within wind power plants. The research team also performed high-fidelity atmospheric boundary layer and offshore marine atmospheric boundary layer simulations over waves. By creating, verifying, and validating predictive, high-performance simulation tools for wind plants at the highest possible fidelity, this work could ultimately help reduce wind plant energy losses and costs. This research was published in the Journal of Computational Physics.

This visualization represents the flow field around a 2-MW wind turbine under turbulent inflow. NREL researchers performed this simulation using NREL's Eagle supercomputer. Image by Ganesh Vijayakumar, Shreyas Ananthan, and Michael Brazell, NREL

Distributed Generation Software Wins R&D 100 Award

NRELs innovative Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGen) software won an R&D 100 award from R&D World. This open-source software simulates customer adoption of distributed energy resources like solar and wind through 2050 in the United States. dGen is unique in providing a bottom-up assessment of distributed energy resource potential to the grid while embedding considerations of consumer behavior. The tool was developed by a cross-laboratory team with funding from DOEs Wind Energy Technologies Office and Solar Energy Technologies Office.

Offshore Wind Resource Data Release Propels Wind Prospecting

NRELs new offshore wind datasets, which combine field observations and an enhanced ensemble modeling technique, can improve offshore wind plant site selection, design, and operational decisions. Photo from Lyfted Media for Dominion Energy

In support of national goals to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, NREL released several new offshore wind datasets that provide wind energy developers, consultants, and researchers with high-quality U.S. wind resource data that can inform offshore wind energy siting decisions and research. Developed using a 20-year ensemble approach of state-of-the-art weather modeling tools and sophisticated resource assessment technologies, these updated datasets are available to the public on Wind Prospector, NRELs map visualization tool.

Enhanced Tools Examine Trade-Offs Between Energy Resources in Capacity Planning

Enhanced methods and data parameters for transmission congestion modeling allow grid operators to analyze the pros and cons of different energy resources, improving grid dispatchability and resiliency. To better assess the value of long-distance wind energy transmission, NREL researchers improved the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model based on Interconnections Seam Study findings. With upgraded capacity planning tools and grid operations model components, the ReEDS model can help grid operators gain a greater understanding of energy choke points and lead to more accurate assessments of winds potential contributions to the continental U.S. power grids reliability and resilience.

Enhanced methods for transmission congestion modeling allow grid operators to analyze trade-offs between energy resources, improving grid dispatchability and resiliency. Uniting the major regions of the U.S. power system, represented here conceptually, could enhance the ability to harness abundant renewable resources and balance loads across the country. Illustration by Billy Roberts, NREL

Grid-Scale Hybrid Power Plant Will Accelerate Transition to Renewable-Energy-Powered Electric Grid

The FlexPower project will help accelerate the adoption of utility-scale variable wind and photovoltaic resources by demonstrating how hybrid power plants can provide essential reliability and resiliency services to the grid. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL

NREL researchers are developing FlexPowera variable, hybrid-generation power plant enhanced with energy storage, to be stationed at the NREL Flatirons Campus. A priority project for the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems platform, FlexPower will help accelerate the adoption of utility-scale variable wind and photovoltaic resources by demonstrating how hybrid power plants can smooth the transition to an electric grid primarily powered by renewable energy. Funded by the DOE Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, the FlexPower project is a collaboration among NREL, Idaho National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

ATLANTIS Projects Ensure Floating Offshore Wind Energy Technology Innovation

NREL researchers and partners also continue to work on revolutionary floating offshore wind energy projects funded under three DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy awards within the Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control (ATLANTIS) program. The two-year research projects will help ensure that innovative floating offshore wind technologies will continue to develop and expand U.S. offshore wind energy capacity by:

Funding from DOEs Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy enables NREL to develop new and potentially disruptive innovations for floating offshore wind energy technologies, like SpiderFLOAT (shown here). Graphic by Josh Bauer, NREL

Creating an open-source software toolset called Wind Energy with Integrated Servo-control, which will enable offshore floating system engineers to design radically new systems at greatly reduced costs

Developing the Floating Offshore-wind and Controls Advanced Laboratory, the first public floating offshore wind turbine scale-model dataset to include advanced wind turbine and hull controls, as well as hull flexibility

Lowering floating offshore wind energy costs by simplifying the construction and maintenance logistics for deepwater wind systems. The Ultraflexible Smart FLoating Offshore Wind Turbine project leverages NRELs innovative SpiderFLOAT technology, which features a spider-like substructure and uses innovative designs and materials best suited for the requirements of each component to make offshore wind energy systems more cost competitive.

New Resources Help Communities Realize the Benefits of Wind Energy

Two new WINDExchange resources developed by NREL help communities understand how wind energy projects can create jobs, increase tax revenues, provide landowner income, and generate clean, homegrown energy. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL

Wind energy projects offer a wide range of benefits to nearby communities, but planning such projects can be complex. To help local decision-makers evaluate whether a wind energy project is right for their community, NREL developed two new resources: the Land-Based Wind Energy Siting: A Foundational and Technical Resource report and online Land-Based Wind Energy Economic Development Guide. These comprehensive, easy-to-read resources provide useful information about the siting considerations and economic opportunities associated with a potential wind energy project.

Collegiate Wind Competition Organizers Help Build the Future Wind Energy Workforce

Helping to build the future wind energy workforce, NREL organizers of the DOE Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) facilitated the virtual 2021 event. The CWC prepares students from multiple disciplines to enter the wind energy workforce by providing real-world technology experience. This years contest featured 173 students from a range of disciplines, including engineering, economics, and architecture. The unique challenges of the 2021 competition gave students the opportunity to plan ahead, practice active risk management, and adapt quicklyessential skills for the wind and renewable energy industries.

NREL organizers of the CWC integrated the theme of adaptability into the 2021 challenge, which called on teams to research, design, and build a model wind turbine for deployment in highly uncertain times with a large degree of unknown risks and delays. Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL

Machine Learning and 3D Printing Trim Fat From Tomorrows Generators

Three-dimensionally (3D) printed hard and soft magnets can help realize lighter wind turbine generators and enable optimized use of rare-earth elements. NREL researchers used a new software to explore an optimal magnet distribution for a 15-megawatt wind turbine generator. Compared to time-consuming existing approaches, NRELs approachcalled Manufacturing and Additive Design of Electric Machines enabled by 3D printing  advanced machine learning (MADE3D-AML)took far less computational time. MADE3D-AML also improved the accuracy of performance predictions and further reduced costs up to 9% by helping identify a wider choice of lightweight designs with 3D-printable novel compositions for magnets.

NREL is leading the charge on the design and manufacture of cost-effective, 3D-manufactured direct-drive electric generators. Image by Latha Sethuraman, NREL

Leadership Series Advances Wind Energy Science Conversation

The Wind Energy Science Leadership Series advanced wind energy science conversation and highlighted NREL wind energy research. Presentations and discussions helped advance participant understanding of the challenges facing wind energy and pathways for ensuring winds place as one of the futures most prevalent energy sources. Speakers covered seven critical topics, including the increasing size of land-based wind turbine rotors, the floating offshore wind systems of tomorrow, and hybrid energy systems with wind at their core. To date, the series has been viewed more than 37,000 times on YouTube.

Participants in the Hybrid Energy Systems of the Future webinar discussed the design and control of the wind energy systems of the future. Screenshot by NREL

Wind Siting Interactions With U.S. Power System Evolution Prove Complex

Siting can lead to substantial differences in emissions and the cost to decarbonize the gridand can also interact with future transmission expansion and plant design in complex ways.

A study published in Energy reveals that despite vast U.S. land-based wind resource potential, siting restrictions can have a measurable impact on future wind energy development. NREL analysts used resource potential estimates and siting constraints from a companion analysis as inputs to NRELs publicly available Regional Energy Deployment System capacity expansion model. Studying the impacts of siting constraints ranging from open (least restrictive) to limited access (most restrictive), the researchers modeled 24 scenarios of how the U.S. electricity system might evolve from now until 2050. The results? Siting can lead to substantial differences in emissions and the cost to decarbonize the grid. This work was featured in The Wall Street Journal and Inside Climate News.

NREL Request for Proposals To Support Coexistence of Bats

NREL requested proposals for projects that work to better understand how bats, like this red bat, interact with wind turbines and power plants and improve deterrents. The funding, which will be awarded to up to four projects, will support the coexistence of bats and wind energy. Photo by Cris Hein, NREL

Clean energy is vital to our planets healthand so are bats. To help wind energy projects coexist with bats, NREL in September announced a request for proposals for studying bat interactions with wind turbines and improving deterrent technology. After the request closes on Jan. 14, 2022, NREL expects to award up to four winners $450,000$700,000 each under this competitive solicitation.

Wind Energy Research Efforts Key to Achieving a Clean Energy Future

The combination of NRELs broad-based technical expertise, world-class capabilities, and accredited facilities has made NREL an indispensable resource for the wind industry. Wind energy research efforts like those highlighted here are critically important to NRELs vision of achieving a clean energy future for the worldan energy future that features significant levels of reliable, affordable, and sustainable wind energy.

To understand the full sweep of NRELs Wind Energy Program wins in 2021, read the Accomplishments and Year-End Performance Report. Learn more about NRELs Wind Energy Program capabilities.
CROWN POINT  A judge granted a motion Friday to continue a trial in one of Lake County's oldest murder cases to allow a Gary woman's attorney more time to decide whether to call an expert witness on false confessions to testify.

Jamilia Hodge, 35, has been in custody since May 2017 on charges she murdered her 1-year-old foster child Emma Salinas at her home in the 7500 block of Ash Avenue in Gary.

Attorney Scott King, who took over Hodge's defense earlier this year, said he recently retained a professor of psychology who specializes in false confessions to review Hodge's case.

King asked for a short continuance of Hodge's trial, which had been set to begin Jan. 4.

"I would not be doing a service to her if I didn't look into why somebody, hours into an interrogation, would admit to something they didn't do," King said.

Lake County Supervisory Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz didn't object to the continuance.

Vasquez said Hodge had been in pretrial custody for a "horribly long time," but he accepted King's reasoning for the delay.
CROWN POINT  A Merrillville man pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Friday in a grisly homicide 18 years ago in Gary.

Robert A. Orosz Jr., 58, admitted in a plea agreement he fought over drugs with 48-year-old Kevin Pratchett and killed Pratchett in sudden heat March 13, 2003, at Pratchett's home in the 2500 block of Wright Street.

Orosz pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, which was a class B felony in 2003.

If Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez accepts Orosz's plea agreement, Orosz would be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

With credit for good time, he could serve only five years because the law in 2003 allowed for day-for-day credit on a class B felony. In addition, Orosz is expected to receive credit for more than eight months already served in jail, plus good time.

Orosz's defense attorney, Michael Woods, said Orosz used a lot of crack cocaine in the hours before the homicide and had no independent recollection of the killing. However, Orosz had no reason to dispute evidence showing he killed Pratchett by cutting the man's throat.
VALPARAISO  Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann said he has determined that a county police officer was justified Nov. 3 in shooting and injuring a man while serving a warrant.

"Based upon my review of all of the information available to me I will not be pursuing any criminal charges against the officer," Germann said Monday in a prepared statement.

Germann said he came to conclusion after reviewing the investigation carried out by Indiana State Police and body camera footage of the shooting.

Germann further said he will not be pursuing any additional charges against James Filby, 58, of Porter Township, on allegations of resisting law enforcement.

Filby was shot by Porter County Sheriff Patrolman Chris Winterhaler as police were serving a warrant on him based on allegations of molesting a young girl and sexually attacking her sister and mother in separate incidents, records show.
PORTAGE  Portage Mayor Sue Lynch is among those grieving news that city employee Courtney Castle was the woman found dead Sunday morning in a partially submerged car in Big Maple Lake in Ross Township.

"She was just a breath of fresh air," Lynch said. "We were devastated to find out."

A person walking a dog about 7:30 a.m. Sunday noticed the car in the lake near Randolph Street and Ainsworth Road and called the authorities, according to Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez.

Indiana Conservation Officers, the Lake County Sheriff's Department and several other local law enforcement agencies were dispatched and discovered a woman's body inside the vehicle.

The woman was identified as Castle, 36, of Portage, Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said.

Castle was the only occupant in the vehicle, officials said.

Her injuries and manner of death are pending, Frey said.
"He worked hard to bring us together, Democrats and Republicans, in order to represent Hoosiers well," Coons said.

Coons also noted Donnelly is a "double domer" by virtue of his bachelor's and law degrees earned at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, as well as a devout, practicing Catholic in the mold of Biden.

"We send our very best around the world as diplomats, and when we send someone from the world of elected politics, sometimes there's a question about whether they also meet that test of being the best to represent us," Coons said.

"Joe, Senator Donnelly, is going to represent us at the Holy See, and like another friend of mine, former colleague, former senator, who bears the same name, Joe Donnelly is someone who has lived his faith."

"I have known Joe Donnelly to be a man who has been inspired by his faith to meet the needs of the world and his neighbors in the moment, and who has been sustained by his faith in both moments of joy and challenge. I think we will send our very best to the Holy See to represent us at the Vatican when we confirm Senator Joe Donnelly."
Voting against were Councilmen Mark Schocke, R-3rd, and Tom Black, R-4th.

The lengthy saga has seen at least a couple councilmen challenge Sheeman's leadership with claims of secret meetings and documents not provided until minutes before the start of some of the meetings.

Schocke said an economic prediction document about the proposed development did not reach him until about 45 minutes before the meeting started.

Some of the councilmen have also said that they were unaware that a previously discussed tax increment financing had been boosted from $3 to 4 million and that Russell  instead of the town  was going to pay for the rebuilding and relocation of Ernie Strack Drive.

In the meantime, final approval for the project centers on the economic assistance the town is willing to give Russell.

Consultant Jennifer Hudson, who developed an economic prediction document, said the project's value will sustain the debt service, or interest payments, of the TIF bonds.

Because he only received the document just prior to the meeting, Schocke asked Hudson appear at next Monday's study session to discuss it.
WASHINGTON  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that unvaccinated students exposed to the coronavirus can remain in school, as long as they are tested for the virus twice in the week after and both tests come back negative.

The new guidance, known as the test-to-stay protocol, could ease the burden on children who have been expected to stay home if a close contact tested positive for the virus, and on parents who have had to scramble to retrieve them from school or find day care. It also aims to minimize disruptions to learning as two highly contagious variants of the virus spread across the country, causing some school closures and threatening to upend the strategies that federal and state officials adopted to return to in-person classes in the fall.

Although some schools and districts are already using the test-to-stay approach, the C.D.C. had not previously endorsed it, citing a lack of evidence. On Friday, the agency released studies from two counties, one in California and the other in Illinois, that effectively tested the protocol and found that it worked.

The studies were conducted before the fast-moving Omicron variant began spreading in the United States. Scientists are still investigating many basic questions about the variant, including whether it increases the risk of in-school transmission.
bane \ ban \ noun

: something causing misery or death

_________

The word bane has appeared in 19 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 15 in The Fight for Sneakers by Daisuke Wakabayashi:

When Bodega, a streetwear shop in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, released a hyped, limited-edition New Balance 997S sneaker in 2019, the entire stock sold out online in under 10 minutes. There was one problem, though: About 60 percent of Bodegas sales went to shoppers gaming the system with bots, timesaving automation software used to speed through checkout. The bots had claimed hundreds of pairs of New Balances for a single customer; many other shoppers failed to secure just one.  To most customers, bots are the bane of online shopping. But for sneaker brands and retailers, the relationship is more complicated.

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word bane in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using todays Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the words definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the Recommend button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how bane can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Days after a Colorado judge sentenced a truck driver to 110 years in prison for his role in a 2019 crash that killed four people, an online petition seeking for the sentence to be reduced has been signed by more than four million people.

On April 25, 2019, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving a truck on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colo., near Denver, when it crashed into several cars, killing four people.

In October, a jury found him guilty of 27 counts, including vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. On Dec. 13, a district court judge, A. Bruce Jones, sentenced Mr. Aguilera-Mederos, now 26, to more than a century in prison, citing Colorado state law that required sentences for each count to be served consecutively, rather than concurrently.

Almost immediately, the lengthy sentence drew scrutiny, including from the judge, who, Reuters reported, said, If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence.
Last week, the sculptures returned to public view after a prolonged closure of the museums Greek galleries caused by the coronavirus pandemic and maintenance work. They reappeared as activists around Europe are clamoring to rectify perceived historical injustices, yet the idea of returning the marbles to Athens seems to have as little political support here as it did in Kinnocks day.

The British governments official position is that it is not responsible for the marbles fate: That, it says, is a matter for the British Museums trustees, a group largely appointed by the prime minister that has repeatedly said the sculptures are integral to the museums mission of telling world history.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson  an Oxford classics graduate who loves to quote ancient Greek  has for years said the marbles belong in London. In 2012, when he was Londons mayor, he wrote to a Greek official saying he had reflected deeply over many years on the sculptures, and, as much as he sympathized with the Greek case, it would be a grievous and irremediable loss if they left the British Museum.

When Johnson met with Greeces prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, last month, he reiterated the government position that anything to do with the marbles was a question for British Museum trustees, not him.

Throughout 2021, as other European governments announced restitution policies and gave items back, Britains buck-passing on the marbles looked increasingly out of step.
Buechner was unsparing in her description of becoming the punching bag at her elementary school, abuse that became so extreme that she was sent to a Quaker school. There she fell in love for the first time; Buechner said she wonders whether she was actually in love with this splendid young woman or she secretly wanted to be her.

Music and piano became Buechners outlet  where she could be what she called her true self. As if to demonstrate, at the recital on Saturday she gave an exciting account of the teeming (and very difficult) first movement of Chopins Third Sonata. After tossing off the final chords, she proudly shouted: I played that at my Juilliard audition! I was 16!

Indeed, Buechner had early success after success, including winning top prizes at major competitions and extensive tours. All the while, though, she struggled with her gender identity. On Saturday she shared stories of developing ulcers and contemplating suicide, and had the audience grimly laughing at her accounts of sessions with a series of hopeless psychiatrists.

Therapists are like piano teachers, she said. There are lots of them, and they are mostly bad.

Finally, in the late 1990s, Buechner began her transition to her true self, which included a botched surgery in Bangkok that later had to be corrected. In the process she lost friends, family, her manager and concert dates; her letters seeking teaching jobs were not even answered.

Eventually she found her way to a new, more welcoming life teaching at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. From that point on, slowly and steadily, her international career was reborn. Today she teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia; the text for Of Pigs and Pianos comes from an autobiography she has written and hopes to have published. She ended the program with a melting rendition of a wistful Scarlatti sonata, which conveyed the place of satisfaction and peace at which she has arrived.

In the evening, at the Y, speaking to the audience, Tao, 27, said that during the hard, lonely months of the pandemic, improvisation had become increasingly crucial to him, allowing him an immediate response to an environment  it kept me in my life.
The story of a yearslong lawsuit in West Virginia, recounted in Kris Mahers Desperate, has some direct echoes of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., but its also a tale about the history of coal mining and Appalachia. Residents in Mingo County complained that waste from a coal plant run by a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the biggest coal company in the state, had been leaking into the ground and contaminating their drinking water, leading to a host of health problems. In Desperate, Maher writes about the local populations fight, brought to court in 2004, and about two of the adversaries in it: an environmental lawyer and Masseys chief executive. Below, Maher talks about quickly recognizing the storys many dramatic elements, avoiding stereotypes, the Hatfield-McCoy feud and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

I was reporting for The Wall Street Journal in 2010 from Pittsburgh, also reporting on environmental issues in West Virginia. I was reporting on Massey Energy because its Upper Big Branch mine had just exploded; 29 miners had been killed in the worst mining accident in the United States in 40 years.

At the end of one phone call, a source said, You should check out this lawsuit in Mingo County. He mentioned Kevin Thompson, an environmental lawyer, so I drove down and found Thompson working out of a hotel in three connected rooms that were wood-paneled. Very low-budget operation, and he was suing this billion-dollar coal company run by Don Blankenship, a controversial figure.

The entire story gelled all at once for me: peoples water being gray and brown and making people sick for years and stinking up their homes. The juxtaposition of Thompson and Blankenship: Thompson, this brilliant, incredibly hard-working attorney who poured his soul  and his finances  into this case, risked his marriage and his health. Blankenship chose to live in Mingo County, where hed grown up poor with a single mother. He worked out of a very small office right off the highway. So the opportunity to actually spend time with him and not just repeat what had already been said about him in the media was also incredibly interesting to me. And the stakes of the case were incredibly high for the people who had been living and suffering with bad water for years.
You cant really mandate booster shots yet, he said. It hasnt been signed off on by any federal agency.

JPMorgan Chase, whose decision to require vaccines is complicated by its sprawling retail operations across the United States, declined to comment on how the courts most recent decision, along with the recent spike in cases, affected any plans to mandate vaccines. But the bank on Friday told its American employees who do not work in bank branches that each group should assess who needs to come into the office, work priorities and who should revert to working from home on a more regular basis over the next few weeks.

Walmart, which has mandated vaccines for mainly its corporate staff, also did not have any comment on broadening that requirement. Only 66 percent of its roughly 1.6 million U.S. employees are vaccinated, according to data compiled by the Shift Project at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Legal questions about the OSHA rule are far from resolved. Immediately after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled on Friday, several of the many plaintiffs who have challenged that rule asked the Supreme Court to intervene as part of its emergency docket. Appeals from the Sixth Circuit are assigned for review by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who under Supreme Court rules could in theory make a decision on his own but is more likely to refer the matter to the full Supreme Court. With the Labor Department now delaying full enforcement of its rule until Feb. 9, the justices have several weeks to ask for abbreviated briefings if they want them.

Things are going back and forth literally in a matter of hours, said Sydney Heimbrock, an adviser on industry and government issues at Qualtrics, who works with hundreds of clients on using the companys software to track employee vaccination status. The confusion stems from the on-again-off-again, is it a rule or isnt it a rule? The litigations, appeals, reversing decisions and making decisions.

Even the spread of Omicron hasnt changed the position of some of the vaccine rules most ardent opponents. The National Retail Federation, one of the trade groups challenging the administrations vaccine rule, is among those that have filed a petition with the Supreme Court. The group is in favor of vaccinations but has pushed for companies to get more time to carry out mandates. Still, even as it fights the administrations rule, the federation is also holding twice weekly calls with members to compare notes on how to carry it out.

Theres no question that the increased number of variants like Omicron certainly dont make it less dangerous, said Stephanie Martz, the groups chief administrative officer and general counsel. The legitimate, remaining question is, is this inherent to the workplace?
Throughout the campaign in Buffalo, which began in late August, union supporters complained that out-of-town officials who converged on their stores, including Ms. Williams, were monitoring and intimidating them. The company said that the officials had gone to Buffalo to help solve issues like understaffing and inadequate training, and that it had taken similar steps around the country since the spring.

But after the announcement of the results of elections at three Buffalo-area stores on Dec. 9, in which the union won in one store, lost in one and was leading in a third store where vote challenges must still be resolved, the union indicated it wanted to take a more conciliatory posture.

Wed like to sort of offer the olive branch to the company and say, Lets put this behind us, said Michelle Eisen, a Starbucks employee in Buffalo who was one of the leaders of the organizing campaign. Now is the time, lets get to the bargaining table as quickly as possible and help us negotiate the best contract that the service industry has ever seen.

The union said last week that it had filed an objection to the election at the Buffalo-area location where it lost, arguing that the companys actions violated the laboratory conditions under which elections are supposed to be held, making a fair vote impossible.

Starbucks has invested heavily over the years in its reputation as a good employer. Part-time employees are eligible for health insurance, and the company covers tuition for employees who are admitted to an online degree program at Arizona State University. Starbucks annual report details its generosity toward employees and says they are significant contributors to our success as a global brand that leads with purpose.
The doctors and scientists who signed the statement also agreed to provide their expertise to support the filing of a citizen petition, a formal process to seek reversal of the F.D.A.s decision. The petition will be filed by the Right Care Alliance, a coalition of clinicians, patients and community members, which is also circulating a pledge for physicians who promise not to prescribe Aduhelm and for patients and family members who say they will not request it.

Dr. Vikas Saini, chairman of the Right Care Alliance and president of the Lown Institute, a health care think tank, said that while the citizen petition process can take months or years, it can prompt F.D.A. action.

Dr. Saini, who helped organize last weeks meeting, said that out of 45 citizen petitions filed since 1971 by the group Public Citizen, in 27 cases the F.D.A. withdrew drugs from the market and in seven other cases the agency sharply restricted a drugs use.

In response to the call to withdraw approval of Aduhelm, also known by its scientific name, aducanumab, an F.D.A. spokeswoman said that the data set for Aduhelm was very complex, and our review has been thorough.

The spokeswoman also said that careful analyses of the Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials support the conclusion that it is likely that Aduhelm provides clinical benefit  although the data currently available do not provide substantial evidence of effectiveness on clinical benefit.

Aduhelm has also been encountering resistance in other countries. On Friday, reviewers at the European Unions drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, recommended against approving Aduhelm, a decision that Biogen said it would ask to be re-examined.
Many experts agree that three weeks between doses is too short an interval for an optimal immune response.

From an immunological standpoint, it makes more sense to wait, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. Pfizer didnt choose three weeks between doses because it was the perfect interval. That decision, he said, was more about public health and reducing community transmission, and completing this process quickly. Dr. Bhattacharya plans to hold off on a second dose for his children until eight weeks.

The immune system needs time to ramp up after that first dose. Immune cells in the blood, known as B cells, can start producing antibodies within a week. But to generate really high-quality antibodies, those cells need to go through an intense kind of training camp inside the lymph nodes, and that process takes more than three weeks.

You need them to sweat a little bit, those B cells, said Andres Finzi, an immunologist at the University of Montreal.

Much of the research on different dosing intervals comes from countries, like Canada and Britain, that opted to wait on the second shot for adults when vaccine doses were scarce last winter and spring. Dr. Finzi and his colleagues examined the immune response in 26 people who received their second shots three months or more after their first. They also looked at responses in 12 people who received their shots four weeks apart. The two groups produced roughly the same quantity of antibodies, but the group with a longer interval between doses produced stronger antibodies with a greater capacity to latch onto the virus and stay there.

In Britain, officials lengthened the dose interval for all vaccines to 12 weeks last December. Researchers at the University of Oxford studied hundreds of health workers who had received second doses before or after that policy took effect.
A booster shot of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine significantly raises the level of antibodies that can thwart the Omicron variant, the company announced on Monday.

The news arrives as Omicron rapidly advances across the world, and most coronavirus vaccines seem unable to stave off infection from the highly contagious variant.

Modernas results show that the currently authorized booster dose of 50 micrograms  half the dose given for primary immunization  increased the level of antibodies by roughly 37-fold, the company said. A full dose of 100 micrograms was even more powerful, raising antibody levels about 83-fold compared with pre-boost levels, Moderna said.

Both doses produced side effects comparable to those seen after the two-dose primary series. But the dose of 100 micrograms showed slightly more frequent adverse reactions relative to the authorized 50-microgram dose.
For decades, Linda Larson has been trying to distance herself from the diagnosis she was given as a teenager: schizophrenia. She accepts that she has the mental disorder but deeply resents the terms stigma. People hear it and think, violent, amoral, unhygienic, she said.

Ms. Larson, 74, is part of a group trying to remove that association  by changing the name of the illness. The idea is that replacing the term schizophrenia with something less frightening and more descriptive will not only change how the public perceives people with the diagnosis, but also how these people see themselves.

Ms. Larson is a member of the Consumer Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, which is associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The group has been working with psychiatrists at Harvard to build momentum for a name change, most recently through a national survey published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

That term over time has become so associated with hopelessness, with dangerousness, with volatile and erratic behavior, that doctors are afraid to use that term with people and their family members, said Dr. Raquelle Mesholam-Gately, a Harvard psychologist and the lead author of the new paper. And people who have the condition dont want to be associated with that name.
Rudy Valdezs documentary, Reopening Night, takes viewers behind the scenes of Merry Wives, the Public Theaters first production after the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway and other venues until earlier this year.

The documentary, which is streaming on HBO, shows the difficulties of mounting a show outdoors while contending with the ever-looming threat of coronavirus: A cast member tests positive, the weather leads to cancellations, and the set pieces are constantly at risk of water damage if it rains.

Merry Wives, a modern adaptation of Shakespeares The Merry Wives of Windsor, was staged last summer as part of the Publics Shakespeare in the Park program. The play, which was set in South Harlem, included an all-Black cast.
A cheerful man, who often dressed in a bow tie and obsessed over the cityscape wherever he was, Mr. Garvin insisted on taking almost all the photographs for his books and traveled around the world to see firsthand the places he wrote about.

Trained as an architect, he was skeptical of the ability of buildings alone to remake cities. The key to a successful city, he believed, was a vibrant, active downtown with lots of public space, usually made possible by public investment, and a healthy mixture of residents, commercial activity, culture, restaurants, parks and transit.

In his book What Makes a Great City (2016), Mr. Garvin used Bilbao, Spain, as an example, taking issue with the argument that Frank Gehrys celebrated Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which opened in 1997, had single-handedly turned the city around. He argued that the citys decision years before to invest in a new transit system, decontaminate its polluted river and build waterfront parks made the Gehry building possible. The Guggenheim was the culmination of a much deeper revival, not the start of it, he wrote.

Alexander Garvin was born in New York on March 8, 1941, to Jacques and Margarita Garvin. His father owned Claridge Food Company, a canned goods producer, and his mother was a designer and ceramist. He grew up on the Upper East Side and would live for the rest of his life within a few blocks of his childhood home, though he prided himself on knowing almost every section of all five boroughs.

New York taught him, he would say, that cities work best when they are both dense and diverse and have ample public space. He saw Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of Central Park, as heroes. He walked through the park daily until a few weeks before his death.

After graduating from the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, he went to Yale, where, he recalled, a roommate gave him a copy of a newly published book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, an attack on the belief that troubled downtowns were best fixed by demolishing and rebuilding them.
Closing arguments in Ghislaine Maxwells sex-trafficking began Monday morning in federal court in downtown Manhattan, following a three-week trial  12 days of testimony  that offered a rare window into the life of her longtime companion, Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms. Maxwell, 59, the daughter of a British media mogul and once a fixture in New York Citys social scene, faces six counts stemming from what prosecutors say was her role in facilitating the sexual exploitation and abuse of teenage girls and young women by Mr. Epstein between 1994 and 2004.

Ms. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty and has steadfastly denied wrongdoing. On Friday afternoon, she declined to testify on her own behalf, saying the government had not proven its case.

The charges include one count of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts; one count of transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sex acts; one count of sex trafficking of a minor; and three counts of conspiracy, each related to the other counts. If convicted on all counts, she faces a maximum 70-year sentence.
In addition to owning dozens of buildings used as shelters, Mr. Levitan has another source of steady revenue: He operates a for-profit maintenance company, Liberty One, that performs upkeep at many of his properties. At the building he bought in 2018 in College Point, Queens, the maintenance company was paid more than $800,000 in the last fiscal year  money that also comes from the city, according to budget documents.

City contracting rules require the nonprofit groups running shelters to control costs by soliciting at least three independent bids for services. But in two cases  identified in an independent audit and a lease  Mr. Levitan required nonprofit groups to use his company without bidding, The Times found.

Mr. Levitan said there was zero requirement that nonprofit groups hire his company. However, Mr. McGinn, the city spokesman, said a review, done in response to questions from The Times, had discovered such a provision in one groups lease. He called the arrangement inappropriate and said it would be changed.

Mr. Levitan also owns an extermination company used in at least one of the new shelters, according to city records and a corporate disclosure. When ants infested some rooms in the building in the Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx, his company, Squash Exterminating, was called in to help.

Mr. Levitan said he started both the maintenance and the extermination company to streamline operations and provide better services.

Horrible conditions

In the more than two decades that he has been enmeshed in New Yorks homelessness machinery, Mr. Levitan has been repeatedly accused of neglect and poor conditions at some of his buildings.

In 2014, elected officials battled a plan to open a permanent shelter in Elmhurst, Queens, in the former Pan American hotel, which was owned by a limited liability company connected to Mr. Levitan. Residents of that building, which housed hundreds of homeless families, reported infestations of bedbugs, peeling lead paint and a lack of heat or hot water. The New York Daily News published a video, provided by tenants, of a growing horde of rats near a childrens play area.
The New York Police Department issued new guidance late Sunday night requiring all employees to once again wear face masks indoors and outdoors when interacting with the public, whether they are vaccinated or not.

The guidance, sent out in an email, says that regardless of vaccination status, members of the Police Department are required to wear face coverings in communal office settings, in meetings, and both indoors and outdoors when interacting with the public.

Under an earlier policy issued this summer, fully vaccinated members of the force were permitted to remove their masks in certain situations, though all officers, regardless of vaccination status, were supposed to remain masked when interacting with the public.

The change comes as coronavirus cases skyrocket in the city and state amid the spread of the Omicron variant, just as the holiday season approaches.
The Samovars most honored guest by far was Brodsky, another friend from Leningrad. It was he who bailed out the restaurant with money from his Nobel Prize for Literature and recruited Mr. Baryshnikov to help. Mr. Kaplan set aside a banquette for him: Table 16, in the back. The Samovars longtime pianist, Alexander Izbitser, a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, knew to play more quietly when the soft-spoken Brodsky was there, the easier for people to hear what he was saying.

Once Brodsky marked up the Samovars menu with his rhymes. (You wont be erring/With Russian herring was one.) He also wrote of Mr. Kaplan in verse both serious and silly.

Winter! Tonight in NYC

Its colder than the moon by far.

Dear vodka and sweet caviar

Should warm us up  where else to be

But Kaplans Russian Samovar?

Mr. Kaplans diplomatic skills were legendary, but there were limits. He looked on helplessly one night as Brodsky rebuffed an overture from the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, whom Brodsky blamed in part for his forced exile, believing Yevtushenko had been compromised by his ties to the Soviet regime.

For years, habitues and visitors inscribed entries  poems, prose poems, drawings, doodles  in the scrapbooks Mr. Kaplan kept. At an auction in Moscow in 2018, the Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut paid $230,000 for the collection, and a generation of Russian creativity was repatriated.

Roman is our Rick, the Russian writer Solomon Volkov once said, referring to Humphrey Bogarts restaurateur in Casablanca. Rick rarely drank with guests, but Mr. Kaplan invariably did, plying them with his trademark homemade vodkas (coming in horseradish, cilantro, dill and various fruit flavors, among others). His penchant for picking up checks very nearly sank the place.

For someone who came close to starving during the wartime siege of Leningrad, running a restaurant presented unique challenges, like his horror over wasted food. The frostbite Mr. Kaplan suffered during the war left him with both a limp and impatience for pettiness. The Polish emigre writer Irena Grudzinska Gross recalled Mr. Kaplan removing his shoe once to show a condescending professor where his toes had been.
Policy change begins with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redefining people as up to date or fully vaccinated if they have received their initial shots plus a booster, because the additional dose increases protection against Omicron. The message must be crystal clear: In the time of Omicron, being up to date may only delay, not prevent, you from being infected, but it will protect you from becoming severely ill and help your community avoid running out of hospital beds. (In places that mandate vaccinations for all health care workers, staffing shortages may be exacerbated in the short term, as some people will resist an additional injection. It will, however, prevent work force disruptions over the long term, as it will avert some infections and protect many from severe illness.)

Isolation periods for vaccinated people who test positive and no longer have symptoms need to be shortened from the currently recommended 10 days to around five days. Since levels of the coronavirus decline rapidly in vaccinated people who are infected, people with breakthrough infections will be able to return to their daily lives faster, even though a small percentage may still be infectious.

Test to stay policies should apply to all people who learn that a close contact has tested positive for the coronavirus. Instead of requiring people to both stay home and be monitored, public health agencies can allow people to return to school or work if they do not have symptoms and test negative for the virus initially and periodically over the next seven days. This is being embraced by schools, but, in places where rapid test kits are widely available, it should also be used by workplaces as well to minimize the disruptions to personal lives and work.

All public health agencies must focus messaging on vaccinations as the single best way to save lives and keep the health care system from collapsing. In New York City, responders like myself learned that the single best method to achieve high vaccination levels in adults  who are at the highest risk of severe illness  is through workplace mandates and vaccine verification programs, especially for higher-risk indoor activities, like visiting bars, restaurants and gyms.

New York City embraced a vaccine-first policy to prepare for seasonal and variant-related surges. During such surges, we reasoned that people will no longer accept a prolonged citywide stay at home order and complete closings of schools and businesses two years into the pandemic. Through laws that motivate almost all adults to become vaccinated, leaders can immediately reduce demand on their hospitals. Cities and states should try to adopt similar vaccine requirements for workplaces and higher-risk indoor activities, and people must organize to demand these as basic public safety measures.
Bret: The assault on the Capitol was more Genghis than Google. Sorry, go on .

Gail: Crazy people find it very, very easy to get in touch and swap paranoid fantasies. Mean people can gossip on sites that the targets of their ire can visit easily. (Always thinking about those teenage girls reading reviews of their clothes/figures/hair.) Special events are dwindling  no point in going out to the movies if you can stream the latest attractions at home.

Bret: Very true. Social media freezes us all in a kind of permanent middle school presided over by a mean girl named Veronica.

Gail: None of this will go away, but Im hoping that as we get more skilled in living with the good side of the web, things will balance out. Sane people will confer on how to make the world better. Families will automatically set places at holiday dinners for loved ones who can Zoom in from the other side of the country. And those who are consigned to their beds by illness or old age can have fantastic adventures via virtual reality headsets.

Bret: Thats a bit too Brave New World for me, Gail. My hope for 2022 is that millions more Americans will realize that the worst thing they can do with their lives is to spend them working or socializing online. People should be dedigitizing  if thats a word  disconnecting virtually and reconnecting physically. They should leave bigger cities in favor of places where nature is more accessible, homes are more affordable, neighbors are more approachable, careers are less cutthroat, the point of life isnt the next promotion, weekends are actual weekends and people shop at real stores and read real books and have dinner with real people. Sitting around and doing nothing should be seen as a perfectly respectable use of time.

Gail: Well, Im not going to argue with you about the glories of doing nothing. But I cant relate to your vision of finding meaningful life by ditching the big cities. Reminds me of growing up in an era of suburban explosion where the new neighborhoods had about as much diversity as a raft of albino waterfowl.
I wanted to know more about why Thao was running and her strategies for the upcoming election, so I gave her a call. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mayoral elections in Boston, San Francisco and New York City have gotten national attention. Are there other mayors or people whose campaigns have been inspirations to you?

I really look to people like Michelle Wu, Bostons new mayor. But currently, in the San Jose race, I look to Cindy Chavez and see that we are very similar in that we are pragmatic.

Pragmatic is a pretty loaded term. What areas do people need to be pragmatic about in Oakland?

Public safety. So here in the city of Oakland, Ive been able to push forward and bring in more police academies to fill those positions that we already funded. We have 737 funded positions already, yet we only have 669 positions that are filled. And so Ive been able to push policy forward that others would see as political suicide, bringing in a coalition of people to really say, Kids deserve to be able to go to the park, feel safe and come back home. Our neighbors should be able to walk to the grocery store and come back home safely. When I say pragmatic, its really about listening to the community and being able to recalibrate and not lose your values but really push for effective policies.

Is it really political suicide to increase the police force in Oakland?

No, not at all. Some people may think that. But we have to live in a reality where we are not politicizing the issue so that somehow prevention and police are not able to work together. We need both. We need the prevention. We need to get to the root causes of why we have people choosing to commit crimes. And then we also have to make sure that there is a response.

I want to go back to the reason Im so passionate about this. In 2019, during my first year on the council, my home was broken into while I was chairing a Rules Committee meeting. That day, my 12-year-old son was home alone because he didnt have school, and they broke into my home, burglarized my home, saw my son and kept going. This was traumatizing and is still traumatizing for my son. He will not stay home by himself to this day, and I dont blame him  its traumatizing for me. And so having the response piece of it, making sure that we do have officers show up to also investigate these crimes, thats incredibly important, too. Were not working in a vacuum here. We need to understand that the prevention part goes hand in hand with the police response.

Youre an Asian candidate in Oakland, where there has been a very nationally publicized string of attacks on Asian people, which made Oakland and San Francisco a sort of ground zero for the Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate movement. How has that affected your platform and your thoughts about public safety?
Each year, more than 650,000 people are released from state and federal prisons. Nine million others churn through local jails. For many, the transition back to the outside world poses an acute risk. Studies have shown a decline in the health of the recently released, who experience significantly higher rates of death and hospitalization compared to the general populace. The first two weeks can be especially dangerous.

Among the most common killers of this population are suicide, cardiovascular disease, homicide and, topping the list, drug overdoses. A 2007 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the formerly incarcerated in Washington State were around 129 times as likely to die of an overdose in the first two weeks after their release as other state residents. The opioid epidemic has hit this cohort extra hard.

Multiple factors are fueling this tragedy. The incarcerated population already suffers from disproportionately high rates of physical and behavioral health problems, from hypertension and asthma to mental illness and substance abuse disorders. While effective treatment options can be hard to come by behind bars, returning to the community can be even bumpier, resulting in dangerous disruptions in care. People suddenly find themselves without the medication they desperately need to survive, be it insulin or antipsychotic drugs. Many face barriers to care such as homelessness, unemployment and a lack of social support systems. The newly released are unusually susceptible  physically and psychologically  to overdoses.

The pressures faced during this high-risk transition period do not affect the former inmates alone. Families and communities suffer. Absent stable care, the newly released are more likely to wind up in overburdened emergency rooms  or back in trouble with the law. Experts consider improving access to and coordination of care for this population as key to reducing recidivism.
We also need to mandate vaccination for all adults in schools and day cares. Several school districts have already mandated staff vaccines, with great success. Los Angeles has 99 percent of public school teachers vaccinated after its mandate, and just as important, vaccination rates for nonteaching school staff members grew from 80 percent to 95 percent. The percentage of New York Citys full-time public school staff members who had received at least one vaccine dose went from about 70 percent in August, when the mandate was announced, to 95 percent by early October.

Schools should address ventilation and filtration shortfalls through basic measures that can be put in place quickly. Supplement any deficient mechanical system performance with portable air cleaners with HEPA filters to target four to six air changes per hour. And open up the windows if you have them; even a few inches helps.

But dont stop with stopgap measures. There are still millions of dollars of stimulus dollars on the sidelines, waiting to be spent on schools. Investments in school infrastructure will help against Delta and Omicron and what will surely be Pi and Rho coming at us.

Vaccination mandates and improved ventilation are important proactive measures that school districts need to take. But when it comes to quarantining and masking, many schools should take a less intrusive approach than they currently are. This may seem counterintuitive in the midst of a surge, but because learning has been disrupted so much already, we need to prioritize keeping kids in school as much as possible and making the educational experience when they are there as rich as possible.

To that end, we need to stop quarantining entire classrooms when there is a positive case and instead establish so-called test-to-stay policies as the default. The Biden administration has finally woken up to this. If you test positive  or if you have any symptoms  you stay home. If you test negative, youre in school.

This approach works. Los Angeles compared schools with test-to-stay policies and those without and found similar case rates across the schools, but the schools that didnt have such policies lost over 90,000 in-person school days because of overquarantining. The schools that had test-to-stay policies lost zero days. Though we may feel tempted during the Omicron surge to use more restrictive measures, we should resist that urge. Test to stay will still be the best policy for schools, even as cases rise.

If rapid tests are not available, schools should not resort to quarantining entire classrooms. The default still should be keeping kids in classrooms, coupled with more aggressive monitoring of symptoms. This is less optimal than test to stay but preferable to sending entire classrooms home.
On Dec. 8, 2020, a few weeks after Joseph R. Biden was elected president, Q  the anonymous online account that set off the QAnon conspiracy movement  posted a link to a video with scenes of cars burning on the streets, fighter jets over a stadium and Donald J. Trump with his hand on a Bible, being sworn in as president. The images played over a song by Twisted Sister, Were Not Gonna Take It.

The Q account has not posted since, and its major predictions have not come to pass.

But the QAnon movement  initially based on a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, that a group of global liberal elites run a child sex ring that Mr. Trump would stop  has continued to flourish. In some ways, it is now woven even deeper into the countrys political and social fabric than it was 12 months ago.

Over 40 candidates who have publicly stated some support of QAnon are running for national office in 2022, according to a tally by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. They include Luis Miguel, a Republican from Florida who has tweeted the QAnon slogan, and Omar Navarro, a Republican from California who has publicly stated his belief in some of the movements conspiracy theories, including the lie that Hollywood is running a child trafficking scheme.
OAKLAND, Calif.  When Sandy Carter left her job as a vice president of Amazons cloud computing unit this month, she announced in a LinkedIn post that she was joining a crypto technology company. She included a link for open positions at the start-up.

Within two days, she said, more than 350 people  many from the biggest internet companies  had clicked the link to apply for jobs at the firm, Unstoppable Domains. The start-up sells website addresses that sit on the blockchain, the distributed ledger system that underpins cryptocurrencies.

Its the perfect storm, Ms. Carter said. The momentum were seeing in this space is just incredible.

Ms. Carter is part of a wave of executives and engineers leaving cushy jobs at Google, Amazon, Apple and other large tech companies  some of which pay millions of dollars in annual compensation  to chase what they see as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. That next big thing is crypto, they said, a catchall designation that includes digital currencies like Bitcoin and products like nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, that rely on the blockchain.
As we moved through the jungle, we found several homemade snares, of a kind typically used to catch civets or other small mammals. Darian guessed the poachers might not be too far. But then we reached what looked like a camp abandoned in haste: Hammocks, canned food, clothes and even two homemade guns had been left behind. I snapped a few photographs while the rangers dismantled the camp, confiscating the weapons and the snares.

Cambodias Cardamom Mountains were once a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, the fanatical communist regime whose presence lingered in the area well into the 1990s. For decades, the regions isolated villages had little contact with the outside world. Bloody battles were waged between local villagers and guerrillas. The use of land mines was prolific. Consequently, the surrounding rainforest survived as one of the most pristine expanses of wilderness in Southeast Asia.
Two prominent Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, announced separately on Sunday that they had tested positive with a breakthrough case of the coronavirus.

Both senators disclosed their cases on Sunday, and said they were experiencing mild symptoms after being vaccinated and receiving a booster shot. Ms. Warren said she received the positive result Sunday, while Mr. Booker said his test result came back after he began experiencing symptoms Saturday.

News of the cases came barely a day after the Senate left Washington for the year and ahead of a planned address by President Biden to the nation on Tuesday to respond to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, few people are allowed in the courtroom for the trial of Kimberly Potter, the former police officer charged with manslaughter, except for Ms. Potter, the jury, the judge and other court staff, and lawyers for the prosecution and the defense. Three seats each are reserved for relatives of Mr. Wright and Ms. Potter, and two seats are saved for a rotating pool of journalists.

Here are the key people who are part of the trial.
The 12 missionaries who were freed from captivity in Haiti last week had staged a dramatic escape on Wednesday night, making their way past guards and traveling on foot for about 10 miles while carrying two small children, their missionary organization said on Monday.

They found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path that they had chosen to follow and quickly left the place that they were held, despite the fact that numerous guards were close by, Weston Showalter, the spokesman for Christian Aid Ministries, said at a news briefing at the organizations home office in Ohio, recounting the story for the first time.

The account of the escape comes solely from the U.S. missionary group. The police and government officials in Haiti did not respond to requests for comment on the incident. The FBI expressed gratitude for the safe release of the hostages but did not release any further information.

The ordeal began two months ago, when the group was kidnapped by a gang called 400 Mawozo in a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince after visiting an orphanage. Gang members surrounded its van, penning the missionaries in with two vehicles, and then took them to a small house. The missionaries were held in a small room, about 10 by 12 feet, Mr. Showalter said.
A staff librarian at an elementary school in Washington, D.C., directed third graders to re-enact the Holocaust, including asking them to dig ditches for mass graves and simulate shootings, according to an email that the schools principal sent to parents late Friday.

One student was instructed to portray Hitler, the email said.

The staff member leading the activity at Watkins Elementary School, in the Capitol Hill section of southeast Washington, also reportedly made antisemitic statements during the episode, Principal MScott Berkowitz said in the email.

The staff member has been placed on administrative leave while the matter is investigated, Mr. Berkowitz said. The episode has also been referred to the districts Central Equity Response Team, which commonly responds to hate and bias incidents, Mr. Berkowitz said.

I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be tasked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war or murder, Mr. Berkowitz said. In no way is this lesson supported by the schools leadership or D.C.P.S. curriculum, he added, referring to the District of Columbia Public Schools.
The criminal complaint filed by prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minn., lists two criminal counts against Kimberly Potter, a former police officer, in connection with the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center in April. Both counts are felonies, but neither is a murder charge.

Image Kimberly Potter Credit... Hennepin County Sheriff, via Associated Press

Ms. Potter has said that the shooting happened accidentally and that she thought she was using her Taser and not her pistol when she pulled the trigger. Prosecutors have not suggested that the shooting was intentional.

The two counts are separate and not mutually exclusive; Ms. Potter can be convicted or acquitted of either charge, or of both.
Of the $22 billion going directly to Amtrak, about $6 billion will be used for improvement projects along the Northeast Corridor. The corridor could receive an additional $24 billion through the competitive grants.

The money comes at a critical yet complicated moment. Amtrak is already struggling to deal with labor shortages, which are affecting employers across the United States. For more than 16 months, as the pandemic sapped rail travel and ridership levels plummeted as much as 97 percent, Amtrak stopped hiring workers. Employees also retired or quit, resulting in a 10 percent drop in the number of train engineers and conductors from attrition.

Earlier this month, Amtraks inspector general released a report that said the lack of staff in the agencys Human Resources department would affect Amtraks ability to find and hire qualified candidates in time to meet the companys hiring needs.

To retain workers, Amtrak offered $48.5 million in earned performance payments to about 2,600 management employees this year, a spokeswoman said. About 82 percent of those payments were awarded to nonexecutive employees who are part of management.

The agency is now trying to fill about 200 open positions.

Jim Mathews, the president and chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association, said he was optimistic that worker shortages would be alleviated in the coming months, but it would be a challenge to staff up, given the sheer size of the projects.

Even in normal times, we dont necessarily have the work force in this country to support this, Mr. Mathews said.

That could be further compounded by a vaccine mandate. Although Amtrak temporarily dropped its vaccine mandate after a federal court halted the enforcement of the requirement for federal contractors, Amtrak officials said on Tuesday that they would continue to update the policy as needed. About 97 percent of Amtraks employees have either received a shot or an accommodation providing an exemption.
If you can make the Senate work better, the rules are something weve changed over the years; 232 years, theres been rule changes, Mr. Manchin said Sunday on Fox News. But he also suggested that he might be interested in more modest changes than Mr. Schumer and others are contemplating, saying he would continue to support the 60-vote, supermajority threshold to overcome a filibuster.

Ms. Sinema has also drawn a line against partisan changes in the rules, but Democrats say they believe she would not want to be the lone holdout if Mr. Manchin were persuaded to relent on the legislative filibuster.

Democrats knowledgeable about the internal deliberations say that many possible changes are under consideration, including weakening the filibuster against the preliminary motion to proceed to bring legislation to the floor for consideration. But in a more significant move, Democrats say they are also discussing a change that would clear the way for final action on a bill through a simple majority vote after guaranteeing opponents the opportunity to alter the legislation through a significant number of amendments.

Instituting such a change would require the support of all 50 Democrats and the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris presiding to break a tie in the 50-50 Senate.

Democrats say such a filibuster carve out would apply only to issues grounded in constitutional rights such as voting, but Republicans and others say it would inevitably be extended to other legislation, diminishing the overall power of the filibuster.

The Democratic voting rights and rules change push would meet universal resistance from Republicans. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, last week accused Democrats of rattling swords about changing the structure of the Senate and commended Mr. Manchin for opposing it.

Changing the structure of the Senate in order to achieve a partisan advantage is a mistake for the Senate and a mistake for our country, he said.
WASHINGTON  Mirard Joseph was bringing food to his wife and child, he said, when a Border Patrol agent on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, lashed at him with his reins and dragged him by the collar toward the Rio Grande, which in that region separates the United States from Mexico.

The treatment of Mr. Joseph, an undocumented immigrant who was seeking asylum but has been deported, and other Haitian migrants by agents in September is the subject of a federal investigation after President Biden described it as outrageous and promised that there will be consequences. The union representing the Border Patrol agents has defended them, saying they were merely doing their job as thousands of migrants crossed into the small border town.

The migrants side of the story was laid out for the first time on Monday, in a lawsuit against the government filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. By Mr. Josephs telling, the agent in a widely published photograph let go of him when the horse appeared close to trampling him.

It was the most humiliating experience of my life, he said in the lawsuit, which recounts his experience and those of 10 other Haitians in Del Rio and during their expulsions. The complaint accuses the government of physical and verbal abuse, inhumane treatment and denial of due process under a public health rule that gives border officials authority to expel most people who cross into the United States illegally during the coronavirus pandemic. The migrants are being represented by the immigrant advocacy organizations Justice Action Center, Haitian Bridge Alliance and Innovation Law Lab.
We were close, said Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, of her last conversation with Mr. Manchin, which she said occurred early last week.

Gregory Wetstone, president and chief executive of the American Council on Renewable Energy, a nonprofit group that supports green power, added, We had good conversations directly with him and with his staff.

All of the prior conversations had been along the lines that he did not want to penalize fossil fuel but was fine incentivizing clean power, Mr. Wetstone said. We had not seen indications of pushback from Manchin or elsewhere from the clean energy provisions.

The bill, as passed by the House, includes about $320 billion in tax incentives for producers and buyers of wind, solar and nuclear power. Electric vehicle customers would receive up to $12,500 in tax credits. Also included are $6 billion to make buildings more efficient and burn less fuel, $6 billion to replace gas-powered furnaces and appliances with electric versions, and billions more for research and development of new technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the air. Existing tax credits to lower the costs for homeowners of installing solar panels would be extended, as would credits for geothermal pumps and small wind turbines, covering up to 30 percent of the costs.

Though Mr. Manchin has always said his share of the coal brokerage is hidden in a blind trust, any general threat to coal power would impact that business.

A counteroffer that Mr. Manchin gave the White House last week did include scaled-back climate-related tax provisions, according to a congressional official familiar with it. But beyond scope, outstanding issues remained, such as a fee on oil and gas producers that emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Mr. Manchin on Monday mentioned tax credits for electric vehicles, which he said should not be available to higher-income families, and in a statement on Sunday, he said the House-passed bill would jeopardize the reliability of the electricity grid while increasing dependence on foreign supply chains.
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon on Monday issued new guidelines meant to root out extremism in the U.S. military, warning that liking white nationalist and extremist content on social media and similar activities could result in disciplinary action.

The guidelines come nearly a year after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, which dozens of current and former service members attended, leading to a reckoning at the Pentagon over extremism in the ranks.

The participation of military personnel in the Capitol riot distressed senior Pentagon officials so much that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered a 60-day stand down, completed in April, to address the issue. During that period, most units in the armed forces discussed why white supremacy and extremism have no place in the military.

In those conversations, one young service member said that for the first four months after he joined his Army unit, a flag representing the right-wing extremist militia called the Three Percenters hung on a wall in the foyer of his barracks. A Black Marine described feeling sick when he saw the red and gold flag that represents his service being flown during the Capitol attack. A white brigadier general worried privately about whether service members could be in trouble for supporting former President Donald J. Trump.
WASHINGTON  In the closing days of 2015, the lights went out across a swath of Ukraine as Russian hackers remotely took over an electric utilitys control center and flipped off one power station after another, while the companys operators stared at their screens helplessly.

The next year, the same thing happened, this time around Kyiv, the capital.

Now the United States and Britain have quietly dispatched cyberwarfare experts to Ukraine in hopes of better preparing the country to confront what they think may be the next move by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as he again menaces the former Soviet republic: Not an invasion with the 175,000 troops he is massing on the border, but cyberattacks that take down the electric grid, the banking system, and other critical components of Ukraines economy and government.

Russias goal, according to American intelligence assessments, would be to make Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, look inept and defenseless  and perhaps provide an excuse for an invasion.

In one sense, the Russian cybercampaign against Ukraine never stopped, American officials say, though until recently it bubbled along at a low level. But in interviews, American officials and experts say the action has stepped up over the past month even while public attention has been focused on the troop buildup.
PULLOUGH, Ireland  For two hours on Sunday mornings, they come to the pub with all that ails them. A small boy with a rash. A farmer with ringworm. A man with a throat infection.

They are here to see Joe Gallagher, who owns this canary yellow pub, nestled alongside a canal in the tiny Irish village of Pullough in County Offaly.

They believe that as the seventh son of his family, he holds a cure.

Im at this all my life, said Mr. Gallagher, 75, as he took a deep drag on his cigarette. As he explained how he does the cure  by laying his hands on the affected area, doing the sign of the cross and reciting some prayers  he breathed out ribbons of smoke that swirled around his face.

Mr. Gallagher is just one of hundreds of men and women across Ireland who are healers, or have the cure, an approach to health care that interweaves home remedies with mysticism, superstition, religion and a sprinkle of magic.
Israel on Monday added the United States and Canada to its red list, barring its citizens from traveling to those countries without a special exemption, as Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts government attempts to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.

Israels red list, which now includes 58 countries, has rapidly expanded since late November, when the government closed the borders to foreigners soon after Omicron was identified. Israel has not yet experienced the kind of crippling new virus wave seen in the United States or Britain, and having started to give citizens a third vaccine dose before almost any other country, its population is more protected from Omicron than most.

But in a speech on Sunday, Mr. Bennett said that it was only a matter of time before the variant caused another wave of infections in Israel. He called on people to work from home if possible, and to get children ages 5 and older vaccinated.

The time that we bought is running out, Mr. Bennett said. Omicron is already in the country, from the Knesset to kindergartens, and it is spreading fast.
In what can only be described as one of the most counter-intuitive auto break-in prevention methods, people in the Bay Area are leaving their parked cars with their trunks open in order to discourage potential thieves.

San Francisco and Oakland have seen a considerable increase in vehicle break-ins in recent months, and things have reportedly gotten so bad that people would rather leave their cars wide open just to show would-be thieves that they have nothing worth stealing. According to several local news stations, an increasing number of residents have started taking out everything of value from their vehicles, unlocking the doors, and leaving the trunk open as they go about their business. At least way, thieves dont have to break a window to look for anything valuable in the parked car.

Theres nothing in my car, and they can see that theres nothing to take, Parisa Hemmat, a business owner in Oakland, told Inside Edition, as she left her SUV with the trunk wide open.

NBC Bay Area reports that break-ins in San Francisco have spiked nearly 200% since last year, with about 74 new break-ins reported every day. Some car owners have turned to signs in the windows that read Please use the doors, or Please Do Not Break Glass!! Nothing Inside!!

Although leaving the car with its doors unlocked and even with the trunk open when parked is becoming popular in the Bay Area, police are warning motorists against it.



They could steal your batteries, your tires, former San Francisco Deputy Police Chief Garret Tom told ABC 7. They could go into your glove compartment and find where you live. Its an invitation for disaster.
Brunswick Group handles media for Italian luxury brand Zegna as it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 20 via a SPAC deal with European private equity group Investindustrial.

Guido Zegna, grandson and namesake of founder of the 111-year-old company, said he is very proud to head the first Italian fashion company listed in New York.

His family controls about 66 percent of the publicly-traded company.

He believes the company is well-positioned to accelerate the growth of its Zegna and Thom Browne brands, which are currently at pre-pandemic levels, while building on their heritage, ethos of sustainability and unique craftsmanship.

Zegna products are sold in more than 500 stores in 80 countries. Its luxury textile laboratory platform preserves artisanal mills that produce the finest Italian fabrics.

Brunswick Groups Brendan Riley, Lidia Fornasiero and Marie Jensen handle Zegna.

Maitlands David Sturken and Jonathan Cook represent Investindustrial.
Examining the impact of debt on investment for Austrian non-financial sectors and firms

Using a micro-level model of investment, this paper finds that firm-debt and investment are negatively associated across firms in Austrian manufacturing industries. The finding is robust to various changes to the model specification. Moreover, in an extension of the basic model, different components of debt are examined, pointing out that debt owed to banks and long-term debt have a stronger negative effect than other forms of debt. Comparisons with investment models estimated for other European countries suggest that the impact of debt on investment is more negative in Austria than elsewhere. Results from interaction models of debt owed to banks with an index of credit easing show that firms in industries which are more bank-dependent invest relatively more than firms in industries that are less bank-dependent after an easing of credit conditions.

In series:OECD Economics Department Working Papersview more titles
20/12/2021 - Despite Ukraines efforts, data strongly suggests that the energy sector remains one of the areas most vulnerable to corruption and related irregularities in Ukraine. To ensure a sustainable reform process in line with international standards, a set of recommendations to reduce corruption-related challenges and eliminate opportunities for corrupt practices must be implemented, according to the new OECD review.

Anti-Corruption Review of the Energy Sector in Ukraine provides an overview of corruption risks, anti-corruption measures implemented by the government, and the investigation and prosecution of corruption in the energy sector. The report is aimed to help policymakers, energy sector stakeholders, anti-corruption bodies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and law enforcement bodies identify trends and good practices, and common problems in the energy sector and make informed decisions to eliminate corruption.

Ukraine has made some efforts by signing the Association Agreement with the European Union and adhering to other international commitments, including the Paris Agreement, Ukraine has made the transformation of the energy sector one of its main reform priorities. In recent years, bold strategic steps have been taken to shape a policy reform agenda, build a sound legal and institutional framework, and enhance transparency and integrity in various energy sub-sectors.

More must be done, however, to entrench these reforms in robust legislative and policy frameworks to reduce common factors contributing to corruption across sub-sectors of the energy sector. Key challenges relate to a range of embezzlement schemes; abuse of monopoly status and of public procurement; lack of transparency related to public obligations; undue influence of private interest groups; and unwarranted and ad hoc interventions towards SOEs. To address these concerns, the Review identities several key recommendations to prevent corruption and key anti-corruption prevention and punitive measures, both as a point of departure and as a roadmap for reform going forward.

The OECD and Ukraine have worked together since 1991 to improve governance and stimulate economic development. In 2014, the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding and developed a joint Action Plan to identify the priority areas for OECD work in Ukraine. This work has helped build capacity, strengthen institutions, and support reforms in many areas of public policy, including investment, anti-corruption, competition, public administration and corporate governance. The OECD is supporting Ukraines energy sector reform with the financial support of the Government of Norway.



Download Anti-Corruption Review of the Energy Sector in Ukraine

For media inquires contact ACN@OECD.org
Premiers for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick said this weekend they will keep borders open, but Newfoundland and Labrador is bringing in a five-day isolation period for any travellers.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said in the face of the variant, which appears to be doubling its spread every few days, the government had to take action to prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.
The really incredible deal Trump signed with his very, very good friend Xi Jinping has turned out to be rather one-sided and, for the US, self-destructive.
The prosecutor told the jury during closing arguments in Maxwells criminal trial that the British socialite committed crimes hand in hand with Jeffrey Epstein.
Less than half an hour before Rep. Joe Manchin's interview on Fox News, he sent an aide to inform the White House and congressional leadership of his decision.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin all but delivered a death blow to President Joe Bidens $2 trillion domestic initiative, throwing his partys agenda into jeopardy, infuriating the White House and leaving angry colleagues desperate to salvage whats left of a top priority.



The West Virginia senators brazen announcement, delivered on Fox News Sunday after only a cursory heads-up to the presidents staff, potentially derails not only Bidens Build Back Better Act, but sparks fresh questions over passing voting rights legislation and potentially other significant bills that would require his vote in the 50-50 Senate.



Republicans heralded Manchin for a maverick move in joining all GOP senators now halting Bidens big social services and climate change package. But progressive Democrats mercilessly portrayed Manchin as a deal-breaker who failed to keep his word, and even moderates heaped on criticism after months of talks. Whether the senator, a lifelong Democrat, is making a definitive break from his party also became part of the discussion.



We knew he would do this, tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, a leader of House progressives, said Manchin can no longer say he is a man of his word.



If he doesnt have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont who chairs the Budget Committee, said on CNN.



With Congress recessed for the Christmas holidays, the next steps are highly uncertain. Some Democrats insisted on recalling the Senate to session to force a vote, though that appeared unlikely. Others were fast at work trying to win back Manchins support and pick up...
An aide, not the senator himself, delivered the bad news that Manchin wouldn't be backing the bill to the White House, according to reports.
NEW YORK (AP)  Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, resorting to a familiar but seldom successful strategy as he seeks to end a yearslong civil investigation into his business practices that he alleges is purely political.



In the lawsuit, filed in federal court two weeks after James requested that Trump sit for a Jan. 7 deposition, Trump contends the probe into matters including his company's valuation of assets has violated his constitutional rights in a "thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates."



The lawsuit describes James, a Democrat, as having personal disdain for Trump and points to numerous statements she's made targeting him in recent years, including her support of die-in protests against him, her boast that her office sued his administration 76 times and tweets during her 2018 campaign that she had her eyes on Trump Tower and that Trump was running out of time."



Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent, the former president's lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Trump and his company, the Trump Organization.



In a statement, James said: The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings and now Donald Trump and his namesake company have filed a lawsuit as an attempted collateral attack on that investigation.



To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.



James had announced a run for New York governor in...
Drakeo the Ruler was killed during an altercation backstage at a music festival in his hometown of Los Angeles. He was 28 years old. On the night of Saturday, Dec. 18, the West Coast...
Senator Joe Manchin III said he was opposed to legislation that includes climate action designed to keep the planet from dangerously overheating.
HipHopDX 24 Dec 2021

Drakeo The Ruler had a voice that captivated the Los Angeles, California Hip Hop scene and would soon cross the cross the country.
US top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci has urged Americans to get vaccinated and boosted. The United States is anticipating a rise in cases due to holiday travel.
Hours after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va) delivered what many saw as a potentially fatal blow to the Build Back Better bill with his declaration that he just cant support it, White House press secretary Jen Psaki unleashed a blistering statement, turning President Bidens charm offensive to scorched earth.
"The state government taking necessary precautions in view of the Covid-19 numbers but has no plans to close down schools until the..

Zee News 20 Dec 2021
PIX 11 23 Dec 2021

NEW YORK  More COVID-19 testing sites have been set up across New York City in efforts to ease long lines amid an outbreak..
Newsy 09 Dec 2021

Watch VideoThis time last year, a woman in the United Kingdom became the first person in the world to receive a COVID-19..
In a letter to colleagues, the majority leader said senators should make their positions known on the chambers floor, not just on television.
Move by news organization is part of a wave of companies reconsidering their return-to-office plans in the wake of the Omicron variant.
Newsy 03 Dec 2021

Watch VideoThe Omicron variant of COVID-19, which had been undetected in the U.S. before the middle of this week, had been..
A day after Senator Joe Manchin III said he could not support a $2.2 trillion climate, tax and spending plan, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, was undeterred.
A truck ran into a U.S. military vehicle on a highway in Bavaria on Monday in what German police described as an accident. The military said there were no known injuries among U.S. personnel, but eight soldiers were taken to a hospital for a precautionary screening.
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Here in the news kitchen, we hear your complaints: This isnt the 2021 you ordered. This isnt the 2021 any of us ordered...

Mashable 15 Dec 2021
US Senator Elizabeth Warren said Sunday (US time) she has tested positive for Covid-19 as the country deals with another surge in cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant.The Massachusetts Democrat tweeted she's vaccinated,...
The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, in his last days in office, called for support from the federal government in tackling the coronavirus pandemic amid a surge caused by the Omicron variant. The official said that President Joe Biden needs to use every tool in his disposal to curb the spread of the virus.
The U.S. has a case of the latest coronavirus variant. President Biden will outline a new plan for dealing with COVID-19. The U.S...

NPR 02 Dec 2021
The Waitangi Tribunal has found the Crown "actively breaching" the Treaty of Waitangi on multiple levels in its vaccination strategy and shift to the traffic light system. The nature of the vaccination rollout and shift to the...
A US rapper known as Drakeo the Ruler was stabbed to death at a Los Angeles music festival, leaving fans of the young musician heartbroken.
The photo showed Mr Johnson, his then-fiancee Carrie, and 17 other staff members in the garden on May 15, 2020
The UK and four other nations have issued a joint statement expressing their grave concerns after pro-Beijing candidates claimed a victory in Hong Kongs Legislative Council elections.
White House vows to "work like hell" to solve the impasse with Sen. Joe Manchin over President Biden's $2 trillion domestic initiative; also addresses Omicron spread. (Dec. 20)


Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin made a soft landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9.13am (0313 GMT) about 148 kilometers southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan. Maezawa, 46, and his 36-year-old producer Hirano were the first self-paying tourists to visit the International Space Station since 2009.
Wibbitz Top Stories 04 Jan 2022

CDC Says Fully-Vaccinated , Can Now Receive Pfizer Boosters, After 5 Months.

On Jan. 4, the CDC announced that those who've..
Betforge - A One-Stop Shop for Online Gambling

Published December 19, 2021 by Florin P

BetForge is the latest gambling platform, developed by Turbomates Soft, which provides turnkey casinos, betting exchanges, and sportsbooks.

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A One-Stop Shop for Online Gambling

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For online casino fans, these names ring familiar, as they are the driving force behind some of the best online games. They can enjoy everything from classic three-reel slots to the latest releases, with five reels and progressive jackpots. Table games, video poker, and other games appreciated by online casino fans are just one click away. Theyre all compatible with mobile devices and can be enjoyed for free or real money on smartphones and tablets.

Live Games and Betting Through Betforge

The in-play wagering module is one of the defining qualities of this new gambling platform. Those who choose the bookmaker side of the business will appreciate the comprehensive selection of live betting options. These are essential traits for modern sportsbooks and Betforge provides an impeccable live betting experience. Overall competitive odds and a nice diversity of mainstream and special betting markets provide further incentives for punters to stick around.

The live betting experience is just as appealing in the casino section, which is powered by Evolution Gaming among other leading developers. This means that punters can play live dealer roulette, blackjack, and baccarat against professional and friendly croupiers. BetForge has launched more than 100 clients and can guarantee an impeccable live casino experience. Punters who want to feel like gambling in a classy land-based casino will appreciate this new casino platform.

Betforge Products and Useful Tools

BetForges online casino software is ready for a nearly immediate launch, with only a new brand and design needed. The online sportsbook platform is the other product on the BetForge online platform. It provides customers with unlimited market extensions while delivering an entertaining and secure experience for punters. The bookmaker and the casino can easily be connected, with their specialists providing partners with the know-how and assistance.

The betting exchange software is a versatile platform built on the successful Betfair, Betradar, Donbets exchanges. Clients have access to useful tools that allow them to fully control the commission rates, based on the expectations of operators and customers alike. Player and game management tools offer accurate insights and swift access to the control panel. The BetForge platform also has a full payment ledger and detailed transaction management features, as well as a unified ticket process management.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Assets invested in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ETFs and exchange-traded products reached a record US$371 billion globally as of the end of November.

That represents an 84.3% year-to-date increase, up from US$201 billion at the end of 2020, said the research firm ETFGI.

Net inflows over the same period amounted to US$146.84 billion, much higher than the US$68.59 billion gathered at the same point last year.

ESG products saw net inflows of $16.6 billion in November, bringing net inflows for the 11 months ended Nov. 30 to $146.8 billion. That was up 114% from the $68.6 billion they netted during the same 11-month period last year, ETFGI said.

ESG ETF/ETP assets totaled $201 billion at the end of 2020, it added.

"Due to the growing threat of a new COVID variant Omicron, the S&P 500 declined 0.69% in November, however, the index is up 23.18% year to date. Developed markets, excluding the US, experienced a fall of 4.94% in November," said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner, founder, and owner of ETFGI.

"Israel (down 1.03%) and the US (down 1.47%) experienced the smallest losses among the developed markets in November, while Luxembourg suffered the biggest loss of 16.90%. Emerging markets declined 3.53% during November. United Arab Emirates (up 8.15%) and Chile (up 5.51%) gained the most, whilst Turkey (down 13.72%) and Poland (down 11.95%) witnessed the largest declines," Deborah added.

The Global ESG ETF/ETP category......................

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New York based writer Adam Rodriguez is releasing the first edition of collected work from his popular web comic, The Oddness. Satirical,and at times twisted, this cartoon series has steadily gained popularity among fans of classics such as Bizarro and The Far Side. The Oddness has been around for a few years now, says Rodriguez. But this is the first time that Ive gotten around to putting a book together. Im 
@youngnigs_official bio of an emerging star. Youngnigs is a Cameroonian rapper who goes by names of origin Ambe Clinton, youngnigs comes from the north west region of bamenda precisely Bafut-Mezam division. He was born on may 19, 1999. Schooled in several primary schools in bamenda then later left for Douala were he acquired his first school living certificate. Later on in 2016 he had his ordinary levels with good grades and 
MANISTEE  Renovations for the Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital Emergency Department will begin this spring.

Debra Henderson, president of the Munson Healthcare Foundation, said the emergency department receives 50,000 patients annually  more than double the number of annual patients that it received the last time the emergency department was renovated in 1991.

"In 30 years we've changed how we provide care, and so do the hospitals that provide that care," Henderson said.

Many of the renovations or more accurately  reconfiguration  will focus on the privacy of patients, including installing a more permanent barrier in one room that currently separates an adjacent room with only a curtain, reconfiguring the current waiting room to make private waiting rooms for patients and their families, as well as enhancing the trauma room and improving "clinical areas," according to Henderson.

The changes will also improve the "patient flow," she said.

Henderson said that they have completed fundraising for the project. The Munson Healthcare Foundation raised $1 million as of September, which was the goal that was originally set, according to a previous News Advocate article.

Related Content Manistee Hospital to renovate emergency department

The cost of the project in total is $2.5 million.

According to Munson Healthcare's website, the other $1.5 million for the Manistee Hospital Emergency Department renovations will be paid for by Munson.

"Munson Healthcare is investing $1.5 million toward this $2.5 million project to support the Manistee Hospital Emergency Department," reads a statement on its website.

Manistee Hospital's website breaks down what the hospital has now and the plan for the future.

Existing space includes:

 One trauma room

 Crowded clinical work areas that do not accommodate efficient workflow

 Curtains between patient rooms

 Disconnected waiting room

 Unsecured entrances and exits

The plan for the future includes:

 Larger, more private exam rooms for patients

 Reconfigured clinical workspace to improve patient flow

 Redesigned emergency department with fewer entrances and exits

 Additional leading-edge diagnostic and monitoring equipment

 Additional storage space for supplies and equipment

According to Munson's website, these changes will provide many benefits to patients, such as:

 Increased privacy

 Comfortable, healing environment

 Access to leading diagnostic equipment

 Enhanced patient experience from start to finish

Henderson said that while they hope to be finished by next fall, "keep in mind, we have to do this while were still seeing patients."

She also noted the work is in the interior of the emergency department and they won't have any plans or renderings of what the emergency department will look like after renovations are complete until January.
MANISTEE COUNTY  The following includes reports made to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office from Nov. 21-23

All calls may not be reported. This is part of a lengthy report and is compiled by assistant editor Arielle Breen.

Nov. 21

 A property damage crash was reported at 6 p.m. in Manistee Township.

Nov. 22

 A traffic hazard was reported at 2:50 a.m. in Norman Township.

 Trespassing was reported at 9:21 a.m. in Cleon Township.

 A suspicious situation was reported at 10:44 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 Deputies assisted a citizen at 11:27 a.m. in Dickson Township.

 A suspicious situation was reported 12:40 p.m. in Filer Township.

 Deputies conducted a warrant arrest at 4:16 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:15 p.m. in Onekama Township.

 A suspicious situation and a breaking and entering were reported at 8 p.m. in Norman Township.

 Deputies assisted the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians at 6 p.m. in Manistee.

Nov. 23

 A two-vehicle property damage crash was reported at 7:12 a.m. in Norman Township.

 Larceny from a motor vehicle was reported at 9:05 a.m. in Stronach Township.

 Deputies conducted a pill collection at 9 a.m. at the Manistee County Sheriffs Office.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 9:30 a.m. in Manistee Township.
A leader in creating opportunities to amplify social justice issues and creator and host of The Breaking Bread Village in Midland will be honored by Saginaw Valley State University next month for community work that exemplifies the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision.

Erin Patrice of Midland County has been named a recipient of the 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award, given annually to leaders in the Great Lakes Bay region.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major Award for community service is based on nominees who selflessly perform daily acts of service to make their community  and our world  a better place. The award was created by the Great Lakes Bay Regional MLK Celebration event committee, and the honorees are selected from Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties.

Not only is Patrice the creator of one of the only organizations of its kind in Michigan, TBBV, but she is also being recognized for her work with the Midland County Housing Commission and the Midland Area Cultural Awareness Coalition.

"First off being nominated, let alone the nomination being accepted, was such a humbling feeling and experience. I cried like a baby. Its one thing to believe in yourself but when your community rallies around you to believe in you. Its indescribable," Patrice said. "Oftentimes you do things just because its the right thing or you feel you are led to do it and honestly you dont even think people notice."

Patrice was a bit shocked and thankful after reading the email notifying her of the award.

"I sat and thought about the role of a drum major, reflected on MLK's walk, and the work we do and it made me fill up with such happiness," Patrice said. "My heart literally smiled, because our mission is to hear the unheard and see the unseen and to give voice to those who dont have one or may speak with a faint whisper. Anyone who knows me knows I love to be a cheerleader. I will root for you without ceasing because Im a firm believer that when one wins we all win. It truly takes a village, no matter how cliche that sounds. Im thankful for my village and those who have sown into and believed in TBBV."

Patrice is slated to receive recognition during the Great Lakes Bay Regional Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19 on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University.

After being held virtually last year, the event is scheduled to be in person and be streamed for viewing online.

"I appreciate the nomination and recognition and promise to keep working to make dreams of unity a reality," Patrice said.

If you'd like to get involved in the efforts of Patrice and TBBV, visit the website at 4steps2thesun.org/breaking-bread-village. TBBV is streamed live on YouTube and Facebook whenever a conversation is happening. It is also available via Anchor and other podcast platforms.

Photo provided/Erin Patrice

Additionally, donations are welcome as TBBV was created at the start of the pandemic and needs help to meet its goals and continue to build. Visit midlandfoundation.org/fund/breakingbread to learn about donating.

Some past honorees of the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award from Midland County include Diane Brown Wilhelm (2021), Randi Kawakita (2018) and Betty Jones (2015).

For more information about the Great Lakes Bay Regional Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration hosted at SVSU, visit svsu.edu/mlk, or contact the SVSU Office of Diversity Programs at 989-964-4068.
northwood university

Amid an atmosphere of great celebration, Northwood University recently held its winter commencement ceremony at Riepma Arena. Graduates had plenty of supporters to thank for their achievements  professors, fellow students, parents, as well as members of the Midland County Department of Public Health (MCDPH), recipients of the 2021 Naegele Distinguished Community Service Award.

The MCDPH provided expertise to Northwood during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The university is proud to have remained open for in-person classes throughout the pandemic with their guidance. The university appreciates the collaboration with the MCDPH and acknowledged their partnership by presenting them with the Robert and Patricia Naegele Distinguished Community Service Award. This year was the first time the award has been given to a group or organization. The award recognizes community service efforts that reflect Northwoods values and enhance the Universitys mission. Northwood provided special recognition to Dr. Catherine Bodnar, MCDPH medical director, and Fred Yanoski, MCDPH director and health officer, and representing the entire MCDPH team was Clinical Services Director Nicole Swanton.
Courtesy photo

MANISTEE COUNTY  West Shore Bank announced that 640 Christmas meals will be distributed between Benzie, Mason, Manistee and Oceana County food pantries as a result of this years Spirit of Giving meal fundraiser.

In November, West Shore Bank collected funds from employees, community members and businesses. West Shore Bank matched the funds raising up to $2,500 to increase the impact of the holiday season meals in its communities.
Juba, South Sudan (PANA) - The UNs Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan has strongly condemned the killing of a UN-contracted aid worker on Sunday, that also left another injured, after the convoy they were travelling in came under attack
Following more than 200m (US$225m) of investment, Ivato International Airport in Madagascar has opened its 17,500m2 terminal, which is expected to enable smoother airport traffic and increase its capacity to 1.5 million passengers per year.

With its new terminal, the airport plans to reduce its waiting times and increase flight capacity, through additional counters and weekly passenger services. The new international terminal has also received health accreditation from Airports Council International (ACI) and plans to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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The architecture of the terminal will showcase of Malagasy flora and culture, serving Madagascars economic and tourism development. In doing so, the opened terminal is expected to create more than 300 new jobs in addition to the more than 1,000 direct and indirect local jobs already created.

The official opening of the new terminal at Ivato International took place the day after the new concession agreement was signed between the Malagasy authorities. Before the health crisis began, tourism contributed 16% of the countrys GDP and provided employment for more than 800,000 people (3% of the population). The concession contract has therefore been the subject of an amendment between the various parties. As part of this agreement, global investor and asset manager Meridiam will contribute and share its expertise in addition to the investments of more than 200m (US$225m) made during the construction phase. The agreement between the government and the members of the consortium provides for a significant upward revaluation of the fiscal benefits for the State to nearly 400m (US$450m) over the duration of the concession.

Thierry Deau, founder and CEO of Meridiam, said, With this new international terminal, Madagascar will have a state-of-the-art infrastructure that meets the best international airport standards. It is also a pleasant living environment, a showcase for Malagasy flora and culture. At the service of economic development, it will assist the effective recovery of the tourist activity on the island.
Oil rose towards $75 on Thursday supported by record U.S. implied demand and falling crude stockpiles, even as the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant threatens to put a brake on consumption globally.



Crude and other risk assets such as equities also got a boost after the U.S. Federal Reserve gave an upbeat economic outlook, which lifted investor spirits even as the Fed flagged a long-awaited end to its monetary stimulus.



Brent crude oil rose by 62 cents, or 0.8%, to $74.50 a barrel by 0915 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained by 65 cents, or 0.9%, to $71.52.



"Despite the current virus surge, the weekly EIA oil inventory report showed demand for petroleum products hit a record high, crude exports bounced back and national crude stocks posted a larger-than-expected draw," said Edward Moya, senior analyst at OANDA.



The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday said crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels, more than analysts had forecast.



Oil demand has been recovering in 2021 after last year's collapse, and the EIA also said product supplied by refineries, a proxy for demand, surged in the most recent week to 23.2 million barrels per day (bpd).



"These figures suggest a healthy economic backdrop," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.



"Although the Fed's announcement triggered a jump in both oil and equity prices, the withdrawal of economic support together with the Omicron crisis are the two major headwinds the oil market is currently facing," he added.



Worries about the virus limited gains. Britain and South Africa reported record daily COVID-19 cases while many firms across the globe asked employees to work from home, which could limit demand going forward.

Source: REUTERS









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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Mobile Network Operators in Ghana have agreed to a 25% cut in mobile money transaction charges to accommodate the controversial E-Levy proposed by the government in the 2022 budget.



We have had extensive deliberation with the government on the need to lessen the impact on our consumers. We acknowledge the need to expand the tax base. However, to reduce the overall impact of the new levy on consumers, MTN and AirtelTigo have agreed to a downward revision of their P2P (person to person transfer) fees by up to 25% depending on the respective operator. Vodafone currently has no charges, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GTC) said in a statement on Friday, 17 December 2021.



Each operator would notify their customers of the applicable revised rate when the e-levy bill is passed into law, the statement noted.



The 1.75 per cent e-levy takes effect from 1 February 2022.



It covers mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances.



The originator of the transactions will bear the charge except for inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.



There is an exemption for transactions up to GH100 ($16) per day.

Source: classfmonline.com









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Huawei Technologies Ghana has trained offered digital skill training to 1000 female students in the Ga Central Municipality. The exercise which was in partnership in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MOFARI) and the Ga Central Municipal Assembly comes as part of the ICT giants Seeds for the Future Women in Tech program aimed at equipping and empowering more women with the needed skills to take up roles in the technology ecosystem.



Through the Ga Central Municipal Education Directorate, 500 JHS female students from across all the 17 basic schools in the Municipality received training in basic coding. While 500 SHS Female students from Odorgonor Senior High School received training in basic ICT skills which comprised Microsoft Office suit to help them adapt as they prepare for the University where most activities and assignment require frequent use of MS Word and PowerPoint. The girls also received the education of internet safety which aimed at preparing them to browse more safely online especially with interacting on Social Media.



Huawei also rewarded over 200 students who were outstanding during the sessions with some prizes which included gifts School Bags, stationery, branded souvenirs and Xmas Shopping Vouchers to motivate them and nurture their interests in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).



The program which was part of a massive Women in Tech campaign in the Ga Central Municipality by Huawei Ghana also offered a Financial Technology Workshop and a Cultural Exchange program to some 150 women in the Municipality. These activities aimed at boosting digital literacy while giving beneficiaries the opportunity to actively participate and realize the benefits of the digital economy.



As part of the Global Leading ICT Companys commitment in promoting gender equality, Huawei believes that more opportunities and support must be given to women to empower them as well as ensure they have access both to education and training to compete in the digital economy.



Aside Ghana, Huawei through the Women in Technology initiative has already rolled out dedicated digital skills capacity building and empowerment programs for women in multiple countries, including Ireland, Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, and South Africa.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia says plans are far advanced for the construction and equipping of 15 Forward Operating Bases (FOB) across the northern frontiers for the Ghana Armed Forces.



This is to enable the military to respond swiftly to any external aggression as atrocities and violent activities of extremists and terrorism organisations increased in parts of the West African sub-region.



The FOBs include Hamiley, Tumu, Navrongo, Bawku, Bunkrugu, Bimbila, Wa, Damongo, Saboba, and Jirapa.



Additionally, there will be Forward Logistics Bases in Tamale and Bolga respectively.



Vice President Bawumia announced this in Accra on Friday at the graduation parade of the Short Service Commission and Special Duties Intake 59 held at the Ghana Military Academy.



Vice President Bawumia noted that the government intended to equip the Ghana Navy with offshore patrol vessels and fast patrol boats to counter any piracy and maritime threats on the country's exclusive economic zone.



The Ghana Airforce, he said, would also receive assaulted aircrafts for their operational exigencies.



"All these investments are to ensure that the Ghana Armed Forces are well equipped and motivated to deliver on its mandate of safeguarding the peace, integrity, and security of the nation and maintaining Ghana's contribution to international peace and security," the Vice President emphasized.



A total of 88 cadets comprising 60 males and 28 females were commissioned into the Ghana Armed Forces.



The Intake was made up of first and second-degree holders from the various tertiary education institutions with qualifications such as medical officers, logistics, pharmacists, and nurses.



The cadets, as part of the training, were introduced to physical training, drills, tactics, fieldcraft, map reading, and weapon handling.



The six-month course saw the cadets also receiving lessons on military rudiments to assist in transforming them from their civilian state to prepare them ahead of future tasks in their newly acquired profession.



Dr Bawumia added that government had started strategic expansion and modernization of the Armed Forces in line with the threat analysis and marching base with the acquisition of equipment, logistics, and infrastructure development as well as increasing its manpower base.



The expansion, he said, has already seen the creation and establishment of the Army's Special Operating Brigade, the Armour Brigade, and two Mechanised Battalions.



He urged the military and other security agencies to remain undaunted in the fight against illegal mining, otherwise known as "galamsey".



"Our collective vigilance and security consciousness is key in maintaining the peace in the country," admonished the cadets, and thus, entreated them to uphold discipline, patriotism, and responsiveness to all operational exigencies.



On soldiers' welfare and accommodation, the Vice President indicated that an 832-unit accommodation ongoing at all the garrisons was at various stages of completion.



The 330-seating capacity two-storey classroom block was nearing completion while the magnificent administration block for the Ghana Military Academy was 95 percent complete, he said.



The cadets who excelled at the training were awarded certificates and plaques, with Junior Cadet Officer Fosu Vivienne emerging as the Overall Best Cadet

Source: GNA









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The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, has implored the members of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs to embrace the Lands Act, 2020 (Act 1036) for effective and efficient administration of land in the country.



He said the new law, which revised harmonized, and consolidated existing laws relating to land, had several innovative provisions that would promote sustainable land administration and management for effective and efficient land tenure.



Mr Jinapor made the call when speaking at a meeting of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs.



The Minister engaged the members of the House on the Lands Act.



The engagement was at the invitation of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs to educate them on the provisions of the Act and to discuss matters pertaining to the lands and natural resources of our country.



The Minister explained in detail the law to the members of the House, particularly on the provisions relating to the management and administration of stool lands.



He reminded the Chiefs that they held lands in trust for their subjects, and are therefore fiduciaries, accountable to their people.



Under the Land Act, a breach of this fiduciary duty constitutes a criminal offence.



The Minister highlighted the requirement for all stools, skins, families, and clans that own land to establish a Customary Land Secretariat, and assured the Chiefs, that the Lands Commission and the Administrator of Stool Lands, would work with them to ensure that the Secretariats are established.



He also emphasized on the provisions of the law that require all allodial title holders to survey and demarcate their lands before disposing of them.



This is necessary to prevent land and boundary disputes, and to ensure that the development of such lands are in accordance with the development plans of the community.



The Chiefs raised other issues involving the management of our forest reserves and the mineral resources which the Minister took time to explain Governments policies in these areas to them.



The Minister assured the Chiefs that the Ministry would work closely with them to ensure the efficient management of the countrys lands and natural resources.



The President of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs and the King of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who presided over the meeting, thanked the Minister for taking time to engage the House on such an important matter of great concern to the traditional authorities.



He lauded the Minister for his exemplary leadership and work at the Ministry.



The Asantehene noted that since assumption of office, Mr Abu Jinapor has discharged his duties with diligence, humility, and integrity, he called on him to continue on that same path.



On his part, the Minister thanked the House for taking the law seriously and for the invitation to engage with the House on it.



He reiterated the commitment of the Government to build an effective, transparent, responsive, and orderly land and stool land revenue administration, which is steeped in integrity, and to work with all stakeholders to ensure the efficient utilization of our natural resources for the benefit of the people of Ghana.











Source: GNA









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The African Foundation for Women Empowerment (AFWE) on Saturday, December 18, 2021, held its maiden annual health outreach program at Saforo, a suburb of the Akwapim South Municipality of the Eastern Region.



In partnership with private health service provider Aegis healthcare, the Non-Profit Organization brought together widows Children and the less privileged in the deprived community for free medical screening.



In a bid to extend a helping hand, the African Foundation for Women Empowerment put together a team of health experts to provide free medical screening for the aged and women at Saforo.



Executive Director for the foundation, Marcia Mprah told the media that the choice for a community health outreach stems from the desire to avail health services for the women who may have been denied or have been unable to access health facilities due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which was accompanied by prolonged lockdowns and its associated restriction to health facilities.



She added that many individuals are also reported to have shied away from general OPD services due to the scare of contracting the deadly virus.



December, being a festive season for us is as an opportune moment to rally more young girls and women for health screening purposes which would in turn help tear down the barriers for most women who have been unable to access quality health care throughout the year and thats why we intend to commence this exercise at Saforo.



Also, Christmas came early at AFWES outreach this weekend as some bags of rice, mackerel, biscuits and souvenirs were donated.



Some private sponsors such as Verna Natural Mineral water provided some souvenirs and water to beneficiaries of the screening exercise. Some benevolent individuals including Abel Antonio Cardenas Tuppia, the Ambassador of Peru to Ghana and Director General (DG) for the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Samuel Kwabena Awuku also supported the good cause by partnering with the foundation to celebrate the women of Saforo.



The African Foundation for Women Empowerment which was launched less than a year ago says it is positioning itself as a Non-Profit Organizational tool and a platform that seeks to harness, refine and also develop the African Woman to achieve desirable goals in society by extending assistance that will tear down the uneven social structures which limit the potentials of women on the continent in order to ensure they succeed in life through providing education, health care, livelihood skills and community development services. Child and gender development are fundamental to our work.



AFWE envisions an African society where women are given equal opportunities and empowered to explore their full potentials and capabilities in their environment through the creation of sustainable and institutionalized support mechanisms that promote their social, economic, cultural and moral development.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









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Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Police in the Central East Regional Police Command have gunned down five suspected assailants at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region.



Two of the suspects managed to escape after they were purportedly contracted by unknown people to assassinate the Chief of Gomoa Fetteh, Nana Abor Atta II.



The suspects with guns were spotted in a taxi cab with the registration number GG 3427- 21 which they went to Gomoa Fetteh Township to assassinate the chief but failed in the attempt.



Upon a tip off, the police laid ambush and waited for the assailants and on reaching Gomoa Fetteh cemetery, the police opened fire on them leading to five of them dead.



Meanwhile, the central East Regional Police Command is yet to comment on the incident which occurred yesterday at about 10:30pm.



































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Source: UTV/Daily Guide









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Ghana has placed a travel ban on all passengers going to or coming from Malta with effect from Monday, 20 December 2021 due to the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.



A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said the government of Ghana does not recognise any vaccine certificate from Malta.



Ghana has also placed a 14-day temporary travel restriction on all travellers arriving from South Korea effective today, Monday, 20 December 2021.



The same restriction has been placed on all travellers arriving from Israel save exceptional humanitarian cases or official trips.



The statement said permission would have to be obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional integration in exceptional cases.



The reason for the ban on South Korea and Israel was not stated.









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Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya Kwabre North, Collins Adomako Mensah has rebuked the Presidential aspirants in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) whose billboards have been mounted in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.



The NPP has warned the aspirants to halt their campaigns till when the party will give permission for its members to engage in internal contests.



A statement by the NPP leadership ahead of the party's delegates conference this Saturday read; Prior to and during the conference from December 18 to 20, 2021, no billboards and or signboards, banners or any kind of outdoor signage with the images and or names of individual members, with or without the consent of the individual, shall be acceptable. This applies to the area within the Greater Kumasi Metropolis. All such displays, if put up already, should be removed.



"Any person, with or without his or her consent, whose image is flaunted on any advocacy material and who does not take active steps to desist from any public display of aspiration for a position within the precincts of Greater Kumasi runs a higher risk of disqualification in the event nominations are declared open."



But the directive of the leadership has fallen on deaf ears as billboards of some of the aspirants have crowded Kumasi.



Hon. Collins Adomako-Mensah, speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', scolded the aspirants saying ''Billboards don't win election. If billboards win election, we would have defeated the NDC in 2016. Billboards don't win election. So, if you are a potential aspirant and you feel, by your billboard, you will win the election; then you are just killing yourself''.



He, therefore, is urging them to comply with the party's directive.





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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Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said it will be difficult for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to break the '8' without unity.



"Breaking the 8 wont be easy; it has not been done before but I believe if we're united we will break the eight for united we stand and divided we fall" he pointed out.



The Vice President who was addressing delegates, at the National annual conference being held in Kumasi, Sunday, also urged the party to focus on taking down their common enemy instead of themselves.



"Rather than taking each other down, we must focus on taking down the NDC...for the first time in our history, we will break the eight..." he opined.







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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Teacher Kwadwo 'Cries' From Inside A Benz After Being Sacked By GES - VIDEO



Why GES Sacked Teacher Kwadwo The Inside Story

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has confirmed the dismissal of Michael Owusu Afriyie, commonly called Teacher Kwadwo.



According to the GES, the embattled teacher was sacked for misconduct.



Per a copy of his termination of appointment letter of the primary 4 teacher of Akrofuom D/A Primary School which has gone viral on social media and sighted by DGN Online explained why the Ghana basic education regulatory body decided to sack him based on misconduct.



According to the letter, teacher Kwadwo absented himself from the school 55 days in the last academic year without permission.



He was said to have failed to prepare lesson plan as a professional teacher and disregarded directive from the District Director to prepare the lesson plan as well as refused to prepare lesson note to be vetted by the Head teacher of the school.



Michael Owusu Afriyie exhibited highest level of insubordination towards the District Director and the School Improvement Support Officer (SISO) responsible for the school as well as the Head Teacher of the school, and in some instances refused to respond to queries from both the head teacher and the SISO. He further even refused to respond to query issued to him by the District Director and in some instance refused to appear before a panel set up by the District Director to investigate his conduct, the letter said.



Management therefore considered the conducts very serious enough as unprofessional and unethical and rejected recommendation of a Committee that Teacher Kwadwo should be re-assigned and recommended his sanction does not commensurate with the established misconduct as his unprofessional and unethical conduct merit summary dismissal.



In as much as management considers his numerous contribution such as painting, donation among others to the school they still direct that his appointment with GES should be terminated forthwith.



The Head teacher of the school, Timothy K-Ayombil was also not spared for not stamping his authority as he was also demoted to the classroom to teach as well as the SISO head, Edward Yamoah.

Meanwhile, Tecaher Kwadwo has issued a press statement to denied all the allegations.



Read full detail of the statement below:



PRESS STATEMENT by Michael Owusu Afriyie (Teacher Kwadwo)

Sunday, December 19, 2021.



RE: Decision By The Ghana Education Service To Recommend My Summary Dismissal From The Service



On Friday, 17th December 2021, I received a letter from the Regional Education Office informing me that the Management has taken a decision to terminate my appointment from the Ghana Education Service.



According to the letter, the reasons for my dismissal, relate to

1. My absence without permission for 55 days from school.



2. My failure to prepare and submit lesson notes for vetting by the headmaster

3. My failure to respond to queries served on me by the Headmaster and the School Support Officer, as evidence of my gross insubordination.



On Sunday 19th December 2021, the said letter was, contrary to my protected privacy interests, and the Code of Conduct of the GES released into the public domain, by persons working for the GES, through their surrogates.



I am still considering my legal options against the GES and shall speak to that at a letter time. However, I issue this statement to address the allegations contained in the letter in the interest of the urgent national debate that must happen if we are all truly committed to fixing our broken educational system



Absence without Permission

1. Contrary to the claims by the GES that, I was absent from School for 55 days without permission, I state categorically that this information is false and misleading.



2. In fact, during the proceedings, the Committee established that on the relevant occasions, I had at all times received permission from the head of my institution.



3. The Committee heard from colleague teachers and established that in fact, the head of my institution put in place a flexible working arrangement that enabled me to teach, while taking Fridays off, to enable me seek sponsorship for the School and the District. All those days was covered by a substitute teacher.



4. The Committee also established that the headmaster actually informed the entire teaching Staff that because I had taken on the task of seeking support and sponsorship for the School, and that this was yielding results, he had decided to make it flexible for me to be able to combine my official teaching duties, with my social responsibilities for the school and the district. I was encouraged to do these activities and made to understand that acting as a social ambassador for my school was expected from teachers and a good example to follow.



5. The Committee took issue with the fact that the permission I had obtained was oral and not written.



However, the GES Code of Conduct, which was drawn to their attention clearly specifies that permission need not be only written, it can also be verbal. In fact, the GES Code of Conduct only insists on a written permission, when a Staff is seeking to travel outside of the Country. (See Rule 3.15)



6. I challenge all teachers in this Country, to state that they have never received an oral permission from their headteachers to be absent from school at any time.



7. I find that this attempt to reinterpret the Code of Conduct in order to ground the motivated decision to dismiss me, smacks of discrimination and confirms my suspicion that I have been victimized for my criticisms of GES through my #FixGES advocacy.



8. I note that the Management claims that in proposing that I be dismissed from the Service they have taken into consideration the fact that I have taken several steps which have brought in significant sponsorship support for the School and the entire district. I find it however bizarre, that they will acknowledge the fruits that the special dispensation by the headteacher allowed me to secure for the district, while recommending that I be dismissed. So how was my industry to go above and beyond my duties as a teacher taken into account in order to dismiss me?



Failure to Submit Lesson Notes



1. Management claims that I refused to prepare and submit lesson notes to the headmaster for vetting.

2. This information is also untrue and skewed to justify a baseless decision.



3. In fact, the Committee found that I had at all times typed and printed my lesson notes which I presented to the Headmaster. Except that my headmaster continued to insist that the lesson notes must be handwritten and refused to accept printed lesson notes until the past term.



4. It is thus not true that the lesson notes were not prepared and submitted.



5. In fact, the major disagreement was whether the GES Code of Conduct requires that lesson notes be handwritten and cannot be typed and printed.



6. I note that several schools in the District and across Ghana, accept for teachers to type and print their lesson notes; and that there is no uniform practice across the country. It seems both bizarre and disingenuous for Management to fail to demonstrate which part of the GES Code of Conduct insists that lesson notes must be handwritten lesson. Also, I challenge teachers to speak up publicly whether their schools all insist on handwriting lesson notes.



7. In any event, what purpose does it serve to bar teachers from typing and printing their lesson notes, while at the same time procuring and surcharging teachers with laptops.



8. What is the purpose of the laptops? That they should not be incorporated in teaching?



Failure to respond to queries served on me by the Headmaster and the School Support Officer



1. I deny the claim that I was insubordinate and reiterate that I did not disobey, disregard or willfully default in carrying out any lawful instruction, reasonable order given by any person, Committee or Board, having authority to do so.



2. It is not true that I was grossly insubordinate and had failed to respond to queries served on me.



3. In fact, this issue was not part of the charges I was invited to respond to. I am then surprised to see this issue raised as part of the reasons for dismissing me. The Committee did not provide me with any evidence to support this claim.



4. As I understand, it offends my rights to fair hearing to be dismissed on charges that I have not been invited with sufficient clarity to respond to.



Next Steps



1. I encourage Ghanaians to be less pliable and to avoid swallowing every statement our public institutions make hook-line-and-sinker. Let us make our decisions by being willing to read between the lines and by examining the context of steps taken by Ghanaian institutions. If we do that, we can then be better placed to hold our institutions accountable.



2. If we want to protect whistleblowers and support public servants who are willing to be bold in speaking out against injustice, then we must be particularly willing to go beyond official reasons and placid language, that misdirects us to look the other way, when injustice occurs.



3. When the system wants to get you; the system will get you. It does not matter if you are in a constitutionally protected office. We know this all too well; yet we make the same mistakes again when we accept official narratives all too willingly.



4. In my life as a teacher, I am yet to see a staff who was victimized and dismissed for demanding better for their school and district, and who was given a dismissal letter that stated that Mr X was dismissed for making GES unpopular.



5. Official letters do not provide confirmation of victimization. If we want our teachers to be bolder in exposing rot, we need to be more analytical and more probing. Wholesale reliance on official narratives is not how we will #FixGES or any broken system.



By Vincent Kubi

















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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Syringes and vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are seen on a work surface during a drive through clinic at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ont., Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. Ontarians 18 and older will be able to book a COVID-19 vaccine booster through the provincial portal this morning, as long as it's been at least three months since they got their second shot. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
GG Twitch Squads Kevin Martin Bags $207K Score

December 20, 2021 Matthew Pitt

There were some massive prizes awarded at GGPoker this weekend thanks, in part, to the WSOPC Series that is taking place. Kevin Martin, a member of the GG Twitch Squad, narrowly missed out on securing a WSOP Circuit ring, but he did walk away with $207,178, which should go some way to making up for missing out.

Martin was one of 9,624 players who entered the $400 COLOSSUS event, a tournament that featured a $3,618,624 prize pool! The top 1,000 finishers reeled in at least $1,004 for their efforts, but the least any of the nine finalist could win was $36,842.

Hannes Speiser of Austria won that amount when his tournament ended abruptly in ninth place. Dutch grinder "Borpal" fell in eighth for $49,129 before Nick Maimone's elimination in seventh, which came with a $65,515 payout, reduced the player count further.

Sixth place and $87,366, the last five-figure prize of the tournament, went to Austrias "chernis" before Aliaksei Boika busted in fifth for $116,505.

Win a Share of $10,000 Tournament Dollars EVERY WEEK with GGPoker

The race for the circuit ring and a colossal $368,421 top prize was now well and truly on. Unfortunately for Luis "CfOrTh3G0ldB" Dono, his race ended in a fourth place finish, although the $155,362 he collected will have gone some way to numb the pain.

It was at this point that Kevin Martin came unstuck, his epic deep run concluding in third place, which came with a $207,178 score, an almost perfect early Christmas present.

Martins exit left "dodiapa" and "O O L" heads-up for the title. There was no deal struck despite the difference between first and second place money being $98,000. This meant dodiapa walked away with $276,277 when they fell at the final hurdle, and O O L scooped the $368,421 top prize.

WSOPC Event #6: $400 COLOSSUS Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 O O L Croatia $368,421 2 dodiapa Hungary $276,277 3 Kevin Martin Canada $207,178 4 Luis "CfOrTh3G0ldB" Dono Mexico $155,362 5 Aliaksei Boika Mexico $116,505 6 chernis Austria $87,366 7 Nick Maimone Canada $65,515 8 Borpa Netherlands $49,129 9 Hannes Speiser Austria $36,842

Fox Wins $25,500 Super High Roller For Almost $400K

Elio Fox

Elio Fox saw his lifetime winnings boosted by an incredible $397,516 thanks to him triumphing in a $25,500 Super High Roller event. Sixty-two entries meant a $1,550,000 prize pool, with only eight players winning a slice of that ample pot.

Team GGs Jason Koon was the first player to collect some cash; Koon scooped $67,489 after busting in eighth. David Yan of New Zealand was the next to fall, he helped himself to an $86,946 payout.

Everyone else was now guaranteed six figures and the pressure began mounting. Timothy Adams bowed out in sixth for $112,013 with Marius Gierse falling in fifth for $144,306, and Ami Barer netting $185,910 for his fourth place exit.

Isaac Haxtons impressive run ended in a third-place finish worth $239,508, which left Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb and Fox heads-up for the title. Fox defeated his final opponent to lay claim to the $397,516 top prize, resigning Gottlieb to a $308,559 consolation prize.

WSOPC Series: $25,500 Sunday Million Super High Roller Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 Elio Fox Mexico $397,516 2 Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb Mexico $308,559 3 Isaac Haxton Canada $239,508 4 Ami Barer Canada $185,910 5 Marius Gierse Austria $144,306 6 Timothy Adams Canada $112,013 7 David Yan New Zealand $86,946 8 Jason Koon Canada $67,489

Bad Beat Jackpot Pays Out More Than $1M in 24-Hours at GGPoker

Other Massive Scores From GGPoker Tournaments

Joni Jouhkimainen has been in top form for the past few months

Marc "Face-O" Carola  first-place in the $1,050 GGMasters High Rollers for $150,928

 first-place in the $1,050 GGMasters High Rollers for $150,928 sinqularis  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $525 Bounty Hunters HR for $123,444*

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $525 Bounty Hunters HR for $123,444* Jerome001  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Deepstack Sunday HR for $113,245

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Deepstack Sunday HR for $113,245 Vyacheslav "SpaceInside" Zaslavsky  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $1,050 Sunday HR Main Event for $103,198

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $1,050 Sunday HR Main Event for $103,198 pyryxoxo  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Sunday HR for $91,421*

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Bounty Hunters Sunday HR for $91,421* Dante Fernandes  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Sunday PLO HR for $71,129

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Sunday PLO HR for $71,129 buzAv  first-place in the $150 GGMasters for $58,284

 first-place in the $150 GGMasters for $58,284 quilmes  first-place in the GGMasters Bounty for $55,910*

 first-place in the GGMasters Bounty for $55,910* pyryxoxo  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $888 Crazy Eights for $55,031

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $888 Crazy Eights for $55,031 Gary "bebeloup" Hasson  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $250 Sunday Main Event for $54,925

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $250 Sunday Main Event for $54,925 Mark Radoja  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 The Closer Sunday HR for $53,825

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 The Closer Sunday HR for $53,825 Vlad-Stefan "HaiFanFan" Lache  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Last Call Bounty Sunday HR for $48,845*

 first-place in the WSOPC Series: $5,250 Last Call Bounty Sunday HR for $48,845* Joni Jouhkimainen  first-place in the WSOPC Series: $1,050 Sunday PLO Main Event for $32,503

*includes bounty payments
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Hard on the heels of a trip to Ukraine, one South Carolina congressman is pressing the Biden administration to take steps to preserve the countrys independence, as Russia masses thousands of troops and heavy weaponry along its common border.

Rep. Joe Wilson on Friday told the Aiken Standard the U.S. and its allies must stand firm in its support for Ukraines right to protect its territorial integrity, while leaving Russian President Vladimir Putin no question as to our firm objections to these actions and our willingness to impose crippling sanctions.

A Russian invasion of Ukraine  its smaller and less-equipped neighbor  will lead to a horrific loss of life, the South Carolina Republican warned.

Should a full-scale invasion occur, and help from the West is not secured, Ukrainian commanders expect to be overwhelmed, the New York Times reported Dec. 9. Nonetheless, Wilson said the Ukrainian military is determined to resist for independence.

President Joe Biden has said putting American troops in Ukraine to deter Moscows aggression is not on the table; severe economic sanctions are. But the administration has supplied Ukraine with antitank Javelin missiles  something the Trump administration did, too.

Wilson was one of several lawmakers to visit Ukraine last week. The bipartisan delegation was led by Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat at the head of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations.

The timing of the fact-finding mission was tense, Wilson said, as Putin continues to act belligerent.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Dec. 13 tweeted a thank-you to the visiting congressmen, acknowledging their commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move Wilson decried as illegal and bloody. The Group of Seven major industrial nations in a statement this month condemned Moscow for its ongoing military build-up and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine.

Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law, reads the statement. Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost in response.

The Kremlin has denied it plans to invade the country.
Music filled The Alley in downtown Aiken on Sunday afternoon during an event to raise money for the American Red Cross for disaster relief in Western Kentucky.

Teri Davis, who used to live in that part of the Bluegrass State, was the organizer of Jammin the Alley.

Earlier this month, during a tornado outbreak, Western Kentucky suffered heavy damage and many people died.

I have a lot of friends that lost homes, said Davis, who works at the Savannah River Site. My niece is in the National Guard, and she was there at the candle factory (in Mayfield). She said it was horrific. She had to help dig out people who were in the candle factory.

Davis, who felt compelled to do something to help, got on the phone.

I called Katy Lipscomb because shes really into the music scene, said Davis, who moved to Aiken with her daughter in 2009.

Assisted by Lipscomb, Davis got in touch with potential performers, and they were enthusiastic.

Even though Sundays weather was gloomy and damp, the show went on as planned.

In the lineup were Lost Dog, Mike Smith, Chip Herring, Bruce Milheim, Gabriel Flores, Justin Hadden and Jason Hadden of RedFoxWood and Ravenswood.

It was a good way of at least bringing awareness to the plight of those poor people (in Western Kentucky), Smith said. We got some donations, and I think that was important. If everybody did something like this, it would really go a long way toward helping.

Davis reported that several hundred dollars in cash was raised.

During Jammin the Alley, there also was information available about how to give money online at teamwkyrelieffund.ky.gov.
Charleston International Airport continues to see a surge in passengers, even as the spread of the latest COVID-19 variant threatens to steal the cheer of the holiday travel period.

The state's busiest terminal each year reported nearly 417,000 ticketholders arrived and departed in November, outpacing the figure from the same month in 2019 by more than 4,500.

Planning to fly? Airport travel tips Travelers parking for the long term during the holidays at Charleston International Airport can use the overflow lot off International Boulevard beyond the parking decks at a special rate of $8 a day. Signage is in place to direct travelers to the lot.

It is only for travelers who will be parked until after Christmas Day, and the fee must be paid at the time of entry. A free shuttle will take passengers to the terminal.

The lot opened Dec. 20 and will be open at 6 a.m. Dec. 21-22. It will remain in operation until the last flight departs each day or the lot becomes full.

The rate for the surface lot near the parking decks is $5 per hour or $11 a day.

The rate for the Hourly Garage closest to the terminal is $3 per hour or $21 a day.

The rate for the newly constructed Daily Garage is $5 per hour or $17 a day.

Travelers are urged to arrive two hours before their flight is scheduled to leave to park, check in and go through security. Expect longer lines during the holiday travel period.

Also, check the flight status before leaving home to make sure a weather delay in another part of the country, or in Charleston, has not affected the departure time.

Wrapped gifts are not prohibited by the Transportation Security Administration, but if a package prompts an alarm during screening, it is likely to be opened.

Weapons are not permitted in carry-on bags. Unloaded guns should be placed in a secure case and checked in and declared at the airline ticket counter. Violations could result in missed flights, steep fines and imprisonment.

Pack and then repack carry-on bags to avoid additional screening and possible delays.

For more information on what's permitted and what's not at the security checkpoint, go to www.tsa.gov and click on What can I bring?" For airport information, go to www.iflychs.com. Sources: Charleston County Aviation Authority/TSA

The Thanksgiving period alone saw an 8 percent rise in outbound passenger traffic in Charleston over the six-day stretch from Nov. 23 to 28, before the omicron variant was reported in the U.S.

2019 was a record year for air travelers in Charleston with more than 4.87 million passengers coming and going before the coronavirus crippled the airline industry in March 2020.

The Lowcountry terminal won't see another record in 2021, but it's likely to surpass 4 million passengers this year for the first time since before the pandemic.

During the first 11 months of this year, more than 3.8 million people passed through the terminal. That's about 2 million more than last year during the same time span.

With one month to go, including the busy holiday travel period from Christmas until New Year's Day, Charleston will likely see close to 400,000 more travelers, based on numbers before the virus outbreak.

While the latest coronavirus variant could threaten travel plans for some, Charleston airport spokesman Spencer Pryor said the number of travelers appears to be holding steady going into the holidays.

The head of airport security in South Carolina, who is based in Charleston, reiterated that assessment on Dec. 20.

"We are pretty much on pace as we were back at Thanksgiving," said David McMahon, federal security director for South Carolina with the Transportation Security Administration.

The number of departing passengers going through security each day through Dec. 22 is expected to be about 6,000 based on airlines' bookings provided to TSA.

Those are near-normal numbers during the week, but McMahon believes that number could swell to about 8,000 a day on Dec. 23 and Christmas Eve as people leave for the holidays. The passenger count is likely to tick back up Dec. 26-27 as people return home.

McMahon called travel around the New Year holiday "a smaller blip."

"What we will probably see on Jan. 2-3 will be a return of business travelers and some leftover holiday travelers," he said. "Those two days could be as high as 9,000 a day."

By the numbers Charleston airport passengers* 2021 January: 121,274

February: 127,416

March: 229,330

April: 300,627

May: 409,463

June: 436,012

July: 490,290

August: 434,869

September: 386,412

October: 455,559

November: 416,732

First 11 months: 3,807,984 2020 January: 304,320

February: 312,213

March: 194,459

April: 14,896

May: 51,118

June: 109,032

July: 148,865

August: 149,909

September: 151,456

October: 184,855

November: 174,519

First 11 months: 1,795,642

December: 157,729

Total: 1,953,371 2019 January: 283,265

February: 296,318

March: 406,891

April: 432,406

May: 469,160

June: 465,504

July: 464,242

August: 447,064

September: 352,666

October: 449,253

November: 412,213

First 11 months: 4,478,982

December: 391,880

Total: 4,870,862 *Figures represent arrivals and departures Source: Charleston County Aviation Authority
The Port of Charleston, already seeing record cargo from container ships, is about to get even busier due to another type of vessel.

Cruise ships will return to the port's Union Pier Terminal on the peninsula beginning Dec. 21 with a port of call by the Norwegian Gem, a 2,394-passenger pleasure ship that will mark the return to cruising in Charleston after a nearly two-year absence due to COVID.

The GEM will return for another port of call on Dec. 28 and the 3,002-passenger Carnival Sunshine, Charleston's year-round cruise ship, will begin operations in January.

The Sunshine will arrive in Charleston Harbor without passengers on Jan. 11 and will begin its cruising calendar on Jan. 13 with trips to the Bahamas and Eastern Caribbean.

The State Ports Authority said it has worked with the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control and the cruise lines planning to call on Charleston to make sure all Centers for Disease Control requirements and protocols are followed.

Carnival is also stepping up its health and safety measures due to the recent spread of the omicron variant. All passengers who are 2 years old and older must wear a face mask while indoors, except while in their own rooms. The cruise line's new policy also requires guests to wear face masks "when outdoors if in large gatherings and physical distancing cannot be maintained." Passengers will also be asked to wear a mask while getting on or off the ship and on any excursions.

Other cruise lines, like Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, have also tightened their mask policies.

Carnival also now "strongly suggests" that guests have a booster vaccination before their cruise.

Cruises from Charleston's port have been idled since mid-March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The SPA has not released its calender of cruises scheduled for the upcoming year, but the maritime agency has voluntarily agreed to a cap of 104 ship visits annually, and no ship larger than 3,500 passenger capacity.

While the cruise segment doesn't come anywhere near containerized cargo as a revenue producer for the SPA, the pleasure vessels typically contribute about $1 million a month toward the maritime agency's bottom line. A total of 213,081 passengers boarded cruise ships at Union Pier in 2019, the last full year for cruising at the port.

Craving more

A Charleston-area entrepreneur has filled a craving for more fast-food restaurants by adding to his holdings between the Lowcountry and Florida's Gulf Coast.

Restaurant operator John McGrath of Mount Pleasant recently acquired several Taco Bell diners in the Savannah area through his JEM Restaurant Group, as a Yum! Brands franchisee.

McGrath bought the restaurants from Bravo Foods Inc. He declined to say how many locations were involved in the transaction, but a spokeswoman said other Taco Bell sites in the Savannah area are owned by other franchisees.

McGrath called the acquisitions an opportunity to grow the company further and enter new geographic markets.

JEM owns and operates Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in the Charleston area as well as in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Orlando, Jacksonville, and Macon and Columbus, Ga.

McGrath also owns and manages several real estate holdings across the Southeast.

Medical move

Trident Healths chief medical officer has gone south, literally.

Dr. R. Lee Biggs recently left the local HCA-owned system for a 338-bed hospital on Floridas west coast thats also part of the Nashville-based medical behemoth.

He started at Blake Medical Center between St. Petersburg and Sarasota on Dec. 6. His job title is unchanged.

His strong foundation of quality and clinical excellence, vision, and leadership will be tremendous assets to our collective work in providing the very best possible care for those we are privileged to serve, Blake Medical CEO Steve Nierman said in written statement last week.

Biggs, a retired Navy captain whos from Asheville, joined North Charleston-based Trident Health in mid-2019 from a hospital in Indiana. As a physician, his medical training is in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology. During his two-plus-year stay in the Charleston region, Biggs was a widely quoted expert as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on.

Trident Health is a 445-bed system with two acute-care hospitals  Trident Medical Center and Summerville Medical Center  and three freestanding emergency centers in Moncks Corner, North Charleston and Summerville. It employs more than 2,600 workers, including more than 500 physicians.

Trident Health came under new leadership in May, when Christina Oh succeeded longtime president and CEO Todd Gallati in the corner office.

Goose Creek local

Goose Creek and Lowcountry Local First have teamed up to provide business training, workforce development, and economic development to city residents.

Goose Creek City Council approved a two-year partnership with Lowcountry Local that will leverage existing business resources and industry expertise.

The partnership will officially kick off in the first quarter of 2022. It includes: classes in English and Spanish that will provide hands-on training in business planning and management for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, with a minimum of 70 percent low-income participants; four workshops for business owners that will address the most pressing challenges; and a program for minority business owners seeking a brick-and-mortar establishment, who will be placed with a property owner with a one-year subsidized lease.
COLUMBIA  The former chief executive of Westinghouse, the lead contractor of South Carolina's $9 billion nuclear expansion effort, won't face criminal charges in connection with the project's 2017 abrupt and stunning collapse, newly released court documents show.

Instead, Danny Roderick  a former subject of the yearslong criminal investigation into the V.C. Summer nuclear project's failure  has become a government witness, records show. Federal prosecutors plan to rely on him to testify against Jeff Benjamin, another former Westinghouse executive who could go to trial next year on 16 felony charges tied to the two aborted nuclear reactors in Fairfield County.

Roderick already threw Benjamin under the bus in two interviews with the FBI this summer, prosecutors wrote.

The court records, unsealed Dec. 15, provide a rare window of insight into a secretive criminal investigation that has already ensnared a quartet of utility executives and businessmen and now appears to be winding down. Prosecutors detailed Roderick's involvement as part of a renewed effort to have one of Roderick's former attorneys disqualified from representing Benjamin in the V.C. Summer investigation.

Reached Dec. 20, Roderick's new attorney, Whit Ellerman of Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

The state and federal investigation began shortly after two South Carolina power companies, Cayce-based SCANA and state-owned Santee Cooper, in July 2017 pulled the plug on a decadelong effort to build two more nuclear reactors at the one-reactor V.C. Summer nuclear plant in rural Jenkinsville.

The project's sudden failure  the largest business collapse in state history  shocked ratepayers, state lawmakers, regulators and investors. It left behind billions of dollars in sunk costs for the nearly 3 million South Carolinians who got their power from Santee Cooper or SCANA's electric subsidiary, S.C. Electric and Gas.

The scandal led to SCANA's takeover by Virginia-based Dominion Energy and prompted state lawmakers to consider selling off Santee Cooper as well.

State and federal prosecutors allege Westinghouse lied to SCANA and Santee Cooper about flaws that doomed the construction effort. Almost from the beginning, the V.C. Summer expansion was beset by supply chain dysfunction, design issues, slow productivity and escalating costs that all but ensured it couldn't be finished by a 2020 deadline.

SCANA executives, in turn, learned about those problems but lied to regulators, investigators and the public to cover them up  wrongfully keeping the project alive and profits flowing, the investigation found.

Former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and chief operating officer Steve Byrne have pleaded guilty to defrauding power customers. Marsh was sentenced to two years in prison in October.

Ex-Westinghouse Vice President Carl Churchman pleaded guilty in June to lying to the FBI about his involvement in the alleged fraud scheme.

Benjamin, the former Westinghouse executive who directly oversaw the V.C. Summer project, has vowed to take his charges to trial. He faces up to 20 years in prison on charges he repeatedly lied to SCANA and Santee Cooper executives, telling them the reactors would be online on time when he knew otherwise.

According to the newly unsealed court records, Benjamin's former boss  Roderick  could testify against him. The records reveal for the first time the extent to which Roderick himself faced scrutiny in the investigation. Roderick ran Westinghouse until 2016, when he was promoted to a higher-ranking position within Westinghouse's parent company, Toshiba. He retired from that position two years later.

The newly released documents, which include emails between prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case, describe Roderick as "formerly a subject (of the investigation) and now a Government witness."

Starting as early as September 2019, records show, prosecutors repeatedly warned Roderick he was a subject of their V.C. Summer probe and could face charges. They sent him a formal "subject letter" in September 2020 notifying Roderick he may be called before a grand jury. Roderick received a grand jury subpoena a month later.

Roderick's previous attorney, William Sullivan of Washington, D.C., rebuffed those advances. At the time, Sullivan represented both Roderick and Benjamin.

He insisted Roderick would not testify before a grand jury but told prosecutors Roderick would be happy to meet with them and explain what he knew about V.C. Summer "in exchange for transactional immunity regarding the subject matter of your investigation."

Then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim May refused that offer.

Your request that the Government grant Roderick blind immunity is untenable and does not conform with the practice in our District, May wrote.

Meanwhile, May and other federal prosecutors repeatedly complained it was a conflict of interest for Sullivan to represent both Roderick and Benjamin, since either of the two men could one day decide to flip and testify against the other.

Sullivan disagreed.

But eventually Roderick hired a new attorney and sat down with the FBI for two interviews in June and July 2021.

In those talks, prosecutors said, Roderick said Benjamin lied to him and executives at SCANA and Santee Cooper about the status of the V.C. Summer project.

Roderick described Benjamin as contentious, abrasive, and overbearing," a manager who created a "culture of fear" at Westinghouse and should have been fired even before his March 2017 termination, prosecutors wrote.

Roderick said Benjamin should have done more to investigate concerns about the project, court documents state.

Benjamin was indicted a month after Roderick's second FBI interview, in part because of what Roderick told investigators, prosecutors wrote.

Now federal authorities are preparing for Benjamin's trial, where Roderick could again be called to testify against his former employee.

Prosecutors are again seeking to have Sullivan, Benjamin's lawyer, disqualified from that case  saying the attorney has a conflict of interest because he previously represented Roderick as well. Roderick may have shared confidential information with Sullivan, who could wind up cross-examining Roderick on the witness stand, prosecutors worried.

"Put simply, Mr. Sullivan cannot properly expect to cross-examine his own former client in defense of his current one," prosecutors Emily Limehouse, Brook Andrews and Winston Holliday wrote.

Sullivan has pushed back, noting both Roderick and Benjamin have signed off on the arrangement.

In an emailed statement to The Post and Courier, Sullivan suggested Roderick won't be the kind of adverse witness against Benjamin that documents imply.

Roderick "has explicitly acknowledged that he is unaware of any criminal culpability of Mr. Benjamin," Sullivan wrote.
Almost three years ago, when the Army Corps of Engineers held an early meeting for the study that would eventually produce plans for an 8-mile seawall around downtown Charleston, many more options were on the table to protect this historic peninsula.

In that meeting, the Corps presented a graphic with a spectrum of tools, from "green"  living shoreline oyster reefs and enhanced marshes  to "gray"  cement structures designed to block floodwaters entirely.

But in the years since, the limits of the Corps' study and real-world constraints have pushed the project in a decidedly gray direction, with the centerpiece of the project being the wall that would rise about eight feet above minor tidal flood levels. Also included in the $1.1 billion plan are dozens of gates over roads, streams and walkways the wall would cross, and pumps that would push floodwaters outside of the wall's perimeter when storms approach.

Many remain eager to see the Corps add greener options, however, according to public comments provided to The Post and Courier via a Freedom of Information Act request. In these comments, residents, nonprofit groups and even the S.C. Department of Natural Resources all said they want more natural characteristics included.

"I am seriously concerned that a more naturalistic approach was not the result of this study," one resident wrote in September.

Jaclyn Pennoyer, a spokeswoman for the Charleston District office of the Corps, said in an email that the agency did consider three main nature-based protections for the city: constructing living shorelines of oyster reefs, adding sediment to existing marshes and uncovering long-filled tidal creeks in the urban landscape.

But the reality, she wrote, is that these options would not protect the city against hurricane surge waves of several feet, which is the Corps' mandate. Some oyster reefs were incorporated in the most recent version of its plan, but only parallel to stretches of the surge wall, not replacing it.

Reefs, enhanced marshes or improved creeks "as stand-alone perimeter protection do NOT appreciably reduce the risk of damages from coastal storm surge," Pennoyer wrote. "Additional nature-based solutions could be included and funded by the City of Charleston to address rainfall and tidal flooding."

That assertion is true, said Rob Young, who studies developed shorelines at Western Carolina University. A reef would be drowned by the towering surge waves the Corps is trying to tackle.

But he added that greener strategies can help add important ecosystem benefits that the Corps isn't counting in its plan. And surge is far from the only challenge to Charleston: Rising sea levels are already causing flooding that is less severe, but more frequent.

"Its better to create sort of a multi-layered approach to gray infrastructure than it is to just build a dang seawall," Young said.

Developing research

Living shorelines come in many forms, and work best at protecting the edge of a marsh or high ground from erosion, multiple sources contend. Just this year, South Carolina opened up a permitting process for homeowners to try and install their own versions to protect waterfront property or marsh from washing away.

The program comes after many years of study by the Department of Health and Environmental Control and DNR. For decades, DNR was already using recycled oyster shells to help restore the state's naturally-occurring beds, said Peter Kingsley-Smith, a senior marine scientist with the agency.

But only in more recent years have researchers started purposefully placing shells or other products so that the marsh behind them doesn't disappear. Bags of shells, cement "castles," logs of coconut fiber and even crab traps have all been tried with varying success, Kingsley-Smith said.

Beyond just stopping land erosion, these methods are important ones to protect coastal South Carolina's iconic marshes, which serve as nurseries for several species. These marshes of swaying cordgrass also help absorb carbon gases, which are heating the earth and driving sea level rise.

The reality, however, is that all these kinds of features would be overtopped by a hurricane surge wave  the single threat the Corps is trying to minimize in Charleston.

Laura Cantral, the outgoing executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, acknowledged as much last month in a committee meeting on the Corps project. The League commissioned an alternative plan by the firm Sherwood Design Engineers that was finished in September and proposes oyster reefs to slow down waves, earthen levees and engineered wetlands in different sections of the city.

The Corps mandate is to address storm surge, we get that. Some of the nature-based solutions that are in the Sherwood Design report and many of these other reports would not, by themselves, address storm surge. We get that, too, she said. "We also believe many of these nature-based solutions make the overall objective of the wall ... more effective."

Cantral urged that the reefs the Corps had included "remain superficial" in the overall plan.

Cost and benefit

The desire for the Corps to deploy options beyond structural protection isn't unique to Charleston. It was also a point of contention in a plan to place a hurricane wall in Miami-Dade, including along Biscayne Bay.

The Florida county rejected that proposal in August, The Miami Herald reported, and is now working with the Corps on a new design.

Part of the problem is that the Corps' benefit-to-cost ratio, which determines whether projects are worth paying for, doesn't account for the habitat, water quality or carbon benefits that might come from greener options, said Natalie Snider of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. That's even though Congress has told the Corps to consider incorporating these elements into their plans in legislation in 2018 and 2020, she said.

"Weve just seen the Corps be slow on the uptake of really developing and relying on these features," Snider said.

Part of the problem may be the math the Corps uses to calculate whether a project is worth doing. These benefit-cost ratios compare the construction and design cost to the value of property being protected. The ratio for the Charleston project as it stands right now is more than 10 to 1, making it one of the most attractive for the federal government to fund in the Southeast.

But some change may be coming. A study by the Corps and the Water Institute of the Gulf is also ongoing right now on how to account for natural improvements in the cost ratio. Environmental groups around the country, including EDF, also signed on to a letter in November urging the engineering agency to use more natural methods.

The groups wrote that "The (Corps') current approach for coastal storm risk management studies that focuses solely on hurricane storm surge is short-sighted and leaves millions of Americans exposed to current and future chronic flood risk from sea level rise ... and extreme precipitation along riverine floodplains."

Dale Morris, the chief resiliency officer for the city of Charleston, said he's hopeful that more green methods will be incorporated in the final design, and that the city has asked the Corps to do so already.

"I think there's an opportunity for more in PED," he said, referring to Preconstruction Engineering and Design. That's the next phase the city and Corps would move to, if Charleston City Council votes to do so and pay for part of the project. That vote is expected in January.

But that underlying calculus of benefit-to-cost is still a major concern for Young.

"Show me the examples of where the Corps has completely revamped their project formulation just because weve been able to play along," he said.
CLEMSON  Ten positive COVID-19 samples from Clemson University are confirmed to contain the rapidly spreading omicron variant.

The university said the samples detected from its on-campus lab and sent for further sequencing were confirmed over the weekend of Dec. 18-19 to include the newest widespread coronavirus variant.

In a campus update sent Dec. 20 by email, the university said the samples were "obtained through community and university testing.

This announcement comes days following the detection of what was deemed the first three cases of the omicron variant identified in South Carolina, in Charleston County on Dec. 15 by the Medical University of South Carolina.

The university strongly encouraged "anyone who wants and can receive a COVID-19 vaccine and booster dose to do so," the email from Clemson said.

The university's final exams for the fall 2021 semester ended Dec. 10 and an in-person graduation was held Dec. 16. The university is now closed for winter holiday, with the first day of the spring 2022 semester beginning Jan. 12.

Since Aug. 8, there have been a cumulative 2,455 positive cases on campus out of the 403,951 tests administered, according to its COVID dashboard.

When the fall semester began Aug. 18 the university's COVID guidelines included that residential students were to be tested weekly and employees tested bi-weekly.

For the spring semester, students will be required to be tested for COVID before their return to campus. Residential students will be tested upon arrival to campus.

Face coverings will continue to be required in instructional spaces "through January," a news release issued on Dec. 8 said.

As of now, the release did not indicate whether students and employees will undergo a similar weekly testing process. The guidelines are subject to change.

Clemson officials will continue monitoring COVID-19 through the holiday season. More information about Clemson's plans and COVID dashboard can be found at its website.
SIMPSONVILLE  The Woodside Park community has its first residents after a 13-year struggle to make the Habitat for Humanity development a reality.

City officials, faith leaders and Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County staff officially dedicated the 13-house community's first complete home on Dec. 19 before handing off the keys to the new owner and her two teenage sons.

Speaking to the crowd Dec. 19, the new owner, Ashley, who asked her last name be withheld, expressed her gratitude and said she was looking forward to building a better future for her children and herself in their new home.

"We are truly thankful and blessed to be able to share this moment with each and every one of you," she said through tears. "My sons and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this possible."

From the front of the family's new home, several nearly complete houses could be seen, with grading completed for a handful more.

Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County CEO Monroe Free said he expects the development to be complete in about a year.

The roughly 5-acre tract near West Curtis and Beattie streets where the homes are being built was previously owned by the city of Simpsonville. It entered into an agreement with Habitat to create the new neighborhood in 2013, five years after the nonprofit first approached the city. But that agreement fell through and the plans languished for three years.

In 2016, Free approached Councilwoman Jenn Hulehan and Councilman Matthew Gooch, who had recently been elected, about reviving the plan. Both supported the project but met headwinds as they tried to get it passed.

"We faced opposition I had no idea we would face in getting this development started," Hulehan said during the dedication. "And it was loud and vocal opposition."

Through concerted outreach and education about Habitat and the work the organization does, as well as working with other members of council and rallying support, Hulehan said the proposal managed to narrowly pass council.

In October 2020, in partnership with the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, the city and Habitat broke ground on the development.

During the dedication ceremony, local pastors and representatives from Simpsonville businesses presented the family with gifts to help them settle into their new home, including groceries, quilts, tools and lawncare equipment.

Free said seeing the family realize their dream of living in their own home made the yearslong push for the development worthwhile.

"It's greatly satisfying to see that when you don't give up, good things can happen," he said.
A federal magistrate judge again denied bail for a Mount Pleasant businessman accused of providing money, drugs and clothing to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex.

Mary Gordon Baker, magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, ruled Dec. 20 the evidence presented against Earl Dawson Caldwell IV suggests he still posed a danger to the community.

The 52-year-old married father of three has remained in custody at the Charleston County jail since his Oct. 11 arrest. A criminal complaint filed the same day in federal court accused Caldwell of trafficking a minor for sex between December 2020 and May 2021 in Jasper and Beaufort counties.

A superseding indictment filed Oct. 14 further charged Caldwell with conspiracy to traffic a minor for sex and three counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

Baker denied him bail during an Oct. 15 hearing based on the nature of the charges and weight of evidence against Caldwell, the former president and CEO of the global auditing firm AP Recovery.

Caldwells defense team on Dec. 3 entered a motion for the court to reconsider the ruling based on an unanticipated circumstance which arose since the initial hearing.

Caldwell had not received any evidence from federal prosecutors since his arrest, despite his defense team making numerous requests. The delays deprived Caldwell of his right to a speedy trial, his lawyers argue in the motion.

The motion requested Caldwell be allowed to live in a Columbia apartment without internet access while he awaits trial. He could be closer to his defense team, which is based in the city.

Caldwell is accused of having sex with the 17-year-old victim on several occasions in South Carolina, including at a $1.2 million residence in Beaufort County that he called The Plantation.

Caldwell also allegedly filmed the girl engaging in sexual acts on three occasions, authorities said.

The girl came to the attention of federal authorities in April after she visited a Georgia hospital for appendicitis. While under the effects of anesthesia, the girl revealed she was forced to have sex with 10 to 15 men a day. She was rescued from a hotel a few days later and taken into protective custody, authorities said.

Deborah Barbier, one of Caldwell's attorneys, argued during the hearing that a great deal of the government's evidence  received by the defense Dec. 10  was exculpatory. The alleged victim, as well as her own mother, advertised herself as being older than 18, she said.

Caldwell also never took money from the 17-year-old, instead providing her with funds in hopes she would abandon prostitution, Barbier said. People who engage in sex trafficking are typically motivated by cash.

Both Barbier and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carra Henderson focused on an alleged text exchange between Caldwell and a pimp, in which the businessman requested another young girl like (the victim), Henderson said.

Barbier argued there is a difference between describing someone as a young girl and explicitly requesting a minor. Henderson asserted the government had proof Caldwell knew the victim's real age and still sent the text.

The judge sided with the prosecutor, stating the alleged text showed Caldwells inability to control his impulses, she said.

Ultimately, the judge agreed the defense had a right to file the motion requesting Caldwells bond be reconsidered in light of the evidence gathered during discovery, but his attorneys were unable to convince her the evidence changed her initial decision.

Caldwell is one of three defendants arrested as part of the Department of Homeland Securitys sex-trafficking investigation.

Cederick Riley, 34, was arrested Aug. 19 on charges of conspiracy to traffic a minor for sex; trafficking a minor for sex; and felony firearm possession. Federal prosecutors claim he served as the 17-year-old girl's "handler" as she was plied with drugs and coerced into performing sex acts.

Riley pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Jessica Michelle Mills, 29, was arrested Oct. 19 on federal charges of trafficking a minor for sex and conspiracy to traffic a minor for sex. She entered a plea of not guilty.
Girl Scout Troop 160, based in Sangaree, picks up trash one Saturday in and around Bushy Park Landing in Berkeley County in 2016. The group was the first to adopt an area under the "Keep Berkeley Beautiful" initiative. KBB has received a $7,007 to help fund other litter control programs in the county. From left to right: Orianna Dean, Caila Campbell and Alana Mazyck.
COLUMBIA  A prominent local attorney whose husband serves in the South Carolina Senate was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week to serve as the next ambassador to Slovenia.

Jamie Harpootlian was confirmed to the post by voice vote late Dec. 17, filling a vacancy left behind by former ambassador Lynda Blanchard, a Republican currently running for governor in Alabama.

Harpootlians husband is state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, who previously served as chair of the state Democratic Party.

Jamie Harpootlian could not immediately be reached for comment Dec. 20.

Slovenia is a Central European nation of 2.1 million with a burgeoning economic influence and sits at the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea at the juncture of Italy, Switzerland and Austria.

The official language of the country, which didn't exist until 1991, is the local Slovene.

While Harpootlian speaks basic French, according to the U.S. State Department, regional languages include Italian in the western reaches of the country as well as a mix of Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian and Romani, which are all legally protected languages under the countrys constitution.

However, English is widely spoken in Slovenia and is taught as a foreign language throughout the nations education system.

Slovenia became a member of NATO in 2004.

The Harpootlians are longtime political allies of President Joe Biden, both as direct donors to his campaign as well as his super PAC.

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The couple also hosted a fundraiser for Biden at their home in 2019 and, in 2020, were major supporters in his pivotal win in that years Democratic primary here and elsewhere.

Sen. Harpootlian, who faces reelection in 2024, told The Post and Courier he planned to remain in his seat while his wife is in office.

Im going to visit my wife on as frequent a basis as I can, he said Dec. 20.

Harpootlian was drawn out of his current Senate district in reconfigured voting lines that were signed into law earlier this month as part of the decennial, post-census redistricting process. Under the new map, he would face longtime Sen. Nikki Setzler of West Columbia in a Democratic primary if they both run again in 2024. Setzler, the chamber's former minority leader, was first elected to his seat in 1976.

Setzler's district newly crosses over into Richland County to incorporate downtown Columbia, where Harpootlian lives. And it shed parts of Aiken County. The changes make it easier for a Democrat to keep the seat.

Jamie Harpootlian joins a growing list of South Carolinians to represent the United States on the international stage in recent years. During the Trump administration, former Gov. Nikki Haley served as ambassador to the United Nations, while Ed McMullen  a longtime political strategist and former aide to the president  served as ambassador to Switzerland.

An additional Trump selection, former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, was nominated to be ambassador to Belize but was never confirmed.

Before Trump's administration, the last South Carolinian to be an ambassador was former state House Speaker David Wilkins, a major booster of President George W. Bush on the campaign trail. The Greenville Republican became Bushs U.S. ambassador to Canada in 2005. After returning home in January 2009, he joined Clemson University's board, a position Haley took over in October.

The last South Carolinian to serve as a U.S. ambassador under a Democratic administration was Phil Lader, former Winthrop University president and one-time South Carolina gubernatorial candidate. He was ambassador to Great Britain under President Bill Clinton.
Ricky James Jr. Salas Santos started drinking alcohol at the age of 15 before he added marijuana and ultimately methamphetamine to his substance abuse addiction.

I just want to say sorry to the people of Guam and to my family, said Santos during his sentencing hearing held on Monday.

The 33-year-old, who admitted to his part in a federal case that involved 3 pounds of meth, was sentenced to serve 51 months in a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility before District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood.

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Santos was hoping for leniency and a lesser sentence, but the chief judge noted he disobeyed the courts order and used drugs at least twice while on pretrial release.

Santos said he is ready to turn his life around by getting help for his drug addiction, along with getting his GED.

Why should I believe that you want to get your life in order? said Tydingco-Gatewood.

Just the experience of what Ive gone through and the time I have been locked up made me realize that I want to change, Santos said. I know it wasnt right. I will not do it again.

He will be placed on five years of supervised release after he gets out.

Santos had pleaded guilty to attempted possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine hydrochloride.

In August 2020, Santos was indicted after federal investigators seized the drugs in a mail package and in a dog food bag at a Yigo home.

Santos then said he knew nothing about the package.

During a search at the home, agents discovered 1,191 grams, or about 2.6 pounds, of meth concealed in a bag of Cesar dog food.

It was said in court that Santos has a conviction in local court for a 2014 aggravated assault case, along with a warrant for his arrest in Nevada for a misdemeanor.
The wheels are coming off the Democrat school bus that Kamala Harris bragged about back when she was calling Joe Biden a racist.

First up, theres not enough popcorn to take in watching the left freak out about the treachery of Joe Manchin. The New Republics Michael Tomasky, just to take one example, is demanding to know why Manchin is betraying his home state of West Virginia, while Bernie Sanders demands that Manchin explain himself to his constituents. Question for the Bernie Bros: which county in West Virginia to you suggest Manchin begin with:

It would seem Democrats are doing their level best to force Manchin out of the party completely.

Meanwhile, a few days ago Vice President Whats Her Name (youll get the joke here at the end of this video) appeared on the popular show hosted by Charlemagne Tha God, who had the impertinence to ask, Which Joe is president: Manchin or Biden? Youll see Harriss minder trying to intervene to shut the whole thing down, but Harris perseveres with one of her top ten cringiest performances:

Then theres Joe himself, speaking at a commencement for a black college in South Carolina, where he lets fly with this:

First of all, it is beyond doubtful that Biden has spoken to 140 heads of state, despite his assurance that Im not exaggerating. (Pro tip: Whenever Biden says Im not exaggerating, hes exaggerating. Cmon, man!) The number of world leaders, many of them from non-democratic countries, who asked him if American democracy is going to make it is surely Zero.

Finally, there is the White House statement yesterday about the threat of the Omicron COVID variant:

We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. Youve done the right thing, and we will get through this. For the unvaccinated, youre looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.

Boy, thats a message thats sure to make the vaccine reluctant change their minds!
FOX News has posted the video of Bret Baeirs FOX News Sunday interview with Senator Manchin this morning on YouTube. I have embedded it below.

Senator Manchin made news with his announcement that he is opposed to the Bummer Beyond Belief bill that is the repository of the Democrats socialist hopes and utopian dreams. His making the announcement on FOX News  making big news on FOX News  just makes it that much sweeter.

Power Line readers dont have to be persuaded that the deader the bill is the better it is for the United States of America. The deader the better. Lest there be any doubt, consider the characteristically thoughtful take of Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar (below).

Lets be clear: Manchins excuse is bullshit. The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans. This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure. https://t.co/dhzcSk0qUV  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 19, 2021

To drive my own point home, consider that Omar repeated her take on Manchin for the equally thoughtful MSNBC viewers and tweeted out the video via Senator Bernie Sanders. I hope its not possible to overdose on Schadenfreude.

"We all knew that Senator Manchin couldn't be trusted. The excuses that he just made, I think, are complete bullshit." @IlhanMN to @AliVelshi pic.twitter.com/qFQmqr1Wui  People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) December 19, 2021

The psychedelic Jen Psaki responded on behalf of the Biden administration. She all but called Manchin a liar in the statement issued here. As I was saying about Schadenfreude

Democrats talk to each other through Politico. Take in more of the intraparty action in this Burgess Everett/Jonathan Lemire story and in this Ryan Lizza/Rachael Bade Playbook installment.

Brian Riedl reveals no Schadenfreude. He assesses the situation with a certain detachment and contributes to my own enjoyment of the scene.

1) Manchin didn't "reverse" his position on BBB, he's been shouting it for months. His colleagues just didn't take his concerns seriously. 2) This snarky White House statement is not going to win him over. These people are not good at politics. https://t.co/pW9F5ZftC3  Brian Riedl  (@Brian_Riedl) December 19, 2021

Final point. We know where the press is on this, but you can hear it in this clip featuring Politicos Rachael Bade. Its almost funny. Say its so, Joe!
We have discussed the progression of the omicron variant of the Wuhan coronavirus in South Africa and the UK. However, the experience of Denmark might tell us more about what to expect as this new variant comes to predominate in the U.S.

Denmark is worth seriously considering because, like here and unlike South Africa, the vast majority of its population has been vaccinated. In addition, its my understanding that data from Denmark is considered very reliable.

Whats the news from Denmark? First, new reported cases are skyrocketing. In early November, Denmark was reporting about 2,000 new cases per day. By the end of the month, the number was up 5,000. (The numbers in this post come from Worldometer.)

By mid-month, new cases per day were coming in at around 8,000. A few days later, Denmark reported more than 11,000. For perspective, note that until the new variant hit, Denmark had never reported as many as 5,000 cases per day.

What about deaths attributed to the virus in Denmark? They have risen, but the numbers are small. In early November, before the spike in new cases, five or fewer people were dying per day from the virus in Denmark, according to the reported data. Now the daily count ranges from 12 to 15. It reached that level at the beginning of December and has held steady ever since.

Notably, this wave of covid hasnt produced anything like the spike in deaths that occurred during Denmarks last wave. Last year, Demark experienced an increase in cases between early November and mid-December from around 1,000 per day to around more than 4,000. (This suggests that the current spike is due in part to cold weather  not just the new variant.) This spike in cases brought the daily death count from five or fewer per day to around 40.

Were not seeing that pattern this time around, at least not so far. Even though the new cases in Denmark are now around double their high from last December, the daily death count is approximately one-third of last years at this time.

Thus, the numbers from Denmark are consistent with what I tentatively took away from the numbers in South Africa and the UK. The new variant spreads very quickly, but is considerably less deadly than its two worst predecessors.

Its important to note, however, that Denmarks initial surge in new cases reportedly has occurred largely in the younger population. Accordingly, our conclusions from the Danish data regarding deadliness of the new variant should remain tentative.

Its also worth noting that, according to the Washington Post, the current surge of cases in Denmark threatens to overwhelm the nations hospitals. Danish hospitals have never had more than 1,000 covid patients at any one time. But now, even moderate-case scenarios project that, by early January, hospitals will be receiving 500 new covid patients per day.

Thats a real and legitimate concern, of course. However, I found it significant that the Posts article doesnt mention any statistics pertaining to covid deaths in Denmark, such as the ones discussed above. This indicates to me that the Posts article is biased in favor of alarmism.

One more point. According to the Post, early indications from Denmark are that people with two doses of vaccine seem to be just as vulnerable to omicron infection as the unvaccinated. However, those who have received boosters have better protection. How much better, the Post doesnt say. However, it seems like a good idea for those who have been vaccinated but not yet boosted to get that third shot.
Grace Bent, a former Nigerian senator, has dissociated herself from the ongoing custody battle between a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode and his estranged partner, Precious Chikwendu.

Ms Chikwendu, who has been enmeshed in a messy child custody battle with Mr Fani-Kayode following their separation in August 2020, recently alleged a threat to her life by Ms Bent.

She also alleged that the ex-minister and the ex-senator filed criminal charges against her and her sister because he is desperate to see her behind bars.

Response

Mr Fani-Kayodes lead counsel, Ibikunle Ayodeji, responded to the allegations levelled against Ms Bent in a statement issued on Sunday.

Mr Ayodeji stated that regardless of political connections, the ex-senator does not meddle in his clients private affairs nor does she volunteer any advice on how he should run his family business.

He also insisted that no one can dictate or manipulate Mr Fani-Kayode and also condemned what he described as a vicious and libellous slander and falsehood levelled against Ms Bents daughter, Jackie B. The latter was one of the 2021 BBNaija housemates

His statement partly read: It is unfortunate that the Bent family is being attacked by persons with unknown pedigrees and a disillusioned mindset.

In the light of the above it is important that our client should clear the air on the savage posts, which are not only distracting, but also intended to muddle the waters. The Bents are decent, loving, honorable and law-abiding people who should not be subjected to the kind of wickedness that we are witnessing.

Visitation saga

A Customary Court at Kubwa in Abuja, had on December 8, ordered Mr Fani-Kayode to allow Ms Chikwendu access to their four sons at a neutral ground during the Christmas and New Year periods.

Ms Chikwendu, on Saturday, accused Mr Fani-Kayode of flouting a court order granting her access to their four sons.

She said he failed to produce their children at the agreed venue as earlier ordered by a court.

Ms Chikwendu chose Central Park, Abuja, as venue for the visitations because of the alleged traumatic experiences at Fani-Kayodes residence, where the four children currently reside.

Mr Ayodeji has, however, debunked her claims and absolved his client of any wrongdoing.

He said, For the purpose of clarity, no court has instruct for visitation rights between Precious Chikwendu and the kids, rather theres been an open invitation for her to come and see them at the house whenever she wants to, she has simply refused to do this.

On the strength of the order, Ms Chikwendus lawyer, Emeka Uchegbulam, wrote a letter to Mr Fani-Kayode through his lawyer detailing the venue, dates and time of visitations to the children.

In the letter titled, Request for Access to the Petitioners Four Male Children, Ms Chikwendu chose the Central Park in Abuja to meet with the children on Saturday, December 18, 2021, from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m.

Other days scheduled for the visitation are Saturday, January 1, 2022, New Years Day at the same venue and time.

Born in 1989, Ms Chikwendu, who is fondly referred to as Snow White, is a model, actress, and former beauty queen.

She represented Nigeria at the Miss United Nations World Beauty pageant in 2014.
A foremost Nigerian film company, Inkblot Productions, is 10.

To celebrate the milestone, they will host Nollywood stars, producers, directors, and stakeholders at an anniversary gala and also premiere their latest movie, Superstar, on December 21.

Inkblot productions was founded in 2010 by Naz Onuzo, Zulumoke Oyibo and Damola Ademola.

The company produced The Wedding Party and its sequel, both ranking first and second on the list of the highest-grossing Nigerian films of all time.

Over the years, they have been credited for creating quality movies such like The Set Up, Quams

Money, The Arbitration and Out Of Luck. Their first project, Knock Knock, was produced in 2013.

Were so proud to celebrate 10 years of storytelling at Inkblot. Our goal, 10 years later, is to preserve, restore and continue the iconic legacy for generations to come said Damola Ademola, co-founder of Inkblot Productions.

Over the past decade, we have been committed to delivering premium, entertaining films that tell diverse stories from Nigeria and around the world with our partners and some of the best filmmakers out there

Superstar

Superstar, the latest movie from the stables of Inkblot production, is a romantic drama about the rise to stardom of an up-and-coming actress Queen played by Nancy Isime.

The film follows her as she navigates life and love in 21st century Nollywood.

It features other big names like Timini Egbuson, Deyemi Okanlawon, Ufuoma McDermott, Eku Edewor, Shine Rosman, Teniola Aladese, and others.

Superstar is directed by one of Nigerias fast-rising directors, Akhigbe Ilozobhie popularly known as Akay Mason.

The latter also shared screenwriting credits with Uyoyou Adia and Inkblot co-founder Chinaza Onuzo on the project.

Speaking about the movie, Zulumoke Oyibo, co-founder of Inkblot Productions, described it as a love letter to our industry.

Oyibo also spoke glowingly after the movies director whom he said his company has supported over the course of their 10-year journey.

He said: Akay started off as a Production Assistant with us in 2015 and has grown to become one of the leading filmmakers in Nigeria. His growth is an example of the company were trying to build at Inkblot. A company that provides opportunities for people to thrive in the industry we love.

The success of Inkblot is the success of the team that we have worked with over the years, says Chinaza Onuzo, co-founder of Inkblot Productions.

The hundreds of crew members, cast members, investors, supporters, everyone who came together to make the films and series that have delighted audiences over the years. They are the reason we have reached the heights. We also want to celebrate the fans without whom there would be no Inkblot.

Other activities surrounding the companys 10th anniversary include a vibrant social media campaign, special events, promotions, and several surprises to engage fans throughout the yearlong celebration.

Fans can follow @inkblotpresents on Instagram for updates and enquiries, and use #SuperstarMovie and #Inkblot10 to join the conversation.
The Osun House of Assembly on Monday, passed the 2022 appropriation bill of N129.7 billion presented before it by Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the budget estimate/appropriation bill, which has recurrent expenditure of N53.89 billion and capital expenditure of N75.86 billion was presented to the assembly by the governor on October 5.

The 2022 budget christened Budget of Sustainable Development is also N19 billion higher than that of the 2021 budget christened Budget of Providence.

Timothy Owoeye, the Speaker of the Assembly, during the passage of the bill, commended his colleagues and the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for their painstaking effort in considering the budget.

Mr Owoeye, however, warned that no agency of the state government or ministry should tamper or alter the official figures in the 2022 budget.

He stated that any act of tampering would be taken up as a criminal offence, which might attract serious legal implications.

The speaker said the assembly would be alive to its responsibilities and would be holding regular interaction with the state Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) and the people, on the assessment of the budget performance and feedback.

Earlier, the speaker read a letter received from the state governor which sought six months tenure extension for the states local governments and local government development areas caretaker chairmen and management committee members.

Mr Owoeye, while reading the letter, said the assembly would look into the request with a directive to the Assemblys Committee on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs to start work on the letter before its consideration.

(NAN)
Other than occasional terse statements of grieve, President Muhammadu Buhari has the habit of not visiting scenes of national disasters.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, secretary to the government Boss Mustapha, and other top officials appear not to be any different going by their recent actions.

The three men and other top government functionaries were present Saturday for the fanfare of the presidents son getting a chieftaincy title at the presidents hometown of Daura, Katsina State.

The Emir of Daura, Farouk Umar, on Saturday turbaned Yusuf Buhari as Talban Daura and district head of Kwasarawa community.

The star-studded attendance at the coronation came amid grieving over the deaths of hundreds of people in the North-west and North-central regions.

While they were present for the jamboree, neither of the officials deemed it fit to visit families of the hundreds of people killed by marauding bandits in Katsina and other states in the North-west.

Killing spree

A PREMIUM TIMES analysis showed that in the last two weeks, at least 101 people were reported killed by non-state actors  90 per cent of them occurred in the region where the Yusuf Buhari ceremony took place.

In one of the gruesome tragedies, 37 travellers were set ablaze, while commuting on a bus, by suspected bandits in Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

Also, in the Northwest region, three persons were reportedly killed and many others injured in a violent clash between farmers and herders in Kirikasamma Local Government Area of Jigawa State.

Likewise this week, nine worshippers were reportedly killed in an attack by suspected armed bandits in Baare in Mashegu Local Government Area of Niger State.

In Kaduna, 13 people were reportedly killed in separate attacks across the state.

In Katsina State, where the Yusuf Buhari event took place, bandits attacks on communities have continued with reported killings of at least 25 people across the state last month. Thousands of people have been displaced from their communities and are taking refuge in the state capital, Katsina.

In a recent incident in the state, the commissioner for science, technology and innovation, Rabe Nasir, was assassinated.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the recent Katsina attacks by non-state actors occurred in Matazu, Batsari, Faskari and Batagarawa local government areas.

Devoid of empathy

Despite being close to the homes of some of these disasters, the top officials did not visit any of the bereaved families.

This appears to typify a straight textbook trait of the Buhari presidency whom they represented at the event.

Mr Buhari has always been heavily criticised for his reticent leadership style devoid of empathy towards Nigerians in periods of disaster.

Apart from being absent from the frontline after the disasters, the president has been consistently taciturn to the people he leads for the better part of his six years in power.

When school kidnappings hit Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina and Kebbi States earlier this year, the president refused to visit any of the schools or families of the kidnapped students.

Much to the consternation of many, the kidnap of 344 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, was particularly striking because it happened when the president was in the state for a private visit. Yet, he did not visit the school or the parents of the students. None of the officials who visited Katsina for the Yusuf Buhari event deemed it fit to visit the school or any of the students still recovering from the shock of the governments failure to protect them.

Since he came into office six years ago, there have been at least six cases of the mass kidnapping of students and pupils from their schools. Not once has the president visited any of the schools nor visited families of the victims.

Showing cold shoulder when the people are looking for hope appears to have rubbed off on other top officials in Mr Buharis cabinet.

Protests

On the heels of the surge in killings in the country, a coalition of civil groups which included Muryar Talaka, Matasan Katsina ta Tsakiya, Arewa Media Writers, Northern Alliance Movement and Activists staged a protest tagged #NoMoreBloodShed.

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One of the leaders of the coalition in Katsina, Bishir Dauda, told PREMIUM TIMES the Yusuf Buhari chieftaincy ceremony was held despite calls by the civil society groups to halt the event in honour of those being killed in the state.

We staged a protest in Katsina on Tuesday to call on the government to be more proactive in addressing the degenerated insecurity challenge in the North and Nigeria.

One of our demands was that the Daura Emirate should respect the victims of insecurity in Katsina State by shelving its planned festive turbaning ceremony of the son of the president.

We feel that it is the highest form of insensitivity to organise a turbaning ceremony in the midst of bloodshed. The turbaning of the son of the president came when hardly a day will pass without recording one form of violence or the other in the state, Mr Dauda said.

It amounts to spitting on the graves of those innocent citizens killed by bandits. However, we are not surprised when the emir ignored all reasons and logic and went ahead with the ceremony. This is because, in Nigeria, leaders treat citizens as their own subjects or even slaves.

At the ceremony, Mr Dauda said, we were less flabbergasted because respect begets respect. These dignitaries were invited to Katsina for the ceremony, not mourning. As a leader when your followers are being murdered, abducted and raped but you organise a turbaning ceremony, do you think anyone will respect you?

You cant fight criminality without fighting. Our leaders are not ready for this war, instead, they are begging and appealing to the criminals to surrender. They have yet to make up their minds to fight.

The bandits are not different from drug barons of the Philippines, Columbia and Mexico. Going to the Philippines to understand how their president is fighting drug barons is different from the way Buhari is fighting bandits and kidnappers, Mr Dauda added.

The spokesperson of Daura Emirate Council, Usman Ibrahim, could not be reached for comment Sunday afternoon on the concerns raised by the civil society organisations.

The spokesperson of the SGF, Willie Bassey, told PREMIUM TIMES he cannot comment on the issue because he has not been briefed about the event in Katsina.

The spokesperson for the Vice President, Laolu Akande, did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent Sunday evening. Likewise, Ola Awoniyi, the spokesperson of the Senate President.
As the constitutional window closes for President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill Nigerians will have to turn to the National Assembly for the next line of action.

Although the president has been quiet and failed to communicate his decision on the bill to the legislature, his aides had insisted that he will do so soon.

It is not yet clear if Mr Buhari has communicated his decision to the lawmakers as of Monday morning.

An aide of his, Garba Shehu, had said over the weekend that his boss cannot be compelled to declare his decision publicly to Nigerians as this would be unkind to the lawmakers.

Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to ask the spokespersons of the Senate and House if the National Assembly has gotten a new communication from the president, were unsuccessful.

While the Senate spokesperson, Ajibola Basiru, did not respond to calls, his counterpart, Benjamin Kalu, said he was unavailable to speak on the matter

Suspense

The much anticipated bill was passed in October.

It seeks to resolve issues regarding the use of modern technologies in the electoral process and prescribe a particular mode of primary election for political parties to choose candidates seeking elective offices.

It had generated controversies during the consideration.

Some controversial clauses of the bill were 52 and 87 which deals with the use of electronic voting, transmission of results and mode of primaries respectively.

In the bill, the National Assembly allowed the use of electronic voting and transmission of results from polling units, at the discretion of the electoral umpire, INEC.

The lawmakers also approved that direct primaries be the only mode of primary election for political parties.

Bone of contention

The direct mode of primary election enshrined in the bill has been the centre of controversy.

Many believe it is the reason for which the president has withheld assent.

Direct primary election allows registered members of a party to vote for who they want to be the candidate of their party in the main elections. The indirect primary election allows delegates to decide who will be the partys candidate.

The clause seems to have generated a rift between governors and federal lawmakers.

Many governors, majorly of the All Progressives Congress, have opposed the clause on direct primaries in the bill.

The governors describe direct primaries as an attempt to usurp the functions of political parties, although it weakens their stranglehold on political parties.

Many have said it will advance democracy in the country by decentralising the process of selecting candidates by the political parties.

To this regard, Mr Buhari had written to the electoral umpire, INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, seeking their observations and recommendations on the bill.

While the former advised the president to sign the bill, the latter said that restriction of parties to direct primary would cause confusion.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported the impact of direct or indirect primaries on the internal democracy of political parties.

What the law says

After it was passed, the bill was transmitted to the president for assent on November 19.

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Mr Buhari, according to Section 58(4) of the 1999 Constitution, has a period of 30 days to either sign the bill into law or decline assent (while he communicates his reasons).

Section 58(5) of the same law also gives the National Assembly powers to override the president and pass the bill again by a two-third majority.

Sunday December 19 made it 30 days since the bill was sent to the president for assent.

There has been no communication on the bill from the president who only returned from Turkey hours ago.

There were speculations last week that the president had rejected the bill citing the controversy surrounding the mode of primary elections stipulated therein. But this report was refuted by both the presidency and the spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.

A presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, has said the president was still making consultations and would communicate his decision soon.

Mr Kalu said he had no knowledge of such correspondence.

The presidents silence comes amid calls from civic groups and the Nigerian Labour Congress for immediate assent of the legislation, especially before the stipulated time elapses.

Buhari has one more day  SAN

While calculations peg the presidents deadline at November 19, a Senior Lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, explains otherwise.

Citing Sections 2 and 3 of the Interpretation Act 2004, he said the calculation of days for which the president has to sign a bill does not start from the first day.

He gave this explanation while speaking on Arise TV on Sunday night.

There shouldnt be this fear that today is the last day that the president must assent to the bill, no.

To calculate days in an enactment, you have to go to the Interpretation Act 2004. Under Sections 2 and 3 of the Act, when an Act is to be done, you leave out a day when the Act is to be done and start calculating from the next day.

So in law, you will start counting from 20 November, 2021, not 19. Then under Section 15(5) of the Interpretation Act, when an event falls on a public holiday, that day is not to be counted. And this section defines a public holiday as a public holiday and also a Sunday.

So, even if we were to count the days from 19th of November, it will still not end today because today is a Sunday. It is the next available working day, tomorrow, Monday, 20th, that the law requires that the president must assent to the bill.

He said Nigerians still have to wait till Monday for the president to assent to the bill.

What next if Buhari declines assent?

As the president runs out of time to make known his decision on the bill, it is left for the National Assembly to give life to it.

This can be achieved by exercising their powers in Section 58 (5) of the Constitution. This way, both the Senate and the House of Representatives will agree and pass the bill again by a two-third majority.

If he (Mr Buhari) does not sign the bill, you now go to Sections 4, 58 and 59 of the constitution. These Sections give the legislative powers of the country to the National Assembly.

That section 4 gives the National Assembly powers to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Nigeria.

Under sections 58 and 59, when the president returns or vetoes a bill, these Sections empower the National Assembly to override the president. By passing the bill by two-third majority vote. It shall then become law without the assent or the signature of the president, Mr Ozekhome explained.

Also, he said if the president is worried about the concerns raised with regards to the mode of primaries, he can simply sign the bill into law now and seek amendments to that clause afterwards  as he did with the Petroleum Industry Act.

Slim chance

However, chances of the lawmakers overriding the president are slim.

While they openly support direct primaries and want to see that it is signed into law, the Ahmad Lawan-led assembly does not seem like one to oppose the presidents decision going by antecedents.

These lawmakers, dominated by Mr Buharis party, the APC, have overtime, boasted of sustaining a cordial relationship with the Executive and have also strived to do the bidding of the Executive  an act which many Nigerians have likened to a rubber stamp.

Overriding the president therefore seems highly unlikely in an APC-led assembly filled with loyalists to the president, analysts say.

Also unlikely is the possibility of the National Assembly taking any action on the bill before the end of the year.

The lawmakers who were meant to embark on the Christmas break last week, had only held a session this week to consider and pass the 2022 budget on Tuesday.

Previous rejections

This is the fourth time the bill would suffer setback from the Executive.

Efforts to get the bill signed into law by the previous assembly were futile with President Buhari rejecting it three times.

He first rejection was in March 2018 where he said the proposed law would usurp the constitutional powers of INEC to decide on election matters, including fixing dates and election order.

Early in 2018, he rejected it again citing some drafting issues that remain unaddressed following the prior revisions to the Bill.

In December 2018, when the bill was rejected, Mr Buhari said passing a new bill with elections close by could create some uncertainty about the legislation to govern the process.

While some Nigerians were hopeful that the president would assent to the bill, others like elder statesman, Buba Galadima, have said signs that the bill will be rejected by the president were glaring from the start.

Mr Galadima, a critic of the Buhari-led administration, said had the president intended to sign the bill, he would not delayed for so long.

It should be known as a fact that he has technically declined. If he were to sign it, he should have done that before going to Turkey, which he didnt and he will not doSo, technically it will lapse within the next 24 hours.

Second, because I know him, I can for sure tell you, I bet my life that he will not sign any Electoral Act that will jeopardise the interest of those around him who want to circumvent the will of the people and they are up to it.

It is exactly about one and half years to the election. The last time that this issue of the Electoral Act started with Saraki (ex-Senate president), they kept on brick-batting. If they send him the bill, he will pick one item and use it to reject everything.

Then by the time they rectify that particular one and send it back, he would now pick another faultIn 2019 (2018), he declined to sign the bill because it was too close to election, now he is reluctant to sign it based on the issues around direct primary, which they said would gulp about N500 billion.

With the 2023 general elections drawing close, many are hopeful that whatever action is taken on the bill, will be swift and timey enough to be implemented in the election year.

Both civic groups and international communities agree that the bill, if signed into law, will improve Nigerias electoral processes and impact positively on future elections.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, set aside the candidacy of Andy Uba as flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recent governorship election held in Anambra State.

Inyang Ekwo, the judge, while delivering judgment on Monday, held that Mr Uba was never a candidate in the poll having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election by the APC.

Mr Ekwo held that the plaintiff, George Moghalu, succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election which Mr Uba claimed to have won as the partys flag bearer in the November 6, 2021 election.

The court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete Mr Ubas name from its record as a candidate in the election.

It also ordered the APC to refund to the plaintiff N22.5 million he paid for expression of interest and nomination forms since the party failed to conduct a valid primary.

The November 6 election was won by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Charles Soludo, who is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He is due for inauguration in March 2022.

Background

Mr Uba had emerged as the APCs candidate at a primary election held on June 26, 2021.

Mr Moghalu, an aspirant in the APC primary election, challenged the process and the outcome of the primary election.

In the suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/648/2021, Mr Moghalu contended that the APC did not comply with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 and the APCs regulations and guidelines in the conduct of its governorship primary in Anambra State.

Mr Moghalu urged the court to determine whether a political party that fails to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act (2010), the partys constitution and its guideline, can validly field a candidate for the election.

The plaintiffs lawyer, Chris Uche, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court that his clients grouse was that the so-called primary election, which produced Mr Uba as APCs candidate for the Anambra governorship poll, breached the Electoral Act and the APC guidelines for the conduct of the exercise.

In his arguments, Mr Uche referenced a report by officials of the INEC which allegedly declared that the primary election did not take place up till 5.30 p.m. when its officials left the primary election venue.

This report, according to the plaintiffs lawyer, corroborates his clients claim that the APC did not hold a valid primary in Anambra State.

He prayed the court to declare that, by virtue of the APCs alleged non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 and the partys regulations and guidelines in the conduct of its primary in Anambra State, Uba is not a candidate at the said 6th November 2021 gubernatorial election or at any subsequent postponement.

The plaintiff equally asked the court to declare that the APC was bound to comply with all the relevant legal provisions in the conduct of its primary election after having demanded and received N22.5 million from him and other 13 aspirants.

He also asked the court to, among others, declare that having allegedly failed to comply with the relevant applicable laws, the APC had no candidate for the governorship election.

He, therefore, urged the court to order the party to refund the N22.5 million he paid for the expression of interest and nomination forms.

Furthermore, he asked the court to grant a perpetual injunction to restrain Mr Uba from parading himself as the candidate of the APC in the (then) forthcoming election.

An order of mandatory injunction compelling INEC to delist the APC and Uba from the list of political parties and candidates for the election, Mr Moghalu added.

He urged the court to grant his clients prayers, including nullifying the primary election and ordering a fresh one or making any order the court considered to be necessary.

Ubas defence

Mr Ubas defence team led by another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mahmud Magaji, argued that the plaintiff failed to establish that a valid primary was not held.

They also contended that the plaintiff lacked the right to institute the suit to challenge a primary he did not participate in.

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They urged the court to decline jurisdiction and dismiss the suit.

Similarly, the APC, through its lawyer, Vincent Otaokpokpo, urged the court to dismiss the case or convert the suit to one that would require parties to lead oral evidence by calling witnesses.
Following the intervention by prominent individuals and groups including the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and traditional institutions, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it would give room for more dialogue on the dispute between it and the Nigerian government before it decides on whether to resume the industrial action it suspended a year ago or not.

The union said it took the decision at the weekend at an emergency meeting of its national executive council which was held at its national secretariat located within the campus of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

In a statement issued at the end of the meeting and signed by its national president, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor, ASUU said it took into full account efforts by student union bodies, leading media practitioners and organisations, religious and opinion leaders, frontline traditional rulers, civil society organisations and other interest groups within and outside Nigeria to make government address all outstanding issues arising from the December 2020 Memorandum of Action (MoA).

ASUU, however, expressed worry over what it described as the governments resort to blackmail against the union, and the continued meagre payments of entitlements to down the wave of industrial action.

NEC was worried by the spirited efforts of government agents to reduce the demands of ASUU to a regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release of distorted and grossly devalued Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the statement reads in part.

It decried that the government has turned its back to the plan to set up an inter-ministerial committee to review the draft renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement which, it noted, began in March 2017.

ASUU noted with regret that the Minister of State for Education, Chukuwuemeka Nwajiuba, has also failed on his promise to bring back the renegotiation process within a week, saying the minister made the pledge at a reconciliatory meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on November 19.

The union said: Hon. Nwajiubas failure to fulfil a promise made in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly is not only provocative but reminiscent of trust-deficit that has bedevilled all agreements and understandings reached with this government and those before it since 2009.

Other issues at stake

The Academic Staff Union also condemned in strong terms what is said is a silent attempt to reject its demands that the NUC Act be reviewed to check the proliferation of universities by state governments, who it accused of neglecting the funding of the existing universities.

The union said establishment of universities in Nigeria has become a fad, saying the culture of just waking up and announcing the establishment of universities must be reviewed.

It had earlier suggested that new universities should be barred from enjoying funding support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) within the first one decade of their existence, and that a robust sustainability plan should be part of the requirements for granting approval for their establishment by regulatory authorities.

On UTAS

The union said it is taking more than a year for the regulatory body- National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to provide its feedback on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which the union noted was developed by it at no cost to the government.

ASUU NEC, however, said it is pleased by the evaluation report by NITDA which, it noted, endorses the UTAS and requested its immediate deployment by the government for Nigerian universities.

ASUU, therefore, called on the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other agencies of government to promptly respond to issues that concern them in the NITDAs report to pave the way for speedy migration to the payment platform.

On our part, ASUU is fully prepared to address all the technical observations made by NITDA in order to make this happen it said.

Blackmail allegation

ASUU said it appreciated the concerns and efforts of Nigerians on its mission to salvage public education in general and the Nigerian University System in particular, and assured that it will spare no efforts in its struggle for repositioning public universities and the transformation of Nigeria.

We shall resist any attempt to blackmail the union and derail our patriotic struggle for a productive university system by official propaganda founded on tokenism and crumb-sharing. ASUU said.

Background

ASUU, the umbrella for lecturers of universities in Nigeria, was again in the news recently with a threat to call out its members to down tools over what it described as the insincerity on the part of the Nigerian government and alleged poor commitment to the agreements reached in the past.

The threat was coming barely a year after it suspended its nine-month prolonged strike over disagreement with the government, especially over unpaid allowances and the alleged imposition of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System on the institutions for the payment of universities workers salaries.

But various stakeholders swiftly intervened, calling on the teachers union to consider the fate of the students and the negative impacts of the suspended industrial action on the nations education sector, especially amidst the biting consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Others like the committee of pro-chancellors of the states-owned universities, however, accused ASUU of insensitivity, even as the committee seeks review of the labour laws to allow separate negotiation with workers of universities that are owned and run by the various state governments.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern over alleged lack of empathy by Northern Governors to communities being attacked and killed by bandits and other criminals in the region.

In a statement issued by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe ,on Monday in Kaduna, the Forum noted that the governors have not been showing enough sympathy to the victims.

It added that the attitude of the governors, including President Muhammadu Buhari, portrayed them as only concerned about their lives and that of members of their family.

The President and the northern governors are unwittingly creating the impression that only their lives, those of their immediate family members and their offices matter, the ACF added.

According to the ACF, apart from Governor Umara Zulum of Borno, neither the president nor the governors have bothered to visit affected communities to show empathy and sympathy for the victims.

The ACF would like to put on record its total disapproval, frustration and anger against what appears to be an endless orgy of killings in Northern Nigeria.

The latest incidence took place in Giwa Local Government of Kaduna State where 38 innocent citizens were hacked to death.

Nothing stops the President and a State governor from visiting such places.

We sadly note that he has never felt it necessary to do so. In fact following his example, not one governor has done so except Governor Zulum of Borno.

Just a few days ago also in Askira Uba in Borno,10 people were killed and uncountable numbers taken away.

The people affected by these savage attacks are thus left to think that their lives dont count, it stated

ACFs criticism comes about two weeks after major Islamic group slammed the Buhari administration for the poor manner it is handling of the security challenges in the country, particularly in the northern party.

Hundreds of people are kidnapped daily while others are killed by bandits operating in some nothern states, notably Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Niger.

Mr Buhari, his wife and some ministers were in Istanbul attending the Turkey-Africa Partnership when about 38 people were killed in some villages in Kaduna State.

They returned on Sunday.

(NAN)
Staff and students of Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto (UDUS), Sokoto State, recently woke up to see strange signs posted in strategic locations within the campus, sparking fear of impending attacks by suspected cultists.

The signs, which have bended cross and four arrow heads painted with red ink, are posted on walls and boards around the campus, especially within the hostels area and the mini market within the area.

But the university management has denied the link between the strange signs and secret cultism, saying it had investigated all the logos and signs of secret cultism in Nigeria with none sharing such identity.

The universitys dean of students affairs, Aminu Mode, told PREMIUM TIMES that students and staff should nurse no fear of molestation or harassment.

Narratives

A female student who identified herself simply as Fatima said she left her I Block hostel very early in the morning for a test scheduled for 8:30a.m but that as soon as she stepped out of her hostel room, she noticed a strange sign on the hostel wall, which she had never seen there.

I didnt give it much attention until I realised it was all over the school, she said.

Like Fatima, other students confirmed that they woke to the yet-to-be understood signs all over the school on Thursday morning.

Those who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said apart from the hostel and the mini market, the signs are also conspicuously posted around a youth centre on the campus, which is popularly called IBB centre, and that they could also be found around the ICT centre and lecture halls.

A student who does not want to be quoted for fear of attacks, said he did not regard the signs as a coincidence because of its multiplicity.

I want to believe that it is strategic. I think It is not done by one person because it is all in the nook and crannies of the school, the source said.

Fears

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that as a result of the signs students who used to read at the popular ETF 3 lecture hall in the night have deserted the hall and others around it.

The truth is that a lot of people didnt read yesterday at the hall. Thats just the fact. Even me, I usually read in the night from around 7p.m to 12 midnight but I didnt read yesterday. I went back home because many of us were terrified. We dont know what the sign means and also nobody has claimed responsibility for it and nobody is being fingered for now, one of the students said.

Meanwhile, some students who spoke with this newspaper, said a few days before the strange signs sprouted on the campus, a yet-to-be-identified individual shot a banger (firecracker) the lecture hall forcing students to flee the hall with some of them sustaining various degrees of injuries.

Somebody threw a banger inside the ETF3 and a lot of students assumed the sound of the banger was the sound of a gun. Unfortunately, the hall only has one exit door a witness who craved anonymity, said.

No one can tell who did that but it was very unfortunate. the witness added.

Corroborating the account was a writers diary penned by a student-journalist who got injured at the scene.

According to the article titled Writers Diary: How I Was Wounded at ETF3 Because of Banger Sound and published by The News Digest Press on the campus, the stampede was caused because only one of the four entry doors of the hall was open.

There are four entrances into ETF3 but only one was open since the beginning of this semester. So, everyone would have to aim at that single exit. It was a moment of struggle for survival. But before we all understood that it was someone who lit and threw a banger inside the class, I had already sustained a wound on my leg. We tried to get hold of the person but unfortunately, we couldnt find him, the writer, with a pen name as Hassan Eleboade, wrote.

Mr Eleboade said he later found out he wasnt the only injured person when I saw a lady at

the clinic who also got injured in her hand and leg.

University management speaks

Although the signs have not been linked to any group, some students who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES feared that it could be an emergence of cultists in the school.

However, the dean, students affairs of the institution, Mr Mode, dismissed the suggestions that it could be the handiwork of cultists

He told PREMIUM TIMES that the school has compared the signs with the emblems of all cult groups in the country and that it did not match any.

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We investigated all the cult signs in Nigeria and there are no signs that look like that one,Mr Mode told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview.

Mr Mode assured that the students are safe, saying we are very much aware and we are investigating, insisting that no student is scared in my university.

The chairman of the caretaker committee of the universitys students union, Ibrahim Khalifa, has also urged students to remain calm and disregard any misleading information.

The University managements ears are always on ground and relentlessly vigilant 24-7, he said in a statement, adding that students are advised to disregard any misleading information pertaining the issue of these signs and what they mean.

About UDUS

Established in 1975, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, was one of the seven second generation universities established between 1975 and 1980.

Others include the University of Calabar, University of Ilorin, University of Jos, University of Maiduguri, University of Port Harcourt, and Ado Bayero University, Kano.

Unlike many other Nigerian universities where activities of cultists are common, UDUS prides itself as a peaceful institution, and adapts the slogan; The most peaceful university in Nigeria.
A human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun, has sued the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, and the states Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, before a high court in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The lawyer filed an ex parte motion against the duo after the governments refusal to make public the report submitted by the #EndSARS panel.

Last month, Mr Ogun filed a Freedom of Information Act demanding that the government make the report public.

Victims of police brutality and their counsels had at different times expressed their frustrations over the governments silence over the report of the panel in the state.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES after filing the motion, Mr Ogun said he has initiated his first step in law against Governor Abiodun, over his failure, neglect, and refusal to accede to my FOI request concerning the release of the Ogun State EndSARS panel report.

The report was submitted about four months ago and has since been shrouded in secrecy.

I made an FOI Application to get a copy of the report but after the expiration of statutory seven days, the governor has not reacted to my request. I have been really wondering why the governor is trying to make a secret out of a document that ought to ordinarily be in public circulation.

We must insist that things be done properly in our country. Those who swore oaths under the Sixth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution should not be allowed to recklessly violate laws with impunity. No public official is higher than the law.

Im confident the court is the only solace of the oppressed.

Contacted, the states attorney general and commissioner for Justice, who assumed office last month, said he is already acting on Mr Oguns request.

Yes, you know when there is a report like that, there will be some internal procedures to be followed, and we are still working internally and since I assumed office about three weeks ago, I have stepped up action on it, said Mr Ogungbade.

I can recall receiving a letter with regards to this particular subject matter and particularly a story mentioning Ogun as one of the states yet to submit their reports to Abuja and since then, there have been tractions and I can assure you that either before the year runs out or very early in the new year there will be more positive things to tell you.
As a result of the failure of government to fix a community road in Ogun State, South-west Nigeria, the management of Babcock University (BU), Ilishan-Remo, has contributed N1.5 million to support the communitys efforts to repair the road.

The private university, which is owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Nigeria, said the gesture was not only made to ensure smooth traveling experience but to also curb the rising spate of insecurity on Nigerian roads.

The institution made the disclosure in a statement by its media and public relations unit which is headed by Joshua Suleiman, a former newspaper editor.

The university said the donation was made to the community at the weekend.

The road, according to the university, is located within Enyinwa community, near Odogbolu town, Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state.

It said David Alao, a professor and chief of staff to the president and vice-chancellor of the university, Ademola Tayo, made the donation on behalf of the ivory tower.

The statement reads in part: Alao said the university was delighted to make the donation towards the rehabilitation of the road to ensure smooth driving and safety.

Professor Alao was accompanied by the director, External Affairs, Logistics and Protocol, Mr Isaac Osuntade and the token was received on behalf of the community by Mr Abiodun Adekoya, on behalf of the Eyinwa Council of Chiefs, the statement added.

The statement added that the community thanked the university for the kind gesture and pledged its judicious use.
The Kano State High Court in Kano, on Monday, convicted three smugglers of 1,144 Automated Card Machine (ATM) cards.

A statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the judge, Tanimu Shehu, sentenced them to six months imprisonment with an option N50,000 each.

The commissions spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, who signed the statement, said the conviction followed the defendants pleading guilty to separate charges of three counts each.

Mr Uwujaren had earlier this month disclosed in a statement that the suspects were caught trying to smuggle a total of 1,144 ATM cards out of the country.

He had said the three suspects  Abdullahi Usman, Musa Abubakar and Abdulwahid Auwalu  were apprehended by EFCC operatives during separate arrests carried out between November 24 and December 1, 2021.

The commission restated on Monday that it was discovered that Musa Abubakar, who was on his way to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), had concealed 714 ATM cards, while Abdullahi Usman who was Saudi Arabia-bound had 298 ATM cards in his possession.

Mr Abdulwahid, on the other hand, was said to have been arrested with 132 ATM cards while trying to board an Ethiopian Airlines plane to Istanbul Turkey.

Defendants admit guilt, convicted

All the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges.

The counsel for the prosecution, Usman Shehu, subsequently asked the court to convict them accordingly.

After listening to the plea for mercy from the defence counsel, A.M Bashir, the judge, convicted the defendants and sentenced them to six months imprisonment each, with the option of a fine of N50,000 each.

One of the counts against Musa Abubakar reads, That you MUSA ABUBAKAR UMAR on or about 24th November, 2021 at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, within the Judicial Division of the High Court of Kano State, while trying to board a plane scheduled for Lagos, did commit an offence to wit; retain possession of 714 (Seven Hundred and Fourteen) Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Cards of Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank, Polaris Bank, Fidelity Bank and FCMB respectively, issued in the name of different card holders, which cards you reasonably ought to know were taken out of the possession of owners under circumstances which constitute card theft, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 319 (A) of the Penal Code and punishable under the same Section 319 (A) of the Penal Code.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says four suspected illegal dealers in petroleum products and a truck laden with suspected adulterated Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) (diesel) have been handed over to it by the State Security Service (SSS).

EFCCs spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the suspects were arrested by the SSS with the diesel concealed in cellophane bags by the SSS at Ring Road, Benin City, Edo State.

Mr Uwujaren said the suspects and the truck with its content were handed over to the Benin Zonal Command of the EFCC for further investigation.

EFCC Press Release

DSS Hands Over Truck, Four Suspected Illegal Oil Dealers to EFCC

Operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, Benin Command on Thursday, December 16, 2021, handed over four suspected illegal dealers in petroleum products and a truck laden with suspected adulterated Automotive Gas Oil to the Benin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further investigation.

According to the Service, the suspects were arrested at Ring Road, Benin City following actionable intelligence with adulterated Automotive Gas Oil concealed in cellophane bags.

The suspects are Muhammed Musa, 30; Bafa Usman, 25; Muktar Muhammed, 26; and Adamu Ahmed 22.

Mark Akase, who received the suspects on behalf of the Commission, assured of thorough investigation, adding that those found culpable will be brought to book.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

20 December, 2021
The National Teachers Institute (NTI) Kaduna is training 925 teachers on key thematic areas in the 2021 Capacity Building Workshops for teachers under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) project.

The training is taking place across the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

The Director and Chief Executive of the institute, Musa Maitafsir, in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES, stated that the federal government is placing emphasis on the provision of quality education to its citizens.

This conviction was borne out of the fact that education is a sure means of empowering citizens to live up to their responsibilities, Mr Maitafsir said.

In an address to the participants at all the training centres, Mr Maitafsir commended the present administration for the release of funds for this years edition of the training workshops.

At this juncture, let me state that we have introduced some innovative practices in the way we conduct workshops in the Institute,

After reviewing the training manuals, we developed power-point presentations on all the thematic areas, he said.

Mr Maitafsir said it is done with a view to simplifying the assignment of the resource persons at the training centres, so that they can concentrate more on participants-centred, activity-based and participatory approach of facilitation, he added.

He, therefore, appealed to all participants to embrace the new paradigm shift so that there will be positive impact on the whole exercise.

He congratulated the participants on their selection to participate in the workshops, having urged them to demonstrate their readiness to learn through active participation in the class discussion and group work.

Mr Maitafsir urged stakeholders such as the State Ministries of Education, SUBEBs and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) to continue to monitor the training in their respective states.

The training, which is strictly observed under COVID-19 protocols, is taking place in all state capitals and the FCT, between December 19 and 24.
The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has resolved to set-up a sub-committee on budgeting as well as put in place relevant structures for successful conduct of its National Convention scheduled for February.

John Akpanudoedehe, the National Secretary, APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), made this known when he addressed journalists at the end of the committees closed door meeting at the partys national secretariat on Monday in Abuja.

He said the decision was part of resolutions reached at the meeting, which reviewed the partys activities over the past one year and deliberated on various national and party matters.

He congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for implementing several pro-people policies that had positively impacted the lives of Nigerians.

Mr Akpankudohede said the meeting passed a Vote of Confidence on the Buhari-led administration, adding that the APC would continue to engage with critical stakeholders on issues that affected the country and Nigerians generally.

The meeting deliberated on the planned national convention and resolved to setup sub-committee on budgeting and other relevant structures for the national convention, he said.

The APC scribe thanked Nigerians for their continued support to the APC and the federal government and offered his seasons greetings to them towards peaceful celebrations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Buhari had approved February for the national convention.

A new National Working Committee (NWC) was expected to be elected at the national convention to take over from the CECPC in piloting the affairs of the party.

(NAN)
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has set up a special security team to strengthen the security around custodial centres across the country.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Francis Enobore, on Sunday in Abuja.

The Controller General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa, made this known after a meeting with the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abubakar Audi, and the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Idris Jere.

Mr Nababa said that the meeting was centred on strengthening intelligence gathering and sharing of same among security operatives to nip attacks in the bud.

He recalled that the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, had on December 9 during the ministerial retreat held in Ilorin, Kwara, directed security agencies under the Ministry of Interior to work together as a family in the area of intelligence gathering, sharing and physical confrontation with jail attackers.

He described the perpetrators as common enemies whose main agenda was to challenge the authority and test the might of the federal government; therefore, must not be allowed to live to tell their story.

He said that the synergy would also include the immediate inauguration of a Joint Taskforce of armed personnel comprising the three-arm bearing agencies under the Ministry of Interior.

He also said that the task force was expected to combine with the officers and men of the Nigerian armed forces and the Nigeria Police Force that were already deployed to support corrections armed squad in guarding custodial centres.

Responding, Mr Audi lauded the initiative and promised to task all state commandants of his service to gear up for the onerous task.

Mr Audi said that this would include protecting custodial centres that were now designated as critical national infrastructure being the last agency in the actualisation of criminal justice dispensation in Nigeria.

He also called for regular meetings and more investment in intelligence gathering that would help forestall an armed invasion of facilities and other criminal activities in the future.

Also contributing, Mr Jere noted that the NIS was poised to activate the data of escapees in all the entry and exit points that were manned by his personnel in other to strengthen the recapture process already initiated.

Mr Jere commended the CGC for vigorously pursuing the deployment of technology which, sooner than later, would replace the present operating system and among other things, make escapes/jail attacks difficult.

He further stressed the importance of organising a common front to challenge the misguided activities of armed criminals and expressed confidence that they would be conquered in no distant time.

In a related development, the Controller General on Thursday, visited the Director-General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, to finalise the process of red-flagging fleeing inmates.

Mr Nababa said that it would be through the harmonisation and sharing of inmates data already captured by NIMC, in online transactions.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Custodial Centres in Nigeria have since October 2020, witnessed six attacks in different parts of the country. (NAN)
Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is not legally bound to publicly declare his decision on the 2021 amendment Electoral Act Amendment Bill sent to him for assent a month ago.

The bill, transmitted from the National Assembly to the State House on November 19, exceeded its 30-day window for Mr Buhari to sign or withhold his assent to it, on Sunday.

As stipulated by Nigerias constitution, the president has a 30-day period to signify his decision on the proposed legislation.

As speculations continue to trail the proposed legislation, Mr Shehu, on Channels Television programme Sunday Politics, argued that his boss owes no obligation to make his decision public despite the provision of the constitution.

Although the section of the constitution does not specify who the president should signify to within the stipulated days about his decision, many believe that Nigerians, who yearn for the provisions in the proposed bill, deserve to know.

The presidents spokesperson further argued that taking such a decision to the public without the knowledge of the National Assembly will amount to unkind treatment of the lawmakers.

Im not in a position to tell you, yes or no. But given the way things are done, the president would have completed his consultations some time back. The president would be communicating with the National Assembly on whatever he decides, either yes or no.

And as I said, it would be disrespectful of the National Assembly, for me at this time, to say this is the content of the presidents communication, assuming that the communication has been sent to them. So as I said, allow them to resume, I believe that the president will not act in breach of the Constitution. No, he will do what is right.

The constitution says the president must sign within 30 days, the constitution did not say that there should be the disclosure of that decision within 30 days to the public when the disclosure to the National Assembly has been made, Mr Shehu said.

The lawmakers are expected to resume plenary on Tuesday and embark on the Christmas and New Year break soon after.

If any communication concerning the legislation has been sent to the NASS as suggested by Mr Shehu, the bill may not be considered until their resumption in 2022.

Also speaking on the show, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson, Debo Olorunagba and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, described the uncertainty around the bill as irresponsible.

Mr Olorunagba faulted the stipulation of direct primary for nomination of candidates by political parties.

The Constitution is so clear. It says the president shall. The word shall is mandatory. Now we have a president who has kept Nigerians in limbo for 20 hours after the deadline passed in the same environment. Thats an impeachable offense.

We think that it is irresponsible of any government to keep the people in darkness, the obligation of the president and the APC to tell us if hes going to sign or he has withdrawn assent. And its unfortunate that this is what weve gotten from the APC government, he said.

Mr Wike alleged that the 87 clause mandating direct primaries for all political parties was smuggled in to prevent the electronic transmission of election result bill from being signed into law.
The Supreme Court, on Monday, upturned the conviction of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Joseph Nwobike, of charges bordering on perversion of justice.

Mr Nwobike was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for attempt to pervert the course of justice.

The Lagos State High Court, in April 2018, found him guilty of the charge, while the Court of Appeal in Lagos also upheld his conviction and 30-day imprisonment.

But, in a unanimous judgement, on Monday, Olukayode Ariwoola leading a five-man panel of the Supreme Court, set aside the earlier verdicts by both the Lagos High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The panel held that the trial court was wrong in convicting Mr Nwobike of the offence.

Similarly, it faulted the Court of Appeal for upholding the senior lawyers conviction and sentencing on attempt to pervert the course of justice.

In arriving at its decision, the Supreme Court held that Section 97(c) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State, under which Mr Nwobike was tried, did not clearly codify what constitutes perversion of justice.

The court further held that the EFCC lacked the power to investigate and prosecute the offence of perversion of the course of justice.

Background

The EFCC, through its prosecuting lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, had accused Mr Nwobike of exchanging SMS with a court registrar on the assignment of his cases to a judge and when proceedings in such cases ought to come up.

The trial judge, Raliat Adebiyi of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High Court, had in April 2018, sentenced Mr Nwobike, to one month in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The defendant was convicted on 12 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The maximum penalty on each count of perverting justice is two years jail term. But the judge applied her discretion and refused to punish the lawyer with the maximum penalty allowed.

The defendant is hereby sentenced to one month of 30 days on each count for attempting to pervert the course of justice, Mrs Adebiyi said after reading out a judgment which lasted over two hours.

The judge said she handed down the sentence to Mr Nwobike to serve as a deterrent to others.

The judge said the prosecution, the EFCC, proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Nwobike attempted to pervert the course of justice by transferring money into the bank account of a serving federal judge.

She said the lawyer was motivated to win at all cost as a senior member of the bar, but, added that the defendant was never absent throughout trial.

Mr Nwobike was first arraigned in March 2016 on a five-count charge. But the charges were amended twice to 18 counts of offering gratification to a judicial officer, attempting to pervert the course of justice, and making false declaration to an EFCC officer.

The lawyer had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

EFCCs case

While prosecuting the case, the EFCC told the court that Mr Nwobike made payments into the bank accounts of Mohammed Yunusa, a federal judge, and to Ronke Ogunleye, a registrar to another federal judge, Musa Kurya.

The commission said the payments were intended to pervert the course of justice.

For instance, after the payment to Ms Ogunleye, the convict followed up with a text message from Mr Nwobike which read: Tell Oga to discharge that order.

The EFCC also said Mr Nwobike sent about a dozen other text messages to one Mr Jide of the Federal High Court directing that cases be assigned to specific judges, including Justices Yunusa, Kurya, and others.

The commission further accused the lawyer of making false declaration to an officer of the EFCC by naming Mr Yunusa as the only judge he had assisted.

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The anti-graft agency said he had made similar payments to James Agbadu-Fishim and Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, both judges of the Federal High Court.

The prosecution called seven witnesses before closing its case while the defence opened with only one witness  Mr Nwobike.

Defence

In his defence, Mr Nwobike, who was conferred with the SAN rank in 2010 after almost 20 years of legal practice, said the money given to Mr Yunusa was for the dialysis treatment of the judges mother.

He added that he had known the judge since his days as a counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice.

He also said he had known Mr Nganjiwa since 1995 when he was a legal officer at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and that he had no case pending before the judge at the time he paid N300,000 to a company belonging to him.

The lawyer further admitted to giving N250,000 to Ms Ogunleye for his brothers education abroad and that the text message Tell Oga to discharge that order was sent to her in error.

He denied having any intention to influence cases or assign cases to judges.

In her judgment, Mrs Adebiyi said the prosecution failed to prove that the monies paid to the judges and to Ms Ogunleye were intended to influence justice.

She, however, said the father and daughter relationship between the lawyer and Mr Nwobike is unbecoming of a senior member of the bar.

On the text messages the lawyer sent to Mr Jide naming particular judges he wanted to handle cases, the judge said the prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were intended to pervert the course of justice.

Out of the 11 text messages sent to Mr Jide, six of the cases were assigned to judges named by Mr Nwobike. The rest were not disclosed by the EFCC.

Why did the defendant, a senior member of the bar with junior lawyers in his chamber be the one to send messages to a registrar? the judge asked.

On the charge of false declaration to an EFCC officer, Mrs Adebiyi said the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Nwobikes claim of assisting only Mr. Yunusa was untrue.
The governor of Kano State, Abbdullahi Ganduje, has told the factional executives of the All Progressive Congress (APC) loyal to him to accept the recent court judgment sacking them in good faith.

He said he would no longer be distracted by party crisis but wiould rather focus more on developmental projects.

Mr Ganduje stated this at a meeting with members of his faction in Africa House, Government House, Kano on Sunday.

An Abuja High Court had on 30 November sacked the leadership of the APC faction in the state loyal to the governor.

The court declared the executives of a faction loyal to a former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau, as duly elected leaders of the party in the state.

Mr Shekarau is the senator representing Kano Central.

The court reaffirmed the judgment last Friday.

Mr Ganduje asked the sacked exco members to take the judgment in good faith and should not resort to violence.

He said the meeting was convened to intimate the party offficials of his decision.

He did not, however, say whether they would appeal the judgment or not.

He said the judgment came even though they followed all the procedures during both wards and local government congresses of the party and in accordance with the normal party directives.

Vulgar exchange of words will not be the solution to our crisis, let treat each other with respect, the crisis will soon be over.

It is very important for all to know that our political dexterity and political experience will not allow small party crisis to divert our attention in further developing our dear state.

What is happening is just part of the culture of democracy.

The people of Gaya, Karaye and Bichi who are in this meeting can testify to this effort of bringing developmental projects closer to the locals and that is what I will be doing, the governor said

Earlier in his remarks, the embattled factional chairman, Abbdullahi Abbas, said all the party leaders in the 44 local government areas of the state have passed a vote of confidence on Mr Ganduje.

This is the message of party excos that their loyalty to the governor is intact. Whatever will happen they said they are with you (Governor Ganduje), Mr Abbas said.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that in the aftermath of the court judgment, some members of the APC loyal to Mr Ganduje were secretly registering their loyalty to the Shekarau faction.

This newspaper reported how the court dismissed a motion by the faction challenging its earlier judgement and fined it N1 million for filing what it called a frivolous and time-wasting motion.

The court, presided over by Hamza Muazu, affirmed the earlier judgement it delivered on November 30.

Fridays judgement was delivered after the Ganduje faction filed a motion asking the court to stay proceeding and set aside its decision which nullified Abdullahi Abbas-led executives.

However, the court ruled that the faction loyal to Mr Shekarau had conducted ward and local government congresses in the state.

The court further held that the local government congress conducted by the faction remained valid and that it had the authority to elect the state executives.

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Two factions of the party in the state had conducted parallel congresses on October 18 but the party headquarters endorsed the one conducted by the loyalists of Mr Ganduje.

The Shekarau faction had elected Haruna Danzago as chairman while Mr Gandujes camp elected Mr Abbas.

Mr Shekarau is the leader of the group called G7.

Members of the group include Barau Jibrin, who is the senator for Kano North, and four members of the House of Representatives from the state, namely Nasiru Abdua, Tijjani Jobe, Shaaban Sharada and Haruna Dederi.
The vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Eyitope Ogunbodede, alongside other members of the management and some journalists, on Monday afternoon, escaped an assasination attempt on their lives allegedly by those the institution described as land-grabbers whom it accused of forcefully encroaching on the universitys land in Ile-Ife, the host community.

But the Ile-Ife community has denied the allegation, cautioning the university management against throwing the community into avoidable crisis.

Mr Ogunbodede, a professor of dentistry, confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on the phone, saying the attackers shot sporadically and brandished dangerous weapons including machetes, charms, arrows, planks, among others.

The vice-chancellor, who linked the development to the perennial land tussle between the university and some individuals within the Ile-Ife community, said the communitys palace was duly informed before it visited the site where the team was attacked.

The vice-chancellor said: We were told there was an attempt to encroach on the land belonging to the university using the opportunity of an ongoing road construction by the Osun State Government. We quickly got in touch with the palace and made it clear that the university management would visit the place to find out the truth.

For proper capturing of the situation, we asked some reporters to join us to the site which is just between the campus gate and Parakin, but as soon as our vehicles approached the place some hoodlums descended on us hauling stones and shooting at us. It was scary.

According to the vice-chancellor, the land matter is beyond him and that the federal ministry of education, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the universitys governing council have all been emphatic on how an inch of the parcel belonging to the university cannot be ceded to any individual or organisation.

Ile-Ife is peaceful -communitys counsel

But in his reaction to the development, Mosis Olafare, the spokesman to the communitys monarch, Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, said only the legal adviser to the community, Adeyemi Adetise, could speak on the matter.

In a telephone interview with our reporter, Mr Adetise, a lawyer, said he was unaware of the development and urged the vice-chancellor to give the details of where and when the alleged attacks took place.

According to Mr Adetise, he arrived at Ile-Ife on Sunday and that the entire community was still peaceful as of the time of speaking to our reporter on Monday evening, even as he advised the university management to avoid throwing the entire town into an avoidable crisis.

Mr Adetise said: We are unaware of such a development and I dont think anything of such happened. As the counsel to the community, I am aware there has been a lingering crisis between the university and the community over land matter which was even before the new monarch was enthroned.

So if the university is referring to that, I want to advise that it should desist from rushing to the media because land matters are not fought on the pages of newspapers. We have been meeting over this thing and even when the visitation panel came we raised the same issue. So I dont see any reason for this media fight.

Meanwhile, an official of the palace, who craved anonymity, described the allegation by the university as mischievous, saying the portion reportedly visited by the university team had a road construction company creating a new road between Parakin and Road Seven area of the community.

The official, who called for evidence of the attacks, said it was wrong for the university to simply run to the media as soon as it identifies issues of concern.

What preliminary investigation has shown is that there is road construction ongoing at the site and so if there was any crisis with anyone, it could be people constructing the road. And if people of the Ile-Ife community are accused of attacking the VC, the university should know that the campus is also part of the Ile-Ife community and so the alleged attackers could be members of the university community, the source said.

Osun commissioner speaks

When contacted, the commissioner for works and transport, Oluremi Omowaiye, said his men at the site said nothing of such happened where they were working.

He said a road that had already been on the layout is just being opened up at the Parakin axis to the Road Seven axis of the community.

What we are doing in Ile-Ife is to build a circular road to ease traffic within the town because from Road Seven we will construct another to Sabo axis of the town. The roads have already been awarded and now under construction. So if there is any crisis, it has nothing to do with us, Mr Omowaiye said.

Backstory

Earlier in April, 2019, the management of the university submitted a petition to the office of the commissioner of police in Osun State and the office of the director of state security service, accusing some individuals of poisoning the dam that supplies water to the university community.

The university said as a result, the campus was endangered by the activities of those it described as land-grabbers, claiming the attackers forcefully gained access to the dam by overpowering the security official on duty whom it recognised simply as O.A Omotosho.

The university named one of the attackers as Idowu Ogunwusi (alias Dagunduro) alleging that the group freely used dangerous weapons including guns, cutlasses and axes during the attack.

The matter caught the attention of relevant stakeholders at the time, with the palace of Ile-Ife denying the allegation. Since then, the brickbats had continued between the university community and the larger Ile-Ife town.
It is true that the way we practice democracy in Nigeria today has failed to assist Nigerians to maximise individual potentials or the country to accomplish a national development agenda. The reasons for these vary: From the greedy political elite who are not driven by principles or vision to expensive governance structures that are self-serving, and from indiscipline to a cultural misfit.

Globally, citizens of countries with democratic profiles are beginning to question the efficacy of democracy  especially democracys capacity to deliver the development agenda. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center shows that across 34 countries, a median of 52 per cent of those interviewed is dissatisfied with democracy. The dissatisfaction cuts across citizens of matured democracies of the U.K., the U.S., France, and Japan. A similar report was filed by Afrobarometer, a Pan African independent research network in Ghana. Its recent survey of citizens of 34 African countries under democratic regimes discovered a democratic disappointment gap.

This increasing loss of confidence in this form of government is partially responsible for the convening of a global democracy summit from December 9 to 10 by President Biden of the U.S.A with the objective of defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting human rights as well as set agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle threats faced by democracy. Nigeria was one of 17 African countries and 111 countries globally invited to the summit.

The Carnegie Foundation described Nigeria as one nation where democracy is backsliding in its analysis of the invited participants. This development has redirected us to pertinent questions about the potency of democracy to deliver development in Nigeria: Is there a Nigerian democracy? Is it really backsliding? Has it failed Nigerians? And if it has failed, what should be done to arrest the situation?

Democracy is a universal concept that embodies fundamental principles and doctrines that make it unique as a form of government. It relies on the idea of the supremacy of the people. The first aspect of democracy is that the people have the right to choose and decide who will govern them through periodic elections and hold the officeholders accountable for the power they weild on behalf of the people. It presupposes that it is the fundamental right of citizens to vote or be voted for in a free and fair election.

The second aspect of democracy is that principles govern it, without which it becomes an aberration and a folly of indescribable proportion, even with the first aspect (the periodic election to choose leaders). These principles include the rule of law, fundamental human rights, liberty, and accountability, and it is only the combination of these two aspects that makes democracy worthwhile.

Analysing how Nigeria has fared in these two critical aspects of democracy indicates that we do not measure up to the standards. On the first, periodic elections, as imperfect as it has been, I believe we have made progress in this regard. However, on the second, deepening the pillars of democracy, my verdict is negative.

Democracy, the way it is practised in Nigeria today, is a hybrid. It is a combination of civil rule, militarism, and ethnic jingoism. There is no national consensus on what democracy should be in Nigeria or should do for Nigeria. No shared national vision binds citizens and the state, and there is no common aspiration. In the absence of a shared national aspiration, democracy is just a word, a concept borrowed to fulfil all righteousness.

Recent experiences, especially economic frustration and insecurity, have made some Nigerians question the Western-style democracy we adopted and doubt whether it can deliver sustainable development. This trust deficit involved is exacerbated by persistent conflict, high cost of governance, corruption, poverty, indiscipline, inefficiency, insecurity, high-level unemployment, and the divisiveness that pervades the land.

Is democracy backsliding in Nigeria? From the context of economic prosperity and individual liberty, history is answering with an emphatic YES. At the inception of the newly independent nation, Nigeria, in 1960, there were high hopes, both within and outside the country that this young parliamentary democracy would be the beacon of hope for restoring the dignity of the black man.

It is true that the way we practice democracy in Nigeria today has failed to assist Nigerians to maximise individual potentials or the country to accomplish a national development agenda. The reasons for these vary: From the greedy political elite who are not driven by principles or vision to expensive governance structures that are self-serving, and from indiscipline to a cultural misfit. Like a rocking chair, we have moved from parliamentary democracy to an American-style presidential system, while searching for what works for us.

The problem is squarely that of the appropriateness of our model of democracy. No serious attempt has ever been made to work out a model that fits, serves, or recognises our unique cultural attributes. Worse still, our political elite have failed to adopt a management approach to democracy over time. The elementary principles of envisioning the common good, setting a strategic plan, making effective decisions, and mobilising resources to achieve a shared goal are not in consideration.

Different countries adopt various models of democracy to suit their contexts and cultural environments. For example, Rwanda increased the participation of women in governance and incorporated a cultural practice known as Imihigo, a decentralisation policy in which district mayors commit to development targets. Because of its belief that a nation has only one common goal, China adopted a one-party system, with bureaucratic control emphasising efficiency and economic growth.

Singapore adopted a democratic approach that emphasises equality of all and economic prosperity, and it has a unique parliament made up of single-member constituencies, group representation constituencies, and nominated members of parliament. On its part, South Korea evolved a robust free democracy that allows for freedom of speech, and its constitution provides a single tenure for the president that is non-renewable and a legislature in which seats are by a combination of persons elected via popular vote and those who are selected. Malaysia, on the other hand, created a Muslim democracy that is distinctively not theocratic. All these countries are relative successes because they adapted democracy to fit their cultures. To make Nigerians have faith in democracy and its ability to deliver development is not just about periodic elections but addressing the structure and cultural fit of our model of democracy, to make it work. It is also essential to pay attention to the cultural peculiarities of different sections that make up the country. True democracy is that form adapted to the circumstance and cultural context and which delivers the greatest good to the highest number of persons, as measured through material prosperity.

It is pertinent to note that Nigeria adopted the U.S. presidential system without adapting it to our cultural context. Must Nigeria have a bicameral legislature? Why should Nigeria have too many cost centres at the local, state, and federal levels that deliver no value? Why should Nigeria have a bogus governance structure? Is there a need for a full-time legislature, rather than a part-time legislature? Why should Nigeria have a 1999 Constitution that many people do not accept its authority? Why should Nigeria have a federal structure that is more unitary in nature? These are fundamental questions that can help us define what we want from democracy and determine whether the model we are practicing can guarantee an optimal level of development.

Is democracy backsliding in Nigeria? From the context of economic prosperity and individual liberty, history is answering with an emphatic YES. At the inception of the newly independent nation, Nigeria, in 1960, there were high hopes, both within and outside the country that this young parliamentary democracy would be the beacon of hope for restoring the dignity of the black man. Although that dispensation had its challenges, it maintained some democratic manifestations that made some politicians look like angels, in comparison to todays political actors. There was a semblance of sanity. The government at the time guaranteed security and safety, and most people observed the rule of law. Democracy was in the ascendancy in Nigeria during that period.

However, the military incursion into Nigerian governance upended democracy. With that went all the democratic precepts and principles in Nigerian politics, and ever since democracy has been in decline and it needs a radical rethink to work in Nigeria again. A significant consideration in assessing the appropriateness of Nigerian democracy is the influence of over four decades of military rule. The military has handed down all our constitutions since 1979, and each has ended up necessitating elaborate amendments, as its contents have bordered on impunity and reckless disregard for some marginalised groups. The judiciary and legislature are left weak by the executive, despite the separation of powers.

What should be done to reverse the situation? We should re-examine our democracy to make it fit-for-purpose. For Nigerians to evolve a democracy that works for us, the critical consideration is the match between form and cost. That match must be such that the practice of democracy leaves enough resources for the development and sustenance of services in a way that guarantees orderly and peaceful existence.

Has democracy failed Nigerians? A series of overlapping security, political and economic crises have left Nigeria facing its worst instability since the end of the Biafran war in 1970. With experts warning that large parts of the country are, in effect, becoming ungovernable, fears that the conflicts in Africas most populous nation are bleeding over its borders are underpinned by claims that armed Igbo secessionists in the countrys South-East were now cooperating with militants fighting for an independent state in the anglophone region of neighbouring Cameroon.

The mounting insecurity from banditry in the North-West, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in the North-East, violent conflict between farmers and pastoralists across large swathes of Nigerias Middle Belt, is driving a brain drain of young Nigerians. These security issues are in addition to a series of other problems, including rising levels of poverty, violent crime, and corruption, amidst an increasing sense that the central government, in many places, is struggling to govern.

The most significant measure of the efficacy of democracy is its ability to raise the peoples standard of living, marked by a minimum level of development. The inability of Nigerian democracy to bridge the gap between inequality and poverty has heightened the lack of faith in it. All vital statistics from 1998 till date have not matched our expected progress in deepening democracy, making it difficult to accept a correlation between democracy and development.

What should be done to reverse the situation? We should re-examine our democracy to make it fit-for-purpose. For Nigerians to evolve a democracy that works for us, the critical consideration is the match between form and cost. That match must be such that the practice of democracy leaves enough resources for the development and sustenance of services in a way that guarantees orderly and peaceful existence.

It is on record that the recurrent expenditures of Nigerian governments (states and federal) outweigh capital expenditures at a ratio of more than 80:20. The current form of democracy and democratic institutions have too much implicit and explicit costs that it leaves no money for development, and there is absolutely no incentive to invest in sustainable development initiatives.

Nigerias current federal democracy is unitarist, which has hindered the adequate provision of security and safety for citizens. The ability of the state to guarantee security is central to the thriving of democracy. Unless people are free to go about their everyday life unmolested, they cannot enjoy the freedom which is the crucial dividend of democracy. Not even the ritual of voting and elections can credibly occur in an insecure environment.

In conclusion, it is evident that we need to have a conversation about our current constitution, to culturise and make it workable. This is not achievable before 2023 but it must be on the table if we are serious about democracy. We should be intentional in evolving a democracy that aims at the sustainable development of Nigeria. The new democratic model, no matter what it is, must speak to the aspirations and hopes of Nigerians. This model will not cherry-pick some facets of democracy and leave out its principles and spirit, and it must be holistic and quintessentially and uniquely Nigerian. A model that plagiarised American democracy with little or no modification to fit our context is already structurally deficient. No matter how you practice it, you will always come out short.

Dakuku Peterside is a policy and leadership expert.

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The purpose of the Presidents trip to Turkey, December 16th to 19th was to participate in the 3rd Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, with an appealing theme: Enhanced Partnership for Common Development and Prosperity.

Our national strategy was laid out before departure, based on a strong optimism that the summit will work well for all the leaders. Turkey is serious about working with Africa in a win-win relationship. Though not yet accepted as a member of the EU, it is a major player in the continent in many ways and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Turkey also has strong links in the Middle-East. In Asia, the competition is stiff, with China, Japan, South Korea and the rest. But see what discipline, national mobilization and determination have brought Turkey to where it is today. So, Africa may seem for them, a good bet for solidarity and market.

For us on the continent, it is not in doubt that the big countries are not outrightly helpful at all times. In some instances, as with the COVID-19 vaccine, we have seen how might becomes right.

So, really, the embrace of Turkey by Africa is a logical path to follow, given that the country had gone through the big economies in search of economic and national development, abandoned that process and became, on their own, the fastest growing economy in Europe. Annual trade between Turkey and Africa was USD 5.5 billion in 2003. Today, it has risen to USD 26 billion. Under the Erdogan leadership, the country has grown its presence in Africa from 12 embassies to 42. Turkish Airlines flies to 50 destinations in 30 African countries.

President Erdogan has himself described his country as being an Afro- Euro-Asian state, and was on record as being the first non-African Head of State to visit Somalia. Turkey has arrived as a world power. They have advanced in so many areas.

In going to Turkey, the position of the Presidents team was: If the partnership through the multilateral process works for us, it will help. All six ministers on the delegation held meetings with their respective counterparts to deepen the good bilateral relations between us. We went there in search of partnerships, partnerships that Nigeria stands to gain from.

When he came here in October, President Erdogan and President Buhari had the two countries sign three Memoranda of Understanding, MoUs, and four agreements on a variety of subjects that included political consultation, energy, hydrocarbons, mining, youth, double taxation and the reform and development of the Defence Industries Corporation, DIC in Kaduna.

The starting point of this engagement was the meeting between the two leaders-President Muhammadu Buhari and the Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The tone of this meeting was itself set by the officials who accompanied the President: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, National Security Adviser and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency. And from all accounts, the meeting met all expectations: Turkish leader Erdogan agreed to work with President Buhari in tackling insurgents and other security challenges facing this country.

This is significant in many ways. Turkey today not only has a modern defence industry but one that is technologically advanced. Their intervention against ISIL in Syria and Iraq and even Libya has brought them a lot of respect. When they intervened on the side of Azerbaijan in that countrys war against Armenia, that participation using especially that impressive drone technology was the single most important game-changer. Turkish technology, be they drones or even through the supply or manufacture of military ordinance in Nigeria will surely quicken the process and efforts to rid the country of pockets of terrorists and the menace of kidnappers and bandits. From their wide experience and advances in technology in fighting terrorism and banditry, they have a lot to give and they have assured us that they will give that support.

Flowing from the meeting of leaders, the heads of our defence and security establishments were afforded long engagements with their Turkish counterparts. The meetings took time to reflect on what Nigeria needs to overcome the problem of insecurity. These issues revolved around the use of technology to fight crime, something that everyone is doing, and so why not Nigeria.

As we go into January next year, a team from the Turkish defence establishment is expected to be in Nigeria in the effort to advance the discussions on the issue of military procurement.

The national security component equally has a Turkish angle to it and one that turned to be one of the gains, in the sense that both countries have a common view of what Turkey perceives as a security threat to their nation and its leaders present in Nigeria. This is about some Turkish investments, schools and hospitals associated with an opposition figure linked to the abortive coup and attempted assassination of President Erdogan. This had existed as a critical but unspoken issue, with the potential to undermine the relationship in spite of the strong bond of friendship based on trust between the leaders of the two nations. It appears however that a strong common ground and understanding is reached.

The government of Nigeria will not allow any part of our territory to be used to undermine a friendly state such as Turkey. Under our strict Central Bank and Financial Intelligence Units governance structure and management, money from the investments in issue cannot be moved anywhere to finance subversive activities. While protection of foreign investment is sacrosanct, government clearly will not allow interest, individual or group, to undermine the very warm and cordial relationship between the two nations.

Turkey has achieved so much in infrastructure, which is something very close to the heart of the President. Turkey has shown real capacity in heavy capital projects in many countries and this has another advantage to us.

As it is now, we are reliant on just one country for infrastructure and Turkey should help us to diversify.

From these bilateral meetings, the ground has been laid for the setting up of education, health and leisure projects including the proposal for a big hotel and conference center project in Abuja.

In the not-too-distant future, the administration of the Federal Capital Territory will be receiving the team of investors including the world- famous Maarif Foundation to be shown exact locations for the setting up of a five-star hotel and conference center, schools and a world-class hospital.

Three other companies have a strong interest in other areas, with the first, in oil and gas, and from which a good outcome is expected by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Mele Kyari and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo. One of the other investors is coming with interest in the Abuja property market, real estate and the creative industry especially film making and another, with interest in the construction sector. This is the company that built Turkeys famous undersea tunnel.

Finally, it is important to say that President Buhari was in Turkey on a special request by the Turkish President.

By an earlier agreement, the number of African leaders at the four-yearly summit was rationalized to just 15, and leaders were chosen to attend as representatives of either the African Union or the elected leaders of sub-regional groups such as ECOWAS, the South African Development Community, SADC and the rest. Each sub-regional leader presented a representative statement, and in the case of ECOWAS, it was President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, its Chairman. No national statements were planned for, except for Nigeria where our President was given a special speaking opportunity.

As to be expected, President Buhari used it to good effect, calling for increased support for Africa in fighting terrorism, vaccine equity and manufacture on the continent and for combined efforts to address the effects of climate change.

The Nigerian delegation returned to Nigeria on a high note of expectation that this was indeed, a visit worth undertaking.

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity).

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In this third and final part, Xola Collective recaptures the incredibly successful story of how the the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the leadership of Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and with the full support of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, has steadily but surely changed the narrative of Nigerias agricultural landscape.

Agriculture done differently

Earlier in 2021, the CBN flagged-off the first ever rain-fed wheat programme in the country, seeking to slash the importation of the food commodity by 60 per cent as well as save $2 billion annually in foreign exchange. According to the CBN, the programme will benefit over 150,000 farmers and would be implemented in 15 states of the federation for a start.

The CBN has also set aside over N5.7 billion loan to 10,000 farmers to encourage dry season wheat farming in Bauchi State with 4,500 farmers benefited so far in the state.

Between September and October 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, the bank disbursed N43.19 billion to support the cultivation of 250,000 hectares of maize, sogum, soyabeans and rice during the 2021 dry season farming and N5.88 billion to finance six large scale agricultural project under the commercial agricultural agri-business scheme.

Between September and October 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), the bank disbursed N43.19 billion to support the cultivation of over 250,000 hectares of maize, sorghum, soya beans and rice during the 2021 dry season; and N5.88 billion to finance six large scale agricultural projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).

Other Interventions

As a way of tackling the problem of growing youth unemployment in Nigeria, the CBN recently launched the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) in Abuja.

The apex bank also presented cheques of N5 million each to six pioneer beneficiaries of the scheme to help boost their businesses, create employment and contribute to economic growth.

The bank said the scheme was designed to create a paradigm shift among students and graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria from white-collar jobs towards entrepreneurship development.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is set to offer special funding and other strategic support to about 400 selected strategic manufacturing enterprises across the country in the next one year with effect from today, under a new real sector intervention scheme.

The bank disbursed the sum of N261.92 billion for 42 additional projects under the N1 trillion manufacturing intervention. Cumulatively, the bank has disbursed the sum of N1.08 trillion under this scheme. As part of its effort to support the resilience of the healthcare sector, the bank disbursed N5.39 billion to nine healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF).

Cumulatively, the bank disbursed the sum of N108.65 billion to hospitals and pharmaceutical industry. 54 of the 117 projects funded were for hospital services. Had CBN remained aloof and mute in the trying times of last year and 2021, the economy would have collapsed under the weight of COVID-19 devastation.

Through the Economic Sustainability Plan, the CBN working with the Fiscal authorities injected N3.5trn to support households in Nigeria, to navigate the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. This was 4.1% of the nations GDP and focused on Agric, Manufacturing and Healthcare amongst others.

The belief of stakeholders is that the apex banks 37 purpose-driven intervention programmes introduced will continue to boost the nations economy.

For CBN, efforts to sustain economic growth are unending. The bank said it will sustain its intervention policy in critical sectors in 2022.

Here are two memorable quotes on the significance of the CBNs role:

 The CBNs intervention has surely helped the food system and without it, the situation would have been more uncomfortable, former president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr Ibrahim Kabir, said.

 Definitely, the CBNs Anchor Borrowers Programme, coupled with denial of forex to food importers, was the wisest decision taken to boost domestic food production and at the same time create market for home-grown food items, siad Kebbi State chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Sahabi Augie.

Xola Collective wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year!
The absence of a State High Court in Bayelsa on Monday stalled the trial of John Idumange, who raised an alarm over alleged diversion of N3 billion agriculture loan by government officials in Bayelsa.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that court registry staff informed litigants and their counsel that the judge, Iniekenimi Uzakah, was not going to sit.

Although no reason was given for the judges absence, court officials said the judge had directed parties and their lawyers in the cases listed to pick new dates for their cases.

The court clerks subsequently fixed Febraury 1 for continuation of trial following agreement by prosecution counsel, Director of Public Prosecution in Bayelsa, Iyobol Apulu and defence counsel, Ebikebuna Aluzu.

NAN reported that the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Bayelsa, Biriyai Sambo, SAN, filed a suit against Mr Idumange for misdemeanour and seditious publications against government officials.

NAN reported that a Magistrates Court had on March 11 in Yenagoa, ordered Mr Idumanges detention for 30 days, pending police investigation.

Mr Idumange, who alleged that officials of the Bayelsa government had diverted a N3 billion agriculture loan and subsequently submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was arrested on March 10.

Some officials of the state government reported to the police that Mr Idumange made seditious publications that maligned their persons in his claims.

However, the State High Court, Sagbama Division, granted bail to Mr Idumange, who was an aide on Research and Documentation and later Social Media assistant to Seriake Dickson when the latter was the governor of Bayelsa.

The case, earlier assigned to a judge, Ebiyerin Omukoro, was reassigned to another judge, Uzakah, following a written request by the state attorney-general to the Chief Judge of Bayelsa, Kate Abiri

(NAN)
Customer Success software provider, ChurnZero, announces plans to open a new office in the Netherlands to support global expansion efforts in 2022.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ChurnZero, a leading Customer Success platform, today announced that it is establishing and investing in a new office in Amsterdam to help accelerate its global growth. The new office will support existing international clients, while also serving as a primary office for business development throughout Europe.

"Over the last few years, our customer base outside of North America has grown significantly," said You Mon Tsang, CEO and Co-founder of ChurnZero. "International expansion is a key focus area and we decided that the Netherlands was the best choice for us and our customers for our European headquarters. We were drawn by its convenient location, deep pool of multinational talent and focus on innovation."

The ChurnZero team is actively looking to hire local talent across various functions including Customer Success, Implementation, Customer Support, and Sales. To learn more about the open positions in the Netherlands and to apply to join the growing team, visit the careers page at churnzero.net/careers.

ChurnZero Inc. will remain headquartered in the United Stated at its Washington, D.C. location while ChurnZero B.V. will be headquartered in the Netherlands.

About ChurnZero

ChurnZero is a real-time Customer Success platform that helps subscription businesses fight customer churn. Its software solutions allow businesses to understand how their customers use their product, assess their health, and their likelihood to renew, and give businesses the means to personalize the customer experience through timely and relevant touchpoints. ChurnZero is headquartered in Washington, DC and is backed by leading investment firms such as JMI Equity, Baird Capital, Grotech Ventures and Middleland Capital. For more information visit https://churnzero.net.

CONTACT:

Cori Pearce

pr@churnzero.net

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1712873/ChurnZero_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://churnzero.net/



SOURCE ChurnZero
"Building quality projects and making friends from all over the world" has been the goal and commitment of POWERCHINA, the world's largest builder of power facilities, in its overseas operations. The company is actively involved in the construction of the Belt and Road projects and has expanded its construction business to African countries. Apart from improving waterways, supplying electricity, and building roads and bridges, the firm has been fulfilling its social responsibility to local communities in the overseas markets.

POWERCHINA has been contributing to the local realization of the UN development goals by driving employment through new hydropower infrastructure, developing skills of local people through trainings, providing assistance in education and care of orphans, building hospitals and donating medicines. Its efforts to spread love and hope in Africa have helped it establish sincere friendship with local governments and people.

Nurturing local talents

The Djibloho Hydropower Plant, which is hailed by the government of Equatorial Guinea as the "Three Gorges Project of Equatorial Guinea," meets 90 percent of the country's demand for electricity and is an important engine for its economic development. POWERCHINA trained local employees and helped them learn skills. A two-month Chinese training session free of charge was also provided by the company to facilitate communication between local operators and Chinese engineers, and help local employees better operate the equipment of the plant.

Care for children

In Cameroon, POWERCHINA's office has a heart-warming tradition. Around Christmas and New Year's Day each year, the office would cooperate with member companies of the group to hold voluntary activities in schools and orphanages in the areas along the roads it is building. They would repair classrooms and donate stationery for the children, and sing and dance with them to celebrate the New Year.

According to Ngangoua Serge, POWERCHINA's representative in Cameroon, the company cares about the disadvantaged groups in Cameroon. Since it began operating in the country in 2010, the company has held similar donation activities every year, in a bid to bring love and happiness to children in need.

Medical support

The company has also helped improve local medical conditions in places where its projects are located by building hospitals and donating medicines and facilities.

New Niefang Hospital, a landmark Chinese Government aid project in the country to be completed by POWERCHINA by 2022, will strengthen the medical system in central Equatorial Guinea and will provide quality medical services to residents in and around the city of Niefang.

In Cameroon, the company donated medicines and medical equipment to a public health center near the site of a dam to be built by it. The urgently needed medicines and medical equipment greatly strengthened the center's confidence in fighting infectious diseases and saving lives.

On January 29, 2019, the company's Equatorial Guinea office assisted the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese medical team in the country to carry out a free clinic at the company's camp for Djibloho Hydropower Plant. The free clinic held with the assistance of POWERCHINA is a testament to the friendship between the two countries and a manifestation of the active fulfillment of social responsibilities by Chinese companies in Equatorial Guinea.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1711497/release.jpg

SOURCE China Report
With 95% of Bangladesh's power generation stemming from gas, diesel, and coal, this 130 MWp project is a significant development for a nation that had a total grid-connected capacity of approximately 100 MW in 2020.

Located in Khulna, the Bagerhat project overtook the 73 MW Mymensingh solar power plant as Bangladesh's largest solar power plant upon its completion. Utilizing Bangladesh's 2,500 hours of sunshine per year, the project will be able to generate power equivalent to that produced by more than 324,000 tons of coal a year. It is so far the largest eco-friendly power project to provide clean energy by using the most efficient monocrystalline solar panels and over 99% efficient inverters. This plant is connected to 132/33 KV Mongla PGCB Grid Substation through a newly constructed around 9 km transmission line.

Due to Bangladesh's humid and hot climate, ABB has chosen to deploy Sungrow's advanced SG3125HV 1500Vdc system for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The SG3125HV features temperature-controlled air cooling which allows it to operate without derating even when the temperature is up to 50 degrees Celsius. Moreover, its design allows for investment savings in the form of lower transportation and installation costs.

The investor of this project, Orion Group is a leading conglomerate and a legendary brand name in the business arena of Bangladesh. "We needed a solution that offers the most upside in terms of performance, cost-effectiveness, and compatibility with the conditions of the project. Sungrow, as a pioneer, was able to surpass all of our expectations with their state-of-the-art product," commented Mehedi Islam Aneek, Project Manager of Orion Group.

Recently, the government of Bangladesh unveiled its renewable energy generation strategy for the Eighth Five-Year Plan period. The government said the new strategy will have to be aggressively pursued so that all that is planned to get implemented in time and the required policy support is prioritized. Citing the significant success of the introduction of rooftop PV systems and the role solar energy has played in providing lighting for homes, the Bangladeshi government said that the Eighth Five-Year Plan will continue to focus on solar and wind power development.

"We are honored and excited to be a part of the first 130 MWp scale solar project in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's rapid industrialization has led to a drastic demand increase for power generation and the government is more focused on renewable energy development than ever before. With our experience and expertise, Sungrow is ready to expand our footprint in this growing market and assist Bangladesh in reaching its renewable power generation targets and beyond," said Hu Yukun, Regional Manager, South Asia of Sungrow.

About Sungrow

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over 182 GW installed worldwide as of June 2021. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters, with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions. With a strong 24-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power installations in over 150 countries. Learn more about Sungrow by visiting www.sungrowpower.com.

SOURCE Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd.
EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beghou Consulting recently opened an office in Pune, India, to expand its global advanced analytics and data science team. Beghou's Pune-based team will collaborate with U.S.-based colleagues to help life sciences companies improve commercial effectiveness.

"We have assembled a team of highly skilled and experienced advanced analytics and commercial operations practitioners in Pune," said Dan Wetherill, partner and leader of Beghou Consulting's advanced analytics and data science team. "These professionals will strengthen our firmwide analytics capabilities and enhance our ability to deliver innovative solutions to clients' most pressing commercial challenges."

As an extension of Beghou's U.S.-based advanced analytics and data science team, the consulting team in Pune will support the firm's work with life sciences companies on go-to-market strategy, product launch strategy, commercial strategy and operations, customer engagement modeling, and more.

The Pune office is led by Saurabh Kukreti, who joins Beghou with 17 years of management consulting and analytics experience. Kukreti specializes in commercialization strategy, data strategy, operations excellence and business analytics. He has extensive global experience, having worked in the United States, Europe and India. Prior to joining Beghou, Kukreti led Eversana's consulting and analytics capability team in India. Kukreti has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India, and a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from Meerut University, India.

"We have great ambitions for our team in Pune," Kukreti said. "We're adding scale to Beghou's capabilities and strengthening the firm's ability to develop advanced analytics-based solutions for clients. As we continue to grow, we expect the Pune office to be an incubation center for analytics innovations for the firm."

The Pune office, which is Beghou's eighth globally, is located at Sr. No. 15, 3rd Floor, West Wing, Marisoft 3, Marigold, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

About Beghou Consulting

Founded in 1993, Beghou Consulting specializes in helping life sciences companies  especially emerging pharma companies  establish and manage commercial operations to better market and sell therapies. Deploying advanced analytics and proprietary technology, Beghou consultants have provided strategic counsel to the top pharmaceutical companies in the world, supporting some since infancy. Headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, the firm has eight offices and employs more than 150 professionals around the world. To learn more, visit www.beghouconsulting.com or follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/750669/Beghou_Dark_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Beghou Consulting
BOSTON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (BFIT), a private non-profit college offering affordable education for people seeking technical and trade careers, announced today a partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) to develop an associate degree in biotechnology manufacturing. The program will be housed at the Nubian Square Life Science Training Center, a collaboration of organizations uniting to meet the demand for a well-trained and diverse life sciences workforce, with additional funding through a $100,000 grant from Kargman Family Foundation.

The training partnership between BFIT and Ginkgo Bioworks, the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, will focus on supporting the development of critical workforce skills in the areas of biotechnology, biomanufacturing, clinical research and bioengineering. Program graduates will be prepared and trained for a wide range of entry- and mid-level technician positions focused on operations and maintenance, positions that are in high demand throughout the life sciences field. A 2020 report by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation shows a 67% increase in life sciences jobs in Massachusetts over the past decade. The report also projected over 109,000 life science jobs in Massachusetts by the year 2024.

"Our partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks is another example of BFIT's nimble approach toward identifying high demand industries that require a skilled workforce and offer opportunities for sustainable career development for our graduates," said Aisha Francis, President and CEO of BFIT. "This new associate's degree in biotechnology manufacturing positions our students to play a critical role in supplying a diverse and qualified workforce to fill Massachusetts' booming life science and medical industry."

"There is a common misconception that only those with advanced degrees are qualified for jobs in the life sciences field. It's time for that misconception to be corrected," said Reshma Shetty, co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and President of Ginkgo Bioworks. "BFIT has strong community connections and a reputation for successfully educating young people in technical careers, and Ginkgo is committed to producing the next generation of life sciences professionals. Through this partnership, we hope to create long-term career opportunities for individuals who may not have previously considered this field."

A key enabler of the associate degree in biotechnology manufacturing program will be the Nubian Square Life Science Training Center, housed at Nubian Square Ascends in the Roxbury neighborhood. The training center will neighbor BFITs proposed 68,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art campus planned for the corner of Harrison Ave and Eustis Street, remaking the landscape and adding economic vitality to this historically and culturally rich area. Both projects were approved at the BPDA board meeting on December 16, 2021. The Nubian Square Life Science Training Center is also located in close proximity to Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, John D. OBryant School of Mathematics and Science, Dearborn STEM Academy, Roxbury Community College, and other academic institutions with young talent anxious to be prepared for life science careers. It will be designed to include lab training facilities; BFIT instructors will provide instruction to the talented students studying to enter the growing industries.

"We've entered into this strategic education partnership with corporate partners to make sure that community members from areas historically overlooked have access to new economy jobs that are in high demand and pay well. This is what equity in action looks like and it's long overdue," said Richard Taylor, Managing Director of the Nubian Ascends project.

The Nubian Square Life Science Training Center has already received a $100,000 grant from the Kargman Family Foundation to educate and explain Life Science career options to high school students, community college students, and adults seeking new careers in Boston.

About Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

Founded in 1908 in Boston, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology is an affordable, urban College serving the Boston region and committed to student success and career readiness in technology fields, 90% of which are integrated with an approach to sustainability. With clean and green tech verticals in their top programs like HVAC&R, Wind Energy Technology, Automotive, and Electrical Engineering, BFIT provides personalized support, hands-on learning, and industry-informed curricula to prepare graduates for well-paid work, life-long learning, and civic engagement. For more information, please go to www.bfit.edu .

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo is building a platform to enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12 pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com .

About Nubian Sqaure Ascends

In addition to the Life Science Training Center, the Nubian Ascends project will offer affordable artist housing, artist studio and collaboration spaces, commercial space, a marketplace, a 300-car parking garage, and a multi-purpose cultural hall and theater that will support Nubian Square's transformation as a new iconic space for the region. The proposed commercial space will promote job creation, which will bring purchasing power to support neighborhood businesses and create demand for the 48,000 sf marketplace on the ground floor. The marketplace will feature local artisans and makers and a food hall that showcases chefs from an on-site culinary arts program. www.nubiansquareascends.com

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document, including but not limited to: (i) the effect of the business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Soaring Eagle") on Ginkgo's business relationships, performance, and business generally, (ii) risks that the business combination disrupts current plans of Ginkgo and potential difficulties in Ginkgo's employee retention, (iii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Ginkgo related to its business combination with Soaring Eagle, (iv) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities now that it is a public company due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business and changes in the combined capital structure, (v) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the business combination, and identify and realize additional opportunities, and (vi) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 15, 2021 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo 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. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:

[email protected]

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:

[email protected]

SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks
BNY Mellon and SNB Capital are pleased to announce a transformative data management solutions collaboration Tweet this

Building on the earlier strategic alliance to deliver securities services capabilities, SNB Capital will deploy BNY Mellon's data platform within its IT infrastructure in the Kingdom. The award-winning BNY Mellon data platform enables organizations to transform their data landscapes by centralizing and effectively managing complex investment assets. Capabilities include providing user-centric solutions designed to deliver accurate and timely data, gauge risk exposure and provide system-wide security via a centralized data repository.

The solution is one of the first of its kind to provide services within SNB Capital's IT infrastructure designed in accordance with the Kingdom's data-localization requirements, adding a unique value proposition. This latest collaboration is a significant development for Saudi Arabia's financial sector and is set to deliver institutional clients of SNB Capital a single, unified solution for local and global assets.

Akash Shah, Chief Growth Officer of BNY Mellon, said, "As capital markets shift towards a digital future, we are delighted to further our alliance with SNB Capital by providing a future-ready data analytics solution to help build the leading global capital markets infrastructure in the Kingdom and drive growth. Our collaboration combines the strengths of leading institutions to support the demands of Saudi Arabia's growing financial sector and vision of a sustainable diversified economic ecosystem. At BNY Mellon, our mission is to empower our clients, institutions and leaders to succeed across the financial world, and we are proud to build on our legacy of trust and innovation in the region."

Rashed Sharif, CEO of SNB Capital, added, "Our leading role in growing and developing the Kingdom's capital markets and the financial sector in line with Vision 2030 is highly dependent on having the right technology, capabilities and partners. This deployment reinforces our top market position when it comes to serving the complex data management and reporting needs of institutions and large asset owners in the Kingdom. The strength of our partnership with BNY Mellon will be a driver for continued growth in our Custody and Asset Servicing business."

BNY Mellon's state-of-the-art data management platform, which aims to accelerate the optimization of typically manual investment workflows, will offer SNB Capital's clients in the Kingdom significant opportunities to improve their performance through enhanced data flows. This open-architecture software will connect all market participants and enable collaboration with leading technology providing clients the tools for using data in the front, middle and back offices.

The collaboration builds on BNY Mellon's activity in the region, including the previous announcement of a strategic alliance with SNB Capital, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's largest custodian. This marked a key milestone in the Kingdom's capital markets infrastructure and Saudi Vision 2030, which includes creating a diversified financial services sector to support the development of the national economy.

As the market continues to evolve, supported by the National Investment Strategy, SNB Capital and BNY Mellon are committed to the long-term goals of attracting global investors, whilst developing world leading market infrastructure, cybersecurity and data resiliency solutions.

ABOUT BNY MELLON

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment and wealth management and investment services in 35 countries. As of Sept. 30, 2021, BNY Mellon had $45.3 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $2.3 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.

ABOUT SNB CAPITAL

SNB Capital is the securities, asset management and investment banking arm of Saudi National Bank (Tadawul: 1180), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's largest commercial bank. SNB Capital provides Securities, Wealth & Asset Management and Investment Banking services to: (i) local retail, affluent and High Net Worth clients, as well as (ii) local, regional and international institutional clients. SNB Capital's market leadership is evidenced by its position as: Saudi Arabia's largest custodian settling 22% of trades on Tadawul in Q4 2020, the Kingdom's largest asset manager with $57 billion in assets under management as of June 2021, one of the sector's leading investment banks, and a consistently top ranked broker on Tadawul. SNB Capital is licensed and authorized by the Capital Market Authority to provide the following services: Dealing as Principal and Agent, Custody, Underwriting, Managing, Arranging and Advising with respect to securities. Additional information is available on www.alahlicapital.com. Follow us on Twitter @AlAhliCapital.

SOURCE The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
A milestone in the global voluntary carbon credit market, we believe the MCO2 token's availability on Coinbase underscores the credibility of the Brazilian climate tech Moss and its pioneering status as a global leader in environmental blockchain solutions.

SAO PAULO, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Moss, a climatech pioneer and global leader in the trading of blockchain carbon credits, has just been listed on Coinbase, one of the world's largest exchanges at more than 73 million verified users and US$ 255 billion in assets on platform as of September 30, 2021. We believe this to be a landmark in the global voluntary carbon credit market, and that the offer of the MCO2 token on Coinbase underscores the credibility and global performance of the Brazilian startup.

MCO2, launched by Moss in March of 2020, is the first truly global blockchain-backed green digital asset. An MCO2 token is equivalent to one carbon credit, or one ton of carbon dioxide that is no longer emitted into the atmosphere through initiatives that are part of the REDD and REDD+ (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) framework.

"Being listed on Coinbase is an extremely important milestone for Moss. I believe this achievement attests to our global performance and the credibility of MCO2 in the market, which allows us to further democratize access to the carbon credit market and direct resources towards the conservation and preservation of the Amazon," notes Luis Felipe Adaime, CEO and founder of Moss. The largest carbon credit tokenization project in history, MCO2 is audited by CertiK (UP Alliance), Armanino, and receives legal advice from the international firm Perkins Coie.

MCO2 has already been used by more than 300 companies around the globe. The company has partnered with One River Asset Management to offset the first carbon neutral bitcoin fund in the world. Moss has also offset all of Skybridge's crypto holdings. In Brazil, the company works with GOL, Brazil's largest airline, to enable its customers to offset their emissions through the purchase of the MCO2 token. All of this accounts for more than 2.3 million MCO2 traded, representing more than 2% of the total volume of carbon credits traded annually in the world. Through this initiative, more than US$ 20 million have already been earmarked for sustainability projects involving the Amazon Rainforest.

Carbon credits are a kind of currency generated by those who promote environmental conservation and which can be purchased by governments and companies to offset polluting emissions. Moss's innovation consists in backing in blockchain a real green asset generated by environmental projects in the Amazon Rainforest and which can be traded on exchanges or used to neutralize gases in the atmosphere.

Recently, MCO2 was also listed on Gemini, being the first Latin American asset to be available on this global exchange and also the first Brazilian asset to be included in the ProBit reserve. BKEX, Gate.io, Uniswap users also have access to the token, which can additionally be traded through Mercado Bitcoin and NovaDax.

About Moss

Moss is a climatech company offering environmental services through blockchain knowledge. In 2020, it created MCO2, the first carbon credit-backed token used to offset greenhouse gases. Since March 2020, Moss has transacted over US$ 20 million that have helped to conserve approximately 735 million trees in the Amazon through internationally certified and audited projects. The MCO2 token is listed on platforms such as Mercado Bitcoin, Novadax and globally on Coinbase, Gemini, BKEX, Gate.io and Uniswap.

Press information:

Moss | [email protected]

SOURCE Moss
SHANGHAI, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dingdong (Cayman) Limited ("Dingdong" or the "Company") (NYSE: DDL), a leading and the fastest growing on-demand e-commerce company in China, today announced that its board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to US$30.0 million of its shares over a period until December 19, 2022.

The Company's proposed repurchases may be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices, in privately negotiated transactions, in block trades and/or through other legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. The Company's board of directors will review the share repurchase program periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size. The Company expects to fund the repurchases out of its existing cash balance.

About Dingdong (Cayman) Limited

Dingdong (Cayman) Limited is a leading and fastest-growing on-demand e-commerce company in China providing users with fresh produce, meat and seafood, and other daily necessities through a convenient and excellent shopping experience supported by an extensive self-operated frontline fulfillment grid. From its core product category of fresh groceries, Dingdong has expanded to provide other daily necessities to grow into a leading one-stop online shopping destination in China for consumers to make purchases for their daily lives. At the same time, Dingdong is working to modernize China's traditional agricultural supply chain through standardization and digitalization, empowering upstream farms and suppliers to make their production more efficient and tailored to actual demand.

For more information, please visit: www.100.me.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident," "potential," "continue," or other similar expressions. Among other things, business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Dingdong's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Dingdong may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its interim and annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including but not limited to statements about Dingdong's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Dingdong's goals and strategies; Dingdong's future business development, financial conditions, and results of operations; the expected outlook of the on-demand e-commerce market in China; Dingdong's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its products and services; Dingdong's expectations regarding its relationships with its users, clients, business partners, and other stakeholders; competition in Dingdong's industry; Dingdong's proposed use of proceeds; and relevant government policies and regulations relating to Dingdong's industry, and general economic and business conditions globally and in China and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this announcement and in the attachments is as of the date of the announcement, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For more information, please contact:

Dingdong Fresh

[email protected]

SOURCE Dingdong (Cayman) Limited

Related Links

https://ir.100.me/


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight years ago, on 19 December 2013, a Swedish arbitration tribunal found that the Republic of Kazakhstan had violated its obligations under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and awarded Tristan Oil's owners damages of approximately US$ 500 million.

The Swedish arbitration tribunal ruled that "it is indisputable that Kazakhstan directly expropriated investments" and that the authorities had conducted "a string of measures of coordinated harassment". The tribunal noted that these measures included false accusations of illegal conduct, fabricated criminal prosecutions, unwarranted tax assessments, and criminal penalties.

Eight years later, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Justice is still obstructing payment of this final, binding and non-appealable Award. In June 2020, the Ministry took its campaign of resistance to the US courts. It filed a civil complaint in New York against a significant bondholder in Tristan Oil, Argentem Creek, and its CEO, alleging that they were part of a conspiracy to defraud Kazakhstan.

The Tristangate Award has been recognized in multiple jurisdictions, including the US, Sweden, Luxembourg, Italy, France, and the Netherlands. Kazakhstan's refusal to honor the Award has led to the freezing of Kazakhstani assets worth a total of US$5.8 billion worldwide.

The bondholder group, including Argentem Creek, is due to receive 70% of the award proceeds under a sharing agreement with the claimants. The total value of the award, including all accrued interest and costs, stands at approximately US$ 544 million as of December 2021.

For a history of the Tristangate dispute and an archive of all related court documents and news articles, please visit www.tristangate.com .

SOURCE Argentem Creek Partners
VANCOUVER, BC, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Gold Royalty Corp. (NYSE American: GROY) ("Gold Royalty" or the "Company") announces its intention to pursue an offer to acquire all of the outstanding common shares (the "Elemental Shares") of Elemental Royalties Corp. (TSXV: ELE) ("Elemental") for consideration consisting of 0.27 common shares of Gold Royalty (the "Gold Royalty Shares") in exchange for each Elemental Share (the "Offer").

The Offer values Elemental at C$1.78 per share and represents a premium of 37% to Elemental shareholders based upon the closing prices of the Elemental Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Gold Royalty Shares on the NYSE American on December 17, 2021, being the trading day immediately prior to this announcement. The Offer implies a total equity value for Elemental of approximately C$130 million on a fully diluted, in-the-money basis, and Elemental shareholders are expected to own approximately 12% of the combined entity upon completion of the transaction.

Financial and Strategic Benefits of the Offer

Gold Royalty believes that the significant benefits of the transaction include, among other things:

Significant Upfront Premium to Elemental Shareholders. The Offer represents a 37% premium to Elemental shareholders based on the closing prices of each company's shares on December 17, 2021 . The Offer implies consideration of C$1.78 per share, which exceeds Elemental's 2021 peak share price. Additionally, Gold Royalty has completed three acquisitions in 2021, and in each case the implied premium paid is higher today than at the time of the transaction announcements due to the strong performance of the Gold Royalty Shares, which could further enhance the ultimate premium realized by Elemental shareholders.





The Offer represents a 37% premium to Elemental shareholders based on the closing prices of each company's shares on . The Offer implies consideration of per share, which exceeds Elemental's 2021 peak share price. Additionally, Gold Royalty has completed three acquisitions in 2021, and in each case the implied premium paid is higher today than at the time of the transaction announcements due to the strong performance of the Gold Royalty Shares, which could further enhance the ultimate premium realized by Elemental shareholders. The Combination of Gold Royalty and Elemental will Create a Sector  Leading Portfolio of 200 Strategic Royalties. The combined entity will have a balanced portfolio of cash flowing, development and exploration assets owned by premier operating partners and located in Tier 1 mining jurisdictions. This provides Elemental shareholders with ownership in a larger, more diversified, higher quality portfolio of royalty assets anchored by cornerstone royalties on Canadian Malartic ( Quebec, Canada ), Fenelon ( Quebec, Canada ), and Karlawinda ( Australia ). In addition, the portfolio's peer-leading growth profile will be driven by a deep development and exploration pipeline, including Gold Royalty's interest in Ren ( Nevada, USA ), Gold Royalty's royalty generator model and future acquisitions.





The combined entity will have a balanced portfolio of cash flowing, development and exploration assets owned by premier operating partners and located in Tier 1 mining jurisdictions. This provides Elemental shareholders with ownership in a larger, more diversified, higher quality portfolio of royalty assets anchored by cornerstone royalties on Canadian Malartic ( ), Fenelon ( ), and Karlawinda ( ). In addition, the portfolio's peer-leading growth profile will be driven by a deep development and exploration pipeline, including Gold Royalty's interest in Ren ( ), Gold Royalty's royalty generator model and future acquisitions. Enhanced Trading Liquidity. Gold Royalty has averaged US$3.2 million of daily trading liquidity over the past six months, as compared to US$60 thousand for Elemental. A combination with Gold Royalty is expected to allow Elemental shareholders to realize an immediate premium in a more liquid vehicle.





Gold Royalty has averaged of daily trading liquidity over the past six months, as compared to for Elemental. A combination with Gold Royalty is expected to allow Elemental shareholders to realize an immediate premium in a more liquid vehicle. Strong Balance Sheet and Access to Capital. Gold Royalty currently has approximately US$30 million in cash and marketable securities and no debt. With an oversubscribed US$90 million initial public offering in March 2021 , Gold Royalty has demonstrated the ability to access capital markets at an attractive cost of capital, providing the combined company with the critical mass to drive continued growth through acquisition.





Gold Royalty currently has approximately in cash and marketable securities and no debt. With an oversubscribed initial public offering in , Gold Royalty has demonstrated the ability to access capital markets at an attractive cost of capital, providing the combined company with the critical mass to drive continued growth through acquisition. Management Track Record of Maximizing Shareholder Value . Gold Royalty has a management team with deep mining and capital markets expertise and a solid track record and proven experience in the royalty and broader mining industry. The Gold Royalty management team has demonstrated its ability, through its recent acquisitions of Ely Gold Royalties Inc., Abitibi Royalties Inc. and Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd., to successfully execute transformative acquisitions in an increasingly competitive market.





. Gold Royalty has a management team with deep mining and capital markets expertise and a solid track record and proven experience in the royalty and broader mining industry. The Gold Royalty management team has demonstrated its ability, through its recent acquisitions of Ely Gold Royalties Inc., Abitibi Royalties Inc. and and Royalties Ltd., to successfully execute transformative acquisitions in an increasingly competitive market. Clear Path to Rerate Through Increased Scale, Asset Quality and Precious Metals Focus. In combination with Elemental, Gold Royalty will be strategically positioned as the preeminent intermediate gold royalty company. In addition to the upfront premium, Elemental shareholders may benefit from a potential valuation re-rating as a result of the combined company's increased scale, portfolio diversification, trading liquidity, index inclusion within the GDXJ, and the potential for future growth through acquisition.

David Garofalo, Chairman, President and CEO of Gold Royalty, commented: "We believe the proposed transaction represents a compelling opportunity for both companies. With 200 royalties, covering all stages of development and production, a strong balance sheet, enhanced market visibility and critical mass, the combined company will be well-positioned for continued growth in today's increasingly competitive royalty landscape. Accordingly, we believe that this transaction is in the best interests of the shareholders of both Elemental and Gold Royalty, which is why we intend to take the Offer directly to Elemental shareholders."

The Proposed Offer

Full details of the Offer will be included in a take-over bid circular and letter of transmittal and notice of guaranteed delivery (collectively, the "Offer Documents") to be filed with applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities and mailed to Elemental shareholders. Gold Royalty will request a list of shareholders from Elemental and expects to commence and mail the Offer Documents as soon as reasonably practical upon receipt of this list. The Offer will be open for acceptance for 105 days following commencement thereof.

The Offer will be subject to certain customary conditions of completion, including, among others: there having been validly deposited under the Offer, and not withdrawn, that number of Elemental Shares representing more than 50% of the outstanding Elemental Shares, excluding those Elemental Shares beneficially owned, or over which control or direction is exercised, by Gold Royalty or by any person acting jointly or in concert with Gold Royalty; there having been validly deposited under the Offer and not withdrawn that number of Elemental Shares representing at least 66 2/3% of the outstanding Elemental Shares (calculated on a fully diluted basis), excluding Elemental Shares held by Gold Royalty; receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals; customary approval of the NYSE American in relation to the issuance and listing of the additional Gold Royalty Shares under the Offer; and the absence of material changes to the business of Elemental.

Background to the Offer

Gold Royalty initially submitted a premium acquisition proposal to Elemental on October 21, 2021, with the objective of working collaboratively with Elemental to negotiate a mutually-beneficial, board-supported transaction. Gold Royalty submitted a further proposal to Elemental on December 15, 2021 and has attempted on several occasions to engage in discussions with Elemental and its board of directors. In the absence of any constructive engagement from Elemental in response to Gold Royalty's bona fide, premium proposals, Gold Royalty now intends to take its Offer directly to Elemental shareholders. The proposed Offer is based exclusively on publicly available information.

Advisors

Gold Royalty has engaged CIBC World Markets Inc. to act as its financial advisor in connection with the Offer and has engaged Sangra Moller LLP to act as its legal advisor in Canada and Haynes & Boone LLP to act as its legal advisor in the United States.

Laurel Hill Advisory Group has been engaged by Gold Royalty to act as its information agent and strategic communications advisor in connection with the Offer.

About Gold Royalty Corp.

Gold Royalty Corp. is a gold-focused royalty company offering creative financing solutions to the metals and mining industry. Its mission is to acquire royalties, streams and similar interests at varying stages of the mine life cycle to build a balanced portfolio offering near, medium and longer-term attractive returns for its investors. Gold Royalty's diversified portfolio currently consists of net smelter return royalties on gold properties located in the Americas.

No Offer or Solicitation

This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, any securities. The offer to acquire Elemental securities and to issue securities of Gold Royalty will be made solely by, and subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Offer Documents.

Notice to U.S. Elemental Shareholders

Gold Royalty intends to make the offer and sale of the Gold Royalty Shares in the Offer subject to a registration statement of Gold Royalty covering such offer and sale to be filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Such registration statement covering such offer and sale will include various documents related to such offer and sale, including a prospectus relating to the Offer. INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS OF ELEMENTAL ARE URGED TO READ SUCH REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND ANY AND ALL OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE OFFER AS THOSE DOCUMENTS BECOME AVAILABLE, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THOSE DOCUMENTS, BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. You will be able to obtain a free copy of such registration statement, as well as other relevant filings regarding Gold Royalty or such transaction involving the issuance of the Gold Royalty Shares at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov) under Gold Royalty's issuer profile, or on request without charge from Gold Royalty, at 1830-1030 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6E 2Y3 or by telephone at 1 (833) 396-3066.

Gold Royalty is a foreign private issuer and is permitted to prepare the offer to purchase and take-over bid circular and related documents in accordance with Canadian disclosure requirements, which are different from those of the United States. Gold Royalty prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, and they may not be directly comparable to financial statements of United States companies.

Shareholders of Elemental should be aware that owning Gold Royalty Shares may subject them to tax consequences both in the United States and in Canada. The offer to purchase and take-over bid circular may not describe these tax consequences fully. Elemental shareholders should read any tax discussion in the offer to purchase and take-over bid circular, and holders of Elemental Shares are urged to consult their tax advisors.

An Elemental shareholder's ability to enforce civil liabilities under the United States federal securities laws may be affected adversely because Gold Royalty is incorporated in Canada, some or all of Gold Royalty's officers and directors and some or all of the experts named in the offering documents reside outside of the United States, and a substantial portion of Gold Royalty's assets and of the assets of such persons are located outside the United States. Elemental shareholders in the United States may not be able to sue Gold Royalty or its officers or directors in a non-U.S. court for violation of United States federal securities laws. It may be difficult to compel such parties to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of a court in the United States or to enforce a judgment obtained from a court of the United States.

NEITHER THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY STATE SECURITIES REGULATOR HAS OR WILL HAVE APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE GOLD ROYALTY SHARES OFFERED IN THE OFFERING DOCUMENTS, OR HAS OR WILL HAVE DETERMINED IF ANY OFFERING DOCUMENTS ARE TRUTHFUL OR COMPLETE. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

Elemental shareholders should be aware that, during the period of the Offer, Gold Royalty or its affiliates, directly or indirectly, may bid for or make purchases of the securities to be distributed or to be exchanged, or certain related securities, as permitted by applicable laws or regulations of Canada or its provinces or territories.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

Certain of the information contained in this news release constitutes 'forward-looking information' and 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws ("forward-looking statements") and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Gold Royalty's actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. The words "believe", "expect", "will", "propose" and derivatives thereof and other expressions which are predictions of or indicate future events, trends or prospects and which do not relate to historical matters, identify the above mentioned and other forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements relating to: the proposed terms and conditions of the Offer, including the satisfaction of the conditions thereunder; the anticipated mailing of Offer Documents and the anticipated timing, benefits and effects of the completion of the Offer and expectations regarding the combined portfolios of the companies and its future cash flow generation, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to obtain necessary approvals, including any stock exchange approvals, and to meet the other conditions under the Offer, the ability to realize the benefits under the proposed transaction, material adverse effects on the business, properties and assets of the parties; the impact of general economic and market conditions; any inability of the operators of the properties underlying the parties' royalty and other interests to execute proposed plans for such properties, risks related to such operators or the exploration, development and mining operations of the properties underlying the parties' royalty and other interests; impacts of macroeconomic developments as well as the impact of and the responses of relevant governments to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of such responses; and any inability of the parties to carry out growth plans. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Gold Royalty Corp.
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Letter of Credit Confirmation Market by L/C Type (Sight L/C and Usance L/C) and End User (Small-sized Businesses, Medium-sized Businesses, and Large Enterprises): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030". According to the report, the global letter of credit confirmation industry generated $3.91 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to generate $5.09 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 2.7% from 2021 to 2030.

Prime determinants of growth

Increased risk of non-payment and surge in demand for customized trade servicesdrive the growth of the global letter of credit confirmation market. However, increase in fraud and cyber-attacks restrain the market to some extent. On the other hand, new technological developments and untapped potential of emerging economies present new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Sample Report (Get Full Insights in PDF  285+ Pages) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6677

Covid-19 scenario

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the global letter of credit confirmation market, owing to reduction of the demand for letter of credit confirmation as the importers and exporters had to stop their trading business lockdown implementation.

Moreover, with the disruption in the economy, banks refused to issue confirmed letter of credit since the chances of bad debt were higher during the pandemic due to surge in the number of bankrupts.

The hardware segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on L/C type, the sight L/C segment held the highest market share in 2020, accounting for more than two-thirds of the global letter of credit confirmation market, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period, owing to its instant and timely payment features are largely used by traders due to in the market. However, the usance L/C segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 3.4% from 2021 to 2030. This payment method helps in building long-term trust among the buyers & sellers who are involved in international trade transactions.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Letter Of Credit Confirmation Market @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/6677?reqfor=covid

The guidance technology segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on end user, the large enterprises segment accounted for the largest share in 2020, contributing to around three-fourths of the global letter of credit confirmation market, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. These businesses generally trade domestically and have a limited credit term while trading in their country. Moreover, the Small & Medium-Sized enterprises segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 4.69% from 2021 to 2030, owing to large companies in the industries such as healthcare, media & technology companies, power & utility industries, and others trade at a large scale and generate higher revenue in their businesses.

North America to maintain its dominance by 2030

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in terms of revenue 2020, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global letter of credit confirmation market. This is attributed due to the increasing inclination of the farmers toward the use of digital technology for yield management. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 3.49% during the forecast period, owing to strong economic growth along with the ongoing development in the agriculture sector.

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Leading Market Players:-

Bank of America Corporation

Citigroup, Inc.

DBS Bank Ltd.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Mizuho Bank , Ltd.

, Ltd. MUFG Bank, Ltd.

Scotiabank

Standard Chartered

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

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Pawan Kumar, the CEO of Allied Market Research, is leading the organization toward providing high-quality data and insights. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
VANCOUVER, BC, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Northstar Clean Technologies Inc. (TSXV: ROOF) ("Northstar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that all matters put forward to its shareholders at the Company's annual general and special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") held on Wednesday, December 15, 2021 were duly approved. Details of the voting results are provided below.

At the Meeting, the Company's shareholders overwhelmingly approved the matters brought before the Meeting, including: the expansion of the board from five to six directors, the election of the six director candidates proposed by management; the reappointment of Davidson & Company LLP as auditors of the Company; and the approval of the Company's omnibus equity incentive plan. The Company's Board of Directors is now composed of the following:

Aidan Mills , President & CEO, Director

, President & CEO, Director James Currie , Executive Chairman, Director

, Executive Chairman, Director Gregg J. Sedun , Lead Independent Director

, Lead Independent Director Neil Currie , Director

, Director Gord Johnson, Director

James Borkowski , Director

A total of 68 shareholders were represented in person or by proxy with 39,599,279 common shares voted, representing 37.31% of the Company's outstanding common shares.

Mr. James Currie, Executive Chairman of Northstar, stated, "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to welcome Aidan to the Board. Aidan has shown tremendous leadership as CEO of Northstar and his breadth of knowledge, industry expertise and strong passion for the business will be a significant addition to the Board as Northstar continues to grow and expand its asphalt shingle processing facilities across Canada."

About Northstar

Northstar Clean Technologies Inc. is a Vancouver-based clean technology company focused on the recovery and repurposing of single-use asphalt shingles. Northstar has developed a proprietary design process for taking discarded asphalt shingles, otherwise destined for already over-crowded landfills, and extracting the liquid asphalt, aggregate sands and fiber for usage in new hot mix asphalt, construction products and other industrial applications. Northstar plans to process used or defective asphalt shingle waste back into its three primary components for reuse/resale at its Empower Facility in Delta, British Columbia. Northstar's mission is to be one of the leading shingle material recovery providers in North America, extracting 99% of the recovered components from asphalt shingles that would otherwise be sent to a landfill. For more information on Northstar, please visit www.northstarcleantech.com.

On Behalf of Northstar

Aidan Mills

President & CEO, Director

Cautionary Statement 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. The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

This press release may contain forwardlooking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which forwardlooking information reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include the Company's expectation to expand its shingle processing facilities across Canada. Forwardlooking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forwardlooking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the final prospectus of the Company dated June 18, 2021. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update such forwardlooking information whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and such changes could be material. The Company does not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update the forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.

SOURCE Northstar Clean Technologies Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Novea, Inc., ("Novea") a financial technology (fintech) software company founded in 2015, announced today that it has closed $50 million in equity and $5 million debt financing. The equity proceeds will go towards wholly-owned subsidiaries of Novea, Jacana Warranty and Jacana Insurance, to support a proprietary user application platform it developed which is revolutionizing the consumer warranty and service contracts industry. The debt proceeds will support general corporate overhead expenses.

The investment is provided by Swiss-based Newpoint Financial Group, a global diversified financial services firm ("Newpoint") with operations located throughout Europe, United States and West Africa. The investment was made through Newpoint's U.S. subsidiary, Newpoint Financial Corp.

In exchange for Newpoint's $50 million equity investment, Novea has issued to Newpoint ten percent of its outstanding common stock and convertible redeemable preferred shares. The investment proceeds are being applied as statutory and solvency capital within Novea's insurance division, Jacana Insurancebolstering its balance sheet for its global insurance underwriting commitments. As part of the transaction, Newpoint has also provided Novea a $5 million, five-year, revolving line of credit which Novea may draw down and use for corporate operational and overhead expenses. In addition, Newpoint was granted a warrant to purchase additional Novea common stock which may be exercised at Newpoint's discretion in an amount up to $50 million over the next ten years, which if exercised in total, increases the transaction value to $105 million. Other investment conditions include Newpoint having board of directors and risk committee representation rights, and Newpoint's reinsurance company, Newpoint RE having first right of refusal on all Novea reinsurance business opportunities as well as other customary covenants and monitoring rights.

Jim Quinlan, CEO of Novea stated "We couldn't have asked for a better financial and reinsurance partner than Newpoint Financial. With this funding, we not only ensure moving Novea to the next level, but we are able to reward our existing long-term investors with a significant appreciation of their Novea shares as this transaction imputes a $500 million market value of Novea." Mr. Quinlan further commented, "Over the past couple of months, we have been closing multiple new customer contracts which represent significant sales growth for 2022 and we are looking to close out this year's sales pipeline with contracts value in excess of $10 million in potential new sales."

Keith D. Beekmeyer, CEO of Newpoint stated "2021 has been a landmark year for Newpoint having closed $250 million in solvency capital investments into multiple insurance and reinsurance companies throughout Europe and the United States. We're pleased to end the year on a high note with this $50 million investment into Novea. We believe that Novea's technology and proprietary claims processing will redefine the consumer warranty marketplace and we are looking forward to a long term mutually prosperous partnership with them."

Iroko Securities, a Newpoint subsidiary, served as financial advisor to Newpoint. NMS Consulting served as strategic advisor to Novea.

About NOVEA, INC.

Novea Inc.is a financial services technology (FinTech) software company which has launched its proprietary user app, Jacana Warranty fully backed by Jacana Insurance, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Novea, Inc. Jacana Insurance is a captive specialty insurance carrier that offers warranties and service contracts on consumer products and electronics. Jacana Warranty has put the warranty buying power back into the hands of the consumer with the goal of becoming the consumer's ideal choice. For more information, please visit www.jacanawarranty.com.

About Newpoint Financial Group SARL.

Newpoint Financial Group SARL., together with its global affiliates and subsidiaries is a global diversified financial services holding company which operates across multiple business units including insurance, reinsurance, insurance brokerage, investment banking, wealth management and asset management with operations located throughout Europe, United States and West Africa. For more information, please visit our website at: www.newpointfinancialcorp.com .

Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," " intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

Media and Investor Relations Contact:

Lili Swanson

NMS Consulting

[email protected]

+1 310 855 0020







SOURCE Novea Inc

Related Links

http://www.jacanawarranty.com

http://www.newpointfinancialcorp.com


OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, leading research and action institute PolicyLink announced a new, three-year partnership with Sony Corporation of America. Through the partnership, Sony is donating $1 million which will be used to advance Policylink's "Winning on Equity" campaign. The donation is coming from the Sony Global Social Justice Fund and will support PolicyLink's initiatives to create racial and economic equity through its Racial Equity Governing Agenda , Corporate Racial Equity education, and Radical Imagination podcast, amongst other bodies of work.

Over the last two decades, PolicyLink has developed a critical understanding of what is required to build, launch, sustain, implement, and scale successful racial equity policy initiatives through delivering over $5 billion in racial equity policy wins. As PolicyLink begins its most comprehensive portfolio reset, the Sony contribution will help PolicyLink work toward its boldest "Winning on Equity" goal to date: the swift and tangible reduction of poverty in the United States.

Cross-sectoral alliances with corporations, government, and local organizers are key to scaling the impact of antiracist organizing to meet the urgent needs of the 100 million people living in poverty in the United States. The "Winning on Equity" campaign is designed to support corporations in becoming equity champions by providing them with customized roadmaps, rigorous standards, accountability mechanisms, and narratives that evolve their engagement beyond philanthropy into active practice.

"PolicyLink's commitment to achieving equity by equipping all people with the resources that allow them to participate, prosper and reach their full potential is in line with the goals of Sony and our Global Social Justice Fund," said Karen Kelso, Senior Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sony Corporation of America. "Our partnership will support their continued efforts to enable everyone, especially people of color, to be economically secure, live in healthy communities of opportunity and benefit from a just society."

"A world without poverty is possible, and it nears closer and closer, when corporations like Sony take bold action to end human hierarchy. At PolicyLink, 'Winning on Equity' is just that: we will continue to collaborate with courageous partners like Sony Corporation of America to ensure the 100 million people currently living in poverty are finally and totally liberated from this arcane condition," said Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink.

SOURCE Sony Corporation of America
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the transaction results in a sale of 100% of Streem shares to Cision and will see the Streem brand and platform continue in Australia and New Zealand under its current leadership team and local staff.



Significant benefits will flow to Streem customers from the global reach of Cision, and clients will continue to receive the same local support, expertise and Streem platform they have experienced since the company's launch.

Streem came to market in 2017, led by CEO Elgar Welch, a former staffer in the prime minister's office, and CTO Antoine Sabourin with a mission to provide the market's first realtime media monitoring platform. Today, Streem is one of the fastest growing media intelligence companies in ANZ and services the majority of the market's major government departments, banks, airlines, telecommunications and energy companies.



Early financial backers included Quantium founding director Tony Davis, former ACCC chief Graeme Samuel and ex-Wallabies captain John Eales. The company's local Board of Directors are Samuel Marks, Karyn Munsie and David Wakeley.

The company's innovative technology and platform offering resulted in a major recasting of the ANZ media intelligence industry, with hundreds of major brands including Telstra, Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank and the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet moving to Streem in the last four years.

"With more than 100 local staff servicing over 400 leading clients, Streem has grown faster than we ever could have imagined thanks to great tech, strong support from customers and an incredible local team," Streem CEO Elgar Welch said. "Backed by Cision, we'll continue to build upon that growth, delivering new tools and products to help communications teams work smarter."

Cision is the world's largest provider of communications intelligence, with nearly 5,000 staff across 24 countries. Already active in Australia and New Zealand with its PR Newswire, Brandwatch and Falcon.io brands, the acquisition of Streem adds a full-suite of media monitoring and analysis capabilities that gives both local and global customers interested in ANZ coverage access to a significantly enhanced service.



"Streem has quickly established itself as the customer preferred media intelligence platform in the ANZ market," Cision CEO Abel Clark said. "Streem's customers will benefit enormously from Cision's global reach and we're excited to be able to offer a full-suite of monitoring, distribution, insights and social media solutions in ANZ that both our local and global customers can benefit from."

Streem will continue to operate as an independent brand with its full-service media monitoring and insights services, and customers will quickly see the benefits of Cision's global footprint including integrations of Brandwatch's social data, PR Newswire's media database and global media content and analytics spanning millions of sources.

Streem CTO and co-founder Antoine Sabourin said the company's success was driven by a strong focus on solving real world problems for communications teams.

"Cision's investment means Streem can keep investing in great people, tech and innovation, resulting in major benefits for customers in the coming weeks and months," Sabourin said.



Streem's Management team will continue with the business, and original co-founders Elgar Welch (CEO) and Antoine Sabourin (CTO) will remain in their respective roles.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of calendar 2022 and is subject to clearance by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the United States.

About Streem

Streem is the ANZ market's fastest growing media intelligence company, delivering comprehensive and realtime Print, Online, TV, Radio & Social media monitoring, insights and reporting to leading corporate and government organisations including Telstra, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. Through Desktop, Tablet and Mobile, Streem's customers can see, stream and analyse millions of news items in realtime, helping PR and Corporate Affairs teams to do their jobs.

About Cision

As a global leader in PR, marketing and social media management technology and intelligence, Cision helps brands and organizations to identify, connect and engage with customers and stakeholders to drive business results. PR Newswire, a network of over 1.1 billion influencers, in-depth monitoring, analytics and its Brandwatch and Falcon.io social media platforms headline a premier suite of solutions. Cision has offices in 24 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA and APAC. For more information about Cision's award-winning solutions, including its next-gen Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.com and follow @Cision on Twitter.

SOURCE Cision Ltd
Amir Adnani, President and CEO, stated: "We are very pleased to have closed this highly accretive transaction for UEC. The Acquisition doubles our production capacity in three key categories: total number of permitted U.S. ISR projects, resources, and processing infrastructure. Also, the opportunity to have acquired an advanced asset base of this quality from one of the global leaders in the nuclear energy industry is highly unique."

Mr. Adnani concluded: "With this Acquisition, UEC's sector leading U.S. ISR production profile increases to 6.5 million pounds U 3 O 8 per year based on permitted and installed capacity of our Wyoming and South Texas hub-and-spoke operations. Combined with our physical uranium holdings of 4.1 million pounds of U.S. warehoused uranium, we now have the unparalleled ability to provide reliable domestic supply to the U.S. Government as well as nuclear utilities while providing our shareholders exposure to the fastest growing, 100% unhedged and pure play uranium business listed on the NYSE American."

UEC Chairman and former U.S. Energy Secretary, Spencer Abraham, commented: "We believe this Acquisition will accelerate the development of domestic uranium production that can supply U.S. origin uranium for a full range of America's uranium requirements. We are proud to be the Company to acquire these significant U1A uranium assets that increase U.S. uranium production capabilities and, by returning them to US ownership, strengthen America's energy and national security."

Acquisition Highlights

The U1A assets are primarily situated in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming; the most productive in-situ recovery ("ISR") uranium mining district in the western hemisphere. Highlights of the Acquisition include the following:

Largest U.S.

uranium mining

company Positions UEC, a U.S. corporation headquartered in Texas, as the largest American uranium mining company. Highly Accretive

Transaction The Acquisition doubles production capacity in three key categories: total number of permitted U.S. ISR projects, resources, and processing infrastructure. Wyoming Hub

and Spoke Creates Wyoming hub-and-spoke operations for UEC, anchored by U1A's Irigaray plant which is one of the largest central processing facilities in the United States with a licensed capacity of 2.5 million pounds U 3 O 8 per year. Production

Ready Incorporates U1A's production-ready assets including Christensen Ranch ISR Project with four fully installed wellfields, and six additional permitted or development-stage satellite ISR projects, combining with UEC's Reno Creek Project. Reno Creek

Synergies Anticipates significant capital expenditure savings and deep operating synergies with UEC's permitted and nearby Reno Creek ISR Project which is 45 miles away from the Irigaray plant. Resource

Expansion Secured approximately 37.6 million pounds U 3 O 8 in historically estimated Measured and Indicated Resources and 4.3 million pounds U 3 O 8 in historically estimated Inferred resources with considerable growth potential based on independent technical reports prepared for U1A.(*)(1) Dominant Land

Package The Acquisition added approximately 100,000 acres to UEC current land package in Wyoming, resulting in the Company holding about 118,000 acres in Wyoming's prolific uranium producing Power River and Great Divide Basins





(*) The U1A historical resources are not treated by UEC as current, but the Company plans to complete and submit technical reports as soon as possible for the purposes of establishing current resources(1)

Next Steps

UEC has outlined several initiatives to integrate the U1A assets into the UEC portfolio. They include:

The Company plans to complete and submit new technical reports on the advanced stage Projects in the U1A portfolio as soon as possible for the purposes of establishing current resources as the U1A historical resources are not treated as current by UEC. (1)





Advance technical studies to further develop the Company's Wyoming hub and spoke strategy to capture the significant capital expenditure savings and operating synergies anticipated with its Reno Creek project.





hub and spoke strategy to capture the significant capital expenditure savings and operating synergies anticipated with its Reno Creek project. The U1A portfolio consists of additional mineralized brownfield projects that UEC intends to develop to generate technical resource reports.





Perform an operational review on potential expansion of the Irigaray Central Processing Plant.





In addition to Reno Creek, advance the Moore Ranch and Ludeman ISR projects in Wyoming as production satellite facilities along with the Company's development plans at Burke Hollow in South Texas .





as production satellite facilities along with the Company's development plans at Burke Hollow in . Review and integrate U1's significant tax loss carryforwards to be applied to offset future income.(2)

The Purchased Portfolio

The U1A portfolio of projects (the "Portfolio") being acquired pursuant to the Acquisition includes, among other assets, seven projects in the Powder River Basin, three of which are fully permitted, and five in the Great Divide Basin. The portfolio consists of dozens of under-explored, mineralized brownfield projects, backed by detailed databases of historic uranium exploration and development programs, thus greatly enhancing the potential for resource expansion.

Hub & Spoke ISR Portfolio Historic Measured and

Indicated (1) Historic Inferred (1) Projects  Satellites to Irigaray Tonnes

(Mt) Grade

(% U 3 O 8 ) U 3 O 8

(Mlbs) Tonnes

(Mt) Grade

(% U 3 O 8 ) U 3 O 8

(Mlbs) Irigaray & Christensen Ranch(a) Permitted - Operational  On Standby 9.5 0.074% 15.50 0.1 0.068% 0.14 Moore Ranch(b) Permitted - Construction Ready 2.4 0.060% 3.21 0.0 0.047% 0.04 Ludeman(c) Permitted - Construction Ready 4.8 0.091% 9.71 0.8 0.073% 1.26 Allemand-Ross(d) Permitting Initiated - Development 0.3 0.083% 0.46 1.2 0.098% 2.50 Barge(e) Permitting Planned - Development 3.9 0.051% 4.36 - - - JAB(f) Permitting Initiated - Development 3.0 0.067% 4.40 0.2 0.068% 0.34 Wyoming ISR Total



37.65(1)



4.28(1)





(a) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 over a minimum thickness of 2 ft. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Production by U1A has been deducted.  "Uranium One Q1 2019 Quarterly Report "Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Estimates".



(b) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 over a minimum thickness of 2 ft. and a GT cut-off of 0.30 ft-%. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Independent Technical Report  "Technical Report on Resources, Moore Ranch Uranium Project, Campbell County, Wyoming USA", WWC Engineering, April 30, 2019.



(c) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 over a minimum thickness of 2 ft. and a GT cut-off of 0.25 ft-%. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Independent Technical Report  "Technical Report on Resources Ludeman Uranium Project, Converse County, Wyoming, USA", WWC Engineering, January 25, 2019.



(d) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 over a minimum thickness of 2 ft. and a GT cut-off of 0.25 ft-%. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Independent Technical Report  "Technical Report on Resources, Allemand-Ross Uranium Project, Converse County, Wyoming, USA", WWC Engineering, April 30, 2019.



(e) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 and a GT cut-off of 0.25 ft-%. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Independent Technical Report  "Barge Uranium Project Mineral Resource NI 43-101 Technical Report, Amended and Restated, Converse County Wyoming, USA", BRS Inc., April 16, 2019.



(f) Mineral Resources were classified in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. Cut-off grade is 0.02% eU 3 O 8 over a minimum thickness of 2 ft and a GT cut-off of 0.25 ft-%. Mineral Resources have not been demonstrated to be economically viable. Independent Technical Report  "JAB Uranium Project Mineral Resource NI 43-101 Report, Amended and Restated, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, USA", BRS Inc., April 16, 2019.

Advisors and Counsel

VTB Capital plc acted as financial advisor to Uranium Energy Corp. McMillan LLP acted as Canadian legal advisor to UEC and Holland & Hart acted as U.S. legal advisor to UEC.

Haywood Securities Inc. acted as financial advisor to Uranium One and Dorsey & Whitney LLP acted as U.S. legal advisor to Uranium One.

Cautionary Statement on Historical Estimates and Qualified Person

The U1A Acquisition portfolio contains historical estimates of (i) 37.6 million pounds U 3 O 8 in Measured and Indicated Resources and 4.3 million pounds U 3 O 8 in Inferred Resources estimated in compliance with CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves and National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects adopted by Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101") through independent technical reports produced for U1A. However, as these technical reports have not been filed on www.sedar.com and the resource estimates therein have not been verified as current resources by UEC, these resource estimates should not be considered or treated as current resources and should instead be considered as "historical estimates" as defined under NI 43-101. In each instance, the reliability of the historical estimates is considered reasonable, but a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to allow UEC to classify the historical estimates as a current Mineral Resource and, therefore, at this time UEC is not treating the historical estimates as a current Mineral Resource.(1)

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and was reviewed by Dayton Lewis, P.G., Manager of Resource Development Wyoming for the Company, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

About Uranium Energy Corp

Uranium Energy Corp is a U.S.-based uranium mining and exploration company. As a leading pure-play American uranium company, UEC is advancing the next generation of low-cost and environmentally friendly In-Situ Recovery (ISR) mining uranium projects. In South Texas, the Company's hub-and-spoke operations are anchored by our fully-licensed Hobson Processing Facility which is central to our Palangana, Burke Hollow, Goliad and other ISR pipeline projects. In Wyoming, UEC controls the Reno Creek project, which is the largest permitted, pre-construction ISR uranium project in the U.S. Additionally, the Company's diversified holdings provide exposure to a unique portfolio of uranium related assets, including: 1) major equity stake in the only royalty company in the sector, Uranium Royalty Corp; 2) physical uranium warehoused in the U.S.; and 3) a pipeline of resource-stage uranium projects in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Paraguay. In Paraguay, the Company owns one of the largest and highest-grade ferro-titanium deposits in the world. The Company's operations are managed by professionals with a recognized profile for excellence in their industry, a profile based on many decades of hands-on experience in the key facets of uranium exploration, development and mining.

Stock Exchange Information:

NYSE American: UEC

Frankfurt Stock Exchange Symbol: U6Z

WKN: AJDRR

ISN: US916896103

(1) Notice to U.S. Investors

The U1A Portfolio contains 42M pounds of "historic resources" which have been recently estimated in compliance with CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves but should not be considered or treated as current resources as defined under NI 43-101. These resources should be considered a "historical estimate" as defined under NI 43-101. In each instance, the reliability of the historical estimate is considered reasonable, but a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current Mineral Resource, and UEC is not treating the historical estimate as a current Mineral Resource.

The mineral resources referred to herein have been estimated in accordance with the definition standards on mineral resources of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum referred to in NI 43-101 and are not compliant with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") Industry Guide 7 guidelines. In addition, measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources and inferred mineral resources, while recognized and required by Canadian regulations, are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. Accordingly, we have not reported them in the United States. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral resources in these categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves. These terms have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. In particular, it should be noted that mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources or inferred mineral resources will ever be upgraded to a higher category. In accordance with Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources cannot form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part of the reported measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources or inferred mineral resources referred to herein are economically or legally mineable.

(2) The losses reported by U1A as at December 31, 2019 were US$148.5M, but the deductibility of such losses is limited due to the current and historical changes of control of U1A, and UEC will be evaluating the extent to which these losses will be available to offset income in future years post-closing.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans, "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as "forward-looking statements". Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, market and other conditions, the actual results of exploration activities, variations in the underlying assumptions associated with the estimation or realization of mineral resources, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of shares, accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry including, without limitation, those associated with the environment, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Federal securities laws. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities.

SOURCE Uranium Energy Corp

Related Links

http://www.uraniumenergy.com/


PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- vybe urgent care, the leading independent operator of urgent care centers in the Greater Philadelphia area, announces the opening of a new COVID-19 Rapid Testing Center at 920 Dekalb Pike in Blue Bell, Montgomery County. vybe Blue Bell is part of Centre Square Commons, located at the intersection of Dekalb Pike/Rte 202 and Skippack Pike/Rte 73.

vybe urgent care Blue Bell is located in Centre Square Commons, at the intersection of Dekalb Pike and Skippack Pike. This vybe offers COVID rapid testing by appointment. vybe urgent care Blue Bell welcomes patients for COVID testing prior to travel and social gatherings.

The new center will initially be open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and will offer two COVID rapid testing options by appointment. The center will offer expanded urgent care services and weekend hours in the new year.

Rapid RT-PCR test  the preferred option for those who need testing for travel, this test offers same day results in the patient portal.

 the preferred option for those who need testing for travel, this test offers same day results in the patient portal. Rapid Antigen test  often used for work clearance or to attend an event, the Quidel test offers same day results in the patient portal.

"We all need to monitor our health, especially during this time of heightened COVID-19 concerns." said vybe urgent care President Peter Hotz. "We're thrilled to bring fast, convenient testing to meet the demand in this key area of suburban Philadelphia."

The COVID-19 rapid test screenings offered at vybe Blue Bell are a convenient alternative to lab-based testing, but not a replacement if a patient is looking for a full medical visit based on symptoms or known exposure. Still, patients who need results quickly may opt for a rapid test screening with same day results. These rapid COVID tests are offered on a self-pay or employer-paid basis and are not typically covered by health insurance.

For patients with symptoms or who need other urgent care services, vybe offers telemedicine and a choice of 12 additional locations throughout the Philadelphia area.

vybe is fully accredited by the Urgent Care Association (UCA), which is the highest level of distinction for urgent care centers and ensures high levels of patient safety and quality.

About vybe urgent care

vybe urgent care is Philadelphia's leading independent urgent care provider delivering care to adults and children in Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Open 7 days a week, vybe is an affordable and convenient alternative to long emergency room wait times and the limited hours of family physicians. vybe encourages appointments but also offers walk-ins and even telemedicine for those who wish to see a clinician online. vybe accepts major insurance plans and offers full urgent care services, such as illness and injury treatment, digital x-rays, EKGs, lab testing, physicals, immunizations, and occupational medicine. As a leader during the COVID pandemic, vybe offers the Moderna vaccine/booster and diagnostic COVID testing. vybe is fully accredited by the Urgent Care Association (UCA), which is the highest level of distinction for urgent care centers and ensures high levels of patient safety and quality. For more information, visit www.vybe.care, and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using @vybecare.

Media Contact:

Brian Gould

215-999-6060

[email protected]

SOURCE vybe urgent care
DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "International Markets for Hosiery, 2021" report from Textiles Intelligence Ltd. has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report provides vital data and analysis of trends in international trade in hosiery. The report focuses in detail on the leading hosiery exporting and importing countries, including those which export hosiery to the EU and the USA. Countries analysed in the report include China, Italy, Pakistan, Serbia, Turkey and the USA. Of these countries, the world's top hosiery exporting country in 2020 was China. However, its share of global hosiery exports was down from the previous year to their lowest level since 2010.

According to the latest data, global imports and exports of hosiery fell in 2020. In fact, global exports of hosiery fell to their lowest level since 2010, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. EU imports of hosiery declined in value and in volume terms in 2020 as did US imports of hosiery, which fell to their lowest level since 2011.

World trade in hosiery, including socks, pantyhose, tights, compression hosiery and stockings, is expected to rebound in 2021, according to the report "International markets for hosiery". But growth in 2022 and beyond is forecast to return to low single digits. The rebound will follow a 13.7% fall in 2020, when world exports of hosiery fell to their lowest level since 2010. The fall reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are concerns about the recovery of the market in the coming years as several threats loom.



The prediction for 2022 is based on the assumption that global economic uncertainties will persist--particularly in the EU and the USA, the two main consumer markets for hosiery--as the world economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.



The world economy has also been negatively affected in recent years by protectionist measures--including additional tariffs on US imports from China--and such measures are likely to continue to have a negative impact on trade growth in the coming years.

In the case of hosiery, in particular, the additional tariffs on US imports from China are likely to result in a shift of some Chinese production to lower cost countries in Asia--including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. Having said that, many of these lower cost countries do not have the infrastructure in place to produce the high volumes which the Chinese industry is capable of producing.



The largest hosiery exporting countries--which include Italy, Turkey and the USA--have historically been relatively high price suppliers. However, exports from many of these countries have declined in recent years as new players located in low cost Asian countries have made significant gains at their expense.



In the case of hosiery imports, growth in the two largest markets--namely the USA and the EU--is likely to be minimal in the coming years as these markets are mature and the economic outlook in these markets is poor. In fact, most of the growth in import markets is expected to occur in emerging markets in Asia, reflecting rapid expansion of the upper and middle classes in a number of countries in the region. As a result, there is expected to be some upheaval resulting from shifts in sourcing trends in the short to medium term and such upheaval could negatively affect world trade as a whole. At the same time, however, it should create opportunities for new players to enter the market.



Opportunities are also expected to arise as a result of the implementation and increasingly widespread use of Industry 4.0 production methods, which will allow for mass customisation and improvements in productivity.



Key Topics Covered:

SUMMARY



GENERAL TRENDS IN HOSIERY TRADE

Outlook

LEADING HOSIERY EXPORTING COUNTRIES



LEADING HOSIERY IMPORTING COUNTRIES



IMPORTS OF HOSIERY INTO THE EU

General trends

EU imports of hosiery by fibre type

EU imports of hosiery by leading supplier

IMPORTS OF HOSIERY INTO THE USA

General trends

US imports of hosiery by fibre type

US imports of hosiery by leading supplier

List of Tables

Table 1: Exports of hosiery by type, 2010-20

Table 2: Imports of hosiery by type, 2010-20

Table 3: Exports of hosiery by leading supplier, 2010-20

Table 4: Imports of hosiery by leading destination, 2010-20

Table 5: EU: imports of hosiery by fibre type, 2010-20

Table 6: EU: imports of hosiery by leading supplier, 2010-20

Table 7: USA: imports of hosiery by fibre type, 2010-20

Table 8: USA: imports of hosiery by leading supplier, 2010-20

Countries Covered

China

Italy

Pakistan

Serbia

Turkey

USA

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sbyk5m



Source: Textiles Intelligence Ltd.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


The Jeep  brand continues to expand high-tech offerings to its new Grand Cherokee family of vehicles, bringing Amazon Fire TV for Auto, a new 10.25-inch front passenger interactive display, new appearance packages and several new exterior colors to the 2022 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee L.



"The all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee L broke new boundaries and turned heads when it debuted, with its first-ever three rows of seating paired with legendary Jeep 4x4 capability, as well as for its stunning interior and next-generation technologies," said Jim Morrison, Vice President and Head of Jeep brand  North America. "For the 2022 model year, the Grand Cherokee L gets content that we have already announced on the new Grand Cherokee, packing the 2022 model year with new premium features that take the first ever three-row Grand Cherokee to another level, including a class-leading digital screen space to keep the entire family safe and connected on all of their adventures."



To continue reading, please access the entire press release here.



Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. A fully electric Jeep 4xe will be offered in every SUV segment by 2025.



Follow Jeep and company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Jeep brand: www.jeep.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep

YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

SOURCE Stellantis
DETROIT, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Freed Kanner London & Millen LLC; Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C.; Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, LLP; and Spector Roseman & Kodroff, P.C. ("Settlement Class Counsel") announce that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division ("Court") has approved the following announcement of proposed class action settlements with the Aisan, Mikuni, Keihin and Maruyasu Defendants (collectively "Settling Defendants"). The settlements resolve allegations against the Settling Defendants that they conspired to raise, fix, maintain, and stabilize prices, rig bids, and allocate the supply of fuel injection systems sold in the United States, in violation of federal antitrust laws. These settlements are in addition to the settlements the Court previously approved with the DENSO, HIAMS, MITSUBA, and MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Defendants. (The proceeds of the eight settlement funds are referred to collectively to as the "Fuel Injection Systems Settlement Fund").



The settlements affect those who purchased fuel injection systems in the United States between January 1, 2000 and March 12, 2018 directly from any one of the following entities (or depending on the specific settlement agreements, their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and joint ventures): Aisan Industry Co., Ltd; Franklin Precision Industry, Inc.; Aisan Corporation of America; Hyundam Industrial Co., Ltd; Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.; Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Inc.; Hitachi, Ltd.; DENSO Corporation; DENSO International America, Inc.; DENSO International Korea Corporation (f/k/a separately as DENSO International Korea Corporation and DENSO Korea Automotive Corporation); Hitachi Astemo, Ltd. (f/k/a Keihin Corporation); Hitachi Astemo Indiana, Inc. (f/k/a Keihin North America, Inc.); Maruyasu Industries Co., Ltd.; Mikuni Corporation; Mikuni American Corporation; MITSUBA Corporation; American Mitsuba Corporation; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Mitsubishi Electric US Holdings, Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, Inc.; Robert Bosch GmbH; Bosch Electrical Drives Co., Ltd.; Robert Bosch LLC



A hearing will be held on March 10, 2022, at 2:00 p.m., before the Honorable Sean F. Cox, United States District Judge, at the Theodore Levin United States Courthouse, 231 West Lafayette Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48226, Courtroom 817 (or such other courtroom as may be assigned for the hearing), for the purpose of determining whether to approve: (1) the proposed settlements with the Aisan, Mikuni, Keihin, and Maruyasu Defendants totaling $3,052,000; (2) Settlement Class Counsel's request for an award from the Aisan, Mikuni, Keihin, and Maruyasu settlement proceeds of attorneys' fees and litigation costs and expenses; (3) the proposed plan of distribution of the Fuel Injection Systems Settlement Fund; and (4) a service award for the Class Representative.



A Notice of Proposed Settlements and Claim Form (the "Notice") was mailed to potential Settlement Class members on or about December 9, 2021. The Notice describes the litigation and options available to Settlement Class members with respect to the Aisan, Mikuni, Keihin, and Maruyasu settlements in more detail. The Notice also explains the options available to members of the DENSO, HIAMS, MITSUBA, and MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Settlement Classes. The Notice and other important documents related to the settlements can be accessed at www.AutoPartsAntitrustLitigation.com/FIS, or by calling 1-888-266-9280 or writing to Fuel Injection Systems Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, P.O. Box 3656, Portland, OR 97208-3656. Those who believe they may be a member of any of the Aisan, DENSO, HIAMS, Keihin, Maruyasu, Mikuni, MITSUBA or MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC settlement classes, are urged to obtain a copy of the Notice.

URL: www.AutoPartsAntitrustLitigation.com/FIS

SOURCE The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division
RENO, Nev., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- aha!, powered by veteran ExpressJet Airlines, today announced its new partnership with Guestlogix to bring personalized recommendations and digital concierge services to its passengers. Guestlogix's Digital Concierge platform anticipates travelers' needs in real time, guiding them as they personalize every aspect of their trip via a customized portfolio of adventures.

"Our partnership with GuestLogix creates additional value for aha! passengers and is an integral part of our mission to offer quick and exciting getaway trips," said Subodh Karnik, Chairman and CEO of ExpressJet Airlines. "The Digital Concierge really helps us to bring the 'adventure' part of aha!'s 'air, hotel, adventure' brand alive by supporting our passengers as they explore and even unveiling unexpected opportunities."

Curated Travel Experience for Today's Traveler

Today's passengers are always connected and many plan their trips on the fly. A consumer insights study by Google concluded that 85% of leisure travelers decide on activities only after arriving at their destination. Guestlogix's massive marketplace of experiences, tours, dining, nightlife, events, lift tickets, and more means aha! customers will now have a modernized travel toolkit at their fingertips, when and where they need it.

aha! provides passengers in communities throughout the Western US with convenient, nonstop flights to Reno-Tahoe. But the airline aspires to do more than move passengers from one destination to another. Typically, a passenger's relationship with the airline ends at baggage claim. With aha!, however, the Digital Concierge is a constant companion from the moment a traveler purchases a ticket until their trip is complete. It lets them order a ride to and from the airport and receive curated adventures and experiences at the perfect moment, whether these opportunities are ski lift tickets, scenic helicopter rides, secret tasting menus, or private tours at the trendiest craft brewery in town.

Robin Hopper, Guestlogix CEO, added: "We're excited to bring one more enhancement to the way aha! passengers travel. In the past, airlines only had a brief moment to connect with their passengers, but innovative airlines like aha! realize that the opportunity to support amazing travel continues way beyond the booking process. Guestlogix and aha! are exceptionally well aligned in their missions to modernize the ways people travel. This is an exciting partnership for us and we are thrilled to support aha! as they deliver a next-level passenger experience."

Convenient Nonstop Flights + Less Travel Time = More Vacations and Trips

The quick flights aboard ExpressJet 50-seat Embraer ERJ145 regional jets give travelers more time on the ground to make the most of their vacation time without the hassle of a long drive or multiple airport stops and layovers.

aha! currently provides nonstop flights between Reno-Tahoe and:

Bakersfield, Calif.

Eugene / Springfield, Ore.

/ Eureka / Arcata, Calif.

/ Fresno / Yosemite, Calif.

/ Medford / Ashland, Ore.

/ Ontario / Los Angeles, Calif.

/ Pasco /Tri-Cities, Wash.

/Tri-Cities, Wash. Redmond / Bend, Ore.

/ Spokane, Wash.

Palm Springs, Calif. (begins Jan. 3, 2022 )

aha! plans to announce service to additional cities in 2022 offering travelers in the Western United States the opportunity to enjoy exciting, short vacations to Reno and Lake Tahoe.

The service is now available on all aha! reservations which can be made by visiting www.flyaha.com.

About aha!

aha! is a leisure brand of ExpressJet Airlines. aha! seeks to provide travelers in smaller communities, many who have seen air service reduced over the past decade through airline mergers, with convenient, short, nonstop flights to high-quality destinations like the Reno-Lake Tahoe region. In addition to offering value-priced, nonstop flights, aha! will soon partner with resorts, casinos and attractions to "bundle" value-priced vacation packages. www.flyaha.com

About ExpressJet Airlines

ExpressJet Airlines is the union of Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Continental Express and operates Embraer ERJ145 regional jet aircraft. Over its 35-year history, ExpressJet has operated most Embraer and Bombardier airplanes from bases across the continental United States to cities in North America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. ExpressJet is majority owned by KAir Enterprises with United Airlines holding a minority interest. www.expressjet.com

About Guestlogix

Founded in 2001, Guestlogix is a travel commerce company whose platform helps airlines to significantly increase ancillary revenues while improving traveler satisfaction and safety across their entire journey.

Powered by AI and machine learning, they enable airlines to introduce digital concierge services to passengers that deliver highly relevant, personalized information and offers. With their extensive marketplace of bookable content, ancillary revenue teams can offer the products and services travelers are looking for at every phase of their journey, from planning through to the end of their trip. www.guestlogix.com

SOURCE aha!
From December 21 to 23, families are invited to embark on a virtual "treasure hunt" in a flurry of Alphabet Games on Allschool, please click Facebook pages and Instagram . Each winning family has a chance to receive an exciting Santa gift from Allschool. Along with the treasure hunt campaign, Allschool's courses are also on sale with deep discounts from December 21 to 29. For example, Zookeeper Training Class and Name Our Planets enjoy special Christmas deals as low as USD$2.99 and USD$4.99 respectively.

The Christmas challenge features themes based on three of Allschool's most popular courses, which are designed and delivered by experienced teachers based in the U.S. to boost children's interest in science, foster their mathematical thinking and give them a head start in word learning:

Zookeeper Training Class is a course that enables learners to act as a junior zookeeper in a virtual zoo to observe how zookeeper and teacher Tracy feeds the animals through behind-the-scenes video of her daily life. Kids never get bored with a couple of companions in the class.

is a course that enables learners to act as a junior zookeeper in a virtual zoo to observe how zookeeper and teacher Tracy feeds the animals through behind-the-scenes video of her daily life. Kids never get bored with a couple of companions in the class. Name Our Planets is taught by senior teaching staff Belinda, who will take kids on a space journey to discover and explore the solar system. Kids will be thrilled with their rewards from teacher based on their performance.

is taught by senior teaching staff Belinda, who will take kids on a space journey to discover and explore the solar system. Kids will be thrilled with their rewards from teacher based on their performance. The Origin of Multiplication and The Application of Fast Calculation applies math skills through gamified learning to boost interest in math and teacher Whitney will help kids to get math solutions and solve real-life problems.

The courses can get the kids moving and having fun while they practice basic early literacy. In spite of being away from school during the Christmas season, kids can still meet new teachers and friends with Allschool's highly interactive courses.

Many schools are shifting to remote instruction in response to COVID-19, but the lack of interactive learning content has left many learners feeling neglected through online sessions, making it hard for students to catch up with their missed in-person lessons. Allschool targets these pain points by creating a global destination for online learning which allows students from preschool to high school to spark their passion and elevate academic performance through a myriad of high-quality, engaging, and immersive live classes.

Alongside the holiday savings promotion, the company wishes to bring a bit more fun to young learners while keeping them active and engaged this winter break and festive season with a series of widely beloved Alphabet Games. Through these games, Allschool not only aims to help kids practice their spelling but also hopes to create some unforgettable memories in addition to the excitement of Santa coming down the chimney, sprucing up Christmas trees, as well as all of the wonderful festive family parties.

As Allschool's biggest sale throughout this year, the company's Christmas offering allows kids to explore the infinite world of zoos, outer space, or the kingdom of math, while being together with family members. For more information, please visit www.allschool.com.

About Allschool

Founded in Singapore, Allschool is an innovative online platform that delivers highly interactive small-group live classes to children worldwide. Through Allschool, learners can enjoy a variety of premium live classes  including mathematics, languages, visual arts, game design, and more  delivered by thousands of devoted and talented teachers from all around the world.

An expert in online education, Allschool has developed a set of innovative purpose-built teaching and learning tools that bring meaningful changes to learning outcomes, allowing students to immerse themselves in a rewarding, gamified, and interactive environment that empowers them to explore and pursue their interests while making schooling fun and enjoyable.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllschoolEdu

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allschooledu/

Media contact

Sara Chen

[email protected]

SOURCE ALLSCHOOLS PTE.LTD
SAO PAULO and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alpargatas S.A., the Brazilian lifestyle brand and global leader in open footwear and owner of the Havaianas "love brand," and Rothy's Inc., the innovative sustainable lifestyle brand, today announced that Alpargatas will make a strategic investment in Rothy's to fuel global growth and expand vertically-integrated operations. The transaction advances Alpargatas as a global powerhouse of desired and hyperconnected brands and positions Rothy's to accelerate its brand and retail expansion strategy as well as increase its factory operations and further drive sustainable innovation.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alpargatas will acquire 49.9% of Rothy's in a two-step transaction. This will include an investment of $200 million in primary capital followed by an offering to acquire approximately $275 million of Rothy's shares from current stockholders, resulting in a post-investment valuation of $1 billion. Rothy's co-founders Stephen Hawthornthwaite and Roth Martin will maintain a significant equity stake in the business and continue to oversee operations. The agreement provides Alpargatas with a call option to acquire the additional Rothy's shares from selling stockholders between the first anniversary and fourth anniversary of the initial transaction.

The partnership brings together two vertically-integrated leaders and innovators in the footwear industry with international manufacturing capacity and a shared commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Alpargatas owns and operates six factories in Brazil, while Rothy's owns and operates a 300,000 sq. ft factory in Dongguan, China. Rothy's aligns with Alpargatas' four strategic business pillars: global, digital, innovation and sustainability. Further, the partnership positions Rothy's to accelerate its customer acquisition strategy and increase brand recognition across the U.S. and international markets.

Founded in 2012, Rothy's co-founders Hawthornthwaite and Martin set out with a clear mission to create a shoe with distinctive style, remarkable comfort and sustainable design. To combat the staggering amount of waste inherent to the shoe industry, the two pioneered an innovative combination of fashion, footwear and knitting  transforming over 100 million single-use plastic water bottles into beautiful, machine-washable shoes. Today, Rothy's is a global brand with a rapidly growing customer base in the U.S. and is poised to increase its international reach, particularly in Asia, Europe and Brazil. A digital-first business with 98% of sales coming from online channels, Rothy's has built a loyal community of well over two million customers and since expanded beyond Women's Footwear into the Men's and Accessories categories. In addition, Rothy's has set the standard for responsible manufacturing with its sustainable technologies, supply chain and recycled materials. Manufacturing every product in Rothy's state-of-the-art factory enables the company to design and commercialize with unprecedented speed, quality and responsibility.

"Alpargatas has built a portfolio of desired and hyperconnected brands, including the world's largest open footwear lifestyle brand, with over 260 million pairs of flip flops sold annually across more than 130 countries," said Roberto Funari, CEO of Alpargatas. "We are excited to welcome Rothy's to our portfolio, and admire Rothy's entrepreneurial, passionate founders and team. We value their digital-first business and loyal customer base, and view this partnership as an important opportunity to advance our global strategy with increased relevance in the North American market. We are eager to work with Stephen, Roth and the entire Rothy's team to expand the brand's community all over the world through new retail and ecommerce channels."

"We founded Rothy's with the belief that there's a better way to do business, and it starts by putting the planet and its people first. In less than a decade, we've transformed our two-person passion project into a successful, sustainable and deeply innovative company  and redefined the shoe category," said Stephen Hawthornthwaite, co-founder and CEO of Rothy's. "This partnership with Alpargatas marks the beginning of our next chapter of growth, and reaffirms the strength of our business model and momentum in the marketplace. With Alpargatas' financial support, scale and expertise, we look forward to rapidly expanding in global markets, building our physical retail presence, advancing product development and accelerating our goal to reach circular production by 2023."

"In Alpargatas, we are pleased to have found an established industry leader with a rich heritage, tremendous scale and resources, vertically-integrated operations and a people-first approach that clearly aligns with our values at Rothy's," said Roth Martin, Rothy's co-founder and President. "Very few footwear brands understand the challenges and unique opportunities that owning a factory presents  and Alpargatas has written the playbook. We are confident that Alpargatas will be a valuable thought partner for Rothy's, and look forward to working together to prove that it is possible to run a large-scale, profitable business sustainably and responsibly."

Structure and Governance

Following the completion of the transaction, Hawthornthwaite and Martin will maintain a significant equity stake in Rothy's and continue to oversee operations. Lightspeed Ventures and other existing investors will also continue to have a meaningful equity position.

In connection with Alpargatas' investment, Funari and Stacey Brown, an independent member of Alpargatas' Board of Directors, will join the Rothy's board, which will expand to nine directors, including four seats for Alpargatas.

Advisors

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as financial advisor and Cooley LLP served as legal counsel to Rothy's. Lazard served as financial advisor and Mayer Brown served as legal counsel to Alpargatas.

About Alpargatas

Alpargatas is a Brazil-based, global footwear company with deep roots and over 114 years of history. Alpargatas owns Havaianas, a global lifestyle brand, leader in open footwear best known for their iconic flip-flops. Alpargatas markets Havaianas in over 130 countries, and operates directly in more than 20. With a vertical supply chain, Alpargatas has six manufacturing units in Brazil and more than seventeen thousand employees around the world. Follow Alpargatas on LinkedIn and Instagram - @alpargatas.

About Rothy's

Rothy's takes a whole brand approach to sustainability in manufacturing, transforming recycled materials into beautiful shoes, handbags and accessories. With a vertically integrated supply chain, Rothy's minimizes waste by knitting each product to shape in its wholly owned factory in Dongguan, China. Since launching in 2016, Rothy's has transformed over 100 million single-use plastic water bottles and kept 275,000 pounds of marine plastic out of waterways.

With over two million customers, Rothy's products are sold directly online and through Rothy's eight retail stores. Rothy's has been recognized for awards including TIME Most Influential Companies, Fast Company Most Innovative Companies, Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups and Inc. Best Places to work. Headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in New York, New York and Shanghai, China.

Further information is available at rothys.com. Follow Rothy's on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @rothys.

Contacts

Alpargatas

Maria Jose De Martini

Alpargatas' Director of Sustainability and Reputation

[email protected] // (5511)99652-4808

Investor Relations: [email protected]

Rothy's

Anna Dore

Rothy's Senior Director of Communications

[email protected] // (515) 669-9354

Andrea Rose / Kaitlin Kikalo / Katie Villany

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

(212) 355-4449

[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

SOURCE Rothys Inc.
Hon. Denise Charles, the Minister of Tourism, International Transport and Maritime Initiatives indicated that "this announcement and commitment to a daily schedule is a testament to American Airlines' belief in the tourism product of Dominica and the growing demand for the destination's unique low density, nature immersed, tourism product. Furthermore, the increase in weekly seat capacity aligns with our goal to aggressively increase stay-over visitor arrivals to 200K+ in 5 years.

Dominica, the nature island, in the Caribbean has been making significant strides in recent years to position itself as a major tourism destination in the Caribbean. This increased service will make it easier for travelers from the North American market, particularly on the east coast, to access a unique experience that they would otherwise have to travel to Hawaii to obtain. The service will enable quick getaways to Dominica's world-renowned nature trails, whale watching, diving, and many health and mineral wellness spas. The service coincides with the expansion and opening of many recent investments in 5 and 6-star eco-luxury resorts on the island. It will also make it easier for patrons from South Florida and the 40+ connecting cities in North America to participate in the many festivals hosted on the island, like our unique carnival, jazz, and Creole festivals.

Mr. Colin Piper, CEO/Director of Tourism stated that the increase in flights will be a major factor in establishing better relationships with US tour operators and travel agents which will result in more business for the hoteliers and service providers in Dominica.

American Airlines operates an Embraer Regional Jet (ERJ) 175 with a capacity for seventy-six (76) passengers with twelve first-class seats and sixty-four premium seats with extra leg room and main cabin seats.

For more information on Dominica, contact Discover Dominica Authority at +1 767 448 2045. Or, visit Dominica's official website: www.DiscoverDominica.com , follow Dominica on Twitter., Instagram and Facebook and take a look at our videos on YouTube

About Dominica: Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-EEK-a, and not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) is a haven for adventure travelers seeking a unique vacation that includes hiking and adventure, cultural events/festivals, diving and water sports, whale/dolphin watching and canyoning adventures. Dominica lies south of Guadeloupe and north of Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean. Air travelers can connect to Dominica direct from Miami on American Airlines, and make regional connections on Air Antilles, Air Sunshine, Coastal Air Transport, interCaribbean Airways, LIAT, Caribbean Airlines, Silver Airways - (Code share: American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue), from the surrounding hubs of Antigua, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St Lucia, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. If travelling by sea, travelers may connect to Dominica on L'Express des Iles ferry service from Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia, and on Val'Ferry from Guadeloupe and Martinique. *Travel restrictions may apply due to the coronavirus pandemic. Please verify schedules with air and sea carriers. *

SOURCE Discover Dominica Authority
"Amy and Matt have each made outstanding contributions during their tenures at Brookwood and the wealth of knowledge they bring to these new strategic portfolio management roles is significant," said Thomas Nicholas Trkla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brookwood. "They represent the new generation of leadership at the firm, and we look forward to their helping contribute to our success as we continue to grow our portfolio across the country."

In their capacity as co-directors of Asset Management - Ms. Grey as Managing Director, Western Region and Mr. Brown as Managing Director, Eastern Region - will work with all asset managers to implement each property's strategic business plan, support the asset and property managers in the development and execution of specific leasing and marketing plans for each property, manage all property management staff, establish standardized policies and procedures and best practices for Brookwood's portfolio, and review and approve the annual operating budgets for each property in the portfolio, which currently consists of 83 buildings comprised of over six million square feet in five major regions across the country.

Ms. Grey has 20 years of experience working in commercial real estate, before assuming this new role served as Senior Vice President and Asset Manager for the firm's commercial real estate holdings in the California region of the United States. There she oversaw the leasing, property management, budgeting, and financial analysis for that portfolio of properties. Previously at Brookwood she was responsible for the leasing, property management, budgeting and financial performance of the firm's portfolio of suburban office, flex and warehouse product in the New England area, consisting of 2.6 million square feet. Ms. Grey began her career with Brookwood as an Acquisitions Analyst, where she primarily underwrote and managed the due diligence process for new acquisitions.

Prior to joining Brookwood, Ms. Grey was an Associate at TA Associates Realty, a leading provider of real estate investment management services in the United States. At TA Realty, Ms. Grey was involved in securing portfolio-level financings, responding to client requests for information, and analyzing new investments for compliance with diversification and pro forma performance targets of commingled funds and separate accounts.

Ms. Grey is a cum laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire and holds a Masters in Business Administration in Finance from Suffolk University.

Mr. Brown has 14 years of experience working in commercial real estate, having previously served as the Asset Manager for Brookwood's commercial real estate in the Florida and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania regions of the United States, where he was responsible for overseeing the leasing, property management, budgeting, and financial analysis for his portfolio of properties totaling over 1.8 million square feet.

Prior to joining Brookwood, Mr. Brown was a Vice President and Assistant Portfolio Manager for Clarion Partners, LLC, a privately-owned institutional investment advisor that manages real estate in the private equity sector. At Clarion, Mr. Brown was responsible for monitoring and analyzing the financial performance of several of the firm's separate account portfolios and he worked with asset managers to prepare annual operating budgets, business plans, capital plans, and property valuations. Previously, Mr. Brown was a Development Associate for St. Charles Town Company in Denver, Colorado, where he provided analytical and due diligence support in conjunction with the acquisition of real estate investments.

Mr. Brown received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado College.

About Brookwood Financial Partners, LLC  Brookwood is an investment firm that specializes in acquiring and managing commercial real estate and real-estate related operating businesses on behalf of approximately 3,000 clients, including sovereign wealth funds, college endowments, public and private pension funds, foundations, family offices, and high net worth individuals. Since its founding in 1993, Brookwood has invested over $1.7 billion of equity to acquire a portfolio of 200 commercial real estate properties, seven operating companies, and 451 gas stations and convenience stores. Its $4.2 billion historical portfolio has spanned multiple asset classes, geographical markets, and industries across the United States.

Media Contact:

Erin Vadala, Warner Communications

(978) 468-3076; [email protected]

SOURCE Brookwood Financial Partners, LLC
For more insights on the beer market in US - Download a free sample now!

Market Dynamics

The market is driven by factors such as the increasing demand for premium beers, increasing health consciousness among consumers, and the increased consumption of alcoholic beverages among women. The increasing growth of legal recreational cannabis is hindering market growth. The holistic analysis of the drivers & challenges will help in deducing end goals and refining marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge.

Company Profiles

The beer market in US is fragmented and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. The beer market in us report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading vendors including Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC, Constellation Brands Inc., D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc., Diageo Plc, Duvel Moortgat NV, HEINEKEN International B.V., Molson Coors Beverage Co., Pabst Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and The Boston Beer Co. Inc.

Few companies with key offerings

Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC - The company offers brewed beers under various brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, Presidente, and others.

The company offers brewed beers under various brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, Presidente, and others. Constellation Brands Inc., - The company offers different types of beer under Carona, Modela and Victoria , and others.

The company offers different types of beer under Carona, Modela and , and others. D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc. - The company offers brewed beer under Yuengling which offers a wide range of beers like Black & Tan, Raging Eagle, Chesterfield Ale, and others.

The company offers brewed beer under Yuengling which offers a wide range of beers like Black & Tan, Raging Eagle, Chesterfield Ale, and others. Diageo Plc - The company offers brewed and drought beer under the brand of Guinness.

The company offers brewed and drought beer under the brand of Guinness. Duvel Moortgat NV - The company offers brewed beer like Duvel 6,66 and Duvel and drafted beer which is soft in taste, slightly aromatic, and has fruit essence.

To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The beer market forecast report of US by Technavio offers in-depth insights into key vendor profiles. The profiles include information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of the leading companies.

Competitive Analysis

The competitive scenario provided in the beer market in us report analyzes, evaluates, and positions companies based on various performance indicators. Some of the factors considered for this analysis include the financial performance of companies over the past few years, growth strategies, product innovations, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Market Segmentation

By Product, the market is classified into non-craft beer and craft beer

By Distribution channel, the market is classified into the on-trade channel and off-trade channel

Related Reports -

Dark Beer Market -The dark beer market has the potential to grow by USD 23.47 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 11.15%. Download a free sample now!

Craft Beer Market -The craft beer market has the potential to grow by USD 65.09 billion during 2021-2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 11.24%. Download a free sample now!

Beer Market In US Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.17% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 21.34 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.13 Regional analysis US Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC, Constellation Brands Inc., D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc., Diageo Plc, Duvel Moortgat NV, HEINEKEN International B.V. , Molson Coors Beverage Co., Pabst Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and The Boston Beer Co. Inc. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
LOUDOUN and MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Belcan, LLC ("Belcan"), a global supplier of engineering, supply chain, technical recruiting, and information and communication solutions to the aerospace, defense, space, automotive, industrial, and government markets, today announced the formation of an Alliance Solutions Joint Venture with Allied Mission Group (AMG), Belcan's award-winning Small Business partner under its SBA Mentor-Protege Program (SBAMPP).

"We're excited to announce our Joint Venture, which has already resulted in the submission of two prime critical bids from within our strategic pipeline," said Wayne Lucernoni, Belcan Government Solutions President. "We made a commitment to support Allied Mission Group's growth, and the partnership is already exceeding our expectations. Building on our momentum, we plan to expand relationships with Federal agencies and very large system integrators to deliver our joint capabilities, while helping AMG achieve its small business goals."

AMG's core competencies include agile engineering & development, cloud & infrastructure services, cybersecurity, and systems engineering. The company supports a diverse range of customers, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of State (DoS), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

"Based on our track record of delivering mission critical solutions, we are well positioned to add value to our government and large system integrators. Allied Mission Group is on a great path and partnering with larger partners in joint ventures is a key component of our growth strategy. We are grateful to Belcan Government Solutions for their support," said Jay Kalath, AMG Founder and CEO. "This is just the tip of the iceberg, as we envision doubling the number of bids in 2022 as we did in the first year of our partnership."

Belcan was founded in 1958 and has worked within the federal market for more than 30 years across a variety of federal agencies, including State, Energy, HHS, FCC, Treasury, and Defense & Intelligence components.

About Belcan

Belcan is a global supplier of engineering, supply chain, technical recruiting, and information and communication solutions to customers in the aerospace, defense, space, automotive, industrial, and government sectors. Belcan engineers better outcomes for customers  from jet engines, airframe, and avionics to heavy vehicles, automobiles, and cybersecurity. Belcan takes a partnering approach to provide solutions that are adaptable, integrated, and value-added, and has been earning the trust of its customers for over 60 years. For more information, please visit www.belcan.com.

CONTACT:

Lambert & Co.

Jennifer Hurson

(845) 507-0571

[email protected]

or

Caroline Luz

203-656-2829

[email protected]

SOURCE Belcan, LLC
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Ocean Technologies (BOT), a unique capital markets fintech leader in global afterhours trading, announced today new connectivity and data partners, along with new broker-dealer subscribers. Blue Ocean ATS, also known as BOATS announced it is partnering with ACTIV Financial Systems as a data provider and with Raptor Trading Systems as a trading provider. Also, BOATS welcomed new subscriber Lek Securities, continuing to grow its reach and providing broader access of its afterhours trading.

ACTIV Financial Systems will incorporate and display Blue Ocean ATS data feed content via its ActivFeed and its broad language support through the ACTIV API. The data will be implemented across ACTIV's global backbone, over the public Internet, and through ACTIV's AWS based ticker plant for regional and local access. Raptor Trading Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of trading technology with access to over 200 brokers and buyside networks, is now connected to Blue Ocean ATS. BOATS is now a part of Raptor's Industry Leading Technologies and Global Trading Network, providing access 24 hours a day.

Matthew Horisk, Chief Technology Officer, Blue Ocean Technologies and Blue Ocean ATS, commented, "Blue Ocean ATS is thrilled to expand our data and trading connectivity while continuing to enhance our subscriber network. We are delighted to become a destination on Instinet, Lek Securities and Raptor Trading Network. Our global clients will benefit significantly from the enhanced connectivity and seamless routing capabilities from these leading providers," he added.

Options Technology, parent company of ACTIV Financial, President and CEO, Danny Moore, commented, "Options has provided 24x7 support for data and trading participants since its inception back in 1993. With the newer digital asset classes trending towards a 24-hour marketplace, we are well equipped to support the community as they adopt strategies to take advantage of the strategic direction of Blue Ocean ATS."

Managing Director of Blue Ocean Trading at Lek Securities, Gerry O'Donnell, commented, "Connecting to this liquidity and price discovery brings our clients unique value in a crowded US equity execution space. Operational costs to provide client access to Blue Ocean ATS during these US night hours has been eclipsed by the opportunity cost. There is just too much global news and information in the US night to be ignored. These eight hours are wide open. Our firm is in position and ready as this inevitably grows," he added.

Raptor Trading Systems, CEO, Teddy Lardos, commented "Raptor is pleased to announce our new relationship with Blue Ocean ATS, the industry leader for overnight US NMS stock trading. We are confident that this union will serve as a catapult for investor access to after hour liquidity. We look forward to being part of this endeavor and welcome BOATS to the Raptor Community."

About Blue Ocean Technologies:

Blue Ocean Technologies, LLC (BOT) is a unique capital markets fintech company empowering global investors by making trading possible during US overnight trading hours. Blue Ocean Technologies' US broker dealer subsidiary, Blue Ocean ATS, LLC, and its trading system Blue Ocean Alternative Trading System (BOATS), currently trade US National Market System (NMS) stocks from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am ET from Sunday - Thursday.

Founded in 2019, Blue Ocean ATS is on a mission to transform US trading to Global trading via its flagship service, Blue Ocean Session, providing access and transparency to subscribers in all time zones during non-traditional US market hours. Learn more about how to connect to: [email protected].

For additional information, please visit our website: www.blueocean-tech.io and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Press Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Ocean Technologies, LLC
Newest Digital Ledger Application to Manage International Production Planning

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV: BWLK) (OTCQB: BWLKF) Boardwalktech Software Corp ("Boardwalktech" or the "Company"), the leading Digital Ledger platform and enterprise software applications company, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its business footprint with a major European based broadcasting and media company (the "Client") to implement its second application on the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform. First year total revenue, is now projected to exceed US$160,000 for this client with more expected in 2022, comprising both recurring revenue and professional services.

This Client has thousands of content pieces being produced and formatted at any given time for international distribution to various mediums such as television and online services. Production planning for these shows and titles globally requires high levels of coordination and collaboration with multiple business units and production partners around the world. Boardwalktech's Digital Ledger Platform will be used to deliver this latest production planning application to analyze and plan all of the related production activity including production costs, formatting and scheduling for content produced by the Client, Boardwalktech's unique solution enables this client to allow multiple international groups to work and collaborate simultaneously while preserving changes and full accountability for timing and costs.

"As part of our land and expand strategy, this will be the second application deployed on the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform we will deliver for this client this year. We expect more applications as the value of our solution is being realized across this terrific organization. Digital transformation of manually run collaborative processes within large enterprises continues to be of critical importance to every company, and a problem that Boardwalktech is uniquely qualified to resolve. Getting everyone on the same page with the same data at the same time so decisions can be made, is no longer a nice to have but a must have," said Andrew T. Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of Boardwalktech. Improved collaboration and accountability using the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform fosters better, faster decision making, allowing this client to actually get content to market faster, generating increased revenues and enhancing results.

About Boardwalktech Software Corp.

Boardwalktech has developed a patented Digital Ledger Technology Platform currently used by Fortune 500 companies running mission-critical applications worldwide. Boardwalktech's digital ledger technology and its unique method of managing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data is the only platform on the market today where multiple parties can effectively work on the same data simultaneously while preserving the fidelity and provenance of the data. Boardwalktech can deliver collaborative, purpose-built enterprise information management applications on any device or user interface with full integration with enterprise systems of record in a fraction of the time it takes other non-digital ledger technology-based platforms. Boardwalktech is headquartered in Cupertino, California with offices in India and operations in North America. For more information on Boardwalktech, visit our website at www.boardwalktech.com.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved".

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to several risks including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's filing statement dated May 30, 2018. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward- looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE BoardwalkTech

Related Links

https://www.boardwalktech.com/


WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgewater Associates ("Bridgewater"), a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the largest hedge fund in the world, today announced the launch of a new Rising Fellows program to expand access to the financial services industry for students in their first year of university and help build a more diverse pool of future investment talent.

Bridgewater's Rising Fellows program will be a three-week virtual program and will focus on recruiting students from backgrounds that are underrepresented within the industry and from a wide range of universities, including HBCUs, as well as through diversity recruiting partners such as Out for Undergrad (O4U), BLK Capital Management, and Prep for Prep. The program is designed around several core principles to give students well-rounded exposure and experience, including:

Providing an early introduction to the finance industry

Building skills to help understand investing and the mechanics of the global economy

Offering practical application of lessons learned via projects guided by Bridgewater's investment professionals

"As we continue to explore ways to make our industry more diverse and accessible, the Rising Fellows Program will help launch new relationships and start encouraging future stars as early as their first year of college," said Alan Bowser, Co-Head of Americas Region and Chief Diversity Officer at Bridgewater. "By leveraging our unique network of clients in tandem with DEI-focused organizations and universities, we believe Rising Fellows will be a driving force in helping us accomplish that objective."

In addition to forming relationships with Bridgewater, Rising Fellows will earn a stipend for their time in the program and have the chance to create connections with Bridgewater's clients, many of whom share the goal of increasing diversity in the investment industry. Graduates will be considered for future opportunities at Bridgewater, while their resumes and projects will also be packaged and shared with Bridgewater clients and alumni for access to a wider range of potential roles.

"Diversity of thought, background and identity are incredibly important to the work we do, however, as an industry we often look to solve the DEI issue in the post-grad talent pool as opposed to educating students about our industry when they are just charting their college paths," said Robyn Shepherd, Head of Corporate Engagement at Bridgewater Associates. "Through our Rising Fellows program, we are looking to change this by not only committing to giving participants robust exposure to the industry early in their college careers but also maintaining engagement with these emerging professionals after they complete the program."

The first Rising Fellows program will include approximately 30 students and run from Monday, February 14th to Friday, March 4th. Activities planned include:

Week 1: Providing students with an overview of the finance industry and the role Bridgewater plays within it, as well as focusing on skills such as presenting and public speaking

Providing students with an overview of the finance industry and the role plays within it, as well as focusing on skills such as presenting and public speaking Week 2: Exploring economic theory and trends, with a focus on how they are reflected in current market cycles and how they impact investment strategiesstudents will also receive training in project management, research and writing

Exploring economic theory and trends, with a focus on how they are reflected in current market cycles and how they impact investment strategiesstudents will also receive training in project management, research and writing Week 3: Focusing on final projects, whereby students will apply their learnings from the program to an investment-related module to be reviewed by Bridgewater executives

Upon completion of the program, Fellows will continue to have a series of touchpoints with Bridgewater designed to maintain their relationship with the firm and provide support as they continue their education and embark on their careers. This will include invitations to a variety of existing Bridgewater events and speaker series. In addition, Bridgewater will host bespoke sessions led by executives to give advice on various subjects, such as building experience in the investment industry and other career-related topics. Students will also be eligible to participate in Bridgewater's Immersion program (the goal of which is to provide an even deeper window into our business) in their sophomore year and interview for the internship program in their junior year.

About Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater Associates is a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the world's largest hedge fund. Focused on understanding how the world's markets and economies work by having the deepest possible understanding of the global economy and financial markets, the firm translates that understanding into expertly constructed portfolios and meaningful relationships with institutional clients. Having built a track record of success for more than 45 years, Bridgewater's excellence is grounded in its distinct culture, which brings together great people and enables them to operate in a culture of radical truth and radical transparency. In recognition of the firm's commitment to excellence, its clients, and the magnitude of its impact on the investment industry, Bridgewater has received more than 70 industry awards in the past 10 years including recognitions for innovation, performance, quality of research, client satisfaction, and being a top place to work. Fortune named it the fifth most important private company in the US.

Based in Westport, Connecticut, Bridgewater manages approximately $150 billion in assets for the world's largest and most sophisticated institutional investors, including public and corporate pension funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, supranational agencies, foreign governments, and central banks. For more information, please visit www.bridgewater.com.

Press Contact:

Sam Reinhardt

Prosek Partners

646-818-9244

[email protected]

SOURCE Bridgewater Associates
MIAMI, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ByteChek, the only all-in-one compliance automation company, announced the release of its automated HIPAA and ISO 27001 compliance software solution today. ByteChek's HIPAA compliance solution helps SaaS companies comply with the federal law addressing protected health information (PHI).

ByteChek also announced its ISO 27001 software solution that helps companies build their information security management system (ISMS) quickly and efficiently. The HIPAA and ISO 27001 additions add to ByteChek's automated SOC 2 compliance offering.

The HIPAA addition enables companies to comply with the federal law addressing protected health information (PHI). "We work with a lot of companies that handle protected health information and are required to comply with the HIPAA federal law," said AJ Yawn, ByteChek Founder and CEO. "The addition of HIPAA to ByteChek's platform continues our commitment to helping companies navigate complex compliance frameworks to build trust and unlock sales."

ByteChek's automated ISO 27001 software solution adds to its robust set of compliance features designed to simplify the ISO certification process. ISO 27001 is critical to building trust and unlocking sales in the European Union and global markets. "We work with global companies that have to comply with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 frameworks," said AJ Yawn. "My experience in this industry taught me that there is a lot of overlap between these frameworks, and our goal from day one has been to simplify compliance for our customers. Our ISO 27001 feature is another step in the right direction."

The addition of HIPAA and ISO 27001 reflects ByteChek's continued commitment to helping customers accomplish their compliance goals and build trust with existing and future customers. Existing ByteChek customers that have earned SOC 2 reports on the only all-in-one solution will see 80% of their controls apply to ISO 27001 and HIPAA control requirements.

This announcement comes on the heels of ByteChek's recent $3M Seed funding round, raised by majority industry-leading and respected Black investors and funds. ByteChek's recent financing and new features will continue its mission to make compliance suck less for companies of all sizes.

About ByteChek

The ByteChek platform helps organizations of all sizes assess their cybersecurity posture efficiently and prove compliance faster. ByteChek enables companies to establish their security program, automate their readiness assessment, and complete their SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA audits faster  all from a single platform.

SOURCE ByteChek
"I am proud to announce the latest changes to our leadership team at Chesapeake Utilities," said Jeff Householder, President and CEO. "Each of these individuals has made significant contributions within our organization and is deserving of the recognition. These leaders have played pivotal roles in our Business Transformation efforts, business development activities, response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governance activities, energy transition engagement and many others. These individuals are committed to excellence, and their direction and leadership will be a guiding force in moving the Company forward in executing its growth strategy."

Jeff Sylvester will assume responsibilities for all of the Company's business operations. This includes oversight of the nonregulated operations in addition to the current responsibilities for the Company's regulated segments. His expanded role will include propane operations, Eight Flags and Marlin Gas Services operations. In 2019, Sylvester was appointed Senior Vice President of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation. He provides oversight of the Company's regulated operations, including the interstate natural gas transmission pipeline and distribution businesses on the Delmarva Peninsula; the intrastate natural gas pipeline and natural gas and electric distribution businesses in Florida; the unregulated natural gas pipeline infrastructure operation in Ohio; and customer care operations. Sylvester has more than 15 years of experience in the energy sector and recently served as Vice President of Nebraska Gas Operations for Black Hills Corporation. Prior to this position, Sylvester held leadership positions in the information technology, gas marketing and customer care operations at Chesapeake Utilities Corporation. Sylvester is a board member of the Southern Gas Association.

Kevin Webber will increase his focus on new business development and expansion, including in renewable energy. He will be responsible for business development, energy logistics, sales and the incubation of new business opportunities such as RNG, hydrogen and a new environmental sustainability office. Webber was promoted to Senior Vice President of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation in 2019. He joined the Company in 2010 and, since that time, has served as President of Florida Public Utilities Company (FPU), as well as Vice President of Gas Operations and Business Development for this subsidiary. Webber currently oversees the Company's propane gas operations, combined heat and power operations, mobile compressed natural gas (CNG) utility and pipeline solutions and business development companywide.

Michael Galtman was appointed Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation in April 2019. He oversees the technical accounting, financial reporting, financial analysis and planning functions for the Company, which include budgeting, forecasting and the financial component of strategic planning. Galtman works directly with the Company's leadership team on merger and acquisition transactions, strategic initiatives and the associated financial analyses. In his new role, he will oversee all accounting functions of the Company and will assume the role of principal accounting officer. He has over 20 years of broad-based accounting experience with public companies and the Big Four accounting firms, including serving as Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Sunoco Logistics Partners, L.P., a publicly traded master limited partnership servicing the energy industry. Galtman is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs.

Mike Cassel will continue to strengthen efforts in gas advocacy with external stakeholders and advance strategic regulatory efforts. Cassel has served as Assistant Vice President of FPU since 2019 and led the Regulatory and Governmental Affairs groups for this subsidiary. Previously, he was the Director of Florida Regulatory and Governmental Affairs. He joined Chesapeake Utilities Corporation in March 2008 as a regulatory analyst for the Company's Delaware and Maryland Natural Gas Divisions. Cassel has worked to build upon vital regulatory relationships in Florida. He has represented the Company on key regulatory filings and legislation, including those related to tax reform impacts, the electric modernization program and Hurricane Michael recovery, renewable natural gas and many others. Cassel serves on the board of directors for the Florida Natural Gas Association and the Nassau County Economic Development Board, where he also serves as a member of the executive committee. Additionally, Cassel is an active member of the American Gas Association's state affairs committee.

Stacie Roberts will continue to be responsible for corporate governance at Chesapeake. Roberts has served as Assistant Vice President of Corporate Governance since 2019. Roberts provides guidance to the Company's leadership team, including the Board of Directors, on corporate governance and compliance matters. Under her leadership, the corporate governance team was awarded Best Corporate Governance among North American Utilities by Ethical Boardroom magazine in 2021. The team was also named in 2019 as Governance Team of the Year (small to mid-cap sized companies) by Corporate Secretary magazine. Roberts serves on several advisory boards and working groups focused on corporate governance matters. She has 20 years of experience with increasing responsibility in corporate governance, including at a Fortune 500 company.

Lindsay Orr will continue to help develop and expand the Company's internal legal efforts. Orr joined Chesapeake Utilities Corporation in 2019 as Associate General Counsel and provides counsel to senior management and business units on the Company's legal affairs, including compliance with applicable laws and regulations, regulatory matters and major business transactions. Prior to joining Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, Orr worked in the legal department of Exelon Corporation, and prior to that practiced litigation and employment law at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP) and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, both in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a member of the legal committee of the American Gas Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel.

About Chesapeake Utilities Corporation

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation is a diversified energy delivery company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which is engaged in natural gas transmission and distribution; electricity generation and distribution; propane gas distribution; mobile compressed natural gas utility services and solutions; and other businesses. Information about Chesapeake Utilities Corporation's businesses is available at www.chpk.com.

Please note that Chesapeake Utilities Corporation is not affiliated with Chesapeake Energy, an oil and natural gas exploration company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

For more information, contact:

Brianna Patterson

Manager, Public Relations and Strategic Communications

302-217-7050

[email protected]

SOURCE Chesapeake Utilities Corporation
Back in 1871, the coastal city's ideal geographic location, climate and soil inspired an American missionary to grow China's first apples here, which were called "White Winter Pearmain."

Being the first Chinese city to grow apples, Yantai is constantly making new advances in apple cultivation and creating new varieties and strains, diversifying consumers' selection of apples.

American video journalist Jack Klumpp is looking for Yantai's story of planting apples from past to present. He also experiences first-hand the core of China's modern apple industry.

In the coastal city, Jack heads over to a massive apple orchard and tries picking the wildly popular Red Fuji apple. He tries a variety of apples grown in Yantai and gets to know their unique characteristics.

At a laboratory of breeding new apple varieties, Jack observes the cutting-edge cultivation methods to detoxify apples saplings, which helps to create healthier plants.

Contact: Li Siwei

Tel+8610-68996566

E-mail[email protected]

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/MWpm6kPSBxs

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWpm6kPSBxs

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1515102/China_Matters_Logo.jpg

SOURCE China Matters
ZURICH, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced its support for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation's (DFC) participation in a landmark debt restructuring and ocean conservation project in Belize. Chubb Global Markets and Sovereign Risk Insurance Limited, a Chubb company, together with other private insurers, provided $300 million of reinsurance to DFC in an innovative political risk insurance transaction designed to help Belize reduce its external government debt and fund marine protection.

The insured transaction, a $364 million loan structured and arranged by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Credit Suisse, will enable the country to reduce its debt burden by approximately $250 million and generate an estimated $180 million for marine conservation over 20 years. DFC provided approximately $610 million of political risk insurance (covering loan principal and interest) to support the transaction, thereby assuring the loan achieved an investment grade rating. Due to the significant size of DFC's exposure, private political risk reinsurance support was a critical component of the transaction.

DFC's support for this project represents one of the most innovative examples of climate finance and a model for the future, as it reduces Belize's indebtedness, generates investments in marine and biodiversity protection and promotes climate resilience in the country's "blue" economy. With this loan, Belize is able to repurchase and retire a substantial portion of its external commercial debt, create significant annual cash flow for marine conservation through 2040, and establish an endowment to fund marine conservation for future generations. This transaction represents the world's largest debt-for-nature restructuring focusing on marine conservation to date and is the second transaction for TNC's "Blue Bonds for Ocean Conservation" program.

"The private political risk insurance market is delighted that we could support the DFC in such a meaningful way on this groundbreaking transaction," said Price Lowenstein, President of Sovereign Risk Insurance. "This is an excellent example of public-private partnership that can serve as a template for future "blue" debt financing. Not only are we helping to make a remarkable conservation project possible, but we are also supporting sustainable economic development and community resilience through critical debt relief."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com.

SOURCE Chubb Limited
The oversubscribed funding round also included investors such as, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures (FISV), a dedicated venture capital team within Fidelity International set up to invest in fintech; DRW Venture Capital; Alumni Ventures and Jump Capital.

"We're moving beyond just a 'cool crypto portfolio manager' to a true, regulated digital asset wealth advisor," said Joel Birch, Co-Founder and CEO, Stacked. "Trading crypto isn't a great experience for the average person, and most people have no idea what to invest in. Imagine simply taking a risk assessment and having an automatically-managed portfolio created for you instantly. Investors need more passive tools, and Stacked is bringing that to them."

The company will release curated risk-adjusted portfolios for non-accredited investors early next year, which will make this the first product of its kind on the market.

"Since we began investing in Stacked over a year ago, the team has proven they have the ability to provide a unique and simple investment experience for retail investors. The ability to give users some guardrails when building a portfolio, while also allowing that user to custody funds on their preferred exchange is something investors really need. Now with this added focus on regulation, Stacked is in the best position to own the passive investment market in crypto," said Brian Lee, Partner, Alameda Research Ventures.

Within a few months of Stacked launching in April 2020, it was already generating a few-hundred million dollars per month in market order volume from a few thousand users. The company, which has now raised total funding of about $40 million since its launch last year, has automated over $10 billion worth of transactions for tens of thousands of new investors so far in 2021.

"Stacked is in a perfect position to not only capture the automated crypto trading demand but also be the first to truly offer curated investment products to crypto users," said David Toh, Partner, Mirana Ventures.

Using the company's platform, users can access pre-built stacks from leading hedge funds, indices and top asset managers and get investment advice based on their financial goals.

Today, over $100 million in user funds are connected to Stacked's smart portfolio manager, with the goal of growing assets under management (AUM) to more than $1 billion in 2022. The company says experienced and new traders alike can easily put their portfolio on autopilot by connecting their favorite crypto exchange to Stacked.

Since receiving approval from the SEC to operate as an RIA, Stacked is now one of the only crypto native companies registered with federal and/or state regulatory agencies to provide investment advice.

"We registered with the SEC so that we could truly provide the easiest and safest way to have risk-appropriate investment exposure to crypto, in just a few minutes, with no prior experience," says Stephen Beavis, Co-Founder and COO, Stacked.

Today, Stacked is a web-based application with plans to go fully mobile within six months. In 2022, the company plans to grow its 40-person team to over 100 employees.

The company's Chief Revenue Officer, Alan Eschweiler, added, "It's no accident that two of the largest exchanges in the crypto space co-lead this investment round. These exchanges, and others, have been key partners of ours since day one, introducing their users to more automated tools for investing. We're excited to add fuel to the explosive growth the company has experienced in 2021."

The other investors in the Series A round also included previous seed round lead Motivate Ventures; in addition to CoinFund; Starting Line; Avon Ventures; Linkpad Fund; Chicago Trading Capital; Hyde Park Angels; Bitstamp; Cadenza Ventures; Launch Code Capital; CEO and Founder of M1 Finance, Brian Barnes; and several notable individual investors.

To learn more about Stacked, visit stackedinvest.com and follow on Twitter @StackedCrypto.

About Stacked

Stacked is a crypto investment and asset management platform that connects to exchange accounts and allows users to instantly access vetted trading strategies and investment portfolios. Pre-built stacks are designed to give users instant access to pre-built portfolios modeled after some of the most popular crypto indexes, hedge funds and other investor portfolios.

Founded in 2020 to simplify trading strategy for users without any technical experience, Stacked has a growing offering of automated investment products.

Stacked supports all major exchanges and is one of the few crypto native companies licensed as a registered investment advisor (RIA).

SOURCE Stacked
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nigerian diesel genset market value, which will be an estimated $445.1 million in 2021, will further witness a 6.8% CAGR between 2021 and 2030, to reach $806.8 million by 2030. Generators that offer power in a range of 15 kilovolt-Amperes (kVA) to 75 kVA are hugely popular in residential facilities, telecom towers, small industries, restaurants, hotels, and commercial complexes, due to their cost-effectiveness.

Apart from these places, diesel gensets are widely used in the oil and gas industry of Nigeria. Since most oilfields are remotely located, they lack a grid connection, which is why gensets are essentials to keep the operations running. Nigeria is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world, which is largely due to the continuous operations of gensets in oilfields.

Get the sample pages of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/nigeria-diesel-genset-market/report-sample

Key Findings of Nigeria Diesel Genset Market Report

Presently, the Nigerian diesel genset market is dominated by commercial applications, as commercial spaces in the country generally use high-power gensets for continuous operations, on account of the poor grid infrastructure here.

One of the biggest factors encouraging residential, commercial, and industrial users to buy gensets is the decreasing prices of low-power variants. This is itself because of the regulations imposed by the Nigerian government to curb the import of these machines and produce them locally instead.

Further, the poor grid infrastructure is the biggest reason that makes gensets important. With the rapid industrialization and population growth, the amount of power being generated in the country is becoming increasingly inadequate. Moreover, the large transmission losses make the situation worse, thereby driving the demand for diesel gensets.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the sale of diesel gensets in the nation declined because the lockdowns and factory and commercial space closures reduced the demand for them. Moreover, generator manufacturers faced constraints in procuring the components and assembling the final products, which further hurt the industry growth prospects in 2020.

The emission of greenhouses gases is one of the major factors that has a slight negative impact on the Nigerian diesel genset market growth. Considering the rising air pollution levels, the government has put stringent regulations in place to check GHG emissions from diesel machines and initiated policies to promote cleaner fuels, such as natural gas.

Browse detailed report on Nigeria Diesel Generators Market Size, Share and Growth Forecast to 2030

Key companies in the Nigerian diesel genset market are Denyo Co. Ltd., Honda Manufacturing (Nigeria) Limited, YorPower Ltd., Jubaili Bros, Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Inc., Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited, Siemens AG, General Electric Company, SUMEC Group Corporation, Atlas Copco AB, John Holt Plc, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., JMG Limited, and Mikano International Limited.

Gas Genset Market in Nigeria is also witnessing significant growth

Explore Detailed Report on Gas Genset Market in Nigeria

Key Findings of Nigeria Gas Genset Market Report

Gas gensets of power ratings of 1,000 kilovolt-Amperes (kVA) and above witness the highest sales in the nation because of their importance in the energy, manufacturing, and commercial sectors.

Commercial applications will witness the fastest growth in the Nigerian gas genset market on account of the high sales of these machines to entities in the telecom and real estate industries.

The growing construction and oil and gas sectors are a key reason for the rising demand for gas gensets. Construction sites, even those that are located in cities, often lack a grid connection, while most oilfields are located at remote places. Therefore, both these sectors require an alternate source of electricity for keeping the machines and operations running nonstop.

The increasing air pollution levels are another key factor behind the high sale of gas gensets in Nigeria . Although gas gensets do emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), the emissions are a lot lower than those of diesel gensets. Thus, with the implementation of strict emission regulations on diesel engines, people in the country are turning to gas gensets, which are, additionally, cheaper to operate because of their high fuel efficiency.

. Although gas gensets do emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), the emissions are a lot lower than those of diesel gensets. Thus, with the implementation of strict emission regulations on diesel engines, people in the country are turning to gas gensets, which are, additionally, cheaper to operate because of their high fuel efficiency. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nigerian gas genset market was negatively impacted, as the lockdowns led to the closing of factories and commercial spaces, thereby leading to a reduction in the demand for electricity. Moreover, the restrictions on imports led to a low availability of components with generator manufacturers.

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.

Contact:

Prajneesh Kumar

P&S Intelligence

Phone: +1-347-960-6455

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter

SOURCE P&S Intelligence
RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dominion Energy Solar for Students program is soliciting new sites in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Through a Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation grant to the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project, the program offers K-12 students and educators a hands-on learning experience to generate electricity from a solar array installed on grounds accessible to students. Each participating organization will receive training sessions and curriculum on harnessing solar energy.

With one of the country's leading state-regulated utility solar portfolios, Dominion Energy continues to search for ways to capitalize on renewable energy sources. The new round of Solar for Students applications occurs as Dominion Energy is leading the country's transition toward a clean energy future. Dominion Energy has committed to net zero carbon and methane emissions by 2050 with interim goals to reduce carbon emissions 55 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 from our power generation business and to reduce methane emissions 80 percent from 2010 levels by 2040 from our natural gas business.

The NEED Project is currently seeking applications from K-12 public schools or educational non-profit organizations with STEM programming in the regions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia within Dominion Energy's electric service territory. The NEED Project will select at least 10 sites to receive a 1.2 kilowatt photovoltaic system that converts sunlight into electric power.

"We are very excited to once again expand the number of Solar for Students sites across our electric footprint in Virginia, North and South Carolina," said Hunter A. Applewhite, president of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. "This will give even more students and the public the opportunity for a hands-on learning experience with clean, renewable solar energy."

Each solar array will have a visual display that will show students and faculty real-time data on the amount of electricity generated. Each solar array will generate enough electricity to power 18 desktop computers, 40 ten-gallon aquariums, or 15 42-inch LED televisions.

Applications for the Dominion Energy Solar for Students program will be accepted through January 30, 2022 with recipients announced during the first quarter of 2022. Solar installations will take place throughout 2022 and culminate with a "Solarbration" at each location to kick off and showcase the project.

For more information or to apply, visit https://www.dominionenergy.com/company/community/dominion-energy-charitable-foundation/solar-for-students-program.

About the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation

About 7 million customers in 13 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D). Through its Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation , as well as EnergyShare and other programs, Dominion Energy contributed more than $58 million in 2020 to community causes. The Foundation supports nonprofit causes that meet basic human needs, protect the environment, promote education, and encourage community vitality. Please visit www.DominionEnergy.com to learn more.

SOURCE Dominion Energy
AMSTERDAM, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EcoPenguin, the world's first carbon offsetting platform in the cryptocurrency space, is partnering with the non-profit Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty ( COTAP.org), the first carbon offset provider to accept all major cryptocurrencies. Together, they are providing the cryptocurrency community with convenient ways to take responsibility for its environmental footprint and mitigate its climate impacts.

EcoPenguin's mission is to help decarbonize cryptocurrency and build a thriving, eco-friendly crypto community. COTAP's mission is to empower individuals and organizations in developed countries to address climate change and global poverty simultaneously.

Cryptocurrencies are carbon-intensive and have a large climate impact, since they depend on high-powered computers to validate billions of transactions on a blockchain. Bitcoin currently accounts for 1% of global electricity consumption -- as much as entire countries  and it's still in its infancy and growing rapidly. It currently generates 95 Mt of carbon emissions a year, and 1000 kg for a single transaction . Bitcoin miners have even brought disused coal plants out of retirement to meet their energy needs.

Though Bitcoin has by far the largest carbon footprint, the problem is industry-wide. Ethereum has the next largest footprint, with annual emissions of about 46 Mt of CO2, and 100 kg per transaction . Next year it plans to switch from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) which analysts say could be 99.99% more energy efficient.

"EcoPenguin advocates shifting to PoS as the best near-term path to decarbonization, but it won't happen immediately, and not everyone will do it," said EcoPenguin co-founder Joshua Aakash. "Before long we may also see a carbon tax of $40-$60 a tonne on major energy consumers, which might get reluctant crypto actors to take lowering their emissions seriously. But the regulatory approach would cost large tokens hundreds of millions of dollars and add considerably to the cost of transactions. It remains to be seen how these various approaches will play out. Meanwhile, by partnering with COTAP we're able to offer verified carbon offset solutions for crypto tokens, projects, traders, or anyone in the crypto space who wants to take responsibility for their carbon footprint here and now."

"Crypto is growing explosively, and it's urgent to head off its potentially massive climate impacts," said COTAP founder and CEO Tim Whitley. "Other burgeoning industries have become more efficient and greener as they've matured, and crypto can, too. Switching it to sustainable energy sources is the paramount goal, but that takes time, so in the interim offsetting is an important part of the solution. A lot of cryptocurrency offsetting activity today is speculative, and/or it converts carbon credits into tokens and keeps them tied up on the blockchain for years, as opposed to the tried-and-true approach of permanently retiring credits on existing carbon registries. The EcoPenguin concept really resonated with us because they share our belief that there's a huge crypto/carbon leadership gap, and that crypto can be a force for material good if it adopts the right approaches. So we're excited to be working together to bring the crypto community verified, high-quality offsets that will do tangible good today, creating real-world benefits for the climate and low-income communities."

COTAP's carbon offsets counteract carbon emissions with tree planting, agroforestry, and forest protection operations in Nicaragua, Uganda, India, Fiji, Indonesia, and Mexico. The projects are all located in areas where income levels are less than $2 per day.

COTAP offset projects are certified under Plan Vivo, the world's longest-standing voluntary standard for forest carbon. Plan Vivo stipulates that rural communities must own the carbon offset projects, and also that they must receive at least 60% of the revenues the projects generate. So in addition to verifiably sequestering carbon, COTAP offsets provide livelihoods and generate life-changing income streams in some of the world's poorest communities.

EcoPenguin and COTAP have structured the offset offerings to lower barriers to entry, maximize convenience, create positive incentives, and assure transparency and accountability. The EcoPenguin platform is completely free to use. EcoPenguin is building its own line of eco-friendly NFTs, funkypenguins.io, which automatically counteract their carbon footprint with COTAP offsets, to be launched on the EcoPenguin platform in January 2022. Users who purchase COTAP offsets on the EcoPenguin platform are acknowledged with an EcoPenguin NFT digital certificate. EcoPenguin is also designing a "green swap" mechanism, analogous to a tiny, voluntary crypto carbon tax, which allows users to swap tokens and add a small, fixed amount to each transaction for carbon offsetting. The resulting carbon savings will be tracked and jointly published on the EcoPenguin platform and COTAP.org, to verify that the carbon offset through EcoPenguin match the offsets purchased from COTAP.

In addition, there are potential tax benefits. For example, since COTAP is a non-profit, in the U.S. individuals don't pay capital gains tax on cryptocurrency used to purchase COTAP offsets, and depending on their income level and whether or not they itemize, they may also get an income tax deduction.

EcoPenguin is working with Inevitrade owner and crypto influencer Craig Percoco to inform the crypto community about carbon offsetting opportunities through Inevitrade's discord and youtube channels. "EcoPenguin will help fix a massive problem by working towards decarbonizing crypto," Percoco said, "while also aiming to offer multiple facets of long term utility in the NFT space; something that is mostly yet to be seen."

Among EcoPenguin's crypto partners are Block Ape Scissors , a metaverse token which is offsetting its carbon emissions on the platform, and LGCY Network , a PoS blockchain which which will offset all its carbon emissions through the EcoPenguin platform, so all projects and traders building and trading on the blockchain can trust that their climate impacts have been responsibly countered.

CONTACT: Stephen Kent, [email protected], 914-589-5988

SOURCE EcoPenguin
ATLANTA, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax  (NYSE: EFX) is furthering its commitment to expand access to credit by making 'Buy Now, Pay Later' (BNPL) payment information part of credit reports, as identified by a new business industry code. The company has created the industry's first policy for acceptance of BNPL tradelines in consumer credit files via Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) Metro 2 guidelines. An Equifax study of anonymized consumer data from a BNPL provider shows that individuals who pay their BNPL loans on time could potentially increase their FICO Score - helping consumers to both build and rebuild credit.

"Equifax will be the first credit reporting agency to formalize a standard process for reporting BNPL tradelines for inclusion on traditional consumer credit reports," said Mark Luber, Chief Product Officer for U.S. Information Solutions (USIS) at Equifax. "We are committed to helping people live their financial best, and recognize the role that BNPL services can play in helping people build stronger financial profiles."

BNPL products, also known as point-of-sale financing, are a growing way for consumers to access convenient, alternative financing options for online or in-store purchases. They typically involve short-term, interest-free installment payments offered at checkout.

Beginning in the first quarter of 2022, Equifax will implement a new "business industry code" for BNPL. This is a standard identifier used to classify the industry in which each Equifax customer functions. The new industry code will classify BNPL tradelines, including payment history and give Equifax customers and scoring partners the ability to view and decide how to incorporate the information into their decisioning to potentially open up new mainstream financial services opportunities to more consumers.

Equifax research shows that the inclusion of on-time payments of BNPL loans in credit reporting may increase credit scores. Equifax conducted a study of anonymized consumer BNPL data, where the BNPL tradelines had the following features:

Reported as revolving line of credit accounts

Had, on average, five and-a-half months of repayment history reported

Had an average utilization of 17.9% (including consumers who paid off their BNPL tradeline)

The Equifax study also shows the potential for consumers who pay their BNPL loans on-time to improve their FICO Score, specifically:

The majority of consumers in the study were helped by having an on-time BNPL tradeline in their credit file, with an average FICO Score increase of 13 points.

BNPL can be a powerful way for new-to-credit consumers to build their credit profiles. The study showed that individuals with either a "thin" credit file consisting of two or less tradelines or a "young" credit file - where all credit history is no more than 24 months old - saw an average FICO Score increase of 21 points with the addition of on-time BNPL tradelines to their credit file.

BNPL can also help consumers rebuild their credit. Consumers who had significantly late payments reported on their traditional credit file experienced an average FICO Score increase of 13 points with the addition of on-time BNPL tradelines to their credit file.

"Most BNPL providers either bypass the credit check completely, or do a soft pull on credit files, which can be attractive to consumers," said Luber. "We are encouraging BNPL providers to report into Equifax as a powerful source of data. Those who use BNPL services that report can demonstrate reliable behavior and boost their credit profile."

Equifax has led the exploration of new data to open access to credit and financial inclusion for decades. The recent acquisition of Teletrack , as well as Equifax innovations in alternative and new data, including the OneView report for businesses, Payment Insights and Cashflow Insights solutions, are designed to positively promote access to mainstream financial services and help bring more people into the credit economy.

For additional insights from recent Equifax studies on BNPL loans and the potential effect on credit profiles, tune into the newly released Market Pulse Podcast . The company will also hold a Market Pulse webinar on this topic on February 10, 2022.

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 12,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com .

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Kate Walker for Equifax

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Free to Learn Coalition President Alleigh Marre sent a letter today to national education group leaders providing new, nationwide survey results that highlights many of the issues parents have emphasized over the last year and that these national organizations are failing to respond to or acknowledge.

"From Covid to culture wars, the education of students across the United States has been turned upside down over the last two years," said Marre. "While many teachers have gone above and beyond to support their students, the same cannot be said for their union or school board leadership."

The letter was sent to Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association; Viola Garcia, President of the National School Boards Association; and Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, to provide insight into how they should focus their efforts going into the 2022 academic school year.

The Free to Learn National Survey highlights:

Virtual learning is failing students: 55% whose children participated in virtual learning said it had a negative impact on their child's academic performance and 60% said it had a negative impact on their child's mental health.

55% whose children participated in virtual learning said it had a negative impact on their child's academic performance and 60% said it had a negative impact on their child's mental health. Academic achievement matters: A staggering 81% of respondents said they are concerned with the quality of academic education today, and 48% said they are very concerned.

A staggering 81% of respondents said they are concerned with the quality of academic education today, and 48% said they are very concerned. Parents should have a role in education: 72% of respondents agreed that parents should be able to request the curriculum being taught to their children.

The topline data of this nationwide survey can be found here. The survey was conducted November 29 through December 3, 2021, and reached 1,200 respondents via cell phone, landline, and web.

Free to Learn was launched in June to help give parents a voice as they were being increasingly marginalized. Since launching, Free to learn has heard from thousands of parents from all fifty states.

"I hope this data helps make clear that those students' parents are not some disembodied, disinterested group to be ignored, nor are they domestic terrorists against which to fight," said Marre.

To join share your story visit freetolearn.org, or click here.

The Free to Learn Coalition is a non-partisan organization established to support parents, caregivers, and community organizations in their advocacy for quality K-12 education. The coalition supports the basic principle that students should be Free to Learn: Free to ask questions, free to develop individual thoughts and opinions, free to think critically of ideas and concepts, and free to achieve.

SOURCE Free to Learn
CALGARY, AB, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) (" Frontera " or the " Company ") announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares in Petroleos Sud Americanos S.A. (" PetroSud ") with operations in Colombia in El Dificil (a 65% working interest (" W.I. ")), Entrerrios and Rio Meta Blocks.

FRONTERA SPUDS JANDAYA-1 EXPLORATION WELL IN ECUADOR

FRONTERA CHOSEN AS SUCCESSFUL BIDDER BY ANH FOR BLOCK VIM-46

Assets to be acquired in the PetroSud and VIM-46 transactions:

Under the terms of the agreement, Frontera will acquire PetroSud for a total aggregate cash consideration of approximately US$9 million plus the assumption of approximately US$18 million in debt. The transaction is expected to close by December 30, 2021, subject to meeting certain closing conditions.

Orlando Cabrales, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frontera, commented:

"Frontera's acquisition of PetroSud supports the Company's strategy to increase gas production, lowers carbon emissions and includes strategically located, high quality gas facilities adjacent to an emerging core area which may enhance our ability to commercialize recent gas discoveries in VIM-1 in a very competitive market.

At $70/bbl average Brent prices, Frontera anticipates its acquisition of PetroSud will generate approximately US$8-10 million of annual EBITDA at a low production cost of $7.50-$8.50/boe and add approximately 1,300 boe/d of immediate production (comprised of approximately 5 mmcf/d of conventional natural gas, 80 bbl/d of natural gas liquids, 260 bbl/d of heavy oil and 60 bbl/d of light and medium crude oil) which the Company anticipates increasing to 2,000 - 3,000 boe/d between 2022 and 2024."

El Dificil and VIM-46 blocks are located in an emerging core area close to the Company's interests in La Creciente, VIM-22 and VIM-1 blocks. The Entrerrios and Rio Meta blocks are centrally located near the Company's Cravoviejo, Cachicamo and Casimena producing assets.

Key anticipated benefits of the PetroSud acquisition include:

No exploration commitments on any of the acquired blocks.

Producing gas fields connected to existing distribution infrastructure.

Immediate opportunities to increase production.

Located approximately 75-kilometres from La Belleza (VIM-1) and VIM-22.

Conventional natural gas assets further balance production profile.

Possible synergies could be realized due to the close proximity of PetroSud's Llanos assets to Frontera's light oil assets.

Frontera Chosen as Successful Bidder by ANH for Block VIM-46

On December 16, 2021, Frontera was preliminarily appointed as the successful bidder to acquire interests in the VIM-46 block pursuant to the 2021 Colombia Bid Round. Confirmation of the award by the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) and execution of the relevant exploration and production contract is expected to take place shortly. VIM-46 block is located in close proximity to a number of existing Frontera assets including the La Creciente block, the VIM-22 block, the VIM-1 block and the newly acquired El Dificil block. Frontera anticipates completing further exploration in this emerging core area.

Frontera Spuds the Jandaya-1 Well in the Perico Block in Ecuador

On December 7, 2021, Frontera spud the Jandaya-1 exploration well on the Perico block (Frontera 50% W.I. and operator, GeoPark Limited 50% W.I.). The Jandaya-1 well is expected to reach a total depth of 10,970 feet (3,344 metres) in January 2022 and is targeting light oil in the Main and Upper Hollin and T Sandstone formations. The Joint Venture targets spudding the Tui-1 exploration well on the Perico block once operations are complete at the Jandaya-1 well.

The Perico and Espejo blocks are located near existing production and infrastructure in Sucumbios Province in the northeastern part of Ecuador, in the Oriente basin and were awarded through Ecuador's 2019 Intracampos Bid Round. Frontera holds approximately 16,700 net acres in the Perico and Espejo exploration blocks. The Oriente basin currently produces more than 500,000 bbl/d.

ESG Strategy Results: Frontera Awarded Equipares Gold Seal For Gender Equality

On November 24, 2021, the Colombian Ministry of Labor and the Presidential Council for Equity for Women, with technical support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), awarded Frontera the Equipares Gold Seal for the Company's commitment and efforts to close gender gaps in the workplace and in the communities where it operates. The Gold Seal is the highest recognition of the program and Frontera is the first oil and gas company to receive this recognition.

As part of the 'S' Factor of its ESG Strategy, Frontera is focused on hiring and promoting women, seeking a better balance between work and personal life, as well as achieving a balance in professional development areas and leadership positions.

Fitch Affirms Frontera's IDR at 'B'; Outlook Stable

On December 7, 2021, Fitch Ratings affirmed Frontera's Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'B'. Fitch also affirmed Frontera's senior unsecured notes at 'B/RR4'. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

About Frontera:

Frontera Energy Corporation is a Canadian public company involved in the exploration, development, production, transportation, storage and sale of oil and natural gas in South America, including related investments in both upstream and midstream facilities. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets with interests in 37 exploration and production blocks in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana, and pipeline and port facilities in Colombia. Frontera is committed to conducting business safely and in a socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner.

If you would like to receive news releases via email as soon as they are published, please subscribe here: http://fronteraenergy.mediaroom.com/subscribe.

Advisories:

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information relates to activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the anticipated timing for closing of the PetroSud transaction, the anticipated completion and execution of the exploration and production contract with ANH for the VIM-26 block, the anticipated benefits of the PetroSud and VIM-46 transactions and their fit within the Company's strategic plan, and the anticipated timing and progress of exploration projects. All information other than historical fact is forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information reflects the current expectations, assumptions and beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to it and considers the Company's experience and its perception of historical trends, including expectations and assumptions relating to the closing of the PetroSud transaction; the completion and execution of the exploration and production contract with ANH for the VIM-26 block; the anticipated benefits of the PetroSud and VIM-46 transactions; commodity prices and interest and foreign exchange rates; the current and potential adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the status of the pandemic and future waves and any associated policies around current business restrictions; the performance of assets and equipment; the sufficiency of budgeted capital expenditures in carrying out planned activities; the availability and cost of labour, services and infrastructure; and the development and execution of projects.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be placed on such information. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some that are similar to other oil and gas companies and some that are unique to the Company. The actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. The Company's annual information form dated March 3, 2021, its annual management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2020, and other documents it files from time to time with securities regulatory authorities describe the risks, uncertainties, material assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results and such factors are incorporated herein by reference. Copies of these documents are available without charge by referring to the company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . All forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Oil and Gas Information Advisories

Reported production levels may not be reflective of sustainable production rates and future production rates may differ materially from the production rates reflected in this news release due to, among other factors, difficulties or interruptions encountered during the production of hydrocarbons.

Boe Conversion

The term "boe" is used in this news release. Boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A boe conversion ratio of cubic feet to barrels is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. In this news release, boe has been expressed using the Colombian conversion standard of 5.7 Mcf: 1 bbl required by the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Definitions:

bbl(s) Barrel(s) of oil bbl/d Barrel of oil per day boe Refer to "Boe Conversion" disclosure above boe/d Barrel of oil equivalent per day Mcf Thousand cubic feet

SOURCE Frontera Energy Corporation

Related Links

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PLEASANTON, Calif., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. , a pioneer in the production of low-carbon transportation fuels, announced today the completion of an interim financing to fund Fulcrum's second waste-to-fuels project, culminating in the issuance by the Indiana Finance Authority of $375 million of Environmental Improvement Revenue Bonds (Bonds) through Fulcrum's wholly owned subsidiary Fulcrum Centerpoint, LLC (Centerpoint). Proceeds from the offering will be held in escrow with the Bonds subject to a mandatory tender for purchase on November 15, 2022. Fulcrum expects to refinance the bonds on or before November 15, 2022. The transaction was led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC.

"We are pleased to take this next step in accelerating our growth trajectory with this financing," said Fulcrum's President and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Pryor. "Fulcrum was awarded $500 million in volume cap by the Indiana Finance Authority to help fund a portion of the Centerpoint BioFuels Plant, the Company's second waste to zero-carbon fuels project. This interim financing provides the Company with ample time in 2022 to finalize engineering and obtain the necessary permits and authorizations to launch our next zero-carbon project."

The Bonds are an obligation solely of Centerpoint and are not a debt, liability or obligation of the Indiana Finance Authority or the State of Indiana, however, as a result of the volume cap award, the Bonds will bear interest at a tax-exempt rate.

The Centerpoint BioFuels Plant will be located in Gary, Ind. with waste feedstock sourced from the greater Chicago and northern Indiana areas. Fulcrum has secured the biorefinery site, completed initial engineering and has submitted the air permit for the project, which will have the capacity to produce approximately 33 million gallons of drop-in transportation fuel annually. Construction is currently targeted to begin in 2023.

About Fulcrum

Based in Pleasanton, California, Fulcrum is leading the development of a reliable and efficient process for transforming waste into zero-carbon transportation fuels including sustainable aviation fuel and diesel. The Company's innovative process utilizing household garbage as a feedstock will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 100% on a lifecycle basis, contributing to the aviation and transportation sectors goals of reducing carbon emissions. Beginning with the Sierra BioFuels Plant, which will begin fuel production in the first quarter of 2022, Fulcrum's plants will provide customers with low-carbon drop-in fuel that is competitively priced with traditional petroleum fuel. Fulcrum, a privately held company, has aligned itself with strategic feedstock, technology and fuel offtake partners to further strengthen and accelerate the Company's patented and proprietary approach to commercially producing large volumes of renewable fuel from municipal solid waste. For more information, please visit www.fulcrum-bioenergy.com .

Contact

Rick Barraza

Vice President

[email protected]

SOURCE Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc.
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gabby Petito Foundation, started by the family of Gabby Petito, is on a mission to support organizations assisting families in locating missing persons, and to provide support to organizations that assist survivors of domestic violence through education, awareness and prevention.

Since Gabby's disappearance and her tragic death, thousands of people have reached out to the foundation to share their stories, seek support and connect with fellow survivors. The Petito family wish to turn their personal tragedy into positive change by supporting those on the front lines doing critical and lifesaving work.

"We want to honor Gabby's memory and life by ensuring that no one ever has to experience what she did. We want survivors to know that they aren't alone and that there are amazing organizations ready to help," said Nichole Schmidt, Gabby Petito Foundation co-founder and Gabby's mother.

The foundation, which has received generous contributions from people around the world, is giving three significant donations this month to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline), SafeSpace, and The AWARE Foundation.

"These three organizations are doing incredible work on the front lines of missing persons and responding to those impacted by abuse," said Joe Petito, Gabby Petito Foundation co-founder and Gabby's father. "Our foundation is honored to present them with this support."

According to The Hotline, domestic violence is often misinterpreted as a private issue. It is, in fact, a long-running public health crisis that affects the safety of families and communities across the country. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted in 2010 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one in four women and one in seven men aged 18 and older in the United States will experience severe physical violence in their lifetime. The CDC also found that nearly half of all female homicide victims are killed by a current or former dating partner. The Gabby Petito Foundation has featured information on how to contact The Hotline on their website, so that those reaching out to share their stories could access support and resources. To date, more than 300 people have reached out to The Hotline from the foundation's website.

"We know that survivors are extremely strong and resourceful. We are amazed every day by their bravery," said Katie Ray-Jones CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. "The Hotline is here to support them 24/7 and this contribution from the Gabby Petito Foundation will allow us to continue our critical services during a time when those impacted by domestic violence are at increased risk of abuse."

In October 2021, The Hotline experienced one of the highest contact volumes in a single month in their 25-year history and will answer their 6 millionth call in early 2022.

SafeSpace's mission is to empower adult victims of domestic violence and their children through intervention, prevention and advocacy services. Since its founding in 1979, SafeSpace has provided nearly half a million safe nights of shelter to more than 40,000 victims and children throughout the Treasure Coast of Florida.

"We are grateful to be partnering with the Gabby Petito Foundation in providing life-saving programs and services, and bringing heightened awareness to the worldwide epidemic of intimate partner violence," said SafeSpace CEO Teresa Albizu, "We will continue working to deliver quality programs and services to adult victims of domestic violence and their children on the Treasure Coast of Florida. The unfortunate reality is that COVID-19 continues to increase the risks for those impacted by domestic abuse."

This grant award will be used to support SafeSpace opening a 19-bed emergency shelter in Indian River County early in 2022.

The AWARE Foundation (AWARE), started in 2016, assists families of missing persons to raise awareness by distributing flyers, securing billboards, working with media and holding events. This organization supports families with their most critical needs when a loved one is missing. Gabby's parents first turned to AWARE for help to get the word out that Gabby was missing.

"Gabby's family decided to make a difference. They could have grieved in silence, and everyone would have understood, but instead they chose to help other families and survivors through the Gabby Petito Foundation," said Kenny Jarels of AWARE. AWARE worked closely with the Petito family during the search for Gabby and was named an "Everyday Hero" by the Investigation Discovery Network in 2020.

If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship abuse in any form, help is available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7/365. Text START to 88788, call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or chat online at TheHotline.org. You are not alone.

National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) www.thehotline.org

Safe Space shelter www.safespacefl.org

The Aware Foundation www.theawarefoundationofvirginia.com

SOURCE The National Domestic Violence Hotline
DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Point-of-Care Ultrasound Device Market Research Report: By Type, Portability, Application - Global Industry Revenue Estimation and Demand Forecast to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global point-of-care ultrasound devices market revenue is predicted to increase to $4,546.5 million by 2030 from $2,186.8 million in 2020, at a 7.9% CAGR between 2021 and 2030.

Booming Geriatric Population To Take Point-of-Care Ultrasound (PoCUS) Devices Market to $4,546.5 Million by 2030.

The COVID-19 impact on the point-of-care ultrasound devices market has been negative due to the closure of manufacturing facilities. Moreover, almost all the healthcare resources were diverted to the fight against the pandemic, which is why most diagnostic imaging facilities were shut down, except for COVID patients.



The diagnostic bifurcation held the larger share in the PoCUS devices market, on the basis of type, in the past. Such devices are being increasingly utilized for evaluating left ventricular systolic function and diagnosing severe mitral regurgitation, pericardial effusion, pleural effusion, pulmonary edema, and pneumothorax.



In the coming years, the portability segment of the point-of-care ultrasound devices market will be dominated by the trolley/cart-based bifurcation. These devices find widespread usage in hospitals as they can be easily taken from one place to another, such as between radiology departments and emergency rooms (ER).



The highest CAGR in the PoCUS devices market, under the application segment, will likely be seen in the emergency medicine category. As shifting the patient from the ER to the ultrasound ward can result in loss of valuable time, portable ultrasound devices are being used at the bedside to obtain immediate clinical information, increase efficiency, improve patient safety, and decrease the risk of complications.



Europe has generated the highest revenue in the point-of-care ultrasound devices market till now because of the increasing chronic disease incidence, healthcare expenditure, and geriatric population and rapid technological advancements in radiology, as a whole. The UN says that the region's geriatric population will increase from 140.4 million in 2019 to 199.9 million by 2050, thus driving the volume of ultrasound procedures.



The Asia-Pacific (APAC) will be the fastest-growing PoCUS devices market in the years to come owing to the rising demand for point-of-care treatment and diagnosis, increasing healthcare expenditure, and surging cases of lifestyle-associated and chronic diseases. Moreover, the aging population in Asia is set to reach 954.6 million by 2050 from 395.3 million in 2019, says the UN.



The major players in the global point-of-care ultrasound devices market are Esaote S.p.A., Analogic Corporation, Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd., General Electric Company, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, Siemens AG, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Canon Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., and Braun Melsungen AG.

The major drivers for the market include:

Booming Geriatric Population: The number of people aged 65 and above on earth is set to grow from 727 million in 2020 to 1.5 billion by 2050, says the United Nations (UN). Since not all older people can visit a medical care facility every time, these devices can be brought to wherever the patients are, for diagnosis.

Rising Prevalence of Chronic Diseases: The rising prevalence of chronic diseases is also driving the PoCUS devices market by propelling the demand for effective diagnosis and treatment. Ultrasound is not only used to detect the disease but also during treatment, such as ultrasound-guided surgeries. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), heart diseases kill 17.9 million and cancer kills 9.6 million people each year, thus driving the demand for ultrasound procedures.

Key Findings of Global Point-of-Care Ultrasound Devices Market Report

Demand for therapeutic PoCUS devices to rise faster

Growing geriatric population biggest reason behind market advance

APAC most-lucrative region for PoCUS devices market investments

PoCUS devices undergoing technological advancements

Emergency medicine biggest application area of PoCUS devices

Market fragment in nature due to presence of numerous manufacturers

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Background



Chapter 2. Research Methodology



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction

4.1 Definition of Market Segments

4.1.1 By Type

4.1.1.1 Diagnostic

4.1.1.2 Therapeutic

4.1.2 By Portability

4.1.2.1 Trolley/cart-based

4.1.2.2 Compact/handheld

4.1.3 By Application

4.1.3.1 Emergency medicine

4.1.3.2 Cardiology

4.1.3.3 Obstetrics and gynecology

4.1.3.4 Vascular and urology

4.1.3.5 Musculoskeletal

4.1.3.6 Others

4.2 Market Dynamics

4.2.1 Trends

4.2.1.1 Technological advancements in PoCUS devices

4.2.2 Drivers

4.2.2.1 Surge in geriatric population

4.2.2.2 Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases

4.2.2.3 Increasing awareness about benefits of portable ultrasound devices

4.2.2.4 Increasing healthcare expenditure

4.2.2.5 Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

4.2.3 Restraints

4.2.3.1 Lack of skilled sonographers

4.2.3.2 Stringent regulatory norms

4.2.3.3 Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

4.2.4 Opportunities

4.2.4.1 Improving healthcare infrastructure in emerging economies

4.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.4 Impact of COVID-19



Chapter 5. Global PoCUS Device Market Size and Forecast

5.1 By Type

5.2 By Portability

5.3 By Application

5.4 By Region



Chapter 6. Europe Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 7. North America Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 8. APAC Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 9. LATAM Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 10. MEA Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 11. Competitive Landscape

11.1 Product Benchmarking of Key Players

11.2 Global Strategic Developments of Key Players

11.2.1 Product Launches

11.2.2 Partnerships

11.2.3 Acquisitions



Chapter 12. Company Profiles

Esaote S.p.A.

Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd.

Analogic Corporation

General Electric Company

Siemens AG

Fujifilm Holdings Corporation

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Canon Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/m4ysja

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

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DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global TROP2 Antibody Market & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global Trop2 targeting drug market is expected to surpass US$ 4 Billion by 2026

Surge in prevalence of cancer across geographies, high demand for targeted therapeutics for cancer treatment, favorable reimbursement policies offered by manufacturers and insurance providers, and rise in awareness of Trop-2 targeting drug owing o high efficiency will propel the growth of market.

In addition, surge in geriatric population and increase in technological advancements in screening & diagnosis of cancer supplement the market growth.

The key players in the TROP2 Antibody market include Daiichi Sankyo, Immunomedics, Gilead Sciences, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioThera Solution, and others. The major players in the market have adopted strategic alliances such as collaboration, partnerships, or joint ventures to cope up with the high cost of research and development and to maintain their share in market.

For instance, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca have recently announced second trial collaboration with Merck to evaluate the combination of datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd), a TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC) and Keytruda in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Studies have also demonstrated that Trop2 is highly expressed on several cancer cells and is generally associated with its aggressive nature. Apart from this, it is also involved in several signaling pathways which ultimately lead to cancer cell growth and proliferation. Therefore, targeting Trop2 can be an alternative to target cancer.

Recently, scientists developed novel antibody drug conjugate in which the therapeutic antibody is targeted towards Trop2, thereby delivering the cytotoxin to the surface of tumor cell. Sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy) developed by Immunomedics is the first trop2 targeted antibody drug conjugate which has been approved for patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease.

The introduction of Trodelvy in 2020 is expected to witness high growth rates in market due to lack of effective targeted therapies in mTNBC. It is believed that Trodelvy will revolutionize the overall treatment of TNBC and will significantly improve the survival outcomes.

Beyond the approval of Trodelvy in US, it has also gained approval in Australia, Canada, UK, and Switzerland for adults with metastatic TNBC. Apart from this, the drug is present in regulatory view in other regions including Europe, China and Singapore.

Recently, European Medicines Agency has recommended the marketing of Trodelvy, indicating that the drug will enter the market in coming months. The rapid approval of drug in different regions will fuel the growth of market in coming years.

The quick approval of Trodelvy has further empowered innovation and development in this sector. To date, a cocktail of Trop2 targeted drugs including DS-1062a, RN927C, BAT8003, SKB264, JS108 are present in clinical development.

These drugs have been designed to target a wide range of cancer including non-small cell lung cancer, epithelial cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, and others.

Apart from this, several investigational studies are also ongoing to evaluate the efficacy of Trodelvy for the treatment of hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) metastatic breast cancer and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Additional evaluation across multiple solid tumors is also underway. The forthcoming years will see rapid influx of Trop-2 targeted therapies in wide range of cancers.

Global TROP2 Antibody Market & Clinical Trials Insight 2026 Report Analysis and Data Highlights:



Research Methodology

Global & Regional Market Analysis

Global TROP2 Antibody Market Opportunity Assessment: > USD 4 Billion

Market and Drug Sales Insight 2020 Till 2026

Approved Drug In Market: 1 Drugs

Approved TROP2 Antibody Patent, Price and Sales insight 2020 Till 2026

Future Market Assessment By Indication Till 2026

Ongoing Clinical Trials Assessment by Status, Phase & Region

Key Market Dynamics

Competitor Landscape

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction to TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market

1.1 Overview

1.2 History of TROP2 Targeting Therapeutics

2. TROP2 Ideal Clinical Biomarker for Cancer

3. TROP2 Targeting Therapeutics Mechanism

4. Global TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market Analysis

4.1 Current Market Scenario

4.2 Future Market Opportunity

5. Global TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market Opportunity by Region

5.1 US

5.2 Europe

5.3 Japan

5.4 Rest of World

6. Global TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market by Cancer

6.1 Breast Cancer

6.2 Urothelial Carcinoma

6.3 Lung Cancer

6.4 Pancreatic Cancer

6.5 Prostate Cancer

7. First Approved TRO2 Targeting Antibody - Trodelvy (Sacituzumab Govitecan)

7.1 Overview

7.2 Approval, Patent & Exclusivity

8. Trodelvy - Commercial Information

8.1 Dosage & Price Analysis

8.2 Sales Analysis

9. Trodelvy Sales Forecast 2026

10. TROP2 Targeted Therapy Clinical Trials Insight

10.1 By Phase

10.2 By Development Status

10.3 By Region

11. Global TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market - Ongoing Research & Development

11.1 Datopotamab Deruxtecan (DS-1062)

11.2 SKB264

11.3 JS108

11.4 BAT 8003

11.5 Trodelvy (Sacituzumab Govitecan)

12. Global TROP2 Targeted Therapy Market Dynamics

12.1 Market Drivers

12.2 Market Challenges

13. Global TROP2 Targeting Therapy Market Future Outlook

14. Competitive Landscape

14.1 Amunix

14.2 ARIUS Research

14.3 AstraZeneca

14.4 Biothera

14.5 Daiichi Sankyo Company

14.6 Gilead

14.7 Immunomedics

14.8 Janux Therapy

14.9 Klus Pharma

14.10 Myeloid therapeutics

14.11 Pfizer Inc

14.12 Shanghai Junshi Bioscience

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/c3wxuv

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


"Both Friedrich Baumann and Goran Nyberg are proven commercial vehicle experts with extensive experience and a clear understanding of customer needs in the transport industry," said Christian Levin, CEO of TRATON SE. "The change in personnel means that our international group of strong commercial vehicle brands is growing ever closer together. MAN, Navistar and thus the TRATON GROUP as a whole will benefit from this change and exchange of experience."

"Friedrich has been influential at Navistar. Under his leadership, Navistar has advanced an intimate joint alignment with the International truck and IC Bus dealer networks and dedicated all commercial operations to delivering maximum value that will lead to our customers' success. I thank him for his service to Navistar and wish him the greatest success in further aligning the TRATON GROUP while at MAN," said Mathias Carlbaum, President and CEO, Navistar.

Nyberg has served as Executive Member for Sales and Customer Solutions at MAN since September 2018. He successfully managed the realignment of the Sales division solidifying the position of MAN Truck & Bus in the marketplace. Under his leadership, MAN also successfully launched its new generation of trucks.

Prior to MAN, Nyberg spent time with Volvo Group, initially as Managing Director of Volvo Sweden in 2003, followed by international positions in management in Malaysia, Thailand and the United Kingdom. Most recently, Nyberg joined Volvo Trucks North America in 2012 as President where he spearheaded the transformative commercial operations process leading to one of the most diversified customer bases in the North American commercial vehicle market.

Carlbaum continued, "I am excited to welcome Goran back to the US and to Navistar. He brings a wealth of international sales and transformative experience, as well as a complete understanding of the North America market which is essential to the continued success of Navistar's commercial operations and executive leadership team."

About Navistar

Navistar, Inc. ("Navistar") is a purpose-driven company, reimagining how to deliver what matters to create more cohesive relationships, build higher-performing teams and find solutions where others don't. Based in Lisle, Illinois, Navistar or its subsidiaries and affiliates produce International brand commercial trucks and engines, IC Bus brand school and commercial buses, all-makes OnCommand Connection advanced connectivity services, and Fleetrite, RENEWED and Diamond Advantage brand aftermarket parts and includes a Brazilian manufacturer of engines and gensets, MWM Motores Diesel e Geradores. With a history of innovation dating back to 1831, Navistar has more than 12,000 employees worldwide and is part of TRATON SE, a global champion of the truck and transport services industry. Additional information is available at www.Navistar.com.

SOURCE Navistar International Corporation
DALLAS, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus transportation in North America, is providing vital transportation this holiday season with its long-standing 'Home Free' program, helping runaway, homeless, and exploited youth between the ages of 12 and 21 reunite with their families (or legal guardians) through a free bus ticket home or to a stable and safe place. 2021 marks the 34th consecutive year Greyhound has provided the free program, demonstrating its commitment to serve communities nationwide.

"Every year, through our Home Free program, we help young people in need receive a free ride home," said Dave Leach, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greyhound Lines, Inc. "I am both humbled and thrilled to be a part of the Greyhound team committed to providing young people the chance to reconnect with their families and return to a safe environment. It is our hope that the resources we provide runaway youth will bring comfort to those looking to safely reunite with their families."

To extend the program and provide this service on a greater scale, Greyhound has partnered with the National Runaway Safeline (NRS) since 1995. NRS, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is an organization that helps keep runaway and homeless youth safe.

According to the Voices of Youth Count from researchers at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, nearly 4.2 million youth experience some form of homelessness each year in America, leaving them at risk for exploitation, assault, illness and suicide. Home Free is designed to help make sure runaway young people between the ages of 12 and 21 have a ticket to get back home to their families or safe legal guardians.

In 2020, nearly 325 free bus tickets were provided to young people looking to be reconnected with their families. So far in 2021, Greyhound and the NRS have provided more than 230 free bus tickets, valued at nearly $42,000.

"The Home Free partnership between Greyhound and NRS continues to have a positive impact in providing a vital resource in helping address and resolve the growing number of homeless and exploited young people," said Susan Frankel, Chief Executive Officer, National Runaway Safeline. "We are honored to be able to continue our partnership with Greyhound Lines and look forward to serving as their charitable partner for the Home Free program for many more years."

If you or someone you know has run away or is experiencing homelessness and wants to return home or needs help, call toll-free 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929) or visit www.1800RUNAWAY.org. Click here to learn more about the program.

About Greyhound

Greyhound is the largest North American provider of intercity bus transportation, serving more than 1,700 destinations across the continent. The company also provides Greyhound Package Express and charter services. For fare and schedule information and to buy tickets call 1-800-231-2222 or visit the website at Greyhound.com . For the latest news and travel deals, follow us on Twitter , like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram .

About The National Runaway Safeline (NRS)

The National Runaway Safeline (NRS) is a national non-profit organization committed to ensuring that runaway, homeless and at-risk youth are safe and off the streets. Founded in 1971, NRS operates a national crisis services and support system for youth and families throughout the U.S., providing critical crisis intervention 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each year, NRS makes hundreds of thousands of connections to help and hope through hotline (1-800-RUNAWAY), and online (1800RUNAWAY.org) and prevention services.

For additional information, visit www.1800RUNAWAY.org or follow us @1800RUNAWAY on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SOURCE Greyhound Lines, Inc.
TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vesttoo, a leading global non-CAT insurance liability investment platform, today announced the addition of Raluca Ragab to their Advisory Board. Most recently, Ms. Ragab developed and executed Vitruvian Partners' entry into the Israel growth equity market and the growth buyout markets of Spain & Portugal, including developing a large sourcing network with the local PE/VC ecosystem.

"Raluca is an expert in driving investment and growth who will bring more than a decade of experience to our advisory board," said Yaniv Bertele, CEO and Founder of Vesttoo. "She is a rare talent  an investor who can simultaneously foresee macro market trends as well as execute the research and sourcing needed to help propel companies in the stages of rapid growth. She's a tested investor and we are excited to welcome her to the Vesttoo team."

"Vesttoo is a transformational investment platform in the stage of exponential growth," said Vesttoo Advisory Board Member Raluca Ragab. "Their team has contagious energy and driven leadership. I am ready to roll my sleeves up and get to work."

As a member of the Advisory Board, Ms. Ragab will help the Vesttoo leadership expand their strategy to scale the marketplace and Insurance-linked Program (ILP), interface with public investors, and provide advice around Vesttoo's investment narrative.

Vesttoo's marketplace, a first of its kind in the market, provides insurers with access to capital market originated capacity. Investors, on the other hand, benefit from direct access to a new asset class comprised of low volatility insurance risks and attractive risk reward.

Vesttoo's ILP Program, the company's insurance-liability investment portfolio, enables asset managers and pension schemes to earn long-term, sustainable alpha and attractive risk-adjusted returns (yield enhancement) by using existing assets as collateral in short term Life and P&C liability transactions.

Before her work at Vitruvian, Ms. Ragab was a portfolio manager and growth equity investor at Goldman Sachs in London and New York, during which time she led private investments, including in autonomous driving software company Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel for $15 billion in 2017. She has served on the Board of Directors at Global-e and WalkMe.

About Vesttoo

Vesttoo is the world's first marketplace for Life and P&C insurance-based risk transfer and investments. Our proprietary AI-based technology facilitates risk transfer between insurance companies and institutional investors, providing insurance-linked investments to asset managers of all types, while enhancing risk transfer and liquidity in the Life and P&C insurance markets.

Our vision is to create a world where the insurance and capital markets are fused and globally accessible, bridging the insurance funding gap with capacity from the capital markets.

For more information, visit https://vesttoo.com .

Media Contact: Liran Grunhaus, [email protected]

Related Links

https://vesttoo.com/

SOURCE Vesttoo

Related Links

https://vesttoo.com


HELSINKI, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Support for events and the arts are markers of strong civil society. Events and culture can restore wellbeing, trust and a sense of unity amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Dynamic event and cultural sectors of society are in line with the Helsinki City Strategy and elements of general wellbeing in Helsinki. On these principles, Helsinki celebrates culture and design in 2022.

The year 2022 will strengthen the domestic and international position of Helsinki as a city of compelling events and notable cultural venues. Several new first-rate venues will open doors in the city. New cultural policies and grants will create conditions for a wide range of leisure activities.

Helsinki was the World Design Capital of 2012. Today, 10 years later, the outcomes of the design year are seen everywhere in the city. They include various services provided by the city government, the vibrant maritime Helsinki with shorelines open to the public, new types of business and events, and grassroots activism. In sum, Helsinki has shaped the city with the help of design.

Design is embedded in everyday life in Helsinki. Design is a tool to improve the city and to create solutions to people's needs.

"In 2022, we will be looking back at some of the key learnings of the past 10 years, while working towards a future where design continues to play a key role for us in building a better city. The years to come will see the completion of exciting initiatives, such as a computer-themed playground designed in collaboration with the amazing Linda Liukas, and a much-anticipated new museum of architecture and design," says Helsinki Chief Design Officer Hanna Harris.

The cultural venues of Helsinki have been distinguished by remarkable architecture throughout the capital city history. One of the most notable of them is Finlandia Hall by Alvar Aalto, both a key architectural attraction and an important event venue in the city.

Finlandia Hall will go under renovation in January 2022. A new modular building, Pikku Finlandia (meaning Little Finlandia), will serve as a temporary venue to replace Finlandia Hall in the interim. This wood building was designed by Aalto University's architecture student Jaakko Torvinen.

Pikku Finlandia will be a living room for citizens with its cafes and terraces, and it will serve as an arena for live music, festivities and congresses. The building's design concept was inspired by a Finnish boreal forest with views through trees. Whole untrimmed tree trunks serving as load-bearing columns create a forest-like atmosphere, while the design utilizes nature's own engineering and so reduces processing. After its first use at Finlandia Hall, the building will be moved to another location in Helsinki to serve as a school or a day care centre.

There are only a few buildings in the world dedicated solely to dance. Tanssin talo (House of Dance) by JKMM and ILO Architects will be Finland's first landmark venue promoting dance. Opening on 2 February 2022, Tanssin talo will operate as a community and platform combining all the diverse forms and contents of dance. The building is located next to one of Helsinki's most important cultural venues, Cable Factory, which operates in factory buildings dating from the 1940s. The architecture of the new building takes its inspiration from dance, playing with illusions of lightness and heaviness. During the opening year, many internationally renowned choreographers and dance companies will be visiting and performing at the venue.

A ballet company was founded at the Finnish Opera in 1922, just over four years after Finland became an independent nation. So the company, today the Finnish National Ballet, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2022. The company's first performance on 17 January 1922 was Swan Lake, and a new choreography of this ballet by David McAllister will kick off the centenary in January 2022. The year honours Finnish culture and history with several new ballets, for example about composer Jean Sibelius and the other based on Aleksis Kivi's classic novel Seven Brothers.

Tanssin talo opens 2 February 2022. More information: https://www.tanssintalo.fi/en/

Pikku Finlandia opens in January 2022. More information: https://www.finlandiatalo.fi/en/

The Finnish National Ballet celebrates its centenary in 2022. More information: https://oopperabaletti.fi/en/repertoire-and-tickets/



Helsinki will celebrate the tenth anniversary of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 with new projects for the public places

More information:



Vappu Manty, PR & Communications Director, Helsinki Partners

[email protected]

+358 50 401 3548

www.helsinkipartners.com



This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Public/12019/3475360/96a4d2666df5adfb_org.jpg JKMM - TANSSIN TALO Hannu Rytky - 23

SOURCE Helsinki Marketing
HHI Group, which includes the world's largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries, will offer a glimpse into the future of shipping mobility, with emphasis on autonomous navigation. Its booth will present cutting edge industrial machinery, merging AI with robot technology and introduce its vision into the future in the field of energy.

HHI Group's booth will feature:

Avikus autonomous navigational system

autonomous navigational system Robotics in industrial and daily technology

in industrial and daily technology Offshore hydrogen value chain

Avikus is HHI Group's in-house venture specializing in developing autonomous navigational systems. It became Korea's first company to successfully demonstrate a fully autonomous navigation of a 12-passenger cruise ship in June 2021.

Avikus will showcase its autonomous navigation capabilities, using a six-meter leisure boat and demonstrating with the use of LEDs how the technology can be used in ocean shipping. Visitors can board the boat and experience a navigational simulation game using VR technology.

"The autonomous navigation technology allows an easier access to maritime leisure activities, provide innovations in logistics and transform all aspects of marine development," said the Group's spokesperson. "Avikus will become the world's first company to conduct an autonomous navigation of a large-scale commercial vessel in the ocean early next year."

The Group's industrial construction machinery units Hyundai Doosan Infracore and Hyundai Construction Equipment will highlight its robotic industrial equipment and remote-control capabilities that provide safe and effective solutions in the building process from surveys, measuring, and operational planning to actual construction. This section features an interactive game that allows visitors to build a marine city in a simulated version, while helping them easily understand the solutions of HHI Group's industrial robotics. Hyundai Robotics will display service robots that can provide everyday robotic solutions ranging from food and beverages to anti-viral and disinfection services.

HHI Group will also present its blueprint for an offshore hydrogen value chain. Its network of units - Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Oilbank, and Hyundai Electric - boasts a unique business structure and technological capacity to cover full hydrogen value chains. It will install a 3.6-meter offshore wind generator and its model of a hydrogen-powered ship, while offering a video presentation on its overall value chain.

SOURCE Hyundai Heavy Industries Group
DENVER, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Christmas is coming, but are you stressed about what to get Dad? Of course not! Nobody stresses about Dad's gifts, because it's so easy: Get stuff for his grill. Dads love grilling!

There is one tiny little challenge: You want to get him something he doesn't already have. But that problem is easily solved this year because the grill company BBQ Dragon has just released 3 brand-spanking-new products that nobody has yet  including dear old Dad.

The Rolling Grill Basket from BBQ Dragon The Chainmail Grill Brush from BBQ Dragon

The "Chainmail" Grill Brush: If you're worried about the danger of swallowing a wire bristle from a grill brush, this patent-pending brush uses links of "chainmail," similar to the chainmail in medieval armor, to clean the grill more safely.

The "Double-Extreme" Grill Light: The world's only double-headed LED grill light, the two super-bright LED's are mounted on separate goosenecks, so you can light two areas  the grill and your prep surface, for example. Clips anywhere you need bright light.

The Chimney of Insanity "XL" version: BBQ Dragon's popular charcoal chimney works with their BBQ Dragon grill fan to start charcoal in just 2 minutes  and they have just released this "XL" version, which they claim is the largest charcoal chimney in the world.

"We actually design products with the Holidays in mind," says George Prior, head of product development at BBQ Dragon. "We want to create grill tools that are so unique that people think they would be great gifts.

The new "Chainmail Grill Brush" solves a serious health danger of grilling: the accidental ingestion of steel bristles from grill cleaning brushes. BBQ Dragon's patent-pending brush cleans the grill with a woven net of chain links that are both less likely to break free, and less dangerous if accidentally swallowed.

"The reason we think about Christmas during product development," says Prior, "is that we want to create grill tools that a customer sees and thinks, 'That's awesome, I want to buy that for my Dad.'"

As a result of the company's emphasis on innovation, their products look very different from other brands of grill accessories. The new "Double-Extreme Grill Light" shows this visual difference: With two separate LED lamps on two long stainless-steel goose necks, the light immediately looks completely different from other grill lights.

All three of the newly added products are available on Amazon.com and online at major retailers like Target, Home Depot, and Lowes, as well as the company's website at bbqdragon.com.

BBQ Dragon makes innovative grill tools. The creators of the BBQ Dragon Fan and the 2-minute charcoal Chimney of Insanity, their mission is to create innovative products that inspire customers to excel at BBQ and at life. They believe that good tools inspire good BBQ, and good BBQ inspires good living.

Contact: George Prior

BBQ Dragon

855.524.8068

[email protected]

SOURCE BBQ Dragon
Developed in-house by Honda engineers, Shogo is an electric ride-on vehicle specifically designed to navigate hospital hallways to transport children. It is equipped with features and elements to help bring joy to young patients as they continue on their road to recovery.

Honda Shogo is currently in use at CHOC Hospital, one of Honda's long-term partners.

"Creating Shogo to help support these patients during what can be a stressful time in the hospital has been a labor of love for our passionate team of Honda associates and we're especially proud to introduce Shogo during this holiday season at CHOC," said Hundy Liu, manager of national automobile advertising, American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "To see the joy on the faces of these young patients when they get behind the wheel of Shogo is truly rewarding."

Randall Smock, a senior exterior designer of vehicles at American Honda Motor Co., Inc., played a significant role in the design of Shogo, as well as the testing of the vehicle.

"As someone who spent time in the hospital as a young child, I really wanted the number one objective of our Honda team in developing Shogo to ease the hardship of a hospital stay by providing kids a lasting positive memory about that experience," said Smock. "Every element of Shogo was designed to accommodate different needs of young children, making it as easy as possible to get in and out, simple to drive, and for the entire experience to leave them a bit happier."

As the first hospital to utilize Shogo in caring for young patients facing hospitalization, CHOC played a key role in verifying its feasibility and safety.

"Our team greatly appreciates Honda bringing innovative solutions that support our ongoing commitment to providing an exceptional patient experience and infusing joy into a patient's stay," said Brianne Ortiz, manager of the Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Department at CHOC. "We were impressed from the beginning when we first saw Shogo, and by the Honda team's dedication in collaborating with our staff to ensure a vehicle that is perfect  and safe  for our young patients."

Honda Shogo Electric Ride-On Vehicle

Shogo, based on a Japanese word and intended to mean "soaring into the future," was built to focus on young patients, ages 4 through 9, who can easily drive with power controls, manage the go/stop mechanism on the steering wheel, and an adjustable speed of 1-5 miles per hour, which is controlled by a handler such as a nurse or caregiver.

Developed with patient safety in mind, Shogo was built without doors to be safely and easily accessible for youth. Other features include central seating with steering controls suitable and accessible for a child, and smooth and soft-to-the-touch surfacing that is easy to keep clean in a hospital setting. Shogo also includes an IV pole holder and a push bar that offers caregivers the option to manually push the vehicle when needed. Features to make the child's experience more comfortable include a toy bucket in the front of the vehicle for items the child would like to bring along with them, cup holders, a center horn with different sound options, and a customizable license plate slot to display the name of each rider.

Honda engineers worked hand-in-hand with the staff at CHOC to verify the feasibility of the concept. This included testing Shogo through a dedicated course inside the company's research & development facility designed to replicate a hospital hallway route with actual children and parents, to ensure the electric ride-on vehicle was safe to operate when delivered to the hospital. The collaboration with CHOC was critical in understanding how Shogo was being used in the actual hospital environment, so the team could continue to make further adjustments.

Developing Shogo as an electric vehicle was an obvious requirement for Honda engineers to ensure it could be accommodated in a hospital environment. But the electrified Shogo also aligns to the company's recently-announced vision to make electrified vehicles (EV) represent 40% of sales in 2030, on the way to 100% EVs by 2040. Customers will see the Honda Prologue, the brand's first new volume battery-electric vehicle (BEV) in 2024.

Honda and Children's Health of Orange County

Honda has a long-standing relationship with CHOC, including a number of unique initiatives to brighten the experience of young patients receiving care at CHOC's hospital in Orange, California.

In 2016, Honda utilized Oculus headsets to create a virtual reality " Candy Cane Lane " for patients. The initiative included a giving program from Honda that supported CHOC and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation for every "like" or "love" received by a Candy Cane Lane video.

for patients. The initiative included a giving program from Honda that supported CHOC and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation for every "like" or "love" received by a Candy Cane Lane video. In 2017, Honda used virtual reality technology to invite young patients inside a virtual snow globe, where they could explore and interact with holiday-themed elements. The initiative included an augmented reality "Ultimate Get Well Card" with personalized messages to young patients from well-wishers around the country.

In 2018, Honda again used virtual reality to create a one-of-a-kind winter wonderland in "The Magic Snow Globe," an interactive world personalized for pediatric patients , while also supporting The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

Project Courage at 2022 Rose Parade presented by Honda

A 60-second version of the Honda Project Courage short film will air during the 133rd Rose Parade, which will be broadcast, nationally on ABC and NBC, as well as locally on KTLA. As presenting sponsor of the Rose Parade for the 12th consecutive year, Honda will lead the parade on New Year's Day with the company's "Believe and Achieve!" float aimed at promoting science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education and inspiring young people to follow their dreams. The float will have four Honda associates aboard to celebrate women in STEAM-related fields, including Melanie Morimoto, a key contributor to Project Courage. Morimoto, a senior fabricator at American Honda Motor Co., Inc., was a member of the Shogo development team, responsible for fabricating a number of interior components, as well as supporting the team in creating the body, surfacing and painting.

About Honda

Honda offers a full line of clean, safe, fun and connected vehicles sold through more than 1,000 independent U.S. Honda dealers. Honda has the highest fleet average fuel economy and lowest CO 2 emissions of any major full-line automaker in America, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Honda lineup includes the Civic, Insight, Accord and Clarity series passenger cars, along with the HR-V, CR-V, Passport and Pilot sport utility vehicles, the Ridgeline pickup and the Odyssey minivan. Honda's electrified vehicle lineup includes the Accord Hybrid, CR-V Hybrid, Insight hybrid-electric sedan, and the Clarity Fuel Cell and Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.

Honda has been producing automobiles in America for 38 years and currently operates 18 major manufacturing facilities in North America. In 2020, more than 95 percent of all Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. were made in North America, using domestic and globally sourced parts.

More information about Honda is available in the Digital Fact Book.

About Honda Corporate Social Responsibility

For more than 60 years in the U.S., Honda has been committed to making positive contributions to the communities where its associates live and work. Honda's mission is to create products and services that improve the lives of people while conducting its business in a sustainable manner and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. Accordingly, Honda believes in helping people reach their life's potential through its focus on the areas of education, the environment, mobility, traffic safety and community. Learn more at http://csr.honda.com/.

About Children's Health of Orange County (CHOC)

CHOC, a pediatric healthcare system based in Orange County, California, is committed to being a leading destination for children's health by providing exceptional and innovative care. CHOC's growing community includes two state-of-the-art hospitals in Orange and Mission Viejo and a regional network of primary and specialty care clinics serving children and families in four counties. CHOC offers several clinical programs of excellence providing the highest levels of care for the most serious pediatric illnesses and injuries, physical and mental. CHOC's research and innovation institutes are focused on translating real patient needs into real-world treatments so every child can live the healthiest and happiest life possible. To learn more, visit choc.org.

SOURCE Honda
DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Digital Assistant Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global digital assistant market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 32.17% to reach US$33.771 billion by 2026, from US$4.793 billion in 2019.



Digital assistant is an advanced computer program that uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing, natural language understanding, and machine learning to learn as they simulate a conversation with people who use it typically over the internet to provide a personalized, conversational experience.



Driving Factors

The growing use of digital assistance in various sectors such as IT & Telecom,automotive, healthcare due to needing for improved efficiencies across these industries and service-based companies and the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) among various devices such as tablets, computers, and smartphones has driven the global digital assistance market in the forecast period.

Also, growth in smartphone penetration is one of the key growth drivers of the global digital assistance market. With the increasing demand for smartphones, companies are trying to integrate advanced and unique features into their product to attract more users. These unique features also include IVA-enabled apps and improved performance where intelligent and smart virtual assistance provides ease of conveyance in comparison to old technology along with other features such as natural language understanding, voice recognition, and affordability.

Large-scale enterprises have also been implementing digital assistants since they help and assist in the elimination of the infrastructure setup cost. Hence, the cost-effectiveness and the feasibility of IVA is imperative to factor that drivesits adoption in enterprises which in turn helps in the support of the global digital assistance market growth.



Restraints

One of the prime restraints for digital assistance is the security flaws as the increasing integration of virtual assistants gives rise to many privacy concerns amongst users and the slow adoption and limited awareness in developing countries will hamper the demand for digital assistance and restrain its growth in the market



Market Segmentation

By industry, the BFSI, IT & Telecom industry, Automotive industry, Healthcare, and Educational sector are anticipated to be the growth factors for the global digital assistance market. The automotive industry is emerging to be one of the fastest-growing segments in the digital assistance market owing to the integration of virtual assistance with the infotainment system contributes towards sending personalized content as well as enhances convenience and comfort. Several automotive companies like BMW, Audi, Hyundai have invested in voice-enabled infotainment systems. In January 2020, Amazon announced the launch of Echo Auto, an advanced and novel voice assistant device that contributes toward improving the overall driving experience. All these factors have led to the growing market of digital assistance.



By type, the global digital assistance market is segmented into speech recognition and Text speech recognition. The speech recognition segment is anticipated to grow in the forecast period owing to the wide adoption of smart speakers in various sectors as smart speakers recognize speech and respond accordingly. The growth of mobile computing technology has surged the widespread demand for the automatic speech recognition segment. Major smart speaker manufacturers in the industry are Google Home, Amazon-Alexa, and Bose.



By end-user, the use of digital assistance in small and medium enterprises, large enterprise, and individuals have boosted the digital assistance market and led to its growth. The large enterprise demand for digital assistance technology has boosted the market as it is not physically possible to meet every need in a large enterprise due to which high deployment of these AI-based assistants has surged the demand in the market.



Geographically, the Asia Pacific region is anticipated to have maximum growth owing to the growth in the automotive and healthcare sectors in the region. The development of AI-powered digital assistance in these industry sectors amid the pandemic in the healthcare industry has boosted the demand in this region.



In July 2018, SBI Card launched the ELA (Electronic Live Assistant), a virtual assistant for customer services and support which is driven and run by Machine learning and AI and has been designed and built to enhance the customer's overall experience by offering immediate and appropriate replies to key customer queries.



Impact of COVID-19 on the digital assistance market

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the world as a whole and has led to economic breakdown and loss of life. The impact of COVID-19 is anticipated to have a significant impact on the service domain in the technology industry. The COVID- 19 pandemic outbreak, where keeping safe distance among each other will inspire the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical vendors to improve their research and development in AI, which is a core technology for enabling various initiatives.

Many industrial sectors such as grocery outlets, financial organizations have initiated the implementation of intelligent virtual assistants and conversational AI tools to enhance customer service in the pandemic. Many medical insurance companies and government websites have deployed chatbots to assist people in providing proper precautions and COVID-19 advice. Many business sectors have invested in new technological avenues such as virtual assistants amid the pandemic. The positive impact on the digital assistance market during the outbreak is a result of reestablishing the importance of automation and virtual assistance in today's world.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Dynamics

4.1. Market Drivers

4.2. Market Restraints

4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.3.3. The threat of New Entrants

4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes

4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Function

4.4. Function Value Chain Analysis



5. Global Digital Assistant Market Analysis, By Type

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Speech Recognition

5.3. Text-to-speech Recognition



6. Global Digital Assistant Market Analysis, By End User

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Individuals

6.3. Small and Medium Enterprises

6.4. Large Enterprises



7. Global Digital Assistant Market Analysis, By Industry

7.1. Introduction

7.2. BFSI

7.3. IT & Telecom

7.4. Automotive

7.5. Healthcare

7.6. Education

7.7. Others



8. Global Digital Assistant Market Analysis, By Geography

8.1. Introduction

8.2. North America

8.2.1. United States

8.2.2. Canada

8.2.3. Mexico

8.3. South America

8.3.1. Brazil

8.3.2. Argentina

8.3.3. Others

8.4. Europe

8.4.1. UK

8.4.2. Germany

8.4.3. France

8.4.4. Spain

8.4.5. Others

8.5. Middle East and Africa

8.5.1. Israel

8.5.2. Saudi Arabia

8.5.3. Others

8.6. Asia Pacific

8.6.1. Japan

8.6.2. China

8.6.3. India

8.6.4. Indonesia

8.6.5. Taiwan

8.6.6. Thailand

8.6.7. Others



9. Competitive Environment and Analysis

9.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis

9.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness

9.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations

9.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix



10. Company Profiles

10.1. Amazon

10.2. Apple

10.3. Baidu Inc.

10.4. Creative Virtual Ltd

10.5. Facebook

10.6. Google

10.7. IBM

10.8. Microsoft

10.9. Samsung

10.10. Clara Labs



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/67ixlc

Media Contact:

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Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Related Links

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DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Pharmacovigilance Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global pharmacovigilance market grew at a CAGR of around 10% during 2015-2020. Pharmacovigilance (PV) is the pharmacological science concerning the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of unfavorable effects with pharmaceutical products. It plays a pivotal role in identifying previously unknown adverse effects, recognizing changes in the frequency or severity, and assessing the risks and benefits of drugs to determine required actions. It also ensures the accuracy of communicated information to healthcare professionals and patients. At present, PV is widely used to understand the effects of drugs on individuals worldwide.



The increasing prevalence of lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiac disorders, has resulted in the rising consumption of drugs worldwide. This, in confluence with the growing incidences of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), represents one of the key factors driving the global pharmacovigilance market. Besides this, the key players are introducing advanced platforms to ensure automated ADR reporting, which is contributing to the market growth. They are also focusing on improving the manufacturing operations and streamlining research and development (R&D) on account of a competitive environment.

Furthermore, leading pharmaceutical companies are undertaking numerous initiatives to conduct clinical trials and generate awareness about the proper utilization of medicines. This, in turn, is facilitating the growth of the pharmacovigilance market.

Additionally, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has resulted in the urgent need for a vaccine, which has created numerous opportunities for the market players. Apart from this, pharmaceutical manufacturers are shifting towards outsourcing pharmacovigilance operations to third parties on account of the associated benefits, such as increasing internal resource flexibility and better outcomes over shorter periods. Looking forward, the publisher expects the global pharmacovigilance market to exhibit strong growth during the next five years.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Accenture plc, ArisGlobal LLC, BioClinica Inc. (Cinven Partners LLP), Capgemini, Cognizant, International Business Machines Corporation, ICON plc., IQVIA Inc., ITClinical, Parexel International Corporation and Wipro Limited.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global pharmacovigilance market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global pharmacovigilance market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the service provider?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product life cycle?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the process flow?

What is the breakup of the market based on the therapeutic area?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end use?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global pharmacovigilance market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Pharmacovigilance Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Service Provider

6.1 In-house

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Contract Outsourcing

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Product Life Cycle

7.1 Pre-clinical

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Phase I

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Phase II

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Phase III

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Phase IV

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Type

8.1 Spontaneous Reporting

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Intensified ADR Reporting

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Targeted Spontaneous Reporting

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Cohort Event Monitoring

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast

8.5 EHR Mining

8.5.1 Market Trends

8.5.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Process Flow

9.1 Case Data Management

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Major Types

9.1.2.1 Case Logging

9.1.2.2 Case Data Analysis

9.1.2.3 Medical Reviewing and Reporting

9.1.3 Market Forecast

9.2 Signal Detection

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Major Types

9.2.2.1 Adverse Event Logging

9.2.2.2 Adverse Event Analysis

9.2.2.3 Adverse Event Review and Reporting

9.2.3 Market Forecast

9.3 Risk Management System

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Major Types

9.3.2.1 Risk Evaluation System

9.3.2.2 Risk Mitigation System

9.3.3 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Therapeutic Area

10.1 Oncology

10.1.1 Market Trends

10.1.2 Market Forecast

10.2 Neurology

10.2.1 Market Trends

10.2.2 Market Forecast

10.3 Cardiology

10.3.1 Market Trends

10.3.2 Market Forecast

10.4 Respiratory Systems

10.4.1 Market Trends

10.4.2 Market Forecast

10.5 Others

10.5.1 Market Trends

10.5.2 Market Forecast



11 Market Breakup by End Use

11.1 Pharmaceuticals Companies

11.1.1 Market Trends

11.1.2 Market Forecast

11.2 Biotechnology Companies

11.2.1 Market Trends

11.2.2 Market Forecast

11.3 Medical Device Companies

11.3.1 Market Trends

11.3.2 Market Forecast

11.4 Others

11.4.1 Market Trends

11.4.2 Market Forecast



12 Market Breakup by Region



13 SWOT Analysis



14 Value Chain Analysis



15 Porters Five Forces Analysis



16 Price Analysis



17 Competitive Landscape

17.1 Market Structure

17.2 Key Players

17.3 Profiles of Key Players

17.3.1 Accenture plc

17.3.1.1 Company Overview

17.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.1.3 Financials

17.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

17.3.2 ArisGlobal LLC

17.3.2.1 Company Overview

17.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.3 BioClinica Inc. (Cinven Partners LLP)

17.3.3.1 Company Overview

17.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.3.3 SWOT Analysis

17.3.4 Capgemini

17.3.4.1 Company Overview

17.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.5 Cognizant

17.3.5.1 Company Overview

17.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.5.3 Financials

17.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

17.3.6 International Business Machines Corporation

17.3.6.1 Company Overview

17.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.6.3 Financials

17.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis

17.3.7 ICON plc.

17.3.7.1 Company Overview

17.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.7.3 Financials

17.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis

17.3.8 IQVIA Inc.

17.3.8.1 Company Overview

17.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.8.3 Financials

17.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

17.3.9 ITClinical

17.3.9.1 Company Overview

17.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.10 Parexel International Corporation

17.3.10.1 Company Overview

17.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.10.3 SWOT Analysis

17.3.11 Wipro Limited

17.3.11.1 Company Overview

17.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

17.3.11.3 Financials

17.3.11.4 SWOT Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ysizpm

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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Supporting Advanced Navigation for GPS-denied Environments

Leveraging Intermap's proprietary data and technology to achieve assured positioning, navigation, and timing for air, ground, space, near-space, and airborne systems

DENVER, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Intermap Technologies (TSX: IMP) (OTCQX: ITMSF) ("Intermap" or the "Company"), a global leader in geospatial content development and intelligence solutions, today announced a new prime contract with the U.S. Air Force to support the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in its development of navigation solutions for GPS-denied environments. This is Intermap's eighth government contract of 2021.

Military operations require precise positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is exploring different approaches for absolute positioning and navigation in challenging environments to enable their multidomain operations. For most platforms, GPS is the sole source of PNT. Disruptions or corruptions in GPS signals can affect timely decision making, mission security, weapons systems, operations, and critical infrastructure. AFRL leads the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for air, space and cyberspace forces. Intermap is a pioneer and leads the industry in collecting, building, and utilizing global-scale and highly precise unstructured raw data, sourced from across the electromagnetic spectrum and extended to gridded or meshed 3D elevation models (DEMs). AFRL will leverage this unique capability and extensive archive, the world's largest, to advance its next generation of PNT systems. Under this prime contract, Intermap will provide relevant data, operational experience, applied technology, low-latency collection and processing capabilities, engineering and scientific support.

"When operating in GPS-denied environments, Intermap leverages unique commercial capabilities and experience that can help the Air Force achieve desired effects where alternative navigation methods are required," said Patrick A. Blott, Intermap Chairman and CEO. "Under this new prime contract, Intermap will work with AFRL to help them advance the next generation of navigation systems supporting multidomain operations, long-range precision fires, force protection and maneuver."

Intermap Reader Advisory

Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "will be", "will consider", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Intermap's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, cash available to fund operations, availability of capital, revenue fluctuations, nature of government contracts, economic conditions, loss of key customers, retention and availability of executive talent, competing technologies, common share price volatility, loss of proprietary information, software functionality, internet and system infrastructure functionality, information technology security, breakdown of strategic alliances, and international and political considerations, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed Intermap's Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.

About Intermap Technologies

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap (TSX: IMP;OTCQX: ITMSF) is a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions. The Company's proprietary 3D NEXTMap elevation datasets and value-added geospatial collection, processing, analytics, fusion and orthorectification software and solutions are utilized across a range of industries that rely on accurate, high-resolution elevation data. Intermap helps governments build authoritative geospatial datasets and provides solutions for base mapping, transportation, environmental monitoring, topographic mapping, disaster mitigation, smart city integration, public safety and defense. The Company's commercial applications include aviation and UAV flight planning, flood and wildfire insurance, environmental and renewable energy planning, telecommunications, engineering, critical infrastructure monitoring, hydrology, land management, oil and gas and transportation. For more information, please visit www.intermap.com.

SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation

Related Links

https://www.intermap.com/


Lampley has served on the ISOA board of directors for the last four years, including as Vice Chairman. "I am grateful to my fellow board members for supporting me in this role to lead ISOA during this important period in our history," Lampley said. "I have seen our association grow, in spite of the impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, continuing to provide our member companies a strong and growing voice in our relationship with our government partners, in particular with the Hill, the Pentagon, Department of State and USAID."

Lampley has been with KBR for more than ten years focusing on developing industry and government relationships and supporting stability and sustainment operations with Department of Defense and other federal government agencies. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the US Military Academy (West Point), a Master of Science in business management from Troy State University and is a graduate of several executive-level management schools and professional schools, including a fellowship with Westinghouse Corporation. Lampley also has a distinguished military record of 236 F-4 combat flying missions, and was awarded 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 24 Air Medals, 2 Legions of Merit, 6 Meritorious Service Medals, a DoD Meritorious Service Metal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

"Tom Lampley is a great champion for our industry and has his finger on the pulse of industry concerns associated with operations in challenging OCONUS environments," said Howie Lind, president and executive director of ISOA. "ISOA will benefit from his expertise as we navigate our association through these challenging times."

About ISOA:

ISOA is a global, nonprofit association whose mission is to serve as the primary point of strategic engagement for the government and private sector in support of stability operations worldwide, providing critical services in fragile environments in an accountable, transparent and ethical way. ISOA serves the implementing community, providing member services focused on contracting, partnerships, regulatory and legal developments, research initiatives and policy movement. For more information, visit stability-operations.org.

SOURCE International Stability Operations Association
PETAH TIKVA, Israel, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The need to produce new, sustainable technologies that improve people's lives while maintaining the health of the planet requires access to innovative materials designed for safe, sustainable manufacturing and production. Established in 2018, Israeli startup Nemo Nanomaterials is now emerging out of stealth mode to provide game-changing nanomaterials that revolutionize the possibilities of industrial additives across virtually every market sector.

Take the automotive industry as an example. It is moving away from old, polluting products to greener, leaner, and smarter vehicles. Demand that has contributed to the global market for lightweight automotive materials now being projected to surpass $99 billion by 2025. But to achieve this, new materials are needed, which is one of the markets that Nemo Nanomaterials addresses.

Modern vehicles present unique demands for materials and require them to be light and durable while providing electrical conductivity as well as electromagnetic shielding. Most importantly, all materials used must be sustainably managed throughout the product lifecycle. Invariably, this has seen manufacturers making tradeoffs when it comes to material properties and functionality.

However, with Nemo Nanomaterials, the industry challenges have become a thing of the past. Nemo's proprietary technology and techniques for processing and mixing carbon nanomaterials enhance plastics with features of metals for advanced electronic systems, under the hood parts, fluid supply lines, battery casings, internal and structural components, with reduction of up to 30% of the weight for parts when compared to metals.

Beyond the automotive sector, Nemo Nanomaterials technology can be applied to electronics, textile, construction, telecom, energy, the aviation and aerospace sectors.

Nemo's technological breakthrough is the sole enabler for replacing metals with plastic materials - by achieving desired electrical conductivity and EMI shielding properties while maintaining the original features of the plastic.

On EMI shielding and electrical conductivity alone, the company can reach an addressable market that surpasses $10 billion. And that is just one of almost limitless applications and possibilities.

Nemo Nanomaterials was established in 2018 by Alexander Zinigrad and Jonathan Antebi. The company has successfully raised $7 million in pre-seed and seed funding, the bulk of which has come from the Cyprus-based GEM Capital. The startup is already working with 10 large companies, including multi-billion-dollar conglomerates. The list includes paying customers and co-development partners in various stages of pilots and product validations. Nemo has started manufacturing tons of its products following commercial orders from customers.

"High-end carbon nanomaterials are known to mankind for decades. They recently were made available on a commercial scale. Many companies have made lots of promises in regard to making real industrial products out of them, but Nemo is unique in making them a reality. Nemo's technology enables a revolution in nano-carbons. It solves many wide and acute industry challenges across a myriad of specifications while delivering ready-to-use additives that can be used by the industry utilizing existing machinery and procedures. Nemo Nanomaterials is going to provide materials that are required for the future of manufacturing," said Jonathan Antebi, Co-founder and VP Business Development at Nemo Nanomaterials.

With Nemo Nanomaterials technology, there is zero performance tradeoff in materials while enabling innovative design and functional possibilities across industry sectors. Its additive means customers can more efficiently use raw materials while also delivering the most effective end-of-life recyclability possible.

"Refineries, and not petroleum, reshaped the world because they provided new materials that enabled new industrial capabilities. With Nemo Nanomaterials, high-end nanocarbons are just as transformative to reinvent the world of the future, today," said Alexander Zinigrad, Co-founder and CEO of Nemo Nanomaterials.

Note to the editors: Nemo's carbon nanomaterials

The proprietary Nemo Nanomaterials dispersion technology creates and maintains versatile-function nanostructures. This ensures stable and even integration into any material. It inseparably weaves together the additive and material on a nano level to enhance performance without changing process requirements.

Additive concentrates are introduced into existing manufacturing processes and dramatically enhance the performance of a range of industrial materials and products by improving their physical and mechanical properties. Nemo Nanomaterials technology enables the company to introduce nanoparticles in various carriers and make them perform at low dosages to achieve the desired properties of materials and products.

You can watch a video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpSIrj9HKIA

Media contact:

Amir Ben Artzi

Meirovitch PR

[email protected]

SOURCE Nemonanomaterials

Related Links

https://nemonano.com/


Read the 120-page report with TOC on "IT Market in Germany Analysis Report by End-user (Manufacturing, Government, BFSI, ICT, and Other sectors) and Product (IT services, IT software, and Hardware), and the Segment Forecasts,2021-2025". Gain competitive intelligence about market leaders. Track key industry opportunities, trends, and threats. Information on marketing, brand, strategy and market development, sales, and supply functions. https://www.technavio.com/report/report/it-market-size-in-germany-industry-analysis

IT Market in Germany - Drivers & Challenges

The IT market in Germany is driven by the increased adoption of IT solutions among German SMEs. SMEs account for more than 99% of the total number of enterprises in Germany. They invest heavily in IT solutions to improve their operational efficiency and find new avenues of revenue generation. German SMEs also use IT to keep themselves updated on the latest technologies and ensure smooth business operations. In addition, the growing government support for IT solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) is anticipated to boost the growth of the IT Market in Germany. However, the factors such as the shortage of skilled IT professionals may impede the market growth.

Some of key IT in Germany Players:

The IT market in Germany is fragmented and the vendors are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Accenture Plc

Capgemini Services SAS

Dell Technologies Inc.

Hitachi Vantara Corp.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

International Business Machines Corp.

Microsoft Corp.

Oracle Corp.

SAP SE

T-Systems International GmbH

To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. The profiles include information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of the leading companies.

Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights. Subscribe now to our most popular "Lite Plan" billed annually at USD 3000. View 3 reports monthly and Download 3 Reports Annually!

IT Market In Germany End-user Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2025)

Manufacturing - size and forecast 2020-2025

Government - size and forecast 2020-2025

BFSI - size and forecast 2020-2025

ICT - size, and forecast 2020-2025

Other sectors - size and forecast 2020-2025

IT Market In Germany Product Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2020-2025)

IT services - size and forecast 2020-2025

IT software - size and forecast 2020-2025

Hardware - size and forecast 2020-2025

For additional information on the segmentation - Grab an Exclusive Free Report

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IT Market In Germany Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 16.21 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.35 Regional analysis Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Accenture Plc, Capgemini Services SAS, Dell Technologies Inc., Hitachi Vantara Corp., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP, International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP SE, and T-Systems International GmbH 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 Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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
DENVER, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KEY Investment Partners LLC ("KEY") today announced the closing of its cannabis-focused venture fund ("The Fund") with approximately $30 million in aggregate capital commitments.

KEY Investment Partners provides strategic capital to high-growth companies that are well positioned to develop the infrastructure of the cannabis industry. Leveraging KEY's extensive network, cannabis industry expertise, and over 40 years of institutional experience in the private sector, The Fund has been designed to help cannabis companies accelerate their growth by delivering commercial opportunities and driving strategic initiatives.

Pete Karabas, Founding Partner at KEY, stated, "the cannabis industry continues to outperform growth projections and we believe KEY is well positioned to capitalize on the increased pace of both M&A activity and state-by-state legalization that we expect to see in 2022."

When asked about KEY's existing portfolio companies, KEY Founding Partner Tiby Erdely commented, "It's a challenge to navigate the cannabis sector and we are proud to have partnered with some of the brightest operators in the industry. We are already seeing synergies across our portfolio and are excited to continue supporting our portfolio companies as they grow in the coming years."

To date, KEY has made 11 investments across multiple sub-sectors of the cannabis industry, including market-leading companies such as: HERBL, a supply chain solutions and distribution company; Springbig, one of the largest cannabis-focused loyalty and marketing automation platforms; XS Financial, a direct lender that provides flexible leasing solutions to cannabis companies; and Open Book Extracts, a cannabinoid ingredient formulator and producer.

Regarding the future plans of the firm, KEY Founding Partner Jordan Youkilis stated that, "We've had the privilege to work with an incredible group of investors, strategic advisors, and management teams since we started the firm in 2018  we couldn't be more optimistic about the future of the cannabis industry and certainly plan to continue to support its growth in 2022 and beyond."

About KEY Investment Partners LLC:

Founded in 2018, KEY Investment Partners LLC takes a systematic approach to investment analysis and due diligence, with the goal of connecting investors to the most attractive private cannabis opportunities. Leveraging over 40 years of institutional experience, KEY sources unique opportunities in high-growth, market-leading cannabis companies that are operated by experienced management teams. The firm uses time-tested methods to provide institutional quality investment management and client service to those looking to capitalize on the rapid growth of the U.S. cannabis market.

For more information, please visit https://keyinvestmentpartners.com/ or email [email protected].

This notice is solely for informational purposes and does not constitute either an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, an interest in any security, product, service, or fund, for which an offer can be made only by delivering confidential offering documents. Past performance is not indicative of future results and should not be relied upon as the basis for making an investment decision. No part of this press release may be reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means without our express written consent. The investments listed above were not selected based on performance reasons. For additional details, please call us to discuss.

SOURCE Key Investment Partners
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) has been recognized by Newsweek as one of America's Most Responsible Companies for 2022. The company ranked 136th out of 500 total companies included and was the highest-ranking hospitality and gaming company named to the list. Newsweek measured 2,000 companies headquartered in the United States on environmental, social and corporate governance performance to determine the rankings.

Sands' performance was highlighted by its environmental score of 93.5 out of 100, demonstrating the company's leadership in reducing emissions and waste, mitigating climate change, promoting water stewardship and building environmentally responsible Integrated Resorts. Sands also scored well on the social and corporate governance rankings, reflecting its outstanding working environment and Team Member growth initiatives, as well as its long-standing commitment to community engagement and ethical, accountable and transparent business standards.

"Our inclusion on Newsweek's list is another testament to our ESG leadership, following designations on DJSI World and North America and the CDP A lists for climate and water," said Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs, who spearheads corporate responsibility for the company. "These respected performance indicators endorse our progress in delivering transformative social and environmental impact in our regions by addressing the issues most material to supporting our people, keeping our communities strong and protecting the planet."

Sands' global corporate responsibility commitment is built on the pillars of People, Communities and Planet. The People pillar encompasses the company's focus on being the employer and partner of choice in its regions by building a culture dedicated to supporting Team Members, guests, suppliers and partners. The global Sands Cares community engagement program leads the company's Community pillar and drives efforts to solve pressing social issues, create resiliency and maximize regional strengths as valuable tourism destinations. Finally, Sands works to ensure the environmental health of its regions through the Planet pillar, led by the Sands ECO360 global sustainability program. The company annually reports its goals, progress and accomplishments in these three areas, along with its practices around ethics and governance, in the Sands Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report.

The candidate pool for the Newsweek America's Most Responsible Companies is the top 2,000 public companies by revenue with headquarters in the United States. Results are based on publicly available key performance indicators as well as an independent survey of more than 11,000 U.S. residents. Calculation of each company's final score is based on data collected through detailed analysis of the three areas, environmental, social and corporate governance. The top 500 companies with the highest scores are awarded.

About Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS)

Las Vegas Sands is the world's preeminent developer and operator of world-class Integrated Resorts. We deliver unrivaled economic benefits to the communities in which we operate.

Sands created the meetings, incentives, convention and exhibition (MICE)-based Integrated Resort. Our industry-leading Integrated Resorts provide substantial contributions to our host communities including growth in leisure and business tourism, sustained job creation and ongoing financial opportunities for local small and medium-sized businesses.

Our properties include The Venetian Resort and Sands Expo in Las Vegas, the iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Through majority ownership in Sands China Ltd., we have developed the largest portfolio of properties on the Cotai Strip in Macao, including The Venetian Macao, The Plaza and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, The Londoner Macao and The Parisian Macao, as well as the Sands Macao on the Macao Peninsula.

Sands is dedicated to being a good corporate citizen, anchored by the core tenets of serving people, communities and planet. We deliver a great working environment for our team members worldwide, drive social impact through the Sands Cares community engagement and charitable giving program and lead in environmental performance through the award-winning Sands ECO360 global sustainability program. To learn more, please visit www.sands.com.

Contacts:

Kristin Koca

Las Vegas Sands

[email protected]

702-414-3218

SOURCE Las Vegas Sands
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Livent Corporation (NYSE: LTHM) today announced that its 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held via live webcast on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. E.T.

Instructions for accessing the webcast will be available on the company's Investor Relations website, located at https://ir.livent.com.

About Livent

For nearly eight decades, Livent has partnered with its customers to safely and sustainably use lithium to power the world. Livent is one of only a small number of companies with the capability, reputation, and know-how to produce high-quality finished lithium compounds that are helping meet the growing demand for lithium. The company has one of the broadest product portfolios in the industry, powering demand for green energy, modern mobility, the mobile economy, and specialized innovations, including light alloys and lubricants. Livent employs approximately 900 people throughout the world and operates manufacturing sites in the United States, England, India, China and Argentina. For more information, visit Livent.com.

The company's investor relations website, located at https://ir.livent.com, should be considered as a recognized channel of distribution, and the company may periodically post important information to the website for investors, including information that the company may wish to disclose publicly for purposes of complying with federal securities laws.

Media contact:

Juan Carlos Cruz +1.215.299.6725

[email protected]

Investor contact:

Daniel Rosen +1.215.299.6208

[email protected]

SOURCE Livent Corporation
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) resulting from allegations that Lockheed Martin may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Lockheed Martin securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2189.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On October 26, 2021, Lockheed Martin announced its third quarter 2021 financial results. In its report, Lockheed Martin indicated that it would incur a $1.7 billion non-cash pension settlement charge, which would decrease the company's net income by $4.72 per share. Following this news, Lockheed Martin's stock fell $44.42 per share, or 11.8%, and closed at $331.91 per share that same day.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Lockheed Martin: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

Related Links

www.rosenlegal.com


Texas Health Professional Building II resides on the campus of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance positioned off Interstate 35 and Golden Triangle Boulevard.

In 2019, Texas Health Professional Building II was selected as a top five "National Finalist for Best New Medical Office Buildings and Other Outpatient Facilities 50,000 to 99,999 Square Feet" by Healthcare Real Estate Insights. "Alliance continues to experience extensive growth year over year and so has the demand for class A, multi-tenant medical office buildings," says Kyle Libby, Partner at MedCore.

MedCore provided highly specialized development services throughout the planning and the construction of the project. Upon the delivery of the facility, their leasing team subsequently negotiated multiple long-term leases with notable healthcare providers in the market, thereby greatly increasing the value of the asset. MedCore was then successful in expeditiously marketing and selling the property, ensuring maximum profitability for the seller.

About MedCore Partners, LLC - Based in Dallas-Fort Worth, MedCore Partners is a full-service real estate company dedicated exclusively to the healthcare and senior living industry. By leveraging off both its intimate knowledge of the dynamics of the medical sector and its comprehensive platform of real estate services, MedCore is uniquely qualified to identify and capitalize on healthcare projects around the nation and to maximize the potential profits returned to its investors. Over their careers, the principals of MedCore have led the development and investment efforts for healthcare projects around the country that have been valued in excess of $1 billion in addition to executing brokerage transactions for over 1,500 physicians. This level of experience within the medical real estate industry has allowed MedCore's principals to build trusted relationships with both healthcare providers around the United States as well as numerous capital sources.

SOURCE MedCore Partners

Related Links

http://www.medcorepartners.com


"The destruction from these devastating tornadoes is truly heartbreaking," said Tim Mettey, CEO of Matthew 25: Ministries. "In the aftermath of disasters such as these, PPE supplies are in high demand to keep people safe while beginning the long process of recovery. We appreciate the generous support of corporate donors like Radians, who help us to provide hope and essential supplies to people who have been impacted by the disaster."

"Massive destruction like this requires major clean-up and new construction on a gigantic scale, so lots of PPE will be required," said Radians President, Bill England. "Radians is thankful we can give back by supplying the safety products that disaster communities need."

To help keep workers and volunteers safe during the clean-up and the rebuild, Radians sent work gloves, anti-fog goggles and other safety eyewear, disposable foam earplugs, coveralls, jackets, AR/FR workwear, and hi-vis apparel. Matthew 25: Ministries will be providing Radians PPE supplies to help people throughout the widespread disaster area.

In addition to supporting Matthew 25: Ministries, Radians also donated PPE for Hurricane Ida relief and flood relief in Washington State.

For more information, visit www.radians.com.

Radians is a Memphis, TN-based manufacturer of quality PPE, including safety eyewear, Radwear high visibility apparel, rainwear, hearing protection, hand protection, AR/FR workwear, head gear, cooling products, heated jackets, tether vests and retractors, eyewash stations, lens cleaning systems, and particulate respirators. Radians has partnered with highly respected companies including DSM Dyneema, DEWALT, and BLACK+DECKER to provide high performance personal protection products. Their brands include Neese, Bellingham Glove, Crossfire by Radians, VolCore, Arctic RadWear, Nordic Blaze, and VisionAid. An ISO 9001:2008 certified leader in the PPE industry, the company has additional facilities in Reno, NV; Thomasville, NC; Bellingham, WA, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.Radians.com or become a fan at www.facebook.com/RadiansPPE.

SOURCE Radians
HOUSTON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Baker International, a global leader in engineering, planning and consulting services, announced today that Brad Brown, P.E., has been named Southern Texas Office Executive, where he will provide senior operations oversight of four offices, including Houston, Austin and San Antonio, as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In his new role, Mr. Brown will strategically identify and build teams to support new disciplines, while also focusing on protecting and growing Michael Baker's core business in Construction Services, Highway, Planning and Water.

"Brad has nearly four decades of experience in the planning, design and construction management of major civil site, transportation and aviation projects," said Tommy Montgomery, Southern Regional Director at Michael Baker International. "I am confident his deep experience and broad industry knowledge will help drive growth in the Southern Region and across Michael Baker."

Mr. Brown joined Michael Baker in 2019 as Regional Practice Lead  Transportation and Construction Services. He was instrumental in driving growth in the Transportation and Construction Services markets, including the firm's work with the Texas Department of Transportation, Arkansas Department of Transportation, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Toll Authorities. He has been responsible for successfully marketing professional services across Texas, managing traditional delivery projects, providing construction management services, leading alternate delivery projects, business development, recruiting, staff development and project performance with an emphasis on surface transportation projects.

Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.

About Michael Baker International

Michael Baker International is a leading provider of engineering and consulting services. The firm's Practices encompass all facets of infrastructure, including design, civil engineering, planning, architecture, environmental, construction and program management. For more than 80 years, the company has been a trusted partner, providing comprehensive services and solutions to commercial clients and all branches of the military, as well as federal, state and municipal governments. Embracing emerging technologies and the latest innovations  like intelligent transportation and design-build project delivery  Michael Baker is an industry leader that delivers expertise and quality. The firm's more than 3,000 employees across nearly 100 locations are committed to Making a Difference for clients and communities through a culture of innovation, collaboration and technological advancement. To learn more, visit https://mbakerintl.com/.

Contact: Julia Covelli

[email protected]

(866) 293-4609

SOURCE Michael Baker International

Related Links

http://www.mbakerintl.com


Dr. Smith, an accomplished thyroid/parathyroid surgeon, was the first to develop transoral robotic total laryngectomy, a complicated, but minimally invasive surgery for head and neck cancers that results in improved outcomes, such as shorter hospital stays. His research on genetic biomarkers in head and neck cancers to predict disease progression and develop personalized treatments has also been widely published.

"Dr. Smith's significant accomplishments as a surgeon and researcher, including the pioneering of new robotic surgery techniques, reflects his unwavering commitment to patient-centered care," said Philip O. Ozuah, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at Montefiore. "We are excited about his vision for the department and are confident in his ability to lead it with empathy and an eye to the future."

As interim chair, Dr. Smith streamlined patient scheduling for appointments and ensured the completion of necessary medical testing prior to subspecialty visits. This has led to a decrease in patient no-show rates and better, more productive in-person visits. In this role, he also spearheaded a new hospitalist service at the Moses campus and a new rotation for the residents in the department.

"Dr. Smith has proved himself an exceptional leader over the past 10 months and we're immensely pleased he will be taking the helm," said Gordon F. Tomaselli, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein and executive vice president and chief academic officer at Montefiore Medicine. "His commitment to our medical students and to advancing care through research has enriched the College of Medicine and our greater enterprise."

Earlier this year, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery honored Dr. Smith with their Board of Governors' Practitioner Excellence Award, which recognizes an otolaryngologist that others wish to emulate and who is sought out by other physicians because of his personal and effective care.

In addition to this honor, Dr. Smith has held leadership positions in regional and national organizations, including the president of the New York Laryngological Society and the New York Head and Neck Society. He has also earned the Distinguished Academic Achievement Award from the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Smith received his B.A. cum laude from Middlebury College and his M.D. from the University of Vermont. He completed his general surgery internship and his otolaryngology-head and neck surgery residency at the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. After completing his training, he joined Montefiore and Einstein in 1995.

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 view us on Facebook and YouTube.

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 732 M.D. students, 190 Ph.D. students, 120 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and approximately 250 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 $185 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in cancer, aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, 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. For more information, please visit einsteinmed.org, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook , and view us on YouTube.

SOURCE Montefiore Health System
As a tech-driven digital investment platform, moomoo's mission is to make investing easier and more social. After building a strong community of investors and winning awards in the US and Singapore, the company is excited about bringing its services to Australian investors to help them take advantage of all investing opportunities.

Moomoo stands out from other platforms by offering:

- a free online account-opening experience that can be completed in just minutes;

- a combination of powerful technologies spanning stock trading and market data;

- an interactive online community of 17 million investors worldwide;

- tools that enable the community to share their investing insights anytime, anywhere.

Investors can now trade stocks on the platform and access free real-time quotes, in-depth market analysis, and comprehensive financial news coverage.

Moomoo has quickly become a popular tech-driven brokerage platform among local investors since its launch in the US and Singapore. In the US, moomoo has resonated with sophisticated and retail investors alike, with powerful yet user-friendly tools capable of guiding even professional traders toward more informed decisions. In this year, moomoo won the "Best Active Trading App 2021" by Investing Simple, a leading US financial website, and was also nominated for the Benzinga 2021 awards for "Best Trading Technology" and "Best Investment Research Tech".

Moomoo has attracted over 220,000 registered users and more than 100,000 paying clients in less than three months since entering the Singapore market. Within just six months of its launch, moomoo's market share of retail investors in Singapore neared 15%. As of Q3, moomoo has become one of the fastest growing one-stop investment platforms in Singapore, constantly holding a place among the top three financial apps as measured by download volume.

Australia marks moomoo's next stop. Drawing on its successes in the US and Singapore, moomoo is expected to open up a brand-new market in Australia and bring a unique investment experience to local investors.

About Moomoo

Moomoo positions itself as the next-generation one-stop investment platform that integrates investment transactions, up-to-date news, real-time market data, and an active trading community. Moomoo's mission is to provide investors of all levels with an intuitive and powerful investing platform. Moomoo leverages deep technological R&D capabilities and future-focused operating model to constantly improve the user experience and drive industry-wide innovation. For more information, please visit the official website www.moomoo.com.

SOURCE moomoo Inc.
DALLAS, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE: NREF) ("NREF" or the "Company") announced today that it has closed its previously announced underwritten public offering of $60 million aggregate principal amount of its 5.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2026 (the "Additional Notes"). The Additional Notes were issued at a price of 102.758% of par with a yield to maturity of 5.036%. The Additional Notes were an additional issuance of the Company's existing $75 million aggregate principal amount of its 5.75% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2026 (the "Initial Notes") and the Additional Notes were issued under the same indenture as the Initial Notes, were treated as a single class of debt securities with the Initial Notes and had the same terms as the Initial Notes, other than the issue date and offering price.

The Company intends to contribute the net proceeds from this offering into its operating partnership, NexPoint Real Estate Finance Operating Partnership, L.P. (the "OP"), in exchange for OP units. The OP intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to acquire investments that fit within the Company's investment strategy.

Raymond James acted as sole book-running manager for the offering. The Company made this offering pursuant to a shelf registration statement that became effective on March 31, 2021. This offering was made solely by means of a prospectus and prospectus supplement, copies of which may be obtained from Raymond James & Associates, Inc., 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, telephone (800) 248-8863, email: [email protected] or through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

About NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. is a publicly traded REIT with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NREF." NREF is primarily focused on originating, structuring and investing in first mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and alternative structured financings in commercial real estate properties, as well as multifamily commercial mortgage backed securities.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management's current expectations, assumptions and beliefs. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should" and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the intended use of proceeds. They are not guarantees of future results and forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement, including the ultimate geographic spread, duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effectiveness of actions taken, or actions that may be taken, by governmental authorities to contain the outbreak or treat its impact, as well as those described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly those specifically described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review NREF's other filings with the SEC for a more complete discussion of risks and other factors that could affect any forward-looking statement. The statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release and except as required by law, NREF does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Contact:

NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

Investor Relations

Jackie Graham

[email protected]

833.463.6697

SOURCE NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.
LIMERICK, Ireland, Dec. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company, together with its subsidiaries ("NAC" or the "Company"), the world's largest regional aircraft lessor, today announced that it has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement (the "RSA" or the "Agreement") with its equityholders and lenders holding over 73% of NAC's approximately $6.3 billion in debt obligations (collectively, the "RSA Parties"). The terms of the RSA establish the framework for a consensual and comprehensive financial restructuring that will restructure the Company's debt obligations, provide additional capital through a new equity rights offering, and best position NAC for future growth and success as global economic and industry conditions continue to improve. To implement the financial restructuring, the Company has filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The RSA contemplates a consensual and comprehensive restructuring of the Company's debt obligations (including the conversion of a substantial amount of the group's debt to equity) with an infusion of $537 million in additional capital through a $337 million new equity rights offering and a new $200 million revolving credit facility. The Company has obtained an additional $170 million debtor in possession financing facility from its existing creditors to help fund operations during the Chapter 11 process. The additional capital will serve to support the Company's liquidity position and its plans to pursue growth in purchasing aircraft. Additionally, the RSA provides the Company with a stable platform to allow NAC to continue satisfying substantially all of its obligations to its employees, customers, and suppliers, as well as provide lease management services and deliver aircraft throughout the Chapter 11 process.

In conjunction with the petitions, NAC has filed a series of motions, which, once approved by the Court, will enable the Company to operate its business in the ordinary course throughout the Chapter 11 process. These motions will also allow NAC to continue to honor obligations to its employees, customers, and suppliers on previously agreed upon schedules and terms.

Following its emergence from the Chapter 11 process, the reorganized NAC will be majority-owned by its largest creditors, who are committed to the Company's long-term success and will invest substantial new equity capital in the business. Martin Moller, Founder of NAC, and the Company's existing shareholders are supportive of this transition in ownership. A newly reconstituted Board of Directors will be appointed upon emergence.

"NAC is taking this proactive step in the U.S. because we believe it is the most efficient and effective way to implement a consensual and comprehensive financial restructuring," said Justin Bickle, Vice Chairman of NAC and Chairman of its Restructuring Committee. "With the strong support we've received from our lenders to date, we are pleased to be entering the Chapter 11 process with a restructuring support agreement in place to implement the financial restructuring of the Group that will position NAC for future growth and success as industry conditions continue to improve."

Martin Moller, former Chairman and Founder of Nordic Aviation Capital, commented "As my 30-year chapter with NAC comes to a close, I am comforted to see the significant support demonstrated by the lenders and their confidence in NAC's business model. I have the utmost confidence in the Company's resilience and ability to continue to serve customers in a sustainable manner throughout this process and beyond."

Norman C.T. Liu, President & CEO of NAC said, "This is a positive first step to position NAC for longer term success and provides financial resources to develop the business. Our aim is to maintain our leadership position in regional aircraft leasing and expand into adjacent single aisle areas. During the Chapter 11 process, the NAC team will work hard to serve our many airline customers. I would also like to thank our employees for their dedication and our many business partners for their support."

Additional Information

Additional information about the Company's Chapter 11 cases, including access to Court filings and other documents related to the restructuring process, is available at https://dm.epiq11.com/nac or by calling NAC's restructuring information line at +1-503-597-7711 (international) or 1-855-654-0899 (toll free in the U.S.).

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as the Company's restructuring counsel, Clifford Chance LLP and William Fry LLP are serving as legal counsel, Ernst & Young is serving as restructuring advisor, and Rothschild & Co is acting as investment banker.

About Nordic Aviation Capital

NAC is the industry's leading regional aircraft lessor serving almost 70 airlines in approximately 45 countries. NAC's fleet of 475 aircraft includes ATR 42, ATR 72, De Havilland Dash 8, Mitsubishi CRJ900/1000, Airbus A220 and Embraer E-Jet family aircraft.

For additional information, please visit us at www.nac.dk

Contact Details:

Nordic Aviation Capital: [email protected]

Media contact: [email protected]

U.S. media contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Nordic Aviation Capital
SEATTLE, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

JET CAPITAL MASTER FUND, L.P., Plaintiff, v. HRG GROUP, INC. ET AL., Defendants.

No. 21-cv-552-jdp

SUMMARY NOTICE OF (I) PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPOSED SETTLEMENT; (II) SETTLEMENT FAIRNESS HEARING; AND (III) MOTION FOR AN AWARD OF ATTORNEYS' FEES AND LITIGATION EXPENSES

This notice is for all persons and entities that purchased common stock of HRG Group, Inc. from January 26, 2017 to July 13, 2018, and were damaged thereby (the "HRG Subclass"). Certain persons and entities are excluded from the Spectrum Subclass by definition, as set forth in the full Notice of (I) Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement; (II) Settlement Fairness Hearing; and (III) Motion for an Award of Attorneys' Fees and Litigation Expenses (the "Notice"), available at www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com.

YOUR RIGHTS WILL BE AFFECTED BY A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT PENDING IN THIS COURT.

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (the "Court"), that the above-captioned securities class action (the "Action") is pending in the Court.

YOU ARE ALSO NOTIFIED that Lead Plaintiff Jet Capital Master Fund, L.P., on behalf of itself and the HRG Subclass, have reached a proposed settlement of all claims asserted in the Action by members of the HRG Subclass for $7,250,000 in cash (the "Settlement").

PLEASE NOTE : You may have received notice of a previous proposed settlement of this Action in late 2020. That earlier proposed settlement was not approved by the Court. The prior settlement has been withdrawn and is no longer before the Court. That previously proposed settlement included claims arising from purchases of Spectrum Brands Legacy, Inc. ("Old Spectrum") common stock and Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. ("Spectrum") common stock. The new Settlement relates only to claims arising from the purchases of HRG common stock. The claims arising from purchases of Spectrum or Old Spectrum common stock will not be settled or released by this newly proposed Settlement.

A hearing (the "Settlement Fairness Hearing") will be held on March 18, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., before the Honorable James D. Peterson either in person at the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Courtroom 260, United States Courthouse, 120 North Henry Street, Madison, WI 53703, or by telephone or video conference (in the discretion of the Court), to determine, among other things: (i) whether the proposed Settlement should be approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate; (ii) whether, for purposes of the proposed Settlement only, the Action should be certified as a class action on behalf of the HRG Subclass, Lead Plaintiff should be certified as Class Representative for the HRG Subclass, and Lead Counsel should be appointed as Class Counsel for the Spectrum Subclass; (iii) whether the claims in the Action asserted by the HRG Subclass should be dismissed with prejudice against Defendants, and the Releases specified and described in the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement, dated October 8, 2021 (and in the Notice) should be granted; (iv) whether the proposed Plan of Allocation should be approved as fair and reasonable; (v) whether Lead Counsel's application for an award of attorneys' fees and expenses should be approved; and (vi) any other matters that may properly be brought before the Court in connection with the Settlement.

The ongoing COVID-19 health emergency is a fluid situation that creates the possibility that the Court may decide to conduct the Settlement Fairness Hearing by video or telephonic conference, or otherwise allow HRG Subclass Members to appear at the hearing by phone or video, without further written notice to the HRG Subclass. In order to determine whether the date and time of the Settlement Fairness Hearing have changed, or whether HRG Subclass Members must or may participate by phone or video, it is important that you monitor the Court's docket and the Settlement website, www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com, before making any plans to attend the Settlement Fairness Hearing. Any updates regarding the Settlement Fairness Hearing, including any changes to the date or time of the hearing or updates regarding in- person or telephonic appearances at the hearing, will be posted to the Settlement website, www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com. Also, if the Court requires or allows Spectrum Subclass Members to participate in the Settlement Fairness Hearing by telephone or video conference, the information needed to access the conference will be posted to the Settlement website, www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com.

If you are a member of the HRG Subclass, your rights will be affected by the pending Action and the Settlement, and you may be entitled to share in the Net Settlement Fund. If you have not yet received the Notice and Claim Form, you may obtain copies of these documents by contacting the Claims Administrator at: HRG Securities Litigation, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91427, Seattle, WA 98111, 1-888-921-1535, [email protected] Copies of the Notice and Claim Form can also be downloaded from the Settlement website, www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com.

If you are a member of the HRG Subclass and previously submitted a Claim Form in connection with the earlier proposed settlement in In re Spectrum Brands Securities Litigation, No. 19-cv-347-jdp, do not do so again. Your earlier Claim Form will be considered for participation in this Settlement. If you are a Spectrum Subclass Member and did NOT previously submit a Claim Form you must submit a Claim Form postmarked no later than January 25, 2022 to be eligible to participate in the Settlement. If you are not certain whether you previously submitted a Claim Form, you may contact the Claims Administrator at 1-888-921-1535 to confirm.

If you are a member of the HRG Subclass and wish to exclude yourself from the HRG Subclass, you must submit a request for exclusion such that it is received no later than February 22, 2022 , in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice. If you properly exclude yourself from the HRG Subclass, you will not be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court in the Action and you will not be eligible to receive a payment from the Settlement.

Any objections to the proposed Settlement, the proposed Plan of Allocation, or Lead Counsel's motion for attorneys' fees and expenses must be filed with the Court and delivered to Lead Counsel and Defendants' Counsel such that they are received no later than February 22, 2022 , in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice.

Please do not contact the Court, the Office of the Clerk of the Court, Defendants, or their counsel regarding this notice. All questions about this notice, the proposed Settlement, or your eligibility to participate in the Settlement should be directed to the Claims Administrator or Lead Counsel. Visit www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com or call toll-free 1-888-921-1535.

Requests for the Notice and Claim Form should be made to:

HRG Securities Litigation

c/o JND Legal Administration

P.O. Box 91427

Seattle, WA 98111

1-888-921-1535

[email protected]

www.HRGSecuritiesLitigation.com

Inquiries, other than requests for the Notice and Claim Form, should be made to Lead Counsel:

Lawrence M. Rolnick, Esq.

Rolnick Kramer Sadighi LLP

1251 Avenue of the Americas, 41st Floor

New York, NY 10020

212-597-2800

[email protected]

By Order of the Court

SOURCE JND Legal Administration
SEATTLE, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN



)



)

IN RE SPECTRUM BRANDS SECURITIES LITIGATION ) No. 19-cv-347-jdp

)



)









SUMMARY NOTICE OF (I) PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPOSED

SETTLEMENT; (II) SETTLEMENT FAIRNESS HEARING; AND (III) MOTION FOR

AN AWARD OF ATTORNEYS' FEES AND LITIGATION EXPENSES

This notice is for all persons and entities that: (i) purchased common stock of Spectrum Brands Legacy, Inc. (then known as Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.) from January 26, 2017 to July 13, 2018; and/or (ii) purchased common stock of Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. from July 13, 2018 to November 19, 2018, and were damaged thereby (the "Spectrum Class"). Certain persons and entities are excluded from the Spectrum Class by definition, as set forth in the full Notice of (I) Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement; (II) Settlement Fairness Hearing; and (III) Motion for an Award of Attorneys' Fees and Litigation Expenses (the "Notice"), available at www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com.

YOUR RIGHTS WILL BE AFFECTED BY A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT PENDING IN THIS COURT.

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (the "Court"), that the above-captioned securities class action (the "Action") is pending in the Court.

YOU ARE ALSO NOTIFIED that Lead Plaintiffs Public School Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago and the Cambridge Retirement System, on behalf of themselves and the Spectrum Class, have reached a proposed settlement of all claims asserted in the Action by members of the Spectrum Class for $32,000,000 in cash (the "Settlement").

PLEASE NOTE: You may have received notice of a previous proposed settlement of this Action in late 2020. That earlier proposed settlement was not approved by the Court due to the scope of the proposed settlement class. The prior settlement has been withdrawn and is no longer before the Court. The previously proposed settlement included claims arising from purchases of Spectrum Brands Legacy, Inc. ("Old Spectrum") common stock and Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. ("Spectrum") common stock, as well as HRG Group, Inc. ("HRG") common stock. The new Settlement relates only to claims arising from the purchases of Old Spectrum or Spectrum common stock. The claims arising from purchases of HRG common stock will not be settled or released by this newly proposed Settlement. The claims arising from purchases of HRG common stock will continue to be litigated in a separate action by a new lead plaintiff, Jet Capital Master Fund LP, which was appointed by the Court to serve as a representative for that group of investors in June 2021.

A hearing (the "Settlement Fairness Hearing") will be held on March 18, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time, before the Honorable James D. Peterson by video conference to determine, among other things: (i) whether the proposed Settlement should be approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate; (ii) whether, for purposes of the proposed Settlement only, the Action should be certified as a class action on behalf of the Spectrum Class, Lead Plaintiffs should be certified as Class Representatives for the Spectrum Class, and Lead Counsel should be appointed as Class Counsel for the Spectrum Class; (iii) whether the claims in the Action asserted by the Spectrum Class should be dismissed with prejudice against Defendants, and the Releases specified and described in the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement dated August 27, 2021 (and in the Notice) should be granted; (iv) whether the proposed Plan of Allocation should be approved as fair and reasonable; (v) whether Lead Counsel's application for an award of attorneys' fees and expenses should be approved; and (vi) any other matters that may properly be brought before the Court in connection with the Settlement.

The Settlement Fairness Hearing is currently scheduled to be conducted by video conference. The ongoing COVID-19 health emergency is a fluid situation that creates the possibility that the Court may change the date or format of the hearing, without further written notice to the Spectrum Class. In order to determine whether the date and time of the Settlement Fairness Hearing have changed, or whether Spectrum Class Members must or may participate by phone or video, it is important that you monitor the Court's docket and the Settlement website, www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com, before making any plans to attend the Settlement Fairness Hearing. Any updates regarding the Settlement Fairness Hearing, including any changes to the date or time of the hearing or updates regarding in-person or telephonic appearances at the hearing, will be posted to the Settlement website, www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com. Also, if the Court requires or allows Spectrum Class Members to participate in the Settlement Fairness Hearing by telephone or video conference, the information needed to access the conference will be posted to the Settlement website, www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com .

If you are a member of the Spectrum Class, your rights will be affected by the pending Action and the Settlement, and you may be entitled to share in the Net Settlement Fund. If you have not yet received the Notice and Claim Form, you may obtain copies of these documents by contacting the Claims Administrator at: Spectrum Brands Securities Litigation, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91362, Seattle, WA 98111, 1-833-674-0176, [email protected] Copies of the Notice and Claim Form can also be downloaded from the Settlement website, www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com.

If you are a member of the Spectrum Class and previously submitted a Claim Form in connection with the earlier proposed settlement in the Action, do not do so again. Your earlier Claim Form will be considered for participation in this Settlement. If you are a Spectrum Class Member and did NOT previously submit a Claim Form you must submit a Claim Form postmarked no later than January 25, 2022 to be eligible to participate in the Settlement. If you are not certain whether you previously submitted a Claim Form, you may contact the Claims Administrator at 1-833-674-0176 to confirm.

If you are a member of the Spectrum Class and wish to exclude yourself from the Spectrum Class, you must submit a request for exclusion such that it is received no later than February 22, 2022, in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice. If you properly exclude yourself from the Spectrum Class, you will not be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court in the Action and you will not be eligible to receive a payment from the Settlement.

Any objections to the proposed Settlement, the proposed Plan of Allocation, or Lead Counsel's motion for attorneys' fees and expenses must be filed with the Court and delivered to Lead Counsel and Defendants' Counsel such that they are received no later than February 22, 2022, in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice.

Please do not contact the Court, the Office of the Clerk of the Court, Defendants, or their counsel regarding this notice. All questions about this notice, the proposed Settlement, or your eligibility to participate in the Settlement should be directed to the Claims Administrator or Lead Counsel. Visit www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com or call toll-free at 1-833-674-0176.

Requests for the Notice and Claim Form should be made to:

Spectrum Brands Securities Litigation

c/o JND Legal Administration

P.O. Box 91362

Seattle, WA 98111

1-833-674-0176

[email protected]

www.SpectrumBrandsSecuritiesLitigation.com

Inquiries, other than requests for the Notice and Claim Form, should be made to Lead Counsel:

Katherine M. Sinderson, Esq.

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP

1251 Avenue of the Americas, 44th Floor

New York, NY 10020

1-800-380-8496

[email protected]

By Order of the Court

SOURCE JND Legal Administration
AUSTIN, Texas and KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and Cerner Corporation today jointly announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Cerner through an all-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion in equity value. Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used within hospitals and health systems to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities.

"Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better informationenabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes," said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle. "With this acquisition, Oracle's corporate mission expands to assume the responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications. This new generation of medical information systems promises to lower the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, improve patient privacy and outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs."

"We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closingand contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter," said Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle. "Healthcare is the largest and most important vertical market in the world$3.8 trillion last year in the United States alone. Oracle's revenue growth rate has already been increasing this yearCerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for years to come as we expand its business into many more countries throughout the world. That's exactly the growth strategy we adopted when we bought NetSuiteexcept the Cerner revenue opportunity is even larger."

"Cerner has been a leader in helping digitize medical care and now it's time to realize the real promise of that work with the care delivery tools that get information to the right caregivers at the right time," said David Feinberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cerner. "Joining Oracle as a dedicated Industry Business Unit provides an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our work modernizing electronic health records (EHR), improving the caregiver experience, and enabling more connected, high-quality and efficient patient care. We are also very excited that Oracle is committed to maintaining and growing our community presence, including in the Kansas City area."

"Oracle's Autonomous Database, low-code development tools, and Voice Digital Assistant user interface enables us to rapidly modernize Cerner's systems and move them to our Gen2 Cloud," said Mike Sicilia, Executive Vice President, Vertical Industries, Oracle. "This can be done very quickly because Cerner's largest business and most important clinical system already runs on the Oracle Database. No change required there. What will change is the user interface. We will make Cerner's systems much easier to learn and use by making Oracle's hands-free Voice Digital Assistant the primary interface to Cerner's clinical systems. This will allow medical professionals to spend less time typing on computer keyboards and more time caring for patients."

Highlights

All-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion , that is immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings. Accretive to Oracle's earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closing and will contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter. Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for Oracle for years to come as Oracle expands Cerner's business into many more countries throughout the world. Transaction is expected to close in calendar year 2022. The closing of the transaction is subject to receiving certain regulatory approvals and satisfying other closing conditions including Cerner stockholders tendering a majority of Cerner's outstanding shares in the tender offer. Oracle anticipates retaining an investment grade credit rating.

per share, or approximately , that is immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings. Oracle brings significant experience helping power the largest industries. Oracle provides industry solutions that run the core operations for customers in the world's largest industries. Industries covered by Oracle today include, among others, Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, Retail, Food & Beverage, Construction & Engineering, Manufacturing and Government. Oracle also brings best in class cloud infrastructure to drive digital modernization, substantially lowering the total cost of IT in these critical industry sectors.

Cerner is a leader in the healthcare IT industry and a complementary business to Oracle. Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used within hospitals to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities. Cerner has over four decades of experience modernizing electronic health records, improving the caregiver experience, and streamlining and automating clinical and administrative workflows.

Together, Oracle and Cerner will protect customer investments and transform healthcare. According to a recent study by the Mayo Clinic 1 , physicians spend 1 to 2 hours on EHRs and desk work for every hour spent in face-to-face contact with patients, as well as an additional 1 to 2 hours of personal time on EHR related activities. Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to address these issues and transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better informationenabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes. Customer investments in Cerner are also protected with this combination and will grow in value over time as more modern and connected technologies are made available. With Oracle's resources, infrastructure and cloud capabilities, Cerner will accelerate the pace of product and technology development to enable more connected, high-quality, and efficient care. Oracle's focus on usability and voice enabled user interfaces will dramatically reduce the amount of time that medical providers spend dealing with systems and increase the time they spend directly caring for patients. Significant opportunity to help customers use Oracle's modern technologies such as cloud, AI, ML and other innovations to make care more accessible, secure, efficient and effective for patients and caregivers. Cerner systems running on the Oracle Gen2 Cloud will be available 24 by 7 by 365. Goal is to deliver zero unplanned downtime in the medical environment. With Cerner systems running on the Oracle database, only specifically authorized medical professionals can access patient data. IT professionals running the systems are unable to look at patient data. Oracle and Cerner are committed to continued and enhanced stewardship of health information, which will be bolstered by Oracle's global operational infrastructure.

Cerner will be organized as a dedicated Industry Business Unit within Oracle. Cerner will be Oracle's anchor asset to expand into healthcare and together we will improve medical care for individuals and communities around the world. Oracle intends to maintain and grow Cerner's community presence, including in the Kansas City area, while utilizing Oracle's global footprint to reach new geographies faster.



More information about this announcement is available at the Oracle and Cerner corporate websites.

References

Melnick, E. R; Dyrbye, L.N., Sinsky, C. A. et al.

The Association Between Perceived Electronic Health Record Usability and Professional Burnout Among US Physicians.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings Vol. 95, Issue 3, P476-487 March 1, 2020

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

About Cerner

Cerner's health technologies connect people and information systems at thousands of contracted provider facilities worldwide dedicated to creating smarter and better care for individuals and communities. Recognized globally for innovation, Cerner assists clinicians in making care decisions and assists organizations in managing the health of their populations. The company also offers a connected clinical and financial ecosystem to help manage day-to-day revenue functions, as well as a wide range of services to support clinical, financial and operational needs, focused on people. For more information, visit Cerner.com.

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain forward-looking statements about Oracle and Cerner, including statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Oracle's proposed acquisition of Cerner, anticipated customer benefits and general business outlook. When used in this document, the words "can", "will", "expect", "opportunity", "promises", "goal" and similar expressions and any other statements that are not historical facts are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. Any such statement may be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Oracle or Cerner, that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected, described, expressed or implied in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibilities that the transaction will not close or that the closing may be delayed, that the anticipated synergies may not be achieved after closing, and that the combined operations may not be successfully integrated in a timely manner, if at all; general economic conditions in regions in which either company does business; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on how Oracle, Cerner and their respective customers are operating their businesses and the duration and extent to which the pandemic will impact Oracle's or Cerner's future results of operations; and the possibility that Oracle or Cerner may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what impact they will have on the results of operations or financial condition of Oracle or Cerner.

In addition, please refer to the documents that Oracle and Cerner, respectively, file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. These filings identify and address other important factors that could cause Oracle's and Cerner's respective operational and other results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements set forth in this document. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document. Except as required by law, neither Oracle nor Cerner is under any duty to update any of the information in this document.

Additional Information about the Acquisition and Where to Find It

In connection with the proposed acquisition, Oracle will commence a tender offer for the outstanding shares of Cerner. The tender offer has not yet commenced. This document is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of Cerner, nor is it a substitute for the tender offer materials that Oracle and its acquisition subsidiary will file with the SEC upon commencement of the tender offer. At the time the tender offer is commenced, Oracle and its acquisition subsidiary will file tender offer materials on Schedule TO, and Cerner will file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the tender offer. The tender offer materials (including an Offer to Purchase, a related Letter of Transmittal and certain other tender offer documents) and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement will contain important information. Holders of shares of Cerner common stock are urged to read these documents carefully when they become available (as each may be amended or supplemented from time to time) because they will contain important information that holders of shares of Cerner common stock should consider before making any decision regarding tendering their shares. The Offer to Purchase, the related Letter of Transmittal and certain other tender offer documents, as well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, will be made available to all holders of shares of Cerner at no expense to them. The tender offer materials and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement will be made available for free at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

In addition to the Offer to Purchase, the related Letter of Transmittal and certain other tender offer documents, as well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, Oracle and Cerner file annual, quarterly and special reports and other information with the SEC, which are available at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Oracle

Related Links

http://www.oracle.com


FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Paragon Energy Solutions, a company focused on providing safety-related parts and components to the nuclear industry, is proud to announce the acquisition of Rock Creek Innovations, LLC (RCI).

RCI is an innovation company that designs and licenses the Highly Integrated Protection System (HIPS) Platform for use in U.S. NRC regulated Nuclear Safety Related Control Systems and is a hardware supplier of commercial nuclear protections systems based on the HIPS Platform. As a hybrid solution, this platform combines the best of both analog and digital systems and is designed to provide a robust, scalable platform for safety-related and important-to-safety functions within the commercial nuclear power plant industry. HIPS also delivers critical features for protection safety systems and cyber security.

RCI brings to Paragon a team of highly skilled personnel with unique skill sets that have revolutionized the industry with the HIPS Platform. Several Small Modular Reactor (SMR) providers have chosen the HIPS Platform for their Reactor Protection System and other protection systems, due in large part to its robustness and simplicity.

Doug VanTassell, President & CEO of Paragon stated, "The combination of Paragon with Rock Creek's elite team of professionals is an industry game-changer for both SMRs and the current fleet of Commercial Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Combining Paragon's extensive capabilities with those of Rock Creek brings better end-to-end solutions for safety I&C to the industry, which will positively impact the next generation of advanced reactors and operating NPPS that look to upgrade their original protection systems to modern technology."

Gregg Clarkson, founder and former President of Rock Creek, will now assume the role of Chief Innovation Officer at Paragon. "I am extremely proud to be a part of Paragon, and the combination of Paragon and Rock Creek is a springboard to allow us to widely deploy the HIPS Platform into the commercial nuclear market," explained Clarkson.

Terms of the transaction were not revealed.

About Paragon Energy Solutions

For more than 30 years, Paragon has provided an unmatched level of commitment to tackling the nuclear industry's most difficult challenges. Dedicated to quality, safety, reliability, and carbon-free energy, the company delivers premium products to nuclear energy facilities with proven reductions in direct costs, parts inventory, improved process efficiency, and obsolescence solutions. www.paragones.com or (865) 966-5330. Follow Paragon on LinkedIn or Twitter.

SOURCE Paragon Energy Solutions, LLC
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Pharmaceutical Suppositories Market by Type (Rectal Suppositories, Vaginal Suppositories, and Urethral Suppositories), Base (Fatty Base, Water Miscible Bases, and Emulsifying Bases), Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, and Online Sales), and End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Home Care, and Nursing Home): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global pharmaceutical suppositories market was worth $1.41 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to reach $2.40 billion by 2030, manifesting a CAGR of 5.7% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Sample Report- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/12715

Key drivers of the market growth

Increase in the prevalence of acute & chronic disorders that demand the use of suppository, rise in the geriatric population, and surge in government expenditure on healthcare fuel the global pharmaceutical suppositories market. On the other hand, limited demand from underdeveloped countries hinders the market. On the contrary, high market growth potential in emerging markets will create lucrative opportunities for the market players.

COVID-19 Scenario:

The pharmaceutical suppositories production was disturbed in 2020 due to the disrupted supply chain of raw materials.

The pandemic also affected the workforce supply needed for the manufacturing plants owing to the lockdown measures. This caused the closure of the manufacturing plants of the suppositories.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Pharmaceutical Suppositories Market- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/12715?reqfor=covid

The emulsifying bases segment will maintain the leading position throughout the forecast period

Based on bases, the emulsifying bases segment contributed to the largest market share in 2020, accounting for more than two-fifths of the global pharmaceutical suppositories market, and is projected to maintain the leading position during the forecast period. This growth is due to increase in demand for emulsifying bases, rise in the number of benefits of emulsifying bases, and surge in its application. The segment is anticipated to manifest the highest CAGR of 6.7% from 2021 to 2030.

The hospitals & clinics segment will maintain the leading position throughout the forecast period

Based on end-user, the hospitals & clinics segment contributed for the highest market share in 2020, accounting for nearly three-fifths third of the global pharmaceutical suppositories market, and is anticipated to lead the market during the forecast period. This growth is due to rise in the geriatric population, increase in the number of government initiatives to ensure high degree of chronic disease treatment, and increase in the number of hospitals performing suppositories therapy. On the other hand, the home care segment is anticipated to manifest the highest CAGR of 6.4% from 2021 to 2030.

For Purchase Inquiry- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/12715

North America to lead the market during the forecast period

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the global pharmaceutical suppositories market, and is expected to dominate the market by 2030. This is owing to rise in the well-developed healthcare sector, existence of leading manufacturers in the region, and high adoption rate of suppositories in this region. On the other hand, Asia-Pacific is expected to manifest the highest CAGR of 7.9% from 2021 to 2030.

Leading Market Players

Pfizer Inc.

Bliss Gvs Pharma Ltd

Bayer Ag

Cadila Healthcare Ltd

Church And Dwight Uk Ltd

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited

Cosette Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Novartis International Ag

Sanofi S.A.

Official Press Release: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/press-release/pharmaceutical-suppositories-market.html

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Paclitaxel-eluting Stent Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivot Point Consulting, 2020 Best in KLAS Overall IT Services Firm and a healthcare IT consulting leader, is proud to announce it has been honored for the 8th consecutive year as winner in The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation program, as well as the new 2021 regional program. The honor comes recently after the firm was recently ranked #6 in Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

This year, the Best and Brightest program honored 79 winning organizations across the nation from 710 nominations. The 2021 new regional program welcomed Charlotte, Denver, Miami, Nashville, New York, and the Pacific Northwest to the Best and Brightest Program. The winning companies were assessed by an independent research firm, which reviewed a number of key measures relative to other nationally recognized winners. The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners are not ranked.

"This recognition is a testament to the amazing Pivot Point Consulting team, during an especially challenging year for our industry," said Rachel Marano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. "We have focused not only on consistently delivering excellent quality to our clients, but also on being a great employer with a culture dedicated to supporting professional success and personal well-being. We doubled down on initiatives that ensured our people felt supported during the times when they needed it most. For us, a happy team equals happy clients, and we are focused on both."

The categories applicants were scored on include: Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; and Strategic Company Performance.

"The Best and Brightest is a powerful community of elite leaders who share ideas and practices, and have proven they are employers of choice. Best and Brightest winning companies have also been a voice for important actions in creating a sustainable culture that works, ensuring the wellbeing of their employees come first," said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO, Best and Brightest Programs.

With over 20 years of experience conducting the Best and Brightest competitions, the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) has identified numerous best Human Resource practices and provided benchmarking for companies that continue to be leaders in employment standards.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners will be honored during the virtual Illuminate Business Summit week in the spring of 2022.

About the Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in operations and employee enrichment that led to increased productivity and financial performance. This competition scores potential winners based on regional data of company performance and a set standard across the nation. This national program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. There are numerous regional celebrations throughout the country, such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Charlotte, Denver, Seattle, Nashville, and Portland. Nominations are now being accepted for all programs. Visit thebestandbrightest.com to nominate your organization.

About Pivot Point Consulting

Pivot Point Consulting enables healthcare organizations to realize the most value from their technology and resources through our EHR, ERP, Strategy, Virtual Care, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Managed Services and Revenue Cycle Management services. Our experts deliver consulting, managed services and talent solutions to providers, payers, life sciences and technology organizations.

Pivot Point Consulting has earned multiple industry and workplace quality awards, including #6 Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work (2021), Best in KLAS: Overall IT Services Firm (2020), Top Three Best in KLAS for HIT Implementation and Support (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Highest Rated Vendor in KLAS Implementation Services in the Select Category (2017) and #1 in KLAS for Epic Consulting in the Select Category (2016).

Practices: Epic, Community Connect, Cerner, Siemens, Allscripts, MEDITECH, McKesson, Centricity, eClinicalWorks, NextGen CPSI, MEDHOST, athenahealth, Greenway, Workday, Lawson/Infor, Peoplesoft, SAP, Kronos and Facets.

For more information, visit us at pivotpointconsulting.com. To view available roles and become part of an exciting work environment at Pivot Point Consulting, visit https://pivotpointconsulting.com/careers/.

SOURCE Pivot Point Consulting
Ross's commitment to constantly redefining graduate business education with a catalog of newly launched initiatives and an integrated experiential learning model have made the program extraordinary, says John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants.

"What makes the school's MBA program standout is its ever-evolving nature," Byrne says. "Time and time again, Ross continues to roll out one innovation after another."

Ross faculty and MBA students recently launched the Michigan Climate Venture, a first-of-its-kind, multidisciplinary program at the intersection of climate technology and venture capital. A month earlier, Michigan Ross revealed its pioneering Business + Tech Initiative to prepare students for careers at the intersection of business and technology.

Over the summer, Ross launched a healthcare accelerator that seeks to secure grant seed funding and provides mentorship for student entrepreneurs in the health sector. The school also put in place a new Founders Program in its +Impact Studio, welcoming a half-dozen student-led ventures.

"The boldest thing we have done is our ability to make investments in our curriculum, in our community and in our co-curricular activities to educate and inspire students," says Brad Killaly, associate dean of MBA programs at the Ross School. "It's our unwavering commitment and success in innovating new courses that equip our students with the most current skills."

Citing the program's leadership in experiential learning and its steady creation of initiatives that keep the MBA refreshed and relevant, Poets&Quants names Ross's MBA its 2021 Program of the Year.

To learn more about the Poets&Quants MBA Program of the Year, please visit here.

About Poets&Quants:

Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including consolidated B-school rankings, news, and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories, and events, empowering our community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA.

MEDIA CONTACT

Satyan Sharma

917-763-4088

[email protected]

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Poets&Quants
ATLANTA, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pull-A-Part, an industry-leading automotive recycler and operator of 25 used auto parts retail stores in the U.S., today announced it has raised more than $33,000 in donations through its annual Adopt-A-Family Program. Pull-A-Part will provide holiday gifts and related assistance for 41 families across the 12 states it operates in.

Pull-A-Part employees deliver gifts to a local charity as part of its annual Adopt-A-Family Program. The company raised more than $33K to help 41 families in 12 states this holiday season. Pull-A-Part employees raised more than $33K through the company's Adopt-A-Family Program to help 41 families in need this holiday season.

This is the fourth year Pull-A-Part has sponsored its Adopt-A-Family Program, a local, community-focused effort to help families in need during the holidays. Each store selects a family (or multiple families) to 'adopt' in their community and sets a fundraising goal to meet the needs of those families. Each Pull-A-Part store raises the funds through a combination of direct contributions from Pull-A-Part and donations collected from their customers and other members of the community. All 25 of Pull-A-Part's stores exceeded their fundraising goals this year.

"The amount of support we received from the Pull-A-Part community for the Adopt-A-Family Program this year was inspiring," said Ross Kogon, Chief Executive Officer, Pull-A-Part. "Our customers, partners, and employees stepped up in a big way, making it possible for us to help more families than ever this year. On behalf of Pull-A-Part and the families we're serving this year, I would like to personally thank everyone who helped make this program a success."

Pull-A-Part stores select families based on nominations from team members and business partners or in response to requests for assistance they receive from organizations in their community. In Birmingham, Pull-A-Part is helping three families who were victims of recent floods that impacted the area, and in Tucson, Pull-A-Part is providing support for 10 different families who were nominated or recommended for the Adopt-A-Family Program this year.

Other Pull-A-Part stores chose families based on requests from national charitable organizations the company supports, such as Soldier's Angels, which provides assistance to military, veterans, and their families. Soldier's Angels identifies families in each store's local community that need help and relies on companies like Pull-A-Part to meet these needs. This year, Pull-A-Part's local stores have adopted 21 Soldier's Angels families around the country.

"Our Adopt-A-Family Program is unique, empowering our local stores to identify and support families in need in the communities we serve," adds Kogon. "Whether a recommendation from a team member or a request from a local or national organization with a family in need, Adopt-A-Family is part of our ongoing commitment to helping the people, causes, or projects that make our communities stronger."

In addition to supporting local families in its communities, Pull-A-Part contributed more than $7,000 in Adopt-A-Family donations to The Red Cross to support disaster relief currently underway in several parts of the county. These much-needed donations will go directly towards helping families most-impacted by recent destructive and deadly storms that impacted many communities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri.

For a complete list of Pull-A-Part's Adopt-A-Family efforts for all 25 of its stores, please refer to the detailed summary page on the company's website.

For more information on Pull-A-Part's Adopt-A-Family Program or to speak with a representative of our Building Communities team, please contact us.

Media Contact:

Derick Corbett

SVP External Affairs

Pull-A-Part

678.234.2555

[email protected]

SOURCE Pull-A-Part

Related Links

http://www.pullapart.com


LONDON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NFT Specialist Quantus Gallery arrives in London's Spitalfields at their new location on Fashion Street boasting their status as Europe's first NFT Advisory service. Their intentions are clear; signing a long-term lease and opening a digital gallery in the second quarter of 2022, they are starting their empire from the capital.

"Right now, it is such an exciting time for not only everybody involved in the NFT market but even more so here at Quantus Gallery. We have just moved into a superb space on Fashion Street, which is a real statement of intent from us. We are here for the future and are anticipating exponential growth inside and outside our new space."

Ryan Marsh, Co-founder Quantus Gallery

Quantus Gallery's low-key status has been eclipsed in recent weeks and months, by high-profile appearances on GB News and 'On The Money' detailing their growth, as well as partner Josh Sandhu's feature in The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Sandhu's article has attracted particular interest as it highlighted how he made 75x his initial investment through trading NFTs, which showed the strength of knowledge behind Quantus Gallery, and evidenced proof that the company knows exactly what they're doing.

"By having our headquarters situated in the heart of London we can now attract the best possible talent, from NFT advisors who help our collectors and investors learn and expand their portfolios, through to our in-house NFT team who are constantly scanning the web looking for the best possible opportunities within the arena. Overall we are buzzing with excitement for what's to come and can't wait to cement ourselves within this thriving market".

Josh Sandhu, Co-founder Quantus Gallery

If national TV stations and newspapers are paying attention to Quantus, then they are clearly heading in the right direction, and where the company set themselves apart from pretenders is their full advisory service, which many 'pop up' NFT specialists don't see the importance of. The advisory service is highlighted by Quantus' Scam Awareness subscription, which will email subscribers about pitfalls and 'pump and dumps' which in the relatively young NFT space are easily fallen into by newcomers.

For more information on Quantus Gallery or for images or interview request please visit https://quantusgallery.com or email [email protected]

SOURCE Quantus Gallery
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the board of directors of Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. ("Bluerock" or the "Company") (NYSE: BRG), in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Company by affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate ("Blackstone"). Under the terms of the merger agreement, the Company's shareholders will receive $24.25 in cash for each share of Bluerock common stock that they hold. Additionally, the Company's shareholders will receive shares of the newly formed real estate investment trust named Bluerock Homes Trust, Inc., with a current implied Net Asset Value estimated at $5.60 for each share of Company common stock. The transaction is valued at approximately $3.6 billion.

If you own Bluerock shares and wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, visit our website:

https://www.weisslaw.co/news-and-cases/brg

Or please contact:

Joshua Rubin, Esq.

WeissLaw LLP

305 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10007

(212) 682-3025

(888) 593-4771

[email protected]

WeissLaw LLP is investigating whether (i) Bluerock's board of directors acted in the best interests of Company shareholders in agreeing to the proposed transaction, (ii) the per-share merger consideration adequately compensates Bluerock's shareholders, and (iii) all information regarding the sales process and valuation of the transaction will be fully and fairly disclosed.

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected]

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Significance, Inc., an Women- Owned Small Business (WOSB) , announced a partnership today with Koniag Government Services (KGS), an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC). Significance has been providing Defense Agencies Initiative (DAI) support to the Marine Corps as they transition from their legacy accounting system (SABRS) to DAI and Koniag has been providing DAI support to multiple federal agencies since 2018. Members of both companies have provided strategic direction and thought leadership to the program since its inception.

"This partnership between Significance and KGS is a key enhancement for the Marine Corps, who needs to rapidly complete the implementation of DAI and then sustain this new accounting system for years to come. We have built tremendous capabilities in this area, and we now will be able to help move the Marine Corps and other clients into post-deployment sustainment of the system far more quickly and with less time and paperwork" said Mary Ahern-Snyder, President and Founder of Significance, Inc.

Tom Ulsas, Senior Vice President with KGS, added, "Significance is a perfect partner for us as we work to make DAI post-deployment sustainment as cost-effective and time-efficient as possible. Not only do we complement each other with our incredible amount of DAI expertise, but our two companies have similar values and cultures. Our combined strength will be instrumental in making this partnership a success for us and valuable to our customers."

About Significance Inc.

Significance, Inc. is designated an Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) with offices in Alexandria, VA and Annapolis, MD. Founded in 2014 by Mary Ahern-Snyder, the company provides government consulting services in the areas of Financial Management & Audit Support; SAP; Business Systems; Program & Project Management; Advanced Analytics & Decision Support; Transformation & Strategy; and Systems Support Training. To learn more, visit www.significanceinc.com

About Koniag Government Services

Koniag Government Services (KGS) is an Alaska Native Owned Corporation supporting the values and traditions of its native communities through an agile employee and corporate culture that delivers Enterprise Solutions, Professional Services, and Operational Management to Federal Government Agencies. KGS applies its proven commercial solutions to a deep knowledge of Defense and Civilian missions to provide forward leaning technical, professional, and operational solutions. KGS enables successful mission outcomes for its customers through solution-oriented business partnerships and a commitment to exceptional service delivery. For more information, visit www.koniag-gs.com.

SOURCE Significance, Inc.
The Manufacturing Outlook recognized Soft-Tex as a "trailblazer in creating sleep enhancement technologies" and an industry leader for foam in home and bedding products. Soft-Tex was the first company to achieve the CertiPUR-US certification for molded foam products and has many proprietary formulations like SensorFOAM, Transcend, SensorDo and more used across its memory foam pillow, mattress topper, and mattress-in-a-box product lines.

Soft-Tex has also revolutionized memory foam with its REACTEX cooling creating products that are in excess of 40 times cooler than comparable pillows. Moreover, the company plans to launch a foam pouring line for memory foam pillows at its Sugar Land, Texas facility in the second quarter of 2022 capable of producing more than 1,000,000 pillows annually.

"We're honored by the recognition and proud of how our foam bedding products are changing the industry and helping improve millions of consumers' sleep every night." said Mark Smiderle, Soft-Tex Principal.

"We are glad to recognize Soft-Tex International as one of the Top 10 Foam Technology Solution Providers - 2021," said Martin Thomas, Managing Editor of Manufacturing Outlook. "With a range of innovative memory foam products in combination with exciting new personal climate control technologies, Soft-Tex is setting a benchmark in the industry"

The recognition will be shown in The Manufacturing Outlook's upcoming Foam Technology Edition.

SOURCE Soft-Tex
"Speed Queen-branded Laundromats bring a laundromat experience like no other," said Marco Treggiari, director of Speed Queen-licensed stores in Europe. "We are excited to expand this exceptionally profitable business concept to Germany. Through our more than 900 licensed stores across Europe, we have proven out this highly successful model, which delivers great return on investment for owners via a superior experience for customers."

Speed Queen Laundromats are now at work in 28 European countries and more than 465 cities. In addition, the 700 investors are further testament to the incredible value this business brings. Customers across Europe have linked the Speed Queen brand with the pinnacle of laundry experience, one that leverages speed, efficiency, and technology to help them complete the laundry chore quickly.

Like all Speed Queen Laundry stores, the Alexanderplatz location will feature durable, highly efficient, large-capacity washer-extractors and tumble dryers to help customers complete their laundry task in less than an hour. The 24-pocket store is expected to open December 20th. Additional laundries are planned for other investors in Berlin (Karl Marx Strasse), Krefeld, Stuttgart, and Cologne.

With premium attributes such as large capacity machines hosted in a sleek retail space, a customer-facing mobile app, and rewards program and owner features, which include a digital marketing platform and business dashboard, Speed Queen has revolutionized the vended laundry experience for both owner and customer. "The difference is really tangible for the customer; it makes the chore of doing laundry a totally different experience" highlights Marco Treggiari.

"In the next stage of our expansion, we'll build more off the American laundromat model, where stores can have more than 100 machines and gross more than $1 million," Treggiari said. "Like Alexanderplatz's store, we'll drive more ambitious projects that will have a larger footprint and more than 20 pockets. Actually, we already have some large laundromats now in Paris, in Barcelona, in Madrid, in Dublin, in Warsaw and in Roma."

For more information on Speed Queen and to learn more about opening a Speed Queen-branded store in your own market and to locate the Speed Queen closest to you, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

About Speed Queen

Speed Queen provides coin laundry owners with a variety of innovative and reliable commercial washers, dryers, and laundromat equipment since 1908. As an industry leader, Speed Queen is dedicated to providing its market expertise to help grow the self-serve laundry industry. The brand is an entity of Ripon, Wis.-based Alliance Laundry Systems LLC, a leading global manufacturer of commercial laundry products and provider of services for laundromats, multi-housing laundries and on-premises laundries. To learn more, visit www.speedqueeninvestor.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1713622/Speed_Queen_Laundry_Store.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1522329/SQLS_Logo_2019_FIX_Logo.jpg



SOURCE Alliance Laundry Systems
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, announces Mary Mulcare, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Weill Cornell, and Chief Medical Officer, Summus Global, is leading a new pathway in teaching pre-clinical medical students about telemedicine through virtual platforms. To overcome pandemic-based in-person learning, medical students successfully shadowed Dr. Mulcare and leading emergency medicine (EM) physicians at Weill Cornell Medicine's Healthcare Leadership and Management (HLM) Scholars Program. Students gained enhanced experience through a virtual shadowing model of emergency department (ED) patient care and telemedicine patient visits.

Dr. Mulcare is a leader in developing new platforms for delivering virtual care, including Summus Global's virtual specialist platform.

Who: Mary Mulcare, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Weill Cornell; Chief Medical Officer, Summus Global



When: Available for Media Interviews



Where: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publication, Telemedicine Reports:

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/tmr.2021.0019



Details: Media interviews will discuss:

New virtual clinical shadowing model benefits for medical students

Leadership lessons learned in forging telemedicine solutions from emergency medicine (EM) physician

Best practices for telemedicine patient visits and care

About Summus Global

Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, empowers families by providing access to a network of 4,000+ top specialists across 48 leading hospitals  within days, from anywhere in the world. The Summus model sets a new standard for speed of access to high-quality medical expertise and drives industry-leading engagement with employers. Pioneering the future of corporate health benefits, Summus Global partners with companies across the country to create an elevated healthcare experience for their employees and to support better, cost-efficient outcomes across all health questions and stages of care.

SOURCE Summus Global
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Elizabeth Elting Foundation (EEF) is partnering with The Campaign Against Hunger to help feed more families this holiday season. EEF is donating $115,000 to the nonprofit The Campaign Against Hunger (TCAH), which will help provide 100,00 meals for those in need in the New York City area.

Over 38 million Americans struggle with food insecurity, with over 1 million of those struggling in New York City. Rising inequality and hunger have been longtime issues throughout the US, but the pandemic has exacerbated these problems, throwing more families into uncertainty. With the wealth gap widening at an alarmingly increasing rate over the last two years, many Americans, especially in underserved communities, have been set back even further. The opportunity and ability to thrive starts with access to proper nutrition and basic healthcare.

"Making sure people can feed their families is a critical need, and that need is only growing," said Liz Elting, Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation. "I'm honored to have the opportunity to help those in need in my community. Like us, the Campaign Against Hunger is an organization that believes in ensuring all people have access to the resources they need to thrive. Its mission is to empower and build up our community through increasing access to safe, nutritious food. There are so many people who need help, and it's up to us to use our resources and voices to make a difference. We have to come together because no one can go it alone."

The EEF donation of $115,000 will help support TCAH's community-driven approach and mission to end hunger. As we close out the second year of the pandemic, the Foundation's goal to help women and other marginalized communities succeedthrough ensuring access to the resources and opportunities needed to thriveremains more important than ever.

"The Campaign Against Hunger is excited for a gift of $115,000 from the Elizabeth Elting Foundation to provide 100,000 nutritious meals for families facing food insecurity across New York City," said Dr. Melony Samuels, TCAH's CEO and Founder. "This gift will help us bridge the gap for many struggling families who otherwise may go hungry over the holidays. The foundation has remained a committed partner and friend in our food justice work to advance equitable access to food for those most vulnerable among us. Thanks to the foundation's gift, we will bring hope and food to many families who are reeling from the social and economic impacts brought on by the ensuing pandemic. I sincerely thank the Foundation for its love of community as we bring love, joy, and cheer to those we serve!"

For more information about The Elizabeth Elting Foundation and its ongoing work to break down barriers, bridge gaps, and create systemic change so that all people can succeed, thrive, and reach their potential, please visit www.elizabetheltingfoundation.org .

About the Elizabeth Elting Foundation

The critical work of the future is breaking down the barriers that hold back women and marginalized people and advancing true equality for all. With an eye toward that future, the Elizabeth Elting Foundation is committed to promoting progressive and feminist efforts to eradicate systemic barriers, promote public health and education, achieve workplace equality, rise beyond the glass ceiling, and open the doors to economic independence for those society has far too often shut out.

About Liz Elting

Liz Elting, Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, is an entrepreneur, business leader, linguaphile, philanthropist, feminist, and mother. After living, studying, and working in five countries across the globe, Liz started TransPerfect out of an NYU dorm room in 1992 and served as Co-CEO until 2018. TransPerfect is the world's largest language solutions company, with over $800 million in revenue, 6,000+ employees, 11,000+ clients, and offices in more than 100 cities worldwide. Liz has been recognized as a NOW Woman of Power & Influence, American Express' and Entrepreneur magazine's Woman of the Year, one of Forbes' Richest Self-Made Women, and is a recipient of the 2019 Charles Waldo Haskins Award for business and public service from NYU's Stern School of Business, the American Heart Association's 2020 Health Equity Leadership Award, and the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs' 2021 Vertex Award for changing the face and direction of women's high-growth entrepreneurship.

Press Contact:

Ericho PR

Liz Zarins

[email protected]

SOURCE Elizabeth Elting Foundation
80,000 of the donation will be used to fund the construction of a public secondary school in the Namatala region of Mbale District, Eastern Uganda.

This school will provide an education for over 1250 vulnerable pupils, many of whom are internally displaced people that previously fled conflict and civil unrest that happened in Northern Uganda in the early 2000's and continues to occur South Sudan.

Equipping young people with essential skills and learning, many of whom would otherwise be forced to go without, this new secondary school will help children learn practical science and mathematics, software engineering, and problem solving, among other subject areas.

The donation from The Nick Maughan Foundation will not only ensure construction will begin in February 2022 but that the school will be equipped with a state-of-the-art computer lab. This will enable young people in the area the chance to develop the IT skills necessary to meet the challenges of the modern world.

Meanwhile, 20,000 of the donation from the Nick Maughan Foundation will be put towards the construction of a new Bukasakya Maternity Centre in Mbale District, Eastern Uganda. The facility will provide dedicated pre, post maternal and neo-natal healthcare to mothers and babies in an area where home births are common due to poor access to maternal and newborn care services.

Aiming to upgrade healthcare facilities on the site to a nationally recognised Level 4 Health Centre, this bespoke facility has been designed with consultation from local doctors and nurses to ensure the centre meets all patient needs.

The donation from The Nick Maughan Foundation will enable the completion of Bukasakya Maternity Centre by February 2022.

When open, it is anticipated that; it will be one of the largest facility for public access, delivering over 2000 babies a year.

Nick Maughan, Founder of the Nick Maughan Foundation, commented: "The Nick Maughan Foundation is delighted to support Harpenden Spotlight on Africa further its mission to transform the lives of some of the most vulnerable people living in Uganda. It is my hope that in bringing these two projects to reality

 the Bukasakya Maternity Centre and the Namatala secondary school  we will lay the foundations for a much brighter future for those living under the poverty line in Eastern Uganda."

Bim Afolami, MP for Hitchin & Harpenden, added: "I had the pleasure of visiting Harpenden Spotlight on Africa's projects in Uganda in 2019, where I saw first-hand the tremendous impact the charity has on the local community. On this visit, I also saw the extreme difficulties facing many in Mbale, Eastern Uganda. It is within this context that the generous donation from The Nick Maughan Foundation is very welcome news, serving to accelerate the charity's invaluable work in Uganda."

The Nick Maughan Foundation was established in 2020 to further a range of philanthropic initiatives in the spheres of education, the environment, and community. The Foundation supports community projects both in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

https://nmf.org .

Harpenden Spotlight on Africa is committed to creating links between communities in the UK and Africa through charitable projects relating to education, health, clean water, and economic development.

The organisation works closely with an experienced team in Uganda to deliver lasting change to the lives of people in desperate need, many of whom have been displaced by generations of conflict.

www.hsoa.org.uk

SOURCE The Nick Maughan Foundation
SOFIA, Bulgaria, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftGroup, the best-in-class end-to-end traceability technology provider in the CEE region, today announced that supports Sopharma - the biggest pharmaceutical company in Bulgaria in updating its serialization software and enhancing its aggregation equipment to the track and trace requirements in Russia and Europe.

The pharmaceutical company Sopharma has concluded a contract confirming its decision to implement the complex requirements using the SoftGroup SaTT solutions. Under this agreement, the SoftGroup SaTT system will replace Sopharma's current heterogeneous serialization solution, consisting of various internally generated systems for different markets. The goal is to provide a modern traceability platform in line with the latest industry specifics and to increase efficiency. Therefore, the SoftGroup SaTT solution will replace part of the existing system.

Along with the implementation of SoftGroup SaTT solution, SoftGroup will also provide Sopharma with consulting services and support for the implementation and maintenance of the dynamic requirements at the global level.

"During our selection phase, SoftGroup impressed us with its competent support of the additional benefits available through the SoftGroup SaTT solution and specialist expertise in global serialization requirements. We are looking forward to a successful, long-term collaboration," says Mr. Dimitar Naydenov  Project Lead."

"I am thrilled about the new partnership with Sopharma, a pharmaceutical company with a long history in Bulgaria. We are very pleased to have this opportunity to help with part of the strategic adaptations for serialization, which will enable Sopharma to position its product portfolio globally in the future," says Dr. Andrey Atanasov, Head of Business Development at SoftGroup, underscoring the significance of the partnership.

About Sopharma

Sopharma is a Bulgarian producer of pharmaceutical products with a leading market position in Bulgaria and a strong presence in over 45 countries with key markets in Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Poland. As an established, trusted brand and manufacturer with more than 85 years of history the Company has an active and key role in raising the standard of living making people healthier by improving their access to affordable generic and biopharmaceutical healthcare.

Sopharma has a wide range of prescription medicines and OTC products, more than 200 products in its portfolio of generic medicines, 15 original and 12 phyto-based strong recognizable brands. The Company offers a modern approach for the production of medicines in 9 manufacturing facilities with European quality standards.

About SoftGroup

SoftGroup is a software company that provides end-to-end traceability technology to the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. Our solutions cover all levels of the Track & Trace process, including aggregation processes in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

SoftGroup is a Certified Gateway Provider and Trusted partner of the European Medicine Verification Organization (EMVO) and Bulgarian Medicine Verification Organization (BgMVO) and a trusted partner of GS1 Healthcare.

SOURCE SoftGroup
CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Skin of Color Society , (SOCS), an international professional organization dedicated to advancing skin of color dermatology through research, education, mentorship and advocacy, reports several record-setting accomplishments through its signature programs and important initiatives in 2021.

Highlights from the Society's most active and successful year in its 18-year history include:

The Society launched a groundbreaking online learning management system known as the SOCS Dermatology E-Learning and Equity Platform (DEEP) , which enables members to learn straight from leading skin of color dermatology experts at their own pace, and earn continuing medical education (CME) credits through dermatology educational webinars and practice management content. This unique educational program is made possible by a grant from L'Oreal Dermatological Beauty Brands: SkinCeuticals, La Roche-Posay, and CeraVe.

, which enables members to learn straight from leading skin of color dermatology experts at their own pace, and earn continuing medical education (CME) credits through dermatology educational webinars and practice management content. This unique educational program is made possible by a grant from L'Oreal Dermatological Beauty Brands: SkinCeuticals, La Roche-Posay, and CeraVe. A major Dermatology Research Fellowship program was introduced this year, thanks to a collaboration with Pfizer Global Medical Grants and the Skin of Color Society Foundation, resulting in 14 fellowships awarded to 12 institutions in several regions across the United States .

resulting in 14 fellowships awarded to 12 institutions in several regions across . The SOCS 5th Annual Media Day, held virtually in November 2021 , attracted a record number of media attendees, including health, medical, beauty and lifestyle editors, writers and content producers representing top dermatology, medical and consumer news outlets. The following Sponsors made this year's Media Day possible: Janssen (Superfan level); Bristol Myers Squibb; Procter & Gamble; Scientis (Fan level); Revision Skincare; Lilly (Follower level); EltaMD (Supporter level).

held virtually in , attracted a record number of media attendees, including health, medical, beauty and lifestyle editors, writers and content producers representing top dermatology, medical and consumer news outlets. The following Sponsors made this year's Media Day possible: Janssen (Superfan level); Bristol Myers Squibb; Procter & Gamble; Scientis (Fan level); Revision Skincare; Lilly (Follower level); EltaMD (Supporter level). The 17th Annual Skin of Color Society Virtual Scientific Symposium , held in March 2021 , drew in several hundred attendees representing 26 different countries. The well-attended scientific program featured eight invited speakers, who shared presentations and participated in live Q & A panels, six abstract presenters and a Next Generation panel discussion about the future of skin of color dermatology. This signature SOCS program was supported by Pfizer; Incyte Dermatology; Ortho Dermatologics; Arcutis; UCB; Dermavant; Scientis; Unilever (Dove, Vaseline & MELE); Almirall; Sanofi-Genzyme/Regeneron; Beiersdorf; Galderma; Janssen; Medscape Education; Glory Skincare, and SENTE.

, held in , drew in several hundred attendees representing 26 different countries. The well-attended scientific program featured eight invited speakers, who shared presentations and participated in live Q & A panels, six abstract presenters and a Next Generation panel discussion about the future of skin of color dermatology. This signature SOCS program was supported by Pfizer; Incyte Dermatology; Ortho Dermatologics; Arcutis; UCB; Dermavant; Scientis; Unilever (Dove, Vaseline & MELE); Almirall; Sanofi-Genzyme/Regeneron; Beiersdorf; Galderma; Janssen; Medscape Education; Glory Skincare, and SENTE. Thanks to support from OrthoDermatologics and Pfizer, three Skin of Color Society Research Grants were awarded this year to: Courtney Johnson , MD, PhD for "Investigating the Molecular Differences of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas in Black Women for Personalized Therapeutic Options;" Nayoung Lee , MD for "Laser-Assisted Delivery of 5-Fluorouracil versus Triamcinolone in the Treatment of Keloids," and Sarah Noor , MD for "Patterns of Chemotherapy and Endocrine Therapy-induced Alopecia in Black Patients with Breast Cancer."

were awarded this year to: , MD, PhD for "Investigating the Molecular Differences of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas in Black Women for Personalized Therapeutic Options;" , MD for "Laser-Assisted Delivery of 5-Fluorouracil versus Triamcinolone in the Treatment of Keloids," and , MD for "Patterns of Chemotherapy and Endocrine Therapy-induced Alopecia in Black Patients with Breast Cancer." Thanks to support from Pfizer, the 2021 Career Development Award was given to Angel S. Byrd , MD, PhD, for her work, "Elucidating the Role of Autoantibodies in Hidradenitis Suppurativa."

, MD, PhD, for her work, "Elucidating the Role of Autoantibodies in Hidradenitis Suppurativa." Plans for the 18th Annual SOCS Scientific Symposium are well underway, with the program happening live and in-person on March 24, 2022 in Boston, MA , in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

are well underway, with the program happening live and in-person on in , in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. Scientific abstract submissions for the 18th Annual SOCS Scientific Symposium surged to 132 abstract applications for consideration, up from 86 submissions last year.

The SOCS Mentorship Program, which connects young physicians with approved skin of color dermatology expert members, continued to grow and thrive in 2021, spanning the worlds of medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology in academic and private practice settings. An especially large and diverse group of SOCS members participated this year, including the following mentees and mentors:

Mentees: Allene Fonseca, MD; Nicole Gunasekera ; Geeta Ahuja , BS; Kandice Bailey , MD; Tara Akunna , MD; Sonali Batta , BA,MS; Severine Cao , MD; Anneylla Douglas, MD; Ali Malik , BS; Nickoo Merati, MSc; Ashley Obi ; Imara-Safi Scott , MD; Obiageliaku Okafar, MS2; Krystina Quow ; Britney Wilson , BA, MS; Seneca Hutson ; Harry Chaocheng Liu; Zehra Rizvi ; Nwanneka Okwundu'; ChrisLene Olukoga , BS; Melanie Williams , DO; Payal Patel , MD; Danyal Tahseen , MD; Julie Luu , OMS-II, and Amna Elyas , MD.

Allene Fonseca, MD; ; , BS; , MD; , MD; , BA,MS; , MD; Anneylla Douglas, MD; , BS; Nickoo Merati, MSc; ; , MD; Obiageliaku Okafar, MS2; ; , BA, MS; ; Harry Chaocheng Liu; ; Nwanneka Okwundu'; , BS; , DO; , MD; , MD; , OMS-II, and , MD.

Mentors: Donald Glass, II , MD, PhD; Andrew Alexis , MD, MPH; Naiara Barbosa , MD; Fran Cook-Bolden , MD; Kathleen Cruz Conceicao , VII, MD; Jennifer David , DO; DiAnne Davis , MD; Seemal R. Desai, MD; Yolanda Holmes , MD; Taranum Jaleel , MD; Brandi Kenner-Bell , MD; Eva Kerby , MD; Roopal Kundu , MD; Janiene Luke , MD; Amy McMichael , MD; Julia Mhlaba , MD; Vineet Mishra , MD; Tasneem Mohammed , MD; Peterson Pierre , MD; Rashmi Sarkar , MD; Helena Kuhn , MD; Farah Shah , MD; Andre Moreira Lemes, MD; and Sehar Ghannam , MD.

The SOCS Mentorship program has been supported in the recent past by the SOCS Diversity Movement Fund, including donations from: Urban Skin Rx, EltaMD, SENTE, SkinMedica, and many SOCS members who have made voluntary contributions.

Thanks to support from EltaMD, Inc., SENTE and SkinMedica/Allergan, nine SOCS Observership Grants were awarded in 2021, including the following pairs of mentees and mentors: Mentee: Simi Cadmus , MD and Mentor: Crystal Aguh , MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Department of Dermatology; Mentee: Caryn Cobb , BA and Mentor: Valerie Harvey , MD, Hampton Roads Center for Dermatology; Mentee: Elisabeth George , BA and Mentor: Susan Taylor , MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania ; Mentee: Nwanneka Okwundu and Mentor: Amy McMichael , MD, Wake Forest Baptist Health-Department of Dermatology; Mentee: Angel Pagan , BS and Mentor: Emma Guttman-Yassky , MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Mentee: Matthew Pimentel , MD and Mentor: Ginette Okoye , MD, Howard University ; Mentee: Natalia Rodriguez and Mentor: Susan Taylor , MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania ; Mentee: Autumn Saizan , BS and Mentor: Nada Elbuluk, MD, MSc, Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California ; and Mentee: Pearl Ugwu-Dike , BS and Mentor: Michi Shinohara , MD, University of Washington .

, MD and Mentor: , MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Department of Dermatology; Mentee: , BA and Mentor: , MD, Hampton Roads Center for Dermatology; Mentee: , BA and Mentor: , MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the ; Mentee: Nwanneka Okwundu and Mentor: , MD, Wake Forest Baptist Health-Department of Dermatology; Mentee: , BS and Mentor: , MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Mentee: , MD and Mentor: , MD, ; Mentee: and Mentor: , MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the ; Mentee: , BS and Mentor: Nada Elbuluk, MD, MSc, Keck School of Medicine at ; and Mentee: , BS and Mentor: , MD, . SOCS Mentorship and Observership Grant Applications for 2022 closed in late 2021, with an all-time high of 94 mentorship applications and 27 observership applications submitted. Winners will be announced in Q1 2022.

The popular SOCS Dermatology Diversity Town Hall series featured a virtual program on the Dermatology Residency Application Process, moderated by Drs. Crystal Aguh & Eva Kerby , SOCS Mentorship Committee Co-Chairs ( September 2021 ). The panel of SOCS members included: Drs. Prince Adotama, Angel Diaz , Roopal Kundu , Janiene Luke , Tiffany Mayo , and Kanade Shinkai.

& , SOCS Mentorship Committee Co-Chairs ( ). The panel of SOCS members included: Drs. Prince Adotama, , , , , and Kanade Shinkai. Two SOCS Networking & Educational Symposia, supported by Pfizer, were presented virtually this past year: "Truths and Myths in Skin Aging and Skin Cancer in Darker Skin Types, " presented by Maritza Perez , MD, FAAD ( April 2021 ); and "Advanced Dermatologic Procedures," hosted by Rawn Bosley , MD, FAAD ( February 2021 ).

" presented by , MD, FAAD ( ); and "Advanced Dermatologic Procedures," hosted by , MD, FAAD ( ). A first-ever SOCS Grant Writing Webinar was moderated by Dr. Katherine Ayoade and presented virtually by Drs. Donald Glass , Crystal Aguh and Angel Byrd ( September 2021 ).

and presented virtually by Drs. , and ( ). In 2021, SOCS accepted 325 new members bringing the total to a record high of almost 1,200 members representing 35 countries.

Throughout this year, SOCS continued with ongoing collaborations with SkinCeuticals, VisualDx (Project IMPACT) and CUTIS.

Dermatology Times named two SOCS leaders to its Editorial Advisory Board: Valerie Harvey , MD, MPH, FAAD, SOCS President-elect, and Corey Hartman , MD, FAAD, SOCS Board member.

, MD, MPH, FAAD, SOCS President-elect, and , MD, FAAD, SOCS Board member. In November 2021 , the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates adopted a policy to "encourage comprehensive, inclusive and equitable representation of a diverse range of skin tones in all dermatologic and other relevant medical educational resources for medical students, physicians, non-physician health care providers and patients." SOCS members Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, (SOCS Past President), and Klint Peebles , MD, along with members of the Dermatology Section of the AMA, provided testimony and worked passionately to amend key language, leading to the passage of this milestone AMA resolution.

, the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates adopted a policy to "encourage comprehensive, inclusive and equitable representation of a diverse range of skin tones in all dermatologic and other relevant medical educational resources for medical students, physicians, non-physician health care providers and patients." SOCS members Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, (SOCS Past President), and , MD, along with members of the Dermatology Section of the AMA, provided testimony and worked passionately to amend key language, leading to the passage of this milestone AMA resolution. Earlier this year, SOCS leadership embarked on a comprehensive 5-year strategic planning process with Tecker International, which is nearing completion and will be shared publicly in early 2022.

"We are so grateful to our dedicated SOCS leaders, members and supporters who have helped us champion diversity, equity and inclusion in dermatology, expand our reach and deepen our impact around the world through many innovative and meaningful programs," comments Donald A. Glass II, MD, PhD, FAAD, SOCS President.

About the Skin of Color Society

The Skin of Color Society (SOCS) is an international professional dermatologic organization dedicated to achieving health equity and excellence in patient care through research, education, mentorship and advocacy. SOCS is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in the field of dermatology to advance patient care. Established in 2004 by Susan C. Taylor, MD, SOCS has grown to include members from numerous countries around the world. www.skinofcolorsociety.org . Visit @skinofcolorsociety (Facebook/Instagram) & @SkinofColor (Twitter).

SOURCE Skin of Color Society
CANTON, Ohio, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TimkenSteel (NYSE: TMST), a leader in high-quality specialty steel, manufactured components, and supply chain solutions, today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program under which the company may repurchase up to $50 million of its outstanding common shares. Additionally, the Board of Directors approved the capital expenditure budget for 2022 in the amount of $40 million.

"These actions reflect the Board's and senior leadership's confidence in our ability to generate sustainable through-cycle profitability while maintaining a strong balance sheet and cash flow," said Mike Williams, president and chief executive officer. "Given our significant transformation over the past two years, we now have the financial flexibility to return capital to shareholders while also investing in the business to drive profitable growth. As such, we increased our 2022 capital expenditure budget to $40 million with over half dedicated to high return internal investment projects."

The company may utilize various methods to repurchase shares, which could include open market repurchases, including repurchases through Rule 10b5-1 plans, privately-negotiated transactions or by other means. The actual timing, number and value of shares repurchased under the program, if any, will depend on a number of factors, including the price of the company's shares, general market and economic conditions, capital needs and other factors. The share repurchase program does not require the company to acquire any dollar amount or number of shares and may be modified, suspended, extended or terminated by the company at any time without prior notice.

ABOUT TIMKENSTEEL CORPORATION

TimkenSteel (NYSE: TMST) manufactures high-performance carbon and alloy steel products from recycled scrap metal in Canton, OH, serving demanding applications in mobile, energy and a variety of industrial end markets. The company is a premier U.S. producer of alloy steel bars (up to 16 inches in diameter), seamless mechanical tubing and manufactured components. In the business of making high-quality steel for more than 100 years, TimkenSteel's proven expertise contributes to the performance of our customers' products. The company employs approximately 1,900 people and had sales of $831 million in 2020. For more information, please visit us at www.timkensteel.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. You can generally identify the company's forward-looking statements by words such as "will," "anticipate," "aspire," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "outlook," "intend," "may," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "seek," "target," "could," "may," "should" or "would" or other similar words, phrases or expressions that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. The company cautions readers that actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the company due to a variety of factors, such as: the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company's operations and financial results, including cash flows and liquidity; whether the company is able to successfully implement actions designed to improve profitability on anticipated terms and timetables and whether the company is able to fully realize the expected benefits of such actions; deterioration in world economic conditions, or in economic conditions in any of the geographic regions in which the company conducts business, including additional adverse effects from global economic slowdown, terrorism or hostilities, including political risks associated with the potential instability of governments and legal systems in countries in which the company or its customers conduct business, and changes in currency valuations; climate-related risks, including environmental and severe weather caused by climate changes, and legislative and regulatory initiatives addressing global climate change or other environmental concerns; the effects of fluctuations in customer demand on sales, product mix and prices in the industries in which the company operates, including the ability of the company to respond to rapid changes in customer demand including but not limited to changes in customer operating schedules due to supply chain constraints, the effects of customer bankruptcies or liquidations, the impact of changes in industrial business cycles, and whether conditions of fair trade exist in U.S. markets; competitive factors, including changes in market penetration, increasing price competition by existing or new foreign and domestic competitors, the introduction of new products by existing and new competitors, and new technology that may impact the way the company's products are sold or distributed; changes in operating costs, including the effect of changes in the company's manufacturing processes, changes in costs associated with varying levels of operations and manufacturing capacity, availability of raw materials and energy, the company's ability to mitigate the impact of fluctuations in raw materials and energy costs and the effectiveness of its surcharge mechanism, changes in the expected costs associated with product warranty claims, changes resulting from inventory management, cost reduction initiatives and different levels of customer demands, the effects of unplanned work stoppages, and changes in the cost of labor and benefits; the success of the company's operating plans, announced programs, initiatives and capital investments, and the company's ability to maintain appropriate relations with unions that represent its associates in certain locations in order to avoid disruptions of business; unanticipated litigation, claims or assessments, including claims or problems related to intellectual property, product liability or warranty, and environmental issues and taxes, among other matters; the availability of financing and interest rates, which affect the company's cost of funds and/or ability to raise capital, including the ability of the company to refinance or repay at maturity the convertible notes due December 1, 2025; the company's pension obligations and investment performance, and/or customer demand and the ability of customers to obtain financing to purchase the company's products or equipment that contain its products; the overall impact of pension and other postretirement benefit mark-to-market accounting; the effects of the conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Notes due December 1, 2025, which, if triggered, entitles holders to convert the notes at any time during specified periods at their option and therefore could result in potential dilution if the holder elects to convert and the company elects to satisfy a portion or all of the conversion obligation by delivering common shares instead of cash; and the impacts from any repurchases of our common shares, including the timing and amount of any repurchases. Further, this news release includes our current policy and intent and is not intended to create legal rights or obligations. Any standards of measurement and performance contained in this news release are developing and based on assumptions, and no assurance can be given that any plan, initiative, projection, goal, commitment, expectation, or prospect set forth in this news release can or will be achieved.

Additional risks relating to the company's business, the industries in which the company operates, or the company's common shares may be described from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC. All of these risk factors are difficult to predict, are subject to material uncertainties that may affect actual results and may be beyond the company's control. Readers are cautioned that it is not possible to predict or identify all of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect future results and that the above list should not be considered to be a complete list. Except as required by the federal securities laws, the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise

SOURCE TimkenSteel Corp.
Top Law Firms Worldwide at GoodFirms for Specific Area of Law. Tweet this

Currently, the legal sector has different types of lawyers available for various disputes. It has created a dilemma for businesses and people to collaborate with the right lawyer experienced in the specific area of law to solve their problems.

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Top Law Firms for Legal Services

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Integreon, DiscoverReady, UnitedLex, Clairvolex, VeeLPO, KLexServe, Datascribe LPO, Sky Law Group, Law Offices of Leah V. Durant, PLLC, Gary Phillips Accident Law Professional, PLLC.

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Washington DC based GoodFirms is acknowledged globally as a maverick B2B research, ratings, and reviews platform. It aims to build a strong platform to assist the service seekers in connecting with the best partners that suit their business needs. The analyst squad of GoodFirms conducts scrupulous research where each agency is assessed following several metrics.

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About GoodFirms:

GoodFirms is a Washington, D.C. based research firm that aligns its efforts in identifying the most prominent and efficient law firms that deliver results to their clients. GoodFirms research is a confluence of new age consumer reference processes and conventional industry-wide review & rankings that help service seekers leap further and multiply their industry-wide value and credibility.

Rachael Ray

(360) 326-2243

[email protected]

SOURCE GoodFirms
SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the TSC Alliance announced two new additions to its staff: Cynthia Arcuri, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Anne Wolfe as Senior Community Programs Manager. In addition, Shelly Meitzler was promoted to Director, Community Education & Resources.

Arcuri joins the team January 18, 2022, and most recently served as Director of Finance & Administration at Louis Plung & Company in Pittsburgh, PA, overseeing all firm operations, including strategic planning initiatives, accounting, marketing and human resources.

In addition, Arcuri is a nonprofit Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting expert and spent 13 years as an auditor specializing in nonprofits at Louis Plung & Company as well as Ellin & Tucker in Baltimore. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

As CFO, Arcuri will implement the infrastructure/systems needed to support the TSC Alliance's growth over the next five years. She will also build and manage effective and streamlined administrative/financial systems, including financial, accounting, legal, information technology, human resources and physical infrastructure. As a member of the Executive Management team, Arcuri will be involved in strategic planning, evaluation and professional development initiatives as well as overall management of operations as they relate to budget management, cost-benefit analysis, investing and protecting resources, forecasting needs and securing new funding.

Wolfe, a passionate rare disease advocate, comes to the TSC Alliance with more than a decade of experience in creating events and programming for diverse stakeholder audiences in healthcare, life sciences and beyond. Wolfe most recently served as Manager of Strategic Advancement for Global Genes, where she led the development of impactful and relevant programming and worked with the leadership team to build and sustain strategic partnerships and alliances to support community engagement and capacity building.

As Senior Community Programs Manager, Wolfe will help develop and implement programs that build, grow and advance volunteer networks with a focus on strengthening peer-to-peer programs and community alliances that support the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) community. In addition, she will direct all young adult- and adult-specific programming.

With an honors degree in Peace & Justice Studies and International Relations from Tufts University, Wolfe will also lead the TSC Alliance's Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Task Force and help accelerate efforts to develop and execute strategies that reach, support and connect underrepresented tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) communities.

Meitzler joined the TSC Alliance as a Community Outreach Manager in 2017 specifically to increase community support programs. She was a critical contributor to newly formed Community Programs Department, supporting 18 volunteer branches and 13 fundraising walks and serving as staff lead for educational conferences, while also providing backup to the organization's Support Services department. Meitzler has completed Special Education Advocate Training 1.0 through the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and is currently completing Special Education Advocate Training 2.0 through the Council of Parent and Attorneys and Advocates.

In her new role as Director, Community Education & Resources, Meitzler will provide education, guidance, support, resources and advocacy services to the TSC community. This position will also direct peer-to-peer support programs and direct planning for conferences at the local, regional and international levels, including the upcoming 2022 World TSC Conference in Dallas.

About the TSC Alliance and TSC

The TSC Alliance is an internationally recognized nonprofit that does everything it takes to improve the lives of people with TSC. It drives research, improves quality care, works to increase access and advocates for all affected by the disease. For more information, visit tscalliance.org.

Tuberous sclerosis complex, or TSC, is a rare genetic disease that causes tumors to grow in different organs, from the brain and heart to the lungs and kidneys to the skin and eyes. Nearly one million people worldwide have TSC. Some live independently with few symptoms while others require complex care.

Contact

Jaye Isham

Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications

TSC Alliance

[email protected]

(301) 562-9890

SOURCE TSC Alliance
CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Stern Pinball, Inc., announced the hiring of Jack Danger in the role of Game Designer. Jack is best known for being a Twitch and Stern Brand Ambassador. Recently he created his first hit game design, Stern's Jurassic Park Home EditionTM pinball machine.

Jack brings a unique and diverse game design perspective to Stern Pinball. He started his career as an animator. He worked on commercials, music videos, and feature films for almost 20 years prior to launching his own design studio. After borrowing pinball machines to place at his studio, Jack got bit by the pinball bug that transformed his professional career forever.

Through Twitch, Jack transitioned into streaming pinball 7 days a week, launching the official Dead Flip Pinball streaming channel. The Dead Flip Pinball channel pioneered livestream pinball, promoting Jack to Twitch Ambassador status, and creating the official "Pinball" category on the Twitch platform. After a decade of successful pinball reveal streams, hosting of major eSports events, and becoming an official Stern Brand Ambassador, Jack was given an opportunity to design Stern's new Home Edition machine.

"Jack is an incredibly creative and talented designer. He brings tremendous energy, passion, and player skill to the work. We were beyond impressed with his strong leadership skills and the unique perspective he brought to the Jurassic Park Home Edition design. We are very excited to add his talent to our studio and look forward to his design work on future cornerstone machines," said George Gomez, Stern Pinball EVP and Chief Creative Officer.

About Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern Pinball, Inc. is a global lifestyle brand based on the iconic and outrageously fun modern American game of pinball. Headquartered minutes from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in the heart of North America, the company creates, designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and distributes a full line of technologically advanced terrestrial and digital pinball games, parts, accessories, and merchandise. Stern Pinball serves digital, consumer, commercial, and corporate markets around the globe.

Recent Stern Pinball titles include Godzilla, The Mandalorian, Led Zeppelin, Avengers: Infinity Quest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stranger Things, Elvira's House of Horrors, Jurassic Park, Black Knight: Sword of Rage, The Munsters, The Beatles, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Aerosmith, Ghostbusters, KISS, Metallica, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, AC/DC, Batman, and Spider-Man. A broad range of players enjoy Stern Pinball's games from professional pinball players who compete in high-stakes competitions around the globe to novice players who are discovering the allure of the silver ball for the first time. To join the fun and learn more, please visit www.sternpinball.com.

CONTACT: Kasey Cooley, 262-227-8357, [email protected]

SOURCE Stern Pinball, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, Calif., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Univfy, a global leader in using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to personalize counseling and increase access to fertility care, today announced that it raised $6 million of its Series B funding round led by a portfolio company of Atlantic Street Capital.

Known by fertility specialists and patients for its flagship Univfy PreIVF Report, Univfy has commercialized a suite of AI/ML-assisted platform services that improves patients' experience and access to treatment, while increasing growth for fertility centers. With the new funding, Univfy will be able to extend platform services to health plans and employers to bring transparency and predictability to fertility treatment success and costs. Univfy is also uniquely able to leverage its AI/ML platform to advance precision medicine to improve prognostics and inform development of therapeutics in the fertility market.

Univfy's highly scalable AI/ML platform develops and validates clinical live birth outcomes prediction models using each fertility center's own data. Commercialized in the US, Canada, and EU, fertility specialists use the Univfy PreIVF Report to counsel patients about their probability of having a baby from IVF and other treatment options. This personalized and center-specific approach maximizes relevance to each patient population and efficiency of value-based care. Univfy's personalized prognostics enables fertility centers to offer patients value-based pricing programs that cap financial risk for patients and make multiple IVF cycles more affordable. Patients counseled with the Univfy Report are 2-3 times more likely to use their doctor's recommended treatment, with an expected increase in the number and percentage of patients having singleton live births.

One in eight, or 7 million, reproductive age couples in the US and more than 80 million couples worldwide struggle to conceive on their own. IVF is the most effective treatment for most women and couples, but it is vastly underutilized, most likely due to financial risk and physical and emotional stress. Based on proprietary technology developed at Stanford University and R&D on a global scale, Univfy offers a full-service, validated, data-driven AI platform to meet the medical, emotional, and financial needs of patients.

"Univfy uniquely focuses on making fertility counseling easier for providers and more personalized and actionable for patients. This is where the most important decisions occur for women and couples, emotionally and financially," said Mylene Yao, CEO and Cofounder of Univfy. "We are proud of the impact we have made in improving the fertility care experience for both patients and clinical teams. Atlantic Street Capital shares Univfy's vision to make fertility care personalized and more accessible for women and couples who desire to have a family. We believe patients should be able to count on fertility treatments to have a baby."

"We are very excited to be working with Univfy, whose vision to help fertility centers achieve better clinical outcomes aligns with ours," said Ashish Shetty, Principal of Atlantic Street Capital. "Univfy is the leader in using AI/ML to improve fertility patients' experience and maximize each patient's chances of having a baby with fertility treatment. We are honored to be a partner in helping to bring the benefits of Univfy's AI/ML technology to more patients and providers."

About Univfy

Univfy makes fertility care more affordable, successful, and predictable for women and couples navigating their family-building options. The Univfy AI Platform empowers individuals with personalized information and counseling to inform smarter spending and decision-making. Based on proprietary technology developed at Stanford University, Univfy uses a rigorous scientific process to develop and validate prediction models to support patient counseling at fertility centers in the US, Canada, and Europe. Our methods have been published in top, peer-reviewed research publications. Univfy is commercialized in the US, Canada, and EU. Univfy's compliance includes HIPAA and GDPR. We have a global IP portfolio. The Univfy PreIVF Report is CE-marked as a medical device software in the EU. Visit www.univfy.com for more information.

About Atlantic Street Capital

Atlantic Street Capital is a private equity firm that invests in fundamentally sound, lower middle market companies that will benefit from capital investment and value-added strategic and operational initiatives. Atlantic Street Capital's approach are hands-on investors who work closely with management to unlock their business' underlying value and help them succeed. The firm is currently making investments in Atlantic Street Capital IV, LP. For more information, visit www.atlanticstreetcapital.com.

Contact Univfy

Investors: [email protected]

Media:

Heather Holland

Director of Communications

Tel: +1 (646) 400-2745

[email protected]

SOURCE Univfy Inc.
BUFFALO GROVE, Ill., Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The US LBM Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by leading specialty building materials distributor US LBM, has committed $100,000 to assist recovery efforts for communities impacted by the recent tornadoes in the South and Midwest.

Additionally, the US LBM Foundation will match donations made up to $50,000 through its website, uslbmfoundation.org/relief, from now through Saturday, Dec. 25 with all proceeds going to organizations assisting communities and victims of the tornadoes.

"One of the primary reasons we established the US LBM Foundation was to respond to natural disasters, and these funds allow us to support those who need help after these devastating tornadoes," said US LBM Foundation Chairman and US LBM President and CEO L.T. Gibson.

The US LBM Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in communities across the United States. The Foundation was established in 2013 by US LBM, a leader in the building materials industry, to help fulfill the company's mission of giving back in the communities where it operates. The US LBM Foundation supports causes and organizations through financial and in-kind donations that address critical community challenges, including economic development, housing, health care and human services. For more information, visit uslbmfoundation.org.

Contact: Timothy Wirth

US LBM Communications

484-886-5705

[email protected]

SOURCE US LBM
HOUSTON, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Voss Capital, LLC ("Voss"), a significant shareholder of Griffon Corp. (NYSE: GFF) ("Griffon" or the "Company"), issued the following public statement in opposition to Griffon's planned acquisition of Hunter Fan Company for $845 million in a transaction announced earlier today. Voss has nominated several highly-qualified candidates for election as directors at the Company's upcoming Annual Meeting in mid-February.

"In our opinion, Griffon's ill-advised decision to buy Hunter Fan Company from MidOcean Partners demonstrates the Board's continued disregard for shareholders and causes us to further question whether Griffon's directors are protecting Griffon's shareholders' best interests. The sheer size of this acquisition places tremendous risk squarely on the Company's shareholders for management's ability to integrate and execute. Adding insult to injury, the Griffon Board is not putting this significant Hunter transaction up for a vote of shareholders. Quite frankly, management and the Board have not earned the right, nor have the credibility or track record, to engage in such a high-stakes deal.

We believe this acquisition is wrong for shareholders for many reasons, a few of which are detailed below.

Unattractive Valuation

Griffon says their $845 million purchase price1 is attractive. We disagree. Griffon is paying 9.4x their estimate of fiscal 2023 EBITDA2 for Hunter Fan Company. Griffon currently trades at under 8x EV/FY 2023 EBITDA and is paying a far higher multiple to acquire Hunter Fan Company than Griffon's current or recent valuation. Given Griffon is trading near a 5-year low valuation and building products transaction valuations are hitting record highs, we believe the Company should be selling not buying.

Also, why is the company citing a multiple of their projected FY 2023 EBITDA? What is Hunter Fan's EBITDA for the last twelve months and what assumptions is Griffon management making to reach their FY 2023 figure?

Griffon claims that the deal will add $0.50 to EPS. This is irrelevant. This metric ignores return on invested capital and is purely the result of the company using debt to finance the acquisition.

Execution Risk

All the facts and figures show that Griffon's current management team has operated its existing businesses poorly. If they can't effectively manage the Company's existing businesses, why add complexity? This ineptitude is shown by Griffon's Total Shareholder Return (TSR) consistently lagging that of its own self-selected peer group. For example, over the five years ending on Dec. 20, 2021, Griffon generated a TSR of 8%, 53% below the median TSR of 61% for the 21 peers Griffon disclosed in its most recent proxy statement.

The Hunter Fan Company acquisition will be the largest in Griffon's history and is immense relative to the company's current size. The $845 million purchase price is more than 55% of Griffon's market cap and more than 35% of its enterprise value.3 Griffon's weak TSR and low ROIC clearly demonstrates that its management has not earned the right to invest more capital, especially in a new, unrelated business.

The Board expects to close this huge acquisition by the end of January 2022, an ambitious target to complete a deal of this magnitude. Our view is that this deal was structured, and the company's balance sheet leveraged, specifically to prevent shareholders from voting on the acquisition. Therefore, it seems the Board may have been concerned that shareholders would reject this deal. The Board likely understood how poorly this deal would be received, especially given underlying shareholder discontent, as shown by low shareholder support for Say on Pay and individual directors, as well as our ongoing proxy contest.

Conflict of Interest

Finally, we have serious questions about the deal process. Griffon's lead "independent" director Kevin Sullivan is a Managing Director at MidOcean Partners, the private equity firm who has owned Hunter Fan for 14 years and is rumored to have struggled to sell the company. Mr. Sullivan's connection strikes us as an inherent conflict of interest, irrespective of what safeguards Griffon might claim were put in place. This deal has all the hallmarks of another instance of incestuous insider dealing.

We will be delivering to Griffon a books and records demand under Delaware law, requesting that they provide us with information that will allow us to further investigate the relevant facts and circumstances leading up to, and including, the process and diligence that led to the acquisition of Hunter Fan.

For the aforementioned reasons, this deal is wrong for Griffon shareholders. It exemplifies the long-standing issues with the current Board and provides yet another reason why shareholders should elect Voss Capital's qualified nominees at Griffon's upcoming annual meeting in February.

This year's vote represents an opportunity to finally add truly independent directors to the Griffon Board who will work to dissolve Griffon's outdated conglomerate structure and realize value for all shareholders  a process we estimate will yield over $45/share in net cash proceeds for Griffon shareholders.

This compares to the current status quo of allowing the management team to empire build, receive outlandish compensation and destroy shareholder value. It remains our steadfast view that poor corporate governance has been a key contributor to the flat Griffon stock price since 2005 and a -10% return for shareholders since January 2017. We hope our fellow shareholders will embrace a step in the right direction by electing our proposed slate in order to break away from the archaic boardroom culture at Griffon.

Stockholders can call Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC at (212) 257-1311 or (888) 368-0379 if they have any questions with the voting process. The last day to buy stock and vote at the 2022 Annual Meeting would be Thursday, December 23rd.

We look forward to continuing our constructive dialogue with shareholders. If you wish to discuss this matter further, we can be reached at (832) 519-9427."

Media Contact:

Serena Koontz

Head of Investor Relations

Voss Capital, LLC

[email protected]

Investor Contact:

John Ferguson

Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC

[email protected]

CERTAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PARTICIPANTS

Voss Value Master Fund, LP, a Cayman Islands limited partnership ("Voss Value Master Fund"), together with the other participants named herein (collectively, "Voss"), intends to file a preliminary proxy statement and accompanying proxy card with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to be used to solicit votes for the election of its slate of highly-qualified director nominees at the 2022 annual meeting of stockholders of Griffon Corporation, a Delaware corporation (the "Company").

VOSS STRONGLY ADVISES ALL STOCKHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER PROXY MATERIALS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. SUCH PROXY MATERIALS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE ON THE SEC'S WEB SITE AT HTTP://WWW.SEC.GOV . IN ADDITION, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS PROXY SOLICITATION WILL PROVIDE COPIES OF THE PROXY STATEMENT WITHOUT CHARGE, WHEN AVAILABLE, UPON REQUEST.

The participants in the proxy solicitation are anticipated to be Voss Value Master Fund, Voss Value-Oriented Special Situation Fund, LP, a Delaware limited partnership ("Voss Value Special Situations Fund"), Voss Advisors GP, LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("Voss GP"), Voss Capital, LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("Voss Capital"), Travis W. Cocke, Gerry Bollman, H. C. Charles Diao and Leviathan Winn.

As of the date hereof, Voss Value Master Fund directly beneficially owns 750,000 shares of Common Stock, par value $0.25 per share, of the Company (the "Common Stock"), including 1,000 shares of Common Stock held in record name. As of the date hereof, Voss Value Special Situations Fund directly beneficially owns 129,122 shares of Common Stock. As the general partner of Voss Value Master Fund and Voss Value Special Situations Fund, Voss GP may be deemed to beneficially own the 879,122 shares of Common Stock beneficially owned in the aggregate by Voss Value Master Fund and Voss Value Special Situations Fund. As the investment manager of Voss Value Master Fund, Voss Value Special Situations Fund and a certain separately managed account (the "Voss Managed Account"), Voss Capital may be deemed to beneficially own the 1,279,122 shares of Common Stock beneficially owned in the aggregate by Voss Value Master Fund and Voss Value Special Situations and held in the Voss Managed Account. As the managing member of Voss Capital and Voss GP, Mr. Cocke may be deemed to beneficially own the 1,279,122 shares of Common Stock beneficially owned in the aggregate by Voss Value Master Fund and Voss Value Special Situations and held in the Voss Managed Account. As of the date hereof, none of Messrs. Bollman, Diao or Winn own beneficially or of record any securities of the Company.

1 http://ir.griffon.com/static-files/f7e354e2-a7ce-46de-b6e0-1a75f3e798ce

2 Griffon estimated it was paying "an approximate 9.4 times multiple of EBITDA from the first full fiscal year of operation," which would be Griffon's FY 2023

3 Both as of closing prices on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021

SOURCE Voss Capital
STOCKHOLM, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

This year, the strong demand for wood products in Europe and North America has increased lumber trade during the first nine months of 2021 by about three percent y-o-y. In ranking order, the export countries with the most significant increases in shipments include Finland , Canada , Germany , and the Czech Republic . Unsurprisingly, the countries with the most significant increases in imports in 2021 have all been in Europe and the US, where demand was high, while shipments to Asia and the MENA region have declined as their construction sectors weakened this year.

has increased lumber trade during the first nine months of 2021 by about three percent y-o-y. In ranking order, the export countries with the most significant increases in shipments include , , , and the . Unsurprisingly, the countries with the most significant increases in imports in 2021 have all been in and the US, where demand was high, while shipments to and the MENA region have declined as their construction sectors weakened this year. In the 3Q/21, overseas lumber imports to the US fell by 13% q-o-q to 1.3 million m 3 . This decline followed a quarter where volumes reached their highest level in 15 years, with most shipments originating in Europe . Germany has been the dominant overseas lumber supplier to the US for the past five years, with a market share of about 35%, according to the WRQ. The second and third largest suppliers to the US have been Sweden and Brazil . European import prices fell by about 20% q-o-q in the 3Q/21 as US domestic prices plunged.

fell by 13% q-o-q to 1.3 million m . This decline followed a quarter where volumes reached their highest level in 15 years, with most shipments originating in . has been the dominant overseas lumber supplier to the US for the past five years, with a market share of about 35%, according to the WRQ. The second and third largest suppliers to the US have been and . European import prices fell by about 20% q-o-q in the 3Q/21 as US domestic prices plunged. Canada 's lumber exports fell by about 13% q-o-q in the 3Q/21 to less than nine million m 3 . In the spring of 2021, many sawmills in Western Canada shifted their overseas sales to the US market, mainly due to the record-high lumber prices in the neighboring country. Consequently, exports to China fell by over 50% in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the previous year. Canadian export prices to the US in 2021 have tracked the US domestic prices with unprecedented price increases in the first half of the year, followed by a substantial decline in the 3Q/21. Prices for Asia -bound lumber exports did not follow the US trend but instead continued their upward movements during the fall.

's lumber exports fell by about 13% q-o-q in the 3Q/21 to less than nine million m . In the spring of 2021, many sawmills in shifted their overseas sales to the US market, mainly due to the record-high lumber prices in the neighboring country. Consequently, exports to fell by over 50% in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the previous year. Canadian export prices to the US in 2021 have tracked the US domestic prices with unprecedented price increases in the first half of the year, followed by a substantial decline in the 3Q/21. Prices for -bound lumber exports did not follow the US trend but instead continued their upward movements during the fall. China 's softwood lumber imports rose three percent q-o-q in the 3Q/21 but were still substantially lower than in the same quarter last year. This year, the most significant declines in importation have been in shipments from Canada and Europe as exporters in the two regions shifted to the strong US lumber market. However, despite the reduced import demand, Chinese import prices in the 3Q/21 reached their highest levels in at least 15 years, driven by higher lumber values in the European and North American markets.

's softwood lumber imports rose three percent q-o-q in the 3Q/21 but were still substantially lower than in the same quarter last year. This year, the most significant declines in importation have been in shipments from and as exporters in the two regions shifted to the strong US lumber market. However, despite the reduced import demand, Chinese import prices in the 3Q/21 reached their highest levels in at least 15 years, driven by higher lumber values in the European and North American markets. Sweden is the largest lumber exporter in Europe , shipping an all-time high volume of 14 million m 3 in 2020. During the first eight months of 2021, shipments fell by six percent y-o-y, predominantly because of lower wood demand in China , Egypt , and other MENA markets. Nevertheless, export volumes to the key markets in Europe have thus far been higher in 2021 than they were last year. The sales value has surged by 67% y-o-y and is on pace to reach over 5.0 billion dollars (4.2 billion) for the entire year, reports the WRQ.

is the largest lumber exporter in , shipping an all-time high volume of 14 million m in 2020. During the first eight months of 2021, shipments fell by six percent y-o-y, predominantly because of lower wood demand in , , and other MENA markets. Nevertheless, export volumes to the key markets in have thus far been higher in 2021 than they were last year. The sales value has surged by 67% y-o-y and is on pace to reach over (4.2 billion) for the entire year, reports the WRQ. Finland , the second largest exporter of lumber in Europe , has increased shipments by 16% in 2021, predominantly driven by higher sales to European countries. On the other hand, shipments to China have plunged by 40% y-o-y, a noteworthy change as China once was Finland's biggest market.

Are you interested in the worldwide wood products market? The Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ) is a 75-page report established in 1988 and has subscribers in over 30 countries. The publication tracks prices for sawlog, pulpwood, lumber, and pellets and reports on trade and wood market developments in most key regions worldwide. For more insights on the latest international forest product market trends, please go to www.WoodPrices.com

CONTACT:

Wood Resources International LLC

Hakan Ekstrom

[email protected]

www.woodprices.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/r/strong-demand-for-wood-products-in-europe-and-north-america-has-increased-global-lumber-trade-in-202,c3475188

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1902/3475188/1512134.pdf WRI - Market Insights 2021 Global Lumber Markets Dec 2021

SOURCE Wood Resources International LLC
AMERICAN FORK, Utah, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, YouScience , the only fully-integrated platform provider of highly accurate aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications, announced new business milestones revealing strong company momentum, customer, and employers participating in the Platform growth in 2021.

Notably, the company launched Employer Connections earlier this year adding more than 260 organizations. With Employer Connections, skilled prospective employees who complete a YouScience Discovery aptitude test are matched with organizations of all types and sizes  from Nissan and Bobcat, to Monroe County Sheriff and Estee Lauder  looking for their talents and skills.

Employer Connections is significant for organizations seeking to build their future talent pipelines because it allows skilled prospective employees to be matched to companies based on the organizations' need and the individual's natural talents, certifications and interests. This is especially vital amid the mass exodus of individuals quitting their jobs in the past few years, labeled 'The Great Resignation.' According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , a record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September 2021 alone. The number of unfilled jobs remained at 11 million in October 2021.

"I signed up [with YouScience] because I believe in young people being able to look at aptitude scores and follow appropriate educational pathways that lead to a career of interest. Students today are not aware of the opportunities available to them in modern manufacturing plants," said Wayne Ellington, CMRP of Nissan. "Through YouScience Discovery, students can determine their personal aptitude and in turn be connected to real-world careers. This is a huge benefit to students approaching high school and in need of selecting their educational pathways. We're thrilled to get in front of students who show aptitudes in our industry," he said.

Despite the pandemic's effects on schools, YouScience also increased its total number of Precision Exams administered in 2021 by 103 percent over 2020.* These industry-recognized certifications enable students to validate their learned knowledge and skills in academic and career and technical education (CTE) programs, supporting college and career success. When a student searches for "Opportunities," they can filter employers/Companies by certifications, aptitudes fit or interest fit for even more personalization.

The Company also increased the total number of YouScience Discovery aptitude assessments taken in 2021 by more than 68 percent compared to last year.* YouScience Discovery is the only aptitude-based career guidance tool that provides a personal and highly accurate assessment of an individual's natural talents, directing them into areas for education and careers that are ideally suited to their abilities and interests.

"Over the past year, YouScience saw tremendous interest for all our solutions driven by both businesses and individuals looking for better aptitude-aligned career matching and opportunities," said Edson Barton, founder, and CEO, YouScience. "We're excited to see this momentum continue into next year  reaching more schools districts, students, and employers. We look forward to continuing to grow and connect individuals with careers and education and employers."

With such high growth, YouScience increased its team by more than 164 percent.* The YouScience team now spans across 16 U.S. states. For more information on YouScience and its solutions, please visit www.youscience.com.

*Numbers end on 12/15/2021.

About YouScience

YouScience is the only provider of a fully-integrated platform that delivers highly accurate aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications, empowering individuals in their educational and career pathways. Leveraging proven research and industry input, YouScience helps individuals identify their natural talents, validate their skills and knowledge, and get matched with real-world educational and career pathways in high-demand occupations. YouScience is the preferred choice of individuals, parents, educators, and counselors to guide and support educational and career pathways, currently serving more than 7,000 educational institutions and nearly one million users.

SOURCE YouScience
Prayagraj : , Dec 20 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a counter affidavit (reply) furnishing information regarding all the schools in the state that have no students.

The PIL filed by one Nand Lal, raises the issue of the poor condition of primary schools in the Daraganj locality of Prayagraj district.

The PIL alleges that the quality of education being imparted to the students is not up to the mark and therefore, many parents have stopped sending their children to the government schools.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal, sought a reply from the state government and adjourned the case for the next hearing on March 28, 2022.

The petitioner sought an inquiry into the affairs of Madhyamik School at Daraganj in Prayagraj district, the negligence of teachers in imparting education to students and embezzlement of funds issued by the state government for maintenance of the school.

Referring to an inquiry report of the divisional education officer (DEO) in the case, it was submitted that at present there is not even a single student in the pre-secondary school, and this had happened due to the negligence of the teachers and education department.

It was also submitted that the standard of education in other state-run schools is very poor, and many teachers do not even know English language of Class 4 level.
Lucknow, Dec 20 : The Samajwadi Party (SP) will field a maximum number of Brahmin candidates in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior Samajwadi leader and former Speaker, Mata Prasad Pandey, said that SP president Akhilesh Yadav would field maximum Brahmin candidates, particularly in eastern UP, to ensure return to power.

Pandey was speaking at a Brahmin summit organised by the party in Katheri constituency in Ambedkar Nagar on Sunday.

"Brahmins have been persecuted by the current BJP government and the anger in the community is palpable. Brahmins, who constitute 13 per cent of the population, will get a lion's share of tickets this time and we will tap this simmering angst to notch up a poll victory," he told reporters.

He said that Brahmins are self-reliant and do not seek benefits from the government. All they want is respect and dignity, he added.

Most Brahmin leaders from 20 UP districts who participated in the conclave endorsed the former Speaker's views and held up the battle axe of Lord Parshuram to announce a "dharm yudh" against the anti-people policies of the BJP government.

SP vice president Jai Shankar Pandey while avoiding a query on whether the Samajwadi Party was trying to replicate Mayawati's social engineering formula, said, "Each district will have one or two Brahmins in the fray on a Samajwadi Party ticket." The Brahmin meet at Katehri, coincided with 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' flagged off by BJP national president J.P. Nadda in Akbarpur, headquarter of Ambedkar Nagar district.

Brahmin icon Parshuram's battle axe motif along with conch shells were distributed to all.

Ashish Pandey Dipu, organiser of Brahmin conclave, said, "We distributed battle axes and conche shells, which symbolise Brahmin pride.
Lucknow, Dec 20 : The Lucknow wing of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys' Association (AMUOBA) has released its list of nine demands from the political parties vying for the minority votes for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The AMUOBA said that this was the right time for Muslims and other backward communities to strike a bargain with political parties.

Demanding representation of Muslims in the government bodies proportional to their vote percentage, AMUOBA president Prof Shakeel Ahmad Kidwai said, "All political parties are lobbying to get the votes of the backward communities and Muslims in their favour. These communities have been exploited by the political parties and have not been given any political importance in the state." He said that it is the opportune time for them to bargain rather than enter caste and religion-based politics.

"We demand reservation for Muslims in higher educational institutions in line with West Bengal government which is in accordance with Sachar Committee recommendations, establishment of good schools, ITI and vocational centres in minority and Dalit dominated areas, establishment of minority university in Lucknow in the name of renowned educationist Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who should also be conferred with Bharat Ratna posthumously," he said.

Kidwai also demanded employment opportunities of minorities in police and paramilitary forces and abolition of the religious cap of Article 341 to open doors of reservation of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.
Dhaka, Dec 20 : The Bangladesh government has started administering Covid-19 booster shots on a trial basis.

The country's Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the program in Dhaka on Sunday, while a nurse Runu Veronica Costa, who had received the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country, was also administered the first booster dose, reports Xinhua news agency.

After inaugurating the program, Maleque told journalists that the drive will be extended throughout the country in phases.

He said frontliners and the elderly will be given priority for booster shots initially.

Senior Health Ministry officials, journalists and religious leaders also received their booster doses on the day.

Bangladesh launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive in January to contain the pandemic that has spread across the South Asian country.
Santiago, Dec 20 : Chileans have cast their votes in the most uncertain presidential ballot since the country's return to democracy in 1990, a tight runoff race between leftist deputy Gabriel Boric and right-wing politician Jose Antonio Kast.

Kast, leader of the far-right Republican Party and presidential candidate of the Christian Social Front, voted on Sunday morning in the rural municipality of Paine, located an hour away from capital Santiago.

"It would be a great honour to be able to direct the destiny of the nation. There are legitimate differences, but we have to work for dialogue and unity. This is done through justice, order and security," he said.

Kast, who won the first round of the presidential election on November 21 with 27.9 per cent of the vote and a little more than 146,000 ballots of difference, said these elections "will be narrow" with a difference of fewer than 50,000 votes between candidates.

Boric, of the left-wing coalition Approve Dignity, received 25.8 per cent of the votes in the last elections and he cast his ballot in the southern city of Punta Arenas, which he represents as a deputy of the lower house.

The legislator also predicted "a close election," and so invited people to participate and believe "that politics could be different".

"A country is built by everyone. If you decide to do so, I hope to be the president of all Chileans", said the candidate, who added he was "calm and hopeful for having run a clean campaign without inventing or spreading lies".

President Sebastian Pinera also urged citizens to vote after casting his ballot in Las Condes in the capital.

"We hope to have a democratic, transparent, clean electoral event, honoring our beautiful republican tradition," said Pinera, whose term will end on March 11, 2022.

The Ministry of Health guaranteed a calm and safe election, due to the high vaccination rate that has led to fewer cases as well as the biosafety measures in place at polling stations.

However, the Ministry still called for caution due to the spread of the Omicron variant, which has already been detected in 30 patients in the country.

For this election, 14,959,956 people are eligible to vote, while 71,018 people are registered abroad, for a total of 15,030,974 voters.
The controversial Nationality and Borders Bill was introduced by the ruling Conservative Party in the House of Commons on July 6, 2021. The Bill has now progressed to the House of Lords, and if passed it would impact the current UK immigration system as it relates to asylum seekers and refugees; and does this primarily by introducing a two-tier system for asylum-seekers arriving in the country, based on method of arrival.

In addition, as per other measures recommended if voted to a Law, the bill would put at risk the future of six million minorities living in Britain. Majority of British citizens who possess dual passports, fear that they would become more vulnerable and victims of discrimination in a legal manner. The government earlier had the power to withdraw nationality but after notifying the affected person.

The Bill also includes clauses to allow the UK to be able to send asylum seekers, particularly the boat refugees from various Muslim countries to a "safe third country" and to submit claims at a "designated place" determined by the Secretary of State.

The Indian-origin British Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Bill would tackle illegal immigration and the "underlying pull factors into the UK's asylum system". The government in its defence asserts that the bill looks to alter the current system for asylum claims and appeals, as well as looking to stop the flow of people-smuggling and modern slavery.

Why the controversy? The bill has been criticised by the opposition Labour Party and also some members of the Conservative party. Former Conservative minister David Davis described the plans to strip people of British citizenship as "uncivilised" and "legally disputable".

Under existing law, deprivation of citizenship can be executed for those people who are considered to pose a threat to the UK - based on terrorism or war crimes records - or if they obtained their citizenship fraudulently.

However, as reported by different newspapers in November, Patel surreptitiously introduced a provision that would allow the government to strip people of their British citizenship without notice. And this move has set the alarm bells ringing.

The British Nationality Act 1981 requires the secretary of state to give a person written notice of a decision to deprive them of their British citizenship before a deprivation order can be made. But Clause 9 of the new Bill exempts the government from giving notice if it is not "reasonably practicable" to do so, or in the interests of national security, diplomatic relations or is otherwise in the public interest.

Why the criticism? Critics say this will give the government enormous power over British citizens who have another nationality or who may have been born elsewhere. Effectively, naturalised citizens can be made stateless without notice. The government, however, claims that it will not make anyone stateless and will not affect their right to appeal.

Citizenship stripping can take place for public interest reasons, mostly connected to national security and counter-terrorism. These decisions come into effect even before appeals can be processed, so it is crucial for the affected person to be notified. The UK has had a recent, significant rise in citizenship deprivations. Most have taken place when the British citizen is already overseas, so they would be unlikely to know about cancellation orders and would find it difficult to appeal.

Davis also said his amendment to clause nine of the bill would have still enable the Home Secretary to deprive a person of British citizenship but it would remove the right to do it without notification.

The British Law Society giving its take on the Bill says: "We believe this bill contains a number of measures which are, or are likely to be incompatible with international law, damage access to justice, and impact on the role of lawyers in immigration cases.

"We're concerned that allowing differential treatment of refugees depending on how they arrive in the UK would penalise those arriving via irregular means; this is incompatible with the UK's obligations under the Refugee Convention 1951." In its recommendations to the government, the Society says: "We believe the government should remove provisions that are likely to be incompatible with international law; this includes provisions that relate to the differential treatment of refugees based on their mode of arrival, increase the standard of proof for establishing whether someone is a refugee, and re-define what is considered a particularly serious crime, remove provisions that would harm access to justice; including those that reduce safeguards in relation to appeals, and unfairly penalise late submission of evidence, remove the power for the Immigration Tribunal to impose additional fines on lawyers." Devyani Prabhat, Professor in Law at University of Bristol, says that currently, no other country can make its own citizens stateless by depriving them of citizenship.

In the an article on Conversation.com, Prabhat further says that the UK's citizenship deprivation practice affects minorities and those of migrant heritage much more than it does white British nationals born in Britain. Taking away notification requirements will make appeals even harder. Even without this change, deprivation laws risk alienating minority communities, but with it, potential challenges in courts will be eliminated at source.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International says, if passed, the Bill "will create significant obstacles and harms to people seeking asylum in the UK's asylum system" and that the legislation undermines the Refugee Convention and the UK's obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on Reduction of Statelessness.

In October, a team of leading immigration lawyers also concluded that the controversial bill breaches international and domestic law in at least 10 different ways and accused the government of "riding roughshod" over its obligations. Leading the team, human rights Raza Husain said, if passed, the legislation would lead to challenges under international human rights and refugee treaties.

It seems as if the Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keen to move away from the liberal policy that Britain had adopted since the 1940s, and particularly during the last 40 years or so, motivating the talented to join its work force. This had slowly resulted in making UK a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious society. Though racial prejudice still persisted but it was possible to protest in the name of the British law and jurisprudence. But now it may not be possible in future.

(Asad Mirza is a political commentator based in New Delhi)
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Dr. Payal Kanodia is a Trustee in M3M Foundation, a philanthropic arm of M3M India -- one of the leading real-estate companies in India.

The prime focus of the M3M Foundation has been on health, education, disaster management and socio-economic development to transform rural lifestyle. As one of the promoters in M3M India, Payal also supports business.

A doctor by qualification, Payal has been conferred the Grand Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations & Diplomacy from International University of Fundamental Studies, St. Petersburg Russia and is a Diplomatic member of CDI. She has pursued her entrepreneurship from HBS, Boston.

Speaking to IANS, Payal said, "At M3M Foundation, we believe in sustainable change and making the beneficiaries responsible. There is so much to be done in India and I believe that while we retain our focus on what we would like to emphasize through our Foundation, we should also be supporting State and Central Government in their mission to make a better India." Payal has been a keen observer throughout. While visiting construction sites of M3M India, she observed that many workers and labourers have left their small children at home -- most of them unattended, and these children certainly needed proper attention and care.

Payal says, "I observed that the children of workers & labourers were generally left at home and when I interacted with our workforce, I realised that they were quite worried about the well-being of their children, their education and future. As a responsible Company, we had to do something for their children. And with this thought, M3M Foundation launched project -- iMpower, an Initiative for Maximising Potential of Workforce through Ensuring Resources. Through our collaboration with national and international organisations and foundations, we are now able to provide education & good health to these children, and also ensuring skill enhancement for the women workforce. Very soon we shall be setting-up skill development centres for these women. The whole effort is to build a life of dignity for them." Recently, M3M Foundation's project "iMpower" has been recognized as the "Most Innovative Community Engagement Project 2021" during the India CSR Leadership Awards held in Bengaluru.

Payal also passionately described the contribution of M3M Foundation during the pandemic times. "I always believe that most of the companies do have a strong focus on philanthropy and they execute programs through their Foundations. I also understand that since we all work for the betterment of the society and the nation, such Foundations should also be seen as an extension of philanthropic arm of the Government. We are too partners in prosperity. With this focus, during the Covid pandemic lockdown, we aligned with the Government of Haryana and brought together corporate entities, real estate groups, business entities, NGOs, religious bodies and individuals, and were able to support more than 2 lakh needy people for food, health and hygiene. We named this initiative as -- 'Kartavaya', and indeed it was an immense responsibility shared by all of us," she said.

In order to promote employability-based training and to fight unemployment, M3M Foundation has signed an MoU with Government of Haryana to help about 50,000 meritorious students and align them towards online preparations for Government jobs. The Foundation has named this initiative as "SAKSHAM UDAAN".

Payal gives most of her time to the Foundation's activities. Her passion and involvement has certainly strengthened the vision of M3M Foundation.
Chennai, Dec 20 : A private school Mathematics teacher, Mathivannan who had shared porn videos in the school group on Friday night, comprising Class 12 students and teachers was arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

Mathivannan was teaching Mathematics for over a decade in a private school in Chennai and was living with his wife and children at Ambattur in the city.

The teacher sent the porn video during the night to the group that was used for online teaching of students. Children and fellow teachers who were shocked on seeing the porn video popping up in the group, alerted the school authorities.

During an internal inquiry by the school officials, Mathivannan said that he did not know about the video and that he had shared it under the influence of alcohol.

School management lodged a complaint with the All women police station, Chennai who arrested him under the POCSO Act and IT Act. The teacher was produced before the Chief Judicial magistrate court and was remanded in judicial custody.
Lucknow, Dec 20 : The 112 emergency service of the Uttar Pradesh Police has received over 14,000 complaints of 'noise pollution' this year -- an average of 40 calls per day.

According to official data, more than 36 per cent of such calls were made from just five of the 75 districts with Lucknow leading the chart (1,509), followed by Gautam Buddha Nagar (1,095), Ghaziabad (997), Varanasi (857) and Prayagraj (852).

A senior police official said that most of the complaints were addressed by the police response vehicles (PRV) in the various districts.

Majority of the complaints were related to disc jockeys playing loud music at weddings beyond the 10 p.m deadline.

Additional Director General of Police (UP 112) Ashok Kumar Singh said the helpline service has been campaigning to raise awareness among the public on noise pollution.

People getting disturbed due to loud music or noise during non-permissible hours can report the matter at 112, Singh said.

He added that the number of calls made against noise indicated that people were becoming increasingly aware of the menace.
Srinagar, Dec 20 : As the 40-day long period of harsh winter known locally as the 'Chillai Kalan' starts on December 21, frozen water pipes, hanging icicles and bone chilling cold on Monday cautioned Kashmiris to brace for colder weather ahead.

The 40-day long Chillai Kalan period ends on January 31 each year as it brings in a lot of hardships for the people.

With the erratic electric power, the earthen firepot lit with charcoal and woven in willow wicker still remains the best bet for Kashmiris to brave the cold of the Chillai Kalan.

Srinagar had minus 5.8, Pahalgam minus 7.4 and Gulmarg minus 5.5 as the minimum temperature on Monday.

Drass town of Ladakh had minus 19.0, Leh minus 18.0 and Kargil minus 11.5 as the night's lowest temperature.

Jammu city had 3.2, Katra 4.2, Batote 1.7, Banihal 3.0 and Bhaderwah minus 1.8 as the minimum temperature.

The MeT office said minimum temperatures could improve marginally during the next 2-3 days as a weak Western Disturbance (WD) is approaching J&K under whose influence the night sky would remain overcast.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Patna, Dec 20 : At least three people were killed and another was critically injured in a massive road accident in Bihar's Aurangabad district on Monday.

The injured person has been identified as Satyendra Narayan Singh, President of the Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) in Aurangabad. Singh's brother-in-law and two government school teachers, who were travelling with him in a Hyundai Creta SUV, have died.

The four people were returning from Arwal to Aurangabad, when an overspeeding truck coming from the opposite direction rammed into their vehicle.

The impact of the collision was such that the car was mangled after the accident.

An officer of Obra police station said rescue operation is currently underway.

"We have been using a gas cutter to rescue one of the injured persons, Satyendra Narayan Singh. The three other bodies are still inside," he said.

Following the accident, the truck driver fled from the spot.
Gandhinagar, Dec 20 : In a joint operation, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Gujarat-Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) have seized 77 kg of heroin worth around Rs 400 crore from a Pakistani fishing boat off the Gujarat coast, officials said on Monday.

Gujarat's defence PRO said in a tweet the Coast Guard along with the state ATS apprehended the Pakistani fishing boat 'Al Huseini' with six crew members on board in the Indian waters.

"The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in a joint Ops with ATS #Gujarat has apprehended one Pak Fishing Boat "Al Huseini" with 06 crew in Indian waters carrying 77 kgs #heroin worth approx 400 crs.

Boat brought to Jakhau for further investigation." In a similar joint operation in April, a boat was apprehended with eight Pakistani nationals carrying 30 kg of heroin worth about Rs 150 crore, from the Indian waters near the Jakhau coast in Kutch.

The Gujarat ATS had also seized a heroin drug consignment worth about Rs 600 crore from Morbi district.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized around 3,000 kg of the drug, believed to be from Afghanistan and likely worth Rs 21,000 crore in the global market, from two containers at the Mundra port in Kutch earlier.
Tehran, Dec 20 : Iran has reported its first case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, a top health official announced here.

An Iranian national was tested positive with the disease after returning to the country, Xinhua news agency quoted Mohammad Mehdi Gooya, the head of management centre of infectious diseases of the Health Ministry, as saying on Sunday.

"Currently, only one case of this strain has been identified in Iran and two cases are suspected of this disease. The situation of these (two) people are being studied and the results will be made public as soon as the final test results are announced," he added.

On Sunday, the Ministry reported 1,968 new Covid cases, taking the country's total infections to 6,170,979.

The pandemic also claimed 50 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 131,083.

A total of 6,004,277 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,876 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

By Sunday, 59,126,764 Iranians have received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 50,340,978 were fully inoculated.

Meanwhile, 3,772,199 people in the country have received the third dose or the booster shot.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Rajya Sabha on Monday was adjourned till 2 p.m. after the opposition raised slogans on the issue of suspension of 12 MPs.

Earlier, a meeting of the opposition floor leaders of both Houses of Parliament to discuss further the strategies was held in Mallikarjun Kharge's office. The meeting discussed the revoking suspension of 12 members, demand for resignation of MoS Home Affairs in the Lakhimpur Kheri issue. The topic of invitation of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to the opposition party leaders was also discussed. The leaders said the government should call an all-party meet.

After the meeting, the opposition boycotted the meeting called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

CPI-M Leader E. Kareem replied to the government letter and said, "I am in receipt of your letter dated December 19, regarding the meeting of Floor Leaders of parties whose members have been suspended in the Rajya Sabha. It is quite unfortunate that the government has delayed such talks ... after 3 weeks of the suspension. Even now, the action of the government is not sincere as the meeting is meant only for the floor leaders of the suspended MP's parties." Leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said: "The government is conspiring to divide the Opposition, but the parties are united on the issue. It should call an all-party meeting." He was reacting to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi calling a meeting on Monday of the opposition parties whose MPs were suspended last month for the Winter Session.

Joshi had called the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, CPI-M to end the stalemate in the House which has been continuing since day one of the session.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu had suggested that both the parties should resolve this issue as the House could not function properly this week.

Seeking an apology from the suspended MPs, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal had alleged that even after attacking marshals and misbehaving with the female marshals, senior opposition members were unrepentant.

"The government is ready to consider their request provided they apologise," he had added.
Seoul, Dec 20 : Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, currently serving a 22-year prison term for corruption, will remain in a hospital until February 2022 for multiple illnesses, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

When admitted to a hospital in southern Seoul on November 22, Park had planned to stay there for about a month, but doctors now say that she needs at least six more weeks for treatment of back, shoulder and other ailments, according to the Ministry.

This year, the 69-year-old Park was hospitalised three times due to her chronic shoulder and lower back pain, reports Yonhap News Agency.

In 2019, she received shoulder surgery.

Park has been serving a combined 22-year prison sentence since March 2017 after being impeached and removed from office over far-reaching corruption charges and an influence-peddling scandal.

The former leader is expected to return to the Seoul Detention Centre in February unless she is pardoned or allowed a stay of execution of sentence.
Adelaide, Dec 20 : Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler survived the first session on day five of the second Ashes Test as Australia picked two more wickets to inch closer to a win. At dinner break, England are 142/6 in 74 overs with Woakes (batting 28) and Buttler (batting 16) at the crease.

Resuming from 82/4 at stumps, Australia struck on the 13th ball of the day as Ollie Pope poked at a length ball angled across from Mitchell Starc, getting a thick edge to Steve Smith at second slip. Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler joined forces for a resistance show.

But Nathan Lyon got one to slide across and trap Stokes lbw in front of middle and leg-stump. Australia took the DRS and got the on-field decision overturned, resulting in Stokes departing after resistance of 77 balls.

Woakes and Buttler then combined to put up a 35 run-stand for the seventh wicket while playing out 104 balls. Woakes was the more aggressive of the two, caressing Michael Neser through the off-side twice while bringing out the sweep against Lyon and getting a thick edge off Jhye Richardson through third man.

With the second new ball due to arrive after six overs, Australia will be backing themselves to grab the four remaining wickets while England will be dependent on the defiance from Woakes and Buttler to force a draw.

Brief Scores: Australia 473/9 dec in 150.4 overs and 230/9 dec in 61 overs (Travis Head 51; Joe Root 2/27) vs England 236 all out in 84.1 overs and 142/6 in 74 overs (Rory Burns 34, Chris Woakes 28 not out; Jhye Richardson 2/29). England need 326 runs to win.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : An online petition has been launched asking Morocco to cancel the extradition order of Idres Hasan, an Uyghur man, to China and immediately release him.

The petition said at the current moment, millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims including many family members of Uyghurs across the global diaspora are currently locked up in Chinese concentration camps tortured, killed and sentenced to long term imprisonment.

Harm of Chinese persecution is not limited to the people inside East Turkistan, Uyghurs around the world are facing persecution by the countries who had close economic and diplomatic relationship with China as China labelling every Uyghur Muslims as a terrorist.

Hasan, a 34-year-old computer software programmer and father of three young children, was arrested on July 23 while travelling from Turkey to Morocco and taken to prison near to the Tiflet town.

On December 15, activists learned that Morocco decided to deport him to China.

This deportation means a death penalty and is against every single international law, the petition said.

He has valid Turkish residency permit.

Morocco's decision of deporting Idris is supporting shameless crime of China's current genocide in East Turkistan.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Ever since her acting debut in 2003, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has proved herself in every work that has come her way. The global star says she performs better when under pressure but does not take the stress from other people's expectations.

The former Miss World, who is currently creating waves internationally with her stellar performances, says she was always told that she wouldn't be able to do it.

Proving everyone wrong, Priyanka, who is one of India's highest-paid and most popular entertainers, in a candid chat with IANS said: "I do put pressure on myself. When I put pressure on myself I perform better, I take decisions and work well under pressure. But I don't take pressure from other people's expectations.

"I never have because I would never be able to survive if I was listening to what everybody thought. I have always been told that 'Yeh thodi na kar payegi' and 'you won't be able to do it'. I have always heard that but I just keep walking forward and keep doing my work." The 39-year-old star garnered immense success with her power-packed performance in the 'Fashion' in 2008. Since then there was no looking back for Priyanka.

The actress swept the audiences off their feet with her work in films such as 'Mary Kom', '7 Khoon Maaf', 'Barfi!', 'Kaminey', 'Dil Dhadakne Do', 'Bajirao Mastani', 'The Sky Is Pink' and 'The White Tiger' to name a few.

That's not all! In Hollywood, Priyanka earned global recognition with her work in the thriller series 'Quantico' and followed that a string of hits such as 'Baywatch', 'A Kid Like Jake', 'Isn't it Romantic','We Can Be Heroes' and now she awaits the release of the much talked about film 'The Matrix Resurrections'.

How does she take her own game a notch higher? "I have said this from the beginning that I think that life is a journey, ambition is a journey. Everything is a ladder, you have to take one step forward and two steps back. So I always try... especially now in Hollywood I started from the beginning like about seven-eight years ago." Priyanka had her own share of struggles in Hollywood too.

"I had to, as a new actor, introduce myself working towards being able to get roles like this and playing leading parts." Priyanka added: "It's taken a while because I think it is required to educate this side of the world that South Asian talents can be mainstream but I feel very proud to be able to do that now and I always as an artiste try to better myself in everything I do." The Jamshedpur-born actress, who celebrated her third marriage anniversary with her American pop star husband Nick Jonas, also talked about the challenges of shooting a film like 'The Matrix Resurrections' starring Keanu Reeves.

Priyanka said: "It is a very difficult task to take on... We almost shot for seven-eight months and also we shot during Covid. So, that was difficult. Also, the scale of the movie. I think there was a lot of pressure on everyone." "But we have an amazing team, such an amazing technical team behind the movie that it was bound to be in great hands." Warner Bros Pictures is all set to release 'The Matrix Resurrections' pan-India on December 22 in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 20 : After twin political murders, less than 12 hours apart, rocked Kerala's Alappuzha district on Saturday, the state police has banned political rallies and use of mikes in public domain for three days.

State Police chief Anil Kant has directed his top officials to be on high alert and permit rallies and mike announcement only after a detailed inquiry.

K.S. Shan of Islamist organisation SDPI was killed on Saturday and a few hours later, BJP's OBC Morcha state secretary Ranjith Sreenivasan also met with the same fate.

While the last rites of Shan were held on Sunday, that of Sreenivasan's will take place on Monday.

The activists of SDPI and the RSS/BJP are accusing each other of the crimes.

On Monday, Vijay Sakhre, DGP of Police entrusted with the probe, after reaching Alappuzha said that as far, involvement of 12 people in Sreenivasan's murder have been confirmed and as the investigation progresses, the number is likely to go up.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested two RSS workers in connection with Shan's murder.

Special police teams are probing all aspects to unravel conspiracy angles if any, as a top police official has gone on record to state that no ne will be spared, even if they occupy high posts.

Anil Kant have asked police officials to cancel their leave and join back.

The Alappuzha district authorities have called for an all-party peace meeting on Tuesday.
Khartoum, Dec 20 : Thousands of Sudanese protesters managed to break a security cordon and reach the presidential palace in capital Khartoum, demanding a civilian rule on the third anniversary of the December revolution, which toppled the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir.

The huge crowd on Sunday have managed to cross three bridges linking cities of Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman despite the intensive security presence, Xinhua news agency reported.

The protesters voiced rejection to the political agreement signed between Chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the transitional Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on November 21, the report said.

Protesters from Gezira and North Kordofan states, who arrived in Khartoum on foot on Saturday evening, also took part in the demonstrations.

The security forces fired tears gas, forcing the majority of the demonstrators to retreat.

Meanwhile, the Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance, the civilian coalition leading the protests, called for continuing the resistance until "power is handed to the people".

The Sudanese Doctors' Committee said in a primary report that one protester was killed and about 80 others injured during the demonstrations.

The country has been suffering a political crisis after General Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency on October 25 and dissolved the sovereign council and government.
Chennai, Dec 20 : The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) is conducting fresh searches at 14 places related to former Electricity Minister of Tamil Nadu and AIADMK leader P. Thangamani.

The searches, which commenced on Monday morning, are being conducted at Erode, Salem, and Namakkal, and all the places are related to the former minister. The DVAC officers are conducting searches at one place in Salem, 10 in Namakkal and three in Erode.

The officials said that the searches were being conducted in a case related to the disproportionate assets of the former minister. The agency had conducted searches at 69 places associated with P. Thangamani on December 15.

The DVAC had registered a disproportionate assets case against the former Minister P. Thangamani, his son T. Dharanidharan and his daughter-in-law Shanthi.

In the FIR registered by the agency, it was mentioned that the former minister has amassed wealth to the tune of Rs 4.5 crore above his known sources of income between May 2016 and March 2020. P. Thangamani was a minister during this period.

The former minister was booked under Sections 13(2),13(1) (b), and 13(1) (e).

Thangamani was a minister for Electricity, Excise, and Prohibition during May 2016 and May 2021 in the previous AIADMK government.

AIADMK leaders and former Chief Ministers, Edappadi K. Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam, criticised the DVAC action against P. Thangamani and said that the raids were part of political vindictiveness.

It may be noted that P. Thangamani is the fifth former minister who has been subjected to DVAC searches and raids. The others are M.R. Vijayabaskar, C. Vijayabhaskar, S.P. Velumani, and K.C. Veeramani, all AIADMK leaders.
Bengaluru, Dec 20 : Five more Omicron cases have been detected in Karnataka, which took the overall tally of infections caused by the new Covid-19 variant to 19, state Health Minister K. Sudhakar said on Monday.

According to the Minister, the new cases were reported from Dharwad, Bhadravathi, Udupi and Mangaluru districts.

Even though the new patients are stable, the health department is on high alert as the new variant has been found among hostel students with no travel history.

So far, 49 samples have been sent for genomic sequencing tests and their reports are awaited.

According to the State Surveillance Unit Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare, a 54-year-old fully vaccinated male patient from Dharwad has tested positive for Omicron.

His travel history or contact with international travellers is being ascertained, health officials said.

His sample was collected on December 4 from DIMHANS in Dharwad after he positive for Covid the previous day.

He is currently healthy and is under home isolation. Four of his primary and 133 secondary contacts have been tracked and tested. Their results were negative.

Another 20-year-old Omicron positive woman's travel history and contact with international travellers is being ascertained. Her samples were collected on December 4 from a college in Shivamogga district's Bhadravathi town where she is living in a hostel, according to the health officials.

As many as 218 of her contacts have been tested and 27 of them were Covid positive. All samples have been sent for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS).

The authorities are also tracing travel or contact history of a 73-year-old man and an 82-year-old man who tested positive for the new variant. Their samples were collected from a private hospital in Udupi. At present they have no Covid-19 symptoms.

The youngest member of their family, aged 11 years, has also tested positive.

As many as 42 primary contacts and 293 secondary contacts of a 19-year-old Omicron positive college student from Mangaluru, has also been tested. His samples have also been sent for genome sequencing.
Patna, Dec 20 : Junior doctors of Bihar are on an indefinite strike from Monday after the state refused to accept their five-point charter of demands.

Due to the agitation, patients are at the receiving end as they await their turn in long queues at the medical colleges of the state.

Dr Kundan Suman, the state president of junior doctors association said that since the state government has not met their five demands, they are being forced to suspend their work from Monday.

"We have demanded for the recruitment of additional doctors in the medical colleges of Bihar. Keeping in view the third wave of Corona which is expected in January next year, the recruitment of doctors are immediately required. The idea is to reduce workload on present doctors. It will accordingly reduce the threat of infection," Suman said.

"Besides, they have demanded the raising the incentives of intern doctors from Rs 15,000 to Rs 24,000, one month bonus as encouragement amount for doctors who will give their service during Corona period etc. At present, the state government has a provision to work for a year in medical colleges for the doctors who have passed post graduate courses. We have demanded from the government to withdraw this law and give study leave to those doctors who are going for higher study," Suman said.

Apart from that, the state government should request the Centre to conduct NEET and PG examinations. Due to delay in these examinations, the state government should appoint non academic junior resident doctors.

Following the suspension of works, the patients of PMCH Patna, IGIMS Patna, NMCH Patna, DMCH Darbhanga, ANMCH Gaya, SKMCH Muzaffarpur, GMCH Bettiah, JKTMCH Madhepura and ANMCH Bhagalpur are suffering.

Dr Vidyapati Chaudhary, the dean of PMCH Patna said: "The additional secretary of health department already interacted with junior doctors and he has sent the file of three demands before the health minister and additional chief secretary of health department. Their demands are under consideration, still they have suspended their work which is attributed to inhuman behaviour with poor patients."
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Think of Haridwar, and your first thoughts are of a pilgrimage destination. But beyond the temple visits there's a lot this city in the Shivalik range has to offer. A realm of tranquility, Pilibhit House sits charmingly by the Ganges overlooking the glorious Shivalik Himalayas. This heritage residence houses the largest private bathing ghat of the region for the customary dip and some quiet moments with the river.

Tread past the arched doorway into this ancestral mansion, and the constructs of time & regulation melt away. You are led into artfully designed rooms and suites across 3 levels, that either face the open courtyard or offer views of the Ganges. In either case you stay pampered and blissful.

For an authentic experience, check into the century old aristocratic mansion on the banks of the Ganges, a living heirloom and Haridwar's most luxurious address. This noble house that belongs to Pilibhit's first family since 1913, has been meticulously restored by IHCL SeleQtions.

Guided by the traditional Indian principle of Purusartha, the 35 artfully restored rooms and graceful suites are wrapped around a serene courtyard, with balconies offering panoramic views of the Ganges and the Shivalik mountains. The alfresco seating ensures unmatched views.

The luxury destination tailor makes experiences to your needs, whether you're travelling solo or with the family. From the welcome aarti till your departure, staff at the property customize the itinerary to ensure you're pampered from the moment you check in. Everything from a dip in the Ganges, to the sunset Aarti, cable car rides to hilltop temples, a trip to the Beatles ashram and traditional Gadwali cuisine are arranged with the utmost attention to detail.

With the largest private bathing ghat in the city, one can enjoy a Ganga Aarti or Yoga at the Ganges Deck. As the Ganges calls, take a guided walk alongside the holy river, followed by the must have dip in the holy water and a meditation session. Complete the pilgrimage with visits to the Chandi Devi and Mansa Devi temples, via cable car, an adventure in itself.

A road trip away is the legendary Beatles ashram, where some of the band's greatest hits were composed. On your return to the property indulge in the lavish high tea before you get to witness the aarti (prayer) at its private ghat (bank). The pandit invites you to be part of the memorable experience and partake in the divine blessings of the Ganges. If you like, you can even sign up for a astrology, palmistry or Navgrah puja at the hotel. Guests can also trace decades of their ancestry with a private session of genealogy. The other curated experiences that evoke Puru?arthas - the four spiritual stages of life include Parthiv Snaan, an offbeat holy tour, trip to ashrams, a forest riverbed picnic.

For those interested in wildlife and traveling with families, the Rajaji National Park is within a twenty minute drive from the hotel. If you're lucky you can spot wild elephants, deer, leopards, rare bird sightings and maybe even a tiger or two. Your private safari also features high tea amidst the natural flaura and fauna so you can take in the jungle surroundings. A wetland tour of the Chiriyapur Forest Range is a great option.

On your return to the hotel rejuvenate with an invigorating therapy at the property's Jiva Spa, with its age-old Indian healing techniques and finest natural ingredients, offring wellness and meditation with expert instructors. End your day indulging in traditional Gadwali cuisine. The Dining Room presents a delicious vegetarian range of international favourites and recipes from the royal kitchens of the ancestral family. The River Deck, Pool Deck by the Mango Tree and The Terrace also make for memorable dining spots.

Celebrating the legacy of time and a sense of place, Pilibhit House brings to life the essence of Haridwar through its location, plush and tasteful decor, fluid service and Sattvik cuisine. Time honored rituals and curated experiences, make this ancestral haveli a soul-stirring address away from the chatter of city life.

Celebrate the year end and make memories that last a lifetime with its exclusive offerings for the year end, celebrations are available starting at INR 29,000 ++ and will be available for Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Making the holiday season merrier, it will feature traditional delicacies, a gingerbread house, baked goodies and more! To add to the revelry, along with their quintessential and whole sattvik food, they will be curating exclusive vegetarian barbeque grills, live food counters with piping hot kadhai milk and lots more! Along with that, a special live performance by Uttarakhand's local band - The Threads is sure to warm hearts.

Switch off from your hectic schedule and welcome a slower and reflective life. Pack your bags, get ready to celebrate with some Soul-itude, surrounded by the serenity of the Shivalik hills and your loved ones! For reservations, contact Pilibhit House at: +91 7217024116 or +91 7217024117

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Wedding seasons call for a beautiful dance performance that is captured for years to come, whether you are the bride, groom, or clan! Punit J Pathak, a prominent choreographer and one of India's top dancers, has launched his own dance courses with FrontRow's latest 'dance' offering, just in time for the wedding season! Warm-up, expression, and musicality are just a few of the simple 5 tips & tricks you may incorporate into choreographies, for a great cocktail or sangeet night!

1. Step on the beat: Imagine the beats of a song to be the blueprint to reading the music and dancing to it. When your body and mind are receptive to the beat, half the battle is won. Queue yourself to make a movement on every beat and you will soon be on your way to perfecting your thumka timings.

2. Ace the transition: Once you have mastered the movement that goes with every beat, it is time for you to bridge those movements with a transition. Transitioning movements add flow to your choreography and make it look seamless.

3. Careful of the passive arm: Dancing involves engagement of the whole body, but more often than not, our focus on a single hand movement renders the rest of the body limp. To avoid this, be careful, of the passive arm or leg. Ensure you allot a movement to them as well, so as to tie up the dance well.

4.The Magic of Props: Including props in your choreography is another smart way of adding an edge to your dance recital. They are very effective in attracting and amusing the audience. Ensure you interact with your prop well and use it to further the story of your choreography.

5.Being the expression queen: Impactful dance choreographies call for your body to be emotive. Your expressions hold the key to your audience feeling the rhythm, and it is for this reason that every smile, side-eye, and eyebrow raise counts. Adding expressions to your movements is the ultimate cherry on top.

To get more exclusive tips on preparing your choreography for the wedding season, join choreographer Punit J Pathak's masterclass on FrontRow.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
Seoul, Dec 20 : South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Monday warned of possible terrorist attacks during the upcoming year-end holiday season, stressing that terrorism is increasingly becoming an "actually existing threat" in the country.

The NIS said anti-vaccine protests in Europe and other countries could turn violent or become a target for a terrorist attack, and South Korea is no longer free from such threats, reports Yonhap News Agency.

A total of 489 materials instigating or propagandising terrorism have been blocked since an anti-terrorism act took effect in the country in 2016, and the number has been on the rise recently, according to the agency.

In South Korea, multiple suspects were detected after funneling money to overseas terrorist groups or instigating terrorism activities since the 2010s, an official said.

"Terrorism is increasingly becoming a clearly and actually existing threat," the official said, vowing to beef up efforts to protect citizens and public security.
Mumbai, Dec 20 : Rakhi Sawant was shocked and worried when during the 'Weekend ka Vaar' episode of 'Bigg Boss 15', host Salman Khan announced the eviction of her husband Ritesh due to getting lesser number of votes.

Rakhi ran behind him while Ritesh was leaving the house. It seems that moment was not easy for Rakhi. She was emotional and requested him not to go anywhere leaving her all alone. She was apprehensive he would fly off to Canada or some other place.

While shedding her tears, she said: "Don't leave me and elope to Canada or anywhere." She even held his leg and added: "You will leave me." Though Ritesh assured that he will not leave her. "I will not leave you." He asked Rakhi to concentrate on her game and win the trophy for him.

Salman also told Rakhi that Ritesh won't go anywhere leaving her alone. Salman had earlier told Ritesh that his behaviour with Rakhi is responsible for his eviction.

Later, Rakhi shared her feelings with Devoleena, saying that she won't be able to live without Ritesh. She even blamed herself for nominating him as she felt it resulted in Ritesh's eviction.

This 'Weekend ka Vaar' episode of 'Bigg Boss 15' ended with the elimination of Rakhi Sawant's husband Ritesh and Rajiv Adatia.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 15
Mumbai, Dec 20 : Continuous FIIs' selling along with caution over the rising Omicron variant cases triggered a massive slide in key domestic equity indices on Monday's post-noon trade session.

Notably, India VIX (volatility index) spiked to its nine days high levels and signified the dominance of the bears in the market.

Besides, all sectors traded in the negative territory out of which Realty, Banking and Financial counters witnessed the most weakness and selling pressure.

Consequently, at 12.45 p.m., the S&P BSE Sensex declined by 1,601.35 points or 2.81 per cent to 55,410.39 points.

Similarly, NSE Nifty50 fell by 527.25 points or 3.10 per cent to 16,457.95 points.

Initially, both the indices made a gap-down opening due to the rise in Omicron coronavirus cases worldwide.

Besides, traders were cautious with continuous net outflow of foreign funds.

The Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 17,696 crore from the Indian markets in December so far.

"Our research suggests that the levels of 16,350 may act as support levels in the market," said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research.

"If the market is unable to sustain above the level of 16,350, we can expect the market to trade till the lower range of 16,000-16,100." According to Chandan Taparia, Vice President, Equity Derivatives and Technical, Broking & Distribution, MOFSL: "Nifty opened gap down and witnessed sharp selling pressure which drooled it down to 16,539 levels." "Market breadth continues to be deep in favour of the declining counters indicating weakness swept across the street."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The mega IPO of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will be out by the end of the current fiscal, a senior Central government official said on Monday.

According to Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), the IPO plan is on course.

"Some media speculation doubting the feasibility of LIC IPO this fiscal year is not correct. It is reiterated that plan is on course for the IPO in the last quarter of this fiscal," the Secretary tweeted.

The IPO is expected to become the biggest one in India and it may fetch the government around Rs 1 lakh crore.

Post the Union Budget FY22, the government has taken several legislative and executive steps to pave way for the mega IPO.

The LIC, a statutory Corporation constituted under the LIC Act 1956, is a leading life insurer of India wholly owned by the government.

It has three branches outside India - in the UK, Fiji and Mauritius, a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore and Joint Ventures in Bahrain, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh.

Its subsidiaries in India include LIC Pension Fund Ltd, and LIC Cards Services Ltd.

Its associates include the IDBI Bank Ltd, the LIC Mutual Fund and the LIC Housing Finance Ltd.
Seoul: In this file photo, President Moon Jae-in speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2021.(Yonhap/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Seoul, Dec 20 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday instructed national university hospitals to focus their medical resources on caring for critically ill Covid-19 patients.

Moon's order came as the country has seen a surge in serious cases, with the number hitting an all-time high of 1,025 on Sunday amid a shortage of hospital beds across the country, reports Xinhua news agency.

"I ask national university hospitals to focus their medical capacities on treating critically ill Covid-19 patients," Moon said during a meeting with his aides, according to his spokesperson Park Kyung-mee.

The President asked that public hospitals in the capital area change their specialization to infectious diseases where possible, and that private hospitals support the effort by treating other patients, Park said in a written briefing.

"I ask that public sector medical workers be assigned to treat Covid-19 patients as much as possible," Moon also said, citing doctors serving in the military.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Homegrown audio accessories brand Boult Audio on Monday launched 'AirBass Propods X' earbuds in the Indian market.

The earbuds will be available for a price of Rs 1,499 on Amazon.com with a standard industry warranty of one year.

"The AirBass Propods X has a uniquely built design that's crafted for high ergonomics. It features an angled bud with extra-soft silicone tips for added comfort during long use. The body is built with a high-quality and premium-finish ABS shell which also protects it from water and sweat," the company said in a statement.

The earbuds are touch-sensitive so one can conveniently use your fingertips to adjust the volume, change tracks, attend calls or command your voice assistant.

For connectivity, the Propods X use Bluetooth 5.1 over a longer operation range from the source. The device is IPX5 water resistant and it can comfortably be used outdoors or in the gym.

In addition, these earbuds can be used separately after successful pairing. Not only listening to both earbuds in stereo mode, but also it can be used as monopods for music and take calls.

The device offers playback time of up to 8 hours for every charge. Carrying case can give 4 additional charges to the earbuds making a total play-time of up to 32 hours and it is equipped with a USB-C port.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has castigated Prime Minister Imran Khan for allegedly defaming the country and its political parties only to hide his own corruption at a time when foreign dignitaries were in the capital to attend the 17th extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dawn news reported.

Speaking at a news conference, PML-N's information secretary and MNA Marriyum Aurangzeb asked the Prime Minister to step down from the office, if he really wanted to provide relief to the masses.

Referring to the Khan's interview to Al Jazeera on December 17 in which he had once again blamed the past rulers' corruption for the "country's destruction", she said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had already completed more than three years of its term, but it seemed that the Prime Minister had been suffering from "Sharif family phobia" as he kept on mentioning the names of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif all the time, instead of highlighting his own achievements.

Aurangzeb questioned the timing of, what she called, the political interview and alleged that it was an attempt to sabotage and damage the country's image at a time when the foreign ministers of the Islamic countries were arriving in Pakistan for the OIC meeting.

She alleged that Khan had committed the same act when Chinese President Xi Jinping was to visit the country in 2014 during the PML-N government's time.

She said it seemed that the prime minister did not possess the mental capacity to understand the sensitivity and importance of the OIC gathering and how he should present a positive image of the country to the leaders of the Muslim world in Pakistan, Dawn news reported.

This, she said, was because Khan knew nothing other than persecuting and victimising the opposition and blaming them for his failures.

Aurangzeb further alleged that the Prime Minister was bringing a bad name to Pakistan only to hide his own incompetence.
Adelaide, Dec 20 : Jos Buttler is leading England's resistance as Australia now need just two wickets to win the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval. At tea, England are 180/8 in 108 overs with Buttler (batting 25) and Stuart Broad (yet to get off the mark) at the crease.

Starting from 142/6 at dinner break, Chris Woakes got going with two boundaries through leg-side off Marnus Labuschagne. Woakes, along with Jos Buttler, batted out seven overs of the second new ball as Australia weren't able to get a breakthrough.

Woakes drove Jhye Richardson through cover but on the next ball, the stand of 61 off 190 balls was brought to an end by the pacer ending the all-rounder's stubborn stay with a nip-backer sneaking through the gate to hit the top of middle stump.

Buttler showed remarkable application, patience and determination in leading the stubborn resistance by England's lower order. He shielded Ollie Robinson from facing the pacers and allowed him to face off-spin of Lyon, a tactic which worked for around 11 overs.

Robinson hung around for 39 balls before edging to Smith at first slip off Lyon.

Broad was adjudged lbw off Lyon for nought. But he took the review and got to overturn the on-field decision as replays showed a thick inside edge.

Earlier, Australia struck on the 13th ball of the day as Ollie Pope poked at a length ball angled across from Mitchell Starc, getting a thick edge to Steve Smith at second slip. Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler joined forces for a resistance show.

But Nathan Lyon got one to slide across and trap Stokes lbw in front of middle and leg-stump. Australia took the DRS and got the on-field decision overturned, resulting in Stokes departing after resistance of 77 balls.

Woakes and Buttler then combined to put up a 35 run-stand for the seventh wicket while playing out 104 balls. Woakes was the more aggressive of the two, caressing Michael Neser through the off-side twice while bringing out the sweep against Lyon and getting a thick edge off Jhye Richardson through third man.

With the final session only left in the match, England will be hoping that Buttler, Broad and James Anderson can save the match under lights.

Brief Scores: Australia 473/9 dec in 150.4 overs and 230/9 dec in 61 overs (Travis Head 51, Joe Root 2/27) vs England 236 all out in 84.1 overs and 180/8 in 108 overs (Rory Burns 34, Chris Woakes 28; Jhye Richardson 3/37, Mitchell Starc 2/26). England need 288 runs to win.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Prayagraj and participate in a programme that will be attended by over two lakh women on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said the programme was being held as per the vision of the Prime Minister to empower women, especially at the grassroots level by providing them with necessary skills, incentives and resources.

During the programme, the Prime Minister will transfer an amount of Rs 1,000 crore in the bank account of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), benefitting around 16 lakh women members of the SHGs.

This transfer is being done under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), with 80,000 SHGs receiving Community Investment Fund (CIF) of Rs 1.10 lakh per SHG and 60,000 SHGs receiving Revolving Fund of Rs 15,000 per SHG.

"The programme will also witness the Prime Minister encouraging Business Correspondent-Sakhis (B.C.-Sakhis), by transferring Rs 4,000 as first month's stipend in account of each of the 20,000 B.C.-Sakhis. When B.C.-Sakhis commence their work as providers of doorstep financial services at grassroots level, they are paid a stipend of Rs 4000 each for six months, so that they get stabilised in their work and then start earning through the commission on transactions," the PMO said.

During the programme, the Prime Minister will also be transferring a total amount of over Rs 20 crore to more than one lakh beneficiaries under the Mukhya Mantri Kanya Sumangala Scheme.

The Scheme provides conditional cash transfer to a girl child at different stages of her life. The total transfer is Rs 15,000 per beneficiary. The stages are at birth (Rs 2000), on completing one year complete vaccination (Rs 1,000), on admission in Class I (Rs 2,000), on admission in Class 6 (Rs 2,000), on admission in Class 9 (Rs 3,000), on admission in any degree/ diploma course after passing Class 10 or 12 (Rs 5,000).

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of 202 'Supplementary Nutrition Manufacturing Units'. "These units are being funded by the SHGs and will be constructed at the cost of around Rs one crore for one unit. These units will supply the Supplementary Nutrition under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in 600 blocks of the state," the PMO added.
Madrid, Dec 20 : Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that he will meet the leaders of the country's 17 autonomous communities to discuss measures for controlling the sharp rise of Covid-19 cases.

Sanchez's announcement came after the Health Ministry confirmed last week that the 14-day incidence of Covid-19 had climbed to 511 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, returning to the level of a "very high risk" for the first time since early August, reports Xinhua news agency.

"We cannot accept this accumulated incidence as good," said Sanchez, highlighting the need to "intensify actions against the virus", and expressing the hope that "shared measures that can be implemented in the next few weeks" would be agreed.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the success of Spain's vaccination campaign, with 90 per cent of the population over 12 years being fully inoculated against the virus.

"Vaccination is the best weapon against the virus and we must persevere with it: get vaccinated, vaccinated and vaccinated," said Sanchez, adding other measures, such as wearing masks, have "also produced good results".

As of Monday, Spain's overall Covid caseload and death toll stood at 5,455,527 and 88,708, respectively.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
December 20 : Alia Bhatt has been super busy launching her forthcoming film, Brahmastras motion posture in Delhi and Hyderabad followed by RRR pre-release event in Mumbai. Amidst such a tight schedule, the Gully Boy actress shared a chilled out picture on her Instagram handle.

Alia shared a picture taken in her bedroom, it seemed. In the photo, the actress can be seen lying on her bed with her white Persian pet cat Edward. Sharing the picture, Alia wrote, IRL (in real life)," she also added a monkey emoji in the caption.

Alia on Sunday evening attended the RRR pre-release event in Mumbai. At the mega event, the actress looked stunning in a golden lehenga by Sabyasachi Mukherji. She paired her golden netted lehenga with a golden sleeveless blouse and a golden velvet dupatta with heavy zari border. Alia left her hair open and styled her look with big golden jhumkas. Sharing a picture of Alia in the same attire, makeup artist Puneet B Saini, wrote, Absolutely Stunning!!!! The Beautiful Alia Bhatt  Tonight for the RRR Mega Event in Mumbai.

Recently, Alia was in Hyderabad with co-actor Ranbir Kapoor, filmmaker Ayan Mukerji, and producer Karan Johar for an event for their upcoming film Brahmastra. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Mouni Roy and Dimple Kapadia.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Alia has several projects in her kitty. While she is currently working on Karan Johars directorial Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani with Ranveer Singh, she will be seen next in SS Rajamouli's RRR, which will get a pan-India release next month. Her film Gangubai Kathiawadi, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, will be screened at the 72nd edition of the Berlin International Film Festival early next year. The film will hit the theatres on February 18 next year. Alia has also wrapped up her home production Darlings with Shefali Shah.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday blamed the government for the stalemate in Parliament and said that the onus of running the House is on the government.

Countering the government's charge accusing the opposition of not allowing the House to function, Rahul Gandhi said: "We are not being allowed to raise issues in the House. We want the government to remove Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni and discuss the Lakhimpur Kheri case in the House but the government did not allow us to do so." He added, "We wanted to raise the issue of Ladakh, but the government did not allow. Similarly, the government did not allow discussion on the issues of farmers, suspension of Rajya Sabha MPs and then accuses us that we are not allowing the House to function." He said that it is the government's responsibility to run the House and conduct business in a proper way.

Responding to the phone tapping case, Rahul said that even in the Pegasus case, the government did not allow discussion in the House. He alleged that democracy is under attack and this is happening time and again.

Responding to Rahul Gandhi's allegations, Leader of the Rajya Sabha and Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that if the onus of running Parliament is on the government, it is also the responsibility of the opposition to cooperate.

Targeting the opposition parties, Goyal said that the MPs create a ruckus, hurt the dignity of the House and are not even ready to apologise. It shows the mentality of the opposition.

Goyal added that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi had called the leaders of the suspended MPs for a meeting at the behest of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, but they did not come.

Speaking on Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge's allegation of breaking opposition unity, Goyal said that if he had anything to suggest, he should have come for the meeting. The government would have called other parties also.

Reacting to Congress MP Anand Sharma's advice to follow the example of 2010, Piyush Goyal said that no BJP MP was suspended in 2010, but still Arun Jaitley as the Leader of Opposition at that time criticized the behaviour of MPs and expressed regret several times. He said the MPs had also personally apologized at that time.

Pralhad Joshi claimed that in India's parliamentary history since 1962, MPs have been suspended several times and every time the suspension was revoked after tendering of apology.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Lucknow, Dec 20 : Trouble is brewing for the BJP in the Nishad community that is getting increasingly restive over the reservation issue.

The Nishads were looking forward to an announcement in this regard by the union Home Minister Amit Shah at the joint BJP-Nishad party rally in Lucknow last week.

However, Shah did not even mention the issue of reservation at the rally and after it ended, angry protestors broke chairs and shouted slogans against the BJP.

"Sanjay Nishad promised us that the announcement for reservation would be made in the rally, but we have been duped. Now our stand is clear - no reservation, no vote for BJP", said Gopichand Nishad, a senior leader from Kaushambhi.

Lautanram Nishad, another rival Nishad leader, said: "Sanjay Nishad has sold off the entire community and has become the member of the UP legislative council on the strength of the community. It is good that our people have seen through his game plan before the elections and now they will teach him and the BJP a lesson." Sanjay Nishad was evasive on the issue. "We expected an announcement in the rally. I will talk to the BJP leadership because they have promised me reservation for my community," he said.

The BJP, according to sources, is wary of making any such commitment before the election since it would open the proverbial Pandora's box for them.

"If we announce reservation for Nishads, other communities will also come up with similar demands. The Kayasthas are already seeking reservation in the OBC category. Besides, Dalits will also rise in protest because they will find that their quota is being encroached upon by Nishads. We cannot afford this kind of situation when polls are just a few weeks away," said a senior BJP functionary.

Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav has further queered the pitch for the BJP by saying that if voted to power he would order a caste census and ensure reservation accordingly.

It is noteworthy that the Nishad community has been demanding inclusion and reservation in the scheduled caste category but due to constitutional and political reasons, the issue has been left pending.

Previous government in the state have taken the decision to include 17 OBC castes, including Nishad, in the SC category, but the same was stayed by courts since the issue can be decided only by the Centre.

The courts said that such a decision by the state government was in violation of Article 341 of the Constitution.

In 2005, even during Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime, the order to include 11 OBC castes in the SC category got stuck in the legal grooves. Mayawati was also ready to include these OBC castes in SC but also wanted the reservation quote for scheduled castes to be increased.
Manila, Dec 20 : The death toll from the powerful typhoon Rai that lashed the Philippines last week has increased to 208, a top police official confirmed on Monday, adding that 52 people were still unaccounted for.

However, Philippine National Police spokesperson Colonel Roderick Alba only provided details of the reported 29 deaths caused by typhoon Rai, the 15th and the most destructive typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country this year, reports Xinhua news agency.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported only 58 deaths on Monday. Only four of the 58 are confirmed.

The agency also reported that 18 people were missing.

Bohol in the central Philippines is one of the hardest-hit by Rai.

Bohol Governor Arthur Yap said on Monday that 94 people died in his province alone, while at least 18 more are missing.

The NDRRMC said close to 1 million people have been affected by the typhoon, including 442,424 displaced residents.

It added that the initial estimate of damage to agriculture is 118.28 million pesos and 225.17 million pesos worth of infrastructure.

On December 16, the typhoon first slammed into Siargao Island, off the eastern coast on Mindanao island .

Rai lashed the Philippines for three days, causing flooding and landslides and leaving a trail of destruction in the central and southern region, including some areas in the main Luzon island.

"We are still assessing the damage, but it is huge. The typhoon leveled the entire community to the ground, no electricity, water, and food," said Defence Secretary and NDRRMC Chairman Delfin Lorenzana.

He said the government is now addressing the food, water, and medical care of those injured.

"I have directed the armed forces to deploy all available assets such as ships, boats, aircraft, and trucks to bring relief goods to the stricken areas and the deployment of troops if necessary," Lorenzana said.

Meanwhile, NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal said 29 foreign nationals have been evacuated from Siargao Island, famous for surfing.

"The tourists have been identified, and they are in good condition," he added.
New Delhi: Lok Sabha adjourned as Opposition MPs protest demanding the resignation of MoS Home Ajay Kumar Mishra whose son Ashish Mishra is an accused in Lakhimpur Kheri violence, during the ongoing winter session of Parliament in New Delhi on Thursd Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Lok Sabha on Monday passed 'The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' amid protest by the opposition.

The Bill seeks to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem.

This will allow the electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters for the purpose of establishing the identity.

The Bill was passed by voice vote.

Soon after the passage of the Bill, the House was adjourned till Tuesday.
Guwahati, Dec 20 : Another Assam Congress MLA Sashi Kanta Das, who was elected from the Raha assembly seat in the March-April assembly polls, on Monday met Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma fuelling speculation of his joining the ruling BJP.

Das after meeting Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that the Chief Minister is very positive on various developmental issues. "I know him (Sarma, who was earlier in the Congress) since his Congress days. He is a dynamic leader," the Congress MLA said.

He said that he met the Chief Minister over certain development projects related to his constituency and he is still a member of the Congress. "Meeting the CM of the state does not mean I will join the BJP. I met him because I want development in my constituency," the Congress legislator said.

"Moved by PM Sri Narendra Modi's vision of development, Hon MLA of Raha of INC Sri Sashi Kanta Das has pledged his commitment to support Assam Govt politically. This is exemplary and will strengthen governance. I & BJP Assam President Bhabesh Kalita hail this decision," the Chief Minister tweeted.

Few months back two Congress MLAs -- Rupjyoti Kurmi (Mariani assembly seat) and Sushanta Borgohain (Thowra seat) and All India United Democratic Front's (AIUDF) MLA Phanidhar Talukdar (Bhabanipur seat) - joined the BJP resigning from the assembly memberships.

All the three turncoats -- Kurmi, Borgohain and Talukdar had contested the October 30 by-elections on BJP tickets and won their respective assembly seats raising the BJP's strength to 62 in the 126-member Assam Assembly.

One seat (Majuli) is lying vacant after Union Minister and former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal resigned from the house following his election to the Rajya Sabha on September 27.
Kochi, Dec 20 : The Kerala High Court, which has been hauling up police and the government over their inaction in a false theft case against an 8-year-old girl, on Monday refused to accept the report filed by the state.

The state government's report pointed out that the police officer had not misbehaved or done anything that would have caused mental agony to the little girl.

To substantiate it, the statement of four witnesses was also produced before the court.

The girl had approached the High Court seeking a compensation for the trauma she faced due to Rejitha, the pink police official. During the last hearing, Justice Devan Ramachandran had said it was justified to grant compensation as sought by the petitioner and asked the government as to how much it was willing to pay her.

To this, the state government said they do not intent to pay any compensation as there was no wrong done at all.

The court then asked a top police official to see the video of the entire sequence of events and posted the case for Wednesday.

This was the fifth time in the past six weeks that the court spoke tough against the acts of both the woman police official and the top brass of the police for not taking any action.

The Pink Police unit of the Kerala Police is an all women team that aims at protecting women in public, private, and digital spaces.

In her petition, the girl stated that despite several pleas, no action was taken against the woman police officer, hence they moved the court for justice and after the trial began they said since they failed to get justice from any quarters, they have rejected the unconditional apology that the erring police official had tendered.

The incident occurred on August 27, when 38-year-old Jayachandran and his daughter were out on the main road in the outskirts here near Attingal to watch the movement of a huge trailer carrying equipment to the ISRO unit.

Suddenly Rejitha, the woman officer finding her mobile missing, accused Jayachandran who was standing near the police patrol vehicle, of stealing it. She even said that he must have passed the mobile to his eight-year-old daughter, his accomplice.

She publicly humiliated the father and the daughter and threatened to take both of them to the nearby police station. This was witnessed by a large crowd.

Later, Rejitha found the mobile phone in the vehicle. The entire episode was filmed by an onlooker, who shared it on social media and it went viral.

On August 31, Jayachandran approached the state police chief Anil Kant seeking action against Rejitha, as his daughter was in a state of shock for being publicly admonished.

Promising action, Kant, asked South Zone IG Harshita Attaluri to conduct a probe and Rejitha was transferred.

However, it was found out that Rejitha was transferred to a more convenient location and there was actually no action taken against her.

Finding no further action in September, the family observed a day long sit-in in front of the Kerala Secretariat protesting inaction against the woman police officer. When this also went unnoticed, the family approached the High Court.

Hearing the statement given by the government in the court, Jayachandran said it's really surprising that they say four witnesses testifying there was no bad behaviour at all.

"I wish to ask, till date, despite me knocking on all doors, the police probe team till date has not taken a statement from my daughter or me, but they took statements from 4. They are trying to protect this erring lady official and none knows why the state government is spending so much money to protect her," said Jayachandran.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested two notorious criminals who were wanted in a shootout incident in the northern Delhi's Subzi Mandi area, an official said here on Monday.

The accused, identified as Ashok Pushkar, a resident of Malka Ganj, Delhi and Vikas Khari, a resident of Rampura, Delhi were arrested on December 15 near Paschim Vihar West Metro Station in the city.

Sharing details about the operation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Jasmeet Singh said, on November 6 the family members of Vicky, a friend of Ashok Pushkar were attacked by the members of a rival group in a money dispute. In retaliation, the accused duo -- Ashok Pushkar and Vikas Khari -- came riding on a bike and fired towards the members of a rival party in which one Arbaaz got injured. Thereafter, a fierce fighting took place between these two groups. After shooting at Arbaaz, associates and family members of Arbaaz armed with firearms, sticks, iron rods came and attacked various members of other party (Ashok Pushkar) and stabbed several persons in their house.

Both the accused Ashok and Vikas were absconding since the day of the incident.

The Southern range of Special cell on December 15 got a tip-off about the movement of the two absconding criminals that both were hiding in the area of Paschim Vihar. The cops received an information that the accused duo would come near Paschim Vihar metro station between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Subsequently, the police team laid a trap and apprehended boh the accused and recovered two semi-automatic pistols of .32 and 8 live cartridges i.e. one pistol and 5 cartridges from Ashok and one pistol and 3 cartridges from Vikas Khari.

"A case under appropriate sections of law was registered at the Special Cell police station in this regard against the duo," the DCP said.

During interrogation, the accused Ashok disclosed that he, with Vikas Khari, was planning to again attack the members of another party. The police said that both the accused have also been previously arrested in two different cases of murder in 2014. Both were lodged in the same jail where they met with each other.

At present, the duo has been out of jail since June 2020 on interim bail by the general orders of the Delhi High Court due to prevailing Covid situation in Delhi. But none of the two surrendered with jail authorities even after court orders in the month of September, this year.

Further investigation is in progress, the police added.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Hitting out at the BJP, senior Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut on Monday said that despite all its efforts, it could not topple the three-party coalition Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra which will complete its full term.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, Raut also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after tying up with the Shiv Sena has started talking the language of Hindu and Hindutva.

Q. Amit Shah has alleged that you (Shiv Sena) relinquished Hindutva for power? A. It does not suit the Home Minister of the country to use such language. Pune is the land of Shivaji Maharaj. It was from here that Lokmanya Tilak started the freedom movement. We consider Pune a holy land. People go there and try to tell the truth, but those who are unable to do so, resort to lies. But we have neither betrayed nor deceived anyone, it is known to all. Now we (BJP and Shiv Sena) are on two separate paths in politics. You do your politics, we are doing our own. You (BJP) are repeatedly trying to topple the Maharashtra government and have failed miserably. Our government will complete its full term, and this is a 25-year arrangement.

Q. Leave aside BJP, you have been accused of compromising Hindutva for the sake of power.

A. (Laughing) The answer is in the question itself. If we were Hindutvawadi, then why did they (BJP) leave us in 2014? In 2014, you first left us for power.

Q. You have been accused of making an alliance with the Congress, and the NCP for power.

A. So what if we went with the Congress? Now Rahul Gandhi has also started talking about Hindus and Hindutva. This is the result of our friendship.

Q. Amit Shah has also said that the Maharashtra goverenment is running on three wheels which are punctured.

A. We are happy that our government is running on a three-wheeler auto-rickshaw. This is a vehicle of the poor. The Central government has increased the prices of daily commodities so much that people have no option but to travel in auto-rickshaws, don't they?
Hyderabad, Dec 20 : Telugu actress Hamsa Nandini took to social media to announce her breast cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy.

Hamsa Nandini conveyed that she has been diagnosed with Grade III Invasive Carcinoma (breast cancer). The actress who discovered a small lump in her chest area was diagnosed with cancer, for which she got operated on.

Her lump was removed as the oncologists said it had not spread much as she got the diagnosis in the early stages itself.

Hamsa Nandini's heartfelt message reads, "No matter what life throws at me, no matter how unfair it may seem, I refuse to play the victim. I refuse to be ruled by fear, pessimism, and negativity. I refuse to quit. With courage and love, I will push forward." The actress has to undergo 16 cycles of chemotherapy and radiation for the next three years and so far she has undergone nine cycles of chemotherapy, as per her post.

Nandini's cancer is said to be hereditary, which she learned after taking a genetic test called BRCA.

This means that even if she gets over this disease, she has a 70 per cent chance of redeveloping breast cancer and she has a 45 per cent chance of developing ovarian cancer.

The brave actress recalled her mother's death who also succumbed to the same type of cancer.

Nandini wants to educate and fill motivation in people who are facing similar situations. Her lovely message stands as motivation to the victims, as she calls to fight against all the odds.

Nandini, who made her mark with her appearance on the big screen, is largely known for her sizzling dance numbers in Telugu movies 'Atharintiki Dharedi' and 'Soggade Chinni Nayana'.
Chennai, Dec 20 : PMK founder leader Dr S. Ramadoss has urged the Tamil Nadu government to clarify on the status of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) exemption bill.

He said that no progress has been made after the bill was passed in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

In a statement on Monday, the PMK leader said that the bill was passed in the Assembly on September 13 and that December 21 will mark 100 days of its passage.

The PMK leader said that there was a time frame to get approval for the bill and that lack of clarity on the bill would not help the students. Ramadoss said that the next admission process is about to commence but the Governor is yet to give his nod to it.

He said that even after the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues have met the Governor for getting the bill passed and to get the Presidential assent, no positive result has come.

The PMK leader said that the DMK government cannot escape from its responsibility citing the delay from the Governor's end. He said that the DMK had made the election promise of getting NEET exempted.

Dr Ramadoss said that politics was the only reason for the delay in getting consent for the bill.
Chennai, Dec 20 : Workers digging a pit in a paddy field 100 metres away from the proposed museum at the Keeladi excavation site were in for a surprise when the top of an ancient ring well surfaced in the area.

The pit was being dug to drain out water from the paddy field of Balakrishnan, a farmer of the area, when the workers spotted the top of the ringed well on Sunday.

When contacted, a senior official with the Keeladi excavation site said that workers spotted the first ring two feet below the ground level. Tamil Nadu state Archeology department commissioner, R. Sivanantham directed the Keeladi excavation site officials to visit the paddy field of Balakrishnan and to ascertain about the ring well.

P. Baskar, Co-director of the Keeladi excavation site, and his team reached the paddy field and found that only one ring was available as water from the pit had filled it. Baskar while speaking to IANS said: "We found that the ring well could well be of one-metre diameter ased on the visibility from one side. We will inspect the well after the water from the pit drains out and it would take one week to ten days for it." The Keeladi excavation official said that other ring wells which were discovered during earlier excavations were also of one-meter diameter. It may be noted that this was the third ring well to be discovered from Keeladi while 15 such ring wells were detected from Agaram earlier.

The seventh phase of Keeladi excavation is already over three months before and the excavation officials are of the belief that more details about the ring well could be ascertained during the eight excavations.

Keeladi excavation site is a Sangam age settlement that is being excavated by the Archeological Survey of India and the Tamil Nadu archaeological department.
London, Dec 20 : The number of people dying due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the UK rose to 12 on Monday from seven reported on Sunday.

On December 13, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced the first death due to Omicron in the country.

The latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency also show that 104 people have been admitted to hospitals with confirmed Omicron infection, the Independent reported.

Some 12,133 confirmed cases of Omicron were also reported on Sunday.

However, these figures are likely to be undercounting the true numbers, as not all Covid cases are checked in labs to ascertain if they are the Omicron variant, the report said.

Meanwhile, experts on the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have warned that there are probably thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England alone.

The SAGE team has advised the government to limit social contact and ban mixing of households during Christmas. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has also refused to rule out another lockdown before Christmas, the Daily Mail reported.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, the government "can't make hard, fast guarantees" that there will not be a Christmas lockdown, the BBC reported.

"I'm not going to trail things when decisions haven't been made," he said, when asked whether England can expect more restrictions in the coming days.

This comes as cases of the Omicron variant have risen by 50 per cent in just 24 hours to 37,101 as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a further 12,133 cases on Monday.

Health officials also briefed the Cabinet on Sunday that more measures are required to stop hospital admissions soaring above 3,000 per day in England.

Johnson had earlier warned of a "tidal wave of Omicron" in the country. As the highly transmissible variant is known to evade vaccine efficacy, the country set a new target to administer booster dose to all by the end of December, from the earlier January.

A yet-to-be peer-reviewed study by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has also projected that under the assumption of low immune escape, the UK will see 24,700 deaths, while in the case of high immune escape, the country will witness 74,800 deaths.
Mumbai, Dec 20 : In another stunner, a prominent diamantaire has allegedly defaulted repaying loans worth over a staggering Rs 6,710-crore to the government-backed private sector IDBI Bank Ltd, Mumbai, official sources said.

The outstanding amount also comprises a significant foreign currency component of more than $161,000, or roughly Rs 1.20 crore.

Banking circles describe it as the "second biggest" default of its kind notched by a diamond industry entity after the infamous Punjab National Bank scam of around Rs 14,000 crore involving Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi - erupted in early 2018, shaking the country's banking industry.

The IDBI Bank Ltd - owned by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, which is preparing for its much-anticipated IPO in early 2022 - has initiated measures to recover the outstanding monies from the defaulters.

The diamond company is Sanghavi Exports International Pvt Ltd, with headquarters in Bandra Kurla Complex, besides its 4 associate companies and 13 persons who are directors/promoters/guarantors, etc.

The Mumbai-based companies are: Sanghavi Diamonds Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, Sanghavi Jewelry Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, Sanghavi Star Retail Pvt Ltd, and Royal Estate Holding (India) Pvt Ltd, two factories in Surat and an office in Mumbai.

The directors named are the trio of brothers - Kirtilal R. Sanghavi, Chandrakant R. Sanghavi and Rameshchandra R. Sanghavi - all based in the diamond industry hub of Surat.

Besides there are other family members, men and women, from Surat and Mumbai, listed directors/promoters/guarantors - Kalpesh V. Sanghavi, Jayesh V. Sanghavi, Ketankumar V. Sanghavi, Virendrakumar K. Sanghavi, Aagam C. Sanghavi, Bharati V. Sanghavi, Nikita V. Sanghavi, Premila K. Sanghavi, Kalpana R. Sanghavi, Devika C. Sanghavi.

Indications that all is not well with the Sanghavi clan came way back in October 2018 when a consortium of lenders led by Bank Of India had seized the company's properties in the Bharat Diamond Bourse, Bandra Kurla Complex, for allegedly failing to repay loans worth Rs 468 crore.

In a sharp reaction, banking authority and All India Bank Officers' Association leader Vishwas Utagi said the new revelations are "truly astounding" and wondered why it remained under wraps till now especially since it had a poor past track record.

The IDBI Bank Ltd is owned jointly by the Centre and LIC almost to the tune of 97 per cent, yet it was accorded the status of a 'private bank' by the Reserve Bank of India in 2019, he pointed out.

"However, with such mega scams lurking in 'the private bank owned by the government', who will now be held responsible for the losses - the Centre, the LIC, or the IDBI Bank officials - particularly since the LIC IPO is coming up soon," Utagi told IANS.

The banking expert demanded a thorough probe by the CBI/ED or other agencies and also to issue alerts to ensure they don't sneak out of the country like the 'Mama-Bhanja' duo of Modi-Choksi.

Official sources confirmed that the IDBI Bank Ltd had served notices a couple of months ago to all concerned but there has been no response.

Diamond industry sources claim the Sanghavi clan has not left the country and are "very much present" in Gujarat and Mumbai, and even regularly seen in public.

Recently, the IDBI Bank Ltd followed up with public notices calling upon all the aforementioned entities and individuals to cough up the long-pending dues.

It has further warned the public to refrain from any kind of deals with them since the bank has to recover the huge amounts due from them.

Efforts by IANS to get a version from the IDBI Bank Ltd's team did not materialize.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
Srinagar, Dec 20 : Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested two terrorist associates of proscribed terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), officials said on Monday.

"Pulwama Police arrested two terrorist associates of JeM outfit with assistance of army's 55 RR and 182 Bn of the CRPF," police said.

"Incriminating material and ammunition recovered from their possession. Case under relevant sections of law has been registered," police said.

On Sunday, one terrorist associate was arrested from South Kashmir's Anantnag district in a joint operation by the police and the army along with arms and ammunition including one Chinese pistol.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 amid the Opposition's strong demand for more consultation on it.

This Bill seeks to link electoral rolls to the Aadhaar number, allowing electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers of applicants wanting to register as voters to establish their identity.

Replying to the debate, Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju said that this Bill will bring important electoral reforms in the country. We wanted the entire House to participate in the debate but they have been protesting and sloganeering in the House.

He added that this Bill was brought after wide consultations with the Election Commission and also with the state governments and it will purify the electoral process in the country.

He said that the government has brought the Bill after the recommendation of the Standing Committee Report of the Department of Personnel and Training, Law and Justice, consisting of members of all political parties. The protesting members have either not gone through the draft Bill or are deliberately showing ignorance of the new provisions.

"The voting age was lowered from 21 years to 18 years in 1987 but the qualifying date was kept as January 1 every year only for getting listed in the voter list, Now, under the new amendment, there will four dates such as January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 every year so that the any eligible person can get them enrolled once they attain the age of 18 years," Rijiju informed the House.

He appealed to the members to pass the Bill unanimously as it was in the interest of the voters and the country.

Earlier,debating the Bill, the Congress Party floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked why the government was in a hurry to bring this Bill as many MPs have requested the government to forward it to a Parliamentary Committee.

"The way Bill was introduced in the morning and being passed in such a hurry today only was not correct and it should be sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee," Chowdhury said.

DMK member TR Baalu said that this Bill needs more public opinion while BSP MP Ritesh Pandey said that this Bill needed more consultation.

While debating on the Bill, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said, "the current Law Minister is killing democracy." BJP member Nishikant Dube while speaking on the Bill said that the Congress has always tried to demean the Constitutional institutions in the country and they made the former Election Commissioner of India a Member of Parliament. They even got a Nepalese citizen elected to this House on fake citizenship documents.

This Bill will prevent the Bangladeshi and Nepali refugees from getting enlisted in the Indian voter list. Parties like the Congress and the TMC are objecting to this Bill as this will impact their vote banks, he said.

Opposition members Asaduddin Owaisi and Supriya Sule asked the government to bring a fresh bill after more consultations while RSP MP NK Premchandran told the Chair that they were not even allowed to seek a division on this Bill.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Dakshina Kannada, Dec 20 : Senior advocate K.S.N. Rajesh Bhat, accused in the sexual harassment case filed by a law graduate student, finally surrendered before the local court in Mangaluru in Karnataka on Monday.

The police had formed special teams to nab him and had been searching for the accused for more than two months.

The victim law graduate student had filed a case of sexual harassment against Bhat on October 18. The police department has suspended two police officers, including a woman sub-inspector, for dereliction of duty in connection with the case and arrested three persons.

The victim earlier suspected foul play in the investigation of the case by the Karnataka police department. She even came out in the open and questioned the police as to why they have not been able to arrest the accused, a senior advocate, even after filing an FIR against him.

The police had issued a lookout notice through Intelligence Bureau (IB) to all the airports of the country to prevent him from escaping to a foreign country. A special team was formed under ACP Ranjith Bandaru to nab the accused.

Four teams were formed to nab the accused. The police had given notice to banks to freeze the accused person's 12 bank accounts. They were asked to inform police whenever there was a transaction by the accused.

The accused advocate had been suspended from the membership of the Karnataka State Bar Council until further orders and instructions were given not to practice at the courts following the FIR on him.

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) authorities had directed the accused advocate not to continue as the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) of ACB at Third Additional District and Sessions court.

Further investigations are on.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : A tribunal, which is examining the validity of the five-year extension of ban on Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) by the Centre as an unlawful association under the UAPA, commenced its proceedings on Monday and issued notice to the banned organisation.

The tribunal is headed by Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.N. Patel. Naik, an Indian-born controversial Islamic preacher had fled to Malaysia in 2016 when the police lodged a case against him for "anti-national" activities, including promoting hatred among the religious communities through his speeches. The Centre had constituted a seven-member legal team to defend its decision to declare the IRF as an unlawful association along with the extension of the ban by five years.

The tribunal has sought response from the organisation by December 28.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is heading the Centre's legal team defending the extension of the ban, volunteered to publish the notice in leading dailies, over and above regular service so that the banned organisation cannot take any technical defence.

Besides Mehta, the other counsel in the Centre's team are senior advocate Sachin Datta, Rajat Nair, Kanu Agrawal, Amit Mahajan, Jay Prakash, and Dhruv Pandey.

The Centre has constituted an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal headed by Justice Patel under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) provisions to adjudicate whether there is sufficient cause for banning IRF, founded by the controversial Islamic preacher Naik.

The Ministry of Home Affairs' notification dated December 13 read: "The Central Government hereby constitutes an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal consisting of Justice D.N. Patel, Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the Islamic Research Foundation as an unlawful association." The ban on the IRF was extended by 5 years by the MHA through a notification issued on November 15.

The government apprehended that IRF cadre and supporters may disrupt the secular fabric of the country by polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony, propagating anti-national sentiments, escalating secessionism by supporting militancy, and undertaking activities that are prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and security of the country and it was necessary to extend the ban on IRF for five years more.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the Central Government declared the IRF as an unlawful association, vide, notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs number SO 3460(E), dated the 17th November, 2016," the MHA notification reads.
Chennai, Dec 20 : Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK is aiming to revamp the party grass root booth committees with more women and youth with an eye on the ensuing urban local body polls to take place in a few months from now.

A meeting of party state office-bearers, district secretaries, affiliate wing state leaders, MPs, and MLAs was held at the party headquarters on Saturday and decided that with the opposition AIADMK dilapidated, the DMK has high chances of ensuring its supremacy in the state's political firmament.

Sources in the DMK told IANS that the party supremo and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has directed all the district secretaries to revamp the party at the grass root levels and to include more women and youth in the party fold. He wanted the senior leaders to groom these new leaders and position them for further responsibilities.

Party leaders, according to information available, have also informed the Chief Minister that the party and government enjoyed great goodwill among women, marginalised people, Dalits, and minorities.

Stalin has told party leaders that several women-centric reform measures are coming up in the state and that this would be announced during the address of the Governor on January 5 when the Assembly session commences.

He has also directed the party district leaders to communicate with the masses on the recent major reforms that the government had taken up including free travel for women in transport buses, writing off gold loans, free ration to single women as also 40 per cent job reservation for women candidates.

The Chief Minister, according to DMK functionaries who have taken part in the meeting has directed the party leaders to include 30 per cent of voters in each ward as party members.

A party leader and MP told IANS that "the Chief Minister was confident and directed us to communicate with the masses regarding the welfare measures that the government has undertaken since assuming office in May 2021".

He also said that several freebies are coming up for the people of the state during the Governor's address in the next Assembly session.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Foreign ministers of five central Asian countries met Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra on Monday and emphasised the readiness of their leadership to further strengthen relations with India.

Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met the Prime Minister in Delhi.

They are on a visit to participate in the third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue.

The Central Asian Foreign Ministers conveyed the greetings of their Presidents to Prime Minister Modi and emphasised the readiness of their leadership to further strengthen relations with India.

They briefed the Prime Minister on the deliberations of the India-Central Asia Dialogue held under the chairmanship of External Affairs Minister of India on December 18-19, which focused on trade and connectivity, development partnership and regional developments, including the situation in Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance that India attaches to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its 'Extended Neighbourhood'.

He conveyed his felicitations to the Ministers on the 30th anniversary of their independence this year. He recalled his memorable visits to all Central Asian countries in 2015 and subsequently to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz Republic.

The Prime Minister underlined the importance of maintaining cultural and people-to-people contacts between India and Central Asia, given the popularity of Indian films, music, yoga etc in the region. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia, and the role of connectivity in that regard.

The India-Central Asia Dialogue has given impetus to the excellent bilateral relations between India and Central Asian countries. India and the Central Asian countries will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations next year.

After the dialogue on Sunday, in a joint statement, six countries reiterated strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan while emphasising the respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity and non-interference in its internal affairs.

They had also discussed the current humanitarian situation and decided to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

They had reaffirmed the importance of UNSC Resolution 2593 (2021) which unequivocally demands that Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts and called for concerted action against all terrorist groups.

The Ministers also agreed to continue close consultations on the situation in Afghanistan.

"While taking note of the outcome document of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue of November 10, 2021, Ministers noted that there is a broad aregional consensus' on the issues related to Afghanistan, which includes formation of a truly representative and inclusive government, combating terrorism and drug trafficking, central role of the UN, providing immediate humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people and preserving the rights of women, children and other national ethnic groups," the joint statement said.

The ministers stressed that perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with principle of "extradite or prosecute." In this context, they called for early adoption of the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

"They called on the international community to strengthen UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation and fully implement the relevant UNSC resolutions, Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and FATF standards, the statement said.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : A Delhi court on Monday granted a day's exemption from personal appearance to former Union Minister P Chidambaram while his son Karti appeared before the court in the ED and CBI cases in connection with the Aircel- Maxis deal.

Chidambaram's lawyer Arshdeep Singh informed Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court that he was not able to appear as he had a pre-planned travel itinerary. Granting relief for the day, Special Judge M K Nagpal noted that Chidambaram was granted anticipatory bail in the matter earlier.

Karti was directed by the court to file an application seeking regular bail. Further hearing in the matter was posted to January 20, 2022.

Earlier, on November 27, the court had taken cognizance of the charge sheets filed by the probe agencies on corruption and money laundering charges. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the probe agencies had informed the court that the agencies have sent Letters Rogatory -- documents making a request through a foreign court to obtain information -- to different countries and there are some developments on that.

The CBI had earlier submitted that it was working on a new lead. Both agencies have filed a status report in the court. The court had earlier directed the agencies to file a status report in the case which was adjourned sine die. The court, while asking for reports from the agencies, said that the allegations mentioned in the charge sheets appeared to be "quite serious in nature".

Predecessor Judge O.P. Saini, while granting anticipatory bail, had observed that the entire evidence relating to the commission of the crime by the two accused was documentary in nature and not liable to be tampered with by both accused.

The case, which is being probed by the CBI and ED, relates to alleged irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. The probe agencies say the approval was granted in 2006 when P. Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister. According to rules and the foreign direct investment policy in force at that time, Chidambaram was allegedly empowered to give approval to proposals involving foreign investment only up to Rs 600 crore. It is alleged that Chidambaram withheld Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance of the deal until his son, Karti Chidambaram received a five per cent share in the company.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Amid intensifying protests over the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling, the resident doctors of the Centre-run and other hospitals of Delhi protested outside Nirman Bhawan on Monday.

Later, the representatives of doctors' associations were given the assurance in a meeting with Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya that the EWS report will be submitted within a week to the apex court.

The resident doctors across the country have been protesting since November 27 against the multiple postponements of the NEET PG Counselling 2021 exam and the subsequent admission of the fresh batch of resident doctors in medical colleges.

General Secretary of the Safdarjung RDA, Dr Anuj Aggarwal told IANS: "A four member delegation met the Union health minister after the agitation outside Nirman Bhawan. The minister verbally assured us that within one week the EWS report will be submitted in court and the matter will be taken up on an urgent basis".

He added that the same assurance was given in the previous meeting as well, but the protest will continue outside Nirman Bhawan till their demands are met.

The protesting doctors held a demonstration in the morning and raised slogans seeking urgent action on the postponement of the NEET-PG exam.

The patients were badly affected as the doctors' protest entered the fourth consecutive day on Monday. Earlier, the resident doctors had boycotted the emergency and the routine services in hospitals from December 6.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : A 36-year-old man, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, was found dead in Delhi's Greater Kailash area, an official said here on Monday.

According to the official, information was received that the victim, identified as Rahul Thakur, was lying unconscious near at a house near M-Block market in Greater Kailash-I.

The person who informed the police is the owner of the house while the deceased was his tenant. The man told the police that the deceased was staying there along with his mother for the past one month.

"On enquiry, it was revealed that the deceased used to work at Delhi Haat art gallery," the official said.

Rahul's mother had gone to her native place just 3-4 days ago. The police have recovered three mobile phones from the spot, which rules out the possibility of robbery.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Benita Mary Jaikar, informed that as per preliminary enquiry, it looks like the deceased man was strangled to death.

"We will get more clarity once we receive the post-mortem report," she said.

The DCP said the have examined CCTV footage of the nearby areas and after thoroughly checking all of them, they zeroed in on some suspects.
Patna, Dec 20 : After his allegedly abusive words for the Brahmin community, two FIRs were registered in Patna and Purnea against former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday.

In Patna, members of the Brahmin community headed by Vishal Kumar Singh registered an FIR in the Rajiv Nagar police station.

They alleged that the statement of Jitan Ram Manjhi against Satyanarayan Puja was meant to hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community. Moreover he also used abusive words for the Brahmin community.

"The statement of Manjhi creates differences in the society. It has a potential to promote casteism and also spread provocation in the society. His abusive statement has a potential to create riots among two castes," Singh said.

"We have also written letters to the human rights commission of India, chief minister and DGP Bihar to take cognisance of his abusive statement and take action against him accordingly," Singh said.

Singh pointed out that Satyanarayan Puja (Worshipping Lord Vishnu) is an ancient tradition and ritual among the Hindu community to bring peace, harmony and prosperity in the house.

In Purnea, a group from the Mithila students union registered an FIR against the former chief minister in K Haat police station.

They said that Manjhi has hurt the sentiments of Brahmins across the country. The government should take strong action against him.

Jitan Ram Manjhi, on December 19, during a public gathering in Patna, used abusive language against the Brahmin community.

"When I was young, the prevalence of Satyanarayan Puja was not very popular in our community (Mushar). These days, the prevalence of Satyanarayan Puja is taking place in almost every house. More alarmingly, the Brahmin (Pundits) come to our house, conduct Puja but they do not eat food in our houses. They shamelessly demand money (Dakshina) from us instead of eating food in our houses." Manjhi also used abusive language both for his community people and Brahmins.

"Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar was a Hindu but he changed his religion to Buddhist before his death. He said that Hindu community is the worst community and hence he had changed the religion. When he died, he was Buddhist," Manjhi said.

On December 20, Manjhi gave a clarification for his statement. He said that he had used abusive language for his own community and not against Brahmins.

"Still, if anyone is hurt with my statement I would take back my words," Manjhi said.
Paris, Dec 20 : Three doses of a Covid vaccine may not be able to curb the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid, warned Ugur Sahin, CEO of Germany-based BioNTech.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the variant, known to escape vaccine immunity, has spread to about 90 countries.

"We must be aware that even triple-vaccinated are likely to transmit the disease. It is obvious we are far from 95 per cent effectiveness that we obtained against the initial virus," Euronews quoted Sahin as saying to the French daily Le Monde on Monday. BioNTech partnered with US drugmaker Pfizer to develop the two-dose revolutionary Covid jab, based on mRNA technology.

Despite this, Sahin noted that early data from the UK and South Africa is providing us with "reassuring information".

The latest research from South Africa, where Omicron was first reported, suggested that two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine offered 70 per cent effectiveness in reducing the risk of hospitalisation. Israeli researchers have also found that the booster doses of the vaccine works against Omicron.

"There will be a loss of effectiveness against Omicron over time, it's very likely, but it's still to be measured how quickly. I will not base predictions on preliminary laboratory data but on real-life data, which is much more appropriate," the German immunologist said.

Sahin said testing for Covid-19 is important, especially for the elderly and during winter, as are other protective measures such as mask-wearing, adding, "otherwise we will not be able to control the rapid expansion of this new variant".

The German company is already designing a coronavirus vaccine adapted to the new variant, using Omicron's spike protein and its 32 mutations as an antigen. Sahin announced this should be ready by March, the report said.

"We remain on track with our 100-day target, which means we should be able to deliver our first suitable vaccines to Omicron in March, subject to regulatory approval," he said.

Some researchers have voiced concern about the effect of these new vaccines as instead of boosting new immune defences, they could risk boosting inadequate ones.

"This principle is an unproven hypothesis, personally, I don't think this is a real problem. The immune system has high adaptability and plasticity, and should be able to activate both, strengthening existing immune responses while generating new antibodies," Sahin said, adding "but we will obviously have to assess it." Scientists at WHO have also predicted that Omicron has "substantial growth advantage" over the Delta variant and it will soon take over Delta. It is still unclear how effective vaccines are against the new variant, the WHO said.

Meanwhile, Moderna, which has also produced an mRNA vaccine, on Monday said that a booster dose of its vaccine appeared to be protective against Omicron.

Moderna said that its research so far showed that a 50 microgram dose of its vaccine, which is the current amount for a booster jab, increased the level of antibodies 37-fold, compared with two doses.

It also said a full dose of 100 micrograms boosted antibody levels 83-fold, it said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Dec 20 : Tamil Nadu fishermen held road blockade at Rameswaram on Monday under the aegis of several fishermen organisations against the arrest of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu by Sri Lankan Navy on charges of having crossed the international waters. Six fishing boats have also been seized by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Fishermen union leader S. Sesu Raja told IANS, "We are fighting for the release of 55 fishermen who are in the custody of the Sri Lankan Navy. We will hold a hunger strike on Wednesday at Thangachimandapam and will hold a rail roko on January 1 if fishermen are not released by then." According to information available, 55 Indian fishermen are in judicial custody at Jaffna prison. It may be noted that 43 fishermen from Rameswaram and 12 from Mandapam were arrested and eight mechanized fishing boats were seized by the Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin said that the Sri Lankan Navy has been regularly trying to prevent Indian fishermen from fishing.
Kolkata, Dec 20 : West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday invoked Article 167 of the Constitution to seek all the records pertaining to the proceedings of the inquiry commission constituted by the state government to probe the allegations pertaining to the Pegasus spyware scandal.

The commission is headed by former Supreme Court judge, Madan B. Lokur, and ex-Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Jyotirmay Bhattacharya.

Taking to Twitter, the Governor wrote: "Constrained to invoke Article 167 of the Constitution to seek @MamataOfficial all record and proceedings leading to inquiry commission #Pegasus notification dated 26.07.2021 as the Chief Secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi @IASassociation failed to provide such information." In the letter written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dhankhar said, "It emanates from the penultimate and last para of the notification dated 26.07.2021 that provisions of sub-sections (2) to (5) of Section 5 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 have been made applicable to the proceedings of 'Pegasus' inquiry commission premised on the opinion of the Governor." "It is significant that there has been no communication whatsoever on this count from your side to this office prior to promulgation of the notification dated 26.07.2021. In such a situation, there could obviously be no formation of any opinion at my end and there has been none as a matter of fact," the Governor wrote.

"In the aforesaid situation, please take steps to forward at the earliest the entire record leading to issuance of notification dated 26.07.2021 precisely and pointedly, also advertising on all facets of formation of opinion by the Governor," he said.

The Supreme Court had on Friday passed an interim order to stay the enquiry proceedings by the judicial enquiry commission, which has been constituted by the West Bengal government to inquire into the allegations of snooping using the Pegasus spyware.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, expressed its unhappiness over the commission conducting the proceedings when the Supreme Court had constituted an independent committee to probe the matter.
Hyderabad, Dec 20 : Telugu star Nani experimented with 15 different get-ups before finalising his look for 'Shyam Singha Roy'.

For 'Shyam Singha Roy', Nani said he has come out of his comfort zone so as to look appealing in his role as a Bengali writer.

Nani appears in dual roles in Rahul Sankrityan's 'Shyam Singha Roy'. One of the roles Nani plays in the movie demanded he try a number of get-ups before choosing one.

In one of the video conversations with the media, Nani had mentioned that his role as a social reformer and a revolutionary writer in the movie demanded a brief makeover.

"Though the look doesn't appear like an intense one, the makeover was a bit difficult. I tried around 15 get-ups before we got fixated on the current look in the movie 'Shyam Singha Roy'.

An interesting aspect about his makeover is that Nani didn't gain weight, though he looked a bit chubby as 'Shyam Singha Roy'.

Nani's looks had his hairstyle, moustache, and dressing style changed, which would represent the men in Bengal during the '70s. Nani, who had to utter powerful dialogues in Bengali, also practiced the diction.

Nani and his team are all set with back-to-back promotions, as they wait for 'Shyam Singha Roy' to hit the screens on December 24.

Sai Pallavi, Krithi Shetty, and Madonna Sebastian are the female leads in the movie.
Mumbai, Dec 20 : As the animated musical fantasy 'Encanto' gears up for its OTT release, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty can't contain her excitement, majorly because the film imparts some important lessons to parents.

Putting the case forward for new-age parenting, the actress said, "I firmly believe that we need to let children mould their personalities in whatever way they feel most comfortable. As parents you realise very early on that no two kids are alike." Revealing the cause behind her learning, she said, "Each of them have their own individual qualities which makes them special. We tend to ignore the gifts our children already possess and seek something different from them. This is what I learnt from 'Encanto'".

"We see Mirabel struggle to find her own magical powers but through the course of her adventure, she discovers her true self. I recommend that this Christmas Eve, everyone should watch Mirabel and the Madrigals family in this exhilarating masterpiece 'Encanto' on Disney+ Hotstar to discover their true magic," she added.

'Encanto', based on the magical lives of the Madrigals family where every child is blessed with a unique magical power, tells the story of the family's survival when faced with a cruel plot that threatens the very magic that makes them special.

The film, directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard and co-directed by Charise Castro Smith, will be released on Disney+ Hotstar on December 24 and will be available to stream in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to replace the Ordinance, was passed by Parliament on Monday with the Rajya Sabha approving the measure amid uproarious scenes in the upper house.

The bill was already passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

Moving the Bill for discussion and passage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this Bill was to amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to correct a drafting error made during the UPA's time.

After the Tripura High Court's observations in June this year, the government had to bring this amendment through the Ordinance as the Parliament was not in session, she said, adding that other High Courts had asked for corrections in 2014, and 2017.

Sitharaman also said that some opposition members raised the drugs seizure at Mundra Port, and the Narcotics Control Bureau was investigating the case and arrests were also made but later, the Union Home Ministry had ordered the transfer of the case to te National Investigation Agency for further probe The DRI has done exemplary work and stopped the consignment, she added.

During the debate, the houses witnessed heated arguments and continuous raising of point of order by both sides.

Congress member Digvijaya Singh, intervening in the debate, said that 12 members are outside the house and said that the government is not following rules as the "culprit minister is inside and our MPs are suspended violating the rules".

The opposition members raised the issue of Lakhimpur Kheri violence and suspension of the MPs which prompted the treasury benches to raise a point of order on the taking of the names of two ministers - Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra Teni and Home Minister Amit Shah - and demanded that the references be expunged from the record. At this, the chair said that he will see the records.

SP member Jaya Bachchan said that she will not thank the Chair as when the Chair was in the opposition, he used to run to the well himself to protest. BJP's Bhubhneshawar Kalita, who was earlier in the Congress, was in the Chair at that time and the BJP raised a point of order. Bachchan also said that the government is wasting time to rectify a clerical error, and had heated exchanges with BJP members.

As Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said that the person who is directly indirectly involved in murder should be sacked, he was not allowed to speak further by the Chair. At this, he said that the attitude towards the post he holds is condemnable.
There have been multiple air operations world over with varying outcomes from which some lessons can always be drawn. However, the paradrop at Tangail on December 11, 1971 by India was a key catalyst of the war to ensure Indian victory in East Pakistan, surrender of more than 93,000 Pak troops (unparallelled in the history of warfare) and the liberation of Bangladesh.

The importance of Tangail can be gauged from the fact that an entire Pakistani Brigade was enveloped and cutoff from retreating, trapping them in the process. This enabled them to stop the reinforcement of Dacca (now Dhaka) and facilitated its early capture by General Sagat Singh's formations.

A shock action like this recalls the early breakthrough by German paratroopers during the capture of Fort EbanEmael in May 1940, leading to the capitulation of Belgium. Even there a puny force of 78 German parachute-engineers commanded by a Lt Witzig captured an entire fort of 1,200 Belgian troops, with a loss of only six men.

Shock action by paratroopers is part of a shock action strategy that creates a psychological effect in the adversary's mind and supplements the sometimes small strength of the attacking contingent with psychological warfare.

Though the size of the paradrop in Tangail was limited to a battalion, i.e., 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, which landed at 16:30 hrs on that fateful day of December 11, it created an awe and shock effect for the Pakistani troops of 93 Brigade. When combined with BBC reports about a large body of Indian troops moving with lightning speed towards Dacca, it created such an impact on the Pakistani leadership that it opted to surrender immediately, rather than fight till the last, as famously advertised by General A.A.K. Niazi in Dawn newspaper.

The strafing of the house of the Governor of East Pakistan by a flight of MiG 21s led by Wing Commander B.K. Bishnoi helped the cause.

Another example of shock action from above is 2 Para linked up with another infantry battalion that achieved much more than what was aimed at.

While a large number of air operations were conducted in 1971 both on the Western and Eastern front, the paradrop on December 11 stands out as a joint operation between the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the brave Bangla patriots (Mukti Bahini personnel and local civilians came forward on their own and assisted in lifting the heavy baggage of soldiers, hastening the march to Dacca and bolstering their morale).

India had just achieved its hard-earned Independence from the British in August 1947 when a war was thrust upon it in October 1947 with the arrival of tribal raiders and Pakistani regulars in Jammu and Kashmir. During the war of 1947-48, the Indian Air Force was involved in airlifting troops to Srinagar.

This action was the prime reason for stalling the progress of Pakistan-sponsored militants and soldiers who were intent on snatching a legal part of India through the illegitimate use of force. They were later pushed back, which resulted in Pakistani control being limited to one-third of Kashmir due to a UN resolution which resulted in a ceasefire.

It is, however, a matter of surprise and speculation why the Indian Air Force was not used offensively against Chinese troops during the 1962 war. This is despite the Air Force possessing nearly 22 combat squadrons and over 500 aircraft.

The IAF limited its use only to helicopter and transport crew sorties to service forward pickets in the then North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA) and Ladakh. India restrained itself despite suffering reverses in the 1962 war.

In the absence of declassified documents, analysts have made a few guesses as to why the IAF was underutilised in 1962. Inadequate reading of the war preparedness of the Chinese, under confidence in own abilities by the then Chief of Air Staff may have been a few reasons.

It is believed that the use of air power in offensive mode in 1962 could probably have changed the outcome of the war and we could have been sitting in a more favourable situation vis-a-vis the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, even if the entire Aksai Chin was not in our reach due to adverse weather and geographic conditions.

As we moved ahead in time, we used air power extensively in 1965 and 1971 wars with favourable outcomes. Its usage in 1971 took us to the league of war hardened nations and group of war winners. In fact, India is the only country in the world which affected the creation of a new nation-state, recognised globally in a matter of months.

Over all these years, our air power developed, but due to its predominant focus on Pakistan, its capabilities in high altitude remained restricted, which came to the fore during the Kargil war. Despite the marginal use of airpower necessitated by geopolitical compulsions and India's desire not to cross the Line of Control, the IAF's response proved wanting.

Conflict scenarios in the subcontinent and globally have since undergone a major paradigm shift. China looms over India as a potential adversary as well as an aggressor wherein it disregards all the previous agreements with India. China has continued with its geographic creep all along the Indian borders in Eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

With the passage of land boundary law in October 2021 that's slated for adoption on January 1, 2022, it has already changed the territorial dispute into sovereignty dispute, while flexibility during mutual negotiations have also shrunk. In such a scenario, the IAF needs to be ready for multiple Tangail like contingencies and prepare for a future scenario where airpower needs to shape the scenarios.

(Major General Ashok Kumar, VSM (Retd), is a Kargil war veteran and defence analyst. He is a visiting fellow at CLAWS and specialises in neighbouring countries with special focus on China. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at akumar157@gmail.com) arm/
Kohima, Dec 20 : The Nagaland Assembly, in its day-long special session, unanimously passed a resolution demanding the Centre repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 from the entire northeast, and specifically from Nagaland, so as to strengthen the ongoing efforts to find a peaceful political settlement to the Naga political issue.

"It is of paramount importance that the people's voice is heard and respected. The House, therefore, once again appeals to the negotiating parties of the Indo-Naga political dialogue to bring the talks to its logical conclusion by reaching a settlement that is honourable and inclusive at the earliest," the resolution said.

All the members, participating in the day-long discussion, vehemently condemned the massacre that took place in Oting-Tiru Village area in Mon district on December 4.

Slamming the "indiscriminate firing by the 21 Para Special Forces of the Indian Army in which 13 innocent people were killed, followed by killing of another innocent person by security forces at Mon town on December 5, and injuring 35 persons...", the resolution said that the house calls for an apology from the appropriate authority, along with an assurance that "justice will be delivered by applying the laws of the land upon those who perpetrated the inhuman massacre and upon those who are responsible for the incident".

"The house appeals to the citizens of Mon district, its civil societies, the citizens of the state and mass based organisations to extend cooperation to the government and its agencies in the collective efforts to demand justice, and to restore normalcy in the interest of all the citizens." Initiating the discussions on the AFSPA, Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Y. Patton stated that the Centre has been declaring the entire state of Nagaland as a 'Disturbed Area' by issuing notifications every six months, and thereby keeping the provisions of AFSPA operative in the state for the past many decades.

The latest notification issued by the Centre was on June 30 and it will be place up to December 29.

Patton said that the Centre seeks the opinion of the state government, before deciding on extending the notification, and the state government has consistently opposed the extension that the overall law and order in the state has been good for many years now, and on many crime and other similar indicators, the situation is found to be better than many other states.

Noting that all the Naga political groups are in ceasefire with the government, he said: "The ongoing peace talks are proceeding in the right direction giving hope of an early solution to the Naga political issue. The Government of India, however, has always, based on its own assessment, extended the notification declaring our state as a 'Disturbed Area'.

"The sentiments of our people are strongly against the continuance of AFSPA anymore in our state, that we do not deserve to be designated as a 'Disturbed Area'." MLA Chumben Murry said that the intention to hide the crime and misinforming the Union Home Minister to give a wrong statement in the Parliament further angered the people of Nagaland.

Chotisuh Sazo suggested the Nagaland Chief Minister to call upon his counterparts of the northeastern states to come together and urge the Central government to repeal the act from the region. He also urged the MPs from Nagaland to do the same with their counterparts from the other states of the region.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, on his part, thanked all the members who participated in the discussion.
Ropar : , Dec 20 (IANS) Exposing the lies being spread by the AAP leadership directly from the ground level, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi on Monday visited the school in his maternal village Makdona Kalan to show that it was not only perfect but one of the best schools in the state.

The Chief Minister during a walk from Morinda to Sri Chamkaur Sahib inspected the school from where the AAP leadership has been indulging in slanderous campaign.

Channi said he had already sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for this school besides astroturf worth Rs 70 lakh.

Taking on the AAP leadership, he reminded them that as compared to any school of their frivolous 'Delhi model', this school has one of the best infrastructure, computer lab, library, eduset online facility and modern projector room.

The Chief Minister said ironically the same school was visited some days ago by self-contradictory Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who tried to paint it in bad colour by showing a store room.

He said even the store room was better but Sisodia opted to switch off the lights of the room, when they failed to get any tangible evidence against the school, to prove their wrong point.

"This exposes the propaganda unleashed by outsiders to fulfil their lust for power," added Channi.

The Chief Minister said the AAP leaders are clamouring for power but their nefarious designs will be thwarted by the wise people of Punjab.

He warned the AAP leaders to desist from spreading false stories about education and the health system of the state, which are one of the best in the country.

Channi asked AAP leaders that instead of fault finding in Punjab and Punjabis they should focus on providing basic facilities to Delhi where people are suffering due to their poor performance.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1990 batch Pradeep Kumar Rawat was appointed India's next Ambassador to China on Monday, aimed at resolving the border dispute with that country. Rawat is currently India's envoy to the Netherlands. He will succeed Vikram Misri.

"He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a brief statement. Rawat's appointment comes in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff.

He speaks fluent Mandarin and had earlier served in Hong Kong and Beijing. The biggest challenge ahead of posting would be the border dispute India is having with China.

India and China have been engaged in the dispute for the last 20 months. The last Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) meeting took place in November this year.

After the meeting, both the countries agreed on the need to find an early resolution to the remaining disputes along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols so as to restore peace and tranquility.

"The two sides also agreed that both should in the interim also continue to ensure a stable ground situation and avoid any untoward incident," the external affairs ministry had said.

In the meantime, both the countries have made enhanced deployment even during the winter to thwart any threat.

Indian troops are deployed at a height of around 17,000 feet along the border and all logistics are in place. The force is ready to sustain the enhanced troop deployment in the harsh winter at friction points where temperatures will soon start dipping beyond minus 20 degrees.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : A weaker immune system, old age and comorbidities can increase the risk of co-infection from Omicron and Delta variants of Covid-19 at the same time, said health experts on Monday.

Last week, scientists at the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE noted that some people have become infected by both the Delta and Omicron variants that are "operating separately as two epidemics" at the same time, making them seriously ill.

The possibility of a person being co-infected with both Delta and Omicron at the same time "is rare", Dr Dipu T.S, Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Amrita Hospital, told IANS.

However, "it's not impossible to have confection of two strains, especially if the patient has an immuno-compromised status", he added.

Anecdotal reports have also suggested episodes of co-infection with two different strains of Covid-19 virus in the past.

"Even though Covid infections normally only involve one mutant strain, in extremely rare cases, it is also possible that two strains strike at the same time," Dr Namita Jaggi, Chairperson of Labs and Infection control at Artemis Hospital, Gurugram, told IANS.

But, co-infection can occur due to exposure to a large crowd with high chances of exposure to people infected with different Covid variants, she said adding "there is also a possibility that people who are recovering from Covid-19 may be at a higher risk of co-infection".

Further, some reports also have suggested that people living in areas with lower vaccination rates are at greater risk of getting co-infected. In addition, the risk of co-infection has been found more among the elderly, those with co-morbidities and a compromised immune system, Jaggi said.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant has to date spread to about 90 countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that it has "a growth advantage over Delta" and may soon overtake it. As per the SAGE, a successful new variant typically claims dominance by being much more infectious than previous strains, as has happened in the UK with Delta.

But can the combination of both variants lead to a super strain? "It certainly can," Jaggi said.

"Viruses undergo a process known as recombination inside the body of the infected person. This occurs when viruses of two different parent strains infect the same host cell at the same time and exchange mutations during replication to produce a virus progeny that have some genes from both parents. The recombination might lead to the formation of a newer, more or less lethal variant," she said.

The risk of the combination events increases due to "huge, poorly controlled outbreaks because the number of infections is higher", Jaggi said.

However, according to Dipu, the chance of the strains "combining to form a super strain is bleak, considering the fact that the strains' co-existence is not of symbiotic nature but more of antagonistic in nature due to the varying type of immune activation which can be induced by different strains".

In its latest update, the WHO said there is still limited data on the clinical severity associated with Omicron.

So far it is known that people with Omicron can have the full spectrum of disease, everything from asymptomatic infection, mild infection, with people needing hospitalisation, but not oxygen support. Yet increase in cases means more hospitalisations, and overburdening of the healthcare system which can eventually raise further problems.

Dipu said that in a recent lab study it was found that the multiplication rate of the Omicron variant is high in the cells of nasal mucosa and less in the cells lining the lungs in comparison to the Delta variant.

"Hence though the virus multiplies at a higher pace, the chance of Covid pneumonia is less," he noted.

Further, data coming from regions like South Africa where there is rapid spread of Omicron have also favoured that the infection is milder compared to Delta. However, in the UK, Omicron cases have tripled and the country has also reported 12 deaths so far, in just a week. The first death due to Omicron was reported on December 13.

But the experts urged people to be vigilant and to get vaccinated. Besides, Covid appropriate behaviour at all times, wearing masks, must also be followed to keep Omicron at bay.

"It is critical that the vaccination programme for both doses be completed as soon as possible. The decision to give booster doses to frontline workers and paediatrics should be expedited by the government," said Dr. P.N Kakar, CEO, Park Group of Hospitals.

In addition, there is a need to increase surveillance and testing, as well as genetic sequencing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine, he said.

(Rachel V. Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)

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New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea in which a woman claiming to be the widow of the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar II from the Mughal dynasty sought possession of the Red Fort in the national capital.

According to the petition, their family property was taken away by the British East India Company following the first War of Independence in 1857, after which the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled from the country and possession of the Red Fort was taken away from the Mughals.

The petitioner sought possession of the Red Fort or adequate compensation from 1857 till date for 'illegal possession' by the government or any other relief deemed fit.

A bench of Justice Rekha Palli while hearing the matter said, "My history is very weak, but you claim injustice was done to you by the British East India Company in 1857. Why is there a delay of over 150 years? What were you doing for all these years?" It was also noted by the court that there was no document to support the claim that the petitioner was related to the last Mughal emperor."You have not filed any inheritance chart. Everyone knows Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled by the British, but if his heirs did not file any plea can she do it," Justice Palli asked.

Advocate Vivek More, who appeared for the petitioner, argued that Begum was an illiterate woman. However, the court rejected the petition saying merely because the petitioner is an illiterate woman there is no reason why, if the petitioner's predecessors were aggrieved by any action of the East India Company, no steps were taken in this regard at the relevant time or soon thereafter.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma appeared on behalf of the government.
Patna, Dec 20 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has slammed Jitan Ram Manjhi, leader of the Hindustani Awam Morcha for his remarks against the liquor ban in the state. Manjhi had openly advocated that poor people should consume liquor after 10 p.m. and stay at home like IAS-IPS officers, doctors, engineers and other such people.

On Monday after the Janata Darbar, when asked by media persons to clear his stand on Jitan Ram Manjhi, Nitish Kumar said: "Those who are making statements against the liquor ban should know that they gained public support because of this. We had imposed a liquor ban following public opinion. Hence, he should avoid giving statements that promote liquor consumption in Bihar." Nitish Kumar did not say what action he is going to take against Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Manjhi had also demanded that the Nitish Kumar government adopt the Gujarat model of liquor ban in Bihar.

The Gujarat model of liquor ban was first put in perspective by the president of the Bihar Chambers of Commerce and Industry P.K. Agrawal during a traders meeting a month ago.

Agrawal pointed out that due to the liquor ban in Bihar, national or international seminars or events related to trade and business cannot be organised. It is affecting the business here. He had also advocated the implementation of the Gujarat model of liquor ban where the state government gives permission for liquor for guests coming for such events.

Nitish Kumar, on liquor prohibition day about a month ago, had said that those who give statements against the liquor ban or promote consumption of liquor would be liable to face legal action. The Bihar government had also organised an event on that day where every government official and legislator were asked to take oath that they will not consume liquor. Kumar had also directed the authorities to take action against Agrawal.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : About 70 BJP heavyweights including union ministers, chief ministers and senior leaders will participate in the party's 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' in Uttarakhand.

The prominent names are Union Home minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and Jairam Thakur. As per the plan, one senior BJP leader will be part of the yatra in one assembly constituency before it ends on January 5 next year.

BJP chief J.P. Nadda and Union Minister Anurag Thakur have already participated in the Yatra.

Sources said that Shah, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Chief Ministers Khattar and Jairam Thakur will join the 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' in coming days. Senior leaders like party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya will also participate.

Uttarakhand BJP vice president Devendra Bhasin told IANS that the yatra of Kumaon region will end on January 4 and Garhwal region on January 5.

"Our party chief Nadda and union minister Thakur already participated in the yatra. Union Home Minister Shah and other senior leaders will join in coming days," Bhasin said.

Nadda flagged off Vijay Sankalp Yatra of poll bound Uttarakhand on December 18 in Garhwal region. Union minister Thakur flagged off the second yatra in Kumaon region on December 19.

Two yatras -- one in Garhwal and another in Kumaona -- will together cover over eight thousand km in the state.

To reach out to people ahead of next year's assembly polls, the Uttarakhand BJP is organising 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' which will pass through all assembly constituencies of the state to highlight works of the state government in the last five years along with that of the union government.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Jaipur Literature Festival 2022 programme has been revealed today at the Delhi Curtain Raiser. The programme, is a vast and kaleidoscopic, with themes ranging from the arts, biographies, business & economics, climate change, current affairs, food, poetry, science & technology, Artificial Intelligence, and the writing process, etc. Set to take place between 28th January - 1st February 2022 on-ground in Jaipur and until February 6th online, the 10-day-long annual literature extravaganza, will return with in a hybrid avatar.

The Delhi Curtain Raiser, hosted by the producer Teamwork Arts at The Leela Palace saw a breathtaking performance by the Anirudh Varma Collective along with Rajasthani bagpiper Shyopat Julia welcoming the audience with his melodious music.

This year's veritable power-house roster of speakers, like every edition, reflects the diversity of the Festival's programming in books, themes, subjects, and ideas representing literature and thoughts intrinsic to both India and the world.

This year, the Festival will host over 250 speakers, writers, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons from across a vast array of nationalities, representing 21 Indian and international languages as well as major awards such as the Nobel, the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Sahitya Akademi, the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Shri, the DSC Prize for Literature, the JCB Prize for Literature and many more.

Some highlights from the programme include Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah's session. Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 and is celebrated as one of Africa's greatest living writers. His novel Afterlives examines the brutality of German colonial forces in East Africa and the lives of Tanganyikans impacted by devastating war.

Featuring another Nobel Laureate, Daniel Kahneman joins professor Olivier Sibony and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein in explaining how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment and what we can do about it. They will be in conversation at the session titled 'Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment'.

At another session, yet another Nobel Laureate Abhijit V Banerjee will be in conversation artist and illustrator Cheyenne Olivier. This session will explore a totally different dimension of the economist donning the cap of a gourmet chef. Discussing his delicious cookbook Cooking To Save Your Life, Banerjee will take the audience through the recipes he has delighted his friends, colleagues, and students with. He will speak movingly of the bonds of food and memory, friendship and community, across cultures and continents.

The 2021 Booker Prize winning author Damon Galgut will discuss his writing style, process, inspirations, and the essence of his latest work The Promise. Galgut is a master of the knot, the stubborn rope which chafes and binds people to places, politics, prophets and the past. His latest book, sharp, meditative and winner of the Booker Prize, conveys the play of power in relationships with self, society and the state against the backdrop of post-Apartheid South Africa.

Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre's recent and riotous novel, Meanwhile in Dopamine City, defies form and the limits of literary possibility. In Dopamine City, a father grapples with a world changing every day, his daughter's request for her first smartphone and the choice between joining this new world, wither, or escape altogether? Pierre will discuss experimental fiction and the plea for heart and soul in robotic times at the session.

British writer and translator Deborah Smith, in conversation with translator Arunava Sinha, will discuss the many, often intangible, tasks of the translator comprising integrity, interpretation, expression and the singular objective of storytelling. Her translation of Korean author Han Kang's The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and is widely celebrated for its feminist treatment of Kang's vivid and radical novel.

Indian-American businesswoman and former CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi's memoir, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future, follows her journey of grit and determination as she broke through several glass ceilings and the barriers of gender and race to become a global business leader. In conversation with author Aparna Piramal Raje, Nooyi will discuss her life, her trailblazing philosophy of 'Performance with Purpose' and the importance of a care infrastructure that benefits both women and men.

In conversation with Seema Goswami, celebrated Indian actress Neena Gupta will discuss the backstories behind the glamorous facade, the ups and downs, the triumphs and heartbreaks that she has manoeuvred in her extraordinary life. In Gupta's candid autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, she chronicles her extraordinary journey, both personal and professional, deconstructing Bollywood to tell her version of the realities behind the star-studded screen.

At another session considered as one of the greatest science-fiction authors, Kim Stanley Robinson will be in conversation with journalist and author Raghu Karnad. Robinson will share his vision of the not-too-distant future. Beginning with a deadly human-induced heatwave in India, his recent cli-fi novel, The Ministry for the Future, is a roadmap on which life on Earth can survive.

The Dawn of Everything provides an extraordinary perspective of human history and social evolution, challenging our most fundamental assumptions to reveal a broader scope for human emancipation. Author David Wengrow studies the origins of predominant theories of our primitive ancestors, barbarianism, human instinct, the origin of states and civilisations and their ties to the conflict between European society and indigenous discourse. In conversation with Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Wengrow will discuss the conceptual shackles and the possibilities that emerge from their removal.

Bringing a historical flavour to the programme, acclaimed writer and historian Manu S. Pillai and writer and politician Dr. Shashi Tharoor will get into a conversation with author Ira Mukhoty. The idea of India's maharajahs as trifling, decadent despots who chased opulence over the public good, or as incompetent leaders who submitted to British design and dominance, has long been circulated, past verifiability. Pillai disputes this view in his seamless new book, False Allies: India's Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma. Tharoor is also no stranger to upending misinformed notions, and has chronicled disruptive histories in works such as An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India and Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India and his most recent book, The Struggle for India's Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy. It will be a conversation that is sure to galvanise historical perspectives. Pillai will also be in conversation with researcher and writer, Anirudh Kanisetti at another session where both writers come together for an invigorating conversation on the lords and legacies of the Deccan. Kanisetti's upcoming book Lords of the Deccan: Southern India from the Chalukyas to the Cholas is a testament to his thoughtful and immense study of medieval South India and its influence on contemporary politics and culture.

The Festival will feature another interesting conversation between leading Indian art historian and recipient of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, BN Goswamy and historian, author and with Festival Co-Director William Dalrymple. Comprehensive and deeply engaging, this session will be an accessible and authoritative primer to art in India and South Asia. In his latest book Conversations, Goswamy opens a window to the artworks that define our sensibilities.

British biographer and literary agent Andrew Lownie's The Mountbattens: The Lives and Loves of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten is an intimate story of an unusual marriage in a family of great intrigue. Lownie illustrates the powerful partnership between the last Viceroy of India, Dickie, and the magnetic, wealthy and universally-loved Edwina. Lownie has most recently petitioned the British government to release the 'Mountbatten documents', and explores in his book, the questions they might definitively answer revealing the truth behind Dieppe Raid, the Partition of India, the alleged affair between Edwina and Nehru and the assassination of Mountbatten in 1979. In conversation with historian and author Narayani Basu, Lownie will reveal the veracity behind the legends of the Mountbattens.

Writer, columnist and curator Sujata Prasad's co-authored biography, The Dream of Revolution: A Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan, is a riveting account of a man whose ideas and beliefs epitomised Marxian and Gandhian styles of political engagement. Along with historian and author Narayani Basu and Indian sociologist and public intellectual Dipankar Gupta, Prasad will discuss the crucial role played by one man in shaping India's history.

Viruses exist in the marginal space between the realm of the living and non-living. Acclaimed writer and biochemist Pranay Lal brings this marginal life form to the forefront and gives us fascinating insights into the world of viruses in his book Invisible Empire. In conversation with the academic, surgeon, and author Ambarish Satwik, Lal will explore the history of viruses that have turned from simple life forms to catastrophic illness-causing agents and discuss the vast ramifications that one tiny life form can have on humanity.

The audience will also witness a session which looks at the relations between India and Bangladesh and examines the socio-political, cultural and economic way forward to fuel and support the rich diversity of the two neighbouring countries, and commemorating 50 years of Bangladesh's Liberation War. Eminent Bangladeshi journalist Mahfuz Anam is the editor of The Daily Star, Bangladesh's foremost English language daily newspaper. He will be in conversation with the author of The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community and The Eastern Gate, Sudeep Chakravarti. They will discuss the shifting axis of Bangladesh's socio-economic, political and religious ethos and the emerging roadblocks around migration, refugees, water-sharing and development that await the road ahead. Former diplomat and columnist Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty will also be a part of the session.

Writer, screenwriter and activist Farrukh Dhondy boasts as many scintillating life experiences as he does professional accolades. From bearing witness to pre-independent India, the Partition and a great many social movements to meeting a roster of eclectic and even murderous celebrities, Dhondy's life is a cinematic rollercoaster that reignites excitement in memoir-writing. In conversation with film and theatre director Arghya Lahiri, co-author of Dolly Thakore's unapologetic memoir, Dhondy will discuss life as a writer.

The Festival will also explore the artistic side of literature with some sessions concentrated on art, culture, music, poetry etc. at a dedicated venue for sessions on the arts. Arundhathi Subramaniam is an award-winning poet, author and critic who has contributed greatly to contemporary spiritual writing and exploration. Subramaniam will discuss the confluence of literature, culture and yoga, the ultimate practice and meeting-place for individual consciousness and the universe.

Tishani Doshi's exquisite collection of poetry, A God at the Door, is a voyage across time and space, drawing from nature and humanity to give power to the marginalised, heal trauma with beauty, and portray diverse voices, images, people and places with piercing clarity. Doshi will discuss her extraordinary book of poems. In the session title 'The Great Mughals and the Moment of Portraiture' independent art historian Ursula Weekes will be in conversation with author and historian Yashaswini Chandra, discussing her latest project on the images that not only reflected the environment of the Mughal court but also helped to shape it.

emo Fernandes is an icon for a generation of music-lovers. His personal and professional triumphs and tragedies come together in a kaleidoscopic memoir. In conversation with Festival Producer and Managing Director at Teamwork Arts, Sanjoy K Roy, Remo will discuss his life in pursuit of his greatest loves: music, art, writing and his homeland, Goa. Roy will be in another conversation with theatre personality Dolly Thakore, author and screenwriter Arghya Lahiri and feminist, publisher and author, Ritu Menon, discussing the essence of theatre, its genius, its magic, and its pervading misogyny.

Hon'ble Tourism Minister of Rajasthan, Vishvendra Singh said, "I am delighted that the Jaipur Literature Festival is returning on-ground in the Pink City. I believe that the Festival truly provides an exceptional platform for both Indian and global authors and thought leaders to engage and strengthen Our literary heritage and culture. I look forward to warmly welcoming all Authors, Speakers, Artists, Musicians and Visitors to Jaipur and the State of Rajasthan for the Festival in January 2022." Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher, and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, "My co-director William Dalrymple, producer Sanjoy K. Roy, and our committed colleagues at Teamwork, have crafted a programme, both on-ground and virtual, that conjures the elusive spirit of our transforming times, and gives us healing and resilience." William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, "Every year we bring to world's greatest writers of fiction and non-fiction to Jaipur, but never have we had a line-up quite as extraordinary as this.... It's going to be most extraordinary few days and a Jaipur Literature Festival vintage year that must not on any account not be missed." Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, "Jaipur Literature Festival has always been a unique platform, celebrating literature and knowledge from across India and the world in the most inclusive way. This year's programme reflects the turmoil, tragedy, and immense resilience that human beings have displayed in the face of great challenges. As we embark on a new year, we bring to you celebrated thought leaders of the world, who try and make sense of our complex times." The Festival will also launch some most-awaited books namely Daaera and Dhanak: Companion volumes of Nazms by Kaifi Azmi and Jan Nisar Akhtar, edited by Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi; Soumitra Chatterjee: A Film Maker Remembers by Suman Ghosh; CHRYSALIS by Safir Anand.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
New Delhi, Dec 20 : One of Europe's top 20 fastest growing companies, NA-KD, is one of the most popular brands among global fashion influencers.

NA-KD embodies Scandinavian culture's key principles, which include inventiveness, clean design, and a strong regard for nature. NA-collections KD's are designed to be utilitarian as well as fashionable, resulting in high-quality clothing to invest in. The contemporary company delivers timeless wardrobe basics with a luxurious feel at accessible costs, mixing a clean and warm look with promises of environmentally conscientious manufacture.

Nykaa Fashion continues to expand its selective offering by onboarding brands that are making waves around the world and are sought after for their elevated style. After celebrating homegrown talent through its vast curation of local labels. The multi-brand lifestyle e-commerce platform, continues to bring the best selection with the exclusive launch of NA-KD, Play, Slay, Everyday, or Vacation -the curated assortment from NA-offers KD's will take buyers from work and leisure to lounge and vacation in style. From the label's debut iteration, shoppers can find a variety of adaptable separates, dresses and jumpsuits, tailored coats and jackets, comfortable knits and loungewear, signature denim, and shoes.

Speaking on the new launch, Adwaita Nayar, CEO Nykaa Fashion said, "Nykaa Fashion continues to grow and establish itself as a lifestyle destination that inspires customers to make elevated style choices. We have a keen focus on curating the best brands from international markets and extending our fashion assortment with key players like NA-KD is exciting. NA-KD's fashion-forward approach and commitment to sustainability resonates with our consumers and makes it a great fit for Nykaa Fashion." Sarah Krusell, VP Commercial & Brand, NA-KD said, "Working closely with brand ambassadors and content creators from all over the world, we strive to show the most updated styles, and at the same time, we strive to do it as sustainably as possible." We are happy that Nykaa Fashion's customers will now be able to take part in the NA-KD world. In a short time, NA-KD has grown to become a world leader in fashion and e-commerce, proof that customers appreciate our philosophy that clothing can be both affordable and on-trend." (IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
Chennai, Dec 20 : Tamil Nadu's Vellore police have recovered 16 kg of gold stolen from a jewellery showroom in the city which was buried in a graveyard.

On December 15, CCTV visuals revealed a masked man entering the prominent jewellery shop in Vellore town and decamping with 16 kg of gold.

Police constituted a special investigation team and nabbed a person who is suspected to have committed the theft. He is from Anaicut in Vellore. However, police refused to divulge the details of the burglar.

On interrogation, it was revealed that the gold stolen from the jewellery showroom was buried in a graveyard some 40 km away from Vellore at Odukathur.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : A man has rescued his abducted son in the national capital after paying a ransom of Rs 50 lakh to the kidnappers.

According to a Delhi Police official, the incident took place on December 17, when the victim, identified as Kinshuk Agarwal, a resident of Shalimar Bagh, had gone to Ghazipur Phool Mandi by his car along with two of his employees. At the Ghazipur Mandi, one unidentified man accosted the victim and forcibly entered his car.

As per the complaint lodged by the father of Kinshuk Agarwal, the kidnapper demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore for the safe return of the victim. "The amount was later settled at Rs 50 lakh," the police said.

The complainant father then paid the said amount of Rs 50 lakh to the abductors of his son and got him safely rescued. The exchange of money between him and the victim was undertaken in Ashok Vihar area.

As Kinshuk was safely rescued, the cops then reached his house and got his statement recorded.

The police informed that they have registered a case under sections 364A (Kidnapping or abduction for ransom) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. "Currently an investigation is under progress," the official added.
Bengaluru, Dec 20 : All patients suffering from Severe Accute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and influenza like illness (ILI) coming to OPDs at private hospitals in Bengaluru would have to mandatorily undergo Covid test, BBMP Special Commissioner Trilok Chandra said on Monday.

Speaking at a meeting with Private Hospitals & Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), Chandra said that precautionary measures should be taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the city.

He said that second dose of the vaccine should be administered at private hospitals to those who have taken the first dose.

As a precautionary measure, according to the government order, private hospitals must be ready to reserve beds for Covid patients. Along with that, separate pediatric beds also should be ensured, he said.

Information about real time bed availability should be uploaded on the PHANA portal. All the necessary measures should be taken to ensure proper availability of oxygen, Chandra said.

Special hospital inspection teams by BBMP will visit the private hospitals to ensure that all the necessary measures are implemented.

Chief Health Officer Balasundar, All the zonal commissioners, war room doctors and other concerned officials were present at the meeting.
Gandhinagar, Dec 20 : Gandhinagar Police on Monday detained about seventy Aam Admi Party (AAP) leaders and workers for creating a ruckus at the BJP state headquarters and physically assaulting some women.

The police action came after two BJP female workers lodged a complaint in which they said that some AAP leaders were even drunk.

"We have detained around seventy AAP leaders and workers including Isudan Gadhvi, Gopal Italia, Nikhil Savani, Pravin Ram and others based on an FIR lodged against a mob of around four hundred people. The police will produce all of them in the court on Tuesday," Mayur Chavda, the Gandhinagar SP told reporters.

According to the complaint, AAP leaders and cadres on Monday entered into the state BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar 'Shri Kamalam' in the afternoon and staged protest over the leak of question papers of head clerk exams.

Two women members of the BJP -- Shraddha Jha and Shraddha Rajput in their complaint alleged that they were physically assaulted by AAP leaders. They showed nail injury marks over their bodies to the media.

Rajput alleged that AAP leaders caused injuries to BJP women workers and also that the AAP male cadres used abusive language in presence of women.

Rajput in her complaint said that she identified Gopal Italia, Isudan Gadhvi and Pravin Ram of the AAP. Rajput has alleged that AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi was drunk. He should be taken to a government hospital to check whether he was drunk or not.

Another female BJP member, Shraddha Jha said, "AAP leaders initially were shouting slogans, but then they started using abusive language. They were apparently here to create ruckus. I along with Shraddha Rajput asked AAP women to leave the place after token protest but we were attacked. They had come here with the intention to create ruckus. AAP male members were beating up BJP's two women cadres with sticks." Jha said, "Many of the protesters smelt of liquor consumption and they were definitely drunk." The police flushed out AAP leaders by using force and removed them from Kamalam.

The AAP has meanwhile alleged that Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Gujarat chief was roaming with stick in his hand.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat Police on Monday arrested a key person who leaked the Gujarat Subordinate Service Selection Board (GSSSB) (Gaun Seva Pasandagi Mandal) exam paper for recruitment of head clerks.

Meanwhile, the primary report of the breath analysis of AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi for liquor has been reported to be negative.
Mumbai, Dec 20 : Continuous FII fund outflow along with caution over rising Omicron cases triggered a massive slide in key domestic equity indices on Monday.

Additionally, RBI's plan to conduct a three-day variable rate reverse repo auction worth Rs 2 lakh crore on Wednesday to drain excess liquidity dented the sentiments.

In the day's trade, both the key domestic indices at one point were down by over 3 per cent, registering their biggest fall in eight months.

However, a late hour buying spurt aided the key indices to pare some of their losses.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined by over 1,100 points, while NSE Nifty50 was down by 371 points.

Initially, both the indices made a gap-down opening due to the rise in Omicron cases worldwide.

Globally, Asian share markets fell and oil prices slid as surging Omicron cases triggered tighter restrictions in Europe, threating to drag down the global economy going into the new year.

European stocks fell more than 2 per cent amid a global sell-off in equities, with investors fretting over the spectre of tighter pandemic curbs hitting the global economy as cases of the Omicron variant surge.

Besides, traders were also cautious with continuous net outflow of foreign funds. The FIIs net sold Rs 3,565.36 crore on BSE, NSE and MSEI in the capital market segment on Monday.

Notably, India VIX (volatility index) spiked, while all sectors traded in the negative territory.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined by 1,189.73 points or 2.09 per cent to 55,822.01 points. Similarly, NSE Nifty50 fell by 371 points or 2.18 per cent to 16,614.20 points.

"Omicron-led lockdown fears, doubts about passing of Joe Biden's flagship infra spending bill and the RBI's measure to withdraw or soak up liquidity resulted in this kind of a sell-off at a time when the institutions are anyway looking to take profits," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

"While a small bounce in the Nifty is likely in the near term, Nifty has a good support from the 15,860-16,245 band where it may find durable support. The 16,896-16,966 band, on the other hand, could be a tough resistance on the upside," he added.

According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services: "Markets have corrected by 10 per cent from their peak, driven by consistent FIIs selling, tightening monetary policy by central banks globally and concern over economic recovery due to rising Omicron cases.

"The overall market breadth remains negative and would require strong positive triggers for changing the current negative trend. Selling pressure is intact at higher levels and any recovery or bounce is being used by traders to go short on the market. Thus, we maintain our cautious view for the next couple of days." Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "India has been undergoing a phase of consolidation for the last two months. Currently, sell-off is due to rapid rise in FIIs selling triggered by hawkish central bank policy worldwide, cautious view on Indian market due to high valuation compared to peers, and drop in retail inflows.

"We feel that we are reaching the last phase of this consolidation in terms of price correction. Some pockets have become fair. However, the overall market is still trading at the upper-hand, which will continue to affect the performance of the broad market in the short-term."
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Reiterating that the accelerating melting of the Himalayan glaciers threatens the water supply of millions of people in Asia, a new study has said that the Himalayan glaciers have lost ice 10 times more quickly over the last few decades than on average since the last major glacier expansion 400-700 years ago, a period known as the 'Little Ice Age'.

The study, led by the University of Leeds, also reveals that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world, a rate of loss the researchers describe as 'exceptional' as they lost around 40 per cent of their area.

The research is the latest confirmation that the changes in the Himalayan glaciers are accelerating.

The paper -- 'Accelerated mass loss of Himalayan glaciers since the Little Ice Age' -- published in Scientific Reports made a reconstruction of the size and ice surfaces of 14,798 Himalayan glaciers during the Little Ice Age.

"The researchers calculate that the glaciers have lost around 40 per cent of their area -- shrinking from a peak of 28,000 sq km to around 19,600 sq km today," said a release.

During that period, they have also lost between 390 cubic km and 586 cubic km of ice -- the equivalent of all the ice contained today in the central European Alps, the Caucasus, and Scandinavia combined.

The water released through that melting has raised sea levels across the world by between 0.92 mm and 1.38 mm, the team calculates, the release said.

Jonathan Carrivick, corresponding author and Deputy Head of the University of Leeds' School of Geography, said: "Our findings clearly show that ice is now being lost from Himalayan glaciers at a rate that is at least 10 times higher than the average rate over past centuries. This acceleration in the rate of loss has only emerged within the last few decades, and coincides with human-induced climate change." The Himalayan range is home to the world's third-largest amount of glacier ice, after Antarctica and the Arctic, and is often referred to as 'The Third Pole.' The acceleration of melting of Himalayan glaciers has significant implications for millions of people who depend on Asia's major river systems for food and energy. These rivers include the Brahmaputra, the Ganges and the Indus.

The team used satellite images and digital elevation models to produce outlines of the glaciers' extent 400-700 years ago and to 'reconstruct' the ice surface. The satellite images revealed ridges that mark the former glacier boundaries, and the researchers used the geometry of these ridges to estimate the former glacier extent and ice surface elevation. Comparing the glacier reconstruction to the glacier now, they determined the volume and hence mass loss between the Little Ice Age and now.

Himalayan glaciers are also declining faster where they end in lakes, which have several warming effects, rather than where they end on land. The number and size of these lakes are increasing so continued acceleration in mass loss can be expected.

Similarly, glaciers, which have significant amounts of natural debris upon their surfaces, are also losing mass more quickly: They contributed around 46.5 per cent of total volume loss despite making up only around 7.5 per cent of the total number of glaciers.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Delhi government on Monday terminated the services of three Mohalla Clinic doctors over the death of three children in connection with the Dextromethorphan poisoning case. The government has also ordered an enquiry into the matter.

Three children reportedly died after consuming a Dextromethorphan cough syrup, which was administered by a Mohalla Clinic run by the Delhi government in the national capital, the Directorate of Health Services (DGHS) said in its enquiry report.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said that it is shocking that three children have died due to adverse drug reaction at the Kalawati Saran Hospital in Delhi.

"Three doctors have been terminated and an inquiry has been ordered into the matter," said minister Jain.

The minister added that the matter has been brought to the notice of Delhi Medical Council which will probe the matter.

Jain said that an enquiry into the incident has also been initiated and the guilty won't be spared.

"Sixteen cases of Dextromethorphan poisoning were reported at the Kalawati Saran children's hospital, out of which three children expired. These children were prescribed Dextromethorphan by Mohalla Clinics of the Delhi. The drug is strictly not recommended for pediatric age children," said the DGHS enquiry report.

In its report, the DGHS has asked the Delhi government to issue a notice to all the dispensaries and Mohalla Clinics to not prescribe the drug to children less than four years of age. The DGHS has also asked to withdraw the drug in public interest.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Supreme Court has asked the Director of AIIMS, New Delhi, to nominate a panel of doctors and specialists in the fields of treatment of the ailments suffered by the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to assist the Commission of Inquiry constituted by the state government to gather facts on her death.

The Tamil Nadu government had appointed the inquiry commission headed by Justice A. Arumughaswamy, a retired Madras High Court judge, on September 25, 2017.

A bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari said it is just and proper to constitute a medical board to assist the commission in disposal of the case.

"We request the Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to nominate a panel of doctors, specialist in the fields of treatment of the ailments as suffered by the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

"Needless to say that the Commission has to furnish the said Medical Board, so constituted, with complete records of the proceedings. The Medical Board, so appointed, is permitted to participate in all further proceedings of the Commission and furnish a copy of the report to the Commission," it said.

On November 30, the top court had said it will pass orders to allow the setting up of a medical board of AIIMS doctors to help the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry. The order in the matter was uploaded recently.

Apollo Hospitals had moved the top court alleging that the panel was biased, violated the principles of natural justice, and also conducting the fact-finding exercise outside its jurisdiction. The panel had denied the allegation of bias.

The top court said having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, "we are of the view that it is just and proper for the Commission to furnish the documents, the depositions and the records as available in the records of the Commission on an application to be made by the appellant-Hospital and respondent no 3 (V.K. Sasikala)".

The bench also permitted Apollo to make an appropriate application seeking permission to cross-examine/recall of any witness or individual including those witnesses whose evidence has since been closed and also lead its own evidence. "If such an application is filed, we request the Commission to consider the same and pass appropriate orders thereon," it added.

The top court also asked the commission to permit Sasikala to lead her evidence at an appropriate stage of the inquiry The commission was tasked to examine the circumstances which led to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa on September 22, 2016, and also the nature of treatment, to determine the cause of death.
Hyderabad, Dec 20 (IANS YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) President Y.S. Sharmila said on Monday that growing paddy is the right of farmers and that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao can't dictate to them what crops to cultivate.

As part of her 'Rythu Avedana Yatra', she called on families of two farmers and consoled them in Kamareddy district. While one farmer had died of cardiac arrest while waiting at a paddy procurement centre, the other committed suicide as his paddy was allegedly not procured by authorities.

Sharmila, sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, visited the house of Chinna Beeraiah in Ilapur village in Lingampet mandal and consoled the family The farmer recently died while waiting for his paddy to be procured by authorities at IKP Centre.

The YSRTP leader also visited Yellareddy in Sadashiv Nagar and consoled the family of M. Yadaiah who committed suicide as his paddy was not procured.

She blamed Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for the deaths of farmers. "It's shameful that they are killing the farmers and also staging dharnas," she said referring to the protests organised by the TRS across the state to demand the Centre to lift the entire paddy from the state.

Sharmila also blamed the TRS government for the plight of farmers in the state. Reacting to the appeal by the state government to farmers not to cultivate paddy during the coming Rabi season, she stated that growing paddy is the right of farmers. She asked farmers to cultivate paddy.

The daughter of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy said if necessary, she will go on indefinite fast to force the government to procure paddy. "I will fight for the rights of farmers till my death," she said.

Sharmila, who consoled the families of two farmers in Medak district on Sunday, alleged that Chandrasekhar Rao is responsible for suicides by scores of farmers.

She said the Chief Minister was confusing farmers by shifting his stance on a regular basis. "Sometime he says he will procure paddy till the last grain and sometimes he asks farmers not to go for paddy cultivation. How many times will he change his stance?" she asked.

Claiming that 200 farmers committed suicide during last 70 days, she demanded Rs 25 lakh ex gratia each to the families of these farmers.
New Delhi/Itanagar, Dec 20 : A day ahead of a national workshop on oil palm cultivation in the northeast, Arunachal Pradesh said that it will recommend taking up its cultivation in the state while preserving its environment.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in collaboration with the Arunachal Pradesh government, has planned a the national workshop on oil palm at Itanagar on Tuesday.

"It has been made categorically clear that the plantation work will not be done by damaging the standing forests as are being done in Southeast Asian countries. The proposed workshop will recommend taking up of oil palm cultivation in the northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, by preserving its environment," state Agriculture Secretary, Bidol Tayeng, said In Arunachal Pradesh, an area of 1.33 lakh Ha is available for taking up oil palm cultivation. The areas are mostly located in the foot-hill districts of Tirap, Changlang, Namsai, Lohit, Lower Dibang Valley, East Siang, Lower Siang, Papum Pare, Pakke Kessang and Kamle. About 4,000 Ha of land are already under oil palm cultivation in the state.

While the state Agriculture Department, which is the nodal department for oil palm, is actively involved in the planning and implementation of the new oil palm policy, it has also made it very clear that the plantation will be taken up only in the huge unused land available in the foothills areas of the state, Tayeng said in a statement.

Environmentalists have been up in arms against the government announcement of expansion of oil palms in to the NE states as the monoculture plantation is damaging for the rich biodiversity of the area.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had announced that the northeastern states would turn into an oil palm hub of the country, prior to which the Union Cabinet had approved Rs 11,040 crore outlay for over five years for the National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm for reducing India's import of edible oil.

While oil palms are widely grown in states such as Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu etc., the country is still importing huge quantity of palm oil annually, mostly from southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

During his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a scheme to boost palm oil production in the northeast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, both regions having high rainfall.
New Delhi/Srinagar, Dec 20 : Kashmiri youth saying no to guns and normalcy returning to Jammu and Kashmir have unnerved the militant handlers sitting across the Line of Control (LoC).

Their plan to keep J&K burning is falling apart. They are looking for other means to keep militancy alive, as local recruitment in terror groups is on the decline in J&K.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, during the past 33 days, three Pakistani militants have been killed in Srinagar and there are reports about more foreign militants being present in the city. It appears that Pakistan is back to its old tricks. Instead of relying on locals, it has activated the ultras of Pakistan origin to keep the conflict alive.

After August 5, 2019 -- when the Centre announced its decision to abrogate J&K's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories -- militant handlers made every possible attempt to destabilise the situation in J&K, especially in the Kashmir region.

But the change in J&K's status-quo opened a plethora of opportunities for the youth. They realised that picking up arms, pelting stones and staging demonstrations won't help their cause. They went on to grab the employment and other opportunities that were provided to them from time to time.

Local youth losing interest in militancy and refusing to fall in the radicalisation trap seem to have become a cause of worry for the people promoting violence in J&K. The presence of Pakistani militants in Srinagar is an indication that the former has not stopped meddling into Kashmir's affairs and wants violence to continue at any cost.

Pakistani militants being present in Kashmir is nothing new, they have been an active part of militancy in J&K during the past three decades. The militant groups sponsored by Pakistan used to operate openly in the Himalayan region and the three-decade long militancy in J&K has never been indigenous. It has always been managed and run by the people sitting in Pakistan. It's no secret and the entire world knows it.

Pakistan home to 12 designated FTOs According to a latest US independent Congressional Research Service report on terrorism, Pakistan is home to at least 12 groups designated as 'foreign terrorist organisations, including five India-centric ones.

The US officials have identified Pakistan as a base of operations or target for numerous armed and non-state militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s. The report stated that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was formed in the late 1980s in Pakistan, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) in 2001, while Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was founded in 2000 by Masood Azhar and was designated as an FTO in 2001.

Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) was formed in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet army and was designated as an FTO in 2010. After 1989, it redirected its efforts toward India. Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) was formed in 1989 - reportedly as the militant wing of Pakistan's largest Islamist political party - and was designated as FTO in 2017. It is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in J&K.

Militant groups change names After August 5, 2019, many militant groups, including LeT, have changed their names in J&K to create an impression that militancy in Kashmir is home grown but the world is aware of the fact that Pakistan sponsored terror groups are responsible for the violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

The militant handlers sitting across the LoC are aware of the fact that Srinagar is heart of Kashmir and if the militancy related incidents are intensified in the city, they can create panic and would provide their agents sitting in the Valley with a chance to add fuel to the fire.

The killings of members of the minority community in October this year were carried out to recreate a 1990 like situation in Kashmir. Eleven civilians, including five non-locals, a Kashmiri Pandit, a Sikh woman and a Hindu man, were shot dead by the ultras to create fear psychosis, and most of the cold-blooded murders took place in Srinagar city.

However, the counter offensive launched by the security forces led to the elimination of most of the militants who were involved in these killings. Only one among the accused is believed to be alive.

Normalcy hurting Pakistan The normalcy in Kashmir is hurting Pakistan badly. It is unable to digest that famous health resorts like Gulmarg are jam-packed, and tourists in hordes are expected to arrive in the Valley to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

The youth of Kashmir moving ahead and grabbing new opportunities to excel in life too seems to have perturbed the terror bosses. Street protests, stone-pelting and shutdowns have become history. In a nutshell, there is no semblance of the so-called "freedom movement" left in the erstwhile princely state.

The proxy war launched by Pakistan in 1990 to snatch Kashmir from India is almost over, as there is no one left to fight it. But the militant handlers are in no mood to give up and it appears that they are once again assigning the frontal roles to the militants of Pakistani origin as the participation of Kashmiri youth in the subversive activities is declining.

Pakistan not allowing Kashmiris to sit in peace has exposed its real face before the Kashmiri people, who were made to believe during the past 30 years that militants and the neighbouring country are their friends and India is their enemy.

But the actions of Pakistan and its militants speak louder than words. The activation of Pakistani militants is a message to the people of Kashmir that they cannot get away so easily. Their rights to progress and prosper have been snatched and they will have to live in chaos and uncertainty till Pakistan wants. They don't care about the people of Kashmir, nor are they interested in their security. The only thing they want is the land.

Kashmiris have understood it and have turned their backs towards Pakistan, but the country which used to claim that it is their true friend is stabbing them in their backs and is out to punish them collectively.

Resurgence of Pakistani militants is not good news for the people of Kashmir. It's an indication that the onslaught has not ended, and they should be prepared to face more.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The government is monitoring the Omicron situation everyday and constantly assessing this new Covid variant with experts, the Parliament was told on Monday.

"I have spoken with the states on this Covid variant and also an SOP has been issued for travellers landing from abroad for preventing the infection," Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya told the Rajya Sabha.

He said that a total 161 cases of Omicron have been detected so far across the nation.

"We have made a transparent system for the ventilators in hospitals. Now the state-run hospitals provide us a certificate that the ventilator has been installed and is running smoothly. State governments have provided 48,000 such ventilator reports so far. We will strengthen our fight against Covid on the basis of what we have learnt from the last wave," he said.

About the ongoing vaccination drive, Mandaviya informed the house that with the health workers' diligent efforts, total 88 per cent of the first Covid vaccine dose and 58 per cent of the second have been administered in India as of now, and the majority of the population in India is vaccinated.

On India's vaccine capacity, he informed the house that the vaccine manufacturing capacity has been enhanced.

Today, India has capacity to manufacture 31 crore doses of vaccines per month which will rise to 45 crore doses in the next two months, he said.

All states and UTs have adequate quantities of vaccines, including approximately 17 crore unutilised vaccine doses, Mandaviya added.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : As many as 2002 human lives were lost due to hydro-meteorological calamities during 2021 with maximum of them, 489, in Maharashtra, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Hydro-meteorological events mean natural hazards such as cyclonic storms/heavy rains/floods/landslides etc.

Among other states, Himachal Pradesh witnessed 298 deaths followed by Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh at 162 deaths each, Karnataka (144), Kerala (138), Madhya Pradesh (127), Uttarakhand (107) and West Bengal (65), Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Bishweswar Tudu, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha while giving out state-wise details (provisional data) as on November 25.

In a related question, Tudu informed that to strengthen the structural measures of flood management, the ministry has launched a Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing Central assistance to states for works related to flood management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, etc.

These have subsequently continued as a component of 'Flood Management and Border Areas Programme' (FMBAP) from 2017-18 and extended up to December 2021.

"So far, Central assistance amounting to Rs 6,447.76 crore has been released to Union Territories/state governments under this programme. The 415 projects completed under this programme have given protection to an area of around 4.994 million hactres and protected a population of about 52.21 million," the minister said.
Kohima, Dec 20 : The Army, which is conducting a court of inquiry into the killing of 14 civilians by armed forces personnel due to "mistaken identity" in Nagaland's Mon district on December 4 and 5, on Monday sought any information, photos, videos from the public on the incident.

A defence spokesman said that any person having any information including videos, photos from primary source or any other information in original (not forwarded or not from secondary sources) can share via phone or SMS or WhatsApp messenger at +91 6026930283 or call at Army Exchange Helpline +91 3742388456.

The identity of the informant will be kept confidential on request.

The original documents, audio-visual recordings would be collected from the source after following due legal procedure, the spokesman said.

Various Naga civil society organisations, including the Konyak Union and the Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation (ENPO), had already announced that they would not cooperate with the Army and the paramilitary forces until the justice were delivered to the victims and the guilty security personnel.

The influential Naga Students' Federation (NSF), in a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, demanded a court monitored committee headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge to ensure free and fair probe in an impartial manner.

"The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Nagaland government to probe the December 4 incident would not do justice to the wilful acts of the Indian armed forces under the protection of the repressive AFSPA," the memorandum said.

Meanwhile, the 5-member SIT continued their investigation under the overall supervision of Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Sandeep M. Tamgadge, so as to submit its report within January 4.
Jammu, Dec 20 : The Jammu and Kashmir government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University College Birmingham (UCB) at India Global Forum, Dubai, to explore potential progression opportunities through institutional partnership with vocational colleges and universities in J&K, officials said on Monday.

For the first time, UCB has decided to set up an office in Jammu and Kashmir to tie up with local educational institutions, facilitate academic exchange programmes and enable students to secure admissions at reduced fees.

Director of Industries and Commerce, Jammu, Anoo Malhotra, and Director Marketing, Admissions and International Recruitment, University College Birmingham, Eileen Pryer, signed the MoU in the presence of Counsel General of India, Aman Puri, during the India Global Forum event held at Taj Dubai.

"We have signed an MoU. We will be exchanging educational programmes and doing many things together. I am inviting her to J&K. We will be providing her with some office space. We will start work as soon as possible," said Anu Malhotra.

Eileen said it is an incredible opportunity for the University College Birmingham.

"This provides a great opportunity for things to explore, make partnerships with universities and provide wider opportunity for students who may not able to go straight to our programmes. So it is an incredible opportunity. We have a very positive experience," she said.

The objective of the MoU is to provide a framework within which the parties will seek to develop a formal relationship in exchange of undergraduate/graduate students, technical programs, academic mobility, teaching and research programs. The document would be valid for a period of three years.
Guwahati, Dec 20 : When most parties of the northeast, including BJP's allies, are strongly demanding the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) be repealed from the entire region, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said the law would continue to be enforced in his state.

A decision on withdrawing the AFSPA would be taken only if the present peace prevails for a longer term, he said, expressing doubts whether militant outfits would reciprocate the same manner if the AFSPA is lifted from Assam.

"No state government wants to continue with AFSPA if the law and order situation is peaceful and favourable. AFSPA withdrawal is linked with the peace and stability of the state. Recently the Arunachal Pradesh government in consultation with the Centre has withdrawn the AFSPA from certain parts of the state," Sarma told the media.

The AFSPA, which allows the Army and Central paramilitary forces to conduct raids, operations, arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice or arrest warrant, is in force in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur barring the Imphal municipal council area, and certain districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

All major political parties including the Congress, the CPI-M, the CPI, the Trinamool Congress, the Naga People's Front (NPF), the National People's Party (NPP), the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and almost all other local and regional parties have been demanding the repeal of the AFSPA.

The NPP, the NPF, the IPFT, and the NDPP are the allies of the BJP in the Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur goverments, respectively.

Though the BJP leaders in Nagaland are strongly demanding lifting of the AFSPA from the region, the Central leaders of the party have yet to disclose their stand.
Patna, Dec 20 : HAM leader and Bihar's former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's "abusive remarks" on the Brahmin community have led to a row and now after the FIRs against him, the Pandas (priests) of his home district Gaya announced they will not perform rituals and "Pind-Daan" (offering to ancestors) after his death.

"Jitan Ram Manji is a native of Gaya district and the entire Brahmin community has given good support to him. Still, he has not only abused the Brahmin community but also the entire Sanatan Dharma. Hence, when he would die, Pandas would not go to his house for his shradh or Pind-Daan," said Prem Nath Teyya, the leader of the Panda community of Gaya.

A large number of Pandas assembled at the city's Vishnupad temple on Monday to participated in a protest march. They have also burnt him in effigy.

"Jitan Ram Manjhi has given disgraceful statements against the Brahmin community to do cheap politics. He has deeply hurt the sentiments of Brahmins. It cannot be tolerated," Teyya said.

Gaya is famous for Pind-Daan and people from across the country come here to perform the ritual after their family members die. It is the only place where Pind-Daan takes place in the country and hence this place has great importance under Hindu tradition and culture.

As per Ramayana, Lord Rama along with Sita and younger brother Laxmana went to the bank of Falgu river to offer Pind-Daan to his father Dashrath. Since then the tradition has continued, as per the claims of the Pandas of Gaya.

Manjhi, while addressing the people of Mushar community during an event in Patna on December 19, said that when he was young, the prevalence of Satyanaraya Puja (Worshiping Lord Vishnu) was not much in their community.

"These days, the prevalence of Satyanarayan Puja is taking place in almost every house in our community. More alarmingly, the Brahmins come to our house, conduct Puja but they do not eat food in our houses. They shamelessly demand money (Dakshina) instead of eating food in our houses," he said.

Mushars come under the Maha Dalit community in Bihar.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : India on Monday extended the "free" import policy for different kinds of palm oils till the end of 2022.

These palm oils include "refined bleached deodorised palm oil", "refined bleached deodorised palmolein", and another variant (palm oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified).

As per a Ministry of Commerce and Industry notification, the import is free for a period up to December 31, 2022.

In June, the Centre removed import restrictions till December 31, 2021.

However, imports are not permitted through any port in Kerala.

"'Free' import policy of items under HS code 15119010, 15119020 and 15119090 is extended for a period up to December 31, 2022," the notification said.

The move comes after international prices of crude palm, and RBD palmolein-based edible oils have risen substantially.
Cocoa Hyundai is an automotive dealership in Cocoa, Florida. They have many finance offers and APR discounts on their new vehicle inventory going on right now. One of them is the 0% APR for 60 months on the new 2022 Hyundai IONIQ hybrid and the 2021 Hyundai Sonata. Similar offers are also available on the 2022 Hyundai Tucson, 2022 Hyundai Venue and the 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Along with this, the dealership is also offering 0% APR financing for 48 months on models like the 2022 Hyundai Elantra and the 2022 Hyundai Elantra Hybrid. The same offer is also available on the 2022 Hyundai Kona, the 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe, the 2022 Hyundai Sonata.

For more details about this limited-time offer, visit the dealership website. Since it is a limited-time offer, interested residents of the area are encouraged to act fast. For more details about this offer or any other queries, they can contact the sales team at 321-631-2444. Cocoa Hyundai is located at 1825 West King Street in Cocoa, FL. The dealership is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Saturday it is open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
In an effort to help nursing assistant (NA) students prepare for and successfully pass their certification competency exam, G-W Publisher and FACETS Healthcare Training announce the availability of an exciting combination of classroom resources and online test preparation. This new partnership offers NA students and instructors a unique bundle package of G-Ws The Nursing Assistant: Essentials of Holistic Care textbook with a 1-year online subscription to FACETS Healthcare Training to prepare for state-specific certification exams, essential to becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA).

The Nursing Assistant: Essentials of Holistic Care, 2023, is in its second edition by author Dr. Sue Roe, who has over 35 years of experience in nursing and nursing education. With its unique focus on holistic caregiving, students learn how to address the needs of residents while providing high-quality care that is safe, effective, and compassionate. This new edition also features a Study Guide, digital resources including LMS-ready content with an Enhanced Video Clip Library featuring 24 Instructional Videos, and an entire suite of Online Instructor Resources. FACETS Healthcare Training is the ideal complement to G-W Publisher's Nursing Assistant textbook, providing essential state-specific resources for nursing assistant students, 100% online.

For 100 years, G-W has had a steadfast focus on education and career readiness. We understand the importance and value of certifications in industry, most recently for allied health careers, said John Flanagan, President of G-W. Our partnership with FACETS Healthcare Training ensures that your nursing assistant program provides a completely balanced curriculum and prepares CNA students for successful careers.

We are both honored and humbled to partner with G-W in offering schools with a complete package of exceptional resources spanning from first day of class to the point of certification," said Vicky Castillo, President and Founder of FACETS Healthcare Training. "Overcoming obstacles to certification on a national and state-specific level coupled with the textbook's holistic approach by Dr. Roe is a win for schools, instructors, and students, and the strength behind this partnership!

G-W's partnership with FACETS Healthcare Training underscores a commitment to expand and enhance instructional resources for allied health programs and provide students and instructors with effective solutions that prepare students for successful careers.

About G-W Publisher

Established in 1921, G-W publishes print and digital instructional materials for Career and Technical Education and Health Education. G-W collaborates with outstanding authors, trustworthy reviewers, and industry-focused trade associations to provide quality, standards-based content with effective pedagogy. Learn more at http://www.g-w.com and on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

About FACETS Healthcare Training

FACETS Healthcare Training, LLC was founded in 2008 by Edwviges Vicky Castillo MSNed, RN, CNE to provide a variety of boutique healthcare services in Phoenix, Arizona. Since this time, the services have evolved into a 100% online "Nursing Assistant Test Prep" provider in all 50 U.S. states and the three U.S. territories of U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands. Learn more at https://facetshealthcare.com/ and on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
The San Diego Business Journal has recently recognized Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive Officer of ITJ, on its SD500 special edition as one of the most influential people in San Diego, along with other business leaders celebrating their unparalleled contribution to the regions economy.

San Diegos world-class transformation has been driven by the vision and accomplishments of the leaders profiled in this years edition of the SD500. From civic and lifestyle champions to pioneers in blue tech, biotech, high tech, life sciences, real estate, and finance, the San Diego Business Journals SD500 is the human capital powering the success of the regions prosperity.

This years edition features a host of newcomers as well as business community leaders whove been SD500 mainstays for more than a decade. With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) emerging as a central theme in 2021, women and persons of color, including people of all ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, are well represented on this years list.

Since launching in 2019, Maritza Diaz helms ITJuana, a technology services company based in San Diego, enables customers to create technology centers of excellence in Tijuana. Our mission is to help improve peoples lives through digital innovation by creating Software Centers of Excellence and providing access to digital nearshore talent.

San Diego and Tijuana can become the most prosperous region globally, said Diaz. So lets continue leveraging our strengths to unlock this opportunity. Thank you, San Diego Business Journal, for recognizing my teams work and collaboration with the region.

Diaz was appointed this year by the Tijuana EDC as leader of its Innovation and Emerging Sectors Commission, whose charter is to strengthen Mexico/US binational relationships  and advance Baja Californias role as a significant hub of digital innovation and technology development servicing the IT, Biotech, and related industries generating thousands of jobs for software and digital professionals across the world.
We are currently working with Community and Regional Financial Institutions across the country - responding to the challenges they face with the growth in our services team supporting outsourced Commercial Underwriting, SBA LSP Services, Compliance and Operations."

David Tinsley will serve as Head of the Lenders Cooperative SBA 7a and 504 LSP Services Platform. David has over 20 years of experience in the banking industry that spans across different credit verticals in the banking industry with most of his time spent in SBA related products and processes.

Prior to joining Lenders Cooperative, David spent 8 years with Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama, where he served in various senior leadership roles across the entire SBA Division  Underwriting, Fulfilment and Funding. Prior to Regions, David spent time at Wells Fargo in Commercial Credit Underwriting. David started his career in Public Accounting at the Pearce Bevill CPA Firm.

Dayton Tabor joins as VP on the Lenders Cooperative Credit Underwriting Team and has over 15 years of experience in the banking industry having spent time in a leadership role in both Commercial Credit Underwriting and the SBA 7a and 504 Underwriting and Product workflow.

Prior to joining Lenders Cooperative, Dayton worked with the Southern Development Council CDC where we served as the Chief Credit Officer. As Chief Credit Officer at the CDC, Dayton managed a team that included Underwriting, Loan Packaging and Loan Processing. Prior to the time spent at the CDC, Dayton spent several years at Regions Bank where he worked in their Commercial Underwriting group. Dayton also spent time at Regions Bank in the role of SBA Loan Processor with focus on both SBA 7a and 504.

We are very excited about David and Dayton joining the STGs Lenders Cooperative Team, said Ben Wallace, CEO of STG. We are currently working with Community and Regional Financial Institutions across the country - responding to the challenges they face with the growth in our services team supporting outsourced Commercial Underwriting, SBA LSP Services, Compliance and Operations. We continue to believe the automation we deliver through our Lenders Cooperative LOS Platform needs to be combined with subject matter expertise delivered through services to truly be accretive for our Partners. This is another step to help our Bank partners impact the bottom line of their organizations  going far beyond just providing technology.

STG, whose investors have included American Bankers Association, and Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank is focused on helping community and regional banks modernize their operations, technology delivery, and back-office processes. STG supports over 200 community institutions in their efforts to modernize their delivery of banking services.
Dale Carnegie Training of Central and North Alabama has received multiple awards for trainer quality in 2021!



Nancy Covert, President of Dale Carnegie Training of Central and North Alabama and Robert Daniel, Avocational Trainer, received awards for the highest rated delivery of Dale Carnegies High Impact Presentations program to corporations. This is a global award! Ratings are based upon the combination of Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the Voice of the Customer Score (VOC), trainer entrusted revenue and total number of responses. Nancy and Robert have been delivering this program to corporations and in public classes since 2006.

In addition, Nancy received an award for the highest rated delivery of Leadership programs to corporations. This is also a global award! Ratings for this award have the same criteria as the High Impact Presentations award. Nancy has been delivering Leadership programs to corporations and in public classes since 2001.

The entire training team at Dale Carnegie Training of Central and North Alabama was also recognized by winning an Overall Trainer Quality Award for North America. This Quality Award was presented to the top two Dale Carnegie franchises in each Region and is based upon the combination of NPS, VOC and total number of responses results.

Participants in Dale Carnegie programs are made up of both formal and informal leaders. Psychological Safety is emphasized to create a safe place to try out new skills and ideas. The trainers are highly vetted and undergo an intense training that is ISO9002 certified to achieve consistent results globally. While part of a global organization, they are connected to your local culture, customs and language.

For over 100 years, Dale Carnegie has helped communities all over the world prosper by improving the personal and financial well-being of the people who live there and the companies that do business there. Today, we continue to cross borders and generations, showing people how to tap into the best parts of themselves to create positive change.

For more information on the programs Dale Carnegie of Central and North Alabama offers, call 256-679-8747 or visit https://www.dalecarnegie.com/en/locations/birmingham/.
"The physical world and the mental world are connected to and dependent on each other. Likewise, all living beings are interdependent in a similar manner. Therefore, we should respect other beings with kindness. This is the virtue of being a human and what we should value as a human."

On December 20, 2021, the First Shravasti Awards has announced its three winners of this year. Adhering to the principle of "mutual love" and "symbiosis", the Shravasti Awards pay tribute to those who transcend religious differences to promote good deeds and encourage people from different cultures to collaborate and improve the world.

The Shravasti Awards consist of three categories: the Shravasti Spiritual Leadership Award, the Shravasti Humanities Award, and the Shravasti Environmental Award. Recipients of this award may come from any religious background and are nominated by the public. Three extraordinary figures-Hindu religious leaders His Holiness Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati, senior media professional and scholar Dr. Her Rey Sheng, and environmental activist Dr. Mohammed Deen Darokhan-have been recognized as winners of the first Shravasti Awards.



The Shravasti Spiritual Leadership Award: Mutual Love and Symbiosis

The winner of the Spiritual Leadership Award is His Holiness Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati, a Hindu spiritual leader. His Holiness Pujya Swami has led the Global Interfaith Summit and has long been devoted to realizing religious harmony. Moreover, His Holiness Pujya Swami has put his heart and soul into humanitarian projects, working on saving the Ganga River, developing healthcare and education, and improving women's positions. His Holiness's contributions have been recognized by receiving awards such as the World Peace Ambassador Award and the Mentor of India Award.

The Shravasti Humanities Award: Prosperity of All Human Beings

The winner of the Humanities Award is Dr. Her Rey Sheng, the initiator of global "goodness" research and deputy CEO of Tzu Chi Foundation. Transcending the differences between Eastern and Western culture, Dr. Her advocates altruism to achieve equal wealth and prosperity of all human beings and to achieve social harmony and fulfillment of life. Dr. Her has participated in relief work of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China, the 2013 Philippine Typhoon, and the 2015 Nepal Earthquake.

The Shravasti Environmental Award: Caring for Farmers and Nature

The winner of the Environmental Award is Dr. Mohammed Deen Darokhan. Dr. Deen is an environmentalist dedicated to ecological protection in the Himalayan region. His vision of transforming his hometown into an integrated organic area by 2025 is crucial to glacial and climate protection in Ladakh. Dr. Deen has made significant contributions to carbon neutrality, ecological agriculture system, afforestation, biodiversity, energy and water conservation, reduction of plastic use, protection of local cultural traditions and language diversity.

The vision of the Shravasti Awards is towards encouraging humans to transcend our differences and together build a harmonious homeland where all human beings exist in balance, and beautiful earth can develop sustainably.

As His Holiness, The Drikung Kyabgon Tinle Lhundup said, "The physical world and the mental world are connected to and dependent on each other. Likewise, all living beings are interdependent in a similar manner. Therefore, we should respect other beings with kindness. This is the virtue of being a human and what we should value as a human."

For more details, please refer to http://www.ShravastiAwards.org

Background: For a long time, His Holiness The Drikung Kyabgon Tinle Lhundup has been devoting himself to promoting the development of cultural diversity, education and humanistic care, aiming to manifest the principle of "mutual love" and "symbiosis" in all areas of life. His Holiness initiated GO GREEN GO ORGANIC and other sustainability projects in the Himalayan region. These projects have greatly improved the lives of local people in the highest desert in the world. The local population of this area comes from a different religious backgrounds, including Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. His Holiness has been appointed as the Mountain Partnership Goodwill Ambassadors of the United Nations for his excellent contributions.

The Shravasti Foundation was established on September 28, 2020 in California, USA. Adhering to the principle of "mutual love" and "symbiosis", the foundation encourages people to realize religious harmony, transcend differences, care for the living beings and our environment. A team of volunteers founded this foundation to support His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Tinle Lhundup's humanitarian activities.

More than 2500 years ago, when Buddha Shakyamuni preached the Dharma teachings in Shravasti, he pointed out that all living beings share a common destiny and equality. Therefore, we should treat other beings with kindness and no discrimination. This is where the foundation takes its name. The Shravasti Foundation strives to practice the Buddha teachings, making great endeavors to transcend religious differences and promote harmony between different groups and between humans and the environment.
"This survey provides law departments with relevant data and a meaningful benchmark to evaluate the equity and competitiveness of their departments compensation structure said Michelle Matroni, Sr. Research Manager, ALM Intelligence."

ALM Intelligence has released the results of its annual Law Department Compensation Benchmarking (LDCB) Survey. The 2021 edition of the report reveals how Americas top corporations compensate their in-house legal staff by giving insights into compensation packagesincluding salary, bonus, and total cash and stock optionsacross nine positions and numerous regions, department sizes, and industries.

The annual Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey provides law departments with relevant data and a meaningful benchmark to evaluate the equity and competitiveness of their departments compensation structure, said Michelle Matroni, Sr. Research Manager and Legal Rankings Lead, ALM Intelligence.

Highlights from this years report include:



Chief Legal Officers, on average, receive a total compensation of just over $1 million annually

Staff Attorneys earn an average base salary of $119,000 at companies with annual sales revenue below $1 billion

Average base salary for Managing Attorneys is highest in the Northeast and lowest in the West

Operations Managers receive an average base salary of $97,000

This is critical intelligence for legal departments, law firms and recruiters, said Patrick Fuller, Vice President of ALM Intelligence. The compensation gap between large law firms and their in-house counterparts continues to expand, and understanding where those gaps exist is essential to winning the war for talent.

This year's survey was conducted from May to October 2021 and the resulting report includes data on over 1,100 in-house lawyers and operations professionals across 29 organizations.

To purchase the report, visit: 2021 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking (LDCB) Survey

About ALM Intelligence

ALM Intelligence provides proprietary data, analysis, tools, and knowledge that empower our clients to succeed. The product suite and vast data repository arm professionals with the critical business information required to make the most impactful and informed decisions possible. The exhaustive data repository and product functionality enable professionals to combat competitive challenges head-on with the confidence to remain ahead of the field. The depth of ALM Intelligences expertise across the benefits, insurance, consulting, and legal industries provide a broad spectrum of actionable intelligence to facilitate and execute strategy. Visit http://www.alm.com/intelligence/ for more information.

About ALM

ALM, an information and intelligence company, provides customers with critical news, data, analysis, marketing solutions, and events to successfully manage the business of law. ALM serves a community of over 6 million business professionals seeking to discover, connect, and compete in highly complex industries. Please visit http://www.alm.com for more information, and visit http://www.alm.com/events/ to learn about our upcoming events. Please follow us on Twitter at @ALMMedia.
David Orso, The David Orso Team founder and lead The David Orso team has created a new standard of service for their clients and built life-long relationships that are the ultimate model of PenFed Realtys Forever Agent philosophy. Baltimore Metro & Eastern Shore Regional President Terri Bracciale

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, one of the countrys fastest-growing real estate brokerages with more than 2,000 Realtors and over $8 billion in annual sales volume, welcomes The David Orso Team serving Anne Arundel County.

We are truly delighted to welcome David Orso and his first-class team of real estate professionals to the company, said Baltimore Metro & Eastern Shore Regional President Terri Bracciale. The David Orso team has created a new standard of service for their clients and built life-long relationships that are the ultimate model of PenFed Realtys Forever Agent philosophy.

Founder and team leader David Orso began his career as a Realtor in 2003 with a vision of delivering a thoughtful approach to selling and buying real estate to clients in his hometown of Annapolis, Md., and the surrounding area. Orso has since built his team of six, managed well over 1,000 residential transactions and sold nearly a billion dollars of real estate. His dedication to creating a value-driven client experience has resulted in Orso being named the number one agent in Anne Arundel County for seven years running and one of the top ten agents in the country.

Our teams mission is driven by a client-first mentality, and we are excited to join a brokerage with the level of support and resources that PenFed Realty offers to continuously take customer service to the next level, said Orso. This is a company that shares our determination to elevate the residential real estate experience.

The David Orso Team can be reached by phone at (443) 372-7171 and by email at David.Orso@PenFedRealty.com. To learn more about the team, visit DavidOrso.com.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty (http://www.penfedrealty.com) is a full-service real estate company with an annual sales volume of over $8 billion. The company has over 2,000 agents and more than 50 offices, providing complete real estate services nationwide and helping over 20,000 clients with their housing needs each year. PenFed Realty is a wholly owned subsidiary of PenFed Credit Union and is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brokerage network, operated by HSF Affiliates LLC. We are proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Blue Water presents a $75,000 check to the Northampton County YMCA. Cape Charles is a beautiful area with incredible people, so we are glad we can help the community by funding their local chapter of the YMCA. - Todd Burbage, Blue Water CEO

Real estate developer and leading outdoor hospitality specialist Blue Water announced that they have donated $75,000 to the Northampton County YMCA in Cape Charles, Va., as part of a new holiday season initiative to give back to the communities that play host to some of Blue Waters many properties.

With tourism and travel now recovering from the pandemic, we thought it was high time to start giving back to the communities that helped us survive during the crisis, said Todd Burbage, Blue Waters CEO. Cape Charles is a beautiful area with incredible people, so we are glad we can help the community by funding their local chapter of the YMCA.

Built during the height of the pandemic in August 2020, the Northampton County YMCA provides residents with a place to exercise, gather, and participate in recreational activities. The Y is part of the larger YMCA of South Hampton Roads association, which serves southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina.

The donation will specifically be going toward raising funds to cover the construction and expansion costs for the YMCA, which in turn will lead to the creation of youth programs, support for aging adults, swim safety, and healthy living access.

This new holiday donation initiative is a unique opportunity to show how much we value the communities where our properties are located, Burbage said. As the home of our Sunset Beach Hotel and Cape Charles/Chesapeake Bay KOA Resort, Cape Charles deserves to have a place where people can spend time together and exercise. We're excited about supporting initiatives and charities like this across the country as we give back this holiday season, and we are hoping that this becomes a yearly tradition.

More information on Northampton County YMCA can be found here. Learn more about Blue Water at BWDC.com.

About Blue Water:

Founded by Jack and Todd Burbage in 2002, Blue Water specializes in investing, developing, and managing RV resorts, campgrounds, hotels, and attractions. Blue Water's integrated approach to marketing, revenue management, and operations has quickly established itself as a hospitality industry leader. With two dozen resort-area properties in East Coast states from Maine to Florida, and west to Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas, the Blue Water family is committed to creating elite assets, delivering exceptional guest experiences, and enhancing the communities we serve. To learn more, visit BWDC.com.

About Northampton County YMCA:

The Northampton County YMCA broke ground August 25, 2020 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia just a short distance from Cape Charles main street. This Y will be part of the YMCA of South Hampton Roads, serving southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina.

Concern of insufficient youth programs, support for aging adults, swim safety, and healthy living access drove local partners, donors, and the Y to collaborate in making these critical programs a reality through a newly constructed YMCA in Northampton County. A capital campaign to fundraise the cost of constructing the Y kicked off with key volunteers rallying for support from more than 40 donors. $4.5 million was raised in eight months  the fastest, widely supported capital campaign in the YMCA of South Hampton Roads history. With less than $50,000 remaining in the campaign, the Y is close to being 100% donor-funded.
Outreach and education are the best things you can do to assure access to high-quality evidence-based treatment for autism, said CARD CEO Tony Kilgore. This new role has the potential to be a model for other statesas prevalence rates continue to rise in Maryland and throughout the U.S.

Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD; centerforautism.com), the worlds largest autism treatment provider, is pleased to recognize Maryland Governor Hogan and Delegate Michelle Guyton for their leadership and foresight in the appointment of Katie Gandy as the states first autism coordinator.

As an advocate and parent of a child with autism, Katie Gandy knows firsthand the challenges and opportunities individuals, parents and caregivers face when seeking high-quality treatment for autism spectrum disorder. Gandy will be a strong voice in support of outreach and education for this important issue.

I am excited to begin this new role and begin to build effective, wraparound resources for all Marylanders with autism, their families, and caregivers, Gandy said. I am so grateful to Delegate Michelle Guyton for her dogged pursuit of state representation for the autism community, and of course to Governor Hogan for his support in creating this position and the Maryland Autism Advisory Commission. Maryland will remain a leader in autism education, therapy, interventions, and resources.

Gandy has served on the Board of Directors for the Howard County Autism Society for nearly three years. She recently led an effort by the society to add communication boards at Howard County elementary schools so that nonverbal children can better communicate with their peers on the playground.

Outreach and education are the best things you can do to assure access to high-quality evidence-based treatment for autism, said CARD Chief Executive Officer Tony Kilgore. This new role has the potential to be a model for other states in demonstrating Marylands commitment to provide services and supports to its autism community, especially as prevalence rates continue to rise in Maryland and throughout the U.S.

Since 1990, Center for Autism and Related Disorders has served thousands of patients and provided tens of millions of treatment hours. CARD serves Marylanders at three centers conveniently located in Annapolis, Columbia, and Rockville and 18 additional locations in the surrounding areas.

About Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD)

CARD treats individuals of all ages diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at treatment centers around the globe. CARD was founded in 1990 by leading autism expert and clinical psychologist Doreen Granpeesheh, Ph.D., BCBA-D. CARD treats individuals with ASD using the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA), which is empirically proven to be the most effective method for treating individuals with ASD and recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Surgeon General. CARD employs a dedicated team of trained professionals across the nation and internationally. For more information, visit centerforautism.com.

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Dr. Shervin Naderi, double board-certified facial plastic surgeon, and Rhinoplasty expert, will be awarded this honorary title in the next issue of DC Magazine in their February 2022 issue.

DC Modern Luxury has announced their picks for the 22 DC Magazine Leading Health and Beauty Experts. Dr. Shervin Naderi, double board-certified facial plastic surgeon, and Rhinoplasty expert, will be awarded this honorary title in the next issue of DC Magazine in their February 2022 issue.

This award recognizes Dr. Naderis commitment to excellent patient care and will highlight his skills as a surgeon along with his innovative approach to Rhinoplasty. DC Modern Luxury is a leading industry expert in luxury trends, style & beauty, home & real estate, and local cuisines. The publication explores high-end luxury lifestyles and caters to those in the DC area and beyond.

DC Magazine readers and the editorial team at the magazine have hand-selected health and beauty experts to be included in the forthcoming issue of the magazine. The February 2022 issue will showcase the best doctors and surgeons in the region. DC magazine will also do an in-depth exploration of each expert's contribution to their local area and talk about how they have changed their particular area of medical expertise.

Dr. Shervin Naderi has graciously accepted this award and looks forward to being included in DC Magazine in February. Dr. Naderi is the founder of The Naderi Center for Plastic Surgery and Dermatology and is a Double Board-Certified Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon. With over two decades of experience in facial plastic surgery, Dr. Naderi has provided excellent surgical results for his patients and is trusted as a leading medical provider with offices in Maryland & Virginia.

In the past, he has been awarded the Top Plastic Surgeon Award and Marylands Patients Choice Award. Dr. Naderi is an expert in Rhinoplasty and has performed thousands of procedures successfully. His team at The Naderi Center encompasses a wide range of aesthetic medical experts who are committed to providing patients with the specialized care they desire. The Naderi Center offers the regions true cosmetic experts who are ultra-specialized beyond just any Board Certification.

Dr. Naderi and his medical team believe that Specialization Matters, which is why he has assembled a group of experts who have dedicated their careers to a very narrow and focused area of plastic surgery. His practice performs complex and precise surgical procedures, but also offers simple yet effective treatments such as botox and dermal fillers.

The Naderi Centers devotion to excellence has pushed them into the limelight. Patients fly out of the state and even out of the country to have work done by the centers team. Dr. Naderi hopes to continue helping patients achieve their beauty and health goals and plans to grow his practice further in the future.

###

To learn more about The Naderi Center and Dr. Shervin Naderi, contact The Chevy Chase, MD office- Phone- (301) 222-2020.

The Naderi Center is located at 5454 Wisconsin Ave Suite 1655, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. You can also visit The Naderi Centers website at this link here for more information.
According to the Department of Defense, about 200,000 servicemembers transition to civilian life each year. Once they leave the military, veterans are trying to grapple what kind of job they want, whether they should go back home or relocate, and more. At the same time, many veterans lack the skills necessary for seeking job opportunities.

According to the Department of Defense, about 200,000 servicemembers transition to civilian life each year.(1) Most people don't realize that many veterans experience numerous challenges in that transition. These include the search for jobs in the civilian sector. During their time in the military, veterans often serve in concentrated areas, with little or no interaction or experience with the civilian side. But once they leave the military, veterans are trying to grapple what kind of job they want, whether they should go back home or relocate, and more. At the same time, many veterans lack the skills necessary for seeking job opportunitiesresume writing, interviewing, and so on. The mandated transition assistance program provides a week-long workshop that teaches basic job-seeking skills. However, it is difficult to find time to attend and woefully inadequate for preparing veterans for civilian life.

But enter disruptor Wes Wood, Executive Director of INvets, who explains to KJ Helms, host of the Disruption / Interruption podcast, who says veterans still need help with their transitions to civilian jobs. In Indiana, his organization has made connections in every community throughout the state. They have leveraged other nonprofits and state agencies, thereby maximizing their reach to provide the "deep dive" help for the 20 percent of veterans that need it. For the other 80 percent of veterans seeking direction, INvets also provides a robust web-based tool for them to make job connections.

Wes explains:

1. Most people believe that there are many lucrative opportunities available. However, for veterans, the search can be challenging.

2. There are numerous challenges for individuals transitioning from military to civilian life and finding work. There is an adaptation process.

3. Some of the questions veterans contend with are: Where do they relocate to the post-military. Do they return home? Do they look at job boards for local positions, etc.?

4. Each year, between 200,000 and 300,000 veterans transition from military life to civilian life and a civilian job.

5. The majority of the people exiting the military dont have a lot of time in the civilian sector and are often uncertain of what to do next.

6. All personnel exiting the military must go through the transition assistance program, a congressionally mandated program. It provides basic skills such as how to compose resumes.

7. As economic development has outpaced population growth in the Midwest, hiring veterans presents an excellent solution.

Disruption Interruption is the podcast where youll hear from todays biggest Industry Disruptors. Learn what motivated them to bring about change and how they overcome opposition to adoption.

Disruption Interruption can be listened to via the Podbean app, and is available on Apples App Store and Google Play.

About Disruption Interruption:

Disruption is happening on an unprecedented scale, impacting all manner of industries MedTech, Finance, IT, eCommerce, shipping and logistics, and moreand COVID has moved their timelines up a full decade or more. But WHO are these disruptors and when did they say, THATS IT! IVE HAD IT!? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo KJ Helms, veteran communications disruptor. KJ interviews bad a**es who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have become antiquated with an establishment resistant to progress. She delves into uncovering secrets from industry rebels and quiet revolutionaries that uncover common traitsand not-so-commonthat are changing our economic markets and lives. Visit the worlds key pioneers that persist to success, despite arrows in their backs at http://www.disruptioninterruption.com.

About Karla Jo Helms:

Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR(TM) Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors(TM).

Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the lineand how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumni of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinionKarla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances and doing what it takes to excel. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of Anti-PR to drive markets and impact market perception.

About INvets:

INvets is a nonprofit public/private partnership with the state of Indiana thats all about attracting, retaining, and cultivating our states veteran workforce. INvets is dedicated to matching the nations veteran workforce and their spouses with rewarding, lucrative career opportunities here in Indiana. INVets has all the resources veterans and their families need to find purpose and prosperityand is here to help them every step of the way. INVets can be found online at invets.org.

About Wes Wood:

After five years in the Armys 101st Airborne Division as an infantry noncommissioned officer, Wes moved to Indianapolis to earn his MBA at Indiana University. Wes work with Conexus Indiana exposed him to the high demand employers across the state have for quality talent. Wes helped found INvets to connect those employers to the veteran population. Wes can be reached at wes@invets.org.

1. U.S. Government Accountability Office. Transitioning Servicemembers: Information on Military Employment Assistance Centers. 17 June 2019, gao.gov/products/gao-19-438r.
Relational Evangelism: The Fastest and Most Practical Ways of Winning Neighbors to Christ: an articulate discussion of the ways in which evangelism has evolved. Relational Evangelism: The Fastest and Most Practical Ways of Winning Neighbors to Christ is the creation of published author Dr. Kofi Peter Effa, a loving husband, father, and grandfather who holds a bachelors degree from the University of Southern California. Dr. Effa received a masters degree from the School of Theology, Azusa Pacific University, in 2009, and in 2019, he earned a doctorate degree from Talbots School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

Dr. Effa shares, Relational evangelism, therefore, focuses on cultivating and building relationships with non-Christians and unbelieving neighbors with the intent of winning them to Christ. Different types of evangelistic methods have been used in past generations. However, in todays culture of individualism and isolationism, relational evangelism provides the best approach to bring people to Christ. The truth of the matter is that people normally pay no attention to strangers; however, they open up once they become comfortable with you through a relationship that has developed over time.

The clock is fast ticking. Christ Jesus is on his way! Soldiers of Christ, lets get the world saved and be ready for him appearing!

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dr. Kofi Peter Effas new book is an engaging and inspiring examination of modern evangelism.

Dr. Effa hopes to inspire and encourage believers to continue to bring non-believers to Christ.

Consumers can purchase Relational Evangelism: The Fastest and Most Practical Ways of Winning Neighbors to Christ at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Relational Evangelism: The Fastest and Most Practical Ways of Winning Neighbors to Christ, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
At first, I was working on another project entirely; until God interrupted it by bringing the idea of the sword of the spirit into the forefront. The idea behind this work is to explain spiritual warfare in an easy way.

Author Wayman Jackson penned another compelling Christian fictional story in his series entitled The Sword of the Spirit: In the Shadow of Death ($16.99, paperback, 9781662835148; $7.99, e-book, 9781662835155).

Jackson takes readers on an action-packed adventure when Satan sends the Spirit of Death on a mission to kill Spirit Warrior, Hezekiah. The devil visits heaven and asks for permission to slay Hezekiah, but God provides an unclear response. Lucifer then asks for Faith Parkers life instead. God agrees and Satan immediately searches for Death to plot Faiths final days. In a sudden twist, Hezekiah and Faith are falling in love and everything is going well until an attempt is made on her life. A mysterious sickness suddenly breaks out in town and no one can stop it. As the Spirit of Death unleashes his power over the metropolis, can Hezekiah save Central City from devastation and save Faith from the Shadow of Death?

What inspired me to write the Sword of the Spirit series was the bible scripture in Ephesians 6:11-17 about the full armor of God, said Jackson. At first, I was working on another project entirely; until God interrupted it by bringing the idea of the sword of the spirit into the forefront. The idea behind this work is to explain spiritual warfare in an easy way.

Wayman Jackson attended Georgia State University for a few years to become a graphic artist. Hes a martial artist, a taekwondo instructor, and a vocalist. Jackson is currently working on his fourth degree black belt. His knowledge of martial arts helps him write realistic scenes in his work. He enjoys reading 'how to' books to help sharpen his writing skills.

Jackson has followed Christ for more than twenty years. He was born again as a teenager and his life improved. Before Christ, Jackson dealt with depression, anger, and low self-esteem. After receiving Christ, he felt like the slate was wiped clean for the many sins he had previously committed. He states that his depression disappeared because of the newfound hope in his heart. His anger also vanished because he could then easily forgive people because he, too, had been forgiven. His low self-esteem was replaced with joy because he accepted that God loved him and he was on his way to heaven. Jackson enjoys using his creative talents to win as many souls for Christ as possible. He wants Jesus to save other people through his work like Jesus saved him.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. The Sword of the Spirit: In the Shadow of Death is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
YOV, Inc (You, Only Virtual), announced today that it has launched its software as a subscription service, Vaultthe worlds first subscription service that archives and analyzes communications for the purpose of posthumous communications. The Los Angeles-based Artificial Intelligence startup pioneering in afterlife communications has now made it possible for subscribers worldwide to maintain communication with a deceased loved one via a Virtual Persona (Versona).

This launch is a personal victory. Our first Versona (whom weve named 'Melodi') is based on the relationship I have with my mom, who has stage 4 cancer. So this is much more than a product launch for me. With Vault, we can launch a Versona within months. For others like myself, this expedited time frame is critical, states Justin Harrison, the founder and CEO of YOV.

Harrison knows firsthand that time is not always on ones sidewhich is why he is personally driven to ensure that families can begin preserving the essence of their most cherished relationships as soon as possible. Because of Vault, my mom and I have the essence of our relationship preservedas a Versona. Its a really big first step and it brings me some peace knowing that Ill always be able to talk with her, Harrison shares.

Vault subscribers can upload voice, video, and written communications via YOVs password-protected portal. This data is archived and analyzed for the development of ones Versona. Upon activating a working Versona, there is a one-time set up fee of $499, and a monthly subscription for ongoing access to a loved ones Versona for $39.99 a month. Versona 1.0 is text based. Future versions will incorporate voice and eventually augmented reality. The beauty of AI is that it's constantly learning. Personalities will be generated faster and become so authentic theyll be indistinguishable from communicating with their human counterpart, says Harrison.

With the launch of Vault, YOV is the first company to provide consumers with the ability to build and activate a Versona. YOV is also ahead of the pack with regards to intellectual property within the posthumous communications category. We have two fully granted U.S. patents, and a third pending. Vault provides our team with even more opportunities to demonstrate how to do posthumous communications correctly and authentically, Harrison says.

As a result of its innovative technology, YOV has generated buzz in the tech space regarding large capital investments and partnerships with major players. Harrison states that he is open to the right type of collaboration. What YOV is doing is important, complicated and transcendent. We know people want this. So, were willing to collaborate with the right partners to accelerate this work for everyone whos not ready to say goodbye to those they love most, Harrison states.

Never have to say goodbye, is YOVs motto, and its one step closer to becoming a reality for families around the world with the launch of Vault. Harrison is on a mission to eliminate the void left when loved ones pass away, and Vault is like an insurance policy that ensures that the data needed to build ones Virtual Persona is safely archived forever and ready to go live when the inevitable happens. I dont want to say goodbye forever, and the response to YOV has proven that others don't either, shares Harrison.

About YOV

Based in Los Angeles, California, YOV, Inc. (You, Only Virtual), is an artificial intelligence company specializing in the development of authentic posthumous communications. YOV utilizes proprietary, patented technologypowered by interaction-centric machine learning algorithmsto analyze both real-time and archived communications, in order to build Versonas that are virtually as complex and context-sensitive as the individuals they emulate. Versonas are seamlessly introduced in existing messaging channels, enabling uninterrupted connection to a loved one after they have passed. To learn more, or to sign up for Vault, visit myyov.com. For media inquiries, please contact Anita S. Lane at AnitaSLane@SenseiCommunications.com or 313.447.9083.
Were excited to see LT Apparel Group expand their business beyond the design center thats been a part of our community for some time

LT Apparel Group, a leading manufacturer of childrenswear apparel is expanding operations in North Carolina with an investment of at least $57 million in Greensboro. The companys project will add a minimum of 116 new jobs to the community and will help increase industrial capacity at the Reedy Fork Corporate Park.

Manufacturers continue to choose North Carolina for expansion projects that are critical to their bottom line, said Governor Roy Cooper. LT Apparel Groups decision demonstrates confidence in our workforce and the growth of our state."

LT Apparel Group, with headquarters in New York City, designs, sources, manufactures, and markets childrens apparel. The companys family of brands includes adidas Kids, Carhartt Kids, and its owned brand, French Toast, the leader in schoolwear for kids. The company will maintain its design center in Greensboro as it adds new capacity and warehousing space in the city.

Our operations here in Greensboro have come full circle, said Richard Sutton, CEO, LT Apparel Group. From designing products in Revolution Mill to warehousing and distributing them from Brown Summit, LT Apparel is part of the fabric of this community, and were committed to remain so. After a long search for our new home, it became clear that Greensboro was the right choice for us. We appreciate the support weve received from all the state and local partners, and we look forward to growing our company in North Carolina.

North Carolinas investment in education and workforce training makes a real contribution to our states success in economic development, said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. Our new First in Talent strategic plan recognizes this impact and recommends myriad ways we can grow our workforce in this very competitive business environment."

The companys new jobs will yield an average salary of $50,235, in line with Guilford Countys average annual wage. Once the projects new jobs are in place, the local region will benefit from a more than $4 million payroll impact in the community, each and every year.

A performance-based grant of $200,000 from the One North Carolina Fund to Lollytogs, LTD, which does business as LT Apparel Group, is a component of the companys project in Greensboro. Company performance targets tied to the grant include the creation of 88 jobs and an investment of $17 million. The One NC Fund provides financial assistance to local governments to help attract economic investment and to create jobs. Companies receive no money upfront and must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify for payment. All OneNC grants require a matching grant from local governments and any award is contingent upon that condition being met.

A $500,000 grant to the City of Greensboro from the states Industrial Development Fund  Utility Account will also support the project, providing water and sewer accessibility that will also benefit other customers in the Reedy Fork Corporate Park area.

Were excited to see LT Apparel Group expand their business beyond the design center thats been a part of our community for some time, said N.C. Representative Jon Hardister. Greensboro is proud to support this companys growth as they strengthen their presence in our community.

When an existing industry expands in our community, its a strong vote of confidence in our region, said N.C. Senator Michael Garrett. We welcome LT Apparel Groups decision to grow in Greensboro and I look forward to seeing how these new jobs and investment will move our community forward.

Partnering with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, the Rural Infrastructure Authority, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the City of Greensboro, Guilford County, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, The Guilford County Workforce Development Board, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and High Point Economic Development Corporation.

About LT Apparel Group:

LT Apparel Group is a New York-based, family-owned company founded in 1958, known for its design, manufacturing, and distribution of the highest quality childrens clothing. Its portfolio of brands includes adidas kids, Carhartt kids, and its owned brand, French Toast, the leader in schoolwear for kids. Its mission is to help make families lives more fulfilling with exceptional brands that give kids confidence at home, at school, and on the field. LT Apparels integrated global supply chain network enables it to consistently offer the best value and quality for its customers. The companys Responsible Sourcing Policy reflects its pledge to conduct business with integrity, openness, and respect. To learn more, visit http://www.ltapparel.com.
Andre Branch, Partnership with Children Board of Directors PWC is honored to have Tom Booker, Andre Branch and Castleigh Johnson join our Board. They are each extraordinarily accomplished, committed to ensuring that New York Citys children have the mental health services and community programs they need in these turbulent times. PWC CEO Margaret Crotty

Partnership with Children (PWC), the 110-year-old nonprofit whose pioneering social work and community school programs support the mental health and wellness of New York City schoolchildren, has elected three new members to its Board of Directors. They are Tom Booker, Director, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Strategy for Analytics and Modeling at BlackRock; Andre Branch, Senior Vice President and General Manager, M.A.C Cosmetics in North America; and Castleigh Johnson, Founder and CEO of My Home Pathway.

Partnership with Children is honored to have Tom Booker, Andre Branch and Castleigh Johnson join our Board. They are each extraordinarily accomplished, committed to ensuring that New York Citys children have the mental health services and community programs they need in these turbulent times. They will bring incredible insights and support to our work fighting systemic disparities and to our organizations antiracism journey, said Margaret Crotty, PWC CEO and Executive Director.

Today PWC reaches over 30,000 students in all five boroughs with school-based programs rooted in a trauma-informed approach, a steadfast commitment to antiracism, and expertise in childrens social-emotional wellbeing.

Tom Booker is Director, COO and Head of Strategy for Analytics and Modeling at BlackRock, overseeing the Aladdin platforms analytics research, day-to-day operations, business strategy and the governance of strategic programs. Dr. Booker joined BlackRock in February 2013, after earning his PhD in mathematics (Category Theory) from Macquarie University.

He has served on the Board of Center for Arts Education (CAE), the evidenced-based school-based arts program that PWC acquired in 2020 to increase its portfolio of services to enhance social-emotional learning and social justice initiatives in New York City schools.

Andre Branch is the SVP, GM of M.A.C Cosmetics in North America and an independent board director of Signet Jewelers, Inc. His management expertise spans the full range of operational functions  E-commerce, Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, P&L ownership, Merchandising, IT, HR, Finance, Customer Care, and International.

He has a long career managing iconic luxury brands in senior executive roles at a number of world class consumer packaged goods companies including LOreal and Diageo. He has also grown and sold PE-backed businesses, implementing marketing technologies and strategic partnerships. Branch holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Castleigh Johnson is currently the Founder and CEO of My Home Pathway, a financial technology firm that provides proprietary algorithms and customer engagement programs to mortgage companies to increase mortgages among People of Color. Johnson had a career in banking and fintech before starting his own firm, working at some of the largest domestic and international financial service institutions. He has a Bachelor of Science in Management and International Business from Penn State University, and an MBA with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from New York University.

Partnership with Children (PWC)

For over 100 years, Partnership with Children (PWC) has supported New York City children. Today it reaches over 30,000 students in all five boroughs with school-based programs rooted in a trauma-informed approach, a steadfast commitment to antiracism, and expertise in childrens social-emotional wellbeing.

PWC is a one of the largest service providers in New York Citys community school initiative, and a major provider of school-based mental health services. Its full-time, credentialed social workers provide social-emotional learning programs, trauma-informed counseling, and mental health services so students can learn and thrive. In 19 community schools, PWCs specialized teams integrate academics, health, social services, youth development, and community engagement.

In 2020, PWC acquired the Center for Arts Education (CAE) in order to increase its portfolio of services to enhance social-emotional learning and racial justice initiatives in New York City schools.

http://www.partnershipwithchildren.org
Allergy shots or immunotherapy are a new service available at multiple Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy locations.

Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy offers state-of-the-art asthma and allergy care to Pennsylvania and New Jersey patients. Dr. Becker and his clinical team work diligently to reduce allergy symptoms and improve every patients quality of life. Patients receiving treatment enjoy fewer allergic reactions, less severe discomfort, and relief from uncomfortable symptoms. In addition to allergy and immunotherapy treatments, Becker ENT also treats sinus, breathing, snoring, and sleep-related diagnoses.

Common allergy symptoms, including watering eyes, skin rashes, lung conditions, and runny nose, can be caused by the immune symptoms response to an allergy. Pollen, dust, pet dander, medicines, and foods (peanuts, milk, shellfish, etc.) are leading allergens in todays society. All types of allergies, including food and seasonal allergies, can develop during childhood or adulthood. If a person struggles with allergies, asthma, or primary immunodeficiency disease (PIDD), its critical to have an allergist on your team. Symptoms like long-lasting seasonal allergies, chronic sinus infections, difficulty breathing, asthma attacks, and limited relief from over-the-counter medications signal that a consultation with an allergist is necessary. An allergist, also known as an immunologist, is the appropriate specialist for individuals combating asthma or allergy symptoms.

At Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy, board-certified allergists create customized testing and treatment plans for each patient. Treatment plans can include prescribed medications, allergy shots, lifestyle changes, and other interventions to improve the patients quality of life. Allergy shots or immunotherapy are a new service available at multiple Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy locations. To address long-term immune system responses to an allergic reaction, allergy shots can be administered to reduce the patients sensitivity to an allergen. Allergy shots can be a cost-effective long-term solution for patients over the age of five with no severe medical conditions. Before beginning an allergy shot regimen, an allergist discusses the pros and cons with the patient, specifically for their diagnosis. Allergists at Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy are expertly trained to identify eligible candidates and administer ongoing allergy care.

Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergys skilled team is composed of asthma and allergy specialists, including pediatric allergists. Each member of this comprehensive team values education, professionalism, and high-quality patient care. Currently, asthma and allergy care are available in Philadelphia and Yardley, Pennsylvania. Additionally, these services are available in New Jersey at the Sewell, Princeton, Robbinsville, and Voorhees locations.

Penn Medicine Becker ENT and Allergy looks forward to bringing allergy relief to more patients with immunotherapy allergy shots. For more information about Becker ENT & Allergy and its new allergy

services, please visit https://www.beckerentandallergy.com/allergist or call (609)436-5740 to schedule a consultation.

For further information, please contact Dr. Daniel Becker. https://www.beckerentandallergy.com/contact
Hardware limitations are a common challenge for advanced memory deployments, and this is the issue that phoenixNAPs Bare Metal Cloud successfully addresses, said Jonathan Jiang, COO at MemVerge.

phoenixNAP, a global IT services provider offering security-focused cloud infrastructure, dedicated servers, colocation, and specialized Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technology solutions, today announced a collaboration with MemVerge, a pioneer of Big Memory Computing and Big Memory Cloud technology. The two companies are working together to enable simplified deployments of MemVerge Memory Machine on phoenixNAPs Bare Metal Cloud and provide a robust infrastructure solution for Big Memory workloads.

With big data volumes growing at an unprecedented pace, the demand for memory-optimized compute is accelerating. Organizations are increasingly facing a challenge of deploying efficient memory resources to support real time analytics and long running data. DRAM scaling requires significant investments, while server configurations are often limited in their capacity to support such deployments.

As the industrys first software to virtualize memory hardware, MemVerge Memory Machine offers an alternative way to deploy and scale memory technology. With a single Memory Machine virtualization layer, organizations can power their application with persistent memory that provides DRAM-like capabilities and performance at an affordable price point. In addition to this, the software takes application snapshots in DRAM and persistent memory, enabling higher availability and mobility.

Deployed on phoenixNAPs Bare Metal Cloud platform, MemVerge Memory Machine will provide a comprehensive infrastructure solution for Big Memory data processing. Bare Metal Cloud relies on powerful hardware to provide advanced configurations for Big Memory data processing, ensuring consistent performance with cloud-like flexibility. As an automation-driven platform, Bare Metal Cloud can be deployed in minutes and managed easily using its API, CLI, and Infrastructure as Code integrations.

Through our collaboration with MemVerge, we are able to address an emerging need for memory-optimized server solutions, said Ian McClarty, President of phoenixNAP.

MemVerge Memory Machine is taking an innovative approach to memory technology, providing a simplified solution to efficient memory scaling and management. Coupled with performance capabilities of our Bare Metal Cloud, their software provides optimized compute for Big Memory workloads. Organizations handling data-hungry applications that need to be processed and analyzed fast can leverage this platform to streamline their projects and applications, while simplifying infrastructure management tasks.

Hardware limitations are a common challenge for advanced memory deployments, and this is the issue that phoenixNAPs Bare Metal Cloud successfully addresses, said Jonathan Jiang, COO at MemVerge. It offers dozens of configurations that provide a robust foundation for MemVerge Memory Machine implementations to process Big and Fast data. We are excited to work with phoenixNAP and leverage Bare Metal Cloud to demonstrate the potential of our memory virtualization technology, as well as to address the emerging use cases for Big Memory optimization.

By providing direct access to CPU and RAM resources, Bare Metal Cloud helps organizations ensure consistent performance even for demanding workloads and applications. At the same time, the platforms DevOps integrations, flexible billing models, and integration features ensure simplified server provisioning, scaling, and management. Automation-focused organizations can leverage it to streamline their CI/CD pipelines, access burst resources easily, and support global deployments.

Bare Metal Cloud comes with 15 TB of free bandwidth (5 TB in Singapore) and flexible bandwidth packages for more advanced needs. The platform also provides easy access to S3-compatible object storage, phoenixNAPs global DDoS-protected network, and strategic global locations.

To learn more about phoenixNAPs API-driven bare metal servers, visit the Bare Metal Cloud page. For customized options, view its dedicated server configurations.

Bare Metal Cloud Features:



100% dedicated resources

No noisy neighbors

15 TB free bandwidth included (5 TB in Singapore)

20+ server instance types

Up to 50 Gbps network capacity

20 Gbps DDoS protection

Private networking options

Easy-to-use API and CLI tools

Certified Infrastructure as Code modules (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi)

Pay-per-use billing, monthly and yearly reservation options

Global infrastructure footprint with low latency network access

About MemVerge

MemVerge is pioneering Big Memory Computing and Big Memory Cloud technology for the memory-centric and multi-cloud future. MemVerge Memory Machine is the industrys first software to virtualize memory hardware for fine-grained provisioning of capacity, performance, availability, and mobility. On top of the transparent memory service, Memory Machine provides another industry first, ZeroIO in-memory snapshots which can encapsulate terabytes of application state within seconds and enable data management at the speed of memory. The breakthrough capabilities of Big Memory Computing and Big Memory Cloud Technology are opening the door to cloud agility and flexibility for thousands of Big Memory applications. To learn more about MemVerge, visit http://www.memverge.com.

About phoenixNAP

phoenixNAP is a global IT services provider with a focus on cyber security and compliance-readiness, whose progressive Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions are delivered from strategic edge locations worldwide. Its cloud, dedicated servers, hardware leasing, and colocation options are built to meet always evolving IT business requirements. Providing comprehensive disaster recovery solutions, a DDoS-protected global network, and hybrid IT deployments with software and hardware-based security, phoenixNAP fully supports its clients business continuity planning. Offering scalable and resilient opex solutions with expert staff to assist, phoenixNAP supports growth and innovation in businesses of any size enabling their digital transformation.

phoenixNAP is a Principal Provider in the VMware Cloud Provider Program and a Platinum Veeam Cloud & Service Provider partner. phoenixNAP is also a PCI DSS Validated Service Provider and its flagship facility is SOC Type 1 and SOC Type 2 audited.
Season for Love: a faith-based Christian romance. Season for Love is the creation of published author Portland Yetana Daniels.

Daniels shares, Lavaughn Crawford, a Christian woman who worked as a court reporter at Davis and Loving Law Firm in Washington, DC, had returned from her Puerto Rico cruise with her best friend, Tammy Rogers. Her sail was supposed to be a celebration of her engagement to Samuel Browne. It ended up being a heartbreaking vacation. Lavaughns anxieties crept up on her when Samuel abruptly left her six months ago for Japans position.

The day she returned from her cruise is when Samuel Browne called her. Lavaughn moved on, and she met a lawyer, Trey Sawyers. While getting to know Trey, she asked him if he went to church. He responded that he was angry with God for his wifes death. Regardless of Treys resentment toward God, Lavaughn was falling for him.

Lavaughns timing couldnt get any worse when Samuel Browne returned to the States and surprised her at their church home, Church of Zionof Waldorf, Maryland. Lavaughn was torn and confined in one of the lawyers at her firm, a handsome English gentleman named Ocean Randall.

Lavaughn was confused about her love for Trey. She needed time to make sure Trey was the man she wanted to continue to be a part of her life, even with his resentment toward God. She confronted Trey to cool things down in their relationship. Lavaughn leaned on her favorite scriptureProverbs 3. She needed Gods direction for her love for Trey Sawyers, whom she hoped will have a change of heart toward God, and her fondness for Ocean Randall.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Portland Yetana Danielss new book will tug at the heartstrings as readers anxiously await the fate of a young woman of God.

Danielss love of Christian romance is apparent within the pages of this contemporary fiction work. With affable characters and an engaging plot, she hopes to bring readers a fresh offering to the genre.

Consumers can purchase Season for Love at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Season for Love, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, we anticipated seeing higher traffic this holiday seasonhowever, we believe low inventory and delays in supply chain may have pushed consumers to start their shopping earlier this year, said Ryan Weber, director of client success, Rio SEO

According to Rio SEO research, last months national consumer search behavior trends revealed a significant YoY increase in local search listings traffic and conversion metrics in both the retail and hospitality industries.

According to TSA checkpoint travel numbers, there was a significant increase in airline travelers during November 2021 compared to November 2020. Increased travel led to consumers booking hotels, reinforcing Rio SEOs findings.

Consumers are becoming increasingly confident and comfortable with activities like in-store shopping and traveling, and were seeing a direct correlation with their local search behaviors, said Ryan Weber, director of client success, Rio SEO. With travel increasing, it is important for hospitality brands to create an interactive, 5-star customer experience. Having options for touchless check-ins, enhanced sanitization procedures, and seamless communication is key to increasing conversions.

Hotels saw a 58% increase in total Google Business Profile searches, a 41% increase in website conversions and an 87% increase in clicks for directions YoY. Additionally, retail saw a 12% increase in total searches, a 6% increase in website conversions and a 21% increase in clicks for directions.

The future looks strong for other industries, as well.

Service businesses, finance, sit-down restaurants, quick-service restaurants, retail, hotel, healthcare and multi-family residential organizations collectively saw YoY increases in local search behavior:



49% average increase in total views

38% average increase in total searches

31% average increase in clicks for directions

Additionally, Rio SEO reviewed MoM trends, however, only found a slight increase in the retail space:

9% increase in total views

9% increase in website conversions

6% increase in total searches

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, we anticipated seeing higher traffic this holiday seasonhowever, we believe low inventory and delays in supply chain may have pushed consumers to start their shopping earlier this year, added Weber. Despite the current forecast, we anticipate seeing strong year-end retail listings performance and expansion into 2022.

To see the full analysis, or to request a demo of Rio SEOs comprehensive local marketing platform, visit RioSEO.com.

About Rio SEO

Rio SEO is the leading local marketing platform for enterprise brands, agencies and retailers. Rio SEOs Open Local Platform provides multi-location organizations with a comprehensive, seamlessly integrated suite of turnkey local marketing solutions and reputation management tools  Local Listings, Local Pages, Local Reviews, Local Ratings, Local Reporting and Local Manager  proved to increase brand visibility across search engines, social networks, maps applications and more.

Founded in 2006, Rio SEO ranks among the largest global providers of local search automation solutions and patented SEO reporting tools, driving business from search to sale for corporate brands worldwide. Over 150 enterprise brands and retailers rely on their innovative technology and Rio SEOs local marketing expertise to drive motivated, measurable online traffic to their local websites and into physical stores. Rio SEO currently serves Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries, including retail, finance, insurance, hospitality and more. For more information, visit rioseo.com or follow @rio_SEO on Twitter.

# # #
Sandpiper Hospitality  a Virginia-based hotel management company with vast expertise in the extended-stay segment  is excited to announce that it has promoted Victor Cruz to serve as Vice President of Business Development. In this role, Cruz will be responsible for developing third-party management opportunities and earning new management contracts for the company.

Cruz joined the Sandpiper Hospitality team in 2016 and most recently served as the Vice President of Revenue Management. With a broad range of hospitality revenue knowledge, he previously held positions at Winegardner & Hammons Hotel Group, Shaner Hotels, Highgate Hotels, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Sage Hospitality and The Prococcianti Group. A graduate of Youngstown State University, Cruz was named Marriotts Revenue Leader of the Year for the Eastern Region in 2011 and 2012 and has helped Sandpiper Hospitality achieve best-in-class revenue results year-in and year-out.

I believe in Sandpiper Hospitality, our company culture, and our proven ability to drive superior results. I look forward to using my knowledge and expertise to assist our clients while helping the company achieve smart growth goals, said Cruz.

Sandpiper hospitality is approved by Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, Suburban Extended Stay Hotels and Extended Stay America to manage their select-service and extended stay brands and now manages over ten different brands in its portfolio.

Victor has been a key leader at Sandpiper Hospitality for over five years. His extensive background in Revenue Management and his intimate knowledge of our business and capabilities will be invaluable for us as we continue to add new properties nationwide, said Sandpiper Hospitality President & CEO Jim Darter. The sky is the limit for Victor and Sandpiper Hospitality.

Sandpiper Hospitality has a portfolio of 54 hotels open with 21 of them under management for third-party clients. It has earned several new management contracts recently, including the addition of a new high profile WoodSpring Suites property in Orlando, Florida, two Suburban Extended Stay Hotels by Choice in Colorado and North Carolina and the company was recently selected to manage four new properties currently under development in Texas that will join the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts family.

Sandpiper Hospitality continues to demonstrate its unique ability to combine a flexible approach to 3rd-party management with extra-ordinary financial results for its investors and clients. For more information, please visit http://www.sandpiperhospitality.com.

About Sandpiper Hospitality

Sandpiper Hospitality is a high-performance hotel management firm recognized as experts in the extended stay hotel space. With 54 hotels open or under management for a diverse group of clients across the country, Sandpiper Hospitality is on the leading edge of the hottest segment in hospitality. According to the April 2020 edition of Hospitality Business, Sandpiper Hospitality was the fastest growing Top 100 hotel management company from 2018 to 2019 and that expansion has continued into 2021. The firm has earned its position as the leading operator in the extended stay hotel segment of hospitality by virtue of superior returns on investment for its investors and clients. Sandpiper Hospitality - where expertise grounds us and flexibility elevates us. http://www.sandpiperhospitality.com.
SEALPATH GETVISIBILITY PARTNERSHIP Both stored data and data-in-creation are rapidly classified and protected through AI, with minimal drain on resources and requiring minimal time.

Getvisibility, a leading worldwide provider of enterprise data security and classification software, and SealPath, a leading provider of zero-trust data-centric security and enterprise digital rights management, announced a powerful integration of their conjoined technologies to help organisations ensure a seamless automatic Data Classification and Protection.

Getvisibility provides state-of-the-art unstructured data discovery and classification using advanced machine learning for unparalleled speed and accuracy. Sealpath enables organisations to protect their sensitive documents with unbeatable ease of use wherever they travel. The integration of these two solutions allows incomparable data protection speed and precision.

The direct connection between Getvisibilitys Focus and Synergy Pro and Sealpaths IRM allows both stored data and data-in-creation to be rapidly classified and protected through AI, with minimal drain on resources and requiring minimal time.

Getvisibility utilises the latest technology in Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence, giving organisations visibility, control, and a dynamic understanding of their data as it is being created. Getvisibility is designed to process and classify unstructured information as it is being created with an unprecedented level of classification confidence. Getvisibility enables organisations to understand their data footprint and current data risk posture, allowing proactive data management and security.

SealPaths intelligent protection accompanies the document on your network, a clients network, a partners network, in the cloud, or on a mobile device. The protection travels with the file. It offers complete visibility regarding the access and the accesss timing. Moreover, it informs you if anyone is trying to access the file without permission. With one click, SealPath allows data access to be restricted, in real-time, even if this data is in the hands of other users. SealPath differentiates itself through its flexibility to integrate with the standard corporate tools and user-friendliness.

Via SealPaths management console, the administrator can associate Getvisibilitys taxonomies and classification tags with specific protection policies. When a classified file with a certain level of sensitivity is detected, it will be protected automatically, without user intervention.

This automatic protection is in place when the user is editing a file in Office, through the context menu on a file, with an email in Outlook, or in the process of discovering information stored in file servers, document management systems, or cloud storage systems.

At SealPath, we are continuously working on smart solutions for organisations that allow them to implement effective measures to protect their sensitive data, where automatisation is a key point. The synergy between the two tools, the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning of Getvisibility, joined with the Zero-Trust approach and automatisation of protection of SealPath, is a great advance for our clients, who I am sure will benefit from their enhanced data protection strategy. - says Luis Angel del Valle, CEO of SealPath.

Ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data is a security fundamental. To achieve this, organisations need to know where the data is, what is contained within data files and who has access to them. Add in cloud migration needs, and the process of securing data while staying compliant becomes even more challenging, says Mark Brosnan, MD of Getvisibility. This agreement with Sealpath will yield exciting benefits for our global customers and partners.

About SealPath

SealPath is a European leader in Zero-Trust Data-Centric Security and Enterprise Digital Rights Management, working with major companies in more than 25 countries. SealPath has been helping organisations across multiple business verticals, such as Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Retail, Finance, Healthcare, and Public Administrations, protect their data for over a decade. SealPaths client portfolio includes organisations within the Fortune 500 index and Eurostoxx 50. SealPath makes it easy to avoid costly mistakes, lower the risk of data leaks, ensure security for confidential information and protect data assets. https://www.sealpath.com, https://www.linkedin.com/company/sealpath

About Getvisibility

Getvisibility is designed to process and classify unstructured information with an unprecedented level of confidence. Getvisibility utilises the latest technology in Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence, giving organisations visibility, control and a dynamic understanding of their data as its being created. https://www.getvisibility.com, https://www.linkedin.com/company/gvsecurity/
"We have decided to offer this education in recognition of the changes happening across the country...We are offering these classes online so that they are accessible to everyone." - Sullivan University System Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Sullivan.

Sullivan University has received approval from the United States Department of Education to offer an online cannabis business certificate program that students can complete in just nine months.

Classes begin January 3 and March 28, 2022, and will provide a Cannabusiness Studies program graduate with a working knowledge of the business side of the industry, augmented with an understanding of the legal, medical and supply chain issues related to cannabis, as well as what is needed to be a productive entry-level employee or entrepreneur in this industry. Agricultural classes are not part of the program.

"We have decided to offer this education in recognition of the changes happening across the country," said Sullivan University System Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Sullivan. "Although Kentucky may be slow to adapt to these changes, many states around us and across the country have moved ahead. We are offering these classes online so that they are accessible to everyone."

Sullivan is launching the program a year after offering an Introduction to Cannabis Studies online course.

"Our Advisory Board members recommended that we offer courses on the history and sociology of cannabis, the legal and medical issues, and the retail side of the business," Chancellor/CEO Sullivan said.

The short-term, 24-quarter credit hour Cannabusiness Studies program is designed to prepare students for positions within the cannabusiness industry. As the industry expands and the demand for employees grows, employees should understand basic business operations to include retailing, manufacturing, sales, supervision, and supply chain management, as well as social, legal, psychological and economics issues surrounding the industry.

Courses in the program are:



Cannabusiness. Provides a practical review of many fields of basic business operations which include retailing, wholesaling, manufacturing and customer service as it relates to cannabusiness.

Introduction to Cannabis Studies. The course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the social, legal, psychological, and economic impact of cannabis use, and to familiarize students with the cannabis and hemp industry, to include hemp, CBD, and other derivatives of cannabis plants.

Principles of Sales Management in Cannabusiness. This course is an analysis of the sales functions in modern business including techniques necessary for the successful selling of both tangibles and intangibles. Emphasis is also given to communication skills necessary for the successful salesperson and the sales presentation as it relates to cannabusiness.

Basic Supervision. This course teaches the interrelationship of office functions, service, facilities, office communications, problem-solving and successful human relations in office administration, with emphasis on first-line supervisory duties.

Foundations of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. This course familiarizes the student with issues related to supply chain management, purchasing, logistics and transportation. The course also examines the fundamental history of supply chain management and how it affects domestic and international commerce as well as well normal department functions and interfaces within the company. Students also examine problems and opportunities associated with various logistics channels and the decisions required to solve these problems.

Drugs, Behavior and Legal Issues. This course will provide an overview of the relationship between substance abuse, behavior, and criminal offending. The student will be exposed to the historical and contemporary criminal justice system responses to illegal substances, how drug use influences behavior and potential legal issues related to cannabis.

Current or potential students can learn more about the course by visiting https://www.sullivan.edu/programs/cannabusiness-studies-certificate or calling 502-456-6505.

About Sullivan University:

Sullivan University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award Associate, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097, call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Sullivan University or visit them online at http://www.sacscoc.org.

The University offers numerous certificates, diplomas, and degrees in career-oriented programs, ranging from business, pharmacy, human resources, I.T. and cyber security, supply-chain management, culinary and baking and pastry arts, hospitality studies, conflict management, nursing, allied health sciences, HVAC-R, Sullivan University has campuses in Louisville and Lexington, an extension in Fort Knox on the U.S. Army Post, and a Learning Center in Louisa. Sullivan University also has many programs available partially or wholly online. For more information, visit http://www.sullivan.edu.
Seasoned finance leader, Roy Heldshtein, joins as Managing Partner and Chief of Operations; VP Business Dev & Operations at Team8 Fintech, Galia Beer-Gabel, announced as Partner; Co-founder of ClearX, Nadav Zafrir, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Team8, said, "An ambitious task requires amazing people. Roy, Galia, and Gal are the type of leaders with whom we can dream and realize those dreams. We are truly lucky to have them on our team!

Team8, a global venture group, today announced the appointment of former VP of Finance at Check Point Software Technologies Roy Heldshtein as Partner and Chief of Operations. The group has also announced that current VP Business Development and Operations at Team8 Fintech, Galia Beer-Gabel will transition to the role of Partner; and co-founder of ClearX, Gal Hochberg has been appointed as group CTO.

Heldshtein will play a key role in directing the growth strategies of Team8s portfolio companies, while overseeing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the business. Heldshtein brings two decades of business and technological experience and joins Team8 after serving as VP of Finance at Check Point Software Technologies for the past twelve years.

As part of his role at Check Point, Roy Heldshtein was involved in outlining the company's annual sales plan, managing budgeting and control systems, orders, real estate and procurement, risk management and various business analyses according to financial indicators. Check Point grew together with Heldshtein from a sales revenue of several hundred million dollars to over two billion dollars per year and an annual profit of nearly one billion dollars. The share price in those years jumped from $20 per share to its current price of $115 per share. Before joining Check Point, he served as a strategic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) international consulting firm.

Over the past two years, Galia Beer-Gabel has served as Team8's VP of Business Development and Operations. In this position, she has been instrumental in building Team8 Fintech and played a significant role in establishing the ongoing management of the group's fintech companies. Galia supported the fund's capital generation efforts, team recruitment, the building of strategic partnerships with leading players in the industry and developing ideation processes for the Fintech group. Galia will now transition into the role of Partner in the group.

Beer-Gabel began her career as a commercial lawyer at Amit, Pollack, Matalon & Co. and subsequently established and led the firm's business development and legal marketing department. She worked for six years at PayPal as Head of Business Development and Sales, managing the company's strategic growth across Sub-Saharan Africa, Israel and Eastern Europe. Galia was the driving force behind PayPal's strategic partnership with M-PESA, one of the world's first and leading mobile wallets, and in the development of meaningful partnerships with local banking institutions.

Gal Hochberg returns to Team8 after being a founding partner and CEO of ClearX, an enterprise blockchain company that is engaged with many of the world's largest communications corporations such as Vodafone, Telefonica, and Deutsche Telekom. The company is a leader in building commerce and accounting processes between global communications companies. Previously, Hochberg worked as a consultant to Team8 and other companies in cyber security, big data and web applications, and served as Director of Strategic Consulting at Sygnia, a Team8 portfolio company. Prior to this, Hochberg co-founded and served as CTO at HiredScore, a company used by Fortune 500 companies for fair, effective and efficient recruitment by employing AI and groundbreaking data capabilities.

These signature appointments come in the midst of a rich phase of activity for Team8, and will provide the groups portfolio companies with greater support. Prominent companies in the Team8 portfolio include:



Claroty, which recently raised $400 million in funding and acquired Medigate, an Internet of Hospital Things (IoHT) company

Sygnia, which was sold to the Singapore-based Temasek Holdings for $250 million

Portshift, which was sold to Cisco for $100 million

Curv, which was sold to PayPal for $200 million

VisibleRisk, which was sold to BitSight and then became BitSight's R&D center in Israel

Nadav Zafrir, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Team8, said, "An ambitious task requires amazing people. Roy, Galia, and Gal are the type of leaders with whom we can dream and realize those dreams. We are truly lucky to have them on our team!

About Team8

Team8 is a venture group that builds and backs cutting-edge technology companies in the fields of cybersecurity, data, and fintech. Team8 rethinks venture to provide entrepreneurs with an unfair advantage, accelerating success in an increasingly competitive landscape. Its extensive network of global leaders uniquely positions Team8 as the venture partner of choice with a deep understanding of the industrys challenges. Team8s leadership team includes unicorn founders, bank and fintech CEOs, and former leaders of Unit 8200, Israels elite military technology and intelligence agency. For further information, please visit http://www.team8.vc
The new fund aims to create more inclusivity at the annual wellness event by providing financial assistance to a member of an underserved population to join the conference each year

The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the foremost gathering of international leaders in the multitrillion-dollar global wellness economy, today formally announced The Susie Ellis Scholarship for Equity in Wellness. The new fund aims to create more inclusivity at the annual wellness event by providing financial assistance to a member of an underserved population to join the conference each year, ultimately empowering recipients to return to their local communities and become leaders in the wellness industry.

The new endowment was unveiled to delegates at this months Global Wellness Summit, which took place at the Encore Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, earlier this month, and was one of several special celebrations marking the events 15th anniversary. The scholarship will cover the recipients travel, hotel and registration. The application process to nominate candidates will launch Q1 2022 for next years Summit taking place in Tel Aviv, Israel, from October 30November 2.

The scholarship is named for Susie Ellis, GWS Chair & CEO, who has been at the helm of the Summit and its sister non-profit organization, the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), since inception and is very vocal about her commitment to bringing more equity and inclusion to the wellness industry.

Upon being presented with the new fund, Susie Ellis said, I believe that the wellness industry can do much more when it comes to fostering inclusion and equity; this is a simple but incredibly powerful step in democratizing our industry. I thank all the donors who have made it possible for us to put our mission statement of Joining Together. Shaping the Future. into tangible action.

Ellis explained, "In May 2020 the world was rocked by the murder of George Floyd and I became personally committed to doing moremuch morefor equity and inclusion in the wellness industry." Ellis rallied the GWS Advisory Board and the GWI Board of Directors, and together they catalyzed ideas and initiatives to address this. As a start, GWS started the Dr. Is INclusive webinar series with integrative physician, Nicola Finley, MD. In addition, the GWI is launching a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative, with the mission of creating a positive impact on the wellness of global society by promoting innovative wellness-based approaches that elevate and seed greater unity, respect and inclusion for all.

The Susie Ellis Scholarship for Equity in Wellness grew out of my desire to honor Susie on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the GWS, said Nancy Davis, Chief Creative Officer & Executive Director. Susie has been vocal about the disparities in access in the wellness industry and has wanted to do something meaningful about it.

To establish the scholarship, Davis reached out to a handful of like-minded, influential wellness supportersKatrine and Bill Formby, Jill and Rick Stollmeyer, Lynne and Victor Brick, and the Szekely Family Foundationand each contributed $10,000, creating a generous endowment that will fund the scholarship for the next several years.

What a thrilling surprise to learn that Nancy Davis put together this brilliant scholarship program to promote equity and inclusion in the wellness world. I am so grateful to the first four contributors: GWI board member Rick Stollmeyer and his wife Jill, GWS board member Victor Brick and his wife Lynne, my mentor, Deborah Szekely and her family, and my twin sister, Katrine Formby and her husband Bill. It is my hope that we will be able to grow the fund so that multiple scholarships can be awarded each year and we can help keep the issue top of mind throughout the year to help motivate and inspire others in the wellness arena to do what they can for this important cause," Ellis concluded.

"I am grateful to our inaugural donors for helping us expand the reach of the GWS and am thrilled to be able to honor Susie Ellis leadership, passion and vision in our industry, said Davis. Anyone interested in contributing to this unique scholarship should email nancy.davis@globalwellnessinstitute.org.

The presentation of this scholarship as well as all mainstage keynotes, panels and speakers from the 2021 GWS are available through the Summit on Demand package, which is available for purchase here.

Registration to the 2022 Global Wellness Summit is now open, with early bird rates for a limited time.

About the Global Wellness Summit

The Global Wellness Summit is the premier organization that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy. Its future-focused conference is held at a different global location each year and has traveled to the US, Switzerland, Turkey, Bali, India, Morocco, Mexico, Austria, Italy and Singapore. GWS also hosts regular virtual gatherings, including Wellness Master Classes, Wellness Sector Spotlights and Investor Reverse Pitch events. The organizations annual Global Wellness Trends Report offers expert-based predictions on the future of wellness. The 2022 Summit will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel from October 30November 2.
Velosio has always prided ourselves on our ability to innovate, understand our clients needs and provide guidance. You simply cannot do that successfully without the perspective and expertise that comes from a diverse group of individuals aligned around common goals -- Joseph Longo, CEO

Velosio, a technology partner specializing in cloud software solutions for SMB and emerging enterprises, today announced that it has won four Comparably Awards for Q42021:



Best Company Culture

Best CEO

Best Company for Women

Best Company for Diversity Awards.

Winners were determined based on employee feedback to a combination of workplace culture questions in nearly 20 categories, including compensation, leadership, and co-workers to professional development opportunities, work-life balance, and perks and benefits, providing an accurate and comprehensive look at what its really like to work at companies. Since launching in 2016, Comparably has accumulated 10 million ratings across 60,000 U.S. companies, making it a leading workplace culture and compensation monitoring site.

A company is the sum of its people, explained Velosio President & CEO Joe Longo. These awards all recognize Velosios deep commitment to our people, clients and partners.

Velosio Chief Human Resources Officer Liz Corey added, Being awarded Best Company for Women and for Diversity recognizes how much our leadership team and our entire company has embraced the value of building a team based solely for their capabilities and the value they bring to customers.

Longo considers these awards as a testament to our diverse, inclusive, and dedicated team second only to the confidence of our clients and partners. Velosio is grounded in four pillars that guide our decisions. We believe in simplifying our clients digital journey, sparking innovation and fresh ideas, providing guidance and peer insights, and helping our clients to realize business value faster. These pillars bond our team and help us to provide the best possible experience for all involved.

I am proud of the culture weve built and humbled by the feedback from our team that led to our receiving awards for culture and fairness, he observes, Velosio has always prided ourselves on our ability to innovate, understand our clients needs and provide guidance. You simply cannot do that successfully without the perspective and expertise that comes from a diverse group of individuals aligned around common goals.

Velosio is always looking for driven, client-focused business and technology pros to join the team. For more information on open roles at Velosio, visit: https://www.velosio.com/about-us/careers/

About Velosio

Velosio is a leader in deploying business applications through the cloud and delivering unparalleled client experiences. One of the largest Microsoft partners in North America, Velosio supports the entire Microsoft Dynamics portfolio, Microsoft 365 family and Azure services. The solutions portfolio includes ERP, CRM, Productivity, Business Intelligence and Power Platform, and extends to NetSuite and Sage. As the only Microsoft Cloud Distributor that specializes in Dynamics 365, Velosio also provides licensing and support to hundreds of growing Microsoft partners throughout North America. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Velosio serves over 4,000 clients from more than 40 offices in the US and Canada. https://www.velosio.com
Brooks understands the care and feeding of local government addressing systems, with a sharp focus on establishing GIS coordination between 911 and local addressing authorities.

Geospatial Project Manager Brooks Lastinger, GISP, has been hired by Woolpert to help lead the firms Next Generation 911 (NG911) efforts with state and local government clients. Lastinger has more than 17 years of experience in local government GIS, with a focus on geospatial data integration for addressing, centerline management, and NG911 technology and applications.

Prior to Woolpert, Lastinger served as the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) NG911 lead for New York City, where he helped convert the citys GIS data model into a NENA format to elevate public safety and emergency management throughout the five boroughs. Through this role and previous county 911 GIS positions in South Carolina and Georgia, Lastinger has become adept at managing, implementing and integrating GIS for computer-aided dispatch (CAD), asset management and permitting, and licensing and land use systems, while supporting location-based data integration for improving NG911 capabilities.

Lastinger stressed the importance of proper NG911 implementation, which he said hinges on clear communication from address and street name assignment to dispatch. He said, once fully developed, NG911 will enable emergency calls to be instantly transferred to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP), providing appropriate local emergency service recommendations whether the call is via text, video or voice.

Gone will be the days of a 911 dispatcher frantically trying to determine the correct PSAP to transfer a call to because a caller was outside their jurisdiction, he said. PSAP directors also will have a reliable, statewide and high-quality source of GIS data for their CAD systems, permanently removing one of their biggest worries, aside from battling aging call handling equipment and staffing.

Lastinger said Woolperts decades of experience supporting the geospatial and engineering needs of state and local governments across the country give it an advantage in NG911 GIS implementation.

Woolpert has a comprehensive understanding of location-based data workflows specific to municipalities, and this is supported by its global mapping capabilities and Google partnership, Lastinger said. I have known about Woolpert since college, where I passed my Fundamentals in Land Surveying exam. I am excited to join this outstanding geospatial team and provide unique insight into statewide aggregation of datasets to advance NG911 GIS implementation.

Woolpert Market Director Shelly Carroll said she is looking forward to working with Lastinger on this vital initiative.

Brooks understands the care and feeding of local government addressing systems, with a sharp focus on establishing GIS coordination between 911 and local addressing authorities, Carroll said. This expertise is central to understanding how addressing, centerlines and parcels support GIS data products, and is key to making nationwide NG911 a reality. We are excited to have him with us.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its sixth-straight Great Place to Work certification, and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has more than 1,600 employees and 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.
Coastal Hyundai is now providing a variety of offers on their new vehicle inventory. The Hyundai getaway sales event is currently happening at this Florida dealership, with numerous savings, finance, and lease deals on new vehicles. The first is a savings offer of up to $1,500 in HMF Dealer's Choice Bonus Cash on models like the 2021 Hyundai Elantra, 2021 Hyundai Sonata, 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, and 2021 Hyundai Venue. Coastal Hyundai also offers 0% APR financing for up to 48 months under this Getaway Sales event.

Along with this, the dealership is also offering a $2,000 bonus cash on models like the 2021 Kona and the 2021 Tucson. Select models, such as the 2021 IONIQ Hybrid, are also eligible for a $3,000 discount. Total savings of up to $1,000 are available on models such as the 2021 Santa Fe, 2021 Santa Fe Hybrid, 2021 Elantra Hybrid, 2021 Accent, and 2022 Elantra. Although, the APR finance offers are not available for certain models like Palisade and IONIQ 5.

The offer is valid until January 3, 2021. Residents in the vicinity who are interested are encouraged to act as soon as possible. Visit the dealership's website for more information on the terms and conditions of this offer. You can also call 321-384-7706 to speak with a sales representative. Coastal Hyundai is located at 915 New Haven Ave. in Melbourne. The dealership is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
The fully integrated and automated architecture helps TV5 to streamline its master control workflows, improve operational efficiencies and easily expand as their business evolves.

The new system provides a scalable and flexible playout solution for the two flagship channels, TV5 and One News, as well as support for other channels and comprehensive media management. The master control system includes shared storage built on Imagines Versio IOX platform, which in turn integrates with the broadcasters legacy NAS storage and archive network, ensuring easy access to all stored content.

Ronaldo A. Hernandez, head of network engineering at TV5, said: We chose Imagine Communications solution because of its flexibility and scalability and because it readily integrated with our existing technology. Additionally, the graphical user interface is completely intuitive, bringing simplicity of operations and allowing our teams to be up and running very quickly. The new system provides increased efficiency and reliability that enables us to build on our existing workflows without impacting our daily operations and ensures that we deliver the engaging content our viewers demand.

We are pleased with Versio Graphics, which simplifies the graphics creation process and enables us to support logo, real-time animation, video or audio clip, text crawler, dynamic branding (now, next and later), and DVEs. The two SDI inputs allow the playout to switch the two live feeds back-to-back seamlessly. Additionally, the multiple outputs can be configured on Versio to serve different purposes, whether the output is for the main branded program, clean, pre-set, branded+ or simulcast.

Playout uses Imagines software-defined Versio solution configured as full 2+2 redundancy for the main channels and as a 3+1 playout network to support the broadcasters other operations, including separate feeds for the ISDB digital terrestrial output. Imagines proven and highly successful ADC automation provides system level control, managing asset movements as well as precision playout. An intuitive graphical user interface makes it even easier to use, while offering a high level of channel security with alarms and logs to the system.

The MCR installation is completed with Imagines Platinum IP3 router. As well as switching all the facilitys signals, under both automatic and manual control, the router includes integrated multi-viewer functionality, which allows operators to create monitoring setups to meet their precise requirements. Because the multi-viewers are integral to the router, it enabled TV5 to simplify the installation, reduce cabling and rack requirements, and minimise power consumption.

TV5 is typical of a broadcaster needing to bridge legacy technology with a software-centric future, said Mathias Eckert, SVP & GM APAC and EMEA at Imagine Communications. The powerful combination of Versio and ADC provides TV5 with a secure, flexible, dynamic playout solution that can address their needs today and into the future  and we look forward to supporting TV5 as it continues its ongoing growth and development.

The system design was developed by Imagine Communications and TV5 and was installed in the Mandaluyong broadcast center by Imagines partner and system integrator Composite Technology.
Sons of Anarchy and Designated Survivor alum LaMonica Garrett says he feels honored to play a western wagon train leader in the Yellowstone prequel, 1883, because he grew up watching westerns like Bonanza and Gunsmoke, but didn't see himself reflected in their characters.

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"These roles weren't written for Black actors," Garrett told reporters on a recent Zoom interview.

"There's a rich history of Black cowboys all throughout how the west was won," the actor said. "They were there."

Garrett pointed out that many times when Black characters have shown up in screen adaptations of 19th century frontier stories, they were often underdeveloped, leaving viewers to wonder who they were, where they came from and what motivated them.

"They would have a purpose. They would come, say a few things and they would walk out," he said, emphasizing his 1883 character, Thomas, is different.

The Civil War veteran still wears his Union military uniform as he protects the people he was hired to safely guide from Texas to Oregon.

He is also a dedicated friend who looks out for his mentor, Shea (Sam Elliott,) who has fallen on hard times after losing his wife and daughter to smallpox.

"Representation is important and me being the one to bring this to light in such a strong role, in a strong place like 1883, I get emotional every time I think about it," Garrett said.

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"My son is growing up and one day he is going to look back like: 'My dad was Thomas in 1883. He was the second Black cowboy to have his name and picture as a co-star when the episode came on.' The last time that happened was 1968, I think, with Otis Young in a show called The Outcasts."

Garrett recalled feeling overwhelmed when he saw the credits roll at a screening of the show in Amarillo.

"I lost it and I cried for two straight hours," he said. "It means a lot to me and I hope I am doing it justice."

Thomas wears his uniform after the war because he took tremendous pride in being a soldier, Garrett noted.

"For a lot of former slaves back in the 1800s, they went over to the military and became Buffalo soldiers and a lot of those Buffalo soldiers became cowboys because it was a different sort of freedom," he added.

To prepare for the role, Garrett and his castmates, including Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, spent three weeks training in 100-degree weather in Texas in August. They learned to ride, shoot, rope and herd, but most importantly they bonded with each other.

"i have a tremendous amount of respect for cowboys now because i had no idea how hard it was," said Garrett, who had never ridden a horse before. "Cowboy camp was tough on us."

Garrett had nothing but high praise for Tombstone and The Ranch star Elliott, with whom he shared many of his scenes in 1883.

"He embraced me from the first time that we met," Garrett recalled. "He calms the nerves of everyone that he comes in contact with, with just his steadiness and his work ethic and he's the first one there and the last one to leave. He is inspiring to watch work."
Rapper Drakeo the Ruler, whose real name is Darrell Caldwell, was fatally stabbed backstage at a Los Angeles music festival Saturday night. He was 28.

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The Los Angeles Times said Caldwell was attacked by a group of people at about 8:40 p.m.

Variety said the brawl took place at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. concert at the Banc of California Stadium.

TMZ reported the artist was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died of his injuries.

People.com, which also confirmed Caldwell's death, said the music event ended before headliners 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg could perform.

"There was an altercation in the roadway backstage," Live Nation said in a statement. "Out of respect for those involved and in coordination with local authorities, artists and organizers decided not to move forward with remaining sets so the festival was ended an hour early."

The incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made yet.

Caldwell released 10 mixtapes, including Cold Devil, which has been streamed more than 10 million times. His first album, The Truth Hurts, was released in February.

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He was also acquitted in 2019 of felony murder and attempted murder charges in the 2016 killing of a 24-year-old man.
Riverdale star Casey Cott is a married man.

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The 29-year-old actor married Nichola Basara at a wedding Saturday in Canada.

Cott and Basara married at the Four Seasons in Whistler with several of Cott's Riverdale co-stars, including Camila Mendes, KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart and Madelaine Petsch, in attendance.

Reinhart shared a post Sunday on TikTok that showed a throwback video from 2018 of Cott saying, "Find my wife," paired with a clip of Cott and Basara at the wedding.

"He found his wife," Reinhart captioned the post.

Mendes also posted on Instagram Stories.

"Congrats to the cutest couple on earth @caseycott and @nicholabasara," she wrote.

Cott and Basara got engaged in December 2020.

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Cott plays Kevin Keller on Riverdale, which aired its 100th episode last week. Mendes and Reinhart were among those to celebrate the milestone on social media.

"never imagined i'd be lucky enough to book such a life-changing project right out of college, and i especially never imagined i'd be lucky enough to achieve a 100-episode milestone on that project," Mendes wrote on Instagram. "i will never take the success of this show for granted."

Riverdale is in its sixth season on The CW.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Becoming partly cloudy later with any flurries or snow showers ending by noontime. High 33F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Snow likely late. Low 24F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 70%. Snowfall around one inch.
NEW YORK (AP)  More than a decade ago, Matthew Viragh was a Texan with a dream. He wanted to serve moviegoers booze and prepared food as they sat in their seats. In Brooklyn. But he had a state Prohibition-era liquor ban to contend with first.

Viragh, who left advertising for the theater business, hired an Albany lobbyist. The lobbyist rounded up some friendly lawmakers, and Nitehawk Cinema got its wish in 2011, becoming New York State's first legal dine-in theater. Then, Viragh began creating cocktail and food selections themed to the movies he was offering.

It was a long shot, he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. I didnt quite expect it to happen, so we were prepared to operate how we initially set it up, where we would have a restaurant and bar in the front area. It certainly has created opportunities for other theaters, too, in the city.

With two Brooklyn locations now and a loyal following, Viragh has extended his dream to a cookbook, Nitehawk Cinema Presents, offering fan-favorite recipes and cocktails adapted for home. He and his team of cinephiles, chefs and mixologists throw in bits of film history, too.

There's The Dude Abides, a coffee-infused, vodka-and-egg-white concoction with stout, ancho chile, walnut and salted honey syrup, in homage to the White Russians that Jeff Bridges' character downed like Kool-Aid (Jesus, you mix a hell of a Caucasian, Jackie).

Try the Veal, It's the Best in the City contains veal, new potatoes, olives and sliced blood orange in honor of The Godfather. In the classic film trilogy, oranges can be seen in scenes involving deeply meaningful death. The name of the veal dish is based on a line uttered by the character Virgil Sollozzo before Al Pacino's Michael Corleone shoots him to death, though the Nitehawk book attributes the famous words to corrupt police Capt. Mark McCluskey. He, too, was executed in the restaurant scene.

The glossy cookbook is part schtick, like the cocktail Red Rum, a mix of rum and hibiscus syrup for The Shining (for the uninitiated, redrum is murder spelled backward), and part literal movie reference, like the Cup O' Pizza from The Jerk.

Viragh was inspired by Alamo Drafthouse, a dine-in theater chain with liquor and beer service and an increasing presence now in New York. It was founded in Austin, Texas, where the Fort Worth native went to college.

After school, I moved up to New York to pursue some other things and always missed that sort of experience, he said. There wasnt anything like that up here and I thought it would be a wonderful addition to the New York film and culinary scene.

To figure out how to do that, Viragh headed to Portsmouth, Virginia, and spent time at The Commodore Theatre, a restored Art Deco cinema with a fine dining restaurant in the main auditorium.

The owner, Fred Schoenfeld, was nice enough to take me in and let me spend the summer down there. He gave me room and board, and I basically learned all the ins and outs of running a dine-in theater, Viragh said. I knew that I could do this.

Viragh lives in an apartment atop his original location in the Williamsburg neighborhood with his wife and two children. Combined, his theaters have 10 screens and 836 seats. He renovated a historic cinema for his second location, the old Sanders theater that opened in 1928 just off Prospect Park. Viragh preserved touches from the past, including marble stairs hidden beneath carpeting.

Special feasts and themed dishes and drinks at Nitehawk come and go with the first-run, arthouse and classic films he shows, but a few menu items are permanent by popular demand. Some are included in the cookbook, like the Leatherface Jerky with Thai chili, garlic and soy sauce, an ode to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Viragh envisions his book used by home chefs for both movie-themed parties or quiet, romantic evenings of Nitehawk and chill.

He and key members of his team worked on the project during the most dire isolation during the pandemic, when the theaters closed for a year and Viragh was forced to furlough many on staff. The book, with well over 100 recipes, was published in early December by The Countryman Press, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company.

We were working on this book before the pandemic, but it was slow going. We had, obviously, a lot more time on our hands and it exploded into something even larger than we imagined. That was the only silver lining of the closure, he said.

The Nitehawks, like other restaurants, served curbside and delivery when permitted during the pandemic. Business has picked up since then and menu specials are back, like a Shark's Daiquiri and a Jet's Manhattan in celebration of the new West Side Story. Special one-off screenings are also back and include the upcoming Purple Rain," with a helping of fried cheese curds and purple ketchup on offer to celebrate Prince and his native Minnesota.

As for the book, Nitehawk patrons are gobbling it up.

I didn't have any expectations about the sales of the book at all, Viragh said. I'm just pleased we did the book and stayed busy during our closure. It's a celebration of all the talented people who have worked here over the years and what weve created together.

___

Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
MILFORD  The Beth-El Center homeless shelter, and soup kitchen in Milford recently received a $6,110 donation from the Archbishops Annual Appeal through its Vicariate Outreach Program.

The center is also a provider of emergency housing, and food solutions.

The funding will be used to support the operation of the Beth-El Centers emergency homeless shelter, food programs, and support services for men, women, veterans and families in the Milford area, who are experiencing homelessness.

Additionally, it will support the center's outreach, and diversion efforts, which work to prevent hunger, and homelessness in the community.

Beth-El Center is very appreciative to receive funding from the Archdiocese of Hartford, Beth-El Center Executive Director Jennifer Paradis said.

Were grateful for their support, which allows us to continue to respond to the increased demand for the basic needs of food and stable housing. As a result of the pandemic, our neighbors continue to experience hardships and this funding helps us respond to those who are reaching out for critical assistance, Paradis said.

Over the past 19 months of the coronavirus pandemic, the center has served nearly 55,000 meals in its soup kitchen, sheltered nearly 500 individuals, families, and veterans, and moved nearly 400 people to permanent housing.

Since 1981, the Archbishops Annual Appeal has been able to assist tens of thousands of people, regardless of race, religion, or color. across Connecticut with health care, education, housing, emergency expenses, and in numerous other areas.

It is through the Archbishops Annual Appeal Vicariate Outreach Program, and the generosity of its donors that the Appeal is able to assist a wide array of community-based charities throughout Hartford, New Haven and Litchfield counties in Connecticut.

The center serves individuals, and families by providing shelter, and case management services, which provide support, and assistance for achieving self-sufficiency. The centers soup kitchen offers hot meals to community members in need, and feeds up to 80 people daily.

For more information about the center, and its services, visit bethelmilford.org, or call 203-876-0747.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Kim Potter, a former police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, is charged with manslaughter in the April 11 shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black motorist. Here are some key moments in the case:

April 11  Police in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, stop a car driven by driven by Wright at around 2 p.m. Police say when they tried to arrest Wright on an outstanding warrant, he reentered his car and tried to drive away, and an officer shot him. News of the shooting sparks angry protests, including outside the city's police station. Not far away in downtown Minneapolis, former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin is standing trial in George Floyd's killing.

April 12  The officer who shot Wright is identified as 26-year veteran Kim Potter. Chief Tim Gannon says he believes Potter meant to use her Taser, and plays her body-camera footage at a news conference that shows her shouting I'll tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!" Hundredds of protesters defy curfew to gather outside the city police station for a second night. Police use gas and flash-bang grenades to try to drive them away. Mayor Mike Elliott calls for Potter to be fired.

April 13  Potter resigns. Gannon resigns. Elliott and the City Council fire the city manager, who has oversight of police. Hundreds of protesters face off with police again at nightfall outside police headquarters, where National Guard soldiers join officers in riot gear.

April 14  Potter is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Several hundred demonstrators again clash with police outside headquarters.

April 15  Wrights family and some community members call for more serious charges against Potter. Hundreds of protesters again confront police at headquarters, with some tying air fresheners to fencing as a critique of one of the reasons officers were said to have stopped Wrights car. A criminal complaint said officers stopped Wrights car for having an air freshener obscuring the windshield and for expired tags.

April 16  A federal judge issues a restraining order prohibiting police from arresting journalists or using force against them after some say they were harassed and assaulted by officers. Demonstrators protest again outside police headquarters.

April 17  Protests continue.

April 18  Two National Guard members report being fired upon as they patrolled a neighborhood in Minneapolis.

April 22  A funeral service is held for Wright in Minneapolis, with the Rev. Al Sharpton decrying the stench of racism" and police brutality in Minnesota. Meanwhile, activists demonstrate outside the home of the county prosecutor handling Potter's case to demand murder charges.

May 15  The Brooklyn Center City Council passes a resolution to create new divisions of unarmed civilian employees to handle non-moving traffic violations and respond to mental health crises.

May 21  Attorney General Keith Ellison announces that his office will prosecute Potter, after Washington County Attorney Pete Orput returned the case to Hennepin County.

Sept. 2  Ellison adds a first-degree manslaughter charge against Potter.

Sept. 28  Brooklyn Center says police have been instructed to release people cited for low-level crimes and to only take them into custody if required by law.

Nov. 30  Jury selection begins in Potter's trial.

Dec. 8  Opening statements are made and the first witnesses testify at the trial.

Dec. 17  Potter testifies that she didnt want to hurt anybody the day she shot Wright, saying she shouted a warning about using her Taser on Wright after she saw fear in a fellow officers face. She says she was sorry it happened.

Dec. 20  Closing arguments are made and the jury begins deliberating.

___

Find the APs full coverage of the Daunte Wright case: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright
CAIRO (AP)  A Sudanese protester was shot dead during mass demonstrations against the recent military takeover and a subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok but sidelined the movement, a medical group said Monday.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country Sunday. The protests marked the third anniversary of the uprising that eventually forced the military removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators attempting to stage a sit-in near the presidential palace on the bank of the Blue Nile in the heart of Khartoum.

There were also protests in elsewhere in the country, such as the coastal city of Port Sudan, the eastern city of Kassala and the northern city of Atbara, the birthplace of the uprising against al-Bashir.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 28-year-old man was killed after he was shot in the chest during Sundays demonstrations in the East Nile area in Khartoum.

More than 120 people were wounded in clashes between protesters and security forces in Khartoum, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Two other protesters were wounded in Kassala, it said.

The protests were one of the largest since the military took over on Oct. 25, removing Hamdoks transitional government. The coup has rattled the transition and led to relentless street demonstrations.

At least 45 people were killed, and hundreds wounded in protests triggered by the coup, according to a tally by the Sudanese medical group.

Hamdok was reinstated last month amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under military oversight led by him.

The prime minister has yet to announce his Cabinet, amid talks to agree on a new political charter focused on establishing a broader consensus among all political forces and movements.

He defended the Nov. 21 deal with the military, saying Saturday that it was meant to preserve achievements his government made in the past two years, and to protect our nation from sliding to a new international isolation.

The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change has meanwhile rejected the deal between Hamdok and Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council and coup architect. The pro-democracy alliance vowed to continue street protests to pressure coup leaders to hand over power to a civilian government to lead the transition.

Brig. Gen. Al-Tahir Abu Hagga, a media advisor of Burhan, meanwhile urged political parties and movements to unify their programs and strategies to succeed the transitional democracy.

The flagrant, controversial and hostile tone (of the protesters) could impede the smooth democratic transition, he said. The Nov. 21 deal...is the basis on which transitional political visions should be built.
In a major crackdown on cross-border drug smuggling, the India Coast Guard in a joint operation with Gujarat ATS on Sunday morning apprehended a Pakistani fishing boat carrying 77 kgs of heroin. Following the apprehending of the Pakistani boat, ATS Gujarat in a media briefing informed that a total of 6 crew members were caught entering Indian waters on the boat. Furthermore, the ATS officials informed that the boat was carrying a narcotics cache worth approximately Rs 400 crore.

The ATS in its media briefing confirmed the apprehension of the Pakistani boat 'Al Huseini' with 6 crew members. It said that the boat was caught entering Indian waters with a narcotics cache worth approximately Rs 400 crores. On the basis of a specific intel received by the ATS, in coordination with the Indian Coast Guard, we intercepted the boat. There were 6 crew members on board the boat and all of them have been accused of smuggling drugs into the Indian territory, ATS Gujarat official said in a media briefing.

WATCH | Gujarat ATS addresses media as a Pak boat with 6 crew members gets apprehended with 400 cr worth of drugs



Tune in to watch #LIVE updates here - https://t.co/NWgtMkjnrK pic.twitter.com/pyFMRhFC5s  Republic (@republic) December 20, 2021

A total of 77kg heroin have been seized from the personnel onboard the boat. We have arrested all 6 persons and they will be further interrogated by the agency. Two of the accused caught are known bootleggers with prior cases against them, the ATS informed. The squad further said that a man named Mamu had used the boat to smuggle drugs from Karachi to the Indian territory via the Gujarat post. We intercepted the boat by coordinating with the ICG based on the intel we received, It said. The ATS caught the boat on Monday morning. Smugglers from Pakistan had been trying to use the Gujarat coast as a transit route to transport narcotics to their destination, especially in the last four years, but all such attempts were foiled.

Gujarat ATS seized drugs worth over Rs 1,900 crore since 2016

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has seized drugs valued at over Rs 1,900 crore since 2016, and out of these, narcotics worth Rs 900 crore were recovered this year alone, officials said. More than 70 people were arrested by the ATS during this period in some of the major cases related to narcotics. This year, heroin worth Rs 900 crore was seized in different operations, including 120 kg of the contraband valued at Rs 600 crore recovered from Morbi district, which was also sent by a Pakistani smuggler and brought to the Gujarat coast through sea route, the ATS officials said.

Image: REPUBLIC
In a major success for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist was arrested in Awantipora. The security forces engaged and arrested the armed terrorist on Monday morning. The arrested terrorist has been identified as Zubair from the Samboora area of Awantipora.

The J&K police arrested the hybrid terrorist and retrieved weapons in his possession. According to information accessed by Republic TV, the terrorist was carrying one pistol with three pistol magazines and 55 rounds of bullets when he was arrested. The terrorist, who is around 28 years old has confessed to being active as a hybrid terrorist and he has now taken him for further investigation.

The arrested terrorist has also confessed that he had taken the arm weapon from another Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist. He said that the weapon belonged to Sameer Tantre, who was neutralised last week by the J&K forces in an encounter in Pulwama. Ahead of this, the forces had gunned down three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Shopian, retrieving one AK-47 rifle and 2 pistols from them. Meanwhile, the security forces also engaged in an encounter in Srinagar yesterday, Dec 19.

Forces eliminate Lashkar terrorist in the Harwan area

A terrorist was gunned down in the Srinagar encounter on Sunday. A fight between J&K Forces and terrorists broke out earlier in the day in the Harwan area of the district and after almost three hours of encounter, a terrorist was eliminated, informed J&K Police officials. According to Republic Media Network's sources, the terrorist is from a Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist outfit however an official confirmation is awaited. Reportedly, an encounter broke out at the outskirts of Kashmir based on inputs provided by Srinagars Cargo police.

This also comes nearly five days after terrorists had carried out a barbaric attack on Indian security forces where three police officers received martyrdom where more than a dozen were admitted to hospital after sustaining critical injuries. The cowardly act was carried out by the terrorists in Srinagar on Monday, December 13 evening that claimed the lives of three policemen and further injured 14 others. It is also said to be one of the major terrorist attacks in the Kashmir valley since the recent targeted killings of migrant workers.

The ghastly attack took place when a Jammu and Kashmir police bus carrying personnel of the 9th Battalion to Zewan police camp was attacked by terrorists belonging to the terror outfit, Kashmir Tigers (an offshoot of Jaish-e-Mohammed), terrorists opened fire on a police vehicle in the Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar.

Image: Shutterstock/PTI
Foreign Ministers of five Central Asian countries- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan- jointly called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The meeting took place a day after the third India-Central Asia Dialogue, in which under the chairmanship of the External Affairs Minister of India, Foreign Ministers of Central Asian countries held deliberations which focussed on trade and connectivity, development partnership and regional developments, including the situation in Afghanistan.

Foreign Ministers of Central Asian nations call on PM Modi

Meeting the Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed his felicitations on the 30th anniversary of their independence this year.

PM Modi recalled his memorable visits to all Central Asian countries in 2015, and underlined that India is attached to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its Extended Neighbourhood.

Prime Minister underscored the importance of maintaining cultural and people-to-people contacts between India and Central Asia, given the popularity of Indian films, music, yoga etc in the region. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia and the role of connectivity in that regard.

It is pertinent to mention here that India and the Central Asian countries will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 2022.

#BREAKING first on Republic TV | Central Asian leaders meet PM Modi on the sidelines of India-Central Asia Dialogue



Tune in for more updates: https://t.co/oefJxIhn1D pic.twitter.com/bUzYVOJm98  Republic (@republic) December 20, 2021

All 5 Central Asian Countries to be Chief Guests on India's Republic Day: Sources

Meanwhile, on India's 73rd Republic Day, the country is contemplating inviting all five Central Asian countries as Chief Guests.

The option of inviting leaders of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan as Chief Guests is being contemplated, people familiar with the developments said. At the same time, they stated that there is no finality on the guest list yet while not ruling out other options as well.

If it happens, this will be the second time that India will invite so many countries as a group. For the first time, India had invited leaders of the 10-nation influential regional bloc ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for Republic Day celebrations in 2018 and all of them attended it.

Image: Republic World
Centre Launches Nationwide Campaign Celebrating 'Good Governance Week'

As part of the 'Good Governance' week, the Union government will conduct a nationwide campaign starting Monday, December 20, in all districts, states, and Union Territories to address public grievances and improve service delivery. The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has a variety of events planned for the week of December 20-25 as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' commemoration.

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Jaya Bachchan Claims 'personal Attack In Rajya Sabha; Lashes Out, Curses Treasury Bench

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Jaya Bachchan lost her cool in the Rajya Sabha on Monday claiming that a personal attack was made against her. The 73-year-old cursed her fellow Parliamentarians, who she accused of making the attack, and said, that 'if the attitude continues, then bad days were near for him'.

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Golden Temple Sacrilege: SGPC Forms Independent SIT; 'No Hope From Punjab Govt's Team'

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Monday constituted a Special Investigation Team to get to the bottom of the sacrilege attempt at Amritsar's Golden Temple. In a press briefing, President Harjinder Singh Dhami announced that they had 'no hopes' from the SIT constituted by the Punjab government, and have, therefore, constituted an independent SIT of the SGPC.

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Dalai Lama Slams China In Talks With RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat; 'Expansionism Must Stop'

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday called on His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at his residence in Mcleodganj, Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. During a conversation with Bhagwat, Dalai Lama slammed China and said that everybody's independence should be honoured while calling an 'end to expansionism'.

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J&K Delimitation Commission Proposes Additional 6 Seats For Jammu, 1 For Kashmir

The Delimitation Commission chaired a crucial meeting with Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) MPs Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Akbar Lone. After the meeting concluded, Union Minister Jitendra Singh briefed the media and informed that leaders were satisfied with the delimitation parameters followed by the commission. He further revealed that no work is being done under any "political pressure". He also informed that the Election Commission (EC) will take a call on the elections in the Union Territory.

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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Joins SIT Probe In Panama Papers Probe; Appears At ED Office

Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appeared before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday with regards to the Panama Papers case. This was after the former Miss World sought time from the investigating authorities to make the appearance after multiple summons. She had made the plea for adjournment on two occasions. The latest summons were issued to her on November 9 and this is the first time she is appearing before the authorities.

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Zakir Naik's IRF Served Notice By UAPA Tribunal To Confirm 'unlawful Association' Status

Days after Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was banned for five years, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) Tribunal on Monday took up the matter for a preliminary hearing. The tribunal headed by Chief Justice of the High Court D. N. Patel after hearing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government, issued a notice to Zakir Naik's IRF. The said notice is to be returned by January 28, the scheduled date for the next hearing.

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Pegasus Row: West Bengal Governor Invokes Article 167; Seeks Mamata's Records For Inquiry

Days after the SC stalled the parallel probe into the Pegasus row, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday invoked Article 167 of the Constitution to seek Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's record and proceedings leading to the Inquiry Commission in the scandal. Issuing an order, Governor Dhankhar said that the move had become necessary since the Chief Secretary had failed to provide the necessary information. Article 167 defines the Chief Minister's duties towards the Governor of the state.

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Omicron Scare: Israel Bans Travel From US, Several European Countries Amid Rising Cases

Amidst exacerbating the threat of Omicron, the State of Israel has added the United States to its no-fly list along with several other European countries including Germany and Italy. In a statement, PM Naftali Bennett said that the new restrictions would be applicable starting Tuesday, 21 December. According to DW, cabinet ministers had voted to instate the ban on these countries on Monday following advice from the Health Ministry.

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Amid COVID-19, Dr Swaminathan Highlights India's Contributions To Global Solidarity Trials

As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan on Monday highlighted Indias efforts towards global solidarity trials. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar of PANEX-21, Swaminathan stated that "India is one of the largest contributors to global solidarity trials," according to ANI. She highlighted the need to conduct the trial that would give the result regarding the drug, whether it can save lives of patients with severe conditions to COVID-19 or hospitalised due to COVID-19.

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Image: RepublicWorld
PM Modi, Russia's Putin hold telephonic conversation; express intent for boosting ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a telephonic conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The conversation came days after the Russian President visited New Delhi for an annual summit. According to Kremlin, one major issue brought to the discussion table was the ongoing situation in the Indo-Pacific region. Notably, the conversation also sparked speculations of a new defence deal between the two sides.

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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan leaves ED office after 5-hour interrogation in Panama Papers case

After five hours of interrogation in connection with 'The Panama Papers' case, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Monday left the Enforcement Directorate's office. Dressed in black, with shades on, the former Miss World was seen leaving the ED office at around 7:15 pm. She had come to the office at around 2:00 pm, as per sources.

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Jaya Bachchan claims 'personal attack in Rajya Sabha; lashes out, curses treasury bench

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Jaya Bachchan lost her cool in the Rajya Sabha on Monday claiming that a personal attack was made against her. The 73-year-old cursed her fellow Parliamentarians, who she accused of making the attack, and said, that 'if the attitude continues, then bad days were near for him'.

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Punjab DyCM writes to Amit Shah for nod to bills ensuring strict punishment for sacrilege

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, on Monday, wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding a nod to the Punjab government's bills for ensuring stringent punishment to sacrilege perpetrators. This development comes after an alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple in Amritsar.

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Suvendu Adhikari slams TMC, Mamata Banerjee for 'forcing Police to stop BJP'

Claimed to have been restricted by Police at the behest of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Leader of Opposition in the state Suvendu Adhikari on Monday expressed anger. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Adhikari said that the 'dim' Police officers were failing to understand that their action would have legal consequences as they are following verbal instructions of an injudicious person, hinting at CM Mamata Banerjee.

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Alappuzha district collector calls all-party meeting on Tuesday; BJP & SDPI to participate

Alappuzha District collector Alexander A has called a peace and reconciliation meeting on Tuesday where all party representatives, including BJP and SDPI, were invited after twin political murders created unrest in the district. It will be attended by all MLAs from the district. Alappuzha DC urged people to maintain calm while informing them that no decision had been taken for the extension of Section 144.

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Tamil Nadu: OPS sends cryptic message to EPS on admitting Sasikala back into AIADMK

In a significant development, AIDMK coordinator O Panneerselvam hinted at a political comeback of ousted leader V. K. Sasikala by quoting the preachings of Jesus Christ for a Christmas event. OPS stated that "if those who commit wrongs reform and return, accepting them back is leadership quality". His cryptic remark is being taken as a message for his colleague and party joint coordinator K Palaniswami, who was also present at the dais. EPS was elected unopposed as party coordinator and co-coordinator, the top two posts of the AIADMK, earlier this month.

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CPI(M) MP claims raising women's marriage age will have catastrophic effects, writes to PM

After the Samajwadi Party, NCP, and AIMIM, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday raised objections to the Centre's proposition to increase the legal marriage age for women. Writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem stated that the introduction of such a bill will have 'a very huge social impact.'

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National Conference says it won't be signatory to Delimitation Commission's draft for J&K

The National Conference (NC) on Monday expressed its resentment over the draft of the Delimitation Commission, stating that the party will not be a signatory to the report. Countering Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh's statements, NC alleged that Singh was 'misrepresenting and distorting facts with malicious intention'. "We have clearly expressed our resentment over the draft of the Delimitation Commission, the biased process of seat-sharing. The party will not be a signatory to this report," it stated.

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Unnao rape case: Delhi court discharges Kuldeep Singh Sengar in victims accident matter

Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Monday discharged expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2019 accident case of Unnao rape survivor and her family members. According to the court's order, as accessed by Republic TV, there is 'no prima facie evidence' against Kuldeep Singh Sengar and the five other accused in the case.

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As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to creep across the globe, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), stated that deliberations are going on at the global level to determine whether an international treaty is needed to effectively prevent future pandemics. The World Health Assembly (WHA) held a Special Session a few weeks ago to develop and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement, or international instrument on pandemic preparedness and prevention. Speaking at the Panex-21 seminar's opening ceremony on Monday, Dr Swaminathan informed that some of the current discussions at the global level are about whether there should be a global pandemic treaty that binds all countries to certain types of behaviour, similar to how there are rules around atomic use of nuclear energy.

"The use of biological weapons is not permitted and there are global conventions and agreements in the area of health," she added as reported by ANI. Dr Swaminathan cited the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as an example, saying that while the convention took a long time to negotiate, it eventually established control measures that have resulted in a large reduction in tobacco consumption. "That is a good example of an international treaty that will be possible for dealing with the future pandemic," she added.

Panex-21 is a multi-nation disaster management exercise by the Indian Army

It is worth mentioning here that Panex-21 is a multi-nation disaster management exercise organised by the Indian Army, focussing on relief in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. BIMSTEC countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and India are among those attending the event. At the beginning of this month, the World Health Assembly also agreed to kickstart a global process to draft and negotiate a convention under the World Health Organization's Constitution to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

The UN health agency took the decision with an aim to protect the world from future health crisis due to infectious diseases. The World Health Assembly gathered in a Special Session for the second time since 1948, and adopted a sole decision named "The World Together." The Assembly also established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to design and negotiate a convention on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, with the goal of adoption under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution, stated the UN health agency in a press release. The INB will assemble for the first time on March 1, 2022, to agree on working methods and deadlines.

With inputs from ANI

Image: Twitter/@PuneIntCentre
The James Webb Space Telescope is due for launch on December 24 following which it will head towards its target orbit which is more than 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Needless to say, the proper execution of the Webb telescopes liftoff is important and so is making the first contact once it is out there in space. The European Space Agency, which is one of Webbs developers apart from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, explains how it is ready to pick up the call after Webb makes its first phone call home.

.@ESA_Webb will be launched soon, and we'll be there to catch its first words. Part of @esaoperations' #Estrack cooperative network, the 10-m dish in #Malindi, Kenya, will make first contact for the all-important 'acquisition of signal  https://t.co/ASpPN3pYdF #WebbFliesAriane pic.twitter.com/nXkUbfGfgP  ESA (@esa) December 20, 2021

Heres how ESA will make contact with the telescope

According to the agency, the 10-metre antenna in Malindi, Kenya, which is a part of ESAs Estrack cooperative network, will make first contact from the ground. Soon after its launch aboard the Ariane 5 rocket, the telescope will send its first message that will appear as a peak in radio waves on a monitor at the Malindi Ground Station. It will be through these signals, that the scientists will get an idea of Webb's health after the launch and also will be the only means of sending commands and bringing data home.

(Image: ESA)

"About 23 minutes after lift-off, Malindi will locate the Ariane 5 launch vehicle in flight, rising above the Western horizon, still housing its precious cargo. Only five minutes later, Webb will separate from the rocket and begin its solo life in space", ESA said in its report. As you can see in the image above, the Malindi station's position at the equator is in line with Webb's launch site, the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rockets get an extra boost from the speed of Earths rotation if they are launched from this location, as per the agency.

In order to pick up the first signals sent by the telescope, Malindi will undergo three phases of visibility with the mission. For the first hour after separation, which will be the first phase, the station will be in a private call with Webb following which NASAs Deep Space Antenna in Canberra will join the call and Malindi will switch to backup (second phase). Finally, in the third phase, Malindi will again take over again after Webb is no longer visible from Canberra, Australia, and will then be joined in by NASAs Madrid station. Daniel Firre, ESAs Ground Operations Manager, said as per ESA's statement,

We may lose signal momentarily some minutes after Webb separates from Ariane 5, and at that time we will switch from launch vehicle tracking to spacecraft tracking.

Image: Twitter/@ESA_Webb
In the latest legal tussle with Russia over controversial social media regulation laws, Facebook paid 17 million roubles (Rs 1.7 Crore) for failing to remove content deemed illegal by Moscow. With a threat of potential larger fines looming, Facebook parent company Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, is scheduled to face court next week over repeated violations of Russian legislation on content, Interfax News Agency reported. As per the latest updates, the social media giant could be fined a percentage of its annual revenue.

In October, Moscow sent state bailiffs to enforce the collection of 17 million roubles. Meanwhile, as per Interfax report citing a federal bailiffs' database, on Sunday, there were more enforcement proceedings against the company. Apart from the popular social media app, Telegram has also paid 15 million roubles in fines for failing to comply with the Russian social media legislations that came into force in 2016.

Facebook pays $53k to Russia for refusing controversial social media laws

It is pertinent to mention that Facebook has locked horns with Moscow earlier in November, resulting in it paying 4 million roubles ($53,000) over its refusal to adhere to Russian data localisation laws, the Moscow Times reported. The Moscow court on November 25 had said that Facebook paid the fine levied in February, following which all proceedings against the US-based social media giant. The payment comes against the litigation filed against the company in 2018, alongside Twitter. The tech companies were also forced to pay an additional 3000 rubles ($40) for failing to comply with user data sharing rules as per the law. The Russian authorities have also previously blocked LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, for failing to abide by the laws.

Russian social media laws

As per Moscow Times, under the Russian social media regulation laws, all foreign technology companies are required to store data related to Russian customers and users on servers located in Russia. Additionally, the Russian tech companies will also have to share encryption data with the federal authorities as well as record user calls, messages and civil society group conversation records. The apparatus is said to be a severe breach of privacy rights and unfettered back-door access to personal data that could be used to harass Kremlin critics.

(Image: Unsplash (representative)
The Australian government-led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been warned of a systematic interference effort launched by foreign powers or malicious actors via social media platforms as a serious risk to manage in the upcoming federal election campaign, reported The Guardian. With the federal election approaching, a Senate Select Committee has released its first report urging the Coalition to adopt effective protocols ahead of the election. The committee was formed in 2019 to investigate the risks to Australia's democracy posed by foreign interference through social media platforms.

According to the new report, Australia presently lacks elements of the institutional architecture needed to respond to the threat of foreign intervention effectively and proactively. The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters of the Australian parliament has suggested that there was limited evidence of social media manipulation in Australia during the 2019 federal election, including negligible usage of bots. However, experts from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute claim that financially motivated actors from Kosovo, Albania, and the Republic of North Macedonia targeted and manipulated Australian Facebook users during the 2019 election with nationalistic and Islamophobic propaganda.

In a separate submission, Australia's home affairs department also warned that foreign interference against Australian interests was now occurring on a "massive scale." In addition, the new report cited a Queensland University of Technology research that found a large number of bots posting election-related content on Twitter in 2019, with the majority of them coming from New York. The Senate Select Committee, headed by Labor senator Jenny McAllister, advised the Morrison government that waiting for a serious attempt to sabotage a valid democratic election before taking corrective action would be a "disaster," the British daily reported.

The govt should set explicit requirements and procedures for social media: Committee

The committee claims it would be "foolish" to assume Australia is immune to the kind of concerted attacks that occurred in the United States during the 2016 presidential election and in the United Kingdom during the general election in 2019. The Morrison government should set explicit requirements and procedures for social media platforms to disclose suspected foreign involvement, such as disinformation and coordinated inauthentic behaviour, as well as other offensive and damaging content, the committee remarked. It also advised that the government should establish non-political institutional procedures for openly conveying cyber-enabled foreign intervention in the elections, including drafting guidelines for classified briefings to be given to the Opposition during caretaker periods.
As hospitals across Europe brace for a surge in coronavirus cases over the holiday season due to the new omicron variant, a clinic in Germany is cautiously hopeful it can weather the storm.

The region of northwestern Germany the Westerstede Clinical Center mainly serves has among the lowest case numbers nationally, and an above-average vaccination rate.

"I think we're on a stable level here," said the head of the hospital's intensive care unit, Rene Lehr, when The Associated Press was recently granted rare access inside the facility.

The 43-year-old predicted his ICU might need to treat up to five COVID-19 patients during the period from Christmas to New Year  a number that staff can confidently handle.

In part that's because it enjoys benefits many other hospitals don't have.

It is operated in cooperation between regional authorities and the German military, helping ensure it has state-of-the art equipment, spare beds and additional staff who work there while they are on standby for possible troop deployments.

The military's vast resources, and its desire to keep medics at the cutting edge of their profession, mean this little-known facility was among the first in Germany to treat people with COVID-19.

In the spring of 2020 the German air force flew in patients from Italy, where hospitals were struggling to cope with a sudden influx of seriously sick people.

The same happened recently, when Germany's eastern state of Saxony had more ICU patients than it could handle.

Yet even with the additional resources, Lehr and his staff can't perform miracles when it comes to COVID-19.

Statistics suggest that one of the three severely ill patients who were being treated in the ICU on Friday won't recover.

The odds are worse for unvaccinated patients.

While the hospital sees cases in people who have and haven't had the shot, those without the vaccination tend to be far worse off, staff said.

Among the vaccinated, those who need to be hospitalized either had their last shot a long time ago, are elderly, suffer from underlying conditions or received a vaccine other than those made by BioNTech-Pfizer or Moderna, which are mainly used in Germany.

Lehr has no doubt that the vaccines are effective.

"Otherwise I believe that, given the (infection) numbers we currently have in Germany, the occupancy of ICU beds would be significantly higher than it already is," he said.

Despite recently seeing all-time records for the number of newly confirmed cases  topping 70,000 on a single day  the rate of hospitalization in Germany is lower than at the end of last year, when only a fraction of the population had been vaccinated.

Those patients that end up in Westerstede's intensive care unit are cared for by people like Stefan, a senior nurse on the ward who asked not to publish his full name for privacy reasons.

As a military nurse, Stefan has been deployed to Afghanistan, Kosovo as well as Mali, where he was when the pandemic started in early 2020.

"It was a bit surreal," he said of reading about the outbreak while on deployment to the North African nation.

"It wasn't till we got back to Germany and the case numbers started to suddenly rise, and the first patients came in, that we fully realized what was beginning to happen here," he recalled.

Like millions of health care workers around the world, Stefan found out how difficult it is to treat COVID-19, especially when wearing the protective equipment that medics have to put on every time they enter one of the isolation rooms where coronavirus patients are treated.

He says his military training helped, but acknowledges the strain his civilian colleagues are under; several have quit over the past two years, disillusioned by the burden placed on a profession that demands much but often pays comparatively little.

"It's a very arduous, demanding job," he said.

Still, Stefan said he was proud of what he and his colleagues have achieved during the pandemic.

"This was a very trying time for all of us, and it still is," he said.

"The way the team stuck together and the camaraderie, I think that's going to stay with us for a long time after it all ends. If it ever ends."

"I think we're going to be dealing with this issue for a long time," he added. "I don't think this is going to be the last variant."

Lehr, the chief physician, agrees there's no telling what twist the pandemic will take next.

After seeing the death toll from COVID-19 rise over 100,000 and the imposition of new restrictions, daily case numbers have eased somewhat recently.

Still, the country's health minister warned Friday that "omicron puts everything we've seen during the pandemic so far in the shade."

The Netherlands, which borders Germany just a few kilometers from Westerstede, on Saturday announced a new lockdown because of the variant.

"We live from one day to the next, one week to the next, and simply see which patients we get," said Lehr.

"And the ones that come, we try to treat as best we can."

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
As the news of the world's first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands by Nueva Pescanova, a Spanish multinational, circulated, scientists and conservationists have expressed concern at the idea of it becoming a reality. They opine that such intelligent organisms, which are thought to be capable of feeling pain and emotions, should never be commercially raised for food, as per BBC reports. The idea of octopus farming stems from the high demand for its meat. However, scientists have believed for many years that commercial farming of octopuses was not feasible due to the difficulty of doing so in a compassionate manner. The demand has increased in the previous 50 years over the world.

Caretakers of octopuses say that the creatures form bonds with caregivers and are just delighted to be in the company and that these creatures are more like pets to them than food. Stacey Tonkin, who has been working with Giant Pacific Octopus says that when she lifts the tank cover to feed the creature, it frequently scoots out of his cave to see her and sticks its arms on the glass.

The level of awareness witnessed by Stacey will be recognized in UK law through an amendment to the Animal Welfare Bill, according to BBC. A committee of experts went through over 300 scientific researches and decided that octopuses were sentient beings with strong scientific evidence that they could experience pleasure, excitement, and joy but also pain, anxiety, and harm. The experts also stated that the government may contemplate a ban on imported farmed octopus in the future.

The number of wild octopuses is dwindling, while prices are rising. Each year, an estimated 350,000 tonnes are caught, more than ten times the amount caught in 1950. The competition to discover the secret to breeding octopuses in captivity has been ongoing for decades. According to BBC, Nueva Pescanova has declared that it will begin marketing farmed octopus next summer, with the intention of selling it in 2023.

Nueva Pescanova has not disclosed facts about the octopuses' living conditions

Nueva Pescanova has not disclosed the facts about the octopuses' living conditions. The size of the tanks, the food they will eat, and how they will be killed, according to BBC. An international consortium of researchers has called the measures ethically and ecologically unjustified. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) has written to the governments of various nations, including Spain, encouraging them to prohibit it.
Norway's Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has termed Russias security proposals to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US unrealistic. His remarks came after Russia called for NATO to suspend the alliances eastward expansion as well as the removal of weapons from member states included in the bloc after 1997. Russia made the proposals to NATO and the US as tensions continue to escalate at Moscows border with Ukraine.

Huitfeldt told national broadcaster NRK that Russias requirements are completely unrealistic and argued that it would be like turning the clock back 30 years." It is to be noted that in May 1997, NATO and Russia had concluded that the 'Basic Treaty' provided cooperation between the alliance and Russia including a permanent council for negotiations. However, in the same treaty, no mentions were there that NATO would not admit new members.

A report by Sputnik stated that while the official treaty made no promises, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was assured that NATO would not include any new members. Moscow has repeatedly reminded the alliance of the same. In 1999, two years after the Basic Treaty was signed, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic chose to join NATO. In 2004, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania joined the alliance alongside former Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Since then, NATO has even opened up its membership to Ukraine and Georgia. With no progress happening on that front, Russia has has ramped up its troop presence on its border with Ukraine and has also sought what it calls security assurances from the alliance. But, the Norwegian Foreign Minister stated that it is entirely up to the country whether it wants to join the international organisations.

"It is the responsibility of each independent country to decide how foreign policy should be organised. It is important for Norway, it is important for the former Soviet republics. They have chosen [NATO] through democratic decisions in their national assemblies. That is the basis for any country's independence," Huitfeldt told NRK.

Norwegian FM blames Russia for tendons with Ukraine

Additionally, Huitfeldt blamed Russia for its tensions with Ukraine as well as the West following the reports of military buildup on the border that triggered fears of another invasion by Moscow. Calling on Moscow to ease tensions, Norwegian FM said, "There is no basis for the Russian force-building. It is destabilising, and it creates a security situation for Europe that we have not seen for a long time."

(IMAGE: AP)
In Poland, people have staged demonstrations across the country with a thousands-strong rally outside the presidential palace to demand the President to veto specific legislation. The nationwide protests believe that the law would restrict the freedoms of the media in the larges member of the European Union (EU). The Guardian stated that the Bill was unexpectedly rushed in the Polish parliament.

It is to note that the bill would tighten the rules around foreign ownership of the media and would specifically impact the ability of news channel TVN24, which is owned by the US media company Discoevry Inc for operations.

While the Bill is yet to be signed into law by Polish President Andrej Duda, it has already affected the relations between the NATO-member stage and the United States. The law was hurried in the parliament at a time when tensions in Eastern Europe have increased amid what some nations view as the impact of Russias assertiveness. The bill has also pumped the broader fears about attacks on media freedoms.

What is Polands media bill about?

While Washington has already blasted the same law in the blast and passing of the bill is expected to sour US-Poland relations, the bill would only allow the companies by majorly owned by entities in European Economic Area to own broadcast licenses in the country. Subsequently, US-based Discovery would be forced to sell its majority stake in TVN which is also Polands biggest independent broadcaster, Politico stated. Formally, TVN is owned by a Dutch-registered company thats in turn is owned by Discovery. Politico stated in its report that both TVN and TVN24 irk the Polish government with its critical reporting.

Why is the bill triggering protests?

Notably, the nationalist government led by Law and Justice party (Pis) has moved to put some portions of media under control. The PiS supporters of the media bill in Poland have reportedly said that the law is essential to limit the foreign influence over the media of the country. However, the only company which would be significantly impacted by the bill is US-based Discovery, which has already lammed the passing of the bill in parliament.

The media bill was initially approved by the PiS-dominated lower house of the Polish parliament in August but it was dismissed by the Senate which is controlled by the opposition. But, it reappeared in the lower house on the last day of the legislative calendar on Friday. Earlier Duda had hinted that he would veto the new rules over media, as per the report. But, to a surprise on Friday, the PiS-backed President said he would analyse the bill.
Jerusalem's Old City was festooned with lights ahead of the holiday season as Israelis and Palestinians attended a Christmas market at the New Gate on Sunday.

Foreign tourists were nowhere to be seen as the country closed its borders due to the omicron variant.

Israeli tour guide Itamar Keidan said the lack of tourists was to be expected.

"We must be optimistic, and we must bring the happiness from inside into hope," he said.

The countrys health ministry has reported at least 134 confirmed cases of the omicron variant since its emergence in late November.

The Haaretz news site on Sunday said some 17 travelers with the coronavirus arrived on a single flight from Miami, most of them with the omicron variant.

Israel largely closed its international borders last month after the emergence of omicron.

Foreign nationals are not allowed to enter, and all Israelis arriving from overseas are required to quarantine - including those vaccinated.

Israel rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year, and more than 4.1 million of Israel's 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
An Egyptian security services delegation, on Sunday, arrived in the beleaguered Gaza Strip and met with main Palestinian factions. According to a report by Sputnik, both sides held a discussion that majorly focussed on reconstruction of the 140sq mile territory- a majority of which was destructed during the 11-day war, reconciliation between Israel and Palestine as well as lifting the ongoing blockade.

The Egyptian delegation of the security services met tonight (Sunday) with the movements of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine, separately, a source present at the meeting told Sputnik News Agency.

Egypt contributed to rebuilding of Gaza

Hundreds of Gazans were killed and a majority of buildings were obliterated by Israeli forces during a conflict in May this year. In the aftermath, Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine and also contributed funds to rebuild the destroyed territory. In May, Egyptian President Abdel al-Sisi announced that hell allocate US $500 million for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

In 2006, the Islamic resistance movement Hamas seized power in Gaza Strip, overthrowing the Fatah leadership. A year later, Israel along with Egypt imposed a blockade on the strip. The reason they gave was to prevent Hamas from accessing weaponry and funds. Over the years, they have time and again opened and closed the borders, however, its repercussions have severely impacted Palestine.

As the blockade severed, Gazas de facto rulers constructed a vast network of tunnels to counter the blockade. The vast metro network not only aids Hamas in smuggling operatives across the conflict-hit border but also serves as the only means for millions of Gazans to access goods and services from Egypt and seldom Israel. A report by Al Jazeera disclosed that Hamas uses the tunnels to provide a passage to their leaders as well as shield their ammunitions from potential air attacks by the zionists. On the Israeli border, these tunnels are particularly used for incursions while down south they serve as a channel to transport goods from Egypt bringing millions of dollars in import tax to Hamas.

(Image: AP)

(With inputs from agencies)
Iran on Sunday, Dec. 19 sent out a warning to Israel, saying that it will respond to any Israeli attacks against its nuclear program by targeting all sites used to launch the attacks. Islamic Republics semi-official Fars news agency quoted Major General Gholamali Rashid, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander saying that any attempt by Tel Aviv to attack or compromise the nuclear and military sites in Tehran will be met with repercussions. Such an attack is not possible without the green light and support of the US, Rashid stressed. Iranian military will respond by attacking all centres, bases, routes and spaces used [to launch the attacks] in accordance with tested operational plans, Major General Gholamali Rashid told FARS.

Earlier, reports emerged that should diplomacy fail in salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during the negotiations in Vienna led by P5+1 Iran, Russia, China, France, Germany, and Britain, Israel will respond with airstrikes to sabotage the countrys fast-advancing nuclear program. The US has been participating indirectly in the talks in order to bring Iran to compliance with the pact. In 2018, the former US President Donald Trumps administration had unilaterally scrapped the deal over Irans breach of the terms and for enriching uranium and has slapped sweeping sanctions on the Islamic regime. Last week, the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a white house conference that the talks were not going well in the sense that we do not yet have a pathway back into the deal.

US steps up military cooperation with Israel

While there have been confirmed reports about the US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stepping up military cooperation with his Israeli counterpart Defence Minister Benjamin Gantz against the Iranian threat Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, at a presser appeared hesitant to give out any information about the much speculated joint military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities if talks in Vienna faltered.

But Iran, it appears, has abandoned any of the compromises. It has, instead, under the hardline conservative rulership of cleric Ebrahim Raisi, adopted a harsher stance walking back on all concessions struck during previous P5+1 negotiations. US defense secretary confirmed the US resolve to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, during the crucial meeting with his Israeli counterpart, the Defence Department (DOD) said in a statement earlier. I'm not going to get into specific training scenarios and I have no additional or more specific training events or exercises to speak to today," Kirby had said when asked about the attack.
As Israel battles the fifth wave of the COVID-19 and upsurge of the highly transmissible and mutated B.1.1.529 Omicron strain, it is mulling to expand its red list of high-risk destinations that will effectively ban Israelis from visiting, effective Tuesday, December 21. This will include the United States, and several other European countries such as Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland as well as Canada, and Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who strongly supports expanding COVID-19 restrictions on international travel and ban on trade and commerce with the nations abroad, is set to move the US to the no-fly list over the mounting cases being reported, recently. The Israeli leader will convene a meeting later on Sunday to consider the Health Ministrys recommendations, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Earlier this week, the country added Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, Sweden, France and the United Arab Emirates to the list that also includes the South African nations. This comes as an assessment presented to the Bennett cabinet by the medical experts predicted that the number of Omicron cases in Israel is expected to shoot to 400 to 600 as early as next week.

Time is 'running out'

Israel Prime Minister, in a state televised address, said that his government was among the first to ground the international air travel with the impacted countries when the Omicron was first detected last month, but that this seems to be now waning as the variant has spread to at least 86 countries. He then stressed that in view of the predictions that the Omicron cases are expected to spike in weeks ahead, his health ministry has made the recommendations to instantly halt travel for the Israeli citizens to the high-risk nations which include the United States.

Bennett reportedly asserted that the time we bought is running out adding that Omicron is a very transmissible variant with cases doubling in a matter of just 2-3 days. Its possible to say that the fifth wave in Israel has begun, the leader said in his televised remarks. He also predicted a massive surge of sicknesses within a few weeks in Israel despite that the country was among the worlds first to have the highest percentage of the population to be fully vaccinated.

As Israel mulls adding the United States to the list of "red" countries, this implies that the citizens can no longer fly into the US or will be allowed at the arrivals except for extremely urgent reasons. The country as of Dec. 19 registered over 134 Omicron cases, while another 307 suspected cases are pending confirmation from the health ministry. Israel was the first country to impose a ban on South Africa on and entry of foreigners from Hong Kong on Nov 25 and instating mandatory 14-day quarantine for overseas travellers.
A local military source disclosed that in an attack launched by the Saudi-led coalition on Sunday in Yemen's southeastern province of Taiz, seven Houthi fighters were killed. A military official stated that warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition targeted a convoy of the Houthi rebel group as it travelled in the western sections of Taiz, according to ANI. He also announced that the bombing in Taiz's Maqbanah region destroyed two rebel trucks and killed seven members of the group.

The airstrikes on numerous Houthi-held areas across the war-torn Arab country has increased and the Saudi-led coalition has yet to make a statement regarding the situation. In 2014, the Houthi militia took control of several northern provinces in Yemen and drove President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government out of the capital, Sanaa.

However, a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen to back Hadi's government one year later in 2015. The Saudi-led coalition includes the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Sudan.

A senior military commander was killed by Houthis last week

Recently, last week, during confrontations between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels invading the central city of Marib, senior military commander Major General Nasser al-Zubiani, was murdered on the front line in the Balaq mountain range, south of Marib, according to TRT World. At the time, Al-Zubiani was inspecting government soldiers and allied tribal fighters attempting to repel a Houthi invasion.

According to Middle East Eye, a pro-government fighter in Marib named Fawaz stated that the Houthi militia has been randomly sending militants in groups to the front lines, who only worry about advancing. They also have good weapons in hand, according to Fawaz. However, he also stated that despite Houthi's attempts, airstrikes are killing them in large numbers.

Airstrikes will kill them

According to Fawaz, although it is true that the Houthis have advanced, they will not be able to advance any further as the airstrikes will kill them if they try to attempt to do so. Fawaz also stated that the latest air attacks are playing a significant role in keeping the Houthis from advancing to Marib city, according to Middle East Eye. He also thanked the Saudi-led coalition for their help in the struggle, and hoped that the airstrikes continue to back up.

(Inputs from ANI)

Image: AP
Cash stripped Pakistan will buy two retired second-hand Royal Netherlands Navy Tripartite Class Minehunters as the country has reportedly been struggling with insufficient funding for the military equipment and vessels due to the battered economy worsened from the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was announced by the Pakistani Navy just a few weeks ago, and the secondhand warships will join the fleet in February 2022.

Tripartite class minehunter is a class of mine warfare vessel that detects and attacks the enemy naval mine. It is currently deployed by the European nations Belgium, France, and Netherlands as well as Pakistan, Indonesia, Latvia and Bulgaria. According to a report by The Times, the Dutch government has agreed to Islamabads request to sell the vessels as it will have a significant effect on Pakistan Navy's strength. The mine-hunting ship to be sold to Islamabad was jointly developed by the Netherlands, France, and Belgium, reports ANI citing the geopolitica.info's Di Valerio Fabbri, and is also known as the "Three Partners" class.

"This move also confirms that the military expenditure of the Pakistani Navy is still insufficient, which is related to Pakistan's worsening economy that greatly affects the strength of its Navy, including the armed forces and overall military expenditure," the report stressed.

Pak Navy touts second-hand ships' 'low cost' advantage

The manufacturing costs were divided between the three countries and the vessel is equipped basis each nations maritime needs. The ship uses imaging sonar to detect and classify targets and then send remotely operated vehicles to inspect and neutralize the threat, according to the think tank. Islamabad has already been operating the three Tripartite Class minesweepers namely M163 "Muhafiz", M164 "Mujahid", and M166 Mansif that it purchased from France. These three partners' class minehunters were serviced from 1984 to 1986 and have a total of 35 years of servicing life. Although the Pakistan Navy touts the performance of the second-hand mine hunters over the unique advantage of it being cheap It can also conveniently be deployed as multi-functional patrol ships strengthening its so-called capability like that of the Indonesian Navy. Earlier China had also similarly sold its two naval ships to Pakistan under USD 46 billion to protect the strategic Gwadar port and trade routes.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 19 justified the Talibans violations of human rights, discrimination against women, and ban on education for girls as he urged the international community to understand that the idea of human rights and womens rights is different in every society. Addressing the 17th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Islamabad, the embattled leader of Pakistan, who has been a staunch supporter of the hardline Islamist Taliban regime that enacted the stringent Sharia law as a basis of governance, told the forum that the Talibans culture is similar to the culture in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa of Peshawar where parents were paid stipends to send girls to school, but they were not given education.

Khan further justified the Talibans positioning on banning young girls at education institutions, as he stressed that the countries worldwide must be sensitive to tribal customs. He appeared to back the Talibans oppressive behaviour and restrictions instated on women that outlined how women must dress up in public. In August, the all-male cabinet of the Taliban government approved a mandate that made it compulsory for Afghan females to wear an abaya or robe, and niqab, or burqa or face strict punishment under the strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Islamabad is 'fighting for recognition of Taliban', Pak PM reiterates

A series of discriminatory rules were enacted by the Taliban across Afghanistan including women can be taught by only women, and that men and women must be separated in a mixed classroom, use separate entrances and exits, and must not blend. Taliban also ordered the young girls and women to stay indoors and not to go to school.

The regime banned women from appearing in roles on television, instructed female municipal workers to stay at home and their jobs can be filled by a man. Several Afghan women have since taken to the street to protest for their basic rights but at the OIC meeting, Pakistans leader reiterated that Islamabad is fighting for the world powers to recognize the Taliban government. His remarks were widely slammed as he was criticized for painting the Taliban 'a model regime' for human rights.

Imran Khan told the forum that he had earlier met with the Talibans finance minister who categorically said that they want to comply with the demands of the international community in order to have the Afghan assets unfrozen. Prerequisites for the Taliban are that they must uphold humanitarian and womens rights and that terrorism should not flow from Afghanistan, otherwise financial aid will be cut, their foreign reserves frozen, banks closed  thats very important, said the Pakistani leader, making commitments on behalf of Taliban.

#OIC Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Afghanistan Amb. Tariq Ali Bakheet met with H.E. MR Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Foreign Minister of the Taliban Government in #Afghanistan. #OIC4Afg pic.twitter.com/ORp426QnUK  OIC (@OIC_OCI) December 19, 2021

It is being reported that Imran Khan invited the Taliban leaders in order to push for their international recognition. Pakistans head of the centre for strategic studies at the ministry of foreign affairs Walilullah Shaheen reportedly informed that the Afghan economy, banking system operations, and normalizing ties of the Taliban with the international community were the main agenda at the meeting.

Image: AP
Islamic countries scrambled on Sunday to find ways to help Afghanistan avert an imminent economic collapse they say would have a horrendous global impact.

The hastily called meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad ended with a promise to set up a fund to provide humanitarian aid through the Islamic Development Bank.

The fund would provide a cover for countries to donate without dealing directly with the country's Taliban rulers.

In a news conference at the end of the summit, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also described what he called good news from the United States, whose special representative on Afghanistan, Tom West, attended the summit.

He said West met with the Taliban delegation led by the interim foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on the sidelines.

Qureshi said West also said he was mandated to engage  with the Taliban, that U.S. humanitarian aid to Afghanistan would not carry preconditions and there could be as much as $1.2 billion available through the World Bank in money that could be released to Afghanistan.

There was no immediate response from the U.S. to Qureshi's statements.

Sunday's summit brought together dozens of foreign ministers as well as the special representatives on Afghanistan of major powers, including China, the U.S. and Russia.

It also included the U.N. undersecretary general on humanitarian affairs, and the president of the Islamic Development Bank Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, who offered several concrete financing proposals.

At the summit's conclusion Qureshi said the OIC agreed to appoint a special representative on Afghanistan.

The 20 foreign ministers and 10 deputy foreign ministers in attendance also agreed to establish a greater partnership with the United Nations to get help to desperate Afghans.

They participants also emphasized the critical need to open Afghanistans banking facilities, which have been largely closed since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15.

The Taliban has limited withdrawals from the countrys banks to $200 a month.

OIC chairman Hussain Ibrahim Taha, thanked the organizers of the event saying it would have brought "new hope" to the Afghans.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Amid soaring tension between Russia and Ukraine, Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, warned that Moscow may try to keep the European Union out of talks on security guarantees. He stated that Russia's ultimate goals are unclear, except that it is trying to threaten and weaken Ukraine. "Various scenarios are possible. We can't rule out Russia's desire to use the crisis as leverage for its declared goal of reshaping Europe's security framework while simultaneously excluding Europeans from the discussion," Borrell stated on his blog as reported by Sputnik.

The EU's foreign policy chief also stressed that any Russian move against Ukraine's sovereignty would have severe consequences, and expressed optimism that the United States will not allow Brussels to be excluded from security negotiations. Any discussion of the European security architecture must include the EU, he added. Earlier on Friday, December 17, Russia's Foreign Ministry presented a draft proposal on security assurances between Russia and the United States, as well as to NATO countries in Europe.

The proposals seek to restrict NATO from expanding in eastern Europe. Among several other terms, it also calls to prohibit the United States and Russia from placing intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory. "It is obvious that the EU must be included in such conversations," Borrell remarked. He also referred to the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter, as well as the principles of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which he believes must be applied when dealing with Russia on security issues. In his blog post, Borrell stated that he would be revising the Strategic Compass, the EU's new defence plan, and that a revised version will be released next month, reported the news agency.

Russia pushed 70,000 troops towards Ukraine's border: US

It is pertinent to mention here that the security concerns have become a vital issue in the context of escalating tensions around Ukraine, with reports claiming that Russia has placed troops near the Ukrainian border in preparation for an invasion. According to US intelligence officials, Russia has pushed around 70,000 troops towards Ukraine's border and is preparing for an attack early next year. However, Moscow denies any intention of attacking Ukraine and dismisses Western concerns as a "propaganda campaign."

Image: AP
The economic collapse of Afghanistan, already teetering dangerously on the edge, would have a horrendous impact on the region and the world, successive speakers warned Sunday at the start of a one-day summit of foreign ministers from dozens of Islamic countries.

The hastily called meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad brought together dozens of foreign ministers with the special representatives on Afghanistan of major powers, including China, the U.S. and Russia.

The gathering also included the U.N. Under Secretary-General on humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, as well as the president of the Islamic Development Bank Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, who offered several concrete financing proposals.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan directed his remarks to the U.S., urging Washington to drop preconditions to releasing desperately needed funds and restarting Afghanistan's banking systems.

"Unless action is not taken immediately, Afghanistan is heading for chaos. Any government when it can't pay its salaries for its public servants, hospitals, doctors, nurses, any government is going to collapse but chaos suits no one, it certainly does not suit the United States," he said.

Khan seemed to offer Taliban a pass on the limits on education for girls, urging the world to understand "cultural sensitivities" and saying human rights and women's rights meant different things in different countries.

The dire warnings called for the U.S. and other nations to ease sanctions, including the release upward of $10 billion in frozen funds following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15.

However, other speakers, including the OIC chairman Hussain Ibrahim Taha, emphasized the need for the protection of human rights, particularly those of women and girls.

The new Taliban rulers' acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was in attendance in the grand hall of the Pakistani Parliament, where dozens of foreign ministers from many of the 57-nation OIC had gathered.

Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, warned that Afghanistan will not survive on donations alone.

He urged donor countries to show flexibility, allowing their money to pay salaries of public sector workers and support basic services.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Muttaqi said that Afghanistans new rulers were committed to the education of girls and women in the workforce.

Yet four months into Taliban rule, girls are not allowed to attend high school in most provinces and though women have returned to their jobs in much of the health care sector, many female civil servants have been barred from coming to work.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 12 more Indian fishermen and seized two fishing trawlers, taking the number of Indians apprehended in the last two days to 55. The Indian fishermen have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly poaching in the country's territorial waters. According to international reports, the arrests were made on Sunday in the seas South of Mannar in the Sri Lankan territorial waters.

Earlier, the Sri Lankan Navy had arrested 43 Indian fishermen and seized six trawlers for allegedly poaching in the countrys territorial waters. The Navy arrested the fishermen in seas Southeast of the Delft Island in Jaffna on Saturday. The continued arrests of Indian fishermen, majorly from the state of Tamil Nadu, forced the state's Chief Minister MK Stalin to seek the intervention of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

The arresting of fishermen from India by the Sri Lankan Navy have been a common practice despite contact from the Indian government as well as the Tamil Nadu government to free them. The Tamil Nadu CM in his letter also cleared that fishermen from both countries often cross borders during their duty. All 55 fishermen are currently in Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu CM Stalin seeks help from EAM

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, seeking intervention in rescuing the fishermen of the state, who are under the custody of the Sri Lankan Navy. 43 fishermen from Rameswaram and Ramanathapuram District were fishing in the traditional waters of Palk Bay, in six mechanized fishing boats and were arrested on Saturday by Srilankan Navy.

In his letter to the EAM, the TN CM wrote, "I am saddened to point out that the incidents of arrest and harassment of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy continue with alarming frequency despite several letters sent by the Government of Tamil Nadu."

"I urge your intervention in this matter and request you to take up the matter with the Sri Lankan authorities to secure the immediate release of 55 fishermen and 73 fishing boats that are in the custody of the Sri Lankan navy," he added.

The minister is expected to further push his demand following the 12 more arrests that have now taken place.

Image: PTI
UN Special Rapporteur, Tom Andrews spoke on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar and praised Bangladesh for providing a safe haven for Rohingya refugees who escaped the horrors of the Myanmar military. Andrews said that Bangladesh has saved untold numbers of lives by opening its arms and hearts to Rohingya people who survived the most unspeakable of horrors inflicted on them by the Myanmar military, as per the reports of ANI

. He further said that all who appreciate human rights owe Bangladesh a duty of gratitude. Andrews met with Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

He claimed that nearly every Rohingya refugee he spoke with wanted to return home, adding that they must ensure their safe and voluntary return to Myanmar. The UN expert also said that he will do everything in his power to push for a stronger, more coordinated international response to this catastrophe and put pressure on the Myanmar military and implement tangible steps to hold the military junta completely accountable for this tragedy.

Andrews made a number of suggestions

According to UN News, Andrews made a number of suggestions from his visit, including providing security, educational possibilities, access to health care and the creation of sustainable livelihood options for the Rohingya people. He welcomed Bangladesh for its cooperation in accountability measures, emphasising the importance of respecting, protecting and promoting the rights and dignity of the Rohingya people.

He stated that education will give Rohingya's youth opportunities that may discourage them from using negative coping methods, according to ANI. UN Special Rapporteur argued that Bangladesh cannot and should not bear the burden alone and urged the international community to come forward in aid of the Rohingyas. He hopes to meet with the Rohingya population one day, not as refugees, but as citizens of Myanmar.

Bangladesh has housed about a million refugees

In August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya people escaped persecution and bloodshed in neighbouring country Myanmar. Since then, Bangladesh has housed about a million refugees in overcrowded camps. Bangladeshi officials claim the refugee issue has exacerbated the country's overcrowding of more than 160 million people, according to Al Jazeera. The UN and Bangladesh's government inked an agreement in October this year to collaborate in relocating Rohingya refugees to the secluded island.

(Inputs from ANI)

Image: Twitter/@RapporteurUn, AP
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons administration has handed the role for Britain's post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union to the top diplomat and Tory favourite Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. As Johnsons chief post-Brexit negotiator, Truss will ensure Britains diplomacy and enduring influence to seal trade deals with the EU and succeed the British leader after his government battled a torrid week of COVID-19 restriction rebellion and the resignation of a trusted ally and chief Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost.

"It is disappointing that this plan has become public this evening and in the circumstances, I think it is right for me to write to step down with immediate effect," UK Prime Ministers Brexit talisman and right-hand political figure Frost wrote in an impassioned letter published by Number 10 Downing Street. He wrote in the context of UK PM's recent Plan B COVID measures that would involve heavy clampdowns, his government's "direction of travel and considerations for a third lockdown.

Frost, Johnsons closest ally who had handed his resignation a week ago but was convinced by the UK PM to stay until the New Year, hastily dispatched the resignation letter earlier yesterday over what is being alleged disillusionment with Johnson's policies. Frosts move was fuelled by the rebellion from at least a hundred of Johnsons own MPs who opposed his COVID-19 policies in a parliamentary vote.

Johnsons approval among his political staff and aides has been steadily eroding over a series of scandals involving the British leader including the parties last Christmas. A barrage of criticism mounted since a video emerged showing his staff laughing and joking about a Downing Street party that he had held at a time when most of Britain reeled under the stringent coronavirus shut down. Downing Street, however, had denied the allegations.

Johnson's closest ally's 'fallout'

Lord Frost was hired by Johnson as his political special adviser during the time that he served as the foreign secretary in the Theresa May administration in 2016. But the former made a dramatic resignation with 'immediate effect' on Saturday in a shock to Johnson, that pushed the Tory backbenchers asking their Prime Minister to opt for a 'more conservative agenda. In his letter, Frost told Johnson that the 'Brexit is now secure', but added, the challenge for the Government now is to deliver on the opportunities it gives us. Frost stressed that the UK leaders must work towards making Britain a 'lightly regulated, low-tax country. Many of Frosts No 10 aides speculate his dismissal was influenced by his behind-the-scenes power struggles.

As the favourite of the Tory grassroots activists, Truss takes over the role for post-Brexit talks with the EU after Frost stepped down, her big responsibility for Britain would be to lead negotiations and resolve issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol. She was appointed in less than 24 hours after the one-time confidant of Johnson, whom he called the greatest Frost since the Great Frost of 1709, had a fall out with the leader. The embattled prime minister said in his response that he was very sorry to receive the resignation letter.
Women across the globe will be take turns to fast for 24 hours in the latest move to pressurise the UK government to secure freedom for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff, an Iranian-British dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since April 3, 2016. A female-led volunteer organisation working for women liberation, FiLiA has announced the campaign on Monday which comes after the 21-day hunger strike by the detainees husband Richard Ratcliff. The Guardian stated that the campaign will be mounted outside the UK Foreign Office in London until mid-November.

Women have signed up to the hunger strike for #Women4Nazanin to take us to 3rd April 2023!



The anniversary of Nazanin being imprisoned



Listen to @MaryamNamazie, Iranian activist



Join HERE: https://t.co/fVWrMuVPPM#FreeNazaninNow #FreeNazaninhttps://t.co/AhUpSPw12Y  FiLiA (@FiLiA_charity) December 20, 2021

While calling for entries from women in the world, FiLiA stated that the solidarity action will be launched by the organisations CEO Lisa-Marie Taylor along with Maryam Namazie, a British-Iranian human rights activist on 21 December. The first week participants include Sophie Walker; a Political activist, founding leader of the Women's Equality Party, Pragna Patel; Founder of Southall Black Sisters, Mandy Sanghera, International human rights activist, Vaishnavi Sundar; Filmmaker and activist, Sally Jackson; FiLiA Trustee and activist, Yasmin Rehman; CEO JUNO Womens Aid.

Women from India, UK already signed up: Taylor

Photographs of all participants of the fasting relay will be published on the groups website each day as a message of solidarity. The report by The Guardian stated that FiLiA CEO, Taylor, has said that women from the UK, India, Morocco and Iran have already signed up to take part in the protest. She was quoted by the media outlet as saying, Richard has made it clear he doesnt want people to get poorly and added, So we thought wed organise a chain of women to each fast for a day to keep the pressure on the government and show Nazanin how much support she has from women in the UK and globally.

The action was reportedly inspired by the 89-year-old human rights lawyer, Margeret Owen who also went on a six-day hunger strike just last month to take up the baton from Ratcliff. This was after the dual-citizens husband concluded his protest over health concerns, said Taylor.

Owen, who visited Ratcliff at least four times during his hunger strike, reportedly said, Each time I sat next to him, I was so impressed but also so worried by the third week with the state of his health. We knew that Nazanin was begging him to stop. So I told him, Im going to hunger strike for you.

(IMAGE: AP)
Both the Shandong and the Liaoning are taking part in drills in or near the contested waterway.

Aircraft carrier Liaoning, other vessels and fighter jets in the PLA Navy maritime parade, April 12, 2018.

China has recently deployed both of its active aircraft carriers on combat-oriented drills in the South China Sea, an indication that Beijing is growing more confident about its carrier fleets capabilities, said analysts.

The second aircraft carrier of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the Shandong, was sent on a multi-disciplinary exercise aimed at improving combat readiness, reported the Chinese Communist Partys mouthpiece the Peoples Daily.

The crew will take part in a number of drills including arrested landings of fighter jets, damage control and maritime search and rescue, the report said.

It did not specify the location nor the timing of the exercise and only said the carrier embarked on the mission in early winter.

The Peoples Daily sister publication, the Global Times, said the carrier is now sailing the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, the PLA Navys first carrier, the Liaoning, and its escorting ships are on a routine exercise in the Pacific Ocean that may see them perform drills in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.

Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff said in a press release at the weekend that the Japanese navy despatched airplanes and ships, including the Izumo helicopter destroyer, to follow and monitor the movement of the Liaoning strike group when it sailed through waters between Okinawa and Miyako islands.

The strike group comprises the Liaoning, the Type 055 large destroyer Nanchang, the Type 054A frigate Rizhao and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu.

They were first spotted on Dec.15 and now are sailing southwards to the Philippine Sea after conducting ship-based aircraft take-off and landing exercises.

The Liaoning transited the Miyako Strait twice in April while it carried out drills near Taiwan and the South China Sea, and observers say the pattern may repeat this time.

The Liaoning and other ships taking part in a drill in the western Pacific in 2018. Credit: China Stringer Network/Reuters Supporting strategic interests

In a separate development, the guided-missile frigate Wuzhou under the PLA Southern Theater Command conducted a maritime training operation earlier this month in the South China Sea, marking a very busy period for the PLA Navy in the region.

Having two carriers at sea at almost the same time, plus supporting vessels, shows that the PLA Navy is becoming increasingly confident about using these assets to project power in support of China's strategic interests, said Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Aircraft carriers are complex and costly, which is why so few navies operate them, said Storey.

But possessing them allows countries to project power around the globe in ways no other warships can, he added. They are the ultimate symbols of major power status.

In October, three aircraft carriers and a dozen other warships from U.S.-allied nations staged one of the biggest shows of maritime power in the South China Sea.

The U.S. Navy has 11 aircraft carriers, all nuclear-powered. China has the biggest maritime force in the world with 355 ships, but only two aircraft carriers.

Race to develop aircraft carriers

Chinas first aircraft carrier Liaoning (Type 001) is a reconstructed Soviet-built aircraft carrier, commissioned into the PLA Navy in 2012. The second one and the first domestically built, Shandong (Type 002), was commissioned in December 2019.

A U.S. Defense Department report on Chinese military released last month said a third aircraft carrier is projected to be operational by 2024, with additional carriers to follow.

This second domestically built carrier will be larger and fitted with a catapult launch system.

This design will enable it to support additional fighter aircraft, fixed-wing early-warning aircraft, and more rapid flight operations and thus extend the reach and effectiveness of its carrier-based strike aircraft, the report said.

Besides China, Japan, Korea and Singapore also harbor super carrier ambitions.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF, or Japanese Navy) is believed to be putting the finishing touches on two Izumo-class destroyers being converted into light aircraft carriers.

The race to develop bigger and better aircraft carriers highlights the precarious situation in the South China Sea, which is seen by observers as one of imminent flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific.
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hunan are believed to be holding a teacher in a psychiatric hospital after she spoke out over the expulsion of a Shanghai journalism lecturer who encouraged her students to verify official accounts of the Nanjing massacre.



Schoolteacher Li Tiantian, who is currently pregnant, issued a cry for help on the social media platform Weibo Moments on after officials from her hometown of Shaba in Hunan's Yongshun county tried to have her committed for psychiatric care.



She said officials wanted her committed to psychiatric hospital for injections for "mental problems." "If I die, that will be two lives gone," she said, in a reference to her unborn child.



Hunan-based current affairs commentator Li Ang told RFA that Li is now incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital.



"She was let go because she was telling the truth on the internet," Li Ang said. "She spoke out in support of Song Gengyi, the lecturer in Shanghai, and the authorities came round and threatened her."



"I heard she was sent to the psychiatric hospital for 'treatment' , but I was unable to verify that," he said. "She was threatened by officials from the local education bureau and police."



Sources said she is likely being held in the Yongshun County Psychiatric Hospital.



Li's comments were posted on Weibo on after Shanghai Aurora College said it had fired lecturer Song Gengyi for questioning the Chinese governments official death toll of 300,000 for the 1937 massacre.



Song's lecture was recorded and posted online by Dong Xun, one of her students.



In the clip, Song calls the 300,000 deaths tally used by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a "rough estimate that lacks statistical support" adding that there is a very wide range of estimates of casualties.



Li chimed in on , saying she didn't see any problem with Song's lecture, but rather with the student who informed on her and the school that fired her, and the Chinese intellectuals who have kept quiet on the matter.



Repeated calls to Li Tiantian's cell phone rang unanswered on .



Some online comments hit out at Dong Xun, doxxing him, prompting him to respond with a short video on sharing platform Douyin.



"This wasn't a trivial matter, but rather a matter of national historical importance," Dong said. "She's the one who made it a big deal, so we'll see how she deals with it now."



Some comments berated Dong for a lack of conscience, while another remarked acidly: "So the teacher who tells the truth will be replaced with one who will brainwash you."



A photo circulating on social media showed a banner calling on Dong Xun to "get out of Shanghai Aurora."



Hubei-based rights activist Wu Lijuan said she was angry at Dong for informing on Song, adding that the video of the lecture had been dishonestly edited.



"This was reported out context, because the lecturer said estimates ranged from 500,000 to 300,000 to 30,000 to 3,000," Wu told RFA. "They deleted the part where she says 500,000 from the video clip."



On the same day that Song was dismissed, Tsingtao staff lecturer Gao Weijia had her teaching license revoked and was transferred to a non-teaching role after she said in a Weibo post that young people should "feel free" to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, that includes memorials to convicted Japanese war criminals.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities have yet to say why the man was detained, or how he died.

A guard tower rises along the perimeter fence of an internment camp in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in a file photo.

A retired Uyghur civil servant abducted by police and taken to an internment camp more than three years ago died at the end of last year, a Uyghur source in exile said.

Niyaz Nasir, 78, had worked at a government food bureau in Toqquzaq county (in Chinese, Shufu Xian) in the Kashgar (Kashi Diqu) prefecture of northwestern Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. No explanation was given for his death, and the reasons for his detention are still unclear.

The Uyghur exile said that Niyaz Nasirs body was returned to his family by authorities with orders that it be immediately buried.

Niyazs three children, members of the Chinese Communist Party and also civil servants, had asked that their father be released on bail from the camp in Toqquzaqs Opal township after seeing him weak and fragile in a virtual meeting on screen in late 2018, a month before his death.

Authorities refused their request, however, saying that Niyaz was in good health and in better condition than many others, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Reached for comment, an official at the Toqquzaq county judiciary bureau said he had heard no reports of the detainees death, adding that officials in his bureau were not routinely informed of deaths in the camps. The official said that he was also unaware that Niyazs sons and daughter had asked for his release on bail.

A security director at Toqquzaqs Bulaqsu village, where Niyaz and his children had lived in Hamlet No. 6, told RFA that the pensioner had been arrested in 2018 and had died in the camp.

He died at the end of last year, he said, adding that Niyaz had worked at the county food bureau. He was a government employee.

The security director said that Niyazs sons and daughter  identified by RFAs source in exile as Abdulnasir, Abdulahad and Amangul  worked for the county food bureau, the agricultural bank, and the commerce and industry administration.

He did not know what steps they may have taken to secure their fathers release, he said.

Over a million held in camps

China has held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention camps since 2017. Beijing has said the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated and tortured incarcerated Muslims.

Increased international awareness of the camp system and other abuses, including forced labor and forced sterilization of women, has prompted parliaments in Canada, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Lithuania, as well as the U.S. State Department, to brand Chinas actions in the region as genocide.

On Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, the United States imposed a U.S. visa ban on the current and previous chairmen of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Erken Tuniyaz and Shorat Zakir  both ethnic Uyghurs  who had presided over a surveillance program that resulted in mass detentions.

And on Dec. 8, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government would join a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics along with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Lithuania, over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Reported and translated by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
MINSK -- A court in Minsk has sentenced a blogger to 18 months in a maximum security penal colony for her participation in protests against the government of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Among the charges for disrupting public order in August 2020, Volha Takarchuk, a 36-year-old blogger and mother of two young children, allegedly "blocked traffic" and "shouted slogans."

She was sentenced on December 20 as the court followed the sentencing request of prosecutors in the case.

If each of us falls silent, it will be what it was before: everyone in the kitchen quietly hated power, condemned it, but sat and did nothing. I don't want to live on my knees, she said in a video recorded in January in case she was ever arrested and held in detention.

Protests erupted in Belarus after Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of an August 2020 election that opponents say was rigged. The West has refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are now in jail as political prisoners amid a sometimes violent crackdown by officials on dissent.

Independent media and opposition social media channels have been targeted as well.

Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.

Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the presidential vote and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.

The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have imposed sanctions on him and several senior Belarusian officials in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
Belarus claims a group of people has damaged the facade of its embassy in London and physically assaulted some of its diplomats, "seriously" injuring one of them.

London's Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to a reported disturbance outside the diplomatic mission on the evening of December 19, where a member of staff reported he had been assaulted and was left with a facial injury.

One man was detained nearby, it said on December 20, adding that the investigation is continuing.

Posts on social media show there was a small demonstration outside the Belarusian diplomatic mission on the day the incident took place.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the injured diplomat required "urgent medical assistance and was diagnosed with a broken nose, a light concussion, and a broken tooth following the "attack."

The ministry said the alleged attackers were thought to belong to the radical emigre group Nadzeya."

A Facebook group with the same name as the radical group Nadzeya said it had nothing to do with yesterday's disgusting incident.

The group appears to support the Belarusian political opposition amid an ongoing violent crackdown on dissent following last years disputed presidential election that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term. Opposition politicians and activists say the vote was rigged.

The West has refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus, and imposed several rounds of sanctions on his regime.

Western countries also accuse Belarus of having engineered a migrant influx at its border with EU members Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland by letting thousands of people in and encouraging them to cross into the bloc.

Belaruss Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.K. charge d'affaires in Minsk and lodged a strong protest.

It demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and said the perpetrators of the alleged attack must be brought to justice.
MINSK -- A Russian citizen has gone on trial in Minsk for his alleged actions against the rule of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The trial of 21-year-old Yegor Dudnikov started on December 20. He faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

According to the Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights group, Judge Syarhey Khrypach ruled that the trial will be held behind closed doors "to prevent the spread of extremist materials."

Crisis In Belarus Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka ramps up pressure on NGOs and independent media as part of a brutal crackdown against protesters and the opposition following an August 2020 election widely considered fraudulent.

Dudnikov was arrested in May and eventually charged with inciting hatred and calling for actions to hurt Belarus.

The charges stem from Dudnikov allegedly taking part in preparing online materials in connection with unprecedented mass rallies in Belarus protesting official results of the August 2020 presidential election that handed Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term in office.

Investigators say that from January until May, Dudnikov placed at least 55 posts about the protests on the Telegram channel administered by the so-called Groups of Civic Self-Defense of Belarus (OGSB), an organization labeled as extremist and banned in Belarus in the aftermath of the protests.

Dudnikov said earlier that police severely beat him after they arrested him on May 5.

Dudnikov is one of dozens in Belarus who have faced trial in recent months after authorities brutally suppressed dissent in any form following last year's presidential election.

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's 26-year rule. Thousands have been detained during countrywide protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.

With materials provided by the Vyasna human rights center
Iran has executed a Kurdish man convicted of armed rebellion despite international appeals that his life be spared, activists said on December 20.

Heidar Ghorbani was executed early on December 19 in Sanandaj prison in western Iran's Kurdistan Province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said, adding that neither his family nor his lawyer had been given prior warning.

Ghorbani's execution was carried out while his case was still under consideration at the Supreme Court.

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One of his relatives told the IHR on December 19, "They took us and showed us a grave that they said is Heidar. They buried him in Beheshte Mohammadi cemetery themselves and didnt give us his body.

Actvists say that Ghorbani, who had been jailed since October 2016, was convicted and sentenced to death last year in connection with the killing in 2016 of three men linked to the paramilitary Basij militia.

Ghorbani was found guilty of providing transport and logistical support for the killings, although the court verdict acknowledged he had never been armed.

UN human rights experts had voiced "serious concerns" that Ghorbani did not receive a fair trial and said he was tortured during pretrial detention. Rights group considered him to be a political prisoner.

Both the United Nations and Amnesty International called for his life to be spared, pointing to what Amnesty said had been "numerous violations" in his trial, which it said was "grossly unfair."

Videos posted on social media showed crowds gathering on December 19 in his hometown of Kamyaran in western Iran, chanting, "Martyrs don't die," despite a heavy security presence.

"Heidar Ghorbani was subjected to torture and sentenced to death without due process and any evidence against him," said Iran Human Rights Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. "Heidar's death penalty is unlawful even under the Islamic republic's own laws."

With reporting by AFP
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) kicked off five days of military maneuvers across the country's south on December 20, state television reported, amid continued tensions with the West over Tehran's nuclear program.

The IRGC's aerospace division, ground troops, and naval forces joined in the exercises, with maritime forces set to maneuver in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state TV said.

The exercises come days after talks in Vienna to revive Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers were suspended.

Israel has repeatedly threatened unilateral action against Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is for strictly peaceful purposes.

Gholamali Rashid, a top IRGC commander, vowed a harsh response to any Israeli military action against Iran.

Iranian forces will launch a crushing attack on all bases, centers, paths, and space used to carry out the aggression without delay, the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Rashid as saying.

Any threat to Irans nuclear and military bases by the Zionist regime is not possible without the green light support of the United States," he said.

Earlier on December 20, residents of Bushehr, some 700 kilometers south of Irans capital, Tehran, reported seeing a light in the sky and hearing loud explosions near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

An official told Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency that the sounds were the result of an air-defense exercise that involved antiaircraft firing.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
ORAL, Kazakhstan -- Police in the Kazakh city of Oral have launched an extortion investigation into an activist after she was hospitalized in grave condition following a suicide attempt amid what she called a pressure campaign imposed on her by police for her activism on municipal housing.

Neighbors of Nadezhda Solodovnikova told RFE/RL that she was taken to hospital on December 19 after she drank extremely concentrated vinegar.

The Western Kazakhstan regional health directorate confirmed that Solodovnikova was being treated for "an extreme poisoning" in an intensive care unit of a hospital in Oral.

Oral city police officials told RFE/RL on December 20 that a probe had begun into Solodovnikova's actions, which may be deemed as an attempt to use suicide "as an act of extortion."

A day before the hospitalization, Solodovnikova issued a video statement saying that local authorities and law enforcement were pressuring her over her active participation in rallies and other actions demanding Oral city administrators officially recognize dozens of families as owners of apartments where they were "temporarily" moved 10 years ago after inspections had officially condemned their previous dwellings.

Police in Oral have detained Solodovnikova several times in the past over the rallies and pickets.
BISHKEK -- Charges in the high-profile Kumtor gold-mine case against the ousted first president of independent Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akaev, have been dropped, his associate says.

Bekbolot Talgarbekov told RFE/RL on December 20 that Akaev, who traveled to Bishkek last week for the second time since August for questioning in connection with the Kumtor investigation, had left the country for Moscow after he was interrogated at the State Committee for National Security (UKMK).

The UKMK has yet to issue an official statement on Akaev. There were no official statements regarding Akaev's December 14 arrival in Bishkek either. Akaev's relatives told RFE/RL last week that he came to the Central Asian nation's capital "for at least five days."

It was Akaev's second trip to the former Soviet republic since he fled peaceful pro-democracy rallies in 2005. His first trip in early August was also related to the investigation of the Kumtor gold-mine case.

Kumtor, one of the world's largest gold mines, has been at the heart of financial and environmental disagreements for years and is currently the subject of an ongoing battle for control between the Kyrgyz state and the mine's operator, Canadian Centerra Gold.

The UKMK said in July that Akaev and another exiled former Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiev, had been added to the international wanted list as part of the Kumtor corruption probe.

According to the UKMK, Centerra Gold paid bribes to top Kyrgyz officials, including Akaev, Bakiev, and another former president, Almazbek Atambaev, who is currently jailed in another case.

Akaev fled to Russia during the so-called Tulip Revolution in 2005. He was president from 1990 to 2005, but since his departure had avoided returning to Kyrgyzstan even for the burial of close relatives.

Bakiev has been in exile in Belarus since being toppled by anti-government protests in 2010.

The giant Kumtor gold project has been the focus of international attention since a new Kyrgyz government moved to temporarily take over operations at the mine over what President Sadyr Japarov said was a necessary move to remedy environmental and safety violations.

In May, the Kyrgyz government approved a law allowing it to take control for up to three months of any company that operates under a concession agreement in Kyrgyzstan if that firm violates environmental regulations, endangers the local environment or lives of people, or causes other significant damage.

Centerra has called the Kyrgyz actions "wrongful and illegal" and said in July that it had filed additional arbitration claims against the government in Bishkek over Kumtor.

Earlier this year, Kyrgyz authorities arrested several former officials and current lawmakers in connection with the case.
Dutch prosecutors said on December 20 that the 298 victims of the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine "didn't stand a chance" once a rocket hit the aircraft, as they began their closing arguments in the closely watched trial.

MH17 was shot down on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine, killing all passengers and crew.

The four suspects -- Russians Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Igor Girkin, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko -- are being tried in absentia for involvement in the tragedy. Only one of the suspects, Pulatov, is represented by lawyers at the trial.

All four are accused of being key figures among Russia-backed separatists battling Ukrainian government forces in a conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

A team of international investigators concluded in May 2018 that the missile launcher used to shoot down the aircraft belonged to Russia's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors said evidence such as photos, intercepted telephone conversations, videos, and witness statements shows that the accused procured the Buk missile and fired it on July 17, 2014.

However, they added, they probably intended to hit a Ukrainian military jet.

Recalling the incident, Prosecutor Berger Thijs looked back at the moment when Ukrainian air traffic control lost contact with flight MH17.

Berger said the passengers "did not stand a chance" as the cockpit was detonated by the blast.

"At that moment, a warhead from a Buk missile detonated to the left of the cockpit, shrapnel and missile parts pierced the left of the cockpit and the accompanying blast does the rest," he said, adding: "The passengers of flight MH17 didn't stand a chance."

A sentencing demand was expected on December 22 at the end of the 20-month trial, which is being held in the Netherlands because the plane departed from there and 196 of the victims were Dutch.

A verdict is likely to be handed down late next year.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa
Russia says it is expelling two German diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat move following Germany's expulsion of two Russian diplomats after a court in Berlin convicted a Russian man last week of fatally shooting a former Chechen militant in Berlin on the Kremlin's orders in 2019. Berlin had expelled two Russian diplomats in response.

"The German Ambassador was informed about the declaration of two diplomatic employees from the German Embassy in Russia as 'personae non gratae' as a symmetrical response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 20.

It gave no date for when the German diplomats needed to leave Russia.

The Russian move does not come as a surprise, but, in the view of the federal government, it is completely unjustified," the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Today's decision by Russia's Foreign Ministry puts renewed strain on the relationship," the ministry added.

On December 15, the second criminal division of the Higher Regional Court in Berlin sentenced a Russian national named as Vadim Krasikov, aka Vadim Sokolov, to life in prison over the murder of Tornike Kavtarashvili, aka Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in a Berlin park in August 2019.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Olaf Arnoldi ruled that the murder was an act of "retaliation" against the 40-year-old victim, an ethnic Chechen of Georgian nationality, for being a Kremlin opponent.

Prosecutors had alleged that the gunman was an officer in Russia's FSB secret service.

Hours after the verdict, Germany declared two Russian diplomats personae non gratae, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock saying that Russian involvement in the murder was a "serious violation of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany."

The Russian Foreign Ministry at the time denounced the "unfriendly" action by Berlin, and said Moscow would respond with "retaliatory measures."
PRAGUE -- The Prague-based MEDIUM-ORIENT news agency has been fined in Russia for failing to follow the requirements of Russia's controversial "foreign agent" law.

Islam Tekushev, the editor in chief of the online Caucasus Times journal founded by MEDIUM-ORIENT, told RFE/RL that he was informed on December 20 of a ruling a week earlier by the Taganka district court to fine the journal 500,000 rubles ($6,730) for violating the law on "foreign agents."

Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor added the media group, which is registered in the Czech Republic, to the list of "foreign agents" a year ago.

According to Tekushev, all materials published by the Caucasus Times had been appropriately marked as produced by an outlet added to the "foreign agents" registry after Roskomnadzor officially accused the journal in October of failing to do so.

Tekushev, who is a former RFE/RL employee, added that his media outlet was most likely fined for the absence of the "foreign agent" mark on older archived materials, which he said need time to be located and marked.

Russia's foreign agent legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly despite repeated criticism within Russia and abroad as being an unjustified assault on independent media and civil society.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and are deemed by the government to engage in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as foreign agents, and to submit to audits.

Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media.

Lawyer Lidia Anasova said the court's ruling will be appealed at the Moscow City Court as the law on "foreign agents" violates the norms of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Oleg Orlov of the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center, which was also labeled a foreign agent, said the main goal of authorities in targeting MEDIUM-ORIENT is to "restrict journalists' activities" in the Caucasus.

In 2017, the Russian government added RFE/RLs Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, on the list.

At the end of 2020, the legislation was modified to allow the Russian government to place individuals, including foreign journalists, on its foreign agents media list and impose restrictions on them. Several RFE/RL journalists have since been added to the list.
Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Misurkin and two Japanese space tourists have returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS).

Russia's space agency announced their landing in Kazakhstan on December 20 in a statement on its website.

"The flight of the 'tourist' spacecraft 'Soyuz MS-20' has been completed," Roskosmos said.

NASA also announced that the trio had landed in Kazakhstan.

Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, and his video producer, Yozo Hirano, had earlier bid farewell to the crew of the ISS and closed the hatch on the Soyuz MS-20 in preparation for their departure from the ISS.

Misurkin, online fashion tycoon Maezawa, and Hirano blasted into space on December 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They were the first self-paying tourists to visit the ISS since 2009 and the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama traveled to the Mir space station in 1990.

Maezawa and Hirano documented their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's YouTube channel. Their videos showed them performing mundane tasks in space, including brushing their teeth and drinking tea. One video explained how astronauts use the bathroom.

Their trip was one of several milestones this year for private space travel. Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights in 2021.

Misurkin, a cosmonaut who spent six months on the ISS in 2017-18, traveled to space this time as a reporter for the Russian state news agency TASS. Misurkin was to report on the life and work of the station, and his reports, photos, and videos were to be available on the TASS website, the news agency said.

With reporting by AFP, AP, NASA.com, TASS and space.com
A lawmaker in Russia's Far Eastern city of Magadan, who was implicated in a high-profile poaching case, has been found dead with gunshot wounds.

The Investigative Committee's directorate in Magadan told RFE/RL on December 20 that Aleksandr Kramarenko's body was found in his office late in the evening the previous day.

According to the directorates officials, investigators are interviewing Kramarenko's relatives, colleagues, and possible witnesses and analyzing recordings of CCTV cameras.

The local office of the ruling United Russia party refused to comment on the situation.

In June, the Investigative Committee launched a probe against Kramarenko after a photo taken in Chukotka, one of Russias most remote northern regions, was posted on Instagram.

The photo showed Kramarenko holding a hunting rifle and standing in the middle of a snowy field where what appeared to be almost 200 dead wild birds were arranged to spell out the words "Chukotka 2021" and a heart shape. Another photo shows the birds arranged in the shape of a pyramid.

Investigators said at the time that the damage caused by Kramarenko's alleged poaching of rare geese had been estimated to be around 700,000 rubles ($9,400).

The 59-year-old lawmaker insisted then that the picture was altered and the person in it was not him, but then changed his statement later, saying that the birds in the picture were actually stuffed dead birds preserved for a hunting school.

The United Russia party suspended Kramarenko's membership after the probe was launched against him.
MOSCOW -- A retired Moscow police officer has been detained after holding a picket in the Russian capital's Red Square to demand the release of imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "killer."

Former police Major Oleg Kashintsev was holding a poster saying "Free Navalny. Putin Is A Killer" when police detained him near the Kremlin on December 19.

Kashintsev was released several hours later after police charged him with a "violation of regulations on holding pickets" and "illegally wearing a police uniform."

Kashintsev worked in law enforcement for 18 years, including 14 years in the criminal investigation department at the Moscow police.

He left the police in 2019, protesting police pressure imposed on the country's opposition.

Kashintsev took part in several unsanctioned rallies to support Navalny in recent years.

Navalny is one of Putin's most prominent opponents. He was arrested in Moscow in January after returning from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning.

He and his supporters say the poisoning was carried out by Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives at the behest of Putin in retribution for Navalnys political activities. The Kremlin has denied any role in the incident.

In February, Navalny was convicted of violating the terms of a suspended sentence related to an embezzlement case that he has called politically motivated. The remainder of Navalny's suspended sentence -- 2 1/2 years -- was then replaced with a real prison term.
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Young people across the former U.S.S.R. spoke to RFE/RL about what comes to mind when the Soviet Union is mentioned.
Poland and Lithuania have joined Ukraine in calling for stronger sanctions against Russia, with Polish President Andrzej Duda saying that everything must be done to prevent potential Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

In a joint statement issued after their December 20 meeting in the western Ukrainian village of Huta, the Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Polish presidents called upon the international community to step up sanctions on the Russian Federation over its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again urged the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories.

The trilateral summit, which was part of the Lublin Triangle regional forum, comes as Kyiv and its Western backers accuse Russia of massing about 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine as a possible prelude to an invasion as early as next month.

The European Union has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its March 2014 seizure and illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, as well as for Moscows backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine in an ongoing conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was absolutely against any policy of concessions to Russia.

It is absolutely undesirable to yield to such an ultimatum, to such blackmail," he added.

Our common task is to deter the threat posed by Russia and defend Europe from Russia's aggressive policies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, said that any attempts by Russia to draw red lines are unacceptable in Europe in the 21st century.

The bloc has urged Russia to de-escalate the current situation and engage in renewed diplomacy instead of conflict, threatening strong new sanctions in coordination with Britain and the United States if there were any attack.

Russia denies it has plans to launch an offensive and has issued a series of demands about Ukraines potential membership in NATO and the alliance's activities near its western border.

Ukraine and another former Soviet republic bordering Russia, Georgia, are seeking to join the Western military alliance -- which Moscow vehemently opposes.

U.S. and European officials have called some of the Russian proposals unacceptable and said Russia cannot "dictate" terms to NATO.

Moscow must step back from the actions that it has taken in recent years, the Polish president said, noting that Russia de facto occupies parts of Ukrainian and Georgian territory.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 and Russian troops have since remained in the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"In 2008, there was an attack on Georgia. Six years passed. In 2014, there was an attack on Ukraine. A few more than six years have passed, and here we have the current situation. Seven years have already passed since 2014. Russia has once again gathered strength. Russia is once again flexing its muscles," Duda said.

With reporting by AP
KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities have placed Petro Poroshenko under formal investigation for high treason, accusing the former president of links to financing Russia-backed separatists fighting government forces in the countrys east.

The State Investigation Bureau said on December 20 that it suspected Poroshenko of "committing treason" and supporting the activity of "terrorist organizations," referring to the separatists controlling parts of Ukraines eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

During his presidency, Poroshenko helped the separatists to sell some 1.5 billion hryvnia ($54 million) worth of coal to Kyiv in 2014-15, it said in a statement.

The 56-year-old politician, who is now a lawmaker, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The ex-president gave no immediate comment on the announcement, but Oleksander Turchynov, a senior member of his European Solidarity party, said the accusation was fabricated on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko's party said he had left the country for a planned trip.

The accusations against Poroshenko are related to similar charges against pro-Russia lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been under house arrest since May. Medvedchuk's political party, the second largest in parliament, denies wrongdoing.

Zelenskiy succeeded Poroshenko as president after defeating him in a 2019 election.

The war in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 13,200 lives since April 2014. Kyiv banned trade with the breakaway regions in 2017.



Ukraine faced an acute shortage of resources after the separatists seized territory on which the country's main coal mines were located.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
U.S. authorities have unveiled the formal charges against Kremlin-linked Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin, who was extradited from Switzerland to the United States last week over his alleged involvement in a global scheme to trade on hacked confidential information.

The Attorneys Office in the District of Massachusetts said in a statement on December 20 that four other Russian nationals who remain at large were also charged as part of the scheme, which it said netted tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.

Klyushin, 41, was arrested in Switzerland on a U.S. warrant in March and was extradited to the United States on December 18.

He was charged with conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and with obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and securities fraud," the U.S. statement said.

Klyushin is set to appear in federal court in Boston later on December 20.

In an e-mail sent to RFE/RL, his Swiss lawyer, Oliver Ciric, described the case as politically motivated and argued that the real reason he was sought was "the nature of his work for and contacts within the Russian government."

"The U.S. intelligence had attempted to recruit Mr Klyushin in the past and only after he refused such cooperation had he been indicted and arrested," he added.

There were no immediate comments from U.S. officials about Ciric's allegations.

The Russian Embassy in Bern has called the Swiss decision to extradite him another episode in Washington's ongoing hunt for Russian citizens in third countries.

Klyushin owns M13, a Russian company that offers media monitoring and cybersecurity services. According to Russian opposition media, he is close to Russian President Vladimir Putins first deputy chief of staff, Aleksei Gromov.

The U.S. Attorneys Office said two of Klyushins co-defendants -- 35-year-old Ivan Ermakov and Nikolai Rumiantcev, 33 -- have been charged with conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud and with obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and securities fraud.

In 2018, U.S. courts charged Ermakov, a former officer in Russias GRU military intelligence, for his alleged role in hacking and disinformation operations related to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, and for similar activity targeting international anti-doping agencies, sporting federations, and anti-doping officials, it said.

The two other suspects, Mikhail Vladimirovich Irzak 43, and Igor Sergeevich Sladkov, 42, have been charged with conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and with securities fraud.

The integrity of our nations capital markets and of its computer networks are priorities for my office, Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel Mendell said.

Todays charges show that we, the FBI, and our other law enforcement partners will relentlessly pursue those who hack, steal and attempt to profit from inside information, wherever they may hide.
First Element is a fully independent Diamond Services Company registered in Belgium and South Africa which has become one of the premier diamond valuing, marketing, and cleaning companies in the industry.

First Element is committed to providing a world-class diamond service aimed at adding value to the entire supply chain from the daily recoveries recorded on the mine(s) to the presentation of the diamonds on tender, thus optimizing the value of the diamonds sold.

In this interview with Rough & Polished First Elements Managing Director Johan Erikson talks about the pandemic impact on diamond trade and the tenders his company managed to hold and intends to continue, as well as about future polished prices and diamond marketing.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected First Element tenders?

Initially yes. At the beginning of last year during the onset of the pandemic, the uncertainty around the market did affect our tenders. However, since September 2020 we have seen prices at our tenders rise exponentially and have continuously achieved extremely impressive results since.

What are the next scheduled First Element tenders?

Right now, we are hosting an Alluvial Tender from our Johannesburg offices. It closes on the 26th of November.

Our final sale of the year will be held in Antwerp at the Antwerp Tender Facility. This will run from the 6th to the 10th of December and will include production from Jagersfontein and Rooipoort Developments and also a number of South African and South African Alluvial Productions.

Our first tender in 2022 will be held in South Africa from the 19th to the 25th of January.

In your opinion, how will the prices of diamonds change in the near future?

Currently, prices are extremely strong. We believe it is safe to assume that these market conditions will hold as primary production supply issues are still a factor in the market and demand is only going to increase as inventories will now need to be prepared for the upcoming holiday seasons.

Please tell us about the project of cooperation with GIA Antwerp on tracing the origin of diamonds.

Transparency has always been an extremely important aspect of our business and we pride ourselves in our industry partnerships with major roleplayers who support this.

We have enjoyed a public-private partnership with the Antwerp World Diamond Centre now for almost ten years and are extremely proud to now also work with GIA Antwerp.

GIAs process and methodology for confirming country of origin are scientifically driven and a culmination of over 60 years of gemological research.

With the Diamond Origin Program, GIA scientists record a rough diamonds unique characteristics  including spectroscopy, growth structure, and inclusions.

Once manufactured, the diamonds from the same rough are carefully examined to determine if they match the characteristics of the original rough. After successfully matching, GIA issues a grading report recording the cut gems country of origin.

GIAs Diamond Origin Program further tells the story of how natural diamonds support jobs, education, and healthcare and protect the environment in and around local mining communities.

Any successful buyers at a First Element hosted tender may request that diamonds won be included in the program. First Element will ensure the steps and correct documentation are followed in order for the diamonds to be included in the GIA Diamond Origin Program correctly thus optimising the experience for the client.

Could we say that the diamond market is slowly recovering?

We would have to say that it has recovered quicker than anyone had expected. In fact, prices being achieved today are well above those achieved pre-pandemic. We havent seen prices as we are seeing today since the highs of 2012, and even in comparison to that we believe it is a more stable, stronger, and sustainable market now.

What are the main drivers of market growth now?

Shortages around the world are the major driver for these escalating prices as all role players are needing to fulfil stock levels to keep up with increased demand.

The shortage stems from mines closing as well as De Beers and Alrosa making adjustment to their production levels by lowering it.

Many believe that more and more buyers will be turning towards tenders to fulfil these shortages.

It is important to note that almost all producers and manufacturers seem to be in a far stronger financial position at the moment than what they were pre-covid.

When, do you think, it will be possible to speak of a full-fledged market recovery?

The market has already recovered and recovered stronger than before. It is in a much more stable condition at the moment than pre-covid.

All over the world, Generation Z has become a supporter of lab-grown diamonds and jewelry with them. Do you see the need to develop a new strategy aimed at popularizing natural diamonds among the "Internet generation"?

Demand for Natural Diamonds will always remain strong. Recently prices for Lab Grown Diamonds have come down and this will deter many potential buyers due to poor investment opportunities. Natural Diamonds will always remain the first choice when it comes to protecting your investment.

To what extent do you think laboratory diamonds can threaten the natural stone market?

The biggest threat to natural diamonds is undeclared lab grown diamonds which are said to be natural. As soon as consumers lose confidence in the source of their diamonds this will become a problem. Thankfully, partnerships such as ours with the GIA in Antwerp nullifies this issue as they have full transparency of the origin of their goods.

What awaits the industry in the long term in a situation where large diamond deposits have not yet been found?

As mentioned, it will only increase the demand currently seen in todays market and will be a major price driver in the future. Prices will reach a premium as it will become harder to fulfil orders and inventories. The secondary market can fulfil some of the demand, but original mine production will always remain a priority.

The industry is in its healthiest position it has been in for years. Producers, Dealers and Manufacturers are all contributing to a stable market which is seeing high demand. However, it is their responsibility to ensure that these conditions remain for the foreseeable future by conducting their business practices efficiently which will result in a sustainable market environment for all.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
(jingdaily.com) -Lower-tier cities in China are a promising market for luxury brands dedicated to staying in the country, and this years Double 11 Shopping Festival confirmed that. When Tmall kicked off sales between November 1 and 3, the number of luxury buyers in smaller cities grew by nearly 50 percent, year-on-year. Meanwhile, shoppers from close to 400 different cities placed orders on Tmalls Luxury Pavilion. This trend first emerged at last years Double 11 Festival, but this year was another watershed moment, according to James Yang, a partner at Bain & Company. Yang also went so far as to predict that this sectors growth would continue for several years to come.
A developer who has invested in numerous North County projects is negotiating with Palomar Health to redevelop the old Palomar hospital site as a mixed-use residential/retail complex.

Escondido Mayor Sam Abed said Encinitas-based Integral Communities is in talks with the hospital district to purchase the 14-acre property on the east side of Escondidos downtown.

It is an icon that really helped create a vibrant downtown, the mayor said of the medical facility that opened in 1950. Those thousands of people who were working there and visiting the hospital need to be replaced to support the downtown. We want to make sure we get a good fit that matches the vision we have.

The hospital district has been reluctant to talk about any deals that may or may not be under negotiation. In a statement released last week, Palomar Health said it is continuing negotiations with potential buyers of the downtown medical center property to bring the most value to the health district while providing the residents of Escondido with a signature development.

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Last year, the district thought it had a deal in place but it fell through, apparently over the costs associated with razing the old hospital.

Abed said he did not know the details of the negotiations, but he said representatives of both Integral and the hospital district spoke at a public meeting last month to lobby against proposed hikes to developer fees.

Gil Miltenberger, vice president of land acquisition for Integral Communities, asked the City Council to reconsider a dramatic increase in developer fees, especially in the downtown area, for multifamily housing.

Elly Garner of Palomar Health made the same request of the council. She said the hospital district was afraid an increase in development fees might scare off some developers who might be interested in the old hospital.

Two weeks later, the council voted to increase the fees, but made it so downtown multifamily projects fee increases would be phased in over a three-year period, thereby greatly lessening or eliminating impacts to projects that may soon be in the pipeline.

Miltenberger did not respond to requests for an interview.

Escondido City Manager Jeff Epp said phasing in the fees in the downtown area was done partly to encourage development of the Palomar site.

He said the city has heard nothing official from Palomar Health about the status of any developer negotiations since last spring.

Its really in the (hospital) districts court at this point, he said.

The property was appraised at $25 million several years ago and the hospital district says it will realize an annual savings of $12 million once the property is sold.

Most hospital operations were transferred in 2012 to the new $1 billion Palomar Medical Center on the west side of town off Citracado Parkway.

Services still offered at the downtown site include Behavioral Health consisting of inpatient beds and a Crisis Stabilization Unit, Radiation Oncology, Acute Rehabilitation, Inpatient and Outpatient Lab, Infusion Therapy, Ultra Sounds, maternal fetal care unit, and an Inpatient pharmacy. The mental health operations are expected to be transferred to a new building next to the Citracado medical center later this year.

Integral Communities is already building a large apartment community at the site of the old police headquarters on the west side of downtown.

Integral Communities appears well-positioned financially to pursue a development at the site. The company is the 12th-largest home builder in the United States, according to its website, and has built numerous projects in North County, including Oceansides Mission Lane master-planned community, which includes 379 homes on 35.5 acres formerly owned by the Catholic diocese on Mission Avenue near the San Luis Rey Mission.

Integral also built Palomar Station in San Marcos, where construction began in 2013 and is nearly finished on 370 apartments on 15 acres north of state Route 78 near Palomar College. It is also proposing a 725-home development in a rural corner of Oceanside straddling North River Road.

Whatever replaces the old hospital will be a key to the future of the downtown area, Abed said.

Under existing zoning, several hundred housing units could be built on the property.

The city has big plans for housing in its core with the revised General Plan calling for nearly 5,000 new units in the downtown area. One of those projects in final negotiations is with Touchstone Communities, which is proposing to build a five- or six-story condominium complex where Parking Lot No. 1 is just north of the California Center for the Performing Arts and City Hall. The City Council has been meeting in closed session for many months ironing out that deal, which could also include construction of a parking garage nearby.

Rorie Johnston, president of the Escondido Chamber of Commerce, said what happens at the Palomar site is crucial.

Its right in our downtown area, she said. Its a huge anchor and we would like for it to be something thats viable instead of an empty vessel.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
Glen Heggstad sent a message to burglars this past weekend: dont mess with Palomar Mountain residents.

Heggstad spends most weekends at his 37-acre ranch, where he has a trailer and a small cabin that he shares with his best friend and adjacent property owner, Phil Nelissen.

Sunday morning, Nelissen drove to his land and found the gate broken and the trailer parked near Heggstads cabin gone.

Squatters had clearly been there very recently. A campfire was going. Lawn chairs had been set up. A mirror had been hung. A generator was running and a pitcher of ice tea sat on a table. There were also a lot of odd items that appeared to have been stolen from other cabins sitting in wheelbarrows and elsewhere nearby.

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Nelissen notified authorities, Heggstad and other neighbors to be on the lookout for whoever was responsible.

The pickup truck stuffed with stolen items from local cabins (Glen Heggstad )

The next morning, a neighbor spotted a black pickup near the cabin and called Nelissen, who in turn texted Heggstad, who was staying in his nearby trailer.

Heggstad jumped into his truck and drove to the cabin.

I got down there and sure enough, there was this fool asleep in the truck, which was filled with stolen chain saws, power tools and other things, he said. Apparently, they were using my brothers place (he refers to Nelissen as his brother) as a staging area because they had other stolen goods stashed there.

Heggstad pounded on the window of the truck and asked the man inside what he was doing there. The man, later arrested and identified as Geoffry Brister, 36, came out swinging, Heggstad said.

He didnt know that Heggstad, a very fit 65-year-old former Hells Angel and martial arts expert, would be way too much for him to handle.

How do I put this delicately, Heggstad said. I exercised self-defense techniques against him. He took a couple of swings and I did, too, probably more than a couple. I took a pocket knife away from him and finished defending myself.

In the course of him attacking me, he probably took the worst beating of his lifetime, he said.

Heggstad said he wasnt afraid of getting hurt during the altercation. I was only afraid he might get away, he said.

It was about 20 minutes before Sheriffs deputies arrived in force, he said.

During that time, Heggstad said he questioned Brister about the location of his friends trailer, which he admitted was stashed near Lake Henshaw. It has since been recovered.

Valley Center Sheriffs Sgt. Russ Ryan confirmed that Brister was arrested and hospitalized for his injuries, which included either a broken or severely hurt jaw.

Weve been able to tie the suspect to at least three or four other burglaries between Palomar Mountain and Big Bear and possibly more, Ryan said.

Brister is a transient with ties to San Bernardino and Big Bear City, Ryan added.

Brister has been charged with robbery, burglary, vehicle theft and receiving stolen property. He is being held without bail at the Vista Detention Facility because of an outstanding warrant from another jurisdiction, according to the Sheriffs Departments jail information website.

Ryan said property from numerous burglaries was recovered near the cabin and the investigation is ongoing. There was evidence of a second vehicle, but no other suspects have been identified. Ryan said evidence suggested Brister, and possibly others, had been squatting on the land for at least a few days.

Palomar Mountain has historically been the focus of burglars stealing from unoccupied cabins. Ryan said it doesnt appear that Brister was connected to any recent long-running theft series.

Heggstad said landowners on the mountain are pretty much on their own because law enforcement doesnt have the manpower to patrol the sparsely populated area on a regular basis. The community looks out for one another, he said.

Heggstad said he wishes Bristers booking photo, showing his facial injuries, could see print to send a message to others thinking of targeting the mountain.

Its up to the landowners, he said. We dont want to look like vigilantes but what we are are really, really pissed off homeowners. We want these guys to know its not going to be easy. Were not easy pickins up here. There is a price to pay.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones


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Before the pandemic, the most popular day to take BART to downtown San Francisco was Tuesday. Not anymore.

The Chronicle analyzed BART ridership data on trips to the four downtown San Francisco stations  Embarcadero, Montgomery Street, Powell Street and Civic Center. We calculated the average number of riders who take these trips  i.e., people who exit at one of the four stations  for each weekday of every month in 2019 and 2021.

Out of the 12 months in 2019, Tuesday had the highest average ridership in seven of them. But this year, most foot traffic at downtown BART stations happened later in the week. When tallying the busiest average weekdays from January through November of this year, we found the most common weekday to be Thursday  the highest average for five months  followed by Friday and Wednesday, with the highest average for three months each.

In general, ridership for downtown trips on Mondays and Tuesdays have not recovered as much as other weekdays. Last month, average downtown ridership on Monday and Tuesday was 22% and 23% of pre-pandemic levels, respectively, compared to an average of 25% for Wednesday, 24% for Thursday and 26% for Friday.

Since August of this year, average downtown ridership on Fridays has been closer to reaching pre-pandemic levels than any other weekday. For the past four months, Fridays average ridership compared to 2019 was higher by two or three percentage-points than averages on Monday through Thursday.

To understand why this might be, we isolated November ridership data and broke it down even further - by each hour of each weekday  and looked at whether ridership at certain times are closer to reaching 2019 levels than others.

The hours that recovered the most ridership on Fridays are in the afternoon and evening, as opposed to during morning commute times. On a typical Friday last month, the number of passengers exiting downtown stations after 12 p.m. was at least a third of November 2019 counts, compared to less than 20% between 8 and 10 a.m. The percentages are even greater in the evening  over 40% after 7 p.m., and the maximum (55%) between 11 p.m. and midnight, before BART closes.

Still, ridership on BART trips to downtown San Francisco lag behind pre-pandemic levels. Despite the city of San Francisco requiring employees to come to downtown offices at least twice a week, total monthly ridership to downtown stations last month was 26% of what it was in November 2019. Thats even lower than ridership for trips to non-downtown destinations, which was 33% of 2019 levels.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

This has been a consistent trend all year. Since January, ridership for non-downtown BART trips has been closer to pre-pandemic numbers than downtown trips, by four to seven percentage-points every month.

This is in-line with other findings that show that Bay Area residents are increasingly traveling for leisure. Weekend traffic is closer to pre-pandemic normal than during the workweek, and BART data from the summer showed ridership recovery was greater on Saturday and Sunday than during the week.

Weekday ridership to downtown San Francisco is likely to remain low until private companies start requiring employees to work in the office. As of last month, that is expected to be in January, though the omicron variant may delay those plans.

Nami Sumida is a San Francisco Chronicle data visualization developer. Email: nami.sumida@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @namisumida
Nearly a decade after Walmart paid tens of millions of dollars in civil and criminal penalties for its hazardous waste practices in California, the state and 12 counties accused the worlds largest retailer on Monday of continuing to illegally dump toxic waste from its more than 300 stores into landfills across the state for the past six years.

When were talking about tens of thousands of batteries, cleaning supplies and other hazardous waste, the impact to our environment and our communities can be huge, said Attorney General Rob Bonta, who sued on behalf of the state and its environmental regulators. He said Walmarts own audits in 2017 found that the Arkansas-based company was depositing 1.265 million hazardous items per year into California landfills.

Despite repeated enforcements against Walmart over the past two decades, it consistently  and knowingly  fails to comply with Californias environmental protection laws, said Meredith Williams, director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Walmart denied wrongdoing.

We take our obligation to protect the environment seriously and have industry-leading processes in place to comply with local, state and federal environmental laws, Jacquelyn Cook, a spokesperson for Walmart, said in a statement. It said a California judge found in 2018 that Walmart had complied with a 2010 settlement of a previous state lawsuit over hazardous wastes, and state inspections of the companys waste disposal compactors found only 0.4% items of potential concern.

In the 2010 settlement with the state, Walmart paid $24.68 million and agreed to an eight-year injunction regulating its disposal practices. In a separate federal case in 2013, the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges of negligently disposing waste into drains across California from 2003 to 2005 and was fined $40 million.

The new suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, seeks a renewed injunction and unspecified damages under a law allowing civil penalties of up to $70,000 per day for illegal waste disposal.

The counties taking part in the suit are Alameda, Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare and Yolo.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Bonta said the waste includes batteries, pesticides, aerosol cans, toxic cleaning supplies and latex paints, all potential sources of water or air pollution, as well as records containing customers personal information. The companys trash compactors pick up waste 19 times per year, according to the suit, and state inspectors who had examined the compactors since 2015 found an average of 242 such items in each inspection.

Those findings refute the companys claim that it had cleaned up the practices that led to the 2010 settlement, Bonta said at a news conference.

Walmart is still at it, the attorney general said. He said the companys current ad slogan  Save Money, Live Better  might be more appropriately worded, Save Money, Pollute the Environment.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Richie Greenberg, the former San Francisco mayoral candidate who spearheaded the failed recall against District Attorney Chesa Boudin was attacked at his home Friday night by an assailant wielding a knife, according to Greenberg and a video and photos he posted on his Twitter page.

Greenberg told The Chronicle he was unharmed but shaken by what he said seemed like a random attack.

It shook me up, as it would anybody, he said.

Greenberg said he stepped outside his door Friday night to find a woman sitting on the top step of his home on Lake Street in San Francisco.

He asked her to leave, and the woman said, Im going to cut you, b, Greenberg said. She claimed that property was hers, he said, leading him to believe that, This is someone thats not all with it.

The video shows a disheveled looking woman in a heavy coat raising her hand holding what appears to be a knife as Greenberg shouts at her to leave and apparently calls the police. The woman repeatedly kicks at the partially open door as he moves inside.

Greenberg said the woman swatted at him with the knife and with her other hand knocked away a box he was holding.

I definitely feel it was random, Greenberg said.

He added the police showed up a few minutes later and arrested the woman a couple of blocks away.

Greenberg, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2018 mayoral special election, has been critical of the citys approach to law enforcement and launched the unsuccessful recall effort against Boudin earlier this year.

This is just another bit of evidence that these kinds of issues are spreading out to the quiet neighborhoods, and not confined to notoriously troubled areas like the Tenderloin, Greenberg said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Greenberg said a police report hadnt been generated yet but sent a picture of an SFPD form with a case number. He also sent what he said was the booking information from the arrest early Saturday morning.

Police declined to comment on the incident Sunday via email.

The San Francisco Sheriffs Office website showed a woman booked and charged with making criminal threats, false imprisonment, resisting arrest and battery at about 4 a.m. Saturday.

The person named in the report could not be reached by phone for comment on Sunday.

This is a person who should not just be let back out on the street, Greenberg said.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
On a recent cold December evening at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, a group of about 30 botanical enthusiasts took their seats facing rows of carefully potted orchids ready to be admired and discussed.

It was a typical meeting, even jolly, with holiday chocolates and a member in a Santa hat. Society member Paul Bourbin, a.k.a. The Orchid Doctor, led the group in a skills session about Disa, a genus in the orchid family. The dialogue centered on floral topics like moss, charcoal, complex orchid hybrids and sepals.

What was not discussed was the recent sentencing of a former society official for a crime that had nearly brought the venerable organization to its financial knees. Some in the room, including newer members, didnt even know about it.

But others, like Orchid Society President Jeff Harris, say theyll never be able to forget the betrayal and its lasting impact.

Photos by Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

You feel like a fool

Though the San Francisco Orchid Society is niche by nature, the 70-year-old nonprofit is internationally renowned. Its best recognized for putting on the Pacific Orchid Exposition, one of the largest orchid shows in the United States. The festival, held until recently at Fort Mason, attracts people from all over the world who are enraptured by and utterly devoted to orchids.

But for the past five years, the society has also been in recovery. Over the course of just one year, the group lost more than $100,000 to theft by its own treasurer  nearly all of its money amassed over many decades  and was left fumbling to piece together how the official, Jack Ryder, pulled it off.

Ryder did not respond to multiple requests from The Chronicle by phone and text for comment about the case. Erica Gene Franklin, Ryders lawyer, responded by phone with a short statement: Theres a lot of context, but I really feel like its in everybodys best interest to move on.

But some society members say they havent been able to get past it.

You feel like a fool, said Harris, 56. To actually go through with it, it really takes a certain person to do that, because it pretty much could have killed the organization.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

From member to treasurer

Ryder joined the society in 2013, according to Harris. Members say he didnt make a significant impression, but a few things about him did stand out: He was confident, charismatic and always immaculately dressed.

Most people are older, and retired, and dont wear suits to the meetings, but he did, said former President Mary Gerritsen, 68, a society member since 2002.

Another thing seemed odd, members said: Ryder didnt seem to have much of an interest in orchids, or for that matter, own any.

But for a group that welcomes members at all points on the orchid obsession scale, that wasnt a red flag, members said. Gerritsen recalled that Ryder, a real estate agent, had a commercial interest in orchids because they were often used to stage homes.

While Ryder was clearly not bitten by the orchid bug, multiple members said they were grateful when he volunteered in 2015 to become treasurer  a role thats often hard to fill as numbers dwindle and younger generations show less interest.

Gerritsen recalls Ryder as articulate and self-assured and said he presented beautiful financial reports that seemed wholly legitimate. But as it turned out, he was falsifying those reports to conceal regular withdrawals from the society and its bookkeeper, Gerritsen said.

These clubs are vulnerable, said member George McCrae, 68, who says he is still shaken by the crime. They operate on faith and trust, and theres not a huge vetting process that goes on. It leaves clubs absolutely naked  to someone like Jack Ryder.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The society finally learned of his deceit just one week before its 2017 Pacific Orchid Expo at the Hall of Flowers, according to multiple members who gave their account of events in victim impact statements during Ryders sentencing hearing, including show producer Tom Perlite.

After Perlite received word that multiple bills for the show  as well as the rent  were unpaid, a check of the societys bank account revealed more than $100,000 was missing, and only $5,000 remained, he said.

Perlite, 67, said he called Ryder, who admitted to the wrongdoing and promised to pay the group back.

Amid the panic, Perlite, who owns a commercial orchid nursery in Visitacion Valley, loaned the society $14,000 to cover the costs. Two other members pitched in $5,000 apiece, Perlite said. Shortly after, society members filed a police report, he said.

A plea agreement and the aftermath

The San Francisco District Attorneys Office charged Ryder in December 2018 with two counts of felony embezzlement.

After years of court proceedings, society members recently got some closure when Ryder was sentenced Oct. 13 after striking a plea agreement, according to the District Attorneys Office.

Under the deal, Ryder pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of grand theft, said Robyn Burke, an office spokesperson. He was ordered to pay back the $115,000 he stole, plus $25,000 in interest and damages, she said.

In most embezzlement cases we prosecute, once the money has been taken its difficult if not impossible to recover, Burke said. In this case, Mr. Ryder began repaying the money soon after he was charged and had repaid it in full plus additional monies prior to his plea.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Ryder, a real estate agent at Compass in San Francisco, was sentenced to one year of probation, during which time he will not be allowed to serve on any public boards or do any volunteer work that involves dealing with finances, the District Attorneys Office said.

Compass confirmed Ryders employment but declined to provide further comment.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

A collateral consequence of his guilty plea could be the loss of his real estate license in an administrative hearing by the California Department of Real Estate, the District Attorneys Office said. The agency told The Chronicle that no hearing has been scheduled.

Under California law, Ryder can apply to have the crime expunged from his record after a year, officials said.

The assistant district attorney assigned to the case, Colin Alexander, told Burke that the orchid society kept in close contact with the District Attorneys Office throughout the case and was amenable to the settlement. The deal was offered in part because Ryder had no criminal history, showed remorse, made an early admission of guilt, provided mitigating evidence and repaid the money, Burke said.

Nonprofits vulnerable, expert says

Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg, an expert in white collar crime, noted that $100,000 is small potatoes when it comes to embezzlement.

Crimes like these are fairly easy pickings for a clever crook, he said, explaining that nonprofits, which tend to skew older and are often volunteer-run, are particularly vulnerable to embezzlement.

Just a few years before Ryders theft, a former Oakland Orchid Society president also landed in court for embezzling from his group, said San Mateo County District Attorney Inspector Eric Suzuki. The official, David Pyles, was convicted in 2014 of embezzlement and sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years of probation, and was ordered to repay $22,560, Suzuki said.

Former Oakland Orchid Society treasurer and forensic accountant Helga Mahlmann said the theft badly hurt the organization, which has since dwindled in membership. For nonprofits like orchid societies that are already a dying breed, that kind of damage is long-lasting, she said.

(Orchid societies) provide information on climate change, and species that are dying out, she said. It provides a social outlet for people who have the same interests, and (if they all folded) you would be losing a lot of institutional memory.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

New vigilance

The San Francisco group has struggled to mend the damage Ryders theft caused, Perlite said.

It set the society back probably five years, he said, adding that it prevented the group from pursuing larger and more lucrative venues for shows like the Palace of Fine Arts or the Cow Palace, and hampered their ability to run day-to-day operations of the society for at least a couple of years. It also affected membership, Perlite said, turning some off from the organization.

Many members said the experience forced them to be highly vigilant about new members, as well as their finances  and though it may have led to safer protocols, it felt as if it marked an end to a simpler time.

I still have access to all of the bank accounts, said Gerritsen. And I check them, just to make sure theres no funny business.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
If you looked up at the Bay Areas night sky Saturday night, you may have seen a brilliant full moon. But if you failed to catch the last full moon of 2021, fear not: Youll get another chance Sunday night into early Monday.

Known as the cold moon, the full moon that appears near the winter solstice was so named by the Mohawk people, an indigenous group in New York and Canada, for its appearance during one of the longest, coldest nights of the year, according to The Old Farmers Almanac.

While the full moon officially peaked Saturday night, those suffering from FOMO can take comfort: The astronomical event is viewable all weekend.

Full and new moons dont change much the day before and after, said Robert Lunsford, the fireball report coordinator at the American Meteor Society.

The percentage of change is only maybe 1% per night, Lunsford said.

So if youre peeking up at the night sky Sunday, youll still get the chance to see a moon that looks 99% full. To the naked eye, theres practically no difference between that and a completely full moon.

Keep in mind that the moon is currently at apogee, the farthest point of orbit from the Earth  making it a micro moon, which means it could appear a bit smaller than usual, Lunsford said.

But the cold moon isnt always a micro moon  sometimes, the moon is farthest during a different phase. June 2022s new moon will be the next micro moon Bay Area viewers would see.

Those early to bed wont miss the chance to see the full moon, either  if they get up early enough. The moon is expected to rise around 5:19 p.m. in San Francisco and stay through 7:19 a.m. Monday, according to The Old Farmers Almanac.

Full moons always rise around sunset and set around sunrise, Lunsford said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

But the weather could put a damper on seeing the moon later in the night in the Bay Area. Cloud cover will blanket San Francisco and the East Bay valleys for most of the evening, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

In San Francisco, the city itself is not going to be favorable for a break in the clouds, Gass said.

But along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay at San Francisco International Airport, San Jose and back up to Oakland and Berkeley, clear skies from the afternoon will likely persist into the early evening.

Its not the only astronomical event visible in the night sky this week. Comet Leonard is still visible with a telescope in the hours just after dusk. Look for a faint streak near Venus and Saturn.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the $1 trillion infrastructure law signed by President Biden last month will improve street safety for pedestrians and bicyclists in San Francisco and other Bay Area cities that have struggled with higher traffic death rates during the pandemic.

Joined by Mayor London Breed, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and traffic safety advocates, Pelosi used a South of Market news conference to turn the spotlight on tangible road and infrastructure benefits coming to the Bay Area from Washington as a political morass stalls other administration priorities.

California is to receive $9.45 billion for public transportation and $25.3 billion for highways from the infrastructure plan over five years. Cities and transit agencies can compete for funding to build safety improvements like protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures.

Pelosis visit came as the Democrats $2.2 trillion social services and climate change package, dubbed the Build Back Better plan, remains in jeopardy, however, despite months of negotiations. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., whose vote is crucial for Senate passage, said over the weekend he would not support the current version of the bill.

Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Monday that she and Democrats were undeterred.

This will happen, it must happen, and we will do it as soon as we can, Pelosi said of the bill, which has passed the House. There are conversations that are ongoing, but we cannot walk away from this commitment. Build Back Better is about transforming our society.

In the infrastructure bill, Pelosi said California is to receive $242 million from the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program for projects that help reduce fatal and severe traffic injuries.

(Traffic) fatalities have been sharply on the rise for a decade, Pelosi said. These incidents are more than just statistics, as we know. They are families shattered by the tragedy, communities in mourning, and a demand for urgent action. ... With our historic bipartisan infrastructure law, Democrats are advancing the promise of safe streets and roads.

Despite dramatic drops in traffic on Bay Area streets and highways during the pandemic, the regions roadways remained deadly in 2020 and most local counties saw increased rates of traffic fatalities. The region saw just 30 fewer deaths last year, when months of shelter-in-place restrictions all but emptied the Bay Areas normally congested roads and freeways. Some cities, including San Francisco, made scant progress toward their Vision Zero goals to eliminate all traffic deaths.

This is a preventable health crisis that is getting worse, not better, crash survivor Julie Nicholson of San Francisco told the Monday news conference. Nicholson broke her neck and back in January 2020 after a speeding car ran a red light and struck her while she was jogging near the Panhandle.

Its a preventable health crisis that impacts not just me, but all of us, she said. Its a preventable health crisis that has proven solutions.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Traffic safety advocates said they were heartened that the infrastructure law contains grant funding for safety improvement projects, a sign, they said, that the federal government is adapting its funding priorities.

For so long federal policy and federal dollars have been focused around making it easy for cars to get around, and the speed of vehicles has been the priority. But this bill does change that, said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of the Walk San Francisco advocacy group.

San Francisco transportation officials have vowed to complete more pedestrian safety improvement projects next year, and the city will begin reducing speed limits on seven busy streets next month under a new state law, with plans to do the same on more roadways.

Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com
San Francisco police announced Sunday that they have arrested a 76-year-old man in Colorado in the slaying of 15-year-old Marissa Rolf Harvey 43 years ago.

The girl disappeared in 1978 while on a trip from New York to visit family, police said. She went to Golden Gate Park, and her body was found in the Sutro Heights Park area the next day.

Mark Stanley Personette was arrested in Conifer, about 40 miles outside of Denver, and booked into a local jail on one count of homicide, police said in a news release Sunday. The investigation is continuing, police said.

The Chronicle reported in 1978 that Marissa was found strangled after she left to go horseback riding in Golden Gate Park. The rental stables were apparently closed that day, and her body was found at 48th Avenue and Anza Street about a half mile from the park. Her sister Miriam Walbieff reported her missing, the brief article said.

Coroner Boyd Stephens was quoted at the time as saying the girl was found badly beaten and strangled with a cord-like device.

For more than four decades, Marissa Harveys family members have been relentless advocates to bring her killer to justice, and we hope this development in the case begins to bring a measure of healing and closure theyve been too long denied, said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott in a statement.

More for you Suspect in Potrero Hill killings was arrested, released on firearm charge weeks ago

The SFPD release called on other police agencies to check their sexual assault files for any cases potentially tied to Personette.

Members of the citys homicide detail, the San Francisco District Attorneys Office, the FBI, and the Sheriffs Office in Jefferson County, Colo., collaborated in an operation Dec. 16 to make the arrest, police said.

SFPDs cold case unit reopened the investigation into Marissas death in October 2020 using advanced forensic investigative techniques, police said, but did not offer further detail.

The department did not immediately respond Sunday to emailed questions about what methods were used and if DNA evidence was involved.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Police released several booking photos of Personette taken over several decades, showing that he had been arrested several times over the years, including in New Jersey.

The police release did not say whether Personnette was a suspect in any other open crime cases, but said the department is looking into the possibility.

The San Francisco Police Department is requesting that law enforcement agencies within the United States thoroughly review their sexual-assault related cold-case homicides involving young women to identify any other incidents in which Personette may be a suspect, the release said.

Police said while an arrest had been made, the investigation remains open and ongoing. Anyone with information or leads can call Sergeant Alan Levy, (415) 553- 9245 or email alan.levy@sfgov.org.

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of San Franciscos former coroner. His name was Boyd Stephens.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rattled an area near Eureka on Monday afternoon.

The quake was reported at about 12:10 p.m. off the Pacific coast near Petrolia, a town south of Eureka in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The National Weather Service on Twitter said no tsunami was expected from the temblor.

Jane Dexter, a manager at the Petrolia General Store, described the jolt as big and scary.

She said wine and soap bottles fell off shelves and burst on the floor. There werent many customers inside during the earthquake, and no one was injured, she said.

It just started to rumble and rumble harder and harder for probably 20 seconds, said Dexter. The doors to the firehouse (next door) were shaking violently.

It was bigger than (anything) Ive felt in a long time out here, she added.

In Ferndale, between Eureka and Petrolia, several storefront windows were shattered along Main Street. Food and soda bottles fell on the floor of an aisle at a grocery store.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Some people on Twitter said they felt the earthquake in San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, more than 200 miles south of Petrolia.

Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
UCSF released renderings of the 15-story hospital it plans to build at its historic Parnassus campus as part of an ambitious expansion and renovation project in the coming years.

The new hospital, with ample trees and greenery, is planned for the campus east side, near the existing Moffitt and Long hospitals, which are to be renovated. Once complete, the new hospital will increase the campus patient capacity from 475 beds in 2020 to 682 beds in 2030, UCSF says.

The university released the renderings as it launched a 60-day public comment period last week on the draft environmental impact report for the new hospital. People have until Feb. 14 to weigh in on the report, and a public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19.

The images show a tiered building with a large, publicly accessible terrace several stories up, replete with towering green trees. UCSF said the extensive landscaping included in the renderings was an important aspect of the design. The new hospital, like the buildings around it, will sit just north of the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve and south of Golden Gate Park.

UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood touted his universitys status as a leading force in health care and said in a statement that it was exciting to see this hospital take shape.

In revamping its Parnassus campus, UCSF wants to significantly increase the number of patients the location can accommodate while bringing the site up to earthquake safety standards. University officials say the expansion is sorely needed to handle the regions health care needs  about 3,000 patients were turned away in 2019 due to lack of beds at the Parnassus campus, according to UCSF.

The new hospital will build upon our history at Parnassus Heights and will strengthen our ability to serve the Bay Area for generations to come, Hawgood said.

The hospital is being designed by Herzog & de Meuron, an architectural firm that also designed the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The firm HDR is the architect of record.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In designing this hospital, we are re-imagining the space around it, connecting park to peak to make a positive impact in peoples lives, said a statement from Jason Frantzen, senior partner at Herzog & de Meuron. Frantzen praised UCSFs deep roots in San Francisco and said the university had grown symbiotically with the community over the years.

But some community groups have objected to the plans, calling them too large for the neighborhood and voicing concerns about the projects impacts on traffic and air quality, among other concerns. Three organizations filed lawsuits in February that sought to overturn the UC Board of Regents decision the month before that allowed the project to proceed.

Last month, in preparation for the expansion and renovation project, a giant crane removed historic New Deal-era frescoes from UC Hall, the original Parnassus campus hospital that opened in 1917. UC Hall is set to be demolished as part of the project.

If everything goes according to plan, UCSF hopes to begin construction on the new hospital in 2023.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
Yeasted barley waffles and fancy toasts are coming to a new breakfast and lunch restaurant in San Franciscos Mission District.

Called Poppy, the new spot from restaurant veterans Jessica Sullivan and Laurel Robinson, will take over the former Evergreen Garden Restaurant space at 3100 18th St., at Harrison Street.

The duo is envisioning a sunny daytime destination that channels Southern California vibes and produce-forward Australian breakfast culture. While Poppy leans into American traditions, Sullivan said, itll focus on composed dishes with a lot of color, texture and seasonal ingredients. The goal is to open next summer.

Poppy has been in the works for about three years and debuted as a weekend pop-up this past summer at San Francisco wine bar Fig & Thistle. Dishes from there will likely carry over to the restaurant menu, including an airy, yeasted waffle made with nutty barley flour. Its topped with seasonal fruit, honeycomb butter and a crunchy coconut-sesame brittle.

There are obviously some amazing brunch options in San Francisco but we think theres an opportunity there and want to push that forward, Sullivan said, citing the North Beach newcomer Hilda and Jesse as a prime example. Poppy will be a little less high-end, like Sqirl but more indulgent.

Courtesy Laurel Robinson

As a pop-up, Poppy also offered a breakfast sandwich with eggs, garlicky broccoli rabe and a sharp Wisonsin cheddar-Calabrian chile sauce, all loaded onto a soft brioche bun. Granola came with seasonal fruit, jam and house-made jersey milk yogurt, while toast was topped with smoked salmon rillettes. All of these dishes, or a version of them, likely will make it to the restaurant menu. One side that will definitely return is Sullivans thick, crispy, cakey hashbrowns, served with a labneh-romesco sauce.

For Sullivan and Robinson, Poppy is a natural evolution of their time working together. The pair met at Cal-Italian staple Delfina, where Sullivan was the pastry chef for the restaurant group and Robinson managed the front of the house. Since then, Sullivan has overseen the sweets at Melissa Perillos acclaimed Octavia and Frances, while Robinson has consulted on several spots including beloved cocktail bar Trick Dog and North Beach classic Tosca.

Courtesy Laurel Robinson

While Sullivan is hoping Poppy serves as a gathering space for sit-down meals, there will also be some grab-and-go options like pastries. In the evenings, the restaurant will likely host pop-ups and private events.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

To transform the 2,700-square-foot space, the Poppy team tapped Seth Boor of Boor Projects, who has designed distinctive San Francisco restaurants like Lord Stanley, Dear Inga and the Mill. The former Vietnamese restaurant that Poppy is located in is distinctive: a single-story corner building with huge round windows, skylights and a spacious enclosed patio with potential for lots of plants.

The goal is to have a space we can use to build and connect community, Sullivan said.

Poppy. Opening summer 2022. 100 18th St., San Francisco. poppy-sf.com

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
Bay Area restaurants and bars are starting to close temporarily again due to COVID-19.

Some are closing because of positive coronavirus cases or exposure among employees, while others are simply shutting down either indoors or entirely out of an abundance of caution as the highly transmissible omicron variant spreads and sparks heightened concern in the region.

Oakland restaurants Bar Shiru, Tacos Oscar and Hi Felicia Supper Club all shut down temporarily this weekend after staff members tested positive, including people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, according to social media posts. Snail Bar, also in Oakland, announced on Instagram on Monday that it will be closed through Jan. 6 after staff were exposed to someone who contracted the virus. In San Francisco, natural wine bar Bar Part Time is closed until Dec. 28 after staff exposures. Friends and Family bar in Oakland is closed through Dec. 27 after an increased number of potential staff exposures.

Friends and Family owner Blake Cole said she made the decision this weekend when text message after text message started to come in from bar regulars who had tested positive, then partners of employees. Many of the people who tested positive are fully vaccinated and boosted, she said, and experiencing mild symptoms, including headaches and sore throats. She rushed out to buy as many rapid tests as she could find and encouraged all of the bars staff to get PCR tests as well.

It was every few hours, hearing somebody new, Cole said. (Were) defaulting in a moment of doubt to go with caution rather than trying to push it.

Its an anxious moment of deja vu for local restaurant and bar owners, many of whom shut down early in the pandemic when staff became infected with the virus and then again this summer as breakthrough cases spread through the industry. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which represents hundreds of San Francisco businesses, urged its members in a Monday email to get the booster, citing concern over the rapidly increasing spread of the omicron variant.

Already, a growing wave of restaurants has closed in New York City, where cases are spiking at record levels. Others decided to close their dining rooms and revert to takeout only.

In the Bay Area, several restaurants made the same call to close dining rooms this week. Menlo Park institution Cafe Borrone is closed for two weeks, through Jan. 4, taking extra caution to help our employees have a safe and healthy holiday, according to an Instagram post. Oaklands popular Ramen Shop is offering to-go food only through Dec. 26 after two vaccinated employees tested positive, co-owner Sam White said. (One is asymptomatic, and the other has mild cold symptoms, he said.)

We just dont have enough bodies to keep the place open, but more importantly, whats our responsibility here? White said. It just feels totally irresponsible to be open as a restaurant inside.

Owners are again weighing safety concerns against the financial cost of shutting down even for a few days.

Jesse Ziff Cool of Flea Street in Menlo Park debated on Monday whether to close her dining room, even with reservations fully booked for Christmas Eve. Flea Street is one of the few restaurants on the Peninsula that requires proof of vaccination to eat indoors and outdoors. Cool said shes leaning toward staying open for outdoor dining and takeout only, wanting to keep employees safe but to still have paychecks coming in over the holidays.

The owner of Hi Felicia Supper Club, a small, outdoor tasting menu pop-up in Oakland, estimates shes lost $6,000 to $7,000 so far from a sudden closure and food waste. At Friends and Family, which has taken additional precautions such as asking for proof of vaccination and requiring regular testing for employees, Cole postponed the bars staff holiday party and is using funds set aside for the event to pay employees for the hours they would have worked this week. Shes planning on selling to-go cocktails and wine by herself this weekend to bring in some money.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

The financial burden is real, Cole said.

The unknown of omicrons longer-term impact is also weighing on White. While a two-week closure might be manageable, being unable to open for a longer period puts the restaurant in a tenuous position, he said.

Local health officials have been urging people to get the vaccine and booster to protect themselves against omicron. Bob Wachter, chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine, tweeted on Friday: Fasten seat belts & up your precautions - this may be riskiest time since 3/20. He also said hes stopped dining indoors, even tho SF has v. low case rate and 80% 2-shot vax rate. But cases will start climbing soon (& fast) & indoor dining not worth risk to me. Outdoor dining, he said, remains safe for now.

As of last week, San Francisco officials believe there are 31 cases of omicron in the city. Santa Clara County has recorded 10 cases, but the countys health officer has warned that a deluge of omicron could be ahead.

Omicron appears to have some distinctive symptoms, including a scratchy throat, nasal congestion, dry cough and lower back pain, according to a wide-ranging study conducted by Discovery Health, the countrys largest private health insurer.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
KENAI, Alaska (AP)  Ocean farming and aquaculture in Alaskas coastal regions could get a boost from a federal grant program.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration is taking grant applications as part of the American Rescue Plan that provides pandemic relief funding.

A proposal from Alaska envisions the creation of a shellfish and aquatic plants industry, the Peninsula Clarion reported.

The application is among 60 finalists from a nationwide pool of more than 500. Up to 30 proposals will get funding of between $25 and $100 million.

Tim Dillon, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, said the proposal has regional support and could increase jobs.

The proposal aims to turn Alaska's marine farming and aquaculture into a $100 million per year industry.

I honestly believe that is possible, especially if were able to land this other $50 million to be able to do the different things that we need to do to help and support the industry, Dillon said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Interest in mariculture, the cultivation of marine organisms in their natural environments, in Alaska has historically been contingent on funding.

For years, people have talked about mariculture and theres been different kinds of task forces and things, and everything has come back to Well, we need money to do things, Dillon said.

He added: No matter what, were going to wind up with information thats going to help us."
MILWAUKEE (AP)  A Milwaukee third grader whose fears about COVID-19 were alleviated by President Joe Biden when he came to Wisconsin for a televised town hall came away from the encounter with both comfort and joy.

The joy came when Layla Salas and her family, at the president's invitation, attended the holiday open house at the White House on Saturday. The 9-year-old girl told the Journal Sentinel that her favorite part of the tour was seeing the Green Room filled with Christmas trees decorated with purple.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Additional Ohio hospitals are announcing the postponement of elective surgeries as COVID-19 cases continue to fill up hospital beds in the state.

The decisions are in line with the crisis highlighted by Gov. Mike DeWine last week when he ordered more than 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard into hospitals to help overwhelmed staff.
Harvey Milk's battered red and white bullhorn is so famous it was on loan to the Smithsonian Institution.

That is, until San Francisco activist Cleve Jones asked for it to be returned to San Francisco to honor the man who gave it to Milk, 89-year-old former labor activist Allan Baird.

Baird was a longtime Castro resident who as a Teamster was a leader in the boycott of Coors in the early '70s. The boycott was a response to low wages for drivers and anti-labor practices at Coors headquarters in Colorado. Baird asked Milk  who owned a camera store in the neighborhood  to help gather support for the boycott in the neighborhood's growing gay community.

In turn, Milk asked Baird to help get gay men and women into positions of power in the Teamsters. A deal was struck, and a coalition born.

On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, reporter Ryan Kost tells the story of Jones' efforts to honor Baird for his efforts  which Baird was sure had been long forgotten.

Photo above: Allen Baird uses Harvey Milk's bullhorn as he speaks to a crowd that had marched from Harvey Milk Plaza to his home to honor him on June 25. Baird gave the bullhorn to Milk in the '70s, and Milk used it often during his political career.
SACRAMENTO  Nearly 250 people incarcerated in California prisons  the vast majority of whom are transgender women  are waiting for their chance to transfer out of a mens institution. The longer it takes, the greater the odds that they could be raped, beaten or killed.

Nearly a year ago, a new state law took effect allowing transgender, intersex and gender nonbinary people to decide whether to be housed in a mens or womens prison. The bill, according to legislators and LGBTQ advocates, was designed to try to shield community members from the brutality they face in mens prisons.

But the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has so far allowed few people to make gender-based housing transfers. Less than 10% of people who have asked to go to a womens facility have been moved.

Transgender advocates, including incarcerated people and their allies, say the state is needlessly putting the safety and mental well-being of gender-variant people at risk every day by delaying such moves.

Our folks deserve safety and dignity, and they deserve it now, said Alex Binsfeld, legal director at the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project, an advocacy group in San Francisco. That was the whole purpose of this law. Its literally life or death for our folks.

In 2020, legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved SB132, which allows transgender, intersex and gender nonbinary people to decide whether to be housed in a mens or womens prison based on where they feel safest.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Transgender is an umbrella term to refer to people whose gender is different from the one they were assigned at birth. Intersex refers to people whose biological traits dont fit typical definitions of female or male. Gender nonbinary describes people who have a gender identity that isnt exclusively male or female  or that could be neither.

Since the law took effect on Jan. 1, 288 people currently housed in male prisons have asked to be housed in female prisons, according to the corrections department. Of those, 41 requests have been approved, but only 25 people have actually been moved.

Nine people housed in female prisons have asked to transfer to male prisons. None of those requests has yet been granted.

Corrections officials said the vast majority of transfer requests, for both trans women and men, remain under review. Spokesperson Terry Thornton said the agency is being deliberate in its review of gender-based housing requests.

Eight requests from people seeking to transfer from mens prisons to womens facilities have been denied. Twelve additional prisoners changed their minds. The rest remain in limbo.

Transfers are dependent on several factors including bed availability, and COVID-19 precautions have impacted overall inmate transfers, Thornton wrote in an email.

The agency gave little further explanation for the slow pace of transfers. Under SB132, the state must grant such requests unless it has an articulable basis to deny them for security reasons.

Research shows that trans women in mens prisons face disproportionate risk of violence. Trans women in California prisons are 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than men, and 59% reported being assaulted in prison, according to a 2007 study by UC Irvine researchers.

But the push to transfer them to womens facilities has been met with backlash, and some trans women who have moved say theyve faced discrimination.

Jen Orthwein, an attorney who represents trans people in prison and helped write the bill, said trans women who have been transferred to womens facilities have been targeted and singled out by guards, who refer to them as men or deny them access to their belongings or razors. Orthwein said guards also inflamed anti-trans sentiment by telling female prisoners that men are coming to the facility and will harm them.

Two trans women who moved to Central California Womens Facility in Chowchilla (Madera County) have been in administrative segregation  a form of solitary confinement  for months. Orthwein said one has protested through hunger strikes and both are suffering mentally.

I couldnt even recognize one of my clients, she was so pale, Orthwein said after a recent visit. They are being forced to be housed alone even though theyre begging for some sort of contact with others.

Corrections department records state the women were put in confinement after the agency received confidential tips that both had engaged in sexual activity in the facility with cisgender women  those who were assigned the female gender at birth. State law prohibits sexual conduct between all prisoners.

The possibility of pregnancy through the sexual act presents a security and management concern which will result in undue penological burden to the department, corrections officials wrote of one prisoners conduct.

Orthwein said both women deny the allegations and believe they have been targeted by prison staff who oppose trans women being housed at the facility.

Syiaah Skylit, 31, a trans woman who corresponded with The Chronicle in writing, spent only 18 days in the general prison population after she was transferred to Central California Womens Facility. She has been in isolation ever since. She said she has been prevented from expressing her gender and guards repeatedly call her by the wrong pronouns.

Still, Skylit said she feels safer than she did in a mens prison, where she said she was repeatedly assaulted and faced retaliation from guards, who forced her to walk the yard without a bra, exposing her breasts.

I feel safer physically, of course, but I am far from happy, Skylit said. My life has taken an adverse path. It feels crushing, damaged, sabotaged.

The agency declined to comment because it is in litigation with Skylit over her treatment in mens facilities. Skylit filed a complaint in June over assaults and harassment she said shes faced while incarcerated in different California facilities.

SB132 also faces challenges from outside the prison system. The Womens Liberation Front, a feminist group that opposes civil rights for trans people, filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop such transfers.

Among myriad complaints, the suit alleges that cisgender women have been subject to cruel and unusual punishment because living with trans women puts them at greater risk of physical and sexual assault or causes psychological distress. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four female prisoners.

Everything we warned legislators about SB132 is coming true, Greg Burt, director of Capitol engagement for the California Family Council, a conservative advocacy group backing the lawsuit, said in a statement.

LGBTQ advocates have called the lawsuit an attempt, led by anti-trans groups, to demonize the community. They said statistics show that trans people are the most likely to be victimized in prison.

Thornton, the corrections spokesperson, said the agency doesnt comment on pending litigation, though its committed to providing a safe, humane, rehabilitative and secure environment for all people in its custody. The agency says gender-based housing requests are screened to evaluate the safety of the requester as well as that of other prisoners.

While state prisons have traditionally operated as a gender-binary system, its not unheard of for trans people to seek and receive housing transfers, even before SB132 became law.

Of the roughly 99,000 people incarcerated in California prisons, 1,440 are transgender, nonbinary or intersex people, according to the corrections department. Some of them were allowed to transfer to a different gender facility in the past, based on individual circumstances, though the state didnt track exactly how many.

Zyaire Nassirah, a trans man who was released from a womens prison in February, said he knew several trans women who were housed with cisgender women at various facilities. He said they lived together with few problems.

Nassirah said the climate changed early this year, after the passage of SB132, when guards began to stir up the female prison population by warning that men would be housed with them. The corrections agency declined to directly respond to his allegations.

CDCR staff are inflaming and showing blatant discrimination towards trans women, he said. Cis(gender) individuals have been living with trans women. Why is there such an uproar now?

Nassirah, who led a gender-equality group in prison, recalled an incident where he met with a counselor to talk about how the prison could accommodate newly arriving trans women. He said the counselor replied that the women have no business here anyway because theyre really men.

Thornton said the department directed staff, in 2018, to refer to trans people with their correct pronouns, and intentionally calling them by the wrong pronouns violates its policy. She said the agency strives to create a safe and humane environment.

CDCRs policy, which is also embodied in state law, is to treat all incarcerated people ethically and respectfully, she wrote.

The agency has not responded, however, to a question about whether any staffers have been disciplined for the conduct that trans advocates say has stoked concerns about trans women in womens prisons.

The department recently hired the Moss Group, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, to advise it about how to implement SB132. California will pay the firm $180,795 for the contract.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the legislator who wrote SB132, said the states sluggish pace in accepting housing requests from trans people is frustrating. But he said hes hopeful that the agency is taking steps to improve by hiring outside advisers.

Its been slower than any of us anticipated, Wiener said. This is all new. This is a significant policy shift, an important one long overdue.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
District Attorney Chesa Boudin joined other elected officials and activists Monday to criticize Mayor London Breeds plan to flood San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood with police and crack down on drug dealers as well as people who use drugs in the open.

Breed announced a series of initiatives last week, including asking for overtime spending for police, seeking more social workers and public toilets for the Tenderloin, and declaring a state of emergency there. Breed said the city will continue to offer services and housing to people on the street and those struggling with addiction but will get tough on those who refuse shelter and treatment.

Boudin, Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and Public Defender Mano Raju said at a news conference Monday that the plan was flawed because it relied on failed policies to deal with problems.

The leaders and professionals who provide addiction treatment or harm-reduction services called for the mayor to quickly ramp up evidence-based alternatives, including treatment, housing, education and jobs. The city has been chronically short on treatment beds for the thousands of people who suffer from homelessness, addiction and mental illness.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Boudins decision to join the news conference underscores the fact that while many city leaders agree on the biggest challenges facing San Francisco, they have fundamental disagreements about how to solve them. While leaders are divided about the best way forward, some Tenderloin residents and business owners have been pleading for safer and cleaner streets for months in the face of shootings and open-air drug use.

Boudin said during the news conference that he is outraged at the human suffering, flagrant violations of laws and safety concerns faced by families in the Tenderloin. But he also said, We cant arrest and prosecute our way out of problems that are afflicting the Tenderloin.

Arresting people who are addicted to drugs, jailing people who have mental health struggles, putting folks who are vending hot dogs or other food on the streets in cages will not solve these problems, and they are certainly not the only tools available, he said.

Past city reports have shown nearly three-quarters of people in jail struggled with substance use and mental illness, and nearly one-third were homeless. Boudin said the city lacked enough treatment and housing, with some inmates waiting months to get into rehabilitation programs, and urged more investment into mental health care and opening a supervised drug-use site.

Right now in San Francisco its easier to get high than it is to get help. That has to change, he said. I will do everything in my power to make the Tenderloin safe for all of San Francisco.

Boudin noted that his office has been prosecuting drug sales and possession with intent to sell at higher rates than my predecessor in 2018 and 2019 and plans to continue enforcing the law.

Asked whether he would prosecute drug users, he said possession is a misdemeanor, meaning someone arrested for the crime is given a citation, then told to come to court. He said that given what we know about addiction, the chances of those people even showing up to court is very small, reflecting that the approach wasnt a useful response to a public health crisis.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Boudin said his focus was on serious and violent crimes, especially with limited court capacity under the pandemic.

The last thing we need is to clog up every available court with a misdemeanor possession-of-a-pipe charge, he said.

The police chief, sheriff and Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Catherine Stefani stood beside Breed last week when she pledged to give people who use drugs on the streets the option to go to a yet-to-be-set up linkage center where the city will provide referrals to treatment and shelter  or go to jail.

Breed warned Friday that the city would be a lot more aggressive with implementing the existing laws on the books in order to get people off the streets, including a controversial city ordinance that prohibits people from lying or sitting on sidewalks, which usually affects homeless people.

Her administration is working on adding more resources: The city has approved buying or leasing nearly 1,200 of the 1,500 permanent supportive housing units planned over the next two years. It has also opened 87 substance use and mental health treatment beds  just under a quarter of those planned under a law to reform the citys behavioral health system. A drug sobering center and a supervised drug-consumption site where people would be able to use drugs under medical professionals care are planned for next year.

Critics said these interventions and more are needed.

Walton said the board had urged the mayor to declare a state of emergency for the overdose crisis  not increase law enforcement budgets here in San Francisco and arrest people who use drugs when we currently dont have adequate resources to address their needs.

The board will hold a special meeting to decide whether to ratify the mayors emergency declaration, which would lift bureaucratic barriers so the city can quickly open the linkage site and start police enforcement in full force, at 2 p.m. Thursday. Walton told The Chronicle he hadnt decided how he would vote, and didnt know the votes of his 10 colleagues, but wanted to explore alternatives to what was being proposed.

Supervisor Matt Haney supports the mayors emergency declaration. He told The Chronicle last week he supports policing to go after the drug supply, but not criminalizing users.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

I dont support putting people in jail or prison because theyre addicted, said Haney, who didnt join Mondays news conference.

Instead, he said he wants to get people inside with alternatives such as the supervised drug-use site and sobering center, treatment, and a massive increase in street outreach workers to connect people with help.

Del Seymour, a Tenderloin community member for 35 years, said during Mondays news conference that getting arrested 12 times in the late 1990s made me no less of a dope fiend until I got drug rehab.

Todd Meshekey, sitting on the corner of Jones and Turk streets Monday, said, We need police, but was skeptical that flooding the neighborhood would make a difference in his personal struggles or the neighborhoods issues.

Its impossible, he said. Drugs have been here before us, theyll be here after us. Why should they keep bothering us?

Meshekey said he uses methamphetamine and marijuana and has been homeless for 20 years across the country, 15 in San Francisco. He said hes been arrested and incarcerated in every city, but that San Franciscos approach was more lax.

In other cities you cant do what were doing right now, he said, before puffing from a pipe.

Meshekey said he doesnt want to keep using drugs, which he said have messed up his life, and that he has stopped before, but said recovery is a long road.

The former restaurant server said his New Years plan is to get a job and change everything.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench

Editors note: A previous version of this story misstated District Attorney Chesa Boudins stance on prosecuting drug dealers. He supports prosecuting drug dealers.
If a San Francisco resident in 1971 had unearthed a 50-year-old plan detailing how the city should grow and evolve, the document likely would have seemed so musty as to be comical  an aged vision detached from the world in which they lived.

A plan for the San Francisco of 1971, as viewed from 2021? Not as far apart as you might think.

This isnt just idle speculation, but my strong impression after exploring the Urban Design Plan for San Francisco that was released in yes, 1971. Some parts feel archaic. Others are vivid reminders that one eras assumptions or values dont always stand the test of time. But the document as a whole remains relevant for the city of today.

Look no further than the first paragraph of the introduction, where were told why the oversized 155-page document exists  because residents and people who love the city are sounding the alarm over issues affecting the fragile physical makeup of this great urban place.

Sound familiar? If not, youve missed the discord over tall buildings and density that still shapes city politics.

The plan was released in a year when a voter initiative was on the ballot that would cap all new buildings at six stories, period. The Bay Guardian, a take-no-prisoners alternative weekly of the era, supported the cause with a book titled The Ultimate Highrise: San Franciscos Mad Rush to the Sky.

Planners acknowledged this, agreeing that unstructured and unabated growth has reached extremes now totally inconsistent with the traditions that are valued in San Francisco. Theres also an implicit dig at the Transamerica Pyramid, which was then rising up after being approved in 1969 by the Planning Commission despite the vociferous objections of the citys planning director, Allan Jacobs.

Buildings of unusual shape stand out, the plan warned. They call attention to themselves and ... create a jarring disharmony that counteracts the traditional blending of regular rectilinear forms in the San Francisco skyline.

At the same time, it argued that the defining metropolis of the Bay Area will necessarily change and intensify as it grows. And yes, this includes towers.

New development can enhance and preserve San Franciscos distinctive qualities, were told, if it is done with respect for its surroundings. Tall buildings are a necessary and expressive form for much of the citys office, apartment, hotel and institutional development.

That dilemma  allowing big cities to evolve without destroying the attributes that make it special to begin with  continues to define the local debate.

City Planning Department

Many San Franciscans, then and now, like to pretend that they dont live in an urban metropolis. In this view its a collection of neighborhoods, human-scaled enclaves with little relation to downtowns congested commotion. The plan echoes this by emphasizing how San Francisco draws much of its strength and vitality from the quality of its neighborhoods ... and the small-scale visual qualities that make the city a comfortable and often exciting place to live.

The goal of Jacobs and his staff was to push beyond subjective sentiments and lay out basic ideas of what makes cities congeal into desirable landscapes, whether the scale of a district is large or small.

There are four main sections: City Pattern, Conservation, Major New Development and Neighborhood Environment. Each comes with abundant photos, sketches and diagrammatic maps as it moves from Human Needs and Objectives to Fundamental Principles and then specific design policies.

The section on neighborhoods, especially, resonates today.

Long before the push for Slow Streets and traffic calming, the plan spelled out how traffic in residential neighborhoods can be reduced by ... narrowing of streets or intersections, landscaping, diversion of traffic and closing of streets.

Alleyways are potential areas of activity and interest, were told, while large infill projects should include mid-block pedestrian passages  a concept emphasized of late in neighborhoods such as Dogpatch that are seeing large infill housing projects.

City Planning Department

Or consider this aside.

The most satisfying recreation space is close by and visible, were told in the section on neighborhood environment. The shoreline of San Francisco has a potential that is not fully used.

This was written 20 years before the Embarcadero Freeway was torn down, and 30 years before Crissy Field opened in the Presidio. Now the city aims for parks within a 10-minute walk of every home  and shoreline spaces such as Pier 70s Crane Cove Park have started to enliven the southeast waterfront.

Trees and streets and parks are still relevant stuff, laughs Jacobs, who not only oversaw the plan but did many of the sketches. Now 93, he still lives in Diamond Heights with his wife, UC Berkeley urban design professor Elizabeth Macdonald. Asked why he embarked on such a planning effort, the first in the nation, he gave a verbal shrug. I was the planning director. Thats what youre supposed to do  plan.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Inevitably, not all assumptions have stood the test of time.

Some involve then-conventional planning wisdom, such as the idea that recessed arcades, hollowing out a structures ground level along the sidewalk, were a design tool to humanize big buildings and greatly increase pedestrian comfort. San Francisco was one of many cities that encouraged their creation  only to have most sit barren and dark, which is why you rarely see new ones.

As for the shade cast on the shadow-casting Pyramid, time proved the detractors wrong. If that 853-foot triangle was a 600-foot rectangular box, it would have deadened its surroundings, including the Jackson Square historic district that begins across Washington Street. Instead, its a surprisingly apt accent to the diagonal Columbus Avenue that concludes at its base.

The most glaring slip might be the introductions praise for the remake of Market Street that then was in the works, with its wide sidewalks and brick paving and granite curbs. All of this was keyed to the construction of BART, which began service in San Francisco in 1972.

Improvements for Market Street have been carefully designed and promise to make the street one of high quality and new vitality, we are assured. Anyone who has walked the blocks between Fifth Street and Van Ness Avenue, at any point in the past 40 years, can see how that worked out.

Ultimately, the most poignant aspect of 1971s Urban Design Plan was the confidence that a fractious citys residents could agree on what is of value in their built surroundings.

The plan can be described as a form of communication, a common language, or a system of reference points that will enlist community agreement, the introduction concludes. Most simply put, it is a definition of quality in the San Francisco environment.

Today, watching bicycle boosters and car buffs face off, or hearing the angry rhetoric between YIMBYs and NIMBYs, such a vision seems naive. Maybe it was all along.

But the fact that residents care  and that Jacobs and his planners cared enough to make a case for the importance of the urban landscape  testifies to the fact that people have always felt San Francisco was worth fighting for. And thats a big part of why the city remains as compelling as it is.

John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium stumbled upon a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a peculiar deep-sea fish with a transparent head.

During a search for deep sea jellies and other midwater animals for an upcoming aquarium exhibit on the Monterey Bay canyon, a team with the aquarium and its affiliated research institute found the barreleye fish  the deep-sea creature  from afar.

It couldnt be mistaken for anything else, said Thomas Knowles, a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in an email to SFGATE. As we slowly approached it, excitement grew in the control room as everyone began to realize what we had found. We all knew that this was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And the allure of this rare species is understandable.

The barreleye fish, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, has a transparent head, and can primarily be found throughout the Pacific, from the Bering Sea to Japan and Baja California at depths of up to 2,600 feet.

In lieu of eyes are two glowing green orbs behind its face that gaze up towards the top of its head, and indentations where the eyes would normally appear are its olfactory organs. (The eyes of this bizarre fish, the institute notes, can rotate to the front of the head to see its food when eating.)

The research team spent a considerable amount of time observing the rare species from a distance, wanting to make the most of our opportunity to observe this rarely seen animal in its natural habitat, said Knowles. It was the first time anyone in the group had run into a barreleye fish.

Even the most seasoned professionals were giddy with excitement, he added. Most of the deep sea truly is unexplored territory, and it is still revealing it wonders to us.
A hiker in the Cucamonga Wilderness was airlifted from an ice chute after sliding around 900 feet down the mountain on Sunday, sheriffs say.

Jeaffreson Guevara was hiking with his wife in the Ice House Saddle area when he "slipped on ice and slid down the steep mountain," according to a San Bernardino Sheriff's Department press release.

He slid for approximately 300 yards down the "ice chute" before coming to rest on some bushes.

Rescuers concluded that an attempt on foot would take too long so they called in the the sheriff's aviation unit. The sheriff's Helicopter 40 King 4 crew conducted a search of the area and found the hiker clinging onto the bushes in the steep ice chute. The Air Rescue 306 crew was then brought on to retrieve Guevara.

"An air medic trained in technical rescue was hoisted down to Jeaffreson approximately 120 feet," the sheriff's department said. "Once on the ground, the rescuer set up an anchor system and began the process of securing the fall victim in a harness to be hoisted out."

Jeafferson and the rescuer, Reserve Deputy Gordon Yee, were successfully hoisted out and into the helicopter, and transferred to medical personnel for evaluation.

AllTrails describes the Icehouse Canyon to Icehouse Saddle hike as "a 7.7 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Mount Baldy, California that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as difficult."

The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department press release did not detail the hiker's injuries. A request for an update on the situation was not returned by the department at time of publication.
San Francisco police announced Sunday they made an arrest in the baffling and tragic murder of a 15-year-old girl who came to the city to see her newfound biological sister in 1978.

The Christmas before her death, Marissa Rolf Harvey received a visitor at her home in Port Washington, N.Y. The woman, in her early 30s, told the Harveys that she had hired a company to track down her biological sister. That sister was Marissa, who had been adopted by the Harveys when she was 3; the pair shared a biological mother.

Thrilled to learn of her newfound family, Marissa begged her parents to let her visit her sister in San Francisco. "We didn't really want her to, but we felt it would be unfair if we didn't let her go, mother Marguerite Schultz told Newsday in 1978. We told her sister to be careful with her."

Marissa flew alone to SFO during her Easter week break, arriving in the city on Friday, March 24. After spending the weekend with her sister, on Monday Marissa asked if she could go horseback riding, a hobby she enjoyed back home. Her sisters friend dropped her off at the Golden Gate Park Stables but, unbeknownst to them, the stables were closed.

When Marissa didnt return later that day, her sister reported her missing. The next evening, a young man on a sunset stroll near the Cliff House saw a pair of small feet sticking out of a bush. He called the police, who confirmed the girl was Marissa. She had been sexually assaulted and died of strangulation.

The trail went cold almost immediately. Police had few leads and no suspects. For 43 years, the case lingered. Then, in October 2020, the SFPD cold case unit reopened the file. A new investigation using modern forensic science techniques was able to pinpoint a suspect, SFPD says.

On Dec. 15, police made an arrest. The suspect, Mark Stanley Personette, was taken into custody by the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office in Colorado. Personette, now 76, lives in Conifer, Colo. He is being held without bail on a charge of being a fugitive of justice. His next court date is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2022. It is not clear if he has an attorney representing him.

SFPD have released Personettes mugshot and are asking other law enforcement agencies to review sexual assault cold case murders, as they believe he could be linked to others. One of the booking photos is from a 1979 arrest in Basking Ridge, N.J. According to New Jersey newspaper reports at the time, Personette asked a 16-year-old girl if she needed a ride. When she got into his car, he allegedly drove her to a wooded area, assaulted and raped her. According to police, the girl managed to get help at a nearby home and called police. She allegedly gave a detailed description of the suspect and his vehicle; Personette was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault a short time later. According to an item in the Courier-News, Personette was indicted on that charge in 1980.

San Francisco Police Department/Handout

A request for more details, including Personettes prior criminal record, was not returned by SFPD.

For more than four decades, Marissa Harveys family members have been relentless advocates to bring her killer to justice, and we hope this development in the case begins to bring a measure of healing and closure theyve been too long denied, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said in a statement.

Marissa loved traveling and had spent the previous two summers on bike tours of Europe. In the winters, her mother said she would shovel snow for her elderly neighbors. "She was very special, happy, she loved animals and flowers and plants, her mother said in 1978. She played piano."

"Marissa was a very special, very different, little girl," she added.
There's a scene in "The Matrix Resurrections," the new, fourth installment of the franchise, in which Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) touch hands for a moment and both experience something electric, some forgotten memory resurfacing.

I had my own electric encounter with Reeves at the U.S. premiere afterparty on Saturday night, held at San Francisco's Waterbar and Epic Steak on the Embarcadero.

Attempting to navigate a crowd, two free alcoholic beverages in-hand, I saw Reeves suddenly materialize in my line of sight as if he'd just plugged into the Matrix. He, too, attempted to circumnavigate the group of well-dressed Hollywood-ites, and, for a brief instance, his arm brushed against mine as he passed. As someone who, like the rest of the world, has a giant, silly crush on the "Matrix" star, the two-second touch felt like my Neo-Trinity moment. I don't believe he noticed, as too many people were staring at him while pretending not to stare at him.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

But let us start at the beginning. Before my Keanu moment, "The Matrix Resurrections" held its national premiere at San Francisco's historic Castro Theatre, shutting down much of Castro Street on Saturday well into the evening.

The night started with confusion because we couldn't figure out how to get inside the theatre. When my guest and I arrived on the outskirts of the theatre, huge crowds of screaming fans met us. They were not, obviously, screaming for us, but rather flexed their vocal chords to shout "whoos!" and "heys!" at the bevy of stars arriving on the appropriately green carpet unfurled before the theatre.

"That's him," a woman in the crowd shouted, and within seconds, hundreds erupted in loud cheers. The star of the show  Reeves  had arrived.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

But Reeves was hardly alone in his star power. He was joined on the green carpet by his fellow "Matrix" stars, including Moss in a long, black beaded gown, and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who wore a bright red dress with an enormous fluffy train. Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jonathan Groff and Oakland native Yahya Abdul-Mateen II were also on hand. San Francisco, for one night only, had a real taste of Hollywood.

My guest and I, though dressed to the nines, didn't actually get to walk the star-studded carpet. We walked straight into the Castro Theatre after getting our vaccine cards and negative COVID tests checked, and sat staring at the screen for about an hour and a half as I frantically turned my head in search of celebrities. I saw none. Little did I know, they were hiding backstage, waiting for their grand entrance before the film started.

San Francisco's own star, Mayor London Breed, made the first appearance. Dressed in a "Matrix"-esque black leather dress, Breed kicked off the evening with a speech about how lucky the city was to host the cast and crew of the movie when it filmed in San Francisco in 2020.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

I wasn't paying that much attention, in all honesty, as I was more determined to get a glimpse of the Hollywood stars who stood in the wings. When Breed finally left the stage, the stars manifested, one by one, each single-handedly putting my "dressed to the nines" look to shame.

The full theatre cheered as each star took their place on stage, culminating in the appearance of Reeves, who, like the rockstar he is, shouted into the microphone, "Hello, San Francisco! Thank you, San Francisco!" The theatre roared in approval.

Finally, director Lana Wachowski, hot pink hair aglow, took to the stage and made a stirring speech about what San Francisco and cinema in the time of COVID meant to her. Wachowski's first film, "Bound," premiered at the very same theatre in 1996, she revealed.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

With the remarks concluded, it was time to get the show on the road, and the movie began playing as people scrambled to find their seats in the very crowded theatre. Masks were worn the entire time (for the most part), and security guards, of which there were many, whisper-yelled at audience members to put their cell phones away.

Watching "The Matrix Resurrections" in a theatre full of the people who made it possible was nothing short of electric. The crowd cheered as each star appeared onscreen and almost any time Neo spoke, a celebratory cheer or laugh followed. I'd only been in a movie theatre a handful of times amid COVID, so I felt slightly nervous but mostly jubilant. Tonight, I was a part of something we don't often experience in San Francisco.

The film itself left much to be desired. I'm a fan of the first three movies, but this fourth installment felt a little too Marvel-y, and not in a good way. The script seemed underwritten in sections  especially the characters of Trinity and the analyst (Harris)  and huge portions of the film were composed of flashbacks  and callbacks  to the earlier movies. Did Neo really just say, "I still know Kung Fu?" Yes, yes he did.

As the credits rolled to more cheers and shouts, my guest and I scrambled from our seats with one goal in mind: Get to the shuttle bus as fast as possible. The buses, lined up near 17th Street, were taking us to the next destination of the evening: the aforementioned afterparty.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

Overlooking the water with an incredible view of the Bay Bridge, the "Matrix" team took over the gorgeous restaurants. One side was done up in red lights, a nod to the infamous "red pill," while the other was lit up in blue. Feeling a little too proud of ourselves, we chose the red side first, where we were greeted with trays of red wine, martinis and an electric blue margarita called "Down the Rabbit Hole." Indecisive, and in awe of the free-ness of it all, I grabbed a wine and "Rabbit Hole" and attempted to weave my way through the crowd, many of whom wore leather outfits as an homage to the film.

Reader, you know what happens next. Within seconds, I locked eyes on Reeves and made a face I can only describe as "goober chic," as I was surprised to see he'd actually shown up to the party (Reeves is notoriously private and wary of press).

The evening picked up from there. I said my hellos to the few people I knew personally and commenced my celebrity watch. Most everyone appeared in turn. As I downed the ample dinner offerings  short rib, noodles, broccolini and little gem salad  I spied Breed out of the corner of my eye, talking up a group of people. Author Dave Eggers noshed on appetizers  the offerings on-hand included a wagyu beef sushi roll and a potato chip with caviar, among others  at a table beside me. I had to stop myself from approaching Groff and telling him how formative "Spring Awakening" was for me as a musical theatre kid growing up in the Bay Area suburbs.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

Here's the thing with Hollywood events such as this one. Everyone seems to know one another. This is how it should be; the afterparty serves very much as a celebration of the cast and crew's tireless work on the film.

I felt very much like an outsider looking in. As a Bay Area reporter, the world of the Hollywood elite is not exactly my M.O. The real joy of the party came from seeing famous people act, well, like normal people. Most of the big stars, including Moss and Reeves, surrounded themselves in cabanas on the outdoor portion of the event with people they seemed to know. That's probably the only way to survive these sorts of things as a celebrity. They undoubtedly realize that everyone is stealing glances at them while pretending to play it cool.

As the night continued, with people taking turns in the photo booth and gaming room, the night sky suddenly erupted in an explosion of color. A massive fireworks display of green and red illuminated the waters of the bay as guests set down their plates to stare up at the sky.

Patricia Chang/Special to SFGATE

At this point, about 11 p.m., it was getting late for my guest and I. We stole our final glances at Reeves, attempted not to share our spicy thoughts on the new film aloud  we were not big fans of this new installment  and caught an Uber home.

"What the hell is going on here?" the Uber driver asked as he picked us up.

"It's nothing less than 'The Matrix,'" we replied.
LONDON (AP)  Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to spend Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant.

The palace said Monday that the 95-year-old queen will spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has stayed for most of the pandemic.

Other members of the royal family are expected to visit over the Christmas period, with precautions taken against spreading the virus.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Britain  up 60% in a week  as omicron replaced delta as the dominant variant, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said more new restrictions may have to be introduced to slow its spread. His health minister has refused to rule out imposing new measures before Christmas.

For years, members of Britain's extended royal family have spent the holidays at Sandringham, where crowds gather to watch them attend the local church on Christmas Day.

The queen has cut down on travel and work since spending a night in the hospital in October and being told to rest by her doctors. She has since undertaken light duties including virtual audiences with diplomats and weekly conversations with the prime minister.

This is the queens first Christmas since the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, in April at 99. The royal couple spent their final Christmas together at Windsor last year.

___

Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
Theres been plenty written on the so-called Bay Area exodus, even before the pandemic began and even by this very reporter. But a new report from the California Policy Lab shows that while the Bay Areas population is exhibiting very low growth, it's not just because residents are leaving the state.

Data shows that a decrease in the number of people moving into the state is in part to blame for the regions shrinking population, with 53% fewer people moving into San Francisco County from out of state since the start of the pandemic.

Santa Clara County and San Mateo County were not far behind, with 52% and 48% less of an influx respectively.

Domestic entrances are down across the state, but the Bay Area has seen the biggest drop. By the end of September 2021, there were 45% fewer people moving into the Bay Area from other US states as compared to the beginning of 2020, said Evan White, the Executive Director of the California Policy Labs UC Berkeley site, in a statement. San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties have all lost population to migration for the first time since at least 2016 because of these new patterns.

Courtesy of California Policy Lab

There was also a notable increase in people leaving the Bay Area since the start of the pandemic. The number of people leaving the state rose 34% from the first quarter of 2020.

While the decline in new residents was especially steep in the Bay Area, the trend can be seen across the state. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people moving into California from other U.S. states dipped 38%, the report shows. While most Californians who move simply move elsewhere in California, the share of movers who left the state also rose, from 16.3% of all moves in 2016 to 20.3% by September 2021.

Research was conducted by analyzing credit bureau data collected by Experian.

Data analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that net migration into California has been slowing for 20 years. The state's population declined for the first time ever in 2020 and even caused the state to lose a congressional seat. In 2019, the Bay Area population declined by more than 54,000 residents, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, so it's unlikely the continued outward migration is only because of the pandemic. In a Bay Area poll conducted this year, 56% of respondents said they are considering leaving in the next five years, which isn't that much higher than similar polls conducted in 2018 and 2019.
After 2020 became a year of racial reckoning with the public killing of George Floyd and the protests of injustices against Black people, 2021 offered what can best be described as a follow-up year  a continuation of some familiar story threads with other new ones emerging.

Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed Floyd, was convicted of murder. Three men in Georgia were convicted in the killing of Ahmaud Arbury. A white gunman in Atlanta killed eight people, six of Asian descent. The movement to identify and reckon with structural racism rolled forward. And as local and state governments grappled with the removal of statues of racist historical figures, local school boards fought over how to teach the uneasy history of racism in the United States.

Against this backdrop, AP's Race and Ethnicity team tried to capture the story both in sweep and in painstaking detail. Here, some AP journalists from that team involved in the coverage reflect on some of the year's stories and how journalism handles the coverage of race.

KAT STAFFORD, AP national investigative race writer:

I feel as if 2021 was really a continuation of everything that we dealt with in 2020. Race is still the story. It is still that constant through line to a lot of the issues that we have been covering. ... This country right now is at a place where people are demanding that we talk more frankly about the role of structural and systemic racism and how that has led to all of these inequities that really cross over into every single beat that we cover here at AP. So thats been what Ive been reflecting on  how racism is at the forefront of all of these issues. And its not going away anytime soon.

Journalists of color for decades in this country have been trying to bring race and coverage of inequity to the forefront, but its been a struggle. I dont think thats a secret. And I think that there are still struggles in terms of how to make sure that coverage is equitable, how to make sure that we are centering these voices from communities that have been ignored for so long.

I wrote a story this year about the amount of grief that Black Americans in particular are feeling because of the constant stream of Black Americans dying at the hands of police but also the toll of the dead that weve seen from the pandemic. So paying attention to grief and how people are grappling with all these issues that are impacting them right now. I would also say climate change. I think that looking forward, were all in some way or another going to be climate reporters because this is a topic that intersects race and inequity  and intersects every single beat that we cover. So I think when we saw the hurricane earlier this year, there was a lot of talk about is this yet another example of how climate and environmental issues are going to have a disparate toll on communities of color.

I firmly believe that race coverage is not a standalone topic. Its not a special interest topic, right? This is the through line in all of the coverage areas that we have in AP as well as other news organizations. So I think we as journalists right now in this moment really need to think about how we can dig deeper. How can we go beyond the breaking news headlines, and really tell robust stories and create robust coverage that moves the conversation forward, but again, you know, stick with the facts and report the truth? I think that is really one of the most important issues facing journalism right now.

TERRY TANG, AP Race & Ethnicity reporter:

What kind of sticks out in my mind is the Gabby Petito case, how it brought back around that whole conversation about missing white woman syndrome. And are we as one of multiple news organizations doing enough to cover the nonwhite victims in those kinds of cases? Thats something that I was sort of re examining. Im glad that I got to help out on the story about that issue, where a few of us went out and tried to find family members of missing persons of color and give them a chance to speak. So I was grateful to be able to do that, and give a couple of families a platform. So thats something that Im going to try to remember in the future is how can we address those gaps so its not just the white high-income person whos getting attention.

People think that its kind of out of the ordinary when somebody who comes from the middle class or higher goes missing mysteriously like that, and especially on something like being able to afford to take a cross-country road trip. Thats more a luxury. Whereas people of color who go missing are probably not always from the middle class and theyre not doing something glamorous-sounding like taking a road trip. And they dont have a smartphone or have a presence and leave a trail on social media.

___

I think initially, after the shootings, there was an overwhelming wave of support for the Asian American experience right now in the age of COVID. And you know, it did matter that there were a lot of people who were not Asian speaking out. And yes, it was nice, for a while to see all these people  not Asian as well  who were you know, using the #StopAAPIHate or #StopAsianHate hashtags. And to degree you know, it was nice to see certain companies, corporations, and even small businesses echo those sentiments. But, of course, like anything, I feel like its kind of petered out somewhat. I mean, even as recently as this month theres an elderly man in Chicago who was shot and killed very viciously in the Chinatown neighborhood there. And I only see outrage among Asian American social media channels or independent Asian American social media platforms like Instagram accounts, Twitter accounts where their mission is to just go and pull out like all Asian American news. But I dont see much outrage beyond that.

___

As dark and harrowing as some of the news has been, you know, theres been some positive things too. I mean, at the same time that all this is happening, there were a lot of Asian Americans who were really happy by the increase in on-screen representation and also as a chance to escape the darkness of real life. Like, I have to say, Shang-Chi, the Marvel movie, to some people its just a comic-book movie but for a lot of people it was a big step in representation in media. ... For a lot of people to see someone who looks like them up on the big screen, being the action hero, was important, although I think were also ready to see more roles outside of martial arts roles, even if they are very fleshed out and three dimensional.

I will say that one of maybe my favorite stories of 2021 was the new Asian American muppet on Sesame Street. Growing up watching Sesame Street, I never thought Id write a story about an Asian American muppet.

ANDALE GROSS, AP Race & Ethnicity editor and team leader:

One thing we will obviously keep an eye on going into this next year is those issues that we know are going to be at the forefront, whether its voting rights, particularly with the Black and Latino vote, but obviously other groups as well; whether its looking at law enforcement in have things changed? Are there some signs of reform? Is there any kind of indication or signaling therell be some progress?

And then of course we will be looking closely at hate crimes, continue to look at health and also looking at education, because another issue that came up this year was the teaching of history, particularly history around slavery, and how the groups of people who make up America came to be here in America. There's push and pull about whether to tell the story particularly to young people, or to protect them from some aspects of it. That push and pull with education is going to continue to be something we see in the next year, particularly as you have local school board races and things like that.

Were definitely talking about race more, and its definitely more front and center than it has been in decades past. Where we really need to improve is everybody kind of settling down and putting aside their perspective on the race situation and then hearing it from other peoples perspectives and assessing all sides. Theres so much emotion on both sides. Obviously, theres more than two sides, but on all these different ends of it theres so much emotion involved. Thats when things just become more agitated, and politicized and even more divisive. Its messy. Its complicated. But I think people are now more willing to at least address it.

___

For a full overview of the events that shaped 2021, A Year That Changed Us: 12 Months in 150 Photos, a collection of AP photos and journalists recollections, is available now: https://www.ap.org/books/a-year-that-changed-us
CARIBOU, Maine (AP)  A $7 million solar farm in Caribou, Maine will power six large commercial customers in the state, following a statewide initiative to develop renewable energy projects in the last three years.

The nearly 20-acre solar farm, owned by a group of investors called Caribou Solar Power, will produce 8 million kilowatt-hours of power. It is the first of eight that the group will build in the state which plans to reach 80% renewable energy by 2030, The Bangor Daily News reported on Monday.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona health officials are reporting 2,176 new confirmed COVID-19 cases but no additional deaths.

The latest numbers released Monday push the state's pandemic totals to 1,338,982 cases and 23,519 known deaths.

Hospitalizations due to the virus numbered at 2,496 as of Sunday.

Arizona's largest hospital systems warn that a surge in hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients and patients seeking treatment for other issues could lead soon to a rationing of care.

Hospitals in more rural parts of the state have put in requests to the federal government for more medical staff.

All have said the majority of their COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

Data from the state Department of Health Services dashboard showed that 68.5% of Arizonans old enough to get vaccinated have received at least one shot

That trails the national rates of 76.9% of age-eligible individuals with at least one dose.

Meanwhile, the Health System Alliance of Arizona and member hospitals issued a statewide message urging Arizonans to do everything they can to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

The letter was running as a full page ad in Sunday editions of the states largest newspaper  The Arizona Republic  and newspapers that publish in Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP)  The Ramada Inn will find new life as 100 units of permanent supportive housing after Asheville City Council abandoned plans to pursue a high-access emergency homeless shelter and approved the transfer of its purchase rights for the property on Dec. 14.

After outcry from the hotels neighbors and uncertainty from financial partners, the city canceled plans to convert East Ashevilles Ramada Inn into a low-barrier homeless shelter earlier this month.

It had previously entered into a contract to purchase the Ramada Inn at 149 River Ford Parkway in the River Ridge Marketplace, an acquisition that would have carried a price tag of $9.75 million.

Following the reversal, new plans for the property emerged and Asheville leadership announced an alternative to turn the hotel into permanent supportive housing using partnerships with two California-based companies  nonprofit Step Up on Second Street Inc., and for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries.

In a 6-1 vote Dec. 14 the city authorized a contract ratification to assign the real estate contracts for the property to Shangri-La Industries.

We know the action we are asking you to take tonight is not the project staff started working on earlier this year, City Manager Debra Campbell said.

She stressed that creating an emergency shelter in the community is still a priority, but that deeper, more inclusive planning and a long-term funding strategy was needed to ensure success.

Many councilmembers voiced their disappointment to be forced to pivot away from the low-barrier shelter efforts.

Councilwoman Antanette Mosley was the sole holdout in the vote to assign the real estate contract to Shangri-La, citing concerns about equity and transparency.

She told the Citizen Times Dec. 14 that though she understands a request for proposal was not necessary in pursuing a new project at the Ramada, it would have been a more transparent process.

She said she supports permanent supportive housing, but could not get past these concerns.

Im banging my head, banging my head, because I feel like in every instance, when it relates to housing, we get to this place where we go, Well, well do better next time, she said.

Mosley said that her equity concerns involved information from staff that only nine of the 80 current residents at the Ramada Inn are Black, though about 24% of the citys current homeless population is Black.

There is something about our system that even given our best efforts, were not reaching the neediest of the needy, Mosley said. I cant in good conscience brush those people aside for something that I actually support.

Mayor Esther Manheimer said she was frustrated by what had happened, but was glad the city was continuing to pursue a project at the Ramada Inn location.

To me, this is also an incredible need we have in Asheville, she said.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, council also authorized Campbell to enter in a funding agreement with Step Up in the amount of $1.5 million.

This would fund three years of supportive housing at Ramada, at $500,000 annually, to provide onsite case management and services.

Initially, all $1.5 million was intended to be funded using American Rescue Plan act funds, but after Vice Mayor Sheneika Smith raised concerns, the motion was amended to delineate the first $500,000 as ARPA funds, with the remaining $1 million to come from a to-be-determined funding source.

Step Up would work with for-profit developer Shangri-La Industries to buy and renovate the property for more than $10 million in private capital. The result would be about 115 units of housing supported by on-site services.

Nikki Reid, community and economic development director, said with the citys real estate contract expiring Dec. 15, the city was in a unique position to influence the future of the property, and meet a critical community need.

We are at a crossroads, she said.

According to the staff presentation, Shangri-La would close on the property in early 2022 and begin renovations. Proposed occupancy is slated for late 2022.

Permanent supportive housing is affordable housing that connects people with employment, substance abuse treatment and health care.

According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, people qualifying for permanent supportive housing must be 18 years or older with a disability, connected to a human service agency receiving supportive services and have income below 50% of the area median income, which is income below $26,300, according to data from the city of Asheville.

In contrast, high-access emergency shelters have minimal rules regarding who can access the housing.

According to city staff, Shangri-La uses purpose-driven, low-return, private sector financing to acquire and rehab hotels into housing units and secures project-based housing vouchers to cover the carrying costs and long-term capital maintenance.

In exchange for this contract assignment, Shangri-La Industries will execute a deed restriction with the city of Asheville for a period of 50 years for permanent supportive housing.

Their nonprofit partner, Step Up on Second Street Inc., would provide on-site case management services for residents, including mental health services, counseling, substance use recovery support and linking to community resources.

Bailey Stockwell was among the about a dozen people that spoke before council Dec. 14, many of them accusing council of a lack of transparency and a rushed process.

Stockwell lives nearby in the Oakley neighborhood and told the Citizen Times that her opposition to the Ramada Inn has not been heard.

We dont see this as a solution, we dont see this as any better of an option, she said of plans to turn the hotel into permanent supportive housing rather than emergency shelter.

I understand that we need to focus on homelessness, but theyre prioritizing the homeless situation over the residents that are having problems.

She and other nearby residents and business owners allege that crime has increased since the hotels use as low-barrier housing, citing incidents of public indecency, trespassing and needles littering surrounding properties.

Asheville Police Department spokesperson Bill Davis said there has been an increase for calls and incidents in the area recently.

According to a city database, crime reports within an 1/8th of a mile of the hotel have been on the rise.

There were 35 crime incident reports filed from April 1-Dec. 1, versus 15 filed within the same window last year.

Another city database logged 212 calls for service at the 100-block of River Ford Parkway between Jan. 1 and Sept. 7 of 2021.

In the entirety of 2020, there were 95 calls for service logged this block, and 52 in 2019.

Other residents of nearby neighborhoods, like resident Brenna Paxton, said she hasnt noticed an increase in issues in the area since people began being housed at the Ramada Inn.

She and other residents encouraged council to pursue emergency shelter as quickly as possible.

Just because we leave these individuals with nowhere to go, doesnt mean they cease to exist, Paxton said.

Others voiced concerns about the speed of the process and the quick pivot into a relationship with Step Up and Shangri-La.

Many advocated for the continued pursuit of an emergency shelter, what they called the most urgent priority, especially in light of the clearing of a recent homeless encampment.

We need to slow down and truly weigh benefits and risks, said east Asheville resident Mary Clarissa Marshall

Just two weeks ago, she said, this location was supposed to be a low-barrier shelter run by local organizations. I urge you to pump the brakes and do some intensive, investigative work on this project.

The city began offering low-barrier housing at the Ramada Inn in April and is currently housing about 80 people at the property.

The shelter is overseen by Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, the nonprofit that has been running the program on behalf of the city for the last eight months.

The contract to house the residents has been extended through March 31 in a separate Dec. 14 vote, and city staff said they are committed to positive outcomes for the people sheltered there, and are seeking housing solutions for each resident.

At a Homeless Coalition Meeting Dec. 14, Emily Ball, Homeless Services System performance lead for the city, said staff will start a new planning process for low-barrier housing, working alongside its partners, such as Buncombe County and Dogwood Health Trust.

We are very committed to developing an emergency shelter in our community, Ball said. We know that there is a need around that.

Ball said the timeline for the planning process will be mapped in the coming weeks.
DAVIE, Fla. (AP)  The sound of a car backfiring near a South Florida movie theater led police to evacuate moviegoers following multiple reports of an active shooter, authorties said.

The incident happened Sunday night at the Cinemax movie theater in Davie.
LONDON (AP)  The government of Belarus said Monday that it summoned a British diplomat in protest after its embassy in London was attacked and a diplomat injured.

The Belarus Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a group of people smeared the facade of the embassy building and then physically assaulted Belarusian diplomats who arrived at the scene. It added that one of the diplomats sustained serious injuries requiring urgent medical assistance and was diagnosed with a broken nose, a concussion and a broken tooth.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Leaders of Bulgaria and Greece on Monday discussed bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, with an emphasis on reducing their reliance on Russian gas through the speedy completion of a key gas interconnector linking the neighboring countries.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who is the first European leader to visit Bulgaria since the formation of a new government there, met with his Bulgarian counterpart, Kiril Petkov, and the countrys president, Rumen Radev.

The project is of strategic importance for Bulgaria and Greece and the two countries have already agreed to complete it as quickly as possible," Mitsotakis noted after the meeting.

The interconnector is important for Bulgaria because it would mark the first break of the Russian monopoly on the Bulgarian gas market. It will link to a pipeline that transits Azerbaijani gas from Greece to Italy.

Bulgaria already has a deal with Azerbaijan to import annually one billion cubic meters of gas, or nearly one-third of its consumption.

Speaking about the chances of European Union membership for the countries of the Western Balkans, Mitsotakis said Athens is in favor of a formal start of talks with North Macedonia and Albania as soon as possible, subject to their meeting membership criteria. North Macedonia's membership has been held up by Bulgarian demands, and since the two countries' EU track is linked, Albania is also delayed.

Mitsotakis also called on Turkey to end provocations in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean  if it wants to normalize bilateral ties and relations with the European Union.

Asked by reporters about the challenges for Greece and Bulgaria because of the pressure from immigration, Mitsotakis said that their external borders are also European borders.

Both countries are protecting (the borders) effectively, with respect to human rights, he said.
PARIS (AP)  The Paris prosecutors office said it has received a manslaughter lawsuit for failure to help in the tragic capsizing last month of a boat in the English Channel that cost the lives of at least 27 people trying to reach Britain.

The manslaughter lawsuit, filed Friday by the French humanitarian organization Utopia 56, accuses the maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea, the Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue of Gris-Nez in the Pas-de-Calais and the British Coast Guard of not doing enough to prevent the deaths.

Utopia 56 said it intends that investigations be carried out to determine the responsibilities of the French and British rescue services in this tragedy, adding that the people were abandoned despite calls to the English and French rescue services.

Nikolai Posner, Utopia 56s spokesman, told The Associated Press on Monday that the lawsuit also intended to remind our governments that it is urgent to question the policies at our borders, which take human lives every day.

The only two survivors of the disaster told Kurdish media that the migrants on the boat made distress calls that were ignored as their canoe deflated and their engine broke. They claim the British said the boat was in French waters, and the French the reverse. These accounts were confirmed by victim family members, who were in telephone contact during the attempted crossing.

The maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea was not immediately available for comment Monday.

In London, proceedings have also formally been launched by families of victims from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Earlier this month, 26 victims were formally identified, including seven women, a teenager and a 7-year-old girl. The identity of one migrant remains unknown. Investigators were able to confirm the identity of 16 Iraqi Kurds, including four women, a 16-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old girl. The victims also included an Iranian Kurd, three Ethiopians including two women, a Somali woman, four Afghan men and an Egyptian man, the statement said. The adults ranged in age from 19 to 46.

Their boat capsized on Nov. 24 off the coast of northern France, in what the countrys interior minister called the biggest migration tragedy on the dangerous crossing to Britain to date.

Ever-increasing numbers of people fleeing conflicts or poverty are risking the perilous journey from France, hoping to win asylum or find better opportunities in Britain. The crossings have tripled this year compared to 2020.

The tragedy prompted a new political crisis between Britain and France, who each accused each other of not doing enough to deter people from crossing the Channel. European migration officials agreed to send a plane to monitor the shores of the English Channel for smuggling activity.

___

Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
WELLFORD, S.C. (AP)  Officials say an upstate South Carolina man killed himself Monday after deputies tear-gassed his car while trying to arrest him after an hourslong standoff.

A Spartanburg County deputy tried to pull over Robert Alan Beach II of Boiling Springs late Sunday, said Spartanburg County Sheriffs Lt. Kevin Bobo. Beach had active warrants for domestic violence and pointing a firearm, Bobo said, and had cut a Greenville County monitoring device from his ankle.
BLACKFOOT, Idaho (AP)  An eastern Idaho county prosecutor as well as a city mayor and its police force are calling on the county sheriff to resign.

Bingham County Prosecutor Paul Rogers and Blackfoot Mayor Marc Carroll on Friday called on Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland to step down.

The Idaho attorney generals office last week charged Rowland with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and misdemeanor exhibition of a gun. State investigators accused him of threatening a church youth group with a gun. The group had dropped a thank-you note off at his front door.

A trusted Law Enforcement officer has admitted to physically assaulting a neighbor and threatening her with his service handgun, Carroll wrote in a statement released on Friday calling for Rowland to resign.

Rogers in his statement said that at some point the damage to the Sheriffs Office becomes irreparable regardless of the outcome of the newly-filed case.

Rowland agreed to take a leave of absence shortly after the allegations arose in November, but returned to the job several weeks ago. Rowland has said he has received threats in recent months and worried about people coming to his home. He has not yet entered a plea on the charges.

I have been doing this job for 36 years, Rowland said in a statement in which he also disparaged the people on the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' Fort Hall Reservation, referencing intoxication and calling them not good people and saying their proximity was the reason for his actions.

The tribes have also called on Rowland to resign, calling his statements racist.

We ask Rowland to officially step down as Sheriff and offer a public apology to the Fort Hall community, Fort Hall Business Council Chairman Devon Boyer said in the statement last week.

In court documents, investigators with the Idaho Attorney Generals office wrote that a youth group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was participating in an activity Nov. 9 where they delivered thank-you notes to members of the congregation. The girls, aged 12 to 16, taped the notes to the church-goers doors and then rang their doorbells, running away before they could be seen.

Seven of the youth group members and an adult leader went to Rowlands neighborhood to leave a note for the sheriff and his wife, according to the court documents. In separate interviews with investigators, members of the youth group and Rowland both reportedly said that after the group left the note, Rowland stopped their car from driving away, pulled the adult driver out of the vehicle by her hair and pointed his handgun at her head, yelling profanities at her.
CAIRO (AP)  Egypt on Monday sentenced one of the country's most prominent activists to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news, a defense lawyer said. The activist's former attorney and another activist were sentenced in the same case, each to four years.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah was first sentenced in 2014 on charges of taking part in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was released in 2019 after serving a five-year term but was rearrested again later that year, in a crackdown that followed anti-government protests.

At the time, he and many others were accused of disseminating false news, misuse of social media and joining a terrorist group  a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities declared a terrorist organization in 2013.

Along with Abdel-Fattah, the Emergency State Security Court in Cairo on Monday also sentenced Abdel-Fattah's former lawyer, Mohammed el-Baker, and fellow activist Mohamed Ibrahim, also known as Mohamed Oxygen, to four years each, on the same charges. The three were tried together.

They also separately face charges of misusing social medial and joining the Brotherhood, Eid said. It's unclear when hearings in that case will begin.

Abdel-Fattah's arrest and trial have drawn criticism from Western governments and international rights groups. Germany's foreign ministry on Friday urged the Egyptian government to ensure el-Baker receives a fair trial and is released, along with his co-defendants.

It said this would show where human rights situation in Egypt is heading.

Egypts foreign ministry rejected the German comments as blatant interference in Egyptian internal affaires.

Ibrahim's defense lawyer, Gamal Eid, said their verdicts cannot be appealed since they were tried under Egypt's emergency laws, imposed in 2017.

The three were held in detention for more than two years, until their trial started in October. Their lawyers have complained the court did not allow them to review case documents or meet with the defendants to discuss their defense strategies, Eid said.

Egypts government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also secular activists who were involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled the country's longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Fattah rose to prominence following the 2011 uprising; he was detained several times for lobbying for civil rights on social media and in public. An influential blogger, he hails from a family of political activists, lawyers and writers. His late father was one of Egypts most tireless rights lawyers and his two sisters are also political activists. His aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

Earlier this year, Abdel-Fattahs family and his lawyers had accused prison authorities in Cairo's Tora prison complex of torturing him and denying him basic legal rights. They also called for prosecutors to investigate the claims.

One of his sisters, Mona Seif, confirmed Monday's verdict, as did el-Baker's wife.

El-Baker, who was representing Abdel-Fattah at the time, was arrested when he attended the activist's questioning by prosecutors in September 2019.

Egypt imposed a state of emergency in April 2017, following deadly church bombings and attacks on Coptic Christians that killed more than 100 people and wounded scores. It allowed for arrests without warrants, swift prosecution of suspects and the establishment of special courts.

The state of emergency has since been extended several times. However, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced in October, when the last extension expired, that his government will no longer renew it.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Former New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said Monday he has officially filed to run for Oregon governor in the Democratic primary.

Kristof, who announced his candidacy in October and raised more than $1 million in less than a month, says the state needs a political newbie to solve problems like homelessness and rural despair.
Multiple tornadoes and thunderstorms that struck the Great Plains and upper Midwest on Dec. 15 were the result of a rare event called a derecho, according to the National Weather Services Storm Prediction Center. It was the first on record in December in the United States.

WHAT IS A DERECHO?

A derecho is often described as an inland hurricane.

According to the National Weather Service, the term comes from the Spanish word derechos to mean direct or straight ahead" and was first used in 1888 by a chemist and professor of physical sciences.

The storm has no eye and its powerful winds come across in a line. That can cause widespread overall damage and smaller pockets of severe damage.

Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist in the Atlanta area and a former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said a derecho can develop from a series of separate storms, usually carrying hail and strong winds, that combine and build into a larger bowing complex.

The term bow describes how it appears on radar.

When that happens, the system can subsist on its own, it will continually fuel itself, Maue said. It can cause tremendous damage with straight-line winds.

HOW OFTEN DO THEY OCCUR?

Derechos are relatively rare events, and in the U.S. are more likely to occur in the Corn Belt, an area that ranges from Minnesota and Iowa south and eastward toward the Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

Theyre more likely to occur from May through August, particularly during periods of high heat  making the December derecho so uncommon.

The climatology of derechoes depends on the location and season, but if you consider the entire US (east of the Rockies), then you'll usually see one or two, possible more per year depending upon the weather patterns, Maue said.

WHAT DAMAGE CAN IT CAUSE?

A 2020 derecho that traveled from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois reached wind speed of a major hurricane. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center reported winds approaching 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour) in multiple places. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, residents emerged from their homes to find an estimated 100,000 trees had been snapped or torn out of the ground.

A 2009 storm dubbed a Super Derecho by the National Weather Service traveled from western Kansas to eastern Kentucky. It caused several deaths and injuries and more than $500 million in damages by the time it had traveled more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers).

A 2003 derecho traveled from Arkansas through several southern states including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Two people died and 11 were hurt.

Last week's storm system spawned at least 45 tornadoes and caused widespread damage. Five deaths have been blamed on the storms.

ARE THERE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DERECHOES?

Yes. The August 2020 storm system was the result of what is known as a progressive derecho. The Dec. 15 event was a serial derecho.

The weather service said a progressive derecho is fueled by a hot and moist environment with relatively strong winds aloft. Serial derechos are produced by storms with strong winds that bow outward, the service said. They sweep across an area both long and wide, driven by the presence of very strong winds in the atmosphere.

The unprecedented December warm spell included temperatures that rose to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) as far north as Wisconsin, creating evening temperatures that weather historian Chris Burt compared to that of a warm July evening.
ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greece says it will renew a request for European Union funds in 2022 to extend a border wall along its frontier with Turkey and promised to expand a powerful surveillance network aimed at stopping migrants entering the country illegally.

A public order minister, Takis Theodorikakos, told a parliamentary committee that Greece expects some countries bordering the EU to continue to exploit migration to exert political pressure on member states, citing the recent crisis in Belarus on its border with Poland and other EU members.

We have every reason to expect that these kinds of threats will continue, he said during the parliamentary briefing held Friday and made public Monday.

Greeces center-right government has toughened the countrys migration policy and recently completed a 26-kilometer (16-mile) extension of a steel border wall to make the barrier span 38 kilometers (24 miles).

We believe the security on our own borders is linked to the security of the EU, Theodorikakos said, adding that border walls and fences are normally funded by national governments.

A control center processing data from newly-built border surveillance towers equipped with long-range cameras and multiple sensors was due to begin operating in early 2022, he said.

The artificial intelligence-driven system is aimed at tracking multiple incidents using data from surveillance sensors and flagging those considered the most serious to border guard officers.

This automated system gives us many operational advantages and helps us monitor the entire border region, the minister said.

So far, the wall and detection network helped prevent more than 143,000 illegal crossing attempts on the Greek-Turkish land border, he said, over eight months this year through October  a 45% increase from a year earlier.

The government denies repeated allegations by human rights and migrant advocacy groups that the border interceptions include illegal summary deportations known as pushbacks.

___

Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)  Nigerian security forces are searching for armed gangs who killed 47 people in attacks in recent days in rural areas of the country's northwest, the latest killings in the troubled region.

The attacks took place in the northwest Kaduna state which neighbors Nigerias capital city, Abuja, Kaduna commissioner for security Samuel Aruwan confirmed.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but they are suspected to be by the gangs of bandits who have killed at least 2,500 people in the northwest and central states so far in 2021, according to statistics collated by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. The attacks have escalated in the past three months so the death toll for the entire year is expected to increase.

The armed groups mostly consist of young men from the Fulani ethnic group who had traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and have become caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land.

Security forces deployed after the attacks are patrolling the affected areas, but no arrests have been announced and details are still emerging. Local residents reported that the assailants rampaged for hours in some of the villages.

Nine people were killed across three villaged on Friday, according to Kaduna commissioner Aruwan, a reminder of how the armed groups are able to carry out prolonged assaults in remote locations where help is often delayed as a result of inadequate security presence.

Another 38 people were killed on Sunday by assailants in another part of Kaduna, Aruwan confirmed.

Houses, trucks, and cars were burned, along with agricultural produce at some farms, he said.

The ongoing violence in Nigerias troubled northwestern region has defied measures introduced by authorities including the deployment of thousands of security forces to restore peace in violent hotspots and the recent designation of the armed groups as terrorist organizations.

Part of the problem is that Nigeria's military is already overstretched in a decade-long war against Islamic extremist rebels in the northeast region. The rebels of Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State in West Africa Province are reported to have infiltrated the armed bandits of the northwest as they seek to expand their influence and control, according to local authorities.
EAGLE, Neb. (AP)  Cass County investigators say they are continuing the probe into the February death of an 82-year-old Eagle man.

Gail Lanning's body was discovered Feb. 2. Authorities were contacted by a woman who, along with her husband, had been helping Lanning clean and renovate his home.
DOUGLAS, Ala. (AP)  Northeast Alabama officials continue to investigating a Friday fire that burned a school superintendent's house, saying a home invasion may have taken place as part of the incident.

Local news outlets report Marshall County Superintendent Cindy Wigley's house in Douglas was destroyed by fire Friday.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP)  Former leftist student leader Gabriel Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the country's presidential runoff election.

And he already is under pressure from wary investors, who sent Chile's stocks tumbling by more than 6% on Monday while the value of its peso fell sharply against the dollar.

Boric spent months traversing Chile, vowing to bring a youth-led inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The bold promise paid off. With 56% of the votes, Boric on Sunday handily defeated his opponent, far right lawmaker Jose Antonio Kast, and at age 35 was elected Chile's youngest modern president.

Amid a crush of supporters in downtown Santiago, Boric vaulted atop a metal barricade to reach the stage where he used the indigenous Mapuche language to initiate a victory speech to thousands of mostly young supporters.

We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business, Boric said. We know there continues to be justice for the rich, and justice for the poor, and we no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chiles inequality.

In his speech, the bearded, bespectacled president-elect highlighted the progressive positions that launched his improbable campaign, including a promise to fight climate change by blocking a proposed mining project in the worlds largest copper producing nation.

He also called for an end to Chiles private pension system  the hallmark of the neoliberal economic model imposed by Pinochet.

Chile's main stock market index slid by more than 6% Monday while the peso fell against the dollar.

Economists said Boric will have to propel economic growth and investment to finance promised social spending.

If the capacity for growth is not stimulated, you could have a high level of social discontent over the lack of opportunities, said Juan Bravo, an economic analyst at the Diego Portales University.

His ambitious agenda is made more challenging by a gridlocked congress and ideological divisions recalling the ghosts of Chile's past that came to the fore during the bruising campaign.

Kast, who has a history of defending Chiles past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two percentage points in the first round of voting last month. But his attempt to portray his rival as a puppet of his Communist Party allies who would upend Latin America's most stable, advanced economy fell flat in the head-to-head runoff

Still, in a model of democratic civility that broke from the polarizing rhetoric of the campaign, Kast immediately conceded defeat, tweeting a photo of himself on the phone congratulating his opponent on his grand triumph. He then later traveled personally to Boric's campaign headquarters to meet with his rival.

And outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire, held a video conference with Boric to offer his government's full support during the three-month transition. That will follow a runoff that saw 1.2 million more Chileans cast ballots than in the first round and raise turnout to nearly 56%, the highest since voting stopped being mandatory in 2012.

Its impossible not to be impressed by the historic turnout, the willingness of Kast to concede and congratulate his opponent even before final results were in, and the generous words of President Pinera, said Cynthia Arnson, head of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center in Washington. Chilean democracy won today, for sure.

In Santiago's subway, where a fare hike in 2019 triggered a wave of nationwide protests that exposed the shortcomings of Chile's free market model, young supporters of Boric waved flags emblazoned with the candidate's name while jumping and shouting as they headed downtown for his victory speech.

This is a historic day, said Boris Soto, a teacher. We've defeated not only fascism, and the right wing, but also fear.

Boric will become Chiles youngest modern president when he takes office in March and only the second millennial to lead in Latin America, after El Salvadors Nayib Bukele. Only one other head of state, Giacomo Simoncini of the city-state San Marino in Europe, is younger.

The new government is likely to be closely watched throughout Latin America, where Chile has long been a harbinger of regional trends.

It was the first country in Latin America to break with U.S. dominance during the Cold War and pursue socialism with the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. It then reversed course a few years later when Pinochets coup ushered in a period of right-wing military rule that quickly launched a free market experiment throughout the region.

Borics goal is to introduce a European-style social democracy that would expand economic and political rights to attack nagging inequality without veering toward the authoritarianism embraced by so much of the left in Latin America, from Cuba to Venezuela. Its a task made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic, which sped up the reversal of a decade of economic gains.

Boric was able to prevail by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas. For example, in the northern region of Antofagasta, where he finished third in the first round of voting, he trounced Kast by almost 20 points.

Also key to his victory were Chilean women, a key voting bloc who feared that a Kast victory would roll back years of steady gains. Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine, has a long record of attacking Chiles LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws.

Boric, in his victory speech, promised that Chile's women will be protagonists in a government that seeks to leave behind once and for all the patriarchal inheritance of our society.

___

Joshua Goodman reported from Miami.
HAUGHTON, La. (AP)  A northwest Louisiana firefighter died Saturday after a tire he was maintaining on a fire truck exploded.

The South Bossier Parish Fire District No. 2 said 28-year-old Jessie Henry died at one the district's stations around 9 a.m. Saturday while working on the tire.

Henry was airlifted to a local hospital, where he later died.

Family members told KSLA-TV that a tire sensor hit Henry in the head.

Henry had been a firefighter in the district for four years, relatives said. He served in the U.S. Army before that.

Henry was also a mixed martial arts fighter seeking a professional career.

He is survived by his 9-year-old daughter.
BUTTE, Mont. (AP)  Two Montana men face charges in the alleged murder of a 42-year-old man in Butte.

William Harris died Sunday night following a reported shooting at a house in the western Montana city.

The two defendants, both 32 years old and from Butte, appeared Tuesday before Justice Court Judge Ben Pezdark on charges of deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary, The Montana Standard reported.

Charging documents say the defendants entered Harris' house and one of them shot him, and that a second victim was assaulted with a stun gun.

Deliberate homicide carries a potential sentence of death, life in prison or a minimum of 10 years in prison.

If convicted aggravated burglary charge, the defendants could receive prison terms of not less than 40 years.

Bond was set at $250,00 for each man.
A man who joined a mob in one of the most violent attacks on police during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Monday to nearly four years in prison.

Devlyn Thompson, 28, wrote an apology letter to the officer whom he assaulted during a melee in a tunnel where police battled with dozens of rioters for more than two hours. He also expressed remorse for his actions in a letter to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced him to three years and 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The attack on the Capitol that day was an attack on the very rule of law in our country, Lamberth said.

Justice Department prosecutors recommended a four-year prison sentence for Thompson, a longtime resident of Washington state who moved to Georgia approximately six months before the riot.

Defense attorney Elizabeth Kelley requested a one-year prison sentence for Thompson. He has autism spectrum disorder and functions in many ways as a young child, Kelley wrote in a court filing. She said Thompson's condition influenced his behavior on Jan. 6 and distorted his understanding of what happened that day.

Autism is not and should not be an excuse for bad behavior, but rather, it should be considered when a person's individual culpability and degree of social understanding is called into question, she wrote.

The judge also said autism isn't an excuse for assaulting a police officer. He noted that Thompson had a job that paid him $90,000 a year before the riot.

Thompson has been jailed since he pleaded guilty in August to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a metal baton. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, but sentencing guidelines for Thompson's case recommended a prison sentence ranging from 46 to 57 months.

Prosecutors say one of the most violent confrontations on Jan. 6 was in the tunnel, where a mob and police fought for control of a Capitol entrance in an area known as the Lower West Terrace. Surveillance video captured Thompson with more than 190 other rioters in the tunnel. He struck a police officers hand with a baton that he found in the tunnel. Others assaulted police with poles, sticks and other makeshift weapons.

Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone told a congressional committee in July that the fight in the tunnel was nothing short of brutal." He was pulled into the mob, beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun.

I observed approximately 30 police officers standing shoulder to shoulder, maybe four or five abreast, using the weight of their bodies to hold back the onslaught of violent attackers. Many of these officers were injured, bleeding and fatigued, but they continued to hold the line, Fanone testified.

Before he assaulted the officer, Thompson helped the mob take riot shields from officers and brought them forward for other rioters to use against police, according to prosecutors. He also joined the mob in pushing together against the front line of officers and threw a large audio speaker that struck another rioter in the head, drawing blood, prosecutors said.

Thompsons actions on Jan. 6 "show an absolute disregard for the rule of law coupled with a willingness to incite and engage in violence," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Thompson, who worked for a rental property management company, drove to Washington, D.C., from Atlanta. He didn't enter the Capitol before he left.

In his apology letter to the officer, Thompson said he is still trying to understand his inexcusable behavior on Jan. 6.

You deserve to be treated with respect and I didnt show you any with my actions that day, Thompson wrote.

Thompson is the third rioter to be sentenced for assaulting police at the Capitol. The other two, Robert Palmer and Scott Fairlamb, were sentenced to prison terms of 63 months and 41 months, respectively.

More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 150 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment. Nearly 70 defendants have been sentenced.
NASHVILLE, Mich. (AP)  Moo-ville Creamery, the Nashville, Michigan-based dairy company with three locations across mid-Michigan, makes some of the best chocolate ice cream in the United States, according to the North American Ice Cream Association.

The family owned company won a blue ribbon last month at ConeCon, NICRAs annual trade show and ice cream competition. It also received a red ribbon for vanilla and a white ribbon for strawberry, the second- and third-place awards for those flavors respectively, the Lansing State Journal reports.

This years competition was the largest attended in recent history, according to NICRA.

Troy Westendorp, who heads ice cream production, said Moo-ville employees attended the convention in years past, but this was their first time entering the competition. To score high honors immediately was humbling, he said.

We started off as nothing, he said. My parents grew up as dairy farmers. And for us to take our own cows milk and turn it into award-winning ice cream, it just puts a stamp on everything. It kind of justifies all that weve sacrificed over these years to get where were at, and were excited for the future.

So what makes Moo-villes chocolate ice cream so utterly delicious? Westendorp said its all in the ingredients. The company uses granulated sugar instead of corn syrup, which thickens the ice cream.

They also push the percentage of butterfat  the natural fat used in ice cream  up to about 16-17%.

(Its) the most expensive part of the ice cream, but the more cream that you put in the ice cream, the smoother finish you get at the end, Westendorp said.

Since news of Moo-villes victory broke, Westendorp said shops have already seen an influx of customers seeking a scoop of their commendable chocolate flavor.

We knew it was coming, so we stocked up quite a bit on inventory.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Republican state representative has introduced legislation that would ban nearly all abortions in Missouri, mirroring a new Texas law.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the bill introduced Thursday by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold would prohibit the termination of a pregnancy once cardiac activity is detected in an embryo, usually around six weeks and before some women are aware they are pregnant.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  The commissions in charge of redrawing Missouri's state House and Senate districts based on new census data are pushing up against a constitutional deadline to agree on tentative maps for next year's elections.

The separate commissions, each consisting of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, both met Monday without voting on proposed districts. Instead, they agreed to meet again Thursday, which is the deadline to submit a tentative redistricting plan the secretary of state's office.

If either commission fails to agree on a plan, then redistricting for that legislative chamber would be done by a panel of judges.

The House commission, at least publicly, had made more progress than the Senate commission when they met Monday. Republican and Democratic caucuses had publicly exchanged several versions of maps and generally agreed on how to divide many rural parts of the state.

That's partly because a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year diminished the potential to carve up sparsely populated counties. It places a priority on keeping counties and municipalities intact in districts, relegating partisan fairness and competitiveness to a lower priority than had originally been approved in a separate 2018 constitutional amendment.

The Republican and Democratic House redistricting plans differ on how to divide Boone County, home of Columbia, and Greene County, home of Springfield. In both cases, the urban cores of those cities include more Democratic voters while the rest of those counties include more Republican voters.

Whereas Republican commissioners have proposed a new House map for the entire state, Democratic commissioners on Monday still had not put forth details on how they would prefer to divide up St. Louis County and Jackson County, which includes much of Kansas City.

Im still hopeful that we can come to an agreement on a map on Thursday, said Jerry Hunter, the Republican chair of the House commission.

But some commissioners have floated an idea of submitting two tentative maps to the secretary of state. Although Hunter said he believes the constitution requires one tentative map, he said those proposing the dual map option believe it could satisfy the initial deadline. The commission then could proceed to a public hearing before facing a Jan. 23 deadline to approve a final map with the support of at least 14 of the 20 commissioners.

During the Senate commission meeting, which occurred immediately after the House one, a Democratic commissioner suggested that the Senate panel was unlikely to reach an agreement by Thursday and should also consider submitting two maps. But Marc Ellinger, the Republican chair of the Senate panel, said it was too soon to give up on an agreement.

Were committed to negotiating, Ellinger said. Weve got three solid days that we should negotiate as hard and fast as we can.

Ellinger shared a proposed Senate map Monday with Democrats, who said they would need at least a day to come up with alternatives.

Missouri's redistricting commissions don't have a very successful track record.

Judges had to draw Missouris House maps in 2011 and 2001 after commissioners failed to agree on a plan. Judges also had to draw Senate maps every decade since the 1980s, though their 2011 map got overturned by the state Supreme Court. After the court ruling, a second bipartisan commission was formed and completed the Senate redistricting in 2012.

The commissions are not responsible for redistricting Missouri's eight U.S. House seats. That job is to be done by state lawmakers when they convene their annual session in January.
BANGKOK (AP)  A Myanmar court on Monday postponed to Dec. 27 the issuing of verdicts in the latest of a series of cases against the countrys ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a legal official knowledgeable about the case said.

The postponed verdict from the court in the capital, Naypyitaw, is for the second among multiple cases brought against the 76-year-old Nobel laureate since the army seized power on Feb. 1, ousting her elected government and arresting top members of her National League for Democracy party.

No reason was given for the postponement, according to a legal official who insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities, who have restricted the release of information about Suu Kyis trials.

She is accused of importing and possessing walkie-talkies without following official procedures.

The radios that are the focus of the case were seized from the entrance gate of her residence and the barracks of her bodyguards during a search on Feb. 1, the day she was arrested.

The charge under the Export-Import Law of having improperly imported the walkies-talkies was the first filed against her and served as the initial justification for her continued detention. The charge of illegally possessing the radios was filed the following month.

Suu Kyis lawyers argued that the radios were not in her personal possession and were legitimately used to help provide for her security, but the court declined to dismiss the charges against her.

Suu Kyi on Dec. 6 was convicted on two other charges, incitement and breaching COVID-19 restrictions, for which she was sentenced to a total of four years imprisonment. The head of the military-installed government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, reduced the sentence by half after it was issued by giving her a partial pardon.

Suu Kyis supporters and rights groups say the cases against her have been contrived by the military to discredit her and end her political career while justifying its takeover. If found guilty of all the charges she faces, Suu Kyi could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.

Februarys seizure of power was met by nonviolent nationwide demonstrations, which security forces quashed with deadly force. More than 1,300 civilians have been killed, according to a detailed tally compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Peaceful protests have continued, but armed resistance has also grown under the severe crackdown, to the point that U.N. experts have warned the country may be sliding into civil war.
As it seeks answers about the cosmos and what they mean for Earth's origins, NASA on Friday announced a slew of discoveries about Jupiter. And scientists brought home an interstellar tune from the road.

The Juno spacecraft is gathering data about the origin of the solar system's biggest planet - in which more than 1,300 Earths could fit. Among its recent findings are photos from inside the planet's ring, a map of its magnetic field, details of its atmosphere and a trippy soundtrack from a spacecraft's travels around one of its moons.

But it's not exactly a song, or even perceptible to the human ear.

Kevin M. Gill/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

The radio emissions Juno recorded are not what a person would hear if they went to Jupiter - space is a vacuum and does not carry soundwaves like air does on Earth. But the probe zooming through space captured the electric and magnetic emissions that scientists later converted into perceptible sound. Turns out, orbiting Ganymede, which is one of Jupiter's moons and the largest satellite in the solar system, kind of sounds like R2-D2.

Juno, which NASA launched in 2011 and began orbiting Jupiter in July 2016, is the eighth spacecraft to visit Jupiter, and the first to probe below the giant planet's thick gas cover. It fought Jupiter's extreme temperatures and hazardous radiation to survey its north and south poles, chugging along despite a lack of sunshine on its solar panels.

Uncovering the secrets behind Jupiter's workings could shed light on the evolution of other planets and the formation of the solar system itself, said Scott Bolton, the Juno mission's principal investigator.

"We're trying to understand where we came from, how we got here," Bolton told The Washington Post. "And Jupiter is a big part of that story."

To accomplish that objective, the spacecraft has flown across the giant planet, mapping its magnetic field. The mission, which recently completed its 38th orbit, was extended this year to add flybys of Jupiter's moons - such as the one in June that led to the Ganymede audio track. The sound, Bolton said, represents an immersive experience into the mission's travels past the moon for the first time in more than two decades.

Juno also discovered that the planet is being pelted by tiny but powerful particles from Mars. Jupiter's gravity acts like a gate pushing the micrometeorites out of its orbit - similar to how it may have bullied other ancient planets out of the solar system.

Scientists are now setting up to detail Jupiter's ring. Much like Saturn and Uranus, the gas giant has a faint ring of dust created by two of its moons. The spacecraft already took a look at it from inside the ring - an observation that allowed the researchers to see the Perseus constellation from a different perspective.

"What always impresses me is we wind up discovering all kinds of stuff that we never anticipated," said Jack Connerney, Juno's deputy principal investigator.

Jupiter is unlike the eight other planets in our solar system. With the exception of a rocky core, the planet is made of gaseous and liquid elements. Surrounded by electrons, protons and ions that rapidly bounce around, Jupiter's cloud cover has a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen. Its core remains a mystery, but scientists believe a motley of diffused elements that are heavier than helium are at the very center. This configuration paves the way for a dynamo - or the source of a magnetic field - Connerney, an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said.

The result, he said, are "spectacular aurorae, or tremendous depositions of energy." Much like our own Northern Lights, but thousands of times brighter.

With the data generated by Juno, Connerney and his team were able to map Jupiter's magnetic field. Their study also revealed that the dynamo action stems from metallic hydrogen beneath a layer of helium raindrops.

The interior of the planet is dynamic as well. It spins every 10 hours and holds raging wind jets that give Jupiter its Van Gogh-like swirls. Within its southern latitudes, the Great Red Spot is essentially a hurricane that has been observed since the age of Galileo. But scientists have found another formidable patch: the Great Blue Spot.

The Great Blue Spot "is really a magnetic anomaly," said Connerney. Its name stems not from its color but from how magnetic field lines are drawn - sporting blue when they go into the planet. It also offers clues about the planet's workings.

"We actually detected a big change from the beginning of our Juno mission in 2016 to now," he said. "We detected a change in the magnetic field that is equivalent to the eastward drift of the great blue spot in time, very slow about four centimeters per second but fast enough to circle the planet in about 350 years."

The Great Blue Spot is being pulled away by Jupiter's jet streams - a pattern that shows that the planet's winds extend down much deeper than they originally believed. The discovery of the anomaly getting turned around, Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, could shed light into one of the biggest questions scientists are hoping to answer: How does Jupiter's atmosphere work?

"This is really the first time that we've seen a magnetic field getting affected by the atmosphere," he said. "It really demonstrates that its deep atmosphere is very dynamic, much more than people had thought."

Uncovering Jupiter's secrets, said Bolton, is a humbling experience - one that can make us feel like tiny specks but also reminds us of how much there is left to explore.

"Throughout history we often thought of ourselves as the center of everything because, in a sense, you're looking out right from your own eyes and your own brain," Bolton said. "But there are many things out there."

- - -

Video link: NASA shares extraordinary sounds from Jupiter's orbit

https://wapo.st/3GWjzlS
At least 48 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas cruise ship that docked in Miami on Saturday, the company said, as the omicron variant continues to spread around the world.

The sprawling ship, which boasts a nightclub, theater and more than 30 restaurants and bars, left Miami on Dec. 11 for a seven-day trip and made a handful of stops, including the Caribbean islands of St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

Coronavirus regulations stipulated by the company meant that all travelers over the age of 12 had to be fully vaccinated and produce a negative test result before the voyage. Cruise companies tightened their protocols this summer - requiring pre-cruise tests for everyone, not just unvaccinated passengers - due to the delta variant surge.

The company said it did not have plans to cancel any of its upcoming cruises.

Regarding a separate cruise, "we were notified by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] that a guest on board our [December] 4th cruise tested positive and it was identified as omicron," Royal Caribbean spokesperson Lyan Sierra-Caro told USA Today.

The CDC said it was aware of the Symphony of the Seas outbreak and was working with Royal Caribbean to "gather more information about the cases and possible exposures." Officials said specimens would be taken for genetic sequencing.

More than 6,000 passengers and crew members were on the Dec. 11 cruise, the company said, adding that those who tested positive were immediately isolated to prevent the spread of infection. The cruise line said they were either asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms.

Some of the ship's passengers criticized the company's handling of the outbreak, saying they had been given a false sense of security after the cruise was advertised as safe by officials who hailed their testing capabilities.

"They failed their own safety standards," James Johnson, who stayed on the ship with family members, told the Miami Herald, as other passengers reported that they had received conflicting advice from overwhelmed staffers amid the outbreak about testing and whether they needed to quarantine.

The World Health Organization warned Sunday that cases of the omicron variant are spreading "significantly faster" than the delta variant, raising fresh concerns for economies along with retail, travel and hospitality sectors around the world - which are still reeling from restrictions and shutdowns sparked at the beginning of the health crisis.

The outbreak on the Royal Caribbean ship has thrust cruise liners back into the spotlight.

In March 2020, the industry in the United States went dark as the CDC announced a "no sail order," which was upheld for more than a year. In June 2021, Celebrity Edge began sailing again, making it the first big vessel to depart from a U.S. port since the pandemic shutdown.

Covid cases were discovered on ships since the earliest days of the comeback, but they were often limited to a couple per cruise. In recent months, cruise lines have reported larger outbreaks: 27 on a Carnival ship in August, 17 on a Norwegian sailing earlier this month and now at least 48 on Symphony of the Seas, one of the largest ships in the world.

The CDC said last month that cruise companies had reported 1,359 cases - many involving fully vaccinated crew or passengers - on ships sailing from the U.S. between June 26 and Oct. 21. During that time, cruise lines said there were 49 hospitalizations and 38 medical evacuations due to covid-19 or covid-like illnesses, with one person dying after testing positive during a cruise.

"The resumption of passenger voyages in the U.S. has led to the introduction and sustained transmission of covid-19 among cruise ships, despite high vaccination rates among both crew and passengers," the agency said in its report.

- - -

The Washington Post's Hannah Sampson contributed to this story
NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  New Jerseys largest city is requiring that masks be worn in all public indoor spaces as coronavirus cases rise.

Mayor Ras Baraka issued an executive order Monday effective immediately that requires residents and visitors to the city to be masked when in public buildings. It also requires bar patrons to be seated and to wear a mask except when in the act of eating or drinking.
At the start of the pandemic, the need for the food that Jaron Barganiers nonprofit provides to children throughout Texas exploded.

Not only did many children lose the free breakfasts and lunches they had normally received at their schools, which were closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. What's more, Barganiers nonprofit, Be a Champion, lost its access to those schools  and, more important to the food supplies, their refrigerators and freezers  as distribution hubs.

With demand having more than tripled to about 100,000 meals a day, Barganier turned for help to The PepsiCo Foundations Food for Good.

They basically created a way for us to serve our kids outside, said Barganier, Be a Champions CEO. When they learned some of these families dont even have access to refrigeration at home, they created a shelf-stable menu of products.

The PepsiCo Foundation says that as it built out its Food For Good program across America, it focused on addressing individual communities needs. And it plans to continue that focus as it expands Food For Good around the world, hoping to feed 50 million people by 2030.

Jon Banner, president of the PepsiCo Foundation and executive vice president of PepsiCo global communications, said the company and its philanthropic arm want to combat the worlds hunger crisis, which was severely exacerbated by the pandemic.

Roughly 800 million people around the world suffer from hunger, Banner said. Its a tragedy that doesnt need to happen. We had made so much progress, but I think, in one year, the pandemic has set us back 15 years.

The PepsiCo Foundation has pledged $100 million in new food security initiatives and sustainable agriculture development by 2030. It has also expanded its work with the United Nations World Food Programme, pledging additional money to create a multi-country partnership in the Middle East and North Africa to secure food for communities affected by climate change.

Like a growing number of corporations, PepsiCo plans to offer its business knowhow to nonprofits around the world, in addition to its money. Banner said PepsiCos agronomists and supply chain experts work with farmers around the world to try to increase their crop yields and make them more sustainable, which benefits both the businesses and the communities.

The leveraging of PepsiCo business knowledge for its foundations nonprofit partners will continue both in the United States and internationally.

Silvia Cruz-Vargas, The PepsiCo Foundations director of international programs, said the organization has similar goals in all its markets.

We talk about access to food security, access to water and access to economic opportunity as our three main pillars, she said. One goes hand-in-hand with the other ones when you are able to cover the most basic needs of those communities in which we live and work.

Expanding the Food For Good program globally will combine what the foundation has learned with its Access to Water initiatives in the past 12 years with what it has learned in America in its food programs, Cruz-Vargas said. But one thing the foundation has learned is that every community is different.

It doesnt mean that we are going to copy and paste a solution that is particularly relevant in North America in countries where that may not be applicable, she said. We have an outstanding network of local partners that are embedded within the fabric of the communities in which we operate.

Be a Champions Barganier said Food For Goods operational help has already directed his nonprofit to expand to new areas.

Founded in 2001 to help underprivileged youth in the Houston area, Be a Champion started with in-school tutoring and afterschool programs, as well as college outreach to introduce teenagers to university campus life. The nonprofit expanded into the distribution of food to the students once it realized how many of them weren't getting enough to eat. That led to its partnership with PepsiCos Food for Good in 2015 and helped Be a Champion grow into Texas second-largest nonprofit meal provider, offering millions of meals each year.

With the help of Food for Good, Barganier hopes to bring food to more communities in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as East Texas. But he is also looking forward to seeing the program expand around the world to help others.

Theyre going to do very well globally because they have the ability to adapt, Barganier said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (AP)  A person is dead after being shot by a deputy sheriff in southeast Missouri.

KFVS-TV reports that the shooting happened Sunday afternoon in Butler County. Sheriff Mark Dobbs said authorities were called to a report of a sexual assault. Dobbs said one deputy and four emergency services workers were inside the home when someone began firing a handgun.
PARSONS, Kan. (AP)  Authorities are crediting a quick-thinking deputy with saving the life of a woman who was struck by a train in southeastern Kansas.

The Labette County sheriff's office said in a Facebook post that Deputy Gabe Vitt was in Parsons when he heard dispatchers tell emergency crews that the woman had been hit late Sunday while on foot.
NEW YORK (AP)  There is no mention of holiday or Christmas in lyrics to the song, White Winter Hymnal. Or winter, for that matter. There is a reference to snow, turned red as strawberries in the summertime  presumably, by blood.

Nonetheless, the song has become a modern holiday standard, sung by children's choirs in countless school assemblies. Its plays on Spotify  more than 180 million for the two most popular versions  spike on Christmas Eve.

The story of White Winter Hymnal is a reminder of how songs can take journeys in the public consciousness that even their composers can't fathom.

The universe has a sense of humor. Sometimes there's just these little cosmic flukes, said Robin Pecknold, who wrote it when he was 20 years old, sitting on a couch at his parents' house as The Simpsons played on TV in the background. He was trying to wrap up music for the debut album of his band, Fleet Foxes.

Pecknold estimates it took about 20 minutes.

The result is a composition of simple, ethereal beauty. It consists of a single verse, sung three times in a round or perpetual canon style, with multiple voices repeating the same melody at a different starting point ("I was following the...")

The melody ascends to a peak then tumbles down, much like the song's character, Michael, falls in the snow. In less than two and a half minutes, it's done.

White Winter Hymnal received some notice in the alternative rock world when released in the summer of 2008. Pitchfork magazine named the song its No. 2 favorite track of the year, with critic Stephen Deusner writing, its meaning may remain unclear after so many listens  something about the passage of seasons  but its spell remains as strong as ever.

An aspiring actor, John Frank Lyke, was so obsessed with White Winter Hymnal that he made a homemade video featuring a couple walking in the woods through a newly-fallen snow. They come to a clearing overlooking Lake Champlain and when Pecknold sings the word summertime, the scene abruptly switches seasons. Bathed in warm sun, the couple leap into the lake.

The song has this kind of magic winter wonderland feeling, Lyke said. It reminded me of midnight mass when I would go with my family.

Pecknold didn't have the holidays in mind when writing. But other artists began covering White Winter Hymnal and one, Kim Wilde, put her version on a 2013 holiday-themed album. Pentatonix did the same a year later for their album, That's Christmas to Me.

That's when the song really took on a new life. Pentatonix's video of White Winter Hymnal has been seen more than 96 million times on YouTube; F leet Foxes' own video, a Claymation scene made by Robin's brother, Sean, has 23 million views.

In some respects, the song changed both context and ownership: Google 'White Winter Hymnal' lyrics" and it's described as a Pentatonix song.

The performance by a vocal band with a young following led to its notice by choir directors around the world.

When choir groups do it, it's so charming to me, Pecknold said. It is kind of heartwarming when someone will say to me, Im at my kid's recital and they're doing your song,' and they'll send me a video. That's really sweet, to think it's living in that world. Nothing beats that.

When Pecknold checks the Spotify metrics for his song, the plays tend to increase with the onset of autumn, building to the outsized Christmas Eve peak then falling off dramatically.

Holiday songs tend to lean into a certain kind of musical nostalgia, referencing the acoustic timbral palette of the holiday recorded canon, from Bing Crosby to Eartha Kitt, said Nathaniel Sloan, musicologist at the University of Southern California and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast. "The acoustic-folk sound of Fleet Foxes is well-suited to these nostalgic tones.

In addition, the song reaches back to deeper Christmas traditions in its carol-like vocal approach, with its layered melodies that stack upon one another, Sloan said.

Then you listen closely to the lyrics:

I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied round their throats to keep their little heads from fallin' in the snow, and I turned 'round and there you go, and Michael you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime.

One theory on the Internet is that White Winter Hymnal is about decapitation, with the red scarf a supposed reference to the French Revolution. Michael is being led to the guillotine.

Could that be true? What is the song about anyway?

Pecknold pauses at the question.

That's another funny aspect of it, he said, is that it's kind of vaguely not about anything.

One common theme of songs on Fleet Foxes' debut was keeping family and friends together as people grew and changed, and that was in his mind as he wrote. While he concedes that the most literal image may be a boy falling down a hill and dying, Pecknold said the song is definitely NOT about decapitation.

The words being vaguely dark was kind of cutting the sweetness of the melody, he said. That dissonance was interesting. At this point, I'm writing songs with the expectation that I'll have to defend them in some way. But at the time, I definitely was not.

The ambiguity and potential darkness certainly make it a stark departure, Sloan said. While heartache is a common theme for some holiday standards, most evoke a warm sense of family and good cheer.

He expects White Winter Hymnal to have staying power, though.

Not only is it a joy to listen to, it's a joy to perform  the chord structure is relatively simple and easy to learn, the unique vocal lines lend themselves to group singing and the lyrical repetition makes it easy for anyone to join in and sing along, Sloan said.

The song gets more attention each year; Spotify said it was streamed 30% more this September and October than in 2020, almost at previous December levels. The Pentatonix recording provided Pecknold a windfall as a songwriter that he largely plowed back into music. This season it's being used in commercials for the Spanish lottery. The potential for earnings only figures to increase.

He marvels at the randomness of it all.

That's the funny thing about this  spending years making music, writing songs, thinking it's all about hard work and putting the hours in, he said. To a large degree it is, but then you'll get this random scratch card one day and find the song that ends up, kind of accidentally, being your most well-known.

Fleet Foxes just released a new album, A Very Lonely Solstice, a live recording that features songs meant to evoke a seasonal feel without being explicitly about the holidays.

White Winter Hymnal, however, is not included.

That's a Christmas song at this point, Pecknold said with a laugh.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russia on Monday ordered two German diplomats to leave in response to the expulsion of two Russian envoys after a German court's ruling that blamed Moscow for the killing of a Chechen man in Berlin two years ago.

Moscow has angrily rejected the Berlin court's verdict and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador Monday to inform him about the diplomats' expulsion in what it said was a symmetrical response to the unfriendly decision by the German government.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to work following a week of isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, his office announced Monday.

Ramaphosa had mild symptoms and was treated at his official residence in Cape Town by South Africa's military health service as the country battled a wave of the virus dominated by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

President Ramaphosa repeats his call for everyone in the country to stay safe by being vaccinated, wearing face masks, washing or sanitizing hands frequently, maintaining a social distance and avoiding gatherings, his office said in a statement.

Ramaphosa is set to chair the last cabinet meeting of the year on Wednesday this week, the statement said.

In the last 24 hours, South Africa has reported 15,465 new COVID-19 infections and three deaths. South Africa's 7-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 16.9 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 5 to 33.8 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 19.

Although South Africa's new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have surged since mid-November, the numbers of those hospitalized and those who have died have not followed the same upward trajectory.

As the country approaches the holiday season, during which many industries close and there is widespread travel to visit families, the vaccination drive appears to have stalled.

South Africa has administered over 27 million vaccine doses so that more than 38% of its adult population has been vaccinated, according to official statistics. The country has an estimated 19 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but the pace of vaccinations has dropped drastically from an average of about 120,000 per day in November to less than 20,000 per day last week. Just over 5,000 jabs were given in the last 24 hours. South Africa's target of vaccinating 70% of its population by the end of the year appears unattainable.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  Teachers, bus drivers and other support staff are quitting their jobs in Las Vegas-area schools, compounding the problems facing students and employees in the Clark County School District nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic.

The vacancies have forced administrators to divert classroom aides from their roles helping students overcome learning loss to empty classrooms, increased class sizes due to lack of licensed teachers and forced principals to take up cleaning duties in schools without enough janitors, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Quite honestly, there just doesnt seem to be any relief in sight, said Darryl Wyatt, principal at Bailey Middle School in Las Vegas. "Its definitely taking a toll on everybody.

As schools prepare to confront the spread of new coronavirus variants, staffing will be a central concern for those aiming to keep doors open for in-person learning. Schools throughout the country have already canceled classes, incorporated remote learning and returned to hybrid models and, in Massachusetts, even enlisted the National Guard to staff school buses to fill vacant driver positions.

In Nevada, where K-12 student performance has long been near the bottom of the nation's rankings, the staffing shortages are reversing progress made to reduce inequality, decrease class size and provide supplemental assistance to struggling students.

Schools in more affluent parts of Clark County such as Henderson told the Review-Journal that they weren't experiencing staffing problems like their counterparts in north and east Las Vegas. The newspaper reported that teaching vacancies had spiked by more than 21% in the 40,000-employee district since the start of the school year. The district now has 850 licensed employee vacancies, 240 vacant bus driver positions and 731 support staff vacancies are listed on its website.

At school board meetings, the district has reported losing more teachers and administrators than it has been able to hire. Teachers have pointed to overcrowded classes and lacking COVID-19 safety protocols as reasons for low morale.

Wyatt, the principal at Bailey Middle School, said staffing issues require him to combine two or three classrooms and move students into larger spaces like a gym or library. Employees who normally work as counselors or administrators roam the spaces to help students working through online lesson plans while a teacher works through a lesson plan with a smaller group of students.

Students often have to wait up to 75 minutes for the bus home due to the driver shortage.

Principals throughout the area say they're worried about growing class sizes, not being able to help students who fell behind while at home last year and maintaining a safe environment to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

They're emptying trash cans at night because custodians who remain are already working overtime and principals are also donning hairnets and serving lunch to make up for a lack of cafeteria workers.

I like serving lunch, so thats alright, said Spring Valley High School Principal Tara Powell.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) 

The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia says its fighters outside of the region have been ordered to withdraw and return to the embattled federal state.

Debretsion Gebremichael, in a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, proposed an immediate cease-fire to be followed by negotiations.

I have ordered those units of the Tigray Army that are outside the borders of Tigray to withdraw to the borders of Tigray within immediate effect, Debretsion said in the letter.

Other proposals in the letter include the establishment of a no-fly zone for over Tigray to prevent hostile flights and the imposition of an international arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The order for the forces to return to Tigray came as the Ethiopian federal army and its allies have made strong advances in recent weeks. Major towns and cities in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions have been recaptured by the Ethiopian forces, forcing the Tigray fighters to retreat further into their region.

Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray region, confirmed on Monday the withdrawal was complete. By doing so, we believe we have taken away whatever excuse the international community (may have used) to explain its feet-dragging when it comes to putting pressure on Aiby Ahmed, he wrote on Twitter, referring to the Ethiopian prime minister.

The Ethiopian government has not yet commented on the latest move by Tigrayan forces.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a war that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian forces and fighters from the countrys Tigray region, who dominated the national government before Abiy became prime minister in 2018.

Some of Tigrays 6 million people have begun starving to death under a months-long government blockade. Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been detained or forcibly expelled in an atmosphere stoked by virulent speeches against Tigrayans by some senior Ethiopian officials. Alarmed human rights groups have warned some of the anti-Tigrayan rhetoric is hate speech.

Last month, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency as Tigray fighters moved closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, and carried out a number of abuses against ethnic Amhara, according to accounts by local residents. The Tigray forces say they are fighting to lift the blockade on their people.

The Tigray forces have suffered a number of challenges and setbacks in their attempt to control the Djibouti road and then move to Addis Ababa, said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. It is very important at this point that all actors take the opportunity to stop the fighting and try to reestablish some trust.

Davison said the Ethiopian governments military strength may have been strengthened by aerial drones newly purchased for the federal military from China and Turkey with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates. Tigray forces appear to be in a weakened position after giving up all the areas they controlled, he said.
LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP)  Two years after Zach Morrisey was shot to death in a Kansas suburb of Kansas City, his relatives say they're still waiting for answers.

Morrisey, of Leawood, Kansas, was killed on Dec. 21, 2019. He was shot on the parking lot of a Leawood apartment complex as he was sitting inside a car with a friend. No arrests have been made. Morrisey was 24.
ATLANTA (AP)  A senator from Georgia has welcomed his first child.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, 34, said on social media Monday that his wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, gave birth Friday to a daughter.

Alisha and I are overjoyed and totally in love with Eva Beth Ossoff, Jon Ossoff said.

Ossoff said his wife and child are both doing well.

Kramer is a medical resident at Emory University. She and Ossoff were married in 2018 after dating in high school and while they attended Georgetown University together.

The first-term Democratic senator won election in a January runoff, unseating Republican David Perdue. Ossoff earlier lost a special U.S. House election against Republican Karen Handel in 2017. During that race, Ossoff lived outside Georgia's 6th Congressional District, saying his wife needed to be close to Emory for her studies.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP)  The Champlain Housing Trust has purchased the Days Inn in Shelburne, its second major acquisition this month and the eighth lodging establishment it has purchased since 2013, the organization said Monday.

The trust's Harbor Place motel will eventually shift operation to the Days Inn site, setting in motion a plan to redevelop the Harbor Place site into nearly 100 affordable homes and rentals that are designed to help ease a housing shortage in the region.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin health officials and Gov. Tony Evers on Monday urged residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and take other precautions, such as wearing masks and keeping holiday gatherings small, as the new omicron variant is expected to create a surge in cases over the coming weeks.

Also Monday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the mask mandate in place in Dane County. The decision to take the case came just after the county health department announced it would be extended into February.

The court's ruling, which is unlikely before summer, would have implications on any orders other counties or local governments may want to put in place. The court this year struck down Evers' statewide mask mandate.

Evers joined with health officials Monday in urging people to take action in the face of the omicron variant.

I urge every Wisconsinite to take immediate action and get the COVID-19 vaccine and your booster dose if you havent received it already  this is critically important for mitigating surges in hospitalizations and deaths across our state, the Democratic governor said in a statement.

The highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 is expected to cause a rapid increase in disease activity in the coming weeks, the state Department of Health Services said in issuing a public health advisory.

There is a serious risk that continued, increased numbers of COVID-19 cases will overwhelm an already strained health care system, leading to dangerous situations where patients experiencing medical emergencies may not be able to receive immediate, adequate, life-saving attention and care due to lack of hospital capacity, Dr. Ryan Westergaard, a chief medical officer with the state health department, said in a public health advisory.

Westergaard urged everyone who can to get vaccinated, including booster shots for those eligible. COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and death from the delta variant, which still accounts for the vast majority of cases, he said. Fully boosted people are protected against serious illness and hospitalization from omicron, which is starting to circulate more widely.

Masks should be worn indoors when with others outside peoples households, and holiday gatherings should be small, Westergaard said. People with COVID-19 symptoms or exposure should get tested.

COVID-19 activity is critically high in 40 of Wisconsins 72 counties and very high in the rest, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Statewide, just over 61% of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and nearly 587% are fully vaccinated. Multiple cases of the omicron variant have been found.

As of Monday, 1,660 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 424 in intensive care, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association

The lawsuit the Supreme Court agreed to hear was brought by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on behalf of two Dane County residents. The court in November 2020 refused to hear it before it worked through the circuit courts first. It agreed to take it Monday after a Dane County judge threw the case out and the plaintiffs asked the court to take it without having to go through the appeals court first.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  In the summer of 2020, Jake Mohr worked as an industrial hemp inspector for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).

Mohr, who lives in Onalaska, said he enjoyed traveling to hemp farms and greenhouses to take plant samples, which he passed along to DATCPs lab in Madison to ensure the crop was within the legal limit of THC.

I enjoyed meeting hemp producers around southwestern Wisconsin and kind of seeing the varied types of operations they have. Its a pretty plant as well, he said.

When DATCP officials announced in September that the state was handing over regulation of the industry to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mohr decided to look into what it takes to become an inspector at the federal level. Mohr said hes currently working for an organic certification company that does work with hemp producers and hes hoping his employer will want to add THC sampling to their services.

Id like to do it again because Ive been working from home for over a year now and Im getting sick of staring out the same window, Mohr said.

Mohr is one of only two USDA-certified hemp sampling agents in Wisconsin, as of Dec. 8. But the states hemp industry will need more people to take up the job in order for the transition to federal regulation in 2022 to be a success, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

DATCP officials recently put out a call encouraging Wisconsin residents to become a certified sampler. According to a spokesperson, DATCP employed five limited-term employees and one full-time sampling coordinator for hemp sampling in 2021 when the state licensed around 800 growers. In 2020, when there were around 1,500 growers, the state employed 14 limited-term sampling employees.

Rob Richard, president of the Wisconsin Hemp Alliance, said the industry will likely need a similar number of private sampling agents in order to keep up with demand.

With several weeks left before the new year, Richard said he isnt worried yet about the lack of agents. He said most growers wont need to start looking for a sampling agent until spring. The hemp industry has always drawn in people with an entrepreneurial spirit, he added.

Ive got to believe that people are going to step forward and find a way to do this because there is money to be made. Its a small-business opportunity for somebody out there who is interested in the hemp world, he said.

Outside of Wisconsin, the closest USDA-certified sampling agents are in Mississippi, North Carolina or Montana. So Richard said whoever does start up a sampling business is almost guaranteed to have customers on top of getting to set their own fees.

Richard said hes confident the free market will lead to the most fair sampling costs for hemp producers in the long run. Instead of being forced to pay the $250 fee set by the states hemp program, producers will be able to shop around for the best price.

But Mohr said he worries the USDAs approach is too reliant on the market to provide required services for growers.

If youve got people up in Rhinelander where the closest sample agent is based in Madison, lets say, and they charge by the mile to get there plus whatever the sample cost is plus the actual processing cost that the lab charges, then you could be looking at a sample cost thats higher than what it was to get certified under (DATCP), Mohr said.

After completing his certification in October, Mohr said he started to worry that he would be the only certified sampling agent in the state when the program transitions to USDA on Jan. 1.

He said there was no cost to go through the online certification, which consisted of several online learning modules that took him about two hours to complete.

Compared to DATCPs three-day, in-person training that he went through in 2020, Mohr said the USDAs program was almost too easy and it doesnt include a lot of direction on how to get started.

Figuring out how do you get there, what are you charging, what kind of lab are you working with, it leaves a lot for the sample agent to figure out when there hasnt been kind of a similar industry in the state of Wisconsin, Mohr said.

He said hes also worried about the implications of traveling around the state with a crop that could potentially have an illegal level of THC in it.

Youre driving around with it in your car, bags of flowers that smell exactly like cannabis. So if you get pulled over, they dont send you a badge or anything. They dont even send you any kind of paperwork. But you have an email that says, Im certified to take hemp samples, Mohr said. It just kind of feels like they gave you some directions and said good luck.

Richard said he isnt surprised to see the USDA take a more relaxed approach than the state did with training sampling agents. He said after the 2018 Farm Bill made industrial hemp a legal agricultural commodity, the agency has been able to start treating hemp almost like any other crop.

They are a federal agency. Their size is huge and I just dont think they can get too into the minutiae of where can we regulate, versus what is the minimum we need to do to ensure that the crop is being tested and is meeting the legal obligations and doing it in a safe way, Richard said.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  A suspected pirate wounded during an exchange of gunfire last month with the Danish navy off West Africa has been transferred to a hospital in Ghana, authorities said.

Four other suspected pirates were killed and three others are in custody after the Nov. 24 incident. The Danish frigate HDMS Esbern Snare was sailing off West Africa on an international anti-piracy mission when it reacted to information that a vessel was approaching several commercial ships in the Gulf of Guinea off oil-rich Nigeria.

The frigate dispatched a Seahawk helicopter, whose crew reported seeing men on the vessel with equipment connected to piracy, including ladders.

A gunbattle ensued shortly after and the Danes reacted in self-defence, the Danish military said in a statement at the time. No Danes were injured. After the exchange of gunfire, the vessel sank and eight suspected pirates were taken onboard Esbern Snare, including one who was wounded and the bodies of the four who were killed.

During a port call in Ghana on Sunday, the wounded man was transferred to a local hospital, where he is being guarded by Ghanaian police, the Danish military said, adding it was no longer considered medically sound to have him on the frigate.

No further details were given and the military didnt say where in Ghana he was transferred.

The Danish military initially said a total of eight pirates were spotted, but now say there was a ninth person. They dont know what happened to the ninth suspected pirate.

The three others in custody face preliminary charges of attempted murder. They are believed to still be on the Danish frigate. A Copenhagen court ordered them held in custody while authorities investigate the case. In Denmark, preliminary charges are one step short of formal charges.

The frigate, which had a crew of about 175, arrived in the Gulf of Guinea in November and will be deployed there for five months.

The Gulf of Guinea is one of the worlds most dangerous waterways with regular kidnappings. In 2019, the region accounted for more than 90% of global crew member abductions.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  A judge on Monday temporarily blocked public charter schools from being implemented in West Virginia.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey granted a preliminary injunction sought by parents in a lawsuit filed against Gov. Jim Justice and leaders of the House of Delegates and state Senate, news outlets reported.

The plaintiffs claim residents should be able to weigh in on any charter school established in their county. They are challenging the authority of the Professional Charter Schools Board, whose members are appointed by the governor.

The board last month approved charter schools in Morgantown, Nitro and Jefferson County, along with two online charter schools.

Bailey said the boards authority to approve new charter schools without input from county voters is contrary to the constitution of this state, and the petitioners have a right to seek redress of legislation that is contrary to the constitution. She said the ruling was not about whether lawmakers had the authority to enact legislation allowing for charter schools.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said he plans to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  West Virginia's Yeager Airport is in line to receive $2.1 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport said.

The funds are from the Airport Infrastructure Grant program under the bipartisan infrastructure plan. More than 3,000 U.S. airports will receive funds from three new aviation programs.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  At the age of 18, while he was driving a van through St. Paul, an acquaintance in Ge Vangs passenger seat pulled out a gun and waved it at a group of five young people.

Vang was later arrested and convicted by jury of aiding and abetting, a felony for which he was sentenced to the 83 days he had already served in jail. That was 25 years ago, and Vang, a construction worker, has since kept his record clean and gone on to raise four children as an active, law-abiding member of Ramsey Countys Hmong community.

But the past has never let him go.

In fact, until this summer, hes spent much of his adult life fearing deportation to Laos, a corner of the world he left in infancy. Its a situation that looms increasingly large for a number of refugees in the Twin Cities who face possible removal even decades after a criminal conviction, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, his former state lobbyist ThaoMee Xiong and multiple state lawmakers from St. Paul have advocated for loosening legal restrictions that make it difficult for immigrants facing deportation to seek post-conviction relief  essentially, revisiting old convictions with the hopes of overturning them, a key step toward ending removal proceedings.

Its an issue with deep ties to a 30-year-old youth crime epidemic that largely subsided by the start of the new millennium. For many immigrants, potential penalties still linger overhead a generation after theyve served their criminal sentence and built stable lives.

Theres a large number of Southeast Asian boys, especially, who were incarcerated in the 80s and 90s, Xiong said. These removal orders are one of the consequences of that mass incarceration.

Minnesota is home to 84,000 Hmong residents, one of the largest concentrations in the United States, and 13,000 Lao residents, the fourth-largest population in the country, with a heavy concentration of both groups in and around St. Paul. About 1 in 5 St. Paul residents is foreign-born.

Vang came to the U.S. with his siblings and parents from a Thai refugee camp in the late 1970s, when he was 8 months old. For his generation, Southeast Asia has been a smattering of colors on a map  almost as foreign as Africa or Europe. His father had been recruited to support Americas Secret War in Laos at the age of 15, and later fled for his life from his Laotian village when the U.S. war effort fell apart.

Vang, who chose not to comment for this story, and his peers grew up with the harrowing stories of the Vietnam War-era sacrifices of their parents, including a mass exodus of Hmong from Laos across the Mekong River to safer ground.

For nearly three decades, a federal removal order hovered over his head. For the past five years, as a result of negotiations between the U.S. and a growing number of nations throughout Southeast Asia, Vang and thousands of other refugees have faced the increased likelihood of being sent back to countries they escaped from decades prior, even as babies or small children.

About a year ago, ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had asked him to apply for a travel document, which was an indication they may attempt to remove him, said Evangeline Dhawan, an attorney with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota who worked on Vangs case.

According to annual reports available from ICE, the vast majority of immigrants apprehended for deportation have criminal convictions or face criminal charges.

The St. Paul field office  which oversees a five-state area  made 3,100 arrests last year, including 2,100 immigrants with criminal convictions and 760 immigrants facing charges.

Were going to focus our resources on those bad apples  the worst of the worst offenders, said Shawn Neudauer, a public affairs officer for ICEs St. Paul field office. (But) just because a person doesnt have a criminal conviction doesnt mean theyre not on our radar.

The most common offense is driving under the influence of alcohol, but even a misdemeanor conviction in a county courthouse can trigger a federal removal order decades after the fact. Its a consequence many refugees over the years were not informed of by their prosecutor, judge or even their own defense attorney at the time they were urged to accept a plea deal in court.

That changed in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Padilla v. Kentucky that counsel must inform a client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation.

Some of these crimes are 20 years old, said Xiong, who recently left St. Paul City Hall to become deputy director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, a St. Paul advocacy organization that played a key role in Vangs successful efforts to get his removal order lifted last July. The majority are 5 to 10 years old.  Almost 100 percent of the time, the individual has served their time for their criminal conviction.

Refugees are sometimes advised by their own attorneys that a guilty plea is the way to go because their home country isnt accepting deportees from the U.S. But the international arena changes with time.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Cambodia began accepting U.S. deportees by the dozens in 2018. Vietnam soon followed, opening its doors for the first time to longstanding refugees who had entered the U.S. before July 12, 1995, the date the U.S. and Vietnam resumed diplomatic ties. Around the same time, federal immigration authorities appeared to step up enforcement.

Among those caught in immigration raids, eight Cambodian men apprehended in 2016 became known as the Minnesota 8 for their longstanding ties to the state. Advocacy groups, wives, siblings and others took up their cause, with mixed results. Of the Minnesota 8, five were deported and three were allowed to remain in the U.S.

Most of the people on that list were pretty violent offenders, Neudauer said.

For Ched Nin, a carpenter who came to the U.S. when he was 6 years old, it was six months in detention, said his wife, Jenny Srey, the founder of the Release Minnesota 8 campaign, which is now an advocacy organization. He was ultimately allowed to stay in the country. Nins criminal history included receiving stolen goods, interfering with a 911 call, assault and other offenses, most of them dating to 2006 to 2010.

Given Hmong efforts over the years to organize against the Communist regime that overthrew the Laotian monarchy in the 1970s, Laos has been more resistant than other nations toward accepting deportees from the U.S., but that could change. During the past three years, Laos has accepted 24 deportations from the U.S., compared to nearly 100 deportations to Burma, 125 to Thailand, more than 200 to Cambodia and nearly 300 to Vietnam.

I think theres a misconception that under President Biden, this will slow down, Xiong said. Hes not given any indication it will slow down. And I think theres a global pandemic hes been very focused on. Theres been no indication by the administration that anything is going to change. Hes been there a full year.

During the past two years, CAAL has backed Vangs efforts to have the courts reopen his 1996 case on the basis that the courts jury instructions failed to properly explain the definition of aiding in an assault.

With the support of Ramsey County Attorney John Chois office and attorney Chang Lau from the Minnesota Public Defenders Appellate Office, a coalition of advocates successfully petitioned Ramsey County Judge JaPaul Harris to vacate his convictions. The ruling came down July 19.

Following a request from the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center and approval by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, an immigration judge then reopened his removal proceedings and terminated them. Usually, the two systems dont talk to each other, said Xiong, calling Vangs case a welcome victory.

I feel like I can finally breathe because I no longer have to live in fear of being deported to Laos, a country I know nothing about, said Vang, in a written statement forwarded by CAAL.

While not unheard of, getting Minnesotas district courts to revisit decades-old convictions is the exception, not the rule.

For most conviction appeals, Minnesota has this strict two-year time limit, Xiong said. Most other states allow a larger window of time for defendants to seek post-conviction relief. A spokesman for the State Court Administrators office said Minnesota receives roughly 400 applications per year, but he said it was not clear how many of those applications result in convictions being vacated.

By state statute, Minnesota courts will consider post-conviction relief after the two-year time limit in five situations, such as in light of newly discovered evidence, bad legal advice or if the criminal defendant was mentally impaired and not competent to enter a plea. Since at least 2019, CAAL has advocated for a sixth exception to be added to state law, which would allow defendants who were not informed of potential immigration consequences to seek relief from wrongful convictions if theyre now facing deportation orders. The final decision over post-conviction relief would still rest with the courts.

In the past three years, legislative bills sponsored by state Rep. Carlos Mariani and Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, both St. Paul DFLers, have repeatedly passed out of committee in the House, with Carter  the St. Paul mayor  offering testimony on behalf of the citys many immigrants during multiple hearings. I think its a no-brainer, said Her, the chief author this year.

Some lawmakers have expressed fear the bill could allow cover for illegal immigrants. Immigration attorney Linus Chan, testifying before a committee of House lawmakers in 2019, said thats not how the bill is structured.

They still must be able to claim that something else was wrong with their (conviction), Chan said. Just facing deportation is not enough. I have to be facing deportation and my original criminal conviction has to be legally suspect or unconstitutional.

Mariani, addressing fellow members of the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division in 2019, said he was advocating for those faced with exile from the only country that theyve ever known  our country.  It does happen. Ive known individuals over the years where that situation has occurred.

Carter at the time noted other immigrant groups, such as Somalis and Liberians, are also vulnerable.

These new Americans came to our country to start a new life and to escape political and religious persecution, the mayor told lawmakers. After decades of making our country their homeland, we are now retraumatizing entire communities.

The proposed legislation has not gained the same traction in the Republican-controlled Senate, despite some bipartisan efforts. Among Republicans, state Sen. Jerry Relph  a St. Cloud lawmaker and Vietnam veteran  had been a supporter. Relph died of COVID in December 2020.

Both locally and nationally, we had a lot of strong allies who had connections to the Vietnam War, and as theyre dying or retiring, that history is not being taken into consideration when making very serious immigration policy, Xiong said. People always say think globally, act locally. And this is a good example.  This bill has allowed us to educate the Legislature about the intersection between our immigration system and our criminal courts.
The Pleasanton City Council will make smoking inside townhomes, condominiums and buildings with three or more attached units illegal on Tuesday.

The council unanimously approved the measure at its Dec. 7 meeting. The council will officially adopt the ordinance on its consent calendar Tuesday.

One of the goals of the council's stated work plan is restricting smoking for multi-family ownership residences to address health impacts of secondhand smoke. The move will add a new chapter to the city's municipal code, applying to both rentals and owner-occupied units.

A memorial organized by several agencies in Santa Cruz County will be held Monday to remember and pay respect to people who died while homeless in 2021.

The Homeless Memorial Gathering is in its 23rd year and is a collaboration with Housing Matters, The County of Santa Cruz Homeless Persons' Health Project and Wings Homeless Advocacy.

It will be open to the public only online via Zoom, after registering at bit.ly/31IfbY2. Directions how to join the event online will be provided when registering.

The California Highway Patrol says the early morning crash early Sunday morning on eastbound I-580 that killed a teenager was not the result of someone driving under the influence.

At 2:35 a.m., CHP officers responded to a three-vehicle crash at the Hopyard Road exit near Pleasanton. Two vehicles were disabled in traffic lanes, and a third vehicle smashed into one of the vehicles "at freeway speeds," engulfing it in flames and killed a 16-year-old male inside.

All lanes of I-580 were closed for two hours for investigators. Police say there was minimal traffic impact, as vehicles were able to exit and re-enter the freeway at Hopyard. The CHP is still investigating.

Rohnert Park police arrested more than a dozen people at a checkpoint Saturday night and Sunday morning set up to check for people driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

Officers were on eastbound Rohnert Park Expressway, near the SMART train tracks, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Police say they contacted 969 vehicles at the checkpoint, where they verified drivers were licensed and issued educational material consisting of the dangers of impaired and unlicensed driving.

Twelve of the 56 drivers sent to a screening area for further evaluation were arrested on suspicion of driving unlicensed or with a suspended or revoked license. All were issued citations and released, with licensed drivers taking the vehicles home.

The Dublin City Council will officially approve Trumark Homes' East Ranch housing development Tuesday night.

The council passed a resolution approving the development's final map on Dec. 7. Tuesday's vote is on the consent calendar and considered a formality.

The development will consist of 573 units on a 165.5-acre site, totaling six neighborhoods and two parks. The project will straddle existing Croak Road with Jordan Ranch to the west, the Positano development to the north, and undeveloped land to the east and south, with Interstate Highway 580 just beyond.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday will announce a statewide action against a major corporation for environmental violations, according to a press release issued from his office Sunday.

Bonta will be joined by Dr. Meredith Williams, the director of California's Department of Toxic Substances Control, and San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar.

The press conference will be streamed live at 11 a.m. on the homepage of the California Department of Justice at www.oag.ca.gov.

The National Weather Service forecast periods of light to moderate rainfall throughout the Bay Area starting Tuesday and lasting through the holiday weekend.

Rain totals should be spread out over the week, which should mitigate major impacts. But forecasters say to be prepared for minor flooding, slick roads, and potential debris flows, especially near burn scars. Much of the Bay Area could see 2-3 inches of rain.

The wet weather will likely impact travel during the busy holiday week, with significant impact at times over the Sierra throughout the week, especially in western Nevada valleys by Christmas Eve.

For updated forecasts and advisories, go to https://www.weather.gov/mtr/.

Police say a 17-year-old boy seriously injured after being stabbed Sunday afternoon while in San Jose has stabilized and is expected to survive his injuries, according to police.

The stabbing was reported at 1:12 p.m. in the 4900 block of the Almaden Expressway in South San Jose, police said. Initially, the victim was reported as having life-threatening injuries.

Police have not made any arrests in connection with the incident, and did not provide additional information about it.

The National Weather Service's forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area calls for a slight chance of rain before sunrise Monday in the North Bay and San Francisco. Daytime highs will range from the low to the mid 50s around the bay. Overnight lows will be in the low to high 40s, with rain anticipated after 4 a.m. Tuesday for most of the Bay Area and later in the morning for the South Bay.

Bay Area residents should expect intermittent periods of light to moderate rain through the holiday weekend, as a series of waves of precipitation move through.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Albert Frey's Cree House is relatively small, but it's huge in terms of midcentury modern architectural significance.

After a masterful restoration, the iconic home is now on the market for $1.85 million.

Built in 1956, it sits on a hillside view lot on the border between Palm Springs and Cathedral City. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,124-square-foot home was intentionally designed to fit into and complement the hillside,

However, the hillside wasn't initially sought as a home site.

In 1947, the site's owner, Raymond Cree, a former school superintendent who became a real estate developer, hired Frey to build a stylish boutique resort on the property. Frey drew up remarkable plans for the facility, but the resort was never built.

Instead, Cree had Frey design a more humble midcentury masterpiece, which Cree moved into at age 82.

Albert Frey's Cree House near Palm Springs, CA Realtor.com

Cree House Realtor.com

Since it was built in 1956, only a few owners have followed Cree.

The home, a true oasis, is supported by distinctive steel pipe columns and features floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the desert below.

Steel-pipe column supports Realtor.com

The most recent owner inherited the property from his father and remembered visiting it as a child. He's spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort to restore the home, and even its appliances, to their original glory.

Case in point: a fascinating GE refrigerator, artfully disguised as three kitchen cabinets hanging over the Formica kitchen counter.

Kitchen with horizontal refrigerator Realtor.com

General Electric manufactured this distinctive fridge in the 1950s as a novelty luxury. In addition to copper, it also came in teal and pink.

To restore the horizontal appliance to working condition, a machinist was hired to rebuild the refrigerator compressor. A local auto repair shop repainted the enamel door panels, and a plastics expert rebuilt the plastic shelves inside.

It's now restored to its Atomic Age glory, and it would be difficult to find another fridge like it anywhere else in the world.

In the listing photos, you'll also notice a device in the kitchen with a porthole. It is not a washing machine, but a Western Holly gas oven, also restored.

Kitchen with restored appliances Realtor.com

The vast majority of the interior wood paneling was also removed and restored.

Restored wood paneling Realtor.com

Master bedroom Realtor.com

The vibrant yellow fiberglass panels that wrap the spacious outdoor deck that extends off the living room have also been restored to their original condition.

They were built using state-of-the-art industrial materials seven decades ago, and were considered quite artistic and cutting-edge at the time.

Deck with yellow fiberglass surround Deck off the living room Realtor.com

Another of the home's highlights is a stone fireplace built from rocks found on the property, which extends through the floor and anchors the house to the hillside. Frey carefully thought through every detail to make sure it was aesthetically pleasing.

Stone fireplace Realtor.com

For a buyer with an eye on the future, there's still roomz for complementary additions on the 8.28-acre lot.

A pool and spa perhaps? An equally stylish guesthouse? The desert sky is the limit.

Side yard offers room to grow Realtor.com

Frey was born in Switzerland and studied architecture throughout Europe. He eventually settled in Palm Springs, where he designed iconic buildings including Palm Springs Aerial Tramway buildings and the Palm Springs City Hall, as well as several classic midcentury modern Palm Springs residences.

The post Albert Frey's Cree House in Palm Springs Arrives on the Market for $1.85M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Tim Mosenfelder

With bone-chilling lyrics, haunting rhythms and primal screams, American hard rock band Tool employs anger and art to create music that listeners can utilize as a tool for self-exploration.

After the abrupt cancellation of their 2020 tour at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles-based band will be hitting the road on tour in 2022 with a show at Chase Center on Jan. 16 to celebrate their first album release in 13 years.
avid_creative/Getty Images

California Highway Patrol officials recorded four separate fatal crashes on Bay Area highways  all within the span of 90 minutes Sunday.

KPIX reported that the first took place in Milpitas on I-880 at 1:09 a.m. when an individual allegedly jumped in front of a tractor trailer by the off-ramp of Great Mall Parkway. The driver of the truck stayed on scene to aid in the investigation.
Decoupled review: This Netflix series is as boring as it is problematic!

This series is a refined version of the film Kabir Singh

Source: SIFY By: Sonia Chopra Critic's Rating: 1/5 Monday 20 December 2021

Movie Title Decoupled review: This Netflix series is as boring as it is problematic! Director Hardik Mehta

Star Cast R Madhavan, Surveen Chawla

The series could fool you into thinking its a modern, realistic take on marriage and separation. But Decoupled only serves to show us the perspective of Arya Iyer (R Madhavan) who suffers from some sort of a narcissistic victim-complex.

Hes smug and insufferable, creating trouble out of nowhere, yet mostly getting away with everything. The series felt like a refined version of Kabir Singh where the central characters male entitlement and unacceptable behavior is not only tolerated, its flaunted.

The decoupling refers to Arya and Shruti (Surveen Chawla) deciding to end their marriage. They plan to end the marriage but stay together for the sake of their adolescent daughter.

As the series tumbles along, Arya continues to insult everyone from a security guard to the woman who meets him to discuss a Netflix show. More messy than meta, he ropes in yet another problematic friend who is now a guru of some sort (perpetually surrounded by a group of blonde women, of course) for said show. We watch them discuss what women want and sigh into our cup of coffee (necessary to keep sanity while watching the show).

The series is created and written by Manu Joseph, and if youve read some of his writing, it explains a lot.

His protagonist Arya, incidentally, is a writer albeit the second-best-selling one and constantly in competition with Chetan Bhagat (who plays himself). Often times, the series will offer Arya a backhanded compliment like someone telling him he writes well but uses difficult words.

Arya certainly has a lot of confidence for someone with a book titled Use Me Darling.

He has a problem with teenage boys, with men who plan romantic gestures for women, with security guards, and women in general.

When a female executive from Netflix meets him to discuss the possibility of a show, he behaves obnoxiously with her, (and she lets it slide like everyone else in the series). Meeting him after a long flight, when she excuses herself to use the restroom, Arya insists she order food first as the effect a 7-star toilet has on a woman is like reuniting a refugee with his homeland.

In another episode, he accuses his wife of not hiring a house-help because she was good-looking. Our man here is convinced that women are so insecure, theyll hire only unattractive help with inner beauty. And then to prove his point, he steps outside the house with a smirk to show the viewers his pointwhich means we see various house-helps that he believes are unattractive. This leads to another episode, where he accidentally becomes their savior.

These are the kind of "jokes that would embarrass even a 15-year-old. In another hilarious moment, Arya disrupts a man offering prayers, eggs on the man to offer prayers in the middle of an airplane, which leads someone thinking its a hijack situation. This is problematic on so many fronts, one doesnt know where to start. Then there is the one where he body-shames an ex-girlfriend.

Oh, did I mention, what he does to his to-be estranged wife? Craving an intimate moment with her, Arya takes the advice of his guru friend, and creepily downloads an app to track her ovulation date.

The music is relentlessly upbeat desperately trying to make the goings-on look fun. Dialogue often starts with the word, well. Do people talk like that with their spouses or friends?

In this sleep-inducing series, directed by Hardik Mehta, the petty rivalry between Arya and Chetan Bhagat offers a couple of amusing moments. R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla offer earnest performances as well. The supporting cast also does well.

Despite being middle-aged with a jaded, reprehensible personality, we find gorgeous young women cooing, A knowledgeable man who also stands up for maids. Are you for real?

This series certainly isnt.

(Decoupled is streaming on Netflix)

Sonia Chopra is a critic, columnist and screenwriter with over 15 years of experience. She tweets on @soniachopra2
The Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus announced the next steps that will take place by the Judiciary Committee that is investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Schuylkill County George Halcovage.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, chaired by Representative Paul Schemel, a Republican from Franklin County, announced that a meeting will be held on January 11th, 2022 to launch an investigation into the matter.





In November, House Resolution 99 was drafted by the Schuylkill County House delegation that included Reps. Jerry Knowles, Joe Kerwin, and Tim Twardzik to begin the investigation and was unanimously approved 200-0.





Pennsylvania State Senator David Argall introduced similar legislation in the Senate the day prior.





The investigation is a result of an announcment made in late June of 2020, when the Schuylkill County Solicitor's office announced that the County Human Resources Department had received allegations against Commissioner Halcovage including claims of sexual harassment concerning several female County Employees.

After an investigation that took place before the announcement, it was reported that Halcovage had violated the Sexual Harassment Policy #2005-18 (Revised September 2013), the Conduct and Disciplinary Action Policy #2005-19; and the Physical and Verbal Abuse Policy #2007-02 (Revised March 2007).

A week later, on July 7th, 2020, Schuylkill County District Attorney Mike O'Pake handed over the investigation into the allegations to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.

O'Pake's office had been requested by the Human Resources Department to determine if criminal charges were appropriate. O'Pake felt that the investigation would better be handled by the State Attorney General's office.

In early February, we learned from Attorney General Shapiro's office that the investigation ended the week prior on February 5th, 2021.

The details of their findings were not released but the office said in a statement Skook News received that "Our office made a decision to close the case without filing charges and among our considerations was statutes of limitations. "

A month later, on Tuesday, March 16th, 2021, a lawsuit was filed in Federal Court against Commissioner Halcovage for his alleged sexual harassment of four female county employees.

Since then, Commissioner Halcovage has denied the allegations, hasn't commented, and has continued to work in the Schuylkill County Courthouse refusing to resign even after members of his own party and fellow County Commissioners have asked him to do so.

The allegations against Mr. Halcovage are serious enough to warrant further investigation, Schemel said. Because he is an elected official, the Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Courts will conduct an in-depth and thorough investigation of Mr. Halcovage to determine if he is liable for impeachment.
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A coalition representing Sydneys Arab community and others are calling on patrons and performers to boycott next Januarys Sydney Festival in response to the festivals $20,000 partnership with the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. The money will be used to stage a performance at the Sydney Opera House of work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.

In addition, novelist and community organiser Michael Mohammed Ahmad, who had been due to join the festival board, has now refused to take up the position in protest.

Israeli dance company Batsheva performs Decadance.

Ahmad was among a group of prominent writers and artists who met with festival director Olivia Ansell, board chair David Kirk and chief executive Chris Tooher last week to demand the festival cut ties with the Israeli embassy.

In a letter to the board, the coalition said the partnership with Israel made the festival unsafe for people of Arab background.
After the past two years, its fair to say that the concept of time no longer holds any meaning. If 2020 seemed to drag, then 2021 has embraced the hold my beer approach, ensuring the last 12 months have felt like an eternity.

Midway through this year, we rounded up the pop culture moments that made the first half of 2021 bearable and looking back at the list its hard not to be hit with a dose of nostalgia.

Cast your mind all the way back to January, when freezing cold Bernie Sanders made the mistake of wearing mittens at Bidens inauguration. Then we had the Meghan, Harry and Oprah interview, that ship getting wedged in the Suez Canal and the Friends reunion.

These are all 2021 events and yet, they feel more like faded memories of a distant, less-Omicrony time. With that in mind, its now time to pay tribute to the pop culture moments that have seen us through the last six months of this never-ending nightmare.

Squid Game: The world rallies around Koreas kill or be killed Netflix hit
Mourning Robyns loss, her parents arrived in Sydney on December 4 to get everything in order to bring their daughters remains home to say goodbye as a family. Its been a very sad affair ... we came to Sydney to mourn our daughter, not for a holiday and now we are stuck here, days before Christmas, Mr DArgent told WAtoday. Alain DArgent with late daughter Robyn. We want to get back to Perth to learn to live our lives without our daughter. The couple applied for a G2G pass 10 days before NSW was upgraded to extreme risk on December 18.

Exemptions for approved travellers were restricted to Commonwealth and state officials, members of Parliament, diplomats and specialist or extraordinary circumstances determined by the State Emergency Coordinator Chris Dawson or WA Chief Health Officer, Dr Andy Robertson. Mr DArgent said it was impossible to get a flight back to Perth in time as he and his wife only got Robyns ashes and her death certificate, with permission to transport her remains home, on December 16. I was also still waiting for them to tell us whether we got in or not with the G2G pass  there was not much I could do, the Golden Bay resident said. We have come to Sydney to deal with our daughters death, which is traumatic enough, and we now cant even get home. Mr DArgent said the biggest disappointment was that Robyn applied herself for a G2G pass in October and again in November but was twice denied, although she had been double vaccinated, struggling with mental health issues, and attempted suicide.

Robyn had also applied to the National Disability Insurance Scheme for assistance with depression and PTSD, but that was also denied. Mr DArgent said he failed to see any compassion with the G2G process because even after updating their application on December 14 with relevant documents, as well as their flight details, they were still denied. Loading Its horrible, theyve got no sense of compassion, he said. I think they go through those G2G pass forms willy-nilly  I dont think theyre doing it diligently ... people are not taking responsibility for cases that need more attention.

Mr DArgent said the government hadnt given them a reason why they were denied, just a reply saying no, its only government employees or politicians that can come from Sydney. Adding to Mr DArgents frustration was the lack of appeals process or number to call for assistance in filling out the G2G pass form to ensure they could return home on compassionate grounds. Thats whats hard because surely you would have a different look at it in different situations, instead of just painting [cases for G2G passes] with the same brush, he said. December 20 is the first day since August that there have been no COVID-19 deaths in NSW and Victoria. A WA Police spokeswoman wouldnt comment, for privacy reasons, on why the couples G2G passes were rejected, but said they were working with the family to resolve the matter.

All applications received from high or extreme risk jurisdictions are assessed on a case-by-case basis, she said. These assessments are carefully conducted, taking into account the specific circumstances of an individual and as such, are not immediate. Applicants who demonstrate extremely extenuating circumstances in their application may be approved if they meet the conditions of entry, the spokeswoman said. When a states risk level changes, the criteria for entry to WA also change, and existing G2G pass applications must therefore be rejected, she said. Applicants are notified by both SMS and email and advised they will be required to re-apply for a G2G pass under the updated entry criteria.
COVID-19 testing clinics across Sydney are buckling under the strain of travellers who require a negative result before crossing domestic borders ahead of Christmas, as NSW recorded 3057 cases on Tuesday.

Three private Histopath drive-through clinics were turning people away before 9am on Tuesday due to a shortage of available tests at Arncliffe, Mascot International Airport and Maroubra.

Drivers queue for COVID tests at Bondi Beach on Tuesday. Credit:Anna Kucera

Greg Granger, Histopaths director of strategic operations, said at least 10 of his 50 sites across NSW have reached capacity with supply of test kits running low and the heat putting unbearable pressure on staff.

"We are trying to shuffle staff around because we have thousands filling up the testing sites at Mascot and the airport," he said. "We are moving people to different clinics and staff are not coping in hot weather and wrapped in layers of PPE. They are calling in sick. The heat and the demand on the testing clinics is really the perfect storm."
More patients will be treated in their own homes as the health system braces itself for an increase in COVID-19 cases and the challenge of having to quarantine infected staff.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday announced an additional $200 million to bolster the system for the expected Omicron wave. The funding will include support for out-of-hospital care and virtual-care hubs, IT platforms and Health Direct.

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says Omicron is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in Queensland. Credit:Dan Peled/Getty Images

Ms Palaszczuk also announced former Metro North health boss Shaun Drummond had been lured back from the consultancy sector to take on a newly created role of chief operating officer.

I believe its going to give that extra firepower to (Queensland) Health, Ms Palaszczuk said.
Queensland recorded 59 new COVID-19 cases on Monday as health authorities warned the states caseload was doubling roughly every two days.

Authorities have again warned that COVID-19 was present in the community, but took the time to point out a specific cluster of concern  a graduation ceremony for Griffith University nursing and paramedic students understood to have involved over 2600 people.

Queenslanders have been urged to get their booster shots. Credit:Matt Dennien

Of the new cases announced on Monday, six were linked to a known case, 33 were under investigation, with nine new interstate acquired cases and one acquired overseas.

Queenslands Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said cases were increasing exponentially, although he said this was not unexpected.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A former soldier who executed Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin will spend the next 20 years living in a small prison unit under extremely restrictive conditions, with limited opportunities for exercise or to even see the sky. The 35-year-old  who cannot be named due to a suppression order  has put a target on his back for the rest of his life, whether in or out of prison, Justice Stephen Hall said while handing down the sentence on Monday. Justice Hall acknowledged that the shooters cooperation with police had been exceptional and he deserved a significant discount in his sentence, but warned if he failed to testify against the man who ordered the hit he would be re-sentenced to life with a minimum of 30 years. The contract killing was meticulously planned, Justice Hall said as he laid out the details of the case. It was early 2020 and the convicted murderer was volunteering with Shadows of Hope, an American combat charity that specialises in providing medical aid and combat training in war zones. Shooter had previously been to Afghanistan. Around that time he was contacted by the alleged mastermind of the Martin hit, David James Pye, a Rebels member who had defected to the Commancheros.

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After returning from volunteering overseas, he and Pye engaged socially where Pye detailed the antagonisms and disagreements between himself and Martin who allegedly had a hit out on Pye. The sniper claims that Pye offered him $10,000 to plan the murder of Martin, which he accepted then and there. While assessing the feasibility of the plan, the man accessed Martins Instagram and conducted a reconnaissance of his home, which included flying a drone over his property to scout out security measures. On November 28, 2020, he visited the Perth Motorplex where Martin was a regular patron, and walked around the venue looking at various locations. He watched Martin and his associates arrive and sit in their usual spot on the north eastern terrace  he was just 10 metres from Martin. A few days after that initial visit the man suggested the killing could be done at long range. Pye allegedly offered him $150,000, with half of the money to be paid upfront and the remainder once the job was done.

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When he returned home and counted the money it was only $40,000. On December 9, the man returned to the Motorplex for a second time, however Martin was not present. He also visited the complex when it was closed and removed an aluminium safety ramp because it interfered with his line of sight to where Martin usually sat. Ambulance officers provide first aid to Nick Martin and Ricky Chapman after the Perth Motorplex shooting. Credit:Facebook The offender later went to an isolated location and fired 200 rounds at a small target to practice and gather data on the performance of his rifle. On December 12, 2020, the day of the fatal shooting he changed the wheels on his vehicle and drove to the Perth Motorplex. About 4.25pm he entered into the venue and walked throughout the complex.

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He left and went to a quiet area to gather his thoughts and put false registration plates on his vehicle. Around 6.33pm he followed Martin into the spectator area and watched as he took his seat. Martin was seated next to his wife Amanda, stepdaughter Stacey Schoppe  who was dating Rebels Ricky Chapman at the time  and near other associates. They were part of a 2000-strong crowd that evening. The shooter put on a camouflage suit, entered the venue through a hole he cut in the perimeter fence and crawled to his pre-arranged shooting position in thick bush. After checking the wind speed he adjusted his high-powered rifle, which was fitted with a magnifying scope and a range finder. He watched Martin for 10 to 15 minutes.

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From 335 metres away, he fired a single round that struck Martin on the left side of his chest. The bullet exited through his back and lodged in Chapmans left arm. The shooter left his hiding place without anyone noticing and escaped through the fence. Martin was treated at the scene but was declared dead at Rockingham Hospital. Nick Martins funeral. Chapman was taken to Royal Perth Hospital where he had surgery to remove the bullet from his arm. The shooter claims that when he went to collect the remainder of the money from Pye, he was shortchanged $60,000 from the agreed total to which it was explained that another person didnt kick in. About a month after Martins killing, on January 15, the offender took the murder weapon to a licensed firearm armourer and instructed them to replace the barrel. He collected the rifle on January 22, 2021.

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Environmental approvals vital to Woodsides $16.8 billion Scarborough gas project will be tested in the WA Supreme Court on Monday a year after the Conservation Council of WA launched an action against the states environmental watchdog.

At issue is the use by the WA Environmental Protection Authority of a provision for minor changes to environmental approvals to possibly add decades to the life and emissions of Woodsides two LNG plants.

The Conservation Council of WA director Maggie Wood and chair Carmen Lawrence with Environmental Defenders Office lawyer Tim Macknay want to stop Woodside developing new gas fields. Credit:CCWA

CCWA executive director Maggie Wood said Scarborough was the biggest fossil fuel development proposed in Australia for a decade.

Unless these environmental approvals are questioned and challenged, Woodside could have free rein to produce staggering amounts of pollution, far in excess of that which they initially proposed, she said.
Australians may soon have to get a third dose to be considered fully vaccinated, as an expert taskforce weighs the evidence on the Omicron variants ability to evade vaccines and state governments push to bring forward the timing of booster shots.

Premiers will urge Prime Minister Scott Morrison to agree to speed up the schedule for booster shots when national cabinet holds an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss public health measures to curb rapidly increasing case numbers in NSW and Victoria.

State premiers will push Prime Minister Scott Morrison to accelerate the booster schedule at a meeting on Tuesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In advice to national cabinet seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee warned that Omicron could strain health system capacity even if the variant caused milder illness, recommending minimal to moderate restrictions and increased efforts to boost vaccine coverage.

Masks should be mandated in all indoor settings including retail, hospitality when not eating or drinking, and entertainment facilities, the advice sent to the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders by Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said.
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Oyster farmers are confident there will be an abundance of oysters in top condition over summer despite heavy rains flushing out estuaries and disrupting harvest.

Speaking just after a morning on the water dodging the lashing rain squalls while tending his leases on the Shoalhaven River on NSWs South Coast, Waite Derwent said oysters were sourced from different estuaries along the coast and farmers had held over stock from before the wet weather hit to accommodate supply blockages.

This is shaping up to be a pretty wild summer. It doesnt feel like summer today, thats for sure, but we always seem to have somewhere that misses the weather, said Mr Derwent, the Shoalhaven regional manager for the Australias Oyster Coast company.

I really think that there wont be trouble with supply over summer, he said.

Filter-feeding oysters are farmed in salty estuaries where the Pacific Ocean mingles with nutrient-rich water from coastal rivers.

When heavy rain hits coastal catchments it sends freshwater flooding over the oyster racks and halts harvesting.

Food safety rules require a certain level of salinity in the water, measured in the parts per million, before oysters can be harvested.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has urged Australian parents to embrace the COVID-19 vaccination for young children, as the latest official data shows continuing high levels of standard childhood vaccinations for this age group.

Our world-leading childhood vaccination rates of over 95 per cent for other medical conditions gives us great confidence that families will embrace COVID-19 vaccination for children when they become available in the coming weeks, Mr Hunt said.

Greg Hunt has urged parents to vaccinate their young children against COVID-19. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Official data shows 95.12 per cent of five-year-old children in Australia have received all doses on the childhood immunisation schedule  which provides free vaccines against serious diseases including hepatitis B, whooping cough, measles and polio  exceeding the national target of 95 per cent and achieving herd immunity.

But leading vaccine expert University of Sydney Professor Julie Leask said Australia would be lucky to achieve 95 per cent coverage of five-to-eleven-year-olds with a COVID-19 vaccine.
Following NSW Premier Dominic Perrottets announcement of his reshuffle, much public attention has been (rightly) focused on the women in his new cabinet. While one more woman has joined his ranks, questions are being raised about why were not making faster progress on gender equality in NSW politics.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Credit:AAP

Frankly, its surprising the Premier was able to lift the number of women in the ministry by one, considering the universe he could choose from has so few women to promote. We already knew two women (Shelley Hancock from the Liberal Party and Melinda Pavey from the Nationals) were coming out of cabinet, decreasing his options further.

It echoes the public concern over who would replace former Premier Gladys Berejiklian after her departure from office; while her decision to step down was not a gendered issue, the lack of highly qualified women available to replace her certainly was.

We are facing a sorry state of affairs for women in our two houses of NSW Parliament. Of the Legislative Assemblys 93 members, 33 are women. Twelve of the Legislative Councils 42 members are women. These numbers fall woefully short of the critical mass needed to attract more women into the political arena.
Eight months after Craig Kelly sold his Sutherland Shire house in Illawong, the United Australia Party leader has bought a family home for his wife and children more than 100 kilometres away on the Central Coast.

Records show the former Liberal Party MPs wife, Vicki, paid $1.345 million for the seven-bedroom property in Narara, north of Gosford, in April, but eight months later he was yet to update the federal parliamentary Register of Members Interests.

The 3800 square metre property in Narara has two residences on title.

Following inquiries from The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday, Mr Kelly acknowledged the oversight, stating: I have updated this now, and I acknowledge that I should have updated this earlier.

It is a requirement of membership of the House of Representative for members to lodge any sale or purchase of property on the registrar within 28 days.
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure (Ministry of VROMI) said on Sunday afternoon that as of 3.45 PM, the fire at the Irma Landfill was brought under control.

Personnel from the Fire Department as well as heavy equipment operators from the Ministry of VROMI mobilized the necessary equipment and firefighting resources to fight the landfill fire.

The Ministry of VROMI will continue to closely monitor the landfill for any possible flare-ups during the next few days.

The Ministry of VROMI would like to thank the Fire Department personnel as well as Team VROMI who worked diligently to put out the fire.

The ministry also expresses its appreciation to the public who alerted the authorities about the fire early Sunday morning at the Irma Landfill on Pond Island.

This allowed the ministry and the Fire Department to take the appropriate action to fight the fire.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Saturday, December 18th, it was reported that there was a detection of the first cases of the Omicron variant in Guadeloupe and Saint Martin. After sequencing the evidence, two cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed, one in Guadeloupe and the other in Saint Martin.

Omicron is a highly mutated version of the coronavirus, with an unprecedented number of genetic changes, which had been first detected in southern Africa. Since then, it has appeared in dozens of countries across six continents and in at least twenty-two states.



Minister Ottley urges all persons that are not vaccinated, to seriously consider doing so. With the Omicron being the new variant of concern, the Ministry of VSA has now shortened the time span between the second vaccine dose and the booster.

The time frame between the two vaccines will be reduced from 6 months to 3 months, effective Monday, December 20th. The booster is now available for all eligible persons, after the 3-month period; regardless of any underlying health conditions.



RIVM and CDC announced that the third booster shot offers maximum protection against the Omicron variant. Therefore, it is imperative that as many persons as possible take their booster shot.

"Our CPS vaccination drive continues daily at the vineyard building from Monday through Thursday, from 8 am to 3 pm.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Nature Foundation St. Maarten has begun presenting at local schools on St. Maarten about plastic and how to keep our environment safe and healthy. The presentations are within the In-No-Plastic Project, a European Union-funded global initiative. The presentations teach local students how to limit their plastic use and the effects plastic has on the islands ecosystem.



We are very excited to be back in the classrooms and talking to local students about how we protect St. Maartens environment. These presentations are impactful and interactive. Through this program we hope to push students to think critically about their actions, stated Alice Manley, project coordinator. The students have been showing great interest in environmental protection, with some older students asking how they can volunteer or be more active in conservation!



In-No-Plastic concentrates on innovative methods towards the prevention, removal, and reuse of marine plastic litter. Nature Foundation and In-No-Plastic staff will introduce various social strategies to reduce plastic usage on the island by providing information on various social platforms and presenting to the local school groups. Staff will also monitor the amount of plastic found in our coastal areas over time. In addition, this project offers a large contribution to the Nature Foundations conservation educational materials as well as outreach efforts and activities.



Within the school presentations, topics such as the Nature Foundation tasks, In-No-Plastic project tasks, differences between single-use and multi-use plastic, the St. Maarten plastic ban, and further information about plastic and their effects on the environment are discussed. Students are also given the opportunity to take part in hands-on activities and groups can add practical applications to the presentations such as a field trip to participate in a clean-up!



Presenting to St. Maartens students is incredibly important and so we are very glad to be able to be back in the classrooms with the students again. The youth of St. Maarten is our future, and the Nature Foundation will continue to protect and preserve our environment for generations to come. We believe that sharing this vital information with students, residents and tourists, will expand their knowledge of the work we do and why we do it, stated Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern, Nature Foundation manager. This will help to create members of our community who are advocates for the protection of our island and its natural resources.



Schools, groups, and businesses are welcome to reach out to the Nature Foundation to request a presentation or assistance from the Nature Foundation for any educational activity. These activities could take place in a classroom, or at another location by the groups organization. If you would like to request a presentation from the Nature Foundation, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .



A consortium of 17 partners and 10 different countries in Europe and the Caribbean make up the project. The Nature Foundation will work alongside the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA), a partner participating in the In-No-Plastic project. In-No-Plastic started October 2020 and is a three-year project funded with a 7.4 Million Euro grant from the EU H2020 research project, funded under the call Pilot action for the removal of marine plastics and litter, Topic ID: CE-FNR-09-2020 (Grant Agreement 101000612).



To learn more about this project, you can check out https://naturefoundationsxm.org/education/in-no-plastic-project/. You can also follow the Nature Foundation on social media to keep up to date with our work and learn when future clean-ups will occur. If you are interested in joining the Nature Foundations volunteer list to receive emails about volunteer opportunities, reach out to us at https://naturefoundationsxm.org/about-us/contact-us
PHILIPSBURG:--- After 11 years the Function Book for Justice workers has been approved confirmed Minister of Justice Anna Richardson on Monday.

The Minister of Justice said that the function book took 11 long years since St. Maarten became a country within the Kingdom. Minister Richardson further explained that the new legislation will be published in the Landscourant (National Gazette) in the very near future. She explained that the structure and formation for the justice workers have also been approved.

The Minister of Justice also explained that there is a consensus agreement with all unions in place and hopefully the long-awaited function book will be signed off. Unions such as the Windwards Islands Civil Servants and Private Sector union signed off.

The preparation of the function book took an enormous amount of time to discuss and negotiate the minister said. Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon, the legal advisor for the Ministry discussed the function book with all unions including the NAPB and ABVO, and it is shocking to see them saying they were not aware of the details of the function book."

She further explained that during the budget debate she will be giving a detailed walk-through on the next steps that have to be followed.
SABA:--- Thelma Esther Polak, the Saba-born Jewish nurse who was murdered at concentration camp Sobibor in 1943, was honored posthumously on Sunday, December 19 with the unveiling of a plaque in her commemoration at the World War II memorial site in The Bottom.

Organized by Judith Meijer, in daily life Director of Saba Cares, the foundation that runs the A.M. Edwards Medical Center, and former Director of the Jewish Social Work foundation in Amsterdam, a small group of people gathered at the war memorial on the birthday of Nurse Thelma, exactly 101 years after she was born on Saba on December 19, 1920, as the daughter of Maurice Polak, a doctor from Suriname who came to Saba to work.

With the flags flying at half-mast, Meijer welcomed the persons in attendance. Before I moved to Saba, almost a year ago, I read about Thelma Polaks life on Jewish Holocaust memorial websites, such as Yad Vashem. After moving to Saba, I discovered that there was nothing on Saba in her remembrance. This didnt feel right, not only because she was born on Saba to Jewish parents, but also because she was very proud to be a Saban girl. So, it felt like my duty to tell her story here on Saba, which I did on several occasions. Today it feels like we are bringing her back home with this ceremony and placing the memorial, said Meijer, who first brought up Thelmas story during the Nurses Week church service in May this year.

Volunteer

Island Governor Jonathan Johnson recounted some of the interesting, heroic facts about Thelma Polak. Thelma lost her mother Estelle Arrias when she was barely two years old. In the early 30ies, Thelma, her brother Semuel Jacques and her father moved to Amsterdam. Thelma proudly told her schoolmates that she was born on Saba and that one day she wanted to work on Saba as a doctor.

As a Jew, Thelma was not allowed to study medicine during the war, so she volunteered at the Apeldoornsche Bos, a hospital for mentally and physically challenged people near Apeldoorn, where she worked as a student nurse.

Deportation

When the Germans raided the institution in January 1943 and removed all 1,300 patients to deport them afterward, Thelma volunteered to accompany the patients. Among her favorite patients was 77-year-old Abigael Santcroos from Curacao whom Thelma was said to quickly dress in warm clothes and for whom she prepared a small suitcase. At the Dutch camp Westerbork, Thelma married her love, Izak Cohen, who also worked as a nurse at Apeldoornsche Bos. A month after her marriage, Thelma was deported to Sobibor where she was gassed on March 5, 1943, at the age of 22. Thelma was only was the only Holocaust victim who was born on Saba. Her name is stated on the Jewish Monument in Amsterdam.

Island Governor Johnson said it was important to tell Thelmas story and the history of WWII not only for the general public but also in schools. Johnson and Meijer unveiled the plaque in Thelmas honor after Anya Danilova of the Jewish Student Association of the Saba University School of Medicine addressed the small gathering.

Courage

Though her life was short, Thelma Polak gave her life to her work as a nurse to the patients in her care at the Apeldoorn Jewish Home for the disabled. Her service, determination, and courage are a light that shines in the darkness. The Nazis sought to minimize and dehumanize; reducing people to numbers based in moral and scientific depravity, whereas Thelmas work was to spread light and see a patient as worthy of care because they were simply human, said Danilova.

Whether we are nurses, physicians, governors, teachers, office workers, or fishermen, we all have special qualities to give to others and the world; remembering that no one is insignificant. In this way, we rob the Nazis of their goals. Today, we remember and honor Thelma on her birthday and all the countless victims. Through our endeavors, we make their lives and our own a blessing. Shalom, said Danilova.

The small, wooden plaque for Thelma Polak was placed next to the larger plaque on the war monument with the names of 129 persons of the Netherlands Antilles, including 11 Sabans, who perished during the 1940-1945 war. Every year, on May 4, Saba observes Memorial Day at this monument.
Sky today reveals an exclusive first look at brand new Sky Original thriller The Fear Index, starring internationally renowned actor Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful). Produced by Left Bank Pictures in association with Sky Studios, The Fear Index will air on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in February 2022.Josh Hartnett will star as Dr Alex Hoffman, a technology genius who experiences a waking nightmare of the worst 24 hours of his life; alongside Arsher Ali (The Ritual, Informer) as Hugo, his hedge fund business partner and best friend; Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie, Innocent) as Gabby Hoffman; and Gregory Montel (Call My Agent) as Detective Leclerc.The fast-paced four-part limited series is adapted by Paul Andrew Williams (Broadchurch) and Caroline Bartleet (Ticking) from Robert Harriss novel, and is directed by David Caffrey (The Alienist, Peaky Blinders).Dr Alex Hoffman is launching VIXAL-4 to investors - an AI-driven system that exploits fear in the financial markets and operates at lightning speed to make big returns. The promise is billions, the rich are ready to get richer... but this is not the day Alex and Hugo had planned. What follows is a terrifying journey through the worst 24 hours of Alexs life - cutting across reality, memory and paranoid fantasy, forcing him to question everything he sees with his own eyes.In the pulse of Genevas financial district, Alexs sanity is shaken after he is viciously attacked at his home by a man who knows all of his security codes.After more unexplained occurrences, Alex becomes convinced hes being framed. But as secrets surface from his past, will anyone believe that he isnt just losing his mind?Detective Leclerc (Montel), assigned to Alexs case, struggles to work this former CERN scientist out. Hoffmans talented artist wife, Gabby (Farzad) might just be losing patience this time, whilst Hugos only concern is the billion-dollar business on the line. Invention can be lonely, and in a modern world of AI, capitalism and technological breakthroughs, Dr Alex Hoffman is about to learn the hard way how destructive his creation might beThe series was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content, Sky UK and Ireland, Gabriel Silver, Director of Commissioning, Drama, Sky Studios and Paul Gilbert, Commissioning Editor, Sky Studios. The Fear Index is produced by Left Bank Pictures in association with Sky Studios. The Executive Producers are Andy Harries and Sharon Hughff for Left Bank Pictures, and Paul Gilbert for Sky Studios. The Fear Index is produced by Nuala O'Leary and directed by David Caffrey (Love/Hate, Peaky Blinders).The Fear Index will air in 2022 on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK and Ireland, and will be available in all Sky markets. International sales for The Fear Index will be handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios.
Algiers, Dec 19 2021 (SPS) - The international film festival of Western Sahara "FiSahara" attributed Saturday, in Madrid, the Sahrawi nationality to Spanish actress and activist for Western Sahara cause Pilar Bardem, at an honorary edition of the festival dedicated to her, the event's organizers said.



Passed away last July, Pilar Bardem is known to have embraced the Sahrawi cause and her support to Western Sahara people's right to self-determination and their liberation from Moroccan colonization.



Accompanied by her son, the world film star Javier Bardem, she often went to Sahrawi refugee camps where she met former Sahrawi President Mohamed Abdelaziz.



She often participated in the FiSahara film festival, an international event created in 2003 to show movies and documentaries on the struggles of peoples in various regions of the world, especially Western Sahara people, for independence.



Pilar Bardem also participated in several fundraising and support campaigns for Sahrawi people, a path also taken by her children, mainly Javier Bardem, who produced a documentary film in 2012 entitled " Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony."



The documentary won the Goya Award for Best Documentary in 2013, considered as the highest distinction of Spanish cinema.



It denounces the complicity of some European countries with the Moroccan occupation regime in the plunder of occupied Western Sahara's resources.



062/T
Federal banking regulators have signed off on the merger between one of Connecticuts largest homegrown banks, Webster Financial Corp., and Sterling Bancorp, the two partners in the deal said Monday.

The $10 billion all-stock merger was announced in April. The closing of the deal is scheduled to occur sometime around Feb. 1, 2022, officials with two companies said in a statement Monday.

But when asked for further details about the merger, including whether there would be layoffs as a result or any branch closures, Alice Ferreira, a Webster spokesperson, said, we are focused on the good news of receiving final regulatory approval.

We will have more information as we get closer to operating as a combined company, Ferreira said in an email sent to Hearst Connecticut Media.

When the deal closes, the combined company will have approximately $65.5 billion in assets, $42 billion in loans, and $54 billion in deposit balances, as of Sept. 30, and will operate more than 200 financial centers in the Northeast region.

The soon-to-be combined company will be based in Stamford. Ferreira told Hearst Connecticut Media last month Websters Waterbury offices would retain some headquarters functions, although she declined to provide details.

John Carusone, president of the Bank Analysis Center, a Hartford-based industry consulting firm, said while a merger of equals can create value to shareholders, its also important for the two financial institutions to hit the ground running, lay all of their cards on the table in terms who has what responsibilities and how some of them might be changing.

Theres a plethora of things that can go wrong if they are not careful, Carusone said. There can be an incompatibility of corporate cultures, there can be an incompatibility of computer systems and customers can be unhappy as a result. And competitors are going to be nipping at their heels, trying to take some of their market share.

Carusone estimated headquarters staff of the combined banks will be between 25 and 50 people.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
Go ask a seventh grader to carve Connecticut into five regions, each with exactly the same population. Tell her the idea is to keep cities and towns together in regions where people tend to shop, attend cultural and sports events and work in the same parts of the state.

She would come back with a map showing Fairfield County along the Stamford-Norwalk-Bridgeport corridor; greater New Haven; and greater Hartford. All of that follows the main highways, Interstate 91, Interstate 95 and the Merritt/Wilbur Cross parkways.

Thats what the U.S. Census and other federal agencies use to determine standard metropolitan statistical areas.

For the other two regions, she would lump together the large number of towns in the northwestern part of the state, crisscrossed by the Route 8 corridor though Torrington up to Winsted and by Interstate 84 from Danbury through Waterbury and Southington. Then shed be left with the vast eastern half of the state as her fifth region.

That natural order is how Connecticut Republicans propose to draw the lines for congressional districts, which makes a lot of sense.

Ben Proto, the GOP state chairman, showed me the partys suggested map and it has the added advantage of not breaking up Waterbury and Torrington into different districts.

But its not going to happen. With one day left before the Dec. 21 deadline to redraw the map, the bipartisan Redistricting Commission appears to be deadlocked.

Democrats insist on keeping the lobster claw shape of the 1st District, which has New Britain and the Farmington Valley in the 5th and Winsted, Bristol and most of Torrington in the 1st.

The reason: Its a combination of history and good, old-fashioned political gerrymandering of the sort we love to hate when we see Republicans doing it in places like Texas and North Carolina.

The history part of it stems from 2001, when Connecticut lost a seat in Congress. Then-Rep. Nancy Johnson, a New Britain Republican, wanted to keep her job in the old 6th District, so the two parties agreed to include New Britain and Meriden in the new 5th, which set in motion the lobster claw shape of the 1st. Republicans kept Johnson in office; Dems gained the long-term upper-hand.

The political part of it is this: The current configuration gives Rep. Jahana Hayes, the Democrat elected to the 5th District in 2018, an advantage over any Republican, compared with doing away with the claw.

How big a benefit? Its significant. Figures Proto provided, based on the GOP suggested map, show the current 5th District has a partisan voter index of 52 percent Democrat compared with 45.5 percent Republican. Thats based on how people actually voted in recent elections, not voter registration.

The new map, as the GOP proposed it, gives the GOP an edge, just under 50 percent Republican to just under 48 percent Democrat. And the population of racial minority or Hispanic residents in the 5th would fall from 32.5 percent to 27 percent.

The district lines need to change somewhat, to meet the new Census numbers and rebalance the state. Democrats want to keep things more or less where they are, with just enough tweaks to balance the numbers.

A big change in the 5th District would be an enormous ask for Democrats at precisely the worst time. As it stands now, Hayes is the only one of the five incumbents, all Democrats, who could lose her seat in November, in a likely race against former state Sen. George Logan, a Republican. The rest are safe seats for the Dems.

And making matters dire, Republicans are more than likely to take control of the U.S. House, which would elevate Rep. Kevin McCarthy, now the Republican leader, as House Speaker. This is the same Kevin McCarthy who is so beholden to former President Donald Trump that he led the charge in the shameful Jan. 6 attack on the Electoral College  actually voting to reject legitimate election results hours after a Trump mob stormed the Capitol.

Democrats could be excused for doing everything in their power to avoid giving McCarthy another member. McCarthy and his gang of fake patriots represent a threat to free elections. To be clear, Logan is not in that gang and is not especially tied to Trump or McCarthy but hed be in their caucus as a conservative vote.

Either way, the Dems need to do the right thing, right now, when it comes to redistricting. The lobster claw is just plain wrong and anyway, voting patterns will evolve over the next decade and beyond. If a Democratic incumbent cant beat a challenger in blue Connecticut in a closely divided district, she shouldnt be in Congress.

What were talking about is a blockbuster trade: New Britain, Farmington, Plainville, Avon, Simsbury and Canton from the 5th to the 1st. Bristol and the bulk of Torrington, along with five low-population towns up that way (including the borough or Winsted) would move from the 1st to the 5th.

The 3rd District, greater New Haven, would gain most of Meriden, which is now in the 5th. Oxford, now in the 4th, would move to the 5th. The 1st would become less Democratic-leaning, but its already so far that way that a Dem would have to be indicted for murder to lose.

The current map, the claw, the leg, whatever you want to call it, is designed to achieve a political outcome, Proto said. The Democrats want everything as is usually the case, even if it means that the people in thse discticts are not properly served by communities of interest.

I spoke briefly with Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, the Senate president pro-tempore and a member of the commission. He confirmed that the political implications make it unlikely the Dems will give in.

Democrats say its not clear-cut. Just because its clean does not mean its not a gerrymander, said one Dem operative, who added that Danbury, Waterbury, Meriden and New Britain give the 5th a large Hispanic population  which amounts to a community of interest.

Rep. Vin. Candelora, R-North Branford, the GOP House leader, holds out hope for a compromise. The map provided by Proto is not the same as the version he and other Republicans gave Dems a few days ago.

If we stand our ground on moving New Britain into the 1st then obviously thats not going to be acceptable to them, Candelora said The question is, what change is acceptable?

Obviously theres no perfct solution when it comes to comminities of common interest. For example, Cheshire belongs in the 3rd with Wallingford and Meriden but it stays in the 5th under the current GOP plan and Madison remains split from Guilford.

If the commission remains deadlocked and the map-making reverts to the state Supreme Court, the changes will be minor  as the court itself said in an opinion 10 years ago.

Painful as it may be, Democrats, who are fighting against gerrymandering with a proposed law in Congress and with federal lawsuits, must set an example in Connecticut by doing the right thing. Then they can fight like hell to keep the seats they hold.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright made a blunder of epic proportions and did not have a license to kill, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday shortly before they began deliberating in her manslaughter trial.

Kim Potter's attorney Earl Gray countered during closing arguments that the former Brooklyn Center officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn't a crime.

In the walk of life, nobodys perfect. Everybody makes mistakes," Gray said. My gosh, a mistake is not a crime. It just isnt in our freedom-loving country."

The mostly white jury began deliberating shortly before 1 p.m. and quit for the day around 6 p.m. without reaching a verdict. They will be sequestered until they finish. Potter, who is white, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting, which came after Wright was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge said during her summation that Wright's death was entirely preventable. Totally avoidable. Claiming it was a mistake is not a defense, she said, pointing out that the words accident" and mistake don't appear in jury instructions.

Accidents can still be crimes if they occur as a result of reckless or culpable negligence, Eldridge said.

She drew a deadly weapon, Eldridge said. She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wrights chest, and she fired."

Gray argued that Wright caused the whole incident because he tried to flee from police during a traffic stop. Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her Taser because the traffic stop was chaos, he said.

Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately," he asserted.

Potter, 49, testified Friday that she didnt want to hurt anybody, that she was sorry it happened and that she doesnt remember what she said or everything that happened after the shooting, as much of her memory of those moments is missing.

Eldridge said Monday that the case wasnt about whether Potter was sorry.

Of course she feels bad about what she did.  But that has no place in your deliberations, she said.

Playing Potters body camera video frame by frame, Eldridge sought to raise doubts about Potters testimony that she fired after seeing fear on the face of another officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who was leaning into the cars passenger-side door and trying to handcuff Wright.

The defense has argued that Johnson was at risk of being dragged and that Potter would have been justified in using deadly force. But Eldridge pointed out to jurors that for much of the interaction Potter was behind a third officer, whom she was training, and that Johnson didn't come into her camera's view until after the shot was fired  and then it showed the top of his head as he backed away.

Sgt. Johnson was clearly not afraid of being dragged, Eldridge said. He never said he was scared. He didnt say it then, and he didnt testify to it in court.

Jurors sent a note to the judge Monday afternoon asking for the date that Potter spoke with Laurence Miller, a psychologist who testified for the defense. The judge told the jurors that all the evidence was in, so you should rely on your collective memories. They then returned to the jury room.

When Potter was testifying, she agreed with Eldridge that she had decided to use her Taser after she saw that Johnson looked scared. But Eldridge pointed out an inconsistency, saying that when Potter spoke to Miller, she told him she didnt know why she used her Taser. Potter told the jury she didnt recall saying that.

It wasn't clear from Potter's testimony when Miller interviewed her over Zoom.

Eldridge, in her closing argument, also noted that Potter put other people at risk when she fired her gun, highlighting that the third officer was so close to the shooting that a cartridge casing bounced off of his face.

Members of the jury, safe handling of a firearm does not include firing it into a car with four people directly in harms way, she said.

Gray started his closing argument by attacking Eldridge's summation, highlighting how she had played extremely slowed-down depictions of events that Potter saw in real time.

Playing the video not at the right speed where it showed chaos, playing it as slow as possible  thats the rabbit hole of misdirection, Gray said. He also noted that Potter's body camera was mounted on her chest and gave a slightly different perspective than her own vision.

As prosecutors have done throughout the three-week trial, Eldridge stressed that Potter, who resigned from the police force two days after the shooting, was a highly trained and highly experienced 26-year veteran, and said she acted recklessly when she killed Wright.

She made a series of bad choices that led to her shooting and killing Daunte Wright, Eldridge said. This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. ... This was a colossal screw-up. A blunder of epic proportions.

Although there is a risk every time an officer makes a traffic stop, that didn't justify Potter using her gun on Wright after he pulled away from her and other officers as they were trying to arrest him on an outstanding weapons possession warrant, Eldridge said.

This case is not about Daunte Wright, Eldridge said. Daunte Wright is not on trial. Hes not the reason were here today.

Eldridge also downplayed testimony from some other officers who described Potter as a good person or said they saw nothing wrong in her actions: The defendant has found herself in trouble and her police family has her back.

Wright's death set off angry demonstrations for several days in Brooklyn Center. It happened as another white officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the killing of George Floyd.

Judge Regina Chu told jurors that intent is not part of the charges and that the state doesnt have to prove she tried to kill Wright.

The judge said to prove first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors have to prove that Potter caused Wrights death while committing the crime of reckless handling of a firearm. This means they must prove that she committed a conscious or intentional act while handling or using a firearm that creates a substantial or unjustifiable risk that she was aware of and disregarded, and that she endangered safety.

For second-degree manslaughter, the state must prove that she acted with culpable negligence, meaning she consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm.

State sentencing guidelines call for just over seven years in prison upon conviction of first-degree manslaughter and four years for second-degree, though prosecutors have said they plan to push for longer sentences.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this story. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

___

Find the APs full coverage of the Daunte Wright case: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright
BRIDGEPORT  Terrance Boyd helped police solve a cold case but now hes behind bars while the alleged killer, Shawn Gibson, walks the citys streets.

Thats the argument Boyds lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Isaias Pedraza, made Monday afternoon as he stood beside Boyd and requested a lower bond before Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton.

Mr. Boyd assisted police to his detriment, I cant even imagine the amount of fear he went through, Pedraza appealed to the judge. Gibson posted $250,000 bond and is now out to do whatever he wants.

Dayton said she understood what Pedraza was arguing but was still setting a $2.5 million bond for Boyd.

Last week, the 45-year-old Gibson, of Hamden, was charged with murder in the 2013 beating death of 24-year-old Aryndel Castro in a Bridgeport rooming house.

Boyd, who was extradited from South Carolina, is also charged with murder in the case.

Since May 2014, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, Boyd repeatedly told police that he had witnessed Gibson beat Castro to death and that he had helped Gibson bury Castros body.

But the lead investigator in the case, Police Lt. Christopher LaMaine, told Hearst Connecticut Media they had no physical evidence to support Boyds claims and a problem with Boyds credibility.

In 2013, Boyd had just finished serving a 25-year prison term for a home invasion in New Canaan in which he had bashed a 63-year-old housewife in the head and then drowned her in her swimming pool.

Then, following his arrest, Gibson agreed to lead police to where he buried Castros body in exchange for being released on bond pending trial. Police found Castros body buried six feet under a detached garage behind a house on Noble Avenue.

I hear what you are saying, the judge told Pedraza, who continued to urge leniency for Boyd. But Mr. Boyd has a prior murder conviction and I understand Gibson cooperated with police to locate the victims body.

But if Mr. Gibson gets some consideration for his cooperation, I dont understand why my client is not, Pedraza argued.

According to the warrant affidavit, Boyd told police in four video recorded interviews in 2014 that Gibson had ordered him to bring Castro to a Noble Avenue rooming house Gibson owned because Castro had previously stolen some tools from Gibson.

Boyd claimed he was afraid of Gibson because Gibson had previously beaten him up. He said when he brought Castro to the rooming house Gibson began beating Castro with his fists, police said. Boyd said the beating was so bad he vomited. But he agreed to help Gibson clean up and get rid of Castros body, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that Boyd agreed to make recorded phone calls to Gibson but Gibson did not say anything incriminating on the calls.

At the time he cooperated with police in the Castro case, police said Boyd was familiar with the adage that the person who cooperates first in a crime gets the best deal.

On Dec. 10, 1986, 63-year-old Ann Viner was alone in her large white colonial home near New Canaans country club. Her husband, the president of a N.Y. investment firm, was attending an office holiday party. When he came home later that evening, he found the house in disarray, according to news reports at the time. The couples car was missing, their dog had been struck on the head and drawers and closets had been rifled.

He later found his wife floating in the swimming pool.

The autopsy report stated she had drowned after being hit in the head with a log.

Four days later police arrested Boyd and Tyrone Wilson, who had done odd jobs in the neighborhood.

Wilson later wrote a 9-page confession to the crime, according to reports.

Wilson told police the two men entered the Viner house through an unlocked back door. He claimed he only wanted to tie Viner up but Boyd beat her and threw her in the pool.

Wilson later agreed to testify against Boyd at trial in exchange for a 20-year prison term.

Based almost solely on Wilsons testimony, Boyd was convicted of felony murder, burglary and larceny charges in 1988 and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

But in March 1990, the state Supreme Court overturned Boyd's felony murder conviction and ordered a new trial.

In September 1998, facing a second trial, Boyd instead pleaded guilty to felony murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to court records.
DARIEN  Parents and some Board of Education members have again clashed over ongoing work on diversity, equity and inclusion issues in the district, with many continuing to oppose the hiring of an education consultant who has been meeting with students for months.

The district has contracted California-based consultant Ken Shelton to carry out informal dialogues and guided discussions with students and faculty members throughout the school year. But during the public hearing at the Board of Education meeting this week, some parents said they disagreed with opinions Shelton has posted on personal blog sites and social media.

Over the summer, Shelton posted a four-part series of essays titled Grading is Capitalist, Racist and Exploitative on the social medium site Medium.com.

School officials have said Shelton will not be changing Dariens grading systems.

I feel that Kens presence in our educational system and his DEI initiatives are proof in themselves that the end goals are Marxist in nature and destructive by design, parent Conor Godfrey claimed during public comments Tuesday. Its Marxism masquerading as tolerance, and I for one am not in support of it.

The school board has discussed Sheltons work with the district at several previous meetings. They interviewed Shelton during a board meeting in November, grilling him on opinions he holds on school policy.

At Tuesdays meeting, board member David Brown still posed objections to Shelton. A large number of parents are alarmed that the district hired an outside consultant to conduct diversity work, Brown said.

Brown cited a previous controversy with a different hired consultant who worked on the boards strategic plan, which he said blindsided parents.

Superintendent Alan Addley immediately voiced his disagreement, urging school board members to listen to the students who have previously testified about a school culture that several said silences marginalized students.

I would want this board, quite honestly, to step up and support this initiative, Addley said. David, just respectfully, this couldnt be any more inclusive.

Other board members said they could not make a decision about Shelton based solely on writings that some find controversial.

We go down a real slippery slope, that we start looking at peoples views and decide as a board especially or as a community to hire them or to pass, board member John Sini said.

The district has already brought Shelton in for ongoing work at the schools, Assistant Superintendent Christopher Tranberg said.

Since October, Shelton has met with staff and with two groups of students at the middle and high school, Tranberg said. This comes after the district reported several swastikas found on school property, along with other incidents of discriminatory posts on social media.

The district has instituted other anti-discrimination programming as well. Middlesex Middle School recently brought in the Anti-Defamation League to address anti-Semitism. Students spoke with a Holocaust survivor during the program, Tranberg said.

Middlesex students also spoke with a high school student about their experiences with bullying and anti-Semitism, Tranberg said. Students have formed a new Gender Sexuality Alliance club with staff support.

But some parents said the pace of the work does not match the urgency needed to combat the several instances of hate graffiti and speech at the schools.

These incidents happened in September and October, these students came up to you in October and asked (the school board) to act, parent Julie Punishill said, calling the delay disappointing. And in all honesty, aside from in the middle school, not much has been done. ... I feel like there are some very loud members and parents in the community who are trying to push the brakes on DEI. And I feel like you are allowing that to happen.

The district has budgeted $23,000 for Sheltons work up to this point, officials said Tuesday. The school board will need to either approve or deny a budget transfer request for $40,000 next month to pay Shelton if they choose to retain him for additional services beginning in the New Year.
NEW CANAAN  Connecticut State Police investigators spent hours Monday searching an area of town property near where Jennifer Dulos SUV was found the night she vanished.

The search, which was mostly focused in the area of the New Canaan mulch dump, came two days before one of the defendants who has been cooperating with the investigation is scheduled to appear in a judges chambers for an unrelated case.

Brian Foley, aide to Department of Emergency Management and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella, described the search as a standard investigative effort out of an abundance of caution.

State police did not say what they were looking for or if they were there in response to a tip.

Nearby Waveny Park was one of many key locations investigators first searched after Jennifer Dulos vanished on May 24, 2019. The 50-year-olds body has never been found, but police said she is presumed dead based on the evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home.

Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, died by suicide in January 2020 while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in the case.

Fotis Dulos ex-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, have each pleaded not guilty to charges in the case.

Mawhinney is scheduled to appear in a Hartford judges chambers on Wednesday to discuss the status of his domestic violence cases involving his estranged wife. Referring to Mawhinney as a jailhouse informant in court filings, an attorney for Troconis has requested a court order to review documents in the domestic cases to see if a deal is being worked out in exchange for cooperation in the Dulos case.

The prosecution has previously said they plan to call Mawhinney as a witness if Troconis goes to trial.

Mawhinney is facing charges of sexual assault and violating a protective order for incidents police said occurred in 2019 involving his estranged wife. He is free on bond after pleading not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the Dulos case.

Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo did not respond to questions Monday about the search and whether it was connected with Mawhinney.

Mawhinney has been accused of trying to create an alibi for his longtime friend, Fotis Dulos, the morning of the disappearance.

Authorities believe Fotis Dulos drove a pickup truck belonging to one of his employees from his home in Farmington to New Canaan the morning of the disappearance, according to arrest warrants. Fotis Dulos parked the pickup on Lapham Road, near where police later found his wifes SUV, the warrants indicate.

Police said they believe Fotis Dulos rode a bicycle from Lapham Road to his estranged wifes home on Welles Lane where he attacked her in the garage when she returned from dropping off their five children at school, according to arrest warrants.
STAMFORD  Next year, the city that works will get something to laugh about.

The team behind the Fairfield Comedy Club, the Connecticut Comedy Festival and the New York Comedy Club will open Stamford's first such venture in 30 years next spring.

Though the path to downtown laughs is long, Fairfield Comedy Club co-founder Joe Gerics, 42, said the new Connecticut Comedy Club aims to open in late spring 2022 on the ground floor of 422 Summer St.  also known as Stamford's former YWCA building.

For Gerics, who moved to Stamford from Trumbull last year, the impulse to open a comedy club in Connecticut's fastest-growing city is a matter of both business and pleasure.

"Stanford just seemed kind of ripe for something like this," he said. "There's so much going on. There's so many people. There's so many great restaurants. It just seems like a kind of area that would support this and would benefit from it."

That's the business side of things. But aside from being one of the managing forces behind the Fairfield Comedy Club and Connecticut Comedy Festival, Gerics is also a comic himself. As a resident of Downtown Stamford, there's some selfishness inherent in the decision to open a full-time location, he admitted.

"As much as it'll be fun to have a comedy club, the reason it's going to be fun for me is because I'm going to have a place to perform in my backyard," he said.

His previous ventures in the state started that way too: Gerics opened the Fairfield Comedy Club at The Circle Hotel as "a labor of love" in 2017 and has been putting on weekend shows in the hotel lobby ever since.

During the worst days of the pandemic, when indoor gatherings were a distant dream, Gerics held outdoor shows at the hotel that attracted big names like Pete Davidson and John Mulaney through the Connecticut Comedy Festival, his other local undertaking. Comedian Mike Birbiglia, who is college friends with Gerics, did an eight-night stint at the Fairfield Comedy Club during that same period where he workshopped new jokes off of flashcards.

If they could attract names big and small to a parking lot in Fairfield, Gerics and his partners  Emilio Savone, Jim Panels and Scott Lindner  are even surer about their odds in Stamford, he said.

"Fairfield has been fun," he said. "We have a lot of fun there, but it's limited. It's got a downtown but it's kind of a suburb. It'll be nice to be in the heart of something with real action. That's what we want."

The future location provides the best of both worlds. For one, comedians in southern Connecticut will get a local place for shows down county instead of driving to the Stress Factory in Bridgeport. And the new spot is also closer to New York City, which means talent from "the biggest comedy hotspot in the world" could be more eager to cross the border for performances, he said.

Attracting talent from the big city can only take a club so far. Equally as important, Gerics said, is developing an organic scene for Connecticut and providing more a stable platform for local acts than he could at the Fairfield Comedy Club.

The city has not housed a full-time comedy club in three decades, though part-time operations have filled the gap. For years, Club Comedy of Stamford ran out of Mexican restaurant Hacienda Don Emilio. The Treehouse Comedy Club too hosted long-running events throughout the city. Today, the Stamford Comedy Club hosts pop-up events.

Still, the last full-time club  the New Governors Comedy Shop  shuttered in 1991 after a series of financial troubles.

Before fans start crowding around the stage for late-night laughs, Gerics and company still have plenty of work to do. The space they will inhabit at the former YWCA is already set up as a restaurant. In the end, the owners want to make it more like a black box theater packed tight with tables.

Until that can happen and the Connecticut Comedy Club can open its doors, Gerics said he is pleased to be patient: Like every good joke, the payoff is best when you have to wait for the punchline.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
Rep. Mo Brooks leaves little doubt about how he hopes to win the Republican primary for Alabama's open U.S. Senate seat next year. The words "Endorsed by Trump" precede his name in his campaign logo, and the same message is printed in his Twitter handle.

But eight months after receiving the former president's highest blessing in one of the nation's reddest states, Brooks is still struggling to win Trump's approval behind the scenes, and his standing has begun to fade in the state amid fierce competition.

As a result, Alabama is once again set up to host one of the most suspenseful Senate primaries in the country, with outside groups and candidates preparing to spend millions in a contest that will help shape the tone and tenor of the Republican caucus and the future face of conservative governance in the Deep South.

On one side of the divide is Brooks, a Freedom Caucus firebrand and one of the GOP's most vocal supporters of overturning the 2020 election results. On the other is Katie Britt, a former business association president and former aide to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a giant in Alabama politics who has told others that he is willing to spend $5 million of his own campaign funds on her election.

The faceoff reprises historic divisions that have long bedeviled Republican primaries in the South, pitting the conservative economic development wing of the party, exemplified by Britt and Shelby, who has served as the most powerful Republican Senate appropriator since 2018, and a fiercer brand of conservatism, represented by Brooks, that seeks to disrupt the U.S. Capitol to force more conservative policies. It's a split that often has less to do with policy positions in a state that Trump won with 62 percent of the vote - all the candidates in the race are Bible-believing conservatives - than style.

"It's country club versus country," said David Mowery, a Montgomery, Ala.-based political consultant who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats. "There is a weird dynamic where a lot of your business folks are also social conservatives. They just don't want to be gauche about it. Wearing a .44 on your belt, a Ten Commandments T-shirt and a tricorner hat is outre."

Complicating matters further is the late entry of a third candidate, wealthy businessman and celebrity military veteran Mike Durant, who spent $1.2 million on ads since mid-October months to introduce himself, according to the ad-tracking firm Medium Buying. Before founding his defense contracting business, Pinnacle Solutions, Durant made headlines when his Special Forces helicopter was shot down by Somali militia and he was held as a prisoner for 11 days.

Trump, a guiding light for the rural-working-class wing of the party, has also inserted himself as an unpredictable influence in the state. After Brooks spent much of 2020 warning of election theft by Democrats, the congressman ingratiated himself with Trump by helping to lead the effort to overturn the results and rally protesters to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Today is a time of choosing and tomorrow is a time for fighting," he said at the rally in an apparent call for organizing before the next election, before uttering words that his critics say helped encourage the violence at the capitol he has since condemned. "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass," he said. Trump's endorsement came a few months later.

But trouble with Trump began in August, when the former president traveled to Cullman, Ala., for a rally that was supposed to be a boon for the Brooks campaign. At an event coinciding with the rally, Trump met Katie Britt and her husband, Wesley, a 6-foot-8 former offensive tackle with the New England Patriots. Trump came away impressed, gushing afterward about Wesley having played for the Patriots, and in college for the Alabama Crimson Tide, according to three people who have spoken with Trump.

"He said she looks and sounds like a winner," said one person familiar with the conversations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private interaction.

Brooks compounded the new threat by announcing from the rally podium that his supporters should look past their anger at what he still contends was a stolen 2020 election. "Put that behind you," he said, prompting the crowd to respond with boos and cries of "No!"

"All right, we'll look back at it, but go forward and take advantage of it," Brooks then said, backtracking. Trump, who has prioritized re-litigating the last election, made clear to those around him that he was not happy with Brooks's inartful pitch.

After boasting that Brooks had far more than 50 percent of the primary vote in private polls, his advisers have since become far more somber, as other private surveys have showed Britt surging and Durant gaining attention. Britt raised $3.8 million through the end of September, with contributions from the political operations of Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and the recent appearance of Tommy Tuberville, R -Ala., at one of her fundraisers. Durant, who only got in the race in October, has not yet disclosed how much he has committed to spend.

Brooks, by contrast, has struggled with money, despite the Trump imprimatur and the pledge of outside support from the Club for Growth. He raised only $1.8 million through the end of September, and in November he announced a shuffling of his campaign team.

Rather than resetting his relationship with Trump, the new team initially caused more tension, after Trump read news reports that noted it included Fred Davis, a former ad maker for the late senator John McCain, R-Ariz., and campaign manager Forrest Barnwell-Hagemeyer, who had previously shared some Trump criticism on social media. (Barnwell-Hagemeyer countered the reports by saying he voted twice for Trump's presidential campaign.)

"He read it and he was furious," one Trump confidant said of the former president's reaction to the new staff.

Brooks supporters contend that the reports of Trump's unease are overblown, pushed by anonymous sources. They point out that Trump has not backed away from Brooks publicly, describe friendly notes Brooks has received from the former president and mention continuing discussions to have members of Trump's family, such as Donald Trump Jr., come to the state to campaign.

"This race is a battle between the America First conservative coalition that President Trump built, and the same, open borders, Big Government-Big Business coalition that has controlled D.C. for years, hates conservatives and hates President Trump," Stanton McDonald, a Huntsville attorney who chairs Brooks' campaign, said in a statement.

Terry Lathan, the former Alabama Republican Party chairwoman who is backing Brooks, said she still thinks it is just a matter of time before Republicans learn that her candidate has Trump's support and unites behind him.

"Alabama is consistently the number-one-rated Trump state in the nation," Lathan said. "I am watching people and very often I am asked, 'Who is Trump for?' "

Hanging over the entire contest is the memory of the chaotic 2017 special election primary for the state's other Senate seat. In that contest, Trump and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R, -Ky., backed the state's former attorney general Luther Strange, who had been appointed to the vacant seat, for the Republican nomination over Brooks and former state Supreme Court judge Roy Moore.

Strange ran a lackluster campaign based largely on Trump's endorsement. Brooks spent heavily on television ads attacking McConnell for his support of Strange, and a McConnell backed group blistered Brooks with ads that featured Brooks' criticism of Trump dating from the 2016 presidential campaign. The internal fights allowed Moore to win a primary runoff, only to lose later in the general election after accusations surfaced that he had initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year old when he was in his 30s.

Brooks has so far avoided targeting McConnell directly in his current campaign, but his advisers declined to comment on the possibility of that changing in the coming months. Trump has been privately urging Republicans to turn publicly against their Senate leader, and Brooks dodged a direct question about whether he would support McConnell in a recent interview with Politico.

"I will support the candidate for Senate majority leader who is the most conservative and best reflects the values of Alabama citizens," he said.

Britt meanwhile is trying to introduce herself to the state as a fresh face, outside the political maw, even as she rallies the state's business community to her side. Shelby's retirement will be a major shock to the state, which has grown accustomed to massive federal investments for infrastructure and its aerospace industry thanks to Shelby's power. A 2020 report from the New York State's Office of Comptroller found that Alabama gets the sixth-highest amount per capita of federal procurement dollars.

Britt has channeled this message by declaring that she would "put Alabama First" - a play on Trump's "America First" message - "deliver results for our state and never apologize for it." A former president of the Business Council of Alabama, she has received endorsements from a broad array of trade groups in the state, including organizations for farmers, manufacturers, retail business and auto dealers.

She has also made efforts to align herself with Trump's policies, coming out against federal vaccine mandates for businesses, publicly supporting his border wall and disagreeing with McConnell's decision to strike a compromise with Democrats over the debt ceiling.

Brooks has earned the ire of some groups by criticizing the rush for federal funding as not conservative, and he made headlines in 2020 by saying that the state's farm lobby was "on the opposite side of America and on the side of the Chinese." Britt and Brooks have also split on the question of the 2020 election. Whereas Brooks has long maintained falsely that Trump was the rightful victor, Britt has stopped short of such claims, arguing instead for new laws to protect "election integrity."

Like Durant, she has cast herself as an outsider in the race, running against Brooks' long record of elected leadership.

"He's the Joe Biden of Alabama: 40 years running for office, six terms in Congress, and nothing to show for it but empty words and more money in his pocket," Britt spokesman Sean Ross said in a statement. "It is clear that Alabamians are ready for fresh blood to shake things up, and that's why he is in full meltdown mode."

With months to go before a May 24 primary election - not to mention a potential June 21 runoff - the race still has a ways to run. Much will depend on how committed Trump chooses to be down the stretch to Brooks and on how the candidates perform in a state where retail politics can still matter.

"You are talking about the Republican primary electorate in Alabama and that is a pretty yeasty mix," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University who studies Southern politics. "You never know what is going to come out of that."s
The houses available for sale in Connecticut are dwindling.

The single-family market, which has seen jumps in sale prices and quick turnaround for new listings, is experiencing drops in sales year-over-year, according to November data.

Overall, the hot market saw an 18.2 percent increase in total sales from 2019 to 2021, according to a report from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.

The number of sales started to drop in the latter part of the year, experts said. And 2022 is expected to see fewer sales than 2021, according to the report, which examined 150 Connecticut municipalities.

The demand, its not being met by the number of homes coming to market, said Candace Adams, chief executive officer at Berkshire Hathaway. I think people are nesting, and theyre more out to be improving the property rather than selling it.

There are some signs, including the housing markets recovery after economic hits early in the pandemic, that the market will still be strong in 2022, the Berkshire Hathaway report says.

Adams said the state has about a two-month supply of houses available when it typically has closer to six months around this time of year. That number is used in real estate to measure how long it will take the available homes to sell.

Some regions, notably Greenwich, are seeing year-over-year decreases in sales.

The town had a 37 percent drop in the number of sales in November compared to last year. October looked much the same, with a 53 percent drop in sales from the previous year, according to information from Compass.

In June, we started to see the number of new listings shrink, said Mark Pruner, a real estate agent with Compass who works in Greenwich. Then, as that happened, we started to see a very supply-constrained market.

Its likely because people who were interested in selling have already done so, and listings that had been on the market for months or even years were scooped up in the early 2021 rush to buy. That rush was fueled largely by peoples desire for extra space as they spent more time at home and migration from New York City for residents looking to live a more suburban lifestyle, experts said.

Pruner calls houses not yet listed for sale, but whose owners want to sell when prices go up, the shadow inventory. Pruner said that inventory has largely dried up in Greenwich, as well as much of Connecticut.

Post-recession, prices dropped so people didnt want to sell their houses at lower price points, Pruner said, referring to the 2008 recession. So they were waiting for it to come back on, then COVID hit and lots of people wanted to relocate to the suburbs and wanted to get out of multi-family housing.

A lot of the people who had been waiting to list their house, did.

The lack of inventory adds to a larger problem in Connecticut and nationwide: Theres a lack of housing supply, particularly thats affordable to people with low incomes, experts and studies have shown.

The state has some of the oldest housing in the country. Price increases mean that its more difficult for people with lower incomes to afford a home.

In 2021, the Greenwich market saw spikes in sales of luxury houses  properties worth more than $2 million. As of Nov. 30, it had the most sales in the state at 980, according to a report from Berkshire-Hathaway.

The next-highest sales numbers were in Waterbury with 954 sales, according to the Berkshire-Hathaway report.

The Berkshire-Hathaway report also noted that the average price of a house in Connecticut rose from $464,337 in 2020 to $539,473 this year.

Carol Christiansen, the outgoing president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors, said she anticipates the shortage will be a major issue in the industry in 2022.

We really didnt have that big drove of houses being put on the market, she said.

She added that some agents may be short on work in coming months.

Adams said shes hopeful that as the supply chain issues are sorted out, new construction will add needed inventory to the real estate market, which she expects to be strong in 2022.

The only thing that would restrict it [the market] would be that lack of inventory, Adams said. I think that were all very eager to make sure that we tell sellers that this is the best time in the world to sell.
Published: 20 December 2021

Total energy consumption grew by 3 per cent in January to September

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, total energy consumption in January to September amounted to 966 petajoule, which was three per cent more than in the corresponding period in the year before. Electricity consumption amounted to 62.1 terawatt hours (TWh), which was four per cent more than one year earlier. Carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fuels increased by two per cent year-on-year.

Total energy consumption

*preliminary

Among energy sources, the growth was biggest for coal, the consumption of which rose by 17 per cent in January to September from the corresponding period of the year before. The consumption of peat declined most, by 24 per cent. The consumption of natural gas declined but was still eight per cent higher in January to September than one year earlier. In the third quarter, the consumption of natural gas diminished by 17 per cent. Changes in the price ratios of the fuel market were also visible in the demand for coal and natural gas in the third quarter.

In January to September, production of nuclear power decreased by one per cent year-on-year. The volumes of combined production and condensate production grew by 5 and 21 per cent. Among renewable electricity production, production of hydro power grew by one per cent and production of wind power decreased by six per cent. Net imports of electricity grew by 17 per cent from the year before and accounted for 21 per cent of total electricity consumption.

In January to September, diverse energy products were imported to Finland to the value of EUR 6.5 billion, which was 33 per cent more than one year earlier. Most energy products were imported from Russia, whose share of the value of imports was 50 per cent. Energy products were exported from Finland to the value of EUR 2.8 billion. The value of exports increased by 2 per cent compared to January to September of the previous year. Energy products were exported most to OECD countries, which accounted for 65 per cent of the value of exports.

Total energy consumption by source (TJ) and CO2 emissions (Mt)

Energy source I-III/2021* Annual change-% Percentage share of

total energy consumption Oil (fossil) 1) 201,710 1 21 Coal 2) 58,444 17 6 Natural gas 3) 57,058 8 6 Nuclear energy 4) 179,850 -1 19 Net imports of electricity 5) 46,829 17 5 Hydro power 5) 41,444 1 1 Wind power 5) 18,859 -6 2 Peat 23,770 -24 2 Wood fuels 272,996 4 28 Others (fossil) 8,281 -3 1 Others (bio) 50,882 11 5 Others 6,168 -12 1 TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION 966,291 3 100 CO2 emissions from energy sector 25 2 .

* = Preliminary data. = Category not applicable1) Oil: includes the bio part of transport fuels.2) Coal: includes hard coal, coke, blast furnace gas and coke oven gas.3) The consumption of natural gas does not include raw material use.4) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Nuclear power: 10.91 TJ/GWh (33% total efficiency)5) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Hydro power, wind power and net imports of electricity: 3.6 TJ/GWh (100%)

Source: Statistics Finland, Energy supply and consumption

Inquiries: Aleksi Sandberg 029 551 3326, energia@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja

Publication in pdf-format (260.6 kB)

Updated 20.12.2021

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Energy supply and consumption [e-publication].

ISSN=1799-7976. 3rd quarter 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 6.1.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ehk/2021/03/ehk_2021_03_2021-12-20_tie_001_en.html
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Romania will remain a grain-exporting state for a long time ahead, as it produces more raw materials than it consumes, says Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Adrian Chesnoiu.

He mentioned that reducing the trade deficit in agri-food products has become a goal for "everyone," although this did not happened in recent years. The only years in which Romania had a surplus in trade in agri-food products were 2013 and 2014, with an increase of 300 million euros and 500 million euros, respectively, while last year there was a deficit of over two billion in this sector."It was 2.2 billion last year. Everyone proposes [deficit reduction]. The trade balance has become a goal for everyone, but practically nothing has happened. Romania will remain a grain exporter for a long time ahead, because that has been our history. We must be realistic: we produce much more raw material than we consume. Instead, what we need to do is understand the market mechanisms," Adrian Chesnoiu told AGERPRES.In this context, the minister says that when it comes to building a strategic plan, it is important to think about the effects it has over time, over a short, medium and long term. "When it comes to processing, you need to have large capacities, farmers to be associated in producer groups or cooperatives so that as much raw material as possible is processed at the lowest possible cost, because in the food industry and in the processing industry the profit margins are very low," said the MADR chief.Last year, bakery products ranked second in terms of imports, after pork, but the minister said it was not about bread imports, "an image that has spread in the press that we produce wheat and import frozen bread." A
All railway companies, whether we are talking about CFR Infrastructure, CFR Passengers or CFR Freight, must go through a process of economic efficiency, during the next year, in accordance with the provisions of the National Recovery Plan and Resilience (PNRR), the Minister of Transport Sorin Grindeanu wrote on Facebook on Monday, also mentioning that he is open to dialogue with the trade unionists of railway carriers, "but based on sustainable economic arguments and not on positions of strength".

The locomotive repairers from all CFR Passengers depots in the country stopped working on Monday morning, dissatisfied with the salary level, the president of the Federation of Romanian Railway Carriers' Unions (FSTFR), Rodrigo Maxim told AGERPRES.The president of the railway carriers' union explained that the reason for stopping the work is the dissatisfaction of the employees with the postponement of the application of the law on the status of railway staff.
The turnover of Romanian winemakers will go up by 20% this year, from a level of 1.7 billion RON in 2020, Romania having the highest yearly estimate upfront fee of wine manufacturing in the EU in 2021, according to the analysts of a company that supplies information business solutions in Romania.

According to the latest KeysFin analysis, the turnover for Romanian winemakers was 1.7 billion RON in 2020, the drop being marginal, of 1.5%, when comparing with 2019.

Despite all of this, the local wine market held at 25% over the level of 2015 and 64% larger than 2010, Romania having the highest advance of estimated wine production in the EU in 2021.

In 2020, there were 596 companies in Romania whose main activity was making wine and / or grape harvest, with 0.8% more related to 2019 and rising by 41% from 2010.

Regarding the top of local winemakers, Cramele Recas remain the market leader, with a share of 11.6% of the total and a turnover of 201 million RON.

"The ranking is completed by Jidvei, Alba branch (player that registered in 2020 the largest annual drop of the Top 5, of 25%, thus reaching a share of 8.4% of the total), Cotnari (8.2% of the total), Crama Ceptura (which registered the largest percentage increase of the the Top 5 and reached a market share of 7.2%) and Zarea (6.4% of the total of 2020)," the analysis shows.

The first ten Romanian winemakers had a cumulated turnover of 983 million RON last year, which represented 57% of the market.

The first five ranked companies generated together over 53% of the market profit in 2020.AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca pays a visit to Brussels on Monday and Tuesday for a series of meetings with senior officials of the European and NATO institutions.

According to a Government release, on Monday evening the prime minister will have a working dinner with European Council President Charles Michael.On Tuesday, the prime minister will meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other members of the Commission.Also, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca will have a meeting at the NATO headquarters with the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Organization, Jens Stoltenberg.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca will convey the "absolute" openness of the new government for strengthening the dialogue with the European institutions during his meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, while presenting its priorities, with an emphasis on the efficient management of the COVID-19 pandemic, implementation of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and acceleration of preparations for the ecological and digital transition.

On Monday, the Prime Minister will have a working dinner with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EC Executive Vice President for the European Climate Pact, Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager, and Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People Valdis Dombrovskis, as well as with Adina Valean, the European Commissioner for Transport.

According to a government statement, the head of the Executive will underscore Romania's commitment to help strengthen the resilience of the European Union and its member states in the current pandemic context and "in the light of lessons learned" from the recent crisis.

"At the same time, Prime Minister Ciuca will address the issue of energy security, with an emphasis on energy prices and maintaining the role of gas and nuclear energy during the ecological transition period, an essential element for Romania's economic stability. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca will underscore the importance of taking steps to support the digital transition, highlighting the contribution that the implementation of the PNRR will be able to make to achieve this goal, complementary to the efforts of economic recovery. He will also discuss the files regarding the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and the one referring to Romania's accession to the Schengen area," the same press release reads.

According to the release, the meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will address current issues on the security agenda, with a focus on developments in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Black Sea region.

Discussions will also focus on the future NATO Strategic Concept to be adopted next year at the Madrid Summit, in the negotiation of which "Romania is determined to get substantially involved," including in the context in which Romania was the first allied state to support, since November 2019, the need to update this programmatic document.

At the same time, Prime Minister Ciuca will reiterate the Romanian government's determination to actively contribute to the missions and operations of the North Atlantic Alliance and will reiterate the Executive's commitments regarding the allied defence spending.
Members of the Sanitas Federation will launch a Japanese strike on Wednesday and on Thursday they will picket the Government dissatisfied with the provisions of the Ordinance that legislated the granting of a salary increase only for certain categories of employees and only 1/4 of the 2022 salary difference compared to the current basic salary.

The representatives of the trade union federation discussed, on Monday, at Victoria Palace of Government, with the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, the Minister of Labor, Marius-Constantin Budai, and the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Mircea Abrudean, on the topic of the Wage Law.

"Unfortunately, the meeting took place after the adoption of the famous "train-like" Ordinance, which legislated the granting of an increase only for certain categories of employees and only with 1/4 of the difference of the 2022 basic salary compared to the current basic salary. Sanitas Federation requested: basic salaries for all employees in Health and Social Assistance at the level of 2022; bonuses paid for all employees at the level of basic salaries for the year 2022," reads a press release of the Federation sent to AGERPRES.

According to the health trade unionists, the Government requested a 120-day respite, during which time it will draw up a new calendar for the full application of Law 153/2017.AGERPRES
ST. LOUIS  A proposal to partially raze a historic building in the Central West End for apartments was denied Monday despite the citys preservation agency admitting it had overlooked a report from the developer detailing the propertys structural problems.

The St. Louis Preservation Board voted 4-1 to withhold approval for developer Lux Livings plan to partially demolish the Engineers Club Building on Lindell Boulevard for 200 apartments following the recommendation of the Cultural Resources Office, which staffs the board. Commissioner Jack Coatar, a city alderman, voted for the project. Commissioner Michael Killeen was absent for the vote.

The commissioners voted against the proposal even after Meg Lousteau, director of the Cultural Resources Office, admitted her office failed to include an engineering report from Lux Living about the buildings structural conditions in the agencys findings to the board. Lux Living Principal Victor Alston said the report, which Lux submitted to the city in October, detailed issues including cracks in the basement walls and water damage.

Lousteau apologized and said her agency had overlooked the document. Alston did not respond to a request for comment after the meeting.
Workers and customers at restaurants, gyms and many other indoor businesses in Boston will be required to show proof of coronavirus vaccination starting in mid-January in an effort to curb a rise in new cases across the city and state, Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday.

In addition, city employees will be required to get vaccinated, she said at a City Hall news conference as protesters blowing whistles, shouting Shame on Wu, and singing The Star-Spangled Banner" could clearly be heard in another part of the building.

There is nothing more American than coming together to ensure that were taking care of each other, the mayor said in response to the protesters.

City workers had previously been required to show proof of vaccination or submit to regular testing, but the testing option is being eliminated, she said. Medical and religious exemptions will be considered.

About 90% of the city's roughly 18,000 workers are already vaccinated, she said.
Crow encouraged everyone eligible to get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. He also said he would continue to push for affordable access to rapid and reliable testing for all Americans.

In separate statements Sunday, Warren and Booker said they had been fully vaccinated with two doses and a booster and their symptoms were mild. They also encouraged others to get the trio of shots if eligible.

Warren tweeted: Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted."

She didnt elaborate on where she might have contracted the virus but said she's regularly tested and turned up negative for COVID-19 earlier this past week. Spokespeople for her office didn't respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP)  Former President Donald Trump revealed he received a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd in Dallas.

Trump made the disclosure Sunday night during the final stop of The History Tour, a live interview show he has been doing with former Fox News host Bill OReilly.

Both the president and I are vaxxed," OReilly said at the American Airlines Center, drawing some jeers from the audience, according to video shared online by OReillys No Spin News.

Did you get the booster? he asked the former president. Yes," Trump responded. I got it, too," O'Reilly said, eliciting more hectoring.

Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Don't! Trump told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.

While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates, he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed on his watch. At the same time, he has refused to urge his supporters to take them, even though Republicans remain far less likely than Democrats to be protected.
The country is averaging nearly 130,500 new COVID-19 cases a day, up from about 122,000 a day two weeks ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

In Texas, a hospital system in Houston reports that omicron already accounts for 82% of new symptomatic COVID-19 cases it is treating, a dramatic increase from Friday, when testing showed it was responsible for just 45% of the systems cases.

But in Missouri, an early epicenter of the delta surge, the variant still accounts for 98% to 99% of COVID-19 samples, according to the states Department of Health and Senior Services.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Ohio, Maine and other states have postponed elective surgeries, and governors have sent in National Guard reinforcements to help beleaguered hospital staff in recent days.

In Kansas, rural hospitals are struggling to transfer patients, with some left stranded in emergency rooms for a week while they wait for a bed. Overwhelmed hospitals as far away as Minnesota and Michigan have been calling looking for beds in larger Kansas hospitals. Often there simply isnt room.
Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
In December 2021 commercial satellite photos revealed that an Iranian frigate, the Talayieh, had rolled over in a partially flooded drydock while under construction in the Persian Gulf Bandar Abbas ship yard. It is unclear what the cause of this mishap was or how much damage was done. The Talayieh is the fifth of seven planned Moudge (Mowj) class frigates to be built and appears, from the shape of its superstructure and earlier comments by Iranians, that it is an improved version of the Moudge with electronic intelligence collection capabilities.

Five months earlier the fourth Moudge, the Dena, entered service. Dena is described by Iran as a Light Frigate. By international standards these ships are heavily armed and haphazardly equipped corvettes. Iran plans to put seven into service and three more are under construction with uncertain service dates because of the difficulty in finding the needed warship components. Talayieh, before the recent mishap, was supposed to enter service in 2022. Now that will probably be delayed until 2023, or later, depending on what repairs or modifications must be made.

The first Moudge, Jamaran, entered service in 2010 after at least six years under construction. The second one, Damavand, entered service in 2015. This one was built in a Caspian Sea shipyard and took six years to complete. In early 2018 it ran aground while entering port in bad weather. Satellite photos showed it partially submerged. The ship was refloated and towed to a shipyard for repairs, where it was declared complete after 18 months. Despite that the ship is not yet back in service, or at least it has not been seen at sea. This may be due to problems with equipment damaged when the ship was partially sunk. Getting necessary electronic and mechanical components is always a problem when building these ships. For example, the third Moudge, the Sahand, entered service at the end of 2018 after eight years of construction efforts. This one was more heavily armed and equipped for long-distance voyages of up to 150 days if accompanied by a supply ship. To demonstrate this, in mid-2021 Sahand traveled to the Baltic Sea Russian naval base at St Petersburg, accompanied by a tanker/supply ship, to represent Iran at the 235th anniversary of the Russian Navy. This was mostly a publicity stunt.

It is unclear how long a Moudge class ship is under construction because Iran carries out a lot of this work in a shed, to protect the new warship from the elements during five or more years of construction effort. Iran now tries to keep quiet about warship construction efforts because of the unpredictable delays.

The five Moudge class ships built are each nominally armed with one 76mm gun, a 40mm anti-aircraft auto cannon or a 30mm autocannon CIWS (Close In Weapons System) with anti-missile capabilities. Several 20mm autocannon are also carried. There are four SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles), four anti-ship missiles, six 324mm (anti-submarine) torpedoes and room for one helicopter, usually an elderly American Bell 214, used for ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare.) Crew size is about 140 and max speed is 55 kilometers an hour. Length is at least 95 meters (311 feet), with some variation.

All the weapons are made in Iran, usually copies of Western, Chinese, or Russian models. The electronics (radars, sonars, and electronic warfare) are also locally made. Because of the long build time, each Moudge is somewhat different, depending on recent improvements or availability of weapons and electronics. The superstructure also evolves. Like everything else in Iran, engineers and manufacturers are constantly dealing with the need to obtain and smuggle in key components, especially for electronics. Engines for these ships are adapted from those used in commercial vessels.

Iran has had little access to foreign shipbuilders since the 1980s, and by 2000 had developed the capability of building their own warships. These are crude but they float and their weapons generally work. Construction takes place in the commercial shipyards that Iran has developed since the 1990s to repair existing commercial ships and build smaller tankers and cargo carriers. This eventually led to warships, which is a common trend for nations seeking to build their own. Before the monarchy was overthrown in 1979, Iran bought modern warships from foreign suppliers, a practice still common among Persian Gulf oil states. Only the UAE has developed some warship construction capability, mainly as part of its effort to prepare the economy for less dependence on oil income.

The locally built Iranian surface ships are small craft, no larger than 2,500-ton frigates, while the submarines are largely of the miniature variety. Construction of warships is a sideline in the commercial shipyards and only a few warships are being built at a time. Construction is also proceeding slowly so that, apparently, mistakes in the previous ships can be discovered and fixed.

Currently, the only major surface warships it has are four of the new corvettes/frigates (2,000-2,500 tons each), three elderly British built frigates (1,540 tons each), and two U.S. built corvettes (1,100 tons each). There are about fifty smaller patrol craft, ten of them armed with Iranian versions of Chinese anti-ship missiles. Chief among these is the Nasr 1. There are a few dozen mine warfare, amphibious, and support ships. The three most powerful ships in the fleet are three Russian Kilo class subs. Most of the foreign built ships are serving way past their retirement date. This includes the Kilos and most of the fifty mini-subs, most built in Iran. There are several thousand marines and twenty or so aircraft and helicopters.

The Iranian Navy is led by officers who think along more conventional lines than their government. Western ship commanders generally have good professional relationships with their Iranian counterparts, even when the Iranian Navy is under orders to give Western ships a hard time. If an Iranian captain reports by radio that he has his orders it means he will follow through with whatever bizarre actions he has been ordered to carry out but will be apologetic about it to his foreign peers.

The Iranian Navy has fewer options than the Revolutionary Guard, simply because the navy has fewer and larger (easier to spot and hit) ships. Since 2005 the navy has generally been stationed on the Indian Ocean and the Caspian Sea, while the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) navy has been given responsibility for the Persian Gulf and protecting all those Iranian oil facilities along the coast. The Revolutionary Guard is there more as a threat to Arab oil fields and tankers because the Arabs and their Western allies have control of the air and can destroy Iranian oil fields and tankers that way. What the IRGC hopes to do at sea is create as formidable a threat as possible, even if this threat, in the form of suicidal speedboats and missile boats backed up by shore-based anti-ship missiles, is short-term. In the long run, any Iranian naval power is toast.

In Iran, the IRGC has its own Navy of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The main job of the IRGC is to protect the religious dictatorship from the Iranian armed forces and a growing number of angry Iranians. As a result, the IRGC Navy has about as many personnel (23,000), including marines and naval aviation, as the Iranian Navy. The IRGC force has about 40 large missile and torpedo boats (100-200 tons each) and over a thousand smaller craft, many of them just speedboats with dual outboard engines and machine-gun mounts.

The IRGC builds its own small boats and regularly holds highly publicized ceremonies to induct new boats into the IRGC Navy. Iran recently put another 110 of these smaller craft into service. These boats were described as faster, with some overhead protection for the three-man crew and the overhead appears to carry several small unguided or rockets or what Iran described as guided missiles. These appear to be ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) with a range of over 3,000 meters. These damage larger ships but wont sink them unless they are carrying extremely combustible cargoes, like refined petroleum products, some chemicals or liquified natural gas.

The IRGC operates most of the 1,500 small boats used by the naval and coast guard forces. These small craft spend a lot of time at sea and wear out or are lost to accidents or bad weather. Thus, the need for large numbers of new ones. Because of this, opponents have had to develop two sets of tactics for dealing with Iranian naval forces. Irans two navies are very different from each other. The traditional navy exists alongside the less well equipped, but more fanatical, forces of the IRGC. Both forces are equipped, trained, and led very differently. The IRGC force is sworn to defend the religious dictatorship while the regular navy strives to defend Iran.
A commuter passes in view of Tower Bridge in London on Nov. 29, 2021. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

Europes biggest countries are introducing more curbs to fight a surge in COVID-19 infections, from another lockdown in the Netherlands to stricter travel restrictions at the height of the holiday period.

The continent faces a critical week of decisions that could disrupt peoples Christmas and New Years plans as the spread of the highly-transmissible omicron strain slams already weary populations. At the same time, a debate continues to rage over whether the omicron variant produces milder illness than previous strains, and how to effectively combat the mutation.

Germany designated the U.K. as a virus variant area from Monday, the highest risk category, requiring incoming travelers to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, regardless of their vaccination status. France is considering health passes at work, and Israel added the U.S. and other countries to a list of banned travel destinations.

As omicron cases surge in the U.K., the country faces the politically perilous decision whether to tighten restrictions. Health Minister Sajid Javid has declined to rule out such a move before Christmas, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson  who previously called the end of curbs irreversible  would likely face further rebellion from his own ranks should such steps come into effect.

European nations have taken a varied approach to counter the winter COVID wave, but most have emphasized the importance of accelerating vaccination and booster campaigns. Much of their efforts are focused on not repeating the experience of the U.K., where total COVID infections rose by about 50% in a week to touch a record 93,000 on Friday.

In the U.S., President Joe Biden is planning to warn the nation on Tuesday of the perils of remaining unvaccinated, though his chief medical adviser said the prospect of further lockdowns in the U.S. are unlikely even as the omicron variant has now reached almost every state.

Here are the steps countries have taken or are discussing:

The U.K.

U.K. advisers have told the government that new measures are needed within days to protect the health care system. Javid said there are no guarantees in the pandemic, referring to the possibility of a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown.

A key minister, Lord David Frost, quit over the weekend, and warned Johnson in his resignation letter not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan Saturday declared a major incident due to a rapid spread of the omicron variant across the the city, giving him more powers to fight the virus and seek government support. With so many people now staying home, the country has entered what some call a stealth lockdown thats left retail, hospitality and travel reeling.

Ireland

Irelands chief medical officer refused to rule out new restrictions if the omicron variant continues to spread.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Friday ordered bars and restaurants to close by 8pm and limited attendance at certain events.

The omicron variant is now dominant in Ireland, and daily case numbers have hit their highest level since January. Starting this week, Ireland will require bars, restaurants, cinemas and sport venues to shut down by 8 p.m.

The Netherlands

The Dutch already made their move: the nation returned to a strict lockdown on Sunday. That means schools and non-essential shops are closed, and fewer visitors will be allowed in households. The steps come as the government said the rise of omicron will likely overburden its health care system in January. The new restrictions will remain in place until at least Jan. 14.

Germany

Thats a scenario Germany is trying to avoid, as its health care system continues to struggle with a virus wave that peaked in late November. Hospital demand isnt expected to subside much for a month or more. The country joined Cyprus and France in imposing stricter rules for travelers from Britain, wholl have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival, upending holiday plans. France temporarily banned entry for many Britons last week, and Cyprus will require visitors from the U.K. ages 12 or above, regardless of vaccination status, to self-isolate. Germanys new government is also mulling a vaccine mandate.

France

As well as imposing a ban on U.K. arrivals, France is curbing outdoor revelry on New Years Eve to try to limit the spread and protect its hospitals. The government is also turning up the pressure on people to get vaccinated, and from January only immunized people will be able to get a health pass that gives access to bars, restaurants, medical facilities and cultural venues.

French Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne will meet with business and labor leaders Monday to discuss the possibility of requiring health passes at work. Unions say such a move would effectively make vaccines mandatory in France.

Spain

Spain will convene an online emergency meeting on Wednesday to analyze the evolution of the pandemic and discuss adopting new measures. Some regions are already requiring proof of vaccination to enter restaurants and bars, but have refrained from more aggressive steps that could put a drag on an economy heavily reliant on services and tourism.

Italy

On Thursday, Italys government will also hold an emergency meeting and may look at options such as requiring masks outdoors, shortening the validity of vaccine certificates, and possibly requiring inoculated people as well as the unvaccinated to take COVID tests to access large events, according to people familiar with the matter.

Switzerland

A vaccine laggard, with less than 68% fully inoculated, Switzerland will exclude the unvaccinated from large parts of public life, such as restaurants, museums and gyms. The Swiss government also reintroduced a work-from-home requirement. The measures are in place until Jan. 24.

Austria

Austria was in lockdown when omicron hit, after a low vaccine rate fed a surge in delta cases that swamped the countrys health care system. The general lockdown was lifted earlier this month in time for the holidays. The unvaccinated have also been offered a respite, but after the New Year will once again only be allowed to leave their homes to go to work, do essential shopping, or exercise. The country also mandated vaccines from February. Austrias daily cases have fallen more than 75% from their peak, and vaccinations have advanced steadily in the past month.

Israel

Israels cabinet approved banning travel with the U.S., Canada and eight other countries to try to mitigate the local spread of the omicron variant. Once a parliamentary committee signs off on the measures, the new restrictions will go into effect at midnight Tuesday.

The new strain is in the community transmission phase and has spurred a fifth wave of the pandemic in Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told the cabinet on Sunday. Other countries on Israels banned list include Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

Poland

The Polish government has ordered schools to switch to remote learning through Jan. 9, and tightened capacity limits in public spaces such as restaurants, hotels and cinemas. Limits were reduced to 30% of capacity from 50% previously. The government closed discos and nightclubs as of Dec. 15. The health ministry is also planning to make vaccines mandatory for medical staff, uniformed services and teachers as of March 1. Deaths from COVID in the nation of 38 million people have been running at more than 500 a day.

The U.S.

An effective shutdown of the U.S. is probably unnecessary as COVID surges again, though hospitals will be tested by the expected rush of omicron cases, according to Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

With colder weather and holiday travel and gatherings, stresses on the medical system will be particularly acute in regions of the country with low levels of vaccination, Fauci told CNNs State of the Union. He urged the public to get vaccines and boosters, noting that about 50 million people are eligible to get shots and havent.

In his address to the people on Tuesday, President Biden will announce new steps to help communities in need of assistance, while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated, according to a White House official.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the federal government to step up supplies of tests and treatments to the city amid a spike in infections. New York state broke a record for new infections for a third straight day.

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A Navy sailor receives a covid-19 vaccine at Naval Base San Diego. (Luke Cunningham/U.S. Navy)

FORT WORTH, Texas (Tribune News Service)  A federal hearing is scheduled Monday in Fort Worth for several U.S. Navy SEALs and other Naval special warfare personnel who filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the Department of Defense for their refusal to grant religious accommodations for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

First Liberty Institute filed the lawsuit in November on behalf of 35 enlisted service members who say their rights have been violated and the mandate is unlawful.

The hearing for a preliminary injunction is Monday morning in the Eldon B. Mahon Federal Courthouse in Fort Worth.

The hearing is in Fort Worth because at least one of the enlisted service members is in Tarrant County.

The majority of the plaintiffs are Navy SEALs, according to the lawsuit.

First Liberty Institute is a non-profit interest law firm based in Plano and one of the largest legal organizations in the nation dedicated to defending religious freedom for Americans.

Nine U.S. senators including Ted Cruz and 38 United States Representatives have filed a federal court document in support of the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction.

The enlisted service members object to the vaccine mandate based on their religious beliefs as the plaintiffs are members of various denominations, but the three main branches of Christianity are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant.

The lawsuit states the service members are unable to receive any of the vaccines due to what they believe and understand is a connection between the vaccines and their testing, development, or production using aborted fetal cell lines.

Service members do not object to safety measures such as mask-wearing, physical distancing, regular testing, sick leave and teleworking.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs believe the vaccine mandates violate their rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

President Joe Biden directed on July 29 that the Department of Defense add COVID-19 vaccine to its list of required immunizations for all service members. Weeks later, Navy officials told service members that failure to comply by Nov. 28 would result adverse consequences such as court-martial prosecution and involuntary separation.

The lawsuit noted that military officials have the discretion in granting religious accommodations, but in the past seven years, no religious exemptions from vaccination waivers had been approved for any other vaccine.

Some service members noted that there has been retaliation for religious exemption requests, according to the lawsuit..

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For U.S. school officials struggling with a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, winter break cant come soon enough.

There were 646 COVID-related school closings for this week, up from 356 the week before, according to Burbio, a data service that aggregates calendars nationwide. Schools in states including Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio shifted to virtual learning or closed early for winter break. Several already are planning remote class in January.

In Uniondale, on New Yorks Long Island, the district switched its high school to remote instruction starting Dec. 17 after infections caused staffing shortages. In Maine, the Otisfield Community School shut down last week; the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston reported that nearly 70% of the students were in quarantine.

This is a massive in-school transmission rate far exceeding anything weve seen thus far, Maine administrators said in a post on social media.

The disruption is a setback for officials who had hoped to minimize disruption for students and keep them in class  not to mention for parents who need functioning schools to enable their own work. Research has found that students learn better in class, and that remote teaching during the pandemic set children back.

U.S. and state officials have said they didnt want to close schools again, urging parents to get pupils vaccinated. Some districts mandated that teachers get the shots. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month published studies showing that unvaccinated students who come in contact with someone with COVID-19 can remain in classrooms without fueling an outbreak if they test negative and meet other criteria.

The studies were conducted before the spread of omicron, a new variant of COVID that may be far more transmissible than earlier variants. Omicron, first identified in South Africa in November and reported in the U.S. on Dec. 1, now makes up about 3% of all U.S. cases, according to modeling from the CDC. In the New York region, it may make up 13%.

Still, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has no plans to shut schools again. The citys public school system, the largest in the U.S. with roughly 1 million students, remains the safest place for kids, said de Blasio, whose term ends in less than two weeks.

In New York City, hundreds of classrooms have temporarily closed in the past two weeks due to cases. There were 573 classrooms shut and four schools, according to New York City Department of Education data as of Dec. 19.

Brad Lander, who will become New York City comptroller on Jan. 1, called on de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams to require kids and educators to present a negative test to return to school on Jan. 3.

NYC should procure rapid tests to have enough on hand to test everyone who doesnt bring a recent negative result at school that morning. We have the capacity, if we plan ahead, Lander said in a statement Monday.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said last week that closing schools would be a last resort. New guidelines by state health officials cut in half the number of days students must quarantine if they are in contact with a COVID-positive classmate or staff member.

We know the price we paid with learning loss, Murphy said Dec. 13.

In Union Beach, N.J., the sole kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, with roughly 600 students, is finishing the year with virtual classes after several staff had to quarantine. In a Dec. 16 letter on the districts website, Superintendent Amanda Lewert said classes would be be online starting Dec. 17.

We understand that this is an inconvenience for many, Lewert said in a letter to parents.

For some districts, the winter break was perfect timing. Chicago schools are closed from Dec. 18 through Jan. 2. In the week ended Dec. 18, 880 staff and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to data on the districts website. As of Dec. 14, the district had more than 6,800 students and 380 adults isolated or in quarantine.

In Prince Georges County, Md., students will begin virtual learning Monday and continue after winter break, returning to in-person classes on Jan. 18.

Educators, administrators and support staff must be able to deliver in-person instruction and other activities in conditions that prioritize their own health, CEO Monica Goldson said in a note to parents. The increased positivity rates have significantly challenged the ability to do so, causing anxiety among many school communities and disruption.
Robert Lincoln, right, attended the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922 with former president William Howard Taft and then-President Warren Harding. (Library of Congress)

On the evening of June 30, 1881, President James Garfield was with a few members of his Cabinet when he asked one of them a sensitive question: Would the man please recount for him the evening of his father's assassination?

The man was Robert Lincoln, Garfield's secretary of war and the only surviving son of the nation's greatest president.

Lincoln gave Garfield a "detailed recital," he later said - how he had been invited to the theater with his father that night but declined, how he was hanging out with friends in the White House when he heard his dad had been shot, how he rushed to the house across the street from the theater where his father had been taken and tended to him until he took his last breath.

Less than 48 hours after Lincoln told this story, Garfield too was struck by an assassin's bullet, while his 37-year-old secretary of war stood a few feet away.

Though little remembered and often misunderstood, Robert Lincoln lived a remarkable life woven through with landmark historical events and spooky coincidences. (The most incredible of them: Months before John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, Wilkes' brother Edwin saved Robert from a dangerous fall on a railroad track.) It's a life captured in the book "Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln" by historian Jason Emerson, who, during his research, was the first person to read many of Robert's private letters since they had been donated to the Library of Congress.

On the morning of July 2, 1881, Lincoln was supposed to take a train to New England with Garfield, but he had encountered a scheduling delay. So instead, he had come to the train station to let the president know he would join him the next day. He was standing on the train platform "about 40 feet away," according to Emerson, when Charles Guiteau, who deludedly believed that he'd gotten Garfield elected and deserved a diplomatic post, shot Garfield twice.

"I think I reached him in 15 seconds," Lincoln wrote to a friend later. "He was lying on his back, his eyes closed and with a leaden gray look on his face."

Even in the immediate aftermath, newspapers commented on Lincoln's misfortune to be at both presidential shootings to date, and a New York Times correspondent reported overhearing him say, "My God, how many hours of sorrow I have passed in this town."

Lincoln helped run the government for months while Garfield convalesced, and though it initially seemed like the president would recover, his wounds became infected, and he died on Sept. 19, 1881. When Vice President Chester Arthur took over, he replaced everyone in the Cabinet except for Lincoln.

Over the next few decades, Lincoln served as a diplomat in London and remained active in Republican Party politics. He became general counsel of the Pullman Car Co., which manufactured and owned train cars all over the country during the railroad boom.

By 1901, he was in his late fifties and had become president of the company when President William McKinley invited him to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. According to Emerson, Lincoln and his family had been vacationing in New Jersey and took the train to the event. When they arrived, a Pullman employee was waiting on the platform and handed Lincoln a telegram. It read: "President McKinley was shot down by anarchist in Buffalo this afternoon. He was hit twice in the abdomen. Condition serious." (Later versions of the story had Lincoln standing next to McKinley at the time of the shooting; Emerson thinks those are exaggerations, although Lincoln's train was about to arrive in Buffalo when it happened.)

Lincoln rushed to McKinley's bedside. Only one bullet had hit the president, in the abdomen; the other grazed his arm. With treatment, he was expected to recover. After a second visit, Lincoln told reporters, "My visit has given me great encouragement," and continued on his vacation.

But as with Garfield, infection proved a greater threat to McKinley than bullets. He soon took a turn for the worse and died on Sept. 14, 1901, becoming the third president to be assassinated.

Legend has it that after McKinley's death, Lincoln refused all invitations to future presidential events; the New York Times wrote in its 1926 obituary for Lincoln that he said, "There is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present." But Emerson was unable to find any evidence in Lincoln's papers to confirm this.

In the remaining 25 years of Lincoln's life, Emerson found at least two other events in which a sitting American president was nearby and, well, didn't die: a state dinner at the White House hosted by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, and the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in 1922, which then-President Warren Harding attended. The Times obituary also said President William Howard Taft visited Lincoln frequently at his summer home in Vermont, although it did not say whether any of those visits happened while Taft was president.

Many people in politics, past and present, spend their lives clamoring for proximity to power, but Robert Lincoln was stalked by it. Despite a prominent career, he eschewed publicity and never spoke publicly about his father, although privately he guarded Abraham Lincoln's legacy carefully. At least five times in his life, he was put forth by Republican Party officials as a potential presidential or vice-presidential candidate - primarily, he believed, because of his last name - and each time he flatly refused. He had no interest.

Soon after Roosevelt assumed office following McKinley's assassination, Lincoln sent him a letter of condolence, in which he wrote, "I do not congratulate you, for I have seen too much of the seamy side of the Presidential Robe to view it as an enviable garment."
Buy Photo (Gerald Waller/Stars and Stripes)

Frankfurt, West Germany, July 1949: The Joint Chiefs of Staff are welcomed to Rhein-Main Air Force Base after arriving on the "Independence," President Harry S Truman's private plane (seen in the background). Left to right are Adm. Louis E. Denfeld, Chief of Naval Operations; John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner; Lt. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner, acting commander-in-chief, EUCOM; Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Air Force Chief of Staff; Lt. Gen. John K. Cannon, USAFE commanding general; and Gen. Omar N. Bradley, Army Chief of Staff. During their 10-day visit to Europe, the three joint chiefs (the Marine Corps did not yet have a full membership) were to confer on collective security with military leaders from participants in the recently-signed North Atlantic Treaty (on which NATO was based) in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna and Rome. After returning to Washington, Bradley was sworn in as the first JCS chairman.
Buy Photo At least 180 personnel at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, are infected with the coronavirus, Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu told reporters in Tokyo, Monday, Dec. 20, 2021. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  The governor of Okinawa called for a genome analysis of Marine Corps coronavirus cases at Camp Hansen after two base employees contracted the omicron variant last week.

At least 180 personnel at Hansen are infected with the coronavirus, Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu said Monday at a Tokyo news conference. Visiting Kadena Air Base on Sunday, Hirokazu said he would pressure the U.S. military to take more thorough mitigation measures and ease the concern of local people.

The Japanese government is working closely with the U.S. military, he said. The Japanese government also requested that the U.S. military restrict movement on and off the base.

Marine Corps Installation Pacific on Friday reported multiple cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, among a rotational unit of newly arrived Marines. The command did not specify whether the new cases are the omicron variant.

Also Friday, Okinawa prefecture confirmed a case of omicron coronavirus in a Japanese employee at Hansen, a man in his 50s from Uruma city, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said at a news conference.

The man does not work in the facility where the Marines are quarantined, a spokesman for the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.

On Saturday, another two omicron cases surfaced in the local population, an American civilian in her 50s who works at Hansen and her Japanese husband, a man in his 60s, the spokesman said. Government spokespeople in Japan customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

Since then, public health authorities have identified 60 close contacts of the three, the spokesman said. He said the prefecture is providing free testing for other Japanese employees at Hansen.

Okinawa prefecture is conducting an epidemiological study to determine if there was a link to the infection cluster in Camp Hansen, Tamaki said at Fridays press conference. Okinawa prefecture requested that the Japanese government demand that the U.S. military conduct genome analysis.

On Monday, the public health spokesman said the U.S. military replied that it does not have the necessary equipment on Okinawa for such analysis. U.S. authorities, citing privacy concerns, declined an offer of assistance from Okinawa, the spokesman said.

The prefectural government will continue to request that the U.S. military on the island take strong action against the rapid spread of COVID-19, Tamaki said.

The Marine Corps did not respond to an email Monday from Stars and Stripes requesting further information. On Friday, Marine Corps Installations Pacific said the infected Marines tested positive while in quarantine on Hansen. They did not come into contact with the local population, according to a statement from the command.

The Marines were quarantined at Hansen after they arrived at Kadena on a non-commercial flight, the public health spokesman said. Kadena is a stop for the Patriot Express, a U.S. government-contracted air service that moves military personnel between the U.S. and its overseas bases.

After the positive tests came back, the base launched an aggressive contact tracing, testing and quarantine program to prevent further spread, Lt. Col. Matthew Hilton, spokesman for the installations command, said in Fridays statement.

The base also raised its COVID-19 risk level to Health Protection Condition-Bravo, which represents a moderate risk of coronavirus infection and gives commanders leeway to impose further restrictions. They re-implemented a mask mandate and canceled indoor dining.

Kadena has five active cases of the coronavirus, the 18th Wing wrote in an emailed statement to Stars and Stripes on Monday.
The submarine tender USS Frank Cable arrives at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Dec. 6, 2021. (David Krigbaum/U.S. Navy)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  The USS Frank Cable, one of two submarine tenders in the U.S. Navy, recently completed its first-ever visit to White Beach Naval Facility for a pier survey.

The four-day port call on Okinawa was a first for any submarine tender in the U.S. fleet.

Our ships routinely operate around the region, and Okinawa was another chance to showcase Frank Cable's capabilities to the fleet, provide the crew an opportunity to enjoy the culture and history of the Okinawan community, and to enhance the interoperability and flexibility of our expeditionary logistics capabilities, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Reinheimer, spokesman for Submarine Group 7, wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes on Thursday.

Interoperability refers to the ability of a countrys armed forces to use another countrys training methods and military equipment.

The Frank Cable, homeported on Guam, made its first port call for a pier survey and crew liberty in Yokohama, Japan, on Nov. 1, according to the Navy. A month later, in White Beach, the ships crew launched another pier survey.

The surveys are routine exercises meant to ensure safe navigation and operations, Rienhiemer said. The surveys for the Frank Cable ensure it can moor safely on the pier and have access to all necessary port services.

While in White Beach, the ships crew also made repairs to the aft weapons hoist, launched small boats for training and went on liberty out in town.

The submarine tender USS Frank Cable arrives at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Dec. 6, 2021. (David Krigbaum/U.S. Navy)

Mooring in White Beach, Okinawa, is a first-time event for both Frank Cable and for U.S. Navy submarine tenders, said Capt. Albert Alarcon, the ships commanding officer, in a press release this month. Besides validating submarine tender access and sustainability in Okinawa, this provides another option for supporting submarines and surface combatants in the Pacific Theater.

The Frank Cable and Emory S. Land, both built in the 1970s, are the last submarine tenders in the Navys fleet. Both have operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans over their service lives. The ships missions are to repair, rearm and reprovision submarines and surface vessels of the U.S. Navy and its allies.

The Emory S. Land was on hand in Guam to assist the fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut after its Oct. 1 collision with a seamount in the South China Sea, according to U.S. Naval Institute News on Nov. 1. The nuclear-powered Connecticut reached San Diego a month later en route to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash.

Frank Cable departed its homeport of Apra Harbor, Guam, on Oct. 18 and is on patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.
Muhammad Fahim Salimi recently arrived in the Springfield, Mass., area after leaving Afghanistan. He is one of 68 Afghan evacuees resettled here by Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. (Don Treeger, The Republican/TNS)

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (Tribune News Service)  Muhammad Fahim Salimi is safe, but everyone he loves is 6,600 miles away in Afghanistan living under Taliban rule.

My only hope right now is my family, he said.

Salimi, 27, is waiting for his wife, a womens right activist, and relatives, including two former high-ranking military officials, to get out of Afghanistan. He hopes to see them begin their journey along the path he followed here to Western Massachusetts, where hes determined to build a new life.

Hes living with two other Afghan evacuees in a spartan, third-floor apartment in downtown Northampton, having arrived Dec. 2. He fills his time with paperwork, exploring the city and attending mosque.

Hes also taking English lessons. Although he used to teach the language at a high school in Kabul, he is brushing up on using it conversationally.

Salimi is one of 68 Afghan evacuees resettled here by the Catholic Charities Agency of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, said executive director Kathryn Buckley-Brawner.

Another agency, Ascentria Care Alliance, has committed to accepting around 300 refugees here and 140 in Worcester. Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts is reaching its capacity of 150 Afghans.

Salimi worked for a company that provided services in the U.S. embassy.

His wife, Heela Gharani Sabit, is safe, but still living in Afghanistan. The couple does not have children. Also safe but still in the country are Salimis father and his father-in-law, both former high-ranking military officers in the deposed government.

Every story from an Afghan evacuee is unique, Salimi said. But there is a thread that runs through every story. And that is tragedy. It is a tragedy to leave your home country.

And its not the first time hes had to flee. As a child he lived in Iran because his father was engaged in the fight against the Taliban.

Salimi is an engaging man, pleasant and cheerful  even while discussing the tragedy that has befallen him, his country and the anguished uncertainty surrounding his family.

Muhammad Fahim Salimi opens the refrigerator in his Pleasant Street, Northampton, Mass., apartment. He is one of 68 Afghan evacuees resettled to the Pioneer Valley by Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. (Don Treeger, The Republican/TNS)

Once the Taliban took over, they had access to every (government) ministry. All the records, he said. (The family) had to change their address.

But his face lights up when he recalls running into young Afghan men he had taught English in high school after theyd all been evacuated to the Fort Pickett Army base in Blackstone, Virginia.

What are you doing here? he said they all exclaimed to one another.

He also keeps in touch with former students who are still in Afghanistan.

Salimi smiled as he diplomatically described American food as different.

He thoughtfully compared this Christmas season in the United States to the eids  the word means festivals  that mark important holidays of the Muslim calendar. Tradition at the eids is to see family, he said.

Salimi was one of the throng crowding the Kabul airport in August, desperately trying to escape a country falling to the Taliban.

There he was separated from his wife and from the phone he used to keep in contact with her. But somehow he found himself pushed through the gates, where he eventually made his way onto a plane to the nation of Qatar.

At first, he described the scene at the airport as much mismanagement. As the story goes on, he goes into detail. There was a 10-year-old boy shot in the face. He saw people fall from airplanes as they taxied down the runway.

Ive seen things no one should have ever seen, Salimi said.

In Qatar he was in a facility hed been told was built for COVID-19 patients. It was crowded. It was hot. He and his fellow evacuees were locked in a hallway for about 40 days. The doors opened when it was time to bring in food.

Muhammad Fahim Salimi throws a comforter over his bed in his Northampton, Mass., apartment. He is one of 68 Afghan evacuees resettled to the Pioneer Valley by Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. (Don Treeger, The Republican/TNS)

He said his hair started falling out. He playfully pulled his forelock back to reveal a receding hairline.

I wasnt like this in Afghanistan, he said.

After a total of 75 days he was told he would go to America. He was part of a group that landed in Philadelphia and took a bus to Fort Pickett. There, he was in a barracks-like military apartment. He and his fellow evacuees filled their time getting medical checks and filling out forms.

In their spare time they walked thousands of steps around the base to keep in shape. Theres a movie theater there, he said. Men went on one night and women the other.

Hed befriended another Afghan evacuee in Qatar. The friend left 15 days before him. When that man made it to Northampton through Catholic Charities, the friend sent word for Salimi that Massachusetts was nice, the people welcoming and the weather strikingly similar to that in Kabul.

He said he likes it here, exploring Northampton and living with two other recent arrivals including his friend.

According to Buckley-Brawner, housing is the biggest challenge for the new arrivals  and they never have folks live alone.

They need the company, she said. They need that support.

Salimi praised the work of volunteers.

Everything is a circle, Salimi said. And that circle is made up of volunteers. To volunteer for this, to do a job where you arent going to be paid. You need a big heart.

In a separate interview, the Most Rev. William D. Byrne, bishop of Springfield, said that for the new Afghan arrivals, the pain goes beyond just separation from family.

I think that its a little more fearsome in a sense, Byrne said. Their families are in danger back in Afghanistan. Its a dangerous political environment.

He is asked, sometimes in blunt terms, why the diocese is doing so much for the evacuees, most whom are not Catholic.

He responds that many of the Afghans arriving here worked with and aided Americas efforts in that country during the 20-year War on Terror. This nation owes them, Byrne said. Secondly, its what they are called to do as Christians.

Jesus asked, Who is your neighbor? Byrne said.

And that has to be more than just words, he said.

If we dont walk the walk, then we are, as Paul says, we are a clanging gong, he said.

Thats just noise, no action.

Its a story of service and hope that Byrne said resonates a little louder at Christmas.

One Afghan family here will soon have a baby, the first among the dioceses new Afghan arrivals. Thats not lost on Byrne, ever the pastor relating events to the biblical text. Think of a Middle Eastern family, required to travel far from home, finding a place for their child to be born.

Isnt it beautiful? the bishop said.

2021 Advance Local Media LLC.

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Twenty-six Navy SEALs and nine other special operations sailors asked a federal court in November to shield them from the Pentagons mandate. (Jackson Adkins/U.S. Navy)

WASHINGTON  Forty-seven congressional Republicans filed a letter of support Friday for a lawsuit in which enlisted service members claim President Joe Bidens administration is infringing on their religious rights by refusing to grant exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Twenty-six Navy SEALs and nine other special operations sailors asked a federal court in November to shield them from the Pentagons mandate. A hearing on the issue began Monday in the U.S. District Courts Northern Texas division.

Ahead of the hearing, nine senators and 38 members of the House of Representatives filed an amicus brief, arguing that there must be realistically obtainable religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. As of Monday, more than 12,000 service members were seeking religious exemptions, and none had been successful.

The Republicans argued that exceptions should be made for service members with sincere religious objections because the mandate has been waived for some other troops, including those with medical conditions that interfere with vaccination.

The Navy  has already admitted that not every single person must be vaccinated, because it exempted from the vaccine mandate individuals with medical issues, their brief states. Since accommodations can be made for these individuals, there is no compelling interest in forcing plaintiffs and other individuals with sincere religious objections to violate their core beliefs by receiving the vaccine.

The brief was led by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. The three senators sponsored a measure that aims to prevent the military from giving dishonorable discharges to service members who refuse to be vaccinated. The amendment made it into the annual defense bill that Congress approved last week. Biden is expected to sign the legislation.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the sailors by the First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative legal group based in Texas. The suit claims the sailors have different reasons for believing the vaccines violate their religious beliefs  among them that they believe taking it would cause them to participate in the abortion enterprise or the immune response that the vaccines produce do so in a manner not designed by God.

Multiple plaintiffs hold to the sincere religious belief that, upon seeking guidance from God as to whether to receive a [coronavirus] vaccine, God instructed them not to do so, the suit maintains.

The rates of refusal for vaccinations among service members remain low. Across the active-duty force, more than 97% of troops have had at least one shot, and 90.7% are fully vaccinated, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week.

By military branch, about 95% of the active-duty Marine Corps, 98% of the Navy, 97.5% of the Air Force and 98% of the Army were at least partially vaccinated, according to Pentagon data.

In their amicus brief, 37 Republicans claimed the Pentagons lack of consideration for religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate would create significant consequences for military readiness and be damaging to national security. They argued religious individuals would be less likely to want to join the military.

This mandate  sends a strong signal to these young men and women that they must choose between their faith and their desire to protect America because the military will not reasonably accommodate their sincerely held religious beliefs, the brief states. If the mandate stands, it is likely, then, that it will be more difficult for our military to recruit highly qualified individuals of faith to serve our country.

Nikki Wentling Nikki Wentling has worked for Stars and Stripes since 2016. She reports from Congress, the White House, the Department of Veterans Affairs and throughout the country about issues affecting veterans, service members and their families. Wentling, a graduate of the University of Kansas, previously worked at the Lawrence Journal-World and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The National Coalition of Homeless Veterans awarded Stars and Stripes the Meritorious Service Award in 2020 for Wentlings reporting on homeless veterans during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, she was named by the nonprofit HillVets as one of the 100 most influential people in regard to veterans policymaking.
D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, center, wipes his eyes after President Biden signs an act to award the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who fought rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON  Michael Fanone, the D.C. police officer who was dragged into a mob and beaten during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and later publicly excoriated lawmakers and others who downplayed the attack, said he submitted his resignation from the force Monday.

The 41-year-old officer will officially depart Dec. 31 after using previously acquired leave. Fanone, whose frequent appearances on national television caused consternation among police commanders, said he will be an on-air contributor to CNN on law enforcement issues. A CNN spokeswoman confirmed his new role.

Fanone, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but did not support his reelection bid, spent months after the Jan. 6 riot repeatedly warning about threats to democracy, often alongside CNN anchor Don Lemon.

But his public appearances did not sit well with some fellow officers, who, according to Fanone, derided him in private internet chat forums for police.

Clearly there are some members of our department who feel their oath is to Donald Trump and not to the Constitution, Fanone said Monday. He said there are just two current D.C. police officers he still counts as friends. I no longer felt like I could trust my fellow officers and decided it was time to make a change.

D.C. police and the office of Democratic Mayor Muriel E. Bowser did not immediately comment on Fanones pending departure.

Fanone had spent months recovering from physical and emotional issues stemming from the Jan. 6 events, and was returned to limited duty in September. He had wanted to work at the training academy, but was assigned to a division that analyzes crime statistics.

His full police arrest powers and firearm were returned to him earlier this month, a milestone he said was important to push back against people who might accuse him of being forced out. He said his departure comes five years before he can retire with a pension.

Fanone, who joined the force 20 years ago, answered a citywide emergency Jan. 6 and rushed to the Capitol to fend off the pro-Trump rioters. He was dragged off the West Terrace and pummeled unconscious with fists and poles. He suffered a heart attack.

His police radio and badge were ripped off and one person tried to yank the gun from his holster. We got one! We got one!, a rioter yelled, Kill him with his own gun!

He was dragged to safety and later recounted his story to The Washington Post and on television, and became an instant symbol of a police department that had come to the rescue of the overrun Capitol Police, and in the words of D.C. police Chief Robert Contee, saved democracy.

Fanone continued to speak out, often without required permission from the department, discussing his slow recovery from physical and emotional trauma, and his growing disdain for people and lawmakers who didnt agree a riot had occurred.

In July, he joined other officers testifying before Congress about their experiences. He slammed his fist on the table, saying, Nothing, truly nothing, has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day. And in doing so, betray their oath of office. He later stood next to President Joe Biden as he signed the bill to award officers who fought the mob the Congressional Gold Medal.

Fanone also joined a Capitol Police officer and toured offices on Capitol Hill seeking to meet with lawmakers who voted against awarding the medal to officers. He jumped into an elevator with one representative who voted no, and then said that lawmaker had refused to shake his hand.

On Monday, Fanone said he had no regrets about his public actions over the past several months, viewing speaking as necessary and as a continuation of my service as a police officer.
Afghan air force Capt. Safia Ferozi gives a thumbs-up from the cockpit of her aircraft during a preflight check in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2017. (Alexander Riedel/U.S. Air Force)

An Afghan woman who was one of the few female pilots in her countrys air force quashed an online assertion that she had been stoned to death by the Taliban, saying she is alive and well on the West Coast.

Safia Ferozi spoke with Stars and Stripes by phone over the weekend about her evacuation from Afghanistan, her reaction to a viral photo purportedly showing her death and her hopes for remaking her life in the United States.

She flew out of Kabul on Aug. 15 with her husband, Jawad Najafi, and their 5-year-old daughter Nargis shortly after the capital fell to the Taliban.

An American adviser had helped the family board a U.S. military transport plane to Qatar, she said.

Meanwhile, Facebook posters named her as the woman depicted in a graphic image that was widely shared on social media. A Reuters fact check found that in fact the victim was a woman killed by a mob in 2015.

As rumors of her death spread unbeknownst to her, Ferozi was giving birth to a daughter at a U.S. military base in Qatar, she said.

Ferozi had not had access to the internet after arriving in Qatar. She found out about the viral claim only when a doctor at the hospital showed her the posts online.

Afghan air force Capt. Safia Ferozi jumps to reach the rear elevator of her aircraft during a preflight check in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2017. Ferozi was a C-208 pilot in the Afghan air force and regularly trained with U.S. instructor pilots. (Alexander Riedel/U.S. Air Force) Afghan air force Capt. Safia Ferozi dons her headset before flight in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2017. Ferozi flew a C-208 and was one of only a few female aviators in the country. (Alexander Riedel/U.S. Air Force) Afghan air force Capt. Safia Ferozi checks an engine on her C-208 in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2017. Ferozi was evacuated after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. (Alexander Riedel/U.S. Air Force)

The false news came as a shock, and she and her husband began trying to message relatives to reassure them that she was well.

Her fellow pilots also heard the rumors, which circulated quickly in the small community of Afghan aviators.

I was scared, said Abdul Rahman Rahmani, once a helicopter pilot with the American-trained special mission wing.

That fear drove Rahmani to seek answers about Ferozis fate. He finally learned from another pilot that she was safe, and Rahmani said he was overcome with relief.

Ferozi and her family spent three months at a military base in New Jersey and now plan to resettle somewhere in Oregon. Like many Afghan pilots, she dreams of being able to continue flying.

She named her newborn child Helen, saying she wanted a strong name for her daughter, who spent a week and a half in an intensive care unit.

Even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, female pilots faced discrimination and threats in the countrys conservative society.

The pioneering aviator said she wanted to pave the way for others, but now she doubts that there will be another female pilot in Afghanistan anytime soon.

Ferozi said she cries sometimes thinking about how her old life in Afghanistan fell apart. Her world seemed to collapse in a matter of hours.

She also believes that the false assertion of her killing could have been rendered true had she stayed in the country, she said.

More than 100 former members of the Afghan security forces have been executed or forcibly disappeared by the Taliban despite a proclaimed amnesty, said a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

If I was in Afghanistan, Im sure it would have happened to me, Ferozi said.
In this photo provided by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin delivers the keynote address during at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Service members who overtly support extremist groups or ideas, attempt to recruit others into such ideology, or train, organize or demonstrate in support of an extremist view are to face punishment under new guidance published by the Pentagon on Monday. (Chad J. McNeeley, Office of the Secretary of Defense via AP)

Service members who overtly support extremist groups or ideas, attempt to recruit others into such ideology, or train, organize or demonstrate in support of an extremist view are to face punishment under new guidance published by the Pentagon on Monday.

The guidance leaves entirely to commanders decisions about punishments for those found to be actively participating in extremist activity. Commanders may charge violators criminally, dole out a lesser administrative punishment or simply counsel them on what they did wrong, the guidance states.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instructed the Pentagon to better define extremism, as the Pentagon worked to understand how rampant such ideologies were in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by some supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Those involved included some members of the armed forces and dozens of veterans.

The overwhelming majority of the men and women of the Department of Defense serve this country with honor and integrity, Austin wrote in a memorandum dated Monday, which was released alongside the updated rules on extremism and a new report on extremist activity in DOD. We believe only a very few violate [their] oath by participating in extremist activities, but even the actions of a few can have an outsized impact on unit cohesion, morale and readiness  and the physical harm some of these activities can engender can undermine the safety of our people. We owe the men and women of the Department of Defense an environment free of extremist activities, and we owe our country a military that reflects the founding values of our democracy.

The Countering Extremist Activity Working Group that Austin stood up in April found fewer than 100 service members had likely participated in some prohibited extremist activities in the last year, John Kirby, the Pentagons top spokesman, told reporters Monday.

Some activity barred by the new rules may be simpler to root out than others, he acknowledged. For example, the rules ban service members from sporting clothing, tattoos or other paraphernalia promoting extremism, financially supporting an extremist cause or distributing extremist literature or materials.

However, service members could also be punished for their online actions, including posting, sharing or liking materials that promote or otherwise endorse extremist activities on the internet.

That is where a commanders discretion will be most important, Kirby said, noting that a service member, perhaps, could like a social media post by accident.

Commanders ... know their units. They know their people better than anybody, so thats why its up to them, he said. Commanders will have to make that call on their own in terms of what they believe is the right thing to do.  You want to have a conversation here. So it's not just that a knee jerk reaction to just immediately go to punishment  each case will have to be looked at individually.

In a six-part definition, the new Pentagon guidance labels extremist activity as any advocating or committing violence against the United States or its people, including plotting for or supporting the overthrow of the government or terrorism against the nation. It also labels any advocacy for widespread unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, or sexual orientation as extremist activity.

Kirby said the new definitions should be clearer for service members to understand  an issue that was often cited in the extremism stand down discussions Austin ordered across the entire armed forces this year. Service members will receive new training and education on the definitions and the rules, including on social media behaviors that could be problematic, he said Monday.

The new guidance does not include specific examples of extremist groups or organizations nor does it ban personnel from any specific groups. The guidance, Kirby said, is based solely on actual acts and not membership in a group.

Defense officials since late last year have warned that such groups actively recruit service members and veterans for their knowledge of weapons and tactics and a sense of legitimacy that is brought by including former troops, especially combat veterans. For example, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters  groups widely labeled extremist which were both represented in the Jan. 6 riot  often boast of the high number of veterans within their organizations.

Kirby said DOD did not seek to single out particular groups as extremist for its purposes.

Groups can and do change their methodology, their ideals, their motivations, and they can reform themselves or they can disband and reform into something else, Kirby said. And, so if we got into coming up with a list of extremist groups, it would be only probably as good as the day we published it, because these groups change.

Ultimately, those who belong to extremist organizations will likely break the Pentagon rules and punished, Kirby said.

If you want to be a member of you-pick-it [extremist group] in order to prove your membership youre probably going to run afoul of one of these criteria sets, he said.

The Countering Extremist Activity Working Group also recommended the Pentagon update its training for service members departing the military and expand screening for recruits for extremist beliefs. Kirby said Monday the Pentagon was working to implement some of those recommendations.

The Austin-led efforts have been questioned by some lawmakers, especially Republicans who have claimed it was an effort to remove conservatives from the military. Kirby said Monday the Pentagons extremism-focused efforts had nothing to do with politics.

None of this has anything to do with who a service member votes for or doesnt vote for or their personal political views, he said. This isn't about political leanings or partisan inclinations. Its about  prohibited extremist activity and active participation in that activity.

Corey Dickstein Corey Dickstein covers the military in the U.S. southeast. He joined the Stars and Stripes staff in 2015 and covered the Pentagon for more than five years. He previously covered the military for the Savannah Morning News in Georgia. Dickstein holds a journalism degree from Georgia College & State University and has been recognized with several national and regional awards for his reporting and photography. He is based in Atlanta.
A Russian IT specialist with Kremlin ties was charged by federal prosecutors in Boston with leading an insider trading ring that made millions of dollars in profits by hacking into systems used by public companies to file quarterly earnings reports.

Authorities charged Vladislav Klyushin and four others with gleaning material nonpublic information about company performance announcements and trading ahead of the news. One of the others charged, an employee of Klyushins named Ivan Ermakov, 35, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was previously charged for his alleged role in hacking and an influence effort related to the 2016 presidential election, according to the U.S.

Klyushin, a 41-year-old from Moscow, was extradited by the U.S. from Switzerland on Dec. 18, according to prosecutors. The four other co-defendants remain at large. Before the charges were announced, Klyushins lawyer, Oliver Ciric, has said his client views the allegations as a politically motivated pretext by U.S. intelligence to get access to confidential Russian information his client has.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, the defendants allegedly hacked two U.S. filing agents to obtain access to drafts of earnings press releases of several publicly traded companies, including IBM, Snap, Tesla, Microsoft and Horizon Therapeutics.

The defendants used the information obtained by hacking to buy shares of companies before they disclosed positive financial results, and shorted companies before they reported negative results, according to the U.S. The defendants are accused of using banks and brokerages in Cyprus, Denmark, Portugal, Russia and the U.S.

The two filing agents arent named. One of the multiple Interactive Brokers account used in the operation traded ahead of the earnings announcements of approximately 149 companies with a 66% success rate, according to the affidavit. That account generated $4.6 million in profit, the affidavit says.

The Russian Embassy in Washington didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russian state contracts show that a company associated with Klyushin called M-13 provided a media monitoring system to the Defense Ministry, as well as services to the National Guard, the Prosecutor Generals Office, the Justice Ministry and Moscow city government. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Vedomosti newspaper in 2016 that the presidential administration had used M-13 to monitor social media.

Klyushin, Ermakov and co-defendant Nikolai Rumiantcev were all listed as employees of M-13, which purports to be an IT company based in Moscow, according to the affidavit.

M-13 provided cybersecurity services for Russian government agencies and also offered penetration testing services, which simulate hacking attempts, according to the U.S. The company claimed it could emulate Advanced Persistent Threats  a term often used to describe state-backed hackers. Klyushin was M-13s first deputy general director, according to the affidavit.

The firm also offered investment management services in exchange for as much as 60% of the profits, according to prosecutors. Two of the defendants discussed the profits they allegedly earned trading on behalf of two men, according to the affidavit.

Boris earned $989k on 500k, Klyushin told Ermakov in an online chat, according to the affidavit. Sasha $693k on 1 million [smile]. They dont even ask why anymore.

In another exchange, Klyushin and Ermakov allegedly discussed buying real estate in Moscow.

Apartment is cool, Klyushin wrote, according to the U.S. Well earn and then we can buy [it].

No need to, Ermakov allegedly replied. Just turn on the computer [three smiles].

Other companies the defendants used hacked information to trade on include Proofpoint, Box, Nanometrics and Getty Realty, according to the U.S.
People gather during a vigil in downtown Oxford, Mich., on Dec. 3, 2021, for the Oxford community after an active shooter situation at Oxford High School left four students dead and multiple others with injuries. (Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press/TNS)

Nine days after the mass shooting at Michigans Oxford High School, a disturbing message on social media shook a tiny Virginia town. A 15-year-old boy wrote of shooting up the school tomorrow, police say, apparently referring to the high school he attended  spurring worried classmates to report the message to Manassas Park City Schools administrators.

School officials contacted the police, setting in motion a full-scale investigation, and the school system decided on a fairly drastic step  closing all campuses, not just the targeted school, for all of its 3,500 students the next day.

Out of an abundance of caution, we switched all schools to virtual learning, said schools spokeswoman Kara Grasser. The immediate information we received was not specific. ... We are a very small school system with only four schools.

It was one among hundreds of examples of school systems grappling with how to respond to vague threats afloat on social media in the wake of the tragedy at Oxford High, which left four dead and seven seriously injured. These kinds of disturbing messages are spiking nationwide: At least 60 schools in Michigan closed this month in the wake of the Oxford shooting, as did districts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. And in a challenge last week that swept the social network TikTok, students promoted school shootings to take place on Dec. 17  for many, the last day of class before winter break. Schools from Washington D.C. to California closed for the day or added police.

More than 150 threats surfaced nationwide in just the week after Oxford, said James Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University and a co-founder of the Violence Project. By comparison, Densley, who tracks news reports, recorded 151 school threats for the entire month of September this year  itself a fivefold increase over the number seen in a typical September, he said.

Every threat sets off alarm bells, putting staffers, parents and students on edge  and forcing administrators to make a choice. Should they close schools, an option that is more attractive in a post-pandemic world in which many students can learn from home? Or should they take a risk in an effort to minimize learning disruption? Assessing the danger of each threat is not always obvious.

For Jason Enix, superintendent of the Reading Community City School District just outside Cincinnati, the decision was clear. When a social media post surfaced this month promising a student was going to shoot up the school, Enix opted to have students learn virtually the next day. It was an easy call to make, he said. We would make that call every single time.

But when Daniel McGarry, superintendent of the Upper Darby School District in Pennsylvania, faced a similar situation in early December, before the Oxford attack, he kept students learning in a lock-in scenario, under which teachers continue teaching but nobody is allowed to leave their classroom. Our last resort is to close schools, McGarry said.

Experts are similarly conflicted  emphasizing the need to err on the side of caution but warning of possible downsides.

I think we have to take every single threat very seriously right now  it doesnt matter how it might seem innocuous, said Laurel Thompson, who is on the board of the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) and was involved in the response to the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School in Florida. We never know which one is going to be the one. We never want to make a mistake.

Amy Klinger, founder and director of programs for the Educators School Safety Network, commended schools for taking threats seriously. But she said she would like to see fewer campus shutdowns, because a return to virtual learning can cause trauma and anxiety for students who suffered in that environment during the pandemic. And, she warned, school closures could lead to even more threats surfacing on social media.

A kid could think, I made a threat and it worked, we dont have school, so Im going to do that again, Klinger said. And copycats create copycats and you get into this cycle of threat closure, threat closure, threat closure, so its very difficult.

- - -

The threats run the gamut.

In Virginias Chesterfield County, students began sharing an Instagram post in early December that promised a school riot the next day, slated to take place during third period. Ultimately deemed not credible by authorities, the threat nonetheless led school officials to request greater police presence at their campuses and spurred several principals to call or write letters to families.

In New Haven, Conn., a high school closed early on Dec. 6 when a 911 caller warned that someone was approaching the campus with a gun. Police say the girl who made the call admitted lying, was arrested and is now facing felony charges.

And when ominous rumors spread on TikTok of a possible day of shootings nationwide this past Friday, administrators struggled to understand how real they were. In Marylands Howard County, for instance, they wrote a message to families of a new TikTok challenge encouraging students to make school shooting threats to schools and asked parents to urge their children not to participate.

At this point, there are no credible threats, the message said. However, even hoax threats create fear and cause disruption to the school community.

McGarry, the Pennsylvania superintendent, said it has become enormously difficult to tell real promises of violence from false ones. He said his staff has recently had to work after hours, on weekends and through holidays to help track down threats.

You can get a picture of a picture sent out on social media, McGarry said. We are seeing fake accounts, dummy accounts, fake threats.

For example, McGarry said, an Upper Darby student showed up to the main office in early December with a picture of what they said looked like another student in one of the districts high schools holding a shotgun. Someone had messaged the student the image, terrifying the student into believing someone was coming to shoot them, McGarry said.

School officials who examined the picture did not recognize him. And the weapon he was holding looked more like a BB gun, McGarry said. Nonetheless the school system called the police, went into a partial lockdown, alerted parents and designated a team of staffers to help law enforcement uncover the truth.

McGarry said the photo turned out to be a picture of a kid from another community somewhere else, with no ties to Upper Darby, holding a pellet gun. And police determined the person who sent the message was not an Upper Darby student.

Thompson, of the SSWAA, said some teens make school threats out of a desire to mimic tragedies they have seen on the news. But, she said, other threats stem from genuine pain  and represent yet another lingering legacy of the pandemic, which has left children across the country scarred by personal tragedy, economic uncertainty, the sudden shuttering of desperately needed support systems or all three.

For many students, their mental health situation  unrecognized, untreated  might turn to violence as a way for them to express themselves, Thompson said.

Of course, some threats are not hoaxes. And some threats, even if impossible to carry out, have very real roots in student distress.

In Virginias Manassas Park, Grasser said that school officials worked in tandem with police throughout the night to track down the student who posted the threat, relying on Instagram accounts and Internet protocol (IP) addresses. Just after midnight, Manassas Park police identified the teen and took him and his parents to police headquarters, authorities said.

Police then searched the familys home, with the cooperation of the teens parents, and found no firearms. Police arrested and charged the 15-year-old last week, placing him in custody at the Prince William County Juvenile Detention Center.

- - -

As a flood of threats continue to inundate schools, some are trying to develop longer-term solutions.

State Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, put forward a bill last week that would add an extra billion dollars per year in state funding for school support personnel such as nurses. About $50 million of that money would specifically go to mental health personnel, school social workers and counselors, McClellan said in an interview.

She is aiming to reduce the ratios of students to mental health staffers  advocating to have one school counselor for every 250 students at every Virginia school campus, for example. McClellan said that she plans to introduce the bill when the Senate goes into session on Jan. 12 and that she is hopeful it will receive bipartisan support.

Were seeing a spike in school threats on top of a spike in trauma [that] these kids are carrying from last year that has not been addressed, McClellan said. Theres been so much stress on these kids. ... We owe it to our kids and our communities to meet their needs.

In the meantime, though, school officials continue to face fast-developing and swiftly changing crises, forcing them to make quick judgment calls in situations in which there are few if any right answers.

Wendell Hissrich, public safety director for the city of Pittsburgh, said nine schools within the city limits and seven more in suburban areas received at least one threat, typically through social media, in the weeks before and after the Oxford shooting. Officials often opted to cancel classes for the day in the face of those threats, he said.

Thats a little easier in this day and age, he said. They have the mechanism to learn from home. Years ago, that wasnt the case.

In the Reading district in Ohio in mid-November, a trickle, then a flood of reports came into the district about a social media post warning of violence at school, Enix said.

The post declared: Everyone going to Reading school tomorrow, please I beg you dont go to school tomorrow, there is a risk that one of the students will shoot up the school tomorrow just take precaution and DO NOT GO this is important.

Police immediately launched an investigation and deemed it a credible threat, Enix said. By 9 p.m., the district had decided to close schools the next day. Police arrested a student later that evening.

Enix said the district regularly runs tabletop exercises and drills to prepare for situations like this. He said he thinks his team would have handled it exactly the same way even if the Oxford shooting was not fresh in peoples memories. It wasnt a hard decision, he said, because weve talked about these things before.

The truth is, Enix added, if we hadnt closed school, Im not sure how many students or staff would have been here that day.
A Tauranga Boys College student has won two Priority One Young Innovator Awards for his inventive work developing and perfecting an app to enhance his schools CRM system.

At the schools recent awards ceremony, year 12 student Michael Ren also received both the Supreme Senior winners award and the top Category Award for Creativity.

Originally from China, Michael arrived in New Zealand at the age of 10 in 2015 with his mother Niki. Upon starting high school at Tauranga Boys College, Michaels passion for technology came alive - despite the fact hed never used a computer before arriving in New Zealand.

I became obsessed with programming when I was 14, and started teaching myself, says Michael.

At school the next year I did a design course, which got me interested in design and digital art.

His motivation to create his award-winning app came from seeing his own parents struggle to understand Michaels NCEA academic results on the schools CRM system.

Realising that people needed display formats other than tables to understand results and track students progress, Michael set about creating what would become Insightz - an app that converts grade data into easy-to-understand graphs and visual aids.

Now in its third version, the app provides rank score and weighted GPA calculations, NCEA progress (endorsement) tracking across multiple year levels, and a variety of graphs to help students understand their current progress and what they should be aiming for in upcoming assignments to maximise their performance and academic goals.

Priority Ones Young Innovator Awards aim to inspire and build the next generation of New Zealand innovators, and Bay of Plenty students were challenged to come up with a unique innovation that could make the world a better place.

There were 417 entries in this years competition, all of which were judged by top New Zealand and international innovators.

Michael became the first international student to win the awards. As the Supreme Senior winner, Michael received $2000 in prize money and a formal internship with local technology company Cucumber.

We were all so impressed with the software development Michael has undertaken, says Cucumber CEO Rob Ford.

What stuck with us most was his understanding of his target market and the problem to be solved. That is ultimately what separates great technology from that of the pack.

For Michael, the Young Innovator Awards are a leaping-off point for what he hopes is an exciting future career. He plans to use his learnings from his time at Tauranga Boys College, as well as his unique international experience having lived in two different countries, to further his technology career.
Another 60 homes are on the horizon for Rotorua.

Resource consent was granted earlier this month to enable 60 homes to be built at 45 Frank Street.

This will be the second stage of the Mountview Green development which has been taking shape within Koutu.

The first stage of the development on Ian Street includes 26 standalone, duplex and triplex homes.

Construction of the Ian Street stage began earlier this year in April and is well underway, with some owners due to move into their new homes in the New Year.

Rotorua Lakes Council District Development DCE Jean-Paul Gaston says that this is an example of a good higher density development.

An artist's impression of the inside of a three bedroom apartment on Frank Street.

The Mountview Green developments at Ian Street and Frank Street are a really great example of what we should be seeing in Rotorua in the near future. Higher density builds that are an efficient use of space, in already established neighbourhoods.

This development has taken into consideration the placement of homes within the site, the surrounding environment and sustainability of the homes themselves. Were also seeing developers really consider affordability as part of their models with the introduction of the KiwiBuild homes. This will be a real benefit to the community, and is the type of development that we want to be seeing across the district.

Once finalised, Mountview Green will have constructed 86 news homes for Rotorua.

The development is a significant investment into the local housing market and is the first medium density build of that scale in Rotorua.

There will be a mix of homes between the two stages, from standalone three bedroom homes, to two storey two and three bedroom terraced homes.

Each homes is architecturally designed and will meet healthy homes standards.

An artist's impression of a three bedroom apartment on Frank Street.

Marcus Jacobson, Mountview Green developer and Director of Watchman Capital, says that he and his family are really excited about moving on to the next stage of builds at Frank Street.

Working with Council has been really collaborative and were pleased to be able to bring a new type of development to the market, with the different home typologies that Council and the community are looking for.

The response to the development has been really positive. Weve had a good mix of purchasers including investors, locals and first home buyers.

We know theres a big need for housing in Rotorua, and its been great to be able to contribute to filling a portion of that housing deficit while also seeing local first home buyers purchasing their own homes. The KiwiBuild homes within the development have been a big part of making sure that first home buyers were part of the mix and were looking forward to seeing families start arriving at their new homes in 2022.

KiwiBuild was established by the Government in 2018 as an initiative to address housing challenges in New Zealand. KiwiBuild works with developers to expedite residential developments and improves access for new home owners at more affordable prices.

The price cap for a KiwiBuild home in Rotorua is $500,000.

Developments take a significant amount of time, investment and collaboration and weve been anticipating an increase in granted consents for some time, so its really pleasing to see this momentum taking us into the New Year, says Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick.

In the past few weeks we have been reminded that the city needs all types of homes, from public to new greenfield developments and higher density builds. The market is responding and thats great news for 2022.

Housing is the districts key challenge and Council is committed to growing the increasing need for new homes of all types.

Council is working in partnership with Te Arawa, central Government and local providers, developers and landowners to deliver a coordinated approach to achieving the housing targets set in the 2021-2031 Long-term Plan.

For more information about how Council is working to deliver more housing for Rotorua visit www.rotorualakescouncil.nz/homesforrotorua

For more information about the development visit www.mountviewgreen.co.nz

For more information about KiwiBuild homes, including eligibility criteria, visit www.kiwibuild.govt.nz
A man accused of the murder of a Tauranga man in 2018 will remain in custody until his next court appearance.

More than three years after the murder of David Kuka, police arrested a 38-year-old Raetihi man on Friday, December 17, 2021.

David was fatally shot at a Wilrose Place address on February 11, 2018.

In a statement from police, Detective Inspector Lew Warner says this was the second homicide at the same address within a month. Lance Waite died from injuries he sustained at the address prior to being dumped at Tauranga Hospital.

Police will not rule out further arrests," Lew says when talking about the investigation into the death of David Kuka.

Police would like to acknowledge the victims extended family. As this matter is now before the courts, police will not be commenting further.

During his court appearance on December 18, 2021, the murder accused was granted interim name suppression.

He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear in court again on February 2, 2022.
Counties Manukau District Health Board's Fepulea'i Margie Apa has just been named the chief executive of the interim Health New Zealand.

Hauraki Primary Health Organisation and Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki's Riana Manuel will be the chief executive of the interim Maori Health Authority.

Health New Zealand and the Maori Health Authority will become permanent entities on July 1 - replacing the 20 district health boards.

Fepulea'i Margie Apa says her work with the Counties Manukau community has prepared her well for the role.

"Working with you [Counties Manukau] over the last 14 years and more proudly the last three as CEO, through measles, through Whakaari, through Covid on top of our usual pressures serving a high needs community, who are deserving and entitled to so much more," she says.

Manuel says she's determined to see improvement in the health sector for her people.

"We can no longer operate as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, we must shake off that mentality and be prepared to be the change that our people long for," she says.

Manuel says she's looking forward to bringing Te Tiriti to life in the sector, alongside Health New Zealand's new chief executive, Fepulea'i Margie Apa.

Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae.

Both Apa and Manuel have about 25 years' experience each in the health sector.

Health Minister Andrew Little says both have strong connections to Maori and Pacific communities that had been underserved by in the health system.

"Addressing inequity needs to be the responsibility of the entire health system, and we need to have these voices represented across all levels and organisations," he says.

Margie Apa and Riana Manuel are expected to start their respective chief executive roles in the first quarter of 2022.

-RNZ.
A multi-use arena for the Bay of Plenty is being investigated, with consultants Tuhura Consulting and Visitor Solutions engaged to conduct a feasibility study and investment plan.

The multi-use arena has the potential to be home to all types of events, including cultural, community, business, entertainment and sports events, including large-scale concerts.

Creating a home for major events in the region is being considered as an opportunity to showcase the best parts about the Bay of Plenty.

The study is being undertaken through Priority One (Western Bay of Plenty Economic Development Agency) as the coordinating agency and in collaboration with Tauranga City Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Sport New Zealand.

A charitable trust is expected to be set up to manage the project and take it forward - assuming a viable option is identified through the feasibility study.

As the regions population growth is forecast to continue over the next 30 years, this presents an exciting opportunity to cater to the diverse entertainment desires of the community, in a world-class arena, says Tauranga City Council Commission Chair, Anne Tolley.

While no decisions have been made, a preferred site has been identified in Tauranga through initial site analysis studies.

Wharepai Domain, also known as The Domain, will be the focus of the feasibility study and investment plan.

Investment in our future generations is critical and we look forward to this project generating excitement in our rangatahi, whanau and wider community, says Ngati Ranginui Chair Donna Gardiner.

Tuhara Consulting and Visitor Solutions are already underway speaking with key stakeholders, including those who currently use Wharepai Domain.

Mana whenua and iwi will also be represented on the charitable trust, and a working group that has been set up.

They will also be consulted on this mahi throughout the whole process.

The study is envisaged to take around four months and should be completed by March 31, 2022.
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Theres nothing fun for TV viewers stuck in the middle of a carriage dispute, particularly when the two sides blow past the deadline and networks start going dark. But YouTube TV users who briefly lost access to Disney channels over the weekend will get a welcome stocking stuffer for their trouble.

Google had previously announced that it would give YouTube TV users a $15 discount on their usual $65 monthly subscription rates if it failed to reach an agreement with Disney by the midnight Friday deadline, and while the Disney blackout lasted only a little more than a day, Google said it would stick by its promise.

Specifically, Google will give impacted YouTube TV users a one-time $15 discount on their next bill. And if you already initiated the cancellation process following the blackout, you can still get the $15 discount so long as you reactivate your account before you lose access; just visit the YouTube TV membership settings page and click Add to re-enable the Base Plan.

The discount takes some of the sting out of the brief Disney blackout, which saw YouTube TV users briefly lose access to ABC affiliates, ESPN channels, Disney networks and other Disney-owned properties.

Google raised the alarm about its spat with Disney last week, and when the two sides failed to reach an agreement by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, YouTube TV users lost access to ESPN, FX, their local ABC stations, and other Disney-owned channels. As Variety noted, the blackout was YouTube TVs first since the service launched back in 2017.

Luckily, the blackout didnt last for long, and by 3 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Google announced that it had struck a deal with Disney and spun up its Disney-owned channels again, including any saved recordings.

Neither Google nor Disney disclosed the details of their agreement, but its notable that YouTube TVs $64.99 subscription price will remain unchanged following the deal.

YouTube TV users have had to endure a couple other standoffs in the past few months. Just a couple of weeks ago, Google and Roku struck a last-minute deal to keep the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Rokus streaming devices.

And back in October, YouTube TV almost lost NBC stations in a dispute with NBCUniversal. In that dustup, however, the two sides reached an agreement before any channels went dark.
Amazon has decided to delay its warehouse phone ban amidst safety concerns "until further notice." This comes shortly after a tornado hit a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, leaving six people dead.

Amazon to Loosen Control Over Employee Activities

With multiple safety concerns mounting up, Amazon has decided to loosen its control over its employee's activities. With that, as per an article by Bloomberg, the massive internet retailer confirmed to them that they will be backing off when it comes to rejuvenating efforts in banning the use of personal phones when in the company's warehouses.

According to Engadget's news story, the company had banned the use of personal phones inside their warehouses for a couple of years now. This move, however, eased its approach when the COVID-19 pandemic fist hit.

Six People Dead in One of Amazon's Warehouses

Despite postponing it, the ban was expected to come back in January 2022. To add, however, the company has decided to extend their leeway when it comes to personal phones within their warehouses "until further notice."

Although Amazon didn't directly explain its decision, the extension comes just shortly after a tornado hit one of its warehouses resulting in the death of six people. Furthermore, the warehouse located in Edwardsville, Illinois, was affected.

Recent Heat Against Amazon

This decision also followed a significant surge when it came to COVID-19 cases. With that warehouse, employees have all demanded access to their phones both for safety alerts as well as a way for them to stay in touch just in case an emergency happens.

As noted by Engadget, a reinstituted ban when it comes to the use of personal phones would have been "tone deaf." The publication said this came after an incident where a dispatcher told a driver to continue to deliver packages even though a tornado was already rampaging through the Edwardsville area, as per the report TechTimes.

Read Also: Nike Has Filed Trademark Applications as it Prepares to Enter the Metaverse

Companies Can Ban Use of Phones

Companies are allowed to ban their employees from using their phones on the clock regarding legaliti as further discussed in an article by Forbes. This could either improve safety or prevent certain sensitive information from leaking from their staff.

However, the publication noted that that stance is changing as smartphones are now becoming much more important in daily lifeThe publication also noted that the importance of smartphones and Amazon's "poor safety reputation" could indict public pushback.

With Amazon's reputation when it comes to the company's "poor safety" due to recent incidents like the tornado deaths and the dispatcher pressuring a driver to work amidst the tornado, this would leave the retail giant "little room to reimpose a ban" or at least do so without getting significant pushback from the public.

Related Article: Apple AirTag Stalkers Now Concerns Authorities! Sheriff Says Non-iPhone Users are Mostly Affected

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After things went a bit shaky between YouTube TV and Disney, access to the latter's channels were stripped away from the subscribers, YouTube provided a $15 discount to deal with the lack of channels. To add, with the YouTube TV and Disney patching things up, the $15 discount will now no longer be available with the price going back to $64.99.

YouTube TV and Disney Fallout

According to the story by AndroidCentral, over the course of the past few months, YouTube and YouTube TV have experienced some ugly situations with both Roku and Disney. To add, in the latest saga, YouTube TV and Disney were not able to reach an agreement to allow the former to use Disney's vast number of live TV channels.

With the lack of agreement between the two, the YouTube TV subscribers were supposed to lose access to the multiple live TV channels that Disney owned. To add, quite thankfully, the two have finally reached an agreement which will provide YouTube TV subscribers the access to the channels that were removed temporarily as per the announcement by YouTube.

Disney Channels Back on But Subscribers' Payments Back to Normal

Due to the expiration of the previous agreement between the two, YouTube TV has confirmed that subscribers would also be able to avail a $15 per month discount for as long as they were not able to access Disney's channels.

Now that Disney has joined YouTube TV once again, the discount will no longer be available and the monthly subscription price for YouTube TV will now go back up to what it once was. To expand, this would mean that subscribers now would have to pay $64.99 per month which does not yet include any of the additional channel packages.

Impacted Members Still Get $15 Credit

YouTube TV, however, confirmed that all of the "impacted members" will still be getting a one-time $15 credit. To add, in the event that subscribers do not see the credit on their current bill, the credit will be made available on their next bill.

The ongoing agreement struggles between both YouTube, as well as the likes of Disney and NBCUniversal have left current and potential subscribers quite frustrated. With NBCUniversal, both companies came down to the wire even before a deal was ever made.

Read Also: Top 5 Best Xbox Cloud Games for Android Smartphones Now

Alternatives to Stream TV

The same, however, cannot really be said when it comes to Disney as subscribers were left without their channels for a number of days. As per the article by Android Central, there is still hope that these types of problems will not continue to become an issue in the future.

The publication notes that these problems have already forced some to start looking at other options in order to stream on TV. These options include Hulu + Live TV.

Related Article: TikTok to Challenge Twitch with PC Game Streaming App | Introducing TikTok Live Studio

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TikTok is now partnering with Virtual Dining Concepts or VDC to launch its very own TikTok Kitchens. To add, the new service is said to be a "delivery-only" service that cooks up some of the most trendy recipes on the app.

TikTok and VDC to Launch TikTok Kitchen

The news was initially reported by Bloomberg which notes that TikTok and VDC are expected to launch its TikTok Kitchen in around 300 locations all around the US. To expand, the service is expected to expand to about 1,000 new locations by the end of 2022.

TikTok Kitchens are expected to operate outside of existing restaurants which include chains that are currently owned by Robert Earl, the co-founder of VDC. With that, these include chains like Buca di Beppo and Bertucci's.

'Ghost Kitchen Service'

According to the story by The Verge, it is essentially what's known as a "ghost kitchen service." Unlike other companies within the niche, however, VDC's kitchens don't actually appear to operate out of satellite, trailer-converted kitchens staying put in parking lots.

VDC gave a description of the service noting that TikTok Kitchens will utilize an existing restaurant's kitchen and employees but will also be providing them with the training, food packaging, and even the special ingredient, TikTok-sourced recipes.

Menu to Rotate Quarterly

In order to keep things fresh, the service will be rotating the menu quarterly given how fast most viral content comes and goes within the platform itself. As per Bloomberg, the menu will initially be featuring a viral baked feta pasta which popped up as Google's "most-searched recipe in 2021" as per Google Trends.

An article by The Washington Post describes the recipe as "worth the hype." To add, the recipe includes air-fried strips of corn, otherwise known as corn rids, along with the crispy, cheese-covered pasta chips. To top everything off, a smash burger is also included in the recipe.

Company Clarifies 'Not a Venture' Into the Restaurant Business

As noted by a press release, the creators who inspired the recipes on the menu will be getting part of the proceeds. Elena Saavedra, a TikTok spokesperson, gave a statement to The Verge saying creators will be getting credit for the dishes within the menu itself and will also be featured prominently throughout the dish's promotion.

Saavedra added that to be clear, the campaign will be bringing TikTok foods to fans and "not a venture" by the company into the restaurant business.

Read Also: TikTok to Challenge Twitch with PC Game Streaming App | Introducing TikTok Live Studio

VDC Success with MrBeast Burger

Other known successes of VDC include the viral MrBeast Burger which is a virtual kitchen that MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTubers of the moment, initially launched towards the end of 2020. Bloomberg stated that MrBeast was able to sell a million burgers in the span of just three months.

To add, there are already 1,500 MrBeast Burger joints throughout Canada, UK, and the US.

Related Article: Apple Music App Gets Faster With MacOS 12.2 Beta | Improvements With iTunes Elements

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) OCTOBER 28: Abigail Previlon, 13, takes part in remote distance learning on a Chromebook with the help of her mother Carlene at home on October 28, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Previlon is hearing impaired and has a translator for in-class learning and while distance learning on a Chromebook. Students with special needs have additional educational challenges due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A first generation American citizen with Haitian parents, Previlon is fluent in four languages, including English, French, Creole, and sign. Stamford Public Schools is currently using a hybrid educational model due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with a combination of in-class and distance learning. (Photo : Getty Images ) (Photo : Getty Images )

Mental health has been one of the biggest topics of this year, and it has popped up in so many discussions as the world tries to live through the pandemic. But among all of the situations where it is linked, one of the most important is distance learning.

Millions upon millions of schoolkids, like everyone else, were forced to continue their studies at home due to the threat of the coronavirus. However, how did the so-called "new normal" fare?

As much as one would want to say it went well enough, it really didn't-more so for children who are members of specific ethnicities, according to the University of Minnesota-Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).

Two Specific Demographics Are The Most-Affected

Distance learning negatively affected the mental health of older children from two distinct demographics: those from low-income, African-American and Hispanic communities, as per a study by the University of Washington at Seattle. The research was published in the JAMA Network Open.

These children appeared to exhibit hyperactivity, as well as emotional, and social issues. There has also been an observed decrease in academic and social development during distance learning.

According to the researchers, the reason these two demographics were the hardest-hit ones is because low-income families tend to struggle supporting their children's distance learning needs.

A lack of so-called "workplace flexibility" and considerable financial resources often means the parents have to work longer hours (not to mention two or even three jobs) to make ends meet. As a result, they are forced to leave the kids at home to continue their studies on their own, which has obvious effects on the youngsters' mental health situation.

Read Also: AI Startups to Follow For Mental Health Care

It's All About The Environment

Before the pandemic, almost every single academic activity happened at school. This specific environment, as per an article by the American Psychological Association, is considered critical for studying and socialization motivation. Furthermore, a lot of these students also rely on school-based help with their mental health-which they now no longer have physical access to.

With the lack of a study-friendly environment that focuses on using social interaction to learn (i.e. study groups, asking friends for help with homework, etc), kids have an obvious trouble trying to adjust since they're now on their own.

According to the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), this situation wreaks havoc by ensuring that school-related stress now "knows no bounds." Children can no longer kick back and relax at home after classes because the home is also the school.

Aside from having to deal with their own academics, kids will also need to juggle other tasks like household chores, caring for younger siblings (if they have any), and worst of it all, poor internet connection. One can only imagine how hard it is for a young mind to deal with all of these stressors at once.

Declining Mental Health And Distance Learning: The Lowdown

With all these in mind, it is safe to say that distance learning has taken a heavy toll on the youth during the pandemic. There haven't been a lot of good things about the situation, but the world is healing. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before things finally return to pre-pandemic normal, should all efforts to deal with the coronavirus bear fruit.

Related Article: Social Media Break Can Improve Your Physical and Mental Health, Study Shows

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images) GRUENHEIDE, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 06: In this aerial view from a drone, the future assembly line hall stands among other future factory buildings at the construction site of the new Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin on September 06, 2020 near Gruenheide, Germany. Tesla is planning to begin electric car production at the site by the summer of 2021 with 12,000 employees and an output of at least 100,000 cars annually.

Tesla Gigafactory Texas will have a "Grand Opening Party" for when it finishes construction and completes everything on its list, says Elon Musk, and it will take place in 2022. The building would be the following site of Tesla vehicle production in the company's new headquarters, focusing on the many electric vehicles it will bring to the public for sale.

Tesla Gigafactory Texas 'Grand Opening Party' in 2022 Says Elon Musk

Things are shaping up for Tesla Giga Texas as it finishes its production, where its walls show the progress. The location is the first United States plant built from the ground up by the company. Other sites came to Tesla's acquisitions as a factory already bought off from other companies or assumed then and there.

Musk noticed the tweet and revealed that in 2022, the Tesla Giga Texas would soon finish its construction and will soon open. Next is that he opens up the topic of a "Grand Opening Party" that would celebrate the completion and launch of the factory.

The Gigafactory Texas took only a short time to finish its construction, something which Tesla is popular with, as it is efficient in its production.

Read Also: Tesla's FSD Helps Woman Gives Birth! Here's the Story of 'Tesla Baby'!

Tesla will hold a Giga Texas grand opening party with factory tours for the community in early 2022  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2021

Will Tesla Giga Texas' Party Be Open to Public?

Musk has not mentioned if the party would be open to the public once it opens, but it seems that it would be held on-site with the famous CEO and billionaire making an appearance. In Tesla Giga Berlin's first factory tour, it opened its doors to several members of the public to see the interior.

Tesla Giga Texas remains unsure if it will be open to large fans and enthusiasts in 2022 when it launches.

Tesla's Gigafactory Locations

Different Tesla Gigafactory locations internationally have various production focuses unique to others and for regions. One known production for Giga Shanghai is colorful EVs available from the factory, not seen from other locations or areas of Tesla's production. It focuses on five to seven colors only.

However, the ground-up-built Gigafactory does not confirm a fourth location of the plant for the clean energy company, as Elon Musk revealed that there are no decisions yet. The place speculated initially for Giga Russia to come, but Musk denied this information when it was first announced via Twitter.

Currently, Tesla Fremont is not a Gigafactory, leaving Tesla Giga Shanghai in China, Tesla Giga Berlin in Germany, and Tesla Giga Texas in the U.S. to be the only locations. The party will commemorate the Tesla Gigafactory as it opens up more vehicles and innovations to the public and new jobs and opportunities within the plant's walls.

Related Article: Elon Musk: Tesla Gigafactory Texas Expansion Worth Over $10B | Thousands of Jobs Coming

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The Samsung Galaxy S22 series handset is expected to arrive next year and along with a wave of new accessories. Prior to its launch, however, the accessories for the smartphone were found on a United Kingdom (U.K.) retailer's website.

Samsung Galaxy S22 to Come with 'Dozens' of Accessories

As per SamMobile, the Samsung Galaxy S22 will come with "dozens" of accessories for buyers to choose from when it arrives in 2022. One of the most important accessories is a case for users that will protect their Samsung phone.

As per SamMobile, a U.K. retailer box.co.uk listed down 66 official cases that comes with different options for colors. In addition, the retailer also told SamMobile that the upcoming Galaxy S22 Ultra's S Pen will also be made available in the same four colors as the actual phone itself.

These colors include black, green, white, and dark red.

UK Retailer Listed Samsung Galaxy S22 Accessories

According to the story by PhoneArena, the publication came to a conclusion that, due to the accessories being listed by the U.K. retailer, there is no mention of the inclusion of housing for the digital writing instrument.

Per the publication, this leads to a conclusion that Samsung won't give Ultra buyers a place for them to store their S pen. There is, however, a possibility that it will be building a silo for the S Pen on the casing of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The opening may be located at the bottom of the phone. This is a feature that can commonly be found on the Galaxy Note.

Here's a List of Samsung S22 Galaxy Accessories:

Clear Standing Covers

Clear Covers

Frame Covers

Leather Covers

Silicone Covers

Protective Standing Covers

Smart Clear View Covers

Gel Cases

Smart LED View

As for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the same accessories will be made available for the smartphone except for the frame cover.

In addition, the Samsung Galaxy S22+, Galaxy S22 Ultra, and the Galaxy S22 will all be powered in the US by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC chipset.

Verizon Requested an Exynos 2200 Powered Model

Verizon, however, has reportedly asked Samsung if it could carry models that are powered by the Exynos 2200 instead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. With that, the Qualcomm chip will be seen in units sold in Canada and China.

The reason for Verizon requesting an alternative could have something to do with the AMD-build GPU, which is already included in the Exynos 2200 chip that it is expected to be equipped with.

Read Also: Apple Music App Gets Faster With MacOS 12.2 Beta | Improvements With iTunes Elements

Third-Party Accessories to be Offered

Both the Exynos 2200 Soc and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 are scheduled to be built using the 4nm process node by Samsung Foundry per PhoneArena.

Per the publication, buyers can expect more third-party accessories to be offered, potentially at a more affordable price, thanks to the popularity of the smartphone. This, of course, remains to be seen as the device has not launched yet.

Related Article: iPhone 14 Pro Leak Reveals 48MP Camera and 8GB RAM

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The CEO of Tether has filed a number of proceedings in China regarding unpaid invoices and tax fines before he launched his "now controversial" stablecoin.

The chief executive of Tether is reportedly to have previously run a company that has faced a number of lawsuits in China before ever launching USDT.

The Use of Stablecoins Like Tether

As crypto is moving into mainstream finances, investors have been heavily relying on stablecoins per the story by Financial Times. Stablecoins are digital tokens backed up by real-world assets.

Wu Blockchain also tweeted out the news, adding a reference to CaliforniaNewsTimes.

Stablecoins provide a solution for investors to trade volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Because of this, Tether's role in the whole cryptoverse has blown up ever since its creation in 2014.

According to FT, Tether CEO ran Huashun company, headquartered in Shenzhen, China in 2006. It owes taxes and fines for overdue payments and has been sued many times. Regulators added it to the list of "seriously dishonest and illegal". https://t.co/nJTpCJmE7k  Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 20, 2021

Tether's $78 Billion Scrutinized by Regulators

As of press time, Tether's $78 billion is being scrutinized by regulators. In addition, the company's fast rise also turned the spotlight on Jean-Louis van der Velde, the chief executive of Tether.

A Dutch native,van der Velde's career has included experience in IT sales in Hong Kong, a Chinese electronics manufacturer, and even Germany's software industry.

Legal and corporate records have shown van der Velde's tenure running a company called Huashun Electronics, which is said to be based in Shenzhen, that made products like television receivers and amplifiers before he took control in 2006.

Tether CEO's Fire for Huashun

From 2009, Huashun actually came under pressure from creditors due to the growing number of unpaid bills, according to records from a Chinese court and court orders that were compiled by Tianyancha, a data provider.

One creditor whose companies supplied metal parts to Huashun, Yang Hebing, told the Financial Times that the company was actually poorly managed and has not been able to repay the money.

Yang officially sued both Huashun and van der Velde in 2012 but neither of them have responded as seen in the Shenzhen court records.

Almost one decade later, the CEO, who spent a considerable amount of time in Hong Kong ever since he left the Netherlands in his 20s to attend university in Taiwan, still technically owned Huashun through an offshore entity that was called Perpetual Action Group Inc, or PAG Asia as shown by the Chinese government records.

Read Also: Dormant Address Worth $11M Activated After 9.1 Years

Huashun Still Owns Tether

The entity, as of the moment, also owns a share of Tether itself, according to official documents. To add, Huashun's business in China currently appears mostly defunct and regulators have added it to the list of "seriously untrustworthy and law violating" companies. per government records.

As of the moment, van der Velde still helps oversee tens of billions of Tether assets. Tether issues an eponymous token known as USDT which is supposedly pegged to the US dollar through supposed reserves.

The token is registered in the British Virgin Islands

Related Article: Jack Dorsey's Block, Formerly Square, Faces Lawsuit for Similar Name, Logo

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Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet was mentioned during this weeks episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live, the television sketch comedy show.

A judge in Louisiana took a leave of absence after she was caught on video using the N-word, said the Black stand-up comedian, Michael Che, during the Special Christmas Weekend Update segment of the show. Its the kind of story that makes me wonder, Why are me and Keenen (Thompson, another Black actor who works for SNL) the only cast members here? You know what Im saying.

Odinet was temporarily disqualified by the Louisiana Supreme Court this week after racial slurs were captured on a video at her home. The case attracted national and international attention.

+3 Old Facebook posts show Michelle Odinet setting up traps for burglars: Shes been playing cowboy Screenshots of Facebook posts from 2019 and 2020 suggest Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet was trying to capture a person suspected o

It has been featured on such outlets as CNN, CBS News and NBC. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huff Post and TMZ covered the story, along with UKs BBC, The Guardian and the Sun.

The Odinet case has been featured in the Spanish language by US-based network Univision and CNN en Espanol, too.

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This week, Odinet's attorney, Dane Ciolino, confirmed to The Acadiana Advocate that Odinet used the racial slurs in the video filmed in her home. He said she was going to request unpaid leave from the Judiciary Commission while she considered her future actions.

Lafayette judge's son no longer on LSU track team after outcry over racial slur recording After a recording surfaced from a Lafayette judge's home that captured her and others using a racial slur, one of her children has been remove

A Louisiana Supreme Courtin order, dated Dec. 16, said Odinet requested the temporary disqualification, which the state's Judiciary Commission supported. She will not be paid during her suspension. The Judiciary Commission received more than 100 complaints, the order stated.

A host of elected officials, including Gov. John Bel Edwards and U.S. State Rep. Troy Carter of New Orleans, have called on Odinet to resign.

Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory said on Wednesday he was disgusted and appalled by the recent reports involving a local judge. This type of language is hurtful, divisive, and unacceptable. The fairness and objectivity of our courts are the foundation of our legal system. It is my hope that the judge will do what is best to help the community heal and move forward.
James Finn writes for The Advocate as a Report For America corps member. Email him at JFinn@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter @RJamesFinn.

To learn more about Report for America and to support our journalism, please click here.
For days after Hurricane Ida tore into Louisiana, a heaving mass of backed-up water and shattered debris churned in the usually tranquil swamps of Lake Maurepas, keeping George Bennett from his home.

By this past weekend, two weeks after the storm hit, the waters had gone down enough for the 70-year-old to boat out to the house on Jones Island, where, pre-hurricane, he usually spent four days each week fishing.

As he headed out, Bennett already had a good idea what he would find. His nephew had braved the high waters a few days earlier to snap pictures of the house.

The little blue A-frame structure sat askew, some 20 yards off of its foundation, as its owner sifted through splintered planks and home appliances that Ida had strewn around the swamp. Its roof was mangled by Idas howling winds and eight-foot storm surge.

Torn from its hinges, an otherwise-intact blue shed door lay on a heaping pile of muddy swamp grass. Two other homes that the storm ripped from the ground formed a trio with Bennetts by the water.

The fisherman sounded at turns desperate and determined as he surveyed the wreckage. His voice breaking, he acknowledged he had no insurance policy to cover the cost of raw materials and home goods needed to rebuild  a grueling task in this lakeshore community accessible only by boat.

Bennett has been coming to Manchac since he was a boy in the 1960s. In 1978 he built the camp, and for the past eight years the house has served as more or less his full time home. Theres no question he will rebuild.

This is life here, he said. You get torn down, you rebuild. Aint nothing else you can do if you want to be here.

Of roughly 200 homes built into the isolated expanse of swampland between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, Ida blew around 30 off of their foundations entirely. When it hit this area, the hurricane packed 100-plus mile-per-hour gusts and heaving storm surge. Many houses left standing lost roofs, porches, sheds, doors and furniture as the swamp sank under eight feet of water and waves battered the structures.

It was a signature event for Manchac, said Robert Moreau, an environmental historian and research director at Southeastern Universitys Turtle Cove research center in Manchac.

+5 Outside the levees: Despite massive projects, some feel vulnerable  particularly after Ida Louisiana has spent billions of dollars building levees around lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, protecting urban and suburban areas from floo

The severe winds caught even longtime residents off guard. They produced destruction that outpaced Hurricane Isaac in 2012, the last major disaster to hit the area, but one mostly remembered for its flooding.

As levees rise in nearby communities  but not on Lake Maurepas  and climate change batters the Louisiana coast with ever-more-powerful storms, lakeshore residents like those in Manchac are wondering who will save them from the next big storm.

A mix of tiny, sagging fishing huts and more spacious vacation camps raised high above the water on stilts, Manchac is home to a tight-knit community of people  most of them middle and working class  who tend to have generational ties to the area. Like Bennett, most live here part-time. About 30 who make a year-round living fishing on the lakes call the swamp their permanent home.

Everything from food to materials to repair houses needs to be boated in. Even by the standards of South Louisiana, its a precarious place to call home.

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When the water comes up so fast, it just lifts up the houses that arent bolted down strong enough, said Greg Pizzolato, whose camp sits north of Bennetts.

+2 Hurricane Ida hit Tangipahoa Parish hard. Its leaders say its recovery is inching forward Nearly 73% of Tangipahoa Parish still didn't have power Monday after it was slammed by Hurricane Ida, but local leaders said they are starting

Built on a quiet canal off a main waterway, Pizzolattos camp was rendered inaccessible by a towering pile of matted swamp grass, timber, and corrugated metal scraps. The tons of debris clogging the swamp could take months to be cleared, Moreau said.

Pizzolatos house itself was left untouched  part of a trend where the storm battered homes in some pockets of the swamp harder than others.

You just cant explain it, said Kim Coates, a Tangipahoa Parish council member whose district encompasses Manchac.

He's willing to clear out the canal himself even if it takes days, Pizzolato said.

Rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina to weather powerful storms, the Turtle Cove research center survived Ida with minor cosmetic damages, Moreau said. Nearly three feet of water poured into the building, compared to the foot-and-a-half of liquid caused by Isaac.

Echoing residents like Bennett, Moreau called Ida the most destructive weather event to touch down in Manchac in recent history  a result he attributes to rapid global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels.

Were seeing more and more storms, and stronger and stronger storms, Moreau said. And due to climate change, were expected to see even stronger storms as ocean waters get even warmer. Hurricanes love warm water.

The Tangipahoa Parish Council is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency put a barge on the swamp to help with clearing metal, shattered timber and other wreckage from the debris-logged swamp water, Coates said.

The refuse was everywhere Saturday, stacked up on peoples' porches, on the shoreline, on boats and rooftops  a mix of human-made artifacts and twisted swamp flora. Pieces of plaster from shattered walls floated among uprooted weeds. Its mouth open wide, a four-foot alligator sunned on a board near the lakeshore.

+10 Blue roofs approved for nine more parishes hit by Ida, including East Baton Rouge Homeowners in East Baton Rouge Parish and nine other parishes have been authorized to get free, temporary roofs in the wake of Hurricane Ida, 

Randy Hills' camp on North Pass lost windows taken out by the winds, a back shed that was flattened by a tree and several of his roof's shingles.

As he worked to clear pile after pile of brush from his dock and yard, he said he counted himself lucky.

It depends how much you like living here, said Hills. In our case, we love it. So were going to rebuild.
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Eastern hemisphere markets shrugged off weak sessions in Wall Street and Europe to stage a one-day rally on Tuesday, despite rising COVID cases around Australia.

The ASXs strength came from the healthcare sector, where diagnostic companies got a boost from a pre-Christmas surge in COVID-19 testing.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9 per cent to close 62.8 points higher at 7355 points. This was the best one-day gain in two weeks with 140 companies closing higher, but volumes were thin.

Health stocks gave the ASX a big boost on Tuesday. Credit:Louie Douvis

Japans Nikkei surged nearly 2 per cent as volatility lured day-traders into the market, according to Oandas senior market analyst in Asia Pacific, Jeffrey Halley.

Asian equities are mostly higher today, thanks to a wave of short-covering sharply lifting US index futures in ever thinner liquidity, he said.

We are one headline away, be it Omicron or something else, from normal service resuming. Ill say it again, December is about V for Volatility and not directional market trends. Searching for conspiracies or rays of hope on every intraday move is a fools errand.

On the ASX, healthcare giant CSL gained 4.9 per cent to $287.21, the best one-day gain since August.

Medical diagnostics company Sonic Healthcare closed at a new high of $45.47 as investors hoped it would soon follow Australian Clinical Labs (ACL) in upgrading guidance due to higher COVID testing levels. ACL jumped 12.2 per cent to $5.60. It floated in May at $4. Cochlear gained 3.9 per cent, Nanosonics gained 7.5 per cent, and Ramsay Health closed 3.1 per cent higher at $70.31.

Afterpay shares hit a 14-month low of $80.21 during trade after agreeing to issue 6.5 million shares to US venture capital fund Matrix Partners.

Novonix dropped 3.4 per cent, but Xero gained 2.6 per cent.

Among the miners there were gains of 3.2 per cent for Rio Tinto and 1.5 per cent for BHP, but lithium Pilbara Minerals dropped 9.1 per cent after downgrading lithium production guidance for the full year, partly due to workers stranded by Western Australias border closure.

AMP closed up 0.5 per cent after announcing it would de-list from the New Zealand exchange. The big four banks were higher and Magellan Financial gained 4.4 per cent to $20.56 after falling 32.9 per cent on Monday.
NSW Police detectives are searching for $1 million worth of silver bullion that was stolen from a truck between Sydney and Melbourne.

The truck left Maldon, near Picton on Sydney's southern outskirts, about 4.30pm on Friday, November 26.

One of the pieces of silver police believe was stolen in November. Credit:NSW Police Media

Sometime between then and 8am on Monday, November 29, when the truck arrived in Melbourne, the silver went missing. Police believe it was stolen.

The heist would have left the thieves with heavy pockets, given there were 192 bars each weighing five kilograms  a total of 960 kilograms.
Hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked by the federal government for Melbournes disadvantaged south-east has been put on ice, angering mayors who argue their communities are missing out on cash.

The fast-growing region was promised a City Deal in the lead-up to the 2019 election to build infrastructure and create jobs, but the work has since stalled, leaving Melbourne as the only capital city in the country without one of the stimulus projects.

A group of mayors say they are disappointed and angered that the 1.5 million residents of south-east Melbourne have been overlooked again. Credit:Joe Armao

City Deals are mostly funded by the Commonwealth, in partnerships with state and local governments, and have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into jobs and infrastructure.

Last month, federal Cities Minister Paul Fletcher wrote to the mayors of Kingston, Cardinia, Knox, Dandenong, Monash, Mornington Peninsula and Frankston, as well as the administrator of Casey Council, to tell them the deal would have to wait until a separate project for Melbournes north-west is finalised.
A Melbourne nurse, who was sent to prison after he helped Syrian rebels, faces a string of new federal charges, including allegations he accessed social media sites TikTok and Facebook and viewed images of guns and extreme sexual violence in breach of a court order.

Adam Brookman, 45, of Thomastown, was arrested in November following his release from prison earlier this year after he served about six years behind bars on a foreign incursion charge.

Adam Brookman.

On Monday, documents released by Melbourne Magistrates Court show Mr Brookman now faces eight charges of contravening a control order between July and October. A control order includes court-imposed conditions on a person federal authorities believe might pose a security risk if they had connections to a terror organisation or were involved in a hostile activity overseas.

After his release from prison in June this year, the Australian Federal Police allege Mr Brookman used a laptop to look at media that depicted firearms and ammunition, used a mobile phone to view media that depicted torture in the form of extreme sexual violence, and set a password for his phone without giving the details to a federal agent.
Loading Even if Omicron is several times less unpleasant than Delta, I want to stress the absolute number of people who are going to get infected  is going to lead to an already massively stressed health system and health workforce being further overloaded, he said during a television interview. The timing isnt great. Christmas and holiday gatherings may give Omicron ample opportunity to spread from the young and social to vulnerable family members, when we still dont know the most critical thing about it - how likely it is to make them really sick. There are 37 confirmed cases of the variant in Victoria. In NSW, where Omicron is now believed to be the primary strain of COVID-19, the number of people in hospital has jumped 50 per cent to 261 patients in a week as daily cases have soared more than 300 per cent to 2501.

While some have jumped on the comparatively small increase in hospital cases as a sign Omicron could be less dangerous, experts say theres always a lag between new infections and people falling ill. Theres evidence that this is certainly a problematic variant, and I would be treating it as such until we have a clearer picture of severity. I dont know if I would be thinking its going to be overwhelmingly less severe than Delta, said Professor Jamie Triccas, head of infection and immunity at the University of Sydney. Professor James McCaw, a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, says it will probably take between one and three weeks to get a clearer picture of the severity of Omicron. The problem is, he said, we cant wait until then to act, as daily cases are at risk of growing 30 times higher.

Theres a huge potential for the case numbers to be at unprecedented levels by the time we do know about severity  and we would have lost the opportunity to minimise the impact. Professor McCaw said those eligible for a booster should get it as soon as possible, masks should be worn in indoor public places and large gatherings indoors such as nightclubs needed to be halted, to help avoid lockdowns later. Loading This has all come as Australias most populous states have been quite firmly on the path of loosening restrictions; it would be a big call to reimpose even moderate ones. Its hard to imagine that the NSW or Victorian governments would be able to weather declaring another lockdown. In Victoria in particular, where Melburnians have spent more than 260 days in lockdown, people feel like they have done their time and want to put COVID-19 behind them, but Omicron doesnt have regard for that.

Its potentially a dangerous position, if politicians tasked with making the big calls on restrictions feel like they are running out of political capital, that could see them ignore public health advice. Boosters are looking like they can drastically reduce the number of people who catch the variant. A number of initial laboratory and real-world studies indicate that while two doses of AstraZeneca or Pfizer provide limited to low protection against infection, that rises to around up to 80 or more with an mRNA booster. But Australia has just started its booster program, and just at the point that it needs to ramp up, there were plans to shut down mass vaccination clinics and some pharmacists and doctors are reporting they are struggling to keep up with demand, or planning to close down for Christmas. There are some early signs two doses of vaccine can still do their key job, and prevent severe disease at high rates. Many epidemiologists have been emphatic in their opinion that the NSW government has made the wrong choice in deciding to press on with loosened restrictions as COVID-19 case numbers shoot up. In contrast to Victoria, where masks remain mandatory for indoor shoppers, masks are no longer required in most indoor settings in NSW from last week.

Infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy told political correspondent James Massola: The restrictions in NSW are being unwound too quickly. We are now ideologically driven and the public health advice has become secondary. Loading Others in the field are now saying the decisions that governments and individuals make in the next couple of weeks could be the difference between being forced into new lockdowns in the future, or avoiding that. They are asking the public to use a rapid test before visiting family members on Christmas, to limit the length of their gatherings and hold them outside whenever possible. Im deeply concerned about this, said Professor McCaw. I would urge everyone to get their booster as soon as possible, and modify their behaviour in ways that keep themselves and their community safe.
The First Peoples Assembly  a body elected by Indigenous Victorians to negotiate a treaty  has called on the Andrews government to immediately raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, saying the laws disproportionately affect Aboriginal children, tear families apart and entrench disadvantage.

This is a great shame on our society, assembly co-chair Marcus Stewart told The Age.

First Peoples Assembly of Victoria co-chair Marcus Stewart is pleading with the Andrews government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14. Credit:Justin McManus

Imagine what it means for any child to be in concrete walls and behind iron bars on Christmas Day and not around the people who love them. The evidence screams of the psychological damage detention does to kids.

The 32-member assembly will launch its public campaign to raise the age on Tuesday and heap pressure on the Victorian government to change the legislation ahead of the state heading to the polls in November, 2022, warning any delay to the reform could set back another generation of Aboriginal children.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Kuala Lumpur: Inside a coffee shop in Kuala Lumpurs Damansara Heights neighbourhood is a gathering of a mothers club like no other. A group of women have taken their fight for equality  and for their children - all the way to the Malaysian High Court and to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the countrys king. Chee Yoke Ling, Rekha Sen and Suriani Kempe, three Malaysian mothers who have been fighting for change to the countrys citizenship laws. Credit:Farhan Iqbal Three months ago, they won a landmark judgment, affording all women the same rights as men in passing on their nationality to their children. The High Court ruling overturned a long-established system of gender discrimination that has meant that children born overseas to a Malaysian mother and a foreign father have been for decades denied automatic Malaysian citizenship. If the father is Malaysian and the mother from another country, the child is by birthright a citizen, no matter where they are born. Its a policy that has denied basic rights such as healthcare and education to those affected and separated thousands of families over the years. Its become even more problematic during the pandemic, when only Malaysians have been permitted to enter the country amid tight border controls. Tears of joy accompanied Septembers court ruling yet, despite their victory, the six mothers who launched the action are bracing for their battle to go on.

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The Malaysian government is contesting the High Court decision and has sought a stay of execution that would prevent it issuing identity cards and passports until its appeal is heard. The government, whose slogan under new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is Malaysian family, also tried unsuccessfully to strike out the case before it even began. Suriani Kempe, one of the mothers and the president of Family Frontiers, an NGO that has spearheaded the bid for change, said the government appeal felt like a complete slap in the face. I remember the reactions of the mothers on September 9 [the day of the judgment], she said. One of them said Now, I can tell my child that theyre Malaysian, too. Then to have the government turn around and continue appealing is completely heartbreaking because every single day the government tries to delay implementing the High Court decision is another day that children are denied access to basic rights and are separated from their families. We have Malaysian parents who cannot separate themselves from their children abroad and come back to see their dying parents. Rekha Sen, another of the plaintiffs, knows all about the difficulty of making that choice.

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She lives in Bangkok with her Thai-German husband and three children and is meeting other mothers in the case for the first time in person at the coffee shop after coming to visit her elderly parents. Her citizenship applications for her two youngest children, 10-year-old Leo and six-year-old Tara, have been rejected over the years because they were born abroad. Her eldest, 12-year-old Arri, was, in a further quirk of the system, granted Malaysian nationality after Sen told authorities she could not return to Malaysia to give birth due to complications with the pregnancy. During COVID over the past two years, it really does show you how detrimental it is when you dont have the same citizenship as your children, she said. Ive been trying to come back for two years, but I couldnt because my kids couldnt come in. Are Malaysian mothers less Malaysian than Malaysian fathers? Sultan of Johor I told the eldest, you can come back to see your grandparents, but the other two cant. And my number two was, like, Why? I am Malaysian just like you. They just dont get it. For me to explain to them its purely gender discrimination  they cant relate. The inertia of the public service is another contributing factor to families woes. While Family Frontiers says only 1 per cent of more than 11,000 applications for citizenship for children born overseas to fathers of other nationalities since 2013 have been successful, the process can take as long as 10 years, just to be rejected. When you wait, like, five years to get a rejection letter, at least tell me why, Sen said. It was one sentence [for me]  we are sorry, your application is rejected.

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Another of the Malaysian mothers involved in the case has a 17-year-old son who has been turned down for citizenship even though he has lived in Malaysia almost all his life. He was born in France while she was living there with her French husband. Every year I have to apply for a student pass [for him]  every year, and hes my child, said Devi, who asked not to publish her full name. Hes been here since he was 18 months old. He gets the foreigners price for medical. My daughter [who was born in Malaysia] gets the locals price. Lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar has taken on the mothers bid for change as a public interest case. Credit:Farhan Iqbal On the day of the court ruling in September, she walked into a government office with the judgment in her hand, only to be told by staff they hadnt been given instructions to begin issuing documentation. Three months later, nothing has changed and time is running out for children such as her son. Malaysia does not recognise dual citizenship and when those affected reach the age of 21, they are effectively forced to proceed with their fathers nationality instead. Tehmina Kaoosji, a 37-year-old broadcast journalist born in India to her Malaysian mother and Indian father, had her citizenship application turned down when her mother submitted it many years ago.

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She has lived in Malaysia since she was 10 and was only granted permanent residency, allowing her to enter the workforce, when she was 26. Tehmina Kaoosjis mother was Malaysian but she was turned down for citizenship. Its impossible for me to look back without considering the crushing impact Malaysias citizenship laws had and continue to have on my life and career trajectory, she said. Im a journalist, covering current affairs issues including politics, economics, social justice and womens rights and yet, as a non-citizen, I cannot vote come election time. Kaoosji, who lost her mother to COVID-19 in August, said families such as hers had been forced to depend only on the Malaysian female parents income because working visas for foreign fathers were difficult to obtain, and exorbitant foreign student fees and costs for student visas added to the financial burden. She could apply for citizenship by naturalisation but says she wont do that on principle. Malaysian citizenship is my right, she said. Its heartbreaking to see Malaysian mothers who are my age and younger [who] until today experienced the very same sexism and gender discrimination my own mother endured with a new generation of children.

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Take the bleakest moments of our two mid-winter lockdowns and imagine dealing with all of that during Christmas. You might then have some glimmer of understanding of just how bleak last Christmas was for Londoners.

While some lucky nonagenarians were getting a taste of one of the worlds first vaccine rollouts, most residents of the capital were sheltering in place from a sudden surge of a dangerously infectious new variant under Englands strictest lockdown rules. Having insisted for several weeks that Christmas had to protected, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was then obliged to cancel the festive seasons family reunions and beg everyone to stay home to spare the hospitals. At the time, up to 500 people a day were dying in England from COVID-19 and Europe had slammed shut the borders to keep out what was then being called the Kent mutation.

So it is not hard to image the anger of the English earlier this month when they learnt that while they were exchanging Christmas wishes on Zoom, the government was exploiting Parliaments permitted worker status for boozy work parties. The tier 3 restrictions that snuffed out celebrations for ordinary Londoners explicitly prohibited gatherings of two or more people in an indoor space: Although there are exemptions for work purposes, you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity.

A leaked video broadcast on December 8 this year captured staff at the Prime Ministers official residence, No. 10 Downing Street, laughing their way through a practice run of a press conference, imagining cheeky questions about their knees-up. Picture how well that would go down if any state or federal staff in Australia were caught sniggering about breaching the laws they insisted everyone follow.
London: The Queen has decided not to spend Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England amid concerns about the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The Palace said on Tuesday AEDT that the 95-year-old monarch would spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has stayed for most of the pandemic.

Britains Queen Elizabeth II Credit:AP

Other members of the royal family are expected to visit over the Christmas period, with precautions taken against spreading the virus.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Britain  up 60 per cent in a week  as Omicron replaced Delta as the dominant variant, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said more new restrictions may have to be introduced to slow its spread. His health minister has refused to rule out imposing new measures before Christmas.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Snow this morning will give way to lingering snow showers this afternoon. High 27F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 100%. 3 to 5 inches of snow expected..

Tonight

Intermittent snow showers, especially early. Low around 20F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
7 People, Including 3 Children, Found Dead in Minnesota Home: Police

Authorities said Sunday that the bodies of seven people were found inside a home in Minnesota, but officials didnt reveal their cause of death.

Authorities said the victims included three children and four adults. They were located at around 8 p.m. on Saturday by other family members who were carrying out a welfare check in Moorhead, located in the northwestern part of the state.

After their bodies were found, the family members called the police, officials told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper.

This is an absolute horrible tragedy, made even more poignant since it is close to the holidays. My heart aches for the family and friends who received this devastating news over the weekend, Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson said in a statement. Our community mourns with them during this heartbreaking time. Please know there is no threat to the community and the Moorhead Police Department, with the assistance from the Moorhead Fire Department, are investigating.

Three of the victims attended nearby the S.G. Reinertsen Elementary School and Moorhead High School, officials.

It is a difficult time for our school family and our deepest condolences are with the extended family, school spokeswoman Brenda Richman stated.

Moorhead Police Capt. Deric Swanson told The Associated Press that an investigation is still active and further information will be released later. The identities of the victims and their causes of death will also be disclosed.

There were no signs of violence or signs of forced entry into the home, officials told a local CBS affiliate station. Officials said there is currently no known threat to the public.

Officials told local media that the bodies were transported to the Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office.

Neighbors said that the children were seen last on Friday, Dec. 17, reported KFGO radio.

Moorhead is on the Minnesota border near Fargo, North Dakota.

Other details about the incident were not provided by officials.
All 128 Miners Safely Evacuated After Incident at Russian Mine

MOSCOWAll 128 miners were evacuated from a Siberian coal mine on Sunday after fire sensors were triggered, Russias emergencies ministry said, just weeks after a blast at a mine in the same region killed 51 people.

The SUEK coal company, which owns the Ruban mine in Russias Kemerovo region, said sensors had detected an increase in carbon monoxide emissions, caused by a seam heating up, but it had not ignited and there was no fire.

All 128 people got out to the surface, there are no casualties, the emergencies ministry said in a statement.

Russian news agencies had earlier on Sunday reported a fire at the Ruban mine, saying there were between 128 and 139 miners underground at the time, citing the mines administration and emergency services.

SUEK said work was stopped in compliance with protocol after the sensors were set off. It said the ventilation system was working and gas levels were normal.

Checks were launched into why the sensors at the mine were triggered, TASS cited the prosecutors office as saying.

An aerial view shows the premises of the Listvyazhnaya coal mine following a recent deadly accident in the Kemerovo region in Russia, on Nov. 28, 2021. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

The co-owner of the Listvyazhnaya mine in Kemerovo, where an explosion killed 51 people in November, was detained on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin in December accused management of falsifying methane data at the mine.

In 2007, the region was the site of the worst mining accident since the collapse of the Soviet Union when an explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine claimed the lives of more than 100 people. In 2010, explosions at the regions Raspadskaya mine killed more than 90 people.

By Alexander Marrow
Illegal immigrants who have gathered by the border wall board a bus going to the Border Patrol station for processing in Yuma, Ariz., on Dec. 10, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Arrests of Illegal Immigrants at Southern Border in November Set New Record

President Joe Bidens administration continued to struggle getting the U.S.Mexico border under control in November, with a record-high number of arrests at the border recorded.

Some 173,620 arrests were made last month, according to Customs and Border Protection.

Thats the highest for the month of November in the nations history.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment and has not remarked on the number of apprehensions.

Chris Magnus, the newly confirmed CBP commissioner, said in a statement that the update on the border situation reflects an incredible amount of work on behalf of the American people to keep dangerous drugs and products out of our communities, to facilitate travel and billions of dollars in trade, and to maintain security along our borders.

Driving the number of arrests was an increase in family units and unaccompanied illegal immigrant children, or youth who arrive without a responsible adult to stay in the United States.

The 43,157 illegal immigrants who arrived with family members was a 5 percent increase from October, while the nearly 14,000 illegal immigrant minors represented a jump of 9 percent from the month before.

Overall, CBP agents encountered 127,653 different individuals, a 10 percent increase from October. Some illegal immigrants were arrested more than once.

The Biden administration rolled back a number of key Trump-era policies shortly after taking office, including halting construction of the border wall, ending the Remain in Mexico program, and curtailing use of pandemic powers to allow all illegal immigrant children who arrive without a responsible adult to stay in the United States.

Those changes triggered the largest wave of illegal immigration the United States has ever seen, according to some experts. Under Biden, the United States has already set records for the most illegal immigrant apprehensions in a fiscal year and in a calendar year.

Illegal immigration typically follows a seasonal pattern, peaking in May and declining for the rest of the year before starting to pick back up again in January of the following year.

The border situation will likely get worse in the coming months, according to Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who is now a resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower levels of immigration.

All the key numbers (total apprehensions, and apprehensions of families and unaccompanied alien children) are increasing, at a time of the year when they should be on the decline, Arthur wrote in a blog post.

While the Biden administration has relaunched the Remain in Mexico program under court orders, it is pondering other policies that will simply turn the disaster at the southwest border into a full-blown catastrophe, he added.

Officials in multiple states have increasingly taken immigration enforcement into their own hands due to the relaxed stance of the administration.

Law enforcement in Texas earlier this year started arresting illegal immigrants on charges including trespassing, and Texas started building portions of border wall with funds from the state, Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week.

Florida officials, meanwhile, issued a rule on Dec. 10 that bars issuing or renewing licenses for any entities that house illegal immigrant children, around the same time the mayor of Yuma, Arizona declared a state of emergency over the influx of illegal aliens.
Australia to Boost Urea Production to Keep Trucking Industry Moving

The Australian government has agreed to help national industry rapidly design and develop new urea manufacturing capabilities to tackle a looming shortfall that could ground the nations diesel fleet.

To address the impending deficit, the Australian government has struck a deal with fertiliser manufacturer Incitec Pivot to immediately begin the design, trial, and testing of larger-scale urea production to meet the nations demand.

A large portion of Australias diesel vehicles require AdBluea brand of diesel exhaust fluid containing ureaincluding those in farming, mining, public transport, and trucking.

AdBlue is mandated for use in modern diesel vehicles as part of strict European-based regulation seeking to reduce harmful emissions, such as nitrogen oxide. While vehicles may be capable of operating with urea, turning off the mechanism is illegal.

Closeup of AdBlue and diesel caps in a car. (Ruslan/Adobe Stock)

Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor, a member of the recently formed AdBlue Taskforce responsible for handling the shortage, reassured that current stock levels of urea were sufficient while groundwork for new production was being laid.

Australia currently has adequate stocks of AdBlue stock on hand, but this agreement with Incitec Pivot will enable domestic production of [urea] or supply of an AdBlue product to domestic manufacturers to ensure current supply chain disruptions dont impact on Australian businesses, Taylor said.

This comes as Chinathe worlds largest exporter of ureahas strangled exports of the commodity to prioritise domestic fertiliser supply, taking with it the source for 80 percent of Australias demand.

The ramping up of production by Incitec Pivot will be done without impacting agricultural fertiliser supply to local farmers or disrupting local distribution chains for AdBlue, Tayor said.

This agreement is another important part of the Governments broader strategy to build supply chain resilience, which includes addressing shipping issues, ensuring local supplies of critical products and bolstering local manufacturing capability.

Australias Energy Minister Angus Taylor speaks during question time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. on July 4, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

The direction to up domestic production has been spurred on by global supply chain issues, with mounting uncertainty surrounding the timely delivery of cargo arriving by sea.

Adding to the announcement, the government has been working with shipping companies to ensure urea on its way to Australia would receive priority for loading and delivery.

Shipping companies have been helpful in prioritising the loading of a number of containers coming through Singapore to ensure that supplies arrive in Australia as soon as possible, Taylor said.

Last week, Trade Minister Dan Tehan reassured Australians that stockpiled urea quantities were adequate to support the nation until a new supply was established.

Australia has also expressed interest in engaging with Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Japan to get a hold of urea.

Nations worldwide had already made steps to secure the resource, including South Korea, who announced last month it would be airlifting 27,000 litres of urea solution from Australia.
Chinese soldiers from the People's Liberation Army march after a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of China's entry into the Korean War, on Oct. 23, 2020, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Beijing Steps Up Aggression as It Seeks to Lead New World Order

Chinese Communist Party seeks nothing less than to dominate the United States

News Analysis

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to destroy the international system and rebuild it in its own image. To many Americans, that may sound far-fetched, but its precisely what CCP officials and strategy call for.

To international audiences, the CCP has repeatedly declared that its foreign policy goals are grounded in principles such as universality, constructive dialogue, and win-win cooperation.

Yet such language is smoke and mirrors, analysts say, and belies concrete actions by the regime to grow its military and economic might around the world.

In the words of the congressionally mandated 2021 China Power Report by the Pentagon, the CCPs grand strategy is aimed at achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by 2049. This means, it says, matching or surpassing the United States in global influence and power, displacing U.S. partners in the region, and revising the international order to be more advantageous to Beijings authoritarian system and national interests.

Dismantle and Rebuild

Despite talk of win-win scenarios abroad, Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivers more grim depictions of his vision for the future when at home, away from the glare of the international limelight. Within the internal proceedings of the regime, he issues opaque calls for the CCP to reform global governance and lead the international order.

In a 2018 speech, Xi said the CCP must lead the reform of the global governance system. In another speech in 2021, he said that a more just and equitable international order must be heeded, and led by China.

Likewise, the paper of the CCPs Central Party School issued an article in 2016, shortly after Xis military reforms, that declared it was only a matter of time before the CCP was among those leading the new world order.

At a closed-door CCP meeting in November, called the Sixth Plenum, Xi led the Party in issuing a communique that rewrote parts of Chinas modern history and outlined the Partys goals for the future.

In it, the CCP championed its own form of Maoist communism, referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics, as a new model for human advancement.

It further demanded that Marxist ideology be proselytized across the world as the sole political philosophy not only capable of dismantling the old world, but also of building a new one.

We must use Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to observe, understand, and steer the trends of the times, and constantly deepen our understanding of the laws underlying governance by a communist party, the building of socialism, and the development of human society, the communique reads.

The rapidity with which the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has transformed itself from a wholly impoverished agricultural nation into the worlds second-largest economy has been hard for some to grasp.

Indeed, the idea that communist China is a real adversary, much less one aimed to dethrone and usurp Americas role in global leadership seemed a foreign concept to many just two years ago.

President Joe Biden, for example, dismissed the notion in 2019 that China could seriously compete with the United States.

Theyre not competition for us, Biden said after announcing his campaign for presidency.

By May 2021, however, the president had changed his tune, saying at a press conference that a battle between democracies and autocracies, was afoot, and warned that the CCP was seeking nothing less than to dominate the United States.

[Xi] firmly believes that China, before the year 30, 35, is going to own America because autocracies can make quick decisions, Biden said.

That concerted effort to dismantle U.S. influence abroad, and own it, is the platform the CCP has coalesced around. In addition, Beijing is quickly building the military necessary to seize and hold that objective by force.

A Modern Military

The regimes military, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), is undergoing an unprecedented program of growth and modernization in order to pursue the Partys ambition for global dominance.

Xi directed the military in 2020 to be ready for conflicts spanning the whole region and, according to Chinese state-owned media Xinhua, emphasized that the Party must maintain absolute leadership over the army at all times.

The PLA must put all minds and energy on preparing for war, Xi said.

Likewise, the Chinese leader said in July that those who would combat or oppress the PRC would have their heads bashed bloody.

Such rhetoric might come across as mere machismo were it not for the fact that it was matched by equally aggressive strategic development.

The average American is generally unaware of the military and diplomatic power that the PRC has achieved over the last two decades, said James Fanell, a fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy and former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Likewise, the average American is unaware of the PLAs unprecedented military modernization program and how today the PLA overmatches the U.S. military in naval, air, and rocket force power.

Referred to by Party leadership as an all-out push in military modernization, the PLAs expanding military capabilities include the development of hypersonic weapons, a rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, and the worlds largest navy, each aimed to confront and overcome a known weakness in U.S. defense policy and capabilities.

Xi has referred to the PLAs modernization program as leapfrog development. This is development aimed to skip ahead to next-generation military technologies without having to waste resources to first match the United States current arsenal.

The CCPs test of a hypersonic weapon in July, for example, reportedly tried out an orbital bombardment system that could be capable of getting nuclear warheads around the U.S. early warning and missile defense systems, which were designed to protect against traditional ballistic weaponry.

Gen. John Hyten, the Pentagons second-highest-ranking officer at the time, said the test looked like a first-use nuclear weapon, and denounced a brutal bureaucracy that hindered the U.S. military from developing a similar system a decade ago.

Fanell believed that the continued advancement of the CCPs impressive modernization program, and the equally impressive ignorance of said program in the West, was exacerbated by so-called China handspeople in academic institutions, think tanks, and government office who advance pro-China agendas or otherwise give cover to the CCPs political maneuvering.

Just this week, a retired four-star admiral had the audacity to write that, while the PLAN was the largest navy in the world, they were of a far lower quality, Fanell said, referring to the PLA Navy.

That simply is false. I have been aboard PLAN warships several times over the course of the past 20 years, and I can tell you that PLAN warships and sailors are indeed not of a far lower quality.

The criticism isnt new. Such was mentioned in the Heritage Foundations annual report on U.S. military strength earlier this year, which noted the trend of American strategists to overstate the importance of U.S. aircraft carriers while downplaying the numerical and geographic advantages of Chinese naval forces.

The impact from this statement and many, many others like it over the past 20 years has been to numb the American body politic from understanding the lethal threat that the PRC and PLA represent, Fanell said.

To that end, its necessary to understand that the Chinese regime fashioned much of its current force structure with the sole purpose of ejecting the United States from the Indo-Pacific.

The PLAN has been designed and built over the past 20 years to defeat the U.S. Navy in a war at sea, while the U.S. Department of Defense has been obsessed with conducting counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East, Fanell said.

It must be stated that when it comes to the military domain, the U.S. is greatly behind the PLA, especially when it comes to war at sea. The PLAN is not only the largest navy on the planet today, but it has more anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles than any other navy.

Fanell said that, at current levels, the United States simply lacks the strength to maintain the status quo in the region. Fixing that weakness is imperative, he said, given the central role of Taiwan in the ongoing SinoAmerican struggles for global influence.

Taiwan is the centerpiece of the CCPs goal of displacing the United States global prominence and influence, Fanell said.

The conquest of Taiwan is the centerpiece of the strategy for driving the U.S. out of the Indo-Pacific.

All Roads Lead to Taiwan

Taiwan is vital to Xis vision for the future of a global communist China. The CCP initiated record numbers of incursions into the Taiwanese air defense identification zone throughout 2021 in an effort to rattle Taiwans military and justify its claims that the island is part of its territory.

Xi vowed to achieve reunification of the nation during a speech in October, and called the islands continued de facto independence a serious hidden danger to national rejuvenation.

Part of the reason for this desperation in seizing Taiwan is ideological. Another, strategic.

Theres no doubt the CCP sees Taiwans democratic model as a threat to its version of Marxism-Leninism, said Keith Krach, former U.S. undersecretary of state.

The people of Taiwan share the same culture, customs, and language as their Chinese neighbors. They are a living, breathing proof that Chinese people dont have to subjugate their individual freedom and human rights to the will of a monstrous communist state in order to be successful.

Taiwans democratic government goes against everything the CCPs Sixth Plenum Communique stood for. Its continued existence demonstrates the falsity of the claim that only socialism with Chinese characteristics is capable of addressing the unique historical realities of the Chinese state.

National rejuvenation, so central to the CCPs grand strategy, is impossible without unification.

Such a situation has rendered Xi desperate for a swift absorption of Taiwan by the mainland, according to Krach. And that desperation makes him dangerous.

General Secretary Xi sees the annexation of Taiwan as a crowning jewel in his legacy, Krach said.

That certainly makes the ChinaTaiwan tensions more combustible, especially since hes feeling the heat internally due to the energy crisis and his mishandling of the economy.

At the strategic level, the occupation of Taiwan would provide the CCP with the ability to project power beyond the so-called second island chain and threaten U.S. military bases and allied forces. This would effectively put all U.S. and allied forces in the region at risk from missile attacks.

Taiwan is part of the first island chain, a branch of major archipelagos that spreads from Indonesia past the Philippines and through Japan. Maintaining a presence through the first chain is necessary to project military power through the second, which is farther into the Pacific.

The CCP has long been aware of that strategic need for control of Taiwan.

According to a 2004 article by state-run media Global Times, taking over Taiwan would open up the eastern Pacific Ocean to the Chinese military and simultaneously erode the strategic barrier posed by the first island chain, which currently keeps its forces close to the mainland.

Taiwan is thus necessary to the CCPs struggle for global dominance, as both the ideological coherence of Chinese communism and the nations military capacity to conduct war with the United States hinge upon it.

Perhaps for that reason, a recent editorial by the Global Times stated that the regime would heavily attack US troops who come to Taiwans rescue, and added that any weapons given to Taiwan by the United States must be destroyed.

Krach said: After biding its time for decades, playing the victim, eliciting preferential treatment from the free world, General Secretary Xi decided its time for China to seize the dominant role on the world stage.

The CCP also understands Taiwans strategic role as a trusted, high-tech powerhouse, especially as the worlds premier semiconductor manufacturer, Krach said in reference to the fact that Taiwan is responsible for the production of some 63 percent of the worlds semiconductors, which are vital to technologies ranging from pickup trucks to ballistic missilesa capability coveted by Beijing.

Thats why controlling Taiwan is a strategic priority for the CCP, and it should be the free worlds priority to defend Taiwan and make sure tomorrows tech is trusted tech.

Hegemony

The CCPs grand strategy comes down to hegemony. Its ambition is to displace and replace the United States, and Xi has directed the military to strengthen its position toward this end.

The CCP goals of global hegemony are real, not just propaganda, said Anders Corr, principal of advisory firm Corr Analytics and a contributor to The Epoch Times.

They are moving forward with laws that have global extraterritorial effect, tied to aggressive extradition efforts, along with increasing influence, trending towards control, of UN and other international institutions and multinational corporations.

To that end, the CCP is pursuing a whole-of-nation strategy, leveraging its military, economy, and diplomatic apparatus against the United States.

That presents a danger to all Americans, according to Corr, as the CCP is almost certainly willing to go further in pursuing destructive conflict than the United States is willing to.

The CCP is more willing to risk war than we are, which it can use as a form of brinkmanship to force us into retreat, Corr said. War in the nuclear age against a nuclear-armed enemy is almost unthinkable for citizens in democracies, which from Beijings perspective is a weakness to be exploited.

The CCPs diplomatic apparatus says it wants peace and win-win scenarios. What it leaves out, however, is exactly what Xi holds to be necessary for the peace to begin.

Speaking on the anniversary of the Korean War in 2020, Xi said simply, A victory is needed to win peace and respect.

Its victory, not comradery, that the CCP seeks now.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
Chinese Tech Giant Huawei Attacked Aussie and US Networks in 2012

Democracys current cyber defenses only address the tip of the iceberg

News Analysis

Australia discovered Huaweis cyber spying in about 2012 and informed the United States, according to a new Bloomberg News investigation.

The Aussie discovery started a long process of investigating and finding Huawei hacks in other countries. The result: a too-quiet information campaign against the companys attempts to monopolize the worlds wireless networks, from 2G to 5G.

But the campaign failed to alert the public early and does not address Chinas deeper links to European telecom companies such as Nokia and Ericsson, or its potential espionage among technicians in telecom companies globally.

The Australian officials claim that Huaweis attack began with a malicious software update. In 2012, Australian intelligence officials informed their U.S. counterparts that they had detected a sophisticated intrusion into the countrys telecommunications systems, according to the Bloomberg report by Jordan Robertson and Jamie Tarabay.

That cyber breach and its discovery led to Australian and U.S. intelligence sharing with other countries.

The Bloomberg report, first published on Dec. 16, is based on interviews with almost two dozen national security officials from Australia and the United States who got briefings on the matter between 2012 and 2019.

The officials, some of whom confirmed only parts of the story pieced together by Bloomberg, include the following: former Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who chaired the U.S. House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015; Michael Wessel, a current commissioner on the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission; Keith Krach, former undersecretary of state for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment; and Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of Defense for Policy. The report also drew from National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers speaks during a press conference to release the committees report on the security threat posed by Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE in Washington on Oct. 8, 2012. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

The report is the first time the 2012 breach of Australias telecom networks has been made public.

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), while declining to answer Bloombergs specific questions on the incident, did point to Chinas Ministry of State Security as a malign actor.

Australia is not alone in the threats we face from state-based actors in cyberspace, the ASD said, noting that Australia has joined with others in the world to express serious concerns about malicious cyber activities by Chinas Ministry of State Security.

Huawei Is Not the Only Risk

Huawei, with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China, dominates the global telecom market, which amounts to approximately $90 billion annually. The data that flows through these networks, however, is far more valuable and explains why Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies, like ZTE, arguably undercharge for their offerings and pose a high risk to global data security.

Swedens Ericsson and Finlands Nokia compete with the Chinese telecom giant, but even they source some of their equipment from China, and sell to China. They are thus in part beholden to Chinalikely technically compromisedand only weak competitors to Huawei. Nokia even co-owns a company with Huawei that may be planning to sell Huawei-designed phones.

The interlinking of Western telecom companies with China will make it difficult to ensure the safety of clean networks even if Huawei and other Chinese companies are banned.

The United States, Britain, Australia, and Sweden have all banned Huawei from 5G networks, and approximately 60 nations have signed onto the U.S. Clean Network program that commits them to rejecting Chinese telecommunications equipment.

Huaweis Malware

According to seven of the officials who spoke with Bloomberg, an apparently legitimate software update from Huawei for a major Australian telecommunications company contained malicious code that worked much like a digital wiretap, reprogramming the infected equipment to record all the communications passing through it before sending the data to China.

The code deleted itself after a few days, the result of a clever self-destruct mechanism embedded in the update meant to cover the malwares traces.

Australias intelligence services ultimately discovered that Chinas spies caused the breach, having infiltrated the ranks of Huawei technicians who helped maintain the equipment and pushed the update to the telecoms systems.

The seven former officials who provided detailed accounts of their briefings said that Australias intelligence agencies had detected suspicious traffic flowing from the countrys telecommunications systems to China, a trail that led to Huawei equipment, according to Bloomberg.

Advertising for Huawei Experience Store Opening in Sydneys Hurstville, Australia, on Sept. 24, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

The investigators accessed the infected systems, but arrived only after the self-destruct mechanism began its own deletion.

Digital forensics on those systems revealed only fragments of the malicious codes existence, and investigators reconstructed the attack using a variety of sensitive sources, including human informants and secretly intercepted conversations, according to Bloomberg.

The attack siphoned all data flowing through the Huawei equipment over the course of the malwares operation.

The data gave them access to the contents of private communications and information that could be used to target specific people or devices in future attacks, according to the Bloomberg sources.

Bloomberg named two telecommunications companies operating in Australia that reportedly utilized Huawei equipment. Optus, a division of Singapore Telecommunications, utilized Huawei starting in 2005 for digital and wireless networks.

In addition to being Australias second-biggest mobile carrier, according to Bloomberg, Optus also operates Australias largest fleet of satellites, and it works closely with the Australian military.

It is unclear why Australia would trustwith its most sensitive satellite and military datacompanies associated with an authoritarian government like Singapore, especially since they cooperate closely with Chinas Huawei.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Australias third-biggest mobile carrier, selected Huawei to overhaul its entire 2G and 3G infrastructure in 2011 and later for parts of its 4G networks as well, according to Bloomberg.

The breached network, according to two officials with whom Bloomberg spoke, was Optus, which claimed to have no knowledge of the alleged incidents.

American intelligence officials, guided by the Aussie tip in 2012, discovered a similar Chinese attack the same year that used Huawei equipment in the United States.

Chinese Spies Need Admin Access to Succeed

All their intelligence services have poured over the same material, Bloomberg quoted Rogers as saying. This whole body of work has come to the same conclusion: Its all about administrative access, and the administrative patches that come out of Beijing are not to be trusted.

Even John Suffolk, Huaweis global cybersecurity officer, admits that Huawei considers the possibility of its workers being compromised a valid threat, according to Bloomberg. The countermeasures that Huawei claims, however, including annual compliance training, are laughably inadequate.

Huawei, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese military officer, claims not to know about the spying.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (R) is shown around the offices of Chinese telecom giant Huawei by its president and founder Ren Zhengfei in London during Xis state visit to the UK on Oct. 21, 2015. (Matthew Lloyd/AFP via Getty Images)

This is highly unlikely. But Rens plausible deniability points to the problem running deeper than just Huawei. If Huaweis leadership can claim not to know about the spying, they may be purposely looking the other way. Chinas spy services could infiltrate any company from any country, the officials from which likewise ignore spying for short-term market gains. If a low-level technician from any company with administrative access is compromised by Chinas spy agencies and gains personal access, he or she can insert the necessary malicious code.

The Huawei Problem Is Actually the CCP Problem

International telecommunications companies, including Huawei, make billions of dollars from business with China and have numerous short-term financial incentives to both ignore the danger, and encourage their home governments to do the same.

The problem is international. Huawei has reportedly helped two African governments utilize espionage against political opponents, and built data storage for the government of Papua New Guinea that included obvious security gaps that made sensitive files vulnerable to theft. Published Huawei documents have demonstrated how the company helps Beijing track its own population.

In recent years, with Chinas growing economic and technological power, the problem has only increased. Robust Chinese cyberattacks continue today against Australia, for example. Chinese hackers have targeted Australian institutions with relentless attacks since the country called last year for an independent probe into the origins of Covid-19, according to Bloomberg.

The root of the problem is not Huawei, but the links and dependency of corporations from all countries on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and their willingness to allow the continuation of the CCPs aggressive and unethical approach to the promotion of its international business and illiberal influence.

The problem of Beijings cyberhackingwhich empowers its industrial espionage, political influence, and privacy violations globallywill not be solved until China democratizes its totalitarian political system and, thus, rids itself of the CCPs all-consuming hunger for ever more power.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A woman walks by a "Now Hiring" sign outside a store in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 16, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

COVID-19 Welfare, Health, Fears Push Americans Away From Work, Expert Says

Millions of Americans have stopped workingat least on paperover the past two years. They are only slowly trickling back into the labor force, despite plentiful job opportunities. Multiple factors are causing this, including fear of the disease COVID-19 and self-reported health issues.

Close examination of available data, however, reveals the most prominent factor is that people rely on the taxpayer dime, a recent report concluded.

Todays employment market is unlike any other in history, the Dec. 8 report states (pdf). Never before has America experienced a labor shortage of todays magnitude, and particularly extraordinary is that the current labor shortage exists alongside still-elevated unemployment and improved compensation packages that should spur more workers into jobs.

The report estimates that through the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has lost close to 5 million workers, or about 3 percent of its workforce.

The report was authored by Rachel Greszler, a research fellow in economics, budget, and entitlements at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. The current labor shortage was primarily created by the expansion of government benefits in response to COVID, she told The Epoch Times.

Theres both an increase in demand from all that money thats out there and theres a reduction in supply of willing workers because the government had been paying people to not work, she said.

The three COVID relief bills approved in the span of less than two years pumped some $6 trillion into the economy. A major part of that sum has added to already robust welfare entitlements.

Aside from the total of $3,200 in stimulus checks, food stamps benefits were made more accessible and payments were boosted by 21 percent. There were nearly 41 million people on food stamps in September, up 10 percent since January 2020. The total benefits paid out, however, more than doubled in the same period, to more than $9.2 billion (pdf) from less than $4.5 billion a month.

Meanwhile, rent assistance programs allowed people to virtually stop paying rent for months on end, removing the largest chunk of living costs for many. The programs, at least in some localities, are still widely available, Greszler said.

Obamacare health care benefits also were expanded, removing for many people one of the incentives to getting a job: employer-provided health insurance.

When you add it all up, theres a lot of stuff thats available, Greszler said. You can do just as well or sometimes even better by not working than if you were working.

Some of her Heritage colleagues calculated in a recent paper that, even before COVID, the average family with two children defined by the government as poor received $20,700 in cash, food, and housing benefits, another $17,000 in medical care, and $5,000 in social services annually.

The Build Back Better Actproposed by President Joe Biden, but recently shelved by Congresswould add another $11,300 in annual benefits, according to the paper.

Build Back Better Bill stands at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 14, 2021. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

COVID bills also pumped hundreds of billions of newly printed dollars into public and even private services. Although much fewer people were buying transit tickets, transit workers still got paid. Although much fewer bought plane tickets, airlines still paid their workers. Billions less were paid in taxes, but government workers kept their jobs.

These are some of the reasons why Americans saved $2.2 trillion more in the pandemic year compared to the pre-pandemic one.

Gray Economy

Although much of the government benefits are reserved for the poor, one doesnt actually need to be poor to get them, Greszler acknowledged. One simply needs to appear poor to the government. The system thus incentivizes people to get as much as possible of their income off the books.

Theres little known about the extent of Americas gray, off-the-books economy. Policies such as Build Back Better, however, would exacerbate it, Greszler says, not just through expanded welfare, but also by limiting independent work, such as freelancing, contracting, and gig jobs, that has actually grown in popularity in recent years.

Instead, the proposed policy would prod companies to use union workers.

Its true that union jobs offer greater workplace protections than non-union ones and even more so compared to gig work. But promoting unions doesnt make sense in Greszlers eyes, at a time when there are 10 million job openings and companies compete for labor.

I mean, employers are offering pet insurance to workers. So we dont need the federal government intervening and saying you must provide X, Y, Z, she said, predicting that what the administration is pursuing is going to backfire.

People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Ark., on April 6, 2020. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)

She gave the example of Puerto Rico.

They have, on the books, incredibly strong labor market protections. They would be considered very pro-worker. Well, what happens is you drive up the costs of employing people so much the employers dont want to employ people, and then you have a huge underground or gray economy, she said.

Officially, Puerto Rico has a labor force participation rate of only around 40 percent. The U.S. average is around 60 percent.

Off-the-books work provides even less protection than gig jobs, Greszler pointed out.

A ton of people are going to have zero workplace protections, theyre not going to have the wages they otherwise could, theyre not going to have control over their schedules how they might, and the governments also not going to have any revenue coming in from their work because its not on the books, she said.

Once too much of the economy turns gray, it could create a vicious cycle, she said. The government may try to squeeze more taxes from the visible part of the economy, further jacking up the allure of going underground.

Other Issues

Greszler acknowledged that there are other factors keeping Americans from getting jobs.

Recent surveys show that 30 percent of people who are unemployed say that its because of their physical health and 15 percent say its because of their mental health, she noted. Also, about 1.2 million people arent looking for work because of some reason that has to do with COVID, according to the monthly survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Taking those numbers into account, however, government handouts still remain the most significant factor.

If there werent money available out there, workers would have to go back, she said.
Departing Canadian Ambassador to China Named Chairman at Rio Tinto

Canadas outgoing ambassador to China will take up a post as chairman with Australian multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto, the company announced on Dec. 19.

Dominic Barton will succeed Simon Thompson as Rio Tintos chair in 2022. He will first join Rio Tintos board on April 4 and be appointed to the role of chair following the companys annual general meeting on May 5, according to a statement issued on Dec. 20.

In the statement, Barton said he is excited to return to the private sector after his two-year assignment as Canadas ambassador to China.

I am truly looking forward to working with Dominic in our effort to continue to strengthen Rio Tinto, in particular drawing on his wealth of experience across Asia in both a business and diplomatic capacity, Jakob Stausholm, Rio Tinto chief executive, said in the statement.

Controversy

Prior to his appointment as ambassador, Barton spent over 30 years at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, including nine years as its global managing partner from 2009 to 2018.

During that period, the firm sparked controversy for advising pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma on ways to increase sales of oxycontin, a highly addictive prescription pain medicine that contains an opioid. Bartons role in and knowledge of the issue has also been questioned.

While serving as ambassador to China, Barton drew criticism for championing closer Canada-China ties despite Beijings arbitrary detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in retaliation for Canadas arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Following the release of the two men in September, Barton called for a rekindling of the Canada-China relationship in an exclusive interview with the Chinese Communist Partys propaganda mouthpiece Global Times, saying that the major emotional issue is now off the table.

Barton established extensive experience and relationships in China while at McKinsey, acting as the Asia chairman from 2004 to 2009 at the companys base in Shanghai. He is also an adjunct professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Rio Tintos China Investments

China accounts for more than half of Rio Tintos revenue, according to the companys latest 2020 annual report, supplying the worlds second-largest economy with its high demand for iron ore, a steel-making ingredient essential to Chinas infrastructure push.

In 2020, Rio Tinto committed $10 million to extend its partnership with Chinas state-owned iron and steel company China Baowu Steel Group, and Tsinghua University, to establish a low-carbon raw materials preparation research and development centre. It also committed another $4.5 million to support research projects at the Tsinghua-Rio Tinto Joint Research Centre over the coming years.

Thompson, who served as chair of Rio Tinto for four years and as a non-executive director since 2014, stepped down over the companys destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Western Australia in May 2020.

Barton is set to leave his role as ambassador at the end of the year. As Rio Tintos chairman, he will be tasked with managing the rising tensions between Canberra and Beijing, which has slapped tariffs on Australian wine and barley, as well as severely limiting imports of coal.

He will likely help with several of the companys growth projects, including the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia and a $2.4 billion Jadar lithium mine project in Serbia.

Issac Teo and Reuters contributed to this report.
Emergency Appeal Launched to Help 400,000 Typhoon Rai Victims in Philippines

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Dec. 19 launched an emergency appeal to raise 20 million Swiss Francs ($21.6 million) to help 400,000 people whose homes have been destroyed by Typhoon Rai that struck the Philippines last week.

At its strongest, the typhoon packed sustained winds of 121 mph and gusts of up to 168 mph before it blew out Friday into the South China Sea. Police revealed that at least 208 people were killed, 52 remained missing, and 239 were injured.

IFRC described Typhoon Rai as one of the most powerful storms on record to hit the southern Philippines that had caused complete carnage in the coastal areas.

The emergency appeal that we have launched in support of the Philippine Red Cross will enable relief and longer-term assistance. We need to be ready to urgently increase support as the full extent of the disaster becomes clear, Alberto Bocagnera, head of the Philippine Country Office at IFRC, said in a statement.

The typhoon lashed more than 700,000 people in central island provinces, including more than 400,000 who had to be moved to emergency shelters.

Police, soldiers, and the coast guard rescued thousands of residents, including in the riverside town of Loboc in hard-hit Bohol province, where residents were trapped on roofs and trees to escape from rising floodwaters.

Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, said the organization had provided urgent relief to the victims, but claimed its not sufficient as international aid would still be vital for people whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by the typhoon.

Filipinos are rallying together with courage, but after losing everything in this savage storm, international support will enable hundreds of thousands of people to rebuild their homes and decimated livelihoods, Gordon stated.

Meanwhile, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has pledged to raise 2 billion pesos ($40 million) in aid to augment his initial 2 billion pesos commitment to aid the recovery of provinces devastated by Typhoon Rai.

Duterte visited Bohol province on Sunday to assess the situation there and led the distribution of assistance to the typhoon survivors.

So we gave P2 billion, and youll divide the amount. Weve already started giving assistance, so Ill look for another P2 billion, Duterte said, while imploring the people to be patient as the government had spent the majority of its budget on the pandemic response.

Duterte also said that the National Housing Authority would build 5,000 to 30,000 houses for the typhoon survivors.

Just dont be selfish, just wait for your turn. We will have to help first those who have nothing right now. But for those whose houses are still intact and just need some repairs, youll be next to receive help, he remarked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As for prevention to viruses, nutrition plays a crucial role and several nutrients are known for their immune-boosting properties and ability to ward against viral infections. As reported in a February 24, 2020 press release:

In a compelling article in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases  Mark McCarty of the Catalytic Longevity Foundation, San Diego, CA, USA, and James DiNicolantonio, PharmD, a cardiovascular research scientist at Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO, propose that certain nutraceuticals may help provide relief to people infected with encapsulated RNA viruses such as influenza and coronavirus  COVID-19 is around 30 to 60 times more lethal than the typical annual flu. Both influenza and coronavirus cause an inflammatory storm in the lungs and it is this inflammatory storm that leads to acute respiratory distress, organ failure, and death. Certain nutraceuticals may help to reduce the inflammation in the lungs from RNA viruses and others may also help boost type 1 interferon response to these viruses, which is the bodys primary way to help create antiviral antibodies to fight off viral infections.

McCarty and DiNicolantonio list several nutrients available in supplement form that may be of particular benefit against COVID-19, including the those listed below. For more details about each, see the full-text paper published in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases:

N-acetylcysteine (NAC)  Encourages glutathione production, thins mucus, lowers your chances of influenza infection and reduces your risk of developing severe bronchitis

Encourages glutathione production, thins mucus, lowers your chances of influenza infection and reduces your risk of developing severe bronchitis Elderberry extract  Known to shorten influenza duration by two to four days and reduce the severity of the flu. According to the authors:

Given that elderberry is a very rich source of anthocyanins, there is reason to suspect that its impact on viruses might be mediated, at least in part, by ferulic acid, a prominent metabolite that appears in plasma following anthocyanin ingestion.

Known to shorten influenza duration by two to four days and reduce the severity of the flu. According to the authors: Spirulina  Reduces severity of influenza infection and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies. In a human trial, spirulina significantly lowered the viral load in patients with HIV infection

Reduces severity of influenza infection and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies. In a human trial, spirulina significantly lowered the viral load in patients with HIV infection Beta-glucan  Reduces severity of influenza infection severity and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies

Reduces severity of influenza infection severity and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies Glucosamine  Upregulates mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein (MAVS), reduces severity of influenza infection severity and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies

Upregulates mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein (MAVS), reduces severity of influenza infection severity and lowers influenza mortality in animal studies Selenium  Since selenium is an essential cofactor for certain peroxidases, and selenium deficiency has been endemic in certain regions of China and other parts of the world, insuring adequacy of selenium nutrition might also be appropriate in this context, McCarty and DiNicolantonio note, adding:

Selenium deficiency also increases the rate at which viruses can mutate, promoting the evolution of strains that are more pathogenic and capable of evading immune surveillance.

Since selenium is an essential cofactor for certain peroxidases, and selenium deficiency has been endemic in certain regions of China and other parts of the world, insuring adequacy of selenium nutrition might also be appropriate in this context, McCarty and DiNicolantonio note, adding: Zinc  Supports effective function and proliferation of various immune cells, lowering mortality in the elderly by 27%

Supports effective function and proliferation of various immune cells, lowering mortality in the elderly by 27% Lipoic acid  Helps boost type 1 interferon response. As explained in a 2014 paper:

Type I interferons (IFNs) activate intracellular antimicrobial programs and influence the development of innate and adaptive immune responses  (IFNs) are polypeptides that are secreted by infected cells and have three major functions. First, they induce cell-intrinsic antimicrobial states in infected and neighboring cells that limit the spread of infectious agents, particularly viral pathogens. Second, they modulate innate immune responses in a balanced manner that promotes antigen presentation and natural killer cell functions while restraining pro-inflammatory pathways and cytokine production. Third, they activate the adaptive immune system, thus promoting the development of high-affinity antigen-specific T and B cell responses and immunological memory. Type I IFNs are protective in acute viral infections but can have either protective or deleterious roles in bacterial infections and autoimmune diseases.

Helps boost type 1 interferon response. As explained in a 2014 paper: Sulforaphane  Helps boost type 1 interferon response

A 2005 study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases also found resveratrol has the power to inhibit the replication of influenza A virus, significantly improving survival in influenza-infected mice. According to the authors, resveratrol acts by inhibiting a cellular, rather than a viral, function, which suggests it could be a particularly valuable anti-influenza drug.

Suggested Daily Dosages

The provisional daily dosage suggestions offered by McCarty and DiNicolantonio to help control RNA viruses, including influenza and coronavirus infection, are as follows:

The Importance of Vitamin D Optimization

Solar ultraviolet-B radiation and supplemental vitamin D have also been shown to reduce pandemic fatality rates, which makes sense considering how important vitamin D is for controlling infections and lowering your risk for influenza and the common cold.

Research shows high-dose vitamin D supplementation lowers the risk of respiratory illnesses and lung infections in the elderly by 40%. As noted by an author of that study, Vitamin D can improve the immune systems ability to fight infections because it bolsters the first line of defense of the immune system.

Research published in 2009 pointed suggests fatality rates during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic were influenced by season, with greater numbers of people dying during the winter than the summer. According to the authors:

Deaths during the 19181919 influenza pandemic have been linked to both the influenza virus and secondary bacterial lung infections. Case fatality rates and percentage of influenza cases complicated by pneumonia were available from survey data for twelve United States locations in the 19181919 pandemic. This study analyzes case fatality rates and cases complicated by pneumonia with respect to estimated summertime and wintertime solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) doses as indicators of population mean vitamin D status. Substantial correlations were found for associations of July UVB dose with case fatality rates and rates of pneumonia as a complication of influenza. Similar results were found for wintertime UVB. Vitamin D upregulates production of human cathelicidin, LL-37, which has both antimicrobial and antiendotoxin activities. Vitamin D also reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines, which could also explain some of the benefit of vitamin D since H1N1 infection gives rise to a cytokine storm.

As a general guideline, get your vitamin D level tested twice a year, in the winter and summer, to make sure youre in a healthy range of 60 ng/mL to 80 ng/mL year-round. (A compelling body of research suggests 40 ng/mL is the cutoff for sufficiency.)

Take Control of Your Gut

Last but not least, should the inclusion of Prevotella bacteria in COVID-19 turn out to be accurate, prebiotics, probiotics and sporebiotics may be of significant use. A number of studies have shown Bifidobacterium bifidum strain probiotics can help reduce Prevotella, while Lactobacillus strains tend to increase it.

Sporebiotics may be particularly beneficial. Spore-based probiotics consist of the cell wall of bacillus spores  the protective shell around the DNA and the working mechanism of that DNA  not the whole, live bacterium.

Bacillus spores have been shown to dramatically increase immune tolerance, which means they help repair damage in your intestinal barrier. Since theyre not live, theyre also unaffected by antibiotics.

The bacillus very effectively modulates cytokines  anti-inflammatory cytokines are upregulated while inflammatory cytokines are downregulated, thereby restoring balance between the two.

Research has also shown that sporebiotics massively increase reproduction of acidophilus, bifidus and other microbes in your gut via the electromagnetic messages they send out. This is entirely unique. When you take a regular probiotic, they primarily take care of themselves. Bacillus spores, on the other hand, actually enhance many of the other beneficial microbes.

Bacillus spores also create 24 different substances that have strong antimicrobial properties. However, they do not kill indiscriminately like antibiotics do. They can specifically suppress pathogens that do make a valuable contribution to the whole.

Taking measures to strengthen your immune system is a wise strategy to protect yourself against illness as a strong immune system is your No. 1 defense against all types of infections, both viral and bacterial, and the nutraceuticals discussed in this article can assist you in that effort.

Resources:
The European Medicines Agency is seen in Amsterdam, Netherlands on April 20, 2021. (Peter Dejong/AP Photo)

European Union Authorizes COVID-19 Vaccine From US-Based Novavax

The European Unions executive branch on Monday authorized Novavaxs COVID-19 vaccine, enabling its use in all 27 member-states.

The European Commission previously cleared four COVID-19 vaccines, but Novavaxs, known as Nuvaxovid, is the first protein-based one.

A European Medicines Agency panel earlier Monday said data from two clinical studies showed the vaccine is efficacious, safe, and of a strong quality.

The jab together with the already authorized vaccines, will support vaccination campaigns in EU Member States during a crucial phase of the pandemic, the commission said in a statement.

Possible side effects include headaches, fever, and enlarged lymph nodes.

People who have a hypersensitivity to any of the vaccines ingredients are being advised not to get it.

The studies, one conducted in the United States and Mexico and the other performed in the United Kingdom, indicated Novavaxs shot is about 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. However, both studies finished when the Alpha and Beta variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus were circulating.

There is currently limited data on the efficacy of Nuvaxovid against other variants of concern, including Omicron, the medicines agency said.

Novavax has said its testing its vaccine against Omicron and developing a version of the shot that specifically targets the variant.

Stanley Erck, president and CEO of U.S.-based Novavax, thanked European regulators for their thorough assessment as we look forward to playing a critical role in helping to address the continued threat of COVID-19.

We also thank the thousands of clinical trial participants, our partners and Novavax employees worldwide who have contributed to this historic milestone, he added.

The vaccine has a laboratory-created version of the protein found on the surface of the CCP virus and an adjuvant, or a substance that helps boost immune responses to the vaccine. The vaccine primes the immune system to identify the protein as foreign, preparing it for later contact with the virus out in the real world.

The vaccine is given as two shots spaced approximately three weeks apart.

Novavax and European Union officials previously reached a deal for up to 200 million doses of the jab through 2023.

The first Novavax doses are expected to arrive in Europe in January. They are being produced in partnership with the Serum Institute of India.

The other four shots available in the European Union are from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca.

Novavax recently earned authorization for its vaccine from the World Health Organization for use in India and other countries, and regulators in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Novavax plans to submit data for clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh speaks at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 27, 2018. (Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images)

Faith Groups Seek Emergency High Court Stay on OSHA Mandate

GOP lawmakers file amicus brief for Navy SEALS

Attorneys for nearly a dozen faith-based employers are asking the Supreme Court to issue an emergency stay on enforcement of President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate and to take the case for a full review by the nine justices.

Relief is warranted because the mandate seeks to issue sweeping non-workplace, public health measures. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) only concerns workplace-specific hazards and workplace-specific safety measures,' the faith-based employers told Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a motion filed late on Dec. 17.

The OSH Act established the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and defined the scope of its authority. Biden issued the mandate on all private employers with 100 or more workers through OSHA. The mandate requires all covered workers to receive the vaccine against the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, or be tested on a weekly basis.

The faith-based employers, who are represented by the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), include the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bishop OGorman Catholic Schools, Christian Employers Alliance (CEA), Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), Cambridge Christian School, and The Kings Academy.

Kavanaugh is the Supreme Court justice designated for hearing appeals from cases in the U.S. Appeals Court for the 6th Circuit. He can issue the requested stay, return the case to the 6th Circuit for review by a different three-judge panel, or move to accept ADFs writ of certiorari for review by the full court.

The employers also told Kavanaugh that absent a stay, OSHA will immediately commandeer religious institutions to enforce federal mandates on their own ministers and employees and compel them to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or bear the burden of weekly testing.

OSHA will interfere with religious institutions internal management and employment decisions, and substantially burden their faith. And it will force religious institutions to incur significant costs and divert resources away from their mission of preaching the Gospel and living out their faith. That is an abuse of executive power.

That motion came in response to a ruling by a three-judge 6th Circuit panel that lifted an earlier stay on enforcement and appeared to clear the way for OSHA to begin imposing fines on noncompliers in early January 2022.

The three-judge panels ruling came as a surprise to legal observers because, as the faith-based employers pointed out in their request to Kavanaugh, most of the judges on the 5th Circuit and the 6th Circuit who have examined the merits  [were] concluding that OSHA exceeded its authority was not particularly hard.

Also filing a request to Kavanaugh on Dec. 18 was the First Liberty Institute (FLI), a Plano, Texas-based public interest law firm, on behalf of the American Family Association, Answers in Genesis, and the Daystar Television Network.

Frank Chang, a senior attorney with ADF, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 20 that a response from Kavanaugh could come at any time.

Were confident that the Supreme Court is going to intervene in this case because what OSHA has done is just patently unlawful, Chang said. We followed the emergency application procedure for a stay provision, so it is on an emergency, expedited track and the Supreme Court is going to look at is this unlawful, is this going to create irreparable harm, its going to look at all those factors.

Chang also said an important factor in the high courts actions in the case is the fact that 11 judges in the lower courts have already concluded that this is unlawful, so this is going to enter into the decision.

In addition, Chang pointed out that OSHA has put out updated guidance, OSHA is going to start issuing citations in mid-January, so its very important for the Supreme Court to act sooner rather than later.

In a related development, 47 Republican lawmakers submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of 35 U.S.. Navy SEALs and other warfare specialists appealing the militarys denial of their requests for religious exemptions to Bidens vaccine mandate for the Department of Defense (DOD).

The Navy warriors, whose requests for religious exemptions were denied by DOD, are represented by FLI.

The 47 Republicans told the court that no right is more precious than the right to religious liberty. That is why the very first clause of the very First Amendment explicitly states that Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise of religion. This amendment, case law, and Congresss decision to pass the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) all testify to the fact that, without entrenched, generally applicable, and judicially enforceable protections for religious liberty, lawmakers and government bureaucrats are susceptible to override sincere religious beliefs in favor of what they perceive to be the greater good.

The amicus brief was filed by FLI on behalf of Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, James M. Inhofe and James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, Roger F. Wicker of Mississippi, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Roger Marshall of Kansas.

Also represented in the amicus brief are GOP Reps. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Rick Allen of Georgia, Brian Babin of Texas, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Kat Cammack of Florida, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Bob Gibbs of Ohio, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Bob Good of Virginia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andy Harris of Maryland, Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, Jody Hice of Georgia, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Darrell Issa of California, Ronny L. Jackson of Texas, Doug LaMalfa of California, Doug Lamborn of Colorado, Billy Long of Missouri, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Mast of Florida, Mary Miller of Illinois, Gregory F. Murphy of North Carolina, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Matthew Rosendale Sr. of Montana, Chip Roy of Texas, Gregory Steube of Florida, Randy Weber of Texas, and Daniel Webster of Florida.
President Joe Biden signs executive orders as part of the COVID-19 response as Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and Director of NIAID Anthony Fauci look on in the State Dining Room of the White House, in Washington, on Jan. 21, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Fauci Responds to Harris Claim That Biden Admin Didnt Anticipate Rise in Variants

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pushed back against a claim made by Vice President Kamala Harris during an interview several days ago.

Harris told the Los Angeles Times that the Biden administration did not anticipate the rise in COVID-19 variants, such as Delta or Omicron.

We didnt see Delta coming. I think most scientists did notupon whose advice and direction we have relieddidnt see Delta coming, Harris told the Los Angeles Times last week. We didnt see Omicron coming. And thats the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.

The vice president then conceded that the federal government has not been victorious over it, adding: I dont think that in any regard anyone can claim victory when, you know, there are 800,000 people who are dead because of this virus.

Several days later during a CNN interview on Sunday, Fauci responded to Harriss comments and said that we definitely saw variants coming, and what was not anticipated was the extent of the mutations and the amino acid substitutions in omicron, which was really unprecedented.

When you have so much replication going on in the community, to give a virus enough opportunity to replicate, you know its going to ultimately mutate, and sometimes those mutations wind up a new variant, Fauci said, adding that the government will make more investments in providing testing for COVID-19. Thats what happened with Delta, certainly thats what happened with Omicron.

President Joe Biden said earlier this month the government would require private health insurers to reimburse their 150 million customers for the cost of over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests and make 50 million tests available free through rural clinics and health centers for the uninsured.

Omicron, meanwhile, is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, but it is unclear if this is due to the virus ability to evade immunity, its inherent increased transmissibility, or a combination of both, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update.

Its also not clear whether the variant can cause more severe symptoms. Authorities in South Africa and now the New York City health commissioner have said that hospitalizations caused by Omicron appear to be lower than previous COVID-19 waves.

There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron, WHO said in its most recent update. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Fauci Says Masks Should Still Be Worn, Even If Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that masks should still be worn by those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 as they serve as an important tool in preventing the spread of the virus and compliment the shots.

During an interview on ABCs This Week, the White House coronavirus response team member said that he did not believe masks would be going away any time in the near future and urged individuals to continue wearing them regardless of their vaccination status.

Faucis comment comes just days before Christmas when millions of families across the United States are set to travel to meet one another and celebrate the festive day together.

More than 109 million peoplean almost 34 percent increase from last yearare expected to travel 50 miles or more via road, plane, or other forms of transport between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2 to visit loved ones, according to a report by AAA Travel.

Fauci was asked if vaccinated individuals should feel comfortable doing so, to which he replied, No, I do. If you are vaccinated and boosted and are prudent when you travel, when you are in an airport, to be wearing a mask all the time, you have to be wearing a mask on a plane.

Do not do things like go to gatherings where there are people who you do not know what their vaccination status is, he said. If you do that, and some people are even going the extra step or the extra mile, or maybe even getting tested when you have people coming over the house.

We now have a much wider availability or point of care test that you can get a result in about 15 minutes. So you might want to do that, Fauci continued, adding that if people were to take such precautions then they would be able to feel quite comfortable with a family setting, dinners, and the gatherings that you have around the holiday season, however he noted that nothing is risk-free.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, then said that there are other tools besides the vaccine, and wearing a mask complements the protection that you get from the vaccine and a boost.

So I dont think you should be in a situation that if you are vaccinated, you dont ever have to worry about wearing a mask. Vaccinated or unvaccinated under certain circumstances, masks work in diminishing the likelihood that you are going to get infected or that if you are infected and without symptoms, that youre going to spread it to someone else. So its not an either-or. You can do both and should do both, Fauci said.

Passengers board an American Airlines flight to Charlotte, North Carolina at San Diego International Airport in California on May 20, 2020. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Faucis comments come shortly after chief executives of some of Americas major airlines last week noted that an aircraft is the safest place you can be while questioning how useful wearing masks are during flights.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby made the comments during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on aviation issues, where they explained that the air quality on flights was far superior to that in many indoor spaces such as theatres, churches, and even hospitals, due to the planes high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters.

Referring to the high number of airborne particles captured by HEPA filters, Southwests Kelly said, I think the case is very strong that masks dont add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment. It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting.

I concur, said Parker from American Airlines. An aircraft is the safest place you can be. Its true of all of our aircraftthey all have the same HEPA filters and airflow.

However, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, pointed out that not all planes are fitted with the same quality of air filters, and said she believed that masks should continue to be worn during flights as part of a layered safety protocol.
A male Saudi Arabian national poses after he was arrested for illegally entering the United States, in Arizona on Dec. 16, 2021. (U.S. Border Patrol)

Federal Agents Nab Potential Terrorist Amid New Surge at USMexico Border

U.S. Border Patrol agents recently arrested a man described as a potential terrorist shortly after he illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico.

The 21-year-old male is from Saudi Arabia. Hes a potential terrorist who is linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest, Chris Clem, the chief patrol agent in the Border Patrols Yuma Sector, wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The man was arrested on the evening of Dec. 16.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes Border Patrol, declined to give more information.

The Yuma Sector includes three counties in Arizona. The terror suspect did not enter into Yuma County, county Sheriff Leon Wilmot told The Epoch Times.

Been worried about that since day one with this administration and lack of border security. Over 7,000 getaways last fiscal year in Yuma. What are their intentions? Wilmot said in a text message. He said in the last two months, Border Patrol has apprehended illegal aliens from 116 different countries.

Are we looking at a 9/11 again, only on a huge scale? Its scary, he said.

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, told The Epoch Times in an email that he was deeply troubled by the apprehension of the Saudi national.

As I and many of my colleagues have been saying for months, the impact and relevancy of the Biden Border Crisis are not limited to communities along the southwest border. Migrants are entering the United States illegally in record numbers from a litany of countries. We are undoubtedly experiencing a nationwide crisis, he said.

Katko is seeking information from the Department of Homeland Security about the matter. He has been rebuffed so far over attempts to push the agency to make public the number of known and suspected terrorists apprehended at the border.

The male Saudi Arabian was wearing a jacket from the Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The jacket appears to be one of those handed out to volunteers but the style was discontinued in 2018, Thomas Meyers, chief of the corps, told The Epoch Times.

We typically get our uniforms back from our employees and members. That one, I dont know how it slipped through the cracks or how that individual ended up with it. I dont know. Were investigating that now, he said.

A Border Patrol agent organizes illegal immigrants who have gathered by the border fence after crossing from Mexico into the United States in Yuma, Ariz., on Dec. 10, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The corps, based in New York, has reached out to Border Patrol but hasnt yet heard back.

Todays news that a potential terrorist was caught at the border wearing a Central Oneida County volunteer ambulance uniform hits close to home. Ive reached out to @ICEgov & @CBP for answers. How did this individual acquire the uniform & what risks did he pose to our community? Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) said on Twitter.

The arrest of the potential terrorist comes as the Biden administration presides over the worst border crisis in the nations history, setting records for the most illegal immigrant apprehensions in a fiscal year, in a calendar year, and in multiple months, including November.

Illegal immigrants from all over the world have been recorded as entering the United States during the recent surge, including nationals of Afghanistan, Russia, and Romania.

In a single week in Texas, illegal aliens from 40 nations were nabbed near the border.

Border Patrol earlier this year in California caught two Yemeni nationals on the FBIs terrorist watchlist.

Todd Bensman, a senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Epoch Times earlier this year that the increase in illegal crossings makes it easier for potential terrorists to slip across the border.

Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. news and stories relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is based in Maryland.
Five Eyes Allies Voice Grave Concerns as Beijing Loyalists Dominate Hong Kong Polls

The United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have issued a joint statement expressing grave concerns over the Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong, in which only pro-Beijing loyalists were approved to run.

Foreign ministers of the five countries, which make up the Five Eyes alliance, said they were concerned over the erosion of democratic elements of Hong Kongs electoral system.

Yesterdays election laid bare Beijings ongoing efforts to eradicate Hong Kongs rights, freedoms and autonomy. The UK stands with , ,  and  in support of liberty and calls for China to act in accordance with its international obligations  https://t.co/fPh2Gbxm3L  Liz Truss (@trussliz) December 20, 2021

The elections were originally set to take place in September 2020, but were postponed by the local government, citing public health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But pro-democracy critics claimed that it was an excuse to delay the vote.

In March 2021, Chinas rubber-stamp legislature approved electoral changes for Hong Kong that would effectively bar democratic representatives from occupying key positions.

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime vetted the candidates so that only patriots could run, pro-democracy candidates are now largely absent. The Dec. 19 election saw Hong Kongs largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, fielding no candidates for the first time since the 1997 handover from the United Kingdom to China.

Since handover, candidates with diverse political views have contested elections in Hong Kong. Yesterdays election has reversed this trend, the foreign ministers wrote.

The Chinese regime national emblem hanging on the wall replaces the former Hong Kong emblem at the legislative chamber in Hong Kong on Dec. 17, 2021. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

After the electoral overhaul, the number of directly elected representatives was reduced to 20 from 35, and the proportion of seats for which the voters may elect officials was slashed to 22 percent, down from 50 percent.

The Five Eyes foreign ministers noted that these changes eliminated any meaningful political opposition, adding that many of the citys opposition politicians remain in prison pending trial, with others in exile overseas.

The election witnessed a record low turnout. Only 30 percent of registered voters or about 1,350,680 people cast their ballotsalmost half that of the previous legislative poll in 2016.

The five nations also said they remain gravely concerned at the wider chilling effect of the National Security Law and the growing restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, which are being felt across civil society.

They urged the Chinese regime to act in accordance with its international obligations to respect protected rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, including those guaranteed under the SinoBritish Joint Declaration.

Rita Li and PA contributed to this report.
Former Chinese Official to Plead Guilty in LA to Money Laundering

LOS ANGELESA former Chinese official who was a fugitive for more than five years is expected to plead guilty Dec. 20 to a federal conspiracy charge alleging he laundered millions of dollars and used some of the stolen funds to purchase properties in Monterey Park.

Jianjun Qiao, 58, was extradited from Sweden to Los Angeles last year to face charges originally filed seven years ago.

A federal grand jury in July 2014 indicted Qiao and his ex-wife, alleging two separate schemes. An expanded indictment against Qiao returned in December 2018 charges him with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and

international transport of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and three counts of engaging in financial transactions in a criminally derived property.

Prosecutors allege that as the director of a grain storehouse in Zhoukou City, Henan Province, from 1998 to 2011, Qiao laundered millions of dollars in proceeds related to fraudulent transactions through banks in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The indictment alleges that Qiao then used the stolen funds to, among other things, purchase the Monterey Park properties.

Qiaos ex-wife, Shilan Zhao, 58, of Newcastle, Washington, pleaded guilty in January 2017 to conspiring with her former husband to falsely portray themselves as still married and lying about the source of Zhaos foreign investment, which was required under the EB-5 immigrant investor program to obtain U.S. immigrant visas. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters in Surrey, B.C., on April 13, 2018. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

Former Federal Scientist in Canada Charged With Fraud for Alleged Links to Chinese University

A former federal scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has been charged with fraud and breach of trust for allegedly covertly working for a Chinese university while employed by the Canadian government.

The RCMP issued a statement on Dec. 10 saying Yantai Gan, 65, was arrested on Nov. 9, 2019, at AAFCs facility in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, following an investigation led by the forces National Security Enforcement Section.

The statement said Gan, a crop scientist, was charged with breach of trust by a public officer, fraud of over $5,000, and possession of proceeds from a crime over $5,000.

The RCMP only now made Gans arrest public, ahead of his appearance at a Swift Current court on Dec. 13. No further details of Gans offences were provided as the case is before the courts.

However, according to a charging document released earlier this year, the RCMP allege that Gan, who began working for AAFC in 1999, failed to disclose to his employer that he had worked for the Gansu Agricultural University (GAU) in Chinas northwestern city of Lanzhou, the Globe and Mail reports.

Gan signed a one-year contract with the university starting June 1, 2012, where he was tasked with work such as developing talent and publishing in journals, according to an affidavit sworn by RCMP Constable Cody Thompson, the Globe reported.

Gan was entitled to a salary of roughly $130,000 to $150,000 a year, along with perks such as a housing allowance. During that period, he continued to receive his AAFC salary, along with a $34,000 living allowance from the federal agency.

The RCMP allege that Gan did not disclose his contract with GAU or his salary to the AAFC, although the agency had granted him a one-year work transfer, allowing him to do research at the Chinese university as an AAFC employee.

Thompson said in the affidavit that in 2017, Gan used AAFC resources to reach out to over 20 agricultural scientists in other countries as part of assembling a research team for a project at the Gansu Agricultural University. According to the affidavit, the draft agreements sent to the scientists included offers of five-year appointments at GAU.

Thompson said in the affidavit that he had interviewed several of Gans superiors at the AAFC, who were concerned that the scientist was inappropriately exchanging intellectual knowledge through his associations with GAU.

The RCMP started investigating Gan in 2018, when the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada found some of his financial activities to be suspicious, including transfers from a bank in China to his accounts in Canada, according to the Globe.

In addition to his ties with the Chinese university, the RCMP allege Gan failed to disclose his work with the pasta company Barilla America, which paid him roughly $24,000 for a 2014 contract, which Gan also concealed from the AAFC.

The Globe reported that one of Gans superiors at the AAFC said in the affidavit that the money he allegedly received from outside sources would make it appear he is sharing information, expertise, material, or outputs without the knowledge of the agency.

Gan is not the only case in which a Canadian federal employee has been charged for illegal activities in relation to companies or entities in China.

On Dec. 8, the RCMP charged Wanping Zheng, a former engineer at the Canadian Space Agency, with breach of trust for acting outside of his duties at the federal agency in an effort to help a Chinese aerospace company negotiate a deal with Iceland on installing satellite station facilities.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has repeatedly warned about espionage activities by foreign actors, particularly China and Russia.

In recent years, Canadas allies have also become increasingly concerned about China stealing critical government or commercial intelligence through compromised professionals, such as those recruited by the communist regimes Thousand Talents Plan, a state-run program aimed at attracting global experts to China to obtain cutting-edge technologies developed by foreign countries.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) meets with his staff in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 2, 2019. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Former Longtime Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson Dies Aged 76

Former Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican who served in the U.S. Senate from 2005 to 2019, has died at the age of 76.

Isakson, who had been battling Parkinsons disease, passed away on Sunday just days before his 77th birthday, according to the official Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

His death was confirmed by The Isakson Initiative, which he founded to raise awareness and funding for research relating to neurocognitive diseases including Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and related dementia.

In a statement, The Isakson Initiative said Isaksons family is grateful for the prayers and support and that funeral arrangements will be shared once they have been finalized.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement Sunday that the state has lost a giant and remembered Isakson as one of its greatest statesmen, and a servant leader dedicated to making his state and country better than he found it.

Johnny Isakson personified what it means to be a Georgian. Johnny was also a dear friend to Marty, the girls, and meas he was to so many, he said. He answered the call to public service many times over his career as a state legislator, minority leader in the Georgia House, chair of the State Board of Education, congressman, and finally as senator.

Isakson was born in Atlanta, Fulton County, on Dec. 28, 1944, and graduated from the University of Georgia, Athens, in 1966 before serving in the Georgia Air National Guard between 1966 to 1972.

Between 1976 and 1990, he was a member of the Georgia state General Assembly, and ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Georgia in 1990. He was also chair of Georgias Board of Education from 1996.

The Republican lawmaker served in the U.S. Senate from 2005 to 2019 and previously served in the House from 1999 to 2005.

Isakson was best known for legislation including the No Child Left Behind Act and his work on immigration policy, Department of Veterans Affairs reform, and health care.

Isakson announced he was retiring from the Senate on Dec. 31, 2019, in the middle of his term, due to health problems. At the time, he had recently had surgery to remove a growth on his kidney and was still recovering from a fall in July that fractured four ribs, as well as battling progressive Parkinsons disease.

I am leaving a job I love because my health challenges are taking their toll on me, my family, and my staff, Isakson said at the time. With the mounting health challenges I am facing, I have concluded that I will not be able to do the job over the long term in the manner the citizens of Georgia deserve. It goes against every fiber of my being to leave in the middle of my Senate term, but I know its the right thing to do on behalf of my state.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) in a January 2018 file photograph. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), in a file photograph, will retire at the end of 2019, he announced on Aug. 28, 2019. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)

Sen, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Isakson was one of the most decent human beings I ever had the pleasure of knowing.

His career was one of public service, not self-service. Georgia has lost a favorite son and our country has lost a true patriot. My heart is with his family and everyone who loved him, Manchin wrote on Twitter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called Isakson one of my very best friends in the Senate and a first-rate legislator and a man of the highest integrity. Elsewhere, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter, One of the many fine adjectives to describe Johnny Isakson is a word not used enough in the halls of Congress these days: kind. Johnny is both a diligent & thoughtful legislator. Independent of any party or politics, everyone will miss him as he announces his retirement, Schumer said. President Joe Biden also offered his condolences, referring to Isakson as the distinguished former United States Representative and Senator from Georgia who was a proud Republican. Senator Isakson was a colleague and a friend. We served together on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, traveled together, and found common ground built on mutual respect for each other and the institutions that govern our nation, Biden said in an announcement. Johnny Isakson was a patriot and a gentleman. Georgia has lost an indispensable son. America has lost an exemplary leader. Our prayers are with Dianne and the entire Isakson family, Biden said.
Greening the Financial System

The Federal Reserve, soon after the November 2020 presidential election, declared climate change a potential threat to the U.S. financial system, joining a club of central banks that seek to mobilize more capital for green energy.

The Biden administration and top Fed officials announced their plans to introduce regulations to address climate-related financial risks, saying they believe banks are vulnerable to the impacts of wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

But a staff study by the New York Federal Reserve Bank shows that climate has almost no impact on banks.

The paper published in November analyzes risks posed by severe weather conditions to the nations banks and financial system. The title of the report asks, How Bad Are Weather Disasters for Banks?

Not very, say the authors of the report in the first sentence of the abstract.

We find that weather disasters over the last quarter century had insignificant or small effects on U.S. banks performance, three economists wrote, crushing the arguments made by activist investors, bankers, and politicians.

The researchers studied thousands of FEMA-level disasters from 1995 to 2018. They looked at all weather events that were destructive enough for a Governor to formally request federal aid from the president. They also collected bank data over the same period to see how large and small banks fared against these disasters.

Disasters increase loan demand, which offsets losses and actually boosts profits at larger banks, the researchers wrote. Local banks tend to avoid mortgage lending where floods are more common than official flood maps would predict, suggesting that local knowledge may also mitigate disaster impacts.

They also found that FEMA aid didnt explain banks resilience to disasters.

Regulators around the world are racing to implement models to measure the financial risk arising from climate change. Central banks including the Fed seek to implement climate stress tests of banks.

But the staff report goes against the narrative that climate crisis is a systemic risk for financial stability.

This is a courageous paper to write, and to write so clearly, says John Cochrane, an economist at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who has been a strong critic of plans to include the Fed in a global push to cut emissions.

The fantasy of climate risks to the financial system is passed around and around in order to justify using financial regulation to implement this Administrations climate policies, he wrote in a recent blog.

Critics argue that using financial supervision as a back door to achieve climate policy objectives is against the central banks policy of independence. They say that the administration and the regulators seek to politicize access to capital by choking off bank financing for sectors they disapprove of, such as coal, oil, and gas.

Hence, the real risk to banks and financial system comes from the climate policies, not climate change, they argue.

Documenting that this particular emperor has no clothes takes great courage, Cochrane says.

Some investors, bankers, and policymakers, however, believe that the relationship between the financial sector and the climate crisis is often overlooked. In recent years, top investment banks and hedge funds have begun to put environmental sustainability at the center of their business plans.

Climate change is an emerging and increasing threat to Americas financial system that requires action, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said recently.

In its annual report to Congress this year, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of financial regulators led by Yellen, identified climate change as a priority for addressing threats to U.S. financial stability for the first time.

The regulators group financial risks facing banks into two broad categories: physical risks and transition risks. Physical risks refer to costs that arise from extreme weather events such as floods and wildfires. Transition risks are the ones that arise from policy changes in the process of moving toward a low-carbon economy.

However, developing scenario analysis tools to model climate-related financial risks is still in its infancy. Theres a lack of consensus among experts around the world on how to develop these tools. And, as the New York Fed study shows, there isnt enough data to support the arguments that climate change hurts bank profits.

Hence, the study may be revealing an internal fight among policymakers as to whether or not the U.S. central bank should get into the business of addressing climate change.
Election workers verify and count ballots at the Denver Elections Division building on Nov. 3, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (CHET STRANGE/AFP via Getty Images)

Group Sues Colorado Secretary of State for Illegally Withholding Voter Data

A good-government group is suing Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in federal court for refusing to allow the inspection of voter list maintenance records as required by federal law.

Griswold, a Democrat, is refusing to allow the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) access to voter list maintenance documents, including data that Colorado receives from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

Griswold says her agencys contract with ERIC prohibits the release of the data that ERIC provides to member states. ERIC, a nonprofit that describes its mission as assisting states to improve the accuracy of Americas voter rolls and increase access to voter registration for all eligible citizens, was created in 2012 with assistance from The Pew Charitable Trusts, a left-wing philanthropy.

Griswold also claims Colorado cant hand over the records because of the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act and other laws governing the Social Security death record database. Colorados membership agreement with ERIC, she claims, also prohibits member states from disclosing records that are public documents under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.

Colorado, 30 states, and the District of Columbia outsource the maintenance of their voter rolls to ERIC. ERIC regularly provides the Colorado Secretary of States office with reports showing which registered voters are no longer eligible because they have died or relocated. The NVRA provides that all records used to add or remove voters are public records, yet Griswold denied a groups request to inspect the reports ERIC provides to the state.

Colorado is hiding voter list maintenance documents the public is legally entitled to, said PILF President J. Christian Adams in a statement.

Elections must be free and transparent for Americans to trust their results. Secretary Griswold and ERIC are blocking transparency and violating federal law, said Adams, a former U.S. Justice Department civil rights attorney.

ERIC also has critics on the political left, as The Epoch Times previously reported.

Liberal journalist Greg Palast has likened ERIC to Jim Crow, a set of post-Civil War state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Barbara Arnwine, former executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, reportedly said, ERIC should be called ERROR because its that erroneous and that full of flaws.

The lawsuit, PILF v. Griswold, was filed on Dec. 16 with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Griswold is being sued in her official capacity.

On Aug. 20, PILF notified Griswold that she was in violation of the NVRA for failure to permit inspection of voter list maintenance records as required by 52 U.S.C. Section 20507(i), according to the 14-page legal complaint filed with the court.

On Nov. 18, Griswold notified PILF that she wouldnt be complying with the groups requests, the complaint states.

Indianapolis-based PILF describes itself as the nations only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity, saying that it exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections.

PILF said in the complaint that it utilizes the NVRAs Public Disclosure Provision and state and federal open records laws that require government records be made available to the public. Using records and data compiled through these open records laws, the Foundation analyzes the programs and activities of state and local election officials in order to determine whether lawful efforts are being made to keep voter rolls current and accurate in accordance with federal and state law, and to determine whether eligible registrants have been improperly removed from voter rolls. The Foundation also uses records and data to produce and disseminate reports, articles, blog and social media posts, and newsletters in order to advance the public education aspect of its organizational mission.

Griswold and the Electronic Registration Information Center didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.
Group Threatens Legal Action Against Newport-Mesa Unified on ADL Training

Some concerned parents and community leaders of Newport-Mesa Unified School District are seeking possible legal action to obtain teacher and student leader anti-bias training materials developed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) after a public records request for the materials was denied.

The issue of the materials came to light for some during so-called task force meetings for district officials, parents, and community members that began shortly after a student posted on Instagram a Nazi symbol crafted out of cups at a party in the spring of 2019.

As a result, the school district hired the ADL to create anti-Semitic activities for its students and to oversee the training of its teachers and student leaders in implicit bias, meaning unconscious stereotypes toward races.

Former school board member Wendy Leece and other parents requested the training materials through a public records request. But district officials denied their request, saying the materials were proprietary and only for the use of teachers and student leaders.

We tried to stop the training, but we were unsuccessful, Leece told The Epoch Times.

Students and parents arrive masked for the first day of the school year at Grant Elementary School in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

After several attempts to receive the ADL training materials, community member Bill Dunlap persuaded the ADL to offer a session for parents and others about their content.

That meeting, which occurred in mid-November, however, didnt provide the extensiveness of information on the materials, like what teachers had received, according to Dunlap, who says he is equally concerned about the creeping in of critical race theory (CRT), which argues that society is divided into oppressors and the oppressed based on race.

We all thought that ADL was about antisemitism, Dunlap told The Epoch Times. We didnt know that it had broadened its vision, its scope, to bring in CRT.

During their training, parents and community members received worksheets asking for them to write down personal qualities based on their race and privilege, according to Dunlap.

Other materials covered included examples of racial profiling.

Participants in the Zoom meeting submitted questions regarding the training that were never answered, Dunlap said.

Despite the information session by the ADL, community members said theyre dissatisfied with the content they received and want more answers.

A hallway with social distance decal reminders at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles on April 27, 2021. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

Dunlap, Leece, and others said theyre now working with the Pacific Justice Institute, a public affairs legal group, to unravel the hidden materials.

Its outrageous that they signed a contract that said the materials are proprietary in the public arena. That is so blatantly a lack of transparency, Dunlap said. We are going to start communicating with the board and the superintendent and we are going to offer a resolution to stop any CRT training, and we believe the ADL training is CRT based.

The divide shows a split between parents, community members, and the teachers that instruct children.

During a board meeting in Augustwhen the district renewed its contract for this school year with the ADLmany teachers voiced their support.

Michael Halt, principal at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa spoke in favor of the ADLs training saying it brought a deeper understanding of the schools minority challenges that have been highlighted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weve been able to get a better glimpse and understanding of some of those challenges that our students face because of the increased awareness that weve been through these last months together, Halt said. That increased awareness will be lost if its not coupled with increased understanding and increased training.

Sean Boulton, principal of Newport Harbor High School, also voiced his approval of the training that he said has been phenomenal to the community.

Whether its anti-Semitism, racism, or hate, its been called out by our leaders on campus, Boulton said.

According to Dunlap, however, one key district official has indicated ADLs contract will not be renewed for the next school year, which The Epoch Times could not confirm.

The school district didnt respond to a request for comment for this story or to confirm its plans with ADL past the 20212022 school year.
Guided by Trump Hatred, Opposition Must Now Answer for Its Improprieties

Commentary

The year ends in Washington amid immense contumely. The Democrats continue monotonously on the one theme they have had these five yearsTrump-hate, and they are now serving up that tired dish from a pre-confected misstatement of the former presidents views of the trespass and vandalism at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Its as odious and defamatory as their prolonged insistence upon a conspiracy between Trump and the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. This endless presentation of Trump as a threat to democracy must be in its last lap. Even the former presidents more fervent admirers have often been appalled at his stylistic shortcomings, but not a whit of evidence has been adduced that his conduct has ever been illegal.

The real problem is that his opponents, in their desperation to be rid of him, so severe was his assault upon the complacent bipartisan and political establishment in Washington, that they have committed a sequence of grievous improprieties themselves.

And instead of enjoying the advantages of opposition, they must now try to justify their misconduct in elevating what is already clearly one of the very most dangerously incompetent administrations in American history, bearing comparison only with those of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan that led directly to the Civil War.

What has really shaken American public life almost to its foundations is the sequence of five events: Donald Trump recognized when few others did the level of discontent in the traditional working and middle classes of white America and he mobilized the radical center of American opinion, which felt discriminated against in favor of a vast class of privileged yuppies and Clintonian and Obaman and parvenus.

Trump was attacking the liberal Republicans of the Bush-McCain-Romney wing of the post-Reagan Republicans as harshly as he was the Clinton and Obama Democrats. The near-unification of Democrats and traditional Republicans in opposition to Trump and his supporters assured not only a profound division in the country, but committed the hitherto complacent bipartisan political class to a no-holds-barred assault on Trump.

This was so vehement that it was almost certain to cross unacceptable legal barriers. Trump had changed parties seven times in 13 years, polling diligently and watching the ranks of those who would be susceptible to his populist appeal grow steadily. When he finally made his move, the consequences were bound to be very divisive.

His victory was so unexpected and his political methods were so uncompromisingly confrontational, it was widely believed by his astonished opponentseither genuinely or as a tactical pretensethat Trump was a lawless figure capable of almost any level of chicanery and that he only won the election by colluding with the Russian government to saturate key parts of America with partisan internet activity.

This was a complete fabrication, although it was legitimized by the corroborative opinions of the former directors of the CIA and national intelligence agencies and the antlike maneuvering of the director of the FBI and a number of his senior colleagues.

As soon as a silver stake was driven through the heart of this immense falsehood, the anti-Trump forces came snorting out of the undergrowth, claiming the telephone call in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine to find out what was the true story of the Biden familys financial involvement in that country was an unconstitutional attempt to solicit foreign intervention in U.S. presidential electionalmost exactly what they had just failed to prove in the mighty smear job sustained by 95 percent of the political media over the Trump-Russian collusion nonsense.

What followed was the sequence of four actions that placed almost unprecedented pressure on the ability of the American federal system to function effectively. Stirred to an extreme determination to repel the Trump offensive and reestablish their control of the federal government, the bipartisan political establishment collaborated, presumably more or less informally, in a series of steps designed to extirpate Trump and Trumpism.

The Democrats and their media allies seized at once on the political potential of the coronavirus. There was approximately one week of arm-in-arm trans-party solidarity when everyone was in this together, following which Trump was mercilessly accused of being anti-science, and insensitive to the suffering of the victims.

First, the Democrats, in the declared interest of making it easier for voters to exercise their franchise with the least possible concern about contracting the COVID virus while doing so, focused on six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and effected extensions of voting times and the admission of ballot harvesting, in which ballots would be sent to everyone on the voters list regardless of likely obsolescence of the list, and could be cast with unverifiable accuracy by anyone who produced such a ballot signed by an ostensible voter.

In most cases, the alterations to voting and vote-counting methods in the states werent made by the state legislatures as the Constitution requires, but were decreed on the authority of Democratic governors, or adopted in settlements of lawsuits between the parties within the states. Having been adopted by a questionable method or not, the changes were upheld by state courts, generally reliable in partisan terms to sustain the initiatives of the party that appointed the majority of the judges.

Second, new rules were invoked, in some cases, observers were expelled, in others, the harvested ballots were simply mixed in with conventional ballots and it became impossible to judge the likelihood of any individual ballot to be genuine. All the measures necessary to flip the fewer than 50,000 votes necessary to win the election were taken to ensure that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, won at least Pennsylvania and two of the other swing states, assuring his election. (He won all six, and all but Michigan by a combined plurality of less than 153,000 out of about 20 million votes cast in those states. A flip of 46,000 between Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania out of 15.3 million in those states, less than a third of 1 percent, would have given it to Trump.)

The desired result having been obtained, the third step was that the co-equal judicial branch of the U.S. government simply abdicated the responsibility of adjudicating the legality of these measures. As usual, Trump didnt help himself by his hyperbole: He didnt, as he claimed, win the popular vote, and having predicted the dangers of ballot harvesting, had inadequate forces on the ground to protect Republican votes, and no plausible legal team to attack the measures by which these drastic changes in the voting and vote-counting systems had been adopted.

None of the constitutional arguments was judged on its merits; all were rejected on process grounds. The Supreme Court of the United States, seized of a case from Texas and supported by 18 other states against the designated swing states for unconstitutional alterations of voting and vote-counting rules and failure to adhere to the constitutional requirement of fair elections, declared its legal incapacity to rule.

It was a shameful abdication, which was then compounded by an almost total media assertion that the Trump forces had no grounds to object to the outcome of the election. This, too, is shameful. With more than 40 million harvested ballots and such a close election, no one knows who won. The anti-Trump forces had their way but a majority of Americans doubt the legitimacy of the outcome of the election and a majority have a low opinion of all branches of government and of the media.

The only way for the Democrats to work their way out of this dangerous position was to have elected a successful administration. As the whole world can see, this administrations failure in almost every field, the only way left to resolve the present divisions in the country is to evict the administration at the polls and replace it with legislators and an executive who will restore the integrity of the electoral process.

It will happen, but these next three years will be painful and embarrassing.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Hong Kongs Slide Into Darkness

Hong Kongs democracy disappears as Beijing tightens the screws on the city

Commentary

Hong Kong tastes the bitter fruit of Chinas whole-process peoples democracy. The transition of Hong Kongs democracy into a Chinese-run nightmare is painful to watch.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is in the midst of being completely absorbed into communist Chinas political systemdespite the promises made by Beijing in 1997 that the city would be allowed to maintain its political autonomy for 50 years under a one country, two systems framework.

Throughout the 1990s to the present, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been redefining the meaning of that framework in order to implement lawful communist political and social controls over Hong Kong. The framework concepts were captured in the Basic Law, which was approved by Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress (NPC), in 1990, to include guarantees of a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong.

All those high-minded promises made by Beijing were tossed in the trash in the summer of 2020, when the CCP bypassed Hong Kongs own legislative process to implement new draconian national security legislation.

In retrospect, the Basic Law was part of the CCPs long-term plan to exert complete political control over the HKSAR, as it included an article requiring the passage of the national security legislation applicable to Hong Kong.

From Article 23 of the 1990 Basic Law: [HKSAR] shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central Peoples Government  and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

The highlighted words are eerily similar to a summary of the main provisions in the new national security law that was passed by the NPC last June: The law, passed in Chinas Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress (NPCSC), includes 66 articles and covers four areas of criminal activity: secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign or external forces. Those convicted of such crimes face maximum sentences of life imprisonment.

In effect, the 1990 Basic Law laid the foundation for passage of the key provisions of the national security law in 2020those dealing with the ability to coerce and control Hong Kong citizens and political activities based on CCP-defined prohibitions. It was imposed by the NPCSC without input from the residents of HKSAR or their locally elected representatives. As further evidence of the farce, the NPC voted 2,878-to-1 to produce the new law. The law was always in the cards because it was a major objective in Beijings long-term plans to intimidate and control anyone deemed to be a threat to the CCPs interests.

The national security law has given HKSAR police sweeping new powers, including the ability to conduct warrant-free raids.

Here is a chronology of some of the shocking actions that have been taken under the law over the past 16 months:

Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is led into a police van as he heads to court to be charged under the Beijing-imposed national security law on Dec. 12, 2020. (Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

As indicated by the final point, the legal threat to Hong Kong citizens posed by the national security law also was a key backdrop for the patriotsonly election on Dec. 19, the first to be held there since the law was implemented last year. The election shaped up to be the typical rubber-stamped CCP-run farce that is no different from any held in the peoples congresses of townships, towns, districts, and counties in communist China, as the only candidates on the election slates are CCP-approved.

The pro-democracy proponents of Hong Kongs Legislative Council are getting a firsthand experience of what whole-process peoples democracy really meanswhich doesnt square with the platitudes of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as previously reported.

The stakes were high for the communists in the election, as a low turnout would torpedo the CCPs propaganda campaign leading up to the election, claiming that Hongkongers have great confidence in candidates abilities, as bleated out by state-run media China Daily on Dec. 18. China Daily also announced that 10,000 Hong Kong police would be deployed to polling places to maintain order.

Quoting the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, The Wall Street Journal opined that election turnout could be as low as 30 percent. And that prediction proved prescient, as Reuters reported that turnout was a record low of 30.2 percent. Apparently, Hongkongers arent enamored with the CCPs whole-process peoples democracy. The election, in any event, is the culmination of the CCPs grand plan to exert full political control over Hong Kong.

Other enclaves of overseas Chinese are in the sights of the CCP, too, once Hong Kong has been subdued. Whats frightening is that the national security law allows Beijing to pursue anyone deemed subversive, including overseas Chinese and even foreigners.

According to The Dallas Morning News: The law includes provisions criminalizing offences committed not only in Hong Kong, but by anyone, anywhere around the globe. According to a December report submitted to Congress by the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission, Left unchecked, the law could grant the Chinese government broad power to censor global discourse.

Conclusion

The absorption of Hong Kong into Beijings political empire is now in its final stages, following the Dec. 19 rubber-stamp election of a CCP-approved slate of candidates. The record low voter turnout puts the lie to the CCPs whole-process peoples democracy.

The lessons learned during the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong will almost certainly be applied to Taiwan if Taipei ever capitulates to Beijings threats and intimidation. Is Hong Kongs present experience with whole-process peoples democracy a portent of Taiwans future?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Huawei Bypassing US Sanctions by Collaborating With Chinese Smartphone Partners

Chinese telecom firm Huawei has turned to partnerships with Chinese companies to bypass U.S. sanctions that have crippled Huaweis smartphone business.

Once briefly the top smartphone maker in the world, Huawei has been in survival mode since Washington slapped sanctions on the company more than two years ago. The Trump administration said the firm posed a national security threat due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Its smartphone business took the biggest beating after then-President Donald Trump in 2020 barred its access to critical U.S.-origin technologyincluding key computer chips needed to power its devices. The company is now largely shut out of the global smartphone market, and its domestic business is hurting as well.

Eric Xu, Huaweis rotating chairman, said in September that the firms smartphone revenue could drop as much as $40 billionor about 80 percentthis year, with new growth streams unlikely to make up for this shortfall in the near future.

To stave off this hemorrhaging, the firm is diversifying to other areas from smart mining to electric vehicles. But in a bid to salvage its smartphone business, it has also found ways to bypass U.S. sanctions, namely by licensing its handset designs to Chinese third parties to thereby gain access to critical U.S. chips.

Partnerships

In early November, Huawei unveiled its first 5G smartphone on its official website, a device branded under TD Tech Ltd., a Chinese telecom equipment maker, named TD Tech N8 Pro. The phone is essentially a copy of the Huawei Nova 8 Pro, which was launched last year. The only difference is that the TD Tech device supports 5Gsomething few Huawei smartphones offer as a result of U.S. sanctions.

The listing was pulled from Huaweis website within a week as well as from its online stories on Chinese e-commerce sites, including JD.com, Alibaba.com, and Suning.com.

According to a Nov. 16 article by NetEast, a Chinese news portal, an unnamed TD Tech staff member confirmed that the company purchases hardware from Huawei and brands the phone under its own name. It is currently selling the smartphone to business customers, but will sell it directly to consumers on their JD.com story by the end of the year, the staff member added.

TD Tech is also due to release another rebadged Huawei phone called TD Tech 5G M40, essentially Huaweis Mate 40E, as well as a suite of other Huawei products from smartwatches to tablets, according to Chinese media reports.

TD Tech, which has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu cities, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TD Tech Holding Limited, a Hong Kong-registered company. TD Tech Holding was founded by Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks in September 2003. As of 2010, Huawei held 49 percent of the companys shares, while Nokia Siemens held the remaining 51 percent, according to a post on TD Techs website at the time. It is unclear whether this ownership structure has changed since then.

TD Techs links to Huawei extend to personnel.

The director of TD Tech Holding is Eric Xu, Huaweis rotating chairman, according to November reports from Chinese and Hong Kong media. He is also a member of the companys board, the reports said.

Meanwhile, TD Techs general manager and legal representative is Dong Biao, a veteran Huawei senior manager, according to Qichacha, a Chinese company database.

Dengs resume posted on the Huawei website shows he joined the company in 1996. Since then hes headed a range of divisions from telecommunications software and core network business to quality control. Its unclear if Deng still works at Huawei.

Honor

In November 2020, Huawei sold its Honor budget smartphone business to a consortium led by a state-owned company in Shenzhen, a move quarantining the operation from U.S. sanctions. Unlike Huawei, Honor is able to buy high-end 5G chips from suppliers including U.S.-based Qualcomm and Taiwan-based MediaKit.

Honor has since shot up to rank number three in Chinas domestic smartphone market, with a 15 percent share in the third quarter of this year, according to counterpoint research. Its fortunes contrast with that of Huawei. The company, which at its peak held 46 percent of the market, accounted for only around 8 percent in the third quarter.

Huawei said at the time of the sale that it wouldnt hold any shares or be involved in the management or decision-making of the new company, called Shenzhen Zhixinxin Information Technology. But the companys board and senior management feature many former Huawei staff.

According to Chinese media reports, Huawei moved managers from its other businesses to lead the new firm.

Five of Zhixinxins six board members are veteran Huawei employees. The chair, Wan Biao, was previously a member of Huaweis board and headed Huaweis consumer business immediately before moving to the new company. Wan is experienced in building supply chains and joined the firm to build up this area, Chinese media reported.

The other four Zhixinxin board members from Huawei are Zhao Ming, the former president of Huaweis Honor business, Fang Fei, a former production line vice president, Li Shanlin, a former vice president of human resources, and Peng Qiuen, a former chief financial officer. Zhao is also the CEO of the new company, according to Chinese media reports.

Yang Jian, a former director of Huaweis retail business for the China region, also took the position of Honors retail manager, according to Chinese media.

Huawei also moved over 6,000 employees from its smartphone business to Honor, Chinese media reports said.

Mobile Carriers

Huawei has also collaborated with several Chinese mobile carriers to launch 5G smartphones, branded under the carrier. Some of these models contain 5G chips from Qualcomm and MediaKit, both banned from supplying to Huawei.

China Telecom in July a 5G smartphone under its Maimang series, which used to be a collaboration between China Telecom and Huawei. But China Telecom said on Weibo, the countrys Twitter-like platform, the brand is run solely by the carrier, though it did not reveal its manufacturer. Though on webpages selling the phone list Huawei as the provider of after-sale service.

China Mobile in June launched a series of 5G smartphones under the NZONE brand. The models use 5G chips from Mediatek, and are designed and manufactured by Huawei, the company said at the time. Also in June, China Unicom launched a 5G phone under its U-Magic label, which shares similarities in design with Huaweis Enjoy series.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Huawei, TD Tech, Honor, China Telecom and China Unicom for comment.
A file image of an Indian employee works at the electronics factory at Jhajjar in Haryana on Dec. 12, 2012. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)

India Sets Sights to Become Global Electronics Manufacturing Hub With $10 Billion Incentive Scheme

The Indian government on Dec. 15 approved a 760 billion rupee ($10 billion) incentive scheme for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystems, with the goal of positioning India as a global electronics manufacturing hub.

The program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design, the government said in a statement.

India earlier approved incentive support worth 570 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) for large-scale electronics manufacturing and a 988 billion rupee ($13 billion) incentive scheme for allied sectors in manufacturing such as advanced batteries, auto components, telecom, and networking products.

Taking into account the governments recent incentive approval, India has allocated a total of 2 trillion rupees ($30 billion) for electronics manufacturing.

The program will promote higher domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing and will contribute significantly to achieving a $1 trillion digital economy and a $5 trillion [Gross Domestic Product] by 2025, it stated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via Twitter that the latest incentives scheme will encourage research and innovation in the sector and is expected to strengthen the dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, which refers to Indias economic self-reliance.

Indian minister for electronics and information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that Modis Union Cabinet has made a historic decision to approve the semiconductor development incentive, placing India in the league of strong manufacturing nations.

Me and my team had been working tirelessly in this [semiconductor] project for months now, and we expect the first set of announcementson compound semiconductor manufacturingto be made in the next three-four months, Vaishnaw told reporters, reported Times Of India.

The minister noted that India is expecting an investment of around 1.7 trillion rupees (US$22 billion) in the next four years and that the government plans to develop a talent pool of 85,000 highly talented engineers through the program.

The Indian government has been negotiating with Taiwan for a free-trade agreement and the setting up of a linked semiconductor manufacturing hub in India, according to state media Hindustan Times on Dec. 16, citing people familiar with the matter.

India has proposed several sites for Taiwan to set up one of its semiconductor giants, but they have yet to finalize a decision, sources said, adding that Taiwan has also planned to open a representative office in Mumbai to boost its free-trade agreement with India.

However, one of the sources claimed that setting up a hub for Taiwans semiconductor giants, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and the United Microelectronics Corporation, might be a complicated process as their components come from various firms.
Passengers arrive to Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, east of Tel Aviv, on Nov. 28, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel Adds US, Canada, 8 Others to CCP Virus Red List Amid Omicron Concerns

The Israeli government on Monday agreed to add the United States and nine other nations to the list of red countries amid concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant of the CCP virus.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a Dec. 20 press release that government officials had approved in a telephone vote to ban all non-essential travel to 10 countries in total.

Besides the United States, countries defined by Israel as red countries include Canada, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, and Turkey.

The cabinet ministers have now approved  the expansion of the list of red countries in accordance with the recommendation of the Health Ministry State Classification Committee pursuant to a discussion that was held yesterday at the Cabinet meeting, Bennetts office said.

A Health Ministry advisory committee recommended on Dec. 19 that Israel should add the United States to the list of red countries to which its citizens cannot fly without special permission.

The order will go into effect the night between Dec. 21 and Dec. 22 (05:00 ET).

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (2-L) and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman (L), attend a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, on Dec. 19, 2021. (Abir Sultan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

After this time, Israelis will be barred from traveling to and from destinations added to the COVID-19 red list while returning travelers will be required to undergo a 3-to 14-day quarantine.

This government did a major thing when it made a quick and strong decision around three weeks ago to restrict entry to Israel and greatly delayed the entry of the variant to Israel, Bennetts office said in a separate statement.

In the first response to Omicronwhich was first detected in South Africa last monthIsrael banned the entry of foreigners on Nov. 25 and also imposed a quarantine order for Israelis returning from abroad.

We bought precious time for the State of Israel and we delayed the Omicron by at least three weeks, Bennett said, adding that this time is now running out and it is simply not enough.

Its possible to say that the fifth wave has begun, he added.

Israel has logged 134 confirmed Omicron cases and another 307 suspected cases, the health ministry said. Of these, 167 were symptomatic, it added.

According to official figures, 6,458,390 Israelis have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 5,836,453 have had two doses, and 4,162,128 have had three, representing more than 70 percent of the population.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Thousands of Donald Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Jan. 6 Is Looking Like a Fedsurrection

Commentary

Things are always worse than they seem.

That seems to be a good rule of thumb these days.

Take the FBI.

Every sentient person knows that the bureau has had a rough couple of years.

The Russia collusion hoax revealed an agency shot through with corruption and partisan bias.

But the rot goes far beyond the large handful of top bureau bad hats: the James Comeys, the Andrew McCabes, the Peter Strzoks, the Kevin Clinesmiths.

It also goes back far beyond the election of 2016.

Holman Jenkins, writing in The Wall Street Journal, lists a handful of the many shocking instances in which the agency was hip deep in corruption, incompetence, or some combination of the two.

His conclusion? Abolish the FBI.

By now, Jenkins writes, after its performance in the 2016 election, the evidence might seem conclusive that the agency is a failed experiment, however able and dedicated many of its agents.  The agency should be scrapped and something new built to replace it.

This is a conclusion echoed by the storied civil-rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate.

Writing in The Boston Globe, Silverglate notes that the corruption of the FBI is too deeply embedded for effective reform.

The best solution, he concludes, is to abolish the FBI and start anew. We need to rethink the kind of agency needed to investigate federal crimes.

But perhaps the most shocking litany of rot at the FBI has been compiled by Darren Beattie at Revolver News, whose latest story revolves around Ray Epps, a Phoenix-based professional provocateur and, apparently, FBI asset.

Epps was originally near the top of the FBIs list of most wanted figures from the Jan. 6 protest-cum-riot at the Capitol.

Then a funny thing happened.

Eppss name was purged from the FBI files.

Some 700 people have been arrested for their part in the Jan. 6 demonstration.

But Epps and a handful of other major players in that drama remain unindicted.

Indeed, although the FBI surely knows their identity, they remain nameless to the public, known only through amateur video footage of the event.

Hence their colorful soubriquets: ScaffoldCommander, FenceCutterBulwark, BlackSkiMask, and so on.

Beattie shows that what the media label an insurrection is almost certainly better described as a Fedsurrection.

And when I say shows, I mean shows.

His long essay doesnt just describe what happened. Its punctuated by scores of photos and video clips that prove the accuracy of what he describes.

We dont know with 100 percent certainty that the figures who organized and orchestrated the breach of the Capitol did so at the instigation of federal authorities.

But it sure looks that way.

Beattie takes us step by step from the moment on Jan. 5 when Epps whipped up a crowd and told them, over vocal objections from various demonstrators, that they were going to the Capitol the next day.

Beattie shows how other actors calmly removed fences and signage on Jan. 6, clearing a path for the protesters, who were carefully funneled through that one walkway up to the Capitol.

Okay were in! shouted the man known as Scaffold Commander, so-called because he was perched, megaphone in hand, atop a tall tower overlooking the Capitol complex.

Were in! he shouted. Come on! We gotta fill up the Capitol! Come on! Come now! We need help. We gotta fill up the Capitol! They got in.

Will coincidences never end? The blue and white megaphone he was using was identical to the blue and white megaphones used by other people directing the crowd.

Beattie isnt the only person to notice the oddity of it all. This Twitter thread, published the day after the event: What happened yesterday was not as it seemed.

Indeed.

What makes the ScaffoldCommander-Ray Epps affair complete, Beattie noted, is that they appeared to work in tandem from start to finish the entire day on 1/6.

Both set up positions at the initial 12:50 p.m. Big Bang breach site, and they did so before the Proud Boys arrived.

The official story, you will recall, says that the Proud Boys group caused the riot.

But they didnt.

A review of the video footage shows a handful of main players that day.

None have been indicted.

Why?

The simplest explanation is that the people who took down the fences and the restricted area signs, who loudly directed the crowd into the Capitol, were federal assets.

Beattie is right.

If Ray Epps was acting on instructions from a government handler from any federal agency (FBI, ATF, Pentagon, DHS, DEA, anything), we now are talking about perhaps the single most egregious caught-on-camera intelligence operation in our lifetimes.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa reacts as he speaks with his family after donning space suits shortly before the launch to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Dec. 8, 2021. (Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo/Reuters)

Japanese Billionaire Returns to Earth After Spending 12 Days in Space

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and two fellow space travelers have safely returned to Earth on Monday as their Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed on the Kazakh steppe.

Meazawa, a 46-year-old fashion tycoon, spent 12 days on the International Space Station with his assistant Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

The trio reportedly landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:13 a.m. local time, some 92 miles (148 kilometers) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, in snowy weather.

This morning, December 20, 2021, the descent vehicle of the Soyuz MS-20 manned spacecraft, which undocked three hours earlier from the International Space Station, landed at a design point in Kazakhstan, Russian space agency Rosmoscos said in a statement.

Rosmoscos also shared a video on its website showing the Russian recovery team reaching the landing site in all-terrain vehicles, helping Maezawa and Hirano out of the spacecraft.

All three of them underwent a medical check-up and were feeling well, Roscosmos stated.

The trio blasted off to the International Space Station at 12:38 p.m. on Dec. 8. Maezawa and his 36-year-old producer, Hirano, were the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009, whilst Misurkin was on his third space mission.

During their 12-day journey in space, Maezawa documented their daily routine in the spacecraft and shared several clips on his YouTube channel showing how he ate Japanese snacks and slept in zero gravity.

In 2018, Maezawa said he would ride SpaceXs Starship with a group of artists free of charge, but in March this year, he made a surprise announcement that he would invite eight people from all walks of life to join him in his mission to space, which is slated to take place in 2023.

It will be 10 to 12 people in all, but I will be inviting eight people to come along on the ride, he said in a YouTube video.

Maezawa explained that his initial plan to invite artists has since evolved as he realized that his definition of an artist was ambiguous, noting that every single person who is doing something creative could be called an artist.

He then launched a Dear Moon website for applicants to pre-register through March 14 this year. Applicants were selected based on two criteria: They must be able to push the envelope to help other people and better society in some way, and are willing to support other crew members who share similar aspirations.

I will pay for the entire journey. I have bought all the seats, so it will be a private ride, Maezawa remarked.

When asked about reports claiming that he paid over $80 million for the 12-day mission, Meazawa said he couldnt disclose the contract sum but admitted that he paid pretty much that amount.

Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company that organized Maezawas flight, previously sent seven other tourists to the space station between 2001 and 2009.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jetstar Asia Flights Between Singapore and Darwin Resume After 2 Year Hiatus

Jetstar Asia will resume its flights between Singapore and Darwin after a two-year pause in travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a media release on Monday the Northern Territory state government, noted that the first scheduled flight to arrive in Darwin from Singapore will touch down at 4.45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, marking the beginning of the Territorys international tourism recovery.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Natasha Fyles said the resumption of services between Darwin and Singapore is vital for tourism, education, and trade.

We welcome the return of Jetstar Asia flights into the Comeback Capital and look forward to seeing our friends in Singapore enjoy what the Territory has to offer, she said.

The Territory Government has worked with the Commonwealth to lead the safe repatriation of Australians throughout the pandemic and we are excited to see an international commercial flight route between Singapore and Darwin return.

Jetstar Asia CEO Bara Pasupathi also said the relaunch of flights between the two destinations was exciting.

We know our customers cant wait to travel again, so it is fantastic to once again offer two-way quarantine-free travel between Singapore and Australias stunning Northern Territory, he said.

Since the launch of our direct service to Darwin in 2008, we have flown more than 1.2 million visitors between the two cities and the Northern Territory remains a must-see destination, offering awe-inspiring natural landscapes less than five hours from Singapore. And in return, we cant wait to welcome Australians back to the Lion City while also providing them access to Jetstar Asias Southeast Asian network.

This comes as new border rules kicked in on Monday, whereby fully-vaccinated visitors to the Territory no longer have to undertake a two-week quarantine period upon arrival, but can travel immediately to any town or community that has a total vaccination rate of over 80 percent, which includes most key tourist destinations such as Uluru, Kings Canyon, and Kakadu.

There are currently 66 communities that are deemed more vulnerable because they have not yet reached an 80 percent full vaccination rate, and these locations will be off-limits to travellers for the first 14 days of their trip.

In addition, travellers to the Territory will still be required to get three PCR tests, the first a negative result within 72 hours prior to entering the Territory, the second a negative result within the first three days of the trip, and the third on day six.

Jetstar Asia flights between Singapore and Darwin will initially operate twice a week.
A child receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Virginia, on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Judge Rules Against San Diego Unified in Student Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit

SAN DIEGOA judge ruled against the San Diego Unified School District Dec. 20 in a lawsuit challenging its vaccine mandate for students.

San Diego Superior Court Judge John Meyer said the districts mandate, which does not permit religious or personal belief exemptions, contradicts state law, because implementing such mandates without exemptions can only be imposed by the state legislature.

Meyer also said that while students are required to receive some vaccinations in order to attend in-person school, adding COVID-19 to the list of required vaccinations without allowing personal belief exemptions is another area that lies only with the state.

Under the districts roadmap, unvaccinated students must take part in remote learning via independent study. By the start of the districts second semester on Jan. 24, unvaccinated students will not be allowed to continue with in-person instruction unless they have an approved medical exemption.

Contrarily, Meyer said that attendance in an independent study program must be voluntary.

The lawsuit which spurred Meyers ruling was filed by local parents group Let Them Choose, an offshoot of Let Them Breathe, which has challenged mask and vaccine mandates at the state and local levels. The group argued in its suit that the district did not have the authority to impose a mandate.

It is unclear whether the school district intends to appeal the order, which comes on the day district students were required to receive their second vaccine dose in order to be considered fully vaccinated and able to attend in-person instruction by the start of the second semester.

In a statement, the school district said it disagreed with Meyers interpretation of the law.

The San Diego Unified School District is disappointed that Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer concluded only the state can act regarding vaccinations, even though the law specifically allows and encourages local vaccination programs, the districts statement read. Even Judge Meyer acknowledged in his ruling that the vaccine mandate appears to be necessary and rational, and the districts desire to protect its students from COVID-19 is commendable.'

In regards to a potential appeal, district officials said SDUSD is considering its options in response to this ruling.

Let Them Breathe founder Sharon McKeeman said the group was thrilled with the ruling.

Judge Meyer agreed with our legal arguments that school districts do not have authority to mandate vaccines, they cannot force students into distance learning, and personal belief exemptions for new vaccines are protected under California State law, McKeeman said in a statement. This decision that school districts do not have authority to require the COVID-19 vaccine echoes statewide, and it shows that parents coming together in a grassroots movement to uphold our childrens rights is powerful and effective.

The districts mandate, which its board approved in September, was also challenged in a separate federal lawsuit filed by a Scripps Ranch High School student and her parents, who sought to block the mandate on religious grounds.

The request was denied by a San Diego federal judge, and the decision was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The students attorneys have since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the case.
Chinese Lawyer Loses License Over Defending Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

The Chinese regime revoked lawyer Liang Xiaojuns lawyer license on Dec. 16 because he was defending Falun Gong practitioners, some of whom have been detained for their beliefs.

You are the director of Beijing Daoheng Law Firm and a professional lawyer. But you publicly denied that Falun Gong is a cult, and kept on supporting Falun Gong, the Beijing Judicial Bureau wrote on the revocation decision.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice consisting of meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It grew in popularity during the 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by the end of the decade, according to estimates at the time.

Deeming this popularity a threat to its authoritarian control, the Chinese regime in 1999 launched a brutal persecution campaign in an attempt to eradicate the peaceful practice.

I had contact with Falun Gong practitioners when I was in China. I could clearly feel that they became more responsible after practice. They pursue the truth, Chen Guangcheng, a well-known Chinese human rights activist and lawyer in exile, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times on Dec. 15, the day after Liangs license was revoked. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) designed the crime for lawyer Liang Xiaojun. It simply created a crime and used it to persecute a lawyer.

Wu Shaoping, a Chinese lawyer in the United States, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 16 that its ironic that the Chinese judicial system revoked Liangs lawyer license for defending Falun Gong.

Neither the Ministry of Public Security, nor any other Chinese government organ released any document naming Falun Gong a cult. How come the Beijing Judicial Bureau had that definition? Wu questioned.

Chinese people sent flowers to human rights lawyer Liang Xiaojun whose lawyer license was revoked, in Beijing, on Dec. 16, 2021. (Liang Xiaojun)

This revoke is a slap in the face of the so-called rule of law in China under this communist regime, Erping Zhang, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center in New York, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 20. This communist regime is violating article 36 of Chinas constitution, which states: Citizens of the Peoples Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.

Zhang said that Liang, a widely respected human rights lawyer, was exercising his constitutional right to defend Falun Gong practitioners in China.

We call upon the international community and people of conscience to speak up against the CCPs human rights violations, Zhang urged.

A Respected Lawyer

Liang obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Hebei Normal University in 1995, and Bachelor of Laws from China University of Political Science and Law in 2000. Since then, he has been a lawyer in Beijing.

In the past more than two decades, Liang represented countless people from vulnerable groups, prisoners of conscience, activists, and petitioners.

Before his license was revoked, Liang was defending Xu Na, a poet, painter, and Falun Gong practitioner in Beijing, and 10 of her fellow practitioners.

Racing with the time! Tried to finish all things before my license is revoked, Liang wrote on Twitter on Dec. 15. On that day, he went to the detention center to meet with Xu and update her about the upcoming revocation. She [Xu] was worried about me, and kept on asking about my status, Liang posted.

Liang was also defending Xu Zhiyong, a prominent Chinese activist and legal scholar who was detained because he kept on pursuing rule of law in China.

Liang once told a reporter from the New York Times in 2016 why he bravely defends dissidents. He said: Peoples rights are being trampled on.  I cant ignore [this].

Liangs defense lawyer, Xie Yanyi, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 14 that the Chinese regime wants to silence human rights lawyers, and doesnt want Liang to be defended.

Beijing Public Legal Service Center refused to let me tenter the hearing in the beginning. We kept on telling the center that the constitution and law gave me the right to enter the hearing. [After about one hour] the center finally allowed me to enter, Xie said.

Liang Xiaojun (C), Xie Yanyi (3rd L), Yang Hui (2nd L), Wang Yu (R), and other Chinese human rights lawyers are in front of the Beijing Public Legal Service Center in Beijing, on Dec. 14, 2021. (Courtesy of Xie Yanyi)

On Dec. 14, Wang Yu, Yang Hui, and several other human rights lawyers went to the hearing to support Liang, but most of them werent allowed to enter the center. Wang said other lawyers and activists couldnt even arrive because of the regimes interference.

Li Dawei from Tianshui city in northwestern Gansu Province was detained when he arrived at the train station. Several lawyers didnt dare to come after they received the warning from the Beijing Judicial Bureau, Wang said.

All our lawyers are shocked [about Liangs license being revoked]. [Liang] Xiaojun is a calm and gentle lawyer. The regime cant even accommodate a lawyer like him! It shows the regime set up a more strict redline, Yang told The Epoch Times.

Yang explained that Liang didnt get emotional with Chinese judicial officials when facing injustice. He always tried to use Chinese laws and rules when he talked to officials. In other words, Liang respected the officials even when they didnt behave in accordance with the laws.

Qiao Qi contributed to this report.
(L-R) Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) speak at a press conference on the Capitol on July 15, 2019. (Holly Kellum/NTD)

Left-Wing Progressives Blast Manchin, Demand Biden Bypass Congress to Advance $1.85 Trillion Spending Bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) started a political firestorm on Sunday after he told Fox News that he would not be supporting President Joe Bidens Build Back Better social spending bill, effectively killing the legislation after months of delays.

Social progressives were especially furious over the announcement.

What Senator Manchin did yesterday represents such an egregious breach of trust of the president, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Joe Scarborough on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a newer face among House progressives, was also furious with Manchins decision.

Joe Manchin is the new Mitch McConnell, Bowman said on Twitter in a jab at the Senate minority leader.

Build Back Better is Bidens core campaign promise, Bowman said in another tweet. We did everything in our power to protect it and keep his/our word.

He added, Biden is trustworthy, Manchin is absolutely not.

Manchins denunciation of the $1.85 trillion bill opened old wounds for social progressives, who had long tried to hold the Manchin-endorsed infrastructure bill hostage in an attempt to force passage of the Build Back Better (BBB) bill. House Progressives have maintained since August that moderates could not be trusted to pass the BBB without progressives holding up the infrastructure bill as leverage.

For reasons that are still somewhat unclearmany negotiations and deals reached over the past several months have been closed-door affairsprogressives relented on this demand, allowing the House leadership to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in November after months of delays.

In that vote, a few progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) joined Republicans, albeit for different reasons, in voting against passing the infrastructure package.

According to Ocasio-Cortez Monday morning, this was the right move, and Democratic leaders made a mistake in allowing the infrastructure bill to advance on its own.

Its an outcome that we had warned about, Ocasio-Cortez told Scarborough, saying that she and others had warned leaders about the need to prepare a contingency plan.

Manchins move to effectively kill the bill, Ocasio-Cortez said, was predictable, and was why progressives had demanded that the BBB and infrastructure bill be linked together.

Of course, we have every right to be furious with Joe Manchin, Ocasio-Cortez said, but its really up to leadership in the Democratic party who made the decision to get us to this juncture and how were gonna move forward.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who is chair of the 96-strong Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and who ultimately supported de-linking the two spending bills, disagrees with Ocasio-Cortezs assessment.

Like others, Jayapal was furious with Manchin.

Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the President and Democrats in Congress but most importantly, to the American people, Jayapal said in a statement on behalf of the CPC.

However, Jayapal disagrees that the de-linkage of the infrastructure bill and the BBB is the primary cause of the Democrats failure to ultimately pass the BBB.

Jayapal admitted, I dont believe [Manchin] wanted to pass Build Back Better. But she said that holding the infrastructure bill hostage would have done little to ameliorate the situation.

Had we not passed the infrastructure bill, that wouldve been the day that the senator said [BBB] is done,' Jayapal argued. We wouldve still ended up in the same place.

Failure of BBB Prompts Progressive Calls to Bypass Legislative Process Entirely

With the bill all but doomed to failure through normal constitutional means, some progressives are now calling on Biden to bypass the legislative process entirely, suggesting that he use executive action to institute the objectives of the BBB.

Ocasio-Cortez made the point during her Monday morning interview on MSNBC.

Democratic leadership has a number of tools at their disposal, Ocasio-Cortez told Scarborough, the president particularly.

Its really about time we take the kid gloves off and start using them to govern for working families in this country, the New York progressive said.

Jayapal made the same case in even starker terms.

It is now incumbent on President Biden to keep his promise to us and to the American people by using the ultimate tool in his toolbox: the tool of executive actions in every arena immediately, Jayapal told reporters.

Jayapal added that her caucus would not accept an even smaller packagethe original draft of the budget would have cost $6 trillion, which was later lowered to $3.5 trillion and then to $1.85. That includes, Jayapal said, any package that would put less funding toward climate policy, which is allocated around $550 billion in the BBB.

We can no longer wait on one man to do what the country needs, Jayapal said, ignoring the 50 other senators who, like Manchin, disagree that the BBB is what the country needs.

We now call on the President to keep his commitment to us that we would Build Back Better, Jayapal finished.

It is not quite clear what these calls could amount to in real world terms.

Under the U.S. constitution, legislationespecially legislation with such a massively pronounced effect on federal spending and revenues as the BBBmust originate in Congress. Though the power of the executive has expanded dramatically since President Franklin Roosevelt initiated sweeping changes to U.S. economic and military policy, the president is still not allowed, by law, to order $2 trillion in new spending and taxes.

Biden has already pushed the limits of his power with his controversial private sector vaccine mandate, which has faced legal challenges from a bipartisan coalition in Congress, from state attorneys general, legislatures, and governors, to federal courts.

The president can, in certain circumstances under conditions laid out in previously-passed law, use executive orders to do things like modify certain kinds of spending, create new national holidays, or manage federal land. But any effort from the White House to codify any part of the BBB into law through an executive order or other executive action would be entirely unprecedented in U.S. history, and would be a hard sell to the 6-3 conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

Thus, whatever their disappointment at not getting their way, these progressive callsjust like their calls to abolish the filibuster or pack the Supreme Courtare unlikely to come to fruition.
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine rests on a table at a clinic in Puyallup, Wash., on March 4, 2021. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

Moderna Says Its Existing COVID-19 Booster Appears Protective Against Omicron

Moderna said on Dec. 20 that its existing COVID-19 vaccine booster shot sharply increased Omicron neutralizing antibody levels in laboratory testing, with the drugmaker adding that it continues to work on an Omicron-specific booster.

The company said in a statement that its currently authorized 50 microgram dose booster of its mRNA-1273 vaccine increased Omicron neutralizing antibody levels 37-fold, while a not-yet-approved 100 microgram dose booster raised them 83-fold.

Moderna said researchers observed a trend toward slightly more frequent adverse reactions with the higher booster dosage, comparable to those seen after the two-dose primary regimen, characterizing it as generally safe and well tolerated. Modernas 50 microgram COVID-19 booster was authorized in October, with the companys first two shots being 100 microgram doses.

While Moderna continues to work on developing an Omicron-specific third shot, called mRNA-1273.529, the firm said it considers its existing booster the first line of defense against the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2.

Stephane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, called the findings of the lab study a reassuring development.

The dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant is concerning to all. However, these data showing that the currently authorized Moderna COVID-19 booster can boost neutralizing antibody levels 37-fold higher than pre-boost levels are reassuring, Bancel said in a statement.

To respond to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future, Bancel continued. We will also continue to generate and share data across our booster strategies with public health authorities to help them make evidence-based decisions on the best vaccination strategies against SARS-CoV-2.

While both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been linked to cases of heart inflammation, particularly in young men, a recent study suggested Modernas vaccine is likely to cause the heart inflammation at a higher rate. Still, the researchers behind the study, published Dec. 16 in the British Medical Journal, said that both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were associated with about a 50 percent reduced risk of cardiac arrest or death compared to unvaccinated people who get sick with COVID-19.

Omicron, a highly mutated and more contagious variant of the CCP virus, has spread fast around the globe after being first detected last month in southern Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday that Omicron cases have now been reported in 89 countries, and that the number of infections was doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission.

While some preliminary indications suggest Omicron may be less virulent, and so less dangerous, the WHO said there is still limited data on its severity.

A lot of the initial reports are that people with Omicron tend to have milder disease but it doesnt mean that its not dangerous, it doesnt mean that its quote unquote only mild, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist and COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, said on Dec. 16.

With increased transmissibility, youre going to have more cases, she continued. More cases mean more hospitalizations. More hospitalizations will mean more deaths.

Health experts in South Africa have said Omicron was not driving up hospitalizations or fatalities in the country to a significant degree.

Omicron is expected to become the most dominant strain in the United States within a few weeks, according to White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, who warned that hospitals risk becoming overwhelmed.
Rafael Nadal, of Spain, reacts during a match against Lloyd Harris, of South Africa, at the Citi Open tennis tournament in Washington on Aug. 5, 2021. (Nick Wass/AP Photo)

Nadal Positive for Virus After Returning From Abu Dhabi

MADRIDRafael Nadal tested positive for the coronavirus after playing in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard said Monday.

Nadal wrote on Twitter that the positive result came from a PCR test he took after arriving in Spain.

Nadal said he is enduring unpleasant moments but hopes to improve little by little. He is in isolation at home and everyone who has been in contact with him was informed of his positive result.

Among those possibly in contact with Nadal was Spains former monarch, Juan Carlos I, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since allegations of financial scandals swirled and embarrassed the Spanish royal household last year.

According to Spains El Mundo newspaper, Nadal and Juan Carlos, who is 83, shared a meal on Saturday. The paper also published photos of both of them posing together without masks.

Nadal said he had been tested every two days while away and all results had come back negative, with the last one on Saturday.

Nadal said that as a consequence of the positive result he will have to be flexible with his playing schedule. He said he will analyze his upcoming options depending on his condition.

Nadal played his first match in more than four months on Friday, losing in straight sets to Andy Murray at the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi. The 20-time Grand Slam champions chronic foot injury had forced him to sit out the final months of this season.

Nadal had not competed since early August when he lost to Lloyd Harris in Washington. He missed Wimbledon, the Tokyo Olympics, and the U.S. Open.
Undated handout photo shows Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin speaking to the media at government buildings in Dublin on Dec. 17, 2021. (Julien Behal Photography/Handout via PA)

New COVID-19 Restrictions Come Into Force in Ireland

New COVID-19 restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the Omicron variant have come into force in Ireland.

The measures, agreed by the cabinet on Friday, were introduced at midnight on Sunday and will last until Jan. 30.

All restaurants and bars, excluding takeaways and delivery services, must now close at 8 p.m., and there are limits on attendance at indoor and outdoor events scheduled for earlier in the day.

Restricted movement advice for all close contacts of COVID-19 cases has also been enhanced.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the new measures were necessary because of the rise in infections caused by Omicron.

He said: Left unchecked, this new strain will represent a very significant threat to hospitals and critical care, but also a threat to all of society and the economy.

But hospitality groups have warned that the restrictions will lead to widespread closures and redundancies in the sector.

Padraig Cribben, chief executive of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), said: The reality is this decision will decimate the trade that was already on its knees.

Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath leaves RTE Radio One in Dublin on Oct. 13, 2021. (Brian Lawless/PA)

On Sunday, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said that no government wanted to be in the position of making decisions that would cost jobs, but said the first duty was to protect the health of the population.

Asked about an estimate from the hospitality industry that 60,000 people in Ireland could lose their jobs, McGrath told RTE: The numbers will be significant, certainly in the tens of thousands.

Just weeks after the first Omicron case was identified in Ireland, it has now become the dominant strain of COVID-19.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has estimated that approximately 52 percent of reported cases are now due to the Omicron variant.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said: It has taken less than two weeks for Omicron to become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Ireland, revealing just how transmissible this variant is.

By Jonathan McCambridge
Staff conduct a Swabbing run at a PPE drill at the NCCTRCA/AUSMAT sections of the Howard Springs quarantine facility, Darwin, Australia on January 14, 2021. (AAP Image/Glenn Campbell)

Northern Territorys Howard Springs Quarantine Absconders Apprehended

Two teenagers who absconded from the Northern Territorys Howard Springs COVID-19 quarantine facility on Sunday afternoon were caught just a few hours later.

According to an NT Police media release, the two 16-year-old girls, both from Katherine, were almost at the end of their quarantine period and had tested negative to COVID-19 on their most recent test.

They absconded from the facility at around 3:30 p.m., only to be apprehended in Bakewell, around 8km west of Howard Springs at about 7 p.m. They were then taken back to the quarantine centre.

Police used a combination of resources to locate the duo, including general duties officers, drones, the dog operations unit and CCTV operators.

According to Incident Controller Acting Commander Virginia Read, the girls were not likely to be a risk to the community.

Their COVID-19 tests have all been negative, and while we believe they were not infectious, their actions clearly contravened the Chief Health Officers Directions, she said.

This comes after several detainees, most of whom are teenagers, have absconded from the Howard Springs facility over the past two months.

Around the end of November, three Aboriginal teenagers from Binjari scaled the fence at the centre but were later located on the outskirts of Palmerston, a planned satellite city of Darwin 10km from Howard Springs. They had tried to flee when they spotted police but were ultimately apprehended.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said its likely that loneliness and isolation contributed to the trios decision to abscond, considering they are accustomed to living in crowded conditions rather than in a single room alone.

We cannot have human resources on every single access and egress point, he said, adding that the preference is clearly for people to remain in the facility and that anyone needing support within the centre should contact staff there.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Northern Territory Minister for Health to find out what mental health support was available to residents at Howard Springs but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

According to coronavirus.nt.gov.au, people in quarantine at either the Howard Springs or Alice Springs quarantine centres must stay in their allocated room, which includes a veranda, unless given permission by an authorised officer.

They cannot leave the designated quarantine zone in which their room is located unless accompanied by an authorised officer, except in case of emergency.

In addition, they must wear a mask when outside their room and must not assemble in a quarantine zone.

As COVID-19 can be transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces, physical objects cannot be shared among residents who are not family members. Therefore, residents cannot play cards or other games and mustnt hand any objects to another person.

All residents in quarantine are also tested on days 1, 5 and 12 of their 14-day stay and face a $5,000 fine if they fail to comply with any rule under the Direction of the Chief Health Officer, although generally a warning will be given first.

Michael Gunner has said previously that Howard Springs is not a prison but not a playground either and that its strict because it has to be.

The staff at the Centre are doing an incredible jobthe best job that they can in the circumstances they face, and I thank them for their work, he said.

However, Gunner did sympathise with those in quarantine, particularly people who are used to being close to their families and community.
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, on Dec. 17, 2021. (Staff/Reuters)

Omicron Worries Spur 2 Percent Slide in European Stocks

European stocks fell more than 2 percent on Monday amid a global sell-off in equities, with investors fretting over the spectre of tighter pandemic curbs hitting the global economy as cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant surge.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 2.2 percent, falling to its lowest in more than two weeks.

Travel, oil, and auto stocks led declines with losses of more than 3 percent, with all the major subsectors in the red.

The rate at which the virus is picking up is increasing fears that governments are going to bring in tighter restrictions which could curtail movement and hamper economic activity, said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The Netherlands imposed a lockdown on Sunday, while the prospect of tighter COVID-19 measures ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays looms large over several European countries amid the swift spread of Omicron.

Madden added that lower liquidity in the last weeks of December could also be leading to the exacerbated moves.

Last week, the STOXX 600 rallied after the European Central Bank promised continued economic support and the U.S. Federal Reserve flagged a long-awaited end to its pandemic-era stimulus in March, while delivering an upbeat outlook.

Meanwhile, futures tracking the U.S. stocks benchmark S&P 500 skid 1.8 percent after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Bidens hopes of passing a $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, said on Sunday he would not support the package.

Goldman Sachs cut U.S. real GDP forecast for the first quarter of 2022 to 2 percent versus 3 percent previously, and marginally reduced forecasts for the second and third quarters.

Shares in argenx leaped 8.2 percent to the top of the benchmark after the Belgian group reached a regulatory milestone for its receptor blocker.

The worst performer, however, was Novo Nordisk, which plunged 10.8 percent after the Danish drugmaker said it would not be able to meet demand for its new obesity drug due to U.S. supply issues.

BNP Paribas slipped 0.6 percent after the French lender agreed to sell its U.S. unit, Bank of the West, to Canadas BMO Financial Group for around $16.3 billion.

Swedens BillerudKorsnas dropped 6.9 percent after saying it would buy U.S.-based coated paper producer Verso for around $825 million in cash as the pulp and paper manufacturer looks to expand into North America.

By Anisha Sircar
Palestinian supporters of Fatah rally in support of president Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on July 10, 2021. (Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian Local Elections Spark Fresh Rifts Between Long-Standing Rivals Hamas and Fatah

Fresh rifts were reignited on Dec. 11 between long-standing rivals Hamas and Fatah during the first round of the Palestinian local elections.

The elections, which include municipal councils and local government bodies, are typically held every four or five years and last took place in 2017.

Sundays elections were held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as opposed to the Gaza Strip, where Hamas refused to hold them following a fallout with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah party.

The group stated in September that it would not be part of  fragmented municipal elections after Abbas cancelled the parliamentary and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories earlier this year.

Instead, the terrorist organization on Sunday opted to appoint members of local and municipal councils from a selection of its supporters or those who, like itself, were angry at the Fatah party.

The move sparked a fresh rift between the Islamist group and the Palestinian nationalist social-democratic political party, with the latter accusing Hamas of violating the rights of citizens to practice fair democracy.

Sundays elections took place at 154 localities in the West Bank, with 66.14 percent of the 405,687 eligible voters casting their ballots, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) Chairman Dr. Hanna Nasir said.

In total, 268,318 people took to the polls; 96.5 percent of their ballots were valid, 1.01 percent were blank, and 2.43 were invalid. The results demonstrated that independent lists had won 70.86 percent of the 1,503 council seats, while party lists had won 29.14 percent of the seats, as per the commission.

The CEC said that positions at 162 local bodies were filled by acclamation because there was only one list contesting the elections.

Palestinian Minister of Local Government Majdi Al-Saleh accused Hamas of taking illegal steps to prevent local elections in the Gaza Strip, which has been under the control of the terrorist group since 2007, and said it was the main obstacle facing the elections in Gaza.

Hamas is blocking elections in the Gaza Strip, Al-Saleh told Ahram Online. It appoints the chairmen of local and municipal councils illegally and under false pretenses.

By blocking elections in the Gaza Strip, Hamas is breaking the law and violating the rights of citizens to practice democracy, Al-Saleh said, adding that the Palestinian government had sent mediators to convince Hamas to hold the elections, but they had failed.

Ahmed Al-Majdalani, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organizations (PLOs) Executive Committee and secretary-general of the Popular Struggle Front (PSF), called municipal elections a part of the democratic process that are also a right of citizens of all political stripes, irrespective of political affiliations.

Al-Majdalani added that it was unacceptable for elections to continue being delayed in Gaza when Hamas is participating in elections in the West Bank in different ways.

However, Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, said it had not agreed to the elections being held in Gaza because they should be part of a comprehensive electoral process, which includes municipal councils, local governments, as well as the previously suspended Palestinian parliament, and presidential elections, according to Ahram Online.

The group wants to be viewed as legitimate by the international community through winning elections and joining the PLO, which is recognized by both Israel and the international community.

The second phase of Palestines local elections will take place on March 26, 2022, at 66 localities, according to officials.
A row of Ambulances are seen lined up outside the North Melbourne Public Housing tower complex in Melbourne, Australia on July 8, 2020. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Patient Dies as Paramedic Shortage Takes Toll on Victorias Ambulance Service

A Victorian patient who went into cardiac arrest has died after waiting nearly 40 minutes for specialist paramedics.

This comes amid a report by The Herald Sun that found up to a third of Melbournes population was without specialist MICA (Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance) paramedics on Dec. 17 due to a shortage of ambulance staff. Much of Melbournes inner west also experienced the same shortage over Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.

We just dont have enough MICA at the moment to provide the sort of service that the community expect, Victorian Ambulance union general secretary Danny Hill told 3AW on Dec. 20.

In an email to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for Ambulance Victoria confirmed that a person who was having difficulty breathing called Triple Zero (000) at 9:23 p.m on Dec. 15.

First paramedics immediately responded to the call but could not enter the property and called for fire services to assist.

Then, after gaining access, paramedics called for MICA assistance at 9:58 p.m. for a patient in cardiac arrest. The nearest MICA crew was cleared from another case, the spokesperson said.

The Herald Sun reported that MICA paramedics were not dispatched until 10:05 p.m.

Hill told 3AW that paramedics were just 900 metres away from the cardiac arrest patient but could not make it in time as they were attending to a patient with back pain.

Its, unfortunately, a common occurrence that we see happen where MICA paramedics are not available because they are attending to low acuity cases, Hill said.

MICA paramedics are usually left for time-critical cases such as cardiac arrests, severe asthma with a blocked airway, and difficult births, but staff shortages have shifted these specialist paramedics onto lower priority cases.

Ambulance Victoria also told The Epoch Times that reports in other media groups that Ambulance Victoria had been forced to close the Altona branch were incorrect and that just a single MICA shift is unable to be backfilled in early January.

The spokesperson also confirmed that a staff shortage occurred in Warrnambool on Dec. 12 due to several staff being unwell.

This was rectified within one hour and did not impact service, the spokesperson said.

When asked why there is such a shortfall, Hill said Ambulance Victoria had not kept up with recruitment as both population and workload continue to grow.

Its not just MICA, its education, its communications, its the other support services, but really are really MICA are probably most critical, Hill said.

In October, Hill warned that paramedic and ambulance staff were under significant stress and burnout as statewide response times dropped, The Herald Sun reported. Between April and June, 73.1 percent of life-threatening cases had an ambulance arrive within the 15-minute target, a decrease from 75.1 percent.

The spokesperson for Ambulance Victoria has also urged Victorians to save Triple Zero (000) for emergencies and to consider other avenues for less urgent health needs such as their GP, pharmacist or Nurse-On-Call (1300 60 60 24).

The spokesperson said Ambulance Victoria recently made a series of changes to recruitment and training requirements, providing improved access for Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedics wanting to upskill to MICA.

We are also in the process of recruiting additional Intensive Care Paramedics, the spokesperson said.
Ukrainian servicemen attend a rehearsal of an official ceremony to hand over tanks, armored personnel carriers, and military vehicles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the country celebrates Army Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 6, 2021. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Poland and Baltic Fear Biden Abandonment to Appease Russia: Experts

There is a growing concern in Poland and the Baltic states that the U.S. will leave them out in the cold to face Russia as tensions between Europe and Moscow grow around the Ukrainian issue.

This comes as U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out sending American troops to help Ukraine to confront any Russian aggression and instead suggested that America would increase military deployments in Europe if Putin invades Ukraine.

The idea that the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not on the cards right now, Biden told reporters. We would probably also be required to reinforce our presence in NATO countries to reassureparticularly those on the eastern flank.

However, it was his use of the term eastern flank that captured the attention of experts of the region, and it is not the first time. Biden also referred to the region as the eastern front when announcing talks with four European allies to address the growing tension between Europe and Russia.

Former NATO Assistant Secretary-General Marshall Billingslea expressed his concerns over the phrasing in a post on Twitter, saying that: Calling it an eastern front plays directly into Russias hands he said, they have long wanted to negotiate a pull-back of forceswhich could leave the Baltic allies defenceless.

1) I have at least two concerns with this quote. First, calling it an eastern front plays directly into Russias hands. They have long wanted to negotiate a pull-back of forces from this so-called front, which would leave the Baltic allies defenseless. They tried this https://t.co/8xLRotQDq7  Marshall S. Billingslea (@M_S_Billingslea) December 8, 2021

Billingslea is not the only one who is concerned.

Professor Alexander Lanoszka at the University of Waterloo Canada also noted in a thread of Twitter nervous chatter in Central Europe about Bidens decision to hold talks with Russia and selected European allies.

Biden spoke with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the UK, while countries bordering Russia, in particular Poland, were left out,

Lanoszka says that eastern NATO allies fear a U.S. bargain with Russia over Ukraine could be made at their own expense, not least because they have benefitted from a raft of defence and deterrence programs put in place since 2014, the sort that has raised Kremlin objections.

4) Naturally, the countries that border Russia fear that a grand bargain might be made at their expense, not least because they have benefited from a raft of defence and deterrence programs put in place since 2014the sort that has raised Kremlin objections.  Alexander Lanoszka (@ALanoszka) December 8, 2021

Additionally, Dr Lorenz Wojciech, from the Polish Institute for International Affairs, said that while Bidens intervention with Russia decreased the risk of possible military engagement in the region, he was also concerned about any potential Russian security guarantees made in any talks Putin has with Biden.

There are not too many details about this, but it sounds really bad; there have been numerous platforms of dialogue that Russia has paralysed, Wojciech told The Epoch Times.

Wojciech suggests that Russia is successfully dividing NATO allies.

Russia threatened Ukraine and the west with aggression and possible escalation and received in return a proposal of a new format, which looks like a concert of powers. Russia can promote her vision of new security architecture based on spheres of influence. So this is a major concession and potentially dangerous initiative, Wojciech said.

Wojciech stresses that NATO must present a united front on the Ukraine issue. This is a major problem, he said.

The west is not mentally prepared to defend its red lines when there is a risk of conflict and escalation. So it gradually makes concession after concession, and Russia is not deterred but rather encouraged to demand more. With such a pattern, the next step can be an open military threat against NATO.

Russia has been amassing tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border, which has pushed the Biden Administration to dispatch CIA Director Burns to Moscow for direct talks with his counterparts in Russia.

This renewed threat to Eastern Ukraine follows the 2014 annexation of Crimea when Vladimir Putin seized the territory while Biden was Vice-President in the Obama administration.
NTD Television will exclusively broadcast the 2019 Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Concert on the NTD East, NTD West, and NTD UK channels. The 90-minute program will air on Dec. 24 and 25 via cable, satellite, and over-the-air (find your local channel here). The program will also be streamed through www.NTD.com, the NTD app, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Sony Smart TV, and others.

Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in New York state in 2006 with a mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture through music and dance. Every year, Shen Yun produces an all-new performance and tours with it around the world. Millions have seen Shen Yuns performances and audience members were left in awe of the performances.

Shen Yuns all-original compositions feature a perfect harmony of classical music from the East and West. The 2019 Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra performance features Shen Yuns most celebrated original compositions along with timeless orchestral classics by Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and Gounod.

The 2019 Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Concert toured in five major cities in North AmericaToronto, New York, Washington, Chicago, and Bostonin October 2019. Audience members praised the artistic accomplishments of Shen Yuns musicians.

The music theyve created is such an excellent combination of traditional melodies, said Dr. Richard Webb, organist, musicologist, and professor of Southern University.

Delightful, said Per Brevig, conductor and professor of The Juilliard School. They blend the Chinese instruments so very well with the Western instruments.

Really wonderful! Id be interested in playing some of this music or trying some of it myself, said Charles Castleman, virtuoso violinist and professor of Eastman School of Music.

Broadcast Schedule

Premiere

9:30 p.m. ET & PT / 8:30 p.m. CT / 10:30 p.m. MT on Dec. 24

8:30 a.m. UK local time on Dec. 24

Reruns

6:30 a.m. ET & PT / 5:30 a.m. CT / 7:30 a.m. MT on Dec. 25

3:30 p.m. ET & PT / 2:30 p.m. CT / 4:30 p.m. MT on Dec. 25

8:30 p.m. UK local time on Dec. 24
Prosecutors, Defense Make Closing Arguments In Ghislaine Maxwell Trial

Prosecutors on Monday made closing arguments in Ghislaine Maxwells sex trafficking trial, asserting the British socialite and onetime Jeffrey Epstein associate preyed on vulnerable young girls as part of Epsteins extensive scheme to abuse them.

Maxwell, 59, previously pleaded not guilty to six federal counts such as sex trafficking of minors, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three counts of conspiracy. She faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Maxwell and Epstein were a wealthy couple who used their privilege to prey on kids from struggling families, prosecutor Alison Moe told jurors, according to courtroom reporters. The way that they selected these girls tells you that they were targeting vulnerable kids. It is not an accident that Jane and Kate and Annie and Carolyn all came from single-mother households.

But Laura Menninger, Maxwells defense attorney, told jurors that Maxwell was wrongfully accused after Epstein died in jail. She claimed that prosecutors were going after Maxwell unfairly because Epstein died before they could get to him.

The government in this case has now pivoted because Epstein is not here, Menninger said, according to reporters. The trial was not live-streamed or televised.

Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein, Menninger continued, adding that four accusers who testified against her client are motivated by greed. Memories have been manipulated in aid of the money.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein associate accused of sex trafficking, attends her trial near an image of Epstein on a screen in a courtroom sketch in New York City, N.Y., on Dec. 2, 2021. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

During closing arguments, prosecutors also made note of Maxwells little black book, a handwritten phone directory. The book corroborates the testimony from several of Maxwells alleged victims, Moe said in court, because an entry includes the name and number of an accusers ex-boyfriend, Shawn, who testified that he would drop the woman off at Epsteins Palm Beach mansion.

When youre with someone for 11 years, you know what they like. Epstein liked underaged girls. He liked to touch underaged girls. Maxwell knew it. Make no mistake, Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. Epstein could not have done this alone, Moe also alleged.

Explaining the alleged scheme the pair had, a single middle-aged man who invites a teenage girl to visit his ranch, to come to his house, to fly to New York, is creepy, Moe told jurors, referring to Epstein.

But when that man is accompanied by a posh, smiling, respectable, age-appropriate woman, thats when everything starts to seem legitimate, she said. And when that woman encourages those girls to massage that man, when she acts like its totally normal for the man to touch those girls, it lures them into a trap. It allows the man to silence the alarm bells.

Throughout the trial, Maxwell used her Fifth Amendment right and declined to take the stand in her defense.

She told the judge last week: Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. And so there is no need for me to testify.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Pushback to US Health Agencies Grows Over Handling of COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters

Pushback to two top U.S. health agencies is growing over how officials handled clearing and recommending COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month authorized boosters of all three vaccines available in the United States for all adults. Soon after, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended any American 18 or older should get a booster, regardless of prior infection or underlying health conditions.

Then, earlier this month, regulators cleared a booster of Pfizers shot for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The agencies did not convene their vaccine advisory panels before making the major decisions, stoking pushback.

Philip Krause and Luciana Borio, two former top FDA officials, said in a recent op-ed the bypassing of the panels means the costs and benefits of these policy moves, from a medical perspective, were not fully aired publicly and discussed in advance.

At this point in the pandemic, the world faces a host of new questions related to vaccines and boosting. The recommendations of experts on the outside advisory committees are needed more than everso the scientific community can understand the empirical bases for decisions, and so the public can be assured that science, not politics, is driving vaccine policy, they added.

An FDA spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email: As we said in our Nov. 19 press release, the FDA has determined that the currently available data support expanding the eligibility of a single booster dose of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to individuals 18 years of age and older. Streamlining the eligibility criteria and making booster doses available to all individuals 18 years of age and older will also help to eliminate confusion about who may receive a booster dose and ensure booster doses are available to all who may need one.

The CDC did not respond to requests for comment.

Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, speaks during a congressional panel at the US Capitol in Washington on May 11, 2021. (Greg Nash/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Push for Boosters

The FDA and CDC have assumed greater importance in peoples day-to-day lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicines and vaccines are only available after receiving clearance from the FDA, while the CDC makes recommendations that have been widely adopted by state and local authorities. Most vaccine mandates, for instance, cite the CDC and use its definition of fully vaccinated.

Strong political influence over key agency decisions has been recorded in internal documents later made public, including major teachers unions that helped craft guidance on school reopenings. Continuing a trend started during the Trump administration, the most Americans hear from top health officials is during press briefings moderated by the White House. In the case of boosters, top administration officials in August announced all adults should get one, even though the FDA had only cleared them for the immunocompromised.

Krause and another top FDA official resigned amid the push for widespread boosters.

That push was rejected the following month by the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which advises the FDA on vaccines. Members said there was little evidence backing the widespread use of boosters. The FDA adopted the recommendation from the panel, which widened authorization for boosters but fell short of clearing the additional shots for all Americans. However, after the CDCs vaccine advisory panel recommended narrowing who could get a booster, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDCs director, overrode the recommendation.

Instead of consulting the panel anew, the FDA in November authorized boosters for all adults. The CDC did convene its panel before saying all adults may get boosters, but did not call a meeting before later recommending all adults get an additional shot. The FDA this month cleared boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds without convening a meeting of VRBPAC, and the CDC recommended all teenagers in the population get an additional shot without consulting with its panel.

The FDA said in a release that it didnt convene VRBPAC because no new questions arose that would benefit from additional discussion by committee members since an earlier meeting already went over boosting.

Krause and Borio said that was unpersuasive, given the previously expressed views of panel members.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the new CCP virus variant, Omicron, has waned considerably, particularly against infection. Early studies show the vaccines provide little defense against the virus but that boosters restore some of the lost protection.

The CDC cited the recent data in announcing it was recommending boosters for all adults. But the case for boosters for teenagers is much weaker, since young, healthy adults are at little risk from COVID-19, and are at elevated risk of heart inflammation after getting vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.

A nurse fills up syringes for patients as they receive their COVID-19 booster vaccination during a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination clinic in Southfield, Mich., on Sept. 29, 2021. (Emily Elconin/Reuters)

Surprised

Some experts were caught off guard by the clearance and recommendation of boosters for the 16- and 17-year-olds, especially given the lack of data on safety and efficacy in the age group. Some said it was clear panelists would have pushed back against the expansion proposals, and the panels may have rejected them.

Im surprised to see the CDC push boosters in healthy 16 & 17 year olds just after German[y] is reporting that no child 5-17 has died (most unvaccinated) of COVID in that country, Dr. Marty Makary, chief of the Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Center, wrote on Twitter.

The surprise deepened when the agency released a review memorandum (pdf) explaining Pfizers application relied on a clinical trial that included just 78 individuals, some of whom received a placebo. Even more concerning, one of the 78 experienced post-vaccination heart inflammation.

Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, is a member of VRBPAC.

He reviewed the memo and found it lacking.

I believe that the booster dose is safe and that it increases the level of neutralizing antibodies. But where is the evidence in the U.S. that it is necessary for prevention of serious illness in young healthy people? Offit told The Epoch Times in an email.

Central to the FDAs decision was a risk-benefit calculus from Pfizer that predicted boosting 1 million 16- and 17-year-olds would avert 29 to 69 hospitalizations but cause 11 to 54 heart inflammation cases. Pfizer predicted the boosters would also avert as many as 43,143 COVID-19 cases.

Pfizer assumed a higher vaccine effectiveness than seen in some studies and assumed rates of myocarditis by taking reports to two U.S. reporting systems and reducing the estimate based on data from Israeli 16- to 19-year-olds.

The figures suggest that boosting is not associated with an unacceptable risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, two forms of heart inflammation, the FDA said.

Dr. Paul Alexander, a former adviser to the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization and to the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump administration, disagrees.

He told The Epoch Times in an email that the FDAs decision is misguided and not based on any science.

This age group do not even need the 1st and 2nd shots and a booster makes no sense and this is all risk and no benefit especially when you consider the heightened risk of myocarditis in this age group, Alexander added.
Rapper Fatally Stabbed at Exposition Park Concert in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELESLos Angeles rapper Drakeo the Ruler has died after being stabbed at a star-studded 12-hour concert at Banc of California Stadium at Exposition Park on Dec. 18, according to multiple media reports.

Officials have not confirmed the victims death or identity, but one of the rappers representatives confirmed the information with Rolling Stone magazine and the Guardian, and colleagues were posting their shock and condolences on social media.

The California Highway Patrol released the following statement Sunday: On Saturday, December 18, 2021, at approximately 8:36 pm, a fight broke out behind the main stage of the Once Upon A Time In LA music festival in Los Angeles. During the altercation, one man was severely injured by a suspect wielding an edged weapon. Officers from the California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Department, and Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene. The victim was transported to a local area hospital. The case is currently under investigation by the CHP. Any witnesses with information about this incident are asked to contact Southern Division Investigative Services Unit at 323-644-9550.

Drakeo, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, was taken to a hospital in critical condition where he later died, according to multiple outlets including the Los Angeles Times, TMZ, and the online publication Complex.

He had just turned 28 on Dec. 1.

The Once Upon a Time in LA Music Festival, which was slated to run from 11 am to 11 pm Saturday, was shut down early by police and firefighters after the violence broke out, according to Officer G. Todd of the LAPDs Operations Center.

Artists including Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, George Clinton, Al Green, the Isley Brothers and Cypress Hill were scheduled to perform.

Video from the scene showed several people arguing and fighting outside the concert just before the stabbing, but it was unclear what sparked the confrontation.

There was an altercation in the roadway backstage, a Live Nation spokesperson said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. Out of respect for those involved and in coordination with local authorities, artists and organizers (we) decided not to move forward with remaining sets so the festival was ended an hour early.

The LAPD tweeted at 10:34 p.m. Saturday that There has been an incident at the Once Upon A Time in LA festival at the Banc of California. The festival has concluded early.

Overnight, social media was filled with tributes to Caldwell, including one from fellow rapper Drake, who collaborated with him earlier this year on the song Talk to Me.

Always picked my spirit up with your energy. RIP Drakeo, Drake wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the two together.

Snoop Dogg tweeted a statement about the incident Sunday morning.

Im saddened by the events that took place last night at the Once Upon a Time in LA festival. My condolences go out to the family and friends of Drakeo the Ruler, he wrote. My prayers go out to everyone affected by tragedy.  Please take care, love one another and stay safe yall. IM PRAYING FOR PEACE IN HIP HOP.

Caldwell was a Los Angeles native who has released 10 mixtapes since 2015 and put out his first studio album earlier this year titled I Am Mr. Mosely.

Critics have cited his unique flow and oddly expressive, poetic word-choices. The Times called him the most original West Coast stylist in decades.

He recorded the mixtape Thank You For Using GTL at Mens Central Jail while awaiting trial in the 2016 killing of a 24-year-old man, according to The Times, which said he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges. Caldwell later pleaded to conspiracy charges in connection with the killing and was released in November 2020, the newspaper added.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) is seen during a hearing in Washington on July 27, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rep. Stephanie Murphy Announces She Wont Run for Reelection

21st House Democrat planning to step down at end of term

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a key moderate, will not run for another term.

Murphy, who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition, said Monday she will not seek to continue representing Floridas 7th Congressional District because she wants to spend more time with her family.

These last few years have been some of the most rewarding moments of my life, but also some of the most challenging. Public service is not without personal sacrifice, and as a mom of two young children, my time away from them has been hard. For them. For me. And for our family, Murphy said in a video announcement.

Murphy, 43, has been in office since 2017. A political newcomer when she announced her bid, Murphy knocked off Republican John Mica, who had been in Congress for 12 terms. Murphy won reelection in 2020 with 55 percent of the vote.

More and more Democrats have recently decided against running in 2022, imperiling the partys aim of keeping slim majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Murphy is the 21st Democrat who plans on stepping down at the end of their term, including 13 Democrats who dont want to seek another office.

Thats compared to 12 Republicans.

Some long-time members of Congress, including Rep. Peter DeFazio, who has represented Oregonians since 1987, are among those retiring.

Incumbents generally have an easier time winning elections.

The district Murphy represents is, like the other districts in the state, being redrawn by state legislators and the revised version could look much different.

Regardless of the change, Murphy leaving means Democrats are going to have a much more difficult time keeping it, Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told The Epoch Times.

We know, historically, the party of the president loses a lot of seats two years into their termmost of the time, theres a few exceptions. And so that suggests that this this seat would have been a little tougher to keep anyway, but without the incumbent its going to be certainly more difficult, and its a prime opportunity for Republicans to help in their quest to take over the majority in Washington, he added.

Democrats majority in the House is 221-213, with one vacancy.

Republicans made considerable gains in the 2020 election and expect to flip the lower chamber in 2022, particularly with President Joe Bidens low approval ratings.

Camille Gallo, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, linked Murphys announcement with Democrats failing to deliver on Bidens so-called build back better agenda.

Between Build Back Better collapsing and an unmitigated retirement crisis, this is truly Democrats nightmare before Christmas, Gallo said in a statement.

No Democrats have yet announced bids for the seat Murphy holds.

Six Republicans have already launched campaigns, including small business owner Erika Benfield, Navy SEAL Brady Duke, and state Rep. Anthony Sabatini.
A prehistoric settlement located in Ebreichsdorf, Austria, 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Vienna, has yielded an archeological discovery of a lifetimean extraordinarily rare golden bowl with a sun motif was found in what was once likely a place of worship near a swamp some three millennia ago.

The culture who once kept this bowl are known for the urn fields they left behind related to their cremation funeral rites, and lived in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, the researchers said. The golden bowl, found shallowly buried in a prehistoric dwelling, displays an intricate sunray decoration and is made of very thin sheet metal, believed to be composed of 90 percent gold, 5 percent silver, and 5 percent copper.

Contained in it were found two gold bracelets made of twisted wire, as well as two unusual lumps of organic material, most likely made of either fabric or leather, with gold wire inside and golden thread weaving. These lumps are believed to have once possibly been ceremonial garments used during religious ceremonies that involved worshipping the sun.

This is the discovery of a lifetime for me, said head of the excavation Polish archeologist Dr. Micha Sip. Researchers concur that it could be one of the most important archeological findings in Austria in the last several decades.

The golden bowl is the first of its kind unearthed in Austria and one of just two found east of the Alpine Line; just over 30 such bowls have been discovered in all of Europe, making this latest all the more remarkable and important.

Also found at the site were nearly 500 bronze objects, including pins, daggers, and knives, which were not damaged, leading archeologists to believe they were deposited as part of religious rituals. Also extracted were an assortment of ceramic clay vessels, shells, and animal bones weighing hundreds of kilograms. Its believed that the objects, found some 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) underground, were dropped in what was at the time a swamp.

During the settlements existence, it could have been a swamp, or the [water] course could have been partially filled seasonally. In it, over a distance of several hundred meters, we have already excavated almost five hundred bronze objects, Sip said. If it were a river, they would all be at the bottom, in one zone.

The remains of the prehistoric settlement existed during the period 13001000 B.C. and stretch several hundred meters, along both north-south and east-west axes. The excavation was commenced in 2019 ahead of the construction of the railway station planned in upcoming years; the bowls discovery in 2020 was withheld from release until further testing was completed. Yet the volume of artifacts yielded and the extent of the prehistoric settlement promise considerable potential for future discovery.

It may be possible to implement a research project with the participation of one of the universities, Sip expressed with high hopes.

The excavation was conducted by Novetus Archaeological Services and commissioned and financed by the Austrian Federal Railway (OBB).

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Reviving Parliaments Special China Committee Vital to Canadas National Interests

Commentary

The recent news that the Conservative Party has decided not to launch a bid to revive the special committee on Canada-China relations is a great disappointment. This is especially so as Beijings recent conduct continues to demonstrate the regimes unpredictabilityCanadas response to which would be immensely aided by the discussions had by those on the committee.

Explaining the curious decision, Conservative foreign-affairs critic Michael Chong told the Globe and Mail it does not reflect a shift in tone by the Conservatives on the China question, but is more a consequence of resource constraints, as new committees on Afghanistan and scientific research have been created since the election.

Seeing as the Conservatives are still in the post-mortem phase of their election loss and desperately attempting to figure out what changes they need to make to become more electable, one cant help but sense some hesitancy to revive the committee, given the arguments from some corners that the Tories hawkishness on China alienated some of their voters in Chinese communities. Given the importance of Canada-China relations, the idea that there arent enough resources for that committee but there are for other pressing issues simply seems nonsensical.

Wenran Jiang, an academic in Canada who can always be counted on to echo Beijings propaganda talking points to the press, told the Globe that many Chinese Canadians who were conservative voters were very disturbed by the partys extreme anti-China positions and decided either to sit out or to vote for the Liberals.

Variations of this line were routinely used in a Beijing-affiliated disinformation campaign during the election, as a way to conflate opposition to the communist regime and its policies with targeting the Chinese community. In a few ridings, there is evidence that these efforts might have been successful in yielding results favourable to Beijings interests. The case of Kenny Chiu, the Conservative MP who lost his seat in the Steveston-Richmond riding, is a testament to this. His campaign was derailed by ridiculous accusations of being anti-Chinese for advocating policies that would protect Canada, and indeed, the Chinese and Hong Kong diaspora in Canada, from Beijings espionage.

Unfortunately, this has seemed to haunt the Conservative psyche since the election, as figures within the party have bought into this farcical idea that its China hawkishness did more to alienate than attract voters. Many have fretted over the Partys supposed failure to communicate with their voters, particularly on making it clear that their gripe is with the Chinese Communist Party rather than Chinese people as a whole. This is nonsense, given the tiresome lengths to which the Conservative foreign policy platform and speeches already went to make this point quite plain to the public.

Furthermore, polls conducted within the last year have consistently indicated that the Canadian public can see this difference and desire a principled policy toward China. A poll done by Nanos in October following the release of the two Michaels, for example, showed that 76 percent of those surveyed agreed that Canada should restrict or ban Huawei from participating in our 5G network. Majorities also said they were opposed to deepening business ties with China and that any trade deals should be delayed, while 87 percent said Canada should support allies such as the United States, Britain, and Australia in their efforts to confront China.

Canadians have long sought a change on China and desire principled leadership to bring this about. The work done by the committee could be a critical piece to this. The previous committee, formed two years ago after the Bloc and NDP supported a Conservative motion, gave its members opportunities to tackle issues that would usually not get the time of day during question period. The members did much to expose and investigate the CCPs infiltration of Canadian institutions, particularly regarding the episode involving the two Chinese-born scientists at the National Virology Lab in Winnipeg. Testimonies from government officials such as New Brunswicks Education Minister Dominic Cardy have also clarified the threat posed by Chinese entities such as the Confucius Institute and why we should take necessary measures to rid Canadian schools of them.

The committee would play a pivotal role in our ongoing debates about how to address the Uyghur genocide, persecution of different groups including the Falun Gong and Tibetans, destruction of democracy in Hong Kong, attacks on the sovereignty of Taiwan, and tackle Beijings aggression in areas such as the South China Sea.

The space it created allowed parliamentarians to have a much more sophisticated debate about Canadian interests and how our thinking about foreign policy should evolve in the face of Chinas rise.

Simply put, it is in Canadians best interests that this committee be revived, and Canadas opposition parties should not be afraid to do so.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ryanair CEO Says Unvaccinated Shouldnt Be Allowed to Enter Hospitals, Supermarkets, or Airplanes

Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary has said that unvaccinated people should not be allowed to enter hospitals, supermarkets, or travel in airplanes and some other forms of public transport.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, OLeary said that while he doesnt agree with mandatory COVID-19 vaccine programs, he does believe that governments should make life difficult for those who refuse vaccines without a good enough reason.

Mandatory vaccine programs, enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are currently in place in the United States after President Joe Biden in September issued a sweeping set of new rules for employees regarding vaccinations and testing.

The rules are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4 and dictate that employers with 100 or more employees ensure each of their workers is fully vaccinated or that they test for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. All unvaccinated workers must also wear a mask in the workplace.

Health care employees working at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid, including hospitals and long-term care facilities, must also be fully vaccinated, which is set to affect more than 17 million workers.

In the United Kingdom, as of April 2022, all National Health Service workers who have direct contact with patients will need to have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine after lawmakers gave the measure the green light last week.

I dont think that governments should permit those people who are not vaccinated to go and infect everybody else, OLeary said. If youre not vaccinated, you shouldnt be allowed in the hospital, you shouldnt be allowed to fly, you shouldnt be allowed on the London Underground, and you shouldnt be allowed in the local supermarket or your pharmacy either.

You can sit at home and you know, get your deliveries of medicines and food. But you should not, you know, go to work or go on public transport unless you have a vaccine certificate, he said.

The Ryanair CEO noted that while he believes mandatory vaccines would be an infringement of your civil liberties, governments could simply make life so difficult. Or [make it that] there are lots of things that you cant do unless you get vaccinated.

OLearys comments come after White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients warned that unvaccinated individuals are facing a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm, amid the new Omicron variant.

Speaking during a briefing on Sunday, Zients urged people to get vaccinated or receive boosters if theyre eligible, in line with Bidens rhetoric in recent months.

The new variant of the virus, which causes COVID-19, has seen American schools, businesses, and restaurants shutter their doors while events have been canceled as a precautionary measure as fears surrounding the virus continue to grow.

Meanwhile, governments across the globe have put in place various travel restrictions to stem the spread of the disease, caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

However, few Omicron-related deaths have been officially confirmed worldwide, and it is still unclear if any have been reported in the United States. The UK has so far reported 12 deaths of people with the new variant, as the government debates on whether or not to tighten restrictions during the Christmas period.

Elsewhere, OLeary said Ryanair is expecting to fly one million fewer passengers during December due to the latest travel restrictions, which represents a fall of 10 percent.

If theres continuing uncertainty over Christmas on further restrictions or some kind of further restrictions, then January will be weak and the forward bookings in Easter and next summer will be weakso we just dont know, he said, adding that the UK and Irish governments are just trying to lock everybody down for another two weeks up to Christmas.

And these restrictions will be removed, but they will effectively have, you know, blocked a lot of people traveling or who are planning to fly over Christmas because theyve created huge uncertainty and nervousness, he said.
A butterfly collects nectar from a flower in a field in Singapore on July 6, 2021. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP)

San Diego Butterfly Declared a Threatened Species for Protection

SAN DIEGOThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Dec. 20 declared one of Southern Californias rarest butterfliesthe Hermes copper butterflyas a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency also designated 35,000 acres in San Diego County as a protected critical habitat. The butterfly declined from at least 57 historical populations to only 26 populations in a survey this year.

The Hermes copper butterfly is one of several threatened or endangered butterflies in our region, said Paul Souza, regional director for the agencys California-Great Basin Region.

We are also issuing a special rule that will provide flexibility for our partners engaged in important wildfire prevention and species research activities while providing protection for this rare butterfly.

The rule tailors protection for the species while allowing activities that do not harm recovery, including habitat restoration, species research and management of fuel breaks to reduce wildfire threats.

The Center for Biological Diversity had been fighting for nearly 30 years to gain protection for this species.

Without Endangered Species Act protection, the Hermes copper butterfly would surely be pushed into extinction by Southern Californias rampant development, wildfires driven by climate change and invasive plants, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the center. Im relieved to finally see this beautiful little butterfly and its habitat protected.

The small, bright yellow-orange, spotted Hermes copper is found only in San Diego County and northwestern Baja California, Mexico, where it inhabits coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats. Its survival depends on dwindling patches of its host plant, the spiny redberry.

The center said that increasingly frequent and severe wildfires have also ravaged the butterflys primary source of nectar, the California buckwheat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also warned that a single large wildfire could wipe out all remaining populations of the butterflies.

The protected habitat is in three areas:
Sen. Cory Booker speaks as Sen. Elizabeth Warren listens at the first U.S. 2020 presidential election Democratic candidates debate in Miami, Fla., on June 26, 2019. (Mike Segar/File Photo/Reuters)

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker Test Positive for COVID-19

Two senators, who are both vaccinated and boosted, have reported testing positive for COVID-19 while suffering only mild symptoms from the disease on Sunday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced her breakthrough case, given her fully vaccinated status including boosters, on Twitter.

I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case, she said.

The Democrat added that she was only experiencing mild symptoms, which she attributed to be protection from serious illness given by the vaccine and its booster shots.

I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted.  Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 19, 2021

She urged everyone to get vaccinated, and also for the vaccinated to get a booster shot as soon as possible.

Together, we can save lives, Warren wrote.

Shortly after, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker also said on Twitter that he has tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

Booker said he first started feeling symptoms on Saturday, and that they are relatively mild. He also encouraged those eligible for the vaccine to get vaccinated and boosted.

Im beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a boosterIm certain that without them I would be doing much worse, he added.

It is unclear which strain of the CCP virus the senators have contracted. The Omicron variant currently accounts for around 3 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United Statesup from 0.4 percent last week. The remaining 97 percent are attributed to the Delta variant.

South African health ministry officials said on Dec. 17 that based on government data, the number of Omicron variant patients in the hospital is one-tenth that of Delta patients during its initial phase. Previously, top-level medical authorities in the country said the variant appears to present milder symptoms than the Delta or Alpha variants.

On Friday, Southwest Airlines said its Chief Executive Gary Kelly tested positive for COVID-19 after appearing at a U.S. Senate Commerce hearing on Wednesday alongside other airline industry executives. Southwest said Kelly was vaccinated and recovering at home.

Warren and Booker are not members of the Commerce Committee.

In August, three other U.S. senatorsRepublican Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Democrat John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and independent Angus King of Maine all tested positive for COVID-19.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also said in August he had tested positive. All four were vaccinated and subsequently recovered.

Other senators who previously tested positive and recovered include Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
The logo of SenseTime is seen at SenseTime office, in Shanghai on December 13, 2021. (Reuters/Aly Song)

SenseTime Relaunches $767 Million Hong Kong IPO After US Investment Ban

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm SenseTime Group said on Dec. 20 that it will relaunch the $767 million Hong Kong ($98.3 million) initial public offering a week after the United States bans American investment in the company.

SenseTime kept its target of selling 1.5 billion shares at a price between HK$3.85 ($0.49) and $HK3.99 ($0.51) each, according to its revised filings to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The final offer price will be set on Dec. 23.

The companys trading debut is due to start on Dec. 30, the company said in the filing.

SenseTime had previously planned to start trading on Dec. 17, but was derailed due to U.S. sanctions. The United States put an investment ban on U.S. investment in the company on Dec. 10 for its role in developing facial recognition software used in the communist regimes suppression of Uyghur Muslims.

Over one million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in internment camps in Chinas far-western Xinjiang region, where they have been subjected to forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, and political indoctrination. The United States and other Western democracies have labeled Beijings actions a genocide.

School children walk past surveillance cameras in Akto, south of Kashgar, in Chinas western Xinjiang region on June 4, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

The company denied the accusation on Monday.

SenseTime said its inclusion on the U.S. blacklist did not affect its business operations, but added the resulting lack of U.S. investors could impede its ability to raise funds and reduce trading liquidity.

Five of the nine cornerstone investors have been replaced after the U.S. sanctions. According to Mondays filings, the biggest new investor is the Shanghai Xuhui Capital Investment Co. which is backed by the local government of Xuhui District in Shanghai.

The AI start-up will rely on cornerstone investors to buy about $511 million ($65.5 million), or around 67 percent of shares. It was increased from $450 million ($57.7 million), or 58 percent, of subscriptions previously.

SenseTime has already been barred from buying or using U.S. technology or components after the Trump administration put it on the U.S. Department of Commerces entity list in 2019 for the same reason.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Becky Crosby and daughters attending the Shen Yun Performing at the Arts North Charleston Performing Arts Center, North Charleston, S.C. on Dec. 19, 2021. (Yawen Hung/Epoch Times)

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.Becky Crosby, her children, and a friend were amazed by Shen Yun Performing Arts when they attended its matinee performance at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center.

Shen Yun, a Chinese classical dance and music company, has set itself a mission to revive Chinas authentic 5,000-year-old culture thus bringing it back from the brink of extinction.

Crosby, an interior designer, and her children were entranced by the performance of the Plum Blossoms in Spring dance, which depicts courage and resilience.

The plum blossoms were absolutely beautiful and how in sync they were. And just the continuity. And how [the dancers]  are so simple on their feet, theres no sound. Theyre just magical. The storyline was amazing and it was a great experience for my friend, Crosby said.

[The costumes were] absolutely beautiful: the detail, the colors, the combinations from one side of the color wheel to the other and pulling them together. They were so vibrant. It was amazing.

Shen Yun was very educational for the whole family and it piqued their curiosity, she said.

Each dance depicts an event from Chinas ancient dynasties, fables, moral or religious lessons as well as ethnic and folk culture.

The music was amazing and beautiful, said Crosby. [The children had] never seen a live orchestra before, so that was fabulous.

Shen Yuns digital innovation allows for seamless interaction between projection and the action on stage.

It was amazing how [Shen Yun] was able to correlate the screen and the live people together. It was completely in sync, Crosby said.

Mike Cuicci, who works in real estate, and his family were also in the audience.

Mikes impression of Shen Yun wasvery strong, charismatic, beautiful, and very articulate.

It was a beautiful performance and I loved the story that it told. And I also loved the visual aspects with the vivid colors and it was truly a treat, he said.

The dancing told a story  and I could feel the passion and I could feel the strength of the dancing and how beautiful it was too.  Mike Cuicci

Ciucci was also impressed with the Plum Blossom in Spring dance.

The dancing told a story  and I could feel the passion and I could feel the strength of the dancing and how beautiful it was too, he said.

Mike applauded Shen Yuns mission of reviving Chinas authentic ancient culture.

I think its wonderful to be allowed to be exposed to [Chinas] culture because the cultures been around for so long and here  in the United States were [not even] 400 years old  Chinese Culture [has] such a long heritage [and is] so strong and so powerful and so beautiful , Ciucci said.

Ciucci said that his exposure to Chinese culture and its heritage as depicted by Shen Yuns performers was an awesome experience.

Reporting by Yawen Hung and Diane Cordemans.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Smith College Ex-staffer Sues Over Anti-White Racism, Ideological Struggle Sessions

Former Smith College administrative employee Jodi Shaw, a white woman, is suing the elite school in federal court for retaliation and racial discrimination including forced participation in humiliating ideological indoctrination sessions.

David Pitvorak, who describes himself in his Twitter biography as an individual rights attorney taking on Critical Race Theory in the courts, is representing Shaw in the lawsuit.

We allege that Smith forced Shaw to undergo ritual racial humiliation and tasked her with implementing policies that racially segregated and discriminated against students, Pitvorak tweeted.

The 101-page lawsuit was filed Dec. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

In addition to Smith College, the two other defendants are Smith employees Kia Brown and Hannah Durrant. Brown is identified as Assistant Director of Housing Operations; Durrant was Shaws supervisor and Director of Residence Life.

Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite womens colleges in the Northeast. The average annual cost of attending the school is $75,842, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Notable alumnae include former first ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan, feminist Gloria Steinem, and writer Sylvia Plath.

In recent years Smith College has fostered a toxic climate of racial fear, hostility, and exclusion that has been felt most deeply by lower-level employees like Shaw, a single mother of two, who, while simply trying to make ends meet, suddenly found themselves thrust into the middle of an ideologically driven campaign of race-essentialism and collective guilt pushed by the school, according to Shaws legal complaint.

The college adopted an official policy of viewing every aspect of its operations through a racial lens; one that distorts all whites into malevolent oppressors and all people of color into hapless victims, regardless of any individuals actual position or status. The policy permeated every decision and action taken by the school.

While she worked there, Shaw was denied a significant professional career advancement opportunity when she was told by her supervisors that they canceled an orientation program she organized because you are white. She was also expected to run a Residential Life Curriculum in which students were directed to project stereotypes and assumptions onto themselves and others based on skin color. The college asked Shaw to maintain affinity houses, which consisted of student housing segregated along racial lines.

During a professional development retreat at which attendance was compulsory, Shaw was publicly humiliated for not admitting to white supremacy and white privilege and was continually expected to submit to shaming and harassing group race therapy as an ongoing condition of employment.

The college harassed her, Shaw claims in the complaint.

When she objected to the offending policies and the racially hostile environment at Smith College, the defendants retaliated against her, attempted to stymie her efforts to file an internal complaint, and then hedged and delayed their investigation. Defendants steadily removed Plaintiffs job responsibilities, denied her promotional opportunities consistent with all of her colleagues, placed her on furlough, launched a pretextual investigation into her email usage, and deliberately made any further employment at Smith College impossible for Shaw.

Smith College denies wrongdoing.

We are aware of Ms. Shaws latest lawsuit, which arises from allegations that were fully and independently investigated over a year ago, with no finding that Smith College discriminated or retaliated against Ms. Shaw in any way, said Stacey Schmeidel, Senior Director for News and Strategic Communications at Smith College.

Schmeidel provided a copy of a letter the colleges lawyers sent to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination on May 13.

The letter attacks Shaw, accusing her of leading a national media campaign to disparage the Colleges efforts at preventing discrimination and creating a more equitable and inclusive environment. When her campaign raised several hundreds of thousands of dollarsenough to fund her litigation, cover her living expenses and hire a personal assistantMs. Shaw voluntarily resigned from her employment with Smith.

Schmeidel noted that Shaw subsequently withdrew her claim that was before the state commission.

As this is pending litigation, we will not comment further, except to state that the college will continue to defend against her latest claims, Schmeidel said in an email to The Epoch Times.
So You Wanna Move (to a Red State)?

Commentary

In the now three and a half years since I have decamped with my family from Los Angeles to Nashvillesome have called us early adoptersI have spent considerable time on phone, email and texts with old friends and acquaintances in New York and California who are asking me what its like. Am I happy? Should they move? Whats bestFlorida, Tennessee, Texas or someplace else?

Although answering the question should they move? for someone else is rather like answering for them should they marry or divorceits too big a decision and really none of your businessthat doesnt stop me from almost universally saying yes.

I do this because I have been in L.A. and NY lately and know them to have turned into the ghosts of their former selvesbasically hellholes.

I havent been to Chicago for a few years, but it seems to be, if anything, worse. And when I was in L.A., covering the late, lamented Larry Elder campaign, I didnt even want to go to San Francisco. That was a Golden Gate Bridge too far.

Its not just the pervasive homelessness and the escalating Clockwork Orange-like ultra-violence, the actual souls of the cities that I knew very wellborn in NY and lived decades in LAseem to have vanished.

Who wants to sing New York, New York or I Love L.A. anymore? And can you imagine leaving your heart in San Francisco? What has happened is a true American tragedyand its not just because of COVID, although that helped. The cancer has been growing for a long time.

It could be said you should stay to help resuscitate these cities although I would argue you do more for them by leaving, making those governing the citiesuniversally Democrats, as everybody knowsand even more those dopey enough to have voted for that governance, wake up.

And yet and yet and yet moving is not easy. And Im not just talking about the onerous task of packing up years of possessions and trucking them cross country. Thats bad enough, though transitory.

You carry yourself, your quirks and neuroses, with you wherever you go from Knoxville to Kuala Lumpur and you dont know exactly the extent of that until you are forced, or force yourself, to change years of habit.

Just as much, the places you are going have their own quirks and neuroses, their own patterns, also established for years. Where do you fit in?

Moving from a blue state to a red state is not an instant transformation yielding spiritual and political liberation. There is work to be doneon yourself and on the locale itself.

I can speak most accurately about what it means to move to the Nashville area but I would imagine its a paradigm for some other migrations.

In itself Metro Nashville, as they call it, embodies the culture clash we are seeing across America. Nashville the city, contiguous with Davidson County, is decidedly blue, while neighboring Williamson County, really part of the metropolitan areaI described it earlier as Republican Heavenis red, although problems exist there as well, especially in their supposedly vaunted schools. The state is, of course, quite red.

People and businesses are pouring into the area in droves. An article just the other day in the liberal San Francisco ChronicleWhat Austin felt like 10 years ago: Is Nashville the next hot spot in the Bay Area exodus?gives some idea of what is happening.

Who is coming hereand to other red states? Conservative families escaping the depressing Woke hegemony of the blue states or young technocrats, largely liberal or progressive, chasing high-paying jobs at the new installations being built here by Amazon and Oracle.

So far, on balance, I would say the former still hold sway. That seems to be true in Florida as well, where Governor DeSantis policies, moreshall we sayforthright than those of many local GOP politicians here in Tennessee, have engendered a Republican majority in that state for the first time. Georgia seems more problematic.

Although daily life is considerably better heremost Democrats in red states are not as hardline progressive as those in blue states and lockdowns are not in the offing; fewer people are masked; restaurants dont ask for vaccine cards and so fortha war is very much going on for the hearts and minds of red America.

As I was writing this a friend sent me a link to an article in the Tennessean, the conventionally liberal but not wildly sophisticated local paper: Williamson County Schools working to identify people who distributed flyers against Wit & Wisdom.

Williamson County Schools is working to identify people who distributed flyers outside at least 11 elementary schools and one middle school. The district said the individuals were in violation of policy because they did not have permission to be on the campuses.

The unapproved visitors distributed materials in opposition of a disputed English language curriculum Dec. 16. Local conservative nonprofits Parents Choice Tennessee and the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty were named on the materials.

Actually it wasnt just the moms this time. I have been informed some dads may have been involved too.

You can guess the contents of the disputed euphemistically-titled Wit & Wisdom curriculum. AOC and Ilhan Omar would definitely approve.

This is another skirmish in the ongoing battle for the hearts and minds I just mentioned.

If you choose to move here or to one of the other red or reddish destinations, you will have the opportunity to get involved in that struggle by engaging in local politics. Those who are of a conservative turn of mind often find themselves much more drawn to local politics than they were at home because here they have more allies and more avenues. Also, they can make a greater impact, so it is actually more rewarding.

A surprising number of newcomers do. We did.

I have good deal more to say about all this. The internal migration going on across America is complicated, to say the least, and potentially revolutionary in a good way. I am thinking of detailing my observations in a book.

If I do, I will let you know here to solicit stories from the many readers, I suspect, who have their own moving tales (pun intended) to share.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Supply Chain Chaos Plagues Australian Businesses

Australias economic recovery has been stunted by an international supply chain crisis, with businesses struggling to secure critical suppliesa problem many expect will persist into 2022.

The pandemic wrought by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has made timely sea freight a rare commodity, with the intermittent closure of ports cascading into the clogging of shipping lanes and delays in deliveries.

In Australia, lockdowns, border closures, and travel restrictions have placed further strain on freight deliveries due to the surge in demand for imported goods as consumers spend more time shopping online.

A survey by Australias peak industry body, Ai Group, revealed that these facts have resulted in close to two-thirds of all businesses reporting the year 2021 to have proven more difficult in sourcing supplies compared with earlier on in the pandemic in 2020.

A food delivery worker rides alone during a two-week lockdown in the central business district of Sydney on June 26, 2021. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)

And more than half of Australian businesses expect this to continue in 2022, with only 17 percent feeling optimistic about sourcing new supplies in the next year.

Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox warned that this situation was projected to only moderately ease by 2023.

These pressures can undermine our economic recovery from the pandemic and ultimately dampen economic growth, Willox said.

Australias economic development relies heavily on shipping, with one in five jobs connected to trade98 percent of which is made by sea.

Many businesses have opted to place stockpiling as a priority to ensure uninterrupted supply to cover for periods of trade delays.

But Willox noted that some businesses had instead shifted away from doing business with riskier regions altogether.

There is increasing concern about geostrategic tensions, trade conflicts and their associated unknowns, Willox said.

This creates real risks for businesses reliant on distant suppliers and generates an incentive to change the way they do business, and to avoid over-dependency on particular countries or regions (especially those where trade or diplomatic tensions exist).

Workers produce adhesive tapes for flexible printed circuits at a factory in Yancheng in Chinas eastern Jiangsu Province on Sept.15, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Over the last two years, Beijing attempted to punish Canberra through a politically motivated trade war that saw sanctions imposed on Australian coal, wine, barley, beef, lobster, timber, and cottonmany industries which have since successfully found other export opportunities.

However, many businesses have highlighted their desire to source locally instead to avoid this.

One business, in particular, noted that sales had seen a positive trend for some time after customers opted to buy locally to reduce reliance on overseas supply that was prone to delays and uncertainties.

However, Ai Group noted that, in reality, some products were either not produced economically in Australia or still depended on overseas components in their supply chains.

For example, despite being one of the worlds leaders in solar uptakewith one in four homes and non-residential buildings installing rooftop solarAustralia does not have a domestic solar manufacturing industry, except for one company that assembles pre-made components shipped from China.

Read More 90 Percent of Australias Imported Solar Panels Are Made in China

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had previously added fuel to a growing trade-diversification sentiment, expressing concern about Australias over-dependence on China for trade.

We do not want to be needing China for anything that is absolutely critical to our long-term future  If we are dependent on China for that, we could certainly find ourselves deprived of it when we need it most, Abbott said in an interview with Hudson Institute on Nov. 1.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is seen at his confirmation hearing to serve as associate justice on the Supreme Court at the Capitol in Washington, on Sept. 4, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Supreme Court Asks Biden Administration to Respond to Flurry of Challenges to OSHA Mandate

President Joe Bidens administration was directed on Monday to reply to a flurry of fresh challenges to its private employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee, told administration officials to file responses to applications from faith groups, companies, and attorneys general from over half the states in the country by 4 p.m. on Dec. 30.

Thats just days before the mandates deadline.

This case is finally where it belongs: the Supreme Court. OSHA has threatened to start punishing employers like our clients starting on January 10, and were grateful the court has ordered a briefing schedule that will allow for resolution of our petition before that deadline, Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Were very pleased with Justice Kavanaughs quick response and are confident that the court will act quickly to ensure legal predictability before the deadline, John Bursch, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, added.

Kavanaugh is dealing with the matter because the appeals court that issued the ruling that prompted the challenges is under his jurisdiction.

The mandate in question was promulgated by the Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). If allowed to take effect next month, it will force every business with 100 or more employees to get proof of a negative COVID-19 test on at least a weekly basis or proof of vaccination from each worker. Companies that dont comply would face escalating fines.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in November entered a preliminary injunction against the mandate, questioning its constitutionality. But the case was redirected by lottery to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which on Friday dissolved the stay.

OSHA said it was gratified by the ruling and would begin imposing the mandate on Jan. 10, 2022. The official deadline, though, is Jan. 4.

The rule could be paused anew by the Supreme Court, which quickly received appeals from the Word of God Fellowship, The Heritage Foundation, Ohios attorney general, BST Holdings, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Absent a new stay, parties would be irreparably harmed, they argued in the filings.

Institutions fear losing workers who dont want to get a vaccine and also dont want to get tested regularly, possibly at their own cost.

South Dakota and Florida public schools are not subject to the mandate and could attract teachers away from religious private schools, lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in one of the documents.

Challengers say the administration is violating the state authority outlined in the U.S. Constitution and going beyond the powers Congress gave OSHA to regulate businesses.

OSHA says the mandate will protect the health of workers by mitigating the spread of the unprecedented virus in the workplace.

The agency was referring to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.
The Death of Criminal Justice Reform

Commentary

Are there are any other issues confronting our fractious republic that matter if Americans themselves are too scared to walk outside, lest they be mugged by a bail reform-freed perp or shot by a gangbanger in a drive-by shooting? As we get ready to close the chapter on this bloody year of 2021, that is the question all policymakers and all public-minded citizens ought to be asking themselves.

Fortunately, if there is a silver lining to be found amid the unprecedented urban looting, the horrific anecdotes of children shot while playing outside, and the historic overall homicide rates afflicting so many of Americas biggest cities, it is that many seem to be arriving at a long-overdue and much-welcomed consensus: The era of criminal justice reform is finally over.

Good riddance.

The national murder rate in 2020 rose over 30 percent on a year-by-year basis, as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis soon unleashed a hellish summer of riotous mayhem. But murder rates in 2021 have only further spiked, even compared to that harrowing baseline of one year prior. The Manhattan Institutes Rafael Mangual broke it down in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: Philadelphia just shattered its all-time annual homicide record with a full month remaining in 2021, as have Louisville, Ky.; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas; Tucson, Ariz.; St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Fayetteville, N.C. Other cities, like Cincinnati; Trenton, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; Kansas City, Mo.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Denver; Cleveland; Jackson, Miss.; Wichita, Kan.; Greensboro, N.C.; Lansing, Mich.; and Colorado Springs, Colo., saw their highest homicide tallies since 1990 last year.

To drive that point home, earlier this year, the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice concluded that the post-Floyd 2020 crime surge represented a large and troubling increase with no modern precedent in U.S. history. And the data now clearly show that 2021 has been even worse than 2020 was. Perhaps this bloody status quo is OK for a third-world banana republic but it is decidedly not OK for the would-be greatest country in the world.

Thankfully, some recent trend lines finally seem to point in the right directionthat is, away from decarceral anarchy, and toward civilizational sanity.

In July, Eric Adams won New York Citys Democratic mayoral primary, paving the way for his eventual and now-impending mayoralty. While Adams is hardly an ideal choice, his campaigning as a no-nonsense retired police officer does suggest at least a mild rebuke to the anti-cop lawlessness that characterized Mayor Bill de Blasios destructive tenure.

Other optimistic data points abound. Last month in Minneapolis, where Floyd himself was killed, voters overwhelmingly rejected a noxious defund initiative that would have replaced the municipal police department with an amorphous mix of social workers. It is not difficult to understand why: Through September 2021, gunshots fired in Minneapolis had risen in volume 380 percent over the same period in 2019.

Also last month, in Seattle, a notorious haven of radical-left progressive lunacy (Does anyone even remember the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone of 2020?), a Republican who campaigned on a law-and-order message prevailed in the citys district attorney election. For context as to how far-left Seattle normally is, the Emerald Citys nine city council members include eight Democrats and one member from the Socialist Alternative party, which self-describes as an overtly Marxist outfit.

Most recently, the Democratic mayor of the most iconic far-left city in America, San Francisco, pulled no punches in her condemnation of anarchy. In the aftermath of numerous well-publicized instances of looting and vandalizing in downtown San Francisco and its surrounding needle-bestrewn and feces-bespeckled environs, Mayor London Breed unloaded: The reign of criminals in our city, it is time for it to come to an end. And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policy, and less tolerant of all the bulls that has destroyed our city. Hear, hear.

In recent decades, progressives and libertarians, from far-left activist George Soros to the right-of-center Texas Public Policy Foundation, have often made common cause on a cancerous criminal justice reform agenda. That agenda usually prioritizes minimizing or eliminating bail, reducing criminal sentences, abolishing qualified immunity, electing anti-prosecution district attorneys, downsizing police departments, and other decivilizational measures.

God willing, it seems like the jig may finally be up. Republicans have by-and-large moved back toward their traditional law-and-order posture, and even many Democrats seem fed up with our roiling national bedlam. Criminal justice reform, it seems, may have finally met its death sentence.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Outdoor survivalist Roland Welker embodies gutsiness and a love for the wild

Roland Welker is as tough as they come. Hes a bushman, fur trapper, big game guide, logger, and survivalist who spends months at a time alone, deep in the wilderness of the western Bush region of Alaska. His tough exterior is evidenced in the dirt embedded deep in his fingertips, his raspy yet animated voice, and his calm and unflappable demeanor as he chops wood, butchers a fresh kill, or builds a shelter. Hes tough, yes, but hes also incredibly reflective about the outdoors, and his call to live like the old-timers in the wild.

He calls his lifestyle getting woodsy and says its a mentalitylike a game of chesswhere you have to think about every move you make. You have to be able to look around you and utilize whats at hand. It means living like an old-timer, dependent on skills, physical fitness, and the land.

(Courtesy of Roland Welker)

A Lifetime of Experience

Welkers passion for the outdoors was ignited during his childhood growing up in the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania. Wanting to immerse himself even more into the wilderness, during his 20s, Welker set his sights on Alaska. Now 49, his outdoor experiences for the past 28 years have led him to become an expert at wilderness survival. In fall 2019, he participated in filming for Season 7 of the History Channels survivor show, ALONE, and won.

For the first time in the series, rather than determining the winner by which contestant lasted the longest before tapping out, Season 7 offered the largest prize yet: $1 million to any contestant who could last 100 days in the wilderness of the Canadian Arctic.

Welker was a natural, and his calm determination alongside a lifetime of survival experience led him to win the prize. He achieved a lot of firsts for the show, including killing an 800-pound musk ox with one arrow and a belt knife, building a shelter he termed Rock House, and building a meat cache that rivaled any contestants shelterassuring that his meat would be safe from predators. His mindset had as much to do with his success as his survival skills; Welker said he went in prepared to stay the whole winterwell over the required 100 dayswhich led him to chop wood for hours each day and allowed him to amass enough wood to get through the negative 30 to 40-degree temperatures.

The Trek to Alaska

Raised in Shiloh, Penn., by the age of 8, Welker was setting traps that he would check by flashlight before going to school. He was camping solo by age 11 and had a backpack ready by the door so he could head out each weekend. Sometimes it was with family or friends, but if no one was available, he was just as happy to go alone.

I grew up there in the 70s, Welker said. It was still kind of a really neat backwater place in the 70sa lot of farms still going, the dairy industry was still there. Theres always been logging and still is to this day; coal businesses were booming in the 70s before it went extinct. It was just a really neat time to be a boy in central PennsylvaniaShiloh, in particular.

A voracious reader, Welker said his father taught him a love of reading by introducing him to American novelist Louis LAmour and Western books. I remember him buying The Big Sky, a 1947 Western novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr. The book paints a portrait of life for mountain men between 1830 to 1843. Welker said he has read the book 30 or 40 times. Its my favorite. People say I kind of became a character from that book. Its almost scary.

At 24, Welker struck out for Alaska, eventually making his way to Red Devil by accident. Red Devil, Alaska, had a population of 23 as of the 2010 national census. Welker fished and hunted along the Kuskokwim River.

(Courtesy of Roland Welker)

This is mountain country. It was winter and ice was running when I arrived, and this was my first Alaska winter. I was getting into the thick quick, he said. Welker soon realized that this is the place I had been looking for forever. It was still frontier-y and wild west, so to speak.

Welker says he was a bit of a reckless teenager, and credits the wilderness for taming what he calls shift energythat young aggressiveness of his teen years.

I found this place [Red Devil], and I took a lot of that energy and absorbed it into major expeditions that I would fund myself. Id pick a piece of country and start calling in supplies so I could trap all winter.

Welker said his lifestyle was affected by the nations founding fathers and historical figures he learned about through reading.

I absorbed myself in every book on history that I could lay my hands on starting in the sixth grade, he said. He particularly enjoyed the works of Allan W. Eckert, a 20th-century author who wrote historical novels about Native American tribes.

Welker wanted to be like the novel protagonists. Somewhat unknowingly, I started forming myself under the likeliness of the frontiersman in the mountain at a very young age. I am not just a hunter, Im a sportsman. Im absorbed in the old traditions of frontiersmen, and thats what carried me through ALONE, he said.

Jill Dutton is a travel writer who seeks out locally celebrated foods, outdoor activities, and liquor trends. Shes passionate about telling the stories of those she meets on her travels, offering a glimpse at the culture of place. Follow Jills travels at www.USAbyRail.blog.

This article was published in American Essence magazine.
This file photo shows police in Germany blocking a highway in southern Germany on Sept. 7, 2021. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images)

Truck Crashes Into 3 US Army Vehicles on Highway in Germany

A truck crashed into several convoys that were operated by the U.S. military in Germany on Monday, leaving at least one person injured and eight soldiers hospitalized for a precautionary screening.

The incident, which German police believe to be an accident and not an attack, happened on the A3 highway near Neumarkt in Upper Palatinate on Dec. 20.

Three U.S. military vehicles, including two fuel tankers, were on the side strip of the highway and police said an articulated truck loaded with wood chips ran into one of them from behind.

The U.S. Army said there were no known injuries among its personnel, although eight soldiers had to be hospitalized with smoke inhalation. The driver of the truck had burned himself in his drivers cab, German newspaper Bild reported.

Three U.S. vehicles were traveling from Hohenfels on the motorway towards Grafenwohr, a spokesman for the 7th Army Training Command at Grafenwohr told the paper.

Because they were separated from their escort vehicles, they waited on the side of the road. This is where the crash took place, he said, adding that all three U.S. Army vehicles were totally destroyed.

Were lucky that no U.S. personnel were seriously wounded, the spokesman added.

Videos of the incident shared on social media show the wreckages of the truck and military vehicle on the highway as smoke billows into the sky.

German authorities said the A3 is currently completely blocked in both directions.

From NTD News
Afghan residents and family members of the victims gather next to a damaged vehicle inside a house, the day after a U.S. drone airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 30, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

US Bombing in Afghanistan Continued After Trumps Deal With Taliban

The U.S. military continued to bomb Afghanistan after the Taliban struck a deal with the Trump administration in February 2020 to end the two-decade war, according to newly declassified airstrike data.

The data, released Nov. 17 by Air Force Central Command (AFCENT), is the first government release of information on Afghanistan airstrikes since March 2020. The Air Force reportedly cited diplomatic concerns at the time, including how the [airstrike] reports could adversely impact ongoing discussions with the Taliban regarding Afghanistan peace talks.

According to the data, AFCENT conducted 413 airstrikes in Afghanistan from March through December 2020, following Trumps February 2020 agreement with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops. That rate is lower than the 247 strikes conducted in the years first two months, but higher than what many observers thought would occur.

This [agreement] did not explicitly commit the US to a full ceasefire, but involved the Taliban effectively committing not to attack American forces in Afghanistan during a proposed 14-month US withdrawal period. It was also assumed that US strikes would also significantly wind down, and be focused primarily on self-defense actions, the watchdog Airwars said in its analysis of the information.

Yet the newly released AFCENT data shows U.S. attacks never ceased.

AFCENT conducted another 372 airstrikes in 2021. Most of the strikes, 226, were fired in the remaining three months of American occupation as the Biden administration tried to stave off collapse of the Afghanistan government.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a Dec. 17 press conference that there have been no airstrikes in Afghanistan since the withdrawal is complete on Aug. 30.

Airwars said the data reveals that the Biden administration bombed Afghanistan more times than previously thought.

Airwars has been cautioning for some time that recent airstrike numbers for Afghanistanif revealedmight show far more US military activity under Joe Biden than many had assumed, Airwars Director Chris Woods stated in a press release. This newly released datawhich should never have been classified in the first placepoints to the urgent need for reevaluation of recent U.S. actions in Afghanistan, including likely civilian casualties.

Along with revealing that the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan continued throughout 2020 and 2021, the data also implicates the United States in more civilian deaths than previously thought, according to Airwars.

The nonprofit watchdog, launched in 2014 to track civilian harm in conflict zones, noted that 341 civilians were killed in 2020 by airstrikes. During that time, it was thought that fighting between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government was mostly responsible for the deaths, Airwars said.

According to Airwars, U.N. officials stated in 2020 that they believed Afghan Air Force strikes were now likely responsible for almost all civilian deaths from airstrikes.

The release of the previously-classified data from AFCENT radically changes that picture, Airwars said. In fact, we now know, more than 370 international strikes were carried out in 2021, which between them dropped more than 800 munitions.

Kirby announced last week that no U.S. troops will be punished for the final U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civiliansthe botched Aug. 29 bombing that officials originally claimed took out an imminent ISIS-K threat to the airport in Kabul.

What we saw here was a breakdown in process and execution in procedural events, not the result of negligence, not the result of misconduct, not the result of poor leadership, Kirby told reporters on Dec. 13. So I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29 airstrike.

The newly declassified AFCENT data comes as U.S. airstrikes face increased scrutiny. After years of Freedom of Information Act litigation, The New York Times released on Dec. 18 hundreds of Pentagon confidential assessments of reports of civilian casualties resulting from U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

Dubbed the civilian casualty files, the trove of documents reportedly shows rampant intelligence failures and other issues that contributed to more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties.

Neither AFCENT nor the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which tracks civilian deaths, responded to inquiries from The Epoch Times about the Airwars analysis.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss waits to greet three Baltic foreign ministers to Chevening House in Sevenoaks, south of London, on Oct. 11, 2021. (Hollie Adams /pool/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Foreign Secretary Takes Over Brexit Negotiations After Frosts Resignation

The UKs Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has picked up another major portfolio as the new Brexit minister, months after she took over the Foreign Office.

Truss was given the new job after former Brexit Minister David Frost resigned on Sunday evening, citing disagreements with the governments stance on lockdown restrictions, taxation, and regulation.

She will become the UKs co-chair of the Partnership Council and the Joint Committee, and will lead the ongoing negotiations to resolve the problems arising from the current operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Downing Street said in a statement.

Daventry MP Chris Heaton-Harris will move from the Department for Transport (DfT) to become Europe minister and will deputise for Truss when needed, and Aldridge-Brownhills MP Wendy Morton will move from Europe and Americas minister to replace Heaton-Harris at the DfT.

In a Twitter post on Sunday, the European Commissions Maros Sefcovic said he took note of the appointment, and will continue to cooperate with the UK in the same constructive spirit on all important tasks ahead, including the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Truss said she was pleased to take on the new responsibility and was looking forward to speaking with Sefcovic on Tuesday.

I want a comprehensive solution that delivers for the people of Northern Ireland and everyone across our great country, she wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed as part of the Brexit deal to avoid a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which may undermine the Good Friday Agreement, but it has created a de facto border in the Irish Sea.

The European Commission on Friday proposed changing its own laws to ensure the free flow of medicines between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but wider protocol-related issues are yet to be resolved, including the British demand to remove the European Court of Justices role to police the protocol.

With talks expected to resume in January, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said on Monday that the EUs position does not change.

Obviously, our position on substance, when it comes to the discussions that we have with the United Kingdom, in particular on the protocol, do not change depending on who is holding the position on the UK side, Mamer said.

Meanwhile, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said its time for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take unilateral action by triggering the emergency cause in the protocol known as Article 16.

Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill told the BBCs Sunday Politics programme that shes concerned businesses are left high and dry in terms of uncertainty because of the Brexit mess after Frosts departure, and his replacement will need to find solutions, work with the EU, make the protocol work, and provide that certainty and stability that is desperately required.

PA contributed to this report.
Members of the public receive their COVID-19 vaccine or booster at a NHS (National Health Service) bus outside an Asda Supermarket in the town of Farnworth, near Manchester in north-west England on Dec. 20, 2021. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Legal Team Applies to Have Vaccines Withdrawn Immediately

Commentary

Two weeks after having his suspension from practicing as a medical doctor overturned, Sam White and his legal team, PJH Law, have gone on the offensive. On Friday Dec. 17, they applied for undertakings from the UKs Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to withdraw the COVID vaccines within 7 days.

If it does not comply, Dr Whites team will apply for a High Court injunction without further notice to force them to do so.

The injunction is addressed to Stephen Lightfoot the Chairman of MHRA, which is an executive agency of the UK Governments Department of Health and Social Care. It regulates medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion, ensuring their safety, quality, and effectiveness. The official gov.uk website states, the agency plays a leading role in protecting and improving public health and supports innovation through scientific research and development, claiming it is: Recognised globally as an authority in its field.

Yet White believes, regarding the COVID vaccines, it has failed miserably. The full injunction application can be read here, but this is its opening paragraph: These injections are unsafe, still in clinical trial, and should be withdrawn immediately. Your failure to investigate known concerns amounts to gross negligence in office and renders you and the executive board liable for serious misconduct in office, mal or misfeasance in public office and, or, rendering all the office holders potentially liable for corporate manslaughter in that you have been wilfully blind to the known harms of the SARS-CoV-2 injections. You have taken no action. You have a lawful duty to protect the public, and you have wilfully failed in that duty.

PJH Laws demands include stopping the use and advertising of all SARS-CoV-2 injections immediately and publishing the ingredients used in the vaccines, as well as the safety checks that were carried out before their distribution. This involves: [having] the ingredients checked by independent researchers for toxicity with criminal standards of evidence gathering regarding chain of custody of the evidence. It is also asking that PCR and Lateral Flow Testing be stopped and that ivermectin be made available for treatment.

Sensationally, its final demand is that Mr. Lightfoot makes a special Christmas evening television broadcast to the nation to confirm the undertaking, accompanied by an announcement published on the MHRA website and press-released to all media.

Because the full list of ingredients in the injections was never published, White claims patients are not able to give informed consent. He cites the Doctors Hippocratic Oath which includes doing no harm and not administering toxins.

The Injunction Application also criticises the Coronavirus Act which became UK law in 2020. It eased the rules on certifying death certificates meaning the doctors who sign them may have had only limited knowledge of the deceased. I first wrote about this problem in May 2021.

It is hard to discern if COVID was the dominant cause of death without a full autopsy, but the British government document, Guidance for Doctors Completing Medical Certificates of Cause of Death in England and Wales  FOR USE DURING THE EMERGENCY PERIOD ONLY, explains autopsies are not required for COVID cases. Instead, medical practitioners are required to certify COVID as the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief.

Even medical proof is not necessary under the guidance: If before death the patient had symptoms typical of COVID- 19 infection, but the test result has not been received, it would be satisfactory to give COVID-19 as the cause of death  In the circumstances of there being no swab, it is satisfactory to apply clinical judgement.

And the death certificate can be signed by a doctor who has not treated the patient: In an emergency period, any doctor can complete the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD), when it is impractical for the attending doctor to do so.

Although doctors are supposed to record if any of these special conditions apply for possible future reappraisal, the death would still have been included in the official COVID fatalities total.

To further complicate matters, the increase in cremations rather than burials has meant post-mortems and evidence from pathological samples has also decreased. The PJH Law Injunction Application quotes a UK undertaker, John OLooney, who has written to the Chief Coroner requesting that full inquests and post-mortems are immediately resumed as he has: observed an increased number of deaths amongst young, previously fit and healthy, young men.

In some cases, doctors have relied solely on the results of a PCR test to confirm COVID as the cause of death. The test was developed by Dr. Stephen Drosten and approved by the WHO, but PJH Law questions its validity and claims the original paper written by Professor Drosten was peer reviewed and found to be academic fraud.

PCR tests have now been largely replaced by the cheaper Lateral Flow Test (LFT), but this process too has come under criticism. Following a Freedom of Information request, the MHRA revealed: The swabs used in the lateral flow test kits can be sterilised using either ethylene oxide or radiation. In high doses, both are carcinogenic, but rather than the MHRA overseeing compliance, it is left to manufacturers to ensure the residue is below the allowable limit set by the international standard ISO 10993-7:2008.

The MHRA admits: Testing on random samples of swabs by the approved body, once market approval has been given, is unusual.

Earlier in the year, the now disgraced British health minister, Matt Hancock, was criticised for paying over $1bn to American firm Innova Medical Group for huge supplies of its Chinese-made lateral flow tests, as they were deemed to be unreliable. Yet, the National Health Service is still supplying LFT self-testing kits to the British public that are made by ACON Biotech, a company registered in China.

The British Medical Journal agrees with White and argues that the UK Government should: urgently rethink the Lateral Flow Test rollout, because, the public is being misled about their accuracy.

Trying to reverse the UK Governments entire COVID policy and hold key people accountable, may seem quixotic, but Sam White and his team at PJH Law feel someone must hold it to account for steamrolling onto the entire population vaccines that are not properly tested, and without even letting people know what is in them.

I wonder if their efforts will inspire similar court actions in America and elsewhere?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
US-Based Toy Manufacturers Step Up to Void Left by Stuttering Global Supply Chains

With global shipping logistics resembling a harried crows nest these days, toy manufacturers with domestic operations are happily producing and delivering goods, tangle free. Moreover, many are expanding their facilities and increasing levels of production. Meanwhile, toy companies with overseas production arrangements battle delays and rising costs, which may impact the number of foreign-made gifts under the trees in homes throughout the country this year.

The trend to manufacture toys stateside encompasses large and small-scale producers alike. Toward the high end of the scale, Cra-Z-Art, which is powered by LaRose Industries, is upping the number of its products that are made within U.S. borders. Cra-Z-Art currently has the largest pencil factory in America, and the New Jersey-based company touts more than one million square feet of space in Florida and Tennessee.

Its newest manufacturing facility is located in Jacksonville, Florida, and will help meet growing demand for its products. Cra-Z-Art produces toys, craft kits, and art and school supplies, including Softee Dough, Cra-Z-Slimy, Cra-Z-Loom, and The Real Cotton Candy Maker.

Cra-Z-Art is very excited to be expanding and opening up another great, new production operation, Lawrence Rosen, chairman of Cra-Z-Art, stated in a press release regarding the new 315,000 square foot plant in Jacksonville, Florida. In response to our rapid growth, this second facility will allow us to substantially increase capacity and more effectively and efficiently get our products to market for consumers to enjoy.

In a global manufacturing scene, staying close to home aligns with the companys overarching goals. We are once again increasing production of our quality goods that are made right here in the U.S.A., which will ultimately contribute to the local economy of the Jacksonville region and beyond, Rosen added.

Smaller players are jumping onto the domestic manufacturing rungs also.

In 2006, Sheila Duncan, president of Larkin Ltd. in Marblehead, Massachusetts, saw a drawing her niece, who was 12 years old at the time, had made after a number of family cancer losses. The drawing served as an inspiration to what eventually became Trouble the Dog, a plush childrens character used for comfort and therapy. When she was ready to move into the production phase, Duncan ordered about 1,500 plush versions of Trouble the Dog from an overseas manufacturer. After the first order, she experienced several difficulties with the overseas operations.

It was difficult to communicate, she recalled in a conversation with The Epoch Times, as e-mails would be sent out at different time zones and the materials used in subsequent orders of Trouble the Dog werent the same as the ones in the first round.

Duncan decided to explore U.S.-based options. The path to domestic production was far from easy, as some manufacturers werent interested in working with a small company and orders for smaller amounts than what large toy companies typically request. Costs were higher in the United States as well, but Duncan persisted and eventually came into contact with the American Bear Factory in Phoenix, Arizona.

The owner of American Bear Factory spent time on the phone with me and together we figured out a way to accomplish this goal, Duncan said. The advantage is being able to pick up the phone and speak live.

The ease of communication made a world of difference for Duncan, and today, every part except the silver material for the special dog is sourced domestically.

Were proud to be made in America and happy to know that Trouble the Dog is comforting so many kids during this difficult time, Duncan added.

One of these children, Darius Noonan, received Trouble the Dog while spending time in foster care. He was later adopted, and is now on a mission to give this comfort toy to other kids in need.

For Sprout Design Lab, which turns childrens artwork and handwriting into custom jewelry, the speed of production is perhaps the biggest draw to operating in the United States. The company was founded by a small team of female engineers in Charleston, South Carolina.

We began operation in October 2020 and have kept all aspects of our businessdesign, fabrication, assembly, and shippingin the U.S.A., Jade Brown, founder at Sprout Design Lab, told The Epoch Times. Many jewelry companies estimate 8 to 10 weeks for custom pieces, but our average turnaround time is two weeks.

Operating at a local level allows the company to avoid shipping delays, cargo issues, and holdups at customs that are so often associated with overseas production. Staying in the U.S. also allows us to have continued oversight over the quality of our products, Brown explained.

Each custom piece gets inspected multiple times by our team before its shipped. Operating overseas wouldnt allow us this continued oversight and could potentially lead to quality misses and a negative customer experience.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, talks to reporters following a caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 24, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Vaccinated Colorado Rep. Crow Tests Positive for Breakthrough COVID-19 Infection

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) announced on Sunday night that he tested positive for a breakthrough COVID-19 infection but is experiencing mild symptoms.

I just returned from an official congressional delegation visit to Ukraine and tested positive for a breakthrough COVID infection, Crow, who is vaccinated, wrote on Twitter. Im thankful to be fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing only mild symptoms (the vaccine is safe and effective).

While COVID-19 vaccines are somewhat effective at preventing infection, serious illness, and death, they are not 100 percent effective, and some individuals who are fully vaccinated can still contract the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. This is referred to as a vaccine breakthrough infection.

An individual with a vaccine breakthrough infection is still at risk of spreading the virus to others but is less likely to develop serious side effects compared to someone who is unvaccinated, as per the CDC.

Crow, a Democrat, also urged everyone to get vaccinated if theyre eligible.

Everyone eligible should get vaccinated and boosted to help prevent major illness and protect our community. Ill continue to push for affordable access to rapid, reliable testing for all Americans, he said.

Crows announcement came shortly after two other Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), also revealed Sunday that they tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

Both senators, who are vaccinated and boosted, said they were suffering only mild symptoms from the disease.

I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case, Warren wrote on Twitter. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted.

As cases increase across the country, I urge everyone who has not already done so to get the vaccine and the booster as soon as possible  together, we can save lives, Warren added.

In a statement, Booker said: I learned today that I tested positive for COVID-19 after first feeling symptoms on Saturday. My symptoms are relatively mild. Im beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster  Im certain that without them I would be doing much worse.

None of the three senators provided details as to which strain of the virus they had contracted. However, their announcements come amid a surge in cases across the globe and the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Omicron currently accounts for around 3 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United Statesup from 0.4 percent last week. The remaining 97 percent are attributed to the Delta variant.

Melanie Sun contributed to this report.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks at a campaign rally at the Chesterfield County Airport in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 1, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Virginia Gov.-Elect Youngkin Picks Next Education Secretary

Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin on Monday announced his first Cabinet pick, naming Aimee Rogstad Guidera as secretary of education.

The appointment continues his promised commitment to reform education, including ending mask mandates for children at schools, removing sexually explicit books from school libraries, and removing critical race theory from school curricula.

Home to some of the nations highest-achieving schools, Virginia during last months gubernatorial election saw suburban voters in key districts swing towards Youngkin, a Republican running on a platform in favor of parental rights in education. Meanwhile, Youngkins opponent, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, lost his bid for a second term amid widespread criticism after saying parents shouldnt tell schools what to teach.

In a statement announcing the Cabinet secretary, Youngkin praised Guidera as a nationally recognized leader advocating for innovation and choice, data-driven reform, and high standards.

Aimee will be a critical partner in restoring expectations of excellence; overseeing a record education budget to invest in teachers, facilities and special education; rolling out innovation lab and charter schools; and standing for a curriculum that prepares Virginias children for a dynamic future and removes politics from the classroom, said Youngkin, who will take office on Jan. 15, 2022.

Guidera is the the founder and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign, a non-profit organization that promotes data literacy among educators and education policy makers. She previously served as the director of the Washington D.C. office of the National Center for Educational Achievement and worked on education policy at the National Governors Association.

Speaking at last months Republican Governors Association annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, Youngkin said his focus on parents concerns about education played a key role in winning Virginia by a margin of 2.1 percentage points, or about 67,000 votes out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast.

The polls kept telling us that education was the seventh or eighth or ninth most important issue, Youngkin said, reported the Associated Press. Let me tell you, it is the top issue right now, and Republicans across the country can own this topic.

Prior to the Nov. 2 election, Youngkin promised that he would ban critical race theory from Virginia classrooms on day one as governor.

What we know is [critical race theory] teaches children to see everything through a lens of race and then to divide them into buckets and have children that are called privileged and others that are victims, and its just wrong, Youngkin said during an Oct. 31 interview with Fox News. And it, in fact, forces our kids to compete against one another and steals their dreams.

In the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were called to judge one another based on the content of our character and not the color of our skin, he continued. Thats why theres no place for critical race theory in our school system, and why, on day one, Im going to ban it.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters' questions during a press conference in Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2021. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Voter Turnout Plunges to Record Low in Hong Kong in Patriots-Only Election

Low turnout marred the first legislative election in Hong Kong under new rules written by Beijing, which was to ensure its preferred candidates win.

Only 30 percent of registered voters or about 1,350,680 people cast their ballots on Dec. 19almost half that of the previous legislative poll in 2016according to Hong Kongs top election official. Over 50 percent voted in the 2012 poll, driven by anti-Beijing sentiment.

The Sunday turnout is also the lowest since the British handed the city over to China in 1997. The previous record low for a legislative election was 43.6 percent in 2000.

Meanwhile, 2 percent of the votes in the Dec. 19 election were invalid, including blank votesa record high, according to local media calculations.

Some said that the lack of choice in candidates dampened public enthusiasm for voting, after Beijing made electoral changes in March to secure more political power for its loyalists in Hong Kong.

Voters from the general public could directly elect 40 representatives in the 70-seat legislative council in 2012 but now can only decide 20 seats among the expanded 90-seat assembly.

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) vetted the candidates so that only patriots could run, pro-democracy candidates are now largely absent. The Dec. 19 election saw Hong Kongs largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, fielding no candidates for the first time since the 1997 handover.

People queue up to vote outside a polling station in Hong Kong on Dec. 19, 2021. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

As a result, candidates loyal to the CCP won a landslide victory.

Results came out on the morning of Dec. 20. Candidates who back the citys current leadership and Beijing were expected to dominate the new legislature.

Most of the dozen or so candidates who called themselves moderates, including former democratic lawmaker Frederick Fung, failed to gain a seat.

London-based NGO Hong Kong Watch released a statement titled Hong Kongs sham elections discredited by absence of opposition, criticizing the election as a farce in the citys post-democracy era.

Johnny Patterson, Policy Director of Hong Kong Watch, said: The Communist Party in Beijing decided that an easy way of winning the election would be to lock up the entire opposition and rig the rules. This is not a democratic vote, it is a propaganda exercise which has no legitimacy.

Hong Kong police arrested 53 pro-democracy activists, former lawmakers, and politicians on Jan. 6, in local authorities largest clampdown on the citys opposition camp since the CCPs imposed a draconian security law that penalizes vaguely-defined crimes such as subversion and secession with a maximum of life imprisonment.

Among the arrested were former lawmakers of the local Civic Party and Democratic Party, including Wu Chi-wai, James To, Andrew Wan, Lam Cheuk-ting, and Alvin Yeung.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, called the election the culmination of a process engineered by the Chinese Communist Party in a Dec. 19 statement.

Statement by the @CECCgov Chairs on the December 19 so-called elections in Hong Kong: https://t.co/8q4zfuBY1H pic.twitter.com/OIlzZlI3B7  China Commission (@CECCgov) December 17, 2021

The Hong Kong government should release detained candidates and heed their call for genuine universal suffrage, the statement reads.

Authorities of the city also issued a threat earlier this month to the Wall Street Journal for allegedly inciting people to cast invalid votes in a recent editorial prior to the ballot.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam was expected to travel to Beijing the same day to report on the outcome to central government leaders. She told a news conference on Monday the turnout was indeed low but that she was not able to give specific reasons for it.

The government has not set any target for voter turnout rate, not for this election, not for previous elections, Lam said at a polling station on the previous morning, adding that a combination of factors will affect the turnout in any election.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Aircraft pass in formation above the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Philippine Sea on June 18, 2021. (Lt. Steve Smith/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Commentary

Washington and Beijing are engaged in widely different information dominance wars to pursue their separate global strategies, but the outcomes are likely to be no less decisive than hot wars.

How can we view these great trends with equanimity?

Global competition is more subtle than just periods of formal warfare and informal warfare (peace). Rather, the philosophical view expressed in the New Testament (Matthew 24:6) is helpful: And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Within this framework, Xi Jinpings Chinese Communist Party (CCP) relies heavily on muscular wolf warrior diplomacy as its preferred form of warfare. Perception dominance operations characterize the great wars now being conducted by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), the United States, and Russia.

In this new warfare, armed forces play their role largely by projecting confidence, power, capability, and prestige. But not, unless all else fails, to fight. As Sun tzu said: To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemys resistance without fighting.

So, for Beijing, this perception dominance includes imagery of its sleek Peoples Liberation Army elements performing on land, sea, and air; and it includes discreet, financially-enhanced negotiations to both further Beijings strategic reach and to diminish its opponents.

Warships and fighter jets of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy take part in a military display in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. (Reuters)

The U.S. government, particularly during 2021, has relied heavily on its control of information outlets, international financial networks, traditional investments, and dominance of the rules-based world order (alliances) to achieve its strategic objectives, bolstered by the long-standing (but declining) prestige of its global military reach.

Russia, meanwhile, bides its time to rebuild its economic and technological momentum, and to begin wooing back some of its former global influence.

Xi actually declared war with the United States in September 2018 (although the PRC had been engaged in an undeclared war with the United States since 1949), but this war was not one that most in the United States could recognize. The new war was not moving to the sound of gunfire; it was an amorphous new total war. It was clear that Beijing was years away from being ready to engage in direct, kinetic warfare with the U.S. armed forces. Rather, the CCP hoped that the outcome would be pre-determined in Beijings favor long before any necessity for high-risk kinetic operations.

To be forced into precipitous military conflict before the outcome could be guaranteed was what doomed Japan with its December 1941 attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, and Argentine military leader Lt.-Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri with his attack on the Falkland Islands in 1982.

It is likely, then, that the present global conflict situation will continue to escalate through perception dominance warfare until and unless one of the major players sees that its situation is irretrievably lost unless it gambles on a military confrontation.

Most warfare is conducted by governments without the conscious knowledge of most societies, including their own. Thus, strategic outcomes are mostly determined before any resort to formal kinetic action, either by the checkmate effects of the aggregate correlation of forces, or by the recognition of dependencies by one society on another that preclude freedom of movement.

It is a prerequisite of such forms of strategic maneuver that the credible threat of military action must be always present, and that this threat be demonstrated through proxy kinetic action or indirect military action.

It is significant that, as 2022 approaches, the CCP has escalated its threat of military conflict against Taiwan even though such a conflict would: 1) be extremely questionable as to its outcome; 2) engage a military response by Japan to protect Taiwan; 3) likely engage U.S. forces in support of treaty obligations to Japan (and Taiwan?); 4) and trigger a military action by India on Chinas Tibetan Plateau border, leading to a severing of the Chinese landbridge through Pakistani-controlled territory to the Indian Ocean.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) conducts a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Feb. 4, 2021. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda/U.S. 7th Fleet)

Thus, the CCPs objectives in such verbose wolf warrior diplomacysaber rattlingmust either be to secure Taiwans surrender to Beijings demands (unlikely), or to convince allies and foes at home and abroad that the CCP remains the inevitable power of the future, despite the fact that all economic and resource indicators point to the reverse of that inevitability.

Rumors of war are thus war in their own right. It is, in modern parlance, information dominance warfare, or strategic psychological warfare. In the CCPs case, this is by no means a single-strand information operation. It is, instead, a complex array of political, economic, legal, sociological, trade, resources, and other tools, as outlined in its 1999 doctrine, Unrestricted Warfare, and explained in my 2020 book, The New Total War of the 21st Century and the Trigger of the Fear Pandemic.

The United States began its own strategic responses to China when Donald Trump came into office in 2017. The Trump Doctrine, however, was not continued by the incoming administration of Joe Biden in 2021. The Biden approach was to accommodate and absorb the PRC strategic expansionism through conciliation.

The Biden global power projection, instead, was to be largely directed against targets other than China. The Biden Doctrine mirrors the strategic projection of the Bill Clinton administration (1993-2001) and Barack Obama administration (2009-2017). Indeed, Bidens foreign policy officials mostly worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Trump emphasized direct political and economic action, supported by a restoration of U.S. military prestige (but not military engagements). The Clinton/Obama/Biden doctrines emphasized massive information warfare, and showed a disregard for U.S. military prestige coupled with a determination to actually use military action.

Rumors of war thus became one of the most significant tools of the Biden administration immediately after it took office in January 2021. Its approach to entering conflicts was, like that of the Clinton administration in the Balkans in the 1990s, to postulate a crisisparticularly a humanitarian crisisand introduce U.S. military and political elements to solve the crisis.

It is, however, worth asking whether the Clinton, Obama, and Biden form of indirect warfare effectively addresses the achievement of global U.S. interests, or whether it focused on a reactive opportunism to exploit potential crises. Equally, it is worth studying whether the CCPs wolf warrior diplomacy and associated forms of strategic amorphous warfare effectively address the long-term needs of China, or whether they are counterproductive.

The CCPs immediate objective has been to buy time. Xi is aware that he is strategically under pressure, but must appear strong until he wins re-election for an unprecedented third term at the October 2022 CCP 20th Party Congress. He seems likely to achieve that re-election, despite the decline in Chinas economy and strategic outlook. So the apparent counterproductive nature of the wolf warrior diplomacywhich has, in fact, built resistance in many of the states attacked by the PRC, such as Australiawill have been worthwhile for Xi by giving the appearance of confidence and strength to the domestic Chinese audience until the Party Congress has passed.

Once the re-election has occurred, Beijings change of direction back to a lower-economy Maoist state can occur with Xi still in full control. Xis hope, though, is that the economy and stability of his rivalsthe United States and its allieswill also have been degraded proportionately, removing the external threat to his and the CCPs control of China.

That, at least, is a coherent strategy, if not one that ensures rising prosperity and security for the Chinese people. The goal of global hegemony by 2049, originally stated by Xi in 2018, has quietly been abandoned. China lacks the wealth and assets to achieve it.

But what of the strategic goal of the Biden global policy?

It lacks the coherence of Xis path, but it is equally about the preservation of power for the Biden team and its Democratic Party.

So would current U.S. international actionsparticularly the incitement of rumors of war in Ethiopia and in the Russia-Ukraine areaplay well to U.S. audiences? There has been a strand of Democratic Party policy under Clinton, Obama, and Biden that has sought stature through international military action, in the Balkans, Syria, and now Ethiopia and Ukraine.

Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on May 8, 2021. (Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

U.S. Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush also resorted to military actions as a response to threats to their credibility. Significantly, Beijing threatens military action as a means of coercion. But the U.S. Democratic (and Bush) responses have been to undertake military action as a means of response, with subsequent deterioration of U.S. strategic credibility as a result of those military actions.

Prestige and credibility exist only while in a latent stage, as strategic energy. Once used, like cash or energy, they are gone, and the power of the user of this prestige and credibility is diminished, unless more credibility and prestige is achieved than is expended in the operation. Thus, current U.S. attempts to induce conflict in Ethiopia in favor of the marxist Tigray Popular Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group, or to induce Ukraine to begin a shooting war against Russian interests (because Russia has no impetus to initiate such kinetic action), seem to offer little chance for improved strategic power for the United States.

U.S. attempts to use information warfare (rumors of war) to achieve a strategic position in Ethiopia or Ukraine without resort to military action somewhat mirrors Xi Jinpings use of rumors of war to achieve an outcome without use of force. Yet, we still have no understanding of how the United States proposes to improve its strategic fortunes through the wars (kinetic or psychological) that it is now undertaking in those two theaters.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Washington State Sen. Doug Ericksen Dies at 52

SEATTLEWashington state Sen. Doug Ericksen has died at age 52.

Ericksens death Friday came weeks after he said he had tested positive for the coronavirus while in El Salvador, though his cause of death wasnt immediately released. The state Senate Republican Caucus confirmed his passing Saturday but did not say where he died.

Ericksen, a Ferndale Republican, reached out to Republican colleagues last month saying he had taken a trip to El Salvador and tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after he arrived. Reasons for his visit were unclear.

In a message to state House and Senate members, Ericksen asked for advice on how to receive monoclonal antibodies, which were not available in the Latin American nation.

He soon arranged a medevac flight from El Salvador, former state Rep. Luanne Van Werven said. Van Werven said the next week that the senator was recovering at a Florida hospital. No information about his location or condition had since been released.

Ericksen represented the 42nd District in Whatcom County and had been in the Legislature since 1998, the Seattle Times reported. He served six terms in the state House before being elected to the Senate in 2010.
Mitchell Bosch is arrested at a Panera in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 19, 2021. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times)

Were Not Going to Socialism: Army Veteran Arrested for 3rd Time While Protesting NYC Mandate

BROOKLYN, New YorkAn outspoken and spirited U.S. Army veteran was arrested for the third time in a week while protesting against the citys vaccine passport mandate, this time at the Panera Bread in Gateway Center mall in Brooklyn.

On Aug. 17, New York City started requiring restaurants, gyms, and many other businesses to check guests and workers for proof of COVID-19 vaccination, as well as photo ID.

Mitchell Bosch, 42, who previously served in Iraq twice and once in Afghanistan, went into the shop on the afternoon of Dec. 19 holding an American flag, after having ordered food online. He was joined by about eight other people who supported his cause, including gubernatorial candidate Derrick Gibson.

He held a copy of the Constitution and said this is my vaccine passport! when the Panera employees asked him for proof of vaccination.

Police were then summoned by the manager.

Police told Bosch that he was trespassing and needed to leave.

Back down, join my ranks, Bosch told the police officer. You are a communist, were going to take you out.

Non-violently, Bosch added, upon the officers questioning of his last statement.

After an intense argument with two officers for about five minutes, another six officers arrived and Bosch was arrested.

After his release about 3 hours later, he went back to Gateway Center and entered Smash Burger.

Police came again, and this time they argued outside. Bosch later left without being arrested.

This is a capitalistic country, plain and simple. Were not going to socialism. If we do, then Im here to die for this country, he said.

Police received a 911 call for a disorderly group at the location refusing to leave the location, an NYPD spokesperson told The Epoch Times. Officers responded to the location and made multiple requests for the individual to leave. After refusing to leave and being advised that he was trespassing the male was taken into custody without further incident. A summons was issued.

The Epoch Times reached out to the mayors office for comment.
A logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is seen as people attend the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 24, 2018. (Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)

World Economic Forum in Davos Canceled Over Omicron Jitters

Organizers of the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Dec. 20 that the annual event in Davos, Switzerland, has been postponed until mid-2022 due to ongoing uncertainty over the spread of Omicron.

The annual meeting, which was set to take place in late January 2022, has been deferred to early summer, according to Adrian Monck, WEF Managing Director of Public Engagement.

Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting, Monck said. Despite the meetings stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.

Omicron, a highly mutated and more transmissible variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, has spread fast around the globe after being first detected last month in southern Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday that Omicron cases have now been reported in 89 countries, and that the number of infections was doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community spread.

While preliminary indications suggest Omicron may be less virulent, and so less dangerous, the WHO said there is still limited data on its severity.

A lot of the initial reports are that people with Omicron tend to have milder disease but it doesnt mean that its not dangerous, it doesnt mean that its quote-unquote only mild, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist and COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, said on Dec. 16.

With increased transmissibility, youre going to have more cases, she continued. More cases mean more hospitalizations. More hospitalizations will mean more deaths.

Health experts in South Africa have said Omicron was not driving up hospitalizations or fatalities in the country to a significant degree.

According to scientific studies, this virus is spreading quicker than in previous waves, but the rates of hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low, South Africas Ministry of Health said in a news release Thursday.

But a new study by Imperial College in London found no evidence of Omicron causing less severe disease than Delta, though it noted that hospitalization data remains very limited at this time.

The study also found that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is over five times higher than with Delta, which implies that the protection against Omicron afforded by prior infection could be as low as 19 percent.
Xi Jinping Fears Food Shortage Amid Official Media Boasting Good Harvests for 18 Years

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping expressed concern about a food crisis at a recent meeting, despite the official media reporting 18 consecutive years of good harvests in China.

Xi noted that arable land is still decreasing, according to official media CPC News on Dec. 12, citing Xis speech at a Dec. 8 economic work conference, Some places have a lot of good lands where they dont grow grain  so what about grain?

Chinas grain production has been bountiful for at least 18 consecutive years, claimed state-run China National Radio on Dec. 1. The Bureau of Statistics released the data showing total grain production in 2021 reached a record 682.85 million tons, a rise of 13.36 million tons, or 2.0 percent, compared with last year.

The official data, which likely failed to assure Xi, also calls into question whether it is more likely to be the CCPs usual political propaganda for the regimes stability, because low yield of grain is a big woe for Chinas agriculture, said Liao Shiming, Hong Kong-based financial columnist.

Liao further explained that those high-yield lands in southeastern provincesthe economic engines of Chinahave been basically industrialized, while some newly-explored arable lands are in western China, where the natural conditions are not suitable for farming due to insufficient rainfall and poor temperatures.

Furthermore, industrial waste, fertilizer, and pesticides have resulted in land pollution. AmbScience, an Environmental Engineering Consulting and Services enterprise, quoted April 2014 data by Chinas Ministry of Environmental Protection, saying that 349 million mu of arable land in China is seriously contaminated, accounting for about one-fifth (19.4 percent) of the total arable land area.

Since the CCP launched a nationwide returning farmland to forest campaign in a bid to improve the ecological environment in 2002, China saw 139 million mu of arable land disappear as of 2019, all converted to forest or grassland, a June 2020 report of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration showed.

One witness told The Epoch Times that a large piece of fertile, arable, land next to his home, in a major grain-producing region of Northeast China, which had been planted with corn, was forcibly taken from the farmers by the local authorities and given to a local man to grow trees.

The Epoch Times reporter found it is not only the policy of returning farmland to forest that discourages farmers work passion, the high cost of agricultural supplies such as seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment, as well as continuous officially suppressed grain prices and a ban on personal inter-provincial transport of grain, have seriously dampened farmers inclination to work.

Some farmers in northeast Chinas main grain-producing areas told The Epoch Times, Nowadays, [we] cant earn much money from farming, and even lose money, seed and fertilizer are so expensive, and small subsidies are not even enough to pay the villages tasks.

Village tasks refers to farmers having to pay certain fees assigned by village officials under various names, sometimes they are gray expenses not listed in the administration budget, and being expected to compensate the government with money when they are unable to perform the voluntary work assigned by the village authorities.

In 2020, Yuan Longping, a Chinese rice expert, when interviewed by state-run CCTV, was asked if there was enough food to feed people in China, Yuan replied that there is not enough food and some, like grain and legumes, has to be imported from other countries, otherwise, there would be a serious problem of famine in China.

Liao said that starting last year, China was snapping up global grain amidst its reported bumper crop, highlighting the Communist regimes urgent need to increase its grain stocks.

Chinas total grain imports have grown to a record high in the last two years, China Agricultural Outlook on Nov. 15. cited Customs data, saying grain imports in 2020 increased by 27.97 percent compared to 2019; 137.956 million tons of grain were imported in the first 10 months of 2021, an uptick of nearly 23 percent year-on-year; and the total amount of grain imported for 2021 is expected to exceed that of 2020.
NIIGATA, Japan (AP)  Eiko Kawasaki stood at the port of Niigata, the place from which she left for North Korea more than 60 years ago, and tossed chrysanthemum flowers into the sea to pray for her peers who could not come back. Then she burst into tears.

As a 17-year-old girl seeking a better life, Kawasaki joined a resettlement program led by North Korea that promised a Paradise on Earth"  where everything was supposed to be free and those with Korean roots like her could live without facing discrimination.

Kawasaki was among some 93,000 ethnic Korean residents in Japan and their relatives who joined the program only to find the opposite of what was promised. Most were put to brutal manual labor at mines, in forests and on farms and faced discrimination because of Japan's past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

One of the rare survivors who made it back to Japan, her birthplace, Kawasaki, now 79, is on a mission to keep alive the tragic stories and memories of the deceived resettlement victims.

She aspires to open a museum and revitalize a street in Niigata to commemorate the resettlement program under the auspices of Japanese and Korean friendship groups.

Kawasaki held a commemoration ceremony at the port in early December, marking the day the first ship left for North Korea 62 years ago. Participants offered a moment of silence to the victims who had perished despite their hopes of returning to Japan someday.

Luckily, I came back to Japan alive. Since I consider my life here to be an extra bonus Ive received, I want to devote all my time left to doing whatever I can do to make sure this tragedy does not happen again, Kawasaki said.

Born in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto as a second-generation Korean, she was curious to see the much-touted but isolated communist country after studying at a pro-North Korean school. She says she was brainwashed.

Kawasaki had doubts about the promised future when her ferry arrived at a North Korean port and was met by hundreds of cadaverous people covered with soot from head to toe, she said.

Everything looked completely black," she recalled. The third biggest international port in North Korea looked much shabbier than the Niigata port. That moment I realized I had been deceived."

Then she saw her former schoolmate who had left for North Korea earlier, collecting leftover lunch boxes that Kawasaki and other passengers didn't finish. The schoolmate told her she should have eaten it because she wouldnt have access to such good food anymore.

I was stunned and thought my heart would stop in shock, Kawasaki recalled.

Kawasaki was stuck in North Korea for more than 40 years until she fled in 2003 to Japan without telling anyone  including her family  after seeing the bodies of those who died of starvation during famines, she said.

Though Kawasaki is safe in Japan, she never feels at ease because she worries about her husband and children still in North Korea. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, she has lost contact with them, and all the letters and packages she sent have been returned.

My biggest worry now is their survival, Kawasaki said.

Kawasaki and other defectors want to rejuvenate a 1.5-kilometer (about 1 mile) stretch called Bodnam, or willow street, by planting new trees to replace those that have withered or died since the resettlement program ended in 1984. Older trees were planted to mark the 1959 launch of the resettlement program.

The street has gotten shabby because people paid little attention to the resettlement program or they couldn't care less about it. I thought I had to change that, said Kawasaki.

Among her supporters is Harunori Kojima, 90, a former communist who once backed the resettlement program.

Kojima said he wanted to join the Bodnam street project because of a sense of guilt and regret that he long supported the program despite knowing the severe conditions in the North.

He saw the reality during a 1964 trip to North Korea but could not tell the truth to those associated with the pro-Pyongyang organization or to his Japanese communist comrades. That matter is still tormenting my heart.

Kojima published a book in 2016 including photos he took of those who left for North Korea, newspaper clips endorsing the program and letters he received from victims who yearned to return to Japan, as a way to document the history  and as atonement.

He noted the repatriation was strongly backed by Japan's government, Japanese media and many nonprofit organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report described the victims of the resettlement program as forcibly disappeared people whom North Korea kept under strict surveillance, deprived of liberty and freedom of movement. It said many were likely to be among the first victims of the 1990s famines due to their lower social status.

Kawasaki and several other defectors are seeking damages in a lawsuit against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over human rights violations they say they suffered under the resettlement program.

Kim is not expected to appear or compensate them even if the court orders it, but the plaintiffs hope the case can set a precedent for the Japanese government to negotiate with North Korea in the future on seeking the Norths responsibility. A ruling is expected in March.
NORWALK  The school districts former chief academic officer is suing the education board and superintendent, claiming she was misled into accepting the position only for it to be restructured months later.

Donalda Chumney took the three-year job with Norwalk Public Schools on Dec. 1, 2020, and learned shortly after that Superintendent Alexandra Estrella planned to reorganize her staff before the 2021-22 school year, the suit states. According to her complaint, filed on Nov. 16 in federal court, Chumney was then informed by Estrella that she would need to reapply for a new, lower-paying position if she wished to remain employed in the district. The suit claims the district never intended to honor Chumneys contract and recruited her in bad faith.

Chumney said Estrella first asked if she would be interested in becoming the chief academic officer for Norwalk schools in July 2020, according to the complaint. At the time, Chumney was serving as the superintendent of Community School District 2 in Manhattan and had worked with Estrella when they were both employed by the New York City Department of Education. What followed were multiple conversations between the two, the lawsuit states, with Estrella continuously encouraging Chumney to apply and going so far as disclosing interview questions to Chumney prior to her interview.

In order to apply for the Norwalk job, Chumney had to acquire school district leader licensure in Connecticut. Chumney also said in the complaint that Estrella stated it would be essential for her and her family to relocate to Norwalk, and becoming a Norwalker would be critical to the Board.

As part of her move, Chumney had to purchase a car, find an apartment and register her child in preschool. She also had to break her apartment lease in Brooklyn and purchase driving lessons for her childs babysitter so the sitter could drive back and forth between Norwalk and her home in Queens, according to the complaint.

Chumney ended up signing a contract for a term lasting from Dec. 1, 2020, to June 30, 2023.

According to the contract language, the contract would be terminated if the board eliminated the position of chief academic officer. But Chumneys representation of Saluck, Halper & Lehrman PLLC argues her role was not eliminated, but merely retitled in order to create a pretext to end Plaintiffs employment contract prematurely.

Jeffry Spahr, the deputy corporation counsel for the city of Norwalk, is in the process of reviewing the allegations stated in Chumneys complaint, as well as the background materials.

We disagree with the claim that there was a breach of contract or any other wrongdoing on the part of the district or the superintendent, Spahr said Thursday.

He also submitted a detailed defense on Thursday, arguing Chumney reached out first to Estrella in June 2020 about wanting to find another job. Chumney also asked Estrella if she could connect her to the employment search firm that the Norwalk superintendent had recently used, the response states.

Chumney accepted the position of chief academic officer with the understanding she would soon take over the supervision and leadership of the department of specialized learning, as Estrella had explicitly told her, according to the complaint.

But on her first official day of work, Chumney attended a meeting led by Estrella where the superintendent announced the creation of a new strategic plan based upon reports prepared by the Connecticut Center for School Change, according to her suit.

Estrella allegedly sent Chumney the three reports after the meeting. One of them was the 2020 Norwalk Public Schools Capacity and Coherence Review - Central Office Configuration report with a presentation date of November 2020.

Chumney stated in her complaint that she believes the reports were commissioned in or about summer of 2020, when she was being recruited for the chief academic position.

On April 9, Estrella informed Chumney she was recommending to the board that her position be eliminated as of July 1, 2021, due to the reorganization, according to the complaint. It was also at this time Chumney learned she would need to apply for new job if she wanted to stay in Norwalk.

Chumney was officially informed of the reorganization in a letter addressed to her on April 12, according to Spahrs response. The letter reiterated that once the reorganization was finalized, Chumney could apply for any vacant position for which she was qualified.

It also stated that her imminent termination would be based on the probability that your position will be eliminated in the administrative reorganization, and it is not based on your performance as Chief Academic Officer, the response states.

Estrella planned to create an assistant superintendent position  a role Chumney claims had the same responsibilities as chief academic officer  who would be charged with overseeing the departments of curriculum and instruction and specialized learning, according to the complaint.

The new structure would also create executive directors of leadership development under the assistant superintendent, then educational administrators underneath the directors. According to Chumney, Estrella said her current job mostly closely aligned with one of the education administrator positions at a lower salary.

The pay cut would have been anywhere between $23,000 to $30,000.

Chumney claims that at no time in her meeting with Estrella did the superintendent invite or even suggest that Plaintiff apply for the role of Assistant Superintendent of Schools.

On April 20, Chumney requested that the Board of Education convene an executive session to review the superintendents decision about the reason given for her termination. The request was denied, and in the spring of 2021, Chumney began looking for a new job.

Due to her short time in Norwalk, multiple recruiters told Chumney that other school districts had concerns with hiring her, according to her complaint.

Chumney ended up taking a school principal job in Richmond, Va., at a $95,000 per year reduction in salary.

The former schools employee is demanding a jury trial for the case. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as fees exceeding $75,000.

Chumneys attorney did not respond to request for comment.

emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  More than $6 million is set to be approved Tuesday by the State Bond Commission for projects at Gallaher Mansion and the South Main Street YMCA facility.

Gov. Ned Lamont, Mayor Harry Rilling, state Sen. Majority Leader Bob Duff and other local officials spoke at the Gallaher Mansion on Monday about the funds.

A total of $6.2 million will be received by the city, with $5 million to go toward the Gallaher Mansion refurbishments and $1.2 million for the YMCA, according to a city statement.

The city took a two-phased approach to restoring Gallaher Mansion, located in Cranbury Park.

As part of the first phase, the city invested $975,000 in already completed work, including a new roof and chimney restoration, according to the statement. The new roof, completed in 2015, set the mansion up for interior fixes.

Window flashing, to protect the houses interior, was completed earlier this year.

Requests for the mansions $5 million in state bonding was split into seven line items and steps in the restoration process.

The most expensive of the steps is the $1.2 million new electrical system, according to the statement.

The entire electrical system for the buildings needs to be updated, including a new main feed line, breaker panel and service lines throughout the building and outdoor patio a presentation given to the Bond Commission read.

Another big-ticket request was $900,000 to repair currently nonfunctional second-floor plumbing, including the upstairs restrooms, according to the statement.

The city requested $800,000 for a complete trail renovation and mapping, with new exterior trails needed and extensive cleanup and clearing of the trails and its markings, the statement read. Two requests, both for $750,000, will go toward a drainage study and subsequent drainage work and replacing the basements wood floor which was damaged due to the drainage concerns.

The city also requested $350,000 to construct exterior storage and $250,000 to restore the original stone and granite facade on the buildings exterior.

Built in 1930 by industrialist and inventor Edward Beach Gallaher, the mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is available to rent for events. It was purchased by the city in 1965.

Cranbury Park is one of our many unique public spaces in Norwalk and Gallaher Mansion is its crowning jewel, Rilling said. This money will make transformative renovations to the mansion and park possible.

The additional $1.2 million given to the city will go toward the planned construction on the YMCA facility at 98 South Main St.

The project, which has been in discussion for upward of three years, will cost between $6 million and $7 million, Norwalk YMCA Chief Executive Officer Bob McDowell said Monday.

The project will include construction on the buildings interior to add more space for organizations to provide services, including the Urban Community Action Network and the Norwalk Housing Authority, which will help run three classrooms of after school STEM programming, McDowell said.

Americares will also expand its footprint in the YMCA space and continue providing health care for about 1,800 uninsured people annually.

Its not your typical YMCA, its really the center of the community for education, health and wellness services in partnership with several other agencies, McDowell said.

The rest of the funds from the project will be gathered through fundraising and the YMCAs funds.

The YMCA construction is expected to be completed around late summer 2023, McDowell said.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
Reed Saxon/AP

NEW YORK (AP)  YouTube TV began restoring access to Disney content after a dispute between the companies led to an interruption of service over the weekend.

YouTube told viewers Sunday they were restoring service so customers could once again watch networks provided by Disney such as ESPN, FX, National Geographic and local ABC stations.
Catherine McQueen/Getty Images

On Monday, the state of Illinois announced that the minimum wage in Illinois is set to increase another dollar on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. The new wage will be $12 an hour.

Minimum wage workers are being encouraged to keep a close eye on their paychecks in the new year. Any time worked in 2022 must reflect the new $12 an hour minimum wage, the Illinois Department of Labor said in a press release.
Seventh- and eighth-grade members of Lincoln Middle Schools G.O. eighth-grade leadership group and Friends in Touch (F.I.T.) had a busy Wednesday morning.

First, students loaded two school buses with food and toys to deliver to the Glen-Ed Food Pantry. After unloading items, the students went shopping at Target for a family they adopted for the holidays. Then, the middle schoolers finished up with lunch at Pantera's.

The initiative came after weeks of planning, preparation and a school-wide Lincoln Middle School Holiday Toy and Food Drive. Approximately 75 student leaders encouraged their classmates to donate to the drive, which resulted in a total of 1,686 pounds of donated food for the pantry and $1,200 to help a family this holiday season.

F.I.T. and G.O. sponsor Mark Tschudy said he could barely walk in his classroom where the items were being stored.



Eighth-grade G.O. member Colleen Moore said teacher involvement and student initiative were reasons why she felt the effort was successful.

I feel like the students who are representing the classes have been doing more this year, planning better prizes so people bring in more, Moore said. You think of an idea that the kids would want to do. Something interesting like a donut party or a pizza party or a pie in the face.

Along with the incentives, the students wrapped approximately 85 donation boxes for each activity period and held a decorating contest. They also made posters and filmed two promotional videos.

Tschudy said the students were then encouraged to use their creativity to motivate others to give. He said one student hosted a block party and asked for donations.



Really this is all them, said Tschudy. There have been years we have collected a lot, and there have been years where we have collected more than a lot. This one is easily the most and its very intentional. Its not by chance that people brought in this much, it really is because of the enthusiasm and the passion and the interest that they showed in it. They really got their classmates involved and it was just awesome to see.



On Tuesday morning the F.I.T. and G.O. members were encouraged to bring in donuts to sell as a fundraiser for their adopted family. Tschudy said they had over 70 dozen donuts and sold all of them, raising close to $900 in one hour. Whitleys Wishes also made a donation of $250 to their fundraiser.

Tschudy said all the items will be benefiting District #7 families in need. The food was delivered to the Glen/Ed Food Pantry and the toys were brought to a house on Main Street. The house on Main Street has rooms set up for pantry clients who signed up to shop for their families this holiday season.

Both middle schools have supported us with food and gifts, they both have dropped here and at the house 420 N Main, Susan Schueler, a volunteer coordinator of the Christmas Gift Effort, said. The donations the Lincoln students dropped off on Wednesday will be counted and added to the rooms at the Main Street house.

I feel like after Covid a lot of families are struggling with money, said Lydia Topal, a seventh-grade member of F.I.T. Our program really cares about peoples needs and the family that were shopping for this year cant afford Christmas presents, so were going to help them out.

Eighth-grader Moore said shopping at Target for their family was her favorite part of the drive so far because she enjoys shopping and Christmas shopping for other people.



I think it will make the family very happy to have a bunch of nice things on Christmas when normally they wouldnt, said Moore. And all the food we donated, it will benefit a lot of people, and the toys will make a lot of kids happy and it will make the community better, and happier.



Moore said that is the purpose of the F.I.T. and G.O. clubs at Lincoln.



Usually we raise money for the school and we help other people and then we also do a bunch of fun activities for us, like the kids and stuff, said Moore. But its also helping others, too, and benefiting the community. Thats pretty much what it is.
GENEVA (AP)  The World Economic Forum is again delaying its much-ballyhooed annual meeting of world leaders, business executives and other elites in Davos, Switzerland, amid new uncertainties about the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The forum, which repeatedly delayed, moved and finally canceled last year's event, says the previously planned Jan. 17-21 gathering in the alpine town will now take place in early summer  without giving specifics.
You can expect work to resume at East River Park in the coming week, where crews are continuing to demolish familiar features of the 82-year-old recreational space. New Yorks Court of Appeals dismissed on Thursday a legal challenge that had thrown the future of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project into question.

In a three-line ruling, the court dismissed the appeal from the local group, East River Action, and also denied a motion to hold the city in contempt for continuing demolition while a temporary restraining order was in effect.

In an email to supporters, East River Actions Pat Arnow said, It is with great sorrow and fury that I report that the city can finish demolition of East River Park with impunity Now many of us are mourning hard. Yet we will not stop holding this city accountable for this environmental and social disaster wreaked upon the Lower East Side.

The Citys legal case was rock solid  as solid as the plan we were defending to make this park and community more resilient to the climate threats we face, said NYC attorney Georgia Pestana. This is a huge win for the City of New York but especially for the many, many New Yorkers who live near and visit the park.

Crews have already swept away large portions of the park, including all of the seating in the amphitheater. They will be back on the job early Monday. According to posted work schedules, work will take place Monday-Thursday this week from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a break on Friday, Christmas Eve.

The East River Park resiliency plan is a $1.45 billion initiative to rebuild the recreational space about eight feet higher in order to act as a flood barrier. The activists preferred an earlier plan, which was the result of years of community visioning.

But many other community residents wanted to see the citys plan move forward as quickly as possible. They rallied on Friday with City Council member Carlina Rivera.

City Council member Carlina Riveras Twitter.

Heres the thing about the LES, tweeted Rivera. Were not just fighters, were leadersbecause history has shown us that if we dont stand up for ourselves, no one will. The fight to secure flood protection has been no different. We need ESCR and Im proud of our community for leading the way.

Groups leading the rally included Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), the political club CODA and NYCHA tenant leaders. They also started an online petition which reads, in part, The East Side Coastal Resiliency Plan, (ESCR), is one of many critical life-saving infrastructure projects needed to protect the lower east side, including New York Citys Housing Authority (NYCHA) and low-income affordable housing residents, vulnerable populations along the waterfront.
President Muhammadu Buharis administration may have surrendered to the superior power of corruption within his federal executive cabinet. This is as the six [6] years of managing the affairs of the federal republic of Nigeria [FRN] points to Buhari administrations inability to combat the debilitating scrooge of nepotism, maladministration and venality.

Investigation conducted by 247ureports.com indicates the federal ministry of education under the leadership of Malam Adamu Adamu as the federal minister of education serves as the poster boy for the cesspool of freewill corruption indicative of the activities within the Buhari administration.

In a series of investigatory reports exposing the exploits of the education minister, 247ureports.com revealed the freewill indulgence of the involved parties in the graft activity. The findings are glaring. Some of the reports include:  (1) How Minister Of Education, Adamu Adamu Uses Gangs Of Corrupt Aides To Swindle Education Ministry ,  (2) Exclusive: Adamu Adamu In Trouble As EFCC Makes Arrest, Opens Investigation On Education Ministry ,  (3) Malam Adamu Adamu, Education Minister Shares N500m To Relatives In Bauchi ,  etc.

New information shows the education minister and his associates have continued to dip their hands in the ministrys kitty within the full glare of anti-graft agencies and security authorities.

Using of the many fronts that Adamu Adamu has become notorious for, a contract/project worth in excess of N3billion at the Jigawa State University located at Kafin Hausa was awarded for the construction of eight [8] complexes. The name of the recipient company was UYK based in Kano State. The operator of the company goes by the name Malami Rufai Bichi. The contract sum has been paid in full to the front. He incidentally was the same fellow Adamu Adamu used to share N500million to his family relatives recently. He was the one who distributed the money directly to the relatives.

The federal minister of education, Adamu Adamu

In the same light, another project/contract was awarded for the sum of N1.5billion for the construction and furnishing of two faculties  engineering and science  at the Dutse-ma university in Katsina State. This contract was also managed and operated by Malami Rufai Bichi  the front acting on behalf of the education minister. Other projects dating from 2015 to 2018 are said to have been performed by the front  of which source claim that the total contract amounts to an estimated N100billion.

These new allegations comes amidst a felling health and an internal tussle for the control of the Bauchi State All Progressive Congress [APC]. The education minister is reported to have returned from a medical trip to Germany where he underwent a major surgery  that had rendered him to a position where he has to relearn how to walk  he is seen walking with his doctor  he is learning to walk. He was scheduled to appear at the 10th anniversary of Tetfund on Thursday December 16, 2021 in Abuja at the Transcorp Hilton. He did not show. Our source claims the ministers inability to sit upright owing to the surgery made him to cancel his scheduled attendance. Unverified reports claim the ministers surgery was to correct a fault in his back while another indicate had a surgery to correct pile.

Interestingly, there appears connivance between parastatals to enable the wanton fraud. Particularly, the Bureau of Public Procurement [BPP]  the body charged with regulating the players in the procurement process for the federal government. 247ureports.com uncovered the BPP to be neck deep in connivance with the parastatals of the education ministries  Tetfund and UBEC. As gathered, many of the officials of the BPP are promised percentages of the contract sums in return for approvals that would normally not be approved  bribery. In some case, the BPP officials are offered contracts as rewards and/or bribery. The BPP would revert to a clause that allows for selective tendering  where the parastatal is allowed to arbitrarily select the company of its choice without the expected competitive public tendering. According to our source, the BPP have gravely abused the selective tendering clause to the point that it currently serves as avenue to commit contract fraud.

The anti-graft agencies are aware of these practices claims our source who explains that the foremost anti-graft agency  the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] under the leadership Abdulrasheed Bawa  have been alerted of the said practises by whistle blower groups who have submitted petitions but nothing has been done. According to one of the groups, the engine room of the corrupt activities is the BPP.

Report Credit:247ureport
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide joins other Nigerians to felicitate President Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of his 79th birthday anniversary.

While only a few Nigerians had the rare privilege of presiding over the affairs of Nigeria, Your Excellency has the special spark of God to have ruled Nigeria twice.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo salutes the courage, tenacity, strength of character and deep sense of commitment of Mr. President. These are uncommon leadership qualities that are in short supply among other leaders.

The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor expresses profound delight that Mr. President is sprightly, hale and hearty at 79.

It is therefore the prayers of Ohaneze Ndigbo that Mr. President will celebrate many more years in good health and sound mind.

Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
France has historical relations with Bangladesh. Bangladesh's contact with France dates back to the war of liberation. Relations between Bangladesh and France have historically been cordial. The foundation of this relationship was laid in the distant past.

The contribution of the French in the liberation war of Bangladesh is also memorable. The French writer and thinker Andre Malraux said that he considered the war of independence of Bangladesh as his own war. He also expressed his desire to come to this country to take part in this war.

Also, during the war of liberation, a humanitarian French youth named Jean Kay tried to hijack a Pakistani airliner (PIA) to demand medicine and medical supplies for Bangladeshi refugees who had taken refuge in India.

After this incident, the French government decided to help Bangladesh and 20 tons of medicine and medical supplies were delivered to the Indian refugee camps. Even in the post-independence period, good relations have always existed between Bangladesh and France.

Recently, Bangladeshs Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina completed an important and multidimensional visit to France which has added a new dimension to Bangladesh and France relations.

She visited Paris from November 9 to 13 at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The visit could start the journey of taking the partnership between the two countries to a strategic level. Earlier, Sheikh Hasina had a bilateral meeting with Emanuel Macron at Elysee Palace in December 2017.

Just as Dhaka seeks the support of a major power like Paris in its development journey, so too France seeks to sell trade, investment and security equipment to a growing Bangladesh. A number of MoUs as well as a letter of intent in the security sector were signed during this visit.

During the visit, the Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with French President Macron and Prime Minister Jean-Castex, as well as meetings with major business associations and groups.

During the Prime Minister's visit, a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation was signed between the two countries on November 10. On the same day, Sheikh Hasina had a meeting with the President of France Emanuel Macron.

The two leaders discussed issues of mutual interest, taking the bilateral relations further, celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and other issues of international and regional importance.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said that during the meeting between President Emanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the two countries expressed interest in further expanding the existing partnership in defense and security. To this end, the two countries have agreed to strengthen dialogue and cooperation. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina later held a meeting with French Prime Minister Jean Costa Rica. At this time a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries.

As a developing country, Bangladesh wants to continue its trade with France, its largest export market. At the same time, it seeks to diversify its sources of investment, the import of French goods at affordable prices, and the procurement of security equipment for the implementation of the Forces Goal 2030. France is one of Bangladeshs largest trading partners and development partners.

France is currently the fifth largest export destination for Bangladesh. There is scope for further expansion of this commercial communication. France is a country rich in art and literature.

During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit, Bangladesh and France signed three agreements on financial assistance and technical cooperation. Under the two agreements, France will provide 330 million euros to Dhaka to support Bangladesh's development projects.

Representatives of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding with MEDEF International to boost bilateral trade and investment at the France-Bangladesh Business Council Meeting in France on November 10.

France is one of the world's leading exporters of heavy industries such as bullet trains, warships, and submarines. So, Bangladesh can benefit if trade relations with France improve. The Prime Minister called upon French businessmen to invest in Bangladesh. Different industries can also be developed through joint ventures of the two countries.

Bangladesh needs France in the Rohingya crisis solution. France has already assured Bangladesh that it would help Bangladesh in this regard. France as an active member of United Nations Security Council and European Union can raise the voice amongst international community in favor of Rohingya repatriation. Bangladesh can benefit from the support of Bangladesh in this regard.

On the other hand, the possibility of exporting new products from Bangladesh to France should also be explored. Cooperation between the two countries can also be strengthened in the fields of education and industry and culture. Relations between Bangladesh and France continue to grow, which is desirable.

Economic opportunities are being created in Bangladesh. France wants to take advantage of that. France is also interested in selling military products. The country is more interested in selling Rafale warplanes, training aircraft, radars, simulators, e-Visa, nuclear power plants and other products. According to the website of the French Embassy in Bangladesh, for the first time in 2020, French Defense Minister Florence Parle and Chief of Air Staff Philippe Lavigne visited Dhaka.

As a key member of NATO, France and the country were experienced in building weapons. Bangladesh has the defense capability and France is interested in the Forces Goal 2030.

The head of Airbus, Europe's largest aircraft manufacturer met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The head of Thales, a company that sells high-tech products, including satellites and radar, also met with BD PM.

After buying a few aircraft from Boeing in the United States, many companies want to sell the aircraft to Bangladesh. Airbus is one of them. On the other hand, Thales is selling military and civilian radar in Bangladesh.

The top leadership of France had discussed with the Prime Minister several times in bilateral and various forums, adding that the growing development of Bangladesh has attracted the attention of France. The visit could be considered as a major step forward in establishing multidimensional and strategic relations. France wants to see its presence in Indo-Pacific on a larger scale and they want Bangladesh as a partner in the region. Bangladesh is currently the chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association which has further increased Bangladeshs importance.

France has its own Indo-Pacific strategy. Through this visit, both sides got an opportunity to know each other's views on the issue. Recent AUKUS issue has created some kind of distance between France and UK, USA, Australia. France lost a billion dollars (90 billion) business deal. Thus, France needs some alternative markets. France needs Bangladesh to sell its military gadgets. The recent Defense pact between France and Bangladesh is just an example to understand this.

Bangladesh and France have signed a letter of intent on defence cooperation to further develop the defence and security component of their partnership. The two countries agreed to further develop the defence and security component of their partnership based on the needs expressed and each party's ability to respond to them using different methods, including through capacity building and potential technology transfer.

France needs Bangladesh in the region. Bangladesh and France can work together to ensure the implementation of Free and Open Indo Pacific region. Bangladesh and France agreed to strengthen business ties.

France got a business partner in its ongoing crisis moment with the US, UK, and Australia. Reshaping ties with Bangladesh can give France some sort of comfort. It is true that France is bothered by the AUKUS issue.

Bangladesh also got an assurance from a European actor who is a permanent member of the UNSC and EU. I say it is an opportunity for Bangladesh. Bangladesh should utilize this golden opportunity. Bangladesh should engage itself with the international community using the French Card in case of the Rohingya crisis solution.

According to the reports of media outlets, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also expressed happiness over the outcome of her visit to France in November last and hoped to sustain the momentum in the coming years.

I am indeed very happy with the discussion and outcome of my France visit November last and hope to sustain the momentum in the coming years, she said.

The prime minister came up with the remarks while French Ambassador Jean-Marin Schuh paid a farewell call on her at her official Ganabhaban residence here on December 19, 2021.

The prime minister thanked French President for inviting her on an official bilateral visit to Paris in November last.

During the discussion, Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh has historical bondage with France because the French government and its people supported Bangladesh during its Liberation War in 1971.

The French envoy informed the premier that her government will provide 1.2 million Covid-19 vaccines under the Covax this week.

He said France is going to take up chairmanship of European Union next February and set to hold an Indo-Pacific summit with the countries of the region in the same month.

He said they would invite Bangladesh in the Indo-Pacific summit.

The envoy also said that a joint communique was signed between France and Bangladesh which covered many aspects of the relations of the countries.

Economic and political relations between France and Bangladesh is enhancing, he also said.

About the impact of the Covid-19, Sheikh Hasina said that all countries have suffered consequences due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

We have huge population. We carried forward our economic activities despite the pandemic, she said.

On the other hand, Bangladesh is one of the most affected countries due to climate change and France has always supported the issue of justification for overcoming the damage. Apart from this, Paris has been supporting Dhaka in various forums including the UN Security Council on the Rohingya issue.

The visit of BD PM Sheikh Hasina to France could bring France and Bangladesh closer in the sector of security, trade, defense trade. France got a reliable trade partner in the Indo-pacific region and Bangladesh got a western ally. At this moment, France needs Bangladesh and vice versa. This strategic visit of BD PM would give some sort of comport to both parties. The trade and strategic ties are increasing between France and Bangladesh. Bangladesh and France can benefit from growing trade and strategic ties.
First local transmission of Omicron confirmed

BANGKOK: A 49-year-old-Thai woman is the first case of local infection with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, caught from her infected husband, a pilot who arrived from Nigeria, a senior health official said today (Dec 20).

CoronavirusCOVID-19health

By Bangkok Post

Monday 20 December 2021, 06:12PM

Sumanee Wacharasin, hazard communications director of the Department of Disease Control, gives details of the first local infection with the Omicron variant, in a broadcast from Government House today (Dec 20). Photo: Screenshot

Sumanee Wacharasin, hazard communications director of the Department of Disease Control, said the womans 62-year-old husband, from Colombia, had received two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the second dose administered in Nigeria on July 1.

He arrived from Nigeria on Nov 26 and tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival. He stayed at a hotel in Bangkok under the Sandbox entry scheme, reports the Bangkok Post.

On Dec 1 he received a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine. On Dec 4-6 he stayed home with his wife, had a fever and sore throat and was tired. His antigen test returned negative on Dec 6.

When he did not recover, his wife took him to a hospital on Dec 7, where he tested positive for COVID-19 and the Omicron variant was then confirmed. He was admitted to the hospital and his wife returned home and began self-quarantine.

The wifes Omicron infection was confirmed on Dec 10 - the first local infection of the Omicron variant, Dr Sumanee said. There was only one high-risk person, the taxi driver who took them to the hospital on Dec 7.

The taxi driver tested negative, was quarantined and would be tested again on Dec 22.

Meanwhile, there were six other Omicron infections among 18 confirmed COVID-19 cases found in Muslim pilgrims returning from hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Dr Sumanee said they were among a group of 31 hajjis who returned last Wednesday. All the infected people were asymptomatic.

After arrival, the group stayed overnight at a hotel for RT-PCR tests, which found six Omicron cases and eight Delta variant cases.

Four other people in close contact with them tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday and today, including two in Ayutthaya.

Another Omicron case was a Thai hajji who returned to Phuket via the Test & Go entry programme. The 36-year-old man had a headache and nasal congestion last Monday. He was admitted to hospital in Pattani.

Seven other Omicron cases were detected after their arrival at Phuket and Koh Samui airports. They were foreign tourists and Thais. Four of them arrived in Phuket on Dec 13 and three others on Koh Samui last Wednesday and Thursday.

The seven tested positive upon arrival and their Omicron infection was confirmed later, Dr Sumanee said.

There were now 63 confirmed Omicron cases and 20 more suspected.

Between Dec 11 and 19, Omicron cases formed 3.26% of COVID-19 infections nationwide but in Bangkok alone they accounted for 18.3% of all COVID infections, she said.

Dr Chakkarat Pitayawong-anant, director for epidemiology at the Department of Disease Control, said the first Omicron case in Thailand, an American businessman aged 35, had fully recovered and was already discharged from hospital. The man remained in the country for further observation of seven days.
More Omicron cases confirmed

BANGKOK: Eight Thais, from two tour groups, tested positive for the Omicron coronavirus variant after returning from an annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.



By Bangkok Post

Monday 20 December 2021, 09:25AM

A large Christmas tree stands outside Assumption Chathedral in Bangkok yesterday (Dec 19). The grounds of the cathedral have been adorned with lights and other deocorations to welcome one of the important dates on the Christian calendar. Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul

Authorities have urged people not to panic over the imported cases as those infected have been quarantined, reports the Bangkok Post.

Preeda Chueaphudee, adviser to the Chularatchamontri - the countrys Muslim spiritual leader - said about 30 Thais returning from a pilgrimage arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on Dec 15.

They were quarantined at a hospitel (hotel-cum-hospital) on Soi Ramkhamhaeng 5 in Bangkok. Doctors conducted the tests, he said, adding that results showed seven were infected with the Omicron variant. Mr Preeda said there are also six people who are deemed to be at high risk as they came in close contact with the seven.

All are now quarantined at the hospitel which has a contract with a hospital, Mr Preeda said.

After leaving Saudi Arabia, the returnees flew to Qatar where they transited before arriving at Suvarnabhumi airport, he said.

Some had already developed symptoms such as fever while in Saudi Arabia. The returnees come from various provinces, such as Nonthaburi and Ayutthaya, he said.

Kusak Kukiattikoon, the Phuket public health offices doctor, said another group of 137 Thai returnees from a pilgrimage to Mecca arrived in Phuket and underwent testing for COVID-19 on Dec 13.

Five tested positive for COVID-19 and were quarantined for five days in Phuket.

After the quarantine, the five, who were categorised as green patients with mild or no symptoms, were allowed to seek further treatment at hospitals in other southern provinces under close surveillance by health authorities, Dr Kusak said.

However, Phukets centre for medical sciences reported on Dec 17 that one of the five returnees tested positive for Omicron. The patient is now quarantined and being treated at Khok Pho Hospital in Pattani, Dr Kusak said.

He added that four foreign visitors to Phuket also tested positive for Omicron on Dec 17. They arrived on four separate airlines and entered Phuket under the Test & Go scheme. They are an American, a Swede, a Tunisian, and a German.

All are now quarantined and being treated in a hospital in Phuket, Dr Kusak said, adding that about 20 at-risk people who came into contact with the four are also being quarantined.

Anurak Saraphap, Pattanis public health doctor, said the 137 Thai returnees underwent RT-PCR testing in Saudi Arabia before flying to Phuket where they underwent further RT-PCR testing.

He also urged residents in Pattani not to panic over the imported case of the Omicron variant but to continue taking precautions against the virus.

The Pattani public health official also said the Omicron patient who is now quarantined at Khok Pho Hospital is an imported case, not a local transmission case.

Local sources said people in Pattani were also concerned about the possible spread of the Omicron variant from Thai returnees from Malaysia.

Currently, some 57 Thai returnees from Malaysia are still in quarantine, but no Omicron infections have been detected among them.

However, the cases have prompted provincial authorities to step up screening of arrivals from foreign countries to keep the Omicron variant at bay, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Thailand logged 2,899 new COVID-19 cases and 22 more fatalities during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced yesterday.
Test & Go entry may be suspended on Omicron concerns

BANGKOK: The Public Health Ministry will recommend the suspension of the Test & Go entry programme for fully vaccinated air travellers because of the escalating Omicron variant situation worldwide.

COVID-19healthtourism

By Bangkok Post

Monday 20 December 2021, 04:29PM

Arriving visitors crowd Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday (Dec 17). The Test & Go entry programme may be suspended, and quarantine reinstated, due to Omicron concerns. Photo: Somchai Poomlard / Bangkok Post

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday (Dec 20) that he would put the proposal to the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), reports the Bangkok Post.

Test & Go currently applies to fully vaccinated visitors from specific countries.

He said all arrivals should be through the Sandbox and State Quarantine schemes.

Dr Supakit Sirilak, Director-General of the ministrys Department of Medical Sciences, said one Omicron case who entered the country via Test & Go had tested negative for COVID-19 both before and upon arrival, but a few days later the visitor fell ill and tested positive for the new variant.

Therefore, Test & Go should be reviewed because the case had been within the window period of the infection, six to seven days, he said.

If Test & Go is not reviewed, then infected but undetected arrivals can right away travel farther inside the country and cause clusters of infections, Dr Supakit said.

Dr Supakit said that as of Sunday (Dec 19), Omicron cases were found in 89 countries and 39 states in the United States. Actually, it could be in more countries that were not capable of confirming the variants presence.

The infection rate will be expanding, he said.

He said Thailand had detected more than 80 Omicron cases to date. There were 11 cases from April to Dec 10, 52 cases from Dec 11 to 19, and more cases were reported on Monday morning (Dec 20).

Most Omicron cases detected were arrivals at Suvarnabhumi airport and they formed a quarter of the COVID-19 cases found there. The case numbers increased quite quickly over the past week, which corresponded with the global situation, he said.

However, all Omicron cases were arrivals and there had not been a local infection of the new variant, he said.

According to Dr Supakit, there have been three sub-variants of Omicron but their infections remained limited.

The infections spread quickly, but there was insufficient information to determine if the new variant caused severe illness. Vaccines were less effective at containing the new variant, but booster shots could help protect recipients, he said.
Customers stroll through the snow looking for the perfect Christmas Tree at Standleys Tree Farm on West Street in Attleboro in this photo taken on Dec. 16, 2017. This year there is little chance of having any snow on the ground by Christmas.
JERSEYVILLE  The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)  Zone 6 has identified an Alton man who died Saturday afternoon in a Jersey County hostage incident.

James P. Izard, 37, of Alton, was pronounced deceased at the scene of an officer involved shooting.

At about 3:30 p.m. Saturday state police were requested to investigate the shooting in the 18000 block of U.S. in Jerseyville. According to police, a man later identified as Izard entered a home and held the resident hostage for several hours before the resident was able to escape and call police.

State police said deputies from the Jersey County Sherriffs Department arrived on scene and Izard fired shots at them. The deputies returned fire.

After the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System arrived on the scene, officers were able to enter the home and clear the residence. Izard was found deceased a short time later.

State police said that, at this time, it is unknown if Izard was struck by gunfire from the officers. The investigation remains open and ongoing.

In August, Izard was indicted for offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 2 felony; theft over $500, a Class 3 felony; and domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony, in two separate indictments. The domestic battery case was originally presented by the Alton Police Department; the auto theft and theft over $500 by the Metro East Auto Theft Task Force.

According to court documents, on June 19 Izard allegedly grabbed a household or family member by the hair, pulled her off the porch and hit her in the face with a closed fist. It was noted he has several prior convictions for domestic battery out of Madison County.

In the second indictment, court documents state that on July 24, Izard allegedly was in possession of a stolen 1996 Ford F-350 with an attached trailer and a stolen 1998 Bayliner 23500 Capri SS watercraft. Bail on the domestic battery charge was originally set at $40,000; bail on the theft charges was set at $75,000.
A new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Friday confirms that the Test to Stay program, operated by the University of Illinois System's SHIELD Illinois, can help keep students in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) in the classroom during the pandemic. As a result of the report, the CDC endorsed Test to Stay as a useful strategy to be implemented in schools.

Test to Stay, created locally by the Illinois Department of Public Health and operated by SHIELD Illinois, allows unvaccinated individuals who were exposed to COVID-19 while at school and masked to remain in school and participate in school-related activities as long as they don't have symptoms, wear a mask and undergo testing on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 after exposure.

"I am extremely proud of the collaboration with IDPH on the Test to Stay protocol, which allows thousands of students and staff to safely remain in schools," University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen said in a statement. "SHIELD Illinois continues to work on the cutting edge of innovation, protecting teachers, students and their families. Now Test to Stay is providing a new way to keep students in school and improve educational access and performance."

IDPH and SHIELD Illinois joined forces to help schools implement Test to Stay. The SHIELD Illinois saliva-based PCR test developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign detects SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in symptomatic, pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, with results in less than 24 hours. More than 100 school districts across the state are implementing Test to Stay using SHIELD Illinois to test once a week and rapid antigen testing.

SHIELD Illinois aims to reduce schools' administrative burden by handling sample collection and transportation, or paying schools $8 per test if they collect and transport samples themselves. In addition, SHIELD Illinois provides infrastructure for the Test to Stay program through physician's orders, CLIA certifications and waivers, and automated data entry. With a scan of a barcode, results are sent directly to health departments.

On Aug. 9, 2021, IDPH offered Test to Stay as an option that schools could implement in consultation with their local health departments to prevent student quarantines and losses of in-person learning. The Lake County Health Department permitted K-12 schools to implement Test to Stay that month.

The CDC sent a team to Illinois and worked with state and local health officials to look at the implementation of Test to Stay, conduct surveillance for cases, assess secondary transmission of the virus among schools participating in Test to Stay, compare those secondary transmission data among schools implementing different quarantine strategies, and analyze COVID-19 school data from districts across the state.

During the study period of Aug. 9-Oct. 29, 90 schools using Test to Stay reported 258 cases of COVID-19. Among the 1,035 students and staff enrolled in Test to Stay, secondary cases resulted only 1.5% of the time. Assuming eight missed school days for every 10-day quarantine, 8,152 in-person learning days were saved among close contacts.

The study indicated that implementation of Test to Stay with other prevention strategies did not lead to further spread within the K-12 school setting and allowed students to remain in school.

Additionally, the CDC recommends everyone ages 5 years and older get a COVID-19 vaccine to help protect against COVID-19. Adolescents ages 16 years and older can get a booster shot at least six months after a primary series. Widespread vaccination for COVID-19 is a critical tool to best protect everyone from COVID-19 and COVID-19 related complications, the CDC said.
WASHINGTON  The White House says President Joe Biden had close contact with a staff member who later tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Monday night that the staff member tested positive earlier in the day. Psaki says the staff member spent about 30 minutes around the president on Air Force One on Friday during a trip from Orange, South Carolina, to Philadelphia.

Psaki says the staff member is fully vaccinated and boosted and tested negative before boarding Air Force One. She says the staffer began experiencing symptoms Sunday night.

Psaki says the 79-year-old Biden is tested regularly for the virus and has had two negative tests since Sunday. She says he will be tested again Wednesday.

___

HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:

 British nurses warn the health care system at a breaking point as omicron cases soar

 German military gives hospital an edge in treating COVID-19 patients

 Omicron prompts World Economic Forum to delay Davos meeting until summer 2022

 Austria ends 20-day lockdown, considers move a success as virus cases plummet

Go to https://APNews.com/coronavirus-pandemic for updates throughout the day.

___

HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING TODAY:

HOUSTON  An unvaccinated man with health issues has become the first person in the Houston area whose death has been linked to COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the death of the man in his 50s during a news conference Monday.

One Houston hospital system has reported the omicron variant is accounting for 82% of new COVID-19 cases it is treating.

The medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital said in a tweet Sunday that the omicron variant became the cause of the supermajority of new Houston Methodist cases in less than three weeks. In comparison, the delta variant took three months during the summer before it was the cause of more than 80% of cases.

___

ATLANTA -- The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has risen almost 50% in Georgia in the last month, and the number of infections detected continues to accelerate.

More than 1,200 patients were hospitalized statewide Monday with the respiratory illness. Thats well below the record of roughly 6,000 that was reached in early September at the peak of Georgias fourth surge of virus cases. But it is well above the recent low of 824 patients recorded on Nov. 22.

Among those who have tested positive for the virus is Atlanta-mayor elect Andre Dickens, who has put himself in self-isolation though he reports feeling well with mild symptoms. Dickens, says he is fully vaccinated.

___

EUGENE, Ore.  As the highly transmissible omicron variant spreads across the country, University of Oregon students, faculty and staff will be required to get a coronavirus booster shot as soon as they are eligible.

Currently the university and the states six other public universities require vaccinations for those on campus.

As of Monday afternoon, the University of Oregon is the only public university in the state to publicly announce a booster requirement.

University President Michael Schill says in a letter posted online that boosters are the next step in the evolving public health strategy in which we have adapted and responded as a community during the pandemic,

___

RALEIGH, N.C.  North Carolinas governor has issued his strongest public health warning yet heading into the Christmas holidays.

Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday that officials expect the omicron variant of the coronavirus to soon severely strain hospitals and lead to the highest daily case counts since the pandemic hit the state in March 2020.

Cooper also says he will not reimpose any statewide mandates or roll out any financial inducements for residents to get a booster shot of coronavirus vaccine. In place of mandates, North Carolina will rely on additional resources for at-home test and an informational campaign to encourage the roughly 62% of vaccinated residents to get a booster shot.

___

BATON ROUGE, La.  Louisiana is starting to see growing numbers of COVID-19 cases months after emerging from a fourth surge of the coronavirus outbreak, with the state at risk of another spike as the omicron variant spreads.

Data released Monday by the Louisiana Department of Health shows the number of new coronavirus cases reached more than 2,300 since Friday  and more than 4,800 over the last week. Thats more than double the amount of new cases from the prior week.

And the health department warned those numbers are expected to balloon as dozens of cases of the fast-spreading omicron variant have been confirmed in Louisiana.

Still, the number of people hospitalized in Louisiana with COVID-19 remains low so far, reported at 241 patients Monday. That continues to be among the lowest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 2020 and well below the states peak of more than 3,000 in August.

___

BOISE, Idaho  State health officials have deactivated crisis guidelines for rationing care at northern Idaho hospitals as COVID-19 cases have dropped.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said Monday that the number of COVID-19 patients remains high but no longer exceeds available health care resources.

The crisis standards for the states five most northern counties had been in place since Sept. 7.

Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen says the situation remains precarious because of the omicron variant that appeared in Idaho last week. Jeppesen says getting vaccinated, getting booster doses and wearing masks in crowded areas could help prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed again.

___

NEW YORK  Hamilton and Aladdin, two of Broadways biggest musicals, are shuttering their doors during the busy Christmas week after finding breakthrough COVID-19 cases in their companies.

All matinee and evening performances of Aladdin from Tuesday through Friday were canceled. Performances are scheduled to resume Sunday. Aladdin had previously canceled its Dec. 19 performance.

Hamilton canceled shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday and performances are scheduled to resume Dec. 27. The production had previously canceled its Dec. 17 through Dec. 19 performances, as well as its Dec. 15 show due to the detection of positive results.

The two hit shows join Mrs. Doubtfire, MJ and Aint Too Proud, among others, in announcing multi-day cancellations due to the virus. Shows often add performances around Christmas week and the holidays are usually the most lucrative shows of the year.

___

MISSION, Kan.  Rural Kansas hospitals are struggling to transfer patients as COVID-19 numbers surge, with some patients left stranded in emergency rooms for a week while they wait for a bed.

Space also was in short supply last winter and again over the summer when the delta variant first hit the state. The situation improved slightly this fall, but according to Motient, a company contracting with Kansas to help manage transfers, the situation now is worsening again.

And it isnt just rural hospitals looking for beds. Overwhelmed hospitals as far away as Minnesota and Michigan have been calling looking for beds in larger Kansas hospitals. Often there simply isnt room.

Dr. Richard Watson, founder of Motient, said Friday that the long-distance transfers and long waits for beds are sadly becoming commonplace as the pandemic ends its second year.

___

CONCORD, New Hampshire  Health officials say a child who was too young to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 is the first person under 18 from New Hampshire to have died from complications related to the virus.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release that the death happened in September in another state and was identified after COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death on the death certificate, which was recently finalized.

We are all saddened by this loss and give our condolences to the family, said Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist. It continues to be important for us all to take steps to protect those who are not yet able to be vaccinated, and those who are vulnerable and at risk for severe COVID-19.

___

QUEBEC CITY  Quebec is closing bars, cinemas, gyms and spas because of a record number of coronavirus cases in the Canadian province.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said restaurants must close by 10 p.m.

The province last week went to 50% capacity at restaurants and bars but is now announcing more restrictions. Quebec reported 4,571 COVID-19 cases Monday, a new single-day record since the beginning of the pandemic.

Elementary schools and high schools will close after Monday and in-person learning will resume Jan. 10, but schools will remain accessible until the holiday break for vaccinations or distributing rapid tests to students.

Spectators will not be permitted to attend professional or amateur sporting events.

Remote work, which before was recommended by authorities, will now be mandatory.

___

LONDON  Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to gather the royal family for Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England, amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant.

The royal palace said Monday that the 95-year-old queen will spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has spent most of her time during the pandemic.

Other members of the royal family are expected to visit over the Christmas period, with precautions taken against spreading the virus.

For years members of the extended family have spent the holidays at Sandringham, attending the local church as a group on Christmas Day.

The queen has cut down on travel and work in recent months since spending a night in hospital in October and being told to rest by her doctors.

___

COLUMBUS, Ohio  Additional Ohio hospitals are announcing the postponement of elective surgeries as COVID-19 cases continue to fill up hospital beds in the state.

The decisions are in line with the crisis highlighted by Gov. Mike DeWine last week when he ordered more than 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard into hospitals to help overwhelmed staff.

The Ohio State University medical center and the Columbus-based OhioHealth system both say theyre postponing new elective surgeries as the number of coronavirus cases spike. Ohio States policy, covering procedures that require an overnight stay, takes place Jan. 3 but doesnt affect currently scheduled procedures.

Hospital systems in northeastern Ohio including the Cleveland Clinic announced similar postponements earlier this month. The word Help dominated a full-page ad in The Plain Dealer Monday in which six Cleveland-area health systems urged people to receive the vaccine.

State Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said last week the vast majority of people being hospitalized in Ohio arent vaccinated.

___

MISSION, Kansas  A Missouri health official says the delta variant still accounts for 98% to 99% of the roughly 600 samples that are sequenced each week.

Over the past seven days, the state confirmed 14,156 new COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise in Missouri. The states Department of Health and Senior Services data shows the seven-day average hitting 1,972 on Thursday, up from 1,058 on Nov. 9, but still well below the peak of the summer surge.

Dr. James Stewart, the chief medical officer for North Kansas City Hospital, says the hospital has more than four times as many COVID-19 patients with active infections now as it did on Nov. 1.

Stewart says that if this continues, the hospital will surpass its previous peak.

___

LOS ANGELES  The New Years Eve party planned for downtown Los Angeles Grand Park will not have an in-person audience due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in LA County, organizers said.

The NYELA Countdown to 2022 event will instead be streamed, as it was last year.

Organizers originally planned to have an invite-only audience of LA County frontline workers and first responders.

The program will feature the band Kinky and other musical performances starting at 11 p.m. on Dec. 31.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported more than 3,500 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as the number of daily new cases tripled over the week.

___

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Kuwait has mandated that everyone who has been vaccinated against the coronavirus at least nine months ago receive a booster shot.

The Gulf Arab state says that booster shots will become compulsory starting Jan. 2 as the omicron variant courses across the region. Kuwait detected its first omicron case earlier this month.

The tiny sheikhdom has seen cases gradually trend upward this week after hitting record lows of under 50 infections a day. The government also urged all citizens and residents to avoid travel.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 41F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. Snow likely late. Low 27F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 100%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
Liana Tun, of the University of Rhode Islands class of 2018, visiting the Old Cathedral of Salamanca in July 2017 while studying abroad on a Gilman Scholarship. Photo courtesy Liana Tun
Tech companies in Britain have raised a record 26billion in funding this year  nearly double that in Germany and more than triple the amount in France.

In a further sign of post-Brexit health, UK tech investment comprises 35 per cent of the 76billion ploughed into European projects this year.

The benefits are being felt nationwide  with a third of the money going to companies outside the South East, according to figures for the UK's Digital Economy Council compiled by Dealroom and Adzuna.

A shining light: UK tech investment comprises 35 per cent of the 76billion ploughed into European projects this year

A record 29 companies which achieved 'unicorn' status were created in 2021.

The 26billion total investment is more than double last year's 11.5billion.

More than a third of this cash came from the US.

Eileen Burbidge, founder of investment group Passion Capital, said: 'More and more ambitious entrepreneurs are launching start-ups in the UK.'

Nigel Toon, of Bristol-based Graphcore, said: 'There is no longer any debate on if you can build a multibillion dollar tech business in the UK.'
Troubled online retailer The Hut Group (THG) received a boost after one of its critics had a change of heart.

The Manchester-based company, which sells clothes, make-up and protein shakes, jumped 6.5 per cent or 12.4p, to 202.4p after City researcher The Analyst withdrew its recommendation to short  or bet against  the stock, effectively saying that the share price has no further left to fall.

It marks a change in tone for The Analyst since October when it issued a note suggesting its clients short THG shares, saying the companys ecommerce business was highly overvalued.

The Hut Group boss Matt Moulding (pictured), has seen a horror show since September when concerns about its business sent the share price plunging

It also flagged concerns about the firms corporate governance and cash flow.

THG has experienced a horror show since September when mounting concerns about its business sent the share price plunging and saw several large backers including Goldman Sachs and Blackrock slash the size of their stakes.

The companys founder and chief executive, Matt Moulding, attempted to stem the bleeding but instead added fuel to the fire as a disastrous investor meeting in October caused the stock to sink even further.

Stock Watch - Futura Medical Futura Medical was in good health after flagging multiple interested parties for its fast-acting erectile dysfunction gel. The group was in advanced discussions around potential licensing agreements covering major regions and countries of the world. The treatment, known as MED3000, is undergoing a clinical study involving over 100 patients. Futura is planning to submit it to US regulators next year. The shares rose 6.7 per cent, or 2.1p, to 33.7p.

The share price rout sparked a massive overhaul of the companys business model and a weakening of Mouldings control over the business, including the relinquishing of his golden share which would have allowed him to veto any takeover approaches.

THG is also on the hunt for an independent chairman to add a new voice in the boardroom.

However, despite yesterdays rise the shares are still valued at less than half of their 500p listing price when THG floated in September 2020. Shares reached an all-time high of nearly 800p in early January.

The FTSE 100 dropped 0.99 per cent, or 71.89 points, to 7198.03 while the FTSE 250 sank 1.01 per cent, or 230.5 points, to 22549.88.

Soaring cases of the Omicron variant and a lockdown in the Netherlands over the weekend sent markets into a downward spiral.

Oil prices fell to their lowest levels since the start of December to around $70 a barrel as traders fretted lockdowns will hit demand for fuel. Shell shed 1.4 per cent, or 21.6p, to 1574.2p while BP slipped 3.1 per cent, or 10.4p, to 323.3p.

Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for passenger aircraft, was also under pressure falling 3.3 per cent, or 3.82p, to 110.48p amid worries the pandemic could dent demand from airlines.

Meanwhile, fears that more restrictions will hit High Street footfall and consumer spending in the critical festive period hammered retailers.

Primark-owner AB Foods lost 2.1 per cent or 40.5p, to 1912p while luxury fashion firm Burberry shed 0.5 per cent, or 9p, to 1736p.

The prospect of fresh clamp downs on socialising also dented event organiser Informa, which sank 5.3 per cent, or 26.6p, to 475.4p.

Travel stocks took a battering early in the session but managed to regain ground in late afternoon.

British Airways-owner IAG briefly plunged to a 13-month low of around 125p before recovering to close at 130.94, down 0.8 per cent, or 1.1p on the day.

Premier Inn-owner Whitbread saw similar fortunes, dropping sharply in early deals before slowly climbing to finish up 0.7 per cent, or 18p, at 2787p.

Chilean copper giant Antofagasta tumbled 5.5 per cent, or 75.5p, to 1294p after the victory of Left-wing presidential candidate Gabriel Boric in the countrys presidential election on Sunday.

Boric has previously voiced opposition to mining projects on environmental grounds, raising fears his administration will clamp down on the sector.
The World Economic Forum has postponed its annual gathering of the global elite in Davos as the Omicron variant rips across the globe.

The organisers said the uncertainty and high transmissibility of the strain made it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting at the Swiss ski resort.

The 2022 event was due to take place between January 17 and January 21.

Postponed: Davos World Economic Forum organisers said the uncertainty and high transmissibility of Omicron made it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting

The annual junket sees politicians, captains of industry and corporate fat cats rub shoulders with diplomats, bankers and celebrities.

Rich and powerful attendees and speakers have included European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, Prince Charles, veteran investor George Soros, Bill Gates and Donald Trump.

It has also hosted celebrities including Bono, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Spacey, Will.i.am and Pharrell Williams as well as broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

This is the second year that Davos has been rescheduled. The last in-person event took place in January 2020, just as the first wave of Covid was hitting China.

Since then it has been forced to change its meeting plans at least six times, scrapping alternative dates and locations from Switzerlands Lake Lucerne and Singapore.

Around 2,000 people had registered for the summit next month  roughly two-thirds of the number who went in 2020.

It had arranged stringent testing protocols, as well as guidelines that included discouraging people from hugging and replacing buffets with individual portions of food.

The World Economic Forum was set up by economist and engineer Klaus Schwab in 1971. The organisation says it aims to improve the state of the world by bringing together leaders from business, politics and academia.

Davos was the place where North and South Korea held a ministerial-level meeting for the first time in 1989.

But it has also been widely criticised as being elitist and jargon-filled, with the 2020 theme of Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.

Schwab, 83, said: The deferral of the annual meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society.

Public-private co-operation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace.

We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon.

The January 2022 event will be replaced by a series of online sessions, with another in-person meeting planned for some time early next summer.

A spokesman form the World Economic Forum said: Despite the meetings stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.
Standard Chartered has become the latest bank to be punished by regulators after it was fined 46.5million.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which is overseen by the Bank of England, said the FTSE 100 lender repeatedly misreported its liquidity position and failed to be open and cooperative.

It was the biggest fine the PRA has ever levied in a case where it was the only watchdog involved.

The Prudential Regulation Authority, which is overseen by the Bank of England, said Standard Chartered repeatedly misreported its liquidity position and failed to be 'open and cooperative'

The fine follows a spate of penalties levied against banks including HSBC and NatWest in recent weeks.

The PRA said Standard Chartered made five errors in reporting an important liquidity measurement that was a key indicator of its financial health between March 2018 and May 2019.

This meant it was difficult to tell how secure its finances were.

At one point, the bank failed to notify the PRA of an error until after it concluded a four-month internal probe.

The punishment is humiliating for chief executive Bill Winters, who was in charge at the time of the mistakes, and for Standard Chartereds head of regulatory affairs, former Financial Conduct Authority boss Tracey McDermott.

The penalty comes two months after the Reserve Bank of India slapped the companys Indian arm with a minor fine for breaking rules on reporting frauds.

And it follows an embarrassing few weeks for British banks with HSBC fined 64million and NatWest 265million for lax anti-money laundering controls. City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority led both investigations.

HSBC was found to have had a catalogue of failings in its anti-money laundering systems that may have led to terrorist financiers, fraudsters and modern-day slavers going undetected for eight years.

Humiliation: Standard Chartered's chief executive Bill Winters was in charge at the time of the mistakes

And NatWest was fined after admitting it failed to prevent one company laundering around 365million.

Criminals deposited sums of cash  sometimes in black bin bags so full they would split  in dozens of branches.

At the start of December HSBC, Barclays and NatWest were also forced to pay huge fines to the European Commission for their roles in a foreign currency trading cartel through a chatroom named Sterling Lads.

Standard Chartereds largest ever fine was an 842million settlement with US and UK financial authorities in 2019 for breaching anti-money laundering regulations and trading with countries such as Iran and Syria, violating sanctions.

Sam Woods, chief executive of the PRA, said: Standard Chartereds systems, controls and oversight fell significantly below the standards we expect of a systemically important bank, and this is reflected in the size of the fine.

The penalty from the PRA was originally 66.5million, but this was cut by around 30 per cent because Standard Chartered agreed to settle.

The PRA had been keeping an eye on Standard Chartered because in 2017 the regulator had placed a more stringent requirement on the banks US dollar holdings.

It was concerned about the amount of dollars that had left the lender the previous year and wanted to make sure the bank had a significant buffer in case more were withdrawn.

Standard Chartered is based in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchanges FTSE 100 index. But it does most of its business in Asia  with Hong Kong its biggest market worldwide  and Africa.

A Standard Chartered spokesman said the bank accepts the findings of the PRA, adding that it has cooperated with the PRAs investigation and has made significant improvements to and substantial investment in its liquidity and regulatory reporting processes and controls and remains committed to accurate regulatory reporting.
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Will your pension put smoked salmon and sourdough on the Christmas table, or will you have to settle for budget supermarket pate and white bread?

The pensions industry has built on its widely praised retirement income lifestyle standards research to produce research to show what your savings mean for your festive plate.

Those with minimal savings, who will rely almost entirely on the state pension, will be able to spend an estimated 36.20 on food and drink  including 2.99 wine and mince pies from Aldi, and a frozen turkey breast from Tesco.

But those with healthy pension savings can afford to spend more than 200 on a feast including 8 reserve wine, a turkey crown and cheeses from Sainsburys.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) research, by Loughborough University, splits retirement lifestyles into three income categories  minimum, moderate or comfortable

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) research, by Loughborough University, splits retirement lifestyles into three income categories  minimum, moderate or comfortable.

All three include the state pension, which is worth more than 9,000 a year. The rest of the annual spending is made up from private retirement savings.

The pension trade body says a single pensioner hoping to enjoy a Christmas feast worthy of a comfortable retirement lifestyle will need an annual income of 33,600 to be able to afford to budget 202 for a festive feast.

Retirees with an income of 10,900 a year can afford the minimum standard budget of 36.20, while those with a moderate income of 22,800 can spend over 100 on Christmas dinner.

Nigel Peaple, director of policy and advocacy at the PLSA, said: The good news is that pretty much everyone, thanks to the state pension, will more or less achieve the minimum level, especially if they are able to share costs in a couple.

Those with minimal savings, who will rely almost entirely on the state pension, will be able to spend an estimated 36.20 on food and drink according to research (stock image)

And if you are one of the 80 per cent of employees who save in a workplace pension, and you are on average earnings, you will be well on the way to achieving the moderate level.

The research reveals that those with a minimum standard of retirement living will be shopping at Aldi and Tesco for Christmas. Those living a moderate retirement will buy most of their festive food from Tesco and Morrisons.

And retirees enjoying a comfortable standard of living will be able to splash out on groceries from Sainsburys and M&S. It comes after research from retail analysts Kantar last week revealed the cost of Christmas dinner for four, with fizz and pudding, had increased 3.4 per cent to reach 27.49.

The retirement living standards are designed to give savers an idea of how much money they will need to keep up their spending habits.

This year, the PLSA updated its research to reveal couples will now need to find an extra 2,200 a year to maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle after the pandemic. A comfortable lifestyle includes 8 wine, two annual holidays in Europe and a restaurant budget of 500 a month.

But to fund this, a couple would need combined pension savings of nearly 750,000 to buy an annuity that would pay enough.

The PLSA's retirement income standards look at how much people would need each year for different lifestyles

The PLSA's retirement living standards are pitched at three different levels - minimum, moderate and comfortable.

How much do you need to save for retirement?

The PLSA figures provide guidance on how much income individuals or couples would need each year to sustain different levels of lifestyle, writes Simon Lambert, and from this it is possible to work roughly how big a pension pot would be needed to provide it.

The first thing to take into account is the state pension. Those on the new full flat rate state pension currently get 179.60 a week, or around 9,300 a year.

For an individual this would leave a 24,300 annual gap that needs to be filled from a work or private pension or other source to get a comfortable retirement, which the PLSA estimates to cost 33,600 per year.

Couples benefit from shared costs and their comfortable retirement would need a combined annual income of 49,700.

Combining both their state pensions would deliver 18,600 of income a year, leaving a gap of 31,100 that needs to be filled between the two of them.

Those who have generous work final salary defined benefit pensions, where employers agreed to pay them a set percentage of their earnings for every year worked, have the best chance of filling the gap.

An individual with such a pension would need it to provide the 24,300 needed to bridge the gap between the state pension and a comfortable retirement, while a couple would need a total of 31,100 between them, or 15,050 each.

Almost all private sector final salary and other definined benefit schemes are now closed to new members and public sector schemes require members to pay in more than previously.

Past decades have seen a shift to defined contribution schemes instead - and there has been a massive uplift in those saving into such employment pensions from auto-enrolment.

With a defined contribution pension scheme, workers pay in a percentage of their salary and their employers pay some in too. This is invested into stock market and other investment funds in order to grow over the long term and deliver a retirement pension pot.

When they retire workers must use that pension pot to provide them with an income, either by keeping it invested and drawing on it, or by buying an annuity, which provides a set income for the rest of their life.

Analysts suggest that on average a safe level of income to draw from a retirement pot to avoid it running out is about 4 per cent each year, although some are more cautious and suggest a lower figure closer to 3 per cent.

With a 4 per cent withdrawal rate a couple would need a combined pension pot of 777,500 to get a comfortable retirement, or 388,750 each if it came equally from both partners.

An individual would need a pension pot of 607,500.

How much should you save for your pension?

Pension experts typically say that rather than contributing 8 per cent of earnings under auto enrolment, people should be putting away at least 12 per cent.

One influential report said the UK should set a national target of every worker saving 15 per cent of their salary, including employer contributions and tax relief.

The good news is that pension tax relief, which gives a 25 per cent uplift to make up for basic rate tax for every 1 paid in and more for higher earners, and employer contributions go some way to meeting this figure.

So for example, for someone with a generous employer who will match their contributions up to a relatively high level, this would mean paying in just under 6.7 per cent of their salary, with their employer contributing the same and basic rate tax relief adding a further 1.675 per cent, to deliver a total of 15.075 per cent.

There are also some general rules of thumb for working out what percentage of your salary needs to be going into a pension, in terms of your and your employer's contributions.

The most common is half your age from when you started saving from - so if you start at age 30 it could be 15 per cent, whereas if you start at 40 it is 20 per cent.
BETHLEHEM  Plug Power is moving forward with its plans to build a 350,000-square-foot fuel-cell factory in the town of Bethlehem that will initially employ 670 people, half of whom will transfer from the company's Latham headquarters once the project is competed.

But new documents filed with the town show that Plug Power has aspirations for employment levels that more than double that over the next five years.

Engineers and consultants hired Columbia Development of Albany, the company that owns the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands where the Plug Power facility will be built, reveal that employment levels are expected to reach 1,625 people within five years. Such an increase likely would make Plug Power the largest private-sector employer in Bethlehem.

At this time last year, the company had 1,285 employees total, but it has been growing rapidly with a series of acquisitions of other companies involved in the fuel cell and hydrogen sectors.

Plug Power is one of the nation's leading fuel-cell makers and has been undergoing rapid growth. The company says it may achieve nearly $1 billion in revenue in 2022, which would be an 80 percent increase over this year.

But by 2025, the company believes it will reach $3 billion in annual revenue.

The Slingerlands facility will make Plug Power's GenDrive fuel cells that are used in forklift trucks in warehouses. The company is also developing its fuel cell technology for other vehicles and the data center market.

The company's current building plans before the town are what the company considers its phase 1 of construction at the 24-acre site at Vista, and there is room to add more space in the future for additional phases.

Plug Power's fuel cells run on hydrogen, which emit only water vapor and warm air when they are running, making them a popular power source as governments and corporations around the world seek to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to try and curtail climate change.

Plug Power also is developing its own sources of so-called green hydrogen that is made from water using electrolysis. Most hydrogen today is made from methane, itself a greenhouse gas, using electricity generated from fossil-fuel power plants. Plug Power is building its own electrolysis hydrogen factories powered by renewable energy to create the world's largest supply of green hydrogen to power its fuel cells.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The Slingerlands facility would only be used for making GenDrive fuel cells to be shipped to customers. The company's Latham facility on Albany Shaker Road near Albany International Airport shipped 4,559 GenDrive fuel cells to customers during the third quarter of 2021, work that could start at the Vista site by early next year when Plug Power wants its initial construction at the site to be completed.

Documents filed with the town show that Plug Power would have shifts around the clock if needed. About 40 administrative staff would work out of offices, while the rest of the workers would be involved in manufacturing, testing and shipping fuel cells.
Theres something about the utilitarian nature of ceramics that speaks to Middletowns Alexis Tellefsen, combined with the beauty she projects onto her pieces journey as they transfer from one hand to the next.

She doesnt feel settled unless shes doing something with her hands, whether its her professional pottery or knitting while watching Netflix. To a point of being a little chronic, Im never still, she laughed.

But even her frenetic energy is no match for the demands of small, independent artists and makers, particularly at the height of holiday shopping.

The owner of Tellefsen Atelier distributes her ceramics to about 25 shops and boutiques in New York and beyond, and shes making double the number of handmade products this year compared to last. Still, she cant keep up.

Currently, her entire stock of handmade coffee mugs, bowls, planters, coasters, garlic jars and more is spoken for. In holiday mode since the beginning of fall, Tellefsen will be working through early-January to fulfill dozens of orders for small-business retailers. She never even had time to make her items available to individual customers this season.

Though unconventional in a culture geared towards growth at all costs, she has decided to run her business in a way that works for her: by accepting her limitations, prioritizing self-care and keeping the business small.

Its a philosophy of growth hesitancy in the era of Amazon, where consumers have become accustomed to speedy shopping at the convenience of their fingertips. Tellefsen adamantly believes prioritizing peace over big profits is the recipe for happiness  especially during the holiday season, when she said makers across the board agree is the most chaotic time of the year.

Ive become very firm about not being self-sacrificing all the time, she described. When it boils down, its usually for money. But I dont have to have the newest thing, I dont have to have the most of something. I dont let that drive me anymore; doing more and better. Those motivators are usually for more profits at the end. And for me, I want more peace. Thats way better than money.

Growing the business she wants to grow

Alexis Tellefsen

Tellefsen, a 30-year-old Middletown local who recently bought a house with her husband in the hamlet of Westbrookville, studied art at SUNY New Paltz, initially enrolled to attain a degree in education. Ultimately she graduated with a bachelors of fine arts in ceramics.

My parents were like, What do you mean, ceramics? That doesnt even mean anything, she boisterously laughed. Im like, I know. But Ill figure something out.

And she did.

After graduating and working at various other small businesses for a few years, Tellefsen  in need of her own space because ceramics is too large of an operation to efficiently practice in a residential setting  returned to her hometown and opened Workshop Workshop on Main Street in Spring 2019. It was originally meant to be a community studio and teaching space, but COVID-19 altered her business model and she focused solely on production.

This year, her business started getting big  almost too big. She said its been challenging to keep up. For the 2021 holiday season, shes sold around 2,000 products, many of which  like coasters or planters  constitute multiple pieces.

Over the summer, she hit a milestone in her personal growth, she said, by admitting that she needed help.

My personality is very much like: Ill just do it myself. But I hit that point in the summer where I was like, Im really going to need help this winter; the orders were piling up. Because last year it was really hard for me and my output was about 50 percent of what it is now, she said.

I would work late, go home and roll into bed, just to wake up and come back here to do it again. That was the cycle for well over a month and I was miserable. I was not taking care of myself. So, it got to a point where I had to say, why would I do this to myself?

Alexis Tellefsen

As business grows, Tellefsen has been practicing self-care by hiring help: one person for packaging and two for artistic assistance. While she still makes all the pottery and glazes by hand, her staff help her prepare and perfect the pieces.

The evolution, she said, has also helped her take ownership of her business. While she doesnt love being an authority figure, shes embracing the idea of being the boss  shes not going to do things she doesnt want to do, shes not going to make items shes longer interested in making, and shes going to reject orders when her limit has been reached.

Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter.

Tellefsen has hit a point where she cant increase her production capacity, and thats fine by her.

To get bigger, shed have to increase her staff, focus more on management and clients and change her business production structure. Ultimately, to prioritize growth she would need to step away from the pottery wheel  leaving behind the fundamental passion that got her into the field.

Right now, its a matter of this is where I am. This is my capacity, and how do I begin to make better decisions with these limitations so Im making the most profit from my work and living the lifestyle I want to live? she said. Staying small means keep learning about what youre doing right now. I have a whole life ahead. I dont need to rush.

Accepting the value of balance

Alexis Tellefsen

Tellefsen has found herself trapped in the spin of constant productivity  its hard to escape in America, she suggested, a capitalistic nation with a cultural emphasis on work.

When she realized how unhappy the pressures of being bigger and better made her, she decided that she doesnt have to mold herself into the status quo of business.

Why do it a certain way if youre not happy? she said. I think people need to be a little softer on themselves. Youre a person, youre a tender soul. Its OK to not be perfect. Its OK to listen to your body and brain and take time to rest, because you need rest. That is productive.

Time management and the equilibrium of human needs has been crucial for Tellefsens philosophy, and its an ongoing learning process that she laughed about being nowhere near perfecting. But simply starting to ponder the value of balance has been a leap in the right direction.

I feel like balance is not the right word because balance doesnt exist, she said. Theres always something thats lacking and always something thats thriving. Its just a matter of figuring out your tolerance, your boundaries.

It took time, she said, to accept that leisure and self love are important, too.

Take a rest when youre ready, its important, she said. Work will always be there, thats another thing I think about a lot ... Even if everything crashes and burns, there will always be someone to buy the pots.
There are a few unexpected sights that hikers pass as they travel the Appalachian Trail (AT) in New York: A trailside zoo near Bear Mountain (the first and oldest section of the trail); a boardwalk that traverses the Great Swamp in Pawling; and a dedicated Appalachian Trail Metro North station nearby.

But a mounted phone in the middle of the woods may be the most unusual.

The whole AT is a blur to me, said Justin Dinardo, who came upon the phone this summer in Putnam Countys Fahnestock State Park on his way to completing the 2,190-mile trail. I remember that pretty vividly.

This was not an ordinary phone, though. For starters, its not connected to a land line. Its technology is not even from this century. A sign posted next to the rotary phone announces it as a Telephone of the Wind, a type of phone that has popped up around the world, first in Japan, and recently in Washington and Rhode Island, to call loved ones who have passed away.

A poetic passage next to the Fahnestock wind phone  Though Ive lost you, I feel you here/in this shrine of trees in natures sanctuary  serves as a prompt to use to phone to connect with those you have lost. To feel the comfort of their memory.

When I saw that, said Dinardo, who had been hiking from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in order to make miles, pausing only for food and to rest, I saw it as an invitation to sort of stop and collect myself.

Standing a quarter mile off of Route 301, above the Canopus Creek gurgling below, he picked up the putty-colored phone  which, when you place it to your ears, sounds like a swoosh of empty air  and placed a call to his grandmother, whom he had lost around a year earlier, during a week when he also experienced the passing of his aunt, great aunt and a family friend (none from COVID). All the loss had been hard to process all at once.

Ive heard people say that theres no timeline for grief. You might not grieve right away or you know, it might come up a year later, 10 years later. It doesnt matter, he said. And the sense that I got was, even though it was a year removed, you can still channel that grief and you can let those things come up. And being where I was, I was in a very safe place to feel anything. Theres no distractions. Im by myself. Im not worried about how I look to everybody else. Theres nothing external  theres just me in the middle of the woods, so it was kind of cathartic to have that invitation of emotions, and to let them kind of come, and then go and then just be on my way.

Dialing for solace

Justin Goodhart

For Millet Israeli, creator of Fahnestocks Telephone of the Wind, her disconnected rotary phone worked exactly the way it should.

The grief therapist, who splits her time between New York City and Brewster with her family, knew of the original wind phone when it was first introduced in 2010 by a man in Otsuchi, Japan who had lost his cousin to cancer and fashioned a phone booth with a rotary phone to call him. It became widely used after the tsunami devastated the country the next year. The Japanese town alone lost 10 percent of its population, and thousands of people make an annual pilgrimage there to call lost relatives and friends.

Then, in January of this year, Israeli read about a rogue wind phone in an Olympia, Washington park, installed in honor of a mom who had lost her 4-year-old.

And when I saw that, it crystallized immediately that that was something that was absolutely necessary, particularly in New York, or near New York City, because of how intensely the area experienced a loss in the early parts of the pandemic.

As a grief counselor, Israeli was acutely involved in the processing of grief during pandemic  working with clients, speaking and writing about how the lockdown was going to impact people who couldnt be with their loved ones. Her practice doubled compared to pre-pandemic times.

I just felt like there was this pull to create something that would give some people the opportunity to have a release valve for that.

Placing it the woods made sense to her, having just discovered the balm of being in nature during the pandemic. Like many others in New York City, where she and her family were living full-time prior to the pandemic, they decided to escape to the Hudson Valley, first temporarily resettling in Bedford before closing on a second home in Brewster in the summer of 2020.

Along the way, Israeli took many hikes: to Minnewaska, Fahnestock, Bear Mountain, Harriman, the Hudson Highlands. It became her therapy.

@olympiawashington

Ive had moments where Im like, There should be a wind phone everywhere, said Israeli. Even Times Square, though she admits it probably wouldnt last very long.

But Ive really become passionate about spending time walking in the woods. It feels like a sanctuary, using a word from her invitation to hikers to pick up the wind phone. Its almost like a confessional in a way. Its almost like church.

She emailed a few different parks and conservation groups. The Friends of Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands State Parks was the first to write back to her. Though it wasnt a consideration at the time, siting it in Fahnestock held historical meaning. The park was bequeathed by a man to New York State on the condition that it be named after his brother, Dr. Clarence Fahnestock, a WWI major who succumbed to pneumonia due to the Spanish flu, COVIDs pandemic predecessor.

Over Facebook, Linda Cooper, Regional Director at New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, messaged Israeli to say she liked the idea and wanted to hear more. Shortly after, Israeli got the green light.

It was actually really incredible how open they were to it and how little bureaucratic issues I had to deal with to get it done, Israeli said.

Once Israeli found the 1960s phone on eBay, she mounted it to some wood along with an outdoor glass enclosure to place her prompts on using the phone and the details of her Instagram account, @wind.phone.ny where she solicits stories from those who have dialed their friends and relatives.

Then she gave the phone to Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands Park Manager Evan Thompson, who helped choose the right location for it.

A perfect audience for a grief telephone

C.M. Whalen via @wind.phone.ny

For the past 12 years, Thompson has managed both Hudson Highlands and Fahnestock, where he lives. Hudson Highlands, he thought, would be too busy for the phone  heavily trafficked trails like Breakneck Ridge have train stops that drop day trippers right to the trailheads there, and he worried it might be vandalized.

A trail in Fahnestock that attracts families was another possibility.

But then, you know, I started thinking about who would be interested in this phone and I thought of the Appalachian Trail, just because a lot of people who go on the trail go to find themselves, [or] have some sadness in their lives theyre trying to get away from.

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The AT passes through five state parks in New York  Harriman and Bear Mountain are two of them  and Fahnestock is a popular attraction for the estimated 1,000-plus people who complete the AT each year. (Multiple sections of the trail were closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, and hiking it was frowned upon).

Five times as many people register for the hike, which most begin in Georgia en route to Maine, but many give up along the way, making it hard to tally the exact number of hikers on the trail each year. Those who make it to Fahnestock, which is just before the halfway point of the AT, typically arrive by the summer so they can reach its endpoint, Mount Katahdin in Maine, before it gets too cold.

These AT thru-hikers get to camp in Fahnestock for free and eat food from the concession at Canopus Beach, one of the few spots on the trail that is easily accessible to a meal not made on a camp stove.

Thompson has spoken to many of them. Some are young college grads who see the AT as a challenge, he says, or who dont know what else to do at that life juncture. Others are retirees who always wanted to do the AT but never the time when they were working.

Still others, he says, do it after experiencing a loss.

I have talked to people in the past who have lost their wife or they lost a family member. Theres a lot of military people who do it, who experienced a lot of pain or sadness through their military service and are just looking for a way to get away from everything and kind of regather themselves and figure out what they want to do. Theres a different story for every person.

JR Littleton is one of those military servicepeople who passed through Fahnestock this summer. He had wanted to hike the AT with his roommate and younger brother Joe, also an Army vet, but it wasnt to be. Joe took his life in 2020.

This year, Littleton hiked the trail with Joes ashes, scattering them in each state he crossed. He said he spoke to his brother every day, so he didnt need the wind phone to communicate with him. But coming upon it in person was more cathartic than hed anticipated.

I have my brothers number memorized you know, and it was very nice to take that time to enter his number  It was definitely healing for me, Littleton said.

A spirit phone, made concrete

Francesca Baggio

The idea of contacting the deceased through a telephone has been around since its invention in the late 19th century. Mystics thought the technology could be used to communicate with spirits. Even Thomas Edison reportedly worked upon a spirit phone, though his inspiration was more theoretical than the very human desire to talk again with someone who has passed.

There is this desperate craving, when someone dies, to be able to have one more conversation, said Israeli, explaining the draw of the wind phone. To be able to have some way of connecting to them. People use psychic mediums. Theres such a hunger for it and as we know it's not entirely feasible.

She continued: And one of the things thats really painful about grief is the impossibility of fixing this thing. And so I think part of [the appeal] is that it represents this idea of an opportunity to connect, you know, cause we really do associate telephones with connection.

The other aspect of the wind phone that makes it so powerful for people, she theorizes, is that it takes something so hard to process, and puts it into a form that those of us still living in the material world can easily grasp.

It's easier to talk into something, than to just talk aloud to no one, Israeli said. And while I would like everyone to come talk to a grief therapist to process their grief, not everyone has the opportunity or the resources or the wherewithal to do that.

This free therapy doesnt come without some effort: it takes an 874-mile hike from Georgia, or a drive to Fahnestock followed by a quarter mile hike north on the AT. But it is undeniably magical.

Its a little bubble in the woods where you can fantasize about this connection that you can still have to this person, says Israeli, which at the end of the day, you really still do.
Courtesy of Maria Riccio Bryce.

Maria Riccio Bryce is a composer, musician and performer who was born and raised in Amsterdam (NY, not in Europe). She began her career as an actress and theater director in London. She was artistic director at the Overground Theatre, a leading fringe theater in the 1970s.

When she returned to the Capital Region, she says she found her true calling as a composer/lyricist. Her first musical, Mother, Im here, was commissioned by the Schenectady YWCA to celebrate its centennial anniversary, premiering at Proctors Theatre and later produced at The Egg.
COLONIE  Former Marine Sgt. David Terry Fox of Voorheesville, who earned an astonishing 53 Marine Strike Flight Awards for Aerial Combat, received a New York State Senate Liberty Medal for his exemplary service as a Marine in the Vietnam War.

Fox also received a Rev. Francis A. Kelley Military Honor Society Medal of Freedom for military and community service as a Troy Fire Department paramedic before he retired.

Retired Army Col. John Brownrigg of West Sand Lake, a Vietnam War veteran also received a New York State Senate Liberty Medal during a Gen. Peter Gansevoort Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution luncheon at the Century House.

Former Marine Sgt. Kenneth Wells of Feura Bush, a Vietnam War veteran, received a shadow box displaying all the medals his grandfather, Pvt. George Van Buren earned in World War I. The medals include the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal a soldier can earn for combat heroism.

Meredith Legg, assistant head of Emma Willard School, received the DARs Women in History Award on behalf of the womens school in Troy.

The Kelley Medal of Freedom Award reflects Foxs exemplary service on and off the battlefield, said John Mullen of Troy, chairman of the Kelley Society, after the presentation.

In Vietnam, Fox earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for his brave efforts as a helicopter crew chief and door gunner during the rescue of an embattled and trapped Marine recon team off a 4,000 foot cliff while under heavy enemy fire.

During his two tours in the Vietnam War as a helicopter crew chief he earned the equivalent to 53 Army Air Medals. He earned seven of those awards for his duty performance during missions while under heavy enemy fire. He also earned 54 awards of the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross and five New York Conspicuous Service Stars.

I earned a Strike Flight Award (Air Medal) for each of 20 sorties, including many while under enemy fire, he recalled.

He had to successfully complete 20 helicopter sorties in the combat zone in order to earn a Strike Flight Award. By the time he left South Vietnam for good, he logged more than 2,800 flight hours and more than 2,200 sorties.

Foxs aircraft transported Marines and Army soldiers to and from remote jungle sites including artillery fire bases, did resupply missions, reconned, rescued downed pilots, and evacuated the wounded. Those missions included the Khe Sanh, Demilitarized Zone, Laos, Cambodia and the Ashau Valley, he said.

The Lansingburgh High School graduate attended Corning Community College and Carolina University before he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1967.

After he completed rifle and aviation machinist training he deployed to DaNang, South Vietnam. Afterward he was assigned to a helicopter unit at a base on Marble Mountain. He became a crew chief aboard H-34 and H-46 helicopters.

As a crew chief he was responsible for preventive maintenance and performing pre-flight checks. He also was a door gunner, manning a 50-caiber machine gun, during sorties.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

After he redeployed home, Fox went to work in a hardware store, a concrete firm and Al-tech before he went to work for the Troy Fire Department. He retired as a captain after 25 years of service.

Brownrigg served with the 101st Airborne Division. He earned a Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, three Army Commendation Medals, a Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm, two Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry Unit Citations, a Combat Infantry Badge, a Parachute Badge, and a New York State Conspicuous Service Medal.

Trees for Troops

Fifteen New York Army and Air National Guard volunteers joined veterans at Ellms Tree Farm in Ballston Spa to load 110 Christmas trees onto trucks. The trees were shipped to military bases as part of a national Tree for Troops program.

New York Army National Guard soldiers and Air National Guard airmen have been loading donated trees that go to military families and deployed troops for the past 17 years.

It amazes me each and every year to see the support of our local tree farmers and the turnout of the military to help load these trees, said Garth Ellms, owner of Ellms Family Farm. Ellms Family Farm serves as a collection site for Christmas trees donated by tree farmers from the Capital Region.



It was a long time ago for me, but deploying over the holidays is always a difficult time, said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Wells of Guilderland, a New York Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion soldier, and a tree volunteer. Having a tree was like having a piece of home.

Members of the Air National Guard's rmy109th Airlift Wing, the Army National Guards Joint Forces Headquarters Logistics Directorate, the 501st Ordnance Battalion, and 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment as well as veterans also helped.

News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com.
BUCHANAN, Ga. (AP)  A Mississippi man was in critical condition after he was shot while allegedly trying to run over a state trooper after a chase, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

News reports say the bureau identified him as 30-year-old Willie Lee Austin. The man's hometown was not given.
It takes an emotionally devastating personal process to publicly share the unnecessary extended sufferings of a loved one and helpless caregivers as detailed in "Urge lawmakers to pass Medical Aid in Dying Act," Dec. 9.

It is well-documented that short-term terminal subjects as a matter of course endure interminable inhumane sufferings such as confinement, stress positions, starvation, incapacitation and mental anguish (of a kind banned by the Geneva Torture Conventions and developed by our government as enhanced interrogation techniques to break suspected terrorists).
UPDATE: Hochul clarifies: State mask inspectors will not go into counties (Dec. 21)

ALBANY  Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday said that state inspectors will be used to help counties enforce a COVID-19 policy that she imposed recently, requiring businesses and other entities to force patrons and employees to wear masks unless they are only allowing entry to someone who has been vaccinated.

Hochul is pledging up to $65 million to enforce the mask mandate  which is set to expire Jan. 15 unless it is extended. The commitment comes after multiple county leaders in New York had said they would not enforce the order. Smaller counties will be eligible for up to $1 million in funding and larger counties for up to $2 million, Hochul said. .

The $65 million is available only for counties that "participate in the enforcement" of the state's mandate, according to a release from the governor's office Monday evening. Those counties may use the money for a wide array of costs, including staffing and expenses related to testing and vaccines. The money can also be used for masks, public awareness and enforcement.

Hochul's announcement, first described during an event in Broome County on Monday, follows a record level of positive cases of COVID-19 over the weekend as available beds in upstate hospitals continue to be in short supply.

"We have resources from the state to give to the counties to assist them with enforcement and that money will be flowing immediately," Hochul said.

Details of the initiative were also offered by Hochul during a news conference on COVID-19 in Manhattan on Monday afternoon. The state Department of Health did not immediately answers questions about the issue.

"The counties that are cooperating and doing this, we're going to give them the resources they need to get it done, so you can count on that," Hochul said. "The state will be involved as well."

The state is planning for inspectors to conduct "spot checks," Hochul said. The governor noted no particular counties would be subject to the inspections. More than a dozen county officials said they opposed the mandate, all in Republican-controlled counties that often were also facing hospital capacity issues.

"We've always said that we're going to leave it up to the counties and we're going to make sure that it gets done from the counties, but we also want to lend support to them," Hochul said.

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a critic of the governor's latest policy, said that he would not want to use the money to pay for staff to go into businesses and issue summons for fines of up to $1,000 for failure to enforce the mask requirements. He referred to enforcement of the policy as "policing" businesses; it's not a question of money but whether it's "appropriate, justifiable, something we can engage in," he added.

"But if dollars are to be used for education, outreach, providing tools  like masks themselves  then I think you will certainly get counties to support (it) and we would certainly be a part of that," Molinaro said.

State health officials said in an email, which was circulated to county health departments, that the state's mask policy was intended to be "largely self-enforcing," according to a copy of the email obtained by the Times Union. The email stated that local health departments "can enforce" the requirements and if they choose to do so, "please confer with your county attorney."

The policy requires people indoors to wear masks in public spaces that do not exclusively require vaccination for entry. The governor has said it was her hope that counties would enforce it.

On Monday, fresh off the state breaking pandemic records for the number of positive cases in a single day, the governor sketched out the relatively precarious position as the pandemic continues to loom despite widespread vaccinations.

Cases of coronavirus are surging in New York City, which Hochul said demonstrates the concern of the highly contagious omricon variant. News reports from the city showed blocks-long lines to get COVID-19 tests, reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Although the new variant of the virus is believed to produce a less severe illness, most notably for people who have received their booster vaccination shot, the number of people who are hospitalized in New York City with the coronavirus has doubled since Thanksgiving, according to state data. Long Island and the Mid-Hudson Valley have seen similar trends.

Acting state health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett has warned that how fast the less-severe variant can spread may end up leading to more people hospitalized than from the delta variant, which has overwhelmed some upstate hospitals. (On Monday, Bassett tested positive for COVID-19, Hochul said, and was experiencing mild symptoms.)

Nearly three dozen hospitals upstate were told by the state Department of Health to limit non-essential surgeries earlier this month. The hospitals, including three in the Capital Region, had less than 10 percent of their beds available for care.

On Friday, the state updated the list to 28 hospitals. Three Capital Region hospitals  Albany Medical Center, Saratoga Hospital and Glens Falls Hospital  were removed from the list. Regardless of the 10 percent threshold, health care facilities continue dealing with limited capacity.

New York City metropolitan area hospitals continue to have substantial capacity, but in a short period they have nearly doubled the amount of patients with COVID-19. The metro area has endured the brunt of the omicron variant. Hochul has said her concern is with hospital capacity and has suggested she is particularly concerned if upstate hospitals, already challenged with the fallout of the delta variant, are left fending off a winter surge from the omricon variant.

In response to the surge in cases, Hochul said she is ramping up the state's testing capacities. The state is poised to open an online portal to order a testing kit. Local governments are expected to receive test kits for distribution.

Hochul announced 10 million additional tests are coming for New Yorkers, including 5 million before the new year. About 2 million tests are being allocated to schools, 1 million to county emergency managers, 1.6 million to New York City, and 400,000 for vaccination sites, Kathryn Garcia, state operations director, said in Manhattan.

Testing, Hochul said, is highly encouraged before families gather during the upcoming holidays.

"If it can be done," Hochul said, "we highly encourage it for sure."
Karen Walker (left) and Aime Sposato are seen performing in the new Rocsato Conservatory recital room. The duo will take part in Rocsatos first performance later today, which can be streamed on Facebook.
Pictured from left to right are performers Joe Thompson, Anna Lehnortt, Melanie LaLone and Monica Kerr, as they rehearse on Thursday night for A Titusville Christmas. The performers take to the stage for the show tonight at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church.
Pictured are stockings full of supplies that will soon go to tornado victims in Kentucky. The items were collected by Pleasantville Elementary School students for their version of Giving Tuesday.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Anderson Independent-Mail.
Progressive talking points delivered by the newspaper . . .



Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday dismissed outrage over critical race theory  an academic concept that is not part of public school curricula  as wholly manufactured.



I think this is a nothing burger thats been cooked up to get people up in arms about something thats not real, Kelly said in an interview.



State lawmakers are preparing to bring that outrage to next years legislative session, in the form of proposals to ban the teaching of critical race theory and develop a bill of rights for parents and students. Kelly said they should leave curriculum issues alone.



With that said I am also a very strong believer that you hire professionals, and you elect school board members to deal with curriculum, she said. I think we just need to continue to operate the way we have in the past. It resulted in Kansas having one of the most solid educational K-12 systems in the country.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
Let's make it fun for the cheap seats and note that the local "mainstream news" is leaving out an important and potentially devastating component of this story.



TKC TOLD YOU SO!!! THE CERNER BUYOUT GUARANTEES MASSIVE JOB CUTS FROM KANSAS CITY'S LARGEST EMPLOYER!!! ONLY IDIOTS & LIARS CLAIM OTHERWISE!!!



A bit of Christmas cheer . . .

The company is notorious for slash & burn tactics.

Don't believe me?

Just talk to anyone who remembers their gutting of Sun Microsystems -- And those were white collar tech jobs held by SKILLED & ELITE workers -- Now most of that work is done overseas for less than half price.

It's not going to be pretty.

In fact . . .

It's going to be a bloodbath and Kansas City MSM isn't doing their job if they claim otherwise.

Accordingly, here's the confirmation of news we already reported . . .



Cerner is Kansas City's largest private employer. It was founded in 1979 and grew to employ nearly 30,000 employees around the world, including more than 13,000 people in the Kansas City area.



Cerner developed digital information systems used by hospitals and health systems. The company said their programs allow doctors and hospitals to provide better care to patients and better information to communities.



Cerner has been a leader in helping digitize medical care and now its time to realize the real promise of that work with the care delivery tools that get information to the right caregivers at the right time, David Feinberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cerner, said. Joining Oracle as a dedicated Industry Business Unit provides an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our work modernizing electronic health records, improving the caregiver experience, and enabling more connected, high-quality and efficient patient care."

Now . . .

We notice a great many hipsters and clueless millennial d-bags trying to downplay the acquisition. They badmouth the Cerner legacy and mention all of the taxpayer subsidy the corporation received. That might be true . . . However . . .

THE IMPACT OF MASSIVE LAYOFFS FOR KANSAS CITY'S BIGGEST PRIVATE EMPLOYER THREATENS THE METRO ECONOMY!!!



Again, all we've got for reassurance (lulz) are empty promises from a company that has already shipped jobs to India by the MILLIONS.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

Oracle Buys Cerner AUSTIN, Texas and KANSAS CITY, Mo. - December 20, 2021 - Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and Cerner Corporation today jointly announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Cerner through an all-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion in equity value.

Oracle buys North Kansas City-based Cerner in $28.3B dollar deal by: Heidi Schmidt Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Oracle Corporation announced it acquired Cerner for roughly $30 billion, or $95 per share. The sale still needs to be approved by regulators and is expected to close in 2022. Cerner is Kansas City's largest employer.

Oracle agrees to buy Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner for $28.3 billion in cash Oracle Corp., the enterprise-software giant has agreed to purchase Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner in a massive $28.3 billion cash deal.With headquarters in North Kansas City, and with buildings all over the metro area, Cerner is one of the largest employers in the Kansas City area.

Kansas City-based Cerner bought by Oracle for $28B KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City-based health information technology company, Cerner was purchased by Oracle for roughly $28 billion. Oracle, the second-largest software company in the world, made the cash deal final on Monday. Rumors of the sale were discussed last week, causing Oracle's stock shares to drop 6%.

Oracle to acquire Cerner in $28.3B deal Software giant Oracle announced Monday it will acquire medical record technology provider Cerner in an all-cash deal valued at $28.3 billion, or $95 per share. ORACLE IN TALKS TO BUY CERNER The transaction, which is expected to close in calendar year 2022 subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, will be immediately accretive to Oracle's earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first fiscal year after closing.

Oracle to buy medical records company Cerner in its biggest acquisition ever Enterprise software giant Oracle will buy electronic medical records company Cerner for $95 per share, the companies announced Monday. The deal could help Oracle boost its presence in healthcare by bringing troves of health data to its cloud services. Oracle shares were down about 1% Monday morning.

Cerner, Kansas City's largest private employer, will be acquired by Oracle in a $28 billion deal Cerner Corp., Kansas City's largest private employer, has agreed to be bought by software giant Oracle Corp. in a deal valued at $28.3 billion. Oracle's all-cash offer for the electronic health records company comes to $95 a share. Oracle, which is based in Austin, Texas, is one of the biggest providers of software to other companies.

KC tech powerhouse Cerner sells to Oracle in $28.3B deal; buyer says it will grow local presence Months of speculation officially came to an end Monday as Kansas City-headquartered Cerner announced its exit to Oracle - the global cloud giant's largest-ever acquisition at $28.3 billion in equity value. Among the largest employers in the Kansas City metro, Cerner's medical records solutions have developed over the course of four decades into a transformational healthcare powerhouse, the company's CEO said Monday .

OF COURSE the clueless Kansas City Star accepts this company line given their hedge fund bosses . . .



Cerner, Oracle say they intend to 'maintain and grow' jobs presence in Kansas City Cerner Corp. is the largest private employer in the Kansas City area. On Monday, software giant Oracle announced it has reached an agreement to purchase the healthcare IT company for $28.3 billion. Almost immediately, the attention turned to jobs.

Developing . . .
Minister of National Defense of Lithuania Arvydas Anusauskas says that his country is ready to support Ukraine in every possible way amid a possible new Russias invasion and to hand over lethal weapons to Ukraine.

Anusauskas made a corresponding statement at a press conference in Rukla on December 19, Ukrinform reports citing Lithuanian media.

"We need to support Ukraine with all means, which includes the delivery of lethal weapons," LRT quoted Anusauskas as saying.

The minister did not specify what kind of weapon he meant and when Ukraine could count on it, Diena reports.

"I will not give a direct answer now, this is a matter of multilateral agreement, because several states are involved, not only donor and recipient of weapons but also manufacturer and supplier," Anusauskas said.

He revealed Lithuania's readiness to hand over lethal weapons to Ukraine at a joint press conference with German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who arrived in Lithuania on a visit to her country's soldiers.

"Seeing the situation on Ukraines borders, I can only imagine how our society would feel if you were not here. The continued presence of Germany and other NATO Allies in Lithuania is the main guarantor of our security, and Germany is investing in Lithuania's military infrastructure. This shows a strong commitment to the security of our region," TV3 quoted Anusauskas as saying.

Earlier, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov declared that Ukraine needed real assistance in the armament from partners. According to him, Ukraine needs NATO to help it with offensive weapons but Ukraine will defend against the Russian aggression on its own.

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Territorial defense forces will receive the required weaponry, while Russia wont have an easy walk in Ukraine in case of invading the country.

Thats according to Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, who spoke with Apostrophe TV, Ukrinform reports.

The law prescribes powers and responsibilities of local governments, heads of regional and district state administrations. This is a very detailed law that had long been in the making, also being the subject of great debate. Today, I believe that the law is more or less perfect in order to start addressing the issue," Danilov said, adding that territorial defense forces should be armed efficiently to allow them to perform their immediate functions.

"Today we live in a modern world, and weapons that may be small in size are very significant in terms of their effect. And now to say that there must be some kind of heavy equipment, etc ... Today there is an understanding that in the modern world, this isnt how success is measured," Danilov added.

According to the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, territorial defense units will represent an effective force in the event of a Russian military incursion.

"If this happens, all relevant agencies will immediately stand up to defend our country. And if someone thinks that it will be an easy walk, believe me, it wont be the case, the senior security official underlined.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, from January 1, 2022, the North Regional Directorate of the Territorial Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be formed in Chernihiv to cover a total of six regions.

According to the public relations service of the North Operational Command, the military land zone of the North Regional Directorate of the Territorial Defense Forces will include the city of Kyiv and six regions: Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv. A defense force brigade will be formed in each of them, while the number of battalions will be in line with that of districts formed as part of the administrative reform (plus another battalion in the regional center).

The forces are scheduled to be deployed by January 15, 2022.

To sign a contract for active military service with a territorial defense unit, applicants should contact their respective local enlistment and social support center.

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The World Bank approved a EUR 300 million loan to support reforms and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine.

The World Banks Board of Executive Directors approved today a EUR 300 million Second Economic Recovery Development Policy Loan (DPL) for Ukraine in support of reforms critical to the countrys economic recovery and growth, and to help mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, reads the World Banks statement released on December 17.

Amid high levels of economic vulnerability, a slow and uneven recovery from the COVD-19 shock is underway in Ukraine, and we hope this loan will provide the necessary support to reforms aimed at fostering a stronger, more inclusive recovery, said Arup Banerji, World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe.

We expect these reforms will help increase living standards by allowing some 4.6 million small landowners in Ukraine to get a fair return on, and invest in, their most valuable asset, Banerji added.

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The strategic dimension of UkraineTurkey cooperation gains an increasing practical implementation at the level of business cooperation, which is moving from mutual supply of goods and services to the level of joint ventures involving Turkish business.

"The greatest value is that the focus is not so much on the exchange of goods, but on the possibility of creating joint ventures with the involvement of Turkish business. In particular, there are two requests to facilitate the allocation of land plots for the production in Lviv region ... We are interested in establishing regional contacts between entrepreneurs, business representatives of Lviv region and the provinces of Istanbul and Bursa. In particular, a group of entrepreneurs who came with us are interested in the prospect of supplying individual parts in the machine-building industry," Deputy Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Vitaliy Zahainyi told Ukrinform.

Following the meetings with the leadership of provinces and business representatives, agreements were reached on the supply of Ukrainian-made attachments made by Donsnab-Zakhid company to the Turkish market. The possible deliveries of craft confectionery and chocolate to Turkey were also discussed.

"It's not so much for retail chains as for restaurants. Turkey has positive feedback about our chocolate products, and this area is well developed in Lviv region," Zahainyi said.

According to him, the provinces of Istanbul and Bursa were chosen to strengthen cooperation not by chance.

"Lviv and Bursa have much in common. Another important advantage and argument for establishing communication is the availability of scheduled flights. It is difficult to establish permanent cooperation with regions that do not have direct flights to Lviv. Lviv's business already has some strong ties with some Turkish companies. For example, in the supply of fabrics for the light industry. The companies are interested in expanding cooperation, not only to buy here but also to supply," the Deputy Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration noted.

Zahainyi pointed out the positive attitude towards Ukraine and Lviv region, in particular, the interest in expanding cooperation in various fields and at different levels. According to him, the successful activity of Turkish business representatives in our country and in Lviv region and the active work of the Turkish Ukrainian Business Association promote trust.

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The complex security situation caused by Russia's military build-up around Ukraine and the migration crisis on the EU's border with Belarus is accompanied by a surge in energy prices, which the EU sees as Russia's attempt to use energy as a tool to exert political pressure on the European Union.

According to Ukrinform, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell wrote this in his blog, which was published on the website of the European External Action Service on the evening of Sunday, December 19.

"Russia has used energy as a tool for political influence (see for instance in Moldova), and while it is strictly speaking fulfilling its commitments on gas supplies, many see its current refusal to increase export volumes to Europe or to re-fill Gazprom-owned storage facilities as a means to exert pressure on the EU and specifically to secure the regulatory licensing of Nord Stream 2," Borrell said.

He recalled that the European Commission does not consider this project as a priority and in any case, it will have to fulfill European regulations requirements.

"It [the project] continues to be an issue for discussion, also demonstrating that solidarity is a two-way street. No one can increase their own security without taking into account the security of the whole Union, which should be a basic principle to make the EU stronger and counter attempts to divide us," Borrell said.

He noted that both crises  around Ukraine and at the Belarusian border -- are unfolding against a backdrop of high tensions with Russia, and in a context of extraordinarily high energy prices: gas prices have risen by around 40% just in December and around 300% since this summer.

"Any discussion on Russia/Ukraine/Belarus includes the energy dimension, given that 40% of EU gas imports come from Russia, principally through three transit routes: Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic Sea," Borrell added.

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The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Danish Ministry of Defense signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to develop and strengthen Ukraine's maritime potential.

The memorandum was signed during the official visit of Minister of Defense of Denmark Trine Bramsen to Ukraine on December 18, the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

In particular, a multi-purpose shipbuilding project is planned within the framework of the Memorandum. Production will be completely localized in the territory of Ukraine, and more than 50% of the volume of orders will be fulfilled by Ukrainian enterprises, reads the statement.

According to Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine has great potential for the development of shipbuilding: "this includes access to the largest navigable rivers in Eastern Europe, formed port infrastructure, and most importantly  available shipbuilding capacities."

Future Ukrainian-Danish vessels will be built at a plant in Ukraine, using the best design practices of our Danish partners, as well as modern equipment. Im looking forward to developing our cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark, especially in high-tech projects," Kubrakov said.

This project will be implemented with the support of the Government of Denmark and the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF). The multimission vessels will be designed by Danish companies in accordance with the customer's requirements.

It is specified that the construction of the first ship MPV80 is expected to be completed by 2024.

It will be able to perform dozens of functions, including search and rescue operations. A vessel will be equipped with advanced developments of high-tech specialized equipment from Danish manufacturers, the statement reads.

Read also: Antonov to construct five aircraft for Ukrainian National Airlines

The Ministry notes that on behalf of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ministry of Economy together with the Ministry of Infrastructure launched a program to restore Ukrainian shipbuilding and machine building. In particular, sea and river vessels, railcars, planes are planned to be constructed in the next five years.

Photo: Ministry of Infrastructure, Facebook

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The Ukrainian Finance Ministry and the World Bank have signed an agreement on a EUR 300 million loan to continue the implementation of projects in the field of economic recovery, the ministry's press service has said.

"On December 20, Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and World Bank Regional Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Arup Banerjee signed an agreement to provide Ukraine with a 300 million euro loan to continue economic recovery projects," the statement said.

The loan is the result of structural reforms in the areas of demonopolization of key sectors of the economy, strengthening anti-corruption institutions, improving the operation of land and capital markets, and improving the social support system.

Marchenko thanked representatives of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) for cooperation and financial support of Ukraine. He noted that the signing of the agreement is evidence that Ukraine is demonstrating real reforms progress on the path to economic recovery and development.

As part of further cooperation between Ukraine and the IBRD, the World Bank Group's Country Partnership Strategy for 2022-2025 is already being developed, which will be aimed at Ukraine achieving sustainable economic recovery and growth. The priority areas of the strategy will be energy, agriculture, and the transport system.

Ukraine received the first part of a development policy loan from the IBRD, totaling $350 million, in June 2021.

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The leaders of Poland and Lithuania, Andrzej Duda and Gitanas Nauseda during the Lublin Triangle Summit (Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania) in Guta, Ivano-Frankivsk region, on Monday, December 20, are set to express solidarity with Kyiv in the wake of Russia's aggressive actions.

This was stated at a media briefing on Sunday by the head of the International Policy Bureau at the Polish Presidents Chancellery, Jakub Kumoch, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The summit aims to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine at a time when it is under pressure from Russia, which has mobilized its forces around Ukraine's borders," Kumokh said.

Read also: Lublin Triangle coordinators discuss security situation in the region

According to the official, with this gesture, Duda and Nauseda seek to clearly state that Poland and Lithuania, as NATO Allies, support a firm line and full opposition on the part of the Alliance to Russia's actions on the border with Ukraine.

"Wed like to assure you of our support for (Ukraines - ed.) membership in NATO and the EU," said the Secretary of State in the Polish Presidents Chancellery.

Kumokh said that during the summit, the leaders will discuss recent talks, including in the "Bucharest Nine" format with U.S. President Joe Biden. He noted that during the negotiations the regional leaders held with Biden, Poland and Lithuania clearly emphasized that decisions on Ukraines future could only be made by Ukrainians.

Kumoch pointed out that the Summit of the Lublin Triangle leaders is an urgent event held at the request of the Ukrainian side.

The Lublin Triangle is a platform for tripartite cooperation between the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, and Ukraine, aimed at deepening regional cooperation in the security, economic, and socio-humanitarian areas.

The decision to create the Lublin Triangle was passed on July 28, 2020, by the ministers of foreign affairs of Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland  Dmytro Kuleba, Linas Linkevicius, and Jacek Chaputowicz, who signed the Declaration on the Establishment of a New Regional Association.

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Tensions on the borders of Ukraine, the situation on the Belarusian border, and the energy crisis must be considered in combination. Such actions reflect the Kremlin's will to change the framework conditions for European security excluding the Europeans from such discussions, but the EU remains confident that the United States will not fall into the trap of Russia's "security proposals."

According to Ukrinform, this was stated by EU High Representative Josep Borrell in a blog published by the press office of the European External Action Service.

"We have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. We cannot exclude Russias desire to use this crisis as leverage for its declared purpose to reshape the security framework in Europe, also excluding the Europeans from the discussions. But we know that our American allies will not fall into this trap," Borrell wrote.

He noted that no discussions on European security can take place without the European Union.

Russia's Foreign Ministry this Friday released a draft proposal on security guarantees between Russia and the US as well as to European members of NATO. It is clear that the EU must be an integral part of such discussions. The Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter have offered us key principles around which to build European security for the past 50 years. The OSCE, in particular, offers mechanisms and rules, which remain cornerstones of any engagement with Russia, the EU High Representative said.

He noted that diplomacy always brings better results when it is coordinated with like-minded partners. That is why the EU is in constant and close contact with the United States and other countries sharing the same beliefs.

In this context, Borrell recalled the recent decision of the Group of Seven foreign ministers to issue a united message of support for Ukraine and to deter further aggressive actions by Russia.

As reported, on December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft of an agreement sought to be signed with the United States and NATO on "security guarantees," which de facto put forward an ultimatum to ensure that NATO does not expand eastwards and that the Allies, including the United States, abandon their existing security policies. In case the West refuses to accept such proposals, the Kremlin authorities publicly threaten to take measures of "military and military-technical nature."

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Ukraine considers IT tools to be the basis for effective fight against corruption and is ready to share with the international community its experience in implementing them.

This was stated by Deputy Chairman of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Oleksandr Starodubtsev, at the 9th Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, according to the NAPC press service.

"We believe that international cooperation is vital to combating corruption, and we are ready not only to talk about our experience, but also to prove our commitment to the UN Convention. We are ready to share the code of these products and adapt it to the needs of your organization. To help you develop a user-friendly interface and provide you with effective design solutions, Starodubtsev said in an address to the countries participating in the Conference.

Starodubtsev's speech was dedicated to six innovative anti-corruption tools applied by the NAPC, designed to create a new system of relations between the state and its citizens.

Among them are the Register of Declarations, the Register of Political Party Reports POLITDATA, the Anti-Corruption Portal, the Concealed Interests Portal, the Register of Corrupt Persons, and the Corruption Reporting Portal, which will soon be presented by the Agency. Oleksandr Starodubtsev spoke about the main technical characteristics of the said tools and the results of their implementation.

According to the deputy chairman of the NAPC, today the world economy depends on rapid transactions, mobile banking, and cryptocurrency. Crisis conditions such as COVID-19 affect the way people act and create more opportunities for corruption. Thus, anti-corruption bodies cannot maintain outdated approaches to tackling graft as long as offenders operate in the digital domain.

To address the issue, the Ukrainian delegation proposed that a dedicated platform be developed for the exchange of best digital practices and tools applied around the world, similar to that of Europol's cybercrime cooperation.

He added that for truly effective cooperation in this area, it is especially important that all countries today share common data standards. In the future, this will facilitate data sharing and improve existing anti-corruption mechanisms.

The 9th Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption was held in Egypt on December 13-17.

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The security situation resulting from a build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine's borders has become a major issue for world politics, but words and statements are not enough to deter Russian aggression.

According to Ukrinform, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell wrote this in his blog, which was published on the website of the European External Action Service on Sunday, December 19.

"We know that words and statements alone are not enough to change the calculus of the Russian leadership and that is why it is so important that EU leaders decided to roll over existing economic sanctions and warned that any Russian move against Ukraine would carry heavy consequences. This has been underlined by both the President of the Council and the President of the Commission," Borrell said.

He recalled that the military build-up of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border, combined with the escalation of threats and subversive actions aimed at Ukraine, have dominated the international news and diplomacy in recent weeks. "They have led to a flurry of activities at all levels and in all fora: the G7, NATO, the OSCE as well as bilaterally. Logically, it was also at the heart of EU foreign policy this week, first on Monday when EU Foreign Ministers met; at the European Parliament debates on Tuesday, at the Eastern Partnership Summit on Wednesday and at the European Council on Thursday," Borrell said.

"On Ukraine, everyone agreed that it is a moment to be firm and united and to deter possible further Russian moves. We have to uphold the core principles on which European security is built, and which are also enshrined in the Paris Charter of 1990 and the CSCE/OSCE Helsinki Final Act  all signed by Russia," he said.

He recalled that such basic principles of European security include respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, the inviolability of internationally recognized borders, and the freedom of countries to decide their foreign policy and security arrangements.

"The European Council agreed on sending a strong message to the Russian leadership that any action against Ukraine and those principles, by military or hybrid means, would have serious consequences," Borrell said.

He noted that Russia's ultimate intentions are not clear, except that it seeks to threaten and weaken Ukraine, so different scenarios can unfold.

Borrell recalled that the EU has been working with Ukraine for years, including through the EU Advisory Mission on civilian security sector reform within the framework of the Common Defense and Security Policy. He said the European Commission had recently added a EUR 31 million support package to the Ukrainian army under the European Peace Facility, for the provision of military medical and cyber defense support.

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Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin believes that a possible escalation of the situation between Russia and Ukraine could lead to the imposition of much tougher U.S. EU sanctions on Moscow.

"If Russia attacks Ukraine or escalates in other ways, it will have serious consequences. Both the United States and Europe will impose very tough sanctions, much tougher than before," Marin told Yle Radio Suomi in an interview.

According to her, Russia must strive to relieve tensions and act in accordance with previous agreements.

"Russia has a great responsibility to ensure that the situation does not worsen," the politician added.

As reported, Russia has amassed about 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine in recent weeks. These maneuvers raise great concerns in Western countries amid fears of Moscows attack. NATO warned Russia that such a move would have far-reaching "strategic and economic" consequences. Moscow rejects the intention to invade Ukraine and explains the build-up as a measure to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.

On December 5, Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov said that the total number of Russian troops near Ukraine's border could rise to 175,000.

According to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, the situation around Ukraine's borders remains difficult as Russia continues to redeploy troops to maintain tensions in the region.

Photo: Pool / Getty Images

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Since 2014, Ukrainians have been facing direct Russian aggression against their country on a daily basis so they are taking seriously the new threats coming from their northern neighbor. The ongoing Russian military buildup around Ukraine has already provoked a consolidated response on the part of the EU and the world's leading powers, which have already outlined "unprecedented" sanctions set to be imposed on Russia should Moscow further escalate.

Ambassador Nataliia Galibarenko, Head of Ukraine's Mission to NATO, told Ukrinform how NATO actors are reacting to the latest developments. She also spoke of the assistance Ukraine can count on, and why Russia has no right to take part in determining Ukraine's future relations with the Alliance.

NATO PERCEIVES RUSSIAN THREAT VERY SERIOUSLY

- Ms Ambassador, the past weeks and months turned out to be truly alarming for Ukraine in the wake of the latest amassing of Russian troops near the countrys borders. How did officials react to this situation here at NATO Headquarters? Do the Allies sense the existing threats as regards these events?

- Since the initial report came out on the buildup of Russian troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border, the Alliance has been closely monitoring developments both in Ukraine itself, in the temporarily occupied territories, and directly near the border. In fact, they had the worst expectations.

The level of threat of a direct military incursion was regarded as very high. Therefore, both the Alliance and its leadership have been in constant contact with the Ukrainian side in order to jointly achieve understanding and assess the current situation.

The Alliance has chosen a clear line  to maintain unity in the face of the Russian threat and adhere to a common position in response to violations of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

As you know, NATO is a military-political alliance. The Alliance does not impose sanctions and neither does it have its own armed forces. It cannot provide direct armed support to Ukraine. But NATO is an important platform for the Allies to reach a consensus on coordinated action in support of Ukraine, including Russia sanctions.

THE "NOTHING ABOUT UKRAINE WITHOUT UKRAINE" PRINCIPLE REMAINS FUNDAMENTAL

- Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin had a phone call on the situation around Ukraine without Ukraine's participation. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron initiated and held talks with the Russian leadership, which were preceded by contacts on the same issue between Germany and Russia at the level of foreign ministers. What is Ukraines place in these talks? Do we really no longer object to negotiations related to us but held behind our back?

- I cannot agree with the assumption that the mentioned "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" principle was violated in this case. After all, U.S. President Joe Bidens phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following Bidens call with Putin was preceded by relevant contacts at the level of the head of the Ukrainian Presidents Office and our Minister for Foreign Affairs with their American counterparts.

This rule must remain unwavering as regards other diplomatic contacts, too.

RUSSIA HAS NO RIGHT TO SCHOOL UKRAINE OR NATO

- But during such negotiations, Russia puts forwaed direct ultimatums, for example, demanding guarantees against further eastward expansion by NATO. The West declares its readiness to discuss such "concerns." Wheres Ukraine's position on such ultimatums here and how is it being taken into account?

- Over the years of war, Ukrainians have developed a stable immunity to all sorts of allegations voiced by the Russian Federation. The demand to draw new red lines in Europe and prevent NATO enlargement to the east is yet another point in Russia's guidebook of "boogeyman stories" about NATO.

By committing an act of aggression against Ukraine, Russia has deprived itself of any moral right to come forward with advice, let alone ultimatums. The NATO secretary general voiced the same position when he said Ukraine's future membership in the Alliance was a matter of political will of 30 NATO Allies and Ukraine, and that no third party had the right to influence it. Thats where we stand.

RUSSIA IS NOT INTERESTED IN ENDING CONFLICT WITH UKRAINE

- But the very fact that America agrees to negotiations under military pressure provokes Putin to pursue such blackmail. The Kremlin doesnt seem to be asking for the right to offer advice  it is imposing it by force. Biden has already expressed readiness to discuss with Russia the latters "security concerns" in the presence of a select few NATO members. What can be on the table? In this context, does Ukraine have any room left for compromise?

- Russia has been pursuing its blackmail not only on our borders and not only through threats of direct military aggression. Russia is attacking on several fronts. Gas blackmail is being used to "heat up tensions." An insane propaganda campaign involving disinformation about Ukraine continues. Russia is actively imposing an idea that the West is weak, that it wont be able to support Ukraine, limiting itself to words.

I believe that the Russian Federation is just as wrong as it was in 2014, when they refused to believe that the West would impose sanctions. The fact that European partners have agreed to develop a package of possible actions against Russia in the event of aggression is a very big step forward.

As for the statements about the possibility of the West launching dialogue with Moscow, I suggest we not make a tragedy out of it too early, instead assuming that the content of such talks is a key factor in determining our attitude to dialogue with Russia.

Ukraine is proving with real action that it supports a diplomatic settlement of the conflict with Russia. This is confirmed by our attempts to revive the Normandy format and fill the negotiations in the Minsk format with practical content. Instead, Russia is sabotaging both platforms, supplying manpower and weapons to the occupied Donbas, handing out Russian passports en masse, and ensuring the illegal participation of Ukrainian citizens in Russian elections.

This is clear evidence that Russia is not interested in resolving this conflict. It aims to nourish a permanent source of conflict in our territory, which will be sucking all juices out of us  human, financial, and moral. The Kremlin's goal is obvious  to hinder at any cost Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO.

THE OBJECTIVE IS TO MEET THE CRITERIA FOR NATO MEMBERSHIP

- But, frankly, Ukraine's desire to join the Alliance has never seen full support of all NATO Allies. Now, against the background of the Russian ultimatum, is it worth mentioning the issue of an MAP for Ukraine? Can we expect anything of this kind from the next NATO summit in Madrid?

- We are aware that our integration into NATO is taking place amid harsh rhetoric and opposition from the Kremlin. Moreover, this rhetoric is aimed at Russian citizens, on whom a myth is being actively imposed of an aggressive NATO bloc that threatens Russia's security.

Secondly, the future of Ukraine-NATO relations is a political decision to be taken by the 30 Allies and Ukraine. I wont hide this: currently, there is no consensus among the Allies on granting Ukraine the MAP. Among the reasons are fears of escalation by Russia.

But for us, these circumstances change nothing. The decision of the NATO Bucharest Summit (2008 - ed.) stipulates that Ukraine will one day become a member of NATO, and a step in this direction will be to provide the MAP for the country. This decision was reaffirmed in the final document of this year's Brussels Summit.

So theres commitment on the part of the Alliance. Also, theres Ukraines priority, laid down in the Constitution, to become a member of the EU and NATO. We must work hard to achieve this goal, despite warnings coming from the Russian Federation.

With regard to the expectations of next year's NATO Summit in Madrid, it should see the adoption of a new NATO Strategic Concept that would set out the Alliance's main benchmarks and priorities for the coming decade. It is important for Ukraine to see in this document a confirmation of the Alliance's open door policy towards partners such as Ukraine.

RUSSIA THROWS ITS INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS INTO A TRASH BIN

- I might be wrong but it seems that in this "staring game" with Russia, the West was the first to blink. Thats because the West has things to lose, while Russians often see no value in their own lives. One of the demands Russia has put forward concerns the denunciation of the Bucharest Summit commitments regarding the future membership of Ukraine and Georgia. Did NATO partners try to somehow test Ukraine's attitude to such a plot?

- There is no such discussion within NATO and there cant be any: all decisions and final documents of the summits are not subject to revision.

I believe our northern neighbors didnt actually expect that in response to their so-called concerns, Allies would agree to provide Moscow with some documentary security guarantees. Rather, the expectation was that the threat of a direct military invasion of Ukraine would force the United States to enter into a direct dialogue with Putin. And they did achieve this goal. In fact, we see typical Russian behavior  to raise the stakes to the skies, bring the situation to a standstill, and then strike a pose and declare their readiness to negotiate.

Let us recall the Budapest Memorandum, signed by the Russian Federation, and the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and Russia, which recognized the inviolability of borders. It is Russia that has thrown its international obligations into the trash bin. And now they are starting to school the Alliance up to where exactly the latters borders should stretch.

NATO HELPS UKRAINE DAILY IN ARMED FORCES REFORM AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

- According to certain signs though, a number of our partners from the Alliance would not mind seeing Ukraine as a kind of buffer. Systemic objections to the MAP and Ukraine's membership in NATO only confirm this assumption. Was it any surprise to you to hear from Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that Ukraine is only a partner for NATO, so the Alliance will not defend it as it would any of the Allies?

- The secretary general didnt say anything unexpected in his statement. Indeed, we are a partner country, were not yet a member of the Alliance. Accordingly, we cant count on the troops of NATO Allies to join us in repelling Russian aggression on our territory. This is the reality we are working with today.

However, this does not mean that the Alliance doesnt have in its arsenal the means to help Ukraine. All NATO Allies, with some exceptions, are also members of the EU. This means theres a possibility of developing a strong sanctions package in case of Russian aggression, proposals for which were presented by our Minister (Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba - ed.) at a NATO foreign ministerial in Riga.

In addition, NATO provides strong military and political support to Ukraine, both at the Allied and at the bilateral levels, from advisory assistance to the supply of equipment and weapons at the bilateral level. NATO helps us every day when Allied warships enter the Black Sea, when NATO instructors train our troops, when they help reform Ukraine's Armed Forces.

We should not be upset by the fact that NATO will not fight for us and instead of us. Instead, we should take advantage of all the opportunities offered by practical cooperation with NATO to boost our defense capabilities.

RUSSIAN THREATS HAVE NOT REDUCED THE LEVEL OF COOPERATION BETWEEN UKRAINE AND NATO

- How has the current situation with Russia affected the practical military cooperation between Ukraine and the Alliance? There was once an idea to increase the number of NATO training centers in Ukraine and even move them closer to the eastern borders. What about now?

- Russia's armed aggression has not in any way worsened our cooperation with NATO, and in some areas it has even become an additional stimulus. For example, this applies to sharing experience in combating hybrid threats. We live in a time when it is not necessary to deploy troops or use tanks to destabilize a country. Cyberterrorism, for example, brings no less destructive effects. Ukraine has gained some experience in countering such threats, which is of interest to Allies.

As for the conduct of various exercises and trainings on Ukrainian territory, we will increase their number, as required by the EOP status. We are also working to increase the presence of our officers in NATO bodies, where possible. At the same time, we need to reach a new level of relations, for example, in the exchange of confidential data. As recent events in Ukraine have shown, this topic is extremely relevant.

IN CONFRONTATION WITH RUSSIA, WE SHOULD RELY ON OURSELVES FIRST

- What do you think Ukraine should prepare for in the coming weeks and months?

- The years of armed confrontation with the Russian Federation have taught us important lessons, and one of them is to rely on our own strength. In my contacts with my NATO counterparts, I always make it clear that Ukraine is not intimidated, there is no panic or frustration. Because today we are much stronger: we have a highly combat-ready Army that is ready to defend the country.

But this doesn't mean we need this war. And this doesnt mean that the West should calmly observe the developments and rejoice that Ukraine can stand up for itself.

Together, we have to prevent aggression, develop a tough package of countermeasures that would be really painful for the Russian economy. We expect effective military support from our Western partners, including the supply of weapons for effective defense.

Such actions by western powers can destroy Russia's narrative of a "weak West" and, above all, convince the Kremlin leadership that the West is determined to stop another war in Europe and will not succumb to Russian blackmail.

Dmytro Shkurko, Brussels

Photo: Ukraine's Mission to NATO

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Ukraine stands in solidarity with Poland and Lithuania in their assessment of the migration crisis on the EU's border with Belarus and is strengthening its own frontiers to avoid a similar scenario, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

He said this at a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"An important topic of our talks was the ongoing migration crisis on the borders of the EU and Belarus. In its assessments, we stand in solidarity with our Polish and Lithuanian partners. To ensure the failure of any attempts to repeat the same scenario in Ukraine, we are actively strengthening our own border," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he stressed that coordination of joint efforts and exchange of experience is important in this matter.

The presidents of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania on Monday participated in the Lublin Triangle summit at the Syniohora residence in the village of Huta, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The Lublin Triangle was formed in July 2020 by the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, who signed a joint declaration on the establishment of a new regional alliance. Among the priorities of the format are strengthening the region, strengthening security, Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO, the development of economic cooperation, and joint counteraction to hybrid threats.

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The United States will provide more military equipment and weapons to Ukraine if Russia decides to continue its aggression.

"If Russia takes unacceptable action against Ukraine, we will also supply more equipment and weapons to Ukraine. In the end, we will ensure that our NATO Allies bordering Ukraine are fully strengthened," U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Kristina Kvien told Suspilne in an interview.

In particular, Kvien mentioned the supply of additional military equipment and weapons.

"We have been providing security assistance to Ukraine for many years, in particular, defensive weapons. Our last batch of weapons, in fact, arrived just a week or two ago. And we continue to support Ukraine. This year alone, we have provided $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine. And since 2014, we have provided Ukraine with more than two and a half billion dollars in security assistance. Therefore, we will continue to assess [the situation] and, as I said, as we have already said, if Russia takes unacceptable action against Ukraine, we will provide additional equipment," the diplomat stressed.

As reported, Russia has amassed about 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine in recent weeks. These maneuvers raise great concerns in Western countries amid fears of Moscows attack. NATO warned Russia that such a move would have far-reaching "strategic and economic" consequences. Moscow rejects intention to invade Ukraine and explains the build-up as a measure to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.

On December 5, Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov said that the total number of Russian troops near Ukraine's border could rise to 175,000.

According to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, the situation around Ukraine's borders remains difficult as Russia continues to redeploy troops to maintain tensions in the region.

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The presidents of Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania called on the international community to strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation and urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraines borders.

Called upon the international community to step up sanctions on the Russian Federation over its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again urged the Kremlin to deescalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories, reads the joint statement by the leaders, published on the website of the President of Ukraine.

The Presidents expressed their particular concern over the continuing deterioration of security and stability in the region and evolving threats, including hybrid ones, resulting, inter alia, from the ongoing Russian aggression, and agreed on the need of joint efforts to strengthen their resilience in the face of those threats in order to counter them in a more efficient and coordinated manner.

In addition, the leaders expressed their mutual support and solidarity in the face of the migration crisis, artificially created and orchestrated by Minsk on the Lithuanian-Belarusian and Polish-Belarusian borders, and stated their resolve to join efforts to counter it. They also noted that this hybrid attack represented a direct threat to the security of the entire Europe.

As reported, the summit of the Lublin Triangle leaders  the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania  took place on Monday at the Syniohora residence in the village of Huta, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The Lublin Triangle was established in July 2020 by the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania, who signed the joint declaration on the establishment of a new regional alliance. Among the priorities of the format is the reinforcement of the region, security enhancement, Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO, development of economic cooperation, joint counteraction to hybrid threats.

Photo credit: Presidents Office

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The Netherlands opens its borders to Ukrainians from 9:00 on July 22, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"The Netherlands is open to Ukrainians from 9:00 on July 22 in accordance with the recommendation of the Council of the European Union. Full visa-free travel like in the good old days," the minister posted on Twitter.

According to information on tripadvisor.mfa.gov.ua, from 09:00 on July 22, 2021, the entry of Ukrainian citizens with biometric passports to the Kingdom of the Netherlands is possible for all travel purposes without restrictions and COVID vaccination certificates.

The airlines concerned provide passengers with a special health form to fill out before check-in. The passenger must truthfully complete this form, show it before boarding, and keep it with him throughout the flight. If the answer to one of the questions in the form is yes, then the airline will not be able to let the passenger board a plane.

As Ukrinform reported, on July 15, the Council of the European Union added Ukraine to the list of countries for which coronavirus-related travel restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU should be lifted.

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UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, today emphasized the need for urgent protection and assistance for refugees who have fled intensified fighting in and near Lay Kay Kaw, Kayin State, Myanmar, and who have crossed into Thailand. UNHCR, together with partners, reiterates to the Royal Thai Government its readiness to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance and protection support to the new arrivals.

According to the Royal Thai Government, some 3,900 Myanmar nationals have fled across the border since 16 December. They are currently being hosted in several locations in Mae Sot district. It is also reported that some individuals who fled Myanmar in the past several days have since returned.

Fighting and shelling continue across Myanmar, including in the areas from which the newly arrived refugees fled. UNHCR is concerned for the welfare of these civilians and has approached the Thai authorities with offers of assistance, including the provision of emergency relief items. To further support the ongoing humanitarian response, UNHCR and NGOs have requested urgent access to the refugees to ascertain and deliver to them the necessary humanitarian and protection assistance .

Thailand has a decades-long tradition and experience in providing international protection and assistance to fleeing persons seeking asylum, including those from Myanmar. UNHCR reiterates its welcome of the previous assurances provided by the Thai Prime Minister on Thailands preparedness for a possible influx of refugees, including his assurance that those seeking refuge would not be forcibly returned.

UNHCR continues to advocate in accordance with international law that persons seeking international protection and fleeing conflict, generalized violence or persecution be allowed to cross borders in search of safety, and that they may not be forcibly sent back to a place where their lives and freedom could be in danger.

Media contact

UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok:

Kasita Rochanakorn, [email protected], +66 64 932 0803
 UNHCR/Lilly Carlisle

I took my post as UNHCR Representative in Greece six weeks ago. Working here is the highlight of my career with the United Nations  a career that took me to Africa, Europe and Latin America. I feel honoured to work for refugees here  the very spot where the concept, the word, and the institution of asylum were born. But even more, I feel honoured because I, like many throughout the world, think of the compassion and solidarity that the Greek people showed towards refugees during the crisis several years ago, and that is needed so much today.

Times have changed, and we are not seeing the mass movements that we saw back then. Yet, the challenges of war, conflicts, mass violations of human rights, often compounded by climate change, continue to create increasing numbers of forcibly displaced populations throughout the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has further harshened the situation globally, creating yet more poverty, more inequality and unrest. There are some 26.6 million refugees in the world. An additional 51 million are displaced in their own countries. And there are, in addition, some 281 million migrants globally.

It is true that mixed movements of refugees and migrants pose very real challenges to States, asylum systems, local communities. But let us not forget, when it comes to refugees, that being a refugee is a circumstance. No one chooses to be a refugee  they are a product of persecution for their opinions, their ethnicity, their nationality, their language, their religion  basically, for who they are. And let us also not forget that the large majority  more than 85 per cent  of refugees around the world are not in Europe. They are in Africa, in the Middle East, and in Asia. The modest number of refugees in Europe, combined with its advanced economies and governments means refugees, can be accepted in a positive way. Many refugees possess skills that our countries need and want, with an enormous desire to learn, to integrate and to contribute. We should harness this potential, which can bring great benefit of the countries that host them, through integration  being included and taking part in their host countrys successes and responsibilities.

Throughout my work of over two decades with the UN, I have seen evidence, over and over again, of this. An integration programme that contemplates the needs of the country and can use refugees skills is key. In the same way as no one chooses to be a refugee, no one wants to live a life of handouts and charity. Refugees, wherever they are, want to stop depending on aid, want to cover their own needs, and those of their children, in a dignified, safe and sustainable way. They are happier working and paying taxes  they prefer being active and giving back to the countries and societies that have given them protection.

Throughout my work in three continents, I have seen myriads of examples of this throughout the world, including in Greece. And I have seen the benefits that integration can bring. To host communities, as they can benefit from new economic initiatives; refugee businesses often create jobs in the community; and refugees can bring knowledge and technologies that are needed in the host locations. To companies, as the inclusion of diverse people improves productivity and stimulates innovation: Several studies at the international level show that a diverse workforce can help increase productivity and innovation, in cases up to 40%. Integration brings benefits to the economy: studies in European Union countries show, for example, that an investment of 1 euro in the integration of refugees can generate 2 euros in benefits within a period of no more than five years. And finally, integration can bring benefits to the society as a whole, as it promotes peace and social cohesion, reducing social conflicts and the cost associated with them.

Integration is a workable solution that can bring a wide range of benefits to all countries which pursue it integration through good policies and practices. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has more than 70 years of experience in the field of solutions, including integration, and we are happy  and honoured  to further cooperate with Greece to unlock the integration potential for the benefit of the refugees in Greece and for Greek citizens and society as whole.

*This is a translation of an op-ed hosted in Greek at Liberal.gr 18 December 2021.

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(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Yangon, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2021 ) :A Myanmar junta court on Monday postponed giving its verdict in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial for illegally importing and possessing walkie talkies, a source with knowledge of the case said.

The Nobel laureate has been detained since the generals staged a coup against her government on February 1, ending the Southeast Asian country's brief period of democracy.

Nationwide protests against the putsch have been met with a bloody crackdown, with more than 1,300 people killed and over 11,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

Suu Kyi, 76, was due to hear the verdict on charges she illegally imported and possessed walkie-talkies -- the latest in a catalogue of judgements in a junta court that could see her jailed for the rest of her life.

But the judge adjourned the case until December 27 without explanation, a source with knowledge of the case told AFP.

Earlier this month, she was jailed for four years for incitement against the military and breaching Covid restrictions, in a ruling that was widely condemned by the international community.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing later commuted the term to two years and said she would serve her sentence under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi could had faced three years in prison if found guilty on the walkie-talkie charges, which stem from the early hours of the coup when soldiers and police raided her house and allegedly found her in possession of the contraband equipment.

Under cross-examination, members of the raiding party admitted they had not possessed a search warrant for the raid, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

Suu Kyi is also charged with multiple counts of corruption -- each of which is punishable by 15 years in jail -- and violating the official secrets act.

Journalists have been barred from attending the special court hearings in Naypyidaw and her lawyers were recently banned from speaking to the media.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Nairobi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2021 ) :Tigrayan rebels on Monday announced they were withdrawing from several areas of Ethiopia and retreating to Tigray, marking a new turning point in the 13-month war which has left thousands of people dead.

"We decided to withdraw from these areas to Tigray. We want to open the door to humanitarian aid," Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front, told AFP, announcing a pullout from the regions of Amhara and Afar.
(@FahadShabbir)

All passengers arriving from the UK via direct or indirect flights will undergo a rapid antigen (RAT) test upon arrival under the new policy of NCOC.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Dec 20th, 2021) The National Command and Operation Authority (NCOC) announced Monday a new travel policy for passengers travelling directly from the United Kingdom to Pakistan owing to an increasing number of Omicron cases in the United Kingdom.

All passengers arriving from the UK via direct or indirect flights will undergo a rapid antigen (RAT) test upon arrival under the new policy of NCOC. The passenger will undergo RAT test besides their mandatory vaccination and negative PCR test pre-boarding protocols already in place (max 48 hours old).

The NCOC has asked that PCAA adjust direct flights from the UK (if deemed necessary) to provide a sufficient time gap for airports to conduct 100 per cent RAT.

The Centre has also asked the authorities concerned to take appropriate action and expeditiously disseminate the information.

Earlier today, the NCOC had announced to lower the age limit for the administration of COVID-19 booster jabs.

Individuals aged 30 years and above are now eligible for the administration of a COVID-19 booster dose and can get a booster shot of their own choice from January 1, 2022, a statement issued by the principal body governing the policies and implementation of the national COVID-19 effort of Pakistan.

The forum also released the latest vaccination statistics, saying 713,582 people were vaccinated overnight, pushing the country's tally of vaccinated individuals to 141,509,339, which constitutes 58% of Pakistan's population.
(@FahadShabbir)

CTD officials say that the terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on the police officials, and in exchange of fire, three suspects have been killed.

PESHAWAR: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Dec 20th, 2021) Counter Terrorism department on Monday killed three suspected terrorists in a joint operation.

The CTD carried out its operation against the terrorists in Faqirabad police station.

According to the law enforcement officials, terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on the police officials and as a result, the CTD officials killed three militants. The terrorists killed in the operation were said to be involved in heinous crimes including targeting killing of security forces and other acts of terrorism.

One of the terrorist was identified as Suleman who was the resident of Bajaur and the identity of other suspects was yet to be ascertained.

The CTD officials also recovered arms and ammunition from their possession.

On Saturday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the security forces had killed terrorist commander Ghafoor alias Jaleel during an Intelligence Based Operation (IBO) in Bajur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The killed commander was the close associate of Moulvi Faqir Muhammad and was involved in many terrorist activities. During an exchange of fire, one soldier was also injured, said militarys media wing.
(@FahadShabbir)

An attack on the Belarusian embassy in London was committed on Sunday, one diplomat was seriously injured, UK charge d'affaires was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the ministry said on Monday

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) An attack on the Belarusian embassy in London was committed on Sunday, one diplomat was seriously injured, UK charge d'affaires was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the ministry said on Monday.

"On the evening of December 19, 2021, an attack was committed on the Belarusian embassy in London. First, a group of people damaged the facade of the building of the foreign establishment, and then the arriving Belarusian diplomats were physically attacked. One of them was seriously injured and required urgent medical attention. A healthcare facility diagnosed with a broken nose, mild concussion and a traumatic tooth fracture," the ministry said.

After the arrival of law enforcement agencies, the radicals attempted to escape from the scene. However, a number of the attackers were detained by the London diplomatic police.

"It has been established that the persons are presumably included in the radical emigre grouping Nadzeya," the statement says.

"The UK charge d'affaires was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, to whom a strong protest has been lodged with the demand to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as inform the Belarusian side about the progress of the procedural actions and their results," the ministry added.
Egypt on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail with two others receiving four years, his sister said

Cairo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2021 ) :Egypt on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail with two others receiving four years, his sister said.

Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer and blogger Mohamed "Oxygen" Ibrahim were charged with "broadcasting false news" in their trial in Cairo.

"Alaa was sentenced to five years, Baqer four years and Mohamed Oxygen four years," his sister Mona Seif said. "The judge was too cowardly to even inform us."
(@FahadShabbir)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended approving use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US company Novavax, the regulator said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended approving use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US company Novavax, the regulator said on Monday.

"EMA has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid (also known as NVX-CoV2373) to prevent COVID-19 in people from 18 years of age," the regulator said in a statement.
(@FahadShabbir)

Tigrayan rebels announced on Monday they had withdrawn from northern Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions and retreated to Tigray, marking a new turning point in the 13-month war which has left thousands of people dead

Nairobi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2021 ) :Tigrayan rebels announced on Monday they had withdrawn from northern Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions and retreated to Tigray, marking a new turning point in the 13-month war which has left thousands of people dead.

"We decided to withdraw from these areas to Tigray. We want to open the door to humanitarian aid," Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told AFP.

The decision was made a few weeks ago, Getachew said, later tweeting: "We have just completed the withdrawal of our forces from both #AmharaAfar regions." The move marks a major reversal by the rebels, who previously dismissed the government's insistence on their withdrawal from Afar and Amhara for talks to begin as "an absolute non-starter".

But Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said Monday's rebel announcement was a cover-up for military setbacks.

"The TPLF have sustained great losses over the past weeks and hence are claiming 'strategic retreat' to make up for defeat," she told AFP.

"There are still pockets in the Amhara region in which they remain as well as other fronts they are attempting to open the conflict." The war between pro-Abiy forces and the TPLF has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis and last week the UN's top rights body ordered an international probe into alleged abuses.

Since late October, the two sides have each declared major territorial advances, with the TPLF at one point claiming to be around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa by road.

Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace prize winner, headed to the front last month, according to state media, and the government has since claimed to have retaken several key towns.

Communications have been cut in the conflict zone and access for journalists is restricted, making it difficult to verify battlefield claims.

- Appeal to UN - The fighting has sparked alarm among the international community, as diplomatic efforts led by the African Union to broker a ceasefire failed to yield any visible breakthrough.

Getachew said TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael had written to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to inform him about the decision, with the Security Council expected to hold a closed-door meeting about Ethiopia later Monday.

Ireland's UN envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason, who called the meeting, told reporters the TPLF pullout offered "a welcome opportunity to hopefully create political space for dialogue".

According to copies of the letter circulating on social media, Debretsion asked the Security Council to ensure the withdrawal of Amhara forces and Eritrean troops from western Tigray.

"I can confirm that the letter is being studied," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres.

Both Amharas and Tigrayans lay claim to western Tigray, which has been occupied by Amhara forces since the war erupted, triggering large-scale displacement and US warnings of ethnic cleansing.

"We need the international community to take action," Getachew said.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch last week accused Amhara forces of systematically detaining, torturing and starving Tigrayan civilians living in the contested region.

- Humanitarian 'siege' - Previously TPLF leaders had refused to pull out of Amhara and Afar unless the government ended what the rebels describe as a humanitarian "siege" of Tigray.

Aid workers have repeatedly complained that security and bureaucratic hurdles are impeding access to the region, where some 400,000 people are thought to be on the verge of famine.

The UN also suspended humanitarian flights from Addis Ababa to Tigray's capital Mekele in October amid a campaign of government air strikes in the region. The flights resumed in November.

Fears of a rebel march on the capital prompted countries such as the United States, France and Britain to urge their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible, although Abiy's government insisted the city was secure.

The war broke out in November 2020 when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, accusing it of attacking army camps.

The Nobel Peace laureate vowed a swift victory but the rebels mounted a shock comeback, recapturing most of Tigray by June before advancing into Afar and Amhara.

The fighting has displaced over two million people while 9.4 million need food aid, according to UN estimates, with reports of massacres and mass rapes by both sides.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council voted to send international investigators to Africa's second most populous nation amid warnings of looming generalised violence, in a move slammed by Addis Ababa.
(@FahadShabbir)

Giving a full dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine as a booster shot provides more antibody protection against the Omicron variant than currently authorised half-strength injections, the company said Monday

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2021 ) :Giving a full dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine as a booster shot provides more antibody protection against the Omicron variant than currently authorised half-strength injections, the company said Monday.

The lab study measured the levels of Omicron-neutralising antibodies in blood samples from 40 people who had low levels of these antibodies before getting the booster.

The current recommendation is to give 100 micrograms of the Moderna jab as a first and second dose for protection from Covid-19, followed by a 50-microgram booster.

Antibodies were measured 29 days after booster participants got the third jabs, with half getting a 50 microgram dose and half getting 100 micrograms.

Moderna says preliminary data show antibody response to Omicron at the 50 microgram dose increased 37-fold -- but when the dose was doubled, antibody levels increased 83-fold.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel called the results "reassuring", adding that the company is continuing to develop an Omicron-specific jab.

The statement says clinical trials for a targeted vaccine are likely to begin in early 2022.

Experts urge caution when interpreting lab studies, saying real-world evidence is needed to determine protection against transmission and illness.

Last week a real-world study from South Africa showed two shots of the similar mRNA jab from Pfizer/BioNTech offered around 70 percent protection against severe disease caused by Omicron.

In an interview published Monday in French daily Le Monde, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said that after a third injection the jab seemed to provide between 70 and 75 percent protection against any form of the illness.

He added that his company should be able to offer an Omicron-specific vaccine from March, pending approval from regulators.
German ambassador in Moscow Geza Andreas von Geyr has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and informed about the expulsion of two German diplomats over Berlin's similar move, the ministry said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) German ambassador in Moscow Geza Andreas von Geyr has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and informed about the expulsion of two German diplomats over Berlin's similar move, the ministry said on Monday.

Earlier in December, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats over the case of murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. Moscow informed the ambassador about its "strong protest" over Berlin's "unfriendly move."

"The German ambassador was informed about declaring two diplomatic employees of the German embassy in Russia 'persona non grata' as a mirror response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision of the German government, and it was also emphasized that the Russian side would invariably adequately respond in a proportionate manner to any potential confrontational attacks by Berlin in the future," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that "the Russian side categorically rejects" accusations of Moscow's involvement in the murder of Khangoshvili.
(@FahadShabbir)

NATO understands that it is impossible to constantly hit Russia's weak spots, dialogue is necessary, otherwise Moscow will have to give a military response, Konstantin Gavrilov, who heads the Russian delegation at the arms control negotiations in Vienna, said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) NATO understands that it is impossible to constantly hit Russia's weak spots, dialogue is necessary, otherwise Moscow will have to give a military response, Konstantin Gavrilov, who heads the Russian delegation at the arms control negotiations in Vienna, said on Monday.

"Everyone understands everything perfectly, the moment of truth is coming in relations between Russia and NATO. You cannot constantly hit Russia's weak spots, you need to be determined ... The conversation must be serious, and everyone in NATO understands very well, despite all the strength and power, that it is necessary to take concrete political actions, otherwise the alternative is military-technical and military responses from Russia," Gavrilov told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in a phone call with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov indicated Washington's willingness to engage in diplomacy, including via the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE, NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne said in a readout on Monday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in a phone call with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov indicated Washington's willingness to engage in diplomacy, including via the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE, NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne said in a readout on Monday.

"He indicated U.S.

readiness to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the NATO-Russia Council, and the OSCE," Horne said. "He made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions, and take place in full coordination with our European Allies and partners. He also noted that substantive progress can only occur in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation."
USM Professor Chosen President-Elect of Mississippi Public Health Association

Mon, 12/20/2021 - 09:12am | By: Van Arnold

Longtime public health professional, researcher and educator Dr. Tanya T. Funchess eagerly embraces the opportunity to serve as President-elect of the Mississippi Public Health Association (MPHA).

Funchess, Assistant Professor of Public Health at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), has been an MPHA member for more than 15 years. Prior to becoming President-elect, she served as chair of the MPHA Health and Racial Equity Committee.

I am very honored and humbled to serve as President-elect for MPHA. I am excited to be working alongside public health professionals, decision-makers, health care leaders, academicians, faith-based organizations, and communities across this state from all walks of life, to improve the health of all Mississippians, said Funchess.

Before joining the USM nursing faculty in 2018, Funchess served for 17 years at the Mississippi State Department of Health in various leadership roles, including the Office Director for Health Equity.

Dr. Kaye Bender, MPHA Executive Director, offers high praise for Funchess and expects the new President-elect to excel in the position.

MPHA is so pleased that Dr. Funchess has accepted the role of President-elect. She brings a strong and impressive public health background to the position. Her leadership is already making a difference in our association, and we know it will do even more as she becomes president next year. She is perfect for the role, said Bender.

Since 1937, the Mississippi Public Health Association has strived to strengthen public health in Mississippi through leadership, advocacy and education. MPHA provides members with professional development and networking opportunities while also serving as the voice of public health in Mississippi.

In her role as President-elect, Funchess will assume a range of responsibilities, including:

Preparing and presiding over meetings and conference calls

Working closely with the president and executive director on ensuring implementation of strategic goals

Fully participating in the work of the board of directors

Representing the association at various affiliate and/or professional events

Serving as the chair of MPHA Health and Racial Committee

Dr. Lachel Story, Dean of USMs College of Nursing and Health Professions, notes that Funchess expertise and experience are valuable assets to MPHAs mission.

The College of Nursing and Health Professions has a strong legacy of public health leadership through the work of our faculty and our graduates. Dr. Funchess will provide excellent leadership as Mississippi continues to respond to the current and future health crises, said Story.

Dr. Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, Director of USMs School of Health Professions, echoed similar sentiments: Dr. Funchess has been dedicated to the field of public health in the state of Mississippi for many years. The faculty and staff in the School of Health Professions and the Dr. Lynn Cook Hartwig Public Health Program at The University of Southern Mississippi are extremely excited about this new role for Dr. Funchess. I know that her excellent leadership as the MPHA President will continue to move the state forward.

Funchess notes than an important benefit of having a USM faculty member serve in a high-ranking MPHA role is that students are given direct access to leading experts at the executive level in the state for public health. Further, it expands the students reach to resources for academic and professional development.

It also presents an opportunity to show the type of public health expertise that exists here at the University, said Funchess. It puts Mississippi on a national stage with USM at the forefront of addressing relevant public health issues through research and service. It provides USM the opportunity to be at the table to develop goals and strategies to address Mississippi public health crises now and for the future.

Funchess earned her associate degree in general business from Copiah Lincoln Junior College and her Bachelor of Science degree from USM in business administration. She later earned her masters degree in management from Belhaven University; her Masters in public health from USM, and her doctorate in health administration (research focus) from the University of Phoenix, Ariz.

A native of Magee, Miss., Funchess still resides there with her husband, Chaucer Funchess, and son, Chanse Funchess.

To learn more about the College of Nursing and Health Professions at USM, call 601.266.5445 or visit: https://www.usm.edu/nursing-health-professions/index.php
In its Christmas message, the Bishops Conference of Haiti (CEH) calls for national responsibility and for international solidarity as the country faces political, economic and humanitarian crises.

By Lisa Zengarini

As Haiti continues to reel in political, economic, social and humanitarian turmoil, amidst growing insecurity, local bishops have once again urged Haitian political leaders to take responsibility saying the country needs a moral jolt of patriotism to overcome the crisis. We cannot remain indifferent to the tragic events of recent months, the bishops write in a strongly worded Christmas Message.

Political and socio-economic chaos

The situation in Haiti has been out of control for years, amid economic crisis, social unrest and growing abductions by street gangs who are threatening all Haitian citizens. The situation has further deteriorated after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, on July 7 this year, and the 7.2 earthquake in August, which caused over 2,000 dead and 12,000 injured in the southern part of the island. In recent days, the explosion of a tanker in the northern city of Cap-Haitien has caused about 75 victims.

"Shouldnt such socio-economic and political chaos challenge the conscience of those who have responsibility in the international community, and lead them to work together to help us and heal this wound and promote respect for universal rights? Haitian bishops ask in their message. And don't our political leaders feel more worried than ever by this chaotic and disastrous situation that continues worsen?"

Patriotic jolt needed

The message therefore calls on the consciences of all Haitians, asking for a moral and patriotic jolt to fight the evil forces causing so many atrocities and suffering to everybody

They urge all those who have responsibility in politics, society and the economy, to engage in finding a lasting solution to the crisis that the country has been facing for too long with a sense of responsibility, understanding and will for peace.

A more fraternal country

Expressing solidarity to the victims of kidnapping, rape and violence and firmly condemning these fratricidal acts, bishops once again call for the re-establishment of law and order in the country and urge the leaders of armed groups to disarm so as to contribute to rebuilding a more just, humane and fraternal country.

Pope Francis' solidarity

The bishops thank Pope Francis for his support and solidarity with Haiti and Haitians, referring in particular to his words at the Angelus prayer of 31 October when he asked world leaders to help the country and not to abandon the Haitian people.

They also deplore the fact that so many Haitians who are forced to leave their country to find a better life elsewhere are often victims of abuse and discrimination abroad: In communion with the Holy Father, we ask that the principles requiring respect for the dignity of the human person be applied to all.

Call for prayer

The Christmas Message wraps up with a call on all Haitians to stop putting their petty interests before the interests of the Nation and to intensify their prayers: Let us pray that the Spirit of wisdom and discernment will enlighten us and guide us in the active search for an integral renewal of our country. This call was also made by Pope Francis during his General Audience of 15 December following the devastating fuel tanker explosion at Cap-Haitien.
The Cypriot conflict is not a religious but a political one. And yet religion is being instrumentalized and misused in this context. This is emphasized in an interview with Vatican Radio by Salpy Eskidijan, the founder of "Religious Track", an initiative that has been bringing the religious leaders of Cyprus to the table for the past ten years so that they can be taken seriously as a voice in the peace process.

By Christine Seuss

It was Pope Francis desire to meet the Religious Track Group during his visit to Cyprus at the beginning of December. During that meeting, he encouraged group members to continue their work of peacebuilding and reconciliation with the involvement of the leaders of the different religious communities in the country.

Understanding the dynamics

It all started with the 2004 referendum in which the island's two communities were called to the polls to vote on a settlement based on a plan drawn up by Kofi Annan for the reunification of Cyprus. However, the Greek south, in particular, clearly rejected the plan, with around 76 per cent of the eligible (Greek Cypriot) residents in the south voting against it, while a majority in the Turkish-occupied northern part (65 per cent) voted in favour. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the southern part of the island became a full member of the EU on 1 May 2004. But why did the Cypriots in the south vote so clearly against the plan that would have put an end to the legal uncertainty and the de facto division of the island? This question was on Salpy Eskidijan's mind both in the run-up to the vote, when the reservations of the population were already clear, and afterwards. She was working at the World Council of Churches at the time, where Cyprus was part of her portfolio, and she was called to prepare a recommendation for the World Council of Churches on what position the inter-church body should officially take on the issue. Thus, she recalls in conversation with Vatican Radio's Christine Seuss, she ploughed through the 80-page draft treaty, coming across several points that made her think.

Listen to the interview with Salpy Eskidijan

Identifying the stakeholders

An important insight in peace research is to identify the stakeholders who need to be involved in the process early on. But no one, at the time, thought to involve the Church: "And it was shocking for me to discover that neither the Church of Cyprus nor religious representatives had been involved, that no one had spoken to them, either individually or as a group. We always say that, if you are not at the negotiating table, or in one way or another involved, consulted or heard by those in the lead, then its not a surprise when you don't trust the agreement."

The majority of the Orthodox Church in Cyprus, including the bishops, voted "no", indeed, more than that, the Orthodox religious leadership also urged the faithful to vote "no". Those who were in favour of the treaty, or who voted yes, did not make this known publicly, Eskidijan later found out.

Similarly, the majority of women also voted no, the experts later analysed. "Why? Because they were not part of it!" was Salpy Eskidijan's terse answer. They had simply not seen the things they cared about addressed in the agreement, and they had not sufficiently understood the political and economic manoeuvres therein. For those in charge had made a grave mistake here, the enterprising peacemaker stresses: "Another shocking realisation was that there was an assumption that the peace agreement would only have to be accepted by the two leaders, then trickle down from the top and reconciliation would be achieved. That is not the way to achieve national reconciliation. No peace agreement will ever bring absolute justice to both sides because compromises have to be made."

The role of faith-based institutions

However, with "all due respect" to the diplomatic efforts at the highest levels in Track Number 1, there had been no concrete consultations and deliberations flanking the other "tracks" such as non-governmental organizations or civil society, especially faith-based institutions, religious leaders and communities, which Eskidijan notes, provide insight into the language and procedures of peace-building international agreements. At the time in question, civil society in all its various formations was also far from being as organised as it might be today, she points out.

"Religions and religious representatives were relegated to the sidelines, and you can imagine where that led." Nevertheless, the Cyprus conflict is not a religious conflict, says Salpy Eskidijan. "It is a political conflict, yes, but religion is a victim in this process and religious freedom is not fully respected. And that has to be taken into account as well."

This becomes particularly clear when religious communities are deprived of property that is given to others - as has happened in the case of numerous churches and mosques or other religious places. "You can't just say, ok, I'll give a church to a theatre group, or turn it into a storage [room] or a stable, or a mosque into a cultural centre, a museum, or lock it up, just because you think you can. If anything, you have to at least make sure that the religious communities are involved."

The need to build trust

For example, she said, it was particularly bad for residents who had been displaced from their villages to see their cemeteries abandoned and no longer maintained - to the point that bones were sticking out of the graves... "Places of worship and cemeteries are considered sacred for the faithful and cant be desecrated or left to perish. The peace process cant ignore this anymore as this becomes a hurdle in trust-building. Disrespecting what is sacred to a community is like disrespecting them. Ignoring this and the religious leaders only hurts the process. In 2004, we noticed that not only the religious leaders or faith communities were not engaged in the peace process, neither by the locals or the international community, but also that in the recent history of Cyprus, the Christian and Muslim religious leaders of Cyprus had not come together at the same table to talk to each other and work together."

So, it was clear that there was a need for action, emphasises Eskidijan, who received support from the Swedish Embassy in Nicosia and the Religious Social Democrats of Sweden. Not only because of her Swedish connection, but because Sweden, as a neutral terrain without a colonial past in Cyprus, as a country that stands up for international law and human rights, could offer a neutral framework in which trust could grow. The "Religious Track" was actually the working title of the initiative, in reference to the political "Track Number One", admits Eskedijan, but in the end, it just kept the name. Although the Religious Track is interreligious, "theological questions are not discussed here," the peace activist explains.

A space in which to nurture peacebuilding

"It's a space where religious leaders come together to discuss peace and reconciliation, to discuss whether they recognise each other enough to bear common witness and stand up for religious freedom." In the beginning, things went very slowly and many setbacks had to be overcome, Eskidijan says. She, the granddaughter of Armenian Orthodox migrants, recalls the first years and adds: "As Pope Francis said at the meeting with the migrants in Nicosia, it takes a lot of patience, and we also had to be very patient. Peacebuilding is a very slow process without a big show. Sometimes it seems to go one step forward and two steps back..." In the meantime, there has clearly been visible progress, for example, religious leaders have already issued some joint statements on the Cyprus question, on violence against women, on missing persons (a big issue in Cyprus, after the clashes between the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots years ago) and on the need for the dignified treatment of migrants, among others. Most important is that they stand up for each others rights and advocate for religious freedom for all.

But much remains to be done, says the enterprising activist, who nevertheless prefers to prepare the ground for the religious leaders to formulate their own statements and joint actions. "I believe passionately in what I do, but it is what the religious leaders have made their own. They are doing it, and they are doing it together. For the first time in the modern history of Cyprus, we are seeing a common witness," she says, a witness that has also received international attention thanks to the Pope's visit and his attention to the country's concerns.

Background information

Salpy Eskidijan Weiderud has been the executive director of the Office for the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process ("Religious Track") since 2012. After a quiet beginning, since 2009 Religious Track has become an active peacebuilding initiative based on four pillars: Getting to know and building trust between religious leaders and the respective faith communities; promoting confidence-building measures and reconciliation; advocating for the right of free access to churches, mosques and monasteries; and ensuring the protection of all religious monuments in Cyprus.
A massive buildup of Russian troops at the Ukraine border has spurred international concerns about a looming Russian invasion and an ensuing conflict that could usher in another World War.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia over the disputed pro-Russian areas like the Donbas region and the Crimean Peninsula had entered a heightened phase since last April when Russia ramped up its martial presence along the Russia/Ukraine border to at least 90,000 troops, according to Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that serious consequences would ensue if Russia had the audacity to invade its smaller southwestern neighbor, Newsmax reported.

Blinken made his remarks on Dec. 2 at the sidelines of an OSCE meeting in Stockholm right before entering talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Ukrainian soldiers walk on the frontline with Russia-backed separatists, not far from the town of Avdiivka, Donetsk region, on Dec. 11, 2021. (Image: ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

The best way to avert the crisis is through diplomacy, and thats what I look forward to discussing with Sergei, Blinken stated.

He also noted that if Russia decides to pursue confrontation, there will be serious consequences without revealing the nature of those consequences.

Lavrov also claimed Russia doesnt want to enter into any problems. We, as President Putin has stated, do not want any conflicts, he said.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that same day that the probability of hostilities in Ukraine is still high, adding that, This is a matter of particular concern and worry for us.

The Ukraine war

The Donbas region consists of Luhansk and Donetsk. In these two renegade Ukrainian provinces, the majority of the population speaks Russian, and they have been engaged in a 7-year-long secession war with the central government in Kyiv.

[OPINION] What Russia Wants from a Ukraine Crisis https://t.co/t6BwN7nh49  Military.com (@Militarydotcom) December 14, 2021

Kyiv accuses the Russians of having invaded the country by supporting the pro-Russian troops. Still, Moscow denies intervening in the conflict, stating that Russian soldiers who have joined the separatists are volunteers operating on their own behalf.

Russia also denies planning an invasion of Ukraine, arguing it is merely performing army exercises and is entitled to do so. But with the presence of nearly 100,000 troops at the border region, this seems hardly a comforting explanation for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Still, the conflict reflects a far greater struggle: NATOs expansion to the east at the cost of the former Soviet Empire clashes with Moscows ambitions to demarcate its sphere of influence as a regional power while keeping the trump cards in hand to remain a global power.

READ MORE: Ukraine President Visits Russian Border, U.S. Sends Warships to Black Sea

NATO and its allies seem to have done all thats in their power to lure Putin into an armed conflict over the past decades, including pinpointing Russia as the culprit for the shooting down of passenger flight MH 17 over disputed Ukrainian territory in 2014.

Putins red line

Putin, however, managed to ward off all provocations without giving in on Russias sacred cows and, as such, formulated the red line NATO has reached, asserting Ukraine shall never be a NATO member and should pull out of talks immediately.

Furthermore, Moscow will not tolerate Ukraine positioning U.S.-made ballistic missiles in the Donbas region or within range of targeting Moscow.

Every country certainly has the right to choose the most acceptable way of ensuring its security, but it must be done in a way that doesnt infringe on the interests and undermine the security of other countries, in this case, Russia. Security must be global and equally cover everyone. Putin said, according to WSKG.

However, earlier this month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there is no such thing as Russia having a say in whos joining the alliance or not. NATOs relationship with Ukraine is going to be decided by the 30 NATO allies and Ukraine, no one else, he said.

Yet, no side would want a war as the consequences would be devastating, and the conflict could easily drag in other parties like the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and Russia, perhaps joining forces with China and Turkey, on the other. In that case, the world would effectively find itself in a WWIII scenario.

On the other hand, given the lack of ballistic clout that America has demonstrated compared to its adversaries, Russia and China, coupled with domestic issues like the never-ending war on COVID, and the way Biden pulled out of Afghanistan, it provides little confidence that the U.S. will engage itself in another full-fledged war that might drag on for years pulling the whole world into conflict.

Much depends on how Putin will proceed. Very few outside his inner circle seem to know whats in his playbook.

We dont know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade, Blinken said during his Stockholm visit. We do know that hes putting in place the capacity to do so in short order should he so decide.

Moscow is so positioned that they can move with very little warning, John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told NBC. Theyre certainly threatening. And theyre in a position that if they want to, they can do it.
With Christmas just a few days away, Americans are awaiting their paychecks to spend big for the celebration. However, many of them might not have received their wages on Dec. 17, the final payday prior to Christmas for those who are paid weekly and biweekly. The reason was attributed to a major workforce management firm that recently got hit with a ransomware attack which disrupted payroll systems of several companies depending on its service.

Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG), the firm which suffered the attack, announced that some of its programs that rely on cloud services will not be available for several weeks. Companies depend on these online services to manage the hours of their employees, schedule shifts, and pay salaries.

We took immediate action to investigate and mitigate the issue, have alerted our affected customers and informed the authorities, and are working with leading cybersecurity experts We recognize the seriousness of the issue and have mobilized all available resources to support our customers and are working diligently to restore the affected services, a Kronos spokesperson told CNN.

Kronos has not yet named the ransomware group that has carried out the attack or whether the firm plans to pay the hackers, how much money was demanded, and so on. A number of high-profile companies have been affected by the Kronos hack, including Honda, GameStop, Whole Foods, Tesla, MGM Resorts, etc. In addition, government agencies like the city of Cleveland, the state of West Virginia, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York, etc. are among those affected.

While some employers are now issuing paper checks to their workers, some are unable to access payroll systems. In an interview with NBC News, John Riggi, the senior advisor for cybersecurity at the American Hospital Association, stated that several hospitals have had to create contingency plans to track the hours of their employees and pay them.

Quite frankly, this could not have happened at a worse time. Weve had a surge in Covid patients, flu patients Its a distraction to hospital administrators at a time when they dont need any additional burden or diversion of resources. Here we have all the sacrifices and hardships that our frontline heroes have been enduring right now to care for our patients. The last thing they should have to worry about, especially during the holiday season, is getting paid, Riggi said.

It is not yet clear how attackers were able to hack into Kronos network. Some are speculating that the ransomware attack might be related to a recently publicized vulnerability in a piece of software called Log4j that is often used in Java programs.

The software allows hackers to take control of any device that runs it. As Java is one of the most widely used programming languages, the vulnerability of Log4j could affect systems worldwide. However, some security experts dismiss any links between the recent attack and Log4j.

It is likely the attacker had been in Kronos for weeks launching the attack before Log4J was reported. That doesnt mean the two arent connected. But the best evidence right now says otherwise, Allan Liska, an intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said to NPR.

In addition to disrupting employee management, the ransomware attack has also reportedly compromised the personal information of thousands of workers. Some companies have notified employees that highly sensitive personal data like Social Security Numbers remain protected. But the City of Cleveland has warned that the last four digits of its workers could have been accessed by the attackers.
The U.S. Senate has passed the 2022 annual defense spending bill. This years $768 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill is up by 5 percent when compared to the previous version. It now awaits the approval of President Joe Biden.

The higher spending budget is expected to allow the Pentagon to build more ships. $740 billion has been designated for the Department of Defense, which is $25 billion more than what Biden had asked for. The bill was passed with a vote of 88-11.

Our nation faces an enormous range of security challenges To that end, this bill makes great progress It addresses a broad range of pressing issues from strategic competition with China and Russia; to disruptive technologies like hypersonics, A.I. and quantum computing; to modernizing our ships, aircraft, and vehicles, Democrat Senator Jack Reed, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

A fund aimed at the Indo-Pacific region has been tripled from last year. The Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) received $7.1 billion in funding, more than the $5.1 billion that was requested by the Biden administration. The fund will be used to boost the construction of military and other infrastructure facilities in the region as well as upgrade existing ones. It will also be used to improve supply lines for fuel and ammunition.

Washington is reportedly looking to distribute its forces in the Info-Pacific region along the Philippines, Taiwan, and Okinawa areas since leaving these forces in only a few locations can put them at risk of a missile strike from China

The bill seeks to set up an advanced missile system in Guam, which houses a U.S. Air Force base. The bill calls for deeper interoperability between Taiwanese and American forces in areas like air domain awareness, missile defense systems, and so on.

The boost in funding for PDI comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently vowed to strengthen Americas military power in the Indo-Pacific. In a speech in Jakarta on Dec. 14, Blinken asserted that the Indo-Pacific will shape the trajectory of the world in this century. Washington is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific, he stated.

We will bolster Indo-Pacific security. Threats are evolving, and our security approach must evolve with them. To do that, we will lean on our greatest strength: our alliances and partnerships The United States will adopt an integrated deterrence strategy that more closely weaves together all our instruments of national power with those of our allies and partners, Blinken said.

The NDAA bill bans the Defense Department from procuring products identified as having been produced from forced labor from Chinas northwest Xinjiang region. $300 million is set aside for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative that will support armed forces of the Eastern European country.

$150 million will be spent on Baltic security cooperation and $4 billion on the European Defense Initiative. The 2022 spending budget will allow the Pentagon to buy 85 Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighters, 17 F-15EX jets, and 2 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters. Troop members will get a 2.7 percent pay increase.

The bill has garnered criticism from some Republicans who accuse it of propagating woke leftist doctrine. In an op-ed published by The Hill, a group of GOP members described how parts of the bill encourage indoctrination in critical race theory and other left-wing policies while reducing military preparedness.
The Biden administration imposed trade restrictions on over 30 Chinese companies and research institutes on Dec. 16. These entities were accused of being involved in the development of technologies used for human rights abuses and military purposes.

According to a notice in the Federal Register, Chinas Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes have been indicted by the U.S. Commerce Department for deploying biotechnology to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include purported brain-control weaponry.

Though the notice did not go into details of the alleged brain-control weaponry, some of the Chinese militarys programs aimed at improving capabilities of soldiers by employing CRISPR technology have raised concerns among officials in Washington.

The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the PRC is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups. We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo said in a statement on Thursday.

The U.S. and other Western countries have reprimanded Beijing time and again over its treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. It is estimated that more than 1 million people have been detained in labor camps and subjected to various forms of physical and mental abuse.

Sanctions were also imposed by the Treasury Department on eight Chinese tech firms later on Thursday, alleging them of encouraging the use of biometric surveillance and technology to monitor ethnic and religious minorities in China.

The entities accused by the Treasury Department include: Leon Technology Company, Dawning Information Industry, SZ DJI Technology, Yitu, Dawning Information Industry, Xiamen Meiya Pico Information, Cloudwalk Technology, and Megvii Technology. The companies are also suspected to have links with the Chinese military.

Four other Chinese companies were added by the Commerce Department to its Entity List for playing a part in modernizing the Chinese military, which is against U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. The department also included five other Chinese companies for supposedly acquiring or attempting to acquire technology from the United States to help modernize the Peoples Liberation Army.

The Entity List was set up to limit exports, reexports, and in-country transfer of items that are reliant on U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to entities or individuals that pose a threat to American foreign policy and national security interests.

Overall, 34 Chinese companies have been blacklisted. Apart from the Chinese companies, entities from Turkey, Georgia, and Malaysia were also added to the blacklist by the Commerce Department for allegedly diverting or attempting to divert U.S. items to Irans military programs.

Specifically, these entities are a part of a network used to supply or attempt to supply Iran with U.S-origin items that would ultimately provide material support to Irans defense industries, in violation of U.S. export controls, the notice read.

The development comes weeks after the White House announced that it will not be sending any official representative to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics citing the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Xinjiang.
China is facing an unsettling year-end. A recent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever has emerged in the northwestern province of Shaanxi while COVID-19 cases continue to spread across the country. Several hemorrhagic fever cases and deaths have been reported in Xian, the seat of Shaanxi Province. Despite censorship of the news, locals suspect that the disease is directly related to a rampant rodent infestation, and many fear a possible recurrence of the plague.

The state-run Xian News reported that hospitals in the city have reported numerous cases of hemorrhagic fever since the beginning of winter this year. While medical experts point out that hemorrhagic fever is a common infectious disease in Chinas north  which typically starts to peak in October every year  netizens have expressed concern that the outbreak could actually involve plague, a disease that has killed tens of millions throughout teh centuries, and which in 2019 claimed several lives in Chinas Inner Mongolia region.

Hemorrhagic fever is mainly transmitted by rodents, the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), and the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). Those who are bitten or come into contact with the blood or excrement of rodents carrying the virus may be infected, and serious cases may lead to death.

Because the early symptoms of hemorrhagic fever are similar to those of the common flu, many patients may mistake it for a common cold. Therefore, experts at the Xian Disease Control Center warned that hemorrhagic fever is a fast-onset, fast-moving disease that can be fatal, and urged people with fever and other symptoms to seek medical attention.

Although officials specifically warned people about hemorrhagic fever, they didnt reveal any details of patients.

News about hemorrhagic fever broke out, one after another, in many social media groups on WeChat and QQ in China.

Be on the lookout. An outbreak of hemorrhagic fever has been circulating online in Xian, with videos showing [doors in] a neighborhood being welded shut. Deaths are said to have occurred, the tweet says.

According to an online chat, a local health care worker revealed that his hospitals infectious disease unit is full of patients and that all hospitals designated for hemorrhagic fever in Xian are at capacity, and some have even been forced to close.

Unofficial sources also reported that the outbreak was particularly serious in the Changan District, where multiple people have died and some schools have been forced to suspend classes because of infections among students.

My personal guess is that hemorrhagic fever cant be so transmissible. Im afraid a new variant of Wuhan virus has emerged, and after getting infected, the illness resembles hemorrhagic fever, the tweet reads.

As of 2:00 a.m. on Dec. 20, the topic of multiple cases of hemorrhagic fever in Xian on Weibo has attracted 280 million people and 4,483 discussions.

Officials have repeatedly emphasized that hemorrhagic fever and plague arent closely related.

However, in 2019, there was a severe outbreak of plague in Beijing, causing an enactment of a travel restriction policy to prevent people from the infected areas from entering Beijing.

Its worth mentioning that the situation was severe at the time, but it was never widely reported on. According to people who said they were staff of the Xuanwu Hospital in China, ordinary [poor and powerless] plague patients were sent to the hospital by the Communist Party only for isolation without any recovery treatment, and the dead were shipped away for direct incineration. This method is similar to the treatment of SARS in 2002. The government only did strict quarantine and didnt do any treatment. The people had no choice but to comply.

In Xian, Shaanxi Province, the outbreak was controlled on a large scale, with many areas closed and people lining up in the middle of the night for nucleic acid tests. Meanwhile. Suspected hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Changan County, Xian, Shaanxi, the tweet reads.

There is no way to know how bad the hemorrhagic fever situation in Xian is, but the local COVID-19 outbreak and associated lockdowns remain aggressive, taking a toll on health and life in the ancient city.

On Dec 18, Shaanxi officials said at a press conference that there were 10 new confirmed local cases and three asymptomatic cases in Xian. The province has reported 27 cases of the local infection since Dec. 9, and the exact course of transmission is unclear. Under Chinas zero-COVID policy, the entire population is being tested for the virus.
Dongguan, a key Chinese manufacturing city, has been under lockdown ever since a few cases of COVID-19 were identified. The last time the city had experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 was in June.

Dongguan is home to manufacturing plants of various top brands like Gillette and Samsung. Seventy-five percent of the citys population is made up of migrant workers who are employed at the numerous factories. The first cases of the recent wave of infections were reported on Dec. 13 when eight individuals were diagnosed with COVID-19. On Dec. 15, four additional cases were reported from the township of Dalang.

City authorities have imposed strict traffic controls. Residents and visitors leaving the city must present negative COVID-19 test results obtained within the previous 48 hours. Those who come from high or medium-risk areas are required to quarantine for 14 days.

The restrictions on travel will affect millions of migrant workers who typically return home before the Lunar New Year on Feb. 1. Since Dongguan is closely located to other major cities like Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macao, city authorities are expected to be stricter when observing travel restrictions.

Eight areas of Dalang township, including residential communities and industrial zones have been changed from the low-risk to medium-risk level, Lai Shaoyu told reporters at a press briefing on Dec. 16. Lai Shaoyu is the deputy secretary-general of Dongguans city government.

Public transport, in-person educational classes, social gatherings, and recreational facilities have all been prohibited in Dalang. All entry and exit points now have checkpoints to monitor the movement of people in and out of the town. Residents of the township can only leave for essential and emergency reasons.

In an interview with SCMP, one anonymous health official from the Guangdong province, where Dongguan is located, stated that infection numbers in the city were in line with estimates of the health department.

But it is too early to say that were safe. More rounds of testing need to be done in both Dongguan and Guangzhou All doctors and nurses in Guangdong have been mobilized, or theyre on standby, the official said.

According to Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory medicine specialist based in Hong Kong, there is no evidence that community transmission of COVID-19 is taking place in Guangdong. However, he wants Dongguan officials to widen their search for infections to see whether such transmission is occurring.

The education department has instructed schools in the province to ask teachers and students not to visit high-risk places and border cities as well as to avoid holiday gatherings for the upcoming New Year and the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Meta has banned seven alleged surveillance-for-hire companies from its platforms after those parties installed spyware on end-users phones, mining their confidential data, hacking their devices, and selling their data to rogue countries.

Meta, the parent company of social media brands Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp reported its purification operation took months of investigation.

Meta claims it has identified seven cyber mercenary companies that have targeted some 48,000 clients in over 100 countries. Moreover, Meta says it removed 1,500 Facebook and Instagram profiles that could be traced back to these outfits.

Facebook has banned hundreds of accounts linked to 7 "cyber mercenary" companies that spied on nearly 50,000 usersincluding journalists, dissidents, families of political dissidents and human rights activists.



Read: https://t.co/Zvj6OtDqpy#infosec #Instagram #hacking #privacy  The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) December 17, 2021

In most cases, these firms would create fake profiles to be used as a front which would then be used to collect customers intelligence, hack their devices or grab their money.

The Meta release authored by David Agranovich, Director, Threat Disruption, and Mike Dvilyanski, Head of Cyber Espionage Investigations put it as follows:

The global surveillance-for-hire industry targets people to collect intelligence, manipulate and compromise their devices and accounts across the internet. While these cyber mercenaries often claim that their services only target criminals and terrorists, our months-long investigation concluded that targeting is in fact indiscriminate and includes journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition and human rights activists. We disabled seven entities who targeted people across the internet in over 100 countries; shared our findings with security researchers, other platforms and policymakers; issued Cease and Desist warnings; and also alerted people who we believe were targeted to help them strengthen the security of their accounts.

Of the seven surveillance-for-hire businesses, four were believed to have operated from Israel, namely Cobwebs Technologies, Cognyte, Black Cube, and Bluehawk CI, while another one listed as BellTroX was based in India.

Yet another one named Cytrox was registered in North Macedonia. Also, an unidentified firm from China was believed to be engaged in providing spying services on minority groups like the Uyghur minority in China.

Three phases of corruption

Meta said it has observed three phases of targeting activity by these commercial players that make up their surveillance chain: Reconnaissance, Engagement, and Exploitation. Most enterprises were involved with two or all three phases in the process, the report said.

Meta discriminates three phases of surveillance that the seven banned companies had used to spy on end-users. (Image: Meta Announcement)

Reconnaissance is typically the phase where targets are being silently profiled by cyber-surveillance companies employing automated data collection tools against internet sources like blogs, social media, and knowledge management platforms like Wikipedia and Wikidata.

The engagement phase is where the surveillance firm is trying to create contact with its targets, build trust, often under the guise of a fake profile, and request data, and deceive them into clicking on malevolent links or files.

The final phase, exploitation, also referred to as hacking for hire, is the stage where targeted individuals have already given away vital data like passwords, and PIN codes to access email, social media, and financial services. By that time, their devices will be severely hijacked and irreversibly compromised.

Black Cube, one of the alleged hacking companies, proclaimed innocence, stating in a statement to NPR, that it does not undertake any phishing or hacking and does not operate in the cyber world. It identifies itself rather as a litigation support firm that follows legal guidelines in its operations.

Black Cube obtains legal advice in every jurisdiction in which we operate in order to ensure that all our agents activities are fully compliant with local laws, it said.

The highest bidder gets served, indiscriminately

The Meta statement also brings up another case, that of a malware party that Meta banned from its platform in July; Israel-based NSO, a company that provided surveillance services on high profile individuals, like French president Emmanuel Macron, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, and the Dalai Lama.

A woman checks the website of Israel-made Pegasus spyware at an office in the Cypriot capital Nicosia on July 21, 2021. The Pegasus Project scandal revealed world leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers were under surveillance without their knowledge or consent by government actors for years. (Image: MARIO GOLDMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

READ MORE: Israeli Pegasus Spyware Spied on Macron, Dalai Lama, Telegram Founder

However, the Meta report stated, NSO is only one piece of a much broader global mercenary ecosystem, part of a sprawling yet gloomy industry that offers spying-on-demand services to anyone willing to pay, regardless of who they target or the human rights abuses they might enable.

The surveillance-for-hire industry looks like indiscriminate targeting on behalf of the highest bidder, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Meta, said in a Threat Report that came together with the notice. The goal is to spy on people or snoop on them without them knowing about it.

Gleicher told the outlet that those firms were indiscriminate about whom they targeted. We are seeing politicians. Were seeing human rights activists. Were seeing lawyers, doctors, clergy, in some cases, ordinary citizens. Anyone who might be party to a lawsuit, he added.

Almost every autocrat and dictator around the world is being pitched this kind of technology for surveillance, Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton told the newspaper.

Its really important that we get to a place where there are big global norms and regulations around this kind of technology, Scott-Railton added. Otherwise, its just gas on the authoritarian fire.

Recommendations

The Meta report concludes by providing recommendations on preventing malevolent malware firms from spying on naive web users, collecting their credentials, turning their phones into spying devices, and selling their sensitive data to rogue regimes.

They entail greater transparency and oversight. Know your customer standards should be installed, and surveillance-for-hire firms should be held accountable.

More industry collaboration and information exchange would be other tools to analyze malicious entities modes of operation and thwart their efforts whenever possible.

Meta also pleads for an enhanced ethical standard to be observed by law enforcement and private companies and to create effective victim protection regimes.
At the age of 18, while he was driving a van through St. Paul, an acquaintance in Ge Vangs passenger seat pulled out a gun and waved it at a group of five young people.

Vang was later arrested and convicted by jury of aiding and abetting, a felony for which he was sentenced to the 83 days he had already served in jail. That was 25 years ago, and Vang, a construction worker, has since kept his record clean and gone on to raise four children as an active, law-abiding member of Ramsey Countys Hmong community.

But the past has never let him go.

In fact, until this summer, hes spent much of his adult life fearing deportation to Laos, a corner of the world he left in infancy. Its a situation that looms increasingly large for a number of refugees in the Twin Cities who face possible removal even decades after a criminal conviction, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, his former state lobbyist ThaoMee Xiong and multiple state lawmakers from St. Paul have advocated for loosening legal restrictions that make it difficult for immigrants facing deportation to seek post-conviction relief  essentially, revisiting old convictions with the hopes of overturning them, a key step toward ending removal proceedings.

Its an issue with deep ties to a 30-year-old youth crime epidemic that largely subsided by the start of the new millennium. For many immigrants, potential penalties still linger overhead a generation after theyve served their criminal sentence and built stable lives.

Theres a large number of Southeast Asian boys, especially, who were incarcerated in the 80s and 90s, Xiong said. These removal orders are one of the consequences of that mass incarceration.

Minnesota is home to 84,000 Hmong residents, one of the largest concentrations in the United States, and 13,000 Lao residents, the fourth-largest population in the country, with a heavy concentration of both groups in and around St. Paul. About 1 in 5 St. Paul residents is foreign-born.

Vang came to the U.S. with his siblings and parents from a Thai refugee camp in the late 1970s, when he was 8 months old. For his generation, Southeast Asia has been a smattering of colors on a map  almost as foreign as Africa or Europe. His father had been recruited to support Americas Secret War in Laos at the age of 15, and later fled for his life from his Laotian village when the U.S. war effort fell apart.

Vang, who chose not to comment for this story, and his peers grew up with the harrowing stories of the Vietnam War-era sacrifices of their parents, including a mass exodus of Hmong from Laos across the Mekong River to safer ground.

For nearly three decades, a federal removal order hovered over his head. For the past five years, as a result of negotiations between the U.S. and a growing number of nations throughout Southeast Asia, Vang and thousands of other refugees have faced the increased likelihood of being sent back to countries they escaped from decades prior, even as babies or small children.

About a year ago, ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had asked him to apply for a travel document, which was an indication they may attempt to remove him, said Evangeline Dhawan, an attorney with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota who worked on Vangs case.

According to annual reports available from ICE, the vast majority of immigrants apprehended for deportation have criminal convictions or face criminal charges.

The St. Paul field office  which oversees a five-state area  made 3,100 arrests last year, including 2,100 immigrants with criminal convictions and 760 immigrants facing charges.

Were going to focus our resources on those bad apples  the worst of the worst offenders, said Shawn Neudauer, a public affairs officer for ICEs St. Paul field office. (But) just because a person doesnt have a criminal conviction doesnt mean theyre not on our radar.

The most common offense is driving under the influence of alcohol, but even a misdemeanor conviction in a county courthouse can trigger a federal removal order decades after the fact. Its a consequence many refugees over the years were not informed of by their prosecutor, judge or even their own defense attorney at the time they were urged to accept a plea deal in court.

That changed in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Padilla v. Kentucky that counsel must inform a client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation.

Some of these crimes are 20 years old, said Xiong, who recently left St. Paul City Hall to become deputy director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, a St. Paul advocacy organization that played a key role in Vangs successful efforts to get his removal order lifted last July. The majority are 5 to 10 years old.  Almost 100 percent of the time, the individual has served their time for their criminal conviction.

Refugees are sometimes advised by their own attorneys that a guilty plea is the way to go because their home country isnt accepting deportees from the U.S. But the international arena changes with time.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Cambodia began accepting U.S. deportees by the dozens in 2018. Vietnam soon followed, opening its doors for the first time to longstanding refugees who had entered the U.S. before July 12, 1995, the date the U.S. and Vietnam resumed diplomatic ties. Around the same time, federal immigration authorities appeared to step up enforcement.

Among those caught in immigration raids, eight Cambodian men apprehended in 2016 became known as the Minnesota 8 for their longstanding ties to the state. Advocacy groups, wives, siblings and others took up their cause, with mixed results. Of the Minnesota 8, five were deported and three were allowed to remain in the U.S.

Most of the people on that list were pretty violent offenders, Neudauer said.

For Ched Nin, a carpenter who came to the U.S. when he was 6 years old, it was six months in detention, said his wife, Jenny Srey, the founder of the Release Minnesota 8 campaign, which is now an advocacy organization. He was ultimately allowed to stay in the country. Nins criminal history included receiving stolen goods, interfering with a 911 call, assault and other offenses, most of them dating to 2006 to 2010.

Given Hmong efforts over the years to organize against the Communist regime that overthrew the Laotian monarchy in the 1970s, Laos has been more resistant than other nations toward accepting deportees from the U.S., but that could change. During the past three years, Laos has accepted 24 deportations from the U.S., compared to nearly 100 deportations to Burma, 125 to Thailand, more than 200 to Cambodia and nearly 300 to Vietnam.

I think theres a misconception that under President Biden, this will slow down, Xiong said. Hes not given any indication it will slow down. And I think theres a global pandemic hes been very focused on. Theres been no indication by the administration that anything is going to change. Hes been there a full year.

During the past two years, CAAL has backed Vangs efforts to have the courts reopen his 1996 case on the basis that the courts jury instructions failed to properly explain the definition of aiding in an assault.

With the support of Ramsey County Attorney John Chois office and attorney Chang Lau from the Minnesota Public Defenders Appellate Office, a coalition of advocates successfully petitioned Ramsey County Judge JaPaul Harris to vacate his convictions. The ruling came down July 19.

Following a request from the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center and approval by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, an immigration judge then reopened his removal proceedings and terminated them. Usually, the two systems dont talk to each other, said Xiong, calling Vangs case a welcome victory.

I feel like I can finally breathe because I no longer have to live in fear of being deported to Laos, a country I know nothing about, said Vang, in a written statement forwarded by CAAL.

While not unheard of, getting Minnesotas district courts to revisit decades-old convictions is the exception, not the rule.

For most conviction appeals, Minnesota has this strict two-year time limit, Xiong said. Most other states allow a larger window of time for defendants to seek post-conviction relief. A spokesman for the State Court Administrators office said Minnesota receives roughly 400 applications per year, but he said it was not clear how many of those applications result in convictions being vacated.

By state statute, Minnesota courts will consider post-conviction relief after the two-year time limit in five situations, such as in light of newly discovered evidence, bad legal advice or if the criminal defendant was mentally impaired and not competent to enter a plea. Since at least 2019, CAAL has advocated for a sixth exception to be added to state law, which would allow defendants who were not informed of potential immigration consequences to seek relief from wrongful convictions if theyre now facing deportation orders. The final decision over post-conviction relief would still rest with the courts.

In the past three years, legislative bills sponsored by state Rep. Carlos Mariani and Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, both St. Paul DFLers, have repeatedly passed out of committee in the House, with Carter  the St. Paul mayor  offering testimony on behalf of the citys many immigrants during multiple hearings. I think its a no-brainer, said Her, the chief author this year.

Some lawmakers have expressed fear the bill could allow cover for illegal immigrants. Immigration attorney Linus Chan, testifying before a committee of House lawmakers in 2019, said thats not how the bill is structured.

They still must be able to claim that something else was wrong with their (conviction), Chan said. Just facing deportation is not enough. I have to be facing deportation and my original criminal conviction has to be legally suspect or unconstitutional.

Mariani, addressing fellow members of the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division in 2019, said he was advocating for those faced with exile from the only country that theyve ever known  our country.  It does happen. Ive known individuals over the years where that situation has occurred.

Carter at the time noted other immigrant groups, such as Somalis and Liberians, are also vulnerable.

These new Americans came to our country to start a new life and to escape political and religious persecution, the mayor told lawmakers. After decades of making our country their homeland, we are now retraumatizing entire communities.

The proposed legislation has not gained the same traction in the Republican-controlled Senate, despite some bipartisan efforts. Among Republicans, state Sen. Jerry Relph  a St. Cloud lawmaker and Vietnam veteran  had been a supporter. Relph died of COVID in December 2020.

Both locally and nationally, we had a lot of strong allies who had connections to the Vietnam War, and as theyre dying or retiring, that history is not being taken into consideration when making very serious immigration policy, Xiong said. People always say think globally, act locally. And this is a good example.  This bill has allowed us to educate the Legislature about the intersection between our immigration system and our criminal courts.
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On this edition of Africa 54: Hundreds of thousands of people marched to the presidential palace in Sudan's capital Khartoum protesting the military coup; Rebellious Tigrayan forces fighting the central government are withdrawing from neighboring regions in northern Ethiopia, according to a spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces; Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently marked 100 days in office.


Azerbaijan said Sunday it had freed 10 more Armenian soldiers captured last month during fighting between the Caucasus arch foes.

"Azerbaijan, with mediation of the European Union, handed over 10 soldiers of Armenian origin" who had been captured on November 16, the Azeri committee in charge of prisoners of war said in a statement.

Baku said that the move was a result of a meeting between Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council chief Charles Michel in Brussels on September 14.

"Warmly welcome Baku's release of 10 Armenian detainees in follow up to discussions with @azpresident and @NikolPashinyan," Michel wrote in a tweet on Sunday. "An important humanitarian gesture demonstrating the mutual will to strengthen confidence as discussed in Brussels. EU facilitated transfer to Yerevan."

Azerbaijan had already handed over 10 prisoners to Yerevan on December 4, following Russia-mediated talks, in the first concrete sign of a decrease in tensions since last month's fighting, which killed 13 people.

Those were the worst clashes along the shared border since a six-week war last year over Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed more than 6,500 lives.

At the end of that war, Armenia was forced to sign a Russian-brokered accord with Azerbaijan that saw it cede three districts around Karabakh that it had captured in the 1990s.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and around 30,000 people died in the ensuing conflict.
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell ended Monday, with prosecutors arguing that she recruited and groomed teenage girls so financier Jeffery Epstein could sexually abuse them, and her defense attorneys maintaining her innocence.

The prosecution and defense delivered closing arguments in the four-week trial of Maxwell, 59, a former Epstein associate who pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and other crimes.

Federal prosecutors argued that Maxwell's predation of teenage girls allowed Epstein's abuse. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said the financier could not have abused his victims for over a decade without Maxwell's help.

"Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous," Moe told the jury. She described her as the "lady of the house," referring to her role in facilitating Epstein's abuse at a New York mansion, a Florida estate and a New Mexico ranch.

Moe also pointed to the monetary benefits Maxwell gained from her time with Epstein, stating that she accepted over $30 million from him over the years.

"Maxwell and Epstein committed horrifying crimes," Moe said.

Defense attorneys, however, continued to argue that Maxwell was not complicit in Epstein's crimes, saying the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

"Ghislaine Maxwell is an innocent woman, wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit," said defense lawyer Laura Menninger.

The defense returned to its original argument that Maxwell had been made a scapegoat for Epstein's crimes after he killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

"Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein," Menninger said.

Moe took a drastically different stance on Maxwell's role in Epstein's sexual abuse, asserting that Maxwell is a "sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing."

"She ran the same playbook again and again and again," Moe said. "She manipulated her victims and groomed them. She caused deep and lasting harm to young girls. It is time to hold her accountable."

The closing arguments took place after the court heard from two dozen prosecution witnesses, including four women who said they had been abused by Epstein, with Maxwell's help, as teenagers.

The defense had attempted to discredit the women's testimonies. Menninger suggested they were motivated to testify against Maxwell by the possibility of receiving a payout from a victim's compensation fund established by Epstein's estate after his death, according to Reuters.

"The money brought the accusers to the FBI," said Menninger, who stated the women had personal injury lawyers accompany them at interviews with law enforcement agencies decades after the abuse occurred.

Maxwell's lawyers had a psychology professor testify to demonstrate that memories can fade over time and are subject to the external influence of what people hear, see or read. Menninger argued that Epstein's accusers' testimonies were manipulated.

"Memories have been manipulated in aid of the money," she said.

Moe asked the jury to ignore this testimony and told them to trust the women's stories.

"These women know what happened to their own bodies," she stated. "Your common sense tells you that being molested is something you never forget, ever."

Menninger attempted to question the accusers' credibility, citing instances when her accusers failed to mention Maxwell while recounting Epstein's abuse. Menninger argued the women suddenly "recovered memories that Ghislaine was there."

During closing arguments, Judge Alison Nathan directed lawyers to keep their statements concise so that the jury could begin deliberating as early as Monday.

Maxwell has been held without bail since her July 2020 arrest. The judge denied Maxwell's bail, despite her lawyers' arguing she was willing to be continuously monitored by armed guards and that her appearance in court would be guaranteed by the pledging of her $22.5 million estate.

Some information for this article came from The Associated Press and Reuters.


Mykola Kholtobin never expected to volunteer to fight for Ukraine, but this week he found himself crouching in a fox hole and lobbing a mock grenade into a tank as part of a training exercise to prepare for a Russian invasion.

The 32-year-old web designer joined dozens of camouflage-clad reservists in the city of Kharkiv, about 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, to rehearse for what might happen in the event of an attack.

Kholtobin was just a baby when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and was brought up speaking Russian as his first language, like millions of others in the east of then-newly-independent Ukraine.

He consciously switched to Ukrainian in 2014 when Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea region and Russian-backed separatists launched a war with government forces in eastern Ukraine that continues to this day.

"I thought if they are using the (Russian) language as a weapon then so must I. I'd thought about it earlier but it didnt work out. But with the beginning of the war, I 'Ukrainianized' myself," he said in an interview with Reuters.

Fast-forward seven years and Ukraine is accusing Russia of massing more than 90,000 troops at the border and preparing a possible invasion. Moscow denies this, saying it has a right to move its troops around its own territory as it sees fit and that the maneuvers are purely defensive.

Kholtobin, however, is wondering if he will need to fight for his country.

"Till 2014 I thought that the army is some kind of relic which doesnt have its place in the modern world. Who would be fighting in Europe? What a crazy idea! But now it sounds more than real," he said.

On the chilly training ground, members of the Territorial Self-Defense Unit stand in ranks to salute the national anthem before taking part in a series of drills: capturing an enemy combatant, evacuating a wounded colleague, applying a tourniquet to a wound.

"As for the tank - it's not as scary as I thought it would be. I heard stories about how scary it is when the tank drives over you, but in the trench, I saw it passing above me, I reached out, I threw the grenade," Kholtobin said.

If the situation requires it, he will turn up at the military recruitment center near where he lives.

"I will go there and say - well I'm not a soldier but I'm ready to help you with whatever's needed. Maybe you need somebody to load ammunition, or I have a car and I can transport the wounded," he said.

"And of course, if they give me a gun and ask me to protect a street, or to patrol at a checkpoint, weve been shown on territorial self-defense drills how to work checkpoints. Whatever is needed, everything I can, I will do."

Members of Kholtobin's family are also pitching in - his parents and aunt are making camouflage nets for the army, and Kholtobin says he helps them from time to time.

He thinks all Ukrainians should know the basics of military training.

"I think this is a good chance to learn something useful in case something kicks off. To not just be the ballast for the country, the civilian who has to be protected, but to contribute at least somehow to the country's defense," he said.

"Of course I heard that there are people who say they are going to run away in case something starts. Of course I cant guarantee that I'll be a tough warrior, the one who will stand to the very end, but at least I dont plan to flee."
Malawi's former president, Peter Mutharika, has accused President Lazarus Chakwera's government of political persecution in arresting former officials linked to the former leader. Mutharika made the comments Sunday at his first large rally of supporters since Chakwera defeated him in elections last year.

Thousands of supporters of Malawis opposition Democratic Progressive party (DPP) braved rain to attend a rally addressed by party leader Peter Mutharika and political ally Atupele Muluzi, leader of the opposition United Democratic front in Blantyre.

The rally was the first since Mutharika lost last years rerun presidential election to President Chakwera.

Mutharika told the gathering that it is concerning that the Chakwera government is only arresting officials of the former administrations party in the fight against corruption.

Mutharika said this is a ploy to silence the opposition.

Last week, we had plans to send my two officials who are experts in economics to address a conference and advise the government on how to turn around economic problems facing the country, but before the day came, they were arrested, he said.

Mutharika was referring to the arrest of former Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamveka and former Reserve Bank Governor Dalitso Kabambe. They stand accused of attempting to falsify documents to get funding from the International Monetary Fund.

The two were released on bail after being arrested and charged with abuse of office.

Mutharika also accused Chakweras administration of targeting people from the southern region and particularly of the Lomwe tribe to which Mutharika belongs.

Reverend Chakwera, you are the man God. I am pleading with you to stop ill-treating people from the southern region. And also, you should stop ill-treating people of the Lomwe tribe because they are innocent, Mutharika said.

Responding to Mutharikas remarks at the rally, a spokesperson for the governing Tonse Alliance, Maurice Munthali, told a local daily Monday that Mutharika's remarks are baseless.

Munthali also dismissed accusations of tribalism and political persecution, saying Mutharika should be the last person to say that because his administration was the champion of that.

George Phiri, a former lecturer in political science at the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, says Mutharika's claims about political arrests and tribalism are baseless because there is strong evidence that those who are being arrested are those who broke the law during their tenure of office.

All I can say is that Malawi is not doing well ... when arrests are made of this kind, they dont take the issues to court for prosecution so that we can justify what happened. That's what I can accuse not only the Tonse Alliance government, even Peter Mutharikas government did the same and even other previous administrations did the same, he said.

Phiri said, to prove Mutharikas accusations wrong, the Chakwera administration should be sure to take all the cases involving officials of Mutharikas political party to court for prosecution.
Russia has not let up with a military build-up along the border with Ukraine since U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a two-hour video conference earlier this month, say Western security sources.

Despite Biden warning in his talks with Putin that Russia would pay a terrible price in the event it invades Ukraine, the forward-deployment of hundreds of Russian tanks, howitzers, self-propelled artillery and tens of thousands of troops has not been reversed.

Two days after the presidents talked, motorized infantry units from St. Petersburg were relocated to a camp east of Kursk, 100 kilometers from the Ukraine border, according to Janes, a global open-source intelligence company based in Britain. Twenty-four hours after Biden and Putin spoke, a social-media user posted video showing Buk missile systems and armored vehicles arriving at a train station in the Russian city of Voronezh.

Russian military build-up

Some units positioned within striking distance of Ukraine over the past few weeks and months have come as far away as Siberia and the border with Mongolia, including elements of the 41st Combined Arms Army, say independent military monitors. Units from 1st Guards Tank Army, normally based in the Moscow region, have also been moved in recent weeks.

But U.S. intelligence officials, along with European security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say they do not believe an invasion is imminent. They say some key logistics they would expect to see are not in place yet, including more fuel and ammunition stockpiles. They calculate Russia has anything from 70,000 to 100,000 troops already deployed, but expect a combined force of around 175,000 to be amassed ahead of any incursion, if Putin decides to launch an attack on Ukraine.

European leaders have been maintaining a drumbeat of warnings to Russia. The European Union has also told the Kremlin there will be severe consequences in the event of a further military incursion into Ukraine in a rehash of 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and Russia used proxy pro-Moscow separatists to seize a large part of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.

Re-positioned Russian units over the past few months have been amassed around Yelnya, Voronezh and Persianovka, all within 100 to 300 kilometers of Ukraine. And elements from the 49th and 58th Armies, which moved from their bases in the Caucasus region to the Crimea earlier this year, have not been returned to their home bases, say Western military officials.

European warnings

On Sunday, Germanys new defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, dubbed Russia the aggressor, adding, we must exhaust all possibilities to stop an escalation. That also means threats of hard sanctions.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated his call for Western powers to impose preventive sanctions on Russia to deter it from aggression.

There should be powerful, serious preventive sanctions in order to exclude a scenario of [Russian] escalation in any region, because this not only concerns Ukraine, he said.

But splits persist among Western powers over assessments of Putins intentions.

Last week, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi downplayed the risk of Russian military action, citing the video call between Putin and Biden as demonstrating the Kremlin wants to explore diplomacy and isnt preparing for action.

The fact that there was this call, the fact that Putin sought out Biden by phone shows that he wants to be part of the decision-making process, Draghi told Italian lawmakers.

Russian security proposal

Italian officials fear the talk about an impending war risks taking on a life of its own, impacting and shaping the behavior of Russia and the United States. They also point to the draft security treaties Russia presented to the U.S. last week as indicating a willingness for further talks.

The draft treaties outline an expansive set of security guarantees the Kremlin is seeking, including a ban on any further expansion eastwards of NATO and a commitment by the alliance to refrain from deploying additional troops to countries that did not already have NATO forces present before 1997, including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states and several other former Soviet republics.

While the United States and its NATO allies have said they are willing to enter talks with Russia, if the Kremlin draws down troop levels along its border with Ukraine, Western diplomats say there are no prospects that the Russian proposals are acceptable in their present form.

We are clear that any dialogue with Russia would have to proceed on the basis of reciprocity, address NATO's concerns about Russia's actions, be based on the core principles and foundational documents of European security, and take place in consultation with NATO's European Partners, NATO said in a statement Friday.

Some observers are skeptical that Putin has any intentions of backing off his maximalist demands and suspect he will continue with what they see as coercive diplomacy, using the threat of war to keep the West and Ukraine on tenterhooks.

Putin is not threatened by NATO expansion, tweeted Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

Mighty Russia is not threatened by NATO expansion. NATO has never and will never attack Russia. Putin has reinvented this so-called threat to justify his latest coercive diplomacy... and maybe escalated military intervention in Ukraine, he added.

But Fyodor Lukyanov, a Russian foreign policy expert, says the Kremlin has reached the point where the long-standing controversy over NATO enlargement must somehow be resolved and is willing to raise the geo-political stakes with the West until theres a resolution to its long-standing objection to the Western alliance creeping closer to Russias borders.

Putin is determined at the very least to engineer a radical revision requiring an acceptance of his red lines, which include the Finlandization of Ukraine, a reference to the neutrality Moscow imposed on neighboring Finland after World War II.

Writing in the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, Lukyanov said: The European idea after the end of the Cold War that any country should just be allowed to do whatever it wants, regardless of its location, is historically new. And the Kremlin fears Ukraine moving inexorably toward the West, he says.
An Egyptian activist and prominent figure in the 2011 Arab Spring is headed back to prison after being sentenced to five years Monday on charges of spreading fake news, his defense lawyer says.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah was released in 2019 after being sentenced in 2014 for participating in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Shortly after his release, however, he was rearrested following a government crackdown for allegedly spreading fake news, misuse of social media and joining the Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist organization in 2013.

Also sentenced to four years each were Abdel-Fattah's former lawyer and a fellow activist.

Several Western governments and human rights groups have criticized the sentences.

Since the 2011 Arab Spring, which saw the toppling of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypts government has been cracking down on dissidents.

Abdel-Fattah comes from a family of activists who say he has been tortured while being held in Cairo's Tora prison.

"His crime is that, like millions of young people in Egypt and far beyond, he believed another world was possible, said his mother, mathematics professor Laila Soueif. And he dared to try to make it happen."

The deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Joe Stork, issued a statement saying, The egregious miscarriage of justice handed down by this exceptional court to punish peaceful expression reveals how Egypts justice system has itself become a tool of repression. He called for the verdicts to be overturned immediately.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
A group of American and Canadian missionaries in Haiti abducted in October are finally safe after a daring escape that followed their release last week, according to the aid group for which they work.

The 12 were among 17 people abducted Oct. 16 after visiting an orphanage in Ganthier, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area.

Last week, Gary Desrosiers, spokesperson for Haitis National Police, PNH, confirmed their release in an interview with VOA Creole.

On Monday, officials with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministry detailed their journey to safety, saying after their release, the 12 walked for kilometers at night and navigated using the stars. They also had an infant and other children with them.

After a number of hours of walking, day began to dawn and they eventually found someone who helped to make a phone call for help, said CAM spokesman Weston Showalter at a press conference. They were finally free.

After their harrowing journey, the 12 boarded a U.S. Coast Guard flight for Florida where they were reunited with the hostages who had been freed earlier.

Two of the hostages were freed in late November, and three were released earlier this month.

The kidnappers, a gang called 400 Mawozo, had initially demanded millions of dollars in ransom. It is unclear if any ransom was paid for the five who were released, but CAM Director David Troyer said the group had raised ransom money.

"Other people who sought to help us provided funds to pay a ransom and allow the negotiation process to continue," Troyer said during the press conference.

"After many days of waiting and no action on the part of the kidnappers, God worked in a miraculous way to enable the hostages to escape," Troyer said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday the Senate will vote very early in the new year on President Joe Bidens social safety net spending plan, expressing a need to push forward after a key Democrat said he could not support it.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Schumer cited frustration and disappointment among members of his caucus as Senator Joe Manchins opposition to the roughly $2 trillion package scuttled hopes of Democratic leaders to get the legislation approved before the December 25 Christmas holiday.

However, neither that delay, nor other recent pronouncements, will deter us from continuing to try to find a way forward.We simply cannot give up.We must and we will keep fighting to deliver for working families, Schumer said.

The House of Representatives has already approved a version of the bill.Schumer said the Senate will vote on a revised version of that legislation and we will keep voting on it until we get something done."

Schumers letter comes a day after Manchin, who discussed the legislation at length with Biden last week, told the Fox News cable networks Fox News Sunday show, If I cant go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I cant vote for it. And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation.

I just cant, Manchin said. Ive tried everything humanly possible. I cant get there. This is a no on this legislation.

Manchin has expressed concerns about the size and scope of the package.His vote is essential for Democrats in the politically divided Senate as they try to pass one of the key elements of Bidens legislative agenda.None of the 50 Republicans in the 100-member chamber supports the plan to expand health care for older Americans, provide universal pre-kindergarten classes, authorize new funding to combat climate change and offer more financial support for low-income Americans.

Democrats had hoped to push through the legislation on a 51-50 vote before Christmas, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie-breaking vote.

The White House said Manchin last week offered a framework for a compromise on the legislation and promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday that if Manchins comments indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senators colleagues in the House and Senate.

She rebuffed Manchins claims that the legislation would add to the surge in consumer prices in the United States, the highest in nearly four decades, or add to the countrys long-term debt, now more than $29 trillion, because the new spending would be paid for with higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.

One of the key Senate architects of the legislation, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, reacted angrily to Manchins refusal to support fellow Democratic colleagues and vote for it. Sanders said Manchin doesnt have the guts to take on special business interests who would be impacted most by the legislation.

Sanders told the Cable News Networks State of the Union show he wants the Senate to vote on the measure anyway, even if it is headed to defeat, to force Manchin to publicly account for his vote.

Hes going to have a lot of explaining to do with the people of West Virginia, Sanders said. Let him vote no and explain it to the world.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
A sixth child has died after a bouncy castle accident in the island state of Tasmania in Australia. A police investigation is continuing.

A sixth child who had been injured in an accident in the Tasmanian port city of Devonport last week has died. Eleven-year-old Chace Harrison, who died Sunday afternoon, was injured Thursday when a bouncy castle and several inflatable balls were lifted off the ground in high winds at a school event.

State Premier Peter Gutwein said, I am certain that all Tasmanians share with me a deep sadness and the heartache that young Chace Harrison, another child involved in this terrible tragedy, has now passed away.

Two children remain in a critical condition in the Royal Hobart Hospital, while a third is recovering from his injuries at home. Investigators believe the children fell from a height of about 10 meters.

Meanwhile, the police inquiry into one of Australias worst playground disasters is continuing.

It could take several weeks to complete. The authorities have not said how many children were on the inflatable device at the time or if it was tethered to the ground.

Tasmania police commissioner Darren Hine says specialist help is arriving from other parts of the country.

We have accepted an offer from New South Wales police to assist in conducting interviews in relation to this tragic event. Four forensic child interviewers will travel to Tasmania today to help conduct interviews with young witnesses over the coming days, Hine said.

An expert in amusement park safety says some smaller bouncy castles don't adhere to Australian safety regulations and can be bought from overseas retailers for about $600.

David Randall, from DRA Safety Specialists in the state of Queensland, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that some imports can be unsafe.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a lot of these devices coming from overseas, China, where they are manufactured without adequate instructions on them, and people are unaware of the risks of them being picked up and blown by extreme winds, Randall said.

A floral tribute to the schoolchildren who died and were injured at the school in northwest Tasmania continues to grow.

An online fundraising page created to support the families of the victims has raised more than $850,000.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the tragedy was unthinkably heartbreaking.
After months of fighting, forces of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front say they are withdrawing their forces to their home Tigray region.

The TPLF forces entered the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions after the Ethiopian government announced a unilateral ceasefire in June.

Speaking to Reuters, TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said the move is to pave the way for the international community to take action regarding the situation in Tigray, and for the Ethiopian government to stop using TPLF forces advancement into Amhara and Afar as a pretext for continued war.

So, far the Ethiopian Authorities have not commented on the matter. But in Mondays press briefing, the government communications service state minister spoke of the advance by government forces in North Wollo Zone of Amhara region.

In a letter addressed to the U.N. Secretary General, Tigray region head Debretsion Gebremichael also made several appeals. He asked the U.N. to enforce an arms embargo on both Ethiopia and Eritrea, and also enforce a no-fly zone, including drones, over the airspace of Tigray.

He also expressed his concern for the lives of ethnic Tigrayans living in other parts of Ethiopia. Gebremichael says, most Tigrayans across the country are being targeted and arrested while others still live in fear.

According to regional leader, the TPLF withdrawal is to settle the 13-month Tigray conflict which is taking the lives of civilians and inviting proxy war to the region.

Gebremichael also shared his concern about the situation in Northern and Western Tigray, where humanitarian conditions are dire.

The U.N. Security Council is due to discuss on Ethiopia in a session Monday. The U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, is expected to brief the session, which is being held by the request of the United Nations and European nations.

The U.N. says the conflict in North Ethiopia has exposed over 400,000 people to famine in Tigray and made 9.4 million people dependent on aid.
The White House said Monday the United States is ready to start diplomatic talks with Russia through multiple channels, but it made clear that Moscow must address Western concerns about its military buildup along the Ukrainian border.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his counterpart, Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the White House saying the U.S. was willing to talk directly with the Kremlin, as well as through the NATO-Russia Council and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The White House said Sullivan told Ushakov that "any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions."

In a virtual summit two weeks ago, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Putin that the U.S. would impose tough economic sanctions against Russia if it invaded Ukraine. Moscow has amassed tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's eastern border, although Washington has indicated that it does not believe Putin has decided to launch an attack on Ukraine.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the Sullivan-Ushakov call.

Last week, Moscow listed security proposals it wanted to negotiate, including a pledge that NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine. Biden has ruled out deploying U.S. ground troops if Russia invades Ukraine, but the U.S. has been shipping arms to Kyiv.

The Pentagon said that the security package includes small arms and ammunition and Javelin missiles, which the U.S. says can be used anywhere in Ukraine but only for self-defense purposes.
The United States and four other Western countries expressed grave concern Monday about the erosion of democratic elements in Hong Kong as pro-Beijing candidates swept to victory in the citys legislative elections after laws were changed to favor Chinas Communist Party loyalists.



Actions that undermine Hong Kong's rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy are threatening our shared wish to see Hong Kong succeed, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain said in a statement.



The diplomats said that since Britain handed over control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, Candidates with diverse political views have contested elections in Hong Kong, but that Sundays elections reversed this trend.

Pro-Beijing candidates won a landslide victory in the elections, defeating moderates and independents in Hong Kongs first polls since Beijing decreed that only "patriots" loyal to Chinas ruling Communist Party could run the city.

These changes eliminated any meaningful political opposition, the Western diplomats said. Meanwhile, many of the city's opposition politicians  most notably the majority of the NSL 47"  remain in prison pending trial, with others in exile overseas.

The NSL 47 are activists accused of subverting Hong Kongs National Security Law that was enacted by China last year.

In addition, they said that nongovernmental organizations, trade unions and human rights organizations not supportive of the government's agenda have been forced to disband or leave, while media freedoms are being curtailed at pace.

The diplomats urged China to act in accordance with its international obligations to respect protected rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Monday at a news conference she was "satisfied" with the election, despite a 30.2% voter turnout, the lowest since China assumed power over Hong Kong 24 years ago.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said there were "multiple reasons" for the decline in voter turnout.

"It is not only the impact of the pandemic but also the disruption and sabotage of anti-China elements in Hong Kong and external forces," Zhao said at a daily briefing.

Some overseas pro-democracy activists, including London-based Nathan Law, urged a boycott of the vote, saying the elections were undemocratic. Under the new election laws, incitement to boycott the voting or to cast invalid votes could be punished by up to three years in jail and a $26,500 fine.

Lam said she expects that work with the 90 legislators will be "very exciting" because they have different opinions on many social issues.

Lam was expected to travel to Beijing later Monday on a duty-reporting trip, which she said was meant to give a full account to Beijing of the latest political and economic situation in Hong Kong.

"I expect to cover a wide range of issues on this particular duty visit because through two very decisive acts of the central authorities, Hong Kong is now back on the right track of 'one country, two systems,'" she said.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
The challenge of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapona commitment made by successive presidents of both partieshas reached a critical moment. Diplomacy appears to be moving backward, as Irans representatives in Vienna make new maximal demands while retracting previous concessions, even as its scientists are crossing dangerous enrichment thresholds. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was right to say that the United States will not accept an approach in which Iran stalls in the talks while it advances its nuclear program. Indeed, the Vienna negotiations are in danger of becoming a cover for Iran to move toward achieving a threshold nuclear weapons capability.

We strongly support the Biden administrations preference for using diplomacy to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program remains solely for civilian purposes. Only by diplomatic agreement can there be a mutually acceptable resolution of this problem, which is especially important as the world grapples with the urgent challenges of Russias threats to Ukraine and an increasingly aggressive China.

While the United States has recognized Irans right to civilian nuclear power, Irans behavior continues to indicate that it not only wants to preserve a nuclear weapons option but is actively moving toward developing that capability. Indeed, as the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Association, Rafael Grossi, has stated, Irans decision to enrich uranium to 60 percent and to produce uranium metal has no justifiable civilian purpose.

It is important to recall that the limit for Iranian enrichment enshrined in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the diplomatic agreement the return to which is the goal of the Vienna talks, was 3.67 percent. That was set to be well below the dividing line of 20 percent enrichment, which separates low and highly enriched uranium and whose crossing was widely seen as an indicator of Iranian intent to move toward weapons grade enrichment. For many of us, including those who supported the JCPOA, enrichment to 20 percent was a red-line for the United States that would trigger severe consequences.

Todays more ominous reality is that Iran now enriches to 60 percent and is threatening to move to 90 percent; moreover, on its current path, experts say Iran could accumulate, in a matter of months, enough uranium enriched to 60 percent and enough technical knowledge about the enrichment process that would make constraints, as currently conceived, largely irrelevant. Its action should set off alarm bells not only because of their inherent danger but because they indicate that Tehran does not fear there will be any consequences for taking these steps.

Without convincing Iran it will suffer severe consequences if it stays on its current path, there is little reason to hope for the success of diplomacy. And given the speed with which Iran is moving forward with its nuclear program, such consequences cannot be limited to political isolation, condemnatory resolutions in international fora and additional economic sanctions, all of which are a necessary part of an American strategy toward Iran but are not sufficient at this stage to convince Irans leaders that the price they will pay requires them to alter their course.

Therefore, for the sake of our diplomatic effort to resolve this crisis, we believe it is vital to restore Irans fear that its current nuclear path will trigger the use of force against it by the United States. The challenge is how to restore U.S. credibility in the eyes of Irans leaders. Wordsincluding formulations that are more pointed and direct than all options are on the tableare also necessary but not sufficient.

In that context, we believe it is important for the Biden administration to take steps that lead Iran to believe that persisting in its current behavior and rejecting a reasonable diplomatic resolution will put to risk its entire nuclear infrastructure, one built painstakingly over the last three decades. Such steps may include orchestrating high-profile military exercises by the U.S. Central Command, potentially in concert with allies and partners, that simulate what would be involved in such a significant operation, including rehearsing air-to-ground attacks on hardened targets and the suppression of Iranian missile batteries. Also important would be to provide both local allies and partners as well as U.S. installations and assets in the region with enhanced defensive capabilities to counter whatever retaliatory actions Iran might choose to make, thereby signaling our readiness to act, if necessary. Perhaps most significantly, fulfilling past U.S. promises to act forcefully against other Iranian outrages, such as the drone attack by Iran-backed militias against the U.S. base at al-Tanf in Syria and Irans illegal capture of merchant ships and killing unarmed seamen, might have the salutary impact of underscoring the seriousness of U.S. commitments to act on the nuclear issue.

Let us be clearwe are not urging the Biden administration to threaten regime change or to advocate for a regime change strategy under cover of non-proliferation. This is not about hostility toward Iran or its people. In fact, we urge the U.S. government to provide humanitarian support, including COVID-19 vaccines and other medical assistance, nowregardless of the diplomatic impasse. But it is essential to break that impasse and stop the dangerous advance of the Iranian nuclear program.

We believe a diplomatic agreement that fully and verifiably ensures Irans nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes remains the best way to address the Iran nuclear challenge. In so doing, it is also the best way to prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, in which other countries in the region feel compelled to match Iranian capabilities, with disastrous consequences for regional security and global non-proliferation norms.

To avoid military conflictby us or any other actor that believes itself threatened by an Iranian nuclear weapons capabilitywe need to maximize the prospects for such an agreement. To achieve this goal, offering incentives to Iran will be essential, both to influence the debate in Tehran and to demonstrate to the worldespecially China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany, who are negotiating with Iranhow much the United States wants an agreement. But no less essential than clarifying what Tehran stands to gain is restoring Irans fear that it will suffer severe consequences if it refuses. The time to act is now.

ENDORSERS

HOWARD BERMAN

Former Chairman, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee

MICHELE FLOURNOY

Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

JANE HARMAN

Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita, Woodrow Wilson Center

Former Ranking Member, U.S. House Intelligence Committee

LEON PANETTA

Chairman, The Panetta Institute for Public Policy

Former Secretary of Defense; Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency

GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. ARMY (RET.)

Former Commander, U.S. Central Command; Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency

DENNIS ROSS

William Davidson Distinguished Fellow and Counselor, The Washington Institute

ROBERT SATLOFF

Howard P. Berkowitz Chair and Executive Director, The Washington Institute

This statement reflects the collective view of its endorsers, listed in alphabetical order. It was initiated and drafted by Ambassador Dennis Ross and Dr. Robert Satloff, with contributions from other Washington Institute experts. Affiliations are solely for identification purposes and do not imply institutional endorsement.
The United States of America and the Russian Federation, hereinafter referred to as the "Parties",

guided by the principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as the provisions of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, the 1999 Charter for European Security, and the 1997 Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Russian Federation,

recalling the inadmissibility of the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations both in their mutual and international relations in general,

supporting the role of the United Nations Security Council that has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security,

recognizing the need for united efforts to effectively respond to modern security challenges and threats in a globalized and interdependent world,

considering the need for strict compliance with the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs, including refraining from supporting organizations, groups or individuals calling for an unconstitutional change of power, as well as from undertaking any actions aimed at changing the political or social system of one of the Contracting Parties,

bearing in mind the need to create additional effective and quick-to-launch cooperation mechanisms or improve the existing ones to settle emerging issues and disputes through a constructive dialogue on the basis of mutual respect for and recognition of each others security interests and concerns, as well as to elaborate adequate responses to security challenges and threats,

seeking to avoid any military confrontation and armed conflict between the Parties and realizing that direct military clash between them could result in the use of nuclear weapons that would have far-reaching consequences,

reaffirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and recognizing the need to make every effort to prevent the risk of outbreak of such war among States that possess nuclear weapons,

reaffirming their commitments under the Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Measures to Reduce the Risk of Outbreak of Nuclear War of 30 September 1971, the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas of 25 May 1972, the Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Establishment of Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers of 15 September 1987, as well as the Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Prevention of Dangerous Military Activities of 12 June 1989,

have agreed as follows:

Article 1

The Parties shall cooperate on the basis of principles of indivisible, equal and undiminished security and to these ends:

shall not undertake actions nor participate in or support activities that affect the security of the other Party;

shall not implement security measures adopted by each Party individually or in the framework of an international organization, military alliance or coalition that could undermine core security interests of the other Party.

Article 2

The Parties shall seek to ensure that all international organizations, military alliances and coalitions in which at least one of the Parties is taking part adhere to the principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations.

Article 3

The Parties shall not use the territories of other States with a view to preparing or carrying out an armed attack against the other Party or other actions affecting core security interests of the other Party.

Article 4

The United States of America shall undertake to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deny accession to the Alliance to the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The United States of America shall not establish military bases in the territory of the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.

Article 5

The Parties shall refrain from deploying their armed forces and armaments, including in the framework of international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in the areas where such deployment could be perceived by the other Party as a threat to its national security, with the exception of such deployment within the national territories of the Parties.

The Parties shall refrain from flying heavy bombers equipped for nuclear or non-nuclear armaments or deploying surface warships of any type, including in the framework of international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in the areas outside national airspace and national territorial waters respectively, from where they can attack targets in the territory of the other Party.

The Parties shall maintain dialogue and cooperate to improve mechanisms to prevent dangerous military activities on and over the high seas, including agreeing on the maximum approach distance between warships and aircraft.

Article 6

The Parties shall undertake not to deploy ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles outside their national territories, as well as in the areas of their national territories, from which such weapons can attack targets in the national territory of the other Party.

Article 7

The Parties shall refrain from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories and return such weapons already deployed outside their national territories at the time of the entry into force of the Treaty to their national territories. The Parties shall eliminate all existing infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons outside their national territories.

The Parties shall not train military and civilian personnel from non-nuclear countries to use nuclear weapons. The Parties shall not conduct exercises or training for general-purpose forces, that include scenarios involving the use of nuclear weapons.

Article 8

The Treaty shall enter into force from the date of receipt of the last written notification on the completion by the Parties of their domestic procedures necessary for its entry into force.

Done in two originals, each in English and Russian languages, both texts being equally authentic.

For the United States of America

For the Russian Federation
Whenever I am in the neighbourhood I always pop in at Casa Gitane. The Amsterdam based Interior store is probably the store in Amsterdam that best reflects my ideas of decorating. Not only colour wise, because just as on vosgesparis and in my home you will see the same colour scheme. Products at Casa Gitane you often have seen mentioned on vosgesparis, like the tables and chairs by Kar Studio as pictured below. Learn more about Kar studio here on the blog.

https://www.vosgesparis.com/?s=fainaThe Casa Gitane interior agency is known for their different projects, including Hangar across the water of the Eastern Harbour where I live and involved in former Studio Pistache. Those who follow me some time might remember the amazing dinner I organised at the Studio together with our group of international bloggers.

Christmas decoration at Casa Gitane

With a good few days at home due to a covid infection myself, straight back to work and the Netherlands sadly back into lockdown in this last week before Christmas. I had to have a quick visit downtown to get in the Christmas mood before it is all over again. Although I can also look forward to a quiet city centre with all the lights and less tourists, it is also a time to celebrate with other people and therefore quite sad.

Tables with oversized tablecloths for a wonderfully dramatic effect. And covered with different crockery, linen napkins, beautiful glassware and candles in different colours and heights. Several sculptural vases completed the picture together with different lighting objects and shiny disco balls. Here is a small impression of Christmas at Casa Gitane

Images vosgesparis
Italy vaccinates 52,000 children against covid-19 in first two days of vaccination programe.

Italian health minister Roberto Speranza said on Sunday night that there is "an element of worry" within the government as the highly contagious Omicron covid variant sweeps across Europe.

Speranza, speaking on the popular television show Che Tempo Che Fa, called for "maximum caution" and urged people to "avoid gatherings as much as possible during the Christmas holidays."

The health minister confirmed that the government would evaluate imposing tougher measures to stem a new wave of covid-19 infections, at a meeting on 23 December, however he stressed that "no decisions have been taken" yet.

He did not go into details of the possible new restrictions which, according to reports in Italian media, could include extending compulsory vaccination to other categories of workers, making masks mandatory outdoors, and requiring covid tests for crowded venues such as night clubs, even for vaccinated people.

Speranza said that any new restrictions would take into account the "epidemiological data and also the scope of the Omicron variant", based on new studies being carried out on Monday 20 December.

The minister acknowledged that the numbers of covid cases in Italy are growing "even if they are still far better than other European countries" however he said it was "quite clear that there has been constant significant growth in recent weeks and that if it continues like this it could risk putting health services in difficulty."

Underlining the importance of getting the third 'booster' dose and wearing masks, Speranza announced that 52,000 children aged between 5 and 11 were vaccinated in the first two days after Italy's vaccination drive was expanded to kids last week.

The minister said this figure included his own two children, concluding: "Let's trust our scientists, let's trust our doctors, let's trust our pediatricians."

For official information in English on the covid-19 situation in Italy see the health ministry website.

Cover image: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, December 2021. Photo credit: VILTVART / Shutterstock.com.
General Motors said Monday that it is extending a production halt at its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan, which makes the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle, through the end of February. The largest U.S. automaker in August widened its recall of the Bolt to more than 140,000 vehicles to replace battery modules after a series of fires. Earlier this month, it extended its production shutdown through late January. GM has also indefinitely halted retail sales of new Bolt vehicles. The suburban Detroit plant halted production in August but conducted two weeks of limited production at Orion starting Nov. 1 to help provide courtesy transportation vehicles for customers during recall repairs.
Tesla benefited enormously  crucially, even  from subsidies on its expensive cars, both from the federal government and California, from which it recently decamped to Texas (a big thanks yall to Sacramento). It also took advantage of loans from the Department of Energy. But it doesnt need that now. It has used up its allotment of federal rebates in vehicles. Even though it potentially stood to get more under the new legislation, Teslas brand is established enough that it doesnt necessarily need them. It also has its own proprietary network of chargers set up.
While Brexit-supporters readily accept such costs as the price for taking back sovereignty, they are adding to the political pressure on the prime minister. The promise to take back control that united many Conservatives (and others) behind the Brexit project. But there are disagreements over what to do with the freedoms now. A more populist and less traditionally conservative wing of the party, including many of the new MPs from the north of the U.K., are focused on public spending programs to keep voters happy. Tax cuts arent a priority and they are not averse to the occasional protectionist measures.
On Nov. 1, he decried the bills shell games and budget gimmicks and called it a recipe for economic crisis. He wanted to set up and fully pay for a few programs for 10 years. The bill House Democrats passed sets up more programs, but for only a few years; after that, the Democrats were counting on political pressure to get them extended, and maybe paid for. They appeared to think Manchins conditions were just a negotiating position  even after he said that he would be comfortable if no bill at all got passed.
The petitioners also argued that the federal government had no reason to deploy its emergency powers through a mandate because the pandemic is not an emergency  it had lasted nearly two years, after all, and had grown long in the tooth. The Fifth Circuit seemed convinced by that sophistry, which predated omicrons arrival in the U.S. Now that its here, I wonder if the judges and petitioners in Louisiana have a different understanding of what an emergency is and how long it can last.
Silvia: Because of the success of Denis Villeneuves Dune adaptation, many people have been asking me for books that resemble the movie. Although the obvious recommendation is to plow through the many volumes of the Dune series itself, newbies are sometimes fearful of being thrown into the deep end of the pool (the six Dune books penned by Frank Herbert span some 900,000 words). Therefore, Im not going big, but small, and recommending Binti (2015), a novella by Nnedi Okorafor. Like Dune, Binti has a young protagonist traveling from one distant corner of the galaxy to another, while undergoing a great personal transformation. Its a coming-of-age tale rooted in African culture, which is continued in two other novellas.
Candy Cane Candidate (Lifetime at 8) An aspiring  but recently defeated  politician returns to her hometown for the holidays and faces off against an old rival in an emergency election for mayor.
Set against the backdrop of World War I and its origins, the film is essentially a trippier, more hallucinogenic version of an episode of Drunk History  one that might have been imagined (or dreamed) by a brainy but bored high-schooler who fell asleep during World History class after eating magic mushrooms, only to wake up with a crazy, what-if story involving several historical figures, minor and major, from the early 20th century rattling around in their head. That story, written by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek, posits a revisionist theory about the causes of the global conflict, which only begins, in this case, with the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (Ron Cook) by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman).
So then, I would probably want to go to my favorite hotel, which is the Hamilton Hotel right around the corner. I love them. They have a cool little speakeasy bar that not a lot of people know about. Its an all-black, skull-and-bones-type of secret room, and they just redid it. You can have a private party of like 15 to 20 people. And the vibe is just everything. And then Id go get a room because they are one of the few hotels that still have bathtubs, so you can soak. Theyre one of the few hotels that have a great restaurant attached to it, with Via Sophia, so if you want a late nightcap, you can go back down to the bar after a nice bath. You can order a nice pizza, and I love the view  it looks over the new Franklin [Square] Park.
If your bathroom is far from your water heater, there is a way to avoid having to watch as water goes down the drain while you wait for hot water to arrive. Install a hot water recirculation pump, which creates a loop, so water that has cooled in the pipe between the water heater and the faucet or a showerhead goes back to the water heater rather than down the drain. This water flows at a fast rate, so it not only cuts down on wasted water, but it also dramatically shortens the time you need to wait for hot water to arrive at the tap. The Watts hot water recirculating system with a built-in timer is $199 at Home Depot. You would need one of these (or a similar product), and perhaps a few accessory parts, such as stainless steel supply lines, for each faucet or showerhead you want to adjust.
If a verdict does not come before Thursday, when the court will close for the long Christmas weekend, the panel will return next week to continue reviewing evidence from the high-profile trial. It must sort out whether to convict Maxwell on a number of serious charges, including conspiracies related to the trafficking of girls for illegal sex acts.
Bodies found in Minn. home: Authorities are investigating the deaths of several people whose bodies were discovered inside a twin home in Moorhead, Minn. The bodies were found just before 8 p.m. Saturday by relatives conducting a welfare check. Police have not said how many people were killed or how they died. There were no signs of violence or forced entry, police said. Neighbors said several children lived in the home and were last seen Friday, KFGO radio reported.
The Dec. 14 front-page article regarding the failure of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) to report all of his earnings in his blind trust, Manchins conflicting reports on coal money, revealed that he benefits tremendously from the coal industry. Has he blocked climate change regulation for his own financial largesse? As if this werent disturbing enough, I was reminded later in the article that members of Congress are not required to divest their assets to avoid a potential industry conflict.
Isnt it time we stopped pretending there is nothing this rich country can do to get more of our people out of Afghanistan? I refer to the thousands of Afghans who risked their lives for our country and what it supposedly stands for, whom we have now left to the tender mercies of the Taliban. How hard can it be for Congress to appropriate enough money to light a fire under the State Department so that all our people with special immigrant visas are not left forever in Kabul? How demanding would it be to double the number of people we took in under humanitarian parole? We took in 130,000 Vietnamese that way, and yet only 70,000 Afghans have been so fortunate. Further, why not triple the number of flights in and out of Kabul? We know how to do it. And, if we are going to feed millions of Afghans this winter  as we should  why cant this country lean on the Taliban to let our people go?
After boasting that Brooks had far more than 50 percent of the primary vote in private polls, his advisers have since become far more somber, as other private surveys have showed Britt surging and Durant gaining attention. Britt raised $3.8 million through the end of September, with contributions from the political operations of Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and the recent appearance of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) at one of her fundraisers. Durant, who got in the race only in October, has not yet disclosed how much he has committed to spend.
The Distilled Spirits Council and other alcohol industry trade groups routinely reference the results of a Gallup poll this year that showed people said their alcohol consumption did not go up during the pandemic. However, the poll  which is typically conducted annually  was not done in 2020 during the height of the pandemic while shutdown orders were in place across the nation. The poll does indicate that most drinkers reported returning to their pre-pandemic levels of alcohol consumption this year.
Im not blaming anybody, he said. I knew where they were, and I knew what they could and could not do. They just never realized it, because they figured, Surely, dear God, we can move one person  surely we can badger and beat one person up, surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough [that] theyll just say: Ill go for anything. Just quit.  
Troops at the main square in Almaty amid protests over the government's decision to lift price caps on liquefied petroleum gas. (Reuters)

Troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization will enter Kazakhstan after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed for help controlling the anti-government protests.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size You think you know Steven Spielberg, and then he goes and remakes West Side Story. This is, after all, the filmmaker whose body of work is defined by Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. and Jurassic Park. When you see a Spielberg film you expect to buckle up for the ride; you dont expect everyone to burst into song and dance along the way. But it turns out Steven Spielberg isnt just a man of action, hes a Broadway kid who, at the age of 10, sat in his parents Phoenix, Arizona, living room transfixed by the sound of the cast album of West Side Story. As it spun at 33-and-one-third revolutions per minute on the familys Victrola record player, I was swept away by this musical narrative, Spielberg says. My imagination was my only experience mounting it on stage, or even in a cinematic proscenium because I could only imagine what it looked like as I was listening to the singing, Spielberg says. And I could only imagine what the dancing was like when I was listening to the portions of the score that inspire and uplift the dance. So, the first stage on which I experienced West Side Story was my imagination. I could only imagine what it looked like as I was listening to the singing, says Steven Spielberg of his childhood encounter with West Side Story. Credit:Disney Few former 10-year-old kids have the opportunity to bring their imagination to life quite like Spielberg does, so it is perhaps unsurprising that some 64 years later, his own West Side Story  starring Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria  is taking its bow on the cinema screen. The only question is, what took him so long? The film is a lavish love letter to the Broadway original, shot by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, arranged musically by composer David Newman and with dance choreography by the New York City Ballets Justin Peck. It also features legendary actress Rita Moreno, who starred in the earlier, much-loved 1961 film adaptation.

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Unlike many later productions he saw, the West Side Story of Spielbergs imagination was grittier. It was different when I first saw it on stage, it was not as tough as my imagination had made it out to be, it was not as street as my imagination told me it should look like, Spielberg says. In a way, those first years I spent listening to West Side Story on a record kind of informed not only my approach, but the approach [screenwriter] Tony Kushner took in adapting the original Broadway show to this new screen version. I think weve made it tougher, and its much more overt. Its much more focused on the characters, and the characters talk much more like people talk today, even though we still set our story in 1957. Ilda Mason as Luz, Ariana DeBose as Anita and Ana Isabelle as Rosalia in West Side Story. Credit:Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios Unlike many Broadway musicals, West Side Story is one of a handful  along with Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods and Seussical  which are staged frequently as high school productions. The effect is that for many people they first encounter the story of the clash between the Sharks and the Jets at the most impressionable time of their lives. West Side Story is about kids, and its about kids surviving in an adult world of tremendous racial division and also the intolerance of not caring to understand another culture or another point of view, Spielberg says. And that resonates with young people, despite the energy of the dance of the prologue, the energy of the Jets song and so on. I think young people seeing West Side Story for the first time go right to the love story, and then go right to the love story between two young people on different sides of the racial tracks, Spielberg adds. And I think that especially when this started becoming available to high schools back in the 1960s, that was a real eye-opener. Spielberg came to this project having seen almost every production of the show, from the 1961 film adaptation  directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins  several Broadway productions and, most recently, Arthur Laurents 2009 revival, which brought Spanish lyrics and dialogue into the English libretto for the first time.

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Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler as Maria in West Side Story. Credit:20th Century Studios. One of the chief values of art for all humankind is that art explores empathy, and thats what I think our story does more than anything else, even empathy between people who have absolutely no connection with each other, through all the divisiveness and racial barriers that they throw up against each other, and that society has thrown to them to throw up against each other, Spielberg says. I think this is an exploration of empathy and also a kind of morality tale because this is a tragedy, as is the stage play, Spielberg adds. Why cant we find the thing we have in common? That wouldve made a world of difference between the Sharks and the Jets had these kids been smart enough and patient enough with each other, which theyre not, and nor are many of the kids today. Spielberg signed on to direct the film in 2018 and spent a year looking for the right actors to play Maria, Tony, Anita and Bernardo. For two-and-a-half months in Harlem, and locations around Brooklyn and New Jersey, the pieces of the film were slowly assembled. But before all of that, Spielberg picked up the phone and called Walter Mirisch, who had produced the 1961 film, which starred Richard Beymer as Tony and Natalie Wood as Maria. Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 version, plays Valentina in Spielbergs West Side Story. Credit:20th Century Studios I took him to lunch, not the first time Ive taken Walter to lunch, Spielberg says, laughing. And Walter helped me. Hed brought in behind-the-scenes photographs that nobody had ever seen of the making of [the 1961] West Side Story. He gave me anecdotes about the production. He told me all about working with Rita. And he was very supportive. For Spielberg, the presence of Moreno  an executive producer on the 2021 film, and in the role of Valentina, a rewrite of the original character drug store owner Doc  was important. I needed someone who had lived the neorican experience, he says. I hired advisers from Puerto Rico who helped us be as authentic as we could as storytellers, but it wasnt the same.

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I needed someone who could impart the wisdom every day of this production of that lived experience as a member of the cast and the crew, Spielberg says. And Rita is someone with a gravitas that frankly, only Rita possesses. She simply lives and breathes the story. And its not just the story of the west side. Its her story as a human being. Rita was a force to be reckoned with. And she was a gift to our cast because our cast looked at her as the only link between their involvement in this story and the original motion picture production of West Side Story. It assured everyone that we were all on the same page, doing righteous work, to tell a great story that deserves to be told again. Rita Moreno in the orginal West Side Story. Credit:Getty Images As the Jet gang member Tony, Spielberg cast Ansel Elgort. As Maria, the sister of Sharks leader Bernardo, he cast Rachel Zegler. And as Anita, Bernardos girlfriend, and the role which won Moreno an Oscar, he cast Ariana DeBose. DeBose says that from a very young age she fell in love with [Spielbergs] abilities as a storyteller; he spoke to your soul, both as a creative person and just as a human. But I never thought Id get this part ... not in a million years. I had no business being Anita. And then, suddenly it became very real. And I remember walking into a room and I just looked at him, and I was like, if I am going to do this, I am going to choose not to be wildly starstruck. Working with Moreno on the remake, DeBose says, was like meeting a legend in her time, and you can feel that when youre with her. But shes also a wonderful woman. She shared whatever I wanted to know. Whatever I asked, she was always willing to answer. She gave me great insight, but she was also quick to remind me that I didnt need her insight necessarily. Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarez as Bernardo in West Side Story. Credit:20th Century Studios

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Back in 1947, when Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Laurents story spoke to his own lived experience and the reality of the world at the time. Despite its age, however, West Side Story has a lot to say about life in 2021. This story speaks more to what the originators of West Side Story were intending to talk about today than it did in 1957, Spielberg says. Were in a very dangerously reactive period of time and a very ignorant period of time, where people on both sides ... are simply not willing to talk to each other, he says. America has, Spielberg says, never been as divided in my lifetime as it is right now. And I feel the story of the Sharks and the Jets is happening all over this country, as we speak. Rival gangs go into battle in West Side Story. Credit:20th Century Studios. But whether art is naturally political is more complex. I think West Side Story, certainly for the first 60 per cent of the story, whether on stage or on screen, is a celebration of life and love and fidelity, Spielberg says. And then of course, traditionally like Romeo and Juliet, it disintegrates into such division that borders on tragedy and then becomes a very, very sad story. Thats just the nature of the beast. Thats what its always been. The film also puts to celluloid what many will say is a definitive version of West Side Story. It is suffused with the exuberant kineticism of its musical set pieces, according to Vulture. And it is rougher, grittier, more lived-in ... but also more unabashedly classical, more radiantly stylised, than just about anything a major American studio has released in years, says the Los Angeles Times. In that sense the permanence of celluloid presents us with something unexpected for a musical that has been evolving since the original Broadway production opened in New York on September 26, 1957.

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A quick survey of local beaches or public pools from behind mirrored aviator sunglasses reveals that most Australian men dont agonise through the same annual ritual of updating their swimwear as many women. Translucent rugby shorts, Speedos from summers and waist sizes long forgotten and shapeless shorts that reach sandy knees demonstrate a level of body confidence that should be applauded and taste that barely surfaces in the wading pool.

Three Australian labels are doing their best to elevate mens swimsuit game to levels that stretch beyond public acceptability to admiration.

Mens swimwear from Australian brand Jac + Jack. The shorts are their first foray into the ocean and pool.

The short of it

The Goldilocks principle applies to mens swim shorts. Too long, and youre ready for the basketball court instead of the beach. Too short and in a cold breeze vulnerable parts will feel colder than porridge.
WA Labors cash for access fundraising tactics have again come under fire after Premier Mark McGowan attended an intimate dinner with some of Perths elite businesspeople last month.

On November 24 Labor hosted one of its business roundtable events attended by about 15 people at Frasers Restaurant in Kings Park, featuring the Premier.

WA Premier Mark McGowan attended an exclusive Labor fundraising dinner with the states most elite businesspeople. Credit:Hamish Hastie

Attendance at the roundtable cost $5500 per head  with proceeds going directly to WA Labors coffers.

High-profile attendees included Woodside chief executive Meg ONeill, Chevrons Australian corporate affairs general manager Kate Callaghan, Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott and the head of the recently floated employment services company APM and new rich lister Megan Wynn.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  The European Unions executive branch on Monday authorized a fifth COVID-19 vaccine for use in the 27-nation bloc, giving the green light to the two-dose vaccine made by U.S. biotech company Novavax.

The European Commission confirmed a recommendation from the bloc's drug regulator to grant conditional marketing authorization for the vaccine for people ages 18 and over. The decision comes as many European nations are battling surges in infections and amid concerns about the spread of the new omicron variant.

Novavax says it's testing how its shots will hold up against omicron, and like other manufacturers has begun formulating an updated version to better match that variant in case in case its eventually needed.

At a time where the omicron variant is rapidly spreading, and where we need to step up vaccination and the administration of boosters, I am particularly pleased with todays authorization of the Novavax vaccine," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Much about omicron remains unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. Scientists say omicron spreads even easier than other coronavirus strains, including delta, and it is expected to become dominant in some countries by early next year. Early studies suggest the vaccinated will need a booster shot for the best chance at preventing an omicron infection. But even without the extra dose, vaccination still should offer strong protection against severe illness and death.

The Novavax shot joins those from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca as the authorized vaccines in the EU. The bloc has ordered up to 100 million Novavax doses with an option for 100 million more.

The European Commission said the first doses were expected to arrive in early 2022. EU member states have ordered around 27 million doses for the first quarter of next year.

Last week, the World Health Organization gave emergency approval to the Novavax vaccine, paving the way for its inclusion in the U.N.-backed program to get such vaccines to poorer countries around the world.

The European Medicines Agency, the EU's drug regulator, said that it's human medicines committee concluded by consensus that the data on the vaccine were robust and met the EU criteria for efficacy, safety and quality.

COVID-19 vaccines train the body to recognize the coronavirus by spotting the spike protein that coats it, but the Novavax option is made very differently than the most widely used shots.

It is a protein vaccine, made with an older technology thats been used for years to produce other kinds of vaccines. The Maryland-based Novavax uses genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in insect cells. Scientists extract and purify the protein and then mix in an immune-boosting chemical.

Novavax President and CEO Stanley C. Erck said the company would deliver the first protein-based vaccine to the EU during a critical time when we believe having choice among vaccines will lead to increased immunization.

Last summer, Novavax reported that a study of 30,000 people in the U.S. and Mexico found the vaccine was safe and 90% effective against symptomatic infection from earlier variants, similar to findings from a trial of 15,000 people in Britain. A follow-up study found a booster dose six months after the last shot could rev up virus-fighting antibodies enough to tackle the extra-contagious delta variant, which at the time was the biggest threat.

The Novavax vaccine was long anticipated to help increase global vaccine supplies, as the shots require only refrigerated storage. But Novavax was delayed for months because of problems lining up large-scale manufacturing.

In a statement, Novavax said the Serum Institute of India manufacturer will supply the initial doses for the EU and later doses will come from other manufacturing sites in its global supply chain.

Dr. Gregory Glenn, Novavaxs research and development chief, recently told The Associated Press the problem wasnt producing the spike protein itself, which is straightforward, but capacity to make and bottle large quantities. Glenn said the company now has enough manufacturing capability. It partnered with the huge Serum Institute of India, and two companies recently received emergency authorization of the shots in Indonesia and the Philippines. In addition, Novavax has lined up production facilities in the Czech Republic, South Korea and elsewhere.

Novavax has been given emergency use authorization in Indonesia and the Philippines, has applications pending with the World Health Organization and Britain, and plans to file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by years end.

___

Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
Amid rising COVID case rates and a sharp increase in hospitalizations, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he will not institute any new mandates.

But some public health experts believe that requiring booster shots or masks might help stem the rising tide of cases as the omicron variant gains traction in the state.

I still believe in mandates. I still believe they can work as long as education accompanies that mandate, said Ridgefield resident Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at New York University Langone Medical Center. With omicron running amok and boosters being the key to the response, it would make a lot of sense to mandate so we dont overwhelm our health care system.

Connecticut hopsitals saw an increase of 101 admitted patients with over the weekend, pushing the statewide total to 837  the most since Feb. 3. Since Friday, 6,209 new COVID infections were discovered among 90,689 tests for a 6.85 percent positivity rate.

The latest rise in COVID-19 metrics comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the omicron variant, first discovered last month in South Africa, has become the dominant strain in the United States. Researchers believe it will overtake the delta variant in Connecticut by the end of the month.

We have gone from the least infected state in the country to maybe the 13th, Lamont said. I think you should realize unlike a year ago or two years ago, we are in a much better position because we know how to defend ourselves, we know that masking works, we know that vaccines work, we know that boosters work."

Lamont stressed that the patients who are filling up hospital beds are not vaccinated, saying there was a disconnect between infections and hospitalizations.

The governor on Monday reiterated his stance to avoid reinstating a statewide mask mandate. He said the requirement would be an added layer of protection only if people complied and it could be enforced.

I'm sort of a UConn fan these days I was looking at the basketball game at the XL [Center in Hartford] the other day and you know, you're supposed to wear a mask there, Lamont said. Not everyone was wearing a mask, to put it mildly. So I can pass a lot of laws and mandates and restrictions, but they're only effective when people follow it. So thats why I like to give that local discretion. They know their populations the best, and theyre the ones responsible for enforcing it.

Neighboring states have recently reinstated mandates and restrictions in response to omicrons spread. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Monday that restaurant patrons would be required to show proof of vaccination before dining indoors.

Boston will require adults to show proof of at least one vaccine dose as of Jan. 15, and a second dose a month later. Children ages 5 to 11 will be subject to the same mandate beginning March 1.

Other Massachusetts communities are expected to follow suit.

New York City has had a similar policy for months, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month announced that all offices, restaurants, shops and other businesses in the state must require staff and customers to either show proof of vaccination or wear masks.

New York, New Jersey are ground zero for omicron right now, Lamont said. I like to do things that work.

Some individual communities in Connecticut have instituted mask mandates  Trumbull, for example  and many companies have required employees to be vaccinated.

We know that mandates work. I am certain our current hospital employees have higher vaccination rates because of our mandate, said Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Health. It's another layer and tool added to our public health defense against this current rising wave of omicron.

I'm definitely in support of a mask mandate in the state of Connecticut, he said. We're approaching the highest levels we've ever recorded in the state with a variant that we don't know much about, but we do know is two to three times as contagious as the delta variant.

Hartford HealthCare infectious disease specialist Ulysses Wu said Lamont also has to recognize the autonomy of each of the towns.

Im sure there are town mayors saying, I hope the governor does this. They want to pass the buck up the food chain, he said. The mandate has become such a political hot-button topic, there are some people who dont want to touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Caplan said politics has gotten in the way of restrictions and mandates, both within the state and at a federal level.

The politics on masks is asking restaurants, bars, gyms to enforce them and they hate that, he said. They don't want to be seen as the mask police.

Lamont on Monday announced a digital vaccination ID system, offering proof of vaccination on a smartphone, similar to New Yorks Excelsior Pass. But Lamont spokesperson Max Reiss said Connecticuts program would not come with additional mandates.

Restrictions only work with rules you can enforce. We are at a point in the pandemic when we know best defense is to vaccinate and booster, and the Moderna and Pfizer boosters are proven to have a positive effect against the omicron variant, he said. We know what is effective against severe illness and death and the governor continues to push vaccines and therapies as hard as we can.

Andy Slavitt, the former White House senior advisor for COVID response, said on Twitter that electoral politics is playing a role: In an election year, too many governors are too slow to take tough policy responses. December and January are a time for proactive and unpopular actions.

Caplan said he believes mask requirements and vaccine mandates might be possible, but enforced lockdowns were no longer a feasible option.

Were not going to lock down and were not going to quarantine. Its clear that thats politically untenable at this point, he said. I cant see the governor announcing were back to quarantine. I cant imagine it. I think we take the deaths.

Wu does not believe statewide mandates would make a significant difference, pointing out how people have decided what rules they are comfortable following.

Ideologically, people have kind of decided what theyre going to do, he said. The majority of the people who are already masking would of course want a mask mandate. Its really fallen along ideological lines at this point.

Omicron doesnt change that assessment for Wu.

Omicron is no different from delta in terms of what we should be doing, Wu said. We should have been washing our hands the whole entire time.

There may come a time, Wu said, when the governor has no choice, when public health concerns outweigh political concerns. But the state has not yet reached that point, he said.

Once he pulls that, theres not much more that hes going to be able to do beyond that, Wu said. COVID doesn't care about the politics, but I understand the position that hes in.

In the absence of mandates, taking measures to protect oneself and the community from COVID is a matter of personal responsibility, Wu said.

People have just stopped worrying about COVID, he said. For me, its a way of life at this point. I will continue to trudge on and continue to fight it. I dont necessarily worry about it any more because its here to stay.

Hearst Connecticut Media Group reporter Ken Dixon contributed to this story.
Today

Sunshine followed by increasing clouds; seasonably chilly.

Tonight

Cloudy with snow at times from late evening on. Snow accumulating 1-3 inches with slightly higher amounts possible south and east.

Tomorrow

Morning snow ends very early, then clouds break for some sunshine; brisk and cold.
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NWS Weather Alert NOTE: This information is provided by the National Weather Service. Forecast may differ from local information provided by our own 69News Meteorologists

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM EST FRIDAY... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 inches. * WHERE...Portions of northwestern New Jersey and east central Pennsylvania. * WHEN...From 10 PM this evening to 10 AM EST Friday. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning commute. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. &&
A stage sequel to West Side Story has been commissioned in the US.

Planned by Long Wharf Theatre, the piece will pick up where the original West Side Story ends (with, spoilers, half of tragic couple Tony dying). It will be titled, simply, Maria, according to the news release in Forbes.

Steven Sapp is writing the musical alongside his wife, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, with the plan to ground the show in Maria's Puerto Rican origins and hometown. As Ruiz-Sapp remarks: "the dream of every Puerto Rican is to go back to the island".

The new piece aims to remedy the fact that, even though West Side has popularity all over the world, it is a tale about Puerto Rico not told by Puerto Ricans.

Further plans for Maria are to be revealed  we're sure it'll reach the UK at some point!

The film version of West Side Story is in cinemas now, with a cast led by Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort and Ariana DeBose. You can read our review here.
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to cloudy skies with snow developing during the afternoon. Much colder. High 36F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 100%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches..

Tonight

Snow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Low 17F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
CHARLOTTETOWN - The federal government will spend $28 million to help Prince Edward Island farmers deal with a growing surplus of potatoes as an almost month-long export ban to the United States continues.

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau speaks at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on December 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle

CHARLOTTETOWN - The federal government will spend $28 million to help Prince Edward Island farmers deal with a growing surplus of potatoes as an almost month-long export ban to the United States continues.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told a news conference on Monday the funding will be used to create more potato processing capacity in Canada and to ship some surplus to food aid organizations.

The money will also go toward helping farmers seek out new markets and allowing them to safely destroy their excess potatoes this winter.

"The fact is the U.S. will not accept shipments of fresh potatoes until they have the scientific reassurances they need," Bibeau told reporters. She said that to assuage American concerns, an industry-government potato working group is developing a strengthened plant-health management plan.

Canada suspended all shipments of fresh potatoes from P.E.I. to the United States on Nov. 22 after the fungal potato wart was discovered in two fields in the province.

The United States potato market is worth about $120 million a year to P.E.I. Bibeau said a "significant quantity" of potatoes will need to be destroyed, but she did not specify how many.

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P.E.I. premier Dennis King said the money announced Monday will be crucial in ensuring the potatoes slated for export won't all go to waste. "These types of creative solutions are exactly what we need to do in the interim to move our excess potatoes until the U.S. market is reopened," King said in a statement.

He also said the province is turning its attention toward ensuring the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can quickly gather the necessary soil samples to confirm potato wart won't remain an issue for exports.

Bibeau said federal officials will be meeting with the P.E.I. Potato Board and other industry members this week to discuss how best to use the funding.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2021.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
TORONTO - BMO Financial Group is deepening its U.S. presence with a US$16.3 billion deal to buy a subsidiary owned by French bank BNP Paribas.

A Bank of Montreal sign is pictured in North Vancouver, B.C. Tuesday, April, 2, 2019. BMO Financial Group has signed a deal with French bank BNP Paribas to buy its U.S. subsidiary Bank of the West for US$16.3 billion. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO - BMO Financial Group is deepening its U.S. presence with a US$16.3 billion deal to buy a subsidiary owned by French bank BNP Paribas.

BMO and its Chicago-based subsidiary BMO Harris Bank announced Monday that it was purchasing BNP Paribas' Bank of the West to bolster its customer count and drive more growth in coveted market.

The US$16.3 billion acquisition price is estimated to be 1.5 times Bank of the Wests book value.

"With the strength of our performance and our integrated North American foundation, we have never been better positioned to take this next step in our growth strategy and to deliver for the new customers and colleagues we look forward to welcoming to BMO," BMO's chief executive Darryl White, said in a statement.

"This acquisition will add meaningful scale, expansion in attractive markets, and capabilities that will enable us to drive greater growth, returns and efficiencies."

The deal, which was funded primarily with existing capital, is one of the bank's first major cash deployments after it spent more than a year building up its coffers in the event of mass loan defaults during COVID-19.

When government spending averted some of the financial fears bankers had surrounding the pandemic, BMO and other banks were left in a prime position to spend.

BMO took the opportunity to purchase San Francisco-based Bank of the West because it offers a complementary footprint to its existing U.S. business.

Bank of the West, BMO said, was highly attractive because of its presence in the California market, where 70 per cent of Bank of West deposits stem from.

BMO estimates the acquisition will also add nearly 1.8 million customers to the bank and will expand its banking presence through 514 additional branches in key U.S. growth markets.

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The deal will leave BMO with a footprint in 32 states and an estimated annual return of about 14 per cent.

The transaction has already received approval from BMO and BNP Paribas' boards of directors.

The deal is expected to close by the end of calendar 2022, but is subject to regulatory approvals.

Upon closing, BMO will merge Bank of the West into BMO Harris Bank N.A.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX: BMO)
OTTAWA - While military police are working to transfer sexual misconduct investigations to civilian authorities, the Canadian Armed Forces top prosecutor says he expects nearly 30 cases in which charges have already been laid will proceed to court martial.

Minister of National Defence Anita Anand speaks to a reporter during an interview in Ottawa on December 13, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle

OTTAWA - While military police are working to transfer sexual misconduct investigations to civilian authorities, the Canadian Armed Forces top prosecutor says he expects nearly 30 cases in which charges have already been laid will proceed to court martial.

Retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour called in October for the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service to transfer criminal investigations involving allegations of sexual misconduct to civilian authorities unless they were close to completion.

Arbour said the recommendation, which Defence Minister Anita Anand accepted last month, was based on victims concerns about a lack of independence on the part of military police when investigating complaints against senior Armed Forces commanders.

In an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press, Col. Dylan Kerr, the director of military prosecutions, said military police are now in discussions with civilian counterparts about handing over investigations.

As a result, he said: We are not anticipating any new charges of sexual assault of Criminal Code offences of a sexual nature that fall into (Arbours) recommendation to be laid in the military justice system. So theres kind of a stop valve there.

Yet Arbours recommendation did not mention cases where charges have already been laid, and Kerr said there are 29 such files that he expects will continue to be handled by the military justice system.

That expectation is based on consultations with victims in each of those cases, Kerr said, with all of those contacted having so far agreed to press ahead to a court martial.

We have still 29 active cases where charges had already been laid in our system that we fully anticipate will proceed through the military justice system to completion, he said.

Kerr added he is not surprised the victims have opted to stick with the military system as they already had several opportunities to have their cases handled by the civilian system even before Arbours recommendation.

After a separate review by retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps in 2015, Kerr said, military police and prosecutors adopted new procedures giving victims more control over whether their complaints went to military or civilian authorities.

We meet with victims all through the process, he said. Victims who had from the get-go had a lack of confidence in our system, their case realistically would never have even gotten to the stage its at now.

At the same time, Kerr said his prosecutors were clear in their recent discussions with victims about the risks of moving cases from one system to the other after charges have been laid.

Those include potential delays as civilian courts in Ontario and elsewhere deal with backlogs, and the chance civilian prosecutors could opt against taking a less serious case to trial because of those backlogs.

When you look at where our cases fall on that wide range of conduct, we tend to be at the lower end of the sphere, Kerr said.

I could foresee that there are some cases in which we would have been ready to proceed to a trial where a civilian jurisdiction just may not because of a whole host of factors that apply to them that just don't apply to us.

Yet even as Kerr suggested the decision by victims to proceed to a court martial reflected their confidence in the militarys justice system, he acknowledged the system is facing challenges.

Top among them is faltering public confidence exacerbated by what Kerr acknowledged is a serious gap in the militarys ability to hold senior officers to account.

The gap was highlighted when a fraud case involving then-chief military judge Mario Dutil fell apart in early 2020, and military police sent former chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vances obstruction of justice case to the civilian courts.

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Retired Supreme Court justice Morris Fish also noted in a landmark review of the military justice system published in June that it is legally impossible to court martial the chief of defence staff, and extremely difficult for other top officers.

I'm keenly aware of the impact that it has on the perception of the institution when we have this gap, particularly when you have a gap for the top, because it definitely feeds into the perception of two tiers of justice, Kerr said.

And that certainly creates a risk in undermining the confidence in our system, for sure. It's a very real problem.

Yet Kerr said work is underway to address the gap and that he remains confident in the military's system, noting several Supreme Court decisions have confirmed its constitutionality in recent years and that the majority of cases are properly investigated and prosecuted.

In my view, there is quite a wide divide between the perception of a number of things about our system and the reality of it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2021.
A University of Winnipeg student is being lauded for her volunteer work at Canadian Blood Services.

Opinion

A University of Winnipeg student is being lauded for her volunteer work at Canadian Blood Services.

Pavneet Sandhu, a third-year biochemistry student, was one of a handful of volunteers from across the country recognized at Honouring Canadas Lifeline, a virtual event Canadian Blood Services held at the end of November.

Sandhu received an award for her commitment and generosity to the organization.

"This is my first award, from the first place I started volunteering at, and it is really important for me," Sandhu said during her acceptance speech. "I will honour this for my entire life."

After learning about cancer in high school and having family members diagnosed with the disease, Sandhu became interested in pursuing a medical career. The 20-year-old plans to become an oncologist, which led her to volunteering at Canadian Blood Services.

Sandhu volunteers once a week, welcoming donors to the clinic, answering questions and making sure they are comfortable.

She first got involved in December 2019. She took a break when the COVID-19 pandemic reached Manitoba, but it didnt last long.

"I was sitting at home and I felt I should (go back)," Sandhu told the Free Press. "This is the time that I can play my role more importantly and it can make a difference, so I continued again to volunteer."

Volunteering at Canadian Blood Services has been an easy and fun experience, Sandhu said, because the people who donate are positive and upbeat.

"I feel happy going there. That place is wonderful," she said. "I get to know more people, and interacting with them is such a pleasure."

Sandhu also volunteers at Health Sciences Centre and CancerCare Manitoba.

Her motivation for helping stems in part from the gratitude she feels for the warm welcome her family received when they moved to Winnipeg from Punjab, India, in September 2018.

"Im doing it for the community, because the community has given me so many things and I feel I should give it back," Sandhu said, adding her desire to help people and the satisfaction she gets from volunteering are further motivations. "It makes me a little proud of myself. I feel happy that Im doing something."

Sandhus dedication to volunteering throughout the pandemic is amazing, said Brett Howe, territory manager for Canadian Blood Services.

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"She has this very infectious personality," Howe said. "Shes super friendly and really welcoming, and always has been a reassuring face to not only returning donors, but new donors as well."

Canadian Blood Services is in the midst of its Season of Giving campaign, which runs until Jan. 4. The organization is hoping to fill 38,000 open blood donation appointments before then, including more than 1,600 open spots in the Winnipeg area.

Howe invites new and returning donors to book an appointment by visiting blood.ca, calling 1-888-236-6283 or via the GiveBlood smartphone app.

Giving blood is one of the easiest things people can do to make a difference in someones life, according to Howe.

"Theres no better gift that you can give someone in the hospital," he said. "It only takes an hour out of your day."

If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com
Classes at St. James Collegiate and George Waters Middle School have been cancelled for Monday due to fire-related damage in the building on Portage Avenue that houses junior high and high school students during the week.

Classes at St. James Collegiate and George Waters Middle School have been cancelled for Monday due to fire-related damage in the building on Portage Avenue that houses junior high and high school students during the week.

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to a monitored fire alarm in the two-storey school at 1900 Portage Ave. at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Upon arrival, crews encountered smoke coming from the high school section of the building, launched an offensive attack and searched the facility to conclude there were no occupants.

The fire was declared under control just before noon and no injuries were reported, according to a city release.

A worker pulls glass out of a broken window on the first floor of St James Collegiate Sunday afternoon after a fire broke out Sunday morning. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

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A spokesperson for the St. James-Assiniboia School Division indicated administrators cancelled classes for Dec. 20 because of smoke damage in the facility.

Both the cost and extent of the damage, which includes a first-floor window that was smashed by authorities so they could access the building, remains unclear, per the spokesperson.

"At this time, we are informing families that there will be no school for students at George Waters Middle School and St. James Collegiate on Monday," they said via email.

Administration indicated it will update families with more information on Monday.

The winter break is scheduled to start on Wednesday.

 staff
OTTAWA  Months before a Manitoba train conductor bled to death in a derailment along the railline to Churchill, track inspectors had flagged numerous maintenance issues in that area, the Free Press has learned.

OTTAWA  Months before a Manitoba train conductor bled to death in a derailment along the railline to Churchill, track inspectors had flagged numerous maintenance issues in that area, the Free Press has learned.

Transport Canada inspection reports obtained through freedom-of-information requests add to questions around how Ottawa oversaw the transfer of the Hudson Bay Railway from Omnitrax to local groups.

"Its deeply concerning that this information is coming to light," said NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents the riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski.

"We simply cannot have a system where rail companies are regulating themselves."

On Sept. 15, 2018, 38-year-old Kevin Anderson died after a train carrying petroleum and gasoline derailed in Ponton, south of Thompson.

A provincial inquest is looking into the death, originally focused on the seven-hour delay in having paramedics attend the scene, which was only accessible by rail or air.

The Transportation Safety Board has linked the cause of the derailment to beaver dams washing out a wooden culvert, which left the rails unsupported.

In its 2020 investigation, the agency noted that the number of dams removed each year had dropped from 813 in 2015, to fewer than 60 in both 2017 and 2018.

Sections of the railway washed out between Gillam and Churchill in May 2017, however other parts of the railway remained in operation until full service was restored in October 2018.

Records obtained by the Free Press show numerous issues with beaver dams and obstructed culverts before and after the fatal derailment.

In June 2017, inspectors documented four instances of non-compliance in the vicinity of the derailment, involving three beaver dams and one culvert issue, as well as another beaver dam that complied with rules but was marked as a concern.

In the weeks following the derailment, Transport Canada ramped up inspections, and found numerous issues with the track, as well as how the Hudson Bay Railway stores its safety data.

Inspectors reported the Hudson Bay Railway for a "failure to keep records as required" under track safety rules that stipulate railways must keep a record of all inspection reports and tonnage for one year.

Just 530 meters down the track from the site where Anderson died, inspectors found a "drainage or water carrying facility obstructed" as well as a "beaver dam downstream" 2.7 kilometres east of the derailment site.

In fact, inspectors found 18 other beaver dams, and 10 issues with water drainage or culverts "not maintained or able to accommodate expected water flow" at various points along railway.

Despite these October 2018 reports, Transport Canada found the Hudson Bay Railway still didnt have sufficient safety plans in place nine months later.

Inspectors in July 2019 found a "failure to inspect (railway track) at such a frequency or by such a method to ensure safe operations; railway not providing necessary equipment to enable identification of non-compliant conditions."

Omnitrax did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did Arctic Gateway Group, which took over the Hudson Bay Railway in August 2018.

The newly revealed documents have been presented in the ongoing inquest into Andersons death.

Previously, a Transport Canada inspector noted as part of a labour directive that five days before the derailment, Via Rail ordered its passenger train to reduce its speed to 16 kilometres per hour at the very site where the derailment later occurred, and only under observation by crews.

The investigator noted that the railway took "corrective measures" that day which lifted the speed restriction, with a plan to eventually replace the culvert, but that this crew didnt tell local employees about the problem, and the railway hadnt implemented ongoing monitoring.

The Hudson Bay Railway appealed that labour directive. It also disputed claims from the Teamsters union that Omnitrax had essentially eliminated its beaver-control program.

Ashton, whose riding spans northern Manitoba, said locals have long been concerned about how well Ottawa regulates the rail line, even before the large 2017 washouts.

The Transportation Safety Boards investigation noted "Omnitrax made no capital investment" into the railway after those washouts and reduced its engineering force "despite several areas needing work" along the track.

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"It was the worst-kept secret that Omnitrax was not maintaining the line over an extended period of time," Ashton said.

"We not only need to know what happened, but how to prevent this from happening again, and this means making sure that the line is safe for people that work on it, people that travel on it and people that are dependent on whats transported on it."

In the past, Transport Canada has insisted it reviews its rules after every major incident, and that safety is its top priority.

But Ashton argued that federal inspectors repeatedly flagging the same issues suggests that the system lacks teeth.

"There needs to be changes going forward."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Manitobas health-care system is dead to Barry Elkin and he has gone to unusual lengths to let the premier know.

Manitobas health-care system is dead to Barry Elkin and he has gone to unusual lengths to let the premier know.

Under a headline stating "obituary notice," the retired accountant took out an advertisement in the Dec. 11 edition of the Free Press to announce the "passing" of health care in the province.

Elkin, 82, encouraged readers to offer "condolences" to Premier Heather Stefanson by phone or email  some did, he said  and his dark humour caught the attention of opposition leaders.

"It is with sadness that I announce the passing of Manitobas health-care system after a lengthy illness caused by a lack of political wisdom and vision," his ad stated. "It leaves to mourn the thousands of Manitobans waiting for surgery and diagnostic tests."

Elkin, who lives in Winnipeg, said the purpose was to call on the Progressive Conservative government to increase health funding and add front-line staff to clear the backlog of medical procedures which has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was looking to get people to recognize that if we dont have proper funding, we dont have universal health care," he said. "Its backed up to the hilt and no one is doing anything about it."

The advertisement that appeared in the Dec. 11 edition of the Free Press.

Elkin listed Stefansons public phone number and email address at the bottom and invited Manitobans to offer messages of condolence to her.

He said hes aware readers contacted her office, but he doesnt know how many called or emailed.

"My objective is to get the current government to deal with the situation and look at our health-care system and decide how we want to continue," said Elkin, who worked in the federal auditor generals office in Ottawa before his retirement.

"The government is not prepared or hasnt been prepared to fund the health system properly and its probably because it takes guts to do that. Governments dont like to raise money through (taxpayers) or debt unless its something real big and shiny."

Photos of the ad were shared on social media and Elkin said the feedback he received was mostly positive.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont sent supportive emails after Elkin blitzed the inboxes of MLAs with a letter outlining his concerns.

"I thought it was very clear and, very sadly, apt," Lamont said of the advertisement. "We do not have the health-care resources to care for everyone in Manitoba."

Elkin said he is in "no position" to come up with a figure for how much extra cash should be injected into the system.

Thats a job for politicians and experts in the government, he said.

His assessment of health care in Manitoba doesnt fault only the PCs.

Previous NDP governments share the blame, he said.

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In an emailed statement, Stefanson said the province committed $812 million in the 2021 budget to "build, renew and expand" facilities.

"This significant investment  the largest in our provinces history  will support roughly 38 projects that will improve access and enhance the quality and reliability of care, while reducing provincial wait times," the premier said. "Addressing the diagnostic and surgical backlogs, as well as related services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a top priority for our government."

Earlier this month, the government announced a task force to come up with solutions to clear the backlog of medical procedures and diagnostic tests. One option is to send patients out of the province.

More than 152,000 medical procedures have been postponed since the pandemic started, an increase of 6,675 procedures from last month, the Doctors Manitobas online dashboard says.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
As with anyone else, some Indigenous youth will have a smoother time bringing start-up dreams to reality than others. At a systemic level, however, barriers might make it harder for all these young business people than their non-Indigenous peers.

As with anyone else, some Indigenous youth will have a smoother time bringing start-up dreams to reality than others. At a systemic level, however, barriers might make it harder for all these young business people than their non-Indigenous peers.

Noah Wilson serves as the business development manager for Indigenous young entrepreneurs at Futurpreneur Canada, a national non-profit that has launched 15,000 small businesses since its inception. Wilsons goal is to get Indigenous youth from 18 to 39 where they need to be to build their self-made business  be it helping them craft a plan, providing access to cash flow or providing mentorship.

"Were essentially one of the first lenders to support new entrepreneurs who may not have the background networks or finances or financial capability to go to a more traditional lender," he told the Free Press.

Wilson, who is from Peguis First Nation but lives in Winnipeg, paints a picture. Maybe a young Indigenous adult made a mistake years ago and ended up facing criminal charges. No matter how small the incident, the charge and sentence is affected by a justice system in which Indigenous people are over-represented. Systemic barriers worsen  its harder to get employed, and business aspirations such as getting a loan or accessing financing can be nearly impossible without a pardon.

"I ask people, what other option do our Indigenous youth have, if they dont have the ability to access the labour market? And if they dont have the ability to get business loans to start their own business? What is the alternative? Because I would like to know," he said.

"Its pretty easy to understand how the cycle works, if thats the system that our youth are operating in."

This is where economic reconciliation comes into place. Wilson, who advises on the concept as the co-chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerces Truth and Reconciliation Advisory Council along with fellow chair Jessica Dumas, explains it as an opportunity to take Canadas history as context for how businesses move forward today.

"At the end of the day, Indigenous peoples, and our history of trading with settlers and other nations, it really comes down to that being representative of our relationship with those nations," Wilson said.

"So ultimately, economic reconciliation is really about building partnerships and relationships, and rebuilding the damaged relationships and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples across Canada, from an economic exploitation standpoint, to ensure that Indigenous peoples have a seat at the economic table."

This can present itself in different ways  developing an Indigenous engagement strategy, building a culturally welcoming workplace by having Indigenous employees in building those strategies, and building partnerships with Indigenous-owned businesses.

These ideas are outlined in the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerces Truth and Reconciliation Roadmap.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Noah Wilson, business development manager for Indigenous Young Entrepreneurs at Futurpreneur Canada, poses for a portrait in Winnipeg on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. For Malak story. Winnipeg Free Press 2021.

The interest is there, Wilson said, but many business owners and employees dont know how to start.

"Its just the fear of not knowing how to do it thats one of those barriers for the broader business community. And thats completely understandable," he said.

Chamber president Loren Remillard said the road map guides people who have done the baseline work of educating themselves on the Canadian history that makes economic reconciliation a mutually beneficial pursuit and are ready to take action.

"It is in our collective interest to support truth and reconciliation, and that recognition exists. Where businesses are at now is fundamentally how do we action that commitment in a meaningful, authentic way," he said. "That means listening to Indigenous leaders and communities.

"Its not about coming to the table with all the solutions. It really is a partnership."

As of 2017, Statistics Canada reported that First Nations, Metis and Inuit people owned just 1.7 per cent of all small and medium-sized businesses in Canada.

On the other hand, those businesses appear better poised to flourish right now than their counterparts.

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Businesses owned by Indigenous Canadians, surveyed by Statistics Canada on the impact of COVID-19 in the third quarter of 2021, said while they were more likely to face more obstacles in the coming year than other business owners, they were also more likely to expect higher profitability, selling price and demand than other private-sector businesses.

While one in seven of all private-sector businesses expected a decrease in sales in the third quarter, only one in 10 Indigenous-owned businesses did.

"I think we have made progress, but its a long-term journey.

"Indigenous leaders have spoken about seven generations of healing  this is not a short-term endeavour," Remillard said.

"Theres been hundreds of years of history that collectively have shaped where we are today, it is going to take a long-term approach."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Adam Treusch is off this week, and Head Start will be going on a brief hiatus. Best wishes to you and yours for the holiday season.

Top news

Lorraine Schmidt and her daughter Susan Pearce after enjoying a service at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Cross (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) Changes for churches: New COVID-19 public health orders governing public gatherings have Christian parishioners considering what the restrictions mean for celebrating Christmas in places of worship. Maggie Macintosh has the story. Read More Safety issues flagged: Inspectors found maintenance problems along the rail line to Churchill months before a derailment that caused a train conductor to bleed to death. Dylan Robertson reports. Read More Advertisement Weather

Your forecast: It will be cold and clear today, with the temperature around -18 C this morning, but falling to -22 this afternoon with a windchill of -31. In case you missed it

Futurepreneur Canadas Noah Wilson (Mikaela MacKenzie / WInnipeg Free Press) Breaking systemic barriers: Business development manager Noah Wilson works to help young Indigenous entrepreneurs get their business startups going, and succeed. "Were essentially one of the first lenders to support new entrepreneurs who may not have the background networks or finances or financial capability to go to a more traditional lender," he says. Malak Abas reports. Read More Donations for families: Shelley Cook writes in her latest column that Ally Beauchesne, who started an online book sale earlier this year with hopes of raising enough money to buy Christmas hampers for 10 families, has managed to far surpass her goal thanks to hard work and community support. Read More Strong words for premier: Barry Elkin took his dissatisfaction with the health-care system to the public  and Premier Heather Stefanson  in the form of an "obituary" for health care that was published as an ad in the Free Press. Chris Kitching reports. Read More On this date

On Dec. 20, 1922: The Manitoba Free Press reported the governor of Minnesota told a civilian club in New York City that farmers in the northwest U.S. and in Canada would force the international St. Lawrence waterway project through. In London, Dr. Trewanna of the Cherokee in Canada sought an audience with the king, and hoped to make an extensive tour of England. In Brussels, following an argument in the chamber of deputies, the minister of colonies challenged the former premier to a duel. Today's front page

Get the full story: Read today's e-edition of the Winnipeg Free Press Read More
When Manitobas health-care system is functioning well, triage protocols are of minimum concern to the general public because resources can meet all reasonable needs. When the health system is overwhelmed by a pandemic, triage can literally become a life-or-death concern.

Editorial

When Manitobas health-care system is functioning well, triage protocols are of minimum concern to the general public because resources can meet all reasonable needs. When the health system is overwhelmed by a pandemic, triage can literally become a life-or-death concern.

Triage, the process by which medical officials assign degrees of urgency to patients, can be stressful for the personnel who have the unenviable responsibility of ruling which ill patients dont get immediate treatment. The process can be even more stressful for the patients who get shunted to the waiting list, often anxious and sometimes in pain.

Its crucial that the provincial government be open about the criteria used by care providers to allot treatment so the public can be assured of fairness. But in Manitoba, this important process remains secret, despite the lobbying effort of the Human Rights Triage Protocol Coalition, a group of advocacy organizations that includes Doctors Manitoba.

"There is an urgent need for clear and transparent policy guidance in Manitoba with respect to triage protocols and a need to ensure these protocols centre human rights principles," the group wrote to Health Minister Audrey Gordon on Dec. 13.

Ms. Gordon was told there is concern about the possibility of discriminatory assumptions and stereotypes regarding disability, ancestry and age. Theres good reason for such concerns. There have been repeated complaints that some Indigenous people, for example, have experienced discrimination in Winnipeg hospitals.

Public questions about triage protocols have increased during the pandemic, as hospital resources are strained to the breaking point and beyond, resulting in an as-yet-unanswered request to Ottawa for intensive-care nurses, and the likely need to again ship some Manitoba patients to other provinces for care.

As a result, some ill Manitobans who would have received timely hospital care before the pandemic are now languishing on wait lists. Doctors say some patients are getting increasingly sick because they were unable to get treatment in the early stages of their diseases, and some patients needing surgeries such as knee and hip replacements have been waiting for up to two years.

Given the huge amount of hurt on hold, its unsurprising the public wants to know what protocols determine who is denied treatment.

The province stated in April 2020, near the beginning of the pandemic, that it was developing an ethical framework to determine criteria to make decisions regarding allocation of resources during COVID-19, including critical care.

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Other jurisdictions, including Ontario and many in the U.S., have done just that, crafting protocols to guide medical staff making the tough decisions, such as allocating mechanical ventilators on the basis of which patient has the better chance for survival and/or recovery.

Manitoba has been pushed by advocacy groups since the fall of 2020 to release its triage protocols, but has so far declined.

David Kron, spokesman for the Triage Protocol Coalition, said the government has not responded to requests to develop and share triage protocols.

"Were not even having a conversation, and thats the frustrating part," he said. "Im at a loss as to why theyre not engaging with us."

The provinces refusal to even discuss this important matter with groups representing Manitobans seems like a return to the days of former premier Brian Pallister, who was notorious for refusing to meet with interest groups and other levels of government.

Premier Heather Stefanson and her health minister are fully aware the current state of this provinces hospitals is of great concern to Manitobans. They should be clear and transparent about how decisions are made when theres not enough health care to go around.
Manitoba added 809 new COVID-19 cases over a three-day period this weekend, as nine more cases of the Omicron variant of concern were confirmed in the province.

Manitoba added 809 new COVID-19 cases over a three-day period this weekend, as nine more cases of the Omicron variant of concern were confirmed in the province.

Public health officials announced 276 cases were detected Saturday, 333 cases Sunday and 200 on Monday in their first update since Dec. 17.

Six recent deaths due to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus were also reported Monday, including: a man in his 60s, a woman in her 60s, and a man in his 70s from Interlake-Eastern (reported Saturday); a man in his 80s from Southern Health (reported Sunday); a man in his 70s from Southern Health, linked to the outbreak at the Manitoba Developmental Centre (reported Sunday); and a man in his 50s from Prairie Mountain (reported Monday).

The provinces COVID-19 death toll stood at 1,366, as of Monday.

The proportion of COVID-19 tests coming back positive also spiked across the province. Public health said the five-day test positivity rate in Winnipeg was 8.1 per cent, and eight per cent across Manitoba. On Dec. 17, those rates stood at 6.5 per cent provincially and 5.5 per cent in Winnipeg.

Public health said nine previously announced cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as the Omicron variant of concern, raising the total of confirmed cases to 17.

Public health does not report the number of presumptive Omicron cases.

Of Mondays new cases, 129 were in Winnipeg, 23 in Southern Health, 28 in Northern Health, four in Interlake-Eastern, and 16 in Prairie Mountain.

Public health reported 54 of those were in people not vaccinated against COVID-19, 21 were in partially vaccinated people, and 125 were in fully immunized people.

Manitobans to do their own contact tracing

The provincial government has also offloaded most of its contact tracing efforts onto Manitobans as of Monday.

According to the province, public health officials will no longer notify close contacts of cases. Rather, confirmed COVID-19 cases will be asked to notify their contacts directly.

The change was previewed by chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin on Dec. 17, who said contact tracing resources would be redirected to the vaccination effort.

However, public health officials said in some settings, such as schools, personal care homes, child care facilities, shelters, and health-care facilities, the government will work with the facility to notify close contacts.

"With the introduction of the Omicron variant of concern, Manitoba is anticipating a surge in COVID-19 cases similar to that seen in other countries and provinces," the government said in a release. "This increase in cases and contacts is expected to exceed public health contact notification resources."

NDP calls for return of daily briefings

A total of 137 patients were being treated for COVID-19 in Manitoba hospitals, including 27 in intensive care.

Eighty-one per cent of active COVID-19 patients in intensive care were not vaccinated.

The outbreak at the Misericordia Health Centre, transitional care unit C5, was declared over.

To date, 78.2 per cent of eligible Manitobans have been fully vaccinated and 14.5 per cent have taken three doses. Among children ages five to 11, 42.7 per cent have had one dose of the vaccine.

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On Monday, the Opposition NDP called on the provincial government to resume daily COVID-19 briefings, given the high case counts over the weekend.

"Manitobans have been doing their part and they deserve to have access to the latest public health numbers so that they can make informed decision over the holidays," NDP Leader Wab Kinew said in a news release.

"The PCs should return to daily COVID updates to facilitate this and step up enforcement in parts of the province where we havent seen buy in to public health orders and the vaccination campaign."

Also Monday, eight additional critical care nurses from the Red Cross were scheduled to arrive in Manitoba. The nurses will be in Manitoba until Jan. 17, according to the federal government.

The Manitoba government had requested 15 to 30 additional critical care nurses from Ottawa.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
An Illinois woman is facing felony charges after an officer pulled her over on I-90/94 near Lisbon for allegedly traveling at 116 mph with a child in the vehicle and, after pulling over, speeding away from the traffic stop.

Cierra Pickett, 24, of Robbins, Illinois is charged with felony attempting to flee or elude an officer and misdemeanor neglecting a child where specified harm did not occur. If convicted she faces up to three years and six months in prison or a fine of up to $10,000, or both, for the felony charge.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Sept. 11 Trooper Eric Lloyd was parked in the mile marker 64 crossover on Interstate 90/94 near Lisbon when he observed a vehicle pass his position traveling visibly over the posted speed limit. Lloyd was unable to get a speed reading but estimated the vehicle was traveling over 100 mph.

Lloyd pulled out and began catching up to the vehicle, eventually doing so west of New Lisbon. Upon catching up with the vehicle he activated his radar and received a reading that the vehicle was traveling at 116 mph. After locking in the speed on his radar he confirmed the speed by pacing the vehicle for a short time.

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Professor Phillip Vallentine Tobias is one of South Africa's most renowned scientists  (STrkalj & Pather, 2013) . As a student and academic of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) he was the epitome of an engaged and active scholar using his knowledge to inspire others and to work for social justice. As part of his legacy he bequeathed support for the pursuit scholarly excellence through the Phillip Vallentine Tobias Educational Bursary .

Description

With the support of the PV Tobias Trust a number of b ursar ies are awarded annually to PhD stu dents at Wits University . The se bursaries are awarded based on academic merit, not financial need, and are intended to promote research excellence and encourage academic ally strong students. Proven academic excellence will be demonstrated by the previous academic record, academic achievements and the potential to be a n accomplished scholar in the future . The bursary can be awarded to South African students with no restriction on the demographics related to gender, race , age or discipline. The recipients are referred to as holders of the Phillip Tobias Educational Bursary. The bursary is provided for one year , measured from the time of award. It can be extended to a second year if the review committee is convinced by the evidence presented that the student in question is making good progress against th e recorded milestones . No extensions beyond a second year may be granted .

Criteria

The criteria to be used for the selection of awardees are described below.

Hurdles that must be achieved to be considered as eligible include:

South African citizens hip;

Registered at Wits for a PhD degree 1 with an approved PhD research proposal 2 ; and

A minimum aggregate for the relevant Masters of 75%, which is regarded as a degree awarded with distinction.

Assessment criteria include:

The s trength of the academic record; and

The potential of the candidate to be come a published scholar. Evidence would include completed peer - reviewed publications, conference presentations, articles in non - peer - reviewed publications and the like; and

The s trength of support provided by the students supervisor and endorsed by the appropriate Head of School . The focus of this support must be on the applicants academic excellence and scholarly potential; and

The potential impact of the proposed research including , where appropriate , the potential for innovative .

Note: Part-time students and Wits staff registered for PhD studies are not eligible to apply. However, Teaching Assistants and tutors whose primary role at Wits is that of being a student may apply.

Operational Processes

At the time of writing the value of the bursary is R62500 per year of award. This value may be reviewed and adjusted by the Trustees in years to come. At no time will 5 concurrent awards be made in a financial year3.

Applications

The call for applications will be advertised annually by emailing this document to the Faculty Assistant Deans of Postgraduate Studies, Heads of School, the Postgraduate Students Association, and the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office(FASO). An advertorial note will be added to the Wits News and the Wits Intranet.

Applications prepared by students must be emailed to Ms Lucille Mooragan(Lucille.Mooragan@wits.ac.za) in PDF formatbefore the closing date, 16th February 2022.

Applications will include:

A certified copy of the academic record starting from undergraduate degrees; and

A detailed CV ; and

A description of the proposed research, written for the informed lay re ader, not exceeding one A4 page (12 - point text) ;

A high -level plan for the PhD research showing significant milestones; and

Letter of motivation (stating why and how the student meet s the criteria , focusing especially on the exceptional academic excellence and scholarly potential of the applicant ) provided by the current PhD s upervisor and endorsed by the Head of School.

Adjudication

Eligible applications submitted on time will be assessed by the review committee in March 2022. The review committee will comprise of the DVC: Research and Innovation(chair); the University Registrar, the Director for Research Development; the Head of PG Liaison and Head of PG Strategy.

In the event that there are no applications that meet the criteria, or where insufficient numbers of fundable applications are received to make up the maximum number of concurrent awards, then the administration will re-advertise the opportunity.
YUMA, Ariz.  A potential terrorist who illegally came into the United States from Mexico last week was wearing a Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps jacket when arrested, according to U.S. Border Patrol.

The 21-year-old is from Saudi Arabia and is linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest according to Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem, who posted photos of the suspect to Twitter Monday. Clem says the man illegally crossed the border into Yuma, Arizona Thursday night.

Photo courtesy U.S. Border Patrol Photo courtesy U.S. Border Patrol

#USBP #YumaSector agents apprehended a potential terrorist who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico Thursday night. The 21-year-old migrant from Saudi Arabia is linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest. #BorderSecurity is #NationalSecurity pic.twitter.com/qszg0L0OYQ  Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem (@USBPChiefYUM) December 20, 2021

The photos show the man, who has not been identified, wearing a COCVAC jacket, but Chief Thomas Meyers says he is not a member of the Clark Mills ambulance corps.

"It's unfortunate for us that it was our jacket the individual was wearing but it is a reminder that as trusted members of the community -- EMS, fire, police -- people will use our logos and our clothing and anything they can to gain the trust of the public. We are happy this individual was taken off the street prior to causing harm or danger to public safety," said Meyers.

The chief also says the policy is that jackets, badges, and other gear are returned to the agency when someone leaves.

This style jacket was retired in 2017, so Meyers says it's possible it ended up in a donation bin.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, R-22, says she has reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to try and find out how the man acquired the jacket.
ALBANY, N.Y.  SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley will be the interim chancellor of the SUNY system following the resignation of current Chancellor Jim Malatras in January.

Stanley, who is from Utica, has been president at SUNY Oswego for 25 years and will begin her stint as chancellor on Jan. 15, 2022. During her time as president, Stanley established the Presidential Scholarship Program, helped create a communications school and set up a SUNY Oswego campus in downtown Syracuse.

"With President Stanley's decades of leadership, commitment to academic excellence, and her unwavering support for students, she is well-positioned to serve our 64 campuses with a proven record of accomplishments, integrity, and intellect, said SUNY Board Chairman Dr. Merryl H. Tisch. On behalf of a thankful and proud Board of Trustees, we welcome Deborah as our new interim chancellor for the State University of New York and look forward to working alongside her to build on the greatness of this world-renowned institution."

Calls for Malatras resignation began following the release of transcripts from the investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The documents show text messages from Malatras mocking one of Cuomos accusers, Lindsey Boylan, in 2019.

Malatras submitted his letter of resignation to Tisch on Dec. 9, saying, in part, ...the recent events surrounding me over the past week have become a distraction over the important work that needs to be accomplished as SUNY emerges from COVID-19. I believe deeply in an individuals ability to evolve, change, and grow, but I also believe deeply in SUNY and would never want to be an impediment to its success.

SUNY will begin looking for a permanent chancellor in January.
UTICA, N.Y. - A Utica man is facing charges after Utica Police Department says they found more than 28 grams of narcotics during a traffic stop.

UPD said on Friday, they conducted a stop on Jefferson Avenue, when two individuals got out of the car and fled on foot.

Police say 20-year-old Keller Nyunt of Utica was the driver of that vehicle and after further investigation, they located a plastic bag of methamphetamine.

At the station, it was learned that the contraband weighed over 28 grams.

Nyunt was charged with:

Criminal possession of a controlled substance

New York State vehicle and traffic violations

Police say another individual in the vehicle was arrested.

Abdulkadir Ali,18, was arrested for false personation and other vehicle and traffic violations after he provided a false name to officers after being advised of the criminal consequences of doing so.
ROME, N.Y. - $2,500 has been donated to the Veterans Outreach Center in Rome by Dr. Nicholas Qandah and his wife Juleen.

The center is a nonprofit organization that provides counseling services, job searches, food services, and housing assistance for veterans.

Dr. Nicholas Qandah of CNY Brain and Spine said "They need the support and in times like this that's been going on for the last 2 years with COVID, we felt that it was our job to step up and really support our community so that children are able to have a good Christmas."

Some of the money donated today will be used toward the toys for tots program.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon were also on hand to thank the doctors and the Veterans Outreach Center for the work they do.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Saturday afternoon the Indiana Veterans' Home Cemetery participated in the annual national Wreaths Across America. The wreath-laying ceremony honored the over 2900 veterans buried on the grounds. When a volunteer placed a wreath on each grave, they would say the name of the veteran aloud to honor them.

Last year due to the pandemic, there was no indoor ceremony.

During this year's ceremony, Indiana Veteran Home residents laid an honorary wreath for each branch of service.

"The turnout was incredible," said Joy Grow, Superintendent of Indiana Veterans' Home. "We didn't even have enough room in the auditorium for all the people who came out today."

If you missed out on this event, there will be a cleanup of the cemetery hosted on January 15th.
The West Lafayette Fire Fighters Association hosted their annual Shop with a Firefighter program at a local Walmart on Saturday. Over 30 children were matched up with West Lafayette firemen and were able to shop for Christmas gifts, which were all paid for through donations from local businesses.

Firefighter Hector Zaragoza has been involved in the event for the past nine years. He told WLFI how this year was extra special because last year due to COVID, the firefighters weren't able to have that full experience of going into the stores with the children and getting to know them as they shop.

This year, the Shop with a Firefighter event raised so much money that they will be able to use the leftover funds to donate to the tornado relief in Mayfield.
William & Mary maintains its leadership in study abroad among public universities

William & Mary ranks fourth among public universities in the nation in study-abroad programs, according to the 2021 Open Doors report released Nov. 15 by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. During the 2019/2020 academic year, by IIE criteria, 410 William & Mary undergraduate students studied abroad for academic credit during their undergraduate careers. IIE calculates this to be a participation rate by time of graduation of 27%.

William & Mary has consistently ranked highly, ranking first for nine times over the last 13 years. Before the pandemic, during the 2018/2019 academic year, by IIE criteria, 857 William & Mary undergraduate students studied abroad for academic credit, a 55% participation rate by time of graduation per IIEs calculation.

William & Mary also ranks eighth nationally for long-term study abroad participants among all doctoral-granting universities.

Notwithstanding unprecedented global disruption under pandemic conditions, William & Mary remains among the national leaders in study abroad participation rates among public universities, said Stephen E. Hanson, Vice Provost for Academic and International Affairs. This is a true testament to the enduring commitment of our students, faculty, and staff to the cause of global education.

Study abroad at William & Mary: Prioritizing opportunity, diversity and accessibility

William & Marys Reves Center for International Studies offers students a diverse selection of study-abroad opportunities through the Global Education Office (GEO), including more than $700,000 annually for study-abroad scholarships as one of many efforts to reduce financial barriers. Students receive support, information, resources and guidance on various study-abroad programs and international university exchanges through GEO, which also provides workshops, peer advising and re-entry assistance for students returning from their study-abroad experience.

New in 2021 is the Colin Powell Global Engagement Scholarship, an endowed fund in honor of in the Gen. Colin L. Powell D.P.S. 88, to begin awarding scholarships in the 2024-2025 academic year to at least six outstanding students who seek to study abroad.

Despite the many challenges the pandemic has presented to global mobility, the W&M communitys deep commitment to global education has been unwavering. Some students continued to study abroad in the last 20 months and programs pivoted to remote format during the peak of the pandemic, said Sylvia Mitterndorfer, director of global education for the Reves Center. We see tremendous excitement and interest from our students to study abroad and expect to return to pre-pandemic participation once study abroad and travel become more widely possible again.

The effect of the global pandemic on study abroad generally

According to Open Doors, The COVID-19 global pandemic affected U.S. study abroad programs across the country, and to all global destinations, resulting in a 53% decline overall. In the 2019/20 academic year, 162,633 American students studied abroad for academic credit.

Declines in U.S. study abroad programming occurred primarily during the 2020 spring and summer durations. Summer programs, which comprised 39% of all U.S. study abroad programming in 2018/19, decreased by 99% in 2019/20.

During spring 2020, 867 U.S. higher education institutions launched emergency efforts to return students to the United States, bringing a reported 55,000 students home from their studies early amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to these efforts, U.S. study abroad programs were able to pivot and offer alternative modes of study abroad. For example, 242 institutions reported offering online global learning experiences to over 10,400 students. William & Mary offered virtual meetings, classes and experiences in Cambridge as well as in Geneva. The Global Education Office also made process innovations, such as virtual advising and office visits.

"Our commitment to Americans studying abroad is a commitment to our collective future, said Ethan Rosenzweig, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. "As study abroad slowly returns, we must recommit ourselves to ensuring that study abroad becomes ever more accessible to, and reflective of, the rich diversity of the United States."

The U.S. remained open to international students during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the 2020/21 academic year, 914,095 international students pursued studies at U.S. colleges and universities, a decrease of 15% from the previous academic year. These students represented 5% of all students in U.S. higher education and, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, contributed $39 billion to the U.S. economy in 2020.

More than 710,000 international students enrolled at the undergraduate, graduate, and non-degree levels from more than 200 places of origin. In addition, more than 200,000 international students pursued OPT, a welcome opportunity for students to gain practical work experiences in the U.S. after academic study.

"International students are central to the free flow of ideas, innovation, economic prosperity, and peaceful relations between nations," said Matthew Lussenhop, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

International students at William & Mary: A truly global community

The International Students, Scholars & Programs (ISSP) office at the Reves Center interacts with more than 1,000 students, scholars, alumni and dependents annually. William & Mary currently has close to 600 international students enrolled, both graduate and undergraduate students, across multiple disciplines and professional schools. They represent more than 60 countries.

Eva Wong, director of International Students, Scholars and Programs (ISSP) at the Reves Center, notes that the significance of an international academic community lies at the core of the mission of William & Mary.

International student enrollment in the U.S. has been significantly impacted by the global pandemic. However, two years into the pandemic, the university is beginning to see rebounding numbers. As William & Mary move towards Vision 2026, I am confident that we will continue to be innovative in raising our national and global profile.

The impact of W&Ms global community also has an economic impact on the region. According to data from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, international students and scholars in the Williamsburg area in 2020-2021 had more than a $30.5 million impact on the 2nd U.S. Congressional Districts economy, supporting 405 jobs.
Overseas returnees communicate with employers at a job fair during the 19th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, April 24, 2021. [Xinhua/Mao Siqian]

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua)  Facing the COVID-19 impact and downward pressure of the economy, China is looking to keep employment stable.

As measures keep rolling out to ensure people get jobs, more policies are needed to cope with the COVID-19 impact.

Employment bears the brunt of the downward pressure on the economy, said Lian Ping, chief economist at Zhixin Investment Research Institute, noting that it is crucial to give priority to employment in economic and social development as well as macro policies.

The country's job market continued to pick up in 2021 with the further recovery of China's economy and enterprises up on their feet.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent in November, 0.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

During the first 11 months of this year, the country created 12.07 million new urban jobs, over-fulfilling its annual target, according to the NBS.

Yet, China's economic development is facing pressure from demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations, a recent annual Central Economic Work Conference cautioned.

China should strengthen the implementation of the job-first policy in its pursuit of high-quality development and better leverage the role of economic growth in boosting employment, according to a statement released after the meeting.

"This requires fiscal, financial, investment, industrial and other policies to support employment, enhance the ability of economic development to create jobs, and benefit low- and middle-income groups," Lian said.

To ease the downward pressure on the real economy, China has recently announced a cut in the reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions, which sent a positive signal to China's labor market.

In the first nine months of this year, 67.2 billion yuan (about 10.6 billion U.S. dollars) of employment subsidies were distributed, while insurance premiums worth 15.1 billion yuan were returned to enterprises to help them sustain stable payrolls, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

As a key group of employment, college graduates in 2022 are expected to reach 10.76 million in China, 1.67 million more than this year.

"The unemployment rate among those aged between 16 and 24 is still relatively high, but the problem is mainly structural," said Lian, adding that there is a shortage of skilled talent, especially highly skilled talent.

Efforts will be made to boost the employment of young people, including college graduates, and optimize flexible employment and social security policies, said the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

Lian suggested that more jobs should be created with supply and services optimized, while efforts should be made in career guidance and vocational training, such as increasing jobs at the primary level communities.

(Source: Xinhua)
Health board and hospice aim to make North Wales world leader in childrens end of life care

An innovative partnership between a health board and a hospice charity aims to make North Wales a world leader in caring for life-limited children.

Thats the shared ambition of Hope House Childrens Hospices chief executive Andy Goldsmith and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board CEO Jo Whitehead.

To try and realise this ambition the two organisations are jointly funding a new lead consultant in paediatric palliative care  a first for North Wales.

Covering North and Mid Wales the new post holder will be based with the charity, which has hospices at Ty Gobaith in Conwy and Hope House in Oswestry.

The hospices currently support 287 children aged from 025 years, providing respite, crisis and end-of-life care. Of those children, 158 are from North and Mid Wales.

The charity also offers counselling and bereavement support to families whose child has died, whether it has cared for the child during their illness, or they have turned to it after their childs death.

Lead paediatricians across the Betsi Cadwaladr UHB area and specialist nurses and health professionals in the hospices will support the new consultant role.

The appointee will also be involved in how Wales shapes services for the future through the All Wales Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) Network.

They will foster close links with childrens hospitals in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, as well as working hand in hand with Ysbyty Glan Clwyds Sub Regional Neonatal Intensive Care (SuRNIC) unit.

Betsi Cadwaladrs chief executive Jo Whitehead said: I recognise, as does the board, the real contribution made by Hope House and Ty Gobaith Childrens Hospices to the lives of poorly children and their families across North Wales and beyond  over a number of years

We share their values and this appointment shows our joint ambition to make North Wales an area where children with life-limiting conditions have the very highest quality of care.

I am delighted we have formalised this intention through this appointment and look forward to our continued collaboration.

Hospice chief executive Andy Goldsmith said: We are delighted to join forces with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the All Wales Paediatric Palliative Care Network in recruiting to this exciting role.

This is the first time there will be a specialist paediatric palliative care consultant in North Wales, something we have aspired to for more than 10 years.

This post holder will provide expert medical leadership to the whole system, across statutory and voluntary sectors, helping to ensure children with life-limiting conditions receive world class care in their community.

The need for this specialist expertise has never been greater, as the number of children living with life limiting conditions in Wales rises and the complexity of the care they require increases.

Supported by a network of dedicated and experienced medics, nurses and allied health professionals, this post holder has the opportunity to help North Wales on its journey to becoming a world leading region for paediatric palliative and end of life care.
Health Board postpone non-urgent operations, procedures & outpatient appointments with immediate effect

The health board have announced they are postponing non-urgent operations, procedures and outpatient appointments with immediate effect, due to booster efforts and projected staff shortages due to Omicron.

The local health board have said anyone whose procedures will be postponed will be contacted directly and are asked not to contact the hospitals.

The move follows a huge increase in the number of COVID-19 vaccines given out across North Wales, more than doubled the previous weeks vaccination rate  administering a record 66,000 vaccines, including 24,000 over the weekend alone.

Last week the Health Minister trailed the possibility, saying the vaccine booster programme was the number one priority, and when asked about the impact on planned health services due to the shift in focus, the Minister said, We need to make it absolutely clear. What were talking about here is a three week burst of activity, and then hopefully we will be able to get back to some kind of normality.

Tonight Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have said, Our staff are pulling out all the stops to administer booster jabs to all eligible adults in the next 10 days, ahead of an anticipated peak in Omicron cases in January. Getting booster jabs into the arms of all eligible adults over the next 10 days is critical if we are to protect NHS services in January.

This represents a huge challenge  particularly as we are forecasting that a significant number of staff may be absent from work due to COVID-19 infection or self-isolation over the coming weeks.

To ensure that we can deploy our staff as effectively as possible, we have reluctantly taken the very difficult decision to postpone non-urgent operations, procedures and outpatient appointments with immediate effect from Monday, 20 December 2021. We have also asked that all other non-essential services are paused to allow staff to be released to support the vaccination campaign.

All emergency surgery, urgent cancer treatment and maternity services will continue across our three main hospitals.

All patients whose procedures will be postponed will be contacted directly and are asked not to contact the hospitals.

Dr Nick Lyons, Executive Medical Director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: We have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone non-urgent procedures and outpatient appointments until 4 January, 2022.

This is the best way of protecting our workforce and delivering our vaccination programme which has been rapidly accelerated to be completed by the end of this month. In turn, this will help to protect our services throughout the winter months.

We understand this will be distressing news for patients who are expecting to undergo an operation or receive their appointment over the coming weeks and I sincerely apologise for this.

We will be regularly reviewing these changes in light of emerging evidence and transmission rates across North Wales.
Welsh Government announce extra 116m business rates relief for sectors most directly affected by pandemic

Welsh Government have announced further pandemic support via their control over business rates, including freezing the non-domestic rates multiplier in Wales for 2022-23.

Contrary to the everlasting belief of some on social media Wrexham Council do not set business rates, but do collect them. Welsh Government sets the business rates multiplier, and have offered several relief packages for some business rate payers over the years as it determines national business rates policy. Business rates (sometimes known as non-domestic rates or NDR) have been fully devolved to Wales since April 1st 2015.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA), a UK Government body, assesses the rateable value of all non-domestic properties in Wales and England.

Rebecca Evans MS, Minister for Finance and Local Government announced the latest move via a statement this afternoon, I am today announcing that the Welsh Government will be providing an additional 116m package of non-domestic rates relief for businesses in the sectors most directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Retail, leisure and hospitality ratepayers in Wales will receive 50% non-domestic rates relief for the duration of 2022-23. Like the scheme announced by the UK Government, the Welsh Governments Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Rates Relief scheme will be capped at 110,000 per business across Wales. Our approach means that businesses in Wales will receive comparable support to that provided in other parts of the UK.

To ensure businesses in Wales are sufficiently supported, and reflecting the nature of our tax base, we have invested an additional 20 million on top of the consequential funding received from the UK Government. This is in addition to our permanent relief schemes that provide over 240m of relief every year.

Welsh Government say this extended retail, leisure and hospitality relief scheme, in combination with existing permanent relief schemes, will ensure that over 85,000 properties in Wales are supported in paying their rates bills in 2022-23.

The Minister added, Overall, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Welsh Government has provided extensive additional support to businesses through the non-domestic rates system. Through our reliefs and grant schemes, we have provided over 2.2bn of support to businesses and other ratepayers throughout Wales to help them manage their way through difficult circumstances.

The Welsh Government is also announcing a freeze of the non-domestic rates multiplier in Wales for 2022-23. The multiplier is an integral part of determining ratepayers bills. This decision will ensure, prior to applying any reliefs, that there will be no increase in the amount of rates which businesses and other ratepayers pay next year.

We remain committed to supporting businesses to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and to thrive moving forward.

No changes have been announced today on revaluation  with Welsh Government previously saying the next non-domestic rates revaluation in Wales will take effect in 2023 and would be based on property values as at 1 April 2021.
Chileans went to the polls Sunday amid a political crisis characterized by sharp class polarization and the short-circuiting of parliamentary mechanisms. This is the significance of the rise of the fascistic candidate Jose Antonio Kast on the one hand, and the possibility of the coming to power of the pseudo-left-Stalinist coalition headed by Gabriel Boric on the other.

The center-left parties that dominated the transition to civilian rule from military dictatorship three decades ago have all but collapsed. In the 22 November parliamentary elections, which coincided with the first-round presidential poll, neither the right coalition nor the parliamentary left coalition won a majority.

In the 155-seat lower house, the rightist Chile Podemos Mas coalition lost 19 seats. The Independent Democratic Union (UDI), which was created by civilian aides to Gen. Augusto Pinochets military dictatorship, is close to abandoning ship and going over to Kasts fascistic Christian Social Front, which gained 15 seats. The Peoples Party (PDG), recently set up by right-wing populist Franco Parisiwho placed third in the presidential elections without setting foot in the countrywon six seats.

Gabriel Boric addresses Apruebo Dignidad rally (Credit: Mediabanco)

Within the New Social Pact (ex-Concertacion), the Christian Democrats, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party lost 5, 6 and 4 deputies, respectively. These seats were picked up by Boric and the Communist Partys Apruebo Dignidad, which increased their seats by 10. The lower house will now be roughly split down the middle between the coalition right (53) and fascistic right (15) and the PDG (6) on the one hand, and the parliamentary left (37) and pseudo-left (37) on the other, with independents who could swing either way.

In a testament to the hatred towards the parties of the transition, Fabiola Campillai, a 36 year-old worker at a food processing company, won more votes than any other individual candidate running for parliament. Campillai became a symbol of police state brutality after special forces fired a tear gas canister into her face on the evening of November 26, 2019, leaving her for dead.

The same electoral rout of the old parties occurred in the 50-seat Senate, with the same split down the middle. In Chile, two-thirds majorities are required to enact substantive reforms, and a constitutional court also deliberates to frustrate any fundamental changes.

Stagnant economic growth is predicted for the coming period, which will only deepen recession-level poverty and social inequality. This is combined with a continuation of the present governments criminally negligent COVID-19 policies that have already caused mass death and infection. A parliamentary stalemate would threaten to exacerbate to a fever pitch political and social tensions, surpassing those that exploded to the surface in the mass protests at the end of 2019.

It is under these conditions that an immense effort is being exerted by the Chilean parliamentary pseudo-left, aided by a plethora of left-nationalist formations, to prevent the working class and youth from drawing the necessary conclusions and definitively breaking with bourgeois parliamentary democracy. With appeals for unity of the left and even the bringing together of democratic forces, they have applied maximum pressure to secure votes for Boric in the December 19 second round.

Leading the charge is the Stalinist Communist Party, which in Chile has historically been the most conservative organization to once dominate the labor movement. It bore responsibility for the political theories that led to the strategic defeat of the 1970-73 Chilean revolutionthe two-stage theory of revolution and the bankrupt concept of a peaceful parliamentary road to socialism through Popular Fronts, based on the national exceptionalist conception that Chiles state institutions, its police and armed forces, had a legacy of adherence to democratic and constitutional norms. The idea was exploded with the fascist-military coup that overthrew the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973.

Today, the Communist Party is posturing as the guardian of bourgeois democracy, with Guillermo Teillier claiming that Boric is the only one who today can bring together a broad movement that will lead the people of Chile to prevent the neo-fascism headed by Mr. Kast from coming to power, and here we say to him: Mr. Kast, you are not going to change our democratic process, you represent the opposite of what our people want, therefore, no Mr. Kast, you will not pass.

Another slavish proponent of popular frontism is Manuel Cabieses Donoso. Cabieses, 85, is cofounder of Punto Final, a journal that played an important role in disorientating masses of radicalized youth from 1965 to September 11, 1973, when it was shut down and its editorship persecuted by the military junta. Like all Latin American centrists, Cabieses promoted the coming together of the so-called left. For eight years, his journal used revolutionary and Marxist-sounding phraseology to promote the reactionary non-proletarian politics of the Castroite, guerrillaist, Maoist, petty-bourgeois and bourgeois nationalist and Pabloite varieties.

Learning nothing and forgetting nothing, Cabieses promotes today the same popular front political perspective: The democratic presidential candidacies should raise an anti-fascist front and seal the commitment to unite in the second round, he wrote in October, calling on Boric, Christian Democrat Yasna Provoste and the Progressive Partys Marco Enriquez-Ominami to form a single bloc to close the way to fascism and to protect the bourgeois constitutional convention as the most important democratic conquest of this century.

The other proponents of this pernicious perspective are Pabloite and Morenoite revisionist groups in Chile, which slavishly subordinate themselves to the union bureaucracy and to the Stalinists and the pseudo-left Frente Amplio that control it.

Irrespective of their claims to be Trotskyist, all reject basic Trotskyist principles, having decisively broken with the Fourth International in the 1950s and 1960s based on the conceptions advanced by Michel Pablo and his Argentine disciple Nahuel Moreno that non-proletarian class forces could lead the socialist revolution without the construction of Bolshevik-type parties in advance. Stalinists, Social Democrats and petty-bourgeois and bourgeois nationalists, they claimed, could become natural Marxists in response to the pressure of objective events, thus bypassing the need to develop and educate Marxist cadre in the leadership of the working class.

In its 70 years of existence, Pabloism/Morenoism has sown illusions in bourgeois nationalist caudillos such as Juan Domingo Peron or bourgeois reformists of the Salvador Allende type. It has swung from backing petty-bourgeois Castroite guerrillaism to entering Popular Front-style coalitions with Stalinists, all with disastrous results.

The chief objective of this deeply pessimistic movement was to keep the working class subordinated to bourgeois nationalism and the capitalist state in Latin America. In the 1960s and 1970s, it did this by pushing radicalized students and young workers into guerrillaist outfits that resulted in the devastating liquidation of thousands of courageous and selfless revolutionary men and women and led to bloody defeats time and again.

Today there are no less than five Pabloite/Morenoite organizations operating in Chile ready to thrust radicalized youth into another political dead end. This includes the International Workers Movement (MIT), the Chilean section of the Morenoite International Workers League-Fourth International (LIT-CI); the Revolutionary Workers Party (PTR), which belongs to the so-called Trotskyist Fraction-Fourth International (FT-CI) led by the Socialist Workers Party of Argentina; the Socialist Workers Movement (MST), the Chilean section of the International Workers UnityFourth International; Revolutionary Workers Current (COR), the Chilean section of the Tendency for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International; and Revolutionary Socialism, the Chilean section of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI).

The most striking feature of their line is its complacency in the face of the extreme crisis of bourgeois rule and the absence of a revolutionary leadership in the working class that is nourishing the rise of fascistic forces. They insist that Kast represents not the threat of fascism, but merely an authoritarian reaction of the old regime and a defense of the Pinochetista constitution.

The PTR claims that Kast is a Pinera reloaded and insist that he is not a fascist phenomenon since we are not talking about the deploymentstillof combat detachments of (fascist) sectors to crush the rise of the workers and the revolutionary left. The MIT claims that today even Kast is trying to make a move towards the center, moderating part of his discourse to dispute the vote of democratic sectors of society.

The World Socialist Web Site noted at the beginning of the year that this political tendency aims to anesthetize and politically disarm workers who face an international threat of fascistic dictatorship.

The Argentine Morenoites downplayed the January 6 coup attempt by Trump, making the extraordinary assertion that the bourgeois establishmentfrom the Republicans and Democrats to the military united against Trump and the far right, implying that these counterrevolutionary war criminals could somehow play a progressive role.

The Morenoites assert that the Apruebo Dignidad coalition is also returning to the past. Boric today represents another type of restoration, which is that of the reconstruction of a center-left and a social-democratic path to ensure governability, writes the PTR.

Cruder is the MSTs call on the workers, the people, women, dissidents, territories and native peoples to vote massively for Boric to defeat Kast in the second round as an urgent and necessary step, falsely claiming that the defeat of Kast is an obligatory step to end the constitution and the Pinochetista model, for the freedom of political prisoners, the demilitarization of the country, the end of repression and the dissolution of the carabineros and the self-determination of the Mapuche people.

The MIT goes as far as to promote Apruebo Dignidads supposed program of reforms with several progressive points that come from the social and popular movement: the end of the AFPs, the increase of pensions, the reduction of the working day, the right to abortion, albeit lamenting its negotiating with big business and respecting the current institutional framework. Nonetheless, the MIT concludes that a victory for Boric could generate a bigger social movement to pressure the government to fulfill its promises and to win more gains for the working class, despite the strategy of the PC and FA.

The Morenoites calls for the unity and mobilization of workers, unions, coordinators and social movements, women and dissidents, social and territorial organizations, relatives and organizations of prisoners and Human Rights etc., etc., is an attempt to resuscitate the era in which middle class protest politics dominated, when it is long dead and buried.

The Morenoites are not merely elaborating an erroneous assessment of the present period but are consciously seeking to lull the working class into a false sense of security. Their aim is to maintain the straitjacket of the capitalist state and parliamentary democracy by sowing illusions in Apruebo Dignidad. These organizations, like the old bureaucratic apparatuses that they orbit, are organically tied to the moribund capitalist national state system and have no connection whatsoever to the struggle for socialism.

In Chile, and internationally, the present crisis poses a real threat of fascism and dictatorship, as well as military conflagration, climate catastrophe and pandemics, alongside deepening social inequality and class polarization. Globally mobile capital, which dominates every corner of the planet, cannot be reformed but must be overthrown. The International Committee of the Fourth International is laying the foundations to construct sections of its revolutionary movement in every country and continent, confident that the most class conscious workers and radicalized youth will be drawn to its decades-long principled fight to delineate the independent class interests of the working class and help it to emancipate itself.
Six children have died in an horrific incident at an end-of-year celebration at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport, northwest Tasmania.

At 10 a.m. on December 16, a gust of wind caught a jumping castle and several zorb balls (large inflatable balls that a person can get inside), lifting them in the air. Nine children were thrown in the air, and fell from a height of about 10 metres in front of horrified parents, teachers and classmates.

Five children died on the day of the accident, and another died three days later in hospital. Two other children remain hospitalised in a critical condition. One other child has been allowed to return home to recover.

Top, left to right, Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Bottom, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan, Peter Dodt [Source:Tasmania Police]

Tasmania Police, with the permission of the families, released the names of the deceased: Addison Stewart (11 years old), Zane Mellor (12), Jye Sheehan (12), Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones (12), Peter Dodt (12) and Chace Harrison (11).

A young boy who witnessed the event told the Mercury: It was our turn next. Grade five and six went first.

As news of the tragedy spread, frantic parents rushed to the school, but were apparently forced to wait outside the school gates for hours with little information. One parent wrote on social media that as of 11:30 a.m. they still did not know if their children were injured.

Rescue helicopters were used to fly the children to hospital, while several ambulance teams and police attended the scene. A nurse who was involved in the response to the crisis wrote on social media that emergency health workers went above and beyond their calling, with doctors from other hospitals on their day off driving in to assist.

Police are investigating the causes of the calamity, under coronial direction. Tasmanian police commissioner Darren Hine announced the day after the tragedy that the investigation would take some time, due to the number of witnesses to be interviewed, including about 40 children.

Worksafe Tasmania, the states work health and safety agency, is collaborating with the police to determine whether the castle was tethered to the ground safely and whether proper operating procedures were followed. The website of the company which supplied the jumping castle and Zorb balls, Taz-Zorb, has been disabled by the company.

Devonport is a working-class town, with a population of about 26,000. According to the 2016 census, 33.5 percent of all households in Devonport and its suburbs had an income of less than $650 per week. The corresponding overall national figure was 20 percent of all households. The median weekly family income in Devonport was just $1,172, compared with $1,399 across Tasmania, and $1,734 nationally.

The area also suffers from disproportionately high unemployment rates. The official rate (which grossly understates the real level of joblessness) for Devonport in June 2021 was 8.9 percent. That compared with 6.4 percent across Tasmania, and 6.2 percent nationally. In 2019, northwestern Tasmania was ranked among the 20 regions in Australia worst afflicted by youth unemployment, with an official figure of 15 percent.

In a message on social media, a relative of one of the dead children portrayed the burden of grief and hardship her family will now endure: My niece was tragically taken in the accident at Hillcrest Primary. Im hoping to raise some money for my brother and sister-in-law to help pay for funeral costs and pay off some bills for them while they try to navigate life without their precious daughter. They have another daughter and son to take care of and Im hoping to alleviate some of the stress of their bills.

The tragedy has seen an enormous outpouring of sympathy and support for the devastated families.

Young families from other towns drove to Devonport to pay their respect. Hundreds of mourners have visited the school, with strangers in tears consoling each other. Hundreds of flowers, toys, candles and messages of support have been left outside the school, extending for 50 metres along the street. Locals have organised food drops to the grieving families.

A Go Fund Me page has already raised $1.2 million from ordinary people across Australia to assist the families and community. This is nearly equal to the entire government funding response.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced special emergency funding of $800,000 to provide trauma counselling for those involved: $250,000 for the first responders, and $550,000 for the community at large to be paid over 18 months. Another $500,000 in funding was announced by the Tasmanian state government.

There is a long record of injuries and fatalities associated with jumping castles, both in Australia and overseas.

In 2001, an eight-year-old girl died in South Australia after a jumping castle lifted into the air. The subsequent coronial inquiry established that the castle had not been tethered securely enough, causing the device to break away from its anchor plates.

In the UK in 2016, a seven-year-old girl was killed when a gust of wind wrenched a jumping castle away from its moorings. Two people were subsequently convicted of manslaughter for gross negligence.

In 2019 in China, two children were killed and 20 were injured when a jumping castle was blown into the sky by a small whirlwind. Just last year in Tabbita, New South Wales, two children had to endure emergency surgery after being badly injured when a jumping castle was blown seven metres into the air.

An article in the prestigious BMJ medical journal in 2010 reported: Collective data suggests as many as 2,200 children across Australia were injured in the period 19962006. The article also raised concerns about inadequate regulation of the manufacture, sale and use of commercial inflatable jumping castles.
Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge, by film historian, critic, academic and biographer Joseph McBride, is a comprehensive, invaluable critical study of one of the most admired and enduring filmmaker-satirists of the post-World War II era. Wilder, born in what is now Poland in 1906, is best known for his Hollywood-made films, Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963) and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964). It would be difficult to make sense of popular culture in America over the course of several decades without taking Wilders efforts into account.

Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge

He directed his first film, Mauvaise Graine (Bad Seed) in France in 1934, and his last, Buddy Buddy, in 1981. Wilder also wrote or figured in the writing of more than 80 movies, beginning in Berlin in the late 1920s.

The filmmakers life spanned nearly the entire 1900s and was inevitably roughed up and shaped by the critical events of that turbulent and traumatic century. A consideration of how Wilder experienced those events and interpreted them artistically, and how they haunted him until the end of his days, makes up a good deal of Dancing on the Edge.

McBride is the author of numerous scrupulously researched major biographies or studies treating the lives and work of various film directors, including Orson Welles, John Ford, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg and Ernst Lubitsch. The Wilder book is one of his most intriguing. It should be of great interest to anyone concerned with the evolution of postwar filmmaking, as well as American cinemas present debased condition.

McBride writes with knowledge, honesty and a genuinely anti-establishment viewpoint. He avoids the jargon of works influenced by postmodernism and identity politics, along with their subjectivist, ahistorical moralizinghe is not in the business of cataloguing all the banana peels on which a figure like Wilder may have slipped. Nor, like so many contemporary artist biographers, does he merely heap up countless facts about his subject. The author, in a lively manner, sticks his neck out and offers his thoughtful and well-argued views on Wilders life and career. One does not have to agree with all of the conclusions in Dancing on the Edge to appreciate its lucidity and breadth.

Wilders early days in Poland (in a region then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Vienna and Berlin and their continuing influence throughout his life come in for a good deal of attention. In the first section of his study, Phantoms of the Past, McBride suggests that Wilders perpetually restless nature was the result of an early life in constant motion. Much of the future filmmakers childhood in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was spent in trains and hotelhis father, Max, ran cafes in railroad stations before settling into managing a Krakow hoteland Billys existence encompassed no fewer than five separate moves into exile.

Double Indemnity (1944)

Wilders films are full, McBride points out, of hotel and train settings as his characters race from place to place, attempting to find their bearings. His bustling energy and impatience were a symptom of enduring anxiety over his rootless condition, his unconscious need to keep moving in order to avoid being trapped. After an unstable upbringing, and far more deeply after he fled Hitler in 1933 and emigrated to the United States, Wilder experienced the exiles essential feeling of never quite belonging or knowing a firm identity, always having to be ready to move again, no matter how safe you might feel at the moment.

McBride writes further on that Wilders habitual feeling of being auslandisch (foreign or alien) deeply influenced his work as a filmmaker. As a Jew who lived successively in several countries before finding refuge in Hollywood, he often resembled a cabaret artist darkly amusing his audience by dancing on the edge of an abyss.

Wilders characters, the author comments, cross boundaries of every kind, physical, social, and psychological. They challenge and violate social mores, operate on the edges of the law, transgress what is considered proper behavior. The clashes in his dramas are often motivated by class distinctions and dig deeply into the most dangerous realms of psychological disintegration and loss of identity. This often propels his characters into masquerading, hiding behind assumed identities for the sake of self-preservation or reinvention.

This picture is no doubt accurately and importantly drawn, and Wilder stands out as one of those filmmakers most directly and painfully affected by the emergence of Nazism in particularhe was forced to escape the Hitler regime in 1933, and his mother, stepfather and grandmother all died at its hands. However, his insecure and peripatetic existence, accompanied by feelings of anxiety and a perpetual outsider status, in a broader sense, speak to the more general condition of art and the artist during much of the 20th century, battered so often by war, dictatorship and the conditions of decaying capitalism generally, along with disorienting, murderous Stalinism.

In Wilders case, these challenging historical and social circumstances, working on a restless personality guided by sharp intelligence and a bitter, ironic sense of humor, a perpetual wise guy, helped produce a distinctive and at times profound body of work.

That the work is uneven as a whole, as McBride acknowledges, does not result simply from flaws in Wilders artistic personality and approach, although those may have existed, but also owes something to the destructive, chaotic or humiliating conditions under which he often labored.

McBride strongly sets out his thematic concerns, bound up with the facts of Wilders life and film career.

After spending the first ten years or so of his life in and around Krakow, Wilder moved with his family to Vienna in 1916. He lived in the Austrian capital for a decade and began a career in journalism there. In Berlin from 1926, Wilder gradually cobbled together an increasingly successful but often precarious career as a newspaper and magazine reporter. From 1928-1933, he toiled as a screenwriter in Germany, working primarily on films with formulaic, escapist, sentimental plots. McBride discusses both Wilders journalistic and early film work in considerable and absorbing detail.

People on Sunday, a strikingly fresh and realistic look at working class life in Berlin, was an exception during this period of preliminary cinema work. The film brought together an extraordinary group of collaborators, including future Hollywood directors Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Fred Zinnemann, along with future screenwriter-novelist Curt Siodmak and award-winning cinematographer Eugen Schufftan, in one small indication of what was lost in Germany culturally when the Nazi thugs came to power.

Wilder left Germany in March 1933 several weeks after the Reichstag fire, which, McBride reports, the aspiring screenwriter and his girlfriend watched while sitting in the Cafe Wien on the Kurfurstendamm, the fashionable street that served as the shopping, hotel, and dining center of Berlin. That conflagration dispelled any remaining illusions of safety.

Reichstag fire, February 27, 1933

Settling briefly in Paris, now home to numerous German exiles, Wilder directed his first feature film, Mauvaise Graine, about a gang of car thieves, with the teenage Danielle Darrieux. Darrieux later commented that Wilder was young, but he knew just what he wanted, and he was totally in control, like the other best directors I worked with.

Wilder left France by ship for the US in January 1934. Joe May, a Berlin colleague and fellow refugee from Nazism who had made it to Hollywood earlier, persuaded Columbia [Pictures] to send Wilder a one-way boat ticket. McBride notes that it is among the bitter ironies of Wilders career that  the first few film assignments he was given in Hollywood, while struggling to establish himself from 1934 onward as he learned to write in a new language, were inferior to his best work in Berlin.

About the years 1934 to 1936, McBride cites Wilders comment that I dragged my carcass up and down Hollywood Boulevard, and starved around for a year and a half before I sold two original stories. He was also endeavoring to learn the English language, especially as it was popularly spoken, in that period.

Wilders joining up with Charles Brackett in August 1936 was a turning point in his career. So welded together in Hollywoods consciousness that they sometimes were referred to as Brackettandwilder, the team in their fourteen years together, writes McBride, would go on to write sixteen screenplays (not counting others to which they contributed without credit as studio contract writers). Their collaboration encompassed the first eight films of Wilders Hollywood directing career, with Brackett also serving as a producer.

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families in 1950

The duo had the good fortune to be assigned to work on films by Ernst Lubitsch, first Bluebeards Eighth Wife (1938), a screwball comedy with Gary Cooper, and later, Ninotchka (1939), about a stern Soviet commissar [Greta Garbo] on a mission to Paris who finds love in the unlikely person of a seemingly worthless gigolo (Melvyn Douglas). Lubitsch remained one of Wilders artistic idols.

As a director, Wilder came to prominence with dark, caustic works such as Double Indemnity, in which a pair of homicidally selfish opportunists hoping to make an easy fortune come to a bad end, Sunset Blvd., about the cruelty of the film industry and the desperation and madness it generates, and Ace in the Hole (1951), focused on the vicious manipulations of the American media.

After pulling back during the mid-1950slike so many othersin the direction of more innocuous work ( Sabrina [1954], The Seven Year Itch [1955], The Spirit of St. Louis [1957], Love in the Afternoon [1957], Witness for the Prosecution [1957]) under the pressure of anti-communism and conformism, Wilder returned with some of his most penetrating and popular efforts, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment and the underrated Irma La Douce.

Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, came as a sensual, anarchic breath of fresh air at the end of the 1950s. Lemmon and Curtis play musicians on the run from gangsters in Prohibition-era Chicago, forced to disguise themselves as women and join an all-female band en route to Miami. The relatively relaxed and uninhibited morals of Wilders film, featuring Monroe at the height of her comic and seductive powers, struck a chord with the public. Fifty million people went to see Some Like It Hot in the US, making it the third most popular film of the year.

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

In The Apartment, Lemmon plays Bud Baxter, an aspiring white collar worker at a New York insurance firm. The corruption of the American corporate universe permeates the movie. In the hope of advancement, Baxter has taken to lending his apartment to company executives for their extramarital liaisons. A crisis erupts when he develops deep feelings for Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator and emotional victim of Baxters boss (Fred MacMurray). Frans suicide attempt in Buds apartment on Christmas Eve is one of the most moving and troubling sequences in Wilders work. The director reveals here a genuine hatred of the American business culture, in all its philistinism, arrogance and brutality. Some 27 million people bought tickets for The Apartment, the fifth-most popular film of the year in the US.

A naive Paris policeman, Nestor (Lemmon again), discovers in Irma La Douce (the fifth most-watched film release of 1963, with 30 million tickets sold) that enforcing the law brings him up against both lawbreakers and bribe-taking police officers, and he quickly loses his post. He ends up a successful pimp for Irma (MacLaine once more), but he feels like a parasite and hates his girlfriend having to ply her trade. So, Nestor invents an alter ego, a British lord, who can pay Irma large sums of money not to have sex. Meanwhile, he goes to work at night and destroys himself laboring so he can afford to play this other part. In this part-pastel-colored romance (McBride) and part-Brechtian parable, economic comfort for one partner spells exhaustion and degradation for the other.

Kiss Me Stupid was a commercial disappointment and The Fortune Cookie (1966) unpleasantly rancid, but despite losing favor in the New Hollywood of the 1970s, Wilder made four more interesting works: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Avanti! (1972), The Front Page (1974) and Fedora (1978), the last another sharp attack on the film industry. After directing the weak Buddy Buddy, until his death in 2002, Wilder suffered through what McBride terms a two-decade long internal exile, as he explains in our accompanying interview, when he [Wilder] was not allowed to make films.

Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa and John Huston at the Academy Awards in 1986

Dancing on the Edge brings out Wilders strengths and weaknesses, which will assist the reader, on the basis of a viewing of the directors body of work, to draw his or her own conclusions about the filmmakers ultimate artistic standing.

McBride cites biographer Maurice Zolotows interesting comment that Wilders politics in the late 1930s were on the radical side. He thought of himself as a social democrat in the European sense. He had vague sympathies for socialism and was almost a fellow traveler. The left-wing journalist and author Egon Erwin Kisch, continues Zolotow, had made him [Wilder] see the promise of socialism and Kisch believed that, in the long run, the Soviet Union would become a free, democratic society.

Wilder supported the Spanish Loyalists, Zolotow wrote, and he was of course a passionate anti-Nazi. However, he did not like to join organizations. He did not like meetings. He was, however, on friendly terms with many Communist and left-leaning writers. He recalls now that several of them ceased talking politics to him after Ninotchka. He thinks that Communists, by and large, lack a sense of humor. It was sacrilege to poke fun at them.

Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling in Ace in the Hole (1951)

Wilder opposed the McCarthyite elements in Hollywood when they launched the anti-communist witch-hunt in the late 1940s. He was a member, McBride notes, of the Committee for the First Amendment, a group spearheaded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, [William] Wyler, and [John] Huston to combat the [HUAC] hearings and the influence of the Motion Picture Alliance. Wilders activities on behalf of the [persecuted] Hollywood Nineteenand the eventual Hollywood Tenwere brave in that climate.

Wilder also acted courageously, Dancing on the Edge points out, in defying the 1950 attempt by Cecil B. DeMille and a group of other right-wing directors to impose a loyalty oath on members of the Screen Directors Guild and recall guild president Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who initially opposed the oath. At a tumultuous meeting in October 1950, George Stevens, John Ford, Huston, Wyler and others spoke out against DeMille, who was booed when he addressed the gathering. Mankiewicz remained president, McBride explains, but in an act of capitulation he never adequately explained, he recommended four days later that the guild members sign the loyalty oath as a voluntary act.

Significantly, McBride reveals that sharp political differences between Brackett, who supported HUAC, and Wilder led to the breaking up of this enormously successful film writing partnership.

Once the anticommunist operation in Hollywood was a fait accompli, Wilder, along with most other writers and directors, accepted the state of affairs.

In one of the most incisive passages in Dancing on the Edge, McBride observes, Did Wilder, after taking a strong and courageous public stand against the blacklist while the issue was being debated in 19471950, when even his writing partner considered him subversive, retreat into allegory  and public silence (accompanied with defensive bursts of sarcasm) about the political situation in Hollywood when the blacklist took firm hold on the industry? Yes.

Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Could Wilder have done more than he did, McBride asks, to combat the blacklist? It can be argued, he writes, that the only truly honorable course for any employable person in Hollywood during that era would have been to refuse to work there while others were denied work. Like others who continued working during that period, he could not openly defy the blacklist or he would have had to be blacklisted himself or quit the business. Wilder stopped fighting it directly. Nor, as far as is known, did he work with any blacklisted writers under the table or through fronts. And his work suffered in the 1950s from his generally less than noble acquiescence to the corrupt status quo of safe, relatively uncontroversial filmmaking.

William Holden, Hildegard Knef and Jose Ferrer in Fedora (1978)

McBride returns several times to the matter of Wilders supposed cynicism. His fundamental argument is that the directors detractors who argue along these lines must be living a Pollyanna existence, protected by a bodyguard of denial, despite (or more likely because of) the abundant evidence provided by the twentieth century, and beyond, that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.

There is certainly truth to this, but it may not be the whole story. Without being a Pollyanna, one can criticize Wilder on occasion for cynicism. His movies do on occasion evince disgust or contempt for humanity as a whole. This is bound up no doubt with the Holocaust and the other tragedies of the 20th century, and the limitations of his historical and social perspective.

McBride makes an eloquent case for Wilders filmmaking, which largely stands up to scrutiny. Despite their tendency toward satire and ridicule, he writes, Wilders films do not simply deride or discredit moral principles; instead they explore moral issues and deplore or mock the way principles are often violated. Anyone who comes away from a Wilder film thinking the director believes that life is meaningless is projecting on it the kind of film the spectator fears or would like to see. As cold-blooded as Wilders characters and situations can be, as skeptical and pessimistic as he is, there is always emotion or humor in his viewpoint.

The team of Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond began their partnership with Love in the Afternoon (1957). (Publicity photo/Photofest.)

And further: The complex tone of Wilders films, the bittersweet nature of his moods and situations, the way they shift from comedy to drama and back again are the essence of his approach to humanity, helping us find common ground with characters who commit reprehensible actions.

Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge shares the complexity and humanity of its subject and his films. It is highly recommended.
The Johnson government is refusing to implement any serious measures as COVID-19 spreads like wild-fire, exacerbated by the more transmissible variant Omicron.

Case numbers in Britain have officially reached 90,000 plus a day, but the governments scientific advisers say the real figure is already hundreds of thousands every day.

Omicron is set to become dominant across Britain, having already achieved dominance in Scotland, London, Manchester and other cities. It became dominant in Ireland Sunday.

People queue up to get COVID-19 booster injections outside a vaccination centre in a UCL (University College London) building, in London, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021 (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

On Saturday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a major incident in the capital, which saw its largest number of cases since the pandemic began. There are currently around 15,000 people in hospital beds with COVID in the capital, an increase of 30 percent in seven days.

According to the scenarios drawn up by government advisers, continuing with the governments Plan B of limited COVID measures alone gives a range of 600,000 to 2 million infections per day from late December 2021 to January 2022. There would be between 3,000-10,000 hospitalisations daily from January to February 2022 and 600-6,000 deaths per day from, Mid-January to mid-March 2022.

The ruling Conservatives, backed by the Labour Party, have insisted since the economy was fully reopened in July that there would be no more lockdownsthe proven method of reducing the catastrophic rate of illness and deaths during the pandemic, as demonstrated in China.

The only measure taken is to press ahead with the vaccine roll-out, including booster jabs to all adults, which though necessary will not halt the rise in infections. Scientists estimate a significant drop in the efficacy of existing vaccines even with the booster. Also, a large percentage of the population remains unvaccinated. The government has so far resisted vaccinating 5-12-year-olds, despite the fact that alarming data from South Africa indicates that it is children who are the second most susceptible age group to succumb to Omicron. Five percent of infected children were hospitalised in South Africa.

Parents take children to a primary school in Bournemouth, UK following the reopening of schools nationally. March, 2021 (WSWS media)

The government refused to close schools before the Christmas break, even though many schools were forced to partially close as COVID took its toll among staff and pupils. On Friday, the last day of term for most schools, the UK registered a record 92,597 cases. Saturday saw another record high of 90,418 cases, while total weekly cases increased by 45 percent.

The Tories are now resisting growing demands from parents and educators to keep schools shut after the holidays, even though the National Health Service (NHS) could be soon overwhelmed.

In the face of this escalating catastrophe, the education unions have also made reopening schools in the new term in January their top priority.

The Department for Education reported 13,000 staff COVID-related absences from schools on December 9, or 2.4 percent of the workforce. In anticipation of massive staff shortages due to COVID, Education Secretary Nadim Zahawi wrote to schools requesting they contact retired educators to make up the dwindling workforce.

Rather than condemning sending the most susceptible age group into one of the main vectors of infection, the education unions welcomed this insane proposal. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, supported anything which may help tackle staff shortages.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), used the governments appeal to reiterate the unions false claims that schools can be made safe with a few mitigation measures, and insisted face-to-face teaching must continue.

Of course we support measures that could help to reduce education disruption, he said. It is important to say that this disruption is likely to be made worse because of the government's failure to put in place the mitigations and safety measures we have been calling foron ventilation, air filtration, mask wearing and isolation of very close contacts.

We still need those mitigations to be put in placeeven to help with the effort of recruitment of temporary retired staff.'

The NEU and other unions have allowed their members to work in, by their own admission, a dangerous environment for two years even as the government refused to put in place any of their demands. Official COVID statistics, not updated since October 21, show that 570 education staff have died due to COVID and 114,000 teachers have Long COVID. Twitter support group Long Covid Kids estimate 69,000 children have Long COVID, equivalent to three per school.

On December 8, unable to ignore increasing case numbers any longer, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his Plan B, proposing a few toothless mitigation measures such as compulsory face masks in indoor settings except hospitality venues; vaccination passes showing double vaccination or negative lateral flow tests; and working from home where possible.

Anticipating opposition among teachers and educators to the surge of cases in schools, the NEU rushed to the governments defence with its own Plan B for schools and colleges. Courtney said, We are disappointed that in his announcement the prime minister has made no mention of schools, given that cases are rising so fast and this is leading to so much disruption of education. More than 200,000 pupils were absent for Covid-related reasons on 25 November and since then infection rates among school-age children have risen further.

This reprises the unions role during the spring lockdown, when it produced its Education Recovery Plan to facilitate the reopening of schools in March, paving the way for further waves.

The unions Plan B accepts some level of viral spread, which translates into more deaths and Long COVID cases, stating in a press release the government must urgently increase the level of mitigations to slow the spread of Covid-19 in our schools.

Its demands include the wearing of face coverings to be extended to classrooms by staff and students, but not in primary schools. On top of Government guidance of 10-day isolation on close contacts of confirmed or suspected Omicron cases, the union proposed a negative PCR test before returning to school.

Other demands include ventilation measures, staggered break times and provision of higher-grade medical masks (FFP2, FFP3) provided where requested [!] for at-risk staff and pupils previously defined as clinically vulnerable, or clinically extremely vulnerable, or involved in close contact and personal care.

The NEU therefore accepts that clinically vulnerable (CV) and extremely vulnerable staff and pupils (CEV), or those living with vulnerable family members, must remain in school.

No amount of mitigation measures the union proposes and the government routinely ignores can make crowded classrooms and corridors safe with an airborne virus. The NEU even turns a blind eye to the Ofsted school inspectorate body cancelling all inspections until further notice due to the out-of-control situation in schools.

The government has responded to COVID-related absences by stepping up its intimidation of parents, threatening parents Lisa Diaz, Sarah Paxman and others with huge fines and the prosecution in family courts. Education Minister Nadim Zahawi recently wrote to local council chief executives telling them to inform parents that school absence has repercussions, including fixed penalty notices, parenting contracts and education supervision orders.

Throughout the pandemic the NEU (membership 450,000) and NASUWT (300,000) have worked to suppress the growing opposition to the governments policies of social murder. Their collaboration with the government to enforce a return to classrooms is only the most advanced expression of the role played by all the unions and the Labour Party during the pandemic.

Educators and parents must build their own rank and file committees independent of the unions to fight for a strategy to eliminate the virus, involving the temporary closure of schools and non-essential industries. Contact the Educators Rank and File Safety Committee today and participate in the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic initiated by the World Socialist Web Site.
Daily COVID-19 infection numbers in Germany continue to average 50,000, about twice as high as at the peak of the second wave. At the same time, the death toll is rising. With about 2,000 coronavirus deaths per week, more people are currently dying than at the peak of the third wave in spring 2021. A total of 107,639 people have succumbed to the virus since early 2020. More than 4,800 coronavirus patients currently require intensive care, which is already pushing hospitals to the limit of their ability to respond.

The situation threatens to worsen with the spread of the even more infectious Omicron variant. For the week before last, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) says the Omicron variant accounted for 1.6 percent of all new infections in Germany. Due to considerable reporting delays in the identification of coronavirus variants and the explosive spread of Omicron, the actual figures are likely to be many times higher.

The particularly high infectivity of Omicron means a very large number of unreported cases is to be expected, which are rapidly increasing unnoticed. An article on news website Zeit Online, for example, speaks of an invisible wall of infections and, supported by data from the RKI as well as district and state authorities, shows that an incidence rate of almost 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants will be reached by the end of the year at the current rate of spread.

Casket containing a person who died of coronavirus at a crematorium in Meissen (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The extent of this exponential increase is already evident in Denmark, Norway and the UK, where the numbers reported are exploding. In Denmark, Omicron could become the dominant variant as early as this week. Currently, the number of daily Omicron infections there is doubling every two to three days with 500 hospitalizations per day expected by New Years Eve. Extrapolated to Germany, that would be more than 7,000.

In Norwaya country with a population of barely 5 millionthe health authorities expect up to 300,000 infections and 200 hospital admissions per day at the end of the year. In the UK, daily infection numbers are already at an all-time high of nearly 90,000. Case numbers are doubling every two days, and, even in a best-case scenario, two to three times as many people would need to be hospitalized daily by Christmas. By April, if the current rate holds, half the population could be infected.

The same development threatens all other European countries. According to scientists, Omicron will soon dominate infections in Germany. Omicron has such speed that the variant could account for half the cases in Germany in two and a half weeks, Michael Meyer-Hermann, a modeller and head of the Systems Immunology Department at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, told Der Spiegel .

The Omicron wave comes at a time when the situation is already catastrophic based on the spread of the Delta variant. Death rates are rising, hospitals are at a breaking point, treatment capacities are being exceeded regionally and the RKI had anticipated a further increase in serious illnesses and deaths even without Omicron.

Despite knowing the enormous dangers, the German government is refusing to take the necessary measures to contain and eliminate the virus. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Friday that we have to assume that the Omicron wave we are facing, which I dont think we can prevent, will be a massive challenge for our hospitals, for our intensive care units, but also for society as a whole.

Even if Omicron infections were slightly milder this would not make a difference, he added. The tremendous growth of infections would cause more deaths even with a milder progression to the illness, he said, adding that one must prepare for a challenge that we have not had before in this form.

Nevertheless, Lauterbach did not announce any additional protective measures. This is not surprising. The parties of the traffic light coalitionSocial Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberal Democrats (FDP)ended the legal designation of an epidemic emergency in November, something Lauterbach also voted for in the Bundestag (federal parliament). Since then, he has spoken out several times in favour of keeping schools and businesses open and has defended the new Infection Protection Act, which legally rules out hard lockdowns.

Lauterbachs primary health policy action has been to make appeals to get vaccinated. Yet even the government's announcement to accelerate the vaccination campaign is a farce. Less than 70 percent have been vaccinated twice in Germany, leaving almost 25 million people without any protection. Only 27.5 percent, or 22,923,853, people have received the urgently needed booster vaccination. Millions of people desperate to obtain a vaccination appointment are being put off until January or February due to insufficient capacity.

Lauterbach and all the bourgeois parties are pursuing a strategy of herd immunity. The extremely limited mitigation measures serve at most to somewhat flatten the increase in infections in the short term before they then break out all the more aggressivelypotentially on the basis of new, dangerous virus variants. This is exactly what is currently happening with Omicron.

The fact that a different path is possible is clearly demonstrated by the example of China, which is the only country that continues to adhere to a Zero COVID strategy. The country, with a population of 1.4 billion, has been able to keep the total number of deaths below 5,000. Only three more deaths have been added since April 2020.

Targeted lockdowns, the isolation of infected individuals, mass testing and contact tracing have made it possible to contain outbreaks in metropolitan areas such as Chongqing (population 20 million) within 15 days and then largely lift restrictions.

The German governments policy, on the other hand, places capitalist profit maximization above human lives and therefore sees the necessary closure of schools and non-essential production as unacceptable. This course is supported by all partiesfrom the Left Party to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The traffic light coalition, which presents itself as a progressive government, has adopted and intensified the murderous herd immunity policy of the previous grand coalition of the SPD and Christian Democrats.

The supposedly left-wing parties in particular play a key role in enforcing these policies. With a current seven-day incidence rate of 870, Thuringia, governed by the Left Party, is the state with the highest infection rate. Leading representatives of the Left Party, such as Sahra Wagenknecht, have downplayed the entire pandemic and agitated against protective measures in the style of far-right coronavirus deniers.

To stop the murderous profits-before-lives policy, workers and youth must organize independently of all the bourgeois parties and the trade unions. Wednesday, December 22 at 8 p.m., the Network of Safe Education Action Committees is holding an online meeting to discuss the political and organisational tasks needed to fight the pandemic. Register here and also invite your colleagues, friends and acquaintances.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Australia held a successful online health workers forum on December 12 to discuss and develop support for the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 pandemic initiated by the World Socialist Web Site. Participants, including nurses, doctors, hospital staff and aged care and disability workers, attended from across Australia and internationally.

The meeting was held amid the rapid spread of the new, more infectious Omicron variant which has been met with a barrage of lies and misinformation by governments and some health officials in Australia and elsewhere about it being a milder mutation.

A full video of the forum can be viewed below.

SEP Assistant National Secretary Max Boddy, who chaired the meeting, outlined the necessity for the Workers Inquest to cut through the cover-ups and falsifications being used to justify the removal of even the most basic measures to halt the spread of the pandemic.

Boddy raised the comparison made by the WSWS of the pandemic to the First World War, which was only brought to an end through the intervention of the working class, most consciously expressed in the Russian Revolution of 1917. He said the experiences of the past two years have demonstrated that a strategy to end the pandemic can be realised only through a mass social and political movement of the international working class.

Gary Alvernia, a junior doctor, SEP national committee member and WSWS correspondent, gave the opening report to the forum. He explained that the call for the Global Workers' Inquest has been vindicated and made more urgent by the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Alvernia said Omicron is the most transmissible, infective and possibly deadliest version of COVID to date, and young children formed a greater proportion of hospitalisations than with previous variants.

Despite this, governments and some health authorities have downplayed the severity and danger of Omicron, refusing to re-instate lockdowns and claiming without proof that the variant may be less deadly than Delta.

The final speaker was Richard Tyler, a writer for the WSWS and a coordinator of the NHS FightBack initiative established by the SEP in Britain.

Tyler described the work of NHS FightBack, which was formed under conditions where the UK government was seeking to destroy the National Health Service, starving it of vital funds and privatising its most profitable parts. He emphasised that the NHS was in crisis even prior to the pandemic, but this has been intensified by the Johnson governments refusal to take any measures to combat the spread of COVID-19. Health workers face virtually impossible conditions as a result.

These reports prompted a number of questions, including about the pandemic, the effects of the privatisation of health services on the working class, how to get involved in the Workers Inquest and the role of rank-and-file committees in making workers aware of vital public health information, which is being concealed by governments and the trade unions.

Associate Professor John Brannan, a respiratory scientist, was invited to address the meeting on the question of face masks, after an excerpt was played from the testimony to the Global Workers Inquest by Nicolas Smit, an engineer and scientist, raising awareness about masks and elastomeric respirators.

SEP National Secretary Cheryl Crisp also addressed the meeting. She highlighted the ongoing persecution of journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned in the UK and faces being extradited to the United States for exposing government war crimes. Crisp explained that access by the working class to verifiable knowledge and the truth, including on the pandemic, is a revolutionary question.

The speakers urged those in attendance to share their experiences, participate in the Global Workers Inquest and, above all, to draw the necessary political conclusions and join the Socialist Equality Party to fight for the necessary socialist program, based on public health and societys needs, not corporate profit.
Opposition remains high among striking Kelloggs workers to a tentative agreement which would end a nearly three-month-long strike by 1,400 Kelloggs workers at four US cereal plants. Balloting began Sunday for the new tentative agreement, which is virtually identical to the one workers rejected two weeks ago. Workers are demanding an end to the hated two-tier wage structure, substantial wage increases and an end to brutal levels of overtime.

Kelloggs management, which threatened to fire workers en masse after the last agreement was overwhelmingly rejected, is relying upon the services of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union to hammer through the contract over workers opposition. This was made clear by a leaked management email published last Friday by the pseudo-left More Perfect Union, which read, In short, overall bucket of money (cost) stays the same. Just shifts money from one bucket to another. It adds with malicious satisfaction, No gain overall for them [Kelloggs workers] with 3 more weeks of strike and no income. No ratification bonus. We are confident this will pass [because] most of the unions negotiating committee is for this and plans to recommend it.

Kellogg workers in Battle Creek, Michigan (Source: BCTGM)

Its a no here [in Battle Creek, Michigan], probably 95 percent no, a legacy worker told the World Socialist Web Site Sunday afternoon. Its like the agreement we voted down unanimously two weeks ago with a couple words around. She pointed in particular to the fact that the current TA also eliminates the cap on how many second-tier transitional workers the company can employ.

Thats Kelloggs for you. I love my job, I could not believe it when I got a job here seven years ago. It took me five times to get just an interview. I was proud to tell people I worked for Kelloggs. I dont feel that way anymore. I am a legacy worker now. I was a casual worker when I came in. We were temps but paid by Kelloggs. What they call transitionals, they still get paid through Kelloggs. Its not like you work less hours. They work the same amount of time as us, same hours, same everything, minus the benefits. They started the transitional status in the 2015 contract. Kelloggs threatened to shut the Memphis plant down if we didnt accept the contract. We didnt want Memphis workers to lose their jobs.

It was held over our heads to vote in the 2015 contract. There are some transitionals already waiting for six years waiting to be brought onto full pay. Like all of us, they have been working 16-hour days four times a week.

Kelloggs announced that further cuts to the workforce would continue at plants, particularly at Battle Creek where there are less than 300 BCTGM members remaining. This is the second time in seven years my job has been threatened. Its not just about wages, its about peoples rights and threatening peoples jobs if they dont do what Kelloggs wants them to do.

When they turned casual workers into transitionals, they got insurance, but it came out of [workers] pockets. They dont get the same pay or holidays. It used to be transitionals were getting 70 percent of top pay for one year with insurance and benefits. After 5 years you were hired in. With the current contract, Kelloggs and the BCTGM have offered a longer route to full time pay, with only 3 percent of the plants total workforce graduating each year.

Rejecting the anti-Mexican demagogy promoted at a rally Friday in downtown Battle Creek by the BCTGM and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, she explained, Down there in Mexico if theyre doing the same job were doing. Why are they not making more money? They should be making more money! Kelloggs threatens those workers like they do here, to take jobs away to make them fall in line. Its all corporations that do this.

Responding to Sanders appearance she said, we need our jobs too, but we dont blame Mexican workers. Kelloggs is looking to exploit them down there. They could be paid way more. They bid between Mexican and American workers on who will take less. Look at Flint. [Our] government has done nothing for these people, just like those in Mexico. Here the unions take things away in the contract and give you no warning.

Two union presidents for the prior TA said they were neutral. Now theyre recommending it to workers. Then they shut down the Facebook pages so we couldnt talk to each other. It worries us workers that some bargaining committee officials are going to retire and are not worried about the rest of the workforce. Its like an arsonist leaving the scene of the crime. Keep throwing the same contract out and dragging it out.

Another legacy worker stated, We have no idea and no information on this TA. We dont even know what other workers at other plants are thinking. At this local itll be over 90 percent no. Kelloggs has continued to threaten to [fire] workers but theyve done that for years. The language of the TA isnt good, it seems like they can hire as many as they want. With these wages, Ive seen Hobby Lobby offering $18 an hour, or you can work nine shifts a week here and never see your family.

A retired worker participating and supporting the strike stated, In the 30 years I worked here, my salary got a little better. Halfway through, they took COLA and made workers pay for their insurance. My supervisor was paying $500 per month for insurance, company called it a new work system for the company and union to work together. They screwed the salary workers so we didnt trust anything.
The ascent from Young Socialist (Juso) leader, spouting left-wing phrases, to right-wing party functionary, minister and chancellor is a well-greased ladder in Germanys Social Democratic Party (SPD). Gerhard Schroder, Andrea Nahles and others have all taken this route. Even Germanys new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in his younger days as deputy Juso chairman, once campaigned for overcoming the capitalist economy, criticised aggressive-imperialist NATO and condemned the German Federal Republic as the European stronghold of big business.

So the election of Kevin Kuhnert as general secretary of the SPD last Saturday is nothing new in this respect. What is unusual, at most, is the speed with which Kuhnert has made the transformation from party rebel to whip of Germanys governing party. In his new role he will watch the backs of government members and the parliamentary group to ensure they fulfil the concluded coalition agreement, he told the taz newspaper in an interview.

The coalition agreement Kuhnert wants to push through as SPD leader is a declaration of war on the working population and a firm commitment to militarism. It intensifies the murderous pandemic policy of the former grand coalition of the SPD and conservative parties, which has already claimed 105,000 lives and pledges to massively increase Germanys military spending at home and abroad. In addition, the coalition pact adheres to the countrys debt brake and rules out tax increases for the rich.

Kuhnert has already made clear he will not tolerate any opposition to the right-wing course of the new government. He said the SPD should not jeopardise or belittle its electoral success by falling back into unnecessary infighting, he said. We dont need any ritualised heckling between the grassroots SPD and the government SPD to remind us our party is still alive.

Kevin Kuhnert (Photo: Stefan Muller (climate stuff)/CC BY-SA 2.0)

The parliamentary group and government are for the SPD, he continued, the hands that can shape and change reality with skill and ability, while the party is the head and heart of the social-democratic movement, describing the division of labour between the government and the partywith the head clearly committed to follow what the government regards as necessary.

Crawl to the big-wigs, bully the underlings is the motto of Diederich Heling in Heinrich Manns famous novel Der Untertan. There is a piece of Heling in every politician who subordinates political principles to his careeras is the case with Kuhnert. The 32-year-old has carefully prepared and planned his ascent.

Four years ago, Kuhnert stepped into the media spotlight when he became spokesman for opponents of the grand coalition within the SPD. At the SPD special party conference in January 2018, which decided by a narrow majority in favour of a continuation of the grand coalition, and during the subsequent vote on the coalition agreement, the newly elected Juso leader featured prominently in the media as its main opponent.

As the World Socialist Web Site pointed out at the time, Kuhnert was never concerned with rejecting the policies of the grand coalition, i.e., soaring social inequality, precarious forms of work, militarism, state rearmament and attacks on the democratic rights for the working class and youth. Kuhnert also rejected a fresh election. Instead, he argued for a Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) minority government, which the SPD would then have supported.

His main concern was to prevent the complete collapse of the SPD, which after four years of grand coalition received its worst Bundestag election result in post-war history. Young people in the SPD have an interest in the survival of the shop, damn it, he told a party conference at the time. He confessed to Der Spiegel that the Jusos scepticism about an alliance between the CDU/CSU and the SPD had little to do with the exploratory talks, but rather with the fact that we have seriously lost votes.

Above all, Kuhnert feared that the growing opposition of the working class would erupt outside the bounds of the official party spectrum. At a public meeting covered by the WSWS, he explicitly acknowledged his political responsibility to the state. He was much more worried about the fact that we now have a situation where the SPD and the CDU/CSU together have less than 50 percent in the polls than the 14, 15 or 16 percent for the SPD.

The former grand coalition finally took up its work with a right-wing programme six months after the Bundestag electionsand Kuhnert fully supported it, while still seeking, on occasion, to pose as a leftist. In a Zeit interview in 2019, for example, he described himself as a socialist who advocated the overcoming of capitalism and the collectivisation of companies. But this was just smoke and mirrors.

When SPD leader Andrea Nahles resigned in the summer of 2019 after the partys disastrous European election result, Kuhnert refrained from running for office due to a lack of prospects of success. Instead, he helped the duo of Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans win the election, presenting them as a left-wing alternative to then-Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who was also running for the party chairmanship.

That, again, was a deceptive manoeuvre. Esken and Walter-Borjans agreed in secret talks that Scholz should be the SPDs candidate for chancellor in this autumns election. Now, Scholz has taken over as chancellor and his then-co-candidate for the party chair, Klara Geywitz, assumes the post of federal minister of construction.

Kuhnert, in the meantime, continued his climb up the ladder. At the end of 2019, he was deputy SPD leader and began working closely with General Secretary Lars Klingbeil, a member of the right-wing Seeheim Circle. Now he has replaced Klingbeil, who has been elected as the new party leader together with Saskia Esken. As the new general secretary, Kuhnert is responsible for the organisation of the SPD and has the task of bringing the party into line behind the government and disciplining the party parliamentary faction when necessary.

His career is typical for a party that has long cut all its ties with the working class and represents the interests of the banks, big corporations and the state apparatus. The SPD is a rallying point for careerists, trade union and party officials, civil servants and wealthy petty bourgeois who fear nothing so much as a rebellion by the working class and youth.

They enjoy a standard of living that the vast majority of the population can only dream of. Every year, millions of euros of state money flow to the parties and their foundations. In 2019, this sum totalled 193 million for the parties and 542 million for party-affiliated foundations. In addition come the MPs salaries, expense allowances and income for numerous other offices based on party membership.

One of Kuhnerts biggest concerns will be that the SPD will receive only 54.37 million in federal funding for the year 2020. The sum is measured in terms of votes in federal, state or European elections, the number of which has halved for the SPD since 1998. As a result, numerous jobs are to be cut at Willy Brandt House, the headquarters of the SPD in Berlin.
The defense rested its case on Friday in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell after the confidante and former girlfriend of the deceased sex offender and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein decided not to testify on her own behalf.

The jury was not present when Maxwell told Judge Alison Nathan on Friday, Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and so there is no need for me to testify. The judge had asked the defendant if she understood her rights.

This courtroom sketch shows defense attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca,left, as he cross examines victim, "Carolyn" in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-abuse trial, Tuesday Dec. 7, 2021 in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, pleaded not guilty to six federal charges: sex trafficking of minors, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three counts of conspiracy. The indictment against Maxwell charged that between 1994 and 1997, she assisted, facilitated, and contributed to the abuse of minors by Epstein despite knowing that at least one girl was only 14 years old.

Maxwells lawyers used days 11-12 of the trial to bring witnesses to testify in her defense. Among the character witnesses brought by Maxwell was Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former model and doctor who is married to the hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, who told jurors she dated Jeffrey Epstein between about 1983 and 1990 or 1991 and never witnessed any inappropriate conduct on his part with teenage girls.

The defense said another witness named Kelly could not be located and had not responded to subpoenas. The proceedings began on Thursday with a decision by Judge Nathan denying a last-minute request by the defense to allow three of their witnesses to testify anonymously.

Responding to the defense in a written opinion, Judge Nathan characterized the request as unprecedented in the annals of law. The defense lawyers had argued that their witnesses should be afforded the same identity concealment as three prosecution witnesses who had accused Maxwell and Epstein of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers.

The women were permitted identify themselves by the pseudonyms Jane and Kate and the first name only Carolyn to conceal their identity. Judge Nathan wrote that the court was obligated to ensure that their privacy and dignity were protected.

The judge justified her protection of the prosecution witnesses by writing, If alleged victims of abuse were subject to publicity, harassment, and embarrassment, other alleged victims of sex crimes may be deterred from coming forward to report abuse.

Judge Nathan said none of the defense witnesses intended to testify to sensitive personal topics or sexual conduct and that denying their request for anonymity would in no way deter others from reporting sexual abuse.

Responding to the claim that denying the request compromised the defendants rights to a fair trial because some of the witnesses would be reluctant to testify, the judge said that Maxwells team should have anticipated these concerns and could have used subpoenas to compel testimony instead of making their motion two days after the prosecution rested its case.

The conflict over the anonymity of defense witnesses was one expression of the extreme weakness of the defendants case following the testimony over the two prior weeks by prosecution witnesses, including four women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein with the assistance of Maxwell in the 1990s while they were teenagers.

It is notable that, as compared to the #MeToo campaign and reporting by the corporate media of the prosecution of figures such as Harvey Weinsteinwho was sentenced to 23 years in prison after he was found guilty in a trial punctuated by a mountain of doubtthe trial of Maxwell has been given perfunctory placement and essentially buried in the coverage of major news outlets like the New York Times.

For all the claims of concern about sexual abuse against women, as reviewed previously on the World Socialist Web Site, #MeToos unsubstantiated and sensationalized accusations of sexual misconduct had been suddenly turned off by July 2020.

The WSWS explained at the time that immediate electoral concerns of the Democrats may well have played a role in the silence. The charges of sexual misconduct leveled by former staffer Tara Reade in March against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential candidate, were received coldly by the Times and the media generally (except for its openly pro-Trump wing). Unquestionably, in that case the #MeToo campaign and its slogan of believe women cut across the plans and politics of the Times, the New Yorker, Time and the sections of the American ruling elite for whom they speak.

In the present case, not a peep had been heard from #MeToo about Ghislaine Maxwell since her arrest more than 18 months ago until the movements Chief Vision Officer Tarana Burke and Chief Executive Officer Dani Ayers issued a joint press statement on December 1 expressing support for the Epstein accusers in the trial, who had already begun taking the witness stand two days earlier.

While the #MeToo officers write of the survivors bravely sharing their stories in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, and how abusers will use their power and influence to attempt to discredit survivors and diminish the harm they caused, the names of Jeffrey Epstein and the entourage of wealthy and powerful individuals who participated with him in the sexual abuse of teenage girls are not even mentioned.

A new book, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story, by Julie K. Brown, an investigative journalist with the Miami Herald, relays critical information about the events leading up to the arrest and prosecution of Maxwell in July 2020. The details contained in the Epilogue shed light on the politics behind the scenes in what is without question an effort to cover up the degeneracy and depravity of the ultra-wealthy ruling elite both within the US and around the world.

Brown writes, In the days before Maxwells arrest, I had been closely following another dramatic storythe ouster of Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. Berman, who was the prosecutor responsible for the arrest of Epstein in July 2019, was hastily fired by President Trump. His removal led to a public standoff between Berman and Attorney General William Barr, who had initially declared that Berman was resigning.

Brown says that Berman refused to leave and suggested that there was a clandestine effort by Trump to delay or disrupt investigations in SDNYs office. She goes on, While the Epstein-Maxwell case was never mentioned by Berman, its telling that Maxwells arrest came so quickly after Berman was fired. This series of events spawned theories about whether Trump and Barr intended to install prosecutors who would have been more politically friendly, not only to Trump but to others in his orbit, like Maxwell, who were facing criminal investigation.

Two weeks later, Trump was asked at a White House press conference about the arrest and placement of Maxwell in solitary confinement after her request for bail was denied. Expressing the concerns of many among the ruling elite with ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said, I just wish her well. Ive met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.

Closing arguments in the trial in US District Court for the Southern District of New York are expected to begin Monday and Judge Nathan has indicated that she plans to give the jury two days to deliberate before the Christmas break that begins on Thursday.
The WSWS spoke recently to Joseph McBride, film historian, biographer and academic, about his new work, Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge.

David Walsh: Ive always had mixed feelings about Billy Wilder, to be honest with you. I think I have a better impression and understanding of him, his work and his difficulties from your book, Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge. Numerous issues are raised, both directly in regard to his own life, and the events through which he passed or witnessedfascism in Germany, world war, McCarthyism, the 1950s and 60s. Essentially, his life encompasses the 20th century.

Joseph McBride

Joseph McBride: Wilder was always at heart a journalist, a point I spend a lot of time on in this book. He certainly was a chronicler of the times, like an important novelist, and a writer-director of exposes on film. One reason I wanted to write the book was to get a handle on some of those questions myself, because certain things about him have been elusive.

DW: This critical study is an artistic work on its own. In a culturally difficult climate, your books stand out, from the point of view of challenging, demanding and fighting for a richer and more realistic cinema in our day.

JM: As a film teacher, Im on the front lines with young people who for the most part know nothing about the cinematic past, which is sad. You and I emerged from a period where cinema was the art form, and everybody was talking about it, but thats no longer the case. A vast ignorance has been fostered by our educational system. I try to do my part in reversing the trend.

DW: The low level of historical knowledge is a problem. But thats why Dancing on the Edge is important and why were doing this conversation. Its part of the fight to correct that situation.

JM: Since Wilder was a reporter when he was a young man in Vienna and Berlin, thats one reason I gravitated toward him. Im an old journalist. My first article for which I was paid was published in a magazine in May 1960, in the same week I received a letter from John F. Kennedy thanking me for volunteering on his Wisconsin presidential primary campaign. I met Wilder for the first time in 1974, on the set of his newspaper movie The Front Page, based on the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. I had an instant rapport with him. Newspaper guys recognize each other and speak the same language.

When I began writing this book, there were no English-language versions of his journalism available. But I read two collections in German of his journalism published in Vienna and Berlin. A collection of some of those pieces was published recently in English translation, edited by Noah Eisenberg [Billy Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna].

Wilder thought of himself primarily as a writer throughout his life, and studying the early life of an individual is something I always do, to find out where the artistic impulses and all the subsequent material comes from. I wrote my first article on Wilder in 1970, with Michael Wilmington, The Private Life of Billy Wilder, a career profile for Film Quarterly. Ive written a lot of articles about him over the years and I interviewed him for various publications.

Billy Wilder being interviewed by young reporter Joseph McBride on the set of The Front Page in 1974

DW: How do you choose a subject for a book?

JM: I take a lot of time mulling it over, because its such a major investment of time and energy. For a long time I thought Id like to do an interview book with Wilderas I did with Howard Hawks, Hawks on Hawks because Wilder was so witty, smart and sophisticated.

Books reach their true form as they germinate and are written. The true form for this book was a critical study and a thorough engagement with his work. Its not a biography. I make that distinction because people think of me as a biographer, because Ive done three big biographies of Frank Capra, John Ford and Steven Spielberg. But Ive also done critical studies of Orson Welles, Ernst Lubitsch and Ford (with Wilmington). So, with my recent critical studies, Im going back to my roots. Back in Wisconsin, before I moved to California in 1973, I didnt have access to the filmmakers; I mostly had access to the films.

Part of the reason I didnt do a biography of Wilder was because there are two really good ones, On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov and, in German, Andreas Hutter and Klaus Kamolzs Billie Wilder: A European Career.

Anyway, I cant afford to write biographies anymore, theyre too expensive. You get an advance, but its never enough. Every time Ive done a biography, Ive been financially ruined.

In those cases, I was always writing critical biographies. I explain to people that you can write a biography of anybody, but if you write one about an artist, you should write about his or her work in detail, because thats why were interested in them. Where does the work come from?

Orson Welles, photographed by Carl Van Vechten

DW: You seem attracted to artistically serious but popular artists.

JM: Yes, I gravitate toward popular filmmakers, partly because I grew up with popular culture in the 1950s. I loved American cinema, and I loved American television, which kept me sane in that period. Then I started seeing foreign films. Part of our big critical movement in the 60s was trying to legitimize American cinema as a subject worthy of study. The French had done that before us, they led the way. So, we championed people like Ford and Hawks, and Allan Dwan and Frank Capra, all sorts of people who were considered by snobs to be mere commercial filmmakers. We were engaged in a battle to make American films legitimate and make popular culture legitimate.

I didnt like the distinctions made between high and low culture. So, we tried to destroy those distinctions. We succeeded too well, in a sense, because the whole culture has been taken over by pop culture. There still are difficult literary works and difficult films, but foreign films dont get shown much in America. We succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Its unfortunate, in that way, but there are many other reasons for what has become the general decline of cinephilia.

DW: I think there are other factors. I dont think you should blame yourself.

JM: Let me tell you a funny story. I used to review films for an internet site, and they were always assigning me independent films or foreign films. I said, I love these films, but once in a while Id like to review a big Hollywood mainstream film, why dont you ever give me one? Ive done biographies of Ford, Capra and Spielberg. My editor said, You write about popular culture, but you write about it in an unpopular way.

Which I thought was true, actually. When I was in Hollywood, as a reporter and screenwriter, they used to say I was too academic. And then I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to be a professor at San Francisco State University. Then they said, naturally, that I was too Hollywood. If there are two institutions of which I am often critical, among many others, they are Hollywood and academia.

DW: The Internet Movie Database rates Alfred Hitchcock and Wilder as number one and two most popular filmmakers of the 1950s and 60s. I have no idea which algorithm thats based on.

Stalag 17 (1953)

I can remember when Some Like It Hot [1959] came out. I was young, but clearly, it was a breath of fresh air. There were a number of films that represented a breakthrough, including Vertigo [1958], Written on the Wind [1956] and Imitation of Life [1959], Bonjour Tristesse [1958], Some Came Running [1958]. The height of the Cold War hysteria and McCarthyism was over, the blacklist was cracked, the civil rights movement had begun, there were militant strikes like the 1959 strike of 500,000 steelworkers. Kennedys election represented part of that too. Did Wilder have more popular films than anyone else in the 1950s and early 60s, aside perhaps from Hitchcock?

JM: I think Wilder was in the forefront, helping to lead America out of its puritanical isolation and xenophobia into a more cosmopolitan realm because he, like Lubitsch, was a European sophisticate. Part of their mission was to bring European values into American culture. In a revealing paradox, the immigrants interpreted America for Americans.

John Ford is also a fascinating case. You mentioned to me once how filmmakers back then were retreating into Westerns and science fiction. I found a letter Ford wrote a woman in 1948. She asked, how come youve been making only Westerns since you came back from World War II? Ford replied very candidly that the political situation in America was too dangerous and fraught, but that you could smuggle political themes into Westerns and nobody would notice, because they literally didnt care.

DW: When I talk about a retreat, Im not making a moral judgment. I think the filmmakers didnt have much of a choice, the conditions were too unfavorable. They could not for the most part make films about contemporary American life, the political situation was too toxic in the blacklist-McCarthyite era.

JM: The 50s was actually a very rich decade for American films artistically. And many films deal with betrayal and informing, in one form or another. Take Stalag 17 [1953], for example, which is one of Wilders run-for-cover projects, because its based on a bona fide Broadway hit.

Stalag 17 is about the presence of a disguised German informer in the Americans midst in a POW camp run by the Germans. The prisoners mistake William Holdens Sefton for the informer. Francois Truffaut wrote a thoughtful essay about the film at the time. He liked it because he felt Sefton represented the intelligent solitary man, who is always an outsider in society. Thats an important theme in the 50s. People were worried about conformism and the corporate mentality, and Wilder attacks that in The Apartment .

Some Like It Hot also was such a groundbreaking film in many ways. That was a big part of my education, including my sex education, which was crucial for me as a repressed Catholic youth. Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli and Douglas Sirk, each in his own way, continued to make films about contemporary life, but significant American directors who did so were few in number.

Schindler's List (1993)

DW: You write: Wilders habitual feeling of being auslandisch (foreign or alien) deeply influenced his work as a filmmaker. As a Jew who lived successively in several countries before finding refuge in Hollywood, he often resembled a cabaret artist darkly amusing his audience by dancing on the edge of an abyss.

You get the title of your book from that. Could you speak about that idea a bit?

JM: I was influenced by Peter Gay, who wrote good books about Weimar Germany. Wilder was a dancer for a living in Berlin, and part of his legend includes the fact that he was a gigolo or tea dancer, an Eintanzer. His most famous and most wonderful newspaper work was a four-part series called Waiter, Bring Me a Dancer!: From the Life of an Eintanzer, which he wrote for a Berlin newspaper in 1927. It would make a good movie. He was dancing with ladies for tips at hotels. Wilder takes pains in the series to make clear he didnt have sex with the women.

Wilder was struggling to earn a living in the 20s and sometimes was thrown out of his apartment. He slept on benches. So he had this job as a dancer, and he had to groom himself constantlyits almost feminization. Its one of the sources for Some Like It Hot. The role-playing, the element of masquerade goes through all of Wilders work.

One of my challenges was to try to understand why Wilder always has masquerades going on in his films. I eventually realized its because exiles do that. They have to masquerade whether they want to or not. Theyre playing a role. If you come from Europe, you have to adapt to America. Wilder was fascinated by this kind of double life, and the whole doppelganger theme in German culture was very strong too.

Wilder liked to make fun of Freud, but his films drew a lot from some of the same sources that Freud drew from. He told that famous story about supposedly having interviewed Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Alfred Adler and Richard Strauss on the same day. I grilled him about this. He said, no, actually it was two days. I said, well, what was the assignment? He said, this Viennese publication wanted to ask famous people their opinions on the new phenomenon of Mussolini and fascism in Italy. So Wilder went around and solicited views from these four people, and Freud threw him out of his apartment. Freud was having lunch when he called. Wilder said he saw the couch. Then Freud came out with a little napkin around his neck and took Wilders card, BILLIE S. WILDER/Reporter der STUNDE . He said, Raus! [Out!], just one word. The entire thing may be apocryphal. I found no record of any of it.

DW: The Phantoms of the Past is the name of one of the sections.

JM: I wanted to call the book Billy Wilder and the Phantoms of the Past. The publisher thought that was too gloomy and not what people expected from Wilder.

DW: Dancing on the Edge is fairly ominous as well.

JM: Its a metaphor for his various forms of risk-taking and envelope-pushing, dancing on the edge of the abyss, but it is dancing at least. It captures both sides of him. It sums up both the resilience and the darkness, the back-and-forth balancing between the two.

DW: He was a very smart, sophisticated guy trying to make sense of a very difficult century, a very traumatic past. What happened to his family in the Holocaust  how do you deal with that?

JM: Wilder wanted to film Thomas Keneallys Schindler s List as a tribute to his family. He thought his mother had died in Auschwitz. The Austrian biographers turned up a document from Yad Vashem. His mothers brother said she died at the Plaszow camp, which was run by the psychopathic SS officer Amon Goth, played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler s List. Wilder evidently never knew that.

Wilder called Spielberg at one point and said, Why dont we do Schindlers List together? We could produce, direct, whatever. Spielberg had to tell him that were in preproduction, were going to make this film. Spielberg said it was the most difficult phone call of his life, but Wilder was gracious about it.

Wilder was a great survivor. He was in exile several times, from Poland to Vienna and to Berlin, later to France and then the US. And there was what I call his 21-year internal exile, when he was not allowed to make films in his later years. One of the most traumatic events of his life occurred in 1935, when he was already a Hollywood screenwriter. He traveled to Vienna to try to persuade his mother and her second husband to come to America. But they wouldnt leave, they were too old and they didnt believe in Hitlers threat. Wilder knew that Vienna would be overrun by the Nazis.

Charles Brackett, 1942

I empathize a lot with the Hollywood blacklistees. The most remarkable thing you learn from the diaries of Wilders first major screenwriting partner, Charles Brackett, is that what really broke them up was the blacklist. Wilder was discreet about their breakup and Brackett was too.

They had these violent arguments about HUAC. Brackett, who was a conservative and a blueblood, actually supported HUAC and didnt understand why Dalton Trumbo would defy it, for example, and Wilder said, I spit upon the Congress of the United States, which is quite a remarkable thing for him to say. Because he loved the freedoms of America. He thought the most important thing about America was the Supreme Court, which is ironic because its under threat today.

DW: Wilder was more left-wing in the 1930s and 40s than I had realized.

JM: He was on the left, and he contributed to leftist causes. He and Brackett wrote a film about the Spanish Civil War, Arise, My Love [1940], which is a mixed success, partly heavy-handed and preachy as well as a romantic comedy/drama, but it was ahead of its time. It was one of the few Hollywood films that dealt with that subject at all.

When the blacklist came, Wilder stuck his neck out, especially bravely because he was an immigrant. He was one of the 25 directors who signed a petition to oppose Cecil B. DeMilles loyalty oath in the Screen Directors Guild. DeMille was trying to get rid of Joseph L. Mankiewicz as president. They had to have 25 signatures to demand a meeting.

Louis B. Mayer, one of the worst reactionaries in Hollywood, exploded at Wilder after a screening of Sunset Blvd. [1950]. According to Wilder, Mayer said, You bastard, you have disgraced the industry that made you and fed you. You have dirtied the nest. You should be kicked out of this country, tarred and feathered, you goddamned foreign son-of-a-bitch. Wilder gave different versions of that story, but deportation was his biggest anxiety.

I believe the only totally honorable way to live in Hollywood during the blacklist period was either to leave the film industry altogether or  well, actually that was the only honorable way, other than being blacklisted.

Albert Maltz, one of the Hollywood Ten, said of the blacklist, One is destroyed in order that a thousand will be rendered silent and impotent by fear. Wilder was one of the people who had to make a choice: do I keep making films or not? He wanted to keep making films, and thats a moral compromise to some extent. He couldnt officially work with blacklisted people, and I dont have any knowledge of his hiring blacklisted writers.

Then he made a couple of unfortunate remarks, which I talk about in the book, that people quote a lot as if thats the entire story. Speaking about the Hollywood Ten, who were called unfriendly witnesses and sent to prison for contempt of Congress because they refused to cooperate with HUAC, he said, Two of them have talent. The rest are just unfriendly. Thats a wisecrack which is cruel 

DW:  and its kicking people when theyre down.

JM: As a result, people think he must have been pro-blacklist, but he wasnt. He was very much against it, but once it became a fait accompli he could have left and gone back to Europe or gone into another line of work. But he stayed in Hollywood and thats a compromise, but he didnt name names or sell out.

DW: I agree with Wilder that The Apartment [1960] is his best film. Shirley MacLaines performance is one of the finest in American film. Fred MacMurray is a nasty piece of work. He has this awful conformist home life that you see for 30 seconds or so. Its all very painful. The scene of the Christmas party, and the suicide attempt by MacLaines Fran, all of that is truly remarkable. I dont know much in the postwar period thats sharper than those sequences.

Fred MacMurray and Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment (1960)

JM: When I showed The Apartment to my Lubitsch & Wilder class recently, they all said, It seems so contemporary, we can all relate to their dilemmas and their sexual problems, and thats a sign of a film that endures. It is a scathing critique of American values. Wilder made a striking comment to an interviewer who accused him of sentimentality in this film. He said, I portray Americans as beasts. Thats a very harsh comment and not unwarranted.

The insurance business for Wilder is a metaphor for the corruption of corporate America. MacMurray links Double Indemnity [1944] and The Apartment. Hes an insurance man in both films. Wilder also frequently deals with prostitution. Theres open prostitution and then theres this kind of pseudo-prostitution. MacMurray treats MacLaine like a prostitute in the most devastating scene, when he gives her a $100 bill to buy something for Christmas. Its a sign of disrespect and cruelty, and it leads to her complete despair.

DW: Lemmon is a kind of minor brothel-keeper himself.

JM: Hes a pimp, in effect. But even so, Molly Haskell observed, Theres something deeply honorable about him that you feel all along, so the casting has a lot to do with the redemptiveness that the film has.

DW: His aspiration to rise in the corporation is not portrayed in a flattering light, to say the least.

JM: No, no, Wilder is extremely critical of it. Some of the reviews of that film were really bizarre. Hollis Alpert in the Saturday Review called The Apartment a dirty fairy tale. He actually thought Wilder was condoning Lemmons behavior. Wilder was offended by the dirty fairy tale line, but then embraced it. He thought, OK, it is kind of a dirty fairy tale.

Irma La Douce (1963)

The Apartment is an example of great popular art, a serious film that critiques our culture. People could see themselves in those characters and their modest lives, people struggling to survive in this humiliating and demeaning atmosphere.

People who dont like Wilder use cynical as an all-purpose word to demean him. Cynical implies nihilistic, and hes not nihilistic. I think of him as a closet romantic. I. A. L. Diamond, his screenwriting partner for many years, said Wilder was part of an old Viennese tradition that comes down from Schnitzler. It is a Middle European attitude, a combination of cynicism and romanticism. The cynicism is sort of a disappointed romanticism at heart, and Ive found plenty of evidence of that.

His wonderfully caustic and moving film maudit Kiss Me Stupid [1964] is an example of a Wilder satire of American sexual hypocrisy. Its about a prostitute who becomes a wife for a night and a wife who becomes a prostitute for a night. One of the ironies is that in 1964, American audiences were scandalized that an ordinary guy would sleep with a prostitute and pass her off as his wife, and when I show it to students today, what theyre scandalized by is a prostitute who wants to be a housewife!

Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich during filming of A Foreign Affair (1948)

I once unthinkingly used the word cynicism to Wilder in describing his work, and he replied, But if Im cynical, what adjective do you have for [Sam] Peckinpah pictures? I quickly apologized, realizing Id been simplistic. I said Cynical is another word in Hollywood for realistic. He said, I think every play by Ibsen was cynical, right? Every play by Strindberg was cynical Now take, for instance, a picture like The Apartment. Do you really think that I went out of my way to dramatize things which did not exist? A society where things like this could not happen? He said that to show people getting out of that situation, you have to show the horror of what theyre trapped in.

DW: Hollywood is a difficult, nasty industry, a difficult, nasty town. For the most part, he navigated then both with some integrity.

Billy Wilder talking with Joseph McBride in 1995 at a West Hollywood hotel (Courtesy of Sam Robbins)

JM: As you do, I like people who try to appeal to a mass audience with an elevated sensibility. On occasion, Wilder scorned art films in a way that sounded kind of philistine. He made fun of neorealism, but A Foreign Affair [1948], a remarkably daring film, is neorealistic and its a rubble film, as they called films made in the ruins of Berlin. It was released the same year as Roberto Rossellinis more grimly dramatic Germany Year Zero and Fred Zinnemanns The Search. But in A Foreign Affair, Wilder is taking chances and mixing genres, in this case setting a romantic comedy in that hellhole. He was dancing on the edge all the time.
Former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kimberly Potters trial for the killing of Daunte Wright is expected to conclude today. Daunte Wright was 20 years old at the time of his death. He was killed during a traffic stop on April 11 after an attempt was made to arrest him. Potter fatally shot him while he sat in the driver seat of his vehicle. She is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter.

Potters defense fundamentally revolves around her claims to have mistakenly used her firearm in place of her Taser weapon, indicated also by her shouting Taser three times as she fired her weapon at Wright as he sat in his car. The prosecutions case was focused on whether or not the use of a Taser weapon would even have been appropriate and, compounding on this, whether or not the two weapons could be as easily confused. The case additionally focused on the fact that Potter was a former instructor for the Brooklyn Center Police Department.

Kim Potter (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

During the trials first week, the prosecution presented its case against Potter, resting its case on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, law school professor and former police officer Seth Stoughton, who also testified during Derek Chauvins trial for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, testified that the use of force by Potter was not appropriate and in fact excessive regardless of whether Potter used the Taser or her firearm. Specifically, he stated that a reasonable officer in Officer Potters position would not have concluded there was imminent threat of death or great bodily harm and thus that the use of bodily harm was excessive and was disproportionate to the threat presented.

Wrights father, Aubrey, had a chance to take the stand on Wednesday, where he delivered an emotional testimony about his son and his recent newborn: To see him as a father, it was like, I was so happy for him, because he was so happy. He was so happy about Junior. It was my chance to be a grandfather. He loved his son. He continued, I miss him a lot, every day.

Following the prosecution presenting their case against Potter, the defense filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss the case based upon the claim that they had not demonstrated their case. Judge Regina Chu denied this motion and allowed the case to continue.

Potters defense began presenting its case last Thursday and based itself on her testimony, which she gave last Friday. During her testimony, Potter stated: I was very distraught. I just shot somebody. Im sorry it happened. Potter continued later about why she resigned, referring to the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis the previous year, I didnt want my coworkers  I didnt want anything bad to happen to the city.

A large component of the defense revolves around an argument of action error, or an automatic routine response to something when something else was intended. In order to advance this, the defense brought in Palm Beach psychologist Dr. Laurence Miller, who testified in defense of former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke for the killing of Laquan McDonald .

The prosecution countered this by arguing that police officers should be held to higher standards than action error due to their legal permit to employ deadly force.

This position is held widely by law professors and experts outside of the case. In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), criminologist James Densley of Metropolitan State University called the action error argument a euphemism for human error under stress, but also stated that it is difficult to justify applying it to cases with high stakes.

Law professor Angi Porter from Georgetown University commented on the common use of this defense and the use of experts such as Dr. Miller, telling MPR, If theyve been an expert in 20 trials, and theyre all in defense of police, the jury gets to hear lines of questioning on that, and they get to doubt whether this is real science or whether this person is sort of routinely just out here to defend a certain type of profession.

Porter also noted that the prosecutions response to the defense was not intended to say that she premeditated, planned, to shoot Daunte Wright, but that this type of mistake is not tolerated in our society.

Police routinely use lethal force against the working class in the United States, consistently killing more than 1,000 people every year with almost complete impunity. Potters trial is the exception which proves the rule. According to the Bowling Green State University Police Integrity Research Group, just 104 police officers were arrested for murder or manslaughter between 2005 and mid-2019 for an on-duty shooting. Of these, just 35 were convicted of a crime.

As the trial proceeded, protests against police violence were held outside of the Hennepin County District Courthouse and throughout Minneapolis. Two weeks prior, a vehicle attempted to run over protesters as they marched through the city.
The newly retired director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, warned in an interview with NPR on Sunday of the potential for a million coronavirus cases a day in the United States as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the country.

We cannot afford to let down our guard, Collins told NPR. [T]he virus is not tired of us. Its having a great old time changing its shape every couple of months, coming up with new variants and figuring out ways to be even more contagious. He continued, commenting on Omicrons 57 different mutations, that the emergence of the new variant is almost like were starting over with a different virus than where we began.

People line up for PCR and Rapid Antigen COVID-19 coronavirus tests on Wall Street in the Financial District in New York on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Three days before, a study was published by researchers from the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium which echoed Collins warning. The report found that, assuming a sharp increase in cases similar to what has been happening in South Africa and the United Kingdom, there could soon be as many as 600,000 cases a day in the US.

Both Collins estimate and the modeling from the University of Texas are staggering figures. They are suggesting a winter surge about three times as large, in terms of daily cases, as last year. The UT research also estimates peak hospitalizations capping out at just under 40,000 a day, and deaths exceeding 4,500 every day. Both figures are well above the rates of hospitalizations and deaths from last January, the worst month of the pandemic up to now.

Such an oncoming storm of the Omicron variant in the United States has already begun. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, as of December 11, 3 percent of cases in the United States were caused by the Omicron variant. The data implies that, as of a week ago, at least 3,500 of the 118,000 coronavirus cases in the US were caused by the Omicron variant, up from 580 out of 116,000 the previous week. This is a six-fold increase in only a week.

In that time, the Omicron variant has spread to 45 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and will likely be detected in the remaining states in the coming week. And as the data from the CDC makes clear, the spread of the variant in the US is mirroring that observed in South Africa, the United Kingdom and other countries. The number of new cases caused by Omicron is doubling every 1.5-3 days.

Moreover, the emergence of the new variant has not significantly slowed the spread of the old. The vast majority of the 122,000 daily cases and all of the nearly 1,200 deaths in the US have been caused by the Delta variant, which continues to rampage across the Northeast and Midwest as winter sets in.

In New York, which is being hit with a dual wave of Delta and Omicron, daily cases have jumped 50 percent from an average of 10,000 a week ago to 15,000 today, just under last winters record. In Ohio, daily cases have reached more than 8,700. In New Jersey, daily case counts have shot up to 5,300. Other states, including Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Michigan, are experiencing daily case counts at or exceeding their previous records.

To date, there have been more than 51 million confirmed cases of the pandemic in the US and more than 827,000 deaths. Worldwide, there have been 275 million cases, and just under 5.37 million dead, according to official figures.

Despite the sharp surge, President Joe Biden has continued to downplay the dangers posed by the Omicron variant, focusing solely on the need for vaccinations. He claimed at a press briefing on Thursday, For the unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death... for themselves, their families and the hospitals theyll soon overwhelm. But theres good news: If youre vaccinated and you have your booster shot, youre protected from severe illness and death.

In reality, data from South Africa show that Omicron is capable of infecting those who have received one dose of traditional vaccines and two doses of mRNA vaccines. Omicron has also demonstrated the ability to reinfect those who have already been infected by a previous variant. And after more than a month of spreading in South Africas Gauteng province, there are about twice as many hospitalizations from Omicron, similar numbers of patients in intensive care and on ventilators, and 25 percent more deaths. So much for Omicron being mild.

Biden is currently slated to give a more comprehensive speech regarding the spread of the Omicron variant on Tuesday. It is however doubtful that the speech will call for more than more mask use, a further push for vaccinations, and perhaps a limited call for an increase in testing and contact tracing.

The closure of schools and nonessential businesses, on the other hand, is more and more explicitly being ruled out. The governors of Maryland, Colorado and New Jersey have rejected any emergency lockdown measures to control the spread of the disease. Larry Hogan of Maryland told Fox News Sunday that We are not anticipating any lockdowns at all We are not considering them. And both New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have rejected any plans for further lockdowns.

No, no, no, said de Blasio to the WYNC radio station, when asked if he was considering closing schools or businesses.

Such measures are, however, absolutely necessary to stop the oncoming tsunami of Omicron infections. The UT COVID-19 paper made clear that its projections hold only if the US does not enact policies to slow transmission (emphasis in original).

What workers and young people should take from such warnings is that policies to slow transmission must be enacted. These include mass testing, contact tracing, isolation, mask wearing, vaccinations and, above all, the closure of schools and nonessential workplaces with full financial compensation for workers. There were more than 100,000 deaths last January; there must not be a second winter of death.
Amid a new wave of infections throughout the United States triggered by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, with lines at testing sites stretching for city blocks, Vice President Kamala Harris lied to the public by claiming that scientists and the White House could not have expected the rise of the dangerous new COVID-19 variant.

Vice President Kamala Harris (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

We didnt see [the] Delta [variant of COVID-19] coming, Harris said in an interview published by the Los Angeles Times on Friday. I think most scientists did notupon whose advice and direction we have relieddidnt see Delta coming. We didnt see Omicron coming. And thats the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.

Harriss lie is aimed at evading responsibility for the catastrophic outcome of a policy of sacrificing human life for private profit. Harris and Biden take the public for fools, expecting that a favorable media will not take them to task.

The worlds leading virologists, epidemiologists and health experts, however, excoriated Harriss statement.

I personally warned the White House in Dec 2020, that variants were coming & we needed plans & action immediately, wrote Rick Bright, a member of Bidens COVID-19 transition advisory board. Bright wrote that he Suggested measures to detect & slow the spread & need to update vaccines. They all knew. #NoSurprises

Bright, the former head of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, famously filed a whistleblower complaint condemning the Trump administrations efforts to downplay the threat posed by COVID-19 and warned that public health officials were fully aware of the emerging threat of COVID-19 by early January 2020.

Replying to Harris claim that no one knew the danger of new variants, virologist Angela Rasmussen replied, We did. The leaders just didnt listen. Epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves added, WE ALL SAW THIS COMING.

Do you know what we also warned about? wrote virologist Kristian G. Anderson. The need for vaccinating the world, while also ensuring the need for boosters. The need for better facemasks, provided free. The need for widespread, cheap, rapid testing.

Andersen was one of the loudest scientific voices warning about the dangers of new variants. In an article published in the Washington Post on October 18, Anderson warned, I see nothing that suggests this virus is quieting down I dont think this virus is as transmissible as it can be. World Health Organization COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove warned in that article, We need to keep the respect for this virus this virus still has quite a lot left in it.

Like the Biden administration, the editorial pages of all the major US newspapers ignored the warnings of the scientists, declaring that the pandemic would end when it became endemic in the population.

The World Socialist Web Site, by contrast, prominently reported and amplified the warnings of the scientists.

Nearly a year ago, on December 22, 2020, the WSWS warned,

The longer the virus is allowed free rein, and the greater the number of people it is allowed to infectthrough the criminal policy of herd immunitythe more likely it is to become more infective and, potentially, more lethal.

One month later, on January 30 , the WSWS published a Perspective column entitled, Shut down schools and businesses to stop the spread of new COVID-19 strains. It stated:

Scientists have warned for months that the more the coronavirus spreads, the more it changes. And the more it changes, the greater the possibility that it evolves as less susceptible to vaccines and thus more dangerous.

On April 5 of this year, the WSWS editorial board published a statement entitled, An emergency program to stop the global new wave of COVID-19! We warned:

The claim was that allowing the disease to spread unchecked would result in its disappearance on its own. It has led instead to the creation of new, more virulent and more lethal variants of COVID-19. In addition to making people more susceptible to reinfection, the variants have partially degraded the effectiveness of at least some vaccines, squandering one of the most potent weapons available to suppress COVID-19.

On November 21, the WSWS initiated the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. In its statement announcing the Inquest, the WSWS wrote: Scientists have repeatedly warned that continued mass infection amid the slow rollout of vaccines creates evolutionary pressures that threaten to produce a vaccine-resistant variant.

Less than a week later, the WHO announced that Omicron was a variant of concern, and in the past three weeks it has spread rapidly throughout the world.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has exposed the bankruptcy and criminality of the vaccine only strategy of the ruling classthe claim that the development of vaccines would, like a magic bullet, bring the pandemic under control without any public health measures aimed at controlling the continued spread of the virus throughout the world.

This strategy has been premised on the rejection of any measuresincluding the shutdown of schools and non-essential productionthat undermined the profit interests of Wall Street. This policy has now produced its predictable, and predicted, disaster.

Even so, the Biden administration is doubling down on keeping schools and businesses open in defiance of calls by scientists. As a result, health care systems around the United States are being overwhelmed.

Our state health care system is currently collapsing, warned Dr. Nadine Himelfarb, the president of the Rhode Island chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, on Tuesday.

Harris stupid and lying claims that we didnt see Omicron coming are only the latest in an unending wave of falsification, misinformation and propaganda from the ruling class and its media mouthpieces since the beginning of the pandemicfalsifications employed to justify a policy that has resulted in the deaths of more than 825,000 people in the US, according to official figures, and more than 5.3 million people globally.

The exposure of these lies is a critical task of the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, being conducted by the WSWS to develop an understanding within the working class of the social and political interests behind the greatest crimes in modern history. This, in turn, is an essential foundation for the development of a mass social and political movement in the working class to fight for the elimination and eradication of COVID-19, waged in opposition to the entire ruling class and the capitalist system.
Last Monday, 26-year-old truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a Cuban immigrant, was sentenced in Colorado to 110 consecutive years in prison for a 2019 crash that killed four people and injured others. The sentence has sparked protests by fellow truck drivers, and an online petition demanding clemency has been signed by a million people in less than a week.

Aguilera-Mederos, then 23 years old, was transporting lumber on Denvers I-70 freeway when the brakes on his big rig truck failed on a downhill grade. His truck then slammed into traffic that was stopped due another accident. The crash caused an explosion that killed Doyle Harrison, 61; William Bailey, 67; Stanley Politano, 69; and Miguel Lamas Arrellano, 24.

Workers clear debris on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colo., from the 2019 pileup involving a semitrailer driven by Rogel Aguilera-Mederos (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Aguilera-Mederos was found guilty on 27 counts and was sentenced to the minimum of 110 years under a Colorado sentencing law which considers first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault as so-called crimes of violence which must run consecutively when pertaining to a single incident.

In an emotional address to the judge, he sobbed at his sentencing and pleaded for forgiveness. I was working hard for a better future for my family, Aguilera-Mederos said. Please dont be angry with me for saying I was not out robbing a bank or a store. I was not out shooting up crowds or a school. I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I was working and I lost my brake. Truck drivers know this hard moment when you lose your brake. There's nothing you can do... I am begging for forgiveness...I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life...

The excessive sentencing of 110 years in prison and the emotional plea by the young immigrant driver has struck a deep chord among millions of workers around the world and has been met with a mobilization and coordinated actions of solidarity among truck drivers.

Drivers have responded by posting videos on social media stating their support for Aguilera-Mederos by calling for a refusal to drive goods into Colorado using the hashtag #notrucksincolorado #nounloadsincolorado and #freerogel. A video has gone viral on TikTok with over 5.8 million views and thousands of comments of support, showing a long line of trucks parked along the side of a freeway refusing to enter Colorado. This truck is no longer going to Colorado. We want justice for Rogel Aguilera. Truckers, he needs our help, @ntgi2020 posted. One top comment to the post which was liked 23,000 times replied, I am a trucker and will NO LONGER be going to Colorado.

Meanwhile an online petition on Change.org calling for commutation as time served, or the granting of clemency to Aguilera-Mederos has been signed by more than 4.2 million people in the last five days. Part of the petition reads, Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23 has nothing on his driving record, or on his criminal history. He had complied with every single request by the Jefferson County courts, and investigators on the case. Hes [sic] passed all of the drug and alcohol tests that were given including a chemical test. This accident was not intentional, nor was it a criminal act on the drivers [sic] part.

On Thursday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis was compelled to tell the press, We review all clemency applications, weve yet to receive one from the individual, but every clemency application that we receive, we review and make a determination.

The fact that the crash was caused due to improperly functioning brakes ultimately points to the negligence of the truck company Aguilera-Mederos was driving for, Castellano 03 Trucking LLC, based in Houston, Texas. Denvers ABC 7 reported in April 2019 that now inactive records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had shown there were 19 vehicle inspections that resulted in 30 violations at the company over the two years prior to the crash.

Over that time period, drivers have been hit three times for having chafing or kinking on their brake tubes and also for having their brakes out of adjustment, respectively, ABC 7 reported.

Much has been made of the fact that Aguilera-Mederos had failed to take a runaway truck ramp when he was trying to engage his emergency brake, but many drivers on social media have come to his defense stating that the dangerous passes through the mountainous region are difficult for even seasoned drivers. Numerous drivers even question if Castellano 03 Trucking had provided Aguilera-Mederos with the proper training to know how to handle such a situation or if Aguilera-Mederos, who required translation services for his trial, was proficient enough in English to read the signs that marked the path to the runaway truck ramp. If true, the trucking company should be held liable to ensure drivers are well versed enough to read safety signage.

The sentencing of Aguilera-Mederos came less than a month after a Kenosha, Wisconsin jury acquitted fascist shooter Kyle Rittenhouse of murder for killing two people, wounding a third, and nearly striking a fourth with his AR-15 rifle during protests against police brutality where he actively sought to confront protesters. Numerous workers on social media have compared the two cases and the grave injustices in both, with one asking Are we living in an upside down world when an actual killer is found not guilty and a rookie driver that looses [sic] his breaks found guilty, tags as criminal, given 110 years.

Many commentators have attempted to portray the punitive sentencing compared to Rittenhouse acquittal as another example of racism and white supremacy, while downplaying the powerful multi-racial support that Aguilera-Mederos has received from millions of workers who see their plight in his struggle for justice. As a trucker my self we stay on road for many days before we see back our families this is clearly an accident which can happen to anyone. This guy doesn't deserve this. I'm with you brother 100%, one trucker wrote.

Additional protests are planned in the coming weeks calling for a pardon or reduced sentencing for Aguilera-Mederos.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky headed to Brussels to plead with NATO for more military support in his ongoing reckless provocations against Russia, the UN Human Rights Council reported on Wednesday that fundamental freedoms in Ukraine have been squeezed under his administration.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky ( en.kremlin.ru)

The report covered developments from November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2021, all dates which fall under the regime of Zelensky, who was first elected in May 2019 largely due to widespread disillusionment with the right-wing nationalist policies of former President Petro Poroshenko. The Poroshenko regime had come to power in the wake of the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine, in which a pro-Russian government was toppled through the mobilization of far-right forces.

Several previous reports by the UN Human Rights Council since 2014 have made similar statements, demonstrating both a continuation and further acceleration of government attacks on the press and democratic rights under Zelensky.

According to the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, restrictions on the free expression of critical or unpopular opinions, and on participation in peaceful assemblies on sensitive topics, as well as the safety of human rights defenders in Ukraine were of concern.

In February of 2021, Zelensky shut down three popular television stations associated with pro-Russian opposition leader and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.

The Zelensky government later charged Medvedchuk with high treason, violating the laws and customs of war, and assisting terrorist organizations and placed him under house arrest.

The report described these attacks as violations of international human rights law.

The prosecution of Medvedchuk, a Russia-friendly member of the Ukrainian oligarchy, was seen as a provocation by Moscow and contributed to the military crisis in the Black Sea in spring this year. In addition to supporting a negotiated settlement to the ongoing civil war in Donbass, Medvedchuk is personally close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

More recently, the Zelensky government has used claims of a supposed coup to similarly attack media outlets owned by Ukraines richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, by claiming that Akhmetov was unknowingly involved in the coup with the backing of Russian intelligence.

Prior to the coup claims, Akhmetovs media outlets had recently increased their criticism of Zelensky, due to his signing of so called anti-oligarch laws that could potentially strip Akhmetov of his media outlets. In reality, such laws will likely be used for the selective targeting of Moscow-friendly members of the Ukrainian oligarchy, while Zelensky loyalists maintain their obscene wealth and business interests.

Zelensky himself possessed an estimated net worth of $1.5 million when he came to office in 2019, an amount that has undoubtedly increased since he gained control of the Ukrainian state. The recently revealed Pandora Papers indicated that Zelensky founded a network of offshore companies in 2012 and purchased expensive properties in London.

Regarding attacks on individual journalists, the UN report stated, Of particular concern is the lack of accountability for threats and violence targeting human rights defenders, media workers, and individuals who express opinions online or attempt to participate in policy-making. OHCHR documented 29 incidents targeting journalists, media professionals, bloggers, and individuals expressing opinions critical of the Government or mainstream narratives. In 2020-2021, investigative journalists and media workers covering political topics such as corruption and the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions were targeted.

What the report did not mention is the heavy involvement of neo-fascist forces in carrying out these attacks on journalists. Since the 2014 coup, a number of prominent Ukrainian journalists have been attacked and killed by fascist gangs, most notably Kateryna Handziuk and Pavel Sheremet. In yet another attempted political assassination by the far-right in December 2019, a three-year old boy was killed.

In almost every case, Ukrainian authorities drag their feet on any investigation which rarely results in arrest or significant prosecution.

The report also failed to mention the most recent attack by Zelensky on the democratic right of the working class to freedom of movement and association.

On December 2, Zelensky initiated five bills into the Ukrainian parliament that would be used to deny Donbass residents citizenship and voting rights. The Ukrainian government would also be able to rescind citizenship from anyone participating in actions threatening Ukraines national security and national interests.

Such anti-democratic measures could easily be used to deny citizenship and voting rights to not only separatists in the Donbass, but any Ukrainian who opposes the right-wing nationalist and war-mongering policies of the Zelensky government. Rigged elections open only to true Ukrainian citizens would also become a real possibility.

The measures would also strip citizenship from Ukrainians with Russian passports. Such a move would be particularly punitive against the Donbass regions working class who often have relatives living in Russia and have begun using Russian passports to travel across the border. These measures would, of course, have no effect on Ukraines obscenely wealthy oligarchy who travel across the world wherever they please.

The UN report noted that similar restrictions on freedom of expression as those undertaken by the Kiev regime have taken place in the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Lugansk and in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. However, unlike Kiev, Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea have not received $2.5 billion in military assistance from the United States and are not regularly praised as pinnacles of democracy by American and European imperialism.

While reports by the UN alleging human rights violations are regularly used by Western imperialism against strategically important nations to carry out already well-made war plans, in the case of Ukraine, it is Western imperialism that is publicly backing an extremely anti-democratic, right-wing nationalist state that backs neo-fascist forces and regularly carries out attacks on the press, ethnic minorities and political opposition. These connections were, of course, not addressed by the UN report.

Nevertheless, limited as it is, the UN report exposes attempts to frame a potential war between a free Ukraine against an aggressive Russia as a war for democracy as a complete fraud.

The coup of 2014, which provided the basis for an enormous escalation of the geopolitical conflict with Russia, was promoted by the Western media as a democratic revolution. The heavy involvement of neo-Nazi forces in the coup and new government was deliberately denied and covered up. To this day, bourgeois think tanks such as the Atlantic Council promote these lies in order to further the NATO war preparations against Russia. Thus, the Atlantic Council wrote last week, Vladimir Putin fears Ukrainian democracy not NATO expansion.

In reality, imperialism has been systematically building up a rabidly right-wing oligarchic regime and neo-fascist forces in Kiev in order to prepare both for a military conflict with Russia and the violent suppression of the working class.
As the COVID-19 pandemic dragged through its second year, restaurants began to reopen, but nothing was the same.

Workers were hard to find, food and other supplies were costly, deliveries were sporadic and continued outbreaks of illness threatened workers. In addition, some customers were irate at changes made to thwart COVID.

Some restaurants called it quits.

"The restaurant industry is very challenging right now, and this is the right decision for my family, chef Carlo Pedone said in a Facebook post announcing the sudden closure of Trattoria di Carlo in Oak Creek.

Here are some of the long-running establishments that closed in the Milwaukee area in 2021.

The Pub

114 N. Main St., Oconomowoc

Weddings, wakes, christenings and more took place at The Pub, Oconomowoc's first Irish restaurant and a 20-year part of the community.

"We'll miss the people," said co-owner Aelred Gannon. "I won't miss being here every night of the week and every morning of the week."

Owners Aelred and Bernadette Gannon hail from Sligo, Ireland, and they brought a taste of the old country to Oconomowoc.

"After 20 years, we figured that's enough," Aelred said, "We've had a lot of fun and good interactions with the community."

Gannon said the Pub became the first fully nonsmoking restaurant in Oconomowoc and also the first farm-to-table restaurant in the city.

The Pub closed May 15. Wine Maniacs Bar and Bistro took over the location.

The Soup House

324 E. Michigan St., Milwaukee

The changing nature of downtown claimed more than one restaurant, as offices remained mostly empty and dine-out options were limited by COVID-19.

"Downtown is such a ghost town now," said Ruby Erickson, co-owner of The Soup House, where some workers would stop in two or three times a week for lunch,

The restaurant catered to downtown workers for more than 20 years. It closed April 29.

"The outpouring of support, appreciation, love and tears (yes tears) was more than I could have ever imagined. I want you all to know you touched my heart in a very personal way," said Mitz Erickson, co-owner and Ruby's mother, in a Facebook post.

Story continues

The Soup Market was one of the original vendors at the Milwaukee Public Market. It's shown in 2011.

The Soup Market

Milwaukee Public Market, 400 N. Water St.

Downtown soup lovers took another hit when The Soup Market closed at the Public Market at the end of June. It was among the original vendors when the market opened in 2005.

Barbecue restaurant Pat's Rib Place opened in that space in October.

"I am extremely disappointed in this, but it was not up for discussion," Soup Market owner Dave Jurena said in an Instagram post.

The Soup Market remains a Milwaukee institution with locations in Bay View, Washington Heights and Hales Corners, and a newly opened site in Oak Creek. It rotates more than 200 soups, and the soups are also sold at Sendik's and farmers markets.

Trattoria di Carlo, 8469 S. Howell Ave, Oak Creek, closed abruptly after 20 years in business. The restaurant was known for its signature pizzas.

Trattoria di Carlo

8469 S. Howell Ave., Oak Creek

Trattoria was popular for brick-oven-made pizzas with a hand-tossed, medium-body crust and a family recipe that dated back decades. The popular restaurant closed in June after 20 years.

In announcing the closing, Chef Carlo Pedone did not specifically blame the pandemic. But the shutdown was so abrupt that it led to a civil suit from Cintas Corp., which had an agreement to provide towels, aprons, logo mats and other logos, according to records obtained by Now News Group.

Pedone did not comment on the case.

William Ho's restaurant in Shorewood has permanently closed after more than 30 years in business. The restaurant was a staple in the North Shore and introduced a variety of Asian cuisine to the area.

William Ho's

3524 N. Oakland Ave, Shorewood

Generations of locals and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students savored Cantonese dishes at William Ho's, which was owned by Bao Ping Dong and named after its founder.

The Chinese restaurant closed in January after more than 40 years in business. It was known for its "modern interpretation of classic dishes.

I heard from the owner that COVID was definitely one of the biggest reasons for the closure, said Steph Salvia, executive director for the Shorewood Business Improvement District, but additionally, the restaurant has been here for a very long time, so Bao Ping thought it was also a good time to retire.

MORE: Brookfield's Jose's Blue Sombrero, Original Pancake House in Milwaukee, Mequon's Anodyne Coffee among restaurants permanently closed in 2021

Evan Frank, Carol Deptolla, Eddie Morales and Erik S. Hanley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee restaurants closed in 2021: Longtime favorites, neighborhood spots
Michael B. Jordan and Chante Adams in A Journal For Jordan

Denzel Washingtons last directorial outing, Fences, was an almost foolproof project, given its source material: a classic of American theater by one of the countrys greatest playwrights, August Wilson. The same cant be said of A Journal For Jordan, which marks the first time that this most charismatic of actors has stayed entirely behind the camera for a project. Adapted from a 2008 memoir by former New York Times writer and editor Dana Canedy, it trades in cloying sentimentality and romance, the gooey melodrama done no favors by Washingtons stiff, anonymous direction.

At the films center is 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan, disarmingly clean-shaven), a Mr. Right who first meets up-and-coming journalist Dana (Chante Adams) while hes putting up a picture in her parents living room. As far as A Journal For Jordan is concerned, hes the perfect guy: A man in uniform who appreciates art (especially the French impressionists), respects women, knows its manly to cry, and loves his country. The only thing thats really wrong with him is that he happens to be deadnot a literal ghost, mind, but in the sense of the story being told in the past tense after his death, via a clumsy assemblage of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and voiceover.

Read more

These rudimentary elements of collage aside, the plot is straightforward. Dana and Charles first meet in 1998 while shes visiting her family from New York. He insists on calling her maam and on referring to himself as 1st Sgt. Charles King. Otherwise, they hit it off. (In the movies only fun period detail, the two have their first long chat over cans of Brisk Iced Tea.) From there, they begin a long-distance courtship over the phone, and he starts visiting her in the Big Apple. Things get progressively more serious, relationship-wise, but the only source of conflict remains Charles unwavering commitment to his men: He cares about them just a little too much, to the point of missing dates and, eventually, the birth of his and Danas son, Jordan. But even this is presented as a testament to his selfless good character.

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Is he, in this respect, a sacrificial figure? The one thing A Journal For Jordan gets right about the time-tested tearjerker formula is the unabashed morbidity; it never stops reminding us, through framing devices (including the journal of the title) and scenes of an older Dana and a tween Jordan, that Charles is going to die. The question of where and how is left unanswered until the end, but given his profession and the approximate period in U.S. military misadventure, its not hard to make an educated guess.



Take his incessantly foreshadowed demise out of the equation, and what youre left with is a generic romance, complete with even more generic New York best friends, that never works as the opposites-attract scenario its partly intended to be. (Who could imagine a New York Times reporter falling for military charmin the 2000s, no less?) Death defines Charles character. It is arguably the thing that, from the movies point-of-view, makes him so perfect. Wouldnt we all be so lucky, it asks, to have such a great dead guy in our lives?

The generous might call this a gender-flipped variation on the cinematic and literary tradition of mourned female beauties, or even an inversion of the male gaze; the films only memorable image, after all, is a screen-filling close-up of Charles bare posterior. But those stories usually involve a dimension of obsession thats obviously the opposite of the maudlin feelings A Journal For Jordan is meant to inspire. Its about people being very happy and then very sad, but lacks the stylistic extremes necessary to make those emotions intoxicating. Anyone who doesnt start bawling at the very idea of a handsome dead dad-soldier will just be bored.
Jordan Brand's Fall 2022 lineup has been previewed via zsneakerheadz. Among the 17 styles teased, standouts include an A Ma Maniere x Air Jordan 2, the return of the AJ14 "Ginger" and an Air Jordan 7 inspired by Afrobeats. Read on to preview the drops.

Air Jordan 1 High OG WMNS Starfish

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Starfish Orange White Price Release Date Collaboration

With an orange and white upper that channels the "Reverse Shattered Backboard," Jordan Brand is bringing women an exclusive AJ1 High that will feature a woven textile at the collar and an inlaid Swoosh. Look out for the AJ1 Starfish to be released in August.

Air Jordan 4 WMNS Canyon Purple

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Canyon Purple Green Price Release Date Collaboration

Air Jordan delivers another womens release for Fall 22, a bold AJ4 done in purple suede with speckled mint green accents.

A Ma Maniere x Air Jordan 2

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection A Ma Maniere 2 Price Release Date Collaboration

AMM and Jumpman will continue their partnership in 2022, following their successful Air Jordan 3 and Air Jordan 1 releases. The collaborative model is expected to feature the brands signature burgundy hue against Nikes classic "Sail" white. Expect to see this model roll out in April 2022.

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Ginger 14 Price Release Date Collaboration

Last seen in 1999, the AJ14 "Ginger" returns in September 2022. This mid-top differs from the OG low build, but will excite collectors nonetheless.

Air Jordan 1 High OG Heirloom

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection High OG 1 Tan Black Satin Price Release Date Collaboration

As expected, Jordan Brands fall lineup includes a fair amount of AJ1 silhouettes. This tan and black colorway comes with satin panels, adding a luxurious element to the release.

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Georgetown 6 Price Release Date Collaboration

Jumpman pays homage to Georgetown University with an AJ6 in gray with touches of navy blue. A translucent outsole completes this September release.

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Concord 5 Price Release Date Collaboration

Similar to the Air Jordan 5 "Retro Grape" released in 2013, this AJ5 features a mostly white makeup with its titular shade on the tongue, midsole and toggle.

Air Jordan 1 High OG Yellow Toe

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Yellow Toe Black White High OG Price Release Date Collaboration

The Air Jordan 1 has seen many yellow/black iterations such as the Pollen colorway released in August 2021 and the Yellow Toe Mid that dropped in 2019. Look out for the Yellow Toe High OG in August, carrying a $170 USD price tag.

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Air Jordan 7 Citrus

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Citrus 7 Black Yellow Red Price Release Date Collaboration

Last seen in 2006, the Air Jordan 7 Citrus is making a much anticipated return this fall. The mostly black model comes with pops of red and gold with the latter also appearing on the shoes topstitching

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Olive 4 Price Release Date Collaboration

Arriving with a militaristic vibe, this AJ4 comes with a textile upper and bright red-orange laces. The premium pair calls for a higher price tag, clocking in at $210 USD.

Air Jordan 11 Low IE Grey

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection IE Low Grey Price Release Date Collaboration

A very slept on silhouette, the Air Jordan 11 Low International Exclusive returns in September 2022. The colorway closely resembles the Silver Zest IE released back in 2007.

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection 13 French Blue Price Release Date Collaboration

A crisp white, gray and French Blue AJ13 releases this August. The pair is expected to carry a $200 USD price tag.

Air Jordan 1 Low OG UNC

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection UNC Low Price Release Date Collaboration

Jordan Brand pays homage to Michael Jordans alma mater, the University of North Carolina, with an AJ1 Low. Priced at $130, the sneaker should hit shelves sometime in August.

Air Jordan 7 SE Afrobeats

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Afrobeats 7 Price Release Date Collaboration

Inspired by Afrobeat music, this AJ7 features a graphic tongue and printed overlays. The mixed prints echo Afrobeats blend of West African and funk musical styles.

Air Jordan 1 High OG Grey/White

Nike Air Jordan Fall 2022 Collection Grey High OG Price Release Date Collaboration

Deviating from the slew of vibrant AJ1s, this model takes a minimal approach with a white and gray makeup. Priced at $170, the Grey/White Air Jordan 1 is set to release in July 2022.
Gabriel Boric

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

Chile has elected the youngest president in its history.

Gabriel Boric, 35, defeated Jose Antonio Kast, 55, in a come-from-behind victory that will make him leader of the South American country when his presidency begins in March.

"Thank you to all of the peoples that live in this place we call Chile," Boric told supporters gathered in Santiago, the capital of Chile, on Sunday, the Washington Post reports.

Boric, who was born in Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile, is a leftist and former student activist who led protestors demanding free education in 2011 before serving two terms in the Chilean National Congress.

He ran on promises to make the government more inclusive, to address poverty and inequality with higher taxes on the rich and a social safety net and to leave behind the divisive legacy of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country from 1973 until 1990.

RELATED: The Historic Firsts in President Joe Biden's Administration

Gabriel Boric

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

"We are a generation that emerged in public life demanding our rights be respected as rights and not treated like consumer goods or a business," Boric said after his historic win, according to CNBC. "We know there continues to be justice for the rich, and justice for the poor, and we no longer will permit that the poor keep paying the price of Chile's inequality."

RELATED: History Made in Elections Around the Country as Voters Also Weigh in on Policing, Crime and More

Boric lost a first round of voting in November but ultimately secured 56 percent of the vote  compared to Kast's 44 percent  after making a more centrist appeal to voters, who are sending him to La Moneda, a former mint that is now the seat of Chile's presidency.

Kast, who has defended the Pinochet dictatorship and touted his conservative values during the campaign, conceded the election and met with Boric shortly after on Sunday, the Post reports.

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RELATED: 34-Year-Old Sanna Marin of Finland Becomes the World's Youngest Prime Minister

Outgoing conservative President Sebastian Pinera also congratulated Boric and pledged his administration's full support in the months of transition.

Gabriel Boric

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

"I am going to give the best of me to rise to this tremendous challenge," Boric reportedly told Pinera during the traditional televised video call on Sunday. "I will be the president of all Chileans."

Boric will enter La Moneda ahead of a September 2022 vote to approve a new draft of Chile's constitution, following a plebiscite in 2020 and the election of 155 members of a constitutional convention in May, who were tasked with creating a new document to replace one put in place in 1980 during Pinochet's reign.
Gianvito Rossi is taking a giant leap when it comes to its latest sustainability efforts. According to the brand, it has mitigated its internal carbon footprint by 60%.

The made-in-Italy luxury brand has partnered with the University of Bologna since 2019 on an initiative to quantify the sustainability of Gianvito Rossi operations, which has since enabled the business to make the decisions necessary to reach peak sustainable operations.

More from Footwear News

By 2025, the label aims to achieve complete carbon neutrality through this method, and compute these environmental metrics for all Gianvito Rossi suppliers and distributors.

We have the duty to create a valuable product that may stand the test of time, and as a consumer we have the duty to purchase more consciously, the designer said. Our vision of sustainability is guided not only by moral obligation but by the awareness that a sustainable production can contribute to the progress of our supply chain and therefore make a significant contribution to our community for future generations to come.

The approach, led by circular economy expert and professor Augusto Bianchini, collects data relative to the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability via the analysis of consumption and governance of waste. This has allowed Gianvito Rossi to calculate its CO2 emissions during its manufacturing process, for instance, and thus create a new course to reduce those emissions.

During the first phase of this initiative, the company has transitioned to renewable energies and made its internal processes more efficient through a third-party startup that uses AI to reduce energy consumption in the facility. The second phase will see circularity best-practices developed by collecting data in the supply chain.

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In addition, Gianvito Rossi has contributed to a reforestation program to offset remaining initiatives.

Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Mariah Carey and Bryan Tanaka attend the Netflix Premiere for Tyler Perry's

Bennett Raglin/Getty

All she wants for Christmas is some time in Aspen!

On Sunday, Mariah Carey  the undisputed queen of Christmas  shared a photo of herself and her boyfriend Bryan Tanaka as they boarded a private jet before heading to Aspen, Colorado, where the couple is set to spend the holiday.

"Aspen bound ," the 52-year-old captioned the photo. Carey is seen sporting some leggings, fuzzy boots and a Fendi jacket while her boyfriend wears an all-Gucci fit.

RELATED: Mariah Carey Says She 'Admires' Beyonce 'So Much' as She Plays Coy About Potential Verzuz Battle

It's time for celebration for Carey, who recently reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Congratz mama for #1 for the billionth year!" wrote daughter Monroe, 10, in a Christmas card celebrating Carey's achievement. "I love you #1 mommy for-EVAH! The best mama ever. Billboard Hot 100!"

My baby girl  pic.twitter.com/ArdO7jk7b0  Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) December 20, 2021

Aspen seems to be the "All I Want for Christmas" songstress' go-to destination for the last several years.

In 2019, she spent the holiday alongside Tanaka, ex-husband Nick Cannon and twins Moroccan and Monroe, 10, whom she shares with Cannon. Carey shared photos of the blended family spending time in the snow and enjoying the holiday celebration.

"Admiring the snow on Christmas Eve ," she wrote then.

Cannon also shared a few photos on his Instagram at the time and captioned one with the twins, "Great way to spend Christmas Eve!!"

And the year prior, Carey took her children on a ski getaway in the same snow town too. Tanaka, 38, and Carey have been dating since her separation from James Packer in 2016. They met in the early 2000s when Tanaka was her backup dancer.

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"Shutting down the slopes with demkids  Keeping it festive despite my lingering cold ," the star captioned a photo of herself  dressed in a full Gucci look  alongside son Moroccan. In another photo, daughter Monroe showed off her modeling skills alongside her mom.

And in 2017, Carey and Tanaka were spotted wearing matching hats in the freezing Aspen weather.

RELATED VIDEO: McDonald's Is Giving Out Free Food Every Day Until Christmas Eve, Thanks to Mariah Carey

For this year's holiday, Carey released track "Fall in Love at Christmas" alongside Khalid and Kirk Franklin. The track is set to be a part of her Apple TV+ special Mariah's Christmas: The Magic Continues.

"I love 'Fall in Love at Christmas' because I love that it's a departureit's a love song, and then it's a spiritual song," she told PEOPLE earlier this month. "I say, 'We pray at this Christmastime,' like, love is something we need to give away. Let's give love away. It's really trying to say that we're in a really screwed up place in the world. We all need grace upon grace upon grace."

Carey told PEOPLE she's "extremely happy" with how the song  which she co-wrote  has been received since its Nov. 5 release, and explains that part of its appeal lies in the fact that its lyrics are reflective of her real-life Christmas spirit.

Also, as part of the holiday celebrations, Carey has teamed up with Snapchat for the #AllIWantForChristmas Challenge where fans can win up to 50,000 by submitting to the sweepstakes.
MILWAUKEE  Some Wisconsinites may know cannibal sandwiches because they're a family tradition  or because of the warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cannibal sandwiches are a Midwest staple. Consisting of fresh raw beef on rye bread topped with chopped onion, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, the dish makes some squirm and others lick their chops.

Last December, the popular dish even gained international attention with a tweet from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services that warned against eating raw meat.

But where did the tradition come from? Why is it so popular in Wisconsin?

Holiday cookie traditions: What's your state's favorite Christmas cookie? Google shares unique holiday searches

The cannibal sandwich, made from raw beef and onions on rye bread, at Ray's Butcher Shoppe in Greenfield. The sandwich is a popular menu item at family gatherings, weddings, anniversaries and more. Ray's Butcher Shoppe goes through around 1,000 pounds of ground round during the holidays.

Roots in the German tradition

Germany has a similar dish of minced raw pork or beef served on bread and seasoned with salt and pepper. There, it's called mett or hackepeter.

And its no secret that Wisconsin has a large German presence. At one point, Milwaukee was even considered the German Athens of America.

Germans immigrated here in the 1800s for agriculture and, later, dairy cattle farming. And with easy access to fresh meat, they could make whats known today as cannibal sandwiches, said Anna Altschwager, Old World Wisconsins assistant director for guest experiences. Old World Wisconsin, the living history museum in Eagle, is operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

If Germans went to New York, they would not have had the access to the fresh ground beef required for the sandwich  and the tradition may have fallen away there, Altschwager said.

The density of the German population in the Midwest also meant communities were formed and maintained, hosting sociable events like church suppers or big family dinners, Altschwager added. This gave room for the unique dish to endure.

They became a representation of the larger culture that had been left behind and a way to preserve it, Altschwager said. You may not speak the language, you may not wear the clothes, you may not have the politics, but that food, that memory, that tradition is a tie to where you came from.

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Milwaukee historian John Gurda agreed with Altschwager that cannibal sandwiches originated from German immigrants.

It's pretty natural that it would come along with beer and bratwurst, he said.

Getting in the holiday spirit: 'The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...' But why? Here's how it started.

Celebrating a piece of history

Today, the sandwich is seen as a staple at family gatherings, holidays, weddings and more.

In 1977, Gurda served cannibal sandwiches at his traditional south side Milwaukee wedding.

It really wasn't a choice. It was an expectation, he said. You just wouldnt have considered having a wedding reception without cannibal sandwiches.

John Gurda and his wife, Sonja Nelson-Gurda, at their wedding reception at Sons of Norway Hall on June 4, 1977. The couple served cannibal sandwiches, pictured somewhere on the table to the right.

Altschwager said when people decide to make cannibal sandwiches, theyre recreating somebodys history. Thats why so many Wisconsinites hold onto it.

We want to maintain the tradition, she said, and we want to give our kids the holidays that we remember.

And, yes, cannibal sandwiches are known for being a little "out there." But most dishes that are an expression of culture are funky or elaborate  outliers, Altschwager said.

It's not something that you have every Wednesday night for dinner, she said.

Often a story or memory comes with it, such as remembering the first time you tried one or that joke grandpa used to make, Altschwager said.

Thats the magic for me with these foods. It's less about the food and more about the space we create when we serve those foods, she said.

While Gurda said he thinks the popularity of the sandwich has waned as consumers become more food-conscious, Scott Podd said its growing in popularity.

Podd is part owner of Rays Butcher Shoppe. The shop has been in the Milwaukee area since 1977.

Even though theyve always been busy, Podd said they do more orders now than they ever have, even during a normal weekday. He said the shop gets at least one customer a day who wants ground round for cannibal sandwiches.

Podd said the holidays  specifically, during late December  is the shop's busiest time of year for ground round.

We sell thousands of pounds around the holidays, he said.

But Podd said he doesnt know why its so popular.

Maybe because it goes good with a cocktail or beer, he said.

Or maybe its just a part of tradition.

Ray's Butcher Shoppe co-owner Perry Podd holds up the cannibal sandwich, made from raw beef and onions on rye bread, at Ray's Butcher Shoppe in Greenfield. The shop has been around since 1977.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why the raw meat cannibal sandwich endures in Wisconsin
Virginia Haley

Not long ago in a conversation with Lisa Krouse, president at the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County (EDC), we discussed the vital need for labor that many of our area businesses were facing. We always aim to be a resource to help solve community problems and we felt this was an area where we the destination marketing experts could step in and help.

We already market Sarasota County as a must-experience destination to visit, and knew it wouldnt be a leap to market our region as a must-experience place to live and work. From there the EDC came up with the tagline of Work Where You Want to Live. They shared it with us, and our marketing team went to work. We are experts in getting our messaging in front of targeted markets, so we were able to tailor a campaign that would motivate folks to want to move here to work. In addition to placing media with the help of our Agency of Record, Sarasota County-based Miles Partnership, VSC and the EDC together started contracting with a local public relations firm, Knight Strategic Communications (KSC), to specifically handle relocation-focused earned media, an interest that benefits the entire county. Typically, most people who are residents in Sarasota County were visitors before making their decision to permanently move. This campaign was created to lure new residents to the area to fill open positions with local employers and allow visitors the opportunity to observe why Sarasota County should be considered a destination to both work and live in.

We have had a very close working relationship with the EDC for many years, as our two organizations have been working on paid media strategies for a while now. We collaborate on these media strategies, with similar goals in mind to help elevate Sarasota Countys economic landscape with new and refreshing ideas.

Numerous markets have been targeted for this campaign, through a combination of media outreach, digital marketing, branded digital content and paid social media, which includes New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta. While the campaigns design is mainly to attract individual workers themselves, it may also benefit in attracting companies and organizations seeking to relocate to Sarasota County, or individuals looking to start their own businesses in the area as well.

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Work Where You Want to Live gives local businesses a chance to promote what makes them special and unique and continues to increase brand awareness of Sarasota County as a must experience destination. The campaign will strive to build the EDC relocation program and market personnel and business moves to Sarasota County.

Information on this campaign can be seen on WorkWhereYouWantToLive.com and EDCSarasotaCounty.com.

Virginia Haley is the president of Visit Sarasota County. She can be reached at 941-955-0991 or vhaley@visitsarasota.org.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: VIRGINIA HALEY: 'Work Where You Want to Live' campaign underway
The price of admission in a democracy is accepting that your side has lost. Thats especially true when you are an elected official. And thats why elected leaders at every level  from county election boards and state legislatures to state officials, Congress, former President Donald Trump and all who enabled him  must be held accountable for threatening U.S. democracy and leaving it on a knife edge. They need to be expelled and forced out and prosecuted for putting America at risk.

These Trump acolytes fueled corrosive Stop the Steal lies about non-existent vote fraud and organized, supported and attended Stop the Steal rallies. Some plotted in legislatures, courts and Congress to nullify the 2020 presidential election by ignoring, contesting or simply throwing out legitimate votes. Some were on the Capitol grounds during the bloody Jan. 6 attack that left five people dead. At least one was part of the mob.

We dont know all the details yet of who did what and when they did it, but we will.

March to the Capitol, 'fight like hell'

The House Jan. 6 committee knows it was Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan who forwarded a text to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 5, the day before Vice President Mike Pence presided over the ceremonial electoral vote count in Congress, saying that Pence should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.

The committee will know, if it doesn't already, who told Meadows that Trumps allies tried everything we could in our objection to the six states on Jan. 6. I am sorry nothing worked  and which lawmakers helped plan the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally where Trump lied that he'd been robbed, told his followers to march to the Capitol, advised them to be peaceful and patriotic, then exhorted them to "fight like hell" because "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." And the committee will determine if anyone in Congress aided or abetted the mob that then stormed the Capitol.

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President Donald Trump urges supporters to march to the Capitol at a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) identified 21 Republican state legislators who took part in the events of Jan. 6 and several hundred who called to "stop the steal" or overthrow the 2020 election. One Virginia legislator was censured after expressing support for the Capitol mob and three others were booted off a committee apiece after urging Pence to block Joe Biden's victory in Virginia.

But according to the DLCC, the only legislator forced out so far was Delegate Derrick Evans of West Virginia, who was arrested after livestreaming himself breaking into the Capitol yelling "Move, move!" and "We're in!" He resigned before his colleagues could vote on expelling him. And at least three election-denying legislators who were on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6 are running for higher office or exploring a race.

Confederate loyalties sank 14 senators

For the U.S. House and Senate, congressional history suggests a path if Democrats have the evidence, the will and the stomach to act. Expulsion is the most severe penalty available, and its main trigger has been betraying the United States.

Fifteen senators have been expelled, one in 1797 for plotting to give U.S. territories to Great Britain and, more than 60 years later, 14 because of support for Confederate rebellion. The House has only expelled five members  two for corruption and three for disloyalty to the Union; fighting for the Confederacy.

Paul Hodgkins of Tampa is pictured on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Support for a rebellion and disloyalty to the nation were hallmarks of the Jan. 6 insurrection. As U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss put it in July when he sentenced defendant Paul Hodgkins, a Tampa, Florida crane operator who carried a Trump flag into the building: He was staking a claim on the floor of the United States Senate, not with the American flag, but with a flag declaring his loyalty to a single individual over a nation.

Hodgkins pleaded guilty to corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, a felony that carries a maximum 20-year sentence. The government has filed the same charge against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters, and a Trump-appointed judge recently ruled it is an appropriate charge in those cases.

It is also a potential charge against elected officials, including Trump. Rep. Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, used the statutory language this month in describing a fundamental question in the panel's investigation: whether Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly sought to obstruct or impede Congress's official proceeding to count electoral votes.

Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee investigating Jan. 6, at a meeting Dec. 13, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

Thats one of several avenues suggested by law professors Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance in a Justice Department roadmap to investigating Trump and Jan. 6. Some of the potential charges are specific to Trump, the executive branch or his tight inner circle. But others could be used to charge anyone, from rioters to government officials at any level.

In addition to the statute Cheney cited, there is conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing or obstructing a government function like an election. That's looking increasingly plausible because it sounds like members of Congress may have been part of this type of conspiracy, McQuade told me. A third possibility is the federal voter fraud law that makes it a crime to deprive or defraud voters of a fair election. That could involve anybody trying to get states to throw out elections, said McQuade, a former prosecutor, including Trump telling the Georgia secretary of state to find him enough votes to win.

Ousting voter choices is a big deal

Elected officials bear the most responsibility when democracy goes off the rails like this, but they also have the strongest shields against paying a price. They were elected fair and square, and its no small thing to countermand the voters will by throwing them out of office. You could even argue that by doing so, congressional and/or legal authorities would be reversing a legitimate election result, just like Trump was trying to do.

But, as Tribe, McQuade and Vance put it, attempted coups cannot be ignored. We are in a different world after the first non-peaceful transfer of power in U.S. history. January 6th was without precedent, Cheney said this month. Our Constitution, the structure of our institutions and the rule of law, which are at the heart of what makes America great, are at stake.

Republicans across the country are passing "election sabotage" laws that will help them tailor results to their liking if new restrictions on voting dont get the job done. This absolutism about winning is dangerous on every level. Its already proven to be life-and-death dangerous, and not just on Jan. 6.

Just last week Mark Aguirre, a former Houston police captain, was indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after holding the driver of an A/C repair truck at gunpoint in October 2020. A conservative group had paid Aguirre more than $266,000 to investigate vote fraud and he was sure the truck held 750,000 fake ballots signed by Hispanic children. He was wrong and "we are lucky no one was killed, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.

Angst is rising among those of us impatient to see investigations and punishment that match this moment, when U.S. democracy is teetering on the edge of failure. State authorities as well as President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and  most essentially  Attorney General Merrick Garland must make examples of public officials who created chaos and brought America to the brink, all so Trump could stay president for life, or until he got bored. They aren't fit to lead or serve in any capacity.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Punish Trump and those in Congress who betrayed voters and America
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

In the opening moments of one of the trailers for The Matrix Resurrections, a voice says, We cant see it, but were all trapped inside these strange repeating loops. At that moment, a SWAT team kicks down a door to find a character seated facing a wall in a slick black catsuitand anyone familiar with The Matrix universe gets chills, because weve seen this look before. From the start of the original 1999 film, which begins with Carrie-Anne Moss in black latex, it was clear that The Matrix would be an exercise in style. Were hoping Resurrectionsthe first return to the haunting quasi-digital universe in 20 yearsis no different.



Its hard to understate the ripple effect that The Matrix had on filmmaking, fashion, and pop culture. Whether youre a fan of science fiction or not, the original trilogy changed the way that films are shot, the way we see action sequences on camera, and (thanks to original costume design by Kym Barrett) the way we think about what our superheroes should be wearing. Who could forget Trinitys catsuits? Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe in those extraordinary gravity-defying sunglasses? The many, many floor-length coats in unforgettable fabrications like crocodile or patent leather? And outside of the matrix, when we see these characters in the real worldif you dont know by now, look it up, because its far too complex to explain heretheyre in these perfectly earthy-crunchy sweaters and slinky layers that speak as much to our COVID-inflected, work-from-home era as to any postapocalyptic dystopia.

After the many frothy, Southern Californiainspired film fashions we saw in the 90s (think Clueless or Romy and Micheles High School Reunion), The Matrix offered a gothic, futuristic, luxe hacker-core vision of styleone that drew on underground cultures, raver fashion, and BDSM influences. The result was a timeless vision that feels as relevant today as it did in 1999.

But, of course, theres a big difference between 2021 and 1999. Social media, September 11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rise of cyberterrorism, social justice movements, the Kardashians, climate changethe world has changed several dozen times over the last two decades, so a return to The Matrix feels both nostalgic and thrilling. Ahead, BAZAAR.com speaks with the new films costume designer, Lindsay Pugh, to learn more about what we can expect from the film and whether fashion is actually moving forward, or if were just caught in these strange repeating loops. Lets see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Story continues

Your background includes period mysteries like The ABC Murders and current-day productions like Sense8, which was also created by the Wachowskis, the pair behind the original Matrix. Did Resurrections feel like an extension of your oeuvre or a totally new challenge?

The Matrix is a thing in itself, and I think its rooted in my previous work with Lana [Wachowski] on Sense8 and learning over the time weve worked together about what she likes and what goes on inside that intelligent brain of hers. As costume designers, our job is to create from what is put in front of us in the script. While actors get cast in certain roles for whatever reason, we get to design anything that is of interest to us.

Tell me about your research and creation process when you begin designing for a new production.

It depends on what the script is asking of me. If we did something set in a historical place, Ill go and look through costumes in museums, go to portrait galleries, look to history, and then take my references from that. I then make mood boards with color references and fabric samples, and build a world from that. If the script is asking me to create something from nothing, Ill go everywhereto nature, architectureand see what things bond with the world Im reading about.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

The Matrix is, in a sense, a sci-fi film about the future. What does the future look like to you?

It depends if youre inside or outside of the matrix. Inside, we are fairly on the same path as we see it and know it, because that is our matrix. If were outside of the matrix [this time, for Resurrections], I thought that one shouldnt see dystopia anymore, or a matrix covered by war. I thought there should be a little bit of charm and opportunity and good life.

How did you want the costume design for Resurrections to be rooted in the original trilogy, or perhaps diverge from it?

The original Matrix was huge, and a huge pop cultural moment in all of our lives. I absolutely had to take reference from that and pay respect to that. Although we have moved on and Resurrections is 20 years hence, Resurrections is not a direct link to the first movies. We dont roll credits on The Matrix Revolutions [the final film of the original trilogy] and move into Resurrections. I wanted to be very respectful to the mood of the original films. It would be a lot if I were to reinvent the wheel. And it also wasnt necessary.

Do you feel like there was more secrecy with this project than with other films youve done in the past?

All productions are super secret. We dont want to spoil the show. There was a lot of secrecy around it, because people were more interested. We just had to be very careful of making sure we didnt let anything out.

Was there any costume that the cast really loved, and perhaps pilfered after filming wrapped?

There were a few things that some of them really loved, but the cast was really well behaved. We did have a negotiation about some socks though.

Socks! Were they particularly special, or instrumental to the plot somehow?

They were just socks, and not important to the story really. But they were made out of very beautiful wool and they were lovely. Being comfortable is everything. A lovely pair of socks is a nice thing.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

When I think about The Matrix, I think of those fabulous floor-length leather coats that felt so unique and out of step with 90s fashion at the time.

The statement leather coats that people remember are usually those of Morpheus from the first Matrix. As you have probably recognized, we have a different Morpheus this time around. Therefore, his reiteration gave us all an opportunity to change the way he looked in this movie. There were other things too. There were certain things in this one that make a nod to the original movie, and one such thing was the silhouettes of the outerwear.

There were also some epic sunglasses the first time around. Can we expect great sunglasses in Resurrections?

Yes. When thinking about how to approach this film, sunglasses were a huge thing. Its very much part of the look of The Matrix. I got in touch with a great designer, Tom Davies from London, and we collaborated. He came up with some fantastic designs that are an evolution of the glasses from the first movie.  I dont know if the average person would wear some of these frames, but I would wear them given the opportunity.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Are there any style moments from this film that you think will cause an impact?

I hope so! There are a couple of very strong female leads in this, and when they jack into the matrix, they have some great looks. Theres a character called Lexy, and she wears this short, asymmetrical black wool jacket dress that works really well. Its smart, straightforward, and wearable today.

Trinity had some unforgettable style moments in the original trilogy. Has her style changed in the new film?

She is the same character, but we are 20 years different, and Carrie-Ann is 20 years different as well. We keep the essential style. She still likes motorcyclesshes still that person at heartbut we do alter that style superficially here and there. I really like the biker jacket she wears at the end, and I like her jewelry.

Jewelry can be such a tough thing to get right for a character.

It goes along with having a character developmentthere are these pieces Trinity has picked up over the years. I wanted to develop her in that way in order to give her some strength. Its certainly not the centerpiece of her costume, but more a part of her history.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Piloncillo cookies

The first time I packed grated piloncillo into a cup measurement I understood why it is commonly referred to as Mexican brown sugar. Known in Mexico as piloncillo, the raw unrefined cane sugar has many names depending on the country. Its known as panela and rapadura in Central and Latin America, while in Chile and Peru it is called chancaca. Typically piloncillo is sold in a cone-shaped block that does resemble hardened brown sugar. But brown sugar it is not. Its wonderful earthy, slightly bitter, warm caramel flavor sets it apart from other sweeteners and gives it a versatility that enhances sweet and savory dishes alike.

I dont recall my Mexican grandparents keeping cones of piloncillo in their kitchen growing upalthough, my grandpas notorious sweet tooth makes me think they must have. I hadnt used it much until this year when I started developing the pan dulce menu for my panaderia. In Mexican dishes piloncillo is used to sweeten drinks like cafe de olla and champurrado, as well as for pouring over bunuelos, a kind of fritter. In my panaderia, piloncillo can be found in almost everything, from replacing the brown sugar in canela (cinnamon) rolls, to being used in tandem with granulated sugar in the crunchy shell topping for what is one of the most well-known pan dulce, the concha.

Read more

Recently I melted down an 8-ounce cone of piloncillo with a little water and orange zest to replace the molasses in a ginger cake. In a cake, the melted piloncillo works the same way molasses does. That same dark amber of the sweetener gave the batter a warm honeyed color, while melting the piloncillo provided moistness to the crumb. Because I was most familiar with using piloncillo in the Mexican cookies marranitos (or puerquitos, as it is also known), the spiced pig-shaped cookie that uses melted piloncillo, I wanted to play around with it in another cookie recipe.

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Piloncillo has a higher price point than other sweeteners, specifically brown sugar. Ive seen it sold online between $13.59 for a pack of three, to $4.95 for two 8 ounce cones. I highly suggest you check out your local mercado, if youre lucky enough to have one nearby, as they will most likely sell piloncillo for a lower dollar amount.

The first test was a snickerdoodle-type cookie using only grated piloncillo and some granulated sugar as the sweeteners. As I was grating almost an entire 8-ounce cone of piloncillo and stopping to rest my arm for what felt like every two minutes, I wondered if I was asking too much for a cookie recipe. I decided the second test would have to include some melted piloncillo as well. Because this was a cookie featuring piloncillo, we simply have to grate at least some of it.

For this recipe I opted for equal parts granulated sugar and grated piloncillo, about  cup of each. Piloncillo can also be (very carefully) hacked away at with a (very) sharp serrated knife. I dont like treating the piloncillo this way simply because I dont trust that I wouldnt injure myself with one accidental slip of my hand. Should you decide to go this route, it is a bit easier to cut into the piloncillo by softening it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. You might have a small amount of leftover piloncillo syrup, which I highly recommend for pouring over ice cream or simply adding to your morning coffee.

Once the 1 cup of packed piloncillo is grated or chopped, set it aside while you brown the butter. I like browning the butter for this cookie because the nuttiness pairs well with the caramel-ness of the piloncillo. Its an added bonus that browned butter makes the dough a one-bowl situation, although you can of course use a stand mixer if youd rather let the machine do all the work (understandable).

When the butter is cooling slightly, measure or weigh out the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I love sweet and savory desserts, and I love spicy desserts all the more, so I used a teaspoon of chipotle powder here. (If spicy isnt your thing, you can swap the chipotle for another spice like ground ginger or nutmeg, or just reduce the chipotle to  teaspoon.) Ground cinnamon is there to accompany the chipotle, ever so gently nudging the spiciness a bit sweeter, while the orange zest brightens everything up.

Rolling the cookie dough balls in a mixture of chipotle and orange cinnamon granulated and demerara sugar reinforces the flavors in the cookie and adds a bit of sparkle, making this a solid contender for your holiday cookie list.





Chipotle Orange Piloncillo Cookies

Modified from King Arthur Baking Companys Gingersnaps recipe

Yield: about 20 cookies

Prep time: about 28 minutes (about 5 minutes to grate the piloncillo, 15 to melt the additional piloncillo and around 7-8 for the butter to brown + measuring or weighing out ingredients)

Bake time: 10-12 minutes

Cookie dough:

1 (8-ounce) cone of piloncillo, divided

6 ounces ( cup or 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter

99 grams ( cup) granulated sugar

1 large egg, straight from the fridge

zest from 2 large oranges, divided

280 grams (2  cups) all-purpose flour

 teaspoon kosher salt

1  teaspoons baking soda

-1 teaspoon chipotle powder

 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Chipotle Orange Cinnamon Sugar:



 cup Demerara sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

 teaspoon chipotle powder

 teaspoon ground cinnamon

zest from the remaining orange

Directions:
Two Kentucky infants placed in a bathtub with a blanket, pillow and a Bible by their grandmother as a deadly tornado approached survived even after the tub was ripped from the floor and lifted.

Clara Lutzs voice broke as she described the night of 10 December  when historic storms swept through the state and levelled her house in Hopkins County. She told 14 News that she was looking after Kaden, 15 months, and Dallas, 3 months, at the time.

Ms Lutz put the babies in the tub and covered them up as the tornadoes tore a path towards them. Some people recommend getting into a bathtub during tornadoes on the reasoning that pipes and construction will make the tubs sturdier than other parts of homes.

I felt the rumbling, I felt the shaking of the house. Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands. I couldnt hold on, I just -- Oh my God, Ms Lutz told 14 News.

Kaden, 15 months, and Dallas, 3 months, both survived the deadly tornado (www.wtok.com)

She said the tub ripped out of the floor as the storms tore her house down to the foundations. Not only could she see nothing in the darkness but she also says the tubs water tank hit her in the head amidst the chaos - but she frantically kept searching for her grandchildren.

I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be. I had no clue at all where these babies was. All I could say was Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee, she told the station.

After the tornado passed, rescuers discovered the tub in the yard upside down, News 14 reported - with Kaden and Dallas underneath.

I got in the sheriffs car down at the end of my driveway, and it wasnt long after that that they opened up the door and brought me Kaden, my 15-month-old. And they brought me my three-month-old, baby Dallas. They brought him to me. He had a goose egg on the back of his head, we didnt know what was wrong, Ms Lutz told the station.

She said the babys brain was bleeding but stopped before the child even arrived at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.

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At least 78 people died last weekend in Kentucky as storms swept through in what Governor Andy Beshear called the most destructive tornado event in the states history.

After the tornado passed, rescuers discovered the tub in the yard upside down (wtok.com)

He said in a press conference on Saturday that all people reported missing had finally been accounted for as recovery efforts continued.

In Kentucky, Gov. Beshear said help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been extended to six additional counties and that relief benefits provided for funeral expenses have been increased to $10,000.

They shouldnt have to have a cheap funeral for their loved one, he said. Thats not right.

Beshear said some homes remain without power or under boil water advisories and that 944 Kentuckians have been given shelter in hotels or state parks. He also said applications were being accepted in 14 Kentucky counties for disaster unemployment assistance for those whose jobs were displaced by the storms.

But Ms Lutzs grandchildren werent the only ones saved by a bathtub as the tornados ripped through Kentucky and nearby states; a total of 92 people have been confirmed dead in total so far across the region.

In Arkansas, Jada Madden told CBS 42 a tub had saved her family, as well. She was at home with her fiance and their eight-month old when the sirens went off, she said.

We grabbed a pillow, and we sat in the bathtub, and as soon as we sat down, it was gone, she said of their house. I thought I was going to be buried alive because I felt like I was just being pushed straight down.

When the chaos calmed, she said, the house was no more - but the tub was in the middle of the street and the trio survived with minor scratches.

I didnt know I flew in a tub, but I did, she told the station.
Hold the caviar and put the mink back in the closet.

Davos is dead, again. The glitzy and eagerly awaited World Economic Forum annual meeting scheduled for the Swiss mountain resort on Jan. 17-21 has been shelved for the second year in a row, replaced by a series of online discussions.

The postponement  due to Omicrons emergence  is the latest in a series of failed efforts by WEF to return to in-person meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, and puts financial pressure on the organization, with tens of millions of dollars of event income at risk.

In 2020, WEFs Davos conference attracted more than 100 billionaires and 53 heads of state or government. Companies  still mostly from the U.S. and Europe  pay around $50,000 per person for a coveted white badge to access this guest list.

WEFs event fee income dropped from around $45 million in 2020 to zero in 2021. Membership and partnership fees range from $65,000 to $650,000, depending on the level of engagement, per WEF.

Membership fee income was down $7.5 million in 2021, with companies such as BT, a European telecoms giant, cutting ties. We took the decision to end our partnership with the WEF earlier this year, Richard Farnsworth, a BT spokesperson, told POLITICO.

Local businesses in Davos  Europes highest altitude town  depend heavily on the influx of rich visitors each January. While each company is allowed only five white badge holders, entourages of lower-level executives, assistants, drivers and chefs can number more than 100 for the largest companies attending.

Shops and bars are turned into elaborate pavilions and exhibition spaces, while the going rate for a bunk bed in an apartment is close to $1,000 per night. Dont ask about the chalet prices.

Organizers are hoping to shift the 2022 Davos conference to summer 2022, but a similar plan to move the event to a literal island of Covid safety fell flat in 2021.

Klaus Schwab, WEFs executive chair, announced with fanfare in December 2020 that the winter Davos conference would move to Singapore in May 2021 as a way to escape the pandemic. That plan was then delayed until August 2021 and eventually canceled altogether after a local surge in Covid-19 cases.

Story continues

Amanda Russo, a WEF spokesperson, downplayed the impact of postponing the 2022 conference. The annual meeting is just one touch point alongside the day-to-day work of our nearly 20 platforms. Our partners sign on as members to work year-round, Russo told POLITICO.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant in November, WEF successfully scrambled to pause  until the week after the scheduled January event  a new Swiss rule requiring 10-day quarantine for foreign visitors that would have upended the Davos conference.

Hundreds of executives parachute into the Swiss mountain resort each year for the conference, many of them on private jets, and some of them for as little as 24 hours: a schedule incompatible with quarantining.

Does Cristal make a sound if only 100 people hear it popping?

Even with a pause on quarantine rules, Davos event planners had been flummoxed in recent weeks by a series of changing local restrictions, including severe limits on the number of attendees at private events, and concerns that the event would eventually be canceled.

Davos stalwarts including the Wall Street Journal and CNBC called off plans for their regular pavilions and lounge spaces. Companies such as JPMorgan meanwhile wondered whether to go ahead with their evening receptions at cavernous local art galleries, if those spaces had to remain nearly empty to comply with Covid rules.

WEF sought to reassure its stakeholders via email and its exclusive Toplink social platform in early December that the event would proceed. Even so, regular Davos attendees remained skeptical that the event could proceed as planned.

As a crisis manager, we had doomsday scenario planning in our recommendation to clients anyway, said one consultant at a Washington lobbying and public affairs firm. You simply have to do that in 2022, or 2020: Part Three as I am calling it.

WEF remains upbeat, for now.

The deferral of the annual meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society, Schwab said.

While some aspects of WEFs work continue to expand  such as a Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics program that has grown to include more than 100 companies  the next challenge for WEF is more practical: dealing with badge-holders requesting refunds on their tickets.

Davos badges are "100 percent refundable until the start of the meeting," per a WEF document obtained by POLITICO. But CEOs' expense reports might be stuck eating the hotel suites and unopened cases of Cristal.
Autism Community Needs Service Options More than Ever

Hopebridge Autism Therapy Centers

Autism Community Needs Service Options More than Ever

Autism Community Needs Service Options More than Ever

Indianapolis, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the recent update that the rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased to 1 in 44 children in the United States, Hopebridge Autism Therapy Centers urges parents to be proactive and aware of the symptoms, rather than concerned.

From an analysis data gathered in 2018 from 11 states, the reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the prevalence of the ASD diagnosis in 8-year-old children grew more than 22% in two years (up from 1 in 54 in 2016).

At first glance, these new statistics may seem shocking, but its important to note that the rate increase was likely due to stronger identification that stems from improved awareness and access to diagnostic services, said licensed clinical psychologist, Amaurita Kanai, at Hopebridge, which provides pediatric autism services. The heightened presence and efforts of autism organizations, advocates and clinicians have played a significant role in getting information about ASD directly into the hands of the public, putting parents in a better place to request evaluations alongside their pediatricians.

The CDC also estimates that children were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 4 in 2018 than they were in 2014. This illustrates that early identification has dramatically improved over recent years, though providers like Hopebridge believe progress is still necessary to get children the support they need during their key developmental years.

This is especially true within some specific communities, as there were disparities in the prevalence of medical diagnoses between states and ethnic groups. Though autism occurs among all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, the number of Hispanic children with an autism diagnosis was found to be lower than that of White or Black children in several areas. This is evidence that the identification and support efforts may need to be increased so all children receive the care and opportunities they deserve.

Story continues

Hopebridge recommends families learn from and act on this new data by seeking answers around any questions they have related to their childrens development. Parents and caregivers should equip themselves with the signs of autism so their challenges and behaviors can be evaluated through a formal diagnostic assessment, should any concerns arise. Some of the common early symptoms of autism include:

An absence of smiles or avoidance of eye contact;

Lack of communication skills;

Preference of alone time over playing with other children;

Negative behaviors sparked by change in route or routine;

Sensory challenges related to lights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes;

Repetitive behaviors, such as hand-flapping, spinning or vocal stimming;

Restricted interests;

Regression of skills.

Not only do the CDC reports display the importance of identification, but they underscore the growing need for additional autism services like Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA therapy), speech therapy and occupational therapy to further support these children and their families.

In many areas across the country, parents wait months to receive a diagnosis for their child, and once they get it, they then must wait even longer to get them into therapy, said Hopebridge Director of ABA Clinical Quality Assurance Melissa Chevalier. With the increased prevalence of autism, the need for behavior analysts, speech pathologists and occupational therapists is greater now than ever, so Hopebridge aims to expand access to early intervention services by developing its therapy teams from within.

As part of this effort, Hopebridge offers a Behavior Analyst Fellowship (BAF) Program for prospective Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) and a Fieldwork Experience Program for students on paths to become Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) and Registered Occupational Therapists (OTR). Other career advancement and continuing education opportunities are available to not only to help its more than 4,300 employees develop their skill sets, but also to provide more access to care for patients.

In addition to the need for better access to services, providers like Hopebridge also use these reports to understand if and how services should evolve. For example, the CDC findings show that while the rate of autism diagnoses increased, the proportion of children with ASD who also have an intellectual disability decreased. Though there is still variability among racial groups that the CDC intends to address through research (since there was a higher ratio of intellectual disability among Black children than White children), the data across the board suggests that more children with higher IQs are no longer having their diagnoses overlooked, which may have occurred in the past.

In an effort to continue creating better healthcare outcomes and standardized measurement, Hopebridge, along with other providers and international autism experts, have implemented the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurements (ICHOM) standardized Autism Spectrum Disorder Standard Set (ASDSS). The rollout of this set marks an important, proactive step towards promoting data quality and availability across the industry. The ASDSS will strengthen autism care and provide a cohesive set of standards that ICHOM will implement globally. For more on how Hopebridge how the launch of ICHOMs Standard Set advances autism therapy and benefits Hopebridge patients, visit https://bit.ly/3qdsSXA.

If you look at Applied Behavior Analysis now versus when I first started working in the field in 2003, you can see how therapy has morphed. In the past, we mostly saw kids with significant delays and behaviors who were older. Now were seeing different intellectual abilities in the children we work with and can make adjustments to therapy, as needed, to accommodate them, said Chevalier.

As one of the largest autism therapy providers in the nation, Hopebridge serves children and families through its interdisciplinary, pediatric therapy options that include ABA, occupational therapy, speech therapy and feeding therapy. For more information about ASD and the center-based and in-home service options Hopebridge offers to support the autism community, visit hopebridge.com.

To schedule a diagnostic assessment or therapy evaluation at one of Hopebridges more than 100 center locations around the country, fill out the form at hopebridge.com/contact.

###

About Hopebridge

Hopebridge was founded in 2005 to serve the growing need for autism treatment services and to improve the lives of affected children and families. Hopebridge is committed to providing personalized outpatient ABA, occupational, speech and feeding therapies for children touched by autism spectrum disorder and behavioral, physical, social, communication and sensory challenges. Hopebridge provides a trusted place where they can receive the care, support and hope they deserve.

More than a decade later, Hopebridge continues to open state-of-the-art autism therapy centers in new communities to reach patients and families who need services. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Hopebridge operates over 100 centers in the following twelve states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio and Tennessee.

Attachment

CONTACT: Mikaela Malott Hopebridge (317) 794-3231 ext. 1003 mmalott@hopebridge.com




New coronavirus cases increased 6.3% in Massachusetts in the week ending Sunday as the state added 35,881 cases. The previous week had 33,745 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Massachusetts ranked fifth among all states in terms of where COVID-19 was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Last week, coronavirus cases in the United States increased 9.6% from the week before, with 913,491 cases reported.

With 2.07% of the country's population, Massachusetts had 3.93% of the country's cases last week. Throughout the country, 22 states had more cases last week than they did the week before.

Falmouth Town Crier David Vieira makes his way down the parade route in Falmouth on Dec. 5. The parade returned this year after a COVID-driven hiatus in 2020. Town criers are a centuries-old tradition from England and New England. (Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times)

Middlesex County reported 6,320 cases and 35 deaths last week. A week earlier, it had reported 5,819 cases and 24 deaths. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 186,874 cases and 4,057 deaths.

Worcester County reported 4,274 cases and 20 deaths last week. A week earlier, it had reported 4,227 cases and 12 deaths. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 115,376 cases and 2,510 deaths.

Norfolk County reported 2,529 cases and 15 deaths last week. A week earlier, it had reported 2,366 cases and 16 deaths. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 74,907 cases and 1,923 deaths.

Within Massachusetts, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Bristol County, with 631 cases per 100,000 per week; Hampden County, with 612; and Plymouth County, with 539. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Middlesex County, with 6,320; Worcester County, with 4,274; and Essex County, with 4,148. Weekly case counts rose in seven counties from the previous week. The sharpest increases from the prior week's pace occurred in Suffolk, Middlesex and Hampden counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Massachusetts is third among all states in its share of people receiving at least one shot, with 89.1% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 72.8%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

Story continues

In the week ending Sunday, Massachusetts reported administering 352,707 vaccine doses, including 83,059 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 1,086,036 vaccine doses, including 297,644 first doses. In all, Massachusetts reported it has administered 12,591,134 total doses.

Throughout Massachusetts, cases fell in five counties, with the sharpest declines occurring in Bristol County (3,564 cases, down from 3,633 a week earlier); Franklin County (252 cases, down from 316); and Berkshire County (471 cases, down from 532).

In Massachusetts, 195 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 145 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,005,470 people in Massachusetts have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 19,829 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 50,846,828 people have tested positive and 806,439 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Massachusetts' COVID-19 hospital admissions staying flat

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday.

Likely COVID-19 patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 1,651

The week before that: 1,669

Four weeks ago: 1,117

Likely COVID-19 patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 92,085

The week before that: 91,676

Four weeks ago: 75,048

Hospitals in 28 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 30 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 23 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Middlesex County COVID-19 cases increased by 6,320 this week
Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against New York state Attorney General Letitia James in an attempt to stop her from investigating his business practices.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Monday and first reported by The New York Times, claims that James investigation violates Trumps constitutional rights. It requests a preliminary and permanent order that would bar her from any civil or criminal investigations against Trump and his business empire, the Trump Organization.

Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent, the suit reads.

James office said the lawsuit is simply Trumps latest attempt to delay her offices work.

Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump, the state AGs office said in a statement to HuffPost.

James has been conducting a civil probe of the Trump Organization, related to Trumps business dealings prior to his presidency, since 2019. In May she announced that she had opened a separate criminal investigation into his business empire as well.

Trumps suit accuses James of investigating him in bad faith and without a legally sufficient basis, which the suit claims violates his 14th Amendment rights by depriving him of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

It further accuses James of violating Trumps First Amendment right to free speech through her alleged desire to harass, intimidate, threaten, oppress, coerce, and injure Trump and the Trump Organization, supposedly in retaliation for his political views and acts as president.

The suit lastly accuses James of violating Trumps Fourth Amendment rights  which protect against unreasonable search and seizure  through her subpoenas, which the suit calls overbroad, overreaching and irrelevant.

Plaintiffs will continue to suffer irrevocable loss and irreparable harm as a result of Defendants deprivation of their constitutional rights, the suit states.

Story continues

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
People hold makeshift signs at a picket in solidarity with Theodore Edgecomb, at the intersection of Brady and Holton, held by The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression December 17, 2021 in Milwaukee

A bicyclist charged with killing a Milwaukee lawyer last year says he acted in self defense, and plans to rely on the same expert who testified for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of killing two people during protests in Kenosha.

The cases differ in many other ways, but activists see Milwaukee's as a test of whether a Black man can rely on self-defense the same way a white vigilante teen backed by conservative and gun rights advocates could.

Theodore Edgecomb, 31, faces a count of first-degree reckless homicide in the Sept. 22, 2020 shooting of Jason Cleereman, 54, an immigration attorney and advocate. Edgecomb left the area, and prosecutors called the shooting a case of road rage, as friends and supporters mourned Cleereman.

Surveillance video from the area shows Cleereman could be viewed as the aggressor before he was shot. Edgecomb's lawyers call the original road rage narrative "distorted and inaccurate." They claim Cleereman was drunk, uttered racial slurs twice against Edgecomb, threatened to kill him and had a folding knife in his pocket.

A representative of Cleereman's family, Craig Matantuono, said they regret "having to respond in the public media to outrageous accusations and outright lies." He called it "beyond offensive" to say Cleereman was threatening or used racist language.

"Mr. Edgecomb did not act in self-defense, and this is not a close case," Mastantuono, a defense lawyer, said in a statement. He also said called comparisons to the Rittenhouse case, "in a blunt plea for racial equality," misplace.

"Every case is unique and judged on its own facts. This is a clear case of Theodore Edgecombs one-sided violence, armed murder and flight from justice, one that a controversial verdict in another county does not justify."

Jason and Evangeline Cleereman

Reduced bail requested

At a hearing Tuesday, Edgecomb's lawyers will argue to reduce his $250,000 bail to $50,000.

Story continues

"This would balance the communitys interest in public safety with Mr. Edgecombs potential innocence as a man that believed he was acting in self-defense when he fired one gunshot at a man who pursued him who was seeking to retaliate against Mr. Edgecomb," the bail motion reads.

Lawyers will also argue a variety of motions to allow or block certain evidence at trial, currently set to begin Jan. 3.

Top homicide prosecutor Grant Huebner represents the state. Edgecomb is represented by Aneeq Ahmad, a Milwaukee defense lawyer, and B'Ivory LaMarr of Texas.

According to records, Edgecomb was riding against traffic on Brady Street when he passed Cleereman, a passenger in a westbound car driven by his wife. She says she had to swerve and Cleereman yelled something at the cyclist.

While the couple was stopped at the light at North Humboldt Avenue, Edgecomb, who had turned around, rode up to the open passenger window and asked Cleereman if he had been talking to him.

After words were exchanged, Edgecomb punched Cleereman in the face, then rode away westbound on Brady. A few blocks later, video shows Edgecomb turn right onto the Holton Street bridge, followed a moment later by the Cleereman's Subaru, which pulls over just behind Edgecomb, who has ridden up onto the sidewalk.

Video shows Cleereman exit the car and go aggressively toward Edgecomb, who fired one shot before exiting, with his bike, down the stairs to below the bridge.

The Cleeremans had been drinking at a bar, and Jason Cleereman's blood-alcohol content was .12, and he also had THC in his system, according to court records.

Theodore Edgecomb, left, with one of his children

Edgecomb fled the state

After the shooting, police ran pictures of a suspect taken from area videos and announced a $10,000 reward. Someone identified Edgecomb, but he was already gone.

Prosecutors say he went to Florida and Kentucky, where he was arrested March 4 after a traffic stop, when he gave a false name.

Jurors should hear about that, prosecutors say, because it proves Edgecomb was conscious of his own guilt. The defense says it would unfairly prejudice Edgecomb and is irrelevant since he admits to the shooting.

Given his claim of self-defense, they say, the only question for jurors to decide is whether it was reasonable for Edgecomb to use deadly force. Prosecutors have the burden of convincing jurors the decision to shoot was not reasonable.

At the time, Edgecomb was out on bail for two other charges, one a felony, one a misdemeanor. Conditions of his release in each case was that he did not possess a gun. That's why he fled, his lawyers say, not because he knew he was guilty of shooting Cleereman. Edgecomb is charged with two counts of bail jumping in addition to the homicide count.

Implicit bias instruction

Edgecomb's lawyers want the judge to instruct the jury on implicit bias, and make clear it is important to guard against it affecting the jury's decisions.

In their motion, defense lawyers wrote:

"Of great concern is that Mr. Edgecomb, a young black man on a bicycle, may be viewed or seen with biases or prejudices from some members of the jury, who may find him fitting a stereotype or profile of a black man with a gun: a gangster, a punk, a gang-banger, a degenerate, or a thug," the motion reads.

The defense has filed several letters in support of Edgecomb from his stepchildren, a Little League official and others, along with more than a dozen photos of him with his children in various contexts.

"To the contrary, Mr. Edgecomb has no prior felony convictions" the motion reads. "Coupled with the fact that the deceased in this case was a white male attorney, who was well-known within his community, the defense is concerned about racial biases and favoritism.

"What if the races of the parties were switched? Would that change how a juror feels about this case? Would the DA have even charged this case? These are questions for all of us to consider."

Because Wisconsin doesn't have a standard jury instruction on implicit bias, lawyers included an example of one from Arkansas. It reads, in part, " Each of us has biases about or certain perceptions or stereotypes of other people. We may be aware of some of our biases, though we may not share them with others. We may not be fully aware of some of our other biases.

"Our biases often affect how we act, favorably or unfavorably, toward someone. Bias can affect our thoughts, how we remember, what we see and hear, whom we believe or disbelieve, and how we make important decisions. Witnesses can have the same implicit biases

Sonya Gordon of Milwaukee, mother of Theodore Edgecomb gives final remarks at a picket, at the intersection of Brady and Holton, held by The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in solidarity with Theodore Edgecomb December 17, 2021 in Milwaukee

N-word, aggression

The state has listed possible character witnesses to rebut any suggestions Cleereman would use racist language or act as an aggressor. The defense wants to block any such character evidence, arguing that Edgecomb will only testify about what Cleereman did that one night, a factual question for the jury to decide.

Generally, evidence of a victim's character is limited unless a defendant says they were aware of a victim's reputation for violence and took that into consideration in their defensive actions. Evidence of a victim's reputation for peacefulness can also be admitted to rebut claims that the victim was the aggressor.

The defense says neither exception applies. Cleereman's claimed words and actions " could certainly be construed as racist or offensive conduct in the heat of the moment or in a fit of rage," Edgecomb's lawyers wrote, but Edgecomb does not claim Cleereman was generally racist or violent. Therefore, they argue, the judge should bar testimony about the victim's character.

Use of force expert

As part of Edgecomb's notice of intention to use expert testimony, his lawyers note that "when using physical force, decisions often occur in dynamic, rapidly changing situation(s) and under situations that are often tense and uncertain.

"Use of force events are analyzed under the totality of the circumstances and viewed from the standpoint of the defendant at the time of the defendant's acts."

The defense plans to use John D. Black, of Oregon, a longtime law enforcement officer, trainer and researcher on the use of force, who testified for Rittenhouse, who raised self-defense at his November trial. Rittenhouse testified he feared for his own life when he shot two men and wounded a third with an AR-15-style rife during protests in Kenosha in August 2020. The jury found him not guilty of all counts.

Black testified that while video helps establish, objectively, what occurred during a recorded incident, it doesn't reveal how each actor is viewing things at the time. People naturally focus on one or two things in a tense situation, Black said, and can't see everything in real time like a camera does.

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man charged with killing lawyer raising self-defense, racial issues
Simon Rex may be busy collecting praise and accolades for his turn in Sean Baker's Red Rocket, about a washed-up porn actor returning to his Texas roots, but he's still got time to go down Memory Lane and recall his own, more humble beginnings.

In the mini-doc Thru the Eras, Rex and friends like Regina Hall, Mark Ronson, and fellow former VJ Pauly Shore look back on how he wandered into a multi-hyphenate career, one chance encounter after the next.

First, fresh out of high school, he was dating a model when a casting agent noticed him and he landed the job instead. That led to every young knockabout's dream in the '90s, joining MTV as a VJ.

Simon Rex

A24

"He was like the cute, white boy with all the flavor on MTV," says Hall.

As a VJ, Rex was at an event and having clocked out of work, he and his producer were getting stoned when Tupac Shakur suddenly just showed up  as iconic rappers tend to do.

"And they're like, 'You have to interview Tupac now, live, on TV,'" Rex says. "And I said to my producer, 'I'm too stoned.' They go, 'Don't worry, so is he.' "

As iconic celebrities tend to be.

In the MTV clip that follows Rex's admission, one can easily tell that they're both high as a kite and just really enjoying each other's company.

From there, Rex went on to try his hand at acting, even reading for a role in Good Will Hunting. While it took him a while to be taken seriously as an actor, Rex also dabbled in music, rapping under the name Dirt Nasty. Among his fans, according to another Rex buddy, Mark Ronson, was the late Amy Winehouse.

Check out these and other random, bonkers stories crammed into this five-minute doc above.

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At the end of November and the beginning of December the Hungarian postal services sends innumerable packages abroad, as Hungarian families all over the world love to receive and decorate the Christmas tree with 'szaloncukor' - a traditional Hungarian candy.

Practically every Hungarian family puts up a Christmas tree these days. This custom was adopted from Hungarians of German descent at the beginning of the 19th century.



In the early days it was only the aristocrats who could afford a Christmas tree  one of the oldest records describes the richly decorated fir tree belonging to the Duchess Therese Brunswick (17751861), allegedly Beethovens immortal beloved.



Later on, wealthy middle-class families also started putting up fir trees in their reception rooms, until even the poorest families celebrated the festival  even if it was only with a green branch.



Many favor glittering glass baubles, others hang chocolate figures from the branches, some like straw and paper adornments, while those with poorest families celebrated the festival  even if it was only with a green branch.



Tree decorations are a matter of personal taste of course. Many families favour glittering glass baubles, others hang chocolate figures from the branches, some like straw and paper adornments, while those with a sense of tradition prefer folksy trimmings  shiny, rosy-cheeked apples, gilded walnuts, and snow-white garlands of popcorn.

One thing every tree has, of course, is candles  whether the traditional wax kind or the modern electrical varien. However, a genuine Hungarian Christmas tree would be incomplete without the szaloncukor.



Szaloncukor

This most indispensable of tree decorations is a traditional candy made from fondant or another sweetmeat. It is wrapped first in white tissue paper with fringed ends and then a layer of shiny aluminum foil, which glimmers in a multitude of colors.

Even though the saying the tailor makes the man is perhaps no longer relevant, it certainly still applies one hundred percent to the tree candy  the wrapping is the crucial part.



The entire Hungarian population was shaken when in the 1990s a large chocolate factory launched a szaloncukor wrapped not in tissue paper but in aluminum foil with fringed ends and a design printed on it. Szaloncukor is seasonal product with a short life.



In the run-up to Christmas the stores are filled with huge mountains of candy boxes  after the holidays even the finest, most expensive tree candies are sold at knockdown prices or simply donated to charitable causes.

They can no longer be sold, even though the statistics stand testimony to the simply lavish consumption of tree candies, with every Hungarian munching his way through over a pound of tree decorations on average each year.



How this confectionery came to be the most important accessory of the Hungarian Christmas tree can only be a matter for pure conjecture. The name szaloncukor or drawing-room sugar derives perhaps from the fact that the Christmas tree always stood in the drawing-room, the most luxurious room in the houses of the nobility and middle-classes.



Or the name may have originated because the term tree candy dates back to a sweetmeat offered in the reception rooms of noble houses. It may perhaps also have been given this name due to the connotations of elegance and selectness associated with the term drawing-room.



Even a century ago, the apprentice confectioners would work around the clock in the run-up to Christmas. They would fringe thousands of tissue paper wrappers, so that there were sufficient in the different colors and flavors of the various tree candies chosen by customers.



Up to a few decades ago, szaloncukor were made exclusively from fondant; later on they were coated in chocolate and later still filled or even made from marzipan.



Nowadays, the traditional, glittering wrapper conceals innumerable different flavors, although the jelly-filled szaloncukor is perhaps the most popular. In former times, each individual candy would be hung from the tree with wool or twine, but now they are simply suspended from thin wire hooks.

The Christmas tree must not be stripped until after Twelfth Night, January 6. Although the paper wrappers of the tree candy are perfectly intact, you will be lucky to find anything left in them to eat. The ability to remove the tempting confectionery from its wrapper without leaving any sign of tampering or damaging the aluminum foil is a skill acquired at an early age by this nation of candy-lovers and perfected until late on in life.



MTI Photo: Varga Gyorgy / Mohai Balazs / Mathe Zoltan / H. Szabo Sandor

Source: It's Hungarian, republished with permission
Gyorgy Gattyan, one of the richest people in Hungary, announced on ATVs Egyenes Beszed program on Friday that he was officially running for office in the 2022 Parliamentary elections with his new party, the Solution Movement.

The billionaire said that his goal was to install a new government, but he would only accept a term as prime minister for four years, which he considers the shortest time possible.



Gattyan has spoken about his political intentions several times in recent days, but has not given many concrete details about it. The internet magnate has mostly spoken about how much Hungary could benefit from a digitalization program, and has also put up a number of billboards around the country of himself promoting the launch of the largest company.



Reacting to Gyorgy Gattyans political ambitions, the opposition claimed that his campaign would split non-Fidesz voters and thus serve the interests of the government party.



The billionaire responded to these charges by saying he could not be blackmailed or bought. It was later revealed that a private equity fund run by pro-government actors had invested 900 million Ft. (US $2.75 million) into one of his companies.





MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak
New Delhi: Ananya Panday has finally shared the teaser of her next film 'Gehraiyaan' with Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi. The Shakun Batra directorial had been making a lot of buzz ever since the star cast began sharing BTS pictures and videos from the shoot.

Now, the makers and actors have dropped the intriguing teaser of the film which get a digital release on Amazon Prime. The teaser gave a glimpse of the gist of the film, hinting at a secret love affair between Siddhant and Deepika's character.

While Ananya and Siddhant were shown to be dating, the steamy scenes between Siddhant and Deepika tell another story. In the background, we hear the calming original title soundtrack of the film.

Take a look at the teaser:

On Sunday, the trio had shared black and white stills from the film's shoot on Instagram, teasing fans before releasing the trailer.

All of them took to Instagram and shared monochrome stills from the film. In one picture, Deepika and Siddhant could be seen sitting on a beach. In another, the 'Padmaavat' actor was seen resting her head on Siddhant's shoulder while he watched the sunset. There were also behind-the-scenes shots feating Shakun, Ananya and Rajat Kapoor.

Gehraiyaan, which was announced in December 2019 and went on floors in 2020, had wrapped up in August. It will release on Amazon Prime on January 25, 2022.

Co-produced by Johar and Apoorva Mehta, it is undoubtedly one of the most-awaited films as the audience would be able to enjoy the performances of a never-before-seen trio of Deepika, Ananya and Siddhant on-screen.

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NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that there is ''no need to panic'' amid the spread of the new coronavirus variant  Omicron - in the national capital.

The AAP chief also assured that the Delhi government is fully prepared to deal with the Omicron surge. There is no need to panic in view of Omicron threat, we have adequate arrangements at the hospitals if there is any spread of new Covid variant, Delhi CM Kejriwal said while addressing a press conference.

While urging people not to panic amid the rise of Omicron, Kejriwal said, Experts say Omicron is a mild variant of Covid. The number of hospitalisations and deaths are fairly low because of Omicron."

The AAP national convenor further said, We will strengthen the home isolation system as most new Covid cases will not require hospitalization.

Given the rise in cases for some days, now all positive cases in Delhi will be sent for genome sequencing for Omicron, the Delhi CM said on preparations to deal with Omicron spread in the national capital.

He said Delhi was unlikely to face another wave of infections since according to the serosurvey conducted by the Delhi government, 96 per cent of the state population was found to have antibodies and a majority of them were vaccinated.

Two more cases of the Omicron variant of Covid have been detected in Delhi, taking the total number of people testing positive for the latest variant of the coronavirus here to 24, sources said on Monday. Out of these 24 patients, 12 have been discharged, they said.

"Two more cases of Omicron have been detected in Delhi. Their samples sent for genome sequencing earlier have come out positive. One has come from the UK, while the other from Ghana, aged 47 and 22 respectively," a source said. Most of the patients admitted are asymptomatic, the source said.

The national capital had on Sunday reported 107 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily rise since June 27, and one death as the positivity rate stood at 0.17 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

On June 27, Delhi had logged 259 coronavirus cases and four deaths, according to the government data. The city logged 86 new cases on Saturday and 69 on Friday with a positivity rate of 0.13 per cent and 0.12 per cent, respectively.

The number of Covid cases recorded in Delhi so far has reached 14,42,197. Over 14.16 lakh patients have recovered from the disease. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi stands at 25,101.

Three deaths due to COVID-19 have been recorded in December so far in Delhi. Seven deaths were reported in November, four in October and five in September. A total of 61,905 Covid tests, including 57,435 RT-PCR tests, were conducted in the city a day ago, the bulletin stated.

The number of active cases in Delhi has also breached the 500-mark for the first time in over four months. The city currently has 540 active cases, including 225 in-home isolation.

The national capital had 513 active cases on August 15. The number of containment zones in the city stands at 157, up from 153 on Saturday, the bulletin said. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had on Thursday said many international travellers are being tested Covid positive upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Live TV
New Delhi: In view of increasing cases of COVID-19`s Omicron variant in the national capital, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) along with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other important officials of the government will hold a meeting to review the situation on Monday.

The crucial review meeting will be held around 11.30 am, said an official notification by DDMA. This meeting will be held through video conferencing, Lt Governor Anil Baijal will preside over the meeting, added the notification.

The discussion will be held in the meeting regarding the increasing cases of Omicron in Delhi and the current situation of COVID-19 will be reviewed in the meeting, as per the notification.

Health Minister Satyendar Jain, NITI Aayog member VK Paul and Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev and all-important officers of the Health Department of the Delhi Government will be present in the meeting.

The Delhi government on Saturday converted four private hospitals into dedicated centres for the treatment of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.

These four hospitals are Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Max Hospital in Saket, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj and Batra Hospital in the Tughlakabad area of the national capital.

India has so far reported over 100 cases of the Omicron. The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25.

As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.

On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as `Omicron`. The WHO has classified Omicron as a `variant of concern`.

Live TV
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met with chief executives of leading companies across sectors ranging from banking to telecom, to health and electronics, for inputs for the next year's Budget.

Last week, he had met with leading private equity/ venture capital players to seek suggestions on making India a more attractive investment destination.

The upcoming Budget would focus on accelerating growth hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the prime minister interacted with the leading CEOs of companies across banking, infrastructure, automobiles, telecom, consumer goods, textile, renewables, hospitality, technology healthcare, space and electronics, official sources said.

This meeting, they said, is part of the many interactions that Modi is holding ahead of the Budget to receive inputs and suggestions from the private sector.

This is one of the many interactions being done by the prime minister ahead of the Budget to receive inputs and suggestions from the private sector.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is due to present on February 1 the Budget for the next fiscal year that starts on April 1, 2022.

Since coming to power in 2014, the BJP government has unveiled a series of reforms that have helped India climb on the global ease of doing business ranking.

It is now pushing for making India a manufacturing hub. Production-linked incentive schemes for sectors from automobiles to semiconductors and solar have been announced to attract global manufacturers to set up a base in the country.

Emerging from the meeting, TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said, "What's most important is his (prime minister) focus on research innovation, his belief in the capacity that India has to step way beyond where we are."

Gopinathan further said the prime minister has laid out a clear vision statement saying that in every sector in every industry, India should be among the top five globally.

Manu Kapoor of Samsung India said the prime minister has come out with a lot of decisions on PLIs to support manufacturing and exports.

Time has come for Indian business and Indian industry, India's banking and financial sector to think about scale without fear, Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak said.

"I am enthused about the potential of India, and Indian banking and finance are out there ready to support industry across, sustainability inclusion digital and infrastructure," Kotak said.

Mallika Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of Tractors and Farm Equipments Ltd, said the whole interaction today was about how to take India forward.

Observing that the prime minister has a grand vision and ambitions for India, Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said the industry is fully committed to contributing to his grand vision by making India a manufacturing hub.

After the interaction, Sumant Sinha, chairman and MD of ReNew Power, said the meeting was interesting, positive and encouraging.

"He heard us for almost two hours, about all issues and problems and also the opportunities that corporates like us talked about in our respective sector," Sinha said.

OYO Chief Executive Officer Ritesh Agarwal said that under the leadership of Modi, the number of the unicorns has surged from just 11 in 2016 to 79 at present.

Live TV

#mute
Security forces on Monday arrested two associates of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, an official statement said. Acting on a specific input, a joint team of police and CRPF arrested the two men involved in providing shelter, logistics and other support to the terrorists.

The two accused were also involved in transporting arms, ammunition and explosive material for the terrorists in Awantipora and Tral areas, the statement said.

"The arrested terror associates were in touch with JeM commanders and were involved in the transportation of arms/ammunition & were providing other logistic support to strengthen the terror network," it said.

The accused have been identified as Umer Ramzan and Javid Ah Mala.
Kerala recorded four more Omicron infections on Monday (December 20), taking the total number of persons infected with the variant to 15, Health Minister Veena George's office said. All four cases are detected from the Trivandrum district. Of these, two have returned from the UK and one is the primary contact of a family who returned from the UK.

One person has returned from Nigeria on December 17 and was tested positive for COVID-19 at the airport after which he was immediately shifted to hospital.

A new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'.

The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions on the southern African nations since the mutation was discovered. India reported the first case of Omicron on December 2. As of now, the country has logged more than a hundred Omicron cases, as per the Union health ministry.
Amaravati: In a unique housing scheme of its kind, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be formally launching Jagananna Sampoorna Gruha Hakku (One Time Settlement ( OTS ) scheme) in Tanuku, West Godavari district, on Tuesday (December 21), where registration with full rights on their house will be given to over 52 lakh beneficiaries.

The Andhra Pradesh government brought this novel scheme, where all the loans and their interest on the government-sanctioned homes will be waived off and will provide full right over the property with just a nominal amount, even those properties that cost up to Rs 20 lakh.

Under this OTS scheme, the state government will be providing permanent ownership to the beneficiaries for their houses constructed under various government schemes, which will cost the exchequer an expenditure of Rs 16,000 crore, including the loan waiver and exemption of registration fees.

The scheme was made totally voluntary, without any compulsion. The beneficiaries get a freehold of their house in the place of dwelling rights and enable them to gift or hand over the inheritance to the next generations besides securing the right to mortgage it as an asset for availing bank loans.

The beneficiaries can avail this scheme by paying nominal amounts of Rs 10,000 in villages, Rs 15,000 in municipalities and Rs 20,000 in municipal corporations. In case if the loan amount is lesser than the stipulated amounts, then the beneficiaries can pay the outstanding loan amount and get complete rights on their property.

Similarly, people who have constructed houses in the government allotted lands with their own money and don't have full rights can avail registration by paying just Rs 10 and secure their property.

Post registration, the property will be removed from the prohibited lands under Section 22 (A) and the beneficiary can carry out any legal transaction without any hassles.

Also, to ease the registration process, beneficiaries can register their property at the village and ward secretariats itself without any additional cost. With this document registration, the beneficiary does not require any link documents to carry out any transactions related to the property.

Live TV
Srinagar: Kupwara Terriers inaugurated a newly-constructed water supply project at Singrunpati Warsun, a village adjacent to the line of control in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara.

The Army undertook this infra development project with an aim to ensure long-term sustainability of water supply and ameliorate the quality of life of the deserving residents of this remote village under the ambit of Operation Sadhbhavana.

The residents of the village will start receiving water supply about 75 years post-independence.

Col Swaraj Bhattacharya, CO Kupwara Terriers inaugurated the 1500 metres long water supply project. It is expected to benefit around 60 underprivileged families residing in the remote Singrunpati village.

The village had been lacking basic amenities like water and electricity to date.

In addition to the inauguration ceremony, Kupwara Terriers utilised the event to organise a medical camp in order to attend to the medical needs of the elderly, needy women and children in the ongoing harsh winter.

Live TV
New Delhi: A bill to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplication was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Introducing The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said the legislation will end bogus voting in the country and make the electoral process more credible.

The bill seeks to allow electoral registration officers seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

Dismissing the apprehensions of the opposition on the bill as "baseless", the minister said opposition members were "misinterpreting" the Supreme Court judgement on personal liberty.

"The opposition has not understood the objectives of the bill. This will make the election process more credible," he said..

The minister said the government is attempting to stop bogus voting and that is why the House should support the bill."The bill fully qualifies the Supreme Court judgement," he said.

However, the opposition parties led by the Congress opposed the bill, saying it will infringe on the fundamental rights of citizens. Opposing the bill, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded that the bill must be sent to the standing committee concerned for scrutiny. He claimed that the bill will curb the people's personal liberty.

"We don't have the data protection laws. You can't bulldoze such a bill on people," he said.

READ | Aadhaar-Voter ID link: Check step by step process

Chowdhury's party colleague Manish Tewari said voting is a legal right and it is beyond the legislative competence of the Aadhaar Act to be linked with the electoral laws.

Tiwari also claimed that the bill violates the Supreme Court judgement on Justice (retd) K S Puttaswamy case.

On August 24, 2017, a nine judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict in the Justice (retd) K S Puttaswamy case affirming that the Constitution guarantees to each individual a fundamental right to privacy.

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the bill will suppress people's right to exercise franchise freely.

Opposing the bill, Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy said the bill goes against the apex court judgement.

BSP's Ritesh Pandey opposed the bill, and said that it will curb the rights of the SCs and STs in exercising the franchise freely.

RSP's N K Premchandran said the right of privacy is a fundamental right and linking the Aadhaar with the election process will infringe on the rights of the citizens.

Congress member Shashi Tharoor said Aadhaar is meant for the residents of India and all residents are not Indians. "By linking the Aadhaar with the electoral process, we are potentially giving the voting rights to non-citizens," he said.

Rajendra Agarwal, who was in the chair, accepted the introduction of the bill after taking voice votes. As opposition protests over various issues, including on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, continued, Agarwal adjourned the House till 2 pm.

Earlier, when the House met after the weekend break at 11 am, opposition Congress, DMK and TMC members stormed into the Well and began protesting, displaying placards.

Congress and the TMC members were demanding sacking of Union Minister for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence as his son Ashish Mishra is one of the accused arrested in the case.

The DMK members protestws against the arrest of 55 Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. They wanted to raise the issue in the House.

Amid slogan shouting by the protesting members of Congress, DMK and TMC, during the Question Hour, the members of NCP, Shiv Sena, BSP and and IUML stood near their respective seats in solidarity.

Amid Opposition protests, the House took up several questions.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, meanwhile, urged the members to maintain the decorum of the House and go back to their seats.

"During the Question Hour, there were important issues and questions. Solutions for important issues and problems will come only if you go back to your seats. T R Baalu ji (DMK leader), (while) you want to raise important issues in house, your members come into well," the Speaker said.

"Develop a good tradition in the House. People have sent you here to raise their questions, their problems....Is this behaviour right? please go back to your seats, take your seats. I will give your adequate time and opportunity permission to speak on important issues," he said.

As the members refused to relent, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

Earlier in the morning, the House paid tributes to three former members who passed away recently. The members along with the Speaker stood in silence for a brief while as a mark of respect to the departed souls.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar number from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll, and to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency".

At the same time, the amendment bill makes it clear that "no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed".

Such people will be allowed to furnish other documents as may be prescribed.

According to the bill circulated to Lok Sabha members ahead of its introduction, various sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951 will be amended.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill states that Section 23 of the RP Act, 1950 will be amended to allow linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem "to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in different places".

Amendment to section 14 of the RP Act, 1950 will allow to have four "qualifying" dates for eligible people to register as voters.

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New Delhi: Six fresh cases of Omicron have taken the national capital's infection tally of the new COVID-19 variant to 28, the Delhi Health Department informed on Monday (December 20, 2021).

Four people of the six people, found to be infected with the variant, are admitted to Max Hospital in Saket, news agency ANI reported.

The development comes ahead of a virtual meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to review the coronavirus and the vaccination drive situation in the capital.

Apart from the designated DDMA members, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, NITI Aayog`s Member, Health, Dr VK Paul, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General, Prof Balram Bhargava and AIIMS Director, Dr Randeep Guleria are likely to attend the meeting.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that given the rise in cases for some days, now all positive cases in Delhi will be sent for genome sequencing for Omicron.

He also urged the Centre to allow booster doses.

Addressing an important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/Q7BwpAZOmq  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 20, 2021

Delhi, notably, also recorded 107 fresh cases of coronavirus on Sunday, the highest in the past six months. It also witnessed one person succumbing to the virus.

The fatality, reported after a 10-day break, took the death toll to 25,101, while the total number of infections has now climbed to 14,42,197.

Delhi Health Bulletin - 19th December 2021 #delhiFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/MyXRBRN7jQ  CMO Delhi (@CMODelhi) December 19, 2021

Earlier in the day, Karnataka health minister Dr Sudhakar K also informed that the state has reported five more cases of the Omicron variant. While two cases of the new COVID-19 variant were reported in Udupi, three other infections were recorded in Mangaluru, Dharwad and Bhadravathi.

Five cases of Omicron have been confirmed on Dec 19th:

Dharwad: 54 yr male

Bhadravathi: 20 yr female

Udupi: 82 yr male and 73 yr female

Mangaluru: 19 yr female#Omicronindia #Covid_19 @BSBommai  Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) December 20, 2021

With this, Karnataka's tally of Omicron cases has now increased to 19.

Live TV
New Delhi: The Central government has called a meeting of five political parties on Monday whose MPs have been suspended from the Rajya Sabha to break the deadlock between the government and the Opposition in the Parliament.

12 Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended from the House on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament from 5 Political Parties including Congress, TMC, Shivsena, CPI, CPI(M).

After the suspension, all 12 MPs have been sitting on Dharna daily basis in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister earlier said that the government was ready to consider revoking the suspension of the MPs if they apologize for their conduct in the House.

While the Opposition leaders rejected the government`s proposal for apologizes and said that they would not seek an apology.

Rajya Sabha was adjourned several times due to the ruckus in the Upper House by the Opposition parties demanding to revoke the suspension of MPs in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

The Winter session of Parliament is scheduled to culminate on 23 December.

Live TV
Lucknow: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday paid tribute to the heroes of Kakori train action and honored the families of the martyrs, including the family of Param Vir Chakra winner Manoj Pandey, at the Kakori Shaheed Smarak in Lucknow.

Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, "Our heroes challenged the British Government by looting the British treasury in Kakori in 1925. Veer P Ramprasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaq Ullah Khan were sentenced to death by the British government for their involvement in the Kakori conspiracy. Rajendranath Lahiri was hanged on December 17 itself. The sacrifice of these four revolutionaries proved to be a milestone for India's independence.

Recalling the martyrdom of the revolutionaries at the Kakori memorial site, Yogi said that our country was definitely forced to be a hostage for some time under foreign invaders and foreign rule but the people of the country never accepted it.

"There was a historic incident at Chaura Chauri in Gorakhpur. The farmers, labourers, women, and youth there challenged the then British rule. India's great men and revolutionaries have made constant efforts at different times and at different places for the country's independence.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Amrit Mahotsav is being celebrated to honour those who took part in the Kakori action. This Amrit Mahotsav should be about the energy of the country's freedom, the ideas of the revolutionaries, the welfare of India, making India a superpower in the world, and making India self-reliant.

Describing the ideal meaning of freedom, the CM said that freedom means that every poor should have a pucca house, and to fulfil that the government implemented the PM Awas Yojana. To provide smoke-free cooking to women, the government implemented the Ujjwala scheme. For electricity, the Saubhagya scheme was gifted to the people. The Kanya Sumangala Schemes were implemented for the education of girl chile, Samuhik Vivah Yojana for the marriage and Ayushman Yojana so that no poor die due to lack of medical treatment.

India's independence is the result of the sacrifice of revolutionaries. Inspired by these revolutionaries, we are working for the development of the country, for the welfare of the people, for the development of the village, the poor, the farmers, the women, and every section of the society in the open environment of independent India, he added.

He further said that efforts are being made that every young man can be made economically self-reliant to realise the dream of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Highlighting the exemplary Covid management in the country and the state, the CM said that to save 133 crore people from the pandemic, the Central government is providing free vaccine, free treatment, free tests, free ration without any discrimination. The Modi-Yogi government is working to deliver schemes to the people in an equanimous manner.

Live TV
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the government of trying to ''divide the Opposition'' by calling only a few parties to resolve the ongoing impasse in Parliament over the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs.

Kharge said, "The Government is conspiring to divide the Opposition but the parties are united on the issue. It should call an all-party meeting."

The Govt has called for a meeting of 4 Opposition parties on the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs. This is a conspiracy to divide the Opposition. All Opposition parties are united on this issue. We've written to the Govt to call an all-party meeting: LoP Rajya Sabha, M. Kharge pic.twitter.com/S4EVD7J1He  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

Congress veteran was reacting to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi calling a meeting on Monday of Opposition parties whose MPs were suspended last month for the Winter Session.

Joshi has called the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India to end the stalemate in the House which has been continuing since day one of the session.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had suggested that both the parties should resolve this issue as the House could not function properly this week.

Seeking an apology from the suspended MPS, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal had alleged that even after attacking marshals and misbehaving with the female marshals, senior Opposition members were unrepentant.

"The government is ready to consider their request provided they apologise," he had added. However, Mallikarjun Kharge said: "We have been repeatedly telling you that the crime which we have not committed is being put on us," and charged the government with misleading the House on the incident.

Congress has also convened a virtual meeting to devise a common strategy in both the Houses. The Winter session is slated to end on December 23.

Live TV
New Delhi: The Delimitation Commission has reportedly suggested six additional seats for Jammu region and one for Kashmir Valley in its 'Paper 1'.

As per PTI, the Commission, which has been tasked to redraw the assembly seats of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, discussed 'Paper 1' with its five associate members on Monday (December 20) and proposed nine seats for STs and seven for SCs in Jammu and Kashmir.

The associate members included five Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir who participated in the meeting. According to the news agency, they have been asked to respond to the proposal by the end of this month.

Union minister Jitendra Singh and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah were among those present in the meeting, besides BJP leader Jugal Kishore Sharma, Hasnain Masoodi, and Mohammad Akbar Lone. On Saturday, NC MP Hasnain Masoodi had confirmed that his party leaders will attend the Delimitation Commission's associate members meeting in New Delhi.

The Centre constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is an ex-officio member of the panel.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Two cases of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the Sikhs, have rocked Punjab in the last two days. The first case was reported from the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the second from a Gurdwara in Kapurthala. In both cases, the accused were beaten to death by the furious mob.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday (December 20) discussed the twin cases of sacrilege in Punjab which led to mob lynching.

According to Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahib is not just a holy book but is considered a living Guru for the Sikhs. Therefore, any case of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib is tantamount to attacking a living Guru.

As per law, in case of hurting religious sentiments, the accused is punished for up to 3 years and if there is vandalism of a Gurdwara or any object or symbol, then in such cases the punishment is up to 2 years. But, the law and order went for a toss in Punjab as the mob thrashed both the accused to death.

In the first case, at Golden Temple, the person allegedly limbed into the Guru Granth Sahib court and insulted the holy scripture of the Sikhs with a sword, after which he was beaten to death.

In the second case which happened in Kapurthala, about 60 km away from the Golden Temple, an attempt was made to desecrate Nishan Sahib in a Gurdwara, after which the accused was thrashed to death by some people.

Following these incidents, there is a lot of talk of hurting religious sentiments but no one is talking about lynching. Unfortunately, no political party or leader of Punjab has criticised the mob lynching.

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu went as far as saying that those who indulge in sacrilege should be hanged in public.

All the parties are avoiding speaking on this sensitive issue in view of the upcoming Assembly elections. According to the 2011 census, Sikhs constitute 57 percent of the total population in Punjab. Therefore, no party wants to anger the people ahead of polls.

Live TV
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for questioning in a case linked to the Panama Papers leaks case. The ED has been probing the case since 2016 when the global leaks came to light.

The ED issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

Heres why the Bachchan family is being probed:

--Amitabh Bachchan has been made the director of 4 companies, 3 in Bahamas and 1 in Virgin Islands. These companies were made in 1993.

--The capital of these companies are in between USD 5,000 to 50,000.

--Aishwarya Rai was made the director of one of these companies initially, but later she was declared the shareholder.

--Her parents and brother were also declared partners in the company.

--This company was made in 2005 and dissolved in 2008.
Chennai: The fisherfolk and their family members staged a protest in Tamil Nadus Ramanathapuram district on Monday (December 20) against the arrest of 55 Indian fishermen, confiscation of eight boats by the Sri Lankan Navy over the weekend.

The fishermen who had ventured out to sea from the fishing harbors in Rameswaram and Mandapam, were arrested for allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters, according to the Lankan Navy.

As a mark of solidarity with the arrested fishermen, the protestors refused to venture out to sea on Monday and demanded their release. Notably, 55 fishermen being arrested in a span of two days in the highest number in recent times.

According to fishermen associations that took part in the protests, nearly 1500 boats were anchored at the fishing harbour. The decision to protest by refusing to venture out to sea is said to have caused a revenue loss to the tune of crores of rupees.

Urging the central government and Tamil Nadu government to intervene in the issue and seek the release of the fishermen, the associations warned of large-scale protests.

In videos of the protest, fisherfolk were heard raising slogans condemning the Lankan government, demanding the release of arrested persons and their boats.

Ramanathapuram, TN: Fisherfolk, families protest the arrest of 55 Indian fishermen& seizure of 8 boats by Sri Lankan Navy, over the weeknd.. Fishermen didn't venture out to sea on Monday, warn of more protests SL Navy alleges poaching by Indian fishers in lankan waters#India pic.twitter.com/KnBKjc1gZa  Sidharth.M.P (@sdhrthmp) December 20, 2021

Acknowledging the arrests, the Lankan Navy had issued a statement on having taken eight Indian fishing trawlers and 55 Indian fishermen into custody as part of anti-poaching operations conducted by the Northern and North Central Naval Commands on 18th and 19th December.

In the first instance, a Sri Lankan Naval operation conducted in the seas southeast of Delft Island, Jaffna, led to seizure of six trawlers and 43 Indian fishermen who were onboard. On Sunday, two more trawlers and 12 fishermen were taken into Lankan custody, near the south of Mannar region.

The Lankan Navy added that arrangements were being made to hand over the apprehended Indian fishermen to relevant authorities for legal action, after directing them for a Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Tests.

The issue between fishermen in Tamil Nadu and the Lankan Navy has been a long-standing and thorny one. It is often alleged that Indian fishermen deliberately head to Lankan waters and indulge in bottom trawling, an unsustainable fishing practice that affects the ecology and marine life in the long-term.

Sri Lanka maintains that arrests of foreign fishermen are being done to protect the livelihood of their own fishing community. There are also numerous allegations against the Lankan Navy of having fired at and killed Indian fishermen.

While the fishing communities from Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka are ethnically Tamil and follow a similar culture, in recent times, the bonhomie has deteriorated.

Earlier, the northern Sri Lankan fishermen had protested against Indian boats that were venturing into their waters, carrying out alleged illegal fishing activity. They made attempts to pressure the Indian and Sri Lankan authorities to act against those involved in illegal fishing.
New Delhi: Omicron is 'raging through the world' with India reporting its 150th case of the new COVID-19 variant on Sunday (December 19, 2021). The country's Omicron count has now increased to 153 after Maharashtra and Gujarat added ten more infections.

While six persons tested positive for the highly mutated version of coronavirus in Maharashtra, four were found infected in Gujarat.

India has so far detected Omicron cases in 11 states and union territories namely Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (11), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).

The country's first two cases were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

Omicron has spread to 89 countries

Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24 and was classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 26. This variant, which is currently wreaking havoc in the United States and several European nations, has so far been detected in as many as 89 countries.

As of 16 December 2021, the #COVID19 variant Omicron has been identified in 89 countries across all six WHO regions https://t.co/tOu6iIvFZP pic.twitter.com/YmKVTOqELX  World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 19, 2021

The WHO on Saturday had said that the number of Omicron cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission and noted that much remains unknown about the variant, including the severity of the illness it causes.

Lockdown, other curbs in several countries

In an attempt to control the spread, the Netherlands has already gone into lockdown on Sunday, while several other European governments are considering additional curbs.

In the United States, White House medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci has urged people travelling to visit loved ones to get booster shots and always wear masks in crowded public spaces.

He said that Omicron was 'raging through the world' and that travelling will increase the risk of infection even among vaccinated people.

ALSO READ | From runny nose to itchy throat and headache, check symptoms of Omicron

In the UK, Sajid Javid, the health minister, declined to rule out the chance that Prime Minister Boris Johnson`s government will impose further restrictions before Christmas. He said that the government was taking the "sobering" advice of its scientists seriously, was watching the data closely, and would balance both against the broader impact of restrictions on areas such as businesses and education.

Overall COVID-19 infections rising again

According to reports, overall COVID-19 infections are rising in as many as 64 countries and territories, with 12 of them recording more cases than at any point during the pandemic, including the United Kingdom.

As per Johns Hopkins University's data, the world has so far witnessed more than 27 crore COVID-19 infections and over 53 lakh related fatalities.

The development comes amid disease experts across the world predicting that countries would begin to emerge from the pandemic next year after going through a series of surges driven by the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants of COVID-19. However, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has now undermined that hope.

Meanwhile, some experts have said that living with COVID-19 in 2022 will likely mean assessing local risks and protecting oneself through vaccination, masking and social distancing.

ALSO READ | COVID-19 could become endemic by 2024, predicts Pfizer amid Omicron scare

Live TV
NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has defended a comment made by his party colleague likening roads to BJP MP and actress 'Hema Malini's cheeks', saying that such comments had been made earlier as well and it was a "mark of respect" for the iconic Bollywood actor.

"This type of comparison has happened earlier too. It's a respect for Hema Malini. So, don't see it negatively. Earlier, Lalu Yadav had also given a similar example. We respect Hema Malini," the Shiv Sena leader told news agency ANI.

This type of comparison has happened earlier too. It's a respect for Hema Malini. So, don't see it negatively. Earlier, Lalu Yadav had also given a similar example. We respect Hema Malini: Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP pic.twitter.com/qksjYfR9Vw  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

Raut made these remarks a day after Maharashtra Minister Gulabrao Patil stirred up a political controversy by comparing the roads in his constituency of Jalgaon district to actor-lawmaker Hema Malini's cheeks.

"My challenge is to the person who has been MLA for 30 years (Eknath Khadse) to come towards my house (in his constituency, Jalgaon district)> If the roads are not like Hema Malini's cheek, then I will resign,'' Maharashtra Minister and Shiv Sena leader Gulabrao Patil had said on Sunday.

The remarks made by Patil, who is Water Supply & Sanitation Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, invited a strong reaction from the state BJP.

Reacting to Patils remarks, BJP MP Hema Malini said that the comments were not in good taste, particularly coming from an elected representative.

The Mathura BJP MP also said that the trend was first started by Lalu Prasad Yadav a few years ago and many followed suit.

#WATCH "A trend of such statements was started by Lalu Ji years ago and many people have followed this trend. Such comments are not in a good taste," says BJP MP Hema Malini on Maharashtra minister Gulabrao Patil comparing roads to her cheeks pic.twitter.com/SJg5ZTrbMw  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

When asked if she would seek an apology, the BJP leader said that she did not care for such things. The actor also jokingly said that she should now look after her cheeks if they are being used as metaphors by politicians.

Live TV
Jammu: As the news of the Delimitation commissions proposal reached Kashmir, all the main regional parties reacted promptly in one voice saying it is unacceptable.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission werent misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census & proposing 6 seats for one region & only one for Kashmir."

Soon PDP released a video statement through the party chief spokesman Syed Suhail Bukhari who while talking to media said, We have heard about the proposals that Delimitation Commission has put forward for Jammu and Kashmir. This simply reflects what we have been saying for long. Its been done by BJP and how their party could gain out of it. That is why the commission has proposed 6 seats for Jammu and 1 seat for Kashmir, which in no way is justified. The agenda of BJP and todays government is to divide the people in Jammu and Kashmir on regional and religious basis. The Commission has proven our party President Mehbooba Mufti right and we are rejecting this proposal.

Former J&K chief minister and National Conference Vice president Omar Abdullah said, Delimitation proposal is not acceptable. He wrote on his Twitter handle, The draft recommendation of the J&K delimitation commission is unacceptable. The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with 6 going to Jammu & only 1 to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census.

He added in another tweet, It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been its only consideration. Contrary to the promised scientific approach its a political approach.

However, NCs three MPs including party president Farooq Abdullah were part of the meeting of the Delimitation Commission in Delhi today.

It was not only Mehbooba and Omar but second-run parties like the People Conference and Apni Party who showed disappointment on the proposal of Delimitation commission.

People's conference president Sajad Lone said its a shock to those who believe in democracy. He tweeted, The recommendations of the delimitation commission are totally unacceptable. They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy.

While the Apni Party who came into existence after the abrogation of Article 370 and is seen as a supporter of BJP in Jammu & Kashmir too have rejected the proposal and asked the government of India to intervene. We strongly demand the GoI to intervene.

J&K Apni Party rejects the proposal of the delimitation commission. This is outrightly unacceptable to us. Apni Party demands a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base. We strongly demand the GoI to intervene, the party added.

The Delimitation Commission in Delhi today proposed six additional seats for Jammu region and one for Kashmir division. The panel in its draft presented before the associate members, has proposed nine seats for Scheduled Tribe and seven for Scheduled Caste as well.

The meeting was held today at Ashok Hotel in New Delhi. They said, adding that the panel has proposed seven additional assembly seats for Jammu and Kashmir. The total number of assembly seats after this addition will be 43 in Jammu and 47 in Kashmir.

The panel has also proposed nine seats for Scheduled Tribe and seven for Scheduled Caste.

The commission has asked its associate members to submit their suggestions by December 31, 2021.

Live TV
New Delhi: Putting a large dent in the rivals exploits in the setup to the Chandigarh Municipal Elections, AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal held a massive Jansabha in the city today. Talking to the residents he said you gave 13 years to BJP and 12 to Congress in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, now you should give 5 years to AAP too. He added that when AAP comes to power in the municipal corporation, then we will eliminate corruption and make the municipal corporation come to your house to do your official work.

Kejriwal said that Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections are a gateway to this citys future and the keys are now in the publics hand; vote for AAP if you want to transform Chandigarh. He talked about how Chandigarh was considered to be the most beautiful city in the whole of Asia, but the BJP and the Congress together ransacked and wrecked the city.

He further discussed how the BJP and Congress use the municipal corporation to fill their pockets, AAP will stop theft and all the money will be spent on the public. He said that AAP will eliminate the garbage mountains of Chandigarh and bring back its lost title of the most beautiful city in Asia. Just like Delhi, AAP will provide free water supply to Chandigarh when it comes to power and once the AAP government is formed, the municipal corporation will take over all the development work inside all the housing societies of Chandigarh.

He said that CCTV cameras and streetlights will be installed on a large scale in Chandigarh for the safety of the public. Appealing to the youth of Chandigarh, Kejriwal said that this is your own party, come forward and join AAP & take over the reins of Chandigarh.

AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pumped steam into AAPs Chandigarh Municipal Election bid today. He addressed a massive Jansabha in the Dussehra Maidan and received support from a sea of residents at the event. AAP MP & Punjab Convenor Bhagwant Mann was present at the event along with MLA & Punjab In-Charge Jarnail Singh and senior party functionaries.

Without mincing his words, the AAP National Convenor took a dig at the political situation of Chandigarh and said, BJP and Congress have both ransacked Chandigarh into a state of doom. Chandigarh used to be seen as the most beautiful city in the whole of Asia, people took pride in its cleanliness.

Today, Chandigarh ranks 66 in the cleanliness index. Why is it so? The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was formed in 1996, since then the BJP and Congress have ruled upon it for 13 & 12 years respectively. These two parties did nothing but wreck havoc in the civic body and navigate it to ruins. The forthcoming elections are a gateway to this citys future and the keys are now in the publics hand.

If the public wants change and transformation then they must vote for AAP. I am not a politician, I dont know how to do politics. I just know how to work for people, thats what I have done all my life. Weve proven what we can do in Delhi. One can go and ask their friends and relatives who live in Delhi and seek a report of our work. If they say we did not do anything, dont vote for us. If you get positive feedback then you should take along your whole mohalla and vote for AAP.

He continued. Today I am going to make 5 big promises to the people of Chandigarh on behalf of AAP. Foremost  we will end the rule of the corrupt in the corporation. Whatever money is stolen by BJP-Congress leaders will be spent on the common man. You wont also have to go to the municipality offices to get work done. It will be done at your doorstep. No need for taking offs from offices or standing in lines, an officer will come to you and get your work done.

We have done it in Delhi, be it a ration or a water connection, any service that earlier needed you to go to the government offices is now available at your doorstep. You just have to call a phone number and in turn the officer will ask you when you have time and where they have to come. Even at 10 in the night, an officer will be ready to come to your home to do your paperwork. The same will take place in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation now.

He added, Second  Chandigarh will get freedom from the garbage mountains of Daddu Majra. What the BJP has done here, they have done in Delhi too. It is because of them and their rule of the municipality that those garbage mountains stand in Delhi and Chandigarh. The municipal elections of Delhi are due in April. Once we win them, well eliminate those mountains too. Third  weve been told that the people are getting exorbitant water bills in Chandigarh. We supply water for free in Delhi. You can go and ask anyone, both the electricity and water bills read 0 in Delhi. Well do this in Chandigarh too.

He further said, Fourth  today the municipality cant take up work in societies. Once AAP comes to power, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will take the responsibility of maintenance, hygiene and repairs in housing societies as well. Fifth  to bolster the security of women, well install CCTVs and streetlights at a very large scale in Chandigarh. Weve put up so many CCTVs in Delhi that we have left New York and London behind.

Kejriwal stated, AAP has been built by the youth and runs on the energy of the youth. This is why we are backing the youth in the Chandigarh elections this year. More than half of our candidates are under 40 years of age. I want to tell the youth of Chandigarh that this is your own party and you should feel free to come and join us to uplift Chandigarh and lead it towards prosperity.

He concluded, You gave 13 years to the BJP, 12 to the Congress, you can try us out for 5 years as well, right? Dont forget that starting from the Mayor to the MP and from the Governor to the Central Government, everyone belongs to the BJP. If all these so-called engines could not do anything for this citys benefit till now then they wouldnt in the future as well. In Delhi, the administrations above and below us both belong to the BJP, they try their best to pester us but it is only the AAP which knows how to keep them in check.

There have been rumours floating around that the Centre wants Punjab to take over Chandigarh. If that happens then, we all know that AAP is coming to power in Punjab. So it is better that you vote for AAP in Chandigarh so we can work in sync. BJP doesnt stand even a chance so theres no point wasting your vote on them. Just like Delhi, Chandigarh will be upscaled, brought back its lost title of the city beautiful.

Live TV
New Delhi: The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has issued Karnataka PGCET result on its official website. The Karnataka PGCET examination was held from November 11 to November 14.

Candidates who took the exam can check their results online at kea.kar.nic.in or cetonline.karnataka.gov.in.

Karnataka PGCET result: How to check

Step 1. Visit the official website of KEA- cetonline.karnataka.gov.in

Step 2. Click on PGCET 2021 result link

Step 3. Enter the PGCET number and required details

Step 4. Download the PGCET rank card and take a print out for future reference

Karnataka PGCET result direct link here

The Karnataka PGCET exam is held for individuals seeking admission to M.E./M.Tech, M.Arch, MBA and MCA courses in Karnataka government colleges.

Additionally, the candidates need to note that the schedule for verification of documents will be hosted in due course on the KEA Website, and those who fail to produce the required documents will not be eligible for admission to the PG courses.

Live TV
New Delhi: A bill to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplication was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday (December 20) amid protest by opposition members over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence issue.

Introducing The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said the legislation will end bogus voting in the country and make the electoral process more credible.

The bill seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

Dismissing the apprehensions of the opposition on the bill as "baseless", the minister said opposition members were "misinterpreting" the Supreme Court judgement on personal liberty.

"The opposition has not understood the objectives of the bill. This will make the election process more credible," he said.

The minister said the government is attempting to stop bogus voting and that is why the House should support the bill.

"The bill fully qualifies the Supreme Court judgement," he said.

However, the opposition parties led by Congress opposed the bill, saying it will infringe on the fundamental rights of citizens.

Opposing the bill, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded that the bill must be sent to the standing committee concerned for scrutiny.

He claimed that the bill will curb the people's personal liberty.

"We don't have the data protection laws. You can't bulldoze such a bill on people," he said.

Chowdhury's party colleague Manish Tewari said voting is a legal right and it is beyond the legislative competence of the Aadhaar Act to be linked with the electoral laws.

Tiwari also claimed that the bill violates the Supreme Court judgement on Justice (retd) K S Puttaswamy case.

On August 24, 2017, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict in the Justice (retd) K S Puttaswamy case affirming that the Constitution guarantees to each individual a fundamental right to privacy.

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the bill will suppress people's right to exercise franchise freely.

Opposing the bill, Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy said the bill goes against the apex court judgement.

BSP's Ritesh Pandey opposed the bill and said that it will curb the rights of the SCs and STs in exercising the franchise freely.

RSP's N K Premchandran said the right to privacy is a fundamental right and linking Aadhaar with the election process will infringe on the rights of the citizens.

Congress member Shashi Tharoor said Aadhaar is meant for the residents of India and all residents are not Indians.

"By linking the Aadhaar with the electoral process, we are potentially giving the voting rights to non-citizens," he said.

Rajendra Agarwal, who was in the chair, accepted the introduction of the bill after taking voice votes.
New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday (December 20, 2021) said that the minimum temperature in the national capital is expected to dip to 4 degrees Celcius today as cold wave conditions prevail in the region.

Delhi | The minimum temperature is expected to dip to 4 degrees Celcius today as cold wave conditions prevail in the national capital, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD). (Data source: IMD) pic.twitter.com/Hp6LpMmPHe  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

According to the weather departments morning update, a temperature of 4.4 degrees Celsius was recorded at 5.30 a.m in the national capital. The automatic weather station at Jaffarpur village in west Delhi recorded a low of 2.9 degrees Celsius, six notches below normal. The Lodhi Road weather station logged a minimum temperature of 3.1 degrees Celsius against the average of seven degrees Celsius.

According to ANI, the weather department predicted cold wave conditions with a drop in mercury level in Kanpur today as well. The minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to be around 5 degrees Celsius and 19 degrees Celsius, respectively.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts cold wave conditions with drop in mercury level in Kanpur today; Minimum and maximum temperatures expected to be around 5 degrees Celsius and 19 degrees Celsius, respectively (Data source: IMD) pic.twitter.com/a2yhVMp3vz  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 20, 2021

The weather department also issued a yellow alert for the national capital for Monday. The yellow weather warning, as per the weather department, indicates severely bad weather, also suggesting that the weather could change for the worse, causing disruption in day-to-day activities.

There is also a possibility of drizzling on December 24 or 25, said Director General of Meteorology at IMD, RK Jenamani.

Meanwhile, severe cold wave conditions were observed in parts of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday. Some parts of Uttarakhand reported dense fog.

The weather department predicted that cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely to continue in northwest India over the next three days and abate thereafter.

Cold and dry northwesterly winds, gusting up to 15 kmph, are likely to continue over the plains of northwest India till Tuesday, "enhancing the adverse impact of cold wave and cold day conditions", the weather office said.

Earlier, on Sunday, the weather department also revealed that Rajasthans Churu recorded lowest minimum temperature of -1.1 degrees Celsius.

Parts of Madhya Pradesh, including Bhopal, were also affected on Saturday due to chilly winds coming from the North. Gwalior, Datia and Nowgaon area of Chhatarpur district recorded the lowest minimum temperature of 4C, said PK Saha, a meteorologist at IMD Bhopal office.

A "severe" cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to two degrees Celsius or the departure from normal is more than 6.4 degrees Celsius.

When the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius below the normal, it is said to be a 'cold day'.

Additionally, Delhis air quality remains in the `poor` category for the second consecutive day on Monday (December 20, 2021) with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 290.

As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 stood at 101 in the `poor` and 181 in the `moderate` category respectively.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
Aurangabad: Two monkeys were captured by the forest department in Maharashtra's Beed district for allegedly taking away some puppies and placing them on trees or roofs where they died either without food or after falling over the last few months, an official said on Sunday (December 19, 2021).

These monkeys were trapped on Saturday and shifted to their natural habitat, he said.

A resident of Lavool village claimed that at least 200 puppies had lost their lives after they were "taken away" by the two simians.

Range Forest Officer Amol Munde, however, said only 3 to 4 incidents of puppies dying after they were taken away by the two monkeys were reported from this village.

A villager, Radhakishan Sonawane, said the two monkeys used to take away puppies with them.

"Such incidents had been happening over the last three months. These two monkeys come to our village. They take away puppies with them to the roof of houses or at any other place at height.

"At such height, these puppies don't get any food or water. Hence they died naturally many times. But sometimes they fell from a height and died. Over 200 puppies had lost their lives in our village," Sonawane told PTI.

Munde said the monkeys used to take away puppies, which was their "habit". "They take care of puppies. They used to keep puppies on roofs or tall trees. The puppies couldn't survive at such places as they couldn't get food or water. If a puppy escaped from the two monkeys it used to die after falling from a height. The reported incidents of the death of puppies in Lavool village are 3 to 4," he added.

Responding to a query about whether these monkeys are targetting puppies in "retaliatory attacks", he said no death of any baby monkey was reported in Lavool village in the last few months.

He said some people were also injured while running away from the two monkeys.

"Monkeys generally don't attack human beings but people are afraid. Some people were injured in the past few days while running away from these monkeys. However, no incident of any monkey bite was reported in this village," Munde added.

Live TV
Kohima: The Nagaland Assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the Government of India repeal the AFSPA from the Northeast, especially Nagaland, while also urging the negotiators of Indo-Naga political dialogue to bring the talks to their logical conclusion for peace to prevail in the restive state.

The resolution moved by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was adopted by voice vote during the one-day special session of the Assembly held to discuss the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958, and its application to Nagaland in the aftermath of the killing of 14 civilians by security forces, including six in a botched anti-terrorist operation, and eight others in subsequent incidents in Mon district on December 4 and 5.

The resolution vehemently condemned the massacre that took place in Oting - Tiru village area in Mon District on 4th December, 2021 in the indiscriminate firing by the 21 Para Special Forces of the Indian Army in which 13 innocent people were killed, followed by killing of one innocent person by security forces at Mon town on 5th December 2021, and injuring of 35 persons during the incidents.

The House demanded an apology from the appropriate authority, and an assurance that justice will be delivered by applying the laws of the land upon those who perpetrated the "inhuman massacre and upon those who are responsible for the incidents".

The Assembly appealed to the people of Mon district, its civil societies, the citizens of the state and mass organisations to cooperate with the government and its agencies in the collective efforts to demand justice and restore normalcy.

The House appreciated and supported citizens and civil society organisations over their demand for the repeal of AFSPA and delivery of justice, while appealing to all sections to follow democratic norms and non-violence in the collective endeavour towards realisation of peace and delivery of justice, the resolution said.

Noting that the Naga people have been crying for peace and an early solution to the protracted Naga political issue, the resolution said it is of paramount importance that people's voice is heard and respected.

Around 15 legislators, including Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, Leader of NPF legislature Party T R Zeliang, BJP president and minister Temjen Imma participated in the discussion.

It was for the third time in little over six years that the Nagaland Assembly passed a resolution for the repeal of the AFSPA, which gives sweeping powers to detain and arrest people without a warrant in areas designated as "disturbed". It had earlier adopted similar resolutions on March 3, 1971 and July 27, 2015.

AFSPA is in force in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh.

Live TV
Kapurthala: A day after a man was killed for an alleged sacrilege bid at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, another unidentified person was beaten to death by a mob after being accused of "disrespecting" the Sikh religious flag at a gurdwara in Nizampur village here on Sunday morning.

Villagers and members of Sikh organisations clashed with police personnel, who tried to save the man, leaving three cops, including a station house officer, injured.

Police said there was "no visible sign" of sacrilege incident having taken place at the gurdwara, which is located on the Kapurthala-Subhnapur road here.

Gurdwara manager Amarjit Singh claimed that he saw the man, who appeared to be a migrant labourer, trying to disrespect the 'Nishan Sahib' (religious flag) early morning after he came out for daily prayers.

He claimed that the man fled but he was caught by the gurdwara 'sewadars' (workers) after a chase.

Singh then went live on his Facebook page and made these claims while police stated that he was trying to give an impression of the sacrilege attempt.

However, according to police, the unidentified man was eating chappatis in the kitchen located on the ground floor of the Gurdwara complex. He ran away when a 'sewadar' spotted him, they said.

After getting information about the incident, police rushed to the gurdwara where the man, who was in his twenties, was kept in the room.

Villagers and members of Sikh organisations also assembled at the gurdwara complex and did not allow the police to take the man to the police station.

Carrying some swords and 'lathis', they forcibly entered the room and even scuffled with the cops.

Then they badly thrashed the man, said police, adding that he was brought in a critically injured condition to the local civil hospital where the doctors declared him "brought dead".

Everything was found intact

Later talking to reporters, Inspector General of Police Gurinder Singh Dhillon said there is no visible event of sacrilege at the gurdwara.

"Everything was found intact including the holy Guru Granth Sahib," he stated.

Senior Superintendent of Police Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said the man had the intention of committing a theft in the gurdwara.

On the allegation of disrespecting the Nishan Sahib, Dhillon said there was also no visible sign of any act of sacrilege even to the Nishan Sahib but, "we are verifying the facts," as claimed by the complainant.

Case under Section 295-A of IPC registered

A case under Section 295-A (hurting religious sentiments of people) of the IPC on the statement of Gurdwara manager Amarjit Singh has been registered, said Dhillon.

Police said Amarjit Singh is being questioned.

However, while replying to a question, Dhillon said a murder case has not yet been filed against those who beat up the man to death as details were being verified.

"After verifying all facts, an FIR will be registered," he said.

When asked that the man was killed even when police was present, the IG, while referring to injuries to some policemen, said it was an emotive issue and police showed restraint.

He said three cops, including a station house officer, were injured when they were trying to save the man from the unruly mob.

The incident came a day after an unidentified man was beaten to death after he allegedly attempted to commit 'sacrilege' inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Saturday evening.

Live TV
New Delhi: In view of rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria said that India should prepare itself for any eventuality.

Dr Guleria told ANI on Sunday, "We should prepare and hope that things are not as bad as in the United Kingdom. We need more data on Omicron. Whenever there is a surge in cases in other parts of the world, we need to monitor it closely and be prepared for any eventuality. It is better to stay prepared than to get caught off-guard."

According to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), another 12,133 Omicron cases have been recorded in the UK, the biggest daily increase since the Covid-19 variant was detected in the country, taking the total Omicron cases found in the country to 37,101.

The UK reported 82,886 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 11,361,387, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the official figures released on Sunday.

The number of confirmed cases is down again on Saturday`s figure of 90,418, but figures are generally lower over the weekend. On Friday, the UK reported a record high of 93,045 confirmed cases.

The UK registered a further 45 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK now stands at 147,218, with 7,611 Covid-19 patients still in hospital, said media reports.

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid reportedly said the new variant is spreading "very, very quickly", even more so than the figures suggest.

He is quoted as saying that the "actual number of infections will be significantly higher than case numbers suggest" because not everyone will be taking a test and there is a lag for people to get their test results back.

Meanwhile, the British government`s advisory scientists have warned extra restrictions are needed "within days" to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by Omicron.

Omicron count crosses 150 in India

India's Omicron Covid count rose to 153 on Sunday after Maharashtra reported six and Gujarat logged four more cases of the new variant of coronavirus, respectively.

Omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories -- Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (11), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1), said a PTI report citing central and state officials.

The health department reportedly said that six persons tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, raising the state's tally of such cases to 54. Notably, two of these patients had a history of travel to Tanzania, while two others had returned from England and one from the Middle East. All five of them are fully vaccinated.

Another patient is a five-year-old boy from Junnar in Pune who is a close contact of Dubai travellers from Junnar, it said in a statement, adding "Total six cases were diagnosed today - four of them found during the airport screening in Mumbai. One of these four patients is from Mumbai, two from Karnataka and one from Aurangabad." Out of 54 cases in Maharashtra, 22 have been found in Mumbai.

In Gujarat, a 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy who came from the UK, a Surat-based woman who had recently visited Dubai and a Tanzanian national are the new patients of the Omicron variant. The non-resident Indian tested positive for the coronavirus infection in the RT-PCR test carried out at the Ahmedabad international airport soon after he arrived from the UK on December 15, a health department official reportedly said on Sunday.

A 15-year-old boy from Gandhinagar was also detected with the Omicron variant after returning from the UK, Gandhinagar Municipal Commissioner Dhaval Patel told PTI.

The woman from Surat had gone to Dubai with her two sons and returned on December 5. On December 13, while on her way back to Dubai, she tested positive for COVID-19 in an RT-PCR test carried out at the Surat airport, health officials said, adding that all her contacts, including her son and daughter, have tested negative for the virus.

While Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24, India's first two cases of this heavily mutated version of the coronavirus were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

The Omicron coronavirus variant has been reported in 89 countries and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to three days in areas with community transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

According to the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year. On November 26, the WHO reportedly named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as `Omicron`. The WHO has classified Omicron as a `variant of concern`.

(With Agency Inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday (December 20) and discussed recent international developments.

Both leaders agreed on the way forward for enhancing India-Russia cooperation, including in the supply of fertilizers.

Spoke with my friend, President Putin, to follow up on our discussions during his recent visit to India. We agreed on the way forward for enhancing India-Russia cooperation, including in supply of fertilizers. We also discussed recent international developments. @KremlinRussia_E  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 20, 2021

"Spoke with my friend, President Putin, to follow up on our discussions during his recent visit to India. We agreed on the way forward for enhancing India-Russia cooperation, including in the supply of fertilizers. We also discussed recent international developments," tweeted PM Modi.

In their conversation, the two leaders followed up on some of the issues discussed during the recent visit to India by President Putin.

The exchange today helped firm up the future course of action on these issues, including opportunities for furthering defence cooperation, cooperation in the supply of fertilizers, enhancement of India`s engagement with the Russian Far East.

The conversation also allowed an exchange of views on international issues, according to the Prime Minister Office`s released statement.

The leaders agreed to remain in regular touch on all aspects covered under the India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership, and to continuously strive to further deepen bilateral cooperation as well as consultation and coordination in multilateral forums, the statement further added.

Meanwhile, the Russian President and Prime Minister congratulated each other on the upcoming New Year holiday.

Live TV
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Prayagraj on Tuesday and participate in a one of its kind programme to be attended by over two lakh women, according to his office.

The programme is being held as per PM Modi's vision to empower women, especially at the grassroots level, by providing them with necessary skills, incentives and resources.

The PMO added that he will transfer an amount of Rs 1000 crore in the bank account of Self Help Groups (SHGs), benefitting around 16 lakh women members.

This transfer is being done under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), with 80,000 SHGs receiving Community Investment Fund (CIF) of Rs 1.10 lakh per SHG and 60,000 SHGs receiving a revolving fund of Rs 15,000 per SHG, it said.

To encourage business correspondent-Sakhis (BC-Sakhis), the prime minister will also transfer a sum of Rs 4000 as first month's stipend in the account of 20,000 of them.

When BC-Sakhis commence their work as providers of doorstep financial services at the grassroot level, they are paid a stipend of Rs 4,000 for six months, so that they get stabilised in their work and then start earning through the commission on transactions, the PMO said.

During the programme, PM Modi will also be transferring a total amount of over 20 crore to more than 1 lakh beneficiaries under the 'Mukhya Mantri Kanya Sumangala Scheme'.

The scheme provides conditional cash transfer to a girl child at different stages of her life. The total transfer is Rs 15,000 per beneficiary. He will also lay the foundation stone of 202 supplementary nutrition manufacturing units. These units are being funded by the self help groups and will be constructed at the cost of approx Rs 1 crore for one unit.

Live TV
Srinagar: With Christmas around the corner, Santa has already arrived with a gift for the Christian community living in Srinagar. A 125-year-old church called St. Lukes was shut for the last 30 years and in a dilapidated condition. The church after three decades will again reverberate with Christmas carols and prayers.

The Christian community living in the valley are excited and happy that the church has been restored. St. Lukes Church was established in the year 1896 by two men called Arthur and Ernest Neve. The church is a great example of composite culture of the Kashmir Valley which dates back to centuries.

''The government asked us everything they should be doing. It was only done after consultations with us. We are all very happy and it's like a dream come true. And not only for Christians but I think the locals who live around the area are happy that the church will have prayers again. The church was established in 1896 and it shows the history of Christianity in Kashmir. A lot of people don't know that Christians live in Kashmir but they are also surprised. With this the message of brotherhood is sent across. There would be a service over there on Christmas. We will have carol service and prayer there," said Reverend Eric in Srinagar.

Under the smart city project, St Lukes church has been brought back to its original glory. The Jammu and Kashmir government took the initiative to restore the church on the auspicious occasion of Christmas and threw the church open to the public. It took hundreds of artisans and laborers to restore this heritage site. With Gothic architecture, the interiors of the church are unique as they have an amalgamation of Kashmir's craftsmanship like Khatamband ceiling with the Gothic walls.

(St. Lukes church being renovated.)

''It's a 125-year-old church. It was established in 1896 by two people named Arthur and Ernest Neve. It's a beautiful structure of gothic architecture. It's slightly different from the usual architecture we have in Kashmir. The inside interiors of the church have a Khatamband ceiling which is unique to Kashmir. It was in dilapidated condition and there were structural issues. The main structural issues have been restored. Its external facade has been restored. It has a three-floor bell tower which has also been restored. Besides that we have used the local craftsmen to redo the place. I am happy that under the smart city project we have managed to restore this. We have done it with consultations with the local Christian community. The structure of this place is unique and it definitely will be one of the new landmarks to visit in Srinagar city," said Athar Amin, Commissioner SMC.

The government also plans to keep this heritage church a must-go place for the visitors coming to Kashmir Valley. The Government has plans to restore all heritage structures in the Kashmir Valley to boost tourism.

Live TV
Pune: WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Monday called for the expansion and strengthening of the COVID-19 vaccination programme across the world in view of the rising cases of Omicron variant.

Speaking virtually at one of the plenary sessions at the PANEX-21, organised at the Armed Forces Medical College here in Maharashtra, Dr Swaminathan said that the scope of vaccination needs to be expanded to ensure that vulnerable people are protected after administering two doses and that chances of deaths and hospitalisation are reduced.

She also said that discussions are taking place at the global level about having a "pandemic treaty".

"With Delta, to some extent, we saw a drop in neutralising activity with regular vaccines. But with Omicron, we saw a further reduction. It means that Omicron can evade our immune responses and infect us but vaccination will still hope to protect against getting severely ill," she said.

"We want to expand and strengthen the vaccination programme as much as possible around the world," the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist said.

She said that discussions are taking place at the global level about having a "pandemic treaty" which binds all the countries on the lines of pacts related to arms and ammunition, automatic treaties, or use of biological weapons, which are not permitted due to global conventions and agreements.

Dr Swaminathan further said that in the early course of the pandemic, people at WHO started learning about treatments.

"Clinical trials were conducted and several countries, including China and Italy, where the first wave resulted in high mortality, and New York, the UK, and other countries also started producing data, and clinical trials took off. The WHO then decided to set up a solidarity trial platform. Within a few weeks, we could start trials in 30 countries and India was very much part of it," she added.

Dr Swaminathan further said that India became a large contributor to the solidarity trials.

"Now the solidarity trials are in the second phase. The first phase was about drugs like Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir and other drugs. In the second phase, we are looking at the anti-inflammatory drugs," she said.

The WHO has also set up a solidarity vaccine trial platform considering the need for proper testing of more vaccines that are being developed, the chief scientist added.

Live TV
New Delhi: Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Monday (December 20) discharged expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger in the 2019 accident case of the Unnao rape survivor, reported ANI.

Sengar, an ex-BJP leader was convicted in a rape case of a minor.

In 2019, the rape survivor, her family, and lawyer were travelling in a car when it was hit by an overspeeding truck in Rae Bareli, killing two aunts and leaving the survivor and the advocate critically injured.

The relatives of the victim alleged that the accident was a planned ploy by Kuldeep Sengar and his men and subsequently a murder and attempted murder case was filed against the ex-politician.

However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which conducted a separate probe into the accident case, ruled out any foul play by the expelled BJP leader in the matter.

Senger, who was accused of raping a minor, had been awarded life-term imprisonment in 2019 for kidnapping and raping a minor after her family filed a complaint alleging "conspiracy" behind the accident.

Later, the politician was expelled by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the party clarified that it was standing with the victim.

Live TV
Gaurvah and Gautam Malhotra - the young scions of Oasis Group put All Seasons on the super highway to success since 2017. The brand has been winning international accolades and awards within a short span of time and also has expanded its wings to international markets riding on the passion and vigour of the two young members of the family. With over 5 million units in sales across India and predominantly states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and union territories of Chandigarh and Delhi make up its biggest and the fastest growing market and also further expanded to Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

In fact, the popularity of the brand branched out under Gaurvah and Gautam to international waters like USA, Canada, Spain ,Italy, UAE, Kenya, Australia, Nigeria really enjoy the taste of All Seasons soda and its popularity and demand is on the rise continuously. The All Seasons Soda signed legendary bolloywood actor Sanjay Dutt with strategy from the young team to make the brand more relevant and popular among the young India and brings in a global element as well.

Taking the rich legacy of established giant Deep Malhotra the two sons are youngest directors of the Group and have unleashed a slew of unique and bold efforts to take the Group to greater heights. Being young and extremely motivated, they have injected a fresh dose of energy into the already flourishing business  making All Seasons soda Indias fastest growing brand. Under this young leadership All Seasons recently won the Monde Selection Gold Award (Belgium) for exceptional product experience. Monde Selection is an international and independent quality institute founded in Brussels and for more than 55 years now, a panel of renowned and experienced professionals evaluates products coming from around the world on a wide range of parameters. The brand has been on a winning spree in various categories across the USA, UK, China, Belgium, Australia, Germany and India and some of the other honors include Global Spirits Awards ( USA), World Spirits Award ( Australia), Berlin International Spirits Competition ( Berlin) and IWSC ( UK) among others.

In recognition of the Groups commitment for exports especially to the African region, the Association of Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (ASSOCHAM) has recently recognised and awarded two prestigious awards for the most outstanding achievement in food processing and the second award for the top performing SME in India  Africa food processing sector.

For more information on Oasis Group India, All Seasons and the groups other brands, please visit www.oasisgrp.in



-Brand Desk Content
New Delhi: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has invited applications for the post of Project Engineer-I. BEL is looking to fill 15 vacancies on a contract basis for its Machilipatnam Unit.

Candidates can apply through the official website- bel-india.in. The last date to apply is December 24, 2021.

BEL Recruitment 2021: Important dates

Last date for application form submission: December 24, 2021

BEL Recruitment 2021: Vacancy details

Project Engineer (Electronics)  I: 06 posts

Project Engineer (Mechanical)  I: 06 posts

Project Engineer (Computer Science)  I: 03 posts

BEL Recruitment 2021: Application fee

The candidates will have to pay the application fee online.

For Gen/OBC/EWS Candidates: 500/-

For SC/ST/PWD Candidates: No Fee

BEL Recruitment 2021: Eligibility criteria

Project Engineer (Electronics): Candidates should have completed fulltime BE/B.Tech/ B.Sc Engineering (4 year course) in Electronics/ Electronics & Communication/Electronics & Telecommunications / Communication/ Telecommunication from a recognised institute/university and 2 years post qualification experience.

Project Engineer (Mechanical): Candidates should have completed full-time BE/B.Tech /B.Sc Engineering (4-year course) in Mechanical from a recognised institute/university and 2 years post qualification experience.

Project Engineer (Computer Science): Candidates should have completed full-time BE/B.Tech/ B.Sc Engineering (4-year course) in Computer Science/ Computer Science and Engineering/Computer Science Engineering from a recognised institute/university and 2 years post qualification experience.

BEL Recruitment 2021: How to Apply

Candidates may apply in prescribed Bio-Data along with self-attested all relevant documents sent by speed post/courier To The Manager (HR), Bharat Electronics Limited, Ravindranath Tagore Road, Machilipatnam  521001, Andhra Pradesh on or before December 24, 2021.

BEL Recruitment 2021: Selection process

Selection will be based on the interview.

BEL Recruitment 2021: Notification

Read notification here

Live TV
New Delhi: Motilal Nehru College of Delhi University has issued a notification for hiring of Non-Teaching posts. The Motilal Nehru College is looking to fill over 18 Non-Teaching posts through this recruitment drive.

Interested and eligible candidates can apply for the posts through the official site of Motilal Nehru College on mlncdu.ac.in. The last date to apply online is till January 3, 2022.

DU Recruitment 2021: Vacancy details

Senior Personal Assistant: 1 Post

Senior Assistant: 2 Posts

Senior Technical Assistant: 1 Post

Semi Prof. Assistant: 1 Post

Assistant (UDC): 2 Posts

Laboratory Assistant: 3 Posts

Junior Assistant: 2 Posts

Laboratory Attendant: 4 Posts

Library Attendant: 2 Posts

DU Recruitment 2021: Age limit

Senior Personal Assistant, Senior Assistant, Senior Technical Assistant, Semi Prof. Assistant: 35 years of age

Assistant (UDC), Laboratory Assistant: 30 years

Junior Assistant, Laboratory Attendant, Library Attendant: 27 years

DU Recruitment 2021: Here's how to apply

Step 1. Visit the official website of the college- http://www.mlncdu.ac.in/

Step 2. Click on Recruitment for Non-Teaching Posts link

Step 3. Click on apply online for the non-teaching posts link

Step 4. Fill in the required details and pay the application fee

Step 5. Download a copy of the application and take a print out for future reference

DU Recruitment 2021: Direct link to apply

APPLY HERE

DU Recruitment 2021: Application fees

It may be noted that the candidates belonging to unreserved/ OBC category will have to pay Rs 250c for each application, SC/ST category candidates will have to pay Rs 100. Women candidates are exempted from payment of fees.
State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Job seekers looking to work with the State Bank of India (SBI) have got the best opportunity as the financial powerhouse has announced over 1,200 vacancies.

According to the notification released on SBI's official website (sbi.co.in), the recruitment drive is being conducted to fill as many as 1,226 Circle Based Officers (CBO) vacant posts.

Interested candidates can check all the important details below.

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Vacancy details

Ahmedabad (Gujrati): 354

Bengaluru (Kannada): 278

Bhopal (Hindi): 214

Chennai (Tamil): 276

Jaipur (Hindi): 104

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Eligibility

Graduation in any discipline from a recognised University or any equivalent qualification recognised as such by the Central Government.

Minimum 2 years experience (Post Essential Academic Qualification Experience) as on December 1, 2021, as an officer in any Scheduled Commercial Bank or any Regional Rural Bank as listed in Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India."

The candidates applying for vacancies of a particular State should be proficient (reading, writing and understanding) in the specified opted local language of that State. The test of knowledge of specified opted local language of the applied state will be conducted as a part of the selection process. Candidates who produce 10th or 12th standard mark sheet/ certificate evidencing having studied the specified opted local language of the applied state as one of the subjects will not be required to undergo the language test.

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Age limit as on December 1, 2021

A candidate should not be below 21 years and not above 30 years.

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Salary

The basic salary approximately is Rs 36,000 plus one increment for each completed year of service.

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: How to apply

Candidates can ONLY apply ONLINE. No other mode of application is accepted. They need to register themselves online through Bank's official website at https://bank.sbi/careers. After registration, candidates are required to pay the requisite application fee.

State Bank of India (SBI) Recruitment 2021: Last date

Interested candidates can apply till December 29, 2021.

Candidates are also advised to regularly visit Banks website (https://bank.sbi/careers) for the latest updates.

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New Delhi: Karnataka reported five more cases of the Omicron variant, state's health minister Dr Sudhakar K informed on Monday (December 20, 2021) morning. While two cases of the new COVID-19 variant were reported in Udupi, three other infections were recorded in Mangaluru, Dharwad and Bhadravathi.

With this, Karnataka's tally of Omicron cases has now increased to 19.

Five cases of Omicron have been confirmed on Dec 19th:

Dharwad: 54 yr male

Bhadravathi: 20 yr female

Udupi: 82 yr male and 73 yr female

Mangaluru: 19 yr female#Omicronindia #Covid_19 @BSBommai  Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) December 20, 2021

According to the Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare, the Government of Karnataka, all five patients have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In Udupi, the tests of the 82-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman were conducted after an 11-year old member of the family was tested positive. Both of them are currently not showing any COVID-19 symptoms.

In Dharwad, the 54-year-old woman is currently healthy, relieved from symptoms and is under home isolation. Her four primary and 133 secondary contacts have also been tested and are negative.

The 20-year old in Bhadravathi is currently in a hostel and her 218 primary and secondary contacts have been tested, of which, 26 were found to be COVID-19 positive and their samples have now been sent for whole genome sequencing.

The teenager patient in Mangalore is currently asymptomatic and her vitals are stable. 335 of her primary and secondary contacts have been tested, of which, 18 were found positive. The samples of the infected contacts have been sent for genome sequencing.

Karnataka, notably, was the first state in India to report cases of the highly mutated version of coronavirus.

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The Delhi government's order to deregister all diesel vehicles older than 10 years on January 1, 2022 has met with disagreement from many owners while experts welcomed the decision to tackle air pollution in the national capital. In compliance with the National Green Tribunal's directions, the Delhi government will deregister all diesel vehicles which will complete 10 years on January 1, 2022, and issue no objection certificate (NOC) so that they can be re-registered in other places.

However, no NOC will be issued for diesel vehicles, which have completed 15 years or more on the date of applying for it, according to an order issued earlier this week by the Delhi transport department. Hemant Kaushal, project coordinator at Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi termed it a "positive change" while emphasising the need to welcome retrofit startup companies.

"The government should welcome more retrofit companies in the market so people can buy retrofit vehicles in exchange for their diesel ones, or to get their vehicle retrofitted. Such purchase should also be incentivised that people may be encouraged to go for retrofit vehicles," Kaushal told PTI.

He added that inviting retrofit startups to do business in Delhi will also make the electric vehicle market more affordable to the common man. "Right now, a common person cannot think of buying an electric vehicle. But having a retrofit vehicle industry will pave the way for an overall faster transition toward electric vehicles," he said.

Also read: 10-year old diesel vehicles banned in Delhi from Jan 1

The idea of retrofitting the diesel vehicles may be a noble one but to Delhi resident Sairam Nair it is not an affordable one. "I bought a vehicle in 2008 that cost me Rs 27 lakh, even if I get it retrofitted it will cost me Rs 8-9 lakh more. How can anyone afford that? What about those who buy a Mercedes after saving for years, I cannot imagine the cost to retrofit such a car," Nair said.

Measuring commercial and private vehicles with the same yardstick also annoyed Nair. "A commercial diesel vehicle may drive around 3-5 lakh km in a year, my car has completed 15,000 km in 13 years. How is it fair to deregister both under same standards," he questioned.

After deregistering his vehicle last year, Rajesh Bhatia, a resident of Karol Bagh, however, welcomed the Delhi government's decision saying a good deed has to start at home. "I understand people put their life savings into buying vehicles and 10 years is a small time. But we have to look at the larger picture, maybe people will start buying cheaper and more fuel efficient vehicles because of such orders," Bhatia said.

Also read: Book Mahindra XUV700 now and get it in 2023

He suggested that the authorities should make such decisions based on individual vehicle's health and condition. "I don't think it's fair to reject all cars because they are 10 years old. Some people keep their cars in better condition than themselves," he said.

Sunil Dahiya, analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), believed that it is important to have such policies but warned that it would be rendered useless without strict implementation.

"The policy to deregister old vehicles has been there for some years now. While it is good to re-emphasise it, without strict implementation it means nothing," Dahiya said. He added that to reduce pollution caused by vehicular traffic, the authorities need to look at several solutions and not just one.

"The government cannot focus on just one solution. It has to strengthen the city's public transport, improve last mile connectivity, better footpaths and so on. Only if all these are combined, then Delhi can have improved air," he said.

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New Delhi: Businessman Raj Kundra, who was arrested in a pornography case earlier this year and later granted bail, on Monday claimed he has never been involved in the production and distribution of pornographic content in his life.

In a statement issued on a social media platform, Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, said the entire episode was nothing but a "witch hunt".

The businessman also said has already been pronounced 'guilty' by the media, and he wishes his privacy is not intruded anymore with this continued "media trial".

The Supreme Court last week granted protection from arrest to Kundra in connection with an FIR registered against him for allegedly distributing pornographic videos.

In July this year, Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police in another case where he was accused of distributing porn films through an app. He was granted bail in September.

On Monday, Kundra stated, "After much contemplation, considering there are many misleading and irresponsible statements and articles floating around and my silence has been misconstrued for weakness. I would like to start by stating that I have NEVER been involved in the production and distribution of 'pornography' EVER in my life."

"This whole episode has been nothing but a witch hunt. The matter is subjudice so I can not elucidate, but I am ready to face trial and have full faith in the judiciary, where the truth will prevail."

Kundra said, unfortunately, he has already been pronounced 'guilty' by the media and that his family and he have been subjected to a lot of pain (continuously), violating his human and constitutional rights at different levels.

"The trolling, negativity and toxic public perception has been very debilitating. To set the record straight, I do not hide my face in shame, but wish that my privacy is not intruded anymore with this continued MEDIA TRIAL. My priority has always been my family, nothing else matters at this juncture," he said.

Kundra said he believes it is every person's inalienable right to live with dignity and he requests the same.

The businessman had been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually explicit videos.

Fearing arrest, Kundra first sought anticipatory bail from a sessions court, but it was refused, so he moved the Bombay High Court, claiming that he had been framed.

The HC also rejected his anticipatory bail application on November 25.

The FIR named actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey as co-accused.

Kundra's lawyers had claimed he was in no way connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos even as the actors, who were named as co-accused, had given full consent to shoot the videos.
New Delhi: Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for questioning in a case linked to the 2016 'Panama Papers' global tax leaks case, official sources said.

The 48-year-old daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan is being questioned and her statement is being recorded under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The actor has also submitted some documents to the agency when she appeared before the agency at its office near India Gate.

Dubbed 'Panama Papers', an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2016 had named several world leaders and celebrities who allegedly stashed away money abroad in offshore companies.

ALSO READ: ED summons Aishwarya Rai in Panama Papers leaks case: Heres what you need to know

Some of them are stated to be holding valid overseas accounts.

The leaks tranche had a total of 426 India-linked cases.

The ED has been probing the case linked to the Bachchans since 2016-17.

It had issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) and regulated under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Some documents were submitted by the Bachchans to the agency then.

Some other instances of alleged irregularities linked to the family are also under the scanner of the federal probe agency, the sources said.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, married to Amitabh Bachchan's actor son Abhishek, was stated by the ICIJ to have links with an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) that was created in 2005.

Her family was also stated to be part of this offshore entity that had an "initial authorised capital of USD 50,000."

The company was reportedly dissolved in 2008.

Abhishek Bachchan has also been examined by the ED in the past in another instance linked to the offshore leaks case, sources said.

The government had created a multi-agency group (MAG) of central investigative agencies under the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that also comprised officials from the ED, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to monitor probe into the Panama Papers and similar global tax leaks cases.

It had recently said that "total undisclosed credits of Rs 20,353 crore" have been detected with respect to 930 India linked entities in the Panama and Paradise Paper Leaks, as on October 1, 2021.
New Delhi: Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a money laundering case in connection with the Panama Papers leak on Monday (December 20). The actress will appear before the agency today to record her statement or would request another date. Earlier, the 48 years-old was summoned twice but had requested the probing agency for more time.

According to ANI, a money-laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) has been registered by the ED in the matter.

Enforcement Directorate summons Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in a case being investigated by the agency: Sources (file photo) pic.twitter.com/7s2QPI7yjm  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2021

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents from the secret files of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm headquartered in tax haven Panama. The obtained papers reveal clients of the law firm and their transactions. Mossack Fonseca's work was to invest in shell companies to help individuals evade taxes. Information for more than 2,14,488 individuals was first leaked on April 3, 2016 by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. It included more than 300 Indians.

Apart from Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn's name has also propped up in the matter.

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New Delhi: Actors Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal's love is out in the open and the two are unabashedly expressing their love, admiration for each other on social media after their grand wedding in Rajasthan on December 9.

On Monday (December 20), Katrina Kaif took to her Instagram story to share a glimpse of her Monday evening with her husband Vicky Kaushal. She shared a picture of her holding hands with Vicky at the balcony and enjoying the sea view.

Take a look at the picture:

Earlier, several pictures and videos were doing the rounds on social media, which suggest the couple had their housewarming rituals on Sunday in their new apartment.

Vicky's parents -- Sham Kaushal and Veena Kaushal had also arrived at their son's new place to attend the puja.

Vicky and Katrina, fondly called VicKat by fans, will be neighbours to Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli.

The newlyweds returned to Mumbai on Tuesday after enjoying a romantic honeymoon, which reports suggest was in the Maldives. The duo had jetted off to the exotic island country after tying the knot on December 9.

The couple had married in a private ceremony at the luxurious Six Senses Fort Barwara in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan.

Ever since Vicky and Katrina got back to Mumbai, they have been sharing on social media beautiful moments from the various wedding functions.

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New Delhi: With just ten days remaining for the month of December to get over, you must know the particular days on which bank branches will remain closed in several parts of the country.

Before visiting your bank branch in the below mentioned days in December, you must take a note of the important days during which branch activity in the banks will not be carried on.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mentioned some days when the banking operations will remain closed in the month of December 2021, although online banking activities will continue to work.

However, you must note that the banks will NOT be closed for all the mentioned days in all states or regions. This is the total number of days when banks in different parts of the country will remain closed for state-observed holidays. For example bank branches might be closed for U Kiang Nangbah in Shillong but not closed for the same festival in Himachal Pradesh.

It must be noted that the bank holidays vary in various states as well not observed by all the banking companies. Banking holidays also depend on the festivals being observed in specific states or notification of specific occasions in those states.

Reserve Bank of India places its Holidays under three brackets --Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act; Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday; and Banks Closing of Accounts.

Here is the list of bank holidays falling in the remaining days of December 2021. Check out the list.

Christmas Festival (Christmas Eve): December 24

Christmas: December 25

December 26- Sunday

Christmas Celebration: December 27

U Kiang Nangbah: December 30

New Years Eve: December 31

Holidays of the mentioned days will be observed in various regions according to the state declared holidays, however for the gazetted holidays, banks will be closed all over the country.

If you keep a track of these holidays, you would be able to plan bank transaction activities in a better way. For long weekends, you can even plan your holidays well.

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New Delhi: Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has put in place several facilities, formats, rules and regulations for the benefit of its Provident Fund (PF) account holders. These rules and regulations make claim, transfer and other benefits a smooth process for the PF Subscribers.

Here are 4 key changes that have been brought in for the PF account holders. You must be aware of these rules as mentioned below:

EPFO employees deposit-linked insurance (EDLI) scheme

EPFO had in April this year hiked the death insurance benefits for employees deposit-linked insurance (EDLI) scheme beneficiaries, amidst the onslaught of the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The retirement fund body had hiked the minimum death insurance benefit to Rs 2.5 lakh while the maximum benefits have been raised to Rs 7 lakh from the previous limits of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 6 lakh respectively. EPFO had extended the benefit payable under EDLI Scheme shall be extended to such beneficiaries where the deceased employee was a member of the Fund or a provident fund exempted under Section 17 of the EPF & MP Act aid was in employment for a continuous period of 12 months preceding the month in which he died, irrespective of change of establishment during the said period. Under paragraph 28(4) of EDLI Scheme, the power to grant exemption to a Class of employees from the provisions of the scheme has been delegated to ACC (Zone), the EPFO notification further added. The monetary fie payable under paragraph 29 of EDLI Scheme has been enhanced to Rs.25,000. The provisions as mentioned above shall remain in force for a period of three years from their date of publication in the Official Gazette, EPFO had said.

Mandatory UAN-Aadhaar linking

Effective November 30, 2021, EPFO has made it mandatory to link UANs with Aadhaar numbers. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account must now be linked to the Aadhaar card, thanks to a recent revision in section 142 of the Code of Social Security 2020.

In partial modification of the Circular No. WSU/15(1)2019/ATR/529 dated 15.06.2021 under reference, it is informed that the date of completing the seeding and verification of Aadhaar with UAN, is hereby extended till 30.11.2021 and accordingly, the date in Para 1 of the referred Circular dated 15.06.2021 mentioned as 01.09.2021 may be read as 01.12.2021," the EPF said in a circular.

EPF nomination deadline

EPF e-nomination service can be availed online, and the deadline to do so is 31 December 2021. EPF members can file a new nomination to replace the existing EPF / EPS nomination. The name of the nominee mentioned in the latest PF nomination will be treated as final, whereas after fresh nomination by the account holder, the earlier nomination will be treated as cancelled.

Two PF Accounts from April 1, 2022

Subscribers of Employees' Provident Fund and Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) who have PF contribution of over Rs 2.5 lakh per financial year will now have two separate PF accounts. These rules will be effective from April 1, 2022.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in this year's budget, that PF contribution of more than Rs 2.5 lakh in a fiscal will be taxable. In line with the decision, recently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified the rules for taxation of the interest on the excess EPF contributions. What this means is that till FY22, all contributions made in PF accounts so far, including contribution of upto Rs 2.5 lakh made in FY22, will be placed in one account where no tax will be levied as has been the practice with the PF, where contribution, interest, and withdrawal, all are tax free. But another PF account will be opened for each subscriber in FY22, where contribution of over Rs 2.5 lakh made in the current year and subsequent years will be placed. This will taxable account meaning interest earned on this contribution would be subject to applicable tax.

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New Delhi: Even as lakhs of eligible farmers are eagerly waiting for the 10th Installment of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme, the official website of the PM Kisan scheme has put out a very important message for the farmers.

The official PM KISAN website says, "eKYC is MANDATORY for PMKISAN Registered Farmers. Pls. click eKYC option in Farmer Corner for Aadhar based OTP authentication and for Biometric authentication contact nearest CSC centres."

If you are looking to complete the PM-KISAN e-KYC process, you can check out the step by step process below.

- Visit the official PM Kisan website https://pmkisan.gov.in/

- In the right hand side, below the home page, you will see Farmers Corner

- There is a box just below Farmers Corner that mentions e-kyc

- Click the e-kyc

- A page will open that facilitates Aadhar Ekyc

- Now, you will have to enter your Aadhar number and then the Captcha code shown and click on the search button

- After that, you will have to enter your mobile number linked to your Aadhar card and click on Get OTP button

- The OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number

- Punch in the OTP and click on the Submit For Authentication button

- As soon as you click Submit For Auth button, your PM KISAN e-KYC will be successful

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme was launched by PM Modi in 2019. The Scheme aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions.

Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. In a financial year, PM Kisan installment is credited thrice through --Period 1 from April-July; Period 2 from August to November; and Period 3 from December to March.

ln the beginning when the PM-KISAN Scheme was launched (February, 2019), its benefits were admissible only to Small & marginal Farmers' families, with combined landholding upto 2 hectare. The Scheme was later on revised in June 2019 and extended to all farmer families irrespective of the size of their landholdings

The Central Government had notified a decision to extend the benefit of Rs 6,000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.

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New Delhi: Customers of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) are in for some sad news starting next month. Account holders of this bank will have to pay a charge for withdrawing and depositing cash amounting to Rs 10,000. The new rule will come into effect from January 1.

There are three types of savings accounts for India Post Payments Bank customers: (a)Basic Savings Account, (b) Savings (other than Basic SA) & Current Accounts, and (c) Savings (other than Basic SA) & Current Accounts.

IPPB has informed all the concerned that charges of on Cash Deposit & Cash Withdrawal transactions as mentioned below will be effective from 01 January, 2022 at the below mentioned rates.

Check out the new rate/fee table on Cash Transaction Charges

Account Type Transaction Type Free Limit Charges Basic Savings Account Cash Withdrawal Free, up to 4 transactions per month Post free limit, 0.50% of the value subject to minimum Rs. 25 per transaction Basic Savings Account Cash Deposits Free N A Savings (other than Basic SA) & Current Accounts Cash Withdrawal Free, up to Rs. 25,000 per month. Post free limit, 0.50% of the value subject to minimum Rs. 25 per transaction Savings (other than Basic SA) & Current Accounts Cash Deposits Free, up to Rs. 10,000 per month. Post free limit, 0.50% of the value subject to minimum Rs. 25 per transaction

The above prices are exclusive of GST/ CESS which will be levied at the applicable rates, said IPPB.

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New Delhi: Apple has begun to distribute the App Privacy Report, which is intended to assist customers understand an app's privacy practices before downloading it. The feature, when combined with Apple App Store labelling and LED indications (for front camera and microphone access), intends to inform consumers about which apps are gathering personal data. With the release of iOS 15.2, which began rolling out earlier this month, iPhone and iPad owners may now access the App Privacy Report feature. "This is a fantastic time to analyse your app's sensor, data, and internet usage," Apple explains.

It means that iPhone 6s and later users can access the App Privacy Report from the Settings app. Go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report > Turn On App Privacy Report to enable the feature.

Users will have to identify all of the data that third-party partners acquire, according to Apple. It's possible to do so using the App Store labels, which have been available since last year. Users will have to double-check whether the developer has exposed the obtained data this way. "You're responsible for keeping your responses correct and up to date," Apple states to developers. Update your responses in App Store Connect if your practises change."

Users will be able to examine any app's recent data once you enable App Privacy Report. In my situation, WhatsApp was the last programme I used, and it used my microphone, contacts, photographs, and camera. In that instance, accessing these regions is already disclosed in the WhatsApp app on the App Store. Users can also see an App Network Activity when the App Privacy Report is enabled, which reveals how many (and whose) websites an app accessed. Users may verify which apps accessed a domain under the Most Contacted Domains section.

Go to Settings and select Privacy if you wish to turn off the App Privacy Report. Scroll down and hit App Privacy Report, then at the bottom, tap Turn Off App Privacy Report.

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BERLIN: Germany`s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has ruled out a Christmas lockdown but warned that a fifth COVID-19 wave could no longer be stopped amid rising cases of Omicron variant.

Lauterbach also stressed that mandatory vaccination is the only way to stop the pandemic.

"There will not be a lockdown before Christmas here. But we will get the fifth wave - we have crossed a critical number of Omicron infections," Lauterbach said, speaking on broadcaster ARD. "This wave can no longer be completely stopped."

In another interview with BILD, Lauterbach added that he did not expect there to be a "hard lockdown" after the holidays either.

Germany banned unvaccinated people from entering non-essential establishments at the beginning of the month in an attempt to control rising cases amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

The government still needed to make clear to the populace what would and would not be allowed during the holiday season, Lauterbach said, without specifying what measures were under discussion.

Nearly 70% of the population is fully vaccinated against the virus, according to data from Dec. 17. The country reported 29,348 new cases on Sunday and 180 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.

The number of new daily cases rose significantly in October and November but have been slowly falling since the start of the month.

Lauterbach reiterated his call to make vaccination compulsory in Sunday`s interview with ARD, a policy which parliament is due to debate early next year and which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he supports.

"I believe we can defeat this if we close the gaps in vaccination with mandatory vaccines. That is my clear conviction," Lauterbach said.

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JERUSALEM: Israel is in the midst of a fifth COVID-19 wave due to the Omicron variant, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday, urging citizens to step up vaccination and to take precautions such as working from home.

In a televised address, Bennett said Israel had bought some time by moving fast to limit travel when Omicron was first detected last month, but that this was now waning. He predicted a surge of sicknesses within a few weeks.

Earlier on Sunday, a Health Ministry advisory committee recommended that Israel add the United States to the list of "red" countries to which its citizens cannot fly without special permission. Bennett did not mention this measure in his speech.

Israel has logged 134 confirmed Omicron cases and another 307 suspected cases, the Health Ministry said. Of these, 167 were symptomatic, it said.

In a rapid first response to Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong, Israel banned the entry of foreigners on Nov. 25 and has imposed three- to 14-day quarantine orders for Israelis returning from abroad.

But Bennett has also come under domestic criticism for a foreign vacation his wife and children took after he urged Israelis to avoid such travel.

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The World Economic Forum on Monday said it has decided to defer its Annual Meeting 2022 in the Swiss Alpine ski resort town of Davos in the light of continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak.

The Annual Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland between January 17-21, 2022, is now planned for early summer.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its last Davos summit, attended by top leaders from across the world, in January 2020, just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, while the 2021 meeting could not take place due to the outbreak.

The Geneva-based entity, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, had first planned to shift the 2021 annual meeting to another location in Switzerland and then to Singapore, before finally cancelling it.

In a statement on deferring the 2022 meeting to early summer, the WEF said participants will instead join a headline series of 'State of the World' sessions bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

"Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting. Preparations have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels," it said.

The WEF said despite the meeting's stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.

"The health and safety of everyone involved in physical meetings -- participants, collaborators and the host community -- have always been the Forum's priority," it said.

"The deferral of the Annual Meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society," said Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

"Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace. We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon," he added.

Among others, more than 100 leaders from India, including union ministers, chief ministers and CEOs, had already been registered for the Davos Annual Meeting 2022, for which 'Working Together, Restoring Trust' was decided as a theme.

It was billed as the 'first truly global opportunity for leaders from business, government and civil society to come together again and set the agenda for a sustainable recovery' in a post-pandemic world.